Starr: Unpopular Theory on The Young Bucks in AEW

Tommy Starr isn’t afraid to ask the tough questions, and today that centers around The Young Bucks and their value to AEW.

We have heard podcasts and videos and have read plenty of articles regarding the “polarizing” nature of The Young Bucks.  In many aspects, they are the quintessential models for what many individuals refer into the business today as a “split audience” opinion; people either unconditionally love them or vehemently despise them.  There may be some fans along that spectrum that fall somewhere within those two extremes, but generally the passionate fans are the ones that make their voices known on the “love vs. hate” debate of The Young Bucks.

I have always seen The Young Bucks for what they truly represent to the wrestling business; they are a niche brand with a niche audience.  Both Nick and Matt Jackson are on record discussing the nature of their polarization and the fact that they WANT to be seen as polarizing (see their interview with USA Today from 2017).  They are not concerned with appealing to casual, mainstream wrestling fans or expanding their brand beyond its current cabal.  They do not want to acknowledge those who deride their ring style or personas in order to win over their cynics.  From their standpoint, they have reached a comfortable level of complacency and find it more productive to cut all ties with those that have differing opinions of how professional wrestling should be viewed and conducted.  It is actually very reflective of where we are as a society today: shame and block any and all form of rational conversation as opposed to having open debate and discussion with those that have differing opinions than we do.

As we look at the current AEW environment in 2021, and we analyze the direction of their company, both from a business and talent pool perspective, the landscape is very different from the primal incarnation of the company.  AEW is assembling more recognizable names from WWE, the roster continues to grow exponentially in terms of size and depth, they have expanded to a second weekly television show to better balance their content, they continue to cross-promote with other organizations, particularly Impact Wrestling and the National Wrestling Alliance, and above all else, we are beginning to see a certain number of those initial talent signings fall to the back-burner (Sonny Kiss, Joey Janela, Chuck Taylor, Private Party, Riho, Hikaru Shida, Nyla Rose, etc).  And these are just a subset of talents that have been heavily deemphasized just within the last two years, mostly by nature of the fact that their “value” and “worth” to the company is very different in 2021 than it was in 2019.

Putting this in perspective with The Young Bucks in 2021, we need to call into question what their ultimate value is to the company– not just at this moment, but potentially two to three years down the line.  In many aspects, AEW’s growth in terms of television ratings and weekly viewership is beginning to reach its peak level at somewhere around one million viewers, give or take.  The Buck’s contribution to those ratings can be argued, but more or less, the intrigue and buzz around AEW in the last couple of months centers around the recent acquisitions of CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Adam Cole, and other potential talents that are at the tail end of their WWE contracts.  From a creative and booking point of view, The Bucks’ value is generally immaterial; fans are watching AEW regardless of whether or not The Bucks wrestle or work angles on television.  While their segments typically do not decrease viewership, their segments statistically are not gaining viewership either (and if they do, they are usually playing background roles).  As executive vice presidents, their business input may carry value in the short-term, but for anyone that has run a business or knows people in executive positions of businesses in media entertainment, the turnover rate for those positions are usually high (average- 11.4%).

So what happens in two or three years when AEW’s talent pool reaches a level where The Young Bucks are rendered inefficacious on the programming?  What happens if they decide to step down as executives due to company disagreements or long-term vision disputes?  At the moment, they may serve value for merchandising, and there will always be that niche fan base that goes out of their way to support them; the problem is that, according to ShopAEW.com, The Young Bucks are not currently ranked in the top merchandise sellers for the company.  Among the list of names of top sellers are CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Orange Cassidy, Chris Jericho, Adam Cole, Brodie Lee, and even Kenny Omega.  And with AEW’s continual efforts to sign more recognizable stars, particularly from WWE, The Young Bucks are going to continue swimming upstream in the merchandise department.

Bringing this theory to closure, the sad fact is that it is a discussion that a lot of AEW fans will refuse to have, but need to have.  While the niche audience sees the value of The Young Bucks to the overall growth and development of the product, the facts seem to indicate otherwise.  They are not mainstream attractions, they are not paramount to the current booking and creative direction, they neither escalate nor de-escalate television viewership, and from a marketability and merchandise standpoint, their single greatest attribute is currently being overshadowed by the larger name stars in the business.

Bluntly put, we need to ask a simple question, “If The Young Bucks left AEW today, how badly would it hurt the overall product?”  It is important to recognize that this is not a “hate piece” on The Young Bucks, but rather an attempt to direct wrestling fans’ attention to a bigger picture about their true worth to All Elite Wrestling’s long-term success.

Sources:

Barnett, J. (2017, March 31). ‘Self made’ Young Bucks build a ‘polarizing’ brand on their own. USA Today. Retrieved September 21, 2021, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2017/03/31/young-bucks-matt-nick-jackson-westelmania-wwe/99826416/.

Petrone, P. (2018, March 19). See the industries with the highest turnover (and why it’s so high). LinkedIn. Retrieved September 21, 2021, from https://www.linkedin.com/business/learning/blog/learner-engagement/see-the-industries-with-the-highest-turnover-and-why-it-s-so-hi.

Raghuwanshi, M. (2021, September 17). Complete aew dynamite tv ratings & viewership(us). ITN WWE. Retrieved September 21, 2021, from https://www.itnwwe.com/wrestling/aew-ratings-viewership/#aew-dynamite-tv-ratings–viewership-2021.

Top sellers for the year. Top Sellers – Year. (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, 2021, from https://www.shopaew.com/topsellers/all.