10 Best Storytellers In Wrestling Right Now

9. The Young Bucks

Daniel Bryan The Fiend Royal Rumble 2020
AEW

The Young Bucks are sensational at the art their detractors believe them to betray.

It's a bird-brained position because it's never countered with any deep analysis beyond the "flips" rhetoric - a wilful ignorance that the last two years have rather helpfully determined who isn't worth your time. They simply aren't watching, in good faith or otherwise.

Last year, Matt Jackson's real-life back issues informed a long-term theme of selling that proved totally immersive - as authentic as the work of Shawn Michaels - and the consequent failure to execute trademark sequences saw the Bucks refine their exhilarating act with a new element of emotive anxiety. Matt, grimly aware of the agony, took to targeting the backs of his opponents last year (Isiah Kassidy), using experience to shape strategy. And people claim they can't believe in the work. Nick didn't suffer a real injury, but perfected selling to an extent that fooled entire arenas. The Bucks in that aforementioned match told a story of Private Party being on their level. Exciting but very raw, they are not. That story was more robust than the act.

Together, the Bucks toyed with their ingrained chemistry to purposefully grow "rusty" ahead of Double Or Nothing in an ingenious mechanism of storytelling only this, less self-conscious generation - and two performers of such advanced craft - could devise.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!