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The Young Bucks On Challenges Of Having Loaded AEW Tag Team Division, When They May Retire As Active Wrestlers

December 31, 2020 | Posted by Blake Lovell
Fight For the Fallen Young Bucks Nick Jackson AEW Image Credit: AEW

In a recent interview on Sitting Ringside with David Penzer, the Young Bucks discussed the challenges of having a loaded tag team division in AEW, their future as in-ring performers, and much more. You can read their comments below.

Nick Jackson on the challenges of having such a loaded tag team division in AEW: “It’s funny you say that, but I think you’re right because it’s hard to keep every tag team involved in a storyline. It’s almost impossible. So, at some point, a great tag team will be on the sideline and not doing much. When you have such a great division like this, you’ll run into that problem more often than not, which sucks but you can’t have a whole show of just tag matches. I think what’s cool is the wrestlers get that, and the tag teams understand that. They know their role, and they’ll perform when they have to. TH2 is a good example. They hadn’t done much in the previous year, and we told them we were gonna do a run with them, and they brought it. I felt like our tag match we had with them was so good. They had been on the sidelines for a while, and I was so happy we could have them on TV and show the world what they could do.

Matt Jackson: “Every team, including us for a long time, we would come off the bench basically. It’s only a two-hour show, and sometimes that means we can only have one or two tag matches on a show. We’ve got a stacked division, so it’s tough. But we’re so blessed to have these talented group of guys. But like Nick said, we’ll call these guys and say, ‘Hey, we need you this Wednesday,’ and they’ll always show up and give you a different style of tag match that you need. That’s when you know you have a really great roster and a really great tag division. I don’t remember being a division this talented. I know people compare to an All Japan in the 90s tag division and that’s one of those things people talk about still. I would compare ours to that, or the other era was the TLC era with Edge and Christian, The Dudleyz, and The Hardyz. I feel like we’re almost at another one of these renaissances where we have this unbelievable division that people 20 years from now will look back and go, ‘Holy crap. Did we not realize what AEW was giving us every week? Look at this division they had.’ We take great pride in it.”

Nick Jackson on how long they plan to wrestle: “We talk about this quite often and when we were at 10 years ago – that was like two or three years ago. So, if we did the math and we’re still going by that, I think maybe seven more years. But who knows. It’s hard to say, you know how this business is. It’s impossible to say no to things. If I could do 7-10 more years at this rate and do the matches I’m doing now, and if I’m feeling the same way I’m feeling now, I could easily do it. I feel pretty good right now, and maybe that’s because of the limited schedule. I think that’s helped our bodies. This pandemic has healed us in being on the road less and doing less matches. Knock on wood, but I hope I can do this as long as possible.

Matt Jackson: “I remember when we were first breaking in, a couple of years in we had this self-destructive style that we still do to this day. People told us, ‘You’re never gonna last. You’re never gonna be able to do more than a couple more years.’ You fast forward and we’re almost into our 17th year in the business doing the same exact style. We clearly know what we’re doing, we know our limitations. Every risk we take is very calucated. We’ve even started to simplify things like working on a new finisher that’s grounded based where we throw two knees instead of Nick having to springboard and flip onto his butt every night doing the Meltzer Driver. We’re to the [Michael] Jordan phase of our career where we’re not just slam dunking anymore, we’re doing the fadeaway jumpers. We get it. We know our bodies, and we’re working smarter. Hopefully we can do it as long as we want, and we get to quit doing this when we want to quit doing this, not because we’re forced out of it.

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Sitting Ringside with David Penzer with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.

article topics :

AEW, The Young Bucks, Blake Lovell