Grizzled Young Veterans


The Grizzled Young Veterans are a British professional wrestling tag team consisting of James Drake and Zack Gibson. They are currently signed to the WWE, working under their NXT brand.
Drake and Gibson are inaugural and the longest-reigning NXT UK Tag Team Champions. They are also three-time Progress Tag Team Champions.

History

Progress Wrestling (2017–2019)

In 2017, Gibson and James Drake formed a tag team called Grizzled Young Veterans. Grizzled Young Veterans defeated Chris Brookes and Kid Lykos of CCK to become the Progress tag team champions. They successfully defended the titles against Aussie Open at Progress Chapter 59. At Chapter 61, Grizzled Young Veterans defeated Moustache Mountain to retain their championships. In 2018, Gibson took part of the Super Strong Style 16 Tournament, defeating Joey Janela in the first round and Pete Dunne by disqualification in the quarter finals before he was eliminated by Kassius Ohno in the semi-finals.

WWE

NXT UK (2018–2020)

In January 2017, Drake participated in the WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament to crown the inaugural WWE United Kingdom Champion, losing to Joseph Conners in the first round.
Gibson was announced for WWE's WrestleMania Axxess during Wrestlemania 34 weekend as part of a WWE United Kingdom Championship invitational where he lost to Mark Andrews in the first round. On day four of Axxess, Grizzled Young Veterans retained their Progress Tag Team championships by disqualification against Heavy Machinery. Around this time, it was revealed by Wrestling Observer that Gibson was signed to a WWE contract. Both would participate in the WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament with the winner facing Pete Dunne for the United Kingdom Championship. Drake lost to Flash Morgan Webster in the first round but Gibson won the tournament after defeat Travis Banks in the finals and would go on to challenge Dunne, the next night in a losing effort.
In 2019, they Moustache Mountain at in the finals of a tournament to become the inaugural NXT UK Tag Team Champions. After some defences, they would lost the titles to Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster at in a triple-threat tag team also involving Gallus. On 11 September Drake and Gibson unsuccessfully challenged Andrews & Webster in a rematch. They would have another title match at against the new champions Gallus, Andrews & Webster and Imperium in a ladder match where the champions retained.
In parallel to their NXT UK Tag Team Championship pursuit at NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool II, Drake and Gibson competed in the 2020 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. They defeated Kushida and Alex Shelley in the quarterfinals and NXT Tag Team Champions Bobby Fish
and Kyle O'Reilly of The Undisputed Era in the semifinals, before losing to The BroserWeights in the finals.

NXT (2020–present)

On the February 19, 2020 episode of NXT, the Grizzled Young Veterans joined the NXT brand, defeating Raul Mendoza and Joaquin Wilde before announcing their intent to take over NXT's tag team division.

Championships and accomplishments