Rewind to the 90s and 2000s when backyard wrestling exploded! Fueled by the Attitude Era’s high-risk stunts and Mick Foley’s rooftop leaps, teens built trampoline rings and staged ultra-violent matches with tables, ladders, and barbed wire. From the Hardy Boyz’s Trampoline Wrestling Federation to CM Punk’s Lunatic Wrestling Federation, backyard feds mimicked WWE and ECW. Relive the camcorder chaos, Best of Backyard Wrestling tapes, and 2002’s The Backyard doc. Why was it so wild? Share your backyard wrestling stories below! #BackyardWrestling #90sNostalgia #2000sNostalgia #AttitudeEra #MickFoley #HardyBoyz #CMPunk #YoungBucks #ECW #WWE #TrampolineWrestling #BestOfBackyardWrestling #TheBackyardDoc #MondayNightWars #HardcoreWrestling #RetroWrestling #PopCulture #Throwback #90s #2000s #Viral #Nostalgic #RetroVibes #WrestlingFans #DIYRing #HighRiskStunts
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SportsTranscript
00:00:00Have you ever been watching professional wrestling when you get the ad that says don't try this at home?
00:00:05Well, who's that meant for? Well for us and a bunch of kids in the 90s and 2000
00:00:11Backyard wrestling was the thing we wanted to be just like our heroes
00:00:16Except our heroes didn't beat each other up in the backyard over old mattresses
00:00:21Nah, dude, but backyard wrestling it was glorious
00:00:24It was a group of us misfits outcasts from school that didn't necessarily fit in but in the backyard
00:00:29we did and we just wanted to emulate what we saw on TV and
00:00:34more or less
00:00:35Failed at that what you're gonna see today. So come and join us on pop culture paradise and we'll figure out why backyard
00:00:47In a world where the it thing is always changing
00:00:50Sometimes you need a tour guide or two to help you find your way to pop cultures paradise
00:00:55You find yourself reminiscing or in need of a good recommendation. These two have you covered and
00:01:01Now here's your hosts Joey and Jeff
00:01:08So to the uninitiated
00:01:10Jeff can you explain even just what backyard wrestling is? It sounds dirty
00:01:15I I mean I kind of was especially with some of the gear that we would find in the mattresses and the you know chairs
00:01:22Backyard wrestling it was essentially a group of usually what teenagers right just gathering in the backyard and trying to emulate what they saw on
00:01:31WWF raw or WCW nitro or even ECW like we didn't we didn't really go that far
00:01:36We got we got just enough extreme to where we wouldn't end up in the hospital
00:01:41But you know all in all we just wanted to emulate what we saw on TV and we wanted to try to be these larger
00:01:46Live characters we watched every week. So basically like the rap song you're smart enough to know better, but young enough to not give it
00:01:59The thing with backyard wrestling is it was almost like the mix of some of the trends that you had that were
00:02:06really athletic and then the kids who
00:02:09They were indoor kids. Yeah indoor cats, but they all had one thing in common
00:02:14They loved professional wrestling and they just wanted to emulate what they saw dude. Absolutely. We had you know
00:02:22Maybe one or two like, you know
00:02:25Good athletes and the rest were kind of just run-of-the-mill people that just wanted to try to be extreme
00:02:31And I would say there's nothing wrong with that. But as we're gonna see here today
00:02:36There's plenty wrong with that and when and when we look back and review some of these clips, it's gonna be a little bit cringy
00:02:41I'll be honest big-time cringy, but we're not alone today
00:02:45We're also gonna look at the other people who did backyard wrestling. Were we similar to them?
00:02:51Were they just a little bit more extreme than us?
00:02:53were we more extreme than them and with something this big the first thing that happens is it starts getting national exposure and
00:03:00You have like your parents and you have television anchors trying to alert the masses about this
00:03:07Cultural phenomenon known as backyard wrestling
00:03:10I had tonight many of those kids millions nationwide watch televised wrestling rich didn't tell me that that wasn't us sitting on the couch
00:03:18right there
00:03:21What is wrestling
00:03:34One dude, I love it
00:03:37But graphic images like these. Oh, geez. I'm look out
00:03:42Like these
00:03:44About four million children tune into pro wrestling on a typical Monday night
00:03:49And many of them actually then go and try the stunts at home
00:03:52Janet Stanglin shows us how many amateur wrestlers in Northeast, Wisconsin are putting themselves at risk
00:03:58but in backyard wrestling
00:04:00Stars
00:04:04Yeah, we were back yard wrestling violence and massacres he is busted teens in the underground wrestling Federation like
00:04:13No, they really did bump the rope cheese graters fluorescent light bulbs cookie sheets Oh
00:04:20Home everyday household items that can become a weapon in the hands of these crazy kids
00:04:26Crazy
00:04:27Yeah, well, I mean you have those things on the TV. Don't try this at home
00:04:30But when you're a teenager imitate you just kind of think that you're indestructible like that
00:04:36America's amateur wrestlers
00:04:40It's called backyard
00:04:43Unlike the real the action you see is for the most part. She's a rehearsed these kids plan. It's real. Oh
00:04:50Oh
00:04:52Dude, the friggin trash can of a head
00:04:54They didn't know what to make of this and honestly if I was trying to explain what we were doing
00:04:59I don't think it makes any sense to me either
00:05:02No, it doesn't. It's just we wanted to be what we saw on TV
00:05:06And I think it was it then it then be kind of it got blurred, right?
00:05:11We wanted to be what we watched every month, you know Monday night
00:05:14But they would release these like backyard wrestling DVD compilations of
00:05:19Kids, you know like us all all around the country just compiled out of this one DVD and we were like
00:05:25We can do that better than them and I'm sure they watched it and thought oh we can do that more extreme more hardcore
00:05:31And it just it's just escalated like crazy
00:05:35Well, then there's that one clip where it's like
00:05:37Oh these crazy kids they bash each other over the head with light tubes and then you start thinking
00:05:42What idiot would bash himself over the head with a light tube until one day I came over and you and Nick were like
00:05:48Hey, guess what? We just found a light tube
00:05:51We can use this and I remember thinking all right if that thing shatters and goes everywhere
00:05:56At least my eyes will be protected filming, but I'm also gonna be this far back because I know yeah
00:06:02Well, dude, that's that's like the scary part with those light tubes
00:06:06Cuz if that white powder stuff gets in your eyes like you're done like
00:06:11Some of the stuff that we just watched was just brutality at its finest and when it came down for us to do it
00:06:16It was all right. Let's slide a board under the shirt, you know on on my back
00:06:21It put a towel over my head. It was like the most sissy hardcore you could get but we still thought we were badass
00:06:26You know, it's amazing how many kids were convinced like, all right, I'm gonna rub this cheese grater over your face
00:06:33Who says what you know, what perfect I you know
00:06:37We were looking for something to do together as friends and the cheese grater over my face. That's exactly what I was picturing to
00:06:44Blood brothers man. We're blood brothers now and unfortunately
00:06:48TV was the seductress that was like, you know
00:06:51We want to be as cool as the people on TV if Mick Foley gets hit in the head with a trash can
00:06:56Well, then I'm gonna nail Bobby over the over here as he's running away
00:07:01pow
00:07:02Yep, absolutely children have always horsed around in the backyard imitating the action they see on TV on the trampoline, right?
00:07:11Maybe a home-style when 2020 continue
00:07:23Where's your
00:07:25Show and I think that the
00:07:28Think the viewers come on make it was funny. Oh my god, they do castration
00:07:36You didn't see
00:07:38Castration, you know be a damn thing
00:07:41No, the lights in May a three-year-old was accidentally killed by his seven-year-old brother who was a professional wrestling move
00:07:49He had seen on television
00:07:51Okay
00:07:52What is that?
