MLJ: Hechicero Spotlight 6: Blue Panther & Sagrado vs Caifan & Rey Hechicero

2013-04-14 @ Arena Coliseo Monterrey
Blue Panther & Sagrado vs Caifan & Rey Hechicero

I'm going off schedule with Hechicero. I had meant to watch the one last match we have (from Poder y Honor in the Monterrey Kids' Arena) from 2012 and call it, but that was a handheld from an annoying angle, and more importantly, clipped, and I've decided to move on to a couple of key 2013 matches instead. The main reason why is that I'm not satisfied that even after a number of years on the indies, I've seen the full product of Hechicero that we have now. We've gotten closer with every match but I just don't think we're there yet. Add in the fact that there are a few interesting looking matches from 2013 that I bet a lot of people just haven't seen, and I'm going to ride this out for a few more weeks.

I think I've only seen Sagrado once, back during the Cavernario Spotlight, so I don't have a great sense of him. I know Eric's certainly not high on him, and that's damning in and of itself. I would have probably rather have someone else from CMLL in here. Caifan, on the other hand, can hold his own in a setting like this. It's tecnicos vs tecnicos from what I can tell (Caifan may have been rudo but he didn't wrestle that way; lots of handshakes, etc), with Panther and Sagrado marketed as CMLL and Hechicero and Caifan as reglos.

This was a fun one. The story here was the actual exchanges and getting to see these indy guys of relatively lengthy experience go up against CMLL regulars, but it was the structure that I really dug. It had more time to breathe than a lot of TV matches and was very regimented. Caifan won the rock/paper/scissors to start so he had a matwork exchange with Panther. Then Sagrado and Hechicero got to have theirs. Then, still in the primera, we had the first rope running/pace-picking-up exchange between Panther and Caifan, which lead to things breaking down and BP and Sagrado taking the fall. When they reset to start the segunda, it was with the Hechicero and Sagrado pace-picking-up exchange, then the second one of Caifan and Panther, and finally the second of Hechicero and Sagrado to end the fall. Finally, in the Tercera, Panther calls for Hechicero and they break from the structure, the two of them going at it until Sagrado interrupts, which ends the tecnico lovefest and allows for a series of partner break-ups as they head to the finish. It all made for a great and disciplined sense of build, especially effective since it ended in a double-pin draw.

The Panther/Caifan interactions were better than the Hechicero/Sagrado ones. I can say that pretty definitively. The level of difficulty for Hechicero's stuff was certainly higher. He did a lot of his more complex holds and submissions, but Sagrado's escapes were lackluster, to say the least, and the smoothness of Panther and Caifan's struggle stood out much more. I do think that we had a more complete Hechicero here, but he still needs a dance partner that can handle the complexity of what he brings to the table, and Sagrado wasn't it. Panther's just so good at the little things; one example is how he was tossed into the bottom two ropes by Caifan (on a fun corner headstand headscissors) and as Caifan charged in, he immediately shifted his body around and got his feet up defensively to stop the charge. Also, neither here nor there, but Caifan's one arm over the head suplex with a bridge is awesome.

What i really wanted out of this match was Panther vs Hechicero and I didn't get a ton of it, but I enjoyed most of what I did get and there are still a bunch of interesting matches to come for the year (a trios with Ultimo Guerrero and Blue Panther on one side and Hechicero teaming with Caifan and LA Park and two singles matches with Lucero), so we'll try to finish this spotlight strong.