Lucha Worth Watching: Sugehit's Quest for Hair

Princesa Sugehit/Marcela/Kaho Kobayashi vs. La Seductora/Amapola/Dalys  CMLL 4/20/18

ER: You don't get a lot of gritty women's brawls in Arena Mexico, and this felt unique because of that. There was a great vibe throughout, with the rudas all being assholes, Dalys being a muscular bully, Amapola putting in her typically solid work, and Seductora being this crazy eyed, bad dye jobbed psycho in a gimmick that doesn't totally feel appropriate. Marcela is killing it in fight braids, Kobayashi is smaller than the others, and comes off green (despite having done this for a few years) but has good energy and is a good tecnica in peril, and Sugehit is a GREAT sympathetic tecnica and the crowd absolutely loses their shit for her comeback in the segunda. It was a fantastic, loud, joyous reaction. Seductora was a real lunatic at points, biting at Sugehit's head, ripping at her hair, hangs her upside down in the corner just so she can literally stand on her vagina, slams her face in the mat, clotheslines her in the back of the head, all great stuff. Sugehit ends up on the floor in the front row holding many parts of her body, and Seductora does not let up. The rudas are really running the boards, all taking their turns getting Irish whipped into offense on Sugehit in the corner, so when Sugehit runs out of the corner with a dropkick on Seductora it's a very simple but very HUGE moment. The crowd explosion was justified. I didn't have a ton of opinion on Seductora before this, but I loved how mean she was, then loved how much ass she showed for Sugehit's comeback, doing all these great exaggerated head motions and eye rolls, runs away from her down the ramp, runs away from her into the crowd, then acts like the queen of the world when she taps her in the tercera. I'm in, I want to see where this goes.

Hair vs. Hair: Princesa Sugehit vs. La Seductora  CMLL 4/27/18

ER: I liked this, but it never really felt like an actual apuestas match to me. The prior week's trios felt way more aggressive, way more immediate, and the chaos of 4 other people wandering around beating each other up while Seductora beat Sugehit around the arena made things seem like a bigger deal. This felt like a big title match, but it didn't really get to that level of desperation and violence that I like from apuestas matches. They probably bit off a bit too much, and the match went a bit long and felt dragg-y in spots, and we also got two pretty dull performances from the seconds, Dalys and Kaho. Kaho smacked the apron occasionally, and Dalys waved a towel around, but both really could have added more juice to this. Seductora did her part, came out really hateful, ripping at Sugehit's hair and throwing her around the entranceway, choking her over the bottom turnbuckle and just straight stomping her pussy a bunch while Sugehit was hung in the tree of woe. Jeez, Seductora. Sugehit got tossed to the floor, thrown into the barricade, tossed into the announcers stand, all of it effective. But I didn't love how the primera or segunda ended, both felt a bit sudden and hasty, even though I liked Sugehit coming back with a bunch of stiff kicks in the segunda. Seductora is weirdly bad at bumping through the ropes, so we got a few different spots of her getting dropkicked to the floor, or thrown back in the ring, and they all looked clunky. But I DID like her willingness to use the ropes in the tercera, as it lead to a very well done nearfall, but I still think the tercera would have played better if they had snipped some time. Seductora runs away during the haircutting, which was a plus, as Sugehit got to jump her and drag her back. But then she made funny faces during the cutting, which was a negative. The shaved head gives her a ruda Emma Gonzalez vibe, so maybe they put her together with Sam Adonis. I think the revanche trios has a shot at being the best match of the series, as I liked a lot of what they did but don't think they had "long singles match" in them. More bodies and a fired up ruda crew could make this good.