00:07:54Proud for
00:07:56Thaddeus Simmons goes to kindergarten near Memphis, Tennessee. I remember writing on the chalkboard. I'm like fifth grade
00:08:02What does everybody want head for and I got after I got after-school detention
00:08:06I don't even understand what head was in the fifth grade, but my teacher was convinced that I did
00:08:12What I heard on TV, you know, where do you pick this up and I think oh miss Allen
00:08:17They do it on the wrestling program. Don't you watch the wrestling?
00:08:21Don't you watch the wrestling like what was fourth or fifth graders in the year second
00:08:26It's like well, that's that's the way to tell somebody screw you and it's like well, not exactly
00:08:32Yeah, you see like when you're when you're that young even when you're a teenager
00:08:36You might have a better understanding of what it means and and you know what the result of it can be
00:08:41But you're just again you're just trying to be like these larger-than-life characters that you see on TV. They're cool. They're edgy
00:08:48they're out there and you want to try to be that and I think what the perfect storm was was because wrestling was getting
00:08:54So big and it was the attitude error, which the attitude error was about pushing boundaries
00:08:58So you had stuff like Val Venus getting castrated on TV and then they had to have their wrestlers defended
00:09:04they'd have Vince come on and defend it and
00:09:07You could kind you could definitely see where I'd be like, all right, what the heck's going on here? This guy?
00:09:12But
00:09:13This isn't professional wrestling. This isn't even what I saw five years ago with the ultimate warrior
00:09:19No, it was just straight-up crash TV man. It was just shock TV
00:09:22He already took cheese grater outside and this is somebody get castrated. What's happening right now, dude
00:09:29There's a lot that you just like that. You can't defend anymore
00:09:33You know what?
00:09:34I mean or or you don't even want to try to because it was just a different time and it was just a different
00:09:40Generation
00:09:42And it was like the Wild West bro. It really was
00:09:45But then you get the part in that report where you have the person who ended up killing their sibling
00:09:51And you find out like they make that a huge story and obviously it's terrible and it's like wow
00:09:56I can't believe that's happening because of professional wrestling then it comes out. He wasn't a professional wrestling move
00:10:02He wasn't replicating a powerbomb
00:10:04No, they were probably just roughhousing. No, it was like a straight-up attack is what they said
00:10:09Oh, really? Yeah
00:10:12But then, you know the kid found his perfect scapegoat
00:10:15It's like the scream movies where it's like if we blame it on this
00:10:19Everybody will eat it up because that's the bad thing right now, dude
00:10:23it's just it's like it's messed up, you know, like wrestling was just so huge and so popular and
00:10:29super controversial at the time
00:10:31It was definitely the easy scapegoat goat. Excuse me to point the finger and say yeah
00:10:37This is why you know this happened
00:10:39So you can understand why parents were mad because it's honestly like what the heck is going on with these kids in the backyard
00:10:47So here are some upset parents and I remember your mom was like half cool with it
00:10:53Well, I mean, I kind of look at her approach is like look there's there's a ton, you know
00:10:58More dangerous or or just more bad things that teens could be out there doing, you know
00:11:03Drinking and drugs and having sex and you name it
00:11:07It's like they're just roughhousing in the backyard if it doesn't go too far
00:11:11I guess it's okay, you know, but it got too far for her when somebody got slammed on her new car
00:11:18It was like yeah. No, we got a this is it guys you're done not the fire the cops being called
00:11:24No, not the fire department showed up. Yep a simple head slam on a car hood. That was enough
00:11:31It's like leave my car alone you have the backyard don't come out here
00:11:35The parents are the ones to have a trouble with dealing with it. The kids are like, oh, it's cool
00:11:38The parents are like that's disgusting. Isn't this just like you see when I was a teenager?
00:11:43I would have thought he was cool. But now he just looks like a major D bag, bro
00:11:47Was gonna call me during recess and say some other child put my kid in a headlock and broke his neck. It's a monster
00:11:54No, my goodness. It's a nationwide monster. It's gotta be stuck kids crazy
00:12:00My mother hates it
00:12:02She told me yes
00:12:05She told me I'm not doing any good
00:12:07you think there's a correlation between
00:12:102000s kids with their peroxide in their hair and the
00:12:15Lack of common sense of my mom hates it man
00:12:19well, dude at that time in the early
00:12:212000s it was just I even had blonde hair for a while and I spiked it through a top hat to be Scotty to
00:12:26In the eighth grade like and you again you just feel like you're invincible and when you're that age
00:12:33It's like when you're when you're a teenager, it's like your parents aren't cool. They're trying to hold you back
00:12:38They don't want you to it's like now with 20-20 hindsight. You're like, I probably should have listened to them more but at the time
00:12:45You're a teenager and just nothing else in the world matters except what you want to do
00:12:50And you know, it's sad you pointed it out
00:12:52You're listening to like the two young kids on there and you're like man
00:12:55I would have been friends with them. But yeah listening to him now. I'm like, oh my god, they're stupid
00:12:59Oh, am I stupid?
00:13:02We were absolutely
00:13:04When you're teenagers, you don't know anything, you know, you barely know right from wrong
00:13:08well
00:13:09since we weren't listening to the parents a lot of these like reports on backyard wrestling decided if you don't listen to the parents you
00:13:16At least listen to the professional. So let's hear it from a couple doctors
00:13:22Original Washington fears the rise original Washington could cause an epidemic of serious. Yes senseless injuries
00:13:29Backyard wrestling can be lethal. You can actually die from this type of activity
00:13:33These kids are emulating professional wrestling and the thing that concerns me is they're subjecting themselves to short-term and long-term injuries
00:13:40You never know exactly
00:13:42I just want to scream
00:13:45Neck
00:13:47Majority of folks. They're not back. They're trying to hurt each other
00:13:50They're trying to put on a show or some sort of like performance right in control of their behavior
00:13:55I feel like I'm defending wrestling right now
00:14:03Disturbing but may also go and
00:14:05Never
00:14:09Probably his age now when we would when you know, we finally decided that we were gonna do the show
00:14:15I didn't expect it to go this way because I'm sitting here and I'm kind of defending something
00:14:21That's so stupid
00:14:22But it was so much fun and I made some of my best friends that I still have to this day through it
00:14:27Well, not everybody hated backyard wrestling. This was the strangest thing that I found through the entire process
00:14:34Yeah, there were backyard wrestling stage parents
00:14:39What like they legit, you know how like there's cheer moms and yep, like football coach dads
00:14:46There's mama jurors. Yep. Yeah, my kids really taking over the world. My kid knows what they're doing
00:14:52They're gonna do the best around he's hardcore
00:14:55There are legit moms on here that think that their kid was gonna take over the professional wrestling industry
00:15:02Dude I need to see this what and they all kind of look like I
00:15:07Don't know. It was like that reality show with the mom who tells me was there possessed by the devil was I got right swapper?
00:15:14Nanny 9-1-1 or something like that. That's what they all kind of look like. They're all Midwestern moms
00:15:20So what are the parents think about this crazy sport? I like it. I like a lot. They do it in my backyard
00:15:25Yeah, that's a cool mom right there week. I've been watching my son do it since he was about 12 and I just enjoyed
00:15:32These kids put on a damn good show Pamela Adams
00:15:34Oh my goodness, what's the wrestling ring in her backyard? Look at my t-shirt supervised, but this one went too far
00:15:40Oh my goodness shouldn't and we didn't know it was gonna go that far
00:15:47And powers that is a wrestling manager name
00:15:52Look at the little crowd they got going on the news coverage like these kids are hyped right now
00:15:57We're on the news
00:15:59Jesse Burton is Andre's biggest fan. He is also his father. He's good. Are the Hardy boys disrespected by other professionals?
00:16:09Not make a difference what I'm telling you right now
00:16:18Why don't they do something about the kids doing this than the other you got a chance to do but yet tell us Stevie Ray
00:16:27Get out of control
00:16:31I didn't know it was
00:16:36The cameras that were used
00:16:40Quarters I mean each other in the head
00:16:44You know what? I mean, but I love it. I love it
00:16:47If you really don't know that it's just all the actor or people playing
00:16:52You know trying to make money
00:16:54Somebody can get hurt is that the professional gets paid the big money and the backyard wrestlers got all the heart to do it
00:16:59I'm not clean to be professional. I'm not claiming to be a talented wrestler. I do this because I enjoy it. Where are your brains?
