Invasion Azteca 3/8 ROAD REPORT

TKG: So an advertisement for a lucha show in Delaware main evented by Solar, Kendo and Mike Quackenbush v Castagnoli, Mr. Ferrari and Negro Navarro shows up on lucha board El Martinete. The poster for the show is accompanied by a youtube clip from Producciones Alexander with Negro Navarro talking about working a Philly show and a Delaware show over the weekend of the 7th/8th. So with a little detective work I figure out that the Saturday show will be held at a skating rink in New Jersey and the Sunday show is being held at a Banquet Hall in Delaware. Phil contacts Dean , Cooke and Childs and we make plans to try to hit both shows. Indy wrestling being indy wrestling I call the promoter on Thursday to confirm everything and discover that the Saturday show has been cancelled as a result of some sort of Junior Hockey Finals, but I’m assured that the Sunday one is still on.

PAS: Dean bails unfortunately, but Tim is a mench and scoops us in DC and we head off to Delaware. We stop in Havre De Grace and end up eating at a fancy Ribs and Steak house. I got some really tender ribs, Tom got some seafood with vodka sauce (he asked for a shot of vodka on the side) and Tim got a Chicken Parm with four giant chicken breasts. It was amazing it was like someone threw a KFC ten piece on a plate of pasta

TKG: We spend most of the drive up predicting the reality of the show. Will it be the real Kendo or Crossbones in a Kendo Mask? Is Kendo a Mascara Sagrada/Hijo del Hurrican Ramirez type gimmick where there is a different one in each state of Mexico? Would we better off getting the Durango or the Oaxaca Kendo? Is Solar going to be Helios in a Solar mask? Didn’t Kendo take Solar II’s mask? Possibly Solar II? Tim questions the idea of their being enough Mexican-Americans in Delaware to justify flying in more than one legit luchador. I point out that we’re going to a Banquet hall that regularly brings in Sinaloan Banda’s; eight piece dance bands from a specific Mexican state. Phil talks about the demographics of company towns, yadda yadda and we find the Banquet Hall but can’t figure out the entrance. Tim drives down the perpendicular road which leads to a dirt road which leads to a mud road which leads to a pile of rocks which leads to the back entrance. Tim does not have four wheel drive but says “Fuck it, LUCHA LIBRE!” and we off road our way into the back of the club.

TKG: Arrive in the place a little before five. It’s pretty empty, beers are three bucks. There were two merch tables, one a Chikara table selling Sarah Del Rey Shirts and pictures, and I don't know who was making the profit from the other merch table. Second merch table was selling gimmick masks for $25-$50, selling AM radio station T shirts, and DVDs of concerts from the same space. They were nice looking masks. I especially dug the half Rayo/half Niebla one that a couple kids bought. On the JC Ice shoot, Dundee mentions that Kendo made the Cyberpunk masks. Maybe these were Kendo products, who knows? Childs shows up we get some beers and sit down and wait for place to fill up and the show to start.

K Atomico “The Ultimo Fantastico” v Payaso Del Futuro

PAS: I think this might have been K Atomico's first wrestling match, and while he looked good early, by the end he looked like a guy in his first wrestling match. Payaso Del Futuro was a super solid old school rudo and he worked the bumps and the shtick around Atomico.

TKG:The Ultimo Fantastico is seconded by "Nuevo Fantastico" Kendo. Both Kendo and Payaso do a lot of jawing with the crowd to get them into the match. I think the finish was supposed to be K Atomico puts Payaso del Futuro in a submission. The ref seemed oblivious to the submission and they had to awkwardly improvise a Payaso escape and lay down for pin. Lesson for future money marks; bring in a lucha ref or make Mr Ferrari ref the opener.

Stigma/Klondike Grizzly v Frightmare/Cometa de Oro

PAS: Stigma and Frightmare are both Chikara guys,Klondike Grizzly was legitimately big, 6'3-6'4 340-360 he bumped well for such a huge dude, but seemed pretty out of place on this show. Cometa de Oro moved like a luchadore, maybe there is a local DE lucha scene where he feuds with Payaso Del Futuro. This was a fun little match, lots of tiny Frightmare trying to avoid the giant Grizzly, there were a couple of awkward moments, but definitly a match the crowd enjoyed.

TKG: I don’t know about Klondike being out of place. This type of local wrestling show aimed at families is going to have one smart ass old man cracking jokes at the heels expense. A guy who makes the kids laugh and mothers blush. You need a big pasty guy to really bring out the best in your smart ass old man heckler. Grizzly did that. I don’t know how good Grizzly’s Spanish was as he didn’t banter back when mocked for how many hamburgers he ate, or how his heart wasn’t going to be able to take any more exercise, or how he better enjoy throwing kicks while he could before the diabetes takes his leg, etc. But Grizzly seemed to understand enough to at least mime responses, “ Look at my fatty muscles”,” watch me rub my tummy”, etc. For all I know, Grizzly knows no Spanish but he just innately understood that he was being mocked and needed to egg it on. On the apron he seemed to understand the perfect ratio between being engaged in what’s happening in the ring and engaged with the audience.

Chivas Riyadas IV v Hallowicked

PAS: This was the best undercard match of the night. Riyadas wrestles in a Goat mask and soccer jersey and has a ton of really amusing soccer spots. My favorite was when the ref red carded Hallowicked giving Chivas a free kick, he brings out his little soccer ball and while Wicked stands there he gives him a dropkick. Riyadas really looked like the best guy on the undercard, and if he isn't a Chikara guy under a different gimmick, they should use him more.

TKG: The Chivas Rayadas are a soccer club from the Mexican state of Guadalajara who use a goat as a mascot. In Banda music the goat is used as a metaphor for cuckolding someone, heroin, and the trigger on a submachine gun. But this is a family show so they stuck to soccer and literal goat spots (lots of butting variations and Rayo matador spots). All of the soccer spots and goat spots were funny and well done and they moved in and out of them well. Chivas Rayadas IV came off as a really polished wrestler. He knew how to work the crowd and had beautiful looking highspots. Phil thought he might have been Quack until intermission when he saw the two at the same time. Hallowicked played role of guy getting constantly outsmarted well too.

TKG: And there is a long intermission, where I think Phil gets “gringo priced” into spending too much on food.

PAS: I ask the lady how much the tacos are, she goes to the back and a different guy comes out and tells me $10. I figure "fuck it the guy flew in Negro Navarro" and give the guy the ten spot. The tacos were pretty damn tasty

Osidian Portal v Fire Ant/Soldier Ant

PAS: I enjoyed the first fall okay, but this match was basically a trainwreck. This was a show with an entirely Mexican audience, full of little kids all of whom came to see lucha. In the first fall, they did a decent job of establishing rudos and technicos and working a basic lucha tag, very similar to what the guys in the first tag did. Then in the second and third falls they decided to work their tape trader/Differ Cup tag match full of big elaborate spots and 2.9 counts, and they completely lost the crowd. There was a 3 year old in front of me, who was super into the show, clapping hands with the technicos, booing the rudos, running around, by the middle of the third fall he was whining to his mom to take him outside, people were texting, a couple got up in the middle of the match to go to the bathroom to fuck. A real example of rookies having no idea how to work a match for the crowd they were in front of.

TKG: The first fall was good, and crowd was amused by Amasis’ Abby in the seventies style yelping sell. We all dug the first fall and then they went on to a second which felt like they were playing more to the camera then the crowd and by the third no one was paying attention anymore. I don’t go to a wrestling show to appreciate a serious lecture, I go because its fun escapism. You go to a show like this one and enjoy being surrounded by families enjoying the fun escapism. So when the crowd sees the face being mesmerized by one heel performing a lap dance on the other heel, I try to explain that the heels aren’t taunting the face’s homosexuality. When the kids loose interest I try to get a handclap started, an anti-snake chant started and later a “Hormigas” chant started. But it’s easier to do those things if guys are doing stuff for long enough to build up a chant. Hard to get either a clap or chant going if it’s just guys going throwing stuff out back and forth. I’m not starting a dueling chant. . I’m trying to keep the kids engaged in the match, but the match wasn’t helping. I’m not a big fan of “Please Don’t stop” 2.9 end runs but I’ll admit that in TNA they at least pop a crowd. But there is no reason to do them when none of the extended traded big nearfalls are getting any reaction. It really was wrestlers working in a vacuum indifferent to the crowd.

Halcon Guerrerro/Sara Del Ray v Lince Dorado/Roxie Cottton

PAS: This was kind of weird match, Lince came out in green ant gear, which I initially thought was foreshadowing, but turned out to be the ground work for a classic carny con, the match was also supposed to feature Annie Social as the technica, but she was replaced by fellow Beatdown Betty Roxy Cotton. I really don't think Roxy Cotton works on a lucha show, I mean Mexicans aren't really into pill abuse, also I really don't get Roxy Cotton as a technica anywhere. Only place I can really see Oxy abuse as a face move is IWA-MS, I dunno does J.C. Baliey's dad still run a fed? Decent match, which I think was hurt by the crowd being killed by previous tag. Also no reason for this to be 2/3 falls, the first part of the show was all Una Caida and then post intermission it was all Dos Y Tres Caida, you needed to mix them up a bit, as the crowd got used to one pace, and as they were getting a bit tired the dragged it out.

