Black Terry Jr vs Ricky Marvin (Lucha Memes - 4/25/2021)

There are few things in this world I love more than old man lucha fights and there are few people who are better at them than Black fucking Terry. What a brawl this is. It starts out with Black Terry coming out like the local bar fighting hero to this crowd. Ricky Marvin is looking for a hand shake and Terry is skeptical and then once he finally does it Marvin jumps him. He puts an absolute beating on Terry early in the match. He is even trying to use some dude’s motorcycle helmet to bash him but couldn’t get it off the hook. He smash Terry with a pan and hits him with a damn spin kick to the heart. Then goes and grabs wooden crates and busts one over his head. The ref takes the second wooden crate so Marvin goes back into the ring for a dive to the outside. Of course he eats the second crate on the dive as Terry mounts his comeback. Then it is a fucking brawl. They are exchanging some STIFF looking shots. It is a dog fight start to finish. There is an exchange of shots on the outside that really reminded me of a normal indy exchange, but when you put those exchanges in these context, everything feels different. It starts fucking raining at some point and you can hear on this piece of metal they have above the ring as a roof. It is still an outdoor venue so rain is coming down around said makeshift roof as you can still see it, even though the ring is dry. It is a cool visual. Marvin hits this double stomp on Terry’s fucking neck while he is standing and then goes and gets a guitar. Terry gets distracted by the ref trying to take the guitar and eats it for the finish. The finish was good, but felt a little abrupt (I wanted a few more minute). Otherwise, this might have been perfect. I don't want to downplay Marvin's part in this match. He was fantastic. I am a little less familiar with him than Terry, but if I came into this match with no knowledge of either man I'd come away thinking of both men on equal footing.

This is the sort of match that will always be my wheelhouse and will always place well for me on end of year lists. This is a year where I am totally immersed in an active company that is pairing some of my all time favorites together and letting them have absolute bangers. It is a year where we are getting gritty, violent shoot style matches. It is a year where WWE can still be counted on for the occasional absolute banger. And still... Black Terry throwing hand and bleeding all over the place is up there with the rest of them.  In the year 2032 Black Terry will be 80 years old and he will have the match of the year in some strip mall parking lot in front of 20 fans and 15 people who just happened to stop on their way to the car.