Today’s article continues our annual Halloween tradition, focusing on the bloody, gory, and violent style of wrestling that seems to excite and arouse many fans (including me).
This tag team battle between the Briscoe Brothers and the Muñoz Brothers (Rush and Dragon Lee) took place on the July 26, 2019 episode of Ring of Honor. Right after I saw this violent battle (which boned me up pretty good), I knew I wanted to feature it on Halloween 2019. It had the tone and flavor of the classic brutal, violent matches that frightened, sickened, and aroused me 40 years ago when pro wrestlers were often presented as blood-thirsty, sadistic savages.
The rough action began even before Rush (pronounced “Roosh”) and his brother Dragon Lee took off their matching white shirts.
Check out the Briscoe Boys catching the masked Dragon Lee in mid-air to deliver a spine-crushing Double Suplex out on the floor! They’re out to show these foreigners how we do pro rasslin here in the US of A!
I could hardly wait for the swole Latino hermanos to strip down to their skimpy black-and-white speedos and show us those amazing bodies, but they got there eventually.
Stop teasing us like that, you bad boys — give us the goods right from the start! You know those sexy shirtless bodies are what we all want to see!
We go to commercial break and we see a warning about the graphic violence coming up in this match. I feel a stirring of excitement that reminds me of my younger days when pro wrestling was often very graphic and violent, and their frequent warnings just fired me up even more. It always felt so naughty and salacious (and therefore very arousing) to me as a youngster, when I watched this raunchy brutality and violence even after they warned me that it may upset me.
Viewer discretion is advised because one of the Briscoe Brothers gets his forehead busted open after being whipped into the ringside fence (or perhaps he cut himself with a razor blade like pro wrestlers often did to stir up the crowd back in the 1970’s.)
In the televised version of this match, Mark Briscoe’s bloodied face was blurred out, I suppose to avoid traumatizing young viewers who did not heed the warnings. This was a technique used in the 1980’s as well, blurring out the blood during some especially gory bouts. This censoring made the matches seem even scarier and more violent (and therefore hotter) than they probably really were if they had just shown us the open cuts.
Another reason they censored the televised version of this match may have been to convince viewers to pay the $9.99 fee to join Honor Club, the ROH subscription service. We are told repeatedly that we can view the entire uncensored match in Honor Club.
Of course this ploy worked on me. I paid my $9.99 right away — I just had to see all the violence and blood so I could experience the brutal, uber-masculine, Can-You-Handle-It style of wrestling that I watched and loved (and locked myself in my bedroom after seeing) as a youngster
By the way, you can actually find the uncensored version of this match on YouTube if you search for it and save yourself the $9.99 fee to join Honor Club. I suppose I could’ve searched the free sites before paying for Honor Club, but actually I don’t mind paying a small fee for really good rasslin. My payment will hopefully let ROH know that THIS is the sort of match that viewers want to see more of and are willing to pay for.
Here is a graphic (and homo-erotic) scene that was cut out of the televised version. Rush rubs his opponent’s crimson blood all over his chest like body paint as the fans chant “You SICK FUCK!”
I suppose this was deemed to be too gross and troubling (or perhaps too sexually suggestive) to show on TV. This kinky play is making me an even bigger fan of this sick fuck than I already was.
Here is another spot from the Honor Club version that did not appear on TV: Rush gnawing his opponent’s face like a wild dog.
Probably they didn’t want viewers to think of Rush as a Heel — they’re pushing him as a conquering Hero. (But I’m actually feeling turned on by his cruel antics and lack of mercy for his opponent. What a sexy macho bad-ass!)
After being humiliated by these cocky Mexicans for most of the match, the Briscoes eventually take back control of their ring with a beautiful Neck Breaker by Jay and really awesome Flying Elbow off the top rope by Mark. He gets some revenge for being forced to wear the Crimson Mask like a 1970’s jobber. Below you can see both the blurred-out image from the censored version on the left side and the raw, bloody, Honor Club version on the right:
The Muñoz Brothers end up subduing the Briscoes, leaving Jay in a helpless position in the corner. I find it exciting to see these sexy Mexican studs easily kicking the asses of the erstwhile powerful Briscoes: making one wear the humiliating Crimson Mask and leaving the other ragdolled in the corner like a jobber, totally at their mercy.
Rush’s finishing move is this running Dropkick into the corner, which he calls Horns of the Bull or something like that (by the way, his nickname is El Toro Blanco — the White Bull.)
He totally dominates Jay Briscoe with this maneuver. God I love Rush — he’s such a vicious hard-ass with frightening killer moves.
I can’t believe that ROH jobbed out the popular and dominant Briscoe Brothers to these newbie Mexican studs, giving the undefeated Rush and his brother a clean win right in the center of the ROH ring. The Briscoes got whipped and humiliated in front of all their ROH fans!
If they’re trying to put Rush and Dragon Lee over with the fans, it certainly worked on me! I think I’m in love.
By the way, if you were hoping to see Rush as the suffering stud with the bloodied face, check out this video on YouTube of a Mexican Lucha Libre match from July 2016. Rush takes a nice stiff beating in white trunks that emphasize every drop of crimson.
Rush’s opponent (also bloodied) repeatedly slams his face with a wooden crate to bust it open even worse.
Happy Halloween, you sick fucks!
This article is a good example of the changing times many of us have witnessed over the years. I grew up watching wrestling out of St. Louis in the 60’s, and you never saw a ‘juice’ match on the hour-long weekend studio shows. You might occasionally see footage from the ‘main event’ bouts which were held in larger arenas across the country, but if you wanted to really see someone wear a crimson mask, your best bet was a wrestling magazine. Oftentimes there would be a shot of someone’s face on the cover caked in blood to get someone to take the plunge and buy a copy of the magazine. Suffice to say, it usually worked on me!
Wow! WoW! WOW!!!
Now I’m interested in ‘Roosh’ and the ‘Briscos’…
I used to like RoH a lot over the years but I got to the point where I was tired of the ‘Briscos’ because I never found them too impressive and same thing with ‘Roosh’, though he is a newcomer.
I’mm going to give RoH another look now… particularly since I heard they hired Joe Hendry…