Backstage News On Several Top WWE Talent With Contracts Expiring In 2024

Even after Kenny Omega, "Hangman" Adam Page, and the Young Bucks took their names off the board by re-signing with AEW earlier this year, 2024 is still poised to see several names potentially hit the free agency market. Among the most notable are AEW World Champion MJF, who is (supposedly) set to begin "the bidding war of 2024" in January, New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Will Ospreay, whose deal will expire in February, and WWE's Drew McIntyre, whose deal will expire in April. And now it seems there are even more names in WWE set to hit the market — perhaps with some uncertainty.

Fightful Select reports that numerous talents within WWE, including what was described as "several top stars," will have their contracts expire in 2024, and as of this writing, haven't been approached about extensions. The talent with their deals expiring are said to be wrestlers that WWE locked up to long-term extensions in 2019 when AEW was formed, as well as talent with short-term deals, and the expirations are expected to come throughout 2024 rather than on a single date.

It's currently unclear why the talent in question haven't been approached for extensions, though the recent merger between WWE and Endeavor to form TKO Group Holdings is believed to be related. Talents with deals up had been waiting for after the merger to see if contract talks would begin, and what they would entail, but thus far, negotiations have only begun for wrestlers who have directly asked for raises. As such, talent continues to speculate over what the merger will ultimately mean for their own negotiations, and whether they'll be offered more, less, or exactly the same amount of money now that WWE is under the TKO umbrella.