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!

Sacrificed to the Muscle God

Whenever I hear or read the words "over the knee", my pulse quickens.  The OTK backbreaker is one of the hottest wrestling moves of all times, especially when performed by a muscular heel.  He scoops you up high into the air and carries you around.  You prepare yourself for a bodyslam, thinking at least it will be over quickly.  But no!  The heel drops you down and cracks your back over his knee.  Fuck!  You cry out in pain from the impact, but it's not over.  The pain ratches up as the hardbody hunk bends your back over his knee, bending it in a way nature never intended.  Through gritted teeth, you moan loudly, but there's nothing you can do but endure the agony.  You're nothing but the muscleboy's bitch as long as he decides to hold you there.

The move is especially effective when the heel continues to hold the victim with his arm through the crotch, like Scrappy does above.  It's bad enough to have your body helplessly splayed out over the knee, but feeling the heel's arm between your legs and his hand grabbing your butt just increases the humiliation tenfold.  Plus, you're worried he's going to pick you up again, then drop you down over the knee for another backbreaker.  If he's a really bad-ass muscleboy, that's exactly what he does.

In the end, you are completely at the heel's mercy.  Your body is laid out as if across an altar, offered up as a human sacrifice to the muscle god who put you there.  You lose the will to fight, so you finally submit.  That's why the over the knee backbreaker is one of my favorite wrestling submission holds.

Sacrificing another jobber to the muscle god!

Wrestling to the Max

I've said it before.  I really need to check out UCW Wrestling more often.  Because every time I do, I'm very pleased with the wrestling matches they produce.  Today's match is between Max Ryder and Malik.  We've seen Malik before, but this is the first time I get to feature Max.  I hope it's not the last.

Max Ryder is billed at 180 pounds, while Malik weighs in at a mere 152 pounds.  When you give up 28 pounds in wrestling, you're probably going to pay for it.  And for most of the match, Max uses his size advantage to make Malik pay.  It's not totally one sided because Malik is able to get in some moves, mostly after disabling Max with a cheap shot, but Max proves to be too big and too strong for Malik to control forever.  Max really wrestles with a certain intensity in this match.  It's almost like he's used to being a jobber, and now finding himself a heel, he really savors his destruction of Malik.  For his part, Malik seems to enjoy being manhandled by muscleboy Max.  You can't really tell from these pics, but I think Malik is actually grinning much of the time while Max takes him apart.  I think if I were Max in this match, I'd be the one smiling.  There aren't many things much more enjoyable for a wrestler than being able to make another dude your bitch.

Powerslammed to the Max!

Show Me What You Got

Here is our young, intrepid hero Peter (who I like to call Peter the Great) appearing in another wrestling match.  His opponent this time is a dude named Ronan, who looks to be a little bit older and more mature than Peter.  But Peter has the advantage in size and muscle, and after all, that means a lot in wrestling, right?  Peter establishes his dominance at the start by beating Ronan in arm wrestling.  Ronan, however, is undeterred, so he tells the bigger guy it's time to wrestle.  And Ronan issues a challenge to Peter.  "Show me what you got!"  Well, Peter really shows it . . .

This is another wrestling match where I had a difficult time deciding what to feature because there is so much to choose from.  It may even deserve a second post in my blog at some point.  Both wrestlers get a good amount of time in control, but I like to think Peter is just toying with his opponent whenever Ronan is playing top dog.  When Peter eventually has enough of it, he easily over powers Ronan to take back control.  And when Peter is in charge, he's either hoisting Ronan into the air and carrying him around, or he's grinding the smaller wrestler into the mat with various submission holds.  In the process, Peter shows us a lot of big boy moves, including the biggest big boy move of them all -- the gorilla press.  But Ronan can't complain, of course.  After all, he demanded that Peter show him, and our young hero responds.  I really look forward to checking out more of Peter's matches.  The big guy does not disappoint!

Peter shows us what he's got . . . and it's Ronan!

Boys From the Golden Age

Our fan favorite Vinny Trevino is back in another video from BG East.  This time we find our Italian stallion hanging out with BG East uber stud Justin Pierce.  The two agree that Justin has better wrestling technique while Vinny is the brawler.  Having both been beaten down by Mikey Vee, they decide they can improve their skills in the ring if they cross train each other.  Sounds simple enough, but as the two practice, Justin finds himself getting a little carried away.  In demonstrating some of his wrestling moves and holds, Justin gets Vinny into a submission, keeping it longer than necessary.  Then after the two don gloves for Vinny's tutorial on boxing, an overly eager Justin gets in some cheap shots on Vinny while the Italian has his back turned, and then he needlessly takes Vinny down with a drop toe hold.  As the video progresses, Vinny is like a simmering pot, becoming increasingly annoyed with Justin.  And, as expected, Vinny finally reaches his boiling point and blows.  Our Italian stud launches in on Justin with a flurry of punches and finally lays Justin out flat for the ten count.

It's not until after Vinny flattens Justin that the wrestling match begins, which is thirty minutes into the video.  By now having punched Justin's lights out, Vinny is determined to prove he's a two sport star as he proceeds to demolish Justin with several high powered wrestling moves.  And in the end as you can see below, Justin finds himself once more laid out on the mat, thoroughly defeated, a loser in both boxing and wrestling at the hands of Vinny Trevino.

One thing that strikes me while watching this video is the quality of talent BG East had available at the time it produced this match back around 2003.  Both Vinny Trevino and Justin Pierce are spectacular, but the quality doesn't end with just these two studs.  Around that time, BG East had an amazing stable of wrestlers on its roster, including guys like Rio Garza, Mikey Vee, Mike Columbo, Blaze, a young Braden Charron, Jed Jamison, Brad Rochelle, and on and on and on.  It truly was the Golden Age for wrestling at BG East.

 Don't quit your day job, Justin!

Hollywood Fight Club

About ten years ago Can-Am Productions released a series of wrestling videos called Hollywood Fight Club.  Each one features several guys who gather to fight each other, with the ultimate winner claiming a big cash prize.  It's a good set-up for a wrestling themed video, and I'm surprised we have not seen more of this from other wrestling productions.

 

Earlier this year I blogged about Rio Garza's appearance in Hollywood Fight Club 3.  In addition to Rio, there are seven other wrestlers who compete in this two hour production.  Fan favorite Rio definitely is one of the stars, as is well known wrestler Aryx Quinn (aka Tristan Baldwin).  But in the literal sense, the biggest star is Michael Vineland.  His hulking, muscular body pretty much dwarfs everyone else who shows up at the fight club.  Michael is strong and powerful, and he eagerly uses his strength to toss his competition around the mat.  If you are a fan of bodyslams (and you know that I am, of course), there's plenty to like with muscleman Michael performing multiple slams along with other awesome power moves.  The big guy really delivers in this video.  The one regret is that he and Rio did not square off.  But all in all, Hollywood Fight Club 3 is not a bad way to spend a couple of hours.

One word . . . Awesome!