Jonny Firestorm 5'5, 160 lbs
A smug Rory grounds the BG legend with a snug rear naked choke
Jonny battles free of a reverse bearhug with a European uppercut
Rory can do nothing but wail as Jonny suspends him in a pendulum swing
Jonny digs deep in his victim's spine and sets him up for the pendulum swing
The battle goes to the mats, Rory trapped helplessly in a reverse full nelson
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Fair and Square?
Best known to BG East fans for his now notorious run-ins with Aryx Quinn and Dick Rick, Rory Macleod takes on another one of the company's stalwarts, Jonny Firestorm. From the beginning Rory has made it clear he is unwilling to roll over and play dead for any of The Boss's stable of pretty-boy wrestlers. Proud of his fight skills and technical training in both the UK and US, he turned up his nose at the very idea that it is customary in pro wrestling to rub the newcomer's nose into the canvas. "Then you better find a wrassler who can do it proper cause I am NOT a jobber." Having now proved his mettle, even if without the perfect string of wins he had expected on this side of the Atlantic, Rory squares off against a similarly tempered fighter in Jonny, who comes to the ring in a blazing singlet with skull-and-crossbones painted over his midsection. The two men eye each other warily from their respective corners, each determined to prove to be the better man. Without speaking, Rory proffers his hand, signifying his intention to fight a fair and aboveboard fight. Jonny somewhat reluctantly reciprocates.
Rory is a good bit bigger and heavier than Jonny, but you cannot tell it from the way the two lock up. Jonny swerves behind his opponent, fastening his fingers just below the man's sternum. Rory pries the hands loose and reverses. In turn, Jonny wriggles free and locks up Rory's left arm. Rory rolls out of the armlock and again reverses. All legitimate textbook tactics, so we just might be looking at a purely scientific contest here, not a first or only for BGE but, let's face it, still pretty rare. Fighting on the up and up does not preclude Jonny from grinding his forearm to his opponent's shoulder joint, apparently to no other end than to cause the guy some pain. Obviously Jonny is itching to notch up the aggression in this bout. Unusually for a ring war, the competitors steer clear of the ropes, for the most part keeping the action on the mat. After some introductory give and take, Jonny takes Rory down for some folkstyle grappling, in which both men are proficient. On the mat the size difference between the two appears to make less of a difference.
Without a lot of trash talking (yet), Macleod-versus-Firestorm is still music to the ears for some of us. Some of us wrestling enthusiasts enjoy the human sounds of wrestling, the huffs and puffs of entwined combatants, the squeak of flesh and bone against the mat, the percussive groans of man struggling against man. Silent video footage or the overwhelming roar of a crowd robs a good match of a good two-thirds of its punch. Not so, here. Five minutes into the fight and you could swear you hear the sweat trickling off the wrestlers' shoulders. A succession of moves that shift control from one man to the next provides lengthy riding times for both, bodies in tight on each other, the torso weighing down to limit mobility of the arms and legs. In this one area, at least, Rory may have an advantage, but Jonny's having none of it, his quick and light movements sufficient to force Macleod to frantically grab for the bottom rope to escape.
The two separate. Then, Rory comes on like gangbusters, determined to make good on his intention to grind Jonny into the mat ... but fairly and squarely, of course. Again, Jonny's agility proves to be too much for Rory. Jonny squirms loose of Macleod's noisy assault and leverages the man's weight against him. He grabs Rory's knees by his arms and legs and painfully splits his thighs, cracking the Scotsman open like a boiled crab. "No ropes this time," Jonny announces, as Rory yelps in pain. Stubbornly refusing to submit, Rory manages to escape. What follows is a short series of excruciating holds, the two trading off the advantage, which for any other two men would end in panicked submissions. But Jonny and Rory hang tough through the pain, until Jonny gains the first fall with a pendulum backbreaker, dead center of the squared circle.
Rory tries to even the score with the next fall, coming on more strongly and brutally than before. When he nearly rips Jonny's left arm from his socket, tempers flare, and the action takes a sudden turn towards all-out war. Snapmares, closed-fist punching, and use of the ring posts gradually swerve this contest towards the kind of merciless pro-style mayhem we have come to expect of BG East and most definitely of Jonny Firestorm. It's a gladiatorial fight to the finish. Both warriors throw the rulebook away and go for the jugular, the action rising towards a spinning piledriver that knocks one wrestler out cold and leaves the victor still gasping for air as he exits the ring, limping slightly but victorious.
Rory has victory (and Jonny!) in his grasp
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A nasty crippler crossface drains all the fight from the British brawler
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Jonny fires a series of thunderous forearms into the exposed pecs of the challenger
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Jonny arches up in a bid to escape a grounded fullnelson variation
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Jonny clinging tenaciously as he wears his foe down with a reverse full nelson, bodyscissors combo
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Jonny triumphantly flexes a bicep and headscissors the British snob into oblivion
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Rory MacLeod 6', 188 lbs
Rory struggles desparately to prevent his opponent from locking on the armbar
Ever the showoff, Jonny flexes a peaked bicep as he crushes Rory in the bodyscissors
A leg full nelson rips screams of pain from a helpless Rory
Cries wrung from Rory's throat as he suffers in a crucifix/abstretch variation
Rory bends Jonny in half with a toehold, boston crab variation
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