RIP Big Ovett

 Ovett/Los Traumas vs. Los Panteras/Aramis IWRG 2/18/18

PAS: IWRG trios have been one of the most consistent styles of wrestling for the last two decades. There were lots of very capable wrestlers here, and the Traumas come off like real superstars. Ovett is fun as their tubby muscle, although he doesn't really hit any of his big spots (they tease an Ovett dive, and that is a mean tease not to deliver on). Pantera is an old old guy at this point, but still executes his somersault tope really well, and his kid can really fly. There was a bit more referee nonsense then I would prefer, but watching the Traumas run Naucalpan is always a blast. 

Ovett vs. Mosco X-Fly IWRG 6/2418

PAS: I watched their hair match too, and while I thought that got too far into geek show territory (syringes and shit), this was much more my style: A pair of fat dudes beating on each other. This basically feels like the Rotten brothers' Mexican cousins. It started with some solid matwork. It wasn't Blue Panther or anything, but it was perfectly respectable, and built nicely to the point where they started punching and bleeding. Ovett uses his fat nicely, including an Abby style elbowdrop, and I liked when they brought out the lighttubes. They were used more like a roll of quarters, as a foreign object to use behind the ref's back.

JR: I think one of the things I like about lucha is how much they embrace weird bodies. US wrestling over the past few years has become homogenized, just as the style has seemingly become homogenized. It’s strange, as I think the indies embracing the Meltzerian wet dream of wrestling like a five year old bashing his action figures together over and over has directly led to the people with weird bodies only being booked for their ability to do this style; the Keith Lee’s of the world flying around and making sure to land softly enough so that someone who is 185 pounds doesn’t die while trying to base for them. In a way, it has positioned large wrestlers, heavy wrestlers as even more freakish than they were presented at any other time in wrestling history, as now they are reduced to a big man who can move like a light man rather than a big man who can squish you.

All this is a rather long preamble to say that I enjoy lucha embracing mat work by large men, and clobbering by large men, and all other regular things by large men. In fact, in some ways this match feels like it is a direct response to the very idea that large men must excel at the things that small men do, for the first major spot is a huge crossbody, and there seems to be a clear decision to not continue with this trend but to instead start walloping one another with chairs and wooden planks and fists and whatever else they can find.

I don’t necessarily think the purpose of this series is to try and convince anyone that Ovett is some super worker that has been toiling away in obscurity. That being said, he is rather charming here, understanding what he does well, doing everything with purpose, throwing his considerable weight behind all of his offense. The finish is both sublime and bizarre, with a wondrous light tube assisted low blow followed up by an interminably long wait for a three count. It feels loose and unrehearsed in a way that only lucha does. In the US, there would have probably been a kick out and a few more high spots.

Ovett/Lunatik Extreme/Advertencia vs. Shere Khan/Memo Romero/Terromoto Zona 23 1/20/19 (Complete version on IWTV)

JR: Have you ever been to one of those pop up haunted houses? Not like, an extreme haunt or whatever where you have to sign a waiver, but one of those run of the mill ones that are all throughout the Midwest, with a hay ride and a hastily erected indoor gimmick. This match is the closest wrestling gets to the energy and feeling of a haunted house. The camera man wanders cautiously and wearily, focusing on the place he thinks his eyes should be going for progress, and almost assuredly, something graphic and intense is happening in the periphery. It feels like a ride, as if at any moment something else predetermined but completely unforeseen will occur; someone breathing fire, or showing up with a chainsaw.

This match is incredible. I’m not even sure how to describe beyond the way I just did or to single out Ovette other than to say everything he does lands with such impact, including a second rope elbow drop that could’ve killed a man. In a match where almost everything is exclamatory, Ovette taking off his shirt is a moment that stands out for the reaction it gets. There is a clear connection. I don’t want to waste words on this match, really. It’s revelatory. I think everyone should watch it. I suppose this is somewhat hyperbolic, but it feels like a celebration. It feels like something that should be played over and over until the sound of it reaches the heavens. 

PAS: This has all you want from a Zona 23 match. Filthy mat, wrestlers getting thrown into drunks, people doing dives off of trucks, and lots of blood. Some of the stuff was a bit set up, which is kind of the style, and I could have done without the section of just shoving thumbtacks into Romero's cheeks, but this had plenty to like. Ovett clearly seems like a cult favorite, he gets the biggest chants of the match, and I enjoyed him cutting off the Sweet Child of Mine entrance by smashing Khan on the head with a box. My favorite part of the match was Ovett and Khan just exchanging hard punches to the jaw on the floor, Ovett could really throw heat. I wouldn't say this match was technically good, but it was really entertaining.