Just before Royce Keys left AEW, where was known as Powerhouse Hobbs, he was a Trios Champion alongside Katsuyori Shibata and Samoa Joe. The Opps abruptly lost their titles and fans learned it was because Keys decided not to renew his contract. During an interview with 107.7 The Bone, Keys says there were a lot of personal reasons that he decided not to stay with AEW. He compared it to "feeling like LeBron James in free agency". When he first arrived in WWE, Keys was greeted by people he knew and some he didn't.