Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 5/31/14

These matches were all from the 5/16 Arena Mexico show.



Kraneo, Mephisto & Ripper vs. Mascara Dorada, Valiente & Titan

I wanted tons more out of this, but that's because I just really want a definitive Kraneo match to beg everybody to watch. He always looks awesome, usually the best guy in a trios, but the trios he's involved with never quite get up to that "Must See" status. Much of this match is fairly middling, until the end run ramps up the crazy. And much of that is because of Titan. It's funny, looking at his name there in our top 5 matches of 2014, just how out of place that keeps looking as the months go by. His spots are silly and he insists on shoehorning them into every match, and they're spots that don't fluidly fit into a match. They're spots that require the match to grind to a halt until he gets his shit out of the way. I am beyond tired of the handstand rana, requiring Ripper to finger pop his asshole so Titan can show off how long he can do a handstand. Then there's the rope run, flip to the floor feint, so he can hit his rana out there. I'm over it, Titan! Kraneo had a completely badass half Kraneo/half Alebrije mask, and he was his awesome horribly shaped self. Running ass attack on Dorada, barreling into Titan like a jock checking a nerd into his locker, hitting a fat man splash, bumping to the floor, and of course a recent addition to Kraneo matches: tecnicos hitting him with consecutive dives because he's large and it takes more to knock him down. Valiente hits his gorgeous and speedy tope, and moments later Dorada hits the spot of the night with an absolutely insane high speed upside down dive crashing and burning into Kraneo. If I were sitting in the front row I would have shoved women out of the way thinking I was going to get tangled in the wreckage. Never change, Dorada. You crazy.

El Terrible, Vangellys & Rey Bucanero vs. Stuka Jr., Diamante Azul & La Mascara

This was short and to the point, much more angle than match, but a trios worked three falls that takes less time than most lightning matches won't be that satisfying to folks. This was all about establishing that La Mascara has been working rudo tendencies with Rush and…he likes it. He's gotten a taste of being a dickhead and he wants mooooore. We don't get tons of oomph here. Azul hits his rampway senton, Bucanero is squeezed into some black vinyl top and skull tights and with his skull face paint he looks like a dumpy asshole in a Misfits cover band. Stuka hits his hands-free splash which always looks beautiful, Terrible kicks the shit out of Mascara, throwing his big left hands almost as stiffly as he threw them against Porky. The big climax is Mascara punting Terrible right in the balls to end the tercera, in full view of Tigre Hispano, who goes ahead and counts anyway because lucha. Azul and Stuka are super disappointed afterwards that Mascara's boot toe touched another mans tender area, even if it was through tights.

Rey Escorpion, Dragon Rojo Jr. & Shocker vs. Maximo, Marco Corleone & Volador Jr.

Good, this will fulfill our tri-weekly Marco Corleone quota. This is another super short match. One on hand, it's too short to mean much of anything. On the other, since it's so short there's no down time and the energy level from everybody is real high. Marco shows off abs and throws tons of left hands into Shocker's face. Maybe too many, as his left hand is usually sold like brief death, and here Shocker takes 4 or 5 of them over the course of 8 minutes. My DVR feed froze right when Escorpion was about to be smooched by Maximo, leaving us locked in a forever will-they-or-won't-they tug of war (I checked youtube, they kissed you guys!). Rojo hits a big stomp off the top, but most of this short running time was Shocker/Corleone, and it was okay.