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Pics
|
Profile |
Events |
Gear |
Racks |
Matches |
Blog |
+ |
Clips |
Pics
| November 25, 2018 | A Wrestling Week-end in Burlington, Vermont | Recent matches | 5 years ago |
| October 22, 2018 | Tz126, GoodBoyMtl, MuscledWrestler2001, Keith_DC | Recent matches | 5 years ago |
| August 5, 2018 | 41st Montreal Highland Games | Other events | 5 years ago |
| July 29, 2018 | A modest amount of activity | Recent matches | 5 years ago |
| May 21, 2018 | Warming up... | Recent matches | 5 years ago |
| September 4, 2017 | WrestleInMN, round 2 | Recent matches | 6 years ago |
| August 18, 2017 | WrestleInMN: Do not judge a book by its cover | Recent matches | 6 years ago |
| Sunday November 25 2018 - A Wrestling Week-end in Burlington, Vermont | Recent matches | ||||||||||||
The customs officer at the US border patrol was very inquisitive this time around. I told the truth once again because if I lied or tried to hide anything, they would know. As I discussed in a previous post, I'll reiterate that these officers have interviewed hundreds of thousands of passengers in their lifetime and they've become experts in breaking people to make them tell every single ounce of the truth. Hence, the lady officer was surprised that I would wrestle in a hotel. She smiled as she interviewed me and asked me what happens if I break something. I replied that I've been wrestling for quite a while now, I always take a large room or a suite and I put things out of harm's way before I rumble. She was also very curious and asked me what was the name of the website where I meet my wrestlers.  There's always the question of whether I am getting paid for my wrestling or if I will take part on tournament with prizes, but I always reply that I am a casual wrestler that does it just for fun, in private, and I never take part in public or any type of regional competitions. I stayed at the Homewood Suites by Hilton in South Burlington, Vermont. A very nice hotel with a good amount of space to put the king bed on the floor for a good wrestling week-end. I came in prepared again with my usual 4 bed sheet clippers to make sure that sheets are not sent out flying when I roll on the mattress. One of the wrestlers later informed me that this is one of the rare hotels that actually provides you a fan. I know.. I already messed up the blankets and the covers, but that's what happens when you are a hotel/motel wrestler.  I met with with VTWrestleFun on Friday. We actually had our first match ten years ago and I still remember that back then, it was a submission bout where he was drenching sweat on me. I was however surprised in this encounter to realize that he shifted to pro. He enjoys this style a lot more, it doesn't get as sweaty and judging from his response to my actions, he prefers that I do not defend from his holds. He seems to be a pure heel, liking powermoves, specializing in lifts and slams, pulls them out very easily due to his strength. If I was lighter, he would press me over his head. Lucky for me, by "lifts", this included bearhugs and racks, which we applied to each other. He was very nice to have it recorded and he told me that he does not intend to run for president anytime soon, so sharing it with you guys would not be an issue. We'll start with a few stills since it'll take me some time to process and edit out the setup frames and the silly parts of the videos. This is my attempt of racking him: he bends nicely. I only wished he'd wear a speedo or something, but heck, I'd wrestle him in anything as long as he goes shirtless to show me his hairy chest. 
His rack also packs quite a punch! You know.. considering the TV and the furniture on the background, it's no wonder why people are wondering with skepticism whether I have a history of breaking stuff in a hotel match. Had I or my fellow wrestlers lost balance, we could have utterly fell back and broke that screen or that nice wooden furniture, if not the wall or the window. 
Luckily, nothing broke, because we are masters in the elegant art of racking. So now, I'm taking my revenge with a bearhug. How dare you rack me? It's funny, in this pic, either VTWrestleFun is expressing some pain or he is in a state of ecstasy. Which one is it? 
But my revenge is never complete without my signature hold: The Full Nelson Body Scissors! The smirk on his face simply shows that VTWrestleFun can take it like a pro.
He told me previously that I can apply my scissor only up to 75% of their maximum power, but I understood from that message that I simply shouldn't put any pressure at all.  Hey, I can learn too. I'll adapt my style if it means I can wrestle this hunk often. When we tangled, I realized that it was better if I was just following his moves and let him apply what he wants. I can defend, but just a little bit. Each time I would try to put something on him, he would make it very difficult. I'd pretend to do a face rake to take control, but it has no effect on him. Or maybe he thought I was caressing his face. I told myself that he probably wants to retain control. He likes half and full nelsons a lot and he usually goes for smaller guys. Incidentally, I think he stopped doing nelsons when I commented out that he seems to like them because of the frequency of its use, which is a bit sad because I absolutely adore nelsons.He tells me some of the wrestlers he meet are disappointed because they wanted to be punished, roughed brutally, because it seems to be the general look that VTWrestleFun seems to portray from his general look and profile. I told him to take it as a compliment. He does look like a heel that would destroy you. Deep down, VTWrestleFun is like a harmless lamb. He takes things very easy, his moves are light and he is prudent when he manhandles his opponent. He's quite a strong guy, he slams, lifts me upside down and throw me down laterally and diagonally in a very firm and secure way. We wrestled briefly for about an hour and we discussed about our wrestling styles and preferences. Big vs small are matches that definitely fits his cup of tea. I even think I might even be a little bit too big for him or that I felt he'd prefer me a bit more in shape. I did offer him to stay the night but he had to tend to his 3 cats and cut firewood so they can stay warm.  Suggs (id 3009) was my Saturday match. I try to be a bit more reasonable and scatter my matches by limiting myself to one per day. Sunday will be an exception though. What can I say about Suggs? Well, for starters, he is definitely the funniest and the most talkative wrestler I've ever met. He's incredibly handsome in my book. To top of that, he also has a very nice personality. He looks like Seth Rogen and when he puts on his cap backwards in an attempt to make him look younger, it actually makes him look like Drew Carey. I actually see him do a comedy show or host a game show. He told me he could absolutely do Family Feud. There's nothing very difficult about saying: "And survey says?"  