Wrestling is Back!

This tag team match on YouTube caught my attention for its classic, old-school vibe. It was the first match on the weekly TCW Wrestling show for August 5th.

The dominant Heel team known as the “Hounds of Hell” enter the ring in black leather fetish gear: shoulder pads and dog collars.  Their victims — I mean opponents — are already waiting in the ring.  Elliott Russell is lean and vulnerable looking in his little green trunks.  His partner Curt Matthews has a beefier and more powerful frame, emphasized by his bright white trunks which will make his suffering look hot.

The sadistic Hounds employ many of those cruel tactics I’ve known and loved forever — they attack the poor jobbers from behind right when the bell rings, they pull hair and bite, they double-team every chance they get.  It’s nice to see the rough, senseless violence, the one-sided domination that I’ve always enjoyed, being shown in a modern Indy federation.

The bigger, balder Heel known as Cerebus really knows what he’s doing in the ring.  He quickly establishes his dominance over the jobber-in-white and never lets up.

Cerebus is actually the wrestler formerly known as “Wolfie D” who started his career as a skinny rapper in USWA about 20 years ago.

Meanwhile, the “Hounds” live up to their nickname when the vicious Roosevelt Hound begins biting the poor Jobber In White on the forehead!

And I really must take my hat off to the Face-in-Peril performance by Curt Matthews in those snow white trunks and blue-laced boots.

He eats the Hounds’ offense like he’s hungry for it.  He sprawls his beefy-but-vulnerable body all over the ring, allowing the cruel Hounds to inflict whatever humiliation and pain they can think of (and they’re pretty creative).

The most amazing part of the match was when Mr. Matthews was busted open by the vicious dogs, blood running down his face as the beasts target his forehead for even more abuse.  I don’t recall the jobbers “juicing” very often even back in the 1980’s — the Glory Days of the one-sided squash matches.  So for this pretty-boy to willingly be busted open to sell his agony for us is very unusual — a sign of tremendous dedication to wrestling.

This wrestling federation is called “Traditional” Championship Wrestling (TCW) and their motto is: “Wrestling is Back!”  I must say, I dig their dedication to the old style — especially the jobber beat-downs.  Other than a brief punching flurry by the two jobbers, this match is a pure Hounds of Hell brutality-fest.

According to the TCW website:  “The company is headquarted in Arkansas and continues to expand rapidly into Mississippi, Louisiana, and Missouri.”

Ahhh, the Deep South, the hotbed of brutal rasslin’ — that makes sense.  This was the place where jobber squashes were invented and perfected.

After his face was nice and red, Curt Matthews was eventually permitted to tag out and escape further mauling by the Hounds.  His lean partner, Elliott Russell (whom the announcers call “Elliott Wrassle“) is soon beaten down and pinned.  The Alpha Male of the match, Cerebus, kneels on the poor kid’s gut, an arrogant display of disdain and over-confidence.

Roosevelt is apparently still hungry, still looking to bite and chew on something, so he sinks his teeth into the middle ring rope.  Many wrestlers have called themselves “Dog” and acted like canines to inject some animalistic savagery into their game, and these Hounds of Hell do a fine job keeping the Rabid Dog gimmick alive.

If you want to re-live the kind of wrestling you grew up on (assuming you’re a certain age) then check out this video on YouTube.