"Don't try this at home..."

[Marc the Smark]

Severe burns, nasty gnashes, concussions, and broken bones... just a part and parcel of what is referred to as "backyard wrestling." Is it kids having fun, or a ridiculous epidemic of danger and insanity? That's the question to be answered in this thread. Well, a friend of mine showed me a tape of his cousin who does backyard wrestling, and here's my opinion. t's a craze among bored youth who have nothing better to do than to inflict injury on each other. I'll break it down into three separate categories - The Good, The Bad, and The Stupid. Keep in mind, this was the first time I actually saw this (though I had often heard about it), so what's old news to you is new and upsetting to me.

The Good

Despite my views on backyard wrestling, there are actually some good parts seeping through all the crud. In between the hardcore moves, the highly dangerous spots, I noticed some small glimmers of good wrestling. It's just a shame those little glimpses were smothered, by powerbombs onto car roofs, and other senseless things.

Please Note - I'm not saying backyard wrestlers do not have any wrestling talent. On the contrary, I think a lot of them might. But they should putting it to good use; going to school, doing proper training, etc. Forget putting their bodies through these cannibalistic circumstances, against other unqualified individuals.

The Bad

Within five minutes of the tape I watched, I saw the following things:

People wrestling on soiled mattresses scattered on the ground.
People performing high risk moves on Crash Mats (a crude ring).
People wrestling and performing dangerous moves on concrete!
Poorly constructed rings, made up of things that were probably stolen from a local building site.
A power bomb onto a shopping trolley, not once but TWICE.
A kid placed into a shopping trolley and shoved off a stage (at least 6 ft high)

I couldn't believe there was more....

A power bomb on the roof of a car
A hurricanrana from the roof of a car
A boy rock-bottomed on concrete

And by the end of the tape:

A badly botched shooting star press through a table
A suicidal dive from the top of a truck.
A young guy nearly broke his neck when he fell off the top turnbuckle
(when the poorly constructed ring ropes broke).
An inverted suplex onto concrete.
A moonsault from the top of a truck.
A back suplex onto a trampoline
(the guy cracked his head on the metal springs)
A shooting star press from the top of a truck through a makeshift table!

The Stupid

"(People) get hurt in every sport... it's no more dangerous than American Football." That's what my friend told me when he gave me the tape. How stupid is that???? It's okay to attack other people, and cut them open for your own sick pleasure, because there's danger all around us???

These guys will be in a wheelchair within the next five to ten years, and it's all so unnecessary. Really a damn shame.

So yeah, backyard wrestling is a growing pastime, with a cult following among the youth of the world. And whether I like it or not, these guys will continue their brutality. They'll put themselves through hell just to look "cool," but they're only looking cool to other like-minded children. There should be laws against this crap. It's an extremely dangerous pasttime, and something should be done about it.

[PureHatred]

This is so two years ago.

You're pretty much dead on, but still, have you been in a cave since 2001?

[FourFifty]

I'm going to say it's not two years ago... Backyard Wrestling has been getting some recent publicity, a video game, and a game in the works. It's still strong, it's just two years ago there was more media around it. It's still around. Someone, please, shoot The Masked Horndog...

[Marc the Smark]

And another thing... where the hell are the parents? I heard a lotta the kids involved in this are between 12 and 16 years old?!?!?!?!? Their parents actually allow it?!?!?!?!? And then when the kids get hurt you know who will get the blame. The WWE.

[PureHatred]

It's still around because some dumb shits won't let it go. But when there have been cheesy movies, bad video games, and 20/20 specials done on it, the fad has passed.

Besides, contrary to RHS's post, I don't think there's more than a handful of BY wrestlers that have an ounce of actual athletic talent. If they were athletes, they'd be on school wreslting teams or playing a sport in high school, not bashing each other in the head with light bulbs.

It's pretty much a given, that except for the rare exception, BY Wrestlers are fucking morons.

But hey, it's 2004. Who am I to judge?

[Longshot]

Backyard wrestling is just a bunch of kids who somehow got a hold of some ECW tapes and then want to imitate what they see on it, but they sometimes go further than that just so they can say they are "Hardcore".

Even the "Hardcore Legend" Mick Foley said it. Hardcore isn’t what you do in the ring, it’s the passion for the business in total...or something like that...

