Wrestling fans on the west coast have pleaded for their first live AEW event, and those wishes are about to come true.

Following AEW Double or Nothing at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on May 29th, the company will travel to The Forum in Inglewood, CA for AEW Dynamite on June 1st, the company’s first show in California. They will follow that up with a live edition of AEW Rampage in Ontario, California on Friday, June 3rd at the Toyota Arena (the capacity will be around 8,000 fans). Inglewood is suburban L.A., and Ontario is just east of Los Angeles and six miles from the town that the Young Bucks grew up in, Rancho Cucamonga.

AEW previously had plans to run the Toyota Arena in Ontario back in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and shut down touring.

The news of the Ontario, California show was first revealed on Wednesday morning by The Young Bucks during Being The Elite (you can watch the video above). Tickets go on sale for AEW Rampage in Ontario on Friday, March 11th.

AEW followed that up by officially announcing the show as well via social media.

Later on Monday, the Los Angeles area (Inglewood) Dynamite event was revealed via AEW’s social media channels. Tickets for that show at The Forum also go on sale March 11th.

Check out the Top Rope Nation wrestling podcast for your weekly dose of pro wrestling talk featuring interviews, analysis and exclusive news: Apple – Spotify – YouTube.

Kyle O’Reilly has joined the AEW roster and drama has already reared its ugly head.

On the Holiday Bash episode of AEW Dynamite, Adam Cole went one-on-one with Orange Cassidy. Cole got a major assist from the debuting Kyle O’Reilly, which allowed Cole to hit The Boom for the three-count.

After the match, The Young Bucks made their way down the ramp and they did not look too pleased. Cole promised a surprise for his fellow Elite members but this isn’t what The Bucks were hoping for.

Bobby Fish was also at ringside and he posed with O’Reilly. Cole looked conflicted as he noticed that The Young Bucks were not happy with what had transpired.

Cole, O’Reilly, and Fish were all members of the Undisputed Era on NXT. The group eventually added Roderick Strong to the group.

O’Reilly had been with WWE under the NXT brand since 2017. Once his contract came to an end, O’Reilly decided to leave the company. Many expected the move given that NXT has changed direction.

Matt & Nick Jackson the Young Bucks have topped the PWI Top-50 Tag Team rankings this year. The evaluation period for this award was October 2020 to September 30th, 2021. The Young Bucks were the AEW Tag Team Champions during much of this period.

PWI Tag Team Rankings 2021 Top-5

1. The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson)
2. Lucha Bros (Rey Fenix & Penta El Zero M)
3. Dangerous Tekkers (Zack Sabre Jr & Taichi)
4. The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso)
5. ALK (Giulia & Syuri)

PWI Tag Team Rankings 2020 Top-5

1. FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler)
2. Kenny Omega & Adam Page
3. Golden Role Models (Bayley & Sasha Banks)
4. The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander)
5. Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins)

PWI Tag Team Rankings 2019 Top-5

1. FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler)
2. Kenny Omega & “Hangman” Adam Page
3. Golden Role Models (Bayley & Sasha Banks)
4. The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander)
5. Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins)

Before 2019, PWI gave out an award for the top team and announced 3 runners-up. The Young Bucks won the award in both 2018 and 2017. The New Day won the award in 2015 and 2016 and the Usos won it in 2014. The Shield won the award in 2013, Kofi Kingston and R-Truth in 2012, and Beer Money in 2011.

Cody Rhodes insists he’s still in communication with the core members of AEW.

Rhodes is one of the key figures that started a movement that would eventually lead to AEW. The others were Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks. Their efforts ultimately led to Tony Khan gaining the confidence to start a new wrestling promotion.

While everything seemed to be smooth sailing between the four, it had been rumored that Omega and Young Bucks have distanced themselves from Cody. It’s even been speculated that Cody doesn’t talk to his fellow EVPs anymore.

Cody Rhodes’ Relationship With AEW EVPs

During an interview with Sports Illustrated, Cody Rhodes claimed that he’s still in contact with Omega and The Young Bucks.

“As of now, my future is with AEW. AEW would be very strange without the core members of the revolution. We all still talk. We all have this admiration for each other. I can’t see myself anywhere else, and I’m very optimistic about what the future holds.”

Rhodes went on to discuss how far AEW has come in a short period of time.

