La Liga Wrestling had its most successful event of 2019, Insurrection. The event saw Invader I fly between the ropes, Mark Davidson and Justin Dynamite throw the classic of the year and Puro Macho return to their roots. At the end of the night, with an already tired crowd, Angel Fashion defeated Mike Mendoza to be crowned WWL champion. With the victory, the prophecy that originated in 2017 in the Coup d’Etat is fulfilled, with those three luchadors who revived the WWL (Mecha Wolf 450, Mike Mendoza and Angel Fashion) being the company’s maximum champions.
Without a doubt, on paper to be fair, the company worked with its promising guns and managed to elevate them as power players in the company. However, something still leaves a bad taste in the mouth of many. That bad taste is the disastrous reign of Mike Mendoza.
Before becoming monarch of La Liga Wrestling, Mike Mendoza was seen distilling images of the main player since late 2018. The injury may have delayed that image, but WWL was lucky to have the services of the now soul of the company, BJ. When 2019 started, the logical thing was to make Mendoza the main champion, but in the middle, they had BJ and Fashion playing for the title. The company then made a move that was liked by many, turning Mendoza rough and rediscovering his “Judas” character. Simple so far. True?
What would come next was a disastrous rise from Mendoza to the main event scene. First, Mendoza could never be seen as formidable or as a lethal machine before BJ. It can be understood that his character was a heel, but it was ridiculous the cheating that Mendoza would have to do to beat BJ and how stupid it was to observe the latter as he wants to win the game and retain. Even when Mendoza won his acclaimed title, he had to need all the tricks of the belt and the assistance of Tommy Diablo. After winning the title, it would seem that stability would return to the character of Mendoza. But this was not so. Overbobbing reigned during his defenses. Even in a spectacular fight as it was against Roger in Pena Capital, the company had to again do the interventions.
At no time during his reign did Mendoza have a fight that had no more than 3 cheating attempts. WWL forgot in the process that made the “scorpion” special. This is recognized for his finesse in the ring and strong blows from his Jiu-Jitsu background. A fan did not go to the card because Mendoza looked good and displayed signs of being a good luchador. Fans went because they expected another classic, a Strong Style match, to make him escape the backward scene on the island.
It could be argued that he needed to cheat because Mendoza was “a heel”. But what we saw during this reign was ridiculous, making Mendoza look weak and incapable. In fact, what Angel Fashion achieved on Saturday was not as fabulous as expected, because the fans had already lost faith and love for the reign of Mendoza. This is not the end of “scorpion” in the main scene, but one only begs them to know how to do something different and better for their next reign.
*This essay was published originally in December of 2019, by the author in Spanish on Impacto Estelar.
