WWE Reportedly Offering To Beat Contract Offers From Other Groups, Backstage News On WWE Signings
WWE officials have made it clear to certain talents that they will beat any offer from other promotions, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
This new idea to beat offers came up after Bandido decided to sign with Ring of Honor over WWE. It's interesting to note that they did not try to beat the offer that Chris Jericho received from All Elite Wrestling. Word is that WWE has told talents that if they can show on paper an offer from another promotion, then they will beat it, and even double it on the spot, if the talent immediately signs with WWE.
With rumors of so many talents looking to leave WWE or sign with other promotions over WWE, Vince McMahon and other company officials are going very hard right now in trying to avoid the idea that people do want to leave, and the concept that talents can get more money elsewhere if they leave or that they can benefit from leaving. This is why WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar keeps getting better offers to keep him from UFC, even though WWE would allow a UFC return for The Beast, and why they have started to push some talents who had been unhappy, because there are viable options for them to leave.
The Observer points to the financial advantage that WWE has over promotions like AEW and ROH, as they are structured for major profits in the future, plus they can and will stockpile talents, even if they don't have a definite idea on how to use those talents.
On a related note, PWInsider reports that WWE officials have started to approach Superstars whose deals are expiring in the next year, trying to lock them up to longer-form deals. WWE has been locking talents in to five-year deals for some time, including The Miz and Kevin Owens, but the timing is interesting with the launch of AEW and other promotions also getting aggressive with talent signings.