CMLL Juicio Final 5/31/19

ER: This show had THREE big stips matches (including a rare retirement match) and all the non-stips matches have on paper potential, so I figured I may as well write up the whole show!

Disturbio/Misterioso Jr./Kawato vs. Rey Cometa/Blue Panther Jr./Black Panther

ER: Quick opener that manages to pack a lot of fireworks into its short runtime. Cometa is out dressed like Johnny Depp's Tonto, a weirdly underrated movie. I'm going to need someone to start wearing Alita: Battle Angel gear to draw some more attention to that one. This is a match that tried to open the show with some big spots and delivered. BP Jr. is gassed to the gills and is starting to work more like Gronda and his father. I'm cool with that as it leads to great moments like him pouncing Kawato over the top rope into Disturbio (who was standing on the ramp). Cometa hit a big 450, huge tornillo to the floor, big crossbody off the entrance stairs (with Black Panther); Kawato hit a big flip dive over the ringpost, Misterioso is basing all over the place, and Kawato gets to yank Black Panther's mask for the DQ. This didn't have a ton of substance but was a nice junkfood snack.

Ephesto/Luciferno/Mephisto vs. Soberano Jr./Niebla Roja/Angel de Oro

ER: This was the match on the card I was least interested in, and it certainly played as something I shouldn't have been interested in. Niebla Roja and Angel de Oro may be my least favorite guys in CMLL, with Roja being a greater offender. I hate how they quit on all of their offense, it always feels like they're running through a practice exhibition and putting 100% of the work on the rudos' shoulders. Roja and Oro move with these big looping gestures, quit 75% of the way through on their ranas, aim to land as gently as possible on everything, all of their offense looks like how guys run through sequences backstage. It puts the rudos in a pretty thankless spot, as these two are only entertaining when rudos beat the shit out of them (which thankfully does happen in some matches, just not here). Roja hits a flip dive, Soberano (who I like much more than these two goofs) hits his Fosbury Flop, but this was a showcase for two guys I don't care to see showcased.

4. Career vs. Career! Virus vs. Metalico

PAS: There is nothing I love more then a random luchador given a big showcase match and stepping all the way up. Metalico has been a random undercard guy for years, and he gets a chance to fight for his career against an all time great and comes up huge. Two pretty great looking topes, an Asai moonsault and a nutty dropkick off the apron, he threw it all out there. I loved how they both stretched the rules, the ref wasn't DQing someone in a one fall career match, so they were throwing hard right hands to the face. Virus is one of the greatest singles match luchadores ever, and he is so great here, he gives Metalico plenty of shine, but comes off so dangerous. There are multiple moments where he just whips out a slick counter into a vicious submission, he was like a devastating counter puncher, any mistake his opponent would make its lights out. Loved that we didn't get a bunch of traded near falls near the end, just Metalico dying on his shield. Small arena lucha libre has been my favorite stuff over the last couple of years, but there is nothing in wrestling like an Arena Mexico match with real consequences, and I was so glad we got this.

