Rasslin Rascals

Rasslin Rascals, photos by Old Reliable, write up bu Butch Murdock mid 80s.

BY BUTCH MURDOCK
Back when I was just a lad, my primary source of erotic entertainment consisted of watching professional wrestling on television. Granted, many of the wrestlers were flabby or other-wise unattractive. But some had nicely muscular bodies that sent shivers up my spine. They wore next to nothing and contorted themselves into some very suggestive positions. I was rivited by the sight of bulging crotches in tight trunks with substantial torsos, arms and thighs. Every Saturday night I’d be glued to that television screen, and sail away in fantasies that included running my hands over those bodies, cupping the warm crotches, tracing the outline of a curvy ass. Antonio Rocca, Johnny Powers and Edward Carpentier were some of the men who populated my dreams and daytime wishful thinking.
I got older-still watched the pros-but learned about high-school, col-lege and Olympic wrestling. Younger guys with better builds entered my pantheon of idols. Although these guys wore singlets instead of trunks (less visible flesh) I was still captivated and grew to distinguish between the flamboyant, theatrical wrestling style of my television heroes and the more competitive, less flashy style of the non-professionals.
Watching all of the wrestlers, noting all of the body contact and often semi-erotic “holds,” I wondered if the men were gay and enjoyed participating in the matches as much as I liked watch-ing them. At this point in time, my brain really kicked into high gear, and I would fantasize scenarios in which I hand-picked wrestlers and choreo-graphed their moves. Occasionally I would even create my own wrestlers, selecting this one’s face, that one’s chest, another guy’s pelvis and still someone else’s thighs. On the mat in my mind I would pit one dream stud against another and jerk-off as they strained their muscles in matches designed to stimulate my lust.
I never participated in high school or college wrestling, but after graduation learned of the gay wrestling clubs that exist in many of the larger cities of the U.S. I joined the New York Wrestling Club and acquired some ability, building a repertoire of holds and moves. It was gratifying to know that other gay men were turned on by wrestling and this top-secret passion

of mine was no longer something that I had to keep under wraps. Anyone who knows me at all these days is aware that I enjoy watching and par-ticipating in the sport, and also that I’m not the only gay man who finds it erotic. Wrestling has finally come out of the closet.
The newest development in wrest-ling dovetails beautifully with a recent development in the art of video. Over the past few years a whole slew of wrestling videos has been produced with the gay consumer in mind. Some are great, some are awful, but they provide the perfect adjunct to the pro-fessional and collegiate-style wrest-ling that is still broadcast on television. Collegiate-style wrestling has not changed at all since the days of my youth, but the professional wrestlers on television have become even more theatrical and flamboyant than ever before. In fact, much of the time the programs dwell on managers and wrestlers strutting around, starting verbal feuds and showing off weird costumes. Occasionally there is some good wrestling and some of the bodies of the current stars are very exciting: Randy “Macho Man” Savage, Paul Roma, Ricky “The Dragon” Steam-boat and Paul “Mr. Wonderful” Orn-dorff spring immediately to mind. But these days the pro-wrestling pro-moters are trying to win a larger au-dience and the sport has become sub-servient to the theatrics. So the advent of gay wrestling videos serves as a timely alternative to gay wrestling fans who are more interested in muscle and sweat than silly costumes and childish name-calling.

Gay wrestling videos largely fall in-to one of two basic types; the first con-sists of porn stars who don singlets and fake it on the mat for a while prior to sex, and the second is a spate from Old Reliable that features street-toughs who really rough it up and then jack-off. The one major exception to these two types is a video called Gay Wrestling which is a documentary of a tournament between The Golden Gate Wrestling Club and The Los Angeles Wrestling Club.
Among the more popular videos in the first category are Wrestling Meat Part 1 & 2 and Wrestling. The former consists primarily of sex in a gym-nasium with occasional time-outs for some wrestling action. While not ex-ceptional or awful, these cassettes are fairly run-of-the-mill and may best be utilized as introductions for the
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neophyte fan. The latter video consists of three guys-a body-builder, a col-lege jock and a masked man who calls himself “The Spoiler”-rolling around in someone’s living room. Afterwards they jack-off. I was pretty bored watch-ing this one and said to myself, surely there must be better wrestling videos than this. Then, out of the blue, Old Reliable stepped in, fulfilling my ex-pectations of what a good wrestling video could be.

To date, Old Reliable has issued twelve wrestling videos. Eschewing contemporary marketing strategies, they are simply titled numerically. Following is a run-down of the con-tents of a handful of these cassettes. Each consists of three matches and usually the wrestlers oil their bodies and fight in the nude (exceptions noted below). There is jacking-off after each bout and sometimes posing, flexing and verbal abuse.

Wrestling #5 (Video Tape-27) starts off with Lone Wolf Vs. Montana, who have similar builds and are equally un-skilled. Neither one ever establishes control, but it’s fun to watch them roll around. Following is Sean Vs. Ron, a middle-weight and a heavy-weight. Sean is very attractive and manages to out-wrestle Ron who is much bigger and qualifies as the least attractive man in the Old Reliable stable. The last bout is the best. Billy Dean is a tough grappler and C.J. is less skilled but equally determined. The fact that C.J. is among the most attractive wrestlers in the series makes it a riveting attraction.

Wrestling #9 (Video Tape 41)
begins with Sean Vs. Ron. The former is a dark-haired beauty and the latter is a tattooed blond. Both have great bodies and it’s an even match. Follow-ing is Keith Vs. Mark, both of whom are well-muscled and sport beards and moustaches. It’s a rough and tumble bout with lots of excitement. Finishing off is Brian Vs. Butch. Brian who is quite a looker is much smaller than Butch. But Brian is ferocious and determined and holds the advantage

throughout this excellent match. Wrestling #10 (Video Tape 46)
leads off with Keith Vs. Jerry, both of whom have terrific bodies and deliver good grappling action. The second bout, Bill Vs. Mark is interesting because they start off wrestling in jeans, then strip to their underwear.
This bit of strip-tease adds a bit of theatricality to the proceedings. Both wrestlers are aggressive and have good bodies. The last match, Brian Vs. Brian is one of the best with two really tough guys giving it all they’ve got. One of the Brians clearly outclasses

the other in this eventful match-up. Wrestling #12 (Video Tape 57)
begins with Brian Vs. Lone Wolf. Brian is beautifully proportioned and has dark curly hair and a moustache. He’s tough and aggressive and has the ad-vantage over his taller adversary. Next is Mark Vs. Jerry. Mark has a hairier torso than most of the Old Reliable wrestlers and Jerry is one of the most muscular competitors. They are pretty evenly matched but Jerry is the better grappler. Finally Chris and Nikki, who are punk rockers (the drummer and vocalist of an unnamed band), simu-late a pro-style match. It’s good enter-tainment if pro-style turns you on.