Capital City Championship Combat: Fighting Back 5: Wrestling with Cancer (08-15-2015) Michael Von Payton vs. 2 Cold Scorpio

The man is still the man, or is he?

Suggestion comes from the blight upon this blog known as TJ Hawke, @TJHawke411 on Twitter.

Where does nostalgia begin and end? That’s the question I found myself pondering as I was watching this match. More to the point I was questioning whether or not my enjoyment of 2 Cold Scorpio was pure nostalgia or if he still had “it” in the ring. Because no amount of nostalgia can hide the fact that Scorpio is a few steps slower, and needs some extra help from his opponent for some of his patented moves. The athleticism is still present, it’s just not blowaway athleticism anymore. Yet I still enjoyed the heck out of what Scorpio was doing in this match. So the question remains, where does nostalgia begin and end?

I’ve always thought of Scorpio as a rather charismatic fellow. I mean, the guy just about made Flash Funk work as a gimmick, and that took boatloads of charisma. What most struck me about the opening moments of this match was just how much charisma Scorpio still has. He need only look at the crowd and he already has them eating out of the palm of his hands. It’s not pure nostalgia either, because Scorpio slyly does some things that remind the crowd of how cool he was, and still is. Take the moment when he returns a mocking gesture to Michael Von Payton. When he does the hand through his, non-existent, hair gesture Scorpio takes a few seconds longer and puts more emphasis on the hand flick motion. It’s such a small thing, but the crowd pops huge for it because Scorpio knew exactly what to do in that moment with that gesture to get the most out of the crowd through his natural charisma.

Once the wrestling got started, Scorpio held his own. In fact he was the better wrestler, and the match suffered big time when Payton tried to get complicated to match Scorpio. When Payton was the dick heel throwing Punches and mocking Scorpio he was doing fine. When he started tried for things like a Slingshot Sunset Flip, which he horribly botched, the match slowly but surely got away from him. This put Scorpio in an interesting position, because he couldn’t just coast by on the nostalgia pop. He needed to work harder to salvage the match and keep the crowd from turning on what they were watching.

This is where I believe that Scorpio showed that my delight in watching him work wasn’t nostalgia based. Forty nine year old Scorpio isn’t as smooth or as quick as he once was. But, he knows what to do and when to do it to keep the match fun, light, and moving in a positive direction. Essentially Scorpio took charge of the match, even more than he already had been in charge, and slowed it down so that his few big spots stood out more. That allowed for the crowd to get more involved with the big spots when they did happen.

All in all a fantastic bit of ring generalship from Scorpio. The crispness may be gone, and the athleticism may need some extra help these days. That being said, Scorpio can still move, and he still understands what to do to make a wrestling match more than just nostalgia. So, to answer the original question, nostalgia begins with the mere presence of Scorpio. It never truly ends, but it takes a backseat to Scorpio showing his veteran skill in working the best possible match he can with a guy like Payton. Not a great match, but a fascinating watch, and good stuff all around.

Cheers,
Bill Thompson