Backyard Wrestling Trilogy (Wrestling)

Member Name: nytemare

Product:	Wrestling
Date:	22/04/04 (595 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quite Informative

Disadvantages: Very Long

What you are about to read is not some video collection that has just been released, it is a three part article on backyard wrestling that I wrote recently. I suggest you have a cup of tea with you as this is pretty long.

----------------------------------------

****PART ONE****

Backyard Wrestling. Mention those two words to any professional wrestler/manager/journalist or the majority of wrestling fans and they will utter a sentence about how appalling these people are and how they are giving our industry a bad name.

But what exactly is backyard wrestling? The term 'backyard wrestling' is a misconception as it would have you believe that it means 'wrestling in your backyard' when in actual fact it covers a wider spectrum than that.

The term 'backyard wrestling' basically means to wrestle anywhere but in a qualified wrestling ring. This could mean in your backyard, in your living room, bedroom, in a field, even in the street. Many backyarders do not even use a ring, they will use mattresses, trampolines or even the ground!

Some of them will even go as far as to make their own ring out of bits and pieces that they will either find lying around or will have stolen from a nearby building site.

Backyard wrestling is a craze amongst bored youths who have nothing better to do with their time than to inflict injury on each other. A harsh statement? Minor & severe burns, nasty gnashes, concussions and in some cases broken bones are just part and parcel of this ridiculous epidemic of insania (ha!)

Ask many of the backyard wrestling community why they take part in this idiotic past time and they will spout all the normal reasons such as:

"It costs too much to train" - That is complete rubbish! Many schools now cater for people on low incomes, you can attend a wrestling school for as low as £8 a lesson, hardly expensive, even for people on low income.

&quo
t;There are no training schools in this area" - Training schools are opening all over the country on a regular basis and if you do a few searches on Google or any reliable wrestling web site you will find plenty near your area.

"Most of us just want to wrestle without going professional" - This is a rather lame excuse. Many training schools get students who want to train for fun and do not want to make a career out of wrestling. Attending a training school is a safer alternative than backyard wrestling.

Whilst researching this column on the internet I stumbled across an article written by a backyard wrestler by the name of Chris Lewis Of Wrestling Envy and this is an actual quote from his column: "It's a constant rush of adrenaline when you're working a match with your mate - just like on the "big boys" do on television."

That quote really does show the normal mentality that most backyard wrestlers have, and if that was not enough here is another quote from the very same article: "They (journalists like myself) know nothing about the sport. They know nothing about the people who do it."

Excuse me but since when has backyard wrestling been a legitimate sport? And most of us know the kind of people who partake in backyard wrestling.

The thing that really makes my blood boil is that these kids have the nerve to call themselves "wrestlers," you are not wrestlers. In my view you can only call yourself a wrestler a professional wrestling trainer has trained once you. What is more you cannot call what you do wrestling.

FWA manager Dean Ayass put it perfectly: "hitting someone over the head or back with a road sign or a chair and doing nothing else isn't wrestling. Yes, there are hard-core style matches that go on but if you watch those matches, you will see that the violent spots are interspersed with wrestling moves and, to use a word that is seemi
ngly totally foreign to backyarders, psychology." - I could not put it better myself.

Professional wrestlers go through an extensive training regime to become professional wrestlers, months, even years of hard training goes into what they do. Taking time to go over every single move, bump and technique over and over again, every single day until they have perfected it.

Backyard wrestlers, as Dean Ayass also pointed out, want to have the glory of being a wrestler but do not want to put in the training or pay their dues.

When a backyard wrestler is put in hospital because of their stupid antics the media normally has a field day, but it is not backyard wrestling that receives the criticism but professional wrestling who face the full brunt of the attack.

Every time some 13 year old kid has to be patched up after doing some half-witted stunt that he/she saw whilst watching World Wrestling Entertainment, despite the numerous disclaimers, professional wrestling takes another step backwards into the seedy world it was thought of 20 odd years ago.

You can almost feel the anger as some local reporter quotes the young buck: "I saw a wrestler do it on a WWE show and thought it would be kind of cool, the disclaimer just made me want to do it even more, it was their fault blah blah blah......"

