Excerpt from Josh Kohlrieser aka Chris Watkins, JK, Etc.
I am not sure what has made me want to do this, maybe Eric starting his own book of memories or the fact that I just got done watching something that was a part of history both personally and even nationally. Before backyard wrestling became a craze, I can remember the days when "good wrestling" was on TV. Eric had just got a giant trampoline and both of us were into wrestling. So one day I was over Eric's and he had the idea to wrestle on the trampoline. Now the people that knew me at this time know I did whatever Eric did, anything we did was usually his idea.
We start doing what we thought was wrestling. It was terrible, nothing but back bodydrops. We enjoyed it, but I must say it was just a means of "playing" back then. You know, when you’re young you go to your friends to play, period. Well, the days would pass and eventually we'd be getting close to high school. Eric moved to Shawnee, and this is really when the shit starting hitting the fan.
Eric started meeting new friends, and we were slowly learning a wrestling move here and there, but nothing too risky (Grant it, we didn't invent moves but did whatever Eric saw on TV and thought was cool). At this point we then decided to try and start our own trampoline wrestling federation, the JWWF (Junior World Wrestling Federation, a WWF rip-off). It was fun, but to me still a means of passing time. Then came in the originator of original, Pete Childs.
Pete too loved wrestling, and wrestled in another backyard fed (This was in '98, before the craze hit.) But with Pete things were different; he wanted us to think of new moves, storylines, and characters. This is when the "passing of time" by wrestling, started to change. To me it was becoming an addiction. All week the only thing I could think of was “are we going to wrestle?”!
We had to plan it just right because Eric's dad, Spark, wasn't too fond of our wrestling (Spark eventually came around, helping us with sound for one of our "big shows.") So the plans started, we came up with idea's for a website, new characters, and a new name for the federation, the SIW (Sudden Impact Wrestling, Eric wanted to call it the WWA, sorry Eric.) But with all the new things going down, we were still missing a crucial piece of the puzzle. We were wrestling pretty much every other Friday, Eric, Pete, David, I, and the occasional forgotten members of the JWWF/SIW. And then it happened, and the final piece fell into place.
Eric called me and told me we were going to have an event at one of his new friend’s, and his friend was going to wrestle with us. Now I wasn't too sure, because we had a lot of "wannabe's" (can I call them that, because I am quite sure I fall in the same category) and they just didn't cut it. Don't get me wrong we weren't pros’, but we had a certain pride about our wrestling. It was original, and we did it for the love of the sport.
So we arrive at Jeremy Tollivers', and the event began. Mind you I haven't seen JT wrestle, but for some reason I was overly pumped. Before I knew it JT and Eric were having a turbulent (in the SIW, hardcore = turbulent) match, a match that would set the standard for the next seven years. Not only was there good wrestling in the ring, but outside as well. And then it happened. JT did a hurricanranna, and then a moonsault!
This is when wrestling truly changed for me, being a part of this made the "real world" seem nonexistent. It was as if the world could be falling apart around me, but my new addiction, my "high,” kept me frozen in time. I can still remember this part of the event in '99 as if I was standing there and watching JT doing his moonsault over and over again. Hell, I can even remember the exact spot I stood in when it happened. This is when the JWWF truly became the SIW.
Now was the time where Friday nights was devoted entirely to wrestling. Every Friday night during the summer months we were wrestling. It wasn’t even talked about, it was just known that Friday night (weather permitting) the SIW was putting on a show. This was during a time when, well, we could easily get out of work by simply calling up and saying “I am not going to be able to make it in tonight.” This is something all of us that were truly part of the SIW did more than once during the summer months in high school.
As I was saying before, Jeremy Tolliver left an impact, and started the true beginning of the SIW. JT was really quiet, but he didn’t have to verbally speak because his moves did the talking for him. Not only did JT get the SIW off on the right foot, but he did things that would become synonymous with the SIW. The first and most important thing was the wrestling.
Our wrestling skills began to improve with the addition of JT, and it began to show through in our matches. But the other thing that is a headstone is the Tolliver smile. I know it sounds weird, (and to JT defense we all did it every once in awhile) even though JT was somewhat shy he loved to smile. Now don’t get me wrong, we did some funny shit during the times of the SIW.
Ranging from the Showstoppers having Scatman John wrestle and lose to an Ultimate Warrior wrestling buddy, Player J and Little Bobby’s “cheddar fight,” to even Derek H. Derek (we thought it would be hilarious for a wrestlers first and last name to be the same, not to mention Derek H. Derek’s gimmick was a lawyer that would sue you if you touched him, a wrestling lawyer) we weren’t short in the comedy field. And probably considered the head of comedy, Tony “18" “Old School” “Trademark” Marquez.
