Ricotewrestler.blog

 It’s been almost a week since I’ve been back from NY Wrestlefest and the truth is I was wrestling hard with myself , thinking about if writing a blog about the experience would be worth it . For starters , the great Nick Lean  wrote the review to end all reviews a few days back  and in all honesty I had trouble thinking of things to say that in one way or another he had not touched on . Yet as an experience , it’s one very individual and I will modestly but honestly write a few words of what that experience was for me, after being away since 2020 and coming to the event now turned into a more visible endeavor , or like I like to coyly refer to : under new administration . 

A little bit of (personal)history: I’ve been coming to these for a little over a decade. Have been roommates with other attendees ,have had my own room, stayed for the most part at  the old Hotel Penn and stayed too at the new Stewart Hotel. As you know, both defunct by now. I knew Terry’s fest . I met great guys from the old days of gay wrestling when it REALLY was underground and also stumbled upon the occasional jerk . Hey I might have even been that occasional jerk to somebody else. It’s a group event after all and like all group events you can’t expect it to lack group dynamics whether they are cool or not . So it’s best to just flow . My last fest of old was the 2020 edition. By the time I left NYC I believe in feb 29th as I believe it was a leap year , there were only 6 cases of Covid I believe in Westchester county and only one case in the city . We all know what happened two weeks later on the spot ….so I decided to stay away from traveling altogether until the pandemic ended…sort of …and during that time , the fest became something else . Something more visible, something more out there , something louder , to me it wasn’t necessarily better at the time , but it def looked and felt a bit different .  I saw those early transformations into what is now from afar and felt intrigued . Last year I was ready to come but I sprained badly my left knee in bjj practice , and I had to cancel on everybody . I’m a freelancer back home so money comes and goes and I have to make the most of it when it comes and sometimes have to sacrifice things I want to do , like coming to the fest , because I have a well paid project on those dates . 

This year , 2026 EVERYTHING ALIGNED! I even booked a room a day in advance at the “host” hotel The New Yorker , so I could come in the wee hours of early morning Thursday and roll into my room un disturbed …I’ve been up since Wednesday night 9:00 pm. So when I come down the elevator to officially start the experience, and the door swings open I kind of felt like Dorothy when she landed on Oz and open the door unto Munchkinland.  I start recognizing the faces some of which I had not seen in many years , but others that I knew never having seeing them before because of the phenomenon of social media. I think the first friend I saw back was Mike from Cal the wiry eternally tanned wrestling legend who emotionally was my first match ever on a fest 10 years ago and was gonna be my first match , this time around . From afar I saw Sir Dark , the myth, in flesh and blood scurrying around the lobby greeting everyone. In a way the New Yorker felt a bit like the Hotel Penn if a bit more lit up, and you could tell who the wrestlers were cause they had started to gather . And little by little you could put their faces , to their chests or trunks as in the only parts of them you’d see in social media . I remember I felt a bit jittery as if I had lost touch but out of the sudden had regain it all back in a flush . Then I started wrestling , gathering , greeting , filming and knowing people and I felt very grateful for the effort the producers of the event had manifested cause it really felt like a movement . Guys: I only ate at Tik -Tok, no matter the million restaurants NYC has to offer . I studied and lived in NYC from 1989-1996, and quite frankly , in winter there wasn’t much I wanted to do outside . And then came the Kick-off party…

I don’t know what happened to me there; but I was really really very happy  . I’ve become cynical and a bit ill tempered with time and I have no patience,what so ever for bigoted rejection or any kind of what I call: “mean girls on high school “ group dynamics. Yet EVERYONE was on their best and happiest behavior so I had to follow suit and flow. I didn’t want the kick-off to end, gentlemen and gentlemen and I was so happy ,that although I had bought the ticket for the oil wrestling downtown at Rock Bar, I settled for a great dinner with one of my opponents of earlier that day Tavon, along with the cutie Mattie and another cool guy whose name escapes me and when we walked back to the hotel I took them to dinner, at Tik-Toks of course !…later on I went up to my room and reflected upon the day but also on the great kick-off party and how the event for better or worse has ,become something else entirely, but ultimately for the best . It felt like an organized specific gathering bordering on social/sportive movement . All the way up to Sunday I did nothing but wrestling and eating at Tic-Toc’s. I barely had time to sit down with my brother who lives in Staten Island, and of my two bffs who live in NYC I could only see one, the one that made it to the hotel . I also realized that wether I wanted to give into it or not , at Wrestlefest , Pedro becomes dormant and only RICOTEWRESTLER  exists . And that’s a good thing isn’t it ?… so in closing remarks ..

Do :

Wrestle as much as you can 

Rest well

Stretch always 

Keep hydrated 

Make as many friends as you can(not necessarily content)

Set matches , on one other hour so you have time to recover 

Don’t 

over do it 

Loose perspective of the enviorement

Think you are not worth to ask any of your “idols” for a match ( I wrestled all my idols, also only to find out I was one to some of them)

Shut yourself out  to the possibility of having a great time …and lastly ..

…don’t you dare not coming back next year !

I loved every minute of it . I’m thankful and grateful to the organizers , the wrestlers I wrestled and everybody that even SMILED at me …so see you next year 

Pedro/Ricotewrestker