I’m Sorry, Rey Fenix
For my 30th birthday, all I want is forgiveness.
Lucha Bros (courtesy of allelitewrestling.com)
I promise, this article wasn’t written just to make you aware that it’s my birthday. But if you want to help me celebrate, please share it with your friends and enemies.
My christening as a wrestling fan was July 23rd, 2016. Sean and I took a trip to Chicago for AAW’s United We Stand. At the time, Lucha Underground was making a ton of new stars and this was our chance to see some of the names made famous by it live for the first time as well as some international UK stars. The card included Pentagon Jr. (now Penta El Zero Miedo), Zack Sabre Jr., Marty Scurll (I know, in hindsight not so exciting), Colt Cabana, Candace Lerae, DIY’s final indie appearance and, you guessed it Rey Fenix.
At the time, I was all in on Pentagon Jr. I loved his moveset, the facepaint on his chin, the storyline he was working in LU. It all spoke to me. His brother, Rey Fenix, was also in Lucha Underground but didn’t have the same compelling story or as unique of a look. While I’ve always been able to recognize Fenix’s prowess in the ring, I just failed to connect with him as performer.
AAW, to me, is PWG of the midwest. A super indie that brought in all the biggest names with an implicit competition between each other to steal the show. United We Stand was no different. We saw an incredible multi-man tag match featuring who we now know as Wes Lee in NXT, Scurll vs Fenix, DIY vs Andrew Everett and Trevor Lee (now Cameron Grimes) and saw Josh Alexander in one of his first matches back after an injury forced an early retirement.
Now, to the reason I’m writing this piece 6 years later to the date. Rey Fenix, I’m sorry. While standing in line to meet Pentagon Jr, you were next to us with a shorter line. Pentagon stepped out to shoot a promo before the show and you offered fans to grab a pic/merch with you as we waited and I decided to pass. 6 years later, I feel like a moron. Rey Fenix has consistently been one of my favorites in AEW since its inception. His fast pace, high-risk moveset, and incredible balance to tightrope the top rope, ladder, or cage has translated SO well to AEW television. Rey’s clearly a star, whether his brother is next to him or not. Rey deserves a TNT title or All Atlantic title run in the near future. Tony Khan, I’m begging you to not make the same mistake that I did by looking over what you have in Rey Fenix.
Rey, please forgive as I was not the Wrestling Elitist then that I am now.
Babyface me and face-paint-less Pentagon. Were we holding hands in this pic? People are asking.
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