The Young Bucks: WWE Were Friendly During Negotiations, Taught Us Our Value
The Young Bucks describe how tough it was for them to turn down WWE’s offer.
Speaking to CBS Sports, Matt and Nick Jackson discussed their negotiations with WWE prior to forming AEW.
“We could say that their offer was very aggressive,” said Nick.
Matt elaborated, “For a moment, I thought that we would probably be going to WWE. That was the closest that it’s ever come to us going there, for sure. And they were great. They were respectful, and they told us what our value was. I think it was really like a wake-up call for us. It was almost like, wow. It’s good to be wanted. These guys, they’re teaching us we are valuable and we’re worth this much. It was definitely something we were considering, and it was hard to turn down, because it would have been life-changing.”
The Young Bucks publicly declined WWE’s offer on the Dec. 17 episode of Being The Elite. Weeks later, The Bucks, Hangman Page and Cody officially announced the formation of All Elite Wrestling.
“We just had to do the best thing for our families. We’re family men, and we just want to take care of them, and we want to make the best decision, and we want to be home,” said Matt. “But again, with WWE, they were pretty much willing to do anything. Any type of concern we had, they had something good to say about it and how they would fix it. I can’t stress enough how friendly and how great they were to us. And I have nothing but good things to say about them.”
The Wrestling Observer reported earlier this month that WWE offered the Bucks a three-year deal, which included a six-month window where they could have left if they were unhappy with their push. The deal was reportedly for seven-figures. Furthermore, WWE reportedly had plans to turn Being The Elite into a weekly television show on the WWE Network.
The Young Bucks signed five-year deals with AEW, where they will wrestle and serve as Co-Executive Vice Presidents.
