Heels & Heroes

I’m excited to announce that I’m collaborating on a new venture in homoerotic wrestling fiction! The quick version of the announcement is that I’ve partnered with my long time collaborator, AR, to publish a pro-wrestling-turns-erotic serial, pairing his gorgeous wrestling graphics with my penchant for prose. The Heels & Heroes series explores the fictional world in which the Global Wrestling League recruits the best pro wrestling talent from around the world to produce classic, high production value pro wrestling drama week after week for a globally televised audience. What happens in the ring is already boundary-obliterating stuff, but the series also explores what’s in the heads, in the locker rooms, and behind the curtains. And as you might imagine if you’ve ever read a word I’ve written before anywhere, erotic domination and sexual gratification are the raison d’être and raison de faire underlying everything that makes wrestling so compelling (as far as I’m concerned). For $5 a month, subscribers get access to weekly updates including graphics and text documenting the global superstars of wrestling battling it out, scheming and scrapping, preening and plotting, and putting their beautiful bodies on the line for glory and a shot at gold. Back-Stage-Pass holders ($10/month) get additional exclusives, including even more magnificently crafted images of the action, even more pros-in-private NSFW graphics, and exclusive access to polls and future storyboards to weigh in on what happens to whom, and just how raunchy these hard-bodied gladiators are going to get.

Now, for the longer version of the announcement, I want to share a little bit of how fun this has been to work on and world-build for the past 12 months. First of all, I want to acknowledge that there is already a lot of incredible homoerotic wrestling art (graphic and text) out there. AR and I spent a ton of time, including several start-overs, multiple recasts, and literally hundreds of hours brainstorming, storyboarding, rendering graphics and writing and rewriting text, most of it focused on trying to create something novel and engaging. I think we’ve landed on a sweet spot that adds something creative and constructive for a homoerotic wrestling audience that likes to read. If I had my way, this would be 90%+ AR’s graphic art on showcase. The guy’s ability to convey narrative with nothing but a graphic blows my mind daily. However, if AR had his way, this would be 90%+ my written words, getting into and getting stoked hard by inside-out/outside-in details that only omniscient point-of-view fiction can provide. We’ve basically had to arm-wrestle over striking a balance that captures the best of what our unique collaboration has to offer.

Homoerotic wrestling in serial format has long been on my wish list. I’ve had three different potential producers of homoerotic wrestling videos approach me over the past 16 years to ask what I thought would be something fresh that a new company could provide to claim a novel niche in the (already saturated) market. Every time, I’ve said what I think is missing is plot. Of course, there’s some sensational storytelling happening within a lot of homoerotic wrestling videos (not in all of them, of course, but in a lot). But the nature and scale of how homoerotic wrestling is produced has just not permitted the world-building and story telling that can come from a serial format, with the plots of matches stitched tightly together, extending suspense and intrigue beyond the bounds of any one-off video. I’ve had established producers explain it to me, and I totally get it. They hire talent and film batches of matches a few times a year. Pulling off a multi-video, multiple match story arc like BG East’s Contract Series is wicked challenging to do for many reasons, including having reliable access to wrestlers committed to come back for multiple shoots. It’s just an entirely different beast to craft pro wrestling drama in a small shop format than, say, a mainstream pro wrestling federation employing wrestlers for one or more shows a week, where they can light slow burns and explosive feuds, where shocking betrayals have the context of multi-match histories, where wrestlers can be ranked and what happens in one match shapes the starting point for another match that will take place in the near future. I still think there’s more room to build on clever narrative like the Contract, or Grudge Match 6, or cocky heel partners in Tag Team Torture 19 turning on each other after a stunning loss. But one of the itches we’re scratching with Heels & Heroes is week-to-week, match-to-match development of the narrative, even tracking the drama and personalities after the cameras are off and wounds need licking (yum).

I’ve confessed many times over the years that I’m a bad capitalist. So, this is my first time marketing something having to do with my labor for monetary compensation (as far as writing about homoerotic wrestling). Honestly, I don’t think I’d be attempting this now if this weren’t a collaboration with someone I trust and whose creativity inspires me the way AR’s does. We really don’t have a business plan here, or strong sense of the tastes and demands of the market. What we do have is a lot of creativity and enthusiasm, and a product that delights us and turns us on. Anything we earn from Heels & Heroes will serve to offset some technical costs of continuing our creative endeavors, and keep us accountable to continuing to build the H&H world that we’ve grown to enjoy so much.

Check out teasers on the Heels_and_Heroes IG account, and if you’re interested in checking out the hot, sweaty, high impact, erotically charged pro wrestling universe of the Global Wrestling Ring, find us on Patreon!

Wrestling for Top

I’ve been delighted to get turn onto (and turned on by) new homoerotic wrestling fiction lately. One of the awesome consequences of sharing my hobby-writing in the genre, neverland readers have been sharing offline their recommendations for hot fiction. And a few authors have even reached out to call my attention to their published work. Jack Stevens is one of those authors who agreed to let me post a sensationally hot excerpt from his novel Wrestling for Top, published by Ninestar Press, available there as well as on Amazon. I immediately ordered my copy, and I’m super impressed with the writing, the character development, and the intense overly of classic Brit Pro wrestling with an homoeroticism. If you’re into hot fiction with a deep respect for pro wrestling and a sexy, insider love of homoeroticism, check it out!

“Wrestling for Top”

by

Jack Stevens

Published by Ninestar Press

Handsome wrestler Terry ‘Kid Bacchus’ Ryan is popular with the fans in the ring and with the men in the bedroom. But faced with dwindling audiences and fierce competition in Britain, Terry gambles on a tour of Europe with ‘uncle’ Doug, three wrestling buddies, and an unexpected sponsor, Mark who wrestles as the masked  ‘Johnny Deuce’.

