2024 Ongoing MOTY List: Hechicero vs. Komander

 

13. Hechicero vs. Komander AEW Rampage 11/30/24

ER: With DEAN~! 2 in the rear view, I wanted to write about a guy who was almost a part of DEAN~! 2, but plans wildly changed. Hechicero was someone we tried to get from CMLL...and instead somehow wound up with Blue Panther, Virus, Valiente, and a host of others who all worked insanely hard to give us the greatest lucha Cibernetico of the last 20 years. I am not sure what would have changed had CMLL sent Hechicero, Mascara Dorada, and Barbara Cavernario instead of Averno, Virus, Euphoria, and Neon, but I'm sure it would have been great in an entirely different way. So we didn't get Hechicero, but Hechicero gets to show up in AEW every couple months and get a fun 10 minute match against a great opponent who he's never faced before. It's one of those gifts from Tony Khan, a match that exists simply because he wanted to see what it looked like. Hechicero vs. Danielson was an outstanding example of that, but I'm just as excited that we got to see Hechicero vs. Orange Cassidy. Collision is on in the background as I type this, and Hechicero is main eventing against Dorada, two DEAN~! Guys who never were.  

When the Hechicero/Komander match aired I wasn't sure if it was the last we'd see of Hechicero in AEW. It played as a fitting swan song if that's what it became, not just as a Hechicero AEW swan song, but also  to a Rampage era that I already greatly miss. Rampage was a show I really loved, with the hour format and shorter match layouts allowing a different feel from Dynamite and Collision. Hechicero/Komander was a great example of what made Rampage great, to me: A 13 minute classic main event, the perfect length for TV and perfect length for Rampage, the spiritual successor of guys getting to show out on Velocity or Superstars or WWECW. It got right back to the basics of the great Danielson match by letting Hechicero go full freak and break out all the tricked out work he wanted, with an opponent that would qualify this as a Dream Match. Is this the secret to Hechicero? Just let him go out there and control and break out Hechicero Things? Seems easy enough. 

His blue gear is gorgeous, with lighter offset blue boots to juxtapose the deep royal velvet of his tights. It's the perfect ensemble for him to go Hechicero Unleashed! When he starts rolling around with Komander's ankle for a tricked out stretch muffler only for Komander to do a full sit up until he was scaling the side of Hechicero's body, trying for a headscissors but landing in a Hechicero pin from guard, later getting pancaked after several revolutions on another headscissors attempt, I knew we were there. Hechicero moves like his own man in that ring. The way he leans out of a superkick, letting it scrape by his chin, before hitting a leaping Kawada style gamengiri to Komander's mouth was just one great example (of many) of his Big Spot attention to the small details. The gamengiri feels even better when we all know how close that superkick came to fully connecting. 

Hechicero and Komander are highlight reels who connect the highlights with snug submissions and effective highspot teases. Komander and Hechicero make it all matter. Komander has a missile dropkick (bouncing off multiple sides of the ropes) that hits like something that would bump not just Hechicero but anyone in AEW. Hechicero's powerslam is on the level of Dustin; Every clothesline is a headhunter. One of my favorite spots in wrestling was Bill Dundee's clothesline sleeperhold. It always looked like a lethal snare, a crazy way to follow through a lariat. Hechicero has to be the first person I've seen do the Dundee clothesline while also leaping over the ropes to the apron. Of all the ways I was expecting Hechicero to counter, I was not expecting him to wind up so suddenly on the apron pulling Komander's head over with him. 