“We’re essentially at the three-year point of AEW, and our stability is the tell-tale sign that our vision was the proper vision. We have such a stable company that Bryan Danielson decided to cross that line, that CM Punk decided to join after seven years away, that Adam Cole—who was being groomed to be a massive star in WWE—decided to cross the line. And that’s not a knock on them, it just shows that we have built a very stable infrastructure.”

Cody has been involved in a storyline with PAC, Malakai Black, and Andrade El Idolo. On the Dec. 1 episode of AEW Dynamite, Cody will be taking on Andrade in a street fight.

The last time Cody was in the ring with Andrade El Idolo, he ended up getting pinned thanks to interference from FTR.

There are some reported details on what led to the AEW signing of Bobby Fish.

Fish made his debut for AEW on the Oct. 1 edition of Rampage. He challenged Sammy Guevera for the TNT Championship. Fish lost the match, and many assumed that this would be a one-off.

As it turns out, Bobby Fish is indeed All Elite. Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio reports that The Young Bucks can be credited with bringing Fish on board. The tag team and EVPs of AEW were said to be very high on Fish.

Fish has already been teasing meeting Guevera again down the line. In the meantime, it’ll be interesting to see who Fish mixes it up against. Fish is once again under the same roof as his ex-Undisputed Era partner Adam Cole. Whether or not the two will eventually become chummy on AEW TV remains to be seen.

Fish had competed on WWE’s NXT brand since 2017. Along the way, he captured the NXT Tag Team Championships twice. Before Cole left WWE, many felt Fish would be the odd man out after the Undisputed Era disbanded. This was proven to be correct as WWE released Fish along with a slew of other NXT talent.

AEW Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks made their latest title defense against the Lucha Bros at the AEW All Out pay-per-view event in Chicago, IL at the NOW Arena. 

The steel cage match saw a chaotic pace. Various spots into the fence were done. Nick hit a cutter to Fenix then Matt hit a stunner off the top rope to Penta. Moments later, Fenix hit a double cutter to Matt. Moments later, Matt put on a shoe that had thumbtacks on the bottom of it so he could superkick Penta. Fenix with a crossbody off the top of the cage. Luchas hit a tag team move for the win. 

This was a rematch from All Out 2019 where Penta and Fenix won by beating the Young Bucks in an Escalera De La Muerte ladder match for the AAA Tag Team Titles.

The Lucha Bros won the AEW World Tag title eliminator tournament on the August 27th edition of Rampage by beating Jurassic Express. Before that, Penta and Fenix beat Private Party in the opening round to advance to the finals. 

The Young Bucks previously defended the titles on pay-per-view against Chris Jericho and MJF at the AEW Revolution event this past March and Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston at Double or Nothing. 

Last November, the Bucks won the tag team titles from FTR at the AEW Full Gear pay-per-view event last November. 

Time will tell whether AEW continues this feud or goes in a different direction heading into Wednesday’s Dynamite.

CM Punk is adding fuel to the fire.

Bryan Danielson reportedly signed a deal with AEW. Bodyslam.net was the first to report the news and claimed the initial plan was to have him debut on the Sept. 22 Dynamite show in New York City. He has since updated the report, claiming Bryan’s debut has now been bumped up to the All Out PPV on Sept. 5.

Danielson has mostly remained silent since his last WWE appearance at WrestleMania but CM Punk has been dropping hints. During an appearance on Renee Paquette’s Oral Sessions podcast, Punk expressed interest in teaming with Bryan Danielson to take on The Young Bucks.

“I wanna wrestle the Young Bucks. I’ve gotta find the right tag partner for that. I mean, if we’re fantasy booking, it’s…when does this come out? Saturday? Okay…I don’t think it’s necessarily giving away spoilers, it’s just me putting my booker hat on,”

“Of all the possibilities, I would do CM Punk and The American Dragon vs. The Young Bucks. It’s so obvious that’s what you do.”

As of now, Matt and Nick Jackson are the AEW Tag Team Champions. That could change tonight as they will defend their gold inside a steel cage at All Out.

Stick with SEScoops tonight as we’ll be providing coverage of All Out. We’ll be bringing you results as well as any updates on surprise appearances.

AEW has announced that the world tag team champions The Young Bucks will be defending their titles in a steel cage match at the upcoming All Out PPV next month.

This week’s episode of Dynamite saw the tag champs defending the titles in a match against Jurassic Express. The Bucks retained the championships in a bout filled with many interferences from the Elite.

