UCW Wrestling's Damien Flawless vs. Pvt. Jack Marino: Game of Chicken

     This horrid little video, which only involves wrestling during the first 20 minutes, is entitled "Game of Chicken." To my knowledge, this is the first time in UCW history that a video has carried a title, and I don't think that the choice of the term, "Chicken" is a coincidence...

Just click on this article to read it, or go straight to the Wikipedia page.

     God help me, this video is hot, but it's a guilty pleasure, to say the least. In the hands of an anti-gay crusader, UCW "wrestling" match #391 could be utilized to demonize gay males in the same shrill, hyperbolic manner that "Reefer Madness" demonized marijuana 80 years ago.

     Pvt. Jack Marino is repeatedly mocked in this video for being a "pretty boy," with the implication that physically attractive young men are vulnerable to and somehow worthy of abuse (similar to the youngest sailors on a ship in the 19th century, I suppose). It is a common theme in all of UCW All-Star Champion Quinn Harper's videos. Quinn is a macho straight male. Former UCW wrestler (this is a "lost" match dredged up from the archives) Damien is a happily married gay male who feels uncomfortable in hedonistic environments (e.g., Ziegfeld's/Secrets in D.C.). In UCW videos, they both behave like nightmarishly negative gay stereotypes created by a Religious Right zealot. Take your pick as to which type of performer is more offensive.
     Speaking of Quinn Harper, four of the last five UCW offerings have featured the odious All-Star Champion (talk about overexposure), and this video provided us with hope for a temporary respite from Harper's sadism and sleaze.
     Even before the opening credits disappear, an innocent looking, t-shirt clad Pvt. Jack is jumped from behind by Damien, the uber-heel in a black singlet. Damien's dramatic entrance is startling and no one can deny that the pro wrestler / model / stand-up comic is a master showman (or a master of self-promotion -- Google "Damien Flawless" and you'll find an entire page of results related to him).

     The first words spoken in this video are Damien's. "You're going to be my b*tch tonight," Damien informs Jack. (Damien seems to have had a long-term obsession with turning men into b*tches.) The lascivious threat sets the tone for the production.
     The wrestling is rough, testimony to the fact that Damien and Jack didn't get along on the set. Damien blogged about this match, and mentioned "a hard stiff kick in the stomach" that he delivered to Jack at one point: "He seemed bothered by the kick and didn't say much to me after our match. I think he also refused to shake my hand after the match. I'm not sure what that was all about but I won't dwell on it."
     I mentioned this to UCW founder Michael Bodyslam during a public discussion on Facebook. Bodyslam maintained that Damien was "making stuff up" and gave me an "lol" when I provided a link to Damien's blog (if there was "heat" between Damien and Jack, it seems to pale in comparison to the post-UCW "heat" between Damien and Bodyslam).

     Having viewed this match, I can tell you that Damien was speaking with absolute candor about the kick. It occurs at the 14:22 mark, and there's an edit five seconds later, at 14:27. After receiving the kick, Jack gasps out Damien's favorite word: "B*tch!" Then, in a pain choked voice, Jack starts, "Oh, he..." and right there we have the edit, cutting Jack off in mid-sentence.

"It's so fun playing with a pretty boy..."

"Come on, pretty boy..."

"Get up!"

     When we resume action, Jack is still holding his ribs with Damien towering above him, hands on hips.

     True to form, Damien immediately drags Jack to the center of the mat and, for his next maneuver, chooses to apply bodyscissors (Jack is still clutching his ribs).

     Damien is a charismatic and sexy "heel." There is something malevolently aristocratic in Damien's bearing. Damien, with his alabaster skin, jet black hair, and long, lithe limbs, comes off as an almost Gothic villain -- like a vilely attractive vampire. During the first half of this video (the wrestling portion), my primary focus was on Damien. Being charmed by a pro wrestling villain may seem out of character for me, but I did have a childhood crush on Baron Mikel Scicluna in the old WWWF. Also, Damien's appearance in video #273 (vs. a particularly repugnant incarnation of the Black Dragon) reminded me, for some reason, of Flashman in Tom Brown's Schooldays (another sexy "heel").

