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Ever since All Elite Wrestling became a reality, it started to put a lot of pressure on some of the bigger companies in the world.
New Japan and Ring of Honor lost a decent chunk of both of their rosters with the departures of the Elite.
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Relationships between companies were also discussed as NJPW chose to still work with ROH rather than with AEW.
And since now AEW and AAA will now collaborate, how might that affect wrestlers affiliated with AAA but who have deals with other US companies like MLW or Lucha Underground?
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In terms of WWE, they have switched up their business tactics as it is known that AEW has serious backers behind the league.
With the potential for bigger paychecks existing elsewhere, WWE is trying to offer more money to talents in order to keep them from leaving.
Some huge names may be with WWE until the end of the year while some superstars have contracts that expire before 2019 does (Gallows and Anderson in September 2019). Fightful.com has a pretty extensive list of current contract statuses here.
A few WWE superstars have contracts ending within the next few months, including AJ Styles, the Usos, Shinsuke Nakamura and Dean Ambrose.
While every loss of talent won't necessarily hurt WWE, there are a lot of big names with expiring deals that would hurt WWE.
Whether they desire to leave for more money, more opportunities or more creative control, the departures of the following 10 WWE superstars would certainly hurt WWE and help any rival promotion.
#1 The Revival
Getting released is the only way that the Revival would be able to join a different promotion in 2019. Their contracts expire in April of 2020, so unless WWE changes its mind, they aren't going anywhere.
WWE promised a renewed push for the tag team division but simply having a few different teams don't add up to a push.
If the Revival gets pushed for a month or two only for things to fall back to the previous status quo, then don't be surprised to see more teams or Superstars speak out as being disgruntled.
WWE must still see some value in the Revival as if they did not, they would have just outright released them like Hideo Itami.
The Top Guys and the Young Bucks have wanted to face each other for years, so having a throwback tag team under your banner only to book them sloppily might come back to haunt the WWE once the Revival's deals run out.
#2 Bray Wyatt
Bray Wyatt hasn't been on TV since last summer. His tag team partner, Matt Hardy, was injured and the team dropped the Raw Tag Team titles.
Ever since then, Wyatt has been nowhere to be found on WWE programming save for a match with Baron Corbin at Starrcade.
Is Wyatt dealing with a more serious issue that we aren't aware of? Is he in the doghouse with WWE for something?
If there was a Superstar who had a gripe with his WWE status, it would have to be Wyatt. He's been booked to fail in almost every important feud (John Cena, Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, the Undertaker) and he's done everything asked of him.
Had he won even half of those feuds, he'd have some credibility left. His character work is fantastic but we can't take him seriously if he's never booked to prevail.
Wyatt's only issue has been terrible booking, so if he went to another promotion like AEW, he could be a serious threat if booked as one.
#3 Sasha Banks
She is one of the Four Horsewomen of NXT so Banks isn't always booked to lose every feud she's in like Wyatt.
Banks has also been a part of a lot of the 'firsts' for women in WWE concerning matches. She was in the first Elimination Chamber match, Royal Rumble and Hell in a Cell match.
But ever since her hot potatoing of the Raw Women's Title with Charlotte Flair, she hasn't sniffed gold until facing Ronda Rousey at the Royal Rumble.
Bayley and Banks might be the favorites to win the first-ever Women's Tag Team titles, but will that be enough to keep her happy?
She seems to be the happiest when she's a champion, but you cannot always be the champion. If anyone has more of a gripe then her, it would be Bayley. She's been traditionally booked a little worse than Banks.
Sasha Banks would be a main-event Superstar for any promotion she joined if she decided to leave the WWE.
While AEW might boast a lot of great women's wrestlers, a lot of them don't have the main-event clout or WWE career to back them up as Banks does.
#4 Randy Orton
Orton is on the back end of his career and he has contractual freedom that every other WWE Superstar doesn't have.
He gets to work fewer dates than most of the other full-time Superstars and still makes a ton of money.
Perhaps he is just considering all of his options even though he's a WWE creation through and through.
He didn't come from the indie scene like Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, Kevin Owens or Samoa Joe. He's also likely playing both companies against each other for more money.
If Orton decided to take AEW up on a potential offer, it would strike a huge blow to the WWE family. He's been with the company for his entire career and has lineage in the company.
A defection to a potentially huge competitor for WWE would harken back to the WWF-WCW days when Hall and Nash left WWF for WCW.
Orton has the type of name recognition in the industry that would place him atop the card in any promotion he was a part of.
He isn't a free agent until 2020 so hopefully, for WWE's sake they can resign him or offer him even more perks.
#5 Dean Ambrose
After last week's episode of Raw, reports came out that Dean Ambrose would not renew his contract and that he would leave WWE once his current deal expires in April.
He was disappointed with the lack of creative control he had with his character and seemed like he had enough of it.
Should Ambrose indeed leave at the end of April 2019, he could be one of the first chips to switch promotions.
While he likely wouldn't be able to be on TV and perhaps at Double or Nothing due to WWE's standard 90-day no-compete clause, he would certainly be able to make an impact over the summer.
He would be a main-event caliber talent that could instantly challenge for any promotion's major title.
Since Cody has worked with Ambrose before, he might give him more character input in AEW than he has had in WWE.