Wrestling-wise, this guy is pretty versatile, but prefers the promission style or total squash. Due to his shoulder injury, he plays it safe and light: he can be a complete tough heel or a submissive jobber that gets caught in a total squash match. You wouldn't expect that from his build, right? Suggs is just full of surprises. Both his wrestling style and personality will blend in with yours easily. Suggs admitted to me that he often gets to be the heel, so getting to jobber once in a while is quite refreshing. In addition, having seen my history of losses, he'd like me to score a win with him. I did not read his profile carefully enough to realize midway in our session that his all-time favorite hold is the head scissors... and wow, this guy can really take it. He's one of the few that can take head scissors like a pro. No matter how much strength I put, he wouldn't tap. That being said, I should have been careful anyway because I apparently moved one of his tooth. That's why I don't usually apply head scissors to full strength. In this case, I probably should have verified that my legs were more around his neck. I was a bit too near his jaw. Also, let's forget about the body scissors. If he can stand the head scissors, then the body scissors won't even make him feel a thing. I flirted with him a couple of times, but I don't think I am really his type. He's totally my type though, but then again, which bear have I ever declined? He was nevertheless a very good sport to wrestle as much as he did. He mentioned he was out of shape and had little endurance, but I felt he did great. In the future, I wouldn't mind being his complete heel since it would spell less work for him and since he's made so tough that virtually nothing would make him submit. I also need to remember he also loves bearhugs, camels and boston crabs. Suggs complained about his belly, but I told him he is perfect how he is. He replies he wants to be able to see his "pipi". Yeah, It shows his type of humour.  He did make it down from 260 to 230, so he can be self-disciplined as well. It felt lighter than expected when I was racking because I was mentally set for 260 and it really did not felt that way (not to mention he totally cooperated very well and he knew exactly what to do).Suggs has one of the Strongest Bearhugs I've ever had the luck to be crushed in . Check out the video under [  Clip ID 350 ]. I was selling his bearhug badly, until midway through, there was a sudden change in my facial expression. I felt I was in trouble. I was actually thinking: "Ooof! Ungh... URGH! This is a strong bearhug. I have trouble breathing... He's crushing me so hard that I might have to give up if he doesn't stop... but ... but.. would it be silly of me to submit in a bearhug live while the camera is recording?!?". Not that I mind though. I love big burly men with strong arms and strong bearhugs ...that look like Seth Rogen. Hehehehe. Near the end of the video, Suggs adds to the bearhug a wedgie. It's apparently his favorite.  He was very flexible about producing content and offered me right in advance the possibility of taking pictures and videos. We took mainly videos, but I was able to get a few stills. You'll notice the same format because I tend to like racks and bearhugs  I racked him first and there was a little oopsie because I couldn't reach his trunks.
Suggs then showed that reaching for someone's trunk is never a problem.
And of course, I needed to apply that signature. You probably know the name by now. I'll spare you the repeat.
... And that bearhug! Suggs is a great seller.  With his clenched fists, Suggs is in the fight for his life to resist the crushing might of his opponent! Will he break free and muster enough strength to turn the tables around? Ok, now I'm just employing the sentences I use as description in my matches.
Suggs is quite sarcastic. I asked him if I could put my arm on him just to hold him in a cuddle and he'd say no with a funny face, but I think he was kidding me and I took it the wrong way. I'll just force myself next time or hold him regardless. Or even better, keep him down instead with a schoolboy pin. As a matter of fact, I believe he likes doing that while slapping his opponents in the face. I remembered that because he eventually flexed on top of me and I told myself that was such a nice sight to see. I eventually gave him back his own medicine though. A few days later, I received a note from Suggs telling me that our session was a total blast and that he can't wait until next time. That definitely gave me the boost needed to really cheer me up and look forward to our next encounter. I also remembered afterwards that I asked Suggs what he'd like to do if he could choose his career. Being a roadie to setup/mount big concert stages for a popular rock band and doing tours traveling around the world were one of his passions. It does come with a consequence that it does hurt his ears a bit. The other was to be a pilot. He enjoys turbulence in a plane. The rockier it is, the more excited he becomes. BadBillOfVt was my afternoon match. We've corresponded for ages as well, but neither of us took the steps previously to cross the border. Since I was on my way to Burlington, I gave him a last minute shout and he compassionately made himself available. We took it very easy, more along the style of give and take. Our chemistry was good and we each trusted each other pretty quickly. I was able to raise him in a Fireman's Carry, but we had a bit of trouble with the Torture Rack, so in order to play safe, I've decided not to pursue the rack after a first failed attempt. Doing it again might have spelled disaster. I know my limits and I should respect his. We took quite a few shots, but I can only share the ones with mask or the ones where we don't see his face. So here it is: guess what? My signature again. Yes, that's a record: three signatures move on a same week-end. What better way to restrain big burly and cuddable opponents?
He also applied this nice reverse bearhug on the mattress:
And this rare technical Cobra Clutch. I almost was going to call it a half nelson, but a Cobra Clutch is a much more complex and effective than a half nelson.
I'm sure you realized by now that it took me a total of three separate trials/photoshoots to finally realize that I had to move the sheets, covers and pillows that I was accumulating on the sofa bed to another area so that a mountain of junk does not show up in the pictures. Sometimes, I can be pretty retarded. For a few examples, just look at the previous pictures I took above previously (scroll back up), before my matches with BadBillOfVT.  BadBillofVT is very nice guy and an often misunderstood wrestler. During our tumble, he was a bit tired, breathing fast and I was quite a bit concerned. As we made sure to include resting times between our lock-ups, he eventually recovered. He spoke and shared about his career and the development of his passion for wrestling. He started pretty late because of the taboo of wrestling in the past decades and also because he was very shy about it. He kindly gave me this very nice spandex singlet. It has a very cool look. I'll be forever thankful.  I love the pattern on the lower half and the whole gear is pretty high quality.
