The Young Bucks Talk AEW Having To Think Outside The Box During COVID-19, Blood And Guts Steel Cage
The Young Bucks spoke with 411 Mania about the past year, where at one point AEW had to run shows without a live crowd due to the pandemic. One of the biggest changes AEW had to make was delaying the Blood and Guts Cage Match.
Matt and Nick were asked about plans AEW had for them this year before COVID-19. At the top of the list was The Elite taking on Inner Circle in a Blood and Guts Cage Match in March, something AEW still has in their back pocket when bigger crowds can return to shows.
"Man, it is tough to say because a lot of that we have planned for the future is what we are currently doing," Nick said. "I mean, somethings did change. Obviously, the Blood and Guts Steel Cage Match never happened. And we spent a lot of money building that structure. [Laughs] But the good thing about it is that at least we now have it. So, we can pull the trigger on that at any time.
"I feel like we are saving that for fans. I think that is the biggest reason we haven't done it, but that is the biggest thing that changed, not having that match. Because if you look at it, the buildup too it was so strong and our ratings were going up and it was looking we were going to above a million for that show, and we probably would have but we can't control what is going on around the world so I think that was probably the biggest change, not doing that cage match."
The brothers also spoke about matches they were able to have due to this year's circumstances. The Stadium Stampede Match between Inner Circle and The Elite was highlighted as the company was forced to think outside the box.
"You got to remember without this pandemic, there may have never been a Stadium Stampede match, there may have never been that crazy tag team brawl match that we had with Butcher and The Blade," Matt stated. "We really have had to think outside the box and one big thing that was said, If we are going to do this in front of nobody, let's do things we have always wanted to do, but wouldn't have worked as well if there were people out there. Because if people were out there, you have to be in front of them as much as possible, you don't want them to watch a screen for long right, so that is one thing Nick and I, right out of the gate, we always wanted to do this weird stuff.
"So, we went home and shot this match called BTE 200 almost like a pilot to show Tony to say, 'Hey this is our vision of what we can do in a cinematic match.' I think once we did that and he saw that, and we pitched the Stadium Stampede match, that helped the cause, got the ball rolling, and convinced him for us to do it. You just have to think outside the box and do things differently and without fans. I think we have really stretched that as far as we can. [Laughs] There are guys with really big ideas, all the EVPs, Tony and even the wrestlers. We all collaborate. I mean we really use the Daily's Place as well as we can."
The Young Bucks are set to face Private Party, The Butcher & The Blade, and Alex Reynolds & John Silver on this Wednesday's AEW Dynamite. The winning team gets a shot at AEW World Tag Team Champions FTR at Full Gear on November 7.