00:17:07Where are your brains, you know, like I put myself back in that teenager mindset and I relate with them so much
00:17:15But now as like a full-on adult with an adult job and adult responsibilities
00:17:20It's like I have plenty of other things to do with my time but back then guess what we didn't it was go to school
00:17:26And come home and mess around in the backyard
00:17:30I'm just shocked at how like supportive the mom was like
00:17:34All right
00:17:34My mom probably knew the wrestlers just because she bought the action figures and right had to keep an eye out on what was happening
00:17:41on the TV
00:17:42But this lady was like legit
00:17:44Well, you wouldn't disrespect the Hardy boys and I bet you could probably name the entire C
00:17:49Oh, yeah stars from that time period. Yeah, she had to be watching right alongside him probably but dudes elbow pads, right?
00:17:57But then there's Pam powers. She is the momager of this kid in the backyard
00:18:02I could never foresee a scenario where my mom would just be oh
00:18:07Absolutely, you know, I'm gonna be out there watching you. I'm proud of you
00:18:11It's like no you're being an idiot. But when you're a teenager, I mean, you don't man
00:18:17I used to feel like my bones were rubber and I just couldn't get hurt
00:18:21Well, not only that like I'm shocked how much these kids wanted their parents involved
00:18:26It's kind of wholesome because I wouldn't want I wouldn't want my sister. I wouldn't want my dad
00:18:31I wouldn't want my mom anywhere around any the backyard stuff we were doing right
00:18:35especially with like the violence and definitely the language and the blood and
00:18:40You know like the a lot of the stuff it's just
00:18:45man, I don't it well cuz you feel like you can't go balls to the wall because there's somebody around and they're
00:18:52Tampering everything and like it won't wouldn't feel as fun. But these people they got a full-on ring set up
00:18:59Yeah, clearly they're still doing all their hardcore maneuvers
00:19:02And then you got my own powers being like well, it normally doesn't get that intense in the backyard
00:19:08But oh well
00:19:10I'm proud of him. Now. You made a mention that there was a crowd there and there was even a news, bro
00:19:15And I think the anchors on the television were just as confused by what they were reporting
00:19:22Yeah, I don't think they really understood
00:19:25Other than oh, that's that WWF stuff, right? Yes. It's all WWF
00:19:31Even if it has nothing to do with it, but it's got oh, they're out there in the backyard. They got barbed wire
00:19:37They're jumping off roofs. That's exactly like WrestleMania. That's that Hardy Boy stuff. Yeah. Oh, they wouldn't know the Hardy Boys
00:19:44It's all Hulk Hogan. It's all the Hulkster or if it gets really old school
00:19:50They'd be like, well, I remember Chief J. Strongbow. Didn't he retire like three years before I was even born?
00:19:56He had this he had the sleeper hold. Come here. I'll show you you can use it in the backyard
00:20:02Remember he'd do the body slam
00:20:04The body slam. Yeah. Now we do body slams onto barbed wire. You were doing the vertibraker
00:20:12Dude, I was trying to
00:20:14Terribly injured somebody is it concern you that they're trying to mimic what they think they see you do in the ring
00:20:20Now the police did stop by several times, but didn't do anything to stop all of it. Now you were right there
00:20:25What can the cops really do right to come across and look very violent. It is real crime being committed on his forehead
00:20:35Officer Moore here
00:20:38I
00:20:40Think it can be dangerous
00:20:43Kids watch if there was ever somebody that looked like a cop. It's this guy watching that it's the mustache
00:20:50It's the crew cut over watching someone get stomped in the head. They don't know that's fake. What's crazy
00:20:55I mean just jumping from that roof that looks crazy
00:20:58Yeah, we want to let folks know that nobody was hurt there
00:21:01Something you should not be doing at home without the right kind of padding
00:21:05Right without the right kind of padding. No, maybe you shouldn't be jumping off the roof at all. How about that?
00:21:12Golly, man, it's awesome kind of padding. Oh, I know what that is
00:21:17That's when we go to that dumpster and if somebody threw away to a child size mattresses
00:21:22We got another two spots in the yard covered up. Yeah, and then worried, right?
00:21:28then you would layer the mattresses with like couch cushions and
00:21:32Did we never even had ropes?
00:21:34He would just throw people off the fence and hope they bounced back like like they just knew they were supposed to
00:21:40Yeah, the fence was the robes. You just had to use your imagination
00:21:43Right for a wasn't the guy who just wrestled. He's a whole other character. Yeah, absolutely
00:21:50You know, sometimes the mattresses you'd be walking by and you'd slip over one of them
00:21:55So you were more than likely to bust your ass falling over the mattress as it was to protect your ass
00:22:01Absolutely, man. I remember at one point I did us I was doing like an indoor backyard wrestling thing
00:22:07I guess it was like living room wrestling and I did a swanton off the balcony and the two mattresses were split apart and my
00:22:14Tailbone landed right in between the two mattresses onto the floor and dude I was nearly done for the entire day
00:22:22Like it just took everything out of me, but you were being saved. It's just gonna bounce. That's what rings are
00:22:29They're based right amp a leads, of course
00:22:31Yeah, I just didn't have the right padding which is why all the anchors on TV had one thing to say
00:22:36What did what do you think? They just repeated over and over and over don't try this at home
00:22:45No one seems to care about serious injuries, but from what we're seeing maybe they should
00:22:52Temporarily paralyzed and I came back to wrestling kids. We'd imitate it my friends front. So, wait a minute
00:22:59I was paralyzed in the backyard nine nine months later. I came down on the balls. We were legitimate though
00:23:05We weren't like those fucking hillbillies. Yeah, we were legit dad's garage do a baby pool real stunts
00:23:12real pain
00:23:17She's greater to Andre's head
00:23:22Tomorrow's events. They are never disappointed what happened to your head, right? Maybe
00:23:28Stay in the backyard over the weekend
00:23:43Luke Hadley, why do I remember that name Luke Hadley would do that
00:23:49Luke started
00:23:5114 years old. He says he was too young. No, he's 21
00:23:55Down the hill sports Illustrated column
00:23:57It says that Luke has had ten concussions a broken arm a broken tailbone and five horrific wrestling in the backyard at 21
00:24:05He deserves younger and he has never ended up in the emergency room
00:24:08Professional wrestlers, they wouldn't like what we were doing to be like how they doing this and I don't get somebody hurt one
00:24:13How somebody's gonna get hurt? Yeah, I know it's just been nobody killed
00:24:16Yeah, I killed wrestling there has been several severe injuries and even death in professional wrestling
00:24:21I have to admit Jesse Verdon is right. There has never been a documented case of death due to backyard wrestling
00:24:29What an echo we run the dramatics of standing on the apron of a ring teen week
00:24:34Here
00:24:36New Jersey's passed a law banning the sport and New York State what's considering a similar law
00:24:41You may want Jersey ban backyard wrestling should carry a warning late
00:24:45What do you make of all that that we just watched Joe?
