Wrestling with Artificial Intelligence

It's been over three years since I last posted on my blog.  Over the course of doing this blog, the motivation to come up with new posts pretty much left me.  Most of the wrestling videos being produced just didn't inspire my creativity to the point where I did not care to come up with any new ideas.  But recently, I started playing around with AI to create wrestling images, and this has been a good creative outlet.  Right now, it is difficult to create images of good wrestling action with AI.  The only thing I can create with some regularity is the gorilla press, so it's lucky it's one of my all times favorite wrestling moves.

All these images that you see here are created with Image Creator on Bing.  It's very temperamental, rejects a lot of prompts, and usually generates an image that is not what I am asking for.  But maybe one out of every twenty or thirty attempts produces a really great image.  It's my hope that over time AI image generation improves and that eventually I'll be able to create different types of wrestling moves and holds, especially, of course, the bodyslam.

I'm posting images to my Facebook page (Facebook) and my Instagram (Greg B (@arlnova77) • Instagram photos and videos), so be sure to check them out regularly.

Support the Z-Man!

  

Many of you probably know already that Zack Vazquez, better know to us a the Z-Man, suffered serious injury in a car accident not long ago.  To support Zack and his family during this difficult time, Weekend Wrestling has posted a match of the Z-Man against Jack Worthington.  A few screen caps from that match are featured here.  All proceeds from sales of the match will go toward a recovery find set up in Zack's name, so go to WW and check it out!

 

Zack has been a prolific wrestler, performing at a multitude underground wrestling companies, including 88Wrestling.  This week's special deal at 88Wrestling is the Flex City match between the Z-Man and Tanner Hill, which I featured before in my blog.  This is really a fun match to watch, and 88Wrestling will be donating proceeds from its sale to Zack's recovery fund, too.  If you haven't seen the match yet, this is a great time to check it out!

The Z-Man never gives up!

 

UPDATE:  For those interested, there's also a GoFundMe account here to help Zack.

Flashback: Cody Nelson

  

Back in July I passed a major milestone, marking ten years since starting this blog.  It came and went without me even realizing it, but I'm confident the loyal followers of my blog (all 17 of them) took notice.  I have to admit I'm surprised I've been doing this for so many years.  I'm not really sure why I keep at it, other than it's a nice little creative outlet.  To be honest, I do this blog primarily for my own benefit, but rest assured I get satisfaction in knowing that my loyal followers (all 17 of them) enjoy it almost as much as I do.

To commemorate over ten years of this blog, I decided to highlight Cody Nelson, who was one of my favorite wrestlers from the early days.  Heck, Cody remains one of my favorites even to this day.  Rock Hard Wrestling introduced us to the awesomeness that is Cody, and the stud appeared in several matches there.  Highlights in this post are from his matches against Troy Nelson (his brother), Travis Storm, Brody Hancock, Jeff Hollister, and Max Powers.  For me, Cody's appeal was his confidence, masculinity, and good looks, which are all the things I want to see in my perfect heel.  Plus, he was great at delivering bodyslams and backbreakers.  In the ring, Cody always delivered.  If the new generation of underground wrestlers want to see how it's done, then they should look no further than Cody Nelson.

This is how a real muscleboy flexes!

The Final Act

 

So here is my third and final post about Hollywood Fight Club 3 from Can-Am Wrestling.  There are several wrestlers featured in this video, but really it's three of them who make this one worth while.  First and foremost, there's Rio Garza, who is in a class of his own.  The second wrestler is Michael Vineland, a big, muscled-up dude who dwarfs the rest of the competition with his size and masculinity.  And finally, the third star is Aryx Quinn (aka Tristan Baldwin).  Rio and Vineland don't wrestle in this video, which is a shame, but previously we got a glimpse of Rio and Tristan wrestling.  And now I feature the contest between Vineland and Tristan, which is the climax of Hollywood Fight Club 3.  This match is for all the marbles.

Every wrestler in Fight Club brings a big wad of cash with him.  And the contest rules bascially say if you are defeated enough times, you're out.  The last man standing victorious after all the matches is the winner, and he collects all the money.  It's Michael Vineland and Aryx Quinn in the final battle, and it looks like Vineland is well on his way to take home the prize (by the way, the big guy already won Fight Club 2).  Much of their match showcases Vineland beating up on Aryx with big muscle moves like bodyslams and backbreakers (which is why I enjoyed watching it so much).  But we know that Aryx is an experienced pro, so we can't count him out too soon.  He eventually turns the tables, but in the end, I think Aryx learns that you can both win and lose at the same time.

I don't know what else to say, but "Ouch!"

