Insight with Chris Van Vliet - The Young Bucks explain Cody's "gimmicked" chairshot, CM Punk, AEW video game, PAC's status

Episode Date: July 10, 2019

The Young Bucks, Matt and Nick Jackson talk with Chris at Florida Supercon in Miami Beach, FL. They cover a number of topics including how the unprotected chairshot to Cody at Fyter Fest was supposed to go, the conversations they've had with CM Punk, how close they were to signing with WWE, the possibility of an AEW video game, PAC's contract status, if Being The Elite will continue once AEW starts on TNT, who has the final say about storylines in AEW and much, much more! Audio equipment provided by Samson Technologies: bit.ly/CVVSamson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's Chrysomania, brother. That's a great question. Look at you, man. What's the powerful question. Woo! This is the Chris Van Bleach Show. Chris Van Bleach Show. Ladies and gentlemen.

Chris. Welcome, my friends. How are you? Doing well? Well, that's great. Thank you for downloading this. And joining me for another episode of the Chris Van Fleet Show. And boy, this might be one of the most anticipated interviews I've done all year. I mean, when I posted this on Twitter and Instagram and said I was going to interview the Young Bucks, you guys flooded me with a ton of questions for them. And I loved it. Thank you for that. And nothing was off limits in this interview. I mean, we talked about what was supposed to happen with Cody Road's chair shot at Fighter Fest that Nick Jackson said was a gimmicked chair. We talk about their conversations they've been having with CM Punk. We talk about POX A.W status. We talked about the possibility of an AEW video game.

We talked about whether being the elite will still exist when AEW starts on weekly television on TNT this fall. I mean, we covered it all. And I'm super grateful that this interview happened because I interviewed the Bucks about a year and a half ago with Kenny Omega at a Ring of Honor show in Fort Lauderdale. And it was cut short because the show was about to start. They were turning the right lights on and off to warn us that the show is starting. It was not the best interview. And we needed a redo here.

And even though we had this interview set up at Florida Supercon on Miami Beach, it almost didn't happen. I know you guys love hearing the stories of how this stuff comes together. And this is an epic one. I was at a wedding the night before with my girlfriend in the, Cincinnati. It's a wedding, so it ended at like midnight. We get back to the hotel, maybe 12, 30 or something. I woke up at 4 a.m. to take the first flight back at 6 a.m. to then land at 9 a.m. got picked up at the airport, made it into the interview room with the bucks with like two minutes to spare.

Yeah, but boy, am I glad this worked out because the interview is awesome. And you know what else is awesome. You know what's awesome? These reviews you guys have been leaving me on Apple Podcasts. So please keep them coming. I'm going to read one on every episode. Hopefully more keep piling in. Now we've got like 1206 of them. The show is like two weeks

old. This is amazing. I'm glad you guys are enjoying this as much as I am. Stephen Parsons 15 titles this Must Listen podcast. He says, if you like listening to interviews by a genuine reporter who gets the best out of whoever he's interviewing, this is the podcast

for you. CVV is quite frankly the best in the world at everything he does. That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but thank you, Stephen. Listen to this podcast, it's become a daily ritual for me. That is exceptionally kind. That's very good. Thank you very much. And thank you to Green Roads, because as you know, the Chris Van Fleet Show is brought to you by Green Roads. They have the best CBD products, hands down, and not all CBD products are equal. Now, we've heard a lot about CBD oil and CBD products. And a lot of companies have come out of nowhere trying to cash in on this. And their stuff's quite frankly not very good at all. And a lot of them don't even have CBD in them. Green Roads, though, was founded by pharmacists. They're dedicated to improving the lives of people who take it.

It's not just CBD oil, although their CBD oil is very good. Their creams, their gummies, everything they have is awesome. Even there's CBD oil for pets. It just helps, that's helped for me with just kind of getting my mind maybe not be so stressful. And I've got a lot going on these days. So it's been awesome. Use my code, Chris 15, to get 15% off your order at greenroadsworld.com. The CVV show also brought into your ears by the microphone that I'm speaking into right now. Samson Technologies hooked us up with our podcast and equipment and I can't thank them enough for that.

go to samsontech.com where you can see their full lineup of awesome equipment at surprisingly great prices. This is such a great conversation with Matt and Nick. I love how they speak so openly about literally any subject that I brought up. And they're not afraid to say the letters at WW, which a lot of people in AEW don't say. They'll just say some other companies. It's also fascinating to hear how close they were to signing with WWE, like, really close before A.EW became a reality. So sit back, relax. Please enjoy this chat with the Young Bucks.

I feel like sitting in these big interview chairs. We're on like a professional interview show here. Yeah, it kind of feels like that. Yeah. You got to hold the mic up here. All right, there we go. Nick has morning face still. He's like barely serious.

Yeah, I didn't sleep the night before this, so I slipped my ass off last night. He's even kind of a morning voice. Do I? Yeah. Yeah. Thank God. Thank you guys for making this happen.