Abroad, Terry and his team score on the mats and between the sheets, catching the eye of influential wrestler/promoter Yves Montaigne, who is eager to make Terry a star and lover.

But even as success beckons, Terry is drawn into a world of dark and dangerous sexual fantasies, and to save himself and his wrestling family, Terry must find out who his real enemies are. Are they linked to the death of his father years ago? What part did Uncle Doug play in that? And above all, who really is the man behind the Johnny Deuce mask?

In this extract, Terry and Mark (wrestling in his mask as ‘Johnny Deuce’) meet the German father and son tag team of Bernard and Stefan Shoenfeld.

“Father and son!” Mark scoffed, as he and Terry stood in their corner watching the Germans enter the ring and take up their position in their corner. “Yeah. Right!”

Terry studied their two opponents. Apart from their ring gear there was little family resemblance. Bernard was obviously a wrestling veteran: the hair on his chest grizzled, the hair on his head thick but iron grey, his face well lined, and the single tattoo on his forearm a patch of lines and colours blurred by time. Terry took in the wiry physique and the assurance of his moves as he ducked under the ropes to enter the ring and began limbering up. 

Terry turned his attention to Stefan Shoenfeld. Late teens, possibly very early twenties, his hairless chest and pale blond curls making it hard to judge his age. A good two or three stones heavier than his ‘father’, stocky but in a puppy fat kind of way, he moved around the ring with an adolescent gawkiness that contrasted with his partner, his warm ups confined to grabbing the top rope and leaning back to stretch out arms and back muscles. There was strength there, Terry didn’t doubt, but he already had the feeling that the real threat from this team was going to come from its senior member. 

Once they’d removed their ring jackets – in Bernard’s case, an old school dressing gown – al four wrestlers were given the once over by the referee who ran his hands over their upper bodies and checked the soles of their wrestling boots, a procedure that was more ritual than practical. Mark, of course, was in his Johnny Deuce kit. Terry had gone with white speedos and boots with a single black stripe down the side of each to complement him. The Germans were in matching purple, Bernard in tights, the boy in a leotard cut low over his stomach, their boots polished black leather with purple highlights. Terry let his eyes linger appreciatively on the young lad’s leotard. Cut very low over the stomach and high at the sides over the thighs, showing just a hint of butt cheek round the back. Tight enough to make the arse crack very visible, very tempting. Terry found himself wondering, if he was to hoist the boy up in a suplex or piledriver, pulling at that leotard as he would perfectly legitimately have to, would the sheer lycra be pulled deep into the lad’s tight crack in a classic wedgie, giving the ringsiders an eyeful of more of their local lad’s beefy arse cheeks than they’d ever have dreamed possible?

The wrestlers moved to the centre of the ring, all four with their heads down, frowning as if concentrating on the instructions and warnings the referee was barking at them and nodding as if to show acceptance. By now, Terry at least was well used to pantomiming agreement to a stream of foreign words none of which he understood. The four men shook hands, the bell rang, and Terry slapped Mark on the back as his partner left the ring to take his position on the apron outside the ropes, then turned, crouched and prepared himself to lock up with whichever of the Schoenfelds was staying in the ring to wrestle him first. It was Bernard.  

They circled, Terry grinning as per usual, the German poker-faced. They closed in and locked up, each throwing his arms around the shoulders of the other and leaning in, in an initial test of strength.

Their first session against each other lasted well over five minutes, longer than most rounds in a singles match and rare for a tag – and Terry loved every minute. Bernard was a wrestling genius. Not a movement was wasted, not a fraction of effort misplaced. He flowed from hold to escape to counter hold, over and over. He was what wrestlers called ‘light’, selling his holds as if he was pouring all of his weight and strength into all of them, but actually bringing little real pressure to bear on his opponent.

Terry, after allowing himself to be displayed in the holds, was able to ‘escape’ then respond in kind, showing his own repertoire of moves and routines which Bernard also generously sold, grunting in a way that just managed to suggest to Terry a man in the first stages of working himself to an orgasm.

Terry knew though that this concession to showmanship would probably only last for the first half of the bout, if that. Sooner or later, the veteran was bound to go for a fall or submission.

Even as he realised this, Terry couldn’t help wondering if Bernard would handle his body as skilfully and ruthlessly in bed. He wouldn’t have objected to having that wiry grey chest and belly hair rubbed in his face. He’d bet the German had a thickly hairy ball sac too. He could picture it rasping over his face, his lips, imagine taking the furry balls into his mouth….

It was a loss of focus, just for a second, and the next thing Terry knew he was caught up in a tight headscissors that had come like lightning out of nowhere. Belly down to canvass, Terry’s head was trapped between the German’s thighs, his face pressed tight into that crotch. His daydream of nuzzling Bernard’s balls had come true but too soon, and not at all in the way he’d pictured it. The older man squeezed his legs and pushed his hips upward, the text book way of increasing the pressure on the opponent’s head. It also happened to press Terry’s face still harder into his crotch. Terry slapped frantically at his tormentor’s arse, selling the pain, but also letting his hands linger on the sheer lycra, rubbing them over the knotted glute muscles before slapping them again. With no trunks-line it felt like Bernard was naked. Bernard responded by increasing the pressure still more, pushing his hips up higher so that Terry’s handsome young face was buried still deeper in him, only the thinnest layer of the sheerest lycra between his cock and balls and Terry’s nose and mouth. He wasn’t holding back and Terry felt like his skull was being squeezed to the point where his brains would shoot out of his ears if he didn’t escape or submit. But just for one moment he didn’t care. From his suddenly acquired intimate vantage point Terry now knew for certain that Bernard was wearing nothing under his tights. Terry groaned deeply and the audience around them cheered, taking it as a sign of the young Brit’s suffering in their man’s hold. On the front row of seats, Doug tutted and rolled his eyes. He knew Terry was enjoying himself.

