Ace Austin Details Joining AEW, Says The Locker Room Was ‘Warm & Welcoming’

A recount of Ace Austin’s arrival at AEW.

The newest episode of AEW Unrestricted features a chat with new AEW signee Ace Austin. Austin had spent the last six years of his career with IMPACT/TNA Wrestling.

He entered free agency and debuted for AEW in August. After his in-ring debut, it was confirmed that he signed a contract with the company.

Austin dove into that and shared that he reached out to AEW when he learned they would be coming to Cincinnati, Ohio, which was an hour away from him. He stated that the locker room was welcoming. Initially, Austin only planned to be at the Thursday Collision taping, but he was asked to come in on Wednesday to film a vignette, and he debuted the following day.

“Well, the way that the whole thing kind of fell into place was pretty crazy, but, as far as considering AEW as an option, it would be its a top option, it’s a top player. No-brainer, exactly. That’s the better word for it. When I went into free agency earlier this year, I really wasn’t sure what the next step would look like, and I just took a little bit of time to catch my breath, you know? Because I started training when I was 17 and I debuted when I was 18 and it’s pretty much just been 10 years non-stop. Even during COVID, I was still regularly taping so, 10 years non-stop and six years on TV and it’s just like never slow down was always kind of how I treated it, and yeah, so coming into free agency was just, like, I took a quick breath and I started to have some conversations and see what the next steps might look like, and then when I saw AEW was coming to Cincinnati — my career has been so many instances of right place, right time and that just sort of all started to fall into place. I really started tuning into more of what AEW was doing kind of recently, especially with the accessibility on HBO Max… So yeah, AEW comes to Cincinnati. I hit ‘em up and said, ‘Hey, that’s an hour from my house so I’d love to come hang out and say hello to my friends that are there and make some new friends,’ and that was the surprising thing too. I really wasn’t sure how familiar I was gonna be. Watching the program, there’s so many people that I know, but you never really know what it’s gonna be like until you’re there. So coming into the locker room, I really wasn’t sure what the vibe was gonna be like but, everybody, immediately came up and was so warm and welcoming, and that was lovely, and almost everybody there I’ve met or have some sort of relationship with so, I hit ‘em up and said, ‘Hey, I’d like to come hang out while you guys are in Cincinnati and say hello to some friends and make some new friends maybe,’ you know? Actually, I was planning on coming Thursday, and then Wednesday, I got a text and was like, ‘Hey, are you here?’ ‘Not at the moment but I’m an hour away, and I can be there immediately.’ So they had me come down and do the promo and then, Thursday was the match…”

Austin’s AEW in-ring debut was against Ricochet. He said it was the first time in a long time that he felt those nerves that made him uncomfortable, but in a good way.

“I will admit, I was a little nervous in Cincinnati. I was a little nervous for sure. I wasn’t freaking out or nothing but it was like the first time in a long time that I was in an uncomfortable — not uncomfortable — in a different setting. First time in six years that I had been with a different company at this level… That night in Cincinnati, it was just a different direction. I was heading in a different direction, I could feel that things were kind of different so, there was some nervousness, a little bit of uneasiness. But I was really able to just have that conversation with myself where I say, ‘Don’t forget, this is what you do.’ Doesn’t matter what the stage is. I’m going out to do the same thing I’ve done every week for the last 10 years of my life. It’s this.”

An Ace Austin vignette aired on the September 6th episode of AEW Collision. He has not wrestled since his in-ring debut in August.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit AEW Unrestricted with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.