Headbanger Mosh Reveals the Origin of The Headbangers, Who Came Up With the Idea

During a recent interview with Insight With Chris Van Vliet, former WWE Superstar and Tag Team Champion, Headbanger Mosh of The Headbangers discussed how he formed his tag team with Headbanger Trasher (aka Glenn Ruth), and who came up with the idea for them becoming The Headbangers. Below are some highlights from Insight:

On the Idea Behind Him Teaming With Headbanger Trasher

“So Glenn had been around for two or three years already doing independents, so he was kind of known in that northeast area, and he had gotten a herniated disc in his back, and his thing was, he approached me because the moment we met, we clicked. We just clicked. We got along really well. We were hanging out all the time together. He just kind of took me under his wing. He was helping me more than others, and his thing was he tried to do it by himself. He had been to Japan. He had been to Puerto Rico, and if anyone’s watching out there, I’ve never been to Japan. I want to go to Japan at least once, now put it out into the woods. Out there you go. I mean, NOAH’s got an agreement with WWE, and I am under contract with WWE, the legends contract. Yes, it’s still a contract. So, yeah. So I think Glenn’s thing was, hey, I’ve been doing it singles by myself. I really haven’t gotten anywhere. Let me try a tag. We get along really well. Our body types at that point were very similar, except that was just a smaller, skinnier version of him, to the point where he was the heavyweight champ. I went out dressed as him and lost the belt for him, but I never took the jacket off, but no one knew that was me and not him. One time we had the masks on. We were at a show. His mom came over and had a 10-minute conversation with me thinking I was Glenn the whole time. So we just gelled like that right off the bat. So that’s why he was like, ‘Hey, we should try this. Are you interested in trying it?’ At that point, I was trying to figure out who I was and when I was in the ring. All I did was laugh and giggle because I was like, I’m in a wrestling ring. So the mask helped hide me laughing and smiling the whole time. I’m getting the sh*t beat out of me. I’m supposed to be selling, and I’m looking up at the crowd like laughing and smiling.”

On The Headbangers Using the Stage Dive as Their Finisher

“It’s not one of; it is the greatest tag team finisher of all time, the most underrated finisher. And we say that, and Glenn’s way more passionate about than I am. He gets hot when it comes up. But what’s so great about it is the timing, nothing else. You need timing for the 3D, LODs finisher, really no timing. You just stand up and jump off. Matt and Jeff’s finishers, The Hart Foundation, there’s really no [timing required] because you’re just holding one up. Even Demolition, as much as I love them, it’s just across the knee with the elbow coming off the timing. With ours, the timing is important. But what else is important is what you have to do. If I’m giving you the Power Bomb Leg Drop. There’s a way you have to land so you don’t get hurt, and Glenn doesn’t get hurt. You have to turn your head, you have to put your arm down. There’s a lot more to it, and it’s never been duplicated.”

On Jim Cornette Coming Up With the Idea for The Headbangers

“That came from Jim Cornette. So we left, we packed up the car and I started in June of 93 we packed up the car in April of 94 and went to Memphis for USWA as The Spiders. So we worked as The Spiders there, and then we were in Ozark Mountain wrestling with Burt Prentice in Arkansas for a little over a year, maybe a year and a half. And what happened was, at the end of that, Burt started bringing in Ricky and Robert, The Rock and Roll Express, Tracy Smothers was bringing them in for our big show we had every Monday night. And then it was just Ricky and Tracy coming, and we were working them. And the good part is that Larry would bring guys in. So he brought Jerry Lawler in back in the day, and then Cornette was there. So Glenn knew them, and they knew of Glenn, and from being around and with Tracy and Ricky coming, we were giving them tapes like, ‘Hey, can you give this to Cornette? Can you give this to Cornette?’ Because USWA had the gateway into WWE back then, and so did Smoky Mountain. USWA, we went there as The Spiders. We were there a few months, and then we were gone. We couldn’t get back in. And so we’re like, okay, so Smoky Mountain is another way for us to try to get in. So Cornette called us one day, and he goes, ‘Hey, I got this idea. I’d like to bring you in. The Gangstas are getting ready to finish up. I’d like to bring you guys in.’ We’re like, yeah, because with Burt Prentice, at that time, we were making 4 or $5 a night.

So when Cornette called us, he goes, ‘Hey, I had this idea. I want to bring you guys in, but I don’t like the masks. I don’t like masked wrestlers.’ Which is funny, because when he brought us in at Ring of Honor, what did he do? He put us under a mask first. But yeah, so he told us that, and you’re gonna laugh at this, knowing Jim Cornette, he was at a Danzig concert in New York. He goes, ‘It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. These guys had earrings, and their noses were pierced, and they had makeup on their face. They’re wearing dresses, and they had tattoos.’ He goes, ‘With your guys’ attitude from the northeast, I think you could pull this idea I have off. I don’t really know what the idea is, other than you’d be Headbangers.’ He goes, ‘You would come out, listen to loud, obnoxious music. I want you to spit on people.’ I mean, the first TV we did, I walked down the ringside, and I spit on every single person in the front row, right in their face. He didn’t care. He was like, if you find roadkill on the road, throw it in the back of the car, put it on a leash, and drag it to the ring. We didn’t want to go that far. But I knew what he was talking about, the music he was talking about. I knew what he was talking about. I knew I had been to the heavy metal concerts at the bank, and I’ve been to him in the spectrum in Philly with my buddies, so I knew exactly what he was talking about. I’d been in the mosh pits.”

On Having Taken Part in the Headbanger Scene

“Yes, I had done it. So we were like whatever you want us to do, it’s the opportunity, it’s gonna get us seen, it’s Cornette. We knew who was there, and we knew it was another gateway into WWE. So we’re like, Yeah, sure. So we show up at TV, and it’s actually funny, because we show up and The Gangstas were there. We walk in, and New Jack walks over to Cornette. He goes, ‘What the f*ck are these guys doing here?’ And Cornette’s like, ‘What do you mean, what are they doing here? They’re coming in because you’re finishing up, they’re taking your spot.’ They’re like, ‘Well, f*ck you. We quit now, then.’ The idea was to bring us in, give us two matches, and then do two interviews. So before weeks of TV, we’re on TV, and then we’d start doing the spot towns. Cornette was like, ‘All right, so leave.’ He turns around. He goes, ‘You guys doing anything this weekend? Now you’re booked.’ So we instantly got booked on everything, and he said, ‘I can’t guarantee you the world, but I’ll guarantee you 75 dollars a night.’ We’re like, 75 hours a night for three nights a week?! I’m like, that’s 225 dollars a week. Gold mine!”

On the Idea Behind Their Acrylic Paint Makeup

“So when we showed up to the first TV, Cornette had the black acrylic paint you can buy in a tube at Walmart or any store. We were trying to put it on, trying to be nice and neat about it. We kept washing it off and then we would try it again. After like the fourth or fifth time, Cornette comes over. He goes, No. He dips his finger like this, and he goes, swipe, swipe. He goes, That’s it, go. So there was no rhyme or reason. So some nights we would do it that way. Some nights do it this way, we’d let it run down. Then I learned that if I put water on my face first, and I just did a thick line here, it would kind of just run now. Sometimes we just did it thicker, which spurred whatever it felt like that night. That’s what it was.”

The Headbangers reportedly signed a WWE Legends deal back in 2023.