Lions
Rex Andrews vs Ariya Daivari, 16 July 2016, Texas City (Reality of Wrestling)
Andrews and Daivari go forehead to forehead. Then Andrews slaps Daivari. It's a deliberate provocation. I love when this happens in a pro match. It means both guys want it rough and real. Sure, deep down it's still phony as Hulk Hogan, but there's an actor's commitment to realism. Pro wrestlers like Ariya and Rex dramatize masculine pugnacity and competitiveness - making art of what otherwise is raw impulse.
I don't know why I like fights, especially man fighting man. It goes way back with me, probably before my earliest memories of GIs roughhousing outside the barracks on base in Florida. Once, when adults teased me about getting married some day, I said, "I don't want to get married. I want to live in the barracks." I was four or five. What I didn't say was I wanted a small circle of guys I could fight out of exuberance, without animosity. (I got my wish in my late teens and early twenties, when I needed it most.)
Rex and Ariya are letting off steam in a controlled environment. Rex's slap sets off a fusillade of punches by Ariya, dribbling the back of Andrews's head against the canvas (second GIF). Later (fourth GIF), Daivari pulls Rex's head up by a handful of hair and rares back and slugs him in the face. The rapid-fire punches are exhilarating, whereas the solitary punch is a full stop. Both get my nuts tight. Rex's knee jabs and Ariya's high kick repeat the motif, emphasizing the fighter's hurling their whole bodies into the flames.
I appreciate androgyny and understand the backlash against toxic masculinity, I'm happy tough women and sashaying young exhibitionists are making their marks in professional and underground wrestling, but I hope butch masculinity survives, too - as performance art if in no other form.
Visit Reality of Wrestling here.
Andrews and Daivari go forehead to forehead. Then Andrews slaps Daivari. It's a deliberate provocation. I love when this happens in a pro match. It means both guys want it rough and real. Sure, deep down it's still phony as Hulk Hogan, but there's an actor's commitment to realism. Pro wrestlers like Ariya and Rex dramatize masculine pugnacity and competitiveness - making art of what otherwise is raw impulse.
I don't know why I like fights, especially man fighting man. It goes way back with me, probably before my earliest memories of GIs roughhousing outside the barracks on base in Florida. Once, when adults teased me about getting married some day, I said, "I don't want to get married. I want to live in the barracks." I was four or five. What I didn't say was I wanted a small circle of guys I could fight out of exuberance, without animosity. (I got my wish in my late teens and early twenties, when I needed it most.)
Rex and Ariya are letting off steam in a controlled environment. Rex's slap sets off a fusillade of punches by Ariya, dribbling the back of Andrews's head against the canvas (second GIF). Later (fourth GIF), Daivari pulls Rex's head up by a handful of hair and rares back and slugs him in the face. The rapid-fire punches are exhilarating, whereas the solitary punch is a full stop. Both get my nuts tight. Rex's knee jabs and Ariya's high kick repeat the motif, emphasizing the fighter's hurling their whole bodies into the flames.
I appreciate androgyny and understand the backlash against toxic masculinity, I'm happy tough women and sashaying young exhibitionists are making their marks in professional and underground wrestling, but I hope butch masculinity survives, too - as performance art if in no other form.
Visit Reality of Wrestling here.
All of the Daivari boys are born for wrestling... kind of miss Shawn and Milead in regular matches...
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