Review: Cameron Matthews vs. Jonny Firestorm (BGEast)

It's usually a bad sign when a movie or comic book is endlessly delayed. Being put on the shelf is the worst sign because you just know it's a complete dud. At some point, it gets released for contractual reasons, not because anyone believes in it. BGEast consistently challenges this entire premise by filming great matches with all-star talent then putting them on the shelf for years and decades.

Maybe I need to view these matches differently. Think of them as fine wine, because Jonny Firestorm vs. Cameron Matthews has aged amazingly well. 

Jonny starts this classic fast -
attacking Cameron right away!

Review: Jonny Firestorm vs. Zach Reno (BGEast)

Zach Reno is certainly "having a moment" as people used to say a few years ago. He showed up a few years back as a lean and very hairy hunk, but in limited matches. Now, it feels like he's everywhere. In December alone, I've seen him at three different places. All with different looks and all in really good matches. He's not even jobbing, showing up in back-and-forth battles and even winning occasionally. I love it.

Jonny helps Zach keep his momentum going.

Review: Jonny Firestorm vs. Joe Robbins (BGEast)

When BGEast first teased their new catalogue (139), I knew right away that I wanted Jonny Firestorm vs. Joe Robbins. Of all the matches on there, it was the main one that I fixated on, which is weird because, no offense to him, I've never been a Joe Robbins fan. He's big and handsome, but he's never wowed me. The few times I've seen him, he seemed too cool for school and like he's going through the motions.

What sold me on this video is Jonny Firestorm and the promise of seeing him kick Joe's ass. I knew I'd have to endure the reverse, but I figured that would only make it sweeter. I also knew if anyone could get a great performance out of the big man, it'd be Jonny.

It's okay, Jonny. I know you're
cooking up something good.

Review: Jonny Firestorm vs. Andy Hammer (BGEast)

One of the worst parts of returning from vacation is the mountain of catching up that awaits. I did a great job of populating the blog before I left, but I should've done a week or two after as well. Oh well. It's not like there's nothing to post. After all, I've watched hundreds of videos in my life. Of course, I end up struggling to figure out which one I should post about.

I settled on Jonny Firestorm vs. Andy Hammer from BGEast's Jobberpalooza 8 because it features the amazing Jonny Firestorm in his early days being badass and creative. What more can one ask for?

Let's re-visit an oldie and goodie.

Review: Jonny Firestorm vs. Exavier (BGEast)

While I was looking back, I started with BGEast, because they're the oldest videos that I have. I settled on early Wrestler Spotlights, as they usually had really good matches. I did young Aryx Quinn, so I decided to also cover young Jonny Firestorm. They kind of go together, both living in that coveted insider role, both heels who could job and having had a great match against each other (reviewed here).

I was all set to review the second match on the compilation, but I realized that it's no longer for sale, so it seemed pointless to post about it. Instead, I'm doing the third match, Jonny Firestorm vs. Exavier, which is now second, I guess.

It's an indie pro wrestler battle.

Review: Jonny Firestorm vs. Paladin (BGEast)

When I was thinking about older matches to review, I don’t know why this BGEast match didn’t occur to me first. I’ve used it often enough as a reference point. Jonny Firestorm vs. Paladin might not be a classic for anyone else but it obviously is for me. When I needed characters to ground my BIGBeast series, these guys were perfect. Here’s why I love it and why you might.

This instant rivalry turned into
an instant classic for me.

Review: Trent Blayze vs. Jonny Firestorm (BGEast)

I've been traveling a lot recently, which is a big part of the reason why there's been so much Thunders Arena coverage lately. I loaded up my iPad and caught up on all of Vegas. Conversely, BGEast just isn't convenient on the road. It looks like I basically missed catalogue 128, since VODs for catalogue 129 are now available. I'm okay with that, since there were only a couple of matches I was genuinely interested in (Zip/Z-Man, Mitch/Jobe). Both Bard and Joe reviewed them if you want to know more.

So, I've decided to look forward rather than back. Jonny Firestorm vs. Trent Blayze is one of the new ones I definitely wanted. And it was available early (that seldom happens)! Great. I VOD'ed it on Saturday. How'd it go?

Somebody wishes this was a twenty minute video.

Review: Jonny Firestorm vs. Lane Hartley (BGEast)

For the second year in a row, my Cavey award-winner for Favorite Match also won the Best Overall Match award at the BESTIES. Not that I'm saying the Caveys are responsible. It's just a fact. However, some of my other choices didn't fare nearly as well. Like the match I'm reviewing today. I voted it first for Best Squash on my ballot, but it wasn't even nominated.

I do have a theory on this. Jonny Firestorm vs. Lane Hartley is one part of Custom Combat 2 from BGEast. It's intended to be watched as an interactive DVD where you're deciding the holds and order. So maybe other nominators didn't view it as comparable to more traditional options. Or maybe they chose wrong and didn't make a great squash.

Anyway, as you know, DVD's are not something I do, so I couldn't watch it when it came out almost a year ago. At some point, BGEast made the action available as a non-interactive VOD. That's what I'm reviewing, a linear and one-sided squash. Lucky for you, both Bard and Joe were referencing the DVD version (links at the end of this post). Maybe it'll give you some context on that experience.

Jonny gets on top in his Match with Lane.

2017 Cavey Awards: Wrestlers

Welcome to the third annual Cavey Awards.

I really appreciate every single man who puts himself out there and wrestles for us. And that includes the guys I rave about, the ones I don't and the ones I've never even watched. And I really appreciate every company that releases gay-oriented wrestling videos. All of the wrestlers and producers are amazing and I know that all have fans who would give them an award.

The Caveys are simply my way to recognize a few of MY personal favorite wrestlers, matches and promotions for the year. I use the word ‘favorite’ deliberately. I don't claim these are the ‘best’. That suggests some kind of objective standard and ranking. These are 100% subjective and 100% mine. And I doubt anyone will agree with me on all of these. And that's cool. These are simply my favorites based on my feelings about what I watch this year.

Review: Jonny Firestorm vs. Kirby Stone (BGEast)

No sooner did I upload a review commenting that the matches I want are always last to be uploaded to VOD than I go to BGEast and see two of the matches I want are available. This happened a couple of weeks ago, so I could've changed Sunday's post, but I figured I'd leave it. It was true at the time I wrote it and the broader point stands.

Of the two, I decided to watch Jonny Firestorm vs. Kirby Stone second, but review it first. Why? Well, it's the far better one. More than that, it's great on its own merits. Yes, I expected it to be good, but it's even better than I thought it would be, so I was immediately motivated to pull clips and post.

Jonny and Kirby face off in a intense pro battle.

Review: Jonny Firestorm vs. Christian Taylor (BGEast)

I finally got to the third match from the latest Backyard Brawl video from BGEast. So far, the compilation has been outstanding. In April, I reviewed Carter/Kirk and Karisma/Chace, both matches delivering all I wanted from sexy superstars on the outdoor mats.

So how'd this one go? Is Backyard Brawls 9 a rare trifecta of awesomeness? I think I spoiled that in an earlier review, but if I didn't, the answer is simple. Yes.

Jonny vs. Christian outside on the mats.

Review: Jonny Firestorm vs. Calvin Haynes (BGEast)

Jonny Firestorm vs. Calvin Haynes from BGEast attracted my attention right away. I always consider Jonny matches, but it was his opponent that made this a must-buy. Surprising, since his debut was in a pool match, which normally doesn't interest me at all. I didn't even take notice of hunky Calvin Haynes, but fortunately, Bard wrote a great post about his debut ("Come with Me Big Boy"). I took the plunge, so to speak, and ended up liking the video and the rookie.

As fun as that was, I was more interested to see what the handsome hunk could do in a ring or on the mats. After watching this, I can say he does very well. This is a great ring debut for one of BGEast's hottest rookies of 2016. Hopefully BGEast has Calvin locked up for long time.

Calvin brings the hunk and Jonny brings the bash

Review: Aryx Quinn vs. Jonny Firestorm (BGEast)

Continuing the theme of BGEast heel vs. heel matches, I’m covering this BGEast Arena exclusive featuring two true mega-stars of the underground wrestling scene … Aryx Quinn vs. Jonny Firestorm. (Please note: It looks like this match is not available on the main BGEast website)

Two hot heels

This is a unique kind of heel vs. heel matchup. While both are mostly identified as heels, they're not the undefeated, unstoppable kind of villain. I've been an Aryx Quinn fan since his debut, but I feel like I have more matches where Aryx loses in the end than I do where he wins. Even when he wins, he might get knocked out or have the tables turned on him post-match.

Jonny Firestorm hasn't always been a heel, much less some unstoppable monster. Of course while he has had his moments as more of a face character, I think he's evolved into one of the best heels in the business. Whether as a fresh-faced, clean-cut bad boy or a beefy, hairy badass, Jonny always brings the moves and attitude of a true star.

Review: Jonny vs. Kip (JonnyFirestorm.com)

I've bought quite a few matches from Jonny Firestorm's site. He's a wrestler I've liked over the years, whether as a boyish heel, suffering jobber, giant killer or beefy and hairy bad guy. However, I've missed some of his latest action, with him being mainly in BGEast and there being no option to download. So when he set up his own site with downloads, it was great for me.

I'm definitely a fan of Jonny

Regrettably, I've just seen that he has hiked all his prices up significantly ($50 for one match!), so I'm probably done with his stuff for the foreseeable future.

Review: The Contract Series (BGE)

I wrote several posts for Bard's old Sidelineland blog. I've decided to re-post some of them here, as part of consolidating my content.

Inspiration: A Contract Worth Signing

Like most people, I hate signing contracts. Whether it's for cell phones, cable or the gym, companies love to lock us in then treat us like crap. BGEast is the exception, of course. They have a contract I was happy to sign. Not just once, but a whopping ten times.