Pride of Lions

I was watching the April 6th episode of Ring of Honor when three young hunks in matching black trunks suddenly burst through the curtain.

It’s been several years since I’ve had that feeling of instant excitement and curiosity while watching wrestling, where my eyes pop out of my head as some new guys walk out and I say to myself: “Ohhh wow, who are THEY?  Where did THEY come from??  Where can I see more of THEM?!?”

This three-man team, which the commentators refer to as the “Young Lions” from the “New Japan Dojo,” definitely gave me that old feeling.  So today I want to research these Young Lions and answer those urgent questions that ran through my head when they first stepped into the arena.

The opponents for the “Young Lions” are Dalton Castle and his flamboyant and submissive minions, the Boyz.

The Six-Man Tag match begins with Clark Connors against the dominant Dalton Castle who is being presented as the Veteran Alpha Male in this bout.  Dalton pretty much schools the rookie in the opening scene, rolling him around the ring like a play toy.

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Of course we’ve seen the spectacular Clark Connors before — he was in the West Coast Wrestling Connection during 2018.  He is well known to wrestling fans like us.  I blogged about him and his similarly hunky Tag Team partner — Dicky Mayer — back in April 2018.  In Part 1 of that two-part article, I was trying to think of a name for their Tag Team, and in Part 2, I decided to call them “Young, Dumb, and Full of Cum.”

The Beefcakes of Wrestling blog has also written about Connors several times.  In one article, he informed us of a 4-minute YouTube video called “Wrestler Clark Connors Has a Great Ass.” It provides numerous close-ups of just that — Connors lower body packed in colorful trunks to the tune of “Can’t Touch This!”

Here is an image of rookie Clark Connors from an August 2017 match I saw on YouTube promoted by an Indy fed in Oregon.

That “Holy Mogly” quote in the caption under this photo was one of the many comments posted to the YouTube video in praise of the well-proportioned Clark Connors.

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Young Clark in his red trunks and bandanna takes a nice beating from a thuggish looking Heel.

Here the Bad Guy stretches out Clark’s chest, not so much to punish the buff rookie, but to give the audience boners as we watch in awe.  Even in his earliest matches, Clark Conners clearly understood why we watch wrestling and what kind of suffering we love to see.

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Let’s get back to the ROH match…  After being humiliated by the veteran, Clark escapes to his corner and tags in Young Lion #2 — Alex Coughlin.

This handsome and intense muscle-guy may be the least famous and newest of the Young Lions in today’s match.  I don’t even think Beefcakes of Wrestling has covered him yet!

In my research, I learned that Alex began his career in 2018 at the New York Wrestling Connection (NYWC).  His debut match, which he lost, was against his current partner Clark Connors. I’ll bet that was a HOT fight!

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Alex began his career portraying a cocky Heel in NYWC, using the name Leo Blackstone.

I found several videos on YouTube where “Blackstone” and his cocky partner Michael Mistretta bullied the fuck out of two dirt-bag guys in white undershirts and ragged jeans.

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On Tumblr, I found this great animation of Alex Coughlin applying a classic Indian Deathlock on Clark Connors.  Alex bridges back to amp up the pressure on Clark’s trapped leg.

By the way, the reason these Young Lions all wear plain black trunks and boots is due to a New Japan Pro Wrestling tradition.  All rookies in NJPW must start out in plain black gear as they learn the basics (such as this super hot Bridging Leglock.)

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After a rookie has proven himself and gained some experience, then he may adopt a persona and wear gear with colors and patterns.

I dig it because they’re all dressed identically as a Tag Team which, for some reason, is a big turn-on for me.

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Well the Boyz are not too impressed or intimidated by young Coughlin in spite of his hard body.

Both Boyz get in the ring and proceed to show him how they do it in the rough, violent ROH federation, two-against-one style.

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The third and final Young Lion is Karl Fredericks shown above applying his patented Boston Crab.  He’s originally from Reno and has been around the Indy scene since 2015 — I know he wrestled for the Reno Wrestle Factory and later All Pro Wrestling (APW) in California.

Beefcakes of Wrestling has blogged about this stud 17 times, starting with a 6/22/17 article featuring many images of Fredericks looking spectacular in tighty-whitie trunks.

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I found a hot match on YouTube between Karl Fredericks and Scorpio Sky from Maverick Pro Wrestling in 2017.   Fredericks sells nicely and the camera-work is well done with lots of close-up views.

Is this perhaps where Fredericks learned his stunning Elbow Drop (see above) — by enduring said move from Scorpio Sky?

 

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At 11:00 into the video, Scorpio locks Fredericks in this beautiful Body Scissor and keeps it on a good long while.  The camera, like I said, gets right in there to show us Karl’s pained cringes and teeth-baring agony.  It’s a pretty amazing Scissor scene if you’re into that.

 

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Scorpio (who wrestled for CyberFights and therefore understands the homo-erotic potential of wrestling holds) loudly announces that he’s going to “squeeze the life” out of Fredericks and not “let him breathe.”

Surely he realizes that comments like that are very triggering to the viewers.

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Back in the ROH ring, the Young Lions refuse to just lie down for Dalton and his Boyz.  They begin to kick ass in a rough manner, bullying and brutalizing one of the beloved Boyz, causing the audience to sympathize with the out-matched little victim in his shiny green tights.

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The Boyz trade places in the ring with the fresh one secretly replacing the exhausted one.  When Fredericks tries to cover him, the fresh Boy rolls Fredericks’ ass up for the pin.

So the Young Lions had to lose their ROH debut match, but it was a good introduction and they were exciting to watch.  Hopefully we will see much more of these Lions — together, against each other, or in singles competition — I’ll take them any way I can get them.