The Biggest of Cs

A career retrospective on Big C, one of countless lost super-workers from the bygone era of backyard wrestling, but one unlike any other wrestler you have ever seen before.

In professional wrestling, because of the live aspect and the damage the performers are doing to their bodies, there is a certain charm that comes from the mere performance itself, no matter the level. As a massive IWA-MS fan, there is actually something more incredible and more endearing about a wrestler going out there in front of less people and for less money and actually trying their best to make something positive. The other day, while in my local Discord voice chat (shoutout the legendary Fujita’s Egg, the entire reason why I have this blog in the first place), we came across an incredible discovery on YouTube. The match was a backyard match from the Western Massachusetts Wrestling Alliance, pitting someone named Cypher against Big C. Now, I am somewhat familiar with backyard wrestling and have often found clips of it incredibly amusing, but Big C was a different thing entirely. There is no backyard wrestler even remotely close to his size, stature, and aura. He truly is the Andre the Giant of the backyard era and his work is so weird and wacky and interesting that it deserves documentation on this blog, right next to Sting and Viscera. So kick back and soak up the wonderfully bizarre spectacle of Big C with ten match reviews, including links to all of the matches covered on YouTube, where there are countless other Big C and WMWA matches available right now for free.

Big C vs Humberto Ramos vs Dave Dawson (SWAW 4/4/2001)

This is the earliest Big C we have on tape; it emanates from the apparently short-lived predecessor to WMWA, Springfield with Attitude Wrestling. I should preface this by first reminding everyone what we are doing here. This is a wrestling match in the absolute loosest sense of the term; they called it one and said they had a promotion and a belt made of cardboard. This takes place without a ring, without ropes or a mat, and in what appears to be someone’s front yard after a party. There is a chain link fence and a big bush kind of thing that comes into play, but besides that, there are really no limitations and no boundaries. In the minds of more sophisticated individuals, the lack of limitations could really get the best of them. Here though, the backyard spirit is alive and well. Everything is far too ambitious and incredibly predictable once you discover the influences being channeled. This is in the shadow of WrestleMania X-Seven, the biggest wrestling event of all-time from the hottest era in the history of the business. Humberto and Dave are both clearly aping their favorite Attitude Era bits throughout this. There’s a lot of spiritual similarity to the Hardcore Championship stuff; the extended pinfall breakup segments read a lot more like Crash Holly influence than anything else. We also get an attempted Rock Bottom countered into an attempted Stunner, both of which are sort of flopped out of. There’s a ton of big punches and lariats that are recklessly bumped into, with all of these teenagers flinging themselves into the grass and sidewalk with absolute reckless abandon. However, there’s a real novelty to this situation all thanks to Big C. Where Humberto and Dave are perfectly content to go on forever with an endless cavalcade of Monday Night Raw references, Big C wants to actually wrestle and have a match, even though there is no ring and no referee other than another one of their friends off-camera audibly counting. Big C recognizes that he is the biggest dog in the yard and whatever he wants to do, the others kind of have to do because of his size. There’s an often-cited piece on Andre the Giant about how his presence is so distinct that every match revolves around him. Big C is no Andre the Giant, but there is definitely a similar sort of size equation to importance going on here. Big C is also smarter and more nuanced than his WWF-pilled compatriots. Big C is clearly a Vader mark. He bumps just like Vader, swinging his legs up into the air to add to the gravity of everything. He makes the smaller workers attack his extremities to slow him down. He’s genuinely menacing at multiple points here, shaking off a few clubbing forearms from one of his opponents before steamrolling him onto the sod or lifting another up by his neck in a two-handed choke and dropping him head first onto the sidewalk. He trash talks and mean mugs the camera, working his own story as the unconquerable heel monster, paid off by his continued beatdown of everyone involved after becoming champion. You can already tell that this guy gets it a lot more than everyone else involved with the production here, even as early as this is and as proto-wrestling the entire setup is. He works big because he is big. He makes his opponents work hard because he’s bigger than them. He doesn’t promise anything he can’t deliver upon the moment he enters the frame for the first time. It’s obviously too long, but there is genuine charm here that transcends the VHS tape this was converted from. There is craft here, and that’s something worth documenting.

