There Is No Pleasure Without Pain

Ace Aarons vs Kirk Donahue, Pros in Private 14: Indie Grudge (BG East)

As a rule, if I reread something I wrote, I want to revise it. I want to find better words to capture the point I wanted to make. Rereading the copy I wrote for this match, I feel pretty good about it. It captures my enthusiasm for these two wrestlers and this match in particular. The match works as well as it does in large part because both Ace and Kirk are or have been pros in indie wrestling. They know the ropes. At BG East they have carved out niches for themselves, styles that are unlike those of the other wrestlers, yet compatible with the styles of the company's star players, past and present.

In this match Ace Aarons brings the s/m undercurrent to the surface. He's done pussyfooting around. The sexual satisfaction he feels in destroying an opponent lays bare what was implicit in the heelery of earlier wrestlers like Dick the Prick or, more recently, Kid Karisma. "Pain turns me on," he announces, leaving no doubt about how his sexuality syncs with his brutality. Repeatedly he gives Kirk room to spare hmself and call it quits. When Kirk refuses, Ace is delighted: "Okay. You're just asking for more. And I like it. I like it. You're actually kinda turning me on." There it is. Ace doesn't dance around the s/m vibe. He dives in.

Ace is not alone in getting aroused not just by Kirk Donahue's boyish good looks but also by his perserverance in suffering, often practically begging for more. Lately Kirk has been playing both sides. His recent work as a heel shows he has a taste for the dark side. In my opinion, though, he shines brighter as the valiant underdog, unbowed by his antagonists' relentless assaults, suffering like a martyr but kinda getting off on it, too. Like a saint, he seems to believe Ace when the heel pretends to repent of his earlier nastiness. In so doing, he steps back into the snare - and the atrocities escalate. I halfway expect Ace to plant a crown of thorns on Donahue's brow. In this match, I doubt that would have surprised me at all.

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