osakarob's blog

"Which do you prefer: Meeting up in a hotel for a match, or going to a wrestler's home?"

A number of years ago, I lived in Japan - a country notorious for cramped living quarters and crowded urban cities. But it was also the place where I was first able to connect with other wrestlers.

Naturally, finding suitable places to grapple in privacy was no easy task.

I was fortunate to meet Cobra, the nom de guerre of the owner of Japan's most famous (gay) wrestling video site, WrestleFactory. In those early days, before his video company grew to the success that it is today, he used an extra room in his house outfitted with jigsaw mats. My first matches were there and, looking back, I was really fortunate to have met someone kind, welcoming and accommodating to share their private space at home. Later, Cobra invested in a full-sized ring housed in a garage, but I only wrestled there a couple of times because it was more suited for his video production needs.

During subsequent years in Japan, I took advantage of meet-ups in "love hotels", Japan's version of short-stay hotels used for intimate rendezvous, high-school mat rooms, regular hotels, and the well known rentable ring space in Shibuya. But my most enjoyable match-ups were in the small tatami-style living room of my apartment that I outfitted with mats. The enjoyment of welcoming several wrestlers over at a time for an afternoon of different opponents is probably something I'll never replicate again. It was just one of those "right times in life" when everything came together: Japan is an incredibly safe country and as a single guy at the time it was easy to even welcome strangers into my home after setting up a wrestling date online. (Like the ancient image from the archives included in this post) What a huge evolution it is now to have a sight like MeetFighters with verifiable members and dossiers of confirmed opponents!

I repatriated myself back to the USA some years ago and eventually settled down. These days, I've been more selective about matches, opponents, and venues. My wrestling preferences have also changed over the years and now after a couple of submission style tries, I prefer to end with oil matches on a tarp. Naturally, hotels are easier for that than hosting at my home. But as with everything in life....there are tradeoffs: cost and availability being the most significant. But also, safety and comfort - establishing enough trust and "relational capital" with a prospective opponent to meet at a hotel feels different than it did back when I was younger. Maybe older and wiser just means more cautious.

All of these thoughts got me to thinking:

"Given that everyone has individual circumstances, generally speaking which do you prefer - meeting up in a hotel for a match or going to a wrestler's home?"

I'd be quite interested to hear why members of this site have the preferences that they do!