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| Sunday August 21 2022 - Throwback Weekend | Some pictures | ||||||
| It's Throwback Sunday and we get to look back at some of my past matches. Reminiscing the wrestling ring, I am pretty happy and feel lucky that I was able to bring LumberG (id 250) at least once into the ring before it disappeared. You get to see his charming good looks 🥰 where he moans in pain in my bearhug! This was in October 2016. I wasn't able to post this picture back then, but I had his permission when I asked him last year. 😀 However, I should have asked again, because LumberG was actually surprised that I posted this pic when he ended up googling his online wrestling handle. In the end, he told me it was okay because you can't really recognize him and apparently he doesn't look like this today anymore. He actually lost some weight and got leaner. But yeah... back in 2016, the rules were stricter: I could post some pictures, but only if we couldn't see his face, plus I had to blur out his tattoos so he could not be identified. 😅
Next up, I will always remember the good time I had with The Rookie in San Francisco. I get to crush him in a bearhug with body scissors combo. These are memories that came all the way from November 2014.
But I'm not really known to dominate am I? Where's the jobber in me? How about one where I am in big trouble? Headlockmehard (id 2511) is about to win the match with a devastating head scissors! This is from Match ID 283 in March 2015.
Last, but not least, we have a nice, but strong mighty bearhug from The Crusher (id 1228). I'm cheating here, because this was quite recent.... 😅 but any reason is a good reason to put a pic with the studly Crusher. 😂 He gained a little bit of weight, for the better of course. I think he is about 275 lbs here.
I'll try to hold these throwbacks a bit more often. It also encourages me to go out and lock horns with random strangers. 🤣 | |||||||
Blog ID 335  | |||||||
| Sunday January 30 2022 - 12 years ago: Dr. Monarch | Past matches | ||||||
| I stumbled upon these pics that we took back in November of 2010. These were part of a set with Dr. Monarch (id 3997) that was incomplete, meaning that we had insufficient pictures to write a full scenario. It was back at a time where my camera could only take 3 shots after a 10 second pause, and then I had to re-configure the camera over again... which kinda made the whole photo shooting tough, cumbersome and way way more tedious than it should have been. We did took 40 images, but among those, at least half were broken in the sense that my camera back then was still incapable of capturing the slightness movement or brisk movement in our holds, so you'd get the blurry effect while trying to make the hold a bit too real. 😂 Anyhow, these images are still nice and I felt it was time to share them today. And we can also make a quick mini-story with it! Dr. Monarch has Loserboy in his claws and traps the helpless Loserboy in a dreadful nelson!
Loserboy is not intimidated! He escapes from the nelson and shows Dr. Monarch who's the boss! Loserboy exclaims: "Taste my bearhug and submit to your superhero!"
With that, Dr. Monarch howls in pain as Loserboy crushes him over and over!
But little did he know, Dr. Monarch was faking it all along! Dr. Monarch easily breaks out of Loserboy's pitiful bearhug and gives Loserboy one of his own! Mwahahahaha!
Oh no! Loserboy is in trouble! He is crushed by the evil paws of Dr. Monarch. He is so strong, so powerful that Loserboy has no choice but to submit to Dr. Monarch crushing squeeze. This is a dark day for our world. This is how Dr. Monarch finally manages to conquer the world! It teaches us right to rely on the useless Loserboy to save us! Who in their right mind would hire Loserboy to take care of such an important task?😅 Sure, I could have done a story this short, but it wouldn't be as fun as a 10 page story board with lots more action and useless onomatopoeia and animations to fill in the gaps. 😝 In addition, if you were picky, you would probably have wondered why did Loserboy suddenly remove his mask and why did Dr. Monarch change his? However, since this is a low-budget parody match, you should not pay attention to those silly little details. 😛 So.. anyway, we were a bit hindered by the limited tech back then, hence the insufficient amount of images... Nowadays, I just let my new camera roll and it takes a shot every second until you ask it to stop and then you find yourself having to browse, pick and choose in a set of 1,000 pictures... from which, maybe 800 are unusable, but at least 200 is a good and sufficient count to make a match out of it. 😅 Little funny tidbit, that last picture with the mask on Dr. Monarch: that's exactly the reason why I no longer wear masks in my matches. If they aren't attached tightly and properly, they tilt sideways and hide your vision, not to mention, they also affect in a funny way the overall look and feel of the shot. 😅 For the record, Dr. Monarch and I still do have 2 complete chapters on the site if you want to look at them. 😅 | |||||||
| Blog ID 324 | |||||||
| Sunday December 5 2021 - 4 video clips | Video clips | ||||||
| Had a bit of time this week-end to go through my junk 😅 and found these clips to share. We'll start with a body scissors with SalzPeter which you can view under [  Clip ID 419 ]. Yes, this little jobber can take a ton of crushing!
