Art of the Apuestas: Bombero Infernal vs Cerebro Negro

There is nothing else in the world like a lucha de apuestas. Engrained in lucha libre culture, an apuestas match is typically gonna be one of the most important in a luchador's career. I read this tweet recently from mutual Chris and it got me thinking a little. What is it about an apuestas match that elevates it? Of course, the emotions will be higher just due to the nature of both participants having something on the line, but it's more than that.

In an apuestas, you're almost always putting something on the line that's bigger than any championship: your mask or hair. If you lose a championship match, you have the opportunity to win it back at some point, but you'll never get back your mask (most of the time) if you lose it. No rematch clause or championship win is going to remove the humiliation of getting your head shaved by an opponent you that makes your blood boil.

If you're facing the chance of reaching the lowest moment of your career, wouldn't you go all out to make sure that doesn't happen? Maybe you do realize that this is going to be it either way and you just want to do anything you can to make sure you make it a match to remember. The lucha de apuestas is the grandest match anyone could have the honor of being in.

Cerebro Negro, 51 years-old, is having a career renaissance in 2025. His work never really got "bad" at any point, but his output this year has been unfathomable for someone who has been going for that long and at his age. You would think that his body has taken such a beating over time that he's physically gotten worse, but no. The man is still wrestling like he's in his 30s.

Bombero Infernal is 52 years-old himself and while I haven't watched as many of his matches this year, what I have seen has been really good. Particularly, he had great performances in his bull terrier match against Cerebro Negro and then also in the preview tag match that took place 3 days before this hair vs hair matchup.

Tensions will always be increased when you have a (literal) blood feud culminating in two guys putting their hairs on the line. The match will have the vibes of a major "winner takes all, win or go home" game seven. There's nothing stopping these two from facing again, but it feels as if an unwritten agreement of "this is it" gets made when two wrestlers face off in a match like this. All the damage they've done to each other has led to this. Even if they do reignite things in the future, this will be the finale, for now.

All the blood these two have shed with each other is instantly multiplied by Bombero Infernal's blade job early in this match. I was instantly in awe of his crimson mask. It felt like he would usually be the primary bleeder in their matches against each other so far but he goes above and beyond here. The blood also ends up creating some insane visuals throughout the match.

Although Bombero Infernal seemed to be the crowd's favorite, I was definitely rooting for Cerebro Negro all the way. Again, this felt so much more meaningful than any other result of any other match, because it was! Sometimes it's nice to watch wrestling where I don't care about who wins and just see two guys go crazy, but I felt so invested in these two and this match. Nearing the closing stretch, I started pacing around the room after every kickout from Bombero Infernal, worried that he'd be able to make his comeback at any moment.

I want to talk deeper about this match at some point and maybe I will, but all else I really could say about this is please go watch it.

Anyways though, I hope you enjoyed reading this! If you didn't, that's alright too. I know this was more of a different post than usual, but I just wanted to speak a little about how I feel about apuestas matches and my experience with this one. Let me know if you have any thoughts, criticisms, ideas, or whatever in the comments or get in touch with me on my Twitter page!

Just Some Matches #4 (Tenryu Project)

I love Tenryu Project. And I mean EVERYTHING about Tenryu Project: the shitty video quality, the singular hard cam shot, Tenryu's raspy 75-year old voice being the only telligible on the audio side of things.

More importantly though, Tenryu Project produces booking that feels catered to me. One of my favorite wrestlers active today, Keita Yano, primarily works there. Some of my favorite joshi, such as Aja Kong, DASH Chisako, and Chi Chi have all been getting matches there. There's a large sense of unpredictability when it comes to their tournament matchups as you really don't know what you're gonna get.

As Genichiro Tenryu is being celebrated these days more than ever by fellow puro legends with his appearances at the Giant Baba Memorial Show and Kenta Kobashi's Fortune Dream 10 Produce, I figured there's no better time than right now to take a look at what the promotion's been putting out this year.

Keita Yano & Kengo vs. Hikaru Sato & Yuya Susumu (Tenryu Project Tenryu Festival 2/2/25) - FUN

This was a return match for the aforementioned Keita Yano, who was coming off a 5-month hiatus. I don't know the exact details of why he left, but I feel it's one of those things that shouldn't be speculated on in the first place. Either way, he looked like he hadn't missed a single day from what we could see in this one. He unfortunately does the least out of anyone in the match (it felt that way to me at least), but still does maximize his minutes, so to speak. I especially noticed his work in the beginning of the match with his stalling on the outside. It felt like I was watching someone truly get back into the swing of things in real-time.

I am familiar with Kengo by name only, this was the first time watching him wrestle. I must say, he made me a fan in this one. His grappling was slick and expressive, but in a way that still allowed for him to show that he knows what he's doing on that side of things. The whole time I was thinking "I really like these two as a team; hope they have a singles match at some point" and it seems that they indeed did have a singles match some weeks after this!

I don't really have much to say about Yuya Susumu. He is not bad at all, but has the least focused performance in my opinion. I just wasn't really moved by what he did and I reckon that'll change if I watch another match of his that doesn't have these guys in it.

Hikaru Sato's biggest problem in recent years has been inconsistency. You never know what kind of effort you're gonna get from Sato. Even when he does try harder, it's sometimes too much leaning towards that kickboxing direction that I tend to not care much about from him (ironically). 

Despite this, I still enjoy watching him because I can still take something away from his individual performance. While I didn't think his work here was anything special, I did appreciate some of the intricacies of what he was going for tag-wise. At one point, Susumu is trying to reach the ropes so Sato tries to lean on them to push them closer to him before the ref sees this and stops it. He also builds to the eventually matchup in the ring between himself and Yano straight from the beginning with his calling-out of Keita after he misses the chance to face him early on. It's small, but it gives more character to these interactions within the tag match environment, rather than it just being "oh well's here 4 different singles matches in one".

Nothing in this was too crazy to justify going out of your way to seek it out, but I would suggest giving this one a watch if any of these guys interest you or if you come across this show for whatever reason. Fun little match!

Naoki Tanizaki & Yusuke Kodama vs Oji Shiiba & Takuro Niki (Tenryu Project Light My Fire Vol 10 2/20/25) - GOOD

This was my introduction to the Junior Heavyweight division of Tenryu Project, and was a match to decide the next challengers for the International Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles (held by Kengo and Yuya Susumu at the time of this show). The matchup starts off with your typical "feeling out" lock-ups and matwork, but I have to give credit where it's due: Naoki Tanizaki gives Oji Shiiba nothing in this opening sequence, making it feel different than the usual approach that would be taken here.

I'd argue that most of the match is just basic fundamentals and fairly by-the-numbers, yet it became easy for me to look past that because of the intensity both teams brought. Tanizaki and Kodama heeled things up big time and I loved their performances, especially Kodama's. Shiiba and Niki were the fighting underdogs that were looked down upon by the heels but still kept trying to prove themselves and they did. There were even a few points that wowed Tenryu on commentary!

The only "issue" I had with the match was Shiiba spamming that one running kick he does (you'll know it if you see it) throughout it. Mix things up for once, please! He does take a beating here though, I'll give him that.

Otherwise though, I thought this match demonstrated exactly what I'm looking for from modern Junior wrestlers. You can still be quick and have high-octane action while giving me something to latch onto and walk away with. For this match specifically, I left realizing I have to watch more of Tanizaki and Kodama (but generally I feel I need to look more into everyone in this match).

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Before I end this post, I wanted to give a minor blog update. I realize this entry is a bit more "themed" and less random than the other 3 in this series so far, and that is for a reason. It felt easier for me to write about these two matches when viewing them in the grand scheme of Tenryu Project and what it's about. I don't plan for all the future posts in this series to be as organized/themed as this one, but it was something I wanted to do as a little precursor to a larger themed project that I'm working on for the blog. 

Anyways though, I hope you enjoyed reading this! If you didn't, that's alright too. Let me know if you have any thoughts, criticisms, ideas, or whatever in the comments or get in touch with me on my Twitter page!

Just Some Matches #3 (Sheik, Singh, and Micros, oh my!)

Another day, another blog post! I have been having so much fun writing these lately, working on these everyday and watching/writing more about wrestling. Thank you to anyone that reads these or even just takes a look at the site, truly. Time for some more matches though!

The Sheik vs. Tiger Jeet Singh [Cage Match] (Canadian Big Time Wrestling ?/?/1975) - FUN

This match was for Sheik's United States Championship and I only found out about this match's existance because I saw that Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling had uploaded this as a part of this show's unaired pilot produced by Dave McKigney, but the footage itself has been on YouTube since 2018 I believe.

I also have historically not been a fan of cage matches that utilize a "escape the cage" stipulation to win the match, especially when you can do so through the cage door. This match's finish definitely makes it work though, but we'll get to that later.

