Loserboy's Blog

January 13, 2019	Torture Chamber Pro Wrestling Dojo: Genesis XIII	Wrestling shows	5 years ago
September 1, 2018	ICW: Part deux	Wrestling shows	5 years ago
June 24, 2018	Battlewar 55	Wrestling shows	5 years ago
October 22, 2016	Local wrestling show in Montreal: ICW	Wrestling shows	7 years ago


Sunday January 13 2019 - Torture Chamber Pro Wrestling Dojo: Genesis XIII	Wrestling shows
I know.. the title is a mouthful, but most wrestling associations have a long name anyway. It refers to another indie wrestling show that I've attended. The Torture Chamber Pro Wrestling Dojo is based in Montreal, albeit in the north east region where it takes me about an hour to reach. It's very secluded. It was cold today so I didn't expect many people to show up, but to my surprise, it was packed full. They had to add for me a chair in the back. These events are also pre-recorded with a cameraman going around the ring and a still camera in the back. There is also a commentator sitting in the back with a mike constantly feeding facts and statements. It is not really intended for the crowd, but for the audience later that will watch it online. I didn't think it would be elaborated like this. The lighting was very bright and they had no restrictions on the usage of personal cameras, so this was the perfect opportunity for me to test out my Nikon. I find it that given these circumstances, it's still very tough for me to catch a moment in action that I really want. I am to blame because I still haven't mastered my camera for live action shots yet. That being said, the videos I've taken are much better. I guess also the big difference between this show and the one I've saw last June is that you don't get a light show since they don't have racks of spotlights to support this. It does create quite an atmosphere, but I could pass that for now. I felt the crowd was very obnoxious and kept interrupting wrestler's speeches, cursing at them, telling them to shut up, but I guess crowds in any wrestling shows are like this. The dojo's style of matches are kept to a reasonable time amount to keep the audience's focus and interest. Some drama is obviously added to make the show interesting. The wrestlers are pretty hunky in my opinion. Here are a few shots. You can click on them for a larger version (x2). The first one at the top is from my cell phone, the rest are from my Nikon, the last two from the set are screenshots from videos taken by the Nikon. Savage, the one with the beard, was very charismatic and carried the audience with him. In the last image of the above set, he was eventually quadrupled tag-teamed and beaten up. A female wrestler then took a pair of scissors and a razor to shave his beard. They managed a very small portion until some of Savage's teammates came up to the rescue and save the poor lad from this shameless abuse. Hey, pro wrestling drama at its best. I enjoyed it and the crowd was ecstatic! You can see a small sequence that I recorded from it down below. Test There are quite a few kids in the audience. I'm always surprised that parents are okay showing their young ones this type of violence. But hey, if they do grow up and become a wrestler, then why not? If they use it to gang up and bully other kids, then that's another issue. I'm sure anyway that these kids look up to these wrestlers as superheroes doing the good thing, because in the end, like in all wrestling dramas, it's always the good guys that wins. A part that made me crack up was when a big bad guy won the match (in the photos above, it's the guy with the black singlet with an orange logo. I believe he goes by the nickname Nova Cain). Two ten year old boys in the front row booed him, so the wrestler came up to those kids and told them: - "You guys are next! I'll take you boys in the ring anytime!" You should see those brave kids, they don't get intimidated. - "Oh yeah!?! We'll beat you anytime!" Their responses were priceless. I can actually picture both of them crying for mommy. Anyhow, seeing these wrestlers perform still kinda breaks my heart. Like any industry in this business, probably less than 1% of these wrestlers will have their dreams come true of joining a big name association, hoping to make the big bucks to get the bread and butter back to their families. It's still great to see all these guys and gals have fun and put their talent to good use. The entrance ticket was only 10$ and I've only attended the first-half of the show. I felt I had enough excitement for the week-end. The room only accommodates around a hundred people or so. That being said, I will definitely come back to see them again... even in this cold weather. Technically, this was also a reconnaissance or a scout mission to see if this wrestling ring can be rented. I failed the mission miserably because I completely forgot to ask about it. I was thinking afterwards that I can always contact the owners of the dojo by e-mail anyway. The rings from ICW and Battlewar are mounted on the premises once per week or month, so using them is out of the question. This one though seems to be a permanent ring for the purposes of training. Wrestling ring coordinates: Torture Chamber Pro Wrestling Dojo Wrestling school in Montreal, Quebec Address: 4325 Boulevard Industriel, Montréal-Nord, QC H1H 2Z5 https://www.facebook.com/tcprodojo/
Blog ID 224