Big C vs Humberto Ramos (SWAW 4/16/2001)

This is a decidedly lesser effort, but wildly interesting. For one, we’re back in the legendary SWAW front yard but instead of it representing this wide open space where ideas can flow freely, we are confined to a little area next to the driveway. There are a lot of irish whips in this match where someone ends up nestled into the car or the chain link fence for a move, which is fine, but it’s the kind of thing that exposes the deficiencies of the backyard style in comparison to more commercialized wrestling instead of leaning into the nonsense. Humberto is our Austin impersonator from the last match, and I have to say, as a purely Stone Cold cosplayer, he’s pretty solid. He’s got the Austin weird crooked arm wild punch motion down. He loves to stomp a mudhole, probably a little bit too much. We’ve got an extended series of Austin-style forearm drops here and a couple of miraculous stunners, the first landing not so good but the second one really sending Big C staggering back and taking a big cool stooging bump onto his ass and back. Big C is also here, and he’s still incredible to watch, even if the performance here is essentially a more muted version of the triple threat from two weeks earlier. He’s got a great early stalling bit where Humberto tries to hit him and he immediately picks up the dog from over the fence and holds it up to protect him until someone’s mom comes and grabs the dog. This was also wrestled under 2-out-of-3 falls rules, which is a hilarious detail that also sticks this a lot closer to a real match than the triple threat’s chaotic rumble in the front yard. When attaching a stipulation like that, there is a baked-in expectation of some sort of structure, which once again plays against the entire vibe here. Humberto takes the first fall with a stunner and then, Big C wakes up and does his dominant thrashing thing again to even it up. The third fall is just a cacophony of punches and slams until Big C tries for a fucking CRUCIFIX PINNING COMBINATION in the grass that is kicked out of into an immediate stunner. Humberto jumps up like he’s just won the World Series and the giant has been slain, at least temporarily.

Big C vs Vigilante and Assassin (WMWA Genesis 10/30/2004)

Wow! We’ve finally entered into the home territory of Big C and the debut of the Western Massachusetts Wrestling Alliance, where we will be spending the bulk of our time moving forward. WMWA actually has a ring, as hesitant as I am to call it that; they have two ropes with turnbuckles and a mat with no elevation laid over the ground. It makes Ian Rotten’s ring look like Smackdown by comparison. The description of this video says this is for the WMWA Tag Team Championships, with Big C pulling Kane duty and acting as a tag team by himself. This is also the first time we’ve seen Big C in front of any sort of crowd and boy, does it click immediately for those in attendance as well. There’s a palpable fan contingent for C from just off-screen, including a little kid’s voice that says “SIT ON HIM!” which is both incredibly tough for the big boy to hear but also incredibly indicative of why I am also infatuated with Big C. C is on offense for pretty much this entire four minute match, which turns into a hybrid of your usual backyard fare and some kind of Willy Wonka-style Sid squash match. I love C’s chops that knock down either opponent immediately. I love how much bigger he feels in the tiny ring, like Andre in the entrances for WrestleMania III. There’s also a great moment where they realize there is no referee at all in this match and Big C does the Takayama one foot on the chest cover and the crowd counts to two before the guy kicks out. Big C then proceeds to get angry at the crowd, like you would a referee, for not counting fast enough, so much so that they actually send a guy into the ring to be the referee for the rest of the match. Big C wins with a Big C Stunner from Hell, his fireman’s carry stunner thing that always looks extremely not fun to take. The best so far in the young career.

Big C and Edward Vapore vs Ethan Paine and Dave Dawson (WMWA Show #5, 11/21/2004)

This was some kind of hardcore match as a thrown-together super-main event pitting the tag team champions, Big C, and the world champion, Edward Vapore, against a couple of great heel workers. This is legitimately incredible for a backyard match. It’s still overly ambitious, running over twenty minutes, but it’s got so many great ideas and a lot more personality than anything we’ve seen thus far. Big C gets to act as the stoic Misawa-style hot tag and stands out in great contrast to the others. Dave Dawson is back and he’s dropped the Rock shtick, settling into a more classical deathmatch heel role where he introduces all the weapons and then is forced to go through the gauntlet of them all. The real stars of this show are Edward Vapore and Ethan Paine, for my money. Vapore is C’s teammate and he’s a super over the top charisma fountain here. He bleeds too, which certainly helps his case, but he is the exact kind of babyface that you want in a deathmatch setting, laying down a righteous beating on the stooging heels in really fun ways. He and Paine are a match made in heaven here. Paine is incredible. He’s wearing a dress shirt here, and he’s incredibly unlikable, which works great in his spot here as a bump and feed guy for Big C and Vapore. He gets his ass stapled and screams “MY ASS! MY ASS!” to a nice smattering of laughter from the crowd, leading to a STAPLE HIS SACK chant. Vapore obliges and Dave Dawson gets his scrotum punctured with the gun. There’s a lot of talking in this match too, something that is clearly in vogue in modern wrestling, but something that works really well in the amateurish situation we have here. Paine and Big C are both great trash talkers and directors of traffic in the ring to set up some of the more convoluted spots. There’s a real charm to everything here in a more traditional backyard sort of way; the weapon shots are clearly very laid in but there’s a sense of companionship between all four men that you very rarely find in glossier wrestling. Big C is still a menace, even if decidedly less important here than in the other matches. He’s still someone that the others are forced to work around and involve out of sheer necessity. He runs the ropes a few times in an exercise of great faith. He’s just that guy, pal.