He did contact me afterwards to let me know that he was a bit sore, so I was apparently still a bit too rough. WrestleInMN (id 3305) was my last match, on a sunday evening. Oh boy, there's a reason why I kept him for last. We've met about five times before, he always came up to Montreal to wrestle me. It was about time I paid him a visit. I haven't wrestled him since May 2018. He came in July and August 2018, but he was only there for Montreal events (Fireworks and Highland Games). That being said, WrestleInMN has a sudden volcanic surge of energy this time around. He did one of my favorite moves when he's on me: he had me in a reverse headlock where his bulging hairy chest was on my face. I couldn't budge, do anything... Not that I really want to do anything. He's one of the few wrestlers I can kid around by saying he is the Pillsbury Dough Boy. I also flirted him many times and probably blurted out one of the cheesiest sentences I've ever dare to say: WrestleInMN: "Once I get out of this, hell you're gonna pay!" Loserboy: "With you, it's always heaven!" I actually couldn't believe what I've just said myself. Somebody reading this would probably be slapping his forehead right now. WrestleInMN has gotten considerably stronger. He learned to resist and make himself immune to leg scissors. He was able to tense up his leg and bar off the pressure I use, even with my knees. This guy is really incredible. WrestleInMN taunted me about my useless legs now. - "Where are the powerful legs that so many wrestlers have ranted about? What happened to those legs of yours? Why would wrestlers submit to those wimpy legs?", asked WrestleInMN. Yeah, WrestleInMN loves to tease me now that he's virtually invulnerable. The only thing that can make him tap are the head scissors (and even there, I think I ended up pinching his skin or hurting too much a side of the neck unintentionally) and the reverse indian deathlock which requires his cooperation. We still had an intensifying nipple pinching contest where he can be the only winner since he can still take it much much more that I can. I started to preemptively tap out to make sure that my nipples aren't too sore for the upcoming week. I want to be able to put a t-shirt and not flinch each time the fabric touches my nipples. It would remind me of WrestleInMN each time, although it's not necessarily a bad thing.  I had him in sort of restraining hold by holding his arm with both legs and holding his other arm with one arm, but this does limit the things I can do on him as well. As for the rest of the time, he was on top of me, holding me down, pinching and toying around with me. He knew that I didn't mind at all. I was actually exhausted after 3 matches this week-end and he knows it as well. I need to review and update my notes about him: I've learned this time around that he can't get deep tissue massage because he would hold his breath and pass out. I suppose it either tickles him too much or it hurts him too much. However, touching him softly tames him. He knows me a lot by now, so he is always on his guard no matter what I do. He called my attempts to tame him with a soft caress on his back "Fake news" as in a deceptive way to get him to calm down, so I can plot to do a hold on him that would miraculously make him submit. He's not wrong, you know. How else would I fulfill my title? After our 2 hours and a half match where he mostly dominated me, he took me out to see Burlington. He showed me the beautiful Church street. It's peaceful and serene, yet vibrant and beautiful on a Sunday night. Yep, it was already decorated for the holidays.  We walked around a bit and he was ranting about going up a hill. There's quite a bit of slopes in Burlington. I threw at him a little insult: - "Are you going to be okay going up the slope or are you going to tumble and roll down the hill?", I asked. - "Wait until I get you again in my holds", he replied. Despite my sarcasm, he treated me out to a nice bistro called Sweetwaters where i overate. I learned in this dinner that he is a bit of a holiday grinch, but I had a very fun and amusing evening with him. He's sweet all around, has such a nice laugh and smile and his life is full of passionate things to share. After dinner, he showed me around the city a bit more and drove me back to the hotel. He is an absolutely amazing wrestler, a formidable host... and a very handsome bear, but I've already mentioned this before. He kindly escorted me back to my room, we gave each other a big warm hug and I sighed as he left. He had to tend to his dog, so he couldn't spend the night. Burlington has quite a handful of animal lovers. I'll try to bearnap and raip this evasive bear another time. WrestleInMN also has great empathy: he actually contacted me everyday I was in Burlington to make sure that I was fine, that I didn't need any food or drink or was not too lonely or left alone. Truth be told, I should have spent more time with him. Maybe I could have locked him down after the bistro, but I didn't want to regurgitate my burger in case he puts his weight on me. I think both WrestleInMN and Suggs would get very well along with each other. Unfortunately, with the housing crisis in Vermont, nobody can host, so they never followed-up or met in any shape or form. They are very close in personality and character, they are both very witty, funny, extrovert and talkative, so I'm thinking of helping them host so they can both be together the next time I'm around. Incidentally, they both have the same age and they are both younger than I am. This is like bear haven. 4 matches out of 4. 4 was just the right amount over 3 days. Not too little, not too much. I am not too sore. Best of all: no cancellations. This is what happens in a small town of Burlington with a population of 43,000 people and 600,000 state-wide. The wrestlers here are respectful and welcoming. They do appreciate the people that come in to wrestle them. This is probably one of my best wrestling trips in my book.  I renewed friendship with an old friend, made two new great acquaintances and nudged the friend I had seen not too long ago. My only complaint is that a fun week-end like this passes by so fast.  Last thing I needed to mention that is a bit off books was that I gambled a bit by opening the Growlr application and caught a fellow called "B" who works as an opera singer. A very studly and big bear who is a very nice cuddler. Not a wrestler though, but he kept me company on a day where I was waiting. | |||||||||||||
Blog ID 210  | |||||||||||||
| Monday October 22 2018 - Tz126, GoodBoyMtl, MuscledWrestler2001, Keith_DC | Recent matches | ||||||||||||
