Earlier this month, Dave Meltzer over at the Wrestling Observer dropped the news that WWE had made a ‘fantastic offer’ to sign Kenny Omega, following Omega’s IWGP Heavyweight Championship loss at Wrestle Kingdom 13 and announcement that he’d be leaving New Japan Pro Wrestling when his contract was up. That led to tons of speculation and comments from relevant parties, including Hulk Hogan saying everyone should experience the McDonald’s of wrestling.
According to the most recent report from The Observer, it looks as though Omega has formally turned down said fantastic offer, and is expected to join All Elite Wrestling after February 1, when he’s a free agent. The report mentions that Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks and Hangman Page also turned down WWE offers, despite Triple H offering “unique” deals. Meltz mentions that Page in particular was offered a chance to work NXT for WWE main roster money, and be pushed as the top star of the brand.
As for the Bucks, The Observer says they were offered a six months contract with the chance to bail if they weren’t happy, and would make the same money AJ Styles currently makes. They’d also have a chance to do a WWE-produced and sponsored version of Being The Elite.
From the writeup over at Wrestling Inc.:
It was noted that The Elite had roughly 12 hours of discussions with Triple H, and they praised him for how things were handled. Apparently Triple H also saw the humor in the Being the Elite episode where the Bucks superkicked Kazarian, who was dressed like Triple H, repeatedly as their way of publicly turning down the WWE offer.
So it looks like more than ever is riding on the success of AEW, and that the Elite is truly all in with the project. We’ll keep you updated on any further developments, and if WWE decides to just give up and ask Jim Duggan to be their 2019 Royal Rumble surprise.