Yeah, thanks for you have with us. I know you guys are busy people. The last time we spoke was about a year and a half ago. That's right. Ring of Honor. The interview where the lights were going out because the time was, you know. Was Kenny with us? We were like sitting in the bleachers? That's right.

I don't even remember. And we all, I don't think any of us had t-shirts on that day. I think we were all just shirtless. Okay. Yeah. No, and I was like, that's it. Like the way I got like four minutes. Oh.

So thank you for maybe giving me more. more than four minutes today. Oh, you know what, now I remember. That was when we had like eight interviews in like a matter of like a tower. And the one guy took like 28 minutes for your 30 minutes of interviews. Anytime you're dealing with Kenny, he's quite a wild card. So we knew we're like, this is going to be short. But obviously a lot has changed in the last year and a half.

Yes, sir. From the outside looking in. What's been the biggest change for you guys, you know, actually being in this? Geez. The biggest change? Oh, man. Well, we were talking about this just a second ago, right? about the schedule is just so different, like the travel.

Like, Nick and I, you know, we're so used to be on an airplane every three days. So as soon as we signed these contracts January 1st, like, we barely traveled. So we've been home with our families, which has been amazing. But at the same time, it's been different for us because, like, we're so used to being on the go. And I'm just always around. So I'm sure I'm just in the way of, like, you know, my wife's plans. And my kids are probably like, what's dad still doing here? But we've also had a lot of time to bond and stuff.

And we've had to kind of like grow into these, these jobs, as executives, you know, as vice presidents. And I'll tell you the truth, like when we start, I'm like, what does it even mean? What does this job mean? I have no idea what I'm doing, right? And but I feel like since then, I've learned so much about what that means. And I feel like it's made me mature as a person, as a business person. And, yeah, it's, it's been, it's just been really fresh and new. We live on the phone.

Yes. That's a big difference. It's a never-ending 24-7 group chat about creative, or it's an email, a chain that never ends. You're constantly working. It's a lot of work. Someone needs to contact us at every hour of the day, so that's a big difference. You're always on. Tony mentioned you guys have this group chat.

What is the title of the group chat? I named it creative the other day, actually, right? Yeah, I finally gave it a name. I'm like, we should probably name this thing. There's multiple group chats. There's an AEW one. There's a creative one. There's a AEW Good Brothers one.

Oh, yeah, with Jericho's in that one. We have a collaboration's work with Conan. Jericho loves calling people good brothers. Yes, he loves it. Yeah. That's the thing. So your EVPs, there's a bunch of EBPs. Obviously, you guys all have different roles.

What exactly are the roles that you guys have in the company? We're such a baby company still. I think we're still trying to figure that out. Like, we all kind of just, like, we're wearing 20 hats each. Well, yeah, I think we are behind the tag teams that are getting hired. For sure. For sure. There's different, like, categories you could say. Like, Kenny is, he's taking his time on the women's division.

He's got his hands all over that. He's helping out with a lot of that work. You should have seen him at Fighter Fest. Oh, my gosh, yeah. He had to, like, what, with three different matches, he had to coach. So, yeah, plus he had to do our match. So he was just, he was nuts that day. Then he had the run in later.

Yeah. All day long. At the end of the night, he just passed out. He was dead. He was dead. So this is probably also a difference for you guys. Usually when you're working indie shows, you go, you do your appearance, sign your autographs, you do your match. Right.

Where would we find you guys? Oh, my God. Backstage in an AEW show. Never stationary. Like, we're always running around doing something. It's pretty hectic. It's really made my anxiety levels, like, come to another level, like, on show days. Like, I thought I was anxious before.

Now, this job, it's like. oh my god Nick like we're just looking at each other like when are we going to have time to to to to even sit down and talk when are we going to have time to eat or talk to this guy or this guy like it's been fun though it's panicked it's challenging it's very challenging you know it reminds me of like 15 12 years ago when we were running our own little small company and uh we ran it all by ourselves so it's very similar but this is obviously on a larger scale people people don't realize to the fact that the Lucha brothers are insane, and they wrestle four times a week or whatever, right?

So they're never going to make a call time because they're coming from a different town. So they always show up last second. We're busy as it is. So at Fighter Fest, we didn't even have a finish call, and the match before us was finishing. We had no finish call. No way.

It's just how it is. So we're just like looking at each other. Brandon, he's filming us right now for BTE. He says he's never seen us that nervous before a match because usually we're like cool callman collected, We were freaked out. To break K-Fave, as soon as our music hit, I went, oh my God, I don't even know my opening high spot.

I don't even know my opening high spot. What am I going to do? This guy speaks Spanish. It's been hard, man. And a lot of guys, like, they have a week, two weeks, a month. They go and they plan their matches ahead of time or they rehearse. And, like, Nick and I have always been, like, no, the red light's got to be on. It's show day.

We call that thing. Last night. But, like, we're really pushing this now. We're like, maybe we should consider getting together a little earlier in the day or the day before, perhaps. We always had that. Us and like Kevin Steen. Elginarco is pretty bad, too. The four of us always calling things last second.

Elginarico was famous for always never having his gear on and his match to be up next. He'd always be running around in silver underwear. Like his one boot, like not tied and his mask halfway on. And he'd be like going through the match panicked. That's us. We're Elginerico now. Are you able to take a step back, though, and really? realize like how much of an impact, you've only had two shows, how much of an impact you're having

on the wrestling roles a whole. I'm saying, we've changed the whole pay scale for everyone in wrestling, which is awesome. Like a lot of our friends are getting paid and they're finally making money for the first time in their careers. It feels good. It feels awesome. It just feels like the pressure's been put on everybody in the professional wrestling business. We have to kill at every show.

Yeah. Everybody's trying harder now. It's very competitive again. And we need competition. And the industry needs it to survive. But even before AEW, you guys had changed the indie wrestling game. Like it really was you guys that were putting your fingerprints on this and going, you don't need to sign with a major company to make a living, to pay your mortgage.

Yeah, we saw Colt Cabana be the pioneer of that way. And he went to WWE for a minute. But after that, he went full on and just made tons of money. And I remember we'd be at little indie shows, and he would tell us his year to date. and we were blown away. We were like, how is that even possible? Well, and much of that came through the podcast, right? Yeah.

I remember we said much of the sales and all that. But a lot of it was podcast stuff. Yeah, and we were blown away. We were like, wow, we could do this then without going there. And we pretty much took what he did and tried to do it. Oh, we did it with YouTube. You know what I mean? And being the elite was born.

I think that's when we started going to the shows and we started seeing our lines just growing. And our merch being bought more. and it just seemed like we were like, it's because of that, right? Like, you can just tell. So we started kind of like surveying and we were like, it is because of that. So we just put everything into this show.

And once that happened, it felt like people started knowing us on a personal level. And people are just rooting for us as people, not just like, oh, these guys are great wrestlers. But I actually like, you know, I like them because, you know, they're family guys. And we like the same restaurants.

And I like drinking 12 cups of coffee like Matt does always on being the elite and they're always tired like we became more relatable you know what I mean and so the show really changed that and uh yeah like I don't know what happened we just felt like this boom happening on the independence club got really hot yeah absolutely absolutely there's a multiple like of things that went with it with new japan was getting red hot so many things went right timing was right yeah timing was perfect and we just and we saw it and we capitalized on it we're always thinking six months a year ahead so like I think that's one thing that that we've always done in the professional wrestling business we're always

looking at the trends like what's trending let's go with that thing you know what i mean and a lot of you guys are leading the trend yes yeah and i think that's i mean everything we've we always talk about this about about like everything we've done in professional wrestling up until this day it was we didn't realize it was training us for a e w like we had no idea we didn't know we were going to be executives one day or help write creative like i think the show uh being the elite helped us kind of condition us to like writing a show every week we didn't realize it we're having a deadline I told Matt that too. We were starting to get burnt out.

We both said, hey, we're doing this show on a weekly basis for something bigger. I don't know what it is, but I hope soon it comes. And while AEW was born, and then we felt like, hey, that was the reason for it. It's actually crazy that there might at some point be more people watching being the elite than watching you guys on TV. And that's not a knock on TNT. That's just the trend of how broadcast is going. Sure. And I think once we are on TNT, and we're able to,

to plug it. I think that's going to help a lot. So being the elite will continue? You know, like, we don't, we always say we don't know, right? But, like, how could it not in some way? I don't know if it's going to be the same format. I don't know if it's going to, like, who knows? I don't think that we can just get rid of it, though, because it's so powerful of a tool for us.

I think it's always going to have to be around, like, in some fashion. But right now you're doing stuff on being the elite that has a payoff on AED program. Yes. Can you do that week to week? That's a good question. It would be hard because we already have to write. the stuff for the TV show and then we would have to write more for the YouTube show. Yeah, then are you gonna save stuff and go, ooh, maybe better on the YouTube show.

Maybe we turn more into the old school vlog of us traveling and stuff like that. Behind the scenes, stuff you don't see. It was way easier on us, so we didn't have to think of stories who would just, just film me because I'm walking. You know what's so great about- Just film and do hat. What's so great about the show too, though, is like if we can't fit the entire roster on the television show, we go, hey, we got being the elite. People are still here.

Let's get them on this. You know, it's like, I think that's another way it can be useful going forward. Yeah. I mean, you guys have, you really have changed things. And you have this entrepreneurial mindset now. Is this something that was instilled at you at a young age? Like, were you mowing the neighbor's yard or something like that? Pretty much.

I mean. We were working with our dad. Yeah, he's in the construction forever. So we were building roofs with him when I was like 12 years old. Same with you. We came from very little, though. Like we had a, like my dad didn't make a whole lot of money, but he's hustled, right? So we learned that hustle and working hard.

And we had a big family. We had four kids, family of six. So like I said, we didn't come from a whole lot of money. Like we struggled. So I think a part of that also like now, it's like we finally have come into making good income. But I'll never forget those days of struggling. So it's like I think that's a big part of why we hustle and why we never quit. Maybe there's this weird fear inside of me of being broke again one day.

You know what I mean? Because I know what it's like. So like I never, like Nick and I are never comfortable or complacent. We always are like, let's move forward. Let's go, let's go. We're at this convention this weekend. You know what I mean? We just, we were home for a couple of days.

You know, it's like, we still have it in our blood. It's never going to stop. But as far as being an entrepreneur, I don't know, man. I don't know where that came. I think really, would you say like the maybe 10 years ago? Like we talk about the Col Cabanas, the Al Genericos, the Kevin Seans, the guys that were sitting behind the table, the Chris Heroes, the guys that were sitting behind the table hustling. And we would be at the same table, but we wouldn't have a single person in our line.

And then we would get to the back and we would see them with. just wads of cash. We go, what are they doing different? You know, and I remember just watching them and seeing the way they would engage with fans and how they would be happy and inviting. We would kind of be shy and just put her heads down. I'm like, we have to be more like that. And then kind of look at their designs and go, okay, people like those designs.

Let's do something similar to that. It's really just, all it is, is you're copying what you see and you're making it your own. Yeah, I think the phrase is success leaves clues. So if you can take a little bit from each person. Right. But also, you know, wrestling's always been about telling the story within the ropes. You guys have completely changed that. Maybe because you're taking the clues from all these other people.

I think so. But, you know, you're telling a story, you know, all the time now. Right. Some people say we don't know how to tell stories, though. We get that all the time. We always will. But that just comes with how we look, how we carry ourselves. I don't know.

Our style and the ring. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's one thing. will always be underrated for is our storytelling. But again, we're always looking six months ahead. Where's this headed? And everything we do is very strategic in that ring, whether it's, and the way we tell stories now, it's like if we plant something on our series, there's good reason for it.

There's most likely going to be some type of payoff down the line. We're not just randomly putting stuff on there. So, yeah. Well, speaking of storytelling, I've been a wrestling fan my whole life, as have you guys. I had never heard the term gimmicked chair shop before. So you've got to explain this to me. That was brand new. Cody was working on that for a good month, I'd say, right?

Yeah. What was supposed to happen? Well, the chair, it was the middle of it was so soft. Well, not soft. They sanded it down, right? But yeah, it was so thin, I should say. It should have probably broke over his head if it was right in the middle of it. The edge of it happened to nill him in the back of the head, and that's what cut him up.

So the chair would have folded over, he would have been wearing the chair in his head? And it would have been. easier than like it would have felt like uh what were those like a cookie sheet and sheets that yeah it was as as thin as that so it should have been like that but it didn't he just hit him at the wrong angle and busted him open is cody okay yeah he's all right he's okay he got a staples i heard it was a dozen but i guess he he said it was 10 12 10 samples yeah but he's all right he's okay no definitely caught him though like he was oh yeah he was lesson learned there's a bunch of fans going well he got hit on this side and he was bleeding on the other side

It's like, well, obviously the lip of the chair caught him. Yeah, the lip caught him and it got him good. It's too bad. But either way, we knew it would carry controversy. We warned him and we were like, this is going to be a big thing. And I mean, and it was and it had its effect and it worked. But I'm just glad he's okay, honestly. It's scary.

Anything with the, when you're messing with your brain, man, it's freaky. Everyone is freaked out either way. I'm just glad he's okay. Do you think that that would be a spot you guys would try again? Maybe not. You know, this week. I wouldn't have tried it in the beginning in the first place. If Cody, maybe, maybe Cody.

I don't think Tony will allow that. Yeah, he was pretty upset about it. Really? Yeah. But wouldn't he have to have the okay? Yeah, but I think they were hoping that it would go down differently. Sure. You know what I mean?

Not as a botch of the way it went down. Is there like, is there a chain of command? Like, is Tony the last person? Yes. Yes. Really? Okay. So everything goes through him?

Everything goes through Tony. So if there's, have there been ideas that have been run up ladder. I guess to Tony, he goes, I don't think so. Usually he's really flexible. Like, it is collaborative. But yeah, like, if you're going to get any, if anything actually ends up happening on that show, Tony has heard about the idea.

He's cleared it. He's okayed it. But Tony and wins and losses, we'll get this the rest of our careers, right? They're going to go, the bucks booked themselves to win. You know how badly we did not want to win any of the matches we've had? Like, Tony is the last guy. It's a collaborative thing. To the last minute, we were like, no, we're losing in Vegas. Tony's, nope.

