As previously reported, The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) recently appeared on The Wrestling Perspectives Podcast and spoke on a variety of topics including the circumstances surrounding their departure from TNA/IMPACT Wrestling a few years ago. The interview goes live later tonight, but here are some quotes:
On what led to their departures from IMPACT Wrestling:
Nick: So they split us up and we became a singles act for like two months and then for no reason at all, we got back together and nothing was explained by it. And after that, Matt and I were like ‘these guys don’t care about us at all’ and at that point, the writing was on the wall for us at that place. So were thinking maybe we go elsewhere and come back and then they’ll take us serious. That was our thought process at the time, it was just a little bit of everything.
Matt: We ran bad deals too. It was our first contract that we ever signed. We’ve learned a lot since then. It was the first contract we had ever been offered so immediately without negotiating we just signed it blindly. It was a bad deal and basically, we were getting paid per appearance. And they decided to sit us out for very long periods of time which meant we were literally making zero dollars some months.
Nick: I remember some weeks, they would fly one of us in who wasn’t even working on the show so we would be in Florida and not being paid because they forgot to book us. But they would have us fly there and we’re like ‘wait a minute, I’m flying there, doesn’t that count and they’re like nope you gotta be on TV to make money’ so there were a few times where we flew there and didn’t get paid.
Matt: It’s different now obviously the whole team has changed and it’s a different structure but back then, it was a mess man. We didn’t know who was in charge of what, I had to keep getting on Terry Taylor – who was talent relations at the time – I had to keep getting on his case every couple of weeks demanding where my check was. I had to pay rent and my checks weren’t coming on time. It was just bad, we were at the point where we were young, we know we’re good and we need to leave this place because it’s obviously not working out. And like Nick said, maybe we can come back in a couple of years and they’ll see more value in us and sign a better deal this time.
Nick: It was the best decision we ever made because I remember the next year, we made more money just doing the independents than doing the TNA contracts.