IWRG 11/8/09

Dr. Cerbero v. Mickie Segura- Cabellero contra Cabellero

TKG:This starts all out with Dr Cerebro really dominating first two fall. He just comes out and tries to wreck Segura. This is a big moves match but isn't a modern lucha back and forward big moves match. Cerebro absolutely dominates the first fall and is a beast until Segura's comeback in the second. Segura also is especially nasty with all his stuff. Post second fall he lays Cerebro's head across bottom rope and blasts it with a headbutt. You get a real sense in this of two guys trying to finish the other off. Problem in many current hair matches is the sense that neither guy wrestles it differently until third fall or that their really isn't anything on the line. Both guys here are trying to win this and treat it like it matters from go. The third fall starts really great and epic but falls apart as a result of way too much second interference overbooking. When Segura wins it almost was a letdown since I was still waiting for the Francine/Beulah cat fight.

PAS: I had a really complicated relationship with this match, I didn't love the first falls as it felt too speedy to me, I wanted them to slow down, do less and have it mean more. By the third fall though, they started really smashing each other with big cool moves and having dramatic awesome nearfalls. Segura hits a sick death valley driver, Cerebro lands a reverse backcracker which looks like it fractured Segura's jaw. If the match ended like this, the start made a lot more sense, and I regretted my earlier dislike of it. However then we get the ECW run in finish, which went way too long, and felt like the lights needed to go out a couple of times "OH MY GOD IT'S CICLON RAMIEREZ HE DOESN'T WORK HERE" , and my dislike of the first couple of falls felt vindicated.

Bobby Lee Jr./Jack/Olimpico v. Fuerza Gurrerra/Oficial 911/Pirata Morgan

PAS: On paper this looked like a match with a great rudo team against a useless technico team. Which it kind was, although we got way more out of the technico team then I was expecting. Unmasked Jack was flying around and had multiple cool moments, including an awesome looking double take down, Bobby Lee Jr looked fine, and even Olimpico looked sprier then he had in years. I wasn't expecting much, as these kind of heavyweight main event trios are usually the turd in the IWRG punch bowl, but I dug this.

TKG: My problem with the cage mach that ended with 911 v Yack was the real sense that you don't start the cage match with Dusty v JJ Dillon and end it with Steamboat v Arn. Here the 911 v Yack sections felt like they were placed appropriately, and I dug mst of the Yack interaction with the other two rudos as well. The first fall of pure rudo beatdown was neat as these are three good rudos. As they started to have to eat stuff I was pleasantly surprised by Pirata. Pirata really felt like a giant bump machine really going up high for everything. Pirata's been a giant bump machine for over thirty years. He isn't taking 1980s crazy Pirata bumps. But you'd think at this point in his career he'd stop leaving his feet. Instead he's flying all around the ring.

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IWRG 11/1/09

This was the real start of the glorious deluge of IWRG we have gotten in the last couple of months


Mickie Segura/Dr. Cerebro v. Trauma II/Oficial Fiero

TKG: This is a parejas increibles match where the loosing team has to face each other in a hair match. They do some early teasing of dissension between Trauma II and Official Fierro (technico isn't pleased with heel heelishness stuff) but both teams manage to hold it together. The first fall matwork was really nice as to be expected. I had forgotten how good Segura is on the mat and Dr. Cerebro is really great at making opponents mat work look good. I especially liked his sell and escape for the camel clutch. Second fall is more brawling intensive and Trauma II has improved a ton with his brawling. He used to be a guy with really fast accurate hands, but it never felt like he had a lot of strength behind his punches. You can't win pro-wrestling matches on Olympic boxing scoring. He has learned to make his punches look like they land with more force.

PAS: Mickie Segura was a real star of 2002-2004 IWRG but he has been really making only sporadic appearances in the last half a dozen years. It is good to have him back as he looked like a total superstar here. He hit a missile tope which flew Fiero backwards into the crowd, and moved around the ring with impressive speed and agility. The finish was really spectacular, Cerebro is choking Fiero on the ropes and Segura comes to apron dropkick him, but accidentally cracked Cerebro too. It looked super violent like an accidental collision between teammates on an NFL kickoff return.

Castillo Del Terror

TKG: Mascara Ano Dos Mill Jr points out that this match ends with two "undercarders": "como novatos son perdedores". And that really felt like the big flaw of this match. Over the last couple years the Castillo has ended with heavyweights brawling to a finish. Even if it's a heavyweight who you know isn't going to loose his mask (Rayo) there is some added drama that real stuff is on the line. The 2009 Castillo Del Terror really felt like a match with al heavyweights and two juniors. Toxico, Olimpico, Mascara Ano Dos Mill Jr, Bobby Lee Jr. Xibalba, Trauma I, Tinieblas Jr. Fantasma de La Opera and Yack and 911. Yack especially felt like he was working as jobber in a match desperate for a cheap escape and having nothing but hope spots against guys tossing him around. Perhaps a Tinieblas v Yack finish might have meant something with Yack fighting against odds (and Tinieblas looking like he really knew how to work this type of match). A Yack v Mascara Ano Dos Mill Jr finish might have worked well too. Mascara Ano Dos Mill Jr. as wrecking ball destroying final two guys with final two working as underdogs against the odds was interesting. But in the end you are left with 911(who can only win with help of his team) v Yack booked as battle of undercard losers.

PAS: There were a couple of individually nice moments in this match, Trauma I had nice headbutts, and Jack took some nice bumps, but this isn't a type of match I particularly like and there wasn't any individually great performances to mitigate the mediocrity.

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