MLJ: Fantasticamania: Hechicero & Virus vs Dragon Lee & Jay White

2016-01-17 @ Kochi Sunpia CHRES, Kochi, Japan
Hechicero & Virus vs Dragon Lee & Jay White

We've gotten crazy snow where I am, and it's been 110% toddler time for me the last few days. Thankfully, I've been able to sneak in just a bit of lucha, even if I'm behind on the things I was planning to watch. I have every intention on braving the most dreaded of disappointing lucha libre, CMLL Tournaments, because I Want to get back to Sombra, and the 2010 Universal Tournament where he ended up in the finals with Liger seems like a fun choice. I may regret it.

For now, though, this is up on russian youtube (Alfredo's tweeted out the links, I think, but feel free to go to rutube and search for "hechicero"), and it was a lot of fun. It's obviously one of the best rudo pairings CMLL Could possibly put together up against the most dynamic tecnico of the last year. White is a perfectly acceptable foreign young lion. Virus and Hechicero have to position guys around far clunkier than him all of the time, so this was going to be good no matter what, really.

What was the most fun, however, was the presentation. It was in front of prety small looking crowd and everyone wanted to make a splash. Virus was slapping hands. He and Hechicero made some great poses for the cameras. Hech really stood out with his character playing. He had a mask over his normal one like Mil Mascaras and locked in a bunch of his normal rolling submissions and the conjuro. The "wizardry" he was doing to befuddle White with his hands, refusing to lock up and casting a spell repeatedly, then either gaining advantage with a quick legdive or armlock. He's started to do this a little more in CMLL, but this was 300% over the top and I loved it. He's had better matches but this was probably my favorite performance of his in a long time. He was desperately trying to impress and thus came off like not just a star, but an extremely unique star.

This was one fall and they worked it with a bit of primera feeling out (between Lee and Virus and White and Hechicero), going through the pairings a couple of times with the usual escalation, and then went into the cutoffs and spots of a tercera finishing stretch. It was very cool to see three of everyone's favorites take their act on the road though. I'd love to see Virus and Hechicero as a more regular team over the rest of the year.