2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Minis in a Cage

Demus 3:16 vs. Dragoncito De Oro vs. Mini Rey Misterio vs. Espectrito vs. Caramelito vs. Pentagoncito vs. Pequeno Anibal vs. Super Loco vs. Aguilita vs. Mini Difunto vs. Mini Pinochito Lucha Libre Boom 10/6

PAS: This is a cage match with the loser losing his hair or mask. These type matches normally stink, but you lock a rabid badger like Demus in a cage and he is going to go nuts. The big feud this match focused on was Demus vs. Pinochito and both little dudes are covered in blood by the end of the match, Pinochito wears Demus out with a chair, and Demus gets his revenge by chair shotting everyone in the cage. We also get some close fighting, which Demus is the best in the world at, both guys are on their knees exchanging heabutts and nasty tiny fist punches. We get some highlights from other people, Mini Rey Mysterio (who may be an inch taller and twenty pounds heavier then Rey Jr.) does a top of the cage plancha, and Dragoncito puts up a nice fight before losing his mask, but this was the Demus show and that is a show I will always be excited to attend.

ER: These matches always stink, it almost doesn't matter how good the talent involved is. Fill a match like this with bigger stars and they tend to just lazily brawl around the ring. The matches almost always feel sluggish, and the only danger involved is usually how ratchety the cage looks. But this starts hot with Demus entering the cage and attacking the other 9 guys, really being a ferret in the pants, and when Mini Rey Misterio (and Phil is totally right, Mini Misterio just looks like a same size or larger Rey Mysterio. You'd really need a Tzuki size guy to be a proper Mini Rey) isn't allowed to enter the cage he climbs to the top and does a beautiful crossbody onto several guys as his entrance. Everyone is really good at staying active here, Rey starts throwing a chair around and Demus goes "oh yeah!" takes the chair and blasts everyone with it, one after the other. Super Loco tackles him from behind when he's done and everyone who got hit by Demus puts the boots to him. The escapees all get out nicely, and they all stay at ringside to root on their boys (tecnicos) or rile up the crowd (rudos, leading to ringside fans throwing full drinks at them). We get a nice little section in the middle between Rey and Pentagoncito, some nice juniors exchanges in the middle of 7 remaining guys still fighting, and everyone puts in nice moments: Aguilita takes some hard back bumps, Difunto gets his mask ripped and responds angrily, Caramelito is wearing a Candy Land Chico Che outfit with shiny pants covered in smiling lollipops, Espectrito hits a couple hard lariats and does a slick dodge when escaping, and calling Pinochito a mini is truly an oxymoron. Pinochito is muy gordo, with normal size legs and a truly majestic giant round belly. He and Demus go at it the whole match, Demus bleeding immediately (because of course) and Pinochito not far behind after getting his mask ripped. I wanted him to stab at Demus' cut with his long pointy Pinnochio mask nose, feels like good shtick to add in, but you know beating at each other's wounds is cool too. I was extra excited for Pinochito's escape due to his giant belly, and he was great just lying and resting on the top of the cage when he finally made it up. Poor poor Dragoncito gets spiked nastily to lose his mask and cap off an unexpectedly wild lucha cage match that actually lives up to the promise of a wild lucha cage match.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 2: Matches from ICW 3/4/11

Doing some internet surfing I discovered that there was a 2011 Red vs. Low-Ki match I had no idea happened, considering that is one of my favorite rivalries ever, I signed up for Titlematch Wrestling Networks service to check it out. The show also had a Kingston vs. Moxley match which fits our C+A Kingston so I made a double post

Eddie Kingston vs. Jon Moxley - FUN

PAS: It feels like a real blood feud between these two would have been awesome. A chance to do competing promos, really stretch out and get violent would have been great. This was more of a house show undercard contest.  Moxley is a fun Piper style seller, and he had some fun flopping and gesticulating when he was hit with Kingston's big shots. There was a neat arm sell by Kingston when he got hit with a tope, but this was mostly just exchanging shots until a tights roll up finish. Entertaining but pretty unessential, you should mute the commentary for sure, as one of the guys does a racist gibberish Japanese announcer gimmick which is unbearable

Low-Ki vs. Red - GREAT

PAS: This is their first singles match in eight years, and worked very differently then their turn of the century series. Ki was coming off of his WWE stint and Red had finished rehabbing his knee injury. This went 30 minutes, and was worked at a slower pace, with the focus more on stiffness then on mind bending athleticism. They open up doing some shtick with the crowd including Red shit talking a dipshit fat NYC fan who tried to start a boring chant during the feel out process (Low-Ki takes a second out of the ringside brawling section later in the match to dump a beer on his lap).  Ki really unloads with his kicks and chops as usual, but Red brings it just as hard, including a nasty running forearm to the face which landed with a base deep thump. We do get a Wushu section, which was pretty cool, although a bit slower then in 2001, I love how Ki mixes it up by landing a stiff straight kick to the chest instead of a pose to the crowd. They built to a pretty dramatic finish, although Red didn't really have the kind of big offense needed for this kind of 2.9 finish run (a red star press is a cool flash pin, but doesn't really feel like a milk the drama near fall). Ki wins with a head and arm choke which also seemed a bit of an incongruous finish for the match they were telling. Still those are minor quibbles for what was a really nifty match, it isn't the Red vs. Ki you were expecting, but a cool experience anyway.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI
COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

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