We may be getting some insight into what led to Being The Elite’s running sketches about The Young Bucks’ correspondence with “H” and, if true, the report from Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscription required and recommended) shows how big the bet Matt & Nick Jackson are making on themselves with All Elite Wrestling.
Triple H is said to have been the point-man on efforts to sign The Elite, and that included approximately 12 hours of discussions with the Bucks, Cody Rhodes & Adam “Hangman” Page. It sounds like, despite not taking the deals offered by WWE, both sides left the discussions with nothing but favorable things to say about each other - including Trips getting the joke behind Matt & Nick repeatedly superkicking Frankie Kazarian cosplaying as Triple H on their YouTube series as the public way of turning down his offer.
What was on the table? According to the WON, Page was offered main roster money to go to NXT, where he would have been promoted as one of the black-and-yellow brand’s top acts. The Bucks would have made the same amount AJ Styles makes, debuted at Royal Rumble and been the focus of a “significant storyline” on the road to WrestleMania 35. A weekly WWE Network version of Being The Elite was in the plans, and Dave Meltzer wrote the deal had a six month out clause should the Jacksons not like how things were going in WWE - something he’d “never heard WWE concede on” prior.
Was six months a long enough amount of time for Tony Khan to move on, therefore taking AEW off the table as an option? That seems likely, and makes it a shrewd, strategic negotiating tool for Haitch and WWE.
We’ll see if the Bucks’ All Elite gamble pays off... and what Hunter & team will be offering if the AEW bet is a losing one.