Saturday, February 28, 2015

most epic bondage wrestling I've ever had...and probably ever will!

Hi there, this is VeVe guest-posting here.  This is an account of the crazy, marathon bondage wrestling match that I just had with Kevin a few hours ago.  It's cross-posted from VeVe's Wrestling Blog.  Enjoy!


*  *  *

Oh, my fucking god.  Well, whatever else I might have written about this week just got blown out of my mind by the insane bondage wrestling match I just had with Kevin.  I'm recovering/refueling right now with a ton of sushi and some nice red wine, and it's fresh in my mind.  So that's it; that's what this post will be:  a report on that match.


I can't do a play-by-play because there's actually TOO much for me to remember (by "fresh" I may have meant kind of a blur).  Diablo actually had to pause us in the middle of the match to change the camera battery -- that's how long this marathon went on!  It also meant that at the end, we weren't totally sure how long we'd gone -- we guessed 90 minutes.  But Diablo just put the two parts into the editing program, and told me it came to almost two hours!

So no play-by-play.  Here are an overview and my general impressions.

I had fought Kevin before early last fall, so I knew he was going to be tough.  He's a solid wrestler and grappler (with training in both styles) and solid in terms of size too -- he was 180 last fall.  I didn't think it would matter much, but I was pleased going into this match that I'd bulked up 10 pounds since last time.  The sneaky bastard had too!  He was 190 today.  Plus, I knew that Kevin was the sort who really wanted to win and wouldn't give up for practically anything.

When we fought last fall (a combo of facesit pins style and submission style), it took me about 30 minutes to get a submission on him.  I knew this would be harder.   I maintain that a basic quality of bondage wrestling is that it's harder than submission wrestling -- you can get a submission from countless different positions; when it's on right, it only has to last a split second; and when it's over, it's over.  When you get a good tying position on someone, it has to be somewhere that hides the knot from their hands and teeth; I have to hold it long enough to get the knot tied; and once it's done, it has to keep holding while they struggle and I work to tie other limbs.  A huge advantage of mine is that most other people aren't experienced with how to finish a tie in competitive real time, but huge advantages of my opponents (especially big strong ones) are that they don't need to finish a tie to make a few wraps of the rope into an annoying handicap and that they can be extremely frustrating by  just focusing on removing ties.

So we jumped in.  Right away I was reminded of my tangle with Danger Dude in the Battle of the Sexes 4-Way Bondage Wrestling.  Smaller or less skilled opponents aren't much trouble for me to sweep over and then attack from on top, but bigger, experienced guys can make me fight from the bottom.  It's a fine position for BJJ, but, honestly, I don't usually have to deal with that in bondage wrestling.  I experimented for a while to see if I could rope Kevin from the bottom of guard, but he kept pulling his arms up and out (and all the while attempting to wrap my arms as well).  This went on long enough to become aggravating and tiring.  I realized this was too much like the match with Danger Dude -- it wasn't a particular opponent thing but a general thing -- bottom of guard is a crummy place to secure ties.

I realized I had two options -- eliminate distractions, throw the ropes away for a while, and rely on pure grappling technique to the get a sweep; or rope a leg instead of an arm and use the attachment to force the sweep.  Either way I needed a big effort to get on top.  Well, I went for my big effort -- a few times, in a few different ways, I think -- and at one point we broke apart...I dove for his ankle...he sprawled on top of me to defend...I caught myself with my hand turned just a little funny...and I sprained my thumb.

Oh, no!!  That was about the worst thing that could have happened.  Thumbs are pretty damn important for tying ropes.  They're also important for all kinds of grabbing, catching, propping, and pushing in grappling.  What had already been a hard match just became colossally challenging.  But neither Kevin nor I was about to give up.

I admit things became a bit of a mess and kind of emotional after that.  With my thumb hurting and also frustrating the hell out of me when it wouldn't work as well as I wanted, and with the match getting longer and longer and more exhausting, AND with my needing to call up some pretty big bursts of strength to move Kevin around, AAAANND with him torturing me by escaping several times from ties that were SO close, I went into drama mode.  I did a lot of yelling, sometimes from exertion and sometimes from frustration.

Kevin, obnoxiously, thought this was funny instead of terrifying.  He was clever enough to steal some rest at various times when I was working to tie him, and explode out when he'd caught his breath and I was just about to get somewhere with the knots.  He kept threatening me too, and at one point when I was just too tired to do much about it, he almost had me...but the ropework was too messy to hold once I caught my breath.  Two can play at that game, Kevin!

I'm not going to give away the ending here, but what I will say is that that was one of the hardest, and definitely the longest, match of my life.  And two hours in there was a final tie.  What finally made the difference was a pull-out-the-stops, tight-as-hell chicken-wing tie.  But how it happened, and to whom, and what happened next is a secret!  ...until the video comes out.

Roped-Up Valentine with VeVe + Howl

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Follow-up: Battle of the Sexes, A Long Night!