Hechicero hangs in for the high catch on a crazy Komander moonsault to the floor, and catches a Komander moonsault into the ring in a trapped scissored armbar, rolling around with it into another one of his leveraged cradles, almost getting pinned underneath in the melee. Defense to offense to pin to escape, and they both recognize the value in not showing any kind of light on a small package cradle nearfall. The finish run is Hechicero at his most punishing. The Mad Scientist Bomb is a finisher worthy backbreaker but he uses it to set up the best running knee in wrestling. Hechicero runs up the buckles so fast, size and speed and impact, slashing and driving with that left knee, spinning around Komander with a decapitating guillotine. Of course this is a Dream Match. Foolish to suggest otherwise. It's Hechicero showing out in the main event of a sadly defunct Good Wrestling Program, and Komander never has to be asked twice to show out. 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 12/2 - 12/8

AEW Collision 12/7/24

Darby Allin vs. Komander

MD: Full disclosure. I want to talk about Kyle Fletcher and Daniel Garcia, even briefly, and I'll do that down below in something of a C2 roundup. I don't want to shortchange this match though. Even within AEW where we have all sorts of match-ups on a weekly basis, the C2 is unique. I'd argue that this year's is even more unique than last year's. Last year you had RUSH in there, sure, but he's a little more conventional, a lucha brawler. Likewise Andrade who had worked a more conventional US style for years. This year, the C2 really shows the diversity of the roster. Styles make fights and all that, and it's true to a degree with wrestling as well. Komander seems like the poster child for this notion. His match vs Ricochet was like vs like to a degree, even if it was different flavors of like and even if Ricochet had some extra fun with it during the break. He'll be up against a deity of basing in Claudio and an absolute monster in Brody. They're all going to be very different matches and of course wildly different matches than what we would have gotten if Juice had been in there still. It's a great opportunity for Komander and for AEW to elevate him, even as a guy likely in there to eat falls. On some level, even with the loss of the Lucha Bros, it's exciting to think that there'll be an almost more dynamic tecnico engine of Hologram, Komander, and Bandido soon. That feels especially important with Texas looming.

Maybe what was most interesting with this match specifically was how Darby got to stretch. If you forced me to define him in a bucket, I'd almost call him a Cruiserweight Bully here. He was able to jam Komander at the beginning with a technical prowess that he can only ever show mere flashes of and he jammed him at the end out of nowhere in a beautiful sort of boy-scout knot tying. In the middle, he did his best to match Komander's speed and high risk daring and paid for it more often than not, each time more spectacularly than the last. In some ways it reminded me of the escalation in the Darby vs Jeff Hardy match but here there were more defined roles. Here, the This is Awesome chant was appropriate and fit the match perfectly. At some point, you got the sense that Darby realized it and that he wasn't going to be able to beat Komander how he wanted to, by playing Komander's game (one that more often than not is at least parallel to Darby's usual one), and he shifted gears, scratching at the back and then finally putting him away without pageantry or daring, no matter how badly you knew that Darby wanted to find a way to leap off a high object just one more time. It was a star coming to grips with the reality of the situation and making the mature decision and the sort of random complexity that you're only going to find in the C2.

 

Kyle Fletcher vs. Daniel Garcia

MD: I'm not writing a full blown essay here but I am noting what is plainly clear to see. Kyle Fletcher is wrestling fearlessly as a heel. The match with Shelton may be one of my favorite AEW matches ever. Ever. Some of that was due to a game crowd. Some of it was due to Shelton being willing to lean into it. So much of it was Fletcher though. I've seen comparison with Tully, but to me, the comparison point is young Gino, someone so fearless and confident that he's able to get under the skin of everyone in the crowd and get them to react accordingly, react the way that makes wrestling different than any other performance art out there. He's taking his time. He's interacting with the crowd, the ref, his opponent. He's inhabiting every moment and taking up all the air in the best way. It becomes a loop. They feed him. He feeds them. He gives them something to react to. They give him something to react to. It's all better than the sum of the parts or the sum of any carefully constructed spotfest. He's giving them noting positive to latch on to and he's cheating to win. The end of the Okada match where they eschewed a finishing stretch in general and went with the low blow and Brainbuster instead felt like a heelish repudiation of the very notion of fighting spirit. In some ways it's the purest, most distilled pro wrestling that I've seen in years. It's a beautiful thing and it needs to be protected and fostered. It's like the first sprout of a plant growing in an arid, barren wasteland. That's not to say there aren't industrial towers a hundred stories tall, impressive marvels of modern architecture and technology in the wasteland. But this is different. This is green. This is life. And I thought maybe it was gone forever.

