IWRG 4/16/09

PAS: Check it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq7eKFsYUJk

TKG: So the original idea was that in an internet world where people consume wrestling like 45s, we would review whole LPs. Unfortunately we don’t have a whole show for 4/16/09. But this one match wasn’t so much a 45 as an EP, and needed to be commented on. Hopefully Alfredo will be able to find a source for whatever else made TV. Full show was: 1) Halcon 2000 b Zaico; 2) Daga & Eterno b Chico del Barrio & Comando Negro; 3) Diva Salvaje, Miss Gaviota, Sexy Gladis b Avisman, Hijo del Signo, Mixteco Jr.;4) Arlequin & Arlequin Verde b Hijo de Pierroth (IWRG) & Pierroth II; 5) Black Terry, Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro b Negro Navarro, Trauma I, Trauma II. I assume only last three matches made TV. Miss Gaviota is the only one of the IWRG exoticos that I’ve ever seen before. He isn’t really your normal prancing mincing exotico. He doesn’t really do any of that, he’s just a guy who is really smooth on the mat with a woman’s body. No prancing. You wouldn’t blink if he showed up on a Queen B show. I imagine him and Avisman would match up really well. And well the Arlequins v Pierroths is a feud that really gives you a peak into another universe. I don’t think I spend enough time thanking Steve Austin for saving the WWF. . So a toast to Austin, raise a beer and punch your significant other because without him HBK and Shane v Brothers of Destruction would be main eventing a Texas indy and look exactly like Arlequins v Pierroths. Well it wouldn’t draw as many Hispanics, but still. Spanky, American Dragon and Action Jackson would make an amusing Terribles Cerebros. On to the main event.

Negro Navarro/Trauma I/Trauma II v. Black Terry/Cerebro Negro/Dr. Cerebro

PAS: This is the first match in the Naculpan run of this feud (the Arena Xochimilico series is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Y2vY4DXtA and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4w4XhSMOiY&feature=channel) and is worked as a technical battle of one upsmanship. You have two veteran maestros each bringing in their young charges to determine superiority. The structure of the match was a little unusual especially in the first fall, as guys would lock in a submission and would release it, just to show they could get their opponent. This is the best I have seen Trauma 1 look, he was always the Solar 2 to his Trauma 2's Solar 1, but his mat section with Black Terry was the best of the three long opening mat sections. It had more countering then the others, and Trauma I also gets the first fall with an awesome spinning leg lock. Navarro surprisingly looked stronger in the third fall which was exchanges and brawling, then he did in the first two matwork falls. I loved his handshake takedown, but the Terry v. Navarro on the mat was a little underwhelming. However the Terry v. Navarro brawling was great especially his infighting, a sick headbutt and punch countering. The Cerebros also looked great. I think this was the best of three matches between these teams, but I still think their classic encounter hasn't happened yet. They are working each other twice next week, lets hope our youtube peeps hook us up.

TKG: Trauma 1 is still the Solar II of the Traumas as that was all Black Terry. One of the big differences between the stronger mat guys and the weaker ones in this match is the way the stronger ones will wrench the lesser opponent into the submission. Trauma I and Cerebro Negro are guys who will move one leg here and another leg here and an arm here and “look a cool looking submission”. Terry, Trauma II, Navarro and Dr Cerebro will take their opponent down directly into a sub. Their subs all feel like they’re set up by dragon screw moves as they just absolutely wrench a guy to the mat and wrench them into a tight sub. These aren’t so much cool looking subs as they are absolutely nasty ways to put those subs on. I think my favorites were the sub Terry set up in the first fall that’s set up by kicking the inner thigh and then steeping on the hand; and the application of Dr Cerebro’s sub on Trauma I in the second fall which was amazing, as I’ve always liked his goofy submission but I don’t remember any other time where it looked this much like he was applied with this much force and torque. The one point where Trauma I actually sneaks a sub in, it’s the only time any of his stuff has any torque behind it.

