DEAN~!!! 2 Day 6: CIBERNETICO~!

DEAN~!!! 2 5/24/25

Torneo Cibernetico: Blue Panther/Hologram/Neon/Valiente/Virus vs Volador Jr./Averno/Euforia/Xelhua/Dr. Cerebro

MD: Dean could write about ciberneticos. His style was perfect, bombastic and over the top, throwing praise and emotion and tildes and wild metaphors. He could hone in on all the cool moments and somehow make them seem a hundred times cooler. I'm nowhere near as good at it, but yeah, this was awesome. If you saw this, you know that. I don't think I'm going to have a ton to add to just having lived it. 

I do have some thoughts though. First and foremost, this felt a little more produced than most I've seen, which isn't to say there isn't rhyme or reason for what happens in them. There is, but it all seems a little more honed in on the moment, unless there's a specific feud that it's furthering or leaning upon. When I say focused, there are a lot of things I could highlight. We had exchanges with Xelhua against both Blue Panther and Virus where he got to joust on the mat with them. There was a big elimination moment with Blue Panther and Dr. Cerebro in there. Blue Panther got to go up against the world with everyone stooging, feeding, basing for him. Euforia had his moment to shine as he walked like a giant swatting high flying tecnicos away. Valiente got to hit his fireplug tope. Hologram got to hit his that seemed send them flying halfway to the back. It all ended with Blue Panther and Hologram standing together against Volador and Averno and even then there was that great nearfall with the finishers used earlier used in tandom. 

You'd probably get some of that in any other such match but I don't think you'd get all of it. This was a match that knew its audience and catered to it, while still delighting the crowd at the same time. A bunch of things stuck with me: some kid in the crowd calling Euforia "big boy" when he was getting rocked. Virus working so amazingly hard and taking huge bumps considering his age. What an absolute legend. He's my guy. Panther hitting the flip dive off the apron not once but twice. How great Averno's finish still looks. That it's a joy to see Blue Panther and Dr. Cerebro work in their masks (though most of us are so much more used to seeing Cerebro NOT in the mask). Seeing not just Neon and Xelhua in with these guys but also Cerebro and Hologram. Just seeing Panther tough it out and fight through the end of the match. 

So yeah, the only way to tackle a match like this is by listing all the great stuff. I could have probably gone another two paragraphs with just that and then another on top talking about Danielson but, since I'm not Dean, let me say instead that it's really something to be experienced yourself. Go check it out on YouTube if you haven't already. 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 8/5 - 8/11 Part 2

Ring of Honor TV 8/8/24

Dustin Rhodes/Sammy Guevara vs Alex Reynolds/John Silver

MD: I'm tempted to wax poetic for a paragraph about the Problem of Sammy. Let's do it. He's been Lugered/Big Showed, in part due to the Jericho Vortex, and in part due to his own personal situations, and even just the inertia of being a featured guy for five years. It means that maybe he hasn't kept pace with Darby and MJF and even Perry. They kind of tried out the Cole/MJF story with him leading up to the four-way last year but Cole was the one to benefit from him. I don't know if he turns on Dustin or wins the tag titles with him (Dustin holding a bunch of ROH titles and challenging Lee Moriarty in a pure rules match would be amazing but that's beside the point) or what, but coming back as a babyface with a topknot doesn't feel like it's going to work. What would? I have no idea. An excursion? Feud him with Atlantis, Jr. in both settings. Maybe give him the TV Title and instead of having him complain about not getting five star matches backstage, have him defend it week in and week out and give him the sort of "list" that Cassidy in 2022-2023. Regardless, I'm glad it's not a problem I have to solve, because it does feel like a problem.

I praise Reynolds and Silver a lot; a good reason for that, as I've mentioned, is that they're able to somehow instill order upon the "everything breaks down way too early" style of tag team wrestling we've gotten for the last ten+ years in a way almost no one else can. They're also very adaptable. They've been monster heel henchmen, lovable loser underdog babyfaces, pre-show comedy act staples, and now sort of a dangerous mid-card heel act. They don't always do exactly what I'd want them to do, but they are very good at what they do.

