The Internet Is Going NUTS Over This Spanish Wrestling Match
They jockey for position on the mat. Zack does push-ups with Kid trapped in a head scissors. He flips him off. This isn’t so much a pro wrestling taunt but MMA flex; nothing pierces the precarious, expert balance between sports and entertainment. The mat work and transitions are unreal at this point; everything look at once beautiful and grotesque. If Hannibal Lecter were ever to lower himself to pro wrestling, this would be on the menu.
That ineffable feeling—that you’re watching something truly special—arrives around 10 minutes in. Zack and Kid exchange brutal kicks to the calves so quickly and so powerfully that, for a second, it seems as if this could break out into a genuine shoot. Tempers flare. It’s all part of the script, obviously, but that script has rarely been obscured so effectively. And then, after the rope break, Kid lands an open-palm slap to the chest so emphatic that Sabre can only reel back in utter shock. These two men hate one another, and they’re killing each other in there. Even the referee throws his hands in the air with a wince. They work the referee with the animosity they engineer.
A-Kid, relatively inexperienced, goes for a moonsault. Sabre is not yet effectively subdued; like a coiled snake, he reverses it into an armbar. Sabre punishes him further with a barrage of uppercuts—but proper babyface fire burns through inexperience, through the pain barrier, and Kid roars back with an awesome dropkick. The crowd is going apesh*t, banging on the canvas. Kid goes for a headscissors takedown; Sabre reverses it into a heel hook. The howl of anguish is pure, aural pathos.
There’s a spot at the finish that generates an actual guffaw audible through the din; it’s just that outrageous in its creativity. Sabre, Jr. charges at Kid from the corner, aiming an uppercut right in his face. Kid reverses it into a backslide pin, and it is seamless—but not not a struggle. It’s beautiful, but not too beautiful.
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