As part of Bleacher Report‘s detailed breakdown of the origins of AEW, Matt Jackson talked about the most formative moments of the league. “Just a couple of months ago, AEW was basically just a conversation between myself, my wife and Tony Khan. I was literally on the phone on my patio bench.” While AEW is still small compared to other wrestling companies, they’ve grown significantly since then. “It was different for us because we’re so conditioned to being on the road every three days. But now that there’s some stuff to talk about and announced, I can tell the pace is starting to get quicker, and it’s like, ‘Man, how are we gonna get all this information out?’ That’s the best thing about having certain people who are hired to do these things now.”
Matt also told a telling story about he and his tag team partner Nick were poised to stay put in ROH and NJPW instead of starting up their own business. He states that neither company valued the Young Bucks at much as they should have, and they weren’t comfortable with how long they’d have to wrestle to achieve a livable retirement.
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.
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