10 Things We Learned From 'Young Bucks: Killing The Business From Backyards To The Big Leagues'
Haunted houses, high spots, and Hulkamania, brother.
These days, Matt and Nick Jackson are two of the most popular wrestlers on the planet. In an industry that has spent the best part of two decades with a big neon sign pointing to WWE as everyone's eventual destination, the Young Bucks have been part of a movement that could well change the wrestling business.
Of course, we'll all have to wait and see just how these next few years (and hopefully decades) turn out for All Elite Wrestling, but it's been a hugely positive first year for a company built around talent who have opted to take a chance on themselves and take a chance on shaking up the industry.
It's not always been sunshine and rainbows for Matt and Nick, mind, and their life story is documented in the brothers' new book, Young Bucks: Killing the Business From Backyards to the Big Leagues.
With the read alternating between the viewpoint of the real-life Matt and Nick Massie, Killing the Business details the pair's childhood and upbringing, their early love of professional wrestling, constructing their own ring and running backyard wrestling shows, busting their behinds to try and become a success, achieving that success, their family life, and the book goes all the way up to the foundations being laid for AEW.
Having taken an early look at this fascinating read, here are a select ten things that we learned from Killing the Business From Backyards to the Big Leagues.
10. Hulkamania Was Running Wild, Brother
Detailing their younger days and their first memories of professional wrestling, Matt Jackson goes on to cite Hulk Hogan as being one of the Bucks' go-to guys - which, let's face it, was pretty commonplace for young wrestling fans at a certain point in time.
As Matt puts it in Killing the Business:
"Like me, my brothers gravitated to the lively, muscular, bald-headed Hulk Hogan. Before my parents knew it, we had the Hulk Hogan stuffed animals, bedsheets, mugs, lunch pails, and even hand grippers. We were full-blown Hulkamaniacs."
Interestingly, shortly after this, Matt goes on to talk up Shawn Michaels, Marty Jannetty, and the 1-2-3 Kid as other favourites - even detailing how he and Nick would nail their brother Malachi with a "perfectly synchronized double Superkick", à la The Rockers.
As for the first time he was bitten by the wrestling bug, Matt names his cousin's description of watching WrestleMania III on closed-circuit TV as being what really stirred his interest in the business. At that point in time, Matt was just two years of age - and he goes on to then discuss the various WWF and WCW shows he'd manage to convince his father to take the family to.