VR
Marco vs Cena, Against the Law (UnderGround Wrestler)
Listen, UnderGround Wrestler. I'm the sheriff. Wrestling is not a beauty contest. It's a sport. I'm here to put an end to that. As an officer of the law, it is my duty, obligation, and my pleasure to put an end to this for good.
Marco speaks these words to the camera, as serious as a firing squad, a prologue to what just might be a revolution in how we watch underground wrestling. Virtual reality is coming to the wrestling mat. This pioneer video adds depth of field and motion tracking to the wrestling experience. Lacking a virtual reality headset, I can't comment on the optical effects - and obviously I can't replicate them on this 2-D blog - but the potential of this technology for wrestling video is mind-boggling.
What I can address are the scenario and the wrestlers, Marco and Cena, who have reinvented themselves over the past several years right before our eyes and, in the process, secured a place for themselves in the pantheon of underground wrestling greats.
It would be difficult for me to pick a side in this fight, presumably a follow-up to Eighty Eight Beatdown. Even with his black T still on as he speaks to camera, Marco gets my juices rolling with his deadpan tough-guy talk. I'm a sucker for that sort of thing, especially when a righteously felt integrity is presented with the promise of a bruising if wrongdoers don't get in line. As if to punctuate his announcement, Marco peels off his shirt, revealing his rock-solid torso. Then, Cena makes an equally impactful entrance as representative of the "beauty contest" contingent and pulls off his jacket, standing resplendent in his gold trunks and tanned and chiseled physique.
The contest starts with Cena's muscle poses, making a clear case for beauty. The two then lock fingers in a classic test of strength. Marco quickly and unflappably takes control of Cena via chicken-wing and side headlock. This lasts, oh, maybe 40 seconds, and Cena reverses to dominate most of the remaining contest. He pretty thoroughly puts Marco through the wringer, and the question is whether Marco will recover to make good on his opening promise. I'm not prepared to answer that question, but I will say that either man, winning or losing, is an eyeful - both for their physical beauty and their resourcefulness as wrestlers.
If UnderGround Wrestler further commits itself to immersive reality technology, I may have to invest in a VR headset. It promises all kinds of possibilities for wrestling - tag matches and free-for-alls on view from the center of the action, closeups that thrust viewers into headscissors and schoolboy pins, a perspective that includes both wrestling on one side or onlookers on the other. Here is a future The Jetsons and 2001 never braced me for.
Visit UnderGround Wrestler here.
That opening quote ("Wrestling is a sport, not a beauty contest...") is verbatim what The Sheriff says to Troy Baker in a BG East video nearly 20 years ago (Ringwars 8). I know it well because I was utterly obsessed with Troy Baker back then (that face! that body!), and that match is probably the one where he looked his considerable absolute best. I also had a thing for hot bodybuilder types wrestling guys who are older and/or not bodybuilders themselves. Unfortunately, Troy turns the tables and ends up squashing his tormentor (unlike Cena, apparently).
ReplyDeleteI wonder how that quote ended up in the video. When I say it's the same, it's literally the same. There's no way it's a coincidence. If I had to guess, I suspect the guy who played The Sheriff is somehow involved behind the scenes at underground wrestler, since I recall he had indy wrestling experience outside BG East.
Aren't almost ALL matches by other producers some variation, or an exact rip-off of matches previously produced by BG East?
ReplyDelete