He's the guy who signs off on wins and losses. That's him. That's his job. Well, if I had to guess as a fan, then you guys win the tag team titles then. I mean, who knows, right? I mean, wins and losses matter. You know, like, well, we are 2 and O. I can't imagine us not eventually holding them, but, you know, we'll see.

We'll see. How long you don't have to tell specifically, but how long until we start to figure out the details of the tag team tournament? Probably soon. Soon. Soon. We got brackets almost done. Yeah, I think there's a couple words still time Tony's got a lot of good ideas for it

And this is we're talking to media like this is one of the things we want to kick TV off with Okay, so it's gonna be a big deal and then Nick said the tag division is huge to us Stacked yeah, so we're gonna we're gonna really make this good are there new tag teams that we haven't seen yet? That you guys? There might we've been talking There's plans, yeah Now when you guys talk about you know having your hands on the tag team division are Luchessaurus and jungle boy considered a tag team? I think so Yes, yep, okay that's exciting Yeah I think we

We could have a good one with those guys. It's funny because, like, we considered it. And we were like, yeah, that'd be great. But then they started getting so over. We were like, okay, they're attacking for sure. Yeah, like they can't come out without one another now. Yeah, they're for sure attacking. Yeah.

There's been a lot of questions surrounding Pock. What is the latest situation on him? He's coming. I mean, eventually. Yeah, he's coming, though. I'm pretty sure. I mean, we're pretty much at 99%, you know, that he's here. It's a work in progress.

Yeah. Yeah. It's obvious that Matt and I are big fans. Oh, my God, yeah. We met him like 10 years ago over in Japan, so we'll always have ties with him, and we want to work things out with him. Yeah.

All right. Looking good. That's exciting because we haven't really heard any sort of update about him before double or nothing. It's a priority for us, and I think we're going to make this thing work. Good, because I think a lot of fans were going, well, if he didn't show up at double or nothing,

he wasn't a fighter fest, maybe he's not coming anymore. I think eventually we'll go. I think it's just a matter of trying to fit his skills. schedule with ours. Yeah. Hopefully things work out. If things didn't come together with Tony Kahn and AEW, with the success of All In,

were you guys thinking of starting your own promotion anyway? Yeah. Yeah, actually. We considered it. It was either the last options we had before AEW became a thing is going to WWE or starting our own thing. And we were probably going to start our own thing. It was hard, though, because we had some great offers on the table.

Was WWE one of those hours? Yeah, we talked to them endlessly, like endlessly. Wow. And at one point, I remember me, Nick and Kenny were in a room because all of our deals were up around the same time. And we got off the phone one day and we looked at each other and I said, I think we're all going to WWE. Yeah, yeah.

And it was that close. It was that close. Wow. And Tony came to us at the right time and he just made the better offer, you know. And I'm not talking financially. I'm talking, you know, hey, you guys could run. this thing. And that's something that we couldn't get elsewhere. And I was like, and I want you guys to hire your people.

You know, like, you can't put a dollar amount on any of that. It's like, it's like someone saying, hey, I want you to make a movie and you can hire all the cameramen. You can hire all the riders. You can hire all your friends to be with you. So it's kind of like an Adam Sandler movie. He gave us the keys to this thing. And it's like, you can't say no to this, you know. Isn't there also a certain point where you've made enough money that like, what's another couple hundred thousand dollars or whatever that's like, it won't really matter.

No. You know what I'm saying. Yes. I always, you can't put a price tag on mental health. Sure. And being around all of the people you love and actually being able to be creative and express yourself,

you can't put a price tag on that. One thing that took us out of the race for going to WB was the amount of dates that they would want us to do. And we're like, but they even offered us a limited schedule. Yeah. Yeah, but we have young families, even with that limited schedule, it was like, God, I can't imagine being home for two days for my kids, you know what I'm like a week.

But any time we would mention like the reasons why we were afraid to go to go to. Yeah. They would say, okay, well, we'll do this. We'll do. They had an answer for everything. So that's why when we got off the phone that one day, the three of us looked at each other said, well, I guess we're going to WWE. Like, how can you say no to that? And then, you know, we got a whole of the cons and that was it.

Wow. Yeah. Was the plan to go to the main roster? because a lot of people come in to the NXT. They were already talking big, big plans for us. Wow. Yeah. But, I mean, again, we were never, one thing about the three of us, we're very unique is like a lot of the, a lot of the boys, you know,

we knew what we were going to do. Yes, but a lot of the boys, their end game is WWE. We gave up that years ago. Like, maybe when I was like 23. You know what's funny is when we were doing extra work for them in like 2008, maybe? Yeah. Like, we would be backstage and we're like, God, this environment. sucks. It's like, why are we walking on eggshells when we're trying to get a job? Like,