The morning after.  Last night VeVe and I grabbed the camera, made a trek out into New Jersey, and met up with Keri, Danger Dude, and Frankie for our first ever 2-on-2 competitive Battle of the Sexes bondage wrestling bout.

Whew.

UPDATE: Thurs, Feb 19. Very first pictures added at the bottom

UPDATE: Sat, Feb 21. Just watched the video; It was different than I remembered from the filming!  But below is my "morning after" text.

Keri and VeVe joined forces -- also another first-ever -- and they faced off against the combined might of Danger Dude and Frankie.  Both teams were remarkably intent on winning, both brought a lot of passion and will to the table, and both crashed and bashed for a tough and strenuous evening. 

The guys entered the game with an interesting set of cards in their hand.  Danger Dude had a remarkable level of grappling experience, enough to blow past all other competitors on the mats that evening.  He had only limited experience when it came to rope work and quick-tying, but he did have a basic gist and was ready to be creative.  Frankie was the least experienced wrestler in the room, but he was exceptionally fit, agile, and very open to taking directions from his teammate Danger Dude.  But Frankie had even less rope know-how than his partner; he's been hogtied once, and I think that was the extent of his rope experience.

Danger Dude and Frankie agreed to a very simple game plan ahead of time, which consisted of Danger Dude attacking hard at VeVe while Frankie kept Keri pre-occupied and unable to offer assistance.

The ladies came into the game expecting a tough showing from the guys, but they also expected to neutralize their opponents with teamwork.  They were primarily concerned about Danger Dude, and the main plan was to double-team him as soon as possible.  VeVe speculated that they could even possibly ignore Frankie altogether, staying tight to Danger Dude and not letting Frankie in to intervene.

So, the ladies' plan was to attack Danger Dude via 2-on-1 as soon as possible, and to deal with Frankie later.

The intersection of these two plans led to an exhausting, furious, and nearly interminable battle!

As the rumble began, the men got lucky and isolated the ladies immediately, driving them away from each other and to opposite sides of the fight area.  From there, they broke into two simultaneous 1-on-1 matches as VeVe clashed with Danger Dude while Keri struggled to contain the unsinkable Frankie.

VeVe spent a ton of time underneath Danger Dude, forced into incredibly demanding multi-tasking as she tried to work single-leg tie attacks while also attempting to relieve the physical pressure he was placing on her.  Danger Dude would repeatedly blast through VeVe's re-guarding attempts, mounting her chest or kneeling on her belly, but he struggled to create any effective ties.  I particularly remember glimpsing him wrapping a rope around and around her wrist like a spool.  VeVe would always escape or avoid those ties, scramble away, and all would start again. 

As VeVe called "Keri, what happened to the plan?!", Keri found herself with her hands full, thanks to Frankie.  Despite his lack of experience, Frankie was no slouch, and he did all he could to be a nuisance to the ladies' teamwork efforts by keeping Keri's attention.  Indeed, any time Keri would rush over to help VeVe, Frankie would throw himself at her and drag her down.  Annoyed, Keri punished Frankie and kept him at bay with bodyscissors, intimidating pressure, and grueling rope bite.  But even if it meant his suffering, Frankie still did his part: he kept Keri occupied and kept the ladies' team separated.  This was quite a thorn for the female team!

After a particularly lengthy exchange, maybe a half-hour into the bout, all 4 participants got to their feet again, completely shucking off all ropes.  Oh no.  A restart at this point?!  Oh, exhaustion...

As they re-engaged, VeVe insisted they try again with their double-teaming plan.  Again, Keri attempted to turn her back on Frankie and help against Danger Dude, but Frankie would either grab her around the body and sling her away, or he would just tackle into the whole pile, creating a jumble, foiling the ladies' efforts, and allowing Danger Dude to squiggle to a better position.

The ladies attempted their double-team several times, which actually caused Danger Dude quite a bit of distress; he was swift to handle a 1-on-1 situation, yet when both ladies attacked him together, the tide would clearly start turning.  But Danger Dude would call out to Frankie, sending out an S.O.S. when he was overwhelmed, and Frankie would rush in with his latest crazy rescue attempt.

An incredible and infuriating battle!  And long, too -- They fought for nearly 50 passionate minutes, wrestling hard to secure a tie before someone escaped again to cause more mayhem!  

As everything boiled to a head, only a quick-thinking switch-off at a critical moment could provide the space needed for one of the teams to prevail.  But it was a slight mistake, a change in tactics, and a head-first dive through a window of opportunity that eventually spelled a downward spiral for one set of the partners...


EDIT!  Sat, Feb 21. I finally watched the video 2 days after filming... and the combination of elements was different than I remembered!

After watching, I saw the ladies DID use the strategy tweaks I had mentioned below for them.  It's very odd, really, that this just slipped my mind.  Watching this now, I see how much I missed when I was filming it.  I was so concerned with the framing challenges that I missed so many details in the moment.  Stay tuned, readers; I'm pulling more stills.  I'm leaving my strategy tweaks below as originally composed, but, again, some of those did actually happen in the match at the very end, once things got desperate.  Ok, back to work!


