Bucks: AEW wouldn't exist if ROH/NJPW met what we wanted

[héad.casé]

"You know what's sad? New Japan and ROH could have easily come together and offered us the contracts they wanted, but they just didn't do it," Nick laments. "New Japan never saw the value in Matt and I. They never paid us good. We would have had to work with New Japan for another two decades to even get close to retiring, and the style they demand is backbreaking. Ring of Honor paid us a lot better than New Japan. We could have probably retired there, but we would have to work probably another decade with them."

"We pitched it to both of them: Why don't you guys get us a dual contract? And they just didn't get it done. We would have easily stayed, and there would have never been an All Elite Wrestling if they would have met what we wanted, but it didn't get done."

www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2019/05/the-young-bucks-reveal-how-njpw-and-roh-could-have-654230/

[AwamoriRock]

Yeah, not to be a dick but I don't get this stance at all unless it's just their typical pot-stirring. The Bucks worked like 1/4 of the matches full timers did, got the jr tags like 6 times and the heavy tags once by just virtue of showing up and challenging for it. I'm really happy for them (and honestly any wrestler) getting paid the way they are and putting together AEW, but going on about working a demanding style that they've done since before NJPW, wanting retirement money for part time work, all the while not really being a big priority for local business and popularity is a bit rich, especially as a tag team.

[Deleted]

I appreciate and totally respect their dedication and self preservation, as well as the value they place on their health and ability to retire.

However asking 2 companies who have pushed you hard to completely overhaul their contract model AND enter into a partnership that could screw up their business relationship if something went south just to feather your nest, especially when your profile isn't nearly as big in Japan is somewhat overestimating their worth and significance.

[Mozenrath]

They're not wrong. If their needs weren't met, they weren't met. Now, whether or not you think the companies were wrong not to make the deal, or if you think the Bucks aren't worth it, they're being honest, and odds are, this is going to be a much better deal for them. Like with Cody and WWE, disagreements may ultimately have led to what can be a very positive thing for wrestling.

I can believe the money complaint with NJPW, in so far as that Jericho makes 100 thousand a year working for them. Great deal, particularly for how few dates he has to work, but the Bucks make into the six figures a year on merch alone. There's little chance they were getting Jericho money in NJPW, and they're not going to be able to keep up the kind of pace they're known for forever. It was probably time to move on.

[Deleted]

May 18, 2019 4:14:17 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

They're not wrong. If their needs weren't met, they weren't met. Now, whether or not you think the companies were wrong not to make the deal, or if you think the Bucks aren't worth it, they're being honest, and odds are, this is going to be a much better deal for them. Like with Cody and WWE, disagreements may ultimately have led to what can be a very positive thing for wrestling.

I can believe the money complaint with NJPW, in so far as that Jericho makes 100 thousand a year working for them. Great deal, particularly for how few dates he has to work, but the Bucks make into the six figures a year on merch alone. There's little chance they were getting Jericho money in NJPW, and they're not going to be able to keep up the kind of pace they're known for forever. It was probably time to move on.

This is equally true to the points I made. All respect for them going out and making their uh...Bucks.

[Citizen Snips Has Left]

So Cody would've just glumly kicked a can down the street and said "Aww, raspberries! So much for that idea!"?

(Genuinely asking, I have little to no idea of who the Bucks are aside from a tag team people like. Is this like "There's no nWo without The Outsiders" or just a minor bump in the road?)

[HMARK Center]

May 18, 2019 3:45:34 GMT -5 AwamoriRock said:

Yeah, not to be a dick but I don't get this stance at all unless it's just their typical pot-stirring. The Bucks worked like 1/4 of the matches full timers did, got the jr tags like 6 times and the heavy tags once by just virtue of showing up and challenging for it. I'm really happy for them (and honestly any wrestler) getting paid the way they are and putting together AEW, but going on about working a demanding style that they've done since before NJPW, wanting retirement money for part time work, all the while not really being a big priority for local business and popularity is a bit rich, especially as a tag team.

I'm too lazy to go back and look at the match logs, but I have to figure that the Bucks very reduced schedule in their last year or so in New Japan might've been reflective of them thinking they weren't making enough, and thus just not looking to make as many trips (e.g. not doing the Jr. Tag tournament toward the end of their run); before that point it certainly seemed like they were working New Japan enough, and it might've been their thinking that if they're going to be the champs so often, then they want to be paid like that...that, or they were angling to start getting paid more like a "special attraction" act ala Jericho, albeit not to the same dollar level a guy like Jericho gets.

Regardless, as a NJPW fan I'd have loved to see them hold on to as much star power as possible, but as a pro wrestling fan in general having a new major promotion emerge in North America is probably the best outcome overall, plus I've been pretty happy with how NJPW has built new names in the meantime, and to also be away from the "will they/won't they" drama that had begun to get too common with the Elite guys. If all goes well, this outcome will mean more high profile spots for more talent and more outlets and career possibilities for people all over the wrestling industry in every kind of role, so on that front it's an alls-well-that-ends-well moment.

