Disservice with a Smile












Sheldon got hold of me last week, eager to talk my ear off about BG East's Demolition 18, specifically the third match--"huge and relentless" Guido Genatto bulldozing over newcomer Kirk Donahue. "Simply amazing," Sheldon calls it:

"Genatto ... is unbelievable to watch--explosive, strong, mean, really puts BBW and the meanest heels to shame! And the guy he destroys (over and over and over again ...) sells like you've never seen--really hard for me to believe that it's staged--not all of that can be--he tosses him around, literally like a rag doll from 6 feet in the air--falling from that far has gotta hurt--you need to see this match! .... I mean, when you see the height that Donahue gets when being tossed into the ring by Genatto, and even more so once he's in a full nelson then is flung over Genatto's head and lands on the back of his neck and flips over one more time! Just watch it ... please!!!"

Easily persuaded, I watched it as soon as I could. And, wow. Never particularly keen on one-sided beatdowns, Genatto has converted me in twelve months with four BGE matches of unadulterated brute rage. (Coincidentally, Guido's previous three victims appear on this DVD in other matches: Flash LaCash, Kip Sorell, and Jake Jenkins.) Genatto has the kind of thick, hairy body I want to lunge into ... suicidally. His blunt profile and shaved cannonball head complete the wrestler's embodiment of Fate Worse Than Death. The guy's a walking talking classic.

"Another fuckin' day, another fuckin' jobber!" Guido philosophizes at the start of this main event. "Same old shit every day. People pay and they suffer. Who's it gonna be, huh? Who's it gonna be today? Who wants to come and get fucked up? Who's it gonna be? Whatta they gonna do? They ain't gonna do nothin'. They ain't gonna do jackshit to me." Enter Kirk Donahue, who is as all-American beautiful as his ring name suggests. He bounds into the ring like a spring lamb ("lamb to the slaughter," as the saying goes).

Sheldon is right to assign half the credit for this match's awesomeness to Kirk's ability to "sell like you've never seen." The guy looks pretty enough to fuck and fuck up. He takes seemingly high-risk bumps, one right after the other. His open and expressive face registers and broadcasts every palpitation of pain and surprise. And he keeps coming back for more. Guido's opening move looks certain to crack this kid's neck and then wrench his arm clean off. Then the monster proceeds to clamp an armbar on the boy and bend his wrist till the knuckles are practically tapping the forearm. What self-respecting heel would not want a piece of this guy? This is cold-blooded murder without the consequences!

The snapmares and body slams are brisk and forceful. Kirk's sinewy body bounces like it's on a trampoline. Guido punctuates his headlocks with sudden, ear-scrunching contractions. Guido lays his hairy chest and belly over the rookie's freckled chest and face for an easy paper-doll pin. When Kirk tries to kick out, Guido just laughs, perhaps liking the kid's spunk all the more for its pathetic hopelessness. He takes a running start to give his body slams extra oomph. And Genatto serves up each new dislocation with a smile. This heel is not doing this just for the money! He loves his work! 

There's no hope for Donahue. At one point he does one of my favorite things in pro wrestling--something I've never before seen at BGE (but then I haven't seen everything, and my memory's pretty poor sometimes): a wrestler fleeing the ring, then dragged back in for more beating. Shortly past the midpoint, Kirk attempts an escape, but before he gets out the door, Guido grabs him and (as Sheldon noted, with understandable breathlessness) hurls him over the top ropes into the ring. Then (great bleeding Christ!) what punishment comes next!

What holds this ferocious match together is not suspense, but rather the sheer artistry of the performance. Guido's arsenal of torturous configurations is endless. He works Kirk's body the way a concertmaster works the catgut strings of a violin. This is no bullshit. The man is a veritable artist of destruction. He complains that Kirk does not tap out forcefully enough, as much concerned with timbre as he is with victory. He is a perfectionist in demolition.

I'm surprised to hear myself say this, but this is Guido Genatto's best work--in any ring, under any name. BGE gives this madman performer full sway to explore the complexities of his sadomasochistic genius. I'm not sure that pro wrestling anywhere has seen anything like this ever before.


Comments

  1. Well, it's not for nothing that we chose Kirk as our latest coverboy and this match as our marquee!

    KL

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