2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Chicago Lucha Showcase

18. Bandolero/DJ Z v. Skayde Jr./Gringo Loco AIW 4/30

PAS: Super fun lucha showcase match, which was the only men's match on an all women's show. Reminded me of an indy version of that MPRO six man from the AJW Dome show. Four guys going all out to show their cool shit, lots of fun elaborate arm drags, nutty dives crazy counters ect. Loco has put on some pounds since his IWRG classic days, and he nearly killed himself on a blown dive, but everything else he did was great. Skyade and Loco had some fun rudo brawling and double teams to break up the crazy spots, and we built to a fun finish. Popcorn match, but tasty popcorn.

ER: I LOVED THIS!!! This is like what we expected when all of us who loved WCW lucha started watching actual lucha. If you're gonna do a spotfest, do a fucking spotfest, and man do these guys do a fucking awesome spotfest. There's the one blown spot, and boy is it a doozy. Loco slips while running up the ropes and basically faceplants on the apron. That was a potentially match ending blown spot right there, but thankfully we dust ourselves off, and get treated to the SHEER JOY that is every other thing in the match. Skayde Jr. is shaped and wrestles exactly like Skayde, so that math checks out. DJ Z looks better here than in any TNA filth I've ever seen him in, and Bandolero is reckless and smooth all at once. This whole thing just writes a bunch of joy checks and immediately cashes them. We get endless amounts of trippy armdrags and ranas, DJ Z hits a weird spin kick roll off the apron into a rana that looked like it was out of a Flashdance outtake (but like....a good thing), we get crazy double teams, crazy stuff to the floor, more big ranas and arm/leg drags, more more more. I loved all of it.

2016 MOTY MASTER LIST