IWRG 9/3/09

Blasfemia/Vampiro Metálico vs. Exodia/Miss Gaviota

TKG: Exodia makes it all the way through this match without injuring himself. Instead Miss Gaviota tweaks her neck on a dive. Vampiro Metalico and Blasfemia are both guys with really amusing facial expressions. They are a fun heel RPMs always loosing exchanges and mugging concern about possibly being touched by Gaviota.

PAS: Before this match Tomk asked me what fall I thought Exodia would injure himself, Gaviota getting crippled instead was a real Russo twist. Blasfemia is such a scumbag looking dude there is no way he hasn’t sucked a cock or two for drugs. I do still buy him being freaked out by Miss Gaviota though, because public is public.

Bushi/Chico Che/Freelance vs. Avisman/Brandon (IWRG)/Gringo Loco

TKG: I have no idea who Brandon is but he is a fine guy to eat some brawling from Chico Che. Freelance matches up early opposite Avisman and they are guys who will do shit you’ve never seen before when paired up. At one point Avisman throws Freelance into essentially the Chris Hamrick caught in ropes corner bump. At an other Avisman tosees Freelance over his head for Freelance to land outside the ring on the middle rope and then essentially 2nd rope moonsault his way back in. Gringo Loco is a guy who has spent a chunk of his career working as a mini heel and he is really great at bumping around for Freelance’s stuff. The third fall is absolutely nuttball as everyone just goes for bigger and bigger crazy dives.

PAS: I thought the first two falls were a little underwhelming, but holy shit was the third fall crazy. When Chico Che gets on a roll he is one of the most spectacular wrestlers in the world, and I loved his in ring tope here. Freelance is fucking nuts and we keep saying it, he breaks out a springboard flip dive which ends with him in the third row of seats. Rudos didn’t do anything super spectaular but they were all pretty good at being at the right place when folks went flying.

Head Hunter I & Tóxico DF vs. Bobby Lee Jr. & Scorpio Jr.

TKG: Toxico is a big guy with a really cool elaborate outfit. He comes in with an elaborate metal mask jet pack and flare shooting guns. But he stinks in the ring. Bobby Lee Jr is a guy who can do some fine rope running exchanges but instead is stuck doing embarrassing HBKesque strike exchanges with Toxico. Headhunter and Scorpio make each other bleed and bleed and bleed. Headhunter probably can’t do a moonsault anymore but he takes a big bump to the floor and his standing splashes, butt drops (or spots where he grinds his body into opponent) all really look like they would hurt.

PAS: I have no idea why you would run a grim bloody spectacle like this as a semi main, when your main is Sangre Chicana and V3 Still Scorpio and Headhunter I can bleed and they do. Scorpio looks like he has melted cherry Slurpee coming out of his head, and Headhunter punches him in the wound. We have seen a bunch of shitty luchadores while going through the IWRG for 2009, but I think Toxico is the worst, very cool mask, very very bad wrestler.

Sangre Chicana vs. Villano III

TKG: Yep this is everything you wanted it to be. Sangre Chicana comes in seconded by his son carrying a bag with a rusty cheese grater. They also had a heel ref but the heel ref never got too involved or central to the match. In the tag match I said that I was disappointed with Villano III’s face comebacks. Here he delivered. throwing some cool combos, headbutts some reckless stuff to the back of Chicana’s head, a bunch of DDTs and chairshots. Chicana also takes some nice looking bumps into chairs. They do the spot where Chicana holds Villano III for his son to tope only for VIII to move out of the way. Chicana Jr’s tope is a really huge Black Warrior bullet tope, and Chicana eats the bump against the ramp steps.

PAS: Chicana just oozes charisma in this match, he is not in the physical shape he was in the 1980’s, but I get the sense he could get way more broken down and still have an amazing match. He just knows how to move and strut and demonstrate. Villano III did look kind of shot in the tag last week, but he can still step up big for a main event mano y mano. Of course he bleeds, but he brings the offense too, I loved his rabbit punches and combos. Finish was totally great too, Villano is being double teamed by the Chicanas so he says “fuck it” and kicks him right in the balls. Great finish, to a great match.

