2013 Lucha Roundup

Angel del Amor/Chico Che/Freelance v. Danny Casas/Imposible/Alan Extreme IWRG 2/14

Not at the level of the match later in the week, but house show Che and Freelance is still well worth checking out. Your other four here were solid but didn't really stand out, Alan Extreme had a fun tope con hilo, but I have seen him do better. Freelance and Chico were the stars and they brought the crazy shit, Freelance broke out a bunch of his crazy flipping counters and a couple of nutso dives including a rana to the floor which chuck Alan into the third row. Chico Che didn't break out the brawling, but his exchanges were as graceful and athletic as always, his top rope splash is just awesome looking. Undercardish style match, but I am some glad we got the real killers back making these undcard matches such a treat

El Angel v. Trauma 2 v. Oficial 911 IWRG 2/17

Had some 3-wayish issues early, but once this got down to violence it got really awesomely violent. Trauma was just smashing his head into Angel's bloody skull and cracking him and 911 with chairshots. There is a point where T2 and Angel are lying in the beer and blood and the mud just pummeling each other while 911 crawls to the ring to win the match. One of the cooler finishes in recent memory. Very exited to see these guys amp it up even more for a mask match.

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2013 Lucha Roundup

Chico Che/Freelance/Hijo del Pantera vs Apolo Estrada Jr./Avisman/Eita IWRG 2/17

Man alive was this a blast, easily my Lucha MOTY (although I have some catching up to do.) A bunch of awesome IWRG guys we have seen intermittently in the last couple of years reminding us why we love them. It felt like they were out to steal the show as everyone was breaking out there entire bag of tricks. Freelance does 8 things you can't believe, including the fastest rope run front flip I have seen and a nutty plancha to the floor. Avisman comes out of hiding and eats all of the fancy technico offense like a champ, along with busting open Chico Che with Regal shoot headbutts. El Hijo Pantera was pretty garbage last time I saw him, but he got pretty awesome quick. Looked good on the mat, hit the most psycho dive in a Freelance match, and even brawled a bit. Chico Che was a mix of Super Astro, Dusty Rhodes and Genichiro Tenryu, and Eita and Estrada were solid character actors. Couldn't recommend this more.

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CMLL on Fox Deportes Workrate Report, 2/3/13

Well, one local channel that was showing current CMLL Puebla stopped showing it, and then a couple weeks later suddenly this show starts popping up on Fox Deportes (which I didn't actually realize I got). I'm sure I'll get this for a few months, then it will disappear and maybe LATV will start showing stuff again. Who knows?

Awesomely, this appears to be the undercard of the 1/25 Arena Mexico show that aired on Galavision the day before.

1. Virus/Sangre Azteca/Raziel vs. Fuego/Triton/Diamante

This show is already after my heart as this match starts with a few lovely minutes of Virus matwork, and then we get a few very nice minutes of Sangre Azteca/Triton rolling and tumbling around, and then a few awesome minutes of Raziel tying up Diamante, and Diamante's rolling Americano was pretty keen. Virus and Fuego have a fun sequence with Virus putting over a springboard dropkick like a champ, and doing some rope flip arm drag to Fuego on the ramp. Blown spot happens where Fuego is supposed to dropkick both Sangre and Raziel, slips, re-does the spot but by now both rudos are too close, so they just step aside and watch Fuego hilariously take a springboard flat back bump. It actually worked as it lead right to the fall finish. The 3rd was oodles of fun as everybody got to match up with each other and there was tons of big moves and fun roll-up spots. Big trainwreck spot on the floor which had someone dug Fuego's move off the apron, only for Raziel to hit Fuego with a jumping knee from the other side of the apron, leading to Diamante to hit someone with a backbreaker on the floor, leading to Azteca hitting a sweet dropkick through the ropes on Diamante, etc. Match actually ends with Triton hitting a powerbomb and moonsault and pinning Virus, which was like the exact last thing I would have predicted.

