2023 MOTY Project Update #2

 Josh Barnett vs Claudio Castagnoli, AEW 10/1/2023

The grappling here was about 5 thousand times better than anything in Bryan/ZSJ because both guys actually struggled. Claudio does not have perfect technique, but him trying to put submissions on Barnett was pretty fun. Barnett is probably the best wrestler in the world simply for being smart enough to put his arm up and block when Claudio went to elbow him. Both guys threw some great looking strikes when standing up and everything continued to feel like a struggle. Claudio giant swing felt satisfying because there was a build to it and it didn't come out in a predictable manner. I like that Dean pointed out the defensive way in which Barnett took Claudios finisher, and the finish was neat. Cool little match, which actually felt close to a tribute to Inoki, if you see it as Barnett carrying a random gaijin in a weird IGF match.

Atlantis, Blue Panther, El Pantera, Negro Navarro, Panterita del Ring & Rocky Santana vs. Aguila Solitaria, Black Terry, El Satanico, Felino, Octagon & Solar I, CMLL 9/22/2023

I'll admit there's some nostalgia involved in me enjoying this, but screw it. It's too much fun seeing all these crusty old guys show up in their working boots and being way too proud to not bring up. Lots of good exchanges, nearly everybody brings it, and the match had everything, matwork, some brawling, and the crazy factor of some old guys doing dives and flying off the top. Santana/Panterita was a quite nifty mat section for such a random pairing, and Navarro/Solar was maybe a bit slower than 10 years ago but still pretty cool to see these guys showing they are a class above while surrounded by these other legends. Pantera was ballsy here doing a flip dive and taking a crazy powerbomb. We also get Black Terry punching and sometimes headbutting people in the face. Santana was the one guy who kinda lost the plot at one point but it was funny how he just gave up and tapped out. I think Satanicos like 75 but he still has some menace when he starts beating the shit out of someone in the corner. Octagon is the one guy who kind of half asses it, but the finish is really neat. Crowd reactions for this were tremendous.

Darby Allin vs. Christian Cage, AEW 8/19

Very good TV match. I'm not sure what to make of Allins tendency to start with chain wrestling. It doesn't seem to fit the character, but it's well executed. I'm going to assume he is in his mellow post punk phase and thus experimenting. Christian was very good. His deliberate control segment focussing on the arm was great. The hammerlock slam to start the segment was nasty and cool. I agree about the subtle greatness of Christians stomps and punches, and the way he carries himself as a heel not doing anything fancy and just focussing on being an asshole. Allin is a good white meat babyface and all his comebacks were good. I liked when he used Christians goofy turtleneck sweater against him. They did the same nasty neckbreaker on the ropes spot they did in the October match, but in this case it didn't lead to Darby doing anything annoying, instead he just took a nasty slam into the guardrail. Darbys tendency to go for crazy daredevil moves backfiring on him with the interference was smart. The build to the finish was well done and the actual ending made sense with how much damage Darby had taken. Christian looked like one of the best wrestlers in the world simply by having focus, understanding his role, throwing a decent punch and not doing anything stupid. Some parts of the match where a bit overdone/convoluted (e.g. Darby doing a whole bunch of stuff really fast during his first comeback attempt) which leads to things being less memorable, but that's 2023 wrestling for ya.

Virus vs. Dulce Gardenia, CMLL 1/13

This was tremendous. We got plenty of the usual high level Virus grappling, plus this match had a tremendous story and a unique dance partner in Dulce. The exotico spots early on were a lot of fun, it's really cool to see someone use his gimmick to try and gain an advantage like that without interrupting the wrestling. Virus made sure to punish his opponent with some super nasty looking leg and arm snapping moves. Dulce made a comeback in the second fall, but it was not an easy win for him. 3rd fall was pretty epic. Dulce trying to psych out Virus with the kiss of death was really great. Virus in turn wrenching Dulces wrist and bitch slapping him was awesome. The combination of wrestling and big bumps was great. Obviously the armdrag bump was a highlight but I also thought Dulce getting flung outside when he tried the frankensteiner was pretty crazy. Virus doing stuff at this like 54 is pretty insane. I thought this would stand pretty well to almost any singles match in the last 20 or so years.

