CMLL on Galavision Workrate Report, 2/11/12

1. Princess Sugehit/Princesa Blanca/Amapola vs. Lady Apache/Estrellita/Dallys:

Pretty short match, so the falls ended way too quickly, but everybody seemed to work more aggressive than normal so it benefitted from that. I like the rudas team a lot, they have no problem just wandering around and smacking ladies. Sugehit is always a treat in matches like this. Apache always looks way better than the other tecnicas, just a whole level or two higher. Estrellita comes off so desperate all the time. Something about her just seems to constantly scream "Oh please please look at me."



2. Ultimo Guerrero vs. Atlantis:

This was definitely a modern era CMLL main event. First two falls? 3 minutes total. Then a long, laborious your move/my move third fall, filled with big moves, guys kicking out of those big moves, and then guys lying around for a long time before getting up and switching. It just went on forever and wouldn't end. All the goodwill UG built up in 2011 with me (and he had TONS of awesome performances in 2011) pretty much went right out the window here, as this was every UG main event I hated from 2004-2010.

And naturally that Reyes Del Aire was on this same card, but that gets scrapped. Should I mention again how much I hate that CMLL is only 1 hour? I'll watch the RdA sometime soon and post the match with a review.

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Pirata Morgan, Killing So His Power Grows

Pirata Morgan, Satanico, & MS-1 vs. La Fiera, El Faraon, & El Egipcio EMLL 3/29/1985 - EPIC

Damn, that was violent. I've had the chance to see Pirata in a bunch of different settings thanks to this project, but at the end of the day, he's still a guy at his best working out-of-control lucha brawls, and this here was an out-of-control lucha brawl. He starts right out by punching El Egipcio in the face when he tries to get in the ring. Egipcio returns the favor, and their brawling is sort of the big hook throughout this match (unsurprising, as they were building to a hair match between the two). I've seen a handful of Egipcio matches now, but this is the first time he's actually stood out to me. And yeah, that's probably because he was booked so prominently in the match, but when you're throwing hands with Pirata and look like you're actually in his league, I'm inclined to think you're doing something right. They pave a nice little path of destruction through the post-apocalyptic wasteland that is any good Infernales brawl, including some great brawling around the ring where Pirata wins the award for most violent apron bumping now and forever, actually breaking the wooden barricades surrounding the ring. Satanico and the recently deceased MS-1 lend some very able support. Satanico in particular almost stole the match from Pirata and Egipcio. Phil said he looked like the abusive husband in a Lifetime made-for-TV movie, and I'm hard-pressed to disagree. Fiera and Faraon maybe perform below expectations insofar as they don't stand out the way they usually do, but you'll be too busy in awe of the Infernales' brutality to notice. Although you will notice at the end of the match when Fiera uncorks a "Hector Garza under-rotating on a shooting star press to the floor"-level horrifying botched dive. He comes off of the top rope with essentially a completely vertical upside-down bodypress to Satanico, except he lands just short of the target and Martinetes himself on the floor. Ouch. Surprisingly, for a brawl this intense, there actually wasn't any blood, but I don't suspect you'll find too many bloodless brawls better than this one.

Pirata Morgan, Antifaz del Norte, & Charly Manson vs. Sangre Chicana, Alebrije, & Vampiro Canadiense Monterrey 5/21/2006 - GREAT

This is a big step up from the last Monterrey match I reviewed for this. There are still some annoying heel ref shenanigans, but he eats a Sangre Chicana armdrag really nicely, so I can't really complain too much. Also, there's no Hator in sight, and everyone looks really game here, even a load like Vampiro. This is a garbage brawl, and like most lucha garbage brawls, it feels less violent than it does when they leave the foreign objects alone, especially after the match above. But it's still on the higher end of your lucha garbage brawls, with Alebrije in particular looking like a star here. He eats and bumps for everything really well, including getting his head taken off with a nasty clothesline from Pirata, and taking some nutty bumps on the wooden ramp to the ring. And there's plenty of fun abuse of Cujie as well, with Pirata putting the little guy in a Romero special, before he's used as a projectile by Alebrije to get his revenge later. I thought Antifaz looked really good here as well. His foreign object shots all had some nice pop to them. This wasn't a standout Chicana performance, but I don't think I've ever seen a match where he looked bad, and this is no exception. If nothing else, he clotheslined a wooden board into Antifaz's face. That was pretty cool. I'm a little iffy on the finish, but I admire the gusto with which Pirata faked his getting fouled, especially after the ref didn't believe him right away and he started to sell more frantically.

Pirata Morgan, Emilio Charles Jr., & Astro de Oro vs. Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Mascara Ano 2000, & Cien Caras EMLL 1989 - FUN

This was a one-fall tournament match, but it's a four-team tourney, so they still get 10+ minutes and I can review it, just with lowered expectations. It's also apparently a parejas increibles tournament, as Rayo is not getting along with the Dinamitas, and Astro de Oro is not getting along with Pirata and Emilio. I am not familiar with this Astro de Oro character, so I checked out luchawiki to see what his deal was.

"Greatest Guatemala superstar. Tecnico, who teamed with Rayo Lazer, Skeletor, Starman (Guatemala), Silverman, Arriero de San Juan. Astro de Oro received 50 Quetzales in his first match.

His best match was versus Mascara Ano 2000 in June of 1989, and his worst was against Dr. Wagner Jr.. Astro de Oro's favorite wrestler is Ric Flair.

In his other life, Astro de Oro is an educator. Astro de Oro also claims to be a very successful amateur wrestler before entering lucha libre.

