Wednesday, December 19, 2018

2018 Cavey Awards: Promotions

It's time to wrap up the 2018 Cavey Awards.



The final day of the Cavey Awards is usually when I honor my favorite promotions in the gay wrestling ecosystem. Once again, I've awarded Caveys to a lot of great studs in great matches, but 2018 was a tough year for me in terms of choosing promotions. You might think that this should be easy, but I judge on my OVERALL experience, which includes several factors:

  1. Quality of every match I watched
  2. Enjoyment of every match I watched
  3. Appeal of their roster in terms of personality, looks and talent
  4. Production quality of every video I watched, including video, audio, gear, setting
  5. Customer experience, including value (what I get for what I pay) and ease of doing business with them (e.g., distribution model)

So I look at a lot of factors and when I look at 2018 in totality, there was a ton of inconsistency. I even wondered, "Should I only consider each place's best?" That hardly seems fair. No, I had to look at all the great, the mediocre and the "why did I buy this?" videos. Should I ignore things like video quality, ease of doing business and value? No, because those things all matter a lot and are important to being a great promotion.

Of course, I could do the polite thing and hand out awards regardless of merit. Or I could do the safe thing and award a Cavey to the old standards. That way no one is upset with me. But then there's no point to this post at all. No, if I'm going to do Caveys, I'm going to do them right. I've decided to be true to my own experiences. My own experiences. It was a mediocre year FOR ME, but maybe not for you. Every promotion has fans. And I'll probably keep spending with all the same folks next year.

As a reminder, the eligible promotions are BGEast, Black Wrestling Network, Can-Am, 88Wrestling, Krushco, Movimus, Muscle Domination Wrestling, Muscleboy Wrestling, Thunders Arena, UCW, Wrestler4Hire and Wrestlingmale.

In the end, I do think that one promotion managed an award-worthy year against all those metrics.

Let's find out who ...

Favorite Promotion: Gold


Muscleboy Wrestling.


In only its second year of operation, Muscleboy Wrestling has really established itself as a leader in the underground wrestling world. Why? Here are three reasons they won my 2018 Gold Cavey ...

Talent. I like the mix of talent from familiar faces to amateurs to porn stars. What I most love about most of the MBW guys is their enthusiasm for performing on the mats. They're energetic. Passionate. Hard-working. They buy-in and embrace the setting. This electricity comes through my screen and draws me in. Any skill gaps are easily ignored, because the guys are selling and I'm buying.





Consistency. I think MBW really excelled at delivering the action you expect at the quality level you expect. I'm not going to claim that they were all outstanding matches, but what worked for me is that there were no 'bait-and-switch' videos. Guys, gear and action were just as advertised. It's one of the hallmarks of my past Cavey Award winners because it's the biggest component of value. I hate being duped.





Erotic action. MBW has become the leader in the erotic side of underground wrestling. And I don't just mean porn guys having sex. It's the sweatiest group of muscle studs. And they're always into each other. Videos with no nudity or sex are highly charged with chemistry and tension. Look at videos from JJ Allen, Austin Tyler or Nick Flex. They're technically tame, but fuck the chemistry is smoking hot. And when things do go further, it's always a natural result from the wrestling, not just tacked on.





So thanks MBW. You did a great job all year and I'm happy to give you a gold Cavey for 2018!

What about everyone else?

As I said, inconsistency was the biggest reason that I'm not giving a 2018 Cavey to the other big players. And some of the smaller guys fell short on elements like value or production. Yes, each of promotion had winners. Yes, some even achieved greatness. But they also had lackluster videos, outright duds, production missteps and/or missed opportunities. All this added up to me just not feeling it for anyone else this year.

Now that everything is done for another year, I hope you weigh in. I love comments and other opinions. And I love handing out awards, so I've really got my fingers crossed for a more consistently great 2019.

Alex





12 comments:

  1. Thank you SOOO much Alex! This is indeed a great honor. We work really really hard to bring the fans the best quality and hottest wrestling vids that we can and we will continue to do so in 2019 and beyond. Happy New Year to you and all our fans, you've truly made this possible for us with all of your amazing support!

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    1. You’re welcome, but really this is a ‘thank you’ to you for a great year. Love the wrestlers, the wrestling, the production quality, and the ease of doing business with you.

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  2. Alex, I agree 100 percent with your assessment of the state of underground wrestling and MuscleBoy's astounding role in reshaping the art and business of online wrestling and, on a personal note, further clarifying for me my love of wrestling.

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    1. Thanks, Joe! Way more eloquent than my assessment, but same conclusion.

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  3. I'm sorry but NO! This site is nothing when it comes to the likes of BgEast and Wrestler4Hire. The owner is a piece of trash with the worst rep in the underground wrestling circle (probablu die to the fact he undercuts peoples pay). I have even had some BgEast and W4H wrestlers tell me theu point blank refuse to work for the site and others regret working for them also. I totally respect Alex's opinion and think this blog is to die for but this one is a complete and utter joke, Rob (the owner) needs a wake up call.

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    1. I appreciate your passion, but one thing I’ve learned since I started blogging is that there is a ton of behind the scenes drama in the gay underground wrestling world. Wrestlers and producers have badmouthed the leadership of BGEast and W4H to me, too. Plus Thunders and MDW. And never mind what folks have said to me about other wrestlers.

      Life’s too short, so I stay out of it and try not to let it impact my opinion.

      Based on what I viewed and the overall experience, I stand by my choice. I love BGEast and W4H. I’ve awarded both of them before but there’s no way I could hand out a Cavey to them based on 2018.

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    2. Its your opinion at the end of the day Alex, but I am also entitled to mine.

      Basically to me MBW is a low rent version of Naked Kombat! At the end of the day people are going to agree with you and that is their opinion also.

      But with all of the negative energy that surrounds the dickhead of an owner BgEast and W4H deserved it more.

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    3. No worries, because I’ve never even implied anyone isn’t entitled to their opinion, differing or confirming. In fact, I encourage it at the end of pretty much every post. In the case of the Caveys, it’s one reason why I say “favorite” instead of “best”. People use differing standards to judge favorite anything.

      I do wish it could be done respectfully and without personal attacks as has happened on both the favorite wrestlers and the favorite promotions posts, but so far, no one has complained, so I’m leaving the comments up for now.

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  4. Fricks Sexy Cavey Picks :

    Gold: Muscle Bow Wrestling
    Great action, fun matches, and as you say, chemistry was on fire.

    Silver- Gold: On second place by just a sliver,
    Thunders Arena Wrestling
    Talent! They bring the muscle boys home and they have a mix of Ring Action and Mat action. So you get to see guys like Cason wrestle in both formats. They also have tons of different settings and varieties. Pools, bedrooms, hotels, mansions, the garage, the Ring and much more. I think they spend a lot of time, money and effort. So kudos to them for that! The storylines ebb and flow, and perhaps that’s the biggest drawback. That’s a big area that they can improve.

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  5. No question that the new company MBW has come a long way since it start up. You choice of this company is based on what kind of product they produce and not what goes on in the background of this site. I'm sure a lot of that can be said for any other wrestling site. Based on your reasoning for picking MBW for this honor I couldn't argue with your choice. Good Work.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks!

      If you check back, who was your favorite in 2018?

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