Blaze

I want to return to BG East wrestling.  Not long ago in my post about Mike Columbo I mentioned how BGE did a good job of recruiting bodybuilding wrestlers and putting them in the ring for some entertaining pro-style action.  Here's another dude who is worth checking out.  His name is Blaze, and at 6' 2" and 200 pounds he's a total beast in the ring.  As best as I can tell, he completely dominated his opponents, often times with bodyslams, which of course I like to see.  This is my only exposure to Blaze.  I'm not sure what became of him.  He seems to be the type who could have had a great wrestling career in several underground companies, but it looks like he only wrestled at BGE.  So, great work by the talent scouts at BGE for finding this guy.

Blaze of course is a muscleboy, so he's licensed to flex those big guns for us.  You kids at home don't try this.  Leave it to the professionals!

Jake and Scrappy

Hello wrestling fans!  I've been fortunate to see a sneak preview of an upcoming match at Thunders Arena (thanks to Mr. Mike at TA!) that features Jake and Scrappy.  These are two wrestlers I haven't really spent much time with yet, but I hope to have more of them in my blog in 2017.  Keep your eyes out for Battlespace 91 which will be appearing soon at TA.  If you love to see corn fed white boys wrestling, then this is the match for you.  It's mostly mat wrestling, but it's got a few good lift and carry moves I like to see, including a belly to back bearhug and some firemens carries.

But what I like the most about this match is that it captures the fun of wrestling.  It brings back memories of my days as a wrestler, especially in high school, when you get with your buddy on the team and just roll around, all smiles and laughter.  I have to admit that those were some of the best times of my life.

UPDATE: The match is now available here.

Mike Columbo

I don't feature BGEast wrestling as much as I should in my blog, but over the years they have produced some good pro-style matches featuring strong bodybuilders in action.  The talent for these matches is similar to what Thunders Arena likes to offer, but BGE is a little different in that these guys usually wrestle in a ring instead of on mats.  I think the ring setting opens up the action a little more.  The dude we see here is Mike Columbo, who is billed variously at 5' 6" or 5' 7" in his matches.  I think we all know this type of guy.  Mike was probably very small and skinny as a kid, but one day he figured out how to build muscle.  And WOW did he build it!  And once Mike got his muscles, he liked to show them off, and what better place to do so than in a wrestling ring where you get to bodyslam and rack other dudes?

I like how his two opponents here have smiles on their faces.  I wonder what it is about wrestling Mike that brings them so much joy.  No doubt watching him wrestle is a joy, and I thank BGE for giving him a venue to show off.  And speaking of showing off, Mike is a true muscleboy, so he's certified to do this:

Reflections on 2016

Before we get too far into the New Year, let's spend a moment to reflect on what 2016 blessed us with in the world of the Bodyslam Fan blog.  But first, I'm sure most of you are anxiously awaiting the announcement for Wrestler of the Year, but I regret to inform you that there will be no such award for 2016.  The turmoil from the presidential election spilled over to the WOTY Selection Committee, and things got pretty ugly pretty fast.

No one was willing to compromise or even consider seeing things from someone else's point of view.  Allegations of corruption, criminal acts, and even sexual harassment were rampant, and #notmyWOTY became common place.  We also experimented with electronic voting, but every time the votes were tallied, Vladimir Putin came out the winner even though everyone on the Selection Committee denied voting for him.

With all this chaos and animosity, I decided to just completely scrap the Wrestler of the Year award this time around and instead do something different.  Because I always enjoy finding new wrestlers and featuring them in my blog, it seems like a good idea to highlight four of my favorite new guys who first appeared on the Bodyslam Fan scene last year:

Destroyer Dharma debuted on my blog shortly after making his own debut at Singapore Pro Wrestling in a high flying match against Rowdy Ranga.  And by high flying, I mean Dharma had his opponent flying high around the ring.  You can watch the whole match here.  Dharma's second match was a handicap bout because SPW felt it wasn't fair to have just one guy face the reining Mr Singapore in the ring alone.  As you can see here, it wasn't much of a handicap.  Now I understand from Dharma himself that he will be in a battle royale later this month.  It looks like the big guy is making a name for himself at SPW, and let's hope we get to see more of Destoyer Dharma in 2017.

One of my favorite posts from 2016 featured Kevin Lin in a match from Underground Championship Wrestling.  Despite doing this blog for several years, I never really paid much attention to UCW, but I'm glad I finally decided to check them out.  Kevin appears in a few UCW matches, but I don't think he's been in anything new for the past several months.  But I'm hopeful he'll be back on the mats again sometime in 2017.

What can you say about Steel?  Thunders Arena has a knack for finding the big guys who know how to flex their muscles and then really show them off by gorilla pressing other dudes.  Steel has appeared in several matches at TA during the last year, and although he has been an infrequent guest on my blog so far, I expect that to change in 2017.

And finally there's Tanner Hill at Rock Hard Wrestling.  While Thunders Arena loves to feature the big bodybuilder guys like Steel, the wrestlers at RHW like Tanner are more often the high school jock and college fratboy types.  RHW is not as prolific in its production of matches as TA is, and I was even worried last year that its run might be over, but luckily their wrestling continues.  I look forward to see what they have in store for us in 2017.

With wrestlers like Destroyer Dharma, Kevin Lin, Steel, and Tanner Hill in action, 2017 should be another exciting year for the blog.  And one wonders what new wrestler will take the scene by storm. We'll just have to wait and see how things play out over the course of the year, but here's one guy I hope we get to see more of in action:

Happy New Year dudes!