Now You're Gonna Get It

The Assassin vs Captain Flagg, Masked Mayhem 18 (BG East)

Unmasking a masked wrestler is sexy, especially if the act of unmasking is humiliating. Two of the best unmaskings I've ever seen were LS Powerhouse vs Asskickin4u and Payback vs The Assassin. Both were brutal confrontations that climaxed with a tense struggle to peel a man's mask off. Neither provided a brisk reveal. The aggressor had to work long and hard to claw the mask off his writhing adversary. In the gay world, an unmasking is comparable to outing a closet case. The reveal is simultaneously humiliating and liberating.

The Assassin is back in BG East's latest catalog. The event's subtitle - "Unmasked, Owned, and Annihilated" - gives me a semi-chubby that watching the match gives full life to. Assassin is in demonic red and black, his torso lean and sinewy, his arrogance detectable in spite of the mask. His well-built opponent is Captain Flagg - in USA red, white, and blue. His hairy chest and sturdy build will be familiar to hardcore fans of underground wrestling. (The photos accompanying the online match description give his identity away.) My feelings are complicated: I'm drawn to The Assassin's physique and attitude - and I wouldn't mind watching him get his ass kicked - that right there sums up my psycho-sexuality.

The unmasking takes a minute in the last five minutes of the match. The victim is immobilized between the victor's thighs. Like me, the victor wants his captive to squirm more, to fight back, to resist - the pleasure in unmasking a masked wrestler is as much about controlling a flailing loser who only gradually realizes he can't escape as about making what's hidden visible for all eyes to see. In this case, the winner finds satisfaction in the discovery of who he's just beaten - and beaten decisively. He puts the last nail in the coffin by knocking his adversary out. The mask he keeps as a souvenir - like a scalp.

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