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| Tuesday April 12 2022 - Submission Wrestling Weekend in Sherbrooke | Wrestling event | |||||||||||||||
After a 4 year hiatus, I finally attended a full-fledged wrestling event just last week-end. It was called "Submission Wrestling Weekend #2" and it was hosted by Fighting4Fun at his home in Sherbrooke where he has a basement full of mats that are very nicely laid out, ideal for competitive submission matches. By the way, Sherbrooke is a small town between east of Montreal and west of Quebec city. I think this is the first time I'm attending an all-out submission event. Events I've attended in the past or either pro, hybrid or one-on-one hotel room events where the type of match is really up to your opponent. Anyhow, I wasn't sure if I was ready for this, because I am currently carrying a shoulder pain that lasted since a couple of months. I made the mistake of racking someone above my shoulder's tolerance, but all in all, I think it went pretty well. Friday April 8 2022 I had an agreement with Fighting4Fun who came to pick me up in Montreal to drive to his house in Sherbrooke. Once we reached our destination, my host kindly made me a tour, showed me his marvelous basement and we took the opportunity to warm up just us two to prepare for the upcoming onslaught or beatings that I was going to get. 😅 Our last match together was 3 years ago. Obviously, been an MMA expert and having won numerous medals around the world, each time I see Fighting4Fun, he just gets better and better. Mind you, he's 61 now, but age is just a number: with his experience, knowledge and skill, he is still the best among all of us. In addition, he became a teacher now of a dojo, training students and sparring his students almost on a daily basis, which kind of makes him now an unstoppable force. Fighting4Fun has this methodology where he toys with his opponent, he lets them think that he has the upper hand and then he'll make you tap when he feels he gave you enough freedom. 😜 That is no exception for me.. however, he was kind enough to let me put on my ankle locks, my body scissors and my leg scissors on him without him resisting back every once in a while. It's basically the only 3 holds I know how to use in submission if I can't use my arms or if I determine that my opponent's arms are stronger than mine. Anyhow, Fighting4fun gave a couple of free taps, but not without him making me tap a hundred times fold the legitimate way afterwards. 😂 After all, there is a price for free submissions... All I can do when he goes in attack mode is to defend and delay that inevitable submission. Armbars are the hold (or weapon) of choice and I'd have to say I have never received as many armbars as I had this week-end. After an hour of sparring or so, our host Fighting4Fun kindly prepared my bed so I can rest up for the full array of matches that's waiting for me tomorrow. Saturday April 9 2022 My host prepared a nice breakfast for me, the usual scrambled eggs and bacon and we continued a brief hour of sparring. I was supposed to meet up with one of Fighting4Fun's top student (apparently, M4st3rP), but he canceled due to family obligations. I was thinking "Thank goodness", because there's enough matches lined up that I would have been dead or zombified after dueling a UFC-style fighter that has a hundred times my level of experience. Around 1 pm, the remainder of the roster showed up: it consists of Kicksands, Sunny_DeLeon, CanWrestle, WrestlinBoi and Zodikry. The event could host 8 wrestlers, but 7 was already more than enough as we went overtime over Fighting4Fun's planned schedule. CanWrestle, WrestlinBoi and Zodikry had to leave shortly after arriving because they had already planned a match with another wrestler in Sherbrooke in a AirBNB. Their main objective of this first visit was to drop off the other wrestlers since they car pooled. Hence, Kicksands, Sunny_DeLeon, Fighting4Fun and myself started doing round-robin submission matches. I had already wrestled Kicksands in October 2019 in Ottawa. Back then, I was able to be in control of him in the sense that I could make him my jobber... sort of. He'd try to defend, but I felt that I had an easier time dragging him left and right. Kicksands reminded me that I made him submit to the most basic hold in wrestling: the bearhug. I actually forgot about that and looking back at the blog entry I wrote for our Ottawa encounter, I never mentioned it in order to preserve some respect and dignity for Kicksands. 😅 It really doesn't matter now anymore, because since then, Kicksands attended martial art classes regularly in a gym, training fiercefully to become an absolute beast of a fighter. He completely redeemed himself: when we fought in our submission match, I could tell that he was no longer the same wrestler that I had fought in 2019. Kicksands' strength, skill, agility and movements skyrocketed 🚀 and I realized that I was facing an opponent that is almost as equally skilled as Fighting4Fun. The big difference is that Kicksands is younger, faster, has more stamina and has this urge, an aura of determination or revenge, call it what you want, this undying sensation to teach me a lesson for the terrible treatment I gave him 3 years ago. I could latch on my ankle locks, but his fighting heart only showed me that it takes much more than a weakly pathetic hold to beat him. He fought back, showing me that with his stronger arms and technical knowledge that he can toy with me and make me submit with armbars, chokes and a dozen of other holds I can't even name. To make a long story short (too late), I was no match for the much stronger and superior Kicksands. As we will see later on, Kicksands is the 2nd strongest fighter in our group, right after Fighting4Fun. However, give him a little bit more time (maybe a year or two?) and he will probably manage to give Fighting4Fun a very good and challenging run for his money. I also sparred with Sunny_DeLeon. Our last match was in October 2021, but our fight this time around was also different. When we met in October, he was already exhausted because of a similar submission event he attended. He was simply letting himself being a jobber because he had no strength to fight back, having already being subdued by a dozen matches. I toyed with him back then in a give and take session where I would lock on him hold after hold. Well, in an submission environment setting like this one, Sunny_DeLeon showed his true inner strength and I saw his fierce burning fiery heart: he is no longer a passive jobber. Still, he was easier to tangle with. I think our levels were quite a bit more evenly matched, but ultimately, Sunny has better training, skill and stamina than I did, so he eventually managed to make me submit quite a few times. At this point, I think I had 40% of my fuel reserves left for the day, starting to feel the exhaustion of back to back bouts, not to mention I had to spar with Fighting4Fun in 1 or 2 more rounds that I was destined to lose. This is where I realized that I need to wrestle in a "Defensive Passive" mode, otherwise, I would have no energy left for the remainder of my match-ups. "Defensive Passive" is a mode where you just let your opponent attack you while still defending to prevent and delay a submission, but if you do see an opening or if you opponent is also defensive passive, then you strike an attack. The other guys (CanWrestle, WrestlinBoi and Zodikry) came back from their private AirBNB fight and we started wrestling in long-sleeve spat shirts and long sleeve pants. Spats are the stuff that lots of bicycle bikers wear when they do long stretch biking circuits. The point here is to simulate oil wrestling... without the mess of oil. When you were these types of pants and shirts, your arms and legs are in a sense slippery because your hands will slide on this fabric, forcing you and your opponent to use different strategies to make them submit. My upper portion of the spatz (the long-sleeved shirt) was smelling a bit of sweat-to-skin from probably a previous owner/wearer. I didn't have one and I was given one, but I think someone forgot to put it in the washer before handing it out to me. Eventually, I traded my upper spatz with just a t-shirt. Anyhow, regardless of the difference in this style of fight, I believe Sunny and Kicksands made short work for me. You can see here Sunny finishing me off with some sort of choke/scissor combo. I had no chances of survival. 😭
Then I had my first tango with WrestlinBoi. He seems shy, and reserved, but also intimidating. When he finally reached the mats and we locked up, this is where I saw him express himself wonderfully: he is skillful and playful, he has great power in his scissors and strong arms to back them up. You feel safe when you wrestle him. He'll smile and at this point, I just melted and I only wanted to keep him near me and make the match last as long as I could. 😂 Sunny and Kicksands mentioned that this would be "The Battle of the Scissors" ✂✂ because WrestlinBoi sports a very strong one in his pockets. We shared the body scissors and WrestlinBoi was kind enough to let me have the title of a stronger scissor. You can see me here trying to resist WrestlinBoi's crushing thighs while trying to escape from his arm grasp as well. I actually taunted him to squeeze harder, sharing with him my fondness for scissors and that this liking allows me to resist scissors easily.
Regardless, he was still able to beat me up at the end of the match using an armbar or a variant of it. I also had a spatz match with Zodikry, who is WrestlinBoi's partner. Zodikry is stronger, but has less technical skills. However, he is very expressive and a big giggly.. a bit like me I guess 😅 I took advantage to catch him off-guard in this match by putting him in an ankle lock that he did not suspect. This was probably one of the few wins I had this week-end. Zodikry and WrestlinBoi complement each other: While WrestlinBoi is shy, reserved and introvert, ZodiKry is outgoing, talkative and extrovert. They are an extremely nice wrestling couple. They both live in Winnipeg and they occasionally spar with Sunny_DeLeon as well, who also lives in Winnipeg. We broke out of submission in very few short lapse of moments in between sub matches, so I was able to get this full nelson body scissors on Zodikry that I usually can't get in a real submission competitive match.
This particular image is quite a bit unusual because it feels like Zodikry is enjoying the hold while I seem to be the one suffering from it. 😂 Last, but not least, I locked horns with CanWrestle. We've met again about 9 months ago in July 2021 and he is still is more skillful than I am. We then all went for supper and when we returned, we went into our singlet matches. My memory is starting to fail me now, but I do remember that even after a meal refill, I was operating at 10-20% of my capacity so much I was exhausted. Luckily, both Sunny and Kicksands took a lot of pics to help me rebuild the images in my brain. Had they not being there, I don't think I would be able to provide the quality level of photography that they were bringing with my camera. I do remember having a 2nd bout singlet-style with at least every wrestler. Based on the photos, I guess Sunny got me in a side scissors and I seemed to have enjoyed it. 😁 It's either that or I'm trying to concentrate so hard so that I do not submit... or that I do not fart! 😅
At some point, Kicksands and WrestlinBoi were dueling, but CanWrestle ended up making a commentary that made both of them turn against him. So yeah, CanWrestle's snark comments earned him a double-teaming reward. 🏆  For more photos, you can check Sunny's Instagram, CanWrestle's Instagram, Kicksands' Instagram or WrestlinBoi85. I felt I needed to open up an instagram as well so they can link me, but I probably won't be as active as they are. I feel like a dinosaur 😅. My instagram is scissormtl. The only other thing I remember for this evening was that while the double-team was in progress, I jumped on Kicksands to give CanWrestle a fighting chance. Kicksands was surprised that I would shield and dared to attempt to save CanWrestle. I tried to argue that both Kicksands and WrestlinBoi have greater strength and skills over the defenseless CanWrestle... and I even later changed my reasoning saying that I just wanted to wrestle Kicksands... that I don't tangle with him enough. 😅 I wish I could include a picture here between me and Kicksands. I later realized that there are no photographs in our album showing any tangle between me and Kicksands. All the photographers were busy. 😢 Anyhow, I was defending against Kickands' attacks left and right when suddenly, CanWrestle freed himself from WrestlinBoi and came to my rescue, fighting again against Kicksands. At which point I was now facing WrestlinBoi. I manage to steal what WrestlinBoi refers to as a smurf kiss on his chest. I didn't know if I was out of line because Zodikry is his partner. WrestlinBoi later explained the terms of agreement with his partner and that my action were ok. Phew! 😅 Around 11:30 PM, we were all spent and we called it a night. Sunny and Kicksands stayed at our host. Zodikry, WrestlinBoi and CanWrestle went back to their BNB and I had reserved two nights at a local hotel called "Hotellerie Jardins de Ville" that was a 5 minute drive away from our host. There's even a bus system that connects to it. Sunday April 10 2022 We all needed our beauty sleep and luckily, our next match was not before 1:30 in the afternoon. Sunny, Kicksands, Fighting4Fun and I went to an Italian restaurant to start building our reserves. Sunny commented about my ankle locks: he didn't recall me using them the first time we met. I answered that there wasn't a need to. He was a jobber and back then, I was doing give and take of holds that I are usually enjoyable. There was really no need to use my unpleasant ankle locks that I usually reserve for submission fights. 😅 After we replenished our energies, we all met up around 2 pm and everybody was wearing a gi (the traditional uniform used for martial arts combat) and we got our first group picture:
From left to right: WrestlinBoi, Fighting4Fun, Zodikry, Sunny_DeLeon, Kicksands, Loserboy and CanWrestle I almost skipped this portion of the event because I needed more time to recover from all the sores of sub matches. Luckily, the overnight sleep and the Italian Cannelloni I had really boosted me, so I was back on track. Also, I've set in my mind to use only 40% of my strength, with the occasional max if I manage to put one of my three holds. The gi format makes everybody start with a white belt. If you win a match, you get promoted to blue belt. If you lose a match while having a blue belt against a white belt, you trade belts. If you another match while in blue belt, you get purple and so forth. No holds are currently barred: you can use the gi to chose your opponent or you can even use the belt to tie up your opponent, but if you do, your opponent can do the same. Hmmm... I don't look half bad in a gi 😅 I have absolutely no training in Jujitsu or martial arts. The last time I wore something like this was a trial judo class where a girl 5 years younger than me placed me in a submission hold as I was squealing like a little girl for mercy. Hoperfully, this time around, this uniform will bring me luck...