The Elite were featured in a backstage segment after this bout. Don Callis claimed that The Young Bucks are very dominant and they should take a break.

Though he got interrupted by Tony Khan. Khan announced an eliminator tournament to determine the new #1 contenders for the tag belts.

He confirmed that the tournament will feature Varsity Blonds, Private Party, Jurassic Express and Lucha Bros with the winner getting a title shot at All Out in Chicago.

AEW All Out Updated Match Card

The schedule for this title tournament has not been revealed as of yet. With only a couple of weeks remaining to the PPV, the competition should begin soon. After the latest announcement, here is the updated match card for the show:

• AEW World Championship Match: Kenny Omega vs. Christian Cage
• Steel Cage Match For AEW Tag Team Championship: The Young Bucks vs. TBA
• Singles Match: PAC vs. Andrade El Idolo
• Singles Match: Paul Wight vs. QT Marshall

AEW All Out will take place on Saturday, September 5 from the Now arena in Chicago.

AEW star Eddie Kingston recently spoke to Dominic DeAngelo of WrestleZone ahead of this Wednesday’s AEW: Road Rager event where he and Penta El Zero M will be challenging for the AEW Tag Team Championships.

Kingston discussed a number of topics during the interview, as well as making some scathing in kayfabe comments towards the AEW Tag Team Title holders, The Young Bucks.

“They’re the best tag team in the world, the Young Bucks are and that’s proven by being the World Tag Team Champions. That’s it, it proves it” Kingston began, before laying into Matt and Nick Jackson.

Eddie Kingston on The Young Bucks

“Have they done it not in their normal ‘hooray’ way? No, my biggest problem with them is because they’re both children, childs, babies” Kingston added, starting to move into a more kayfabe rant on the duo.

“Not because of what they do in the ring and all that other stuff that people want to bash on them. It’s because ‘being the EVP’ was too hard for them. That kind of annoys me, man” Eddie Kingston continued.

“And then they’re going to come out here and ‘Oh, it’s too hard so we’re go start burying people’ and ‘oh now we’re just gonna start acting like a**holes and Don Callis, and us and Kenny, we’re the original club, and Bullet…’ and I don’t even know any of that stuff” the former IMPACT star concluded.

Here’s the full card for AEW Dynamite Road Rager that takes place this Wednesday on TNT:

• AEW World Tag Team Championship Match – The Young Bucks (c) w/ Brandon Cutler vs Penta El Zero Miedo & Eddie Kingston w/ Alex Abrahantes
• South Beach Strap Match – Cody Rhodes vs QT Marshall
• Andrade El Idolo vs Matt Sydal
• Orange Cassidy & Kris Statlander vs The Blade & The Bunny
• Inner Circle (Santana, Ortiz & Jake Hager) w/ Konnan vs Pinnacle (Dax Harwood, Cash Wheeler & Wardlow) w/ Tully Blanchard
• Chris Jericho & MJF face to face standoff

IMPACT Wrestling held their Against All Odds event last night. The main event of the show saw Kenny Omega defend his IMPACT and TNA Championships against IMPACT star Moose. Near the end of the contest, the referee was knocked out and AEW Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks appeared.

The match was held at AEW’s home, Daily’s Place, so it was likely that there would be some involvement from Omega’s group.

Matt and Nick Jackson attacked Moose by hitting the BTE Trigger and multiple Superkicks. The brothers then helped lift Moose up so that Kenny Omega could hit the One Winged Angel to win the contest.

The Young Bucks Interfere

Omega was scheduled to go on to Slammiversary to face Sami Callihan for the IMPACT World Championship. Callihan actually appeared himself after the main event to attack Kenny Omega; which prompted Don Callis to ‘fire’ the IMPACT star.

Although Don Callis is reportedly no longer in power at IMPACT; he is at least still playing the role of executive on television. It is likely that we will still see Omega vs Callihan at Slammiversary for the belt.

The Young Bucks put the AEW Tag Team Championships on the line when they battled former AEW World Heavyweight Champion Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston.

As seen at Sunday’s (May 30, 2021) AEW Double or Nothing pay-per-view event in Jacksonville, Florida at Daily’s Place, the match had some brawling even before it started.

