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Tuesday June 7 2016 - Clash XX: Atlanta Clash of the Titans 2016!Wrestling event
Wow.. I don't really know where to start, but I can say that the Atlanta Clash of the Titans (Clash XX) was the best event I have ever attended.

My travel dates were between Wednesday June 1st 2016 and Monday June 6th 2016. The official Clash dates were from Thursday June 2nd to Sunday June 5th 2016. I made sure this time around to come one day earlier to leave enough time for me to recover from headaches I get from flights. I took a direct flight this time from Montreal to Atlanta, because I still remember my previous experience where I took a layover in Toronto before reaching Atlanta and that was just a pain in the a**.

This is my 2nd time at the Clash (Clash 20 [2016]), my first Clash being 3 years ago (Clash 17 [2013]).



Wednesday June 1st 2016: Flight from Montreal to Atlanta

I got lucky this time again. US Customs was pretty straightforward.

US Customs Officer: "Where are you going?"
Me: "To Atlanta"
US Customs Officer: "What for?"
Me: "To attend a wrestling event."
US Customs Officer: "You wrestle?"
Me: "Yes, I do."
US Customs Officer: "You're getting paid for this?"
Me: "No, sir. I do it just for fun."
US Customs Officer: "Have a good trip."
Me: "Thank you, sir."

These officers have seen so many travelers now and they are trained to tell when you lie or try to hide something, so now I just tell them straight down that I'm about to wrestle and they just let me go through pretty fast.

After an uneventful flight, I took my rental car, placed my old Garmin GPS and drove to the Springhill Suites from Mariott in Lithia Springs. Mind you, the last time I drove a car was exactly 3 years ago for Clash 17. I settled down, had a shower, took a little bit of rest before tackling Kyo1989 (id 6980). Yeah... the event doesn't start until tomorrow so I decided to chip in a few local hotel matches.

Kyo1989 is a wrestler with good submission skills. Warming up before the days to come is a good idea so a nice and friendly wrestling session was just what I needed. We did end up talking about anime and manga for quite a while after and then I headed to sleep in preparation for the first day of the Clash.




Thursday June 2nd 2016: Setup and open ring


THURSDAY JUNE 2
12:00 PM - SET UP (HELP APPRECIATED)
05:00 PM - OPEN RING AND MATS
11:00 PM - VENUE CLOSED


I came to the venue I believe around 2 pm. I saw the Cut2MeDesigns sponsor and the very cute Larry. He was at his booth explaining the things he was designing and ready to lend an ear for any special and custom orders you'd want to come up with.

The warehouse for the venue had this time around a LOT more prop than 3 years ago. I was kinda worried because I was wondering where everybody would stand and where the mats and the ring would be. Since there was nobody else around, I've decided to head back to my hotel. I picked up my messages and saw that AKRob arrived at his hotel which was only 5 minutes down the road (Quality Inn in Lithia Springs). Yep.. we had a brief hotel match which involved gut punching.

I headed back to the warehouse I think around 6 or 7 pm and there was now a lot of people.. but everyone was still waiting.. the mats and the ring has not arrived yet. 30 minutes later, the first shipment came. I went down to the unloading area and I saw BuddySTL and BearLord. I actually did not recognize BuddySTL. Like many, when you see people in real life, they don't look the same as in their pictures.. in fact, BuddySTL is much more handsome in person than in his pictures. As he unloaded the mats, he shouted "Where are my hugs?"

Hell yeah, I gave him a nice warm hug and then he recognized a friend beside me whom he promptly picked up in a huge lifted bearhug!

I thought to myself:

        Oh... I guess I am not worthy of your bearhug.

The reason why i didn't recognize BuddySTL was because I didn't recall seeing his ring name on the Atlanta Clash of the Titans blog so I wasn't expecting him to be at the event. Also to be noted that wrestlers attending the event occasionally use a ring name or pseudonym that is different from their online handle from Meetfighters or Global.

Anyway, BuddySTL and Bearlord brought in 2 sets of mats. The first set was a thick blue and beige type of material where it was soft and safe enough to wrestle on. He donated those to the Clash so those would stay at the warehouse. (That was very generous of him!) The second set of mats were real black wrestling mats with a couple of yellow circles that delimited the edge. I guess these circles are mostly used in freestyle.

A few moments later, a pickup truck arrived and you'd see three guys from Armstrong Pro Wrestling Tours unload all the material to build a 16x16 feet wide pro wrestling ring. It's amazing. If you've never seen a ring been built from scratch, then this will blow your mind away. Many wrestlers helped with the setup. After the base was setup, the three guys took care of the cables circling the ring, the corner posts and the other necessary attachments and adjustments that were needed to make the ring stable and resilient to impacts. They tested the ropes and landed on their backs several times. The bigger one of them was actually wearing pro wrestling boots and wow.. I would do anything to wrestle him, but that's fine, we had many wrestlers here at the venue that were more handsome than him.

Once the ring was setup, all the wrestlers would just stand there and talk. What was going on?? I guess everybody was intimiated. Nobody wanted to be the first to climb into the ring. After a while, I've decided to put on my wrestling boots, knee pad, my blue wrestling trunks and my black wristbands. I was on a tight schedule! 8:30 pm was my limit because I had to pick up RickSF (id 8839) and Roodle0p (Also known as Lodiwrestler) at the airport. They were my hotel roommates for the remaining duration of the event.

I think it was 7:30 pm so I had only one hour available to wrestle. Since nobody wanted to be among the first to climb up and you need two to tango, I've decided to pick up Harley, who is the co-host of the event. We took it easy, we exchanged a few holds and then I picked him up in an Torture Rack with Airplane Spin... ha ha ha. Harley wasn't expecting that so that was actually pretty mean from my end. It didn't take long before Steve (no, sorry, he doesn't appear to have any online wrestling profile at the time being) went on the ring. He had this nice hairy chest and yellow speedos and despite telling me he was a jobber, he'd kept heeling me because he didn't want to be racked... so I ended up using the Fireman's Carry with Airplane Spin instead on him.