| The last time I wrestled Tz126 (id 6866) was about 3 years ago. He came all the way from North Carolina to Quebec again last Wednesday. I had a day off so I picked him off at the airport and accompanied him to his hotel. I took the opportunity to do a few touristy stuff with him by going to the old port and incidentally, we also ended up eating at the same restaurant and attending the same light show as with WrestleInMN back in May... which kinda reminds me that I probably need to broaden my horizons and try something different for my guests. I did show him how the Montreal underground is great to avoid cold weather. However, because it is structured like a complex maze, it may sometimes be worth it to just walk outside to get to your destination. Anyhow, we had two small separate sessions where I was locking him in a couple of holds. I'd say it was mostly give and take and I had to be careful with the amount of pressure being applied. He warned me not to bounce the rack because he had a bad back. He showed me an interesting alternate variant for the reverse indian deathlock: It consists of putting your feet behind your opponent's kneecap and bend the leg backwards when your opponent is facing down. I realized in this meet that Tz126 had a fondness of anything leg stretching related: figure-fours, deathlocks, ankle locks.... We discussed previously about being okay to take private pictures, but I veto-ed the decision since I felt that he didn't seem too comfortable with the idea. It should have been clear to me that when someone only puts a single image in his profile, then it should be a hint that privacy may be of a concern. I met with GoodBoyMtl on Friday. We've spoke at least quite a few years ago, but things never worked out until recently. This guy does Jiu-Jitsu, holds and organizes tournaments and events and even have his own wrestling submission subscription-based website under the name Submission Fight. However, like other people venturing into this business, he suffered greatly from the rise of YouTube where a majority of his subscribers eventually migrated to the free content available online. The pre-YouTube era was really the golden age of independent wrestling submission streaming hubs. It's mind-numbing to see everything that YouTube destroyed in its path when it reached its peak. In addition, the province of Quebec recently instated a law to ban private submission competitions/leagues, which is really nonsense. It was probably put into effect to allow bigger corporations (like UFC) to dominate the industry. Anyhow, because of this, he had to cease his activities. This law will however be overturned later this year, so he did told me that he'll restore his website soon and he will resume organizing his competitions. GoodBoyMtl also showed to me the high-end audio visual equipment he has to create, capture and perform video editing for his site. It's quite something. He spoke about the good old times where people on his website were given a small video of the size of 360 x 240 pixels, whereas today, the technology given to us allows us to provide 4k videos that are almost 10 times as big (3,840 x 2,160 pixels). While I grew fond with Nikon over the years, Nikon specializes in taking pictures whereas he believes that Panasonic has an affinity for capturing videos. Lumix GH5 is the model he recommends. It looks rather like a photo camera, but it is well-known for its superior video taking capabilities. The price range though is a bit excessive, but it really all comes down whether you want some homegrown amateurish or professionally-made crystal-clear quality imagery. For the time being, I think I'll stick with my Nikon. Back to wrestling, GoodBoyMtl showed to me his vast and great knowledge of Jiu-Jitsu. He can easily get leverage from any given position. He insisted that I show a couple of pro holds since he's done mostly sub in his life. He bought from Wal-Mart 8 mat puzzle-pieces as his wrestling mats. They were pretty effective. I initially thought we'd place this in a 4x2 fashion, but he insisted a 3x3 layout with a corner missing a puzzle piece. It was still small nonetheless, but adequate to give and take holds. If he had more space than this and if we wrestled submission, he would probably win against me very easily. MuscledWrestler2001 (id 8009) was in town this week-end, so we've hit it off with a match. We also corresponded at least a decade ago. Distance was a little problem, but MuscledWrestler2001 has decided to do the extra mile by driving all the way from New Hampshire in a 4-5 hours drive to Montreal. I will be forever thankful for this big gesture. So, we finally got to meet and we got along pretty well: our chemistry was nice. Then again, this guy's personality and humor makes it very difficult not to get along. My assumption was he was more into sub, but he geared up in pro. We ended up doing light sub and promission. This guy is pretty strong despite recovering from a medical condition lately. I would hate to know how strong he is had I faced him in top shape. He can resist body scissors pretty well because of his frame. Mind you, he did went down from 300 to 270. Leg scissors work amazingly on him, but I think I may have overdone it. He mentioned at one point if it was the only hold I can do, so I stopped doing it. Ankle locks was pretty unfair for him since his condition doubles or triples the pain he feels near his feet. He would have been pretty okay with pictures, but I had so much fun that I had forgotten all about it. Silly me for not having taken the opportunity considering that he's pretty open to almost anything. I can feel he was lowering down the level on me and avoided using all of his weight. Not only this guy has great empathy, he is experienced and very careful. He also owns his own gym and trains/mentors a few recruits. Overall, he is very fun to rumble with: never pass an opportunity to wrestle him. You know the saying that a beginner should always wrestle with an expert to avoid getting injured? MuscledWrestler2001 is that expert: he will show you the ropes and he knows exactly what needs to be done to make you discover and love wrestling! He also works in the IT industry and he mentioned some pretty scary things about security. He told me that no matter what protection we have on our systems, there's always some sort of malware sitting there unknown to us all that can be activated at any time. The only safe computer is one that is unplugged from the internet. It's just like the saying I heard a while ago that the safest hard drive is one that is buried underground. I wrestled Keith_DC on Monday. He was in town for business and it was his first time in Montreal. We also were very compatible and we wrestled promission as well. His style reminds me of Lumber_Jack_G's wrestling style. I think both of them would have gotten along very well. There was some nice and charging intensity in our match. You could tell we would sometimes yield each other into holds we purposely wanted to be held in... after all, that's part of the definition of promission. Deep down, Keith_DC is a jobber, but he's a great heel. He likes guys near his height. He also wrestles pro and loves the abdominal stretch as a finisher. I once again over-abused my scissors on him and it really works miracle. I learned from our rumble session that "Nice!" meant "I give!". That made me realize that I should probably have agreed with a safe word with him before starting the match, but I just assumed that he already knew them considering his high amount of experience in wrestling. Overall, I felt that we were pretty even matched. Nice build, strong arms, great wrestler and an excellent personality reinforces all of