The Cave 2021: Look Forward

My theme right now is "look forward".

I am looking forward to a lot of things. It seemed like this nightmare might never end. While everything is pretty much the same, there is stuff I can look forward to and I hope that you can, as well. I won't go into my life, since we've all dealt with the same circumstances to different degrees, but it's been busy and stressful on the work and family side, same as most of you, I expect. 

I appreciate all the concern. I am surprised but appreciative. It is not something I anticipated, so it's not something I prepared for. I'll be honest, it didn't really occur to me that people would worry or even care. Writers and bloggers disappear all the time and I've never particularly fretted it. At least not to the point of worrying. Maybe that makes me a bad person. I have good friends that I only connect with once a year so it's not just y'all. I guess I'm just used to long stretches of silence.

Anyway, it makes me feel good that folks would care but a little guilty that I just cut myself off from this part of my life so completely. I have not looked at this blog, any other blog, any wrestling videos, or my gmail in months. Still haven't gone into gmail. I did find some spam comments here and deleted them this week when I knew I'd have a new story coming. Hopefully nobody was gullible enough to click on them.

Since some of you do care, let me confirm that I am healthy. Actually, healthier. I turned my commuting time into workout time and have lost weight, getting to a number I haven't seen since I put on the "Frosh 15" and never looked back. No COVID or anything like that. No major concerns. Some depression for the first time in my life but nothing I'd consider extreme. 

Looking forward to the blog ...

There are more unknowns than knowns. I did not post yesterday's story with some grand plan in mind. Compared to how planned I've been in the first five years, that's how unplanned I am right now. I have a couple more stories started. I'm thinking about posting on the first of each month, rather than the 1st and 15th. Unless I get more momentum. Reviews are up in the air as well. I've just watched my first video in months and have a small backlog to catch up on then actually grab images, GIFs and write my thoughts.

2020 Caveys

I don't know exactly how or exactly when these will return but I do plan on doing them. The Oscars are moving two months, so surely my little awards can, as well. They will happen but I need to catch up on the last three months of videos, maybe post a few reviews of candidates. I'm thinking late January.

Mindsweeper Mondays

I don't know exactly how much I will be posting but I will have two stories every month for the next two years at least. A couple of Mondays every month, I will post an older wrestling or superhero story from the old Mindsweeper site.

I've loaded 57 wrestling stories in about 50 posts through the end of 2022. These are all from an old Yahoo! Group that started as a multi-author teen wrestling story group then morphed into a series about college age men. There's no sex in any of them but I still think they're interesting. They're not meant to replace the content on the blog, just add to it. I'm looking at the superhero stories now to mix them in, too.

That's all I know.

Thanks again for sticking with me for the past few months of silence. Months? It feels like years.

Happy new year,

Alex

The Cave Undercard 31: Kraken vs. Young Love

The Cave Arena. Hallway.

“Well, I guess there’s no talking your friends out of this, Xaq.”

“I told you, Cody. They love taking on big muscle like me. It’s why we’re friends. And it’s why I recommended this match as soon as I saw Paul.”

“Uh huh. I just usually like to ease guys into The Cave. Kraken is a rookie but he’s definitely not the easy way in.”

Kraken (Paul)

Review: Brad Honeycutt vs. Nick Milani (MBW)

Full disclosure: This video was sent to me by Muscleboy Wrestling.

Okay, I'm going to start with another aside. I dislike Blogger's new interface for posting. To me, it's an example of folks trying to justify their existence and changing things simply to change them. It is free and I make them zero money, so I try not to look a gift horse in the mouth. It's just that so far, it seems worse in every way. I can't think of one actual improvement that I've found so far. Ugh.

Glad to get that off my chest. Now, let's get to business. And that business is wrestling. Specifically, Brad Honeycutt vs. Nick Milani. Luckily, this video isn't disappointing. It's actually quite good.

Brad and Nick tussle on the mats.

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.

Labor Day

This year has been a lot of work, so let's really recognize Labor Day. This is for all the wrestlers who work hard for our pleasure.

This year's song is the classic Sixty Minute Man by Billy Ward and his Dominoes, 1951

Sixty-minute man, sixty-minute man

Encounters: Labor Day

Pre-Match.

“Fuck. Time’s movin’ slower than a possum in the sun.”

The waiting really is the hardest part. The morning went fast enough. I laid out the mats, hung one up on the outside wall of the stone shed. Inside the shed is ready for post-match fun. I put out a cooler with water. Towels. We’re gonna sweat. Actually ironed my gear for the first time ever to look extra crisp. Set up a camera. We’re both gonna wanna remember this one.

Come on, man. I’m ready.

No New Story Today

Guys,

Well, it’s happened. I did not compete a new story in time, For over 5 years, I kept a regular schedule with a new story on the 1st and 15th. I won’t claim this was planned. Work has been very stressful for the past two weeks. I have a story started, but just couldn’t  get the motivation to work on it. So, I’m not sure when I’ll get back with stories but I do plan to do it soon.

I didn’t want to leave people wondering or worrying. Everything is fine in the larger scale. Just busyness and business got in the way.

Alex