DEAN~!!! 2 Day 2: Arez/Gringo Loco vs. Coven of the Goat

DEAN~!!! 2 5/24/25

Los Desperados (Arez/Gringo Loco) vs. Coven of the Goat (Tank/Jaden Newman)

MD: Of all the matches on the card, this felt like the most DVDVR-coded one. It's like you could just grab guys off of a 2025 DVDVR 500 and here they'd be. WAR jokes. Tilde marks. Making sure everyone knew it was king sized. And man was it ever surreal to see the Coven out there with the Rev doing his thing in the daylight, surrounded by flashing digital casino billboards, amidst the palm trees. There was something downright post-apocalyptic about it, like the early stages of a Mad Max wasteland timeline where society was still breaking down and some of the old bastions of late-stage capitalism still creaked on. And here were these marauders to let everyone know that despite the sugar-coated trappings plastered around the ring, things were not okay and no, they'd never be okay again.

Between their match on DEAN~!!! 1 and the fact I've seen Loco in his share of crazy IWRG brawls back in the day I was expecting this to go all over the place and cause havoc. But it really was a conventional tag, one that was smart and hit the marks you'd want and some that you didn't know you needed. Arez and Newman got to play on the mat for a bit and do their thing. Loco and Tank were able to lay it into each other. Towards the end of the shine, Arez hit a series of rapid fire mid-air kicks on Tank and that was one of those moments where time stopped and you just had to gawk at the impossibility of what you were watching. It was a moment that would have never existed without Dean, without his openness of mind and broadness of interests, without his ability to inspire his friends and cohorts to create something in his memory. It was a moment that shouldn't be, this behemoth of the southern indies having his back percussed upon by the educated feet of the strangest of lucha masters. 

But then the Rev grabbed a leg from the outside and the Coven did their thing, cutting off the ring and doing damage. This didn't go particularly long but it doesn't have to when Newman's using his body as a weapon and Tank's leaning on you. A little then will go a long way. As they cycled into the finishing stretch, Tank, maybe feeling the sun on his back, maybe inspired by the palm trees, maybe drawing dark energy through the Rev from the bitter tears of a thousand lost souls who had bet away their pensions and alimony money at the casino nearby, moved with renewed fervor of years past, crashing into Gringo Loco in the corner again and again. That came at a cost though. He had been able to save Newman from Arez once. Spent and drained on the floor from his lost-in-the-moment exertion, watching from the outside in, all he could do was look on at the three count. But the Coven were able to lay in a post-match beating and walk out with heads high. The wheel ever circles on from one strange, dark encounter to the next. And this one was stranger than most, just like Dean would have wanted and just like we all need now and again.

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Terry's Calling, Terry's Crying, Some Are Born Some Are Dying

Black Terry vs. Arez Lucha Memes 11/1/20 - GREAT

PAS: This was worked sort of like Arez was excited to work a Black Terry dream match, the way someone might work 2 Cold Scorpio on a Mania week show. They ran through all of the cool things Terry brings to a match, starting with Terry doing the Maestro catch and release submissions, where Arez would shoot in and get tied up with something cool, Terry would let him go, only to tie him up again. Then it spills to the floor and we get a great Terry punch out, with Arez hitting him harder then you would expect someone this old to get hit, and Terry firing back with great looking jabs and rights. Then there is a nifty finishing run with a great looking top rope back cracker. Everything looked great, it felt a bit exhibition-y which keeps it from EPIC, but Terry exhibitions are pretty great exhibitions. 

ER: I thought this was a really smartly worked almost meta Hero match, with Arez acting almost awed as Black Terry showed him close up magic llave as a crash course fantasy camp, until Arez gets tired of the maestro shit and starts kicking him. Es es unable llave, clap, nothing up my sleeves, veteran psych out. I thought Terry's snares were pretty incredible. There was no slowly applied submissions, this was all slick ankle pick sleight of hand knot tying as good as he was doing 15 years ago. It's pretty amazing really. People love his maestro submission artistry, enough that there's a loudly protesting chinga tu madre whistle over Arez's ropes course escape, protesting The New Ways. 

The fighting escalation in Black Terry Coacalco matches always manages to catch me off guard, always manages to surprise me with some of the violence. Arez can land some really forceful kicks to the stomach and Terry was taking some real shots to the torso. There was a great spot where Arez knew it was his turn to take his medicine and Terry went off with body kicks as crisp as Regal working Dave Taylor. Terry takes a backcracker down the home stretch that literally bounces him off Arez's knees, and all it does is make him want to drive his own knees into Arez. Jumping off the middle buckle to drag a man down onto your knees is crazy behavior for a man in his late 60s. In other words, a Black Terry Coacalco match. 

TKG: I really like the way this match is structured, it is almost like a backwards veteran Ric Flair underestimating upstart young Sam Houston. Arez as upstart youth puts on the first submission and makes a big production out of announcing ‘Now , that is a hold’ and then Terry just dominates on ground, putting Arez in holds at will as Arez super sells getting worked over. Eventually Arez can’t take any more and throws the first cheap shot strike only to find that Terry again can go on floor, with Arez getting in bits of desperate flurries. This isn’t an even match at all . This is about long sections of Terry control and desperate young Arez dealing with the beast.

