The Elite (professional wrestling)


The Elite is a professional wrestling stable currently working for the All Elite Wrestling promotion. Since January 2019, the line-up consists of Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, Cody, and "Hangman" Adam Page. The members, especially Omega and The Young Bucks, formerly worked for a large number of other promotions around the world, most prominently New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Ring of Honor.
The Elite was formed in January 2016 as a trio consisting Omega and The Young Bucks, acting as a sub-group within Bullet Club, a larger faction of which Omega was the leader. Together, the trio captured the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship twice later that year, but continued their alliance beyond that point, with The Young Bucks notably acting as managers for Omega in his singles career. Other titles won by members as part of the stable include the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, IWGP Intercontinental Championship, IWGP United States Championship, and AAA Mega Championship for Omega, while The Young Bucks won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship four times, the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship once, the ROH World Tag Team Championship three times, and the AAA World Tag Team Championship one time.
In October 2018, after a lengthy internal feud within Bullet Club, Omega and The Young Bucks left Bullet Club; Cody, Page, and Marty Scurll, all of whom had sided with Omega during the storyline, also left to join The Elite in October 30, 2018, making it a full-scale faction. During the following three months, the members of The Elite would leave most of their other promotions to work almost exclusively with AEW, minus Scurll, who chose to remain in ROH instead and left the stable; the five, who were instrumental in the creation of the company and hold positions as executive vice presidents, would play a pivotal role in AEW, both on-screen and off-screen.

Background

Prior to the 2016 formation of The Elite, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks had known each other for years. They originally met in Japan in 2008, when Omega was on his first tour with the Dramatic Dream Team promotion and The Young Bucks were on their first tour with the Dragon Gate promotion. They became close friends after later meetings in other promotions, including California promotion Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. Omega has stated that the three had always thought that they shared the same brain, having the same thoughts about what a wrestling match should be. Matt Jackson has described the creative chemistry between the three as unlike anything they have experienced before, adding "here's magic there".
Omega, who has called The Young Bucks his best friends and closest allies in professional wrestling, has stated that the three have "an open line of communication sending messages all day". The Elite was created as a result of one of these "think-tank sessions", during which the three came up with the idea of filming their moments away from the ring and sharing them with their fans. These moments, some only loosely tied to professional wrestling, were used to create Being The Elite, a show produced by The Young Bucks and released on both Twitter and YouTube.
In 2016, the three were affiliated with each other in NJPW as members of Bullet Club, but in Omega's words they felt that the stable had been watered down and wanted to create something new. Omega claimed that whenever people were saying that Bullet Club had been doing "some really cool stuff", they were in fact always talking about the three of them and not the other members of the stable. Wanting to be together both in the ring and outside of it, the three decided to go full-bore as The Elite. They had come up with the name The Elite as a joke years earlier, when trying to come up with a list of the most elite wrestlers in the world. Omega stated that he and The Young Bucks wanted to push themselves as The Elite, but accepted if NJPW continued calling them Bullet Club "in parentheses" as the stable was their "cash cow" and a "pop-culture phenomenon". Omega has described The Elite as "a place you can go to watch the most ridiculous and entertaining stuff in pro wrestling".

History

Formation (2016–2017)

