Classic: Hard Pros

BG East's Hard Pros is a series that deserves another chance. It saw seven numbers, the last one over sixty catalogs ago. Its premise was to pair good-looking wrestlers with each other in a ring, both of whom would be stripped of their trunks before the final submission. There was no sex, no typical money shots, just naked wrestling, and usually only in the final round. In its short run, the series showcased some of BGE's hottest wrestlers at the time: Wade Cutler, Jose, Steve Sherman, Max Dare, Terry Reed, Trevor Steele, Cruze, Flyboy, Jay Austin. In fact, the series saw a fairly heavy rotation of familiar faces, perhaps reflecting the limited number of wrestlers who would or could wrestle in the buff.

My favorite were the early numbers. I'll take just Hard Pros 2 as an example, which came out almost twenty years ago. It opens with a match between Wade and Max. Max shows up in a skull mask and leather vest, in dramatic contrast to Wade's light blue trunks and a top seemingly designed for a toreador-themed Ice Capades number. Wade claims Round 1, playing fair and square, applying a series of side headlocks I would have sacrificed a limb just to have the dimpled all-American hunk apply on me. The strenuous head clamps climax in a humiliating upside-down bearhug. Max, of course, retaliates furiously, in classic heel fashion, subjecting Wade to some face-clawing, boot-stomping, and corner-punching, and ultimately disregarding the babyface's attempts to submit. At the start of Round 3, after thoroughly thrashing his man in the second round, Max peels the blue trunks off Wade and looms over his head while removing his own trunks and revealing his hefty semi-erect cock.

Next, we have gorgeous Jose, a man who still sets the standard by which I judge latino beauty to this day. He enters the ring in what appear to be black leather workout clothes (including gloves) and then stripping all of it off (including boots) to wrestle in just a white "Beefeater" bikini, barefoot. Not quite Marlene Dietrich's gorilla-suit striptease, but in the same ballpark. Soon enough, Jose makes his big-mouthed opponent Jay regret calling him "sissy" and "fag." Honoring no rules of fair play, Jose overtakes Jay, otherwise his equal, with a series of low blows and illegal moves. Jay complains of Jose's lack of sportsmanship and even attempts to get back at him in kind, ultimately to no avail. Jose claws the man's abs and pecs scrumptuously and ultimately proves to be the bigger man.

The third match gives us Steve taking on Terry. I think Steve is even more spectacular in Hard Pros 3, against Wade Cutler, but then Wade often brought out the best in his competitors. Steve stuffs his magnificent ass in golden squarecuts, but Terry all but eclipses him in height and mass. In a highly charged contest, which finds one gorgeous body frequently and urgently bearing down hard on the other, Steve and Terry put the "fraught" in "frottage." And we even get a little spanking action, once the men lose their last shred of gear and inhibition.

The main event squares Psycho Capone and Dynamo Dean against each other, two big guys who look like they would feel at ease in a sword-and-peplum film. Personally I prefer the early matches, but this one gives fans of beef and squash something to lick their lips over. Psycho dominates Dean, who doesn't stand a chance. Dean cheats, but he doesn't do even that well enough to stop Psycho's onslaught. Dean would appear in one other match at BG East, this time in a dominant position, against Dante Rosetti in an early Fantasymen. Psycho, who also wrestles in Hard Pros 1, had a somewhat longer career with the company.

I'm not sure why the series did not last longer than seven releases. Perhaps it went too far for some fans and not far enough for others. Perhaps the final strip became too predictable. You can find nudity in other BGE series titles, notably X-Fights and Raunchy Rookies--and, less predictably, in some of the Gazebo Grapplers and Wrestleshack series. Perhaps Hard Pros suffered from too few competitors willing to bare all. I don't know. For its time, though, it was quite wonderful, and several matches have left their mark on my fantasy life.

I have removed some photos featuring explicit nudity from this posting because they belong to The Arena at BGEast, which owns exclusive rights to them.