Calbrese vs All Comers











Over the weekend, No Rules Wrestling dropped some fantastic news: 
The most popular wrestler in NRW History is returning! Calbrese wants back in ... We just got off the phone with Dave Calbrese. He wants back in after training away for several months. He wants to fight any and all comers.
The announcement also solicits requests for custom matches starring the handsome wrestler ($50.00 a minute--too steep for me, especially since I like long matches).

Luckily, NRW is having an irresistible sale that's been extended to the end of the month ($6.99 for all single-match DVDs). I hadn't shopped there since Flash left--that's quite a long time back. I always knew I was missing out on a good thing in Calbrese. Even the still publicity shots of him made my mouth water. For some reason I never got around to ordering any of his matches ... until this sale. I have some catching up to do. (Suggestions for more? Let me hear something before the sale comes to an end.)

One of the disks I ordered was Calbrese versus Jake "The Jackhammer" Jackson, It confirmed my faith in Dave. Despite a soon-to-be-paid-for underestimation of Jackson's fight at the start, he pretty much has his way with Jake for better than two-thirds of the 15-minute bout. After a "feisty" start, the big youngster tells Calbrese he likes "action before words." Maybe he shouldn't have said that. A "pissed off" Dave starts seriously chipping away at the Jackhammer's self-esteem with 11 syncopated punches to the face (each one nicely sold, in kayfabe hard style, with a closely matched drumming of the mat).  

After that, Jake squirms through the ropes and out of the ring. He tries to pull a sneak attack, but Calbrese's too quick for him. When he scales the corner ropes to attempt a high-flying takedown, Dave nips it in the bud with a SOLID jab to the boy's mouth that drops him stunned to the mat. "I'll mess that pretty little face of yours up!" says Calbrese and proceeds to put feet on that promise. Having softened his opponent up, Calbrese gets in close with scissorholds and clutches, not forgetting to punctuate with a punch to the kisser now and then. I can almost smell Jackson's flop sweat through my laptop screen.

Jake gets a "hope spot" but wastes it on more half-baked off-the-ropes assaults. Soon enough Calbrese turns the match back in his favor with some fully baked choking against the bottom rope. Draping the kid across his shoulders, he then proceeds to break him in two. Some taunting only serves to fire the Jackhammer up, though. He rebounds with a vengeance with a volley of roundhouse punches that backs Dave to the turnbuckle. Once Jake starts putting his full weight into the fight, he makes headway towards trouncing the mouthy veteran. He damn near knocks the guy out, but then wastes more time on showboating for the camera: let's just say that's a mistake and leave it at that.

"Dull Tip," as this video is titled, delivers big. It matches and possibly surpasses anything I remember of the old days of NRW. It gives Calbrese full rein to display the CinemaScope range of his charisma and sex appeal and ends with a John Wayne-style knuckles-to-the-teeth wallop that cold-cocks the recipient and stops the fight in its tracks.

(Oh, and more good news this weekend, Movimus announced that Mikey Hanlon is returning to its mats soon. Sounds like Mikey's got the itch! The announcement says we can expect new Hanlon matches in the "weeks to come." Notice how "come" keeps popping up at nearly every mention of Calbrese and Hanlon.)



Comments

  1. Thanks for this post. Dave Calbrese and Mikey Hanlon are two of my favorites. They have such different personalities.

    It would be great if they could fight each other some time. Do you think that's possible?

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