Greatest Guatemala superstar"

Well that clears that up. I don't know when exactly in 1989 this match was in relation to his career best match against Mascara Ano 2000, but I don't remember any especially great exchanges between the two. Overall, the greatest Guatemala superstar didn't make me forget Super Astro or Brazo de Oro, but he was harmless. Pirata and Rayo were the best guys on their respective teams, and their work against each other was plenty fun and fired up. Emilio looked good, but you'll see much better from him, and the Dinamitas were solid but unspectacular. Still, Rayo doing his comedic evasive twirl face-first into Pirata's fist with nobody else fucking anything up will at least earn this FUN status. In conclusion, greatest Guatemala superstar.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE PIRATA MORGAN

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report, 2/11/12

Haven't done one of these in quite awhile, but that's because CMLL on Galavision hasn't been airing in my area, and LATV has been nothing but reruns dating back to December. It seems like LATV is showing mostly shows from November, some that have already been shown 3 or 4 times. So this show was also taped in November (11/22/11 at Arena Mexico to be exact, thanks Cubsfan!), but I don't know if this actually originally aired. I'm pretty sure I never missed an episode, and this never turned up where it should have. So this may be the first time this has aired in America, even if it's 3 months late.



1. Princess Sugei (Sugheit? I never get this name right)/La Commandante/Zeuxis vs. Dark Angel/Luna Magica/Lluvia:

Well this had a couple nasty spills that came to define the match. First fall went very nicely with Commandante leading Lluvia through some capable-looking matwork and some fun arm drag sequences, and Lluvia holding up her end while wearing an awesome mesh catsuit. Mesh catsuit might have made me forgive some sloppy mat transitions. Sugei and Magica tag in and smoke the previous moves exchanges, but also lacks the mesh. Fall ends with Zeuxis hitting an insane dive on Commandante that sees her fly way overhead and splat at a horribly awkward angle into chairs and chubby front row guys. I'm worried about her spine and Rachel is wondering how her boobs didn't fall out. Magica then splats her with an awesome apron Thesz press. Full point for Zeuxis for getting up from that splat and instantly taking that move. Rest of the match is pretty fun. Dark Angel and Sugei match up nicely together, and I'm a big fan of Sugei who always walks around and slaps people and kicks them in the face. Match ends abruptly with Dark Angel falling off the top rope and crashing to the floor, and then the other two calling an audible and quickly finishing the match with Angel being stretchered out. Too bad the ending had to be that way, the rest of the match was quite nice.



2. Misterioso Jr./Okumrua/Vangellis vs. Sangre Azteca/Diamante/Sagrado:

Really fun match with a bunch of guys that nobody ever really talks about. Misterioso Jr. is probably one of the best current lucha guys that nobody really pimps that much. He takes offense really well and bumps big and can control and reign in a match nicely. Here he gets matched up with the weakest of the bunch, Sagrado, and makes him look good through the whole match (going down like a gunshot for his superkick, splaying out on the floor for his rana). I really like Sangre Azteca, and loved his little mat section with Okumura. Fast paced and he did a few cool ankle picks. Vangellis is a stocky nazi powerhouse who moves fast and can barrel into guys. Diamante is very young but always has a couple nice highspots in his matches (here he hit a solid chest to chest springboard 450). Well worth your 20 minutes.



3. Terrible/Rey Buccanero/Texano Jr. vs. Maximo/Super Porky/Rush:

LATV pulls a vintage LATV move here, showing the first fall of this match, going to commercial and coming back with the 3rd fall of a different match from one week later. They used to do this all the time when they randomly started showing IWRG/AULL stuff. First fall didn't really make me want to watch the other two on youtube. I have been one of the staunchest Porky defenders over the last decade, but some of these throwaway six man performances are getting pretty brutal. The man can still go when he wants to, but the big key is how often does he want to? The hair match teaming with Maximo from early 2011 saw him looking really good, but the first fall had some pretty bad moments including the slowest bump through the ropes onto the rampway I have ever seen. It looked like a youtube video of a panda bear falling off a teeter totter.



4. Averno vs. La Mascara

If this had about 8 minutes lopped off the end then I probably would have liked it a lot more. It just kind of kept going, and the nearfalls just got less exciting the more of them they did. First 8 minutes were all about Averno tearing apart Mascara's knee, and it was some fine knee tearing. I was expecting Mascara to have plenty of moments where he just conveniently sold the knee, but to his credit he sold that knee for like >90% of the match, so gets full credit for that. He even hit an awesome limping tope in the 2nd. The selling wasn't the problem, it's just that there was so much damn lying around by both guys. It had its moments to be sure, but there was so much "Averno bumps to floor, Mascara stays in ring, Averno slowly gets up and walks back to ring" moments. Some of them were cool, like when Brazo de Oro would be glaring at him and Averno would just smugly strut past him. Some of the nearfalls worked great, but it was diminishing returns. 18 minutes of work in a 25 minute match. Not the worst crime as the work onscreen wasn't ever bad, just. needed. to. end.

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Dick Togo Been Getting It, Been Real, Home Invasions, Dope Deals

Dick Togo vs. Red Devil ICW 11/11/11 - FUN 

PAS: This was a Dick Togo world tour match, as he stopped by Italy to wrestling the Italian Championship Wrestling belt holder Red Devil. This really was Togo giving a green highflyer a competitive match, it kind of reminded me of the things Liger would do in BOSJ in the 90s, where he would put over Hayato Nanjo or Doc Dean. I liked some of the very early Euro exchanges, but otherwise Devil had wrestling school level flying and not much else. Togo kept it pretty simple, laying in some chops, his inside out senton splash and shtick. Pretty similar to what he did with other mediocre Euro guys, but I am sure it was a total treat for the Italian fans to be able to check him out. 

  

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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