CODY, The Young Bucks, and Hangman Page had all received contract offers from the WWE. As we all know, they rejected those offers. According to Dave Meltzer, these deals were extremely unique.
Hangman Page’s deal would reportedly send him to NXT, but he would be making “main roster money”. He would have also been pushed to be one of the top stars of that brand.
While that deal is pretty interesting, mainly due to the money aspect, The Young Bucks rumored deal just shows how much WWE wanted them. The reported three-year deal would have been for “AJ Styles money”. It also would have included a six-month window where the Jackson brothers could opt out of their contracts if they weren’t happy. Being The Elite was also discussed as becoming a weekly show on the WWE Network.
All three wrestlers turned these deals down. There have been no details released as to what contract CODY was offered, but we can guess that it was somewhat similar.
Kenny Omega has also reportedly turned down an offer from WWE. It’s very interesting to see how outside the box WWE was willing to go to try to secure these touted free agents. Even though they tried to sweeten the pot, it appears to have not been enough.
This is only the beginning. I expect we will see more unique ways to try to sign new free agents from all of the wrestling companies in the coming years.