#overflow post

[spinetacks]

alright here we go here’s my thoughts on what the bucks got up to at redemption (not will & mox, who got up to a lot, I’m simply a bucks thinker). and y’know, it’s great. the way we reacted to it was proof of that. it was such a subtle way to lead into the story and the purpose of this match, the theme running through to the end of the show. they had a point they wanted to prove to kenny about will but going into the match we didn’t know how they were planning to do it. it was so natural that it scared the hell out of us because it takes so long to become obvious that it’s the story they’re telling (and tbh made us all a bit silly about the fact they have concussion protocol. that’s kayfabe babie). (and as an immediate aside, now we have context — you can’t help but assume they got the idea for the match plan from nick’s recent injury. they don’t do blame with each other, but the injury was at least in part matt’s fault. this was a match they pushed to have, the story and injury coincided so well. matt getting to act the protective, caring older brother while nick persists through a match with a head injury..in the moment it was upsetting thinking that in their early years this had been a reality for them several times, and then we find out how fresh that fear actually was :( )

we see matt in distress all the time. as the guy who runs matt in situations monday I feel silly even talking about that, of course that happens. he's said before that the way they balance each other includes knowing who should take which role wrt speaking and acting, and that generally matt will go for the acting if they need sympathy. he's naturally very good at emoting, being pathetic, the back and forth of being hurt and pissed off, and he loves to whimper loudly in front of a crowd. nick, the guy who described crying as an alien feeling, is by comparison and as a person so flat affect. I don't agree at all with the division of them by head and heart, but they are generally pretty divisible by buck that fucks around and finds out and is soft and has weaknesses/buck you do not want to be around for when he gets the hot tag. nick is strong and stoic and has the good ideas, nick defends matt frequently in matches and quietly supports him when he's dealing with the emotional difficulties of their relationships. matt intervening with nick tends to be when he's reached volcanic stage and needs matt to soothe him and help him regain focus. it's actually pretty rare that matt goes into big brother mode (be that caring or demanding – we've seen both this year). 

so all that said, it’s gut wrenchingly rare to see nick in such a vulnerable state. it isn’t something they can draw on often at all. I thought nick did a great job with it — it felt so soberingly bad because nick plays it so serious. we’re used to dramatics with the bucks because matt generally leads their emotional moments, but nick’s confused determination to keep fighting and how these injuries progressively mount while matt tries and fails to protect him..ough. and we start this with matt encouraging nick to sit out. instead of lost without him, matt draws on his strength as the older brother. the bucks are always about each other — whichever buck is in the ring is already thinking about when the other is going to be in his place. matt does a great job taking over and having a little singles moment (love the eventual follow through on him getting marina). it’s sickeninggg of them when nick is dazedly wandering on the apron and matt is getting shoved around, looking over at him, continuing to get beat up. he reaches and nick still isn’t sure what he’s doing so doesn’t reach back. when nick is considering getting back in mox drops him on his head and starts the narrative going that this match is about who is willing to explode nick’s brain.

the bucks always take at least one turn each at everything, and I felt like this match was a really nice parallel to revolution (which I also had a billion thoughts on). nick got a lot of really cool solo moments when he was gushing blood while matt’s story in that match was the emotional drive of his son. in this match matt was isolated and got to show what he can do (ft. maybe the best cazadora of his career) while nick functioned as the emotional drive. man. nick’s already on his second head injury of the night when matt shows so much reluctance tagging out to him and ultimately doesn’t get a choice. at that point it seems like nick is recovering and okay. there’s that awesome moment where they get put in a styles clash and piledriver together. it doesn’t feel like they’re fighting for their lives, but it’s just getting darker and darker. again, nick is so rarely the one that acts, it feels a lot worse than matt and his dramatics. he does a horribly good job with the repeat, increasing injuries and this daze repeatedly overcoming him and affecting how he interacts with matt. 

