It Was All Night Pouring Rain, Pouring Rain, But Not a Drop on LA PARK

LA Park v. Caristico Lucha Elite 10/21/16 - FUN

ER: Weird match with some odd pacing, squirrelly logic shifts and a couple awkward transitions, but damn was the spectacular stuff spectacular. Most of the match is Park just beating the ever loving hell out of Caristico, blasting him with chairshots, hitting a boss overhead belly to belly suplex while also holding a chair to his back, hitting a sick powerbomb into a few set up chairs, and hilariously spearing Caristico threw a bunch of chairs that he had spent all his free time setting up. The spear was so epic. Caristico even seemed like he had a special plan to trick Park into going into the chairs, and Park just steamrolls him into that pit of metal. A guy that was as big a draw as Caristico shouldn't feel the need to take this kind of damage. Park continues beating him with a chair, then whips him with his belt. Eventually Rey Escorpion runs in to attack Park, and Carisitico has apparently been trapped in a cage with his attacker for so long that's he's developed Stockholm Syndrome, and begins attacking Escorpion. Confusion ensues. Park somehow beats Caristico to his feet after Caristico hits a crossbody off the top of the cage, not everything makes sense. Caristico even takes an absurdly dangerous pacakge piledriver from Rey that plants him right on his head, surely shrinking a couple of those pesky vertebrae of his. But Park was a total boss in this match, really knows how to control a ring, and Caristico was just a lunatic with the damage he took. Flawed and epic at the same time.

PAS: This was a mess, but an undeniably compelling mess. Lots of great individual moments broken up by long replays and then another big moment, add that to a really dumb finish it would be hard to call this a great match. Still there are some really memorable awesome spots. I loved Park doing his old Rey Jr. exchange, pinching Caristico on the cheek like a baby and eating a rana. The spear into the chairs was true lunacy, and it is nuts that Caristico turned down a lifetime of easy WWE money to take those kind of bumps and bleed like that. I also dug the big cage dive, although it was goofus that Park got up first. This might have been the best lucha cage match I have ever seen, and it was still only OK.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LA PARK

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More People Should Be Talking About Metalico

People should talk about Metalico! He's never going to break out of the CMLL undercard, but he brings something different and wonderful to the CMLL undercard. He's a little stoogy Memphis heel. He's that combination of Loco Max and Billy Joe Travis that every single person would still love if those two were still alive*. His one semi-featured match of the decade (his mask match against Angel de Oro) stunk, but I put that squarely on Oro's shoulders. Metalico only makes tape a couple times a month so he's not a tough guy to keep track of in mainstream lucha circles. Seeing him pop up on a Fox deportes rerun just made me want to shine a little spotlight on him. This will be an ongoing miniseries of Metalico appreciation.

Metalico/Hijo del Signo/Canelo Casas vs. Sensei/Magnus/Leono (CMLL 9/3/16)

Not a great match but one with a wonderful Metalico performance and my pleasant surprise that Hijo del Signo is good now! Sensei appears to be not as good as he used to be, and appears to be bulkier. But Metalico is so much fun in this. He's a great rudo base so finds several ways to bump arm drags and he's good at setting up sometimes convoluted offense for tecnicos. At one point Sensei was setting up a headscissor off the top and Metalico was great at occupying himself by jawing with the crowd so Sensei could get into position, then running over to throw a great strike that was meant to be kicked away by Sensei. The "missed strike to set up opponent offense" is someone a lot of wrestlers do real phony, but Metalico brings a great combo of realism and theatricality to them. He's good at running lucha stooge spots in ways that you don't see (when Leono wouldn't shake his hand he went around the ring shaking hands with the ref and his own partners, to show how good he was at trustworthy handshakes), and can work stiff with a big elbowdrop and an awesome western lariat that sees him follow through all the way to the mat. Signo was a generic lucha son last I saw him and now he has genuine presence, really knowing how to sell through the mask and act befuddled by fast tecnicos. He does a decent Fuerza bump and runs some nice base sequences with the tecnicos. But this was Metalico's game. The Coliseo crowd is perfect for a guy like him and really my preferred lucha venue. There's something big missing from Arena Mexico ever since they put up the ringside barrier. Imagine Rush with the benefit of fans being right at ringside. Imagine how less fun Hector Garza would have been in 2006 with a ring barrier up. He wouldn't have been able to fall into all the old ladies and pretty girls. Metalico is real good at crowd work and I think the closeness of the Coliseo crowd plays off that nicely. We need more Coliseo stuff showing up. I miss it.



*Pretty sure Loco Max isn't dead

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Park Familia v. Rush Familia

77. LA Park/Super Parka/ Hijo de LA Park v. Rush/Pierroth/Toscano Liga Elite 4/27

ER: This was great. It was worked at Arena Mexico, but worked as if they were playing a county fair to people who had never seen lucha before. It was great. Everybody brawls into the crowd in the primera and the crowd gets suitably riled. Park Jr. gets whooped around ringside, taking a great post bump, Pierroth walks up to the skeleton crew and throws a full beer in their face; Park and Rush are always the stars in this kind of act, they're larger than life and it's impossible to look away as they stiff the hell out of each other among the fans. Park and Jr. get run into the metal announcer nest, and soon Park disappears and comes back with a box of beer bottle empties and banks it off Rush's head. Broken glass flies onto the announcers desk. Park hits one of his huge dives onto Rush, and Park Jr. hits a huge plancha on Toscano into the front row, crashing Toscano painfully into the seats. We then settle into more county fair work, with Park working comedy chop sequences with all the rudos, starting with he and Rush chopping each other (and Rush winning the battle with nasty knife edges to the throat), but soon Park was chopping them all. The ones between he and Rush felt sinister. This felt like Super Parka's best performance since returning to Arena Mexico. He's 60, which only made those armdrags on Toscano more impressive. Rush also has a primo dickhead performance, my favorite moment being where he pins Park, but Park kicks out, rolling Rush right onto and over the referee. As they both stand up, Rush shoves the ref in the back of the head. I love how these teams match up, and any time Rush/Park are on opposite sides it's must watch.