There is a spot where Terry sidesteps a leg takedown to set up a submission that I watched multiple times. And favorite moment from the brawling was when he’s beating up Arez in chair but won’t allow the chair to tip over. Grabs Arez’ foot and goes , no I’m hitting you some more.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2021 Ongoing MOTY List: Arez vs. Vikingo

9. Arez vs. El Hijo del Vikingo RIOT Lucha 3/21

PAS: These are two of the young lions of lucha going out there to stake their claim. They demonstrated a real skill at a bunch of different levels of lucha, starting with some pretty slick chain and mat wrestling, including both guys doing some crazy rope tricks to manuever out of arm locks. They then have some cool rope running exchanges with headscissors and ranas, before breaking out the big dives and bombs near the end. I thought the end run was a bit your turn/my turn although the turns they were taking were really spectacular, spot of the year contender stuff. Vikingo hits a spring board rope climb 450 splash to the ring apron, and Arez hits this amazing looking rope bounce assisted northern lights superplex, just crazy inventive stuff. I would have liked to see a bit more structure near the end, but this was these guys trying a Top This Style PWG main event, not my favorite type of lucha, but for that style this is the pinnacle. 

ER: This kind of move trading wrestling is right down towards the bottom of my Least Favorite Wrestling barrel, ahead only of stuff like forearm trade exhibitions or mid-match Street Fighter II references. But whereas those styles are completely unsalvageable for me, a big moves match can always win me over. When they don't take a couple directions I expect them to take, or they find some unique ways to deliver a move, or focus the kind of moves they do, all those things can make a big moves match stand out from a typical moves match. Arez and Vikingo did enough to surprise me here, both offensively and in the direction of the match, turned into a great mixture of cool spots and painful landings. They worked some co-operative but impressive strength spots into the matwork and it plays into the finish, which I liked. 

I'm not sure I've ever seen the ways they got into and out of Rito Romero specials before, like some kind of lucha Mark Henry sorcery. I really flipped for Arez's hook kick feint, which at first looks like he was doing bad Low Ki kick combos, kicking past Vikingo's head, but the missed kicked is used to hook his leg around Vikingo's head to get him into position for a great sitout powerbomb. I kinda like when wrestlers spam a specific move into their moveset, set up in different ways. I like Asian Cougar throwing weird legdrops or DDP's diamond cutter variations, and I liked Arez throwing out a bunch of double stomps while Vikingo kept nailing running double knees. Arez had this great 1-2-3 stomp where he hit a big one on the apron, hit a slingshot one back into the ring, then another flying stomp from the other side. Vikingo hit a running knee like a baseball slide, flying through the ropes and sending Arez to the floor. Vikingo's step up 450 to the entrance ramp was nuts and pulled off more slickly than any similar Fenix spots I've seen this year. The finish was cooperative as hell, but it's also something I've never seen before, so greater good and all. Arez lifts Vikingo up to the middle rope, I had no idea where they were going with it, and I was not expecting them to turn it into a Spanish Fly with a near vertical landing from Vikingo. That felt like the right thing to end on. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

68. Freelance/Arez/Micke Segura v. Los Tortugas Ninjas 12/13

PAS: Really fun lucha trios with everyone moving at a brisk pace and hitting all of their spots cleanly. Freelance is great at this kind of fast moving sprint, and I enjoyed Arez more here then I have in other more ambitious performances. There is a great Turtle Lady of the Lake spot in the first fall where a Ninja turtle gets stuck on his back and wiggles around, and when Arez goes to capitalize the turtle rolls him up. Finish was a bit of partner disunity between Arez and Segura which felt like a cop out finish to this kind of match, otherwise this was a blast

ER: Fun spotfest with a bunch of great ranas and armdrags, and of course the sheer joy of just watching grown men wrestle in ninja turtle costumes. For the record, I think the wrestling turtle power rankings are 1. Tortuga Leonardo 2. Tortuga Raphael 3. Tortuga Michaelangelo. Donatello was a no-show apparently. Wrestling in the turtle outfits seems really difficult, what with those floppy half shells always getting in the way. Huge bonus points to all of them for doing dives, I could easily see those shells getting hung up on the ropes and sending them to their doom. The outfits are pretty bulky so Freelance and Segura also get bonus points for working pretty spots with those shells getting in the way. Arez is one of those guys who isn't great at acting natural when he's waiting to do a spot. He just kind of runs in place until it's his turn, like a puppy waiting for you to throw a ball. He also usually breaks out at least one spot in a match where you think he took a real nasty move, but then you realize "Oh, apparently that was supposed to hurt the other guy." But here he does a lot of cool big stomps, really trying to crack Leo's shell (and of course there is a move that dumps him on his own head while a turtle takes a back bump, but apparently it hurt the turtle more? Some sort of shell psychology I suppose). Leonardo was the best at taking all of the intricate Freelance/Segura offense, I dug his opening matwork the most, and he did great little things like cut low on clotheslines , lean into super kicks and go for trips on drop downs. Plus he and Raphael knew how to mug best as turtles. This was all good fun.


2014 MASTER LIST

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