What’s the story?
The tag team of real life brothers Matt and Nick Jackson, better known as “The Young Bucks”, made an appearance on Edge and Christian’s podcast “E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness”.
The brothers discussed the possibility of signing up with the WWE, their Ring of Honor and TNA experiences and also spoke about why it wasn’t a good time for them to be making the move to the WWE.
In case you didn’t know...
Matt and Nick Jackson (real names Matthew and Nicholas Massie) have been the standout tag team on the independent wrestling circuit for several years now. The team has made appearances all across the board for independent wrestling promotions such as Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, CHIKARA, Dragon Gate etc.
The brothers were also formerly signed on to TNA/Impact Wrestling and are currently under contract with Ring of Honor, where they are the reigning World Tag Team Champions. The Bucks had won the titles from The Hardy Boyz, right before The Hardys left ROH to re-sign with the WWE.
The Young Bucks also make appearances on New Japan Pro Wrestling and are a part of the Bullet Club stable, as well its’ sub-group “The Elite”, alongside Kenny Omega.
The heart of the matter
The Young Bucks spoke to Edge and Christian about their run with TNA, stating that one of the pivotal moments of their careers taking a turn was quitting the promotion. Nick Jackson was quoted as saying:
"One of those moments was leaving TNA, to be honest. It took guts for us to leave something that could have been even more (sic) better than what it was at that point. But we felt like we were being underutilised at that point and we weren't making money at all really. I think it took guts for us and it showed that we had confidence in ourselves to leave there and try to get popular on our own. From there, we said to ourselves, 'let's just try something different and try to have fun' and from there on out though, it seemed like it clicked."
The topic of the Young Bucks potentially signing on with the WWE has been red hot for the past few months, with even Matt Hardy campaigning to bring them to the WWE. When the topic arose on the podcast, Nick Jackson addressed it by stating:
"Right now, we can't, obviously, because we're under a contract for the next, what, 18 months or so. But I don't know. It's such a hard question to answer because right now, I'd say 'no', obviously, because I can't and we're having a blast, like, on our own, doing it the way we do it. I don't know. It's never say 'never', I guess. You can't really say 'no' to that because that is the place everyone has wanted to wrestle, so I can't say 'no', but, as of now, we're happy with what we're doing."
Also read: 5 of the best non-WWE tag teams today
Matt Jackson subsequently added that the time wasn’t right for them to sign with the WWE because of a risk of getting lost in the shuffle of all the new talents that were being signed by the company. He was quoted as saying:
"Even if we were available right now, now is not the time to go for us because everybody in the world is going there and so for the first time I can even remember, it doesn't seem cool to go there right now. I think for us, if we did sign right now, we'd probably be lost in the shuffle."
Matt Jackson further went on to add that The Young Bucks were enjoying the creative control over their characters and their storylines and that it was difficult to walk away from that, considering that the WWE likes to exercise complete creative control over anything that their talent does.
Matt also stated that if they didn’t sign up with the WWE after their current contract with Ring of Honor was up, then they would probably “never” go to the promotion at all. He remains optimistic, however, and was quoted as saying:
"But in 18 months, two years, or whatever our contract is, it'll be interesting because I'm sure we're going to at least want to talk to every company and to make a great decision for our families and for ourselves. And I think if it doesn't happen in 18 months, then, it probably won't happen."
What’s next?
The Young Bucks have been widely praised as being the best tag team in the world right now, with even CM Punk, who usually doesn’t talk about professional wrestling related subjects on social media, praising their talent on Twitter.
As Ring of Honor World Tag Team Champions, they are the biggest stars on the promotion and will undoubtedly be at the centre of ROH programming for the remaining duration of their contract. They’ve also gathered a large fanbase for themselves in Japan, as part of the Bullet Club stable.
It remains to be seen whether The Bucks can remain as relevant and hot as they are today by the time their ROH contract comes to an end.
The WWE, on the other hand, despite having made efforts to sign The Bucks earlier this year, are currently having no shortage of tag team action, but if their previous interest is anything to go by, they’ll most definitely be raring to get the brothers to sign the dotted line as soon as possible.
Author’s take
It is refreshing to see non-WWE talents gain so much popularity on the independent circuit, purely due to the sheer amount of talent that they possess.
Ever since the demise of WCW, it has been extremely difficult for professional wrestlers not signed on to WWE to make a living and to provide for themselves adequately, the Bucks have proven that the WWE isn’t the end-all be-all of all things pro wrestling with their success story, however.
Here’s hoping for a lot of good things from the brothers in the coming years, at Ring of Honor, NJPW, or wherever else their careers might take them!
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