... or not. I lost against Fighting4Fun, CanWrestle, WrestlinBoi, Sunny_DeLeon and Kicksands. 😅 I kindly asked Kicksands if I could have a freebie scissor because he was making me tap over and over even after our match ended... and because I was trying to cheat by jumping on him, but he always had his guard on and never allowed me to sneak in. He told me that I need to earn my scissors on him. They were not given for free. 😅 So no, I never made him tap a single time in this week-end... even as a freebie. 😭 My only win in git-format was against Zodikry. I feel like cheating. Just because of this win, I was promoted from white to blue belt. Yay! 😇 We tumbled left and right and Kicksands took this shot that I absolutely adore. It looks very sensual, but what's actually happening here is that while Zodikry is pinning me, he's scrambling to get out of the ankle lock I had on him... I think. Without the right context though, it looks as if he is about to lean down... and uh... kiss me. 😘 So that never happened, but I did end up biting for half a second his right nipple when I was able to flip him over and pin him down later on during this match! 🤣
Many million thanks to Kicksands for capturing this shot. He also beautifully captured this next shot at the end of the match where I scissored Zodikry.
Here's another shot of Kicksands excellent photography skill where I was struggling against Fighting4Fun, trying to flip him over, but his stance and position allowed him to use my own weight as leverage, making him impossible to turn him over.
After around 3 hours of gi matches back and forth and putting together the endless amount of combinations of wrestlers, we were due for another break and went to a distillery called "Siboire". During our dinner, CanWrestle commented on how our waiter has big muscles and in a kidding manner, CanWrestle told us that he'd like to ask the waiter if he can touch his bicep. Sunny, WrestlinBoi and me all dared him to do it, but he refused, so we've decided to do it for him. When the waiter returned to our tables, I was hesitant at first, but I look at WrestlinBoi's eyes and he signaled me with a gesture to do it. So I went with it and asked the waiter: - "Uh.. sir. My colleague here ... is wondering if he can touch your bicep. You have a very impressive build." Before I could even say the fifth word of the above quote, CanWrestle slapped me on the thigh with the back of his hand and I jumped a bit. He did threaten me to take my head and slam my forehead down on the table, but in practice, that would have been awful, so I'm happy with the compromise. I think our waiter laughed and he was probably ready to do it, but we were all so embarrassed that we all laughed it off. CanWrestle also said "No! No! No!" to the waiter and brushed it off. In return, most of us increased the amount of tip he was receiving because we left the waiter (and our whole table) in an awkward position. 😅 Both WrestlinBoi and Sunny explained to me that had I not done it, they would have done it instead, but since the waiter was only talking french, they would have a little bit more difficulty doing it. Hence, they gave me the priority. It was still nice to know that I had 2 backups that would have done this dare in my stead. This reflects and outlines the general positive mood, playfulness and happiness at our table. As we rode back home, I was in the car with Fighting4Fun driving, I was his co-pilot and in the back was Sunny_DeLeon and KickSands. I then noticed on the side of the streets a franchise selling fried chicken called "ChicKing". For some reason, the pun made me burst into laughter. KickSands commented: - "And that broke him. When I saw the name of the restaurant earlier, I rolled my eyes." I asked Fighting4Fun: - "Is the street we are driving on King Street? It's one of the main commercial artery of Sherbrooke?" Fighting4Fun replied: - "Yes it is. And there are at least three of those restaurant franchise on this street." It took me a while to contain my laughter, but I guess I can't resist a terrible pun. 😅 When we got back from the restaurant, the schedule changed. Everybody was tired. We probably ate too much, drank too much. There were some missing gi matches that still needs to be fulfilled, but they were all canceled. We shifted the planned schedule to a personal request zone. It was filming or photography time :) WrestlinBoi asked me if I could help him do a scenario where he pins me, flexes over his victory, gets full nelsoned by his partner and I gut punch him in revenge. Hey, compared to the stuff I've been doing, this is a very easy scenario to perform. I was more than happy to oblige. In return, he allowed me to perform on him and Zodikry a separate rack on each of them. He also lifted me in a knee backbreaker with gut punching... in which I farted for real. 💨 Hey, we just ate! 😂
CanWrestle and I also filmed a match up that he posted on WatchFighters: https://www.watchfighters.com/posts/canwrestle_vs_lb200-chvsswdd I know.. there's a price, but please support him. 😅 In the meantime, here's a camel clutch and a bearhug from the match. 😀 I didn't notice until much later how bruised I am in this picture. All the sub matches left marks on my skin, but it does add some form of realism to the pic. 😂
We took it easy for the remainder of the evening. The wrestlers mentioned how they get recording custom requests that they occasionally fulfill and all the intricacies of the different holds, maneuvers and interests they need to cover to realize those requests. I went back to my hotel feeling not as tired today compared as yesterday. I actually felt 50% less tired than the day before, because, throughout the day, I was able to pace out my stamina between my matches more carefully, slowly calculating when I should expense more energy and when it is best to preserve it, maybe give up a bit sooner to avoid that overflow that would have drained too much energy for nothing. I looked myself in the mirror and noted all the bruises. It does not hurt at all: I have a skin condition where my skin marks easily and it looks like I'm bruised, but I'm not. I guess it's sort of a sensitive skin reaction? Most of those simili-bruises are pressure caused by the Gi when it is aggressively pulled outwards or push inwards. If the simple soft fabric of a Gi can do this, then I guess you can imagine what pressure without fabric does. 😅
On my back, I had larger vertical marks. The wrestlers all thought I was getting whipped... by Fighting4Fun. Fighting4Fun defended himself saying that the marks on my back was there before we started our match on Friday.... so I finally figured it out afterwards that it was caused by wearing my knapsack for a long period of time. Either I get bruises from pressure or from prolonged wearing/carrying. Monday April 11 2022 We all met one last time at our host to exchange our goodbyes for this event. I gave everybody I could a bearhug. Zodikry wanted to give me one, but I caught him in one first. 😅 Fighting4Fun drove me back to Montreal and he spoke to me about his personal life and I shared mine as well. He is at his most humble and down to earth state among all the times I've seen him. He's still very optimistic about wrestling submission-style despite his age. His next goal is to travel to California or to Brazil to meet the many opponents that are waiting for him. He also suggested that I come back a week-end to wrestle him and his students. All in all, I had a wonderful trip. Despite being worried about the state of my shoulder, the wrestling I had was safe and it gave me a boost and signal that I am ready to attend future events. This still makes me realize that my days as a submission wrestler are numbered. I'll try to take advantage of it as most as I can, and people like Fighting4Fun and CanWrestle are there to show me that if they can still tangle competitively, so can I. Here's to hoping that I can attend new wrestling events soon and hopefully travel outside Canada. I went to see Lumber_Jack_G on my return to Montreal after the event and we had a small and light tumble. In his opinion, the bruises/scars on my chest and shoulders were making me a bit more attractive and a bit more believable as a wrestler. 😅 | ||||||||||||||||
Blog ID 328  | ||||||||||||||||
| Saturday March 19 2022 - Coming out | Blog entry | |||||||||||||||
| So, about two weeks ago, I finally told my mom that I'm gay. I know... I'm 41 years old, my mom lives with me, I probably should have done this sooner, but you know... she's very conservative, very religious, goes to mass every day... I knew it would break her heart, but it was necessary given the tension I had with the rest of my family. We had a disagreement on how she should be handled given her semi-autonomous status and the gradual, continual loss of her autonomy. Regardless, she took it rather well... She said she knew it, she prayed every day still that I wasn't. She did ask me why I like men. And she told me that regardless of my orientation, I should still ago to church and she even mentioned that the pope once said that who is he to judge gay people? Ironically, a couple of years ago, she brushed that pope away because of that sentence, saying that he was too liberal. Hey, people do change with time. Come to think of it, even if she was really against my orientation (which I'm sure, she still is), there's not much she can do about it because she's very dependent on me. 20 years ago, I'd probably be kicked out and no longer considered from being her son, but now she needs me to do the simplest thing like renewing her medication, getting her a few groceries, paying her bills or calling the doctor to inquire about a pain she's been having because she's unable to do these simple tasks herself. For the record, she's 74. All in all, It's a big step. It doesn't mean that I can bring wrestlers at my place, but it gives her peace of mind. For example, I can now tell her that I will sleepover at my boyfriend's... whereas all this time, she thought I was perhaps walking in the village or frequenting bars and that one day, I might come back home getting beaten up, with perhaps blood dripping from my mouth or having a black eye... Yeah no worries about that, I go to bars maybe once in a blue moon, usually when I have visitors in town. I don't go on a weekly or daily basis like the piece of figment of fear and imagination she's been having. 😉 So, what did I tell her all this time when I go meet wrestlers or when I take a flight to go to a wrestling event? Well... the usual cracked up stuff: I'm going to New York city or Atlanta for business, my work is sending me there, I will be coming home late tonight because of overtime... blah blah blah. She obviously didn't believe it, but it's not as if she couldn't do anything about it. She did inquire with my sisters, but they have always brushed the question away. Mind you, my mom is an extraordinary person for she was able to raise 3 kids on her own, working numbingly for 40 years in the same place she hated, where she was ostracized (ironically) by people of the same ethnicity. Her kids mean everything to her. She can't speak French, nor English, yet she still managed to survive, raise us and see us flourish. I didn't tell her yet that I wrestle though... are you crazy? 😝 I do remember asking though when I was younger if it watch okay to watch people fighting on TV (not to say the word "wrestle"... you know, this could include boxing, UFC, or just a plain TV series like Batman) and she did tell me that I shouldn't. It's just not okay according to her to watch people fighting TV even if it's fake (so I guess this would include the "KaPows!" in Batman). There is still a long way ahead, but the biggest chunk is done. We don't go into specifics and that's understandable, it will still take some time. However, I no longer lie to her when I say I go out or with whom I go out with. I also no longer have to say that if I cut my hair, that it was a gurl who cuts my hair, because if it was a guy who cuts my hair, it apparently immediately would make me gay, because that's the stereotype that's engraved into her mind. 😂 Mind you, the same applies if I hangout with friends that are guys... let alone, tumble with them. 🤼♂️ | ||||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 326 | ||||||||||||||||
| 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 | ||||||||||||||||
| Sunday May 24 2020 - Moving out.. | Blog entry | |||||||||||||||
After 20 years of living in the same place, my family has decided to move my mom out of her current house because it will be in her best interest on the long term. She is starting to become very old and pretty dependent on her children. We also have bad experience with her neighbors that we just can't seem to get along. The world isn't perfect.  I normally wouldn't agree on undertaking such a tremendous task like this during a planetary crisis, but sometimes, we need to take risks. Big moves like these are never fun, but sometimes, big risks can pay off. Going to a wrestling event is a big risk for example. I remember at my first event, I felt lonely, knew nobody, but I discovered that there were great people out there, willing to include me in their circles and help me experience and cherish the great world of wrestling and all its wonderful people. Events and memories like these inspire me to take risks elsewhere. It's a little fire that sparks and becomes big... it makes anyone want to try out all the flavor of ice cream, uh I mean wrestling, that is out there.  Again, stay safe and be patient, soon, we can all go and wrestle again. Thanks for checking out and reading my blog, I'll still continue to post minor entries on the months to come. | ||||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 291 | ||||||||||||||||
| Friday May 3 2019 - From Bangor to Montreal: MaineWrestlingChub | Recent matches | |||||||||||||||
I had the fortune of having MaineWrestlingChub (id 11066) pay me a visit yesterday. He drove all the way from Bangor, Maine to Montreal, Quebec. Well, he did make a few pit stops along the way for a couple of matches, but it's still quite a drive for a wrestling trip. The things we do to meet new wrestlers.  I told MaineWrestlingChub I wouldn't have the patience to drive. I fall asleep after one hour because the scenery is technically the same. Nope, I do prefer flying, although it is quite a bit more expensive.Anyhow, MaineWrestlingChub greeted me with open arms in his hotel room. He immediately put me in a nice, big and strong bearhug. That's an awesome way to show your strength.
