Last night at AEW Double or Nothing, wrestling fans were treated to two new signings in one moment. Athena (formerly known as Ember Moon in NXT and WWE) and Stokely Hathaway (fka Malcolm Bivens) had new contracts that led to a distraction during the end of the TBS Championship match, allowing Cargill to hit her finisher, Jaded, for the first time in that match for the win against Anna Jay. After Kris Stadtlander ran out to stand by Jay’s side against three Baddies’ odds, Athena appeared as another ally in the six-woman faction.
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“He’s the best talker in the game,” Cargill said of Hathaway during the AEW Double or Nothing post-show media scrum. “Who would want anything less than that? Somebody to represent a superstar that’s about to just come forth in front of all you guys’ eyes.”
Former WWE performer Dean Hathaway was released on April 29th, leaving his 90-day noncompete window to end at a very opportune time for All Elite Wrestling. All Elite Wrestling President Tony Khan had previously stated that he would never speak with a fired performer until those 90 days were up, and he followed through on that promise in this case.
“It was pretty unusual, Stokely’s 90 days expired yesterday,” Khan said, referring to the standard 90-day no-compete clause to which performers are subject when they leave WWE. “‘I’ve never met him or spoken to him until today … I’ve him in mind since 2018, actually. I remember being way back in the day, actually with Cody (Rhodes), and I was saying ‘I really like Stokely Hathaway. I’m a big fan of him’ … I wanted to pair him with the world’s greatest network champion, the world’s top undefeated wrestler two years in with such a sparkling record.”
