Cowboys

Austin Cooper vs Joey Nux, with Blake Starr, Cowboys (Wrestler4Hire)

Today's post was inspired by the W4H video of Austin and Joey wrestling in blue jeans beside a hogtied Blake. I love the video, but, truth be told, I loved it even before I watched it. The images of shirtless cowboys in jeans and boots were my Proustian madeleine to memories of the past, when my father was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base and I lived with my parents in Las Vegas. This was when I was between the ages of 13 and 15.

Two memories, to be precise, that have meshed together over the years. One is set in gym class at Von Tobel Jr. High School (near the future residence of Siegfried and Roy, a friendly Key West bartender once informed me). The PE teacher had set up mats for wrestling. He paired everybody according to weight. I was odd man out, a bit bigger than most of the kids in my grade. Then Terry Maxwell, a grade above me and the handsomest, most athletic guy at school, volunteered to wrestle me, much to the amusement of the teacher, who knew a squash situation when he saw it. Stepping on the mat with a suddenly shirtless Terry, I got an instant boner, which Terry ignored but a few of my classmates did not. It was a quick match. Terry pinned me with an inside cradle. I still remember the heat radiating off his body. Then rather than let me get up, he held me down a few more seconds with a schoolboy pin, at which point he had to feel the nudge of my erection against his tailbone. 

The other memory is set in what used to be called a dime store, not far from the Strip back then (1966-1968). My mother was in another part of the store. I was in the book and magazine section, browsing. Then I saw a tall, well-built young man nearby, shirtless, in cowboy hat, tight tight jeans, and boots. I figured he was probably a hustler - not a foreign concept to me at that time. (Military brats back then grew up around tattoo parlors, firearms, and prostitutes.) There's no story to tell on this one, just the image, ca. 1967, which is photographically preserved in my mind. Later, I would see the image echoing some of Tom of Finland's drawings of the 1950s and 1960s. As soon as I saw the photos for Wrestler4Hire's Cowboys, I realized how the dime-store cowboy's high cheekbones and sharp jawline were the imprint that drew me to Joey Nux at first sight earlier this year.

That's it. Not a story, really, definitely not a review. Just a couple of memories that became the architecture of my sexuality. 

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