Kevin Steen was a marathon man over Wrestlemania weekend as he recorded three editions of “The Kevin Steen Show” in his hotel room. Adam Cole’s interview came out around a month ago. Now a tag team edition is out with both the Super Smash Brothers and Young Bucks. For 20 dollars on DVD, they can be purchased together. On MP4, you can choose to buy both interviews or choose one. I have to say both interviews are extremely entertaining and well worth watching. However, I would also say the Young Bucks one contains more nuggets and is a little bit on the newsier side.
Kevin Steen obviously knows the Smash Brothers more based on their background. The reasons for Uno and Dos not being on some of the recent DG USA and 2CW are made more clear throughout the interview as they’ve faced numerous border issues. This does explain why SSB haven’t been around, and thankfully some happier times are discussed as well.
Kevin Steen burying one of his travel companions for he acted at the border and then at the subsequent ROH tapings was worth a laugh. Uno and Dos discuss the stories they’ve used to get into the United States, including mentioning training with the American Dragon. Leave it to LuFisto to screw the over one time. Uno brings up his homeless father, who he mentioned briefly when he was on a live “Art of Wrestling” podcast and discusses being asked for change by him. I always forget Uno and Dos are both French but was reminded of this fact numerous teams as they discussed their background.
Uno began his career at the age of 14 and has been wrestling for ten years. They get sidetracked in discussing a local Montreal company that was paid off by a perverted priest to run shows in their church. Really creepy stuff that reiterates what a skeezy business wrestling can be at times. It is both disturbing and hysterical at the same time.
They bounce around talking about some of various local companies worked and get into Chikara and subsequent departure. Stu is cited as being an “asshole” for why SSB stopped working for them. The story is pretty much a case of miscommunication and left me thinking, “There’s more to this story than what they’re saying.” It’s obviously none of our business, but it’s weird to think how many places SSB has worked, yet they don’t feel like upper echelon guys.
Speaking of big-time companies, SSB finally seemed to achieve some level of notoriety by stealing match after match in PWG and then making their debut in DG USA soon after. It shocks me a bit that Super Dragon would not want to book them based on their look given how out of shape he was at times, but he eventually saw the performance at “The Perils of Rock ‘n’ Roll Decadence. Although their times at PWG have been fun, they express frustration with the travel and taking two days round trip. Just like every other interview it seems, this turns into a PWG lovefest, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Kevin Steen ends with fan questions as they play some word association games. The most notable part of this is where they reveal the worst ring name they’ve ever heard. Sultan Tiger Vampire Priest. Seriously the worst name.
This was a fun hour and forty five minutes where you really get a sense of who Uno and Dos are. They really haven’t done a lot of interviews, so a lot of the content felt fresh. I learned a great deal and would say this is worth checking out on Highspots.
As far as the Young Bucks go, the thing that makes them so different from every other wrestler is they don’t care. When I say they don’t care, I’m not referring to their in-ring work because they take a lot of pride in what they do. They live up to being independent wrestlers by not wanting to sign a contract unless it suits them. They have cross words for a number of wrestling promotions… not PWG of course since this is the place they made their name and have achieved amazing success.
Kevin Steen discusses the Bucks having the thickest Wikipedia page before getting into iPPV problems. Even though they work for different companies, the Bucks and Steen experienced a number of problems with streaming live wrestling. The Bucks talk about growing up and watching the Rockers (shocker right?) and also being Hulkamaniacs, particularly Matt. Given their religious background, it also makes a certain amount of sense they don’t always fit in with other wrestlers because they don’t cheat on their wives or drink with other wrestlers. Naturally, this leads to Roderick Strong impressions aplenty.
One of the things that always amuses me is the comparisons with the Hardys and Bucks. Not only is their look and style similar, but the Bucks also started out backyard wrestling. In fact, their father built them a ring that was apparently better than many of the ones they’ve wrestled in on the indies. Also, for better or worse, the Bucks have a reputation for not shaking hands with wrestlers. As they discuss later, the reputation isn’t deserved, but they also had some run-ins with Super Dragon. They may have taken so long to get into PWG because Dragon didn’t like Matt Jackson. I’ve always forgotten the Bucks had a full career before their time in PWG as they worked a number of Lucha Libre shows in southern California and even one time in Mexico. The Bucks don’t seem particularly thrilled with that time in the country based on conditions and the absurdity of the situation presented.
