MLJ: Black Terry Boot Camp 13: Black Terry vs Multifacético [hair]

2008-04-17 @ Arena Naucalpan
Black Terry vs Multifacético [hair]

I'm finishing my look at Black Terry with a bang. Multifacetico is the current Guerrero Maya, Jr. They had an awesome match last year which we've covered here. In some ways, this was even better, because the stakes were higher. Multifacetico was 22 here, almost 23. Terry kind of felt like he was at the end of the transition into the Terry we know today. He had awesome music and the studded leather jacket still.

Two things stood out here. The first, and this is no surprise, was just how great Terry was in an apuestas match. His pacing was off the charts. Everything mattered. Everything resonated. The beating was brutal. The end of the match selling felt completely earned (which is one of the most important things in these matches). He had big spots and moves and a steady methodological heat segment and crowd interaction, and some exclamation points of visceral violence. The second was just how good Multifacetico was so young. Some of that was being led around by Terry (and they had been feuding for a while), sure, but he was excellent at fighting back just enough in the beatdown and selling throughout, especially at the end; his portrayal of exhaustion in the tercera was exactly what you'd want in a match like this, and he even did and admirable joy to match Terry's level of violence in his comeback.

Terry just did so many cool things here. He didn't need to. He could have coasted with stompting and punching and biting, and he did all that, but he'd bring things up to a high spot and then down again and up once more. I'm going to just gif a few things:

First, there were the facebreakers, which looked as good as I've ever seen them:

Then there's the hanging back legscissors choke through the ropes. I don't think I've ever seen this done quite in this way. It's a great visual:

And speaking of great visuals, here's a bottle to the forehead:

Multifacetico's comeback was spirited, had all the revenge spots you wanted and a really nice submission. There were a few rough things in here (like the finish to the primera) but they only made the match seem more wild and out of control. The finish to the tercera had a lot of BS, but it made sense to try to protect the loser in this one. There was enough escalation and gravitas to things, and some really great near falls at the end that I didn't mind. Another match well worth going out of your way to see.

Terry's awesome. I'm glad I took the time. Sometimes I'm hesitant to cover the same ground that Phil, Tom, Eric, etc. have in the past with complete and accurate lists, but for someone to get that treatment around here, they have to really be worth it. Terry absolutely was. I just wish we had more of him from earlier in his career.