Did you get to choose who you worked with and honestly was there any injuries that occured during your time there?
You could give suggestions to creative if you had any good ideas obviously, but ultimately it was more you were told who you were working with. I never had any problems working with anybody or anybody refusing to work with me.
I was told by some people that I worked with that "before they wrestled me, they were nervous, because people told them I was really stiff." but after they wrestled me, they never had a problem with wrestling against me again. While a lot of the spots I was involved in were dangerous, I was never sloppy or careless with somebody. For the bigger things, you'd obviously go over them with the person before the match, and anyone could refuse a spot if they didn't want to do it. Things like me getting power bombed onto a barbed wire chair, laid over 2 other chairs; that was my idea that I thought of about a week before the match and planned out how it would go down.
There was a certain level trust with most of the people. We weren't all friends, but nobody wanted to see anybody else get hurt or anything.
As far as injuries go, there weren't any serious ones (broken bones, or anything) that I can think of that resulted from anything in matches. A stiff lariat knocked a guy out cold once. Otherwise not much other than expected bruises and cuts really.
Thats the other thing that I just dont understand, is why do kids need to use weapons at all? Seriously it just doesnt make any sense to me at all, and I think there is a big difference from trying to tell a story and organised brutality. What is the thought process as to what weapons are used and what arent? Was there anything that was suggested and decided against simply because it went to far? Also were there any moves that were not allowed to be used?
The first two years of FVWA, there was an actual hardcore division besides everything you saw in my video (I was never in the hardcore division; I was always in the world title picture pretty much). The third year of FVWA which only lasted about a half a year, actually saw an end to the hardcore division as it was seen by some as going to far. Like this
video clip, and this
video clip. Those clips are from the actual hardcore division from the final show of the 2004 year in a death match battle royal pretty much. (Instead of the ring, they were surrounded in barbed wire, all weapons legal.)
No weapons were outlawed (until the 3rd year of fvwa), no moves were ever outlawed. If someone wanted to try a new move, and someone was willing to take it, the move was generally put into use.
(The story is a local indy fed actually got the police to shut us down. That fed proceeded to take pretty much anyone that was willing to go pro and work their shows.)
What sort of training was involved? and who decided what things needed to be taught? Obviously falling correctly would be needed but do you think that the training was modified for specific individuals, I mean there is no point trying to teach a 5'5 150 pound guy how to powerbomb is there?
All the basics were taught (bumping, locking up, running the ropes, suplexes, body slams, etc...). If you had a question for someone you could ask it and most likely have them show you how to do something. A 5'5 150 pound guy wouldn't maybe be shown how to powerbomb a guy, but it was definitely good for a person that size to know how to take a powerbomb.
There's a very general rule of thumb when taking bumps that will keep you alright as long as you follow it.
A) If you're landing on your back, keep your chin tucked.
B) If you're landing on your stomach or your face, don't keep your chin tucked.
This is probably the thing that I am the most intrigued about, the booking side of things. Were you involved in booking at all? and could you possibly tell us one storyline your character was involved in and what was a good storyline that featured someone else during your time with your fed?
I was friends with the bookers so I'd talk to them from time to time about the directions of my character, or plans they have for other people, but I was never involved in deciding what happened.
There was actually a lot of drama that I was completely oblivious to until actually recently that involved some people refusing to job to other people which kind of completely blew my mind. I mean, I always just saw it as backyard wrestling, and nothing more. Granted I was booked to win most of my matches, and had various title reigns; if I was booked to lose, and never had a title reign, I wouldn't have cared.
My favorite thing to do was play heel. I absolutely hated playing a face. There was an ongoing storyline that actually involved some real life elements from my time in the fed. During the first year of FVWA I was aligned with 2 other people in a stable known as the "Holy Trinity". We were your typical heel stable pretty much, but we were also an elite stable. The world title most often was around one of our waists and the mid-valley title (the feds IC title pretty much) was probably around one of our waists too.
Well one of those people in that heel group was one of my best friends. Long story short, he ended up dating one of my ex-girlfriends, and I got really pissed off about it. We had a falling out in real life. I quit wrestling for a couple months.
Once I was over everything that happened I returned. I had a surprise return (no one besides a few people knew I was coming back and wrestling, so when my music hit it was a legit surprise for everyone there), and I came in as a face.
I had a feud with my former best friend and when we had our matches, we'd shit talk each other and mention things that happened in real life, so a lot of the crowd who was aware of the whole girl situation, didn't know if we legit hated each other or if it was a work.
About a month later, I faced my friend at our biggest show of the year Wrestleriot (our wrestlemania so to speak) and I beat him for the world title (this was actually the first match that I took a barbed wire bump). Being world champ was actually probably my least favorite time in the fed because I was a face and I hated it.
A few months later I lost the belt at the last show of the year, Halloween Scream, in a 3 way, 30 minute Iron Man Match. (the match you see in the video with the spanish fly/flux capacitor spot.)
The next year wrestling resumed in the spring, and after a month or so, I ran in during a holy trinity match, and everyone thought I was going to attack my friend, but instead I hit his opponent with my finisher onto a steel chair (the move from the video which is like a sitout dominator) making a final heel turn back to the group. The "band was back together" so to speak.
I mean I could go more into detail in all of that, but I'm pretty burnt out on typing right now. haha.
-Brad