I'd call this a studio show main event. Lots of comedy to start with Dustin and Sammy both doing the dive tease/breakdancing/pose. Dustin's comedic timing is great, of course. It was interesting how protected he was as a star when it came to the knee. He was beat down last week; he hurt it again on his own bulldog (he drove the action and reaped the consequence); he then fought off the Dark Order on the floor; Caprice mentions that if he's able to stand up on the apron, then he's ok, and he does; at that very moment, Uno comes in with the chair. Since he was going to take a beating for a while, it was fine, but that's not haphazard. It's calculated and has an effect, conscious or otherwise on the audience. Very canny. When Dustin does get the hot tag, it's entirely based on redirecting Reynolds' own momentum, first over the top and then into the power slam where he really just falls away and turns him. Again, that matters. He's not standing tall and firing back; he's showing the weight of the leg damage and finding another way, as hope does. Sammy was fine here; he works well with Reynolds/Silver, but he's definitely a Problem to be Solved.

Rampage 8/9/24

Darby Allin vs The Butcher

MD: TK's keeping me busy, huh? It's a good problem to have. I'm not sure how to tell you anything you wouldn't already know about this coming in. It was a remarkable match, a remarkable Butcher performance, a remarkable Darby performance. You should watch it if you haven't already. My brain is always going when I watch wrestling. That doesn't mean I'm not connected. That doesn't mean I'm not drawn in. It's part of why I value immersion and suspension of disbelief so much. Here's what I was thinking early on in this one:

Back in the day, old timers used to talk about how the fans knew wrestling was worked but that they wanted to be the one match on the card that made them doubt it. A "Yeah, most of it's fake, but that match maybe wasn't." sort of deal. A modern version of that might be... "Yeah, they work out all the spots in the back, but things went so crazy there that they had to be adapting on the fly!" Something like that. One thing I love about Darby is that he (like an unlikely comparison point, Nick Bockwinkel), as a character, always wants to control the start of his matches; he usually comes in with a bang. Here, he charged right in and got nailed by Butcher's foot. And his mouth started to bleed. Butcher went from slamming him leg first into the ropes to starting to work over that jaw. Darby responded in kind by spitting blood in his face. Savage? Maybe, but I was smiling big at that, drawn in. And yeah part of that is because it felt like an adaptation in the moment, and that, compared to a lot of picture perfect precision counter wrestling, felt more real. It just did. And damn it if that doesn't draw the eye and rouse the heart.

The rest of the match was an absolute mauling. Darby would throw himself at Butcher to try to get an advantage. More often than not, he bounced off. Have you ever played one of those little stick figure physics engines sort of games? It might just be picking up and dropping the figure. It might be sending them on a catapult. That was this match, eyes glued to the screen as Darby's body crashes and burns from every angle and every direction in the most sickening ways possible. A beautiful trainwreck. What was the purpose? I don't know. It made Darby look all the more like a star for winning definitively (yet believably!). It made Butcher look like a force. Maybe they can sneak him onto the All Out card? Maybe he'll be there for the Casino Gauntlet and this will get enough word of mouth that people will check it out. The joy of Darby is that while I still overthink it, he's got me overthinking it in all sorts of different and fun ways. Go track this one down.

Collision 8/10/24

Darby Allin/Hologram vs Tony Nese/Josh Woods

MD: I'm three matches in of Part 2 this week, so let's talk about Hologram. TK's alluded that the specific name/character has been in his head for a long time. Allow me to take a couple of liberties here. My guess is that this guy lived in TK's notebook for decades. Hologram is very much the sort of character that someone would come up with while doodling on the side of a notebook in school. He's the sort of guy who could wrestle alongside Mr. JL or Ciclope or Super Calo. It's a rabbit hole and best to just peek down it a little, but I don't think you can understand AEW without thinking about that notebook. It's sort of the "Rosebud" in this equation to some degree, right? And I am not at all unsympathetic. I'm not far off in age and had my own notebooks with my own very rough character drawings in the corner and lists of people who could be in various imaginary factions (be it a New Dangerous Alliance or different reshuffled X-Men teams). Here, it's especially a boon though, because the character is something pure, and true, and genuine, something that should appeal to kids because maybe, just maybe (I could be wrong!), once upon a time, a kid came up with it. It's anecdotal, and you'd want to follow someone who talks about the business and not just breaks down matches, but I get a sense a lot of WWE's recent success with a younger audience is due to the accessibility and ease of Peacock, the fact that they can just find the footage on their own with a few clicks of their remote. If AEW has some streaming solution upcoming, then similar kids discovering the product are going to find a welcome avatar in Hologram waiting for them.

