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| Friday June 30 2023 - Majestic Sleeper | Visitors in town | ||||||
| MajesticSleeper was in town for work and he pinged me for a match. He told me beforehand that he is a fan of bearhugger, having seen some of my photo matches in the past. Hmmm... what I wouldn't do for a fan? 😉 His face was cut off (or altered) on his profile so I didn't know what to expect. You guys know that I like to go blind anyway because these kinds of meet sometimes hide some of the best surprises. And I think this gamble paid off... 😅  When I arrive to his hotel room, lo' and behold, a cute asian bear originally from Thailand was right in front of me, greeting me at the door and asking me to wrestle him. It was certainly not what I thought I would see from the picture and the limited profile information, but I am not complaining: on the contrary, I'm welcoming the unexpected since he does have the body shape that I like along with the rare chest hair that is usually very rare and scarce among asians. He has 6 years of wrestling experience (started around 2017), but it's on and off like most us, and I suppose you could cut 2 where we were all isolated. That being said, we took a light submission approach. He was easy for me to handle, I could tumble him with a bit of effort and he eventually asked me to boost my game by giving him a harder time. I gave him scissors, I gave him leg locks and leg scissors... I get a tap here and a tap there... I made it harder for him to try and put holds on me, then I gave reverse sleepers, arm bars and bear hugs. He of course threw on me his own arsenal, but I was a bit mean and wouldn't let him get any submissions. Hey, he did ask me to make it harder on him.😂 He works in a medical field and a very big fan of Schitt's Creek. I will probably get to see him again this year or next year, but he's only staying temporarily in Canada for his training and education. He currently lives in a small city in Ontario. Eventually, when his university years are completed, he'll move to the states so I'll have to make the most of it while I still can with this hunky beary stud. I also did meet SaturnS22 last week-end, but we took it very chill and this would be one of the few encounters that I would say that it doesn't count as a wrestling match, but we'll meet again to catch up for the lost match. 😉 | |||||||
Blog ID 349  | |||||||
| Thursday June 30 2022 - Hotel match: Jason + Elrac | Recent matches | ||||||
| I had 2 local matches yesterday: one with a new Montreal wrestler who goes by "Jason" and another one I now consider a veteran and an old friend: Elrac (id 692). Jason and I suggested that we meet in a suburb south of Montreal because motels there are cheaper. We agreed on a 50/50 share on the costs of the motel, but he ended up canceling. We eventually managed to reschedule it for now given his insistence that we should meet. I took the risk of covering the whole costs of the hotel this time, but I guess that a was a slight mistake from my end. Jason arrived. He came out straight from work with his security guard uniform. He was tall, had this scrappy build and was around 230 lbs I believe. His build is the intimidating build that does match his profession. 😅 We tumbled around for roughly ~5 minutes. I managed to rack him, bearhug him, put him in his favorite holds: the schoolboy pin and the cradle. He's still a rookie though: I did made him tap a few times in my scissors and that might have scared him. Suddenly, he took his phone, dialed something and told me he had to leave, citing a family emergency: his son of 7 years old was at the hospital. I offered him to shower before he leaves to be presentable at the hospital. He took the offer, cleaned himself up, and then, shortly after he left, he deleted his MeetFighters profile. Hmmmm... 🤔 I guess I either scared the 💩 out of him or I was a really bad experience. I mean there are better ways to express something aside from deleting a profile, but you'll always have some of those in today's era. 🤷♂️ All you can do at this point is to shrug and move on. There's no sense for me feeling remorse or regret for someone I met in person for 5 minutes and even less for someone who can't appreciate that I covered for all the hotel costs. Meh. Fast forward four months later (in October 2022), he did re-create a new profile under the name "Stephane450", so I realized he is one of those the create and delete profiles over and over again to keep the least amount of tracks possible. Elrac (id 692) was fortunately my backup, whom I had wrestled last in March 2019. He's still the same jobber, who has a desire to dominate over guys smaller than him. His favorite hold is the neck hang or the lifted choke. Can you tell that I'm on a chair? 😂 Shhh... Don't tell anyone!
His strength on arms and chest are pretty good, but his legs are his weakness, whereas for me, it's pretty much the opposite. Regardless, that didn't prevent me from putting on him my bearhug!
For good measure, how about I finish it off with a devastating groin claw of excruciating pain? 😅
Elrac and I also had a small arm wrestling match. While we were busy tumbling, we were supposed to wait for a third opponent, but that guy also chickened out and never showed up. This third opponent was a new guy that Elrac has met on Grindr that had a little interest in wrestling. The problem was that Elrac only spoke to him a few days ago and he never met him in person. He invited him to the hotel, but to no surprise, the guy ghosted Elrac after his invite. Life isn't perfect, but you learn to cherish those opponents that are reliable. Elrac and I agreed to meet again in the future, but we should probably narrow down the gap of 3 years to maybe somewhere around 6 months or 1 year. Then again, these were circumstances outside of our control, right? On a side note, there is apparently a monkeypox outbreak in Canada and Montreal is considered an epicenter. Luckily, I took my shot 10 days ago on June 20, but I did have a rash that formed just underneath my left arm where I received the shot. I'm sure it'll go away, but now that I think of it, maybe I scared Jason with this rash? 😅 | |||||||
| Blog ID 332 | |||||||
| Tuesday January 12 2021 - Dark Shadow | Past matches | ||||||
| Oops... I forgot to write something in December. My bad. I do need to give my blog a little bit more love, but with all the running around I've been doing lately and the restoration of the site plus the holidays with family, friends and loved ones, I guess time flies faster than you can imagine. In the province of Quebec, we are having a curfew at 8 pm. If you go outside after this time, you can be fined anywhere between 1k and 5k. Hotels also reserve the right to check that both you and your guest live at the same address or else they can refuse access to their premises. Needless to say, it's pretty hard to schedule anything these days if you can't host for a wrestling match and if your opponent can't stay over with you for the night. That being said, now would be a good time to reminiscence on matches I've had in the past and never had the opportunity to discuss in my blog. I've started this part of the site in January 2015, but I obviously had matches before that. So let's pick one of my memoerable matches from the Wrestlefest I've attended in NYC: February 2011 to be specific where I fought a fellow pro wrestler who goes by the name of Dark Shadow (id 1978). I remember he was definitely pro-oriented with very little pressure on the holds. His moniker tends to put him towards the heel side, but that didn't prevent me from cheating and occasionally take the upper end and illegally apply more pressure than we are instructed to do so in a pro match. Come to think of it, I guess that's why some wrestlers are scared of me.  Dark Shadow is a very sweet guy (a teddy bear as with most big guys) and you can see from these pics that I was already loving the size difference, wrestling bigger guys, mean bears, pretending I can beat them and snatch their championship belt. Doesn't it look good when a smaller guy seemingly has control over an opponent that is almost twice their size?
I just realized from this pic above that Dark Shadow was really gear oriented as well, because all of his gear matches: black boots, kneepads, elbow pads, wristbands and black masks. Everything goes together! And we all know that black is usually the color of dominant and winning heels.  I guess I really didn't need to say that after my daring (but courageous) attempt, Dark Shadow was obviously able to turn the tables on me and show how a real heel steals the show. Wanna know the funny part? His bearhug may look fierce, but you guessed it, in reality, his bearhug wouldn't hurt a fly. 
The big strong heel didn't mind things like those claws you don't necessarily see on TV. Of course, he was glad to show me what other illegal holds he hides in his trunks. 
It's matches like these that makes events like the Wrestlefest worth it. If you had one match out of five or ten that was good, then you made yourself a friend whom you can wrestle again in the years to come. You can't be a perfect fit with everyone you meet. Undeniably, some matches will go well, others will be bad and a little handful can go extremely well. You can't have a good chemistry with every wrestler, but if you do find one, then do hold onto it so that you stretch the fun and develop a good wrestling comradeship.  That being said, would I go to the US this year for another long overdue wrestling event? Unfortunately, probably not. Going across the borders is currently still limited to essential travel and I do believe I need to respect the measures for another year. Even in Montreal, I tried reaching for another wrestler to schedule a hotel match just to be scolded and being told that I need to be a more responsible citizen and follow what the experts are telling us. Hey, I'm not a microbiologist, a doctor or a nurse to be able to tell how bad it really is in the front lines. I did at one point have strong thoughts of doing volunteer work in a hospital to do my part of the fight and help reduce the strain on the system, but someone living with me is a person at risk, so I'll have to put that thought aside for now. Anyhow, my match with Dark Shadow is still listed under Match ID 94 if you want to see more. I'm also looking back at the date... February 2011... It's been 10 years! Wow, I was young back then and I didn't have the belly I have now.  The sanitary crisis has been tough for everyone and I've been lazy, but that's not a reason for me to try and continue to train as much as I can to get back in shape. | |||||||
| Blog ID 304 | |||||||
| Saturday June 29 2019 - In progress: Cubby vs Loserboy | In progress | ||||||
| After 7 months, I've decided I'll take some time to sit down and write a scenario for the match I had with Cubby (id 4578) in November 2018. The last match I wrote before that was in December 2018, so it's not too bad. Usually, it takes me a whole year before I splurge out a new scenario. Anyhow, It's done. It took me 6 hours to sort/pick/resize the pictures, write the story, re-arrange the sections, do a few editing passes and put it all together. Phew. I've sent it to Cubby for approval and I'm waiting for his reply. The story might still change depending on his feedback. That being said, I won't post the match publicly yet until he gives me the "ok". For this blog entry, I took the liberty to include four pictures that has different frame shots than the ones I've included in the match. Since my camera was configured to shoot rapidly in a short time lapse, I usually pick anywhere from two to five pictures of the same hold in a set of twenty. What happens with the other shots? Well, I take another one or two to post it here and I discard the rest. They are usually trash because the hold was being prepared, someone closed their eyes, I was doing a weird grimace or I ended up laughing or smiling too much.  Mind you, you'll notice that in the pics I select for any given match, I still smile too much, but that's because I really don't have any other pics I could use to replace them. And wrestling is supposed to be fun anyway and you guys know that I don't take myself seriously when I write these scenarios or take the pictures. WolfJobber (id 8490) once told me that my wrestling matches scenarios are very campy and I absolutely intend to leave them that way. So here are a few: we'll start with me putting on a Reverse Indian Deathlock on Cubby. What better moment to show who's the boss? I really love Cubby's expression here.