We played by ear, but given his size, he instinctively switched to heel mode while I switched to jobber mode. I still ended up putting a few holds like the camel clutch or the boston crab on him. I couldn't close my scissors, so my signature went up in smoke in this match. MaineWrestlingChub knew his moves and he had this aura that emanates trust. He has a very nice personality that made tangling with him a blast. He respected my limits and he was always careful when he applied holds on me. I could even wrestle sub with him and not being afraid of getting hurt. We took a bit of time to share our wrestling experiences. He spoke about Thunderdome, which I never knew existed. I've told myself: "Oh, that's one wrestling event I'll definitely have to attend one day." Later in the night, Sylvain (id 2636) joined us and we did a bit of 2 vs 1. Sylvain's legs are longer so he could squeeze in a body scissors while I helped him out by putting a head scissors on MaineWrestlingChub. Our tag team time was a bit brief because I had to leave to rest for the following work day. Nevertheless, it was a very fun night to remember. I know I've told myself not to look back, but I should have made arrangements to try and stay longer. For someone who did that much length of travel, I could have requested a day off from work. It's not everyday I meet wrestlers as nice as him that are willing to do the distance for a match. | ||||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 243 | ||||||||||||||||
| Monday October 22 2018 - Tz126, GoodBoyMtl, MuscledWrestler2001, Keith_DC | Recent matches | |||||||||||||||
| The last time I wrestled Tz126 (id 6866) was about 3 years ago. He came all the way from North Carolina to Quebec again last Wednesday. I had a day off so I picked him off at the airport and accompanied him to his hotel. I took the opportunity to do a few touristy stuff with him by going to the old port and incidentally, we also ended up eating at the same restaurant and attending the same light show as with WrestleInMN back in May... which kinda reminds me that I probably need to broaden my horizons and try something different for my guests. I did show him how the Montreal underground is great to avoid cold weather. However, because it is structured like a complex maze, it may sometimes be worth it to just walk outside to get to your destination. Anyhow, we had two small separate sessions where I was locking him in a couple of holds. I'd say it was mostly give and take and I had to be careful with the amount of pressure being applied. He warned me not to bounce the rack because he had a bad back. He showed me an interesting alternate variant for the reverse indian deathlock: It consists of putting your feet behind your opponent's kneecap and bend the leg backwards when your opponent is facing down. I realized in this meet that Tz126 had a fondness of anything leg stretching related: figure-fours, deathlocks, ankle locks.... We discussed previously about being okay to take private pictures, but I veto-ed the decision since I felt that he didn't seem too comfortable with the idea. It should have been clear to me that when someone only puts a single image in his profile, then it should be a hint that privacy may be of a concern. I met with GoodBoyMtl on Friday. We've spoke at least quite a few years ago, but things never worked out until recently. This guy does Jiu-Jitsu, holds and organizes tournaments and events and even have his own wrestling submission subscription-based website under the name Submission Fight. However, like other people venturing into this business, he suffered greatly from the rise of YouTube where a majority of his subscribers eventually migrated to the free content available online. The pre-YouTube era was really the golden age of independent wrestling submission streaming hubs. It's mind-numbing to see everything that YouTube destroyed in its path when it reached its peak. In addition, the province of Quebec recently instated a law to ban private submission competitions/leagues, which is really nonsense. It was probably put into effect to allow bigger corporations (like UFC) to dominate the industry. Anyhow, because of this, he had to cease his activities. This law will however be overturned later this year, so he did told me that he'll restore his website soon and he will resume organizing his competitions. GoodBoyMtl also showed to me the high-end audio visual equipment he has to create, capture and perform video editing for his site. It's quite something. He spoke about the good old times where people on his website were given a small video of the size of 360 x 240 pixels, whereas today, the technology given to us allows us to provide 4k videos that are almost 10 times as big (3,840 x 2,160 pixels). While I grew fond with Nikon over the years, Nikon specializes in taking pictures whereas he believes that Panasonic has an affinity for capturing videos. Lumix GH5 is the model he recommends. It looks rather like a photo camera, but it is well-known for its superior video taking capabilities. The price range though is a bit excessive, but it really all comes down whether you want some homegrown amateurish or professionally-made crystal-clear quality imagery. For the time being, I think I'll stick with my Nikon. Back to wrestling, GoodBoyMtl showed to me his vast and great knowledge of Jiu-Jitsu. He can easily get leverage from any given position. He insisted that I show a couple of pro holds since he's done mostly sub in his life. He bought from Wal-Mart 8 mat puzzle-pieces as his wrestling mats. They were pretty effective. I initially thought we'd place this in a 4x2 fashion, but he insisted a 3x3 layout with a corner missing a puzzle piece. It was still small nonetheless, but adequate to give and take holds. If he had more space than this and if we wrestled submission, he would probably win against me very easily. MuscledWrestler2001 (id 8009) was in town this week-end, so we've hit it off with a match. We also corresponded at least a decade ago. Distance was a little problem, but MuscledWrestler2001 has decided to do the extra mile by driving all the way from New Hampshire in a 4-5 hours drive to Montreal. I will be forever thankful for this big gesture. So, we finally got to meet and we got along pretty well: our chemistry was nice. Then again, this guy's personality and humor makes it very difficult not to get along. My assumption was he was more into sub, but he geared up in pro. We ended up doing light sub and promission. This guy is pretty strong despite recovering from a medical condition lately. I would hate to know how strong he is had I faced him in top shape. He can resist body scissors pretty well because of his frame. Mind you, he did went down from 300 to 270. Leg scissors work amazingly on him, but I think I may have overdone it. He mentioned at one point if it was the only hold I can do, so I stopped doing it. Ankle locks was pretty unfair for him since his condition doubles or triples the pain he feels near his feet. He would have been pretty okay with pictures, but I had so much fun that I had forgotten all about it. Silly me for not having taken the opportunity considering that he's pretty open to almost anything. I can feel he was lowering down the level on me and avoided using all of his weight. Not only this guy has great empathy, he is experienced and very careful. He also owns his own gym and trains/mentors a few recruits. Overall, he is very fun to rumble with: never pass an opportunity to wrestle him. You know the saying that a beginner should always wrestle with an expert to avoid getting injured? MuscledWrestler2001 is that expert: he will show you the ropes and he knows exactly what needs to be done to make you discover and love wrestling! He also works in the IT industry and he mentioned some pretty scary things about security. He told me that no matter what protection we have on our systems, there's always some sort of malware sitting there unknown to us all that can be activated at any time. The only safe computer is one that is unplugged from the internet. It's just like the saying I heard a while ago that the safest hard drive is one that is buried underground. I wrestled Keith_DC on Monday. He was in town for business and it was his first time in Montreal. We also were very compatible and we wrestled promission as well. His style reminds me of Lumber_Jack_G's wrestling style. I think both of them would have gotten along very well. There was some nice and charging intensity in our match. You could tell we would sometimes yield each other into holds we purposely wanted to be held in... after all, that's part of the definition of promission. Deep down, Keith_DC is a jobber, but he's a great heel. He likes guys near his height. He also wrestles pro and loves the abdominal stretch as a finisher. I once again over-abused my scissors on him and it really works miracle. I learned from our rumble session that "Nice!" meant "I give!". That made me realize that I should probably have agreed with a safe word with him before starting the match, but I just assumed that he already knew them considering his high amount of experience in wrestling. Overall, I felt that we were pretty even matched. Nice build, strong arms, great wrestler and an excellent personality reinforces all of his nice traits. We went out afterwards in Chinatown to eat some dumplings and I learned more about his life and career. He's one of the few exceptions, where he was able to find a comprehensive husband that also wrestles and that allows him to wrestle people around the world. Interestingly, Keith_DC asked me if Montreal is affected by the don't-wrestle-guys-in-the-same-city-you-live-in syndrome, to which I replied that it affects Montreal as well. Truth be told, just like in many big cities, on top of the usual syndrome, wrestlers are usually very picky and they want poster models as well... except for a small amount of people. By the way, GoodBoyMtl does go by SubFight (id 7506) on bearhugger and Keith_DC goes by Keith (id 4340), but these profiles have been abandoned since a while now, so I prefer to point you guys to their MeetFighters' counterpart. MuscledWrestler2001 (id 8009) goes under Wrestle123 in MeetFighters, but he seems to be active here as well. There are months where I get no wrestling at all and there are months like this one where there would be a sudden flux of wrestlers visiting Montreal either for business or leisure. With the wrestlers I've met this past week been moderate and respectful in strength and intensity, I'm happy to say that I currently don't have any sore muscles... just a few regular bruises as usual that normally goes away after a couple of days. I've started tracking this by creating this somewhat automatic calculator that counts the average of matches per month and per year. This year is already marked by a decline of matches, but the year is not over yet. I'll try to catch up on the ground I lost. A little note: When I hold an event gathering multiple wrestlers or when I go to a wrestling event, I count that as one match. Otherwise, if I put a big number, it would greatly skew the average amount of matches I get per month. | ||||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 206 | ||||||||||||||||
| Saturday September 1 2018 - ICW: Part deux | Wrestling shows | |||||||||||||||
A good friend informed me that a Montreal wrestling association was holding an outdoor wrestling event with a ring installed in the middle of a park. He also kindly sent me the promotional sign that advertised them as such. Seeing near the bottom that ICW was the host of the show, I was a bit skeptical. When I attended their first show about two years ago, they had a strict policy of "no photographs permitted". I mean, it's like, come on, it's a wrestling show. Let your fans disseminate free advertising on your behalf to get a bigger crowd to your events. Bigger crowd means bigger chunk of revenue to support all those wrestlers. To be cautious, having being caught first hand by their rules, I've decided to let my Nikon camera at home... only to later determine that I did a big mistake once again. It turns out that since this event is outside and it's held right beside a sidewalk sale for the "Back to school" season with no perimeter fences and no admission fee, a large enough crowd of about 200-300 spectators showed up. Since these people come and go, mainly for shopping, some resting to watch a match or two, you can't really tell them to "NOT take any pictures". On the contrary, they were even encouraging the crowd that gathered around to share their photos and videos of the event on their Facebook. I was stuck with my LG G4 again with a decrepit camera that does not handle digital zoom very well. It does a bit better work outside because of better lighting: after all, the show started at 2 PM, so there was plenty of sun for the photos.    And this is the reason why I tell you that the digital zoom is terrible. A lot of things here, in this close up shot, are blurry. Just click on the image to get a larger version.  Never trust a cell phone to do a real camera's work. Overall, the show wasn't bad at all. They had big support for the crowd chanting them and expressing joy or horror at each piledrivers, bodyslams or clotheslines. They held a few tag team matches and finished off with a bang with a Battle Royale of a dozen wrestlers in the ring. The wrestlers were blessed with great weather that is not too warm, reinforced with nice breezy winds. You'd still have to find some shade though to be really comfortable. The show lasted more than 2 hours after all. I think they pulled out a good show this time. For some reason, they don't mention this event at all on their homepage. I find that a bit strange. My final understanding of this is that if they hold private shows in their basement rental of a church, then pictures are forbidden. However, if you pay for a public show, which is the case of the business association that hired them to entertain the public while they shop, then everything is permitted. | ||||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 202 | ||||||||||||||||
| 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 March 2 2018 - Clash of the Titans XXII Registration | Wrestling event | |||||||||||||||
| It's official. I sent my registration to Joe, the Clash Event organizer yesterday. I'll be attending the event this upcoming May 31st to June 3rd 2018. For more information about the event, feel free to check their website: I was debating which image I should submit and after a overly long process, I've decided to stay with my favorite trunk/speedos that is more sub-style than pro-style. I actually posted this image at the beginning of last month.
