Keller / Fischer

Kayden Keller vs Felix Fischer, Leopard's Lair 7 (BG East)

I've seen Felix Fischer a couple of times facing Rocky Sparks and Mason Brooks. Here he takes on the notorious Kayden Keller in the Wrestleshack - or Leopard's Lair, if you prefer. He's good looking, trim, and doomed, pretty much the fate of all new hires these days. I figure that this match will see him destroyed once again, this time by Kayden, a famously relentless heel. 

Kayden is BGE's star athlete, notorious for his wry, some might say "cold-hearted" manner of destroying an opponent, usually, as here, an opponent less experienced and smaller than he - but it's hard to find wrestlers with more experience and presence than Keller. Here he's more laidback than daunting. 

The match starts well enough - trainer and pupil, a familiar scenario. Right off the bat, Kayden rolls over Felix, but he also compliments the new guy on his strength and potential as a wrestler. A quick takedown is treated as an end in itself, not the start of a long-range competition - which makes sense in a training session. 

When did the training session angle became the norm in underground wrestling?  I see it almost everywhere now. Whatever happened to competition? It exists, of course, but one-sided "training" sessions are more popular now, perhaps because they often end up as squash jobs or easy preludes to BDSM. Their predictability appeals to many fans - just look at fan-scripted custom orders. They fit the pattern of master and slave without necessarily a dungeon. I have nothing against BDSM, but I prefer aggressive competition between equals, two men who come to the ring or mat room or backyard ready to rumble.

I miss competition in wrestling - the days of Cliff Conlin, Justin Pierce, Kid Karisma, and Jake Jenkins. If a guy gets the shit kicked out of him, I prefer that it's straight-up - genuine or at least genuine-like. That said, there's room in underground wrestling for setups like this one, too. Personally, I prefer a fight to a predetermined one-sided beating. As beatdowns go, however, few are better than Keller's trouncing of Fischer.

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