I'm probably very obnoxious with this nipple hold on Cubby, but he is really irresistible and I don't find that many wrestlers that are into nipples... so... I'm gonna take advantage of it.  Plus, Cubby seems to cooperate very well, expressing sorrow in an otherwise pleasurable hold.
I know what you're thinking. Does Cubby even fight back at all? Well, of course he does. Here, Cubby shows his newfound strength by lifting me up and carrying me around. *blush* Cubby can always lift carry me anytime wherever and whenever he wants. 
Finally, Cubby combines his knee backbreaking skills with a little claw on the gut! For him, I am light as a feather. He pulled this out with ease.
I'm gonna run the risk of repeating myself, but I'll do it again anyway: Cubby gives me hope that handsome wrestlers his age and generation can still show respect, honor the agreed schedule and travel hours to have a match with you. Cubby is a a very good and kind wrestler, so I hope you guys will get a chance to wrestle him too one day if you ever make it to Florida.  | |||||||
| Blog ID 252 | |||||||
| Thursday May 30 2019 - A long time since Sylvain | Recent matches | ||||||
| I wrestled Sylvain (id 2636) briefly. We did had a short match at the beginning of the month, so we've decided to meet again to have a longer one together. Ironically, I think we wrestled for about 15 minutes... and the rest of the time, Sylvain ended up talking about life, politics, career and a handful of other subjects. After about two hours, I had to leave to get some rest for work tomorrow. I ended up thinking that politics is a terrible subject to talk about in a wrestling match. Note to self: I perhaps need to jump on Sylvain and interrupt him often by locking him a hold. | |||||||
| Blog ID 248 | |||||||
| Thursday January 17 2019 - Real archives: 2005-2012 | Archives | ||||||
| These photos really really REALLY are classified as archives because they have been taken at least 7 years ago or more (the oldest pic was actually taken 14 years ago). This one features Frank in 2006. Yep, that was back at a time where I still wanted to use wrestling masks for privacy. I lost contact with him as years went by, but I did remember that we've wrestled about half a dozen times. I also remember that he used to bring a dog in the hotel room. It was a dog in training for the MIRA foundation program, a Quebec-based organization that provides guiding dogs for the blind or for the people who needs them for their day-to-day activity. If you volunteer to train a dog with them, you are tasked with the mission of always bringing the dog everywhere you go so that he gets used to it. And as weird it may seems, this includes bringing them in the hotel room where you are having a wrestling match with someone else. Anyhow, after 1-2 years, these dogs then undergo a rigorous 2-5 years program to be trained as guidance dogs and not every one of them graduate.I do recall that his dog was extremely curious and wanted to join us when we were wrestling. I'm pretty sure he was whimpering while I was hurting his master with this full nelson camel clutch combo.
That camera was a Canon Powershot A95. It was still trusty back then. The good old days of prepping the camera for 3 shots over 10 seconds of preparation. Rinse and repeat. This one is from 2005. Another one whom I lost contact. I've only known him as SubJobber (id 713), a very cute furry bearcub. Head scissors were his weaknesses.
The picture below is from FrankyBoyTheLegend taken in 2012. As you may have guessed from the picture, this guy loves to have his abs punished. I don't think we did any wrestling holds. Just gut punching. This is actually the most recent pic of the bunch in this entry.
The only nickname I have in my records for the next pic is BD. All I know is that this guy was mostly into trampling. I would trample him for an hour or two and in the end, I would get a minute or two of bearhugs. Back in 2006, yes, I would have given anything for a bearhug, even if it meant working a lot for it. You can also tell from the picture that I was piss poor and I would only wear your typical everyday underwear to wrestle. Actually, the one I was wearing was even oversized because I forgot to do my laundry.
Last but not least, I labeled this guy as Spike. You can still find a scenario with him under Match ID 11. He is more of a gear master and while our interests diverge a bit, we did find ways to have fun regardless... Spike applied a nice semi-headlock in this picture. This was 10 years ago, back in 2009.
Would I wrestle any of these guys again if it was possible? Absolutely. Maybe I'll get to meet them again one day. Who knows? With today's technology, it's not difficult to find back old friends. That being said, most of these guys had specific interests that loosely collide with wrestling, but back then, when the wrestling community was still small, you'd compromise and meet up anyway to try and make things work. | |||||||
| Blog ID 226 | |||||||
| Friday December 21 2018 - PV with EvilDark | Recent matches | ||||||
| EvilDark (id 1077) and I just came back from a trip from Puerto Vallarta in Mexico where we stayed for a week at an all inclusive resort just to relax. Anyhow, we took a little opportunity anyway to tumble and take a few pics and experiment with the helmets and masks I acquired previously. EvilDark is donning the Master Chief helmet from Halo while I am wearing the Solder-76 half-mask from Overwatch. Yes, I still haven't played any of those games, but who cares when wearing them just looks nice. The one I'm wearing has a CR2032 battery that will light up a red LED line at the eye level. In an attempt to match the visor colors, I added yellow briefs along with orange wristbands and ankle bands. With all this in place, here is now EvilDark lifting me in a reverse bearhug:
Yes, I know, the gear I'm wearing shows too much of my junk. I don't think anyone is complaining though.This below was supposed a cobra clutch combo with a body scissors, but I guess EvilDark had forgotten to squeeze his legs... so, here we have just a simple, yet effective, cobra clutch without body scissors.
We of course took pics without masks as well. One of EvilDark's favorite is the head scissors:
And one of the holds he hates the most is the Reverse Indian Deathlock. Notably, he was injured in the past by someone who lost balance and tripped forward as his opponent was applying on him this hold.
The irony here is that I was actually showing him how to apply the hold, so he can lock it back on me. EvilDark locked this Reverse Indian Deathlock before, but with time, it's pretty easy to forget. He was due for a refresher, plus the lighting here in this hotel room is significantly better than my previous recording, so I can now use this new video as a demo for other wrestlers. You can check out [  Clip ID 356 ] to see EvilDark's application of the Reverse Indian Deathlock on me. I'll reiterate that this is one of the moves that requires the least amount of strength to apply. Yet, it inflicts a high amount of pain on your opponent. It is very effective and almost impossible to escape once locked in. Technically, once you know this hold, you'll technically become an unstoppable beast. Applying it in a competitive match is however virtually impossible. So yeah, this is usually a cooperative move.All in all, this completes all my trips for this year. I think I'll take it easy for the upcoming months. What about Puerto Vallarta? Don't worry, I didn't stay inside the whole time. I did the usual. You know: the beach, the sunset, too much food. I gained another five pounds and this does not include the upcoming holiday meals... EvilDark and I played quite a bit of Ping Pong. He also introduced me to Billiards, but I honestly suck and need more practice on the side. We saw a couple of nightly shows that were included at the resort, such as 3 Tenors singing, A Michael Jackson show (very typical), a circus, a reggae night, a risqué show and a cabaret. Here's probably my best selfie cliché. It was taken in the El Centro in Puerto Vallarta at the edge of the Los Muertos Beach (The Dead Beach as per Google Translate).  Nearby is the Blue Chairs, a beach bar and hotel known to cater for the LGBT. Pass the Blue Chairs, the beach is too rocky and underdeveloped for any viable business, leaving this untouched beauty of the nature intact. This is in contrast with what our hotel looks like. In the background of this silly selfie, you can see the man-made pools and the typical tanning chairs.  You'd think I follow baseball, but no, I just love the t-shirt and the fabric is so soft.  What are the Chicago Cubs anyway? Just kidding. EvilDark insisted that I also add this picture below because I apparently look like a wrestler in it.  I don't know how it makes me look so, but you can ask him. It's just a typical selfie on the beach, but I guess I look mean and imposing instead of smiling.  The red flag in the back is an indicator to let people know that they should not be swimming. Beach waves in PV are known to be rather fierce, high and aggressive. They are strong enough to knock you backwards or make you spin inside the water with a chance of bumping your head on a rock. Technically, it's a "Swim at your own risk" flag. The resort even installed several layers of rocks in order to reduce the impact and strength of the waves, but even there, they were occasionally still too strong or too dangerous for a safe swim.  Anyhow, it does feel quite surreal to be back in Montreal... and going back to work in about two weeks. Sometimes, we need a reality check, but it still doesn't hurt to go out and have fun once in a while. Okay... Maybe I had a bit too much fun with four different destinations, but it really really has been a long while since I made trips like these.  This map shows my overall itinerary, but not in the correct order. Burlington, Orlando, Boston and PV was the order I followed. Also, I did go back to Montreal in between each of the trips to switch out gear and luggage, but also to get a healthy dose of rest and sleep in between. After all, there is no place like home.  