More wrestlers who could leave the WWE to join The Elite...
“What’s next for Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega and the rest of The Elite?” is probably one of the biggest questions amongst wrestling fans. The incredibly popular faction recently officially split from Bullet Club to form simply, The Elite which somewhat reaffirms what Cody Rhodes told the wrestling fans after their incredibly successful “All In” event. This group is sticking together. If they go anywhere, they’re going together.
For the majority of the members of The Elite, their current contracts are up at the end of the year and the big question is “What’s next?”. The Elite themselves have been fueling the rumours themselves, through their weekly YouTube show “Being The Elite”, hinting at Cody Rhodes and Kenny Omega might be heading to WWE and even now hinting other ‘cast members’ like Frankie Kazarian and Christopher Daniels might be heading to the WWE’s performance centre as coaches.
But ever since their ‘game-changing’ event, “All In” one rumour that seems to be the most likely to come to fruition is Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks and others including Chris Jericho and Jim Ross working together to launch a potential rival for the WWE.
One of the keys to the success of “All In” was wrestling fans got to see wrestlers from Ring Of Honour, New Japan Pro Wrestling, NWA and Impact Wrestling compete at the same event. This happened again during Jericho’s Rock N’ Wrestling Cruise. Both times, the key players involved said they made it happen because it is what the fans wanted and it’s fairly safe to assume that if a rival for the WWE does emerge from this group, cross-promotional matches will also continue to be part of the draw. But will they just draw from the various independent wrestling organizations or could we see members of the WWE’s current roster make the jump and join The Elite in one form or another? Some like Finn Balor, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows may seem like obvious picks to jump ship, but others may not seem so obvious.
Here are 8 wrestlers who could also make the jump to whatever The Elite is planning…
#1 - AJ Styles
A former Bullet Club leader and now former WWE Champion, AJ Styles has been performing solidly since appearing at the Royal Rumble in 2016. The face of Smackdown recently lost his WWE Championship to Daniel Bryan and with his current contract expiring in early 2019, rumours of AJ potentially leaving the WWE have started to circulate. Most rumours assume he is looking at retiring and spending time with his family. But what if AJ is looking at leaving the WWE for other reasons. He’s had a very successful run in the WWE, something many critics didn’t think was possible. How do you top what AJ has done during his time with the WWE? Jump ship and join a potential rival company, that will give you an opportunity to work with your friends again? What better way to top what you’ve done in one company, then to turn around and join the competition and then likely be a key factor in the competitions popularity and legitimacy.