2015 Ongoing MOTY List: Panther vs. Satanico

58. Satanico vs. Blue Panther Cara Lucha 7/25

ER: This is the kind of lucha match I will always seek out, working a style of lucha that I'm constantly afraid will wash away for good. I just love how these two move, love watching their dance. Give them 15 minutes, I'm good. I would be fine with these two just going through the motions as their lucha muscle memory alone is a treat. But this match is a little more than just their muscle memory. Panther really needles into Satanico in a few great moments, the best being Panther fighting for a drop toe hold and Satanico fighting to not go down, so Panther starts elbowing the back of Satanico's knee to get him to go down, then starts kicking at the back of his knees. Satanico showed his wonderful wily side, my favorite being a sequence with Panther coming off the ropes and Satanico setting out to kick him, but faking the kick to sucker Panther into a grapple, which Panther turns into a nice abdominal stretch. There's no bad blood or even strikes in this match, just a fine masterclass in lucha leg drags and old man grace. There aren't many things in wrestling I love more. 

PAS: I started writing this review five years ago, and stopped for some reason. Interesting to rewatch this with 2021 eyes, as it really was the end of an era. Six years later this generation of maestros has passed out of real relevance. Satanico is 71 now, insane he was performing at this level into his 60s, Panther is 60 now, was a spry 55 during this match. They could still really go in 2015, and there were a bunch of nifty little tricks. Loved Panther ripping down on the arm and Satanico finding little ways to free himself. Satanico isn't as intricate but is still really smooth with all of his movement, like watching lake period Baryshnikov: He isn't going to jump as high, but will still awe you with his movement.

2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Stuka Jr. vs. Hechicero: A Feud of Relampago

While looking through some matchlists I saw that Stuka Jr. and Hechicero have now had 4 lightning matches over the last 4 years, and being that they are two of my very favorites in CMLL I figured it would be pretty easy to knock them all out. Given CMLL's roster, there are an absurd number of potential lightning match combos, so it seems odd that they've matched up 4 times, and I'm curious how much they mixed things up match to match.

Stuka Jr. vs. Hechicero  CMLL 2/1/15

ER: A fairly easygoing start to our feud. Much of the early matwork felt perfunctory and uninterestingly cooperative. The matwork still has some cool segments like Stuka going for an armbar and Hechicero turning it into his one armed deadlift, which Stuka then rolled through for another shot. Hechicero takes two big bumps to the floor, one over the top tumbling, the great one a Fuerza bump that he lands butt first. Yeowch. Stuka hits a big quebrada and gorgeous hands-to-side springboard crossbody; Hechicero hits his inverted monkey flip and a hard dropkick to Stuka's ear, and Stuka finishes a little too easily with his torpedo splash. This was a pretty basic intro to these two, but nothing really outside of what you might expect out of these two in a typical trios. Let's see where we build this.

Stuka Jr. vs. Hechicero  CMLL 9/27/15

ER: This match is much more Hechicero-controlled than the first one, and features more overt rudo work from Hechicero. The first match was pretty genial, this at least has Hech taunting the crowd and picking on Stuka as both do some fun tumbling, and Hechicero breaks out a fast dropkick through the ropes to the floor and a slingshot tornillo back into the ring. Hechicero pulls out two even bigger bumps in this one, getting thrown under the bottom rope and landing stomach first, and then peaking when he whiffs on a charge and wraps himself around the ringpost to the floor. Stuka follows with a completely bonkers moonsault over the ringpost to the floor, just wild. I always love Stuka's dedication to roll-ups and he always stays tight on sunset flips, really reminds me of El Dandy in that way, and it made the finish look good. Hechicero catches Stuka on a rana and deadlifts him up to powerbomb him (which itself was used earlier to toss Stuka into the buckles), but Stuka just keeps the momentum going and rolls right over the top, Santo style. We still haven't had any WorldWide classic between the two, but it's in there somewhere.

Stuka Jr. vs. Hechicero  CMLL 7/28/17

ER: Closer to the second match in the series, but less satisfying. The ending is a little more modern lucha for me (Hechicero misses a moonsault, Stuka moonsaults into boots, cut to spinning backbreaker win for Hechicero), but the big stuff plays big. Hechicero takes a fast rolling bump through the ropes to the floor, and Stuka hits a locomotive of a dive, and later we get another nasty Hechicero bump past the ringpost with another great Stuka moonsault over that ringpost. You got a crazy spot, you do your crazy spot in a lightning match. I liked the way they tied some things together, loved a silky tilt a whirl armdrag from Stuka, a nice springboard elbow to a standing Stuka, but this one felt a little more hollow.

Stuka Jr. vs. Hechicero  CMLL 6/8/18

ER: I figured with 4 different singles matches between these two, we would get one good enough to land on a list. Well, I don't think they did it. This was probably the best of the 4, but it felt more like a fun collection of stuff than an actual complete match. This felt like probably the best combination of the best parts of the other matches, with all their nice offense and a nice callback finish. This match felt weirdly saved by a minorly flubbed spot. We basically get all of the same things we've seen in the other matches, some nice Hechicero strength spots, big dive, torpedo splash off the top and moonsault to the floor from Stuka, Stuka flying halfway across the ring off Hechicero's inverted monkey flip, all cool stuff. They got a bit crossed up and saved it by snapping off a couple of nice spots right away to immediately distract, with a nice headscissors by Stuka and then a fast Code Red. That immediate covering for a flub quickened the pace from there out, not sure if that moment was the catalyst or not but it felt possible. The finish was cool and not one typically used in CMLL (that I've seen) with Stuka going again for his torpedo splash and landing right in the waiting arms of a Hechicero armbar. It's a cool finish and maybe because I haven't seen it in CMLL, it surprised me and felt like a big deal.

So, all four matches were fun (and short, these are lightning matches after all), but nothing MOTY list worthy. Now, the series is evened up 2-2, so I'm sure someday we'll get the conclusion to this best of 5.