I almost forgot another huge part of the comedy side of the SIW, Cranston and Kenneth Wards. The thing that makes these two so funny (besides the fact that there gay, I have nothing against gay people) was how these two came about. Eric created Kenneth Wards as, let’s say, a way to pay homage to his ex-girlfriends father. This guy was off the charts, apparently children were the devil (that’s my way of summing it up) and he wanted to do something about it. Now from what I hear Cranston is a guy who dated someone David used to date, if that makes sense. I guess in David’s way of getting back at this guy was to mock him, as Cranston. Needless to say this character was gay (went to Perdue University), and spoke in a high pitched voice. Kenneth Wards was his manager, and let’s just say Ken had a problem with screaming about the intermerging cultural shift. What a combination!
Things to us, were really starting to take off. I purchased a camcorder, which made it easier to tape the events. Yes, we recorded ourselves doing this. And it’s a good thing we did. It’s a way to look back and to remember the days of little worry, where we could look forward to having a good time every weekend. Around the end of ‘99 was when the backyard wrestling craze started to hit. This is when we became nationally (at least to ourselves and others who knew about it) known.
I was on The Best of Backyard Wrestling website, and noticed you could write to the producers. So I wrote in, not taking any credit from other feds I simply said we here at the SIW “took pride in our wrestling.” I wrote that we put more effort into “good wrestling, and weren’t out to severely hurt one another” which seemed like the common goal for other backyard feds. A few weeks past and I received a e-mail from the producer asking us to send in some video. WOW!
I never in my wildest dreams thought this would happen, grant it only a small amount of people knew about us, but now the rest of the world would know about the SIW (they just didn’t who we were). So I sent the tape in, and to my surprise I heard nothing back. Man, so close to national exposure. Oh well, we wrestle because we loved it not for fame.
We continued wrestling, time would pass and so would new ideas. We wrestled both at Tolliver Field (Jeremy’s) and the SIW Arena (Eric’s), memories were made at both. One day we were having an event at JT’s and he came running outside and said “dude, my brother was over his friends watching PPV and he thinks he saw us on it!” What?! Could it be true? I told the guys I sent in a tape but never heard back, now we were on a mission to find out if we were indeed on PPV. JT went to the mall a bought a copy of The Best of Backyard Wrestling VOL.3&4. He called me up and said “were on the tapes, which means we were on PPV!” That’s was our two minutes (literally) of fame.
So many great matches have come and gone but one thing will always remain the same, I will always LOVE my brothers. Pete, Eric, Jeremy, Keith, and of course David will always have a spot in my heart that can’t be filled by anyone or anything else. In life not to many people can say they were able to live out there dreams, I am fortunate enough to say I lived one of mine. With a cast of friends that was better than the rest, too them I say “THANK YOU!” Thank you for making dreams reality, and thank you for making life a little bit easier to live.
We wrestled our last event this year (Tremors 2005), and life without the SIW sucks! Life is now pure reality, with jobs that suck, and problems that seem unsolvable. We now have to deal with problems on our own, with no escape or way to vent (we have our wives and girlfriends to talk to, but sometimes talking just doesn’t cut it). To some of us it may not seem like a big deal, but to others it’s a life were not accustom to. I am use to being able to turn to my bro’s, to vent in the ring every Friday night. But now, JT lives in Texas, Eric works to much (never thought I would say that), Keith lives in Bluffton, David is rarely seen, and Pete and I are night owl’s now due to our fucking wonderful jobs requiring us to work 7pm to 7am.
I didn’t get too worked up the night of our last event, but as I am setting here writing this at 4 am in an empty house knowing JT is gone, Keith is gone, Eric is dead on his feet, Pete is chilling at home, and David, let’s just say I don’t know it made me start to reflect. I am watching SIW right now, and I feel as if I want to break down. It took five months for me to realize that the only thing that exist now is reality itself. Today and everyday is Groundhog’s Day, with no one to turn back the broken hands of time.
Fittingly, after the SIW was laid to rest, the trampoline which held most of our events fell apart never to be wrestled on again. No one will ever be able to top the tradition and excellence which we strived for every Friday night during the summers of ‘96 - ‘05. Sometimes I find myself sitting around waiting for my phone to ring, with Eric on the other end saying “you’re coming over to wrestle, right?!” If only my dream could become reality again. However, the one thing that will never change is the Impact the SIW had on our lives. The IMPACT will always remain!