Speaking of scissors, here's one where I apply a full nelson/bearhug/nipple/chickenwing scissors on Tigui (id 10729) in [ Clip ID 420 ]. You'll understand what the multiple-name-hold means once you view the video...
I have a nice camel from Elrac (id 692), which I had forgotten to post. My meetings with Elrac has become an annual visit, but I ought to see him more often. He's however only available during the week-day and rarely the week-ends. I guess that's why I haven't wrestled him more often than that. See the action in [ Clip ID 421 ]
Last but not least, MustangCowboy (id 11699) calls this the Bronco Buster, although I tend to think it's just a reversed reverse-indian deathlock. Online, the images for Bronco Buster seems to allude to a different hold. If you can find the proper name for it, please do let me know. View the clip in [ Clip ID 422 ].
These are all past matches from quite some time ago, except for the one with SalzPeter. I had a good quota on matches in November and will probably take it chill for December. | |||||||
| Blog ID 323 | |||||||
| Sunday March 7 2021 - A wrestler that left wrestling... | Past matches | ||||||
| I'm still on the subject of past matches, but I do have a new match that will be coming up in a week or so. FightDure (id 1591) was a wrestler I have fought between 2011 and 2015. When I first met him, he was nearing 260-270 lbs and then took an operation about 3 years later to bring his weight back down to 200 lbs. I did told him that I did like him at his original weight, but I understood he did it for his self-confidence and for his long term health. Mind you, I still liked him when he went down. The good point for me was that he was much easier to beat at 200 lbs. Obviously, the jobber in me didn't mind being dominated by heavyweights.  We've wrestled each other maybe around ten times. It started with matches in hotel rooms in Montreal for the first two or three encounters, and then he gradually invited me to visit him in Trois-Rivieres where he was able to host me for a night. FightDure is a very nice and sweet host. He had in his house a room exclusively set up for a match. Unfortunately, about a few months after our last match in 2015, he went and found the man of his life and closed off all of his wrestling accounts on every wrestling network sites. Then I never heard of him ever again. Events like these reminds me never to take for granted the comradeship you build with the wrestling community and also to be thankful for the freedom and opportunity we have to wrestle around, while we still could without little to no fear.  All I have left from FightDure is his good sportmanship for letting me keep these memories. Originally when he was heavier, he was shy and insisted on wearing masks. When he slimmed down after his operation, he didn't mind that we see his face in the photos anymore. Can anyone say signature? I couldn't apply this when he was at 270. At 200, it was easy to close my legs and apply the pressure he so richly deserve for losing weight. You can somewhat view a clip of this (from a different angle) by checking out [ Clip ID 409. ]
It still doesn't mean that he can fight back and show his power by racking me around. You cannot deny that he is having fun with that smirk.
How about a camel clutch with full nelson and a fierce face for good measure?
Now I'm sure you are wondering, how was he before? Well, here are two pics when he was at 270 lbs: with that stature, his rack makes him look like a fierce opponent and the rack does look painful... but you know the truth behind this, without any real pressure, it's a walk in the park.
His bearhug looked equally as devastating because you can see a size difference. Mind you, I did recall that there was no difference in terms of arm pressure around my torso whether he was bigger or smaller.
If you're interested to see more of him at 270, well... our match from 2012 is still there: Match ID 128. I hope you'll enjoy, but then again, you might have already seen this match before. | |||||||
| Blog ID 306 | |||||||
| Wednesday February 3 2021 - Could be my brother :) | Past matches | ||||||
| Back in November 2014, I traveled to San Francisco and wrestled a guy of mixed Japanese and Chinese ancestry. He was a very fun fighter and we had some pretty good chemistry. Slightly introverted, but so sweet that you'd get along very easily. Heck, if I was in San Francisco, I probably would have dated him. Although I love bears, I do keep my doors open and definitely have thought of dating guys of all shapes, sizes, ages and ethnicity. He was younger than me and I do remember specifically for this match, I was the heel... simply locking on him one hold after another. I also remember him struggling a bit with my hand on his chin. I might have applied a bit too much pressure, but I eventually moved it towards his chest to decrease the pressure of the "bending" of the rack.
