Zackamundo

Zack Sabre Jr. vs Martin Stone, Beyond Apocalpse Dudes (Beyond Wrestling)

Zack Sabre Jr. hasn't spawned a multitude of imitators the way Gorgeous George, Hulk Hogan, and The Great Muta did. ZSJ's influence is seen rarely among young pro wrestlers. I suspect that his impact is limited because (1) he focused his ambitions on indie and Japanese wrestling and because (2) it's easier to create a larger-than-life ring persona than to learn the highly disciplined (and disciplining) moves that distinguish Sabre from the Hulk wannabes.  Beyond his capabilities in the ring, he'll always be a hero of mine for turning down a WWE contract the year before this Beyond Wrestling match, staged in a hookah bar in October of 2017.

While most pro wrestlers are (or aim for) bigger-than-life swagger, ZSJ zeroes in on the intricacies of combat, "bending all those fragile and delicate bones at the wrist," as a ringside commentator puts it, in response to the assault in the first GIF. I don't think eroticism is something Sabre thinks about in the ring, but close attention to an opponent's body is as erotic a gesture as scissor holds and schoolboy pins. Zack is the consummate black-box-theater-style wrestler. He would be amazing in the tight battle spaces at MuscleBoy Wrestling and the BG East Wrestleshack.

Over the past ten years, I have referred to Zack as "drop-dead gorgeous and drop-kick lethal" and predicted (rightly, so far) that he "possesses just enough wit, refined taste, and imaginative curiosity ... to preclude his ever getting a WWE contract." I also noted that his wrenching of opponents' pinkies is "a delicate piece of business you would not likely see in a huge stadium show in the USA, but it is absolutely killer." (Since that date I have often seen Trevor Black employ the finger attack in the poky but grandiloquently named Mid Atlantic Sportatorium in nearby Gibsonville, NC.) I called Zack "the thinking man's wrestler" in 2013. In 2016 I wrote, "He is all technique, and splendidly so, head and shoulders above anybody I can think of in working an opponent. I mean really working him down to a nub before destroying him, after a series of dumbfounding and humiliating feints,with a killing riposte at the end."

According to his Wikipedia profile, in response to the present global pandemic, Sabre now resides in Japan, where no doubt his talents are as appreciated as they are here on Skull Island.

Visit Beyond Wrestling here.