I totally missed the BG East Besties season this year. Literally, the flu hit me like a ton of bricks last week, and by the time my fever broke and I crawled out of my sweat soaked bed linens with enough working brain cells to engage with the world again, the voting was over and the winners were announced. In past years, I’ve spent weeks obsessing over these awards. I’ve openly lobbied for my slate of nominees from time to time, which, let’s be honest, turned out to be completely uncorrelated with actual votes. I’ve second guessed the nominations process and spread baseless conspiracy theories about vote rigging (just for fun). So, it feels sort of bewildering to discover the entire process played out on its own while I was hacking up a lung and feeling like my head was about to explode.

I’ve enjoyed seeing more lauds and awards for homoerotic wrestling in recent years. Other companies and other bloggers have been calling out their favorites, and I’m here for it. I seldom completely agree, of course. BG East fans never fail to break a different direction from where my fanaticism points me in the Besties, and the shout outs and laurel crowns laid out by other companies and passionate fans and commentators will typically overlap with many of my tastes, but definitely not all of them. Like, there’s that Zach Reno superfan from Wrestlefest NYC last year who regularly lobbies for me to lay down more love for lovely, lovely Zach. Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally dialed into Zach, but I’ll probably never be as devoted as this superfan. But that’s what I love about awards season. As much as it can be invalidating for passionate wrestlers who get overlooked (and I get that), the more shout outs from more perspectives reflecting a greater diversity of tastes and passionate opinions are hopefully getting the word out to wrestlers and producers about the range of what we like. I get my chops busted regularly for having “too narrow” of tastes and interests, but the solution isn’t me pretending to like stuff others like just to put them over. The solution is more praise from more people, more purchases, more enthusiasm and fan-wrestler-producer engagement.

I enjoyed a ton of sensational wrestling in 2025 that entertained and turned me on. In terms of Sidelineland-approved awards and my wrestling infatuations, I’m happy to lend my voice to heaping praise on the hot hunks who turned me on hardest this year. Here are my picks for the body awards:

Best Butt: Mickey Knoxx. I’m an ass aficionado, and 2025 shoved a whole lot of spectular glutes in front of me. I get why Monstah Mike took the Bestie, but for my money, the aesthetics of Mickey Knoxx’ gorgeous ass just can’t be beat. I’d probably pick Joey Mason’s bubble butt for 2nd place for me, but again, the field was rich.

Best Bulge: Bruno. I’m turning to the deep roster at Abs Art on WatchFighters for my pick for best bulge. I’ve been captured by Abs Arts’ turn to more full-on erotic content with their Bruno Extra channel, and getting an unobstructed view of what Bruno is packing has been a highlight of 2025. Second place bulge for me: Beau Jordan. Fuck, that scimitar is hypnotic!

Best Legs: Alexxwrestler. This masked man was haunting my dreams in 2025. His cockiness is an aphrodisiac all on its own, but it’s his gorgeous legs and, especially, how he uses them to wring opponents out like dirty laundry that sends me. Best Body Bestie Winner Chase LaChance gets my second place nod for his gorgeous tree trunks.

Best Body: Bruno. Yeah, 2025 was the year of Bruno-obsession for me. His body just makes me gasp every time I see him. It’s a lot more than the sum of its parts, and watching him use it to wrestle is an absolute fantasy-cum-true. Second place for me is Bruno’s sometimes-partner-in-crime, Roland. Get the two of them in a wrestling ring, and I may quit my job of never get off my computer again.

Pulling the focus back a bit from just the eye candy, there was a whole lot of wrestling in 2025 that made me swoon. In terms of wrestlers doing what wrestlers do best, here’s my list of shout outs:

Favorite Babyface: Dio Characi. Fuck, yes, every day of the week. For the third year in a row, Dio got the Bestie for 2025. He’s such a prototype for what I think of as a babyface… impossibly pretty face, rocking hot bod, with this impish edge-of-naughtiness about him that I can’t tear my eyes away from. And did I mention I met him at Wrestlefest NYC last February?! My second place choice would be Bobby Carter for all of the same reasons.

Favorite Heel: Brendan Byers. Yeah, I totally swing with the rest of the BGE fans who handed the title to Brendan for the second year in a row. In May, I did a retrospective review of Brendan’s debut match against BBW from back in the day, and I’m still in awe of the career arc he’s taken. In 2025, he was a fucking hungry beast. My second place pick is Sir Dark. He defies categorization, but really, let off his leash like he was when he fucking devoured KC Ryder at Wrestlefest Live last year, and I’m hard pressed to think of when I’ve cheered harder for a rabid heel.

Favorite Jobber: Mickey Knoxx. I always feel like I need to apologize for naming someone as a phenomenal jobber, but there’s a whole lot more to being a magnificent jobber than losing. Mickey is a sensational example of that rare art. He’s tough, with a seriously mean edge, fierce and gorgeous, and not idling for a second, deserving again and again the ire, fury, and hungry beating of one opponent after another. My second place is yet another gorgeous Canadian, Ryan Reilly, who I had the distinct pleasure of chatting up at the WrestleFest NYC kick-off party last year. Fuck, how I get off on seeing that boy hurt.

Finally, let me just call out some of the matches that rose to the top of my list. It’s always comparing apples to oranges in these types of shout outs, but again, in the interest of celebrating some sensationally hot wrestling entertainment that dropped in 2025, here I go:

Favorite Match Match: Characi vs. LaChance, BGE’s Wrestleshack 35. It sort of shocks me to agree, yet again, with the majority of BG East fans in calling out his super fun and sexy shack match that I reviewed in June. I adore both of these hunks, and putting together their phenomenal bodies and lush personalities and watching Dio being unable to restrain himself from worshiping and possessing Chase’s award winning body felt so fun, funny, and authentic. My second place mat match is the one I reviewed just a few weeks ago, in which Tarz Lando and Adam Stone get down to business in a semi-private backyard soaked in oil.

Favorite Ring Match: Jordan/Cruz vs Knoxx/Mortis, Wrestlefest NYC Live. This category is suddenly very challenging for me to narrow down, because it’s simply impossible for me to disentangle the thrill of being in the front row of that show from evaluating the relative merits of matches I watched on my computer. It was wild and immediate and sweaty and sexy, and I’m still musing over how homoerotic wrestling needs to see a whole lot more of a Chippendale Stripper Erotic Terminator. Second place is Canuck/Reilly vs MPJ/Bruno from the same show, for many of the same reasons. That classic babyface vs heel tag team beat down was so well told!

Favorite Erotic Match: Knoxx vs Sterling, BG East’s Ruff ‘n’ Raunchy 10. Normally, I’d insist on nakedness to really elevate a match as best erotic wrestling, but fuck, what these boys do in thongs (barely) is totally on fire. Fuck, the sweat, the ravenous lip locks, the possessing and grinding while keeping the battle for domination perfectly on simmer is a work of art. For my second place favorite erotic match, I’m pulling out one I haven’t yet reviewed, but I promise I will. Yjrgn vs Twinkfighter on WatchFighters is some of the hottest, most unapologetically mean-erotic wrestling I’ve seen in a long time. These guys go at it hard, and the harder they punish, the bigger their cocks get (particularly Yjrgn). No pretense. Just intensely hot submissions for the purpose of turning themselves and us on.

I think I’ll leave it there, because I could spend another week writing this and still find more gems from 2025 that I want to treasure. As always, this isn’t to slight anyone or anything by failing to shout out any of the rest of the hot wrestling action from last year. And, of course you disagree, in whole or part, because that’s the pleasure of being part of a diverse community of varied opinions and tastes. Congratulations and much gratitude to everyone who put out hot wrestling content in 2025. I hope you get all the strokes and lauds you so richly deserve!