Nuts











Joker vs Angel Estrada, Match 533 (UCW)

Three times Angel Estrada has kicked Joker's ass, and Joker wants a rematch. These guys do not let their grudges go. Both look like they've lost some weight since their last fight, but they have lost none of their quickness and none of their capacity to astound if not shock. Joker's strategy (if that word can be twisted to apply to the demented shit that Joker does) is to hurt his opponent by any means available, often hurting himself in the process. Joker doesn't care. It's not that he doesn't feel pain. He just doesn't take it very seriously. Angel is not so reckless, but he's just as nasty. When either of these two does something above-board and legal on the mat, it's probably by accident. They are strong-style, full-contact fighters. They pull no punches. Within seconds their chests, ribs, and abs are covered with  the pink outlines of each other's hands and knuckles.

I could be mistaken about this, but I think Joker and Angel were the guys who made ball torture (actual ball torture) a part of the UCW house style. If not, they still deserve credit for making it almost an art form. Joker tells the cameraman to bring the camera low, almost to mat level. He wants his strike on Angel's nutsack to be caught on film. It is, and Angel howls in pain. (I'm pretty sure it's the real thing.) "Now," Joker wonders aloud, "If I was a little bitch, what would I sound like?" Pause. "Angel?" Angel cries out again. Seconds later, Angel smacks his bare foot to Joker's crotch. It's a loud smack that the mike picks up. It's not a superimposed sound effect. It's not one of the wrestlers striking the mat to simulate contact. It's an actual smack ... that you can hear. Think about it. Apart from the resultant screams, what does a foot colliding with testicles sound like? How hard and fast would the collision need to be to make any sort of sound at all?

Hard to believe but it has been almost five years since Joker and Angel last wrestled on the UCW mats, and their return in Match 533 is a reminder that these are the guys who established UCW's reputation as the freewheeling fight-riot it is even today. In 2012 they fought each other, and I wrote, "[T]hey are two of the most dynamic, uninhibited, creative, and demented wrestlers on the UCW roster. There's no predicting what either will do next--it's like their brains are constantly set at 'Shuffle'--but somehow out of all the chaos we get a smooth, sharp, and remarkably balanced contest." That sort of on-the-spot creativity has an energy unlike any other, and it's palpable in their old videos, and palpable here in this 35-minute reunion match, too. Five years later, they are still the craziest but most inventive (and boundary-busting) bad-asses in underground wrestling.

Comments

  1. i was intrigued to watch this match after the build up from Axel on his blog. i checked out some of the previous matches and watched their interviews on his blog. both look tough and ready. joker appears to be a little beefier while angel is still slim and ripped but seems to have a little less bulk. looking forward to the match!

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  2. what a match! i've never been a fan of either, coming into ucw pretty much after they had left. however, i was not disappointed. i like a mixture of old school wrestling with the current which ucw usually captures. these guys are scrapers and performers. my favorite features of a fight typically are the story line (wrestling); the wrestlers' background and stats and their history. i was particularly interested in this match because they've met 3 times before. i was reminded of the pacquiao marquez rematches. i studied the two fighters and they seem to have picked up where they left off ( i checked out a previous match) but joker seemed more hungry and prepared physically. angel seems to have lost some of his bulk but none of his spirit and commanding of the ring again, fantastic match!

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