Masculine Enough to be Feminine

I found some old Ring of Honor DVDs stashed in a box in the back of my closet, remnants of the mid-2000s when I’d order DVDs online to get more rasslin’ into my life (remember those days?)

YouTube launched in 2005 and became popular in the summer of 2006, and after that, we expected all video content in the world (including pro wrestling) to stream quickly and conveniently onto our devices.  This pretty much killed the DVD shipping business, at least at my house.

Watching these old matches reminded me of how amazing (and arousing) ROH was in those days.  For example, Jimmy Jacobs and BJ Whitmer engaged in a series of brutal, sadistic, and sexually-charged battles.

This match is from my DVD titled ROH Gut Check, which was a pro wrestling event filmed in Chicago on 8/26/2006.  Has it really been 11 years since ROH was amazing?!   BJ Whitmer in the black trunks with red waistband is the prototype of a generic, hetero-normative pro wrestler — buff, tall, masculine, tan, long-haired, and dressed in classic trunks n boots.  He resembles the wrestler from the movie, The Wrestler.

The barrier wall is the equalizer, giving the smaller man the upper hand.

Jimmy Jacobs, with his gender-bending antics, sprinkles the spice onto this match.  There is nothing generic about him with his dark mascara and long black pants with pink accents to match his florescent hair dye.  He fights like a bitch too, biting and pulling hair.  His fingernails are painted black, as we see when he scratches BJ’s eyes out.  He is living proof that sissy guys can be sexy AF.

The story behind the match is that Jimmy is actually hetero-sexual (despite his queer appearance) and loves a girl named Lacey who is at ringside.  Lacey told Jimmy that she wants him to injure BJ Whitmer tonight.  Jimmy is so smitten with Lacey, he will obey anything she says.

This makes BJ Whitmer the suffering jobber (despite his large, sturdy frame.)  The appeal of the match is found in the twisted love triangle between Lacey, Jimmy, and BJ, with BJ almost in the role of a cuckold, enduring abuse from the smaller, less masculine Jimmy Jacobs as Lacey watches in delight.

PLEASE DON’T DIE!  PLEASE DON’T DIE!

The most talked-about moment of the match is this dangerous Off-the-Top-Rope Flying Headscissors, with Jimmy meaning to backflip Whitmer through a table at ringside.  It’s fairly clumsy but I give Jimmy credit for attempting it and nobody died.

We get the point: crazy Jimmy used his legs to catapult his victim perilously off the ropes, apparently giving zero fucks if he hurt the guy.

An injured and ashamed BJ Whitmer is helped to safety.  He often was defeated and humiliated by Jimmy Jacobs like this — I think he enjoyed being dominated by this evil, sexy little minx.

For example, check out the Spike Torture gallery I posted on 1/26/13 to see what Jimmy did to BJ’s face.

Apparently BJ really can’t get enough of Jimmy dominating him.  He foolishly returns to the ring where Jimmy fucks him up with a series of chair shots to the head and leg.

This transfer of power from the big, manly Alpha Male to the sexy, cruel little sissy with the pink stars on his leggings is intoxicating.  No wonder I bought all these ROH DVDs!

Why oh why didn’t BJ roll away to safety?!

Jimmy encases BJ’s leg between a bunch of metal chairs, then flies off the ropes to drop all his weight on that steel chair sandwich!

“HO-LEY SHIT!  HO-LEY SHIT!”  That had to injure BJ’s leg!  This Jimmy Jacobs is a crazy bad-ass to be feared and respected despite his sissified appearance and small physique!  That’s hot.

This video reminded me of another aspect of ROH wrestling in those days: it was raunchy and adult in content, with lots of F Bombs and middle fingers, dirty talk and gratuitous sexual references, all uncensored because it was not presented on television.  This makes these videos seem even more raw and alternative, even more like amateur porn.

This was a nice Blast of the Past, a memory of the days when ROH was the Best (and Sexiest) Damn Wrestling on the Planet, and every few weeks, another plain envelope or small box would be left on my doorstep, each packed full with hours of viewing pleasure recorded on a convenient little High-Def disk.  So you may be seeing more of these now-classic matches from the DVD era as I dig deeper into my stash and reminisce.