Vinny










In a recent brief Facebook exchange with my friend Joseph, I realized I had NOT ONCE blogged on one of our mutual favorite BG East stars of "old" (2001-2003) Vinny Trevino, 5'9", 210#. Imagine my palm slapping my forehead. The company released seven videos featuring Vinny in varying situations (boxing, mat wrestling, singles, tag team), in all of which Vinny, the paradigm of Italo-American hotness, is pitted against somebody whose wrestling I have, at one time or another, beat off to.

Brian Baker and Troy Baker versus Vinny Trevino and Joshua Goodman, Tag Team Torture 3

Vinny "debuted" as Joshua Goodman's partner against the company's golden boys of the era, brothers Brian and Troy Baker. Vinny astounds in equal parts because of his physique and his acrobatic prowess as a high-flyer, a lucha-libre style coming into vogue among USA wrestlers at the time. Though I believe high-flying went too far, upstaging and eventually erasing the earlier catch-as-catch-can style of UK and US pro wrestling, it is fun to watch, and Vinny displays a level of fluid agility unusual for bodybuilders.

West Coast aloha shirts (the Bakers) take on East Coast baggy shorts (Vinny and Joshua). The opening lockup with Brian shows off Vinny's daunting spread of back muscles, twitching like the haunch of a racehorse (and speaking of "haunch," check out the Italian's butt). By himself Trevino takes the wind out of the surfer boys' sails. Then Goodman jumps in for some good old-fashioned double-teaming. Their momentum lost, the brothers reveal a rift in their partnership, neither wanting to one-on-one with "bulldog" Vinny or Joshua--a foreshadowing of bad things to come for the Baker boys.

Patrick Donovan versus Vinny Trevino, Gut Bash 2

Because I'm not usually a fan of tactic-specific matches, Vinny's midsection-versus-midsection battle against Patrick Donovan was the last of Vinny's videos I saw. The chance to see Italian versus Irish, two cultures noted for their pugnacity, especially two personal favorites, should have been enough for me. I don't know what I was thinking.  Gut Bash 2 might be Vinny's shining achievement. (It is Joseph's favorite.) It's certainly the match that establishes his star quality. Predictably this is a one-sided bash, the lithe, boyish Patrick getting the worst of it.

To sweeten the pot, Patrick had already established his character as a my-shit-don't-stink babyface. From the start, leather-jacketed Vinny looks eager to kick some of it out of Patrick and find out, and he wastes no time in going about it. The specificity of the title aside, this fight is a well-rounded bash with Trevino zeroing in on the sweet midsection, at one point slipping on some boxing gloves to further tenderize it, but not forgetting to traumatize the limbs and spinal column too. In the end Vinny draws a mustache on Patrick's face with a black marker, in hopes of making his half-conscious opponent look more like a man.

Brandon Aldrich versus Vinny Trevino, Clobber the Jobber 1

Then-newcomer Brandon Alrich probably should never have said to Vinny, "I'm going to fuck you up." Just my opinion. For starters, the opening test of strength does not (surprise, surprise) go his way. Seconds later, he lies flat on his back, looking at the ceiling with Vinny resting his torso across his chest. Vinny could call it a day now but seems determined to "make it interesting" for himself and the fans. Forcibly pulling Brandon's shoulders up from the pinning position, he proceeds to make Aldrich taste all 28 flavors of pain. 

In this match Vinny furthers his reputation as a master heel (drawing comparisons in the catalog description to the Brooklyn Bodywrecker). Brandon is a cocky boy-next-door type whose eyes are obviously bigger than his stomach when he decides to chomp down on Vinny, who is just too much steak for the boy. In an effort to see whether Brandon can do anything, having evidently failed at wrestling by mid-match, Vinny forces the jobber to don some boxing gloves--with exactly the results predicted in the title.

Vinny Trevino versus Dave Christian, Demolition 6

In the narrative arc of BGE's anachronistic ordering of video releases, Vinny's early match against Dave Christian in Demolition 6 gives the "Italo-stud" his first taste of real competition--a wrestler of equal physical development and ring experience, though one more prone to grappling than to launching aerial assaults. Christian, another wrestler with too brief a career at BGE, effectively grounds the high-flyer in the first half of a give-and-take battle between equals.