00:24:47I mean, I kind of feel like that was what they were supposed to say
00:24:51Like you're not supposed to go directly out and say hey, that's kind of cool
00:24:55Like could you get shunned by proper society to be? Yeah encouraging like if I was
00:25:00Nowadays and I find out my nephew in like 10
00:25:0312 years wants to do this stuff and I'm like, yeah, we used to do that. All you did is that
00:25:10Yeah, don't tell me ever yeah, he's gonna want to yeah, you know, what was kind of crazy though
00:25:15It was after the whole backyard, you know wrestling thing kind of fizzled out for us
00:25:20Once we were older I started to notice kids in the backyard
00:25:25Doing backyard MMA like straight-up backyard shoot fights
00:25:29So, I mean if you had to pick one or or the other we weren't actually trying to injure each other
00:25:34meanwhile the next
00:25:37Generation is doing backyard shoot fighting
00:25:39well
00:25:40we were about to get to that level because when we get to the very end we had like
00:25:44Three or four guys that wanted to do our backyard thing that we're all state champion or high quality
00:25:51Amateur wrestlers. Yeah, and a couple of them with some anger issues
00:25:55If we already had a player issues, yeah
00:25:58Yeah
00:25:59Probably not the smartest move which is why we should have been listening to all those fine professionals that said
00:26:07Literally don't do this. Like, you know, you saw Stevie Ray there in a second ago. Yeah, he was right a snap on that lady
00:26:13Well, all of them had to come out and directly say don't do this. Don't do this
00:26:17Even though nowadays you get that a young bucks
00:26:21Biography and they're like our dad made us a ring in the backyard
00:26:24That's how we became professional wrestlers and we practiced everything we ever did and now we're superstars and we're Co EVPs
00:26:31And the second biggest wrestling promotion. Yeah
00:26:34Don't
00:26:36Right, and then you hear about Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy and they had their like trampoline
00:26:42Federation in the backyard with Shannon Moore and a bunch of their local buddies
00:26:45and that's how they kind of got discovered and they became jobbers and
00:26:49It's like yeah, don't do this at home because
00:26:54Right because there's like, you know that 1% chance you could be the one that you know transitions to the next level
00:27:01But did nobody in our friends group was transitioning to the next level. We were just having a blast back there
00:27:07There was honestly a couple going through our highlights that
00:27:11You know you
00:27:13friend Daryl who played Devon Thunder
00:27:15A
00:27:17Nick who played nightmare nightmare guys all it had a grasp and with proper training
00:27:24but
00:27:26Even then it's like yeah
00:27:28But you need a little bit more than that because we have an actual friend who does professional wrestling and started right around this time
00:27:34Period yeah, and he dude
00:27:36He would he would not keep it a secret about how he felt about what we were doing
00:27:41Until we came over to do it with him
00:27:44Yes, it's so you know, don't let them lecture you either yeah
00:27:52Straight up
00:27:54Where he's Christopher Daniels better known as the falling Christopher Daniels. What is he doing in the backyard?
00:28:02He's got yeah, he's pulling tacks out of his back
00:28:04He got hit with a guitar. He could have had his eye put out could have you know got attack in his spine
00:28:10Looking at some of this stuff. It's just like yes. I love
00:28:14That you are doing wrong
00:28:18I think that the parents and children need to be wary of and leery of what they you know
00:28:25What if it's really wanted to say again?
00:28:27I don't care sometimes kids are idiots as long as they keep watching very very careful about what they do
00:28:33Actually, don't you agree with backyard? Oh actually?
00:28:36Of course they agree
00:28:38Cuz they're they're just pretty much backyard wrestling it in or you know
00:28:42I don't have to get a bingo hall. I just want to know how many you guys got formal training
00:28:45And what you're talking about today?
00:28:47Yeah
00:28:48What about you, man?
00:28:51Stand up stand up what?
00:28:53You ever played anything else you have played any other kind of organized sports in your life, right?
00:29:02You know you got a gas in your head
00:29:04Unconscious your mother's about to go crazy worrying about you, and you don't even care
00:29:09It's not play wrestling anymore when kids are jumping off the garage and trying to land on their head
00:29:13I wasn't putting someone else's life in jeopardy you have to get formal training to do what we do
00:29:28Dude Stevie Ray doesn't play can we just talk about that for a second?
00:29:32I know you could barely wake up Bret Hart to condemn professional backyards. Uh-huh professional backyards. What am I saying?
00:29:40Did you just say professional?
00:29:43Backyarders they landed on their head from the from the roof. Yeah, like what no they're not Brett
00:29:49Man, not on purpose. Well. It's like it's it's a little bit contradictory because I
00:29:57Mean I remember when when Mick Foley became super popular
00:30:01And it was when they started showing those tapes of him doing backyard wrestling with his buddy
00:30:07You know what I mean, and it's like oh gosh. Well. I could be the next Mick Foley if I just keep this up
00:30:13You know it's it's like say don't don't try to sit home
00:30:18Successful and then just a quirky backstory
00:30:21Exactly and some of those kids like really you but then I look at it who we were doing stuff with and it's like really
00:30:28You know I?
00:30:30Found like those ultimately kind of harmless when nobody got hurt because really you're just making
00:30:37Friends and it's almost like you got closer to them because you beat the crap out of each other so on a certain level you're
00:30:43Also looking out for that person. Yeah, it's like a bond, and they're just kids really having fun
00:30:49Yeah, I mean we're we're we were we were back there not trying to hurt each other
00:30:54But trying to go as far as we could to make it look like we were
00:30:59You know it's it's just
00:31:01You know it's like you you grow up listening to rap music
00:31:05So you want to write rhymes you you know you you grow up watching these movies you want to be in a movie you grow
00:31:11Up watching wrestling you want to be a wrestler. You know they were just
00:31:14Just bigger than life characters
00:31:17You know and when you look at some of these kids you're like man
00:31:20If you didn't have like friends who liked wrestling god. I think you probably would have even had a tougher time
00:31:26Surviving your team. Oh, dude totally it was like
00:31:29literally
00:31:31Anybody who was anybody?
00:31:33Watched it and at that moment in time for the you know for that span of however many years it was
00:31:39It was like the must-talk-about
00:31:43Every day at school especially on Tuesdays. You know what I mean like it was just
00:31:48anybody who was anybody watched it and and and it's crazy to see like just
00:31:54just
00:31:55Hundreds of thousands of backyards or just have crazy teenagers wrestling in them during this time frame
00:32:07We do the same thing they do
00:32:12They don't realize that we come as a training where what school
00:32:17That was clean from Alabama Arizona Oh God over the country are going wild for pro wrestling
00:32:26Andre and Nicola just like students in Southern, California have been living yeah, that was kind of dope
00:32:31I am like the teenage me is jealous about the worst going through all that pain to do what I love
00:32:35And I don't have to ask the question do what I love I'm gonna make a career of this
00:32:40But I would have I would have been saying the same thing as a teenager back in the day
00:32:43I'll pull over my own friends head. I
00:32:46Don't know it makes me feel like I can take out anyone
00:32:50They're so fanatical about pro wrestling they're staging their own backyard matches complete with an audience
00:32:57Mostly their neighborhood friends
00:32:59Sitting up on the roof. That's just the bros hanging out, but they say they're having fun after school and stuff like that
00:33:06We have these big masks that we do it on like we just throw each other around it's a lot of fun
00:33:11You you and your friends did backyard wrestling we did
00:33:15Seven of seven of my real tight dude friends
00:33:21This is 15 year old Ronnie Long's idea fun
00:33:24Smashing a line to his head
00:33:27He says it was an accident, but what is that kid like 11 eight stitches with pictures posted on the Internet once a week
00:33:34I want my tripod calm the next six days. We just talk on the phone and see what's going on
00:33:40We weren't really trying to hit each other. This wasn't like real backyard wrestling
00:33:44It was like foil molded into weapons, and we just kind of love tap each other
00:33:52Activity in his Southern, California backyard
00:33:56May not have all the trash of a live event, but it has
00:34:01Why are you bringing a chair outside in the attitude bash my friend over the head
00:34:07Well, I was like eight years old me my friend
00:34:09Yeah, got together start wrestling at school and stuff just playing around and then we started doing at home as well
00:34:13I'll do we would then Russell in the hallways all the time
00:34:16I remember one of our friends power bomb another one of our friends in the middle of the hallway in middle school box out
00:34:22There playing your favorite Limp Bizkit song man. This brings back so many memories
00:34:27Some good and some I'd rather forget about you know, but you look at some of those kids on then you're like, yeah
00:34:32You know, that's this is probably his best memories in life right now. Well, yeah, I mean
00:34:39Think about it a lot of the kids that we've seen in here
00:34:42They didn't exactly look like the most popular kids in school and I can relate to that
00:34:46So it's like, you know, you you get a crew together of other misfits and it's like oh
00:34:52You're a big fan of wrestling to do. Let's do let's go out in the backyard and do this
00:34:57and then you get like eight of them nine of them ten of them together and then all of a sudden all these other
00:35:02People are just like yo, you know, they're having backyard fights. They preach those new tables. Oh sweet
00:35:07Let's take end of us guys here and you know, like somebody in that crowd was probably like the coolest kids in the school
00:35:12Yeah, and they're like, oh we're gonna stop over to and by proxy
00:35:16I guess this is cool with us and yeah, it's like probably better because of backyard. Oh totally and then it's like
00:35:22all right, who who you know whose dad has the camera that you can get so we can film it and we can we could
00:35:29We could even put it on the internet
00:35:31Like that was like such a huge deal back then
00:35:34You know what?
