The Badger's Blog

Our imaginations can be very vivid and powerful and can trigger a wide range of emotions within us. For those of us that truly enjoy and love pro wrestling, photos can really supercharge and give direction and a forward path to our imagination. A great wrestling photo or video still can cause your imagination to run wild. It can display or portray pain or pleasure, or both emotions and others at the same time.

Whatever your fantasy is regarding wrestling, a great wrestling photo can place you in the ring and in the photo if you use your imagination. And of course everyone may have a different interpretation of what they see in a photo, just as like minded individuals will see similar things in certain photos.

I've attached a photo to this blog so that I can share what I see when I look at it. I'd be very interested to see what you experience when you look at it, or discuss photos that you like. Please leave your comments below!

A bit of backstory first. The wrestler playing the heel is a friend of mine. I contacted him here on Meetfighters because I thought that he really had the look of a classic pro heel. He was very interested in learning about classic pro, but had no pro experience at all. I ensured him that I would teach him what I know about pro wrestling, and he was very enthusiastic about our training and video sessions. Over the course of a year or more he played various heel characters during our matches, and I feel he did a great job of capturing the classic pro heel look!

The attached photo/video still is from one of our matches. What does the photo tell you?

There is a lot going on in this photo. If I look at the heel, I see a mysterious looking wrestler, very big and powerful, villainous and sinister all at the same time. You can't see his face, which I really liked, although you can just make out a few features if you look into the mask intently. He is obviously in control and is the dominant wrestler, taking on a smaller opponent. He is inflicting pain and punishment on his victim, which is the job of any good heel. His boots are black as well as his boot laces, and as we all know black has generally been associated with the "bad guy".

As for his suffering opponent, he's obviously a jobber, and he's in discomfort as he is being choked with the ropes. The facial expression on the jobber's face says it all. Struggling to breathe, helpless at this point in the match, the photo suggest to me that the jobber has endured a lot of punishment in the match. His arms are limp at his sides, he is slumped a bit forward on the ropes, and he is on his knees where the heel has him in the ropes. He looks a bit stunned, like he was not expecting the match to go in the direction it's going in.

I like wrestling gear.. boots, masks, trucks, tights...it all gives a look of realism. But I also really like to see the turnbuckles, ring ropes, and even in this case the venue, which is black background with only the ceiling lights being noticeable. It gives the impression of wrestling in a small church basement or small venue where there may be only a handful of spectators, or none at all.

Now your imagination has to take over, so you can envision what happens AFTER the photo. How does the match finish, and how much punishment does the jobber have to endure before the heel finishes him off?

Hey, if you made it this far, thanks for reading!