2023 MOTY List

TAKA in CMLL

 

Negro Casas & TAKA & Shocker vs. Black Warrior & Arkangel & Violencia, CMLL 7/4/1997

Man, CMLL in 1997 has such an amazing „this is wrestling at its absolute peak“ vibe. Even a random match like this ends up being pretty great and unpredictable. The heart of the match was Casas vs. Black Warrior. These two were out for blood. Their first exchange was already really scrappy, with an uncooperative suplex being thrown and then Casas spin kicks Warrior under the chin. The other guys were mostly there to spice things up with big spots and fast exchanges, and boy did they do that. Arkangel was really great here, throwing cool punches and clotheslines and generally making TAKA and Shocker look amazing. TAKA was mostly just in for brief bits but he did hit some fairly difficult stuff. Shocker and Violencia were also really good with Violencia bumping big. The Casas/Warrior feud segues nicely into an intense rudo beatdown before we get a quick and exciting 3rd fall with TAKA busting out his insane spaceman rope switching dive. He knew it takes a lot to really impress a mexican crowd so he basically just went for the craziest thing he knew, and he nailed it. Great stuff.

TAKA & La Fiera & Atlantis vs. Headhunters & Apolo Dantes, CMLL 5/16/1997

TAKA, Fiera and Headhunters in one match, this has a lot going for it! And this was ultra heated and absolutely on fire, really spectacular match if you love monster spots and heat. Starts great with the Headhunters rampaging and TAKA taking every crazy bump you can think of. By 1997 TAKA probably didn‘t have many functional nerves left in his back so he was bumping in that stiff as hell Mexican ring like a maniac, press slams, really whipping himself back hard when bumping for shoulder blocks, getting thrown into the turnbuckles, it was wild. Old man Fiera as usual is pretty great at picking his spots, we get him working a sweet comeback, hitting some gnarly kicks including a ridiculously great superkick and taking out Dantes with a cool surprise tope. Headhunters are so great as usual, the thing about them is they are tremendous crushing their opponents, but they are also really great at stooging and milking every bump they took to the absolute maximum, setting themselves up for big vs. Little offense in fun ways and always being ridiculously perfect in place for a pair of guys you‘d expect to be slow moving. They really made the „arch back and wobble your arms to tease falling over“ into an art form. The sequence where TAKA takes down a Headhunter with really fast dropkicks is so great, TAKA in general is a real star here with the crowd loving him and all his stuff looking so perfect. Tremendous finish too. Dantes is also in the match and while he isn‘t as outstanding as everyone else he is a pretty solid prick. This was a bit like a Twin Towers vs. Rockers match worked as a sprint with two really great Twin Towers and two way cooler and unlikely Rockers.

2002 MOTY Project Update #16

30.  Rey Bucanero & Ultimo Guerrero vs. Shocker & Vampiro, CMLL 9/13/2002

Another shockingly great match in the Vampiro vs. GDI feud. Getting a great feud out of Vampiro must be the crown jewel in Bucaneros and UGs body of work. This was basically a 12 minute super sprint that they put thought into. Every fall told a story and was intense. Of course, everyone minus Vampiro here is a really great athlete, so they were wrestling on a high level. Shocker played second fiddle to Vampiros charisma, but he was working his ass off bumping and flying and working exchanges. And Vampiro did not shit himself. I always like how hard Bucanero and Guerrero go at their opponents. They are asskickers but they always make sure to get the crowd on their bad site. Near perfect mix of workrate and heelwork.