For a good thirty seconds, Terry let Bernard squeeze him between his legs while he made the most of feeling the man’s butt under the silky lycra, and the pressure of the German’s very ample package pressed into his face. Bernard wasn’t hard, not yet, but Terry could definitely feel the contours of something very thick and long grinding into his face as Bernard worked his scissors hold. With his face completely obscured to the audience, Terry opened his mouth and suckled on his tormentor’s balls. Bernard hissed. He could have released then and there if he hadn’t liked what the young Brit had just done. But he didn’t. 

When he thought they’d sold it as long as they could to the audience, Terry gave the obligatory twist and handstand and ‘escaped’ the scissors hold. As both men leapt to their feet and circled each other again the crowd applauded Terry’s skill and Bernard’s near ‘victory’. On the German’s face was an expression of regret. The crowd thought it was because he had lost a possible winning move. Terry knew it was because he was no longer having his ballsac tongued by a good-looking young stud in trunks.

Though he was metaphorically – and literally – having a ball, Terry knew it was time to give his partner his share of the limelight. Besides, he needed a few minutes to let his own ‘enthusiasm’ subside a little before it became far too visible to the punters on the front seats. Terry span away from his opponent, stepped up to his home corner, reached out his hand and let his partner tag in to take his place in the ring.

Bernard too tagged out. Across the ring, Terry tried to catch the veteran’s eye, but Bernard’s attention was wholly fixed on Stefan as he took his ‘father’s’ place and squared up to Johnny Deuce. Really selling the concerned father act, Terry thought as he took in Bernard’s anxious expression. Okay, he was beginning to see where the ‘plot’ of this bout was heading. It was a standard.

As it turned out, he was even more right than he had expected.

As Terry had guessed, Stefan had little of his father’s skill. Stefan charged into Mark like a young bull, actually driving the Brit back into the ropes before he recovered from the unexpected suddenness of the attack and responded in kind. The two quickly went on to exchange a series of forearm smashes to each other’s chests that had zero finesse but had the crowd quickly whipped up and shouting. Mark wrapped his powerful arms around the boy’s head and neck in a heavy lock and dragged him down to the canvass to lay it on hard. Stefan thrashed and pounded the mat, Mark grunted and leaned back, upping the pressure mercilessly, and Bernard leaned as far across the ring as he could in an obviously vain attempt to reach his son’s flailing hand to save him by tagging him out.

Terry grimaced. He could see what was going on. Both inexperienced and both too headstrong to allow the other to look good, Mark and Stefan’s wrestling would descend quickly into undisciplined brawling, far-removed from the skilled technical wrestling he and Bernard had given the crowd. The classic pattern to a bout like this would be for Mark to rough Stefan up some more before tagging Terry back in. Terry would then work the boy over in more imaginative ways, letting him get close to reaching his despairing father’s hand again and again but always pulling him back at the last minute. This would allow Bernard plenty of opportunity to act the concerned / outraged father, and should drive the crowd into a frothing frenzy of righteous indignation at the treatment of the local and youngest man in the ring. Mark would then step back in to score the first fall over Stefan who would then be forced by the rules to begin the second session in spite of his ‘weakened’ state. He would however finally make the tag with his father who would be able to leap in and avenge his son’s punishment and humiliation, taking an equalising fall over Mark.

After that the possibilities were more varied. Ideally there should be at least one moment when all four men were in the ring at once, laying into each other. The poetic justice that the crowd would love would be if Bernard used his skill to gain a second and winning fall over Mark, but Terry doubted very much that Mark would allow that.

Terry’s mind wandered again. Images of Bernard caught up in Mark’s brawny arms being slowly squeezed in a bearhug, his slim, hairy body crushed against Mark’s, experienced maturity helpless and suffering in the grip of brash youth, that heavy purple package squeezed tight up against the heavy tool in Mark’s white trunks. He forced himself to concentrate on the real ring action playing out in front of him. It was not following the plot!

Mark had run a chain of postings on the youngster, repeatedly whipping him across the ring and slamming him back first into three of the ring’s four cornerposts in turn so that the lad fell to the canvass, arching in pain while Bernard made great show of his unhappiness and desperation to help his boy. Stefan reached up pleadingly from the canvass towards Bernard calling out, “Vati,” but Mark stepped in and grabbed the out-stretched hand, pulled him up by it, spun him round and sent him crashing yet again into a turnbuckle. Terry winced. The cornerposts were padded and the impact rarely as bad as wrestlers made them seem. But even so he could tell that Mark was putting all of his strength into hurling the burly boy into them, the whole ring actually shaking from the impact of Stefan’s body against the pads. That agonised look on his face was probably not all acting. And neither, thought Terry as he glanced across at Bernard, was all of the anger on that face either. As Mark’s brutal treatment of his opponent continued Bernard’s expressions and gestures of dismay and anger became less exaggerated, more genuine.

Then Mark made his rookie mistake. Stefan was down yet again. Clapping both hands around his head and ignoring the ref’s pleas to wait until his man got up, Mark hauled the lad back up to his feet and sent him cannon-balling into a corner post, but this time his home corner. The boy smashed front first into the turnbuckle and fell like a sack of potatoes but at the feet of his ‘father’ who only had to lean down to swipe his hand to be allowed to replace him in the ring. Pausing only to lift Stefan to his feet and guide him to a position of safety outside the ropes, Bernard turned to face his son’s tormentor. From across the ring Terry could see the murderous look in Bernard’s eye.

