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| Tuesday December 11 2018 - Boston | Recent matches | ||||
Before leaving for Boston, I met on Thursday Ben (id 4427) again for a rematch. The hotel room we got was not ideal. They gave us two double beds in a cramped room. Technically I could put the bases up on the wall and the mattresses on the floor like I always do, but we weren't sure if the bases were movable and Ben didn't want to go through all the hassle, so we opted for wrestling on the elevated bed instead. We obviously had to be careful and it made me realized that it's not as fun. It's like living in constant fear that you'll fall in a pit.  Anyhow, Ben took a rather more aggressive stance and I've toned myself down a bit to give him a chance. You know the saying that a beginner should wrestle with an experienced wrestler to avoid injury? I noticed that when Ben started doing moves on me that could have been dangerous if I didn't had any prior training defending myself. Lucky for me, I resisted some of the holds or made it very difficult for him to pull it off. I suppose I should let him know that some of his moves were a tad dangerous, but I wanted him to be a feel free trying to pull out as many holds as he can to practice, because it's a good way to learn if someone can shield or block them. I think next time, what I can do is pause him in a give and take session and show him the proper way to do a given move. Nevertheless, we had a good amount of fun otherwise. Our session was a bit longer and it was nice to see that he built up more stamina. I chose the TownePlace Suites near the Logan Airport/Chelsea in Boston as my location. I felt the prices were reasonable for the given space and my friend that told me that the prices are indeed better than in downtown Boston. However, being at the outskirts of the airport and in East Boston, the area around the hotel isn't very nice: It's full of petrochemical buildings and industrial factories, but who cares? I didn't come anyway to explore the area. I just need a good amount of space to wrestle.  I met with Zeev (or Romeo (id 3164) on bearhugger) on Friday after my arrival to Boston. I was still caught in a mild dizzy spell from my flight, butI took an Uber to Lynn anyway because Zeev have wrestling mats available. Zeev is quite a nice and handsome guy. When we locked horns, I knew I probably could manhandle him easily. He did tell me to tone it down though because he prefers to have the advantage. I was glad to agree because of my jobber heart. We did submission with promission. I told him that he could be harsher on his holds on me and to hurt me a bit more, but it was a bit of concern for him, so I then told him to take it easy and employ any intensity that he prefers. Zeev eventually found a handful weaknesses on me and was able to pin me down and make me tap a couple of times. He had this chicken wing move while he is on top of me when I'm facing down: you are technically screwed. You just can't do anything. On the other hand, I didn't think I could scissor him, but that worked well. He's very squeezable, but I understood that he wants the pressure more on the moderate side. Not a problem. We hugged it out a bit more, I locked him down a couple of times, watching his eyes (and beard) and smiling at him as he struggles. It was an absolute blast wrestling him. Nip play was not listed on his profile, but I understood it has a little bit of effect on him. I was going to get back to my hotel afterwards, but Zeev invited me out to a delicious Mexican restaurant. After our meal, we had to digest a bit. He suggested a bit of Zulu (Chicago Fire, The Conners) to digest and he invited me to spend the night with him. I actually slept better than I thought, but he felt I was restless. The next morning, I returned to my hotel and slept further in preparation for my next matches. All in all, I connected very well with Zeev. When I return to Boston, I'll put more time aside for him so I don't have to hurry back. Zeev's schedule is also very busy and he often travels for work, so I was quite lucky to get some time with him. He is originally from Mexico. Zeev told me that cameras are distracting so I respected his request and left my camera at home. Nothing though will remove the fond memories I had in my match with him.  Steve came over on Saturday morning. That's the Steve I met during the Clash twice and that doesn't any profiles on any wrestling personals, networks or sites. Steve is definitely a bigger jobber than I am. He doesn't need to do anything to get the Biggest Jobber award a the Clash. He started leading the match just like any great jobber would get an early advantage, and I would later on turn the tables around. Still, while I had him in a headlock, I had to ask to make sure:"So, should I be this agressive heel that ignores even your face rakes and your futile attempts to escape and fight back? Or should I be this nice and tender jobber that just follows your lead, getting crushed and punished in every of your moves? You get to decide, Steve. Or maybe you just want to stay down so I can manhandle you. To me, that looks exactly like what you want."It ended up being some good back and forth. He's very easy for me to lift in a bearhug, a rack, a knee backbreaker. On the other hand, Steve is well-versed with his pro moves, keeping me in check and in control whenever he felt like it. I tend to stick to pro fantasy with no pressure at all when I'm with him, but he didn't hesitate to tell me to put a medium-size amount of pressure. Steve was also nice to comment the match, doing a double role of being both the wrestler and the announcer in our match. While he held me down in one of his submission holds, he'd say something along the lines: - "Oh no! Loserboy is in trouble! Can he take it? Or will he submit?" Then our match got a little bit more intense and charged afterwards, but Steve told me to resume it on my blog as such: "It was a nice match." I also learned from him the experience that led him to remove his online profiles and that he once held a public match. He's much braver than I am for sure. Before he left, he asked me if I would come to the Clash next year. I usually do every other year and since I've been to the Clash in 2018, I would probably skip 2019. He announced that 2019 may be his last year at the Clash.  