Young Bucks Admit Dumbing Down Their Wrestling Backfired in AEW

The Young Bucks thought dialing back their in-ring style would help tell a stronger story. Instead, it nearly derailed their entire AEW run.

While speaking on The Battleground Podcast, Matt and Nick Jackson revealed that intentionally watering down their signature moveset didn’t just frustrate fans—it actually made their matches worse. They were deep into their EVP heel run at the time and decided to stop doing what made them famous. The idea was to generate heat by removing high spots, flashy double-team sequences, and explosive moments. But as Matt Jackson explained, it backfired hard.

“One thing that didn’t work that we noticed was we tried—like he just said—we tried to dumb down our wrestling style, our wrestling moves, and it just didn’t work. Because I think fans have seen us for so long, 21 years now, they’re used to seeing a certain quality of match—a crazy match. And they’re used to seeing us hit, you know, our high spots and our double team moves. And we took all that away and I think it actually hurt our matches.”

Once they realized it wasn’t clicking, the brothers wasted no time adjusting. Matt said they didn’t just go back to the original formula—they cranked it up harder than ever.

“So we went back even with the volume up even higher doing what we used to do.”

Nick added that halfway through the run, they understood the need to pivot. The entire situation served as a reminder that AEW fans expect elite match quality from the Bucks, no matter the storyline.

For a team known for constant reinvention, this was a rare misfire—but they owned it. And by going back to what made them special, they reignited the fire that helped define AEW’s tag team division.