Trips are a good way to test your friendship and your compatibility to one and another. I've known EvilDark for 15 years now and we've been through a lot of good times, but we've also been through a few rough patches together. We've stopped wrestling competitively because of our ego and because of our anger. I still remember the time where we landed on the carpet and he'd refuse to let go, but also because I was stubborn and refuse to end the match when he clearly asked politely to end it. That was absolutely our game changer. We've never wrestled competitively to that level ever again. Today, we still apply holds on each other, sometimes, putting more strength than usual, sometimes not respecting our opponent's wish to release, holding him a tad longer, but we ultimately do a bigger effort to be mindful of each other... but yes, there is still this feeling of betrayal or vengeance that will sometimes linger between us when we lock on our wrestling holds. We went to two Wrestlefests together (2014 and 2016) and I got annoyed a couple of times. We think differently or behave inversely on a few things, so you can't expect friendships (or wrestlingships) to be perfect. Sometimes, you make compromises to make things work and continue to get along. Anyhow, I went to downtown Puerto Vallarta on Saturday with EvilDark and we walked along the long side of Los Muertos Beach. We've decided to take a break by sitting on a bench. A young old Mexican boy approached me. I think he was maybe around maybe 10 years old or younger. EvilDark estimates him probably more around the age of 7. The boy showed me his hand and asked: - "One dollar." He was holding a small transparent bag of tortilla chips on the other hand, but I don't think he was selling me those. I reached anyway for my back pocket, but my friend told me: - "No. You're not going to start that." I hesitated for a moment, then I looked at the boy and told him: - "Sorry." He looked at my eyes, both sad and angry at the same time, then left. (I actually wish here that he'd look at EvilDark with those eyes instead.) - "How much were you going to give him anyway?", asked EvilDark. I answered: - "Just one American dollar." - "If you do that, every little kid will come to you and it won't end." I was racked with guilt. I was telling myself, why should I listen to what others are telling me? I could have replied to my friend: "It's my money and I get to choose to do whatever I want to do with it." I looked to my right to see if the boy was still there, but the boy vanished. Here I am, staying at an all-inclusive luxurious resort for a full week and I couldn't even have the hearts or the guts to spare a single dollar to a boy. It didn't matter to me if the boy was a trap, was poor or was rich. Let karma decide that. There was no other kid around, it was the only kid who asked me for a dollar during my downtown trip to PV. That feeling grudged me during the day. Maybe I'm letting small things like this affect me too much. I sometimes think that events like these are like a sudden flash test in my life and I failed it. A friend told me that I should not look back. Maybe I can give two dollars to a boy that really needs it in the future. I could give it to a charitable organization, but I'm one of those that believe that a very small percentage of our donations actually reach or help the cause because it is riddled and consumed by administrative costs and other handling fees. I missed ChicagoPiledriver by a bit. About a week after I left, he arrived in Puerto Vallarta to celebrate the holidays in style. I could have matched my time there with him, but prices for resort are usually quadrupled during that time of the year. | |||||||
| Blog ID 215 | |||||||
| Thursday November 22 2018 - WatlerG | Recent matches | ||||||
| WalterG (id 2846) was in town just before my trip to Burlington. He's an avid gutpuncher and gutpunchee... In fact, he can handle those way more than I do. I met him for two consecutive days and my belly felt sore after day one. His rock hard abs could take much more punishment, even on day two. That's usually what happens when you are passionate on a specific hold. He likes to be gutpunched, and I like to be scissored. We both have great endurance... in our own respective fields. I asked him to be nice with both his gut punches and my nipples, because they were getting sensitive. He was happy to oblige, but I was mean in return. I kept punishing him in leg locks and body scissors, which he can't take as much and as many as gut punches, obviously. My multimedia collection tells me that our first encounter dates back in June 2013, followed by another meet in January 2014 where he also met Marty (id 6169). WalterG reminded me that I was his first wrestling match ever when he met me in 2013. He wasn't sure about wrestling and my match with him would help him define whether or not it was something he would pursue. Luckily, he enjoyed the experience and he continued to travel to meet many wrestlers. His return today showed to me that he has learned a lot since and has acquired so much skill and endurance. I felt a bit of shame not remembering that I was his first match, but very touched and honored at the same time that he'd pick me. That's a lot of pressure when you're the deciding factor: it's as if you're the one that's going to determine if you're going to scar someone for life, or make him embrace and love the sport/hobby. This is why this journal or this blog is important for me: it's useful to have an archive to look back. Something that helps me reconstruct and recall memories from my past matches. More often than not, wrestlers send me a message and I feel very silly not remembering the details of my previous encounters with them. Of course, since Walter's first match with me is in 2013 and I did not start this personal blog separate from the main site since 2015, it's harder for me to track and recollect memories, but now, I have a blip on the radar to remind me in the years to come when I will be typing his name in the search bar to bring up this entry. Anyhow, WalterG went through an online system to rent a nice and cozy apartment in the heart of downtown that gave sufficient space for wrestling. We were however wary about our surroundings because the walls indicated that the apartment adjacent to ours could probably hear us. Regardless, we traded a couple of blows and bearhugs. We locked horns in quite a few competitive bouts. He had the upper hand manipulating arms while I dug up a few dirty tricks or two with my legs. He even gave me some great food to re-energize. After two consecutive days of three hour sessions followed by a friendly nap, I gave him a big hug and we parted ways. I thanked him for traveling from Buenos Aires, Argentina all the way up to Montreal, Canada in a cold winter week at -17° Celsius on a 5-way connection flight, touching multiple cities and airports just to get here. I just wish there were more wrestlers that would understand and acknowledge all that he's been through to make it to Canada and that they would make some time to be with him. Spending time with wrestlers is a way to recognize all the effort they went through to have a match with you. | |||||||
| Blog ID 209 | |||||||
| Monday June 25 2018 - Wrestling persona | Some thoughts | ||||||
| A wrestling persona allows for anyone to have an alter ego or a double life. Most of us are working the typical 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, office environment where we talk politely, hold politically correct conversations or restrain ourselves from being too outgoing. Sometimes, we get frustration about work procedures or principles, we build up stress about deadlines and worries about a project that went wrong... it all seems that at any moment now, you need to explode... but you need to keep it all in. Unless you want to lose that job. We then go home after work and prepare ourselves for a wrestling match, where we can finally unleash our frustration and stress by adopting a character that is all-out, mean, baddie, ready to dish out some damage. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're a heel, you can be a jobber and still have that over-confident wrestling persona, predicting his win, thinking that he can destroy the world, no opponent is too big for you... only to be shown the truth: slammed down into the mats, stretched into submission and pinned out a couple of minutes later. This is just one example or alternative and it expresses mostly a pro angle. As I've discussed previously, wrestling is used by some wrestlers to fight autism, while many others use it as a form of excellent source of exercise. I personally find wrestling a great way to express myself outside of work. Both in pro and sub. In sub form, you get to squeeze, stretch, sometimes punch (if your opponent agrees with you of course), defend and attack almost freely. In pro, I guess I'm often seen as the jobber, but then I also have my inner-heel side when I rack guys around. I get to belch out and roar out a massive sound while I do it... that is the complete opposite of what I am during the day. I guess we could make it similar to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Or even... The Incredible Hulk. The more I watch wrestlers in our community fight, the more I appreciate and understand their wrestling persona, both in pro and sub. It may look unlikely to be used in sub, but I've seen sub wrestlers that act differently once they are in control, taunting you to get out and telling you who's the stronger one. It's one small side, but it still counts. When you are about to make someone tap and insist them to say "I give up, sir.", you're adopting a wrestling persona as well. All right, maybe not as flamboyant and overwhelming as pro-types wrestling personas, but you get the point. The gear aspect in pro adds to that confidence feeling: when you put on those boots and knee pads or elbow pads, you feel protected, you feel stronger. You're ready to take on the world. You do that lock up, you get your opponent in a headlock, you flip them over, you throw them into the turnbuckle or towards the ring post and you slam onto them. That rush, that adrenaline that you've been accumulating, now's the time to show who's in charge. I think I made it clear: wrestling allows us to get out from our daily routine, be somebody else for a little while and having fun doing it. It makes me an extrovert at night when I'm an introvert during the day. Polite and friendly software tester by day, mean and terrifying wrestler by night. | |||||||
| Blog ID 196 | |||||||
| Wednesday June 6 2018 - Clash XXII: Atlanta Clash of the Titans 2018 | Wrestling event | ||||||
| My 3rd year at the Clash of the Titans has come to an end. Another year, another memorable event where I met great wrestlers and made new friends. I mentioned about a week or two ago that I would take it easy at the Clash. Truth be told, it actually went the opposite way. Thursday May 31 2018 Fun4Us (id 8822) was my designated driver this time around. I was quite spoiled. I reduced my role to a co-pilot or navigator holding my phone in GPS mode to guide us between our hotel in Mableton to the event's venue in Austell, which are suburbs or counties west of Atlanta. Both areas are about a half hour drive from Atlanta when there's no traffic.  We arrived at the venue at around 8 pm and the ring was already set up. The first people I see are the commissioner Big Joe, Harley, Kevin_Patrick, TampaChaser (id 11434). I immediately gave them all a big hug. Even though I barely interacted with Kevin_Patrick and TampaChaser two years ago, we've talked as if we were lost buddies and suddenly found our way back. We've instantly recognized each other and I'm sure we've both wondered and told ourselves why we didn't spend more time to get to know each other two years ago. Luckily, I won't be repeating the same mistake: I'll be catching up with TampaChaser later on. LatinJock4_U, Steve, BigJohn and Viper (known at the event as Armani) were also around that evening. JackBouvier and Destroyer (id 2190) joined in an hour or two later. Shawty (id 520) accompanied us and took on the mats for a few sub matches. He preferred staying on the sidelines, so he avoided the ring because he wasn't ready for it yet. Fun4Us, Kevin_Patrick, TampaChaser, LatinJock4_U and Viper climbed onto the ring and started doing a round-robin tag match. I watched them in awe wrestle each other off for a good half hour and then took a deep breath: I wanted some of the action so I've decided to join in. Well.... little did I know that I became the jobber to pick on. That's what happens when you're small. The guys wouldn't let me tag out and they were just using me as a practice dummy. No, I'm not complaining. On the contrary, it was very exciting. According to Fun4Us, it allowed the wrestlers to break glass and go all out. When things calmed down a little bit, I was lucky enough to get some private time with LatinJock4_U. We tossed each other around and I was able to lift him up in a rack. He instantly turned to me and asked me how to perform this move. It didn't take him long: he learned it instantly and easily grabbed and picked me up as if I was a light little feather. Previously, I thought of LatinJock4_U as a very intimidating wrestler. I was looking at the pics before meeting him and I was telling myself that this is a guy that probably would not wrestle me. I was obviously wrong as LatinJock4_U is probably the nicest and most open wrestler at the event. This guy is really incredible. He is absolutely humble, well-versed in pro, always willing to learn and has an exceptional personality. I would even say his smile brightens up the warehouse. I also got some time with Steve. Now this guy is hard to find because he doesn't believe in online profiles, so he is not registered anywhere. He goes mostly under the pseudonym Jet Fan. Steve did sub wrestling in his previous years, but switched entirely to pro after an injury. He likes almost every hold in pro and loves to be the jobber. Ironically, for my match against him, I turned out to be the jobber. That's also because I have trouble chaining my moves as a heel and Steve honestly goes from one move to another without even breaking a sweat. His arsenal is infinite. He really knows what to do to get the momentum going in a match. I believe I also managed to squeeze a bit of time with both JackBouvier and The Punisher (also known as The Destroyer or The Crippler). Both of them are also great heel: all I had to do was follow their lead. Near the end of the evening, I spent some time showing TampaChaser (id 11434) how to apply the torture rack. He was really eager to master this hold. Unfortunately, I turned out to be a very bad teacher because my instructions led him to hurt his shoulders. This hold is easier said than done and performing it can be very dangerous. TampaChaser has a big shoulder frame and the way he positions his arms may have been a bit awkward for the rack. We've told ourselves we need to repeat and practice this somewhat complicated and convoluted maneuver another day.  