AEW’s Offer to Powerhouse Hobbs Revealed

Powerhouse Hobbs may have debuted in WWE as Royce Keys at the 2026 Royal Rumble, but AEW didn’t let him go without putting serious money on the table.

According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio and in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, AEW’s offer to keep Hobbs was one of the most aggressive financial moves the company has made in years. The deal would’ve locked Hobbs in for five years and paid him more than nearly every founding member of AEW’s 2019 roster—except Chris Jericho.

“The offer was a very good offer. — It was not a top 10 offer in the company or anything like that, but a good offer,” Meltzer said. “I don’t really know much more, I don’t know what the WWE offer was.”

Even without the WWE numbers, the AEW deal was clearly major.

“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.”

That means AEW was treating Hobbs like a serious investment—not just another midcarder. Meltzer even compared the proposed deal to the one AEW gave Bryan Danielson when he jumped from WWE.

“It would be in line with what Bryan Danielson got to jump from WWE to AEW, maybe slightly less but in line,” Meltzer added.

But that wasn’t the only WWE comparison being made. The AEW deal was worth more than what Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn were making four years ago in WWE, and even hovered near the earnings of stars like Seth Rollins during that period.

“It would be more than guys the level Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn were making four years ago (less than they are making now) and in the range of what a guy 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.”

Even with all that cash on the table, Hobbs still walked. WWE had long expected to land him, and when the opportunity opened, he didn’t hesitate. Now operating under the name Royce Keys—a name inspired by his son Royce—Hobbs is officially part of the WWE machine.