The Bucks hit the Meltzer Driver to Moxley on the rampway and he was busted open on his forehead. At one point, Moxley locked in a rear-naked choke to Matt, but Nick hit a 450 splash to Moxley for a near fall. The finish saw Moxley take 4 BTE Triggers to drop the loss for his team. 

Back on the May 19th edition of Dynamite, Kingston and Moxley laid out The Young Bucks after they successfully defended the titles against The Varsity Blonds. Moxley and Kingston put them down with stereo sleeper holds then took off the Bucks’ Dior shoes and took them.

The Young Bucks previously defended the titles on pay-per-view was against Chris Jericho and MJF at the AEW Revolution event this past March. Last November, the Bucks won the tag team titles from FTR at the AEW Full Gear pay-per-view event last November. 

There are several reports that have come out recently which are stating that things backstage in AEW have hit a significantly rough patch.

Wade Keller of PWTorch noted on a recent podcast that certain members of ‘The Elite’ are no longer on speaking terms.

“There’s gonna a book written someday by some of these EVP’s or someone else closely observing and we’re gonna learn about a lot of dysfunction,” Keller said. “We’re gonna learn what a very short honeymoon period there was between certain key people in the company, who aren’t even talking to each other anymore.”

Keller is convinced that the situation is so volatile, it’s only a matter of time before specific details are made public.

“I think we’re gonna find that out,” he continued. “I know there are people in other wrestling companies saying The Bucks and Cody and Kenny it’s not gonna be long at all before they want to have nothing to do with each other. The honeymoon period is going to be short.”

AEW Infighting Turning Off Talent

Jason Powell of ProWrestling.net reports that there’s a major free agent, a “difference-making” star, that is hesitant to sign with AEW due to this reported infighting.

“There’s a would-be difference maker who could go there that has that opinion that there’s all this in-fighting and this person for that reason is hesitant to go there,” he said.

Adding further credence to the reports, Brian Last of the Jim Cornette Experience podcast also alluded to heated emails being exchanged between Cody Rhodes and Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks. He also alluded to Cody Rhodes’ absence from BTE as being related to conflict amongst AEW management.

Matt & Nick Jackson, the Young Bucks, are now “bad guys” in AEW. They have aligned with Don Callis, changed their in-ring style, changed their gear, and have made what some might call a “full heel turn.”

The Young Bucks were recently interviewed by TSN, AEW’s Canadian broadcast partner. During the interview, Matt Jackson spoke about what wrestling fans are used to as it concerns “babyfaces & heels” in wrestling.

“I always want to be involved in weird, nuanced, multi-layered stories and maybe sometimes the subtleties that I like to have in my storylines won’t translate with a pro wrestling audience,” Matt Jackson said to TSN. “Pro wrestling audiences are so conditioned to [the idea] that it’s good or it’s bad. It’s babyface or it’s heel, and that’s the way it’s been historically forever and how dare you change that or try something differently because it’s like you’re breaking the laws of wrestling. It’s one of those things where you have to try to find a balance, where you want to tell compelling stories, but at the same time, you don’t want people to miss the things you’re trying to do.”

The Young Bucks on AEW’s PPV Schedule

Nick Jackson also spoke about AEW’s schedule of running 4 PPVs a year.

“We enjoy taking the three months to build a proper program and things like that because I feel like the payoff – which is the pay-per-view – makes it seem like a bigger thing,” said Nick Jackson. “I feel like that’s why we’ve kept getting 100,000-plus buys every three months because we make it feel special.”

The Young Bucks On Why It Was Time To Turn Heel

As for why it was time for the Young Bucks to turn heel, Matt Jackson offered up the following explanation:

“Especially with us, because we’re executives at this company – we’re executive vice-presidents of AEW – and we told everybody that we helped put together the tag-team division, so it’s really hard for people to look at us as those same punk-rock Young Bucks that we were years ago, the ones that spat in the face of tradition – the ones that broke all the rules. It’s hard to break the rules when you’re the ones making the rules now.”

MJF and Chris Jericho took advantage of their shot at AEW gold when they challenged The Young Bucks for the AEW Tag Team Titles. 

The championship match took place at the AEW Revolution pay-per-view event on Sunday night. The match was memorable as The Young Bucks started things off by getting some revenge on the heels before the heels took over. 

There were various near falls throughout. At one point, Jericho went for the lionsault and the Bucks hit him with superkicks. The Bucks hit the Meltzer Driver to Jericho for the win. 

