Bryan Idol: 6'2, 205 lbs Bryan forces the mouthy rookie to gaze on his own destruction as he chokes him over the ropes. Jordi's world is upended as the bigger Idol readies to put him away in a neck-crunching piledriver. The bigger, more experienced Idol treats Gabana like a jobber with a bootstrap choke hold. With his arms trapped in the ropes, Jordi is helpless against Idol's face-grinding forearm. Jordi has a front row seat to his own decimation, forced to watch himself choked in the ropes.
A Living Hell
"You're about to get beat up right now," Bryan Idol drolly informs Jordi Gabana at the start of this match. Jordi seems surprised by this announcement, but the smart money is on Bryan. It has been since the minute this matchup was announced. Besides being bigger and stronger and, in general, more experienced, Bryan looks like a wrestler who is used to winning. With the sneer and the blond mane of an Attitude Era superstar, not to mention the ring name, Idol has all the qualities of a wrestler about to skyrocket to one of the big shows. By contrast, Gabana looks smaller and greener. He revels in his thin tanned supermodel gimmick and looks doomed against this classic pro.
Right off the bat, though, Gabana escapes Idol's opening waist lock and reverses. To nobody's surprise, Idol escapes and spins around to affix a full nelson. Jordi grimaces and squirms, and his cries fill the ring room. "Just started, kid," Bryan tells him matter-of-factly. He snapmares Jordi to the mat and taunts him with a three-quarter facelock. Nobody sells this hold bigger or louder than Gabana does. Idol forces him to look at his pain-contorted face in the mirror, leaning in so his blond locks brush teasingly across the smaller wrestler's face.
As in his match against Ty Alexander at Wrestling with Pride 2, a lot of Jordi's fight is talk. He tells Bryan Idol he smells bad, only encouraging Bryan to tighten the grip on Jordi's neck. Jordi's gimmick is to project the most craven and obnoxious qualities of an underprepared wrestler. It's a type that usually begins as a heel manager or heel ref and finds himself forced to go toe to toe with an actual wrestler who knows how to fight. The fun (for the fans, if not for the luckless victim) is to watch the skilled wrestler make mincemeat out of the arrogant upstart.
However, Gabana does get a few effective grips on Idol, four or five fleeting hope spots that serve mostly to make the long, hard throttling he's about to experience even more fun for us ... and, no doubt, for Idol. His side headlock seems especially effective. He employs it often, clamping down tight on the handsome blond, maintaining full control for upwards to a minute. It's just enough to piss Bryan off and ensure that the next four or five minutes is a living hell for Gabana.
Idol played the classic vain and beauteous heel in his Pride 2 match against Cody Blayde. He's also one of the best-looking wrestlers in indie wrestling and, now, at BG East. Smooth, honey-tanned, and perfectly built for the wrestling ring (including his long, grabbable hair), he is a performer most of us fans would love to be the corner-man for. His attitude towards Jordi is a combination of amusement and contempt. On one hand, he's amused that this guy has the nuts to climb in a wrestling ring with him. On the other, he acts like he would like to scrub this insult to his art and science of wrestling out of existence.
Shortly after the match's midpoint, Idol grandly body-slams Gabana to the mat. "It's that easy," he says, looking directly into the camera and addressing us viewers, "when you're this big and strong ... and good looking." The offhand quip resonates with his bad-boy image and reminds us that Idol is indeed a heel. We may even feel some sympathy for Jordi when straightaway Bryan stomps down (loud and hard) on the guy's chest. Even further, he pulls a loose white string from his boot and strangles the guy with it. Too much? Or exactly what many BGE fans wanted him to do all along?
Bryan reaches between Jordi's legs ready to lift him up only to bring him crashing back down.
Jordi is all wrapped up, completely crushed and controlled by the bigger pro veteran.
Jordi milks his hope spot as he looms over a grounded, taken-by-surprise, Bryan Idol.
Gabana looks almost finished, sagging and flopping as Bryan garrotes him with his bootlace.
Jordi lets loose and sinks his claws into the bigger Bryan with an armhooking bodyscissor combo.
Insult to injury, Idol traps and wraps up the rookie in a brutal, twisting submission hold.
Jordi Gabbana: 5'10, 172 lbs Bryan stands over a crawling Gabana, working over his shoulder in an armbar variation. Idol rips cries of pain from Gabana's smaller body with a brutal, digging claw to his traps. Jordi cowers and quivers, beaten on the mats as the much bigger Idol stands over top of him. Jordi is barely holding on at this point as Idol hoists him in his thick, muscle-packed arms. Jordi is oblivious to what awaits him as Idol readies and drops a big elbow drop to his back.
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