Monday, January 21, 2013

Hillbilly Jim vs. Honky Tonk Man

Hillbilly Jim vs. Honky Tonk Man - 4/23/89 - Maple Leaf Gardens - NA

This is unscrupulous entertainment and a treat.  Wrestling fans have all manner of taste, personally, I could spend hours watching Jim Neidhart work chinlocks lapping it up all afternoon long, I love that stuff, and that's a precaution to recommending this slice of transcendent neorealism.  Jimmy Hart runs a distraction before the bell can even ring.  Honky Tonk Man exhibiting villainy on par with Yzma in The Emperor's New Grove leaves the ring, retrieves Hart's megaphone, re-enters the squared circle and bashes the hillbilly in the back of the head.  In an interesting and unexpected plot twist instead of ditching the weapon and getting a cheap victory over his fallen opponent HTM instead furthers the attack directly in-front of the referee earning himself a disqualification.  The ambiguity here overmatches that of Nolan's cheap coin trick at the end of Inception and in terms of self-contained storytelling is as propulsive and enigmatic as the best of recent Hollywood output including that woebegone one-note Best Picture winner The King's Speech.  This match comes sandwiched in a memorable Toronto house show featuring a battle of dualities in Hart vs. Perfect, a potboiler turned avant-garde provocateur in Hogan vs. Savage, and a risque and elliptical thriller between DiBiase and Jake Roberts. 

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