Twisted Fate

Chris Masters vs Damian Fenrir, Up in Smoke/ (Magic City Wrestling)

I love the last GIF, when Masters. volcanically hot at 38, has a guaranteed pin but pulls his handsome baby-daddy opponent up because he isn't done with him yet. It's hubris and usually spells doom for the heel that commits it out of pride or plain old viciousness. It's one of the great heel moves of all time and maybe my favorite. Surely this is a sign that our bad days are over.

Magic City is a South Florida promotion. This show happened a couple of weeks ago on September 25th. The match is already underway when Masters rips off his T-shirt only because he needs something to strangle Damian with. Later he pulls the same trick with wrist tape. Through it all, Masters continuously holds forth to the clamorous crowd and the ref ("What are you going to do about it?"). 

His hubris launches a series of accidents and interruptions that ultimately seal somebody's fate, either his own or Damian's. Aeschylus could not have written it better. (He could and did, of course. I mean, the Oresteia, damn! I was speaking rhetorically.) Some serious climactic shit gets partially blocked by a cameraman, but the match doesn't miss a beat because it adheres faithfully to a known scenario, which is not to say it's predictable.

Visit Magic City Wrestling here.