Z-Man the Heel

I have decided to do something a little different with today's post and use only gifs.  It's probably not something I will do regularly.  Joe at Ringside has been doing it for a while now, but as much as I enjoy his blog, the gifs don't run well at all on my computer, and it can get frustrating.  We'll see how it works here.  These are some highlights from an old match at Rock Hard Wrestling between the Z-Man (Zack Vazquez) and Kyle Carter.  For this post, the use of these gifs seems appropriate. My blog pays tribute to the bodyslam, and as you can see here, the Z-Man bodyslams the fuck out of Kyle Carter in this match.

I'm pretty sure this is Kyle Carter's first appearance at RHW.  The match set up here is a popular one for all the underground wrestling productions.  The rookie wrestler gets put in the ring to get tested by the veteran.  The Z-Man plays the veteran well and delivers a big beat down on the newbie.  You know, a few years ago I saw a "behind the scenes" clip from Thunders Arena, and in it Zack Vazquez was laughing at how lots of fans love to see him lose.  He even said they would receive angry emails if he won a match.  My tastes must be different from most of the followers of underground wrestling, because I enjoy watching the good looking hunk like Zack play the heel.  And it's even better when the good looking hunk of a heel crushes another good looking hunk.  That's what we get in this match, because both the Z-Man and Kyle Carter look magnificient.

To be fair to Kyle, this match is not a total squash, so for those of you who love to see the Z-Man suffer, here's a little something for you:

For a rookie wrestler, Kyle Carter does a pretty decent job against Zack.  He only appears a limited number of times at RHW, which is too bad, but after watching him here, Kyle may be worth checking out some more.  Yet in the end (and in the beginning and the middle), the Z-Man is the star of this match.  And as much as I love all the bodyslams and other moves, his victory pose at the end may be my favorite part of all in this video.  Just look at those arms!  Holy fuck!

 Once a muscleboy, always a muscleboy!

Take It Easy!

Bearhugs, bodyslams, and backbreakers probably are my favorite pro-style wrestling moves.  And when you see them in a match featuring two good looking wrestlers, it's a winning combination.  This is what we get in a match between Scrappy and Reyes Valenti at  Wrestler4Hire.  With a couple of piledrivers thrown in, too, this video pretty much checks all my boxes.

The set up for this video is Cameron Matthews bringing young Reyes Valenti to the ring so veteran Scrappy can show him a few things.  Cameron cautions Scrappy to "take it easy" on his young protege.  But for Scrappy, there is no "easy" in wrestling.  He's only got an on/off switch.  And when he's "on", it's bearhugs, bodyslams, and backbreakers for poor Reyes.  "This isn't easy!" Reyes groans after the first backbreaker, but Scrappy just keeps at it.  From outside the ring, we hear Cameron yelling at Scrappy, reminding him to take it easy.  "I promised his mom I'd have him back home in one piece!" Cameron shouts while Reyes gets the crap beaten out of him.  Scrappy just can't help himself.

By the way, in my last post I suggested that Scrappy is one of the best at over-the-knee backbreakers, and he does nothing in this match to prove me wrong.  As for Reyes Valenti, this is the first match of his I have checked out, and I must say I like what I see.  While not as jacked as Scrappy, Reyes has a smooth, muscular body, and he boasts boyish good looks.  He suffers well at the hands of Scrappy, but Reyes has some decent size, too.  I see the potential in him to dish out beahugs, bodyslams, and backbreakers of his own on a smaller opponent.  (I hope W4H takes the hint.)

One final note -- this video really is two matches in one, because halfway through Cameron gets in the ring and goes after Scrappy when the muscleboy refuses to "take it easy" on Reyes.  That part of the match will deserve another post some day.  All in all, this video is well worth the price of admission.

 Hey, Scrappy, we told you to take it easy!

Hail to the Muscle Gods!

Who's ready for another post dedicated to the over-the-knee backbreaker?  I could probably do about fifty posts on this wrestling move, but I'll just stop at two for now.  I drew upon the image of a "muscle god" in my last post to refer to a wrestler who likes to sacrifice his opponent over the knee.  As I look over these two posts, I realize there are so many muscle gods in wrestling.  It's such a popular move that you see it in all the underground wrestling companies I like to follow.  On this page alone we got Rock Hard Wrestling, Muscleboy Wrestling, Wrestler4Hire, 88 Wrestling, Thunders Arena, and NRW Wrestling.  The new Weekend Wrestling absolutely loves the OTK backbreaker, and at Untamed Creations (which I just started following recently), those boys are breaking backs all over the place!

And looking at these photos I see so many of my favorite wrestlers doing the move.  I have to say that Scrappy is one of the best at breaking backs, but guys like Tanner Hill (aka Cena), Dante, and Cody Nelson always impress when they do it, too.  And I love the first pic in this post where Jake Jenkins plays muscle god by breaking Austin Cooper's back.  Cooper is no slouch himself in the world of wrestling, but it just goes to show that even muscleboys can find themselves sacrificed to muscle gods.

 

Sacrificing muscleboys to muscle gods!