The Legend of the Wrestling Woodsman

Iowa isn't a hot-bed for cryptozoological phenomenon.

Occasionally a rare Bigfoot sighting will cause a media flare up but over all it's a pretty mild and uneventful place to live. We don't have a resident creature of folklore, such as New Jersey who has the Devil, or Florida who has the Skunk Ape, or Vermont who has Champ the legendary lake monster who allegedly haunts Lake Champlain on the US/Canadian border. We don't have feral humans running about, and the threat of a werewolf or other shape shifting creatures seem to be less than luke-warm here in the corn belt. You mention a shadow person and the typical Iowan won't have any idea what you are talking about.

That being said, I am a curious sort. Fantasy has always been much more fun than reality to me, and I dared to dream. I didn't necessarily dismiss the unknown as automatic fiction, and perhaps out of boredom more than anything else, I searched high and low to find comprehensive evidence that supported my suspicions. I have often said, even on this blog, that while I am not ready to say that Bigfoot is definitely real... I do believe in the possibility that he exists... I think the scientific evidence to support this is overwhelming. To me it's naive to dismiss what we do not understand or know about as fake. While it has never been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the giant bipedal woods creature is indeed real, it hasn't been proven otherwise either. To me that is enough to keep my curiosity piqued and my imagination fluid with questions...

But I digress. Well... Kind of.

I had heard about the Wrestling Woodsman from locals; mostly old farmers who would tell stories during happy hour at Wilson's Tap. Most had a sighting during harvest... While combining at dusk for example... Or early in the morning while tending to beans or corn. The legend is simple, and actually not far-fetched. It is this: Wrestlers living in a Mexican society where the popularity of the sport is waning are migrating north in search of a match. With only the obscurity of the mask, they have resorted to hiding out in the woods, or along forested rivers, or in other areas that provide cover, such as a corn field. They seem to be constantly on the run... Only coming into town after dark to ravage for food or to read the posted bills on the community bulletin board. Their search is relentless... While Lucha Libre (which translates as "Free Wrestling") is a dying sport in Mexico, it is still a thriving enterprise here north of the border.

A good friend of mine, Dave, (and a very credible source) told me of several sightings he had experienced in the woods on his acreage. He was actually featured on the local evening news and provided his own footage taken by a video monitor he had attached to a tree. Check it out...



I was amazed and obviously excited. Dave literally guaranteed to me that I would experience a sighting, if I were to come out to his farm and set up a stake-out. Of course I agreed to do it. My friend seemed to know exactly where the Woodsman was at any given time during the day or night. It was as if the creature had set up his base camp on my friend's land and had taken residence there. Dave even told me that he would set out beans, rice and tortillas for this nomad wrestler, and would often observe him picking and eating berries off of his mulberry bush. I was amazed... And I wanted to see this for myself.

I wasn't disappointed. We had sighting the very first night we set up our stake out. The Wrestling Woodsman ran right by us, at about the exact time Dave suggested that he would. I was astounded. It was like seeing a cartoon... too surrealistic to be real... But there it was right before my eyes. The only thing to do was to get it on video to show the rest of the world that it exists... to finally end the scoffing and arguments otherwise.

What you are about to watch is a compilation of our video footage and photos caught by the still camera. While some of the footage is grainy or dark, I challenge anyone to prove it is a hoax and not the real thing...



This should quiet the naysayers and once and for all prove that the legend is real. Viva Lucha Libre!

Long live the Wrestling Woodsman!