And on the other side, you have Garcia doing his very best to create an earnest, positive relationship with the crowd, one that doesn't rely on him being cooler than what's going on, but that instead has him embracing it. He's slapping hands, slamming the mat, reaching out while in pain, holding the hands of kids to draw upon their power. He shined against Okada. Against Mortos it was tricker, because that's not a match that would normally be booked at this point. It was like 89 Steamboat vs Muta. That wouldn't have been fair to Steamboat, but people seemed to like it nonetheless. Then he turned around vs Briscoe, someone who would be more over than almost any babyface in the world, and played up his aggression, brought back the dance for the first time in ages (which felt like Danielson using the Yes Chants for the first time in ages in the first Okada match after he got hurt because he realized he needed an extra bit of connection with the crowd). He was put in a difficult position twice in one week and held steady while finding ways to adapt to the moment. 

Sometime in the next two weeks, maybe even this week, we're going to get Fletcher vs Garcia. There's a world where this is the Steamboat vs Flair or Cena vs Orton of the next ten years. They're tapping into something almost no one is even trying to do (Max is Max and I acknowledge what he accomplished at Full Gear; different pros, different cons; these can complement each other). And I'm not going to lie, I feel more hope for the future of pro wrestling this last week than I have for a long, long time.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and friends) 9/23 - 9/29 Part 2

AEW Collision Grand Slam 9/28/24

Claudio Castagnoli/PAC/Wheeler Yuta vs Private Party/Komander

MD: I'm going to pass on Moxley vs Allin. I just have more to say about the Collision matches. It was very good. It's wrestlers pressing each other to the limit. It's exactly what we need. I'm not going to cover too much of the actual happenings in this trios match either. Obviously, Claudio was an amazing base; PAC is really finding himself in this role, is reveling in it; Kassidy, Quen, and Komander saw their opportunity and fought from underneath and showed fire with a never-say-die attitude.

But really, this was all about the interplay of Yuta with his partners. This will play into the Jarrett vs Page match as well, but balancing complex characters in pro wrestling is hard. At the end of the day, it has to transfer to the ring and has to live in front of a crowd, an opinionated, reacting crowd. You can't control these reactions except for through craft and cunning. We're in an age of instant response where people will tweet about a new episode of scripted television, but that won't affect those shows in the moment. It doesn't impact the actual art as it's happening in the same way as wrestling where the crowd is part of the overall effect.

It means that if you lead with real complexity, you could get a split crowd when you don't want that at all. But if you can actually pull it off? Well, then you get something that only a tiny fraction of all pro wrestling ever has managed to deliver upon and that has almost always been a success.

Wheeler Yuta is the most interesting character in wrestling right now. By its inherent nature, this moment can’t last. He's going to make a decision one way or another. Then, maybe he'll be a heel, one who has to live with his decision and his actions and the constant peer pressure around him. He'll be the living, breathing definition of a young man trying to justify what he had done and what he had become, likely by throwing himself entirely into the dark vision that Jon Moxley presents. He could be a heatseeker, bolstered by his betrayal, getting under everyone's skin, made all the worse because deep down, everyone knows that he's just weak. Yes, there are some parallels to Jack Perry that they'll have to navigate but it's not quite the same.

Or he can lean hard into what the fans want right now, can master his rage and frustration and emotions and stand for something. He can be the light that continues to shine after Bryan Danielson has gone off into his retirement. He can be the nucleus for a new Super Generation Army, someone to actually be elevated into a star. He could be a Kobashi who represents the fans' love of wrestling and the spirit they all want to have inside of them. Remember, AJPW didn't push Misawa and company to the moon right after Tenryu left. They held steady on with hosses like Hansen, Doc, and Gordy on top until the younger talent was built up, into 1991. That paid off for years. Yuta can be built in the same way. He can press up against PAC, Claudio, Moxley again and again, getting just a little farther each time, until he finally overcomes. Is that something AEW wants? Do they want to sacrifice part of the now, maximizing the moment, in order to truly build people, to not just give them one big feud, one big moment, and then shunt them back down onto the card because they don't fit the Dynasty dynamic?