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Mesias Can't Count How Many Heads He Had to Sever

El Mesias/Electroshock v. Blue Demon Jr./La Parka AAA 8/9/15 - FUN

ER: Mesias coming out victorious over the Turks in the Vlad Dracula armor is one of the absolute coolest entrances ever. Juxtapose that with Demon coming out to modern Red Hot Chili Peppers and...yeah. And I actually quite liked this. Demon/Parka is a team of stiffs if ever there was one, but Mesias is great at dragging stuff out of Parka, and he does here. He baits him into a nice punch exchange (Mesias' overhand rights are some of the best in wrestling), brawls with him over the railing and into the crowd, eats a tope by safely catching Parka and slamming hard into the barricade; Mesias bumps big throughout and makes Parka look tough. Electroshock is a guy who is always a bit better than he seems. He's a guy that nobody goes out of their way to watch, but always comes off like a competent not-as-good Mesias when I do see him. He feeds Demon nicely here; I liked their opening older man lucha segment, working as smaller guys, rolling up into armdrags, and I liked their finishing run with Electroshock breaking out a big powerslam and powerbomb, before Demon taps him with a nice octopus. I think this was given just the right amount of time, didn't have that typical AAA overkill, and all guys complemented each other nicely. A nice little carry by Mesias/Electro.

PAS: Mediocre match, but it had it's moments. I really loved the initial Parka v. Mesisas section where they take the lock up all the way into the crowd. I would assume these two had a singles match, and I need to track that down as I imagine it is a fun budget version of Mesias v. LA PARK. Demon looked like Demon, but he didn't do anything egregious, and I liked his head scissors. Messias also hit a nice spear, still this was pretty forgettable overall.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EL MESIAS 

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

32. Negro Casas v. Maximo CMLL 1/11

ER: This match is the day after Casas's 54th birthday, and he celebrates in gleeful dickhead fashion by just continuing to be arguably the best wrestler of the last decade. That guy. Right out of the gate he jumps Maximo, going right after his knee over and over with low kicks, dropkicks, leg whips, you name it. He goes after Maximo with a viciousness normally reserved for stip matches or actual feuds. It is possible that on his birthday he got some novelty old age gag gifts from Spencer's Gifts and they were not sitting well with him, so for every novelty bottle of jelly beans labeled "Old Man Stay Hard Pills" he received, he was going to take it out tenfold on Maximo. And he must have received an insane amount of novelty dick pills. Maximo takes his beating well, not like a man, because there are many moments where Casas makes Maximo literally squeal. Like, he's wrenching at Maximo's jaw and nose and Maximo is squealing. At one point Casas mule kicks him right under the jaw and the way Maximo's leg buckled as he crumbled was a thing of beauty. Maximo's comebacks are all wonderful, with the crowd being way into them, and then blowing the doors off everything with an all time great, rewindable, comment worthy tope which plays like a gigantic missile that's all shoulders, head and chest. Just massively crashes into Casas. Great match, Casas is just on a whole different level when he gets the bug. Great match.

PAS: Casas is an all time great rudo, but for the most part he has worked defacto technico for years. I love that he celebrated his birthday by turning up the rudissimo to 11. He goes after Maximo's leg with unbridled aggression and it looks great. Not only does he try to rip off Maximo's patella, but he does a dickish little limping dance to make fun of him. He not only slaps Maximo in the face, he tries to rip his nose off. "You thought I was a good guy? I am the baddest fucking guy you have ever seen" Maximo is really great at limping, he limps around but still hits this amazing limping tope where he just obliterates Casas, top of the head right into the jaw. We get some great near falls, with Casas having tons of cool ways to almost put on the Casita but get foiled, and Maximo finally finishing him off with a giant top rope armdrag. Total blast and so much fun to watch Casas do what he does best.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

35. Negro Casas vs. Dragon Lee CMLL 5/22

ER: Nice little Leyenda de Plata final. The Arena Mexico crowd liked Casas a little more than Lee, which led to a fun dynamic where they wouldn't totally boo Casas' subtle heeling but would kind of boo Lee's appeals to the crowd. This had a real main event feel to it which many CMLL big time singles matches don't reach. Casas made things nice and clear how things were going to go, reaching for an early knucklelock and tricking Lee into eating a low mule kick. Casas kept going back to that kick and they all looked knee buckling when they landed, and also led to a satisfying Lee reversal later. Lee for his part added some nice little touches that are usually ignored by far more experienced workers. I particularly noticed when he was setting up his big tree of woe double stomp to Casas' chest, he held onto Casas' knees while getting his own balance. That's some wise beyond his years shit right there. Most every other worker would have left Casas up to his own, letting him find his own way to believably dangle there without anything really keeping him. But there's Lee holding Casas' knee while setting him up for the kill. The Casita works great as a flash pin and Casas was masterful going hard for other subs to keep Lee off balance before burying him with it. Lee had a nice big match showing here, Casas is still a top worker, life is happy.

PAS: This was really good. Casas has been having these kind of great main event matches with lesser guys for a while and it was good to see him get to work with a kid with some real ability to bring something to the table. Lee is an athletic marvel and clever worker that he can hang with Casas and not look smoked. I really liked all of the early matwork, with Casas countering the arm drags by flipping over, really simple stuff with Casas using his guile and experience to counter Lee's athleticism advantages. Casas reminded me of late period Bernard Hopkins in this match, outgunned in every way someone can be physically, but such a master of the ring and placement that he can survive and thrive. I loved how he kept grabbing at the arms in the STF to keep Lee from getting a rope break, and how he tried a bunch of different approaches to the Casita before pulling it out. Great Casas performance, and a very good Dragon Lee one.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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There Are Diabolicos Matches Online That I Haven't Watched

Romano Garcia/Mr. Condor is one of my absolute favorite luchadors, yet most of his matches that turn up online are highlights. The highlights always look great, but are just cruel tastes. Well, I saw that there were a couple full Diabolicos matches that I missed from 2015, so let's dive in!