And as for the rest of us? I liken him to Blitzkrieg in WCW. When he showed up in WCW in 99, it absolutely blew people's minds. It's not that he was doing things that much more spectacular than everyone else (though he was doing things that were just enough different to stand out). No, the bigger thing was that he came out of the blue. We were all smarks on the internet following six news sites, reading Al Issacs and waiting for Yokozuna to join the Hart Foundation (that was a couple of years earlier, but you get the idea). We thought we knew everyone and everything, and if we didn't, then we knew someone who did. We had a network of people following everything out of Mexico and every sleazy indy Japanese promotion. And here was this guy that we couldn't place doing amazing things. The fact that he was unknown to us (teenagers and young adults who felt like we knew everything) was half the appeal. Hologram is a bit of the same. It's not that we weren't aware of Aramis here, or that we didn't have some inkling of his contract issues over the years, but he wasn't on our radar or on the the public radars of the people who we trust when it comes to lucha to come in to AEW with a new character and make a mark. The vignette aired. We got word who he was. He debuted. Sometimes it's just nice to be taken by surprise, even for us, especially for us. 

As for the match itself, it was another great showcase that really gave Hologram an extra bit of rub. Despite being a star (and one with a rocket strapped to him maybe), Darby played face-in-peril and let Hologram be the hero, both coming in to clear house after the hot tag and by getting the cradle win on Woods. Before that, they had a great shine where Darby's quick shots got to pair with Hologram's slick shots and they somehow became even more than the sum of their parts. Just great, great basing by Woods and Nese here (and Sterling/Daivari on the Coffin Drop by Darby to set up the finish). They were everything and everything looked great. Just like Reynolds/Silver, Nese is a guy who never shoots for fame or fortune. He's the opposite of getting his shit in. He's an absolute professional, a total mechanic, willing to stooge and get clowned for the sake of his opponent and the match. He's the least cool heel in the world and so much more valuable for it. And Woods is someone that every time I see him, I wish I'd be able to see him more. This did exactly what it set out to do and the Hologram train rolls on. The trick now is to keep him featured so he's on people's minds every week. 

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RIP Big Ovett

 Ovett/Los Traumas vs. Los Panteras/Aramis IWRG 2/18/18

PAS: IWRG trios have been one of the most consistent styles of wrestling for the last two decades. There were lots of very capable wrestlers here, and the Traumas come off like real superstars. Ovett is fun as their tubby muscle, although he doesn't really hit any of his big spots (they tease an Ovett dive, and that is a mean tease not to deliver on). Pantera is an old old guy at this point, but still executes his somersault tope really well, and his kid can really fly. There was a bit more referee nonsense then I would prefer, but watching the Traumas run Naucalpan is always a blast. 

Ovett vs. Mosco X-Fly IWRG 6/2418

PAS: I watched their hair match too, and while I thought that got too far into geek show territory (syringes and shit), this was much more my style: A pair of fat dudes beating on each other. This basically feels like the Rotten brothers' Mexican cousins. It started with some solid matwork. It wasn't Blue Panther or anything, but it was perfectly respectable, and built nicely to the point where they started punching and bleeding. Ovett uses his fat nicely, including an Abby style elbowdrop, and I liked when they brought out the lighttubes. They were used more like a roll of quarters, as a foreign object to use behind the ref's back.

