What guys would you study?

I would have to say that if I was becoming a wrestler tomorrow I'd definately go with stuff from Terry/Dory Funk, Harley Race, Jack Brisco, Ricky Morton, Jumbo Tsuruta.

What do you guys think?

I would say, the same stuff that I "study" now. I would want to bring a realistic style in the sense of Jack Brisco. Greg Valentine in Mid-Atlantic would be a must see on my list of things to immulate.

The guys I grew up on. Jake Roberts, Arn Anderson, Ted Dibiase, and some Harley Race. They all had an aggressive style that I don't think anyone has translated into this era of wrestling (other than maybe HHH. But that's a maybe). It's meticulous and well thought out, which I believe a lot of wrestling today is missing

Ted DiBiase, Bobby Heeanan, Grand Wizard, Andy Kaufman, Frank Gotch, Gorgeous George...

...I think you all see the pattern here.

Gorgeous George is fuckin' awesome

Jumbo, Race, Terry Funk, Arn, Malenko, Benoit, Eddie, and Kawada.

Needless to say, I would rule the motherfucking world.

Hmm, probably, Benoit, Eddie, Rey, Bret, Kobashi, Steamboat.

When I was backyard wrestling, I went from dreaful to at least passable (in backyard terms) once I started watching Guerrero and Malenko. So that would probably be my starting point.

I haven't barkyarded in a long time, but I usually tried my hand at the Benoit selling and Bret offense (and the infamous screaming jumping elbow drop that always misses). I'd probably do the same if I were to be a wrestler (but I won't).

In short, I sucked as a wrestler, but was a good seller. :P

Screaming jumping elbow?

See: Lex Luger and Kane.

When I did backyard a lot of it was shoot work because no-one ever wanted to job, so we could never have a predetermined match (basically, we were backyard Hogans). And since it was near impossible to get a real pin, the only way to win was to make the other guy tap, for me at least. So, I guess I would have studied Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Iron Sheik (because I love the Camel Clutch), Ric Flair, Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, and whoever else did a lot of submissions in the mid-90s.

Flair did exactly how many submissions outside of the Figure Four? You think you'd want to study from someone else, wouldn't you, especially someone wh odid the god damn move right? Dittio Sheik. All he did was 1 crappy move.

Fine, I'll be the unpopular one to come out and say that I'd study a lot of the newer hybrid type stuff. I'd try to balance it out with classic NWA stuff, particularly Flair, Steamboat and Sting, because I'm a huge old school Sting Mark.

Well, that's all I meant about Iron Sheik and Ric Flair. When you're a major mark, all you think of is the finishing submission; especially when you're trying to end matches with the same move. When you do backyard shoot, you don't care about having 20 minute matches, you just want to win and move onto the next match.

I still remember vividly our discussions about actually booking winners and finishes. "That's gay man. No one is gonna want to do it if they know they're losing."

We eventually succumbed, and actually did some really nice stuff for awhile. I should send Scrooge a few tapes, since he'll review anything.

Fuck that!

And back to my Flair/Sheik bashing... hell, almost everything. If you're "Shoot fighting", good fucking luck getting someone in either of their moves. No one is going to lie on their back for 15 seconds to let you put on a Figure-Four. Ditto the Clutch, except on your stomach.


In cases like these, a full nelson is the best. It's easy to apply, it hurts, and you can make someone squeal like a piggy.

Funny thing is, during my backyarding days people I did it with were the same way about not wanting to job. Even then I was thinking that people didn't get it.

In matches, you do a figure-four or a camel clutch, you don't have to do them the way Flair or Iron Sheik did - you just did the move in a way that would be quick to apply the hold and add more pressure than what you saw on TV. So, yes, a camel (in particular) can be done; that move was more or less my "finisher" and made guys a lot bigger than I tap out.

Oh, and the ankle lock and Boston crab. I'm not talking a Kurt Angle ankle lock, I'm talking Ken Shamrock UFC ankle lock.

I was willing to job, but no-one else wanted to job, I figured why should I be the only one putting over people. And thus, we brawled.

Also something to note about my backyarding days, a friend of mine is currently making a documentary about it and we did interviews and whatnot to add to the DVD. It's going to have a trailor before a movie that ANOTHER friend of mine is doing and he's having a premiere for it. So basically my backyard wrestling ass may be coming to a DVD near you.

EEEWWW. Maybe I should release my 10th grade Spanish Video with alternate commentary by the Scrooge Man himself. :P

We never taped anything we did, because we were really just out to kick eachother's asses. I was extremely dangerous to wrestle with because I didn't fall properly and I botched a ton of spots, including my highflyings trampoline kicks that usually ended up landing right on someone's noses.

Good times.

I will give our backyard fed more credit than most though. We always booked storylines and whatnot and we were more wrestling than we were smash lighttubes off of each other.

Did you guys use trampolines? Build a ring? On the ground?

Just curious.

We built a ring using dirty old mattresses we stole from people's trash. We covered it with a tarp, put poles in the ground, rigged up some ropes. The fucker fell apart almost every match, but man it was fun back then.

Ground. I wouldn't trust a trampoline ever since an unfortune accident, which happend to be during the filming of my spanish film. :P

We used the ground. At the tail end of our venture we actually had the use of a real wrestling ring.

For those of you who have never wrestled in a ring or at least not for a good period of time..................by body prefered the ground.

I just used the ground and whatever else was around us. I wanted to invest in a ring or at least have a make-shift one, but by then there wasn;t much of a point. Our backyard group pretty much hated each other and we didn't have much of place to have one anyhow.

I never did the lightbulb stuff either. Folding chairs and ladders on occassion and other gimmick matches, but none of the other over-the-top hardcore backyard stuff that everyone thinks of when someone says "backyard wrestling".

Yeah, we were never "extreme" either. Mainly wrestling, but plenty of use of chairs. Two of our guys had kind of a hardcore feud or some gay shit, and teased with a big ass roll of barbed wire, but we never even considering using it in anyway.

One of those douchebags did go through a window though and tore his arm up. We had to stop the show too -- dumbasses.

Yeah, see....we were never in the habit of booking storylines or anything. We'd just meet up on my neighbor's trampoline and throw dukes for a while. We did invent a bunch of hilarious moves over the years, but we stayed away from weapons unless the little crybaby kid down the street was throwing his shoes at us.

When I used to "yard" as we called it, it was funny, because none of us really cared about jobbing all that much, but we still worked a semi-shoot style for our matches. Lots of amateur throws, real submissions (usually the way matches were won), and semi-real strikes (slightly pulled so not to kill each other, but some of that shit hurt). We were pretty much a BattleArts style fed on a trampoline, with some MMA influence like keeping track of match records and stuff. God, I still have hours upon hours of this stuff on tape, and a friend of mine is even working on a best of HIW DVD for my graduation present. Good fucking times.