Fury

Biff Farrell vs Franco Vetti, Fantasymen 36 (BG East)

Kid Leopard once said, "The conflation of jobber and babyface has become ubiquitous among gay wrestlers and wrestling fans, which would be fine were it not inaccurate." The  needless conflation continues to this day. I myself have often confused the two terms, despite knowing full well that jobber  and heel  are not mutually exclusive and that not every babyface is a jobber. What's more, the common perception among gay fans is that only heels win, and babyfaces always lose. Yet just a few months ago, Kirk Donahue triumphed in a match against Trevor Read with no loss of babyface luster. It was an exhilarating event, rapturously received by the fans present that night. Now, the newly released Fantasymen 36  promises to put an end to the senseless sufferings of gorgeous strongman Biff Farrell. But does this mean he has to turn heel? 

Well, it's hard not to notice that as Biff Farrell enters the ring he speaks and moves with a brusqueness he has not exhibited in previous matches. It's quite a startling change. To be sure, interrupting a young man, in this case rookie Franco Vetti, while he is kissing his own biceps is not necessarily impolite or mean. After all, Biff is here to wrestle, so why not get on with it?  Perfectly understandable. He shakes Vetti's hand curtly, then circles him, bouncing on the balls of his feet, testily. But is this the beaming, laid-back Biff I used to know? He lunges, and Vetti rather smoothly evades him, does a handstand, grabs Biff's head between his legs, flips him to the mat, and returns to admiring his muscles in the mirror. The Biff of a year ago would have smiled an aw-shucks smile and congratulated the guy for his smooth moves. Maybe he would have reminded himself to be wary of any future gymnastics.

A stronger indication that Farrell has turned heel is the heated way he responds to Vetti's adroit move. He smashes the rookie's abs with his strong thighs and then shoves him into a corner, where he thrusts his shoulders to the abs a couple of times before throwing a trio of steady, jackhammer-hard punches, still targeting the midsection. This is definitely not the Biff I remember from 2016, when he was fans' choice for BGE Babyface of the Year. Yet again Vetti debonairly and speedily takes our man down to the mat and very nearly gets a three-count pin. Gamely but naively, Franco challenges him to target the abs some more. Redder in the face now, Biff gladly obliges - with a vengeful volley of strikes that leaves Vetti sagging from the corner ropes. "Not so fast, are you? How do you like this?" Farrell leers, slamming his leg back into the abs again - and, God knows, not for the last time.

Franco Vetti puts up a bigger resistance than first-timers' are usually permitted. He's a terrific looking young man. Being Italian is an obvious asset. His athleticism and prowess are impressive, shaky at times, but still better than what most newcomers deliver. The strength of the three-minute (or close to it) body scissors he clamps onto the burly American is astounding. It nearly forces Biff to tap out. The general effect of Vetti's dexterity and good looks, however, is to make Farrell madder and madder. Fury drives the former babyface to aim for more than conquest, for nothing short of total destruction - this is the hallmark of the stereotypical BGE heel.

I don't mind if Biff Farrell is a bad-ass heel now. He is a magnificent one, zeroing in on Franco's abs with obsessive single-mindedness. Those thighs on display in the still shots above are the definition of magnificence. Nevertheless, I would have liked him to notch up some major wins as a babyface first, but conversely - yeah, I'm not a model of consistency - I tend not to care for the long multiple-match character arcs that track these changes. Still, BG East is not short on heels. It's kind of the Disneyland of heels, and Biff will have to work hard not to disappear into the masses of ill-tempered, swaggering  brutes that are already swarming the place. Whereas as a babyface who wins, he could have carved a niche for himself, stood out, maybe retire some of the bad guys who just aren't cutting it these days*. And there's no requirement that a wrestler, heel or no heel, has to win all the time - or even most of the time. In fact, one of my pet peeves about pro wrestling is 90 percent of the time, we can predict the winner just by the names on the card.

I seriously love heels, I do, but sometimes I feel alone as a lover of virile babyfaces, too. For a while Axel filled this slot. Long before him there were guys like Randy Page, Troy Lucas, and a few others who could knock a bad boy off his high horse and clean house if they had to. I miss those guys, while understanding that they were not as colorful as the heels and probably drew fewer fans. The world as it is these days, though, I wouldn't mind a second coming of "don't-be-a-bully" Axel or a reformed Biff, who could thin the herd of upstart heels overpopulating BG East.


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* For me the model of a perfect babyface was the winner of BG East's first fan poll - Jake Jenkins (Top Babyface of 2013). Jake gave 100 percent to every fight. He played rough, but I never thought of him as a bad guy. He sometimes lost, and he sometimes won, but he always gave a terrific show.