00:35:34I mean like it was it wasn't as as like easy as open, you know
00:35:38Open up your phone and record and then upload it was a process like it was a legit camcorder
00:35:44It was dazzle to then export the footage, but you had to watch in real time. So then you could edit it like dude
00:35:52Like it was a
00:35:54Production like some of the stuff we did back in the day with the technology we had. It's kind of cool
00:35:59If you think about it now, do you remember what Stevie Ray kept kind of beating over their head?
00:36:04Like oh, are you a professional athlete? Do you play any sports? Yeah, I thought that was kind of condescending
00:36:11Cuz yeah, it was like, oh, there's only real athletes, but some of these kids
00:36:17I bet if they were actually to do a sport. Yeah do too bad at it
00:36:21No, I mean a lot of them are tall lanky
00:36:24obviously
00:36:26flexible agile
00:36:28athletic it's
00:36:30Maybe man may have backyard bashes back. You're looking at troubling video of wannabe wrestlers
00:36:36And this is no wanna be so they didn't like that
00:36:40You know, they all sat around the TV to work ball when they really we're gonna be on CBS tonight
00:36:44Should the kids be hitting each other with garbage cans?
00:36:47Probably not but they all look like they're friends. I don't think they're doing anything out of anger
00:36:51I wasn't so crazy about the light bulbs to the head
00:37:00You know 10 in the morning till you know 9 or 10 at night and we sit there crazy D
00:37:05Let's go cruelty. These kids think it's the greatest show on earth
00:37:13Right since Abraham Lincoln Russell, this is all we know. Come on Vince
00:37:18Ha that's good stuff pal
00:37:21Yeah, they would be it a little harsh with just that elitist sports versus professional wrestling attitude
00:37:27And it was hard not to take it personally because if you see in this little montage here
00:37:32Try to point out what they were doing and tell me that we weren't doing anything
00:37:38That different right? Let's see it
00:37:41What's this?
00:37:48I was too scared to take the bump on the back. So I went feet first jumps from the roof
00:37:54260 pounds
00:38:03Dude he dove on top of me that was sheetrock two layers of sheetrock
00:38:07It didn't break to teenage fans Andre Verdon and his buddy Nicholas Teal. Andre is the one getting
00:38:14A
00:38:23Firecracker notice the towel over the head and I told you earlier we had the like
00:38:30Including inappropriate sexual gestures. Oh, come on now most recently from a teenage boy toward his crotch and
00:38:40So when you say suck it
00:38:43What are you telling somebody? It's just a gesture. I mean, it's not like I'm not saying get your head down there and suck it
00:38:51Nothing better than the beating up your best friend and putting them in a haphazard figure four and you'd hoist
00:38:57Yeah, styrofoam championship belt. You bought a yard over your head. Yeah
00:39:02Oh
00:39:03my goodness, no, ah
00:39:06Dude that just made my heart skip
00:39:08Out of the tree out of the tree. Oh my gosh, that was backhand, bro
00:39:15Dude, that's nuts
00:39:20And then this guy God, okay, hold on
00:39:24Yeah, that's me. All right. Pause that real quick. Oh my
00:39:29table, oh my goodness
00:39:32That was dangerous that last throw we used to what it'll be we used to call that move
00:39:38Lethal injection and it was like a razor's-edge
00:39:42powerbomb double move but dude back to those
00:39:46Jumping jacks. Those were supposed to be firecrackers that were supposed to just pop pop pop pop pop
00:39:51I didn't know they were jumping jacks. So they burnt they started spinning out of control
00:39:55He burnt all up my side of my shirt and I had burdens on the side of my belly
00:40:00It was bad, dude, what were we doing who told me that was a good idea Joe
00:40:06I didn't because some of these events I would miss
00:40:09And so I don't know if I was there for one of those fire ones and I definitely wasn't there for the fire
00:40:13Crackers slash jumping jacks because I would have said what the hell are you doing?
00:40:17Well, dude somebody else. I wasn't like I was looking out for your benefit, right?
00:40:22And then I would have said that guy that guy's the one who needs to take the beating
00:40:25Well, what made my heart skip is when we just launched him like that with no regard at all
00:40:31We're like he's gonna be fine
00:40:32We got the right padding but it's like no he almost landed on top of his head
00:40:36and then when you when you did the powerbomb through the the
00:40:39Not table, but the you know, the board that we lit on fire his jacket caught fire
00:40:46Like we had to stop the match and put him out
00:40:48You know those tables that they use the kind propped up by two garbage cans and a plywood board
00:40:54Yep, absolutely, and then it's like well how much fire do you think we need to use?
00:40:59I don't know just dump dump dump. It's gonna look good on camera dump dump
00:41:04Now, how did your mom feel about the multiple times?
00:41:07You went flying off the roof because if I remember correctly that house that was right like looking out from your kitchen
00:41:14yeah, like literally the kitchen you could look right out the window and see the entire backyard now the
00:41:21Thing about that was we were renting that it was a duplex we rented one side so it was like an apartment, right?
00:41:28The landlord lived next door and they were kind of cool about it. Like they didn't give us a lot of crap
00:41:35But it's like after a while. It's like yeah, they they come over to my mom like alright, come on
00:41:39Like they're tearing up the backyard. The fence is broken
00:41:42The neighbor is pissed off. The cops have come the fire department has been here. It's just a lot of attention
00:41:49You know, it's Oh
00:41:51Everything about that backyard looked like well, I guess classy compared to some of the other ones I saw
00:41:56Oh, dude, yeah, but that grass was beyond dead that fence as we'll see coming up here was completely destroyed
00:42:04yep, there were multiple instances of something being stopped and
00:42:09But no, I was watching some footage and they'd be other kids next door being like, I don't know what they're doing
00:42:15But it's cool. Let's watch. Yeah, let's see it and then
00:42:18The multiple times going up a tray and it's like, all right, you're just landing 10 feet on the ground for no reason
00:42:24Yeah, which brings me to our favorite guy that we had in our Federation. No, not what I'm thinking of mega Tony
00:42:32Orlando
00:42:33So bad. Yeah, like what cool thing could you do to be part of our backyard wrestling fed?
00:42:38Because dude, he wanted to be ever
00:42:40Yeah
00:42:41He wanted to be in and it was like we had gotten to the point where we had we had our own crew
00:42:47Right, and then we had another crew that joined us that had their own fed
00:42:51so we would do shows together and then kids in the
00:42:54Neighborhood would talk and they would want to get involved and we would like hold like an audition. Like what can you do?
00:43:00That's so crazy. So he just climbs up this tree
00:43:041520 feet it drops a leg. He didn't just fall down. He did a full-on leg drop
00:43:11From the tree he hits the ground all the wind that he had ever breathed in in his life
00:43:18Gone, and he was just done and we're like, dude, you're in
00:43:23It was the most ultra mega thing. I've ever seen he lived up to his nickname and then we went side
00:43:28I think it was before we he did the thing with the tray. We're like, well Jesus if he was dude to do that
00:43:33What do we call him?
