MLJ: Hechicero Spotlight 10: Rey Hechicero vs Charles Lucero [Poder Y Honor]

NOTE: If you've not yet seen this match, I strongly suggest that you watch it before reading this. First off, it's very good. Second, there's a moment in it that really should be seen in context before I start talking about it. You've been warned.

taped 2013-08-04 @ Arena Coliseo Monterrey
Rey Hechicero vs Charles Lucero [Poder Y Honor]

Alright, so this is an excellent match. Let's lead with that. It was ranked highly by a lot of people back in 2013 and I think it put Hechicero more on the map and therefore made people all the more excited when he was put into the Busca in 2014. I'm with people on that for the most part. It's excellent and considering how many Lucero and Hechicero matches over the last six or seven years just weren't circulated, we're lucky to have it. I do see two big potential problems with it. I'll hit one now and then the other later on.

So, the first potential problem: the match does not seem to follow well from the build of the previous two matches. There were there matches in around a three week span, a trios match, a singles match, and then the title match. The first two followed similar patterns: Hechicero started out against Lucero with great respect and admiration, obviously glad to be able to face off on the mat against a maestro. Lucero accepted his handshake in both matches and they put on a show, with Hechicero gaining the advantage with his more tricked out matwork. In both cases, Lucero was the one to get frustrated first, and rudo that he was, to show poor sportsmanship and start to use strikes to take the match over. In both cases, he eventually won with the same roll up into a submission. One would think that there should be some level of escalation (or heat) here after two such matches, but at first glance it's not there. Instead, they start with the same sort of matwork and with Lucero going for a strike (here, a dropkick) first out of frustration.

This, however, was a title match, and a very different sort of title match than many that we see today. It was much more of a throwback to the title matches of decades' past, where (as I understand it) the commission had more of a grip on things and would heavily frown upon the sort of antics you might get in other sorts of matches. That defined the style. I do think for people just starting to watch lucha, title matches are good showcases for the matwork and dives and dramatic third falls where any move could end the match. For people who have watched a bit more, however, they can be harder to relate to, since they lack the real primal emotion of trios and apuesta matches. In the latter, the match's heart is on its sleeve and the emotion is in your face. In the older style of title matches, it is more concentrated, more subtle, distilled into body language and struggle.

I think the emotion created leading into this match by the two matches previous was still there, but it was transmogrified by the style of the match they were working. There is a strong sense of struggle in the primera and build, as Hechicero used more and more convoluted holds, often rolling with Lucero, disorienting him, twisting him this way and that, and Lucero grasping a limb and utilizing leverage, escaping with simplicity and tenacity in the face of Hechicero's complexity. Even when he managed to lock in an arm bar and refuse to let go, Hechicero was just too much, able to bring too many contortions and too much imagination to the table. So Lucero, once again, got frustrated and hit a dropkick. That turned the tide, and though Hechicero kept fighting, Lucero turned another roll up (this time a victory roll) into a submission (a rotated leg-lock at that, giving Hechicero a taste of his own medicine, leaving simplicity behind), something he's so good at, to take the fall. The emotion was all there, and it didn't serve, necessarily as a sequel to the previous two matches, but instead, another variation of them, the themes repeating themselves onto a slightly different palette with more subtle shades but far higher stakes. Hechicero and Lucero were both creatures of stubbornness and both with their faults. Hechcero thrived on the opportunity to pit his complexity and creativity against Lucero's skill. Lucero's patience was not as large as his temper, as his will to win. In this case, it meant Hechicero fought more honorably, that he perhaps won the moral battle, but it was Lucero who won the fall.

The primera was Hechicero trying to fight back out of the hole he'd been pushed (or in this case dropkicked) into. He was cut off repeatedly, by another dropkick high, or after a nice tope off the ropes by a dropkick low. He'd get crushed by one corner clothesline but avoid the second by utilizing a Flair flip only to get cut off by a powerbomb. Eventually, though, Lucero, feeling the pressure from his younger opponent and his comebacks, decided to take a risk and climb the ropes. Hechicero took advantage, flipping up to 'rana him from the top. From there, he was able to hook a limb, and once he did it was a matter of tying Lucero up. One limb became two, and then three. A roll, a twist, and the fourth. There was a sense not that he was fumbling, but that he was looking at the options available to him after hooking and rolling so that he could maximize the pain and punishment. Lucero was too aggressive (or maybe increasingly desperate) and made a mistake that cost him the fall.

