It sounds like The Young Bucks will never forget their remarkable Steel Cage Match with the Lucha Brothers at AEW All Out 2021.
The bout, which ended Matt and Nick Jackson’s impressive reign as the AEW World Tag Team Champion, went down as an instant classic for its combination of incredible in-ring action and emotional storytelling.
In an interview with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, the Young Bucks looked back on this clash and Nick ranked the Lucha Brothers as one of his favorite opponents of all time before he said their rivalry will “live forever.”
“I’m still pretty banged up from that match,” Nick Jackson said. “Was it worth it? Hell yeah, it was. I was telling the guys in our locker room that it was the most nervous I’d ever been before a match because I knew it could—and would—be something special if everything went right. I actually remember talking to the Dark Order before the event, telling them some ideas I had and I said, ‘This could be the best cage match of all time if it goes right.’
“After the match, [Evil] Uno laughed and said, ‘Well, I think everything went right.’ It always sucks when your run as champion comes to an end, but we put so much effort into building up those titles that I actually felt a little relief when Fénix flew from 20 feet high crashing down on us. I knew everything went right, and trying to top the run we just had would be pretty tough. The Lucha Bros. might be my favorite opponents ever. I respect the hell out of them, and I think our rivalry will live forever.”
Matt weighed in on the matter by describing the emotions conveyed by the match, both in the ring and in the post-match celebration. He first pointed to the way seeing Penta celebrate with his daughter resonated with him as a father. Later, he described, upon watching the match back, the sight of Penta defending Fenix “hit him in the feels” because it reminded him of the way he’d protect his siblings from bullies when they were kids.
“That live reaction made me realize the story we told that night worked better than I could’ve imagined,” said Matt Jackson. “The father in me had tears run down my cheeks, alone in my hotel room, as I watched back Penta celebrating this special moment with his children. It may have been our finest match.
“…When I watched the match back, I didn’t expect it to hit me in the feels the way it did. The moment that older brother Penta shielded his baby brother Fénix from the dreaded thumbtack shoe, I got very emotional. It brought me back to when Nick, myself and our other two siblings were little, and I’d stand up for them in the playground against bullies.”
