Nick Jackson Hints At Larger Focus On Kenny Omega and Darby Allin in Year 2 of AEW Dynamite

In an interview with Screen Crush, The Young Bucks spoke about a successful first year for AEW Dynamite and what the possible plans will be for year two. Nick Jackson noted that Kenny Omega and Darby Allin are likely to get more focus. Here are highlights:

Nick Jackson on when Dynamite found its footing: “We’ve told this before, but man, the first episode live, we were scared to death. It was probably career-wise the most nervous I had ever been, just because we had never helped produce a live television show ever. Once we got through that, we could breathe. But man, it doesn’t end, because it’s a weekly show. I don’t feel like we got our footing right until probably January. It took quite a few episodes to get in the groove, so to speak.”

Nick on how things were impacted by the pandemic: “The pandemic has screwed up a lot of week-to-week plans, but we try to keep the long-term ideas intact as best as we can. Of course it’s changed a few things. Some of the big stories that we had planned, we’re still doing. but some week-to-week matches sometimes have to change just because of the nature of what’s going on. You’ve got to really book on your toes here, and that’s the hard part, because you just never know who’s going to be available. We take this really serious. If, for instance, someone has been exposed or was near someone that had Covid, Dr. Sampson’s not even going to allow that person to get on an airplane. So stuff like that changes things on a weekly basis.”

Matt Jackson on when AEW might start touring again: “I think it’s all up in the air just like with the rest of the world. Everyone’s just waiting on this. Will there be a vaccine? Will there be rapid testing? Nobody knows anything about anything. We’re all watching the news and we’re reading the newspaper and we’re reading online. We’re all following along, and nobody really truly knows. Anybody can guess it, but your guess is as good as ours. For me, the sooner the better, but we’ll see. We’re not going to do it until it’s safe to go.”

Nick on who will have a breakout year in year two: “I think year two’s going to be all about Kenny Omega. He’s been very … what’s the word I’m looking for … I guess “unselfish,” and he’s ready to explode. So I would keep my eye on him. Another one off the top of my head would be Darby Allin. He’s got so much potential to be such a massive star for AEW that we have to use him in the right way, and he’s definitely going to be a top player.”

Matt on Hangman Page: “You ask about the immediate future, a year. I still think it could be “Hangman” Adam Page. The guy’s a star. He’s a sensitive dude who thinks about every little nuanced thing. He’s so interesting, and he puts so much thought into his stuff, and he’s one of my favorite people to collaborate with. He’s going to be a huge mega star. Obviously he’ll be a world champion one day. I don’t know if it’s this year; maybe it is. I don’t know. He’s someone to look out for. Also, our tag division. If you thought the first year was hot, just wait until you see what we do in year two. There’s so many matches we haven’t done yet. I would love to handpick specific tag teams, but there’s just too many of them. Every one of them could be tag champs.”