Sheik is so good man, one of the best. My biggest takeaway from the match was how damn good his punching is. Tiger Jeet Singh has some awkward punches himself for the most part, but then lays in some really nice ones to the body near the end.

Going back to that "escape the cage through the door" point, they do some teasing in this one with a lot of the exchanges actually being them grabbing each other whenever one of them makes a run for the door. At one point, Singh takes a punch that knocks him back closer to the door, so he tries to escape then but gets stopped by Sheik. I remember thinking "that's neat" in the moment, and then they revisit that for the finish! This time though, it's Sheik who gets knocked back and flails his body onto the floor outside the cage. Creative finish that really makes you feel like Sheik robbed Tiger of the win, but also points out the hypocrisy of the fans because they would've loved for Tiger to steal that win in that earlier moment. 

There's not much else to really talk about for this one. Cool match, nice heat, Sheik is amazing, and Tiger Jeet Singh is awesome (and don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

Chamuel, KeMalito & Periquito Sacaryas vs. Duende Blanco, KeMonito & Mije - GREAT

From this Tuesday's Arena Coliseo Guadalajara show. I was watching primarily for the main event (which I still might talk about at some point in a future post), but was so blown away by this match that I felt like I needed to write about it.

The micros tore the house down at a GDL show that had some pretty big names like Atlantis, Blue Panther, Máscara Dorada, etc. For a part of the roster that I mostly saw as being there to get some laughs and pop the children in the crowd, they blew my mind. I didn't even know how this would go, as I usually associate the micros with the openers that only go one fall, not a 2/3 falls match that's in the middle of the show.

First things first, Chamuel is amazing here. I know to the casual viewer (which one could argue I am myself), KeMalito is the heat magnet for the rudo team, and it's not wrong to say that. But Chamuel takes that heat and is able to stretch it like a rubber band as far as he can without dragging it. There's one moment in particular in which he stops wrestling, leaves the ring, and just stands on the ramp as he takes in all the crowd's boos. Once he takes the initiative, KeMalito and Sacaryas are able to absorb some of that reaction so they can get some of that heat too.

On the opposite end of Chamuel's heel work, you get Duende Blanco and Mije, who do some awesome moves and brings exciting action to the match. Yeah, KeMonito is of course gonna be the center of attention for most people, but those two specifically take such a beating from the rudos. The second fall ended with Mije being late to save his partners and he has to drag KeMonito back to the corner for the next fall, but gets attacked by Sacaryas and KeMalito while doing so. This made me feel genuinely sorry for Mije and them. Good shit.

I am not sure how someone could see the crowd erupting for the first and third falls and feel like both sides didn't do their jobs perfectly here. Speaking of which, I thought this was a very well paced match all things considered. First fall feels goes by very quickly after the opening segments, the second fall sees the rudos getting some good teamwork going on to get some 2-on-1 and 3-on-1 action, and the third fall has our heroes pulling out their big spots. They get their shine, comebacks, and then the win. I did feel that the final fall did get a bit too start-stop at points but it wasn't major enough to ruin anything for me.

Really, really good match, cannot recommend this one enough.

Hope you enjoyed reading this! If you didn't, that's alright too. Let me know if you have any thoughts, criticisms, ideas, or whatever in the comments or get in touch with me on my Twitter page!

Just Some Matches #2 (HD Fishman in a Cage & NJPW 5x5 Elimination Tags)

Hello again, everyone! Hope whoever saw my first post enjoyed what they read and if not, that's alright too. Before I even get into wrestling stuff, I just wanted to first thank each and every one of you that either read, reposted, liked, or even just saw any of my posts about this blog. I had such a great time writing that first post and it was very gratifying to see that there's at least people besides me that enjoyed giving it a look!

It means so much to me that even one person would even go to look at the site, let alone read an entire post I made. Feeling so excited, I wanted to talk about more matches! So I asked some friends for some ideas of what they'd like to see and got 3 matches in particular for this one.

Macuarro vs. El Hijo del Fishman (Zona 23/Lucha Memes Junkyard Mania 8/18/2024) - GREAT

Given the nature of this match, I feel like it's best to just get right into it.