imagine when we have a job here, how it's going to feel. And I always remember that as a young, like, adult, I was like, I don't think I could do that. Yeah, I remember we'd have a conversation. I don't think I could live that life. We would look at each other and it kind of broke my heart. Yes. Because at that time, I wanted to be a WWE superstar. Like, that was my, my goal was to be there. And then being back there, I was like, God, this, this is terrible. And, like, for us, like, we suck at people like talking down to us and like we authority figures like we just rebel it's in our spirit

to like be you know DIY and we're like we can kind of keep that same spirit if we do this other thing like why should we stop being who we are and we could still put up the content we want to put out like why should we stop that and I think like five years ago when we started making very good money

we're like oh yeah all right we don't need to go there ever we could have stayed in ROH forever or have done independence and been fine And, like, the original question, you're like, were you going to start a wrestling company? We talked, we kicked around the idea. Yeah, us, Cody, and Kenny, we were thinking of like... Was this the rumor with JR?

Remember that? No, no, that was a different rumor. That was something completely different. I don't know how that got started, actually. Yeah, I don't know who leaves. We were talking about doing maybe, what, four big shows a year. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. We were even talking to, like, Netflix and things like that to... Oh, wow. To maybe get things going, but we didn't have to. So, yeah. I'm glad everything worked out. Is the plan with AEW still four big shows a year? I think four big pay-per-views, I think.

That's the idea. Well, double or nothing you said last week would be a continuous. Yeah, we'll be back. We'll do another one. Vegas was very happy. And we love Vegas because it's only a drive away from us. Sure, yeah. We're going to do that again for sure next year.

We're still planning our schedule. Like, we don't even know yet. It's still kind of out there. We just got a big lineup, though, to see what we liked. And we got a whole lineup of the cities. That's a big with the ITV deal. I think we would like to go there. People are hearing that right now.

There are so many UK wrestling. Yeah, we have to go. We have to go. Canada, a lot of people are asking about Canada. I would love to go to Canada. Tony loves Canada. I mentioned to Tony that I'm from Toronto. He's like, did you know that I own the four seasons?

He loves talking about that. He loves that hotel. He loves that hotel. Of course you own the four seasons. Yeah, I think Toronto would be a great city, right? Yeah. We'll be there eventually. Tony's talking about doing a big show in the UK.

So I don't want to give spoilers Anywhere we go though now the fans are like when you come in here And it's like we always say like we're going to be a touring So eventually we'll come like we'll be around The plan is to go everywhere so I don't know when but what size venues can you start running though when you start touring That's tricky Like the UK I feel like we could probably do a pretty good size one yeah you think and probably Toronto as well The rule of thumb I always go off of if if it's a big city it's a big building

Small city smaller smaller building yeah I think we're going to look at five to 12,000 seaters. Yeah, that sounds fair. I mean, that's what's on the schedule right now. So, yeah. I think we'll plan accordingly too. You want to get too far ahead. And then, you know, something happens like the, what happened with New Japan and Dallas, you know what I mean?

I'm not to take a shot of them. They shot, they shot high, but they couldn't fill it up. Like, I just don't want pictures on the internet of empty seats. That's our biggest thing. We want to, we want to be, we want to plan ahead and be smart about this. But is it, so is it better to sell out a 4,000 seat place or to put 6,000 in a 10,000 seat place? I mean, an economics guy, the finance guy, I'll say $6,000. Yeah.

But I don't know. It's all about perception. The internet's so funny. It's so funny. Yeah. Like, it's hard to even explain. Like, I don't know. What is right?

I think the bottom line is the dollar, right? So, like, how big was that building? Okay, how much did that building cost? Did it cost more? Did you make the money back with the six? Like, it's economics. Like, I don't know. Like, me, as a professional wrestler, I'll go, I'd rather sell it that $4,000.

So it looks off. awesome. We rocked that building. The perception of it is you sold it out. No matter how many people you put in the building, it was called a sellout. So it's always going to look better. But if you run small buildings forever, you'll always sell out. Exactly. But at the same time, we're ambitious. And I can't see Tony being like, yeah, let's just run theaters forever. Like he's just, he's like us and Cody and Kenny, they're the same. Like, we're going to shoot high and we'll probably do, you know, some massive buildings also. But you're going to get to some cities where there's going to be a real arbitrage between like, all right it's either this building it's 2000 or this building where the NBA team plays you know we're going to have to make a decision right now and I guarantee you there's going to be cities where we don't do as good as we usually do in Chicago and that's just the nature of the business it's so strategic though like we have so many people great people like like Dana my wife and

Chris Harrington like these people they pull the stats you know and they they could tell us like I'll even out like hey how do we do in this city and they'll let me know so like we're not going to just throw a you know a random dart on the map and be like let's do a show there like Everything is planned ahead. Like, we're thinking about these things. What did you think of Revival's tweet, that revival's the best tag to? Oh, I saw that. I mean, they're great.

