"The! Elite! The! The! Elite!"
Being the Elite is an original YouTube series by professional wrestlers Matt and Nick Jackson, The Young Bucks. The show was originally a vlog type series with fellow professional wrestler Kenny Omega. Over time, the series began to mix blogging content with in-kayfabe skits which covered storylines involving their membership in the Bullet Club, producing their first pay-per-view ALL IN, then their independence as The Elite, and their formation of the promotion All Elite Wrestling.
Today, the series is primarily an extension of All Elite Wrestling, showcasing both behind the scenes footage of the promotion's events and the antics of their roster, as well as both comedy and drama skits which forward AEW's storylines.
The series recognises a single championship, which can be challenged for by playing a party game of the reigning champion's choosing:
- BTE World Champion: Christopher Daniels since April 11, 2022.
"TVTROPES PAAAAARTYYYYY!"
- Aborted Arc:
- Whatever the plans were for Marty Scurll's reintroduction following the rest of the Elite abandoning him to form All Elite Wrestling - with numerous teases that Marty held a big enough grudge to consider his former friends as being dead to him - were ultimately abandoned after Marty was implicated in the 2020 #SpeakingOut movement.
- There was a storyline through the Dark Order segments involving Stu Grayson and Anna Jay. After she joined the group, Anna Jay was shown comically lording over Stu, but after Anna was forced to take a leave of absence from the group due to an injury, Stu began seeing her at various places, being given at various times as Stu hallucinating about her or Anna actually being there, while the rest of the Dark Order acted as if they never had a female member, much to Stu's frustration. The way Stu was concerned about seeing her implied that it was building up towards a Relationship Upgrade between the two, but it was dropped out without a trace after it was revealed that Anna Jay was dating fellow AEW wrestler Jungle Boy in real life (the revelation in fact came the day after the last Being the Elite episode featuring the storyline).
- Whatever plans were in place for the Young Bucks/Hangman reconciliation storyline following All Out 2022 were forced to be abandoned after the Young Bucks were suspended and BTE went on hiatus following a backstage altercation with CM Punk. The storyline would be revisited after Revolution 2023.
- Affectionate Parody: The intro from Episode 141 was done in 16-bit videogame style.
- Artifact Title: Zig-zagged - Originally, the series was the Young Bucks travel vlog. As time went on, the vlogs become more scripted in nature, and began to heavily feature other members of the Bullet Club, Adam Cole And Kenny Omega in particular; before effectively becoming the primary narrative vehicle for the Bullet Club as Cole left for WWE and Marty Scurll joined in his place. As the group prepared for All In, the cast expanded to include the Bucks’ friends from the independent scene; by the end of 2020, the original trio of Omega and the Bucks have effectively been reduced to extras with a larger focus being placed on other AEW acts. When AEW went back on the road in the summer of 2021, the focus shifted back to being the Young Bucks travel vlog whilst retaining a focus on other AEW acts.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- In an early episode, the members of SCU are in London, England, admiring the scenery and how beautiful the landscape is... that is, the landscape and scenery of South California, which they're appreciating via a phone, only to bash London for not being South California.
- Episode 137 has The Stinger where Kenny Omega stresses over a difficult choice with Nick Jackson of The Young Bucks. At the time of the episode's airing, Omega was a free agent and rumors were rampant that he would sign with WWE.note The choice Kenny stresses over turns out to be whether to start playing the PS4 remake of Resident Evil 2 as Leon Kennedy or Claire Redfield.
- Cliffhanger: This is a common trope used on the show. Spoilers for notable ones ahead.
- To close episode 90, Kota Ibushi joins Kenny Omega to patch things up with The Young Bucks in the midst of a Bullet Club split. Ibushi and Omega reformed their previous tag team The Golden Lovers and later formed a short-lived stable with the Bucks called The Golden Elite.
- To close episode 148, Nick Jackson calls "an old British friend". The screen cuts to a phone ringing with the caller ID displaying "Dead Friend 1", which was also that episode's title.
- Crossover:
- Several WWE superstars such as The New Day and Chris Jericho (pre-AEW) have appeared in the show. Episode 65 featured a Running Gag of the Bucks going about their day and unwittingly missing various WWE contracted talents that they had history with, such as AJ Styles and Kevin Owens.
