Grizzled Young Veterans on WWE departure: ‘We bet on ourselves’

  • Ian Carey
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The Grizzled Young Veterans spoke to The Takedown on SI.com ahead of tonight’s NJPW Strong Style Evolved.

It’s been fourteen months since James Drake and Zack Gibson were granted their releases from WWE. In that time, they’ve wrestled for AEW, NJPW, TNA Wrestling, and several other promotions. They are the current NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Champions and will defend those titles tonight against The West Coast Wrecking Crew (Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs).

When reflecting on the last year, the GYV say they have no hard feelings toward WWE and feel they wouldn’t be where they are today without the company.

“So first and foremost, we absolutely loved the WWE, we loved them, we love AEW, we love every wrestling promotion we ever worked for,” said Drake.

“We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for WWE, we got to go in back in 2016 when we were in the UK. But saying that, things change and time goes on. And we’re, it’s the name ‘Grizzled Young Veterans’ but we’re not as young as we were. As time’s going on and we’re looking at the climate of the wrestling world how things are booming in other areas, well I can speak on my half and I’m sure Zack’s the same, at the end of the day, one of these days, we’re not gonna be able to do this anymore.”

“I think we’re gonna be in the wrestling business for the rest of our lives because we’ve committed 20 years into it so far, but physically, you know that is a ticking clock, it’s running down, you know as it respects to other careers,” Drake continued. “So whilst we’re young, whilst we’re in a situation where we could do it, we wanted to really bet on ourselves and experience the whole world of wrestling, not just WWE.”

Gibson added, “The list of companies that you said there, Ring of Honor, AEW, TNA, New Japan, that’s all in the space of 12 months and we’ve only been afforded that opportunity because we did say the time’s now, let’s go.”

“And then the proof’s in the pudding, our stock which was the thing we were most concerned with, is back on the rise, going in that direction again, so it’s all coming up Milhouse.”

Drake and Gibson defeated TMDK’s Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste last month to win the NJPW Strong tag titles at Fighting Spirit Unleashed in Lowell, MA. Tonight will be their first defense of the belts. They’ve also been wrestling on recent episodes of HonorClub, defeating MXM Collection on the December 12 episode (taped December 7).

“West Coast Wrecking Crew, there’s no doubt they’re the top team. Everyone around the world knows they are a top team, we appreciate they’re a top team,” Gibson said of their opponents tonight. “We’ve watched a lot of their stuff, so this is a match that we’ve requested multiple times, like people have messaged them on all different platforms asking to see this match.”

“Yeah so I mean like you said you could argue they are the face of the tag team division, but I mean the face of the tag team division are the champions, that’s just the way it is, you know. They want to be the face, but unfortunately that’s not the case,” Drake said.

NJPW Strong Style Evolved, Sunday, December 15, 7:30 p.m. Eastern time at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, CA and airing on NJPW World —

  • NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone defends against Hazuki
  • Jack Perry & Konosuke Takeshita vs. Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji
  • Zack Sabre Jr., Bad Dude Tito & Shane Haste vs. Shota Umino, Fred Rosser & Tom Lawlor
  • NJPW Strong Openweight Champion Gabe Kidd defends against Ryohei Oiwa
  • Hiromu Takahashi & Titan vs. Templario & Jakob Austin Young
  • Lio Rush vs. Hechicero
  • TJP vs. Kevin Knight vs. Kosei Fujita vs. Clark Connors
  • NJPW Strong Tag Team Champions Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) defend against West Coast Wrecking Crew (Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs)
  • Mina Shirakawa vs. Johnnie Robbie
  • Pre-show: Matt Vandagriff vs. Zane Jay