Lucha Worth Watching: Fuerza, Still Doing It; Y Tu, Wotan?

Fuerza Guerrera vs. Octagon (Liga Elite 9/9/16)

ER: This is a match up that has happened dozens of times in lucha history, and originally one of the reasons that Octagon was even a thing was because of how good Fuerza made him look. And it's still happening. He's still doing it. This match-up doesn't show up as often as it used to (a quick check shows that it hasn't shown up on tape in 4 years, but no doubt it happens often), and Octagon has gotten chubbier and slower, while Fuerza is just as nutty as ever. This is predictably a total Fuerza show, but an impressive show. Fuerza does all the work on everything, as the slo mo camera reveals; what looks like some violent tilt a whirl backbreakers in normal speed can be seen as Fuerza violently whipping himself into Octagon's knee, while Octagon doesn't even go into a full knee bend. But Fuerza makes them look great in regular speed. Octagon can still spin fast on armdrags, and Fuerza bumps fast for all of them. To make up for Octagon being able to do much of anything, Fuerza even hits a big time gusher, bleeding all over the ring, hitting a big flip dive (that Octagon mostly bails on) with blood dripping down his chest, kicks balls, and just keeps making Octagon look better than Octagon should look, 25 years later. You'd think this would have been annoying to him in his 30s, and that somewhere along the way he would stop trying so hard, but here he is in his 60s, still trying hard, still doing it.

Wotan vs. As Charro Innova Aztec Power 8/7/16

PAS: Wotan was in our 2016 MOTY, so when Powerbomb.tv dumped a bunch of indy lucha on the internet, I wanted to check out more Wotan to see if he is great on his own or a Black Terry creation. Verdict after this match is closer to a Black Terry creation. This has got to be As Charro Jr. or something as the original was super old in the late 80s. This starts out with some pretty good matwork and some nice brawling, but really falls apart when they break out the light tubes. After that it is some geek show jabbing and poking and some of the most egregious your turn my turn stuff I can remember seeing. For example As Charro hits a running death valley bomb into the turnbuckle and the very next move is Wotan hitting the same thing on him, didn't even bother to pretend to be hurt. Finish was a nothing run in too, I do want to check out a couple more Wotan matches, but this wasn't a good start.