Two weeks ago, AEW Dynamite presented its annual Blood & Guts episode. This year, The Golden Elite, complete with Kota Ibushi, took on Blackpool Combat Club, Pac, and Konosuke Takashita, in the promotion’s latest, over-the-top, and violent skeptical. Ultimately, The Golden Elite came out on top after Pac took bolt cutters to the cage door and walked out on his fellow BCC teammates. Once the cameras stopped rolling, both teams shook hands, and Kenny Omega cut an impassioned promo about how everyone involved had earned each other’s respect.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that the handshake and in-ring promo were intended to be televised and serve as the official conclusion of the feud between the two factions, at least for now. I say at least for now because it doesn’t appear that The Elite is going anywhere anytime soon. Apparently, the “prevailing belief” backstage is that The Young Bucks, Adam Page, and Omega will be re-signing with AEW once their contracts come up in the next few months.
It was noted that at the moment, Tony Khan is making big money offers to various talents, so it seems likely all of The Elite members are in line for similar proposals. Rush is an example of a talent whose contract came up recently but received an “insane offer” and chose to re-sign instead. With AEW Dynamite and AEW Collision both maintaining their top five cable original status, something that is said to be impressing Warner Brothers Discovery executives, it seems likely Khan is making these offers with the knowledge he is in line for a new and hefty TV rights fee deal.
For WWE’s part, it sounds like they thought they had “a good shot” at signing Omega to a 2024 contract, but that now seems much less likely. Of The Elite talents that had their contracts coming up, WWE viewed Omega as the top priority when it came to signing, much like they did when Jay White became a free agent.