SAN ANTONIO – From the front, the baby blue house at 1003 McCauley Boulevard may not immediately catch your eye.
It’s what’s around back that people come to see.
“This is 1003 McCauley (Boulevard), but on Fridays — once a month on Fridays — it’s called ‘The Yard: Home of United210,’” said David Campos, Jr.
He likes to say David Campos is his “Monday through Friday” name.
Most people who come to The Yard know him as StudStache, the wrestler.
With a mustache, hairstyle and presence worthy of that name, StudStache runs a backyard wrestling venue behind his family’s home.
In the middle of a well-manicured yard full of metal butterfly sculptures and colorful flowers stands a full-size wrestling ring.
The Yard becomes a place where families from all over San Antonio watch professional wrestlers on the independent circuit perform on Friday nights.
On average, Campos said approximately 300 people attend the matches.
Campos, who works as a special education teacher at the Harlandale ISD Alternative Center, began wrestling in late 2018.
His start in wrestling came 13 years after serving as a combat medic in Iraq.
“I came back to total darkness,” Campos said. “Wrestling has given me my life back.”
“There’s David Campos: the person. He’s been through everything, and the strength he has in him, it’s almost nonexistent,” Campos said. “But then there’s StudStache, the wrestler where I can channel everything into that guy and just become so animated, so alive. And that keeps me going. I actually feed off of that guy.”
Campos made a distinction regarding the impact of his StudStache character and wrestling.
“No, I don’t think StudStache saved my life,” Campos said. “I really think professional wrestling saved my life, and the community of the South Side saved my life.”
Campos has security, food truck vendors, a full production team and people who help manage parking for each week’s shows.
He and his father, aptly known as “PapaStache,” created The Yard. He also manages the wrestling promotion United210.
Campos’ mother is part of the team, as well. She arranges fruit baskets together for wrestlers, hands out paletas and other treats to the kids in the crowd.
“I have the female wrestlers change inside in my mom’s suite,” Campos said.
One of those wrestlers is Kalientita, who performs at venues all over the city and beyond in the hopes of getting signed to a larger promotion one day.
“San Antonio has such a strong and passionate fan base — and they hate me here — but I know they love me! They love to hate me,” Kalientita said.
Alexx Arsenal is another pro wrestler who puts on shows worldwide, including at The Yard.
“There’s almost something you actually cannot replicate at the top,” he said. “It’s sweaty, gritty, angry, and it’s in your face.”
“I hope to go on and do bigger and better things, but this will, I think, always be one of the most special places I ever got to wrestle,” Alexx Arsenal added.
The Yard and United210 are two players in a thriving professional wrestling scene in San Antonio.
“Whenever I reflect back on the on the shows afterwards, it’s like from the guy who parks the car to the ring announcer to the DJ... to the rest of the people who pick up the trash... It’s ‘we,‘... It’s all of us together,” Campos said. “Look what we did.”