PAS: I am not sure whether anyone in this match besides PARK and Rush was any good, but those guys are so great it really didn't matter. PARK has gotten so fat, I have no idea how his tope is still as graceful as it is, how does an obese man in his 50s fly like that. There was a great spot which Eric didn't mention in the beginning of the first fall where Rush and Toscano were using a midget as a weapon, it was sort of an awkward camera angle and it really looked like they were using a 10 year old as a bludgeon, before chucking him into the seats. This kind of Tijuana style match is still a total anomaly in Arena Mexico and it was really fun to watch someone get brained with a case of beer in the temple of Lucha Libre once again.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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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.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Herodes/Heddi v. Zumbi/Bandido

66. Herodes Jr./Heddi Karaoui v. Zumbi/El Bandido Liga Elite 9/14

ER: What a cool little match! Liga Elite is really starting to pull together a fabulous undercard. They got a bunch of young hungry guys all fighting to be noticed, and it's really starting to stand out. This card especially felt like the guy who had the craziest night in-ring got the hottest rat in Naucalpan or something. Herodes Jr. was unhinged, working like a young cross between Terrible and Rey Escorpion. He had nice timing and worked real stiff, and had facial expressions that read "yeah, I know how stiff that was." Heddi is like a lucha Chris Dickinson, a real unlikable mug and cocky presence, but also brings violent throws and holds. Heddi had all these cool subs with a twist: a neat Indian deathlock that saw him also wrenching the knee, a stretch muffler with him standing up to wrench that, always grabbing at something for a throw. Zumbi does a capoeira gimmick and is actually pretty entertaining with it, with crazy handstand based offense, and wrestling barefoot always makes me like a guy more. Bandido had a bunch of cool tough headlock throws, some complicated stuff on shoulders, several cool roll ups. All of it blended into a fun style clash, been awhile since I saw a good style clash. Everybody had their own unique stuff, but nobody got crossed on the others' stuff. Crazy spots, and a bunch of danger without veering into overkill.

PAS: I really enjoyed this, Heddi is a guy who has been around for a while and who I always thought stunk, he was pretty great in this, twisting knees, cracking people, having some really aggressive mat wrestling scrambles with Bandido. I also really liked Herodes Jr., again a guy who I hadn't had an opinion of, but felt like he was in the tradition of guys like Emilio Charles Jr. and Bestia Salvaje, which is a tradition I loved. There was a great spot where Zumbi goes for a plancha, Herodes catches him a bear hug and rag dolls him back and forth like a dog playing with a dead squirrel before chucking him kidneys first into the guard rail. Zumbi's capoeira stuff sometimes looked silly, but a couple of times really turned a breakdance into something violent, he did this headspin where he landed knees first into Heddi's windpipe. Overall a really entertaining undercard tag, and I really want to search out more of Herodes and Heddi.

2016 ONGOING MOTY LIST

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Lucha Worth Watching: Liga Elite Undercard! Blue Demon as Zandig!

1. Imposible/Peligro vs. Ciclon Ramirez Jr./Leon Dorado Jr. (Liga Elite 9/30/16)

I'm continuing to dig this Liga Elite undercard, with Imposible especially standing out. I've never seen Peligro or Leon Dorado before this, but Ciclon has been impressing me as well. Dorado seemed really green, hitting some kind of sloppy flying offense, but he took a nice post bump and got dragged around nicely by Imposible, gets blasted by an awesome Thesz press while stuck in a chair, basically seems up for a beating. His big moment comes later in the match where he hits a nutso balcony dive, just plunging into the crowd. They filmed it from underneath and from behind, so you get the angle of him diving into nothingness, and him crashing onto dudes. Imposible runs the primera like a great rudo, all building to Ciclon's big comeback in the segunda. Imposible takes a big Fuerza bump, knocking Peligro into the crowd, then Ciclon hits an out of control dive that plasters Imposible into the barrier and sends himself into the crowd. Tercera continues the wild end of the segunda, with Ciclon tying up Imposible in a trippy submission, then Imposible hitting him with a flapjack chestbreaker. Dorado and Peligro aren't as good as their partners, but they aren't in for nearly as long, and I loved how Ciclon inserted himself back in the match by breaking up a pinfall with a huge diving dropkick. Both tecnicos hit big suicide dives, then Peligro nearly dies hitting his own dive, catching his heels on the top rope and thanking the heavens that Ciclon rushed up to save his bacon. Imposible puts down Dorado with a tricked out rolling armbar for the match. They tried a lot of stuff, and not all of it worked, but the energy was high, Imposible and Ciclon are legit, and the undercard of Elite is busting their collective butts.

2. LA Park vs. Blue Demon Jr. (Liga Elite 9/30/16)

Park is a fat, out of control original Sheik at this point. Now that Elite is touring through other towns and not allowed (?) to use Arena Mexico, they're hitting up these smaller cool arenas, and Park is just kicking in the door, kicking balls, throwing chairs and garbage, wresting trays away from vendors, tearings masks, bleeding, and then soaking it all up before leaving without a decisive victory or loss. Is he killing towns? Or is he bringing chaos and excitement to lives? I think the latter. Blue Demon's transformation is still a shock to me, and I have no idea what brought it on. He takes such furious beatings now, and now that he's 50 he tries harder in his matches than I've seen previously. Park jumps him in the aisle, which is how these things go now, and he beats the hell out of Demon, throws him into the crowd as Demon lands grossly on chairs, powerbombs him through a couple of folding chairs in a way no 50 year old man should be powerbombed, whips Demon with his belt, yanks a wooden beer tray out of the hands of a vendor who looked like he did not want to lose his beer tray, and before long Demon is busted open. It's a great visual as the blood is running down his arms and on his hands and chest. But Demon's walking tall comebacks have been great, and Park knows how to facilitate them. Now Park bumps wildly into chairs and Demon hits a big dive, and the crowd is hot. Before long the match devolves into several ref bumps, both men bleeding and kicking balls, trading nearfalls, Park taking his corner flip bump, Park hitting a big powerslam, and upon getting DQ'd Park starts flipping out and undoing the ring ropes. This was a real blast. Park is arguably the most charismatic man in wrestling, and Demon has put on them working boots as best as he can. Great old guy battle.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Blue Demon Jr., IWA-MS Wrestler

1. Blue Demon Jr. vs. LA Park vs. Silver King (Liga Elite 9/9/16)

ER: This match is pretty notable just because of the ridiculous beating that Demon takes. I've seen Demon in some damn lazy performances, and here he just gets pummeled. This performance made me feel sympathy for Demon, and somehow root for him. That's never happened before. Park and King just start beating on him with hard plastic chairs, and even throw him 4 rows into the crowd. Demon takes a man size bump getting tossed through a bunch of chairs, really crazy and out of character for him. He disappears for awhile after getting absolutely wailed on, and then we get more of a Park/King brawl. King hits his middle rope dive to the floor, Park gets launched into the crowd and takes an even more brutal bump than Demon. Eventually Demon makes his triumphant return and waylays dudes with chairs, masks get yanked up, DQ's happen, and I weirdly earned some respect for Demon. Strange for him to turn 50 and start taking furious beatings. I mean, I was at a Timothy Thatcher/Blue Demon match where Thatcher started the match with a stiff chop and Demon clearly leaned in and told him to back off, as Thatcher then held way back on every strike the rest of the match. And here Demon isn't even in Arena Mexico and he's getting beaten like he owes money. Crazy choice, but respect.

