My review last week of the match featuring Corey Graves triggered my memory: on my hard-drive were some great images from a 2006 match where the same heavily tattooed wrestler (who was called “Sterling James Keenan” at that time) wrestled against one of my personal favorites — Davey Richards.
Davey was a fresh-faced young 23 years old and Sterling Keenan (or Corey Graves if you prefer) was just 22. However, Sterling began his training at age 15, so he was already quite the veteran.
Both of these youngsters show a lot of promise in this 2006 match and got the crowd hot and bothered — it was easy to tell that both rookies would make a name for themselves in this sport, as much for their in-ring prowess as for their provocative antics after the match…
Although Davey is perhaps the stronger man, Sterling outclassed Davey in attitude, swagger, and sex appeal. Sterling wears fancy sunglasses, flamboyant orange tights, and a long fur coat to catch the attention and imagination of the viewers. Davey strolls to the ring in a plain old black shirt.
Davey looks fantastic in his white trunks but he is lacking that lewd cockiness, that “It Factor” which oozes out of Sterling James Keenan’s every pore.
Davey throws the tattooed rocker out to the floor and puts on the other man’s sunglasses! Is Davey trying to mock the other man for his arrogance, or is he perhaps trying to emulate the sexier stud?
The story told during much of this match is the humiliation and punishment of super-hero Davey Richards by the cooler, cockier bad-boy. The implication is that swagger and bravado, tons of ink, an unusual look, are more powerful and more effective than brawn. You gotta have swag if you want to be a Real Man. Being a bad-ass apparently trumps being a muscle-man in the rasslin’ ring.
Davey may have a hyper-masculine physique, but Keenan makes a mockery of the muscle-man and all of his fitness and body-building efforts, even crushing poor Davey’s skull between his long legs. How humiliating for Davey who works so hard to perfect his fighting skills and build up his muscles only to be out-wrestled by this punk rocker.
Davey eventually defeats Sterling James Keenan, perhaps foreshadowing that Davey would attain nationwide fame first in the Ring of Honor federation (although his opponent may outshine him soon if the Corey Graves gimmick takes off in WWE.) After winning the match, Davey then performs a bizarre homo-social act…
Davey takes ownership of the other man’s fur coat and puts it on his own body, similar to the way he put on Keenan’s sunglasses earlier. That seems so gay, what is Davey doing? Is he trying to emasculate Sterling James Keenan by infringing on his property and taking away his clothing (and therefore his manhood)?
Letting the coat’s inner fabric, which was recently touching Keenan’s bare flesh, now press against Davey’s flesh is almost like having the two men hug. Wearing another dude’s clothes is a form of intimacy. Doesn’t the coat have Sterling James Keenan’s body odor in it, which Davey is now breathing in?
He must be stealing his opponent’s swag in an effort to transfer the cool vibe, the masculine confidence, from Sterling James Keenan onto himself. He is also bonding with Sterling James Keenan by assuming the right to take and wear his coat, as if they’re a married couple who raid each other’s closet.
One thing Davey is great at (besides wrestling) is sweating. He finishes most matches totally coated in a thick layer of shiny perspiration, which is now soaking into in the inside of the fur coat. Even if he returns the coat to Keenan later, it is still going to be soaked inside with his own sweat and odor (which presumably Sterling James Keenan is OK with.)
Davey again puts on Keenan’s glasses and strikes cocky victory poses while strutting around in the flamboyant fur coat.
Clearly Davey must have noticed and appreciated the other man’s looks, and was enamored by the other man’s swagger, if he is now trying to copy and mimic Sterling James Keenan.
Ask yourself if you would knowingly steal and wear another man’s clothing if you saw it laying around the gym locker room or somewhere. You might if you were attracted to the man, if you wanted to be just like him, get close to him, or possess a part of him in some way. Many people would jump at a chance to own and wear clothing from a pro athlete or celebrity that they worship.
Davey must get into finding and wearing another man’s clothing. Here he is copping Joey Ryan’s swag, sporting one of Joey’s brightly colored Hawaiian shirts and a pair of his pink trunks.
One question you might be asking is whether those are actually Joey’s used clothes that he wore and sweated in, or whether Davey purchased new gear that resembled some of Joey’s outfits. Well I am here to tell you that Joey had previously wrestled in an outfit that looked exactly like what Davey is wearing here:
