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August 10, 2017  Great things come in small packages: NickZ  Profile focus  6 years ago
April 13, 2017  Profile focus: RickSF  Profile focus  7 years ago
January 15, 2017  The Great Dane: GrappleFight  Profile focus  7 years ago


Thursday August 10 2017 - Great things come in small packages: NickZProfile focus
NickZ (id 3023) is probably one of the lightest wrestler I've fought, but also once of the toughest. Despite his small size, he is a very strong wrestler with unlimited stamina. His entourage would doubt him as The Wrestling Energizer Bunny because he'd keep on wrestling and wrestling and wrestling and wrestling...

NickZ is also known to be very kind-hearted: he really would greet anyone with open arms and he'd wrestle almost anyone. I first met him at the Oklahoma Rumble in 2009 and in events like this, wrestlers tend to stick inside groups, which has the consequence of isolating newcomers. This is compounded by the fact that most people will only have a match with people who look like poster models, so it can be quite hard to get a match.

NickZ however stood out from the rest and welcomed me from day one. He approached me and said: "Wanna wrestle?" After a brief introduction, he brought me into one of the wrestling rooms set up for the event and we tumbled for about an hour. I was still a beginner, so believe me, one hour was more than enough, because I still remember all the pain and sores I had the next day because I wasn't used to wrestling yet. Despite his far greater and superior experience, NickZ toned it down for me and he always made sure that I was okay. He later introduced me to other wrestlers as well. It's through him that I was able to get to know better the wrestling community.

I fought NickZ a couple more times afterwards mainly through the Wrestlefests in NYC. In all of our matches, I would be lucky to land a submission or two on him due to body scissors, but he would then destroy me with four or five dozen submissions. And to show his versatility and originality, he'd be able to do it with different move, maneuver or submission each time he made me submit. He's like 30-40 lbs lighter than me! Clearly, size isn't everything. For NickZ, he'd use your extra weight as leverage against yourself.

If there were more people like NickZ in the world, the world would be a happier place. He sets a great example on how everyone should be interacting with every other wrestler.

Here's a shot we took during the Rumble. I'm sure you can't tell that he is overjoyed to lock me inside his head scissors:


I was then determined to wipe that smile by giving him one as well.


I can't really tell if this is a headlock or a sleeper, but knowing that this was my first match with NickZ, he was probably nice and locked in only a headlock.


You know, for photos that date from 2009, these are not bad at all. For some reason, I tend to think that cameras that are almost a decade old should be having a horrendous quality and resolution. I am clearly biased and wrong. After checking the details on the original file, I realized that this was taken with an Olympus C750UZ. I had always though this was taken with my Canon Powershot A85 or A95... I don't remember which one anymore. I'm just glad to see that in 2009, we've moved already a long way ahead from cameras with floppy disks.

I posted a long time ago a match with NickZ in Match ID 10 if you'd like to see a bit of history.

Blog ID 143      


Thursday April 13 2017 - Profile focus: RickSFProfile focus
There are two particular wrestlers that were great hosts for me whenever I visited them: they are EvilDark (id 1077) and RickSF (id 8839). I already spoke about EvilDark a lot previously, so I'll focus on RickSF today.

I've wrestled RickSF (id 8839) about 4 times: two times at the Wrestlefest (WF 2014 and WF 2016), one time at the 20th Clash and one time at his hometown of San Francisco (hence RickSF). My trip to San Francisco was in November 2014. My blog started in December 2015, so I never really had the opportunity to write down in my journal the things that happened during that particular travel. Now's my chance.

When I came to visit San Francisco, RickSF offered me to stay at his place, but I had several matches planned so I opted to have my own hotel room, not wanting to disturb him with other wrestlers. I however reserved my last portion of the trip with him, and we had a marvelous time. I think we spent two nights together, we wrestled quite a bit, rolled around, took pics... I do remember he had an affinity for gut punches, so we did a few of those. He started to know my wrestling style very well because he became tougher to fight against. Rick also had this habit of nagging his wrestlers and his most popular word was "Really?", as in, your wrestling move is utterly and absolutely useless. This has a side effect of pumping you up, but that's really what he wants. A better challenge.

When we were tired out, he brought me in downtown San Francisco to show me his place. He then was my tour guide and brought me to the Golden Gate and to The Castro (SF's gay neighborhood). We ate at a nice restaurant where he paid for my lunch. We also visited a farmer's market, went across The Great Slope (I can't remember how this street was called, but I've never seen anything like it so steep). He explained to me the history of the various buildings as he drove around the different districts and he introduced me to the subway/rail system of SF.

I remember he tried to set up matches in a ring, but my visit was a bit at the last minute to make that happen. We eventually went back to my hotel room and wrestled some more.

Prior to the trip, RickSF saved me a lot of trouble by making recommendations on who I should wrestle, which of the locals in SF are the reliable ones and which ones were the time wasters I need to avoid. As a reference, during my trip to SF, I was able to wrestle Rookie408 (id 10139), MattZ and this mysterious bear.

By the way, RickSF adores this pin hold, if you ever face him, make sure you do this to him.




The ones with the bed on the floor was taken during the Wrestlefest of Feb 2016. In the pic below, I think he was experimenting different types of scissors.


I'll finish up with this silly little selfie we took.



RickSF made sure that I enjoyed my time at SF and he even accompanied me back to the airport on my last day. He's a great talker, often made me laugh, absolutely nice, enthusiastic and passionate about wrestling and has... a cute goatee/beard hehehe. He'd go with me everywhere I went. He made sure that I crossed the security checkpoint before turning back. It's people like RickSF that pushes me to become a better host and to treat wrestlers the same way he treated me.

People who travel already spend a lot on flights, transportation and accommodations. Some travel for work, others for leisure, but some have came all the way specifically for you. I think RickSF has clearly showed me in great ways that it's courtesy to be there for wrestlers coming from afar by spending time with them, invite them to eat, don't let them pick up the tab, introduce them to other wrestlers in town and help them explore the city.

Blog ID 120      


Sunday January 15 2017 - The Great Dane: GrappleFightProfile focus
During my time at my first Clash in 2013, I met a wrestler which I grew very fond. He registered as "The Great Dane" as a pun on the dog breed, but he went on wrestling sites under the pseudonym "GrappleFight".



In my opinion, he was a very nice and handsome wrestler.

I was shy back then and he helped me participate in the tournament by being my tag team partner. He showed me the ropes, taught me all about pro and really was my mentor when I felt I was intimidated by everyone there because I knew nobody. He helped me break the ice. He was a role model for me and I told myself, when I grow older, I want to be just like him.





He also had an affinity for submission/competitive wrestling, and he actually wouldn't wrestle me in sub because he knew I'd probably be too much of an easy match against him.

I saw him participate in both single and tag-team pro tournaments. He had to retract himself from both tournaments at one point because he got injured. This is where he abandoned me and left me alone against the tag-team champions StumpyStew (id 6633) and Timnbama, not that I was complaining.

In the last day of the event, GrappleFight and I talked a lot about our lives and careers, wrestled some more and exchanged a big hug before we left.

Today, it seems that his profile is nowhere to be found anymore. He seems to have disappeared and I lost contact with him. We exchanged e-mail addresses, but I no longer get any replies. That being said, don't ever hesitate when you go to events like these. Go out, reach to people, wrestle them, have a lot of fun because you might not see them again for whatsoever reason.

Blog ID 101