2019 Cavey Awards: Matches

It's day two for the 5th Annual Cavey Awards.

Review: Kirk Donahue vs. Dimitri (BGEast)

Kirk Donahue vs. Dimitri is the second match on his Wrestler Spotlight, the last one I watched, and the most recent filmed match. It must have been done around Wrestling with Pride 2, because both guys appear there and Kirk has his old-timey villain mustache. That means we're getting the most experienced Kirk Donahue and it shows as he's cocky, competitive, and confident in his skills.

It's my finale from Kirk Donahue's Spotlight.

Review: Kirk Donahue vs. Elite Eliot (BGEast)

I'll state this right upfront. The images in this review of Kirk Donahue vs. Eliot Elliot might be deceiving. Kirk Donahue gets lots of time on top, but you will see almost none of it here. And so, let me say that Kirk is not squashed. However, his suffering is what I most remember, so it is what I pulled for this review. While both guys are very skilled, I think they're at their best and have the most chemistry (and they have a ton) as a babyface jobber (Kirk) and nasty heel (Elite Eliot). 

Kirk's more experienced, but can he handle this heel?

Review: Kirk Donahue vs. Kid Karisma (BGEast)

Kirk Donahue earns the BGEast honor of his own Wrestler Spotlight. One of the characteristics that I think makes a good Spotlight is showing a wrestler's range. It could be win/loss, location, style, persona, whatever. Just something that avoids the compilation ending up as three identical matches. I plan to watch all three matches, but today, I'm just focusing on Kirk Donahue vs. Kid Karisma.

And this, boys and men, is how you earn a Spotlight.

Review: Ace Aarons vs. Kirk Donahue (BGEast)

Half of the wrestlers from Wrestling with Pride 1 return to face off in Wrestling with Pride 2. However, Ace Aarons vs. Kirk Donahue is the only match that SPOILER ALERT features a winner from last year's event. It actually SPOILER ALERT features two! Ace and Kirk return, putting their 1-0 records on the line. One of these men will have the best record at WWP.

Kirk decides to see if Ace's bulge is award-worthy.

Review: Calvin Haynes vs. Kirk Donahue (BGEast)

When it comes to heel turns, I feel like a good guy jobber just finally snapping is one of the classic tropes. He loses and loses then finally says, “Screw this, I’m done playing by the rules. I’m gonna do what it takes to win!” This happens a lot in tag teams when one partner just loses it and beats the crap out of his partner. It’s fun. Unless you’re the guy’s first victim.

In our part of the pro wrestling world, there are many guys switch back-and-forth from good guy to bad guy or dominant to jobber, but usually there’s no reason why. Brad Rochelle’s turn in The Contract series is the only guy I can think of who’s clearly played this out. Now, there’s another with Calvin Haynes vs. Kirk Donahue.

It's nice guy jobber vs. nice guy jobber ... or is it?

Review: Chase Addams vs. Kirk Donahue (BGEast)

Here I am, going out of order in my viewing. I still haven't watched the Pride Center matches from the BGEast event, while this supposedly happens after that. I actually OTA’ed the event, figuring some of it is going to a good cause. Although now that I type that, I realize that I'm not sure if that's actually true or not. Oh well, it's not like I was going to declare it as a charitable donation on my taxes. Point is that it seems to have removed my sense of urgency. VODs you need to deal with immediately. OTAs not so much.

Instead of watching the Pride Center event, I've gotten distracted by a couple of related matches from this latest catalogue. Although this compilation references the big event, Chase Addams vs. Kirk Donahue isn't a direct continuation of the Pride Center event. In fact, Chase isn't even on that card, but I guess he was in town and wanted a shot at Kirk. And frankly, who wouldn't? The jobber is simply fantastic at what he does.

Kirk Donahue heads from the pro show to a private
submission battle against Chase Addams.

Review: Lane Hartley vs. Kirk Donahue (BGEast)

BGEast's Kirk Donahue vs. Lane Hartley match is exactly what you think it is. It's entirely predictable, built off common pro wrestling tropes. That's neither good nor bad, because it all comes down to execution. There are good pro vs. joe squashes and there are bad ones. It comes down to the performances, the action and the production.

Luckily, this one is good on all three, so if this is your type of match, you'll like it.

Big pro Lane shows wannabe Kirk the ropes.

BOTWS 2: BGE v RHW v Thunders Part 5 of 6

And here we are for the first half of the final day of season 2. These six Day 3 matches will decide who wins bragging rights. Defending champ Rock Hard Wrestling has a big hill to climb, but nothing is impossible. Thunders is definitely in the driver's seat. And of course, you can never count BGEast out.

Battle of the Wrestling Stars 2: Part 1

Battle of the Wrestling Stars 2: Part 2

Battle of the Wrestling Stars 2: Part 3

Battle of the Wrestling Stars 2: Part 4

Battle of the Wrestling Stars 2: BGE vs. RHW vs. Thunders Part 1 of 6

Welcome to Season 2 of Battle of the Wrestling Stars. I was motivated to finish this by a recent comment on an old post and the return of Battle of the Network Stars to TV on ABC.

The original series pitted Rock Hard Wrestling against UCW. It was originally posted on the New Stories blog back in June 2015 and then re-posted (starting here) at The Cave in September 2015. It was inspired by the 70’s TV show and an e-mail exchange with Joe from Ringside at Skull Island about a comment he made.

It was a hard-fought, five-match, three-day affair that went down to the wire with then-King of the Ring Dash Decker eking out a victory in the third fall vs. then-UCW champion Quinn Harper.

In BOTWS 1, Dash Decker won the day for RHW.
Can he do it again?

Season 2 is even bigger, with RHW returning, plus two more producers. It’s a week-long, 18-match extravaganza. This time, RHW faces BGEast and Thunders Arena. Each selected stud will wrestle twice. It was developed as a three-day event, but it is so big, so monumental that it's being split into six posts posted over the next 8 days.

Review: Carter Alexander vs. Kirk Donahue (BGEast)

There's a Seinfeld episode where Jerry dates someone that he sees as attractive, but everyone else in the show sees as a loser. I don't claim that this is exactly what's happening with Carter Alexander, but it sure seems like he's under-appreciated.

Bloggers love him, but producers and fans don't seem as enamored. No year-end nominations from the muckety-mucks at BGEast. My review of his match vs. Kid Karisma was my lowest viewed BGEast review of 2016 for a long time (that honor now belongs to the more deserving Trent Blayze vs. Mike Pitt, which was all kinds of disappointing). And as far as I know, he only has one other match at one other company (he's Wrestler4Hire's Jake Steele). Geez, what gives?

Maybe it's just me, but I'm a huge fan after just three matches. Now, those were against superstars Jake Jenkins, Kid Karisma and Brad Barnes (at W4H). Did they elevate his performance? I could see that happening. Regardless, this was the first match I decided to watch from the new Backyard Brawl compilation, choosing it over Kid Karisma vs. Chace LaChance and Jonny Firestorm vs. Christian Taylor. So you know I'm on the case.

Yes, please. This is THE best Backyard Brawl.

Review: Kirk Donahue vs. Zach Reno (BGEast)

The second match I watched from BGEast's "Babyface Brawl" (or as I call it, "Jobbers Gone Wild") is Kirk Donahue vs. Zach Reno. This video really lives up to the premise, giving these prominent punching bags a great platform to show what they can do beyond suffer. The action is even better than Biff v Chet and I was really impressed by two guys who're not usually high on my list.

Zach: "Don't put your head too close to this one,
you'll knock yourself out."