2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

66. Rey Hechicero v. Caifan 7/5



PAS: Hechicero is a master, we have gotten to see him work on the big stage in shorter matches, so it is a treat to see him in a garage work a longer crazier match. This was against his long time Monterey opponent and tag partner, and was kind of the equivalent of Dean Ambrose going back and working a crazy match with Sami Callihan in IWA-MS. The mat work here was awesome lots of cool twisty counters and takedowns that had real violence to them, every leg lock looked like it was going to rip out a knee, every takedown looked like it was going tear out a shoulder. The finish run was a little indy, but Hechicero smashing a plastic chair with a powerbomb, and the finishing armbar were pretty spectacular. Great match, so happy this showed up.

ER: This match had a pretty difficult task, which was filling 33 minutes of time with no real rest or breaks, and it did that admirably. 30+ minute, una caida lucha matches are pretty rare. Normally you get the breaks in between falls to kind of reset things, but these guys really just go go go for the duration. It's pretty impressive. At times it did give the match a kind of aimless feel, not quite filling time, but more that there was no real ebb and flow, not always rhyme or reason for the comebacks or dominance transitions. But this was quite a nice little feather for Hechicero. He plays into Caifan perfectly and finds plausible ways to deal with some of his stumbles. Caifan takes far to long to get Hechicero into a pendulum? Hechicero bides his time, waits for it to be locked on, and then immediately grapevines a leg, hooks Caifan's arm and reverses things. Caifan taking a bit too long to do a rope walk rana? Hechicero busies himself with his own hubris. Hechicero's subtle hubris led to some logical Caifan comebacks throughout this, with Hechicero easily having the upper hand, but waving Caifan to keep going, to come at him. I really loved all of the submissions throughout this, especially the first 8 minutes. Hechicero really gets to show off his full arsenal of subs and I get the feeling he could have kept going. Caifan eventually brings strikes, using some Moe Howard type stuff, like grabbing Hechicero's nose and smacking downward. The powerbomb tease was awesome as there was no way I thought Hechicero would take a powerbomb on the floor, and he made the struggle look sooo great, really clutching those ropes and hugging them tight. When Caifan finally broke him free and planted him through a chintzy plastic chair it felt like he had just plain worn him out. Good match that never lagged, impressive with what they had to fill. The referee had the worst pants.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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MLJ: Cavernario vs Titan 3: Marco Corleone, Máscara Dorada, Titán vs Cavernario, Rey Bucanero, Terrible

Aired CadenaTres: 2014-07-26
Taped 2014-07-22 @ Arena México
Marco Corleone, Máscara Dorada, Titán vs Cavernario, Rey Bucanero, Terrible

Alright, a match without Niebla in it. He serves his purpose, sure, but a little goes a long, long way. This was to set up Cavernario's challenge for Titan's Mexican National Welterweight title (which he earned, if I'm not mistaken, from winning the Busca), so the goal here would be to have Cavernario getting heat on Titan to set up the challenge.

The match had some MLJ all stars, Marco and Rey. I came in really wanting to see some Cavernario vs Marco (which we didn't get much of). Rey Bucanero is very good at what he does now, a lot better than he was when he was more athletic. He's very savvy in 2014-15 and able to do a lot of little things that he just didn't have the ring experience and presence to do back during the GdI heyday. He's less "workrate-y" but that's just about the last thing I care about so I'm usually glad to see him in a match. Dorada is a bit like Titan in that I just haven't seen a lot of him. I'm the one guy in the world who isn't in this for flashy tecnicos, I guess. I'm all for them when they can ground their stuff into a match with resonance and meaning but if I want to watch spots, there are youtube clips for that. I don't really have a sense yet exactly what Dorada and Titan bring to the table, but I'm watching matches to find out.

Primera was exchanges. Dorada and Rey did good, simple, competitive stuff, looking for openings and teasing clean breaks. Marco vs Terrible was shtick. The girls screamed for Marco, who was a little clunky on putting his head down for a presumed Back Body Drop to eat a Terrible kick, but he did hit some fun armdrags to make up for it. Then Cavernario and Titan picked up the pace. They had a spot where Cavernario moved out of the way of the TITANICS (Titan's endlessly stupid backflip victory roll finish - more on that next time), but that in avoiding it, became vulnerable to a pick-up/drop down (and Titan likes to do his out of a fireman's carry). He followed with his other finisher, a split-legged moonsault from the middle of the ropes, but Cavernario got his feet up. They run this spot occasionally and it always looks good, so good on them. This led to Cavernario's Vader Bomb and the pin. Clever set up to the finish that showed strong familiarity. The caida could have used another minute or two though.

The segunda followed from the primera, with a beatdown. The rudos worked very well together, with a triple flip powerbomb and tandem boots. Here's the powerbomb, posted mainly so you can see Cavernario go into hyper rage mode afterwards:

This lifting kick assault was a lot of fun too:

They even did a Terrible Giant Swing/Rey Dropkick. Rey was there to beg off every time a babyface came in so that the ambush could come into play. The comeback was cute. Titan hit a rope climb rana out of nowhere and a huge flipping dive. Then Dorada tried to hit Air Italia  from the ramp, was caught and tossed away, only for Marco to follow with the same move and score the pin.

The tercera was really a lot of fun. There was a lot of focus on Cavernario and Titan, with Cavernario playing canny early on and leading Titan into an ambush. This was where we had some Cavernario vs Marco (and a GdI huddle with Rey and Cavernario too which made me happy). At one point Marco smacked the bone off of his head which was a great visual. They kept things moving towards the end, with guys breaking up pins and slipping in and out of the ring. It all built to a massive dives (a hilo by Dorada, an Asai moonsault by Titan), and Marco diving off of the apron. Dorada moonsaulted himself onto Rey's foot, and got pinned that way. Rey got taken out after he and Cavernario tried for the old GdI double wheelbarrow. When Cavernario turned his back to celebrate, Titan rolled up Rey. It's a great finish so long as it's used sparingly. This left things with Cavernario and Titan, with Cavernario needing to go over to set up the title match. They did a quick minute of work, culminating with Titan getting cocky after getting the best of a strike exchange, playing to the crowd (a crowd that was still sort of booing to him) and getting locked in the Cavernaria from behind.

I'm a few matches in now and I'm really enjoying the Cavernario/Titan pairing. That said, I think Cavernario is what makes it work more than Titan. I didn't watch their title match last year so I'll see if my opinion changes there next.

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