5 minutes later, H2oWrestler (or FitWrestlerAbs on MeetFighters) and LSPowerhouse were in the ring too, all geared up! My encounter with them was brief because I had to scurry out. I think H2oWrestler had enough time to put on me the Tree of Woe. I lost balance on the ropes at one point and I couldn't stop laughing... I was actually afraid of falling.

LSpowerhouse was looking at me when I attempted to run away because he was expecting me to tag out to dish some damage on Steve. Before long, it was already 8:30 pm. Just before I left, I gave a quick rack to Kevin_Patrick on the mats. I was really sad to head out, but I couldn't just leave my roommates at the airport. (I think I racked H2oWrestler too while I was in the ring, but this is where my memories are already starting to fade).



Friday June 3rd 2016: Open ring/mats and First round of pro tournaments


FRIDAY JUNE 3
12:00 PM - OPEN RING AND MATS
07:00 PM - PRO SEMINAR
07:00 PM - DEADLINE FOR ENTRANCE IN TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT(8 TEAMS ONLY)
08:00 PM - ROUND ONE MATCHES TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT
09:30 PM - OPEN RING AND MATS
11:00 PM - VENUE CLOSED


Before heading back to the venue, I had a hotel match involving play wrestling, submission and 2 versus 1 with RickSF (id 8839) and Roodle0p. That already tired me out... lol. We then showered again and headed back towards the venue, not before first picking up AKRob and SactoWrestler along the way. 5 people was the maximum capactity of the Nissan Sentra car I rented.

At 12:30 PM, the ring was already in use, so I started with sub matches on the wrestling mats. ChicagoPiledriver was waiting for me and in the first few seconds, he reminded me how tough a wrestler he is. Well.. he does have a weight advantange on me, but on top of that he has amazing technical skills. The only thing I can pull off on this guy is that ankle lock that everybody hates... and even there, it would take me three tries before pulling out a single one successfully for a tap. I also managed to do a bit of sub with Roodle0p and then I was back on the ring.

I believe there was three different matches recordings between me and JackBouvier, Destroyer (id 2190) and Heel4You (id 10871).

That being said, Heel4You (id 10871) already posted his match with me on YouTube:



I have to admit that I just want to give an ankle lock to whoever who was filming this. Videos should always be recorded horizontally instead of vertically!!!

Here's the one against the Destroyer (id 2190):



The hilarious part on that video is around 2:30. I was doing a Fireman's Carry with Airplane Spin, but I was spinning so fast that I got dizzy and I lost balance... almost dropping The Destroyer. When I finally laid him down, I was still so confused and woozy that I had to stay on the ground for a little while. Silly me!

I'm not sure if JackBouvier is willing to share his video. I'll have to get in touch with him.

I don't remember when this moment occurred, but I'll just put it here for now. I saw a match between LSPowerhouse and Rough House Rodrigo. A beer bottle was used and shattered in pieces! At that moment, I panicked. I told myself:

        WTF!??!?! What is going on here? Has the wrestlers here become crazy or insane? Will there be blood?

It took me about a full of minute to realize that the beer bottle was a prop. A 20$ empty beer bottle usually in sale to use as a fake during wrestling. An illusion :) It really got me good. When this bottle shatters, the small pieces caused by the hit of this prop do not hurt, they are not sharp, they look like glass, but they are harmless. Phew. What really made it even scarier was that Rodrigo sold the hit very well: he dropped dead on the mats and layed unconscious for 2 minutes... he of course, pretended to be unconscious. Thank goodness.

The youngest wrestler attending the Clash was J [I've truncated his name to preserve his identity, he was very secretive about it] (He's 23 years old from California), a first time attendee at the Clash. (J also doesn't have any online wrestling profiles, he deleted them all because he doesn't really like hotel matches). Like many first attendees, J stood there sitting down watching people, but then he asked me if I could show him a couple of pro moves on the ring. Heck, I don't consider myself a pro expert, I just follow what others have shown me, so I've decided to show him some of the basics, but the thing is that this kid already knew pretty much everything and we would see more about it later. Anything he had missed, he would learn very fast and show his new skill with style!

If I recall, I didn't even see J on the roster of the Clash Blog. You can actually ask the organizers not to put your ring name/first name/photo on the blog, so I assume he did exactly that. That being said, I had a discussion with Harley later on that there is a difficulty of attracting younger wrestlers to the event because most young wrestlers don't want their identity (even if it is a pseudonym only) to be shown and because they believe that the event is only attended by older wrestlers. This is exactly why Kyo1989 (id 6980) didn't attend the Clash. He didn't know that either J or Roodle0p was attending the event. It's sort of a vicious circle.

At one point, I don't remember anymore if it was before supper or after supper, but BuddySTL put me up in a rack for a full minute!



I was in awe.. I was in ecstasy! Was it supposed to hurt? Of course not! The rack is designed to be spectacular, but if you don't bend, then it's as if you're lying comfortably on a bed. A move that is this fun is not painful for me!

At this point, I still didn't know who was really racking me. I still couldn't connect the dots to tie him to his wrestling profile. I only knew him by his first name, but I had no idea who he really was.

Around 5-6 PM, AKRob, RickSF, J, Roodle0p and I headed out to grab a bite because everyone was hungry. When we got back about an hour later, I saw Edinchattanooga (id 2616) arrive so I switched back to sub and had a bit of fun on the mats that were at the back of the warehouse. I'd call this the private mats because most of the wrestlers were near the ring close to the unloading bay, which leaves a bit more intimacy to those who were at the back of the warehouse. I was later able to do a bit of sub with Rough House Rodrigo, but I guess I was really no match for him because as soon as he was able to get behind me to put a sleeper, he didn't even bother putting it on me.

I thought to myself:

          Well... I guess you didn't even need to apply the sleeper to show that you won ;)

Instead, Rodrigo suggested that we climbed into the ring to do pro instead, but it was already 7 PM... yes already! We could no longer use the ring.

