Ex-WWE guys might be getting a bad rap in AEW from wrestlers like MJF and Scorpio Sky, but the Blackpool Combat Club pushes back against that as an island of misfit toys who never quite fit The Other Company's mold. Outside of Wheeler YUTA, the group is made up entirely of performers who used to wrestle in WWE in some capacity. That isn't where they all spent their entire careers, but it's certainly where they landed on the radars of more casual wrestling fans.
Jon Moxley was influential due to his time with The Shield, Bryan Danielson, like Moxley, is a former World Champion for the company, while Claudio Castagnoli never was given the chance to take the ball and run with it. Binding these men together is William Regal, who has spoken at length about how he was never able to fulfill his potential with WWE.
That makes Blackpool Combat Club even more likable. Especially to an AEW audience that is largely comprised of lapsed WWE fans who sought out a different, more professional wrestling-focused product with All Elite Wrestling. While WWE is big on the sports entertainment side of things, AEW has always tried to follow more closely to the tracks that the likes of NJPW and ROH have stamped out over the last several years in North America. There is a focus on long-term storytelling, and the audience is treated like adults who can remember things that happened on television two weeks ago without being reminded three times by commentators, followed by a video package and one more reminder after.
There's no denying that Blackpool Combat Club owes a lot of its star power to WWE, as that's where these men largely grew to prominence. That shouldn't mean that they carry any kind of ex-WWE guy stigma around with them, though. These are performers who were largely chewed up and spit out by the Stamford, Connecticut-based sports entertainment machine. Moxley has spoken at length about how unhappy he was with the creative he'd been given during his time with the company, and he almost immediately sought out the violent kinds of matches that made him famous on the independent circuit before joining WWE.
Danielson's rise to WWE Champion was only spurred on by fans literally taking over shows with "yes" chants. WWE pushed back against this as hard as they could, but eventually, there was no denying him his WrestleMania moment. Still, The American Dragon isn't cut from the same cloth as other WWE sports entertainer lifers and was even fired from the company at one point for choking someone out with their own tie. And then there's the newest member, Claudio Castagnoli, who was largely underutilized by WWE during his 11-year run there. From 2013 to 2016, he won Wrestling News Observer's most Underrated Wrestler award. Now that he's in AEW, he has the presence and notoriety needed to perhaps be AEW World Champion someday. Add wrestling royalty William Regal as the manager, and Blackpool Combat Club has become AEW's home for ex-WWE wrestlers who broke out of that company to redefine their careers in AEW.