One of the worst parts of returning from vacation is the mountain of catching up that awaits. I did a great job of populating the blog before I left, but I should've done a week or two after as well. Oh well. It's not like there's nothing to post. After all, I've watched hundreds of videos in my life. Of course, I end up struggling to figure out which one I should post about.
I settled on
Jonny Firestorm vs. Andy Hammer from
BGEast's
Jobberpalooza 8 because it features the amazing
Jonny Firestorm in his early days being badass and creative. What more can one ask for?
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| Let's re-visit an oldie and goodie. |
As far as I can tell, no one talks about
Andy Hammer much, which is surprising for a bendy blond who's appeared on seven videos. Bard and Joe have posted on him twice each, but only one of those was a match post
(Bard on Andy Hammer vs. Blaine Janus). The other three were as part of compilation posts. In this case, Hammer is the jobber in Jobberpalooza.
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| Andy gets a good stretch. |
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| Boing, boing, boing. |
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| Jonny impresses with his ring savvy. |
Jonny, on the other hand, is the heel destroyer here. Like I said, this is early Jonny
(catalogue 66 - he debuted on catalogue 61). He's lean, fresh-faced and ripped in white (I like heels in white, actually). And he's a wrestling machine, humiliating the blond boy completely and thoroughly. Jonny's creativity is already apparent as he easily bends and throws the jobber around.
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| Nasty. |
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Not sure Andy was supposed to land on his head,
but I assume he survived this dragon sleeper-suplex. |
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| I love how Jonny positions Andy's wrists on his ankles. |
Action-wise, there's a ton here. I pulled about 20 images, but whittled it down to a few favorites, leaning to classic to creative holds. This is a one-sided squash with only a couple of very short 'hope spots'
(as the bloggers are calling them these days). Jonny uses all the fan favorites, plus a sweet helping of power moves. Even this early, he loves dominating and knows exactly how to do it.
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| Another unusual power move. |
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| Andy's leg scissors can't slow Jonny down. |
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| Classic. |
In the end, I really enjoyed this classic BGEast match when I originally watched it and I still enjoy it now. Jonny is the draw for me here, but Andy makes a nice victim. I love seeing the young heel at work as he manhandles the bendy blond.
So that's my take. What's yours?
Alex
Wow, nice write-up of this vintage BG video, and great animations! That bouncing Torture Rack (Boing! Boing! Boing! LOL!), the Tombstone Pile Driver, those huge Throws! -- it's fantastic. I may need to see more of young Jonny at work in his younger days, he was awesome and still is.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Jonny’s an all-time great. I forgot how good he was right from the beginning. Like Aryx, he really came in ready to play, immediately wrestling and acting like a veteran.
DeleteI'm always impressed by Jonny's power moves. He clearly is one creative little mofo, and he has the strength to deliver. Always a joy watching a man work a craft he obviously loves.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. Agree on all fronts. It’s crazy that we see guys twice as big who can’t hit power moves like Jonny does.
DeleteJonny, Aryx and Chase Addams all come to mind as super-creative. Who else? I need to think on it. Might be a good post.
Eli Black maybe?
DeleteI’ll have to take your word on that as I don’t really watch many Eli matches.
DeleteI bought this video years ago and it’s still one of my favorites. Jonny has cemented himself as one of the best heels of all time, and this is probably one of his best matches. It’s tough to find others who carry this title, other than Aryx and Chase. Others that come to mind - meaning creative, dominant heels - include Austin Tyler, Ethan Andrews, and when he’s in the right matches (think versus Brad Barnes), Jake Jenkins is a real talent. I think it’s worth looking into this further and coming up with a top 10 list.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestions. It is an interesting question. I agree on Ethan. Austin is creative, although I never see him as a heel, but that’s probably not important. It’d be guys who do creative holds. I love Jake but don’t think of him as creative. I’ll look back and see what I find.
Delete