TKG: I disagree with Phil on all of this. Completely disagree. I mean first of all an Oxy gimmick as the sidekick to a technica luchadora working a Lola La Trailera gimmick totally would work. Lola La Trailera with Roxie Cotton and Barbie Xurate vs. Female Officales writes itself. Still Roxie Cotton wasn’t working as Roxie Cotton anyway. Perhaps on a Saturday night show Roxie and the Chiva would work more “adult gimmicks” but this was a Sunday family show and the ring announcer announced Roxie Cotton as just “ Roxie”. When she first came out I was skeptical. One would think that ditzy superficial gringa is a heel gimmick. But Roxie pulled off almost face Bernadette Peters befuddled performance. There was a touch of “How did I get into this mess” Lucille Ball. It was practically vaudevillian as she bumped around confused and rallied the kids behind her “c’mon kids help me out”. I also think this worked well as a two out of three falls match. You need a match that introduces the two out of three fall structure and this was a simple story told over the three falls. They maintained the face heel structure, got over everyone’s character, and had simple payoffs for the crowd to get behind. This didn’t build toward Roxie running through all her Meth Lab Exploder variations. No, they were smarter than that. Simple pay offs. Sara Del Rey getting her head shoved into Halcon’s junk got bigger pop than anything in the last two falls of the previous match. Exactly how you work a midcard 2/3 caidas. Well told story that keeps the crowd engaged without trying to be a super spectacular.

Mike Quackenbush/Kendo/Solar v Negro Navarro/Mr. Ferrari/Claudio Castegnoli

TKG: So I have been a Solar fan for ages, and anytime you get to see Solar and Negro Navarro match up it’s a treat. The criticism they get is that they’re guys who just work in a vacuum doing their signature stuff that the crowd doesn’t care about. It’s a weird criticism for matches that end with the crowd throwing money in the ring. And well live these two guys do endless shit talking to get the crowd into it. I’ve written a lot over the years about the sportsmanship structure behind a lot of lucha where questions of cooperation are negated by the basic struggle of trying to show up opponent’s technique. Here that whole thing got played out with lots of shit talking making that point. Navarro does endless shit talking ;“Hey you think that’s nice, well how bout this, Oh I have an answer for that, you have an answer for this, never seen that before have you?, yadda yadda”. At one point Solar gets fed up with the whole thing and just gets up and starts making fun of Navarro for looking like an uglier Lupillo Rivera and then does a little dance mocking Navarro’s lack of smoothness. First fall has Navarro and Solar trading super fast go behinds and take downs. I mean their exchanges were Yoshino fast but with Hansen force. They do a Quack/Claudio section and a Kendo/Ferrari section and then movie into the Quack/Navarro section. Quack matches up with Navarro on the mat and we get long back and forth sections of holds,escapes and counterholds surrounded by shit talking. Kendo is also super charismatic on the apron egging Quackenbush on and slow clapping Navarro when he does something impressive. Solar may think Navarro is an awkward ugly dancer but Kendo will give him his due. Quack is this ridiculous mutherfucker who really has carved himself a neat niche in wrestling. He’s the guy who gets to play bass with Sky Saxon, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Link Wray, Don and Dewey, Charlie Feathers, etc. Not the guy with the hit record but the guy who gets to play with the cult legends. And honestly that’s a bad ass career. The fall ends with a nasty submission that looked like Navarro tore Quacks arm off. I want to point out that it isn’t that Quack is just good at mat exchanges but he’s really good at selling both being wrenched in submissions and the whole process of being pissed that he is caught in submission leading to “a ha” “I think this is an answer” to get out of those submissions. Like the opener there is some gringo ref confusion as Bryce Remsburg looks like a deer caught in the headlights. Solar asks him if Quack was the captain and Bryce takes a minute to decide that the fall is over. Second fall is much shorter although started at same pace. Kendo does his bouncing kip ups which is awesome given how incredibly out of shape he looked. And I think this fall ended with two technico non-captains doing crossbodies on the the two non captain heels. Third fall is your “it all breaks down fall” with everyone pissed. Perfect finish with Claudio having caught Quack in claw (which was a silly submission given all the others that were used in the match but whatever) at the same time Navaro decides to throw an obvious frustrated low blow at Solar. Kind of could have used two refs to get over the finish. Post match there are lots of challenges made over the sound system. And having seen that match, the crowd is salivating for every single one of them.

PAS: Just a tremendous match. Navarro is a physical specimen live, he is 51 years old, but built like a tank. He really looks like he would kick the shit out of you, which isn't something you would say about anyone else on this card. The vacuum criticism about Solar and Navarro was really shown to be bullshit, I doubt there were very many people at this show who were familiar with either guy, but they both acted like and were treated like stars. The Navarro v. Quack exchanges were truly awesome. The first fall really established Navarro as the superior guy, he would reverse out of Quack's submissions, and when he would he would wrench one on Quack and then release it, the way you might imagine a jujitsu black belt would if he was rolling with a student. Showing Quackenbush who was boss, so when Quack finally catches him in the second fall, you can see why he loses his cool and starts brawling. Such a nifty little story, and so much cooler then if Solar and Navarro just did their mat section. Lucha Libre trios are often focused on one match up, with the other 4 guys being secondary, and I was really impressed with how well everyone else in this match played a secondary role. Riling up the crowd, working cool exchanges, while still allowing the Quackenbush v. Navarro showdown to take precedence. I know Quack is going to be out for a while with surgery, but I hope we get to see that singles match he teased us with.

PAS: I totally loved this show, great lucha libre in front of a great lucha libre crowd is my favorite live experience, and I enjoyed this show in a stip mall back room in Delaware as much as I enjoyed seeing a hair match in Arena Mexico. Lets hope we get a come back.