Wrestling Fans get worked. It's part of the deal. Which is fine, by today's standards. Fans are perfectly willing to play along when they're told that the Undertaker and Kane are "long-lost brothers," or that Hardcore and Crash Holly are "cousins." Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Part of the business.

So when Shane McMahon introduced his "Mean Street Posse" to the World Wrestling Federation, most fans winked, nudged and assumed it was a work. Old buddies from childhood? Actually...

Pete Gas and Rodney have a long, legit history with Shane, dating back to middle school. They're really Pete and Rodney from Greenwich, Connecticut, and although the streets of fashionable Greenwich are anything but mean, they really are Shane's "posse."

"Actually, I couldn't stand Shane when we first met," Rodney says. "We didn't like each other at all. It almost came to blows one day. After that day, we became the best of friends. We were so much alike that, at first, we couldn't stand each other."

The original vignettes shot by Pete, Rodney and non-wrestling friend Willie Greene were designed to help Shane "get over" as the rich, snobby heel leading into his "Greenwich Street Fight" against X-Pac [RAW Is War, March 22, 1999].

"[Shane] wanted to use his real friends," Rodney recalls. "We got all dressed up in those preppy clothes and the whole nine yards. We made ourselves sickening and told stories about how we were the best at everything. It was really not supposed to go anywhere. They asked us to do one shoot, then another, then another, and the next thing you know we're at Wrestlemania [XV] and then we're in the ring training."

"Those stories we told in the vignettes...those stories were true," Pete says. "I remember when I was in the office, [Shane] said, 'This is the script they want you to go by,' and he tore it up. He said, 'You and Rodney tell the stories.'"

The stories used in the original Posse vignettes were only a small taste of the real-life war stories Pete, Rodney and Shane amassed during their teen years. Some are printable--but most are probably best left alone.

"We always caused trouble, actually," Rodney says. "There are some pretty crazy stories. We just did whatever we wanted to do. Driving down the highway on top of cars, 80 miles an hour. Jumping over snowbanks. McMahon running things over with his truck. We just didn't think about the consequences until later on when we'd get in trouble. We weren't doing it maliciously, we just wanted to have fun."

Real friends, real stories, and a real bad wardrobe made the effect instantaneous. Right off the bat, Pete and Rodney were generating heel heat that some veteran wrestlers would kill for. The stuck-up, rich-punk personas were an instant success, and they didn't require a lot of research. Rodney and Pete found plenty of material along the way while growing up in Greenwich.

"We knew what we didn't like," Rodney says, "so when you take into consideration what people think of [Greenwich] in smaller towns and blue-collar towns where everyone's father is a construction worker or works in a steel mill or whatever, it's easy heat."

"No one likes those rich, snobby kids, especially the ones who think they're tough," Pete says. "They're tough when they're sliding in and beating someone who's already down, but then all of a sudden they become chicken&#*% when the heat comes on. So we always end up getting our asses kicked."

Characters in place, the task at hand was to then transform two "civilians"--Pete was working for a company that rented equipment to movie studios, and Rodney was working as a mechanic for a Greenwich car dealership--into bona fide ring workers. Enter World Wrestling Federation talent development manager Dr. Tom Prichard.

Prichard taught the basics to the boys, from bumps to ring psychology to the basic flow of a match. Other veteran Federation personnel--Michael Hayes, Ray Traylor, Gerald Brisco and Pat Patterson, among others--loaned their expertise.

"There aren't enough good things I can think of to say about Dr. Tom," Rodney says. "You sit there and listen to him and respect him because he's been there and because he's just a hell of a guy. He'll put his body on the line for us to learn to do something, instead of us possibly hurting each other or someone else. He takes the most bumps in the whole company."

"We owe Dr. Tom our right arms," Pete adds. "He's been the biggest help to us."

There's a long history of bumps the Posse can draw on when the storyline calls for them to mix it up with "former friend" Shane. The three played football for Greenwich High School, with Pete and Shane on the offensive line and Rodney at fullback. Years of rowdiness and physical games--including a particularly vicious swimming-pool game called "The Game of Pain," which involved point-blank poundings with kickballs and basketballs--made their in-ring brawls second-nature.

"I remember one time Shane had to get on top of me and start beating my ass," Rodney says. "He was punching me in the side of the face the whole time--I'm talking during the whole thing. And, it's pretty funny when you're in there because I'm going, 'You bastard, what the hell,' and he's cracking me and punching me, and he's not pulling anything. I'm getting cracked in the head because he wants it to look so good. It doesn't bother me for him to do that, because we both want it to look good and he lets us do the same thing to him."

Their willingness to take bumps and accept pain played well with the boys in the back. Wrestlers can be notoriously tough on newcomers, but Pete's and Rodney's respect for the business and their eagerness to learn quickly smoothed the waves. The Posse has developed friendships with many of the Federation's younger Superstars--Val Venis, Prince Albert, Test, Edge and Christian, among others.

"At first they may have thought our characters were a shoot," Pete says. "They may have thought we were really those rich yuppie kids. But once they got to know us and talk to us, they realized that we were just like they are. We have a lot of the same interests and like a lot of the same things, and we're completely not like those characters we do. They know we're going out there and trying our hardest, and doing the best we can. And, they know that most of the time we're getting the &#*% beat out of us--that's our gimmick."

"We had a match with the Acolytes--they're tough dudes for real--and they beat the hell out of us," Rodney recalls. "When I got through the curtain I stood up and walked proud. 'I'm not dead, I'm not hurt.' I had a black eye and that was about it. Every time we don't complain and we do what we're told and we listen to people and not act like we know everything, the guys respect us for that. And we ask questions and ask for advice."

All the on-job training the Posse has endured--and still endures-- came together at SummerSlam. Pete and Rodney played key roles in Shane's "Greenwich Street Fight" against Test, throwing in several cheap shots on Test and brawling with Brisco and Patterson. Although the high spot of the night belonged to Shane--his turnbuckle-to-Spanish announcers' table leap onto Test is among the highlights of 1999--Pete's and Rodney's contributions to the match were hardly ignored.

"We all worked on that match so much that everyone backstage said it showed," Pete says. "It showed that we worked hard on it because everyone was at their spots and everyone did what they were supposed to."

The one-time favor for their old friend Shane has clearly become something more--so much so that Pete and Rodney aren't planning on leaving the ring behind for the "mean streets" of Greenwich any time soon.

"We want to do really well for Shane and for his parents," Rodney says. "I remember how hard it was just to walk out into the arena the first time. Now you don't even think about it. You do mic work and different things like that, and you see how far you've come in a short time.

"Before it was like, 'How long is this going to last?'" says Rodney

See the photos from this article: The Posse beating on X-Pac and The Prom and Football poses of 1988