My name is Assaf Levavy and I'm from Israel. For nine years, I have been backyard wrestling. Now I am 20 years old. My fed was named HWF, for "Home Wrestling Federation". It lived for six and a half years. In Israel, you have to serve in the army for three years, from the age of 18 until you're 21, and that's why we had to close the fed down, at least for the time being. Still, from time to time, we perform a match or two. But believe me, you don't want to know how rusty we are.

Even though it was relatively short-lived, the HWF was extremely successful, and a lot of fun, like most backyard wrestling is. I, personally, take pride in the fact that in all of the six years of it's existand, none of the HWF wrestlers ever suffered a serious injury, and no serious accidents happened. There were absolutely NO ego clashes, and everyone agreed to lose sometimes, as they took wrestling very seriously, but never forgot that it's only for fun.

I'm here to help you make your fed safer, and help you with the internal issues, as well as your storylines for the characters. If you're running a fed, the first thing you have to remember is that it's only backyard wrestling, so you have to take everything in proportion. On the other hand, you can do EVERYTHING you want.

I advice you to read this even if you're already running a fed. I know I can help you with a few tips. I'm gonna start at the beginning, even though.

So how do you blend the two? It's simple. Write down your roster, and start easy, so everyone would learn their opponents and how to work with them, and for everyone to adjust to the ring and to the backyard wrestling environment. First, let me tell you about the ring I made. It was built from 10 hard sofa pillows, 4 or five large blankets, and three standart bed matresses. Well, for starters, you lay down one blanket. Then, you take nine pillows and form a square over the blanket. The blanket is important, since it would prevent pillow movement while wrestling, thus, lower the risk. Then, put two more blankets above the pillows, add the tenth pillow over the blankets, in a place of your choosing, add the rest of the blankets, and then put two of the matresses over the blankets, one on the right, and one on the left. And to prevent movement or "falling between matresses" situations, add the third matress over the middle of the two. There you go. A safe, fun, and enduring ring. You can use almost everything as a top rope. Tables, chairs, boxes... We mostly used a table, or two tables, one on top of the other.

Where are the ropes? Well, we didn't have any money to spend on actual ropes, so we didn't have ropes. We didn't need them. But if we "sent someone to the ropes", we basically knew where we wanted the ropes to be, so we had imaginary ropes... Stupid, I know. But as I said, you can do everything in backyard wrestling, since it's ONLY backyard wrestling. Remember, it's for your own private, personal FUN.

Don't start with storylines. Let people create their characters, build their ring attitude, and their wrestling styles first. How to do that? Start scheduling all types of matches. We sometimes had 12 matches a card, where we only had four people avaliable... Backyard wrestlers can sometimes wrestle the entire card through, unlike pro wrestlers, who only get one match per card, most of the times. The more matches people get, the better they learn who their opponents are, and how people fight in the ring.

If you want to work on in-ring communication, by the way, remember this rule: Never stop doing what you're doing. There are a lot of things to do while you whisper to the other wrestler. In the HWF, we ALWAYS talked with each other. It's always good to let the opponent know what you want to do. Basically, you can whisper in any position. While you punch, while throwing into the ropes, while on the top rope (You can settle on certain signs), while in a submission move, or while some sort of a hold (Like before a suplex is being performed, you can say "I'm gonna flip you over, reverse the suplex", for example).

About the example I just gave... Many people tend to think that performance in the ring looks better with more moves in your arsenal. That's partly true. A wrestler looks best in the ring when he knows how to TAKE moves. For example, let's say a wrestler is an AMAZING suplex delieverer, but every time someone wants to dropkick him, he puts his hands so far away from his face, that the move is ruined for both people. If he would put his hands close to his face, the result would look so much better. Selling moves is what makes you a great wrestler, not performing the move. Everyone can perform moves, but it takes a great wrestler to sell moves right.

In the HWF, I was the best wrestler, in terms of moves. I worked hard, and I practiced a LOT to make the moves look real. But I was a chicken, when it came to selling moves. On the other hand, there was a wrestler, that in storylines was my greatest opponent and enemy, and he was the best move seller I've ever seen. Thanks to HIM, I was able to perform all the moves I knew. Because he knew how to sell them. Our matches were sometimes an hour and a half long, and there was not one boring moment. Why? Thanks to him. Because he sold the moves like no one could. He wasn't scared one bit. No matter if it was a top-rope hurricane rana, or an enzuigiri, or even a top rope cobra suplex (A vertical suplex where the opponent's back is turned to you, not his front, so the suplex is basically a backflip). He knew how to sell the moves.

When the HWF closed down, everyone left it with lots of memories. As I said, I was the hardest worker. And people remember that. But who do you think they remember as the HWF's best wrestler? That's right. They will always remember him. Becuase he was so fun to wrestle with. He knew to perform the moves, but he also knew how to sell them. Though at times he was seen as the HWF's jobber, he was amazing. Everyone just loved wrestling with him, including me.

The HWF had around 60 wrestlers, and when it closed down it's statistics held over 600 matches.

I can help you improve your fed. You can direct me with questions, so feel free to write me at: tafkatadd@hotmail.com

I hope I didn't just bullshit with your mind, and I hope what I said made sense to you. I'd love to help other feds and fed managers. I'm going to talk about, well, everything, basically. From performing some moves, to writing good storylines. So feel free to ask me everything, because it would surely help other backyard wrestling feds.