Duke

Movimus knows my fascination with burly guys. After all, I've been a Jimmy Reilly fan since Day One. Not to put too fine a point on the question of my type, I've liked mesomorph Dave Markus and svelte Patrick Donovan too, along with other male body types, for a long time. What matters most, to me, is the wrestling. Can the guy wrestle? is the question on my mind at least every ten minutes as I scope out guys in cafes, on city streets, and at work.

Anyway, Movimus, bless them, sent me new guy Duke Russo (5'9", 177#), not in the flesh, sadly, but via HD-video, which is what I'm settling for these days. The company says that its new find is "stronger and tougher than just about any wrestler we have ever had at Movimus.   He just can’t be handled or controlled and he definitely can’t be dominated.  He also has the skill to get his opponent tied up, wrapped up, and down on the mat." (Already I am so in on this guy.)

In this new release the fresh recruit takes on tried-and-true scrappy grappler ("scrappler" a word?) Case "C.T." Thornton (5'11", 167#). Case's creds are not only double-stamped by the way he inserts his initials into his full name but in reliably top-notch performances under multiple names in multiple venues. The guy knows wrestling. His particular appeal for me at Movimus is his quiet focus on his opponent and the task at hand. When he speaks (as he does elsewhere), it's unmistakable that this is a swell guy, the kind you can relax with, talk books with over a beer (I know, I've done it). The guy couldn't pass for a heel if his life depended on it. But tightlipped (like here) he has a steady Mark Landerish allure--a methodical, no-nonsense pro in the science of pain and submission.

Movimus includes spoilers in its product descriptions. I like that practice. I like to know what I'm going to get up front. I watched the match before checking out the web site, though. At first I wasn't too sure what to expect of Russo. I worried that he might be just another big lout taking a licking from the deceptively strong but smaller Thornton. Or that he would get the ritualistic newby smashdown so prevalent in  gay wrestling. I was pleased to discover he's a very strong wrestler. In a two-out-of-three-falls match, he squishes a first submission out of CT with surprising speed. The greater part of this 21-minute gripper is an intense battle of wills intent on making the opponent tap out twice.

Neither man is sloppy or lazy on the mat. Every move is calculated, as in chess. By the halfway point both are shimmery with sweat, and the struggle for dominance is well played and intense. I like mat wrestling. I also like the drama and the fast, spectacular finishes of ring wrestling. To be sure, submission wrestling has nothing like the piledriver or Irish whip. But for boning up, I mostly like the hypnotizing slow burn of plain wrestling (for real) on a mat. I can watch it all day like a crackling fire or the easy gliding of angelfish. If I were a rich man (yubby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dum), instead of a fireplace or an aquarium, I'd install a wrestling pit in the center of my living-room and hire fit, under-dressed grapplers to continuously struggle for top, one pair after another, the whole day through. Their grunts, moans, and heavy exhalations would both calm and excite me. If I were a rich man. What I have, instead, is a pretty fine collection of wrestling DVDs and downloads.