ER: I've been a big Metalico drum beater for several years now. He's an undercarder who is basically the only CMLL undercarder who works Memphis stooging into lucha matches. He's a comedy rudo that doesn't really exist much anymore, and I love what he brings to a card. He's not the kind of guy to get long singles matches - or singles matches in general (I'm not sure I've seen a singles match of his since he lost his mask 4 years ago) - and here he gets to have an awesome dying in the ring performance against one of the all time best. Metalico breaks out every single thing he ever learned, from his ring entrance to highspots he hasn't broken out in years, and the crowd gets more and more involved and excited by his absolute refusal to quit. Metalico gets more and more tired as the match goes on - he's not a long singles match guy - and that just adds to his perseverance and desperation. You look at the difference between Metalico's two dives in this match: the first one, early in the match and filled with confidence, sending Virus into the barricade; the second one, late in the match, exhausted, Metalico does more damage to himself by just doing the dive. From minute one Metalico looks like a guy who has no real chance at beating Virus, and at times it looked like Virus was almost just letting Metalico have a respectable showing before letting him know just how quickly he could put a stop to his bullshit. Metalico started breaking out things he hasn't done in years, like a picture perfect Asai moonsault and a rana off the apron, and he started making headway on the bottom end as well. Phil noted how refs were being loose with DQ calls in a single caida big stips match, and I liked how each guy kept pushing the boundaries, hitting closed fist punches to the jaw, dropping a headbutt to the balls, and I loved Metalico's dickish combos where he would punch Virus and also kick him right on the inside of his knee. Metalico was tired but that just made him hit harder. There was a spot in the corner where he was supposed to flip over the ropes to dodge a charging Virus, but when his gas tank wouldn't allow him he merely opted to hit one of the most savage back elbows I've seen. Virus was a monster on the mat and was going to outclass Metalico at every opportunity, so Metalico had to play a little more dirty. But unfortunately for Metalico, Virus doesn't have to get dirty to do damage. When Virus locked in a gross STF, Metalico reaching for the ropes as his literal only chance of survival, Virus grabs that reaching arm and adds that to the pain. I thought it was the finish for sure. I loved desperate, last stand Metalico, and loved how the crowd kept getting excited as he kicked out of a sick vertebreaker and getting flipped off the top, the fans fully buying into Metalico refusing to step away forever. This was a wonderful display of character and storytelling, and I'm glad Virus was there to send my boy off into the sunset.

Hair vs. Hair! Kaho Kobayashi vs. Amapola

ER: I really liked this, and it wouldn't have taken a tong more to get this on a list. I thought the ending was building to something, and what we got was more abrupt than I wanted. But this was a great Amapola performance, with Kaho making up for her shortcomings with great energy and a willingness to be lead around by Amapola. I like Kaho and thought this was a good showing for her, and it felt like the Arena Mexico crowd was getting behind her effort while knowing she had no chance of leaving the ring with hair. This felt like when they let Virus lead a younger luchador through a match, and the younger luchador gets some surprising moments while overall getting worked by Virus. Amapola as Virus is something she can easily handle, she's clearly been one of the top CMLL ladies as long as she's been in the division, and showcase singles are somewhat rare for the women. You could see her really leading Kaho through - at one point she essentially moved herself through a complex pin combo - but she was generous and I think that helped Kaho thrive. This was all about the tercera as the first two falls went very quickly, but there were highlights throughout. Each hits a real rib breaking spear, with Kaho snapping Amapola in half to start and Amapola returning that favor in the tercera. Amapola was really awesome, crushing Kaho on a dive (Kaho kind of gets made fun of for bad catching skills, but she got smooshed here), hitting a hard dropkick to the spin as Kaho was trapped in the ropes, and later Amapola wraps herself around a ringpost violently so that Kaho can hit a beautiful crossbody off the top to the floor. There were some good nearfalls, and I thought they both did a good job building drama down the stretch, and for me I always get more into luchadora hair matches, feels like the stakes are even more real. A lot of women really tightly associate their hair with their femininity, so the drama always feels real to me.

Euforia/Gran Guerrero vs. Valiente/Diamante Azul

ER: This one felt a little low stakes, which was understandable on a card with three high stakes matches, but it had three stout boys so it was at minimum going to be fun. Azul and Valiente are a fun little team of power packs; Azul has been slowly bulking up and he appeared to gas down the stretch (Guerrero even appeared to dump him on the entrance ramp just to get him out of the way), and this didn't reach the heights it could have, but we still got moments. Azul's added heft does add to certain moves, loved his running elbow, high arcing hip toss, and the cannonball off the ramp lands even harder. Guerrero is coming into his own, and he sets up a gross bump taking an armdrag off the apron from Valiente (big splat on the floor there), hitting a nice heavy flip dive of his own in the tercera, and being tasked with taking that super fast Valiente tope. The finish felt a little unnecessarily dangerous, with the rudos hitting a press slam on Azul off the top, then doing the same to Valiente on top of Azul, but they almost end up lawndarting Valiente straight into the mat. The set up was really long and required Valiente to do almost all the climbing and all the work, so you had the ugly combo of "guy taking move doing all the work" with "move looking almost dangerously botched".

