Red Hawk, Totally Plucked

Masked Menace vs Red Hawk, Masked Mayhem 14 (BG East)

If underground wrestling has an "establishment," that establishment would most definitely be BG East. What's made startlingly clear in this match is how raw and transgressive  that vernerable establishment can be! Masked Menace vs Red Hawk is about as unsafe a wrestling video as I've seen. It's not bloody and the moves are not dangerous in the sense of sloppy or inept, but the tone suggests that anything can happen here. Some of that tone is due to the stark, noirish lighting of the contest (not evident in BGE's flash photographs above), but most of the credit goes to the wrestlers, particularly the brutal and masterful Masked Menace (in green and gold).

Red Hawk is the bigger, trimmer, younger fighter. It's no surprise that a man of a certain age might want to control and humble him, possibly even hurt him to instill a little respect. As the online catalog description puts it, "If watching a cocky wiseacre torn into tiny bits toots your horn, this middle match is a goddamn brass band." In the beginning, the seasoned pro allows the wrestling youngblood a few moments of hotshot glory. Hawk steps onto the mat with so much self-confidence, who wouldn't want to take him down a peg or two? It doesn't take Menace long, a few seconds perhaps, to take Hawk all the way down to the bottom peg - and keeps him there in sublime misery for the rest of the match!

Singlet vs trunks, the emphasis is on grappling experience and know-how triumphing over novelty and attitude. The sweaty debasement of Red Hawk is meticulous and emasculating. Masked Menace goes for the balls, literally and figuratively. Hawk totally sells the agony - even with his mask still on - with every twitch and chesty moan. Menace pursues the boy's annihilation in patient increments. This is not a one-note performance. The wrestlers do not push the same buttons over and over. Each minute brings a new intensification, ultimately leading to Hawk's unmasking, performed with a sense of shuddering terror and humiliation worthy of genuine Mexican lucha libre.

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