when nick gets the self-inflicted head injury of crashing into the ring post he’s up to 4. matt is turned towards him, checking on him from his own place beaten on the floor. this time he full body tenses when nick blind tags himself in. then they even get knox in on this, catching nick when his legs give out. the match slowing down while the ref who has known nick since he was a teenager debates whether he needs to call this off, awful. awful! and then we get into will having to make his choice. matt anxiously leaning in, watching and calling to nick. like shoot it’s a matter of pacing, but kayfabe it’s godawful how matt reflexively crawls towards nick, stops himself and just tries to encourage him, and then speeds towards him when he can see where this is going. it’s a situation the bucks got themselves into, to prove this exact point to kenny, but proving it this way hadn’t been the plan at all. matt covering nick and barking for will to stop — it’s gone too far, it isn’t just a match anymore (at this point nick doesn't know any better and won't stop of his own volition. does will actually want to kill him? look what kind of person mox is. stop this)

matt is very cool in this match. it’s so far the opposite of their usual dynamic, even down to the build to this match where nick tried to take mox’s head off for pushing matt. of course nick is the hothead and matt is the one always getting himself into problems, nick stoically often doesn’t draw attention to when he’s in pain while matt loves to look wounded. I loved the balance they struck in this of matt not entirely being able to control nick and making up for it in strength and focus. he can sober the hell up if he needs to, and the extremely rare occasion of his baby brother being vulnerable is when he needs to the most.

the finish felt like another pretty nice parallel with revolution. the thing with revolution was that it was the other type of matt big brother situation — the type where nick respects his authority even to their detriment. at revolution nick was drained from the blood loss and obeyed matt’s order to hit a move that clearly wasn’t going to work, then fell into the pin. it’s rare nick gets the pins due to matt needing to be legal, so it was noticeable at revolution that nick kept being given the attempts. at redemption nick is on the ropes and exhausted when mox comes back from the trigger, but he doesn’t need matt’s tough love to put the last of his energy into it. this time they keep going. this time it works. nick gets another traumatic pin and unlike revolution it succeeds :) but jeez, look at the situations they’ve been putting him in

anddd I love that they keep this up right to the end with nick trying to leave while matt paws at him. matt holding him and emotional that they’d fucked around way to close to the sun with proving their point but proud that nick made through after all of that. matt wanting nick to get the credit for that match despite how much he carried it for them both. guy who loves attention when it isn’t serious but gets real about it when it is. everyone appreciate how cool nick is before matt scoops him away to safety. 

I love what a fresh approach they’ve had to matches since this run started!! they’ve revisited their old pwg playbook, which is awesome, but they continue to be so inventive with new moves showing up constantly and trying out storytelling that's uncommon for them at any point in their career. the ftr match has haunted me for how starkly different and creative it was, and this one is definitely another success in the same vein.

and lemme end this with the impeccable storytelling that matt pulls nick into a sequence by cradling his head. split second, totally instinctive. they grab at each other like this in every match to either move into a superkick sequence, stabilise themselves, or just make sure they’re both oriented right. if you look it’s generally nick who does this. it’s generally a touch/grab to the shoulder or forearm. matt protected his baby’s head. lets all kill ourselves tbh 👍

[spinetacks]

the fd hybrid gear is inspired by this set they debuted in 2007, the same year they started using mmmbop for their entrance music 🎶

and the gummy bears perfectly recreated from pwg eleven (2014), aka the infamous match where they kicked candice lerae with a thumbtack shoe 📌

[spinetacks]

now it isn’t 2am and I’ve rewatched the bucks v ftr match several times, I can see where my initial confused/upset reaction of something feeling Wrong came from and I’m honestly like. I’m really intrigued by why they had this match in this way. I’ve been thinking it over and have a few ideas. but essentially this match was different to any other bucks match possibly in their whole career?

