BS: Favorite match? 
Since first arriving on the independent scene a couple of years ago, the $outh$ide Playas have impressed countless fans and numerous people within the business with their unique style. L.A. Ca$h is the showman, flamboyant, cocky, even underhanded at times, while J-Money is a man of few words and choses to let his actions in the ring speak for him. The duo have racked up countless tag team championships all over the Southeast and some predict the Playas could very well be "the next big thing." They have got all the tools neccesary to make it to the big dance: talent, charisma, athleticism, attitude, work ethic, teamwork, a selfless attitude and a desire to keep getting better. They sat down with Brad Stutts for this interview where the Playas sound off. BS: First question, are you still feeling the effects of the dreaded chickenhed pox?
JM: I think we're okay, we took some of Dr. Dre's cure, and we think it did the trick.
BS: What about you, Ca$h, how are you feeling?
LA: Oh yeah, I'm…I'm fine.
BS: That is good to hear. Now, how did you guys get started in the business?
LA: Well, I was a restaurant supervisor at a Mariott and WCW came down on a Saturday for a house show. After the house show, a bunch of the wrestlers came and ate and the one who really got me started was Chris Benoit. He came in and asked if he could get something to eat, even though it was late. It just so happened that we had just shut down the buffet, and I told him he could get whatever he wanted off the buffet, but our servers had already gone home so I would wait on him. He asked me to have a seat and we started talking and he explained to me how the business went. So I asked him if he thought I could get into something like that and he said 'Sure, just find somewhere to get trained.' So, I looked up the closest thing in Virginia where I am from and the closest thing was Boogie's Wrestling Camp. So I went the next day and liked what I saw, went back the next week and paid the fee to train and the rest is history I guess.
BS: Were you a fan of the business at the time?
LA: Oh, a big fan. I started watching wrestling as soon as Bob Backlund lost the belt to the Iron Sheik. I was more into boxing back then, but heard people talk about 'Oh, five years this guy has been champion.' I was a little kid so I thought wrestling was real and was like 'Woah, this guy's been champion for five years.' I watched it and there's this Iranian dude and he gets him in the camel clutch and the towel gets thrown in and I was sorta like 'Well, yeah, this is sorta interesting.' But the guy who really got me into it was Hulk Hogan. When he fought the Iron Sheik at Madison Square Garden and used the camel clutch against him, I was like 'Oh dude, that is that same thing that that other dude threw the towel in on.' But Hogan got up and got the pin and I was like 'Wow' and have been watching it ever since.
JM: Uh, my start, this has been what I have wanted to do basically my whole life. Even as a little kid I watched wrestling throughout the 70's and 80's. What actually inspired me to get into it was I saw some independent tapes of Billy Kidman and X-Pac and that made me realize that it wasn't just the big guys that could do this. So I decided to look further and deeper into it and looked up Boogie's Camp up in Virginia. So I went up there and started training and met L.A. the next summer and we took it from there.
BS: That was my next question, from there, what events led to the origin of the $outh$ide Playas?
JM: It was just an idea that was given to us by someone in another organization. We had thought about teaming up back at Boogie's, it was just a matter of getting both of us in the same place at the same time. The guy who was in charge of booking at that organization passed the idea of teaming by us and we've taken it from there.
BS: What performers influenced you as far as your individual in-ring styles?
LA: I really try not to have an influence, what I try to do is see what the other wrestlers are doing and then do something else. Ya know there are moves that I do that you've probably never seen before in your life. That is because I try not to copy other people or other people's styles, the $outh$ide Playas have got their own style. You can't say 'Ya'll are just like such-and-such.' I remember when we first started, ya know, two black guys as a tag team so everyone was like 'Harlem Heat, Harlem Heat'. But, we're nowhere near Harlem Heat. We're not big men, it's totally different. But that is the only thing they can compare us with. But now that we have our own style there is no comparison, the $outh$ide Playas are in a league of our own.
JM: It's basically we take the old school and mix it with the new school. We go with what the fans want to see. The fans are what bring everybody to the arena so you have to adjust to what the fans like or dislike. You just feel it out, it changes from show to show.
BS: What are some of your thoughts on your run with Southern Championship Wrestling earlier in 2001?
JM: I can say we learned a lot at SCW. Some of our best matches were there. We came in to SCW and nobody basically knew who we were, we were the new guys around. We had been wrestling a while but not in that area. When we came in, we were a little above what they were expecting and it kinda took them by surprise. Maybe we kinda stepped on a few toes and some people didn't appreciate it too much, but we had a good run there that's all I can say about that one.
LA: To be honest with you, SCW probably was the best thing to happen to us. When we got the call they asked us if we'd like a try-out for Southern Championship Wrestling and we were thinking this is where people like Shane Helms, the Hardy Boyz, Otto, the Dupps, C.W., Lodi, I mean we knew we could not go in there and be what we were in other organizations. Honestly in some of the other promotions, we could bullcrap our way through a match and people would be like 'Woah, good match.' But in SCW, if you bullcrap through a match, that'll be your last match. That's when the diving started, that's when a lot of the double-team moves started and all that. We knew how King's is and how the people are there. And we knew right then and there that if we were gonna make it in Southern Championship Wrestling, we would have to step our game up two levels. And we did that. And as long as the fans appreciate what we do, we really don't care. It's like Money said, it's the fans that make us who we are, it's not the promoter, the promoter can hate our guts. We can run with one promotion and as long as the fans are out there saying we did good, they know that if the $outh$ide Playas are gonna be there, they're gonna be there. Now, if the promoter wants us to lose, fine, we'll look good losing. If they want us to win, we'll look even better. If they want us to lose the next night or whatever, we'll look even better than when we won the first night. It's all about stepping it up another level and that's what Southern Championship Wrestling did. It brought the Playas up I would say two levels. We just got better and better. If you look at what we did last year before SCW and what we do now, it's two totally different teams.
BS: It's interesting that you touched on the influence of the fans. What was it like to debut for East Coast Pro Wrestling against Psychos for Hire and know that you were there because the fans had specifically requested that match?
LA: See, that's good for us, because we are glad that the fans are listening and the fans are actually looking at the Playas and saying 'That's a great team.' Because some fans, you ask them 'Well, how did such-and-such wrestle' and they'll go 'Who was that one?' But, you ask them how did the $outh$ide Playas wrestle and they say 'Oh man, they were awesome, when are they coming back?' or 'We can't wait to see you guys again' or whatever. Psychos for Hire in all due honesty that was the best match I'd say we've ever had facing the team for the first time. They're a great tag team, it's sad that they had to split up. I know Crazyman's retired and Bam Bam is doing his thing as a single. But that one match, it was all set up, because we knew the fans wanted it and we knew it was time for the $outh$ide Playas to give the fans what they want. What was good about that was that the Psychos thought the same thing. When two tag teams like that want to do their best, it's gonna be a great match. I don't care if it was just ten minutes or whatever, a solid ten-minute match is better than a thirty-minute match with a little bit here and a little bit there.
BS: What are your thoughts on the work you've done with the coalition sort of speak that we've seen form between New Empire Wrestling, Ringside Championship Wrestling, and the American Championship Wrestling Alliance?
JM: All three guys really try hard and that is what we like in this business: people who really put forth effort to do their best in this business. Sometimes they get a lot of flack from other people, but they're really trying and that is all it takes to make it is this business is to keep trying. And as long as they keep trying, they're going to keep getting better. That is all it takes. Never think that you are at a level where you can't improve because you can, and as long as they're trying the Playas are going to be there. BS: What do you personally think the $outh$ide Playas need to work on as far as taking their game to the next level and what do you perceive that next level to be?
JM: We both have had talks with the WWF from time to time and they've been really impressed with us lately. They would like for us to pick up a little size, which we're working on. We're looking to go up north, we've been in contact with Ohio Valley Wrestling about some possible dates there so we're just trying to keep advancing and keep the Playas out there.
BS: Favorite opponents?
LA: Hmm…that is a hard one, because different opponents have different styles. If we feel like high-flying, Knight Shift obviously. If we feel like true, ya know, sit-down mat wrestling, Psychos for Hire were pretty good. They were good. It's hard because there's not that many tag teams out there that are constant tag teams. It's like 'Okay, we're gonna put you two guys together for one night only' and that's it, ya know. Uhh…Los Latinos Locos are a great tag team as well. They let us do our thing, we let them do their thing, we have not had a bad match with them yet. If you go in there with a tag team that gets better and better and better then you're right here with us. As long as you go out to give the fans what they want, we would not mind wrestling any tag team whatsoever. Right now, in my opinion, I would love to take on Christian York and Joey Matthews. That right there is something that I would definitely like to wrestle with them. They've been to the developmental territories so I know they know what they're doing and we know what we're doing. They're into the same wrestling as we are. They've been a tag team for years, we've been a tag team for years, to me, it'd probably be one of the best indy tag team matches anyone's ever seen.
BS: Favorite match?
LA: On a personal level, it's got to be the Rock N Roll Express. Not because we got to do anything much, but just to say we fought the Rock N Roll Express. Because I get some people up from where I'm from in Virginia and I tell them I'm a wrestler and they're like 'Yeah, ok,' and I tell them I fought the Rock N Roll Express and it's 'You're lying, you're lying'. And I've got the tape right there and they're like 'Oh snap, that is the Rock N Roll Express!' Then they really think that I am no joke. There is no joke to the $outh$ide Playas. We're not here just to show our friends that "we're wrestlers" and show our friends that we can beat people up. We're out there to show people we can have a great match so that one day when we're out there if WWF or Hulk Hogan's group or WCW if it comes back, I want them to look at it and it say that we are ready to be where they are. It's not one of those deals where we know we're not gonna be in the WWF or we're just here because we love the sport, that's bullcrap. There's a lot of people here who should get a chance with the WWF or WCW or whoever but then there's some wrestlers, which I don't like who are just there to show off in front of their friends. Organizations that just do shows for someone's family. When we're wrestling, we're wrestling essentially for a bunch of nobodies who think we're nobodies but we want them to think we're somebodies. It's like you talk about the Psychos match, would people really say that they wanted to see that match if they had only heard about us? No, they go out and see us and they go 'Those boys are good' or 'Those boys should be in the WWF' and it's great to hear fans say that. It's different than hearing promoters say 'You should be there'…Ok, then why'd we lose? Why aren't we the champs? Why are you getting
JM: Uhh…definitely the Rock N Roll Express would have to be the favorite opponents…
LA: Oh yeah, that was the question…sorry…(laughter)
JM: It was an honor to wrestle legends that you grew up watching like that. It was another chance for the $outh$ide Playas to step up another level and show that we belong with any tag team in the ring.
BS: Do you feel it's tougher, easier, or roughly the same getting booked as basically a two-man act rather than just one guy?
LA: Here, it's easier as two people because they're aren't any. There's a few here and there but as a tag team you get to do more stuff. I mean, tag teams are just great. People like the Hardy Boyz, Dudley Boyz, Edge and Christian, the list goes on and on. You can only do so much as a singles wrestler. There's only so much creativity you can put in there. Plus, with a tag team, you're working with two brains instead of one. Money gives me ideas and I give him ideas. Some ideas he likes that I give him and some he doesn't. Sometimes some ideas he says 'Well, let's do this, that might be better' and vice versa. It's easier to get booked as two people because anybody can do it as one person because you only have to satisfy yourself. When there's two, you have to satisfy yourself and your partner, and that also brings you up to another level, because when you can satisfy yourself and your partner, then you can satisfy the fans. Like I said, it's just easier as a team.
JM: It seems to me that everyone wants to be a singles superstar these days and they forget that tag team wrestling is really want brought wrestling to where it is today. If you think back to the 80's and the Rock N Roll Express vs Midnight Express matches and the ladder matches with the Hardyz and the Dudleyz, I mean those are some of the top matches ever right there in the tag team division. Everybody nowadays wants to be a singles superstar and they're overlooking the tag team division.
BS: What was the origin of Sweet Daddy as the third member of The Playahood?
JM: Well, I think it was kinda Ca$h's idea way back a while ago and I think it was more Sweet Daddy's idea too and we thought it would work, and it has worked to an extent. Now we just need to get him on the road with us a little more, he seems to be content with one organization here and there. He's a heck of a talent, he just needs to get out there a little more and experience a few other places and let other people see what he can do, because he could carry it to the next level.
BS: Word Association: Sean Thomas and Brad Hunter.
LA: Which one?
BS: Well, the team…
LA: As a team, they're great. I mean we wrestled them most of the time in SCW, they gave us some great ideas. They pushed us up to another level. Sean Thomas is a great wrestler with a great attitude, does not care whether he wins or loses, I mean he's a great person. Brad Hunter, great wrestler, but he has sort of an ego. I mean, we all know wrestling is not what we want the fans to believe. The fans nowadays believe it's a soap opera, but don't help the fans believe it's a soap opera. I mean, if you wrestle a team seven times, well six times and a three-way, and you win
JM: As far as Brad and Sean go, they definitely pushed us to another level. We learned a lot from them in the ring and they taught us a lot, but like Ca$h said, there's a few egos that may need to be in check, because in this business you go by what the promoter says and that's what you do.
BS: Wort and Duke Richards.
JM: The Gargoyles! I thought they were a decent team. A lot of people came up to us and were like 'I hope you have a good match with them, we didn't have such a good match with them' but we didn't really have a bad match with them at all. Every match we had was just as good as any other match. It's a shame that they didn't use them more because Wort was really over with the crowd doing the Star Trek gimmick. They were a good team, had no problems with them.
LA: It's like Money said, they are a great team. Like I said, it goes back to the egos. Wort and Duke, they don't have egos, they're like 'What do you want us to do? Ok, we'll do that.' You've got the big egos that want to powerbomb you and hurricanrana you at the same time or whatever, some wrestlers can't do that. When we wrestle Duke and Wort, we know exactly what they can do and what they can't do. It's like if we fought the Dupps, for instance, we're not going to power the Dupps. We know that the Dupps are basically gonna power our butts and if we beat them, we're gonna get lucky. Even though wrestling is sort of a fantasy world, the reality has got to check in with some of these people's minds. The reality is that not all wrestlers you can do this with and not all wrestlers you can do that with. With The Gargoyles, we knew exactly what we could do and what we could not do and that's why all our matches were good, solid matches.
BS: Knight Shift.
LA: They impressed us. They're getting better and better but they need to go back to being basic wrestlers. Like I said, they're high flyers or whatever, but one day they may face a team who aren't high flyers and might be green or not know what they're supposed to do. Just like tonight when we wrestled them and they're gonna go for a frog splash off the balcony, some wrestlers are not gonna know what to do. If you don't know what to do, they are four scenarios: you either gonna be lucky, you're gonna both get hurt, you're gonna hurt yourself, or the other person's gonna get hurt. Hopefully, you'll luck out, but right now, they need to get the basics. That's why we love Boogie's camp, because it's basic. If you wanna do high-flying, do it somewhere else. We wrestled there for months, basic, basic, basic. We got tired of it and decided to go to the next level and then worked that with some basic stuff. We didn't go all the way to the top of the ladder, literally and then dive off it. We worked our way up and that's what they have to do. You can't go to the top and not know anything because sooner or later, you're gonna fall down.
JM: Yeah, they're a great up-and-coming team but like Ca$h said, basics is the key to any wrestling match. There is no wrestling match that does not have basic maneuvers in it, so you've got to know the basics, then you can climb the ladder and do all that stuff. There is no need to do a ladder match when you can't do a sunset flip or a small package.
BS: Los Latinos Locos.
LA: Funny team. I love working teams who work their gimmick. They are easy to pick on. I love wrestling them and they're easy to wrestle. They're basic, we know what we can do and we do it, we know what we can't do and we don't do it. We don't try to push them. They're good, basic wrestlers and we never had a bad match with them.
JM: Yeah, they're actually one of my top three teams to wrestle against, but again you have to know where to go with them and where not to. Ca$h gets in a lot of funny spots with them so the fans enjoy it and if they enjoy it then we enjoy it.
BS: The $outh$ide Playas.
JM: Basically, we're still gonna try to improve. We're not at the level we want to be at yet, but, we want to let everybody know that we are going to try to be the next big team on the scene. The Hardy Boyz exploded, we're hoping that $outh$ide Playas will be the next tag team to explode and we're gonna keep working on it.
