Sunday, February 28, 2021

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

14 comments:

  1. Thanks for writing such great wrestling stories with such lovable characters. Personally, thanks for motivating me to write again.

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    Replies
    1. You’re welcome. Motivating you to return is my greatest achievement as a blogger. :)

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  2. As a fellow wrestling blogger, I agree that it's often a tough choice on what to leave out -- especially when there is so much hot action you want to discuss. Sometimes I make a Part 2 when I have over 20 images and none that I can stand to leave out. I'm liking your idea of an occasional gallery of left overs and explanation of why they just didn't make the cut. Your images here are great -- I liked the Pile Drivers, the Body Slams, that front-and-back view of the Single Leg Crab, the low blow. You got me stiff first thing in the morning and motivated to go blog about something myself...

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    Replies
    1. Awesome! I’d love to see some extras. You post so much amazing stuff, so I’m sure the leftovers will be stunning.

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  3. Congratulations! Great gifs!

    I just want to let you know that I follow your blog and always enjoy your posts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I appreciate that. I enjoy your blog, as well.

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  4. Outside of your incredible writing, your support and enthusiasm for the underground wrestling blog community convinced me to make an account so I could interact and comment more on wrestling blogs. I really appreciate that there's a space to discuss underground wrestling together so thank you for helping make it feel so welcoming!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are welcome. And thank you for commenting! That's awesome. Comments are my favorite thing in the world, even the ones that disagree with me.

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  5. Thank you Alex, for six years of service to the underground wrestling community.

    As a fellow blogger, I know how tough it is to narrow content down. For example, I captured 1,954 photos for my latest review, Travis Maverick vs Dirty D and narrowed it down to 10.

    This might seem strange, but I particularly like your gif of Cameron getting slammed into the buckles by Jonny. It's a classic move sold classically!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, I've never pulled that many before ... that feels like every frame! LOL.

      I don't think that's strange at all. I love that move and sell. Such an incredible pro with perfect instincts, even back then when he would've been starting out.

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  6. Alex, I know you do reviews for UCW, but please refrain from giving them your patronage and support. I've talked with plenty of their recruited wrestlers that told me they would be groped or molested off camera by the guys in charge. They would also be threatened with being blacklisted if they didn't allow it to happen. One of the big reasons why their latest recruit, Cole Dallas, isn't returning to UCW and was actively avoiding them. It's important that stuff like this is brought up and spoken about.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hm, I don't really know how to respond. Yes, it's important and if people are experiencing this, it should be talked about. But anonymous commenters might have an axe to grind. I know there's definitely at least one guy who trashes UCW a lot on Joe's site.

      I don't really understand the "blacklist" threat, because blacklisted from what? UCW? Why would they want to return? I'd be surprised if anyone at UCW could keep someone from working elsewhere.

      If you really do speak with Cole Dallas, suggest he try W4H. Lots of indie pros work there and keep coming back.

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    2. Axel works with plenty of other major wrestling sites; 88wrestling, Wrestler4Hire, Muscleboy Wrestling, etc. He definitely has influence over who gets work at other sites. Cole isn't the only guy who isn't comfortable with UCW. If you recall, Chad Daniel did a shoot with them and had the same experience. The guys in charge took advantage of the fact that Chad needed work because he's been financially struggling by trying to make him submissive to their personal pleasures. When he explicitly told them he wasn't comfortable with the off camera fondling and groping, they made it to seem as if he is "difficult to work with." I tried to comment this to Joe at Ringside and that comment disappeared, looks like he might be in on this dark secret UCW houses.

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    3. Hm, well, I still don't really know how to respond to this. I run a little blog for fun about one of my interests. Ugh, this is so heavy. I don't intend to delete the comments, because that can be part of the problem and people can decide what they want to do. However, I have no knowledge of any of this beyond your anonymous comments.

      On the blacklist thing, I will say that I've come around a little. Not because of your comment but I realized that it doesn't really matter if someone can do it or not. That's the wrong question. If someone said that they could blacklist me as a blogger unless I give them a good review, the only question that matters is if I believe that they can do it, not if they actually can do it.

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