One of my loyal readers sent me a link to this match between Kyle Sebastian in the stretchy red trunks and Sid Sylum in the white.
Young Sebastian is a big show-off, dancing to the ring in satin jacket, headband, and light-up sunglasses. You just know his no-nonsense opponent — Sid Sylum — is going to make Sebastian suffer for his arrogance, and you can’t wait to witness it.
Big Mr. Sylum, in the role of Alpha Male is thick, beefy, and dominating, with a prominent bulge in his trunks to constantly remind us that he is All Man.
Sebastian, by contrast, has long flowey hair and yellow boots. He begins the match with his hair in a topknot, but it soon comes undone and spills down to his shoulders.
Sylum is calm and confident in his mastery of young Sebastian, taking his sweet time as he picks apart his skinnier foe. After each move, he pauses a moment, with Sebastian curled up and suffering in the background, gazing into the audience as if to say, “Did you SEE what I just did to him now?!?”
I wonder if Kyle’s last name is really “Sebastian” or if he chose that name to play off the popular appeal of the traditional icon of helpless suffering: Saint Sebastian.
You may recall my earlier article describing Saint Sebastian as the world’s first Baby-Face, and my follow up article naming Sebastian the Patron Saint of Jobbers.
The reader who e-mailed me this link described why the match appeals to him:
“I knew it was going to be good when the cocky party boy in super tight red trunks walked out. I was hoping for it to be a complete squash by Sid Sylum, and it could have been, but there was still a good chunk of time when he was systematically destroying the crowd favourite party boy in front of his home crowd. Love how his hair slowly comes undone too. All in all, beautiful match.”
In the end, the pecking order reverses as the lean young pretty-boy gains power over the masculine tough-guy. The girly-man goes on to win the match, the ultimate humiliation for big Sylum.
Unwilling to cede his power and surrender his masculinity, Sylum begins to violently beat down Sebastian after the match is over. What a sore loser — but this shows us that the more Manly the Man, the more fragile his ego.
And despite his pre-match arrogance and his helplessness for much of the match, the audience remains firmly in support of the beautiful Kyle Sebastian. They chant “Let’s go Kyle!” and shout “Come on KYLE!” during the worst of his punishment. (The only exception is one sadistic bully who yells to Sylum, loud and clear, “Bust the Figure Four on him!” at 9:04 into the video.) All in all, an entertaining Indy match, thanks for the heads up, Aaron.