Barbaro Cavernario/Negro Casas/Mr. Niebla vs. Mistico/Caristico/Volador Jr.

ER: This one underperformed, had some timing issues, and didn't have a lot of Casas. It had a lot of Niebla dancing and Caristico being a step slower than everyone else, and some ugly moments like Cavernario whiffing a kick and Caristico bumping early on a Niebla slap. It was kept quick, a comedic palette cleanser with dives, mindless entertainment before the main event, and it worked fine on that level. Volador hit the best dive of the match, a high speed tope con giro that Cavernario took nicely. There was a big tandem dive by all the tecnicos and Caristico hit an additional dive into Casas. This was kept breezy, and I was hoping for more.

52. Hair vs. Hair! Mascara Ano 2000 vs. Ultimo Guerrero

ER: All the CMLL dancers are decked out in sexy Ultimo Guerrero outfits, which I must say seems a little biased. But who cares, because this whole match rules! Ultimo Guerrero does this weird thing where he has a match or two year and just gets punched in the face a ton. And this match keeps coming right back around to Guerrero getting punched in the face, and Mascara gleefully throwing right hands up and down the left side of UG's head. This is really one of the finest big match lucha performances from a 60+ year old in some time. Mascara Ano Dos Mil pulls out every trick he's ever pulled in his long career, all the bullshit is impeccably timed, the cheap shots are cheap, the nearfalls are great, and we always go right back to fists punching face. Mascara hits a nice springboard splash, nice vertical suplex, gets a great nearfall on a backslide, and Disturbio's involvement is excellent. Disturbio and Gran Guerrero are the seconds, and Disturbio eats a great dropkick from UG, and later has a pitch perfect piece of interference: Guerrero locks on the sure fire finishing sub, and Disturbio is able to run in to kick UG away and bail back to the floor just as ref Edgar is turning around. On the floor we get a killer scrap between Gran and Disturbio, a ton of other Dinamitas come out to cause problems on the entrance ramp, Mascara boots UG right in the balls (which got him a win and set up this very match), and it's all incredible theater. There's a series of fun desperate pins, Mascara grabbing the rope, getting his foot on the rope, grabbing ref's hand to stop the count, all of it was great. This is my favorite old man scrap of the year, with all of the drama I love from lucha, plus an old guy punching a less old guy in the eye. It'll work for me every time.

PAS: MA2K can't really bump or run the ropes anymore, but he is very willing to throw multiple punching combos upside UG's head, so Dayenu. This had plenty stuff built around Gran Guerrero and Disturbo which makes sense to pad the time, and give the oldsters in the ring time to catch their breath. Still once the wind came it was nasty stuff, hard knuckles to heads. I liked UG's goofy dive into the crowd, not pretty at all, but this wasn't a pretty match. I kind of wanted a big post match Dinamitas beat down, if your gang is going to come let them roll deep, but this really was aimed at my lucha libre pleasure centers.


