CMLL Worth Watching 7/12/15, 8/9/15 & 8/14/15

Blue Panther, The Panther & Blue Panther Jr. vs. Virus, Sangre Azteca & Okumura (7/12/15)

So, after showing some potential early last year, Panther's boys have so far revealed themselves to be duds. Clutzy, awkward, prone to confusion in the middle of segments. Luchadors can peak late, so there's still time, but for now it's best to expect nothing out of them. No, you watch this match expressly hoping for the few moments that papa Panther matches up with Virus. And those few moments totally made this worthwhile for me. Some of their exchanges lasted mere seconds but when you're dealing with two masters like them, sometimes that's all you need to see flashes of brilliance. At one point Panther armdrags Virus, Virus grabs BP's leg while going over, rolls through with it, Panther pulls Virus in with the captured leg and kicks off with the other. A 4 second moment, but gorgeous in its execution. There are more moments with them, and they're all the best parts of the match. There is some expected badness from BP's boys, though Jr. hits a nice dive at the tercera's peak, Virus wraps himself around a ringpost while also splatting on the apron, BP's opening mat play with Azteca was nice. A simple trios, and full of irony as I labeled it "worth watching" while later realizing it's not been uploaded by Cubs. I watched it on LATV. Add this to the pile of me historically documenting lucha matches that no one else will ever watch. (EDIT: It's up now)

Cabellera contra Cabellera: Pequeno Violencia vs. Aereo (8/9/15)

I can almost always get into a lucha stip matches, but I must say when the tecnico has 7/8" hair in a hair match, it kind of takes away some drama. You can almost guarantee it's going to be Violencia's ponytail getting got, and if it doesn't then Aero's hair will be back to the same cut within 4 weeks tops. But it's still fun to see minis get an extended singles match. It's tough to top a spot in the primera, as Aereo goes for a dive and Violencia just introduces him right into the floor. Splat. It sadly doesn't mean a whole lot as both men get into the ring at about the same time. Violencia immediately gets a leg lock to win the fall, and later in the match Aereo shows no hesitation in doing an even bigger dive. Aereo is real tiny, but doesn't quite have the same snap that fellow tiny minis like Shockercito have. Still, you get some nice headscissors and armdrags, just slower than the other guys. In that same vein, Violencia is your lesser bulky mini rudo, nowhere near as good as Demus or Pierrothito, and not anywhere near as exciting as a less bulky rudo like Mercurio. BUT, I like when 4th rung guys like this get showcase matches, get the chance to stretch out a bit. It doesn't always work, but there are usually fun moments. And this had fun moments.

Demus 3:16, Pequeno Violencia & Mercurio vs. Stukita, Shockercito & Ultimo Dragoncito (8/14/15)

This was real fun, too quick to be revolutionary, but tons of craziness which makes it an easy recommendation. The double dive alone is worth watching several times, which I certainly did. Stukita flies through Mercurio and lands right on the barrier, and Dragoncito gets a wild head of steam and comes in too hot, sending him crashing and burning OVER the barrier and into a front row chair, sending beer and a woman's smart phone flying. One of the camera angle looks like a beer geyser goes off. I mean he really just flew right into that front row. You crazy crazy tiny Dragon. Demus is kind of a nutbar, really has an outsized personality which is not something you ever see from minis. He really jaws with the ref, knows how to work a crowd, and is easily the best base of all the mini rudos. Shockercito goes for an around the world headscissors and Demus is nutty so he flips Shocker 4 times around his body and then upside down and then perfectly bumps through the ropes to the floor in an impossibly fluid way. The crowd kept getting louder with every revolution and he somehow made a 100% implausible move seem like something that could actually be done. Stukita is super smooth and breaks out all sorts of armdrags and moonsaults that he makes look effortless. I know the minis often have their matches recorded, but they rarely seem to make TV for whatever reason. This is the first time they've popped up on actual TV in...sheesh, over a year maybe?

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MLJ: Misterioso vs Huichol vs Vulcano [Mask vs Hair vs Hair]

1993-10-01 @ Gimnasio Olímpico Juan de la Barrera, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal
Misterioso vs Vulcano vs Huichol

This is in between the last match I watched and the start of the Misterioso/Volador break up so I figured what the heck? Who doesn't like a hair/mask match? I've got a time crunch upcoming so the plan is to run some Blue Panther lightning matches in between more Volador/Misterioso for the next few weeks. We'll see how that goes.

I don't have a great sense of who Huichol is. I read in an old WON that he'd won a huge number of hair matches in a row at this point. For someone who seemingly had been around forever, there's not a ton online about him, not even on luchawiki. Apparently he became Loco Zandokan II at some point. At this point he had sort of a wild look to him, sort of like Terrible or Charles, Jr. when their hair was long, though lankier. Vulcano was one of Los Destructores.

And this, though clipped, was a lot of fun. It's a triangle apuestas match from this era, so the rules are simple elimination. They start with three luchadores. The first one to get pinned is eliminated, leaving two. Then the second one to get pinned is eliminated as well. The winner is safe. The two losers then wrestle each other and the ultimate loser loses his hair or mask.

Here there were two rudos and a tecnico and though this part of the match was pretty well clipped, it went about as you'd expect. Huichol and Vulcano teamed up and just crushed Misterioso together. There were brief flashes of a comeback, but they were very brief. Mainly, it was a lot of tandem offense and posturing. Some of it was fun, like this assisted clothesline:

but most was business as usual. They took care of him in about three minutes and then celebrated. Maybe it's because they don't run them too much but I love the rudo doublecrossing in cage matches. It was evident here too. Vulcano celebrated on the top rope as the ref was getting Misterioso's body out of the ring. Huichol took advantage of the distraction, fouled him from behind, and scored the quick win, saving his hair from even being on the line. Beautiful Rudo Mentality:

That left Misterioso and Vulcano. Both guys had taken some damage but Misterioso had taken more and he started this portion of the match in trouble. It was pretty strange, to be honest. Volcano was nailing him with sentons after almost every move at first. Then Vulcano pulled off Misterioso's mask, but didn't get DQ'd. Instead Misterioso ran to the back. Vulcano spent this period arguing with the ref and the crowd and was fully distracted, allowing for Misterioso, wearing a new mask, to take over. That led to a bunch of heel ref spots and then inexplicably, with the ref counting a fast count on Vulcano at the end after a huge arcing sunset flip by Misterioso.

The whole thing was fun enough and worth ten minutes or so of your time, clipped or not, but even after looking at a few WONs, I'm not entirely sure what happened there. That's AAA for you, though. I wouldn't mind seeing more Huichol since I didn't get much other than an attitude out of him here (there's not much online though).

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