This was a Quarterfinal in the Cruiserweight Classic tournament.
It’s another one of those times when there is no good explanation for why something works. It is a match about doing a bunch of huge, gigantic, wildly impressive and impactful offense in a row. There is no thing I can point to and feel proud for recognizing and try and communicate to you. “Ah, [thing x] is an ode to something from 4,000 years in the past and/or earlier in the match”. None of that.
Tozawa and Metalik (aka Mascara Dorada) are two of the world’s most exciting wrestlers, to the point that you or someone else could call them #1 and #2 and I wouldn’t see fit to argue your stance, and this match allows them to do all of their most wildly exciting offense. This is the round in which the WWE thing and the “tournament booking” thing kind of go by the wayside and everyone just goes nuts for these last handful of episodes. Double dives, all the biggest nearfalls, the hardest shots they have in them, all of that.
Really, the only things about this that make it feel like a WWE match are the logos everywhere and Mauro trying to fit in every possible reference to the hip hop hits of 2016 (such as asking Bryan what the major keys are) and otherwise, it simply feels like one would imagine an Akira Tozawa vs. Mascara Dorada match might feel had it happened in the home territory of either man (or in a Liga Elite match, God, imagine).
Frantic and wild and so beautiful.
A certified God Damner.
HANDWERK 