Loserboy's Blog

Sunday February 28 2016 - Review: NYC Wrestlefest 2016

I can't believe it's already over. One week of wrestling... All in all, I've decided to cut by half the amount of matches this year. The reason for this is that I need to be careful and I need to be reasonable when thinking of my own potential and stamina. In addition, both EvilDark (id 1077) and WolfJobber (id 8490) were my roommates this year so we had to divide our schedule and sharing access to our hotel room in 3.

We arrived on Friday Feb 19 2016, EvilDark and I started setting up the room. WolfJobber later joined us and he had the brilliant idea of putting up the base of the mattresses along with the wooden panels on one side of the room to hold all four single beds together so that the beds cannot move while we wrestle. It was a very nice setup.

As with previous year, I also had bed strappers that held the sheets down at each corner. They didn't work all the time, but they were efficient enough to reduce the amount of times we had to reposition the sheets.

Our 10 hours train trip exhausted us so we didn't schedule any match on the 19th. I believe the official dates of the fest to be between the 21st and the 23/24th, but many wrestlers come before to take advantage of the week-end. NickZ (id 3023) also usually holds on the saturday (In this year, on the 20th) an open room at his house, but I usually don't attend it because it takes about an hour and a half to get there. I'll need to do a better effort the next time to get there.

My first match on Saturday Feb 20 2016 was with Rusnak (id 2653). I was a bit worried at first because he does have a greater weight advantage on me, but he went very easy on me. I'd say we did light sub with him occasionally giving me the upper hand.

My 2nd match that day was with Tycoonboy (id 2690). We had a friendly pro match which was very relaxing. I then suggested Tycoonboy to meet later during the week to make pictures since he did mention he is a fan of my match against Be-Bear.

I've decided to do a little bit of sightseeing this time around. It's my 5th time in NYC after all, and all the previous times I've visited NYC for the fest, I've only stayed in my hotel room to wrestle... So, EvilDark and I headed down to ground zero and visited the 9/11 Memorial Museum. It was quite a bit depressing, but we needed to see it.

Around 8 pm, Wolfjobber and I had a match with SLiMJiM (id 7059) and Smeshy. These were full on competitive match, so we got tired pretty fast and simply started chatting for the rest of the night.

We started Sunday Feb 21 2016 with a nice sub and pro match with Smeshy. I managed to get him stay over my room after yesterday's match. Wow.. this guy is just overly handsome. Having missed him 2 years ago, I was more than excited to finally have a rematch! I've got videos this time around, but these will probably remain private. I don't think Smeshy is comfortable with me sharing his face so you'll only see him a bit from the back here.

We were then supposed to me NJMuscGuy1 but he got injured. It's the 2nd time we missed him, but I'm keeping him on my radar since his recommendations do indicate that he is genuine.

We moved up WreslBear (id 2181) from his original time slot and we did a couple of competitive matches followed by some give and take. WreslBear quite improved his wrestling skills. I'd say he is the most improved wrestler this year compared to our matches from 2 years ago. I think he lost a bit of weight and it shows that he's been training. This match was really fun. EvilDark really took advantage of this match to use WreslBear as his practice dummy.

I don't remember who got who in the next picture, but I think WreslBear is probably the one in the better position. He has his arm around my neck and he is defending himself to prevent me from putting my own headlock around him.

We were supposed to meet RickSF (id 8839), but he had a bit of food poisoning, so he was nice enough to send me MattZ. I still remember wrestling this guy in November 2014 when I was visiting San Francisco... Istill remember he was completely invincible.. and he still is!!! All of my scissors are worth nothing. There wasn't a single hold that can make this guy budge!

We spoke about the missed opportunity of taking pictures back in 2014, so we made sure this time to take some shots. MattZ prefers a bit of anonymity though so you won't see his face on this shot.

I started Monday February 22 2016 with a match against NJ_Woodbridge in a light competitive, give and take and jobber/heel mix and match session. NJ_Woodbridge has always been one of my favorite. He is quite passionate and he'll always brighten up the room when he walks in. I still remember him racking me when I walked in a room on my first Wrestlefest. What better way to welcome someone to a wrestling event?

Our 2nd match of the day was with Jobberboy (id 482)... and wow, he got beefier and is much more skillful now. The trick with him is to avoid letting him do his sleeper and if you can scissor him, he'll most likely tap. I've mostly let him and EvilDark play around because EvilDark did tell me that Jobberboy is one of his favorite wrestler.

I got my time with Jobberboy anyway: here's a shot where Jobberboy is head scissoring me and headlocking me. I definitely love his beard!

I was pretty aggressive because I still remember him cracking my ribs about 3 or 4 years ago when I allowed him to body scissor me while holding me in a reverse headlock... I didn't position myself properly back then.

Later on, we finally had our match with RickSF (id 8839). He completely recovered from his food poisoning and wanted to be at 100% before tackling us. RickSF has improved... In fact, everybody this year has improved.. either that, or I lost some power... lol. Both EvilDark and I pushed RickSF into a gut punching and body scissor contest to determine which wrestler is more resistant or which wrestler had better scissors. RickSF is very playful.. and also a very handsome wrestler.

Here is a kneeling rack on RickSF.

And here's also RickSF favorite hold. It's some sort of roll-up pin I guess. I actually need to get from him the real term. I believe it's a common hold in freestyle wrestling.

RickSF was so nice.. i commented on his nice San Diego Wrestling sweater with a big yellow bear paw and he ended up giving it to me. Sweeeet! A souvenir!

. It really touched me. Exchanging gear is always a good way to remember someone or to leave a personal mark.

For the last half of the evening, I wrestled WrestlingCoachSF (id 4731). He's always a blast. He's aggressive, he's tough.. although both my body scissors and my leg scissors were able to pierce his defenses... if he lets me put those on him, of course.

Our upper arm strength started to match this year.. I remember I could barely defend his attack on the arms previously. His techniques are still far superior than mine and I can still learn a lot from WrestlingCoachSF.

He was very nice to sport and keep a beard when we met.

I am still so shy to ask him if I can take pics... something tells me he might not want to...

My pro matches actually started on Tuesday February 23 2016. My morning match was with RingWrestler (id 3709). I was worried I wouldn't "get the pro stuff" enough for him, but he made it very easy. Being more of a heel, RingWrestler threw me in flips and tumbles that were done gracefully without hurting me one bit. Very skillful and very passionate about pro wrestling. This was definitely an enlightening match and a great way to start my first pro match of the fest.

Prostud_MI (id 8510) was my next match, also a pro match, but slower paced, so lighter pro. He lost some weight since our last meet so he was much easier to flip in a rack. Very cute stud. Here is him putting a knee backbreaker on me, followed by a standing camel variant.

I was then supposed to have a match with wrestlefan722, but he was quite a bit busy so that did not happen.

This was followed by MikeSWUK (id 8896) in a semi-competitive match along with some training. Mike gave us a few tricks to up our wrestling submission skills. It also shows that Mike beefed up and got better also. He was much tougher to beat, but my scissors were still able to make him tap... although he had a couple of submissions on me.

It always goes fast with Mike, because he always have lots of wrestling experiences to share. The proof is that I wanted to take pics but time flew so fast as we were talking that I wasn't able to get any pictures

The open room was next, but I did a little mistake this year. I hadn't advertised it enough and I had not made it clear that it could be shared with everyone. A total of 10 people were in this room: MikeSWUK, AKRob, WreslBear, Gracie Paul, Scottilla (id 3020), NJ_Woodbridge, Hellcateddy (id 7537), BrownBomber (id 1265), EvilDark and myself.

My match with Hellcatedy was a real quickie.. he is so light that he is among the few people that I can rack starting in a kneel down position and be able to stand up without hurting my back.

Scottilla was still invincible. He's the only wrestler I have wrestled at almost every wrestling event, including the Clash of the Titans and the previous 4 fests, that I had never once being able to make him tap. He'd always had so much ease making me tap.. but that's what you get from an olympic medalist.

He is up there with the elite guys, while I still dawdle forever in the intermediate level.

Here's a shot with a rack on BrownBomber... this shot is unusual in the sense that I seem phased off or out of sync... I don't remember what I was thinking. But.. I absolutely love this shot. Kudos to the photographer... hehehe.

There was an 11th person that showed up but I couldn't figure out who this person was...

I actually wrestled Gracie Paul at my first or second wrestlefest. I don't think he has a profile, nor does he put his name up for the registration. This makes him virtually invisible and hard to track. He's a very cute guy.

In any case, I'll remember next time to give a shout out for my open room and to invite more people. Nevertheless, I don't regret it.. our small open room was fun and I rotated the matches with almost everyone who showed up.

Wednesday February 24 2016 started with a match with FantasyFeak (id 4223). Both WolfJobber and I were up against him, and this was more a heel vs jobbers, where both Wolfjobber and I were jobbers. Quite a fun match and it was very nice to see how FantasyFeak easily handles double-teaming and taking control of both his jobbers. Yeah... FantasyFeak is better known as Tim Sheridan from BG East. Yay! I get to wrestle a BG celebrity!

Here's a shot where he performs his victorious pin on me. It shows how a great and invincible heel he is. I mean how can I possibly beat a celebrity?

AKRob was my next match. Despite seeing him in the open room, he was too sore from his previous match to be able to grant me a match yesterday. So today, we got into light submission with some give and take. AKRob is a very nice guy and I had so much fun wrestling him! I did cuddle him quite a bit heheheh... and we took the opportunity to do some shots as well. He is very strong and very resistant also. My full nelson and body scissors combo did nothing to him... it seems that more and more people just build an immunity against it. It's only later that I realized that AKRob wanted to be immortalized in the sense of making a match on the site. I need to make a rematch with him to make all the necessary pics for a scenario.