2. Blue Demon Jr./Xtreme Tiger/Golden Magic vs. Rey Escorpion/Sharly Rockstar/Cibernetico (Liga Elite 9/14/16)

ER: Blue Demon is now apparently this past his prime southern brawler, still working indies and paler and fatter than he was in the 8x10s he's selling, taken in his prime 20 years prior. Blue Demon comes out slowly, with his shoulder in a sling because of what happened up above on this electronic page. He immediately gets sucked into a brawl on the floor with Escorpion, who is pretty much the worst guy in lucha to get sucked into a brawl with. He'll beat the skin off of your face. And immediately he's beating Demon into the crowd, hitting him with chairs, kicking him through other chairs, Demon is falling around on concrete with one arm, getting thrown over the railing, just taking another beating. Later he gets to stand tall in the ring, bravely going up against everyone like he had two good wings, bending Rockstar into a nice, violent cloverleaf with his good arm, great triumphant tecnico moment. Xtreme Tiger lives up to his name and hits a rana from the top rope, onto Escorpion on the apron, and landing on his feet while Rey took a violent bump into the narrow and hard ringside area. Good lord, guys. Cibernetico is kind of a poor man's Pierroth in this, a rigid gassed up stiff working dude. But, that's an easy step up from typical Cibernetico. Golden Magic also stood out to me for the first time, even though I've seen him probably 6 times already. He's a generic tecnico but hits some nice generic tecnico spots, big rana and nice armdrag. He's got a cool mask and a good look, nice guy to have on the cards in a trios. I usually don't expect a good match when Blue Demon AND Cibernetico are in it, but this was a good one. I don't know what's wrong with me, suddenly becoming a Blue Demon @ 50 fan.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Nuevos Dinamitas! A Mask Match! More Wotan!

El Cuatrero/Forastero/Sanson v. Blue Panther Jr./The Panther/Pegasso CMLL 11/8

ER: Man I am loving Nuevo Dinamitas! This is a quick but action packed 2 falls finish. Una caida is standard but with some notable moments from Dinamitas, with their cheapshotting and great pratfall apron bumps; segunda kicks into high gear, with Dinamitas doing one of their huge press slams, Cuatrero and Forastero bumping big into the crowd (with Forastero booting a fan in the face on his way over), all the tecnicos hit massive dives, and later we get the Dinamitas hitting badass dives of their own. I love how the Dinamitas bump around, the way they do classic lucha bumps like the backwards one through the ropes to the floor, or how they take ranas, or how they throw big overhand chops and cut low on clotheslines. It's a classic style done by guys in their mid 20s, making it look great. I'm thinking Cuatrero is clearly the best at this point, but as with the Oficiales several years ago I look forward to monitoring them to see who makes gains.

Delta v. Galactar MDA 11/26

ER: Man did this stink. It was really, really bad. But I think this qualifies as "worth watching", because I hated it, but saw that it had popped up on a few year end top 10 lists. I can't see any explanation for how this would end up in a top 10 of any given month, let alone year, but if you have a spare 40 minutes you'd like to spend watching a match you may hate, then you should watch this. Delta - who you know from being the 5th or 6th best man in a CMLL trios match - versus Galactar - a man whose post-mask career you won't bother following. Spoiler alert. We get a quick primera and quick segunda, with Delta starting the segunda with his amusing rope flip headscissors to the floor, and after that he shows that either he can't properly do another move without stumbling the rest of the match, or that Galactar can be awkwardly out of position for nearly every move. Man Galactar was bad. He was good at taunting the crowd. That's important. Otherwise we would have two guys doing moves in a vacuum, as Delta sure wasn't acknowledging the crowd much. Galactar would at least hit a move and soak in the boos or adulation. It was everything else he stunk at. It seems like he blew up pretty early, and would just be so damn lazy on so many moves. Watch him Irish whip Delta, and by Irish whip I mean he kind of pats Delta's lower back and Delta runs across the ring on his own. This happens at least 4 times. We get a few big dives, always almost completely missing. Galactar hits an insane moonsault to the floor, and mostly hits a moonsault to the floor. His head somewhat grazes Delta. Delta hits a bullet tope and falls mostly short. Galactar has a much easier bump falling back into the seats. 

We get a few moments of them holding each other for balance up top, nobody even pretending they were opponents, just helping each other maintain footing so they could perform another move that would get another 2 count, BUT then give strength to the person taking the move, enough strength that they can stand up and do their own move right back! I mean, not RIGHT back, because they have to lie motionless on the mat in between all of these 2.9zzzz. There must have been 10 total minutes of "lying on mat" time. So they overly sell these moves by lying motionless for so long in between moves...and then they stand up and don't sell at all! It's an interesting, and horrible, approach. Moves mean nothing as they become entirely too predictable, way too quick. There is no drama as you know each close nearfall will just result in the guy who barely kicked out and lied in an exhausted heap, stand up and do a move of his own. For about 20 straight minutes. We get a false finish, and you all can guess that the first move of the restart is what was going to get the win, even though the move looked no more or less devastating than any other moves that got 2 counts the rest of the match, only this one came after a 3 minute break where nobody was taking moves. This was a really shitty match. It was 35 minutes long. 35 minutes of shit.

Wotan v. Impulso WMC 2/11/17

PAS: My quest to find the second great Wotan match continues. This was overall pretty enjoyable, although it had some of the same garbage match elements which made Wotan v. As Charo a chore. Early on in the match Wotan hits this crazy twisting tope which sends both guys into the 6th row, totally out of control and awesome looking, they also have this cool section near the end where they just throw big shots , chops and headbutts on the floor which was pretty violent. Still this had a bunch of stuff with lightubes, some cool and some awkward looking, a spot with a spiked pineapple which looked dumb and the finish which had Wotan light a table on fire, which goes out by the time he hits a top rope move. Wotan definitely has a set of skills but it may take a Black Terry level guy to shepherd it together.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Nuevo Dinamitas!

