2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Black Terry/Diablo Scrap w/ Veneno/Chicano

22. Black Terry/Diablo Jr. v. Chicano/Veneno IWRG 2/26

PAS: This is a tourney final for the IWRG intercontinental titles and has exactly what you want from an IWRG title match. The opening fall had some really fun matwork, Veneno is a guy who I didn't like for years, but has turned into a really fun veteran in his old age. He appears to have take a jujitsu class as his mat stuff is more shootstyleish then most lucha. The highlight of this match though is when it got violent. Veneno starts cracking Diablo Jr. with headbutts, Terry tags himself in and they just start smashing each other with gross headbutts including Veneno opening up a huge gash on his forehead. Finish was pretty dumb with Danny Casas running in and throwing a weak chair shot on Veneno so Terry could pin him. Terry is still what he is.

ER: The only logical explanation for what happened with Veneno, is that when Olimpico lost his mask in 2010 some kind of Freaky Friday scenario took place, and Olimpico switched bodies with Veneno, thus making Veneno suddenly very watchable and Olimpico very skippable. It's the only thing that makes sense. I thought Veneno looked great in this. I thought his matwork against Terry was a real highlight; him beating at Terry's clasped hands to try to break them and give him the armbar was awesome. I loved all of Veneno's dropkicks, they pack a nice wallop and were used in cool, different ways (high horizontal dropkick as a big move, low dropkick to Diablo's kneecaps after faking a lock-up, the missed dropkick that blasts the ref). Diablo works with a nice energy, and Terry brings his brand of gravitas to things, peaking with him coming in to sacrifice his own noggin to save Diablo from taking Veneno's vicious headbutts (and my god those headbutts were vicious). Finish is agreeably stupid and lazy, fitting well within 2017's theme of terrible match finishes.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST