Match 1
Tino Bravado vs. Denny Webb
Tino Bravado 5’8” 153 19yo
Denny Webb 5’11” 164 19yo
This is really great. The cut, tight, muscular Tino (red/black speedos) challenged the way skilled Denny (Blue speedos) as soon as he saw Denny on Wanna Wrestle 29. Tino has been asking NHB for better challenges for a long time now. (He turned down a match against Max Anderson.) Denny will wrestle anyone at anytime and when we told Denny how really tough Tino is, Denny was more than ready.
They met at Liam O’Connor’s new, fantastic wrestling space in Chicago. Denny flew to Chicago just to wrestle. The huge mats made it super easy for these two great wrestlers to throw each other around, and keep the action going – and man – did they do just that. At one point, Tino tries to stand up and get a release, but Denny hangs on and throws Tino to the mat four different times.
Tino uses his really powerful legs consistently during this match to keep Denny a body length away – making it hard for Denny to use his skill. Tino is incredibly strong and uses all that power to push out of many of Denny’s best holds.Tino’s choke weakens Denny and the more he gets choked out, the weaker Denny gets. Tino’s muscles just get more and more pumped and powerful as he wrestles.
This match has just one submission – the rematch is already planned. These two young, tough guys want a piece of each other. Tino is asking for a match using body punches.
Match 2
Ben Young vs. Craig Mallick
Ben Young 5’9” 170 22yo
Craig Mallick 5’9” 159 20yo
Each time we watch a match from South Africa, we are more and more impressed with the wrestling ability of these young men. They have an excellent concept of submission wrestling – some of the best moves and holds we’ve seen. Ben (blue/black speedos) obviously has spent a good deal of his growing up years in the gym and on the mat. He’s cut, muscular and has an excellent grasp of many submission wrestling moves and holds. We thought, when we saw Craig (red speedos), that he was going to have his hands full trying to handle the more muscular Ben. But, as usually, NHB was wrong. Craig is only a superb submission wrestler, but he is quite strong. He’s one of those guys who, as he wrestles, gets more and more pumped and cut, and you begin to see how really strong he is. These guys go at it for so long and so hard, that we can’t even keep track of the submissions.
Lots of tough leg locks, powerful cradles and headlocks, and a variety of other intriguing holds dominate this match. These guys will do just about anything to get the other guy to tap out. We are already negotiating to get a lot more of these two men going at other worthy opponents.
Match 3
Ken Vitale vs. Erick Brown
Ken Vitale 5’10” 145 28yo
Erik Brown 5’9” 163 20yo
Ken (green/white speedos) brought his friend Erik (black speedos) to NHB for a match. Ken was pretty confident that he could beat Erik since he has more experience and has been practicing with other NHB wrestlers. We took one look at Erik and knew that Ken was in trouble. Erik is built tough and you can tell by looking at him. He’s a gym buff, working out at least five times a week. He said he did some wrestling around with friends, but never anything serious. We showed him some basic moves and holds, especially submission holds, and let these two tough friends go at it.
It’s very obvious, throughout the entire match, how strong Erik is. He manhandled Ken for the whole match and just waited till Ken got tired and grabbed the submission. If Erik learns more and practices (and we will be sure he does) he will be an awesome competitor. His legs are so strong that he just wraps Ken up easily and holds him there. When Ken, with his really strong legs, get them wrapped around Erik, Erik just tosses them off – like it’s no effort at all.
Ken was holding back and was very timid, as you will see, but man is he tough. We will train him regularly, give him moves, holds and a load of confidence. You will see a lot of this tough kid.