MLJ: Máximo vs Kamaitachi [Hair vs Hair]

2016-01-01 @ Arena México
Máximo vs Kamaitachi [Hair vs Hair]

Well, this is out there now, or at least it was a few days ago and it was really good. If you search for it, you might find it. Maximo's had a hell of a year starting all the way back in January of 2015 with the Negro Casas singles match. That's something that if people haven't seen, they should. It informs this match as well as both involved quite a bit of leg selling by Maximo. The difference was in the level of commitment. Maximo gave one of those performances here that are somewhat rare in lucha. In general, he didn't drop the selling. There was the ebb and flow of heat and comeback, but he portrayed a sense of vulnerability throughout and it made everything resonate all the more. Also, yes, Kamaitachi is developing a wild charisma and jumped from high places in dangerous ways. But, this was all about Maximo and his leg.

This feud came about very suddenly after the last Dragon Lee/Kamaitachi title match and seemed like it was going to be the Japanese guy losing his hair on the way out. I'm not entirely sure if or when Kamaitachi is finishing up though as he's not on the FantasticaMania cards. It wasn't the main event of the 1/1 PPV. It should have been. I haven't had the heart to watch Casas vs Parka yet. One thing I do appreciate out of CMLL in 2015 (and we're counting this in that) is that they had a number of apuestas matches and all of them felt different.

Kamaitachi has really come into his own in his crowd interaction. He was doing the Taichi hair flipping through a lot of this, really letting things breathe and settle in ways that he's just not been allowed to in the more frenetic Dragon Lee matches. This was about gloating and punishment and a weightiness that you just don't find in those, even if they are, of course, very good and cleverly put together with big spots and building callbacks from match to match.

They went right to it here, with Kamaitachi targetting the knee with a low dropkick almost immediately. He didn't let up, with Maximo selling it big right from the beginning. The primera was quick but spaced out by Kamaitachi's crowd interaction, ending with the double knee from the top onto the leg, and Maximo trying to chop back valiantly only to eat a Dragon Screw and a leglock. Between falls, Kamaitachi posted the leg and attacked it over the guardrail on the outside. Maximo had a comeback in the segunda, one that he really had to work for, and one that was only temporary as Kamaitachi went back to the leg in the tercera, keeping the heat on. They didn't reset into a your move/my move template but instead had Maximo fighting to buy himself distance so that he could hit moves.

In the Casas match, the doctor utilized the magical medical spray and Maximo pretty much dropped the selling. It was vaguely believable within the confines of CMLL, if not the greater whole of wrestling, and it didn't bother me too much. Here, past one or two bursts of adrenaline, he didn't drop the selling at all. It informed everything he did, either leaving him open to a cutoff, making him take too long to mount the ropes, or just adding a layer of struggle on top of whatever move he was successfully hitting (true even as he was locking in the half crab to win the segunda or RIGHT before his pop up power bomb to win the final fall). Everyone knew coming in he was going to win, but thanks to the level of detail he put into his performance, there was a real question of just how he was going to win.

The finish had some BS, sure, but I'm more okay with that than a lot of people, so long as it's well done bs. CMLL is pretty good at being self-aware of it, adding an extra layer. This was absolutely the right sort of match to work in this moment, on this card. Maximo is one of the few tecnicos that is actually over as a tecnico. He garnered a ton of sympathy here in front of a crowd that desperately wanted to get behind him. While he's good and hits his stuff smoothly, there was no way he could match the spot-heavy Dragon Lee matches, so they had to go a different route, one that also wouldn't be utilized by Casas vs Parka later on. This was really the way to go and, to me, it showed the power of full commitment. Maximo was careful to only drop the selling once or twice and when he did, he made sure to sell immediately after hitting his move. It led to a level of immersion that you rarely get in this specific way in these matches and that helped to create a different, but maybe equally compelling, sort of match than the Dragon Lee vs Kamaitachi series or the Atlantis vs Sombra match.