The Grizzled Young Veterans have quickly skyrocketed to the top of NXT’s Tag Team Division, and look ready to break out in a big way this year. In a new interview with Inside The Ropes, the group spoke about their recent success, pushing themselves, and more.
It’s no secret that the group has quickly become one of the biggest and best in NXT, and although it hasn’t come as a shock to the duo, Zack Gibson still notes that it feels like the hard work the two of them have put into their profession is finally beginning to pay off.
“It feels like a lot of hard work paying off, basically,” Gibson said. “Both of us being wrestling for 15 years. That’s more than half of JD’s life, it’s half of my life. This is why we did it. We did it to get out here, to get to a company like NXT, within the WWE, and to just show everyone what we’ve been striving to do for all this time. To be in those spots, like the main event, in matches that have been so well received, basically, it’s everything that we set out to do and more. And we’re not going to rest on our laurels. We’re not going to stop here. That’s still just a taste of what’s to come from us.”
The Grizzled Young Veterans’ James Drake added on that while the duo is beginning to finally gain the popularity they’d like, it will only continue to push them to work even more.
“I do think there’s a sort of real push as well, personally, in the sense that we’ve moved out in this pandemic, we’ve not been able to see friends and family since November last year, and obviously, it’s great,” Drake said. “Congratulations, you’re on NXT TV.” For me personally, it’s kind of like, “Well, what’s worse – not getting here or getting here and then getting so relaxed and lazy that you just fall through the cracks?” And that’s purely because, ‘Oh, well, I’ve made it,’ sort of thing and that’s something I put pressure on myself with all the time.
Like, if I’m leaving my family, if I’m leaving my friends and, you know, essentially I’m uprooting my life to another country for a reason, any reason, it has to be worth it. That has to be something that I put forward because as Zack said, the coaches are so passionate and they will always help but it’s really up to us how we take our information in and apply it.”
Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic has also been something the entire world of professional wrestling has been dealing with, and despite the many issues that superstars have had to deal with, Drake noted that it’s also allowed them to heal up a bit more than usual, and take a step back as well.
“Then as soon as everything kind of locked down, we’re locked down and then the UK actually went into lockdown as well” Drake said. “That’s when, I actually, for the first time since I was 12, didn’t wrestle at least once a week. And it was one of them where I definitely do think, luckily touch wood I’ve never been injured, so I’ve never had to have downtime. It was the first time my body went, “Oh, thank God. Thank you.” So in a weird way, it was great for my body because my body definitely needed it at some point, especially with the style of wrestling we do. And then secondly, we were always thinking ahead and watching the product, and how are we coming back and what do we want to change when we come back? And it still happens now. We don’t go, “OK, this is us, this is our act, this is GYV for ten years” because that’s when, you know, as a viewer yourself, that’s when you get bored, you know what I mean?”
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