Sunday, January 13, 2019

PSA: 2019 Besties Voting Is Open (BGEast)

It's awards season at BGEast. I'm sure that many of you vote for the Besties, the annual recognition of fan favorites at BGEast. Last year, I shared my Besties nominations (not votes) with you in a very popular post. I couldn't do that this year, as I wasn't invited to participate. It's just as well. I haven't seen a ton of these nominees.

What earned my vote in 2018?

I color-coded the images below just to give a sense of where I'm coming from. You will see that there is a lot of gray here. Those are matches/wrestlers I didn't see (in 2018 for wrestlers, I didn't vote on how they looked/acted in past years). Wow. In several categories, I'd actually only seen one or two of the nominees.

I will say this ... there are at least 6 of the nominated matches that I would've seen if BGEast had downloads. The VOD/OTA system really limits my viewing (and purchasing).

Anyway, here's what I voted for ...

Matches:



Ty Alexander, Chase Addams and Kenny Starr all came through with great matches and got my vote in two categories each. Imagine if they faced each other? Well, I guess Ty and Chase already have worked together and created award-winning magic. But we can still put Chase and Ty with Kenny. The BGEast rookie did get my vote in a category where he was the only nominee that I'd seen, but a vote is a vote.

Brendan vs Ty won my vote.

Ty vs. Jonny put on a great pro show.

Chase vs. Kirk won a Cavey ... here's
hoping it locks up a couple of Besties, too!

Wrestlers:


Not surprisingly, Chase and Kenny get my vote again. Great matches make great heels, babyfaces, jobbers and rookies. I am surprised that Toney Rico wasn't nominated for Debut. I feel like he debuted this year and he was in several great matches. He definitely would've gotten my vote. No offense, Kenny.

Chase won my vote as Top Heel. Not a tough choice, since he's already won the 2018 Cavey for Favorite Heel. Hopefully he wins it all at the Besties. Interestingly, Heel was the only category where I had actually seen every nominee in 2018, so he's the only vote-getter who beat a full roster of nominees.

This terrific match did a lot to make
them my choice for heel and jobber.

Kenny's no rookie, but he made a great debut.

Appearance:


I kind of feel like voting for this is a waste of time. I think that most guys will just vote for the names they know, rather than how guys looked in 2018. Eddie Murphy got a whole movie out of people doing that (The Distinguished Gentleman, 1992). My expectations is that this year will be no different, but it's still fun to vote. 

Abs was the toughest for me. Kenny's abs are amazing, but then I saw Franco Vetti's name and that was it. I would've voted for Steve Mason for bulge, but I didn't see him in a video this year. So I debated between Joshua and Kirk, ultimately settling on Mr. Joshua. And Best Body was tough, but I decided to throw a vote to Biff's beefiness, even though I doubt he'll win.

Franco's abs won me over.

Kenny did give him a good run.

Even though he's short, big Biff got my Body vote.

I'm going to tilt at the Best Butt windmill one more time. This was a slam dunk for me. I voted for Ty Alexander, which seems obvious after seeing all his matches. I get why Kid Karisma's amazing posterior is the perennial favorite. I love it, too, but this year, his butt didn't really feature in his videos like in year's prior. Against Lane Hartley, he wore butt-minimizing black and against Ty, it was the jobber who had the better butt showing. And so, I clicked on Ty and we'll see what happens.

Ty's butt stole the show this year.

In and out of trunks.

You might notice I left out Best Liplock. To me, it's a weird outlier because it's about a moment, rather than wrestling or looks. It's also not a category that I'm particularly passionate about. For the record, I threw my vote to Ty/Toney because I liked the match, even though I don't really remember the kiss. The only other match in the category I've seen was Ace/Ricky, but I don't remember the kiss in it, either.

Anyway, happy voting! 

Alex

11 comments:

  1. I haven't seen enough of the matches to opine, but following Ty on social media I'd have to say it would be hard to beat him for best butt. We'll it would be a joy to beat that butt, but you get my meaning.

