10 Biggest Heat Magnets In Wrestling Right Now

8. The Young Bucks

CM Punk
AEW

The Young Bucks built their entire, transformative act around generating heat within wrestling circles.

After a dud of a TNA run, in which they were deliberately stigmatised as Hardy Boyz knockoffs, right down to an abbreviated break-up angle, they arrived at a career crisis. They were a dead act on TV, working a genre deemed dead where the money was, and they had developed a stigma as brats who didn't respect the business. WWE's Booker T and TNA's Rob Van Dam expressed as much to the public.

They leaned in on this reputation, hard, and reinvented themselves as obnoxious meta heels who wore sh*t-eating grins as they got their sh*t in.

True to form, they're still generating heat all these years later.

CM Punk hates the pair of them, evidently. He lamped Matt Jackson. They're still pissing off the usual old school heads. Also, FTR can't be happy with them, either, after a mooted Tag Team title unification match was dropped in favour of the inaugural Trios tournament. This follows an almost certain backstage war between the Elite and a Punk/FTR faction.

The Bucks are also extremely well-liked in several circles, for giving so many of "the boys" paydays, but that passion goes in the other direction, too.

 
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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!