I eventually switched gear to have my first sub match. Lucky me, I was up against Viper (Armani). I later learned that this guy is a black belt, Muay Thai fighter. He is probably one of the toughest sub wrestler I have ever faced. To say that Armani kicked my ass is a big understatement. This guy is so far ahead, he is such a competent and formidable opponent that I don't have the slightest chances of winning against him. Armani didn't hesitate to play a few pranks by toying around with me. I really enjoyed my time with him, but I eventually stopped the match a bit prematurely in order to conserve my stamina. I know I've always said not to look back and not to have regrets, but I really would have love to spend more time wrestling him. A very charismatic, entertaining, dauntless and sociable guy. If you want to become a better sub wrestler, make sure you wrestle him. You can learn a lot from this expert submission wrestler! Fun4Us, Shawty and I stayed at the warehouse until Harley and Joe kicked us out at 11 pm. It seems that Thursdays has become the best day to wrestle people at the Clash. Why? Well, because everybody is at their top notch shape, they are ready for action and no one has injuries. Friday June 1st 2018 The following day, I did the mistake of starting the day with sub matches. I had 3 sub matches and they've drained me drastically. I quickly became significantly tired for the remainder of the day. Then again, had I scheduled my sub matches in the afternoon or evening, I would probably have collapsed. I started my sub matches with Wildwoolly (id 4258), an opponent that I have completely underestimated. In fact, all sub wrestlers at the Clash are usually all very good. WildWoolly had a defensive stance, but he knows how to chain up his moves and take advantage of mistakes you make in order to make you tap. Very talented and very nice guy off the mats. Next up, I had a re-match with Scottilla (id 3020) whom I have wrestled twice previously at the Clash and maybe another two times at the Wrestlefest. This fifth time, he still beats me pretty easily. Hey, he was an Olympic wrestler, I've never had a chance anyway... His skills, wisdom and his wrestling experience way surpasses mine.I also had a short sub match with LatinJock4_U where I tried showing him my ankle lock. It was probably the only match I could get someone to tap, but then again, this was the first time he was doing sub, so it was quite unfair for me to go full power on him. LatinJock4_U got pretty excited and he suddenly had this strong urge to learn more about submission wrestling. This guy has so much energy and is so passionate about trying new things to explore. A really awesome guy all around. Later in the afternoon, Timnbama showed up and he immediately took charge of the pro tournament. That also meant that he sacrificed his wrestling time to manage the matches and give instructions to each wrestler part of the tournament. Believe me, this is no easy task. This wasn't planned either. Joe had to step out for the remainder of the event and Harley initially panicked, having to manage the tournaments all by himself. Timnbama sided with Harley and gave him all the help he needed. This is why in my book, Timnbama has a wonderful and marvelous heart. Traveling all the way to help out Joe and Harley. I initially registered for the Pro Tag Team Tournament with Fun4Us, but later during the day, I was surprised to see the return of J. I wrestled with J (Edit years later when I finally found his profile: Bartramia) two years ago, also at the Clash. We were in a handicap match: three of us against the Mighty Mongo. This year, J asked me if I can be his tag team partner and Fun4Us kindly freed his spot. J and I went on the ring to do a practice match and wow... J pulled off moves that I could never have pulled off. He went from ropes to ropes, bouncing from one to another to do stunts and maneuvers that require a lot of flexibility. Seeing him work out the moves was really mind blowing. J chose our tag team name: it was "Big Things Come"... from the full expression "Big Things Come in Small Packages". He explained to me that it does 3 stuff: - We are small, but we do big things - It has an innuendo - I can't recall the third one... I know, I'm terrible.  Our first official tag team match was against Chip (id 1809) and Kevin_Patrick. J really had this under control and was able to lead the match. Kevin and Chip eventually managed to turn around the tables. I played a little bit of the bad guy by pulling out Kevin_Patrick's boot on one of the pins he had on J. Ultimately, J gave out the finishing hold that would put Kevin and Chip's tournament journey to an end and move both of us in Round 2. I actually wanted to lose, but Timnbama had other plans set aside for us: he instructed us to win against them. The heat was starting to have its impact. The Clash venue doesn't have an AC system and they leave the door of the warehouse wide open to circulate fresh air, but in the afternoon, the air can be warm enough to drench every wrestler in their sweat. Fun4Us and I eventually returned to the hotel to get an hour or two of rest in cool AC before eventually coming back to the venue. This is where I was very happy that he cranked the AC to the max. After several hours of heat, it feels heavenly to return to a fridge. When we got back to Clash, the pro tournament preliminary matches were over for the day. We were able to force Harley on to the ring. Timnbama also climbed up to have his share of the fun. You should see the pounding that Harley received. It was a way for all wrestlers to thank him for holding the Clash event. I think he was quadruple-teamed. TampaChaser (id 11434) and I locked up on the sub mats, trading scissors and such. I did not remove my pro boots so he managed to lock in a scissor counter by putting his boots on mine. Ow. Now I can feel the pain that I usually make the others feel. Saturday June 2nd 2018 Many of the wrestlers came on the Saturday: I saw WGA-Rassler (he goes under the pseudonym Rex Moros), Wrestle007, ChicagoMuscle, PiledriverVA, H2oWrestler and JJ_Sparks (id 2445). Unfortunately, I was unable to wrestle any of these guys. I was caught up in both the single and tag pro tournaments and I was pushed in the later rounds despite my request to make me a complete jobber and to end both my pro entries on round 1 for both tournaments. I'll explain this later on. I was however able to slip in a very short sub match against Chicago Piledriver. I think this guy became an even better sub wrestler because he was able to get out of my moves pretty easily this time around. I never stood a chance anyway. Why is that the case for every sub wrestlers I meet at the Clash? In the afternoon, the great Rasslin_Bodybuilder (who also goes by MuscleBuffBoy) walked in and um... wow, this guy is really something. Handsome, humble and kind. I was initially supposed to heel him in a practice pro match, but after he got me in a clothesline, he simply said: "I guess I'll heel then." and he immediately took over control of the match. He went on to pound me with multiple consecutive moves and then pinned me to the ground. Had I known he was just staying around for a very short time, I would have spent more time with him. Then again, it's hard to distribute your time with all the many wrestlers that show up, especially on a Saturday. I initially registered to be part of the submission tournament, but I opted out at the last minute because I knew I was going to be pushed for round 2 for both single and pro tournaments. It was probably for the best since I needed to take it easy this time around. I wasn't at my top shape, but the guys at the Clash really pushed me to do my best in pro. However, watching the preliminary sub tournaments was shocking. I would not have lasted long because every sub wrestler there were so skilled. I have to say that I admired LatinJock4_U who has decided to join the sub tourney despite being his first time trying sub. My 2nd round of tag team pro match started right after the preliminary sub matches. Now, this is the reason why I should write down blog entries like this the same day, because right now, my memories are getting blurry. This match was supposed to be against Roscoe The Rassler and WGA-Rassler. WGA-Rassler ended up coming later in the afternoon, so LS_Powerhouse (id 4337) took his spot instead. We were instructed to lose this match, when suddenly, at the last minute, J made a pin and we were moving on to the finals of the pro tournament. I couldn't believe it. I have no idea what happened and when the decision was made, but I went along with it. Heck, why not? I honestly can't remember what else happened in this match or how this match turned out. I think J recorded it, so I'll have to ask him for the video.I did eventually exchanged a few messages to Roscoe a few weeks after our match and he mentioned the he appreciated me selling some of the moves he threw at me. He said that I was not stiff or fighting every move. He gave me tougher stomps and punches and I did not complain about it. Honestly, sub wrestling does help me build up a bit of resistance to withstand incoming attacks from stiff pro. My first single pro match started around 1 pm-ish. I think we were ahead of schedule. I was set up against JackBouvier. Timnbama explicitely told me that I need to win the match because JackBouvier is a bit injured and is already exhausted by the previous matches he have had in the past few days. This match went easy enough as JackBouvier lead the match as a heel, locking me holds, dominating the whole match until he was ready for me to finish it off. His instructions were simple: on his signal, I would go behind him and apply the sleeper and win the match. After his defeat, JackBouvier asked me if I can take a few pics with him because he loves pics as much as I do.
The image above is actually ironic because he is shown here sleepering me out, while in reality, he submitted to a sleeper. My guess is that he likes sleepers.