The match was set up on the February 3rd edition of Dynamite when MJF and Chris Jericho won a tag team battle royal. Jericho was the last man standing in the bout when he ended up eliminating Darius Martin of Top Flight to win. The last three men in the ring were Jericho, Sammy Guevara, and Martin.

The Young Bucks were also in the match but were eliminated when The Good Brothers helped Nick Jackson eliminate Isiah Cassidy of Private Party. Jackson started to argue with his friends and MJF ended up eliminating him due to the distraction. 

What are your thoughts on The Young Bucks retaining the AEW Tag Team Titles? Was this the right call by AEW officials? Sound off in the comment section.

Nick Jackson of the Young Bucks recently noted on his Instagram stories that he was sick with COVID-19 for several weeks back in September.

“Crazy to think there’s still COVID deniers out there in the world,” he wrote. “I had a pretty bad case of COVID in early September that kept me bed ridden for nearly 3 weeks. I couldn’t taste or smell for 2 and a half months. At one point my whole body had hives on it and my doctor said that it was definitely from COVID.”

“Matt had to do the majority of the work in matches once I returned safely because I couldn’t catch my breath. My cardio is finally back but it took months to finally feel like myself again. Let’s protect each other and wear a mask.”

Nick Jackson went from September 5th to October 21st, 2020 without wrestling any matches in AEW.

Nick Jackson also suffered a leg contusion on AEW Dynamite this week. He was teaming with his brother and SCU against the Acclaimed and the Hybrid2 when the injury occurred. He is not expected to miss any time, however.

The Young Bucks are scheduled to team with Kenny Omega in trios action. Their opponents have yet to be named.

• AEW New Year’s Smash: Updated Preview For Night 2

Nick Jackson got banged up at Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite, but is not expected to miss any ring time.

Along with his brother Matt, The Young Bucks are the reigning AEW World Tag team champions. They teamed with SCU against The Acclaimed and The Hybrid 2 in the opening contest of New Year’s Smash (Night 1).

Mid-way through the contest, Jack Evans hit a 630 splash off the top rope onto Nick Jackson. Nick countered the move by putting his legs up, which resulted in Evans landing on them hard. He was limping later in the match, which indicates a possible injury. Footage of the move in question can be seen here:

Wrestling Observer Live notes that Jackson sustained a leg contusion, but thankfully there was no fracture. As of this writing, Nick Jackson still scheduled to compete next week at New Year’s Smash (Night 2). The Elite will be in action, as the Young Bucks team with AEW World Champion Kenny Omega.

The trio, along with Gallows & Anderson, were part of the show-closing angle that saw a reunion of former Bullet Club members. For more on that story, check out:

• Bullet Club Members Reunite At AEW Dynamite New Year’s Smash

The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) have reflected on how many times they were offered deals by WWE. 

The AEW executives did so in a recent interview with Fightful. This is where they revealed that they were offered contracts from WWE “at least four or five times.”

In 2018, WWE attempted to sign the tag team due to their work from Ring of Honor and NJPW. In January 2019, they announced the launch of AEW. 

Before the launch of AEW, they had their latest conversation with Triple H about joining the company. Matt Jackson started out by noting that Triple H is a great and charming dude who said all of the right things. 

“We must have declined the offer, in the end, I don’t want to exaggerate, it had to have been at least four or five times, and by the end of every conversation he would have another call scheduled with me in two weeks and I would go, ‘How did he do that?’ What, I just told him no. We’d be laughing by the end of the conversation. The conversation would start with me saying we’re so sorry, we’re going to pass on this, thank you so much, and an hour later I’m talking about our next phone call in two weeks.” 

The Young Bucks noted that they were happy with how negotiations went with Triple H. Matt stated that Triple H is a magician and isn’t surprised why Triple H has the job. 

“I have nothing but positive things to say about him. He’s very intelligent too. The things he said, the ideas he had. At times I told Nick, “man, maybe this is something we should at least consider.” There was a time when me, Nick, and Kenny, the three of us were all like “holy sh*t, I think we’re going to end up in WWE.” 

Nick added that it was a very tough decision when they received offers from WWE and turned them down.

Young Bucks vs. FTR was a match talked about by fans for years, but the build for their very first match was met by criticism from people.

This was something that Matt Jackson discussed while doing an interview with Steven Muehlhausen on The Walkway to Fight Club.

