Keith Lee Says Tony Khan Reached Out Three Days After WWE Release

It didn’t take Tony Khan long to get in contact with Keith Lee. 

Lee was released by WWE on November 4 and shortly after his 90-day non-compete clause expired, he joined AEW, making his debut on the February 9 episode of AEW Dynamite. 

Khan made Lee a priority immediately, reaching out to “Limitless” days after he was released. 

“I don’t know if I should even say this stuff, but it’s fine because it wasn’t a business thing or anything. That release happened and within three days, Tony found a way to get in touch with me,” Lee said on AEW Unrestricted. “I was actually really impressed with that considering we had never spoken before. We had some really laid back conversations and got to know each other a little bit. That’s something that helped because that’s some of my trust that’s a little disgruntled. We had a conversation and as time wore on, things got easier and we met up and I have a thing where I must meet a person in person, I’m a ‘people feeler’ as opposed to listening to things. I’m an energy guy. When I did meet him, I decided that he’s a fairly stand up guy and I really enjoyed my time with him, what he’s about, talking football and all that good stuff, especially as a former player. That led into business, but in terms of getting to know him, I had a blast and we had a lot of laughs and jokes. He’s a swell guy.”

Lee defeated Isiah Kassidy in his AEW debut to qualify for the Face of the Revolution ladder match. 

When asked when he knew he wanted to join AEW, Lee said, “In the grand scheme of things, there are a lot of people I know that were here anyway. Some friends, some associates, some just mere colleagues. I felt like the happiness of people such as Adam Cole, he’s somebody I place a lot of stock in as a human being, there aren’t a lot of people in this industry that you can just trust or get along with at certain levels, but I really like Adam Cole as a person. His testimony for his happiness here was something that made it a little easier. In the grand scheme of things, when we got to speaking about business, it made sense for me and my plans. That made it a little easier and when you get along with somebody and it fits your plan and what you want to do in life, it helps and those talks were easier than I thought they would be. It made the decision that much easier.”

Lee is currently involved in a storyline with Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs on AEW TV. He is set to compete on Friday’s AEW Rampage when he takes on Max Caster. 

Fightful will have coverage of AEW Rampage beginning at 11:30 p.m. ET on Friday. 

If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.