The 1980s

Isolation has given me time to be nostalgic. Not a lot of time, since I still work from home, but I have no 33-minute commutes each way and a trimmed down social life. So I started thinking about the 1980s - a pivotal decade for me personally and for the world,  Among other things, it was the decade I found out that other gay men got off on wrestling, beginning with Victim #1's  stack of wrestling magazines in William Friedkin's Cruising (1980).

BG Enterprise and Old Reliable followed with black-and-white print catalogs. I could afford only two or three tapes a year so I stared hard at the small, murky photos for signs of a figure-four hold or a bearhug. Recently, I took a week and relived the 1980s, focusing on BG's Arena series released before 1990. Here are my favorites among the 60 or so matches I watched from that era, a few of them for the very first time. 

1. Buddy Justice versus Jon-Boy Tyler, Arena Wrestling 14

I have my friend Dr. L to thank for stirring my interest in Buddy Justice. Justice occupies the top three spots on this list. It surprised even me how high up on my list he is. Buddy is not GQ material, but he has loads of rough trade appeal (which attracted me in the 1980s, though I seldom, well sorta seldom, pursued it). 

2. Buddy Justice versus Thom Katt, Arena Wrestling 4

Thom Katt looks like the 1980s to me - a cross between Billy Idol and Steven Tyler. He may have even borrowed those long tights from Pat Benatar. I don't recall the divide between heel and babyface being a big deal in underground wrestling back then. It just wasn't a selling point. Competitors were just that: competitors. However, this is what we'd today call a heel-vs-heel match. It's great whatever the label.

3. Buddy Justice versus Tommy Lopez, Arena Wrestling 3

Until I started delving into BG's early history, I had forgot all about Tommy Lopez. The guy is awesome in this rage-filled fight with Justice and in the next GIF, too. Tommy has a hot body, built for fighting. How much muscle posing was there in underground wrestling in the 1980s? I don't remember any. Also, I remember more tight-struggle body contact, fewer tests of strength, than we see today. (Even the ventures into body worship - Magic Hands, that sort of thing - were usually separate from wrestling.)

4. Tommy Lopez versus John Jay, Arena Wrestling 5

Most of the matches on this list took place in front of a small but vocal audience of friends and fellow wrestlers. Fights were at least partly improvised in the ring in response to ringside fans' coaching and egging on. Eventually BG moved away from live performance in front of flesh-and-blood spectators. I like the on-the-spot spontaneous roughhouse, but it requires quick decision-making skills and reliable instincts. Another John Jay match inspired similar feelings in a 2018 post.

5. Rocky Waters versus John Jay, Arena Wrestling 10

Rocky Waters was a lumberjack in Oregon. He also stripped and made several appearances in the BG ring. Here he looks like a prototype for Cameron Matthews, smooth, slim, and ambitious. Underground matches in the 1980s centered on pain, giving and receiving. The techniques were less polished, less professional, but more vicious. Back then, underground wrestling was closely tied to the S&M subculture. The ties are still there, but overshadowed by muscle posing.

6. Philipe LeBeau versus Corey Simpson, Arena Wrestling 9

Philipe and Corey are as strong on performance as they are in handsomeness. My idea of Paradise is beautiful men doing damage to other beautiful men. BG tells us that porn-star Corey, in red trunks, has a strong background in competition wrestling. Interestingly, he doesn't overplay the erotic elements of wrestling, perhaps because he knows eroticism is inherent in wrestling and doesn't need to be forced. Philipe's thing is mixed martial arts, which serve him well against Corey.

7. Kid Leopard versus Jon-Boy Tyler, Arena Wrestling 17

Kid Leopard is the reason most younger fans know about BG Enterprise, which BG East sprouted from in the late 1980s or early 1990s. He was and is a proud heel, who particularly relishes cutting young upstarts down to size. He brought wit to his ring performances without taking anything away from his talent for mangling. For decades, he has been the flame the beautiful boy-moths immolate themselves against.

8. Thom Katt versus Jon-Boy Tyler, Arena Wrestling 1

I did not know of the wrestling medals Jon-Boy (or John-Boy) Tyler has won when I included him three times on this list. Though his role in all three is to demonstrate the limitations of "clean" wrestling, he proves that academic wrestling skills make a fight better overall. No starker contrasts exist than those between Tyler and Buddy Justice, Kid Leopard, and (here) Kid Leopard's protégé and minion, Thom Katt. 

9. Bryan Walsh versus The Wild Thing, Arena Wrestling 18

Like his pal Kid Leopard, Bryan Walsh is respected for his top-notch wrestling skills and ability to bring a distinctive buzz to the wrestling ring. He can be bad, and he can be good. In this match he takes on savage Wild Man, playing both good and bad. The Wild Thing knows no limits or decorum, so straight-edge Bryan decides to fight fire with fire in a deliciously hot wet battle that leads to a hard-makingly brutal finish.

10. Aaron Hart versus Mark Mueller, Arena Wrestling 15

God, I love a buddy-vs-buddy match, especially when the buddies go full-tilt aggressive, as all-American Aaron and his Swiss pal Mark do in their (as far as I can tell) only venture into underground wrestling. But when you do a fight as all-out as this one, maybe one is all you need. Everything is tasty about this match - the hairpulling, body slams, off-the-top-rope leap, and climactic backbreaker are, if not perfect, evidence that these buddies had given a lot of thought to fighting each other someday. I'm glad BG was able to capture the event for posterity.

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