 In the UK, the only current wrestling federation that gets TV exposure is the all-conquering WWE. Since it picked clean the carcasses of WCW and ECW a few years ago, the WWE has survived in a sports entertainment vacuum, content to push a procession of lacklustre matches onto our screens. Disillusioned with what's on offer I've voted with my remote, but bar downloading NWA-TNA matches off the internet, what else is out there for the frustrated wrestling fan?
Well, when I was growing up and my parents told me to go out and make my own entertainment, I generally resorted to rudimentary projectile weapons and occasional dabbling with pyromania. In the US, there's a growing army of kids who are choosing to emulate their WWE heroes by recreating their favourite grappling action on their own turf, dirt, roofs and trampolines. Of course, without any of the training or facilities of the pros (despite what this DVD's Jackass-style disclaimer might have you believe) and a tenuous understanding of the line between fake and real, the scenes of The Best Of Backyard Wrestling 2 are a lot nastier, bloodier and a great deal more extreme than anything that's likely to find its way past the UK's TV censors.
With an spectacular disregard for screening complete matches, The Best Of Backyard Wrestling 2 is a seemingly endless parade of vicious spots involving barbed wire, chairs, portable toilets and rings sometimes made up of nothing more than a couple of pieces of plywood on a mattress. The protagonists are equally as unlikely - sporting aliases like Masked Mike Jackson and Lawn Boy - and the camerawork makes The Blair Witch Project look like The Matrix. If this sounds like a disaster; well that's because it is. But like any good disaster it's very difficult to pull your eyes away, and particularly on segments like Chaos and Karnage's Hardcore Hell - complete with fluorescent tubes, thumb tacks and a lot of gore - it is actually quite a spectacle.
It ain't Summerslam - hell, it ain't even Halloween Havoc - but if you're looking for an alternative to the WWE's sanitised tedium then you're not going to find anything more hardcore than The Best Of Backyard Wrestling 2. :: Rowan Shaeffer |