4. Atlantis & Mr. Niebla & Negro Casas vs. Rey Bucanero & Dr. Wagner Jr. & Tarzan Boy, CMLL 8/30/2002

Even greater match, probably the lucha MOTY. Just an incredible brawl. Just a house of fire with the rudos coming out destroying the technicos and then the technicos coming back laying major assbeatings on them.Tarzan Boy was going hard after Negro Casas since they had a feud, and the bit where Casas was eating a 3 on 1 beatdown on the floor was some street violence. The technicos almost completely forgo any fancy moves and just go right back after the rudos, guys jumping on each other raining punches from mount left and right, it's a frenzy. Casas continueing to beat on Tarzan Boy right after the finish was great. In between the brawling and mask ripping they mix in some incredible sequences. You know it's awesome when Mr. Niebla has his working boots on and Bucaneros monkey flip bump over the rope was out of this world, he just flew into the void. My favourite moment in the whole match may have been Casas landing punches from mount and Bucanero jumping on him ragdolling him across the ring by his hair. You wouldn't think a hair drag would be so awesome but it is. You could tell Casas had a blast too busting out Choshu lariats and kicking dudes in the face. A nice reminder how incredible lucha brawls can be.

2002 MOTY MASTER LIST

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project #7

 Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara & Masao Orihara vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Masashi Aoyagi & Kengo Kimura (WAR 10/21/1992) - EPIC

WAR vs. New Japan is one of those few transcendental occurances in wrestling history. This whole match is just from another planet, insane heat, crowd booing and cheering everyone at the same time, dueling chants breaking out, and everyone engages in super uncooperative, violent exchanges. The star of the match is Tenryu as he comes in constantly like a force of nature, there’s an amazing moment where he takes a piledriver on the floor, then cleans house and the camera pans away revealing he has blood streaming down his face, but our boys Orihara and Kitahara are fantastic supporting players. Orihara is young an super fired up, taking big beatings and always firing back, at one point he gets into a fight with Akitoshi Saito who’s outside the ring in his gi and it seems the place comes unglued. Kitahara is right at home in this kind of scrappy match, throwing kicks like baseball bats and looking in shootstyle holds all while drawing baffling heel reactions, I wish he had been in the match a little more. And the Koshinaka/Aoyagi/Kimura was just kicking ass like you wouldn’t believe. Kengo Kimura may have had the night of his life, he is old but he was kicking and punching guys in the face all while acting like a jerk and taunting Tenryu. This was a nice reminder of how much pro wrestling rules.

 

Koki Kitahara & Pierroth & Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Rayo de Jalisco Jr. & Vampiro & Atlantis (CMLL 9/23/1994) - GREAT

Koki Kitaharas stay in CMLL lasted about 4 matches. Japanese wrestlers working Mexico for a brief stint usually doesn’t produce great matches, and I was expecting Kitahara to tone his act down, maybe work a bit more like a junior… but boy, I was wrong. This is classic Kitahara acting like a psycho material. He was hellbent on kicking the dogshit out of Vampiro here. Seeing Kithara punting someone in the face on the floor of Arena Mexico is something else. Pierroth and Wagner also seemed to have had it with Vampiro. I imagine he was being a coked up joker on his stay or something, because they were really pasting him with punches and clotheslines, while being absolutely unwilling to make him look good or bump for him in any way. Really one of the meanest rudo performances I've ever seen. It makes for a pretty compelling match as Atlantis and Rayo De Jalisco basically only make sporadic appearance while Vampiro gets his ass kicked and tries to fire back only to get beaten up some more. In the second fall, Vampiro was hitting his own goofy martial arts kicks and I was starting to groan, but then Kitahra elbowed him in the jaw hard and kicked him in the face some more. After the match Kitahara and Pierroth immediately jump on Vamp with Kitahara raining punches on his face and Pierroth looking like he was either trying to protect Vampiro or choke him out. Either way, it’s rare you see an ass kicking like this in Arena Mexico since they banned blood. I’m wondering why it’s not talked about more, but then again, digging up this stuff is what this blog is for.

 

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST