Pro Wrestling Outsider

In which one of the most exciting high flying babyfaces of 2025 wrestles one of the most exciting high flying babyfaces of 2003.

The last time I saw Paul London wrestle was when he was a part of Lucha Underground.  His work on that show was primarily in undercard trios with the Rabbit Tribe, and while his character was funny those matches were entertaining, they weren’t anything to go out of your way for if you weren’t a weekly watcher of the show.  That was seven years ago.  If Paul London’s days as a game-changing death-defying babyface was a distant memory then, it feels like ancient history now.  This was exacerbated when London took a two and a half year break from 2018 to 2021.  Since his return, he’s been wrestling primarily in low profile indies and whatever the hell GCW is at this point.  I’ve mostly lost track of him and haven’t heard any buzz that’s made me want to change that.

As of last year, London’s with Major League Wrestling.  Cool.  I’m not going to make a hacky joke bashing MLW because 1. I don’t watch it and 2. The company’s current world champion is Matt Riddle and that’s funnier than any joke I could ever write.

The important part is that MLW is in a wonderfully random partnership with CMLL, a promotion I do watch and like a lot.  This apparently means that Paul London gets to be on the also wonderfully random CMLL vs. MLW crossover show.  In turn, he gets to wrestle a wonderfully random ten minute Lightning match against the high-flying wunderkind Neón… on a Friday night in Arena freakin’ Mexico.

Unlike London, I have been following Neón this year.  He’s quickly become one of my favorite guys to watch..  He’s a highlight of every CMLL match I see him in, especially in the El Sky Team trios alongside Mistico and Mascara Dorada.  His high flying both feels effortless and looks painful.  His physical acting and strong sense of timing plays to Arena Mexico’s unique atmosphere perfectly.

When I heard that this match was happening, I was intrigued, but not exactly expecting much.  After hearing from some Trusted Sources™ that it was really good, I decided to watch it.

It wasn’t “really good”.

It was great.

Both men put together what is simultaneously a really over the top match and a pretty smart one at the same time.  After a measured start, the match devolves into a bombfest with each man trading off on hitting high risk moves.  However, it’s a bombfest with a point.  The central story thread here is that a ten minute lightning match is not nearly enough for either men to put the other one away.  This is because London stalls and mocks the crowd a lot, yes, but it’s also because he has an answer for a lot of what Neón throws at him and does significant damage to the younger wrestler.  At the very end, both men miss their respective top rope finishers and are unable to rise to their feet before the time limit expires.  It’s a logical conclusion to the war of escalation.

As far as individual performances go?  Unsurprisingly, Neón is great here for all of the usual reasons I outlined above.  But as far as London is concerned, I have come to the conclusion that this dude can absolutely still kick ass.

He kicks ass more slowly and deliberately than he used to, yes.  He’s also a heel. I haven’t seen a ton of him in this mode, so his ass kicking is a bit more mean-spirited than I’m used to from him.  But as the saying that I made up 15 seconds ago goes, kicked ass is kicked ass, and he kicked a lot of it here.

London is a great villain in this match.  He’s so rude and obnoxious.  His constant stalling early on sets the pace perfectly and makes the moments when things speed up matter.  The way he mocks the crowd by clapping in a faux-babyface manner is a great bit that stays funny every time he does it.  Him slapping Neón’s ass afterwards is so stupid and despicable and just makes it all the better when he gets clocked or nailed with a dive to the outside.  He’s not all shtick, though.  He still does plenty of vicious-looking offense, such as a gross vertical suplex from the inside of the ring onto the ramp, a wild double stomp onto the same ramp, and a fantastic counter when he reverses a diving hurricanrana from Neón into a nasty snap powerbomb.  It is insane to me that this is his first match in CMLL and Arena Mexico.  He both fits the vibe perfectly and stands out from other rudos in ways that make him exciting.

I thought that he and Neón would make for a bizarre clash of styles, but they actually mix very well!  Again, London has slowed down, but he mostly keeps up with Neón’s pace.  He feels believable in control, feeds into his offense well, and bumps big for him when he needs to.  Neón is a very good face in peril here.  He bumps and sells fantastically for London in various gross-looking ways, making his offense look murderous.  When it’s his time to dish out punishment, he flies around effortlessly and throws his entire body into everything he does.  

Interestingly enough, Neon’s style mirrors a lot of the high risk high flying that London did early in his career.  Watching this older, bitter, more spiteful London fight a younger man who fights in a way akin to his past self leads to a sort of intriguing symmetry between the two.  Neither man beats you over the head with this and I’m not even sure it’s intentional, but it does help the match feel both very natural and oddly poignant at this stage in both men’s careers.  London’s rude behavior (and straight up cruelty in the post match) makes it feel even more potent.

There are nitpicks here, sure.  Neón does overbump and oversell for a couple things and it ends up looking silly.  Personally, I’m never a fan of ass slapping spots or anything adjacent to sexual assault, even when a heel does it and makes me want to see their ass kicked like it does here.  London’s stalling can feel a bit too cutesy and shticky at a few points.  If “STRUGGLE” or “URGENCY” are the main things you want from wrestling, you might not love this match the way I did.  There’s also not a whole lot to it other than the main thread and the symmetry between the performers that I mentioned, but… does there really need to be?  It’s great the way it is.

In 2003, Paul London was a breath of fresh air.  In 2025, it seems like that is true once again… at least for this match.  Now, if he’s like this consistently throughout the year, he’s gonna be one for me to watch the same way Neón is now.  At the very least, if the post-match where both men attack each other is any indication of the future, I’ll be seated for the rematch.

The biggest pleasant surprise of the year so far?  Maybe!

Seek it out.

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