On a recent edition of his “The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” podcast, Matt Hardy discussed the strengths of The Young Bucks, their lack of creative control in AEW, and other topics.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On what makes the Young Bucks so great: “What makes the Young Bucks great in my opinion, is the fact that they are so talented, and they know who they are and they know what they can do. They know their capabilities. They’re able to go out there with any tag team in the world and have a great match. And that’s a very rare thing. I think that’s why Shawn Michaels rose to such prominence, because he was able to carry anyone to a great match back in the day. And the Young Bucks can do that as well. And they do know their stuff. They work a little bit of a different style but they do know their stuff, especially the more modern style of pro wrestling.”
On the Bucks being great heels: “I think the Young Bucks are very underrated when it comes to their ability to be great heels, the ability to get under people’s skin. Because there’s some things that people feel like just annoy them, it make them want to turn it off and they hate them so bad. But at the end of the day, they’re getting heat. Like — nobody in pro wrestling uses ‘go away heat.’ That’s like such an internet term, you know what I mean? It’s like, if you can legitimately piss people off, but if you can keep them engaged because your match is good or your character is good, and I feel like the Young Bucks can do that.
“As far as the ratings thing go, like I don’t have the sheets directly right in front of me. I know there’s times where the Bucks have had one of the best ratings on the show. I know there was a match where there was a Bucks-Hardys match, and it was one of the best drawing matches on the show. But of course, you don’t hear about that if it is something that is good. But I’m a big advocate of them because on top of them being so talented in the ring and being able to lead other people that might not be as good as they are or able to stand on such a high level on their own, and then being able to bring them up via their work and knowing how to work with these people, and being able to utilize their strengths and then compensate for them in the match. I feel like the Bucks really get it from a character aspect, too, and they know how to go out there and need to try and get the people to embrace them or either piss them off. And I think they’re much better as heels at the end of the day. I think they’re much better at getting under people’s skin.”
On the Bucks backstage: “But then once you come back through that curtain, at the end of the day they are good people. They’re good dudes. They try and do what’s best for everybody else. Early on, people talked about how Private Party did so great because they beat the Young Bucks, and they were booked to do that. The Bucks had to fight for that, to get Private Party to beat them. And then whenever Private Party beat them, I remember there was a point where Tony [Khan] said like,’ Hey, you just can’t be putting everybody over like that. We have to keep you strong. We got to keep you at a certain level where we’re doing this.’ Because they are generous. They are not afraid to put other people over. Like, they’re not people that are drunk with power that are trying to protect their spot. They’re very confident in their abilities, and they’re very confident with their spot. So I like them, and we’re very like-minded when it comes to the way we see this business. And I think at the end of the day, I think these guys are going to really be appreciated once they’re long gone out of the business.”
On the Bucks not having complete creative control: “You have to keep in mind too that they are not in charge of their creative fully. They suggest ideas, but they get ideas turned down all the time too. I mean, there was one point where they pushed to have me, Jeff [Hardy], and Isaiah [Kassidy] win the Six-Man Tag Titles when they weren’t really doing — when it was those guys and Hangman. Do you remember when they were the Six-Man Tag Champs? And that was shot down, but they pushed really hard and they couldn’t get a yes on it, whatever. Because, ‘It’s not really doing anything for us. It would help these guys give us a boost.’ And it would have I think, whenever we were doing that, just because we needed some momentum because we had lost so much consecutively, over and over.
“But I think their EVP angle, especially when they jumped on Tony Khan, was the first time touching him. I think that should have been much bigger, but I don’t hold the Bucks fully responsible for that because, at the end of the day, they’re not ones that are making all of the decisions from a creative aspect.”
