I love a hot, homoerotic wrestling story. This is self-evident, I realize, but it’s the starting point for this review of BG East’s inaugural “Cosplay” match. I mean, I like hot bodies grappling under pretty much any context, of course. My buttons are reliably pushed simply by the combination of hot hunks battling for domination. But it’s more than just value-added for me when a wrestling match has big, bold personalities, with explicit motivations, telling a story with an introduction, the building of suspense, perhaps a few surprises, and then a satisfyingly decisive conclusion that doesn’t just determine who “wins” but wraps up the drama with clever call backs and the final release of all that suspense.

Honestly, I cued up Cosplay solely on the promise of getting to see Chase Addams and Dante Lesen in the ring. I’ve been a Chase fan from that beginning. His aesthetics are fucking beautiful. When I enjoyed the opportunity to interview Chase at BG East several years ago, he sat there in front of me in wrestling trunks and boots, and I had a hard time keeping myself on task. There’s something about his body that makes me swoon, and it’s not just his award-winning nipples. And gorgeous rookie Dante Lesen literally made me gasp when I saw him walk into the mat room in his debut match. His proportions, his handsome face, and that ass…. Fuck, yeah, so solely on judging the book by its cover, I was always going to pull Cosplay off the shelf and thumb through the pages.

I’m happy to report that Cosplay does more than just showcase the beauty of these two hunks grappling. In fact, it’s a relatively high concept match, which BG East has been producing more of recently. It’s a story-forward homoerotic wrestling match that establishes a little mystery and some significant suspense from the start. Lovely, lovely Dante has eagerly signed on to a meet-up with veteran wrestling heel and blossoming kinkster Chase, to get them both in the mood before showing up at Folsom-themed festival. In the interest of transparency, I should say that I’ve only admired gay cosplay from a distance, and I’ve absolutely only been a tourist when it comes to Folsom Street Fair and BDSM and leather culture. But Cosplay 1 brings me right along accessibly, pretty immediately and explicitly sorting out the drama of newbie pup hunk Dante needing to get dominated and trained by leather and lace butch queen Chase.

Chase overwhelmingly dominates, which isn’t a surprise. However, I LOVE fierce, brief, little glimpses of Dante on offense. After my interview with Dante, it’s particularly fascinating to watch him dance along that line of bringing it and sucking on it. He sells the fierce young hunk who, sure, wants to be dominated, but needs to be conquered first. So, when Chase conquers him, also delighting in those flashes of Dante’s ferocity, it’s extra sweet. Dante sets the bar high. Chase needs to out-wrestle and control him before he’s going to be willing to get collared. Dante pretty much demands to be punished and pushed to the edge of fear and agony, if Chase is going to earn the right to be his sweaty, sneering alpha. And right there and then, Chase steps into the role with an enthusiasm that I don’t think I’ve ever seen from him before.

Okay, so I should say that I’m NOT a fan of a video so devoted to the concept that the wrestling gets shortchanged. I’ve seen matches like that, and they’ve definitely missed the bullseye for me. But this is Chase fucking Addams, so my wrestling kink is firmly stroked over and over. He snaps on a half a dozen finishing submissions, and I swear Chase looks like he loves the extra challenges and opportunities posed by a superfit 6’3 stud with outrageously high tolerance for pain and seemingly infinite capacity for sucking down physical and erotic humiliation. He uses leg locks and arm bars to maximum effectiveness, exploiting Dante’s long limbs. Scissors, a super sexy leg nelson (a hold I’m growing more and more infatuated with), and a spine tingling lion tamer bring the wrestling that moves me most.

And then, fuck, when Chase rips the singlet off beautiful Dante, the combination of aesthetics and wrestling domination are intoxicating! The rookie’s insanely hot ass becomes the star of the show for me, when he’s stripped to mesh trunks and a jockstrap. He’s a mile long and served up for a fucking when Chase rips him open wide in a spladle. Bound in the ropes to get relentlessly groped, whipped, and molded into a gasping, pleading, obedient hunk pup, Dante’s descent is compelling and so fucking beautiful to watch.

I assume there are wrestling fans who may not get into the leather and lace alpha wrestling queen kinkster that Chase sells convincingly in this match. No judgment from me, but as for me, I’m loving it hard. I love the brutally playful fucking around with masculinity and aggression. There’s a lot of wrestling marketed to gay audiences these days that involves very, very, very, very little that’s all that gay about it. See my comments above about my buttons and enjoying the surface of hot guys wrestling, but FUCK, give me some queer wrestling! Bring the explicit sexiness. Let the guys enjoy each other’s bodies, and ESPECIALLY let them enjoy battling to dominate and control each other’s bodies BECAUSE it’s sexually arousing. If we skim off the foam of all of the not-so-gay-for-pay wrestling fare (again, I’m not judging, and absolutely get off on my fair share of hunks wrestling without a spark of open eroticism), the portion of the homoerotic wrestling productions these days that’s as delightfully homoerotic as Cosplay 1 is pretty tiny.

Which is yet another reason I recommend Cosplay. It’s a provocative, compelling, clever and sexy story well told, and it’s unapologetically homoerotic. If you’re into homoerotic wrestling, and not just how wrestling turns you on, this is an in-your-face delight.