Review: Eagle vs. Steel (Thunders Arena)

Strange, but ultimately satisfying. That's the best way I can describe this 27-minute video from Thunders Arena. The action, the sequencing, the cutaways and the camerawork. Much of it feels strange, like a "What did I just watch?" feeling. For 22-minutes, I wasn't really into Eagle vs. Steel, but then the last 5 are really good. It's one of those videos you need to stick with, but it ended up being worth it for me.

Like Greek gods sculpted from marble

I'm a fan of the guys here. Eagle is just plain hot. He looks thicker here, like he's been following Frey's bulking plan. Gone is the fitness model body, replaced by superhero strongman beef. It took me a minute to get used to it, but I like it on him. The muscles are there as is the definition, but he's really solid through the waist, especially compared with Steel and his incredibly tapered body. Steel's shoulders and chest and huge, with a very thin waist.

Eagle gets flirty then things get rough

Down, boy! Steel's not done flexing.

Gear-wise, it doesn't get smaller than this at Thunders. Both are in standard issue gear, but they fill it out nicely. Eagle is in very tiny, shiny trunks I've seen Big Sexy wearing. On Eagle, they're super-stretched and straining. And Steel looks great in the lime green and purple posers that make the rounds. These guys have great bodies, so it's great they they're showing them off.

Eagle is huge now

And Steel looks superhuman in his posers

We start with flexing then putting on a practice green. Strange. It takes almost 6 minutes before anything happens. The action heads to the mat, but the look and feel is odd. The picture is dull and it feels distorted, like a fish eye lens or something. I found that the otherworldly effect gave me a very detached feeling. I watched the action, but more like I'd watch a movie than a typical wrestling video. It all just kind of happened, but I never felt engaged.

Everything seems curved, but the guys look great

When things wet, so will you

And the weirdness continues. During the match, we suddenly cut to White Tiger wandering through the house. Why? Who knows? We come back to Eagle holding his shoulder. Why? Who knows? Later, there are a couple of cutaways to close ups of White Tiger's face as he intently watches the action. Who is this guy and why is he there? It all kind of feels like someone pulled a wrestling clip from a 70's style fight movie.

Outside of the distorted, dull film and the cutaways, there is a lot of action and it's good. Although just as a tip, when legs are split, the right place for the camera to be is not the side. You get some power moves and this is actually a best two-out-of-three with a definitive ending. As I said, the last 5 minutes are really great. Pure domination with the loser left destroyed.

The guys trade nelsons

And they both look great in them

Big boys use big bearhugs

Eagle's crushed by Steel's power

The new Eagle can easily hold Steel up

So in the end, I actually ended up liking it. I can live with the odd looking footage, but I'd edit it down with no golf and no White Tiger. In my version, this is a power-packed battle between two uber-hot musclemen with an awesome climax. After watching both guys submit during the video then the ultimate annihilation in the pool, I can deal with a little randomness.

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RINGSIDE: LUCKY NUMBERS 3 4 5

So that's my take. What's yours? Any thoughts?

Alex