Be Kind Rewind
The best title ever for a memoir is Nostalgia Isn't What It Used to Be, by the chain-smoking star of French cinema Simone Signoret (1978). Beyond the jokiness of the title lies a truth: nostalgia is not about how it was, but about how we remember it. Old pop songs, old TV shows, old advertising jingles, old movies. Because nostalgia tends to make people less happy in (and with) the present, I try to avoid the trap of giving it too much of my time, but though it isn't good for me, nostalgia, like chili-kraut dogs and other health hazards, still has its good points.
Originally my wrestling fantasies came from life--guys I roughhoused with in high school and college--and from TV wrestling in the 1970s, which I watched in secret in my bedroom, guiltily as if I were watching porn, which (in my mind) I was. I didn't know I could buy wrestling kink (by US mail) until my thirties--first, as I remember, from Old Reliable and BG Enterprise (mostly the catalogs, since the tapes usually exceeded my budget as an educator), then Can-Am and BG East. I was mainly drawn to wrestlers who resembled people I knew in life--thus my nostalgia for the fantasies they produced channels my nostalgia for my actual past. BG East continues to produce matches that fire my imagination, but my feeling for the company begins with a few VHS tapes, now mostly replaced in my collection by DVDs. I don't miss VHS technology, but some of the wrestlers and matches I watched back then have fused with my memories of the real past; thus they too are part of my remembered history.
B.C.--Before Cameron, Before Cooper. Before Cartier and Charron and Cruise. Before even The Contract. Pre-DVD, pre-2000, these are the BGE wrestlers who, as best as I recall, helped shape my kink:
Nick Archer, Troy Baker (4th photo, above), Cody Collier, Mike Columbo (2nd photo), Cliff Conlin, Cruze, Wade Cutler, Max Dare, Dick the Prick (top photo), Patrick Donovan, Kurt Eriksen (5th photo), Andy Flyer, Joshua Goodman, Chip Grant, Jose, Phil Latini, Greg Leary, Kid Leopard (3rd photo), Shane McCall, Marky Mark Oxner, Sean Patrick (top photo), Brad Rochelle (4th photo), Mickey Rollins, Mark and Tony Romano, Steve Sherman, Steve Sterling (3rd photo), Tommy Tara, Dane Tarsen, Mikey Vee (2nd photo), Kid Vicious, and Bass Wallace (5th photo).
I have removed some photos featuring explicit nudity from this posting because they belong to The Arena at BGEast, which owns exclusive rights to them.
Photos taken from The Arena @ BGEast: top to bottom, Dick the Prick versus Sean Patrick in X-Fights 22, Mikey Vee versus Mike Columbo in Fantasymen 15, Kid Leopard versus Steve Sterling in Hunkbash 1, Kid Vicious versus Patrick Donovan in Squared Circle 1, Brad Rochelle versus Troy Baker in Undagear 7, and Kurt Eriksen versus Bass Wallace in Matmen 2.
Originally my wrestling fantasies came from life--guys I roughhoused with in high school and college--and from TV wrestling in the 1970s, which I watched in secret in my bedroom, guiltily as if I were watching porn, which (in my mind) I was. I didn't know I could buy wrestling kink (by US mail) until my thirties--first, as I remember, from Old Reliable and BG Enterprise (mostly the catalogs, since the tapes usually exceeded my budget as an educator), then Can-Am and BG East. I was mainly drawn to wrestlers who resembled people I knew in life--thus my nostalgia for the fantasies they produced channels my nostalgia for my actual past. BG East continues to produce matches that fire my imagination, but my feeling for the company begins with a few VHS tapes, now mostly replaced in my collection by DVDs. I don't miss VHS technology, but some of the wrestlers and matches I watched back then have fused with my memories of the real past; thus they too are part of my remembered history.
B.C.--Before Cameron, Before Cooper. Before Cartier and Charron and Cruise. Before even The Contract. Pre-DVD, pre-2000, these are the BGE wrestlers who, as best as I recall, helped shape my kink:
Nick Archer, Troy Baker (4th photo, above), Cody Collier, Mike Columbo (2nd photo), Cliff Conlin, Cruze, Wade Cutler, Max Dare, Dick the Prick (top photo), Patrick Donovan, Kurt Eriksen (5th photo), Andy Flyer, Joshua Goodman, Chip Grant, Jose, Phil Latini, Greg Leary, Kid Leopard (3rd photo), Shane McCall, Marky Mark Oxner, Sean Patrick (top photo), Brad Rochelle (4th photo), Mickey Rollins, Mark and Tony Romano, Steve Sherman, Steve Sterling (3rd photo), Tommy Tara, Dane Tarsen, Mikey Vee (2nd photo), Kid Vicious, and Bass Wallace (5th photo).
I have removed some photos featuring explicit nudity from this posting because they belong to The Arena at BGEast, which owns exclusive rights to them.
Photos taken from The Arena @ BGEast: top to bottom, Dick the Prick versus Sean Patrick in X-Fights 22, Mikey Vee versus Mike Columbo in Fantasymen 15, Kid Leopard versus Steve Sterling in Hunkbash 1, Kid Vicious versus Patrick Donovan in Squared Circle 1, Brad Rochelle versus Troy Baker in Undagear 7, and Kurt Eriksen versus Bass Wallace in Matmen 2.
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