Abso 6

Last year Eric Ryan had a painful falling out with his former partner Bobby Beverly. This highly emotional crisis led to a momentous loser-leaves-AIW match. Ryan won that match at great cost to his knee. But running on adrenaline that night, he ignored the injury, and indeed was unaware of its severity until months later, when uninvited and against the terms of their breakup, Beverly showed up and attacked Ryan from behind, cut him, and shaved him bald--a tonsorial "injury" that Ryan claims imperiled his relationship with his girlfriend. The knee injury, now undeniable, put Ryan out of commission for half a year, during which time Beverly established himself as a successful singles competitor. In June, though, Ryan returned, in disguise, only to reveal himself when the time was ripe for revenge. At Absolution 6, driven with impassioned rage against his former friend and partner, Ryan thrashed Beverly's ass--and, with a totally sick piledriver, brained the man who had set out to destroy him, both professionally and personally. (Am I the only one who sees the romance of this? Anybody else feel a little nudge of wood over this angle?) Yeah, Absolution 6 is another DVD I had to buy this summer--and the Ryan-vs-Beverly debacle is the reason, one of the best matches I've seen for drama and inverted bromance. Later, homoeroticism rears its thinly veiled head again when former partners Vincent Nothing and Rickey Shane Page fight a similar but bloody love story, which begins with the achingly lonesome Skylar Grey chorus of Dr Dre's "I Need a Doctor" and ends (in a bold departure from the storyline) with an open (and teary-eyed) declaration of mutual respect and brotherly love. In between, there are a dozen fluorescent light tubes. Finally, the main event features the deliberate elimination of every ref who tries to stand between the inseparable fighters vying for the heavyweight belt, and it showcases Johnny Gargano at his most fuckable. After the fall, he and opponent Tim Donst hug sweatily and tenderly. I've got to hand it to pro wrestling in the Midwest--it manages to keep the action woolly and melodramatic and just a hair's breadth away from Bel Ami. Absolution 6 is another little beaut that Smart Mark Video sells for a mere $15, a treasured addition to my wrestling library.