Hugo's Lucha Libre Road Report 4/22

One of the cool things about moving to Denver is that there is a thriving lucha libre scene here. There are at least three separate promotions running with seemingly completely different rosters. There was actually two shows going on at the same time tonight, one show that had Hijo Del Dr. Wagner, Hijo Del Dos Caras and Wes Briscoe for some reason, and then this show which was main evented by Blue Panther vs. Octagon. The venue was awesome for wrestling, they were in a fairgrounds and had good bleacher seating, lighting rigs and big screens. I think I might have been the only white person in the crowd, and it was a raucous group. Since I don't speak Spanish, the names for these matches are off the poster, so I can't verify their accuracy.

Alley Gato vs. Psycho vs. Rachelle

Only really sure about Alley Gato's name. She was the standout here, hitting pretty hard and bumping well for the other two greener luchadoras. Rachelle was in an American flag get up, but I don't think was working ruda, she certainly spent a lot of the match smiling. She did bust out an Angle slam which was amusing. This was fun stuff, Alley Gato is legit good and this moved at a nice pace.

Severino vs. Amaya

Amaya had a really good look and was super over with the crowd. Severino had an Italian singlet on and may have been a gringo. He was pretty good, based well for Amaya's stuff and had two great looking suplexes, including an awesome delayed German and snap belly to belly, you really don't expect to see local undercard luchadores throw suplexes like Alexander Otsuka. Amaya had a nice tope too.

Jr. vs. Sol vs. Nueva Estrella

I am really not sure about these names, they are what was on the poster, but it doesn't seem familiar. This was the least match on the show, greenish guys who were trying some stuff but not cleanly hitting it all. Sol gets unmasked and helped to the back and Jr cheats to the get the win over Nueva Estrella who was also working rudo. They need more trios matches and less three ways

They have an intermission where their mascot throws out T-Shirts and the girl who sang the national anthem sings a Mexican song, and then sings It's a Mans World.

Vago/Rayo vs. Corsairo/Heros

There is some angle at the beginning where Vago doesn't show up initially but comes in from the crowd. Lots to like here, Vago is a great rudo, hits hard, muggs to the crowd, bumps big, by far the best local on the show, reminds me a bit of Rey Escorpion. This goes three falls and mostly is solidly executed lucha, Finish is nuts as Heros goes for a tope and Rayo sidesteps him, and Heros goes full speed chest and throat first into the guard rail, totally insane bump. Then Jr. from the earlier three way comes out to interfere and cost Corsairo the match. There are a lot of challenges back and forth setting up something for next month I assume.

Blue Panther vs. Octagon

This was billed as a battle of the Maestros (man I wish they had flown in almost any other maestro besides Octagon), and the first fall was worked Maestro style, with Panther leading Octagon through some mat exchanges, nothing super fancy, but it was fun to see the flourishes Panther lends to simple things. Second and third falls were not what I was expecting. Panther goes full over the top rudo (even thought the crowd was 80% for Panther) slams a chair in to Octagon's nuts, tossed him into the crowd, ties his mask to the ropes yells at fans. We get a full fake Tirantes heel ref, they go full Monterey. Panther doesn't wrestle like this normally and hasn't for years, and it was fun to watch him break out some old tricks. He has great muggy faces, and does a lot of hamming it up. Octagon isn't great even in a match where Panther just worked as Fuerza, Not a great match, but I had a total blast watching Panther perform.