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IWRG 8/27/09

More Slambamjam IWRG, god love Alfredo

Miss Gaviota/Star Boy vs. Carta Brava Jr./Vampiro Metálico

TKG: I dug the first two falls of this a bunch. Carta Brava and Star Boy match up really well as did Gaviota and Metalico. The crotching of StarBoy into heel offense was a fun transition spot. These opener tags sometimes fall apart either during the heel double team section or when the faces comeback from those double teams. It didn’t here as Metalico/Brava team have some nice heel double team stuff and both of he faces are guys who can do comebacks well. Unfortunately, it did fall apart during the third face dominated fall as a lot of stuff felt off.

PAS: This was the best I have seen Miss Gaviota look, I am not sure she is much of a wrestler, but this had a ton of really amusing well worked exotico spots. I loved the octopus which forced her opponent to wave effeminately, and all of the showing of ass and kissing was timed really well. I am with Tom on the first couple of falls being good, and the third fall not being good, although in the second fall Star Boy does blow a kip up about as badly as I have seen. It looked like if I was taking a Pilates class and tried to kip up to impress a divorcee.

Bushi/Chico Che/Freelance vs. Avisman/Fantasma de la Ópera/Gringo Loco

TKG: The announcer describing all the participants in the match says that Gringo Loco reminds him of the great touring artist of the seventies Kris Kristopherson. I didn’t know Kristopherson was a country icon in Mexico. And really never really associated him with Gringo Loco. But now I can’t separate them in my head. He mostly does a bunch of Alice Doesn’t Live Here any More heel shtick here although he and Avisman have a bunch of neat double teams including The Sunday Morning Coming Down double leg drop. Somewhere in the long first fall Freelance absolutely concusses himself performing a top rope leap into a rana. Fantasma does a swanton type headbutt to Freelance prone head. And the whole thing is absolutely scary. Freelance looks completely loopy and you expect the whole match to fall apart. Instead he gets back in for another two falls takes every bump for a chop on the back of his head and does a ton of crazy suicidal dives. I mean I think this was a good match but I really couldn’t pay attention to anything but Freelance’s toughness and insanity.

PAS: Yeah this was really hard to judge as a match, as the second and third falls are completely judged through the lens of Freelance being the badest motherfucker on earth. Minutes after spiking himself on the top rope diving rana on the mat, he decided to do the same move to the floor. He also does an Asai moonsault which landed really nastily into the crowd. Chico Che looked really great too, as he has some really great moments of graceful flying. Freelance wins the match and does some post match mike work which I assume was something like “I want to thank the fans of El Salvador for the welcome, Pineapple, Wheelbarrow, Turkey Sandwich”

Black Terry, Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro vs. Barba Roja, Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Pirata Morgan Jr. [EdM Trios]

TKG: The Piratas really felt out of their league here. First fall has Dr Cerebro matched up opposite Jr, ,Black Terry matched up opposite Barba Roja and Cerebro Negro opposite Hijo. Black Terry strained his arm on an armdrag had a doctor check it out and then had Barba Roja work over his arm. Terry is really good at the wounded tough warrior stuff and that may have been the best first fall interaction. The other Piratas looked completely lost working technical mat based offense. Second fall was rope running move fall where everyone switched up partners and third fall was all about the big moves where member of team runs in to prevent the fall. Piratas were way more comfortable in those settings. The second fall where they were most comfortable was short, and the third fall felt kind of mechanical.

PAS: Black Terry cuts a post match promo basically saying “It is good for young guys like that to get experience against wrestlers like us.” The match really felt worked like that, with Cerebros being polished professionals, carrying some green rookies through a match. There was individual moments of competence from the Piratas, but this match was 90% Cerebros

Head Hunter I & Sangre Chicana vs. Scorpio Jr. & Villano III

TKG: This is a bunch of old guys stabbing each other and bleeding. Head Hunter I is a guy with a lot of Japanese experience and really plays to the ring side cameras, there were moments where he really delivered a great Pro Wrestling Gold Abby v Austin Idol cover shot opposite Scorpio. The Villano III comebacks didn’t involve any DDTs and really weren’t as energetic as his comeback run in the trios match. Heels win two straight falls which is kind of an odd booking for a show built around celebrating 25th anniversary of Scorpio Jr in wrestling. All four do mic work post match and all four are really good on the mic and make me want to see the matches this set up.

PAS: Scorpio Jr. spent most of those 25 years as a rudo, so it is appropriate to have the rudos dominate. Chicana was truly the standout here, as he was pretty energetically running around stabbing dudes in the head. He really has an expressive forking. Lots of gory headwounds from old dudes, which is what you want from this match.

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