2022 Ongoing MOTY List: Cuernavaca Dandys

25. Los Dandys (Chamaco Galindo/Icaro/Dante Valaguez) vs. Arana Negra Jr./Mandibula Jr./Maulee Jr. Arena Juan Jaramillo Frikas 2/20

ER: I love checking out a lucha match on recommendation that has six guys I don't know. This was my exposure to the Dandys and all three tecnico fliers, one of those matches where you can just safely assume every town in Mexico has a trio of fliers and trio of great bases who are just doing this thing every week or two. Chamaco Galindo was the standout for me but the other Dandys had their own strengths. They're all great bases and each caught multiple ranas and headscissors and dives. All of them hung in there on some high landing ranas and tough to catch dives, but Chamaco had cool matwork and slicker positioning. He had a couple cool things around picking a leg and rolling into something unexpected, knows how to take the best bumps through and under the ropes to the floor. He also had a couple of big slams on what looked to be a disgustingly hard ring, and his slams had this way of whipping poor small skinny Maulee as hard as possible with no give. 

Mandibula was the coolest of the tecnicos. His mask has a big hinged jaw on it like the Iron Giant or Baron Von Underbite. He has a cool flipping tope suicida that bounces him off Chamaco's back, and he's the hit of the segunda as he runs misdirection around all three Dandys and sends them all sliding on their backs and stomachs to the floor with ranas and headscissors. Well, maybe the hit of the segunda is the older stocky ref doing a surprise forward roll bridging just to count a double pin. What a funny thing to see when up to that point he hadn't done a single thing other than stay out of the way and count pins like a normal man. Maulee was a fun skinny guy flier who made up for some hitches in his flow by taking some nice risks. He disappears from view on a great split-legged top con giro and leans into getting his chest kicked in during the tercera brawl, peaked by him getting rocket launched painfully into the apron and later alley-ooped over the top to the floor into a rana on Chamaco. It did feel like they peaked things a bit early, as the segunda got white hot and the tercera started with Los Dandys kicking the fliers around ringside, and then it felt like things settled down too much into a primera feel. I liked when they were peaking with cool catches and dives and slams, not forearm exchanges. Still, not much beats the uncommitted joy of a trios match with six strangers, especially ones like this that give you a few new guys to seek out. 

2022 MOTY MASTER LIST