Youth and Exuberance

Deno Babic and Kris Jokic vs Tristan Archer and Senza Volto, HCW International Tag Team Tournament (Hungarian Championship Wrestling)

Young wrestlers Deno Babić and Kris Jokić, the Croatian team, are cocky. Veterans Tristan Archer and masked-man Senza Volto, the French team, are vicious. This fall of 2018 match in Budapest is a battle between exuberant youth and treacherous adulthood. (SPOILER, of sorts: I nod to American playwright David Mamet, who said, "Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance." Not that Tristan and Senzo are actually "old.")

Deno Babić is exciting to watch. The harder the Frenchmen lean on him and Kris, the harder he strikes back. He fights circles around Archer, who tries to bury the indefatigable upstart under muscle, and when Volto spits on him (in the last GIF), you can bet Deno's planning to make him pay for the insult. Deno and Kris are a well-oiled machine, though all four combatants are primarily singles wrestlers. Of course, I would like more grappling on the ring floor, but the acrobatics are not overplayed to the point of silliness, and Deno's fists fly so fast and from so many directions we can practically feel the heat roll over the ringside crowd like a wave.

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