2. Rey Cometa/Guerrero Maya Jr./Stuka Jr. vs. Ephesto/Mephisto/Namajague

First fall is awesome as Ephesto/Cometa have some rad sequences together (which is exactly who I was hoping would match up first), which saw Mephisto run in and blast Cometa with a clothesline that almost dumped Rey on his dome. Then Maya/Mephisto match up which leads to Maya hitting a stunning suicide dive-turned-arm drag that looks great. Rudos kick so much butt in the 2nd that I start buying into a potential straight falls win until Maya hits a great springboard rana on Mephisto to take it. Namajague is somebody I rarely think about and yet I'm starting to think this guy should get pimped more. He brings a good energy and works nicely as a style clash. His running elbow in the corner to Cometa looked vicious (helped by Cometa leaning way in with a spit take). Cometa gets roughed up here and he is great at taking a beating. High bumps and not afraid of taking a nasty spill. And speaking of nasty spills, Namajague has a clear death wish here as he just gets dumped on the back of his head taking a clothesline from Stuka. This Namajague, man. Then eventually after making sure his vertebrae are still somewhat connected, he rolls back in so Stuka can just BURY his knee in his stomach. Namajague for President, baby! He also catches his suicide dive manlier than the other two, catching it with both shoulders squared up to Stuka. Eph and Meph both turned their shoulders so they could see where they were bumping. Puuuussssies. Namajague don't need to look behind him, and he probably couldn't see shit out of his mask anyway! Ephesto takes a man sized Jerrito bump but Namajague can't even let him HAVE that shit because he takes a totally insane Cassandro ringpost bump like 3 seconds later!!! And then Cometa hits one of the more spectacular running tornillos I have ever seen and this match is 100% awesome. Go out of your way to find this shit and try telling me that Namajague is not the most awesome worker of 2013.

Namajague!Namajague!Namajague!Namajague!Namajague!Namajague!Namajague!Namajague!!!!!!!!

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CMLL on Galavision Workrate Report, 2/2/13

These matches are from the 1/25/13 Arena Mexico show.

1. Princesa Sugheit/Amapola/Princesa Blanca vs. Luna Magica/Silueta/Estrellita:

The rudas get to tear it up here and Estrellita makes me sad. She is the the embodiment of every woman who makes out with another woman in a bar for attention from weird guys, just because it's some sort of attention. At this point I'm just hoping she takes to aging more gracefully than Lil' Kim. But boy does it make it that much more fun to watch the rudas beat her down. Match ended with a gang beatdown by those evil women that saw Tigre Hispano thrown down. What's insane is that, racking my brain, I don't remember the last time I saw a ref bumped like that. It was such a constant thing in the late 90s/early 00s. My friend Carlos' grandma used to get furious when somebody would hit the ref to end a match. She wouldn't get furious because it was a crap finish, she would get furious because the ref was impartial. "He didn't DO anything! Why would they HIT HIM!?" She felt for those poor refs, so I imagine Hispano getting bumped and then instantly, proudly standing up and calling it for the tecnicas would have made her happy. But seriously, are ref bumps still a thing and I'm just way out of the loop? I know TNA was still regularly doing them as recently as a few years ago, but that's to be expected when they were still booking like Crash TV was all the rage.

2. Lightning Match: Atlantis vs. Mr. Niebla:

Well this is already the greatest lightning match I've ever seen because Niebla ambushes Atlantis with a fucking CHAIN wrapped around his fist and punches ATL right in the face a few times, then WHIPS him while he's prone on the entrance ramp!! Whipping a guy with a chain is a tough thing to pull off in wrestling, as to make it look good you pretty much have to whip a dude with a chain. And these chain whips looked brutal, right across the ribs. Then these guys whip each other into the ringside barriers, and usually those little do-si-do Irish whips look pretty silly but here I totally bought into the physics and momentum of the whole thing. Rest of match was a cool sprint with powerbombs, a great Atlantis dive, nice missile dropkick, slick dana and mask ripping and ball shots and a jacked dude in the crowd wearing a Kemonito mask which made me super jealous. Best lightning match of the last year +.

