2019 BESTIES Ballot: Nominations

Right before Christmas, Kid Leopard sent me a ballot to make nominations for BGEast's annual awards, the 2019 BESTIES. This is my second chance to participate in the nomination process (I do vote every year). I don't know how many people get to nominate, but based on 2017, there must be quite a few so my influence is limited. And BGEast fans make the ultimate call on the winners.

Last time, I made a post about it which was surprisingly popular. I figure you guys enjoy this type of content, so I'll take the risk and share again. I'm kidding on the risk thing. Either Joe or Bard (I can't remember) commented once that they didn't like sharing their votes because people complained and got their feelings hurt. No one said anything to me and the Caveys are a much bolder statement, so I think it'll be okay.

A kiss for good luck then BAM! Cole, Cameron
and their match are well-represented in my votes.

The big difference between the Caveys and the BESTIES is the categories. The BESTIES never change, while mine always do. As well, there are "body" and "moment" awards. I find the body awards really hard to select, because I like so many different bodies. I was way off the last time, as most of my body nominees either didn't make it or didn't do well in the final fan voting. Oh well.

When I completed this ballot, I tried to follow my Caveys' rules and keep things just to 2019. Also like the Caveys, my POV is based on my experiences. I freely admit that I have not seen many 2019 BGEast matches (catalogues 133-140), but I saw enough to make some worthy choices.

So, who'd I vote for?

Matches ...

So many categories and so many possible choices. My favorite BGEast match of 2019 was Cole Cassidy vs. Cameron Matthews, so I nominated it #1 three times. I loved the chemistry in Calvin vs. Kayden, so I hope it gets recognized as a sexy match. The hardest vote for me was Best Mat Battle, as I wasn't really wowed by much on the mats this year (the ring rocked a lot harder, IMO).

1. Sexiest Match

(i) Calvin Haynes vs. Kayden Keller
(ii) Brendan Byers vs. Kayden Keller
(iii) Van Skyler vs. Noah Samson

Calvin and Kayden's playdate
was super-sexy to me. 

2. Best Mat Battle

(i) Chase Addams vs. Mason Brooks
(ii) Ash DeLeon vs. Grant Connors
(iii) Masked Menace vs. Van Skyler

Adorable Ash and beefy Grant
made a great match on the mats.

3. Best Ring Match

(i) Cole Cassidy vs. Cameron Matthews
(ii) Chase Addams vs. Richie Douglas
(iii) Kirk Douglas vs. Elite Eliot

Cole and Cameron combined for my
favorite BGEast match of 2019

6. Best Squash

(i) Cole Cassidy vs. Cameron Matthews
(ii) Chase Addams vs. Noah Samson
(iii) Austin Cooper vs. Vasily Volkov

Call it a Ringwars if you want,
but Austin/Vasily was a total Hunkbash.

15. Best 2019 Overall Match

(i) Cole Cassidy vs. Cameron Matthews
(ii) Chase Addams vs. Richie Douglas
(iii) Kirk Donahue vs. Elite Eliot

This was my favorite Kirk match in his best year ever.

Moments ...

I went with Chase Addams twice for my Best Submission votes. This is an ill-defined category, but I figure that every Chase video has so many innovative, unique submissions that I couldn't go wrong. The Willbreaker alone is worthy of an award. After that, I think that Zach Reno's feisty performance as he gets squashed by Guido Genatto offered a ton of fun submissions, too.

9. Best Submission

(i) Chase Addams vs. Noah Samson
(ii) Chase Addams vs. Richie Douglas
(iii) Guido Genatto vs. Zach Reno

The Willbreaker should be good enough for a
nomination, plus there are way more from Chase.

14. Hottest Liplock

(i) Calvin Haynes - Kayden Keller
(ii) Ace Aarons - Brendan Byers
(iii) Goldenglutes vs. The Assassin

It's only fitting that the sexiest match had the hottest kiss.

Wrestlers ...

The most interesting thing to me with wrestlers (and matches) is whether Cameron Matthews is really eligible, since he's the owner of a competitor. I'm not sure about that, but he was my favorite face wrestler anywhere and his BGEast match was a huge part of that. Ash was so sweet at Wrestling with Pride 2 that I had to name him as a top babyface, too. And Kenny Starr gets several of my votes, even though he didn't really have a signature match this year.

The heels presented the toughest choice. Cole Cassidy had an awesome year with multiple matches, but I stuck with Chase Addams as my number one guy because of his creativity. I expect Kayden Keller and Jonny Firestorm to make the final cut, but to me, they weren't quite as heely as Brendan Byers in 2019.

In my Favorite Promotions post for the Caveys, I commented that I couldn't think of a single BGEast rookie this year and that proved to be true here. None of my "Debut" wrestlers are really rookies, they're just new to BGEast. Still, they all made a splash at Wrestling with Pride 2 then kept the momentum going with nice follow up action. I'll be interested to see who makes the final cut.

4. Top Babyface

(i) Cameron Matthews
(ii) Ash DeLeon
(iii) Kenny Starr

I loved babyface Ash's match at WWP'19

5. Top Heel

(i) Chase Addams
(ii) Cole Cassidy
(iii) Brendan Byers

Chase's creativity must be recognized.

7. Jobber of the Year

(i) Zach Reno
(ii) Noah Samson
(iii) Kenny Starr

Great heels can only reach their potential
with great jobber performances, too.

8. Debut of the Year

(i) Dimitri
(ii) Cody Blayde
(iii) Jordi Gabana

The category is "Debut" not rookie,
so Dimitri was a slam-dunk for me.

Bodies ...

Even though he's a little guy, Van Skyler was hot as fuck this year. He gets my nomination in three body categories (everywhere except in front of his trunks where there are so many impressive ... candidates). I know that I'm tilting at windmills with Calvin Haynes, but I just love love love his body. And Mr. Joshua Goodman bursts out of the BGEast vault, bulging beautifully in yellow on the latest catalogue.

10. Best Abs

(i) Kenny Starr
(ii) Van Skyler
(iii) Carter Alexander

Kenny's chiseled abs showed up in four matches in 2019.

11. Best Bulge

(i) Mr. Joshua Goodman
(ii) Kirk Donahue
(iii) Guido Genatto

Kirk's trunks are packed, but I really appreciate
that he also knows how to flaunt what he's got.

12. Best Butt

(i) Van Skyler
(ii) Ty Alexander
(iii) Calvin Haynes

From every angle, I expect Skyler
to be a leading contender.

13. Best Body

(i) Calvin Haynes
(ii) Mr. Joshua Goodman
(iii) Van Skyler

Van Skyler is little, but mighty.

So that's it. We'll see how many of my choices even make the final ballot. I already can see places where I'll be on an island, but I'm okay with that.

What about you? If you had a ballot, who would you have nominated?

Alex