Penguin's Lucha Corner: Faby vs. Marcela

CMLL Sin Salida 2023, Arena Mexico (01.01.23)

Front Matter

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A lot of you who know me know all about my love of Faby Apache and how important I think she is not just to women’s wrestling or lucha libre but wrestling history as a whole. What you may not know is how much of a legend Marcela is, why she’s so important to the history of professional wrestling.

This is a woman that began her career in a time where applying her craft and trade was ILLEGAL in the capital city of her home nation. This is a woman in whom, once the laws were changed, the biggest promotion in her nation saw something so special that she became the female face of it; and even in periods where the promotion didn’t treat women as important or a focus during that first decade, she was the one constant that always brought them back to relevance and made them care. By the time CMLL decided that women would be a focus she was around twenty years in as a wrestler, and the next generation of talent became that through the foundation that she laid down. CMLL’s amazonas would not be where they are today without the tireless work that Marcela put in for decades, to be seen as important and to be taken seriously.

You can say much the same for Faby Apache in AAA, but Marcela’s legend traces back to a time when women’s wrestling was illegal in her city, and for all of Faby’s trailblazing, she didn’t go through THAT. These two were the centerpieces, the faces, the shining lights of their respective warring companies for two decades, side by side, never interacting, always leaving two fanbases wondering ‘what if?’. …. And then AAA let Faby Apache go. AAA hadn’t appreciated what they had in her for several years, and if there’s one thing you can say about CMLL, they know how to show veterans and legends that they’re loved and appreciated. In 2022 they announced Faby for the Women’s Grand Prix. If they were willing to book Faby to fight for them, you felt, then suddenly this impossible dream match could become a reality.

AND IT DID! Fans could be forgiven for thinking it was too late in both of their careers for this to be the truly generation defining match that it could’ve been a decade ago; Marcela now has 37 years of travel and matches written on her body, and Faby has 24. But these two destroyed that notion in the opening minutes of the match. The crowd was hot as hell from the start, getting very loud before Faby and Marcela had even touched, exploding once they did, and exploding several times again over the course of the match. Both Faby and Marcela dialled back the clock to 2010 with everything they were able to pull off.

The action was crisp and fantastic. They brawled violently around the ring, pulled off beautiful planchas and sentons, and came up with some spectacular cradles and submissions. The crowd was on the edge of their seat throughout and by the time the third and final fall came they were biting on about everything, which created an AMAZING atmosphere that took my breath away more than once, but never more so than that moment when Faby rolled through a devastating top rope toss from Marcela and destroyed her with a Shining Wizard. I thought for sure I’d seen the end, and the GASP I let out when Marcela found the strength to kick out was unlike anything I’ve felt watching a wrestling match in a long, long time.

These two threw EVERYTHING into this, and the history of the moment wasn’t lost at all. The desperation for victory and one-upmanship dragged them into hell and forced them to survive hits that were beyond anything they’d taken in years. It also led to a story of mutual spite, of both wrestlers refusing to let the other to take anything from them, meaning they were both left with nothing in the end. There’s a level of tragedy in that, but after everything these two have been through in their lives and careers, after being denied validation for so long…there was no other possible way they could have approached this. And in the end, that desire to not let the other have anything, even at the expense of getting anything for themselves, is what won out.

In the final minutes, after everything that Faby and Marcela put each other through, things broke down and they FOUGHT. They spilled to the outside and brawled. They had no plan anymore, they just wanted to break the other, as they’d failed to all match. Faby got the upper hand and attempted to get back to the ring before the count reached its conclusion, but Marcela used her last bit of energy to grab her and pull her back. Both fell back to the floor, throwing wild punches and slaps, as the referee counted them out.

The crowd was PISSED at the conclusion, and Faby and Marcela were too! They both confronted the referee as he declared the match a draw. The lack of satisfaction from both was obvious, and Marcela demanded they run it back, not even giving Faby the chance to fully give an answer before she tackled her to the mat and punched her in the face. Faby stalled on the answer, including a fun bit where she taunted the crowd and then acted stunned when they interrupted her. Marcela wasn’t leaving it to chance, and knew exactly how to make Faby want to fight her again. They’re definitely running this back and I for one cannot wait, because good God was this whole thing exhilarating.