The most common theme in pro wrestling, perhaps the purpose of the entire sport, is to depict the “Helpless Male” — the victim stripped of all strength and power, Man devoid of his natural defenses, held still and under another man’s control. Many wrestling holds are designed to demonstrate a body (especially a muscular, powerful body) entangled and helpless, zapped of energy, locked in bondage.
The Abdominal Stretch is one of the best holds ever invented for depicting the Helpless Male, his body immobile and twisted, his arms rendered useless, held upright and on display for easy viewing and contemplation by the witnesses at ringside.
Placing a male specimen in a position of helplessness always begs the question: now what will happen to him? If the sadistic Heel can do whatever he wants to the utterly Helpless Male, what twisted abuse and cruel torture will be inflicted?
Many wrestlers use the opportunity of helplessness afforded by the Ab Stretch to inflict pain — to slap or claw the tender meat along the ribcage, to wedgie up his trunks, to drive a sharp elbow into the stretched stomach, to yank his head back with a fistful of hair. The truly sick Heels will get sexually abusive, like Steve Corino who has been known to jam his thumb up where it doesn’t belong on his Ab Stretched victims…
Men are intrigued by the imbalance of power, the shifting of control to a dominant figure. Fantasizing about what could happen if you found yourself utterly defenseless, at the mercy of a stronger person, leaves many men breathless with either fear or arousal. The potential of rape, the ultimate humiliation, is always part of this fantasy.
The Ab Stretch, indeed the entire sport of pro wrestling, plays off the viewers’ fascination with loss of power, bondage, and torture, depicting strong male after strong male rendered utterly helpless and wide open to molestation and abuse.
Kyle delivers some tongue-porn and the old elbow to the abs stretch...
This gallery was inspired by these images of Arn Anderson groping his muscular victim, Lex Luger, which occurred during WCW Halloween Havoc pay-per-view in 1996. A fan of this blog snapped the photos off the television using his cell phone camera while enjoying a video of this match.
Here is how the sender describes why the images caught his attention: “Definitely the most intriguing ab stretch I’ve seen in WCW. Arn resting his hand on Luger’s ass, and there was nothing Luger could do about it. He had to be frustrated.”
