RhodyRaybo's blog

I recently had a reminder of the likelihood of a match actually transpiring that is set weeks in advance, by someone I've never met before. It has been my conviction that even talking about such matches are somewhat of a waste of time. Here's the latest. This guy from about 2 hours from my house requested a match on that mats at my North Attleboro temporary "Site B". That's where most of my videos have been recorded. But I should have seen 2 red flags in all this. First he wanted to invite someone he's wrestled with numerous times. And second, the other guy had no interest in wrestling me. It seemed the purpose of this guy was to get a space for him and his buddy. Now, I actually understand, but I've told other guys, I don't host if I can't participate. This guy setting it up said he would come before the other guy and the two of us could get some wrestling time in before his buddy shows up. Okay, I was willing to go along with that. However, there was still the gnawing feeling about setting it up 3 weeks in advance. His reasoning was that was the soonest he could get away. Against my better judgement, I agreed to it.

Anyway, during that time between initial setup and the date, we communicated several times. He seemed excited. He even made a voice call to me and we talked for quite a while. Although he still stressed about the other guy not wanting to wrestle me, it still appeared like it was going to happen. But at one point, my wrestling buddy Kevinj8664 requested that we meet that same night. I told him I had something else set up. Kevinj8664 is one of my semiregulars and a good friend, plus with his work and his homelife, it's not easy for him to travel my way seeing he's an hour from me. Anyway, 2 days before our scheduled match I texted the guy I had scheduled with and asked if it was still a go for Thursday. He didn't answer right away, which was unusual, but I figured, he wasn't able to. Several hours later, he does respond and his first words were to the effect of "Uh well, the thing is....." and here came the excuse. He wasn't cancelling, but he was preparing me for cancellation. He gave me the excuse of another friend coming from out of town a day early and he was waiting to hear back. I initially said, "okay, let me know". But then I decided to text Kevinj8664 to see if he was still able to do that night. Before I heard back from him, I just said regarding the other guy.."screw it". I texted him to tell him forget the whole thing. I never heard back

I wound up having my match that night with Kevinj8664 and had a fantastic time. He's a great guy and a lot of fun to beat up. Plus I've been wrestling him on average of once every other month for almost 7 years (not counting during the lockdowns). So it all worked out in mine and Kevinj's favor. And to be perfectly honest, I had a much better time with him than I would have with the other guy.

So from here on, I'm sticking to my policy. No matches scheduled more than a week in advance unless it's someone I've known for years and is reliable like Pecs44, Wrestling Beast, JRugbyguy53 or Kevinj8664. I also make exception for guys already planning a visit from out of town, and I know them fairly well, like Rassle4fun (whom I know VERY well) or Want-to-Wrestle.