I feel that by wearing sub gear, I'm giving a shout out to sub wrestlers thinking that the Clash is only a pro event, which is not. It caters to almost every wrestling style. I know.. the boots actually contradicts the whole get up because it's pro-oriented. So what? I'm mixing both styles. | ||||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 184 | ||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday January 9 2018 - Teachers and wrestlers | Some thoughts | |||||||||||||||
| In my travels, I have met quite a few wrestlers that are teachers. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Quite the contrary, being a teacher has its perks. Most of them seem to use the summer term, the 2-3 months of vacation they have for free to go and travel off, meet new guys and wrestle. Sometimes, I wish I was also a teacher so I could roam around for several months at a time, but you know what, being in Information Technology has its own share of perks. There was this one particular teacher I met at one of the wrestling events that told me something that marked me still today. When I asked him if he enjoyed his career, he told me that his profession changed a lot within the years. This guy was teaching at the high school level. He told me that the blame has shifted from the student to the teacher. When a student fails a class, the parents used to say: "What did the student do and what can he do to improve or to pass the course?" Nowadays, the question they ask is: "What did the teacher do and what can he do to help the student pass the course?" He also told me that the kids are aware that a lot of laws are protecting them and many kids no longer show any respect to teachers. He would walk towards a student and that student would tell him out of the blue: "Get the hell out of my face." and there's absolutely nothing the teacher could do. I felt really bad for him. I could see the progression and the shift and change in values, how time transformed a wonderful job into a crappy one because parents put so much love in their kids that they become completely spoiled. And mind you, so many different careers have been transformed over time. It reminds me of one of my exes who had his shining days in the travel agency industry about barely 2-3 decades ago. Nowadays, who uses travel agencies anymore when you have sites like Expedia that do all the work in a fraction of a second? Back on the subject of kids, I'm not saying that these kids need to be slapped or anything, but a lot little less spoiling is a good start and that probably starts at home. One thing for sure, shifting the blame from student to teacher is definitely the wrong way to go. And sometimes, doing the right stuff will prep the kids and put them on the right track. A colleague of mine tells me that the first thing that they teach kids in kindergarten is that parents cannot hurt you in anyway. If they do, you can call the police and your parents will go behind bars. The kids go back to their parents and tell that in their face and the parents are scared and defenseless. My colleague enrolls his kids to take martial arts classes such as karate and the first thing these guys teach them is to respect their parents. On top of that, the kids learn not to use their self-defense skills on each other because they are lethal. They learn to use these skills sporadically and only when their lives are threatened. When I was younger, my mom would use a wooden stick to slap my butt and I would get a couple of slaps with it depending on the severity of my actions. Today, I tell wrestlers not to slap my butt because I had my fair share already. I still have somewhat some form of trauma about it, but I felt that it somewhat shaped me and oriented me in the right direction. Then again, I'm not saying this is right either, there's something in the middle that is just right. You can't be too harsh with your kids, nor too easy. Anyway, I just felt like ranting and mind you, this shouldn't be a thing I would ever need to worry about because I wouldn't want to have kids. I'd be a terrible daddy: always wandering off wrestling too many guys. I'd be to blame if my kids misbehave. | ||||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 177 | ||||||||||||||||
| 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 | ||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday June 7 2016 - Clash XX: Atlanta Clash of the Titans 2016! | Wrestling event | |||||||||||||||
| Wow.. I don't really know where to start, but I can say that the Atlanta Clash of the Titans (Clash XX) was the best event I have ever attended. My travel dates were between Wednesday June 1st 2016 and Monday June 6th 2016. The official Clash dates were from Thursday June 2nd to Sunday June 5th 2016. I made sure this time around to come one day earlier to leave enough time for me to recover from headaches I get from flights. I took a direct flight this time from Montreal to Atlanta, because I still remember my previous experience where I took a layover in Toronto before reaching Atlanta and that was just a pain in the a**. This is my 2nd time at the Clash (Clash 20 [2016]), my first Clash being 3 years ago (Clash 17 [2013]). Wednesday June 1st 2016: Flight from Montreal to Atlanta I got lucky this time again. US Customs was pretty straightforward. US Customs Officer: "Where are you going?" Me: "To Atlanta" US Customs Officer: "What for?" Me: "To attend a wrestling event." US Customs Officer: "You wrestle?" Me: "Yes, I do." US Customs Officer: "You're getting paid for this?" Me: "No, sir. I do it just for fun." US Customs Officer: "Have a good trip." Me: "Thank you, sir." These officers have seen so many travelers now and they are trained to tell when you lie or try to hide something, so now I just tell them straight down that I'm about to wrestle and they just let me go through pretty fast. After an uneventful flight, I took my rental car, placed my old Garmin GPS and drove to the Springhill Suites from Mariott in Lithia Springs. Mind you, the last time I drove a car was exactly 3 years ago for Clash 17. I settled down, had a shower, took a little bit of rest before tackling Kyo1989 (id 6980). Yeah... the event doesn't start until tomorrow so I decided to chip in a few local hotel matches. Kyo1989 is a wrestler with good submission skills. Warming up before the days to come is a good idea so a nice and friendly wrestling session was just what I needed. We did end up talking about anime and manga for quite a while after and then I headed to sleep in preparation for the first day of the Clash. Thursday June 2nd 2016: Setup and open ring THURSDAY JUNE 2 12:00 PM - SET UP (HELP APPRECIATED) 05:00 PM - OPEN RING AND MATS 11:00 PM - VENUE CLOSED I came to the venue I believe around 2 pm. I saw the Cut2MeDesigns sponsor and the very cute Larry. He was at his booth explaining the things he was designing and ready to lend an ear for any special and custom orders you'd want to come up with. The warehouse for the venue had this time around a LOT more prop than 3 years ago. I was kinda worried because I was wondering where everybody would stand and where the mats and the ring would be. Since there was nobody else around, I've decided to head back to my hotel. I picked up my messages and saw that AKRob arrived at his hotel which was only 5 minutes down the road (Quality Inn in Lithia Springs). Yep.. we had a brief hotel match which involved gut punching. I headed back to the warehouse I think around 6 or 7 pm and there was now a lot of people.. but everyone was still waiting.. the mats and the ring has not arrived yet. 30 minutes later, the first shipment came. I went down to the unloading area and I saw BuddySTL and BearLord. I actually did not recognize BuddySTL. Like many, when you see people in real life, they don't look the same as in their pictures.. in fact, BuddySTL is much more handsome in person than in his pictures. As he unloaded the mats, he shouted "Where are my hugs?" Hell yeah, I gave him a nice warm hug and then he recognized a friend beside me whom he promptly picked up in a huge lifted bearhug! I thought to myself: Oh... I guess I am not worthy of your bearhug. The reason why i didn't recognize BuddySTL was because I didn't recall seeing his ring name on the Atlanta Clash of the Titans blog so I wasn't expecting him to be at the event. Also to be noted that wrestlers attending the event occasionally use a ring name or pseudonym that is different from their online handle from Meetfighters or Global. Anyway, BuddySTL and Bearlord brought in 2 sets of mats. The first set was a thick blue and beige type of material where it was soft and safe enough to wrestle on. He donated those to the Clash so those would stay at the warehouse. (That was very generous of him!) The second set of mats were real black wrestling mats with a couple of yellow circles that delimited the edge. I guess these circles are mostly used in freestyle. A few moments later, a pickup truck arrived and you'd see three guys from Armstrong Pro Wrestling Tours unload all the material to build a 16x16 feet wide pro wrestling ring. It's amazing. If you've never seen a ring been built from scratch, then this will blow your mind away. Many wrestlers helped with the setup. After the base was setup, the three guys took care of the cables circling the ring, the corner posts and the other necessary attachments and adjustments that were needed to make the ring stable and resilient to impacts. They tested the ropes and landed on their backs several times. The bigger one of them was actually wearing pro wrestling boots and wow.. I would do anything to wrestle him, but that's fine, we had many wrestlers here at the venue that were more handsome than him. Once the ring was setup, all the wrestlers would just stand there and talk. What was going on?? I guess everybody was intimiated. Nobody wanted to be the first to climb into the ring. After a while, I've decided to put on my wrestling boots, knee pad, my blue wrestling trunks and my black wristbands. I was on a tight schedule! 8:30 pm was my limit because I had to pick up RickSF (id 8839) and Roodle0p (Also known as Lodiwrestler) at the airport. They were my hotel roommates for the remaining duration of the event. I think it was 7:30 pm so I had only one hour available to wrestle. Since nobody wanted to be among the first to climb up and you need two to tango, I've decided to pick up Harley, who is the co-host of the event. We took it easy, we exchanged a few holds and then I picked him up in an Torture Rack with Airplane Spin... ha ha ha. Harley wasn't expecting that so that was actually pretty mean from my end. It didn't take long before Steve (no, sorry, he doesn't appear to have any online wrestling profile at the time being) went on the ring. He had this nice hairy chest and yellow speedos and despite telling me he was a jobber, he'd kept heeling me because he didn't want to be racked... so I ended up using the Fireman's Carry with Airplane Spin instead on him. 5 minutes later, H2oWrestler (or FitWrestlerAbs on MeetFighters) and LSPowerhouse were in the ring too, all geared up! My encounter with them was brief because I had to scurry out. I think H2oWrestler had enough time to put on me the Tree of Woe. I lost balance on the ropes at one point and I couldn't stop laughing... I was actually afraid of falling. LSpowerhouse was looking at me when I attempted to run away because he was expecting me to tag out to dish some damage on Steve. Before long, it was already 8:30 pm. Just before I left, I gave a quick rack to Kevin_Patrick on the mats. I was really sad to head out, but I couldn't just leave my roommates at the airport. (I think I racked H2oWrestler too while I was in the ring, but this is where my memories are already starting to fade). Friday June 3rd 2016: Open ring/mats and First round of pro tournaments FRIDAY JUNE 3 12:00 PM - OPEN RING AND MATS 07:00 PM - PRO SEMINAR 07:00 PM - DEADLINE FOR ENTRANCE IN TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT(8 TEAMS ONLY) 08:00 PM - ROUND ONE MATCHES TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT 09:30 PM - OPEN RING AND MATS 11:00 PM - VENUE CLOSED Before heading back to the venue, I had a hotel match involving play wrestling, submission and 2 versus 1 with RickSF (id 8839) and Roodle0p. That already tired me out... lol. We then showered again and headed back towards the venue, not before first picking up AKRob and SactoWrestler along the way. 5 people was the maximum capactity of the Nissan Sentra car I rented. At 12:30 PM, the ring was already in use, so I started with sub matches on the wrestling mats. ChicagoPiledriver was waiting for me and in the first few seconds, he reminded me how tough a wrestler he is. Well.. he does have a weight advantange on me, but on top of that he has amazing technical skills. The only thing I can pull off on this guy is that ankle lock that everybody hates... and even there, it would take me three tries before pulling out a single one successfully for a tap. I also managed to do a bit of sub with Roodle0p and then I was back on the ring. I believe there was three different matches recordings between me and JackBouvier, Destroyer (id 2190) and Heel4You (id 10871). That being said, Heel4You (id 10871) already posted his match with me on YouTube: I have to admit that I just want to give an ankle lock to whoever who was filming this. Videos should always be recorded horizontally instead of vertically!!! Here's the one against the Destroyer (id 2190): The hilarious part on that video is around 2:30. I was doing a Fireman's Carry with Airplane Spin, but I was spinning so fast that I got dizzy and I lost balance... almost dropping The Destroyer. When I finally laid him down, I was still so confused and woozy that I had to stay on the ground for a little while. Silly me! I'm not sure if JackBouvier is willing to share his video. I'll have to get in touch with him. I don't remember when this moment occurred, but I'll just put it here for now. I saw a match between LSPowerhouse and Rough House Rodrigo. A beer bottle was used and shattered in pieces! At that moment, I panicked. I told myself: WTF!??!?! What is going on here? Has the wrestlers here become crazy or insane? Will there be blood? It took me about a full of minute to realize that the beer bottle was a prop. A 20$ empty beer bottle usually in sale to use as a fake during wrestling. An illusion :) It really got me good. When this bottle shatters, the small pieces caused by the hit of this prop do not hurt, they are not sharp, they look like glass, but they are harmless. Phew. What really made it even scarier was that Rodrigo sold the hit very well: he dropped dead on the mats and layed unconscious for 2 minutes... he of course, pretended to be unconscious. Thank goodness. The youngest wrestler attending the Clash was J [I've truncated his name to preserve his identity, he was very secretive about it] (He's 23 years old from California), a first time attendee at the Clash. (J also doesn't have any online wrestling profiles, he deleted them all because he doesn't really like hotel matches). Like many first attendees, J stood there sitting down watching people, but then he asked me if I could show him a couple of pro moves on the ring. Heck, I don't consider myself a pro expert, I just follow what others have shown me, so I've decided to show him some of the basics, but the thing is that this kid already knew pretty much everything and we would see more about it later. Anything he had missed, he would learn very fast and show his new skill with style! If I recall, I didn't even see J on the roster of the Clash Blog. You can actually ask the organizers not to put your ring name/first name/photo on the blog, so I assume he did exactly that. That being said, I had a discussion with Harley later on that there is a difficulty of attracting younger wrestlers to the event because most young wrestlers don't want their identity (even if it is a pseudonym only) to be shown and because they believe that the event is only attended by older wrestlers. This is exactly why Kyo1989 (id 6980) didn't attend the Clash. He didn't know that either J or Roodle0p was attending the event. It's sort of a vicious circle. At one point, I don't remember anymore if it was before supper or after supper, but BuddySTL put me up in a rack for a full minute!
