THOUGHTS | PHYSICAL 100: MEXICO | THE MISTICO VS BRANDON DIAZ DEATHMATCH
SPOILER ALERT!!!
I'm currently watching Physical 100: Italy and Physical 100: Mexico on Netflix. And here's a quick hit regarding the two shows.
While I think the Mexico one is more loaded with action, I thought the deathmatch battle between Mistico and Brandon Diaz felt staged.
I mean, I think of all the series and incarnations I have watched; that matchup right there left a sour taste in my mouth.
It was an Olympic wrestler versus a sports entertainer. I really wanted to watch their face-off. However, both fighters executed a headscissors takedown. And then, Diaz went into villain mode by taking off his MASK, one of the most disrespectful ways to destroy the reputation of a lucha libre wrestler, and instead of capitalizing on the situation, he just stood there and let the clock run out.
The one-minute overtime may have looked better, but knowing how he was trashed during regulation, how his mask went from grand to ruined, and how it felt like Diaz, the more experienced mat technician, basically let him off the hook only to humiliate him further, well, it felt like this was a glorified squash match.
And then, prior to that, in the stair-walking challenge, Mistico couldn't get the groove of it because his mask wasn't equipped for the challenge.
Yes, I am spoiling some parts of the show, and I'll probably quit while I'm ahead, but of all the last "boss" players introduced in each of the Physical 100 series, I thought Mistico fared the worst.
Say what you want about Jury Chechi, but he did well in the first elimination challenge. For his age, Jury looked like he had fun with the challenges. It also felt like a Make-A-Wish moment when he chose his fan as his opponent. The deathmatch may have been lopsided, but he also lost while making his opponent look good.
All of a sudden, I remembered Mistico's run with the WWE as Sin Cara, in which I read reports about how he thought he should be booked, even if he botched his ring entrance, often got injured, and, apart from the cool ring lights, never really did anything significant to act as if he was the second coming of Rey Mysterio.
But then again, maybe I just like AAA more than CMLL?
Hehe?
And yes, I know Manny Pacquiao wasn't a game-changer during his Physical: Asia stint, but maybe this was the reason why he fared poorly. Manny and Mistico are active fighters in their respective fields. For the other participants, some of them are retired, or their day jobs aren't as strenuous, which is why they can go all out.
Yes, the CrossFit athletes might do other things and compete in other events, and injuries would equally ruin their potential placings, but the exposure they get as the episodes roll is enough to take the challenges seriously.
As I have said in my past blog, Pacquiao came to Netflix as if he forgot that he was going to fight a couple of months after the taping. The winning prize, divided by six, is basically a fraction of what Pacquiao would be getting from his Mario Barrios fight.
Freddie Roach probably saw what he did; Pacquiao suddenly realized what he got himself into, and they probably saw that the best thing for him was to bolt out of the show.
But then again, Pacquiao fought hard in the deathmatch despite being small in stature. He also did exceptionally well during the shipwreck challenge, considering that he's the oldest fighter in the bunch.
The problem I had with the Mistico match was that it was for show. Even if they agreed to do this with the blessing of the production team and all the fighters were in on the agreement, they created this aura as if the show was staged, which is never a good thing, considering that almost 95 percent of the fighters are looking at this show as either a second chance at the limelight or a way to become household names. Atlantis Jr. and Soberano Jr. were also eliminated, but they adapted to what the show is all about. They did no theatrics and just played their respective deathmatches the way we expected them to be played.
All Mistico did in the show was create drama, which was meant to make him look bad.
Anyway, I'll just watch the entirety of the series so I can have a better point of comparison.
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