If this was your first time seeing Macuarro, like it was for me, I don't think anything can prepare for his look. I originally thought that Zona had grabbed a random elderly man from the crowd to get murdered by Hijo del Fishman. Which, to be completely fair, he does take a nasty beating in this match. But it's one that seems more courageous rather than "this poor old man is gonna die, this is disgusting". I think the reason this is has to do with Macuarro's ability to dish it out himself. He isn't a stranger to the junkyard; quite the opposite actually. He's a bit of a cult legend when it comes to the Zona 23 fanbase and while I didn't know that at the time I watched this match for the first time a few days after it released onto IWTV, I was definitely made into a fan of his after this performance.

The match starts off how you'd expect a Fishman match to start off if you seen him wrestle before: he takes in a lot of boos and then he brawls with his opponent around the venue before they even get in the ring. I'd be lying if I said he wasn't a formulaic worker. Most of well known matches are all against Máscara Sagrada NG and they're all almost exactly the same exact match every time. But it always works for me because I love that type of match that he goes for, a good ol' lucha walk n' brawl.

While this match does start off that way, it does take a different turn than usual for Fishman. When the match finally gets to the ring and inside the cage, he brings his typical irritated vibe. Drops a brick on Macuarro's stomach, gets him with some skewers, tries to put him through a car hood. You definitely do feel at least a little bad for Macuarro here. The change comes when he's able to move out the way and Fishman goes through the hood instead, leaving a massive opportunity open for him. Macuarro races to a bag of weapons and this is when we get to see that he's just as sick as Fishman is.

This balding, old man uses skewers of his own, a TROWEL, and even uses a hammer to break a brick on Fishman's stomach. Both of them bringing this kind of energy to the junkyard, fueled even more with a heated crowd, gives this a bit of a "dudes rock" feeling to this match. But it still feels differently than most Fishman matches, which do have a similar vibe. With his usual matches against someone like Sagrada, it's like "Yeah! Brawl around the arena and beat the hell out of each other!! Woooooo!!!". Though in this match, it's more of a "these guys want to kill each other and I'm a bit scared but the lengths they are going to do so is awesome to see".

(Also, Hijo del Fishman is really good when it comes to just absorbing all that heat from the crowd. Near the beginning of the match, the entire crowd is booing him and cheering for Macuarro, so he just stands there and takes it in, before continuing to try to murder Macuarro. Later on, there's a point where his pants start falling a little and the crowd points it out and starts to laugh at him, so he quickly pulls them up and has a real embarrassed reaction as he looks around at the crowd to see if they noticed. It's like a perfect balance between being arrogant enough to make people want to boo you, but also showing that you are actually fazed by the crowd in the end.)

This is a really sick match, in more ways than one. I'd personally recommend it to anyone who enjoys the Zona Junkyard brawls, but I don't know if I would say the same for those that don't. It's a pretty violent beating and not for the feint of heart.

Thank you to Evie for suggesting this one!

Akira Maeda, Kazuo Yamazaki, Nobuhiko Takada, Osamu Kido & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. George Takano, Kantaro Hoshino, Kengo Kimura, Shiro Koshinaka & Tatsumi Fujinami (NJPW 9/16/1986) - FUN

Thanks to Ben for suggesting both of these NJPW matches!

New Japan 5x5 elimination tags are always good. I have yet to come across one that I dislike. I love tag team wrestling, especially when you can get a number of mini singles matchups within one match. That's largely the bread and butter of these NJPW elimination tag matches, and it's no different here.

I think this match does lack a little bit in the substance department. Yes, you get the cool matchups between Fujiwara/Fujinami, Takada/Fujinami, and Takada/Koshinaka. These are huge encounters, but also feel like they're holding back. In complete fairness, everyone in this match does a good job and there's great grappling exchanges, transitions, and reversals; but I feel like even the big matchups still feel incomplete, like there wasn't enough for me to latch onto. It makes it difficult to think very critically of this one, but there's still enough good in this match to make it fun at least.

In terms of stuff I really did love in this match: Fujiwara's performance and the Takada/Koshinaka finishing matchup. 

Fujiwara is excellent at everything he does in every match, of course, but here he's real good at being a foil to Fujinami and also generally to Team NJPW. One moment that stuck with me was when Fujiwara just starts dropping headbutts on Team NJPW, one-by-one. The crowd goes crazy for it, despite Fujiwara being the opposition to their side. 

Takada and Koshinaka tease their duel a bit earlier in the match, but we actually end up getting more of it in the finishing stretch. This made it feel a lot more fulfilling than the other matchups in this one. Koshinaka gets beat up by Takada a good amount, but the crowd explodes whenever he shows anything that keeps him in the match, whether that be a kickout, hip attack, or even just not submitting immediately when Takada gets him.