As for whether AEW would not be happening without the Bucks, it's entirely possible that's the case, though we can never know for sure. We heard for a long time how Omega and the Bucks were very much a package deal for awhile, and having three guys like that in fold from the word "go" undoubtedly helped AEW's chances of getting the backing they needed, plus I have to think that Cody and the Jacksons were probably splitting a lot of the upfront business duties, so it's hard to say if Cody would've been able to shape something like this entirely on his own, at least maybe not to this level.

[Deleted]

the Hot Topic success probably made the decision easier for Tony

[Mayonnaise]

Yeah, I can easily see them making far more on merch than either NJPW or ROH paid them but the hustle gets tiring. Thinking on it, they also got hit by NJPW taking all the money from the BC sales, which led to them creating the Elite. And the schedule was brutal as well. They documented it on BTE where they'd have less than a day to be at home between ROH and NJPW bookings, which with growing families wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway.

So while it's sounds egotistical at first, thinking it out, I can easily see it being true.

[Spider2024]

May 18, 2019 5:10:49 GMT -5 Citizen Snips Has Left said:

So Cody would've just glumly kicked a can down the street and said "Aww, raspberries! So much for that idea!"?

(Genuinely asking, I have little to no idea of who the Bucks are aside from a tag team people like. Is this like "There's no nWo without The Outsiders" or just a minor bump in the road?)

Their wrestling style can be over-generalized as 'kinda like the Hardy Boyz but they also like to use superkicks way too much.' They were also once in TNA for like a year, known as the team of "Generation Me". But that was back in 2010, since then they've been indie darlings basically.

[Yamashita Enforcement Division]

May 18, 2019 7:50:20 GMT -5 Spider2024 said:

Their wrestling style can be over-generalized as 'kinda like the Hardy Boyz but they also like to use superkicks way too much.' They were also once in TNA for like a year, known as the team of "Generation Me". But that was back in 2010, since then they've been indie darlings basically.

That didn't actually answer the question. Also it ignores the Young Bucks real superpower is that they are a merchandising capitalism machine that managed to get t-shirts sold in hot topic despite not being on real television.

May 18, 2019 5:10:49 GMT -5 Citizen Snips Has Left said:

So Cody would've just glumly kicked a can down the street and said "Aww, raspberries! So much for that idea!"?

(Genuinely asking, I have little to no idea of who the Bucks are aside from a tag team people like. Is this like "There's no nWo without The Outsiders" or just a minor bump in the road?)

Based on my understanding from other interviews/promotional material, while Cody and Tony Khan independently had ideas for wrestling that filled the void for wrestling fans, without the Young Bucks/Kenny/Jericho none of those ideas would have come to anything real. There is a story that the Young Bucks tell somewhere about the earliest AEW meetings between them, Matt's wife (who is considered the brains behind the Young Bucks merch machine) and Tony Khan about the naming of AEW, and it shows a company history that exists prior to Cody getting brought on board.

The Young Bucks are probably more important than Cody Rhodes to the existence of AEW, but Cody has certainly ran with it and made the case that he should be promoter of the year 2019.

[Venti]

I mean, wasn't Tony Kahn already looking to form a wrestling promotion before Young Bucks got involved? I could be wrong tho.

[Yamashita Enforcement Division]

May 18, 2019 8:31:55 GMT -5 Venti said:

I mean, wasn't Tony Kahn already looking to form a wrestling promotion before Young Bucks got involved? I could be wrong tho.

I believe so, but I also believe that initial push involved him trying to get CM Punk on board with Jericho in the centerpiece role, which would have a knock on effect as to how the company would have been perceived and supported. With the Bucks and Cody on board front and center, the company manages to come across as more counter-culture to the WWE, rather than the look that a company headlined by Chris Jericho (48) and CM Punk (40) would have.

[corndog]

This rubs me the wrong way. I hope AEW does well and gives Vince a kick in the pants, but why are they doing this unless it's leading to some sort of angle? They wanted limited dates, they got it, they wanted to be heavyweights, they got it and they wanted to branch off of Bullet Club to give the full amount for merchandise, they got it. Why does New Japan owe them big money? They weren't big draws in Japan and really haven't been missed from the roster. Besides, they were making quite a bit of money off merch, I believe they cleared $1 million last year. Now ROH clearly lost a large chunk of their audience without them.

New Japan put them in the Bullet Club along with AJ Styles, which gave them credibility and made them skyrocket in popularity. Without Bullet Club, they could very easily just be another undersized, workrate, Hardy Boys knockoff team that is midcarding in the indies.

Don't get me wrong, I like them, but good grief, get over it. You are rich now and struggled much greater in several other organizations before getting to New Japan.