I don't know, but right now he's Schrodinger's Wrestler, trying to control his own emotions, with all of us unsure where he’ll land. Jon Moxley has given into his emotions. Bryan Danielson has conquered his own. Yuta is in flux. He's a trained killer with a good heart. It's so essential here to have Claudio and PAC clearly coded as heels in the ring, ones that believe in something, ones with a chip on their shoulder, ones with a point, but ones that are absolutely painting a crystal clear picture. The crowd knows exactly how to respond to them. They're the grounded stability that makes this sort of complexity possible. Claudio has an almost familial expectation for Yuta, simple and direct. PAC, finally at home in a way that maybe he never was with his last set of partners, in turn has an almost bestial glee at the idea of Yuta giving into the twisted spirit and joining them. Every cut to him snarling and smiling provides the exact color this storyline needs.

And Yuta walks the line like the star he could be, believable, compelling, engaging. He's an unlikely protagonist but wrestling is an unlikely business. The fans have cautiously let him into their heart, for in so many ways he represents them in the face of what’s happened. If a TV deal is just about to be signed, there's never a better time to take a risk. It could well be time to make a leap of faith and take a gamble on Yuta for the sake of the future, no matter which way he falls. After all, there isn’t currently a better story in wrestling.

Jeff Jarrett vs Hangman Page (Lumberjack Strap Match)

MD: And Hangman Page is the second most interesting character in wrestling. I think this needs less breaking down, but I do want to note a couple of things. Hangman won the match. After doing so, he slapped the mat like he was a fired-up babyface. Then he hung a guy. Before that came a low blow and the Deadeye. Before that came him basically fighting off nine people, including someone's wife and a giant, all with straps. Talk about being all over the place narratively. Or at least, it should have been on paper. But it worked on the strength of Hangman Page and Jeff Jarrett as performers, maybe with a little of Tony commentating based on what Page had just threatened to do to him too. That's super impressive (and incredibly compelling) when you think about it.
 
What I loved most about this one, however, was how they treated the gimmick. Maybe a straight up chain/dog collar/strap match between the two would have been more visceral and gripping, but since they decided to go this route (seemingly to transition Page towards the BBG; small concern there as they're not the same sort of constants that Claudio/PAC are playing - it could get messy), the way to do it was to treat the straps held by the lumberjacks like a big deal. They built to Page getting whalloped by basically everyone and they built to it smartly. That meant him getting pushed towards the apron early on and treating it like a huge thing, something to be avoided at all costs. He took it seriously with total earnestness. There was no inkling of irony. It reminded me of how Onita would get over the exploding cage early in those matches. If you build up a gimmick as something the wrestlers are wary of, then the fans are going to care about it too.

They were laser-focused and consistent with it. When they did play things as cute, for instance when Jarrett got tossed out to his cronies and they gave him a hug and pushed him back in, they immediately turned it by Page throwing him out the other side of the ring so that the heels over there could give him some shots. Therefore, when Page finally did hit the floor, him getting whipped as a huge deal. Remember, this was a show with a Texas Tornado tag and a Saraya's Rules hardcore match. They'd seen crazier things than even Satnam whipping someone, but none of it was built to like this. Just impressive stuff overall. If Hangman can keep some of these lessons close to his heart moving forward, the sky is the limit for him. I know a lot of people think he was always great, but this little bit of discipline, this little bit more of giving himself over to believing and getting the fans to believe, well, it can take him even further, further than he's ever been.