“You know, the build maybe could have gone a little bit longer [as] people said it was a little rushed. But again, I don’t think at the end of the day, nobody’s even gonna think about that.”

Instead, Matt thinks fans will remember the match. He brought up his brother Nick noting in the past that fans don’t think of the build to The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 18 and how there was an angle where the nWo tried to kill The Rock with a diesel truck. Instead, fans think of the match. 

“I’m not comparing our match to that match. I’m just saying two different matches, but nobody thinks about the delivery of the match. I think we stuck the landing.”

Dax Harwood stated before the match that he thought the contest could have had a better build-up. 

Harwood and Cash Wheeler put the AEW Tag Team Titles against The Young Bucks at the AEW Full Gear pay-per-view event in Jacksonville, Florida at Daily’s Place last month. This is where Nick and Matt won the titles.

Former WWE Superstar Ryback recently discussed Kenny Omega’s storyline between AEW, IMPACT and AAA. The Big Guy would discuss how Omega and the other EVPs in AEW had to ‘make’ other talent before giving themselves the top titles in the company.

Kenny Omega is of course the AEW Champion and The Young Bucks are the AEW Tag Team Champions. Whilst Cody was previously the TNT Champion? This is the first time in the company’s short history that the Executive Vice Presidents are holding arguably the two main titles in the company.

Ryback on Kenny Omega

“I’m very intrigued, Kenny Omega has got a whole lot more interesting really quickly” Ryback would begin on the Shooting Blanks Wrestling podcast. “Everything they’re [AEW] doing is working in terms of long term. The Young Bucks, Kenny, Cody, how they they were booked early on? People kind of thought didn’t understand it. I can look at it and see that they needed to kind of help ‘make’ other people first.”

“They’re still doing it” The Big Guy Ryback would continue. “It’s the coolest thing to watch, as everyone’s getting elevated in the TV game and becoming bigger bigger stars. But Kenny now can really turn it up, and I think he’s more comfortable? Just from what I’ve seen on AEW.”

• Jim Cornette Slams Tony Khan For Not Signing CM Punk

Ryback would finish by saying how he feels Omega is far better in the heel role on AEW programming. “I’m more interested in the heel Kenny Omega, I wasn’t into the babyface Kenny Omega, just from as a viewer watching that product solely. I feel like he’s more comfortable being heel.”

Do you agree with Ryback? Do you think that Kenny Omega is working better as a heel in AEW? Let us know in the comments

All Elite Wrestling’s Young Bucks have opened up about Sting’s AEW debut on this week’s episode of Dynamite. The special episode, entitled Winter is Coming, saw the former WCW World Champion make his debut for the promotion.

Speaking with the Living the Gimmick podcast, The Young Bucks explained how Sting was hidden backstage throughout the day. When it came time for him to make his debut, Sting was accompanied by a member of Atlas Security.

He reportedly walked through the backstage area with an intense tunnel vision. Members of AEW’s staff and roster all turned their heads “like it was the Exorcist” to watch the Icon walk by.

The Young Bucks described the shock the AEW roster collectively experienced as Sting prepared to debut. According to the Young Bucks, it was a lot of fun to see the locker room have a “mark out” moment like that.

Witnessing the way the AEW talent reacted to Sting helped build their personal excitement for his on-screen reveal. This is because The Young Bucks were confident it would be an “even bigger moment on television.”

Sting debuted following a tag team matchup between Cody Rhodes and Darby Allin versus Team Taz’s Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs. Upon entering the ring, he stood face-to-face with Arn Anderson before leveling intense looks at Dustin Rhodes, Cody Rhodes, and, finally, Darby Allin.

Sting remained silent throughout his first appearance. He is set to speak for the first time on next week’s episode of AEW Dynamite.

The Young Bucks interview on the Living the Gimmick podcast drops next week, but you can listen early at the show’s Patreon page.

Don Callis dropped a bombshell at the conclusion of this week’s AEW Dynamite. Kenny Omega’s first comments as new AEW World Champion will not take place on next week’s Dynamite, but on Tuesday’s edition of Impact Wrestling. It was a huge development that signals a working relationship between the two organizations. Wrestling fans are excited at the prospect of inter-promotional matches, especially in the women’s and tag team divisions.