his nice traits. We went out afterwards in Chinatown to eat some dumplings and I learned more about his life and career. He's one of the few exceptions, where he was able to find a comprehensive husband that also wrestles and that allows him to wrestle people around the world. Interestingly, Keith_DC asked me if Montreal is affected by the don't-wrestle-guys-in-the-same-city-you-live-in syndrome, to which I replied that it affects Montreal as well. Truth be told, just like in many big cities, on top of the usual syndrome, wrestlers are usually very picky and they want poster models as well... except for a small amount of people. By the way, GoodBoyMtl does go by SubFight (id 7506) on bearhugger and Keith_DC goes by Keith (id 4340), but these profiles have been abandoned since a while now, so I prefer to point you guys to their MeetFighters' counterpart. MuscledWrestler2001 (id 8009) goes under Wrestle123 in MeetFighters, but he seems to be active here as well. There are months where I get no wrestling at all and there are months like this one where there would be a sudden flux of wrestlers visiting Montreal either for business or leisure. With the wrestlers I've met this past week been moderate and respectful in strength and intensity, I'm happy to say that I currently don't have any sore muscles... just a few regular bruises as usual that normally goes away after a couple of days. I've started tracking this by creating this somewhat automatic calculator that counts the average of matches per month and per year. This year is already marked by a decline of matches, but the year is not over yet. I'll try to catch up on the ground I lost. A little note: When I hold an event gathering multiple wrestlers or when I go to a wrestling event, I count that as one match. Otherwise, if I put a big number, it would greatly skew the average amount of matches I get per month. | |||||||||||||
| Blog ID 206 | |||||||||||||
| Sunday August 5 2018 - 41st Montreal Highland Games | Other events | ||||||||||||
| WrestleInMN (id 3305) was in town today and he invited me to go see the 41st Montreal Highland Games. These games represents a combination of various events including pipe bands, highland dancing, tug of war, strongman athletics competition, musket/cannon firing and medieval fights. However, most importantly, every contestants, musicians and athletes there are wearing a kilt... Yes, everybody gets to be Scottish for one day. The event is held as a fundraiser for the Douglas Foundation for mental illnesses. We showed up at around noon and used a school bus shuttle to arrive near the Douglas Hospital grounds. Near the entrance, a kind lady would take our entrance fee and attach a bracelet to our wrists while explaining in french: - "It'll be 15$ per adult. Kids 14 and under get free admission." I nudged my head towards WrestleInMN and asked the lady: - "Can we consider my friend here as a 14 years old? He's very young." - "No, I'm afraid not", she answered while smiling. - "Well, he is 14 years old.. mentally." - "That's an entirely different matter." She laughed .I later explained to WrestleInMN the English translation of our conversation. If it wasn't for the crowd around, I think he probably would have headlocked me to the ground. Meheheheheh... It's always part of my evil plan to psych up wrestling bears so they have this strong desire to destroy me. Anyway, you've guessed correctly if you figured out that our main presence at the Highland Games was primarily for the Strongman Athletics Competition. About 9 strong beefy guys were doing sack throws, hammer toss, caber runs and a handful of other strength competition to show off their... well.. strength. Here's an incomplete lineup of the competitors.  From left to right, you get to see Rob Young (Orange), Owen Williams (Navy), Danny Frame (Green), Padraig Moore (Orange), Will Barron (Green). This photo is unfortunately missing four contenders. One of the commentators mentioned that Rob Young gives out big huge bearhugs... for 1$. I had my eyes set on both Padraig Moore and Danny Frame while WrestleInMN had his eyes on Will Barron. I commented out to my friend that each time Danny throws a sack or a stone, you'd see his shirt go up a bit and you get to see his belly. In contrast, Will had his t-shirt tucked down the whole time tight in his kilt. WrestleInMN mentioned that he likes his bears a bit more "refined". He asked me: - "You being a lover of bears, how come you never came to the Highland Games?" I didn't know what to answer.. I've always wanted to see these strongmen perform. I lived all my life here in Montreal and this event ran before I was even born... Yet, I've never knew or heard about it... No sense worrying about it now. It's never too late. From now on, I'll make sure I attend this on a yearly basis. I wasn't sure if cameras were allowed, so I only got my LG G4 phone to take pictures and videos. Unfortunately, this phone was definitely not meant for great pictures. The digital zoom is terrible. Of course, there were plenty of people sporting their expensive 5K worth camera with professional zoom-in lenses bigger than your arm. Had I known, I would have brought it my own Nikon to test it on the field. Meh... there's always next year. There was a heatwave going on. Both of us got sunburn, but it was well worth it. The following 40-seconds reel should summarize a few of the things that we've had the pleasure to experience throughout the day. Test We continued to walk around to admire the bagpipe marching bands, the tug of war and the medieval fights. We also listened to two country and Scottish fusion bands playing music while we gulped down haggish, lamb roast, fish and chips and lemonade. We also visited kiosks selling artisan goods, t-shirts, jewelry, weapons and more food. I just realized I bought nothing as a souvenir. The tug of war was pretty interesting. Four delegations were competing with each other with one tug of war presented each hour. The finalists were The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada and The Stingers from Concordia University. The Stingers ultimately won the war.... but it doesn't end there. The host invited children from the crowd to challenge the Stingers in a tug of war to see if they can win against the champions. Obviously, the kids won... because the Concordia Stingers were instructed to let them win. It's probably the cutest thing I've seen at this event. You should see the kids reaction: "Hey, we just won against eight beefy quarterback players of 260 lbs each! We're stronger than them!" There were musketeers trying to shoot their muskets, but they seemed to have a few mechanical problems. I was recording them for 2 minutes waiting for them to shoot. WrestleInMN eventually told me to stop recording and as soon as I pressed the stop button, the musketeers were able to fire a shot a few seconds later. Go figure.  Thankfully, WrestleInMN was able to get a video of a separate cannon shot during the opening ceremony, which I included in the summary reel.The strongmen caber toss was definitely a highlight. WrestleInMN took the opportunity to explain to me his grand knowledge of this particular event. The caber toss is thrown not for power, but for precision. It needs to do a 180 degree flip and needs to fall straight forward from where it is thrown. This was my first time seeing this, so yeah, it was quite something. I get it now why many people come to these games just to see the caber toss. Around 5 pm, I started getting a headache from the heat, so we took the shuttle back and parted ways. I would have wrestled WrestleInMN, but he needs to drive back to Vermont to take care of his dog. We have decided to reschedule our match for perhaps October or November. Back home, I shudder with a bit of pain while putting Aloes on the back of my neck... it's always the one spot I always get burned from over-exposition to the sun. | |||||||||||||