73. Hijo del Pantera/Ciclon Ramirez Jr./Dinamic Black v. El Cuatrero/Forastero/Sanson Liga Elite 8/4

ER: Killer little spotfest, great showing for some 2nd and 3rd (and who knows more) gen luchadors. Pantera wrestles just like his dad, which is a neat revelation since I've now seen Skayde Jr. and HE wrestles just like HIS dad. My brain always threw Pantera and Skayde into the same bucket as their moved similarly, and I was a big fan of both. HD Pantera has cool little rope flip feints and heavy crossbodies, Ciclon has some nice headscissors and there's a great sequence on the apron where he flips Cuatrero (?) over the buckles and then swings around the ringpost into a slick headscissors. Rudos take over and they work like classic Cien Caras, only with monster bumps. These guys are massive dickheads, do team and individual press slams, work stiff, Cuatrero hits a freaky springboard elbow drop, just all sorts of surprises. I like their control segments, and I loved them as much when the tecnicos bring it back. Sanson (?) takes a huge bump into the crowd off a dive, Dinamic Black does some nice rope work and hits a MAMMOTH flip dive, and this just made me really excited for the future of CMLL.

PAS: I really dug this, it was a pretty disposable lucha undercard trios match for the first bit, although the junior Dinamitas are really great in ring bumpers and are always in perfect position to take some semi awkward high spots from the technicos. The 3rd fall though it totally boss with everyone upping their game a bit including one Dinamita eating a tope and visiting the third row. I remember liking Dinamic Black a bit back in the IWRG days, and he seems to have put on a bit of bulk without losing any height on his dives. I also love that the Dinamitas don't work like 2010s luchadores, these are old school like the baby Villanos, no way these guys would work a 2.9 fest on a New Japan show.

2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Lucha Worth Watching: Fuerza, Still Doing It; Y Tu, Wotan?

Fuerza Guerrera vs. Octagon (Liga Elite 9/9/16)

ER: This is a match up that has happened dozens of times in lucha history, and originally one of the reasons that Octagon was even a thing was because of how good Fuerza made him look. And it's still happening. He's still doing it. This match-up doesn't show up as often as it used to (a quick check shows that it hasn't shown up on tape in 4 years, but no doubt it happens often), and Octagon has gotten chubbier and slower, while Fuerza is just as nutty as ever. This is predictably a total Fuerza show, but an impressive show. Fuerza does all the work on everything, as the slo mo camera reveals; what looks like some violent tilt a whirl backbreakers in normal speed can be seen as Fuerza violently whipping himself into Octagon's knee, while Octagon doesn't even go into a full knee bend. But Fuerza makes them look great in regular speed. Octagon can still spin fast on armdrags, and Fuerza bumps fast for all of them. To make up for Octagon being able to do much of anything, Fuerza even hits a big time gusher, bleeding all over the ring, hitting a big flip dive (that Octagon mostly bails on) with blood dripping down his chest, kicks balls, and just keeps making Octagon look better than Octagon should look, 25 years later. You'd think this would have been annoying to him in his 30s, and that somewhere along the way he would stop trying so hard, but here he is in his 60s, still trying hard, still doing it.

Wotan vs. As Charro Innova Aztec Power 8/7/16

PAS: Wotan was in our 2016 MOTY, so when Powerbomb.tv dumped a bunch of indy lucha on the internet, I wanted to check out more Wotan to see if he is great on his own or a Black Terry creation. Verdict after this match is closer to a Black Terry creation. This has got to be As Charro Jr. or something as the original was super old in the late 80s. This starts out with some pretty good matwork and some nice brawling, but really falls apart when they break out the light tubes. After that it is some geek show jabbing and poking and some of the most egregious your turn my turn stuff I can remember seeing. For example As Charro hits a running death valley bomb into the turnbuckle and the very next move is Wotan hitting the same thing on him, didn't even bother to pretend to be hurt. Finish was a nothing run in too, I do want to check out a couple more Wotan matches, but this wasn't a good start.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Overkill!!

Since overkill is the new canon best style in professional wrestling history, I thought we'd look at a couple recent lucha matches that had both had a) overkill to the nines, and that b) I enjoyed a lot.

Valiente vs. Ultimo Guerrero (CMLL 6/17/16)

ER: Real quality Arena Mexico singles match with a hot crowd that made the big moves feel like a big deal. CMLL singles matches typically disappoint me, as those neverending terceras filled with heatless near fall trading until something inevitably finishes things just make me completely impatient. This managed to work within that formula, while surpassing the same old tired feelings that formula creates. This actually felt like a big stips match to me, despite going into it not knowing why Valiente got a title shot, and despite never having cared about any sort of lucha title reign. But I got sucked into this one. We get a bunch of fun mat stuff, like Ultimo does in his indy matches, but more importantly Valiente actually got a chance to shine on the mat, something we don't often get to see (and those watching TV would not get to see, as Lucha Azteca cut 4 minutes of his mat stuff out of the match). I loved the leg bar stuff and that weird freaky Backlund-ish arm lift. Valiente's weird single leg indian deathlock sub looks really painful and I have zero problems with Ultimo screaming the second Valiente leans back with it. I like the direction things take as they spill to the floor, with Valiente wildly getting out there by Fuerza-ing himself, leading to Ultimo tossing him into the crowd and then nailing him with his hip attack. Valiente came off more like a star in this match than I've seen him in some time, and his big moves all looked spectacular. Those fast and stocky topes, that gorgeous Valiente Special moonsault to the floor, even his sometimes silly offense looked devastating, like his tombstone jawjacker that catches UG in the teeth. There was certainly overkill, but I think it built in a far more satisfying way than typical CMLL singles. It really felt like Valiente was pulling out all the stops and he was able to convey that great.

