Uprising: Lucha Libre Workrate Report 9/13/14

This was the main event of the 5/18/14 Morgan Hill show. Liger was working 2 hours away from my house and I had no clue until the next week when Phil asked me if I had gone to the show. I might not have made the trek even if I had known (120 miles each way isn't exactly "close") but I'm glad I'm getting to see what I missed. I actually didn't think they would end up showing this match, as they never showed either Hijo del Santo match from last year. Really happy they're putting this out there (yet still don't have many matches on youtube).

1. Jushin Liger vs. Blue Demon Jr.

Oddly the play-by-play guy calls Liger "The Thunder, Jushin Liger" a couple times to start. That's weird. This match had elements of a very good match but Demon was pretty clueless in his comeback timing, and also used a bunch of confusing rudo tactics throughout. Liger looked good and can now add an outdoor rodeo arena in Morgan Hill, CA to his list of "really weird places that I have worked". Best part of the match was the opening mat stuff which I really really dug. Demon did some cool reversals and other tricks that I've never seen him break out. Liger grabbed a keylock that allowed Demon to do a cool roll through into a leg pick. Both guys stretch the other in pretty cool ways, with both bending the other's arms and legs in cool ways. Demon breaks out the much missed Lasso from El Paso (don't actually know the lucha name of the submission), Liger locks in a cool modified figure 4. My favorite may have been when Liger went to lock in a surfboard and upon being stretched back Demon kicked out his legs and fell back into a pinfall. Real cool. After the opening mat stuff things got odd as Demon, being pushed as the gallant hero from Mexico, backs Liger into the corner and slaps him a few times across the face. Kind of an odd thing for a tecnico to do. Demon did hit a nice back elbow but even that felt like more of a sneaky rudo cheapshot. Later Demon would hold Liger's tights during a mat exchange which again, feels real weird for a tecnico to be doing.

Here we go into the more move exchange portion of the match, which was actually sequenced really well and would have made for a very good match, if Demon had any clue about comebacks and selling. Demon would always just pop right up after moves to immediately get his stuff in. Sometimes this can be the fault of the other guy, especially when the aggressor needs him to be in a certain position, but this was much more reminiscent of Kurt Angle not wanting to stay down for very long because it's more exciting to jump up and hit a suplex. When Liger hit palm strikes and his rolling kick only to see Demon stand up at the same time as Liger, things look funny. I mean, Demon hit a nice quebradora in this, but it felt misplaced coming right after a run of Liger offense. The worst of all was doing that right at the finish, completely no selling Liger's two biggest moves of the match and ending in the flattest way possible. Liger hit a real nasty brainbuster, got a 2 count, picked him up and gave Demon a powerbomb for another 2 count…and then Demon just gets up, charges at Liger for a double leg takedown and submits him. What? Awful finish. The kind of finish that's really only excusable if someone was about to shit their pants and had to immediately go home. Something tells me it was more about Demon not having an understanding of building drama, or very possibly just didn't care about building drama. Even if he didn't care about those things you'd think he would want to do more of an exciting finish then "I fall on top of you and submit you". Real dud of a finish that sadly ended an overall fun match. I am glad they showed it as I did enjoy the match, but man would I have been pissed at that finish had I driven 2 hours to see it.