More on The Elite Signing New Deals with AEW

As noted before, The Elite (Kenny Omega, Hangman Page, and The Young Bucks) recently signed new multi-year contracts with AEW.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the length of the Elite’s new contracts is currently not known beyond it being for multiple years. Meltzer reported that the current belief from his sources is that AEW and the Elite made an agreement to keep the exact length a secret but a recent rumor going around is that their new deals are for four years in length.

In regards to Page and the Young Bucks deals, Meltzer reported that while their initial deals were set to expire by the end of this year, AEW’s offer was enough to make them sign a new deal without waiting first for their contracts expiring or receive a potential significant offer from WWE.

Those spoken to reportedly stated that the current belief is that The Elite new deals were finalized or at least largely agreed upon before AEW’s July 19th Dynamite Blood & Guts show in Boston, Massachusetts.

In regards to Omega, Meltzer reported that his initial contract with AEW had expired on February 1st but he had injury time added to make up for the nine months he was absent due to various injuries. Despite not being legally allowed to make any formal offer, WWE officials reportedly had Omega at the top of their most wanted list for new signings for this year.

In regards to The Elite’s agent Barry Bloom, Meltzer reported that Bloom had negotiated all of their deals simultaneously as a way to give them all added leverage for any new contract. Bloom reportedly had told the Young Bucks that this was the highest guarantee monetary amount any tag team has ever received in pro wrestling history that he could remember. Bloom reportedly stated that this included previous highest contracts that Kevin Nash and Scott Hall received from WCW in the late 1990s.

Meltzer reported that Omega, Page, and the Young Bucks had gone back-and-forth for months over staying in AEW or leaving for WWE but had agreed from the start that they would only make a decision by a majority vote for the future for their careers. One unnamed member of the Elite spoken to reportedly stated “You’d probably be surprised who voted where.” Another unnamed member stated “They’ve all been executed very, very recently. There were a lot of things to consider this time around, but we’re all happy with how it ended up.”

One reason for the Elite’s decision to stay in AEW reportedly was due to their belief that they could not imagine another wrestling owner investing this kind of money ever for a faction to sign four guys at the same time as Khan did. This reportedly was a reason why all four of them had a very positive view of AEW’s offer to them. Meltzer reported that this was described as “Khan had really put his money where his mouth was and that because of that they were confident that he still saw great value in all four of them.”

In regards to the announcement for the Elite’s new signings, Meltzer reported that the reason why none of them made the announcement prior to this past Wednesday was due to Khan had wanted to make the announcement himself in conjunction with the 200th episode of Dynamite that day.

In regards to WWE, Meltzer reported that one source spoken to with knowledge of WWE’s interest stated that while Omega was a top talent who would have been used as a top guy in the company, his time in that role likely would have been shorter than Rollins in terms of being viewed internally as the best in-ring wrestler in the company. This person reportedly stated that their view is based on long-term physical durability that they felt gave Rollins the edge over Omega and Omega’s recent history with injuries.