Strikingly Handsome

Ronnie Pearl vs Mister E, Masked Mayhem 14 (BG East)

Pearl vs E is the main event and my favorite of the three splendid matches on Masked Mayhem 14, possibly my favorite of BG East's 2018 releases. (Grudge Match V  is a tie or an extremely close second.) Why am I so impressed? Pearl, principally. With his long hair and caramel complexion, he evokes Steve Simpson at his mid-1980s peak at World Class Championship Wrestling. 

Simpson was a heroic babyface, though, whereas Pearl is a consummate fiend. He's not a swaggerer like some heels. Quite the opposite, he hardly speaks a word in this match. I like the strong and silent type, particularly if there's also a cold-blooded streak in the mix. I like the way he serenely works E over. He's all methodology. To quote the online catalog description, "every movement has the practiced deliberation of a surgeon wielding a scalpel ... or a ninja brandishing a sword." He's a man who takes his work seriously. 

Pearl pours himself into the task of taking his masked opponent apart. (If he has any interest in unmasking Mister E, it doesn't enter into this fight. But is fight  really the right word? Evisceration, that's the word I meant to use.) The harder he works his man, the shinier the sweat on his body. He performs every crippling assault as if he's part of a tableau vivant, body poised for maximum grandeur even while reducing E to a quivering mass of pain jelly.

The torments intensify as the match progresses. No man has worked a Stradivarius with more skill than Pearl working E. I have liked Pearl in other matches and at other venues, but all those performances appear pedestrian next to this one.

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