2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

14. Brazo Jr. v. Kortiz WMC 8/24

PAS: This is the son of a Brazo vs. the son of a Villano  and it is the kind of gritty a old school bloody lucha singles match which would have been right at home on the 80's set and something which does the legacy of that family feud proud. Kortiz is great, really a nasty asskicker truly in the family tradition, he mauls Brazo Jr. early with nasty punches, and post shots until Brazo Jr.'s gear is covered in blood. Very traditional structure for this kind of match, with one sided rudo domination early, until Brazo ducks a punch and unloads with an over hand slap. He then takes over and bloodies Kortiz by smashing his head into the top of the metal post. Then we get more of a back and forth match including an awesome section with both guys on their knees unloading everything they have. The finish was a little goofy, with Brazo's second faking a towel throw, and then Kortiz gets distracted, his mask pulled off and rolled up, but for a bs finish it was pretty clever.

ER: This was a 3 part match for me (well, erm…I suppose most lucha matches are). I loved the first two parts, right up with the best stuff I've seen all year, and the third part was good but lost me a little by the end. But damn those first two parts. Kortiz comes out not rocking the Villano name, but unmistakably rocking the Villano body and viciousness. You realize what kind of match this is going to be around the 4 minute mark, as the action had spilled out in front of the camera and Kortiz punches Brazo a lot right in the ear, and Kortiz is really mean throughout all of this. His overhand chops sound like the sound-sweetened versions on Lucha Underground. Brazo looked like kind of a pushover (I really appreciate that somebody somewhere taped this, but you get the feeling the match would be that much better if filmed up close so we could really get inside Brazo's selling and comeback) until a missed Kortiz strike and then it was on! Possibly my favorite lucha moment of the year (and think of the ground that covers in 2014) sees Kortiz climbing up the ropes but getting caught by Brazo, and with both men facing out towards the corner, Brazo starts bashing Kortiz's face into the edge of the ring post. I've never seen that before and lucky us it was happening on the post closest to camera side, so we could see all the glory of a guy getting smashed into a ring post. We get some nasty leg work from Brazo in the tercera, the worst when Kortiz has his leg draped over the bottom rope and Brazo just curb stomps right through it. They lost me a little with some move and submission trading, but upon rewatching the match it wasn't really nearly as bad as my initial impressions. There aren't wild lucha brawls with blood anymore so I should really have been focused more on how exciting THAT was, instead of getting a little lost with some mostly pointless "but he didn't sell the knee long enough" type stuff. As a whole picture the match was great, total hidden gem that - thanks to Phil's OCD about searching for obscure wrestlers every day on the internet - totally pays off.

2014 Match of the Year Master List