The 10/20/18 episode of Ring of Honor wrestling featured a wonderful old-school punishment Tag Team match between Coast 2 Coast, as the eager rookies, against The Briscoes as the hard-ass veterans. The ring psychology is top notch in this match, I sure got hard.
The challengers — Coast 2 Coast — consist of Shaheem Ali in the long tights and Leon St. Giovanni (or LSG) in the speedo trunks. It’s probably no surprise that this gallery will be focused on the suffering of the handsome, clean-cut LSG in his nut-hugging spandex.
The Briscoes are portraying the ruthless but clever Veteran Heels. Check them out below, bitching to the referee that only one member of Coast 2 Coast is allowed in the ring (immediately after which they will Double-Team him with impunity. It’s so fucking unfair! I love it!)
I am a sucker for classic Two-on-One cheating in Tag Team wrestling. The Briscoes seem to know this, giving me plenty of it to get me all turned on. Thanks boys!
Here we see the ref focusing all too intently on one member of Coast 2 Coast so these cheating dickheads can work over the other member in their corner.
Their cheating tactics are so on-the-nose and blatant — the very cliche’ of dirty Tag Team Heels — so you may suspect I am bored by this well-worn scenario. On the contrary, this sort of naughty tomfoolery by the dirty rule-breakers is EXACTLY why I’ve tuned in to pro wrestling for the past several decades.
Dem Boyz toss their jobber out of the ring so they can harm him even worse out on the floor.
The story of this match (at least this segment, which was the hottest segment) is the isolation and helplessness of LSG (the designated Face-In-Peril of his team) under assault by these rough, tough Redneck monsters. That is like one of my favorite pro wrestling scenarios.
The Briscoe Brothers come off as ignorant bumpkins in their interviews. But their wrestling is top-notch and crafty. Here we see Jay coaxing Ali into a trap so his brother can drill the chump with a BRUTAL Drop-Kick. Surprise!
Now that Ali is destroyed, his partner LSG is truly all alone against these killers.
They’ve got pretty-boy LSG isolated, which is the hottest aspect of this match. We get the sense that they’re going to rip him limb-from-limb now that his partner is out of commission. We see a pretty Elbow-Drop off the ring apron onto the jobber’s exposed chest.
The clueless ref (who also understands his role very well) lets these dirty cheaters get away with attempted murder!
Back inside the ring, the Briscoes continue to impress and delight me with their brutal offense. And the clean-cut Good Guy just eats it all up like he’s supposed to, with his partner injured and unable to assist (shouldn’t they stop the match if one of the competitors is hurt??)
Jay Briscoe’s moves are so damn pretty. I loved his Elbow off the Ring Apron (scroll up a few images) and his Fist Drop here is just as gorgeous as the ones Ted DiBiase used to perform.
I know what some of you are thinking: the Briscoe Brothers are not even that pretty or cute — why is this blogger going on and on about them? But they are the Heels — so I don’t need them to be pretty! I need them to be ugly, cruel, and sadistic, and they give me loads of that. Also, it’s their wrestling moves that I find very attractive, regardless of their physical pulchritude.
Damn, are these two bullies just TRYING to make me get off to this episode of ROH Wrestling?! This is exactly the flavor of two-on-one, unfair Tag Team rasslin that drives me wild and always has.
They are just teasing me over and over again, taking me to the edge with bullshit like this Hold His Arms Gutpunch.
At least one blogger from “Lords of Pain” (that’s a hot name for a wrestling blog) enjoyed this match as much as I did. Here is how he described the Briscoe’s well-polishing ring psychology:
“This was a VERY good match, with C2C giving us a ton of in-ring reasons to keep watching them in the coming year, and the Briscoes showing once again why they are the franchise tag team of this company. They are brilliant. Their storytelling, their trash-talking, their execution, their focus. They are masters of their craft. Good work!”
So I guess LSG eventually tagged in his partner, and I sort of lost interest. In the end, the Briscoes targeted Shaheem Ali’s neck injury and defeated the young upstarts with some devious Two-on-One move off the top ropes. The prolonged suffering and utter isolation of LSG was really the best part for me, so that’s what I chose to write about.
Let’s pretend LSG never made the tag and the Briscoes kept dragging him up on the two-count and punishing him for like a half hour until they defeated him.
Hm. For me, the Briscoes are SUCH a buzzkill.