I recently blogged about my wrestling chat buddy, nicknamed Best Ringside Observer or BRO, attending pro wrestling shows and taking pictures of the action. Sometimes during a Tag Team match, he faces a common problem: the wrestler outside the ropes will position himself between BRO and the action, thereby blocking the view. The great thing about BRO is he snaps the fuckin photo anyway, with the wrestler’s big thick legs and gorgeous shiny boots in the frame.
For example, in the photo to the left, we see a huge quad in the background, scissoring the life out of some stud. But in the foreground, in perfect focus, we see two of the sexiest looking wrestling boots I’ve ever seen on the planet. I love that view — I love when a pair of legs or boots frame the other wrestlers’ bodies!
I don’t know why I enjoy when somebody’s big leg blocks part of the action, but I know I do. It kind of makes me dizzy — in fact it’s a good thing I’m seated right now, because all these boot-in-the-foreground photos BRO sent are making me swoon as if he just spun me around in the dreaded Giant Swing.
I suppose a professionally trained photographer would not snap this picture. There is probably a Photography 101 textbook that instructs you to wait for a clear view, or to re-position yourself so your subject is unobstructed. The nice thing about BRO is he doesn’t care about the rules — he just knows what looks hot and that’s when he clicks the button. Fortunately for me, what he thinks looks hot and what I think looks hot are the same thing.
I know what some of you are thinking as you sit there judging me — “What the hell — it’s just footwear! Why get all worked up over a stupid old pair of boots??”
Hey, sorry I’m not into whatever sick depravity gets you off, Captain Judgington. I don’t believe I’m the only dude whose heart skips a beat when somebody snaps a close-up of a tall, shiny pair of wrasslin boots.
I’m not sure why I started noticing the wrestlers’ boots and enjoying the sight of them so much. I suppose if you watch enough pro wrestling and see those boots in action — climbing up on the ropes, punting some jobber’s ribcage, standing in victory planted on a defeated man’s neck — the boots themselves begin to take on a power and mystique of their own. The boots seem to imbue the man with strength and authority, like Thor’s magic hammer.
Soon, you find yourself wanting to stare at them in awe and take in every detail: the color and shine, the wrinkles and creases around the ankles, the thick heels (eager to stomp on somebody), the dozens of holes where the strings criss-cross back and forth all the way up his shin.
So at least my pal BRO has the good sense to know that it’s OK to watch wrestling from between another man’s legs — in fact, it’s better that way. I’m sure BRO did not ask for his money back when all these studs with their powerful hamstrings and swole calf muscles stood right in front of him flexing their glutes all afternoon watching the in-ring action.
Another common pose that BRO seems to enjoy just as much as I do is the outside partner resting a boot on the bottom rope. Is BRO just taking these pictures because he knows they get me excited or does he, too, enjoy that cocky position?
We will have to explore that question another day, after I get about a dozen more images of the Boot-on-the-Rope pose. Did you hear that BRO? I need about a dozen more images of the Boot-on-the-Rope pose!