Rey Escorpion vs. Teddy Hart (Liga Elite 7/21/16)

ER: Super flawed but super fun match, with so much overkill that some jersey metal head is blaring it from his 1989 Nissan Sentra. Teddy Hart is a tough bastard who is usually too interested in bullshit to be tough. Escorpion is a guy who likes to punch people and Hart is a guy who you want to see get punched. We do some fun roll-y stuff, and you can see the moment where Rey lets Teddy know what kind of match this is going to be. They're working some arm stuff and Rey is pinning him, and kicks the heel of his boot right across Teddy's face. From there Teddy takes plenty of stiff shots, runs into boots, and delivers a couple nice punches of his own. Teddy comes off like an aloof douche, but he has no problem leaning into shots so who cares! Rey drops a huge leg, and all his covers are extra nasty in the way he grinds his forearm into Hart's face. The overkill gets ridiculous with both dudes getting dumped on their heads with flipping piledrivers and Rey getting powerbombed in sick fashion over Hart's knees. But while the kickouts got silly, I liked so much of their stiffness and attention to little things, that I still really dug the match overall.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Casas/Ultimo/Euforia v. Atlantis/Mistico/Valiente

63. Negro Casas/Ultimo Guerrero/Euforia v. Atlantis/Mistico/Valiente CMLL 5/20

ER: Really fun Arena Mexico semi main, with Mistico getting to shine more than ever, Ultimo and Euforia putting on a catching clinic, and Casas showing off more of that criminally underseen matwork that we saw in the Hechicero match. I loved Casas and Atlantis rolling in the primera, with Negro showing off a couple variations on that neat pop up spin ankle pick that he used on Hechicero, here he keeps getting pushed off of Atlantis and every time Atlantis uses his legs to push him off Casas hangs on to an ankle. It's fun seeing a couple old dogs fighting and still coming up with new tricks. Segunda starts with some rudo bragging as they bend Valiente into a pyramid photo up, and as Euforia is standing on his back flexing Mistico springs in with a big rana. The rest of the match is a blur of wild Mistico spots with Ultimo and Euforia catching crazier spot after crazier spot: a springboard rana to the rampway, a HUGE leaping rana from the top to the floor (he really leapt crazy far too), a major flip dive that Euforia totally absorbed; none of them were easy catches and these two made them look flawless. Mistico doesn't get to have all the fun though as Valiente plasters Negro with a huge dive as well, and this was just a fun, consequences-free trios.

PAS: I enjoyed this as well. Nueva Mistico isn't a guy I have seen a ton of, and is clearly the least of his brothers, but I thought he was pretty great here, hitting nutty dive after nutty dive with some very impressive height on all of them. I especially loved his springboard rana counter to the pyramid spot, really flew out of nowhere to take Euforia down. Casas is really fun to watch even in small roles like this, he is amazing as both a star and a character actor, and this was the equivalent of Dennis Hopper coming in to True Romance for two scenes and stealing the movie.

2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Park v. Rush in TJ

22. LA Park v. Rush Tijuana 6/3

PAS: Match was a little clipped up, but what we had was a bloody violent treat. LA Park hurls steel chairs recklessly, and Rush throws some nasty hands. Park was totally awesome in this, he would throw little heabutts and punches every time he goes for a cover, he also totally wipes out Rush with a killer fat dude tope. They also do some nasty spots with a huge plastic beer cooler, including a gross powerbomb right on the edge. Really wish I had this without clips and a better finish but this was boss.

ER: This was the first singles match between these two, all due to Cibernetico not showing up. Seriously, this would have been a three way with terrible ass Cibernetico. That's some extra item falling in the vending machine luck right there. And while this is clipped I'm still so happy that it exists this complete, and really we've seen enough of both men to know we probably didn't miss tons. We can fill in the blanks and don't need to see the walking and set up. What's nuts is just how much STUFF there is, even though the match is just 9 minutes of clips. These two do more "stuff" in this match than any of their others, really breaking out some big spots and bigger bumps. The crowd brawling is super stiff with Rush really kicking his ass, and with this kind of fancam-ish footage you can really see how hard his punches and kicks land. He rips at Park's mask, busts him open, smacks him into the post, great stuff. But once Park takes over it's just nuts. It blows my mind every time to see how much Park "gets up" for these matches, at his age and size. This wasn't a match that was gonna air in full on any TV, and he does more here than in any of his TV matches, which is just crazy.  You know 1998 Charles Barkley wasn't lighting it up in scrimmage games. But a headline gig is a headline gig, and Park shows up. All his stuff looks so good here, not just his spectacular stuff but his high kicks were all impressive. He splats Rush with a vicious powerbomb on the edge of the now famous beer cart, and then tops the bump by taking a wild backdrop into it. His dive was super fast and hit flush, and he also takes a crazy Cassandro bump around the ringpost. All his moves hit with purpose, and he keeps a super impressive pace throughout. Park even did a version of the slingblade that actually looked like it took Rush's head off. Park just made the slingblade look like an actual finisher! Ending is full of expected shenanigans. Ref Edgar "El Guero" takes a great chairshot, top rope elbow from Rush, and post match takes a great bump from the ring to the rampway off a dickhead Rush dropkick. Both men bash the other in the balls like we knew they would, and this match was just the best.

2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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MLJ: Blue Panther vs Negro Navarro [FMLL MASTER]

2016-11-20 @ Florentine Gardens, El Monte, California
Blue Panther vs Negro Navarro [FMLL MASTER]

Eight minutes of maestros lucha for the FMLL belt from CA that went under the radar. Fredo posted it on twitter (I went back and looked) but it's only picked up 71 views on youtube. It's a shame too because it's absolutely worth ten minutes of your time.

Apparently Blue Demon was supposed to be in this slot but he bowed out and we're so very glad he did. This is straight up maestros Navarro. They play to the crowd early (after a tricky first pin attempt that we come in on) but past that there's no shtick really. It's holds and counterholds, the game of human chess, etc., with some really unique submissions and subtle but logical transitions and callbacks.

There's nothing in wrestling quite like watching two lucha greats try to keep each other from breaking a hold. It's the little things that really stand out. Breaking down one moment: Navarro had an advantage towards the beginning; he'd freed his arm on a tied up leg submission and used that to turn it into a modified figure four. Eventually, Blue Panther made the ropes, but the selling of the hold allowed Navarro to go straight to a stepover armbar into a sort of Hechicero-style upside down contortion. He couldn't hold it for long, however, and Panther was able to create some space and hit an armdrag which he then locked in tight from the ground position. Navarro kept trying to get his leg over to break the hold and Panther kept putting a single hand up to redirect it. This lasted around ten seconds until Navarro was able to make it over and break the hold. How great is all of that? It's plenty great, let me tell you.

