For months now, the future of Andrade El Idolo in AEW has been uncertain amidst rumors of his interest in a return to WWE. Earlier this month, it was reported that the reason behind his recent CMLL return was due to the growing possibility that he could return to WWE, which in turn would close the door on a return to his former Mexican home promotion. It was also noted that Andrade’s contract with AEW was expected to expire “relatively soon”, though AEW could add more time to his contract due to injury keeping him off programming.
At AEW Worlds End tonight, the former WWE star will compete in his very first AEW pay-per-view singles match against Miro. According to multiple reports, however, tonight will also mark the end of his two-and-a-half-year stint with the promotion. Both WrestlePurists and Fightful Select report that sources within the company expect Andrade to finish up with AEW immediately following Worlds End. Furthermore, sources at both AEW and WWE believe that he will likely return to WWE imminently.
Fightful was able to provide further insight into the situation, reporting that Andrade made it known at Dynamite earlier this week that he was planning to leave AEW and no longer wanted to be with the company. The situation surrounding his departure was described as being “less than pleasant” by the outlet. They went on to add that there was reportedly a major disagreement involving him behind the scenes, though no further details on this disagreement were provided.
Regarding speculation that Andrade could be the former WWE champion Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque teased for WWE Raw Day 1 on X yesterday, Fightful spoke to a WWE source who was “befuddled” by the idea that the tease could be for Andrade but did not outright deny it. While Andrade is not a former WWE champion in the traditional world champion sense of the term, he is technically a former champion of WWE by winning the United States Championship back in December 2019.