I was in awe.. I was in ecstasy! Was it supposed to hurt? Of course not! The rack is designed to be spectacular, but if you don't bend, then it's as if you're lying comfortably on a bed. A move that is this fun is not painful for me! At this point, I still didn't know who was really racking me. I still couldn't connect the dots to tie him to his wrestling profile. I only knew him by his first name, but I had no idea who he really was. Around 5-6 PM, AKRob, RickSF, J, Roodle0p and I headed out to grab a bite because everyone was hungry. When we got back about an hour later, I saw Edinchattanooga (id 2616) arrive so I switched back to sub and had a bit of fun on the mats that were at the back of the warehouse. I'd call this the private mats because most of the wrestlers were near the ring close to the unloading bay, which leaves a bit more intimacy to those who were at the back of the warehouse. I was later able to do a bit of sub with Rough House Rodrigo, but I guess I was really no match for him because as soon as he was able to get behind me to put a sleeper, he didn't even bother putting it on me. I thought to myself: Well... I guess you didn't even need to apply the sleeper to show that you won ;) Instead, Rodrigo suggested that we climbed into the ring to do pro instead, but it was already 7 PM... yes already! We could no longer use the ring. BuddySTL climbed into the ring. Yes, he was the teacher/presenter for the Pro Seminar. He was the expert! The thing I remember the most from the seminar is to let the jobbers sell the moves for you. And when you sell, you need to show your face with the pain rather than bending down and hiding it... so, face up instead of face down. Pro wrestling is about giving the illusion that the hold or the maneuver is painful and real. BuddySTL actually went into a lot more stuff, but I couldn't stop admiring this cute wrestler... so yes, I really got distracted. Out of a one hour seminar, it's the only three things I could remember. 7 PM was also the deadline for pro tag team tournament registration, so Steve approached me to ask me if I can be his tag team partner. I told him that we should probably encourage J and Roodle0p to do tag team with us so they can actively be part of the event and use the ring. I manage to convince Roodle0p to join in while Steve convinced J to do a tag team with him. This year, I also convinced myself to register for the sub tournament and the single pro tournament.. but still not the Battle Royale. Both our teams got eliminated on the first round between 8 PM and 9 PM, but that's fine, I think both J and Roodle0p were tired anyway. When it was J and Steve's turn on the ring, J showed how agile, cunning, fast he was. He definitely was the shining star on the ring! Everybody loved him. He was amazing! Roodle0p and I were put up against JackBouvier and the Destroyer (id 2190). Roodle0p and JackBouvier started the match with a later a tag switch to the Destroyer. Roodle0p tagged me in and then I jobbered from there. Destroyer finished me off with a piledriver and that was the end of it. Both JackBouvier and The Destroyer moved on to the 2nd round and eliminated us. Hey... all official pro matches at the Clash are scripted anyway (you decide of the script) and it's decided in advance who will lose and who will move forward. Considering that I already hogged the ring for a lot of time, it was a good thing we lost. This gives the chance for other wrestlers to shine by being part of the tournament and those that move forward will have more ring time. At one point, BuddySTL mounted on the ring to do his tag team pro match and this is where I finally realized that he was THE legendary BuddySTL. How did I finally realize that??? He was wearing a singlet with "BuddySTL" written on it. Yes, you really have to put it out there, right in front of my face, so that I can get it. All this time! All this time I didn't realize that until now! That meant that I have been racked earlier by BuddySTL! It's like a dream come true! I've always wanted to wrestle this guy! If you actually check out his profile on MeetFighters, it's actually quite intimidating. He's a trained pro wrestler and worked for pro indies for 7 years! This guy is serious. We do wrestling just for fun, but this guy does it for real! He goes through the stress, the tension and the intensity of the fight, gets the cheers and the boos from a real crowd. He sells his holds, makes his opponent look good, plays the really bad guy gimmick and probably has to go on with the show and continue wrestling if he ever injures himself accidentally in the ring. On top of that, he's also a very good submission and NHB wrestler. He does mention he won't wrestle jobbers... and considering that my ring name is Loserboy, that pretty much nullifies any chance I have with this guy... but this guy is so nice, he picked me up and racked me for a full minute! It's incredible the image you make of someone when you look at their profile. I always thought of him as someone untouchable that could care less for the jobber/chaser type like me. Deep down, BuddySTL is a kind-hearted guy, a teddy bear, an absolutely amazing person. More on that later... After the first round of the tournament, everybody was tired so it was time to get back, but we had to stay a little bit longer: there was the Battle of the Pink (a 3-way match) and a grudge battle between Rough House Rodrigo and El Toro Blanco (El Toro won!). After that, I think it was 10 pm, so I missed one hour of open ring/mats but it would be unfair for me to make 4 other people wait just so that I can have more ring/mats time. Besides, tomorrow (Saturday) would be the day of all the tournaments (single pro, continuation of tag team pro matches, all sub tournaments plus battle royale), so it's a good idea to rest up. Saturday June 4th 2016: All tournaments SATURDAY JUNE 4 10:00 AM - CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST 11:00 AM - DEADLINE FOR ENTRANCE IN PRO TOURNAMENT 11:00 AM - SUB TOURNAMENT WEIGH INS AND SUB SEMINAR 12:00 PM - SUB TOURNAMENT PRELIMINARY MATCHES 01:00 PM - PRO TOURNAMENT PRELIMINARY MATCHES 02:00 PM - TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT ROUND TWO MATCHES 02:30 PM - PRO TOURNAMENT PRELIMINARY MATCHES 03:30 PM - SUB TOURNAMENT FINALS 04:00 PM - PRO TOURNAMENT FINALS 05:30 PM - BATTLE ROYAL 07:00 PM - AWARDS DINNER 08:00 PM - OPEN RINGS AND MATS 11:00 PM - VENUE CLOSED AKRob, J, SactoWrestler and I arrived with one car while RickSF, Roodle0p, Wrestlg (id 4402) arrived with another car. I had already weighed-in at 11 AM to enter the sub tournament. The scale calculated 152 lbs for me... my stomach must have been empty because I usually carry 3-5 lbs of food which would have driven my weight up to 157 lbs. Wrestlg and RickSF weighed-in near noon, but they were still in time to make it for the tournament. Harley, RickSF, Wrestlg and I were all part of the lightweight division and I was put up against Harley. Before the sub matches actually start, BuddySTL stepped on the black and yellow wrestling mats. Yep, he was also the expert for the Sub Seminar. Several wrestlers included myself went on the mats as his demoed several techniques. There was one most memorable part for me that actually made me forgot everything that he taught me (yes, I get distracted pretty easily): I was lying down on my back and he was kneeling down on top of me. A few drops of his sweat fell on me while he was teaching, so he interrupted himself and told me: BuddySTL: "Sorry, I'm trying not to sweat on you." I instinctively replied: Loserboy: "Oh, you can sweat on me as much as you want." At this point, BuddySTL stopped. He bended down and kissed my forehead.  He just made the bear chaser in me extremely happy. Despite the distraction, I did remember that BuddySTL taught us how to break an opponent away from a turtle defensive mode. You put your head on your opponent's side you grab one arm and one leg and push forward. It's pretty effective. Noon ticked and my sub match was up: Harley and I locked in and we started to tangle. Harley was on top of me for most of the match until I was able to hold him with my body scissors while holding his arms to prevent him from breaking it. I was lucky here, body scissors were Harley's weakness and I was able to win this first round. Next up, I saw RickSF (id 8839) and Wrestlg (id 4402) go at it and this is where I knew that I would lose if I was put up against Wrestlg. Wrestlg had the upper hand for the entire fight. He was technical, he was aggressive, he was so good. He is up there at a much higher level than any of us. In fact, watching Wrestlg fight so well made me looked like a beginner. o_O Soon or later, RickSF lost the fight and I was now really put up against Wrestlg. Yes, he completely dominated the fight, he locked me one hold after hold, but despite that, even when some of his holds were nasty, he was being very careful and never did he harm me in any way. The moves were just uncomfortable, but never left any long term pain. He was just trying to wear me out.. after 5 minutes, I realized that I was just spending all my energy in this one match and there was nothing I could do to budge Wrestlg. He was way too overpowered for me. His strength and stamina surpassed mine and he could continue to torture me until I would be completely out.... I tapped. Wrestlg became the winner of the lightweight division. Wrestlg comforted me by telling me that I was a tough opponent, that I was really resistant, that I got something going on with my ankle lock, but that he didn't want to lose his pride. I won't go into details on the other sub matches and pro matches because I could go for very long. There was apparently more than of 250 pro and sub matches (both tournament and non-tournament) combined and so many of them were amazing. If I could detail them, this summary would become a novel.... actually, it may already be the case just with my matches alone I actually missed watching most of the single pro matches of the first round because I was busy discussing with H2oWrestler, J and Mighty Mongo (id 2645) about the turnout for our match. Yes, that was our single pro tournament match. It's actually a 3 vs 1 handicap match.. and can you guess against whom? Who else than the Mighty Mongo!!! Yep, H2oWrestler, J and I were pitted against the Mighty Mongo! That's awesome! Mighty Mongo was always a guy that I also wanted to wrestle and I was given that exact opportunity! You should see this guy in person, he is soooo nice, charming, sociable... you just want to cuddle him! We all threw in our ideas and at one point it was so messy, there were so many details to remember. When our match was up, I had butterflies in my stomach. The more details you try to cram into a predefined match, the more stress it adds and the more you'll forget about all the details. My match with Roodle0p was pretty straightforward, very few details, easy to remember: hence, no stress. This match was the completely opposite... but it went... uh... relatively well. J went inside the ring, ready to face the Mighty Mongo while H2oWrestler and I waited outside waiting for him to tag us. J tries to use his speed against the Mighty Mongo and eventually does a sideway jump but nothing can move the  Invincible Mighty Mongo! J is eventually caught up in a bearhug, but since the Mighty Mongo is so nice and forgiving, he releases J and J tags me in. I go in, try to do a clothesline but that obviously does nothing to the Mighty Mongo. I do a couple of high kicks to his chest, then throw in a few laughable gut punches and he pushes me back and I sell it by flipping backwards on to my back then on my stomach as a way to demonstrate his superior strength. This guy is too strong for me! Both J and H2oWrestler try to cheer me up: J: "Beat him up, Loserboy!" H2oWrestler: "You can do it, Loserboy!" ... Loserboy: "I... I can't! He's too strong for me!" I tag for H2oWrestler to take my spot. H2oWrestler doesn't have any better success than us so it was time for us to cheat. This is where everything... everything... became chaotic. StumpyStew (id 6633) was actually the referree for our match and we completely ignored him. At one point, I gave him an elbow thinking that it would give us more time to do illegal kicks on the Mighty Mongo, but StumpyStew got back up pretty fast. I'm surprised he never disqualified us considering that my move was pretty illegal. Who attacks an official, a ref right from the front? I suppose you need to attack from the back if you're planning to do anything illegal so that the ref doesn't know who attacked him... but in the heat of the match, you don't think about these details! We were supposed to set MightyMongo to be on his back so that we can do our successive pins, but MightyMongo was setting himself on his front so we would do dual boston crabs. We were thinking differently from what the MightyMongo was thinking because we had too many things planned. Eventually, MightyMongo picked it up and rolled on his back instead of his front so that we could do our pins. The pins were push up pin. J would pin, Mongo pushes him out. I'd pin, Mongo would push me out. H2owrestler pins, Mongo pushes him out and we would repeat this cycle 2 more times. We then rolled Mongo on his stomach where J and I applied a boston crab on him each by grabbing a leg, while StumpyStew tried to make us release it because we were still 3 in the ring trying to defeat the Mighty Mongo. His strength is so outmatched that he flipped both J and I and we both do a synchronized rollover... although I have no idea how synchronized that was...
To end this chaos, Mongo grabbed H2owrestler and pushed him into the corner post. J and I tried to combine our strength by each doing a clothesline on Mongo, but Mongo steps back, so this caused J and I to slam into each other and be dizzy. This was his final cue. MightyMongo picked up the both of us in his finisher: The Double Bearhug and he got himself a Double Submission! Mongo wins his first single pro tournament and moves on the next round while all 3 of us got eliminated. Wow! See why you need to keep things simple? lolI don't think anyone recorded this match.. and this was because J didn't want his face on the internet. I later learned that he didn't mind being recorded as long as the match is not released on the internet... oh well. At least now, all my official matches are done so I can rest for the remainder of the day by watching the remaining pro and sub matches (semi-finals and finals) and wait until the open ring and mats at 8 pm. On his end, Mighty Mongo went all the way to the final and won the single pro tournament. Yes, I get to see this strong and undefeated ox battle his way and tear apart each and every opponent he is put up against. I'm pretty sure Mighty Mongo took his name in context of the movie Blazing Saddles. I watched it as a kid and I couldn't stop laughing. I saw Slater Jackson (id 2707) and Buzz Jackson do their tournament tag team match. I promptly chased after Slater Jackson asking him for ring time, but he was a bit injured. I was bummed out. :( But then I decided to run and grab Buzz Jackson instead and actually convinced him to put a rack on him! Wooot!
I actually took a little risk here. Buzz Jackson was never in a rack before and he weighed 215 lbs. I usually kneel down when racking anyone weighing more than 200 lbs. I took the risk since an excess of 15 lbs didn't seem that bad, so I stood up anyway but I almost lost balance when I spun him around. Factor in that it was Buzz's first rack, I still should have been a bit more careful. I also managed to take a side-by-side shot with him, something I've been shy to ask for so far, but Buzz is a pretty cool guy.
Slater Jackson and Buzz Jackson are really amazing. They were known as the Full Service tag team. They had someone play their entrance theme on a big boombox and as they walked towards the ring, they had a giant notepad and a giant pencil and they started taking down the food orders of the crowd before making their final entrance towards the ring. Heck! We definitely need more stuff like this! It adds to the spirit and ambiance of the match! It makes it look like those real pro shows or your Saturday night wrestling on TV! But can you imagine how much equipment this requires? These guys were wearing white and red t-shirts with "Full Service" on it. These are custom designs! About half an hour later of tournament pro and sub matches, I was talking to LSPowerhouse after one of his official single pro matches and we discussed that we should wrestle some more, when suddenly, BuddySTL grabbed me into the ring and started teaching me some pro moves. Wow... I couldn't believe it: a 1-on-1 with BuddySTL!! I finally took the courage to ask him if I can rack him too. He didn't want to let me initially so I told him that I would kneel down to do it... a standing up rack would obviously kill me, but kneeling down, I could support the weight. If BuddySTL teaches sub and pro, and knowing that he did real pro matches in real pro wrestling tours, he knows how to position himself for a torture rack. And indeed, when he stood by my side and bent over, he positioned himself perfectly for the move. I was able to rack him... The number is somewhere between 280 and 300 lbs, and he was just great on my shoulders so I yelled out: - "SOMEBODY PLEASE TAKE A PICTURE!" Major Disaster was standing right in front. He took out his phone and took several shots!
