Sources close to the situation have revealed that Tony Khan has addressed the growing speculation surrounding Mara Sadè potentially joining AEW, describing the erstwhile WWE and TNA talent as someone of “excellent interest” to the company.
Khan stopped short of confirming that Sadè has put pen to paper with AEW but acknowledged the company’s familiarity with her and heaped praise on her potential. “We have not seen her in AEW to date, but she’s somebody that we’re definitely very familiar with for many reasons and is a tremendous young talent,” Khan stated.
Khan was asked about Sadè after her official website appeared to reference AEW earlier throughout this week — speaking during Thursday’s AEW All Out 2026 pre-episode media call. Leaving questions surrounding her existing status, those references were subsequently removed.
Khan then offered another intriguing comment when discussing what could be next for Sadè. “She’s somebody that is of great interest and is a extremely compelling young prospect. So in her case, she’s definitely somebody to keep an eye on.”
The comments come as Sadè has also mentioned further fuel to speculation surrounding a possible AEW appearance.
Earlier today, just two days before AEW All Out in the Chicago area, Sadè posted a cryptic message on social media that simply read, “✓ Saturday.”
Neither Sadè nor Khan has confirmed that the post is related to All Out. Khan did not announce that she has finalized a deal with AEW or will appear at Saturday’s pay-per-view.
Sadè agreed to terms with WWE in 2022 and was let go in 2025 before later joining TNA Wrestling. She departed TNA this summer following the expiration of her contract.
Elsewhere during Thursday’s media call, Khan shared recently introduced details about plans Andy “The Butcher” Williams had been developing to potentially work behind the scenes in AEW before his passing.
Khan previously made known that Williams had expressed interest in contributing to the company outside the ring. He shared Thursday that Williams had actually met with AEW officials concluding month to discuss his ideas. “Andy was extremely interested in working in the office, and he had really impressive ideas,” Khan said. “So I had set up a meeting with Andy and the AEW officials last month to talk about his thoughts on ways he could contribute to promoting.”
One concept involved combining Williams’ background in music with AEW by holding events alongside wrestling shows, potentially exposing the company to a different audience. “Andy had ideas that he could do music shows in collaboration with AEW and build some events outside of the wrestling show that would get eyeballs on the wrestling show. Maybe bring some people from the music community into wrestling,” Khan noted. He had a number of good ideas, including that.” “That is one of his ideas.
As per Khan, those discussions remained active at the time of Williams’ passing.
Khan commented Williams’ loss has been “extremely hard” on many people within AEW. Continued that he wanted the company’s tribute show to be “befitting his stature.” Khan said he was proud of how the tribute ultimately came together.