Lucha Worth Watching 8/1/15 & 10/2/15

L.A. Park & Volador Jr. vs. La Sombra & Pagano AULL 8/1/15

So okay, this isn't "great", because Pagano. Nobody gets excited seeing Pagano's name in a match. He usually pops up against actual good wrestlers, and he himself is not an actual good wrestler. He's essentially an early round CZW Tournament of Death guy, or a guy wrestling the 4 AM slot at a Gathering of the Juggalos. And really this was the tale of two matches. That feels like a sentence I've typed a lot. It's a feeling I often experience. I start a movie, enjoy it, and suddenly things take a turn that I don't care for and I'm left feeling like it was directed by two different people - one who had my interests and one who had Hollywood's interests.  This match had my interests in mind for the first half, and then kind of burned my eyeballs for the second half. Spoiler alert the match is approximately 40 minutes long. But the first half is awesome. The first half is all wild crowd brawling, big bumps, big spots and nasty chairshots. Sombra takes a powerbomb into the crowd, beers get taken from fans, get drank, and then get thrown in faces, every guy throws stiff shots, every guy gets brained with chairs, Park does a huge dive, fans get in the way, it's all awesome. And the whole time I'm looking at that video length and thinking "how the hell are they gonna keep this up for 40 minutes?? Does the match end halfway through and someone just left the camera rolling?" Well, the match kind of grinds to a halt midway through once the action gets back to the ring. Pagano gasses out hard, and somehow manages to bring down three other, capable men in the process. It turns mostly into Pagano setting up spots and then slowly, tiredly but stubbornly and doggedly going through them. Watch himself almost die on a double jump moonsault! Watch his horrible springboard tope en reversa Stunner that Park doesn't really know how to take (and who can blame him). Pagano braining people with chairs and getting punched hard by Park? Awesome. Pagano running through his modern day Sabu spots while barely able to breathe? Dreadful. Sombra comes in and tries to save things by getting dumped brutally on his head by a Volador reverse rana, and Park still breaks out his neat snap powerslam, but the latter half of the match is slow motion moves trading that is not very fulfilling. So tell you what: Watch this, soak in the violence and chaos, and the SECOND you start to dislike it, just move on. Don't look back, don't be a foolish Lot's Wife, just don't look back. You have other pro wrestling to watch. That first half though...

Dragon Lee vs. Luciferno (CMLL 10/2/15)

Tournament lucha: the Nerf football your dog stole and chewed up and half-buried in your sideyard.  So while the matches are mostly a waste, here we at least have Dragon Lee taking tons of stupid bumps. He eats it on a clothesline, eats it on the apron, flies like a loon on a flip dive (later against Shocker he does a wildly misguided flip dive and crashes into the barrier/floor; Shocker looked fatter than ever and noticeably terrible in ring). Luciferno clobbers him, Lee has a deathwish, so of course this is worth watching.

Barbaro Cavernario vs. Ultimo Guerrero (CMLL 10/2/15)

This is only like 3 minutes because tournament lucha hates you, doesn't care much about you, and my birthday was actually 2 months ago but thanks anyway dad. But Barbaro jumps UG and goes wild on him in the corner with punches, then does the worm before getting clotheslined. Later he hits a badass tope through the turnbuckles and UG goes flying blindly into the barrier. Barbaro hates his knees and takes UG's front suplex and Guerrero Special better than most. Fans seemed like they wanted Barbaro to advance.