Insight with Chris Van Vliet - The Young Bucks on AEW/NXT ratings, biggest criticism, will they ever break up?

Episode Date: December 22, 2020

Matt and Nick Jackson, The Young Bucks, talk with Chris Van Vliet from their homes in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. They talk about their new bestselling book called "Killing the Business: From Backyards to Big Leagues", how they wrote the book on their iPhones, what the biggest surprise has been for them since AEW started, who they think is the best tag team of all time, if they ever have plans to feud against each other, how much Dynamite's ratings mean to them, the biggest criticism that they face and much more!   Support the show by subscribing and supporting our sponsors! INDEED- Try it today with a $75 credit to boost your job post by going to http://indeed.com/BlueWire BETONLINE- Get a FREE welcome bonus by using the promo code BLUEWIRE at http://betonline.ag Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Chris Van Vleecho. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bens, Brose. Well, welcome to the Chris Van Fleet Show. Hope your week is going great. This episode is brought to you by Indeed and Bet Online. And if you want to talk about betting, the young bucks are experts when it comes to betting on themselves. Killing the business from Backyards to the Big Leagues

is the name of their new best-selling book. And it's such a pleasure to have the current AEW tag team champions, Matt and Nick Jackson back on the show. these guys are so awesome. Take a screenshot. Let us know that you're listening. Let us know that you're on this ride with us. Tag us on social media. I'm at Chris Van Vleet. Matt is at Mac Jackson 13. And Nick is at Nick Jackson. YB. That's only on Instagram. Because as you know, they deleted their Twitter accounts. We get into that a little bit, actually, why they deleted their Twitter accounts. But you'll see what we're talking about here. You know, the goal of the goal of 2000 reviews for the podcast. Before my birthday, before May 9th,

and at this rate, I think it's going to happen way before then, because as I sit here right now, we're at 1541. So thank you. If you're new to the show here, we read out one review on every single episode. It's a free shoutout. We don't charge for shoutouts. We don't have a Patreon or a PayPal. Free.

Absolutely free. Well, I mean, it cost you the time of leaving the review, if you happen to be listening on Apple Podcast. But it's thanks to reviews like this one from Dust in the Wind, 1984. who says, great podcast. I was getting tired of listening to all the ignorant dirt sheet guys trying to sound legitimate and finally tuned in to the CVV podcast and have not looked back. Keep up the quality content, sir. Well, thank you, sir. And the plan is for even more quality content in the new year. In fact, in fact, the plan is for more content and more quality. More content, more quality.

I've mentioned it a few times before, but, you know, we are taking things up a few notches in 2021, and I'm so excited that you're along with me for this. I mean, you're one of the originals, if you're listening to this right now, because things are about to ramp up here big time. And speaking of taking things up a few notches, that's what the young bucks are all about, and it's what they've been doing their entire lives. You know, it's really interesting hearing their story of where they started as two brothers, super kicking each other in their house.

And now they're the executive vice presidents of all elite wrestling. Crazy. We talk about how far AEW has come since the first show a year and a half ago. We talk about what some of the biggest surprises have been along the way, both positive and negative. Whether they pay attention to the ratings and the ratings war with NXT, if you can call it that, who they think the best tag team in the world is. And I'll give you a hint. It's not them.

At least not according to them. We cover all that and so much more. So please welcome Matt and Nick Jackson, the Young Bucks. Well, here we go. Pleasure to be joined by the Young Bucks, Matt and Nick. And congratulations to you guys. Your book is number one everywhere, killing the business from backyards to big leagues. Thanks, man.

Thanks for having. It's been exciting. It's been a lot of work, but it's been a whirlwind, but it's been exciting. Was this the plan like, you know, free AEW? Was this the plan? was writing a book always in the works? Geez. About two years ago.