You can tell his love for pro because his outfit was complete with kneepads and boots. Plus you can say the small red lines on the boots matches the color of his trunks. Then again, red is the color of a heel... but black usually trumps red in terms of fierceness.... I think. I passed around a few photos and screenshots to a few of my friends who told me that this wrestler could past for my brother. We have roughly the same size and shape... we could have been a great tag team. All we would need is matching trunks. I was still using the Panasonic DMC-FZ28 camera back then which didn't really have high quality video. I mean the quality was good, but not great: it's unfortunately outdated by today's standards. Anyhow, this wrestler went on and acquired a bucket load of experience from pro wrestlers. Notably, I remember seeing him with the big poster model guy that everybody would love to put their hands on. He also went on to do sub and competitive. I'm thinking that if I ever return to San Francisco, I wouldn't be surprised if this guy ends up being the heel. Am I complaining? Absolutely not.  | |||||||
| Blog ID 305 | |||||||
| 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 | |||||||
| 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 | |||||||
| 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 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 | |||||||
| Friday April 6 2018 - Not your usual hold | Archives | ||||||
Fun4Us (id 8822) will probably kill me for taking so much time between my posts. Truth be told, my days have been void of wrestling action for these past few months. I should be catching up on this temporary MIA status in the season to come as we get out from this dreadful winter. I'm like a bear hibernating and avoiding our mountain of snow.  As I browsed through my past matches, I took a few screenshots from holds that are not the usual ones I tend to employ all the time... due to my lack of imagination. Here's a Reverse Ground Bearhug applied on WalterG (id 2846). Why is this unusual? Most of my bearhugs are standing, but Walter here wanted to experiment a different kind of bearhug. Done this way, you exert less energy since you don't have to deal with the intricate effects of gravity.
This one here is from Chinlock (id 7994), applying gracefully a technical Ankle Lock or Ankle Twist. This was extracted directly from his personal rendition of All Star Wrestling montage. I should be able to post another clip from this pretty soon.
I've learned this next hold from WolfJobber (id 8490) who calls it the Jacknife. In this vulnerable position, EvilDark (id 1077) can technically steer away by hitting my pouch with his ankle... It's actually quite painful when done this way.
Speaking of which, I had another brief week-end in Quebec with EvilDark during the St. Patrick's (a couple of weeks ago). We took it easy again, but on my way home, I was stuck in the train for a couple of hours. The transport company courteously issued a rebate for all affected passengers. The deal expires in 6 months, so I guess I'm due for another trip to Quebec before my voucher is gone. I also received word from Bella, the ring owner, that she might have a place set up in June. Something tells me that I will soon spring back into action! | |||||||
| Blog ID 186 | |||||||
| Tuesday March 20 2018 - GT | Past matches | ||||||
| I know these are old.. not just old school old, but dinosaur old. These date from 2005.. so yeah, um... 13 years ago. Was there digital cameras back then? Well, apparently yes. This furry cute fellow under the nickname "GT" never actually wrestled in the first place, but he was a good sport and he accepted taking a few shots with me which I compiled into a brief match back then. Of course, the masks helped him agree to this photoshoot since you'd have to know GT quite personally to be able to tell who he is in real life. And I'm sure you'd still not be able to tell who he is if you zoomed in on the books on the library. In this shot, it was important that the camera captures his furry chest.
Who doesn't like a nice big furry bearhug?
