The Outrunners apparently showed up in AEW so many times that Tony Khan may have lost track of one pretty important detail — whether they actually worked for him yet. Truth Magnum says he and Turbo Floyd hustled their way into so many AEW opportunities that by the time they finally asked Khan for contracts, the AEW boss apparently thought the paperwork had already been handled.
Truth Magnum broke down the wild road to getting signed during an appearance on LiMPiN AiNT EASY, explaining that he and Turbo didn’t exactly sit around waiting for AEW to call. Once the company started bringing them in for extra work, the pair began watching AEW’s touring schedule and finding any excuse possible to get themselves back in the building.
Truth admitted they would contact AEW when the company was headed somewhere like Buffalo and casually act like they just happened to be nearby. In reality, they were sometimes nowhere close and were willing to spend an entire day on the highway if AEW gave them the green light.
“So we started getting extra work and, like I said, we sold our asses off and they’re like, ‘Yeah, come, come, come on back for the next one.’ So then we started looking at their tour schedule and we’d hit them up. Say they were in like Buffalo or something. We’d be like, ‘Oh yeah, we happen to be in town. Can we stop by?’ And we clearly weren’t.”
Once AEW said yes, Truth and Turbo made sure they got there no matter how ugly the drive was. Truth said some of those trips stretched eight to 12 hours just for another opportunity to get in front of the right people.
“Well, they didn’t know that, but so they’d say yes. And then we’d drive our asses eight, 12 hours sometimes to wherever they were.”
That persistence apparently worked almost too well. AEW kept bringing The Outrunners back so frequently that Truth believes Khan eventually assumed they were already under contract.
“And they were using us so much that by the time we actually asked Tony for a contract, I think he thought we were already under contract.”
Then came the moment that made Truth realize things were seriously changing. He was sitting at his computer one day when a Twitter message from Tony Khan suddenly appeared, but Truth initially ignored it because he figured there was no way the message was actually real.
“And then the whole experience is so surreal. Like one day I’m at my computer and I see I got a Twitter message from Tony Khan and I didn’t look at it cuz I thought it was fake.”
Turbo Floyd had apparently received the same message and quickly let his tag team partner know this wasn’t somebody playing games online. Truth finally checked it out, and Khan had a pretty ridiculous question waiting for him.
“Randy texts me and he’s like — or excuse me, Turbo texts me — and he’s like, ‘Did you see the message from Tony?’ I’m like, ‘Okay, I’ll check it out.’ ‘Hey, do you want to wrestle Sting tomorrow?’”
There wasn’t exactly a contract negotiation needed for that one. Truth knew his answer immediately.
“And I was like, ‘Uh, yes. Yes, please. Absolutely. Yes, sir.’”
That match became very real, as The Outrunners faced Sting and Darby Allin on the November 8, 2023 episode of AEW Dynamite. Sting and Allin picked up the victory, but for Truth and Turbo, simply going from chasing extra-work bookings to suddenly standing across the ring from Sting was a pretty massive jump. Truth also made it clear that all the rejection and long drives before that point changed the way he looks at his AEW career now. After spending years trying to get his break, he said he refuses to treat any day with the company like it’s guaranteed.
“But to go back to the earlier point of experiencing so much nos and stuff leading to these points, I do not take a single day at work for granted. Like some days are extremely long, but it’s the best job in the world.”
Truth said watching younger wrestlers reach major companies quickly makes him hope they understand just how difficult getting there can be. For him, the endless drives, extra work and uncertainty made finally getting through AEW’s door mean that much more.
“And I sometimes you see younger talent that get there quick. I just hope some of them will just appreciate these moments because it’s so hard to get here. And I again, I don’t take a moment of it for granted.”
The Outrunners ultimately turned those opportunities into something much bigger. By October 2024, Ringside News noted that Truth Magnum and Turbo Floyd were signed with AEW as their popularity and merchandise sales continued climbing, showing just how far the act had come from pretending they happened to be in town whenever AEW rolled through.
The Outrunners’ AEW story wasn’t built around one lucky phone call. Truth and Turbo kept putting themselves in position to be seen until AEW was using them so often that Khan apparently thought they were already signed — and then one random message asking if they wanted to wrestle Sting helped turn all those brutal drives into something very real.
What do you think about The Outrunners’ unconventional road into AEW and Tony Khan apparently thinking they were already under contract? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
