Los Oficiales vs. Black Terry/Cerebro Negro/Dr Cerebro, Distrito Federal Trios Championship, IWRG, 9/18/08

Black Terry is such a legend. There was a close-up of him early on, watching from the apron... A little tape from the cut man, a bit of gum to loosen up...

He looked a little weathered, but without geting out too out there, that rough, charismatic look kinda summed this match up.

This wasn't a classic, and it was a little rough around the edges, but it had a sort of magneticism about it. It was rudos contra rudos and the way they chose to express that was through stiffness. Even when they took it to the mat, they were looking to hurt each other. There was a lot of stand and deliver stuff, with guys trying to make hard hittng sounds, and Terry's ability to take a shot and fire one back is almost as spectacular as the matwork he did with 911. The match generally followed a theme of what Larry Z might call "manliness" and that's what you want from fringe stuff like this. I could've done without some of the indie looking moves, but I suppose they're inevitable these days. Los Oficiales were a bit subdued compared to matches where they rule the roost as rudos, but with Black Terry at the helm this was one of the better matches of 2008.

Terry's matwork is the reason I gravitate towards this type of lucha. He was thinking ahead the whole time. He'd get 911 in a hold, release it and back off. From the neutral position, he had a counter for everything. 911 wasn't sure what Terry was aiming for, until Terry finally had the submission he wanted. He was never gonna submit, but lucha, in many ways, is about denting the other guy's pride. 911 walked away knowing he'd been beat. So the next time they squared off, he wanted to duke it out, which made sense considering his height advantage. And while it must be pointed out that 911 didn't work this exchange particularly well, Terry busting the guy's nose up and tossing him out of the ring like a piece of garbage was badass and another reason why Black Terry is a legend.