The complex saga of WWE and the Young Bucks continues. First, AJ Styles wanted them to join when he did in 2016, but they decided to stick with Ring of Honor and New Japan. Then they invaded RAW with the Bullet Club, which led to WWE threatening legal action over their use of the “Too Sweet” hand gesture (and apparently also led to WWE firing one of their writers). And then Roman Reigns offhandedly put them down during a conference call.
But today, word has come from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that 2K has asked the Young Bucks, also known as brothers Nick and Matt Jackson, for a bit of a surprising favor.
According to WON, the very next day after they got their cease and desist letter regard “Too Sweet,” the folks behind the WWE 2K video games asked the Young Bucks to help them out by doing motion capture work for next year’s game, because so many fans have been creating and playing as the Young Bucks thanks to the games’ Create-a-Superstar feature that the 2K creators have decided they ought to include all their signature moves next time around.
It’s an ironic juxtaposition, but it’s entirely likely that the video game folks hadn’t even heard about the cease and desist letter. If it was really the next day, news wouldn’t have broken publicly yet. Either way, it says a lot about the duality of the fraught relationship between the most dominant wrestling company in the world, and two of the most popular wrestlers who have never worked for them.
And whether the Bucks contribute to WWE 2K19 or not, fans will continue to add them to the game. And in fact, as of 2K17, it’s already possible to create accurate-looking Young Bucks with many of their recognizable moves, as the video below illustrates. Of course WWE might say that’s because most of those moves belonged to WWE wrestlers before the Young Bucks started doing them, but honestly, isn’t that how wrestling has always worked?