Yeah, well, for me it was. Nick's never, Nick, Nick didn't really want to write a book. It was always my dreams to write a book ever since I was a cute. Yeah. But ever since I was a kid, I wanted to write one. And about two years ago, we got a great offer. And, you know, we were in the middle of what we thought would be a great break for us. Like, we're like, oh, hey, we're not going to be on the.

road. We're just starting this wrestling company. It's a perfect time to write a book, right? And it was actually a really a terrible idea because the timing couldn't have been any worse because we were really, like our plate for really full at this point. But yeah, I think, I think I always wanted to write a book ever since I was a kid and I picked up Mick Folley's have a nice day. It was always a dream of mine to one day have a career worth writing a book about. And I felt like at that point in our career, we were kind of at a crossroads of what we were we're going to do next. So I felt like it made for an interesting story. And, and, you know, Nick and Nick and I had a great time doing it. It was like, like I said, it was almost at times it felt like a burden.

But it was a labor of love, certainly. But I'm so proud of the fact that I have, you know, my own book and we're published authors now. It's, it's one of the coolest things we've ever done. What was the hesitation for you, Nick? Well, I don't know. I just, I've never been a reader. So I guess you could say that. Like Matt read all the books, all the autobiographies from the wrestlers. And I don't think I read any of them. So it was something that I was just never really into.

And maybe that was the case. But you know what? When someone offers you something like that, you have to take it. It's too cool. It's such a big thing. And it's such a bucketless thing that you probably think you could never do. so we had to take it. So you've got a few other authors in AEW.

Chris Jericho, DDP, I'm sure there's others that I'm forgetting here, Jim Ross. Did you hit them up and say, all right, what absolutely needs to go into this book for it to be a hit? We talked to Chris about the book a lot. And one of the first things he knew, like when we first started talking about, hey, we're doing this book. He's like, you're doing it without a ghostwriter, right? And we said, yeah, he said, good. He's like, that's the way you do it. He's like, if you want the book to turn out the way you want it to be, if you want it to be your actual story and come from, you know, we wanted to, we wanted the book to read as if we were saying it and you could hear our voices in your head.

And he said that was the only way you can do it because if you have a ghost writer, they're going to mess up the whole thing. So that was his big thing in the beginning. And we said, well, trust me. Like the first time we talked to Harper Collins, they offered the ghost writer. And Nick and I immediately said, no way. And they were like, are you sure because this is a big thing? And most people who do autobiographies, they have a ghostwriter. And we reassured him, we're like, everything we've done in our career has been DIY.

We're not going to, you know, change that up now. So that was a big deal for us. I remember even at the end when we were having like the legal team re-through it from that Harper brought in, he was like blown away. He's like, wait a minute. Hang on, you guys wrote this yourselves? And we said, yeah, every word of it on our iPhones. And he's like, do you know how many like of these? I've gone through and I've, you know, I've never really seen this.

This is very rare. He's like, do you understand what you've done here? And I'm like, we didn't, we didn't know. Like, well, a lot of you guys do this, right? Like, no, this is not common. And we're like, really? So I think when we started talking to more people in the industry and they were telling us how bizarre it was that we did it.

And not only do we do on our, we did it on our iPhones. They thought we were crazy. So now I'm like more proud because I'm like, oh, wow, we really did something that's pretty difficult to do, apparently. Wow. So Dynamite just celebrated its one year anniversary. Congratulations to you on that. I'm very curious to know what's been the biggest surprise for you guys over the last year or so with AEW. Jeez. Prize. Good or bad? Well, it's up to you. Oh, man. Well, the good part is that it still feels like it's a dream, you know,

I never would have thought we'd be doing this on a weekly basis. So I have to pinch myself every Wednesday before we go on live. So like that aspect's still there. It still feels like a dream. The hard part is just, man, the job, like keeping everyone happy, that's a hard part because you don't even really realize it until you get into management. that it's hard to keep a lot of these wrestlers on the same page, you know?

Because obviously there's a lot of egos and wrestling. So you want the wrestlers to be happy, and that's something that's hard. But you know what? It's manageable. And we've learned that you can't always be the good guy. So at some points, you have to be the bad guy. So that's probably the hard part is we're so, like our nature is to be real nice.

So we've learned that you sometimes, can't be, and I think that's probably the harder part for me, because I always want to be a baby face. Has it been pretty similar for you, Matt? Yeah, I was going to just say, I think my biggest challenge that I've learned throughout this process was how difficult episodic weekly television is, because where we come from on the independence

or, you know, even in Japan, sometimes you would just have to come in and have one big match every couple months or whatever, and then you move on to the next town. and here it's a different animal. It's not just wrestling. You can't just go in and depend on your matches and your great matches.

