On December 2, Sting shocked the wrestling world when he showed up on AEW Dynamite.
Though there was speculation surrounding Sting going to AEW, nothing was announced ahead of his arrival on Dynamite.
According to Chris Jericho, TNT preferred if a big surprise like Sting was teased or announced ahead of time in order to get the viewer to tune in.
"When Sting was a surprise, [TNT] was like 'don't do that again.' That's why Paul Wight was announced on social media because TNT said, 'We don't want surprises, we want to take advantage of the ratings.' We had a big surprise, a big announcement, and we used the big announcement to announce the next big surprise. I think that's one of the reasons too, to spread it out a little," Jericho said on Talk Is Jericho.
AEW announced Paul Wight (formerly The Big Show in WWE) had signed with the company on Wednesday afternoon, hours before Dynamite premiered on TNT.
One week later, Wight teased the arrival of a Hall of Fame-worthy signing that would debut at AEW Revolution, creating more buzz for the pay-per-view. Christian Cage, who says he wasn't officially signed when his arrival was teased, was revealed as the signing at Revolution.
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