          The wrestling portion of this video ends with a Quinn Harper style, obscenely placed claw hold that ostensibly causes Jack to pass out from pain. (No screen caps of such inappropriate maneuvers will ever be featured in this blog.) From there, Damien resorts to the sort of "rope tricks" popularized in UCW by Nick Diesel (another one of Damien's least favorite grapplers). It's the 20:40 mark of a 39:58 video and (except for one sleeper hold near the presentation's conclusion) we won't see anything resembling wrestling again.

     The remainder of this video consists of nearly twenty minutes of Pvt. Jack trussed up in the mat room at the mercy of Damien, who suggests a game of "gay chicken." Damien will put Jack through a series of ten, two-minute ordeals, some of which are designed to cause pain, others of which are designed to simply humiliate. If Jack is able to get through an ordeal without submitting (yelling, "Chicken!"), Damien will give the soon-to-be-serviceman $1000. On the other hand, if Jack submits during each of the ten trials, then he must service Damien for the night.
     It is Jack who owns this portion of the video. Jack's facial expressions enable you to virtually read his thoughts as he struggles to maintain some semblance of dignity.

      I have to admit that I didn't fully grasp Jack's appeal when I saw him in match #379. After match #391, I get it -- as will every gay man (or straight woman) who views this video. If you have a pulse -- if you are a living, breathing human being who finds males attractive -- then this video will cause you to develop a deep, heartfelt appreciation for Pvt. Jack Marino.
     Now finished  with UCW (and having "burned his bridges," as he himself says), Damien can speak freely and openly about his experiences in the federation. In Damien's discussion of match #273 (during which Jack makes a cameo appearance), he says the following: "This could have easily been the match to make or break me. One thing was clear I wanted to break Pvt Jack. There was just something I didn't like about him from the moment I saw his picture. Having never met the guy and only seeing him in video promos I just didn't like him. I was going to dish out some punishment and really not give a shit. I was going to give it my all and make sure he didn't take me too lightly...Seriously though I just didn't like him or his attitude and wanted to give him an adjustment. To me he is one of those people that has a pretty face and just talks out their ass. He is so smug and just filled with arrogance that you just wanna slap him. That is just my personal opinion."

     As Jack attempts to endure his series of ordeals, you can see the sadness in his eyes increase, along with a corresponding glint of sadistic glee in Damien's. The bullying reminds me of what Johnny Deep (Jack's best friend -- they entered the federation together, bolstering each other's confidence) endured at the hands of Eli Black. This dynamic is disorienting; when I first started hearing about the "heat" between these two wrestlers, I always assumed that Jack, the straight male, had been the aggressor.
     These "lost" matches are actually "custom" matches (matches that had been produced for one specific sponsor, who dictated the action). UCW holds onto them for a period of time, then heavily edits them and releases them for public consumption. As Damien says in his "Final Thoughts" on match #273: "I did eventually get my hands on Pvt Jack thanks to a custom match. However what happens in a custom match STAYS IN A CUSTOM MATCH! I can't share the details with you even if I wanted to."

     Well, what has been left in match #391 is hot and horrific enough. I'm not about to go into detail, but I will say that Jack is stripped down to a jock, and the young man's body is flawless (sorry, Damien). Jack in a jock (sounds like a line of men's undergarments -- Jack in a Jock -- more imaginative than Joe Boxer) is absolute aesthetic perfection. The fact that Jack is essentially being punished for his beauty (along with his sense of pride engendered by that beauty) makes the video even more poignant.
     The match gets four and a half hugs-and-kisses out of five. The only gripes I have are an editing job that leaves you yearning for those deleted scenes and, of course, a portrayal of gay males which sets back the struggle for inclusion in mainstream society by about fifty years.
     Since match #391 is a "lost" match, it is featured on a special page at the UCW website. On that page, there are also instructions on how you can sponsor a UCW custom match of your own. Hopefully, you'll request a match in which a wrestler like Jack is treated with love and kindness, not cruelty -- worshiped as the hot young god he truly is.