AEW reportedly working to lock up The Elite before they hit free agency

There’s been speculation all three could head to WWE when their current contracts expire sometime this year.

A little more than a year ago, the thought of an AEW founding Executive Vice-President leaving the company for WWE seemed unthinkable. But Cody Rhodes proved the old pro wrestling truism “never say never” even applies to this situation. So when we started hearing about Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks possibly hitting the free agent market this year, we couldn’t dismiss it out of hand.

Tony Khan couldn’t either. The latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports AEW is working on locking up The Elite trio with new long-term contracts before their current deals expire. One obvious benefit of being able to announce extensions, as the company recently has with Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley, would be to end speculation Omega and Matt & Nick Jackson could join Rhodes in Vince McMahon & Triple H’s employ.

In his report, Dave Meltzer reiterates some of the same thoughts he’s shared in the past about Omega and Matt & Nick Jackson’s thought processes on AEW vs. WWE:

“With the Bucks, while they may do well in WWE, it’s not guaranteed, and they will have a better schedule in AEW meaning more time with the family and also less matches and can do their style. With Omega, he doesn’t have kids and he would likely get a major push and would have no end to having fresh opponents. It would also close the door to Japan that he’s waited years to re-open. But he did at least consider and have talks with WWE 2018-19 and wasn’t negative about WWE at all while making his choice to go to AEW. Khan did say he hoped Omega would be in the company for a long time to come.”

There hasn’t been a great deal of clarity on the exact dates when Omega and Matt & Nick Jackson would hit free agency — in Kenny’s case because of the possibility Khan could add injury time to his initial deal; for The Bucks, because of a 2021 extension they reportedly signed — but there’s general agreement they’ll expire late this year or early next.

We’ll see if TK can make that a moot point in the coming months.