Jim Ross Addresses Andrade El Idolo's Departure From AEW
With Andrade El Idolo having already said goodbye to AEW upon the expiration of his contract earlier this week, which was confirmed by AEW CEO Tony Khan after Worlds End, the wrestling world has been pondering his next step. Jim Ross recently sung Andrade's praises, and concurred with the consensus that he'll end up back in WWE before too long. On the latest "Grilling JR," Ross told co-host Conrad Thompson that the best of Andrade is still to come and that he'll be missed in AEW.
"We haven't seen his ceiling yet," Ross said. "The guy is really good and losing him is unfortunate for AEW because he always did quality work." Agreeing with the masses that the former Andrade "Cien" Almas would show right back up in WWE, perhaps as early as this past Monday's "WWE Raw: Day 1" (which didn't come to pass), Ross cited a consistent trend in recruiting for WWE as one logical reason for a return.
"If I were a betting man, I would certainly lean toward Andrade to be a WWE guy sooner than later," he explained. "They're always looking for quality talents. They're doing a lot of nice things with their Latin athletes. He fits the bill right there very well [and can] talk, wrestle, and I'm a fan of his work." Of course, there's another reason why Andrade back under the WWE umbrella makes a ton of sense in the form of his real-life wife, Charlotte Flair.
A win-win situation for all
The idea of the former "WWE NXT" and United States Champion working alongside his wife makes Ross smile, especially since the latter is sidelined for up to nine months following surgery to repair a torn ACL, MCL, and meniscus during a "WWE SmackDown" match against Asuka in December. "I'm happy for him and Charlotte," offered Ross, honing in on one major positive out of such a negative, especially with the couple navigating the unique marriage challenges of working for different companies over the past few years with Andrade last appearing in WWE on an episode of "Raw" in October 2020.
"Maybe they're gonna be able to spend some additional time together because of her injury, which is gonna be a while, apparently, so, good for him." Ultimately, despite AEW's loss being WWE's expected gain, Ross seemed to see this segment of Andrade's career as a net positive for all, which can sometimes be a difficult end result to achieve in wrestling.
"Quality talents always rise to the top," Ross said. "If you're good enough, you're gonna get noticed in the right way and I think Andrade used AEW to get noticed and continue to develop his work. He's a good guy. He's a classy guy [and a] good worker and I'm glad that he was here for a while. He helped the company and that's what you're looking for."
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