MLJ: Hechicero Spotlight 9: Charles Lucero vs Rey Hechicero

2013-07-28 @ Arena Coliseo Monterrey
Charles Lucero vs Rey Hechicero

Here we go. This is the second of a third match series that we have, the first being the trios and the third being the title match. My understanding is that it's that third match which is supposed to be the really great one. This, on the other hand, I'd call very good, with a lot of things I liked a lot and a few things I didn't like quite as much.

It was very structurally sound, with a Hechicero-invoked handshake leading to a stretch of escalating feel-out matwork, leading to a few quicker roll up attempts and the tecnico taking the primera. Soon after, Lucero became frustrated and showed his rudo leanings, punching first and then utilizing a lot of very simple offense to soften Hechicero up for a submission. This rolled into the tercera with the beatdown crescendoing to the point where the viewer really wanted the comeback, which was earned over a couple of spots. From there Hechicero hit a dive and they traded submissions, moves, and nearfalls until the finish. Perfectly sound lucha.

The best part of all of this was that, in Lucero, Hechicero had someone who could take his stuff. He wasn't young, by any means, and he wasn't as agile as Hechicero who has a sort of clunky bigger man agility, but Lucero seemed to have a great physical presence and awareness and was very good at ending up at the right place at the right time, no matter how he got there. This played out in the tercera as Hechicero was hitting his spinning offense and what not, but far more importantly, in the primera, where he was doing the most tricked out of tricked out matwork and it all worked smoothly. One of the criticisms I've had of Hechicero was that he would try things that his opponent obviously couldn't handle and he wasn't quite game enough to get them into the position he needed in, as opposed to someone like Virus, who is absolutely expert at that. Lucero was good enough to not just end up in the proper position, but then to have some really inspired counters. At times, they were seemingly fitting limbs into even the tiniest hole to gain leverage and space and advantage.

The second best part was the character work. I'm going with my usual language deficit here, but the way I saw this was that the character of Hechicero appreciates and respects Lucero and just wants to have a great match with him, thus the handshake and the matwork and counters. Lucero, professional as he is, is at least tolerant of this, right up until the point that he loses the first fall and gets frustrated. From there, he punches away and takes over. His offense in the segunda was very straightforward. Before the punch he's utilizing a really simple leg hug that Hechicero sells well. Afterwards, it's punch, punch, a kick off the ropes to the gut, a back body drop with some struggle, a series of punches to the head while grounded, and then a nice, deep bent-over Gory Special for the submission. The minimalist nature of all of it made for a great contrast to Hechicero. It should be noted that this was how they worked the trios too, with the handshake and Lucero being the one to interfere and let his rudo tendencies take over. Considering that he took the win in both, with a similar move and the fact that he took the fight to Hechicero first was part of why he won, I'm really curious to see how that will play into the title match.

While Lucero was able to fit into Hechicero's world and interface with his matwork and moves, I think there were times where things ended up a little too collaborative or unbelievable. For instance, at one point, Lucero tossed Hechicero headfirst into the turnbuckle and Hechicero ended up in a handstand so that he could eat an Alabama Slam. It was a stretch. They also had a very loose segment of whips and rolls throughs and what not during the segunda where I wasn't fully buying into the fact that neither guy was holding on to anything. It looked cool and flowed smoothly but it went against how they were wrestling in the primera and really against common sense for what they'd established. It felt like doing near-falls (or armdrags or whatever) for the sake of doing them.

Then there was the transition. I love earned transitions. It's not enough to just duck a hold and then hit a move and take over. Here Hechicero was run into the corner once and when Lucero tried it again, he ran up the ropes and hit a reversal. He was cut off though and it was a few moves later when Lucero went for a 619 that Hechicero caught it, positioned him in the ropes, dropkicked him out and hit a vault up spinning plancha to the outside to really shift the gears of the match. The problem was that I didn't buy Lucero doing the 619, especially how he executed it which was clunky and slow and basically meant to be caught. Maybe it's believable as the old guy trying to hang or make a point or something. Hell, maybe it's part of his normal offense and I've just not seen him do it because I've only seen two of his matches, but it just rang false to me.

Ultimately, though, these two pair up really well, and it's a shame we don't have more Lucero than we do out there. Good match and I'm very much looking forward to seeing them vying for the title from the following week.