It seems that Powerhouse Hobbs’ time with AEW is coming to an end as he looks to be making the jump to WWE in the near future.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select has reported that Hobbs’ contract with AEW expires at midnight on January 14, and he finished up with the company at the conclusion of the Maximum Carnage edition of “AEW Collision,” which was taped tonight.
Dave Meltzer wrote in last week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that there has been interest in Hobbs from WWE for some time, but now it seems that the company have finally got its man as sources from within WWE expect Hobbs to sign with the company barring any major changes in the next few days. Sapp noted that there had been rumors about Hobbs heading to WWE in 2025, but he was told there had been no contact from WWE at that time. With that said, there was reported contact a few years back when Dan Ventrelle was the Head of Talent Relations in WWE, but Hobbs ended up re-signing with AEW instead.
AEW did make a big attempt to retain Hobbs’ services as the contract negotiations had been ongoing for some time, and the company made him what AEW sources called a “huge” offer to stay. Despite the offer to Hobbs from AEW being extremely large, he decided to test the waters outside of AEW and is leaving the company on very good terms. While he is contractually eligible to sign with WWE this week, Hobbs will be in action on the Maximum Carnage edition of “Collision” which airs this Saturday as he will look to defend the AEW World Trios Championships one last time alongside Samoa Joe and Katsuyori Shibata of The Opps as they take on the team of Hangman Page and JetSpeed.
It has not yet been confirmed whether Hobbs will be heading to “WWE NXT” or the main roster at the time of writing, due to the fact that his final AEW match has been taped and will air this weekend, he would be allowed to appear on “WWE SmackDown” this Friday. Hobbs leaves AEW as a former AEW TNT Champion, and one-third of the longest reigning AEW World Trios Champions alongside the aforementioned Samoa Joe and Katsuyori Shibata.
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