Romano Garcia/Gallego/Rocky Santana vs. Dante/Euro/Filder (AULL 4/19/15)

ER: Tecnicos team is made of three perfectly cromulent guys that I've never seen before, and who I won't actively seek out again. This is really more of a showcase for Los Diabolicos. Gallego is the youngest of the bunch, and he's 50. Garcia is almost 60 and Rocky is into his 60s. And they're all impossibly smooth and it still amazes me how ageless so many luchadors are. For the most part they match up as Rocky/Euro, Gallego/Dante and Garcia/Filder, and all segments are worth watching. Santana and Gallego break out some smooth maestro matwork, and it's noticeable how differently old luchadors move, how they take armdrags a little differently, how they transition on the mat differently. Santana and Euro work some really nice wristlock sequences and work up to snug headlock takeovers and headscissors, all with Santana moving like a guy half his age. Gallego works a lot of neat standing exchanges with Dante, more leveraged wristlock takedowns. Garcia is really great at fast rope exchanges, quick armdrag, headscissor, hiptoss and legsweep counters, always brings violent snap to rote lucha spots. Santana is still impressively graceful for a man who would be eligible for social security, still pulling off rope flip armdrags while getting 15% discounts on Tuesdays at Ross Dress for Less, I really loved his "missed punch flip bump", another example of an old-style lucha bump that you don't see much anymore. Things get a little messy when everybody gets in the ring, but we build to a big double dive by Filder and Dante, with Gallego eating a great Filder dive and Garcia throwing Dante in midair right into the barricade in nasty fashion. Match was unica caida for whatever reason, but I really dug all of what we got. It's crazy how these old guys can still go.

Romano Garcia/Gallego/Rocky Santana vs. Coco Rojo/Coco Verde/Coco Rojo Jr. (AULL 5/30/15)

ER: Ahhhh, lucha clowns, one of my least favorite things in lucha. They usually aren't good at wrestling, they're usually slow and fat, they're never funny and often don't even try to be, and really if you're a clown who's not good at your craft in any way, then why have you even made this life choice? All of us have myriad life failures, but at least the majority of us don't fail while also wearing grease paint, a yarn wig and giant toddler clothing. It's one thing to fail, it's another to look every bit the part of a failure while failing. So you get a great team in Los Diabolicos basically spending the whole time armdragging themselves, setting up everything, while a couple fat clowns constantly pull their yarn wig out of their eyes while wearing shitty sherbet colored baggy clothes. The segunda ends with Gallego standing around for an eternity while Coco Rojo Jr. literally falls off the top rope, then gets back up only to do his lousy body press. It's okay, because as this was happening Coco Verde was taking an eternity to lock Santana into a submission. Diabolicos try to add some little things: Garcia whips his head into the ringpost when getting thrown into it, Santana takes a couple nice pratfall bumps including a great faceplant with him holding his mouth afterwards...but man Los Payasos stink.

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

48. Villano IV v. Blue Demon Jr. AAA 3/18

PAS: VIV shows up twice a year on tape to have these gritty nasty brawls. Blue Demon is sort of luggage set, but he is solid in all the different parts of this match, and that iconic mask soaked in blood is a great visual. Villano is awesome in this, he does a bunch of interesting mat stuff early, lands some beautiful punches on the cuts and builds a lot of drama till the finish. Villano is one of the most interesting punch combos in wrestling, he mixes in hooks, jabs, body shots, the highlight of the match is Demon and Villano IV standing toe to toe and just exchanging until both fall over. I would rather see VIV matched up with someone a little better (man he would be great against Pentagon Jr.) but I am thrilled we still get to see him on a big stage.

ER: I really liked this, it combined the kind of clumsy stiffness you typically see from old white guy wrestling, with the slow grace of old luchadors fighting. When old guys fight there's a built in vulnerability that really appeals to me. Every spill resonates more as these guys are long past the days of feeling invincible. At this point they have a finite number of falls left in their bodies. Both men operate to a degree as symbols. Demon is a legend who isn't a legend, more like a son running his father's drywall business into the ground, but the long time employees still like him despite his faults because of how much they loved his father. V4 is much closer to a legend, but probably pales when compared to V3 and V5. But here they are both legends, older slower, still willing to takes risks, still utilizing their tools. I love the slowed down old man lucha spots, the slower armdrags, the slower go behinds, and we get those; but things take a turn as V4 backs Demon back into the corner with punches to the face, body, short kicks to the ribs and kidneys, and soon we get biting and mask ripping and bleeding, and any ounce of grace is gone. V4 drops that classic leg on the apron, falls short on a dive, Demon hits a rana off the top rope; these are things they don't need to do and don't often do anymore, but you can hear the fans getting deeper and deeper involved as they see what level the two luchadors are taking it to. The big moment comes - and this is legitimately one of my absolute favorite wrestling moments of the last few years - where V4 comes out of the corner throwing tight balled up fists right at Demon's chin, and Demon responds in kind, and you have these two just standing in the middle of the ring punching each other in the face, not taking turns, just swinging until collapse. Hearing the fan murmur slowly starting to build to a roar was really special. I love it when old guys really show up. These kinds of matches are just made for me.


2015 ONGOING MOTY LIST

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

26. Virus v. Avisman Chilanga Mask 4/12

PAS: Hey Avisman!! I used to love that dude back during the glory days of IWRG. He was always a guy who could work on the mat, and really developed into a great brawler, and then he disappeared (along with other awesome guys like Chico Che and Freelance) so IWRG could be all crappy fake Capos sons. This is Virus working a straight maestro style, focused on leg and arm locks and cool standing counters. Avisman is perfectly comfortable working this match, he has some very cool abdominal stretch variations, and looks perfectly comfortable countering arms and legs, great performance and I hope he shows up more. Virus is great at working this kind of match too, it is different then what he does in CMLL, and while I liked this a lot, I kind of wanted him to work more of his title match style so we could see Avisman stretch out a bit. This was a great painting, but I wanting to see them use more of their pallete.