Most people cry that we should ban backyard wrestling, I can not see this ever happening unless professional wrestling gets a governing body and even if against all odds it does it will only push backyard wrestling underground and we know that most illogically-challenged kids love illegal activities these days.

Whilst a big portion of the blame should be laid at the feet of the kids and young men who take up this "death hobby" there are other areas that should take a small part of the blame as well.

<> Television - Thanks to television channels such as Channel Four producing and broadcastin
g shows such as "Lock Up Your Son's" they have managed to glamorise backyard wrestling. Channels like Kerrang, Skuzz and many others have given the impression that backyard wrestling is cool along the lines of skateboarding, punk rock and BMXing.

<> Gaming World - like it or not but as soon as they brought out the video game "Backyard Wrestling: Don't Try This At Home" they had helped glamorise backyard wrestling far more than any television programme could have done.

It does not make any difference if the game was a comical look at backyard wrestling, the gaming world have glamorised this by running it in their magazines and putting out a game on the subject.

<> Parents - The majority of that small part must lay with the parents. Most parents will probably have no idea what their son/daughter is really up to and could think it was harmless horsing around with mates.

I have no children but I have nephews and cousins that are around the 13-16-age bracket and if got a sniff of any of them taking part in backyard wrestling I would make sure they never thought about doing it again!

But what if you know what your child is doing and you decide not to take action? Then that makes you just as bad as a parent who abuses his or her own child in my book!

I thought finishing with a line from an old column I wrote on backyard wrestling would be more than appropriate for this occasion:

The fact of the matter is that backyard wrestling has no place in our world and we need to stamp it out and ban it because there is a chance that your son or daughter is doing it and they will end up in a wheelchair or a coffin it is your choice.

----------------------------------------

****PART TWO****

In last week's column I wrote about the subject of backyard wrestling, a subject that most of you had an opinion on judging by the fact that I received the highest amount o
f feedback in my three years writing about professional wrestling.

Most of the feedback was from professional wrestling fans that agreed with the majority of the points that I had to say. But I did get some response from the backyard wrestling community as well. The replies I got from the backyard community was split, some agreed with me others insulted me.

So I have decided to reprint some of the feedback that I received over the past week or so concerning backyard wrestling. I was unable to print all of the feedback that I got, one piece arrived only minutes before I was meant to post this column and it would have been good to include it. Underneath each piece of feedback I will pen my own reply to the comments and points raised by my article, this should be interesting....

<> Alex Nowak Says: "I am alex nowak and along with some friends used to participate in backyard wrestling, we live in one of the worst areas for getting wrestling training. we love wrestling so we did that, but we now wrestle in our school gym and not one of us has been injured from backyard (our backyard style was actually more wrestling than weopans) and backyard has managed to train us to become better and more confident in our school gym."

<> Dean Saliba Says: You do not actually mention whether your gym is a sanctioned training school or not so I will assume it is not. Not having a training facility in your area is still not an acceptable excuse to indulge in backyard wrestling in my view, and if you are wrestling in a school gym without a qualified trainer present then you are still 'backyarding'.

Schools are slowly but surely being opened all over the country, I heard a strong rumour that Frontier Wrestling Association are looking to open wrestling schools in places that have been starved of them in the past such as Manchester. And with the surge of interest in professional wrestling thanks to The Wrestling Channel and
the upturn in World Wrestling Entertainment's storylines more schools will be opening.

------------------------------

<> JystlK-@aol.com Says: "Me and a few of my friends have a backyard "wrestling" thing going on. I took and old porch and put some mattresses on it, and we use that as our "ring." I started it in an attempt to bring to life what I love, which is wrestling. It failed. These idiots don't know how to plan matches, fake a punch or kick, or even do anything that doesn't involve a weapon."

"I made a rule for it: No suplexes. I hoped it would reduce danger, but I was wrong because they took it to mean no VERTICAL suplexes as they think everything else is a slam or something involving "taking your ass down." Two of the brothers in this thing put on a match, where one just basically kept the other one on the ground and refused to sell any punch or anything. Another doesn't know that hey, when you get hit, or something that resembles a hit, doesn't have to actually make contact with your face for you to do anything about it."