Towards the end of the match, a boner impresses the front of Vinny's white trunks as he squeezes Dave's head in a side headlock. This is my take-away message from Demolition 6. Dragging Christian down to the mat by his head, Trevino thoughtfully repositions himself to bring his boner back into camera view, staring us fans in the face, so to speak. There it is, with two balls tucked neatly underneath. But the blood rushing down from his brain puts the Italian in a vulnerable position. Christian scissors Vinny's head between his cable-knit thighs. Vinny thrusts and twists while the boner climbs towards his waistband like mercury in a thermometer. 

Vinny Trevino versus Mikey Vee, Jobberpaloozer 4

Reportedly Vinny's first BGE match (though the fifth to be released), Vinny is pegged the "jobber" to superstar Mikey Vee's toss-out-the-rulebook style of ring wrestling. Kid Vicious was the brains behind this pairing, so expect plenty of low blows, strangulation, and other forms of tasty homoerotic sadism. Vee is one of the all-time greats at BG East, and by this point in his career he had taken an interest in MMA and was looking like Tyler Durden's wet dream. 

The battle starts out as a boxing match, Mikey ostensibly agreeing to take on Vinny in Vinny's preferred sport. Vinny dominates until Mikey blindsides him and starts slamming glove, then bare fist to his exposed abs. The release of this match after the mid-point of Trevino's BGE career and his stated role in it as jobber suggest that said career was already on the down curve by this point. Narratively, it makes more sense as Vinny's first match--the wet-behind-the-ears jobber unaware of what he's stepping into. In the order of release, though, it is anticlimactic, though spectacular, and probably better viewed as Trevino's initiation to the company.

Vinny Trevino versus Lance Jeffers, Gazebo Grapplers 2

This is Vinny's one and only mat match, and true to form he takes on one of the best, Lance Jeffers. A war of words erupts into a war of punches, chokes, and body slams. The battle starts on the grass but inches its way towards the gazebo and onto the mats. Jeffers was and probably still is the king of brawling, with a winning roughneck style that only intensifies the longer the fight lasts. Vinny might have bit off more than he can chew in this one, which counts as one of his intensest encounters.

For good reason it's the main event of Gazebo Grapplers 2, and if I had to choose right at this moment, I'd call it my favorite Trevino match. Borrowing one of porn's most popular memes, Vinny shows up in a hard hat as (I think) an HVAC repairman. Lance chats him up, and they discover they're both ex-Marines. That bit of information piques Lance's interest, and he begins willfully to badger Vinny, hoping to stir up a fight. He gets one. It's jeans, sleeveless T's, and work boots at first (Why don't more matches start this way?) and then the two strip down to skivvies in the gazebo. Vinny is out of his element on the mat, but it's a stunning contest anyway, one of his least ironic and highest testosterone bouts at BGE.

Vinny Trevino versus Justin Pierce, Gloved Gladiators 2: Justin's Lesson

The last match released gives us Vinny pitted against arguably the most beautiful wrestler ever to appear at BG East, Justin Pierce. One of the most popular and prolific wrestlers for the company, Justin appears in over three times as many videos as Vinny, but the two start out here as equals. Gradually one proves his dominance over the other, climaxing as the victor hogties his conquest to the corner ropes.

For beauty versus beauty I can't think of any better contest than this one. Vinny's boxing gimmick was not a favorite of mine, but, as in many other areas of life, nice pecs, shoulders, arms, back, abs, and thighs supersede a lame gimmick. However, neither Vinny nor Justin was "just a pretty face." They came with loads of charisma, Justin's considerably quieter than Vinny's, each amply filling the screen, but together they were eye-candy overload. Not a complaint.

I'm not sure how Trevino got away from BGE without chalking up at least twice as many fights as he did. Among the forever lost chances are the teaming up of Trevino and Brooklyn Bodywrecker as partners against ... you name it. I think Trevino ought to have had a shot against Rochelle at some point. Angelo D'Amato, Nick Archer, Blaze, Mike Columbo, and Aryx Quinn? Yeah, them too.

Comments

  1. A very welcome "huge shout out" to Vinny from a year ago. Very glad to read and see it again. Vinny is one of the pillars in the colonnade at my temple to muscle boys. This is a hot sermon on the altar mat. Thanks, Joe.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Archive

Show more