LA: See, it's one of those things about a two-man team. We're the same but we're opposite. I am more outspoken, he is more soft-spoken. He's more a typical wrestler and I am more a person who'll talk a lot of junk but then leaves and then sneak attacks you. I am the crowd person, I get the crowd going with my mouth and he gets the crowd going with his wrestling. Not to sell me short, I can get down with the wrestling too. Like tonight, Money showed some emotion in there. That's what I am talking about feeding off each other. I get him more into the charisma and he gets me more into the wrestling. When I first saw Money work, all I knew was the legdrop and that elbow drop thing I do and Money was doing hurricanranas and stuff. I said 'Well, I can't have him top me' so I started doing stuff off the top rope and other stuff like that. Like the Hardy Boyz, Jeff said 'Watch this' and then Matt said 'Well, watch this.'
JM: That works, opposites work. I mean, the Hardyz are opposites, Matt is more low-keyed and Jeff is more high-risk. Two guys trying to do the same stuff all the time doesn't work. That's why it works for us, because we do opposite stuff.
BS: Any closing thoughts for independent wrestling fans or independent wrestling promoters or whoever may be reading this?
LA: First of all, it's about time you asked us for the interview! Money and I were just talking a couple of weeks ago, 'How come he hasn't asked us to do an interview, I thought we was like one of his favorite tag teams and stuff.' But if you're a fan of wrestling, come see us, ya know. We take applause, but we also take criticism. From the ring, it is a whole lot different than from the fan's point of you. When you're wrestling all you can see is your opponent, you can't see yourself. Some fans watch you and say 'Man, ya'll are great, keep doing what you're doing' and some wrestlers will go 'Ya'll are great wrestlers, you know what you should do…' and we'll listen. Or sometimes the punches aren't right or something doesn't look right and we'll rewind the tape and say 'Well maybe if we did it like this' because the fans are looking at it from the same point of view as the McMahons or whoever else runs the big promotions. We don't have a Playa-cam on the top of our heads, when we look at the tape, we're looking at it the same as the fan's point-of-view. We'll be in the ring sometimes and think that was a great match and look at the tape and say 'Well, something there is not right' or the opposite, we'll say 'Man that match sucked' then look at the tape and go 'That was pretty good.' Like we said, we listen to the fans, fans come check us out please. There is some great talent and great wrestlers here in North Carolina. But people have got to come out and check independent wrestling because that is where it is, we don't make money. We're doing this for love of the sport. Some promotions mess it up and have one of the owners as Heavyweight Champion and the nephew is Intercontinental or whatever champion, their twin brothers are Tag Team Champions, you've got some of those kinds of promotions, but promotions like CCW, SCW, CWF, NEW don't. If the promoter is not a champion, something must be right with that organization. If the whole family is champions, something's wrong. Tonight was our first time here (in Continental Championship Wrestling) and I know there's gonna be some fans that say 'Next time they're here, we're gonna go check them out.' That is what the wrestlers have got to understand, they've got to go out there and make the fans want to come back and see us again. Some fans don't like us, some promoters don't like us, some wrestlers don't like us and we understand that Everyone is not gonna like us, but they're going to like somebody. If everybody gives it 120%, they're gonna like somebody and they are going to come back and see that wrestler. Right now, we want to find a home so we can say 'When they have a show, we're gonna be there' not exclusively, but, ya know. CCW is a great organization from what we've seen so far. SCW, NEW when they get their act together, great organizations as well. There's another organization called UPWC which some people don't know because they are not out there, but they need to be out there, but they try. If a promoter tries their best, and says 'We've only got this to work with, but we'll try.' If you've got a promotion and you've got angles, that makes it. If you're a promoter and you switch everything around with no psychology involved…why is this person fighting this person? If you're a promotion, some people weren't here at the last show. Some promotions need a newsletter or something. 'Ok, this guy ran in and the last show and jumped this guy, and tonight they're gonna fight…oh, this is gonna be good.' Ya know? Just like tonight, this was our first time here and we cut a promo at first, we got the crowd riled up and let them know we're bad and we don't like them, or whatever. Angles and little screw-jobs or whatever and build towards the next show, stuff like that.
JM: I just want to say come out and watch independent wrestling. A lot of fans complain that big time wrestling is really in bad shape right now, come out and let the big time promotions know you are fed up and are gonna go with independent wrestling. If that happens, things will change and you'll probably see some independent guys picked up because of it. You might find someone you like, you might not, but you never know if you just go watch big time and don't want to watch independents and that's it. Independents are just as good.
BS: Nuf sed?
LA: Chickenhed.