Show: Unplugged with The Young Bucks
Hosts: JJ and Crelly
Available at SNSradionetwork.com
What is next for the Young Bucks? We have a ton of stuff lined up right now, we are in talks with a bunch of companies I don’t want to spoil anything because I want the fans to be excited for what we do next. We got stuff in the UK, we’re talking to promoters out in Japan, and definitely in the U.S. Gut right now we have Chikara coming up at the end of the month, which should be fun because we haven't been there in quite a bit. I think the Young Buck fans should be excited at this time because we’re back and we’re ready to wrestle again.
What lead to The Young Bucks Leaving TNA Impact Wrestling? There were many different situations that pretty much made us decide (to leave). The ultimate factor was we were not being used as much as we would have liked and for about a month, we were sitting at home and our contracts were pretty much per date so we were pretty much sitting at home making not money. It was hurting us, (Matt) is having a baby soon and I (Nick) have just brought a house so we were literally sitting at home making no money which was hurting us. That and other things like not being used properly; we were split up, which was fine by us because we said, 'Yeah we’re do it,' but then they stopped using us.
"They said they had a whole long couple of month program that me and Matt would do which would actually lead to lockdown in a steel cage match one on one (which )was the original plan but as you know, it didn’t happen and it ended up being a six man. There was just so many different things that lead to it like the agents didn’t know if we were heel or face during the last few months our run, the writing was on the wall for us.
"We were like, 'Lets go on the indy scene where we can control our dates and actually know how many shows we are going to have a month.' In TNA, we never knew how many shows we were going to wrestle during the month so we didn’t have a budget. There is just no continuity so the fans don’t know what to get behind so there is really nothing to cheer for because they don’t know what’s going on. They don’t know who the babyfaces or the heel is so it’s really hard for people to get into the product."
The lack of continuity in TNA storylines: As soon as someone starts to kinda get over, they are taken off TV. It’s so much 'stop and go.' Its like as soon as someone starts to gain a little steam, you don’t see them on TV again: It happened with Nick and I, it happened with Jay Lethal a couple of times, and it’s hard because your like, 'Give us a chance because we can get over.' We just aren't given the platform or the time to get over. Any time an angle would get a little bit over, it would be called off. I remember we were having a little bit of fun with Tara, that was one thing we were hopeful almost and all of a sudden, (with) no explanation that was done. Mine and Nick’s breakup, was no time given to that. It was hard trying to get any storyline over because there was no time given to you.
Their thoughts on TNA Pushing The X Division: "I think it’s all a work. On Impact, they say, 'Yeah we’re re-branding the X Division' but lets face it, they say that once a year and it doesn’t happen. They have one time slot each week for the X Division and that slot is either a five or six minute (slot) and that’s not enough time to get the whole division over. You need a lot more time. I know a lot of the guys have quit. Red quit, we left, Jay (Lethal) was fired and in the same breath, they let us go.
"They let us go too easy, maybe they should have fought a little harder to keep Red happy since we has an original. I know Nick and I were only there for a cup of coffee but I would like to think every time they gave us something, we hit a home run with it or at least tried our hardest. As far as them saying they are rebranding the X Division, hopefully they will try with the new guys but its hard to be hopeful after we just saw what happened to us and our friends."
Their thoughts on the “Generation Me†name as opposed to Young Bucks: Yeah, that would have been awesome but in retrospect, it’s a good thing because they would have tried to own the name but now we can go back to being The Young Bucks without having to go to court. At the time (of our debut), I remember Nick and I were upset and were like 'What is this? Gen Me?' and we weren’t feeling it.
"Signing autographs was awkward. Whenever I get recognized, I get recognized as Matt from the Young Bucks, even at house shows, people wanted me to sign as Matt Jackson. 9 out of 10 times, we get recognized as the Young Bucks. It’s funny, all the boys, all the agents, they all knew us as the Young Bucks so they never called us Gen Me throughout our stint there, they called us The Bucks. That’s why they called us Max and Jeremy Buck, it was a rib on us so if you were going to call us Bucks, why not The Young Bucks?
The Bucks on Rob Van Dam’s recent comments about them: "That was a bunch of bull. We always said hi to him and never had a problem with him. I don’t know what he was thinking saying that stuff because we always go out of our way to say hi to everyone, not only the wrestlers but the camera men, the referees, the bell ringer, everyone that has to do with the show we say hi to and shake their hands. We show them respect so that crap was a bunch of baloney.
"What upset me was the picture he tried to paint of the young talent in TNA that we don’t go up to people and don’t go up to veterans for advice because that’s not true. We dress with all X Division guys in the locker and I know for a fact that all our buddies always went to the veterans for advice and if we sought advice, we went to certain guys we were comfortable with. If we weren’t conferrable going to Rob, then we weren’t, but he didn’t seem like the most approachable guy in the world to us, so we got our advice from other guys."
Their thoughts on possibly heading to the WWE in the future: "WWE… who knows? Never say Never. I know Nick isn’t too thrilled about it because he doesn’t like being on the road a lot and I don’t either but I’ll give that answer; never say never and Ring Of Honor is such as fit for us, its just our style and we just like producing good wrestling matches. That’s what we like doing. Not a lot of places offer tag team wrestling and Ring Of Honor is the best. We deferentially haven't had our last match in ROH that’s for sure."
Other topics talked about include: The lack of creative writing in TNA, comparisons between The Young Bucks and The Hardys, working a dark match before Ring Of Honor’s last iPPV, TNA’s roster size, TNA’s attempt to counteract Sin Cara, the differences between The Impact crowd and ROH crowd, comparing and contrasting ROH and TNA, the King Of Wrestling heading to the WWE.