The Rose

Listen to my night out filming a pro indy wrestling show, and how I got the rose above. What a wild and crazy world.

Vic

Big Brother, Come Wrestle!

Oh my, take a load, I mean look, at this guy. Nick is a contestant on the Big Brother 8 reality series. If you have Showtime 2, they air live feeds of the house from midnight to 3:00 am. So if you're bored, you might see video like this. God I hope they wrestle sometime!

Ranch Hand Re-creation

Every good film is filled with great stories, and the STRONGHOLD wrestling documentary will be no exception. One gentleman talks about growing up on a ranch and riling up the ranch hands to get them to wrestle him. Sometimes photos that show off what happened are unobtainable or non-existent, so you have to do your best to recreate the memory. Above it just one of five pictures that I've worked on that will be used to tell his wonderful story. I feel like I am right there with them and ready to rassle!

Making Miniature Money

This is how I spent part of my day today, making miniature $5 bills for an animation for the STRONGHOLD wrestling documentary. How will they be used, you ask? Hmmmm, I can tell you that the animation will probably last about 4 seconds. I might do two or more animations with it, we'll see.

Back to the drawing.....eh, cutting board.

Vic

Wrestling or the War?

As you know if you follow this blog, I have talked to tons of guys at bars about wrestling, and even got some of them to go outside and wrestle for the documentary. Recently I went to a bar and spoke with an army recruiter about wrestling, and the war. You can listen to the audio clip I recorded the next day detailing what happened.

So, which topic is safer to talk about with a stranger at a bar: wrestling, or the war?

Click Here to Listen

Vic

Gay Straight Guys

This has got to be one of the funniest comedy skits I have ever seen, and is right in line with the guys that I speak to at local redneck bars. You'll love this!

LEECHES, SWIMMERS, and WRESTLERS, Oh MY!

If you ever want to see one of the most homoerotic movies with guys that all look like wrestlers, (though they are swimmers in the movie), get "Leeches!". The camera pans along tons of guys showering, sleeping, taking off their shirts, literally all throughout the film, and most of the time they slow the camera down. The premise of the movie is guys on a swim team taking steroids which ends up creating super large sucking leeches that even crawl and attack them on land. One of the main stars is Josh Henderson, who played a hunky teen neighbor and love interest of one of the wive's daughters on Desperate Housewives.

What does this have to do with wrestling? Probably nothing, except they all look like wrestlers!

Vic

Bit by Bit, Piece by Piece

That is how a film is made. And boy do I have lots of bits! Here is a picture of me in front of a large cork board I put up in my back room, now referred to as STRONGHOLD central, where I review parts of the script. Each page can last anywhere from 1 minute to 5 minutes. One of the most difficult tasks over the past few months has been how to best present all of the interviews and footage and materials I've acquired. How and when is the time right to introduce this topic or person, etc, etc. I recenly had a breakthrough in the script to help facilitate some of those issues. I'm being so secretive here. Smile. You can watch a little video tour I put together of the script room here.

Anyways, now you know why I've been so busy. It really sucks though, I have not wrestled in like 5 months, but right now my allergies are killing me so. If I'm going to be sleepered, I at least want to start out breathing! Vic

Making Music

Tonight I spent three hours with Justin, the guy that I've chosen to sing the theme song for the STRONGHOLD wrestling documentary. We got together to work on the melody of the song. What a great voice he has! Here are a few pictures of us working together. You can listen to some of his other songs that inspired me to write the theme song here.

AIRPLANE SCISSORS

Hey men, I caught this picture up on ebay, pretty hot. I never heard of an "airplane scissors", but I'd like to take it for a spin sometime (as long as the end result is hours trapped in it on the ground). Smile. Here is the caption for the photo when it was published:

ED "STRANGLER" LEWIS grimaces in pain as Jim Browning, Boston Irishman, applies a new "airplane scissors" to spin him around. Browning followed up with a body slam to win the match and the title after 67 minutes of grappling at Madison Square Garden recently.

Vic

The DESK

Here I sit on the eve of March 22, 2007. My legs are sore from walking up over 10,000 steps for the past week as I carried stuff to my new place not too far away (boy are my legs pumped to squeeze someone's head). The movers come tomorrow morning for the big stuff. This is my last night sleeping here, on the couch since the bed is apart, and I write to you now from the desk you see pictured.

At this rather old desk that I purchased after college in 1986, I conceptualized and put together the Growing Up Wrestling book in 2005. And for the past three years, I've sat night and day editing, emailing, sorting, PR-ing, researching, booking flights, chatting, and everything else necessary for the STRONGHOLD wrestling documentary. You can see some of the many hard drives that contain over 150 hours of transferred footage, (9) 300 Gig drives total including backups. The desk was surrounded by nicely framed photos of wrestlers, especially my favorite Antonino Rocca, but they're all boxed up now.

Soon I will be setting it up at my new place, and continuing to edit the film. It will be nice to have a different perspective as I edit and think. In a week or so I meet with Justin to hear his first cut of the theme song for STRONGHOLD. Then I may take a trip to Florida to get, what else, hot shirtless guys wrestling on the beach. I have a knack now for getting almost any mainstream guy to wrestle. It's a high actually. The other night at a local "straight" dance/sports bar, a few 20-somethings were standing by me and showing off their tattoos. One guy had an ARMY t-shirt on. I looked him straight in the eyes, probably about 10 inches from mine, and said "Do you like to wrestle?" Without skipping a beat, he looked back at me with that "understanding" need, said "YES", opened his cell phone, and took my number. Hot damn! Good thing my new place will have a mat room. I just may actually get to wrestle again sometime soon!