The next match after this was with Jobberboy, WreslBear, RickSF and EvilDark, we were taking turns. I guess this can be called a mini open room. It was pretty fun. EvilDark was in a corner with Jobberboy, I was in a corner with RickSF. EvilDark would trade turns with WreslBear... and there was plenty of space for 2 matches to run concurrently.

WarriorJS (id 10934) later showed up and this was my cue for a full on 100% competitive match. After 10 minutes, I think WarriorJS had me 5-0, many of these submission were due to his deadly sleeper hold. I could resist his scissors and he could resist mine, so those were nullified... I rarely ever put sleepers through fear of hurting people. WarriorJS was way up there and was a much better wrestler than I am.

I later learned that he could tone it down and he could even do pro...

The only hold that would actually work on WarriorJS is a leg scissors on the thigh by using the knees to compress. However, WarriorJS easily avoided that hold by always having the upper hand and by staying on top of me. In fact, the only way I could apply this hold is when he willingly lets me apply it on him.

My last match of the day was a short give and take session with WrestleInAstoria. He's a local not registered for the fest, but EvilDark wanted to give him a shot. I mainly traded head scissors and body scissors with him. He could take quite a few.

BLarger was our morning match for Thursday February 25 2016, but he had to cancel due to the bad traffic in NYC.

I was then supposed to have NickZ and WrestleVA7, but they mixed up the time slot so I squeezed in Grabmnsqwz (id 2569). Light submission, give and take, lots of headscissors and body scissors. This guy is very cute and it's a shame he doesn't put his pic... but like many, not everyone is comfortable in putting their faces on the net. He sports this very nice beard... and yea, everyone knows that I have this weakness with beards... I just melt!

I had a wonderful time with him. It was RickSF who introduced me this wrestler and when I saw him for the first time, I told myself, "wow.. cute. I wonder if he'll wrestle me."... Little did I know he was thinking the same thing

I ended the day with a rematch with Tycoonboy (id 2690), but this time around, it was to prep up a scenario.. so we took up a lot of shots and I'm thinking this will be probably one of those 10 pages match. I'll be stingy and only post two here.

Yes, you're not seeing it wrong. That's Tycoonboy smiling at my head scissors. It's the gimmick of the great Tycoonboy being so great and powerful that none of my holds have any effect on him. I'm sure you guys are used to that by now.

My only regret this trip is that I didn't spend enough time with WolfJobber. Nevertheless, we did go out to watch a movie together and we had most of our meals together. We caught up on the two years we missed.

I asked EvilDark during the week to close his tablet. When he is at home in Quebec city, he can play with his tablet anytime he wants. When he's here at the Wrestlefest, I do want him to participate, talk to the guys, socialize and WRESTLE! Which he promptly did... thankfully. He stopped touching his tablet for the 2nd half of the week.

The reduced wrestling load was a good thing because I came up home with less bruises, less sores.. but I did get a cold o_O... which will probably disappear in 9 days. The only reason I got this cold was because I was careless. Some days were warm enough in NYC to just stroll around with t-shirt... yes, even in February, but a couple of other days were windy and rainy and I didn't dress warm enough I guess.

I think I will keep the reduced-load format in the upcoming years... which unfortunately would probably be every 2 years since I keep one year for my family and one year for personal leisure such as wrestling.

Our train ride back home on Friday February 26 2016 was uneventful, but both EvilDark and I were heading back with memories that will last forever. We gave WolfJobber a warm goodbye before he headed out to Albany.

This ends and concludes my 5th year at the Wrestlefest.

This year, I had a couple of 4 hours slots and many 2 hour slots. In comparison, 2 years ago, I had 2 hour slots with lots of 1 hour slots on the Wednesday.

I had 18 matches and 3-6 open room matches (3 of which were unique, 3 others were repeats). This is down from 33 matches and 12 open room matches from my 4th Wrestlefest in 2014. But again, I purposely toned it down because I didn't want to go home too sore... just a little bit sore.

Sometimes, you need to enjoy life, but you also need to take it easy and don't overestimate yourself.

A friend once told me that its quality that counts rather than quantity.

All in all, the Wrestlefest is still a great event to attend if you are very fond of wrestling. How else can you schedule a long string of consecutive matches in a single week when normally, back home, I'd only have a match per month (or less)?

Of the 18 matches, 5 people were new wrestlers which I have not wrestled previously in any of the other Wrestlefests: RingWrestler, AKRob, WarriorJS, WrestleInAstoria and Grabmnsqwz. These are all guys I will definitely put back on my watch list in my future fests.

Update 2021-07-28: Fast forward five years later, I browse MeetFighters and fall on FlWresler whom I apparently wrestled during the fest, but have no recollection. He either used Dave of FlWresler, yet that still does not bring up any memory. I feel terrible. :(

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