AEW Reportedly Made a Significant Offer to Powerhouse Hobbs to Retain Him

Former AEW TNT Champion Powerhouse Hobbs ended his five-year stint with All Elite Wrestling earlier this month following the expiration of his deal. Hobbs opted against signing a new deal and is believed to have signed a contract with WWE. Though the company has yet to officially announce his acquisition.

In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer stated that AEW made Hobbs a ‘much higher offer’ than expected to retain his services.

Meltzer added that the number offered was higher than what anyone, barring Chris Jericho, earned in the first year of AEW. He also drew parallels to the offer that Bryan Danielson received for leaving WWE and joining AEW.

“He got a great AEW offer to stay, but I don’t know his WWE offer. The AEW offer was much higher than I would have expected. It would have been a number that I believe would have been higher than anyone, but Chris Jericho earned in AEW’s first year in 2019,” Meltzer said.

He continued to compare the offer made by AEW to Hobbs to what several WWE Superstars were earning a few years ago.

“It would be in line with what Bryan Danielson got to jump from WWE to AEW, maybe slightly less but in line. It would be more than guys at the level of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn were making four years ago (less than they are making now) and in the range of what a guy at the level of Rollins were making around the same time and nearly triple of what many significantly high WWE stars were making in the first year or so of AEW after the first round of increases had taken place.”

“If WWE did offer him similar money, in theory it would guarantee a decent push.”

WWE recently filed a trademark for the term “Royce Keys,” and this is expected to be Hobbs’ name in the company. Hobbs’ last match in the Tony Khan-led company took place at Collision: Maximum Carnage, where he, Samoa Joe, and Katsuyori Shibata lost the World Trios Title to Hangman Page and JetSpeed.