Woohoo! I was really happy that I could rack BuddySTL, even happier than that earlier forehead kiss. When I put him back down, I asked him: Loserboy: "I thought you never wrestle jobbers." And he replied with something that will touch me forever. BuddySTL: "I only wrestle guys that are nice and respectful." It shows that the kind-hearted guy that BuddySTL is... a great wrestler trained in both pro and sub that has an amazing heart. He's for me a role model. BuddySTL showed me a couple more moves: we tried to do tougher stuff like the Vertical Suplex but I didn't have enough balance for that so H2oWrestler suggested that he tries the Indian Deathlock. Blackjack McQueen (id 3251) came in and showed it to me instead. Later on, Kieran Dunne (Goldenboy) also jumped into the ring and then I lost track of what happened. All I know was that there was 3 superstars in the ring.... and I got intimidated. Yes, Kieran Dunne was there. Both him and LSPowerHouse have already being performers for BG. I didn't think Kieran would want to talk to me, so I shy-ed away. Later, many wrestlers told me he was very nice to talk to. I left the ring. BuddySTL asked me if I was running away from him and I simply told him that I was taking a rest. I froze. I really did. I should have stayed in the ring, but I was speechless and too much was happening. I was happy, but I didn't know what to say, I didn't know what move to do. It's like when you meet your hero and you were waiting for this hero since your childhood and you finally meet him, but there's nothing cohesive that comes out of your mouth. Now that I think about it... there was so much more I could do.. I could have asked him to show me moves to tackle big opponents. BuddySTL loves to be heeled, he loves to be the jobber. I could asked him to show me other moves that I could pull out on him. When Blackjack McQueen and Kieran Dunne were on the ring, I could have asked to rack them also.... there are so many things I could have done, but I had to get out... I did run after Major Disaster and asked him if he could forward me a copy of the pictures ;) You know what? I still had a good 5-10 minutes in the ring with BuddySTL and I'll keep those memories close to my heart. Speaking of Blackjack McQueen (id 3251), I've always been a big fan of all the matches he posted. Seeing him perform at the Clash and advance through the rankings to reach the championships was mind-blowing! I really liked his style: he'd often yell after the owner or at someone outside the ring. That was the cue for the wrestler opposing him to do a surprise attack to either get the upper-hand in the match or to win the match. Blackjack plays this mean trash talk type of guy that everybody loves to hate, and he does it so well. It's his wrestling persona, his gimmick. It's the guy on TV everybody boos, that gets the upper-hand early in most part of the matches and everybody cheers when he loses in the end. We didn't have time to wrestle (also because I chickened out), but he did came to me and said: - "Next time, you and me, we have a match!" Blackjack is really an awesome guy! I also made this image of him: I thought he was untouchable, but Blackjack is very friendly. Moments later, it was time for the Battle Royale. I desisted again this year. Some thought that the Battle Royale is scripted, but it is not at all. It's each man looking after himself. The tricky part is that the Battle Royale involves both submission and pro styles. The rules were changed to ensure the security of all the wrestlers. If half your body was outside the edge of the ropes of the ring, you were out. A 3-count pin and a submission were also counted as valid ways to take out your opponents. There were three referees around the ring to make sure that everything goes well. I think there were 10 people in the ring and I saw Heel4You (id 10871) mount the ring. Heel4You didn't participate in any tournaments. It's his first time here at the Clash. And he took up the courage to go in the Battle Royale. And on top of that, he finished 2nd!! Okay, you don't get anything if you finish 2nd, but for a first timer, that's still incredibly amazing! Heel4You is a hero and a winner in my book. Even I didn't had the courage to go to the Battle Royale for both my first and second year here at the Clash because I felt that 10 people in the ring is pretty dangerous... but to be honest, everybody on the ring will watch out for each other and everyone will play very safe. The most used move is sort of pushing you to the edge ;) ... and even there, I couldn't find the courage to fight a Battle Royale while Heel4You did it with ease.The meal and awards ceremony came shortly afterwards. Here are the winners of the awards:  Best Jobber: JD Best Heel: Nighthawk Zucchini Award: Steve Best Dressed Wrestler: Slater Jackson Best Referree: Rough House Rodrigo Rookie of the Year: J Sponsors Award: Loserboy Lightweight Sub Champion: Wrestlg Middleweight Sub Champion: El Toro Blanco Heavyweight Sub Champion: Rough House Rodrigo Titan Sub Champion: Chicagopiledriver Final Sub Champion: El Toro Blanco Single Pro Champion: Mighty Mongo Tag Team Pro Champion: Full Service (Slater Jackson and Buzz Jackson) Battle Royale Winner: Sensational Danny Best Match: Chicagopiledriver vs BigChicago Most Improved Wrestler: Edinchattanooga Most Inspirational Wrestler: J Dan Roberts Wrestler of the Year: Blackjack McQueen It was no surprise to me that Blackjack won the Wrestler of the Year though, he really performed extremely well in the ring. You can tell he was experienced and he was the driving force in a lot of the brackets of the official matches for both pro single and pro tag team. JD, the winner of the biggest jobber, was actually a guy doing submission only. It was the first year they ever gave it to a guy doing submission (The award is usually given to someone doing pro). I actually thought the Zucchini award was given to the wrestler who came to the event and did nothing. Apparently, if you did something stupid or said something stupid, you can get this award too ;) Steve hurt his toe, but he did wrestle quite a bit before doing so. I was very glad to see J get the Rookie of the Year and Most Inspirational Wrestler awards. It was epic! J's performance in the ring was also outstanding and he really deserves both these awards. I loved it that the Full Service tag team, who actually look like a jobber team, managed to get the Tag Team Champion award! I had no idea that winners of the respective submission divisions battle each other. Imagine if a lightweight wins against a middleweight and a heavyweight wins against a Titan. The Lightweight would be caught wrestling the Titan. I'm wondering if this ever happened. The Monica Lewinsky award was no longer there. Joe explained to me that on one particular year, the wrestler who received this award got his feelings hurt... Since then, they no longer gave it because the point of this event is not to hurt people's feelings. Joe asked me if I was this person who got his feelings hurt, but I told him no. When I received it three years ago, it was kind of a compliment and I knew it was also a little joke just like the Zucchini award. For those who does not know, the Monica Lewinsky award is actually given to the wrestler who sleeps with the most wrestlers. I wrote "sleeps" in italic because it doesn't really matter what you do with them. If you were simply sharing the hotel room with different wrestlers every different day, then I'm sure you would also be entitled or qualified for this award. It's just for fun, really. The Sponsors Award was given to me and I was really speechless... They mentioned that it was given to the wrestler that helps sets up things for the event and that helps people get into the ring and mats. *blush* Honestly... I didn't think I helped that much.. but I did bring as many people as I could on the ring. The other perk with this award is that they would cover the registration fee for the following year. Honestly, I would still want to pay for my registration fee even if they paid it for me, just so that it's fair and equal to everyone. It takes a lot of money to run something like this. Renting a ring is not cheap. Ordering all the food and drinks to keep the wrestlers dehydrated and energized is costly. Organizing this event requires a lot of moolah. Also, at this point, the registration fee is very small compared to the costs of flight, rental car and lodging. This does leave me in a bind because I want to keep 1 year out of 2 for my personal leisure travels (in other words, wrestling), and 1 year for my family. This award kind of pushes me to come back next year rather than waiting for 2-3 years. All I can say for now is that I'll do my best to return next year. It's too early anyway to plan anything for Clash 21. Seriously though, with everything that has happened so far.. I really really REALLY want to come back next year! More-so for the Clash than for the Wrestlefest! I'm actually spending the best times of my life right here at the Clash, meeting great and amazing wrestlers! Joe mentioned that there was a total of 15 new Clashers (wrestlers) this year and each and every one of those clashers did an amazing job at the event. While most new Clashers usually stay behind and watch, the new Clashers this year actively participated in the event and performed amazingly well in the ring and on the mats. After all of this, it was now 8 pm and it was open ring/mats time. I had more open ring time with Heel4You and H2oWrestler. I also managed to get a rack on BearLord! Man, this guy is also very nice and.. very cute. The cutest bear at the event was definitely BearLord and the cutest cub was Buzz Jackson. Where does BuddySTL go? Well, he is the cutest wrestler :) I had almost missed wrestling LSPowerHouse (id 4337), but I finally managed to convince him to stay at the venue a tad longer and he went on and wrestled me, J and Heel4You. It was all caught on video, but I have to check with him if he wants it released or not. LSPowerHouse was pretty funny when I got him into my Torture Rack with Airplane Spin. While he was on my shoulders, I started spinning him counter-clockwise so he told me: - "The other way." I spun his clockwise and he instructed: - "Not too fast." And after a few rotations: - "Ok, you can drop me now." But you know what? That's exactly the type of communication you need to give to your opponents in a pro match :) And honestly, nobody outside the ring will hear what your opponent is telling you. I had a brief talk with Wrestlg who wanted to teach how to tie up my boots. He was able to determine the type and brand of the pairs I was wearing. It really shows he really loves wrestling boots. We came to the conclusion that the laces on my red/black boots are too long and I will need to get shorter ones in order to properly tie them up.I left the venue around 9 pm because RickSF, J and Roodle0p were tired and waiting and it's again unfair for me to make them wait. Before I left, I saw Rough House Rodrigo... we were supposed to do our pro match :( I felt so bad. I asked him if he would stay tomorrow, but no, like many wrestlers, most of them leave Saturday night or Sunday morning where they need to catch a flight back to their state. Sunday June 5th 2016: Open ring and mats SUNDAY JUNE 5 11:00 AM - OPEN RING AND MATS 04:00 PM - TAKE DOWN VENUE (HELP APPRECIATED) We arrived at the venue pretty early and Harley has arrived yet to open the door, so we went for Starbucks. When we got back around 11:30 AM, I was quite surprised: 3 years ago, there was only 4 people remaining: Joe, Harley, me and The Punisher. This year, there was at least ~15 wrestlers still present: Mighty Mongo, Joe, Harley, J, RickSF, Roodle0p, Kevin_Patrick, TampaChaser, BigChicago, Timnbama, BarrioBruiser, Major_Disaster, H2oWrestler, RasslorBear and at least 2-3 more people that I don't remember their ring handles or usernames. I briefly saw BuddySTL who carried me back and forth in a football tackle. Bearlord and him took the black/yellow mats away and were heading back home. Both thanked me for racking them. Uh.. I'd certainly do it again anytime. RickSF, J, Roodle0p and I decided to take the ring and do a tag team match. It was very fun and also... pretty hillarious. BarrioBruiser was the referee for our match and he was amazing. This match was actually recorded but cannot be shared. At least I have J now to look back in the future. Roodle0p actually tried to pin me while I was on my stomach, so a few wrestlers who gathered around the ring started laughing, but I actually did this rookie mistake several times in my early pro days. Joe actually named our tag team match the "Comedy match". I finally was able to wrestle BarrioBruiser (id 811)! It was a short match, but excellent match. Barrio is definitely a veteran wrestler that knows how to heel and how to lead. I was able to make a few pics with RickSF (id 8839) (my hotelmate from the Clash):
And I also got some pretty good ones with Edinchattanooga (id 2616). These turn out pretty well. You can see me servicing Edin... I'm actually just putting on his gloves:
He then rewards me with a headlock:
And this is how you say hello and goodbye in wrestling jargon: (Just kidding...)
I think Edin lost weight, because he was much easier to lift this time around... You can actually tell the difference by looking at the picture where I racked him 3 years ago. Yes, I know, I've been doing a lot of racks this event. My bearhugs suck anyway and if I was in an alternate reality or in a different life, this website would probably have been called the "Torture Rack Submission Page" instead of the "Bearhug Submission Page". Anyway, I also got ring time with Major Disaster and got a short recording. I'm also in the process of seeing if I can get that video and if it can be shared or not. Major Disaster could ask me for anything and I would do it. He was twice my photographer, so I am eternally grateful for that!!! In the following picture, you can see Major Disaster in control of the match with a powerful chinlock!
I actually learned later that this guy prefer to be jobbed. I'll need to work on my heel game next time. H2oWrestler took the opportunity to experiment a few holds on me. I think we were aiming for the suspended surfboard with this one. Unfortunately, we were never able to pull it off since I am not that flexible.
