Rey Hechicero vs Charles Lucero (Monterrey - 8/4/2013)

2nd. This is a match I remember watching the build to when finding Lucero back in 2013 and following his little series with Hechicero building up to this. Probably the best match in Monterrey for god knows how many years in either direction. Strong matwork and the insane 3rd fall. Full review from WKO:

Pretty sweet that we get to see these guys tree weeks in a row. And what a fucking climax it was to their little series. First fall had some beautiful old school wrestling which amazingly never felt dated, several bits wouldn't have looked out of place in a classic like Satanico/Cochisse. It is pretty cool that Lucero can hang with Hechicero, he doesn't have near the firepower of his opponent but it's clear that he can win the fall just aswell. Hechicero was a lot better than last week (and he was good last week), he brought his A-game which was as good as any other luchadore bringing his a-game. I really love all his rolling holds, especially his rolling cradle which is something I've never seen before (actually there were a couple spots here that I've never seen before). Second fall is okay, could've used the face punchiness of the previous match but they were going for a clean match here. Last fall is where it gets fucking crazy, and I mean Misawa/Kobashi level crazy "these old folks really really shouldn't be doing this". Hechicero absolutely fucking kills himself with the craziest bump I've ever seen. They do a great job making it look like a big deal, showing about a dozen replays of the bump while the ringside doc tapes Hechicero's head back to his torso. That kind of stuff is not really what I expect or want to see from aging mat wizards but fuck it made for one hell of a finish.

My MOTY for 2013 and a match that in someways was the last of the truly incredible great indie lucha matches of the peak indie lucha wave (09-13). At this point it still felt like discovery with these guys, and you didn't have feds like The Crash, Cara Lucha, Lucha Memes, et that were using CMLL talent and others and promoting a PWG version of super indie dream matches. Instead you got real stakes matches and high drama bouts that were built to like this one. To me this was just about as complete a lucha match as we've seen in the last twenty years. You could argue that some of the better IWRG matches from 09/10 were as good, or that the TXT all man war from 2012 was better, but as a match that delivered on the lucha promise of build and pace I can't think of anything better. You got the great matwork which featured the crafty v. the innovative, some absolute lunatic bumps in the final stanza including maybe the best missed tope spot I've ever seen, and an incredibly dramatic and well built to finish. The match was all about escalation and to me that is the best facet of lucha, and what makes lucha stand out from other styles more than anything else. I miss lucha matches like this one, can't remember the last time I saw one. The totality of indie lucha in one match. If I end up putting in a ballot, I would absolutely have this match on it.

Going in to watching this I'd been told the semi-spoiler that there was a huge spot to watch out for in the third fall. So I was kinda on alert waiting for it. Then when it came I still couldn't help but exclaim "Oh my goodness!" out loud, as the horror of witnessing Hechicero shortening his own life expectancy somehow caused my vocabulary to regress to the mid 19th century.

The drama after that was huge and the more traditional mat work that comprised the body of the match was really enjoyable in and of itself. Oh my goodness, what a match.