Lucha Worth Watching: Spry Panther and All of the Ranas

Blue Panther, Valiente & Stuka Jr. vs. Terrible, Rey Bucanero & Vangellys (CMLL 2/9/16)

Tuesday night Arena Mexico main events aren't where I go when I'm expecting a bunch of fun primera matwork, but that's what ended up happening here! First Valiente and Terrible went at it. For guys I see wrestle a lot, I don't recall either guy ever going to the mat that often, so it was kind of a treat to see them work through things, roll through headlocks, pick legs, stuff that should be happening more but just doesn't. The real gold is Panther and Bucanero matching up and going on the mat right after, and that's really special. Panther is still one of my absolute favorite mat guys and I relish any time he gets even 30 seconds to got at it in a match. Here he gets to pull out all sorts of tricks and always impresses me with different weird takeovers and a seemingly endless supply of ways he can work himself out of a headscissors. Bucanero also surprised me as he's not a guy who's been super motivated that last several years, but you still get flashes and he still has basics to fall back on when he's not listlessly drifting into trios triple team tropes (TTTT, TM). Here Panther forces him to the mat and Rey is almost frustratingly game, frustrating as in "you were capable of this all along!?" Rey even harkens back to bump machine days by wrapping himself around a ring post. Stuka breaks out an awesome low angle version of his hands-by-his-side splash, firing more straight out as opposed to getting more height, we get some dives, and I just drift away envisioning a world where CMLL allows for more matwork. Sigh...

Hechicero, Ripper & Polvora vs. Dragon Lee, Mistico & Titan (CMLL 6/20/15)

It's tough to keep up with all the lucha with stalwarts like Cubsfan constantly uploading stuff, but I have stuff I save to watch later, stuff that sounds nice on paper, and some days I get to that stuff, and some days it's worth writing about. Whenever it's a Hechicero match I throw it in the "to watch" pile and hey look at that, Hechicero was awesome here. That's a fun rudo team and a flippy tecnico team, and that's a nice combo. Hechicero matched up a lot with Lee and Mistico, and he made Mistico look golden. So many rana variations were tossed out in this match and all three rudos were splatting all around the ring. Lee did his wild no hands high jump rana over the top, sending Polvora off the apron to the floor. Hechicero takes some big bumps on the floor, Ripper does his nice bump past the ringpost and then runs into a Lee backbreaker. Hechicero is awesome at taking armdrags and ranas, he really can navigate a long rotating armdrag sequence like a great minis base. Except he is a full size man! And then Hechicero goes and does graceful flying better than the fliers. I love his spin around on the ropes dropkick. Dragon Lee is quite the crazy bumper, but you knew this. Here he's still honing his into the crowd bumps, but he still does them, as well as take a big bump to the floor and on top of the barricade while getting bullied by Hech. Polvora is a guy who is always good in these kind of matches, but he's one of those guys who does not excel at one specific thing so he goes unnoticed. But Hechicero was the story here. The guy really brings out the best in flippers. And anybody, really. Because he's Hechicero.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Callihan v. Thatcher

Sami Callihan v. Timothy Thatcher WXW 3/12

PAS: This was one of the matches I was most excited for when Callihan was unleashed back on the indy scene. I loved the early parts of this, as it had this fun stop and start quality, with each guy searching for a big shot.  Callihan spent a bunch of time aiming at big strikes to the back of Thatchers head, which is an especially nasty looking move. Back during my boxing days I got cracked in the back of my head sparring and had to spend Phil Rippa's bachelor party totally sober, so I sympathize with Thatcher who catches elbows, kicks and stomps right in the soft spot. Thatcher spends much of the match hunting for the Fujiwara arm bar, while throwing in some big headbutts and slaps of his own. He has a bunch of cool counters and attacks for the move, and really broke out some nice near falls with the move. I loved the viciousness of Callihan in the end run, Thatcher was hard to put down, so Sami just got nastier, if Thatcher was willing to die, Sami was willing to kill him. Great, great match.

ER: This felt like the kind of match you would expect coming from these two, if a tad underwhelming based on what you've seen from them. Thatcher had a couple awkward moments where he was waiting around to be hit, and some of the strike exchanges came off as lesser than other 2016 Callihan strike exchanges. Those matches didn't have as much turn based strikes, or guys both going for the same strike at the same time type of spots. But obviously both of these guys are good, and so even with some sticking points they are going to work a base level match that most guys can't. And this one benefitted from a nice build with no overkill. That goes a long way when you already have the high floor these two have. I love Thatcher's thrust headbutt, it's such an ice cold spot that I don't always see coming, and it's a vicious way to break up a strike exchange. Thatcher takes quite a beating in this, gets dumped right on his neck and shoulder on a deadlift back suplex, and several shots to the back of the head. Sami stomping him in the back of the head several times before locking in the stretch muffler is a nasty finish, and most importantly, the thing that should have finished.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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