As you can see, the Sunday of the Clash is the best day to take pictures. With many people already gone, the remaining wrestlers are less shy, they'll embark on the ring, they'll try out new stuff and they're no longer afraid to bring up their camera. Same thing for 3 years ago: This picture was taken on the Sunday of the Clash 3 years ago. Nearing 1 pm, I was able to get a short match with TampaChaser, a very sweet, cute and buffed guy. TampaChaser actually went on the ring to ask me to wrestle him, because I was too shy to ask him. I wasn't so sure if he was interested in wrestling me. When I later read TampaChaser's profile, I realized that he will wrestle all sizes and skill levels. Once again, I made a bad assumption by associating an incorrect preference type for each of the wrestlers here. Everyone here is nice. The other problem is that he registered under Razor Raul so I couldn't connect his ring or first name with his wrestling profile. In other words, I didn't know Razor Raul was TampaChaser. SactoWrestler was still intimidated by the ring, so all we were able to exchange are a few bearhugs. He applied on me 2 x 3 x 360 degrees bearhugs. So, each bearhug of his does a 1,080 degrees rotation. I believe I also had a very small time in the ring with Harley again to try out a few pro moves. Harley is really a sweet guy. We took our pro very slowly and chilled out. I think we were practicing some sort of rollover slam that is usually performed when your opponent is down on the mats and facing up. I asked the winner of the Biggest Jobber JD to wrestle me on the sub mats, but he was tired out. :( He's a very cute guy... and he had a weight advantage on me so he would probably have been able to beat me ;) RasslorBear was also there, but we were both too shy to talk to each other. We then realized much later that we would have each wanted to wrestle each other. Now, I just missed there 2 opportunities. You turn left and right, and it's already 2 pm.. I had to leave. I made the big mistake I could ever do for the entire event. Had I knew that there would be so many wrestlers remaining on sunday, I would have scheduled nothing inside the timeline of the Clash Event (11 am - 4 pm). However, I had scheduled a motel match at 2 pm near the airport with Jobber_Squash and I had to leave now to make it in time. I left behind 15 great wrestlers to meet up one wrestler. Mind you, Jobber Squash also traveled all the way from Florida to have a match with me. He mentioned to me that he is a big fan of my site and he's the one who told me that I had the best racks in the wrestling underground ;) I also realized on my way out that Timnbama was in the ring taking pictures with Big Chicago (id 4201) while Mighty Mongo was the photographer. Had I stayed, I probably could have taken pictures with those three wrestlers and probably others as well. Timnbama actually was busy for the whole event and mentioned to me the day before that he only had 10 minutes of wrestling... until now. There was so much more I could do between 2 pm and 4 pm... but you know what... this will just help me come back for a 3rd year to make up for this. After leaving the venue, encountering some traffic and finally arriving at the hotel near the airport, Jobber Squash and I exchanged a couple of body scissors, bearhugs and racks. After that session, I then rejoined RickSF, Roodle0p and BarrioBruiser later to eat in downtown Atlanta and we were given a tour by ATLwrestler of a park named "Pee-In-My-Park". I was wondering a moment why people in Atlanta gave such strange, but hilarious names for their parks. A sign in front of the park then made me realize that the name of the park is actually: "Piedmont Park". I had a weird case of hearing and dyslexia reading because I also saw a sign that said "Orange City" but read "Orange Orgy". Either I'm tired or my mind is dirty. Monday June 6th 2016: Flight back to Montreal My flight was only at 3 pm, so RickSF, Roodle0p and I were able to schedule a match with ATLwrestler. At one point, we were all piled up and ganged up against Roodle0p. It was pretty fun. Nothing like a last hotel match before leaving Atlanta. I left at noon, picked up SactoWrestler at 12:30 pm, was at the airport at 1 PM to return my rental car. At 2:30 PM, I was in the plane... Temporary scratches/scars I actually received two temporary scars worthy of note during the event. One was on the back of my neck which brings me to tell you guys to please always cut your fingernails when you attend the wrestling event.  If you're doing sub, cutting toe nails is even more important because the amount of kickouts often required in submission. If you're just going to do pro, then the cutting is optional since wrestling boots will cover your feet anyway. The 2nd scratch here is caused by a prop that looked like a beer bottle. Yes, I did say earlier that the prop is harmless, but you still need to aim on the head, not near the eye. Nevertheless, the three little scars there disappeared after about 3 days. At the time of writing this, there are only dots remaining that will completely disappear tomorrow. Interestingly, when I took my shower, some remnants of the bottle fell from my hair and I realized that the fake beer bottle could actually become just very small particles of dust.  Rectification/clarification: I hold no grudges against the wrestlers who caused me this. Accidents happen in the ring, you just need to be cautious about them. Please see Blog ID 129 for additional details on this clarification. Car requirement, location of venue I have to admit that the car requirement is a bit of an obstacle. It's true that you can hitch a ride with someone that already has a car, but I'm more the type of person that doesn't want to bother too many people so I got my own car rental. I certainly don't drive at all back in Montreal (the subway system here is sufficient for me to get from home to work and to family). Since I don't want to take any risks with my inexperience in driving, I took maximum insurance for the car plus I added Roodle0p and RickSF as authorized and designated drivers. The venue is really out in the middle of nowhere so again, if you need to go eat, there's nothing that is of walkable distance so you'll have to drive the car again for 5-10 minutes to go eat. However, the organizers always make sure that you remain dehydrated. They have several coolers that contain a huge amount of bottled water, gatorade and lots of ice. There are also soft drinks on the table, granola bars and chips if you need a quick pit stop to refill your energy. You always see Harvey running around to refill all of the coolers, get more ice and refill food. On Saturday, the organizers even brought in pizza, sandwiches and cake just before the awards ceremony. Wrestlefest vs Clash: Which one to attend? Unlike the fest where you have to manage a schedule and book one person every 2-3 hours, the Clash is the complete opposite. You come there, you mingle and talk with wrestlers and you go up in the ring or down on the mats and you start wrestling. Matches can last anywhere between 5-30 minutes, but you need to stay aware and keep a look around the ring and mats to see if anyone is waiting to use it. I think I hogged and invaded the ring a bit too much this year, but I did check before hand if the ring was empty before hogging it. The other advantage is that if one person doesn't show up, you don't have to scramble to find someone else to fill in a spot. With the Clash, you just pick up a wrestler. 10-15% of wrestlers registered to the Clash usually cancel or never show up, but you can easily find someone else standing there to wrestle you instead or to do tag team matches, 2 vs 1 or even 3 vs 1. .In order to help people rotate the wrestlers using the ring, the organizers held a round-robin match where many wrestlers place themselves around the ring and can tag in/tag out anytime they want. That being said, this is a great opportunity to wrestle multiple wrestlers and get a taste of the type/style of pro wrestling used by each wrestler. The same can be done with the sub matches, but since we had two sets of mats, there was less problems regarding mats availability. Mind you, you can still book motel matches, but you'll quickly learn that you'll have a lot more fun wrestling the guys around at the venue. Why bother setting and messing up a hotel room for wrestling when you have wrestling mats and a wrestling ring? Not to mention that the available space to wrestle is way superior than what you'll get in a hotel. At the fest, I once got two calls from the reception asking us to keep it down. No matter how high you turn up the TV, the maids and the families staying in the adjacent rooms will probably still hear you. At the Clash, you are encouraged to make full use of the ring/mats and wrestle as much as you want and there's nobody in the other warehouses that will tell you to keep it down. If I can only pick a single event next year, I would certainly pick the Clash hands down. It can be a bit of a gamble: what this event was 3 years ago for me is really different this year, it got way way WAY better this year. I think people are now getting used to the change of venue and they are now really enjoying the new space. The lack of air conditioning might be a problem for some wrestlers, but there is a shower in the back that can be used to freshen up. You'd have to remember to bring your own sandals, towel, soap and shampoo. It doesn't take long before you sweat all over again because it gets pretty warm already at this time of the year, but you can always head back to the hotel and rest a bit. The hotels are about a 5-10 minute drive away. One of my friends had to do exactly that: the air was too thick and humid and he needed AC. He left the venue after a couple of hours and regained his hotel to stay cool and away from the heat. Would I do it again for a 3rd year? Yes, definitively. When I hugged Joe and thanked him, he told me not to wait 3 years before coming back. Joe, Harley, Timnbama, StumpyStew, BuddySTL were the real heroes behind the Clash because without them, there wouldn't be one. They are respectively the owner, co-owner and three members of the board. It takes a LOT of time, effort, sweat, preparation and a lot of rough moments to be able to manage an event like this and these guys are able to pull it out every year. Many people complain about various things, many wrestlers take things for granted, but very few people take the time to appreciate and thank these guys for organizing an outstanding event like this one. These guys gather the small underground gay wrestling community and they help us make new friends and they help us carve these memories that will last forever. If you want more information about the clash, visit their website: http://atlclash.blogspot.ca/ Or e-mail the owner: clashevent2016@gmail.com | ||||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 67 x 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday May 31 2016 - Prepping up | Wrestling event | |||||||||||||||
| I'm making final preparations for the Clash. Unlike the Wrestlefest, the Clash has a wrestling ring and a mats setup that is a free-for-all, so it's pretty hard to schedule anything because you never know when it will be used by someone else. It's first come first serve. It's true that you can still do hotel matches, but why bother when there's a ring and lots of space? The amount of attendees has doubled compared to the year I went (3 years ago) so the event should be quite interesting. The year I went, the mats and the wrestling ring were severely underused. So, hopefully this year, by doubling the amount of titans, we'll be seeing a lot more action. | ||||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 66 | ||||||||||||||||
| Saturday April 30 2016 - It's Official! Attending the Clash of the Titans 2016!:) | Wrestling event | |||||||||||||||
| I finished booking my flight, hotel and car rental today. Hence, it's official: I am now attending the Clash of the Titans 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia between June 2nd and June 5th. I'm very excited! I just submitted my registration to Joe and Harvey with this picture below:
And Joe was pretty quick, he edited it and posted it on the blog of the Clash: I took the picture today and a couple more below, but I only sent the one above. I was struggling and wondering if I should try to look a bit more mean...
Personally, I think these trunks are showing a bit too much my bulge... Then again, it'd probably help if I stopped getting excited when I prepare the camera for a photoshoot... | ||||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 61 x 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| Sunday March 13 2016 - Clash maybe? | Wrestling event | |||||||||||||||
I miss the Clash.. I haven't attended it since 2013. This photo brings me back a lot of memories...
Honestly though, I could have taken much much more photos, but I was quite a bit shy... People tell me that once you wrestle in a ring, you don't want to go back to a hotel/motel mattress. It'll be in May 2016 that I can evaluate if I can return to the Clash. The official dates of the Clash are June 2nd to June 5th 2016 so that would give me a month to make the preparations leading up to it.... if I can make it. The Canadian currency is pretty bad right now and I'm currently multiplying by 1.4x (or add +40%) any prices for traveling, food and lodging. On top of that, I need to rent a car for the duration that I'm there since the Clash is in the suburbs where it is impossible to travel anywhere otherwise. The Clash is really worth it though. We'll see... For those interested in knowing more about the event, see Joe and Harvey's Clash of the Titans blog at: http://atlclash.blogspot.ca | ||||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 53 | ||||||||||||||||
| Sunday February 28 2016 - Review: NYC Wrestlefest 2016 | Wrestling event | |||||||||||||||
| I can't believe it's already over. One week of wrestling... All in all, I've decided to cut by half the amount of matches this year. The reason for this is that I need to be careful and I need to be reasonable when thinking of my own potential and stamina. In addition, both EvilDark (id 1077) and WolfJobber (id 8490) were my roommates this year so we had to divide our schedule and sharing access to our hotel room in 3. We arrived on Friday Feb 19 2016, EvilDark and I started setting up the room. WolfJobber later joined us and he had the brilliant idea of putting up the base of the mattresses along with the wooden panels on one side of the room to hold all four single beds together so that the beds cannot move while we wrestle. It was a very nice setup. As with previous year, I also had bed strappers that held the sheets down at each corner. They didn't work all the time, but they were efficient enough to reduce the amount of times we had to reposition the sheets. Our 10 hours train trip exhausted us so we didn't schedule any match on the 19th. I believe the official dates of the fest to be between the 21st and the 23/24th, but many wrestlers come before to take advantage of the week-end. NickZ (id 3023) also usually holds on the saturday (In this year, on the 20th) an open room at his house, but I usually don't attend it because it takes about an hour and a half to get there. I'll need to do a better effort the next time to get there. My first match on Saturday Feb 20 2016 was with Rusnak (id 2653). I was a bit worried at first because he does have a greater weight advantage on me, but he went very easy on me. I'd say we did light sub with him occasionally giving me the upper hand. My 2nd match that day was with Tycoonboy (id 2690). We had a friendly pro match which was very relaxing. I then suggested Tycoonboy to meet later during the week to make pictures since he did mention he is a fan of my match against Be-Bear. I've decided to do a little bit of sightseeing this time around. It's my 5th time in NYC after all, and all the previous times I've visited NYC for the fest, I've only stayed in my hotel room to wrestle... So, EvilDark and I headed down to ground zero and visited the 9/11 Memorial Museum. It was quite a bit depressing, but we needed to see it. Around 8 pm, Wolfjobber and I had a match with SLiMJiM (id 7059) and Smeshy. These were full on competitive match, so we got tired pretty fast and simply started chatting for the rest of the night. We started Sunday Feb 21 2016 with a nice sub and pro match with Smeshy. I managed to get him stay over my room after yesterday's match. Wow.. this guy is just overly handsome. Having missed him 2 years ago, I was more than excited to finally have a rematch! I've got videos this time around, but these will probably remain private. I don't think Smeshy is comfortable with me sharing his face so you'll only see him a bit from the back here.
We were then supposed to me NJMuscGuy1 but he got injured. It's the 2nd time we missed him, but I'm keeping him on my radar since his recommendations do indicate that he is genuine. We moved up WreslBear (id 2181) from his original time slot and we did a couple of competitive matches followed by some give and take. WreslBear quite improved his wrestling skills. I'd say he is the most improved wrestler this year compared to our matches from 2 years ago. I think he lost a bit of weight and it shows that he's been training. This match was really fun. EvilDark really took advantage of this match to use WreslBear as his practice dummy. I don't remember who got who in the next picture, but I think WreslBear is probably the one in the better position. He has his arm around my neck and he is defending himself to prevent me from putting my own headlock around him.
We were supposed to meet RickSF (id 8839), but he had a bit of food poisoning, so he was nice enough to send me MattZ. I still remember wrestling this guy in November 2014 when I was visiting San Francisco... Istill remember he was completely invincible.. and he still is!!! All of my scissors are worth nothing. There wasn't a single hold that can make this guy budge! We spoke about the missed opportunity of taking pictures back in 2014, so we made sure this time to take some shots. MattZ prefers a bit of anonymity though so you won't see his face on this shot.