I guess you can tell this was old since I was still wearing my silly masks, wearing regular underwear unsuitable for wrestling and taking shots in a bedroom. But you know what? Back then, you'd use whatever you have to fulfill your fantasy, so I'm very happy with these souvenirs. It helps me put things in perspective on how I took wrestling shots back then and how I take them today. Anyway, it's not as if wrestling rings and wrestling trunks grow on trees. GT and I could have been long-term boyfriends, but he made an important sacrifice to help a friend. Meanwhile, I ended up meeting another bear and we parted ways for a couple of years. We're still close today and I'm sure if I asked him to do a part deux, perhaps in a ring when it comes back one day, he would be happy to do it again. | |||||||
| Blog ID 185 | |||||||
| Friday November 17 2017 - Past match: Tigui | Past matches | ||||||
| I was talking to Jobberboy today and he had an insatiable hunger for more pics, so I told him I'll post more tonight. Which Jobberboy is it? I'll let you figure that one out. It's quite a common wrestling handle. These pictures come from the match I had in July last year (2016). Tigui (id 10729) asked me to heel him around, so I fulfilled his desire. Since I don't get to do it often, this should be fun. I guess I never posted these shots before because I felt the photos were a bit too blurry. We'll start with a camel clutch:
I'm trying to show him some tough love with this nice little brohug.
This guy is so flexible that I do recall that the rack doesn't do a thing on him.
Powerless as he is, just like any good jobber, he obviously ends up losing under my knees.
All staged of course. I think like me, Tigui prefers opponents that are bigger and can maintain a good control of the match by showing your inner heel. I unfortunately don't possess those qualities yet, but I would love a rematch anyway. After all, practices makes perfect. Tigui reminds me of myself when I was younger: I would only want to be the jobber. I'm sure he'll grow to be a formidable wrestler who will outshine my own capabilities. | |||||||
| Blog ID 162 | |||||||
| Friday September 22 2017 - Deadman vs Loserboy | Past matches | ||||||
| Deadman was probably one of the lightest opponent I've ever fought. He was 5'10" and 123 lbs. I had a good 27 lbs over him. He also was a few years younger than I was. I was only 25 years old when we captured these pictures in 2005. It was during a time where I was still very concerned with my privacy, so it was important for me to use wrestling masks. Being this way back, my memories are starting to fizzle, but I did remember that I already have good leg strength, so we mainly played with pro fantasy leaning a bit towards stiff pro. I would sporadically apply on Deadman some pressure just for the fun of it. Considering his size, I had to be careful to gauge my strength so I would not hurt him by accident.
You can already have a pulse of my jobber side since I asked him to perform all these counter-attacks.
And what greater way to finish it out with this magnificent victory stance?
We've wrestled a couple of times and then he moved farther away in the surburbs of Montreal and I've never heard of him again. He was in a relationship though and his boyfriend didn't wrestle. As the years go by, I do hope that he reaches out for his wrestling passion to try and explore it a bit further. He's a nice fellow, a cute young guy who has a lot of potential. He also had the charisma and the wrestling persona for it. You can still view this bout by checking my old matches or just jump directly to Match #11: Loserboy vs Deadman. Those pages remind of the good old times with my l33t (but now somewhat obsolete) HTML skills. | |||||||
| Blog ID 155 | |||||||
| 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 | |||||||
| Sunday October 30 2016 - It's Archive Time! | Archives | ||||||
| I haven't been posting pics in a long while since most of the wrestlers I've fought recently didn't want to share pictures or didn't want to take pictures. I'm of course very respectful of that, but I guess for you guys, that's a bummer. So I've decided today to go back through my archives and dig up a couple of pics from my past matches. This one is from 2008 where I was still insecure and wore wrestling masks. The person on top of me is the Masked Bear (id 284), whom I haven't seen since then either because he moved from Montreal to Birmingham in the United Kingdom. We roughly met each other every couple of months until his departure. Now's he far from my reach.
In the next one, Chinlock (id 7994) gives me some tough love with a well gripped headlock. You have to admit, Chinlock's place in Toronto definitely had a great setting and lighting for good photography and filming.
That above taken in August 2013. You see those black trunks with the golden/yellow designs? I gave those trunks away a couple of years later to The Tycoon (id 2690) during the NYC Wrestlefest of February 2016. A match with him does exist on site, but it is currently hidden pending his approval of how the match should be shared... his decision is still pending... since April 2016. So... if you want, you can try to persuade him to either change the match's permission setting or to give you a secret link with direct access to his match. For this last one below, I had this shot taken by EvilDark (id 1077) while I was racking Phil_74 (id 5843) in a three-way match.