JR: I think one of the things I like about lucha is how much they embrace weird bodies. US wrestling over the past few years has become homogenized, just as the style has seemingly become homogenized. It’s strange, as I think the indies embracing the Meltzerian wet dream of wrestling like a five year old bashing his action figures together over and over has directly led to the people with weird bodies only being booked for their ability to do this style; the Keith Lee’s of the world flying around and making sure to land softly enough so that someone who is 185 pounds doesn’t die while trying to base for them. In a way, it has positioned large wrestlers, heavy wrestlers as even more freakish than they were presented at any other time in wrestling history, as now they are reduced to a big man who can move like a light man rather than a big man who can squish you.

All this is a rather long preamble to say that I enjoy lucha embracing mat work by large men, and clobbering by large men, and all other regular things by large men. In fact, in some ways this match feels like it is a direct response to the very idea that large men must excel at the things that small men do, for the first major spot is a huge crossbody, and there seems to be a clear decision to not continue with this trend but to instead start walloping one another with chairs and wooden planks and fists and whatever else they can find.

I don’t necessarily think the purpose of this series is to try and convince anyone that Ovett is some super worker that has been toiling away in obscurity. That being said, he is rather charming here, understanding what he does well, doing everything with purpose, throwing his considerable weight behind all of his offense. The finish is both sublime and bizarre, with a wondrous light tube assisted low blow followed up by an interminably long wait for a three count. It feels loose and unrehearsed in a way that only lucha does. In the US, there would have probably been a kick out and a few more high spots.

Ovett/Lunatik Extreme/Advertencia vs. Shere Khan/Memo Romero/Terromoto Zona 23 1/20/19 (Complete version on IWTV)

JR: Have you ever been to one of those pop up haunted houses? Not like, an extreme haunt or whatever where you have to sign a waiver, but one of those run of the mill ones that are all throughout the Midwest, with a hay ride and a hastily erected indoor gimmick. This match is the closest wrestling gets to the energy and feeling of a haunted house. The camera man wanders cautiously and wearily, focusing on the place he thinks his eyes should be going for progress, and almost assuredly, something graphic and intense is happening in the periphery. It feels like a ride, as if at any moment something else predetermined but completely unforeseen will occur; someone breathing fire, or showing up with a chainsaw.

This match is incredible. I’m not even sure how to describe beyond the way I just did or to single out Ovette other than to say everything he does lands with such impact, including a second rope elbow drop that could’ve killed a man. In a match where almost everything is exclamatory, Ovette taking off his shirt is a moment that stands out for the reaction it gets. There is a clear connection. I don’t want to waste words on this match, really. It’s revelatory. I think everyone should watch it. I suppose this is somewhat hyperbolic, but it feels like a celebration. It feels like something that should be played over and over until the sound of it reaches the heavens. 

PAS: This has all you want from a Zona 23 match. Filthy mat, wrestlers getting thrown into drunks, people doing dives off of trucks, and lots of blood. Some of the stuff was a bit set up, which is kind of the style, and I could have done without the section of just shoving thumbtacks into Romero's cheeks, but this had plenty to like. Ovett clearly seems like a cult favorite, he gets the biggest chants of the match, and I enjoyed him cutting off the Sweet Child of Mine entrance by smashing Khan on the head with a box. My favorite part of the match was Ovett and Khan just exchanging hard punches to the jaw on the floor, Ovett could really throw heat. I wouldn't say this match was technically good, but it was really entertaining. 

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Lucha Worth Watching: Wotan vs. Fly Star! Hijo de Canis Lupus! Dragon Bane!

