MD: I've always been less of a listmaker than my compatriots, so there's not as much MOTY List stuff over the last couple of years. That said, this feels like a good time to hit some high spots in a quick global roundup of things that either just happened or that were just released. Probably won't be a regular thing except for various Mondays where there isn't an AEW match that fits the criteria or jumps out at me (like when we covered Mio vs Ozaki).
Jake De Leon vs. Zack Sabre Jr. Dexcon 5/26/24
MD: Joseph clued me in to this, as you'd well expect. He has the details on how to get it here. It's well worth watching because it's a great throwback to a world long gone, a champion (in heart and reputation in this case) traveling all around the world to fight the local hero, to give him someone to test his mettle against. It's 2024 and this is a very smart (in the vernacular sense) audience, so there wasn't going to be riots if Jake didn't win, but this match certainly made Sabre look larger than life and like a real world warrior, adding to a globetrotting year, while also allowing De Leon to account for himself far more than honorably and to seize a sort of moral victory. That was often the only sort that the local could obtain against the traveling champ, but for a crowd that might only see the very top of the pro wrestling magazine food chain a couple of times a year (or even less), it was more than enough so long as the wrestlers made it more than enough, and they certainly did that here.
This is pro-shot but there was a hanging sort of darkness with the lighting, a close-in feel that created a mood unlike most other pro-shot wrestling you'll probably be watching in 2024. The crowd was abuzz, holding up their phones, oohing, chanting. Sabre knew his job, pressing in on Leon early and using creative hand signals to try to dissuade the crowd from chanting for him. He was the rare sight, but he was there to help glorify everything around him, not solely for the sake of his own ego.
The ceiling for a guy like Sabre is very often what his opponent can keep up with. This is a year when he was up against Hechicero and Danielson, two opponents that he could do virtually anything with. It's a testament to De Leon then that he seemed like he could do almost anything. Here, too, was the added challenge that they were going to go to the limit.
While De Leon would meet Sabre head on whenever he could manage it, and even put him in real danger through damaging the arm and almost cinching in his favorite holds, Sabre came off as the overall aggressor. It was generally up to De Leon to escape, often as Sabre held on through an attempt or shifted position to continue the punishment. Escape he did though, and he'd fire back, standing tall in the middle of the ring, throwing hands while seated, fighting out of the corner, doing whatever it took. Overall, there was more focus on the arm by De Leon and the leg by Sabre, but things tended to reset back to the middle, more often than not forced there by De Leon's skill to keep his head above water and drive to prove himself as Sabre's exact equal.
They kept this pace for around twenty five minutes. Only in the last five did they really start to shift from damaging and softening up towards trying to seize a victory. That led to things boiling over and the fight heading to the floor. It was only after they came back in that Sabre seemed to understand that time was slipping out of his grasp. He tried to push forth to victory but overextended and De Leon didn't just stay in it but came perilously close to the perceived upset. Sabre got the hold he wanted, as time was ticking down but De Leon had made such a struggle of it, making him fight for every inch of positioning, that the bell rang before Sabre could obtain a tap. As draws go, this was one of the sweetest, for De Leon wasn't just a passenger riding the time out; his defense drove the seconds down and robbed Sabre from another notch on his belt. Maybe not the triumph the crowd would have chosen to revel in but one that they were still more than happy to celebrate.
Sareee/Mayu Iwatani vs. Chihiro Hashimoto/VENY Sareee-ISM Ch. V 9/2/24
MD: There's a Guerreros vs Fantastics match that was part of the Houston collection that was pretty hard to wrap one's mind around when it came out. There wasn't a clear shine/heat/comeback structure. Instead, the Guerreros would cheat to get ahead and then the Fantastics would fight back, even getting a tag, and then the Guerreros would almost immediately cut it off and continue to lean down upon them. I called it stuttering heat and there's something similar going on here, albeit with less actual tags and more simply rushing in. There's an inherent structure to this that keeps it from being formless and aimless noise, no matter how much it threatens to devolve to that at times.
As much as Sareee presents herself as an ace (with all that entails) and Mayu as plucky and effectively opportunistic, Hashimoto and VENY are both larger than life (albeit in different ways) and either on their own or working together, they were able to consistently cut off Sareee and Mayu in a way that kept this from being Your Move/My Move and endowed the match with a constant sense of struggle. Wrestling isn't math, but the start of the match was something like 60/40, with the middle being 70/30, and the finishing stretch a straight 50/50. It was a precarious balance but one that never quite fell apart.
I haven't seen a ton of Sareee this year. I don't think I would necessarily gravitate towards her over Mio, who is more about big selling and big comebacks, but Sareee absolutely wrestles like a star. She's always pushing forward, always standing up, always leaning in, always fighting back. That worked especially well with Hashimoto who was always cutting off, always pressing down, always pushing off. Their opening exchange felt familiar but not collaborative, with a highlight being how both bridged up and out of pins and immediately turned their subsequent advantageous positioning into instant offense. Mayu had more of a never say die spirit and had some fun stuff early where she outquicked both of her opponents at once. VENY on the other hand, is almost unnaturally big relative to her opponents and has this casual, matter-of-fact way of moving that methodologically controls the pace; the contrast stands out.
