2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Santo vs. Bandido

81. El Hijo Del Santo vs. Bandido York Hall, London 6/24/17

ER: This was one confusing middle section away from easily landing on our 2017 list, and it needs to be said how cool it is that Santo is the guy using his lucha fame to work matches around Europe this past decade. "I'm a famous masked wrestler, I'm going to showcase that in famous museums and boxing gymnasiums" is a weird line to follow, but it's great. This plays like a Santito greatest hits, done as well as you remember them being played, but the best thing about Santo's greatest hits is that they never feel like he's just running through spots. He always puts something behind them, and their still shockingly beautiful. A lot of this is Bandido stooging for Santo, stooging for headscissor variations (I'll never not get excited for the crossed ankle headstand, never showing any light on his grip around Bandido's neck), fighting out of camel clutches, taking nice arm drags, and fighting back with lariats. Bandido eats a great boot in the corner, flying in with a dropkick and getting knocked out of the sky by a Santo foot, and Santo dropkicks him off the top to the floor before hitting a fantastic dive past the ringpost to the front row. This match could be from 2001 the way Santo is moving, and I'd have no idea. Bandido lands a couple corner dropkicks, and Santo (in tree of woe) sits up on the third and Bandido takes a great sliding bump crotch first around the ringpost. Santo hits an incredible crossbody from the top to the floor, landing high on Bandido's chest and making you come to terms with how disappointing the landings are on most flying offense to the floor. With Santo energized we go into the awesome Santo brawling segments, with him kicking Bandido's legs out, hitting high knees, and going for more clutches.

Things get confusing when Santo gets slammed into a turnbuckle while holding a choke and the match just stops for a couple minutes. Both guys are squaring off but nobody is touching each other, and I have no idea what was supposed to be happening. I didn't love the 2 count tradeoff section, felt too modern lucha and while Santo's sunset flip slams always look great I thought an earlier one was worked into the match in a more interesting way (with Santo being pulled out of a grounded headscissors into one) and I just get restless in lucha now when the guys start trading nearfalls for a few minutes. There's impressive stuff within, as both take nice vertical suplexes on a hard mat, we get rana pinfalls and a victory roll, and Santo's rolling sunset flip bomb is truly one of the great marvels of lucha; the way he rolls into and up and over his opponent's body is something that a 53 year old shouldn't be able to do, and Bandido is a great dance partner as he SUWA's himself into the thing. Finish run is fun with Bandido hitting a rolling senton and them committing big to a missed splash off the top, allowing Santo to finally sink the clutch. This match really wasn't missing much; you had that weird couple minutes of standing and squaring off, and the nearfall section could have been ordered a bit more logically, but if this match had somehow been the only match we got from return Santo it would have been proof positive that he hadn't lost any semblance of a step.

PAS: Honestly this could have been Santo in 2007, 1997 or 1987 and you really couldn't tell. He was taking bumps, throwing big shots, hit his awesome tope, and his classic plancha, both of which were beautiful looking and actually looked like they hurt. He looked 100% there, and if he can still deliver at this level, there is no reason he can't have one more big run in him. CMLL is setting up Atlantis vs. Villano IV and Santo looked way less washed then current Atlantis. No one wants to run a Santo match Wrestlemania weekend? NOVA Pro is flying in Session Moth Martina from fucking England, and there isn't one money mark willing to fly in one of the greatest ticket sellers of the 21st century? There were a couple of moments where Bandido looked off on offense, I don't know how much he has worked rudo in his career, and he seems to have lost the thread a bit. Still he is a really athletic guy, and sold most of Santo's stuff really well.


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Santo Baby, Hurry Down the Chimney Tonight

ER: One of the finest luchadors in history came back from retirement a couple years ago and began working matches again (many with his son, which is what likely made him start working again), but I hardly saw anybody writing about the matches. It felt like it was treated as a non-event, as opposed to an exciting event that we now have more footage of a legend who never deteriorated. I decided to run through several of the matches from his most recent active year on file and see what we seemingly collectively missed.


El Hijo Del Santo/Rey Mysterio Jr./Discovery vs. Dr. Cerebro/Super Crazy/Yakuza LLT 9/17/17

ER: This was plenty fun, but when a match has 2 of the 10 biggest lucha legends of all time in it, you hope for a bit more. The rudo control segments were a little underwhelming, and Yakuza kinda stinks and looks like he's mailing it in the whole match (or maybe that's just his operating speed; I assume if you're across the ring from Santo, Mysterio, and the top local lucha tecnico that you would be going your hardest). The early pairings are fun with the tecnicos all getting to show off their arsenal of armdrags and headscissors, but the rudo beatdown after gets a little tedious. We have two short and chubby refs in the ring, one indifferent and one a rudo. I know if I were in the crowd watching a match with Santo, Mysterio, Cerebro (in the states, so wearing his all time great mask), Crazy, I'd personally be interested in some spots where a referee is front and center. It's arguably the worst trope in any style of wrestling. But the home stretch is a solid burst of lightning, with Crazy taking a great bump to the floor off a Mysterio headscissors, Santo hitting his rolling senton off the top (and weirdly barely getting a reaction for a dive onto Cerebro that sends both of them to the guardrail), Yakuza takes a lazy bump to the floor but Discovery hits a nice flip dive onto him (which Yakuza doesn't really catch, moreso lets Discovery bounce off him onto the floor), and then the crowd of course explodes for the 619. Santo was super engaging throughout, really active from the apron, not going through any motions (I thought it was cool when his guys were on offense that Santo was always watching the loose members of the rudo side). But out of all the available 2017 Santo this one was the on paper champ, and didn't really live up to that billing.

El Hijo Del Santo vs. Silver King vs. Alberto el Patron MDA 10/1/17

ER: You might have guessed, but this would have been much better had it been a singles with either of those two opposite Santo, as this had too many moments of three guys in the ring where one guy is just in the way. The money match here is Santo/King, and it's not really that Patron is bad, more that the match would have worked far better as a singles and he's clearly the odd man out. Silver King works the match as a kind of upsetter, like LA Park or Rush, first guy to go looking for weapons, first guy to go for ball shots, just trying to cause chaos. He also lands stiff and takes big bumps, so I'm all for it. Santo works all of his majestic spots off these two, hitting a headscissor and flipping armdrag on King, vaulting off King to hit a dropkick on Patron, and late in the match hitting his rolling senton into tope past the ringpost. Is there a man with a crazier "signature spot" that he's executing into his 50s? Santo is great when a match turns into a brawl, as he has awesome shots and takes Lawleresque bumps into furniture and metal. He even moves a lot like Lawler as he bumps, so seeing Silver King throw him hard into a chair is gonna look great. King comes out with a couple full containers of empty beer bottles and bounces one off Santo, a mere foot away from a man holding his infant. King smacks Santo around with a bottle, then jabs the ref with it, and later blasts Patron with a serving tray.  Finish felt like a good brawl finish, with King bringing in a super heavy looking container of empties (and if it wasn't actually heavy, let's credit Silver King with his John Cena-like ability to make things appear heavier than they are) and looks like he's about to crush Santo's head with it, but Patron throws beer in his face to allow Santo to lock on la caballo. This was very clipped, although I don't think we missed anything, and probably just helped with flow. The performance of Santo and King certainly made me excited for the following tag.