- When the Dark Order were banned from vlog by the Young Bucks, they proceeded to make appearances on Sammy Guevara and Ethan Page’s vlogs as they tried to find a new vlog to call home, before instead deciding to just blackmail Cutler into putting them back on BTE.
- Dolph Ziggler, Ryan Nemeth's brother, makes his first on-camera appearance in episode 360 while doing a comedy show with Ryan in Detroit.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- The first several episodes don't have a video game or sitcom intro, just the Bucks and Omega chanting "The Elite".
- Subtitles for the episodes started at Ep. 50.
- Until Adam Cole signed with NXT, the series primarily focused on the Young Bucks, Kenny Omega and Cole. Shortly after Marty Scurll joined Bullet Club, the focus shifted to include Scurll, Adam Page and Cody Rhodes, before eventually expanding to feature other talents who weren’t members of Bullet Club that they were friends with.
- Even the Guys Want Him: One episode had the Beaver Boys trying to recruit Wardlow into the Dark Order, but got sidetracked when they (especially John Silver) couldn't stop gushing about his body.
- Evil Is Petty: The Young Bucks banning Dark Order from appearing on BTE after they backed Hangman to challenge Kenny for the AEW title.
- Flipping the Bird: A specialty of MJF.
- Funny Background Event: In episode 149, Brandi and Cody Rhodes are trying to shoot a promo at the Jacksonville Jaguars practice facility for AEW's Fight For The Fallen pay-per-view. Hangman Page is running up and down the football field as part of his "Full Gear Challenge". A few seconds later, Cody and Page are shooting their own promo while Brandi is trying to take a 360 photo.
- Halloween Episode: "Elite Game", released for Halloween of 2021 and featuring Brandon Cutler, Michael Nakazawa, Private Party and Lulu Pencil going through The Elite's version of the Squid Game.
- Hijacked by Ganon: The civil war between Kenny & Cody for leadership of Bullet Club came to an abrupt end when the rest of Bullet Club kicked the BTE crew out of the group, having grown sick of their egotistical behaviour.
- Hostile Show Takeover:
- A variant, with their invasion to an arena where an episode of WWE Raw was taking place, mirroring D-Generation X's invasion of an arena where WCW Monday Nitro was taking place.
- The show itself was victim of this at the end of Episode 181, "We Lied", where the Inner Circle attacked the Bucks and their cameraman Brandon Cutler, stole the phone with which they recorded the show, and annouced that the next episode would be "Being the Inner Circle". Sure enough, the next episode followed them until the Bucks and Cutler recovered the phone. Further cementing this, it was the episode after that one that was named Episode 182.
- A different variant of this trope took place in Episode 263, when the heel Young Bucks fired the face Dark Order from BTE, effectively taking back the show. Dark Order were reinstated in Episode 266.
- Improbable Weapon User: A Running Gag in the Dark Order segments is Mr. Brodie Lee grabbing a stack of papers, rolling them, and throwing them at some poor subordinate for their failure (usually Evil Uno or John Silver). At one point, Mr. Brodie even told Uno over the phone to hit himself with paper, who proceeds to do so even when Mr. Brodie couldn't know whether he did or not. Subverted a couple of times when Brodie delegates the task to hit Silver to Evil Uno; not only does Silver No-Sell it, but states that he will not sell it for anyone other than Brodie (he did sell for Trent's mom Sue, but only after Brodie yelled at him into doing so).
- Last Disrespects: This happens twice during Joey Ryan's funeral:
- First, Scorpio Sky of SCU begins their speech saying that "this is the worst funeral I have ever been in!".
- Then, Arthur starts dissing Ryan himself in front of the entirety of The Elite sans "Hangman" Adam Page, who wasn't there, who were grieving Ryan.
- Left the Background Music On: At Episode 141, "All In" is playing after Matt and Nick reveal their brand new action figures. The next scene involves Sammy, who was listening to that same song while drinking.
- Loophole Abuse: The show often plays phone videos, or displays photos, of their matches instead of reproducing TV broadcasts. Multiple episodes close with the camera panning upwards as the Bucks do the DX chop.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Tired of Brandon Cutler asking them for bit ideas (and having no good ideas), the Best Friends and Orange Cassidy decide it would be easier to just murder him.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: The intro always lists the members of the stable (Kenny Omega, Marty Scurll, Adam Page, Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks) and finishes with "Also: Flip Gordon". Fittingly, the scenes involving Flip are very few.