Big C vs Anarki vs T-Bone (WMWA Show #6, 12/5/2004)

Big C is back to his roots with a triple threat match. This file opens with a long rambling segment between a new sort of stable called The Uprising to go against Big C’s own Throwdown, consisting of WMWA originals Dave Dawson and Ethan Paine, along with a few new faces including someone called the Crazy White Boy, who is decked out with a title and prescription glasses. T-Bone enters the meeting and is being courted by The Uprising, leaving some obvious tension which leads us into the triple threat. We have a ring announcer and we have changed locations to an even junkier, muddier backyard than normal in the middle of a light rain. Dave Dawson, the new founding member of The Uprising, is out as the special guest referee for this match. Anarki comes out first in classic backyarder gear; he’s got a hoodie on with elbow pads over the sleeves, which is just incredible. The Crazy White Boy accompanies T-Bone to the ring, playing off the angle from before and T-Bone wants absolutely nothing to do with him. Crazy White Boy is doing a cool servant kind of thing that is very funny though, opening the ropes for T-Bone. I should note that there is a smattering of people and because of the rain, they have no speaker to play themes and so, the crowd is just singing the entrance music for each wrestler. Big C comes out lifting both tag team titles while they serenade him with Lil Jon’s Get Low, in one of the best entrances in backyard history. Big C spooky fingers someone away from him before entering the ring. Big C and Dave do not like each other; they have consistently found themselves across the ring from each other and there’s even more obvious tension between them now given the new stable alignment. After some light shoving, Dave threatens to disqualify Big C before the match even starts, which is absolutely rich. While he’s arguing with Dave, T-Bone dashes in with a sweet dropkick and knocks Big C into the mud off the ring. It’s a two on one beatdown on Our Hero, floundering around in the mud and trash while random objects are being whipped into him at low velocity. His gray shirt is getting increasingly soaked, with rain, dirt, and probably sweat as he stumbles to his feet. Anarki gets speared through a very flimsy screen door in the background of Godzilla rising from the Earth. A one-man ECW chant breaks out while Big C does the Rock’s crouching taunt before launching a lariat into T-Bone. Crazy White Boy is chastised by Dave, defending his actions as “not doing anything but supporting his friend.” Things continue to be messy as Big C breaks a piece of plywood over T-Bone’s head before Anarki finishes him off with a broken golf club shot. Anarki is cheered on by one child that is watching before the child’s father yells at T-Bone in reverence by reminding him that he is black. Everyone is covered in mud. Back in the ring now. Big C hits a combo belly bump on both guys and Dave starts a double KO count. C gets mad at Dave for not counting fast enough and gets snuck up on with a chop block, to the one child’s delight. Anarki nails T-Bone with a plastic bucket. Big C splash on both guys and both kick out, which is hilarious. Both guys splash Big C in the corner and the entire ring post moves by two inches. Someone does a Ki Crusher thing and drops the other one onto Big C’s legs before a running wild knee strike, to which there is a small chant of HARDCORE back and forth. The plastic bucket is back and gets thrown into everyone. Big C with a big chokeslam cutoff and then another chokeslam on the Crazy White Boy onto T-Bone while one fan chants “DO SOME SIT-UPS!” T-Bone tries a Codebreaker and Big C just pushes him away to the floor. The second rope of twine comes undone and things have to slow down while they reattach it. Dave gets taken out briefly before Anarki hits an Albert Bomb on T-Bone. Big C watches this happen, throws his hands up in the air, and leaves the match before the pinfall is even counted, like the king that he is. This is an experience of a match. Everything is damp, the rain ambiance only adds to the utter chaos on screen. This is the lowest rent match we’ve seen thus far; even the no-ring stuff was cleaner than a lot of what happens here. One for the history books in WMWA.