El Hijo Del Santo/Garza Jr. vs. Silver King/Silver King Jr. Auditorio Municipal 11/17/17

ER: This starts out feeling like it's going to be really good, until the back half of this gets plunged into the murky waters of the worst lucha tropes. This started fine, with Santo squaring off against King Jr. and working through some Santo-y mat spots, and then King Sr. and Garza squared off with Garza doing a lot of mincy movements and teasing all the ladies by showing skin, a flash of an ab here and a flash of a left buttock there, all culminating in him missing a big avalanche to get hung up butt up on the top rope, allowing Silver King to expose full butt. The squeals mean it's working. Garza does fully seem all the way into Buddy Landel no kneepads work, but shtick works fine when used properly. There's a FANTASTIC spot where King Jr. gets a cheap shot in on Santo, and King Sr. cheapshots King Jr. to tell him to knock off the cheapshots. Brilliantly timed. Santo comes in and rips off a bunch of classics, big flying headbutt off the top, some victory rolls, big flipping armdrag, a couple nice alley oop headscissors, stuff that looked like good Santo. This didn't appear to be that big of a gymnasium crowd, but Santo is clearly still a guy who busts ass no matter the crowd. And then everything goes to absolute hell in the tercera. The referee turns on Santo for some stupid ass lucha reason and starts putting the boots to him with the Kings. Then Garza also turns on Santo but keeps avoiding taking bumps so he's just a guy who turned and then ran around the ring taunting all match. If I was Silver King Jr. and was paid less than Garza for this match, I'd be pissed. Garza worked this match the way a guy would work if he had found out just before the match that he wouldn't be paid. But then even though Garza turns on Santo, King Jr. still treats him as an enemy and keeps trying to attack him. Maybe King Jr. really *was* pissed about Buddy Garza goofing off the whole match. It was just really weird that Garza wasn't trying to harm the King Family, and was trying to lie down for pins, but King Jr. kept going after him like they were in a fight. None of this made any sense. Santo does still manage to hit his rolling senton and tope past the ringpost into King Jr., but we get nothing but fast count cheating, Santo eating a huge kick to the balls for the finish, and just a final 10 minutes that nobody could possibly be happy with. The one saving grace in the last 10 minutes was Santo still breaking out big spots when allowed, and him finally slapping both Garza and the ref. The fans responded to Santo finally snapping as a big deal, and the ref took a great floppy oversell off Santo's punch. But damn, guys, knock off the horseplop.

El Hijo Del Santo/Santo Jr./Hijo de Black Silver vs. La Mascara/Bandido/Black Silver Jr. LLA 11/19/17

ER: This was nice condensed fun in a neat outdoor soccer field venue. Mascara works as a decent rudo stooge throughout, Bandido is a rudo with excellent fringe on his tights so I am beholden by law to give him positive marks, and apparently the sons of Black Silver are having a row. Black Silver Jr. appears to be the better of the brothers (and sadly passed away in a car accident a few months after this match), and we get more of a look at Santo Jr. Santo Jr. is not that good, but he can blend into a trios well enough and hits a nice dive off the top to the floor late in the match. But you have to sit through sloppy headscissors to get there. He bumps well enough and it's kind of weird because sometimes he tries to almost mimic his father's movement. He can't pull off the execution, but he sometimes moves like him and it's kind of weird. Santo obviously looked like a star here, with a big rana and high knees and slick headscissors, brawling through the crowd with Mascara, and hitting his rolling senton/tope combo. Seriously, Hogan has severe hip pain from doing the legdrop too long, Santo's still out here diving onto soccer fields. Match was a nice crowd pleaser.

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Stuka Jr. vs. Hechicero: A Feud of Relampago

While looking through some matchlists I saw that Stuka Jr. and Hechicero have now had 4 lightning matches over the last 4 years, and being that they are two of my very favorites in CMLL I figured it would be pretty easy to knock them all out. Given CMLL's roster, there are an absurd number of potential lightning match combos, so it seems odd that they've matched up 4 times, and I'm curious how much they mixed things up match to match.

Stuka Jr. vs. Hechicero  CMLL 2/1/15

ER: A fairly easygoing start to our feud. Much of the early matwork felt perfunctory and uninterestingly cooperative. The matwork still has some cool segments like Stuka going for an armbar and Hechicero turning it into his one armed deadlift, which Stuka then rolled through for another shot. Hechicero takes two big bumps to the floor, one over the top tumbling, the great one a Fuerza bump that he lands butt first. Yeowch. Stuka hits a big quebrada and gorgeous hands-to-side springboard crossbody; Hechicero hits his inverted monkey flip and a hard dropkick to Stuka's ear, and Stuka finishes a little too easily with his torpedo splash. This was a pretty basic intro to these two, but nothing really outside of what you might expect out of these two in a typical trios. Let's see where we build this.

Stuka Jr. vs. Hechicero  CMLL 9/27/15

ER: This match is much more Hechicero-controlled than the first one, and features more overt rudo work from Hechicero. The first match was pretty genial, this at least has Hech taunting the crowd and picking on Stuka as both do some fun tumbling, and Hechicero breaks out a fast dropkick through the ropes to the floor and a slingshot tornillo back into the ring. Hechicero pulls out two even bigger bumps in this one, getting thrown under the bottom rope and landing stomach first, and then peaking when he whiffs on a charge and wraps himself around the ringpost to the floor. Stuka follows with a completely bonkers moonsault over the ringpost to the floor, just wild. I always love Stuka's dedication to roll-ups and he always stays tight on sunset flips, really reminds me of El Dandy in that way, and it made the finish look good. Hechicero catches Stuka on a rana and deadlifts him up to powerbomb him (which itself was used earlier to toss Stuka into the buckles), but Stuka just keeps the momentum going and rolls right over the top, Santo style. We still haven't had any WorldWide classic between the two, but it's in there somewhere.

Stuka Jr. vs. Hechicero  CMLL 7/28/17

ER: Closer to the second match in the series, but less satisfying. The ending is a little more modern lucha for me (Hechicero misses a moonsault, Stuka moonsaults into boots, cut to spinning backbreaker win for Hechicero), but the big stuff plays big. Hechicero takes a fast rolling bump through the ropes to the floor, and Stuka hits a locomotive of a dive, and later we get another nasty Hechicero bump past the ringpost with another great Stuka moonsault over that ringpost. You got a crazy spot, you do your crazy spot in a lightning match. I liked the way they tied some things together, loved a silky tilt a whirl armdrag from Stuka, a nice springboard elbow to a standing Stuka, but this one felt a little more hollow.

Stuka Jr. vs. Hechicero  CMLL 6/8/18

ER: I figured with 4 different singles matches between these two, we would get one good enough to land on a list. Well, I don't think they did it. This was probably the best of the 4, but it felt more like a fun collection of stuff than an actual complete match. This felt like probably the best combination of the best parts of the other matches, with all their nice offense and a nice callback finish. This match felt weirdly saved by a minorly flubbed spot. We basically get all of the same things we've seen in the other matches, some nice Hechicero strength spots, big dive, torpedo splash off the top and moonsault to the floor from Stuka, Stuka flying halfway across the ring off Hechicero's inverted monkey flip, all cool stuff. They got a bit crossed up and saved it by snapping off a couple of nice spots right away to immediately distract, with a nice headscissors by Stuka and then a fast Code Red. That immediate covering for a flub quickened the pace from there out, not sure if that moment was the catalyst or not but it felt possible. The finish was cool and not one typically used in CMLL (that I've seen) with Stuka going again for his torpedo splash and landing right in the waiting arms of a Hechicero armbar. It's a cool finish and maybe because I haven't seen it in CMLL, it surprised me and felt like a big deal.

So, all four matches were fun (and short, these are lightning matches after all), but nothing MOTY list worthy. Now, the series is evened up 2-2, so I'm sure someday we'll get the conclusion to this best of 5.

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Demus vs. Wotan! Beard vs. Hair!

89. Demus 3:16 vs. Wotan Generation XX1 12/18

PAS: This was a hair v. beard match which adds to Demus's under the radar wrestler of the year candidacy. Wotan is too enamored with goof lightube shit to really be on a list of the greatest wrestlers in the world, but a couple of times a year he puts that to the side and just has these filthy hellacious brawls and they are awesome. We open in the crowd and Wotan is already bloody and Demus is throwing him recklessly into walls and chairs. I love how Demus uses his tiny body, he will just hurl it at whoever he is fighting, at one point they are both on their knees throwing punches and Demus just pounced forward into Wotan with a tiny tackle. I didn't love the finish, lots of setting up a particle board on some chairs and the Demus misses a splash and gets pinned, still there was plenty of this to love, and I am super sad about Demus shaving his awesome beard.

ER: I don't believe I have ever seen a mask vs. beard match, so it was weird seeing "Barba vs. Cabellera" at the top of the screen. It's also weird that a guy with a mask is putting up his hair, and a guy with hair is putting up his beard. Did Albert ever work a back hair match? If Lucha Underground never does a beard vs. beard match with Mrs. Madness and Mrs. Havok's sons then they're idiots. Joey Ryan feels like someone who should have already been touring with a "I shave ALL my body hair if I lose" match. Santino could have worked a unibrow match. Really, now that we know that a beard match is a thing, it just highlights how uncreative every other apuestas match has been, with proper credit given to Bill Dundee putting up his wife's hair.

And aside from an absolutely terrible, woeful ending, this match was awesome. Both guys are big bleeders, and the first shot we get of Wotan is him already covered in that deep, dark cherry blood that luchadors wear so well. We've already seen Wotan in maybe the best brawl of the decade, and sadly for him his best performances seem to come when he's opposite a total powder keg who will bring a beating to him. And Demus is certainly the most powder keg guy around these days. Demus-as-projectile is a guaranteed win, he's like this heavy medicine ball getting thrown at opponents. His cannonball always crushes, he flies into splashes and sentons, and he looks exactly like one of the aliens in Critters (seriously, tell me I'm wrong). Wotan has some nice offense (I really like his ankle roll senton, like Brad Attitude does, but with a little more lucha flair) and is a huge bumper (watch him fully commit to a massive missed dive as Demus sidesteps him). Both guys bleed buckets and throw big bombs into cuts, and really this match could have ended with both men just punching each other out and it would have landed in our top 25. But my heavens this ending was bad. We had an interminable prop set up, with the flimsiest board getting set up limply on 6 chairs, with the REF getting involved to help Wotan set up this spot that was never going to look good. Demus is selling this whole time, finally gets up and punches both men, then Demus takes time to readjust the awful prop, tries to splash Wotan but crashes through it and gets fast counted. What a terrible finish tacked on to a tremendous brawl. We would have been so much better off getting the video cut off and missing the finish. The match would have gone down as this legendarily clipped brawl and "Oh my god if only the match was complete!! Who knows what greatness we missed!?" Sometimes it's just better not to know.


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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Maestros in Monterrey

77. Black Terry/Negro Navarro v. Satanico/Blue Panther ERLL 3/19

PAS: Classic Maestros wrestling with a pair of UWA legends facing off against a pair of CMLL all timers. This goes almost 20 minutes, and is one fall so they really get a chance to stretch out and show their stuff.  We get a great long Terry v. Satanico mat battle, including some cool leg stretch attempts by Satanico. Then we get an even better, even longer Panther v. Navarro section, which is mostly worked on their feet as they exchange cool variations and counters out of standing wrist locks. Finish is the mat equivalent of a highspot train with one guy putting on a submission on his opponent only to be broken up by his partner putting on a submission. Navarro here breaks out a crazy leglock which should have been an all time legendary submission finisher, but he just throws out on a whim. The standup and rope running sections didn't look as smooth (Panther is the baby in this match at 57), but the grappling is still amazing. Really liked the finish too, with Satanico and Terry eliminating themselves on a double pin, we get some more Panther v. Navarro, they actually tease the double pin again (which is the finish for 75% of these Maestro matches) only to have Panther catch Navarro with a Fujiwara armbar.


ER: I remember seeing this match was happening but didn't actually know that it made tape, so that's a nice surprise. It's filmed with a weird lens so it makes it feel like you're watching a bunch of old legends through the peephole of your front door, but I'll deal. This was nice and spirited and better than I was expecting, and I just love watching all these men doing their thing. I absolutely loved Panther in this, and his segments with Navarro were probably my favorite maestro moments of 2017. Their standing exchanges and rolling were really cool and felt fresh, filled with things that should be stolen by guys half their age. I always think their slightly slowed down bodies work better for these kind of moments, that slower, older lucha grace adds a little heft to armdrags and roll throughs. Panther had tons of cool smooth moves, loved when he rolled through a wristlock, then sprang backwards to grab Navarro's wrist and throw him, it looked like a trippy breaking move. Later when Panther is opposite Terry, Terry has a brief timing flub, and instead of awkwardly regrouping Panther just rushes him and starts choking him. Thinking on the fly and covering for your dance partner has to be incredibly difficult to do, and it's a real skill to immediately know what to cover for. Satanico and Terry fighting over ankles was great, Satanico takes a great tumble to the floor late in the match, and once I saw Navarro bridge Panther into a pin I totally bought the false finish. I'm glad we got the definitive Panther tapping him finish instead. Panther deserved the win with such a great performance.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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Lucha Worth Watching: Kraneo! Hechicero! Rush! Ultimo Guerrero!

1. Rush vs. Ultimo Guerrero (CMLL 12/5/17)

ER: Classic Arena Mexico dickhead performance from Rush, really hamming it up and soaking in squeals from the ladies. He stomps all over UG and does plenty of Burt Reynolds Cosmopolitan poses throughout the match, on the mat, on the ropes, on the corner of the guardrail; he kicks UG in the face a bunch, and I like the way his corner dropkicks built throughout the match: He hits it flush to end the primera, later he does it again, stops short and kicks UG right in the cheek, then goes for it again in the tercera, leading to UG finally moving and Rush whiffing. Rush beats him to the floor and smacks the barricade door of UG's head, then grabs a mighty full soda and bounces that of UG's head (and onto about a dozen people in the first couple rows). Guerrero gets to pay him back in the tercera with his own cup bounced off the head, but he's a tecnico so he politely throws it away from the crowd. Rush had an awesome bit of rudo shtick that I've never seen before, hitting a running dropkick  that sees him land on his back with his legs on the middle rope...so he improvises and starts doing some elevated crunches, then flips it over for some quick push-ups. So great. Guerrero ends up cheating to win, using Rush's bullshit against him and grapevining the bottom rope during a pin. Guerrero didn't bring tons to the match, and the crowd sounded smaller and quieter than normal, but Rush didn't let that stop him from being Rush.

2. Kraneo v. Hechicero (CMLL 1/19/18)

ER: This is gonna be the year of the biggest Luchador to ever lucha, Kraneo baby! This is a super fun lightning match and really I don't even remember the last time I saw a Kraneo singles match, so him in a lightning match is a fun treat. With Kraneo's monstrous size and Mije's constant interference (there must be a weigh limit on the person interfering for it to count as a DQ) we get Hechicero cast as a tecnicos which is a role he hasn't played much in CMLL. Kraneo is fun bumping around for Hechicero, and Hechicero hits a pretty crazy dive early on, so Kraneo relies more on Mije to even things up. I loved Hechicero going after Kraneo's knee and ankle, because jesus look at the guy! Carrying that much weight around has to be murder on your knees and ankles, it's just smart business. Kraneo sells it all really well and continues to pay service to the legwork (which nicely sets up an end of match ankle lock false finish). Kraneo is big enough that him merely missing a move is huge, as it immediately shifts the tide, so you don't need to have your giant bumping for tons of moves as he can do just as much damage to himself. At one point he teases a dive but Mije ends up taking it, getting caught by Hechicero who teases a bunch of great thrown into the crowd spots....and as the camera pans back towards the ring Kraneo crushes BOTH of them with an awesome plancha off the apron. Good gracious. The end stretch isn't as good as the beginning stretch, but we get a nice Hechicero strap removal spot, and him lifting Kraneo with a fireman's carry got a deserved big cheer, but he just wasn't enough for Man Mountain Kraneo.

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Chico Che and Motocross Fight for the Hairs

72. Chico Che v. Motocross AAA Sanchez 9/16

PAS: So glad to see out boy Chico Che showing up again, he pretty much vanished after his last epic IWRG run, but has resurfaced. This is a hair v. hair brawl and is pretty much a one man Che show. Motocross bleeds and throws chairs, but doesn't bring much else to the table. Che is still really agile for such a chub, and his a beautiful elbow suicida to open the match. We also get some great Che thudding headbutts and a great top rope splash. Finish has a bunch of BS which keeps this from being a real top of the list contender, but still a treat to see Chico Che do his thing.

