#wcw wrestling

[cantheywinthehungergames]

Since @could-they-be-a-pro-wrestler shouted me out last week, now I'll shout them out in this bonus poll!

Mentor Name: The Undertaker

Age: 59 (based on actor's current age)

Restrictions: None

Note: Because this poll discusses a wrestling persona, it does follow the "fictional characters only" rule on this blog.

If you would like to see your favorite character either as a tribute or as a mentor, please fill out this Google Form. Just keep in mind that for mentor polls, they will be posted every Saturday so chances are it could take a long time before they are posted.

Please also look at my pinned post for submission rules as well as a list of previously submitted characters prior to submitting your character.

[mr-mitsu]

Big Vito - Set 2 (NSFW)

[guywrestlingaddiction]

What Turned me Gay (not really): Pro Wrestling in the 90's

Pro Wrestling truly hit it's golden age in the 90's.  It was a time when sexy guys tied strings around their biceps and men intimidated each other by oiling up their pecs.  There was something magical about this time. The combination of colossal egos and a fresh crop of young jobbers each week created a spectacle that will never be replicated.

Ravishing Rick Rude and Stunning Steve Austin v Flyin' Brian and Sting

What turned me gay (not really) ...  This post, inspired by the sidelineland.com blog, takes a tongue and cheek look into "what made me gay (not really)" and my journey of discovery would not be complete without examining Pro Wrestling in the 90's, an era that definitely turned me gay. 

The Background It all began with an image.  I can't recall who or even which network it was on but there he was.  A jobber, trapped on the ring post getting hammered away by a vicious heel.  Now while I can't recall his face, I do recall the feeling it left with me.  The taught and fit jobber, the sweaty bodies, the satisfied smile on the heel. My young emotions screamed one thing; I needed to watch more of this.  

Not the Jobber in the corner I remember but sexy Lee Scott will do.

It helped that my older brother was also into wrestling.  Together we'd watch and celebrate or rag on each other depending on if our heroes won or lost.  But there was always one wrestler I fixated on, one man I obsessed over for reasons my young mind simply couldn't comprehend. That man was Ravishing Rick Rude.

Grabbing that chest won't save you!

Ravishing Rick Rude and Stunning Steve Austin v Flyin' Brian and Sting (WCW)

Ravishing Rick Rude v Hawk (WCW)

Ravishing Rick Rude v Ricky Steamboat (WCW)

That long, muscular body, that alpha energy the man gave off, but above all it was those abs of steel.  You could not tear me away from a Rick Rude match when he was flashing those abs into my television.  Rick Rude awakened something in me before I even knew I liked guys.  That persona and masculine energy was something I simply wanted more of.  With that incredible body, those sculpted arms, that tough guy mustache all worked to scramble my young brain; Rick Rude definitely turned me gay.  

Rick showing us the goods

Ravishing Rick Rude resting his head on a jobber

Then came another bombshell, one that a lot gay men out there could not get enough of, that is the one and only, Alex Wright.  

The one and only, Alex Wright

Tall and smooth, while also deceptively scaling the ropes between jobber and heel, Alex Wright was Pro wrestling's first Twunk.  The man was a stealth wrestler.  A man you'd expect to be riding around in a convertible listening to techno music, but then something would flip and that man would bring the heat.

Alex Wright v Brian Pillman 

Alex with Paul Roma

My favorite Alex matches were the few when he got to dominate.  It was almost like waking up from a spell, all those pretty muscles in that huge imposing frame weren't for show - the man was simply so drool worthy you'd forget how imposing the guy could be.  

Alex Wright fights back (sometimes)

Alex Wright was my first male lust and was all my youthful urges personified as a pro wrestler. The man absolutely turned me gay.  

The one and only Alex Wright!

What made this time so great to me was that it was a moment when pro studios excelled at fostering young talent.  Guys like Mark Jindrak brutalizing a young jobber, a kiss of the knuckles punch to take down Lee Scott, or in the case of Evan Karagias, being on the receiving end of the beatdown.  It was the perfect collision of over-the-top silliness with raw manly emotion.  This era simply had something going for it that I can't quite explain and haven't seen since.

Mark Jindrak vs. Elix Skipper (WCW)

Mean Mark (The Undertaker) v Lee Scott (WCW)

Paul Orndorff v Lee Scott (WCW)

Evan Karagias v Chris Jericho (WCW)

In spite of the beautiful smooth bodies shoved through my television, a stand out moment from my youth was witnessing the great Arn Anderson tearing down some poor jobber.  It was like hearing music for the first time and realizing that beauty does not always equal pretty. For me anyway, the sight of a no-nonsense, tougher-than-your-dad heel like Arn Anderson in his prime was undeniably beautiful and wrestling once again revealed something about myself that I didn't understand at the time but would later come to relish.

Arn Anderson v Alex Wright (WCW)

Arn for the Win! Arn Anderson v Eddie Jackson (WCW)

They say, often when you think you're at the end of something, you're actually at the beginning of something else. This certainly held true as the decade drew to a close and something seemed to shift in pro wrestling. While the same sexy, hard bodies still clashed in the ring, it felt like a part of what I once loved had moved on.

Or maybe I moved on. You see, Pro Wrestling in the '90s may have been the spark that turned me gay, but before I knew it, I was fully embracing myself as a gay man. Your formative years are funny like that. No matter how much time passes or where I am on this journey, I still can't shake that image of a faceless jobber trapped in the corner, somewhere back in the '90s.

[salemshotspot]

Do WCW fans exist? I have insane things to say about Steven Regal and The British Bulldog as a power difference couple

[rabid-dog-steve-horn]

Simpsons fans and wrestling fans, here's something for you all to enjoy.

[orangebapecamoprint]

[wrestlingarsenal]

More images from the Kevin & Kerry match recently posted to YouTube. I'm looking for dramatic and well-acted scenes like this in the "Iron Claw" movie, coming to movie screens this Friday, 12/22 (Merry Christmas to ME!) Hey here's an idea -- maybe the actors from Iron Claw should now wrestle for one of the Big Federations to promote their film! I'd sure like to see Zac and Jeremy take on FTR or Pretty Deadly or the Bucks! It's not the first time an actor put on trunks and got in the ring.

Above we see Kerry playing Ragdoll-In-Peril in a Chris Adams sleeper. Each time Kerry rises to his feet, Adams yanks the big dummy back down with a handful of hair.

Kevin can't understand why his younger brother is so submissive, willing to play jobber for their enemies. Kev hollers aggressively at Kerry to man up from outside the ring. (I wonder if the film will explore the Alpha and Beta roles of the brothers and Kerry's propensity to serve as Face-in-Peril in contrast to Kevin's ego-driven Knight-in-Shining-Trunks schtick?)

Here we see Kevin obey the rules as the Good Cowboy in White to avoid offending his screaming fans at ringside. So he waits outside the ropes in compliance with Tag Team regulations, watching his jobbery brother taken down again and again. Give us some of this Ring Psychology in the movie, please!

Spoiler alert (for this match, not for the film...). The Heels will go on to throw a caustic powder into Kevin's eyes to utterly disable him, which allows them to double-team Kerry and then easily pin him! Always a satisfying finish, when the Bad Guys cheat to win!

Jeremy, oops I mean KERRY, is humiliated in this scene, kicked in the throat then covered for the One, Two, Three.

[grunge-ghost12]

Is it just me or does anyone else see it?

[peteneems]

[could-they-be-a-pro-wrestler]

This is a poll blog that asks the question…could your favorite fictional character be a pro wrestler? Would you like to submit a character? Click this link if you do!

[ultradude13]

Ron Simmons takes on Vader for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.

[roxspoxs]

Disrespectfully, PLEASE spit in my mouth, Vampiro.

Please and thank you.

[gamerspost95]

Being able to fill out a shirt the way he does. Why wasn't I born then. 😵‍💫🥵❤️‍🔥

[pickleviv]

Mess with the honk get the bonk 🦂

(you can get this a as a sticker on my shop!)

[salemshotspot]

I’ve had this idea in my head for a while and I simply need to get it out

So the pairings [respectively] Hunter Hearst Helmsley/Shawn Michaels and Steven Regal/The British Bulldog where Hunter/Steven have so much internalised guilt because they were very much raised to not associate with ‘common folk’ because they’re ’beneath them’ [no pun intended] and now they’re both [respectively] in love with Davey/Shawn they’ve got a lot of guilt around ‘tarnishing their image that their parents spent so long building’ and also just feeling genuinely dirty for their love because of how deeply the ideal that lower class people are disgusting was drilled into them

Anyway I’ll shut up now, if anyone is interested I actually have a lottttt of like trauma/angst hcs for Steven and Hunter related to their upbringings and more to say about this in general

[evilhorse]

WCW Wrestling video game ad from November 1991