ER: This card looked real dynamite to me on paper, and three of the matches delivered various levels of big for me, and the rest of the stuff was either fun or inoffensive. I really liked the women's hair match which wasn't far from making list, Mascara Ano Dos Mil is still a compelling guy into his 60s and I love the couple matches a year where Ultimo Guerrero agrees to get shoot punched in the head, and the retirement was an instant lucha classic. The latter two matches were obvious additions to our 2019 Ongoing Match of the Year List.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Sugehit's Quest for Hair

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

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

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

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

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Lucha Worth Watching: CMLL 8/25/17

Zeuxis/Amapola/La Comandante vs. Princesa Sugehit/La Vaquerita/Sanely (CMLL 8/25/17)

ER: Short but intense ladies match, the first I've written up in awhile. Too often the ladies seem to go through the motions, but occasionally you get some unexpectedly inspired stuff on a Friday at Arena Mexico. Zeuxis and Sugehit go at it the whole match, with Zeuxis tossing Sugehit around the announcers booth and ripping her mask off to get DQ'd. Zeuxis has the best hair in the division and wrestles like it. Only someone with great hair can rip masks with that much evil glee. And it all builds to a great moment in the segunda where the rudas are dominating and Zeuxis runs down the ramp to get a running start at something sure to be wicked, and Sugehit runs out with a new mask to intercept her by the hair. This leads to a big tecnica comeback, with Sugehit ripping at Zeuxis' mask and throwing her around ringside, Amapola doing a huge Cassandro bump around the ringpost, Comandante and her newly relaxed hair gets dropkicked to the floor, Sanely...well, takes her shirt off to a big reaction, and Sugehit gets the roll up win after yanking Zeuxis' mask. Afterwards we get mask match promos which is a match with a lot of potential. I'm in.

Juice Robinson/Michael Elgin/Matt Taven vs. Volador Jr./Diamante Azul/Ultimo Guerrero (CMLL 8/25/17)

ER: Invading foreigner matches always seem to land less than they should, but this one was a blast even though this wouldn't be my first choice for foreigners or invaders. But the invaders worked like such outright dickbags that it totally worked. Juice Robinson especially was a standout, a real impressive athlete who was a favorite of mine on NXT. He was throwing all these stiff left jabs that reminded me just how much Marco has stopped caring about his left hands over the last year+. Juice kept using these annoying hands to set up other's offense, like punching someone directly into a Elgin german. Elgin is an odd fit for lucha, but he nestled in nicely doing his huge power moves (Arena Mexico seemed impressed when he did the samoan drop on Azul while doing a fallaway slam on Volador) and was around for the big moment which was Azul finally hitting his own huge german on him. Elgin even crushes Kemonito with a huge powerslam, poor guy looked like he really got smooshedTaven always looks like a slime, like every girl's least favorite crush in Color Me Badd, and while I don't think he has great offense I like how his flying moves always seem totally unhinged and out of control: Here he hits a no hands torpedo dive over the top and blasts UG hard into the barricade. Later Taven takes a great splat bump to the floor off UG's baseball slide dropkick. As much as I hate Volador epic main event singles matches, I think he's good in these rally the troops matches, and his superkick right under Juice's chin (with Juice timber sell and spit take) was a real highlight of the match. Finish set up is silly, with Johnny Idol coming out to distract UG, really felt like the same dumb 1999 WWE finish we got sick of 18 years ago, only difference was Idol's theme music didn't play. BUT. But. UG turns right around into Taven kicking him in the balls, and it kind of made it all worth it. Fun match, and I am now pissed that it doesn't appear the Juice/Shocker singles match is online.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 8/23/14

These matches were from the 8/8 Arena Mexico show.

