2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

9. Preston Quinn v. Damien Wayne VCW 3/7

PAS: These are the two best wrestlers in the Mid-Alantic indies really for over a decade. They haven't had a ton of singles matches against each other which have made tape, so it is really cool we get a big main event title match between each other. Quinn has breathtakingly great punches, and he unloads in a bunch of different ways on Wayne, who fires back with shots of his own. Parts of this match felt like Lawler v. Mantell. They build to some very cool stuff at the end, including Quinn catching a Savage elbow into a cross armbreaker, and hitting a huge second rope brainbuster. There was some ref awkwardness after that, and while I liked the cleverness of the finish, I though they lost a bit of momentum. Still a great match, and I really hope footage of both guys is available more this year.

ER: So awesome to see this show up, as there just aren't many guys who DO what Quinn does in the ring. Quinn has arguably the best punches in wrestling (I can't think of anybody over the last several years who I would rather see punch another human), but not in a cold, context-free "that is what a good punch looks like" kind of way. His punches look great within the context of pro wrestling matches, always adding to the proceedings. His left hand is possibly my favorite left hand in pro wrestling history, and yes I understand the ground I am covering. I love the way Quinn and Wayne fight, love how Wayne brings chops that don't look silly while Quinn is able to throw punches that look great from all angles (loved his side mount punches here) and I just love how these guys move around each other. I loved the elbow drop into a triangle, thought that was a real cool reversal, and I loved how the finish played into that. Wayne's selling was really great throughout, especially post-brainbuster (Quinn also has an all time great brainbuster if you've never watched the guy), really taking the brainbuster to Kawada or Tenryu levels of selling. And the way it affected his movements afterwards was so good. Affected, but no "Ohhhhhh my neckkkkkkkk" dramatics. The ref stuff wasn't great, but a way to believably give Wayne time to recover from the brainbuster in a way that didn't feel forced. Big credit to the announce team here as well who I thought put over both men real well.


2015 MASTER LIST

Read more!

MLJ: Guerreros del Infierno A-6: Rey Bucanero & Último Guerrero © vs El Hijo Del Santo & Negro Casas [CMLL TAG]

2000-12-15? @ Arena México
Rey Bucanero & Último Guerrero © vs El Hijo Del Santo & Negro Casas [CMLL TAG]

I'm not 100% sure on this date. The comp doesn't have dates and my research skills are limited. Wikipedia seems to have the same information whether you look at Ultimo Guerrero or Satanico or Guerreros del Infierno, but going off Cubs' match finder, this has to be the match, which would make it the second to last match on Sin Piedad 2000. There's some wonky bits timeline-wise though.

Satanico is announced as GdI's second, but he doesn't come out. Instead Tarzan Boy comes out, so this must have been right after the break up of Los Nuevo Infernales. Both Satanico and Tarzan Boy were in a Relevos Increibles match earlier in the night, on opposite sides (interestingly enough Niebla was on one side of that and Charles on the other). There's a match after this where Satanico teams with GdI and at least one where Tarzan Boy is on the opposite side in a trios from the two of them, but I'm guessing these were all part of the twists and turns.

The main reason I doubt it is that the match write ups I've seen (and they're scant, as is any coverage of this period online in English, which was one reason I wanted to get this comp) have the action going differently. Given the big entrances they got, I would believe this was something on the level of Sin Piedad. Regardless, the action was good. The pairing of Casas and Santo over multiple matches against GdI was one of the most appealing thing about this. It's really an exciting match up on paper, the two veteran rivals come together, just masters of their craft, and the upstarts, with their flashy teamwork and brazen attitude.

And that's exactly what we got here. This was as good as I expected it to be (as in quite good) but maybe not as great as I hoped for. Structurally, I liked it a lot. It's very easy to compare GdI in 2000-2001 to the modern day Ingobernables. Sure there were a few less shades of grey, but it's not like Rush and company are subtle in 2015. In all of the Ingobernables tag titles matches, they'd tease some traditional opening match work before going into cheap shots and the beatdown to take the primera, building up heat for the comeback in the segunda and then a reset for a bunch of near-falls in the tercera. There was an element of that here but they twisted it to make it feel a bit more like a traditional title match.

Rey and Santo started out with some decent matwork. Rey kept up with him for the most part and fed into his reversals and comebacks. I think that he still had some ways to go at this point though (and I'm not completely convinced he ever mastered this element of the game, even if his character work, which was already pretty good here, got even better as the years went on). It ended with Santo holding the advantage and offering a handshake, which Rey took. Shortly thereafter, however, Ultimo Guerrero brought out the cheapshots and the knees. The tecnicos came back though, and it all led to one of the best tope suicidas I've ever seen from Santo. He made it through the ropes with such impact, that he was coming DOWN upon Rey. It was great and I'm sorry I can't gif it. It also led into the big moment of the segunda, and more immediately, to a Casita and Caballo for the fall.

That great moment in the segunda came after a few minutes of really good back and forth action. Casas' selling especially was good here as he ate some tandem offense. Ultimately, though, the tecnicos took the advantage again with Santo dropkicking the taunting GdI out of the ring. Then, Casas took hold of Rey from behind, setting him up on the floor for another Santo tope. This was Tarzan Boy's big moment though, hammering Casas from behind as the refs were distracted which left him open to be moved into the path of the tope. Some tandem offense later and the rudos took the segunda.

What followed was a pretty exciting, back and forth tercera with the highlights being Casas feeding off of the crowd, Santo's arm submission spots, lots of well timed pin break ups, and Santo, finally getting frustrated by all of it and kicking out the violence (literally). In the end, GdI just had the superior teamwork. Santo went up for a moonsault or turning body press, but Rey bounded off of UG's back, dropkicking him and allowing UG to hit the Guerrero special. It was a striking moment as Casas and Santo really did feel like bigger stars to me in this match. Santo, especially, had only been back wrestling for CMLL for a month or two at this point, and I think it was a big deal for them to put over the younger wrestlers so cleanly. Definitely a good match and I'm excited to know I have a few more with these four upcoming.

Read more!