Posted on 2/07/126 by Colin Vassallo
Chaz Warrington, better known to wrestling fans as Mosh, one
half of the tag team The Headbangers, sat down with Chris
Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood,
California to discuss how he was paired up with Glenn Ruth
(Thrasher) to form the tag team, how Jim Cornette created
their name and look, his Beaver Cleavage gimmick, returning
to WWE in 2016 for a match on Smackdown, getting set for his
final match with The Headbangers in 2026, and more!
So where did the idea come from to make you guys 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
had been to the heavy metal concerts at The Bank, and I’ve
been to them in The Spectrum in Philly with my buddies, so I
knew exactly what he was talking about. I’d been in the mosh
pits.”
How many matches did Beaver Cleavage have?
“One match. Four vignettes, undefeated.”
You have one match, but it lives on forever. Here we are, 27
years later, still talking about it.
“I have one of the worst gimmicks in the history of
wrestling.”
Do you think it was one of the worst gimmicks?
“Probably. I still to this day don’t know where it truly
came from, how the idea came up. I mean, I think the
vignettes could possibly be some of the best vignettes ever
done. They’re hysterical. I mean, I’m sitting there, and I
come out of a room, and I tell my mother that I can’t find
the cat. I can’t find the cat anywhere. She turns around.
She goes, ‘You can’t find pussy?’ I go, ‘No, I can’t find
pussy anywhere.’ Meanwhile, she’s peeling a zucchini, and
she goes, ‘Well, Pussy is probably under the bed. I know
what would get pussy…’ I have a scrape on my knee, and she’s
cleaning my knees, and I go, ‘When it comes to working on
your knees, my mom knows best.’ I mean, they’re priceless.
There were no rules back then. Do whatever you have to do to
get over, to draw ratings.”
So you have no idea where this idea came from?
“I have a general guess. First overseas tour we went to
Kuwait. It’s the first overseas tour I was ever on. Jerry
Brisco was the agent in charge of the trip. He gets my
passport. He starts laughing. Now, my passport picture at
that point was from when I was 20 years old. So he looks at
it, and he starts laughing, and he goes, ‘Oh, look at you.
You look just like Leave It to Beaver.’ I’m like, Okay? So
on that trip I was called Beav, and then I found this out
the other day. I didn’t know this. Bruce Prichard was a huge
Leave It to Beaver fan. So everyone wants to blame it on
Russo. I mean, Russo helped with the vignettes, and he was
there when we did all the vignettes. But I don’t know who
actually came up with the idea of, let’s have a Leave It to
Beaver character, and we’re going to insinuate that he’s
having sex with his mother. I don’t know who came up with
it, but when it was presented to me, I was like, okay. I was
home, Glenn was hurt. He was rehabbing his knee. I’m gonna
get used, I’m gonna be on TV. If I’m on TV, then I go to
house shows. I make money when I’m on house shows, because
back then, we didn’t have a guaranteed contract. So I’m
like, sure, whatever. I’d never done singles before, other
than those three matches I had when I first started down at
Monster Factory. I was like, Yeah, this will be cool. The
vignettes were funny. Then for me, it was a character. So I
was able to dive into this big kid wearing a propeller hat,
burying my face in my mother’s boobs every time I went out
to the TV, or staring at her boobs. Everything revolved
around my head being in her boobs. So I was like, This is
funny, it’s fun, I don’t know, we’ll see what happens.”
Weren’t you training with some pretty 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 down,
but this was months later. 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.”
What a finisher! It’s one of the greatest tag team finishers
in the history of wrestling.
“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. 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.”