This was however the only pic I had of him for that particular match, so it was obviously insufficient to generate a match. I'm actively working right now on my ring match scenario against Sylvain (id 2636), but I'm hitting a little wall. There are days where I can't find the inspiration to write, so I postpone the match writing to a different day. In the meantime, here's a pic of me putting on him a Fireman's Carry. Yeah.. that's me showing off my strength  . I can lift any bear. ...but truth be told, I was going to put him in a Torture Rack, but Sylvain told me that due to his recent back problems, it was probably better if I stick with a Fireman's carry instead.
I know the hand on the head looks weird. It's as if I'm bald. | |||||||
| Blog ID 94 | |||||||
| Monday August 29 2016 - Camera switch: from Panasonic to Nikon with EvilDark + History of EvilDark | Recent matches | ||||||
| I've finally decided to get myself a new camera. I was due for it. So many of my pictures were wasted and badly taken during the Clash because my camera is incapable of taking action intensive pics in an interior environment (like a wrestling ring). I'm officially now switching from a Panasonic DMC-FZ28 to a Nikon D5500. Mind you, the Panasonic accompanied me for more than 5 years in my wrestling adventures... It did take during this time span a lot of great pictures (provided that you stand still and don't move from your wrestling hold), but now I need to move on and upgrade... I have to say, I'm pretty impressed and happy with the new camera. When I was taking shots with my old device, I would set the Panasonic to take 3 pictures in 10 seconds because that was the only option I was given when I have no cameraman and when I need to apply a hold on my opponent. Well, the D5500 comes with an Intervalometer, so now I can set it to take a picture every 2 seconds for ....up to 999 shots. This little feature is probably what I need the most when I set up the camera with my opponents. As for the quality, well the Nikon can take up to 24 MP, but that's obviously way too big for me so I've set it to take smaller shots... and I still had to crop it afterwards because they were taking too much space. The videos are at 1080p (pixels) at 60 fps (frames per second) and they run too slowly on my workstation because they are so huge in terms of space... which also means that I need to replace my computer now. Last, but not least, the best way to take pictures is still to be in group of 3. The 3rd person is the photographer that will catch the action at the right angle. No matter what, the photographer will obviously always perform better and take better pictures than a tripod (even with an intervalometer). In order to try out some of the new camera's potential, I rented the wrestling ring again from Bella, but this time... for 2 hours. My wrestling master, EvilDark (id 1077), was in town this week-end, so we prepped up a couple of wrestling maneuvers and took a record shot of 700+ pictures. I guess I don't need to mention that I do have enough to make a story. Here are five hand-picked images from this set in which I'm happy with the outcome: it starts with EvilDark having the upper-hand with a rope choke.
He then experiments and takes advantage of the wrestling space available in the ring. We're so used to wrestling in smaller areas...
Why not trade a couple of bearhugs? Loserboy shows he can handle EvilDark with ease...
...but EvilDark turns the table around and shows how he can really manhandle Loserboy!
This one is EvilDark's favorite hold: the headscissors. It could probably be his finisher as well...
By the way, EvilDark gained a lot in strength and power lately. It was pretty tough to make him tap... We did both sub and pro on the ring. We rented the ring for 2 hours, but that was obviously insufficient. It was EvilDark's first time in a ring. He always wanted to climb in one since he was young... so I was more than glad to show him the basics like the clothesline and the elbow drop. Ironically, I slightly injured my arm with the knee drop. It shows that I'm really not trained for this and maybe I need to also wear elbow pads on top of my knee pads from now on...  He picked up very fast that you need to fake the holds by stomping your foot on the ring mats while applying a particular hold. That made him laugh. It's like a child that just found a new ice cream flavor or that just realized that part of wrestling is fake... or at least, that you need to switch to stiff pro to put a little bit more heart (or pain) into your holds. EvilDark's history EvilDark and I went a long way... we started wrestling in a dodgy and shady motel back in 2004 and only in Montreal... then we went afterwards into an even shadier motel because it was cheaper. You can tell the motel was cheap because you can feel and smell the mold and the humidity in the air. Yes, it was that bad. It made the difference between paying 120$ a night or 40$ a night. For that kind of bargain, there was a huge difference, but since I was piss poor back then, I opted for the cheaper one. EvilDark was patient and determined: he was always the