Give the Devil His Due
Zip Zarella and Cap Landon vs Austin Cooper, Wrestler Spotlight: Zip Zarella (BG East)
The first match here is a gang-up on Austin Cooper. Zip Zarella and Cap Landon have balls of steel to even think of taking Austin on, even in a two-on-one contest. Or as Austin puts it, with characteristic conceit, one-and-a-half-on-one. Much to Coop's amusement, Zip vows to finish the unacknowledged King of Underground Wrestling off before Cap can even tag in. One thing I like about Zarella is he loves this kind of back talk. He can't stop himself from grinning as he and Coop exchange barbs. The war of words is not just for the sake of the camera and the fans watching at home. The talk, it seems, juices him up for the physical combat.
Austin starts out strong, taking charge from the start and muscling his way out of Zip's holds and, sooner than expected, slamming Zarella face down to the mat. Cap does his best to distract Austin from outside the ring, but the big guy looks cool and collected as he gives Zip a hard throttling. Zip turns things around from time to time, but his best isn't good enough to keep Coop down for long. A jangling across-the-shoulders back-buster has Zarella scuttling to his corner to tag in his smaller and overconfident partner.
Austin promises to be "nice" to the little fellow, even while traumatizing the kid's spine and gut. A few rather tasty body stretches may have added an inch or two to Cap's height. No fool, Cap quickly tags Zip back in to receive more of the same mistreatment, only meatier, more soul-satisfying abuse. Under Cooper's control, Zarella doesn't even know where he is half the time. Austin busts these dudes up but good for over half the match. Then comes the moment everybody's been waiting for, when Cap and Zip double-team the handsome strongman.
This is indeed the strongest part of the match. Together, Zarella and Landon are pumped and effective in slowing Cooper down. What they must do, however, is take the guy out because as long as Austin can get back on his feet, he's got the muscle to wipe the ring floor with their shiny green britches. The underdogs exhibit a lot of spunk (which later, see below, they turn against each other), but it's Coop who holds this match together. Whether pounding or taking a pounding, Austin Cooper is a superstar.
Zip Zarella vs Kirk Donahue, Wrestler Spotlight: Zip Zarella (BG East)
These two crowd favorites at Wrestling with Pride did not wrestle each other at that event. Their collision in this bout is magic in a lot of ways. Both performers are ridiculously hot on top of being ridiculously cute. Zarella uses his many charms for evil, while Donahue is angelic in oh so many ways, not the least of which is the heart-wrenching perfection of his sells of various holds and assaults. As he proved in February, though, Kirk doesn't have to fight dirty to win - though ultimately his fate often rests in the hands of a higher being - Kid Leopard, aka The Boss at BG East.
Good or evil, introverted or extroverted, both guys are enamored of their own good looks, captivated by their mirror reflections. Zip wears the spangly cape he wore at Wrestling with Pride. It clashes with his dark green gear, but at least he's not pretending to be a vampire. Like all beauty contests in underground wrestling, this one must be settled with a fight. Because it inherently echoes my fantasy of a male catfight - dudes ripping at each other like a couple of mean girls in middle school - a fight over who is prettier (and who can make his opponent substantially less pretty) is possibly my favorite angle in ring wrestling.
When Zip sneak-attacks Kirk, choking him with the fancy cape, it's a bit like watching Miss California strangle Miss Michigan with the pageant sash. Only with a ton of sexy stacked on top of the campy. But what I expected to be the launch of an all-out squash of the angelic Donahue takes a different turn when Kirk lands a solid - and by that I mean reverberating - punch to Zarella's unprepared midsection. He then pushes the heel into a corner and strangles him with his bare hands. (Strangles with his bare hands is one of those common phrases, like wrestles to the ground, that never fails to perk my dick up.)
For the next couple of minutes Kirk takes charge the way I wish he had more opportunities to do in his previous BGE matches. Then, it's vigorous and electrifying give and take all the way to the midpoint of this 30-minute brawl. At that point, one man emerges as the alpha and the other as the bitch who's got to take his lumps, but what is great about this match (and it's my favorite of the three on this disk) is that the two are evenly matched in physique and know-how, and, in terms of narrative, it would make perfect sense for either of them to succeed against the other.
Zip and Kirk both are also well tuned to the erotic demands of pro-style wrestling. More often than not, their knees are spread wide - either in striking a champion's pose or lying knocked out on the mat. Their facial expressions of triumph and despair are pitch-perfect, giving each fall the air of a sexual climax. The trunks are tight enough to delineate the contours of ass and cock. The holds are sustained long enough to exhibit the wrestlers' power and plight and give the impression that somebody may have to intervene to pry their heaving bodies apart. Clearly both get off on the petty cruelties of the sport. I might wish for more sweat - I like it when the bodies take on the sheen of knife blades - but then I'd be quibbling.
