Joker

Like a game of six-hand euchre, UCW-Wrestling has got three Jokers in its deck this month. Its three latest releases feature the man in pink-tiger-print trunks against newcomer Chris "The Lucador," the "Latin Heartthrob" Angel Estrada, and, perhaps UCW's most popular fighter, Axel--all three opponents bigger and heavier than the little wild man whose meds never seem to be dosed high enough. 

Hard to believe that only now do we see the first "official" card pitting Axel against Joker, though the two have unofficially crossed paths several times. It's the best match of the three, in my opinion, but every one of them draws its energy from the man who can take a boot to the balls and a cinderblock to the head better than any other wrestler I've seen. 

(Some of you remember that I once complimented Joker, saying something to the effect that the mere sight of him getting his ass kicked brightens my day--and he responded with a thank-you note! That's class!)

It may be too grandiose to peg Joker a comic genius, but his lack of reverence or inhibitions, his ruggedness, his meanness, his steely nerves, and his ever-constant yammering make him a unique and unforgettable presence in the underground wrestling scene (which I'm convinced--after just now trying to sit through the DVD of last spring's WrestleMania XXVII, 90 percent of which was like a merger of Rose Bowl Parade and an indoor NASCAR series, and all of it ten times as gawdy, mindless, self-aggrandizing, and boring as a mega-church Christmas cantata--is the only true wrestling scene remaining).

These three new matches feature the kind of manic hijinks we have come to expect of Joker. He's one wrestler who manages to do things on a mat I'm not sure even the skilled animators at Looney Tunes could replicate. His expressive face, behind which there's always a screw or two loose, looks like Silly Putty possessed by Mexican jumping beans--and his voice is one part Bugs Bunny, two parts Pee Wee Herman, only somewhat less subdued than those comparisons would suggest.

And, weirdly, it all adds up--as sexy, as funny as shit, as edge-of-your-seat excitement, despite--or because of--the chaos this unruly and inexhaustible wrestler brings to every single match he's in. He's a force of nature. You can take your Cesar Romero, your Jack Nicholson, your Heath Ledger--I love them all, truly and deeply--but for me there is only one Joker, and he's at UCW-Wrestling!