THE INITIATION: LIFE AS A ROOKIE
By: Kevin Kelly
You walk into a strange room. Looking around at new, yet familiar faces, you have to greet each man with a handshake and an introduction of yourself. Be sure to make good eye contact. It is vitally important to make a good impression.
What is this? A sales call? A meeting with investors?
Could be…but this is also the traditional way a new superstar begins his career in the World Wrestling Federation. The introduction is not over yet though. For the next few days, weeks and months, peers will constantly scrutinize. If accepted, you move on with your life and career. If not, get ready for hell on Earth.
Matt and Jeff Hardy trained themselves to wrestle in their backyard in Cameron, North Carolina, in the spring of 1990. Both had competed here beginning in 1994 as extras and caught the eye of the talent evaluators for the World Wrestling Federation. Working as an extra, you keep to yourself, speak if spoken to, and so forth.
“You’re just a part of the mechanism for a few days,” observes Matt.
In 1998, the Hardy Boyz were signed to the World Wrestling Federation. It was the culmination of a long journey which began on a trampoline. Now for the hard part, could the Boyz “get over” with the “boys”? Would Matt and Jeff gain acceptance in the sometimes cutthroat world of behind-the-scenes acceptance? If they thought getting hired full time was tough….
Very quickly, they were put to the test…and they failed. A group of veterans…who have requested anonymity for their cooperation on this article—asked Matt and Jeff to split a six-pack of beer, throw the empty bottles at signs and then urinate on the side of the road. Compliance would be one step towards acceptance, but the Hardys ran across a moral obstacle.
“Neither of us have ever taken a sip of alcohol,” said Jeff, who at 21 is the youngest athlete on the roster. “Besides, we thought they were joking.”
Apparently, they weren’t.
“The Dojo Master was pretty upset,” Matt said.
The Dojo, by the way, is the unofficial name given to the rookie proving department and is not to be confused with the Funkin’ Dojo, the Dory Funk Jr. and Federation front office training camp.
“Dojo Master said we could have lied about it. But instead we told the truth, not realizing what the consequences would be. We walked up to him, saying hello and paying respect and he told us to go to hell. We went to shake his hand and we didn’t get the acceptance of the handshake. But at the same time we knew that this was a test and we had to stick in there. They are going to see if you are going to go and cry to the office. They want to see what kind of man you are.”
Times have changed for rookies.
“Nowadays, the veterans help out the young guys 10 times more than they used to,” said Jeff Jarrett. A product of the territories where rookie indoctrination was much more vicious and widespread, Jarrett recalled a rib that used to be played on young guys just starting out.
“The ‘Equilibrium Test’ was done to show the young guys how important it was to be safe in the ring. One blindfolded veteran would get spun around until he was supposedly dizzy and the idea was to stick his finger on a waist-high bull’s-eye drawn on the wall. The other veteran would be the eyes for the dizzy one and together they would get very close. Now, for the rookie…he would get blindfolded and spun, but instead the bull’s-eye would be switched with someone’s ass.”
Following the failure of the first test, a night in San Antonio would be a turning point for Matt and Jeff. In the doghouse with the Dojo, the Hardys were faced with their toughest test—the bag displacement. While dressing in a small room away from the main locker rooms, The Hardys were accused by the Dojo Master of being unsociable and disrespectful. After their match against the Brood, the brothers discovered that their bags were missing. All of their money, credit cards and clothes were in those bags.
“On a hunch, we figured the Dojo Master might know something about it. So, we went to him and asked if he had seen the culprit. He said, “You know, if you’d dress with the other guys and not be so stuck up and not say hello, everyone would probably watch for it.”
An anonymous tip led Matt and Jeff to their belongings, which had found their way to one of the dumpsters behind the arena.
“Ever heard of a “One Boot Battle Royal”? Tom Prichard hadn’t in an Oklahoma locker room in 1979 when he was informed of the main event that night. After the fifth match of his professional career, the former Heavenly Body and currently co-host of “Code Red” on wwf.com knew he was being ribbed from the moment former Killer Bee Brian Blair mentioned it. The entire locker room was in on it, fashioning up a story that was interesting but not too convincing. Nonetheless, Prichard had to go along with it. If a veteran ribs a rookie and the youngster doesn’t go for it or fights it, the entire veteran crew develops a negative perception that may never go away. He gets the reputation of being a prima donna and that stigma is hard to wash off. Not surprisingly, Tom was the only man in the Battle Royal that night with one boot on and today he is one of the most respected men in the business.
“The younger group hasn’t gone through the territories so they don’t have any stories,” said the Dojo Master (whose identity I promised to conceal). “They don’t go out and do anything to get any stories, which we think is a crime because we can talk about what we did. The Hardy Boyz can only talk about video games they’ve played. The legacy of wrestling is dying and we are trying to keep this part of it alive. They failed their first assignment horribly. They needed to do better the next time around.”
Darren Drozdov played football at the University of Maryland and professionally with the Denver Broncos. Much like the World Wrestling Federation, the NFL has rookie ribbing as part of its heritage. Going from being a big fish in a small pond in college to a glorified tackling dummy can be overwhelming. How the transition is handled influences the amount of playing time on the field and how well a player gets along off the field. Check your ego at the door, kid! This is the big time.
“Usually, the first-year guys have to humiliate themselves in some fashion. They had us [the rookies in training camp] sing a song, any song. It could be The Flintstones or whatever. I stalled and stalled and I was actually the only guy to get out of singing my rookie year. Every week we had to buy the guys food. The three rookies who were on the D-line had to buy breakfast for our meetings, little things like that. When I came to the World Wrestling Federation, not too much really happened to me. The ones that get it the worse here and in the NFL are those that come in with a bad attitude and think they are on top of the world.
Matt and Jeff Hardy were looking at a dumpster full of their belongings after they had, in the Dojo Master’s words, “flunked their first assignment horribly.” How they reacted to this test would forever shape their reputations with the other Federation Superstars.
“They passed this test because they didn’t react,” said the Dojo Master. “They just got their stuff out of the dumpster and I told them that it might be better if they put their stuff on hangers instead of in the trash.”
Since that test, the Hardys have passed others. In fact, they assisted in a prank pulled on someone else. Whoever pulled it and who the victim was, Matt and Jeff won’t say. However, the victim is no longer part of the Federationand this person’s inability to get along was one of the contributing factors. The interpersonal relationships formed in any professional career greatly influence the level of success. While that may sound like a Fortune Cookie, it truly does apply in the World Wrestling Federation.
Matt and Jeff Hardy have earned respect for their hard work in the ring and the right frame of mind outside it. In North Carolina, they were the stars of the independent company they worked for. Now as the opening match, these Federation rookies had to have realized in a hurry that it takes more than skill to become successful.
From the “Equilibrium Test” to the “One Boot Battle Royal”, rookie initiation has changed with the times. At least now the Hardy Boyz have the story of the San Antonio dumpster and the great clothes hanger advice from the Dojo Master to tell they young guys when they are the veterans.
