Six Years

In my fifth anniversary post, I ended with a prediction ...

"I do feel a break coming with stories. I think that I can get to #200 on June 1st ..."

I can't really call that prescient, since I control my ability to write the stories and my 200th story actually posted 6/15 (there was an unanticipated fan story in there on 5/1). However, I was right. I could feel I was hitting a wall and that was before COVID messed up the world. I actually made it to #202 before taking August off. I returned for one story on September 4th. It was four months before the next story appeared on January 1st, followed by one on February 1st.  So I'm up to 205 with 12 stories posted in year six.

My 200th story jumped 20 years into the future ...

I consider this post simply an acknowledgement of my sixth year. It's not been a year to celebrate but I did accomplish a few things. 80 posts. 12 stories. The aforementioned milestone of my 200th story, a look into the (possible) future of The Cave boys. Cody and Jae are happily married with a son, Jody. Thrice-divorced Ryan has three sons of his own, Liam, Rory and Brian. Xaq is a famous designer and one of many play uncles to Jody. Ben's CLAW is the biggest wrestling promotion in the world. Jeff is wrestling royalty, one of the best in the world. And no mention of Pete, as readers pointed out. So things look great two decades (Cave time) from now on most fronts.

I'm not going to post numbers, since this year was such a crapfest. They feel a little meaningless. Obviously visits dropped significantly with no new content. It's rebounding now that I'm posting again. I'm not going to name favorite wrestlers or matches, since I just did that in January with my 6th Cavey Awards.

Instead, I'm going to post a few NEW images from my sixth year.

I often mention that I pull more images than I use. In fact, I have a whopping 105 unused GIFs in year six alone. I thought it'd be fun to share a sampling of those that didn't make it into my reviews for one reason or another. Sometimes, they don't fit the story I am trying to tell. Sometimes, they're redundant. Sometimes, they just don't look the same on the blog as they do on my computer. But for whatever reason, I chose to go a different way at the time.

This UCW match had a lot of hot action, but I
decided to only show Cole getting dominated.

It was definitely tough to leave GIFs
like these out of my review.

I love seeing Johnny on his knees, but
this GIF was similar to the no-sell one.

I think casual Cason is fun to see
but there were better action shots.

Another storytelling GIF ... love this during
the match but it wasn't top ten material.

Great move and nice butt shot but I had
better GIFs that delivered the same things.

Awesome selling ... so close to the final review.

A high-quality slam with a high-quality sell
 ... I cannot remember why didn't I pick it.

There's actually a better piledriver
and sell (IMO), so this felt redundant.

Not posting this was a mistake. I posted three
nearly identical shots for some weird reason.

Cameron makes Graham kiss the refs' boots
but I already showed him kissing Cameron's.

I'm sure that this was tough choice,
because I love it now.

This didn't make the review because I did a
thing with lyrics but I know I've used it since.

Gorgeous body shot, but not the best GIF.

No idea how this didn't make the cut.
I'm having blogger's remorse on a lot of these.

More great selling from Cameron. This
match could've had 20 GIFs. So perfect.

I'm pretty sure I didn't post this
because it comes late in the match.

With action-packed matches,
I restrict myself to early action.

I think I was into Johnny Greco suffering,
so this one didn't fit the visual narrative.

Cameron vs. Mighty Vinny had too much
hot action if this didn't make it. 

Thanks for sticking with my blog. Thanks for the supportive messages. I appreciate you all!

Onto year seven! 

Alex