00:43:36Tony or later ultra mega super
00:43:39Every ever every bit anything we could do to build it up even bigger
00:43:45Man you're bringing back so many good memories with this one right now
00:43:48I am loving this because the thing about backyard wrestling is you needed your own character
00:43:54So it just invited the stupidest names possible. Oh, yeah
00:43:58Let's make fun of some other people's stupid names and then you know, we'll make fun of our stupid. Oh
00:44:05We gotta be prepare yourself
00:44:07It's bloody raw and cruel teams wrestling under names like tombstone and Trizzy D risking their lives for sport
00:44:20I like bucket. That's a good gimmick
00:44:24Chris Jackson or mr. Fantastic as he goes by is one of the wrestlers. He's been doing it for three years
00:44:30and 20 year old Eric or
00:44:3320 years old
00:44:36Andre Verdon is not yet as famous as Andre the giant god, but he's working on it
00:44:41Adam 16 year old son Charles wrestles under the name twisted. Terry black. I signed in on that's a cool name
00:44:48Came up. He's like, oh, that's rockabilly Rex
00:44:54Not a cool name to
00:44:57Oh
00:45:00My gosh, you got Trizzy D you got the dog you got mr. Fantastic
00:45:06Tombstone, but yeah, it's bucket dude. Bucket. Bucket. I could get behind that dude. I like him
00:45:12I would have fallen in love with the idea of somebody just named buckets. Yeah, I like it
00:45:19Wait, he's going for the finishing move. It's kicked the bucket, but could he fit in in our Federation with the cool names like
00:45:27back
00:45:31Nightmare
00:45:57Thunder the enforcer deck phone. He's popped. It's pure play. Yeah
00:46:18Piece of wood to smoke dog
00:46:27Yeah
00:46:29Man we had we had the we had nightmare and smoke dog late east to co you were misfit
00:46:36I was X con and the reason that we had those names is because they were
00:46:39They were callbacks to when we would create the we would create those same characters in the WWF video games
00:46:46Yeah, you had to put yourself in the video game and then you had to recreate it in real life
00:46:52Yeah, then if you look at what our characters look like in the video game, but nothing like us at the time
00:46:57Well, no because in the game we were just chiseled and just like men and in the backyard
00:47:02We're just teenage boys, but there was other names like
00:47:05Sonny Dorenzo great character
00:47:09You know convict the enforcer like he was I said he's like he was one of the scariest dudes that I knew
00:47:16There was a lot of cons going on there was you as ex-con, you know, it was convict. Yeah
00:47:23And then the Avenger, what was the avenging? I don't know. He was a white rapper gimmick
00:47:28Yeah, like how did it name? How did his name even match the gimmick at all?
00:47:32And then hot streak. Well, yeah, what was hot streak about him?
00:47:37I don't know what what's your player as they're like impure players. Is there like 40% to layers?
00:47:44But did the best part about is we would go as far as to use
00:47:49Acoustica mp3 editor and we would create mix-up and mashups and special edits of entrance songs
00:47:55To give to give more to each character to make it mean something more and we'd bring the boom box outside
00:48:02We'd have them all on a CD that we would burn with with Nero burner like dude. This is just nostalgia overload
00:48:09Yeah
00:48:11Mess-ups on it. Now. Would you say that this is the sound of what backyard wrestling sounded like back then?
00:48:39Oh
00:48:46Dude it was all just like Slipknot like gosh what we're so like mud vein and like drowning pool
00:48:57They're going at it look at the mask
00:49:00Nightmare dude, and of course me we did backyard wrestling in the in the winter because it was winter like six seven months out of
00:49:07the year in Maine
00:49:09Nobody's gonna stand in my way
00:49:15It all just sounds like butt metal basically
00:49:18I dude it was it was that Limp Bizkit and Slipknot and mud vein and I don't even know who did big truck
00:49:24But it was all that kind of just chamber. Yeah
00:49:29Yeah, it was just all that just just think about that style of music from that time frame and that was playing in the backyard
00:49:37Constantly the wonder like if the parents weren't like scared that the kids were gonna get paralyzed in the backyard
00:49:42If you just look down the backyard now your hair was
00:49:47Like oh my god, they're listening to devil music and right yeah
00:49:51She's greater anymore. It's gone missing. Yeah, and there's fire back there and then you get these other kids
00:49:57They're not listening to death metal. So they're good kids. No, they're listening to fabulous
00:50:02Yeah, and all the hip-hop songs at that time period yeah one where I come out on a bicycle that we thuggin by
00:50:10By our Kelly and fat. Yeah, dude. That was that was that was the bop back then. I love that track now
00:50:16This was quite a classy affair. Like I said the
00:50:20Mattresses said somehow you had to keep around like they couldn't get thrown away by your parents. No, man
00:50:26I gotta find more of these
00:50:28So now you have just dirty
00:50:30Mattresses you don't want to know where they came from what happened to a month before you got them or why they got thrown away
00:50:35in the first place
00:50:37Like you could have the dirty thought like oh somebody, you know
00:50:40Did some stuff on this stuff, but then also just the regular wear and tear or yeah, maybe a child
00:50:47Potty training or anything and or maybe somebody died on one. You never know. Oh, that's perfect
00:50:54No, it is not perfect, dude
00:50:56we would scour the and like like a within like a five block like radius on trash day and grab as much like
00:51:04Just supplies and broken mops and mattresses and pillow cushions and sleds and you name it
00:51:11Like we would just and my mom's like, where did all this crap come from?
00:51:16It's like how it like what is this stuff?
00:51:20Jeffrey Jeffrey Neal damn it
00:51:24There's glass all over the backyard. Yep
00:51:28Friends a jump out look out roof. Good gosh. Hey, but look that that mattress saved him right there
00:51:34He didn't yeah down on the cold ground
00:51:37That was the proper padding now as you said earlier, too
00:51:40It was sort of that mix between early technology and what's come about today. That's even more prevalent
00:51:47So people were starting to make websites
00:51:50Starting to put their stuff out there
00:51:52Yeah, I think we we could have had something if we were three years four years down the line
00:51:57We would have pipe right on YouTube and you and I would have gone about trying to monetize. Oh totally
00:52:03well, I mean back then it was like yeah, the the internet was was around but it's not as like
00:52:09Accessible and easy as as it is today
00:52:12and then we were talking earlier about just the different types of cameras and how difficult it was to get it on the computer and
00:52:17You're using the family computer and you're taking up all the space and yeah, dude, it was like it was like back then
00:52:23It was websites. I still remember the website we used
00:52:28These backyard groups have their own websites where they share photos and videos of their matches has pro wrestling wrestling Federation
00:52:39Yeah
00:52:41Some of them have to make sure you're hardcore enough to view what you're about to witness sign with a production company
00:52:46Which will sell our videos and stores beginning this fall. What dude?
