A Raw and Savage Beauty

Ryan Ragnarok vs Daniel Divine, Paul Kunkle Memorial 2 (Global Backyard Wrestling Nation)

I'm still swamped, marking and grading bad (mercilessly bad) freshmen essays. I've got an estimated five more hours of work left today to meet my deadline. There are glimmers of lucid prose and ideas, for which I'm thankful, but they are too few and far between to raise my spirits. My dog and this match offer the only releases from the tedium. Thanks to Jim in Tennessee for this 2011 match (in two parts, the second half is here) and for the title. He said he wrote a paragraph and then deleted it, no doubt believing the match speaks eloquently for itself. Then he said Ragnarok vs Divine left him in a "kind of awe." I get that.

Backyard wrestling and basement wrestling are probably the purest expressions of love for wrestling. All the rewards are in the fight itself. You fight because you love the adrenaline rush and sense of physical connection. Ryan (in white) and Daniel (in gold) resemble each other. Reportedly both are trained and experienced pro wrestlers, but obviously this match is for love of one-on-one combat, and the ending demonstrates the respect these guys have for each other.

More than respect, really, but I hesitate to theorize about the wrestlers' feelings about what they do, especially when my own are often hard to pinpoint. The video work is drab and too often inadequate, but it succeeds in capturing the grit of the event - and about three-quarters through, Ryan and Daniel bring the action right up to the camera lens - the mountain comes to Muhammad, so to speak. This is the moment the screen shots above capture. And it is entrancing.

(Possible spoilers below ...)