FTR Vs. Young Bucks For The AEW, ROH & AAA Tag Team Championships

Probably the most famous tag team rivalry within the history of AEW will add one other chapter to its already eventful story at AEW Revolution 2026 when FTR defend the AEW World Tag Team Championships against The Young Bucks. 

It was a rivalry born out of competitiveness as much because it was pettiness, with the FTR name itself coming from Matt and Nick Jackson’s “Being The Elite” series where the letters used to face for “F*** The Revival.” Why did they hate The Revival a lot? Because The Young Bucks had been called the best tag team on this planet until Money Wheeler and Dax Harwood got here along, and that best on this planet title wasn’t as certain because it once was. That was all the best way back in 2016, and in the last decade that has since passed, these two duos are each on target to being Hall of Fame caliber tag teams.

Each teams have held the AEW World Tag Team Championships on three occasions, they’ve each held gold in firms like AAA, ROH, and Recent Japan Pro Wrestling, and even in spite of everything these years are still trying to 1 up one another. While some people would really like to consider that AEW Revolution 2026 might be the ultimate team these two teams mix it up, they’ve a lot shared history and built up animosity that they may probably fight every week until they retire and never get sick of it.

To have fun the fifth instalment of this feud, we’ve got decided to make a journey down memory lane in preparation for the upcoming pay-per-view by re-watching every two-on-two encounter between FTR and The Young Bucks. For context, we aren’t going to list each time they shared a hoop together, but just know that the Anarchy In The Arena match from AEW Double or Nothing 2024, and the Mile High Madness match from the February 25 episode of “AEW Dynamite” are must-see matches that feature these two teams.

So without further ado, let’s have a look back at every tag team encounter between FTR and The Young Bucks!

A match 4 years within the making finally went down at AEW Full Gear 2020 as FTR and The Young Bucks were finally going to fulfill in the middle of the ring. Their initial meeting had the additional stipulation that if Matt and Nick Jackson couldn’t get the job done against Dax Harwood and Money Wheeler, they might never challenge for the AEW World Tag Team Championships again. That stipulation did worry some people since Cody Rhodes ended up never difficult for the AEW World Championship as a result of a stipulation very very like that, but The Young Bucks did have one thing going for them as Tully Blanchard was banned from ringside, meaning FTR had nobody of their corner.

Probably the most obvious thing to notice when going back and watching this match is the time through which it took place. The proven fact that a real tag team dream match that fans had desired to see for years ended up happening in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic is an actual disappointment. Sure, the AEW locker room was at ringside because the makeshift crowd, and a few actual fans got seats within the bleachers in their very own socially approved bubbles, so it wasn’t like Each day’s Place was dead silent or anything. That being said, it is a match that deserved to have a capability crowd behind it since it lived as much as the dream match label placed upon it.

Plenty of fans on the time expected a classic high-flying babyface team taking over a no-nonsense old-fashioned heel team, and people fans got what they paid for, but this actually becomes a tale of two injuries. Matt Jackson had his ankle injured within the weeks leading up the match, but The Young Bucks would get revenge by nearly breaking Dax Harwood’s hand within the early going. The selling of Matt’s ankle is not all the time consistent, in spite of everything most of The Bucks’ offense is designed around kicking people and flying everywhere, but he does a great enough job for it to play into major moments within the match like not having the ability to base himself during a Sharpshooter.

What this match is at its core is a love letter to tag team wrestling. Various teams get referenced on either side, with FTR pulling inspiration from The Steiner Brothers, The Road Warriors, and The Hart Foundation, while The Young Bucks take a page out of the book of The Hardy Boyz and The Dudley Boyz. FTR even roll back the years and provides a shout out to DIY at one point, each teams just throw the whole lot at one another on this epic of a match. The ending being Wheeler straying from the trail and going for a flip moderately than a fist, just for it to backfire, is the type of detail that warms your heart and rewards you for being attentive. It is perhaps nearly half-hour long, but it surely absolutely flies by.

Around 17 months after their initial meeting, FTR and The Young Bucks finally crossed paths once more in April 2022 on an episode of “AEW Dynamite,” and a lot had modified in that point.

After beating FTR for the AEW World Tag Team Championships at Full Gear 2020, The Young Bucks would hold onto the belts until All Out 2021 where they were beaten by The Lucha Brothers. Nonetheless, it was during this reign where Matt and Nick Jackson turned heel once Kenny Omega and Don Callis aligned to steal the AEW World Championship from Jon Moxley. They spent all most of 2021 sporting absolutely the worst facial hair combos you have ever seen, but they backed up all of their trash talk and underhanded tactics as 2022 rolled around, where they wanted some more gold around their waists.

FTR then again had a mixed 2021 as they spent half of their time feuding with The Inner Circle as a part of The Pinnacle, and the opposite half feuding with The Lucha Brothers over each the AAA and AEW World Tag Team Championships, eventually emerging with the AAA belts. In early 2022, Tony Khan became the brand new owner of Ring of Honor and immediately booked one other dream match, that being FTR vs. The Briscoes, but when Dax and Money unseated Mark and Jay Briscoe to win the ROH World Tag Team Championships, Matt and Nick Jackson spoiled their party and vowed to make themselves double champions at FTR’s expense.

