10 Most INSANE Promises Wrestling Promoters Made To Wrestlers
8. The Elite Offered ‘Creative Dominance’
There are a fair few WCW entries coming up, so let's press pause on their silliness to examine some startling WWE offers instead. In early 2019, The Young Bucks, Cody Rhodes and Hangman Page claimed that Triple H wanted to bring them all in and make the quartet a key part of his third brand project on episodes of NXT.
It would've been an Elite-inspired takeover of TakeOvers, so to speak, and Hunter was remarkably keen on making it happen. So, he broke expectations for WWE developmental deals by hurling main roster money at The Elite should they agree to come in. Further, the group would have a lot of creative sway on the show to boot.
This was shortly before AEW launched, and it's crazy to think about now. Matt Jackson, his brother Nick, Cody and Hangman could've become key facets in the melting pot of independent goodness/Japanese style with WWE production that Trips was building in Florida. Back then, NXT was the alternative that Tony Khan dreamed of booking, and it was a red hot destination for those who wanted something to soothe the pain of Raw or SmackDown.
Which, for the record, was utterly dreadful under the last vestiges of Vince McMahon creativity.
Ultimately, The Bucks, Cody and Page all said no. They had a larger scale project in mind: All Elite Wrestling. Imagine how different things could've been had all 4 men said yes to Hunter and come in to be part of team WWE?! A version of AEW might've launched anyway, but who knows? It wouldn't have looked the same, that's for sure.