10 Things We Learned From 'Young Bucks: Killing The Business From Backyards To The Big Leagues'

2. "The Greatest Tryout Match Ever"

The Young Bucks Killing the Business
AEW

The Young Bucks would get another chance to impress WWE officials when they were offered a tryout in 2011 - a tryout that, at least in some circles, became known as "the greatest tryout match ever".

With William Regal overseeing proceedings, Matt and Nick Jackson selected Scorpio Sky and Joey Ryan as their opponents for this tryout, with the decision made to embrace the frantic Pro Wrestling Guerrilla style rather than hold anything back.

As detailed by Matt in Killing the Business:

"We called a wild match filled with high spots and dives to the floor, all culminating in our delivering More Bang for Your Buck. Most tryout matches like this consisted mainly of mat wrestling and basic elementary-style wrestling. Not this one. As we began, WWE superstars and staff formed around the ringside area because their television rehearsal was approaching. Noting them, we wrestled as hard as we could wrestle and received... complete silence.
Nick completed his trademark comeback, and then dove to the floor onto Joey.
Awkward silence.
We loaded up Sky and delivered our finisher.
Silence.
The referee counted to three. And then the entire ringside broke into an applause. Later in the day, WWE superstar Curt Hawkins said he'd never seen anything like it. The story of the match spread throughout the business. In some circles it was referred to as 'the greatest tryout match ever'."

After impressing with this bout, the Young Bucks then had a similarly well-received match against the Usos the next day.

Unfortunately though, this all soured after Booker T took to social media to lambast the Bucks as problematic and disrespectful - meaning no WWE contract offer came calling this time.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.