The neat thing about getting to watch this match workshoped around is how different the Naucalpan version of the technical match is from the Xochimilco version. In that match they hid Trauma I by having him not have a mat section at all in the first fall. Instead he worked a Coco Verde v Xibalva fast exchanges section. Here he gets walked through the mat stuff with Black Terry. Both matches have the exact same finishing sequence to set up the rematch. But everything before that is completely different. The Xochimilco match starts with both maestros matching up and working pretty even sections with the stronger junior member of the opposite team. Terry and Navarro worked as Mantell v Lawler, two tough guys who can go toe to toe on the mat and standing. They worked a long Trauma II face in peril getting double and triple teamed until Navarro came in upset about the liberties taken with his son and was attacking folks like Bruno after someone got his Italian up. The Naucalpan match is worked nothing like that. The Naucalpan match is worked with no sense of their being any parity in the matchups. Both teams are trying to set up the match up to take advantage of the other team’s weak side. First fall has the two strongest junior members (Dr and II) match up in a long really cool even section, while each maestro gets to work against the weaker member of the opposite team. They play this up and there is no real attempt to hide that Truama I and Cerebro Negro are outmatched. The Terry/Trauma I, Navarro/Cerebro Negro is not the only mismatch that they play up. Terry isn’t working Dutch in the Naucalpan match he’s working almost Gino. There is nothing Mantell v Lawlerish about the Terry v Navarro matchups. Instead they’re really worked like Tully v Hashimoto. Navarro is an absolute beast and Terry is a guy in over his head but a dangerous shitkicker when given the opportunity. First fall is Black Terry toying with Trauma I, Dr Cerebro working even with Trauma II, and Navarro toying with Cerebro Negro until he decides to submit him. Black Terry comes in to even it out and ends up underestimating Trauma I and gets caught in a submission. The playing up of the mismatch makes this feel like a big deal. Second fall has Navarro toying with Terry, Dr Cerebro avenging Terry by subbing Trauma I, and then Navarro underestimating Terry and getting caught in a sub. Third fall is the stand up section and the cheat to win finish. Pretty great match up and completely different than the Xochimilco one. As the announcer says “Si usted, si usted quiere a la lucha…Aqui, aqui esta la lucha” I like the lucha.

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#22: Matt Hardy

by Nick

Returning from five months out in late March just short of Wrestlemania, it’s surprising that Hardy was not lost in the WWE’s frayed afterglow of that season. Better still was his embrace of a brand switch that made him (with Finlay and Mark Henry) the veteran lynchpin of ECW, elevating all he worked with and making that show the company’s best television. His Swiss watch reliability in TV matches would today be legendary if Hardy had broken in at the right decade, billed as a Walking Tall roughneck by Bill Watts, Dusty Rhodes, or Ole Anderson of Hardy’s native Mid-Atlantic territory. The sentimental end of Hardy’s great 2008 in fact came in the first two weeks of ’09: a sharp ECW Title defense against Henry, then seven days later dropping the belt to wunderkind Jack Swagger in as textbook a title switch as you’ll see anywhere this year. But nothing in MH V.1’s year approaches his longstanding rivalry with MVP, a rare modern beef that’s remained in the hearts and minds of a slipshod Vince and co. nearly two years after its start. In ‘08 it was augmented by competition segments of the duo one-upping each another in chess, football, and arm wrestling; Hardy in a worked boxing match with MVP’s ringer Evander Holyfield, and a Summerslam beer drinking challenge refereed by Steve Austin, the logical bookend of their No Mercy ’07 pizza eating contest MC’ed by Tazz.

Recommended 2008 Matches:

~vs. Randy Orton, 3/31/08 Raw
~vs. MVP, 4/4/08 Smackdown
~vs. Chuck Palumbo, 4/11/08 Smackdown
~vs. MVP, 5/2/08 Smackdown
~vs. Chavo Guerrero, 6/29/08 Night of Champions
~w/ Finlay vs. Mark Henry/Mike Knox, 9/9/08 ECW
~vs. Mike Knox, 9/16/08 ECW
~vs. Evan Bourne, 10/26/08 No Mercy

Career Recommended Matches:

~Surge vs. Will O’ the Wisp [2/3 Falls, Mask vs. Title], 7/31/98 OMEGA
~The Hardy Boys vs. The Serial Thrillaz, 1/29/99 OMEGA
~vs. Rey Mysterio, 9/25/03 Smackdown
~Hardys vs. MNM 1/28/07 Royal Rumble
~vs. Joey Mercury, 3/2/07 Smackdown
~w/ Chris Benoit vs. Fit Finlay/MVP, 5/11/07 Smackdown
~vs. Finlay, 6/19/07 Smackdown
~vs. Chris Masters, 7/13/07 Smackdown

2009 Outlook:

Promoted to RAW in his new role as a bellyaching heel, interesting matchups for Hardy emerge: Cena-Hardy is something could have headlined a mid-80s Starrcade. Continuation of the MVP rivalry, with the roles now reversed, also has appeal. To his advantage is the RAW brand’s lack of talented villains, or utility players of any sort. Hardy spent ‘08 making good workers look great. What he can do given a chance with listless burdens like Michaels, Hunter, or Batista, fresh matchups that bastardize the word “fresh”, remains to be seen. Six years ago Hardy nailed his role as a self-absorbed, often hilarious sleaze who dubbed his lackeys MFers (Matt Fanatics), espoused a lifestyle of Mattitude, and wrote trite “Matt Facts” about himself that scrolled over his ring entrances. The success or failure of Hardy’s year then seems contingent on how fully he is able to develop his character’s wide-eyed delusions of grandeur.

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