Pro Wrestlers with contracts that will expire this year
Like every major sport in the world, pro wrestling has its share of athletes with deals that expire on a yearly basis. Some wrestlers sign multi-year deals while others do things on a year to year basis. WWE tends to try and lock stars into multi-year deals whereas New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor both allow wrestlers to ink one-year contracts.
As the year is technically half over, it means that once late 2019 rolls around, speculation will heat up once again as to where some prominent wrestlers will land in 2020. To begin 2019, the biggest free agents were Kenny Omega and the Elite. When the dust settled, instead of joining another promotion, they parlayed their success in ROH and NJPW into forming their own promotion, All Elite Wrestling.
Now that they have their own promotion, it not only provides another outlet for wrestlers, but it also means that we will see more bidding wars between battling companies. Jon Moxley was another huge name that became a free agent at the end of April 2019 and he's already made huge splashes all over the world.
So which Superstars will cash in on the likely bidding wars over their services? There are many stars with deals that expire at the end of 2019 but here are some of the more notable names.
Will expire later this year - Luke Harper
Harper was off of TV dealing with an injury, but once he was cleared, the former Wyatt Family member wasn't used by WWE. He felt he was being misused and asked for his release from the WWE around WrestleMania 35.
WWE refused to grant his release and has instead tried to lock up talent with expiring deals to newer, multi-year deals with more money. Harper hasn't accepted any new offers and WWE doesn't appear to have any plans to use him.
According to Fightful.com's extensive list of free agents, Harper's current deal with WWE ends in 'late 2019'. It's unclear if he will have time tacked onto his deal due to his injury. The time might have already been tacked on to extend his current contract. Whatever the case is, Harper will probably be wrestling elsewhere in 2020.