RhodyRaybo's blog

Today at work I met a new employee. I was working on scanning pallets in the shipping department and the head engineer walks by and introduces the new guy in maintenance. I looked rather intently at him and noticed he was looking back at me the same way. As we shook hands I told him he looked so familiar. He told me he was thinking the same thing. As he walked away I asked myself..."did he and I wrestle once?". I went to my records and sure enough, there was his name and age in my records. We wrestled only once about a year and a half ago. The sad thing is, I really don't remember what it was like to wrestle him. Guys who respond to my Craig's list ads tend to be "one and done" and he was no exception.

Needless to say, any future conversation with him should be interesting. I don't plan on lying to him if he remembers us wrestling, but to be safe, I don't plan on being the one to bring it up. I really don't remember what happened when we wrestled. I tend to have a pretty good memory about the different guys, but not all of them leave a strong impression on me, especially the one timers from CL. Will see what transpires next.

There are only a small handful of men that I have informed of my pastime
of wrestling. None of them had any interest in trying it themselves,
but all understood to some degree why I do it. But in a conversation
with one friend, he informed me of a movie that he had seen a long time
ago called "The Fight Club" which was released in 1999. He quoted the
number one rule of fight club was "you never talk about the fight
club". That was also the second rule too. Ever since he told me about
it I had wanted to see it. About a month ago I finally ordered a blu
ray copy of the film from Amazon.com for $5.99. Last night I finally
watched it in bed because I had no desire to watch what my wife was
watching in the living room.

Anyway, while I have no desire to get too deep into describing the plot,
it involves a somewhat successful young urban professional 30 year old
single guy in an unnamed city, who is very dissatisfied with his life. He is the narrator
and unnamed. The plot begins with him attending support groups for people dying from
various diseases. He seems to get his rush from attending a different
support group every night. At more than one of these groups he meets a
woman about his age with the same fetish for support groups. This is a
subplot, that I won't get into because it has little to do with the
points I will be making. While returning home on a business trip he
bumps into this odd fellow, Tyler, played by Brad Pitt who is sitting next to
him on the plane. They chat and exchange info then go their separate
ways. This is where the character's life takes a turn. He finds out
his luggage was confiscated because it was vibrating, (strange because
this was pre 9/11) then returns home only to find that his condo had
been destroyed in a fire. He pulls out the business card of the new guy
he met and gives him a call on a pay phone (yes, it's THAT dated!). They
meet in a bar and after 3 hours of drinking and talking this new friend
allows him to come stay with him but while they are in the parking lot
of the bar Tyler asks him a favor..."hit me as hard as you can". He asks
"what???". He asks again, he does hit him and a brawl begins drawing a
couple spectators. They both realize they enjoy it and after he moves
into his home which is nothing more than an old house abandoned that he
was squatting, the fights in the parking lot of this bar become a
regular thing which draws more attention and more participants. The
manager of the bar agrees to let them carry on this "fight club" in the
basement of the bar. Ok, that sounds really reasonable. Also, the 2
main characters discuss which famous people they would fight if they
could. We've all done that. This, however, is where the similarities
between what we all do here in our network and what the fighters in the
movie do ends.

The fighting that takes place when "fight club" is in session is brutal
and bloody. This makes no sense because most wrestlers hide the fact
that they wrestle and showing up at home and at work with blood all over
you and bandages over wounds would not be easy to explain. And seeing
nobody was supposed to talk about the fight club, then walking around
with multiple facial injuries is definitely something participants would
avoid at all costs. Most wrestlers in reality avoid blood at all
costs. Also, there is no mention of any erotic element to fighting.
They just fight because they want to. We all know that getting turned
on by a match is common, but not in this movie. It also seemed there
was very little bonding that so commonly takes place when guys get
together to wrestle like we do.

Finally, the most disturbing aspect of the fighters in this film is
that they are portrayed as complete psychopaths who are potential
terrorists waiting to come out. Members of the fight club are
instructed at one point to start fights with complete strangers. I
found this very unsettling especially when one member attempts to pick a
fight with a priest passing by. I know many of my wrestling buddies
and opponents attend church regularly and even are active in their
parishes, myself included. Later in the movie members of the fight club
are being recruited for some sort of militia that later makes ISIS seem
mild in comparison.

This is also a very dark movie, much like the Batman movies from the
80's and 90's. Most scenes take place at night. Also, It seems to have
a very sinister overtone to it. One can't help but get the impression
that fighters are portrayed as dark psychopaths who are unable to even
think for themselves. They seem to volunteer for the militia for no
apparent reason and yield everything over to their leader, Tyler. Also, They
also seem to care little for each other in the film. I know that I
would never want to injure any of my wrestling opponents because the
biggest factor in wrestling is BONDING. Very little of that takes place
in the film.

One final disturbing aspect of "The Fight Club", about three quarters of
the way through the movie, the plot takes some very bizarre twists to
the point that at the close of the movie, we are unsure if any of this
actually was supposed to have taken place or if the entire plot was
nothing more than a long fantasy of a very psychologically disturbed
character who should be institutionalized if he is not already! If it
was supposed to have taken place, then we as boxers and wrestlers should
find this offensive. If it was nothing more than a fantasy of the
character, then we are left with wondering what the point of all this
really was.