1. Rey Escorpion vs. Dragon Rojo Jr.

I've been loving the build up to this singles over the previous couple weeks, with Escorpion punching the hell out of Rojo's face and blindsiding him in trios matches. I guess I'm a pretty easy guy to please if I can get excited for a match just by seeing a guy hit another guy. But this match was a major letdown. Everything that made me excited for it during the build was completely absent from the match itself. We had a match ruined by bad quick fall formatting, and a bunch of spots - some of them very impressive - that didn't have too much rhyme or reason to them. We also had a lame and oddly out of place strike exchange. Just an uninteresting match. The first two falls are blink-and-you'll-miss-'em, so even though they have some cool matwork in them, you're already kind of set up to see what kind of match this is going to be. And sure enough, the tercera plays out like the worst kind of lightning matches, with them heatlessly taking turns showing off what neat moves they can do. Escorpion does a dive, Rojo hits a gnarly dropkick off the rampway, Rojo hits a powerbomb, whatever. The move order seems like it was drawn out of a hat, with the moves determined ahead of time. No flow, just moves. The strike exchange was hilariously bad, with it coming out of nowhere to start the tercera. Both men immediately start selling like they'd been in a WAR!! with Rojo selling a chop by staggering around like current Pacino milking a heart attack death scene. The match had two incredibly quick falls, and suddenly these guys are just using the last of their strength to throw kick combos. Which is even more hilarious since they were totally fine afterwards, fine enough to run through the depths of their offense. Just a brutally constructed match, made both guys look awful.

2. Marcela, Princesa Sujei & Goya Kong vs. Amapola, La Seductora & Zeuxis

Fun match although it would have meant a bit more if Blanca had been in it the week after losing her hair. Amapola looked good and continued to be her same under appreciated self. I love the way she flings herself into the Cassandro bump. Zeuxis looked pretty sloppy last week and her she was nasty, hitting big running kicks and a wild moonsault off the top onto Kong. Kong has great charisma and I love how excited the Arena Mexico fans get for her. Plus her apron dive can look pretty great. Sujei and Marcela didn't make a giant impression here, but considering they won a mask and a whole lot of hair the week before I think that's fair.

3. Rush, La Sombra & La Mascara vs. Negro Casas, Ultimo Guerrero & Shocker

Not a bad match but I was expecting a lot more after last week's amazing Rush/Casas showdown. Look at me, watching something with raised expectations. La Sombra has really come into his own this year, but this match was not the one to show somebody if you were trying to prove that point. He was off the whole time, flopping bad on a headscissors and over-shooting a big flip dive that sent him stumbling chest first into the ring barrier. Shocker had some nice moments opposite Mascara, with my favorite being Mascara doing a drop down and Shocker just splatting him with the biggest elbow drop. Ultimo Guerrero integrated Sombra's double flip moonsault about the best way you can, by purposely rolling out of it so that he could make Sombra hit his knees. Now Rush vs. Casas. That was about as limp dick revenge as I could have possibly imagined. It's like both guys were sore from the week before so just agreed to take it easy on the other. Casas' big revenge moment came off so bad, where Rush goes to kick him in the balls again, and Casas just kicks him first, with a glancing blow that Rush just kind of falls over from. And then Casas runs around the ring jumping up and down like he's never beaten anybody in his life. It looked so pathetic. If that was supposed to be a moment I can't imagine many ways it could have fallen harder on its face.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 8/9/14

All of these matches were from the 7/25 Arena Mexico show. 

1. Rey Escorpion, Ultimo Guerrero & Shocker vs. Atlantis, Dragon Rojo Jr. & Titan

 Fun match that was quick and violent with lots of mask ripping and stiff strikes. Escorpion has been on a roll lately and here's another match with him dishing a beating to Dragon Rojo. He punches him all over the ring and violently rips his mask off. At one point he was tearing Rojo's mask off with his teeth while also punching his face. Rojo hit a great corner flip dive as a comeback at one point. But the match even ends with Escorpion dragging Rojo around by his mask while stomping the hell out of him. It was odd seeing Shocker as a rudo here since he's mostly been featured on TV this year as a tecnico opposite Rush and his goons, but here he gets dropkicked by Kemonito and it's awesome (has Kemonito not appeared with Atlantis for a really long time, or is that just me…). For the most part Shocker and Titan stayed out of the mix. Most of it was naturally centered around Atlantis/UG, and all of their stuff was nice and snug. Both of them dished it out, with Atlantis ripping apart UG's mask, UG hitting a fast Jerry bump, Atlantis handing out quebradoras to every man in his way. Fun, high energy match with a few stories going on at once.

