Strife of Riley, 6 of 7

A couple years ago, I launched a seven gallery series called “Strife of Riley” which focused on the abuse being heaped on handsome muscle-jobber, Alex Riley, at that time.  After I posted episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, they suddenly yanked Alex out of the ring, dressed him in a fancy suit, and stuck him behind the announce desk where his true talents were wasted.

I assumed I might never get to finish the last two episodes of Strife of Riley I had planned.  But lo and behold, Alex is now back in the ring on NXT and looking more buff and spectacular than ever!

Riley wears the image of a fiery phoenix on the back of his trunks — probably a reference to the rebirth of his career: the former athlete rising from the ashes to fight again.  Or maybe they just wanted to put flames on his ass to make the point that it’s hot.

Riley’s opponent on the March 18th episode of NXT was this bearded brute in black t-shirt named Kevin Owens (AKA Kevin Steen.)  Oh man, I am swooning because Owens is such a relentless, heartless, brutal dickhead of a brawler.  The audience begins to chant exactly what I’m thinking: “Kevin’s gonna kill you!  Kevin’s gonna kill you!”  (I wonder if they popped boners like me too?)

Sure enough, big Owens wastes no time taking control, thumping Alex with huge Forearms to his back and Irish Whipping him into the turnbuckles.  I’m not sure why Owens hates Riley so much — maybe because Riley looks so much hotter.  Their feud began a couple episodes ago when Owens poured water over Riley’s head during a broadcast, humiliating the pretty-boy and soaking his fancy suit.

THAT is why Riley returned to the ring, to take revenge on Owens for disrespecting him on NXT.

Owens employs Fat Man’s Offense to crush and smother his more-muscular enemy.  Here he delivers a flipping Cannonball, slamming his fat ass into Riley’s face to drive his skull into the turnbuckle.  Poor Riley never seems to recover from this brutal Face Buster, acting dazed for the rest of the match.

Owens continues to stoke the fire by clamping on a smothering Headlock, and then trash-talking poor Alex.  Someone captured animations of the choke, with Owens’ cocky little insults printed underneath.

The commentators point out several times that Riley has not been in the ring in nearly two years (except for one match.)  Therefore he is rusty and unprepared for a killer as brutal as Owens.  This adds to our perception that Riley is doomed.

Check out what Riley is doing with his hands — so beautiful!  He lets his fingers go limp, too weak to even make a fist.  Fading off to sleep, Alex stares at his clasping, grasping hands as if he’s not sure if he’s in control of them.

This is really A-Plus suffering by Riley — I love it when wrestlers communicate their weakness with loosely clutching fingers like that.  As I said, his talents were truly wasted behind the desk.

While hugging Riley off to sleep, Owens threatens to stay here “Allll night long” — a possibly sexual reference to Owens’ stamina and potency.  Don’t forget, it was Kevin Owens, back when he was known as Kevin Steen, who famously said:

“Homosexual stuff in wrestling gets a better reaction than anything else.  I’ve learned that and used it.  I accepted it a long time ago.”

The talking heads for this match provide some homosexual talk of their own by graphically describing Owens’ sadistic qualities:  “What does Kevin Owens have to gain with this?  What is the end game for him going after Alex Riley?!”

“Because Kevin Owens enjoys this… he’s sadistic, he does this because he enjoys beating people up.  He did it to his best friend (Sami Zayne), he did it to Adrian Neville, and now he’s gonna do it to Alex Riley.”   (Do what, exactly?)

The running theme of this match (a common theme in pro wrestling) is the transfer of power away from the buff, spectacular, sexually desirable male to the over-weight, fully-dressed, cruel goon.  We see Alex’s swole physique, clearly the result of many hours and hard work in the gym, utterly weakened and limp.

The spectacular male is represented as False Masculinity — all show with no true power.  True Masculinity is represented by the bearded, huge, heartless Bad Ass in Kevin Owens.  Frequently we see the muscle man down on his knees, practically kissing the boots of his over-weight Overlord.  What good are those hard muscles and bulging biceps against this ruthless killer?  Fans seem to really get off on this scenario, so we see Fat > Muscle depicted frequently in pro wrestling.

Owens tosses Riley out of the ring like a completely worthless jobber, sending the message that Riley doesn’t belong in the ring at all.  Then he follows the buff ragdoll out to the floor and Body-Slams him against the fence around ringside.  He really seems like he wants to destroy p00r Alex!

Kevin Owens often uses a rib-crushing move called the “Senton” where he runs across the ring and jumps feet-first into the air, floating face-up above his laying opponent.  Then he simply allows gravity to pull his falling body down on the victim’s chest, crushing the guy under his bulk and momentum.

Big Owens delivers not just one, not just two, but THREE Sentons in a row to Riley’s prone body.  I didn’t capture any good images of this crushing assault, but I did catch this photo of Riley broken and crushed after the Triple Sentons.

Wow — I guess I expected Owens to defeat the recently-returned Alex Riley, but I didn’t know the squash would be THIS one-sided!  What a great performance of suffering by Riley — a worthy addition to my Strife of Riley series!

I can hardly wait for Riley to get back in the ring soon and suffer another stiff beat-down like this.  He is so fun to watch when he’s limp and broken!  Hopefully they won’t make me wait two years again before I can complete the seventh and final episode of Strife of Riley.

Poor, mistreated Riley is denied the revenge he justly deserves for Owens pouring water over his head and taking his seat at the announce table.  The big bully has gotten away with not only disrespecting the pretty-boy, but also publicly kicking his ass and defeating him in the ring.  Might makes right, so Riley should Man Up or get used to humiliation.

After winning the match, Owens decides to beat up the pretty-boy some more (And I didn’t think this could GET any HOTTER!)

Finn Balor (AKA Prince Devitt) then pounces on Owens to rescue the vulnerable Alex Riley.  This sets up the next big feud between Owens and Balor, but it also serves to further emasculate poor Riley, who clearly needs to be rescued like a Damsel in Distress from the big bad wolf, Kevin Owens.  Balor then fights off the big bully, a job that the hapless Alex Riley could not get done.