Black Terry Sang A Song as he Rode, His Guns Hung on his Hips

Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro/Veneno v. Oficial 911/Oficial AK47/Tony Rivera IWRG 3/9/14-GREAT

Old fashioned IWRG brawl with an especially heated focus on Terry v. Rivera. Rivera jumps him coming into the ring and they spend the whole match beating on each other and bleeding, with Rivera posting him and making him bleed, Terry smashing Rivera with the lid of the beer cooler, and Rivera wasting him with a tope. Veneno bleeds too, although mostly wanders around Baba chopping people. More cameo performances from the Oficiales and Cererbo, although the good Doctor did whip out an awesome looking bullet tope. Didn't reach the heights of the brawling trios of yesteryear, but this was well worth watching and enjoying.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 3/1/14

These matches are from the 2/14 Arena Mexico show, and feature the finals of the Gran Alternativa tournament.

1. Mr. Niebla & Barbaro Cavernario vs. Volador Jr. & Soberano Jr.

Oh god Volador and Soberano are dressed as the blue people in Avatar and it's one of the absolute lamest things I have ever seen in lucha. I already lean rudo, but nothing has ever made me lean more to the rudo side than this. How embarrassing. I mean, at least go all the way with it. If you're gonna dress up like a Pandoran, then your partner should be some sort of dragon that you can fuck with your ponytail. These two look like the creepiest cosplayers you can imagine, cruising the bars post ComicCon. This match is kind of a mess but has a lot of fun individual moments. Neibla looked really good in the first half but gassed toward the end and got lazy. Volador took a dangerous bump into the crowd, smashing his calves into some poor woman (Happy Valentine's Day!!)  but a lot of the match highlighted his poor match construction skills and dated spots (have you seen anybody since Kidman have his opponent balance himself on the middle ropes so you can get in your neat spot?). Soberano Jr. turned in a real nice performance with a couple wild dives and a massive bump through the ropes to the floor off a Niebla shoulderblock. Cavernario also impressed me here. He bumps big (took a sunset flip powerbomb off the apron and another to the floor) and hits some big moves. I dig his double knee drop and his giant splash from the top to the floor will be sure to turn his knees to dust. The match didn't have any sort of build and was a real muddled mess of moves (MMM?) but a lot of the moves worked, so it was perfectly fine viewing.

2. Lightning Match: Marcela vs. Dallys

Damn this was a nice, short, violent match. Dallys picks apart Marcela for the first few minutes after ambushing her before the whistle. Dallys works a lot stiffer than I remembered. Marcela's comeback is wild as Dallys eats a brutal dropkick through the ropes and Marcela hits a nasty running dropkick off the apron that sends Dallys flying. Both women looked great here, maybe my favorite lightning match of the year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyAGU-r1ggI&feature=youtu.be

3. Ultimo Guerrero, Euforia & Gran Guerrero vs. Valiente, Mascara Dorada & Mistico

I really loved this. Tons of crazy spots and big bumps, and not just crazy spots but some that I rewound several times. Mascara Dorada is a huge favorite of mine, really gives me a 2009 Freelance vibe which I think is massive praise. The match essentially starts with one of the nuttiest dives I've ever seen, with Dorada getting so much speed that he ends up going totally vertical, with his body gliding legs up directly through his opponent and into the barrier. It looked insane and if this were at Coliseo he would have been 4 rows deep. Meanwhile Valiente's feet hang up and he does a massive belly flop on the floor. Euforia is is the ultimate bumping lucha base GOD and here he catches a wild no hands Dragon rana running from the ring to the floor, takes a giant Cassandro bump in the tercera. Dorada is so breathtaking, not just hitting spectacular ranas and dives but doing them so effortlessly and flawlessly. Replacement Mistico looked good here as well, and usually he doesn't leave a major impression on me. This left me wanting to see these teams match up many more times, which has been a recurring theme in 2014 wrestling for me. Tons of guys I'm loving to watch, but specifically tons of match ups I'm loving. Go out of your way to watch this one.

