Young Bucks Revealed They Were Close to Signing with WWE in 2019

wwe the young bucks

Young Bucks Revealed They Were Close to Signing with WWE in 2019

Originally posted on The Sportster | By Kellie Crawford | Last updated Nov 21, 2025 8:26 PM ET

It's surreal to think that the Young Bucks (Nick and Matt Jackson) were once considering joining WWE. But that is exactly what happened, according to the AEW EVPs and stars.

The Young Bucks Were In Negotiations With WWE

It was in a recent interview with "Adam’s Apple," where Nick and Matt were asked about how close they ever came to signing with WWE, which Nick said, “Pretty close.” Matt explained further how 2019 was a time when the brothers thought about going to the company. He said:

“There was never an actual physical contract, but we were negotiating… 2019 was probably the closest… We had a groundswell at the time with the stuff we were doing in Japan and in the Indies. I think they just wanted to buy in on it.” (h/t; WrestlPurists)

Of course, 2019 was also the same year that AEW made its historic debut. The debut was the October 2, 2019, episode of AEW Dynamite. There, the Bucks, along with Kenny Omega, lost to Chris Jericho, Santana, and Ortiz in the main event. Santana isn’t with the company anymore. He’s with TNA, while Jericho’s AEW status seems to be undecided. Ortiz is currently out of action. So it has changed since its debut.

What If The Young Bucks Went To WWE?

There are a lot of what-ifs about this. At that time, they were the hottest free agents in pro wrestling. So if they did end up signing with WWE, what would their career look like? WWE would probably have left them as a tag team, which, at the time, there were the Raw and SmackDown tag team titles. The champions in January 2019 were SmackDown Tag Team Champions, The Bar (Sheamus and former WWE star Claudio Castagnoli), and Raw Tag Team Champions Bobby Roode and Chad Gable. A month later, the Revival ( current AEW stars Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) were the champions. Matt and Nick didn't need to be in WWE, to face them.

Now, if they did start on WWE NXT, ironically, they would have faced AEW star Kyle O’Reilly and former WWE/AEW star Bobby Fish, aka The Undisputed Era. The stable also included AEW’s Adam Cole. All three men have faced the Bucks in the Indies and the Tony Khan-led promotion. So if Matt and Nick had gone to WWE, would AEW even exist?

This article first appeared on The Sportster and was syndicated with permission.

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