Don't I Know You from Somewhere?

Cole Cassidy vs Maxx Danno, Catch Weight 10 (BG East)

Catch Weight 10  offers a number of pleasures, one of the best being Cole Cassidy, at his physical peak, taking on a very heavy Maxx Danno. You may recall that I'm not the best audience for narrative setups that are extraneous to the wrestling competition, but this one is an exception. This one got me going. In it, Danno recognizes Cassidy at the fitness center and attempts, unsuccessfully, to strike up a pleasant conversation with the BGE star, who is (let's say) too big for his britches.

The guy Cole was supposed to wrestle is a no-show as we learn from one half of a terse phone conversation. Maxx offers to sub for the guy, but Cassidy brushes him off - the implied message being You're not good enough to wrestle me. Worse, Cassidy treats the offer as ridiculously absurd, even offensive. Cole's cool rebuff rankles Maxx, who feels rightly insulted. He purposefully invades Cassidy's space, intending to teach the stuck-up stud a lesson. Very quickly, he submits the hottie, but in so doing he lights a fire under Cole, and the avalanche begins!

Danno and Cassidy brawl among the workout equipment and eventually wind up in a nearby wrestling ring, where the fight reaches its climax and finish. What's so tasty about this helter-skelter fight is Cole's arrogance, which he has never played up as outrageously as he does here. It's quite a performance - nasty and condescending, with Maxx repeatedly deflating the heel's overblown ego in one grueling submission hold after another. The one redeeming quality of Cole's character is his never-say-die persistence, which keeps the grunts and groans going loud and strong and turns what might easily have been a squash into an altogether believable contest between body mass and guile.

Sweat is abundant, and bodies are bent in ways that violate the structuring of human anatomy. Big Maxx is amazingly pliable, and the finely chiseled Cole is incredibly durable. No matter how you think this fight will resolve itself, you will probably change your mind five or six times before the action reaches its end.

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