Expecting an even easier time of it against the lighter wrestler, Mark was completely unprepared for the speed at which the veteran launched himself at him. Even Terry barely had time to blink as Bernard threw himself in a forward roll that carried him the length of the ring, bringing him up right behind Mark. Slamming his sinewy forearm into the Englishman’s broad back, Bernard knocked him to the mat, flipped him over and damn nearly had him in a pinfall before the bigger, stronger man just managed to power his way out and back to his feet again. Bernard twisted, tripped him, turned and nearly pinned him again. Again and again the more skilled man took his significantly bigger opponent to the mat and almost pinned him there for the three count, brute strength alone enabling Mark to force his way out each time. Terry could only watch open-mouthed. The speed, skill and stamina of the older man were incredible, and he was giving them all a masterclass in attack wrestling. There was nothing give and take about this. Bernard was furious at what his young tag partner had been subjected to and was out for revenge.  

The crowd roared its approval, and Terry leaned as far over the ropes as he legally could, arm out-stretched, his desperation to tag quite real. He had a bad feeling that what had started out as a good pro bout was now spiralling rapidly out of control.

Stunned and disorientated by the German’s attacks, Mark staggered from one narrow escape to the next, only his greater size and strength saving him each time. But Bernard’s blitzkrieg was wearing him down, and Terry thought it was only seconds now before the vengeful father would have the pin he was looking for. Then, with a roar of fury and frustration, Mark struck. On his knees, with Bernard standing, leaning over him, eager to take hold just as soon as his man got to his feet again, Mark punched up, straight and hard between his attacker’s lycra-clad thighs, driving his fist hard into the veteran’s balls. Bernard collapsed in agony. There was stunned silence across the hall. Even Terry could hardly believe what his partner had done. It wasn’t the illegality, for all that he and Mark were supposed to be good guys. It was the totally unfeigned reality of the move. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that the agony on the face of the man rolling around on the canvass clutching his crotch was completely and utterly real. The hall erupted into outraged thunderous condemnation.

“Johnny! Johnny!” Terry shouted as loud as he could, in a vain attempt to be heard over the punters’ noise, bouncing up and down on the bottom rope, arm outstretched in an attempted tag. But Johnny couldn’t hear him, or wouldn’t listen. Enflamed by being made to look so foolish by the older man, Mark was deaf to everything: his partner’s pleas, the vocal disapproval of the crowd, the referee’s admonitions. All he wanted was Bernard Shoenfeld, and payback time. Reaching down he pulled the older wrestler up to his feet by his grey hair, wrapping his powerful arms round the German’s trim waist and hoisting him bodily off the canvass. For a second Terry thought his earlier wish had come true and Mark was going to lay on a bearhug. Instead, carrying the still stunned German, he turned to face a post and walked, gathering speed until he was running full pelt into the corner. At the last minute he let go of the wrestler, slamming him back first into the corner post, his own weight following on immediately in an impact that drove every last scrap of air out of the veteran’s lungs in a crash that Terry felt reverberate throughout the ring.

Bernard would have fallen to the mat but Mark roughly shoved his hands under the German’s armpits, hoisted him to his feet again, took hold of the top ropes on either side of his opponent’s body, took a step back while still holding on then charged into him, driving his shoulders into the man’s exposed and helpless gut. He stepped back and did it again. Then again. The crowd were on their feet protesting this maltreatment of their favourite, and the referee was trying frantically to stop the brutal punishment without actually getting pulped  between the two wrestlers’ bodies himself. Only after he had delivered six shoulder charges into Bernard’s stomach did Mark leave off, standing back to raise his arms and affect surprise at the anger of referee and crowd alike, while Bernard slid slowly down the turnbuckle padding to the mat, wheezing and clutching his gut and ribs. 

The referee spoke quickly and harshly to Mark, jabbing his fingers at his sweating chest then signalling furiously to the ringside MC who announced something Terry had no way of understanding but which he assumed was some kind of public warning, the first step to disqualification in pro wrestling, and an unthinkable thing for a team of ‘blue eyes’ who were always supposed to follow the rules. He tried to catch Mark’s eye, but Mark was already crouched and regarding the gasping form of his opponent in the corner, impatiently waiting for him to get up again so that he could resume his ruthless assault. The referee had no choice but to begin a count. “Ein, zwei, drei….” Terry thought it was all over. The crowd was shrieking at Bernard to get up. Stefan was shouting at the top of his lungs, urging his father to rise. On the seven count the older man finally stirred. On the eight began to struggle to his feet. He just made it by the nine.

Mark immediately pushed the referee to one side, stepped in, scooped the groggy German up bodily in a crotch hold, paraded him helplessly to the centre of the ring and then slammed him down harshly, back first to the mat. Bernard had time to arch only once in agony, before Mark dropped on him, elbow first into his tenderised gut, then lay across the top half of his body, chest to chest, hands holding down one of his arms, feet the other, keeping him easily pinned to the mat for the full three count of the first fall.

The English were in the lead.

As Stefan leapt over the ropes to dash to help his partner up, Mark swaggered over to his corner of the ring. For the punters, Terry clapped him on the back as if proud of his achievement, nodding and smiling like a loon, but as he leant into him he hissed into Mark’s ear, “What the fuck are you doing?”

“Winning the match. What does it look like?”

“You don’t have to kill a man to do that.”

Mark shrugged. “Shouldn’t step in a ring if he can’t take the lumps, should he?” And his tone changed, became harder. “And he shouldn’t have made me look such a prat.”