You have to stay interesting every week. And not only that, for us, we have to manage an entire roster of men and women and try to keep them interesting as well. That's hard. That's a tough task. And when you only have two hours of TV a week, plus dark, which actually really helps out, but two hours of television every week you're responsible for

and you have this many people. And also the other factor that you don't even think about, you know, because you don't have to think about it is the ratings. Is, you know, rating minute by minute ratings, that's something that Tony Kahn pays close attention to, you know? And that's sometimes difficult because the artist in me is like, hey, don't worry about the minute by minute.

You know, we have to think of the long game. And then, you know, so that's how I think. And then he's more of a numbers cruncher guy, and he'll go off of those stats. So it's like it's constantly trying to come up with compelling, interesting television that also will get a rating. And sometimes those two don't go together. You know what I mean? Sometimes you have to make a sacrifice a week or two and do something that maybe people might not be compelled to or gravity to immediately, but maybe in four to six weeks. they'll go, oh, and then they'll get it,

and then it'll create then a bigger rating. But that's difficult in wrestling especially. So that's been a challenge is having an interesting, you know, interesting storylines and that people, normal people, are interested in watching. Because sometimes, you know, we maybe will overcomplicate something

or try to make it a little too complex. And a lot of times wrestling parents just kind of want to just watch wrestling. Yeah, well, you guys are also struggling with the, and it's no fault of your own, but you're struggling with the fact that you haven't had a crowd for longer than you did have a crowd for. And you know, you talk about ratings, you know, fans are making such a big deal about the Wednesday Night Wars, if you will. But are you watching the ratings within, or are you also comparing it not just to NXT, but to the other shows that are on on a Wednesday night?

You want to answer that, Nick? Well, yeah. Yeah, like, for instance, during the election, we weren't against NXT. We were against the news. That was our strongest competition that night. And it lasted for a good couple of months, it seems. So, like, we're paying attention to those things because, like, we knew, all right, we have to keep things interesting. They're just going to watch the news because that was the biggest thing going on.

So that was hard. We had to make things like very interesting just to keep fans into it. Yeah, that also happened with the sports thing. Like, man, when the NBA finals are going on or the playoffs, and I know we went against baseball a couple of times. Like sometimes you just know heading into Wednesday, you look at the board and you go, well, it's going to be a long night. And we have to kind of have tunnel vision and just go,

let's just try to make the best show possible. And usually our fans, like I've learned that they're very loyal to us. And no matter what is on, we still have a good base. And they're always going to watch, I think, at this point, now that we're a little over a year in. But yeah, we definitely pay attention to every, you have to pay attention to everything because everything is competition. I was just really surprised when the pandemic first started, when the lockdowns first started in March, I thought wrestling ratings were going to soar. Literally everybody is sitting in their house on their couch. I'm like, man, we're going to see, we're going to see 1990s ratings again.

And for some reason, they went the other way. I was really surprised to see that. Yeah. I think a lot of that is not having crowds. Yeah. Right. I was about to see that thing. That's like the biggest tool that we had was the fans because that energized everything.

It energized the commentators. It energized the wrestlers. brought better matches. And a lot of people don't realize that that's why wrestling is so exciting is because of the fans and the chance and all that. And you can say the same thing about the NBA. Like the finals, you know, it was one of the lowest rated finals like in years, right? And it wasn't like, oh, you know, these guys aren't draws.

It's LeBron we're talking about. It's just, I think it's just the nature of the. beast, it's, it's, we're all kind of suffering through this. And, and like Nick said, even in the NBA and in sports, that energy is sort of just, is missing even there. So I think all of us collectively are getting hit right now. I think it's safe to say a lot of things have changed in 2020, including how we work. Businesses across the globe now are challenged to be their most efficient, which means every hire is critical. Indeed is here to help. Indeed is the number one job site in the world with more visits than any other job site.

