5 Matches: Ray Gonzalez

My idea here is to watch 5 matches of a wrestler who I haven't seen a lot of, or want to see more of, and decided if they have a shot at making my 2026 GWE ballot.

Fidel Sierra vs Ray Gonzalez - WWC 1998

Fidel and Ray are jawing at each other at the commentary position, Sierra hits the ring and attacks some randoms with the Cuban flag, Gonzalez follows him in and the two exchange punches. It's heated, but eventually, Sierra takes over wailing on Gonzalez with grounded chops that do a great job of making Sierra look like a bully. Gonzalez shows some life and gets to his feet, but Sierra gets him in the corner, and we've got some more chops, but Ray counters and starts to land some overhand chops. There are few things in wrestling that make like somebody more than overhand chops. Sierra eats a few but eventually gets back on offense, we get a flash of hope as Gonzalez hits a small package for two, and a few moments later sunset flip for two. Gonzalez is building momentum and hits a flying crossbody, but the ref goes down with the wrestlers and no one is there to count the three. Sierra uses some underhand tactics to kill Gonzalez's comeback and shortly thereafter hits a piledriver for the finish.

I don't think there's all that much here. It's a good TV match that serves its purpose, but nothing that really stands out as noteworthy or memorable. 

Mr. Perfect vs Ray Gonzalez - WWC 2001

There's not a ton here, Curt Hennig is just not very good, he's not in the bad way he was in early TNA, but he's wearing a shirt under his singlet, so this isn't the precursor to his fleeting Royal Rumble resurgence either. The vast majority of it is Gonzalez in two different periods of a very prosaic leg submission on Hennig, and it's horribly uncompelling. There's a brief glimmer of an old Mr. Perfect spot where Gonzalez kicks Curt's legs out from under him, and that plays into the leg submission, which is fine I suppose, but it's not anything I'm going to get all that excited about. Thankfully, outside interference brings this to a conclusion rather quickly, or I fear even more of Perfect lackadaisically slapping the mat while Gonzalez grapevines his leg would have ensued. 

Ricky Banderas vs Ray Gonzalez - IWA April 2003

OK, this is in a baseball stadium, so if we're going to get a wild brawl, it seems like this is the place it is going to happen. Things start slow, with some rope running, leapfrogs, and the like. We get a tease of things breaking down with a brief shoving match, but things stay scientific and the wrestlers are back to a lock-up. Gonzalez gets Banderas in the corner and we get to see some Ray Gonzalez chops, which are always great. Banderas whips Gonzlez into the corner and Ray does the World of Sport thing where he does a headstand on the turnbuckle and hits a head scissors off of it, Banderas bails to the outside, Ray follows, and now we're brawling on the basepaths and around the stadium. This is what I was looking for, and we only get a little bit of it before we end up back in the ring and Banderas is in control. Banderas whips Gonzalez hard into the corner, Ray goes ass over teakettle but not before he bumps his head on the top of the ring post and comes up bleeding on the outside, Banderas follows outside and briefly works the cut, but quickly transitions to working over the leg, slashing it against all sorts of stadium paraphernalia. We come back from commercial back in the ring, Banderas is still in charge, but quickly Gonzalez hits a stunner out of sleeper hold and takes over. Shortly, Gonzalez has Banderas in the figure-four, but Banderas gets out and Ricky locks on a cobra clutch. Ray counters by running and ducking into the corner, where a chair had been set up, during the commercial break, presumably. Now things get wonky, we get three different run-ins, in the hubbub, noted pillar of the community Victor Quinones hands Mr. Ray-tings brass knuckles, and it's all academic from here, a loaded punch, a three count, and the babyfaces hit the ring to celebrate.

Coming into these matches cold leaves stuff like this a little wanting, obviously this is the of something, but outside of being in a stadium, this match doesn't seem like all that big of a deal. It's a good match, but when the locker-room empties at the end, I couldn't help thinking that the match wasn't worked, and didn't deserve, that sort of over the top moment. 

