After lobbying hard for their release from WWE for months last fall, the Grizzled Young Veterans have officially left their spooky days in the Schism behind in order to return to their traditional wrestling ways on the indies, where “gritting their teeth” is far more than just a catchphrase.

And with their time in TNA seemingly done, the GYV boys have set their sights on AEW, where some of the best tag teams in the world earn paychecks each week from Tony Khan.

Discussing their new run in TK's company in an interview with Cultaholic, Zack Gibson noted that he's proud to now wrestle for a promotion that celebrates in-ring wrestling above all else.

“One of the things with deciding to leave WWE, it's just not leave and go, well, we will see with happens. It's always actually pushing forward, we want to be everywhere. We made it work with TNA, now we did AEW,” Zack Gibson told Cultaholic via Fightful. “It's pretty much that we want to make sure when you think of us, you don't think of us as a former so, and so, you think of us as our own entity and our own brand and look at the decorated career that we'll have. We had a great time there, great conversations with Tony. The one thing that I love about that place is that it celebrates wrestling. First and foremost, it celebrates wrestling. If you can go, you will get your roses. That's literally something that me and Zack have really prided ourselves on for a very long time.”

Is that a dig against NXT for placing gimmicks over in-ring work? Or are the GYV simply pushing AEW's new company line, which is wholly focused on putting the graps forward and everything else second? Either way, the duo weren't done talking, as they have plenty more to say about what's going on outside of WWE.

The Grizzled Young Veterans are ready to work away from WWE.

Discussing their newfound run outside of the WWE/NXT Universe, Grizzled Young Veterans explained how refreshing it is to be part of professional wrestling promotions that value performers based on their in-ring abilities instead of their size. For every exception like Shawn Michaels or Bryan Danielson, there are dozens, no, hundreds of other performers who have seen their careers limited as a result of preconceived expectations.

“I am 5'10 on a good day. I can probably get wider, but I'm not gonna get taller. I really hate how for a very long time in wrestling, something as silly as your height can dictate your future. It's very silly when you think about the bigger picture and look at someone like — they'll dictate it on a lot of people in wrestling,” James Drake explained. “Oh, but Shawn Micheals. Oh, but Daniel Bryan. You let them shine with their ability and there's so much more out there that they are just so talented. They're wrestlers, they're not models. They're not trying to be these superhuman like Marvel characters. But, shows like TNA or shows like AEW, people tune in to watch your craft and then they decide, do we like them, do we not like them. It's purely based on your craft. It's very refreshing to say the least.”

Zack Gibson chimed in too, noting that when it comes to professional wrestling, the GYV want to work against the best of the best, with FTR, the Young Bucks, and… the Acclaimed all on that list.

“Obviously when we came out, we said we wanted to be everywhere, we wanted to work with all of the best talents that are out there,” Zack Gibson added. “You can't go on record saying that and not end up at least trying to do work with the AEW tag division because that division is stacked. There are rumors of other people coming in, but look at the actual division right now. Acclaimed, FTR, Young Bucks, the list just goes on and on and it's just top tier tag team wrestling that is given time to shine and show out and do proper tag team wrestling on TV with some real purpose. It's an exciting place to get our foot in the door. We were both buzzing to be there. The Acclaimed, great opponents for us.”

Could one quibble that teams in WWE like The Usos, Gurillas of Destiny, and New Day are worthy of GYV's time? Sure, but considering WWE never seemed to push the duo at a level worthy of being in that main event tag team picture, the decision to ask for their release and test the waters in TNA, AEW, and beyond makes all of the sense in the world.