That's the Way I Like It
Trevor Lee vs John Skyler, Green with Envy (CWF Mid-Atlantic Wrestling)
Nobody's going to convince me this fight would have been one whit hotter with bodybuilders, fitness trainers, or GQ models in place of John and Trevor. Lover of chiseled brawn and manly beauty that I am, I would be happy for somebody to try. I just don't think it will happen. At the end of this March 17th show, I told Trevor his match was the best I'd ever seen. To the best of my knowledge, this was not hyperbole. I was there with two friends, both wrestling virgins, and both said this match made believers of them.
What makes this match superior to most others is the grit and sweat the wrestlers wring out of every moment of it. It lasts 44 grueling minutes. Lee and Skyler have the pacing down pat, starting slow and building momentum as the violence gets uglier and uglier. Their ring savvy is built on a solid foundation of training and experience performing for live audiences. They use every pound of flesh to batter the other man. Trevor is a genius in the small details, working his opponents' ankles and wrists and fingers and toes. (I heard that finger split in the last GIF from 12 feet away - listen for it around minute 56:32. Chilling.) And he works the crowd by creating a believable character, instead of a lot of storming about. From the beginning his sorrowful facial expressions and body language suggest two things: one, he's capable of committing atrocities, and, two, he would prefer that his opponent back down so that he doesn't have to do all that he's capable of. Ring characters are seldom, if ever, this complex. Skyler keeps digging the hole deeper, and more than anything Lee resents having to be the man to bury him in it.
The match mixes tried-and-true heat generators (an accidentally knocked-out ref, for one) with flashes of tragedy (vaulting ambition and pride summoning their own retribution in the end). The ring announcers can't help but drift into my kind of purple prose - breathlessly exclaiming the fight's "visceral" and "primal" attributes. Most of all, I admire the way Trevor and John stick close to grappling - with dynamic flourishes, of course - through at least the first half of the fight. Trevor especially is a master of submission holds that feel authentic. Keeping grappling at the center of it all seems to be a trait of regional wrestling in the South. I like to think so, anyway.
Visit CWF Mid-Atlantic Wrestling here.
What makes this match superior to most others is the grit and sweat the wrestlers wring out of every moment of it. It lasts 44 grueling minutes. Lee and Skyler have the pacing down pat, starting slow and building momentum as the violence gets uglier and uglier. Their ring savvy is built on a solid foundation of training and experience performing for live audiences. They use every pound of flesh to batter the other man. Trevor is a genius in the small details, working his opponents' ankles and wrists and fingers and toes. (I heard that finger split in the last GIF from 12 feet away - listen for it around minute 56:32. Chilling.) And he works the crowd by creating a believable character, instead of a lot of storming about. From the beginning his sorrowful facial expressions and body language suggest two things: one, he's capable of committing atrocities, and, two, he would prefer that his opponent back down so that he doesn't have to do all that he's capable of. Ring characters are seldom, if ever, this complex. Skyler keeps digging the hole deeper, and more than anything Lee resents having to be the man to bury him in it.
The match mixes tried-and-true heat generators (an accidentally knocked-out ref, for one) with flashes of tragedy (vaulting ambition and pride summoning their own retribution in the end). The ring announcers can't help but drift into my kind of purple prose - breathlessly exclaiming the fight's "visceral" and "primal" attributes. Most of all, I admire the way Trevor and John stick close to grappling - with dynamic flourishes, of course - through at least the first half of the fight. Trevor especially is a master of submission holds that feel authentic. Keeping grappling at the center of it all seems to be a trait of regional wrestling in the South. I like to think so, anyway.
Visit CWF Mid-Atlantic Wrestling here.
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