Choking Under Pressure

Here are some screen captures from a Shakedown TV match at Pier 6 Wrestling, featuring Dain the Pain going against AJ Evers. Strangulation features heavily in the match. For some reason, chokes in wrestling carry a special charge for me. I know it's the proximity and the body contact that work for me more than anything else, but the presumed lethalness of the hold is probably a factor too, not to forget the far-fetched (though pertinent) associations with masturbation (as in the expression "choke the chicken," but also as in autoerotic asphyxiation). It's the assertion of an incontestable mastery of one man over the other. And, like many other pro wrestling moves, it's a symbolic castration as well. It strikes me that choking should require repayment in kind, and I kept hoping that Evers would turn the tables on Dain and squeeze him out cold. Didn't happen, but it almost definitely will in my fantasy version of the match.