My copy of the much-anticipated (at least by two people I know) new release from Raging Stallions, Brutal, arrived several weeks ago. There are so many quite excellent ingredients going into this recipe. My #1 favorite homoerotic wrestling pornboy, Rusty Stevens AND his #1 contender, working hard to chomp at Rusty’s ass and climb on top of the rankings, Trent Diesel (also reigning homoerotic wrestler of the month), are both star players in Brutal. Additional Naked Kombat alums who’ve tickled my fancy also show up, including Brenn Wyson, Tommy Defendi, Spencer Reed, Phenix Saint and Race Cooper. The story centers on a gym where fierce, hot hunks are in high stakes training to compete for glory in the world of competitive MMA. The fight and the fuck go back and forth, twisting and turning in on each other in flights of fantasy and more literal interpretations. In other words, Brutal is front-loaded to tweak my kink and keep me aroused and dehydrated for days.

I don’t regret my purchase of Brutal at all. I must say, however, that the recipe doesn’t bake up quite as tastily as I’d hoped. As I feared, the actual combat element is shortchanged for my tastes. The climactic championship competition scene between Rusty and gorgeous golden boy, Angelo Marconi, is far too brief and stylized. This seems like such a waste, considering we know how fiercely and skillfully Rusty can grapple. Given the opportunity, he can work his ass off, quite convincingly beating the ass of just about every opponent he’s faced. Devoting a couple of minutes to Rusty and Angelo in the ring with mostly close-ups of grunts and grimaces disappoints me. On the other hand, I did find the setting highly erotic, with a crowd of hunks cheering on the battlers ringside, heightening the intensity and sense of the stakes. I’d pay for that vantage point at a Rusty Stevens competition (any day…).

I’m also a little mixed on the genre, frankly. By my count, there are 2 (or so) brief scenes of grappling-sparring, 4 scenes of grappling-turns-fucking, and 1 scene of straight-up competition-storyline ring combat. All of that is really what I signed up for. But I’m not as keen on some of the classic porn scenarios that also pop up, including 3 rape scenes and a public bathroom pick up at the urinal (seriously? Rusty needs to visit the public toilet to catch a trick?). I’m probably just a prude, but where I find a loser-gets-fucked competition fantastically erotic, a simulated violent assault-turned rape does nothing to stir my loins. Now, if the scene of Angelo getting raped in the shower by Phenix and Brandon Bangs (can we get anymore literal of a name?) were consensual, it still wouldn’t be wrestling kink in my book, but it would’ve been a thousand times hotter. To put one’s ass on the line in combat is fantastically erotic. To get beaten and raped non-consensually doesn’t quite do it for me. This is particularly a shame because all the moving parts in all three rape scenes speak directly to my cock: Trent (holy hell, looking hot) doubled by Jason Adonis (!?) and Spencer Reed; Draven Torres getting worked over by his astonishingly gorgeous prick boyfriend, hairy beast Alexsander Freitas; and Angel0 getting consecutively doubled by Phenix and Brandon. So much potential left on the table is just a shame.

I have to suspect that Tony Dimarco, who directed Brutal, was not the director of the photoshoot for the promotional shots for Brutal. I say this, because the promo pics tell an undeniably different story than the flick itself (caveat emptor). And if the flick told the story that’s in the promo pics, I have to think I’d be writing an entirely different review. For example, hairy beast Alexsander never actually “wrestles” with Draven. If these two had an actual jockstrap wrestling scene in the gym with Alexsander slapping on a cobra clutch, Brutal would be significantly improved.

Same goes for the tragically untapped potential captured in the posed promotional pic of Rusty mounting Angelo in the ring, with Angelo’s ankles laced together behind Rusty’s back, Rusty’s tongue down his thraot, and Angelo pinned. This scene isn’t quite from the movie, but in one captured still, it tells a story a hundred times hotter than the miserably brief combat scene between these two gorgeous hunks on film.

Porn is all about imagination, though, isn’t it? And happily for me, I have a very active one. I can rewrite the script in my head to pit Angelo, Phenix and Brandon in a consensual three way rumble (preferably in the ring), with the stakes being that the first man to submit sexually submits to the domination and humiliation of the other two. Suddenly, some replayed snippets of Phenix capturing Angelo in an armbar while surprisingly hot slice of white bread, Brandon, plows Angelo’s absolutely perfect ass from behind… and things are firing on all cylinders for me. In any case, if you’ve been tempted to take a bite out of Brutal to fuel your wrestling kink, be forewarned. It’s a mixed bag, and if you’re like me, the product may take you only halfway down the path, requiring your imagination to drive you the rest of the way home. But if you’re like me, you can probably still manage to be pleased with the purchase of Brutal.