Big C vs Anarki vs Ethan Paine vs Edward Vapore (WMWA Show #9, 1/30/2005)

From one climate-based match to another, this was the first (and only, as far as I can tell) King of the Torture Chamber match, contested entirely within a little fenced-off piece of side yard in the snow. Our competitors make their entrances out of a parked RV, starting with the apple of our eye, Big C himself. The sound system is back and we get the full Get Low and dance moves from The C-meister. Anarki comes out with a lighttube and a very Fiend-style mask and is billed as the WMWA Pure Brutality Champion. Ethan Paine is back as the dress shirt killer and puts in one hell of a shift. Vapore comes out with the least amount of fanfare, but immediately links up with Big C and they wage war on the heels. Ethan Paine gets thrown into the corner of the fence after one Big C chop. C turns on Vapore and throws him crazy somersault style into the fence for a nice bump. Paine smells blood in the water and starts trying to attack Vapore, but Big C knocks him back into the corner again. Big C and Anarki collide again in the far corner next to a sled. Paine uses a traffic cone and then finds a fire extinguisher and sprays all the others with it in the eyes before walking over to the fans with a smarmy grin and displaying the extinguisher. Vapore picks up the sled and starts bashing Anarki. Anarki takes a flying bump into the fence. Paine starts just throwing his body as hard as he can into Big C to try to knock him down, and we get some great teetering and then a Hogan flex pose from C, before Paine slaps him with a glove. Paine turns to a chair and cracks C, who staggers back and then collapses, while Pain jumps around celebrating. He then climbs to the top of the fence and goes for a moonsault and misses absolutely everything, landing knees first onto the frozen ground. Vapore rushes into cover, where we learn that the crowd is responsible for counting the pinfalls. Anarki breaks his light tube over Vapore’s head and the broken half over C. C gets another full lighttube broken over him and Anarki throws up the Throwdown sign. Paine throws a chop into C’s body and sells the hand. C gets up and Paine gets up in his face and C just Black Terry-style overhand chops him to oblivion. Vapore comes in to assist and they both chop Paine out of the gate into the people. Vapore sets up a chair and hits his best Thinker pose to a nice smattering of laughter. Paine gets egged on by the crowd to try to suplex Big C, which has no effect. C counters with a Hashimoto-style lifting brainbuster onto the snow on Paine. Things break down and someone from the crowd sprays the fire extinguisher into the cage. Vapore and C do the wishbone split leg thing on Paine and he sells it like he just got an actual vasectomy. Everyone is covered in snow. Vapore and Anarki brawl with each other into the ground while Paine is left alone with C, who tries to broker peace by offering a handshake but kicks Big C low. Anarki uses a metal baseball bat to Big C’s gut. Paine gets on his knees to beg off Anarki with the bat and sneaks a low blow, before taking the bat to Anarki himself and hitting a MASSIVE turning suplex. Paine sets up the chair on Big C’s back and sits down on it, before C punches him right in the knee pit. Vapore picks up the bat and does a full batting stance, before putting the sled over Paine’s crotch and hitting it. Big C chokeslams Paine on the sled. Things get real messy again while Vapore and Big C play off some more of their weird tension. Paine gets a lighttube and wails on everyone. He stands on both Big C and Vapore for the three count to become the first ever King of the Torture Chamber. This was a breathtaking match. The snow makes these guys more frantic and a bit sloppier in a real good way. Paine has become my favorite of the WMWA guys and he gets a massive win here, carried off with a trophy by his stable. Go Ace.

Big C vs Dave Dawson (WMWA: The Return, 11/29/2008)

