Low Blow Me

Eli Black vs Axel, Round 3- Match 554 (UCW)

UCW has been more successful than most underground wrestling sites in rotating a small roster of regulars in a way that doesn't come across as redundant or tedious. Role-switching seems to be its latest strategy in recycling familiar pairings. Match 554 is Axel and Eli's seventh go at each other in singles competition, their first since their "final match" three months ago and their first with Axel as heel and an amnesiac Eli as babyface. The absence of Eli over the summer left fans hanging, despite the fine work of newer hires like Austin Tyler, Chase Michaels, Derrick Cole, Coleman Free, and Max Ryder. His appearance here is a shock (albeit a tiny one) not just because he's supposedly dead but also because, resurrected, he's a different man.

The match itself is right up my alley with long, deeply felt side headlocks and plenty of rough handling maximizing body contact. The trademark against-the-wall gut punching ranks among the best I remember seeing, especially when Eli's fist is doing the honors. Regardless of the roles they're playing, these guys know how to give each other hell. At least for the first half of this 29-minute brawl, what's missing, as Axel points out more than once, is Eli's nasty low blows. Eli's ready as ever to fight hard, but he has apparently forgotten how to fight dirty, and he may need to fight dirty to beat Axel, who will seemingly do anything to win. The battle rocks back and forth, giving each man more or less equal time to dominate, up to the surprisingly legit three-count finish.

At my house, the jury is still out on Axel and Eli's reversal of roles. (Typecasting exists for a reason.) Nevertheless, they are the best grapplers in underground wrestling, as they have proved repeatedly and prove once again here. Axel makes an unusual villain - on the surface and in his manner, the boy next door, but in practice, a vindictive dick. Eli seems fairly comfortable in his babyface role, but it's difficult to forget the ballsy SOB he used to play so well. The role reversals are, in fact, fascinating. Looked at in a certain light, they mirror the sociopolitical upheavals the world has witnessed over the past twelve months. Hell has frozen over, and the icecaps are melting. Up is down and down is up with clowns calling all the shots and wise men benched for the rest of the season. Will fans accept Eli Black as a nice guy who loves handshakes and the rules of honorable combat and Axel as an iconoclastic dipshit? Time will tell.

For now, the main thing, the important thing, is that Eli is back in the UCW fight room. As Mikey, a longtime friend to the blog, told me in a private email:

Eli for me, is what Max Anderson was to NHB-Battle, Flash to NRW, Big Sexy to Thunder's Arena, Mikey Vee to BG East, etc.  That is, he is the sexy and exciting alpha male who could both win spectacularly and sometimes lose terribly;  All the while, leaving me anxiously awaiting a return match.  I love UCW even without Eli, but he will always be "my guy" on the roster.

Visit UCW here.