The Cast: Who's Who (April 2017)

Guys,

Two new guys, depending on how you view Dino. His real identity has certainly received his share of press on this site in the form of reviews.

An interesting tidbit, perhaps, is that I made a last minute switch on my stories. Bird Boy v Puffin wasn't supposed to appear for months, but I learned that Puffin's alter ego is buddies with an underground wrestler and I worried he'd be recruited to appear somewhere before I used him as Puffin. Call me psychic, because that's exactly what happened, but now I was first. :)

The Cave Undercard 16

Xaq/Bird Boy = Jeff Seid (Bodybuilder)

Review: Kid Karisma vs. Chace LaChance (BGEast)

Kid Karisma vs. Chace LaChance is the second match I watched from Backyard Brawls 9. It's been a while since there was a BGEast compilation where I was this excited to watch all three matches, but this is one is just jam-packed with awesomeness. I already covered my first and favorite (Carter v Kirk), but I want to give some love to the other two, as well. And so, I'll start with this one.

Review: Bolt vs. Slash (Thunders Arena)

Full disclosure: This video was provided to me by Thunders Arena.

I only have so much time and there are so many wrestling videos to watch. April suddenly got me overloaded with potential content. I know, #firstworldproblems, right? Anyway, I'm not looking for sympathy, just saying, that it's easy to miss good stuff. Like this one.

I'm glad that Bolt vs. Slash came to my email. And I'm glad I actually watched it. That's not a sure thing. It's two wrestlers I like, but not love. And I wasn't sure what it'd be. So I easily could have de-prioritized it. I still haven't watched Scrappy vs. Mark Muscle, even though I pulled a still from it for my final Cameron interview post (here). So I'm glad I watched this, because it was worth my time.

Contrasts galore make this a joy to watch.

Review: Carter Alexander vs. Kirk Donahue (BGEast)

There's a Seinfeld episode where Jerry dates someone that he sees as attractive, but everyone else in the show sees as a loser. I don't claim that this is exactly what's happening with Carter Alexander, but it sure seems like he's under-appreciated.

Bloggers love him, but producers and fans don't seem as enamored. No year-end nominations from the muckety-mucks at BGEast. My review of his match vs. Kid Karisma was my lowest viewed BGEast review of 2016 for a long time (that honor now belongs to the more deserving Trent Blayze vs. Mike Pitt, which was all kinds of disappointing). And as far as I know, he only has one other match at one other company (he's Wrestler4Hire's Jake Steele). Geez, what gives?

Maybe it's just me, but I'm a huge fan after just three matches. Now, those were against superstars Jake Jenkins, Kid Karisma and Brad Barnes (at W4H). Did they elevate his performance? I could see that happening. Regardless, this was the first match I decided to watch from the new Backyard Brawl compilation, choosing it over Kid Karisma vs. Chace LaChance and Jonny Firestorm vs. Christian Taylor. So you know I'm on the case.

Yes, please. This is THE best Backyard Brawl.

Review: Superman/Mark Muscle vs. Robin/Will Favero (Wrestler4Hire)

Mark Muscle as Superman against Will Favero as Robin is another video that jumped the queue. Probably not surprising. I love superheroes and I like these wrestlers. Wrestler4Hire has been doing a good job with wrestlers in costumes. And the casting is just cool. So I watched it, pulled the images and here we are. So what did I think?

Uh, Robin, point that finger somewhere else.

Review: Marco vs. Spike (Thunders Arena)

Marco: "Why are you all hairy? You know this is a modeling gig, right? You need to look like a model not a fat bear."

I still have a ton of free stuff from Thunders Arena to watch and potentially review, but what do I do? I buy Marco v Spike from Thunders Arena and watch it instead. Sure, I might never get around to something like Marco/Slim, but Eagle/Logan/Vinny, Bolt/Frey and Vinny/Marco sound right up my alley. Nope, they're taking a backseat for Spike.

It's not often that I want to buy a match the day it comes out because of an unknown rookie, but this is one of the exceptions. I simply had to see Spike in action, so here we are. Turns out, I made a good call. I won't say the right call, because I haven't seen the other videos, but this one was a winner for me, so yay.

Two hot studs face off in a hairy vs. smooth,
newbie vs. veteran showdown.

Q + A: Cameron Matthews (Part 3 of 3)

And we're at the end of my questions for Cameron. I think you can see how great Cameron was in all this. I asked him a ton of stuff that took a ton of his time.

PART 1

PART 2

One thing you'll notice here is that I segmented Cameron's roster into several categories and labeled them. He didn't necessarily agree with the labels or even the basic idea of segmenting his roster. However, he was a trooper and answered anyway. I just wanted to make sure that you take note of where I ended up leading Cameron's answers in the talent section. 

Cameron was a great sport
to answer all of this for me.

