Cutting Room Floor

Krushco trimmed down over three hours of VHS footage for this 26-minute video of an epic 1996 battle, pitting Krush against a hardy submission wrestler named Gabe. Gabe reportedly caught sight of Krush's wrestling shoes at the gym and promptly challenged him to a match. What we get is intense and grueling, with barefoot Gabe proving to be one of Krush's most durable and aggressive challengers, of comparable bulk and comparable assurance and force. No attitude to speak of, just plenty of competitive spirit.

The finished video is presumably the meat without the fat, gristle, and bone. We tolerate the failings of magnetic tape, fuzzy focus, and harsh lighting because the action is so good, and, frankly, there's a nostalgia factor for some of us too--for the unpolished days of home video, when the Internet was still daring and new, rather than the "big box store" of factoids, off-the-cuff opinion, and neurotic compulsivity it's become. Krush looks younger but really not much different than he does today, already a star presence, already a steamroller on the mats. Huffing, puffing, groaning, scuffling, pounding, twisting, with intermittent commentary by the combatants while in the thick of combat.