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J.R. Benson
J.R. Benson is an underground cult legend in the bizarre, and sometimes sleazy, subculture of "hardcore" professional wrestling.
The founder, main event wrestler and creative force behind Extremely Strange Wrestling, based out of San Francisco, California, J.R. Benson introduced deviant and perverse gimmicks and storylines to the already less then reputable world of professional wrestling. Credited with such controversial concepts as dominatrix wrestlers, self professed rapist and molester wrestlers, exploited legitimate homeless people as figurehead "commisioners", a wrestler tagged the Abortionist who carried a rusty coat hanger to the ring, and Benson himself receiving golden showers and oral sex in the ring from his female valet during matches. The often hilarious, often vile and filthy entertainment was a hit in San Francisco night clubs in the mid to late 1990s, while also gaining an underground cult following via videotape worldwide. However, most of the professional wrestling world scoffed at the crazy antics coming out of San Francisco from Extremely Strange Wrestling. Many professional wrestling purists labeled J.R. Benson and ESW as "cancers" and "disgraces." However, history went on to show that the rest of the professional wrestling world soon followed Benson's lead. By the last two years of the decade of the 1990s, the huge national wrestling federations all featured the same type of offensive, perverted and borderline pornographic material, leading the industry to both unheard of heights of popularity, and depths of controversy. Though considered a small player in the vast scope of things, J.R. Benson is acknowledged as the original innovator of these type of promotional tactics.
He promoted the first ever Tub Of AIDS Infected Syringes Match in Martinez, California in 1996. Though he absolutely introduced the hardcore pornographic smut element to professional wrestling, J.R. Benson often tried to take claim to introducing the violent and dangerous elements of "hardcore extreme wrestling" to the "sport." This is false, as even though he introduced the violence of hardcore wrestling to California and the West Coast for the first time, the spectacle of hardcore professional wrestling was already an established hit in Tokyo, Japan and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania long before Extremely Strange Wrestling debuted it on the West Coast. However, many California wrestling promotions did copy the ESW formula for years to come on the West Coast, including Rob Black's infamous XPW promotion, where J.R. Benson worked for a period of time. J.R. Benson also wrote a controversial book in 2008 titled EXTREMELY STRANGE, with intensive details on his controversial exploits & experiences in the wrestling business. Just like Benson himself, the book was enthusiastically raved about by some, while most labeled it a disgusting black eye to the wrestling business.
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