I finally decided to dive into BWN. |
Anyway, fast forward to last month when The Muscle Lover posted a YouTube video on the group which piqued my curiosity again. BWN has re-designed the website. And through Wrestler4Hire, I have become comfortable with streaming. I signed up for one quarter (oddly cheaper per month than semi-annual or annual), figuring that would give me enough time to decide what I think.
All right, guys, let's see what you've got. |
The Site
It’s simple to get to categories of wrestlers and videos. Once you get to one thing, they have a scroll at the bottom that leads you to related videos by wrestler and theme. That makes life easier. Since I’m streaming, I’ve been using a hunt-and-peck system where I just randomly click around and see who’s who and what’s what. That’s been fairly easy but I’m still overwhelmed by the choices. I’m no BWN expert, but I do think that I get most of the categories now. I’ve mostly checked out competitive and ignored the erotica.
Matches are divided into four categories: New, Beatdowns, Competitive, Erotica |
Wrestlers are listed in six categories with some overlap: New, Champs, Beefy, Bodybuilders, Jobbers, Mature |
The Videos
So far, the videos I've watched are all very similar. They start out with trailers and background clips that catch you up on any history you need. That’s helpful. The action is mat-based, focused on grappling, mostly in a basement setting. I haven’t seen any pro-style or ring action yet. That'd be great give the number of big musclemen on the roster. There’s usually a face-off then once the wrestling starts, things seem to keep going for one long fall with extensive (and unnecessary for me) use of slo-mo during the hot match moments.
It's all mat action so far. |
Of course the plus of streaming long videos is that you get more stuff. No one is forcing me to watch it all and I don’t. I’ve been getting good at scrolling around, able to find extended periods that interest me. And I usually scroll to the end to see who won. Using this system, I’ve been quite satisfied with most of the videos, even if I’m treating them as action clips more than matches.
I've been flipping around, looking for moments and checking out the endings. |
One of the most surprising things might be that BWN could be the most diverse wrestling video site out there. The roster features variety that you don’t see in most exclusively or predominantly white companies where there's an aesthetic philosophy. BWN features a really broad array of men from across the Black diaspora as well as wrestlers of different ages, body sizes, body shapes, skin tones, etc.
One of the first things I did was identify and fixate on two wrestlers that appealed to me: Sword and Cubano. A muscleman like Sword could probably have wrestled for most companies but Cubano evolves into a kind of plump muscleman you don’t usually see elsewhere.
Once you find a guy you like, it's easy to find all his matches using the scroll bar. |
Cubano fits under multiple categories, but beefy + jobber is why I've liked him. |
The muscleman champ on his knees. |
Sword's helplessness makes my day. |
Sword’s a quiet guy who lets his muscles do the talking. I was surprised that he’s not more dominant. In fact, he’s not alpha on the mats, either. If not for being part of a villain faction, I’d describe him as a face wrestler. I haven't seen him cheat. He wins in the end (except when he finally drops the belt on his way out the door), but he doesn’t control his matches. Now you probably get why I like him. He’s a hot muscleman, bare-assed in a loincloth, who gets dominated. Yeah, that's my kind of guy.
Sword's loincloth flaps never cover much. |
You can get Sword down, but keeping him there has been a different story. |
Cubano has been around for a while because a transformation like his from muscleman to meaty big man doesn’t happen overnight. He’s mostly an aggressive jobber, entering with big talk then through dirty tactics ending up on his back, unconscious. Like Sword, he seems like he should be alpha, but he’s not. Guys like to beat and humiliate him, which I like to watch. Even his thong gear choice was permanently imposed on him by a victorious heel as a condition of losing.
Early Cubano. |
Cubano tries to be alpha, but ends up beta a lot. |
Cubano's gotten a lot bigger but because of a loss, his gear has gotten a lot smaller. |
Guys love to humiliate the huge man. |
My plan moving forward is to do more specific reviews, but this seemed like a good start. Since I'm not really watching complete matches, I’m not sure if I’ll write about individual videos or maybe focus on wrestlers. Maybe a combination.
So that’s my take. What’s yours?
Alex
I think I stumbled across maybe 1 pro style match in a ring so far. Yeah the matches are long, that's why I try to get a good feel for the characters so I can understand their dynamic, which helps me further enjoy the match.
ReplyDeleteMy personal recommendation for you is to watch a lot of the older matches (onyxx, thunder ect.) they are a wild ride.
For example have you watched any of the first 4 matches of the Pornstar series. Don't avoid it due to its name and concept, those matches are intense, especially the 2nd and 3rd one.
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll check them out. I do like the character and story aspect. It helps give the match tension.
DeleteThanks for the review, it's excellent! It also helps to understand how the matches are received. We'll be adding several short explainer shows and clips and a schedule of what's coming.
ReplyDeleteThis week we expect to finally launch full streaming which will solve the video hiccups since they are technically progressive downloading right now and not truly streaming.
We've got a BWN PRO series with 4 matches in that series so far, do a search for BWN PRO.
Once again, thanks for the detailed analysis.
BWN Video
You’re welcome. I’ll search for those pro matches. And I’m excited to hear there are tech changes coming. Excellent news.
DeleteIf we have ideas or suggestions for BWN, how do we contact you Alex Arias?
DeleteThere's always a CHAT button at the bottom right of the website that stays there 24/7 and that you can click to make direct contact either by live chat or message; also, if you want group discussion you can post on our Blackboard forum which is under the NEWS/FANS section
DeleteGood question best place is at the Wish List:
ReplyDeletehttps://bwnvideo.com/blackboard/Blackboard/wish-list/
hey guys, i got some issues with the new ssite, it's sooo very slow....anyone else has this pls??
ReplyDeleteYup, it's something we're working on.
ReplyDelete