LIVERMORE – Sure, professional wrestling is impressive on that big screen television. But you should see it when it happens in your backyard.

“I came out of my house today and the ring was right there,” said Crystal Simmons, who lives next to the Carriage House Pub along Route 4. “Wrestling is a lot scarier when you’re up this close. They could come right over the ropes and down on top of you.”

No, really.

Simmons and dozens of others gathered behind the Carriage House on Friday night for a National Wrestling Alliance bout featuring a dozen pro athletes.

Where else but Livermore will you see a small boy climbing into a ring with the brutes followed by his black Labrador retriever?

The NWA is making a push into Maine, with shows scheduled for Farmington, Lewiston and Bangor in coming weeks. On Friday night, the muscular and charismatic showmen gathered in a more unlikely spot: a field along Route 4 where typically the sounds of crickets and passing traffic is the only thing you’ll hear.

“We live right down the road,” said Melissa Darling, who made the short trip with her sons Andrew and Austin, 10 and 9 years old.

“The boys are big wrestling fans,” she said. “This is exciting for them. It’s definitely something new.”

Perhaps an understatement. As Darling spoke, grown men were hurling each other all over the stage. There was grunting and groaning, shouting and squealing.

“This is way better live than it is on TV,” Austin Darling said.

In attendance for the show were wrestling notables such as Golden Boy Bobby Robinson, Makua the Samoan, the Hillbilly tag team partners and Robby Ellis, still wrestling at 65 years old.

“That’s the oldest man in professional wrestling,” said Tom Fornini, one of the organizers of the NWA event.

You could not ask for a better seat. Fans gathered around the ring were just a few bare feet from the action. When the Pharaoh, all 7 feet of him, entered the ring, a few spectators actually moved back a bit.

Austin Darling went goggle-eyed.

“Nope,” he said. “I wouldn’t get into the ring with that big guy.”

Nobody else was in the ring with the Pharaoh long, either. It took him less than a minute to beat, batter or fling his opponents away.

There was a moment of local comedy halfway through the bout. A local boy of about 6 was invited into the ring. He climbed up with the help of some spectators and his dog Dark Star climbed up after him.

“That’s just Dark Star being protective right there,” one man said.

The pro wrestlers, accustomed to dealing with beasts of a human variety, gaped at the dog a moment before the animal left the ring on his own.