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Bet online, your online sportsbook experts. You know, you guys have accomplished so much in your career, you know, now, you know, as the AEW tag champions. I feel like you've checked everything off. So what is there left for the young bucks to accomplish? Jeez. We were just talking to Chris Jericho about this. And we were just like, dude, what motivates you when you've done it all?

like what do you do? And, you know, for a guy like him, he was toned. He's so driven. And you have to just wake up every day and have something new to, you know, want to do. And you just always got to stay busy and occupied. And for us, it's like, yeah, we've, we've climbed the mountain and we've got the titles and all this stuff. But at the same time, we're still executive vice presence for our weekly television show. And can the numbers be better? Of course they can. And can we have a better show. We can always have a better show. So I think those are my goals. long term is just to have a more compelling television show. Maybe we can create those numbers that you were talking about. You have to dream big, right? But yeah, it's like we've done a million things that I'm so proud of. I never thought I would ever have my own book. I never thought we'd have our own action figure. And I would never thought I would be running my, you know, wrestling company. So it's like every year something new comes along. And I told Nick, as far as like short term projects, one thing we've never really done, at least not in a long time, is to have a full-length documentary on our lives.

So I think that's something that, I don't know if that's in 2021, 2021, but that's definitely something I would like to do and tell our entire story like that, and interview our entire family, and anybody who's been involved in our career, I think that would be a fun project to do. But yeah, every day, like Jericho says, you just have to create goals for yourself.

and I'm sure we're going to create five to ten more. Is there a part two to a book, maybe in five to ten years? I don't know. It's up to us to challenge ourselves. One thing is I always want to have the best match every single night. And I'll never be happy if I'm in second place. So whether that means we're wrestling the new teams like Top Flight or it's a rematch against FTR, our goal is to always be the hot tag team, the best tag team in the world. and maybe one day people say we're the greatest of all time.

That's a goal right there, right? I mean, I think people say that already. That's just that's my last goal in wrestling is to be known as the best tag team of all time. And it's a hard goal to get to. But why, you know what, like LeBron says the same exact thing. He wants to be known as the best player of all time. So why should we think differently? like you have to have high goals.

And I think that's my last thing that I would like to accomplish. It's an impossible thing to accomplish because wrestling is an opinion. Like everyone has an opinion on things. It's not actual factual things because it's predetermined. You know what I mean? It's hard to base. So I want at least some people to say we're the greatest of all time. Well, people are already saying that.

But if, like you said, Nick, this is an opinion-based thing. So for you guys, who's at the top of that mountain? Who are you knocking off to become the best of all time? It's Matt and Jeff Hardy. They're the greatest ever. They're the greatest ever. I think, and there's so many ways you measure that. I know we say it's an opinion, but at the same time, you know, this is a box office business.

And Matt and Jeff Hardy are the biggest box office tag team act in the history of the business. Could we ever reach those numbers that they hit? I don't know. a different time now. We're talking in the attitude era when, you know, those ratings were insane and people are buying merchandise everywhere. But hey, again, dream big.

If one day people compare us to, I mean, they already do compare us to them, but if they say that we're better than them, then, man, what a crazy accomplishment. Like Nick said, like, who wants to really be known as the second best team of all time? You got to be number one. And that's definitely

maybe five, whenever six, seven, eight years from now when we decide we're done with this. People say we're the best. Great. I was going to say, the one thing that we have on them, though, is we haven't split up, and they did a few

angles where they had to split up. So we have to stick together, and if we do, I think that's an accomplishment in itself as being a tag team that never split up ever. Right. Well, besides the TNA, little thing. That doesn't count.

That doesn't count. Yeah. I mean, the Hardee's are a perfect example of that. The Dudley boys as well, of course, the Rockers. They've all split up. They've all had great singles careers. Do you guys have any interest in winning singles gold? Geez.

Nick always teased about the merch freak going on a singles run, so I don't know. You have to ask. You have to ask. Well, I always say this. God forbid, one of us gets injured and we're forced to do singles matches. That's the only way we'll ever do that, I think.

