2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Park Familia v. Rush Familia

77. LA Park/Super Parka/ Hijo de LA Park v. Rush/Pierroth/Toscano Liga Elite 4/27

ER: This was great. It was worked at Arena Mexico, but worked as if they were playing a county fair to people who had never seen lucha before. It was great. Everybody brawls into the crowd in the primera and the crowd gets suitably riled. Park Jr. gets whooped around ringside, taking a great post bump, Pierroth walks up to the skeleton crew and throws a full beer in their face; Park and Rush are always the stars in this kind of act, they're larger than life and it's impossible to look away as they stiff the hell out of each other among the fans. Park and Jr. get run into the metal announcer nest, and soon Park disappears and comes back with a box of beer bottle empties and banks it off Rush's head. Broken glass flies onto the announcers desk. Park hits one of his huge dives onto Rush, and Park Jr. hits a huge plancha on Toscano into the front row, crashing Toscano painfully into the seats. We then settle into more county fair work, with Park working comedy chop sequences with all the rudos, starting with he and Rush chopping each other (and Rush winning the battle with nasty knife edges to the throat), but soon Park was chopping them all. The ones between he and Rush felt sinister. This felt like Super Parka's best performance since returning to Arena Mexico. He's 60, which only made those armdrags on Toscano more impressive. Rush also has a primo dickhead performance, my favorite moment being where he pins Park, but Park kicks out, rolling Rush right onto and over the referee. As they both stand up, Rush shoves the ref in the back of the head. I love how these teams match up, and any time Rush/Park are on opposite sides it's must watch.

PAS: I am not sure whether anyone in this match besides PARK and Rush was any good, but those guys are so great it really didn't matter. PARK has gotten so fat, I have no idea how his tope is still as graceful as it is, how does an obese man in his 50s fly like that. There was a great spot which Eric didn't mention in the beginning of the first fall where Rush and Toscano were using a midget as a weapon, it was sort of an awkward camera angle and it really looked like they were using a 10 year old as a bludgeon, before chucking him into the seats. This kind of Tijuana style match is still a total anomaly in Arena Mexico and it was really fun to watch someone get brained with a case of beer in the temple of Lucha Libre once again.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Lucha Worth Watching: More Dinamitas! Liga Elite!

1. Imposible/Diamante v. Jinzo/Ciclon Ramirez Jr. (Liga Elite 9/14/16)

ER: A bunch of younger guys breaking out a bunch of crazy moves and fast work to get noticed, cool. Every guy got several moments in this, but Imposible impressed me the most. He showed a lot of polish, unique sequences, super quick set-ups, and some crazy, ankle destroying high spots. First he places Ciclon in a chair and runs from the entrance stairway to do a balls first Thesz press. Later he has Diamante holding Jinzo in a wheelbarrow on the floor, and just drops balls first onto the back of Jinzo's head from the top rope. It's like he just aimed to crotch himself using Jinzo. I really want to see more from Imposible now. Diamante blew out of CMLL and doesn't seem like he missed a beat as he clearly looked improved. He worked stiff and his timing was on point, came off like a real badass. Jinzo had one of his best showings since the CWC...although I guess this was only a couple months after the CWC stuff was taped. Look, all I know is that I haven't really liked him in anything other than his Kendrick match, and I liked him in this. I'm always kind of skeptical of Jrs. in lucha, as it seems like it's going to be a guy coasting on a legendary mask. That's not really fair, as there's been some amazing Jrs. in lucha, including some of the absolute greatest luchadors. But I see a young guy with a Jr. and my pre-formed opinions are bad. But Ciclon wasn't coasting on a damn thing. He was as good as any of CMLL's more pushed tecnicos, a real pleasant surprise, and hit a batshit crazy rana from the top rope to Diamante on the apron. Balls out craziness from both. He works some swift roll ups and takes some nasty moves from the rudos, real quality modern tecnico. I kept expecting this whole match to fall apart and it never did, they just kept busting out cool, dangerous moves and working some fine drama. Fun stuff.