ER: This is a really really great "Oh yeah, THAT Chico Che!" performance, from a guy that I'm not sure I've seen since 2013. That 4 year gap vanishes as Che looks exactly the same and wrestles as great as you remember. Within the first couple seconds he hits a huge tope that crushes Motocross into the barricade, and in the first couple minutes he's already dropped him vertically with a seated double underhook piledriver, punched him across the bridge of the nose, and punted him in the jaw. Chico Che is the fattest Kurisu and it's great. I don't totally understand the finish of the segunda, as Che hits a full force crossbody and rolls away, and then just gets pinned. And that's a continuing theme, as I don't totally get Motocross here, but some fans in the back have a giant sign for him, and he takes some of the nastier chairshots you're going to see in modern wrestling, and lets a fat dude in overalls jump on him a bunch, so there's just a lot I'm not going to understand about Motocross. The violence keeps ramping in the tercera as both brawl around ringside and have a contest to see who can hit each other harder in the face with a chair. Neither win. Che takes some mean shots, but then gives it back to Motocross twofold, at one point wrapping a hard plastic chair around his neck and headbutting him. Both are bleeding, and we get some good nearfalls back inside. Che drops him with a nasty double underhook slam and splats him with a huge splash, but yeah we get some silliness with the finish, and I didn't think Chico Che should have gone down from just a nut shot, but this was a great Chico Che match.


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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Tigre Rojo v. Barbaro 1 Mascara contra Cabellera

30. Tigre Rojo v. Barbaro 1 ASR 10/15

PAS: Rojo is an old Arena Puebla technico, who is probably in his mid 50s, this is clearly his home arena (a painting of his mask is up on the wall next to Santo), so the crowd is going batshit watching him wager his mask. Barbaro is a Puebla rudo, and instead of working spots in an opening six-man they are spraying blood all over the ring, and doing dangerous dives no one this old and fat should ever try. First two falls are short and good, with both guys bleeding a bunch, but in the third fall it gets truly nuts. Babaro needs the ref's help to get to the top rope, but then he uncorks this crazy flying senton off the top onto Rojo and his seconds. Rojo responds a little later with a flying seated flip senton (imagine Fantastik or Super Astro) to the floor. By the end we get some great near falls, with the crowd going nuts. Some of the execution wasn't the cleanest, but I will forgive wonky execution when it is coated in this much blood

ER: Two fat guys enter wearing mostly blanco, leave almost entirely rojo. This is a mega bloody brawl, with some absolutely spectacular (and entirely unexpected) spots making up an all time great tercera. The primera and the segunda drew blood, big blood, and also set up great false finishes in the tercera. Barbaro crushes Rojo with a falling splash from the top to end the primera, Rojo locks in a Trauma-esque twisting figure 4. Fans are into Rojo and it's weird, I love rudos in my mainstream lucha, but I LOVE regional tecnicos. And this tercera is a real doozy. Both men are absolutely soaked in blood, and we hit an increasing level of highspots that nobody could have expected: Barbaro gets backdropped by the ref into everyone, then hits a fat guy Kamaitachi standing senton off the top to the floor through everybody. But the craziness peaks when Rojo hits a bonkers rolling senton tope to a prostrate Barbaro. Holy cow. This was way more nuts than Super Calo's rolling senton to the floor, as Calo's was done slingshot style. This was a full running tope, through the ropes, and then rolling before hitting Barbaro. If I saw someone super athletic like John Morrison or Ricochet pull of that spot, it would seem crazy. But here's a guy who - at minimum - is in his late 40s, and a chubster at that! Insane spot. We get a couple great nearfalls that were set up early in the match, with Barbaro missing moves off the top on that HARD Coliseo San Ramon mat (that falling splash is brutal hit or miss) that both seem like plausible ways to get yourself pinned. Rojo finally locks on that twisting figure 4 and adds extra leverage to the knee this time, getting the tap. This is the kind of match you dream of getting to witness live in a building like this.


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Lucha Worth Watching: Leyenda de Azul Cibernetico

Leyenda de Azul Cibernetico (CMLL 12/22/17)

ER: Ciberneticos are a fickle creature. It doesn't take too much in one direction to make them good, and it doesn't take much in the other direction to make them totally skippable. This one already starts as a win as Mije and Zakarias sit on the entranceway steps with their heads in hands, as if they're sitting on a curb waiting for their parents to pick them up after soccer practice. Then you see that referee Edgar is sporting cornrows and you know it's going to be a great cibernetico. The strength in a cibernetico is always the action that happens before the eliminations. Eliminations typically come quick and are predictable, and often unsatisfying (and you know there's going to be a double elimination), but the work that takes place before pinfalls start is gonna make it worthwhile, and this had some great action.

Ultimo and Euforia start of with some fast matwork, the kind that UG doesn't often do in CMLL, and it's fun as I don't recall these two ever going opposite each other. It never gets mean, but it's a good exhibition. Bucanero and Terrible do more of the same and we get a nice fun engaging scrap to our cibernetico. Stuff bumps up when Kraneo splats Vangellys with a big legdrop, but then gets backdropped over the top to the ramp, Kraneo taking an awesome big fat guy bump to the ramp and down the side stairs, with Vangellys immeditely shifting his focus and hitting a big dive on Misterioso.  We get a fat guy showdown between Niebla and Kraneo, and Niebla had a pretty nice showing. Maybe the key to Niebla now is just thinking of him as the new Super Porky. Don't be mad at him for having trouble standing up or kind of standing still while people get into place around him, just get excited for the 1-2 matches a year that he shows up for and just enjoy him slapping dudes the rest of the year. With this match and the Caifan match this is two straight Niebla matches where he utilizes his hip swiveling and silliness much more like Dusty than just a fat goof. It's a fine line. But I loved Kraneo slapping him, with every slap leading to Niebla turning around and slapping someone else on the apron. He and Kraneo are the fattest in the match, so I'll always love the two bigguns exchanging armdrags. Shocker has deflated a bit so he's not as fat (you can really see it in his arms, Shocker has really small arms now). Vangellys is the sneaky pick to be 2nd fattest in 2019. Nobody is getting as fat as Kraneo, I really don't think there's a luchador in history who is as big as Kraneo. But if something stressful happens in Vangellys' life, I could see him hitting the tortas pretty hard. Later on Niebla works a couple complicates armdrags with UG, and does a fired up Dusty act against Bucanero, swiveling his hips and pop locking with his legs, even flicking his own nipples. I don't think I've seen the nipple flick before. I'd much rather see that than the loogy.

Hechicero was treated like a big deal here, so much so that I thought he would win. He had a cool run  where he did his nice middle rope dropkick to knock Sanson to the floor, then gets Mascara Ano Dos Mil to the floor, then taps Vangellys with his awesome inverted bow and arrow choke. I was the drum beater for Pierroth the last couple years and haven't run across too much recommendable Pierroth this year, but I really liked him here, easily best Pierroth moments of the year. We get a nice old guy battle with he and Mascara, we get an actual Rush/Pierroth face off which is something I've never seen, with Pierroth actually soccer kicking Rush before they stand up. Then, he sweetly brushes the hair out of his baby boy's face, and tenderly kisses him on the forehead (much to the hate of the Arena Mexico crowd). Later he helps Rush pin UG from the floor, grabbing his son's hand in a perfect Schwarzenegger/Weathers Predator handshake to give Rush pinfall leverage. I wish Kraneo and Rush got more of a showdown but we did get one, with Kraneo bumping big for him and getting a soccer kick as a thank you. We end with Euforia/Rush and I was rooting for Euforia. He's got kids, man. Euforia takes his always nice ringpost bump and eats a Rush flip dive, and the Rush win is academic. Afterwards Rush stomps on the Blue Demon plaque and HOW COME I HAVE NEVER SEEN THE HORRIBLE BLUE DEMON BELT BEFORE!!?? Has this awful thing been around for years and I somehow keep missing it? Or did I always just stop watching the match after the pinfall and never watch the award ceremony. Oh man that belt is awful. Wearing it essentially gives you a Kuato growing out of your torso, or turns you into Krang's mechanical suit. Just Blue Demon torso flexing around your stomach. It's awful. And the best way to end this cibernetico.

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Iron Kid v. Demus

7. Iron Kid v. Demus 3:16 Lucha Memes 6/18

PAS: Just a hellfire of a short violent sprint, and for pure fun as good as anything I have watched this year. Match has one of the best opening spots I can remember seeing, as Iron Kid goes for a dive, Demus catches him and just recklessly throws him into a support beam. Zero consideration for the health and wellbeing of his fellow man. Demus then breaks out a fork and rips IK's mask and starts poking. We get some really great violent hurls by Demus, and some crazy dives by Iron Kid who gets just incredible height, like maybe higher then prime Freelance, he is floating in the air and the crash awesomely on the dirt floor. Classic tale of plucky technico being mauled by some sort of psychotic troll.

ER: Wow wow wow wow! Is this the greatest WCW syndicated match in history? Maybe! What an absolute 7 minute banger. The match STARTS with Iron Kid trying to hit a tope on Demus while Demus is walking to the ring, but Demus in all one motion catches Kid mid-dive and just bucket brigades him into the crowd, with Kid's body hitting a woman, a support pole and a couple of chairs, all at once. If the match had been as paint by numbers as possible after that start, we still would have found room for it at the bottom of the list somewhere. But the match never slows down from there. Demus beats him through the crowd and bashes him with a chair, gets out a fork and stabs at him with the best fork shots you've seen. Iron Kid eats tons of spinach and lentils and broccoli and Iron jokes though, so you know he's gonna make a big comeback, and wouldn't you know Demus wraps him around a ringpost and Kid hits some gorgeous dives. He hits a Aerostar-esque flip dive where he vaults off the middle rope inside the ring with one foot and just soars into Demus, crashing onto Demus' back and shoulders. Both men get dusty and dirty in this Lucha Memes lot that I NEED to see pro wrestling at (the same site as the infamous Terry/Wotan gravel brawl and a zillion more matches of grimy lucha perfection). Kid smacks him into a chair and plows through him with a tope con hilo and you know this thing is the best. This is peak Demus, and Iron Kid has a savage death wish, and the finish is excellent: Kid moonsaults painfully into Demus' legs and it's rough, like that physics defying moment in the Aja Kong/Meiko match from a year or two ago. Kid just gets stuck on those legs and Demus follows up with the most dangerous double underhook piledriver/powerbomb, the kind you would feel bad doing to your Wrestling Buddy as a kid. Afterwards Demus gets jumped and eats a nasty chairshot and bleeds all over everything. This match, this venue, these guys, all of it. ALL OF IT!


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Satanico v. Hechicero

103. Satanico v. Hechicero Lucha Memes 6/4

ER: Satanico doesn't pop up a ton on tape anymore, and he's always going to be a guy I go out of my way to see. I think there will likely be a yearly 12 minute singles match that pops up on the lower part of our list, just an expression of our happiness that somewhere out there Satanico is somewhere out there still being Satanico. He's older and slower and not quite as vicious, but he's Satanico. Hechicero is the perfect modern foil for him, and in a lot of ways he comes off like a modern Satanico. He taunts Satanico all match, punches him in the head, rips at his arm, takes him to the floor and bounces his head of chairs, hits a springboard elbow, all nice stuff. Hechicero peaks with a crushing stair climb knee to the back of Satanico's head in the corner. Brutal. Satanico is crafty though, and I love a crafty old guy in wrestling. I loved an early moment where Hechicero was working an armbar, and Satanico grapevine Hechicero's legs and used the leverage to escape. Satanico takes a beating but we build to a huge moment where he reverses a whip into those heavy as hell old theater seats, and Hechicero takes a massive upside down spill into them, breaking them loose, and Satanico picks them up and smashes them down onto Hechicero like the Incredible Hulk. That was the peak dastardly old man Satanico moment, but we still get to see him throw some big punches to Hechicero's chest and some smooth armdrags before he succumbs to a complicated Hech submission. I just can't not love seeing Satanico's devilish grin on my TV.

PAS: So much fun to watch Satanico do his thing, even deep in the twilight of his career. My favorite part of this was when Satanico backs Hechicero into the corner, and give him a little condescending pat on the cheek, Hechicero gives the condescending pat right back, and they eventually start slapping the shit out of each other. Great bit of character work from both guys, Hechicero refuses to be punked, and Satanico losese his cool. Got to love Hechicero flying upside down head first into the chairs, and the finish set with Hechicero running knee to the back of Satanico's head into a torture sumbission was great. Nifty match.

2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Niebla v. Caifan

27. Caifan v. Mr. Niebla Lucha Memes 11/20

PAS: Talk about an out of nowhere gem! Niebla has spent the last 20 or so years, drunk and fat and coasting on comedy spots, Caifan comes out as says "fuck that we are spilling blood" and we get a great grimey Arena Naculpan bloody brawl. Caifan rips Niebla's mask and cuts him, smashing him with chairs, a case of beer and some great knuckle punches to the wound. At one point he even uses Niebla's blood as face paint. Niebla gets a great comeback, opening up Caifan with a chair shot and a box, and even hits a great fat boy tope. I also loved Niebla using his Pesta Negra dance moves and loogie spot as a Dusty style dancing babyface comeback.  Loved every second of this, and on paper this would have totally been a skipper.

ER: I think the last Niebla match I actually wrote up and recommended was from early 2016, and that was a 4 minute tournament lucha match. Now, it was a really fun tournament lucha match that I think would be a legendary WCW WorldWide match, but that's still a rough recent track record. And here, suddenly many of the things that make Niebla FF material in 2017 work to his benefit. He's not hammy, he's fat and vulnerable, and Caifan jumps on him and acts like a total prick for the first half of this. He jumps Niebla at the bell and violently rips his mask, and a violent mask rip always looks great and makes me cringe. My neck can ache if I hold a phone awkwardly or sleep weird, so picturing my head and body being yanked around by something I'm wearing on my face, and not just wearing but using my neck and arm muscles to try to keep it on my face, just makes me hurt. Caifan has his hands taped up with white tape, so you know you're gonna see Niebla bleed, and he bleeds, and Caifan continues beating on him, bashing him with those hard Naucalpan chairs, braining him with a wood crate holding empty beer bottles (with a great glass clank as it hits Niebla's head), and back in the ring Niebla gets his head smashed through an empty wood crate. Caifan is a royal jerk dragging Niebla around, painting with his blood, and for the first time in ages (ever?) I found myself really really rooting for a Niebla comeback. And it was a good old fat man comeback. He pops Caifan with his big swinging left, lures him into dropkicking the ref, lures him into wrapping himself around the ringpost, and then follows up with a great middle aged fat guy dive that sends Caifan into the front row near a guy holding a baby. We get a great bloody standoff in the ring with Caifan making these bloody tear facials, all that early match confidence gone. And, miracle of miracles, for the first time ever I totally loved Niebla's hip wiggling loogie spitting comeback, treated here like Lawler dropping the strap or Popeye downing a can of spinach. What a total surprise, what a total treat. Shock gem of the year.


