Matt D

Two undercard matches that definitely did their job. I loved all of Boyd's little tricks. Thorton was able to keep his air of technical dominance despite them. I'd have loved to see a rounds match between them. I'm with Pete on the Hito match. The opening was heated. JJ's awesome as the clumsily over-bowing manager, sideburns and all. Kozak really knew his stuff. A Nick Kozak/Tommy Gilbert/Dutch Savage trio would be something special.

The HHH vs Sting match with DX and the NWO sort of feels like a fever dream now.

He had an umbrella too.

Joe vs HHH. Run the Taz/Douglas/Sabu sort of thing where the suit tries to screw the hired gun now that he no longer needs him.

It's an atomicos but where are people on... 12.8.94 Fuerza Guerrera/Blue Panther/Espanto Jr./Psicosis v. El Hijo del Santo/Octagon/El Mariachi/El Mexicano (it's on youtube, btw)

There's a special place in my heart for matches like Spoiler vs Ox Baker. At some point along the way, the value of what was good in wrestling shifted. Or maybe it was never even really recognized. Maybe this was never fully appreciated. I have to think it was at some point. Two wrestlers, utilizing a utility of movement (for Spoiler doesn't even go up to the top until late in the match), manipulating a crowd, creating symbolic meaning with as little as necessary and then making that symbolic meaning have dramatic purpose. That's wrestling. That's the absolute pinnacle of wrestling. That's the joy of the heart punch and the claw. That's the importance of the mask. That's what this match does. It creates narrative moments based around symbols. The mask is important enough that Baker would sacrifice his advantage to go after it. To take it off would create a sort of victory for him that would be greater than physically mauling or pinning his opponent. It's worth the risk of eating punishment himself. It means so much to Spoiler that it causes him to retreat, to look weaker against an evenly matched opponent, during the brawl after the time limit expired. Everything has meaning, Ox's beard, Spoiler's height, the claw, Ox's bearhug. The second ring. Everything. This is a match that made something out of nothing. That's the magic of wrestling and we've lost so much of it because we've come to value self-important action over it.

I feel like Cena vs Shane might be the biggest money match they can put on right now. Is that the craziest notion given the last year?

I am kind of excited for a Joe vs HHH match six months down the line.

I don't know the answer to favorite either. The Rockers vs Rose/Somers match that was brought up is a good choice. Bockwinkel vs Robinson and Bockwinkel vs Funk are up there. Funk vs Martel and Funks vs Martel/Zenk are up there. Owen vs Bret from Mania probably is too. RnR vs Russians maybe? One of the Dandy vs Satanico matches. It's tough. One thing that's interesting is that a lot of my favorite wrestlers (Casas, Garza, Cota, Rose, just to name a few) aren't necessarily people that are in a lot of my favorite matches. It's more of a constant performance thing on a week to week basis from them.

The really interesting question is what people's favorite match would be.

I don't want to be that guy but the big matches for Mania aren't Rollins vs Joe and Reigns vs Braun. They're Rollins vs HHH and Reigns vs Taker. Logic sort of dictates something in the meantime.

I caught a blurry, single angle, fan cam on youtube where the sound cut out for two minutes at the start of the last third of the match. I don't care. It was still great for what it was, which was pretty much exactly what you'd want it to be: two of the best hybrid style luchadores (maybe the best of such of the 00s vs the best of such of the 10s) going at it with tricked out twisty submissions, solid rope running, some nasty shots, and transitions that made sense, even though it was very back and forth and evenly worked. The camera was just far back enough that you lost some of the intricacies of the matwork, but you get the broad brushstrokes. Holds were complex enough that they looked painful but allowed for openings. Those openings led not just to an escape but to the next hold. Maybe because Cerebro isn't as young as he once was, some of the rope running sequence wasn't as smooth as it could have been, but it was smooth enough that the slight roughness added a sense of struggle instead of detracting. They looped in some fun big moments, like a Hechicero Backlund deadlift out of an armbar that popped the crowd and a really well executed rolling tapitia. I thought the selling was generally appropriate. They had some pop ups in an early bomb exchange, but it was early enough that I was fine with it and they made sure to take their time and balance the explosiveness with a methodological moment to let what just happened sink in. In general, I love how good Hechicero's gotten at working the hand-motions/crowd interaction into his matches. That character mystique implanted directly into his ringwork is his biggest development as a wrestler since moving into CMLL. If you're a fan of this style, this is well worth fifteen minutes of your time.

That was Enzo's purpose. Although Santino at #28 or #29 would have been a dumb idea too I was watching with the sound off due to multitasking so I actually thought the colors on the tron meant it WAS Santino.

I'm kind of annoyed we didn't get Santino.

Hell of a long game.

Jericho winning and Owens trying to convince him to challenge Cena could be... nevermind.

Taker vs Brock vs Goldberg would be the ultimate part-timers match.

Can Joe be 30? Wasn't there a rumor that he might be getting the Cena match?

Past Gallagher, they should have given some of the longshots about 10% more than they did. Enzo even getting a punch or two off would have mattered more. There's no reason why Harper couldn't have hit Sister Abagail before getting the RKO, etc. They used to understand that better.

I could go for the Texas crowd trying to make Harper into babyface Brody.

Braun anticlimactically eliminating big guys.

I'm kind of into Cass and Mojo going at it repeatedly, actually. And yeah, the Gallagher stuff was great.

This does feel like the longest "two minutes" of my life?

He's tired and delirious. He probably thought Styles was Raven or something.

I only caught the last minute due to parenting duties, but I do like how Cena sold the win including the hug with Robinson.