2. Marcela, Goya Kong & Silueta vs. Princesa Blanca, Amapola & Zeuxis

Decent, if sloppy match. Marcela isn't on TV as much as the other gals even though she's clearly heads above all of them. She always breaks out more daring things than the others and looked good here, with a nice rolling senton off the apron, big bump into the front row, does a cool armbar takeover on Blanca over the top rope. Kong is always somebody I get excited to see. I don't know if she's really that good, but she's always fun and the crowd always responds big to her. She breaks out some big splashes, misses a big elbow, does an apron dive, a bunch of fun stuff from a bigger gal. Silueta is cute and is fairly decent at pumping up a crowd, but she's also not that great. She's kind of sloppy and there's a pretty unfortunate botch that is covered up about as much as it can be by Amapola. Amapola is a good hand, but Zeuxis also isn't very good. She gamely attempts big spots but usually blows a couple, so I guess she gets some points for trying. Blanca is a great ruda, one of my absolute favorites to watch, and her and Marcela always work great together. Here is no different as both of them can really wail on each other. Hilariously, the match ends with a powder to the eyes DQ, with Blanca missing her powder shot and Marcela hitting hers, with the ref seeing and DQing Marcela. I cannot remember ever seeing a powder to the eyes finish in a lucha match. That seems like something so American that it was just weird seeing in lucha. Maybe Mexico has a long history of powder to the eyes finishes, but damn if I can't recall any. Now I want to see some hide the object lucha matches!



3. Rush, La Sombra & La Mascara vs. Negro Casas, Mr. Niebla & Volador Jr.

Awesome short match, full of guys working stiff and with a hot surprise finish. Rush and Casas beat the holy hell out of each other here. I'm not sure how Casas' throat can stand up to some of the stomps that Rush unleashes on it. Both guys throw some nasty kicks to the other's chest and face, shove each other violently into the ring barricade. At one point Rush charges Casas in the corner, stops short, whips his hair back and slaps Casas right across the ear. Great dickhead spot. Niebla is a guy who can wrestle lazy when he's not feeling things, but then we get *this* Niebla and all is well. He slaps guys the whole match, really laying the shots in to a nasty degree, and at one point even breaks out his great back bump to the floor (Rush front kicks him and he falls through the ropes backwards onto the floor). Volador stayed out of most of this, spending a lot of it getting kicked and stomped by Sombra/Mascara, but does hit a spectacular top rope moonsault to the floor. And obviously he plays into the finish which I really dug. Sombra is kinda manhandling him, but Volador gets the surprise flash pin by reversing a Sombra samoan drop into a brutal Sombra head drop. Flash pins don't feel like they get used in lucha that often, and I really love how the match just ended since Volador pinned the captain. Felt like they finally outsmarted the rudos and the cuts to a surprised Rush on the floor were a nice touch since Rush hasn't shown tons of ass in this feud. This could have been epic with more time, but for a straight falls match I can't imagine it being much better. This was some of the stiffest ring work I've seen in lucha this year, and no matter how long it was this was a hot match. (Oddly, the TV version of the match completely edits the 2nd caida down to just the Sombra/Volador finishing run, making the total match seem like 7 minutes instead of 12. This caused the episode to end 8 minutes early, so I have no clue why they edited out Casas' comeback or any of the other fun stuff from the segunda. Really strange.)

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 7/26/14

All matches were from the 7/11 Arena Mexico show.

1. Dark Angel, Marcela & Estrellita vs. Amapola, Princesa Blanca & Zeuxis

Blanca has awesome crimped hombre hair, looking like the Russian experiment clone on Orphan Black. Primera is really good with Estrellita taking a beating, Marcela missing a somersault senton off the apron and splatting on the floor, and Zeuxis hitting a package piledriver on Dark Angel (so are piledriver type moves legal now in Mexico? Seems like a lot of workers are doing these kind of moves now, which look exactly like automatic DQ moves of the not too distant past). Segunda is really hot, with Amapola taking a big Cassandro bump around the turnbuckles and then Dark Angel hitting a huge crossbody off the top onto her. Marcela especially had a great fall (and match) with some impressive power spots like a sort of deadlift quebradora, throwing a dropkick through Zeuxis' face (while she was leaned up against the bottom rope) and then hitting a nice rana on her off the apron. Straight falls, but the match was really hot. Well worth checking out. 

2. Negro Casas, Barbaro Cavernario & Ultimo Guerrero vs. Rush, Maximo & Marco Corleone

Very fun match ruined by the most hot dogshit finish you can possibly imagine. It's nice to see Cavernario in with the big boys, and Casas had a hell of a showing here. Casas got to take it to Rush throughout most of this, hitting all sorts of big kicks to the chest and face (which Rush leaned right into). Rush worked a lot of this as a traditional tecnico, which didn't garner much sympathy from the Arena Mexico fans, but was fun to see. Marco stuck to UG/Cavernario, flexing his abs, hitting his nice lefts and some big crossbodies. Now lets get to that most garbage of finishes, where Casas beats Rush around the ring, and we're talking the most offense Casas has gotten on Rush in ages. Gets him in the corner and kicks the hell out of him, kicks him to the floor where he hits the Thesz press off the apron, drags him around by the hair so Cavernario can hit his giant awesome big splash from the top to the floor, rolls Rush back in the ring…

and Rush just powerbombs Casas for the win. Well, fuck us then. What an awful, pointless, lazy finish. This is one of the worst no sells I've ever seen in pro wrestling. And it's not like Rush collapsed after hitting the powerbomb either. He was totally fine, walking around, back to normal as if the big splash recharged him or something. Just an awful finish that made everybody look bad. The kind of finish that would make anybody who got sucked into the match feel like a doofus. Casas gave him everything he had, and Rush basically just shrugged. Is Rush just Jason Vorhees now?

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 6/15/14

So after consistently showing matches from two weeks prior for the last several months, suddenly they jump way back in time as these matches were from the 1/5/14 Arena Mexico show. I don't know if this was a trend or just some "hey we never showed that minis cibernetico from 6 months ago. Let's put it up!"

Goya Kong, Dark Angel & Estrellita vs. Tiffany, Amapola & Princesa Sugheit

According to Cubsfan's match finder this is only the 2nd time these 6 women have all been involved in the same match, and the last time was three years ago. That's kinda neat. The match itself was kind of okay. Things got a little unfocused so my attention wandered. At some point it felt kind of like just fillin' time. I do like a good Goya Kong showcase though, and I haven't seen her on TV in some time. She drops a mean leg here and crushes Tiffany in the corner with an avalanche. Haven't seen Tiffany in a long time and she's another favorite of mine. She's all stooging and bitch face and she's awesome. She leans into everything and makes Estrellita look like someone with talent. Really for the six people they assembled here and the time it was given, this should have been way better. Marcela replacing Estrellita would have been the only obvious upgrade. Dalys has been good lately but not sure she's better than the three rudas here. But yeah, real disappointment here. And, the thing is that you'll have to take my word for it! This may be the only match all year that Cubsfan hasn't uploaded. So that's right, these printed words are among the only historical records of this match's existence. In 30 years when somebody is doing The 2010s Project some weirdo will go, "hey did these women ever all match up" and then they will find their answer here, and maybe not trust my opinion that the match kinda blew, but likely believe that Dark Angel looked foxy.

Pequeno Reyes Del Aire!