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Lucha Worth Watching: Templario + Metalico, Dinamitas vs. Pierroth Familia

Templario/Metalico/Arkangel vs. Astral/Pegasso/Starman (CMLL 10/3/17)

ER: Who is Templario and why do I need to watch so many more of his undercard matches!? I have never seen him before (though I think he only recently started showing up on occasional Arena Mexico undercards, so I don't think I've missed tons), and he's like a 4th Dinamita. He works really fast in this match, bumping big for the tecnicos, but gives as he gets: he's a guy who will whip fast on an armdrag but also snap one off. I'm not sure I've ever seen Astral look better working fast mat exchanges and quick rope running than here opposite Templario. They matched up most of the match and I came away really impressed. The best was in the tercera when he took and awesome somersault bump through the ropes to the floor after getting faked out by Astral, then perfectly catching Astral's gorgeous handspring rana to the floor (where he vaults from in ring, handsprings off the apron, and flips into a rana). He fit in great with best buds Arkangel and Metalico, always quick with a save (and throwing nice clubbing forearms during saves). Metalico's ham was especially delicious here. He comes out wearing tattered office attire and carrying a rocking horse. Why? For he is Metalico. Later he kisses a woman in the front row. And this was no grandma kiss, he planted one on her lips, lips that have kissed before but never so publicly, paying attention to her, noticing her nice sequined dress, telling her with his eyes that she looks good for her age, making her sister giggle and the woman herself blush and wave it away. The cameras cut to a young lady holding a baby. One might think that lucha camera crews just like cutting to cute ladies. One might also think that this camerawork was implying that this particularly lady was just another in a long line of ladies who have been gifted a child by Metalico. Later, he would eyeball the big butt of the tercera ring card girl. Later still, he would take a nice bump on the floor from a slick Pegasso headscissors. The rudos got each others' backs, I loved the three of them stomping the flipping tecnicos, and again, this was the best my memory can recall Astral looking, and it sure felt like it was because of his dance partner: Templario, my new dreamboat with horrible torso tattoos.

Cuatrero/Sanson/Forastero vs. Mistico/Dragon Lee/Comandante Pierroth (CMLL 11/24/17)

ER: This was the finals of a mini tournament that included teams made up of dinasties. You had the Panther family, The Munoz family, the Dinamitas, Felino's family, fun little concept and I love the family tradition in lucha. All styles of wrestling obviously have generations, but the family aspect in lucha seems to be more much powerfully respected in lucha. This is super fun and energetic, with the Munoz family all being heels. I've seen Lee work rudo with Rush on an indy show, but I don't recall seeing Mistico and Lee working rudo on CMLL TV, with their nefarious father. The Dinamitas work tecnico for the first time I've seen, and it's funny as they don't really wrestle any differently, but they're now doing their offense against three guys acting like dicks, so the fans are into it. Munoz familia has some great bullshit in the primera, with the three of them working a new twist on their soccer ball volleying as they instead play a little game of baseball with Lee tossing an invisible head to Mistico who blasts it for a home run, holding the pose. Later, Pierroth fakes the crowd into thinking he'd actually attempt a dive, and ends up slowly bouncing off and flopping through a somersault to pose like Burt Reynolds in Vanity Fair or Shawn Michaels in Playgirl with the belt (which I believe was used as Segunda Caida's masthead from 2007-2008, before I joined). The Dinamitas are all lanky and mean, which makes them seem like valiant tecnicos. I love their catapult monkey flip spot that flings Cuatrero fast and upside down into the corner. They do axe handle attacks and act as great bases for Mistico and Lee, and there's something about rudos doing gracious highflying that seems deliciously disingenuous. It feels like showing someone up, flashy hubris, even if it's done the exact same when they're tecnicos. The rules force the concept force the perception. Lee hits a wild rana leaping from the ring to grab Cuatrero on the apron, with Cuatrero flipping onto the floor. Cuatrero is the best. Naturally Rush comes sliming out at one some point, and I know they rarely do 8 mans but add Rush to one side and Masacara Ano Dos Mil to the other and I'd love to see that. There's mask yanking and shenanigans, but you knew that. This was a real fun role reversal, well worth the time.

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Old Guys in Arena Mexico

92. Solar/Super Astro v. Virus/Black Terry CMLL 11/17

ER: I love the annual (is that right? biannual maybe?) old guys show at Arena Mexico. The matches aren't always great, but they scratch the nostalgia itch, and it's great to see some of them really try to impress the crowd instead of just getting a ring entrance pop. Super Astro has lost a step, but it's somewhat inevitable after 40+ years of wrestling, and he's still able to fire off a big time tope, like a battering ram knocking down a castle gate. Terry gets mostly matched up with Astro, so most of his time is spent facilitating a couple classic Astro spots. But the Virus/Solar exchanges? Those are straight fire. Solar busts ass and while you can see Virus hold back a bit, but he doesn't need to that much for Solar to catch him. He and Solar work some nice submissions, and it's amazing how quickly Solar pops up to his feet after these exchanges. I loved that step up rolling armbar he does to Virus, and the match has an incredible moment of Virus slaps Solar in the chest with both hands, and Solar catches his arms and tosses him with a nasty overhead belly to belly. The "okay, okay old man, ya got me" look on Virus' face after was amazing. I'm glad these guys can still do their thing, and glad a nice Arena Mexico crowd still responds to it.

PAS: PAS: I am always going to be a sucker for a maestros match, and it is a treat to watch these guys perform on a bigger stage. Astro is always a bit problamatic in these as he always tries to wrestle the same athletic style he did 25 years ago, still he does break out an awesome tope and doesn't badly botch anything. Terry is a little miscast in these matches, he is less a mat wrestling wizard then an insane brawler, but he keeps up fine and I liked his role in the long submission train near the finish. Really liked Solar v. Virus, and we clearly need to check out their singles match. Loved that finish Virus pulled off to end the segunda, and Solar looked pretty springy.


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Lucha Worth Watching: Your 2017 CMLL Midcard

Virus/Disturbio/Okumura vs. Pegasso/Soberano Jr./Fuego (CMLL 2/3/17)

ER: We get more of 2017 tecnico superstar Soberano. He's really connecting with the Arena Mexico crowd, and it's always exciting when a crowd starts really reacting to a wrestler, the excitement in a worker's movements when he's getting loud reactions are palpable. Here he gets to show off a lot of flash, and also shows his bump freak side. The bump freak side is my favorite side of his, with him flying recklessly to the floor in the primera off a bull rush shoulderblock from Virus, taking an Okumura lariat on the side of his head, taking a hip toss from the ring to the rampway, and the bumps all lead to bigger reactions on his comebacks. Rudos really take a back seat to tecnicos here, with all three just trying (and succeeding) in drawing heat from the crowd verbally instead of just hogging all the offense. I mean, Virus is always going to look good, but here he hangs back, mostly keeping his offense to simple things (big shoulderblock, sharp elbow drop to the "lower abdomen", big lariat). The finish gets wild with Pegasso hitting a tornillo, Fuego hitting a missile dropkick followed immediately by a springboard missile dropkick, then pins Virus with a cool crucifix variation. Soberano clears the ring with a springboard rana, hits a smooth as hell tornillo off the top, and a moonsault off the middle onto a hanging Okumura wraps it up, crowd flipping their lid the whole time. Fun stuff.

Hechicero/Sagrado/Misterioso Jr. vs. The Panther/Guerrero Maya Jr./Blue Panther Jr. (CMLL 11/17/17)

ER: I really like this rudo team, they same to show up fairly regularly together and they all mesh nicely. They're good at being jerks and bullies, and they're good at allowing openings for any tecnicos that want to grab them. The rudo antics in this one are as good as expected, like The Panther sending Misterioso to the floor with a rana, so Misterioso responds angrily yanking Maya off the apron and then chucking Kemonito into the front row. Just as Stan Hansen turns a pinfall save into an opportunity to beat the hell out of the guy pinning his partner, I love and appreciate how Misterioso took out frustrations on the other team. We get some big bad triple teams too, like Hechicero doing his weird inverted monkey flip to Panther while Sagrado and Misterioso dish kicks on the way down. The tecnicos get some big dives and get to show some stones, like when Hechicero hits his cool moonsault to the floor, and he then gets jumped on the floor by the other two opponents. You don't normally see that from a tecnico team. Guerrero Maya peaks things with an insane tope con giro that sends him flying into the second row, The Panther keeps getting better, and these rudos know how to get an Arena Mexico reaction, and I love when these midcard acts go out of their way to get noticed on a nostalgia show.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Soberano Jr. + Bonus Negro Casas

