The Young Bucks Recall Turning Down Triple H's WWE Contract Offer 'Four or Five Times'

AEW executive vice presidents The Young Bucks sat down with Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp this week to discuss the release of their new book — Young Bucks: Killing the Business From Backyards to Big Leagues. Midway through the interview the topic of the Bucks' pivotal decision to not sign with WWE or sign on for new dual contracts with Ring of Honor and New Japan came up. The two said they probably would have stayed with their previous two companies had the right contracts come around, but they felt they could do better after ROH and NJPW put in their offers. Triple H was also apart of the equation, giving a massive initial offer to the pair (and Kenny Omega).

"I don't want to disrespect ROH too because it wasn't like it was a bad offer," Matt Jackson said in the interview. "By no means was it a small amount of money. It just wasn't enough for us because at this point we valued ourselves. We knew our value and it was very high and it just wasn't close to what we thought. Maybe they thought their offer was good enough, but in our eyes, it wasn't even close. When the validation came, basically for us to know we were right and our value was right, was our first offer Triple H made us. That's when we looked at each other and said 'holy crap,' how long have we been worth this much? It's was almost like we weren't insulted, we were just like wow."

The pair then recalled just how persistent "The Game" was with his contract offers, forcing the pair to turn him down a handful of times.

"He was great. Charming dude. He said all the right things," Matt said. "I don't know how many times I told him no. We must have declined the offer, in the end, I don't want to exaggerate, it had to have been at least four or five times, and by the end of every conversation he would have another call scheduled with me in two weeks and I would go "how did he do that?" What, I just told him no. We'd be laughing by the end of the conversation. The conversation would start with me saying we're so sorry, we're going to pass on this, thank you so much, and an hour later I'm talking about our next phone call in two weeks. He's a magician and no wonder he has the job he has because he's a charming guy and he'll charm your socks off. I have nothing but positive things to say about him. He's very intelligent too. The things he said, the ideas he had. At times I told Nick, "man, maybe this is something we should at least consider." There was a time when me, Nick, and Kenny, the three of us were all like "holy shit, I think we're going to end up in WWE."

"It was a very tough decision," Nick added in.

Obviously, history would show us that the pair didn't go with either route. Instead, the two partnered with Omega, Rhodes and Tony Khan to launch a new promotion — All Elite Wrestling.