Ringwars 19

It's easy, I guess, to overdose on kink wrestling.  "Too much of a good thing," as they say ....  Speaking for myself, I am far, so far, from jaded, though.  My ardor lags from time to time, but it has not yet chilled.  Typically I'm easy to satisfy, in this matter and in every other matter, but difficult to impress.  That said, I'm more excited about BG East's Ringwars 19 than I have been about anything else for months.  It's got hot new talents--and revelatory showmanship by veterans Alexi Adamov and Caleb Brand.  

Trent Blayze and Jayden Mayne (why all the y's, dudes?) are the newcomers.  Meaty 6'1" Trent is the guy for me.  He's got the shoulder and back muscles I like, and enough of a mean glint in his eyes to hold my interest.  He goes after Mayne, 5'8", 147#, like a pit bull on top of a cat--you can almost hear the rumble of his stomach as his eyes size up his opponent--but do not sell Jayden short.  Mayne looks young, real young, so young it's hard to take him seriously ... until, that is, you see him fired up and gunning for Trent Blayze's ass.  These two hot bloods don't wait for the bell, and the match heats up fast, not even bothering with the customary staggered collar-and-elbow crescendo.   The boys start hot, and things get only more intense with each successive round.  They both have something to prove here and don't waste any time in proving it.  BGE appears to be grooming Mayne, in particular, for big things, but I can see big things potentially popping up for both these competitors.

Elsewhere I have already described Caleb Brand, 5'11", 175#, as a soft-spoken sadist--and his match against Shannon Embry, 6'0", 165#, is no exception.  Brand likes to make his opponents squirm, flinch, moan, and, if possible, weep.  He doesn't have a wide range of facial expressions--a steady intent gaze seems to work for him to convey every emotion he wants to get across.  He works his foes the way a mechanic works an engine or a surgeon snips through flesh and bone.  He's all business in the ring.  And there's nothing personal in it for him either--for the right amount of cash Brand will put the hurt on anybody and everybody.  It's no spoiler, then, to tell you that Embry takes a beating here--again and again--with hardly a break for the poor guy to climb up for oxygen.  Methodically Brand breaks Embry down, till by the middle of the match, Embry is in no shape to escape or defend himself, much less pose a decent offense--and once the man is totally helpless, Brand takes a sinister delight in tormenting the guy to the limits of human endurance.

Last, we see Alexi Adamov, 6'1", 183#, in a match shot earlier in his career, his early dues-paying days, before he had ever won a match.  With typical deadpan nihilism, Adamov states early on that he hasn't met any "nice guys" at BGE--they have all been badasses, every one.  And he's not complaining, just stating plain fact unemotionally.  This is something of a key transitional match for Adamov, fighting big mouth Nick Naughton, 5'11", 205#, and for the first time showing some balls (I speak figuratively), at one point hanging from a beam to scissors Naughton's head.  Naughton is standing, with Adamov's powerful thighs squeezing his head like a boa constrictor on a coconut.  Most exciting of all is what looks very much like a shoot between Adamov and Naughton in Round 2, as the boys interrupt the usual choreography to engage in five minutes of hard, unscripted mat wrestling--and each is about five times the grappler you might have expected him to be.

Everybody's tastes are different, of course, but, for my money, Ringwars 19 is a classic right from the start.  I'd say that, if I could buy only one wrestling video in 2011, it would be this one.  Hands down.  I kid you not.  Do I look like I'm joking?