Monday, August 10, 2015

Fave Five 8/3/15-8/10/15

1) Mil Muertes: The biggest show this past week was Lucha Underground's two hour Ultima Lucha finale. At the tip top of that card was Prince Puma defending the Lucha Underground Championship against Mil Muertes. They went on to have one of my favorite matches in LU history and it was more than worthy of a season finale. Puma has been the only champion in history, but lost it here to Muertes after a hard fought battle. When you think about the fact that Mil Muertes is actually Judas Mesias/Ricky Banderas, you realize just how far he's come. Throughout the entire season of LU, he was one of the top performers and putting the belt on him was a great move in my eyes.
2) Pentagon Jr./Vampiro: I went with both guys here because they deserve equal praise. People were pretty split on the Pentagon Jr./Vampiro match. Some loved it, some hated it. I was closer to loving it for sure. The match was brutal, the storytelling was spot on and most importantly, it was fun. I had a blast watching all of Lucha Underground but this match had me on the edge of my seat. Let me get this out of the way, I've never been a Vampiro fan. I thought he was cool in WCW when I was 10, but looking back, he was never very good. So the fact that fifteen years later, he could have a really good match impressed the hell out of me. Pentagon Jr. delivered in every possible way during this war and, if we get a second season, their pairing is something I'm really looking forward to.

3) Bayley: My favorite WWE match of the week was easily the encounter between Bayley and Charlotte. With the recent callups of Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks, that kind of leaves Bayley as the top NXT girl left. This week, she did what only one other girl has been able to do in the past and that was pin Charlotte cleanly in singles competition. The match was really good and full of emotion. Bayley's win was a big deal and there was even a sweet shot of a huge Bayley fan in tears after receiving a post match hug. Bayley's character development has been one of the best things that NXT has done in history and I see it coming full circle very soon.

              4) Kazuchika Okada: Early on in the G1, I was enjoying the A Block a lot more than the B Block. That has actually been changing lately as the B Block has been delivering. The guy to go undefeated during the week was the IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Kazuchika Okada. I obviously don't want to see the champion win the whole thing and his match against Yujiro Takahashi wasn't anything to write home about but I liked the matches against Anderson and Ishii. The performances have been good but not great. Regardless, he is racking up the wins. Not only that but he is leading the entire G1 in points right now, suffering only one loss and of course, none of those came this week.


5) Alberto El Patron: Originally, I was going to rank Johnny Mundo here since he did beat Alberto El Patron at Ultima Lucha this week. Then I remembered that TripleMania took place. So first things first, despite losing to Mundo, El Patron took part in a really good match and got the better of Mundo. After losing due to interference from Melina, he threw Mundo headfirst into a window and then spanked Melina, which ain't too bad. At TripleMania, he defeated Brian Cage in a solid affair, forcing Cage to shave his head. Since leaving WWE, El Patron has done very well for himself and this was another good week for him.