Wrestling Videos I Watch Over and Over and Over (Ides of March Edition)





Bobby Beverly vs Aaron Epic, The Invasion: Chikara Is Coming (Midwest Wrestling)

I like a rousing start almost as much as a jolting out-of-nowhere finish. Bobby can't wait to get some knuckles on Aaron, and he doesn't wait a second. I was hungry for some grunt-n-groan wrestling when I found this video. It has been a fixation of mine ever since. It's a modern classic in the art of the one-on-one Pier 6 brawl, never better than when, beginning at its midpoint, Bobby and Aaron settle in for some serious work on each other in the center of the ring, like the protein-rich arm bar in the third GIF. Bobby's pale fleshy body back in July of 2012 was and still is a fascination of mine, all the more so (a subsidiary kink of mine) when I saw a photo of him in eyeglasses, looking hip and intellectual as well as brawny. His rage and savagery all through this main event hold me transfixed every time I watch it, but they are also weak points his nemesis Aaron is able to turn against him. Passionate and macho to the core, this is one of those messy matches that either hit or miss. This one hits.





Dash Decker vs Colt Stevens, Catalog 20 (Rock Hard Wrestling)

Last week, Rock Hard broke a long silence with the release of Ballard vs Brewer. In the interim the company released some older matches as "encore presentations." A recent encore was given to Colt Stevens' debut match, one I called an "instant classic" when it came out in 2014. The phrase is a cliche, I know, but when I say "instant classic," I do mean it. First there is Dash Decker in full command of the match and my attention. His red trunks can barely contain his lubricious curves (big words and big men, I love 'em), though Decker's brawn is a challenge for the stitching of any sort of wrestling gear. This is Dash at the peak of his confidence, and he owns the ring as if he literally holds a bill of sale. But young Colt is what sells this match. When Dash puts the pinch on this rookie, Colt's facial expressions are generously woeful, and I mean Greek-tragedy "woeful." Conversely, when Colt gets a chance to put the hurt on Decker, he does it with gusto. Eighteen months ago I praised "the look of slack-jawed sadism that contorts his cherubic face when he's delivering a beating"; I can express its pleasures no better today.




Steven Walters vs John Skyler, 30 April 2011, Newton, NC (Pride and Honor Wrestling)

Not only a video I return to over and over and over again in life, but a pairing I have blogged about five times (this post makes the sixth*), Walters vs Skyler is sweaty, clobber-meat Southern-style rasslin'. Body contact is prolonged in the interest of somebody's getting a good hard beating every 20 seconds or so till one of them can't move anymore. Of course, the wrestlers are young enough to want to mix in some lucha-libre spice into the sausage-and-gravy old-school grappling, mostly in the form of off-the-ropes leaps and slingshots. The video suffers from the usual challenges of a single-camera record of a fight, but it helps to have an imagination to picture what the closeups we'll never see might have looked like, or the invaluable aid of photographer Blake Arledge's still shots of the same face-off. Walters (who now wrestles as Dash Wilder on WWE NXT) favors the husky, pie-faced boys I see often in the Carolinas, wetting myself every time I mentally picture  them in a pro ring. Steven fulfills my ideal of the Southern babyface rassler in heft, attitude, roughneckery, and payback sense of justice, exactly the man I'd want by my side should somebody ever get an idea to attack me.

* I have posted only once on this particular show, but I didn't count the one time I saw awesome Walters live (right here in Durham, NC!) tag-partnering with Skyler. It was a benefit show, with an entrance fee of $5, and the single best wrestling show of the (admittedly few) live shows I've seen.

Comments

  1. While I haven't seen the first match you list, I absolutely 100% agree with you on the next two. The Dash/Colt match is awesome. The gear, action(,) and attitudes make it a favorite of mine. I even used iMovie to turn it into a 7-minute squash of Superman Dash by punk Colt.

    And Steven Walters is a favorite of mine, too. I'm happy to see him succeeding as tag champ in NXT, which has become a legit promotion on its own.

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  2. Thanks so much for introducing me to Bobby Beverly. It's gotten me off so good. I guess it's no surprise since he looks like Jesse Sorensen with his handsome baby-boy face and his athletic "not-quite-a-man-yet" but muscled body. His arm sleeves remind me of Devitt now, who is not a bad person to think of either

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  3. I'm glad you guys appreciate Walters and Beverly too. Needless to say (again), I am a huge fan of both.

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    Replies
    1. Joe, not sure if you've checked out Bucky from Thunders, but I think he's right up your alley. I think he's got a cool southern American good ol' boy vibe. I've done two reviews on him at The Cave if you haven't seen him and want to check him out.

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