The 25-year-old Mexican wrestler had an absolute star-making AEW debut against the great Kenny Omega.
As a primetime competitor to WWE, Tony Khan’s All Elite Wrestling promotion was always going to bring easy comparisons to Ted Turner’s WCW. Another thing AEW does to carry that banner into the 2020s is shine a bright spotlight on high flying, lesser known wrestlers from international backgrounds.
On Wednesday night, El Hijo del Vikingo had his Rey Mysterio Jr. moment.
The 25-year-old Mexican wrestler is a big deal in his home country’s Lucha Libre AAA promotion. As the reigning Mega Champion, he’s the company’s top star. He backed up this billing on AEW Dynamite against one of the greatest, most accomplished grapplers in the world, Kenny Omega.
AEW made sure to present Vikingo as a big deal. The headliner was referred to as a “dream match” throughout the broadcast. Omega made it a point to announce the match was going to be special, telling Sports Illustrated’s Justin Barrasso “no know does it like [Vikingo].”
This was on full display Wednesday.
Every move Vikingo did felt like one difficult maneuver wrapped inside an even more ridiculous one. He didn’t want to hit Omega with a regular hurricanrana, he needed to turn it into an implosion with a front flip first. That move above, by the way? That came less than a minute into the actual match.
Time for a reverse hurricanrana? Better bounce backward from the top rope first.
Here, he opts to ratchet up the difficulty of a dragonrana to the floor by doing it from the narrow base of the ring post.
Then there’s … actually, you know what? Just watch it. I can’t really explain it with words.
In a vacuum, this may have seemed excessive. None of it was. El Hijo del Vikingo wasn’t just playing to the largest American crowd of his career, but he was coming in as the underdog. He’s the guy billed at 5-foot-6 and 161 pounds going up a multiple time world champion who clocks in at 6-feet and 220. He needed to throw the kitchen sink at him.
Good god, did he ever.
Omega, as he typically does, proved the perfect foil. He was a sturdy, sure-footed base for all Vikingo’s attacks. He flew across the mat with a perfect understanding of video game physics with each one. He carried multiple moments where it looked certain someone got very, very hurt — just to carry on the match as planned like a true damned pro.
Almost three decades ago, Mysterio and a handful of luchadores made their names in WCW by putting on masterclasses in the lucha libre style. They opened up American wrestling, then mostly ruled by lumbering, muscled-out goons, to a whole new landscape of moves. Mysterio stole the show from the undercard with matches against fellow overlooked studs like Psychosis, Dean Malenko and a pre-WWE Eddie Guerrero. He forced wrestling fans to pay attention because looking away for even a moment meant missing something incredible.
That’s the feeling I got Wednesday night.
A great wrestling match tells a story. Vikingo and Omega accomplished that across 20-ish minutes while making me audibly say “what the [expletive]” in my own dang living room multiple times. Omega has been reliably must-watch TV for about a decade now. Now Vikingo joins him on that tier.
Even if you’re only a casual wrestling fan — even if you’re a WWE or New Japan loyalist — do yourself a favor and watch this whole match. You know what to expect. Trust me, you’ll still wind up surprised be it.
El Hijo del Vikingo is gonna be a star.
