The Heart of Pro Wrestling

Jim has a pretty good bead on my tastes in wrestling matches. He sent me the link to this 21-minute riot on YouTube, adding, "This one is a real standout, and it's also one I think you'll particularly enjoy given some of your recent blogs. It's a hot, hot match between two hot, hot wrestlers that is sure to push several of your buttons, and it's really well shot with one camera. Great stuff." That's three more hots than needed to get me to check out a fight, in case you're interested.

Wrestlers' bodies don't come any hotter than Shawn Spears's. Six-foot-three, 235#, he is a colossus in the ring with a deceptively docile face that gives away none of his intentions. In 2013 he challenged Neo Wrestling Federation champ Tyson Dux, 5'10", 200#, on the Ontario side of Niagara Falls. Unlike Spears, Dux is a flashy bigmouth (in pink, no less) with a weaselly manager who sticks his nose into this match and pays for it.

Tyson is terrific at stoking the crowd's ire. I like what Jim says about Dux:

Dux has always turned my crank, too. Found an online interview with him that a student did in which he tells his story and reveals that he drives a semi 12 hours a day--relatively local hauls that always allow him to return home to his family each night. He talks about how hard it is to train and to teach wrestling at a local "academy" and wrestle on the weekends. He really loves what he does. Guys like him really are the heart of pro wrestling, I think. They do it because they love it, and that puts them on a high level of hot.

I agree completely. Hungry passion in the ring beats "big show" professionalism every time.

So which of my buttons got pushed? First, the big guy button. Second, the button for strong thick waistlines, direct opposite the waspish washboards currently in vogue. Third, there's the heel manager at last "getting his" button. Fourth, the button for fine sadistic detail--the way Spears so carefully places Dux's hand on the mat before stomping on it, the way Dux pulls Spears up by the ears and then continues crushing them in his clenched fists, the way Dux puts his mouth right on Spears's ear to shout into it (screen shot #6, above). Fifth, the give and take button. Sixth, the sweat button. Seventh, the hatred so deep and engrained that the two wrestlers can't keep their hands off each other, that button. Eighth, the ringside slug-out button. Ninth, the jaw-dropping feat of strength button--the way Spears hauls both Dux and his manager Jay Moore on his shoulders. Tenth, the corner beatdown button. Eleventh, the strongly contrasting psychologies button, Twelfth, the button for prolonged intertwining of bodies under any pretext. Thirteen, the both-wrestlers-down button. Fourteen, the stalled count-out button--the way Tyson rolls in and out of the ring to stop the count-out, the way Shawn commands the ref not to count Tyson out because he wants to beat the guy, not have the match end in a draw. And, fifteen, the button for commentators who tell me, "These two guys do NOT like one another." And the animal gesticulations button (chest thumping, roaring, etc.), sixteen.

(And I'm pretty sure they used two cameras, Jim.)