How Close Did The Elite Get to Leaving AEW?
Matt Jackson seriously considered retirement rather than staying in AEW
AEW recently announced that Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks and Adam "Hangman" Page have all signed new multi-year contracts to remain with the young promotion. The Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) then appeared on Swerve Strickland's Swerve City Podcast and discussed their decision, stating that had all made a promise to either stay or leave as a group. They also indicated that staying with the promotion they helped launch was far from a slam dunk.
Matt: "Bro, we didn't even know if we were gonna re-sign. You know what I mean? We had no idea...Hangman [Page] and Kenny [Omega], the four of us, we negotiated together, as a team," Matt Jackson said (h/t Cageside Seats).
"And the votes did not line up every time," he later added. "Because we said majority wins on this. And there was a lot of emotions in the last year, as the world knows. So one day, this person's voting to leave, this person's voting to go. [Nick and I] weren't even on the same page the whole time. So, it was crazy..."
AEW's Matt Jackson Considered Retirement Instead of Re-Signing
"Well I'll say this. There was many times where Matt just said, you know what I have enough. I'm ready to just retire. And I had to talk him out of that. I talked him out of retiring," Nick added.
"I've been toying with that for a long time. And he even told me, let's just do at least one more big one," Matt said.
Shortly after announcing their new deals, the Bucks announced they were returning to AEW's tag team division and will face The Hardys on this week's AEW Dynamite. FTR then challenged them to a match at All In later this month. It's unknown as of now what Omega or Page will be up to at the Aug. 27 pay-per-view at Wembley Stadium in London.
AEW Dynamite Card (Aug. 9, 2023)
- The Young Bucks vs. The Hardys
- AEW Women's World Championship: Hikaru Shida vs. Anna Jay
- FTW Championship: Jack Perry vs. RVD
- Lucha Bros. vs. Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli)
- Promo from MJF & Adam Cole
- Jericho Appreciation Society "Mandatory Meeting"
AEW Collision Card (Aug. 12, 2023)
- AEW World Trios Championships: The House of Black vs. CMFTR
- Kris Statlander & Willow Nightingale vs. Mercedes Martinez & Diamante
- The Acclaimed in action