I Need a Hero

My writing collaboration with AR started more than 8 months ago, and it sort of amazes me how strong it’s still going. My writing partner, who prefers to keep a low profile, is a delight to work with, and not just because his 3D artwork is scorching hot. He likes to tell himself that I do all the writing, but it’s not even remotely true. His words and dazzlingly sexy ideas are all over everything we’ve been writing together, and when he illustrates some of them, it’s just seriously delicious icing on the cake.

At one point, we were discussing if either of us ever fantasized about being BG East wrestlers like the ones we’ve both been turned on by over the years. The answer for both of us was “fuck yes, all the fucking time.” Which then morphed into a series of homoerotic wrestling stories we’ve been working on over the months charting the fantasy BG East career of a certain wrestling blogger who ventures into the ring and in front of the camera to put his relentlessly critical reviewer’s perspective to the test as a wrestler. I posted at Sidelineland Stories some “match descriptions” of this wrestling blogger’s first three matches, in a loving homage to the real BG East website that I’ve called my homoerotic wrestling home for so many years. Today, I posted what was actually the first BG East fantasyverse homoerotic wrestling story AR and I co-authored, which chronologically takes place after those first few solo matches for the blogger-turned wrestler. In this new match, he shows up with a hunky, newbie tag team partner to square off against the tag dream team that never quite was IRL, Joshua Goodman and Troy Baker.

I shared the story with another friend a few weeks ago, who teased me a little about writing myself as a babyface hero of my own homoerotic wrestling fantasy. If you’ve read enough of this blog, you know that I actually passionately love babyface heroes. A lot. It probably should come as a surprise to no one that I’d cast myself in that role in the rough and tumble world of a BG East fantasyverse. If you read the story (and the upcoming ones that continue to chronicle the adventure), you’ll see that the protagonist is NOT a jobber. I feel like somewhere over the last 15 years of blogging about homoerotic wrestling, the role of a babyface hero who isn’t a jobber has somehow disappeared from public discourse. EVERYONE has been reduced to being either a jobber or a heel, and, frankly, I think it’s a loss of depth of the homoerotic wrestling universe. I wanted my fantasy avatar to walk that line again, tough, mean even, but not a heel. Let me know if AR and I struck that chord in Tag Team Torture – Bard/Strong vs. Goodman/Baker.

And if you know me, you KNOW I love a story arc and character development, so don’t be surprised if you see this fictional blogger turned BG East star evolve!

New Year’s Eve

Good stuff happened for me this year, personally as well as in terms of my creative attention on homoerotic wrestling. In terms of homoerotic wrestling, I started the year thinking that this would be the year of me exploring hot, erotic wrestling in graphic format. And I did, indeed, have a lot of fun doing that. Drawing really took me back to adolescent moments when I sketched out hot muscle men in a secret notebook that I (literally) hid under my mattress as a kid. I saved those old sketches for years as a young adult, but sadly, in one move or another among a whole lot of moves in my adult life, I lost them. I’m (obviously) not a trained visual artist, but there was something sweetly satisfying about drawing my lusts again, older, wiser, and somehow every ounce just as horny as I ever was!

I did NOT plan on this year being a year of returning to writing homoerotic wrestling fiction. But sharing my drawings, as nerve racking as that was, led to connecting up with AR on Deviant Art. Honestly, when he first suggested that we collaborate on something new, with me writing and him illustrating, I groaned just a little inside. I hadn’t really written anything original and new, of my own creation, in years. I’d totally lost steam for it, and, frankly, a lot of that had to do with not getting much feedback from readers about it. Creating for my sake is meaningful, but I discovered years ago that it wasn’t enough to sustain my effort to get back on the keyboard and keep writing. So when I told AR that I was “open” to the idea, I was more than a little skeptical. But then a couple of things happened.

The first thing that happened that turned me on was seeing AR translate an image directly (I mean DIRECTLY) out of my imagination and into 3D rendered art. Holy shit! That is incredible! And his eye is just so fucking nuanced and amazing. I literally keep a shrine of AR artwork now, that I visit every. fucking. day. And it amazes and titillates me endlessly!

The other thing that happened that really sent the second half of 2022 down an entirely different path than I’d expected was getting detailed feedback on my homoerotic wrestling fiction as I’m writing it, and finding AR‘s observations and suggestions incredibly on point. Sometimes, I’ve put myself out there, and I know that there a few hundred viewers seeing a blog post or reading a story, from the page counts. But it can be fucking lonely and discouraging to hear nothing but the echoes of my own voice. I’ve sort of doubted if what I’m writing has much meaning to anyone else, but fuck that no… working with AR has been amazingly validating. I’m writing again because it’s so fucking fun. Some of what we’ve been writing is likely never to be posted or published, and I’m incredibly happy with it because I’m creating and enjoying the act of creation so much!

Not that I won’t post anything, mind you. I posted the first couple of end-products of my collaboration with AR on the new Producer’s Ring Reborn archives, which was another highlight of 2022, beginning to transfer the old library of stories form the defunct Google site platform to a new one. I’m looking forward to sharing more of what we’ve been up to with a broader audience in 2023, so watch here for announcements about new stories, new artwork, and new awesome expressions of passion for homoerotic wrestling that I share with a lot of you.

Oh, and getting comments by man-of-my-dreams Scott Williams has GOT to be the other surprise highlight of the year. Scott continues to tease me that he wants a test drive of the quads I’ve been building especially for crushing his head. Maybe 2023?

I hope 2022 was as enjoyable and creative and validating and titillating for you as it was for me! Oh, and remember to vote in the 2022 BGE fan poll. I was, once again, on the nominating committee, so send me all your hatred and resentment for the field of choices, and then get your ass back over to BGE and vote anyway, like you know want to! If you need any suggestions, just ask. I ALWAYS have opinions, as you know.