| Blog ID 199 | |||||||||||||
| Sunday July 29 2018 - A modest amount of activity | Recent matches | ||||||||||||
| Near the end of last month, I had a visit from Ed Scissors from the UK. If you read his pseudonym carefully, you can actually read the pun "Head Scissors" from his name. I actually didn't get it the first few times until he told me about it. Hence, our match was mainly a one-sided, give and take session. I tested out my head scissors of different intensities on Ed. Ed's fondness for this hold is the shifting between a near-submission strength head scissors, in contrast with a regular, non-threatening head scissors with almost no pressure. He's quite a nice guy and you can ask him to do holds in return as well. I invited EvilDark (id 1077) to Montreal 2 weeks ago to watch one of the fireworks from the Loto-Quebec International Fireworks competition directly at the site of La Ronde, part of Six Flags. The firm Apogée was representing Canada and they did a fairly good job. I never miss any of these shows. You could say I'm a pyromaniac. No, not in the sense of burning things, but seeing lots of fireworks in the skies. Nevertheless, we did manage to wrestle a wee bit afterwards. That being said, EvilDark is also a head scissors lover. That would make three people fond of headscissors I've met recently. Maybe in another life, I should have made this page the headscissors.net website instead of bearhugger.net? I went and checked the URL just for fun and it seems that someone has already acquired the domain name. I also had a short visit from WrestleInMN (id 3305). We only had time for fireworks as well, but he was luckier because he was able to watch the presentation from Dragon Fireworks representing Philippines. It was definitely one of the better display this year. In fact, it was far better than Canada's display by a mile. WrestleInMN left shortly after the show because of his complex schedule, but we've agreed to try to reschedule something in the weeks to come. You may find the video down below boring.. but being there in person, surrounded by all these fireworks... it's really something! Last, but not least, BeastMtl (id 10067) kindly invited me for a Just For Laughs festival show with Jack Septiceye. He may be a YouTube phenomenon, but I've never heard about him until now. Jack's show was pretty good: he's a nice comedian and has excellent motivational speaking skills. He was explaining to everyone how he reached his point of life by starting from scratch. I have to admit that, in person, he has quite some charisma, because I went and watched a couple of his videos after the show and there was no way I would, in normal circumstances, follow someone like that online. He is very expressive in his videos. I guess his style is a bit different for me. I suppose my last two encounters don't really count as wrestling, but I will be following up with both wrestlers for a match soon enough. | |||||||||||||
| Blog ID 198 | |||||||||||||
| Monday May 21 2018 - Warming up... | Recent matches | ||||||||||||
| I guess you could say that I am currently trying to prepare and to warm up for the upcoming Clash. I am still not where I was 2 years ago, so I'll make sure to take it easy. I'm thinking of just participating in the singles pro tournament. I'd probably avoid submission this year even though this is usually my cup of tea. In any case, most wrestlers will be heavier than I am, so I'm just trying to play safe. On May 5th, I met back with Vicious (id 5128) to catch up after a long absence. We've caught up on time lost and the reasons behind it. Now I know why I need to write this down as fast as I can, because all I remember is that our match was very light, we spoke a lot and we went for sushi afterwards. I think he got the better end of me in that match. This week-end, I had 3 matches, about one per day. We're having a long week-end in Canada because of Victoria day or Patriot's day. I had a rematch with BeastMtl (id 10067). We went light-sub to give and take. Mid-way we did some pillow talk (or ceiling talk) and that's how I realized that deep down, he is a jobber, but not a willing jobber, meaning you have to fight for it. For some reason, I keep forgetting that he loves camels.. or even the sleeper camels. His body is way more flexible than mine and I need to take note that I should camel him on a more regular basis. I ended up doing a full nelson camel which was probably very bad for him, because we stopped shortly afterwards: I might have tore a ligament in his shoulders, it went numb and he had trouble lifting it. No matter how careful you are, these kind of injuries happen frequently in wrestling. I told him to follow up with me on the recovery and it seems it might take a few weeks to fully heal... hopefully. I guess this is why some people tell me that I'm sadistic and I have a history of hurting people. BeastMtl was very nice to calm me down: he wrote something that really shows that he was easy on it: "Accidents happen, it wasn’t intentional and that’s good enough for me. [...] And frankly I’d rather my first injury happen from a friend than some stranger anyway." BeastMtl is a guy with a big heart. Please wrestle him... when he recovers from the injury I caused him. I also had another rematch with Phil (id 5843). I also spent time listening to him and get to know him better. He trusts me a lot because he usually is completely defensive, but he is slightly less so when he wrestles me. I tried to get Phil to take pictures, but he wasn't in the mood for it. With Phil, you have to go the extra mile and reach for him to wrestle him because he normally won't reach for you. Then again, I would say that's sort of my behavior as well... so I shouldn't blame him for his own. I learned a lot more about Phil this time around. If there is one thing that we really have in common is that he does like to be sometimes helpless and purposely not defend in a given situation. That shows his inner jobber, despite not wanting to be "jobbered" in a regular match. It looks somewhat contradictory, but it's a lot simpler than it seems. I guess when you build this trust, you can make Phil a happy and willing jobber. My last match this long week-end was with WrestleInMN (id 3305). I hadn't seen him since last September, despite me being so fond of him. He's really the type of guy I would capture and... uh... I'll let you fill in the blanks. You could say I'm ambitious and