Fragile-Unbreakable

If you read this blog regularly, you may be aware that Adam Cole has become a favorite wrestler of mine — even before he grew that sexy, macho beard.  For me, the sex appeal of Adam Cole lies in his being at once delicate and indestructible.  Like many popular pro wrestlers over the years, he is way too pretty to be a male, and simultaneously able to absorb tremendous, soul-crushing abuse without surrender.

Sami Callihan, in contrast, portrays the classic psycho Bad-Ass Heel, his hair disheveled, his beard unruly, his eyes burning with animal rage or a wild horniness.  He still uses foreign objects and juices, and he wraps his thick body into a tight singlet like a Heel of days-gone-by.  If anybody can determine whether Adam Cole is truly Unbreakable, it’s this fuckin beast.

Callihan is known for working “stiff” — which means kicking and punching perhaps harder than necessary, perhaps as hard as he can.  When asked why he works so stiff, he replied: “Because they came for stiff.”  (Although I think he actually meant to say “Because they cum for stiff.”)

Callihan and Cole have been feuding for a long time in Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), where they have faced off in the ring a million times, brutalizing one another with impunity, with the Fragile-Unbreakable boy often suffering the worst of the pain (MMMPH!)

The two enemies faced off for their final match on 4/13/13 at the CZW show:  “The Best of the Best 12.”  Rumors are flying that one or both of these men will soon join the WWE, so their hate-hate relationship must come to an end.

Even if they battle later in the WWE, it just won’t be the same.  The action won’t be as dramatic or intense or brutal — not as hot or effective as the rassling found in the Indy circuit.  So this match is, in effect, their “Final Encounter.”

Adam Cole acts like an arrogant Playboy, and soon gets brutally demolished for his cockiness, tortured for much of the match.  The “Death Machine” stomps Cole’s face in and tries to break his fucking back on the ring apron.

I found myself digging this match, nearly as out of breath as Cole himself while watching his punishment unfold.  It’s so fascinating to see a Fragile-Unbreakable man put to the test!

The best part of this match is the visceral intensity of it, the sense of real pain and agony:  the wrestlers’ hair all messed up, sweat pouring off their bodies, red welts painted across Cole’s chest from where Callihan chopped the cocky out of him.  I’m not sure what they pay these studs but I’m sure it’s not enough.

The hallmark of great pro wrestling is when the performers convince us to suspend our disbelief and begin to perceive (at some level) that the violence is real and the dudes are really harming one another.  Based on these photos alone, you can see Cole and Callihan delivered a very convincing match, and their magic sure worked on me.  I even rented the on-line video for CZW Best of the Best XII at RFVideoNow.com.

One interesting facet to Adam Cole’s gimmick is that his opponents often accuse him of being gay.  Maybe he’s just too gorgeous looking to be straight.  His current enemy Sami Callihan has recently accused Cole of being a homo-sexual which he denies.

Why does Adam Cole seem to play along with this suspicion that he is gay, even egging on the chanting crowd as described in my recent “Gay Off” article?    Is Cole perhaps truly gay and this is his way of gradually outing himself?

Or maybe he is simply trying to titillate and excite the audience  — after all, sex sells and many people get off on wondering about the appetites and sexual orientation of celebrities and pro athletes.  Perhaps he is just using this whiff of gaity to remain relevant, interesting, and mysterious in the fans’ thoughts.

But I believe the real reason behind this “Adam is Gay” speculation, as fueled by Adam himself, is to add another level of humiliation. His angry insistence that he is not gay just make him seem more pathetic.

Just as the viewers watch him physically tortured and abused in the ring, so too do they  observe his mental and psychological abuse — the other wrestlers and the crowd questioning his hetero-sexuality (i.e., his masculinity) and chanting “You Are Gay!” at him.

Just as we feel sorry for Adam when we see him kicked and slammed, so too does our heart go out to him (whether he is gay or straight) when we see him taunted and bullied.  It’s another way to entice us to love him and feel sorry for him.

Callihan applies his patented “Stretch Muffler” to Cole’s right leg, putting his Fragile yet Unbreakable body on display and stretching him out.  I’m not sure why they call this move the “Stretch Muffler” — a very unusual name.  Does anyone know where that term comes from?  Whatever you call this hold, Cole is Unbreakable, so the move does not finish him off and he soon escapes after some heart-rending grunts and groans.

Like Popeye finally swallowing some spinach, the once-fragile Cole becomes fully Unbreakable and flattens Callihan with some stiff karate kicks to the jaw.

Cole then goes down in the pro wrestling record books as the superior Alpha Male by rolling up his arch-rival for the pin — defeating his sworn enemy once and for all.

What follows is an interesting scene of support and intimacy between the two enemies.  Knowing this is their final encounter in the ring, they stand face-to-face and share some whispered pleasantries.  Then they fall lovingly into each others’ arms, their bodies pressed together, their faces in close contact.

What emotions does this scene portray?  If they really hate each other, they would not embrace at all.  (When is the last time you hugged someone you despise?)  If they are just two performers wishing to say farewell, they could have done that in the privacy of their locker-room to avoid breaking Kayfabe.

This public display of affection marks the official END of their feud.  They’ve put their hatred behind them and forged a homo-social bond, the ideal relationship in pro wrestling.  And if Adam Cole is truly gay as Sami Callihan has claimed, the embrace shows that Callihan is accepting of this lifestyle — willing to hold and hug Adam Cole in front of the crowd.

Perhaps it also may imply that Callihan himself may swing that way, in effect outing himself by hugging another possibly gay man right in front of everyone.  Maybe this bad-ass isn’t as brutal and close-minded as he is letting on.  Like any great match, the story is told through opposites existing together in the ring and in each wrestler himself:  Fragile-Unbreakable, Hateful-Loving, and Straight-Gay…