Anyways, I have a candle lit on the other side of the room right now to commemorate my last sleeping night here. I unplugged the TV and cable and won't be able to watch anything until Monday when they reconnect at the new place. Four days without TV, what WILL I do!

OH, there is a possibility I may get the three men that move me tomorrow to wrestle, I'll let you know if I convince them. The only rule: shirts must be off! Smile.

Vic

Bill "Iron Cross" Hughes Passes

I was just informed today that Bill Hughes, a long-time wrestler and early contributor to the WrestleMen site, died on Sat, March 10th, after a bout with cancer. I never had the chance to meet Bill, but I did talk to him on the phone several times. As a matter of fact, Bill was the first person I spoke to in April 2004 when I began the forthcoming STRONGHOLD wrestling documentary. Though he declined to be interviewed on camera, I hoped to convince him as the film progressed.

As many of you know, Bill was a feisty man, and that was what was most attractive about him. A good heart inside a feisty wrestler's body. Bill hosted many wrestling matches in his gym in Long Beach, CA for years. If you are a member of the WrestleMen.com site, Matches #6 and #10 were photos contributed by Bill to the site in 1997. He will surely be missed, but not forgotten.

Please feel free to click on the comments link below to leave your condolences and share your memories with Bill.

Vic

Angry Dad Disrupts Wrestling Match

Happened in Chicago over the weekend. Something tells me this man needs to find another man to wrestle. Perhaps the other kid's father. Now that would be fun to watch. Click on the play button to watch news report.

Editing, Editing, Editing

Hey guys, sorry I have not posted anything in awhile. I've been really busy editing a piece for the documentary on BJJ schools. Here is a picture from one of the schools I filmed at, with one guy locking a triangle choke on another. GOTTA LIKE IT! Click on comments below and tell me what you think of the picture. Wait 'til you see the video of it.

Vic

Drink, Talk, Rassle!

In my daily quest to turn the world into a wrestling world, and show it in the documentary, I talk to and meet lots of guys at the local bars, turning most every conversation into a wrestling conversation. I've always wanted to see how open guys are once uninhibited with a few beers. And no, these are not gay bars, just plain old redneck sports bars.

The point is guys love talking about wrestling, regardless of sexuality, and they love doing it if given the opportunity. Case in point, this past weekend I pulled this military guy and his buddy out of the bar and had them wrestle for the film after a good interview. I told the military guy to put his friend in a full nelson, and his buddy egged him on with "work it with some UMPH man!" Final last words, the big military guy held his friend to the ground for like two minutes as I continued interviewing them. It was great, and they talked about the rush it gave them to do it. I hope they continue to wrestle each other now that I've broken the barrior for them.

Have you ever talked to complete everyday strangers about wrestling? Use the comments link below to share your story. Vic

Pro Wrestling Round Table

This past weekend I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Mr. Scott McEwan (above left), an artist and pro wrestler from Toronto, Canada, as well as his tag team partner Bill (right) at Dean's (center) ring in Annapolis, MD. Not only did we film lots of wrestling action for the documentary (which includes one of the hottest bearhugs I've ever seen), but also ended the day with a nice hour-long roundtable discussion filmed in the center of the ring. Then we went out to feast on roast lamb and beast. Wait, that's from the Grinch, but we did have a lot of food on our plates!

Perhaps I'll put a video snippet or two from it on the site once I transfer and edit some of the material and stop frothing at the mouth like a dog in heat.

Victor

Body Scissor Mousepads and more!

Hey guys, I've been ordering lots of cool stuff from my new wrestling gift store and the quality is excellent. Check out the new items I've added, like this hot vintage photo body scissor mousepad. Also, check out the "Wrestling Buddies" mousepad and ceramic coasters. That's ME on the right! The WrestleMen store also includes a wide selection of t-shirts, sweatshirts, and even a WrestleMen.com polo shirt. Click here to shop for yourself and your wrestling buddies.

Vic

WRESTLING MERCHANDISE, OH MY!

Coming soon, you will be able to select from a wide range of wrestling tshirts, sweatshirts, athletic gear, mugs and more with great designs. Perfect for the Holidays and wrestling buddies. I'm setting up the shop now, and I've ordered a few of the products to make sure they are of good quality. You will even be able to buy WrestleMen.com logo shirts and sweats. Grrrrr!

Vic

BINS AND BINS OF WRESTLING

From archival photos and books, to old film reels and videos, I’ve scoured the world for the best collection of materials to use in the STRONGHOLD wrestling documentary, and at the same time making sure I get the necessary permission to use them. Scanning every image and converting film to digital video is a chore among itself. Now you can see why it takes so long to make a film. Do I hear ebay some day?

Vic

HOT Wrestling Overload!

Ok, I knew it was going to come to this eventually. For the past three months I was reviewing every interview I shot for the film, (over 100 interviews) and piecing out the best statements. I then categorized (umph) what turned out to be 1200 interview soundbites into the roughly 45 segments that may make up the documentary. Tonight, I've started reviewing the hours and hours of wrestling footage I shot, and piecing out the best portions. You know, looking for those 4-5 second shots that just drive you mad. It's SO hard to wittle it down, I like so much of it! Here is a still from a match that I shot. I could stare at pictures like this forever, do you feel the same way? This is how guys should be with each other every day, you think?

Ok, back to wittling down and trying to stay focused. HELP!

Vic