Lucha Underground Episode 20: The Art of War Workrate Report

1. Angelico vs. Son of Havoc

ER: Boy, they really went to put Son of Havoc over, and this felt like they did a really good job of putting Son of Havoc over. He gets basically a 10 minute squash win over Angelico, with Angelico hitting a massive flip dive and the rest of the match being all Havoc offense. A lot of Angelico's stuff did not look good; the camera should really cut wide whenever he's in the middle of a punch exchange. But that flip dive over the corner was great, one of his flying knees looked good, and he bumped big for Havoc (big rana bump into the corner off a splash mountain attempt). Havoc really got the crowd behind him, got to tell Ivelisse off something good (with Matt Striker awkwardly screaming for him to punch her...Eeesh) and I'm really curious to see where this goes for him.

PAS: 3 years ago Matt Cross v. Angelico would be a high on my nightmare match list, but this was pretty fun. Angelico has developed some nice douchey charisma, and mostly hit his stuff well. That dive was nutso. I think the Son of Havoc booking has been pretty goofus, but I do admit he has gotten pretty over.

ER: When Dario was talking all deviously to a mystery man, I'm pretty sure part of my brain said "Don't be Hernandez". I can't really see this man in his early 40s being anything that could benefit this promotion, yet he's been a guy I assumed was going to be a part of things since the fed was announced. How many large muscular dudes is Dario going to bring in to have sneaky underhanded meetings with?

PAS: I wouldn't hate Homicide being brought in for an LAX reunion, the TNA booking of that group was stupid and racist, but they were a fun tag team.

2. Texano vs. Alberto el Patron (Bullrope Match)

ER: I already love right at the start where they explain that this is not a "touch 4 corners" bullrope match. Bullrope or chain matches always benefit WAY more from it being a fight, and the 4 corners stip always makes the fight seem tantamount to a potato sack race. But this was a fight and a real good one. The bull rope was attached to both men but it was always used in violent ways instead of "I'm dragging you by this rope!!!" Instead we get both guys smacking each other in the temple with a cowbell, Patron whipping Texano, Texano dishing some great punches, Patron getting dumped through a table, Patron hitting a fucking awesome rana off the apron to the floor, and a nasty finish with Patron bending Texano's arm in the nastiest way. This was really good although kind of felt like something that happens at the end of a feud, not a couple weeks after the guys show up. It's odd how much more build the Son of Havoc/Ivelisse angle got, yet they rushed two big stars right through things. It is possible they weren't sure how long they were get to use Patron.

PAS: This was really fun. Patron looks so motivated now that he is freed up from WWE meat grinder booking. Texano Jr. never did a ton for me, but he is fine as a brawny foil for Patron to play off of. All of his brawling looked good, and played the outshined frustrated veteran really well.  I love a good cowbell shot, and the finish was great with Texano running headfirst into a fight and getting caught sleeping with the armbar in the ropes.

ER: Okay Hernandez being used as Konnan's muscle and Puma's paid back-up isn't that bad. I'm okay with that, but still really don't know what Hernandez has to offer this fed.

3. Cage vs. Prince Puma (Boyle Heights Street Fight)

ER: Well this was really fun. Puma does just some ridiculous things that all come off so simply. Even missing his 630 is something my brain can't comprehend. But then you throw in an effortless shooting star to the floor (that they filmed to make it look like he was flying 12 out of the ring) and an incredible 450 from the top to the floor putting Cage through a table, and at that point I just want LU to take my money. I loved all the garbage spots, like Puma's standing shooting star with a garbage can lid, and Cage's powerbombs all looked completely devastating here. The ones to the mat looked more brutal than the one through a trash can! Also I'm not sure if there is a man who takes Cage's discus clothesline better. These two really gel in a lot of ways. The Konnan/Hernandez stuff was handled in a really clunky way. I liked Cage roughing up Konnan at ringside, but then Cage demolishing Puma and then just casually walking over to yell at Hernandez was dumb. Him having to jaw long enough to allow Konnan to hobble into the ring was worse. Poorly handled finish to what had been an awesome match.

PAS: This was the best match these two have had with each other, Cage stayed in wrecking ball mode and Puma was just stick and moving. I am not sure I liked this as much as the Big Ryck Boyle Heights Street Fight, but Puma is two for two in great matches with his signature gimmick. I like the idea of Cage pounding a guy into submission instead of a pin, but he needs to lay it in a little more, that and the awkward Hernandez stuff was my only really complaint about this match. Pretty great show

LUCHA UNDERGROUND MASTER LIST

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MLJ: Guerreros del Infierno A-5: Rey Bucanero & Último Guerrero vs Mr. Niebla & Emilio Charles, Jr. [CMLL Tag]

2000-08-18 @ Arena México
Rey Bucanero & Último Guerrero © vs Emilio Charles Jr. & Mr. Niebla [CMLL TAG]

I'll probably do something else Monday to commemorate it, but as of then, I'll have done this for a year straight. Three a week, not missing any. We'll see if I make it through this week, of course. If anyone has a good idea what I should watch for Monday, let me know in the comments. Maybe I'll do the Hechicero vs Cavernario final. I obviously could have timed things better. Lucero vs Hechicero would have been ideal for it.

