The Bad Old Days
NIck Bockwinkel vs Tito Santana, 20 November 1981 (Houston Wrestling)
Thank you to Dr. L for linking me to this match last week. He's a big fan of Bockwinkel - the cold cruelty of the brute - whereas I'm more taken with Santana - hot, sweaty stud (I have an autographed 8x10 of him hanging in my hallway - one treasure among I don't know how many). I would not have seen this match in 1981. For one thing, the year was during the heyday of regional wrestling in America, though nearing its end then, and I lived in South Carolina, far away from Houston. For another, I was too busy for TV, beginning my first year as a full-time college educator and completing my doctoral dissertation (on seventeenth-century spiritual autobiography - there are copies enough for everyone who wants one, ha-ha).
Looking at this video now is like slipping through a time warp. Within a few years, cable networks and Vince McMahon would change TV wrestling forever. Gone would be the long, enervating holds, the rhythmic repetition of torments (with wrestlers wrenching each other's heads and limbs like mechanics loosening rusty bolts), the closeups of agonized bodies, the long deviously drawn-out punishments, the taut stillness at the center of the ring as wrestlers grappled (actually grappled), grinding each other's bones like fiends in Dante's Inferno. Even homely wrestlers gained a measure of eclat through sheer meanness - or resilience.
Within these glittering generalities, there are moments of surprising eroticism. How knowing or naive were the performers and their fans when Tito's face is forced to Nick's crotch (in the first GIF above)? Or when Tito thrusts himself against Nick's behind (in the second GIF below)? In 1981, surely I would have sensed the passion in these assaults, but I would have probably told myself it was all in my head, my dirty mind always at work. But, now, just look at it! What else could it be?
Bad old days? ? Two hunky, sweaty pros in Trunks n Boots. Tests of Strength, cruel hair yanking, rough armbars and headlocks. Gorgeous suffering from two vets who get it. I'd say those were some great old days...
ReplyDeleteoh yeah! me too.
DeleteBig Bockwinkel fan as well -- some of his squash matches are quite hot! If you like Bockwinkel - check out Larry Zabisko. He was another talented ring technician who gave great beatings!
ReplyDeletety for the tip!
DeleteIt’s “Larry Zbyszko” who you guys want to look for… it's very worthwhile YouTube or google search if you like hairy heels.
DeleteAnother smashing post from Skull Island!
ReplyDeleteLike yourself, I grew up with only Southern Rasslin’, mostly from Florida. I was fan of the Briscos, Funks and Grahams among others. I was a very young teenager at that time that glanced through the wrestling magazines on the stands at supermarkets.
It was in those magazines that I was exposed to other wrestling “territories” throughout the country and was drawn in by a photo of Bruno Sammartino on the cover of an issue of “Inside Wrestling” … but I knew I had to buy the issue (discreetly … like I would have been buying porn, if I knew anything other than Playboy was “porn”) when I noticed an article in that Sammartino issue with photos of Nick Bockwinkel of the AWA. Bockwinkel’s appearance in magazines became the grail I would look for as the months and years went on.
Blonde, hairy and burley — I was an instant admirer of Bockwinkel though it would be close to ten years before I ever saw video of him in the ring. I got home late one night during my first year in college and discovered ESPN was airing the AWA on Saturday nights. What’s more, I lucked into the first Bockwinkel vs Curt Hennig match where I was treated to Nick throwing a figure-four headlock on Curt… by this time sweat was running profusely on both men. The camera panned up Curt’s body to his head trapped within Nick’s crotch… then the camera continued up Nic’s tanned and hairy gut to his chest to his thick neck… I felt a strong stirring in my underwear and by the time the match neared its finish — after a long and bloody battle, both men were seemed to be fighting on instinct and the blood was matting the hair on Nick’s chest… Damn! That’s when I had shot my first load to a wrestling match and never looked back.
At the dawn of the internet, both Skull Island and Wrestling Arsenal would allow me to confirm I was not alone in this kink… and would go on to cheer Tito Santana as well.