What a better way to punish a jobber with a bearhug? JackBouvier has many more images, but he'll be sending them to me gradually over the coming weeks. I saw J wrestle against Viper, who wore a Spiderman costume. I have to admit that this was the most hilarious match in the single pro tournament. J and Spiderman went back and forth for quite a while, but eventually Spiderman decided to finish it off by using his "web slingers". He used a spray can that spreads some sort of sticky pinkish substance, I really have no idea what it is. It was funny, weird, yet creative. It's a good thing to see the wrestlers show off some originality and add up some spice to their matches.Fun4Us also had his share of single pro matches. He faced JJ Hart, followed by Peter Parker (the non-hero version of Spider-Man or Viper (Armani)) and eventually lost to Roscoe. While some of the single pro matches played out, I sat down with TampaChaser (id 11434). I told him that I was very thrilled that we got to wrestle a lot more this time around. I also told him that, two years ago, I was intimidated by him. He's a guy in great shape, wrestles other big guys with ease. I didn't think he was someone who would wrestle smaller guys like me. Well guess what he said? He replied to me that he was intimidated by me because I carried all the big guys around with my rack. Lesson learned: I've always wanted to wrestle TampaChaser and I should have taken a leap of faith and interacted with him sooner. TampaChaser and Kevin_Patrick are extremely nice guys. They get along with everyone so easily and they are funny guys too. Viper and I had a short chat on wrestlers across the world: he travels often and he recommended me places to visit. He shot down Los Angeles by saying that there are lots of wrestlers, but virtually every wrestler he was supposed to meet down ended up canceling or not showing up. On the other side of the coin, he said that London, UK was the best place to meet wrestlers. People there are apparently respectable and they will honor the wrestling meets. That city has the highest rate of wrestling meetups in his book. My second single pro match was up against DCJobber (id 3247), a veteran of the Clash. DCJobber is billed at 250 lbs, so technically, I would need to lose this match with my puny 160 lbs. Big guys dominate smaller guys, right? Not quite. We were both tired. DCJobber wanted to lose the match and I wanted to lose as well. None of us wanted to go to Round 3. We asked Timnbama, our pro commissionner/organizer, if we could both lose our match in a double count out or double disqualification, but Timnbama told us no. He needed someone to take on Wrestlg to be able to close his brackets for the tournament. Ultimately, I volunteered to win the match. It's ironic: people usually want to win matches, but at Clash, people were yielding for others. The heat and exhaustion from mass wrestling are big factors that come into play. Well-versed in both sub and pro, DcJobber wants his matches to look real, especially in pro. So, I suggested that we rehearse our moves beforehand. DCJobber gave me precise instructions to follow near the ending sequence of the match: throw him on the ring, give him a kick on the stomach, throw him again and give him a real punch to the stomach and on the third throw, he would hold the ropes. Once he regains control, he'd jump from the first rope then onto me in some form of a splash. He then climbs up on the second rope and brags to the crowd. This was my cue: I would need to do a low blow from behind him, grab him in a rack an proceed with an airplane spin. Normally I wouldn't do an airplane spin at 250 lbs, but he gave me his trust as he wanted me to go full power, he wanted me to spin faster and drop with a stronger impact to reinforce his wish for realism. He sold it well and actually so well that I thought I've harmed him for real. He's an absolutely terrific wrestler. My tag team partner J was kind enough to take a video while I was in the ring. In the following racks I've extracted from the clip, I honestly look like I'm out for revenge trying to uh... strangle someone. Maybe I'm trying a bit too hard to be into character and get into that wrestling persona. I'm sure these photos alone will prevent me from meeting new opponents. My evil, scary and aggressive look will probably chase people away.
I can hear people saying: if you don't want your back broken in half, don't wrestle Loserboy. He is a serial racker. 
You can also check out Clip ID 339 for a short video sequence of the rack. I could not post the whole match because there was a couple of people in the background that do not want to be seen publicly on the web.I however took the time recently to listen to the audio track that goes along with this video and I just noticed that Jet Fan Steve was nice enough to be my personal commentator yelling at the top of his lungs: - "Oh! Oh no! Oh! It's his rack! He's doing it! Oh my gawd! The rack! Ahhhhh! He spins! HE SPINS!" I should personally hire him to be a commentator for all of my matches. So much excitement!  Anyhow, with DC_Jobber submitting to the rack, I went on to reach the semi-finals of the single pro tournament to face Wrestlg (id 4402). He told me I should win the tournament with all my racks, but I told him I couldn't go on. Exhausted and sweating like crazy, he graciously took the win to get to the finals because I really really needed my beauty rest. My match with Wrestlg was actually a refresher as we were doing both sub and pro in the ring (I suppose promission). He got me in technical holds on the mats and I was actually giving him punches to his abs for real. I've always considered him an elite in both pro and sub and that he probably likes it anyway. I've wrestle him twice before and he has always gave me that general impression. My first time was in NYC, we were just horsing around. My second match was 2 years ago, at Clash 20, in a sub match where he out-skilled me by a great margin. This time around, it's a pro match where we agreed that he should win. That technically means I've lost all my matches against Wrestlg. Eventually, Wrestlg was pitted against Roscoe The Rassler in the finals, who incidentally defeated Fun4Us in the other semi-finals bracket. In the final bout, Roscoe defeated Wrestlg to win the Single Pro Tournament. Here's what the tournament bracket looked like from what I can remember. The empty spaces are blanks I need to fill. With that many wrestlers at the event, it's hard for me to remember who had a match against whom.  Single Pro Tournament Bracket Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 = Quarter-Finals S1, S2 = Semi-Finals After an hour break or so, it was time for the Final Pro Tag Team Tournament match were J and I were matched up against the other tag team finalists: LatinJock4_U and TampaChaser (id 11434). Having spent most of my energy in my previous single pro matches, I've asked J to stand in for me for most of the match and thank goodness he had no problem doing so. J went on to punish TampaChaser and LatinJock4_U with his awesome flying moves and leet maneuvers. TampaChaser took control a bit, tagged out to LatinJock4_U and J was able to tag back to me. I really liked our finisher: it was an awesome tag team combo. I would pick LatinJock4_U in a rack, airplane spin him and kneel down. J would climb on the 2nd rope, put his fists together and land them on LatinJock4_U's chest. The momentum would flip me backwards to drop my opponent on the mats so I can do my pin... 1... 2.... 3 and we were pronounced Tag Team Champions of the Tournament. It was awesome. I gave J a great big hug and we did the same to our opponents. I suppose I should now change my nickname to Winnerboy. This is what I recall from the Pro Tournament brackets. You'll notice that I am also missing the names of 2 other team formations. The days went so fast that I forget who was in each team. As you can see, you only need to win 3 matches in the Tag Team Pro Tournament to make it to the end (as opposed to 4 matches in the Single Pro Tournament).  Tag Team Pro Tournament Bracket After another short AC break back at the hotel, it was time for the Battle Royale. I've decided to skip it out again, but the Battle Royale was actually quite entertaining. You had a feeling you were watching a Survivor show where everyone decided to form alliances to decide who would get booted out and in what order they should be kicked off the island... uh I mean... wrestling ring. Staying under the radar was the key and outwitting your opponent was crucial. Roscoe and Steve were on the microphone and they had a strong influence on who gets to be kicked out as the wrestlers on the ring seemed to agree with them on their decisions. Being booted out of the Battle Royale was based on a few criteria: - If you are a newbie, your chances of being kicked out were pretty high. - If you previously won a Battle Royale, your chances to survive were lower. Sensational Danny actually won the Battle Royale quite a few times in the past, so he was definitely targeted quickly. - If you are a heavy wrestler, everyone will likely team up against you. Bigger means harder to push out of the ring, so you were perceived as a threat. At times, the wrestlers outside the ring were chanting "Boring" because the wrestlers in the Battle Royale spent too much time negotiating or discussing who should be kicked out next. There was 4 referees for the match, one for each side of the ring. If 50% of your body was outside the ropes of the ring, then you were out. Harvey and Timnbama were on the south side, Kevin_Patrick guarded the west side, H2oWrestler monitored the north side and I was donning the ref shirt on the east side. I think there was nine wrestlers in the ring and the booting order was: Fun4Us, LatinJock4_U, Sensational Danny, JJ_Sparks, WildWooly, BigJohn, JJ_Hart and DCJobber became the ultimate winner... When two wrestlers remain in the ring, they can make the other tap via submission. DCJobber managed to put JJ_Hart in a move where he couldn't breathe, so he had to tap out. I think I missed one or two other wrestlers in the Battle Royale, I can't remember whom they were. Timnbama entered the ring at the last minute when DCJobber came out. They joked around, playing and bending the rules by mentioning that in a Battle Royale, you can enter the ring whenever you want, but the last man standing in the ring is the winner. Timnbama entered the ring just as DCJobber walked out. In theory, Timnbama becomes the winner of the Battle Royale. This is why later on, he received the Zucchini Award, which is usually given to those who do the silliest thing. In any case, he was given the Battle Royale Winner Award anyway. Around 6-7 pm, a feast was given to the attendees, you had cold cuts, deviled eggs, fried chicken, fruits to help everyone recover. Fun4Us was very sweet to do the extra mile to get the chicken. Shortly after, Harley climbed onto the ring with his trusty laptop and announced the winners of the various awards for this year's Clash of the Titans. Awards Best Jobber: Jet Fan Steve Best Heel: Viper (Armani) Zucchini Award: DCJobber (id 3247) Best Dressed Wrestler (Diana Ross Award): Wrestlg (id 4402) Shittiest Referree: Fun4Us (id 8822) Newcomer of the Year: Fun4Us (id 8822) Sponsors Award: Fun4Us (id 8822) Lightweight Sub Champion: LatinJock4_U Middleweight Sub Champion: Viper (Armani) Heavyweight Sub Champion: UWillTap (id 9117) Titan Sub Champion: ChicagoPiledriver Final Sub Champion: Three-way tie: Viper (Armani) + UWillTap (id 9117) + ChicagoPiledriver Single Pro Champion: Roscoe The Rassler Tag Team Pro Champion: Big Things Come (Loserboy and J) Battle Royale Winner: DCJobber (id 3247) Best Match: Armani + UWillTap (id 9117) (29 minutes submission wrestling match - it apparently beat the previous record of 26 minutes) Most Improved Wrestler: Loserboy Most Inspirational Wrestler: LatinJock4_U Rookie of the Year: LatinJock4_U Wrestler of the Year: LatinJock4_U  Not everyone showed up for the group pic because of privacy concerns. Missing in this image is Viper and ChicaoPiledriver. Jet Fan Steve was a good sport and joined us anyway, but I blurred him out because he usually does not want to appear online. For multiple award winners, I've decided to put only one of the awards. Otherwise, the image would be over-cluttered with captions. Yeah, LatinJock4_U pretty much racked up the best awards. That's telling how amazing this guy really is. That being said, my friend Fun4Us had his own share of awards: Shittiest Ref, Sponsors Award and Newcomer of the Year. Shittiest Ref may look like a lousy award, but it's actually nice to have it. Some years, this award is sometimes transformed to best ref. Harley said that it was impossible to get Fun4Us off the ring. Fun4Us was definitely very intense and energetic. He reffed almost all the matches and he wrestled intensively by reaching out to almost every wrestler at the Clash. He got along with everyone, he roughed it up or toned it down whenever it was needed; Fun4Us showed me that he has a lot more wrestling passion and adrenaline in him than I do. As everyone started to leave after a day charged of wrestling, Fun4Us and I stayed behind with the very few that remain to enjoy a bit of casual semi-sub, give and take and some light pro wrestling. I was able to put a few holds on JJ_Hart to experiment and I also managed to put some on UWillTap (id 9117). After locking my leg scissors by cheating with my kneecaps, I realized that there was absolutely no way I can hurt him. It's as if I was trying to squeeze a piece of brick. UWillTap could only grin at my futile attempts. He went on to wrestle Fun4Us and took care of him without any effort. I don't think anyone can beat UWillTap... except perhaps maybe Viper, but then again, both had wrestled to a draw. Had they not both declared this, I would have been curious to see who would last longer and who would emerge victorious. If there is one thing I learned in this match is that a submission match can be paused if both wrestlers agree that the sweat from both wrestler needs to be removed. I tried to get JJ_Sparks (id 2445) to come onto the ring, but the heat really didn't agree with him. I told him that we were lucky this year: the heat this year was actually less worse this year than the two other times I was at the Clash. Fortunately, JJ_Sparks did have a few matches. I saw him go against LatinJock4_U in a non-tourney match. Timnbama finished his work managing the pro tournament, so I was able to spend a little bit of time with him. I asked him if I can get him in a standing rack again... actually, all my previous racks on him were kneeling down, but since I felt so comfortable with him, I really wanted to pick him up standing. Fun4Us kindly took a shot of us. I was worried prior to the trip I could no longer pull stunts like this, but Timnbama is such an calm and nice guy to lift that he made it very easy for me to carry him.
