“Raucous Handholding”

I’ve been finding some great looking Armbar photos lately and planning to make a gallery in praise of this popular hold.  Then a few days ago, my pal Joe who writes the Ringside at Skull Island blog beat me to the punch with his insightful “Tension” article. Twisted minds think alike I suppose — here is a follow up to Joe’s excellent article.

If you read his blog, you know that Joe always describes the appeal of wrestling just right in his descriptions (yes, I am jealous.)  He writes about the Armbar as: “quality-time punishment–not some wham-bam-off-the-top-rope slam.” Yes, THAT is why I love this hold.  An Arm Bar is slow and sensual, giving us time to enjoy it.

Joe also described the phallic imagery of the victim’s stiff arm that I had contemplated many times while watching Armbars being applied.  I believed I was the only pervert on the planet who pictured the victim’s arm — protruding stiff and straight, penetrating into the other wrestler’s engulfing embrace — as similar to an erection.

So I have been shy to talk about this Freudian perspective in the past and have avoided the subject so as not to reveal too many of my embarrassing wrestling-related fantasies (at least no more than I already do…)  After all, sometimes a wrestling hold is just a wrestling hold, right?

But Joe also picks up on the phallic symbolism of the Armbar, confirming that I am not the only pervert on the planet.   He described the Armbar as: “an opponent’s arm confiscated for use as a phallic object.  That the arm often extends upwards and erect from the attacker’s groin might serve as an emblem of manly superiority and dominance.”

Like I said, Joe always hits the nail square on the head when he goes to describe pro wrestling and the sexually suggestive holds.

Joe also described the Armbar as “a more raucous form of handholding.”  See — I wish I could write like that, I don’t even know what “raucous” means.

I looked up “raucous” and it means rowdy, loud, harsh, rough, disorderly, and disruptive of the peace.  It was genius to couple that term with “handholding” — which is what lovers do to express intimacy (or what daddies do with their sons to protect them).

By combining “raucous” with “handholding,” Joe points out the dichotomy of pro wrestling, which is at once both brutal and loving, the attacker either trying to hurt the other man or flirt with him (you decide).

I speculated in a previous post that the Armbar is used as a rest hold, inserted into the match to slow the tempo and give the harried wrestlers a chance to catch their breath.  I apologize if that revelation ruined anyone’s fantasies about the agony and cruelty of this move.

Even if this is a rest hold, the best wrestlers never take a break.  They use every opportunity to continue titillating and entertaining the audience, groaning raucously, slapping their shoulders and shouting “No!  NO!” — their bodies twisted in torment, their crotches always coincidentally in full view.

But what really pumps up my tires when I watch a well-performed Armbar is the implications of bondage.  The dominant man — the Master — has placed his playmate in a submissive position, immobilizing him and neutralizing his ability to act or run away.

The man in the Armbar is the submissive, forced to play the role of the begging slave and slap the mat yelling “NO NO!”  The victim (or “sub”) trusts his Master to keep him safe and not degrade him too far.  It’s bondage without the ropes and chains.

The Master assumes the right to punish and discipline his submissive, cranking on the pressure if he tries to escape.

The Master may turn to the ref and order him to: “Ask him, Ref! Ask him!” –– meaning: Ask him if he wants to surrender to me.   (It’s interesting that they never go into detail about WHAT they want the Ref to ask him — they just say: “Ask him!”.  With the question left wide open to interpretation, there are many degrading and emasculating actions the victim may be asked to perform in order to avoid further punishment (at least in the mind of a horny young fan like myself.)

So in conclusion, if you ask me whether I have something against the Armbar because it may be used as a rest hold, the answer is — I most definately do not!  I love the Armbar.  I love many Rest Holds (maybe all of them.)

I love the sensuality of the Armbar, the body contact, the hands of one man placed in control on the muscles of the other.  I love the sound of this hold — all the Grummmfs, Unghhns, and Ummmphs.  I love the visual references to arousal and intercourse that the hold inspires.

I love having the time to check out their bodies in motion, their muscles in pain.  And I do love all their provocative “O-faces.”

Thanks, Joe, for the inspiration…