Wotan vs. Fly Star FILLM 3/16/19

ER: Hey, it's 13 minutes of grimy indy lucha asskicking, bleeding, and nasty spills onto concrete. I love those things in my wrestling! This is a super libre which should always be code for "covered in blood" and wouldn't you know, that code is still active! Wotan starts by throwing Fly Star violently into, onto, and through some chairs (those hard ass old wooden arena seats), ripping a chair back loose for later, and hitting quick and mean headbutts whenever Fly Star puts up a fight. By minute 3 of what we have here, Fly Star's face is already covered in blood. Wotan is obviously going to keep headbutting him and punching him in the face, and the great thing about Wotan is even though he might beat the blood out of you, he will happily donate his own plasma to the bottom of your boots. Fly Star hits him with a dropkick on the floor that sends him tumbling, punches him in the head, and eventually tries to do a corner dropkick that had to be Fly Star seeing just how hard he could run and kick Wotan in the jaw. I love when Wotan's mask is ripped and loosely covering only his mouth, blood running everywhere, and both guys still decide who hits harder. I dug Wotan just wasting fly Star with a double chop, with Fly Star taking it as if he'd been hit by a truck, and I imagine Star's chest and neck were already tender, because Wotan had thrown 5 of the hardest possible lariats up to that point in the match. Both guys take HUGE violent bumps to the floor on missed offense, with Fly Star crashing hard on a slingshot senton, and then Wotan crashing hard on a somersault senton off the apron. These guys are dying out there, but neither man really got finished, the batteries just kind of ran out or just plain broke. It looks like we'll have to run this back again with another violent stip.

Dragon Bane/Hijo de Canis Lupus vs. Aramis/Imposible IWRG 4/28/19

ER: Super high octane sprint, that made smart use of partner saves to keep the crazy spots turned up without making for any eye rolling kickouts. They also figured out that the best way to make a stupid dance-y sequence look good is to just work stiff. Spinning around someone and hitting a superkick is fine by me, as long as you're Aramis here and look like you realign a jaw. The dives were expectedly spectacular: Bane and Lupus took both tecnicos with them on bullet topes into the front row, Aramis hits a gorgeous dive past the ringpost in the segunda, Imposible wears impossibly small trunks, etc. They throw in some fun visuals, like Bane running around the ring away from Imposible, only to get caught with a quebradora from Aramis, both Bane and Lupus taking vertical suplex bumps on the entrance ramp, and the saves all got great reactions from me as they went to big moves early and didn't turn the match into a bunch of kickouts and lying around. Hijo de Canis Lupus looked really good, had that same vibe Los Traumas had when they started to get noticed more. Lupus hit some of the hardest damn corner clotheslines I've seen this year, and the forcefulness of many of the strikes and running shots really added to the match. We also got a couple nice powerbombs, including Lupus tossing Aramis onto his partner with one, followed by immediately rolling him through to hit his own sitout powerbomb. The breakdown at the end was fun, and the way they staggered the pins was nice. Aramis surprised me with an awesome ankle lock to finish things, suddenly making me want to see Aramis work a Bloodsport show.

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Lucha Worth Watching: El Hijo Del Santo & Juvy in London! Arena Neza Highflyers!

El Hijo Del Santo/Hijo del Fantasma vs. Juventud Guerrera/Laredo Kid LLL 5/11/19

ER: We've been getting a little more current Santo footage poking its head out, an occasional handheld, and now he's actually doing more of a US tour. Phil got to take his son to see Santo live, and I saw him work a singles match against Ultimo Dragon a week ago. This tag was from London and I dig how Santo is a guy who finds a dance partner he likes, takes them around the horn, lays low for a couple years, then does it all over again. He did it earlier this decade with Mystico de la Juarez, did the same with Angel Blanco Jr., and Laredo Kid appears to be the new Santo dance partner, and that's cool. And the match is really fun, though I was left wishing they mixed it up more. Outside of one brief attempted unmasking, Santo and Juvy steered clear of each other, and after awhile I assumed the big match ending blowout was going to be the two of them finally going at it. They never did, and that's a shame because Juvy looked game as hell throughout, and outside of a post WCW rush of luchadors back into Mexico there aren't a ton of times we've seen Santo across from Juvy. Juvy still has an argument for best strikes in lucha (and easily in the discussion against anyone), as he's a guy with good enough chops, punches, and elbows that he could survive as a wrestler even when he body eventually begins to fail. I absolutely love how Juvy throws a chop, it's one of my favorite wrestling motions. He works well with Fantasma, hits a nice rana off the apron and really stays fired up throughout (though I was amused by him bumping to the floor and then getting of dodge to not take a potential Fantasma tope). Santo looked like Santo, rolled a bit with Laredo on the mat, hit a few wild pendulum armdrags, hit a great baseball slide dropkick to the floor, and hit his rolling senton/dive past the turnbuckles. His knees buckled after the senton and I believe that's the only time I've seen that happen, it's crazy to me that he's still doing that spot around the horn. This whole thing was clean and professional, but needed a hotter tercera to get bumped up to list. Santo squaring off and brawling with Juvy would have gotten it there. Somebody book that.