BuddySTL climbed into the ring. Yes, he was the teacher/presenter for the Pro Seminar. He was the expert! The thing I remember the most from the seminar is to let the jobbers sell the moves for you. And when you sell, you need to show your face with the pain rather than bending down and hiding it... so, face up instead of face down. Pro wrestling is about giving the illusion that the hold or the maneuver is painful and real. BuddySTL actually went into a lot more stuff, but I couldn't stop admiring this cute wrestler... so yes, I really got distracted. Out of a one hour seminar, it's the only three things I could remember.

7 PM was also the deadline for pro tag team tournament registration, so Steve approached me to ask me if I can be his tag team partner. I told him that we should probably encourage J and Roodle0p to do tag team with us so they can actively be part of the event and use the ring. I manage to convince Roodle0p to join in while Steve convinced J to do a tag team with him.

This year, I also convinced myself to register for the sub tournament and the single pro tournament.. but still not the Battle Royale.

Both our teams got eliminated on the first round between 8 PM and 9 PM, but that's fine, I think both J and Roodle0p were tired anyway. When it was J and Steve's turn on the ring, J showed how agile, cunning, fast he was. He definitely was the shining star on the ring! Everybody loved him. He was amazing!

Roodle0p and I were put up against JackBouvier and the Destroyer (id 2190). Roodle0p and JackBouvier started the match with a later a tag switch to the Destroyer. Roodle0p tagged me in and then I jobbered from there. Destroyer finished me off with a piledriver and that was the end of it. Both JackBouvier and The Destroyer moved on to the 2nd round and eliminated us. Hey... all official pro matches at the Clash are scripted anyway (you decide of the script) and it's decided in advance who will lose and who will move forward. Considering that I already hogged the ring for a lot of time, it was a good thing we lost. This gives the chance for other wrestlers to shine by being part of the tournament and those that move forward will have more ring time.

At one point, BuddySTL mounted on the ring to do his tag team pro match and this is where I finally realized that he was THE legendary BuddySTL. How did I finally realize that??? He was wearing a singlet with "BuddySTL" written on it. Yes, you really have to put it out there, right in front of my face, so that I can get it. All this time! All this time I didn't realize that until now! That meant that I have been racked earlier by BuddySTL! It's like a dream come true! I've always wanted to wrestle this guy! If you actually check out his profile on MeetFighters, it's actually quite intimidating.

He's a trained pro wrestler and worked for pro indies for 7 years! This guy is serious. We do wrestling just for fun, but this guy does it for real! He goes through the stress, the tension and the intensity of the fight, gets the cheers and the boos from a real crowd. He sells his holds, makes his opponent look good, plays the really bad guy gimmick and probably has to go on with the show and continue wrestling if he ever injures himself accidentally in the ring. On top of that, he's also a very good submission and NHB wrestler.

He does mention he won't wrestle jobbers... and considering that my ring name is Loserboy, that pretty much nullifies any chance I have with this guy... but this guy is so nice, he picked me up and racked me for a full minute! It's incredible the image you make of someone when you look at their profile. I always thought of him as someone untouchable that could care less for the jobber/chaser type like me. Deep down, BuddySTL is a kind-hearted guy, a teddy bear, an absolutely amazing person. More on that later...

After the first round of the tournament, everybody was tired so it was time to get back, but we had to stay a little bit longer: there was the Battle of the Pink (a 3-way match) and a grudge battle between Rough House Rodrigo and El Toro Blanco (El Toro won!). After that, I think it was 10 pm, so I missed one hour of open ring/mats but it would be unfair for me to make 4 other people wait just so that I can have more ring/mats time. Besides, tomorrow (Saturday) would be the day of all the tournaments (single pro, continuation of tag team pro matches, all sub tournaments plus battle royale), so it's a good idea to rest up.



Saturday June 4th 2016: All tournaments


SATURDAY JUNE 4
10:00 AM - CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST
11:00 AM - DEADLINE FOR ENTRANCE IN PRO TOURNAMENT
11:00 AM - SUB TOURNAMENT WEIGH INS AND SUB SEMINAR
12:00 PM - SUB TOURNAMENT PRELIMINARY MATCHES
01:00 PM - PRO TOURNAMENT PRELIMINARY MATCHES
02:00 PM - TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT ROUND TWO MATCHES
02:30 PM - PRO TOURNAMENT PRELIMINARY MATCHES
03:30 PM - SUB TOURNAMENT FINALS
04:00 PM - PRO TOURNAMENT FINALS
05:30 PM - BATTLE ROYAL
07:00 PM - AWARDS DINNER
08:00 PM - OPEN RINGS AND MATS
11:00 PM - VENUE CLOSED


AKRob, J, SactoWrestler and I arrived with one car while RickSF, Roodle0p, Wrestlg (id 4402) arrived with another car. I had already weighed-in at 11 AM to enter the sub tournament. The scale calculated 152 lbs for me... my stomach must have been empty because I usually carry 3-5 lbs of food which would have driven my weight up to 157 lbs. Wrestlg and RickSF weighed-in near noon, but they were still in time to make it for the tournament. Harley, RickSF, Wrestlg and I were all part of the lightweight division and I was put up against Harley.

Before the sub matches actually start, BuddySTL stepped on the black and yellow wrestling mats. Yep, he was also the expert for the Sub Seminar. Several wrestlers included myself went on the mats as his demoed several techniques. There was one most memorable part for me that actually made me forgot everything that he taught me (yes, I get distracted pretty easily): I was lying down on my back and he was kneeling down on top of me. A few drops of his sweat fell on me while he was teaching, so he interrupted himself and told me:

BuddySTL: "Sorry, I'm trying not to sweat on you."

I instinctively replied:

Loserboy: "Oh, you can sweat on me as much as you want."

At this point, BuddySTL stopped. He bended down and kissed my forehead. He just made the bear chaser in me extremely happy.

Despite the distraction, I did remember that BuddySTL taught us how to break an opponent away from a turtle defensive mode. You put your head on your opponent's side you grab one arm and one leg and push forward. It's pretty effective.

