It’s the most wonderful time of the year…
Yes, it’s Voices of Wrestling Secret Santa time again, everyone. The brainchild of JR Goldberg (@wrestlingbubble), VOW Secret Santa sees all participating website contributors give their fellow contributors, the greatest gift of all: wrestling matches!
VOW Secret Santa Archives: voicesofwrestling.com/category/vow-latest/columns/vow-secret-santa/
David vs. Shine
October 30, 2021
Nepal Ring Wrestling Federation
Reviewed by Joe Gagne (@joegagne)
Gifted by Paul Völsch (@Darth_Dragon)
The file I was sent was simply titled “Middle Weight Match” with no other indication of who, what, when, or where (why is another matter). We’re greeted by an announcer speaking a language I’m not familiar with, addressing a sizable crowd standing on the side of a mountain on the outskirts of a forest. It’s like if David Lynch directed Raw instead of Kevin Dunn.
The logo on the screen alerts me to the fact that this is the Nepal Ring Wrestling Federation. I did some digging and this group has an interesting story.
I still have little context for this match or anyone involved in it. The referee gets their own entrance and theme music. Out next is David (no last name given, so I guess he’s getting the jump on WWE potentially shortening his name one day) who has real gear and is in good shape and would turn heads on most independent shows. Shine is a masked guy who looks like someone fused Kane and Spider-Man together.
David lays the boots to Shine as soon as he slides into the ring, leaving me wondering if there is an angle behind this, and what kind of angles the NRWF is running. We’ll settle down into the match and David shows some good athleticism. The wrestling is fine in terms of pulling off moves, but certainly rough around the edges. David rips up Shine’s mask, so is he the heel? But the crowd goes nuts for him at points. Comically, Shine makes a token attempt to cover his face and then just wrestles the remainder of the match sans mask.
The ring announcer is doing commentary over the mic, which is always tough sledding. Also, the match graphic states this is a light heavyweight match, so I don’t know what to believe. David gets the win with a frog splash. Shine kicks out at 3.1.
This was probably more interesting than great but to be fair it was very interesting. Pro Wrestling remains America’s greatest export. Someone get David a tour of the U.S. indies, or buy Chris Hero a plane ticket to Nepal to work with these guys. I’ll guess Paul Volsch gifted me this one.
