Did You Have Fun at Least?

Axel vs Everett Candle, Match 764 - Oil Match (UCW)

Everett Candle's debut against Nero Angelo was a hit with readers of this blog. Not only has the post drawn more visitors than any other in the past month, but you'd have to go back to January to find a post that's received as many visits. My paltry review offers little to explain its popularity with wrestling fans. I probably missed the point of it and its widespread success.

I look forward to seeing what Everett Candle can do on the wrestling mat or in the ring. Billed as a jobber, so far Candle fulfills the role simply by not winning - and pretty much by not resisting either. Axel could have brushed his teeth and flossed WHILE wrestling Candle and still come out on top. Even a jobber puts up a defense, but UCW's new hire is putty in the former champ's hands. 

Candle offers little or no pushback to Axel's holds and assaults. The new guy's responses are sluggish or, more often, nonexistent. That's not unusual because Axel is, given the opportunity, a fantastic wrestler, widely acknowledged as one of the underground's best. Candle hasn't really taken to wrestling, not yet. He doesn't really lose a match in any way that would interest me probably because he doesn't get that involved with it. Maybe it's because Axel overwhelms him, and he's at a loss to do anything about it. (I too have melted in the presence of somebody I hold in awe.)

Axel tries to make it fun, by taunting Everett, with his actions if not his words. The gibing fails to get a rise out of Candle. After a while, Axel seems unsure of what to do with his opponent with a Dickensian name. There's nothing particularly climactic about the 28-minute match's outcome. It doesn't end with a knockout. Instead, Axel tells him, "Next time I expect a little bit more fight out of you, and by that I mean a lot more  fight."

Ditto that.

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