Noon ticked and my sub match was up: Harley and I locked in and we started to tangle. Harley was on top of me for most of the match until I was able to hold him with my body scissors while holding his arms to prevent him from breaking it. I was lucky here, body scissors were Harley's weakness and I was able to win this first round.

Next up, I saw RickSF (id 8839) and Wrestlg (id 4402) go at it and this is where I knew that I would lose if I was put up against Wrestlg. Wrestlg had the upper hand for the entire fight. He was technical, he was aggressive, he was so good. He is up there at a much higher level than any of us. In fact, watching Wrestlg fight so well made me looked like a beginner. o_O

Soon or later, RickSF lost the fight and I was now really put up against Wrestlg. Yes, he completely dominated the fight, he locked me one hold after hold, but despite that, even when some of his holds were nasty, he was being very careful and never did he harm me in any way. The moves were just uncomfortable, but never left any long term pain. He was just trying to wear me out.. after 5 minutes, I realized that I was just spending all my energy in this one match and there was nothing I could do to budge Wrestlg. He was way too overpowered for me. His strength and stamina surpassed mine and he could continue to torture me until I would be completely out.... I tapped. Wrestlg became the winner of the lightweight division. Wrestlg comforted me by telling me that I was a tough opponent, that I was really resistant, that I got something going on with my ankle lock, but that he didn't want to lose his pride.

I won't go into details on the other sub matches and pro matches because I could go for very long. There was apparently more than of 250 pro and sub matches (both tournament and non-tournament) combined and so many of them were amazing. If I could detail them, this summary would become a novel.... actually, it may already be the case just with my matches alone

I actually missed watching most of the single pro matches of the first round because I was busy discussing with H2oWrestler, J and Mighty Mongo (id 2645) about the turnout for our match. Yes, that was our single pro tournament match. It's actually a 3 vs 1 handicap match.. and can you guess against whom? Who else than the Mighty Mongo!!!

Yep, H2oWrestler, J and I were pitted against the Mighty Mongo! That's awesome! Mighty Mongo was always a guy that I also wanted to wrestle and I was given that exact opportunity! You should see this guy in person, he is soooo nice, charming, sociable... you just want to cuddle him! We all threw in our ideas and at one point it was so messy, there were so many details to remember.

When our match was up, I had butterflies in my stomach. The more details you try to cram into a predefined match, the more stress it adds and the more you'll forget about all the details. My match with Roodle0p was pretty straightforward, very few details, easy to remember: hence, no stress. This match was the completely opposite... but it went... uh... relatively well.

J went inside the ring, ready to face the Mighty Mongo while H2oWrestler and I waited outside waiting for him to tag us. J tries to use his speed against the Mighty Mongo and eventually does a sideway jump but nothing can move the Invincible Mighty Mongo! J is eventually caught up in a bearhug, but since the Mighty Mongo is so nice and forgiving, he releases J and J tags me in. I go in, try to do a clothesline but that obviously does nothing to the Mighty Mongo. I do a couple of high kicks to his chest, then throw in a few laughable gut punches and he pushes me back and I sell it by flipping backwards on to my back then on my stomach as a way to demonstrate his superior strength.

This guy is too strong for me! Both J and H2oWrestler try to cheer me up:

J: "Beat him up, Loserboy!"

H2oWrestler: "You can do it, Loserboy!"

...

Loserboy: "I... I can't! He's too strong for me!"

I tag for H2oWrestler to take my spot. H2oWrestler doesn't have any better success than us so it was time for us to cheat.

This is where everything... everything... became chaotic.

StumpyStew (id 6633) was actually the referree for our match and we completely ignored him. At one point, I gave him an elbow thinking that it would give us more time to do illegal kicks on the Mighty Mongo, but StumpyStew got back up pretty fast. I'm surprised he never disqualified us considering that my move was pretty illegal. Who attacks an official, a ref right from the front? I suppose you need to attack from the back if you're planning to do anything illegal so that the ref doesn't know who attacked him... but in the heat of the match, you don't think about these details!

We were supposed to set MightyMongo to be on his back so that we can do our successive pins, but MightyMongo was setting himself on his front so we would do dual boston crabs. We were thinking differently from what the MightyMongo was thinking because we had too many things planned. Eventually, MightyMongo picked it up and rolled on his back instead of his front so that we could do our pins. The pins were push up pin. J would pin, Mongo pushes him out. I'd pin, Mongo would push me out. H2owrestler pins, Mongo pushes him out and we would repeat this cycle 2 more times. We then rolled Mongo on his stomach where J and I applied a boston crab on him each by grabbing a leg, while StumpyStew tried to make us release it because we were still 3 in the ring trying to defeat the Mighty Mongo. His strength is so outmatched that he flipped both J and I and we both do a synchronized rollover... although I have no idea how synchronized that was...



To end this chaos, Mongo grabbed H2owrestler and pushed him into the corner post. J and I tried to combine our strength by each doing a clothesline on Mongo, but Mongo steps back, so this caused J and I to slam into each other and be dizzy. This was his final cue. MightyMongo picked up the both of us in his finisher: The Double Bearhug and he got himself a Double Submission! Mongo wins his first single pro tournament and moves on the next round while all 3 of us got eliminated. Wow! See why you need to keep things simple? lol

I don't think anyone recorded this match.. and this was because J didn't want his face on the internet. I later learned that he didn't mind being recorded as long as the match is not released on the internet... oh well.

At least now, all my official matches are done so I can rest for the remainder of the day by watching the remaining pro and sub matches (semi-finals and finals) and wait until the open ring and mats at 8 pm.

On his end, Mighty Mongo went all the way to the final and won the single pro tournament. Yes, I get to see this strong and undefeated ox battle his way and tear apart each and every opponent he is put up against. I'm pretty sure Mighty Mongo took his name in context of the movie Blazing Saddles. I watched it as a kid and I couldn't stop laughing.

