The Bone Street Krew Is The Oddest Collection Of Wrestling Friends Ever
When fans think of backstage, real life wrestling groups of the 1990s, the first name that comes to mind for most fans is The Kliq. The collection of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Sean Waltman enjoyed their share of success as cool characters on screen who alternately teamed up or feuded against one another. All the while they were close friends who traveled together and, according to some, played politics to their collective advantage. Another group that was active concurrently, but never garnered quite the same notoriety was The Bone Street Krew. As is the case with any informal group of friends, the membership wasn’t so strictly defined, but the generally accepted names involved were The Undertaker, Yokozuna, Rikishi, The Godfather, Savio Vega, The Godwinns, and Crush, with managers Mr. Fuji and Paul Bearer in the mix at times as well. More than anything, they were bound by playing dominoes backstage.
The Members Of BSK Had Gimmicks That Were Totally Different
A quick review of the names from The Bone Street Krew quickly reveals a variety of gimmicks. The Undertaker wasn’t yet the WWE institution he’d become over the back half of his tenure, but was already a world champion and main event draw, famous for his supernatural Dead Man gimmick. Yokozuna was an iconic heel world champion, using a gimmick informed by Japanese culture. Savio Vega wore his Puerto Rican pride on his sleeve and The Godwinns were hog farmers. Rikishi and The Godfather each found themselves in a position of frequently changing gimmicks before settling on the most famous personas they used for most of The Attitude Era.
This range of more serious, more silly, and shifting gimmicks often as not had little to do with the men’s real personalities. The variet of their characters also obscured the fact that the wrestlers involved with BSK would all actually be friends in real life.
The Members Of BSK Weren’t Connected On Screen
It’s easy enough for fans to assume tag team partners were friends in real life. After all Billy Gunn was all but synonymous with his kayfabe brother Bart for the first stretch of his WWE career, and it would be reasonable presume a real life bond with tag team partners to follow like The Road Dogg or Chuck Palumbo. While Henry O. and Phineas I. Godwinn were predictably friends in real life, as were the manager-wrestler pairs from The Bone Street Krew,hardly anyone else involved was overtly related on screen.
Indeed, there is some tradition of great on screen rivals being friends when the cameras turned off. The Undertaker and Yokozuna fit that model and other members worked opposite each other in the mid-card and tag teams off and on. On the whole, though, there were few breadcrumbs for 1990s wrestling fans to trace to guess at these performers being linked in the locker room.
The Bond Between BSK Members Was Informal
There is some dispute as to whether The Kliq were more rooted in politics or friendship. The men involved tend to downplay how much the schemed or campaigned for one another, whereas Bret Hart’s book and a variety of shoot interviews suggest the group of them were more mainipulative and exclusionary, with Shawn Michaels, for example, pitching feuds only with his friends during his first world title reign.
Related: Why Triple H & Shawn Michaels Are The Kliq's Best Team (& Why It's Kevin Nash & Scott Hall)
Whatever the reality might be in regards to The Kliq, the consensus is that BSK was more loosely linked. While the members could be riding partners and drinking buddies based on the stories they’ve shared, it seems the main item to unite them truly was that they all enjoyed playing dominoes backstage, often when they were waiting for shows to start after early call times. This premise for friendship invited a very random selection of names to band together.
BSK Ranged From World Champions To Tag Team Guys
Another reason why it could be difficult to have guessed who was a part of The Bone Street Krew was their very different positions on the crowd. While The Undertaker and Yokozuna were generally booked toward the top of WWE, Henry and Phineas Godwinn were locked into mid-card and tag team roles, and Savio Vega never actually captured a title in WWE.
The disparate places the BSK guys had on the card was demonstrative of their bond truly being rooted in friendship over representing any sort of political alliance. It also reinforced, though just how oddball and unpredictable group membership might seem to an outsider.
The Bone Street Krew had a surge in notoriety first in the era of tell-all books and podcasts, when wrestling fans grew more familiar with backstage machinations, particularly from the past. From there, the friends reuniting in celebration of The Undertaker’s retirement proceedings at Survivor Series 2020 drew this mismatch of loyal friends right into the spotlight.
