Headbanger Mosh Recalls Getting His Start In Wrestling, Training At Monster Factory

Headbanger Mosh has had an eventful career in the pro wrestling industry, and he recently recalled his origins in the business during a new interview. Mosh was best known for his runs in WWE as part of the Headbangers, Beaver Cleaver, and Chaz. During that time he had a run with Thrasher as WWF Tag Team Championss.

Mosh spoke with Insight With Chris Van Vliet during a new interview where he spoke about getting into the industry, his initial aspirations, training at the Monster Factory and more. You can see highlights sent along by the show below:

On When He Got the Desire To Get Into Wrestling:

“Well, I used to go with friends of mine, especially my best friend Mike, every month if the WWF was in the Spectrum in Philly. So we would jump on the Speed Line, take the subway down, and we made a whole venture out of it. But we would go, and I used to joke around with him and my other friends going, one day you’ll see me in that ring. But never thinking [anything of it], that was just kind of a funny thing, because I was just a huge fan of it, and I love the promos. The promos sucked me in. So that was it. Then riding down there was a town in New Jersey, which was like 10-15 minutes from my house. It was an old rundown flea mart, like you would walk in there and you would go, Oh, this is where the thrift stores come to buy stuff to sell at the thrift store, used underwear and bras with pink stitching in them. It was crap, stuff you would not really wear. But out front every now and then there was a big, giant white truck, and it was spray-painted on the side. ‘Pro Wrestling Saturday night at 8 pm.’ So one Saturday, I had nothing going on, ‘Let me go check this out.’

“Now, meanwhile, the only wrestling I ever saw was WWE or WWF, and then WCW started running more. So they would run the convention center. So there’s the lights, there’s music. I had no idea what indie wrestling was. Never been to anything like it. I walked in and I sat down going, what is this? Because that’s where the Monster Factory was. I see the Monster Factory, I see WWE up on the wall, but I have no idea what any of that means. I watched it, the guys came out, and I was like, this is awful. Where are the lights? There was music. I’m like, where’s the lights, and the guys’ outfits weren’t anything. Everyone just had a singlet on. There was no flare. I’m like, where’s the Macho Man? I was expecting a production like that, and didn’t get it. But then I saw the Monster Factory logo and WWE logo on the wall. I’m like, I gotta find out what this is. I kind of lingered after the show, and at the time, the heavyweight champ was The Spider, and I saw The Spider hanging over by this door. The ring was here. There was a balcony to sit on, and then there was an office door. So I saw him standing there. Then as everyone was running out, I saw him take his mask off. I went, guy kind of looks familiar, so it turns out it’s Glenn, my partner. We started talking, and we never started talking before. We realized we knew of each other, because our high schools wrestled one another. So we never wrestled each other, but we kind of knew each other. So I started talking to him, and that’s when he explained to me, Oh, this is a school, just like a show that Larry does every month, and blah, blah, blah, and that’s when he convinced me to come and try out. And I was like, yeah, let me try out. What the hell? What else am I doing? At that point, I was in my fourth year at community college.”

On Whether He Had Singles Or Tag Team Aspirations Then:

“At that point, the only aspiration I had was not to get hurt and just try to figure out life. Because at that point I was 22 I had no idea what I was doing with my life, and I was just trying to figure it out. So it was just one of those things. But then when Glenn and I started tagging together, and I realized, oh, there’s something here, that’s when it kind of started clicking with me that this is something that could really work or could really take off.”

On Training With Big Names At The Monster Factory:

“Yeah, D’Lo was down there. Boo Bradley [Balls Mahoney] was down there. Then when we had left, Big Show had come, but this was months later, Big Show was there. D’Lo actually was a huge part. So D’Lo kind of trained himself, did the backyard thing, and him and his friends would come down and rent the ring, and they put on a whole production. They were great. They had lights, they had ring music. They had their own matches. They videoed it all. It was great. Glenn and I would stay and watch, because they would rent the ring on a Saturday afternoon. So after we got done training, Glenn and I would sit there and watch. So when Larry convinced D’Lo to join the school. D’Lo is actually the one who helped us perfect the Stage Dive, our finisher. So he was a huge part of that.”