Several NXT Stars Turned Down Contract Extensions For Similar Reasons

They aren’t interested. The rise of AEW has done a lot of things to the wrestling industry but one of the most important is giving wrestlers another major place to go. WWE has been the only major game in town for such a long itme that it means a lot to offer a different option. It allows the wrestlers a bit of freedom, and it seems that some of them exercised that freedom in a major way.

According to Fightful Select, a number of NXT wrestlers were offered the chance to sign contract extensions in 2019 but declined. Some of the names who did not re-sign at the time were Johnny Gargano, Adam Cole and Pete Dunne. The deals were said to be for significantly less money than main roster deals, leaving the wrestlers with little incentive to re-sign. Cole has already left for AEW, though Dunne did eventually sign an extension with WWE. It is not clear whether Gargano will re-sign or not.

Those are some talented names. Check out who WWE was attempting to keep:

Johnny Gargano vs. LA Knight: WWE NXT, Aug. 31, 2021

FULL MATCH - Ricochet vs. Dunne – NXT North American Title vs. NXT UK Title: WWE NXT, Sept. 19, 2018

Adam Cole Makes his AEW In Ring Debut & the Super Kliq is Back, Bay-Bay | AEW Dynamite, 9/15/21

Opinion: These wrestlers weren’t going to be promoted to the main roster and there was nothing left for them to do in NXT. Can you blame them for not wanting to stick around under those terms? This is the kind of thing that is going to make the wrestlers feel unwanted and that is not how you keep people around. I’m not sure what Gargano is going to do, but would you blame him for wanting out?

What do you think of the offers? Will Gargano stay with WWE? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 60,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 6,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books.

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