2. El Cuatrero/Forastero/Sanson vs. The Panther/Blue Panther Jr./Drone (CMLL 12/6/16)

Dinamitas are my favorite new trios team, a real trio of young rudo assbeaters, who do all the lucha rudo things that I love: big bumps, stiff shots, great bases. All of that is on display here, and we also get a nice little standout performance from Drone. Drone, the former Hombre Bala Jr., has always had some pretty great - and pretty diverse high flying spots. He doesn't just stick to a couple of trademark spots like Diamante Azul or others, he's often breaking out new and crazy stuff. His gimmick is kind of dorky, but it's easy to look past that when he's launching himself to the floor with a no hands tope. Cuatrero is still standing out as my favorite Dinamita (and as long as he keeps taking crazy bumps to the floor every match, that probably won't change), but each one always does a couple notable things, even in a short match like this. All the tecnicos get a couple dives, Panther ranas Cuatrero off the apron, Sanson hits a sick kneedrop to the back of BPJr.'s head, Cuatrero does an actually plausible handspring move, and despite a couple awkward timing spots early in the segunda this was loads of fun.

3. El Cuatrero/Forastero/Sanson vs. Pegasso/Black Panther/Blue Panther Jr. (CMLL 12/13/16)

I can't get enough of these rudo asskickers right now. The primera sees them working a traditional and basic assbeating, just literally stomping the tecnicos most of the time, three of them clubbing one of them to the mat all at once, just ganging up and bullying (and ends with a long and painful swanton from Sanson). Tercera sees them break out two of their crazier semi-trademark spots: Sanson's springboard kneedrop (so tough to pull off, and he really plants it nice) and Cuatrero's brutal and pinpoint match ending springboard elbowdrop. Two violent moves that few could make looks this good. Pegasso got to throw out a bunch of his flashy stuff including a sweet no hands tornillo, but this match was mostly about the rudos, and I'm totally cool with that.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Herodes/Heddi v. Zumbi/Bandido

66. Herodes Jr./Heddi Karaoui v. Zumbi/El Bandido Liga Elite 9/14

ER: What a cool little match! Liga Elite is really starting to pull together a fabulous undercard. They got a bunch of young hungry guys all fighting to be noticed, and it's really starting to stand out. This card especially felt like the guy who had the craziest night in-ring got the hottest rat in Naucalpan or something. Herodes Jr. was unhinged, working like a young cross between Terrible and Rey Escorpion. He had nice timing and worked real stiff, and had facial expressions that read "yeah, I know how stiff that was." Heddi is like a lucha Chris Dickinson, a real unlikable mug and cocky presence, but also brings violent throws and holds. Heddi had all these cool subs with a twist: a neat Indian deathlock that saw him also wrenching the knee, a stretch muffler with him standing up to wrench that, always grabbing at something for a throw. Zumbi does a capoeira gimmick and is actually pretty entertaining with it, with crazy handstand based offense, and wrestling barefoot always makes me like a guy more. Bandido had a bunch of cool tough headlock throws, some complicated stuff on shoulders, several cool roll ups. All of it blended into a fun style clash, been awhile since I saw a good style clash. Everybody had their own unique stuff, but nobody got crossed on the others' stuff. Crazy spots, and a bunch of danger without veering into overkill.

PAS: I really enjoyed this, Heddi is a guy who has been around for a while and who I always thought stunk, he was pretty great in this, twisting knees, cracking people, having some really aggressive mat wrestling scrambles with Bandido. I also really liked Herodes Jr., again a guy who I hadn't had an opinion of, but felt like he was in the tradition of guys like Emilio Charles Jr. and Bestia Salvaje, which is a tradition I loved. There was a great spot where Zumbi goes for a plancha, Herodes catches him a bear hug and rag dolls him back and forth like a dog playing with a dead squirrel before chucking him kidneys first into the guard rail. Zumbi's capoeira stuff sometimes looked silly, but a couple of times really turned a breakdance into something violent, he did this headspin where he landed knees first into Heddi's windpipe. Overall a really entertaining undercard tag, and I really want to search out more of Herodes and Heddi.

2016 ONGOING MOTY LIST

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Lucha Worth Watching: Liga Elite Undercard! Blue Demon as Zandig!

