IWRG: October 3rd 2008

As mentioned in the Rumble post, I've been watching all sorts of things this last month, trying to decide my ballot for the WKO 100. Black Terry and Negro Navarro are two guys who until December I had never watched (to my shame, seeing as Negro Navarro came to London last summer). I have begun to realise that they are possibly the best two guys in Mexico at the moment, and they stack up pretty well against the best in the world in America and Japan too.

The most incredible thing about them is that they both in their fifties. Of course, while Japan older workers are still highly regarded because they make being older part of the psychology of the match, and in America older workers begin to rely more and more on their well known spots, in Mexico age never seems to mean anything. (Santo was as graceful in 2005 as he was in 1987). Black Terry and Negro Navarro are both guys who are as good on the mat as you will ever see - frequently mesmerising and awe-inspiring. And the opening trios from this IWRG show is as good an example of that as you will find. Plus, throw in three high flying technicos on the other side, especially Freelance, and you have the set up to a great lucha trios. Here we go.

The first caida is all on the mat. Freelance and Black Terry do a section of evenly matched and flawless holds and counter holds and reversals, before Navarro and Fenix tag in. Navarro then puts on a masterclass of matwork, burst out all his complicated submission holds, and an incredibly slick counter to a surfboard submission. Fenix is just there as someone for Navarro to wrestle around and stretch. Seriously, Navarro's movement between holds is spell-binding. The fall finishes with a Pendulo somersault tope, and a tidy little sequence where Fenix and Freelance avoid colliding, and Fenix sends Freelance over his head to land on Navarro with a pinning hurricanrana.

Segunda caida is a shorter affair, with Freelance armdragging everyone in every possible way, Pierroth and Fenix have a quick exchange, before Terry stops his momentum and take the fall with back cracker while Navarro rolls into a smooth indian deathlock. This just leads to the third fall, which is based around a series of convoluted submission holds being broken up by a member of the other team. Finally Terry and Freelance get chance to tie up again, finishing in a spectacular quebrada by Freelance, Fenix misses a moonsault, and Navarro and Pierroth finish him and Pendulo off with various lucha-y submissions.

I love this match - from the amazing Navarro mat work at the beginning, the glimpses of what a Freelance-Black Terry singles match may look like, the armdrag sequence, Pierroth clubbing Fenix, the pacing, and the one-upping of submissions and submissions and submissions at the end, leading to a satisfying series of dives and finishers that was exactly the right length. As a match to judge who is better between Terry and Navarro, it's a toss-up. Navarro's clinic in the first fall is unequalable. But Terry is more rounded - he bumps harder, moves faster, and is a better brawler. He's also noticeably more engaging as a performer - Navarro is all about competition through wrestling. Terry on points? Maybe.