Hechicero started with the advantage in the tercera, but quickly made a mistake of his own, putting his head down for a second back body drop that let Lucero lock on a Gourry special. From there, they moved on to a more traditional tercera, each man trying submissions and pin attempts, with a few bombs interspersed. It was good but only starting to pick up the pace when the game-changer occurred. They ran a few spots culminating with Hechicero landing on his feet on a missed moonsault and getting Lucero to the Apron, and then after a pretty lackluster step-up kick (more on that later, for Problem #2), going for a tope suicida. Fairly standard practice for a match like this. They'd go for dives, sell them big, sort of as a shortcut to get to the level of selling necessary for the big near-falls before the finish, and then take it home.

Lucero moved and the crash into the chairs was catastrophic, spot of the year level catastrophic. Hopefully, everyone chose to watch the match first (or had seen it already), because it's not just so jarring and painful looking, but it's so sudden as well. It's wholly out of place in the match they were building, which was good, but far more subdued and subtle. This was a brick to the head, or a head into a brick wall at high speeds.

They treated it with due reverence, everyone checking on Hechicero and Lucero frustrated by the situation, holding back and holding back until he had enough. He charged in like an old lion smelling blood and weakness, utilizing his newly earned control of the match with a toss into the corner and an Alabama Slam out of it. He couldn't put Hechicero away though and because of that, and because of the arrogance over the control he now had, he made a massive mistake once more. Last time it had been going to the top rope when he thought he needed to. This time, it was going for a flipping dive to the outside off the apron because he WANTED to, because of a natural flaw in his character. Lucero missed, landing right on his shoulder, and they both stumbled back into the ring, now having earned their selling for the last part of the match in a huge way.

And they paid it off. Dives have function in lucha matches. Usually, they're to clear the ring in a trios so as to put the focus on the feud that the match is building. They can serve as payoff, teased and prevented until the crowd can have the satisfaction of the tecnicos hitting them, or they can help to justify the selling necessary in the final falls of big matches. That's what they were going for here, and it worked in both cases. The first one was an absolute gamechanger and the second was an equalizer, something that put Hechicero back in the game and leveled the playing feel, not completely, but enough that he at least had a chance. Even so, once they're back into the ring, he foolishly climbed the ropes. Lucero was able to toss him off but it hurt his shoulder more in the process. Both wrestlers were making terrible kayfabe decisions here. Hechicero's dive was reasonable. Who knew he'd wipe out like that? But Lucero had no reason to dive except for a very believable ego and then Hechicero was a fool (but again, a hurting, desperate, believable one) to go up to the top.

From there, they moved to the finish. Lucero went for a complex tie up again, but his shoulder gave way allowing Hechicero to roll him up for two. They both made it back to their feet and after the best struggle I've ever seen with the move, Hechicero hit the Valiente Driver and twisted Lucero one final time for the submission win.

So I was able to both raise and dismiss one potential problem in the match way back in paragraph two. The second one is trickier. Basically, Hechicero has no business being a tecnico. He was older here than he was a few years before and wrestling an opponent who was far older than what he was used to. Between the two of them, some of the more agile spots failed on execution. Generally, I am okay with this, far more okay than most. Wrestling is symbolic after all. Some people just can't make almost anything look well. That's not the case with Hechicero though. So much of his matwork and suplexes look great, but his more flashy stuff only seems to about half the time. The issue isn't necessarily the execution but the decision to execute stuff that he couldn't hit cleanly. It's doubly a problem when they're key moments, like the corner flip up to 'rana which was slow and labored, or even the step up kick that launched Lucero to the outside. Key moments and they were barely executed. Hechicero has a pretty stocky body type. So does Valiente, but Valiente's something of a freak of nature with what he can do in the ring. Again, it's not an execution issue, in and of itself, so much as a "poor decision" issue, and that's the sort of thing that will take away from a match.

That complaint aside, I thought this was great. It was character driven, but a bit more subdued until the dive, very much a throwback title match which is not only refreshing, but also allows for its own tropes and structuring, utilizing narrative tools that aren' always dusted off in this day and age. Everyone should watch it.