Kamaitachi vs. Dragon Lee (CMLL, 3/4/16)

This is going to be one of those divisive matches. On the one hand, it's truly a spectacle, especially during the third fall, where both guys unleash their crazy arsenals in an endless volley of nearfalls. On the other hand, the third fall was an endless volley of slow as molasses two counts. I was pretty tired by the end of it. The New Japan match was a great energetic sprint and a big homecoming for Kamaitachi. This felt like a finale for these two and I really hope it is -- at least, for a while. The stuff that I was amazed by the first couple of times I saw it...is still amazing, no doubt, but just a little repetitive at this point. And the traditional 2-out-of-3 falls stip didn't do this match any favors. So many nearfalls that had zero reaction, especially Kamaitachi's sunset flip piledriver which won him the title to begin with. I think he hit it at least twice here to no avail. An entertaining match to be sure. I liked the monkey flip spot to the floor and Dragon Lee's outside German suplex was nuts. But it was a little too tra-la-la for me to get suckered into thinking it was a great professional wrestling match. I would love to see these two in New Japan's Super J Cup but against some fresh opponents. 

Kamaitachi vs. Máximo (CMLL, 1/1/16)

I don't watch a lot of lucha. It's not that I don't find it entertaining, I just don't really go out of my way to see it. Having watched the Dragon Lee/Kamaitachi feud from last year (extending into this year), I wanted to check out Kamaitachi's hair vs. hair match with Maximo. Right out of the gate, Kamaitachi just starts destroying Maximo's knee, playing to the crowd while Maximo is suffering on the mat. Kamaitachi utilizes his double knee drop to further cripple Maximo before submitting him early with a modified leglock. But what's great about Kamaitachi is that he doesn't waste a lot of time going right back to the bad knee during the second round. At one point, he just drags and drops Maximo right out of the ring. Maximo does a great job expressing pain -- stumbling around, limping, with a look of 'fuck'. See, this is where Kenny Omega takes this believability in selling a limb with great facials and hindered movement and dials it up to 11. Maximo scores the second fall after a springboard armdrag into a single leg crab (all day) for the submission. The third fall is all about dives and dropkicks, and Kamaitachi abandons his strategy of stretching the bum knee on the mat and uses the weight of his dives to collapse Maximo. There's a great spot where Kamaitachi is clutching at Maximo's hair and Maximo slaps his hand away and finally whips him in the face with his hair. There were some shenanigans in the end but honestly, for this type of match, with these two guys, it didn't really disrupt the flow of things and it wasn't too long-winded. Maximo wins with a pop-up Liger Bomb. Again, a simple story being told in the ring where Kamaitachi's crazy high-impact offense is a little more subdued and targeted at putting constant stress on Maximo's bad knee. Maximo does a great job of selling his pain in a believable manner, and it doesn't magically disappear but carries on through the duration of the match. Awesome stuff!

Dragon Lee vs. Kamaitachi (NJPW, 01/24/16)

These two didn't stop. I mean, they did when Kamaitachi was working the leg but man, they didn't stop. Everything was crisp, the offense was innovative, which is hard to find in a world of constantly trying to out-do what's already been done. Kamaitachi's wrist-clutch dragon leg screws are a thing of beauty. Dragon Lee's bearhug Orange Crush and roll-through Regal Plex were awesome When they flew, they really flew. This is what I want my lucha to be, and granted, the legwork was borderline meh but it still played a decent role in the match and wasn't completely ignored. I'm sure these guys will be back for the BOSJ 2016, which will inject some much-needed vitality into the juniors scene, and who knows...maybe we'll see these guys face off again in the finals. We're still in January and already, New Japan is topping the lists.