Lucha Worth Watching: More Dinamitas! Liga Elite!

1. Imposible/Diamante v. Jinzo/Ciclon Ramirez Jr. (Liga Elite 9/14/16)

ER: A bunch of younger guys breaking out a bunch of crazy moves and fast work to get noticed, cool. Every guy got several moments in this, but Imposible impressed me the most. He showed a lot of polish, unique sequences, super quick set-ups, and some crazy, ankle destroying high spots. First he places Ciclon in a chair and runs from the entrance stairway to do a balls first Thesz press. Later he has Diamante holding Jinzo in a wheelbarrow on the floor, and just drops balls first onto the back of Jinzo's head from the top rope. It's like he just aimed to crotch himself using Jinzo. I really want to see more from Imposible now. Diamante blew out of CMLL and doesn't seem like he missed a beat as he clearly looked improved. He worked stiff and his timing was on point, came off like a real badass. Jinzo had one of his best showings since the CWC...although I guess this was only a couple months after the CWC stuff was taped. Look, all I know is that I haven't really liked him in anything other than his Kendrick match, and I liked him in this. I'm always kind of skeptical of Jrs. in lucha, as it seems like it's going to be a guy coasting on a legendary mask. That's not really fair, as there's been some amazing Jrs. in lucha, including some of the absolute greatest luchadors. But I see a young guy with a Jr. and my pre-formed opinions are bad. But Ciclon wasn't coasting on a damn thing. He was as good as any of CMLL's more pushed tecnicos, a real pleasant surprise, and hit a batshit crazy rana from the top rope to Diamante on the apron. Balls out craziness from both. He works some swift roll ups and takes some nasty moves from the rudos, real quality modern tecnico. I kept expecting this whole match to fall apart and it never did, they just kept busting out cool, dangerous moves and working some fine drama. Fun stuff.

2. El Cuatrero/Forastero/Sanson vs. The Panther/Blue Panther Jr./Drone (CMLL 12/6/16)

Dinamitas are my favorite new trios team, a real trio of young rudo assbeaters, who do all the lucha rudo things that I love: big bumps, stiff shots, great bases. All of that is on display here, and we also get a nice little standout performance from Drone. Drone, the former Hombre Bala Jr., has always had some pretty great - and pretty diverse high flying spots. He doesn't just stick to a couple of trademark spots like Diamante Azul or others, he's often breaking out new and crazy stuff. His gimmick is kind of dorky, but it's easy to look past that when he's launching himself to the floor with a no hands tope. Cuatrero is still standing out as my favorite Dinamita (and as long as he keeps taking crazy bumps to the floor every match, that probably won't change), but each one always does a couple notable things, even in a short match like this. All the tecnicos get a couple dives, Panther ranas Cuatrero off the apron, Sanson hits a sick kneedrop to the back of BPJr.'s head, Cuatrero does an actually plausible handspring move, and despite a couple awkward timing spots early in the segunda this was loads of fun.

3. El Cuatrero/Forastero/Sanson vs. Pegasso/Black Panther/Blue Panther Jr. (CMLL 12/13/16)

I can't get enough of these rudo asskickers right now. The primera sees them working a traditional and basic assbeating, just literally stomping the tecnicos most of the time, three of them clubbing one of them to the mat all at once, just ganging up and bullying (and ends with a long and painful swanton from Sanson). Tercera sees them break out two of their crazier semi-trademark spots: Sanson's springboard kneedrop (so tough to pull off, and he really plants it nice) and Cuatrero's brutal and pinpoint match ending springboard elbowdrop. Two violent moves that few could make looks this good. Pegasso got to throw out a bunch of his flashy stuff including a sweet no hands tornillo, but this match was mostly about the rudos, and I'm totally cool with that.