ER: I really loved this, my favorite Virus performance of 2015, and Avisman is a cool guy to see him match up against. This could have easily devolved into heatless holds trading as there are hardly any strikes to speak of, but these two didn't let that come close to happening. These holds had meaning and Virus always looked like he was going for a finish, working over moves with actual substance. Avisman doesn't have the grace of other luchadors, which I thought really worked to the advantage of this kind of maestro style mat work. He would thud into the mat, land tailbone first on a double leg, his sunset flip and code red looked like actual scrambling pinfall attempts instead of large looping gestures. And the best thing he brought was, oddly, Avisman is a great screamer. His screaming helped Virus' holds as much as Virus being awesome helped is holds. Virus was so damn good at showing progression of holds, never ever making it look like he was just holding a guy static to fill time. You see Virus do a single leg, you can see 6+ different points of progression through it. You see him lock it in, you see him grab his own hand to tighten the hold, you see him grit his teeth which immediately gives the impression he's wrenching it in even more, you see him broaden his squat which bends the leg and back even more, and he does this stuff for every hold! This is about as far away as you can possibly get from Muta lying in a legbar for two minutes. And Avisman helps this move progression, as he yelps at all the right times, howls when an arm starts getting bent back, really made Virus sound like a sadistic dungeon master. Virus kept working different nasty bow and arrow variations, a standing abdominal stretch type one, one with him on his back, the classic knee into opponents back style, and he kept going back to that the entire match. So when Virus hit s his killer chopblock and locks it on again, it really felt like the finish. I loved Avisman's stiff unpolished counters to Virus' almost muscle memory skill, and this may have actually been my favorite of the last couple years of mat-based indy lucha.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Lucha Worth Watching: CMLL Minis! Also, Normal, Slightly Larger CMLL Men!

Demus 3:16 & Mercurio vs. Stukita & Fantasy (CMLL 11/20/15)

I like several CMLL minis but often their matches don't make tape, or their matches get uploaded after I've already moved on to other shows. So I thought I would dive back into the list of matches I had set aside, ones that sounded good on paper, and pull one at random. And this was a pretty good one. I'm sad that Demus never got the chance to move up out of the minis division as the iron was hot for it several years ago. He still brings tons of energy and showmanship to opening matches, which is admirable. He's the mini I tend to check out the most, but he's even more fun when matched with Stukita, and Stukita's tiny little death wish. Primera is okay but forgettable. The tecnicos tie the rudos up with some wristlocks, so some headscissors, you know the drill. I came for the beatdown, and that arrives promptly in the segunda, with Demus and Mercurio just lacing into poor little Stukita. And Stukita is just a total nutbar. It begins with Demus holding him so Mercurio can hit a big baseball slide dropkick to the floor, then they toss him around for a bit and he takes a super high bump into a flapjack on the floor. Ick. Back in and Demus splats him with a cannonball followed by a Mercurio dropkick in the corner. But he is not just crazy at the bumps, but just a nut in general. Him doing the arms-at-sides splash from the top to the entrance ramp is loony. And this was all just really fun. Demus should be in a trios with Virus, he's just being wasted where he's at. Mercurio always has nice showings as well, I really like him as Demus' lackey, and even though he finds obnoxious times to adjust his elbow pads, then he'll break out a nice tornillo and I won't care as much. Now I must seek more Stukita to see how much crazier he can get...

Barbaro Cavernario, Negro Casas & Felino vs. Rey Cometa, Valiente & Volador Jr. (CMLL 5/6/16)

Cometa was a guy who looked to be breaking out a couple years ago, and for the last year plus I've been wondering where that guy is. And this was the most I've enjoyed Cometa since probably 2014. He and Cavernario matched up great, which is a good sign going ahead for their feud. Their armdrag sequence in the primera was tremendous fun and Cometa really seemed energized throughout. Felino is also totally unpredictable as many matches of his are filled with all sorts of unfunny comedy and general laziness. Here he's at least semi-inspired in his role as third wheel and his apron work was great. Valiente going for an asai moonsault and Felino shaking the ropes at the perfect time to fell him was legit one of my favorite lucha moments of the year. So unexpected, perfect timing, great moment. Casas always seems to take joy in picking on Volador, but is always generous when taking Volador's ranas and dives, though in this match mostly Felino was matching up with him. Casas was busy absorbing Valiente's big dive, Cometa took some big spills, Cavernario looked like a star after being lost in the middle for awhile, and this was all fun.

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

Aerostar/Australian Suicide/Fireball v. Hijo De Pirata Morgan/Steve Pain/Daga AAA 11/6

PAS: Totally lunatic spotfest, the best crazy lucha spotfest of the year. Steve Pain and Aeorstar have just crazy chemistry, breaking out some super awesome next level spots, felt like nuclear powered Rey v. Psicosis, Dick Togo v. Yakushiji stuff. Aerostar also breaks out an insane tope where he goes fully vertical. Daga and Australian Suicide were fun potato shotting each other, and all the other guys broke out some cool spots. Still you have to watch this for Pain v. Aerostar

ER: When you're going to do a spotfest, do a spotfest! And this right here was a good spotfest. And while you would rightfully come for the Aerostar vs. Pain match-ups, the rest of the guys all had value as well. Hijo de Pirata Morgan is not a guy I watch much, and after he took the safest bump possible on an early rana I already had him as the weak link, but after that I thought he looked good. He's a nice power wrestler, stands up to dives, hits a really nice vertical suplex, hits a really great moonsault and handles some basics very nicely. He was a pleasant surprise. Daga is not a guy I love, but a guy who certainly works far better as a rudo. And he was a total dickhead in this match. That was a major strength of the match, not just Daga being a dick, but the rudos feeling like rudos. And more than that, the rudos felt like a TEAM. Not just three assembled rudos, but they felt like three like-minded dickheads. That adds sooooo much to a match like this. The tecniocs all had fun stuff, with Fireball dying on a dive and breaking out some nice ranas, and Australian Suicide flipping out post-match as he and Daga beat the absolute shit out of each other. I have no idea what happened but it was a couple seconds away from the post match of an Onita vs. karate guy match. For whatever reason that start rapidly and violently teeing off on each other, in a way that immediately screamed "we are actually punching each other's faces". They get split up and Daga has a brutal cut under his eye that's gushing blood. Holy shit. But yeah you want Aerostar and Pain. Pain is a classic rudo base, working almost like a larger version of a great mini base like Demus 3:16. He does really vicious power offense and then hangs in for the ride on some of Aerostar's nuttier armdrags. These two clearly know each other and bring out some magic. The Aerostar tope is an easy contender for spot of the year, as he plows through Pirata completely vertical and then flips into the 4th row. AAA does the opposite of AAAing the shot, as they get a couple great shots of the tope and show it several times in all its glorious detail. This was too much fun.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Lucha Worth Watching: Spry Panther and All of the Ranas

