His Rhymes are Homicidal, He'll Take Your Title He's Ricky Banderas far from Billy Idol

Ricky Banderas v. Slash Venom IWA-PR 10/18/03 -EPIC

This is exactly the kind of blood soaked spectacle I was hoping to unearth. I think I had seen clips of the finish before, but never the whole match. Slash Venom is awesome southern indy wrestler Flash Flanagan and he brings the crazy right to Banderas. Banderas works him from pillar to post early busting him open with chair shots and big bombs. Venom takes over a bit and hits a spring board elbow to the floor through the table, which gets crazy height, totally memorable highspot which is really overshadowed by the bat shit finish. Venom sets up a table and they brawl to a balcony legit 20-25 feet above the floor, they tease a couple of falls before Banderas chucks Venom over the rail, causing him to take a flat back bump on a gym floor after a 20 foot plus drop. It was as crazy, if not more crazy then the Foley HIC bumps or that time New Jack tried to murder Vic Grimes. Finish would have made it memorable no matter what, but this was a corker before that too.

Judas Mesias v. Abyss TNA 1/22/08 - FUN

This was a barbed wire massacre match, basically a no-rope barbed wire match with barbed wire weapons. This isn't a match which is going to pump up Mesais reputation. It had several gruesome visuals, and some nastish bumps (Mesias goes stomach first on a barbed wire board which had to suck). The fact they had an actual feud building to it, puts it above a throw away IWA-MS Mad Man Pondo garbage match, but not by much. Abyss will bleed a ton but man is he shitty at lots of other things you are supposed to do as a wrestler. Mesias didn't look much better in the basics category either, there is one point where they are on their knees exchanging "punches" which was about as bad as I remember seeing. Also the backstory of this some bad Russo knock off Kane shit. Apparently Father James Mitchell is Abyss's biological father, and he has brought his other son Judas Mesias in to destroy Abyss. Tenay for some reason keeps calling Mesias, Abyss's step brother as opposed to his half brother. Is the gimmick that Mitchell married Mesias's mother and help raise her blood splitting son?

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE MESIAS

Read more!

Complete and Accurate El Mesias

El Mesais/Ricky Banderas/Mil Muertes is a really interesting C+A case, he is currently knocking out classic after classic on TV seeming every week. He is probably the guy most likely to break out an EPIC in 2016, he has this long career under various guises in promotions like TNA, IWA-PR and AAA that I haven't really followed and don't get a ton of attention, so I imagine there are gems to be mined. As always matches are broken down EPIC, GREAT, FUN, SKIPPABLE and lots of the reviews will have Eric or Tomk tagging along

1999

Ricky Banderas vs. Dick Togo IWA-PR 11/19/99 - FUN

2003

Ricky Banderas v. Rey Gonzalez IWA 6/03?-GREAT
Ricky Banderas v. Slash Venom IWA-PR 10/18/03 -EPIC

2008

Judas Mesias v. Abyss TNA 1/22/08 - FUN

2014

Mil Muertes v. Blue Demon Jr. Lucha Underground 9/7/14 -FUN
Mil Muertes v. Ricky Mandel Lucha Underground 9/13/14-SKIPPABLE
Mil Muertes v. Drago Lucha Underground 9/27/14- GREAT
Mil Muertes v. Famous B Lucha Underground 9/28/14- SKIPPABLE
10 Man Scramble Lucha Underground 10/4/14 -FUN
Mil Muertes v. Fenix Lucha Underground 10/4/14 -SKIPPABLE
Aztec Warfare Lucha Underground 10/5/14 -GREAT
Mil Muertes v. Fenix Lucha Underground 10/19/14- GREAT

2015

Mil Muertes v. Chavo Guerrero Lucha Underground 1/8/15 -FUN
Mil Muertes v. Fenix Lucha Underground 1/25/15 -EPIC
Mil Muertes v. Fenix Lucha Underground 3/21/15 - EPIC
Mil Muertes v. Drago Lucha Underground 3/22/15- GREAT
Mil Muertes v. Son of Havoc Lucha Underground 4/1/15 - FUN
Mil Muertes v. Prince Puma Lucha Underground 4/19/15 -EPIC
El Mesias/Electroshock v. Blue Demon Jr./La Parka AAA 8/9/15 - FUN
Mil Muertes v. Ivelisse Lucha Underground 11/14/15 - GREAT
Mil Muertes v. Prince Puma v. Pentagon Jr. Lucha Underground 11/22/15 -EPIC

2016

Mil Muertes v. King Cuerno Lucha Underground 1/30/16-GREAT
Mil Muertes v. Pentagon Dark Lucha Underground 10/23/16-FUN
Mil Muertes vs. Cage vs. Jeremiah Crane Lucha Underground 6/26/16 - EPIC

2017

Mil Muertes v. Ramses Lucha Libre Presenta 5/7/17-SKIPPABLE

Read more!

MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 16: La Sombra vs Dragón Rojo Jr. (2010)

Aired: 2010-12-26
taped: 2010-11-30 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
La Sombra vs Dragón Rojo Jr.

I've been cherry picking my way through Sombra's 2010. There were a few trios titles matches but they weren't anything interesting (I blame Mascara). There was an Aguila match I skipped too. As always, cubsfan's match finder (http://www.thecubsfan.com/cmll/roster/matchfinder.php) is the greatest tool in the world if anyone is interesting at filling in the gaps. I skipped a Volador title match too, because Volador brings out the worst tendencies in everyone he faces. If you like crazy spotfests, though, you might want to take a look.

This, however, was the first singles match we have of Sombra vs Dragon Rojo, jr. They feuded more heavily in 2012, and I'll look at those later. This was a blast, though. I liked it a ton, and I think it was yet another good indication of just how far Sombra had come. I'd liken this to some of the recent Dragon Lee vs Kamaitachi matches. The spectacular stuff wasn't quite as spectacular, but it was still thoroughly enjoyable.

It was all grounded where it had to be too. It was back and forth, throughout. Every transition felt earned. There was a lot of struggle, even if it was broad. The dives were plentiful and served as chapter breaks, even on top of the other transitions. There were a few moments of call back and payoff (Dragon Lee sliding out early to try to get the advantage on Sobmra, only to have it backfire on it, and then trying it again in the tercera with much greater sucess; Sombra springboarding in one too many times and paying for it; the roll up suplex working in the primera but generating a kickout in the tercera).

That last one didn't feel over the top either. It was part of the escalation towards the big finish. This wasn't a title or an apuestas match. In that regard, there felt like less of a finishing stretch to me. There were a lot of two counts in the tercera, but the real crazy kickouts weren't until the last minute or so. I was high on some of the tags but this is probably my favorite Sombra match that I've seen for this spotlight so far. Dragon Rojo, Jr. in 2016 is no great shakes, but I'm very much looking forward to their 2012 title matches now.

Bit of character from both to close it out:

Read more!