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2023 Ongoing MOTY List: Eddie vs. Komander

 

13. Eddie Kingston vs. Komander AEW Collision 10/7

ER: I really love the Eddie Kingston King's Road era, and I think it's partly because I'm happy that Kingston got to last long enough in pro wrestling to have the clout to do a King's Road era. A lot of us are of the age where we backyarded (or cleared space in the All Japan matches we didn't understand, and Kingston is a tape trader who lasted long enough to get to do it well. I love what he does, I love his influences, and I love the way his influences are represented. It's so cool that Kingston lasted long enough to be a Dream Match Wrestler they want to put in styles clashes. Kingston came up on this. I go stretches of not thinking about Eddie Kingston as a Chikara Original because he's so obviously spiritually aligned with 2001 Jersey All Pro. I laugh my ass off thinking about Eddie Kingston now - my favorite wrestler to watch on TV if Darby Allin wasn't on that episode of TV - working Komander, because 20+ years later Kingston just gets to wrestle the best possible version of Jolly Roger. We've seen a lot of Kings Road and puro Kingston, and it just feels good to see him have a really great Chikara Kingston match. AEW's roster is filled with the best of the Chikara Guys Who Made It Through, like Orange Cassidy, Claudio, Evil Uno, and plenty of good or even great guys who would have been Chikara Guys, like Dante and Darius Martin or Komander. I'm saying, there is a shocking amount of Chikara influence all over AEW TV, in a way that tightens the match quality and drops almost all of the constant Sex Pest vibes. 

This was different than a lot of my favorite Eddie matches of the last several years, because this is the first time in ages I went in knowing Eddie was going to win. I knew it would be a fun match, I knew Eddie was going to give Komander a fun match, and I knew Kingston was winning. What took my fandom of Kingston to the next level several years ago was when he just became a guy I actually wanted to win. He is great at losing but he is fun at winning, but there is always strife and always a fight. This match promised no Real fight, just fun, and it was a real great version of that match. I like Komander, and he was ON here. Not only did his flying look great - that torpedo dive over the corner with the perfect Eddie catch, or that in-ring tornillo that hit video game flush - but I was surprised at how good he looked in a style clash strike exchange. I knew it was going to be fun when Kingston hit a little guy, but I forget that Eddie is maybe even better at selling for little guys' strikes as he is going to war with a guy who can actually hit harder that he. But he was so good at getting in front of Komander's flurries, great at missing his shots, great at hitting his shots. When Komander chopped him and Kingston made a fun loud sound like they both knew he caught Komander fucking up, it made every chop after that excited OOO sound even better. I don't think Kingston ever caught luchadors - real or fake - better in Chikara than he did here, and Komander would have been a top 20 guy in Chikara, so the fact everything hit so well here thrilled me. Eddie Kingston, knowing he was going to win, laughing at Komander and getting surprised by Komander, 10 minutes fucking flat. One of those matches where you can be proud of 2002 indy wrestling's modern influence, which is one of the main things that AEW has been so good at delivering. 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 10/2 - 10/8

AEW Collision 10/7/23

Bryan Danielson vs. Kyle Fletcher

MD: Just a very, very interesting match. We're looking at a half month for Danielson where he has the 8-man tag, the ZSJ match, this, a Swerve match and maybe a Christian match too. Right after he announced that we're entering his last full year. He's making the most of it, at least. My take on the Sabre, Jr. match, which, admittedly, was Moxley's take too, was that Danielson was more reactive while Sabre was more focused, and that Danielson's adaptability allowed him to overcome. Here, though, it wasn't that Fletcher was more reactive, but instead that his reaction speed and his recovery speed were just quicker due to the fact he's more than fifteen years younger and in his physical prime. In order to counter Danielson's technical superiority, he had to throw himself, quite literally, at Danielson.