There were certain things I would have liked to have a little more resonance like Mayu accidentally tagging Sareee with an errant shot, especially since Hashimoto accidentally clotheslining VENY (which left Hash open to Mayu's German and being taken out of the match) set up the finish, but in general, I never felt like they were blowing things off too much. There weren't excessive kickouts as they leaned more towards partners breaking things up instead. Down the stretch they set up the idea of big moves, the struggle to hit them, and the payoff when they actually hit in a satisfying way. Ultimately, this was all action, but the action was smart and measured and played into the natural discrepancies between the teams in a way that elevated this past meaningless sensation and into something that hit just right (not an easy thing!).
Hechicero vs. Valiente vs. Esfinge vs. Euforia CMLL 9/14/24
MD: Aniversario. Elimination 4-way. First two out are out of the match. Final two in fight then for the immortal glory of taking a mask. Traditionally, I'd say that these matches tend to be a little bit disappointing, with bombs and action early and too short a one-on-one match towards the end, a poor contrast to a heated 2/3 falls apuestas match. That wasn't the case at all here.
The opening 4-way was certainly action packed. They went right to the four of them flying at each other. The initial image of the match is Hechicero missing a dropkick. Esfinge and Valiente (who needed to be highlighted early for obvious reasons) both hit dives in the first minute or two. They kept things moving and interesting as they cycled through advantages. Euforia matched up against Hechicero. Valiente matched up against Esfinge. All three of them caught Euforia on a dive and power bombed him on the floor. I don't know exactly when Hechicero injured his arm but he was holding it after the Conjuro on Valiente so it's something to keep in mind for the rest of the match; he was working through it (he even bumped over the top rope immediately thereafter, after which they taped him up).
Despite it being a 4-way with all of the inherent difficulties there, the elimination nature and inherent stakes helped things along. It felt paced just right, the level of damage and exhaustion rising so that things slowed down as believable nearfalls began to creep in. For example, Esfinge almost got Hechicero on a complex bridging pin only for Hechicero to pick an ankle to escape. Euforia tapping Esfinge on his body scissors dragon sleeper paid off their feud but was a surprise to a degree as Esfinge vs Euforia was the biggest focus heading into this. Following that was a final bit of Valiente spotlight and an extended matchup with Hechicero where Hech was able to make one last counter to tap him. Again, that was a bit of a surprise as Valiente was maybe the odds on favorite to lose his mask.
So the central feud and the central victim were off the table. What we had left was Euforia and Hechicero, the latter of which was dealing with a bicep tear in real time. They had been trios champs last year and have Infernales history but relative to other apuestas matches, there wasn't as much of a hook. That said, Hechicero is on an international hot streak for 2024, the star run of his life, and Euforia had been waiting his entire career for a moment like this and what they gave us was not at all the rote constrained mask match following eliminations that I've seen at least a few times before. They went all out.
That meant Hechicero reset things with a dive, pulling his straps back up after (another reset in its own way). It meant he let Euforia back in by wiping out on a diving legdrop onto the guardrail. Euforia focused on the arm just a little, but only to set up the mask ripping and the bombs that would follow. And did they ever follow. I lean more towards minimalism than not, of course, and I think you can have an amazing apuestas match with just punches, mask ripping, and blood, but not in 2024 CMLL, of course. This is the one time a year and the one geographic place that a match should go as big as it possibly can. That meant multiple moves off the top (including Hechicero surviving two power bombs). It meant Euforia struggled and struggled to lock in his submission and when he actually did, Hechicero still somehow survived it. It meant big moves like a pumphandle faceplant that were hit and then reversed on the second try.
In any other setting, more on top of more on top of more like this would have been a problem, but here it was the solution. They sold consequence. They channeled pure desperation. They fought exhaustion as much as they fought each other, not to mention injury and cumulative damage. In pro wrestling and in Arena Mexico, nothing could possibly matter more than this, nothing, and every kickout, every reversal, every bit of perseverance to survive a hold, all of it was warranted. And that, as much as anything else, made it feel all the more magical when Hechicero found one last burst of energy to bound off the ropes and hit his headscissors driver and immediately shift it into a hold like he does so well. If you had asked me a few years ago if this sort of glory was still possible to grasp, I might have had my doubts, but they rekindled the fire and recaptured the magic. It's not the bloody and pure magic of days gone by, but it's one still real and vibrant today.
Labels: Chihiro Hashimoto, CMLL, Esfinge, Euforia, Hechicero, Jake De Leon, Miyu Iwatani, Sareee, Valiente, VENY, Zack Sabre Jr.
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