The wrestling world underwent a big shift at the end of 2018 when the NJPW and ROH contracts for The Young Bucks (Matthew Jackson & Nicholas Jackson), Kenny Omega, Hangman Page, Cody Rhodes, and Marty Scurll were coming due.
The Bucks and Cody played a large part in the first All In getting off the ground, and Kenny, Hangman, and Marty played key roles on the event.
Instead of re-signing with NJPW or ROH, all of them, with the exception of Scurll, ended up being cornerstones of the formation of AEW.
Speaking to Conrad Thompson on Insiders, former NJPW GM Michael Craven was asked how concerned NJPW was with losing all six talents.
"In order, Kenny was the only one we were concerned about leaving. We would have liked to have gotten a deal for Hangman Page, if ROH wanted to let him go, we would have taken Hangman. Marty Scurll, I know it's a name that people don't mention, but in Japan he was in incredibly over. I don't know about his circumstances and I'm not going to say anything negative. At that time, we wanted him very badly. We wanted Marty, we wanted Hangman," he said.
Speaking about Cody Rhodes, Craven stated, "Cody, we thought was too expensive to keep. Cody, we wanted for America. For having him in Japan, I mean no disrespect to Cody, we wanted somebody like Kenny Omega who can give us five star matches. What makes New Japan special is the quality of matches. To have somebody full-time, high salary, in Japan, we expect them to be performing at the top tier for every match. What I love about Cody's matches, is he's a good storyteller. He brings that emotion, but when you don't speak Japanese, the Japanese fans don't understand that story. We were interested, if ROH was going to get him, to have him for a few dates, but mainly use him for America. He helped so much with the American expansion, he really did."
Craven then discussed NJPW's view on the Bucks by saying "The other people were the Bucks. The office, because of Being The Elite, soured on the Bucks. We would be interested in having them part-time with an ROH contract, but when we heard the numbers what ROH was trying to put together for the Bucks, it was way out of our pay league. I can't remember if it was $450,000 US per Buck. I honestly can't remember the number. I remember hearing it and the office told me 'we can't do a deal with Joe Koff because it's out of our pay scale.' Tag team wrestling is not our priority. The Bucks are very popular in Japan, they really were. It would have been nice to get them, but with the issues and bad blood with Being the Elite, I'm sure people would have calmed down and negotiated differently with that, maybe the situation would have been different and we would have wanted them more. At the time, that priority was mostly Kenny."
Craven closed by saying "I have the notes. The priority, in order, is Kenny Omega, Marty Scurll, Hangman Page. I even know the numbers we were going to offer them, which I shouldn't say. Cody, question mark. Bucks, question mark. That's what we were looking at. That comes from a late September meeting."
Omega, Hangman, and the Bucks remain cornerstones of AEW while Cody left the promotion and joined WWE in 2022.
Elsewhere during the interview, Craven discussed NJPW view on Being The Elite. Fans can find his full comments by clicking here.
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