AEW: Young Bucks on Changing Their Ring Style for Their EVP Characters in AEW, Rumor Killer on Mercedes Mone Having Creative Control in AEW, More News

Young Bucks Comment on Changing Their Ring Style for Their EVP Characters in AEW

A recent episode of the Tunnel Talk podcast featured The Young Bucks’ Matthew & Nicholas Jackson as the guests. One of the topics discussed included the Young Bucks’ thoughts about how they changed up their look and ring style for their EVP characters in AEW.

Matthew Jackson – “I like the idea of feeling uncomfortable and trying new things. Sometimes, it doesn’t work out but most of the time, in our career, the things we have bet most on have usually worked out. I like to take those big risks and try new things. If we fall flat on our faces… at this point, who cares?”

Nicholas Jackson – “I think part of it is [after] doing it for twenty plus years now, sometimes the normal gets boring and you just want to think outside the box.”

Matthew – “You want to entertain yourself but, to Nick’s point, you go to a rock show and you want to hear the songs that you know. Whenever they play the new stuff, everyone is just like ‘Oh come on, the new stuff? This sucks!’ I get that, but as a performer – as a creative person – I always want to come up with something fresh.”

The Young Bucks also gave their thoughts about how they kept continuity while also switching things up.

Matthew – “Sure. Here is a good example: When we did the EVPs thing, we were like: ‘Let’s just have really boring matches. Let’s stop doing all the super athletic moves that get the big reactions … It is hard because one of the things in general is that most of our stuff is pretty exciting, it’s highspots. We did it.”

Nicholas – “I stopped doing dives for, maybe, eight months. I didn’t do a tumble out to the floor for about eight months and that was on purpose. We literally wanted people to think ‘Are these guys not athletic anymore? Are they just boring wrestlers now?’”

The Young Bucks also gave their thoughts about the online reaction over their changed ring style.

Nicholas – “I see some of it. I stay off most of social media but one thing that really pissed me off was someone said ‘I thought the Young Bucks were washed’ and I was thinking: ‘Oh, come on! You guys fell for the gimmick that we were doing? We didn’t forget how to wrestle out of nowhere. Come on, don’t be dumb.’”

Matthew – “You know what, though? It worked because if we had continued to just wrestle the same style then people would be like, ‘they are just doing the same stuff.’ Then, when you switch it up and you dial it down a lot… when you bring it back, there is a huge reaction. It’s like, ‘Woah! They can still go!’ And it’s like, yes, that was all on purpose! Everything we do is on purpose. We put a lot of thought into every little thing. If you see us having a match where we are not leaving our feet much, we are just trying something new. Sometimes, it doesn’t always work out. I feel like, maybe, it hurt our matches a little bit and our matches, at some point in the year, were not as exciting as people normally think our matches are. I remember Nick just going, ‘Matt, let’s just go freakin’ kill it like we always do. We know how to kill it, let’s just go kill it again.’ I said, ‘OK.’”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

---

Rumor Killer on Mercedes Mone Having Creative Control in AEW

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that his sources denied rumors and reports of Mercedes Mone having creative control in AEW.

Sapp reported that Mone has some “reasonable” influence with AEW officials for creative plans but not any actual power over it. Sapp described it as “It’s just reasonable influence with her saying, ‘Oh, I think this would be cool,’ but not creative control.”

Sapp also reported that while AEW officials have allowed certain star talents to pass on creative ideas, Mone has never been one of them. Mone reportedly has been collaborative and respectful of AEW’s creative process as a whole.

Rumors of Mone having creative control originated from an interview Mone had with TMZ this past June where Mone was asked if she had more creative control than she did in WWE. Mone responded stating “Yes, and I work with Tony Khan very closely.”

---

AEW News & Notes

Tuesday’s 2024 Cheez-It Citrus Bowl College football game of South Carolina vs. Illinois featured Deonna Purrazzo making a guest appearance.

AEW recently released two new AEW Timelines videos to their official YouTube channel. The first new video was a “Best of AEW Dynamite 2024, Part 1.” The second new video was a “Best of AEW Dynamite 2024, Part 2.”

A recent ad for Warner Bros Discovery’s MAX featured Will Ospreay being shown among several sports stars for this week’s sports coverage and games on the service.

Former WWE personality and WWE The Bump co-host Matt Camp reflected on Instagram about him recently completing the first month of his new job with AEW. Camp stated “I’m really excited to work with such a fun, hungry, and talented group of people. And I can’t believe I got to work TWO historic wrestling venues this past weekend. Very excited to bring All Elite Wrestling to the fans in so many ways! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Can’t wait to talk about wrestling even more…“

In a recent episode of the What Happened When with Tony Schiavone podcast, co-host Tony Schiavone gave his thoughts about Toni Storm being one of the best women’s wrestlers he has ever seen in wrestling. Schiavone stated “Toni is probably top five of the best women wrestlers, one of the best women wrestlers I’ve ever seen, as far as her in-ring work too. She is absolutely killing it. Toni Storm is a quality person that you want to see prosper, want to see get ahead.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Adam Copeland gave his thoughts about dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene after it hit his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina this past September. Copeland stated “It’s definitely eye opening when you’re at ground zero of something like that and how long it affects [your life] and how long everything takes to get back to some semblance of normalcy. To brush my teeth for the first time without bottled water, I was like, ‘Whoa! I can use the taps? This is awesome!’ You know, you take it for granted.“

In a separate recent interview with Uproxx, Adam Copeland also gave his thoughts about being interested in wrestling at the Arena Mexico, Tokyo Dome, and Maple Leaf Gardens for his wrestling career. Copeland stated “I’d love to wrestle in Arena México. Never worked there for CMLL or anything like that, so I think that would be great.I’ve been as a fan, at the time I was world champ — so I went to this show with a lucha mask on and I sat in the third row and watched the entire show. Tokyo Dome. Never performed there, love to do that. And then for me, the really big one is Maple Leaf Gardens. I don’t even know what it’s called now, but I want to do Maple Leaf Gardens.“

In a recent interview with Fightful, Big Boom AJ, also known as Costco Guy AJ, gave his thoughts about his match with QT Marshall at this past November’s AEW Full Gear 2024 event and his son Big Justice getting a taste of wrestling by sharing the ring with him. AJ stated “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Sean. I didn’t see a spear. You saw a spear? Yeah, but for Big Justice to experience that, because Big Justice grew up on baseball. Big Justice absolutely loves baseball. I always knew in pro wrestling, no matter where do your recording a TikTok, whether you’re on the set of a movie, whatever it is, there is no connection you’re going to feel like you’re going to feel with the audience at a professional wrestling show. I’m talking about whether you’re on an independent circuit in front of 100 people or you’re at AEW in front of 10,000 people, you are never going to feel that connection anywhere else that you’re going to feel in professional wrestling. So Big Justice got a taste of it.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)