D2: When people think of homoerotic wrestling the two companies that stand tall for pumping out some very good wrestling kink material over the years are the oft-mentioned (but not often in the same breath if you value your limbs) BGEast and Can-Am.
There are many, MANY others out there...you also have Rock Hard Wrestling, UCW, Naked Kombat and the list continues on into the infinite. Somewhere on the lower regions of the unofficial homoerotic wrestling totem pole you'd find the little company from New England that flew under the radar (yet, still managed to find it's niche) for nearly 10 years.
Regardless of what ever your knowledge or experience with HBWL may have been over the course of its lifetime, it holds a very, VERY special place in my heart as it was the early home for Drake to finally come out of his cage,
(Drake: Bitch...)
find his feet, blink blearily at the sunlight, spread his wings, and take flight to discover just exactly who he was in this interesting world of homoerotic wrestling. It was also a place for me to kind of begin to make peace with the body dysmorphia that had plagued me from an early age.
The site also had BG East wrestlers Jonah Richards and Timmy Cox in VERY different roles. The sister site (Beaten & Shamed) featured UCW wrestler Donovan as Austin. A few of the other wrestlers (Jesse) found their way into other small-market gay porn such as Broke Straight Boys.
The owner of the website and I had some ideas and plans for Drake and his storyline at HBWL. A good deal of them were fleshed-out and realized while others languished and were a victim of time and constraints. Sometimes the best-laid plans have some unexpected outcomes and consequences.
I always used to find it funny when reading authors' commentaries on their own work when they mention that their characters take on an uncertain type of sentience and refuse to be who they are being written to be. Or the story comes to life and takes an unexpected turn, even for the author. The only thing the writer can do is sit back and let the unknown invader take the helm and tell the story the way it wants to be told. The control is no longer in their hands...and so, it seems, that time is here once again where I have to release the reigns of this narrative to my co-host...Drake...
Drake: Co-host? Pfft! Please, I'm the star. That's who they're here to hear. You're merely the man who welcomes me to the stage...my stage. I let you have your little segments but it's ultimately about me, don't forget it...
(D2: You're a bit insufferable, you know that?)
Don't care! Go read your books and let me talk!
(D2: *indecipherable grumbling*)
You're fine...
Whew, he just NEVER quits!
Ok, so back to HBWL...Hometown Boys Wrestling League.
Let me break down for you what they were all about: fun, goofy, experimental, organic, slap and tickle fights. I don't think this site every really decided what it wanted to be. The storylines were always disjointed and seemed conflicted about what they wanted to do with their characters. Just barely fleshed out but played to the motherfucking hilt, almost to the point of self-parody. The punches that never even really tried to look like they connected framed by scripted, on-the-fly "fights" that usually ended up in the same place every time: guys knocked out, nude, and getting stroked off (sometimes to completion, but mostly as a humiliation factor) while the dominant one would count to 30. If they were unlucky enough to be unresponsive by the time that count was reached then they lost and tons of humiliation was still in store.
It was definitely a niche site, but dear God did it find it! Anybody who had any varying degree of a fetish could find it at HBWL: bondage, wrestling, KO scenarios, forced feminization, CMNM, shaving, feet, facials, watersports... They also had a wide variety of models that worked for the site: twinks (mostly), jocks, punks, nerds. Some times the downtrodden of the social classes would get the upperhand on the schoolyard bullies (the jocks) and delve out some well-deserved payback. Some times not. Regardless of whether or not you funded the product (which you no longer can, however I am sure that some clips are floating around on various tube sites), they always found a way to twist things up, make it new and exciting. It lasted for a good 10 years, and I was there until the end.
The storyline that D2 and the webmaster had in mind for me went like this:
I show up, out of the blue, and want to buy out the company from the owner, Brad (who was kind of a maniacal CEO, a la Vince McMahon, who got mixed up in the fighting action himself from time to time). My first meeting with Brad doesn't go too well. The negotiations sour quickly and I let it slip that some of the wrestlers aren't happy with the way the company is moving and want a change of leadership. They find that in me.