Big C’s biggest rival is back! Great opening bit here with a massive flex from C after a collar and elbow, which establishes that he is fully heel after flipping off the crowd booing him. We get some more Vader-isms with a bunch of corner punches that send Dave powdering out of the ring. Dawson clamps on a hammerlock and Big C breaks his face with a huge back elbow, following it up with a nice Randy Orton pose. Dawson fires up and hits a crazy shining wizard-style butt drop. Big C launches him off his chest on the kickout. There is no one on the WMWA roster that works to Big C’s strengths better than Dave, who is constantly getting pushed around and moved at will here to really put over the size discrepancy. Dawson goes for the Choshu lariats and gets cut off with a lariat of C’s own. Giant headbutt from C leads into a little headlock control segment, which Dave pele kicks out of, leading to a great staggering fall from C. Dave goes back to the arm he tried to hammerlock earlier and C throws him over his body from his back with just the brute strength of the one arm. Big C rocks Dave with a back elbow in the corner after lining it up. Dave fights tooth and nail from underneath after getting choked out, before dropping C with a right hand and hitting some push-ups. Dave follows up with a goddamn CHOP to the armpit! Dave Dawson hits an awesome John Woo-style low dropkick to a seated C for a two. He follows it up with a seated bulldog and then C connects with a NASTY Kabuki style uppercut. Dave starts selling an injury to the knee and tries to keep C away from it, but he just shoves him away and kicks out the injured leg. Dave tries a jumping spin kick and hobbles away on the injured leg. Dave has a ton of fire and great punches, which C sells by staggering out of the corner and Flair flopping right onto his side. Dave follows up with two brutal body splashes on C, which are both kicked out of. Big C catches a running away Dave with a chokeslam for the victory. This is the closest thing to a real match we’ve seen C in and it finally feels like his potential is being realized. I adore this match; it’s the tightest thing Big C has been involved in and Dave is an incredible dance partner for him. Great stuff here.

Big C vs Humberto Ramos (WMWA Crossfire 2011, 8/6/2011)

Another old enemy from Big C’s past has returned once more! Humberto has shed the Stone Cold cosplay and is instead engaged in a heated feud with Big C over who is the biggest and strongest boy. Humberto pops his shirt off immediately and starts letting his pecs pop and Big C is offended as the resident biggest dog in the yard. He pops his shirt off and we have a war of mass destruction on our hands. The crowd begins to heckle Our Hero and he responds with perhaps his finest work in terms of trash talk, letting them know that he might be fat but he “just does not give a fuck.” C and Ramos lock up and we get some dueling strength battles that go to a stalemate. Just two big beefy rams locking horns with each other and pushing with all of their might. Things devolve and turn into one of C’s only out and out slugfests where he’s actually met his match in terms of power. Punches are exchanged and Ramos hauls off with an incredible running forearm that smashes Big C right in the face and knocks him over in one go. This is the first time we’ve seen C take a tumble from just one move from the opponent and it does a great job setting the table for the rest of the match. Commentary is continuing to put over how many things Ramos is able to do that they have never seen done before on Big C; Humberto is actually able to hook the leg on a pinfall, for instance. C is blown up early here and continues to jaw jack with the crowd after a massive lariat, feigning a weak DX crotch chop and landing a nice punch to the inside of the thigh for a quick stinger. Ramos hauls off three uppercuts right into Big C’s ballbag and C just looks at the referee flabbergasted and bug-eyed before falling to his ass for a nice bump. Humberto follows this up with three LEG SNAPS, jumping over C and dragging his tree trunk of a thigh with him. Humberto is running out of ideas and snaps back into Stone Cold cosplay, landing a SWEET Thesz press and the punches to commentary’s delight. The running elbow and an attempted stunner follow, to which Big C offers a nice shove and a big boot. BIG C STUNNER FROM HELL and it is a super hellacious one, with Humberto’s entire chin snapping into C’s shoulder, but HUMBERTO KICKS OUT! C is extra gassed now and starts just muttering “bullshit” to himself and Humberto scrambles to the corner and sets up for the stunner once more. He nails it and that’s all she wrote. This was a nice tie-up to the loose end of the Ramos rivalry and really a pretty consistent take on a Rock/Austin-style epic of which this entire promotion and these guys’ love of wrestling was born from. All it was missing was JR on the call and an announce table bump and we were in business. Pretty great match though.

Big C vs Cypher (WMWA Rising Above 8, 4/29/2012)

This was my personal first experience with Big C and his appeal is immediately recognizable right out of the gate. Cypher is a really hilarious backyard wrestling guy who comes to the ring on a bike while Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites is playing. Big C mozies out of a little shed while his theme is playing and you can already tell that he is a larger than life character. Big C is also scratching an itch close to my heart here by essentially working a Kevin Nash match in Western Massachusetts in front of no people. He lines up the corner elbow. He hits the big boot and the knee smashes in the corner. He pumps the Diesel horn to the millions watching at home. It’s a sight to behold. Cypher starts begging off and Big C just mugs him, talking trash directly into his face as the smaller man is violently shaking and trying to get away. Cypher extends a hand for a shake and C grabs it into a half Rainmaker, to which commentary adds an emphatic BOW! Cypher comes back crazy style with a sliding forearm smash and a buzzsaw kick to C’s chest before making the mistake of throwing a chop. Not only does C brush off the chop, but he rips his shirt off, tells Cypher to bring it, no sells another one and responds with his signature overhand chop to send Cypher spiraling away. Someone yells another derogatory comment about C’s weight and he responds by slamming every ounce of it into Cypher’s body and knocking him to the crowd with a signature belly bounce. Cypher tries to come back with one of his own and just bounces off of C, before the bull charges him and sends him flying once again. Cypher reverses a Big C STUNNER FROM HELL into a sleeper, which Big C counters with a one-armed snapmare hold and a chokeslam to pick up the win. This was a classic Big C big dog performance against a smaller heel character in Cypher. Everything was well-executed and almost designed for a Big C showcase match. He’s dominant, he’s vocal, he’s absolutely everything you could ever possibly want in a wrestler. Go Ace.