- Our Slogan Is Terrible: Subverted. During Being the Elite's attempt to include public service announcements, there was the slogan "BTE is drug free, and that's the way to be!"
- Pac-Man Fever: Kip Sabian exhibits this when he plays video games on-screen against Leva Bates. Leva downplays this, justified in that she is playing calmly and confidently and has no need for manic button-mashing and stick-waggling.
- Ruder and Cruder: Since Being the Elite doesn't need to worry about the restrictions of network television, it contains far more swearing and suggestive humor than can be found on Dynamite.
- Running Gag:
- SoCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky) coming to a town, Scorpio Sky declaring it "the worst town I have ever been in", and talking about how it doesn't compare with Southern California.
"SCU!"- FTR and the subsequent FTRR. In WWE, "FTR" stands for "Forever The Revival", after The Revival. In BTE, the "F" in "FTR" is a F-bomb.
- Matt Jackson would grab Flip Gordon's hand, the screen would cut to pink-and-orange, and Matt would say, "Where do you think you're going?" in a scary voice and music...and usually something bad would happen to Flip.
- Matt Jackson signs autographs while staring at the autograph seeker, not looking at his signature.
- The "Trevor and Arthur" bits, where two offscreen voices parody old, gruff bookers/promoters and heckle BTE wrestlers and guest stars. "Trevor" and "Arthur" are represented by two pointed fingers.
- Matt Jackson hands Scorpio Sky candy bars to eat as a Visual Pun when their brand names are brought up in regular conversations, often when the candy bars themselves are not referenced.
- The ticking clock and countdown screenshots on the way to a major announcement.
- Joey Janela doing random odd jobs that often ends with him lighting himself up with a fireball to his face. Literally.
- Hangman Page wearing "full [wrestling] gear" in situations where the rest of BTE is wearing casual or dress clothes. Cody and the Bucks insist that he lose weight prior to AEW's Double or Nothing pay-per-view. The "full gear" gag was written into the Episode 141 intro. The same episode featured Page's "Full Gear Challenge". It finally pays off in Episode 152.
- After his dental job, Christopher Daniels wearing something around his mouth or the camera censoring his mouth, both Kaz and Scorpio making fun of the situation, and Daniels calling them dicks.
- MJF cursing everyone and everything (Cody included) until Cody gives him attention. This finally backfired on MJF in Episode 143 when Cody overheard one of MJF's insults about Cody, with MJF thinking Cody was not in earshot.
- Matt Jackson's objection to Michael Nakazawa, which spun off in segments where his name is said repeatedly, including a full SCU promo with them saying it in the same intonation as their regular "worst town" promos.
- Whenever someone sees Jungle Boy riding on Luchasaurus' shoulders & gets called out on it in a situation, Luchasaurus retorts: "With all due respect, I have a master's degree". He actually does have said degree, specifically in history.
- Sour Boy is the worst.
- Anna Jay pushing Stu Grayson and causing him to dramatically topple over furniture or objects. Lampshaded in episode 276 when, during a Dark Order reconciliation, he thinks something is missing just as she is about to do it again.
- Stealth Parody: As part of the Nakazawa Running Gag, there is a montage of Matt Jackson (and his children) saying Michael's name. A clip of Matt getting his hair brushed has him saying it again, which is a parody of Ronda Rousey's supposed out-of-character rant against the WWE
. - Show Within a Show: The short-lived and popular "Marty and Flip Take Japan".
- Something Something Leonard Bernstein: During one episode, John Silver led some of the Dark Order to sing Cody's theme (behind Mr. Brodie Lee's back), but only got the first line ("Adrenaline, in my soul") before going "Something something Cody Rhodes!"
- Team Mom: Trent's mom Sue is this to the AEW crew as well as her son. She bakes cakes for The Dark Order, and even the large, intimidating, violent, Atomic F-Bomb-dropping Mr. Brodie Lee doesn't stand up to her, even managing to make him crack a smile when she fails to do Lee's signature paper-throwing to John Silver. He immediately throws John Silver under the bus instead.