1. Soberano Jr./Guerrero Maya Jr./Fuego vs. Felino/Ephesto/Luciferno (CMLL 8/8/17)

ER: Hot Arena Mexico trios where Soberano comes off like a star and Felino has one of those matches where it's suddenly 1997 again. You never know when Felino is going to have one of those memory lapses and slip back into actual awesome worker, but it happens a couple times a year and it's always awesome when it does. Felino was rudo extraordinaire here, showing off by working super fast armdrag sequences with Soberano, showing him up by doing fancier forward rolls, handsprings and rope running tricks, then turning mean and dropkicking him low, stomping him out with his buddies, and sticking him with a powerbomb off the turnbuckles. I have no idea what motivates Felino at this point, but when he shows up, he still shows up. Fuego and Maya hang back more but still get nice moments, Fuego ends the segunda with a trippy little roll up, Maya hits a fast and accurate tope, but the fans are going ape for the Soberano/Felino interactions. Tercera is when Soberano breaks out, flinging Luciferno with a cool slingshot armdrag on the ramp, hitting his Fosbury Flop on Felino. This whole thing is kept simple and everybody works quick. You get smooth work from the tecnicos and classic rudo misdirection worked at actual non-lazy speed, and the fans love it all. I love a hot lucha crowd more than most things in wrestling, and this was a crowd pleaser.

2. Negro Casas/Barbaro Cavenario/Ultimo Guerrero vs. Rush/Valiente/Mistico (CMLL 8/8/17)

ER: You know Casas wasn't going to get shown up by his brother on a hot Arena Mexico card! All of La Peste Negra were busting butt tonight, with Felino turning in his performance of the year, Niebla turning in his most spirited performance I've seen from him this year in the next match, and then Casas turning in a typical great Casas act in the main. The teams are all weird because Rush is on the tecnicos but and Casas is on the rudos, but the stuff between them is gold, peaking with Casas throwing tons of stiff kicks in the corner on Rush. Not long after Rush gets Casas prone in the corner, stops short on the dropkick, waits for Casas to peak out from his fingers, then pops him in the cheek with the toe of his boot. What a jerk. Valiente takes some big spills and works the match essentially nude (his tiny trunks are like awful early 80s bodybuilder Kevin Sullivan levels of yuck), UG acts as a great base for Mistico, Barbaro turns in a wonderfully hammy performance, and the best part of his ham is when it turns suddenly violent, like in the tercera where he catches a Casas Thesz press off the apron and powerbombs him into the ringpost. I don't know what got into the crowd tonight, not sure if a hot crowd made the workers all kick it up a notch, or the hot workers got the crowd going bananas, but this was one of those Arena Mexico night where everything clicked.

3. Barbaro Cavernario vs. Soberano Jr. (CMLL 8/25/17)

ER: Two wild and crazy guys pulling out all the stops in a 10 minute lightning match? Yes, please. The first 6 minutes of this are a total Barbaro mugging, setting the tone right out the gates as he bullies Soberano around the ring with his chin. There's something awkwardly intimidating about him just jamming chin into jawbone and shoving a guy around the ring with it. But Barbaro is totally coconuts and hits this flat out amazing tornillo through the ropes, I mean just a crazy spot for a bulky guy to do. Soberano takes a mammoth back body drop on the floor and the beating continues, with Barbaro hitting some double stomps and a big reverse springboard splash. Even Zacarias hits a 619 (a 55?). Soberano comes back when Barbaro misses a splash on the rampway, and Soberano superkicks him down the ramp (with a big spit take from Barbaro). Soberano - as you might expect - hits a bonkers tornillo off the top of the entrance way, does one of his effortless double springboard ranas back in the ring, and follows that up with a gorgeous Fosbury flop dive to the floor. Crazy. We get some nice nearfalls and reversals: another tornillo crossbody from Soberano; a vicious package vertical suplex by Barbaro that whips Soberano into the mat; a long, uncomfortable slow zoom shot of Zacarias plaintively looking at the action; a super dangerous looking crucifix bomb gets reversed into a rana by Soberano, and then reversed convincingly into a nice roll up nearfall by Barbaro. Sadly the finish features a vintage Tirantes fuck up (seriously get this guy the hell out of CMLL), as Barbaro goes to dropkick Soberano off the top and gets stuck with a powerbomb, which Barbaro clearly kicks out of. Tirantes calls it the finish, even though the two continue with the actual finish. Ugly stuff, all because of one doofus. But this was the best lightning match in a year or so, and not just for the nutso spots. Barbaro was gluing things together nicely and not just moving from spot to spot. Every pin saw him lay a hard fist or forearm across Soberano's jaw, he moved him into position with big strikes and kicks to the back of the head. This wasn't just guys putting on an exhibition, this stuff had meat.

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Relampago v. Imposible

34. Imposible vs. Relampago IWRG 1/22

ER: Here is a match featuring a total knockout of a first half, with one of those big confusing second halves that only seem to happen in lucha. The primera starts hot with Relampago hitting a dive as Imposible is walking to the ring, and the primera never really looks back. We get some nice brawling around ringside and into the crowd, tons of nasty chairshots with those stiff unyielding plastic chairs bouncing off heads and ribs. Relampago gets hiptossed into a bunch of those chairs, later uses them to pull off a double jump rana (chair to barricade to Imposible) into the crowd, later Imposible and him fight on the second level and Imposible flies off with a crossbody. Relampago gets busted open, gets his mask ripped, and Imposible makes sure to punch him a few times right in the cut - cementing his status as "quality Luchador". Primera ends with Relampago locking on a rough sub that sees Imposible hang on too long before tapping, injuring his arm in the process. And then things get kind of weird. Imposible is really rubbing his limp arm, and we get one truly awesome pro wrestling moment where a referee on the floor tries to yank at Imposible's arm to pop it back into place. But again, the segunda gets weird. Suddenly the referee just disappears, and the rudo/tecnicos alliances seem to shift. So we get a couple of pinfall attempts and no referee to count them. Eventually a ref comes out but he never gets in the ring, opting to count pinfalls from the floor. Relampago was cut and bleeding, but not nearly enough to make the ring a quarantine zone. You've seen refs get near wayyyy bloodier luchadors before. So all the pinfalls the rest of the way seem completely off, you don't know if there are rudo ref shenanigans, or if someone got hurt and they don't know what to do, or if Relampago suddenly went full rudo and was getting outside help. It all felt off. And then, Relampago - who had spent the primera as a valiant tecnicos getting bloody and still flying into Imposible - yanks Imposible's mask all the way off and pins him in full view of everyone. So...I don't actually know what happened, but it felt like one of those occurrences that only happen in lucha. Even with the weirdness, match was pretty terrific.

PAS: The second half of this didn't bother me as much as it bothered Eric. I don't know why the ref only was counting from the floor, but it didn't stop the near falls from being compelling. I was also not really bothered by Relampago pulling off the mask. Relampago was brutalized violently for a fall and half at one point Imposible threw him into what looked like his mother and grandmother, and nearly threw a punch at his mom. When they were brawling on the balcony, Relampago gets fireman carry tossed off a balcony, which felt like an attempted murder. I figure once those stakes have been set, a little mask pulling is fair game. I really dug this, violent intense brawl with some really holy shit moments, like the throw off the balcony and subsequent dive. We get some nice mask ripping and blood and a really nasty submission out of nowhere to end the second fall. Third fall was slightly odd, but nothing too weird. Violent, impressive and fun to watch


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Lucha Worth Watching: As the Casas Turns

1. Negro Casas vs. Caristico (CMLL Puebla 1/16/17)

ER: Awesome little almost house show type performance from Casas, which also features an awesome Zacarias performance. Casas comes out ready to entertain as rudo, smacking Caristico around and soaking up the jeers. Casas stomps Caristico to the mat and Zacarias flies in with a fast low dropkick (that Caristico amusingly sells as much or more than Casas' kicks up to this point). Zacarias is really active through the entire match, choking Caristico in the corner with his boot, even flying into him with a tope! Caristico catches the tope, but it allows Casas to hit his Thesz press off the apron. Casas takes Caristico headscissors really nicely, sliding far across the ring and acting like they leave him totally disconcerted. We get an amusing take on the "which side can cheer loudest" spot, because Casas' facials put it over huge. He cannot believe that Caristico is getting bigger cheers than him, looking completely incredulous and convinced that the NEXT side will certainly cheer louder for him, getting angrier with each side's betrayal. Angry old Negro Casas looks somewhat like actor John Marley, and lucha needs more angry old John Marleys. Caristico is sorta lazy about setting up his trademark spots, but Casas keeps them feeling fresh, finding nice ways to get into position properly, and it makes for a nice satisfying low impact lucha match.

