[2013-02-02-XMW] Ricky Marvin vs Skayde vs Eita vs Tornado vs Terremoto vs Arez vs Astro de Plata

[aaeo_]

Heard a very young wrestler (Sobredosis) bring this match up on a podcast as a huge inspiration, so I went looking for it. And it's up on Youtube in pretty great quality! Some stuff from these early XMW shows looks really interesting.

Early part of the match is just a showcase for every wrestler, the rules limit two wrestlers in the ring at most times, which is good. There's a funny moment in that early part when Astro tries to get a chant going for himself but Skayde just starts beating him up. It picks up when fat luchador Terremoto checks in and beats up Eita and Tornado. There's a brief sequence where Tornado botches a ton opposite Skayde before getting pinned, but the match improves again when Arez (who this crowd is really into) comes in and takes out Terremoto. Eita eliminates Skayde, and seeing Skayde work against someone who's competent about two minutes after Tornado didn't know how to get pinned is incredible. Arez dropkicks the hell out of Eita but before he can do more, Marvin comes in to fight him.

This is when the match gets really good, and it's the part that Sobredosis brought up. Arez just puts on a great underdog performance against Marvin, who sells well for Arez's big flashy offense. Marvin kicks out of a pinfall attempt and chops Arez in the back at the same time, which is pretty dumb but I thought it ruled. After that, Marvin starts slapping the shit out of Arez, the latter tries to strike back but isn't strong enough and he just eats shit. Those few minutes are just incredible. Marvin drops Arez with a huge lariat and that would've been a great ending but Eita is still in this. He comes in, and Marvin also levels him. Sadly, the match just gets worse after that, Eita keeps doing moves and eventually this other japanese wrestler, Douki, interferes. Marvin takes him out, tries to pin Eita, but Arez runs in and breaks it up. And then they go on to have a cool three man finishing run, but it feels kind of hollow after the emotional high of the earlier Marvin/Arez exchange.

Good match with a great moment, seems like there's a lot of stuff to check out from XMW around this time.