It’s a new year and WWE NXT continues to deliver the most exciting, highest quality pro wrestling I’ve ever seen. The wrestlers look as gorgeous and buff as any top level wrestling show these days, but the matches are chock full of classic moves, Old School scenarios, and all the homo-erotic undertones we grew up on and loved. The production quality is top notch as well, as expected from WWE.
The first match on the first episode of 2013 featured Epico in the fancy black tights with yellow accents against Bo Dallas, looking very jobbery and effeminate with his long hair and shiny red and white trunks. Epico’s partner, Primo, has come to ringside to watch his buddy in action. Even though Primo is not scheduled to wrestle, he dressed in the same fancy tights as his partner to highlight their close relationship.
The presence of Primo makes Bo Dallas seem out- numbered to the audience. The announcers mention several times the advantage that Epico has with his partner nearby. Primo’s close proximity and interest in the match also adds that Love Triangle vibe when one wrestler watches his partner in the ring getting intimate with a stranger.
Their female manager, Rosa Mendez, usually joins Epico and Primo to tone down any homo-sexual vibes between the two men. However, she is conspicuously absent for this match (which the crowd notices and begins to chant: “We want Rosa! We Want ROSA!“) Was Rosa asked not to appear in order to emphasize the pure homo-social relationships between Epico and Primo (and Epico and Dallas, and Primo and Dallas) with no female distraction or interference?
A Baby-Face beatdown ensues, with Epico using classic old-school moves like the Body Scissor and blinding eye scrape. Maybe he learned some of these moves from wrestling around with his uncle, the great Carlos Colon, once the hottest Babyface in Puerto Rico.
And the camera absolutely exploits Bo Dallas — scanning over his bare flesh, pausing on the tight vinyl trunks as they ride up his crack, zooming in on that vulnerable bulge. If you want to watch Dallas selling Epico’s moves like a champ, this match is available on YouTube for your viewing pleasure.
Damn. Epico applies one of the most beautiful, longest held Over-the-Knee Backbreakers I’ve seen in a long time (outside of Wrestling Porn videos…) It’s nice to see this move being used in the pro ring again — have I mentioned I love NXT? That beefy body is bent and exposed so nicely — and check out Primo in the background, all excited to see his partner trying to break Dallas in two.
Bo Dallas has begun working a sexually suggestive “Masochist” gimmick. When Bo Dallas was knocked out by The Big Show a few weeks ago, he described it as “the best pain he’s ever felt.” When Epico begins to pummel the pretty-boy in this match, a smile of excited pleasure forms on the face of Bo Dallas, as if he’s creaming in his trunks right now.
The announcers imply that Dallas gets off on pain by emphasizing, with their exaggerated shock, the twisted pleasure this young man is experiencing as his agony increases:
“He’s SMILING! He wants more punishment! Bizarre! A masochistic tendency…”
“He loves the pain!”
“There is JOY in his eyes! This is BIZARRE!”
Their implication that Dallas gets off on pain is meant to titillate the audience, by revealing a dirty (and kinky) little secret about the young grappler. This is similar to the classic technique of describing the Heel wrestlers as sadists who love to hurt their opponents back in the day. (For examples of this phenomenon, see my articles on Sadistic Steve Strong, or the article I called: “They Like to Hurt People.”)
All that torture have given the Masochist his second wind. He knocks the wind out of Epico’s body with a shoulder to the stomach and hooks the leg for the pin. Nice job by both wrestlers…
The scene ends by restoring and reinforing the homo-social bond between Epico and Primo. Even though he was merely an observer, Primo is furious that his partner lost. The two men threaten to beat up Bo Dallas two-on-one just for winning and acting cocky. Some warm embraces between the partners calms down the situation and they walk off to the locker room together, presumable to get their showers and change back into street clothes.
A wrestling match is supposed to tell a story, and this match told several good ones, such as:
- Primo loves Epico
- Bo Dallas loves to suffer
- If the feminine wrestler enjoys pain, he can defeat the more masculine wrestler