This was for EVIL and SANADA’s IWGP Tag Team Titles.
Really and truly, I think this rules.
I have spent the majority of the time I have known about them (their PWG debut in 2007 to present day) as a Young Bucks hater. This is not to say I am some weirdo who thinks they have had five to ten good matches ever or something like that, but I mean that I have never once found them likeable. Even before the turn in 2009, I never found myself rooting for the success of these weird little psycho kids. I have been watching wrestling for nearly their entire careers as name wrestlers, and through all of it, I have constantly rooted for, and on occasion, been truly delighted to see them on occasion be brought low, punished, and absolutely beaten into dust.
I say all of that to say that, in this match, I found myself rooting for The Young Bucks.
Part of that, I would like to reassure myself, is because they were against SANADA and EVIL. For whatever flaws the Bucks have, they are energetic and present. The LIJ boys often are the opposite of that, wrestling for long stretches of time while seeming almost vacant at times in like ninety percent of their other matches, and that is a generous figure. Put against spiritual non-entities, the Bucks’ psychotic manic energy can become a virtue on occasion, and here, it does.
However, part of that is also because the entire package here — individual performances and broader narrative — genuinely does a spectacular job of putting them in that role in a way that actually works, and that allows all facets of the thing to work together like hand in glove like never before (aided strongly by their opposition being what it is, of course).
The usual thing in 2018 happens here in the first half, as Matt Jackson’s bad back becomes an issue. He is once again shockingly good at selling it, managing to be occasionally sympathetic, but never ever forgetting it. He always feels like someone in pain, even when the champions rarely work it over.
What really makes this interesting though is when Nick Jackson hurts his ankle off of an errant kick against the ringpost during his hot tag.
Like the work on Matt’s back and Matt’s selling of it for the last five months, Nick’s selling of the leg is this wonderful intersection between quality narrative and shockingly great mechanical strength.
Nick gets the selling just right, and conducts his offense as well as possible considering. He flies and on occasion runs, but there is always a cost to it, one paid in key moments when he tries more than he can handle, such as collapsing off the top rope when trying the springboard for the Meltzer Driver. It is never what a lot of matches like this threaten to devolve into, all the spots hitting and then lip service to selling, so much as it feels like Nick tempting fate and occasionally getting brought down to Earth very severely for his hubris. More importantly, it never feels as if he is trying to show off, so much as that this is simply what they do. This feeling is helped in large part by how SANADA and EVIL approach the injury, not doing a whole lot to it outside of it being an opening to unload their heavier artillery, and allowing it to exist as a hindrance, rather than a point of focus. Nick gets exactly what he can handle as a seller, and the match is so much better for it, whereas it might have been doomed if the champions really zeroed in on it.
The real kicker though is that after all these months of Nick having to carry the burden and showing signs of real frustration when Matt’s hurt back has cost them big important matches, everything gets reversed in their biggest career opportunity so far. It’s not something they go extremely far with, but for once, restraint is a friend to the Young Bucks. Even small moments of Matt now knowing how it feels adds so much to the match, especially in the later moments, where Nick is able to muster up some strength, and contribute in spite of it all.
Nick is able to summon it up for two (2) double superkicks at the end to first cut off EVIL and then SANADA, making them actually mean something and have some genuine weight for once, before the Bucks hit More Bang For Your Buck to capture their biggest singles prize yet.
Really and truly, an actual miracle.
If not the level of match as their best work of the year, the sort of deeply impressive and unbelievably surprising thing that makes it a near lock that the Young Bucks are the 2018 tag team of the year. It’s not to say nobody else could have gotten this out of guys like EVIL and SANADA, but only The Young Bucks ever did.
HANDWERK 