In a new interview with Bleacher Report, Matt and Nick Jackson, better known in the pro-wrestling world as the Young Bucks, discuss the birth of All Elite Wrestling along with company co-founder, Tony Khan. As they each recall various moments throughout their careers that eventually led to them forming a promotion, Nick Jackson reveals that he and Matt never felt valued working in NJPW, and claims that they would have had to work another 20 years to even come to close to retiring. Jackson also mentions Ring of Honor, stating that he enjoyed working there, but their failure to offer a dual contract led to their decision to create AEW.
You know what’s sad? New Japan and ROH could have easily come together and offered us the contracts they wanted, but they just didn’t do it. New Japan never saw the value in Matt and I. They never paid us good. We would have had to work with New Japan for another two decades to even get close to retiring, and the style they demand is backbreaking. Ring of Honor paid us a lot better than New Japan. We could have probably retired there, but we would have to work probably another decade with them. We pitched it to both of them: Why don’t you guys get us a dual contract? And they just didn’t get it done. We would have easily stayed, and there would have never been an All Elite Wrestling if they would have met what we wanted, but it didn’t get done.
Check out the full interview here.