2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Ki vs. Fenix

12. Low-Ki vs. Rey Fenix MLW 9/6

PAS: These are two of the most athletically gifted wrestlers in the world, and one might expect a souped up version of Ki vs. Red or Fenix vs. Flamita, but instead we got Mil Muertes vs. Fenix with Ki in the role of a smaller even more violent Muertes. Much of the match has Ki beating on Fenix with brutal shots, and Fenix leaks blood all over the ring. There are some awesome bits of athletic amazement here and there, they do a variation of the Ki vs. Red Matrix spot, Fenix flies into the second row with a tope con hilo, Fenix does a crazy rope trick rana and a rope trick Spanish Fly. Much of this match was straight violent though, with Ki grunting and screaming as he tried to kick Fenix's ribs through his chest, or Fenix unloading a gunshot open hand shot on Ki's chest. Finish was kind of nifty with Ki pushing Fenix into the ropes and Selena pulling of Fenix's mask. While Fenix is covering up his face he eats a brutal top rope double stomp to the spine for the pin. Great stuff, feels like the start of cool rivalry, and Konan bringing in luchadores to topple Ki should be great (already jazzed for Ki vs. Daga at the NYC show)

ER: These are two of my favorite "movers" in wrestling, two guys where anything is possible, and I love athletic Ki matches for that reason: You put him against an athletic embellisher like John Morrison, and he'll do something interesting with it. I have no doubt that Ki would know how to have an awesome match with Dolph Ziggler. He knows how to work athleticism into a match better than maybe anybody, and Fenix is a guy who can pull off some impossible stunts. So I was not expecting this to turn into Fenix, mask ripped open, dripping blood down his head and chest while Ki body paints with it. That was a welcome turn I did not see coming. It had all the craziness you would expect from these two, Fenix springing off the ropes and hitting offense most couldn't hit from a standing start, hitting an absurdly fast tope con hilo that sends himself into the front row (and Ki always has a great way of bending backwards over a railing to sell impact), and later takes another nice spill into the crowd (Fenix is great at falling into crowds) and sends a guardrail flying while taking a nasty Irish whip. Ki is vicious as always, ripping at Fenix's mask, hitting the nastiest double stomps you've seen. Ki knows how to plausibly pull off rolling through a top rope rana, something the PJ Black's of the world can't do well, and the stomp reversal is just mean. Salina de la Renta is nice to look at but really doesn't add anything to the match in the way Zelina does...until she yanks Fenix's mask off to set up a double stomp to a KNEELING Fenix. I don't know how Fenix's back just didn't snap in two, on all fours, and Ki just unleashes a stomp from the top. Savage. This was as good as you expected it to be.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI