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WWE News: Top Indie Tag Team Choose ROH and NJPW Over WWE, Sign New Contracts

By Shawn Lealos
Published on: 01:51 PST, Dec 5, 2016

It has only been a couple of weeks since it was reported that WWE COO Triple H was interested in bringing in the Young Bucks, the top tag team in the indie scene. That makes it a little surprising to learn that WrestleZone reported that the Young Bucks have signed new contracts, but they chose to remain with Ring of Honor and New Japan Professional Wrestling instead of coming to the WWE.

According to the site, the new contracts are two-year deals that will see them actually paid more in 2017 and 2018. The deals for the Young Bucks are similar to what they had before where they will be exclusive to New Japan in Japan and can only wrestle for Ring of Honor and PWG in the United States. The Young Bucks can still take bookings elsewhere in the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCugqDYaReI

The Young Bucks are easily the most successful tag team in the indies and maybe the highest paid wrestlers in the entire indie scene period. Of course, the wrestling is only part of why it was more financially lucrative to remain independent for the Young Bucks.

ESPN did a profile on the Young Bucks recently, and Nick Jackson mentioned that the merchandising pays them a huge amount of money as well — money that they would lose by signing with the WWE.

According to Matt Jackson, the Young Bucks have produced and sold over 100 different styles of shirts and Nick said they keep close track of their merchandising.

“Our platform is YouTube, and Facebook, and Vine and Twitter. [When] we put out a new video, Matt will get alerts right away. You just sold this shirt, and this shirt and this shirt.”

It is clear that this is a business for the Young Bucks and they take it seriously. The brothers have their own website, sell everything from shirts to signed photos to trading cards, water bottles, and more. This is something the WWE demands to control from all their wrestlers. Matt Jackson said they love to control everything about their careers.

“It’s cool because it’s a DIY type of thing. My wife does everything in-house. She does the shipping. She boxes everything. She does everything. She gets all the product.”

The Young Bucks also take pride in what they do in the ring. While some fans hate the tag team because they seem to love to just imitate their favorite wrestlers from the WWE like the Hardy Boyz and nWo, they also have developed their own personas that other fans gravitate to.

The Young Bucks do imitate the nWo using the “Too Sweet” hand signs, something that translated over when they joined the Bullet Club. They were two of the wrestlers that kept the NJPW faction going when AJ Styles left for the WWE. The Young Bucks also love the Super Kick, a Shawn Michaels finishing move, and emulate DX with their “Suck It” taunt.

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However, the Young Bucks also display an amazing move set and seem to love to pull out new moves to excite their growing legion of fans. Matt Jackson said that they have used Ring of Honor to really push the Young Bucks brand on a larger fan base thanks to the national TV contract with Sinclair.

“Most of the ROH fans, they buy their tickets because we’re the headliners. We’re probably the most popular guys on the roster, so we feel like there’s a responsibility to give these people who paid their hard-earned money for these tickets a show. They’re going to get a show if we’re on it.”

[Featured Image via Tabercil Photography/Wikimedia Commons]

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