3. Volador Jr./Psicosis/Mr. Aguila vs. Mascara Dorada/La Sombra/Titan:

First fall of this is a little choppy with some stuff being out of sync and guys hitting their marks a bit early (or a bit late). Volador takes a rana better than just about anybody, and his reverse rana is one of the sickest moves in wrestling (especially with Sombra snapping back over from it). Things pick up a bit in the 2nd with some cool triple teams (love the pendulum powerbomb with Volador running through Titan and making him spin up and over and splat. Dorada's springboard moves are always spectacular and his ranas in this are no different. Him going from the apron, to the inside middle rope, to a rana that ends with him standing just looks impossible to pull off. He also takes a sky high bump over the top to the floor. Volador shows everybody how to take a dive by absorbing Sombra's hilo like a man, and Sombra later repays the favor by leaning way in to Volador's nutso moonsault to the floor. After a shaky start there were plenty of rad spots in the 2nd and 3rd. This was kinda like lucha junkfood as there wasn't much substance but was plenty enjoyable.

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Regal From the Ice-Age to the Dole-Age

Steve Regal v. Terry Rudge CWA 10/7/88-EPIC

Total hidden gem, sort of a dream match you didn't know you dreamt about. Rudge is a gritty British veteran very much in the vein of Finlay, Taylor and Regal. I imagine he could have been an awesome 3rd Blue Blood. Opening part of the match is Rudge working a nasty headlock which Regal works his way out and puts on a top wrist lock. That doesn't sound that exciting, but these are a pair of guys who know how to put on a headlock and wrist lock. Rudge gets more and more brutal laying in a beating worthy of Regal himself, he absolutely root canals Regal with some uppercuts, along with short headbutts and thumbs to the eyes. There was this amazing moment where Rudge puts on a hammerlock and with Regal's arm trapped, Rudge unloads on his rib cage. Regal fires back too, although he was more of an overwhelmed babyface showing grit and fire. It is a role I haven't seen much of and one he is great at. A hell of a match and something pretty awesome to show up in my youtube feed.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REGAL

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Traylor of the Day: Day 7

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6eadt_big-bubba-rogers-vs-sting_sport#.URRwRmfyDTo

Big Bubba Rogers vs. Sting (WCW, 3/19/1995)

If you haven't seen this match, I highly recommend it. That said, it feels more like a match you would use to illustrate Sting's greatness than Bubba's. Bubba seems to slip up a few times here (literally at one point where he falls off of the top rope), and he's not as dynamic on offense as he can be. All the same, he does still bring a lot of really good stuff to the match. The whole opening comedy sequence was a bunch of fun, and Bubba was great as the big blowhard getting humiliated. I loved him begging off of Sting threatening his hat. Also, the smug look on his face after Sting hurt his knee when Bubba didn't duck enough during a leapfrog. Without knowing better, I'm assuming that was a botched spot, and that these guys were just savvy enough to build the rest of the match around it rather than let it derail the match. But either way, Bubba's look of pride at how smooth he was for taking down Sting when it was clearly an accident was delightful. Bubba didn't have a lot of ways to work the knee here, but I did appreciate how much he wrenched in what he had. Also, he takes a ridiculous bump off of a German suplex for a guy his size down the stretch. So yeah, not the most dynamic Traylor performance I've looked at, but a very good one in a strong match.

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Traylor of the Day: Day 6

The Big Boss Man feeds Pepper to Al Snow (WWF, 9/2/1999)

Previously on Traylor of the Day:

"It was one of those angles that you saw the WWF dabbling in a lot in the early 90's - stuff that was still accessible to a family audience, but was also darker than what you would usually get from the Rock 'N' Wrestling era. Like most of those angles, this felt far more adult than any of the supposedly "adult" angles of the Attitude and post-Attitude eras, and was a far more rewarding watch."

Yeah...I'm not gonna be the asshole who tells you this was secretly a great angle and that you're all pawns of Dave Meltzer for not getting it. I will, however, be the asshole who tells you that this was at least an entertainingly bad angle, and to the extent that it "works", it's because of how committed Boss Man is to selling it. And to Al Snow inexplicably bumping right on his head when he gets thrown over the bed. And the close-up of Jerry Lawler's reaction to the video when it ends. But mostly to how much Boss Man sells it. "THAT'S WHAT HARDCORE IS ABOUT!"