This cuddly bear is full of surprises. In one of his non-tournament matches, he drank from a water bottle, kept it in his mouth discreetly until the moment came: he spurted the contents on a wrestler rushing towards him, just like on TV. He took advantage of this to regain control of his opponent. I really wish I had more time with Timnbama, but we were both spent from a full long day of wrestling. I still managed to be his boot boy by tying and un-tying his laces for his wrestling boots. It was my personal time with him... Later in the night, I was doing my usual body scissors, ankle lock and leg scissors on TampaChaser and he got excited, asking me how to apply that ankle lock. I switched back and forth with Kevin_Patrick on whom I locked on head scissors and body scissors. I then realized we shared a very similar mind. He loved to be squeezed and asked for more. He apologized for been greedy and I told him that it was pleasure to crush him... He explained to me the experience of the near submission sequence: everything starts becoming bright, you see the lights, you are about to pass out, but you tap at the very last second to stay conscious. That's exactly how I would describe myself the joy of being in a body scissors near submission. Honestly, I could squeeze Kevin_Patrick all day... except I don't have that much stamina to keep him that long. I need extra rest between scissor sessions. I have to admit, he can take quite a beating... or a squeezing and will definitely come back for more. Sunday June 3rd 2018 Most of the wrestlers have already left on the Sunday. Many have been exhausted, had to take an early flight or were injured in the previous days and couldn't come back on Sunday. By the way, by injury, it could simply be muscle pain. On my end, I only had a stiff right shoulder. I suppose I got lucky. No scars this time around. Nevertheless, I had a casual match with Steve. He showed me an interesting combo: I had to throw Steve into the turnbuckle, then I bend down, he hops over me, goes to the other side of the ring, bounces back and launches a drop kick! I can't do drop kicks, but Steve is so good that he pulls them out with ease. Mind you, one of his drop kicks did land on my groin, but I pushed myself back enough to reduce the impact. Thank goodness. Steve also told me he found my blog very amusing.. you know all the teddy bears I've been posting. I told him I use it mainly as a journal so I can remember my past matches. Fun4Us told me that I should post my stuff on MeetFighters' blog or on Facebook, but I prefer to keep this in my corner, without popping notifications in people's faces. If people want to know what's going on with me, they can casually check anytime they want. Facebook is a bit too mainstream for me and I can't control the notifications being sent if I create blog entries in MeetFighters. We also had a tag team match with Fun4Us being on my team and Steve and DCJobber as our opponents. I was out of energy and tagged often to let the big guys have fun. I also recall putting Fun4Us in a kneeling rack (I had no energy left to lift him) and lock him in a nice and tight full nelson with body scissors to thank him for accompanying me in this wonderful trip. Did he submit? Of course, he did. Nobody, not even the great and powerful Fun4Us can withstand the devastation of my signature move.  WildWooly, BigJohn, JJ_Sparks, Fun4Us and I all helped out Harley around 3 PM to dismount the ring, remove all the equipment and clear/clean up the venue. Fun4Us felt that JJ_Sparks should have been given the Sponsors award because he was also there on Thursday to set up the ring and do the initial setup. Dismounting the ring is a lot of work and a bit dangerous, this is why we should stay behind to help out. According to Harley, the final count of attendees for the Clash event of this year was around 42. As with every year, about 10% of the roster ends up canceling for various reasons (more than 42 registered, but ended up not showing up). That being said, I consider this year an excellent success for the Clash. Again, Big Joe, Harley and Timnbama are the real heroes. Setting up an event like this is no easy task. These guys do it with so much love and dedication. There seems to be no boundaries for them. These guys are showing us that their wrestling passion is above all of ours combined. I spent the remainder of the day with Fun4Us, we chilled out and took it easy. We went and watched at the movie theater "Solo: A Star Wars story". Meh... mediocre and unmemorable movie. I was waiting for Emilia Clarke to unleash her dragons with her "Dracarys". I will always see her as the mother of dragons. Anyhow, we ate at Golden Coral and we've also put back some order to our hotel room which we had previously transformed into wrestling grounds. Fun4Us had no expectations prior to the event. He told me that this was probably one of his best trips. So many wrestlers, so many matches and so many memories. We both made new friends that we will both cherish forever. We parted ways the next day: we drove back to the airport, returned our rental car. He went on to take his domestic flight while I strapped my bag to get my shuttle for the international terminal back to Canada. Notes My rotation for the Clash is usually once every two years, but Fun4Us might return next year. I enjoyed it very much, but I did explain to him that for my next time, I would want to stay on the sidelines and perhaps do sub only. The awards are supposed to be for the new Clashers: it's a way to welcome them in our family or our community. I get enough ring time and the spotlights should go on to the newcomers. The Clash needs new blood. LatinJock4_U was the perfect example, and we need other great guys like him to keep this event going on and growing. Fun4Us shared with me the history of the Clash. In its starting years, it was a closed and reserved event and it took a while before it was open to everyone. It is perhaps one of the few events today where everybody can mingle together and socialize rather than shut oneself off in hotel rooms in private matches. Of course, you will always have people who will prefer the latter. Not everyone gets along with everybody, but at Clash, everybody does a great effort to include everyone without having any hiccups or discrimination. The Clash is your chance to integrate with the wrestling community and to participate, shine and have fun in the ring with other great wrestlers that think alike, sub or pro. By the way, I do have lots of photos taken at the Clash. It's just that a big chunk shows Fun4Us in action. You know what? Fun4Us has always told me that he'd create his own blog. Now's your chance to nag him to create this new blog and ask him to include these pictures. Mwahahahahah. I'm evil. Last we spoke, he already created a few entries using MeetFighters' blog interface, so make sure you check them out. Now that I think of it, the reason why I don't have that many pictures is because I would ask Fun4Us to take shots of me, but most of the time, he was busy reffing or he was reffing my own match. Another point I'd like to mention about the Clash is that the event and the tournaments allows you to match up with new people and with wrestlers you wouldn't get to wrestle one on one normally. The board of the Clash decide who goes up against whom and you don't get to decide, but their picks are usually excellent match-ups. At the venue, wrestlers will usually tone down or remove their restrictions and they will cooperate with you to make the tournament work or just to be of good sport. I'm thinking of leaving my camera in my bag for most of the time the next time I come to the Clash. I should only bring it out when a wrestler specifically asks for it. I may have made some wrestlers uncomfortable by walking around with a camera and taking as many shots as I did (95% were shots that were not of me). Not everyone wants to have their picture taken. Stuff I could bring next time I brought a first aid kit just in case and it turns out it was quite a bit useful. I however had insufficient waterproof adhesive tape for bandages, so I would need to pack an extra roll or two for next time. These are useful when you have a cloth around one of your limb and want the cloth to stay in place. There was requests from many people for Advil, so a bottle of that would have helped along with perhaps a bottle of Aleve for muscle pain relievers or maybe a few Salonpas or IcyHot patches. Just writing it as a reminder for me to pack these along for next time. Better safe than sorry. While I'm at it, I think a tube of Polysporin can also be useful. Thankfully for me, I didn't get any injuries this year. I had muscle pain on my right shoulder, but that was my fault: it was caused by bad positioning for one of the racks that I delivered. I may have lost a bit of balance while I was holding my opponent and I may have jerked the rack too abruptly: it caused weight to shift harder on the right shoulder. That being said, the rack is definitely a dangerous move... don't try this at home. I also had a little bruise on my right elbow due to rug burn on the base mats of the wrestling ring. I thought the fabric would allow friction without pain, but it's just not designed to let you slide or being pulled while you're down on the mats. To mitigate this, JJ_Hart suggested that I get elbow pads to go along with my knee pads next year. Finally, I think I've hit something outside of the ring while I was walking in the warehouse. It must have being a scratch or a cut from a prop or something, so I had to apply a little band-aid on the middle part of my left leg. That would have prevented me from getting that rug burn and scratching it for a few days. Other than that, I was still in great condition after the event, minus the fatigue from over-exerting myself lifting bigger guys and wrestling quite a bit more than my average habit. The solution is to probably slow down on trying to show off racking guys that are twice my size.... but I can't stop it! I love racking guys! It also makes unusually great pictures. How often do you see smaller guys racking big guys? | |||||||
| Blog ID 193 | |||||||
| Monday June 4 2018 - Atlanta Pre-Clash: Fun4Us and Shawty | Recent matches | ||||||
| Where to start? Where to start? I just came back from a trip to Atlanta and I've decided to split the summary of my time there in two parts: one for my hotel match with the boys which I will write right now (pre-Clash) and one for the Clash which I will write later. The Clash entry should appear in the next few days since that one will require much more to time for me to write and remember... I arrived in Atlanta last Tuesday and met up with the Fun4Us (id 8822) and Shawty (id 520) at the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport a day afterwards (Wednesday May 30 2018). I've previously met with Fun4Us in April 2017 so I gave him a big huge hug. It's been more than a year, but we've kept in touch through the usual online communication streams. However, this is the first time I was meeting Shawty. I've only known him through chatting online. We've known for longer than I can remember: we used to trade wrestling pictures and I certainly remember approving and admiring his many wrestling matches/scenarios which he creates on the site. As you can see with his track record, he loves losing as much as I do. After catching up and getting to know each other better, we promptly headed back to our hotel where we've unmounted the frame of the bed and transformed it into wrestling grounds for our 3-way rumble. Fun4Us is still the very strong wrestler that I remember. He might even be stronger this time around. I had quite some difficulties managing him in sub, but I felt Fun4Us toned it down for me (been the nice guy he is). My scissors couldn't do much to him, but the ankle lock would work only if I had him low. As for the cheat of a leg scissors using my knee caps, that still worked well. I then locked horns with Shawty and I realized that I could easily overpower him, so I took Fun4Us' example and reduce my strength just a wee bit. It's not everyday I get to wrestle someone whom I outweigh by 30 pounds and this gave me a clear advantage over Shawty. To his credit, he did manage to make me tap anyway in a couple of technical holds. I always imagined Shawty a pro wrestler, but he is actually a sub wrestler. We eventually ended up doing some double-teaming. At that point, chaos ensued because the room became a war field where everyone was on his own. You never know if your friend will go against you. We erred mainly in submission and promission, but added a few give and take. The body scissors was often used as a benchmark to gauge our strength and endurance.