AEW Executive Vice Presidents Nick and Matt Jackson have revealed interesting details about how the AEW-Impact situation came together. The Young Bucks spoke with Jon Alba and Doug McDonald this week for the Living The Gimmick Podcast. According to Matt, the working relationship has been in the works for nearly two years

“Two years ago, this is something Nick and I actually brought up and we wanted to get this going,” Matt said. “And for whatever reason, it just didn’t work out. I don’t know if that was more on our side or what, but we just couldn’t get everyone to agree on what the creative would be.”

This is something we’ve been whispering in Tony Khan’s ear for two years. So we’re all about collaboration and partnering with everyone and working together .. This is something that we truly wanted to do for a very, very long time. And I guess the timing was right and we got done.”

Collaborating With Other Promotions

In the lead-up to the launch of AEW, the Bucks made surprise appearances at independent wrestling shows across the United States. The All In pay-per-view was a “super show” of independent wrestling that showed the benefits of companies working together for a greater good. Matt thinks this attitude is “what wrestling needs” and will help AEW further transforming the landscape.

“I just think [working with other promotions] makes things unpredictable when you’re working with companies,” he said. “That’s what wrestling needs. It gets stuck in the same formula for so long it gets boring. It’s too easy to predict at times and you don’t want that to happen. So when you can make it different and change things up a bit, make it unpredictable, the fans like it more. It’s almost an easy formula when you explain it that way.”

Nick agrees that inter-promotional matches makes wrestling interesting. The entire industry benefits when companies ‘relax their borders’ to present the most compelling storylines and matches that are possible.

“This is a way to make things interesting, and if you do it right it can be very good for business,” said Nick. “We’ve done it, like Matt said earlier, it worked well when we’ve done it in the past.”

Both men talked about their feud with The Hardy Boyz doing massive business for Ring of Honor.

AEW & Impact Wrestling

So, what will a working relationship between AEW & Impact look like? Nick says it’s still so early, he doesn’t think they know exactly how things will play out. They’re dipping their toes in the water, but already have some big picture plans in place.

“There are immediate plans that I can’t exactly just give away right now. But my dream, if I had it my way, I just think about the possible dream matches. People are already hitting me up like, ‘Oh my god, can you imagine if it was the Young Bucks and the Motor City Machine Guns 10 years later?’ How can you not jump ahead and fantasize and fantasy book?”

AEW has the strongest tag team division in the world. In addition to established acts like the Young Bucks, FTR, the Lucha Bros. and Dark Order, they are still introducing exciting young talent, like Top Flight and The Acclaimed. The Bucks know fans are eager to see AEW’s top teams work The North, the Good Brothers and the Motor City Machine Guns. Matt once again hinted that there are some big surprises coming that fans are sure to enjoy.

“Are we going to do that stuff? I’m not sure yet, we’re still in the beginning of this. But there are some big surprises coming and I’m really excited about it,” Matt said.

The Young Bucks interview on the Living the Gimmick podcast drops next week, but you can listen early at the show’s Patreon page.

The Young Bucks have discussed why Shaquille O’Neal appearing in AEW would be so beneficial for the promotion. Matt and Nick Jackson broached the topic during an interview with WrestleZone while promoting their new book, Young Bucks: Killing The Business From Backyards To The Big Leagues.

Nick Jackson explained how he’s all for the NBA star to crossover into AEW. He stressed how Shaq’s involvement would undoubtedly “[…] get more eyeballs on our product and that’s definitely a way to get the fans that probably wouldn’t watch AEW Dynamite.”

He noted how Shaquille O’Neal is a celebrity who has a lot of fans outside of wrestling. Nick argued how those fans could gravitate to AEW if he were to appear on the show in some capacity.

Nick then shared how Shaq was actually backstage at AEW Full Gear in November. According to Nick, Shaq stood up and gave them a standing ovation following The Young Bucks’ bout against FTR.

AEW hinted that Shaquille O’Neal could be bound for the promotion a few weeks ago. Jade Cargill interrupted Cody Rhodes during a promo and mentioned his name. For what it’s worth, Shaq has expressed his interest in wrestling Cody in the past.

Since this initial tease, however, AEW has not provided any further hints that Shaq could be involved with the promotion.

Young Bucks: Killing The Business From Backyards To The Big Leagues is available now at Amazon.com and other book retailers.

The Young Bucks, Matt and Nick Jackson, recently appeared on SiriusXM’s Busted Open Radio. The AEW Tag Team Champions discussed a number of topics during their time on the show; these included their time in IMPACT, changing their working style and writing their new autobiography.