1. Imposible/Peligro vs. Ciclon Ramirez Jr./Leon Dorado Jr. (Liga Elite 9/30/16)

I'm continuing to dig this Liga Elite undercard, with Imposible especially standing out. I've never seen Peligro or Leon Dorado before this, but Ciclon has been impressing me as well. Dorado seemed really green, hitting some kind of sloppy flying offense, but he took a nice post bump and got dragged around nicely by Imposible, gets blasted by an awesome Thesz press while stuck in a chair, basically seems up for a beating. His big moment comes later in the match where he hits a nutso balcony dive, just plunging into the crowd. They filmed it from underneath and from behind, so you get the angle of him diving into nothingness, and him crashing onto dudes. Imposible runs the primera like a great rudo, all building to Ciclon's big comeback in the segunda. Imposible takes a big Fuerza bump, knocking Peligro into the crowd, then Ciclon hits an out of control dive that plasters Imposible into the barrier and sends himself into the crowd. Tercera continues the wild end of the segunda, with Ciclon tying up Imposible in a trippy submission, then Imposible hitting him with a flapjack chestbreaker. Dorado and Peligro aren't as good as their partners, but they aren't in for nearly as long, and I loved how Ciclon inserted himself back in the match by breaking up a pinfall with a huge diving dropkick. Both tecnicos hit big suicide dives, then Peligro nearly dies hitting his own dive, catching his heels on the top rope and thanking the heavens that Ciclon rushed up to save his bacon. Imposible puts down Dorado with a tricked out rolling armbar for the match. They tried a lot of stuff, and not all of it worked, but the energy was high, Imposible and Ciclon are legit, and the undercard of Elite is busting their collective butts.

2. LA Park vs. Blue Demon Jr. (Liga Elite 9/30/16)

Park is a fat, out of control original Sheik at this point. Now that Elite is touring through other towns and not allowed (?) to use Arena Mexico, they're hitting up these smaller cool arenas, and Park is just kicking in the door, kicking balls, throwing chairs and garbage, wresting trays away from vendors, tearings masks, bleeding, and then soaking it all up before leaving without a decisive victory or loss. Is he killing towns? Or is he bringing chaos and excitement to lives? I think the latter. Blue Demon's transformation is still a shock to me, and I have no idea what brought it on. He takes such furious beatings now, and now that he's 50 he tries harder in his matches than I've seen previously. Park jumps him in the aisle, which is how these things go now, and he beats the hell out of Demon, throws him into the crowd as Demon lands grossly on chairs, powerbombs him through a couple of folding chairs in a way no 50 year old man should be powerbombed, whips Demon with his belt, yanks a wooden beer tray out of the hands of a vendor who looked like he did not want to lose his beer tray, and before long Demon is busted open. It's a great visual as the blood is running down his arms and on his hands and chest. But Demon's walking tall comebacks have been great, and Park knows how to facilitate them. Now Park bumps wildly into chairs and Demon hits a big dive, and the crowd is hot. Before long the match devolves into several ref bumps, both men bleeding and kicking balls, trading nearfalls, Park taking his corner flip bump, Park hitting a big powerslam, and upon getting DQ'd Park starts flipping out and undoing the ring ropes. This was a real blast. Park is arguably the most charismatic man in wrestling, and Demon has put on them working boots as best as he can. Great old guy battle.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Blue Demon Jr., IWA-MS Wrestler

1. Blue Demon Jr. vs. LA Park vs. Silver King (Liga Elite 9/9/16)

ER: This match is pretty notable just because of the ridiculous beating that Demon takes. I've seen Demon in some damn lazy performances, and here he just gets pummeled. This performance made me feel sympathy for Demon, and somehow root for him. That's never happened before. Park and King just start beating on him with hard plastic chairs, and even throw him 4 rows into the crowd. Demon takes a man size bump getting tossed through a bunch of chairs, really crazy and out of character for him. He disappears for awhile after getting absolutely wailed on, and then we get more of a Park/King brawl. King hits his middle rope dive to the floor, Park gets launched into the crowd and takes an even more brutal bump than Demon. Eventually Demon makes his triumphant return and waylays dudes with chairs, masks get yanked up, DQ's happen, and I weirdly earned some respect for Demon. Strange for him to turn 50 and start taking furious beatings. I mean, I was at a Timothy Thatcher/Blue Demon match where Thatcher started the match with a stiff chop and Demon clearly leaned in and told him to back off, as Thatcher then held way back on every strike the rest of the match. And here Demon isn't even in Arena Mexico and he's getting beaten like he owes money. Crazy choice, but respect.