A truly unpredictable, unhinged Jon Moxley would certainly seem less like a PG version of the character and more so an amped-up version of the persona that got him signed by WWE in the first place.
#6 AJ Styles
While people keep saying that Styles is 'friends the members of the Elite', that really only extends to the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega.
His time with NJPW and ROH did not cross with Cody, and Hangman Page became a member of the group after AJ Styles had already left for WWE.
With that being said, his current deal with WWE ends at the end of April 2019. He has been in negotiations with WWE but nothing concrete has come about.
That isn't to say he won't strike a new deal soon. He wants one similar to Orton's deal, with a little more time off in between tours.
He has a family and whichever company offers him a better chance with time off will likely have Styles wrestling for them in the second half of 2019.
But whatever AJ Styles decides to do, if it indeed does involve continuing to wrestle, it will help whichever company he joins.
If he stays with WWE, he could easily move to Raw and feud with a plethora of people there. Or he could stay on SmackDown and feud with any new faces that might show up after WrestleMania 35.
Should he choose to try his luck in AEW, it wouldn't be hard to see him as a top star. He has a history with Chris Jericho and Omega, so Styles would certainly shift the landscape of the business a bit if he opted to go with AEW.
#7 Finn Balor
Like Styles, Balor doesn't really have a huge relationship with the members of the Elite. His main allegiances would be with the Guerillas of Destiny and Bad Luck Fale as well as the Good Brothers.
If that's one of the main reasons why people think he'd be tempted to go to AEW, then they might need to rethink things.
He could opt to try things out in AEW because even though he was the inaugural Universal Champion, he hasn't been booked nearly as well as that time.
Balor was treated as a big deal as he debuted on the main roster but he must have soured in Vince McMahon's eyes since he got hurt right away and is a smaller guy.
If he or Styles left, then maybe they could have the whole Bullet Club vs. Elite war if the Good Brothers also quit WWE as well.
Balor would likely be booked much better in other promotions due to his in-ring ability and not because of his size.
Him leaving would be harder on Triple H who was very close with Balor during his time in NXT.
Balor was the face of the brand for over two years, so since things have been different on the main roster, maybe his mind is thinking of going elsewhere when his deal is up.
#8 The Usos
It seems that any time a Superstar's contract is set to expire, WWE will fear that they might think of leaving.
Having a new company around with extremely deep pockets would be enticing to any wrestler.
And since AEW has said that they will feature tag team wrestling, perhaps a team like the Usos would consider leaving WWE.
If they did leave WWE, it would strike a blow to an already depleted roster of tag teams. SmackDown has been dominated by the Usos, the Bar and the New Day, so to take one of those teams off the roster would certainly hurt WWE's chances of improving the division.
One reason that might entice the Usos to leave is that despite being one of the top teams in WWE, they have only been on the main show of WrestleMania once (last year).
Having a slightly smaller roster in AEW will likely allow more wrestlers to be showcased. Even though there are two sets of tag titles in WWE, if you aren't the champs or challenging for the titles at 'Mania, you might get left off the show or dumped in the battle royal.
All that matters is that if the Usos want something new, they might not re-sign with WWE. They have the potential to be a top team in AEW and to battle with several talented wrestlers, they haven't faced before.
But will their link to the Rock and Roman Reigns keep them loyal to WWE? The jury's out but the Usos did come up through the WWE system.
#9 Rusev
Rusev is another Superstar who is greatly talented but who hasn't been booked nearly as he should be.
He's won a US Title here or there, but it appears that he just isn't someone creative values high enough anymore to consistently book him as a title holder or contender.
The latest example of that is how he is now being booked in a tag team with Shinsuke Nakamura. Didn't Nakamura just mock his wife's injury and wasn't Rusev just in another slightly successful team (albeit with no titles) in Rusev Day?
The Bulgarian Brute has even recently stated that he's frustrated that no matter what he says or does to catch Mr. McMahon's eye, it doesn't change things.
That type of frustration and in a public matter is a big sign of wanting out of the current situation. He's been displeased before so this might be close to the last straw.
Rusev may be a WWE creation, but his talent isn't strictly something created by WWE. In backstage segments and interviews, he shows enough personality that would get him over anywhere.
Although he's still under contract for a while, he might have to continue to eat crow until it expires. That or go the Neville route.
Whatever he decides to do, it wouldn't be much of a surprise if he left WWE once his contract expires.
#10 Shinsuke Nakamura
If he was unhappy in WWE, you wouldn't know it. He doesn't spout off much on social media or in interviews but he shows up for work when they ask him to.
Nakamura has a contract that expires at the end of April, and companies like WWE, AEW and NJPW will certainly be looking to sign him.
WWE might be confident that he'll stay, otherwise, they wouldn't have taken the US Championship off him so soon after regaining it.
If that turned him off, however, it wouldn't be hard to envision him either going back to NJPW as they would likely take him back no questions asked.
All Elite Wrestling would be an interesting option because of the uncertainty behind just what we can expect to see.
We've seen talent and heard comments from a lot of people, but until the product is something tangible, it will be hard to see how things will turn out.
Nakamura seems like a laid back guy, so as long as he can surf wherever he's wrestling, I think he'll be happy.
WWE would be losing a huge international presence if they failed to resign him, so maybe they are underestimating just how good things are for everyone in their company.
