Chico Che vs. Comando Negro, hair vs. mask, IWRG 12/9/10

Chico Che had a fantastic year in 2010. Last year it was Trauma II getting all the plaudits as most improved; this year it has to be Che. He started off as something of a fatboy novelty I suppose, but this match confirms what a good worker he's become. Usually, I'd fire off a bit of hyperbole about how much better he is than everyone else for the hell of it, but the message I want to get across is that he's a guy who everyone should be following. If you have even an inkling of interest in lucha then Che is a guy who can spark that interest further. He reminds me of a latter day version of prime Brazo de Plata, which is another way of saying that he reminds me of the characters who first drew me to lucha. Plata was part of a carefully orchestrated and successful act and as such used a lot more schtick than Che, but you can see a lot of Plata in Che particularly in the way he moves.

We've seen a lot of good offence from Che this year and some fine brawling and selling in his trios matches with the Cerebros, but I was surprised to see it all come together here. This wasn't a great apuestas match, but in terms of what passes for a good apuestas in IWRG it was really good. You could tell that both guys were drawing upon every hair and mask match they'd ever seen, and there were a number of cool touches that in the hundreds of matches I've reviewed for this blog I've come to view as real staples of lucha apuestas matches. There were a few moments which were less than desirable, but you get that with any match. What I liked here was the attempt to make the match meaning something.

The first two caidas are often the most difficult in an apuestas match because you have to get them out of the way before the big back and forth third caida, and that was pretty much the case here despite some nice looking punches from Chico. The third fall, however, was a real gem. That was where the brawling and the blood and the topes all came together. I haven't seen much lucha in the past few months, but there seemed to be an edge to Chico's work. He threw his full weight into each move and his offence was almighty. Comando Negro looked the part mainly by having a ripped mask and bloodied forehead, but I was also impressed with his impact moves. Arena Naucalpan is a difficult place to have a great match because it's so small. You have to hold back a bit and realise that smaller is bigger when there's bugger all people watching. With this in mind, I thought they did a good job of picking their spots. Their transitions could do with a bit of work and they could spend more time selling instead of pausing a beat or two before continuing but it's not a big arena match and I know these things are difficult to concentrate on. The end result was that there was blood, controversy, a bit of heat and some classy, classy offence from Che.