Let’s just be frank about it. 2020 sucked for independent wrestling. Well, 2020 sucked for a lot of things. But it definitely sucked for independent wrestling.
With venues shut down and crowds unable to gather, independent wrestling was effectively shut down for a huge chunk of 2020. Wrestlers were left without wages and with nowhere to perform. Fans were left with little to no independent wrestling content.
As the pandemic progressed, science began to tell us more about the Covid-19 virus and what type of activities could be considered reasonably safe. Rather than gathering indoors, guidance suggested that outdoor environments were much safer for people to get together in. With this discovery, some of the bigger independent wrestling promotions in the United States, depending on the state they were based in and the restrictions in place, were able to begin holding outdoor shows throughout the summer months of 2020.
However, many restrictions for gathering and putting on performances remained in place in Canada throughout the summer of 2020. But one Canadian independent wrestler saw the news of the relative safety of performing outdoors as a big opportunity. Vaughn Vertigo, a Toronto based but world travelled indie wrestler, saw the relative safety of the outdoors as an opportunity to return to a past wrestling endeavor that he looks back to fondly as perhaps the most fun time of his life. Vaughn decided that in the summer of 2020, it was time to return to the backyard.
Geoff Hardee (pronounced as it’s spelled, not like Jeff) falls from atop a ladder. Hardy is played by Backyard Pro founder Vaughn Vertigo
Backyard wrestling in and of itself is a very controversial topic. It’s something old school wrestling purists hate with a passion. But to a generation of younger wrestlers and fans that grew up through the Attitude Era and the rise of hardcore wrestling and later, backyard wrestling holds a special, nostalgic place in their hearts. Many of these wrestlers and fans grew up participating in backyard wrestling themselves.
Recently, promotions like Game Changer Wrestling have capitalized on the love and nostalgia that people feel for backyard wrestling and translated it into successful pay per view events. But instead of taking on the mostly serious approach to wrestling in the backyard that GCW did with their successful backyard wresting pay per views, Vaughn had a different idea for what would become Backyard Pro.
The hardcore wrestling spots that have become synonymous with backyard wrestling are still there in Backyard Pro but they’re executed much better than what you’re used to seeing in the yard. Here, Jay Wheeler (played by Gabriel Fuerza) , an aspiring backyard wrestler, piledrives his opponent and hero Mark Wheeler (played by actual pro wrestler Mark Wheeler) through a door.
Rather than fully focus on the violent, hardcore aesthetic that has been largely associated with backyard wrestling in the past, Backyard Pro would instead focus on the fun and nostalgic side of backyard wrestling. That’s not to say that the wrestling action itself in Backyard Pro is far removed from what you would expect when watching a backyard wrestling tape. All of the famous backyard wrestling spots are there. Foreign objects, falling off of ladders, jumping from roofs and putting opponents through whatever is laying around. The main difference between the wrestlers in Backyard Pro performing these spots and the untrained kids that do them is that the wrestlers in Backyard Pro are some of Canada’s best trained independent wrestlers. So while a majority of the show is tongue in cheek fun, in between the jokes, the backyard wrestling and associated high spots and stunts are actually done well. And safely.
There’s that word again. Safe. That’s no coincidence. The safety of the wrestlers throughout recording is something that Backyard Pro takes seriously. Instead of gathering all of the wrestlers together in one place and recording content, matches and segments are recorded in small groups throughout Ontario. These groups would usually consist of two wrestlers, a referee and a camera operator. The commentary would be provided during editing and the commentators themselves would be played on screen by office chairs. Close contact would be limited to the actual wrestling itself.
“The Forgotten Property Brother” Alex Scott (played by Alessandro Del Bruno) hits that backyard wrestling classic, the roof dive, on “The First Openly Straight Wrestler” Richard Tasty (Scotty O'Shea) and Jimmy Buffet (Steve Brown).
While Ontario’s independent wrestlers would now have a place to safely perform, there were still some things to sort out. Without a crowd able to attend events, the wrestlers would be performing for free, sometimes even paying to perform when travel was involved. In order to compensate wrestlers for their matches and travel, Backyard Pro was forced to adapt to the circumstances that the Covid-19 pandemic had forced on them.
In order to adapt to these circumstances, Backyard Pro looked to crowd funding. The crowd funding itself would be voluntary for the fans. Meaning, you wouldn’t need to pay to watch the Backyard Pro shows. They would all be available for free to watch on YouTube. But the talent would depend on funds raised through Go Fund Me in order to be paid for their work and reimbursed for their travel.
A return to the backyard would not be complete without an appearance by Rob Banks, world famous backyard wrestling legend.
Thus far, crowd funding has proven to be very successful for Backyard Pro. In fact, they have been able to produce multiple seasons worth of content throughout the pandemic that has been entirely fan funded. While we can’t confirm for sure that Backyard Pro is the only promotion to ever be entirely fan funded, it is surely at least one of a small number of wrestling promotions to do so.
Backyard Pro is currently in the process of putting together their third season. The fundraising drive has begun for the new season of Backyard Pro as well. You can donate to the wrestlers by clicking the Donate Now button on the GoFundMe link below.
Overall, Backyard Pro is a ton of fun. The mixture of comedy, nostalgia and well-executed backyard wrestling in between the jokes creates highly entertaining episodes of wrestling television that flies by. On top of that, seeing some of Canada’s top talent like Ethan Page, RJ City, Evil Uno, Josh Alexander and Tyson Dux just to name a few make entertaining appearances and cameos drives the entertainment value up. Being able to see some of Canada’s top indie talent like Alexia Nicole, Gabriel Fuerza, Mark Wheeler, Shane Sabre, Psycho Mike, Vaughn Vertigo, Stratos Fear, Steve Brown, Scotty O’Shea, Alessandro Del Bruno, and Space Monkey playing over the top versions of themselves or entirely new characters altogether just adds to the fun.
Do yourself a favor and head over to Backyard Pro’s YouTube page and also, please consider donating to their season three talent fund!