My Lucha Journey: Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas vs Marco Corleone, Máximo, Super Porky

CMLL Guerreros del Ring on 52MX: 2013-01-12
taped 2013-01-06 @ Arena Mexico

Admittedly, this is a pretty incidental match, but it's also pretty darn entertaining. I've been watching things out of context, so I'm not sure what the story threads going into this were or where it might have been going. From my limited exposure, I enjoy just everyone in the match, though. I actually don't have any sense at all who's considered a maestro (outside of the obvious ones) and who is just tolerated. Most of my own opinions I'm coming to here are my own fumblings from first-hand exposure and what I've read elsewhere on the site (at lot of which is only making sense now that I'm getting to know these luchadors), so I might end up bucking against a really obvious bit of conventional wisdom here or there.

-Porky is someone I hadn't seen any of before this year (which is a ridiculous statement since that's true for most Lucha and me). He's really interesting to watch, just in what he can and can't do and how he channels his charisma and experience and how other luchadors deal with the obvious advantages and difficulties of working with him.
-Niebla has a great look and swagger. I've seen a little less of him than the other guys in the ring though quite as much of him yet.
-Watching Marco is a blast just between the crowd reactions to the Rick Rude swivel and the fact that Mark Jindrak's fate took him away from Evolution and plopped him down in Mexico where he tries to keep up. He's a lot like Porky in some ways as people have to work towards his physical qualities but he always seems like he's having the time of his life.
-I thought Maximo was just Super Porky's buddy, which is what I picked up from a bunch of Rey Escorpion trios I saw, but Phil informed me that he is in fact Porky's son. I haven't seen too many exoticos but he seems somewhat different in that role to me than what I expect. I've been pretty impressed with him so far as he is surprisingly smooth in execution, especially for is sort of lumpy body type, but also works his gimmick into his wrestling really well.
-Felino, likewise, is one of the best guys I've ever seen in working his gimmick. He somehow channels everything gross about a wretched housecat into the ring without actually pretending to be one. He's just so blatant and shameless about it, but it all fits perfectly. Eric's claimed in other reviews that he can be extremely lazy (which sounds like a cat to me too), but I haven't seen too much of that yet.
-Casas is, of course, Casas.

From what I've seen on the 80s set, I shouldn't be surprised  at the way they work comedy and spot exchanges so fluidly into their matches. On some almost embarrassing level, though, it does remind me of when I was a kid and I knew wrestling was fake, but I didn't know about "calling matches in the ring" yet, and I couldn't figure out how they could possibly memorize whole matches. I'm impressed and even a bit baffled on that same level at the complexity inherent in some of these sequences. For the most part, they're inserted in and used in very effective ways, too.

What stands out the most is just how much shtick they pack into a small period, how smooth it all turns out to be, and how elated it makes the crowd. Some of this makes sense. I hadn't realized until post match that the rudos were part of an existing unit (which meant i had been really confused by Zacarias being part of Niebla's promo). Just because it makes sense, that doesn't mean it's not still impressive.

There are tons of examples. Casas is brilliant throughout the match and his versatility continues to amaze me: he can go all out with Rush, manage the first fall of a title match with no problem, and do this elaborate, character-driven comedy. Here he gets to try to maneuver Porky around the ring, hits a perfectly timed super rudo trip on Maximo from behind which was the decisive turning point of the primera caida, engages in this hilarious bouncing routine all the way up the ropes to cope with Marco's height (ending with a really funny falling tree sell), and shortly thereafter takes a bunch of stuff at a fast pace with Maximo.

Everyone else holds their own too, fitting into the puzzle of the match very smoothly. This sort of match is perfect for Felino, with his dickish spit and sweat act that can be distracting in a more serious setting, and for Maximo, who can make sticking his butt in people's faces while on the second rope, a perfectly believable transition. Marco embraces the comedy and also gets the big spot of the match with his running over the top rope body press, which pops the crowd big and ends the segunda caida. Porky's just a force of nature, a supergiant with a gravitational pull, who orbits back into the match at key moments (mainly to fall on people who deserve to be fell on). Niebla hams it up both with his kooky goblin dance, and far more dramatically, by kissing a granny in the front row mid-falls, causing the crowd to go nuts and creating the most logical opening ever for Marco's Rick Rude gyration. Even Zacarias gets to be physical.

It's nothing that would end up on a best matches of the year list, I don't think, but when you look at the elation on the faces in the crowd and find yourself smiling along, it's hard not to appreciate what you're watching. The thing is, I have no idea if matches like this are just commonplace and they run them all the time. If they do, I probably sound fairly stupid talking it up so much. On the other hand, if they do, then I'll have a lot more of such matches to watch and I can certainly live with that.