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Sunday Night Digging In the Crates

We take a trip to Juarez as another in our sub theme of 80's Villano 3 mask matches which showed up too late for the 80's Lucha set.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMmteW-cAaw

Flama Roja v. Villano 3 3/17/87

Roja was a veteran rudo who according to OJ at Great Lucha had the awesome nicknames "The Lord and Master of Scandal" and "The Scourge of the Technicians" no fair for one guys to have two great nicknames like that. Good first fall with some nice mat wrestling by both guys, until V3 hurts his knee with a pescada and gets tapped. FYI There is a weird clip after the first fall to the middle of the third skip to 20:00 for the end of the segunda. We get a classic gorefest third fall with Flama cutting open V3's bandaged arm with a chair shot, and wasting him with an awesome tope. By the end V3 and Roja are on their knees covered in blood exchanging nasty head butts. I am bummed this didn't make the DVDVR set, but I am happy we keep getting Villano 3 mask matches showing up. May I suggest the lucha gods send us his Nacaulpan hair match with Perro Aguyao?

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NXT Episode 207 Workrate Report 2/5/14

So I am almost 100% unfamiliar with the NXT goings on. 207 episodes!? How the hell is that even possible?? Have I literally missed 4 years of NXT? Or does it work like weird TV season numbers and this is just the 7th episode of season 2. But yeah, I have haven't seen much of NXT, is what I'm getting at. I've seen the occasional Hero or Ambrose match and that's about it. Never watched a full episode, but I like the fact that exists in its own little bubble, in the same way that Saturday Night or WorldWide used to exist. So in a way this is like WWE B-Sides. I still wish there was a show like Velocity, but this is probably the next best version of that. So, what the hell, let's start reviewing NXT weekly shows!

1. Sin Cara vs. Alexander Rusev

First time seeing Rusev here. I dig the guy's old school powerlifter build. He....doesn't seem that good. But I'm not shocked that he's getting brought up to the main roster. He's not very good at hitting his marks. Cara had to shove him into position at one point when he was taking too long, and he backed too far away from a Cara moonsault press so it ended up hitting him like a backflip dropkick instead. His offense is pretty dry, with mostly power stuff and some random kicks peppered in. He did do a running dropkick at one point that looked really great, really felt like a John Tenta style dropkick. He works this match too evenly, and at one point holds Cara in an armlock for far too long. I get that most short WWE matches need to have that pointless moment where the heel holds a face in some sort of a rest hold to build for the comeback, but it felt more pointless than usual here. Needs more impressive power spots. Plus his average height will be exposed when on the main roster.

2. Alicia Fox vs. Emma

Fox has been the best Diva for some time now, does all "between moves" stuff a lot better than most Divas (and plenty of male workers). Nice stomach kicks, actually makes restholds look like she's working a hold, really nasty wristlocks that looks like she's manipulating joints, cool reckless forearms from the mount. Emma does not seem very good, and I'm already starting to turn on her as she's getting mostly tepid responses but announcers on the main brand and now NXT are putting her over as somebody the crowd just goes batty for and pretending more than 30 people in the crowd are doing her dance. Here she takes a year to do a reverse rolling cradle and just as long to try and set up the Tarantula. I do like her doing the Emma dance into her finisher submission, but most everything else she does doesn't look good.

3. Sylvester Lefort vs. Mason Ryan

Oh hey it's Mason Ryan. Forgot about him. This goes about 45 seconds but is done the way a squash match should be done. Dug Ryan's hotshot into a running big boot. Good follow through on the boot. Would have liked to see some more from Lefort as I dug his hiked-high tights and beard. His strikes didn't look very good though.

4. Aiden English vs. Tyson Kidd

English looks like tall muscular Screech, and when he's wearing that beret he looks like Screech from that Saved By the Bell episode where Screech was in a chess tournament, and Zack and Slater make a bunch of money by running a gambling ring to capitalize on Bayside's sudden and never-again-mentioned chess fever!! Kidd looks really good in this, missing a crossbody in the ropes, throwing nice kicks and doing a cool rana that sends English face first into the turnbuckles. Kidd gets the Blockbuster for the win after English is distracted by some guy named Big Cass who threatens to steal Screech's lucky beret. Couldn't get a great read on English but he threw some great Bret Hart style falling elbows.

