The Golden Age
Gentlemen, we are in the golden age of homoerotic wrestling.
Look back ten years, twenty years, thirty, and you will find nowhere near the number of businesses devoted to our particular kinks (gut-punching, frot, skin, m4m domination, etc.) or underground and gay-interest wrestling sites on the Internet as there are today. Just look at the social networking sites devoted just to us: WrestleMen, Globalfight, Luchamos, and others.
Look also at the pro wrestling world--even the patent shit on television--how many wrestlers from the '90s or '80s measure up in sheer studliness to Tyler Black, Jason Hades, Roderick Strong, John Morrison, Stoney Hooker, Ashton Vuitton, Justin Gabriel, Chris Steeler, Carter Gray, Beef Wellington, Chris Dickinson, TJ Perkins, Terry Frazier, Kota Ibushi, Adam Cole, Brad Flash, Matt Boyce, Edge, John Cena, Randy Orton, and I could go on and on, and you know it.
Before 2000? Sure there are some: Kevin Von Erich, Alex Wright, Rick Rude, Tony Atlas, Steve Grey, Billy Kidman, for starters. But they are few and far between.
What caused the upsurge? A number of factors served as midwives to this renaissance: gay liberation, metrosexuality, Fight Club, backyard wrestling, DVDs, YouTube, Spike TV, bears, MTV's Wrestling Society X--in short, a lot of things have come together to make this moment happen. Even the WWE has played a part, though, I would argue, more as an incitement than as a model.
The bad news is this isn't going to last forever. One day your collection of Paul Perris and Cole Cassidy DVDs is going to be worth a mint on eBay and Craig's List--or whatever comes along in the future to replace them. Hopefully, though, the end is not near.
Now some of you may be asking, "Joe, so what?" Good question and succinctly put. So here's my point: We need to make hay while the sun is shining. Now is not the time for bullheaded consumer loyalty--there are lots of good sources of eroto-wrestling product out there, and we need to support them, within our means, to ensure that they stay viable. Sure, between Can-Am and BG East, we have our preferences, but let's do what we can to keep both of them going strong. Every now and then we need to drop some $s on Naked Kombat, PWP, Krushco, NHB-Battle, UCW-Wrestling, NRW, Bulldog Wrestling UK, and the like. They're all different and all the better for it. Go on and favor your favorites, but check out the competition too. Let these guys know what it is you like.
Write fan letters to your favorite wrestler--gay, straight, or unknown. Let him know where you're coming from--if you're gay, go ahead and say so--or at least tell the guy you're a guy too and you like the way he wears his spandex. Don't stalk him, for fuck's sake, but let him know you're here. Let him know he has a fan base that appreciates the erotic implications of his art. Trust me, the young guys, most of them who are not cretins (yeah, there are still some of those) are not going to be shocked--amused, perhaps, but not shocked. Most of the new breed in wrestling strike me as fairly cool.
Support new and promising ventures like EVOLVE, Ohio Valley Wrestling, and Beyond Wrestling--especially the ones in your vicinity--be vocal about your preferences and interests. Do what you can to diminish the homophobia that has traditionally dominated professional wrestling. Don't cringe at the swishy heel--sure, the stereotype stinks and is as old as Cheney, but stand up and cheer, and hope he nails that fair-haired empty-eyed hunk to the mat. Heels have become faces on nothing more than the pop they inspire in the fans.
And if you're lucky enough to live close to live ventures like Pride Pro Wrestling, Mike's Fight Show, and Grapple101, show up at their events, even if it's just bartender jello wrestling night, scream your lungs out, or strip down and hop into the ring and rassle. Be first in line to buy tickets to see movies like 300, Never Back Down, and Fighting--even if they are 99% schlock, and they are, there's sure to be that 1% that stiffens your willy--and that's got to be at least as worthy of the $9.50 admission as some computer-generated spaceship blowing up--and it's one more vote for Hollywood to grease up Taylor Kitsch and Kellan Lutz and throw them in a steel cage to fight to the death.
"Nothing gold can stay," wrote Robert Frost. We're lucky, given our tastes and interests, to be alive at this moment. Take advantage of it.
Gee Joe:A well written commentary. However I would make the comment to you that it may be homoerotic to us to have such hot faire available to see, but is the wrestling as homerotic with such little physical contact today by the modern pro stars. A drop kick is not as much a turn on fopr me as a long painful; hold on the mat. I do agree we need to support them. I
ReplyDeletem trying but the sad trurth is I cannot find anyone to even go with me to a live event.
And maybe it is best not to mention that we are gay fans. It certainly has put a stop on responses from one of my favs, which you pictured above...yummy there. Also I do agree with the wwe comment. I do not know why they have a built in iumage as always being the bad guys, but they don't appear to have been sympathetic to Kris Canyon and in some reading I have done they in fact contributed to his depression which led to his demise. Comptroller
Thanks, Comptroller.
ReplyDeleteI concede your point about the lack of much physical contact among the pros these days ... and even in some of the gay-specialty houses. Now we pretty much have to admire the pros just for how they look, not so much what they do with other wrestlers. Many just either talk loudly into microphones or hurl themselves off things. (This is one reason UFC has siphoned off some of pro wrestling's following ... among gays ... among fans in general.)
What a great world it will be when at last wrestlers who look as good as OVW's Beef Wellington endure the long, sweaty holds that Lou Thesz used to.
But that's why we need companies like BG East, Naked Kombat, NHB-Battle, and Krushco, which keep us in a steady supply of hot studs in sweaty, oily, grunting, heaving skin-on-skin clinches.