The Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake and Zack Gibson) had a memorable WWE run, as they won the NXT UK Tag Team Championship. They left the company in 2023. Since then, they have since competed around the wrestling world.
Speaking with Sid Pullar III for The Takedown on SI, the Grizzled Young Veterans discussed their departure from WWE. Drake first emphasized that they loved WWE, but they realized that something had to change.
“First and foremost, we absolutely loved the WWE, we loved them, we love AEW, we love every wrestling promotion we ever worked for,” Drake said. “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.”
Grizzled Young Veterans Wanted To Experience The Wrestling World
Drake continued by saying that they knew they were getting older, and they realized that they wanted to bet on themselves and experience the wrestling world.
“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 said. “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 also highlighted how they had wrestled for ROH, TNA, AEW, and New Japan over in the last year, and betting on themselves made that possible.
“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,” Gibson said. “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.”
Gibson went on to state that they wanted to experience everything that made them love the jobs in the first place. He said that they realized that the best thing they could do was to get out there and travel around the world again.
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