Young Cameron / Young Jonny

Jonny Firestorm vs Cameron Matthews, Ringwars 34 (BG East)

Jonny and Cam look so young in this video that I'm tempted to think this was both young men's BG East debut, or maybe I haven't seen their old stuff in so long that I forgot what they used to look like. The action starts when Jonny attacks Cameron from behind, outside the ring. The body blows look like the product of rage or vengeance, but Jonny doesn't appear to be angry. He fights like a machine might fight, emotionless, relentless, unprovoked. He doesn't care two hoots about Matthews: fightboy must fight because that's what he's programmed to do. He's a shark, a grenade, .a firestorm.

Cameron gets very angry, humiliated as he was at Jonny's hands. When he lashes back, you can sense the fury at the injustice of it all. He wants to beat Jonny up, and he does, more than once, but Jonny is resilient rubber. He rebounds stronger and nastier than before, untroubled by Cameron's defiance. For Jonny, it's just a job. He cares as much about what Matthews thinks of him as the guy at McDonald's cares about your hamburger. He takes his punishment in stride, waiting for a break in the counterattack so he can throttle, squeeze, stretch, yank, and pound. 

Jonny is at his best against other great wrestlers. The high points of BGE's post-Vee pre-Keller years are his matches against greats like Greg Garrett, Kid Karisma, Brook Stetson, Jake Jenkins, and Paul Hudson. (My personal favorite is Jonny vs Frankie Flave.) My favorite Cameron matches are those that pit him against other babyfaces like Brad Rochelle, Austin Cooper, Brad Barnes,  Zach Reno, and Jonah Richards, babyfaces but tough. Back in the day, Cameron always came off as nice, but there was something feral about him, too.

I don't know why BGE sat on this Firestorm vs Matthews this long  (by the way, not their first time sharing the ring), but I'm glad I was able to see it, a festival of arm bars and punches, almost as much a reason to celebrate as a newly found Picasso.

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