The Texas Pete Trilogy

Pete Chambers vs Bryan Pappagio, Rec Room Battles 27 (NHB-Battle / Movimus)

The Texas teen was a welterweight in boxing and approached the producers of NHB-Battle in hopes of shooting a boxing video. NHB sweet-talked Pete Chambers (5'11", 143#, above in blue) into submission wrestling instead, and though few in number, all three downloadable matches are stunning. Some of you know I usually prefer large round wrestlers who make a wrestling ring quake and thunder, but in mat wrestling, I favor sleek, wiry guys who coil into each other like horn-mad vipers--rawboned, hungry types like Eli Black and Mark Lander.

Bryan Pappagio is smaller (19, 5'7", 134#, in black) but more experienced in wrestling. Unexpectedly, Bryan's experience pales next to Pete's gumption and natural aptitude. For Pete, a fight's a fight, boxing or wrestling, and he bears down hard on Pappagio for a startlingly early first submission. If Bryan was holding back on the assumption that submitting the non-wrestler would be easy, he wisely changes strategy fast and pushes back. Pete's nothing if not a quick learner, however, and despite Bryan's impressive (and heated) counters, Pete rides his ass from one tap out to the next for the remaining nine minutes.

Pete Chambers vs Stephano Artega, Battling Bodies 9 (NHB-Battle / Movimus)

Pete (in black) handpicked his opponent in Battling Bodies 9, gymnast Stephano Artega (23, 5'7", 141#, in purple trunks). Excellent choice, sir, as waiters often say. All three matches are winners, but I'm inclined to pick this one as my favorite. It lasts longer than the first match, but it also gets down and dirty, with some eye-gouging (intentional?) at the 20:12 mark, which fires things up for the final two minutes.

At first, both boxer and gymnast rely heavily on their upper bodies. But I like to think this match was Pete's breakthrough to recognizing the importance of the scissors hold, the importance, moreover, of the lower half of the body in a struggle that's mostly horizontal. As in his first match, he learns he has a natural talent, not to mention muscular thighs. The gymnast seems impossible to bend in some way that would effect a submission, and frustration and rage, far from discouraging, only make the boxer more determined. Naturally, I like the sweat all the huffing and heaving produces, Pete and Stephano have difficulty keeping all the action on the mat, and as tempers flare, the wrestlers only get harder (read that however you want to).

Pete Chambers vs Ken Vitale, Rec Room Battles 28 (NHB-Battle / Movimus)

Pete looks particularly fine in these red trunks. Earlier he caught trainee Ken Vitale's eye, and Ken (27, 5'10", 145#, in black) requested Pete as his opponent in his NHB debut. It's a good pick for somebody who likes it rough and relentless, and that's pretty much where Ken is coming from. They are well matched, a mere inch and pound apart, two guys who enjoy a good fight. This time it's Pete who underestimates his adversary. He takes Ken's body scissors for a joke till he realizes he's stuck and Ken's thighs are solid enough to hurt. The smile still on his face, he has to give Vitale the first fall.

If he didn't like fighting as much as he does, Chambers might have been a competitive swimmer. At first sight, his body screams dolphin kick, not haymaker, though it's boxing that won his heart. Perhaps there's a method to Ken's targeting of Pete's muscular legs, but the strategy backfires as it draws Pete's attention to how useful legs (those thighs, again!) are on the wrestling mat. We see Chambers increasingly weaponizing them from the 06:45 mark on and clamping them tight around Ken's midsection for a sexy crotch-to-face submission at 10:20.

You can find these matches and other NHB-Battle matches here at Movimus.