The Young Bucks competed in Wednesday night’s Blood & Guts match on AEW Dynamite, and they recently spoke with Sports Illustrated to discuss their thoughts on the bout, what it was like working with Mark Briscoe again, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
Nick on facing Mark Briscoe in the match: “We wrestled The Briscoes so many times. It felt really good to wrestle Mark. When he was hitting those Jay Drillers on all of us, I knew Jay was smiling. I was feeling pain by then, but I still kind of smiled a bit during that moment.”
Matt on wrestling Briscoe: “Wrestling Mark, it was like old times. It brought back so many memories of years past. For a stretch of time, it seemed like we wrestled every other weekend at an independent show or a Ring of Honor event. We developed such a camaraderie and rivalry. Out there at Blood & Guts, I was reminded of the amazing chemistry we have. It’s like lightning in a bottle, a type of magic you only have with a very few select opponents… I felt Jay out there with us. I couldn’t stop thinking about him. It was such an overpowering feeling.”
Nick on the match bringing out everyone’s vicious side: “I don’t think The Acclaimed have ever been in a match like that before, and they showed a way more violent side. Swerve seemed superhuman in there taking all those staples to the flesh and laughing about it, which was terrifying. Mark, we knew he would be insane. The same goes for Darby.”
Matt on Allin’s coffin drop off the ceiling of the cage: “Darby is out of his mind crazy. When production lowered the cages down earlier in the day to look over everything, I heard Darby climbed to the top while he was wearing socks. He’s fearless. We’ve done some crazy things in our career, and even he frightens us.”
Matt on who stood out in the match and putting it together: “Multi-man gimmick matches with many moving parts and several complex stories to tell has always been our calling card. And we obviously had a huge team of talented people on the other side in there with us. Tons of people stood out. I thought Bowens had a great night and showed just how hungry and tough he is. Jack Perry showed never-say-die attitude and perseverance. We obviously showed the naysayers again that we can still hoop and move around with the best of them. In fact, I don’t know if anyone else worked harder or took more punishment than we did.
“And coming up with new ways to violently inflict pain on someone has become a great joy of ours. Whether it’s a barbed wire board sandwich, or making Max Caster eat thumbtacks before a double superkick so he hopefully can’t rap for a long time, I get giddy when I come up with a new way to hurt someone I don’t care for. This is certainly the marquee match in AEW, and it’s quite the daunting task to perform in a match like this. We’ve done two of them now, and I shared this with a couple of people, and I know I can’t tell the future, but I think that might’ve been my last one. Who knows. I think I’d like it to be.”
Nick on coming up with spots for the match: “At this point, coming up with the ideas is a lot more fun than executing them. It’s a really intense match. And Darby is the most unpredictable wrestler in the business. You can’t really prepare for someone who isn’t scared of pain. When he was doing the monkey bars into the coffin drop, it blew my mind.”
Nick on Perry’s chairshot to the head: “All I know is Jack is fine, and that’s all that matters. We know the risk we’re taking in the ring and it wouldn’t have happened if he wasn’t prepared for it.”
Matt on Okada being in the match: “Okada has come to AEW and completely stepped out of his comfort zone. I couldn’t be prouder to see him trying new things and learning a new style. He’s a movie star with perfect timing, an unbelievable sense of humor, and he just so happens to be the greatest wrestler alive. I can tell you while he doesn’t exactly prefer being in these types of matches, he’s certainly having a damn good time. It would’ve been so easy to just come here and rely on the things he’s already known for. I’m so proud of him and his versatility.”
Nick on Okada: “Okada is the best. He is performing so great and adapting to new matches he’s never been in as well as I’ve seen anyone be able to do it on the fly. It’s been so much fun working with him these last several months. There’s no one better.”
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