We obviously didn't used this hold exclusively. Fun4Us is shown here massaging my back with a camel.
And I am displaying here some tough love to Shawty: little bros like him should remain in a nice and tight headlock.
Overall, Shawty is a fierce fighter with lots of stamina. Give him a few more years and he'll also become a formidable wrestler. I'm sure at his age, Shawty has already wrestled more wrestler than I did. Later in the evening, Fun4Us had this bright idea to go to a male strip club, similar to what we did in Montreal last year. Atlanta holds many of them and he picked one that was called "Swinging Richards". The name itself cracked me up. At the same time, this would become Shawty's first experience and we really wanted him to break the glass and explore the underground. Let's just say that Shawty wasn't too shy to insert those one dollar bills around a dancer's band or underwear.... He was pretty generous with his ratings on the dancers, then again, I'm sure we'd wrestle almost any of the strippers at these clubs. Over the next few days, we also spent some fun time at the theaters watching The Avengers: Infinity War, Deadpool 2 and Solo: A Star Wars Story. Call it a breather in between the many matches that were intertwined with our schedule in the upcoming days. Wednesday was our day for all three together and our paths slowly diverged in the days to come. While Fun4Us and I headed to the Clash from Thursday onward, Shawty had scheduled hotel matches during that time: he felt more comfortable with a one-on-one setting rather than an open warehouse like the Clash. That being said, he was still available for two short evenings and wrestled various guys in submission matches at the Clash. Fun4Us didn't hesitate to remind me to write more blog entries, but then I slammed it back into his face again by repeating to him: the day he writes his own blog and updates it as frequently as mine, then I'll allow him to complain and judge its frequency. I should mention that Fun4Us gave me a new teddy bear and baptized him as "Beau", which means "Handsome" in French. Here's a shot of me showing off this new recruit in a silly selfie.  I actually look tired here, but after 4 days of consecutive non-stop wrestling plus the travel, I could use right now a healthy dose of beauty sleep. You'll notice you won't be able to rank this picture and that's because I don't want any 1s or 2s out of 10s on this image. This little fellow is a 12 in my book. Knowing that I do own a collection, Fun4Us had this burning rage and desire to augment it by adding a new cuddly member in the family. Does this new teddy bear have any special powers? Of course it does: his stomach smells like "Cake" and his paw has a button that will emulate his heart beat. Awwwww... I honestly fell in love with it instantly. Beau has other defensive abilities: I used him several times during this trip to warm me up by putting him on my chest while I sleep. The extra padding serves as a dual/triple-layer of warmth and protection. Fun4Us likes to cram the AC of the hotel room to the max while I shiver in coldness underneath the thin sheets of blankets. Despite this, Fun4Us' body is a furnace while mine is a Popsicle. Incidentally, Fun4Us also has his own collection of plush toys he carries around with him. His Star Dragon by the name of Orville is now his travel companion. I took a sneak selfie of him while he was busy talking to Shawty.  All right, time for me to get some sleep to go back to work tomorrow. It felt surreal being on vacation for one week, but it was certainly needed and it felt nice and good. I needed the rest... maybe wrestling for four days isn't a rest, but it's still better than typing on a computer all day. | |||||||
| Blog ID 192 | |||||||
| Tuesday April 25 2017 - Trust | Rant | ||||||
| The notion of trust is crucial when you wrestle someone. You can trust them on various grounds: a common first indicator is to agree on a "safe" word, especially when doing submission wrestling. The plea for a safe word like "Stop", 3 taps on the mats or a random word like "Red" or "Peanut Butter" are usually a good way to start. When I start a match, I often start it defensively to let my opponent attack first. It gives me an idea of his strength and aggressivity. It allows to me to gauge my counter-attacks based on his style. Sometimes, I would let my opponent put a submission on me first to get his reaction when I tap out. How safe is he? How fast does he respond to a submission? Does he break immediately or does he keeps on the pressure? I've spoken previously that some holds such as the Torture Rack requires the opponent's trust, because his insecurity could cause imbalance and consequently cause injuries. I like to call this one cooperative trust. Some moves can only be pulled off if both work together and both know what they are doing. There are other holds like a simple Headscissors or a complex Reverse Indian Deathlock that could have other significant repercussions if say, the opponent doesn't release the hold when you ask him to do so. I mean I've known this through the Surfboard, where one of my opponents took a long time to release me and he would keep on the pressure after I asked and yelled at him to stop several times. That's usually a sign that you should never wrestle him ever again. Taking pictures and videos requires a different form of trust. When you do this, you need to agree on the terms. Is it okay to distribute, to keep only for ourselves, should faces on the images be blurred? Should someone wear a mask to preserve his identity? Usually, your opponent is trusting you a lot when you ask him for pictures, so it's your duty to make sure that he is very comfortable with the idea and that every precaution is taken to protect him. Unfortunately, I've seen a few cases where trust is one-sided. A particular opponent would ask me if it's okay to take pictures, but he tells me that he would be the only one to keep them... meaning that he would not provide me a copy. I suppose that in the least, he is telling me this in advance so I can determine if pictures should be taken or not. But really, trust usually has to go both ways. If you don't trust someone to have a copy of the pictures taken together and for them to keep a copy, then might as well not take any pictures at all. That way, you won't end up offending your opponent. You can still be a good sport and tell him that it's okay, if it really doesn't bother you. Most people would accept this one side deal because they don't want to alter, affect or break the wrestling relationship between the two. And I have to admit, this is myself included. I would shut up and wrestle, let them take pictures which I know I will never get a copy.... and in the long run, there is this grudge that builds up, that digs it's way through me and creates a long-term silent rift between me and my opponent. Yeah, now that I look back, I probably should have said "no". It's unfair, but I suppose this is a minor trust issue compared to the other ones I've listed above. In between having an injured shoulder for life or not having pictures, I'll take the latter. In another separate case, I had a guy pretending to want to take pictures and when comes the moment to take some, he brushes it away or refuse to take some. In fact, he was using his desire to take pictures just as a bait and to get me to wrestle him. I'd prefer if he was direct and told me he didn't want to take any pictures in the first place and I would still have wrestled him. Be honest. That's pretty important in my opinion. If you don't want any pictures, be upfront about it, don't lie about it. One of the worst case scenario I've seen is people promising me to send the pictures they have taken with their camera and then they never do so in the end. So yeah, this is very deceptive and it's the worst kind of way you can show your trust (or mistrust) to someone. I've heard of common answers after the facts such as "I had to delete the whole content of the memory card because I had to take family pictures and I have to show my camera to my family." Then, when you tell them that there's software to un-delete files and to recover images, and that you're actually offering them to reverse the deletion on their memory card, they actually shut up and never talk to you again because they never wanted you to have a copy of the wrestling pictures in the first place. Wow. Selfishness at its best. Anyway, if you do happen to take pictures, be punctual and be responsive, send your opponents the entirety of the content taken together as fast as you can. It's a gesture of courtesy, a way to express your appreciation of their cooperation with you. The first thing I do when I return home from a wrestling match is to plug my memory card on my computer, put the files on the Dropbox, MS OneDrive, or Google Drive and send a link to my opponent. If I do it now, I won't forget it and I won't risk pissing off my opponent and losing a wrestler. Also, do yourself a favor, let the person who is more comfortable with information technologies deal with this. While I don't mind getting multiple e-mails and individually download my pictures, e-mail has the same security guarantee than an online private file-sharing server that will allow your opponent to download them in one shot... or without even touching his computer. In order to save space and reduce transfer time, I often resize my images before I share them. However, this is a detail that needs to be discussed with your opponent. Some wrestlers are very picky with photo quality and they would like to have the originals even if they are 5 MB each and even if they are at a 6000 x 4000 pixels resolution. Most people I've dealt with prefer their photos at 200-300 KB with a resolution of 1200 x 800 pixels (or 800 x 600). By the way, the bad events I've listed happened more than five years ago (some more than 10). I'm just sharing them so that you guys are more cautious about it and hopefully don't share the same bitter experience that I've felt in some of my past matches. | |||||||
| Blog ID 128 | |||||||
| Friday July 15 2016 - MarcWrestler: after 2 years | Recent matches | ||||||
| I finally had a new match with MarcWrestler (id 3658). We didn't wrestle for 2 years because of a prior disagreement, but he did told me this that slowly cast away the clouds that were preventing me from wrestling him again: The gay wrestling community is very small to ignore each other. We should stick together, get along and have wrestling matches! After 2 years, I've decided to let it go and meet him again. And I'm really glad I did... I forgot how good and knowledgeable he really is. If you think I'm a wrestling expert, compared to MarcWrestler, I am an absolute and terrible beginner! This is the reason why I'm a poor heel: I can't follow up quickly enough to another hold. MarcWrestler has an infinite variety of complex and exotic wrestling and submission holds that he can chain one after another without any problem. He knows how to apply them easily without hurting you. He leads you and makes you look good in his holds. We took quite a few shots. His camera is quite special: it is programmed to take a picture every 30 seconds... forever! That is, until you tell it to stop it, otherwise, it will continue to take a picture every 30 seconds. So, you have that amount of time to set up the hold and switch to another one. He actually have 3 (!!!) of those cameras! Here's 3 shots that were approved by MarcWrestler himself:
Yes, I do realize I have a bulge on the shot below. I don't recall if I was excited or if the trunks was just too tight...
