Lightning Rod

Johnny Lightning vs Steve Arnold, Musclehunk Wrestling #8 (Can-Am)

Before fights broke out over who's hogging gym equipment or who kept whom waiting or who lost a previous match where the opponents were tag partners, fights broke out over posing for the camera. I'm fairly sure competition for the camera goes back to the Bob Mizer Physique Pictorial  days in the late '40s, early '50s. That tradition is honored in this bang-up match between Johnny Lightning (blue trunks) and Steve Arnold (yellow) a couple of decades ago.

My enthusiasm for Lightning has developed rapidly in the last few years. In the 90s he was too blond, too pale, too mouthy for my tastes, not to mention he strongly resembled somebody I knew in real life and liked but wasn't attracted to. (That last connection dawned on me only gradually.) Now I'm a hardcore fan. Obviously I'm the one who's changed, but I have no idea how or why the change occurred. Sometimes the brain, the heart, and the dick are three different persons.

"This is the way it's supposed to be," says Johnny as he kneels between Steve and the camera and strikes a double biceps psoe. Steve shoves him aside, but Johnny continues, "This is shredded. This is ripped. This is the way bodies are supposed to look." Half a second later, Johnny German-suplexes Steve and snags him in an armlock. "I'm gonna break your arm, yeah?" Lightning gloats as Arnold spews out f-bombs. "You wanna fuck?" Johnny answers and rises to his feet, pulling Steve up by his hair, slamming him back down, and applying an armlock. (See the first three GIFs.)

The rest is not a total squash job. Steve is vicious in his paybacks, scratching at Johnny's eyes and crushing him in a bearhug. But it's Lightning who sets the ring on fire, stoking his opponent's wrath at every turn ("C'monnn!" he repeats). Steve goes after him, but Johnny is faster, less predictable, never striking the same place twice, so to speak. He hauls Steve's "fat" body around like a side of beef, repeatedly smashing it to the mat. He sits on the guy's head while the rest of the body thrashes and heaves.

For good reason, this is the capstone match of Musclehunk Wrestling #8.

Visit Can-Am here.