Knyte vs Gore

Craven Knyte vs Brandon Gore, February Firestorm (Steel Domain Wrestling)

I like the way this match progresses from real mat grappling to a punch thrown blindly out of frustration and from there on to all-out brutality. I like the build on Brandon, the guy in blue, but I like everything about Craven, the bald guy, the sharpness of his assaults, the coldness of his affect, and the bombshell that is his body. Gore's still what I'd call a kid (early twenties), and he could go far on his fresh looks alone, but his best quality is the brilliance with which he portrays the pain and emotion of a punch, choke, or kick.

Thanks to Jim in Nashville for the link to this match. Its blend of mid-century American coliseum wrestling and Japanese strong style is right up my alley. As much as I love the underground scene, this kind of brutal drama is much easier to find among the indies. I see this battle as a distant echo of classical literary forms like epic and tragedy. The gravitas, the manly nobleness, and the overriding sense of irrevocable Fate may have no place in the twenty-first century, but they hold sway over my imagination and subconscious, which remain stubbornly un-postmodern, un-relativisticl. I blame my reading - Gilgamesh, Homer, Confucius, Valmiki, Ovid, Arthurian romance, Dumas - and my fetish for justice.

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