Coming Attraction

Buck "Wildcard" Carter vs Kenny Starr, Cruiser Weight 10 (BG East)

In the soon-to-be-released Cruiser Weight 10, BG East pits two new hires against each other. Buck Carter has already turned in bouts against Lance Jackson and Toney Rico; Kenny Starr, against Ash DeLeon and Luke Reel*. This is each man's third fight for the company, and everything about it suggests it is a pivotal point in each's underground wrestling career. Though well built, both men are opposites on the spectrum of wrestler physiques. Buck is built like a weightlifter while Kenny has a high diver's build. Yet their battle is, for the most part, convincing as genuine give and take - and, more importantly, arduously dramatic. 

The match is not without its small shortcomings, but it brims with exhilarating promise, and I'd love to see a rematch in a year or two, after both have established their reputations at BG East. Their instincts are right on the mark - play this as heel versus heel and ooze buckets of sweat in the process. They instinctively know what some underground stars with longer histories have not yet realized:  that brutal is sexy, that mutual prostration is sexy, that tight, serpentine squeezes are sexy. I would have expected Kenny to go for a coy or demure manner - it would match his boyish build - but, to my delight, he exhibits a far more provocative and aggressive style. Likewise, Buck is less the roaring beast he might have typecast himself as than a scientific technician with hints of a superiority complex.

What looks at first like a mismatch proves to be quite a hot fight, thanks to Kenny and Buck's strong skill sets and instincts for what underground wrestling fans (like me) crave.

Visit BG East here.

* I know less about some of these matches than I should. In Starr vs DeLeon, Kenny demonstrated an unexpected skill in smack talk and pretty-boy heelery, a persona he replicates here against Carter. In Carter vs Rico, Buck shows off his strongman heelery, hitting a mark somewhere between Guido Genatto and Brute Baynard.