Horatio

So, beginning with the triple-threat - things went in B-Boy's favor and it happen'd by surprise just when Makabe was down and out of earshot. It was a short match, not the epic we'd hope'd for, but with that sort of camera work, no one really minds (I think it was a tournament match anyways, but please don't quote me on that). What I pick'd up from the match was this: B-Boy uses his stiffness to his advantage (not just to please the audience), Makabe pretends to be a British mat-technician who bumps funny until he reminds you EVERYTIME that he loves throwing stiff shots of all kinds, and Sonico is hail'd as being from "below-the-border," but he's really a student of the game and he'll do anyone's match [he matches the stiffness strikes and the chain-wrestling until he gets the opportunity to be his own Mysterio/Dragon-Kid/TARO/Mistico/Kalisto/Dragon-Lee (and aside from the slightly taller Rey Fenix, he's turning out to be my favorite of the grand little mask'd flyers - he classily decides not to dive straight into the respectful audience members in the first row; not too common on the indies, although I'm sure he would on request).

The first Sonico/Makabe match is outdoors in Seattle and Makabe is wearing American football-style warpaint (maybe it's a tribute to Chief Seattle- hoka-hey, no I'm kidding - Chief Seattle actually said some of the truest things about the Earth that man will ever hear; about how we share the earth and borrow it from future generations - it's hard for me to mention the city of Seattle without thinking Chief Seattle and Chief Joseph, who famously said, I will fight no more forever - you can hear more about this on Danny O'Keefe's album The Dreamers, one of the greatest singer-songwriter albums of the new millenium).

The match is basically really fun wrestling, what you expect from Sonico having to work Makabe, until Makabe begins to put on an Indian death-lock and stops to ask for a crowd reaction, he then 360s through the air to the mat without breaking the hold. Insult to injury to the high-flying Sonico who did decide to get kind of cute in showing mercy to Makabe when he was on the outside. The match gets suddenly serious with a cross-armbreaker, and it's cool how things go from a basically long introduction to a formal closing stretch at about 7 minutes in. Sonico hasn't done a lot in the match at this point, so he's working from beneath, but it's obvious his arm is tweak'd and he should have done more on offense, at this point, if he was ever really going to dominate the larger Makabe. He's finally able to pick a leg and lock in a La Magistra cradle for the magical win and it continues the story throughout the match that Makabe was working a little too fast for the even faster Sonico. Watch this match.

The second match is also from 3-2-1 Battle! and it looks like it's in that bar up in Seattle where also the B-Boy/Makabe match was had. This is over a year later, but it's also just a 10 minute vid, so if you get the chance, watch this match. I'm sure it's going to rule base'd on the fact that Sonico's speed was the story of the last match without basically any one maneuver being use'd to tell that story. That's deep wrestling. Makes me feel like I've been watching 3-2-1 Battle! or Sonico and Makabe regularly for longer than I actually have; feels like a real investment and I'm thrill'd to see where these next ten minutes will take me.

This match happen'd in scorpio-season, on November 16 2018, a night when someone like me could very well have been born, and Makabe opens the match by suicide diving like an emotional scorpio onto Sonico before the bell was even had rung. He tries to get a win with german-suplex before he's even taken off his hoodie and vest, and guess what: Sonico's arm is still injure'd from the match before that happen'd over a year prior to this one (continuity at its finest - it's one minute in and he's already hurt Sonico more than in their previous encounter when he tries an octopus stretch only to fall prey to a snap-dragon suplex from an older, wiser and still too-fast Sonico). Sonico is no longer looking shorter, chubbier and young-looking - but taller, thinner, and out of his t-shirt, looking sexy in black. He targets the leg to avoid further damage to his arm and lands a big crucifix-bomb for a two-count. It's like watching a 2/3 falls match where the stiffness and the violence gets turn'd up in the second round, but this re-match was over a year in the making. Makabe hits an arm-trap german and a punch to the face for a nearfall, then immediately finds the fujiwara and even loosens the tape from his wrist to tie up Sonico's hand and secure a tap-out victory.
These matches happen at *sonic-speed* but at 37 minutes of video, all three get better as they progress.

Sonico/Makabe is a fight-forever situation for me. It's ironic how Makabe talks about loving to wrestle Thatcher and they apparently beat the tar out of one-another, but Makabe and Sonico seem to hate eachother their styles clash completely for an awesome pairing. HOWEVER (/Finkle), B-Boy won the triple-threat match, so I'm going to have to re-watch Makabe/B-Boy and lay the-sweet-and-low-down for a tie-breaker of sorts, along with B-Boy versus Sonico which apparently happen'd in 3-2-1 Battle as well.