The Grizzled Young Veterans are back and they haven’t held back in their criticism of WWE.
The team, which consists of James Drake and Zack Gibson, first joined the company back in 2017 as part of NXT UK. There they won the UK brand’s Tag Team Titles before heading to the US.
They continued teaming under the Grizzled Young Veteran’s name until 2022 when they joined Joe Gacy in The Schism. The pair were repackaged as The Dyad and renamed Jagger Reid and Rip Fowler respectively. Taking on a darker persona, the pair spent the next year assisting Gacy while also unsuccessfully challenging for the NXT Tag Team Championships.
The pair were released from the company on September 14th after their contracts expired.
Grizzled Young Veterans claim WWE overproduction leads to “soulless wrestlers”
On October 14th, James Drake posted a video to social media to reveal the duo are now free agents.
Zack Gibson kicked it off by joking that there would no “spooky lights” and he didn’t need a contact lens anymore.
“No spooky lights, no special effects, I won’t even need a contact lens. No overproduction, we’re done.”
Drake then blasted WWE for their overproduction, claiming that it only leads to “soulless wrestlers with heartless gimmicks.”
“No overproduction, where does that get you? No, seriously, where does that get you? You’ve got soulless wrestlers with heartless gimmicks, and then you’ve got the death of creativity.
He then explained GYV left the company because they were “sick” of boring scripts and “dealing with knobheads.”
“We took a long look around and we said to ourselves, ‘If this is the big life, then we’re not looking to live it.’ We are sick of taking the safe option, we are sick of reading the same old boring scripts that go absolutely nowhere, and we are sick of dealing with knobheads that have wormed their way into this business.”
Gibson then claimed a “famous British wrestler” had told them to learn to follow orders when they arrived in the US, but that just isn’t something they want to do anymore.
“A very famous British wrestler told us when we arrived in the States that it was time for us to put our heads down and start listening to orders if we wanted to succeed. He said that he wanted us to have all the fun out of our system because there’s no pirates here.
Well, I am sorry for anyone who had different expectations for us, I am sorry that we can’t be who you wanted us to be. Simply put, we are not politicians. It’s a pirate’s life for us.
“I am Liverpool’s number one, Zack Gibson, this man is James Drake, together we are Grizzled Young Veterans!”
“We have conquered all of Europe, and we’re never gonna stop, the boys are back!”
❌ No production crew.
❌ No spooky lighting.
❌ No contact lenses.Me @ZackGibsonGYV are proud 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗪𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘀.
We are the
𝗚𝗿𝗶𝘇𝘇𝗹𝗲𝗱. 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗴. 𝗩𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀. pic.twitter.com/D9VeJo4WJw— 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐤𝐞 (@JamesDrakePro) October 14, 2023
Drake and Gibson also revealed that they will continue to be based in the US, but are available for bookings globally.
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