"These idiots just want everyone to see how they can "kick ass" and forget that it's supposed to be entertaining to people looking on. They don't even want to determine who wins. They just wanna keep going until someone gets tired. They fail to realize that people will get mad, they will always kick out, and matches will last for hours, as we've proven but they still don't get it."

"As soon as I'm old enough, have the transportation, and the job to pay for a wrestling school (which are at least an hour or so away from my house) I am done with this stuff. I was planning on building a wrestling ring in my yard just to say I have one, but everyone will want to do idiotic stuff with it, and I get sued. Screw that."

<> Dean Saliba Says: You state that the nearest wr
estling training school is about an hours drive from your house, that does not seem to be all that far to me, if you attend with a couple of friends you could even turn it into a day trip kind of affair.

Backyard wrestling is still just as dangerous no matter what type of rules and boundaries you decide to lay down, something that has been enforced by your email above. I think that you and your friends would be much happier, and safer, attending that training school you briefly spoke about.

------------------------------

<> Matt Wilko Says: "First of all it is quite apparent that you do know little about backyard wrestling other than what you have been exposed to in the media i.e. TV and what other wrestlers, promotions have said about backyard wrestling. Backyard wrestling comes with a stereotype of being hardcore and ultra-voilent, and thats what it is a stereotype because i've seen the majority of the backyarders in the UK and only about 5% of it is hardcore at all."

"Dean Ayass obviously hasn't researched before making statements either, while he is right in saying it takes virtually no talent to hit someone across the head with a weapon he is wrong in saying that thats all backyarders do because simply put it is false, psychology? There is plenty of psychology in backyard, i'll go as far to say that some of the best wrestling matches ive saw have been backyard wrestling matches, held in a sports hall, no weapons, pure wrestling. I have the videos to prove it. I just find his claim that there is no psychology laughable."

"I agree with some of what you said, and the channel 4 documentary "lock up your sons" was a joke, im on screen in it a few times and they went out of their way to make backyard look bad which is understandable anyway, the general audience wouldnt be entertained by wrestling so they produced a documentary about ultra-violence, stupidity and humour, cos
i was pissing myself at some of the idiots all the way through it."

<> Dean Saliba Says: Let me start by taking a quote from what you have written: "Backyard wrestling comes with a stereotype of being hardcore and ultra-violent, and that?s what it is a stereotype because I?ve seen the majority of the backyarders in the UK and only about 5% of it is hardcore at all"

Ok, now you used the phrase "majority of the backyarders in the UK" in your email, my column was not directed at the United Kingdom branch of the backyard-wrestling club, it was aimed at Backyard wrestling the world over.

Go on the Internet and search for backyard federations. The majority of them that you find will boast about how they are the most hardcore and extreme federation in the world, they will have photos of their gruesome injuries and, more often than not, a list of the barbaric weapons that they will use.

I may not have an encyclopaedic memory of facts, figures and statistics when it comes to writing about backyard wrestling and yes maybe the documentary that I watched on Channel Four did enforce my opinion of backyard wrestling.

Your comment about Dean Ayass is also untrue, although I cannot say for sure what his knowledge of backyard wrestling is I do know that the FWA Manager does talk a lot of sense most of the time.

------------------------------

<> Unknown Says: "I don't see much wrong with it as long as you don't do the insane stunts wrestlers do i don't think it matters if you likw just attack eachother i don't 1do it much and i certainly wouldn't recommend it."

"And do you know what else gives people the urge to do it those WWE replica belts they will really give you the urge to do it i know if my friends were fighting there friends like to be the champ i know i would."

"I don't think those belts the WWE dish out makes it an
y better do you?If its on TV people are going to want to copy it but thats my view but i certainly wouldn't do the fivestar frog splash or use weapons or even call myself a wrestler."

"its common sense not to copy everything wrestlers do but i know there is crazy people that would i certainly don't its to insane."

"I do things like Walls of Jericho and Crossface and chokeslams on my bed and things i know i shouldn't and ill properly be named STUPID after this but i don't do it much anymore but im being honest."

<> Dean Saliba Says: Copying things that you see from television or the movies is normal behaviour. When I was growing up they released the Karate Kid movies and most of my friends pretended they were Ralph George Macchio from the films and when Star Wars was vastly popular we had mock battles where we pretended to have those swords that we thought were light bulbs for the kitchen. But it was all good clean fun.

Horsing around is all part of that growing up experience but backyard wrestling is not horsing around, backyard wrestling leaps right over the line that divides horsing around and complete stupidity.

Owning a World Wrestling Entertainment championship belt may not turn you into a backyard wrestler but it will restrict your chances of dating again if you so much as think about taking it out of the house with you!

------------------------------

<> D.J. Hart Says: "Thank you! your column about those backyard wannabes was great! I trained for years to wrestle only to see it cut short by a heart condition and it really ticks me off to read or hear about some pissant with no more common sense than a turd claim that what they do is a "sport" and want the recognition as an athlete."

"It is a disgrace to the men and women who have bleed and sadly sometimes died doing what they spent years training for [you already said
that I know] and I would truly love to get them in the ring or whatever and give them a lesson in respect."

<> Dean Saliba Says: I could not have put it better myself; I will leave it at that!

------------------------------

<> Cris Anarchy: "I must say that your article is filled with many errors and substandard points of argument. You state that, "Backyard Wrestling. Mention those two words to any professional wrestler/manager/journalist or the majority of wrestling fans and they will utter a sentence about how appalling these people are and how they are giving our industry a bad name."

"Have you not heard of Mick Foley, Jeff and Matt Hardy, or Rob Van Dam? They all started in the backyard. They all do support the idea of it, I do agree that some people do take it too far occasionally, but they have no gripe against backyard wrestling in general. Managers do not account for anything. Journalists are also thrown out because they are always looking for the more disturbing article to write to draw attention, as you have obviously decided to go that route as well. Also, if you haven?t heard, wrestling fans LOVE WRESTLING!!! I have not met one fan to this date that frowns or is disgusted by backyard wrestling."

<> Dean Saliba Says: Ah that old chestnut. All you have to do is mention backyard wrestling in a negative light and they sling the same one quote at you. Mick Foley was never a fully-fledged backyard wrestler, his dive off the roof of THAT house was not part of some backyard wrestling federation pay-per-view it was for a film(s) that he and his friends were making.I once sat in Upton Park, does that make me a West Ham fan? Whilst at Millwall I once called a referee a "blind f**ker" does that make me a hardcore football hooligan? If you give your girlfriend money to go to the shop shortly after having sex does this make her a prostitute?

You state that: "I
have not met one fan to this date that frowns or is disgusted by backyard wrestling." You cannot have looked that far then as most message boards I go to there is a heavy dose of people who despise backyard wrestling.

I will also disagree and say that managers do account for their views. Dean Ayass has so far been the only manager that I have known about who is man enough to stand up and let his feelings be known about backyard wrestling.

Maybe the other managers in the world are too scared of losing their jobs to make their views heard?

------------------------------

<> Cris Anarchy: "Your original "misconception" definition of backyard wrestling is correct, however your "correcting" definition, is as vague as the original definition you first described. The ability to broaden the area around the term does not make it seem more dangerous. It in fact shows your limited knowledge of the subject you are trying to bitch about. And as far as them building their own ring, since when are imagination and creativity frowned upon?"

<> Dean Saliba Says: There is nothing wrong with imagination and creativity and I never said that there was.

Let us look at the professional rings here for a minute. The professional rings that properly trained wrestlers use are made for wrestling; they have the correct type of padding and are designed to take falls in without injuring.

Now lets us take a look at a bunch of backyarders building a poorly constructed ring out of junk that they have either stolen or salvaged. That ring that they will have made is not designed to take most of the impact of a fall like professional rings. There is no correct padding underneath to absorb anything.

The homemade ring is not designed to take impact or to protect any of the people who step into the ring it is designed to look good.

<> Cris Anarchy: "Your attempt to ridicule Chris
Lewis was also worthless. You assumed too much within reading his article. He is actually right in everything he said. You (journalists) know nothing of the sport. Have you yourself "worked a match with your mate"? I don?t think so. So, to down the mentality of those who have is ignorant upon your part. Also, whom do you know, and what are these kinds of people, that partake in backyard wrestling?"