As I said, there was a decent amount of build through call backs too. Later on, Panther went for the Nudo only to get shoved off. He still managed the Fujiwara armbar though, and here we had a mirrored rope break to what came before. Part of the selling between them was the most natural thing in the world because there's nothing quite as believable as old man fatigue. They'd manage some vaguely athletic things (a reverse cross-body or a headstand out of a headscissors by Panther), but you absolutely bought that he wouldn't be able to follow up. That's how he was opened up for a big Navarro clothesline. At the finish, he tried one of his own only for Navarro to duck it and manage a herculean old man lifting armbar and backwards roll (execution could have been a little stronger but the level of difficulty was high). Just a little repetition there to instill meaning to the finish.

Anyway, it's always great when one of these FMLL matches pop up. I'm glad this one did.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Chicago Lucha Showcase

18. Bandolero/DJ Z v. Skayde Jr./Gringo Loco AIW 4/30

PAS: Super fun lucha showcase match, which was the only men's match on an all women's show. Reminded me of an indy version of that MPRO six man from the AJW Dome show. Four guys going all out to show their cool shit, lots of fun elaborate arm drags, nutty dives crazy counters ect. Loco has put on some pounds since his IWRG classic days, and he nearly killed himself on a blown dive, but everything else he did was great. Skyade and Loco had some fun rudo brawling and double teams to break up the crazy spots, and we built to a fun finish. Popcorn match, but tasty popcorn.

ER: I LOVED THIS!!! This is like what we expected when all of us who loved WCW lucha started watching actual lucha. If you're gonna do a spotfest, do a fucking spotfest, and man do these guys do a fucking awesome spotfest. There's the one blown spot, and boy is it a doozy. Loco slips while running up the ropes and basically faceplants on the apron. That was a potentially match ending blown spot right there, but thankfully we dust ourselves off, and get treated to the SHEER JOY that is every other thing in the match. Skayde Jr. is shaped and wrestles exactly like Skayde, so that math checks out. DJ Z looks better here than in any TNA filth I've ever seen him in, and Bandolero is reckless and smooth all at once. This whole thing just writes a bunch of joy checks and immediately cashes them. We get endless amounts of trippy armdrags and ranas, DJ Z hits a weird spin kick roll off the apron into a rana that looked like it was out of a Flashdance outtake (but like....a good thing), we get crazy double teams, crazy stuff to the floor, more big ranas and arm/leg drags, more more more. I loved all of it.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Park v. Escorpion

40. LA Park v. Rey Escorpion Liga Elite 11/4

PAS: Really great LA Park style arena brawl with Escorpion predictably fitting in great. Both guys really pound the crap out of each other, chucking chairs and cases of beer at heads and faces. Escorpion has some of the best punches in the world and he really cracks PARK. I loved Rey battling over the snack tray with the vendor, total asshole heel move to steal a guys popcorn just to whack PARK. Also really liked both of PARK's fatboy dives, he is approaching early 90's Super Porky level and is totally smushing people when he lands. Finish was kind of dumb,  but perfectly within the kind of thing you get in your PARK brawls.

ER: These two are a pretty natural match, and even though Rey doesn't stiff Park quite as badly as we've seen him stiff others, this was still plenty fun. Park keeps getting bigger and bigger and I honestly have no clue how he keeps up this pace. He works a lot, and works hard, takes big spills on joints that have to be barking extra loud at this point. But he chose this style and damn if he doesn't excel at it. He and Rey brawl through the crowd to the shock of nobody, hitting each other with beer boxes, beer bottles, beer buckets, beer coolers and aisle end ashtrays. Park is great at finding loose garbage and equipment and incorporating it on the fly, and here he grabs a large plastic beverage tub and clonks Rey with it a bunch on the way back to the ring, and in a crazy spot that could have ended absolutely terribly for all, he powerbombs Rey onto this bin from the apron, and Rey just splats onto it and settles in. Park lobs off a tubby senton from the apron for good measure. Rey was more about facilitating Park in this one, but he was able to sneak back with cheapshots and violent mask rips, yanking Park's cool reptilian mask fully off at a couple points, and even Baby Richard Jr. gets into the fun with a big bump to the floor. Match peaks with Park just absolutely leveling Rey with a mammoth dive off the top to the floor, and you almost expect them to go crashing through the floor like in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Ending is total silliness with low blows and ref bumps aplenty, but you don't really expect finishes in Park matches anymore. I've made the fat Elvis comparison with Park before, and it never stops being relevant (even though Park has shot past the king by a decade at this point): sometimes the wandering gets long, sometimes he introduces the band a third time to catch his breath, but he's a guy who is still captivating even during his performance lows. You can look past the occasional long or lazy move set up as his floor as a performer is just so much higher than most, and the peaks make it all worth it.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Panther Familia, and Kraneo vs. Smaller Men

Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr. & The Panther vs. Misterioso Jr., Bobby Z & Sagrado (CMLL 8/5/16)

This wasn't the match I expected, but I was pleased with the match we got. I was expecting this to be a showcase of everybody's highflying, but man do the dives keep coming. BP's kids get to show off their fast topes, BP himself hits two sturdy and impressive ones, Misterioso gets his nice rolling senton off the apron, Bobby hits a killer plancha to the floor while Panther Jr. is already lying on the floor, and Sagrado hits a mean springboard flip dive. That's not even counting all the numerous springboard and top rope moves into the ring. Then throw in Misterioso's great Cassandro bump and Bobby's big Jerry bump and this match had way more guys leaving their feet than any Sky Team match I've seen. Wild stuff. There's plenty of great character moments, with Sagrado not playing along with Panther Jr. sequences, and Bobby Z's ever-growing unwitting doofus character that is hopefully finally getting bumped up the card. BP and Misterioso have some wonderful sequences, and I especially loved their mat rolls to start. Blue Panther always does at least one little thing I love in his matches that have some primera matwork, and here I loved him rolling backwards and catching Misterioso's ankle on his way over. A small but wonderful part to a fun big spot match.