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

Sunday June 24 2018 - Battlewar 55	Wrestling shows
2 years ago, I tried attending an independent wrestling promotion based in Montreal and I left with mixed feelings. I've decided to give it another go today with a different promoter: Battlewar. They've setup their ring on the 2nd floor of the Foufounes Electriques, which is a low-lit straight bar in Montreal. You can see a ring about ~8 meters by 8 meters wide. It's not that big, but it's sufficient to show most of the wrestling action. Seats accommodate about a hundred people whereas an extra hundred can stand up behind the seats. I came in a bit late, but I was lucky to have a chair anyway. Entrance fee is 15$, which really is peanuts. They hold their events once a month, as opposed to once a week for the earlier promotion I have tried. They started with a bonus early match where everyone is given a taste of the kind of talent they have. I don't remember the names of the wrestler, but this guy had the drunk-type gimmick, gulping beer and asking people money for more beer. He was hilarious and really into his character. The crowd cheered him and booed his opponent. Both wrestlers were definitely hardcore, acrobatic and skillful. They went on and exchange blows, suplexes and other high-flying maneuvers I wouldn't be able to name. They kept the momentum, received support from the public and kept them engaged. I can still visualize the finishing blow: a back-flip somersault from the 2nd rope, landing right onto his opponent for a pin. This intro match was used by the promoters to make sure everything was working fine: lighting, sound system, stability of the ring and all the usual checks. I did not bring my camera this time around, because I had my lesson with the previous promoter who forbid any kind of recording and photographs. Little did I know, the Battlewar promotions did not mention anything about taking pictures, they even have their own photographer and many people from the audience freely took our their cell phones to capture action shots. Hey, now I know. I'll bring in my big camera next time. This time around though, I was stuck with the low quality camera from my LG G4. I say low quality because this device was not really optimal or designed for low-lighting fast-paced action photos. Here's what I mean: The action has not even started and the camera on my phone already has trouble: you can't even discern the face of some of the wrestlers because of the irregular lighting. The slightest movement and mister Blur comes into play. I admit my position didn't help. The doors opened at 7 pm and the show starts at 8. The chairs are on a first come, first serve basis, so I was stuck on the 3rd row. However, being on the 3rd row isn't necessarily a bad thing. The bar has enough space to accommodate a ring, but the chairs are positioned too close to the ring. If a wrestler happens to be pushed off a ring, the people on the first and second row may have to stand up and move away to avoid an imminent collision. Yes, you're a spectator at your own risk. These guys are professional anyway and they know how to land to avoid jumping on your face, but judging from the reactions I've seen, it's still pretty scary if you don't have quick reflexes... as an innocent bystander. In the second match, I get to see Mathieu St-Jacques going against The Beast King, a massive beefy 260 lbs opponent. This video ought to shine some light on what he looks like. Test Of course, The Beast King does end up removing his coat before the match starts. Thankfully, this video turned out good for a cell phone camera. These guys were awesome. I had plenty of opportunities to catch a reverse bearhug from suplex, an inverted bearhug from a piledriver, but I wasn't fast enough on the trigger. The intensity of the match was excellent and these guys had great charisma. The ring really made them shine. You know what happened at the end? St. Jacques won and both wrestlers eventually gave a nice long warm hug. The third match that was presented was quite special. It's the first time I've ever seen anything like it: it's a tag team 2 vs 2 vs 2 vs 2 match. So, yes, there are four teams of two wrestlers, one in each corner, and only 2 wrestlers can be fighting in the ring, but you can get tagged out at anytime, even if you don't want to. How does that work? Well, if you get too close to a corner that is not your own, the opposing team in that corner can touch you to force you to tag out. The only winner is the team that manages to make a 3-pin count on ANY tag team. Pretty original concept in my opinion. Or maybe I'm a noob and this was a trend that I never noticed. The match featured Leon Saver and Oliver Strange (who were the tag team champions) vs. The Salty Bullies vs. Francis and Francis vs. The Ring Warriors. Salty Bullies were a funny team. Donning black masks, they were supporting bullying and asked the public to cheer and to make dog and cats sounds if they support bullying. They of course received a fair share of booing(s). Anyway, this kind of quadruple tag team match does makes for a lot of chaos in the ring, but that chaos was exactly what the doctor prescribed for the crowd. It was exactly what they wanted. These guys were able to perform tag team combos, chain maneuvers and acrobatics that kept the action going. People were excited and I was astonished at everything these guys were able to pull off. If I can only describe one move out of the hundreds moves I've seen: one of the wrestler was doing a rack with airplane spin, his tag team kicked the victim on the head, which made a momentum for some sort of throw down slam. One of the wrestler is about to pin, but another team comes in and executes their own combo to prevent the pin and knock off their opponents, but then the fourth team comes in and does another different combo.... I can't even describe correctly what is really going on. They sold me here and I told myself that I need to come back. They wrestling performance they delivered was quite impressive. Knowing how hard it is to pull out what they pull and being in the ring not too long ago, I can clearly see these guys have quite some professional training. And yeah, being there as a spectator, in person, really makes a difference than seeing on TV. What this promotion delivered was far superior than the WWE show I attended a few years back. Sure, in today's standards, people want to see a constant pace, so rest holds are less used. Still, I was able to see a boston crab and a sleeper. They haven't been completed eradicated yet. Thank goodness! Ok, today was St. Jean Baptiste day, a national holiday in the province of Quebec, so maybe they pulled up a special show for this occasion. Maybe I should not expect the same quality of show in the next events. We'll see. I left at half-time because it was getting pretty loud, in between the cheers, the echoing and pounding slams reverberated by the springs of the ring, the loud rock and heavy-metal music, I figured I should ingest these shows one step at a time.
Blog ID 195