Ricky Banderas vs Ray Gonzalez (Ladder Match) - IWA May 2003

Dutch Mantel on commentary sets this up as a match that strongly favors Ricky Banderas, so we'll see how that figures in. Things start hot, with Gonzalez coming out firing. He hits a nice powerslam and heads out to get the ladder. He goes to slide the folded ladder into the ring and eats the standard sliding kick into the ladder from Banderas. Ricky grabs the ladder and just chucks at Gonzalez's head. They brawl on the outside, Banderas takes an irish whip into a ladder and takes a great bump that almost seems impossible on such a flimsy ladder out in open space. Some more brawling and ladder shots and we end up back in the ring. Some more standard ladder match fare, bumps onto the ladder in the corner, some attempts to climb the ladder that are thwarted, and all your standard ladder match generica. Banderas chucks the ladder at a grounded Ray at one point. The absolute disrespect he throws the ladder at Mr. Ray-Tings with is awesome. Gonzalez has good territory babyface punches, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed that this wasn't more of a brawl. These seem like two guys who should be bleeding all over this arena, and it just isn't happening here. There's a lot of action here with each guy is on a separate ladder, it's convoluted, but it never seems like either guy isn't trying to win, unlike a good chunk of modern ladder matches. Things start to get overbooked as Savio Vega and Gonzalez's manager both try to grab the title, Ray eventually chases off Savio, but while that happens, Banderas climbs the ladder. Gonzalez runs back in and pushes the ladder out from under Ricky, but the ladder falls under Banderas, and he takes a nasty bump on the ladder. Gonzalez grabs the other ladder, climbs, and grabs the belt. Then roughly 79 people hit the ring and we're out of time.

This is fun, and it never lulls are overstays it's welcome, but I wouldn't call it anything but a good match and as far as this project goes, I came out much more impressed with Banderas, who I already like, although Gonzalez has his moments.  

Jon Moxley & Hade Vansen vs Ray Gonzalez & Lightning - IWA 2006

Mr. Ray-Tings teams with Lightning, one of IWA's Kane knockoffs, to face Hade Vansen, of aborted Undertaker feud fame, and Jon Moxley, of trading-forearms-in-the-center-of-the-ring-is-the-new-workrate fame, in the sort of match that can only really happen in Puerto Rico. I don't know this for sure, but from what I can tell, Gonzalez and Lightning might be feuding for the top title in the promotion and have sort of been forced together, or something along those lines. Either way, Gonzalez doesn't seem thrilled to be here. 

Ray and Moxley start things off, Typical offense for the opening of a match shoulder blocks, leapfrogs, dropkicks and the like, with Gonzalez taking up most of the offense. At one point Gonzalez lights Moxley up with chops, which is easily the early highlight of the match. Lightning and Vansen get in, and for the purposes of this project, none of this matters. We get a Lightning face in peril segment, which is fine. At one point Vansen hits a nice exploder out of the corner, Moxley hits awful headbutts to the midsection while Lightning is pinned in the corner. Moxley and Lightning go at it and a double clothesline leads to both Gonzalez and Vansen tagging in, Ray takes over with alternating chops and punches, again another highlight of the match. A bit of miscommunication leads to Lightning getting bumped off the apron to the floor. Lightning and Gonzalez jaw at each other, and what seems like an opportunity for Vansen the upper-hand on Gonzalez instead ends with Gonzalez hitting a great dragon screw, we come back from commercial with Ray working the leg, Moxley jumps in the ring and cuts things off. Lightning comes in and clears house, leading into Gonzalez and Lightning backing into each other, teasing a showdown but before things come to blows, Gonzalez bails, Mikael Judas comes into ring chokeslams Lightning, and Moxley pins Lightning for the win. 

In the same vein as the Sierra match earlier, this is a TV match that moves things forward. Unlike the Sierra match and the ladder match with Banderas, you can see some of why Gonzalez was such a big star in PR. He's got great offense and knows how to get a reaction out of this crowd. Nothing to write home about, but there are some hints at what I was looking for. 

I think I'm going to have to do another one of these to get a better idea. There are some flashes of great stuff, but I can't say that I have been all that impressed. I think there are matches out there that I will really like and ones that might make a better case for Gonzalez, I just have to find them.