[Longshot]

Backyard wrestling is just a bunch of kids who somehow got a hold of some ECW tapes and then want to imitate what they see on it, but they sometimes go further than that just so they can say they are "Hardcore".

Even the "Hardcore Legend" Mick Foley said it. Hardcore isn’t what you do in the ring, it’s the passion for the business in total...or something like that...

ALL Backyard wrestling =

[Marc the Smark]

Originally Posted by Longshot Backyard wrestling is just a bunch of kids who somehow got a hold of some ECW tapes and then want to imitate what they see on it, but they sometimes go further than that just so they can say they are "Hardcore".

But again, where are the parents??? You know what I think of parents who let their kids do backyard wrestling??? I think they're despicable.

[Kane Knight]

I'm a follower of Darwin.

If these morons wanna weed themselves out of the gene pool, Godspeed.

[Corkscrewed]

www.darwinawards.com




Anyway, the kids are morons, and the parents are bigger morons for allowing their kids to do that shit. They should be doing more useful stuff... like filling up my order of fries.

[Kane Knight]

You've got a point, CS.

If they pull themselves out of the gene pool, who's gonna supersize me?

SAVE THE RETARDS!

[Longshot]

Originally Posted by Red Hot Scott But again, where are the parents??? You know what I think of parents who let their kids do backyard wrestling??? I think they're despicable.

I know its the parents job to know exactly what their children are doing at all times, kids still find ways to do thing behind their parents backs...drinking, drugs...backyard wrestling. just because its call backyard wrestling doesnt mean it has to take place in a backyard. it can pretty much happen anywhere.

Parents nowadays have less control over their kids and I do this that this is their fault. They do need to take more control over their children, and try to prevent BYW.

I am getting so sick of this!

You people B*tching about Backyard Wrestling when there is plenty of other more important things to worry about in this country, if kids want to Backyard Wrestle its their decision, no matter how much parents disapprove they are still going to do it, the main word- ITS THEIR DECISION and if they get messed up in the process its their fault.

And if your wondering, yes, I do Backyard Wrestle on occasion, and yes I do know it can get dangerous, we are all aware of the risks, but we still do it, why?, because its fun, and theres nothing better to go, organized activitys, especially at school, are cults, yes, cults.

And if you whining people are going to bash me about my views, so be it, i dont care.

[spd10000]

Mountain Dew - I'll agree with you on one thing. If you want to do it, that's your personal choice. But you said you know it's dangerous and yet you're doing it anyway. To me that's pretty stupid. Although, maybe you haven't been injured enough yet. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe you're too damn thick-headed. Maybe if you go out there and break your neck (or worse), you won't think it's so great anymore. What does it take to get through to you people?

Did you just join here to bash us about bashing you? Well I don't really care anyway. If you want to do it, go ahead, as it's you're own freedom.

[spd10000]

Originally Posted by Loose Cannon If you want to do it, go ahead, as it's you're own freedom.

That's right. If they want to become paralyzed, I hope they are.

[Danny Electric]

MountainDew make sure in your next match you land on a really sharp object. You idiot.
But then again you know the risks, so you wouldn't care if you died.

You think a bottle of Mountain Dew is his weapon of choice and his finisher is "Do the Dew."

[PureHatred]

Originally Posted by MrMoUnTaInDeW I am getting so sick of this! You people B*tching about Backyard Wrestling when there is plenty of other more important things to worry about in this country, if kids want to Backyard Wrestle its their decision, no matter how much parents disapprove they are still going to do it, the main word- ITS THEIR DECISION and if they get messed up in the process its their fault. And if your wondering, yes, I do Backyard Wrestle on occasion, and yes I do know it can get dangerous, we are all aware of the risks, but we still do it, why?, because its fun, and theres nothing better to go, organized activitys, especially at school, are cults, yes, cults. And if you whining people are going to bash me about my views, so be it, i dont care.

Cults?

I always thought there was something fishy about the Cub Scouts.

[spd10000]

Originally Posted by spd10000 That's right. If they want to become paralyzed, I hope they are.

[Marc the Smark]

That's a little harsh. Maybe some of these kids don't really understand the consequences. They can say they do, they can say they know it's a risk, but they might really not. They say they're doing it for the thrill, even though they agree it's dangerous, and I guess it's true that's their choice. But I still think something should be done about it. There should be laws or something. It shouldn't be legal. And their parents, as much as possible, should try to stop them.

