CMLL Puebla Workrate Report, 11/4/12

These matches were from the 10/22/12 Puebla show.

1. Taurus vs. Super Halcon Jr.

This is my first time seeing Taurus and he is apparently the 18 yr. old son of Ultimo Guerrero. He...is not very polished. The camera has to cut away to the crowd a couple of times in the early matwork, so I'm really curious how he blew a monkey flip bump. He works with a lot of delay and hesitation, but still goes over Halcon in like 3 minutes with a stiff powerbomb and some sort of goofy pumphandle F5.

2. Super Comando/Artillero/Inquisidor vs. Hombre Bala Jr./Magnus/Stigma

Ugh, the tecnicos all come out to Limp Bizkit's "Rollin'". At least Stigma is living up to his name, as I can't really think of a bigger disgrace to one's reputation. This seemed to be designed to show just how much better a worker Hombre Bala Jr. is than the other tecnicos in this match. Because he's clearly much better. He deserves to be much higher on the cards. Super Comando is also much better than his brother Artillero, but they all clearly know that as Comando matches up almost exclusively with Bala during this match. Things here were okay but meh. Tecnicos did a whole bunch of armdraggy stuff from the 2nd ropes and Inquisidor and SC are just fine at taking that type of stuff. But that doesn't mean it's fun after 10 minutes of it.

3. Virus/Misterioso Jr./Sangre Azteca vs. Stuka Jr./Triton/Sagrado

Misterioso is completely tassel free, which quite frankly is bullshit. I watched this match with my buddy Charlie who has an occasional drunk interest in wrestling, but basically zero lucha knowledge. After 4 seconds he was already on the Virus bandwagon. This guy has really put together quite a spectacular career and it feels like he still doesn't get talked about enough. The first time I remember seeing him was a singles match vs. Oriental, and that was when I was in high school (Jesus, I graduated in 1998. Was it really that long ago!?) and I was hooked from that match. I can't think of too many workers who have been as consistently excellent from my late teens into my early 30s as Virus has. This match itself wasn't spectacular in any way, but just had enough little Virus moments that made me realize how lucky we are to have so much of his career exist on tape. Too many luchadors go unrealized by the masses until it's too late in their careers. How many amazing 80s Toro Bill matches must have happened? How many bloody Puebla brawls was that guy a part of? And all we have to prove his existence are maybe 10 trios matches while he was in his late 40s. But Virus has spent almost his whole career working on television, and that's a special thing.



4. Ultimo Guerrero/Rey Buccanero/Terrible vs. Marco Corleone/Maximo/Rush

This was an awesome match. Maximo put in one of his best performances of the last year and really owned the 2nd. Corleone jumped high and threw nice lefts and flexed his buttocks, and Rush looked the best I have ever seen Rush look. And he was not just "good for Rush" but moreso "tell me more about this wrestler with the shitty hair, as he seems like somebody I would like to see more". I'm sure somebody can find some flaws with this match, but fuck it I was laughing and rewinding and calling Rachel into the room for 15 minutes. Buccanero and especially UG have gotten back into a nice groove the last year. They were two of my favorites back in 2000-2002, and then UG kind of started to embody my least favorite style of lucha. But over the last couple years I think he started to really hit another career stride. I even got Phil back on the bandwagon and he was one of the most vehement UG haters during the late 2000s. Buccanero's issues may have been injury related, I don't honestly remember. I just know that in 2001 it seemed like he and Christian were having weekly TV battles to see who could take a stupider bump over the top to the floor and I luuuuuved it. So I'm glad they're back on my good side. Terrible's new hair makes me sad. He looked like the coolest Rafi, Brolo El Cunado before :(



5. Valiente vs. Dragon Rojo Jr.

Is Valiente a main event guy now? I've been in and out of CMLL, so I'm not sure. Maybe this is more of a Puebla B show thing, not necessarily an Arena Mexico thing? Also is it wrong that I liked Valiente more when he was a chubster? Now he's all jacked to the gills and still does things all purty but I liked him when he was flippy and fat. This was a CMLL main event. Moves were done. Moves were kicked out of. Turns were traded. Valiente slipped a couple times which was sad. Rojo had some rad roll-up combinations. The 2nd caida went like 30 seconds. You knew all of this going in.