As it turns out Chris Kanyon got Matt Jackson in first to play Mortis. Joey Ryan got both of the Bucks in during 2007 and from there, Matt and Nick Jackson exploded. Through PWG, they got into Dragon Gate Japan, Chikara, Ring of Honor, Dragon Gate USA, and finally TNA. Literally 2.5 years. Shows just how quickly things change in wrestling as they went from unknown Hardy Boys rip-offs to one of the best teams in professional wrestling.
Some of the sidebars include PAC sunburning himself the night before his first Dragon Gate main event, the food they had while in Japan, and having Sabu (not the wrestler but what amounts to Dragon Gate’s gopher boy) doing all kinds of things for them. They were also there the night the ring broke at Korauken Hall when they were supposed to wrestle Masaaki Mochizuku and Don Fuji. Not only did they wrestle (and the Bucks come away with a win) but they were the opener and had to perform on a mat covering some wood with no ring ropes.
Ring of Honor, DG USA, and TNA came into the picture almost all at the same. The Bucks wanted to work all four Wrestlemania weekend shows over the two companies but were unable to. Someone from Dragon Gate even served them papers, and a lawsuit to insure the Bucks would work for them that weekend was on the board. It’s unreal to me it came to this. I’m happy the Bucks wrestled for DG USA in Phoenix since I was there for it, but lawyers should stay the hell out of independent wrestling. The Bucks were rightfully angry and were able to move onto TNA just as the promotion started on Monday nights.
Things were going well for Bucks at first but of course it soured as the promotion had no idea what the hell they were doing. The Bucks are just one example of the frustration felt by so many other wrestlers. The Bucks wrestled the Motor City Machine Guns for much of their run and had a number of great matches on PPV, television, and the house shows. There’s a funny story about Nick doing a swanton during an Ultimate X match when Jeff Hardy was also on the roster. The best part about is who cared about this and who didn’t. It’s best to watch the interview to see how this all developed.
For whatever reason, despite fans hating his guts, Kevin Nash has an incredible popularity among the wrestlers. The Bucks are no exception as they talk about working a house show loop with Kevin Nash and not getting injured. The Bucks then get into some general issues as they could never catch on. Utter incompetence is the best way to describe their situation and so many others. Seriously, who looks at that them and thinks , “Yeah, these guys are better off separated. They’ll draw tons of money by themselves.”
Matt Jackson is a bit more politically savvy based on some of the comments made. Why do you ask? Nick Jackson called Ring of Honor the biggest disappointment of their careers and said no one remembers a Young Buck ROH match. Not sure if that’s totally true, but it’s nice to see some refreshingly honest. Jim Cornette was even giving them crap for doing too much in matches. Hopefully, Jim Cornette won’t be able to have this DVD not be sold too.
Then it’s time to talk about PWG. Their sanctuary and a place to release anxiety. The Bucks talk about the whole handshake story involving Booker T and WWE. Very interesting and worth listening to as Booker T does not come across as anything but a bitter veteran, which based on his TNA run seems pretty consistent of nothing else. Who knows if the Bucks would ever get into WWE based on a match with Joey Ryan/Scorpio Sky, but it’s uncalled for anyone to mishandle this incident and to lie about Matt and Nick’s behavior. They also end by answering some fan questions.
The Bucks were a more interesting listen, but you can’t go wrong with either one.
To purchase this DVD and a number of other great pieces of wrestling merchandise, check out Highspots. By supporting these great companies and clicking on that link, you will be supporting them and us here at Pro Wrestling Ponderings.
This was shot some time ago, and the SSB still have yet to reappear in PWG, so either they haven’t ever gotten their work visas, months later, or they’re done with PWG anyway. It sucks.