You can also at the shots we took 4 years ago in  Match ID 49. That specific match was special in the sense that the hotel room we took had a mirror on the ceiling. So, it was possible to face the camera towards the ceiling and have a bird's eye view on our wrestling holds. Pro-wise, it's excellent to get photos with this angle because it's unconventional and you seldom see photos like these. Sub-wise, it's also great because the mirror acts as another pair of eyes to help you determine what your opponent intends to do with his free limbs... | |||||||
| Blog ID 76 x 2 | |||||||
| Sunday June 19 2016 - Great week-end :) | Recent matches | ||||||
| In spite of carrying with me a minor left shoulder injury since my return from Atlanta, I've decided to go forward and have 2 matches this week-end. The thing is that I don't think it was anything in Atlanta that caused the injury... it was something I got after my return but I can't pinpoint what it is (badminton, maybe?). In any case, the injury is actually more of a minor pain/nuisance than anything else. It's nothing that would bar me from wrestling and having fun. True, it's almost 2 weeks now and it's taking a lot more time than I projected to heal, but it is heading the right way and it looks promising. I am evaluating full shoulder recovery in one more week. On the bright side, my right shoulder haven't manifested any pain since probably a year now. My wrestling encounter average is usually one match per month because wrestlers in Montreal are pretty scarce, but this month (on top of my Atlanta trip) is an exception.... heheheh. On Saturday, I met with Lumber G for our fourth match. We had to take this opportunity because I might not see him for a little while, his schedule will become busy. We had lots of back and forth, submission, promission and sometimes just pure pro fun. Intense as always. We're getting used to it now, but Lumber G actually surprised me by being a lot stronger than usual and taking the upper hand on many occasions. I really didn't mind it at all. On Sunday, I met with BeastMtl (id 10067) who I haven't wrestled since... 11 years ago. BeastMtl actually recalled this detail because I forgot how long it was. My memories are failing me a bit and this is actually why I hold this blog as some sort of diary I can look back in the future. After we locked up, I realized that BeastMtl has vastly improved and he has become a much tougher and superior opponent today than 11 years back! You should see BeastMtl's setup. He has a whole room dedicated to wrestling with nice wrestling mats! Wow! I so definitely want a setup like this... (when I settle down)! As for our fight, we were pretty much evenly matched. All my scissor holds were nullified because they wouldn't do a thing on him. In fact, I latched on him a leg scissors and cheated by using my knees and I ended up hurting myself by overdoing it. My knee either cracked or popped lightly. I stopped for a little while and was able to recover, but it was a bit scary. This was a mistake from my end. I should know better not to apply too much pressure. In any case, BeastMtl wouldn't budge on any of my scissors, so why waste so much energy and strength on it? On the contrary, BeastMtl's scissors were pretty strong and a lot stronger that I can remember. Had I stayed long enough, I would probably have tapped, so I positioned myself in such a way that it was uncomfortable for him and that he would have to spend a lot more power to maintain the scissors. The end result would be to tire him out...My match with him was quite challenging because it forced me to think of attacking him in a different way since I can no longer rely on my legs. I can still rely on them to hold him down, but I need to use something else to make him tap. Usually, in about 75% of my matches, my legs will do the work, but this wasn't the case here. Unfortunately, I ended up hitting BeastMtl's nose with my feet or legs while he was attempting to apply the small package on me. The small package is definitely one of my bad weaknesses.. I will try to avoid it all costs, but I made a maneuver that was too quick. We stopped there. When I left, his nose seemed fine... so I hope it won't leave a trace in the days to come. No matter how careful you tread, accidents can happen. I need to act a bit slower when my legs are in an upright position. This is one of those moments where I need to be humble and accept giving a submission to my opponent rather than attempting a breakout that can injure or hurt him. No matter my experience, I still have a LOT to learn. We were thinking about taking pictures, but after that little nose hit, I felt it was more appropriate to re-schedule the photoshoot for a different date, because yes, we agreed to both meet again. Hopefully, on a regular basis which we currently determined to be monthly for the time being. Both Lumber G and BeastMtl were actually very nice on upper body holds because I did told them about my shoulder and they both avoided it. Thankfully! I am currently limping a bit right now because of my knee, but I think this should go away in a couple of days.Overall, I had a great week-end. It's still sunny outside and I can't go bike anymore, but I'll take 2 wrestling matches anytime to replace a bike ride! | |||||||
| Blog ID 69 | |||||||
| Thursday April 28 2016 - Quickie | Recent matches | ||||||
| I had a quick 10 minute short match with Phili (id 3894) today. It probably doesn't count as a match, but hey, I enjoyed my time even if it was short. Our session was mainly me dominating with sleepers, headlocks and gut punches given both from the front and from behind. Hey, I'm always up for a wrestling match, even if it's 10 minutes. I take it that we will have future encounters that will last longer. In fact, this is probably my 5th match with him. My longest match with him was 30 minutes. He's quite a busy guy... | |||||||
| Blog ID 60 | |||||||
| Tuesday March 8 2016 - KAPOW! | Wrestling match | ||||||
| Sometimes I like to revise my older wresting scenarios and update them. It could be just a small tweak or it could be big revision. Be-Bear (id 2910) told me that my matches are so corny that I should make them cornier by including Batman-style onomatopoeia like in the TV show in the 1960s. Well.. challenge accepted.
Check out my match with Phil again in Match ID 212 and try to find all the pictures I've replaced with nice (yet, cheezy) Photoshop effects. | |||||||
| Blog ID 52 x 1 | |||||||
| Monday October 19 2015 - Loserboy vs Edina | Wrestling match | ||||||
| After 7 months, I finally added a new match. Behold, Loserboy vs Edina in Match ID 298. I actually had this match back in May 2015 while I was in Florida for a conference. So it took me 5 months to write this match, but that's nothing compared to the 2+ years other of my picture sets are waiting. Sometimes, I just don't have the inspiration or the time to write matches. For this story, I decided to adopt a slightly different style: this time around, I'm just describing the match, but I've decided to skip the expressions, the talks and the quotes. I figured anyway that most people don't read what I write anyway hehehehe. Please let me know what you think of this new format.
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| Blog ID 36 | |||||||
| Sunday July 5 2015 - 3 matches | Recent matches | ||||||
| My wrestling frequency has its ups and downs.. There are some months I don't wrestle at all... and others where I meet up with several people. Luckily, in the past 2 weeks, I had 3 nice wrestling matches with great people. I wrestled this very charming guy that came all the way from France. His pseudonym is Polyethylene33 from MeetFighters. I came in confident that I could beat this wrestler through submission, but Polyethene showed me whos the real master. I don't think anyone had showed me the color of defeat as clear as Polyethylene. Strong wrestler, lethal scissors, great personality, handsome stud, an all around awesome guy. Polyethylene33 clearly outmatched me. His technical skills and wrestling experience is beyond mine. If you think I have a strong passion for wrestling, wait until you meet this guy. Our match here was mainly submission, then we gradually went into promission and pro near the second half of the match. Headscissorsguy (id 9989) was my 2nd match a week afterwards. I've wrestled him a couple of times before and he just adores being caught in head scissors. This one is more of a give and take session. Lastly, I've wrestled today Rassleteeo from Globalfight. Submission and promission were the styles used here. I felt we connected very well and we ended up wrestling for 3 hours. Rassleteeo was more of the dominant type, but I think I gave him quite a bit of trouble. Nevertheless, I had an absolute blast with him. In case you wondered, I don't have any pictures for any of these. Pictures are things I rarely ask for people I wrestle for the first time since I don't want to scare them away. Also, by looking at the profiles of these wrestlers, it kinda gives me an idea on whether or not they want some. The overall vibe is that these guys prefer to keep their privacy and intimacy. The majority prefer this.. I'm just a weird guy that likes to take pictures of my wrestling prowess... especially if it involves racking a big guy over my shoulders. | |||||||
| Blog ID 26 | |||||||
| Sunday June 14 2015 - Week-end in Trois-Rivières | Recent matches | ||||||
| Yes, that's french for Three Rivers, a small city in the province of Quebec. I went to visit Fightdure (id 1591) this week-end.. it's been about almost a year I haven't met him. No pictures this time around. We simply had 2 amical submission wrestling matches, one on saturday and one on sunday. To my recollection it, was 3-2 for me on the first day and 4-0 for me on the 2nd day... mwahahahaha Despite those match results, beware, Fightdure is definitely not an opponent to underestimate. He has greatly improved from my last matches with him and his body scissors has become quite lethal... problem with me is that I just love body scissors, which gives me a greater endurance and resistance when someone applies them on me. Sometimes, different types of pain can be reduced through psychological concentration: for example, I often affiliate the act of being squeezed in a body scissors by an opponent as an act of compassion or affection. This helps me stay in these holds longer... | |||||||
| Blog ID 24 | |||||||
| Saturday February 14 2015 - Still need to work on some matches | Past matches | ||||||
I still have a handful of matches I need to write. Here's 2 of them: one with Gates (id 2541) in September 2012 and one with Ed (id 3011) from February 2013.
I came up with the wrestling match section a couple of years ago with the intent of making it easier and faster to write matches, but no matter what I do, it is still somewhat time consuming to write up scenarios and prepping up the pictures for it. On average, I'd say writing a match takes anywhere from 2 to 6 hours depending on the length of the match and the amount of pictures that were taken. Anyway, what should I start with first? The scenario against Gates or the scenario against Ed? By the way, you can now rate my pictures by clicking on them. Each vote will grant you +1,000 bearhug points. | |||||||
| Blog ID 7 | |||||||
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