Royce Keys Says Personal Reasons Behind Jump From AEW to WWE

Former AEW star Powerhouse Hobbs made his WWE debut at Royce Keys earlier this year at the Royal Rumble.

Royce Keys | WWE

What was behind Royce Keys' decision to make the jump from AEW to WWE?

Royce Keys debuted in AEW as Will Hobbs in 2020, while the company ran all its events out of Daily's Place. Hobbs' look and natural charisma immediately caught the attention of the AEW fanbase, and his character would slowly morph into Powerhouse Hobbs.

During his time with the company, Hobbs would capture the TNT Championship as well as the AEW World Trios Championship as a member of The Opps. Hobbs would take the pinfall loss and drop the title for his team against Hangman Page and JetSpeed before popping up on WWE programming two weeks later at the Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia under his new name, Royce Keys.

But what went into Keys' thought process to make the jump from AEW to WWE?

Powerhouse Hobbs | Lee South - All Elite Wrestling

Royce Keys says it was his dream to become a WWE Superstar

Keys was a recent guest on 107.7 The Bone. When asked about his decision to depart AEW and join WWE earlier this year, he said there were personal reasons behind his decision, but it also came down to the fact that it was his dream to be a WWE Superstar since he was a kid.

"Um, a lot. There's a lot of personal ones that I won't speak on," Royce Keys said. "But the dream is always to be a WWE Superstar. It's all I dreamt about as a kid and I will never live my life as to having what ifs. What if I did this? What if I would've went? What if I didn't go?

"There was no second thought about putting pen to paper when that opportunity came up. I mean, you look at what WWE is; it's the end-all, be-all of professional wrestling and sports entertainment. So why wouldn't I want to go? I felt like LeBron James in free agency."

It's just business to Royce Keys

The interviewer would follow up by asking if it was difficult for Keys to say goodbye to AEW after his time in the company. After some silence, Keys responded by confessing that it's all business to him.

"It's business," Royce Keys said. "You're going to have your friends that you'll always keep in contact with, and you have your acquaintances, but this is business. I have to do what's best for Royce Keys. So the best thing to do for Royce was to go to WWE."

Beyond winning the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, Keys has yet to find the same success in WWE that he found in AEW. Keys is currently loosely involved in the ongoing storyline with The Bloodline due to his friendship with Jacob Fatu.