Fantasy Slam, Las Vegas, NV
This is a request via Ko-fi. Not sure of the exact date on this one but it doesn’t matter. This is a great request, something totally different from the usual. Fantasy Slam is a pro wrestling fantasy camp deal, and the request for this one came from The High Roller himself. From the request: “I’d like to get your take on my character & match — I had about an hour’s instruction & I also had to perform w/out use of my hearing aid. Be honest!”
Sinn Bodhi, of course, is a wrestling veteran you may know under that name, or as Kizarny, or as Sinn. He’s been around a long time. High Roller gets a quick promo for the match, with a quick couple of good references to establish his character. It’s a kind of Vinnie Vegas-y lounge singer sort of deal, which I dig. I mean, I liked Vinnie Vegas. Roller removes his sunglasses stylishly, with a little flair. I dig the music they used, too. I could hate a guy who comes out to that.
Circle around to start, C&E, Bodhi backs Roller to the corner, and they work along the ropes for a moment. Release of the C&E, then back to it, Roller backed to the corner again, clean break from Bodhi. Back to the C&E, released again.
Roller throws a right, misses. Try again, misses. Back to the C&E and Bodhi grabs a wristlock, twisting the arm. Roller reaching for the ropes, doesn’t get there but reverses to a hammerlock and then a side headlock. Roller off the ropes, clothesline drops Bodhi.
Bodhi back to the wristlock, twisting the arm again. Roller rakes the eyes, the dastardly SOB. Bodhi’s head rammed into the top turnbuckle. And again. Bodhi being choked over the middle rope. Everyone starts as a heel. Bodhi with a right hand to the body, and another, then an uppercut. Another eyerake from Roller, then a boot choke. Roller takes up until the count of four to break.
Bodhi caught in the ropes, and takes a series of chops. Roller off the ropes, another clothesline puts Sinn down. Bodhi fighting back with right hands and chops from his knees, another eyerake from Roller keeps him in control. Bodhi’s head smashed into the middle turnbuckle a couple times now, and Roller taunts away, confident that this one’s in the bag.
Bodhi sent to the corner, Roller comes in with an avalanche. Goes for a pin, gets two. Roller keeping control, sends Bodhi to the corner, Bodhi moves on the charge this time. Bodhi with a boot up, and another. Then a right hand, and he’s working the stylish jabs at mid-ring now. Big elbow misses, and Roller grabs a cobra clutch! Hell yeah! That’s not a move you’re seeing a lot in 2018.
Bodhi down to a knee, fighting it. Arm drops once, twice, but not thrice! Bodhi trying to shake it off. He gets back to his feet and fights out of the hold, but he’s dazed. Rammed into the turnbuckle again. Chokeslam from the Roller! Now a crossface, and Bodhi taps out, doing the j-o-b. So the High Roller wins his pro wrestling debut.
Rating: NR. I can’t really rate it, but it was super interesting to see what someone with an extremely limited amount of time learning how to wrestle will do with that information, and structurally, it’s your basic old school wrestling match, a good guy and a bad guy who cheats every chance he gets to keep the advantage. Fantasy Slam seems like it’d be something super fun to do for a wrestling fan — and no I wasn’t paid by Fantasy Slam to say that, but if they’d like to pay me to say it, that’d be great. I guess I ruined that by saying it for free. They pipe in crowd noise for the video, but I imagine working with no crowd, even just visually, even just seeing people react, is super weird, especially to do the character work, so I dug that Roller still threw in some taunts and what have you. As for the moves and whatnot, I honestly felt like this was no more limited or anything than you’d see in an average 70s WWWF match, and it had a fuckin’ cobra clutch, so consider me a fan.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 
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