Backyard Wrestling Volume 2 Event in San Francisco, CA

So...where do I begin? I should probably start off by saying THANK YOU to Eidos Interactive, and especially Kevin Gill for inviting me back out to review the sequel to last year's Backyard Wrestling: Don't Try This At Home. I'm going to try and relay what an amazing time that I had this year, along with telling of all of the vast improvements that the game itself has! Trust me, if there were too many glitches and oversights in the first one for your taste, you've gotta at least give Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes the Neighborhood ( BYWGame.com) a try, because this game is on a whole other level! I'll get to the improvements later in my review. First, let me explain how and what all went down. I knew that my long-time homie, TwiztidSlim, and I would be reaching the airport at around the same time. Besides the flavor of being able to test out the game and enjoy the surroundings of the Backyard Wrestling event, I would also be meeting TwiztidSlim in person for the first time. Very fresh. So I woke up at 3:30 AM on Tuesday, June 15th, and headed out to the airport to catch my 6:10 AM flight. I thought I had it bad, but TwiztidSlim had to drive 1-1/2 hours to the Chicago Midway airport from Niles, MI just to catch his 6:00 AM flight. But again, we knew it would be worth it. Twiztidslim took some scenery shots from the plane because...well...because it was a 3-1/2 hour flight. lol. So while this may be boring to some of you, here are a few pictures via 35,000 feet high:   [gallery link="file" columns="4" orderby="ID" include="18994, 18993, 18992, 18991, 18987, 18986, 18985, 18984"] We both landed on separate flights at around 9:15 AM San Francisco time. From there, me and Slim hit each other up on the phone, until we met up with our driver for the morning...whose name slips my mind: [gallery link="file" columns="4" orderby="ID" include="18996, 18995"] So we hopped in the Lincoln, and were on our way to the hotel. Keep in mind that by this time, it was like 9:30 AM at the latest. The Backyard Wrestling event didn't even start until 5:00 PM, so we had a lot of time to kill. Also keep in mind that I'm from the Dallas area..aka Big City...aka see weird shit all the time. TwiztidSlim on the other hand is from some small town (Niles, MI) where he's not used to seeing huge ass buildings everywhere, and all of these openly gay people walking the streets. [gallery link="file" columns="4" orderby="ID" include="19008, 18999"] I'm not supposed to tell you this, but secretly, TwiztidSlim was hoping that the event after-party was going to be held at that pic above....Nob Hill. ::shudders:: (J/k homie!) As you can see by the pics below, we did a little bit of site-seeing, held some doors open for old ladies, and stepped over a few drunken ninjas passed out on the sidewalks there: [gallery link="file" columns="4" orderby="ID" include="19011, 19010, 19009, 19007, 19005, 19004, 19003, 19002, 19001, 19000, 18998"] Then, we passed by possibly the most fresh name for a store...EVER: [gallery link="file" columns="4" orderby="ID" include="19012"]

That was at around 3 in the afternoon...and you wonder why the place is closed?? So after grabbing a bite to eat, and TS wasting some money on a homo light-up gun lighter, we went back to the hotel and relaxed until it was time to be picked up. (YES, we had 2 separate beds...asshole!) So, we made a little 2 block walk from the Juliana hotel, to the "Diva" hotel, where all of the press was staying. I'm talking people from IGN.com, G4, Hustler magazine, GamingHorizon.com, GameSpot.com, and more! From the hotel, the bus took us to this venue that was so out of the way from everything else that I don't know how people ordinarily find it! I'm serious....it was right in between a US Postal Service truck-loading warehouse, and some huge ass construction site with mounds of dirt and gravel everywhere. This is THE definition of "remote location". We got out of the bus, got our wrist bands, and it was time to start roaming. TwiztidSlim took a few pics of everything getting set up, of me filming, and of one badass Violent J cardboard standup (that I'll gladly pay you for...Kevin ::wink::)

[gallery link="file" columns="4" orderby="ID" include="19092, 19060, 19018, 19016, 19015, 19014, 19013"] After that, it was into the venue, and time for us to get hella schooled on all of the improvements since the first Backyard Wrestling game was released.

.:: START GAME REVIEW SEGMENT ::.

This portion of my review is for those of you who are clearly only interested in what the outcome of the game is. If you have not yet seen trailers, interviews, and screen shots from the game, your best bets are the official site: BYWGame.com, and This Link to GameSpot.com, which has a lot of exclusive interviews, reviews, screens, and more. Those are the spots that you go for the ultra-technical reviews. Now for the "I'm no gamer, and could give a fuck less about technics, but I know a fun video game" review, you're at the right place! First, Kevin Gill hit the stage (video of this coming soon!), and went through almost every aspect of the game that was criticized the first time...and said that they had ALL been addressed. This goes from anywhere to the "funny looking" graphics, to the "heat-seaking" objects, to the leaps and bounds of an improvement on the Create-a-wrestler, which Kevin called a "Band-aid" for the first edition of BYW. Here are a few shots of Kevin speaking to the press:

[gallery link="file" columns="4" orderby="ID" include="19020, 19019"] After Kevin was finished up, we went to some booths behind us where about 10 PS2 and Xbox consoles were set up and ready to play. Let me put up a few promo pics/screen shots of the game before I give you the lowdown: [gallery link="file" columns="4" orderby="ID" include="19108, 19107, 19106, 19105, 19104, 19103, 19021"] So is this game like every new rehashed WWE game that you've ever played? You know...same modes, same rings, just different players? Not on your life! While I only got to play in 2 of the 10 levels that will be available, they are even MORE interactive than the first game! The graphics, as you can see above, have vastly improved, while other elements have gone the same route. Of the Backyard, and the Mini Golf Course levels that we played, the mini golf one was my fave. I happened to pick out Shaggy 2 Dope, and when we were wrestling over the city-themed hole at the course, I couldn't help but think of the line:

"I'm stompin' through your city like a lil' Godzilla!..."

But that's besides the point. In the backyard level, when you throw your opponent into the RV, it actually shows the damage there, rather than shattering into a thousand pieces, which makes the gameplay that much more realistic. One of the highlights of my short time playing, was the fact that you could lay your opponent's head inside of the tool shed, take the 2 metal doors on either side, and continuously slam the shit out of their head. The controls stuck to their simple nature. You've got your standard punches and kicks, and a whole other array of grappling moves! We didn't get to figure out a whole lot of the special moves that are available in the game this time, but even the most simplistic one may make your rival rethink getting back up! The submission holds were easy to work too. Just tap the buttons if you are the one applying it for a longer and more severe hold...or if it's being applied to you, you better get your fingers moving to break it!

Obviously, the game was in it's preliminary testing phases. TwiztidSlim and I had to restart our machine a few times due to the background graphics blacking out, or one of our players just floating up into mid air. We later found it that it was just an issue with the burned copy of the demo we were playing, and not the game itself....but it was actually pretty funny to see Mad Man Pondo just float off into the clouds while we were playing! Most of the options for the create-a-wrestler on the PS2 version were still in the works, as far as I could tell. I went in and began to create a new wrestler, and there are a TON of new options for head, body type, thousands of customized colors, tattoos placed anywhere on your wrestler, and a lot of new wrestling attire as well. I wish I could say more about it, but the first wrestling match was about to start, and they had to start tearing down the PS2 and X Box stations.

So what's the final verdict of this game? It's really hard to pinpoint it with it being in it's prelim stages. These little glitches that I mentioned will NOT effect the gameplay once it's ready for release. Don't worry, the heat-seaking objects are history, you CAN re-use weapons (they don't just disappear), and the scenery is EXTREMELY interactive! Even if you thoroughly despised the first attempt at a BYW game, you have GOT to give this one a shot! Though Backyard Wrestling: There Goes the Neighborhood doesn't have the huge Akklaim budget, or big-name WWE wrestlers, this just might give the WWE game enterprise a run for it's money! The release date isn't set in stone yet, but it's looking like a Mid-September to Early October release!

.:: END GAME REVIEW SEGMENT ::.

I don't know how else to sell you on that game, but it's the shit. But let me get on with what took up a majority of our time at The Pound on that fine Tuesday night. We headed back outside so that they could get the venue set back up for the upcoming performances. So I busted out the video camera, while TwiztidSlim took care of the digital photos! The first thing we came across was both New Jack and Mad Man Pondo SCREAMING into a cell phone! I didn't know what the hell was going on, but you'll see everything that happened once we get the video posted! Here are a few shots we captured:

[gallery link="file" columns="4" orderby="ID" include="19026, 19025, 19024, 19023, 19022"]

Later, I found out that they were actually on the phone with a local radio station...saying not so radio-friendly things! I mean I didn't think it was possible to drop that many F-bombs and still make a coherent sentence! And guess who showed back up for the event this year? Remember the "ICP stands for 'Insane Cock Factory'" guy? You may know him better from the Backyard Wrestling videos as the Masked Horn Dog:

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He didn't comment on the matches this time though...which is a shame, because he was funny as hell last year! In fact, he actually was VERY drunk...and looked a little depressed. But if YOU were only known for walking around in green tights with a trashbag cape, a purple Zorro mask, and a feathered mullet, you may start to question your career moves too! heh.

Soon afterwards, the wrestling matches started. Now with these, I'm not going to sit here and give you a play-by-play, because the videos of every match will speak for themselves. But I do have quite a few pictures for you to check out! The special guest ring announcer was Andrew W.K., who was entertaining in the fact that you knew he didn't know what the hell he was talking about up there. TwiztidSlim made a comment that I thought was worth mentioning:

"It's funny, because that guy is so rich, but he dresses like he's homeless."

I couldn't have said it better myself! The first match was between El Drunko, and another guy named Sonjay Dutt. This bout was absolutely hilarious! It wasn't a "hardcore" match...those would come later in the night. If you don't know, "El Drunko" is a wrestler who comes to every match completely plastered, and wears a cheap Mexican wrestling mask. Between every move he would manage to pull off, he went and took a celebratory swig of beer. Yeah, sounds hilarious when I type it out...right? (Sarsasm...for those of you who are a little slow in the head). Just wait until you see the video!

The next matchup was between 2 unheard-of guys who called themselves the Psycho Surgeons, and those lovable Wicked Clowns, the Insane Clown Posse! If you haven't seen the full match already, you can do so by clicking Right Here! (Thanks to GameSpot.com!) TS took a ton of pictures of this match, so feast your eyes on 'em:

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It turns out that these 2 "Psycho Surgeons" were none other than 2 Tuff Tony and Corporal Robinson!! I caught up with 2TT after the event was over and he let me in on that little secret. After knowing that, and seeing the video of it all, it's actually hilarious because you know they were just bullshitting in the ring....yelling out "STABZ!" like retards. If you don't catch that part of it on the video link above, you will when ours becomes available for DL.

Next, it was time for a few mini-concerts! The bands T.S.O.L., Kool Keith, and Insane Clown Posse all got to play some short sets...no longer than 30 minutes a piece (and about 15-20 for ICP). The pictures didn't come out great at all, due to the stage lighting. But I guarantee that the video will MORE than make up for it! How hard is it to get a bootleg of a Psychopathic show? I mean even if you could get a video camera into the venue, who would want to risk ruining it from all the Faygo being thrown? This time, with the event being 95% press, there was no Faygo, whatsoever. So guess who was all up in their face with the mini-DV? Hell yeah! But for now, here are some sorta-stale pics to tide you over:

[gallery link="file" columns="4" orderby="ID" include="19059, 19058, 19057, 19056, 19055, 19054, 19053, 19052"]

ICP ended up playing "Dead Body Man", "Blaam!", "Chicken Huntin'", and "Homies"! Since "Homies" was the theme of the first game, the whole crowd was really feeling it! Well, except for one guy, who had his middle finger up for the entire time ICP was on stage. I tried to shoot around him, but I couldn't help but catch his stupid ass a couple of times on tape. After ICP finished up their set, it was time to head back outside for the main events of the evening! I wish I would have caught the names of all of the wrestlers, but I didn't...for the match directly following the concert anyways. Here are a couple of pics from that one:

[gallery link="file" columns="4" orderby="ID" include="19064, 19063, 19062, 19061"]

Don't let the lack of pictures take anything away from what these guys did to each other. The match was BRUTAL! After this one came the main event. It was time for SUPREME vs. Mad Man Pondo! First, Andrew W.K. and Kevin Gill came out to introduce the match:

[gallery link="file" columns="4" orderby="ID" include="19067, 19066, 19065"]

