Lucha Worth Watching: Pandemic Lucha! Santo! Zumbido!

Zumbido vs. Mr. Jerry Chinampalucha 9/5/20

ER: This is certainly some Covid lucha right here. It's held outdoors on someone's lakebed chinampa, so we get a lot of bumps and spills into tilled agriculture beds that are all lit by tiki torches. Jerry is a short fat guy who's built more like a gamer than a former athlete, but has great taste in neon tasseled tights. Zumbido, however, is the king of tasseled lucha tights (post-Jerry Estrada class) and you can tell he doesn't want Jerry infringing (ehhh?) on his tassel game. Zumbido throws a ton of left jabs at anyone who gets close to him (Jerry, refs, seconds, photographers), Jerry takes bumps into dirt hills, Zumbido hits his great somersault senton on a dirt hill, and from there doesn't seem to do anything he wouldn't do in an actual arena. He hits a nice tope con giro and takes a fast Jerry (Estrada, not Mr.) bump to the floor, and that bump leads to a great fat guy tope from Mr. Jerry. There are a couple dicey exchanges, like some headbutt back and forths where several don't make contact, and Zumbido slips bad on an in ring moonsault, but there is plenty of good to sustain the match. I liked a lot of their standing striking, with Zumbido peppering his great jabs and hard overhand chops, and Jerry firing back with slaps and even a couple wicked backhands. A bunch of other wrestlers get involved, Gran Felipe Jr. hits a big plancha into everyone, and then things take a turn I was not expecting: I am not sure if this was a buried alive match or not, but Zumbido tosses Jerry into a ringside shallow grave, tosses his second, tosses Felipe...and then the rudos bury them alive under branches, fronds, and dirt! Zumbido literally stands on the grave and poses!! All three men died. 

El Hijo del Santo/Mascara Purpura vs. Hijo del Fishman/Pentagon Black Martinez Entertainment 12/19/20

ER: Old man Santo turning up the week of Christmas? It's a Christmas miracle! This was on a cool sounding Texas lucha show where all people wanted for Christmas was to pretend they weren't in the middle of a pandemic and sit close to strangers indoors. The show had a lot of big names, but none bigger than Santo. They took their enjoyable time building this match and finished with some dynamite dives, but the whole thing was littered with cool moments. I loved Pentagon being a real hit and run prick, throwing hard slaps before beating a retreat to the floor, and I loved how his retreats got more hasty the longer he kept them up, leading to him taking a couple of fun pratfall bumps into the ropes after getting caught. He kept going after Santo's mask, and this kind of hit and run rudo routine is made so much better knowing that Santo was the one who took Pentagon's mask so many years ago. It builds to a big moment where Santo finally yanked Pentagon's mask off, and Santo threw him into a bunch of chairs. Purpura works quick and throws himself into turnbuckles, and hits a really nice flipping senton tope onto Pentagon (and the hard ass indoor soccer field floor). Santo and Fishman work through Santo's ankle crossed headscissors, and we build to the big moment that 57 year old Santo still somehow builds to, hitting his somersault senton off the top, adjusting for Fishman's position on the floor, and hitting a gorgeous tope. I'm not sure Santo can do the senton/tope all in one fluid motion anymore, but it's a real marvel that he is still hitting these moves at all, let alone as well as he still can.