I recently interviewed former WWE referee and co-host of Aftermath Jimmy Korderas for the sports show Beyond The Game, which airs on Vibe 105.5FM in Toronto.
When I asked him if it’s possible Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks make the jump to WWE and if they’d be successful, he said that at some point he can see WWE wanting to capitalize on their popularity (marketing their brand, Hot Topic, Being The Elite) and sign them.
I included a link to the clip in case you’d like to check it out and a link to the full interview if you’d like to hear more of his thoughts on other topics like: his show Aftermath, NXT UK, new WWE TV deal with FOX.
It’s a really interesting question, and one that really no one can answer except for The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega themselves.
It does seem like the WWE are so expansive and everpresent that at some point every wrestler will work for them (and technically Omega and Matt already have). But would they again now that they are bonafide stars outside of the WWE?
I’m guessing it won’t happen anytime soon, but it always ‘could’ happen. But right now they are probably making WWE money but without having to work the WWE schedule, and they have way more creative freedom than they would in the WWE (even for outside projects). Plus Omega is one of the major focal points of the NJPW expansion, so that must be quite exciting for him.
From a WWE perspective, on the one hand you’d want to hire The Elite just to stop other guys thinking that they could make good business outside of the WWE with a similar DIY model. You’d want to show everyone, “Hey look, as good as things were for these guys, they’d rather be in the WWE.” And the WWE certainly could make them an attractive offer, pay them more than they’re earning now, and give them all the time off that they want and total creative freedom. They ‘could’ do that. But it would upset the apple cart by setting a bad precident, because after a deal like that goes down all of your top superstars will be looking for the same deal, and that could cause headaches.
So I think for now it’s not a good idea for either side, but potentially down the road if The Elite’s star starts to fade (we’re probably talking waaay down the road) then they might look to move to the WWE to make themselves more of a name in North America, thus guaranteeing themselves more future earnings for things like autograph signings and indy shows after they leave the WWE or retire from wrestling. Someone like AJ Styles has now set himself up for life in a way that he couldn’t have without jumping to the WWE at least once (technically twice) in his career.
And of course from a WWE perspective they’d love to have some more over wrestlers who can work new dream matches for them.
As for being successful in the WWE, I sadly think they wouldn’t be as “cool” in the WWE (partly due to the style difference Jimmy describes, as well as the limited creative freedom) but I do think they’d reach a certain level of success, like that of Tyler Black etc. They’re too talented not to reach similar heights.
The biggest problem I feel they would have if they ever show up in wwe is getting over with a wwe audience and wrestling a wwe style match. Right now, they are pretty free to do what they want in their matches and outside of it, in wwe that’s not the case, they are still kinda of old school in the way they booked match so stuff like the superkick party and doing high spot for the sake of high spots would work in wwe.
The other problem is that, they aren’t aj styles which was known by everybody before joining wwe, so they would need to get over with the casual and younger fans in the audience which will be harder especially for the young bucks since they look like a cosplay version of the hardy’s when they started. They are a tag team which will hurt them in wwe since they don’t push teams anymore and the size won’t help them either. So unless you use the bucks on the NXT roster, they are better off staying on the Indies. As for omega, pretty much the same thing, his side will bring him some problem on the main roster, like I wrote earlier, he’s not on th same level as aj styles, not everybody knows who he is so he’s going to be forced to find a way to get over with the casual and younger fans but with a wwe styles of wrestling which will really limit him.
In the end, I know they are the darlings of the Indies and the obvious next step would be wwe, but if I was them, I would stick with what made them popular in the first place because if wwe decided to sign them, theses guys are toast because they might be gods in the Indies, but they won’t be in wwe
I don’t think you need to be a former WWE employee to say without a shadow of a doubt that WWE wants Omega and the Young Bucks.
The real question is whether Omega and the Bucks want to work for WWE and what would their price be. After the massive new TV deals WWE signed, the Elite would absolutely be negotiating from a position of strength and only sign there for a huge amount of money, on a short term deal, with some creative control.
Just on the AJ Styles topic, do you really think he was more well-known by WWE fans than The Young Bucks currently are?
I think the WWE fans who recognized AJ Styles when he debuted at the Royal Rumble would be the same kind of “smart” fans who would recognize The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega too. And I think there’s actually more of them out there than we generally give credit.