Neza Kid/Dragon Bane vs. Aramis/Auzter AAA 6/1/19

ER: I love seeing flyers go nuts on a lucha undercard, and here are four guys pulling off some bonkers spots while hot Neza crowd goes nuts. I will seek out any Freelance/Neza Kid stuff, and thanks to him I also got to discover the joy that is Dragon Bane. I'm confident I've never watched him before, but he impressed me here and I'll be watching more. He and Neza are technically the rudos, though this isn't muddled up by cheating or fast counts or anything like that; this is much more about the four of them hitting weirdo headscissors and flying into the crowd on dives. Auzter was pretty raw and had a little uncertainty, didn't quite know how to get from a to b, but the b usually looked good when he got there. Neza and Dragon were much more the glue, and Bane especially did a pretty awesome job of reining in Auzter, going over for some of his less thought out ideas, taking big hard bumps and spilling to the floor far too quickly. I dig this guy. Neza brings his unmistakable aim and grace, and he and Bane work overtime as we get a zillion superkicks from Aramis and Auzter, but a bunch of them look good! But people want dives and they deliver dives! Boy do they. Neza hits a couple of doozies, a huge Asai moonsault off the top to the floor that bends Aramis over the barricade, and later hits his gorgeous springboard hilo, bending both Aramis and Auzter over that barricade. Auzter hits a wild springboard tornillo, Aramis hits a crushing bullet tope that threatens to literally collapse the barricade while at the same time Dragon Bane hits a crazy multi jump moonsault, and later Dragon hits a huge twisting press off the top, crashing into everyone before the video just fades to black (disappointingly leaving us with no visible finish). So yeah, the dives were spectacular, and if we got an actual ending this would have likely landed on list.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Aeroboy vs. Aramis! Diabolicos vs. Super Pinocho/Super Raton/Super Muneco!

Aeroboy vs. Aramis MDA 2/17/19

ER: Sadly this is going to be another one of those LWW posts where I didn't actually like the match I was recommended, but wanted to write it up just to show I did the leg work and gave it an actual chance. This is one of those modern lucha matches that I absolutely despise, the kind that borrows from every single awful American indy trope and sullies my beautiful lucha with stupid suplex no sells and mirror sequences. What makes this actually worth watching is 2-3 legitimately spectacular spots peppered throughout. I don't love a lot of the stuff in between those matches, although things don't get too egregious until the back half of the match. Before we get to the "I take a nasty German suplex but it rolls me onto my feet so I run at you and hit a huge lariat but that you pop up from that lariat and hit a superkick and then the superkick bounces me into the ropes and I hit you with a superkick and then we lie on the mat selling but also I adjust my gear a ton while selling" portion of the match there was some stuff I actually enjoyed. There were a couple nice pop up ranas and headscissors early, Aeroboy hit a hard tope that smooshed up his body while crunching Aramis into the barricade, and Aramis gets thrown nicely into the ringpost. A lot of the rest is that "run into the corner and lariat me, but then I'll turn around and run right after you when you run back and hit you" kind of stuff that is a pox on modern lucha. But again, the two spectacular spots are spectacular: Aramis hits a bonkers tope, super fast, hard contact, that sends both of them smashing violently into the second row through a few fans. Later, Aeroboy is in the crowd, and Aramis climbs to the top, rope walks a few feet out on the top rope, and hits an amazing tope con giro into the crowd. The match itself never really matched those two moments, and didn't offer me a ton more than those moments, but your mileage may vary.

