Young Bucks On Friendship With Kazuchika Okada, Why ROH Run Failed, Almost Quitting Wrestling
As noted, pro wrestling great Chris Jericho welcomed Matt and Nick Jackson, The Young Bucks, back to Talk Is Jericho. Among many other things, the pair talked about their friendship with IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada, the darkest period of their pro wrestling careers, and almost quitting the business.
On the subject of Okada, The Young Bucks said they have been friends with 'The Rainmaker' since their Impact Wrestling days.
Nick said, "we're best friends with [Okada]. Oh yeah."
Matt added, "dude, [going to bat for Okada with Impact management] is the reason we got a job here [at NJPW]. We became friends with him back in our [Impact days]."
Apparently, Nick and Matt spoke to Impact management on Okada's behalf when 'The Ace Of The New Era' did not want to get color and he never forgot how the Bucks stood up for him.
Nick recalled, "we were actually looking out for [Okada]. There's a quick story we can tell. They wanted him to gig for just something so stupid. It didn't make any sense and he was scared to death, so he came to us and Alex Shelley, who is another one of his mentors and the three of us were like, 'no! No!' So we talked to the guys and we said, 'look, he doesn't want to do it. He doesn't feel right. He's nervous about it and he didn't want to do it.'"
Matt added, "[Okada] was terrified. He was like, 'I've never done it and it's not even needed for this segment.' It was just weird. We went to bat for him and he was like, 'thank you so much' and we just bonded with him. We hung out every week. We were in the locker room, but they never used any of us. We were just kind of the underneath job guys."
The pro wrestling odyssey of these Elite members wasn't always sunshine and Meltzerdrivers. Nick and Matt called 2010 – 2011 the darkest period of their pro wrestling careers.
Nick considered, "I would say the end of that [Impact run was the darkest period] and the beginning of our second run at ROH because it failed. They allowed our contract to end and they didn't even want to negotiate anything or anything else. So we were like, 'oh wow.'"
Matt explained why the duo's second ROH run failed:
"[Jim] Cornette was in charge. They just left us at home and our contracts expired. The reason we were given at the time was our west coast flight was too expensive every weekend, which cracks me up now because we're featured on the show. Now we're like, 'remember back in 2011 when you guys screwed us?' and now look at us! That was probably rock bottom. 2010 and 2011 was a bad period for us."
Also during the conversation, Matt talked about almost quitting pro wrestling.
"I was ready to quit, I think, because I was having a kid and it wasn't because, 'oh, I fell out of love with wrestling'. I still loved wrestling. It was, 'I'm having a child and I need money!'"
C'mon, baby! If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Talk Is Jericho