Though the plot held my attention, I really can't recommend this movie
on any level. However, if you like movies with bloody violence,
explicit sex, and lots of f-bombs being dropped, then this is for you.
If you are intrigued simply for the sake of watching the bloody and
occasionally gory fight scenes, I would caution you. For a movie over 2
hours long, the fight scenes are few and far between. You would waste
less of your time simply by looking for wrestling and fight matches on
Youtube.

If you do decide to watch it based on this review, then thank you for
reading. I don't plan on keeping the copy I purchased because we
generally don't keep R-rated movies in our DVD library, so if any of my
semi regular wrestling brothers want to watch this, I will gladly give
it to them. Otherwise I will probably just toss it. I have no
intention of ever watching it again.

Since I began wrestling in 2011, I have been keeping track of how many matches I have had and with whom. I count each opponent as a match, even if there are multiple opponents at a group match. With that said, I am very happy to say that today I had my 600th match! I know it's just a number, but I like my milestone matches and was especially excited that I was finally able to have a milestone match with Pecs44! He has been a mentor to me, always pushing me to my limits. Today's match was no exception. We rolled around in 3 different rounds trying to get the other to tap out. He tapped once and I tapped twice. He always gets me in the same position when I tap. He pins me and has his arms wrapped around mine where I can't even budge.

But I can honestly say, I have never had a disappointing match with Pecs. it's always intense, always sweaty, and always tons of fun. And he is the opponent I have had the second highest number of matches with at 54 matches. He's second only to Twisterman. These reasons are why I wanted a milestone match to be with him.

Thank you Pecs for all the fun times and all the encouragement you've been to me. Looking forward to many more matches in the future.

600! Yes! I made it to 600!!!!

I wrestle a lot of guys, many are "one and done" matches. Some are semi regular like "Michael" or "Stanley". And then there are others I only see once or twice a year. One guy in particular I will call "Guido", because he is a nicely muscular, strong, Italian guy about my age. He is not on any of the wrestling sites, but rather someone who responded to my Craigs List ad a few years ago. Since then I have only heard from him about a couple times a year even though he is only an 18 minute drive from my house.

The ritual that I have with him is the same each time. It's usually a Sunday evening after dark. I check my email and see his name pop up on an email in my inbox. When I see his name, I know he's home and wants me to come over. The first time we met, he came here, but since then I have gone to his place. But anyway, when I see the email, he simply asks how it's going. This is a mere formality, I know he wants to wrestle so I immediately respond and offer to come over. A few minutes later I will get another message telling me to come over. I quickly get a couple things together and hop in the car and text him.."I'm on my way". He responds with "please call when you get here".

After the 18 minute drive, I come to his street. It's a dead end in a very wooded section of a small suburb north of Providence. Anyway, I drive up the street and come to the end. He lives in a studio apartment on top of a garage. He always asks me to not use the driveway but a small field next to his apartment. It's a bit creepy, but intriguing. I call him as I pull up, he just says "come on in". I walk in the pitch black night up to the garage steps and halfway up, a light comes on. I get to the door and let myself in. Here's where it gets interesting. He is always ready, he's pushed back the furniture, got a comforter on the floor, and the lights are all off except for his tv and some candles he has lit. He is also sitting waiting for me ready to go, oh, and he's buck naked. I say very little, just short "hi, nice to see you" blah, blah, and I immediately disrobe. Once I am "ready", I just go to the floor where the comforter is and get on my knees, he gets on his knees. The whole thing is both creepy and cool.

Now the action begins. Guido is very strong. He works out religiously and he works in construction. He immediately gets me pinned and is sitting on me, sometimes on my face. I manage to squirm out usually only to find myself sniffing his privates again and again. I get a few breaks only to find myself being sat on most of the time. There is one drawback with Guido. He seldom lasts more than 25 minutes when we wrestle. I can always tell when he's running out of steam. When he has me in one of his face sitting holds, he starts going for my manhood. I feel the old rod of mine being yanked. At that point I try to draw it out a little more. I try harder to pull away and pin him down, usually to no success. I only find myself back under him with him grabbing. I then decide to tap, then after sitting and catching our breath, we do what a lot of guys do when wrestling, we climax. I will let you use your imagination on that one.

Afterwards, I go into his bathroom and shower the whole experience off me. We still don't say that much. I politely thank him for having me over, then it's time to drive back to my home. I drive away wondering when I'll see him again. But it's ok, it's always a fun time. I wish he wanted to wrestle a little more often, but each match is very memorable. Last I heard from him was January, so hopefully in spring, I'll hear from him again. Guido, luv ya bro! Let's wrestle again.

When I began wrestling 4 years ago, a young man who loved wrestling and cuddling answered my ad in Craigs List. I will call him "Andy". When he first contacted me, Andy told me he was getting married and moving to the Boston area afterward and would like to wrestle and cuddle with me. I told him I would be happy to. After much back-and-forth for almost 4 years, we finally met a couple weeks ago. He met me at the "site B" in Massachusetts so he wouldn't have to drive so far. We had a late night match after 9pm on a Friday. What was it like? He was a very strong jobber. All the hugging he told me over and over and over again that he wanted to do was not a disappointment. I don't think I ever had so much dialogue about getting together for so long with anyone else. We hugged, struggled, fought, and hugged some more. He's everything he promised he would be. I don't know if I will see him again anytime soon, but if I don't at least I finally got to meet and wrestle "Andy". Even if we don't meet again, I will fondly remember our match and wish "Andy" a blessed life in his marriage and any future family plans he has.