Romano Garcia/Gallego/Rocky Santana vs. Super Muñeco/Super Raton/Super Pinocho Sanchez 3/2/19

ER: Man I love lucha. This wasn't technically good, but it sure was enjoyable, and it had all the silly charm that really drew me to lucha 20 years ago. I think Romano Garcia is so good. He's getting older (he's literally 61!) but he has such a great brain for lucha and still knows how to put together a satisfying match, shining with a few moments worthy of being stolen by younger guys. He set up a couple comedy pratfalls including one where he really took his time before missing a planned spot, it was great. Gallego is fun too and it's cool we're getting full length Diabolicos matches in 2019. For awhile none of them were making tape, so either they all took a few years off or they just worked out of sight. Our tecnicos looked crazy, truly a collection of looks and gimmicks that could only work within lucha libre: Raton and Pinocho in particular, with their tiny little shorts and massive bellies with tight little shirts and suspenders doing some major heavy lifting. I presume that these are at least 2/3 original members, which would put them all in their late 50s/early 60s, and that's an old age to be wearing this gear. It's fun seeing old tubby guys pulling off armdrags, and I flipped out when Pinocho did a huge fat guy tope in the tercera. I mean that was just completely unexpected. It's lucha and it can be ridiculous, and it certainly gets there as Muneco steals the segunda pin while Pinocho is setting up a Vader bomb, and then to pay him back he punts Muneco right in the balls to give the match to Los Diabolicos. You have a man in his 60s dressed as a little wooden boy, kicking a clown in the balls, all for free. I love spending time with this kind of lucha.

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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Hechicero vs. Aramis

40. Hechicero vs. Aramis Lucha Memes 7/22

PAS: Another awesome CMLL star visit to Coliseo Coacalco. Really well done power vs. speed match, with Hechicero using his strength to stretch and throw Aramis, while Aramis hits a bunch of crazy flips and dives. The seats in Coacalco are a ways away from the ring, so it is even more awesome when an Aramis tope drives Hechicero into the fans (including a guy with a bandana, locs and a 40 oz, he looks like he is about to ask Ethan Hawke if he ever had his shit pushed in), Aramis also hits a great springboard flip plancha into the chairs. Both guys get more and more covered in dirt as they land on the floor. There are some great Hechicero power moves too, including a short arm scissors lift into a slam, and multiple Hechicero rana catches into big slams. So much fun, Aramis is two for two against cool CMLL wrestlers getting to stretch their legs.

ER: Oh the wonders that Hechicero will do with a ragdoll-y young flier. Coliseo Coacalco is like my ultimate wrestling match Mecca, and (as long as the picture is still the same) it has a great image representing it on Google Earth. It looks like an abandoned lot in an alley that I would likely feel at least a little cautious driving down. And yet inside it's a magical dirt caked terrain that's the site of some of my favorite wrestling of the decade. Not much is going to top Aramis' bananas match against Casas, but on paper you knew Hechicero was a match made in heaven. Hechicero is great at muscling around guys his size, so you know he's going to have a blast with a ragdoll. Aramis gets great height on everything and has impressive body control on his ranas and movements. It's weird to say "I like the way this guy moves", but I like the way this guy moves. And Hechicero knows how to move perfectly around him. There was a Hechicero regular spot in here that I don't know if I've seen done better, when he grabs a leg of a leapfrogging Aramis out of the air, whips him to the mat, and then violently rolls into a sub. The dives in Coacalco are always a treat, as you see Aramis fly inches past a support pole, and his springboard flip dive is excellent, as is both men rolling through dirt. There's a little clunkiness as Hechicero was going for something on the apron but Aramis didn't know what so kinda froze while Hechicero awkwardly moved his body into position in what felt like an eternity, but the payoff was big as Aramis gets planted on the apron and tumbles recklessly into the dirt again. Back in the ring and Hechicero really pulls off some cool slams and reversals, and Aramis is nice and pliable so makes Hechicero's nasty bow and arrow choke look great. I loved him against Casas and this officially lands him on my radar as a guy to seek out. I'm really digging the dust storms this kid is whipping up.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Casas vs. Aramis

3. Negro Casas vs. Aramis Lucha Memes 3/11

ER: Hot sprint from the greatest live wrestling venue in the world. Casas don't care about no pesky January broken rib, he's gonna go go go against a flier half his age. Casas is molten lava in this match and matches up improbably great against a young speedster, really working as quick as I've ever seen him work. The fast armdrags are the early sign that they're going for speed, and they cram tons of cool stuff into 8 minutes. All the transitions were smooth, fast, and explosive. Casas had all these great high kicks to the face, like he was the world's tannest Rockette, great kneelift, big dropkick in the corner, slick small package reversal off a vertical suplex; I don't think Casas did anything out of the ordinary here, but damn was he working fast, like he had something to prove. Match peaks with Aramis landing a couple kicks on Casas and dropping him to the floor with a dropkick, and AS IS WRITTEN in an insane Coliseo Coacalco edict, "Every young flier must be chucked into a support post". Aramis hits a horizontal dive that goes vertical, sending Casas into the chairs and Aramis screaming into the post. My sweet heavens. A boisterous fan amusingly starts hugging Casas to see if he's okay (who cares about the guy that just crashed into a pole, right!?) and Casas breaks, laughing at the man's excitement while still paying service to his ribs. We get a couple solid nearfalls, a super cool rolling kneebar from Aramis, a gorgeous standing rana from Aramis that gets reversed into a powerbomb after he tries another, and we get Aramis returning the favor with a nice seated powerbomb. Aramis cannot escape La Casita (and my oh my was this Casita a real byoot), and Casas heaves through a promo after the match congratulating Aramis on what he put him through. This was as fast as I've seen any luchador work, ever. I really need to see a show at Coacalco. These jerks got the Casas sprint that *I* was supposed to see!

PAS: This was so good, Casas comes off a broken rib (which has to kill your endurance and effect your breathing) and works a just break neck paced match against some kid young enough to be his grandson. Nothing unusual about oldster luchadores having great matches, but how in the fuck does a 58 year old man work this kind of sprint, Casas looked like 22 year old Juventud Guerrera for shits sake. Aramis is obviously a little green, but I though he was pretty great in this, landing some awesome leglocks, which Casas would counter beautifully, he also breaks out a nutso tope, right into the stantion, and crushing Casas into the seats. Finish was super cool too, with Aramis making the fatal error of trying to Casita, Negro Casas and Casas rolling through and wrapping him up with a gorgeous Casita of his own. Absolutely loved every second of this.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Five Match Fighters

1. Demonio Infernal v. Aramis v. Black Dragon v. Freelance v. Arana De Plata IWRG 1/22/17

PAS: This is a five match fighters match, which is basically a free for all for crazy nutsos to do crazy shit. Freelance was a favorite from the IWRG glory days, but hasn't looked good in the last couple of years, he was back to his insane self here, multiple crazy dives into the crowd, a flip Fuerza bump to the floor, a couple of cool armdrags, the whole Freelance package. Out of the guys I hadn't seen before, I really liked Aramis, in addition to dives and bumps he also had a nice looking headbutt and nifty leglock. Total popcorn match, but tasty popcorn.


ER: Super fun spotfest with 5 guys, but only 2 in the ring at any given time. I liked everybody in this, but there were some standouts. Black Dragon was wearing by far the least Black of everyone in this match, but he bumped huge and took the brunt on several dives (including a moonsault from Freelance that sent both over the barrier faster than you'd want). Freelance brought the big crowd dives including a match closing sky high flip dive onto everybody in the seats, and that flip bump to the floor, like a head first Fuerza, was nuts. Arana de Plata hit some smooth timing based spots, and then peaking with a killer high speed flipping tope through dudes and into seats. There was a lot of dudes going into the crowd and into the seats. Aramis was really great glue, and a match like this is like Charley and Humphrey, it's gonna need lots of glue. He ties things together with great timing, tight strikes (the headbutt Phil mentions is a nice surprise) and gives the match some grounding. I love this kind of junk food.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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