Biography
Matt Jackson, the elder of the two brothers who make up The Young Bucks, is an AEW World Tag Team Champion for a record fourth time as autumn 2026 rolls on. He and younger brother Nick climbed the ladder to win the belts at All Out on 26 September 2026, beating Adam Copeland and Christian Cage as well as FTR, and kept hold of them at WrestleDream on 17 October with a BTE Trigger on Kevin Knight. It is the latest high point for a performer who, outside the ring, co-founded the company and still serves as one of its executive vice presidents.
Born Matthew Massie in Montebello, California, Matt was the driving force behind the brothers' start in wrestling. After years of backyard matches in a ring the family set up in 2001, he trained at Revolution Pro's Rudos Dojo under Ron Rivera and others, passed what he learned on to Nick and their friends, and in October 2004, still a teenager, opened his own small promotion, High Risk Wrestling, so the brothers had somewhere to learn their trade. They went on to become the defining team of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, winning its world tag titles four times. A spell in TNA as Generation Me, with Matt known as Max Buck, came and went without much fanfare, but their reputation on the independent scene kept growing.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling changed everything. Brought in as members of Bullet Club in 2013, the Bucks won the Super Jr. Tag Tournament at the first attempt and racked up a record seven IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship reigns, adding three ROH World Tag Team titles along the way. With Kenny Omega they became The Elite, and in 2018 they stepped up to heavyweight and won the IWGP Tag Team Championship. That year Matt and Nick also put on All In with Cody Rhodes, selling out a 10,000-seat arena without a major company behind them, and AEW was announced on New Year's Day 2019.
Matt has been at the heart of many of AEW's most celebrated tag matches. The Bucks' Revolution 2020 title match against Omega and Hangman Adam Page got six stars from Dave Meltzer, and their ladder and steel cage wars with the Lucha Brothers also scored above five. They first won the AEW tag titles in 2020, became the inaugural Trios Champions with Omega in 2022 and, as arrogant 'executives' in 2024, won the tag gold a third time and ran The Elite.
A hiatus late in 2024 gave way to a 2025 return alongside the Death Riders, but a loss to Will Ospreay and Swerve Strickland at All In: Texas stripped the brothers of their on-screen authority. Their babyface turn at Full Gear 2025, coming to Omega's rescue, reunited the original Elite. After several near misses in 2026, the All Out ladder win completed the comeback, and Matt heads into the rest of the year as champion.
