Go For It

Joe Bailey vs Jace Davis, Rec Room Battles 5 (NHB-Battle/Movimus)

I downloaded this video for the price of three apples. This is early NHB product, 1998, the same year Elle Fanning and Google were born. I can't remember whether I knew of the company back then. I was still ordering my Can-Am and BG East on VHS tapes by USPS mail. This is the first I heard of Joe and Jace. I bought the download out of curiosity - bargain-basement curiosity.

I like it much much more than I expected to. Raven-haired string-bean Jace, in gun-metal gray trunks, is five years older than his opponent. Joe, the loofah blond in green trunks, starts weak but surges as his instinct for survival kicks in. It's a true-blue fight, mainly characterized by headlocks and scissor holds - and, frankly, those two holds are enough for the 17-minute, two-fall battle.

Like most NHB-B classics, this one is full of heavy panting, grunts, and claps of flesh hitting flesh. Like most real wrestling it is slow with sudden heaves and crashes. The two wrestlers are locked together for 99-percent of the contest. It plays out like a life-and-death struggle, which is the kind of melodrama that excites me without fail. The fighters are relentless, at times seemingly ready to break bones if that's what it takes to win. Sadly the promise of a follow-up at the end of the catalog description never became reality - one more "ghost rematch" floating in the NHB-B catalog. 

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