On January 5, 2016, Omega took over the leadership of Bullet Club, turning its members, including The Young Bucks, on previous leader A.J. Styles and kicking him out of the group. According to The Young Bucks, they and Omega created The Elite that night without ever asking permission from NJPW bookers. After the rest of Bullet Club had left the ring after turning on Styles, Omega allegedly asked The Young Bucks if just the three of them should return to the ring to continue the attack on Styles as a "signal to the audience that the three guys". The three agreed to return to the ring and The Elite was born.
During the first months of The Elite's existence, The Young Bucks, who were the reigning IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions when the group was formed, both lost and regained the title while Omega did the same with the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. The Elite won its first title as a trio during the NJPW and Ring of Honor co-produced show on February 20, when they defeated The Briscoes and Toru Yano for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. They went on to defend the title in the United States for ROH. The Elite lost the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship to Hiroshi Tanahashi, Michael Elgin and Yoshitatsu on April 10 at Invasion Attack 2016, only to regain it from them on May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2016. Their second reign ended on July 3, when they were defeated by Matt Sydal, Ricochet and Satoshi Kojima.
On August 14, Omega made history by becoming the first non-Japanese wrestler to win NJPW's premier tournament, the G1 Climax, defeating Hirooki Goto in the finals. For the rest of the year, The Elite was largely inactive, with Omega defending his newly-won status as the number one contender to the IWGP Heavyweight Championship while The Young Bucks concentrated on tag team matches, winning the ROH World Tag Team Championship in September. On January 4, 2017, The Elite was involved in two championship matches at NJPW's biggest event of the year, Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome. Early in the show, The Young Bucks lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship to Roppongi Vice while in the main event of the show Omega unsuccessfully challenged Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. The main event match earned acclaim from journalists and industry veterans with some ranking it among the greatest professional wrestling matches ever.

Tension in The Elite and The Golden Elite (2017–2018)

After months of inactivity as a trio, The Elite reunited in April 2017 by embarking on a tour of the United Kingdom, during which they wrestled for Discovery Wrestling, Fight Club: Pro, Over the Top Wrestling and Revolution Pro Wrestling. Meanwhile, a storyline had started involving tension between Omega and Bullet Club stablemate Adam Cole, who had formed his own trio named Superkliq with The Young Bucks, who were now caught in the middle of Omega and Cole. The storyline culminated on May 12, when after teasing dissension with Omega they turned on Cole, who was fired from Bullet Club by Omega. On June 11 at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall, The Young Bucks regained the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship from Roppongi Vice. Over the weekend of July 1 and 2 at G1 Special in USA, Omega defeated Michael Elgin, Jay Lethal and finally Tomohiro Ishii to win an eight-man tournament and become the inaugural IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion. On August 13, The Young Bucks lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to Funky Future. Later that same day, Omega was defeated in the finals of the 2017 G1 Climax by Tetsuya Naito. On September 2, The Elite returned to the United States, making their debut for The Young Bucks' Southern California home promotion Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and defeating Flamita, Penta 0M and Rey Fenix in a six-man tag team main event.
Upon Omega's return to ROH in October 2017, The Elite started defending the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship, which The Young Bucks officially held with Bullet Club stablemate Adam Page.
In January 2018 at The New Beginning in Sapporo, Omega was betrayed by Bullet Club stablemate Cody after shoving Matt Jackson and subsequently reunited with his former Golden Lovers partner Kota Ibushi, leaving the future of The Elite in jeopardy.
On March 28 at Strong Style Evolved, The Young Bucks faced off against the Golden Lovers in a losing effort. After the match, Nick Jackson shook hands and embraced with Omega, but Matt Jackson refused and rolled out of the ring.
During Omega and Cody's bout at Ring of Honor's Supercard of Honor XII on April 7, The Young Bucks interfered and attempted to turn on Cody, but instead accidentally superkicked Omega, causing Cody to get the pinfall victory. After the match, The Young Bucks attempted to explain what had happened to Omega, but he shoved Matt Jackson and left.
On the 100th episode of Being The Elite, "Finale", Omega declared their friendship over and that "There is no Elite" in anger over the Young Bucks' involvement in his match, apparently ending the stable for the time being while Scurll left to pursue a music career and The Young Bucks, Page and Burnard the Business Bear walked out on Cody's invitation to celebrate his win over Omega, leaving him alone in the locker room to ponder what he's done and what it cost.
On June 9 at NJPW's Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall, The Young Bucks won the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship and in the main event Omega won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. After the match, The Young Bucks came out, congratulated and hugged it out with Omega and Ibushi, thus reuniting The Elite as a four-man team now named The Golden Elite.
On July 7, 2018 at G1 Special in San Francisco, Cody ended his rivalry with Omega after being attacked by the BC Firing Squad after he unsuccessfully challenged him for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