He asked if the Wrestlefest was an option and I replied that my family has decided to go for a family trip in the South at the same time the Wrestlefest in NYC is being held. 2019 may be calmer for me since I did most of my wrestling trips this year already.Steve commented that he's a bit of a gear collector and that he needs to get rid of some of his speedos because their colors are fading away. I panicked: - "Hey! I'm also a gear w****. Don't throw them away! Give them to me!" As such, Steve kindly gave me two speedos.   I think both speedos are showing too much of my junk, but then again, that's the definition of speedos... Steve actually wanted us to use the BG East ring while we are in Boston since that is where the company holds their headquarters and films many of their matches. However, Steve did the preliminary follow-ups and the ring was not available for renting. He was a good sport to wrestle me anyway, because I do recall him telling me that he no longer wrestles in a hotel room. Once you tumble in a spacious and formidable ring, it's very hard to go back to tiny and crampy hotel rooms. No wonder why the custom officer at the Vermont border asked me if I ever break anything.  MCIC was an unscheduled match between 3 pm and 6 pm. This was such a last minute and short interval to work with that all the wrestlers I tried to reach out for a match declined because of the limited time availability. So, I simply ended up listing "Boston" as my location for December 8 in Meetfighters and luckily, MCIC pinged me and asked if he can come. He always carry his gym bag in his car and had gym shorts and compression shorts with him, so he was ready to tumble on short notice. He is a mix of Italian/Syrian/Irish/English/French, which is a very nice mix. He considers himself as a mutt, but I was thinking in my head: "Wow, mutts are handsome." He's lighter than me, weighing 150 lbs (I'm leaning towards 160 lbs), but he is one tough cookie! He did races such as Tough Mudder, Spartans Race. It builds up his endurance by ten fold! MCIC and I went into full all-out submission. It's been quite a long while I didn't do competitive submission on this level. He knew what he was doing and you can feel he is very experienced. Don't ever let your guard down against MCIC because he won't hesitate to use his arms to make you submit. He went for that armbar you see in MMA matches, but I wouldn't let him, but he had me with ease in a reverse headlock, and man, IT HURTS! I could catch him in a leg lock, a body scissors and eventually a leg scissors that could make him tap... BUT his body and his style works like some sort of self-learning defense system. The more I would lock on him these holds, the more he'd be able to defend himself from them. Eventually, he could counter my leg locks by hardening his legs and power me out easily. He learned to harden his body to resist my body scissors and nothing left was working on him anymore... except for that illegal leg scissors on his leg with my kneecaps. My scissors were weakening and he was getting stronger by the minute. I later learned that he was toning it down for me. He even purposely let me put that leg lock so that he can show that he can now power out of it and also because he liked the feeling of my leg locking his leg. That does mean that the real MCIC is much more powerful than what I had encountered. He was curious and wanted me to try something else. "What pro moves do you like to apply?", he asked. I gladly applied the rack, the full nelson body scissors, the reverse Indian Deathlock, the full nelson camel clutch. Despite being full sub, he did some pro as a young kid, but deep his heart, as he grew and fought opponents, full out sub was his main and favorite style. MCIC actually countered the rack once I put him down. He immediately locked on me a sleeper, a choke.. actually he does that often when we stand up to take a break. Very sneaky, but I love it. An hour passed and I got winded out very fast, but he was just getting started! He would pin me down, look at me with a very big grin, occasionally letting me put a body scissors on him. I'd squeeze him with all my might, and he would still be there with a big grin, able to resist it without any problems and then he'd look straight into my eyes and say: - "Nope. Doesn't work anymore. Nice try though". His cockiness made me furious, but also made him more charming in our particular fight. Hairy chest, nice salt and pepper beard, MCIC is so dreamy for me. He matches very closely my wrestling style. He had this fierce look and smile when he wrestles you and knows that he has the advantage or knows that he's going to win. It's as if he was saying through his looks: "You just wanna make me tap in that scissors of yours, but you can't. You don't have the strength for it anymore. I'm smiling because I can take it. Better save your energy for I will put you in holds that will make you squeal and regret your actions." We were closely even matched at the beginning, but I ran out of stamina very quickly and he easily dominated me afterwards. I was sweating crazy while he was chill. Don't let size ever fool you, this smaller guy was able to beat my a**. Another dangerous move of his was that frontal arm choke simply by pushing his arm against my neck, but he'll do it moderately. I'm a bit ashamed to say it, but when he applied this while he was on top of me and smiling at me, I actually got a hard on... Anyway, overall: MCIC has a very effective wrestling style that is hard to defend. His neck choke from behind and his sleepers are equally strong weaponry in his arsenal. Talented and experienced, remarkable and unstoppable, infinite stamina and deadly arms all makes him one of the toughest and fiercest opponent I have ever faced. Yet, he is a very nice and sweet guy that will look out after you. Moderated and controlled aggressiveness makes MCIC a very safe and fun wrestler to tangle with. I quickly asked him before he was ready to leave if I could take a picture with him. A little selfie.  That beard... it really REALLY makes me melt. He kindly allowed me to take a few shots and then I later realize I possibly could have asked him to let me record the match, but again, I was a bit too shy to ask him. I'll try it next time, because I definitely want to wrestle him again. I hoisted him in a big nice goodbye bearhug and he did the same: but he lifted me at the legs level and lost balance. We both fell backwards, but luckily, no one was injured. - "I guess I got carried away", he laughed as he stood back up from the fall. After he left, I slapped myself on the forehead because I still don't know what the acronym MCIC stands for today. However, we kept in touch through MeetFighters and he eventually told me that his online handle represents a truncated version of his name. My last match of the day was with Tonyboy. His style was more into the sensual area of wrestling with grabs and all, and some cuddles, but we wrestled a bit of promission and he'd let me make his life difficult by putting him in an arm scissors where I could play with him. His bearhug is quite strong. He is definitely a powerhouse and can easily break holds. Body scissors have no effect on him because I couldn't close them. Leg locks work up to a certain extent and leg scissors are still effective. At this point of the night, the recurring pain on my right shoulder has started coming back, so we took it lightly. Too much wrestling. Because of this, I had forgotten to put him in either a rack or fireman's carry. I was very thankful though that Tonyboy made it a relaxing night by easing up on the wrestling. We also watched together a YouTube video with Ivan Putski bearhugging Superstar Billy Graham. It's one of his favorite matches of all time. We commented on the part where Graham just raises his arms, reaching for his head to express the pain of the bearhug, but not without flexing his muscles. I offered Tonyboy to stay the night, but he had to leave after two hours. We had some good fun nonetheless. I'm getting old.. three matches in one day is no longer something I can do. I'm so sore and so tired. Sunday was a day reserved for Wrestle123. He came two months ago to Montreal and I've decided to return the favor by visiting him in Boston. He's the main reason of this trip and I simply extended it in order to meet additional wrestlers. Wrestle123 picked me up at my hotel and drove an hour north of Boston to his place in Derry, New Hampshire. It's a nice small town of 30,000-40,000 people. He has a big house where he has a huge space, wrestling mats and a gym. Apparently, a couple of Wrestle 4 Hire matches were filmed in his basement. Since we didn't take any pictures last time he was in Montreal, he strapped on a nice blue speedos, kneepads and boots so we could take some good ones in his basement. Apparently, he always wrestles in singlet, but since I told him I do like his hairy chest, he kindly wore a speedo just for me. We had three cameras set up, my Nikon, my Panasonic and Wrestle123's Sony. The Nikon was switched between videos and 1/2 second interval photos while the other two were set to videos. I managed to put a fireman's carry on Wrestle123 who told me that he was around 297 lbs, down from 350. I was however unable to put a proper rack, I felt my shoulder had not recovered and couldn't take any more weight or damage. He did his research on leg scissors and found a way to be immune to them. Full nelson body scissors works on him, but with only with the extra power given to me with wrestling boots, otherwise, I would not stand a chance. I always think that my boots have the following properties if a futuristic science fiction device could secretly read the benefits, bonuses and attributes a wrestling gear can give to a wrestler. I was worried for Wrestle123 because he seemed winded, so we took a few breaks in between our shots. Speaking of shots, here's my typical signature on him:
Being so tall, I asked him if he can pick me up in a bearhug... which he did.
When I left it for Wrestle123 to decide, he came up with this fierce head scissors.
And this non-standardized hold that I rarely see people apply on me. It's painful, but comfortable at the same time. I know.. I am full of contradictions.
We took it easy the rest of the time. Wrestle123 showed me an interested YouTube clip with Simon Sinek about Millenials. We also watched a movie called "Searching" featuring John Cho and "Airplane!" featuring Leslie Nielsen. His roommate Jordan joined us for supper at T-Bone. We then watched afterwards a TV series about R&B history and a few trailers on Kingdom Hearts 3. Jordan was pretty excited about it. The next morning, I was lucky to wrestle Jordan. This 22 years old kid has a ton of wrestling experience. He is also respectful and skillful, and is way WAY above my level. He practiced wrestling way back in high school and along the way, he also picked up and tried all the different types of wrestling you can name. In case you wonder, I don't think he has any listed wrestling profiles on any of the major networks. He doesn't need any to get or have matches in my opinion. For our match, he displayed on to a screen a timer. I think it was 3 sets of 2 or 3 minutes round with a one minute break between each match. - "This is how you need to it when you wrestle someone that's faster and bigger than you.", he said. We started standing up and he understood as I locked up that I needed to be down. As such, the following sets, he started by kneeling down to accommodate me. As I locked on to him, I did feel that he was going easy on me. This was still definitely a full all-out submission match anyway, at least for me. I can't really speak for him. I think I was a bit easy for him. I was already worn out after round 1. I knew there was nothing I can do, none of my leg work would cut it. Starting round 2, I was only defending myself, trying to delay a submission. In round 3, I struggled and there were many times he could have made me tap, but he was very kind with me and never applied more than necessary and never applied his holds to the point I needed to tap. He started going after my legs to immobilize them and to make me submit. When the screen rang the last round, we shook hands and said it was a good match. I did wish we would wrestle longer, but we both knew that if we did, he would have overpowered me easily, so it was a nice and respectful way for him to end it without a humiliating defeat for me. I had to be sure and I asked him after our match if he went easy on me. He replied that he always use the first round for "Data Collection", to get a pulse of his opponent, know his style and determine in the rest time between the rounds what moves he needs to do. I'm sure if this beast went all out with me, he would have crushed me like a bug. - "Thank you for giving me the time of the day to wrestle me", I said at the end of our match. Jordan is a very busy guy. Our match was at 7 am, but he woke up before for training and then he had to head to work at 8 am. Jordan's dream is to become a wrestling coach and he definitely has the talent and the making for it. He is definitely a real and passionate wrestler, not to mention incredibly strong and incredibly friendly. Probably one of the toughest, but also one of the nicest opponents I have faced. Wrestle123 kindly gave me a lift back to the Boston Logan International Airport. On the way, Wrestle123 spoke to me a bit about developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Sophia robot that can answer philosophical questions and one day become cognitive and conscious. I was a bit wary about it because I was thinking that somebody could just simply type out the answers behind her programming, but Wrestle123 believes that we have already progressed very far in AI. I asked him if he was worried about it at all: I've heard that in a few decades, AI would do everything better than humans. This would mean each of us losing our jobs, especially those working in Information Technologies. In the contrary, Wrestle123 is very excited about the advancements in AI. My conversations with Wrestle123 are quite interesting. He is very knowledgeable, stays up to date with the current trends and developments of tech, analyzes things in a very meticulous and insightful style. Wrestle123 is full of wisdom: in both wrestling and in life. After an hour, Wrestle123 dropped me off at the International Terminal. I held his hand firmly and thanked him for everything. I wasn't sure if it was appropriate to hug him at an airport. My flight got delayed by one hour. As we approached Montreal around 5 PM, I took this shot from the window of the plane (cell phone shot, by the way, so mediocre quality):  The purple lights on the bridge is a project that was built last year to illuminate it for Montreal's 375th anniversary. The green towers to the left are the Desjardins centers that are partially hidden behind the thin layer of clouds are landmarks of my childhood. Those towers also somewhat define the downtown area as you will be able to identify the other skyscrapers to the left of it. If you click on it, you'll get a better view. Anyhow, it was nice to see Montreal from this angle. Yet, in some way, this nostalgic view kinda reminded me that my time in Boston was too short. Wrestle123 suggested that I should stay longer at his place the next time I come back. If I ever want to be able to reach the many wrestlers that are in the area, something tells me that I need a minimum of a week in Boston followed by a week-end at Wrestle123's place. Time will tell.  I know, I should have taken a shot from Boston instead. Heck, I didn't even go to the downtown core! It didn't really matter since I already did a tour about a decade ago, so it was something I was happy to pass anyway. Boston wrestlers are pretty nice: I scheduled four matches, and I received a total of six because of two unscheduled last-minute or referral matches. | |||||
| Blog ID 214 | |||||
| Date created: | 2018-12-11 |
| Date modified: | 14:06:03.716839 |
| Revision number: | 62 |
| Hits: | 49 |