The Young Bucks Discuss Building Costumes Around Shoes, Leaning Into Their Heel Personas

The Young Bucks wrestled in Dior Air Jordan 1's and the wrestling business was never the same.

While the Young Bucks were not the first wrestlers to compete in sneakers, they've helped lead the discussion on wrestlers wearing shoes and implemented them into their storylines and personas.

Going sneaker shopping with Complex, the Bucks discussed how they use shoes to get heat.

"We were turning heel and I told Nick, 'What is the one thing we can do to piss off so many people?' 'Wear expensive stuff.' We love Nike, I've been obsessed with these shoes since they came out. I said, 'What if we buy those, and not only that, we wrestle in them.' I knew it would be a big thing, a big deal, I didn't know it would be as big of a deal. This is all out of our pocket. It's a tax write off now that I've worn them on television. We wore them in one of our first matches as bad guys and it got a huge reaction. We knew we stumbled upon something really unique and from that point on, it was, 'every pair of shoes we wear to the ring, we need to build a costume around' and we started building costumes around our shoes," said Matt Jackson. "We're bad guys. If you're going to accuse of wearing replicas or fakes, bring it. That actually adds to our personality. 'Oh, these guys are frauds.' Believe what you want to believe. I'm spending a lot of money on these. With us, everything you see or read about us, take it with a grain of salt because we're always working and trying to get a reaction."

Nick Jackson added, "I do think we made it a trend. If you look on Instagram or Twitter or any social media, you'll see wrestlers in sneakers. That wasn't a thing three or four years ago."

Shane McMahon, who has also appeared on Complex's sneaker shopping show, was brought up as someone else who wrestled in sneakers.

Matt said about Shane, "Shane O Mac might have been the first guy to do it, but I don't think all the wrestlers copied it. Maybe Shane is the OG of wearing sneakers, but now everyone is doing it. We said, 'it's okay to do this, you don't have to wear wrestling boots.' Back in the day, if I showed up 15 years ago with sneakers, all the veterans would have kicked my ass. 'You've got to have wrestling boots. This isn't legit. You're not trained.' It was part of the business back then."

Elsewhere during the interview, the Young Bucks discussed wanting to light a shoe on fire and perform a superkick. You can find their comments by clicking here.

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