I started Monday February 22 2016 with a match against NJ_Woodbridge in a light competitive, give and take and jobber/heel mix and match session. NJ_Woodbridge has always been one of my favorite. He is quite passionate and he'll always brighten up the room when he walks in. I still remember him racking me when I walked in a room on my first Wrestlefest. What better way to welcome someone to a wrestling event? Our 2nd match of the day was with Jobberboy (id 482)... and wow, he got beefier and is much more skillful now. The trick with him is to avoid letting him do his sleeper and if you can scissor him, he'll most likely tap. I've mostly let him and EvilDark play around because EvilDark did tell me that Jobberboy is one of his favorite wrestler. I got my time with Jobberboy anyway: here's a shot where Jobberboy is head scissoring me and headlocking me. I definitely love his beard!
I was pretty aggressive because I still remember him cracking my ribs about 3 or 4 years ago when I allowed him to body scissor me while holding me in a reverse headlock... I didn't position myself properly back then. Later on, we finally had our match with RickSF (id 8839). He completely recovered from his food poisoning and wanted to be at 100% before tackling us. RickSF has improved... In fact, everybody this year has improved.. either that, or I lost some power... lol. Both EvilDark and I pushed RickSF into a gut punching and body scissor contest to determine which wrestler is more resistant or which wrestler had better scissors. RickSF is very playful.. and also a very handsome wrestler. Here is a kneeling rack on RickSF.
And here's also RickSF favorite hold. It's some sort of roll-up pin I guess. I actually need to get from him the real term. I believe it's a common hold in freestyle wrestling.
RickSF was so nice.. i commented on his nice San Diego Wrestling sweater with a big yellow bear paw and he ended up giving it to me. Sweeeet! A souvenir! . It really touched me. Exchanging gear is always a good way to remember someone or to leave a personal mark.
For the last half of the evening, I wrestled WrestlingCoachSF (id 4731). He's always a blast. He's aggressive, he's tough.. although both my body scissors and my leg scissors were able to pierce his defenses... if he lets me put those on him, of course. Our upper arm strength started to match this year.. I remember I could barely defend his attack on the arms previously. His techniques are still far superior than mine and I can still learn a lot from WrestlingCoachSF. He was very nice to sport and keep a beard when we met.I am still so shy to ask him if I can take pics... something tells me he might not want to... My pro matches actually started on Tuesday February 23 2016. My morning match was with RingWrestler (id 3709). I was worried I wouldn't "get the pro stuff" enough for him, but he made it very easy. Being more of a heel, RingWrestler threw me in flips and tumbles that were done gracefully without hurting me one bit. Very skillful and very passionate about pro wrestling. This was definitely an enlightening match and a great way to start my first pro match of the fest. Prostud_MI (id 8510) was my next match, also a pro match, but slower paced, so lighter pro. He lost some weight since our last meet so he was much easier to flip in a rack. Very cute stud. Here is him putting a knee backbreaker on me, followed by a standing camel variant.
I was then supposed to have a match with wrestlefan722, but he was quite a bit busy so that did not happen. This was followed by MikeSWUK (id 8896) in a semi-competitive match along with some training. Mike gave us a few tricks to up our wrestling submission skills. It also shows that Mike beefed up and got better also. He was much tougher to beat, but my scissors were still able to make him tap... although he had a couple of submissions on me. It always goes fast with Mike, because he always have lots of wrestling experiences to share. The proof is that I wanted to take pics but time flew so fast as we were talking that I wasn't able to get any pictures The open room was next, but I did a little mistake this year. I hadn't advertised it enough and I had not made it clear that it could be shared with everyone. A total of 10 people were in this room: MikeSWUK, AKRob, WreslBear, Gracie Paul, Scottilla (id 3020), NJ_Woodbridge, Hellcateddy (id 7537), BrownBomber (id 1265), EvilDark and myself. My match with Hellcatedy was a real quickie.. he is so light that he is among the few people that I can rack starting in a kneel down position and be able to stand up without hurting my back. Scottilla was still invincible. He's the only wrestler I have wrestled at almost every wrestling event, including the Clash of the Titans and the previous 4 fests, that I had never once being able to make him tap. He'd always had so much ease making me tap.. but that's what you get from an olympic medalist. He is up there with the elite guys, while I still dawdle forever in the intermediate level.Here's a shot with a rack on BrownBomber... this shot is unusual in the sense that I seem phased off or out of sync... I don't remember what I was thinking. But.. I absolutely love this shot. Kudos to the photographer... hehehe.
There was an 11th person that showed up but I couldn't figure out who this person was... I actually wrestled Gracie Paul at my first or second wrestlefest. I don't think he has a profile, nor does he put his name up for the registration. This makes him virtually invisible and hard to track. He's a very cute guy. In any case, I'll remember next time to give a shout out for my open room and to invite more people. Nevertheless, I don't regret it.. our small open room was fun and I rotated the matches with almost everyone who showed up. Wednesday February 24 2016 started with a match with FantasyFeak (id 4223). Both WolfJobber and I were up against him, and this was more a heel vs jobbers, where both Wolfjobber and I were jobbers. Quite a fun match and it was very nice to see how FantasyFeak easily handles double-teaming and taking control of both his jobbers. Yeah... FantasyFeak is better known as Tim Sheridan from BG East. Yay! I get to wrestle a BG celebrity! Here's a shot where he performs his victorious pin on me. It shows how a great and invincible heel he is. I mean how can I possibly beat a celebrity?
AKRob was my next match. Despite seeing him in the open room, he was too sore from his previous match to be able to grant me a match yesterday. So today, we got into light submission with some give and take. AKRob is a very nice guy and I had so much fun wrestling him! I did cuddle him quite a bit heheheh... and we took the opportunity to do some shots as well. He is very strong and very resistant also. My full nelson and body scissors combo did nothing to him... it seems that more and more people just build an immunity against it. It's only later that I realized that AKRob wanted to be immortalized in the sense of making a match on the site. I need to make a rematch with him to make all the necessary pics for a scenario.
The next match after this was with Jobberboy, WreslBear, RickSF and EvilDark, we were taking turns. I guess this can be called a mini open room. It was pretty fun. EvilDark was in a corner with Jobberboy, I was in a corner with RickSF. EvilDark would trade turns with WreslBear... and there was plenty of space for 2 matches to run concurrently. WarriorJS (id 10934) later showed up and this was my cue for a full on 100% competitive match. After 10 minutes, I think WarriorJS had me 5-0, many of these submission were due to his deadly sleeper hold. I could resist his scissors and he could resist mine, so those were nullified... I rarely ever put sleepers through fear of hurting people. WarriorJS was way up there and was a much better wrestler than I am. I later learned that he could tone it down and he could even do pro...The only hold that would actually work on WarriorJS is a leg scissors on the thigh by using the knees to compress. However, WarriorJS easily avoided that hold by always having the upper hand and by staying on top of me. In fact, the only way I could apply this hold is when he willingly lets me apply it on him. My last match of the day was a short give and take session with WrestleInAstoria. He's a local not registered for the fest, but EvilDark wanted to give him a shot. I mainly traded head scissors and body scissors with him. He could take quite a few. BLarger was our morning match for Thursday February 25 2016, but he had to cancel due to the bad traffic in NYC. I was then supposed to have NickZ and WrestleVA7, but they mixed up the time slot so I squeezed in Grabmnsqwz (id 2569). Light submission, give and take, lots of headscissors and body scissors. This guy is very cute and it's a shame he doesn't put his pic... but like many, not everyone is comfortable in putting their faces on the net. He sports this very nice beard... and yea, everyone knows that I have this weakness with beards... I just melt! I had a wonderful time with him. It was RickSF who introduced me this wrestler and when I saw him for the first time, I told myself, "wow.. cute. I wonder if he'll wrestle me."... Little did I know he was thinking the same thing I ended the day with a rematch with Tycoonboy (id 2690), but this time around, it was to prep up a scenario.. so we took up a lot of shots and I'm thinking this will be probably one of those 10 pages match. I'll be stingy and only post two here.
Yes, you're not seeing it wrong. That's Tycoonboy smiling at my head scissors. It's the gimmick of the great Tycoonboy being so great and powerful that none of my holds have any effect on him. I'm sure you guys are used to that by now. My only regret this trip is that I didn't spend enough time with WolfJobber. Nevertheless, we did go out to watch a movie together and we had most of our meals together. We caught up on the two years we missed. I asked EvilDark during the week to close his tablet. When he is at home in Quebec city, he can play with his tablet anytime he wants. When he's here at the Wrestlefest, I do want him to participate, talk to the guys, socialize and WRESTLE! Which he promptly did... thankfully. He stopped touching his tablet for the 2nd half of the week. The reduced wrestling load was a good thing because I came up home with less bruises, less sores.. but I did get a cold o_O... which will probably disappear in 9 days. The only reason I got this cold was because I was careless. Some days were warm enough in NYC to just stroll around with t-shirt... yes, even in February, but a couple of other days were windy and rainy and I didn't dress warm enough I guess. I think I will keep the reduced-load format in the upcoming years... which unfortunately would probably be every 2 years since I keep one year for my family and one year for personal leisure such as wrestling. Our train ride back home on Friday February 26 2016 was uneventful, but both EvilDark and I were heading back with memories that will last forever. We gave WolfJobber a warm goodbye before he headed out to Albany. This ends and concludes my 5th year at the Wrestlefest. This year, I had a couple of 4 hours slots and many 2 hour slots. In comparison, 2 years ago, I had 2 hour slots with lots of 1 hour slots on the Wednesday. I had 18 matches and 3-6 open room matches (3 of which were unique, 3 others were repeats). This is down from 33 matches and 12 open room matches from my 4th Wrestlefest in 2014. But again, I purposely toned it down because I didn't want to go home too sore... just a little bit sore. Sometimes, you need to enjoy life, but you also need to take it easy and don't overestimate yourself. A friend once told me that its quality that counts rather than quantity. All in all, the Wrestlefest is still a great event to attend if you are very fond of wrestling. How else can you schedule a long string of consecutive matches in a single week when normally, back home, I'd only have a match per month (or less)? Of the 18 matches, 5 people were new wrestlers which I have not wrestled previously in any of the other Wrestlefests: RingWrestler, AKRob, WarriorJS, WrestleInAstoria and Grabmnsqwz. These are all guys I will definitely put back on my watch list in my future fests. Update 2021-07-28: Fast forward five years later, I browse MeetFighters and fall on FlWresler whom I apparently wrestled during the fest, but have no recollection. He either used Dave of FlWresler, yet that still does not bring up any memory. I feel terrible. :( | ||||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 50 | ||||||||||||||||
| Saturday February 6 2016 - Attending: NYC Wrestlefest 2016 | Wrestling event | |||||||||||||||
| It's official. I will be attending the Wrestlefest in NYC. I already booked my train, hotel for one week and two people will be staying with me in the same room. They are: EvilDark (id 1077) and Wolfjobber (id 8490). Our travel dates are Friday 19, 2016 and Friday Feb 26, 2016, which means that we will be actively wrestling between Saturday Feb 20, 2016 to Thursday Feb 25, 2016. As you have guessed, I am very excited about it considering that I was missing in action in last year's fest. This is my opportunity to meet back many of the wrestlers I have fought two years ago. | ||||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 48 | ||||||||||||||||
| Thursday January 1 2015 - Archive of matches of wrestling events | Archives | |||||||||||||||
| This entry holds information from past events (for better searching purposes) https://www.bearhugger.net/loserboy/blog/events.php NYC Wrestlefest 2013: https://www.bearhugger.net/main/index.php?archive_news_id=1521 Opponents faced during that event: CT Bodyslams, wrestling_coach, ProfantasyLatino, boli22, Ruffbear7, RuffFightChallenge, SlimJim, prostud_mi, Seokyo + Seokyo's bf, jonesy732, DCBearwrestler, wrestlerspig, gracepaul, timnbama, The Mauler, G_Crusher, KidTangler, Fightchallenger, Captain_America, Headsqueeze212, Yngrassler, Jobberboy, baxbyfrnd4lf, YngRassler, CalMuscle , wrestlnfool NickZ_SI, nyshort, fmrhugger, MikeSWuk, fantasyfeak, Smesh, MichaelBender NYC Wrestlefest 2014: https://www.bearhugger.net/main/index.php?archive_news_id=1593 MikeSW_UK, WrestlingCoachSF, TheWriggler, NYRRassleMan, PileDriverVA, Boli22, Hollywood954, lightwt4subs, NJ_Woodbridge, fmrhugger, Njmuscleguy, FantasyFeak, Yonkers_Wrangler, WreslBear, SlimJim, RoughNeck, JoeyTheSlayer, NJWrestlerBoi82, Captain_America, RuffBear, UpStateNYProWrestler, WrassleBoi, RickSF, PDXPhil, BJ_Incredible, WrestleDadBC, RBWrestle, Fig4Man, JackBouvier, GRJobber, David, WolfJobber, WrestleVA7, Nick_SI I also had an open room with these guys: NJ_WoodBridge, NYPython, WrestlnFool, GRJobber, NYRassleMan, MikeSWUK, RickSF, Rusnak, PDXPhil, Jim_From_Iowa, WrestleLight77, Hashbock, RuffBear7, WrestlersPig, Scotilla, Houston_Underdog, WrestleDadBC, RuffTumblr, NY516Li, IMWCEO, LightWt4Subs, NickZ_SI, WrestlerHard69, WolfJobber, Allen_Denver, AScissor | ||||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 0 | ||||||||||||||||
