6 AEW Stars and why they refused to join WWE
Several AEW stars have received offers from WWE in the past few years, but they turned them down.
Although AEW is now a rising power in the pro wrestling industry, WWE is still the biggest promotion in the world. Many wrestlers around the globe dream of joining Vince McMahon's company. Nonetheless, a few have preferred to turn down WWE offers in favor of wrestling in other promotions.
One example of famous wrestlers who have turned down WWE offers is NJPW's Will Ospreay. WWE was interested in signing Ospreay, but the 28-year-old refused to join the company because he did not want to wrestle on Christmas Day.
Likewise, a few AEW Stars had the chance to sign with WWE before choosing to go with Tony Khan's company. However, they refused to capitalize on the opportunity for different reasons.
Here are a few AEW Stars and why they refused to join WWE:
#6 & #5. AEW Stars The Young Bucks
The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) are currently one of the top tag teams in AEW. Before joining Tony Khan's company, they wrestled in several different promotions. They also turned down an opportunity to join WWE.
The Jackson brothers had previously appeared on WWE TV. In 2008, Matt wrestled in two matches on SmackDown against Chuck Palumbo in February and The Big Show in October. He lost both bouts.
In August that same year, the Young Bucks appeared on The Miz and Morrison's Dirt Sheet show on ECW. Miz and Morrison made Matt and Nick dress up as D-Generation X before beating them up in the ring.
Despite these appearances, WWE did not sign the Jackson brothers. They had another tryout in 2011, but the company again passed on the opportunity to sign them.
A few days before joining AEW in 2019, The Young Bucks were finally close to fulfilling their dream of becoming WWE Superstars. Matt received a text from Triple H while on vacation.
The two then spoke on the phone. After the phone call, Matt seemed open to the idea of joining WWE, as his wife and agent, Dana Massie, recalled on the Tradecraft Podcast.
Despite the positive negotiations between Triple H and the older Jackson, The Young Bucks decided to turn down WWE's offer. Matt explained their decision later in an interview with TalkSPORT.
"I was so protective of our brand because we had done so much at that point and we’d just done the All In show. So it was still scary to just hand over the keys to someone else and that was probably the biggest reason we didn’t go to WWE at the time because it was like ‘what are they going to do with this?’ We were almost over-protective of what we created," he said.
After meeting with Tony Khan, Matt and Nick decided to sign with AEW. They have excelled in the newly-established promotion, winning the AEW World Tag Team Championship once so far.