2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Savio Vega vs. Manny Ferno GLOBE OF DEATH!

23. Savio Vega vs. Manny Ferno IWA Puerto Rico 9/7

ER: Shout out to Tim Evans for being one of the sets of eyes keeping a look out for modern Puerto Rico, otherwise I might have never even heard of this absolute dynamite keg of weirdo ultraviolence. I have never seen a wrestling match held in a Globe of Death. This was One Step Beyond Lion's Den Match right here, a bloody ass fight that was like my family went for a weekend Reno trip and stayed at the Circus, Circus, and I'd play arcade games all day in their actually weird in-hotel midway, and I'd watch every single one of those Globe of Death motorcycle stunt shows. I can't even ride a bicycle, but looking up at two motocross racers driving upside down inches away from each other, I was fucking transfixed. And this is me watching those stunt shows, only this time one of the racers fucked up a stunt and the other racer has stopped the performance to beat the shit out of him. This was incredible, a bizarre setting with a bunch of old dirty weapons in that Globe of Death, Savio bleeding from the first minute and nothing but hard spills into slatted metal and thick old metal road signs bouncing off heads. It's a real dirty fight and Vega spends much of the match looking like a guy who is going to pass out from blood loss. Outside of great visuals like signs and heavy trash can lids being covered in blood, the unique environment added a ton to our few highspots: Savio Vega's leaping spinning heel kick and a big back drop inside the Globe of Death. Those two moments felt epic in this setting, happening amid ragged end board stabbings and bloody hard punches. This was an awesome concept worked exceptionally violently.

PAS: The Globe of Death was such an awesome looking structure. It felt like they bought it at a bankruptcy auction of a Circus which went out of business years ago. It was rusty and neglected looking, and all of the old stop signs and wooden boards they were smashing each other with looked old and dilapidated too. It felt like a Tetanus death match. Nothing fancy here, no big set up spots, just two guys bleeding profusely and smashing each other with things they had lying around. Manny Ferno absolutely wears Savio out with board shots, smashing it until it was pulverised. Savio is old and not particularly mobile, but he took the biggest bump of the match, eating a high backdrop into the globe allowing Ferno to escape. I am a sucker for weirdo gimmick matches, and this was a cool idea executed flawlessly.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST