The Bone Street Krew

[CM Steel]

Back in the new generation era of the then-WWF in the 1990's. The top guys in the federation ran with their own circle of friends. Guys like Shawn Michaels ran with the Clique, Bret Hart ran with his boys from the old Stampede wrestling, and the Undertaker ran with his BONE STREET KREW. Alot of wrestling fans don't remember the Bone Street Krew like how this remember the Clique or the Stampede boys. They were yet another group of wrestlers who hung out backstage before and after a WWF show. The group was led by the Undertaker himself. Which included members: Yokozuna, Savio Vega, Brian Adams, Bryan Clark, the Godwins, the Godfather, Rikishi, and the late Paul Bearer.

The Undertaker still has the Bone Street Krew (BSK) logo tattooed on the bottom of his chest. Sure there were alot of other backstage groups in wrestling. But the Bone Street Krew is the most underrated. Most of those guys I had named aren't even living anymore. But for those who can remenber that far in WWF/E history? Which member(s) of the BSK put on the best matches in the WWF/E with and against one other?

 

[P. Nut Butters]

Well, I think the majority of these guys were going through perhaps one of the more 'un-flattering' patches in their careers at this point.

However, Yoko is one of the greatest big men of all time and led the way for what a guy like Rikishi would later become. Rikishi and Godfather had some bad moments during that time (Fatu's "Clean it Up" gimmick and his absolute borefest as the Sultan with Rocky at WM13); but later they found their rhythm with their more successful characters. Undertaker was a bonafide legend (even back then) and he was only about 5 years into that character.

He had a feud with Mankind that was pretty cool in it's dramatic elements mostly outside the ring, but there were a few snoozer moments like the Boiler Room Brawl and their match at Survivor Series '96... and that's around the time they had Undertaker go up against that Executioner guy. So, Undertaker wasn't having the matches of his life then. 'Taker did have some pretty decent matches with Kama though. I actually liked Kama's Supreme Fighting Machine gimmick. It an MMA-esque gimmick well before it's time.

I can't really remember too much about the tag division back then aside from the Smoking Gunns, Owen & Davey, Furnace and LaFone and the Godwinns. The Godwinns gimmick was definitely over (or at least I remember it being) what with the Slop Drop and the bucket of fluids that may or may not have been bodily excretions. They got the job done in the ring, but not too much stands out about their team except for the incident where one of the broke their neck.

I really liked the DOA gimmick. It was much better for Crush than wearing the fluro-orange attire that made him stick out like a sore thumb. One of the highlights of the New Generation was right as it was bleeding into the Attitude Era, with the 3-Faction war between the Nation, DOA and Savio's group. The gang warfare atmosphere certainly added to the matches and altercations.

Savio Vega is probably my pick. He seemed to have the most consistant matches and had a pretty cool debut. It was a bit of a shame to see what happened to him into 1997. In no way do I think he was something of pure greatness, but he was the most consistant of the BSK at that time.

Out of all the backstage crews that you mentioned I think BSK were the worst-off. But I guess it was a learning curve, as many of the guys would ultimately shine in their gimmicks following this era.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

The Undertaker still has the Bone Street Krew (BSK) logo tattooed on the bottom of his chest.

Well, they are permanent. And they call it a stomach. Pretty sure the majorit are still alive as well.

Undertaker & Yokozuna put on some matches together that weren't as awful as most Undertaker matches from that era.

The fact that, supposedly, mature males made their own backstage crew, came up with a name and even had tattoos with that name, makes me respect The Undertaker a little bit less.

 

[Blondedevil]

Ron Simmons was part of it also. Is actually a famous photo with members of the BSK and the clique from 95-96.
I loved that era and Undertaker does not get enough credit for his role from 92-97 he kept WWF afloat . The crowd just doesnt generate the same pops as they did in that era and the attitude era.
As for matches the yoko taker feud was awesome for it's time loved takers promos

 

[Matty~!]

The BSK were never about wrestling, it's just that they had wrestling in common, that's the way I have always heard them referred to. So it was a very different thing from The Clique where they used position and influence to promote themselves and detract from others.

 

[Makaveli31]

I remember hearing either Nash or Hall saying they prided themselves on having the toughest locker room in professional wrestling. The "Shark Tank" they called it. Endless ribbing. It was almost like a prison mentality where if you didn't "clique up" with a group you were a prime target. Guys like Chris Candido, Shane Douglas, Bryan Clark (he wasn't in BSK) Jean-Pierre Lafitte were prime examples.

 

[Doctor Awesome]

One thing is for sure; BSK were the guys that nobody pissed off backstage. The vast majority of them were legit bad asses and they all had the common bond of loving wrestling. Most of them were not top guys but were the meat and potatoes of just about any card. During that period of '94-'98 the ones that stood out most for me were; Taker, Savio Vega and Yoko. I loved watching Owen and Yoko as a tag team, Vega had a nice initial push helping get Austin over and a near IC title win over Goldust (they reversed the call, I believe) and of course Taker w/guys like Bret, Vader, Shawn and Sid.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

You have to bear in mind that BSK was a bit different in tone to the other groups in that it was more about guys with similar ideals and attitudes coming together rather than trying to take over the business or hanging around old buddies. There wasn't an agenda, in fact it was more a creed.

They all got tattoos for a start, which to my knowledge the other groups didn't do and says it's more than buddies looking out for each other... To get something tatted like that is serious. While guys like Brian Lee were among Taker's closest friends (his best man no less) the rest were either guys he knew from USWA or WCW like Charles Wright and Rikishi or guys who came into the E and were somewhat similar to Taker in how they looked at the business and notably also in size a lot of the time. It's kinda like how the Lord of The Rings cast in the Fellowship all got a tat... it's brotherhood.

Of the group probably Savio was the physically smallest but that was not an issue... the rest were all "big, tough, respected guys" who put the business first but knew Taker was "the daddy" so to speak and knew their roles.

They nearly all made their best money working with him in some form and back then as now Taker was calling his spots on who he worked with in a way Shawn couldn't, remember how he was gonna work with Hunter and Kid exclusively when he had the belt? Nah... Taker saw to it Vader got his fair crack, while not one of the crew he was someone Taker respected. Same for Foley.

Someone like Kama made more out of that feud with Taker in 95 than he did as his whole run until the Godfather merch took off. He was there in 91 as Shango remember...

The group likely became more prominent in 96 as a response to 2 things, the Kliq's disbanding/weakening when Nash and Hall went to WCW and Taker's injury at the hands of Mabel.

Until that time Taker was exclusively booked to face giants as an attraction, it was only once that orbital got broken that Vince decided to change tacks with Taker and start putting him into matches with Shawn, Bret and the like.

It's arguable at this time was when he really "learned to wrestle", Taker's two talents were being able to soak up the experience in that years period (cos he was not the revered worker at that point, by 97 he was 10 times better than in 95... and getting guys on side to help his cause and made sure Shawn and Bret did things "the right way" when it came to Taker. It would have been easy for Shawn to pull the Hogan match on Taker in 96/97... or Bret to refuse to lose to him as even without Nash and Hall, Shawn was still a ballache to deal with.

Having diverse guys like Yoko, Savio, Simmons and Crush in your corner will counter any shenanigans Shawn or Bret might try and play as these were their bread and butter guys. They might work Taker once on PPV but the house shows they'd be working guys from the BSK.

Shawn and Hunter would never try f***ing with Taker with those guys in his corner cos they knew they would get hurt, Yoko could drop that leg like a feather or not... Simmons could dismantle them in a second with just a kick (as he did to Ahmed for dissing him) and Juan Rivera was an MMA maestro, not pushed but a hard bastard who could genuinely have hurt them.


So Taker's 2nd great talent was able to draw people to him even in the early stages backstage and by the mid 90's he was the "locker room leader" in the way the Kliq or Bret could never be and while for a period of one year the Kliq ruled the roost, once Nash and Hall were gone the BSK were the true guys in charge... put it this way when the screwjob happened the ONLY guy's reaction Vince was truly worried about was Taker's... had that gone south, Vince might not be where he is today.

 

[SinCityBlitz]

Like others have said they were a bunch of guys who looked out for each other. Because in the back you had Bret and friends vs the Kliq. Most guys didn't want to be with either faction so they had their own. No one screwed with the BSK. That was the point of it. Taker and company made sure that guys got their fair share.

Well, they are permanent. And they call it a stomach. Pretty sure the majorit are still alive as well.

Undertaker & Yokozuna put on some matches together that weren't as awful as most Undertaker matches from that era.

The fact that, supposedly, mature males made their own backstage crew, came up with a name and even had tattoos with that name, makes me respect The Undertaker a little bit less.

First of all tattoos are not permanent. Second, I am sure somewhere Mark is crying because you lost respect for him.

 

[justtxyank]

Tell Bryan Clark that being part of BSK meant you got your fair share.

Also, I don't think Taker has anything to do with why Vince pushed his big ticket free agent signing into a title feud. Vader got the monster push from the start with the intention of putting over Shawn Michaels as a legit champ.

Some of the Taker legend is severely overrated.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

It was never about getting share...or furthering careers... that's the point.

If someone like Bryan Clarke didn't get pushed it wasn't anything to do with Taker or BSK... It was Vince giving him a crappy character. Adam Bomb WAS seriously considered for the IC title at one point after his face turn, but at the time he wasn't the right guy. just as Phatu wasn't right but the Sultan was.

Vader got a "monster push" but it was very quickly stalled out once Shawn got the belt, he didn't WANT to work Vader and certainly didn't want to drop to him (which is why he dropped to Sid). Taker went to bat for Vader quite famously and as I understand it sold Vince on the idea that he'd signed a bigger monster than Taker was when he came in and he couldn't waste him by not using him at Summerslam for the title. Shawn managed to convince him to go with Sid instead, but perhaps the most ironic thing is Triple H's new catchphrase was basically BSK's creed, "Best for Business".

Some of the Taker legend IS overrated... he was a mediocre worker until 1996, even a bad one in some ways but he was able to learn quickly once he got matches with the better guys. That more than anything is where the aura comes from... Many guys would have sat on what they had for a couple more years and jumped to WCW... Taker didn't and that's why he's respected so much... not cos he is "perfect" but he behaved right, looked after his crew AND the locker room in general so they could ALL make the most money.

 

[shalliin]

It was never about getting share...or furthering careers... that's the point.

If someone like Bryan Clarke didn't get pushed it wasn't anything to do with Taker or BSK... It was Vince giving him a crappy character. Adam Bomb WAS seriously considered for the IC title at one point after his face turn, but at the time he wasn't the right guy. just as Phatu wasn't right but the Sultan was.

Vader got a "monster push" but it was very quickly stalled out once Shawn got the belt, he didn't WANT to work Vader and certainly didn't want to drop to him (which is why he dropped to Sid). Taker went to bat for Vader quite famously and as I understand it sold Vince on the idea that he'd signed a bigger monster than Taker was when he came in and he couldn't waste him by not using him at Summerslam for the title. Shawn managed to convince him to go with Sid instead, but perhaps the most ironic thing is Triple H's new catchphrase was basically BSK's creed, "Best for Business".

Some of the Taker legend IS overrated... he was a mediocre worker until 1996, even a bad one in some ways but he was able to learn quickly once he got matches with the better guys. That more than anything is where the aura comes from... Many guys would have sat on what they had for a couple more years and jumped to WCW... Taker didn't and that's why he's respected so much... not cos he is "perfect" but he behaved right, looked after his crew AND the locker room in general so they could ALL make the most money.

Part of the issue with Taker's working prior to 96 was not that he was mediocre himself, but that he was paired with a lot of guys simply for size matching rather then skill matching. He was forced also by his character to limit his in ring moveset and reactions to portray the 'undead' inhuman version of the DeadMan gimmick until around the 96/97 and the beginning of the attitude era when they started backing off the zombie like gimmick for some thing still evil and dark but more human and 'realistic'. He did grow into the role as he was a fairly young man when becoming Undertaker in the first place and still learning the business, but he had some years under his belt in various territories and WCW/NWA. He became better as he went, but some of his best work was in 93/94/95 and he built on that with the influx of guys like Foley, Rock, Austin to take some of the pressure off him and Bret to carry the load as by then it was clear Shawn was only in it for himself and didn't care about the business or the rest of the guys. Sure when he came back, he was a changed man but that early stretch from around 92 to when he left, Shawn was an ass to everyone not in his click and they ran roughshod over any one they could. Taker held the rest of the locker room together as Shawn and Bret started their measuring contests to see who was the bigger butt monkey.