once I realised what the strange feeling was it became really obvious: the bucks are alone. they come together for tag moves, but they’re sparse moments and this entire match is a constant 2 on 1. if you look for it you’ll notice that every time one buck is in the ring the other is nowhere to be seen. they’re purposely staying down and out of sight. there’s none of the things we’re familiar with in a bucks match — no menace coming from them being so quick to switch in and out, no constant flow of tag moves, no hot tags. they aren’t a unit or in each other’s heads or supporting each other, they aren’t even there. nick bleeds heavily from the start and is immediately struggling but matt just isn’t present to offer encouragement or even worry about him — he’s been dropped on his head and he’s on the floor. matt only starts to climb up when nick begins to reach for the corner, and ftr catch matt and take him out really nastily on the apron in front of nick so he has to continue alone. the match follows this pattern of them only appearing in the corner when a tag actually needs to imminently happen. nick’s unsteady from the blood loss and exhausting himself so he isn’t doing his standard amount of flying, while matt is mostly holding up well and throwing his energy into it but struggling from the isolation.

they did a good job of not just having yet another ftr match. and I think they didn’t want one of their intense but fun pwg style matches, they didn’t want any chance of humour coming into this, and they didn’t even want their usual vibe. they lost in what could’ve been a really disheartening way, but it’s balanced with important moments for them. what I think is that a lot of the purpose of this match was what it highlighted. we know matt’s son has ambitions of becoming a wrestler — matt being entirely isolated from nick meant that he had no support and nothing to give him strength, so going to his son for a traditional bucks forehead moment was a great experience for the both of them and hey if zach ever does become a famous wrestler that clip will be brought up for his entire life. he and nick needed to not have each other for that to make sense. and for nick he got a lot of space to show what he can do by himself. which may not be something he necessarily wants, as in it wouldn’t lead to anything, but it was a significant venue and match for them and he got the great moments, especially the kick out on one. what matt gained from that match was everyone seeing his bond with his son; nick got the entire internet buzzing about how cool he is (yet again! the most in demand singles wrestler who will never leave his partner 😌)

and of course the bucks’ dynamic itself..really interesting choices. the individuality of this match does feel very strange, it’s so alien for them. conversely I liked that they did their dual submission holds. something that really stood out to me is that nick gets the pin attempts, and this is pretty unusual. matt often takes them just because he has to be the legal man for two of their finishers, but generally it’s him anyway. just is. matt breaks up the shatter machine and holds cash out of the way so nick can pin. after the bte trigger nick is absolutely exhausted but goes for the pin. the false finish on the absolutely perfect meltzer driver is agonising but again, matt gestures and rolls away for nick to do the pin. it feels like he’s purposely moving away so it’s nick’s moment, even if the moment never arrives. and that forehead thing..oooough. like, look, I was very excited to get a forehead thing in aew. I love the forehead thing, I wrote extensively about the history of it a while back (oh hey look I mentioned unusual nick pins there too). but as a storytelling moment? the more it sinks in the more I’m making threatening gestures at matt. tl;dr of my previous essay, the forehead thing always meant the same thing; it was a non-verbal way to signify that it was time to kill someone. even with its intimacy it’s a nasty, snarling, feral little thing that they do because they’re monsters when they’re moving as one. and this? wasn’t that at all. their personalities give way in this moment. to me it has real overtones of how matt behaved in their revolution match with hangman and kenny (remember near the end? nick is hurting but matt orders him to do a move that will land him on the ramp — in that moment, too, matt being the eldest steamrollers over nick generally being the bossy one). this moment was so tender and desperate but..it’s because nick has nothing left in him from all the blood loss while matt is frantically energetic. this isn’t them coming together to telepathically plot a murder and bite at each other for fun. it’s matt urging nick to stay with him, and god, nick has never had a choice in that, has he? their whole career, his whole life, it’s about staying with matt. of course he’ll follow matt, beyond sense eventually. nick looks ready to give up after the meltzer kick out and matt has to shut everything else out. we are like full pre-aew bucks in this moment but doing something they’ve never done before. it’s not because matt has come up with any new great idea, it’s just because matt is still fired up and knows nick won’t let him down and you can see the little baring of fangs in what he’s saying. nick drags himself up for a more bang that he doesn’t have the energy to pull off, barely even reacts when he’s knocked down. and in keeping with the rest of the match, when matt gets taken out he rolls right out of the ring, leaving nick alone to get pinned.