Like I said, the match isn't bad at all, just a bit lackluster in my opinion. And with that being said, there's still really sick stuff in here, so it's definitely worth watching still!

Riki Choshu, Tatsumi Fujinami, Shinya Hashimoto, Masahiro Chono & Hiroshi Hase vs Genichiro Tenryu, Ashura Hara, Takashi Ishikawa, Super Strong Machine & Tatsutoshi Goto (NJPW 6/15/1993) - GOOD

You can tell shit's about to go down before this one even starts. The crowd makes some noise when the lights dim for entrances, as Tenryu leads out Team WAR. Team NJPW don't really have a designated leader, but the crowd does really love Choshu more than anyone else it seems.

Team NJPW is much more star-studded than the WAR team, but I still think I'm a bigger fan of the WAR guys going into this. Takashi Ishikawa is a personal favorite of mine and I can't wait to use this blog to talk about him more, Ashura Hara is another really good, underappreciated legend, and Super Strong Machine is a beast that was needed for a match like this.

This match is slower paced than the other one we talked about, but I enjoy it more because that's more my style for these kinds of matches. To it's credit though, the '86 match does do a really good job at not wasting a single second and making every moment count, while this match does have it's downtime points.

Tenryu is the first person to be eliminated from Team WAR and that creates this awesome sense of uncertainty and worry for the WAR guys. He gets caught off guard by Fujinami, which then creates some more tension between the two teams. Super Strong Machine offers a nice change of style by focusing on the arm of Fujinami, who's elbow is wrapped up. This leads the next few tags to become about isolating that arm still and making sure he hurts.

From this point, we get some breakups whenever the WAR guys try to tap out Fujinami, but they don't feel like regular breakups. There feels like there's a real animosity that comes from the NJPW guys that makes what would be a routine submission breakup into Choshu hitting the hell out of Tatsutoshi Goto while he puts Fujinami in a Scorpion Lock.

Speaking of which, there's a bunch of creative ideas in this one! Hase gets a giant swing that goes 20 (I think, from what I counted at least), but he gets instantly attacked as soon as he's finished with it. I'm not sure if it's a bad thing because the crowd had no time to react to that feat and Hase had no time to take it in, or if it's sick because the WAR guys don't give a shit about giving him time to breathe. Generally, the match has an innovative feeling to it, if that makes much sense. It feels like the elimination tags worked from this one.

I think while I definitely prefer this match to the previous one, I like both! This match and how it's structured is personally more geared towards my tastes.

Hope you enjoyed reading this! If you didn't, that's alright too. Let me know if you have any thoughts, criticisms, ideas, or whatever in the comments or get in touch with me on my Twitter page!

Just Some Matches (Intro! Akarangers & The Little Things That I Love)

So, this is the first post to be published by me on here! I'll use this as a mini introduction to myself, although if you've made it here, you very likely already know a bit about me. After we get past that, I'll get to a couple random match reviews!

I'm Mike, although the alias that the person reading this is probably most familiar with is "mikeawesomemike" or some variation of that name. Started watching wrestling in the later 2000s when I was younger. This mostly came in the form of WWE, but sometimes my oldest brother would be watching TNA, so I'd take a peek at the shows when he did. I don't know exactly what made me stop watching, but I know I stopped a little bit after the Rusev v. Cena feud (which I remember liking at the time) ended. I would then start watching again around WWE Clash of Champions 2020 (I distinctly remember that being near the beginning of the Roman Tribal Chief stuff), but that didn't have to do with the return of my fandom. Around that time, a friend that was into wrestling had told me to watch Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi's G1 Climax match that had happened in New Japan, because it was their favorite match ever. I had never heard of Ibushi before, and Omega was someone that I knew of loosely because of the formation of AEW being so huge. 

And so I watched the match, and it was unlike anything I'd really seen before. I was fascinated by not only that match, but the entire world of wrestling I had been missing out on outside of the WWE. And so, I began to watch more and more puro, which became more and more lucha, and then a little bit of everything else around the world. So by now, I feel I've been watching wrestling for a long portion of my life. Not as long as some of the fans that I'm inspired by (such as SegundaCaida, reverseviperhold, and Matt D, who's influences will hopefully be very prevalent on this blog) but I want to get there eventually.

"Introduction" aside, I feel it's only right to get to some match reviewing! These matches are somewhat randomly chosen, but I also felt that my thoughts on them might give some more insight on how I think about pro wrestling and the kind of stuff that I like and dislike.