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 12/5/98 & 12/12/98

1. Kendall Windham vs. Manny Fernandez

This, again, is not THEE Manny Fernandez, just some gassed up guy who I didn't realize worked for WCW this late in the game. He popped up a bunch in '95 and '96 and here he still is. Kendall (spelled "Kendell" in his entrance graphic) gives Manny a decent amount of offense and Kendall himself looks awesome in the match. I love Kendall's uppercut and he throws a cool variation where he drops down to a knee while throwing it. It's really cool to see him mixing them up, for example, by throwing an overhand right, short left uppercut, and then the drop down one. Kendall threw a rad snap swinging neckbreaer and Manny was pretty game for this. Not bad at all.

2. Silver King vs. Todd Griffith

I have never heard of Todd Griffith. I assume that Tenay and Hudson haven't either since they keep calling him "Todd Griffin" the whole match. He...was not very good. He had some rad cowboy boots and white pants with fringe, and he looked like a roadie for the Leningrad Cowboys. But he kinda sucked. Every time he picked Silver King up he looked like he was about to fall over. Every body slam, hot shot, etc. ended with him stumbling around off balance afterwards. At one point King stops giving him offense and just kicks him in the face, then hits a super stiff standing somersault leg drop/senton. Tenay naturally tells me to not be fooled by King's deceptive stockiness, while Hudson oozes all over Todd's bod ("as if it were carved out of granite!"). Silver King drops Griffith a couple times with super dangerous looking power bombs, looking dangerous mainly because Griffith appeared unaware of how to go up for a powerbomb.

1. Alex Porteau vs. Alex Wright

We get plenty of shots of crowd members doing their best Western European club kid impressions, and the best is some skinny goober in a wolfpack shirt who looks like Eddie Deezen, doing something approximating the Mashed Potato. This match was 3 minutes long and was actually a really rad workrate sprint. 3 minutes of cool go behinds and high dropkicks and Alex Wright sure seemed really really good during these types of matches. How many times did Wright match up with guys like Finlay, Regal or Taylor?

2. Johnny Swinger vs. Disco Inferno

Everybody's favorite punching bag. Even Hudson rips into Swinger on commentary. This match wasn't much. Disco his a great leaping fist drop which I don't remember from his offense, and then follows it up with a missed sunset flip so that Swinger has to stumble backwards three steps and fall into it. Disco wins with a sloppy piledriver that barely looked a step above Brian Adams' piledriver.

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Traylor of the Day: Day 5

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3nt0z_big-bubba-vs-john-tenta_sport#.URB9AmfnfTo

Big Bubba Rogers vs. John Tenta (WCW, 6/16/1996)

So, like I was saying earlier, this is a feud that was loathed back when it happened. The RSP-W crowd hated it with a passion, and I don't it fared much better with the WON readers. Even now, those of us who love Traylor and are starting to reconsider Tenta tend to not have a lot good to say about either of them at this point in their careers. So color me mildly surprised that I totally dug this match. Bubba takes a crazy bump from the top rope to the floor right at the start of the match, and things don't let up from there. Bubba eats a quality beating from Tenta, who is laying it in extra hard tonight. Love him repeatedly jumping ass-first into Bubba while he's slumped in the corner, totally brutal looking. Bubba gets a lucky shot in with what we would later find out were the infamous Carson City silver dollars to turn the tide. He really starts working double time in this match. Great sequence with him snapping off the enzuigiri, and then quickly charging in with the rocking horse when Tenta falls into position, followed by two more. His signature baseball slide to the outside followed by an uppercut didn't go as smoothly as usual, but he spends most of the rest of the match seriously wailing on Tenta, so I'm letting it go. There's a little bit of work on Tenta's leg, which looked good, and a really impressive back suplex to the 500-pounder. Unfortunately, we get a really abrupt finish not long afterwards, as Bubba comes off of the top and Tenta catches him with a powerslam for the pin. Tenta manages to get ahold of the scisssors that Bubba had cut his hair with, and cuts his goatee in response. Bubba's post-match freakout is delightful. "HE CUT IT! HE CUT IT OFF!" Good times. So yeah, not a fraction as bad as you were told. It's pretty short, going about 5-6 minutes. I wouldn't put it on the level of their '91 Royal Albert Hall match, but I'd put it ahead of the Survivor Series Showdown '90 match no problem. It crammed a ton of action into it's short running time, and I came away genuinely curious to see more of this reviled feud.