I saw Slater Jackson (id 2707) and Buzz Jackson do their tournament tag team match. I promptly chased after Slater Jackson asking him for ring time, but he was a bit injured. I was bummed out. :( But then I decided to run and grab Buzz Jackson instead and actually convinced him to put a rack on him! Wooot!



I actually took a little risk here. Buzz Jackson was never in a rack before and he weighed 215 lbs. I usually kneel down when racking anyone weighing more than 200 lbs. I took the risk since an excess of 15 lbs didn't seem that bad, so I stood up anyway but I almost lost balance when I spun him around. Factor in that it was Buzz's first rack, I still should have been a bit more careful.

I also managed to take a side-by-side shot with him, something I've been shy to ask for so far, but Buzz is a pretty cool guy.



Slater Jackson and Buzz Jackson are really amazing. They were known as the Full Service tag team. They had someone play their entrance theme on a big boombox and as they walked towards the ring, they had a giant notepad and a giant pencil and they started taking down the food orders of the crowd before making their final entrance towards the ring. Heck! We definitely need more stuff like this! It adds to the spirit and ambiance of the match! It makes it look like those real pro shows or your Saturday night wrestling on TV! But can you imagine how much equipment this requires? These guys were wearing white and red t-shirts with "Full Service" on it. These are custom designs!

About half an hour later of tournament pro and sub matches, I was talking to LSPowerhouse after one of his official single pro matches and we discussed that we should wrestle some more, when suddenly, BuddySTL grabbed me into the ring and started teaching me some pro moves. Wow... I couldn't believe it: a 1-on-1 with BuddySTL!!

I finally took the courage to ask him if I can rack him too. He didn't want to let me initially so I told him that I would kneel down to do it... a standing up rack would obviously kill me, but kneeling down, I could support the weight. If BuddySTL teaches sub and pro, and knowing that he did real pro matches in real pro wrestling tours, he knows how to position himself for a torture rack. And indeed, when he stood by my side and bent over, he positioned himself perfectly for the move. I was able to rack him... The number is somewhere between 280 and 300 lbs, and he was just great on my shoulders so I yelled out:

- "SOMEBODY PLEASE TAKE A PICTURE!"

Major Disaster was standing right in front. He took out his phone and took several shots!





Woohoo! I was really happy that I could rack BuddySTL, even happier than that earlier forehead kiss. When I put him back down, I asked him:

Loserboy: "I thought you never wrestle jobbers."

And he replied with something that will touch me forever.

BuddySTL: "I only wrestle guys that are nice and respectful."

It shows that the kind-hearted guy that BuddySTL is... a great wrestler trained in both pro and sub that has an amazing heart. He's for me a role model.

BuddySTL showed me a couple more moves: we tried to do tougher stuff like the Vertical Suplex but I didn't have enough balance for that so H2oWrestler suggested that he tries the Indian Deathlock. Blackjack McQueen (id 3251) came in and showed it to me instead. Later on, Kieran Dunne (Goldenboy) also jumped into the ring and then I lost track of what happened. All I know was that there was 3 superstars in the ring.... and I got intimidated.

Yes, Kieran Dunne was there. Both him and LSPowerHouse have already being performers for BG. I didn't think Kieran would want to talk to me, so I shy-ed away. Later, many wrestlers told me he was very nice to talk to.

I left the ring. BuddySTL asked me if I was running away from him and I simply told him that I was taking a rest.

I froze. I really did. I should have stayed in the ring, but I was speechless and too much was happening. I was happy, but I didn't know what to say, I didn't know what move to do. It's like when you meet your hero and you were waiting for this hero since your childhood and you finally meet him, but there's nothing cohesive that comes out of your mouth.

Now that I think about it... there was so much more I could do.. I could have asked him to show me moves to tackle big opponents. BuddySTL loves to be heeled, he loves to be the jobber. I could asked him to show me other moves that I could pull out on him. When Blackjack McQueen and Kieran Dunne were on the ring, I could have asked to rack them also.... there are so many things I could have done, but I had to get out...

I did run after Major Disaster and asked him if he could forward me a copy of the pictures ;)

You know what? I still had a good 5-10 minutes in the ring with BuddySTL and I'll keep those memories close to my heart.

Speaking of Blackjack McQueen (id 3251), I've always been a big fan of all the matches he posted. Seeing him perform at the Clash and advance through the rankings to reach the championships was mind-blowing! I really liked his style: he'd often yell after the owner or at someone outside the ring. That was the cue for the wrestler opposing him to do a surprise attack to either get the upper-hand in the match or to win the match.

Blackjack plays this mean trash talk type of guy that everybody loves to hate, and he does it so well. It's his wrestling persona, his gimmick. It's the guy on TV everybody boos, that gets the upper-hand early in most part of the matches and everybody cheers when he loses in the end.

We didn't have time to wrestle (also because I chickened out), but he did came to me and said:

- "Next time, you and me, we have a match!"

Blackjack is really an awesome guy! I also made this image of him: I thought he was untouchable, but Blackjack is very friendly.

Moments later, it was time for the Battle Royale. I desisted again this year. Some thought that the Battle Royale is scripted, but it is not at all. It's each man looking after himself. The tricky part is that the Battle Royale involves both submission and pro styles. The rules were changed to ensure the security of all the wrestlers. If half your body was outside the edge of the ropes of the ring, you were out. A 3-count pin and a submission were also counted as valid ways to take out your opponents. There were three referees around the ring to make sure that everything goes well. I think there were 10 people in the ring and I saw Heel4You (id 10871) mount the ring.

Heel4You didn't participate in any tournaments. It's his first time here at the Clash. And he took up the courage to go in the Battle Royale. And on top of that, he finished 2nd!! Okay, you don't get anything if you finish 2nd, but for a first timer, that's still incredibly amazing! Heel4You is a hero and a winner in my book. Even I didn't had the courage to go to the Battle Royale for both my first and second year here at the Clash because I felt that 10 people in the ring is pretty dangerous... but to be honest, everybody on the ring will watch out for each other and everyone will play very safe. The most used move is sort of pushing you to the edge ;) ... and even there, I couldn't find the courage to fight a Battle Royale while Heel4You did it with ease.