I mean, I laughed at it a little bit in truth. Like, I was by myself and kind of gave it a little chuckle. Because they specifically named you guys. Yeah, I mean, that's Balzy, right? They didn't mention our Twitter names, though. No, I mean, I don't think they mention anyone's Twitter names. It was just like a list. No, I saw that.

And I love that, like, when people aren't afraid to poke the bear. Because I'm like, you know what, that's probably something I would do. So I got a good, I got entertainment out of it. I don't think they're better than nothing. So if that's a question. It's always fun, though, to book fantasy cards and stuff like that. And I think we would have a great matchup with those guys. Absolutely.

If for whatever reason we ever worked with WWE somehow. But I don't know. Or if they had a relief. Yeah, it's fun to look at, you know. Well, from the start, the narrative's been that, you know, AEW is not competition at WWE. We're going to be an alternative. Yeah.

Sure doesn't seem like WWE is seeing it that way anymore. Yeah. It's funny, huh? Isn't it? Yeah. It's a funny thing. But you know what? They hate us, I think.

Well, why wouldn't they? Like, we're disrupting everything. New Japan hates us, too. I get it. New Japan hits you now? Oh, are you kidding me? I think everybody looks at AEW as competition. Because, I mean, we're this new thing.

Nobody knows what, like, people are afraid of the unknown, right? They're like, who are these guys? And every day you see a new headline about something we're doing. So, like, it's intimidating. And people are fearful of change. I get it. But we're going to say that way. We're going to be the alternative, and we really do mean it.

Like, we want to be different from every other company that you see. And I feel like the first two shows that we've done, we've given a different type of show every time we've done it. Well, what was missing from wrestling as a whole that made you guys want to start your own company? I think something grittier and edgier. And for us, tag team wrestling. Yeah, that's a big one, actually. It hasn't been around, man. And we just want to show people like tag team wrestling can be a semi-main event, a main event.

It could be a big match. It could be one of the top three matches on the show. When's the last time you saw that? So for us, that was always a big deal. It's like if we're going to do this, we're going to show everybody what we've been doing for a decade on the independence. Because the independence, we were the main event for 10 years doing this act. And it works. And it drew people to the buildings like we've seen in the past, you know, the past several years.

I think storytelling, too. Sure. Man, everything's so hot-shotted, like, with, what you see on TV these days. It's like, come on, try to give some type of long-term story that fans could just dig their teeth into, you know what I mean? And I feel like fans want that. Yeah, everything is so rushed. Like someone was complaining yesterday at our table here at this convention, they were like, they were like, within two weeks, they've started a new story, and they've already ended it. And I might have missed a week, so I'm like, what happened, you know?

And I don't think there's anything wrong with showing a character just a little bit on one week, and maybe not even showing him the second week, bringing them back the third week. Like, it doesn't have to be so much every show. We give away a lot. Like, and I think that with the world the way it is now, like technology, it's like everybody thinks that you want it right now, right then and now. It's like, no, it's like, listen, people watch Netflix. People watch Showtime.

You know, Dane and I watch HBO every week. You know, pretty little. What's the name of the show? Big Little Eyes. Like, every week, I'm like, I'm invested in this thing. And they only give you a little bit every week. But they give you just enough that you want to come back one week later. I still think our habits as TV viewers are like, we want to come back and watch.

You don't have to give us everything yet. You know what I mean? So I think we're hoping to do a little bit of that. Who's the name that people tweet at you guys the most? I'm just an interviewer of you guys and I get tweets all the time about ask if they're going to bring this person. Ask if they're going to sign this person. Yeah, that's an easy one. It's CM Punk.

Yeah. Yeah. I think we'll always be that. Hands down, right? Yeah. And we'll be honest. Of course we would love him to come to our company. At this time, though, I just don't think he wants to.

Yeah, it's going to be his, when he wants to come back to wrestling, it'll be his decision. Do you think it's a when or you think it's an F? If, I think it's an F. God, we would love to. Like, Matt talks to him all the time about it, and it's just the timing's not right, I guess. You got to love, professional wrestling, man, this is, he knows better than anybody. This is the most demanding thing in the world. And you can't just, like, find yourself back in it one day and be like, okay, I guess I'm doing this again.

You really have to want to do it. And that's up to him. But you guys could probably create a situation where it's like, if you only want to come once a month, sure. We can make that happen, Phil. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah.

We'll see. You see that guys? Uh-oh. I don't know. Let's see what happens. Look, I asked Tony the same question. I'm interested to hear the answer from you guys. What do you think is the five-year plan for AEW?

Man, five years. it's probably just to be a different alternative, like I said earlier. We feel like there's a chance to get a lot of the fans that stopped watching wrestling, like from the 90s and early 2000s, the attitude era that a lot of people like to call it. A lot of those fans have been turned away from wrestling. And there's a few million of them. And I feel like there's still. million of them. And I feel like

they're still wrestling fans, but they just don't like what they see on TV now. So if we could get some of those fans back and if we could get them to watch our product and keep them, I feel like that would be the biggest thing we could do in the next five years.