2. Blue Demon Jr./Xtreme Tiger/Golden Magic vs. Rey Escorpion/Sharly Rockstar/Cibernetico (Liga Elite 9/14/16)

ER: Blue Demon is now apparently this past his prime southern brawler, still working indies and paler and fatter than he was in the 8x10s he's selling, taken in his prime 20 years prior. Blue Demon comes out slowly, with his shoulder in a sling because of what happened up above on this electronic page. He immediately gets sucked into a brawl on the floor with Escorpion, who is pretty much the worst guy in lucha to get sucked into a brawl with. He'll beat the skin off of your face. And immediately he's beating Demon into the crowd, hitting him with chairs, kicking him through other chairs, Demon is falling around on concrete with one arm, getting thrown over the railing, just taking another beating. Later he gets to stand tall in the ring, bravely going up against everyone like he had two good wings, bending Rockstar into a nice, violent cloverleaf with his good arm, great triumphant tecnico moment. Xtreme Tiger lives up to his name and hits a rana from the top rope, onto Escorpion on the apron, and landing on his feet while Rey took a violent bump into the narrow and hard ringside area. Good lord, guys. Cibernetico is kind of a poor man's Pierroth in this, a rigid gassed up stiff working dude. But, that's an easy step up from typical Cibernetico. Golden Magic also stood out to me for the first time, even though I've seen him probably 6 times already. He's a generic tecnico but hits some nice generic tecnico spots, big rana and nice armdrag. He's got a cool mask and a good look, nice guy to have on the cards in a trios. I usually don't expect a good match when Blue Demon AND Cibernetico are in it, but this was a good one. I don't know what's wrong with me, suddenly becoming a Blue Demon @ 50 fan.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Nuevo Dinamitas!

73. Hijo del Pantera/Ciclon Ramirez Jr./Dinamic Black v. El Cuatrero/Forastero/Sanson Liga Elite 8/4

ER: Killer little spotfest, great showing for some 2nd and 3rd (and who knows more) gen luchadors. Pantera wrestles just like his dad, which is a neat revelation since I've now seen Skayde Jr. and HE wrestles just like HIS dad. My brain always threw Pantera and Skayde into the same bucket as their moved similarly, and I was a big fan of both. HD Pantera has cool little rope flip feints and heavy crossbodies, Ciclon has some nice headscissors and there's a great sequence on the apron where he flips Cuatrero (?) over the buckles and then swings around the ringpost into a slick headscissors. Rudos take over and they work like classic Cien Caras, only with monster bumps. These guys are massive dickheads, do team and individual press slams, work stiff, Cuatrero hits a freaky springboard elbow drop, just all sorts of surprises. I like their control segments, and I loved them as much when the tecnicos bring it back. Sanson (?) takes a huge bump into the crowd off a dive, Dinamic Black does some nice rope work and hits a MAMMOTH flip dive, and this just made me really excited for the future of CMLL.

PAS: I really dug this, it was a pretty disposable lucha undercard trios match for the first bit, although the junior Dinamitas are really great in ring bumpers and are always in perfect position to take some semi awkward high spots from the technicos. The 3rd fall though it totally boss with everyone upping their game a bit including one Dinamita eating a tope and visiting the third row. I remember liking Dinamic Black a bit back in the IWRG days, and he seems to have put on a bit of bulk without losing any height on his dives. I also love that the Dinamitas don't work like 2010s luchadores, these are old school like the baby Villanos, no way these guys would work a 2.9 fest on a New Japan show.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Fuerza, Still Doing It; Y Tu, Wotan?

Fuerza Guerrera vs. Octagon (Liga Elite 9/9/16)

ER: This is a match up that has happened dozens of times in lucha history, and originally one of the reasons that Octagon was even a thing was because of how good Fuerza made him look. And it's still happening. He's still doing it. This match-up doesn't show up as often as it used to (a quick check shows that it hasn't shown up on tape in 4 years, but no doubt it happens often), and Octagon has gotten chubbier and slower, while Fuerza is just as nutty as ever. This is predictably a total Fuerza show, but an impressive show. Fuerza does all the work on everything, as the slo mo camera reveals; what looks like some violent tilt a whirl backbreakers in normal speed can be seen as Fuerza violently whipping himself into Octagon's knee, while Octagon doesn't even go into a full knee bend. But Fuerza makes them look great in regular speed. Octagon can still spin fast on armdrags, and Fuerza bumps fast for all of them. To make up for Octagon being able to do much of anything, Fuerza even hits a big time gusher, bleeding all over the ring, hitting a big flip dive (that Octagon mostly bails on) with blood dripping down his chest, kicks balls, and just keeps making Octagon look better than Octagon should look, 25 years later. You'd think this would have been annoying to him in his 30s, and that somewhere along the way he would stop trying so hard, but here he is in his 60s, still trying hard, still doing it.