Blue Panther, Valiente & Stuka Jr. vs. Terrible, Rey Bucanero & Vangellys (CMLL 2/9/16)

Tuesday night Arena Mexico main events aren't where I go when I'm expecting a bunch of fun primera matwork, but that's what ended up happening here! First Valiente and Terrible went at it. For guys I see wrestle a lot, I don't recall either guy ever going to the mat that often, so it was kind of a treat to see them work through things, roll through headlocks, pick legs, stuff that should be happening more but just doesn't. The real gold is Panther and Bucanero matching up and going on the mat right after, and that's really special. Panther is still one of my absolute favorite mat guys and I relish any time he gets even 30 seconds to got at it in a match. Here he gets to pull out all sorts of tricks and always impresses me with different weird takeovers and a seemingly endless supply of ways he can work himself out of a headscissors. Bucanero also surprised me as he's not a guy who's been super motivated that last several years, but you still get flashes and he still has basics to fall back on when he's not listlessly drifting into trios triple team tropes (TTTT, TM). Here Panther forces him to the mat and Rey is almost frustratingly game, frustrating as in "you were capable of this all along!?" Rey even harkens back to bump machine days by wrapping himself around a ring post. Stuka breaks out an awesome low angle version of his hands-by-his-side splash, firing more straight out as opposed to getting more height, we get some dives, and I just drift away envisioning a world where CMLL allows for more matwork. Sigh...

Hechicero, Ripper & Polvora vs. Dragon Lee, Mistico & Titan (CMLL 6/20/15)

It's tough to keep up with all the lucha with stalwarts like Cubsfan constantly uploading stuff, but I have stuff I save to watch later, stuff that sounds nice on paper, and some days I get to that stuff, and some days it's worth writing about. Whenever it's a Hechicero match I throw it in the "to watch" pile and hey look at that, Hechicero was awesome here. That's a fun rudo team and a flippy tecnico team, and that's a nice combo. Hechicero matched up a lot with Lee and Mistico, and he made Mistico look golden. So many rana variations were tossed out in this match and all three rudos were splatting all around the ring. Lee did his wild no hands high jump rana over the top, sending Polvora off the apron to the floor. Hechicero takes some big bumps on the floor, Ripper does his nice bump past the ringpost and then runs into a Lee backbreaker. Hechicero is awesome at taking armdrags and ranas, he really can navigate a long rotating armdrag sequence like a great minis base. Except he is a full size man! And then Hechicero goes and does graceful flying better than the fliers. I love his spin around on the ropes dropkick. Dragon Lee is quite the crazy bumper, but you knew this. Here he's still honing his into the crowd bumps, but he still does them, as well as take a big bump to the floor and on top of the barricade while getting bullied by Hech. Polvora is a guy who is always good in these kind of matches, but he's one of those guys who does not excel at one specific thing so he goes unnoticed. But Hechicero was the story here. The guy really brings out the best in flippers. And anybody, really. Because he's Hechicero.

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Lucha Worth Watching: More Dragon Lee/Kamaitachi and Porky vs. Ingobernales

Dragon Lee v. Kamaitachi (CMLL 11/27/15)

ER: This is the WorldWide match of all WorldWide matches right here. I am not sure how two guys could cram more into 6 1/2 minutes. This is a lightning match so you have that large clock looming in the background at all times, and after a breathless segment of ducked strikes and missed charges and reversed armdrags the camera pans back to show that we were only 58 seconds into this whole thing. Sheesh. Psych is out the window here, this is just two cool athletes showcasing their coolest shit, and it's most definitely cool. Kamaitachi has a couple cool Canadian Destroyer variations that he's able to hit without it being expected (the match ender off a Lee powerbomb attempt was NOT what I expected to happen). Both men have been taking stupid bumps and murdering the other for practically two years now and this whole thing is no different. Kamaitachi suckers in Lee when Lee attempts to do his top rope stomp, sends Lee flipping fast and painfully to the floor, then caves his neck in with a lariat sending Lee over the ringside barricade. Feet fly into faces, stomps get laid in snug, both men take ludicrous headdrops, Lee breaks out a typical gorgeous dive. These guys enjoy making each other's offense look nasty, and I enjoy watching them murder themselves.

Rush, La Sombra & La Mascara vs. Super Porky, Super Parka & Angel de Oro (CMLL 10/9/15)

ER: I didn't go into this one expecting too much, it being buried in the middle of a card featuring a singles match tournament, but something about the match-up intrigued me. Ingobernales are the big trios team, and here they were against a curiously tossed together team, none of whom have anything to do with one another. I mean, Porky and Parka share a Super, and Porky's arm is silver while he's teaming with a gold angel, but those are some loose slippery connections. I was drawn to this one as it's Ingobernales versus an undercard, weird team. It's not quite the 4 Horseman vs. Joey Maggs, Frankie Lancaster and Men at Work, but it's an odd match-up for a big team. And nobody dogs it, which everybody essentially could have. We come *this* close to getting one of THOSE Porky performances, the kind where a bunch of bullies pick on him until he snaps and starts stiffing dudes. He does throw more strikes than normal and they are plenty stiff, after all the Ingobernales take turns seeing who can slap him harder. Rush was a king-sized cocky beast in this, slicking his hair back after throwing stiff kicks, laughing off strikes to blast Oro and Parka with his sick thrust headbutts. Mascara and Sombra are left bumping around for Porky comebacks, including his running bombs away on the rampway, and even better a trust fall senton on both of them. Parka knocked them down and kept jumping on them with splashes, and we were all waiting for Porky to do a sloppy belly first leap....and then he just turns around and timmmberrrrr falls backwards onto them. Squish. It set up a great spot later when it looked like Porky looks like he might finally get one up on Rush, knocks him unexpectedly on his ass, does a quick trust fall...but alas Rush moves and then gives Porky a double stomp. Parka and Oro hit stereo dives and Parka is a lunatic near-60 year old man!! Doing a dive sounds crazy to now-35 year old me, I can't imagine it will sound like a better idea in 25 years. Oro is getting better about picking his spots and looks better for it. Ingobernales did tons of terrific poses all throughout. One of the poses looked like if all three decided on the three gayest 1995 Shawn Michaels poses and then did all of them, so you have Sombra lying down all spread awkwardly like Michael's Playgirl photoshoot, while Rush stands over him doing the sexy boy dance, while Mascara kinda fawns over Sombra's abs. It was glorious. Shoot just writing about the match makes me love the match that much more.

