Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 2/1/14

These matches were from the 1/17 Arena Mexico show.



1. Blue Panther, Diamante Azul & La Mascara vs. Averno, Rey Bucanero & Terrible

Strange match as it was a mixture of sloppy old indy spots (Terrible breaking out a Styles Clash and Bucanero bringing the age old trend of doing normal spots onto his own knee), mixed with cool long Panther segments (cool mat stuff with Averno and really gets to work long sections with everybody) and some (possibly unintentional) pure insane bumps. Azul takes a slingshot hiptoss directly on his head. He lands vertically, planted on his head. Later in the match Terrible dropkicks Panther, and BP takes the Chris Hamrick somersault-off-apron to concrete bump. WHY IS PANTHER TAKING THAT BUMP!? Panther really takes a beating in this match. Mascara and Azul really aren't factors, coming in occasionally for end of falls or hitting dives (though I did dig Mascara in this, but most of it is Panther working bell to bell. Pretty damn impressive performance.

2. Lightning Match: Princess Sugheit vs. Estrellita

Lightning match, so throw any hopes for story, selling or psych out the window, and just hope for cool spots until one of the spots happens to end the match. Sugheit is always good tossing around and punting tecnicas, but something overall felt off here. It was pretty sloppy so even spots that felt like they should have been cool (Estrellita body press off the apron, Sugheit slamming Estrellita on the rampway) didn't really resonate. BUT, Estrellita got part of her weave pulled out, so I mean...that's pretty fucking rad right?



3. Negro Casas, Felino & Mr. Niebla vs. Valiente, Atlantis & Shocker

Weird match as you get Felino and Niebla doing their usual dick around routine that they seem to love doing at Arena Mexico (although Niebla's dicking around is almost always more interesting than Felino's). The standout story here is Casas vs. Shocker. Shocker's a little older and a little slower now but sometimes he can still bring the chubby goods and he delivered over the heads of most of his participants here. Valiente was mostly paired with Felino and they weren't a great match, but Valiente still showed a bunch of fire and obliterated Felino with a dive. Shocker and Casas though really tear it up. They work a bunch of fun reversal segments with Casas using his speed and Shocker catching him with a big yakuza kick. Not great, but had some worthwhile stuff.