Undagear 20

Holy cow! How many of you have checked out Jake Lowe versus Flavio on BG East's Undagear 20? Here's what folks are saying at my house: "Daddy wants more of this!" One of five new hotties on the BGE roster for Catalog 100, Flavio may be the best thing to happen to Latin since "carpe diem." That haircut! those lips! those shoulders! that chest! that taut flat stomach tailor made for an open guayabera!

It takes Jake only a few seconds to jump in line to get some. He ties the muscle boy up in a small package, but the brawny showoff muscles his way out and gets on top of the popular babyface with a bodyscissors. Flavio makes the mistake of calling Jake a "weakling," just the thing to fire him up for taking back the lead. "Think you're strong?" Flavio taunts, a question Jake succinctly answers with a hard punch to those beauteous abs. Pretty boy's not smiling anymore! 

But does Jake have the muscle to take on a powerhouse like Flavio and win against a man who outweighs him by 45 pounds? Once the new man starts warming up, Jake finds himself more and more often with his shoulders on the mat, arching his torso as he writhes in pain ... at the feet of Flavio, who needs no coaxing into striking double-bicep poses at such moments.

Flavio strips Jake down to a shiny pink G-string, but while the cocky rookie flaunts his wares for the fans at home, Jake rams his fist to his nuts, giving the big guy his first real taste of the way things get done at BGE. Jake is a master of rocking the erotic aspects of wrestling, and what follows is a clear explanation of just why Lowe's star is rising so fast in the company.

The question now is "How fast a learner is Flavio?" Can he get down and dirty, or will he put all his chips on being the bigger and stronger man? Things get interesting fast, and the give-and-take action escalates to a wicked choke-out finish.

Up next, skinhead Damien Rush picks a fight with mohawked MJ Vergara in a battle between East Village salon-stylings. Damien has an oily sadistic streak that makes him always interesting to watch. MJ is more the cool, unflappable type unimpressed with Damien's tough-guy posturings. The exquisitely defined (and inked) Vergara looks downright tiny next to Rush when they first brush up against each other in the weight room.

As the action moves to the mat, it's clear we've got smooth-bodied banging up against hairy-chested, and definition against hard bulk. What's more, MJ brings capoeira flavoring to the mat that may or may not fare well against Damien's basic sit-on-him-and-crush-him style of assault and battery. MJ's deft, nimble moves give him a quick advantage, only Rush is a hard dude to wear down--the guy lives for brutality.

Both wrestlers come to Undagear 20 with two previous BGE bouts behind them, so they're pretty well matched in experience and toughness, even though in stark contrast to each other in style and size. When Damien gets the upper hand, he's so wound up in the trappings of machismo that he can't resist a breathy Eastwoodian "Not done with you," which gives MJ enough breathing space to pound his bare foot to Rush's heart and turn the tables.

Damien trusts in force, while MJ demonstrates his knowledge of the body's pressure points in an array of tricky holds. Damien knows moves too, though, and it's he who gets Vergara's leopard-print gear off first, to reveal matching, though tinier gear underneath in the same design. But not 10 seconds later, MJ catches Rush from behind, stripping off his purple trunks and twisting them into a noose around the big guy's neck.

BGE doesn't disappoint in the crotch-shot department, and both men's bulges are forcefully 3-D beneath their Technicolor pouches.

If I needed only one reason to have Undagear 20 on my video shelves, it would be the main event, Marco Carlow versus Jake Jenkins, both men embodying my tastes in, um, bodies. Not so much "tall," of course, as "dark" and "handsome." But tall's something I can make up in my head, if I have to. Not so easy to do with "dark" and "handsome."

Unlike the previous two matches, these guys are evenly matched in size (Carlow 5'6", 170#, and Jenks 5'7", 155#--close enough), and I always like competitors to match up in size, not being so much a fan of the big-vs-small angle (though I appreciate that it's widely popular for a probably very good reason). Just the thought of these two hunks clawing and ripping at each other's gear has kept me in suspense since I first heard about the matchup over the summer.

What's more, it's babyface-versus-babyface, second only to heel-versus-heel in my world. (Yep, another wrinkle in my perverse, against-the-grain tastes in wrestling--the more typical heel-versus-face setup lagging as a distant third). We start with Jake performing solo a rapid warmup of MMA feints and dodges. He physically looks the best he's looked in a while now, fresher and more boyishly rambunctious than his usual persona. In contrast, everything about Marco, from his thick solid waist to five-o'clock shadow, exudes m-a-n.

If you know me and this blog, you know I am gaga for Jenks, but that Carlow, sheesh, I just want to dive on top of that man. (For some reason he looks taller than Jake--optical illusion? wishful thinking? or kayfabed statistics?) Typically in a face-vs-face contest, the startup is awkward, both even a bit shy around each other, confident that they've got the goods, but unwilling to make too big a show of it. Of course, babyfaceness comes with its own style of arrogance, and no less than heels they do show off, often with an ostentatious display of aw-shucks modesty first.

Luckily, events go according to form, and the action heats up fast. They lock up collar and elbow--beautiful, I love it, it's one thing you don't usually get with heels, by the way. Jenks gets Carlow in a leglock and flips him over on his belly for a Boston crab hold. I'm not used to seeing this hold so early in a match, and it demonstrates Jake's superior experience and training. (As I was saying, babyface arrogance.) Carlow's pride is in his strength, and in typical babyface style, Jake expresses his admiration for the power Marco is able to wield--introducing an important contrast that's the basis of the rest of the match: technique/dexterity versus force/durability. Jake twists, and Marco pounds. Sweeet.

Jake gets the first win--and good guy that he is (and good sport that Marco is) he doesn't rip the underwear off him, instead letting Marco strip himself down to a bright red jockstrap. Marco doesn't do Jake the same favor, preferring to rip the sweaty grays off the boy's thighs--and who wouldn't? As both faces realize the other is tougher and faster than anticipated, the action turns gritty, Marco not resisting a sudden impulse to grab Jake by the hair and yank him up to his feet, Jake suddenly remembering that he knows how to heel.

With the two in jockstraps, the contest becomes almost more than I can bear. I occasionally freeze-frame the video, just so I can remind myself to start breathing again. The fight gets rougher and nastier--to my delight (few things are better than a babyface pushed over the edge, as far as I'm concerned), climaxing with a figure-four choke-out.

This is not a DVD I got to preview in advance, but it's a surefire winner, from beginning to lushly sweaty end. BGE is treating its Catalog 100 as a watershed in its history. I'm happy the promotion is celebrating itself and its distinctive place in not just the history of video wrestling but also the evolution of 21st-century gay eroticism. Strenuous and exciting matches like these and the introduction of five very promising new athletes remind us of BG East's significance and relevance in the lustful, roughneck little world we like to spend a lot of our time in.