live dangerously because this guy is a hundred pounds heavier than me, but then again it's not new that I have a thing for bears... plus he wrestles... and he likes nipple play. And when he does this reverse headlock on me, he has this nice big furry pec on my face... I become defenseless and powerless. WrestleInMN didn't make it easy for me. He never did. For some reason, I did not read up on the weaknesses I've noted for him. I'll mark them down again now so that I don't forget: - Forward/backwards grapevine works well - Ankle locks only works if you are low enough - Leg scissors works great... if you can get the great angle which is very difficult. - Arm scissors only temporarily makes him angrier and he can eventually escape very well by bridging. Strange though, because reading back on our first encounter, he did enjoy this arm scissors. I guess things change. I think this time around, we've been more aggressive. Since it's our third time, he didn't hesitate to play dirty by grabbing me down there or twisting my nipples. I ultimately submitted several times because I didn't want to have my nips (or my jewels!) sensitive before the Clash. Yes, I'm a wuss. I did take my revenge by scissoring and locking his leg over and over... I wanted him to cooperate with me for a full nelson body scissors, but WrestleInMN is not someone that just gives you a freebie. You need to deserve it. There was a funny part where I accidentally gave him a headbutt. He held the upper part of his nose and thank goodness he didn't bleed. That kinda stopped the match for a little while. Again, not really bright from my end, but to my defense, it was NOT intentional. I never headbutt my opponents.. except by accident. At point, i ended up doing an animal sound because that's little old me being happy. Call it a very unusual habit. WrestleInMN noticed the noise and he ended up saying: "Okay, Pikachu." Hehehe... He also shared with me this story, which I found amusing: On January 2017, WrestleInMN went to Canada to seek asylum for a day. He went into the Montreal subway, inserted a 20$ bill in the automated ticketing machine when suddenly a drunk homeless person also held on to the 20$ bill. WrestleInMN was pretty grumpy and warned the guy: "Sir, let go. Or I will break your wrist!" The drunk guy started babbling incomprehensible french words. Probably ranting that he needs the money for food. WrestleInMN starts grumbling: "You don't want to mess around with me! Today is Trump's inauguration day AND I AM ONE UNHAPPY AMERICAN!" At this point, the two ladies at the back of the queue were dying of laughter. Fortunately, security guards came in and took the drunk guy away. WrestleInMN did mention that had the drunk guy remained calm and patient, he would probably have gave him a dollar or two dollar coin that the machine would have refunded as change for the subway fare. Now I'm sure I completely butchered his story, but WrestleInMN really has a way to tell things to make them entertaining. I consider WrestleInMN an extrovert: he always has great and funny stuff to share. He spoke fondly of his dog of Akita breed that he had for 12 years. He told me about his career path and his absolute devotion for it. He works so hard and it's nice to see that he enjoys it. Not many people I can talk to enjoy what they are doing on a daily basis. I told him I almost followed a similar path, but diverged away because I was seduced by consumerism and individualism.. and of course, by wrestling, but career and wrestling are not mutually exclusive, I should remember that. We went to see the Aura Montreal light show in the Notre-Dame basilica and I had to admit, I was really really impressed. I mean I'm in Montreal and I didn't even know this thing existed! Afterwards, we hung out at Stash Café Polish restaurant where I had.. Italian Pierogis... uh I mean, Polish Pierogis. For some reason, I had always though that Pierogis were an Italian dish. WrestleInMn explained to me that he went to this restaurant after the inauguration. As he crossed the border to Canada, he explained to the customs officer that he will spend his hard-earned American money elsewhere. I also found out that WrestleInMN is a real Trekkie fan. How do you find that out? Well simple, all real Trekkie fan hate all the new reboot movies with Chris Pine and J. J. Abrams. They love the original movies and the TV shows. Since the light show was a thing he liked, I suggested him to return in either July or August where we'll be holding our annual fireworks festival. Actually, I should go send him the dates right now. | |||||||||||||
| Blog ID 191 | |||||||||||||
| Monday September 4 2017 - WrestleInMN, round 2 | Recent matches | ||||||||||||
| WrestleInMN (id 3305) came back to Montreal on Labour day, so we had some more fun going on. Our first match was barely 2 weeks ago. I felt that I didn't hold him down as much as I did in our previous match, but he felt I did more. He figured a way to nullify my leg scissors by contracting the muscles on his quadriceps, so I ended up wasting a lot of strength for nothing. This is why most opponents know how to beat me after a while because I usually employ and rely on the same tricks frequently. He did complain again that I wasn't defending myself much when he had his weight on me and I did tell him this time that if he wrestled someone 100 lbs heavier than him, he would do the same thing. He replied: "Well, unfortunately, that person isn't here." Funny tidbit: he went and read my blog prior to our encounter and was wondering why I had my own corner, my own blog. He pondered: He eventually figured it out and understood what was going on. He made sure of it by asking me if I'm the webmaster. We had a nice night. I got to know him better and he got to know me better. We spoke about our lives, how we got into wrestling and how close we are to our families. I realized I have a lot more in common than I thought. After a great fight that exhausted us and a nice discussion, we gave another tight hug and we parted ways. I asked him to stay in touch.... and slowly, he disappeared under a heavy rain. I had to tell him during our match that he had nothing to fear about the marks on my body. The day before, I wrestled a good friend briefly who applied a pec claw on me. I didn't budge because it wasn't hurting me, but my skin marks easily. In consequence, I had on my chest what looked like tattoos or battle scars, but they are simply pressure marks that will go away in a couple of days.  I think the worst that ever happened to me regarding my sensitive skin is a collar. I had a wrestler who applied pressure on the collar he made me wear and I ended up having marks on my neck. Now try going to work with a mark like that and you can imagine the embarrassment I had to go through when a colleague noticed it and asked me how was my week-end... Uh.... | |||||||||||||
| Blog ID 150 x 1 | |||||||||||||
| Friday August 18 2017 - WrestleInMN: Do not judge a book by its cover | Recent matches | ||||||||||||
