Lucha Worth Watching: IWRG and the Stiffest Punches in Puebla

Dr. Cerebro/Cerebro Negro/Relampago vs. Imposible/Odin/Pantera (IWRG 2/12/17)

ER: Fun rudo beatdown that wouldn't have taken much more to land on our MOTY list. The rudos are all total bullies and it leads to some nice comebacks from the tecnicos. Los Cerebros are the perfect complement to each other: Dr. brings the mean striking and Negro brings the fast bumps that look great on a tecnico comeback, just try not to fall in love with them while they hold a seated Pantera's arms and chop/kick him to a pulp. Both of them lay a beating on Odin - who I had never seen before - but Odin seems like a guy who can take a good beating, leaning into a nasty avalanche from Doc. He had my heart when he got launched by a backdrop, and his gorgeous pop up headscissors in the tercera sealed the deal. While Cerebros are doing damage in the ring, Relampago is dragging Imposible around and throwing him through the crowd, Imposible taking some great bumps through chairs, getting those hard plastic chairs thrown at his head. Later Imposible gets revenge and it's Relampago bumping through the crowd and getting beaten with chairs, Relampago even takes a funny stooge bump getting into the ring, "botching" a springboard and screaming at the crowd, and I loved Relampago's wild Ong Bak-esque headscissors on Imposible down the stretch. Really the only thing holding this back is a few clunky moments in the middle with Pantera, but it's minor and even those were saved by a alley oop dropkick (sending Negro flying super fast to the floor) and a nice armdrag on Doc. Everybody was really busting butt in this one. You could see stuff happening off in the periphery, like Doc slamming Pantera into a post or Relampago flying off the ring barrier with a legdrop, stuff done when the roving camera wasn't even on them. That kind of energy always sets something like this apart.

Negro Casas/Rush v. El Terrible/Sagrado (Puebla 1/8/17)

ER: A 5 minute match on a free show, how good could it be? Well, it fits in several little stories, has the stiffest punches I've seen from any of the 4 men this year, and it's under a circus tent. So, pretty good. Rush and Terrible trade at the start, both men hammering opposite fists, both throwing serious blows. Within any given Terrible match you'll see Terrible punch someone in the head with a wicked stiff punch, and then also throw one of the prettier worked punches you've seen. And you don't know which is going to be which. Rush gets them both. Rush is under a circus tent and he's surely aiming to  be the greatest show on earth here. He hams it up nicely with the crowd, lies in his Burt-Reyonlds-in-Playgirl pose, smacks Casas and yells at him to hit Terrible harder, kicks Terrible so hard in the back that you don't need any Lucha Underground sound sweetening, a real showman. The Casas/Terrible showdown in question is awesome. Terrible, towering over Casas, wants a strike exchange and even allows Casas to have the first few shots. Casas throws a few good ones, then blasts Terrible in the neck and throat with a couple HARD elbows, but they still somehow don't faze Terrible. So Casas awesomely falls back on the middle rope to spring up with the hardest forearm yet, knocking Terrible down. Terrible then gets up, squares up, and breaks Casas' face with a left hook. Casas ends up coming back and hitting a huge Thesz press to the floor to the approval of a loud crowd. Maybe the stiffest lucha match I've seen this year.