• Young Bucks – Killing the Business from Backyards to the Big Leagues is available now on Audible

Matt Jackson would start by saying how much of an influence Mick Foley’s ‘Have a Nice Day’ book was when he was younger. “Ever since I was a kid I remember reading Mick Foley’s Have a Nice Day. It was when I was a freshman, I think it was in my language arts class?”

The Young Bucks on Autobiography

“Miss Mira, for some reason she had that book on her bookshelf” Matt Jackson would continue. “I picked it up, I read it and I fell in love with it. I remember telling myself at the end like ‘man if I ever have a career worth writing about that would be so cool!’ So it was always a dream of mine to write a book.”

Jackson would then describe how they were contacted by Harper Collins, one of the major global publishers. “We got an offer from from HarperCollins publishing, which is one of the biggest in the world. When HarperCollins calls? You pick up, you know? At the time Nick and I were going through a really strange thing in our career, like a kind of a fork in the road.”

Matt Jackson would then say how the timing of the book coincided with the Young Bucks getting an offer from WWE. “There was the big decision to be made, whether or not we’re gonna go to WWE or if we’re gonna start this new thing (AEW). And I remember thinking to myself like ‘this is worth documenting’ and we do have a really interesting story. It’s a story that is kind of different than all the other wrestling books you’ve probably read from the the Attitude Era guys.”

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“I think we have a unique story” Matt Jackson continued. “We were the first guys from the independent ‘boom’ era that have really had a chance to write our story. I was going to say put pen to paper but it wasn’t even been to paper! It was literally all written on our iPhones in between business trips and in hotel rooms and while I was at the bus stop waiting for my daughter to get picked up from school. We were literally writing this thing while we were opening up AEW so it was really terrible timing, actually.”

Have you read The Young Bucks’ new book? Let us know in the comments

Despite All Elite Wrestling being embroiled in a ratings war every week with WWE’s NXT, AEW Tag Team Champions, The Young Bucks, have shared that they don’t really watch the competition.

Speaking with WrestlingInc to promote their new book, Killing The Business: From Backyards To The Big Leagues, The Young Bucks addressed their Wednesday night rivals, acknowledging how they’re just too busy putting on a show to give any attention to NXT.

“I forget that they have shows,” Matt Jackson revealed. “It’s tunnel vision to our own product. It’s like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s right. There’s another show tonight. That’s right.'”

His brother, Nick, explained how this focused approach encapsulates the mentality within AEW and amongst its creative team. According to him, knowing what WWE is doing could “screw up” how AEW book things.

“[…] that’s the mentality of Dynamite and AEW is we’d never wanted to know what that show is doing because we feel like if we do know, then it might screw up our brains and our minds on how we book things as well,” Nick shared. “So we never have wanted to get caught up in any of that.”

The Young Buck’s book, Killing The Business: From Backyards To The Big Leagues, is available now.

The All In show was the start of a new era in wrestling and then Young Bucks’ association with Tony Khan has led to some massive changes in the industry.

During a recent interview with TalkSport, the brothers discussed a number of things and also revealed details of their first meeting with the person who will eventually become the president of All Elite Wrestling.

The Bucks first revealed that they had actually no sold Khan’s first attempt of contacting them and according to Nick Jackson they almost didn’t pick his phone:

“What’s funny is he tried contacting us both at first and I no sold it because I had heard this story before. I was like ‘ah, I don’t believe it’”

However, Matt Jackson decided to take the call and they had a conversation about starting AEW. According to the duo, they were still skeptical about it at the time but things started snowballing after their first face to face meeting:

“I remember meeting him for the first time in London at York Hall for a Ring of Honor show. He was in the balcony and little did Ring of Honor know that we were going to meet him [laughs].

He picked us up in a limousine right after that and took us to the stadium his team plays at [Fulham’s Craven Cottage] and we pretty much talked from there, things started snowballing and we pretty much knew it was serious when we were at his stadium and he’s telling us ‘maybe we can fill this thing up one day!”

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During the interview, the Young Bucks revealed that they had plans to do a UK tour right before the coronavirus hit but the pandemic halted those plans.

The duo also confirmed that they are working towards getting a live show in the UK but they claimed that there is no news on that right now. You can check out their full interview at this link.