The Young Bucks Talks Chris Jericho And Dean Malenko's Influence Backstage At AEW

By Robert Gunier

All Elite Wrestling Executive Vice Presidents, Matt and Nick Jackson, recently appeared on Busted Open Radio to discuss AEW's evolution since debuting on TNT just over a month ago. Nick revealed that current AEW World Champion, Chris Jericho, has been a tremendous help in giving out pointers on timing backstage.

"I would say that Chris Jericho definitely has given the most pointers to us, like individually, I would say," Nick said. "Because he's been doing it for so long and he's been giving us tips on how to make things work perfectly. And man, he just knows what he's talking about. He's so smart and I feel like he's taught us the most with the timing thing. Do you know what I mean?"

Matt mentioned how former WWE producer and now current AEW producer, Dean Malenko, has been equally as helpful when it comes to timing and working with the talent behind the scenes. Matt believes that witnessing Dean at work also contributes towards his own growth as a performer.

"So many of these guys are a wealth of knowledge, and I think that the way to stay on top in wrestling is you never stop learning," Matt said. "So, to have a guy like Dean Malenko there, too, it's so great to have these minds to just pick. And not even that, sometimes I'll sit at the 'Go' position and I'll watch a guy like Dean, and he's one of our great coaches, and I'll watch the way he produces the segments. I'll listen to him so it gives me a better understanding of where I should go with the next segment, or what works best here. Like [Nick] just mentioned with the timing, like, he knows where to time things."

Matt finished by discussing the ways that Jericho has been encouraging AEW matches to feel different than WWE and other wrestling promotions. This includes using the entire time of your match to produce the best match possible, even if the show is scheduled to go to commercial break while it's happening.

"And Chris Jericho's the master of these things and he told Nick the other day, like, if you've got a thirteen minute match, plan a kick-ass thirteen minute match. Don't worry too much about the break spot tonight," Matt said. "Let's try to give them something different; let's not do a house show dive and then, 'Well, everyone knows we're going to break.' Let's try to use a different formula, let's try to give the live house some action. We're just trying to plug in different things and we don't want to fall into doing the same thing every week, and fall into these patterns where then it becomes a formula, right? Then you're watching and you go, 'Oh, I know what's next.' So, we're trying to be unpredictable still and trying to find our sweet spot."

You can listen to the portion of the interview below. If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Busted Open Radio with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Comments

Recommended