I’m not only saying this because there is a crowd readily available, but in my honest opinion, that is one of the best FTR/Young Bucks match that there was to this point. Each teams are of their ideal roles, with Matt and Nick being all the time punchable duo that you must see get what’s coming to them, and FTR just being at the highest of their game. Dax and Money walk into this one with all the momentum on this planet behind them and the gang couldn’t be more on their side in the event that they tried. This makes The Bucks ham up their heelish antics, but it surely also makes them decelerate in places giving them time to experience the warmth.

All that heat builds to a Dax Harwood hot tag who was on fire on this match, 2022 was a banner yr for FTR but Dax really had a yr to recollect by himself. The Bucks hit the Big Rig, we get a Dusty Finish in addition to Money gets his foot on the rope after a BTE Trigger. Belt shots, big moves, FTR kiss Matt and hit him with BTE Trigger and a Big Rig, the whole lot in the ultimate act of the match moves so quick and it is a joy to look at. Shorter than the primary match by slightly below 10 minutes, but that arguably makes it higher, and FTR getting the texture good win to even the series makes it that much sweeter.

It was a match that was originally intended to be the rubber match, the bout to place a neat bow on the trilogy between FTR and The Young Bucks. Nonetheless, the AEW World Tag Team Championship match from AEW All In London 2023 is now the halfway mark of the series between the 2 teams, and there was quite a lot of time between this match and their “AEW Dynamite” encounter in 2022.

Almost one other 17 months passed between the second and third matches, and in that point FTR had the most effective years that any tag team has ever had. They held the IWGP, AAA, and ROH Tag Team Titles until the top of 2022 and begin of 2023, and after a bit day without work, they secured their second AEW World Tag Team Championships, and have become one in all the focal points of “AEW Collision” that debuted in June 2023. As for The Young Bucks, that very same period was very eventful. They really became the primary team ever to win the AEW World Tag Team Championships twice, with their second reign happening in the summertime of 2022, but they turned their attention to the newly introduced AEW World Trios Championships later that yr, and had been fully focused on having one other run at the highest with Kenny Omega as a part of The Elite. 

The final consensus by many is that this match, despite its grand stage and high stakes, is definitely the weakest of the FTR/Young Bucks series, and I can see why some people think that. The London crowd were already in need of a break after the primary two matches on the show, resulting in the primary half of this match not likely connecting with the live crowd outside of a couple of high spots. Money Wheeler did get a “Wheeler’s got a gun” chant given his legal situation heading into the event, but that was really the peak of enthusiasm in the primary half. While you watch this series of matches back-to-back, you may see what the 2 teams are going for as they try to construct and escalate the motion from the last match, and it’s within the second half of this one where things really get going.

The finishes of the primary two matches are each replicated but lead to near falls. The BTE Trigger and the Shatter Machine are each kicked of, the latter of which getting a real jump-out-of-your-seat response from the gang, ending moves are stolen by either side, the complete match was effectively constructing to the ultimate five minutes, and what a final five minutes it was. FTR counter the Meltzer Driver into one other Shatter Machine for the win to a standing ovation from the gang. Expectations were obscenely high for this match and I believe they only about got there in the long run. Quite a bit higher on a rewatch, and possibly even a bit underrated depending on who you ask.

Fans didn’t must wait one other 17 months for the subsequent meeting between FTR and The Young Bucks because the two teams would cross paths once more eight months later on the inaugural AEW Dynasty pay-per-view in April 2024. Nonetheless, each teams had shown us the whole lot that there was to indicate us on the time, in order that they needed to shake things up and the answer was a Ladder Match.

Neither team walked into Dynasty as champions because the AEW World Tag Team Championships were vacated following AEW Revolution. Sting and Darby Allin, who defeated The Young Bucks within the foremost event of that show, relinquished the titles as a result of Sting retiring from wrestling, and with each teams having two title reigns within the bag already, the winners of the match were also going to turn out to be the first-ever three-time AEW World Tag Team Champions. FTR had been chasing the belts since losing them to Ricky Starks and Big Bill shortly after All In London, and hadn’t really modified much within the eight months since they last wrestled the Jackson brothers.

The Young Bucks then again were wildly different, now going by Matthew and Nicholas Jackson, that they had fully embraced the proven fact that they were Executive Vice-Presidents of the corporate and were willing to abuse that power to the furthest possible degree. They even aired the backstage footage from All In London of CM Punk fighting with Jack Perry simply to get in FTR’s heads, which we will all agree was a terrible idea.

What wasn’t a terrible idea was this match. Hats off to all 4 men willingly putting themselves on the market after the now iconic match between Will Ospreay and Bryan Danielson, and so they all knew that the one approach to get up this exhausted crowd was to borderline kill one another. We have seen every conceivable trope in a Ladder Match by now, to the purpose where a few of them don’t really feel dangerous. This match nonetheless was dangerous. Among the bumps that these guys took on this one looked ugly in one of the best type of way. Sloppy and careless, but genuinely unimaginable to not watch. Money Wheeler darting across the match like he’d been shot out of a cannon, the Piledriver on the bridged ladder from Dax Harwood on to Matthew Jackson looked horrifying, Matthew also being catapulted off the apron just for his head to his the guardrail as he goes through a table, Nicholas Jackson being the most effective high flyers within the business. It is the definition of a automobile crash where even the fans are telling the fellows within the ring to watch out.

The return of Jack Perry within the closing moments was to be expected on the time, but it surely doesn’t take anything away from the match, and The Young Bucks walk away with the win. Probably the most fun Ladder Match’s in AEW history.