5. Adrian Neville vs. Corey Graves

Neville used to be PAC (they still use his moniker The Man Gravity That Gravity Forgot) and Graves is the former Sterling James Keenan. Boy WWE developmental names leave a lot to be desired. Graves has a real good look, like an indie rock Chris Isaak. PAC's flying is always impressively effortless.  I cannot imagine having that much knowing control of my body. I mean I have alright balance and don't trip over my own legs when I go running, but seeing PAC hitting a running tope/moonsault press (picture what starts as a dive over the ropes but adds a twist in the middle to land like a moonsault press) is pretty stunning Most of this match is Graves working over Neville's leg, which he does well. I always like the DDT done to the leg, and he gets a real high cradle on roll ups. The guy looks like he has to actually kick out of pins, not just get let out. Neville is really great at selling the leg, too, which makes the leg work better. Crowd doesn't seem to give much of a shit though. Neville is still good at selling while doing his moves, which is not something you see often. He eventually makes his comeback and hits his killer twisting shooting star off the rope. I liked what happened in the match fine, everything looked solid. It wasn't terribly compelling, and it should have been. The story of "guy gets weapon taken away by wily opponent" usually gets people into it, but they certainly were not here. Now I know nothing of the history, or how the crowd normally responds to these two, but I would have expected them to be a little more receptive to this.

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

12. Antonio Cesaro v. Daniel Bryan v. Christian v. John Cena v. Sheamus v. Randy Orton WWE Elimination Chamber 2/23

ER: The Chamber match has been my favorite yearly gimmick match for some time now. I love all the nasty bumps on the grating, I love the "guy gets thrown through pod" spots, I love how bruised all the participants are the next night on Raw. They always feel a different sort of violent compared to other WWE matches. Cesaro and Sheamus was a great choice to start, with their work in the Christian/Sheamus/Real Americans tag being what put that match over. They match up nicely. Sheamus doesn't seem like a guy that people talk about being really good, but he is really, really good. He always surprises me with cool new things. My favorite here was him slumped in the corner and kicking out Cesaro's knee as he approached, with Cesaro dropping down hard to his other knee. Sheamus and Cesaro were the best guys in this. Cesaro's strength spots are tailor made for a match like this, where you get to see him powerbomb Christian into a pod and toss Bryan and Cena with one suplex. Sheamus gets the spot of the match by Brogue Kicking through Orton's pod to get to him (while the crowd chanted "pussy" at Orton. Don't think I've heard that before...). Everybody's personality slotted nicely into this match, with Orton's time kept to a minimum while he taunted the crowd, Christian getting to be sneakily overlooked, Bryan getting tons of big spots to make the crowd go nuts (him catching Orton with the running knee was a big spot, since they'd shown him winning on TV numerous times with that move in recent weeks) and him getting to kick out of the RKO was huge. Some nitpicks aside, like Cesaro tapping super quick to the STF, this was a great, violent match that never lagged or felt stale. I also think it aged well as I liked it even more on rewatch.  Tough match for me to properly rank.

PAS: This is a match type I never get super excited for, but always really enjoy. We were missing Rey who is the maestro of the Elimination Chamber, but otherwise we had a damn good group of dudes. I am not sure why they have run 50 Sheamus v. Christian matches lately as the Sheamus v. Cesaro match up is one of my favorite match ups right now. Sheamus can get a bit repetitive but Cesaro seems to force him out of his comfort zone. Really liked Christian as he got to do all of the athletic spots which Rey normally does. His top of the pod dive was really nuts because he doesn't have the smoothness of other guys who have done that spot and it looked really out of control and nuts. The booking finish was pretty bad though, I suppose they were in a spot if they weren't going to give the belt to Bryan (which they shouldn't have, no reason for him to get it in a fluky multi man match like this before Wrestlemania) but the run ins have been so overdone, that it just killed the match dead. Still the vast majority of this was great, I can't in good conscious put it above matches with satisfying endings

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Weep Not Behold the Lion of Judah Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Steve Williams NJPW 10/27/88-FUN

Really wished this was better, Fujiwara runs down to the ring and it looks like it is on, but it only kicks into gear in the last couple of minutes. Fujiwara has had some great matches with very limited amateur wrestlers, and Williams is far from limited, so there was really no reason for this to be this listless. I did like Dr. Death selling Fujiwara's hard head and the crazy cross body over the railing by Fujiwara was unexpected, but this wasn't the hidden gem it looks like on paper.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Yuki Ishikawa v. Mitsuya Nagai/Tatsumi Fujinami LEGEND 1/8/12-GREAT

Lots of really nifty match ups in this match. Fujinami and Fujiwara always match up well and they have some really nice early match grappling. It really kicks however when Nagai tags in, he is a guy who can be unwatchable, but put him in with guys who throw heat, he can throw back. He and Ishikawa have a little Battlarts potato fest, and then Fujiwara does some awesome countering of his aggressive attacks, including Fujiwara's twisting monkey flip counter and his leg catch armbar which are two of my favorite spots of his. Finish was slightly flat as Ishikawa went down a bit easy, that is a guy who can eat some horrific shots, so I wasn't buying a running knee, plenty to love here though.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA

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Lawlers Gotta Have A Lot of Nerve

Jerry Lawler v. Jake Manning NEW 3/23/12 - FUN

ER: I had earlier called another a Lawler match vs. Brian Anthony the most barebones Lawler match possible, but I was incorrect. This was a sparse Lawler indie match, going just 7 minutes. That has to be the shortest Lawler indie match I've seen by at least 5 minutes. I'm not sure why this was so short. All of the elements of your basic Lawler indie match were there, him getting slammed, him getting backdropped, the punches comeback, the piledriver finish. A lot of bullshit was cut out to trim the match time, which depending on the opponent can be a blessing. Jake Manning was a guy who felt like kind of a modern Gambler, decked out in scout troop uniform and short khaki shorts, calling himself the "Man Scout". He took all of Lawler's punches really hammy (in a way that I enjoyed) that immediately reminded me of Gambler taking Sting's offense. So the Man Scout was a guy I would've actually liked to see more bullshit from. You can take your 20 minute Romeo Roselli matches, give me some Man Scout bullshit! I picture him standing on Lawler's throat while reciting the Scout's Pledge, or tying Lawler to the turnbuckles with the tag rope, using knots that he learned for his Knots Badge. Really for every scout badge there is, there's bullshit you can easily associate with it. Get on the mic and talk about your Public Speaking badge, carefully climb the ropes and point to your Safety badge, ape a bunch of Tatanka tomahawk chops for your Indian Lore badge, etc. Endless. So I'm bummed we got none of that here. Still, Lawler gets smashed into the ringpost a couple times, and the finish was fun with Manning taking down both of his straps only to immediately get caught in a Lawler piledriver.

PAS: Yeah I would have liked to see this go longer too. Manning is a guy I have seen before and is a really solid wrestler. Not flashy, but does everything well. He doesn't have as much Scout shtick as Eric suggests maybe Eric should be ghostwriting for a Southern indy Chikara knock off. Lawler looked great in the things he got to do, the postings were super brutal looking and the punches and piledriver looked great but this was the indy equivalent of a WMC studio match.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE KING

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

The Shield v. The Wyatt Family WWE Elimination Chamber 2/23

ER: Fans are already chanting This Is Awesome before the match even starts, and I'm kinda right there with them. I've been excited for this one for weeks. And it's fucking great. We've seen a lot of great WWEDG sprints from these teams and here they get to have a long story driven match with elements the sprints didn't really have. My favorite was Luke Harper doing Bray's dirty work. Every time Harper would go manbeast on somebody (which happened a lot), Bray would be sleazily waiting there for the tag. It was never presented as a cowardly heel taking advantage of a situation, just a guy dutifully beating ass for his boss. Also loved all the teamwork of the Shield, from their early quick tags to their later saves and trying to have each others' backs. It was all so much fun and about 10 minutes in when Rollins hits a dive we never look back. Rollins can get overshadowed in other trios, but he really got to shine here, sticking and moving against all the Wyatts, ragdolling for all the power spots (loved him being sent flying from a Rowan fallaway slam). Harper has always been a big guy I really liked, but whereas I used to think he was a fun Necro Butcher tag partner, now I think he's one of the best workers in the world. He was an absolute monster in this. His big boot is one of my favorite current spots, although that may be because I love how Ambrose and Reigns each run into it. His suicide dive was massive (of course followed by Rollins folding him in half on a flip dive). Ambrose was so great in this, always flying into frame like a dirtbag on Cops who keeps breaking free of restraint. Him saving Rollins from a double chokeslam through a table was perfect, leading to Bray tackling him into the crowd and Rollins getting blasted through a table anyway. The Reigns/Rowan power spots were killer and they actually made me dig a double clothesline spot. This was just a beautiful match in terms of hierarchy and story and just great spots.

PAS: Super impressive match and a real testament to the WWE training program, no way Husky Harris/Thoruf/Brodie Lee v. Tyler  Black/Jon Moxley/Leakee would be anywhere close to this good. I really loved how the Wyatt's out Shielded the Shield, as for over a year the Shield would win by isolating people and picking off the weak link, and here the Wyatts did it to them. It was like watch a fast break basketball team run into a team who can out run them. Man did I love Ambrose here, he always kind of had a Piper feel in promos, but here he really was wrestling like peak Piper, an out of control lunatic who was always popping off and throwing wild hands. I think the RAW singles match showed it couldn't work in big doses, but the Bray v. Roman battle of the bulls was perfectly pulled off here. It is too bad they rushed this feud a bit, I would have loved to see this a hundred different ways, really the best heel v. heel match in US wrestling history, and the rematch wasn't far behind.


