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Guido Genatto vs Gunner Baer, Hunkbash 21 (BG East)

Gunner has an earnest, uncomplicated face - he could be in accounting or black ops (the two are closer than you might think) - along with a strong, resilient body. He's a near perfect foil for Guido, who obviously doesn't give a fuck about anyone or anything and whose body manages to look gemütlich and sexy at the same time - though not particularly gemütlich when smearing an opponent's nose, mouth, and chin into the padding of a turnbuckle. Pairing these two in a Hunkbash was an obvious yet ingenious choice on somebody's part.

"I think it's pretty damn funny you want to come here and test your abilities against me," says Guido, his jaded eyes scanning Baer's body for sites to target later. Clasping hands, they engage in a test of strength. "Shit," Guido groans as Gunner forces him to his knees. Then he gets back on his feet and forces Gunner down, his arm and shoulder muscles thickening. He then pulls Gunner back up, swerves under the guy's upraised arm, and jerks it down across one shoulder ... slowly, majestically ... twice.

Gunner fights back, which immediately puts him in a different class than the one inhabited by many ill-fated hunks in the Hunkbash series. Though weighted heavily in Guido's favor, the match is give and take until the last seven minutes of the 26-minute (and change) match. The stretches between Baer's hope spots get longer and longer until they disappear entirely and Genatto takes full rein of the demolition of Gunner's strong, though not-resilient-enough body.

I respect and am in awe of Guido's command of old-school tactics like the bear hug, the shoe sole grinding of the adam's apple, the headlock takeover, body scissors, schoolboy pin, body stretch, body slam, and rear naked choke - all classics and far from museum pieces when executed by Genatto, who uses them to seal Gunner's fate.

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