It worked 70% of the time and that was enough to keep him in it. When he went careening over the top rope into Danielson, he ended up redirected into the barricade, obviously taking the brunt of it, but still able to get to his feet first. When Danielson started the flipping dropkicks in the corner, he was able to find enough to charge the other direction after the second, which is something we almost never see. When Danielson did the backflip out of a corner whip, he was right there to land a kick to the face. When Danielson started targeting the leg (done primarily to set up the next thing; in this case a very neat German), he was able to shrug off the damage before long. So he stayed in it and made a good showing for himself. It wasn't enough to overcome, though. He'd drop Danielson down into the nastiest looking Dragon Sleeper but then wouldn't be able to keep the torque on like he needed to. He'd drop Danielson with a brainbuster or a Michinoku Driver but couldn't keep the offense for long. And then, after he survived a great Danielson slipped out of his hammerlocked wrist clutch entry tombstone (which is a unique entry point move that I kind of love), he hit a great reverse suplex off the top and went right back into the Dragon Sleeper, only for Danielson to reverse it right into one of Sabre, Jr.'s favorite pins. Athleticism will take you quite far, but it won't beat someone who could wrestle two moves ahead of you. Against ZSJ, Danielson was always a half move behind, but brought other elements to the table. Against Fletcher, who was bringing youth and athleticism, he was able to work ahead just enough to win the day. It's a testament to Danielson's versatility. As a wrestler, he contains multitudes. 

Eddie Kingston vs. Komander

MD: Quick thoughts here: This was the first AEW match where Eddie Kingston really felt like he was an ace. He had matches on Dark or Elevation where he was dominant, both against enhancement talent and guys like Jack Evans or Anthony Henry, but there was an extra level of confidence here. He's the guy to beat and he's acting like it. That meant shrugging off some of Komander's stuff; it meant that sometimes it would take Komander two or three times to get something going. Most of all, it meant that he drove the narrative, that he controlled the action. Komander might come up with counters, but he wasn't going to string together offense. When Komander tried to assert himself on the top, Eddie shut him down with headbutts and went for a superplex. Yes, Komander reversed it, but he didn't drive it. This is Eddie's story and Komander is but a (valuable) supporting player in it. With Eddie, you almost always know what you're going to get. Here I wonder if we didn't see the start of something new.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 5/22 - 5/28 (Part 1?)

MD: I'm only two hours through ROH, but it was a good show so far, with nothing that I felt an absolute need to write about. There was also a Fletcher vs Cassidy match from Dynamite. I like Fletcher as the guy who contrasts HOOK for the next decade. There's a lot of upside there. He's still at a stage where he's just giving up the struggle to set up the next spot at times, but his reactions are good. I would have liked a bit more character-driven rationale (immaturity from Fletcher) for the kickouts towards the end. Too many bombs. I get that they're getting over Cassidy's resilience under impossible circumstance, but it was a bit much. I'll start the PPV here and maybe do the pillars match on Wednesday if I get around to it.

AEW Double or Nothing 2023

Blackjack Battle Royal for the International Championship

MD: You can tell a lot about someone's love of wrestling when it comes to how they feel about battle royals. There's nothing wrong with a person not liking them, complaining about it being too hard to see the action or too much hugging in the corner, etc., not enough "action," the notion that if you've seen one, you've seen them all. I wouldn't necessarily hold that against someone, but I'm always glad when someone appreciates the possibilities inherent. 

Before my time watching, a Battle Royal, like the big San Francisco one, but others as well, was a chance to see wrestlers you wouldn't normally see interacting with the local stars. They built it up as the most dangerous sort of match possible (despite that lack of action) where a punch could come from any direction and a freak injury could occur at any moment. That made a lot of sense during in age where kayfabe was protected and strikes and holds, not spots, were the glue that held wrestling together. 

When I started watching, towards the late 80s or early 90s, WWF Battle Royals were a way to break up the stultifying structure of the WWF feud system. The British Bulldog would feud for eight months with the Warlord and you'd rarely see him up against else during that time. A battle royal would let him interact with the Barbarian or Haku or Ted Dibiase and also brush shoulders with some of the other babyfaces, a brief save, a little nod, a quick team-up. That stuff was magic for a kid who wanted a more coherent universe in his wrestling and not just a series of isolated feuds. So maybe there's some level of comfort food for me in battle royals.

