Backyard wrestling has received a great deal of attention over the past year, attention that many backyard wrestlers will tell you was unwanted.
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Backyard wrestling isn't what it used to be, but is it any safer? |
Last summer Eidos released "Backyard Wrestling: Don't Try This At Home" for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Eidos' own description of the game in its promotions describes how players can "punish [their] opponent in highly interactive sprawling environments implementing instruments of pain like thumbtacks, barbed wire, light bulbs, stop signs, baseball bats, tables, fire . . . as well as the environment itself."
Then in the fall, Paul Hough's documentary, "The Backyard," hit theaters in limited release. The film shows kids from around the United States and England beating each other with broken glass, barbed wire, thumbtacks, and fire. One wrestler in the film even compares the rush he gets from backyard wrestling to gay-bashing.
There's definitely a backyard wrestling stereotype, but just like that of the gap-toothed, illiterate, country redneck WWE fan, it's not entirely accurate. So what is backyard wrestling really all about for the majority of federations that don't focus on shock value? Why do these kids do what they do, and how dangerous is it really?
Breaking the mold
The first thing many backyard wrestlers will tell you is that their federation isn't like the minority that get all the press. "I don