Big C vs Savio Montana (WMWA The Final Show, 4/23/2017)

This is just raw, unadulterated Big C. He’s a cartoon giant that comes to life in this match, like The Thing from Fantastic Four or something. This was unfortunately the final show that the Western Massachusetts Wrestling Alliance was ever able to run and we have moved locations inside to have AC. We appear to be inside of some sort of gym that was rented out, or if not rented out, incredibly slow on this spring day. Savio Montana comes out in a Puerto Rico flag shirt and a Patriot Del Wilkes mask and puts out an open challenge for a Falls Count Anywhere match. Big C’s new theme, some sort of demented trap remix of a classical big scary guy song, hits and he strolls out to the ring. Savio immediately leaps from the ring onto C, who catches him perfectly in a crossbody and drops him face first on the apron twice. Savio runs from C into a collection of heavy punching bags, which he attempts to throw at Big C to slow him down or knock him over. C catches the first one, no sells the second one, and while Savio is setting up the third one and laughing, C takes it from him and bashes it into Savio’s own head, snapping his neck back and crumpling him to the floor in one of the funniest and most over the top visuals you will ever find in media. Big C drives Savio’s face into the exposed brick wall and into the punching bags a few more times for fun. Savio finds an open water bottle from the gym and sprays it all over C, who just kind of shrugs and laughs. As we know, he’s been through much worse. Savio fires up with some punches that C doesn’t even react to before he gets his head driven THROUGH one of the bags. He throws Savio over a leather couch and he takes the full tumble onto a tumbling mat that has been laid down. BIG C STUNNER FROM HELL ONE FINAL TIME and Savio Montana is toast. This runs about three minutes in total and features Big C no-selling every offensive move done to him, running his opponent into actual heavy objects, and winning with his finisher to a nice round of applause. There has never been a more fitting victory lap in all of wrestling history than this final match. This is Big C’s Final Burning and it could not be more perfect. All hail. If there is nothing else you watch from this post, I highly recommend this match as a nice way to see both the endearing amateurism and the legitimate spectacle that a Big C match provides.

On my other blog, where I cover less fun and more serious topics in the world of professional wrestling, I have an ongoing series of Greatest Wrestler Ever Cases, in which I write up a wrestler’s claim for being the GOAT after watching a selected batch of matches. I think it is only fair to give Big C the same treatment, although slightly abridged.

In summation, Big C is the greatest of all time because he is the only Big C that has ever and will ever exist. The peak of backyard wrestling is over and Big C is forever immortalized as the greatest (and potentially only) backyard big man in history. I compared him to Andre the Giant at the beginning of this piece and truly, just like Andre, every match that C was in needed to be catered to him out of logical necessity. Your run of the mill backyarder and most of your modern-day indie wrestlers cannot lift Big C. They cannot run complicated sequences with Big C. The only thing they can do is WORK, as God intended, to please a very small crowd in attendance with stuff that is both entertaining and makes sense. Big C is nothing if not incredibly grounded and charismatic. He’s evolved over a pretty long career, given the circumstances, from an average brawler to a heavy-handed killer to a fan favorite attraction-style worker, with pit stops along the way to dabble in bombfests, tag wrestling, smarmy heel work, and hardcore-adjacent stuff too. Even if backyarding isn’t your thing and you think all of this is stupid, he’s got incredible instincts that everyone could learn from. Little heel moves are scattered all throughout these performances; stuff that really gets under the skin of the crowd and informs the story of the match so well. At worst, he’s a hunk of raw and never realized potential. At best, he’s in the conversation for the greatest backyard wrestler of all time. And that is good enough for me.

So all hail Big C, the WMWA’s biggest star. He’s a joyous worker that everyone could use a little bit more of in their life. Wherever you are C, I hope you are still rocking in the free world. Godspeed, and be good to yourselves.