Kirk du Soleil

Kirk Donahue vs Elite Eliot, Wrestler Spotlight: Kirk Donahue (BG East)

It's high time BGE spotlighted the talents of Kirk Donahue, which are seemingly limitless. Babyface or heel, Kirk immerses himself in every single moment he's in the squared circle, wasting no time on primping or posing for the camera. Not only is he a personal favorite, he also is sharing the spotlight with other top-tier favorites: Kid Karisma, Dimitri, and, here in the first match, evil Elite Eliot. These men's inestimable talents do nothing to diminish Kirk's in-ring charisma, which is zero percent grandstanding  and hundred percent wrestling savvy and commitment.

Outside the squared circle, Eliot attacks Kirk from behind. He forearm-smashes the back of  Kirk's neck, stomps him in the chest, and bashes his forehead to the ring apron, saying, "What's up, Kirk? Long time no see." Then he shoves him under the ropes and into the ring. Kirk takes a moment before bouncing back, which he does by slugging Eliot in the gut - putting every muscle in his body behind that punch, too - and applying a side headlock - ditto on putting every muscle into it. Twice Eliot tries to power his way out of the hold, and twice Kirk amps the pressure to the man's temples. Third time's the charm, though, and Eliot reverses.

Kirk escapes and twists Eliot's arm behind him, with a crisp jerk upwards to hike the wrist up to the shoulder blades. Eliot grimaces deliciously. Kirk's face is clenched like a fist. This sort of immersion in the moment is what I'm constantly calling for in this blog. So many underground wrestlers seem to try to distance themselves from the ring action - through irony or tomfoolery or striking poses - but Kirk and Eliot put on a goddamned show you can FEEL.

"Woo!" Eliot hoots, as he (barely) escapes Donahue's hammerlock. "Had to think about that one." He retaliates with an armbar, with added wrenches that drive Kirk down on one knee. Kirk muscles out of Eliot's grip and answers with an arm wrench and wrist lock. At this point both wrestlers have drumsticks tucked in their trunks. This is getting REAL. The back and forth continues like a chess game on crack, getting harder with each passing moment, neither man stinting on the pain factor, yanking hair, poking eyes, and punching crotches as needed.

Eliot and Kirk both are handy at using the ropes and the ring corners as weapons. Eliot is the talker of the two, but Kirk's face and body tell the story as well as any narrator could. Sweat is evident by the halfway point of the 29-minute battle. After the midpoint, both wrestlers are shiny, sopping, sexy wet with it. Neither holds the advantage for long, so the facebuster finisher could have gone either way. In the end, the knocked-out boner-fied loser is strung upside down against a turnbuckle.

Sweet ... and salty.

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