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

11. Hechicero vs. Rush CaraLucha 5/30

ER: This is the Hechicero we got a lot of in 2014, and haven't seen as often in 2015. He breaks out all of his tricks and damn does this guy have some awesome tricks. He was so damn on point during this and while I love Rush's Arena Mexico antics, it was super satisfying to see him just going move for move and strike for strike and bump for bump with a guy. They brawl to the floor and smash into chairs, Rey takes a mean sternum-first bump into a post, do a nice tour of the ringside seats with both guys taking hard falls into chairs. Hechicero does a cool Fuerza bump dropkick and follows it up with a huge tope, then does an awesome Mysterio belly slide splash. Crowd is flipping out for Hechicero the whole match and it's pretty easy to see why. His roll up combos, his sick springboard dropkick, the big bumps, his slick grapevine submission, the guy unleashed is one of the most fun workers ever. Rush has mean strikes, nasty dropkicks, more than holds his own in holds and exchanges, and I love big stars still working big in smaller buildings. Still not sure how Rush's finisher is legal, but it definitely looks like a finisher. Awesome match, and the only reported time that these two have crossed paths in singles action. I wrote up a trios match from November where they were on opposite sides, but that still isn't online anywhere (to my knowledge). There really aren't any Dream Matches these days, but this was a modern one for me. Thank you cell phones.

PAS: This was super intense, Rush is in full crazy brawler mode, and this is worked at an intense frantic pace. Really felt like watching a Perro Aguyao Sr. match from the 80's with crazier spots. Hechicero felt every bit as big a star as Rush who is one of the biggest stars in wrestling. Really an example about how wasted Hechicero is as an mid-card trios match guy. I love Arkangel De La Muerte, I don't think Arkangel could have this match. Rush could have easily floated by in this match on shtick and charisma, instead he is going after it like he is fighting for his hair in an Arena Mexico Anniversary match. Such great stuff, and I am so glad we got to check it out.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

31. Blue Panther, Rey Cometa & Angel de Oro v. Virus, Polvora & Dragon Rojo Jr. CMLL 9/11

ER: This is pretty much what you hope for when you watch a trios featuring non-feuding guys. There's nothing major at stake, just guys wanting to put their best foot forward. And you can always tell pretty quickly in non-stake trios if guys are going to be dogging it a bit or at least attempting to do something special. And right out of the gate Panther and Polvora look like they're really going for something. A spirited Panther is still one of my absolute favorite things in wrestling, and this match was a great BP performance. He and Polvora get a few minutes to tear things up and it's all good, cool float overs, Panther doing a great headstand out of a headscissors, just beautiful lucha matwork. That starts the match on a great note and the rest of the match is all smooth, quick work, everybody showing what they got. Oro isn't great but hits some big moonsaults including one from the middle turnbuckles to the floor. Cometa starts off a little glitchy but by the tercera he's rolling. Virus eats a big Oro dive in the primera.....but you know what you want from this match when looking at the lineup, and it delivers wonderfully. Right around the 22 minute mark Virus locks a nasty bow and arrow on Oro, really bending him back, and then Panther casually walks in pats Virus on the shoulder, and Virus just drops the submission while keeping his eyes on Panther the whole time. You start to get excited, and the crowd got that same kind of excited. Crowd started getting nice and electric when they saw BP/Virus about to happen. Up to this point they matched up for literally 4 seconds of the match, and suddenly it was like the dance floor cleared to make space for a showdown. And we got a killer little showdown with Virus clearly showing off and Panther looking impossibly smooth. I could watch these two roll and tumble and work in and out of sequences on an infinite loop. This all peaks with Virus getting plastered by a high speed Panther tope, crowd going nuts, Panther jumping up and down.....and then Panther hitting a second awesome tope. Virus pays him back by winning with a nasty looking sub that had BP yelping immediately. Match had a super quick pace, tons of spots, everybody working with something to prove, and that little slice of heaven that was BP/Virus. What more would you want?

PAS: This was a solid slightly above average trios for most of the matches. The Panther v. Polvora stuff was really solid, and another example of how great Panther still is. It isn't like you are searching out Polvora matches, but he looks totally awesome matched up with Panther. The finish run with Panther stepping up and going after Virus was spectacular. I loved the idea of Panther tapping on Virus's shoulder and saying "let's move the kids out of the way and show the fans some lucha." Totally unexpected treat, the equivalent of putting on an old pair of pants and finding $20.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Lucha Worth Watching: Dragon Lee/Kamaitachi and Caristico/Sombra

Dragon Lee vs. Kamaitachi (CMLL 12/4/15)

These two have built up the rep of doing some high speed crazy moves in the last year +, and this match does not disprove that rep. But it also felt like the most "moves exhibition" of all their singles matches so far. Some of the stuff is crazier than any of their other matches, but moreso than any other of their matches (even their lightning match, somehow) this felt like a super series of unrelated gifs. Many of the gifs looked awesome, but the order of them didn't make any sense whatsoever, and oftentimes one of them would take a giant move, only to beat the person delivering the move to his feet, and do one of his own. There was some nutty as hell stuff happening here, and that counts for something. The crazy stuff looked crazy. I mean the match starts with Kamaitachi missing a crazy ass dropkick from the apron to the floor, to be followed up with a Lee dive that sees him plowing upside down into the barricade. That's the level we start at. It's like starting a first date with a blow job. We get tons of lunatic reverse ranas and Canadian Destroyers, tons of headdrops, dropkicks to the face and back of the head, Kamaitachi hits an AWESOME senton from the top to the floor onto a standing Lee, we get a couple engaging moments of both men fighting on the top rope, a Japanese woman at ringside wildly cheers for Kamaitachi (including when he stomps on the title). We get a fun silly restart when it's revealed Lee's foot was on the ropes (and I'm kind of a fan of fun silly restarts) and I like the end sequence of Kamaitachi setting up his rampway dropkicks which has leveled Lee for the past year, and Lee timing it right to counter it (like Little Mac properly countering the Bald Bull Charge) and then dumping him with a suplex. So tons of things looked cool. But it just didn't add up to anything of substance for me. I thought the 8/30 match built really well and the spots kept getting crazier as the match went on, really making it feel like they were pulling out all of the stops. This felt like showing off. And both guys got a lot of cool shit to show off. But there really felt like no rhyme or reason behind what moves could end a fall, what moves were devastating, what moves are setting up bigger moves. Sometimes a move would end a fall, and then get kicked out of when performed moments later. It's an easy way to suck me out of a match. But, there was plenty here to just sit back and marvel at.