In AEW, it's not that guys don't cross streams and interact. Khan books random matches all the time. It's more a case that we can never have enough of it. There's only so much time and there are hierarchical needs that keep certain wrestlers away from one another. That was true a few weeks ago in the Darby vs Swerve match. It was true in Ricky Starks vs Jay White. For us to get matches like that every week, it makes continuous elevation of certain wrestlers tricky. In a Battle Royal, though? There's very little harm in getting knocked over the top. Moreover, here the wrestlers are encouraged to interact with one another and, more often than not, the spots are frequent and clever. 

I have no idea who agented this one, but they absolutely earned their keep. While there was brawling and guys hanging from the ropes and certain guys disappeared from the action (Butcher didn't get much shine for a change), it was one signature spot after the next, one interesting interaction after the next. The Lucha Bros, working with Bandido and Komander, interacting with Jay White, for instance, were standouts. The most memorable moment of the match might have been Bandido hefting up Nese for a delayed vertical suplex as Fenix and Penta fought off all comers. Brian Cage and especially Big Bill got plenty of shine. Bill's a guy who has been delivering and entertaining week in and week out and this felt like the first step in moving him to whatever might be next. I know people were high on the Swerve vs Cassidy finishing stretch but I find Swerve best as a heel and against someone with a little contrast, a few less twists and rolls, someone a bit more conventional. I worry that a straight up match between the two would frustrate me. Here though, as just a taste at the end of a very well put together Battle Royal, just a taste of it was more than enough. Cassidy was especially good at selling the cumulative damage of weeks on his back and hand, in the midst of a match where that wasn't the narrative centerpiece. It was just another detail in a twenty minute stretch of AEW that had a ton of excellent ones.

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2021 Ongoing MOTY List: Skayde/Maya vs. Navarro/Komander

57. Skayde/Cometa Maya vs. Negro Navarro/Komander BIG Lucha 12/19

PAS: This was a maestro teaming with a wild youngster and does a cool job of mixing both of those styles. Maya looked very comfortable exchanging on the mat with Navarro, and Komander looked comfortable doing the fast Skayde style rope exchanges. The Komander vs. Maya stuff was super fast flips and rolls, and we get a crazy dive from Maya to the floor. Short match but it hit the points you want from a match like this. The old guys were very giving and this kind of development can only help the kids. 

ER: I could have seen this match being fun in a completely different way if it was vets vs. youth, but I like seeing maestros teaming with fliers and weaving their crafts together. The beginning was great fun, as Navarro stands basically still while letting Maya work some standing arm and wrist control exchanges. Navarro's eyes the whole time look like he's letting Maya have a bit of fun while also giving him a bit of rope, and sure enough, with a gleam in his eye Navarro traps Maya's wrist the second he feels like it, and then ties him up in knots while Maya is powerless to counter. Navarro takes Maya through some cool sequences and they worked in some very cool roll-ups. Komander has some balance issues (two different moments of people waiting for him to get his footing on the ropes before doing a spot) but once he irons that out he will be gold, as he already has some cool tricks. He walks the entire length of the ring on the top rope to catching Skayde with a rope flip slingshot armdrag, and this was a large ring. He should work his shaky balance into his gimmick, like a Drunken Master luchador. Maya and Komander pull off maybe the most gorgeous dive of the year, a perfectly executed sequence where Maya hits the Fenix/Metalik flip dive, springing off the middle rope into one of the smoothest arcing flips I've seen, and Komander flat out could NOT have caught the dive better. It was one of the most squared up catches I've seen, giving both men the softest possible landing on an incredible spot. The match overall didn't always rise above an exhibition feel, but maestro matwork with some slick flying is a combination I'll always view with some rose lenses. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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