I like how Underground Championship Wrestling (UCW) awards a championship belt to their top wrestler — currently Zach Reno. The belt adds a classic pro wrestling vibe and gives the dudes a tangible prize to fight for, just like on the classic Championship Rasslin shows I grew up watching.
Zach Reno is what they used to refer to as a “fighting champion” — willing to defend his belt against all comers. In fact, we’ve seen him suffer some fairly epic beatings over the past few months against some tough opponents (and I’ve eagerly downloaded and watched every one of them. He suffers so beautifully!)
Here are some images from UCW #757 where Lobo Gris stripped Zach down to his red bikini briefs and generally kicked his ass.
It may appear here that Zach lost the match, but actually he kicked out and later snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. He often does this — just like my Baby-Face Heroes of yesteryear — gets his ass kicked for a good 20 minutes, then executes some last second killer move to retain his belt. He’s been leaping off the top rope lately and it’s pretty spectacular.
This offers the best of both worlds. We get to enjoy the Face in peril for 10 or 20 minutes, battered from pillar to post for our viewing pleasure, and we also get to witness his redemption as he suddenly scores the victory, re-assuring us that he’ll be back for more abuse the next week!
Next they threw the Champ in the ring against a horny and flirtatious Jessie Lee for UCW #760:
Zach wore these neon green trunks you couldn’t look away from and his renowned big dick looked real good in them.
It seems to be a standard procedure in Pro Wrestling to establish a beloved Baby-Face as your champion, then simply depict him getting abused and tortured by every scary, ferocious Heel you can dig up. I think this tradition goes back to young Bob Backlund who was WWF champ from 1978 until 1983. In those 5 years, he got beaten half to death in the ring probably over 1,000 times and I gotta admit, those long torture scenes were exciting to me as a young viewer.
They continued this tradition with Hulk Hogan in the 80’s (who would only begin to “Hulk Out” and fight back after a good 20 minutes of one-sided Heel punishment). In the 2000s, John Cena serves as our Champion Whipping Boy. Kids really seemed to love Cena, so I bet the promoters created an army of lifelong pro wrestling addicts by depicting Cena in agony, his swole physique getting worked over by goons, monsters, and foreign creeps as his young fans watched in anxiety, and for a number of them, arousal.
Now UCW seems to be giving Zach Reno the Baby-Face Champ treatment, never letting him drop the belt because it’s just too exquisite to see him get beat up by every Tom, Dick, and Jessie.
I liked how Jessie Lee kept licking Zach’s face whenever he had him trapped in holds. It added a very kinky, sexual tone to the match. It’s like he made no bones about being attracted to Zach and wanting to fuck him.
Zach’s greatest test in recent weeks came from a strapping young cowboy named Cole Dallas, who worked Zach over real good in UCW #763, recently posted to UCWrestling.com
God this big corn-fed cowboy is so strong and talented — and MEAN. (He’s hot too in his surprisingly minimal orange trunks and tall black boots!) He actually smiles with glee while he’s inflicting his greatest punishment on my poor Zach — as if he’s enjoying it!
If Zach were smart, maybe he’d throw the match and get the heat off of himself by dropping the belt. But it never seems to work that way for the Baby-Face Champ, who is too proud and too earnest to ever surrender or back down. It’s a lovable quality, making his endless and repeated suffering in the ring seem even more pathetic and enthralling to us!
Here is how one of my loyal readers, who I’ll call “Butch Lover”, described the psychology of Baby-Face punishment in an email to me:
And that’s another dynamic I love – a much smaller man stripping to his trunks, without protection, to try to silence the arrogant stud to the cheers of his adoring fans. He plays fair and is courageous, which makes his painful and humiliating (and realistic) beating even more enjoyable.
Keep it up, UCW! Give my boy Zach all the abuse he can stand! Put him in the ring against Lobo, Jessie, and Cole all at the same time! I’m here for it!