BIGBeast: The New Guy 2

This story is based on a reader commission

At the Home for BIGBeast Wrestling

"You fuckin' ready yet, Spielberg?"

I look over my shoulder with a little fear. I try to smile, but having a hairy beast like Dino Donato hovering over me is pretty intimidating. He's 6'/220-lbs of beefy muscle and bad attitude. The bald badass is anxious to tear apart his latest victim and if I'm not careful, it might be me. I might be 6'4"/200-lbs of lean teen power, but he'd squash me like a bug.

Dino Donato

Review: Duke Russo vs. Dario Espinosa (Movimus)

Full disclosure: This video was provided to me by Movimus.

Duke vs. Dario is my current dream matchup. I've raved a lot about these two super studs. Unfortunately, this is a dream where I got woken up a little too early. The action is great, but there's only 9 minutes of it. It's due to an apparent leg injury, so I'm sympathetic. I hope for a rematch to happen really soon, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't want more.

I mention this all right up front as it seems extremely relevant to providing a review. Now Movimus has decided to offer buyers of this one 40% off another video, but they're still charging $26.99 for this one. I guess it depends on how motivated you are.

It's "dreamus interruptus" for me when
Duke battles Dario

Q + A: Cameron Matthews (Part 2 of 3)

We're back with more of my questions for and answers from Cameron Matthews. Part 1 is here.

In part 1, I started with basic questions to learn more about Cameron. I also wanted to learn more about the journey to starting Wrestler4Hire and operating it, so that's what today's interview is about. There's even more here. Possibly too much, but I didn't want to break up the topic.

We're back with more from Cameron

Review: Mark Muscle vs. The Mountain (W4H)

Sorry, gym rats and bodybuilders. In the world of pro wrestling, FAT > MUSCLE. I remember as a kid, it was a common sight to watch big fat guys mauling muscular bodybuilder types. It never seemed wrong. It was just the way of the wrestling world. And seeing the suffering of the muscular jobbers stirred something in me, but I didn't understand the theme until Wrestling Arsenal gave it a name. FAT > MUSCLE (sample posts here and here).

Two different kind of big boys battle it out.

Review: Beast vs. Brute (Thunders Arena)

Brute: "Ready for this? Ready for 1970's style domination? This is how our forefathers did it."

Wow, after starting April not having a clue what I'd be reviewing, suddenly my cup runneth over. I have six brand new Thunders Arena matches, one purchased and five promotional. BGEast released the first video from catalog 118 in the Arena with three matches featuring six wrestlers I like. There's a new Alex Waters match at RHW. And Movimus sent me a brief encounter (9 minutes) between my two favorite current studs. On top of that, a brand new wrestling video company called Muscleboy Wrestling launched. Phew. I guess my look back at Cyberfights and Brett Barnes can wait.

Anyway, I decided to start with the purchased offering from Thunders Arena. I watched it first, it's one I chose to invest in, plus it's a winner for me. Beast v Brute is right up my alley, so I'd be shocked if I didn't enjoy it. I'm not shocked. It's big boys playing like big boys. There's a lot of muscle. And there's the promised domination. So this video is what you'd expect and you know if you'll like it.

Brute and Beast go old school

Review: Lane Hartley vs. Brad Barnes (BGEast)

It's been about a month since I finished with the only two matches from BGEast's catalog 117.2 that I was both able to buy and felt were worth reviewing. There hasn't been anything new since then, even in the Arena, so I decided to look back at one of my favorites.

Lane Hartley vs. Brad Barnes is a modern classic. It's from late 2013, but I think it's very re-watchable. If you haven't watched this squash, I would definitely take the plunge. I will give one note on the visuals ... I get why other bloggers use the official Arena images. It's tough for me to get great looking BGEast screen grabs, because of their customer-unfriendly VOD system. Anyway, the graininess is my technology, not the video itself.

It's big pro vs. tiny bodybuilder

Q + A: Cameron Matthews (Part 1 of 3)

Last month, Cameron Matthews of Wrestler4Hire suggested (for the second time) that we do an interview. Never having done such a thing before, I wrote out some questions and sent them to him. I intended them as a discussion point, but being the guy he is, Cameron actually just went ahead and answered them all.

Cam went above and beyond

The Cave Undercard 16: Bird Boy vs. Puffin

The Cave Ring, Training Session

"Puffin? Puffin? What the fuck is this, Cody?"

"Are you asking me what a puffin is, sidekick?"

Xaq's eyes narrow, "No, 'boss'." The word boss is dripping with snark. He replies slowly, "I'm asking why Ryan texted me that I'm facing Puffin. Look at me." The proud muscle freak puts down his phone on the ring apron then flexes his ridiculous body, as if I'm not intimately familiar with it. We're on a break, we've been practicing hard for 20 minutes, so he's got a great pump with a sheen of sweat coating his thick muscles.

Xaq