00:52:51I are our website back then and I don't even know if it's still active. It was zippin zag zero
00:52:58Tripod calm and it was some website or some blog that somebody
00:53:03Within our crew had made and then they decided to turn it into the backyard
00:53:08Wrestling thing. I think I think we even tried to sell DVDs on there
00:53:11We did we had personal writings on the page and we had yeah
00:53:16We had four and profiles and you remembered zippin zag zero dot tripod calm
00:53:22It was run by the guy who did I think it was bought by the guy who played pimp daddy welfare. Yes
00:53:28Yeah
00:53:30As you can check on our website
00:53:32zippin zag zero dot tripod
00:53:37Right
00:53:40No, we could have just had like a bottom third, you know with the with the actual website on it
00:53:47Actual advertise we weren't that fancy dude. Let me see if this website is still active
00:53:52There's no way right backyard wrestling was about the bros
00:53:56Which means what was barely ever seen at any of these events for anybody around the country
00:54:02girls
00:54:03Yeah
00:54:04Somehow they just kind of weren't backyard wrestling were they Saturdays were for the boys, right? That's what they say
00:54:12And I don't think they got it either
00:54:16One time I rented a video that was a backyard fight club, it just looks very violent
00:54:24Painting it looks like guys don't have anything better to do than beat each other up rock music
00:54:30That's what they want to do that's cool. I just hope nobody gets real injured
00:54:35But somehow we did manage at least one time. Oh my goodness
00:54:43And I think you guys were so thrilled that girls showed up that they were everybody's manager and then
00:54:50Like they turned face
00:54:59Dude this is like 2000 2001
00:55:04Smokedog won the match
00:55:07But he still beat look at this kicking his butt now
00:55:10But then they come back later
00:55:13Opposing smokedog even though they didn't turn on smokedog another for both entrances who wrote this stuff
00:55:19And where were you I was home. I was I was probably watching football
00:55:24I don't know. We need you man made less sense. I can't I can't control everybody when it was there
00:55:32You myself and Daryl all were like super inside marks at the time as well. Yeah, we were
00:55:39Insiders and we really were writing elaborate storylines, and I really mapped stuff out
00:55:44Yeah, but when I wasn't there it just turned into uh all right
00:55:49We're just gonna beat each other up, and then we're gonna beat each other up some more
00:55:51And then someone's gonna go around and beat this person up
00:55:54There was really no rhyme or reason to a lot of it
00:55:57But there were a few shows that we did that were that were like pretty well organized and pretty well themed and by the hard
00:56:03season
00:56:04Right right, but I mean at first
00:56:07It's just whoever has the camera try to get a hold of it so we can mess around in the backyard
00:56:12Listen as you see we're entrepreneurs when I got involved and you and I really took over we were selling DVDs and see
00:56:20Yep, blogs. This is crazy international with you without YouTube distribution
00:56:26Dude tell me if you recognize it this move right here
00:56:46I love that dude. Yeah that move I picked up from
00:56:50WWF no mercy on the Nintendo 64
00:56:52And I was like that's gonna be my move in the backyard because I could probably hit it on anybody
00:56:57You know you were in love with it, and you really sold it, so let's take a look at
00:57:03Jeff's highlights oh come on dude you better have yours on here, too. You son of a gun
00:57:09Maybe I did maybe I didn't maybe I just want to make bad. What else is new
00:57:14Dude I always wore that North Carolina hat to school hanging off the side of my head
00:57:26I was like I was like a hundred and ten pounds
00:57:34Dude I loved Booker T. I always had to do the spinner Rooney. I was wearing my
00:57:44Right dancing yeah, I was wearing my wrestling singalette under that ready for it
00:57:56Yo, yeah, oh dude, I love Booker T. I love Shawn Michaels like man. Oh my dude
00:58:14Corpse it pretty funny aren't you yeah? I am clearly if you watch the tape. Yeah, I'm so googly
00:58:21The trash talk is real
00:58:23That was what we both fell off
00:58:26No, you know what what are we getting somebody? I was like defensive. I thought he was gonna hit me
00:58:30He was kind of a wild card is gonna be the special referee in this match
00:58:35They look like
00:58:37I
00:58:40Mean
00:58:44Dude there was just no base in my voice
00:58:50This is us doing the whole Triple H and Shawn Michaels becoming DX
00:58:54That was us just doing that pretty much that same bit you were like you loved Booker T
00:58:59You loved the rock Shawn Michaels RVD
00:59:02Yeah, and I think yours was like a mixture of all four of those kind of characters going on you right
00:59:08It was just me. Yeah. I was just trying to be what I saw on TV, but also kind of
00:59:14Like I I dressed very hip-hop back then the you know the throwbacks and the matching hats and the headbands and the wristbands
00:59:21And the matching shoes like dude
00:59:23I was just engulfed in that kind of like
00:59:26Pop culture back then and you had your theme music which at first it was king of the city by the st
00:59:33Lunatics, which was Nelly's group. Yeah, and then it became later on it would start off that way and then it acoustic
00:59:39And we made the mix. Yeah, and it would happen and also next don't give it give it to you
00:59:44He go that was before I got played out and on like all these movie soundtracks. This was what it was, right?
00:59:48Cool song. Well, dude, if I recall right it would it would start with I'm the king of rock
00:59:55There is none higher suck it and then what it would get to till I retire. They'll go
01:00:00I am the kid or X go give it dude. We were elaborate with this stuff dog. Come on
01:00:07X-con couldn't have just himself involved. He had to have a best friend a quirky best friend
01:00:14where my wrestling influence I
01:00:18Think was just TV sitcoms because I think it was I'm clearly batshit and saying like screech or Urkel
01:00:25I loved how we still decided that even though we were both playing characters that our characters
01:00:32We're still gonna be best friends. Like we were in real life. We're just like no. No, no, trust me x-con and misfit. They're best friends
01:00:38Oh
01:00:53Dude that was your Quincy Carter Jersey. Let me wear it in a match. What are you doing in the trash can?
01:01:00What's the hell?
01:01:08I remember that
01:01:30Dude very sitcom
01:01:33Look at the bike
01:01:36Are you coming to save me?
01:01:41God oh no
01:01:54Come on now
01:01:56Vanilla coke
01:02:00Vanilla coke so drink it right now. I didn't get a red carpet. That was the entryway for people
01:02:10Dude you always brought over dr. Pepper and like a box of Cheez-Its
01:02:15Smart food and some soda. What happened to all the money?
01:02:23Yes, duh
01:02:26I
01:02:28Don't understand why you're under I know this is some idiot
01:02:36Yeah
01:02:41Ha ha sinker now the thing about me is I wanted to do all the announcing the thinking the
01:02:48Creativity and you know doing the funny stuff
01:02:51So I take occasional bumps, but you know like they warn you to not do this at home
01:02:57I was kind of like yeah, that's true if other people get hurt. I'm there. Yeah, but yeah
01:03:02I could get hurt young people tend to be fearless and I have a little concern that something bad will ever happen to them
01:03:09But I'm here to tell you from a position standpoint bad things do happen to young healthy people and some of those bad things
01:03:15They're permanent effects
01:03:17Can I get a witness hell yeah?
01:03:21Tornado DDT
01:03:32You saw what he did the way teeth go earlier if I just gonna flip that jackass
01:03:42Avoiding getting beat up by Nick was crazy
01:03:51So
01:03:59Let's talk about
01:04:00Nick who played nightmare yeah that guy was insane great athlete as you oh, yeah
01:04:06It's pretty much game to do everything he showed up to all the stuff knew all the moves
01:04:11But he was he on Ritalin or OCD or something cuz when he was off his meds. He was insane
01:04:17You know I don't know exactly, but I know back, then I was like I'm a little bit afraid of him
01:04:24He's he's my friend
01:04:26But it we're trying to we're like cooperating here, but if but if I like you know catch him the wrong way
01:04:32He might lose it. He was definitely just wired and super super high-strung
01:04:38Really good friend like you said always came to the shows. He lived you know one
01:04:43Block over like two you know houses away
01:04:47but yeah, he was a
01:04:49Dude, he was like a frickin great receiver in high school on our like varsity football team
01:04:55He was unreal
01:04:57What was unreal about him is I think he was one of those guys that if he respected you or liked you you had some
01:05:03Sort of standing he wouldn't completely go psycho on you
01:05:07But yeah, he didn't think of you as an athlete or somebody worth respecting
01:05:13Look out. Oh my god. You'd suddenly be like wait a minute. Did he just think this is real. This is not good
01:05:19But then I'd be on camera
01:05:24Until it happens to you
01:05:26And unfortunately as little bumps as I took
01:05:29When we did our Royal Rumble I became hop along Gretzky, and it was all because of this clip
01:05:37Oh
01:05:40You could you could almost see it immediately you like just like picked up your leg
01:05:57That audio is
01:05:59Like
01:06:06They weren't coming so I hired motor
01:06:08Motor dude look at how young we were so like a lot of kids
01:06:13We were trying to figure out how to do other types of matches not one-on-one or tag team
01:06:19You saw those people who made their own cage
01:06:21Yeah, kind of did that but we weren't building a cage, but we decided we're gonna try things like war game
01:06:29One time Devon Thunder, and I had a jousting event. That was awesome and well
01:06:35Yeah, so we're very hardcore with that. We really liked our comedy spots. We were killing the business
01:06:40Yeah, then we did this other thing called the Royal Rumble. Yeah, we did and
01:06:46Who probably took the biggest beating during that Royal Rumble?