Yeah, he's right. Like so many 30, 40 year olds come up to us all the time ago. You made me fall back in love with wrestling. I gave up on it. And your guys's new vision has given me hope. Like, I want to be a fan again. There's just been no reason for me to be a fan again. And we're bringing them back.

So like if we, in five years, if we can, you know, be popping a great rating every week, still selling out buildings, if we've given, you know, an alternative place for people to make money and support their families, man, that's great. I just have to say thank you as a fan, also as a journalist for the access that you guys have given me, the access that AEW is given. Sure. WWE would never let any of their stars talk to an open mic after a show. Like, that is crazy that you guys allow them.

We want to be different like that, though. It feels more like a sport, you know what I mean? And Tony is big into that, obviously. And I'm not sure if we're K-fab in those interviews or not. Like, it's, it walks a very fine line. It is. It's kind of, I mean, New Japan does the same thing, right? Well, not to this extent.

They don't ever break characters. Right. I think of it, like, like, I always loved the NBA when I was a kid, and they would go into the locker rooms and the players. I mean, in the locker rooms, the players would be changing, and they put a mic in their face. And, like, here, talk, and it's so natural. It feels raw, too, you know what I mean? It's cool.

And, again, this goes back to people liking wrestlers on a personal level. Because they're not necessarily in full character because they're not in their costumes and they're not working a crowd. They're in an intimate environment with a microphone. And I think that's why people like watching interviews like this. They go, that's who these guys are. I get it. Okay. I like them.

Or I don't like them. We have to give credit to Tony for that because that, was all him. Yeah. I think it probably comes with him owning the Jaguars. Yeah, I mean, sure. And it feels more like a sport because of it. Yeah, although like Chris Jericho on camera there and Chris Jericho off camera,

I was like, hey, you know, something happened in that match with Kenny. You know, Kenny broke his nose. What happened? And he's like, I punched him his face. I'm like, well, not really. And then afterwards, like the cameras were off. He's like, hey, Chris, it was good to see him. That's awesome.

But what? Everybody's different. I guess. MJF's another one of those guys. Well, MJF's always on. That's probably another person that people tweet me about all the time.

Yeah. What's he like in person? How funny. And I'm like, yeah, he's a dick. He's going to be a big star. Oh, my God, he is. Absolutely. I was going to say that.

That would be hard for us to, like, try to like, oh, the red lights on. Let's act like the crazy young. We've always been pretty real. Well, we, and people watch, they watch this vlog every week from the airport, and I'm crying about how I miss my wife and stuff. So it's like, I can't necessarily,

they know who we are, like, yes. Is there any talk? making an AEW video game. Yes. Oh, yeah. Yes. This is very exciting. Yeah.

Dana isn't, she's just giving me the not. Oh, no. Don't talk about it. Sorry, Dana. Don't talk about it. We don't have a little bit of everything. Yeah. What else can't we talk about?

No, no, no. She doesn't care. She's cool. Everything that'll get us heat. Yeah, let's see. I think I got it all here. I never look at these things, but. Yeah, I'm like, where do this thing come from?

You didn't have it out of the entire interview. I saw Pock on there. You can read this writing? This is terrible. It's very messy. All right. I super appreciate you guys taking the time to do this. I know that we needed a redo after the very quick interview with the lights going out with Ring of Honor,

but I'm glad we're doing it now because so much has changed and so much is going to continue to change. Let's do another one and another year and a half, see where we're at. It'd be better if we did it before that. We'll see you next week. Oh, yeah, we'll see next week in Jacksonville. That's true. Yeah, I'll see you this week. I'll see you on Saturday.

It's in six days. Yeah. This will be uploaded this week. I'll right on. Yeah. So check out our show then. Yeah. Fight for the Fallen.

Yeah. Fight for the Fallen, being the Elite. Yeah. And the Chris Van Fleet Show. There you go. There is. I love it. Oh, it's everywhere.

Thanks so much, guys. Thanks, man. Appreciate. Well, there you have. It a lot to unpack from that interview with the Young Bucks. A lot of nuggets of news there. A lot of nuggets just about life in general, too. I found that really inspiring from an entrepreneurial standpoint.

Thanks to Matt and Nick for taking almost 40 minutes of their morning to do that. And you 100% need to watch the YouTube video of this interview because, at the start of the interview, they super kick me. And that's pretty amazing. I was a recipient of a super kick party. Yeah. Thanks to Greenroads. Use my code Chris 15 at Greenroadsworld.com to say 15% on their CBD products.

Also thanks to Samson Technologies for supporting the show with the audio equipment that we use. Fight for the Fallen. It's this weekend. I'm going to be in Jacksonville for the show. It's about a four-ish, four-and-a-half, five-hour drive from where I live. I'll be there at the show. I'll also be there getting interviews. So if you're there, please stop by, say hi.

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