Wotan vs. As Charro Innova Aztec Power 8/7/16

PAS: Wotan was in our 2016 MOTY, so when Powerbomb.tv dumped a bunch of indy lucha on the internet, I wanted to check out more Wotan to see if he is great on his own or a Black Terry creation. Verdict after this match is closer to a Black Terry creation. This has got to be As Charro Jr. or something as the original was super old in the late 80s. This starts out with some pretty good matwork and some nice brawling, but really falls apart when they break out the light tubes. After that it is some geek show jabbing and poking and some of the most egregious your turn my turn stuff I can remember seeing. For example As Charro hits a running death valley bomb into the turnbuckle and the very next move is Wotan hitting the same thing on him, didn't even bother to pretend to be hurt. Finish was a nothing run in too, I do want to check out a couple more Wotan matches, but this wasn't a good start.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Overkill!!

Since overkill is the new canon best style in professional wrestling history, I thought we'd look at a couple recent lucha matches that had both had a) overkill to the nines, and that b) I enjoyed a lot.

Valiente vs. Ultimo Guerrero (CMLL 6/17/16)

ER: Real quality Arena Mexico singles match with a hot crowd that made the big moves feel like a big deal. CMLL singles matches typically disappoint me, as those neverending terceras filled with heatless near fall trading until something inevitably finishes things just make me completely impatient. This managed to work within that formula, while surpassing the same old tired feelings that formula creates. This actually felt like a big stips match to me, despite going into it not knowing why Valiente got a title shot, and despite never having cared about any sort of lucha title reign. But I got sucked into this one. We get a bunch of fun mat stuff, like Ultimo does in his indy matches, but more importantly Valiente actually got a chance to shine on the mat, something we don't often get to see (and those watching TV would not get to see, as Lucha Azteca cut 4 minutes of his mat stuff out of the match). I loved the leg bar stuff and that weird freaky Backlund-ish arm lift. Valiente's weird single leg indian deathlock sub looks really painful and I have zero problems with Ultimo screaming the second Valiente leans back with it. I like the direction things take as they spill to the floor, with Valiente wildly getting out there by Fuerza-ing himself, leading to Ultimo tossing him into the crowd and then nailing him with his hip attack. Valiente came off more like a star in this match than I've seen him in some time, and his big moves all looked spectacular. Those fast and stocky topes, that gorgeous Valiente Special moonsault to the floor, even his sometimes silly offense looked devastating, like his tombstone jawjacker that catches UG in the teeth. There was certainly overkill, but I think it built in a far more satisfying way than typical CMLL singles. It really felt like Valiente was pulling out all the stops and he was able to convey that great.

Rey Escorpion vs. Teddy Hart (Liga Elite 7/21/16)

ER: Super flawed but super fun match, with so much overkill that some jersey metal head is blaring it from his 1989 Nissan Sentra. Teddy Hart is a tough bastard who is usually too interested in bullshit to be tough. Escorpion is a guy who likes to punch people and Hart is a guy who you want to see get punched. We do some fun roll-y stuff, and you can see the moment where Rey lets Teddy know what kind of match this is going to be. They're working some arm stuff and Rey is pinning him, and kicks the heel of his boot right across Teddy's face. From there Teddy takes plenty of stiff shots, runs into boots, and delivers a couple nice punches of his own. Teddy comes off like an aloof douche, but he has no problem leaning into shots so who cares! Rey drops a huge leg, and all his covers are extra nasty in the way he grinds his forearm into Hart's face. The overkill gets ridiculous with both dudes getting dumped on their heads with flipping piledrivers and Rey getting powerbombed in sick fashion over Hart's knees. But while the kickouts got silly, I liked so much of their stiffness and attention to little things, that I still really dug the match overall.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Older Man Belt Whippin'

LA Park vs. Cibernetico (Liga Elite 4/13/16)

ER: This was a great fat Elvis performance from Park: Missing half the words on Suspicious Minds, a lot of catching his breath, playing to the crowd too much, letting them sing the words so he can catch his breath more, looking even more unhealthy since the last time you saw him...yet you can't tear your eyes away from one of the most captivating performers ever. Park is the biggest I've seen him, and Cibernetico still wrestles like Cibernetico. But it's an Arena Mexico main event, big crowd, and they love Park. Cibernetico jumps him on the rampway and kicks him into the ring. Cibernetico runs this thing for awhile, rips at Park's mask, rips Park's belt/girdle off. Park ends up hitting a big dive, splatting onto the floor, and whips Cibernetico with that belt. I love belt whipping in lucha, the mannerisms and crowd play just make it the best. Ref keeps trying to stop him and Park keeps going yeah yeah yeah I'm still gonna whip him. Eventually we build to Park hitting a mammoth plancha off the top to the floor, filmed from below so it looks like he's jumping off an apartment building. Both men lie dead on the floor, with medical staff coming over to potentially stretcher Cibernetico away, after having just witnessed him being crushed by a dropped piano. Park makes it back inside and looks vulnerable. I can't imagine being that heavy and doing a big dive like that. He drags himself back in and still manages to play to the fans. Finish is a mess with Park getting unmasked then fouling Cibernetico, but they did a weird double pin with both men supposedly covering each other but with it only looking like Park is covering. We get hair and mask challenges after and the fans flip out, and the whole time I was just sitting there slack jawed in admiration of the big fat king.

