UFC Legend Josh Barnett Claims There Were Plans For Him To Do More In AEW

Josh Barnett had fun in AEW.

But he planned on having even more fun.

The former UFC Heavyweight Champion and promoter of Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport recently appeared as a guest on the “Jaxxon Podcast” with fellow MMA legend Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.

During the discussion, “The War Master” claimed there was plans for him to do a bit more in AEW than he ended up doing.

“It was fun,” Barnett said of his time in AEW. “Mainly, I was just there, well, part of it was this card gets announced, that this event’s gonna be in Seattle, and it’s an Antonio Inoki tribute show. Which, it didn’t end up being that much of an Inoki tribute show. But that place gets kind of chaotic at times, and it’s hard to keep all these things together. So I hit them up, I’m like, ‘If you’re gonna have an Inoki tribute show, and you don’t have the number one direct student of Inoki from Seattle on your show, that is ridiculous.”

He continued, “There’s no way that could work.’ We put something together. There were plans to do a bit more, but in the end, it just ended up being the single match with Claudio [Castagnoli], and it was a fantastic experience. A lot of it was just me wanting to get out there and go, ‘Show me what you got. Let’s see how it goes

Barnett lost a singles match to Claudio Castagnoli at the recent AEW Wrestle Dream 2024 pay-per-view.

(H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.)