Review: Austin Cooper vs. Vasily Volkov (BGEast)

I was really excited to see Austin Cooper vs. Vasily Volkov on the latest BGEast catalogue. I was more than a little worried that big Vasily Volkov would be the subject of a future one-hit wonder post. The gorgeous hunk of Russian beef has been absent for over three years and a whopping 22 catalogues. Now, lucky number 23 saves the day as he comes back in a Ringwars match. Yay! Was it worth the wait?

Big musclemen battle it out.

Of course, Mr. Volkov hasn’t changed a bit in the three years since I reviewed his match against Damien Rush in November 2015 (review here) as the videos were filmed together, but let me refresh your memory on the highlights ...

Vasily Volkov is a big boy. Labeled at 6’1”/220-lbs, he looks bigger because of how short most BGEast guys are. He’s all-man, with big muscles, the right amount of beef for wrestling and he can rock a pair of tight trunks. The blond beefcake is quiet, but when he does speak, it’s with a clear accent and manly determination.

Fitting the fact that he’s facing a big muscleboy, Austin Cooper is very Frey in this appearance. What do I mean? He’s the cocky rookie wrecker. The omnipresent superstar is confident that his carefully honed skills will more than compensate for the size differential. After all, he’s faced and beaten bigger rookies at Thunders. I like the pairing, because he knows how to work with new big guys and help them look great.

Muscle meet big boot.

Austin shows the rookie his power.

Love Vasily's big body.

As anyone who follows this blog can tell, I’m a little OCD. I like organization and order. Series, labels, character cards, formats. It’s all about creating order for readers and me. In this way, BGEast is the only video company that really thinks like me. They like to place everything into consistent and easy to understand series that help us buy smarter.

Why does this matter? Well, it’ll help as I describe this video, which is labeled Ringwars, but is borderline Hunkbash. Frey Austin is ready to go right from the start. He dupes the big man and pretty much owns him. It’s technically not a squash, as Vasily does have his moments and even gets a submission. However, it feels like one. Not that I’m complaining. Volkov makes an amazing muscle jobber and Frey Austin is a skilled dominator.

Turns out Austin has a big foot, too.

Vasily's strong.

But Austin's got skills.

Action-wise, I liked it a lot. Some guys don’t like bigger guys losing, but it all makes total sense here. Skill beating size is a classic story and the guys play it perfectly. The wrestling is mostly smooth. The performances sell everything. And it’s all sexy. Vasily looks amazing put on display and he’s got enough fire to make things interesting. When he reversed things, I believed it. When things are reversed, I believed it.

Vasily's learning why Austin's the rookie wrecker.

Beg for mercy, big guy.

Not so big now.

In the end, I enjoyed Vasily’s long-awaited (by me, at least) return. Frey Austin is a good choice of opponent for him, because he’s used to dealing with rookie muscle and elevating their performances. If enjoyed seeing the blond beefcake dominate, but I’ll admit that I preferred him as a victim in this one (which is fortunate because that’s what he is 80% of the time).

So that’s my take. What’s yours?

Alex