Knockout Artists












Eli Black vs Austin Tyler vs Axel, Match 609 - Three-Way Sleeper, Custom Match, Sleeper #22 (UCW)

Three of my favorite UCW wrestlers - each representing a distinct era of UCW history - take turns knocking each other out in somebody's custom-order match in the cinder block fight space. First it's just Eli and Austin with Axel joining in a bit later. Eli wants Austin to get off HIS wrestling mat Austin's slow to jump when Eli says jump. He points out that Eli sounds like an asshole when he refers to himself in the third person, to which Eli replies, "Eli's Eli. I don't question Eli." Austin takes a wild swing and misses. Eli chokes him out in 20 seconds flat. Then Axel enters, also claiming this ring time as his own.

Deciding to step aside and let Eli and Austin settle this matter between them, Axel counts Austin out and then massages him back to consciousness - "the Axel treatment," he calls it, not only referring to himself in the third person but turning himself into a brand name. Eli and Austin resume the fight as Axel looks on. That's the plot, the setup anyway. I was able to predict where it all goes next, mostly because I've been watching UCW for almost nine years, but the appeal of this match mostly rests in its fighters.

Axel assumes the familiar role of easygoing host, a manner he seems to have inherited from UCW's founder, Bodyslam. He's not a peacemaker. He nudges the fighters to go after each other (or come at him), but he does so in a pleasant and relaxed way. Eli came along about three years into my obsession with the company - by way of Rock Hard Wrestling and BG East. From the beginning he's been a walking, talking version of nunchuks. More than anyone Black introduced lethal threat as a component of the UCW house style. He's 99-percent id, speaking in stream-of-consciousness word salads - nonsense, but mesmerizing nonsense. He's a master of the fast strike. Four years and some later, Austin showed up - by way of indy wrestling. He's the cool professional and easily the hottest dude ever to step on the UCW mat. He's scientific in his methods, but he's got a temper when pushed too far.

Yet for all the new muscle it pulls in year after year, UCW has the same mindset it had in 2009, "bringing ten times the fight" of its fancier competitors with bodybuilders and fitness models on the rosters. At UCW the emphasis is on the fight, the more vicious the better, not the posing, not the setting, not even elaborate moves, and its style is well known to its fans.


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Comments

  1. An amazing match featuring 3 of my favorite UCW wrestlers - all lightweight grapplers. I still have to stick with Eli Black as my favorite, although it is a tough choice when all 3 battle it out together.

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