My YouTube Wormholes of COVID-19

COVID-19 has caused quite a few changes in everyday life. The grocery store is now the most exciting part of my week as it is the only reason to get far from my home. Overall, it's been great though. At first, my wife and I didn't have to go to work because we could work remotely. Then, I didn't have to go to work because I got furloughed, which, although not ideal, means that I get to fully focus on raising a one-year-old which is awesome (and exhausting). But there is some extra time for media consumption during his naps, and there is a lack of interesting things on television with the world rightfully shutting down. This has led me down some weird roads, primarily on YouTube.

It started innocently enough. I started with pro wrestling videos. Free matches and events. It started with matches from Defy that I had seen in person like Shane Strickland (now Isaiah Scott) vs. Matt Riddle (now Matt Riddle), and that led to intergender matches like Kylie Rae vs. Orange Cassidy which led me to AR Fox vs. Kimber Lee, and then things progressed to full Evolve shows. And pro wrestling led me down other paths.

YouTube kept finding my interests, so I had to watch the Iowa/Penn State wrestling dual...from 1994. I mean, it's not like I'm going to pass up a match with Lincoln McIlravy in it. Then I found out that there were about two wrestling matches every year in the 90s that some guy lifted off of Iowa Public Television and put on the web, so I watched 'em all. I was still trying to fill the hole in my heart from not having an NCAA Championships this year. It didn't quite fill the void, so I went to the hard stuff, international freestyle wrestling. Sure, I could enjoy the recent stuff from the last 15 years, but then I started going back to the 60s where I could barely follow what was going on since freestyle wrestling has had so many damn rule changes. Kurt Angle matches were a tad disappointing, but when I stumbled on Randy Lewis beating John Smith, I thought I hit the holy grail. Then I saw Lee Fullhart beat Cael Sanderson, and oh man, that was the sweetest spot. But not everything was perfect in the world of freestyle wrestling. When I made it to the mid-2000s and started seeing ball draws, I was nearly shaking with anger. I know that you probably have no idea what that means, but whatever you're imagining, I promise it is ten times dumber.

I channeled that anger in the most logical way. Early MMA events. UFC 2, oh hell yeah. World Extreme Fighting 9 including Dan Severn, Matt Hughes, Rich Franklin, and Jens Pulver, oh my god yes! After that, it was Pride, oh man, so much Pride. They're all great. Wanderlei Silva, Kazushi Sakuraba, Mark Kerr, and the crowds are truly amazing. They love the Japanese guys most, but if you go out and destroy the world in your fights, they love you almost as much.

But violence can only take you so far, so who knows what my next adventure will be...oh shit, they've got old Slamball games. My week is officially planned. Thanks, quarantine.