01:06:50Gosh, you know probably hot streak
01:06:52Pimped Eddie welfare, maybe you see I was gonna say the biggest beating was taken by the neighbors fence. Yeah
01:07:23Thunder he's hanging on for all he's worth if I remember the ending of this match. It was pretty damn cool
01:07:28It seems like he's out. There's a triple team
01:07:32No, look at that, I thought his back was gonna hit it dude
01:07:37Boom at X con wins
01:07:39Man, that fence just died a slow death and the neighbor would come out dude
01:07:44And he would be so mad and and we would just be like dude get over it
01:07:49Why are you so angry?
01:07:51But it's like now I can look back and say if some kids were tearing up my damn fence like that
01:07:56I could have came up there with a belt, you know, and not only that not just that match
01:08:01There's so many times I was watching somebody or two people brawling over on their yard. Yeah. Yep
01:08:09The the neighbors kid played the tuba and he would he would just have his window open and he was so bad at it
01:08:17And he would always play like late at night and we would open up the window. Shut up. You're no good
01:08:23Give it up, which is like completely like a whole thing to do. But when you're a teenager, you're like, whatever
01:08:28But yeah
01:08:31Dude, yeah, we tore up that fence. So then we yeah, I don't know
01:08:35Thing I remember the most to and he goes my kids over here trying to practice the tuba and Tim just goes back
01:08:41We'll tell you
01:08:44And I was like, oh my god, I've never heard an adult say that kind of response back. Oh, dude, it's awesome
01:08:51Yeah, as you can see here the neighbors weren't exactly the biggest fans. No
01:09:06You say she's gonna call the cops yeah for what
01:09:13Complaining about our federation
01:09:16Let's complain about our federation. This car is continuing though. I think the mess is over the ladies
01:09:25What the hell dude, I mean, what are the cops gonna do
01:09:29We're just you know, we're roughhousing in the backyard
01:09:32Yeah
01:09:33The backyard, huh?
01:09:35Yeah, well and on the other side of the street too. Sometimes it's a hardcore match. It can happen anywhere
01:09:41Dude, Westbrook, Maine Central Street. So yeah, there were multiple times where the cops were called on us the fire department
01:09:49Yep for good reason
01:09:53No, I'm not gonna say that other thing no
01:09:57but let's just say
01:09:59Well, they were there for the fire being
01:10:02They were there for fire. They were there for whatever that lady called
01:10:05You know, what was strange is they weren't there for the time that pure playa
01:10:09I'm not gonna use his real name caught on on fire his jacket just in flames
01:10:15Now they showed up because we were trying to practice like flames behind nightmare as he made his
01:10:23Entrance, so we put all this like lighter fluid down on the ground and we lit it so he could
01:10:28And I wasn't even outside doing this like every like everybody else do it
01:10:32I was inside getting changed and then the fire department shows up and then I was like
01:10:37Look like, you know, like these are all like my friends
01:10:40This is kind of like my thing my parents place
01:10:43Like I have to take all the rap for it and I did and I think I earned a lot of respect that day
01:10:48I think the problem is you had to host all these events. Yeah
01:10:54Disrupted everybody who could run home run back to their street
01:10:58Dispersed and you're kind of like shoot. I just gotta go upstairs
01:11:02Yep, wait on the door, right, but I actually I don't think the guy next door ever called
01:11:12No, he had plenty of reason to
01:11:21Yeah, look he can't he legit he can't get back over he finally does hot streak but pimp daddy welfare
01:11:27He can't get him back over the fence
01:11:32Come on come on
01:11:35Come on daddy. Oh
01:11:39My god, what do you think this old lady across the street is thinking she's like watching
01:11:45Yeah, it's more like why are they beating up on each other like this oh
01:11:52Man
01:11:54Boom
01:11:56So the reason I think backyard wrestling really took off was it was about having good times with your friends, what would you say I
01:12:04Do just creating memories like I still have so many in in my head to this day
01:12:08Even though we did this how long has it even been like 20 years?
01:12:12According to that website the last updates were in
01:12:152003 we did it right two and a half years
01:12:18You know so much stuff that happened so many memories in jokes. Yeah, absolutely
01:12:24So as you've been watching this video, I've been inner splicing a bunch of clips from our backyard days
01:12:30But I kind of made a special section of some of our absolute funniest moments
01:12:35Just the fact that we still have some of this to be able to look back on
01:12:38That blows my mind like look back on this as an adult now. It's just crazy. So tip my cap to you, sir
01:12:54Britney Spears come on the show and make out with me, but
01:13:02Right oh gosh
01:13:14You never know oh
01:13:19My goodness
01:13:21That was probably the third time they did that match till
01:13:51Boom-boom-boom-boom
01:13:54Yeah
01:14:00What's with the glove dog
01:14:21Don't get a busted leg or something
01:14:34What should we don't live here no more we got to remember that unique we're here
01:14:51Oh
01:15:04No
01:15:22Come on that was the greatest
01:15:30Strangling the poor guy
01:15:34The funny thing about those sleds if you got hit with like
01:15:42Kid was an athlete he really was
01:15:45Oh
01:15:48The copy of Madden
01:15:53All right, he's missing a shoe you took my shoe why'd you take your shoe off outside?
01:16:01Oh, it's really heating up, dude
01:16:06What a scripted backyard angle goes real
01:16:15No watch your back dog I
01:16:19Took your shoe you son of a what are you gonna do?
01:16:23Paul
01:16:24Ford hot streak is crying
01:16:30But back then we thought it was just so funny cuz we're just you know wild teenagers, but now I'm like, oh my goodness
01:16:37What are you doing?
01:16:39Oh
01:16:44Is this like the most notorious xb-dub moment ever
01:16:55There's me just randomly waiting for the match to start
01:17:02Yeah, that's when that's when she had to come out and try to put a stop to this
01:17:10Oh my god
01:17:15Man
01:17:19Dude that just made me so freakin happy
01:17:22Dude, thank you for the trip down memory lane
01:17:25This stuff was just it was wild
01:17:28it was it was a time in my life as a teenager that I'll never forget and and because of
01:17:33Your archiving skills from back in the day and having the wherewithal to hang on to this stuff
01:17:38We get to relive it together right here on pop culture paradise. How crazy insane and stupid and
01:17:45Just how wild we were back in the day. So if you enjoyed this video
01:17:51For Joe, I'm Jeff. Please like comment and or subscribe all three if you're feeling up to it
01:17:56Oh god, you know, yeah, the thing is is if this goes well
01:18:01We might show you a full event or you know
01:18:04Maybe try to find some of the the bros who did this with us to get their opinion
01:18:09dude, if we can grab a few of them to get them to sit down here with us on the show and just
01:18:16Recall what they kind of remember, you know what I mean? Like that could be pretty cool. I would totally be down for that
01:18:22Just to like sit down and watch an actual event and capture our reactions, right?
01:18:26That'd be dope. That would be amazing
01:18:28If you guys did backyard wrestling let us know in the comments share some of your special memories
01:18:34because clearly as the
01:18:37Programs like 2020 and e entertainment all those showed we weren't alone. No, not at all, dude
01:18:44this was a
01:18:45Phenomenon this like backyards across the entire country and one of them just happened to be in
01:18:52Westbrook, Maine