The psychological warfare is already underway

We are exactly six days away from AEW Dynasty. The Kansas City crowd is going to be demanding, and the locker room knows it. But instead of focusing entirely on the task inside the ring, the Young Bucks are playing their usual media games.

Matthew and Nicholas Jackson recently went out of their way to name a WWE duo as the best tag team outside of AEW. As reported by WrestleTalk, they ignored the Japanese and Mexican scenes entirely to throw a wink across the promotional divide.

It is classic EVP behavior. They want the internet talking about inter-promotional rankings rather than analyzing their recent in-ring form. Because if you look closely at the tape over the last two months, the Bucks are incredibly vulnerable.

Their transition speed has visibly dropped. They are relying far more on cheap heat and referee distractions than the blistering offensive sequences that made them famous. They are masking a tag division that is currently in a state of awkward transition.

The top-tier teams are either injured or tied up in trios matches. That leaves the EVPs to dictate the pace of the entire division. And right now, their pace is frustratingly slow. They are wrestling like men with guaranteed contracts who refuse to take unnecessary bumps.

The Hangman void changes everything

To understand the current tactical state of AEW's main event scene, you have to look at who is missing. Hangman Adam Page is entirely out of the world title picture. This absence alters the entire geometry of a major AEW pay-per-view card.

Page is a pacing mechanism. When he is in a main event, matches take on a heavy, attritional quality. His offense forces opponents to absorb stiff chops and deadlift powerbombs.

He dictates a bruising Southern brawling style that exhausts both men. Without him, the main event style shifts heavily toward pure athleticism and high-speed striking.

This reality was recently broken down on a PWTorch Dailycast. Greg Parks noted how the top of the card feels fundamentally different without Page's brooding violence anchoring it.

Opponents preparing for Swerve Strickland or Will Ospreay at Dynasty don't have to train for a 30-minute bloodbath. They have to train for sprint stamina. They need to be ready for 450 splashes and hidden blade strikes out of nowhere.

The Bucks benefit enormously from this shift. With the crowd expecting high-flying spectacles in the singles matches, Matthew and Nicholas can deliberately slow their tag matches down to generate heat. They drop the tempo, isolate an opponent, and grind them down with agonizingly basic holds.

A stark contrast to the alternatives

It is easy to criticize AEW's current creative slumps. I do it frequently. But you have to step back and look at the broader industry to understand why the Bucks feel so comfortable coasting on their status.

The gap between AEW and the distant third-place promotions is astronomical. Take the NWA, for example. Tyrus recently took a blunt, dismissive shot at the current NWA title scene.

According to Ringside News, the former champion made remarks that highlight just how far the legacy brand has fallen. The NWA is struggling for relevance, relying on outdated booking and slow, plodding big men.

AEW operates in a completely different stratosphere. This dominance was discussed on a recent retrospective podcast looking back at the industry. Jumping back 15 years, analysts wondered if a true number two promotion could ever emerge to challenge WWE's monopoly.

"Fascinating look at whether a new no. 2 could emerge in 10-15 years and did AEW check the predicted boxes"

As detailed by PWTorch, AEW didn't just meet those early predictions. They blew the doors off the financial metrics. But that massive success breeds in-ring complacency.

Tactical breakdown: Cutting the ring in half

If you are challenging the Young Bucks at Dynasty, you have to prepare for illegal tactics. Matthew and Nicholas have perfected the art of the blind tag. They bend the referee's five-second count to its absolute limit.

They will often double-team an isolated opponent for a full 8 seconds before the referee physically forces one of them onto the apron. You simply cannot fight them in a traditional two-on-two format.

If you lock up in the center of the ring, Matthew will rake the eyes. He will pull you into the heel corner. Once you are trapped in their half of the ring, the match is statistically over.

The counter-strategy requires extreme aggression. Challengers must jump the bell. Do not wait for the ring announcer to finish the introductions.

Attack them on the entrance ramp. Force Nicholas Jackson to sprint before he has a chance to warm up his legs. When the Bucks are forced into a chaotic, high-cardio brawl right from the jump, they make critical errors.

They miss superkicks when they are blowing up. Their timing on the Meltzer Driver gets sloppy if their lower backs are heavily targeted early in the match. You have to turn it into a street fight.

Defusing the aerial assault

Another massive element of the Bucks' current defensive strategy is how they ground high-flyers. AEW is built on spectacular aerial offense. The roster is loaded with talent who can hit a twisting moonsault at a moment's notice.

The EVPs know they can no longer match that verticality. Instead of trying to out-fly the competition, they have adopted a heavy grounding game. Watch how Matthew Jackson defends against a top-rope attack.

He doesn't try to catch his opponent or roll out of the way. He simply rolls to the ring apron. It is a brilliant veteran trick. If you dive onto the apron, you risk a catastrophic injury.

It forces the high-flyer to hesitate, step down, and rethink their approach. That split-second of hesitation is all Nicholas Jackson needs to secure a waist-lock from behind.

Suddenly, a spectacular offensive sequence turns into a grinding, mat-based chinlock. It drains the energy from the arena. The Kansas City crowd will be desperate for high spots, and the Bucks will systematically deny them those moments.

The referee factor and ring positioning

Pay close attention to where Rick Knox or Paul Turner is standing. The Bucks constantly manipulate the referee's sightlines. Matthew will deliberately pull the referee out of position to argue a standard rope break.

This opens a three-second window for Nicholas to deliver a cheap shot from the floor. It is a tired, frustrating trope. As a viewer, it is infuriating to watch AEW referees look completely incompetent match after match.

But from a purely tactical standpoint, it is masterful heel work. The challengers need to assign one man to strictly police the apron. You cannot let Nicholas Jackson roam freely on the outside.

If you keep the match inside the ropes, the Bucks are highly beatable. Their strike exchanges have lost velocity over the last two years. They do not want to stand in the middle of the ring and trade forearm shivers with younger talent.

The final verdict

Dynasty is going to be a fascinating test of AEW's current locker room depth. The Bucks are walking in with all the confidence of executives who write their own performance reviews.

They are talking about WWE tag teams because they genuinely believe nobody in their own building can touch them right now. They might be right about the division's temporary lack of depth.

But they are wrong about their own invincibility. They are relying entirely on misdirection and referee bumps. That strategy has a hard expiration date. Eventually, someone is going to ignore the mind games and simply punch Matthew Jackson in the mouth at the opening bell.

My prediction is bold, but the tape backs it up. The Bucks will try to stall for the first five minutes. They will roll to the floor and demand the referee back the challengers up.

The challengers won't wait. We will see an immediate brawl on the floor, permanently neutralizing the Bucks' corner-isolation strategy. The EVPs will lose control of the pace entirely. Expect a chaotic, disjointed match where the Bucks take a shocking pinfall loss, forcing them to reevaluate their entire in-ring approach.