Video link to the match over at Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICWTo_0fpC0



Cagematch page for this match/event.

Who’s Who?

Rey Mysterio Jr.

Rey Mysterio made his debut in 1989 in a World Wrestling Association promotion in Tijuana where he would work under various names until his Uncle allowed him to take the Rey Mysterio mask and name. Rey Mysterio Jr. would make his presence more well known in 1992 by joining AAA. Which signed lots of talent from Tijuana as well as all the walkout talent from CMLL. Rey Mysterio only worked 10 matches for CMLL in his career from what I can tell in 2001.

Rey Mysterio has won 5 hairs/masks at this point while in AAA. And held the following titles : Mexican National Trios Champion(with Super Muneco & Octagon), WWA World Lightweight Champion(x2), WWA World Tag Team Champion (with Rey Misterio Sr), and Mexican National Welterweight Champion. He would of course go on to hold gold in both WCW and WWE carving a career in American wrestling. He never held a AAA branded belt, mostly repping his original promotion WWA’s titles.



At this time he was one of many great young talents filling AAA. He Psicosis & Juventud Guerrera were the big 3 feuding in AAA/ECW/WCW the three of them all going to WCW once the peso crashed an AAA had to slow down and do less shows. Which lead to his mainstream career for all the the 2000′s and into the 2010′s still an international draw outside of the WWE asked to work NJPW, LU and recently a show for WWE in Saudi Arabia.

Psicosis

Making his debut in 1989 Psicosis got his start in the same WWA Promotion Rey Mysterio started at.

It’s estimated that Psicosis and Rey Mysterio Jr. have met each other in the ring over 500 times in their careers. He like La Parka and a few other AAA talents would go to WCW in the late 90′s Psicosis like La Park had issues with AAA who owned the Psicosis name and gave it to a new guy when Psicosis started working with CMLL in the early 2000′s where he instead went by Nicho el Millonario which is the name he still works under today.

He’d work briefly in WWE 2005-2006 after that he would return to AAA for a long stint from 2008-2016, but more recently has become a staple in the hot Mexican indie company The Crash where he has worked 8 matches over 2017 & 2018 throughout all of his career Psicosis has always been someone you could see on a Mexican Indie shows never really being a company man after 2000.

Coming into this Psicosis was holding both the WWA World Welterweight Champion and Mexican National Trios Champion (with Fuerza Guerrera and Blue Panther). As mentioned earlier Psicosis and Rey Mysterio have met over 500 times. I picked this match as it’s considered the best or one of the best out of that giant catalog(many of which didn’t make tape). Getting a 4.75 from Meltzer and also being called GOAT by Lucha Wiki on their list of the greatest lucha matches of all time.



How is the match?



Great, this lives up to the hype. I think if you have Rey Mysterio and Psicosis especially in their 90′s peak in the same match, if given the time it will not disappoint. Both guys knew what they were doing even if they were both under 25. They really show a great understanding of how things work in the ring.

If you never watch Rey Mysterio in Mexico or Lucha Libre in general you might be shocked by him using submissions. Which is how he got his falls in this contest, which like many/most of the matches we have watched in this series is 2/3 falls. Which is something AAA did in its early days and has since abandoned like the Mexican National Titles they used before 2008 as well.

This is a great match with lots of high spots, but the two aren’t just going spot to spot. Most of the time if feels very logical how one thing leads to the next. Rey botches once early in the match, but Psicosis does a good job of playing it off by shrugging and laughing at Rey. It’s not the perfect save, but it makes it look like Rey fucked up doing something more complicated and is better than just doing boots which seems to be everyone’s default response to a lucha fuck up.

At one point in the contest Rey Mysterio does a front flips sitting senton which was just a jaw dropper when I saw it. It’s such crazy move in a match full of great moves. I really like the powerbombs Psicosis pulled out here. I also, think it’s really refreshing to see Rey win with submissions. Perhaps it’s WWE conditioning me, but really I don’t think they are the only promotion that books small guys as roll up guys. Glad that Rey tried those, but ultimately the contest ends with Rey making Psicosis submit which makes the win feel more deserved and not like Mysterio just stole the title with a roll up on a weary champion. Even if I do thin a roll up in lucha can be a great wily moment. It didn’t feel right here with this underdog vs the dominate champion Psicosis. Great closing moments, not sure if I’d put this on my GOAT lucha list. It’s a great match, think it’s not my favorite of the ones we’ve looked at, but it’s probably in top 5 territory or top 3 category for the 10 matches we have looked at so far this month.