<> Dean Saliba Says: My intention was not to ridicule Chris Lewis in anyway; my intention was to point out that his views were mildly hypocritical. He stated that journalists know nothing about wrestling but then steps into a ring, untrained, and attempts to wrestle.

I have never done this before in a column because I think images spoil the article but on this occasion I have decided to make a big exception. Below are a couple of images that I found on hardcore backyard wrestling web sites, the same hardcore backyard wrestling web sites that Cris Anarchy suggests do not exist.

http://eastlondonadvertiser.org.uk/images/byw1 .jpg"
http://eastlondonadvertiser.org.uk/images/byw2 .jpg"
http://eastlondonadvertiser.org.uk/images/byw3 .jpg"

<> Cris Anarchy: "You also, and I am also finding myself baffled at this point, failed to mention that Chris Lewis also stressed the fact that safety comes first. You said that you researched his article, yet you failed to mention that? I thought you researched? I though a good reporter told all of the facts? If you are trying to report what is going on, tell the people the truth, not some bullshit half-ass crap."

<> Dean Saliba Says: I thought Chris Lewis was being hypocritical enough with his comment about journalists knowing nothing about wrestling before stepping in untrained, me adding more comments from him about being safe would have only served to harden my point.

For the benefit of those who are unaware this is the quote Cris
Anarchy is talking about:

"Backyard wrestling is great fun. Don't get me wrong, there are dangers in doing backyard wrestling - great dangers - but if safety is first, then having the time of your life certainly has to be second on the list. Being someone that has done backyard (more like back-room) wrestling, I know that you can get hurt - I have done a couple of times, but luckily not seriously."

"But the sheer feeling you get emmulating your favourite superstars of the present or even the past is quite unique. It's a constant rush of adrenaline when you're working a match with your mate - just like on the "big boys" do on television."

<> Cris Anarchy: "Furthermore, you belittle the mentality of backyard wrestlers, as being illogical (NOT ILLOGICALLY CHALLENGED, THAT DOESN?T MAKE ANY SENSE), that they partake in an idiotic past time, and involve themselves in stupid antics or half-witted stunts. I invite you to come and meet some of the backyarders that I know. Most of them are very intelligent, quite logical, and are working towards being a teacher, which you seem to have failed to pay attention to in school."

<> Dean Saliba Says: Isn't it strange that you started off by arguing your point well but now you have had to resort to pettiness and making lame jibes about my spelling and my education.

You may not have realised it yet but with your immature insults you are only cementing the opinion that backyarders are bored idiotic half-wits with far too much time on their hands.

<> Cris Anarchy: "If you want to complain about that kids are risking their lives doing backyard wrestling, you might as well ask to have the world be rid of football, soccer, baseball, hockey, ect? Basically, any youth activity where adolescents could be injured should be banned."

"Why hasn?t the NFL been sued when some child breaks their neck playing
football in the local park? I myself injured my knee playing football in the front yard of my parent?s house. I was not in a professional football field, so does that make my actions idiotic, since I was playing "front yard football"? I don?t think so."</I>

<> Dean Saliba Says: With out stooping to your mentality. When was the last time a person broke their neck hitting a variation of a moonsault whilst playing American Football? I really do wish you would think before you type your reply.

The fact of the matter is that getting injured whilst playing football, soccer or basketball does not give that sport a bad name like backyard wrestling does. Backyard wrestling gives professional wrestling a bad name and drags it into the mud with them.

When a young person is injured and it turns out that he did it performing a high-risk move in a backyard wrestling "match" it is not backyard wrestling that gets the blame it is the World Wrestling Entertainment and the smaller Indy promotions that get the blame.

<> Cris Anarchy: "You say that you want backyard wrestling stamped out, as if it were a virus, a borderline epidemic. Bear in mind however, " For every prohibition you create, you also create an underground." -Jello Biafra-"

<> Dean Saliba Says@ If you read the rest of the that quote you would have seen that I also said that this was never likely to happen

<> Cris Anarchy: "Forgive me, I suppose since I have done backyard wrestling I should only be able to quote someone from T.V. At least that?s what you think, right, since I?m involved with a 'death hobby?'"

<>Dean Saliba Says: Wrong again my friend. Whilst I will admit that I did watch the Channel Four documentary about backyard wrestling and yes it did show backyard wrestling in the negative light that it deserved, but I also visited a number of backyard wrestling web sites an
d forums and spoke to a number of the people there before writing my column.

In my last column I quoted from Dean Ayass who is not only a very good manager and has a good knowledge of the business but he also like Boothby Graffoe!

<> Cris Anarchy: "In the end, back away from trying to influence people about something you have NO IDEA ABOUT. If you feel it is wrong, and do not wish for your nephews and cousins to not engage in backyard wrestling, take it up with them. Do not try to demand other to stop what they want to do simply because you think it?s wrong. Ignorance is a plague, and you are quite infected."

<> Dean Saliba Says: And you seem to be infected with a similar disease called stupidity. I think the only cure is a good hard knock to the temple! None of my family takes part in backyard wrestling because I have informed them of the dangers, as any decent person would do.

------------------------------

If you want to smash up your body and live out the rest of your life in severe pain or even in a wheelchair then that is fine with me, it is your life and you are free to do just that but do not connect yourself to wrestling. To call yourself a wrestler you should be fully trained by a professional trainer, not a bunch of wally's in a garden on a couple of soiled mattresses.

Professional wrestling goes back hundreds of years and is a very noble and honourable sport and to be forced to have backyard wrestling associated with it is the biggest infection of all.

I will finish this column with a direct quote from Indy wrestler Bill Ding:

"I am very anti-backyard mostly because in HS some friends of mine got together and we tried it. We only played around and tried a few holds, which was stupid, I realize. We were wanna-be wrestlers pretending to be the guys we saw on TV. These kids today seem to have a death wish. All I can say is, find a school, get trained, and do it
for real."


----------------------------------------

****PART THREE****

Over the past month or so I have covered the topic of backyard wrestling and it seems that my columns on this topic have struck a nerve with a lot of people, judging by the amount of feedback that is still pouring into my email account from readers and irate backyarders.

One email that I received from a backyarder by the name of 'Big Daddy Ace' was the reason for this third column on backyard wrestling. As with my last backyard wrestling column I will give my own reply to his comments, points and straight out rants.

<> Big Daddy Ace Says: Let me start with a quote that you said in your article "The Final Cut" on 2/27/04.

"Backyard wrestling is a craze amongst bored youths who have nothing better to do with their time than to inflict injury on each other. A harsh statement? Minor & severe burns, nasty gnashes, concussions and in some cases broken bones are just part and parcel of this ridiculous epidemic of insania"

Bored youths? HA! Let me get one point through to you. The people who I wrestle with and I are not bored youths. And we do not inflict injury on eachother. Here's the lowdown on what I do with my backyard wrestling federation -

We are essentially a company. My friends and I have built a legitimate ring of 15'x15' in a space of my backyard. I realize it is 5 feet shorter then what a normal ring is supposed to have, but I'm working with limited Backyard space. But in our company, before you are admitted to the performing part, there is a written test that you have to take. And then, after the test, we go through extensive training before you even get into the ring for a match.

<> Dean Saliba Says: The quote that you cite was from my original article and through countless hours of surfing backyard wrestling websites, message boards and columns I hav
e found plenty of evidence to back up my claims.

During the email that you sent me you did not state that you or anyone who is affiliated with your "company" is a qualified trainer, so your "extensive training" courses and "written tests" are quite pointless although I would like to receive a written test from you to see what is written.

<> Big Daddy Ace Says: I will admit, that we got our idea from watching Vincent Kennedy McMahon Jr's World Wrestling Entertainment programming. We watch it every Monday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Raw, Smackdown, Velocity, Confidential, Heat, PPV's. But we don't attempt to pull of the stupid crazy moves that they do. Piledrivers are illegal in our federation. Mainly because we don't want a lawsuit on our hands.

<> Dean Saliba Says: Eliminating one wrestling move from your "company" does not make a blind bit of difference as you may know you can get severely injured by doing a simple lock up incorrectly.

<> Big Daddy Ace Says: We also have a contract written up that prevents any sort of lawsuit or any other kind of financial charge.

<> Dean Saliba Says: ......

<> Big Daddy Ace Says: How do we do our training?

In one book I own, entitled "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pro Wrestling" by Captail Lou Albano and Bret Randolph Sugar, it goes over different moves, from submission holds to suplexes to chokeslams.

It even gives you a hint on how to fall properly... take the impact with your feet, ass, and hands, making a slapping sound with your hands and arms. That reduces the force that is displaced onto your back.

<> Dean Saliba Says: You "train" your "wrestlers" from a book? Do you realise how ridiculous that sounds? Nothing, and I repeat NOTHING, substitutes a qualified training school with real trainers to guide you and train you.


<> Big Daddy Ace Says: "Whilst researching this column on the internet I stumbled across an article written by a backyard wrestler by the name of Chris Lewis Of Wrestling Envy and this is an actual quote from his column: "It's a constant rush of adrenaline when you're working a match with your mate - just like on the "big boys" do on television."

That quote really does show the normal mentality that most backyard wrestlers have, and if that was not enough here is another quote from the very same article: "They (journalists like myself) know nothing about the sport. They know nothing about the people who do it."

Normal Mentality? So I guess me and my company are of abnormal mentality, right? I agree with you in what you said in the following paragraph, which in conclusion meant that this is not a sport. Well, I would have to argue that point. Yes, it is the hybrid known as Sports Entertainment, but let me ask you something.

How is backyard wrestling any different then from about 9 or 10 years ago when people wanted to be like the great Michael Jordan, boxers wanted to be like Mike Tyson, and Football fanatics wanted to be like their favorite NFL player? It really isn't. Allow me to elaborate. When we wrestle, we do not idolize any WWE or former WCW/ECW superstar.

<> Dean Saliba Says: When I said "normal mentality" I meant "Conforming with or constituting a social norm". Just to clear that up for the people who emailed me about it.

"They (journalists like myself) know nothing about the sport. They know nothing about the people who do it."</B> - That was a quote I took from Chris Lewis as well (I added the bracketed words).

I am pretty dissappointed you resorted to this argument so soon in your email. Michael Jordon was a basketball player; I have taken a quote from my reply to another backyarder who pitched the same question to m
e:

"When was the last time a person broke their neck hitting a variation of a moonsault whilst playing American Football? I really do wish you would think before you type.

The fact of the matter is that getting injured whilst playing football, soccer or basketball does not give that sport a bad name like backyard wrestling does. Backyard wrestling gives professional wrestling a bad name and drags it into the mud.

When a young person is injured and it turns out that he did it performing a high-risk move in a backyard wrestling "match" it is not backyard wrestling that gets the blame it is the World Wrestling Entertainment and the smaller Indy promotions that get the blame."

There is nothing wrong with idolising a professional wrestler, many wrestlers in the business will happily tell you they idolised certain wrestlers growing up and have even incorparated some of their patented moves in their arsenal.

Just take a look at Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit who both idolised Shawn Michaels and Dynamite Kid respectfully.

<> Big Daddy Ace Says: These performers have gone through extensive training and have put many years into doing what they do and developing the characters they have chosen. We understand that it is all choreographed and planned out, and they are all on the constant flow of storylines written up by WWE Writers. What do you think we do? We write out everything... storylines and all.

<> Dean Saliba Says: How can you say that your "wrestlers" go through "extensive training" when all you do is copy moves out of a professional wrestling book? Can someone please enlighten me on this?

<> Big Daddy Ace Says: I think the people who do the crazy crap luke flaming tables and barbed wire stuff give Backyard Wrestlers a bad reputation nation wide. But we do sometimes get people who want to be like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin or "HBK"
Shawn Michaels, "The Game" Triple H, Kurt Angle, The Undertaker, Kane, Scott Steiner, Sting, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, John Cena, Ric Flair, Mick Foley, Hulk Hogan, Brock Lesnar, The Rock, and others. I mean sure, it's a long shot and it is all played and acted out, but it is still fun.