I do think this is all just a one-off, differently produced match for them! I’m not saying any of this means anything outside of the moment it happened in. but I really gotta hand it to them, they managed to make this match super interesting when it was one a lot of us weren’t all that enthusiastic about. did I like it? not really, because I’m very softhearted and like my bucks together as intended. but I have enjoyed really taking it in and thinking about the choices made. very, very different work from them, super cool they can reinvent so extremely after all this time, please never do it again <3

[spinetacks]

it really added a layer to how hard this match was to watch knowing that 1. the bucks were heavily involved in making it happen, and 2. the story they chose to tell during was entirely riffing on nick recently actually being injured in a similar way. seeing matt a lot more subdued and in big brother mode with nick backstage, gently assisting with explaining the injury (which happened in a move where matt was handling him;;) felt so similar to the vibes they had in the match. which despite what matt may be posting isn’t standard bucks behaviour, but he does shoot fall into getting a bit gruff and authoritative about nick being his baby brother when he’s concerned about him. getting to act that out during a match and dial it up and play on how worried/protective he was when he had just experienced those emotions for realsies prob contributed to why it felt so heart wrenching on a first watch 🥲

[spinetacks]

around the 2013-2015 period the bucks used to call their matches cocaine, which is dorky because they’re straight edge but legit because the speed and intensity they could reach would make anyone’s heart rate spike. and there’s two of them — it’s so overwhelming because it’s a relentless pace with no pause. not just that the hits keep coming, but they can balance maintaining a narrative through a match while going berserk, they can do all their annoying shitty little insults and slapstick sequences but still turn feral and move like they don’t care if it kills them. some matches end and they’re shaking with all the energy built up in them and cut promos where they’re loopy and have to try and find enough sense to reel each other back in from whatever dazed thing they’re yelling about. super dragon used to give them this dark feeling in the ring as though they could kill for real. they’ve said that during matches they think of themselves as their brand, not individuals. their minds are always on each other and how to enhance, fill in, support. I can’t imagine what it must be like going into a flow state of that pace with a whole other person and knowing you feel the exact same way about what you’re experiencing. not always, but when it’s the right tone of match it’s like they switch off and can navigate twenty minutes solely based on an awareness of each other. but they had to build that synergy. they had to choose to become like that. when you watch even their early work it seems like they just came ready packaged as freaks, but it took a good few years! when they started out they were decent, fairly in sync, though it was formulaic and obviously communicated. in 2009 they got more synced up when they introduced superkicks and some intensity to their matches and started learning how to use nonverbal cues, then to make their sequences and behaviour between wilder but understood between the two of them. it took a while to admit to each other that they felt they’d developed telepathy. the bucks becoming what they are was a steady but gradual thing. in 2013 they thought they’d work hard and die young and were doing matches beyond what was sane and I just think. how special not only to want that shared life with someone but to continue growing and wanting the same thing, and to learn a whole new way of communicating to do it. to attune yourself to someone so perfectly that your movements are a response to feeling theirs. and then to use that to take some of the nastiest ladder bumps ever witnessed 😮‍💨

[spinetacks]

despite his aversion to singles wrestling, in HPW matt was their first and only title holder. they started working there prior to becoming a tag team and he became champ in 2006 (after defeating nick in the first round of the tournament), defending it five times until the promo ended in 2009. making matt the singles hater who has done far fewer singles matches than nick and would rather die than be a singles wrestler the only buck to have held a singles title in their career ⭐

[spinetacks]

lol I’m listening to smth from 2015, matt is saying as a tag team it means he can focus on playing to the camera/viewers at home while nick caters to the live audience. but nick saying matt NEVER wants to do their pose because he gets too lost in his character and (matt: he always wants to do it soo bad 🙄) is never anywhere to be found and needs to be pulled into it every time. THIS STILL HAPPENS NOW..

[spinetacks]

gonna add this to the tna suffering master post but head in my hands. head on my knees. curling up in a ball .