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    1. Well, you see how few of these I watched and I still opined. Don’t let that stop you!

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  2. I'm not nearly as into BG East as I used to be. And maybe this makes me an asshole to say this at all. And I do follow the guy I'm about to criticize on social media and he seems to have some other charming qualities. But...

    In what world does Ty Alexander have the "Best Butt" to appear at BG East in an entire year? I don't think any of the guys nominated have even an average butt (basically the criteria seemed to be basic flat white boy ass), but shouldn't a great butt at least have shape, a little contour and definition (i.e., the side should actually go in a little bit), and, whether smooth, hairy or inbetween, at least be pimple free? Hell, the guy himself just posted a few days ago that his resolution for 2019 isn't to get in the best shape of his life, but to get back into comparable shape to what he was some time ago. I mean, his best ass isn't even his best ass!

    I accept that other people have other tastes, but, hell, I at least usually see where those people are coming from. Other than the fact that I guess he chats with a lot of people who otherwise don't get to interact with anyone in gay wrestling at all, I genuinely do not get the level of praise that guy gets for his body.

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    1. Well, Ty has the Best Butt in 2018 in the world of this blog, so there's one place. There are six choices, five of whom I watched in a BGEast wrestling video in 2018 and I think Ty was the best. His match with Brendan was a particularly great showing.

      Instead of tearing down a guy you follow on social and you think has charming qualities, why not take a positive approach? Why not just say who you think should be nominated or who you'd vote for?

      What I will say about Ty is that he evokes passion. Now, I don't know if it's just one guy who constantly negatively comments about him, because they're usually anonymous, but I can say that the positive comments come from many places, because they're usually not anonymous. Still, folks who don't like him love to try to convince those of us that do that we're suffering from some mass delusion. It's a shame.

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  3. Since I didn't see much BGEAST this year, and I think that Franco Vetti vs Biff Farrell match was perfect, Im going to keep it simple. That match and those two stars win every single category! HAHA! Best Heel? BF. BEst Abs? FV Best Butt? BF BEst Body, FV, BF Tied, Best BabyFace? FV. I think you and everyone else gets the idea. Hopefully they purchase the video and understand why. Id love to see more of both guys.

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    1. I was surprised that Franco didn’t make the cut for Best Body or Debut, but there are so many, there are always guys left out. Since I saw so few of the Debuts, it’s tough to know how close he was.

      On the positive side, I’m hoping his nomination means that there’s more to come. Maybe they wouldn’t nominate a one-hit wonder? At least that’s what I hope is true.

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    2. Very good observation on that second paragraph. I think there is good logic behind that hopeful thought! Both Franco and Biff have great potential. Even though Biff has been around for some time it’s just in that match he caught my attention. But it was thanks to Vetti and the whole concept of the match. So I think it worked for all involved. Like you have proven, storylines are important. And wrestling execution by the talent is also important. And bringing their bodies in perfect shape doesn’t hurt either.

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  4. Good picks, Alex! And good pix, too.

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  5. Wow! I forgot all about the best of year voting until I saw this post but probably because I didn't watch any of those matches. I really hope we eventually get a download to own option on BGEast that releases the same day as the DVDs. I'd probably buy a lot more stuff. Impulse purchases are a thing!

    Conversely, I wish other wrestling sites allowed their viewers to vote on the best of the year matches and features. I think Cameron did it for W4H one year (last year?) but that's all I can remember right now.

    Speaking of who, despite not seeing any matches, it would be a three way toss up between him, KK and Ty on who has the best butt in that group.

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    1. I agree on impulse buys. With the VOD system, you have to buy and watch together, which isn’t how I work. I buy lots of things and they sit around on my hard drive until I’m ready. It’s why I didn’t watch at least six of those nominees that I would’ve bought with a better, more customer-centric system.

      Thunders did voting one year, too, but I never saw results.

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