Kraneo/Hechicero/Sagrado v. Triton/Hombre Bala Jr./Angel de Oro (CMLL 5/10/16)

I love a good rudo team, and that right there is three rudos I like seeing together, and this is the first time we've been lucky to see them together. Hechicero teaming with Kraneo is a beautiful thing, and together they're like Jack Handey's shark riding on an elephant's back, just trampling and eating everything they see. Sagrado has really found new life as a rudo these last two years, gone are the days of him clumsily blowing tecnico offense, now he's found his calling being an asskicker and bumping great FOR tecnico offense. He takes tons of armdrags from Triton that ramp up faster and faster and make me think my video was glitching and speeding up. I loved all of Hechicero's stuff with Bala, with Bala getting a rare chance to shine (apparently replacing Super Porky, which likely made the match take an entirely different tone than it otherwise would have) as Hechicero takes his ranas and knees with force, and Bala takes all of Hechicero's endless bag of tricks. Loved Hechicero hitting a pointy running knee in the corner, then whipping him with a couple of sick jabs I've never seen him do. Bala mirrors him with a couple of flying knees of his own and Hechicero is great stooging for him. But then Sagrado and Triton get to tear it up on the edges of the camera, with Triton getting flung upside down into the barrier and Sagrado hitting a killer sliding lariat to a slumped-in-the-corner Triton. Kraneo is such an awesome mismatch for most tecnicos, eating and trampling, flattening fliers, elbowing guys off the apron, accidentally booting poor Mije, but he goes down like he got shot for a couple Oro superkicks, really times them perfectly to actually make them look like kicks and not thigh slaps. We get some crazy flying down the stretch, with Triton hitting a big asai moonsault to the floor, and Triton hitting a wild asai tornillo that sees him go upside down through his opponent and possibly onto his own head. And everything ends with Kraneo just flattening Oro with a sick senton which the announcers refer to as a "mega senton". Indeed.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Lupus v. Trauma 1 Mascara Contra Mascara

3. Canis Lupus v. Trauma 1 IWRG 9/4/16

PAS: My goodness, what an absolute gore soaked classic. It feels on first watch like if Blue Panther vs. Villano 5 had a Cactus Jack v. Terry Funk KOTDM level blood. IWRG has fallen pretty far from the heights of 2010 and it was great to see it regain its glorious heights. Opening couple of falls serve as a great table setter. Lupus smacks Trauma with a tope and dominates the first fall tapping T1 out with his own Lo Negro del Negro spinning figure four. Stealing moves isn't a thing you see very much of in lucha (this is the Rock spamming shitty Stone Cold Stunners), so it was a cool bit of taunting by Lupus. Second fall has Trauma coming back and capturing the fall with a rocking chair, and then the true violence starts, they start cracking each other with headbutts and then they both go out to grab chairs. A couple of nasty hard plastic chair shots and the gore starts flowing. The finish run was awesome, the ref gets bumped hard, and Lupus quickly attacks and hits Trauma with the dreaded illegal martinete while the ref is down. I love lucha matches built around martinete's, and this was one of the best. T1 can't lift his neck and needs to block pins by grabbing the ropes and grabbing the ref's hand. Lupus gets frustrated goes for a splash, T1 lifts his knees. Now both guys are lying in their own blood, and a doctor runs in and tries to place a cervical collar on Trauma, Lupus gets to his feet, chucks the doctor to the side and tries to attack. T1 with a neck brace hanging half off attacks the leg desperately and they have a great fight over the spinning figure four. It is one of the coolest mask match finishes I can remember. We have awesome pageantry after with Lupus getting unmasked and proposing to his girlfriend. The wrestling parts of this were a little off, Lupus is only so-so at holds, but the brawling, bleeding and drama was off the charts.

ER: I remember talking to Phil maybe 4 months into 2016 and him asking "Is there going to be any lucha that makes our list this year?" And at that point there wasn't tons. There was a lot of borderline stuff. And now several months after that and the top part of our list is flat dominated by lucha. And this match brings drama and blood and even love. I wouldn't put it on the level of Blue Panther/Villano V, but it really is the first super bloody high drama mask match we've gotten since then. Stupid Arena Mexico and their hatred of plasma. I am entirely unfamiliar with Lupus, but was impressed right away with his opening brawling around ringside. He threw several punch combos that I really liked, and got into the faces of a bunch of fans. I was sold pretty early. Sadly he never really went back to this overly aggressive bully style the rest of the match, but he found other ways to do damage. I'm not used to seeing brutal chairshots in lucha, but now within the last couple months we've gotten Park and Rush blasting each other, then Black Terry getting his dome caved in by Wotan, and now Trauma and Lupus clonking each other with edges of rigid chairs. And both men start bleeding, and masks get ripped, and bleeding through masks is one of the best parts of lucha. At one point Lupus' face is dark red and his mask is torn away from his face, and the ripped mask looks like flayed skin hanging off his now dark red and skinless face. We get some very believable nearfalls with both men actually locking in pins, and believe it or not I didn't actually knew who won ahead of time (I mean, I *assumed* Trauma, but ever since that Blue Panther loss blindsided me, I don't know what to expect) so every nearfall got me. The martinete was great and I had a smile on my face during the various ways Trauma stopped the ref. All of the stuff with the doctor felt very much against lucha code, which added to the spectacle. The ring at this point is just stained an entirely different color, and we finally get an exhausted, deserved sub. I'm a sucker for wrestling and romance so I absolutely loved all the stuff with Lupus' fiancee afterwards, just as I loved Ultimo Guerrero's wife crying at ringside when he lost to Atlantis. Great stuff, all around.


2016 ONGOING MOTY LIST

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Lucha Worth Watching: More Familia Pierroth! More Mascara!

Rush/Pierroth/La Mascara vs. Terrible/Rey Bucanero/Shocker (CMLL 5/13/16)

I realized I had skipped a couple matches in the Pierroth/Mascara saga, which I have absolutely loved. The was the Ingobernales EXPLODING and it was great. Mascara and Pierroth come out in matching yellow on black masks, and Rush/Pierroth are on fire the whole match. Father and son, juiced to the gills, stooging and stiffing. Pierroth starts things with a running dropkick to Shocker, pops Terrible on the apron and then stomps on a displeased Shocker's head a bunch (Shocker pays him back with a post-match stomp to the back of the head). Mascara's timing screws everything up for the boys, forcing them to look like doofs and hit the wrong guys. C'mon, Mascara. At one point Rush goes to do his soccer kick taunt, drops his invisible soccer ball, Pierroth goes searching on the mat for it, finds it and tosses it back to Rush...who then Pele kicks it into the crowd. Holy shit. Lucha Azteca are ignoramuses and rob me of hearing crowd noise during that segment. Shocker looks slow and a step off throughout, but Ingobernales cover nicely for his shortcomings. Bucanero looks fired up though, and hits a nice crossbody to the floor on Rush/Pierroth. But you want to watch this for Rush and his dad, their cross ups, their beat downs, their ousting of Mascara. I just adore the asshole charisma that Rush and Pierroth bring to this.