Zip Zarella vs Cap Landon, Wrestler Spotlight: Zip Zarella (BG East)
This is the grudge match that the first match on this disk precipitated. Cap's still in the leprechaun green trunks he and Zip wore when the two were teammates, but Zip is in shimmery red trunks and knee pads, apparently the gear Coop wore in his match against them. The opening mirrors the second match, however, with Zip catching Cap around the waist, and Cap striking back and backing him up to the turnbuckle for further damage. "You betrayed me," Landon accuses, with that all-too-familiar-to-me flash of Irish resentment in his eyes and set jaw (my ex was a Sullivan, one of the sullener ones at that).
This match gives me the satisfaction that the CWF Mid-Atlantic match I blogged about last week denied me. The followup fight between two exes (another sweet memory for me) is always dynamite. This one starts out with familiar comeuppance - the wronged party taking the starch out of the wrongdoer. Cap is the smaller of the two, but his fury gives him the advantage over arrogant Zip. His attacks are bold and intensely punctuated with kicks and punches. "Just you wait!" Zarella threatens, between moans and flinches. "You're mine right now," Cap reminds him and steadily tears into his foe some more.
"How did you get so strong?" Zip yelps in perplexed panic. Then quickly, in a moment of clarity, he falls back on his heel instincts and scratches his fingers across Landon's eyes. Landon recoils, temporarily blinded, and Zarella gets back on his feet and goes after him. Zip smashes the heel of his wrestling shoe to the throat of Cap, now on his back in the opposite corner. The big guy delivers a two-minute beating. Then Cap twists Zip's arms into the top and middle ropes and resumes pummeling the man's exposed chest and gut, showing no mercy.
The back-and-forth action draws out over ten minutes. I've never seen this much commitment to a fight in Zarella, whose m.o. is usually colored with smug detachment. Cap succeeds in pulling up the fight in the guy, I'll give the guy that much. By the 26-minute brawl's midpoint, both men's asses are on the line. Neither can afford to let down his guard. There's more grit in the middle third of this match than in both previous matches combined. But eventually Zip's advantage in bulk and experience appears to work in his favor. The more he wears Cap down, the more Cap's legs wobble unsteadily, the more ineffectual his punches become, then the more Zarella can toy with his opponent, like a bully playing a round of whack-a-mole. But taking his supremacy for granted could be a fatal mistake for Zarella. All it would take would be another spurt of ire to resurrect Landon's fight or a dumb slip-up on Zip's part, and then Zip might think twice before turning against a future tag-team partner.
Visit BG East here.
This is the grudge match that the first match on this disk precipitated. Cap's still in the leprechaun green trunks he and Zip wore when the two were teammates, but Zip is in shimmery red trunks and knee pads, apparently the gear Coop wore in his match against them. The opening mirrors the second match, however, with Zip catching Cap around the waist, and Cap striking back and backing him up to the turnbuckle for further damage. "You betrayed me," Landon accuses, with that all-too-familiar-to-me flash of Irish resentment in his eyes and set jaw (my ex was a Sullivan, one of the sullener ones at that).
This match gives me the satisfaction that the CWF Mid-Atlantic match I blogged about last week denied me. The followup fight between two exes (another sweet memory for me) is always dynamite. This one starts out with familiar comeuppance - the wronged party taking the starch out of the wrongdoer. Cap is the smaller of the two, but his fury gives him the advantage over arrogant Zip. His attacks are bold and intensely punctuated with kicks and punches. "Just you wait!" Zarella threatens, between moans and flinches. "You're mine right now," Cap reminds him and steadily tears into his foe some more.
"How did you get so strong?" Zip yelps in perplexed panic. Then quickly, in a moment of clarity, he falls back on his heel instincts and scratches his fingers across Landon's eyes. Landon recoils, temporarily blinded, and Zarella gets back on his feet and goes after him. Zip smashes the heel of his wrestling shoe to the throat of Cap, now on his back in the opposite corner. The big guy delivers a two-minute beating. Then Cap twists Zip's arms into the top and middle ropes and resumes pummeling the man's exposed chest and gut, showing no mercy.
The back-and-forth action draws out over ten minutes. I've never seen this much commitment to a fight in Zarella, whose m.o. is usually colored with smug detachment. Cap succeeds in pulling up the fight in the guy, I'll give the guy that much. By the 26-minute brawl's midpoint, both men's asses are on the line. Neither can afford to let down his guard. There's more grit in the middle third of this match than in both previous matches combined. But eventually Zip's advantage in bulk and experience appears to work in his favor. The more he wears Cap down, the more Cap's legs wobble unsteadily, the more ineffectual his punches become, then the more Zarella can toy with his opponent, like a bully playing a round of whack-a-mole. But taking his supremacy for granted could be a fatal mistake for Zarella. All it would take would be another spurt of ire to resurrect Landon's fight or a dumb slip-up on Zip's part, and then Zip might think twice before turning against a future tag-team partner.
Visit BG East here.
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