...........................................
Strategy Tweaks

After having seen the match and the strategies play out, I have considered strategy tweaks for the teams:

For the men:  Danger Dude and Frankie should have double-teamed VeVe from the start, essentially adopting the ladies' initial strategy.  Once VeVe was secured, which is quite do-able with two larger opponents, they could have both turned on Keri.

For the ladies: They should have used a strategy similar to the men's initial idea; VeVe should have attacked Frankie to bind and secure him, which she has done very quickly priorly, while Keri fouled and distracted Danger Dude.  Once Frankie was tied, then they could both overbear Danger Dude.

............................................

And that was our first attempt at this style of multi-person match!  It was smashingly hard-fought, and a lot of sweat saturated those ropes last evening.  Hats off to our weary, daring, rope-burned competitors!


UPDATE: Thurs evening: Pictures added below:

The Very Beginning







The dreaded reset at 30-minutes





Saturday, February 14, 2015

VeVe and Keri Spectrum Join Forces Against the Men

Two items of news from today.

1. We had a great competitive mixed bondage wrestling match this evening of VeVe Lane vs Howl!  More on that later...

2. We rescheduled our "couples" bondage wrestling match for Wednesday.  But we also rearranged the format a bit:

Now, instead of mixed couples, we will be having a bondage wrestling Battle of the Sexes!

Indeed, VeVe Lane and Keri Spectrum will join forces at last to take on Danger Dude and Frankie in a competitive mixed bondage wrestling Battle Royale. F/F vs M/M teams will go head-to-head, and both sides are quite eager to win!

In fact, Keri and VeVe have been texting each other this evening, making their plans and discussing how best to defeat the arrogant Danger Dude and his (actually fairly innocent) cohort Frankie.

VeVe and Keri are skilled and experienced bondage wrestlers, but Danger Dude is a remarkably experienced grappler, and he thinks he's got what it takes to rocket the men's team to the victory circle on this one.  But does he?  Does he actually have the rope-work skills to nullify the ladies?  Does he have the leadership ability to direct the less-experienced Frankie?

Well, the ladies are certainly motivated for this one.  "Battle of the Sexes" style has indeed motivated them even more so than "mixed couples" style.  Well, great!  Looking forward to Wednesday.... and remember, anything can happen!

 & 


VS


  & 






Couples Bondage Foiled, Now VeVe vs Howl for Singles

Oh no!  The grand plan has been foiled!

I awoke this morning -- Valentine's Day, the day of our Mixed Couples bondage wrestling shoot -- to discover that our spectacle plans had been nipped in the bud.  The text messages kept buzzing as we simultaneously lost 2 of our 3 couples: one team was lost to inclement weather (yet more snow is expected today) and the other team was lost to heartbreak (on Valentine's Day -- what misfortune!).

And so, we are now down with just one couple left standing after all:  VeVe and Howl.

This can mean only one thing, then....

    VS  

Instead of a chance to work as a team for the very first time ever, VeVe and Howl will face off against each other in one-on-one mixed bondage wrestling combat.

Howl bondage wrestled against Orlandoe in his very first rope-tie attempt.  And he almost won.  So very close there, but for Orlandoe's wily wickedness.  Howl also bondage wrestled in a 2-on-1 challenge against VeVe, with Sato as his teammate, where the two men were able to successfully subdue to Petite Powerhouse.

But now, teamwork is on hold, and we shall see what happens when VeVe and Howl clash in singles action!

I've been meaning to set up this match for later this year, but here it has suddenly popped up for today, unexpectedly.  Howl's been fighting especially hard lately in his video matches, so VeVe will have a lot to deal with on this one.  Only a few hours to go before we see how this goes down.  Stay tuned!

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Mixed Couples Bondage Date is Set! Keri, Azy, VeVe

Hooray!  We had a big celebration this afternoon following a confirmation that we now have 3 out of 3 mixed couples ready, willing, and able to throw down for our mixed couples bondage wrestling match!

Ironically, the match is scheduled to take place on Valentine's Day, February 14.  How's about that?!

We have...

1. Keri Spectrum and Danger Dude
          ....representing the great state of New Jersey.

&

2. Crazy Azy and Big John
          .....representing the roiling beaches of Rockaway, Queens.

&

3. VeVe Lane and Howl
          .....representing the amazing borough of Brooklyn

&



And to restate the conditions:

Each couple will "officially" have 10-15 minutes before the match to discuss their strategy together, out of earshot of the other couples.  They also have unlimited time to train/practice/plan before arriving for the event.  Then, we will have a 2 minute video interview with each couple, where they will (privately) share their plans with the video audience.

When the match begins, it will be a free-for-all, with all 3 couples fighting at the same time and trying to put their plans into action.  The objective will be to get all other wrestlers fully tied up, immobilized, and gagged.

But in the end, there can be only 1 winner.  So even if a full couple makes it through to become the last 2 wrestlers standing, they will eventually have to turn on each other!

Stay tuned, bondage wrestling fans; this one should be very interesting!