Pondo came out wielding his signature Stop Sign, while Supreme carried a big ass barbed-wire bat! Judging just by the 2 wrestlers involved, this was shaping up to be an incredible match! And just to add to the excitement, Pondo picked up the mic, and requested his 10,000 Thumbtacks:

[gallery link="file" columns="4" orderby="ID" include="19070"]

They started up with a simple, clean handshake, and then all hell broke loose! Here are a few pics of pure Pandemonium:

[gallery link="file" columns="4" orderby="ID" include="19077, 19076, 19075, 19074, 19073, 19072, 19071"]

After thousands of thumbtacks had been driven into their backs, heads, and balls, Pondo came out victorious. But his celebration sure didn't last long. New Jack's music came on, and he was up inside of the ring talkin' all kinds of shit!

[gallery link="file" columns="4" orderby="ID" include="19078, 19069, 19068"]

Then, without warning, he and Supreme both ganged up on Pondo, and threw him outside! One of the biggest highlights of the match, and the evening for that matter, was New Jack climbing to the top of a bus, taking a running start, and clobbering Pondo who was waiting on a table 10 feet below! That may not sound like a lot, but he made it look fresh!

[gallery link="file" columns="4" orderby="ID" include="19082, 19080, 19079"]

Finally, New Jack and Supreme ended up back in the ring, hyping themselves some more, showin' love to the entire crowd, and then inviting everybody up! (Some of the pics are taken from our perspective inside the ring...just in case you were wondering what the hell we were shooting for!)

[gallery link="file" columns="4" orderby="ID" include="19089, 19088, 19087, 19086, 19085, 19084, 19083"]

After the ring cleared out, and everything died down again, we were invited back inside for the last band, Hazen Street, to perform. I didn't go back in, because by that time, I wasn't really up for any more rock bands.

It was rolling around to about the 1 AM mark, and we had to be up by 3:45 AM that morning. So we got on the bus to take us back to the hotel, and every wrestler who had a match that night ended up on there! There was New Jack, Pondo, Supreme, those 2 guys whose names I can't remember, and then some reporters from Hustler magazine, and some gaming website. New Jack had us completely ROLLING the whole way back to the hotel! That guy is fuckin crazy! I mean he was talking from WAY outta left field about some of the 40 foot jumps he's made, how much he gets paid for doing the crazy shit he does, walking around his house with nothing on but a sock and a flip flop...and so much other random shit! He even tried bribing TwiztidSlim for some pain meds! I got it all on a voice recorder, but it wasn't exactly with his permission. lol. So I'm gonna email the MP3 to him once we get it made, and then we'll see if I can post it or not. Other than that, we got back in at around 1:30 and were hungry as hell. So we ordered a pizza that was gonna end up costing us 25 bucks. When it actually got there at around 2:45, it ended up being free. So we were full and had a whole hour to sleep! A taxi ride that morning from the hotel to the airport was 40 fuckin dollars...but now I'm just getting into some petty shit.

The fact remains solid: Eidos, Interactive knows how to throw one hell of a party! I mean the video game was set up for maybe 2 hours....MAX. The rest was eating, drinking, concerts, and wrestling. Now how fresh is that? So once again, much props to Eidos, Kevin Gill, Kjell Vistad, Sam Tehrani, and anyone else there who hooked us up PHAT once again! What up to all the Cali Juggalos/Juggalettes that I met while I was there, Tim Grube of GamingHorizon.com, all of the crazy fuckers who got into the ring and got sliced and diced for our entertainment, Tylene for looking so damn good (and her big ass boyfriend for not beating my ass for looking a little too long!), J and Shaggy themselves, all of the other bands that performed, TwiztidSlim for providing all of the pictures you see above, and anyone else out there who I forgot to mention! As with last year's review, I hope you found this one entertaining, and somewhat informative! Watch for some video of the event coming soon! Thanks to everyone who took the time to read all or part of this....and as always, I can be reached at [email protected]!

More Pics provided by [email protected]!

[gallery link="file" columns="4" orderby="ID" include="18983, 18982, 18981, 18980, 18979, 18978, 18977, 18976, 18975, 18974, 18973, 18972, 18971, 18970, 18969, 18968, 18967, 18966, 18965, 18964, 18963, 18962, 18961, 18960, 18959, 18958, 18957, 18956, 18955, 18954"]