Rough and Tumble

















Jack Gallagher vs Joel Redman, FutureShock #51, 5 June 2011 - Stockport, Greater Manchester (FutureShock Wrestling)

Some fans are specifically drawn to big vs little matches. I am not. I generally prefer opponents to be well matched in size, experience, and fight. My objection to mismatches in wrestling isn't reducible to differences in size, however. Sometimes the antagonists' experience and fight make up for differences in size. These matches I enjoy because they aren't a total one-sided squash*. 

My first and only requirement of a big vs little match is the same one I make of any ring event - that both competitors be tough as nails and deliver a rough and tumble fight. This is what I find in Gallagher vs Redman in 2011. Both men are strong, resourceful, and tough-as-nails pros. The difference in size (Gallagher, 5'8", 189#, and Redman, 6'1", 218#) plays a hand in the outcome, but both wrestlers know what they are dealing with - their own strengths and weaknesses and their opponent's - and they possess the training and instincts to handle the reality of the situation. I put a lot of weight on reality  because far-fetched magic and dumb luck do not satisfy my need for verisimilitude. If you want to see me pissed off, just end a brawl with a five point palm exploding heart flim-flam - not as bad as a DQ, but still enough to make me bristle.

Gallagher and Redman start off with mat grappling, tumble to the cold hard floor where they come to blows, get back in the ring where they work each other against the turnbuckles and mat, and then return to grappling, exhausted and sweaty, for a totally convincing finisher. Here in a nutshell would be a custom match I might put some cash behind if I could afford it - NOT dozens of consecutive gut punches ratatatating into infinity or a 40-minute long bear hug (though admittedly that holds some appeal for me if volumes of sweat and boners are involved). Fortunately for me, this match already exists (and not just here) and Redman and Gallagher perform the whole ritual splendidly.


Visit FutureShock Wrestling here.


*Off the top of my head, I can think of only one kind of squash job I do predictably like - when some interfering heel manager or heel valet finds himself in the crosshairs of the wrestler he's been attacking for days, weeks, months, under the protective cover of a ref, the powerful heel he works with, a team of shady lawyers, or fast feet. In such a case, comeuppance requires nothing but agonizing justice without mercy.

Comments

  1. Gallagher is sooo damn lucky! I'd sacrifice just about anything to be manhandled by a stud like Redman. And for the privilege of touching him in turn...! Even the simple GIF of Joel in a leisurely stretch, combing back his hair #12, makes me tingle in lewd places.

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