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.

2016 Cavey Awards: Wrestlers

Welcome to the 2016 Cavey Awards.

The coveted Cavey

A year ago, I handed out my inaugural Cavey Awards to my favorite wrestlers, matches and producers. I was really happy with how it all turned out, so I definitely wanted to continue. Now, I have made some changes, but nothing too dramatic.

I am still calling the winners "Favorites" rather than "Best". I feel like "Best" sounds like an objective measure that can be argued, but someone's "Favorites" is clearly personal, subjective and can't legitimately be debated. Questioned, maybe, but not argued.

The rules stay the same. For each category, I have (a) watched the wrestler in action, (b) seen the match, or (c) purchased something from the producer. Only videos I watched for the first time between 12/1/15 - 11/30/16 are eligible, regardless of when it was released or purchased.

Now, on with the show ...

Review: Tak vs. Eagle (Thunders Arena)

Did you know that Tak stands for The All-American Kid? At least it did. In Tak vs. Eagle from Thunders Arena, the trim blond wrestler explains that he's promoted himself to The All-American King, but Eagle isn't convinced. He calls him The All-American Child and The All-American Baby. Of course that latter one would be Tab, but when you look like Eagle, nobody cares about little things like acronyms.

Tak and Eagle have some fun to start their match

Quick Hit: Tak vs. Talon (Thunder's Arena)

I made this a quick hit because you likely already know if you will like this match or not. Tak and Talon are established wrestlers in Thunders Arena with strong and consistent track records. I don't think you will be surprised by either of them in this match.

If you like what they do, you will like this. If you don't, you won't. I do, so I did. There, review pretty much done, so enjoy the GIFs and images.

Boys being boys

Review: Tak vs. Mogly (Thunders Arena)

Thunders Arena is pretty open about who sells and who doesn't. On the site, they were listing best sellers, including the best sellers by month. On their Tumblr they post about not bringing guys back because they don't sell.

So Tak must sell pretty well, because he's been around a long time and starred in over 40 videos. And I've bought 16 of them, so I'm obviously a fan. In the vast majority of those videos, he's the smaller guy who gets manhandled by a bigger bodybuilder type. It makes sense, given that he's listed at a lean 5'10" and 156-lbs. While there are a lot of guys shorter than him, there aren't many lighter.

Tak earns his frequent flier miles

Review: Jersey vs. Tak (Thunder's Arena)

If the blog feels a little heavy on Thunder's Arena content, all I can say is that it could be worse. I'm actually still making my way through my summer purchases from Thunder's Arena. They definitely have earned the lion's share of my dollars in 2015. Take note competitors ... they did it with a great roster of studs, volume of releases, frequent discounts and easy downloads.

As for this match, Jersey vs. Tak was definitely a purchase driven by the studs more than anything else. Jersey and Tak are personal favorites of mine, both ranking high in my top five most enjoyable Thunder's Arena wrestlers of all-time.

Tak: "Round two only advised for non-pussies."
Jersey: "What? Where does it say that?"

Review: Marco x 2 (Thunder's Arena)

(Originally posted on New Stories 6/12/15, prior to the arrival of Jersey)

I have to start this by saying that Thunder’s Arena is hit-or-miss for me. I've bought 25 matches from them over the years, so I feel like that’s a decent sample size. Certainly enough to make a judgment.

They always have a great selection of hot guys. The pics, clips and descriptions sell hard. The matches are fun and light in tone, but often the action is often sub-par. The camera work and editing aren’t always the best.

My biggest challenge is that the value is tricky. It’s tough for me to justify over $30 for 20-minute videos where you can have 5 minutes of posing and/or nonsense. I saw that they have a new ring match for $35. If they can get it, good for them. I don't begrudge them charging what the market will bear. I, however, will not pay that much for one match.

So for me, it's tough to know what to buy and not regret it. I had basically dropped to only trusting Big Sexy matches, but both he and his matches are long gone from the site.

Right as Big Sexy left, Marco came along. He got rave reviews, he’s hot and I enjoyed an interview he did on a former blog. However, he debuted right when the prices increased. I held off, but I kept checking the site. I was definitely tempted to give him a try. So when they had their recent sale, I bit the bullet and bought a few.

Marco to the rescue?