[PureHatred]

IP CHECK!

[aaronkyle86]

Me and my brother have a professional wrestling ring in the backyard. We are both currently getting professionally trained and every once in a while, we put a match together with the stuff we learned and put on a match for some of our friends. I'm sure that is still considered backyard wrestling, but at least we've been trained on the stuff we do.

[PureHatred]

That example right there is the huge exception to the rule. Most "backyard'ers" don't wrestle in a ring, don't have any training, and aren't trying to put together actual matches. I'd still say you need to be deadly careful about doing many moves before you're properly trained, but at least you're not wrestling on stacked up mattresses and hitting each other in the face with fluorescent light bulbs.

I would just like to throw in, that when me and my freinds Backyard Wrestle, we dont do stupid things like jump off roofs or hit each other with light bulbs or flaming tables or anything, we just wrestle around, i mean there has been the occasional "Jump Rope Tied to our wrists" match but nothing nutty.

You might be wondering why i said we understand the risk involved if we dont even do the crazy stuff, well there still is a risk when just wrestling around.

So yeah i would like to apologize for coming off as an a*shole before, i do agree that the people who do the really crazy Backyard Wrestling are stupid, but dont hate us people who like the ocasional wrestling in the living room

[Kane Knight]

Originally Posted by MrMoUnTaInDeW I am getting so sick of this! You people B*tching about Backyard Wrestling when there is plenty of other more important things to worry about in this country, if kids want to Backyard Wrestle its their decision, no matter how much parents disapprove they are still going to do it, the main word- ITS THEIR DECISION and if they get messed up in the process its their fault. And if your wondering, yes, I do Backyard Wrestle on occasion, and yes I do know it can get dangerous, we are all aware of the risks, but we still do it, why?, because its fun, and theres nothing better to go, organized activitys, especially at school, are cults, yes, cults. And if you whining people are going to bash me about my views, so be it, i dont care.

You know, I totally and fully support your right to be a total fucking retard. but if you and your little non-thinking, pond-scum, brain-dead friends do stupid stuff like this, then you've forfeited your right to outrage when people bitch about your foolish little antics.

It doesn't matter if you're a "Safe backyard wrestler." Get real.

[Kane Knight]

Originally Posted by aaronkyle86 Me and my brother have a professional wrestling ring in the backyard. We are both currently getting professionally trained and every once in a while, we put a match together with the stuff we learned and put on a match for some of our friends. I'm sure that is still considered backyard wrestling, but at least we've been trained on the stuff we do.

If you're getting training, it's different. I occasionally practice in my backyard (Swordplay, not wrestling, but still). It's a great place to practice real techniques you've learned. It's different than the people going "Hey ma! Lookitme! I'm a rassler cuz I'm doing wot thyey do on TV!"

[Kane Knight]

Originally Posted by MrMoUnTaInDeW I am getting so sick of this! You people B*tching about Backyard Wrestling when there is plenty of other more important things to worry about in this country, if kids want to Backyard Wrestle its their decision, no matter how much parents disapprove they are still going to do it, the main word- ITS THEIR DECISION and if they get messed up in the process its their fault. And if your wondering, yes, I do Backyard Wrestle on occasion, and yes I do know it can get dangerous, we are all aware of the risks, but we still do it, why?, because its fun, and theres nothing better to go, organized activitys, especially at school, are cults, yes, cults. And if you whining people are going to bash me about my views, so be it, i dont care.

Wow. Those two statements aren't contradictory.

[Team Sheep]

The only backyard wrestlers i respect would be the ones who do the wrestling moves, not just grab a blade as soon as the match starts. Jumping off of roofs and using barbed wire etc. isn't wrestling it's just sick, mindless torture to the human body and it just isn't intelligent. But then again, people shouldn't be performing any wrestling at all in the yard it should be done in professional wrestling schools under the supervision of trained professionals where they can be taught wrestling safely.

[HankScorpio]

I have been known to put on a wrestling match in my backyard for fun, but they're matches not stupid stunts that I've learnt from watching Jeff and Lita botch, never has a Flaming table or a barbed wire bat been used, but quite often there'll be a crippler crossface or an Angleslam.
If you want to fight with stupid weapons go to a soccer match, if you want to do high risks "tricks" learn to base jump.
If you want to wrestle ECW style at least learn how to wrestle first

(I'm sorry if this is incoherant, I'm at work)

[aaronkyle86]

It's good to know I'm not a COMPLETE wanker.
Well, at least I don't think I am ...

[Marc the Smark]

One Lame Gunn, if you or anyone else has not received the proper training, then doing the moves you do can also be dangerous. I don't understand the obsession with this stuff. Where does it come from? I do think ECW had something to do with it (face it - that wasn't wrestling), but not all the blame can be placed on them. People know it's dangerous, and they do it anyway. Do they have some sort of death wish? They must, or maybe their wires aren't connected. Heh. Actually, I can't really blame people for doing these kinds of things. They're a victim of stupidity.

[Kane Knight]

Originally Posted by aaronkyle86 It's good to know I'm not a COMPLETE wanker. Well, at least I don't think I am ...

Naw. only a partial wanker.

But seriously, it works. If you're getting training as a professional, it's a little different.

Originally Posted by PureHatred That example right there is the huge exception to the rule. Most "backyard'ers" don't wrestle in a ring, don't have any training, and aren't trying to put together actual matches. I'd still say you need to be deadly careful about doing many moves before you're properly trained, but at least you're not wrestling on stacked up mattresses and hitting each other in the face with fluorescent light bulbs.

lmao at light bulbs. But it's funny, cause I used to do this kind of stuff in my backyard when I was like 12-14. But it wasn't anything crazy like what you see on TV. Just some kids doing figure fours and sharpshooters to each other. Oh yeah, and axe handle drops off the deck. It was pretty fun.

[Kane Knight]

Originally Posted by Red Hot Scott One Lame Gunn, if you or anyone else has not received the proper training, then doing the moves you do can also be dangerous. I don't understand the obsession with this stuff. Where does it come from? I do think ECW had something to do with it, but not all the blame can be placed on them. People know it's dangerous, and they do it anyway. Do they have some sort of death wish? They must, or maybe their wires aren't connected.

Mick Foley's a large part of it too. Remember all those times WWF/E showed Foley doing his jump off the roof? They glorified some really stupid shit. Shit even Foley himself thinks was stupid.

They've played it up with Jeff Hardy and Shane O'Mac, a couple of people who are only good as bump machines.

ECW may have something to do with it as well, but ECW hasn't been around as long as Backyard wrestling in general, and the WWF/E's done plenty to make stupid shit look cool.

[Marc the Smark]

Originally Posted by Kane Knight But seriously, it works. If you're getting training as a professional, it's a little different.

"A little," yes. But even then, if the trainer isn't present, and someone just starting off tries this stuff on his own, that's still a big risk. Still, there are different degrees of danger, and nothing is worse (wrestling-wise) than the hardcore backyard wrestling.

[Marc the Smark]

Originally Posted by Kane Knight Mick Foley's a large part of it too. Remember all those times WWF/E showed Foley doing his jump off the roof? They glorified some really stupid shit. Shit even Foley himself thinks was stupid. They've played it up with Jeff Hardy and Shane O'Mac, a couple of people who are only good as bump machines. ECW may have something to do with it as well, but ECW hasn't been around as long as Backyard wrestling in general, and the WWF/E's done plenty to make stupid shit look cool.

Yes, the WWE has allowed some pretty stupid things, and Foley was a moron for pulling that kinda shit. But ECW was worse.

[HankScorpio]

RHS, I've been training scince I was about 17 with a Canadian Friend of mine, we're pretty good amatures, I personally think that the Extreme Backyard thing is pointless dangerous and downright stupid. but I can also see what you are saying by the moves we do can be dangerous, ALL wrestling can be dangerous tho, I'm not argueing with you, and I'm certainly not sticking up for these backyard wrestling fools

[Longshot]

One thing you dont understand is that until these kids are 18 the parents should have control over their lives...its the job of a parent. It they disapprove about something like BYW then they should find the right messures to stop their kids from doing it. So what you say about its their choice is total bullshit. If one of these kids gets seriously hurt who are they going to go to 1st? their parents and then what are all the doctors and everyone else going to say? Why didnt the parents prevent this before it happened.

[Splaya]

Fortunately I will be the one to say it. Although he would have been recognized by ECW and probably Japan, Backyard Wrestling created the hardcore legend, Mick Foley.