The Young Bucks - Matt and Nick Jackson were signed to $1.75M contacts each in January of 2019. Their characters were essentially unchanged from their NJPW personas and they were immediately placed on Smackdown. Programmed into a feud with The New Day, the Bucks were pinned at WrestleMania 35. In the 2019 Superstar Shakeup, the Bucks were sent to RAW and formed an alliance with Kenny Omega and Finn Balor.
Despite an impressive series of matches with Sheamus and Casearo, a whisper campaign of complaints against the Bucks began. Some anonymous sources on the roster complained that the Bucks had bypassed the NXT promotion that everyone else had worked through, while others were upset over the main event level salaries that the Jacksons were commanding. And some in management were having second thoughts over the long-term gimmick of the Young Bucks, and of the money being paid to the tag-team.
In June 2019 the Bucks were re-assigned to NXT. After briefly continuing to play the Young Bucks, a chance storyline meeting with Marty Jannette would lead to a new direction for Matt and Nick. After disappearing for two weeks, they re-emerged clad in spandex and neon, with teased big hair and carrying guitars. Now called "The Hair Band Rockers", they became a cult hit in the NXT promotion and even had a PPV match against The Rock n Roll Express. In January 2020 they were recalled to the main roster.
Unfortunately RAW management continued to think of the Jacksons as less than viable performers. The duo was now treated as a joke, and they were defeated in less than two minutes by The Authors of Pain in their first match back. The Hair Band Rockers then were programmed into a feud with Breezango over which duo was the "gnarliest" and "most bodacious". At WrestleMania 36, they competed in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal and were eliminated in under two minutes.
"The American Nightmare" Cody - Cody Runnels shocked the world by accepting a five year contact with WWE in November 2018. At a guaranteed $3M per year, Cody was now one of the highest paid wrestlers in the company before merchandising was factored in. Runnels shrewdly negotiated the permanent rights to the name "Rhodes" after first turning down a higher $3.75M offer.
WWE made Cody a surprise participant in the 2018 Survivor Series match between RAW and Smackdown. His interference led the Smackdown team to defeat the RAW brand when AJ Styles pinned Roman Reigns. Rhodes joined the Smackdown brand and was placed into a feud with Daniel Bryan. They would have a well-received match at WrestleMania 35 in which Rhodes won.
Cody was moved to RAW in the 2019 Superstar Shakeup for a planned feud with WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns that would play off of the interference at the 2018 Survivor Series. WWE went so far as to pay additional money to Ring of Honor to acquire footage of Rhodes running down Reigns at a ROH event. Instead the planned feud was cancelled. Roman reportedly refused to work with Cody, having taken the promo to heart.
Cody went to Vince McMahon and requested to be moved back to Smackdown, but was told that he was needed to bolster the RAW brand. He now found himself in the same situation as Jeff Jarrett in 1999 - locked out of the main event scene by the refusal of the champion to work with him. Rhodes then entered a feud with Elias that sputtered throughout the summer. He was written off TV in late July after receiving a (gimmicked, balsa wood) guitar shot to the head.
At SummerSlam 2019 Cody returned to action - as StarDust. He made quick work of Elias at the PPV and moved on to a feud with Finn Balor in the fall. At the 2020 Royal Rumble fans were treated to a StarDust vs Goldust encounter as they were at one point the only two wrestlers in the ring. At WrestleMania 36 Cody faced his brother in what would be the latter's final match.
Kenny Omega - Of the four wrestlers, Kenny Omega was hardest to pry away from NJPW. In fact some believed that Okada might have been an easier acquisition. In the end it took a mammoth, four year deal at a guaranteed $6.75M annually to lure Omega from his adopted home country. The signing was trumpeted in WWE press releases in February 2019 and there was a lot of speculation that Omega might become the centerpiece of a new WWE promotion based out of Japan.
Omega made his debut on the February 17th edition of Monday Night RAW with a formal contact signing event hosted by HHH, Stephanie McMahon, and Kurt Angle. However John Cenainterrupted the affair and challenged Omega to a match at WrestleMania 35, which was accepted.
To say the match between Cena and Omega was underwhelming may be an understatement. To say the Omega may have been unaccustomed to WWE style would be fair. To say that John Cenamay have deliberately sabotaged parts of the match could be accurate, but these would never be confirmed. The match was clunky, and after a very hot start the fans began to lose interest, and what could have been a 25 minute classic ended with multiple beach balls being tossed about, a lot of booing, and a roll-up pin by Cena over Omega.
As with the Bucks, there was a whisper campaign against Omega as wrestlers jealous of his salary complained that he had not been through NXT and as a result his match quality suffered. Cena stated in an interview that while Omega had had excellent matches in Japan, he had not done anything in his career that qualified him for a salary equivalent to himself, Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, or Brock Lesnar. There was also discussion in upper management if whether Kenny Omega was too small to be a viable main event worker.
WWE ultimately elected not to open another territory in Japan, and it was decided to send Omega to Smackdown in June 2019. It would be here that he began to experience a rebirth of sorts. He began a feud with Daniel Bryan and had an outstanding match with him at SummerSlam 2019. In the 2020 Royal Rumble he eliminated Adam Cole to win the event and elected to challenge WWE Champion AJ Styles at WrestleMania.
Despite an impressive series of matches with Sheamus and Casearo, a whisper campaign of complaints against the Bucks began. Some anonymous sources on the roster complained that the Bucks had bypassed the NXT promotion that everyone else had worked through, while others were upset over the main event level salaries that the Jacksons were commanding. And some in management were having second thoughts over the long-term gimmick of the Young Bucks, and of the money being paid to the tag-team.
In June 2019 the Bucks were re-assigned to NXT. After briefly continuing to play the Young Bucks, a chance storyline meeting with Marty Jannette would lead to a new direction for Matt and Nick. After disappearing for two weeks, they re-emerged clad in spandex and neon, with teased big hair and carrying guitars. Now called "The Hair Band Rockers", they became a cult hit in the NXT promotion and even had a PPV match against The Rock n Roll Express. In January 2020 they were recalled to the main roster.
Unfortunately RAW management continued to think of the Jacksons as less than viable performers. The duo was now treated as a joke, and they were defeated in less than two minutes by The Authors of Pain in their first match back. The Hair Band Rockers then were programmed into a feud with Breezango over which duo was the "gnarliest" and "most bodacious". At WrestleMania 36, they competed in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal and were eliminated in under two minutes.
"The American Nightmare" Cody - Cody Runnels shocked the world by accepting a five year contact with WWE in November 2018. At a guaranteed $3M per year, Cody was now one of the highest paid wrestlers in the company before merchandising was factored in. Runnels shrewdly negotiated the permanent rights to the name "Rhodes" after first turning down a higher $3.75M offer.
WWE made Cody a surprise participant in the 2018 Survivor Series match between RAW and Smackdown. His interference led the Smackdown team to defeat the RAW brand when AJ Styles pinned Roman Reigns. Rhodes joined the Smackdown brand and was placed into a feud with Daniel Bryan. They would have a well-received match at WrestleMania 35 in which Rhodes won.
Cody was moved to RAW in the 2019 Superstar Shakeup for a planned feud with WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns that would play off of the interference at the 2018 Survivor Series. WWE went so far as to pay additional money to Ring of Honor to acquire footage of Rhodes running down Reigns at a ROH event. Instead the planned feud was cancelled. Roman reportedly refused to work with Cody, having taken the promo to heart.
Cody went to Vince McMahon and requested to be moved back to Smackdown, but was told that he was needed to bolster the RAW brand. He now found himself in the same situation as Jeff Jarrett in 1999 - locked out of the main event scene by the refusal of the champion to work with him. Rhodes then entered a feud with Elias that sputtered throughout the summer. He was written off TV in late July after receiving a (gimmicked, balsa wood) guitar shot to the head.
At SummerSlam 2019 Cody returned to action - as StarDust. He made quick work of Elias at the PPV and moved on to a feud with Finn Balor in the fall. At the 2020 Royal Rumble fans were treated to a StarDust vs Goldust encounter as they were at one point the only two wrestlers in the ring. At WrestleMania 36 Cody faced his brother in what would be the latter's final match.
Kenny Omega - Of the four wrestlers, Kenny Omega was hardest to pry away from NJPW. In fact some believed that Okada might have been an easier acquisition. In the end it took a mammoth, four year deal at a guaranteed $6.75M annually to lure Omega from his adopted home country. The signing was trumpeted in WWE press releases in February 2019 and there was a lot of speculation that Omega might become the centerpiece of a new WWE promotion based out of Japan.
Omega made his debut on the February 17th edition of Monday Night RAW with a formal contact signing event hosted by HHH, Stephanie McMahon, and Kurt Angle. However John Cenainterrupted the affair and challenged Omega to a match at WrestleMania 35, which was accepted.
To say the match between Cena and Omega was underwhelming may be an understatement. To say the Omega may have been unaccustomed to WWE style would be fair. To say that John Cenamay have deliberately sabotaged parts of the match could be accurate, but these would never be confirmed. The match was clunky, and after a very hot start the fans began to lose interest, and what could have been a 25 minute classic ended with multiple beach balls being tossed about, a lot of booing, and a roll-up pin by Cena over Omega.
As with the Bucks, there was a whisper campaign against Omega as wrestlers jealous of his salary complained that he had not been through NXT and as a result his match quality suffered. Cena stated in an interview that while Omega had had excellent matches in Japan, he had not done anything in his career that qualified him for a salary equivalent to himself, Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, or Brock Lesnar. There was also discussion in upper management if whether Kenny Omega was too small to be a viable main event worker.
WWE ultimately elected not to open another territory in Japan, and it was decided to send Omega to Smackdown in June 2019. It would be here that he began to experience a rebirth of sorts. He began a feud with Daniel Bryan and had an outstanding match with him at SummerSlam 2019. In the 2020 Royal Rumble he eliminated Adam Cole to win the event and elected to challenge WWE Champion AJ Styles at WrestleMania.