| WrestleInMN (id 3305) and I wrote messages back and forth since a while now, but I was always skeptical of his profile. A few images, no recommendations and a recent description change to indicate that he no longer wrestles. I'm thinking cyber or fake or both. On top of that, one of his descriptions in his other profiles mentioned two body types criteria which I don't fulfill. I am definitely not a muscle bear, nor do I consider myself as an athletic muscle guy. So after reading his requirements, I've told myself that my chances of meeting him were less than ~1%. His pictures is a little bit scary because he is very serious... but then again, very few people smile in their wrestling pictures. WrestleInMN re-contacts me anyway showing an interest in meeting, so we try to make things work. I offer to take a day off, but he politely suggests a different day where I don't have to use up my vacation days. I'm seeing here a nice courtesy gesture, so this starts to increase his authenticity and it also hints that he genuinely wants to wrestle. Considering that he is doing the extra mile by traveling all the way from Vermont to Montreal, I try to do my part and rent the ring in advance. He shows up and the first thing I see is a smile which completely reverses the perception I have of him. This is why you don't judge a book by its cover... or in this case, a profile by just its images and a small description. What I see is a cute happy bear with a handsome smile, a nice goatee, a short but scrawny and brawny build. Heck, a bear that I would love to cuddle... and wrestle of course. We get inside the building and I ask if he wants to talk a bit, but he said he came to wrestle. He removes his t-shirt... and wow.. uh.. he is completely my type. This 260 lbs bear has a great constitution and the right amount of hair on his chest and arms. I am melting and I become intimidated. Then again, you guys know I always get like this in the presence of a bear. In any case, I pulled myself together and got ready to wrestle. My mental state was leaning towards a jobber match where I would be working him over as a heel (yea, I know, I don't get to be a heel pretty often) because that's what I understood from his profile. Well, I was completely wrong. He was defending himself, using his weight and he started taunting me: - "Is that it? Where's the power that the other wrestlers were talking about?" I didn't say it, but I was thinking that I should have told him that if he was facing an opponent that was 100 lbs heavier, then he would have quite some trouble too! When he was on top of me, there was barely anything I can do. Wiggling away meant wasting loads of energy, most of the time it was almost for nothing. In this position, I've decided mostly to relax and to recover. I would still at times engage in a test of strength just to show him the little challenge I can give him. We were doing light sub, although it felt almost like full sub, but I could sense that he was occasionally toning it down for me, which allowed me to flip him over once in a while. A soft tender caress on his back, shoulders, sides and neck could tame him just for a little wee bit: it can lower his guard and give you an opening to fight back. When I was able to be on top of him, I made sure to maintain that position because he was unforgiving. He can definitely hold his own even though he likes to be worked over, but you need to deserve it: you need to work hard for it... or at least give a significant amount of effort. Very few wrestlers I meet also have an affinity for nipple play, but this stud had it and he had it more than I do. This is where I thank MeetFighters for giving me this hint, although I have to admit that he started playing with my nipples first and pretty early in the game, so I would probably have picked it up anyway. I personally feel I have a strong tolerance to have my nipples squeezed or nibbled, but this guy is at a level far beyond my own. It's a game that he would win if I dare to play against him. And yes, each time I did it, I lost. Another hint on one of his wrestling profiles indicated that he likes gut punching, but it seems that each time I did it, it would infuriate him and give him the required strength to power out of my moves. Use that with caution. Body scissors would do nothing to him, but leg scissors had a good impact. Leg locks were worthless because this guy is also strong in the legs. Luckily, I can take his scissors well (he has some very strong ones by the way). While I was on top, I took his right arm in a hook and held his left arm: he would then try to flip me over, but using this technique you can use his weight as leverage against him. Reverse sleepers are effective, but that's not really my style. The arm bar with arm scissors is a winner and despite him fighting back to the maximum, he really enjoys it... because being dominated is part of his fondness for wrestling. No pictures and no videos were taken, because of his work domain. I understand that. I did ask him however if I could rack him. Lucky for me, he was racked in the past by someone that was three times my size, so he has an idea on how to position himself. Indeed, his 260 lbs became 210 lbs over my shoulders. I then ask him if he can cooperate with me for a full nelson body scissors which he nicely let me do. It worked well, but he was puzzled because he asked me: - "Where was this power earlier?" Moves like the rack and the full nelson body scissors require cooperation. It's entirely different. I tried applying it during our light sub match, but it's a move that can easily be blocked. It's not like anyone would turn their back against me to let me pull my signature on them. And don't get me started about racking someone in a sub match!!! I learned that my body scissors would do something to him, only from the rear and only if he allowed me to do it properly. My frontal scissors were only a defending position that made him grin. I was thinking that if I had boots, maybe I would have had a better chance because I would get a better and tighter grip. The ring facilitated things for us because of the space. We rolled left and right without being afraid of hitting walls and without reaching a surface that would leave us with carpet burns. We did not use the ropes because the majority of our moves were ground-based. In a hotel/motel space, we would have to constantly re-position the mats and the bed sheets. Given his light sub style, I felt very safe wrestling him. I did mention in the past that I usually don't do sub with guys heavier than me because I need to watch out after my injuries, but this guy knew how to wrestle carefully. I felt that the chances of him harming me were almost non-existent. Outside the ring, WrestleInMN is sociable and talkative. You can sense from him that he has a positive attitude, is respectful of others and has a vibe that emanates trust. He has great experiences to share and funny tidbits that will make you laugh. All in all, WrestleinMN was a big surprise. Would I wrestle him again? Absolutely! A couple of days later, I asked him if I left him any sores or bruises. He told me that his quads were killing him, probably from all the squeezing of my leg scissors on his legs. He suggested that I probably should be doing that again. | |||||||||||||
| Blog ID 146 | |||||||||||||