Pierroth/Kraneo/Rey Escorpion vs. La Mascara/Terrible/Shocker (CMLL 6/10/16)

Here is some more of the saga to love. I mean, when Kraneo is in a match there is ALWAYS more to love, but take a look at that rudo team! That's a rudo team right there! It's not a team for everybody, but a team of lumpy asskickers is a team for me. Even the entrances are fun as the rudos won't let the tecnicos get into the ring, and as Mascara comes out Pierroth meets him on the ramp and they start beating the hell out of each other. Rudos easily dispatch the tecnicos and it leads to all those great moments of Kraneo and Escorpion holding Mascara prone so Pierroth can land cheap shots in between shit talk. And damn does Pierroth beat down Mascara. I love that overhand chop-knife edge chop combo he does is an awesome strike that he uses so effectively, and here he kicks Mascara's butt into the crowd and plows him into the announce station. Then Pierroth backs down a fan like Vader backing down police dogs!! Shoot even Mije gets in on the beatdown and starts lobbing kicks at Shocker's eye. Jesus, Mije. Pierroth and his thugs get DQ'd for being merciless in assbeating, which has to be like winning a fight because the other guy broke his fists on your nose. The rest of the match isn't quite as exciting as the primera, but the tecnicos get an admirable comeback, Pierroth shows ass by taking his own bump into the announce tower, then gets his mask ripped off by Mascara. Mascara gets his fired up pants removal spot and I pray for a cocky Pierroth coveralls removal spot...AND WE GET IT!! It's incredible. He rips open the coveralls, and then Escorpion starts helping, like a gentleman removing a lady's coat at dinner. And then Pierroth takes forever because coveralls are really hard to take off over wrestling boots, so Mascara attacks!! Nothing else could have happened in this match and if I got that spot I would have loved the match. We get a double ballshot finish, but with some expertly timed interference spots. Pierroth is prone and Mascara is running in for the kill, Escorpion comes out of nowhere with a perfect trip allowing Pierroth to kick some BALLS! Then Shocker makes a last minute save by pulling the ref away before the 3 count, allowing Mascara to punch some BALLS! I really love this feud. Pierroth beats the hell out of Mascara, and then has no problem leaning way in on payback superkicks, and there's just so much attitude and hubris on display. It's too much fun.

Dragon Lee vs. La Mascara (CMLL 7/29/16)

And now we get the great rudo Mascara, picking on Rush's little baby bro, and rudo Mascara is goooood. He's wearing absurdly small trunks that say "Papi", he oles Lee right into the barricade on a tope, powerbombs him into the jagged metal announcers station, rips at his mask, throws some brutal low superkicks to a slumped in the corner Lee, and then puts the exclamation point on things with a swift kick to the balls to end things. Mascara is coming for the Pierroth family's testicles. This didn't get much time, Lee didn't get a whole lot of shine in this, and it really could have used a Pierroth pull apart at the end, but I love the angle of Mascara being the good guy against Pierroth, but being a sadistic asshole to his sons.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Terry v. Wotan

1. Black Terry v. Wotan Chilanga Mask 8/21

PAS: Necro Butcher has pretty much disappeared over the last couple of years, and with Nick Gage back in jail there really hasn't been that kind of unhinged bloody slightly dangerous brawler around anymore. Enter in the sixty-three year old Black Terry who is the Necro we have been looking for. Terry has been having a hell of a year bleeding and brawling through a bunch of tiny gyms across Mexico, this weekend he even no showed an Arena Mexico event so he could bleed all over the rocks and dirt at Coliseo Coacalco. Wotan is a DTU guy and is perfectly willing to smash his forehead violently into Terry's he also had a pretty nice tope, and took a hard backdrop on the ground. Terry was a machine in this, hitting backfists, right hands, coconut headbuts. There was one hinky spot where Terry had to hold a chair on top of himself so Wotan could dropkick him, but otherwise everything was pretty flawless. By the end of the match both guys are rolling around in gravel and chairs punching each other in their bloody heads. Gritty violent and awesome.

ER: Ummmm. What. The hell. I have no idea who Wotan is, and I have no idea why he hates Terry but brother did I buy it. What the hell. This is easily one of the most violent wrestling matches I have ever seen. And the violence just keeps ramping up until I was just kind of staring at my computer screen with my jaw slack. It starts like a normal, expectedly violent Black Terry match. You've seen this backyard flea market before, you've seen these nasty headbutts, and then Wotan starts bringing out the nasty chairshots. He blasts Terry with a couple awful ones, really wings a chair at Terry's face.  This whole time the chops from both men are landing harder, super loud, the short punches are getting meaner, the simple kicks to the stomach are landing with a crack, Terry is throwing pointed knees right at Wotan's face, and then more chairs. Nasty shots. Terry holding a chair may be somewhat suspect, but that dropkick Wotan lands through the chair makes you start wondering if Terry is going to come up headless. And that's when Wotan just holds a chair in front of a kneeling Terry's head and punts it. HARD. Holy shit. If I didn't see on the match timer how long it was, I would have thought it was over right then, because god damn that kick. But Terry is crazy (seriously, Terry must be crazy) and he fights and he comes back mean and soon things spill out to the floor, back to where they started, and that's when things jump up to a level I couldn't believe. Wotan appears to be running fast away from Terry, Terry chasing, and then Terry comes around a corner just in time for Wotan to throw a chair HARD right into his face. Wotan hits a great tope and Terry goes sprawling into dirt and chairs and people. Both men are bleeding and dirty and bruised and cut. Wotan takes an insane backdrop bump into dirt and rocks. And then these men beat each other more violently than almost anything you've seen in wrestling. Literally fighting on the sharpest most annoying rocks, rolling through chairs, cutting up their bodies, punching each other over and over and over while women yell and people look on almost horrified. Terry grabs a beer bottle and bashes Wotan in the face with it a couple times. As Terry sat their beating Wotan's face - blocked by the camera - I was thinking that this video might become Exhibit A soon after. Match gets thrown out, both men stagger back up and fall around, fans want more, and yeah, this was insane. I genuinely don't know what it would take for another match to "out-violent" this one.


2016 ONGOING MOTY LIST

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