La Sombra & Ultimo Guerrero vs. Caristico & Atlantis (All Elite 11/8/15)

Matt wrote up some other All Elite Caristico so I figured I would tackle the other one, also because I've been more interested in soaking up all of the post mask loss Sombra. And the match itself is fun, if not extremely by the numbers for these guys. The first fall is probably the most inspired thing here, with Sombra especially looking awesome with tons of sliding kick variations to Caristico that all looked really good. As the (short) match went on he eventually became Caristico's Averno, impressively catching a slingshot rana and big springboard dive to the floor corner. Caristico looked hesitant or off in spots, or just plain rough. It's cool you can land on your feet after your alley oop dropkick and all, but it would be cooler if you made contact with your opponent. Ultimo and Atlantis continue doing the house show version of their feud, and this match could probably be quite good if fleshed out a bit more, but the bare bones version was fun enough.

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

Rey Horus v. Steve Pain OWA 3/14

PAS: This is pretty much a Psicosis v. Rey Jr. for the 2015s, I am not sure either guy is a complete wrestler, but they dance together really well. Horus gets crazy, old school Gran Hamada height on all of his ranas and throws, while Pain gets whipped around in headscissors like Dick Togo. A lot of these exchanges feel like that kind of MPRO stuff, with even more speed and height. There are a couple of moments where Horus adjusts in midair, where he looks like a gymnast doing a rings routine. Some slow spots early, and the strikes should either be tightened up or removed, but this is a partnership really worth watching, and it is cool we got a nice singles between the two

ER: This did feel real exciting, while at the same time feeling like a tryout match showcasing all of your coolest rehearsed shit. But, when you got cool shit, you gotta show it off. Pain controls early and I really liked all of his flapjacks into strikes. Horus gets insane height every time he's tossed up in the air, and Pain is always there waiting with a kick or slap. Things slow down a bit in the middle and it's a clear calm before the storm, as once things kick in, they don't stop until the pin. Horus hits a wild dive and a huge rana to the floor, Pain SUWA's himself on tons of weird angle ranas and armdrags, Horus dropkicks so high he practically goes over Pain's head, Pain has even more cool moves involving tossing Horus into the sky and hoping for the worst, and yeah this ramped up into some awesome stuff.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

8. Ultimo Guerrero v. Rey Escorpion CMLL 7/17

PAS: Man was this great, this is two years in a row Ultimo comes up huge in an apuestas match. The opening was fucking bonkers with both guys unloading with over hand slaps, with Rey Escorpion slipping in a straight right hand, he then delivers some nasty stomps in the corner,  finally leading to them trading shoot punches right into each others face. It looked like Hashimoto v. Ogawa or something, and UG comes up with a bloody and swollen nose, his facial damage kind of served the same dramatic purpose as a blade job, adding some pop and pizzazz to the match. The work itself was really great, with UG breaking out a bunch of cool dives, including a stage dive style plancha off the top rope to the floor, and off the apron, and Escorpion laying in some cool powerbombs. Finish felt like UG may have shrugged off a package piledriver a bit to quick, but was otherwise very good. Great match.

ER: Sometimes things can happen during a match, that take me out of a match. This often hurts the match, but in rare cases like this it adds gobs to the match. And the shoot punches to the face in this match jarred me right out of my chair and completely absorbed my eyeballs into what was happening.  We've seen these kind of shoot punches from Escorpion before, popping Porky several times during their feud. But this...this was different. Escorpion starts taking rough shots on UG and UG starts firing back and here you have a legit Frye/Takayama situation of two guys playing zero defense and just punching each other in the worst parts of the face. It was horrifying but I couldn't look away and it immediately made me legit want UG to kick Escorpion's ass. I don't know if that says something about me, or something about modern wrestling heels that the thing that brings legit heat is punching a man several times in the face, but there it is. UG looks like he doesn't see the hard shots coming, takes him a bit to figure out just what is happening, and then BOOM it's on and it adds a level of drama to the beginning of the match that sustains all the way through. For all of the times you've seen lucha camerawork take away from a moment, the up close shots of these punches really added to things. Cameras don't get this close even in UFC. This is a fight, filmed like pro wrestling. UG added his jumping hip attack a year ago and here he threw out several variations of it, crashing into Escorpion off the rampway, apron, into the crowd, off the top rope. All of that early drama really marked it, really said that "this match is a big deal" and it hooked me the whole way through. Love these guys.


ONGOING MATCH OF THE YEAR LIST

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Lucha Worth Watching 8/1/15 & 10/2/15

L.A. Park & Volador Jr. vs. La Sombra & Pagano AULL 8/1/15

So okay, this isn't "great", because Pagano. Nobody gets excited seeing Pagano's name in a match. He usually pops up against actual good wrestlers, and he himself is not an actual good wrestler. He's essentially an early round CZW Tournament of Death guy, or a guy wrestling the 4 AM slot at a Gathering of the Juggalos. And really this was the tale of two matches. That feels like a sentence I've typed a lot. It's a feeling I often experience. I start a movie, enjoy it, and suddenly things take a turn that I don't care for and I'm left feeling like it was directed by two different people - one who had my interests and one who had Hollywood's interests.  This match had my interests in mind for the first half, and then kind of burned my eyeballs for the second half. Spoiler alert the match is approximately 40 minutes long. But the first half is awesome. The first half is all wild crowd brawling, big bumps, big spots and nasty chairshots. Sombra takes a powerbomb into the crowd, beers get taken from fans, get drank, and then get thrown in faces, every guy throws stiff shots, every guy gets brained with chairs, Park does a huge dive, fans get in the way, it's all awesome. And the whole time I'm looking at that video length and thinking "how the hell are they gonna keep this up for 40 minutes?? Does the match end halfway through and someone just left the camera rolling?" Well, the match kind of grinds to a halt midway through once the action gets back to the ring. Pagano gasses out hard, and somehow manages to bring down three other, capable men in the process. It turns mostly into Pagano setting up spots and then slowly, tiredly but stubbornly and doggedly going through them. Watch himself almost die on a double jump moonsault! Watch his horrible springboard tope en reversa Stunner that Park doesn't really know how to take (and who can blame him). Pagano braining people with chairs and getting punched hard by Park? Awesome. Pagano running through his modern day Sabu spots while barely able to breathe? Dreadful. Sombra comes in and tries to save things by getting dumped brutally on his head by a Volador reverse rana, and Park still breaks out his neat snap powerslam, but the latter half of the match is slow motion moves trading that is not very fulfilling. So tell you what: Watch this, soak in the violence and chaos, and the SECOND you start to dislike it, just move on. Don't look back, don't be a foolish Lot's Wife, just don't look back. You have other pro wrestling to watch. That first half though...

Dragon Lee vs. Luciferno (CMLL 10/2/15)

Tournament lucha: the Nerf football your dog stole and chewed up and half-buried in your sideyard.  So while the matches are mostly a waste, here we at least have Dragon Lee taking tons of stupid bumps. He eats it on a clothesline, eats it on the apron, flies like a loon on a flip dive (later against Shocker he does a wildly misguided flip dive and crashes into the barrier/floor; Shocker looked fatter than ever and noticeably terrible in ring). Luciferno clobbers him, Lee has a deathwish, so of course this is worth watching.

Barbaro Cavernario vs. Ultimo Guerrero (CMLL 10/2/15)

This is only like 3 minutes because tournament lucha hates you, doesn't care much about you, and my birthday was actually 2 months ago but thanks anyway dad. But Barbaro jumps UG and goes wild on him in the corner with punches, then does the worm before getting clotheslined. Later he hits a badass tope through the turnbuckles and UG goes flying blindly into the barrier. Barbaro hates his knees and takes UG's front suplex and Guerrero Special better than most. Fans seemed like they wanted Barbaro to advance.

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

19. Titan v. Barbaro Cavernario CMLL 5/3

PAS: Excellent title match between two of the most exciting young wrestlers in the world.  Might be Titan's career performance as he is a true crazy lunatic in losing his title.  Cavernario just mauls him in the second fall crushing him with a tope, powerbombing him on the ramp and into the turnbuckles, before Titan catches him with a mistica into a roll up. Third falls has a surprising amount of matwork, with Titan focusing on Cavernarios taped up leg, and an awesome tapitia reversal. Then we move into the hot death section, including Titan crazily stealing Cavernario's superfly splash to the floor. The slower type of Virus/Casas title match is probably close to its end, but this style can be done well and these guys really delivered.

ER: I would second that this is IMO Titan's best career performance. We've written about a lot of Titan matches here, and he's popped up on several of our "Best of" lists, and while I would never say that any of the great matches he's been involved with have been "total carry jobs" or some other rude comment, but in those matches he was clearly a guy being lifted up to a higher standard than he had previously seen. Here he seemed very much worthy of the praise I've seen him get elsewhere. Cavernario has been one of my (and many others) favorite workers over the last couple years and as the match went on I found myself rooting more and more for Titan. Me, always the contrarian. Titan really put me in his brain, I really felt like he was trying every possible thing in his arsenal to retain his title, and it was epic. Some of his dives were among the best he's done, especially the one that just crushed Cavernario into the barrier. He ups the lunacy by breaking out Barbaro's giant splash to the floor and hitting it with every ounce of force that Barbaro himself normally does. I loved him going after Cavernario's leg in the tercera; that's something that's so out of character/match layout for him and that just added to the vibe of him breaking out all the stops. Cavernario is a wild caveman. He was unfrozen by scientists. Our world likely confuses and frightens him. Imagine how his primitive brain view television! Or cellular telephones! All his brain knows is that when he's being attacked, he needs to attack back, and so he is relentless, as so many cavemen (probably) were before him. Cavernario is always a Tazmanian devil, just windmilling punches and stomps. I love how he kind of responds to matwork the way a cat responds to getting its tail stepped on, and overall there was a nice sense that Cavernario outlasted Titan here. All made for a satisfying title match.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

8. Virus v. Dragon Lee 4/5

PAS: Virus held the CMLL World Lightweight Title for almost four years, and one of the highlights of the wrestling year was the four or so times he defended that title. I love Dragon Lee, he is super exciting and had a hell of a rookie year, but he isn't Virus and I am a little bummed we are losing those Virus showcases. If Virus was going down, he was going down on his sword, this was another Virus title match classic, and Dragon Lee showed what makes him such a prodigy. Both opening falls had Virus working over arms and legs in while feeding the kid some counters. Third fall was nuts with Virus coming on like wolverine in the opening tearing at Lee's legs and throwing him around, Lee comes back with some crazy flying spots including a corkscrew tope which was breathtaking. I did think the finishing double stomp could have been bigger for ending a four year reign, but this was up there with Virus's best stuff with that title

ER: These two always match up nicely and all of this was very satisfying. Virus really gave Lee a bunch here, really put him over strong. Virus definitely brought something to main event style title matches and I'm not sure Lee will be up to that task, but I'll eagerly watch anyway. All the opening mat stuff was good, but you knew that. All of Lee's flying stuff was on point and set up nicely (Virus was so great at setting up Lee through this whole match), loved little details Virus brings like getting reversed into a post to stun him to set up a Lee rana. Too often we see guys just waiting around to catch a rana. Virus brings grace and logic to these types of spots. CMLL main event tercera 2.9 counts can be brutal. Big move, kickout, both guys lie there breathing hard. Then it's the other guy's turn. It's horrible. Here the tercera actually is filled with engaging nearfalls that are smartly structured and show that the format isn't completely busted, just needs a slight tweak. I also wish they played up the four years with the title more, but I thought Virus did a great job putting over the double stomp, which is a spot that can come off fairly forced. Really good match.


2015 MASTER LIST

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