With All Elite Wrestling posing as a viable rival to WWE, it’s no surprise that the promotion is doing all it can to keep its Superstars under WWE contract.

Numerous Superstars who recently left WWE have appeared for AEW including Chris Jericho, Cody and the former Tye Dillinger, Shawn Spears.

To combat this, WWE is doing it all it can to try and convince its roster to stay under contract. According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, WWE is pushing the narrative that leaving would end a Superstar’s career.

The company are also attempting to subtly establish this idea amongst the WWE Universe. This is why Yolo County Tag Team Champions were featured this past week on WWE programming. The idea WWE are pushing is that if you’re not in WWE, then you’re a joke.

This is by no means the first time WWE has attempted to push this concept. When Cody first left, people believed his career would be over the minute he was gone. That obviously wasn’t the case.

Now, however, the narrative has changed. Meltzer claimed that the reality has been “exposed” and Superstars can see that leaving WWE will no longer kill their career. In many cases, leaving may allow it to thrive for the first time in years.