CMLL Workrate Round-Up 7/20/14 & 7/27/14

1. Terrible, Vangellys & Rey Bucanero vs. Rey Cometa, Angel de Oro & Titan (7/20/14)

Well hey this was good! Motivated Terrible is a great thing, especially when he's blindsiding floppers. Here he's after Titan and it's glorious. In one of my favorite wrestling spots of the year Titan tags in, slingshots over the ropes and begins hand springing his way across the ring and finishes doing a dorky bow and arrow mime, and Terrible just runs over and throws a brutal left hook, flooring Titan. Awesome spot. This match is full of rudos dropkicking tecnicos right in the middle of dangerous looking moves. Oro and Cometa both do moonsaults at different points and get kicked in the stomach right in the middle of them, which if you think about the physics basically stops their momentum and dumps them on their heads. Vangellys dropkicking Cometa during an Asai moonsault was an especially nasty moment. Bucanero doesn't always show up but he was game here, and aside from throwing shots at the floppers (oh god including powerbombing Cometa right into the freaking ring post) he also took a hilarious bump off a Cometa rana from the apron, making sure to somersault his way towards a couple bosomy ladies in the front row, and then recovering whilst draped over their laps. But this match was the Terrible show, and when he's on he's on. Here he took a bunch of bumps from big springboard offense, and then dished it right back including ending the Segunda by catching a springboard rana into an brutal powerbomb. Awesome stuff in this.

2. Rush, Maximo & Marco Corleone vs. Mr. Niebla, Euforia & Niebla Roja (7/20/14)

What an odd match. I actually had to check the date to make sure LATV wasn't just showing an old match, but no this match actually happened in 2014. What was so weird was everybody worked it as if it were 2012. Rush was working tecnico with Maximo and Corleone as if he hadn't been a total dickbag the entire last year (although the onscreen graphics kept referring to them as rudos). But it wasn't just Rush, as Niebla was also doing little things he hasn't done since 2012, most notably not dressing like a total asshole and just wearing his old Niebla gear, not doing a stupid spit spot, Zacharias was getting involved in the match (and really he's just been sitting at ringside for the last 1-2 years), Niebla also broke out his fun face first apron bump that I haven't seen him do in a couple years, and also the Harley Race "feet caught on bottom ropes" headfirst bump to the floor. This time the Race bump had a fun twist as while he was hung up in the ropes Zacharias was tossed onto him sending both of them crashing to the floor. Euforia seems to match up really well with Marco's big left hands, and he ran into a few great ones here. Maximo also had a spry performance, tossing out some cool armdrag variations and working some nice sequences with Niebla. And there Rush is the whole match, working a weird turn back the clock gimmick. This whole match was seriously bizarre.

3. Metalico, Virus & Skandalo vs. Dragon Lee, Oro Jr. & Fuego (7/27/14)

Fun straight falls match with more of Metalico taking out all of his life's aggressions on Oro Jr. Oro bumps even bigger in this one than their showdown the week before. Even before the match starts Oro is waiting in the aisle for Metalico, which immediately backfires as Metalico sidesteps him, hits a great kneelift, and then tosses Oro into the ring post. Oro takes a really awesome Lawler style bump into the post. Oro takes another big beating from all the rudos here, with Metalico being the standout again as the vicious asskicker. The segunda sees the big tecnico comeback with all of them hitting big dives, Lee getting a big flip dive and a nice rana off the apron, and Oro about to exact his revenge when Metalico unmasks himself and gets the DQ win. I'm really liking this feud as it's really done a great job of making two guys stand out who I have never really giving second thoughts to. The fact I'm looking forward to more Metalico and Oro Jr. stuff really says something.