Saturday October 22 2016 - Local wrestling show in Montreal: ICW	Wrestling shows
I finally attended a local wrestling show hosted by the ICW in the basement of a church. Strange place? Well, most small and local organizations start out like that and they then grow bigger elsewhere. I've been eyeing the association for the past 6 months, but could only attend it today, my prior attempts failed due to scheduling conflict. I was told at the door that pictures are forbidden, which I found a bit weird considering that small organizations like ICW can benefit a lot from the publicity generated by pictures and videos taken by members and distributed around the net. While it can spread positively, I guess I can understand that perhaps it can also spread negatively as well, so they rely only on a basic word of mouth to get more spectators. The rule about "Forbidden pictures" was quite a big bummer for me, because I wanted to take the opportunity to measure the capacity of my new camera. Oh well.. I'll survive without it. The venue is big enough to accommodate probably 300 people, but about 50-75 showed up. They charged a 10$ entrance fee per person and there is a concession stand where they sell drinks and goodies ranging from 1-3$. Most of their wrestlers wear a t-shirt while fighting in the ring, which is pretty much a eye sore for me, but I do understand that some wrestlers are uncomfortable otherwise. The crowd was pretty obnoxious and kept yelling "Super Hugo" during my time there. I have to admit though that once this "Super Hugo" showed up, he wrestled a much bigger guy called "Big Fat Sebastien". The hype explained itself since Super Hugo performed over-the-top amazing moves... I saw him hold his oppponent's hand, climb the ropes in the corner, do a light jump on the third rope and flip around. I kinda gasped... you only see these things on TV, but in real life, it does look very dangerous. The chances of missing this move are pretty high and the end result could be catastrophic for both the applier and the victim. If I was to do some of the holds that Hugo did, I probably would have injured myself. Sebastien himself was also flexible and made lifts, twists and split kicks that I would not have expected. In a different match, there was this bearish type of guy with a nice goatee, good looking in my opinion, a charisma that cheered the crowd and he strapped along a great wrestling persona. He was double-teamed by two even bigger guys. One held him in a headlock while the other tag team member repeatedly gave him kicks and punches. This was the only part of the entire wrestling show where I had a... um... a hard-on. I blushed. Ha ha ha. I learned much later that the wrestler goes under the pseudonym "The Magician Magic Mike". His real name is apparently Eric and he was director of the ICW in 2014. The only reason I found this out was because of one of the pictures posted on the official site. It is written all over his short-sleeve leather jacket. Yeah.. we can't take any pictures, but they reserve the right to take as many as they want, of course. It took 45 minutes before the show actually started though... and I've decided to leave midway about 90 minutes later because there was a commotion between members of the crowd and the security guards. The security guard was actually holding off the owner of the wrestling association because the owner wanted to hit one of the crowd members. It was a bit scary... When I came back home, I tried to make the calculation... at 10$ per person, they make about 750$ for the night. That's insufficient for all the wrestlers, security guards, referee, announcer and extra staff plus the time and effort required to set up the ring and the decor. So, my conclusion is that all of these wrestlers do it for fun, and that many of the people there are volunteers. The show promptly explained to me why small organizations and wrestling associations are struggling financially and are disappearing from the face of the earth... all of them are eclipsed by the gargantuan WWE and the like. I mean if you google "Wrestling Montreal", there are only two names that show up: NCW and ICW. NCW is outside the island of Montreal and requires one hour and a half of travel by suburb train whereas ICW is accessible by subway and is only 15-30 minutes away from my location. I also learned much later that an association by the name of "BattleWar" also holds a monthly event in the heart of downtown Montreal in a bar called "Les Foufounes Electriques". Anyway, I will be coming back to ICW, remembering this time to keep my heavy gear camera home and just relax. I'm thinking however I should probably aim for the NCW next. Give each wrestling organization a chance. If I wanted to give my camera a better trial, something tells me that I need to head south, pass the border to the US where many wrestling promotions appreciate photographers because they know that the publicity will bring them new spectators, new talent and new revenues.
Blog ID 93