Barry Brecheisen/WireImage
KEY POINTS
- The Young Bucks’ contracts with AEW are set to expire by 2024
- Jumping to WWE makes too much sense at this point in their careers
- Remaining with the company they helped start also makes sense
All Elite Wrestling (AEW) has steadily grown into becoming WWE’s biggest pro wrestling competitor since the days of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the 1990s.
However, public speculation has placed AEW cornerstones and executive vice presidents The Young Bucks (real-life brothers Matt and Nick Jackson) on the departure list to WWE as their contracts are set to expire sometime in 2024.
According to renowned pro wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer, The Young Bucks “will have a better schedule in AEW meaning more time with the family and also less matches and can do their style.”
Moving to WWE opens up a multitude of possibilities for The Young Bucks and the most obvious of them all is a chance to reunite with former AEW executive vice president Cody Rhodes.
The trio was responsible for the birth of AEW following the success of the highly acclaimed self-financed show All In” in September 2018 where they recorded the largest audience in attendance for a pro wrestling show in the U.S. that was not under WWE or WCW’s umbrella.
Rhodes and The Young Bucks were such integral pieces to AEW’s initial run of success that few would have ever thought that the former would ever make his return to WWE–which he did at WrestleMania 38 Night 1 in April 2022.
Outside of a reconnection with Rhodes, the pair is also most likely to help carry the flag of the tag team division.
Seeing the world-renowned tag team share the ring with the likes of Legado del Fantasma, The Judgment Day, The Street Profits and The Bloodline is enough to make any pro wrestling fan salivate.
WWE
Including the fact that WWE is the lone pro wrestling promotion missing from their already decorated resumes, it simply makes too much sense for the two-time AEW tag team champs to not make the leap.
In that same vein though, The Young Bucks leaving the company they started will reflect badly on them–for some fans.
Those more vocal about the industry had violent reactions when Rhodes returned to WWE since they saw it as a betrayal of the company he helped started and it can be expected that The Young Bucks will receive the same amount of criticism, if not more.
Pro wrestling fans would note that they and fellow vice president Kenny Omega were involved in an altercation backstage with CM Punk and now-former AEW producer Ace Steel, which became more known as “Brawl Out” in September 2022.
It remains the biggest black eye on AEW’s resume as a whole and it continues to be a point of criticism against the executive vice presidents to this day.
Deciding to remain where they are at and fix AEW to become an even bigger competitor to WWE’s run of dominance would, at the very least, better their standing in the eyes of those who have become avid fans of the upstart company.
There are valid points on either side of the fence, but what pro wrestling fans neglect to acknowledge is that it will surely come down to the financial figures offered to them by either company.
AEW CEO and Jacksonville Jaguars exec Tony Khan will surely open up his books in order to entice The Young Bucks to remain while WWE will throw everything they have at acquiring one of the most globally known in-ring talents.
The Young Bucks know that the world is their oyster right now and their free agency will be closely monitored by the most hardcore fans.
AEW
