Review: Ty Alexander vs. Ray Naylor (BGEast)

First, please let me start with an aside. For those of you that read my most recent story (Encounters: Labor Day), you know the story and the inspiration. A big ginger stud (in a white singlet for part of it) faces a hairy dom (inspired by Bull Barrett). In fact, the original story had the narrator moving to England, but I changed the base model to be Maxon, which kept him stateside.

Anyway, three days later on actual Labor Day, Bull Barrett (@bullybarrett) replied to a tweet by a 6'4"/260-lbs Australian stud named Northside Giant (@NGiant86), who was modeling his brand new white singlet. They had some back-and-forth about a meeting on the mats and I was immediately, "Cool, that's just like my story!" What a fun coincidence.

Review: Ty Alexander vs. Kenny Star (BGEast)

In the past, I've done special posts on or around July 4th, including red-white-and-blue trunks, Wade Cutler and "fireworks". Last year, I was on vacation in the two weeks prior so I missed it, but I did share vacation pics from Alaska. This year, I wasn't sure what to do, so I chose a regular review. There is a little bit of fortuitous wardrobing as Ty Alexander comes to the mats wearing appropriately themed trunks and shoes.

Ty makes this video somewhat themed for the day.

Review: Axel vs. Ty Alexander (UCW)

Ty: "So what are the rules for this again?"
Axel: "Um, there are no rules. No rules at all."

Now, this was a very pleasant surprise. I never expected Ty Alexander to pop up in UCW, even though it makes perfect sense now that I've seen this match. He and Axel have wrestled before, so there is that connection. While he's made a great shift onto the indie scene with a lot of bookings (pre-pandemic, of course), I'll always be happy to see him in our neck of the woods.

Welcome to UCW, Ty.
Hope you survive the experience.

Review: Elite Eliot vs. Ty Alexander (BGEast)

I hope all of you are safe and well. Week one of working from home was weird, but I do feel grateful to have a job that I can do remotely, unlike 70% of the workforce. Pro wrestlers are not so lucky, with virtually all indie pro action cancelled for the foreseeable future. Based on their Twitter feeds, guys are coping in different ways, some well, some not, but we'll see how it all shakes out.

While there's no new action happening live, there is new action featuring indie pros coming from the vaults of gay wrestling videos companies.

Let's stay positive, guys.

Randomness 3: Twitter/Tumblr

Following up on the post from 2 weeks ago, here is more social media fun.

Pro Wrestlers ...

Adam Page ... his All-Elite debut didn't go exactly as planned, but he did turn the Full Gear Challenge around. I was disappointed in a body-shaming angle, especially for a guy who's so fucking hot already, but it ended up with a message that any shape can be Full Gear shape. With that out of the way, I'm looking forward to him winning the AEW belt. He'll look great with gold around his waist. #allelite

Review: Ty Alexander vs. Jordi Gabana (BGEast - Wrestling with Pride)

For some reason, the Pet Shop Boys' Shameless got stuck in my head after watching this particular BGEast battle of the butts. The 1993 song was ahead of its time as it's perfect for the reality show/YouTube/Instagram era. And it's perfect for a match featuring these two aspiring superstars as they strut, flaunt and go for broke to impress each other, the fans and ultimately, us at home.

These two could be in a left vs. right Twix ad.

Randomness 2: Twitter/Tumblr

The last time I did a 'Randomness' post was October of 2017. I decided to do a couple this month for fun and because I'll be on a two-week vacation.

Social media and vacation-themed!

Twitter is my go-to source for images and inspiration, so most of these images are found there. It's the only social platform that I post on and visit daily (@AlexWrestler68). I don't really like Instagram and don't even get me started on Facebook. I follow mainly sports, wrestlers, wrestling commentary and a couple of porn guys that I like. I've tried to avoid politics and craziness, but admittedly sometimes it still finds you.

Gold

Gold isn't just for award statues. It's for faces and heels, dominating and jobbing. Check out these golden winners from the wrestling world and my choices (not predictions) for Oscar gold ...

Best Picture:
Bohemian Rhapsody 

PSA: 2019 Besties Voting Is Open (BGEast)

It's awards season at BGEast. I'm sure that many of you vote for the Besties, the annual recognition of fan favorites at BGEast. Last year, I shared my Besties nominations (not votes) with you in a very popular post. I couldn't do that this year, as I wasn't invited to participate. It's just as well. I haven't seen a ton of these nominees.

What earned my vote in 2018?

Review: Ty Alexander vs. Brendan Byers (BGEast)

BGEast is launching catalogue 132 soon. The first videos are up on the Arena, starting with a new Ringwars compilation. It's a winner with four superstars (Ty Alexander, Josh Goodman, Lane Hartley and Kid Karisma) in action, plus two popular hunks (Brendan Byers and Joe Robbins). I've already watched two of the matches and both are good.

I'll review Lane Hartley vs. Kid Karisma soon, but I watched Ty Alexander vs. Brendan Byers first, so I'm reviewing it first.

Past faces present and the future looks great.

Review: Chet Chastain vs. Ty Alexander (Wrestler4Hire)

My next two reviews are related, featuring two Chet Chastain cage matches from Wrestler4Hire. Both are squashes and both should be popular with fans of squashes. I'm posting about them in order, so first up is Chet Chastain vs. Ty Alexander.

It's all coming up Chet in this one.

Happy Labo(u)r Day

Let's celebrate all the hard-working wrestlers out there ...

He works hard for the money;
so hard for it, honey.

July 4th 2018.

I've come to learn that there are a few iconic things about July 4th, US Independence Day. Flag-related showiness. Barbecuing. And fireworks. As I thought about what to post this year, I've done the flag thing before. I couldn't figure out how a food topic is relevant. Then I realized that wrestling has its own type of fireworks. I can celebrate with those.

So here you go ... wrestling fireworks. Dig in!

Matches can start with fireworks.
(Bruno LaBestia vs. Ty Alexander - BGEast)

Or end with them.
(Ethan Slade vs. Santiago - MBW)

Review: Ty Alexander vs. Toney Rico (BGEast)

I've finished watching the Ty Alexander Wrestling Spotlight. We take a big leap forward in time. From the twinky jobber Ty to beefed up Trophy Boy Ty, the compilation features a great range from complete squash to a mostly squash to a truly competitive match. So they're all cool, but Ty Alexander vs. Toney Rico features my favorite Ty incarnation at BGEast.

Question is, can the match live up to my lofty expectations?

The Trophy Boy fulfills his potential

Review: Ty Alexander vs. Jakeno Enzi (BGEast)

I'm moving forward in time in my Ty Alexander Wrestling Spotlight reviews. Ty vs. Jakeno Enzi is the first match on the BGEast compilation, but looking at Ty, I was pretty sure it's the second one filmed, so it's the second one I watched.

Unlike Ty vs. Austin, I went into this with literally no expectations. I didn't even recognize Ty’s opponent by name and OTA’ed this pre-catalogue release. I didn't even plan to review it, since the other two videos seemed more interesting. However, after watching it, I just really wanted to write about it. Why? I figured if I was overlooking it, you might, too.

It's a mismatch when young Ty faces tough guy Enzi.

Review: Ty Alexander vs. Austin Cooper (BGEast)

Ty: "Austin Cooper? I'm not impressed. I thought you'd be taller." 

Austin: "Yeah? I thought you'd be smarter."

Ty Alexander got his first Spotlight on this latest BGEast catalogue. I figured I'd eventually check out all three matches, so I OTA'ed it. This compilation runs through three different Ty's - early, middle and recent. He's got one superstar opponent and two far less famous dudes with only five total matches between them.

I decided to start with the second match, which is obviously the oldest of the three. It features the superstar - THE Austin Cooper. I didn't choose this because it's Austin, though. I chose it because I figured chronological order was the best way for me to experience this Spotlight, even if BGEast put it in a different order.

Even in this early match, Ty has his cocky attitude.

Review: Ty Alexander vs. Bruno LaBestia (BGEast)

Continuing on with the second BGEast match I VOD’ed from Ringwars 28, checking out Ty Alexander vs Bruno LaBestia was a no-brainer. Unfortunately, I watched this after I submitted my BESTIES nominations, but luckily other voters didn't as it made the top six for Sexiest Match and Best Overall Match (vote on the BESTIES here).

Bruno and Ty know what they want right from the start.

Review: Ty Alexander vs. Steve Mason (BGEast)

It's been about a year since I've been interested in more than three matches from a new BGEast catalogue, but the new catalogue 123 has four that I'm quite interested in seeing and three more I'm semi-interested in. Naturally, the ones I want most aren't available on VOD, yet. BGEast always seems to know which matches I'm most interested in and puts them up last. Perhaps it's an illusory correlation, but this time it's true.

While I wait, I decided to check out Ty Alexander vs. Steve Mason from catalogue 122. This wasn't on my initial list as it feels like I haven't bought a Wrestleshack match in a decade or more, but I like Ty and Steve seems cute, so I decided to give it a try. So how'd it go?

Steve's a handful for a dominant Ty.

Review: Tristan Baldwin vs. Ty Alexander (W4H)

Tristan: "Usually I leave 'em sweating, crying and cumming. You're doing neither for me right now, which tells me it's gonna have to get a little fucking rougher."

Let's celebrate the heel-jobber today with two of the best ... Tristan Baldwin and Ty Alexander. As we look at their match from Wrestler4Hire, in theory it's great when two of my favorite wrestlers get it on. However, this is a "My Nuts, Bro" video, which doesn't really excite me. And yet, the matchup is a particularly interesting combination and was simply too much to pass up streaming. These aren't two guys who I think of together, so it just intrigued me to see where it'd go.

Tristan: "You wanna play that game?
I'll make a man outta you."

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 ...