IWRG 2/11/10

Heros/Brazo Metalico Jr. v. Avisman/Alan Extreme

PAS: This was a story of two halves. Match opens with eight minutes of Avisman and Heros trading crazy submissions. Heros was obviously lead through it, but these two guys have nice mat charisma and Avisman was breaking out some truly freaky shit. His reverse indian deathlock while stepping on the hands was totally awesome looking. Unfortunately the match falls all the way apart when it leaves the mat. I have liked Alan Extreme and Brazo Metalico Jr. in the past, but they looked bad here, and Heros and Avismans non mat sections weren't good either. Watch the youtube section and pass on the rest.

TKG: Alan Extreme and Brazo Metalico Jr both appeared to be wearing some kind of two-color mask. I haven’t seen the Avisman mask in a long time. Still there is no way undercard IWRG luchadors in random pairings are buying Heros/Metalico Jr or Alan Extreme/Avisman bi-color masks specially made. I liked the Alan Extreme v Heros fast exchanges where Alan had an in air answer for all of Heros big aerial moves. They managed to do that without looking super cooperative. There was a lot of awkward looking stuff in the match. The finish to remove Metalico Jr did look super cooperative and just dumb. They do the one guy gets on his hands and knees for other guy to launch off back to get height for corner lariat spot and instead Avisman just jumps over Alan Extreme and walks over to hit clothesline. But overall I wasn’t as impressed with first fall as Phil (maybe one cool knot and one amazing Avisman reversal) and wasn’t as bothered by the rest.

Trauma I/II v. Maldito Jr./Samot

PAS: This is everything you wanted this match to be. Samot and Maldito Jr. aren't very good, but they are very big, and very willing to get potatoed by the Traumas. Idiots who complain about lucha not being stiff enough need to watch the shellacking delivered by the Traumas here, there is one point where they are brawling on the floor where II delivers this short little elbow that looked like it crossed Maldito Jr.'s eyes. The big dudes fired fine too, with some nasty overhand chops and a pancaking senton. Match fell apart a bit when every they tried anything too complex, but Trauma II jumping into a gogoplata was ridiculous. I love the Traumas.

TKG: This wasn’t just a Trauma’s brawl. Not brawl dominated the way last weeks Trauma’s match was. This was more of a basic match that had the matwork at start, a couple brawl sections, a double team section, rope running fast exchange section, yadda yadda. It’s just that the brawling parts were most memorable and best parts. Maldito Jr and Samot have improved a ton since first saw them. It used to be that they would bump exactly the same for whatever offense was thrown their way. Their bumping has become a bit more varied. Samot has become fun at stooging heel stuff. The non brawling parts were sometimes awkward but had a bunch of cool moments. I liked Samot’s no air senton, Maldito Jr backdrop bump where instead of going for high bump he seemed to go for distance, Trauma I’s shrugging out of camel clutch, and the super fast Trauma II go behind arm drag. I also want to point out that when the Traumas first showed up they did their “Trauma I holds opponent off apron/Trauma II double stomps” double-team move as an aerial highspot…in the last two matches they’ve turned it into a part of brawling section. It wasn’t particularly interesting as a highspot…it works great how they’re using it now.

Dr. Cerebro/Black Terry/El Hijo Del Signo v. Pantera/El Hijo Del Pantera/Zatura

PAS: Really good match which was a step below great. We get a long opening mat section (which we are getting in a ton of lucha matches lately, not just in IWRG, WELCOME BACK LUCHA MAT WRESTLING! FUCK YEAH!) with some really beautiful stuff being done by Cerebro and Zatura. Then it breaks down into pretty damn great brawling. What was really strange is that your technicos were acting really dickish. Terry and Cerebro are coming off this bloody feud defending Mexico, and the Technicos are smacking Terry on his bad neck and trying to bite open wounds. Terry does an amazing job as a wounded Rottweiler, still dangerous and violent, but there is both a hurt paw and hurt pride. Hijo Del Pantera is not ready for this kind of match, he hit his signature spots fine, but this required more, and he didn't really have it. Signo was better, he took an insane bump into the chairs for example, but this match needed Cerebro Negro and Freelance.

TKG: I liked Hijo del Pantera and Hijo del Signo in this. In the past I’ve thought of Hijo Del Pantera as a guy who is ill prepared for the push he’s getting. But he actually worked fine here and this was the sharpest his brawling has looked. I actually liked the dynamic where you had those two almost always working against each other. It almost had the feel of Japanese tags where rookie or junior teams with heavyweight. I mean neither of these guys are (or will ever be) Kikuchi or Fuchi but I liked the way that role worked in the match, thought there exchanges all were nice and thought the final Hijo del Pantera submission on Hijo del Signo looked awesome. Phil has mentioned the Zatura v Cerebro mat exchanges which were super tough looking, but the opening Pantera v Terry matwork was also a blast as Terry continued to sell the neck and head (from martinete on chair in last match) throughout the matwork…and you had this neat story of when is Pantera going to decide to exploit that injury.

IWRG ON SEGUNDA CAIDA