one doing the 3 hours drive from Quebec to Montreal, often wrestled only for 4 hours (we eventually extended it to 8 hours after a couple of meets, then an overnight) and driving back another 3 hours back home. Now, EvilDark probably spent more time in his car than he would actually wrestle me. He built this trust with me through patience, never pushing me. We continued to meet every couple of months and we wrestled several more times in that same cheap motel until one night, there was a very loud couple that was fighting upstairs.... interrupting our much needed sleep after our 4 hours non-stop brawl. So, EvilDark then asked me: - "Why don't you come to my home in Quebec City instead? I can host and I have a good amount of space to wrestle and we wouldn't have to sleep and go through this crap". Since then, I would come up to Quebec City once a season to fight him. EvilDark didn't have a beard for quite a while. So, I did tell him: - "If you grew a beard, I would probably fall in love with you...." In the end, he did grow a beard for me. *blush* I almost would have moved to Quebec City back in mid-2008 when I lost my job. EvilDark is very compatible with me and shares most of my interests. He's one of the few who told me that he did not mind me wrestling around at all. Open-minded, nice guy, terrific wrestler (still can't beat him today), if it wasn't about staying close to my family in Montreal, I would probably have made the move. Also back then, my mom started having health problems, so it would have been unfair for me to leave my mom in the care of both my sisters. EvilDark is always very generous with me. He hosted me for several week-ends at his place for free, took me out to restaurants and to the movies, often covering for me and only letting me cover if I insisted because I'd feel bad if he wouldn't let me cover once in a while... He even offered to cover my transportation fees by bus or by train from Montreal to Quebec. He's one of the few people who showed me that he has a big heart and that I should do like him: treat guests and wrestlers who take the time to visit me with generosity or in a similar way. It's also through him that I met Tarzan52 (id 8398) and a couple of other wrestlers in the area. In turn, whenever he visited Montreal, I always made sure to have activities set aside with him like biking and badminton (on top of wrestling, of course). I try to be a good host like him and I tried my best to hook him up with other wrestlers. We are still very good wrestling buddies today and I try to bring him to wrestling events. In fact, he's been with me at 2 Wrestlefests (2014 and 2016), but I think I'd like to bring him to the Clash. I'm sure he'll have some fun. EvilDark also progressed in becoming less shy... if you check our past matches, he was pretty concerned about his identity and was only wearing a mask when pictures were taken. In the set we did today, they were all without masks. | |||||||
| Blog ID 86 x 1 | |||||||
| Friday July 10 2015 - Signature Hold: Full Nelson Body Scissors | Past matches | ||||||
I love my signature hold... I love both being caught in it or applying it on someone else. Many would think that the bearhug would be my favorite, but I don't have the arm power to make someone submit with it. Scissors, on the other hand, well... I walk everyday and these legs can deliver a much greater pressure. Combined with the full nelson to stretch your opponent, you got there a winning combination.
This one actually came from Match ID 152 against Marty (id 6169). I'm due for a match with him, but he's really a busy guy. Look at that physique, wow. | |||||||
| Blog ID 27 | |||||||
| Sunday June 21 2015 - Mystery Wrestler | Past matches | ||||||
This is another wrestler I met in San Francisco around November of last year (2014). Very sweet guy, very strong, handsome... I'm however respecting his wishes to stay anonymous so you won't get to see his face, but this is him holstering me up and showing his raw strength.
You can actually also vote on this in Upload ID 28201. | |||||||
| Blog ID 25 | |||||||
| Saturday March 7 2015 - CT_Bodyslams | Past matches | ||||||
I'm still continuing to be nostalagic about the fest...  Here are some more images from one of my past matches in February 2013.This one was against CT_Bodyslams (id 6931) who actually goes by the name Jarret Cole in BG East. He really showed that BG wrestlers can be real and genuine guys who like wrestling just like us. Personally, CT_Bodyslams is an absolutely formidable guy. He was definitely one of the best matches I had that year at the fest.... and I did find out he had a weakness against my body scissors... Once I applied it on him, he did everything in his power to avoid them afterwards. Darn! CT_Bodyslams' specialty is obviously body slams... but also any power moves that shows pure strength. Gorilla presses, racks and other moves that require power to perform are all his favorites.
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| Blog ID 12 x 1 | |||||||
| 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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