2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Relampago v. Imposible

34. Imposible vs. Relampago IWRG 1/22

ER: Here is a match featuring a total knockout of a first half, with one of those big confusing second halves that only seem to happen in lucha. The primera starts hot with Relampago hitting a dive as Imposible is walking to the ring, and the primera never really looks back. We get some nice brawling around ringside and into the crowd, tons of nasty chairshots with those stiff unyielding plastic chairs bouncing off heads and ribs. Relampago gets hiptossed into a bunch of those chairs, later uses them to pull off a double jump rana (chair to barricade to Imposible) into the crowd, later Imposible and him fight on the second level and Imposible flies off with a crossbody. Relampago gets busted open, gets his mask ripped, and Imposible makes sure to punch him a few times right in the cut - cementing his status as "quality Luchador". Primera ends with Relampago locking on a rough sub that sees Imposible hang on too long before tapping, injuring his arm in the process. And then things get kind of weird. Imposible is really rubbing his limp arm, and we get one truly awesome pro wrestling moment where a referee on the floor tries to yank at Imposible's arm to pop it back into place. But again, the segunda gets weird. Suddenly the referee just disappears, and the rudo/tecnicos alliances seem to shift. So we get a couple of pinfall attempts and no referee to count them. Eventually a ref comes out but he never gets in the ring, opting to count pinfalls from the floor. Relampago was cut and bleeding, but not nearly enough to make the ring a quarantine zone. You've seen refs get near wayyyy bloodier luchadors before. So all the pinfalls the rest of the way seem completely off, you don't know if there are rudo ref shenanigans, or if someone got hurt and they don't know what to do, or if Relampago suddenly went full rudo and was getting outside help. It all felt off. And then, Relampago - who had spent the primera as a valiant tecnicos getting bloody and still flying into Imposible - yanks Imposible's mask all the way off and pins him in full view of everyone. So...I don't actually know what happened, but it felt like one of those occurrences that only happen in lucha. Even with the weirdness, match was pretty terrific.

PAS: The second half of this didn't bother me as much as it bothered Eric. I don't know why the ref only was counting from the floor, but it didn't stop the near falls from being compelling. I was also not really bothered by Relampago pulling off the mask. Relampago was brutalized violently for a fall and half at one point Imposible threw him into what looked like his mother and grandmother, and nearly threw a punch at his mom. When they were brawling on the balcony, Relampago gets fireman carry tossed off a balcony, which felt like an attempted murder. I figure once those stakes have been set, a little mask pulling is fair game. I really dug this, violent intense brawl with some really holy shit moments, like the throw off the balcony and subsequent dive. We get some nice mask ripping and blood and a really nasty submission out of nowhere to end the second fall. Third fall was slightly odd, but nothing too weird. Violent, impressive and fun to watch


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST