More wrestlers who could leave the WWE to join The Elite...

“What’s next for Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega and the rest of The Elite?” is probably one of the biggest questions amongst wrestling fans. The incredibly popular faction recently officially split from Bullet Club to form simply, The Elite which somewhat reaffirms what Cody Rhodes told the wrestling fans after their incredibly successful “All In” event. This group is sticking together. If they go anywhere, they’re going together.

For the majority of the members of The Elite, their current contracts are up at the end of the year and the big question is “What’s next?”. The Elite themselves have been fueling the rumours themselves, through their weekly YouTube show “Being The Elite”, hinting at Cody Rhodes and Kenny Omega might be heading to WWE and even now hinting other ‘cast members’ like Frankie Kazarian and Christopher Daniels might be heading to the WWE’s performance centre as coaches.

But ever since their ‘game-changing’ event, “All In” one rumour that seems to be the most likely to come to fruition is Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks and others including Chris Jericho and Jim Ross working together to launch a potential rival for the WWE.

One of the keys to the success of “All In” was wrestling fans got to see wrestlers from Ring Of Honour, New Japan Pro Wrestling, NWA and Impact Wrestling compete at the same event. This happened again during Jericho’s Rock N’ Wrestling Cruise. Both times, the key players involved said they made it happen because it is what the fans wanted and it’s fairly safe to assume that if a rival for the WWE does emerge from this group, cross-promotional matches will also continue to be part of the draw. But will they just draw from the various independent wrestling organizations or could we see members of the WWE’s current roster make the jump and join The Elite in one form or another? Some like Finn Balor, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows may seem like obvious picks to jump ship, but others may not seem so obvious.

Here are 8 wrestlers who could also make the jump to whatever The Elite is planning…

#1 - AJ Styles

AJ Styles

A former Bullet Club leader and now former WWE Champion, AJ Styles has been performing solidly since appearing at the Royal Rumble in 2016. The face of Smackdown recently lost his WWE Championship to Daniel Bryan and with his current contract expiring in early 2019, rumours of AJ potentially leaving the WWE have started to circulate. Most rumours assume he is looking at retiring and spending time with his family. But what if AJ is looking at leaving the WWE for other reasons. He’s had a very successful run in the WWE, something many critics didn’t think was possible. How do you top what AJ has done during his time with the WWE? Jump ship and join a potential rival company, that will give you an opportunity to work with your friends again? What better way to top what you’ve done in one company, then to turn around and join the competition and then likely be a key factor in the competitions popularity and legitimacy.

#2 - #3 Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn

Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn

How about two other very talented wrestlers with a large fan following are Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. Both wrestlers made names for themselves in the indies and then once asked to compete in NXT, quickly became dominating forces within the WWE’s developmental brand. Fans were ecstatic when both Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn made the jump to the main roster. Kevin Owens even beat John Cena while he was still the NXT Champion. Everyone assumed we would see big things happen for Owens and Zayn on the main roster, and there have been moments, that is all they have seemed to be is moments. In any major storyliner, the two have been involved in, they have either both come up on the losing end or had nothing happen to build on any momentum they had again. In the past year, prior to taking leave for separate injuries, Owens and Zayn have played the role of wrestlers who were feeling underutilized and held back but many feel that this role is not too far from the truth for both Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. If this is true, how hard would it be for Cody and The Young Bucks to convince them to return to the other side and compete in their new rival company?

#4, #5, & #6 Xavier Woods, Big E and Kofi Kingston - The New Day

Xavier Woods, Big E and Kofi Kingston - The New Day

A group that hasn’t been underutilized by the WWE has been The New Day. Xavier Woods, Big E and Kofi Kingston have been in ongoing tag-team title championship campaigns or reigns for the majority of the past 3 - 4 years on both the RAW and Smackdown brand. As a tag-team The New Day have done pretty much everything and more. Their in and out of ring antics are have played a key role in their popularity and continue to become more and more outlandish every week. But all good things must come to an end. How long before WWE creative put a stop to the groups tomfoolery? Rumours are already starting to circulate that the WWE plan on splitting the popular group. If The New Day want to continue entertaining the fans, could jumping to a new rival company that plans on encouraging their wrestler to do their thing in the ring and not restrict them to a script set out by a writing team be the next step for The New Day? A rivalry between The New Day and The Elite, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks has already been established online, fueled by both groups meeting and competing at Street Fighter V at the E3 conference. Even at this event, Kenny Omega talked about their plans to change the wrestling world and hinted that the two groups would meet again.

#7 and #8 Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder - The Revival

Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder - The Revival

The most unlikely group to leave the WWE to join The Young Bucks in their new venture would be Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder, The Revival...or could The Revival be the most likely group to leave. The Revival dominated the NXT tag-team division before being brought up to the main roster. But like others on this list, once brought up from NXT the team quickly became underutilized and seemingly disappeared from the spotlight. Involved in some story lines, it seems like the WWE has tried to revive The Revival but everytime the duo seems to be getting close to being a dominating force in the tag-team division, they get beat by the most unlikely of opponents. Some would argue that a contributing factor to The Revivals decline was an ongoing ‘bit’ The Young Bucks did as part of their Being The Elite show and at live events that involved the audience joining The Bucks and any other members of The Elite present in yelling “F…. The Revival” This chant became so popular the WWE sent a cease and desist letter to The Young Bucks restricting them from saying those three words, among other things. When you consider all these things, the groundwork for a massive rivalry is already in place between The Young Bucks and The Revival. Their contrasting in ring styles would only add another element to this potentially explosive rivalry. Wrestling fans want to see this happen.