When in Natick...

As Halloween is upon us this week, I want to wish you all lots of fun times and great parties! I usually end up, believe it or not, never really doing anything spectacular. I always want to come up with some crazy costume and have a killer time at some fabulous party. What always ends up happening though is that I end up aiding other people in the preparations for their festivities and end up doing nothing at all. *Sigh* Oh well, there are worse things in life :P

Though Halloween is usually a bust, it doesn't mean that I don`t end up having a great time in the fall! Far from it, the fall tends to be a season where I have more things going on than I can handle at one time. This year though, I did take time to reconnect albeit briefly with some buddies of mine who live down in Natick, Massachusetts. They welcomed me down to their place for a few days, just a brief little visit. I had lots of fun with them as they are always super nice and very friendly whenever we get to spend time together...

The Shaggy Monster himself, Morgan Cruise :P

Did I mention these friends are none other than Morgan Cruise and Damien Rush?

Indeed, these muscle beasts are fine hosts and super nice guys in and out of the ring (well, except for those times they decide to get you in a nasty hold). As an added bonus, I got to meet and hang with their gang of roommates/co-workers from MDW: Tony Law/Pennington, Bryce Barrigan and Muscle Master Kevin.

Between rumbles, meals, drinks and giving Morgan a much-needed haircut, we did manage to gallivant around the lovely little town of Natick. At one point, we ended up going to a store which I do not have here in Montreal (unfortunately) called Party City! The boys threw on some random things and, little shutterbug that I am in these scenarios, I managed to snap some pics that I thought I'd share with you, my dear readers, for this Halloween!

Here, some little monster latched onto the head of the brutal Mr. Cruise! Given what it`s got under it, no wonder that monster is grinning ear-to-ear :P

Batman-wannabe Damien is looking for a good Bane to toss him around. Any takers for demolishing this hunk?

 

Of course, never wanting to seem like too much of a wimp in front of the cameras, Damien decided to throw on some viking garb to show that he can also be a mighty warrior! I mean, look at that bicep! Yummy! :)

Continuing his manly displays, Damien shows what to do when you're attacked by the living dead, corpses or other such creatures...The answer being the full nelson of course!

Morgan's freshly shaved head fits nicely into his very own pharaoh outfit. Don`t think that pharaohs used to be this buff or cocky but you won't hear me complaining!

Finally, I had to sneak in one pick of myself! Here I take a sneak-selfie with Mr. Rush in his room while I sport a very cool Cesar crown! Seriously! Loved that thing! Solid metal! Makes one feel quite regal!

On that final note, who needs Halloween when you got friends like these! Hope my pics inspire you guys to find cool and creative costumes for your outings if you haven`t already got one in mind! Which one of these pics inspires you most? :P

Visitors of the Late Summer

As mentioned in earlier posts, it was a very busy summer for me this year. Not so much working at my day job but in the wrestling and visiting departments it was almost non-stop. During the month of August, I received two very special visitors at my place. One of them is a BG East veteran and the other is a BG rookie! I'm talking about Brendan Byers and my friend from the west coast Sean.

Big studly Sean!

Sean was the first one in town. He came around mid-August which actually timed out to be Montreal's Gay Pride (there are actually 2 Gay Prides in Montreal, one at the end of July and the other in the second week of August). Sean is a very special friend of mine that I made earlier this year in San Francisco. He's actually from Sacramento but he originally came to San Francisco to meet me while I was visiting there.

When I met him, Sean was a closeted wrestler in many ways. He hid his passion for wrestling from most in his surroundings and claimed to be straight/bi-at-the-very-least. One of my favorite statements he originally made about his sexual desires was that he liked "muscular women". Yeah. Right. Sean even had a girlfriend who was having a "girl's weekend" while Sean came into San Fran to hang out and wrestle with me for 3 days of my week in the city.

After many long conversations that filled in our gaps between touring and wrestling, Sean managed to have a personal epiphany. After lunch on our final day together, his girlfriend called him and he did his coming out live in front of me! This big 6'2", 215lbs muscle stud melted into a puddle of tears in my hotel room and we hugged and celebrated the beginning of his new life as a gay man. Since then, he and I have been texting virtually every day.

Super Muscled Brendan Byers!

All this to say, this big muscle man was my first visitor here in Montreal during the summer season. I showed him a good time (I hope) as he toured this great city. He met a bunch of my friends including Alain LeClair during the Sunday evening T-Dance. While he visited me, we even managed to make a quick trip down to BG East and filmed his first ever match! Seeing his pic here, my dear readers, what do you think? Looking forward to our battle? ;)

My second visitor was a long time coming as well. Brendan Byers is certainly not the little twinky looking jobber he appeared to be on BG East. No sir! This guy has bulked up big time! Gone are the days where he would take abuse and beatings in the ring! Now he's a 215lbs heel who loves to piledrive and tombstone his opponents repeatedly before he squeezes them in his thick thighs. He also give the most solid torture rack you'll ever be put in.

Brendan beating Sebastian

Though a big nasty heel, he's also a big cuddly sweetheart with a big sexy brain. He's smart, talented and a lot of fun to hit the dance-floor with. I reciprocated his Labor Day visit with my own tour of his home in Orlando in late September. One thing he taught me quite easily is that the boys down in Florida sure do know how to hold their liquor! Ugh! I think my liver got as much of a pounding as the rest of me did! We even got our little buddy Sebastian Rios to show up for a 3-way match in Orlando! To tell you how strong Brendan has become, he managed to stand up with both me and Sebastian scissoring him and shake us both off! Crazy strong! If you think you can take this guy down, get ready to have your ego knocked down a few pegs as this BG jobber whoops the mats with your sorry ass :P

Needless to say, these guys are great fun to wrestle and hang out with! If you're on the west coast, hit up my buddy Sean and if you're in Florida, try and get some mat or ring-time with Brendan and/or Sebastian Rios. All these guys are a lot of fun and are more than welcome to come back and see me again up north ;)

Sean gets a lucky victory flex :P

BG Effect

Now that the Top 10 has been revealed, it's time to talk about other things in the life of Monaco. Like I said before, there are many things that have happened in the past months that bear mentioning. Let me start however with a little parenthesis on my life dear readers...Looking back on my past posts about my beginnings at BG, I noticed that I never really addressed exactly how wrestling for them has changed my life. So how exactly has it changed my life? Let me tell you...

Something I immediately noticed when my first match came out is that being a BG East wrestler certainly has an effect on your popularity in the underground gay wrestling scene. People sometimes view you with an aura of wonder. I once welcomed a guy to my place to wrestle in private and it took him about 30 minutes to calm down and get down to the wrestling. It befuddled me a bit, but then I recalled how I reacted when I first met my first BG East colleagues.

Matches I'd have with friends and strangers usually now included a routine what-is-it-like question and answer period. People are always curious to know what it's like to be one of the guys. How do matches get filmed? What happens off camera? Who's my favorite wrestler? What matches are coming out soon? Do you think they'll put you against (insert wrestler name here)? Usually this period was followed by a "Man, I wish I could wrestle for them too"

A lot of guys I know tell me they wish they could wrestle for BG, but for personal, family or work-related reasons, they can't. That's why I started this blog. To be the voice for those who wish they were there in my place. In the end, I'm a sort of Cinderella story: the fan-turned-pro who gets to live out his fantasies on film.

There was a moment when I was down in Florida for my first shoot where I ended up going for a late dinner with a veteran from BG, Scott Williams. Scott very touchingly said at one point during the dinner "I'm so happy you're part of the family now!" which seemed a very odd thing to hear. "What family?" I replied a tad confused. "The BG East family, you're one of us now." One of us now. Awesome.

The Top Ten: #1

Finally, after many months of anticipation and suspense, the time has come to finally reveal the NUMBER 1 guy from BG East that I'd definitely love to wrestle above all others if given the chance! Though defining the list overall was an arduous process, the number 1 guy in my mind was never really in question. As one astute reader managed to point out when he guessed the answer to my riddles about my number one, I did mention his identity in an interview some time back. And trust me, I swear this all somehow just timed out perfectly with his resurgence in the most recent catalog! I'm talking about my numéro 1, the one and only, BRAD ROCHELLE!

Now, why him? There are many things to consider in why he is the ultimate one for me. First off, he's cute as a button. That smile, I'm sure, can light up a room. Second, that body! I mean over the many, many years he's been at BG, he's kept a stellar physique. Sure it has varied from time to time, sometimes leaner, sometimes more muscled, but he has consistently been in great shape. The third and main reason I chose him however as my overall number 1 is simply his skill as a performer.

Brad is amazing as a jobber or a heel. He can do ring or mats and make it look effortless in any setting. Against good opponents, he makes the match sizzle. Even against the greener or less-experienced ones, he manages to shine as you clearly see him helping out his fellow wrestlers to be better within the match. To me, he is the wrestler that all of the guys at BG should aspire to be and should consider themselves lucky to encounter if and when they do! 

My sincerest hopes is that one day, one day I might be so lucky to just encounter him and pass on my appreciation for his work. Even if I never get to wrestle him, I'd want him to know that he is my idol from BG East. He is a great inspiration to me and I try hard to incorporate his style into my own when I can. When other wrestlers

ask me who they should study from BG to learn moves, ways of wrestling, I always mention him first.

That being said, if I do get to wrestle him one day, I think I'll just explode. I could die of a heart attack two minutes later and be fine with that (so long as I get a quick blog note to let you guys know it actually happened and post and obituary for myself or something to that effect).

So that wraps it up for the Top Ten! Finally the list is complete and it's all out in the open! Yay!

What's next for the blog then? Well, don't you worry dear readers, there is plenty more to come! To write up my Top Ten I sacrificed telling you all about my adventures this past summer and fall. I wanted to be sure not to clutter my blog with different threads from different topics. But now, rest assured, there is much to discuss! Stay tuned because I have a slew of topics to talk about and trust me, all of them are juicy ;)