Ultimo Guerrero vs. Volador Jr. (CML 8/30/16)

ER: You wanna double down on your old man lucha whippings? Of course you do! Here UG jumps Volador on the ramp and begins whipping him around with his plastic-y vest. First we get some standard shots to the back but before long UG is juts whipping Volador right across the face with this vest. Have you ever been snapped by a towel? It stings like hell. And it's usually to the hip or thigh or buttock. But here UG is essentially towel whipping Volador in the face and it sucks for Volador and is awesome for us. UG whips him to the floor and knocks him into the front row (CMLL tecnicos have really perfected that quick head over heels bump over the railing into the crowd) and launches his hip attack. Match peaks with Volador going for a flip dive to the floor and getting caught, lifted into powerbomb position, and flung sideways into the barrier. Good gracious. Later on UG would one up Volador's bump over the barrier by taking a fast Jerry bump to the floor before getting nailed with a Volador flip dive. I don't typically care for the terceras in these kind of main events, and before long we're in the morass of 2.9 counts after big moves and a transparent fake fault finish. The big moves down the stretch built fine, and there was especially impressive moment where Volador was going for a top rope rana, UG blocked it, lifted him up for a top rope powerbomb, and while UG was jumping off the ropes to deliver the bomb Volador reversed it back into the rana. Crazy/impressive stuff. Come for the nasty vest whipping, stay around for a couple pros doing their thing amid some impressive shows of strength.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Rush and LA PARK rip up Arena Mexico

2. Rush v. LA Park Liga Elite 7/14

PAS: I am not sure exactly what the fuck Liga Elite is, but god bless whatever they are for this bit of glorious spectacle. CMLL doesn't do this stuff anymore, and I am not sure what the ramifications are going to be, but this was Rush and LA PARK having an old fashioned blood soaked lucha brawl. This would have been right at home with Sangre Chicana or Perro Aguayo and I am so happy to see the floors of the birthplace of lucha libre covered in pools of blood again. They rip into each other on the ring apron and it keeps going like that for the whole match, parts of it have the frantic intensity of Necro v. Joe.  Rush goes and grabs a metal footlocker and they hurl it at each others heads. At one point the ref just bails the fuck out of there, the crowd starts tossing trash and Park and Rush keep killing each other. This may have killed the promotion, maybe both guys get suspended, I dunno, but I loved every sweet second.

ER: I love these two. And really you knew this was going to be great from literally the first second, as you just see Park standing on the entrance ramp with his arms out going "Come at my bruh" and Rush in the process of coming at him. These two beat the hell out of each other, fly into fans, bleed, take nasty weapon shots, and really bring a level of chaos that you just don't get in pro wrestling anymore. These two don't hold back and it's pure joy and hate. The crowd is wild, throwing trash and money, Rush throws a step or a storage locker at Park's head, literally as dangerously as you can throw a step or storage locker at another man's head. Rush gets an unyielding non-folding chair and blasts Park with it, who then slumps down into the chair. But as Rush wanders away yelling at fans, Park stands up with that chair and throws that hardass chair at Rush's head, also as hard as you could possibly throw a chair at another man's head. The chair flies off into the crowd, rigid and uncaring. Rush hair taunts are some of my favorite things in wrestling and here we get plenty, notably when he's mocking the crowd and Park by holding up strands of his own hair while screaming with rage filled eyes, knowing how his hair is the most valuable trophy in the last decade of lucha. The person who - someday - wins Rush's hair needs to preserve it as best as possible, fashion it into a wig, and either wear that wig himself, or commission a bust of Rush and display that bust-with-wig in his living room. Park hits a dive, Rush hits a flip dive, both men take it upon themselves to just assume they are counted out or DQ'd or just wink at the camera and walk off set like Jerry Lewis at the end of The Patsy. Rush fist bumps people, Park shows he's a true working class hero by wandering around picking up paper money, then grabs an empty beer cup so he can start collecting coin money. I love these two.

2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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