Fine Art

Fuck. Me. I just posted a new post here, and somewhere after I pressed publish, everything that I’d written disappeared. What. the. fuck. Now, I’m sort of pissed that I need to compose this entire post. Let’s see. What was I saying? I’m sure that I said that I’m deeply grateful to AR for inspiring me get back to composing words about homoerotic wrestling, both in terms of this blog, and in writing new homoerotic wrestling fiction.

I’m pretty positive I suggested that you should check out the newest addition to the Producer’s Ring, which is a sequel to the illustrated match AR and I posted a couple of weeks ago, when Ryan Gosling faced off against Timothée Chalamet. I’m sure I was more eloquent the first time, before I started having to shove down my irritation at technology and the vicissitudes of WordPress, but the new match, in which Baby Goose shows back up to square off against Jake Gyllenhaal this time, is even more brutal than the last match.

I’m certain I waxed existential about the alchemy I’m enjoying in co-creating this text/graphic art combination. Knowing me, I’m sure I also mentioned that AR’s images of Baby Goose’s ass-in-jeopardy keeps turning me on like a light switch.

I probably mused about the way the total of our words and AR’s graphics make the final product so much more than the sum of its parts. But the real take home message is that you should jump over to the Producer’s Ring, settle in for some extended time in the Focus Group, and bring a towel to wipe off with as you read the illustrated homoerotic wrestling fiction in this newest addition to the archives. Oh, yeah, and I mentioned that I don’t have a way for you to comment on the stories directly, there in the archives, so you should let us know what you think in the comments here and/or on Twitter.

And finally, in conclusion, fuck technology.

Producer’s Ring

My work life kicks into high gear in a few days, so I’m trying to take advantage of the fleeting moments of summer to transfer some more matches from the old Producer’s Ring archives to their new location.

I continue to half-anticipate something more cringey about re-reading my old homoerotic wrestling fiction, but I keep surprising myself. I mean, it’s seriously dated. The first matches I wrote are about 12 years old now, so, it’s evident to see the march of time putting the Hollywood hunks I was obsessing over into context. Like, I was such a HUGE Heroes fan. HUGE. I still have a fast-twitch instant erection at Adrian Pasdar’s name, and that’s even after listening to The Chicks Gaslighter album a couple of hundred times in the past year and a half, where Adrian’s cheating ways get aired out with such excellent musical accompaniment. So, little wonder that I was so into picturing who would win a no-holds-barred homoerotic wrestling competition between Milo Ventimiglia and Sendhil Ramamurthy, also Heroes stars. The world has moved on, but it’s fascinating to get transported back to that moment when Milo and Sendhil seemed like the perfectly sexy, obvious pairing. And I did not remember what a seriously brutal match that was! Despite the way their careers took shape in the intervening decade, I still stand by my picture of who would obliterate whose ass.

It took me half a beat to even remember who the fuck Hunter Parrish was when I was transcribing a couple of his stores. Oh, right, I was up to my armpits in Weeds at the time, and feeling way, way frustrated at the cocktease that Hunter Parrish was, playing an emerging adult with mommy issues. However, I had no problem at all placing his opponent, Teddy Sears, who continues to strike a chord in my crotch every time I get a glimpse of him, almost always in some supporting role, looking so fucking fine! I don’t know if I even know any friends IRL who would even recognize the name Teddy Sears, and here I am, self-appointed president of his homoerotic wrestling fan club, instantly hard when I see him in a new role, preferably playing a gay character or someone in a throuple. The match between Hunter and Teddy was always going exactly one direction, and STILL, I was delightfully surprised and aroused re-reading where my mind was those years ago.

And then, it’s no wonder at all that I had to toss Hunter back into some action, because, let me explain again, he was such an epic, major league cocktease! I was seriously working some shit out in Hunter’s second match, facing off against Ben Godfre in the first Secretarial Pool match, which, now that I think about it, later evolved into an elimination tournament to select the newest member of Eli Brody’s elite executive team, with blog readers weighing in. Fuck, what a stroll down memory lane. Fuck, I loved those hunky executive assistants hard! Fuck… Ben Godfre! This, all before Ben hoisted his spectacular full monty freak flag for the average joe, like me, to see that he’s even kinkier and sexier than even my overactive imagination was picturing!

And finally, for this update, the first Major Domo match. As I remember it, the Major Domo stories emerged from my serious, certainly obvious crush I have ALWAYS had on the main character in the Producer’s Ring universe, West Coast Titan Eli Brody. Eli is in almost every story, but he’s pulling strings and typically fully clothed in business suits. Writing him so much, I quickly developed a crush, and I ached to see Eli do more than just sit back and watch, though, honestly, there’s something super sexy about a knock-dead gorgeous beefcake in a suit sitting back and watching two nearly naked/naked hunks ripping into each other. But I digress. The Major Domos took the action to Eli’s living room, and were built on the premise that, on rare occasions, Eli involves himself personally in providing… let’s say, “career advice,” to struggling hunks.

I hope that pulling these stories from the homoerotic wrestling fiction archives tickle at least some of you just right.

And just because I feel compelled to say “I told you so,” I just wanted to point out that low-key genius artist AR immediately sent me a humble disclaimer of all of the praise I heaped on him in my last pose. Seriously, that guy is freaking brilliant, and ridiculously humble. Send him some love at his DeviantArt profile, and tell him that I sent you. It’ll drive him nuts.

Will Breaker

AR is genuinely low-key genius when it comes to his eye for homoerotic wrestling. One of the unexpectedly fun aspects of my recent collaboration with him, co-creating with me my first illustrated homoerotic wrestling fiction, was the particular give and take of the creative process. At times, I’d take the lead with some text, describing the scene, detailing a hold, scripting the dialogue. Then, like half a day later, AR would have created a 3D image in astonishing detail of that moment that had, just hours earlier, only existed in my mind’s eye. At other times, he would craft an image of a hold or a plot point, and then I’d write the text through the middle of the lane markers that he so skillfully generated for the story. It was a very cool creative process that we’re already investing in replicating.

