Reruns - Hanlon vs Anderson

Mikey Hanlon vs Max Anderson, World Series Match (NHB-Wrestling)

Since 2013, when I first posted on it, this World Series Match has been at the top of my list. If tomorrow I were shot to Mars and could take only one video with me, my pick would be Hanlon wrestling Anderson in their third bout. That would mean leaving behind my favorite Hollywood movies and every other wrestling video. It would hurt, it would fucking tear me to pieces, but I would pick this match. I could live on a diet of just this one hour-long movie for my remaining years.

Happily I don't have to make such a decision, but such is my love of mat grappling, especially when two hot bodies are involved. I'll be the first to admit that I don't know what great wrestling is. I enjoy most levels and styles, but I know what catches and holds my attention - and what busts my zipper. NHB-Battle no longer exists but thank goodness Movimus has stowed this video in its vault. And thanks to Movimus, I can now share GIFs of this contest in motion.

7 July 2013 review

It's interesting to me that straight-identified wrestlers bring up girlfriends right when their nearly naked bodies are squished up against another man's nearly naked body. They are not only declaring their heterosexuality--to discourage viewers from making hasty assumptions about them--but also admitting what many of them would heatedly deny in ordinary conversation--that is, the intense eroticism of wrestling as a sport. (In the ancient world, the Greek word for wrestling was also the slang term for fucking. The Greeks knew.)  I mean, who says "I did this to your girlfriend once" during a tennis match ... or while boxing? I'll tell you: Nobody. So then why do straight wrestlers say these things, as Mikey Hanlon says to Max Anderson towards the beginning of this classic NHB-Battle match (available now from Movimus)? I'll tell you: Because the proximity of bodies, the friction between bodies, the exertion of muscle, and the waves of heat are all intensely, maddeningly erotic--and even straight guys think about sex while wrestling, even if they're not ordinarily attracted to their opponent. (Confession time: at age fourteen, I got through my first sex act, which was heterosexual, by mentally picturing myself as wrestling the girl. I shit you not.)

Max Anderson, 5'11", 182#, and Mikey Hanlon, 5'9", 172#, are both strong mat wrestlers, so well matched to one another that they can't get enough of each other. Mikey is like a neighborhood tough, a New Yorker, talkative, aggressive, spontaneous, and Max is like a country-club golden boy, a Louisianian, tightlipped, resilient, patient. I'm now focusing on their third match, a World Series contest, four out of seven falls. It lasts an hour--that's an hour of wrestling, no promos, the only intro a brief set of stretching exercises. Movimus lists it as one of the "most viewed" matches in their catalog. Max currently tops the "Top 10" list of Movimus wrestlers, with Mikey in an impressive third place. By any criteria, this match is a classic. Because of their comparable skills and strength, one is no more likely to win than the other. Victory hangs totally on the two men's preparations for this particular fight, their will to win, their bodies' durability and strength, and, to some extent, luck.

Compared to pro-style wrestling, with its theatricality and fast pacing, real submission wrestling is a slow burn. It offers no quick, stimulating bumps. To get the full effect of a match like this, you need to stick with it, soak in it, let it seep into your skin. You must savor it. The longer and more carefully you watch it, the more likely the huffing and puffing, the smack of skin on skin, and the sweat-lubricated clenches will give you that happy, squirmy feeling down there. It works for me, and apparently for many other Movimus followers too.