MLJ: Black Terry Boot Camp 1: Black Terry, Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro vs Trauma I, Trauma II, Ultramán Jr.

2009-10-29 @ Arena Naucalpan
Black Terry, Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro vs Trauma I, Trauma II, Ultramán Jr.

Alright, everything's on hold because I need to watch a lot of Black Terry. There's nowhere on the net that's covered Terry better than Segunda Caida, so I just didn't feel the need to look in this direction. Because I didn't feel the need, I ended up checking out other things instead. This is an issue because the Greatest Wrestler Ever poll centered over at prowrestlingonly.com is due in a month or two and Navarro and Terry weren't going to be able to make my list because I hadn't seen enough to fairly rank them. I'm sure Phil/Tom/Eric did enough when it comes to these, but I'm going to run through and watch as many matches as I can in a short period and try to figure this out.

This was fairly late into the year and was a pairing that they seemed to run a lot in 2009, just with Ultraman, Jr. in instead of Navarro. Very long primera with Ultraman/Dr. Cerebro, Trauma I/Terry, and Trauma II/Cerebro Negro pairings. At least I think T1 was T1 and T2 was T2. I always have problems with that. Differentiating them through work is another pro here. Primera was very long mat exchanges. Segunda picked up the pace. Tercera had the constant break ups as they moved through wrestlers, with dives at the end and a foul finish.

I haven't seen a lot of Dr. Cerebro either, but in a match where everyone was pulling the most tricked out stuff in the primera, what I found interesting was how he, after trying a couple of such exchanges with Ultraman, simplified things considerably as it was obvious his opponent couldn't really keep up. That, to me, is the sort of course correction you don't see often and it was appreciated.

The big story, however, were the aforementioned tricked out submissions, the slight little leverage moves used to escape and reposition, and most of all, the selling. While sometimes a match will be built around limbwork or selling, what stood out here, especially from Terry and Trauma I was the way they'd sell, both in holds and especially after them. This didn't play into any specific part of the narrative. What it did instead, however, was to make all of the submissions seem more believable and more effective. Everything had weight, and when they're tying people up in knots that defy the general laws of physics, a little bit of that goes a long way. Terry went so far as to shake off an arm while on the apron after a tag.

This match worked exactly as it should have. The matwork didn't come off as collaborative or choreographed but was hugely engrossing (save for the Cerebro exchange, but that, at least, was not disruptive). There was a sense of escalation from fall to fall. It's really the perfect structure. Feeling out matwork, rope running, everything breaking down with spots and cut offs and dives. It's the three faces of lucha (past the brawling but the tercera had some of that too). I'm sure most people who come here have seen this, but if you haven't go out of your day and do so.