In 1997, Adam Dunn went to a taping of Mid-America Championship Wrestling on Channel Five and liked it so much that he formed his own independent wrestling federation.
TAJJ Wrestling, which is pronounced “T.A. Double J.” is a combination of the four inventors first initials.
Five years later, TAJJ Wrestling broadcasts every Saturday morning on Memphis Channel 17, a public access channel. About 20 wrestlers from the TAJJ roster compete, attracting a crowd of about 30 spectators for its live shows.
TAJJ Wrestling is just one of the off- shoots of professional wrestling, the soap-opera sport for thrill-seeking people. Last year, The World Wrestling Federation earned $456 million and performed in front of 2.5 million people world-wide.
“We know that we are not totally professional yet,” Randy Cresswell, commissioner for TAJJ, said. “But we’re trying to get there.”
Dunn started out wrestling but said he got more into the production aspect of the matches.
“I videotaped the matches for about four years before we finally began broadcasting,” Dunn said.
Dunn began broadcasting the weekly matches on Dec. 1, from the showroom of his father’s business, Dunn’s Transmission Service, at 2525 Summer Ave.
“Eventually, I’d like to see us on a broadcast channel like UPN, one that broadcasts to a wider audience. Channel 17 is only seen in the Memphis area,” Dunn said.
TAJJ Wrestling has obviously come a long way since its backyard beginnings on a trampoline.
“When TAJJ started out, it was just guys wrestling on a trampoline in a backyard every Saturday morning,” Jason Kriz, a.k.a. DJ Armed Robbery, one of the original wrestlers, said.
The trampoline is where most backyard federations begin, said Dunn. But don’t mistake this federation for backyard anymore.
TAJJ has its own Web site, has had one larger scale show for an audience of about 100 at Elliston Baptist Academy in Memphis and is looking to book more.
“We definitely have the look and attitude of professional wrestlers,” Dunn said. “We consider TAJJ to be an independent federation, a developmental place for wrestlers to go on to other things.”
TAJJ wrestlers perform in a ring that Dunn bought for $3,000 on-line. The ring is a smaller version of what the professionals use.
“If this were backyard, we’d be wrestling on a piece of plywood with tires underneath it,” Mike Anderson, a.k.a. Mighty Mike, said.
Another difference between backyard and independent wrestling is the amount of training the wrestlers receive and protection they wear.
“There’s a right and wrong way to do everything in the ring to avoid getting hurt,” Anderson said. “Everybody has to learn the right way. If we were backyard, we’d want people to get hurt. That doesn’t happen here.”
In the five years since TAJJ’s creation, there has been only one injury, according to Anderson.
The wrestlers also have scheduled practices where they choreograph each match, and they’ve had professional wrestlers from Power Pro and Mid-America Wrestling train with them, said Jeremy Thigpin a.k.a. Jeremy Blaze.
“Let me put it this way,” Thigpin said. “You didn’t see me jumping off any sheds, right?”
No, but the show had plenty of raw energy even without the backyard antics.
A recent event, The Hardcore Invitational, was an orchestrated free-for-all of high testosterone excitement.
In and out of the ring, wrestlers wailed on each other with everything from hubcaps to rubber chickens.
And that’s the kind of show audiences can expect every week.
“The show always goes on,” Thigpin said. “I’ve wrestled even when there was no audience to watch me.”
Anderson admits that no one is making any money.
“All of these guys are out here because they love the sport and would like to get scouted,” Anderson said.
So far, Thigpin is the only wrestler to be scouted from TAJJ. He competes in crowd-warmer matches for Mid-America Championship Wrestling.
“It’s all about working your way up,” Thigpin said. “Eventually, I’d like to be able to make a living off what I’m doing.”
According to the wrestlers, Memphis is still the place to be to get scouted.
“Almost every big name wrestler, like The Rock and Kurt Angle, have come through Memphis at some time,” Anderson said.
Hank Russell a.k.a. Smack Daddy Hank, TAJJ’s program announcer added, “We’re trying to bring professional wrestling back to Memphis the way Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler started it.”