2. Negro Casas/Barbaro Cavenario/Felino vs. Sam Adonis/Rush/Pierroth (CMLL 10/6/17)

ER: This is a fast, dirty match with a super hot Arena Mexico crowd, and I'll take a hot crowd over crisp ringwork any day of the week. Adonis and his doofus crew go after Casas and the rudos run the boards, are good at keeping Barbaro and Felino at bay, and commence all the double team strikes on Casas. Adonis has his shitty trump tights, Pierroth doesn't bother taking his shirt off, and Rush always seems to work stiffest with Casas. This match does nothing big, but the crowd eats it up, responding huge from bell to bell (errr whistle to whistle?). Casas is getting held prone over the apron by Rush as Adonis chops him violently, and Barbaro runs over and punches him in the ear to gigantic cheers. It really needs to be made into a side by side gif with Richard Spencer getting punched in the ear. Pierroth and Rush jam up Barbaro with stiff chops, and Casas tries locking on a triangle from the apron on Adonis. Adonis' best feature might be his Nicolas Cage crazy eyes, a nutty feature like that really enhances his mad beatings, so it looks even better when he's chopping and stomping Casas into the corner. Rush is a real jerk (you heard it here first), and at one point he goes to do his stiff corner dropkick on a slouched Casas, stops short...and just punts Casas right in the nose with his boot toe. Casas' feebly grabbing at his face made me want Casas to wreck these fools even more. Adonis does a big mafia kick to Casas while Rush and his daddy hold Casas' arms, but Casas hits a mean dropkick to Rush's knee to get a quick Casita! We get some decent brawling around the floor, guys get thrown into the metal announcer kiosk, Felino spiritedly leaps in to beat up Pierroth and save his bro. Felino later gets backdropped into a plancha on the floor, and Barbaro hits a boss tope from the apron past the turnbuckles. We finally get an Adonis/Casas solo showdown in the ring, and in a great moment Casas catches a kick, flips Adonis over and brings the front of Adoni's thigh down over his knee. Adonis shoves him into the ropes and punts balls for the DQ, and I officially want to see this punk lose his Nazi haircut and tiny ponytail.

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Lucha Worth Watching: 2017 Leyenda de Plata Cibernetico

2017 Leyenda de Plata Cibernetico CMLL 10/13

ER: Ciberneticos were definitely more of my thing when I first started watching lucha in the late 90s, but that would also line up with WCW cruisers being my favorite style of wrestling at that time. Now ciberneticos usually still leave me hungry, unfulfillingly set up spotfests with sudden pinfalls. But I am not made of stone, and sometimes there's a collection of moves too tasty to not force a smile or an oooooohhhh. This started simple and exploded once Guerrero Maya flew at Barbaro with a tope and also flew recklessly into the first row. Full Eric attention achieved. We get a Virus/Casas sequence which is always a thrill, two masters delivering a greatest hits collection. Later we see Virus get his brains stomped to the mat by Dragon Lee. Casas tries to outbump the youngsters by getting thrown fast ass over elbow over the top to the floor. We get a concurrent somersault plancha, Asai moonsault, somersault plancha. Forastero works as if he were a darkside Soberano Jr. and it works better than Soberano Jr. being Soberano Jr. Casas has more charisma and gets louder reactions than anybody in the match, getting the fans rabid just for not locking up right away with Barbaro after pinning Titan. Lee is a dangerously fearless bumper and always wanting to please, so we get him doing a nutty rana from the ring to the floor on Titan, bumping a Virus lariat on his head, dumping himself on his head for Caristico, taking a nutso spinning powerbomb from Sanson. Mephisto is wearing a fantastic gimp outfit that makes him look like a beefy extra from the movie Cruising. I think I saw him in the background set at a bar called The Toolbox. Soberano does a nasty seated tombstone to Barbaro and I guess we just don't give a fuck about the sacred death danger of the martinete anymore.

Mistico and Caristico have the most palatable teacher/student showdown because instead of flipping and rope running they just rip masks. Mistico ripped Caristico's mask like a lifetime solid citizen who finally experienced how fucking good it felt to steal an extra newspaper from the machine. The final 5 contains 4 of my least favorite guys in the entire 16 man match, meaning Sanson is my old hope. Volador also seems rudo by default which is his best side, and he bumps fast to the floor which is better from a rudo. Soberano takes stupid modern era lucha moves real stupid on the back of his head, taking things like fast code reds or reverse ranas - dangerous looking moves that can be botched - in a cartoony rollercoaster manner, rolling off his head and then freeze framing for a second before completing the bump. I want him pinned. Sanson catches Volador on a motherfucking flip dive to the floor, doesn't let him touch the ground, and then powerbombs him SIDEWAYS into the front of the ring barrier. Sanson may have passed Cuatrero on the "baddest ass Dinamita" after this match. This is a cibernetico, so by Mexican law it was required to have one confusingly dogshit double elimination, but at minimum it was done because Sanson pinned Caristico while also suplexing Soberano. Everybody's shoulders looked down. And then Sanson is immediately pinned because they wanted to give me the last final showdown I would have picked out of all 16 participants. But that's life. Dare to err and to dream. Deep meaning often lies in childish plays.

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Lomeli v. Negro

87. Chavo Lomeli v. Guerrero Negro Jr. Coahuila 1/1

ER: Every neighborhood in Mexico must have a tubby local tecnico or a tubby local rudo, born and raised in that neighborhood and wrestling exclusively in that neighborhood. Chavo Lomeli is in his late 40s, wears great tassel tights like old tubby Jerry Estrada, looks like current Felino (+ 40 lb.) and was unseen by mine eyes until now. And again, there are hundreds of Chavo Lomelis in Mexico, and I'm always excited when a new one pops onto my radar. This was a fun New Years hair match, and Lomeli has a great head of hair on the line. You remember Negro as the worst participant in the Busca de un Idolo, and he's mostly what you remember: A guy who can do a dive and take a couple nice bumps. Chavo is a big bumping fatty which is probably the quickest way into my wrestling heart. Negro roughs him up with knuckle punches and Chavo continues the tradition of fat guys being great bleeders. Negro tosses him into the third row of not ready fans, and Negro has a bunch of bad body seconds roaming the ringside waving towels and sneaking boots in on Chavo. Negro eats a chairshot, Chavo does the excellent Harley Race bump where he falls backwards through the ropes and splats onto the floor. Negro hits a dive and Chavo ends up tossing HIM into those same fans. Finish is typical lucha ref fast count BS, but happens with good reason as Negro throws a punch at Chavo, misses, and ends up throwing the nastiest strike of the match right into the ref's jaw. Fun start to the indy lucha year.

PAS: Sort of a B- bloody hair match, but we get so few bloody hair matches these days, and bloody hair match is such a great match type, B- is going to get you on a list. Guerrero Negro Jr. is easier on the eyes when he has less to do, he isn't trying to keep up with Dragon Lee, he is just trying to punch an old guy in his bloody head. There is an obvious Negro blade job, but otherwise he was fine. Lomeli was a blast, you just know he has defended that luxurious mane many times before (probably in better matches) and he knows how to work a compelling apuestas match. We have the dominant heel opening caida, the quick turnaround second fall with Lomeli turning a sunset flip into a reverse package piledriver (which must have shocked Negro). Third falls has all of the bumps and dives you want, and a fine BS lucha finish. I love grimey lucha hand helds and this was a blast.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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