One of the coolest moments in the creative process of putting together the Focus Group homoerotic wrestling match, featuring Ryan Gosling and Timothée Chalamet, was near the end of our work, when AR asked if we were missing a beat in the narrative. We built this moment in the plot when one hot, hard hunk is at the brink of despair, and AR asked the perfect question, of whether the action we’d constructed sufficiently and convincingly shoved the poor, gorgeous fucker over that edge. It was AR’s idea to add one more hold to fully justify the way the story unfolds, and he was the one who suggested that we use the Will Breaker.

Charlie Evans in the Will Breaker in Ring Rookies 5

I know this hold from Charming Chase Addams’ matches, and from having enjoyed the opportunity in the past to hear Chase talk about the development of the hold, and his creative process in coming up with the name for it. Chase is an innovator, and a passionately devoted student of the science and art of pro wrestling. The range of holds in his arsenal is pretty fucking incredible, particularly when I think about how ridiculously young and pretty he is. (Not that being pretty has anything to do with it. I just wanted to mention how pretty Chase is.)

Kirk Donahue in the Will Breaker in Florida Fights 7, winner of 2018 Best Submission!

I don’t think I really fully appreciated the complexity and beauty of the Will Breaker until it came time for me to try to describe, in words, one homoerotic wrestler applying the hold to another. Like, fuck, the words fail me! I watch him do it, mind you. It’s not like some mystery that happens behind a curtain somewhere. The spotlight over the ring allows no slight of hand or smoke and mirrors. I watch him do it, and even still, it’s fucking complex and nuanced and mysterious!

Tiko meets the Will Breaker in Chase’s Wrestler Spotlight Collection.

AR suggested something similar in his creative process of constructing a 3D render of the hold. He mentioned needing to painstakingly place each limb and joint, because there are no software shortcuts to create something like that. It’s not a position the human body was meant to easily slip into, or to endure for very long, so shaping a 3D rendering was, as I understand it, a significant challenge. And, thus, I repeat myself when I say that AR is a low-key genius. As soon as I publish this post, I’m going to get an email from him, humbly insisting on a disclaimer from my praise, but don’t believe him. He’s fucking brilliant.

Chase is, obviously, brilliant at what he does, as well. He’s not low-key about it, though. Chase knows his own genius, and he strips down to nearly nothing, climbs into a wrestling ring in front of a room full of cameras and microphones, and does magic like this that makes me gasp.

Christian Taylor gets the Will Breaker in Chase’s debut, in Tag Team Torture 19, Best Ring Match and Best Overall Match of 2016!

Anyway, I’m appreciating today these two young geniuses with such a passion for the science and art of homoerotic wrestling, of one fierce hunk taking possession of another, crushing one man’s hopes and dignity, and handing his body entirely over to his opponent. In their own ways, AR and Chase both get it, so deeply and fully!

Richie Douglas reaches Will Breaker perfection in Ring Wars 32, Best Ring Match and Best Submission of 2019 (see a pattern!?)

Producer’s Ring

Holy shit. It’s been about 14 years since I first started posting celebrity-themed homoerotic wrestling fiction, in what I came to call the Producer’s Ring. Suddenly, I feel old. Honestly, though, I feel sexy, too, so if this is growing old, I’m all for it.

Back to my original point, however. If you’ve read these pages recently, you’re aware that I resurrected the old Sideline Stories archive, and rescued it from Google purgatory, by beginning to transcribe the old stories there to a new site on the updated Google platform. I’m not sure how many more reinventions I’ve got in me, if/when Google decides to sunset this version of Google Sites in the infinite search for appearing innovative and relevant. However, I’ve been painstakingly reconstructing Sidelineland Stories (reborn) here, and having a good time of it (and happy to receive comments on the stories on the pages of this blog).

First republished Sidelineland Stories matches were in the Brothers in Arms Series.

I’ve been planning on doing the same for the Producer’s Ring archives, as well. Producer’s Ring actually predates the Sidelineland Stories archives by a couple of years. Producer’s Ring was an obliviously ambitious effort at world-building, setting dozens of homoerotic wrestling matches in an alternate universe where, more plausibly than in this universe, homoerotic wrestling contests break out all-the-fucking-time. The setting also allowed me some mental freedom to write my favorite celebrity crushes into the action, because if you haven’t cottoned on, I’m mentally composing homoerotic wrestling scenarios constantly IRL. I’m thrilled to report that I’ve begun the transfer from the old Producer’s Ring group site to a new site, available for your perusal without the annoying bit of me curating a membership list. I’m still sort of waiting on the other shoe to drop with pulling down the members-eyes-only wall, but so far, I’m willfully carefree and enjoying the rebirth of these old stories that I loved writing, and am surprised by how much I’m loving re-reading. I’m doing my best to keep my editing hands off of the old material, even when I find it cringy. I’m relieved that none of it has been all that cringy at all for me, but I’m sorely tempted to correct errors, reduce the repetitions, use more evocative metaphors. I’m doing pretty well at restraining myself, in the interest of letting the historical record stand on its own feet (not sure that absolutely anyone else in the world would ever give a flying fuck, but it’s meaningful to me). Check out the first re-mastered (with such a light hand) matches from the Producer’s Ring here, and you can find a portal in the Sidelineland Stories archives too, for your convenience.

