It sounds like they are doing an alter-ego angle, at least that is what I took from Tommy's IG vignette he released. He had mentioned he had prepared a ton of creative for WWE's dark father concept so I have feeling this is a way to save some of the work he put into it.
There is absolutely no reason he can't be AEW's "dark mysterious" cliche character for awhile as long as they don't go full-fiend on it but considering wrestlers have a lot more control over their creative in AEW, not too worried.
Also Andrade had his debut match last night as well. If anyone gave up on the pandemic era wrestling - I can't blame you - but AEW basically is running mini PPVs all month since they're back on the road and likely will start to build new title feuds so best time to get back into it.