MLJ: Pentagón Jr. & Texano Jr. vs Fénix & Toscano in a University Parking Lot

2014-5-9 @ UNAM Facultad de Contaduria y Administracion, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal Pentagón Jr. & Texano Jr. vs Fénix & Toscano

So here we have one of the most dreaded heels going, one of the best high flying tecnicos, a great journeyman rudo, and a slightly over the hill former heartthrob. Sounds fun, huh? Except for the dreaded heel doesn't act very evil and the flyer doesn't really fly. That sounds less fun right? Actually, no. This thing was a blast, and so much of that was the location and the fact that they were willing to be so playful and really bask in it.

Somewhere in the last month or two I pushed my way through Lucha Underground Season 1. Unsurprisingly, I fall pretty close to Eric and Phil's thoughts on things (probably slightly closer to Eric than Phil), so there's no reason to go into details. I thought the good stuff (Grave Consequences, Puma vs Muertes, Morrison as a heel, the use of the super-heavyweights) was good and the bad stuff (Sexy Star, Davari, how ill-protected Pentagon was) was bad. In general, what I liked the most was the episodic storytelling. I didn't mind some of the goofy, non-wrestling stuff so much as it all moved in a productive direction. It reminded me of NXT more than anything else, in pacing and build, both of which remind me of old studio wrestling to some degree.

Anyway, I haven't seen much of Pentagon, Jr. or Fenix outside of Lucha Underground, but I wanted to catch more of their work for DVDVR March Madness purposes, which is as good or as bad a reason to do anything. I have no idea what was going on here. This is at a Mexican university outside venue, just on the street between buildings. I have no context, but this is a casual crowd. Moreover, they have Dr. Alfonso Morales piping in comments to said crowd and trying to get them to chant or respond, most especially to get heat on the ref, which was funny.

It's all a lot of fun, like I said, and on some level, it's really impressive that these guys were able to work so engaging and accessible a match when it was so far out of their normal wheelhouse. It's probably something they've done before plenty of times but it was new to me to see them in this context.

There was some semblance of structure, sure, with clowning between Fenix and Pentagon at first, based around who was the better tecnico (which was as funny as it sounds), then, once it was obvious Fenix might actually win, a swarming, with plenty of extracurricular activity from rudo luchadora Ludark Shaitan. Then there was a comeback and plenty of rudo comeuppance (especially on Ludark, maybe a little too much so, maybe). They did a thousand comedy spots in the comeback, broad stuff that the crowd loved, but I wonder if a match like this should have ever really been taped. Should there be video evidence of Pentagon, Jr. getting shoved into a mooned Texano's ass? It was great for the live crowd, absolutely the right thing for the moment, but in the grand scheme of things? I'm not making a gif, regardless. Toscano looked good. I have no idea why he's not a CMLL lifer (I'm sure there's a good reason), but he'd bring a lot more to the table than someone like Olimpico in 2016. Fenix really didn't do a ton, but he's naturally charismatic enough that it didn't matter.

I probably like shtick more than you do, but it's probably worth watching anyway, just to see Pentagon and Fenix out of their comfort zone.