This match would have been pretty good too, but for completely different reasons. I had seen almost nothing a year and a half ago. I stumbled right into the deep end with the DVDVR 80s set (which is amazing. I can't talk that thing up enough. At some point I'm actually going to go back and finish it. At the time I got burnt out on the all trios disc 6 but my familiarity is way higher now, which I guess is the point). It's easy to get lost with lucha though, to lose the thread of a match if you're not careful, at least when you're new to it.
I think, in part, that's because people tell you the wrong things to look for. Everyone hears the same things when they want to get started in the genre: heels are rudos and faces are tecnicos, but it's not that cut and dry. There's a heel ref and a face ref. Guys can enter the ring when their partners leave the ring. Trios have a captain and either they can get pinned or the other two partners, etc. etc. That's not the important stuff, though, not really. No one ever tells you how trios matches are often there to set up a singles match, or how late match dives are there to clear the ring to allow for a focus on a pairing, or about the momentum shifts in the structure and how that's far more important than hot tags. At some point, I'm hoping to write more about this, but life is busy and I've got a match to talk about now. A match that's just clipped enough that I know I would have had a huge problem following it back in 2013. I think I've got the sense of it here though.

So, for those who missed the start of this series (I had a question before), I went and obtained a comp of Fredo's Best of Los Guerreros del Infierno that was made back in the middle of last decade, originally on VHS. Comps were a little different back then, so it's certainly not a huge retrospective. Instead, it's two discs, fifteen matches or so, covering 2000 to 2003 with some of their bigger tag matches. Since I'd rather review things that most of you can watch, I'm interspersing matches that are online when I can, but there aren't a ton. Those are the B matches in this. The comp matches are the A-matches. One of the reason I got the comp was because so many of the matches on it (and really from this era in general) just weren't online. I'll let you know if I can suggest the comp at the end, but so far with just the 2000 tag tournament it's been fun.

This was the big follow-up match to the tournament, where Charles (who had been injured and missed the last match of it) teamed back up with Niebla to get their shot. There's a vignette in an office with GdI arguing with the officials before this. It's a tricky match to cover because there's a ton of cutting, but it's still worth watching because it gives another example of the sort of action GdI brought to the table at this time. It's also a good look at super tecnico Niebla (with a blue and white mask, seconded by Atlantis) and grizzled tecnico Charles, both of which sort of feel unlikely with 2015 eyes.

What we see for the primera is the beginning and the finish. There's enough there to fill in the gaps. Niebla was pared with Bucanero (which meant Charles would have been paired with UG). They start out with some fairly competent matwork, including a fun little spot where Niebla does a standing leglock and Rey turns it into a small package. Niebla was a totally different wrestler back then. Casas or Atlantis are different than they were twenty years ago but a lot of the core is still the same. Niebla on the other hand is a totally different creature. Now he spits and pratfalls and gross-outs. There was a little, tiny bit of that here (more later) but mainly he bounced around the ring, incredibly agile. Given his personal issues, it's not surprising that he broke down more than most. The primera ended with a cute little sequence where Charles comes in, fiery, but gets double clotheslined. Then Niebla ends up monkey flipped in the middle of the ring, but sails head first into UG. That turned the tide so that Charles could hit a missile dropkick and a rana for one pin with Niebla doing is turn over tie-up for the other. It's hugely strange to see plucky tecnico Charles.

I'm sure we miss a chunk of the segunda here, but the general gist is this: the tecnicos take the fight to the floor. The rudos fight back and get the advantage and begin to double team huge to take the fall. The details are fun though, as we get to see some familiar moves from GdI, some new ones, and some slightly modified ones. For instance, Rey did this really nice twisting kick to set up the Senton de la Muerte in the corner. They did their run around pose thing after double dropkicking Charles out of the ring. It's still hard to get past how young UG seemed here with the theatrics. I do think there's a direct evolution to the GdA version of him and the Heavyweight champ that followed and the grizzled rudo leader we have now, but to see yesterday and today back to back, it'd be jarring. They won the fall with a tidal wave double splash, which was fairly impressive, and then a tight lift up-turn over double crab. I'm not a moves guy by any means, but, as I've said before, the lack of longstanding tag teams who actually get to defend their belts a lot in modern CMLL makes this sort of teamwork, especially when it's repeated between matches, really stand out.

The tercera felt disjointed and I'm not sure how much of that I can pin on the clipping. What we have here is all action, but I think that's what everyone got, certainly with a lot of tandem spots. The tecnicos went for double victory rolls and double ranas, for pins. We had a moment of double cradles with feet on the ropes by the rudos and then double quebadoras by the tecnicos, which they followed by mocking the GdI stomp around pose (but with Niebla putting his leg up like a dog relieving itself; see some of the modern Niebla was already there!). Things sort of fell apart from there. The tecnicos hit a superfly splash after an electric chair drop on UG but almost immediately thereafter, while the pin was happening, Rey locked in a crucifix pin and the timing was so off I wasn't sure what they were going for. The finish was Charles reversing a UG rana into a powerbomb, but UG somehow still rolling him up after the fact, while Rey hit a reverse figure four on Niebla. It's not until the match was over that we saw the replays of the dives we missed, all of them great, with Niebla doing this crazy assisted (by Charles' feet) moonsault up and over the top and UG with a no-hands flipping dive and Charles flipping off the apron. I think they had to have come between the pose-mock and the electric chair/splash.

You can get a real sense of the sort of big matches that GdI were putting on here, all full of huge spots, but maybe not the visceral sort of beatdowns that they'd manage a few years later. This was more about excitement and attitude. On a personal level, I consider the fact that I understand enough about lucha to have followed this, despite the clipping, to be a victory in and of itself. Like I said, I certainly wouldn't have been able to do that two years ago.

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