Brad, incensed at this perceived mutiny, refuses to step down from his position and tells me to beat it. Being all pussylike in this scenario, I get nervous and apologize. Before I can beat a hasty retreat, Brad clocks me across the skull with a briefcase, knocking me down, and diving like a vulture on some roadside carrion. I take a vicious and demoralizing beatdown from company head and end up unconscious, stripped, him leaving with my clothes as well as dropping me a challenge via voicemail: whoever wins the next fight gets control of the company.
Drake accepts...of course!
Despite my amazing foresight
(D2: Hey! I'm the thinker!)
to show up with that great equalizer chloroform, the more-experienced Brad is able to fight off an attack from behind. I put up a valiant effort, getting control a few times, and have Brad at the mercy of my lecherous hands. However, it's all for naught as Brad regains consciousness and makes a strong comeback. Putting me...*gulp*... down and out for the count and the win. Leaving me with a "souvenir": a load of cum on my face and a warning to those I came to represent.
Pretty bad, right? They wanted me to be a near-defenseless jobber who would get humiliated left and right! Fuck that noise...
The story fleshed out that I had been brought in by a rogue faction of wrestlers, spear-headed by Colin (who had his own axe to grind with Brad), and when Colin finds me laid out and humiliated decides to punish me for letting them down.
I take a pretty good beating in that one, but, guess what bitches. I came out on top!
From there I moved on to pull an upset win over the legendary HBWL stud, Godzilla-dick Patrick, my roommate Asa for not having his half of the rent, my assistant Christopher for threatening to blackmail me with the videos of my abject humiliation. I also sucker HBWL-hopeful Leon into a fake interview in Brad's absence, crush my friend Austin (Donovan of UCW) for wrecking my car, and decimate the twinky couple of Christopher and DJ (a hilarious bitch-off). And finally, face off against reigning HBWL champion, Jay. Looking at that, where do you think I began to dominate this whole game?
They wanted me as a babyface jobber who would always lose...and I not only asserted but proved myself with a string of victories and when HBWL closed shop?
Drake Fucking Marcos... standing tall as HBWL champion.
I came across HBWL when they distributed only VHS finally breaking down to buy a download when they announced they were closing, presenting me with my last chance to see sweet Travis/Jonah digitally. For me. the situations seemed so implausible, the chloroform was a nice touch because it at least provided a realistic sense for the knockout as opposed to the less than believable what seemed like a 15 second choke out the fighters generally favored. The fight inhibiting lack of mats and other wrestling necessities aside, the biggest turn on for me was the place of origin for the on screen talent, much like today's UCW roster, with few exceptions, HBWL talent were average lookers, but possessed sufficient ethnic charm to take me back to the Rhode Island of my youth, the smallest and yet strangest little state in the nation, how for Christ's sake do places like Woonsocket and Newport even co-exist under the same form of government?! For a time, my whole world revolved around the bars in Providence and for Los Angeles based me, HBWL took me back to that place, fondly remembered. From your recounting of your own experience with HBWL, I get the clear sense that you all had fun putting those fights into production, thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI was very, VERY nervous about doing work for the site but friendships developed and as stated elsewhere, there's a certain camaraderie that develops among those who work and put this stuff together. I mean when you peel back the curtain and get a look at all of this with pretense and character roles behind, it's quite different from what you'd expect. For some that may squash the whole fantasy scenario that fans build around it, but for those of us, like me, it really endears the whole industry and product to me that much more.
DeleteOhh what I would do to see some of those videos again! You bring nice memories to mind. Wish I could see the videos which you were part of now that I know it it you!
ReplyDelete@jose :) I have copies of all but one of the matches...was unable to get my hands on the video with the 2 on 1 with Christopher and DJ. But as I remain in contact with the owner, I hope to one day score it. I'm kind of glad that those videos are gone (mine anyways) as they don't reflect how I look now (I was kinda pudgy in those videos lol) or who Drake has become. He's a bit more subdued (speak for yourself), a bit more calculating (damn right), less bitchy and conniving
ReplyDeleteI was lucky enough to see some of them, some that I had buy and were buried deep in my external hard drive and others that are still floating on video sites, and let me tell you, it is great to see the difference!! It is great to have some backstory for those videos.
DeleteI actually had the chance to do a video with HBWL! kind of fun to think i worked for the same company as Drake Fucking Marcos.
ReplyDelete