The Young Bucks Believe AEW’s Current Tag Team Roster Rivals Their 2019 Division

The Young Bucks believe that AEW’s tag team division is as strong as it’s ever been, particularly with the return of Jurassic Express. Matthew and Nicholas Jackson will battle the reunited Jurassic Express at AEW WrestleDream on Saturday, and the two spoke with Jon Alba for Sports Illustrated’s The Takedown ahead of the match. They spoke about how Jurassic Express’ return as impacted the tag division and how the current division stacks up for them. You can see some highlights below:

On having ‘Day One’ stars in prominent positions on TV:

Nick: “I think it means a lot. The OGs are what built this company in the first place. So having them on PPV in big spots, I feel is rewarding not only to the wrestlers but to the fans who have invested years and years of time watching these acts. So I think it’s very important.”

Matt: “Yeah. I think it creates this warm feeling, like this feeling of being at home. It’s like, ‘Oh, these are the guys that I first watched.” Because it’s funny, we’ve only — we feel like people still go, ‘Well, there’s still a new company.’ But really, we just celebrated six years now. And so, it’s like we have enough history now, enough rich history where [the OG AEW] wrestlers feel nostalgic in a way. Which is crazy, because these six years have gone by so fast.”

On Jurassic Express’ return boosting the tag division:

Nick: Oh man, [it does] a lot. I feel like the division is probably at its strongest right now. Teams like FTR in the mix; of course you can’t leave us out, the OGs of the tag division. I was just looking at the card for the show, and a lot of tag matches are in prominent roles. So, I feel like the division is pretty strong right . And that’s crazy to think, without FTR and the Young Bucks as the champions. That’s pretty telling how deep it is right now. So, it’s going to get interesting uh even more so with those guys in the fold.”

Matt: “You know who;s really just obviously caught my eye, and the rest of the world’s eye it seems like, is a team like JetSpeed. A team like Brodido who are the current champions. They came out of nowhere. And it’s it’s been so fresh. And I think the addition of those two teams specifically have really helped spark the tag division in 2025;. And it’s really helped us out because it’s given us new teams to play with.”

Matt on the rise of the tag division:

“We joke about it like, when we first came back in April… we were thrown right out there with JetSpeed our first week back, basically. And you know, these guys are so sharp. Like a guy like Mike Bailey — God, he’s like a wrestling genius. We call him a savant in the back because he’s so smart and he’s so good. But like our first week back, we had to wrestle him.

“And it was like — working with him, it was a little bit intimidating. Because we had ring rust, we hadn’t worked in so long. So it’s like, right out of the gate, it’s like you’re thrown into the lion’s den… it’s probably the most elite tag division since the beginning when AEW first started. I would put 2019 AEW up with 2025 any day of the week.”