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Traylor of the Day: Day 4

The Big Boss Man vs. Dave Roulette (WWF, 4/29/1992)

The squash is solid enough, but of course, the big takeaway from this was Nailz making his debut, jumping out of the crowd and attacking Boss Man. Nailz sucked something fierce, and I guess we'll have to come back later to see how well Boss Man dealt with it in their matches, but for a post-match beatdown angle, he does a great job. His selling is aces, particularly of the nightstick shot to the leg. They put it over on commentary like it broke his leg, and hearing Boss Man scream in agony, you'd believe it. The officials take their sweet time doing something about the guy in the prison jumpsuit assaulting their employee who's been receiving mysterious threats for the past few months, which makes this a little awkward, but otherwise, it was a damn fine angle. It was one of those angles that you saw the WWF dabbling in a lot in the early 90's - stuff that was still accessible to a family audience, but was also darker than what you would usually get from the Rock 'N' Wrestling era. Like most of those angles, this felt far more adult than any of the supposedly "adult" angles of the Attitude and post-Attitude eras, and was a far more rewarding watch.

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Saturday Night 1/16/99

26 hours away from Souled Out from Charleston, West Virginia!!!

1. Barry Horowitz vs. Wrath

I forgot Wrath had the awesome "Running With the Devil" intro to his music. And I have no recollection of Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Wrath from Souled Out. Wrath looks like the most juiced out of his gourd Burt Reynolds from "White Lightning" here, like he's all hopped up on Joker's toxin from Arkham Asylum. This is more competitive than you may have guessed, and Horowitz gets to hit a cool leaping back elbow from the 2nd rope. Wrath alternates between selling Barry's offense and then completely ignoring it. Barry's kicks to the stomach looked way better than Wrath's.

Nitro Girls calendar ad! Who was regarded as the hottest Nitro Girl anyway? I assume not the one with the super gelled dyed blonde curls? Was Spice the hottest? What was the name of the redhead (I assume Fire or Fyre or Figher?)? Maybe Chai? Who was the least hot Nitro Girl? Whisper? Can we get a consensus 1-10 ranking?

2. David Sierra vs. Chad Fortune

Crowd goes absolutely bonkers for Fortune and I assume it's because he's a gigantic Aryan guy in pleather flame pants against an ethnic guy. In fairness to those ethnically-insensitive fans, David Sierra really does look like a background character from "Quest For Fire" here, and HOLY SHIT Fortune does an awesome delayed fist drop and I suddenly want a "Best of Chad Fortune" VHS. Fortune's pants and giant link necklace look horrible. I don't think he's that good. Here's a selection from the "Monster Truck" section of his Wikipedia page. You may have misread that, and to be clear, Chad Fortune has a "Monster Truck" section on his Wikipedia page:

"Based on his professional wrestling background, he decided to dye his hair black and later his look to match the character of Superman."

Clearly Chad Fortune is the Daniel Day Lewis of monster truck driving. Dude doesn't even talk to crew members unless they call him Clark.

3. Mike Tolbert vs. Meng

Tolbert attacks Meng with leg kicks but Meng has the ability to no sell gassed/tanned/oiled/ponytailed jobber offense and immediately locks on the Tongan Death Grip. This was like 20 seconds.

4. Jeff Warner vs. Disco Inferno

Now I think Wikipedia is lying to me. Here's an excerpt from Jeff Warner's Wikipedia:

"He formed a tag team with Art Barr (who was using a "Beetlejuice" gimmick) called "The Juice Patrol" with Warner going by the name "Big Juice"."

 Oh, come on! No way does a jacked 6' 4" white guy go by "Big Juice"! How hilarious would that make Warner?! Also, there is a whole subsection of his Wikipedia page titled "Max Muscle" and all it says is:

"Contrary to popular belief and information often posted on the internet, Jeff Warner DID NOT portray the WCW character Max Muscle/Maxx."

That seems like a weird thing to drum up controversy over. Did some kid ask him one time at c-level WrestleCon "Hey, are you Maxx Muscle or is his table over there?" and Warner was like "Well just so people aren't confused we better clear the air." So just in case you jerks were curious, Jeff Warner WAS NOT the guitar tech during Creed's "Take Me Higher 2002" tour. He WAS the guy who did a few lines of coke off a Staind jewel case with the DJ from Crazy Town that one time, though.