<> Dean Saliba Says: I don't think this is true at all, I have done hours of research on the internet and most of the backyard feds and backyarders I have come across boast of being hardcore and ultra-violent. In fact only about 3% of the backyarders I spoke to said they disliked the hardcore image backyard wrestling has.

If you dislike it then get properly trained and enter the professional wrestling business

As I said before there is nothing wrong with wanting to emmulate your favourite star, there are wrestlers in Japan and Great Britain who actually make their living by dressing up as WWE stars. But the fact still remains that they are all trained wrestlers....

<> Big Daddy Ace Says: It IS adrenaline that rushes through your veins when you are in the ring, wrestling with your partner in a backyard quest for the "gold". Yes, we even went as far as making our own title belts. How? One of the wrestlers had Metal Fab in High School (that's what we are, we are all Sophemores) and he goes there every day and makes the belts. We have 3 done (World, Cruiserweight and Hardcore) and 1 in the making (US). Why? Because we can.

<> Dean Saliba Says: I personally do not see how boasting that you make your own belts at school will turn my head in anyway....

<> Big Daddy Ace Says: You say that we cannot call it wrestling... well in my opinion we can. Some of us were on the High School Wrestling Team (or are currently on) and we do wrestle. Yes, hitting someone over the head or back with a street sign is not wrestling, although televised in Hard Core style matches. We realize this. That is why there is
the Hard Core Championship.

<> Dean Saliba Says: That is correct, it is not wrestling, it is a load of minor's messing around in a backyard doing dangerous things to eachother whilst untrained.

Being part of the high school wrestling team does not make you a fully-trained professional wrestler, when Kurt Angle, Shelton Benjamin and Brock Lesnar (amongst others) took the step up to professional wrestling they had to be trained....

<> Big Daddy Ace Says: What we do is we mix it all for that belt. You cannot win by beating someone senseless with a chair or other object. That will get you suspended from the company. I know I used that word loosly but that is infact what we are. We are a group of teenagers who have a love and passion for the business and ART of Backyard Wrestling.

<> Dean Saliba Says: I will omit from going into the legality of calling yourself a company without filling in the relevant documentation.

You state that you and your fellow youths have "love and passion for the business" if this was indeed the case then what is stopping you from attending a nearby wrestling school and taking that "love and passion for the business" to a higher level?

<> Big Daddy Ace Says: I know I speak for the smaller percentage of wrestlers who are like myself where we do train and go through days and weeks and months training ourselves properly. Most of the moves we do are impossible to do on our own, and that's the fault with alot of the backyard wrestlers today.

They don't realize that your opponent is in fact your partner, and you both need to help execute the move to make it look good and painfull but actually fairly painless. Why do we want to make everything look good? Because we tape everything. That's right, we tape it all.

I am currently in the works of setting them up into the DVD format with menus and whatnot. Believe me, it is a thrill to do w
hat we do and I hope this clears up any and all doubt that there are backyard wrestlers who take everything into precaution, who outlaw moves and who make things easier for the performers, who train and train to get the moves perfected, who take eachothers health into consideration, and who are damn good at doing what we do.

<> Dean Saliba Says: Throughout your email you make several claims about being safe and well trained but how can you be safe when you have taught yourself and others from a book and have not been to a qualified professional wrestling school?

You seem to be a rather intelligent person and you show a lot of passion to partake in wrestling but what puzzles me is why would you continue to do it in your own backyard when you could attend a training school and perform in proper rings infront of an audience

The only rational explanation that I can think of is maybe you do not wish to persue a career in professional wrestling and wish to do it as a hobby or a pastime. This is not unusal as I know of several people who hold down good jobs and then at the weekend they bounce around rings for various promotions.

Final Thought:

As I have said in my previous two articles on this subject, I do not agree with backyard wrestling at all, I feel that it brings down the credability of professional wrestling and no matter what backyarders think this is true.

Getting trained by a qualified training school is so bloody easy these days that it is just plain stupid to continue putting you and your opponent in these kind of hazardous situations, whether you "train" yourself from a book or you ban several moves from being performed the real danger still stays with you, that danger is someone attempting moves only a properly trained person should ever attempt to do.

Summary: