Trouble
Josh Steel wrestled for Rock Hard for two years, during which time his physique and fight improved dramatically. He was let go, I was told, because he made other RHW wrestlers uncomfortable. The guy was bad news, to be sure - he has an arrest record that includes charges of assault and drug trafficking, and there's that infamous fistfight at a porn shoot that was caught on camera. Over the past five years, living the bad-boy life has eroded his health and looks. Buzzkill warning for this link and here. No mean comments, please. My heart goes out to the guy. He remains my favorite of the Rock Hard wrestlers. I hope he finds a better path for himself.
I won't pretend that Steel's bad-boy image wasn't a large part of what made him attractive. It was. But I like him also for the way he fights back even in spots where the other guy is whooping his butt (others often just go limp and take it) - and I like that he sweats beautifully - and I like his unfeigned pleasure in punishing his opponents and his instinctive sells when getting punished. At first, I liked him best in Rock Hard's tag team matches, but now I like him best in singles competition, having grown to appreciate his by turns thuggish and tormented ring persona.
My favorites? Glad you asked. My top three are Josh vs Alex Waters, Josh vs Matt Engel, and Josh vs Jake Jenkins.
Want some of this? Rock Hard's putting Steel on sale till Thursday, October 17.
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Sad. It reminds me of Skip Vance, who also has had multiple arrests and mental health issues.
ReplyDeleteJosh was one the best when he was around. It's funny that he was packaged as an All American Babyface but it worked for him. My personal favorite Josh match is him vs. Jason Kane, another pretty boy with a dark side.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your faves list (and thanks for all the gifs!).
ReplyDelete"Josh" was at his prime during his first year at RockHard, in my opinion.
Very sad about the direction his life has gone. Time to make a U-turn, if at all possible.
"Josh" was a fav of mine too. After (during?) his wrestling career, he also did some amazing work in hard core porn as Tom Faulk, both top and bottom, then turned to pay-for-view jack-off sites and it was tough to watch his appearance and attitude disintegrate. I hope he has found a solution to his issues. He has great potential.
ReplyDeleteSince I do not follow any "porn" other than wrestling, I was kind of surprised that there are news sites that report on the porn industry as heavily as Entertainment Tonight follows mainstream Hollywood News.
ReplyDeleteKind of interesting ...
If he's the reason why so many RHW guys only wrestled for 2/3 matches, then it all makes sense. There were so many guys with loads of potential, like Justin Silver and Matt Engel who stopped sometime after facing Josh.
ReplyDeleteThere's something I've wanted to ask about someone else who's worked in UCW. But I really don't want to have it published here, out of respect for the guy. Is there any way I can ask you privately about it?
ReplyDeleteYour best bet is to contact UCW at info@ucwwrestling.com. I mostly live for the fantasy and am not up to date on the behind-the-scenes stuff.
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