Top AEW Stars Deliberately Had Bad Matches
Two AEW stars actively tried to bore fans during their matches.
The Young Bucks haven’t been seen on AEW television since losing the World Tag Team Championship to Private Party in late October. In the wake of the defeat the Jackson brothers were shown fleeing the arena as the Death Riders caused chaos, and they’ve made no attempt to return.
Interestingly, it’s been reported that the Young Bucks actually wanted to lose to The Outrunners, but those plans were dropped.
Fan reaction to the Bucks’ latest run was somewhat mixed as they changed their characters and ramped up their heelish ways, while their title defences were often infrequent, to say the least.
The Young Bucks Make Strange AEW Admission
During a new interview with Tunnel Talk on Social Suplex, the Young Bucks reflected on their most recent run with the World Tag Team Titles as they leaned into their personas as EVPs.
Matt said he enjoys being uncomfortable and trying new things, even if those things don’t always work out.
Nick added, “I think part of it is [after] doing it for twenty plus years now, sometimes the normal gets boring and you just want to think outside the box.”
Matt continued, “You want to entertain yourself but, to Nick’s point, you go to a rock show and you want to hear the songs that you know. Whenever they play the new stuff, everyone is just like ‘Oh come on, the new stuff? This sucks!’ I get that, but as a performer – as a creative person – I always want to come up with something fresh.”
Matt noted that changing their characters wasn’t enough, they also needed to change their in-ring style to become more heel-like.
“Sure. Here is a good example: When we did the EVPs thing, we were like: ‘Let’s just have really boring matches. Let’s stop doing all the super athletic moves that get the big reactions,’
It is hard because one of the things in general is that most of our stuff is pretty exciting, it’s highspots. We did it.”
Nick added, “I stopped doing dives for, maybe, eight months. I didn’t do a tumble out to the floor for about eight months and that was on purpose. We literally wanted people to think ‘Are these guys not athletic anymore? Are they just boring wrestlers now?’”
Nick went on to accuse fans of “falling for the gimmick” and thinking their in-ring skills had genuinely declined.
“I see some of it. I stay off most of social media but one thing that really pissed me off was someone said ‘I thought the Young Bucks were washed’ and I was thinking: ‘Oh, come on! You guys fell for the gimmick that we were doing? We didn’t forget how to wrestle out of nowhere. Come on, don’t be dumb.’
Matt noted that they do everything they do for a reason.
“You know what, though? It worked because if we had continued to just wrestle the same style then people would be like, ‘they are just doing the same stuff.’ Then, when you switch it up and you dial it down a lot… when you bring it back, there is a huge reaction. It’s like, ‘Woah! They can still go!’ And it’s like, yes, that was all on purpose!
“Everything we do is on purpose. We put a lot of thought into every little thing. If you see us having a match where we are not leaving our feet much, we are just trying something new.
Sometimes, it doesn’t always work out. I feel like, maybe, it hurt our matches a little bit and our matches, at some point in the year, were not as exciting as people normally think our matches are.
“I remember Nick just going, ‘Matt, let’s just go freakin’ kill it like we always do. We know how to kill it, let’s just go kill it again.’ I said, ‘OK.’”
Back in October, it was announced that the Young Bucks would compete at Wrestle Dynasty inside the Tokyo Dome, marking their first match in Japan since leaving NJPW in 2019. At the event, the Jackson brothers will challenge for the vacant IWGP Tag Team Championship.