The meal and awards ceremony came shortly afterwards. Here are the winners of the awards:

Best Jobber: JD
Best Heel: Nighthawk
Zucchini Award: Steve
Best Dressed Wrestler: Slater Jackson
Best Referree: Rough House Rodrigo
Rookie of the Year: J
Sponsors Award: Loserboy

Lightweight Sub Champion: Wrestlg
Middleweight Sub Champion: El Toro Blanco
Heavyweight Sub Champion: Rough House Rodrigo
Titan Sub Champion: Chicagopiledriver
Final Sub Champion: El Toro Blanco

Single Pro Champion: Mighty Mongo
Tag Team Pro Champion: Full Service (Slater Jackson and Buzz Jackson)
Battle Royale Winner: Sensational Danny

Best Match: Chicagopiledriver vs BigChicago
Most Improved Wrestler: Edinchattanooga
Most Inspirational Wrestler: J
Dan Roberts Wrestler of the Year: Blackjack McQueen

It was no surprise to me that Blackjack won the Wrestler of the Year though, he really performed extremely well in the ring. You can tell he was experienced and he was the driving force in a lot of the brackets of the official matches for both pro single and pro tag team.

JD, the winner of the biggest jobber, was actually a guy doing submission only. It was the first year they ever gave it to a guy doing submission (The award is usually given to someone doing pro).

I actually thought the Zucchini award was given to the wrestler who came to the event and did nothing. Apparently, if you did something stupid or said something stupid, you can get this award too ;) Steve hurt his toe, but he did wrestle quite a bit before doing so.

I was very glad to see J get the Rookie of the Year and Most Inspirational Wrestler awards. It was epic! J's performance in the ring was also outstanding and he really deserves both these awards.

I loved it that the Full Service tag team, who actually look like a jobber team, managed to get the Tag Team Champion award!

I had no idea that winners of the respective submission divisions battle each other. Imagine if a lightweight wins against a middleweight and a heavyweight wins against a Titan. The Lightweight would be caught wrestling the Titan. I'm wondering if this ever happened.

The Monica Lewinsky award was no longer there. Joe explained to me that on one particular year, the wrestler who received this award got his feelings hurt... Since then, they no longer gave it because the point of this event is not to hurt people's feelings. Joe asked me if I was this person who got his feelings hurt, but I told him no. When I received it three years ago, it was kind of a compliment and I knew it was also a little joke just like the Zucchini award. For those who does not know, the Monica Lewinsky award is actually given to the wrestler who sleeps with the most wrestlers. I wrote "sleeps" in italic because it doesn't really matter what you do with them. If you were simply sharing the hotel room with different wrestlers every different day, then I'm sure you would also be entitled or qualified for this award. It's just for fun, really.

The Sponsors Award was given to me and I was really speechless...

They mentioned that it was given to the wrestler that helps sets up things for the event and that helps people get into the ring and mats. *blush* Honestly... I didn't think I helped that much.. but I did bring as many people as I could on the ring.

The other perk with this award is that they would cover the registration fee for the following year. Honestly, I would still want to pay for my registration fee even if they paid it for me, just so that it's fair and equal to everyone. It takes a lot of money to run something like this. Renting a ring is not cheap. Ordering all the food and drinks to keep the wrestlers dehydrated and energized is costly. Organizing this event requires a lot of moolah. Also, at this point, the registration fee is very small compared to the costs of flight, rental car and lodging.

This does leave me in a bind because I want to keep 1 year out of 2 for my personal leisure travels (in other words, wrestling), and 1 year for my family. This award kind of pushes me to come back next year rather than waiting for 2-3 years. All I can say for now is that I'll do my best to return next year. It's too early anyway to plan anything for Clash 21.

Seriously though, with everything that has happened so far.. I really really REALLY want to come back next year! More-so for the Clash than for the Wrestlefest! I'm actually spending the best times of my life right here at the Clash, meeting great and amazing wrestlers!

Joe mentioned that there was a total of 15 new Clashers (wrestlers) this year and each and every one of those clashers did an amazing job at the event. While most new Clashers usually stay behind and watch, the new Clashers this year actively participated in the event and performed amazingly well in the ring and on the mats.

After all of this, it was now 8 pm and it was open ring/mats time. I had more open ring time with Heel4You and H2oWrestler.

I also managed to get a rack on BearLord! Man, this guy is also very nice and.. very cute. The cutest bear at the event was definitely BearLord and the cutest cub was Buzz Jackson. Where does BuddySTL go? Well, he is the cutest wrestler :)

I had almost missed wrestling LSPowerHouse (id 4337), but I finally managed to convince him to stay at the venue a tad longer and he went on and wrestled me, J and Heel4You. It was all caught on video, but I have to check with him if he wants it released or not.

LSPowerHouse was pretty funny when I got him into my Torture Rack with Airplane Spin. While he was on my shoulders, I started spinning him counter-clockwise so he told me:

- "The other way."

I spun his clockwise and he instructed:

- "Not too fast."

And after a few rotations:

- "Ok, you can drop me now."

But you know what? That's exactly the type of communication you need to give to your opponents in a pro match :) And honestly, nobody outside the ring will hear what your opponent is telling you.

I had a brief talk with Wrestlg who wanted to teach how to tie up my boots. He was able to determine the type and brand of the pairs I was wearing. It really shows he really loves wrestling boots. We came to the conclusion that the laces on my red/black boots are too long and I will need to get shorter ones in order to properly tie them up.

I left the venue around 9 pm because RickSF, J and Roodle0p were tired and waiting and it's again unfair for me to make them wait. Before I left, I saw Rough House Rodrigo... we were supposed to do our pro match :( I felt so bad. I asked him if he would stay tomorrow, but no, like many wrestlers, most of them leave Saturday night or Sunday morning where they need to catch a flight back to their state.




