The Elite (professional wrestling)
The Elite is a professional wrestling stable that predominantly appears in the American professional wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling, for which the promotion is partially named after. The stable consists of leader Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, and Jack Perry. Omega and the Jacksons also serve as the executive vice presidents of the promotion.
The Elite was originally formed in January 2016 by Omega, Nick and Matt as a trio acting as a sub-group within Bullet Club, a larger stable 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 valets 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 Heavyweight Championship, and AAA Mega Championship for Omega, while The Young Bucks won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship seven 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' 'Elite' faction left the group. Cody Rhodes, Adam Page, and Marty Scurll, all of whom had sided with Omega during the feud, also left to formally join The Elite on October 30, 2018, alongside Omega's tag partner in Golden☆Lovers, Kota Ibushi, making it a full-scale stable. 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 and Ibushi, who chose to remain in Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro-Wrestling, respectively, leaving 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.
Cody Rhodes would eventually leave the group to focus on his own Nightmare Family stable; Page would also leave following a falling out with Omega and the Bucks. In December 2020, Don Callis, an executive vice president of Impact Wrestling, came to AEW as a guest of Omega and aided him in winning the AEW World Championship. Omega then began making appearances in Impact Wrestling alongside Callis, eventually winning the Impact World Championship, and reestablished ties with past Bullet Club teammates and Impact wrestlers Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson. Omega would claim to have "reformed the old Bullet Club", and once the group merged with the trio of remaining Elite members, Callis would take credit for "reforming" The Elite, which he called a "new Elite" and later dub "The Super Elite". Following the dissolution of AEW and Impact's partnership, Callis remained with The Elite while Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson quietly left, and were replaced in the group by Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, and Kyle O'Reilly, who all left in August 2022. Throughout this time, The Elite would collectively win the AEW World Tag Team Championship three times, once by Omega with Page and a record-setting two-times by The Young Bucks. The Elite would also become the inaugural AEW World Trios Champions in September 2022. Due to a common feud with the Blackpool Combat Club, Page rejoined the stable in May 2023. In July 2023, Kota Ibushi would re-join the group at Blood and Guts. In March 2024, Omega was fired and Page was suspended by the Bucks from the group, with Kazuchika Okada also joining the group at the same time. In April 2024, Jack Perry joined the group. Okada left the group in July 2025 to join the Don Callis Family, whilst Perry would leave the group later that September. The Young Bucks would later reunite with Omega in November 2025.
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 DDT Pro-Wrestling 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 "There'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
New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Ring of Honor (2016–2019)
Formation (2016–2017)
On January 5, 2016, Omega took over the Bullet Club as its new leader, turning its members, including The Young Bucks, on previous figurehead A.J. Styles, 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.File: The ELITE.jpg|thumb|The founding members of the group, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks |left
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 Honor Rising: Japan 2016 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 mergering the Golden Lovers and Elite into a four-man team now named The Golden Elite. At a press conference aired on NJPW World, Omega clarified that going forward "Ibushi is a member of the Elite," but not Bullet Club.
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.