AEW: Young Bucks on Their AEW Ex-EVPs Character Change Being “We Love To Make Fun Of Ourselves”, MVP & “Speedball” Mike Bailey Respond to Rumors of Backstage Issues Between Them, More News

Young Bucks Comments on Their AEW Ex-EVPs Character Change Being “We Love To Make Fun Of Ourselves”

The Undisputed’s Justin Barrasso held a recent interview with The Young Bucks Matt & Nick Jackson. One of the topics discussed included the Young Bucks thoughts about their recent ex-EVPs character change in AEW being comedic in tone.

Nick Jackson – “We love to make fun of ourselves. If you can’t be the butt of a joke in this business sometimes, you probably picked a bad profession. We also like to reinvent our character work and that’s exactly what this has given us. We’ve learned from guys like [Chris] Jericho who always changed with the times, and we take pride in it.”

Matt Jackson – “My mother-in-law and kids specifically, when they tell me how embarrassed they are for me, I can’t help but laugh when I tell them that this was our idea. We’re born to play these types of roles. Many wrestlers in the business prefer not to take on these types of stories, which immediately makes us more interested in doing them.”

Matt also gave his thoughts about the Young Bucks match against Swerve Strickland & Will Ospreay at All In Texas that led to them losing their positions as AEW EVPs per match stipulation.

“I thanked both men after the match for ‘bringing out that guy again. I knew he was still in there somewhere.’ Swerve mentioned it being a personal goal of his to get us to start having that type of fun again. It’s been a glorious time since being back, thanks in large part to him.”

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MVP & “Speedball” Mike Bailey Respond to Rumors of Backstage Issues Between Them

As noted before, MVP is currently dealing with backstage heat within AEW regarding the growing frustrations over MVP’s influence on The Hurt Syndicate’s creative direction for their AEW World Tag Team Championship reign. Besides creative-related issues, MVP is also currently rumored to have apparent dislike of “Speedball” Mike Bailey over unknown reasons.

MVP released a video on Instagram of The Hurt Syndicate running into Bailey backstage and the two exchanging “f*** you” responses in a friendly joking manner.

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AEW News & Notes

RJ City recently released a video on Twitter featuring Willow Nightingale reciting Eddie Kingston’s “The King of The Bums” promo in AEW.

Brody King recently announced on Instagram that he has partnered with Adidas and clothing label wearebraindead for the release of a new limited edition boot and shoe.

Swerve Strickland recently revealed on Twitter that he attended the Jacksonville Jaguars training camp this past Tuesday in Duval, Florida.

In a recent intro video for the newest season of Joseline’s Cabaret television series show on Zeus TV, AEW and ROH talent Kiera Hogan stated that wrestling was always a stepping stone for her for other career opportunities.

Kiera Hogan responded on Wednesday on Twitter to the online backlash over her recent comments about wrestling was always just a “stepping stone for other things” stating “Yes, I said, ‘pro wrestling was always going to be a stepping stone for other things.’ And I meant that. Because wrestling has always been my first love — but I’m multi-talented and unapologetically ambitious. I knew from the jump that wrestling would open doors for me in fashion, TV, and beyond. Just like it has for so many others before me. Y’all cheer when wrestlers land movie roles, runway shows, or makeup deals… but get mad when I say it out loud? I’m not here to play small or limit myself to one lane. I’m here to build an empire. — The Hottest Flame.“

In a recent response to Rob Viper on Twitter, Will Ospreay stated that he wants to be the best version of himself so he can inspire a new generation of wrestlers. Viper stated “One of my takeaways from Wrestlecon Newark was the amount of kids who came out to see Ospreay. Many in WWE shirts for the show later on. Will was great with all of them. It was impressive considering AEW doesn’t directly market to kids as hard as WWE does of course.” Ospreay responded stating “Truly is always amazing whenever parents bring their children over for any meet. The mission will always be to show the best version of myself to inspire a new generation. To everyone that came to show their love, Thank you so much for your support & trust.“

In a recent interview with the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, former AEW and current TNA talent Mike Santana revealed that Cody Rhodes was the one who convinced him to sign with AEW in 2019. Santana stated “So we did the first Jericho cruise. That was the first time that we met The Bucks and Cody and the whole Elite and stuff. So we got to work with the Bucks and had a great match, which probably will never see the light of day, but that was our first initial interaction with them and meeting them and getting to chat or whatever. The AEW thing wasn’t a thing yet. So we just continued doing our thing in TNA. And then Cody and I always stayed in touch. We exchanged numbers. We all stayed in touch or whatever. I remember we started hearing the rumblings of the AEW, and they could be starting a new promotion, and all this stuff. So it was a very interesting time. Then I remember being in the movie theater, I forgot what movie I was watching, I was with my daughter, and I got a text from Cody. You know you’re in the movie theater, and then a text comes in, you look down, and your eyesight is trying to adjust. So I look and I see Cody [has messaged me], I’m like, Oh, damn, what’s going on? Such a Cody text, by the way, I open my phone, and it goes, ‘It’s real. It’s happening. When is your contract up?’ So then we chatted a little bit and I gave him my word, and that was that. That to me, is everything. So that was a big component. Even when we were having the talks with WWE, I remember we were sitting in a parking lot in Puerto Rico, where we finally decided and we were going to tell WWE, hey, we’re gonna go do this other thing. The main thing that we said is, listen, we gave them our word.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with Fightful Espanol, “Speedball” Mike Bailey gave his thoughts about how his wrestling career has a direct trajectory now that he works for AEW. Bailey stated “It feels a lot more comfortable, and I feel like my career has a lot more of a direct trajectory now that I work for one promotion and that one promotion has global reach. I think the global expansion of AEW has been fantastic to watch, going to Australia last year, doing more and more shows in Canada, coming to the UK with Forbidden Door this month, and then coming to Elena, Mexico earlier in the year. The global expansion of AEW is part of the reason why I joined the company. I don’t want ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey to exist in only one country. I want ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey to be known all around the world, and I feel like the best way for me to achieve that right now is with a company like AEW.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)