New members and All Elite Wrestling (2018–present)

On the Talk is Jericho podcast on October 30 held at Chris Jericho's Rock 'N' Wrestling Rager at Sea, Matt Jackson confirmed that Cody, Page, and Marty Scurll are now officially in The Elite. In addition, The Elite have left Bullet Club, ending a civil war between the Bullet Club OGs and The Elite.
On November 8, 2018, New Japan Pro-Wrestling announced Page and former Bullet Club stablemate Yujiro Takahashi would represent The Elite at the 2018 World Tag League Tournament.
On December 15, 2018, The Elite, minus Scurll who remains under contract, officially left ROH, following the Final Battle pay-per-view. They gave a post show speech to the crowd along with Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky. Scurll went on to form a new faction in Ring of Honor, Villain Enterprises, with the debuting PCO, and Brody King, later adding Flip Gordon.
On January 1, 2019, The Elite announced the formation of a new wrestling promotion, All Elite Wrestling, as well as a follow-up to All In, called Double or Nothing. Their promotion was revealed to include Cody, The Young Bucks, Hangman Page, Pac, SoCal Uncensored, Joey Janela, Britt Baker, Penelope Ford, Brandi Rhodes, and Chris Jericho, among others. The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega had their first match in AEW as The Elite at AEW Fyter Fest defeating Lucha Brothers and Laredo Kid.
In 2019, The Elite began a feud with Chris Jericho and later his Inner Circle stable, with Omega and Page losing to Jericho at AEW Double or Nothing and AEW All Out respectively.
At AEW Full Gear, Cody unsuccessfully challenged Jericho for the AEW World Championship with the condition that he will never challenge for title again while The Young Bucks lost to Santana and Ortiz. On the January 22, 2020 episode of AEW Dynamite during Chris Jericho's Rock 'N' Wrestling Rager at Sea, Omega and Page defeated SoCal Uncensored for the AEW World Tag Team Championship.
On the November 18 episode of Being the Elite, Hangman Page attempted to part ways with the group, leading to months of tension between himself, the Young Bucks, and his tag partner Omega. Following the March 4, 2020 episode of Dynamite, Hangman Page formally parted ways with The Elite.
In a May 2020 interview, Cody Rhodes discussed the status of the Elite's members, stating that the 'OG' Elite will always determine who joins the group, and that it's "their world" that he's honored to take part in. He also clarified that Hangman Page and Marty Scurll were part of the "expanded universe" of the group, and that Matt Hardy also was an honorary member.

''Being The Elite''

Being The Elite debuted on YouTube in May 2016 and has since aired on average once or twice a week. The show is shot and edited entirely on an iPhone with the members of The Elite holding complete creative control over the content. Originally intended as a promotional vehicle and a video journal of The Young Bucks & Kenny Omega's life on the road, it has since evolved into a hybrid that also includes skits and storyline developments involving both The Elite and Bullet Club. In early 2017, Being The Elite provided the background for an angle that culminated at War of the Worlds in May with The Elite turning on Adam Cole and kicking him out of Bullet Club. While ROH had previously shown that there was tension between Cole and The Young Bucks, Being The Elite went deeper into the background for the angle with a storyline that involved tension between Cole and Omega and their fight for The Young Bucks' loyalty while also introducing Scurll, who would go on to become Cole's replacement in Bullet Club.
On January 1, 2019, an episode of Being The Elite was used to announce the formation of a new wrestling promotion, All Elite Wrestling, as well as a follow-up to All In, called Double or Nothing. Since the formation of AEW, the show has also advanced AEW storylines, debuted new signees, and promoted upcoming AEW shows.

Members

Current

Former

Associates

Former associates

Sub-groups

Current

Former

Championships and accomplishments