Right. You know, the book is called From Backyards to Big Leagues, and I'm curious, Matt, since you're the older brother, what was the first move you ever did to Nick in the backyard? Jeez. I mean, even before the backyard, we were wrestling out in the living room, and I remember

specifically putting him in figure four leg locks, a sharpshooter, just stretching him. He'd be screaming, like, mom, like just making him cry. Because I was always the big brothers. I just bullied the little brothers, him and Malachi.

I remember specifically hitting super kicks. Before they were probably even called super kicks. Then we just watched the rockers do it all the time. So we actually tell a story in the book where I forget what age Nick was, but he was probably like 12 or something. And we used to do a game

where we would surprise each other when we were at least suspecting super kick. So like he'd be walking around the corner, I go, surprise, super kick. And I'd nail him with super kick. One time we were in Vegas and we were up in a hotel room while my parents were down playing the slots and Nick was brushing his hair and he had the brush in front of his mouth like this. And I said, hey Nick. And he was what? He turns around. It's right in front of his face. I just, I blast him with the super kick. And the brush goes right into his mouth and shatters

two of his front teeth and they just fall out completely. And he and he looks at me and he gives me that Mick Foley looking smile. And I was like, holy. crap. I knew it was in trouble. Fast forward to a couple hours later, my parents showed up, and we had to, for whatever reason, we put his teeth in a glass of milk and we tried to save him and didn't work. But that was just one of many reasons why wrestling was banned in our household so many times. I broke my younger brother Malachi's arm, giving him a leg drop off the top rope or the couch. But to make a long story short, the first move I probably ever did was probably a super kick. you guessed it. There you go.

You know, if you guys say you want to be on the top of that amount, you want to be the best tag team of all time, that's obviously going to come with a lot of criticism. You know, some that you've received already. How do you guys deal with that criticism, Nick? I don't read it. The best thing we ever did in our career was delete Twitter. Like, of course I miss the interactions we had with, like, our great fans.

but it's such a toxic, like, environment that, man, it's just given me such a peace of mind when, like, I'm at home. Because back in the day, like, I remember the first time it really hit me was I was reading all this negative stuff about myself. And my kids were trying to get my attention. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, whatever, I'm reading something. Then my daughter's like, Daddy, just play with me. And I'm like, wait a minute. I'm reading negative stuff about myself and my kids just want to play with me.

Why am I being so selfish? How stupid is this? And that very moment, I text Matt, and it's so crazy. Matt was like, oh, by the way, I deleted Twitter. I was just about to text you the same exact thing. And then I was all good, because now I get to delete it. And then I deleted it. and I've never looked back.

Now we have our social media team doing it, so he'll probably read the negative stuff, but I don't read it at all. So for now, it's good because I noticed when I would read it, it would fog up my brain, and I would just think of the negative stuff, and I couldn't be creative. I don't know if that makes any sense or not,

but it like screwed me up creatively. Yeah. Well, congratulations you guys on everything. Congratulations on the book, again, called Killing the Business from Backyards to Big Leagues. That's what you guys are doing. You are killing the business in the best possible way. So, man, thank you guys so much.

It's always a pleasure to chat with you. I appreciate your time this morning. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you having us. Those guys are great. The Young Bucks, ladies and gentlemen, and their book one more time, it's called Killing the Business from Backyards to the Big Leagues. It's available at Youngbucksbook.com or wherever.

you buy your books, whether that's Amazon, Barnes & Noble, trying to think of other bookstores, but you get the point. Wherever you buy your books, their book is available there. And when you talk about great tag teams, and we mentioned a few of them in this interview, all of them have broken up at some point. So can you imagine what's possible for the young bucks if they never break up? I just hope that they stay safe and healthy because, you know, in their career, these guys are known to take them. some risks. Also, side note here, I think Nick should use some of the money that he makes selling this book to buy himself a better Wi-Fi connection. I'm sorry, Nick. I'm sorry. If you

watch this on YouTube, you can definitely see the delay. I mean, you could kind of hear it here. It was a little glitchy. So, Nick, maybe just, you know, maybe just a few more bucks a month for that better Wi-Fi connection. Since we talked about taking risks here, in the words of T.S. Elliot, I'll leave you with this. Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far it is to possibly go. Be great, be great for my friends. Happy holidays. We'll see you on the next one. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do with rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's

take you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What should be? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.