The first Focus Group match I ever published (now re-published): Daniel Craig vs. Christian Bale

To really bury the lead, let me finally get around to explaining why I accelerated the Producer’s Ring reboot. An artist at Deviant Art approached me to collaborate on a project. Low, and behold, he’s an old Producer’s Ring reader, and it was his idea (I swear!) to collaborate on an illustrated version of a brand new Focus Group match. In honor of that, and to give the new illustrated version a place to land, I’ve started by posting some of the original Focus Group matches. I’m so stoked with the fun of working on this, my collaborator working up artwork as I generate text. It’s going to be sexy as fuck, and I’m going to be incredibly proud of it, once we get it put to bed. Hold your breath, because we’re both pretty fired up with getting this puppy finished up! Details to come…

Breaking Shane

The first two chapters of Shane’s Big Break got rave reviews from Bgklmangler, so I put a rush on re-posting the next two chapters to my new homoerotic wrestling fiction archive, Sidelineland Stories. I’m a sucker for praise (feel free to manipulate me, now), and truth be told, I’m really pleased to rediscover these stories that I wrote more than 10 years ago. And I’m really, really pleased/pleasured by how compelling I find them, even in hindsight (which often makes me cringe when looking back at old work).

Shane

While the first chapter was a fun thought-experiment between me and Bearhugs (Bearhugs writing chapter 1, and then seeing what I’d do with chapter 2), I grew seriously attached to the characters and the backstory of Shane and his old high school classmate, Neil. So, both of these next two chapters were all mine, and I set out to complicate Shane’s world in a way that might set up still more chapters to come. In chapter 3 (“Home Town Hero”), Shane returns to the ring before a roaring crowd wanting to see him do them proud and make up for the squash he suffered at Neil’s hands the week before. He’s lined up to wrestle a lightweight rookie, a former champ, who willingly puts Shane over and whips the home town crowd into a frenzy to see their old high school quarterback make good.

Lightweight former champ, Mikey

But this is pro wrestling, so get ready for a healthy second helping of melodrama, when heel-turned bodybuilder and former “friend” Neil interrupts Shane’s virginal victory celebration to, quite literally, wipe the mat with him all over again.

Shane’s nemesis, Neil

Honestly, I love Neil (holy fuck, am I a heel-fan after all!?). I’m infatuated with the new character, Mikey (nope, nope, I’m still a sucker for a babyface). And for some reason, I love/hate, love hating, Shane, and I do not grow tired of watching him (in literary fashion), with the taste of victory just brushing his palate, have glory slapped out of his mouth, humiliated all over again. If you read chapter 4 (“Scores to Settle”), you may sense my ambivalence about poor, poor Shane. Let me know what you think. I’ve sworn off writing new fiction for a while, while I enjoy doing some graphic adaptations of my homoerotic wrestling fiction, but damn it all, if I don’t seriously want another couple of chapters in Shane’s Big Break. Where do you think the story could take us next?

Shane’s Big Break

One of my favorite unintended consequences of sharing my thoughts about homoerotic wrestling for just anyone to read about here, is the opportunity it’s given me to collaborate with other like-minded men. As soon as I started posting the products of my homoerotic wrestling imagination on this blog, and in the pages of my homoerotic wrestling fiction, I began getting contacted by gay wrestling fans with burgeoning imaginations of their own. I think it was a sexy Swede named Swito who was the first to co-write a piece of homoerotic wrestling fiction with me. We fell out of touch, but still to this day, I get a little extra hit of excitement when I see someone from Svenska logged on here (fuck, I love the Swedes).

Shane, who has no fucking clue

After I started writing my original homoerotic wrestling fiction, set in the Producer’s Ring universe (I swear, I’ll be reposting those stories in a new Google Site soon), and my first collab with Swito came about there, I started the companion site (Sidelineland Stories), expressly to encourage new writers and maximize the opportunities for more collaborations. I’ve completely lost track of the writer Bearhugs (yo, Bearhugs!), but he challenged me to “finish” a story he started, starring a washed-up, former star high school quarterback, who reconnects with an old classmate who gives him the opportunity to break into the local pro wrestling fed. Bearhugs wrote, and I posted, the first chapter, in which Shane finds out just how far old high school friendships can stretch in his first pro match.

Neil, who’s overdue for a heel turn

Then it was my turn. Bearhugs challenged me to write what comes next. I’m not sure that Bearhugs was picturing things going the direction that I took them, but fuck it, that’s the beauty of collaborating with other homoerotic wrestling fans, isn’t it? I decided to twist the straight up squash job into a homoerotic wrestling after-show. It’s populated by you, and me, and a handful of other serious homoerotic wrestling fans, with cash burning a whole in their pockets and a local wrestling company happy to recruit their wrestlers to do what it takes to earn that money.

Sometimes, I sort of dread re-reading things I’ve written in the past. My writing evolved and, frankly, improved over time, and some of the early stuff trips me up with obtuse descriptions and clumsy exposition. But I’m genuinely happy, and just a little proud, to report that I really enjoyed recently reacquainting myself with Shane and his colleagues. Like, seriously, I enjoyed it A LOT (and then rehydrated). Bearhugs picked the only two images I have for this story, so there are limited graphics to accompany your imagination. I have half a mind to put this in the cue to draw in comic format (let me know what you think).

So, now, the first couple of chapters (Bearhugs’ story 1, and my “what happens next“) are posted to the newly launched Sideline Stories reborn. Thanks, Google Sites, for making me re-discover the good, bad, and ugly of my homoerotic wrestling fiction history, as I migrate materials over to the new platform. There are two more chapters (another pro match, followed by the after-match drama) that I plan to post soon, because fuck it if they don’t make me seriously happy, as well! I hope they bring you at least a fraction of the pleasure that they’ve brought me. Take a read, and let me know what you think in the comments here.