Takashi Sasaki & GENTARO vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Tomohiro Ishii (WEW 9/14/2002) - GREAT

Ah, what a place to start. While I'm sure I've watched matches from here before, I know little to nothing about WEW. If this match is the one thing I'll remember the company for though, then what a way to leave an impression.

Ishii, the most popular name here today, of course, but this was a much less experienced Ishii than the one most know now. I'd personally argue that there's things that I like more about this version of him more than his New Japan era. Firstly, he walks into the ring looking like Dick Togo. This is the second biggest compliment one could receive. Then, it actually feels like he wrestles like Dick Togo. This is the biggest compliment one could receive.

Maybe it's just me being blinded by his look, but it really does feel like Ishii does a good job at filling that chickenshit bastard role against the Akarangers' "pure" babyface energy. I think that also might be me being blinded by my love for Takashi Sasaki and (especially) GENTARO though.

GENTARO is another wrestler that has had very different styles throughout his career. My first introduction to him was his incredible match against Kenichiro Arai for Mutoha. While he is amazing both in that match and this one, they are for completely different reasons. In the Mutoha match, he displays so much struggle through what he goes through himself as well as the pain he inflicts on Arai. (Anyways, enough of that match; that'll be for another time.) Yet GENTARO here, in the best, most cartoonish way possible, makes his entrance late while Takashi Sasaki is getting jumped, proceeds to take a moment to take his glasses off before running towards the ring, just to still get bested on the ramp by Ikuto Hidaka. Fantastic start.

I've said this before, but I don't want my "reviews" to turn into just play-by-plays of what goes down in the match and that is especially the case for this one, because I think you, yes YOU, should go watch this right now.

I actually want to go back though to what I mentioned earlier about Ishii (and by proxy, Ikuto Hidaka) being the chickenshit heels in this one compared Sasaki and GENTARO. Ishii and Hidaka hit hard, to no one's surprise. But what's very noticeable is how GENTARO takes that offense. He is stooging HARD here. Comically BOUNCING around the ring whenever he gets hit. And yet, that's the perfect way to garner sympathy for yourself against guys like these. Despite how "ridiculous" it might seem, it genuinely really makes you feel sorry for him. Despite how different the selling is from the Arai match, it is still the selling that makes you feel in this match!

I know I've spoken about him the least here, but Sasaki is also sick here: He does his great tag spots with GENTARO, has an exciting comeback, and generally is just cool! Not much else to say about him in this match unfortunately, but that doesn't necessarily mean he did bad.

Finally, the match reaches it's conclusion with a DQ finish right when Ishii and Hidaka are about to lose the upper hand to the Akarangers. It hurts, but in the intended way. I'm mad that the match ends there and GENTARO doesn't get a chance to win it himself, but it was also the exact point that the match should've ended at so it didn't overstay it's welcome. Pretty neat match.

Xelhua & Valiente Jr. vs. Guerrero Maya Jr. & El Hijo de Stuka Jr. (CMLL 5/3/2025) - GOOD

Firstly, what a past year Xelhua's had, am I right? Easily the most promising young guy in CMLL in my opinion, has been in a program with the fantastic Guerrero Maya Jr., and is even more exciting with the opportunities he has in Lucha Memes. His ongoing feud with the aforementioned Guerrero Maya Jr. is definetely the biggest thread going into this match, but I feel this match is still able to stand on it's own merits as well.

The little things are what matter most in this match, and Guerrero Maya Jr. shows that the most. From the creative mind that decides to go for an elbow drop to the groin, to the way he performs each specific move, even to his shocked and distraught reactions to seeing the athletic feats of Valiente Jr. right before his eyes, he is shows so much character and personality without going too far and being "over-expressive". It might just seem like regular behavior to most viewers and that's fine! But damn does it mean a lot to me.

I especially enjoyed how quick the first fall changed momentum, with Xelhua only making one mistake that caused Maya Jr. and HD Stuka Jr. to get the opening they needed to claim the fall. Makes the other falls a lot more suspenseful and gives the feeling that any counter could realistically cause the match to end.

The finish fell flat for me, I can't lie. But that isn't to take much away from the rest of the match that was really really good.

Hope whoever got this far enjoyed! I wasn't really sure how to go about most of this originally, but I feel proud of how this came out! Let me know anything I could've done better, what you liked, what you didn't like, and generally any thoughts on my writing or the matches themselves!