Bruised Some More

Back in June 2015, I posted photos from a Brit-Pro tag team match featuring these stereo-typical, cliche’ Baby-Face Pretty-Boys wrestling a pair of stereo-typical, cliche’ Heels.

As if you can’t tell that these cuties are the Good Guys, they even call themselves the “Lion-Hearts” for fuck sake.

Now 3 1/2 years later, I was surprised to recently find more photos from the same iconic match posted on Tumblr, which I’ve shared here today.

My 2015 article described how perfect these two “Brutes” look as the foils to our young heroes:

“They are like the quintessential wrestling Baddies — bald, thick, goateed, and clad in the one-strap Caveman style singlet — fucking PERFECT.”

This match seems to capture every classic trope, gimmick, behavior, and scene that make Tag Team wrestling entertaining and exciting to watch, starting with the Baby-Face Suffering (see next image, below…)

Both members of the Lionhearts team seemed to endure their share of agony and abuse in this match, but I think the long-haired partner, about to reach the tag and enter the ring, served as the primary Face-in-Peril judging from the many photos of him suffering in this batch of photos and the prior one.

By the way, do any wrestling federations still use photographers to stand at ringside and take dozens of high-definition photos of the matches?  This seemed to be a very common way to promote an Indy federation’s brand several years ago — and there were several fantastic websites where wrestling photographers would share their incredible images.  But with the rise of YouTube and video streaming (I guess a video is worth a thousand photos), the artistry and beauty of still wrestling photography, the photos snapped from ringside with a super Hi-Res camera, is perhaps beginning to fade away.  Video killed the photography star.

I kind of miss clicking through page after page of colorful closeup JPGs  — maybe 50 or more images from each match, well-composed and dramatic — and picking out the ones I’d download to blog about or maybe keep in my private archive.

The series of photos from this match (that I’ve discovered to date) ends with our Baby-Faces, no longer holding onto their belts, but now holding onto each other, consoling and supporting each other.  That affection is more valuable than a championship title anyway.

What a perfect photograph of two hot partners in mutual loving embrace.  I sure hope photographers out there continue to stand ringside at pro wrestling shows to capture these moments in photographs — and keep the video footage coming too.