Nathan Cruz Only Did What He Had to Do










Nathan Cruz only did what he had to do ... which was betray his boyhood friend Matt Myers. The promo that opens the main event of New Generation Wrestling's Eternal Glory III, videoed grittily yet compellingly last December, shows a series of still photos of the two together as kids, made up like their favorite '90s-era pro wrestlers, shoulder to shoulder together. Then, shockingly, we see Nathan pearl-harbor Matt in 2009 (I think), creating a lasting rift between them. Cruz and several interviewees in the video state that the wrestler did what he had to do to get ahead in a brutal profession. In EG3, the two go head on in the ring, in a sweaty, suspenseful give-and-take nailbiter, as Myers challenges Cruz for the NGW championship.

I just got this baby on DVD, an all-region disk that plays well on my US-coded Sony player. I ordered it on August 31st and got it yesterday--a bit longer than I remember overseas shipments taking, even back when they were carried on actual ships. And I've been waiting even longer to see this match, since last December when I briefly announced the results with some of these same pictures by Chris Evers. Still, it's a bit of a prize in my collection, mainly because of Cruz. 

The guy is probably the hottest wrestler in the UK right now--6'1", 196#, one half Tom Cruise, one half Chris Jericho, not a bad combination. Myers, 6'2", 172#, is a perfect contrast to him--nobility and dignity in stark opposition to Cruz's flashy vulgarity and win-by-any-means depravity. As one announcer puts it: "The man with nothing to lose against the man with nothing to prove." The crowd is more or less evenly divided between them. The bright lights sometimes wash out the low-definition video images, but the camera is situated perfectly frame by frame--Scorsese could not have captured the fight drama any more stirringly.

The British gift for theater is evident from beginning to end. This is so much more intense and involving than just about anything I've seen in American pro wrestling in the past ten years. Cruz has his cronies backing him up, while Myers stands starkly, heroically alone. The fight goes outside the ring, foreign objects get introduced into the fray, the two big guys slug it out, viciously and passionately. Both guys look good in their gear, but Nathan is astounding. In his best shape ever, glowing with arrogance and animal vitality.

Comments

  1. Oh, I like this guy!

    Sometimes I follow a chain of links, as I did to find this post, I make a comment and then it sort of hangs out the in the wind, lost in the void. I never know whether anybody responds or even if it's read. It's kinda weird!

    Do you read comments on older post? Just curious.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sure do, Almatolmen. You know nothing's really lost in the blogosphere. Millennia from now, virtual archeologists will dig up these posts and comments, inaugurating a cult devoted to the worship of Nathan Cruz!

      Delete

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