Sunday June 5th 2016: Open ring and mats


SUNDAY JUNE 5
11:00 AM - OPEN RING AND MATS
04:00 PM - TAKE DOWN VENUE (HELP APPRECIATED)


We arrived at the venue pretty early and Harley has arrived yet to open the door, so we went for Starbucks. When we got back around 11:30 AM, I was quite surprised: 3 years ago, there was only 4 people remaining: Joe, Harley, me and The Punisher.

This year, there was at least ~15 wrestlers still present: Mighty Mongo, Joe, Harley, J, RickSF, Roodle0p, Kevin_Patrick, TampaChaser, BigChicago, Timnbama, BarrioBruiser, Major_Disaster, H2oWrestler, RasslorBear and at least 2-3 more people that I don't remember their ring handles or usernames.

I briefly saw BuddySTL who carried me back and forth in a football tackle. Bearlord and him took the black/yellow mats away and were heading back home. Both thanked me for racking them. Uh.. I'd certainly do it again anytime.

RickSF, J, Roodle0p and I decided to take the ring and do a tag team match. It was very fun and also... pretty hillarious. BarrioBruiser was the referee for our match and he was amazing. This match was actually recorded but cannot be shared. At least I have J now to look back in the future. Roodle0p actually tried to pin me while I was on my stomach, so a few wrestlers who gathered around the ring started laughing, but I actually did this rookie mistake several times in my early pro days.

Joe actually named our tag team match the "Comedy match".

I finally was able to wrestle BarrioBruiser (id 811)! It was a short match, but excellent match. Barrio is definitely a veteran wrestler that knows how to heel and how to lead.

I was able to make a few pics with RickSF (id 8839) (my hotelmate from the Clash):



And I also got some pretty good ones with Edinchattanooga (id 2616). These turn out pretty well. You can see me servicing Edin... I'm actually just putting on his gloves:



He then rewards me with a headlock:



And this is how you say hello and goodbye in wrestling jargon: (Just kidding...)




I think Edin lost weight, because he was much easier to lift this time around... You can actually tell the difference by looking at the picture where I racked him 3 years ago.

Yes, I know, I've been doing a lot of racks this event. My bearhugs suck anyway and if I was in an alternate reality or in a different life, this website would probably have been called the "Torture Rack Submission Page" instead of the "Bearhug Submission Page".

Anyway, I also got ring time with Major Disaster and got a short recording. I'm also in the process of seeing if I can get that video and if it can be shared or not. Major Disaster could ask me for anything and I would do it. He was twice my photographer, so I am eternally grateful for that!!! In the following picture, you can see Major Disaster in control of the match with a powerful chinlock!



I actually learned later that this guy prefer to be jobbed. I'll need to work on my heel game next time.

H2oWrestler took the opportunity to experiment a few holds on me. I think we were aiming for the suspended surfboard with this one. Unfortunately, we were never able to pull it off since I am not that flexible.



As you can see, the Sunday of the Clash is the best day to take pictures. With many people already gone, the remaining wrestlers are less shy, they'll embark on the ring, they'll try out new stuff and they're no longer afraid to bring up their camera. Same thing for 3 years ago: This picture was taken on the Sunday of the Clash 3 years ago.

Nearing 1 pm, I was able to get a short match with TampaChaser, a very sweet, cute and buffed guy. TampaChaser actually went on the ring to ask me to wrestle him, because I was too shy to ask him. I wasn't so sure if he was interested in wrestling me. When I later read TampaChaser's profile, I realized that he will wrestle all sizes and skill levels. Once again, I made a bad assumption by associating an incorrect preference type for each of the wrestlers here. Everyone here is nice. The other problem is that he registered under Razor Raul so I couldn't connect his ring or first name with his wrestling profile. In other words, I didn't know Razor Raul was TampaChaser.

SactoWrestler was still intimidated by the ring, so all we were able to exchange are a few bearhugs. He applied on me 2 x 3 x 360 degrees bearhugs. So, each bearhug of his does a 1,080 degrees rotation.

I believe I also had a very small time in the ring with Harley again to try out a few pro moves. Harley is really a sweet guy. We took our pro very slowly and chilled out. I think we were practicing some sort of rollover slam that is usually performed when your opponent is down on the mats and facing up.

I asked the winner of the Biggest Jobber JD to wrestle me on the sub mats, but he was tired out. :( He's a very cute guy... and he had a weight advantage on me so he would probably have been able to beat me ;)

RasslorBear was also there, but we were both too shy to talk to each other. We then realized much later that we would have each wanted to wrestle each other.

Now, I just missed there 2 opportunities.

You turn left and right, and it's already 2 pm.. I had to leave. I made the big mistake I could ever do for the entire event. Had I knew that there would be so many wrestlers remaining on sunday, I would have scheduled nothing inside the timeline of the Clash Event (11 am - 4 pm). However, I had scheduled a motel match at 2 pm near the airport with Jobber_Squash and I had to leave now to make it in time. I left behind 15 great wrestlers to meet up one wrestler. Mind you, Jobber Squash also traveled all the way from Florida to have a match with me. He mentioned to me that he is a big fan of my site and he's the one who told me that I had the best racks in the wrestling underground ;)

I also realized on my way out that Timnbama was in the ring taking pictures with Big Chicago (id 4201) while Mighty Mongo was the photographer. Had I stayed, I probably could have taken pictures with those three wrestlers and probably others as well. Timnbama actually was busy for the whole event and mentioned to me the day before that he only had 10 minutes of wrestling... until now. There was so much more I could do between 2 pm and 4 pm... but you know what... this will just help me come back for a 3rd year to make up for this.

After leaving the venue, encountering some traffic and finally arriving at the hotel near the airport, Jobber Squash and I exchanged a couple of body scissors, bearhugs and racks.

After that session, I then rejoined RickSF, Roodle0p and BarrioBruiser later to eat in downtown Atlanta and we were given a tour by ATLwrestler of a park named "Pee-In-My-Park". I was wondering a moment why people in Atlanta gave such strange, but hilarious names for their parks.

