Familiar Face

I was watching a match on YouTube from Impact Wrestling and I was pleased to see this familiar face making his way to the ring.

You may know him as Dick Rick, or possibly Shawn Ricker.  He was also known as “Deuce” early in his career.  He has been delivering great wrestling for over a decade, so it’s good to see him making it into a national promotion.

Well now he is appearing on Impact Wrestling under the name: “Eli Drake.”  Drake’s opponent is this big, hairy stud known by only one name: Bram.

They promote Bram as the toughest, beastliest, most brutal Heel in the federation, and they let him destroy most opponents.  We have no doubt that Bram is about to pummel and punish Eli Drake, who is currently working Baby-Face, for our viewing pleasure.

Mmm, hurt him, Bram!

You can tell Drake is working Baby-Face by his beautiful white boots with yellow wingtips.  His trunks are also accented with yellow and white.  Those are pure 100% Baby-Face colors, a sure indicator that he is going to suffer every time he wrestles.

Bram locks on a nice Headlock, rubbing his victim’s face against that hairy chest, forcing Drake to bend over and show us his body.

I’ve always felt that this Drake (aka Ricker) has the body to make it in the Big Leagues. I mean, look at those big guns on him!

After 10+ years in the game, he also has learned how to suffer convincingly and sexily.  I am more accustomed to him portraying a cocky, heartless Heel, but I think he will do great as a Baby-Face as well, especially if he keeps wearing those pretty white-and-yellow boots.

BRUTAL Elbow Smash to the skull!

Bram likes to take his time with his victims, slowing down the action and savoring every attack.  He inflicts a series of long, tight Headlocks on Drake, which gives the camera plenty of opportunities to zoom in and fetishize the stud’s expressions of agony and ecstasy.

Several times during the Headlock torture scene, Bram voluntarily releases his grip in order to inflict a dickhead assault like this stiff Elbow Cracker to the brain.  Then he immediately wraps his arms back around Drake’s throat and goes right back to that hugging Headlock.  It seems as if he’s enjoying that Headlocking so much, he can only tear himself away for a moment before locking it on again and again.

AUUUGGH! Drake sells his lower back agony.

Bram takes the action outside the ring where he can get even rougher and more brutal with his hot plaything.  The implication is that Bram thrives in the dangerous environment outside the ring, where he can find metal objects, weapons, and other torture devices.

The announcer points out that Drake does NOT want to be in this position, caught outside the ring where Bram can get nasty.

Back in the ring, Drake surprises me by slapping on the Sleeper and proceeding to put big Drake down to his knees.  For a moment there, I was very excited to think that maybe Drake’s signature hold is the Sleeper!

Maybe we will get to see him use this move all the time, putting away his enemies large and small by hooking his arms around their necks and sending  them off to Dreamland.  (But soon, Drake would escape the hold, thwarting my hopes that the Sleeper was coming back into popular use in the pro ring.)

Keep it on -- he'll be out soon!

While Drake applied the Sleeper pressure, Bram struggled like an animal in a trap, slowly growing weaker.  The commentator — Josh Matthews — made a rude comment at this point that Drake is “putting Bram, and the entire pro wrestling audience, to sleep with this hold.”

What the hell, Josh Matthews??  This fantastic Sleeper is not putting me to sleep!  I hope Drake uses this hold in every one of his matches, and keeps it locked on for half the match!  I believe Drake — more so than Josh Matthews — knows what holds turn on the audience given his wrestling background and experiences.

Bram goes on to manhandle Drake, spiking his face into the mat or something to finish him off.  Check out that humiliating pinning position, the more powerful man resting his knee on Drake’s face.  Part of me was actually hoping they’d give Drake a push by letting him win, but oh well, it’s also hot to see him lose and getting Cock Pinned.

To utterly degrade the victim, Bram gets in his face after the match.

Bram inflicts some sexy post-match humiliation, putting his beard right next to Drake’s beard and watching the stud cringe in pain.  If you watch the video, you can see Bram mouth the words “Awww, poor baby.”

All in all, this was a great outing by Eli Drake.  I am hoping to see much more of him now that he’s on Impact.  Glad to see him finally catch a break.