Some guy in the crowd has a laquered sign that says "Disco Inferno....THE MAN". Front row.

5. Chris Adams vs. Chip Minton

Adams comes out in a GI and this is fucking ONNNNN. This was during the Adams/Minton feud where they were feuding over who gets to use the nickname "World Class". Adams does all sorts of cool shoot-type stuff here, including rad single legs, stomping on Minton's calves, and throws some brutal elbow shots. Then he plants him with a vertical powerbomb and just levels Minton with a great superkick. To really show Minton who's boss he finishes the match with some weird Volk Han submission, using his legs to choke him out while also hyperextending Minton's arm. Looked real weird and nasty.

6. Scotty Riggs vs. Scott Putski

Well, this wasn't one that excited me out of the gates. Riggs is a pretty decent foil for Putski (who goes to a chinlock 40 seconds in) and Putski throws a decent elbow drop. Most of the match is Riggs working over Putski's knee with some pretty nasty knee work (high half crab, punching him right in the knee, bending and twisting his knee over the bottom rope). Putski does an admirable job of selling the knee on his comebacks and you start to BUY the INJURY! And then Riggs hits the 5 Arm for the win. This would have actually been good if Putski's comeback offense was better.

7. Bobby Eaton/Kenny Kaos vs. Bobby Duncum Jr./Mike Enos

These are two weirdo tag teams and on paper this looks like a bank full of money. I know the Kaos/Eaton team formed because Kaos needed a partner with Rage injured, so went to tag team legend Eaton to help him out and condescendingly asks him for help ("it's not like you've had much success doing anything else, Bobby") but I have no memory of a Duncum/Enos team. This match is kinda disappointing as it only goes a few minutes with all guys showing off by seeing who has the best powerslam (Enos) and who throws the best elbow drop (Eaton). You get some nice Eaton punches, and then the match ends awkwardly with a sloppy Duncum leg drop that saw Kaos kick out at 2, but the ref counted 3 anyway and then people kinda stood around awkwardly while we cut to Mean Gene. Oooookay.

[edit]

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Traylor of the Day: Day 3

The Big Boss Man vs. Col. Mustafa (WWF, 10/28/91)

I had forgotten that Boss Man was feuding with IRS at this point. Irwin comes out to talk shit at Boss Man, allowing Mustafa to get an early advantage before Boss Man levels him with a clothesline and chases IRS to the back. This was a pretty fun short match. Sheiky Baby doesn't have much left in the tank at this point, though he does break out what I can only describe as a primitive Exploder suplex that made me stand up and take notice. Boss Man does a good job of making the rest of his offense not look totally feeble, and his own offense is killer, including a deadlift vertical suplex and the jumping spinebuster that he uses to win the match. Not a great match, but I doubt there were too many Col. Mustafa matches better than this.

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Traylor of the Day: Day 2

Big Bubba Rogers vs. Bart Sawyer (WCW, July/August? 1995)

AWESOME competitive squash. Bubba pushes Sawyer around early, but Sawyer fires back with some swank punches to send Bubba reeling. He hits a dropkick, but Bubba swats a second one right out of the air and then plants him with a nasty jumping spinebuster. Funny moment as Bubba puts Sawyer in an abdominal stretch, and then lets out a primal scream as he grabs the top rope for leverage. The ref makes him let go, so he does the awesome thing of just punching Sawyer in the ribs while he still has him in the stretch. Seriously, Bubba is just on fire here, beating the tar out of Sawyer, shit-talking him, intimidating the ref, and giving Bart plenty of opportunities to sneak in some offense of his own, which also looks really good. Bubba is really good at timing Sawyer's comebacks. Always knows when to let him get one over on him to keep things interesting, sells him as a credible threat if he lets up too much, but also knows when to cut him off before it crosses the line from "competitive squash" to "competitive match". Bubba polishes him off with whatever they called the Boss Man Slam at this point, and I just love that move. Bubba pins Sawyer with one finger on his chest, and you totally buy it. Need to watch more Traylor squash matches, because he strikes me as a guy who may have been a great squash match worker.

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