A sign in front of the park then made me realize that the name of the park is actually: "Piedmont Park". I had a weird case of hearing and dyslexia reading because I also saw a sign that said "Orange City" but read "Orange Orgy". Either I'm tired or my mind is dirty.



Monday June 6th 2016: Flight back to Montreal

My flight was only at 3 pm, so RickSF, Roodle0p and I were able to schedule a match with ATLwrestler. At one point, we were all piled up and ganged up against Roodle0p. It was pretty fun. Nothing like a last hotel match before leaving Atlanta.

I left at noon, picked up SactoWrestler at 12:30 pm, was at the airport at 1 PM to return my rental car. At 2:30 PM, I was in the plane...




Temporary scratches/scars

I actually received two temporary scars worthy of note during the event. One was on the back of my neck which brings me to tell you guys to please always cut your fingernails when you attend the wrestling event.



If you're doing sub, cutting toe nails is even more important because the amount of kickouts often required in submission. If you're just going to do pro, then the cutting is optional since wrestling boots will cover your feet anyway.

The 2nd scratch here is caused by a prop that looked like a beer bottle. Yes, I did say earlier that the prop is harmless, but you still need to aim on the head, not near the eye. Nevertheless, the three little scars there disappeared after about 3 days. At the time of writing this, there are only dots remaining that will completely disappear tomorrow. Interestingly, when I took my shower, some remnants of the bottle fell from my hair and I realized that the fake beer bottle could actually become just very small particles of dust.


Rectification/clarification: I hold no grudges against the wrestlers who caused me this. Accidents happen in the ring, you just need to be cautious about them. Please see Blog ID 129 for additional details on this clarification.




Car requirement, location of venue

I have to admit that the car requirement is a bit of an obstacle. It's true that you can hitch a ride with someone that already has a car, but I'm more the type of person that doesn't want to bother too many people so I got my own car rental. I certainly don't drive at all back in Montreal (the subway system here is sufficient for me to get from home to work and to family). Since I don't want to take any risks with my inexperience in driving, I took maximum insurance for the car plus I added Roodle0p and RickSF as authorized and designated drivers.

The venue is really out in the middle of nowhere so again, if you need to go eat, there's nothing that is of walkable distance so you'll have to drive the car again for 5-10 minutes to go eat.

However, the organizers always make sure that you remain dehydrated. They have several coolers that contain a huge amount of bottled water, gatorade and lots of ice. There are also soft drinks on the table, granola bars and chips if you need a quick pit stop to refill your energy. You always see Harvey running around to refill all of the coolers, get more ice and refill food. On Saturday, the organizers even brought in pizza, sandwiches and cake just before the awards ceremony.





Wrestlefest vs Clash: Which one to attend?

Unlike the fest where you have to manage a schedule and book one person every 2-3 hours, the Clash is the complete opposite. You come there, you mingle and talk with wrestlers and you go up in the ring or down on the mats and you start wrestling. Matches can last anywhere between 5-30 minutes, but you need to stay aware and keep a look around the ring and mats to see if anyone is waiting to use it. I think I hogged and invaded the ring a bit too much this year, but I did check before hand if the ring was empty before hogging it.

The other advantage is that if one person doesn't show up, you don't have to scramble to find someone else to fill in a spot. With the Clash, you just pick up a wrestler. 10-15% of wrestlers registered to the Clash usually cancel or never show up, but you can easily find someone else standing there to wrestle you instead or to do tag team matches, 2 vs 1 or even 3 vs 1. .

In order to help people rotate the wrestlers using the ring, the organizers held a round-robin match where many wrestlers place themselves around the ring and can tag in/tag out anytime they want. That being said, this is a great opportunity to wrestle multiple wrestlers and get a taste of the type/style of pro wrestling used by each wrestler. The same can be done with the sub matches, but since we had two sets of mats, there was less problems regarding mats availability.

Mind you, you can still book motel matches, but you'll quickly learn that you'll have a lot more fun wrestling the guys around at the venue. Why bother setting and messing up a hotel room for wrestling when you have wrestling mats and a wrestling ring? Not to mention that the available space to wrestle is way superior than what you'll get in a hotel.

At the fest, I once got two calls from the reception asking us to keep it down. No matter how high you turn up the TV, the maids and the families staying in the adjacent rooms will probably still hear you. At the Clash, you are encouraged to make full use of the ring/mats and wrestle as much as you want and there's nobody in the other warehouses that will tell you to keep it down.

If I can only pick a single event next year, I would certainly pick the Clash hands down. It can be a bit of a gamble: what this event was 3 years ago for me is really different this year, it got way way WAY better this year. I think people are now getting used to the change of venue and they are now really enjoying the new space.

The lack of air conditioning might be a problem for some wrestlers, but there is a shower in the back that can be used to freshen up. You'd have to remember to bring your own sandals, towel, soap and shampoo. It doesn't take long before you sweat all over again because it gets pretty warm already at this time of the year, but you can always head back to the hotel and rest a bit. The hotels are about a 5-10 minute drive away. One of my friends had to do exactly that: the air was too thick and humid and he needed AC. He left the venue after a couple of hours and regained his hotel to stay cool and away from the heat.

Would I do it again for a 3rd year?

Yes, definitively.

When I hugged Joe and thanked him, he told me not to wait 3 years before coming back.

Joe, Harley, Timnbama, StumpyStew, BuddySTL were the real heroes behind the Clash because without them, there wouldn't be one. They are respectively the owner, co-owner and three members of the board. It takes a LOT of time, effort, sweat, preparation and a lot of rough moments to be able to manage an event like this and these guys are able to pull it out every year. Many people complain about various things, many wrestlers take things for granted, but very few people take the time to appreciate and thank these guys for organizing an outstanding event like this one. These guys gather the small underground gay wrestling community and they help us make new friends and they help us carve these memories that will last forever.



If you want more information about the clash, visit their website:

http://atlclash.blogspot.ca/

Or e-mail the owner:

clashevent2016@gmail.com

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