At AEW Full Gear, we finally witnessed a dream match: The Young Bucks vs. FTR for the AEW Tag Team Championships.
This feud started way before AEW was a thing. Back when FTR was The Revival in WWE, The Young Bucks repeatedly took shots at them on social media. In essence, it boiled down to who was the best tag team in the world. Matt and Nick Jackson held that distinction for several years, then FTR came along and took it from them.
Once Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler left WWE, a match between both teams seemed more likely. Then they joined AEW, and it was only a matter of when not if. The time came for the battle of tag team supremacy. The Young Bucks even upped the ante by stating that if they lost at Full Gear, they would never challenge for the titles again. Luckily, they didn’t have to make good on their promise after all.
For starters, if you weren’t as excited for this match as you once were, that’s totally justified. The build-up for this has been quite… underwhelming, to say the least. Things got off to a good start; after not capitalizing on numerous chances, The Young Bucks began showing more of a heelish side. This led to them super kicking Alex Marvez backstage, an action that cost them a little bit of money. That didn’t deter them, as they continued to superkick anyone with a pulse week after week.
But after a while they started to pull back, acting more like a bound and determined team instead of two jerks. Then, two weeks ago on Dynamite, they won a four-way tag match to become the number one contenders to the titles. FTR went down to the ring to congratulate them, but the Bucks weren’t having it. That’s when Harwood, Wheeler, and Tully Blanchard attacked them, injuring Matt’s leg in the process.
The Young Bucks then revealed last week on Dynamite, as mentioned above, they’re done challenging for the tag titles if they lose Saturday. If it sounds familiar, it’s because Cody used the exact same stipulation for his title match against Chris Jericho at Full Gear last year.
To be quite honest, I’m not sure why this feud needed all these extra little nuances thrown in. Having FTR injure Matt’s leg makes sense because it adds more fuel to the fire and gives the Bucks more motivation. It didn’t need anything else, and now the build-up is a little bit overcomplicated.
Hell, even FTR agreed that the build isn’t what they envisioned. It’s certainly understandable because this match has been years in the making. They don’t want to disappoint the fans, but maybe they tried to overcompensate for things when they didn’t need to. The pressure may have made the feud itself buckle a little under the weight of its own ambitions.
Regardless, The Young Bucks emerged victoriously. Why else would they have put that stipulation in place? It isn’t like the singles division where you can just go fight for another title—or in Cody’s case, have a new one made. There aren’t any other tag titles in AEW, they had no choice.
After that match, It’s hard to believe that this is a one-and-done kind of feud. If FTR would’ve won, there was really no point in having them wrestle The Young Bucks anymore. Also, the Bucks needed this win a lot more than FTR did. Even if the stipulation wasn’t there, they couldn’t keep wasting chance after chance.
When AEW started, everyone knew that eventually Matt and Nick would have gold around their waists. Granted, they probably didn’t expect it to be this long of a wait, but better late than never I suppose. While this was not the main event Full Gear, it undoubtedly impressed many. Now we have to wait and see were The Young Bucks go from here, and what their title reign has in store for them.