2014 MASTER LIST

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At Night Time the King Goes Out to Look at People

Jerry Lawler v. Slyck Wagner Brown NEW 10/3/04 - SKIPPABLE

ER: Woof. When was the last time you went out of your way to watch a Slyck Wagner Brown singles match? Because I just did. And if feels like I went out of my way to watch a Slyck Wagner Brown singles match. This match just goes on forever. Brown is not good at doing things related to pro wrestling, but I suppose we needed 20 minutes or so to let him tell his story. His story was not very good. You can't get back 20 Slyck Wagner Brown minutes. They're gone forever. Brown has no offense outside of kicks, punches and a moonsault, but even those things seem like maybe too much for him to handle as he's not good at moving from one to the other and seems to get frequently lost during the match. Here he's always repositioning Lawler in unintentionally funny ways. He'll be punching Lawler in the corner, then stop, then kinda grab Lawler by the shoulders and move him over to the ropes, as if to say "Okay, now if you could just stand riiiiight there...." Other times Lawler has to put himself into position for moves that Brown is already supposed to be doing. At one point it was clear that Lawler was supposed to get choked over the middle rope, but Brown was just kind of standing around as if Lawler was supposed to be the one to drape himself over the ropes! Sadly, Lawler does exactly that. Also, we have Mick Foley as the muggy guest ref, who at one point stops the match to go on a detective hunt when he suspects Brown's second may have interfered. I can't shit talk Lawler's performance in this as he tries to make do with all the garbage, but he is just one man. His dropkick was incredible in this, one of the highest I've seen him hit, but Brown and everybody else just drug this dooooooown.

PAS: I remember a period when Slyk Wagner Brown was in the same general discussion as guys like Low-Ki and Christopher Daniel and Homicide. He always stunk, but he would get booked as a worker on USA-Pro and NWA-NJ shows. He was kind of big and the kind of fake athletic, ie could do a moonsault and had a high leapfrog. Some of the Northeast indy guys who disappeared, I would love to have show up and face Lawler, how good would Lawler v. Xavier be? Lawler could have a good match against Cheetah Master, a fun brawl with Magic, he could be a nice base for Ric Blade. It is too bad we have to sit through Slyk (by we I mean Eric, I didn't watch this).

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LAWLER

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Spotlight on Japan

Rush vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (NJPW) by JAHMAL1111

Rush vs. Shinsuke Nakamura NJPW 1/18/14

So early on in wrestling fandom I would get really excited when one of my favorite luchadors would work Japan, or one of my favorite Japanese wrestlers would work Mexico. And it almost always sucked. I loved Minoru Tanaka in 2000/2001 (boy how the years change things) and then Heat came to CMLL and bored me to tears. Often when they go to Japan luchadors just match up against another lucahdor also along for the ride. I've seen fun lucha matches in Japan (I'm thinking the great man/woman/tranny/mini match from Hustle 3) but the only luchador vs. puro match from the last 15 years jumping out at me as killer is Gran Apache's run from W*ing. I think LA Park worked a Tag League but I'm not sure any of it ever made tape. I don't know if there's a tough language barrier or a style clash or what, but it just doesn't seem to happen often.

So I saw Rush vs. Nakamura happened and I was instantly jazzed as Rush is one of my favorite luchadors and Nakamura is one of the only current Japanese guys who excites me. You never get top stars from lucha mixing up with top stars from Japan. It's not like Hijo Del Santo vs. Kawada was ever going to be a thing that happened.

And Rush/Nakamura went out and had a killer little 10 minute match. Nakamura looks like a complete nutbar with weird body paint and brings all the cool kick combos and knees and doesn't puss out on taking Rush's beastly corner dropkick. Rush also hits a brutal running dropkick off the apron that sends Nak flying and is one of my favorite spots of the year. Rush tries working heel by throwing out some silly "Mexico is best" chatter, which, well at least he tried working that dynamic.  There was no overkill (match may have actually worked better as a 2/3 falls match in CMLL) but this was a fun beatdown with nice hope spots. I'm a big fan of an easily digestible short match, and this match ticked a lot of fun boxes for me.

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