Demus 3:16, Pierrothito, Pequeno Nitro, Pequeno Olimpico & Mercurio vs. Shockercito, Electrico, Stukita, Ultimo Dragoncito & Astral

This gets 30 (!) minutes, and for the first part I was amped, ready to tell Phil to check it out for our MOTY list. But it loses steam and can't really recover. There is definitely such a thing as a match being too long, and there aren't just enough tecnico minis (does Bam Bam still work?) that I like now to justify them getting this much time. The people you expect to look great, look really great. Demus 3:16 and Pierrothito rarely disappoint and they certainly didn't here. They're clearly the best bases and all the tecnicos are better for it. Mercurio got a little showcase time and showed some big bumping skills that I've never really seen from him before. Astral and Electrico are apparently working like mini La Mascaras which is not really at all what I want to see from my mini tecnicos. I did really dig Stukita and Shockercito and was very pleasantly surprised by Ultimo Dragoncito. Stukita is super tiny, but more in a athletic 13 year old kinda way (as opposed to a Mascarita Sagrada way). But he's got crazy energy and while his stuff doesn't always look ultra impactful (I mean, he does appear to be like 70 lb. so while I'm sure taking a moonsault from a 12 year old would hurt, it's not exactly Scorpio flattening you here) he does put a lot behind it and makes it look as good as possible with his tiny frame. He hits a triple moonsault and eats knees on the third and I admired how he had no problem flying face first into those knees.

Ultimo Dragoncito has the spot of the match with his crazy flip dive that sees him fly back first and upside down into the ringside barricade. All the dive stuff was great with Pierrothito flattening someone with his Silver King dive and three tecnicos hitting epic stereo corner dives. This was worked a lot more like a normal trios match (yes yes, even through there were 10 people) as there were a lot of double teams and general teamwork spots as opposed to the usual exclusive one on one stuff you normally get from ciberneticos. Not sure how I felt about it as I didn't end up loving the overall match anyway as there just wasn't enough meat to fill 30, but it was an interesting change of pace at least. Lame eliminations are kind of a cibernetico staple at this point so you expect a few of them, and they often come from moves that would never normally pin a guy, and there's always that moment where you get the feeling that the plan was "okay, we worked our allotted time, now to start burning through the eliminations". You get your lame finish where one guy pins another with a suplex but it turns out HIS shoulders were actually down and everybody groans and there's nobody who could possibly like this finish. Not sure why we needed to protect Pequeno Olimpico on a finish. "Ya gotta let Peq. Olimpico leave with his heat! Fans are gonna remember the 5th elimination of a Cibernetico!" Match ends on the flattest note possible as someone either legit or storyline gets hurt and the doctors wave it off, so Electrico wins by not getting injured. Yay?

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 3/16/14

So, apparently I have CMLL on LATV again. It's nice to see non-Arena Mexico matches on my TV. You get a different kind of crowd and atmosphere for these shows. These matches are from the 3/2 Arena Coliseo show.


Amapola, Dallys & Princesa Sugheit vs. Marcela, Goya Kong & Estrellita

They're building to a hair vs. hair match with Dallys/Marcela, and Dallys runs out ready to beat her ass.  Dallys never stood out at all to me in prior years, but this feud has sparked a new energy into her. Marcela has some really cool offense, and Dallys took her nasty Rush style delayed dropkick like a champ, knocking her ass over crown through the ropes to the floor. Goya Kong is super over and hits her big splash off the apron, knocking down all the rudas like bowling pins. This match was mostly angle and pretty short, but made me more excited for the hair match.

Kraneo, Reaper & Mr. Aguila vs. Atlantis, Marco Corleone & Volador Jr.

This trios isn't much, but I love the Kraneo/Reaper/Aguila team. Kraneo is the king in this match as he's just a total bully who isn't afraid to run into a couple of big rights from Corleone. Marco doesn't really return the favor as he weenies out of Kraneo's running butt splash in the corner. Aguila slaps Volador right down the bridge of his nose and that makes me smile. Kraneo though. He throws some great kicks to the stomach, all sorts of cool headbutts, a neat short uppercut, bumps impossibly well on armdrags. He's the guy you follow when all six guys are fighting at once.

La Sombra vs. Dragon Rojo Jr.

Not sure I've ever seen Rojo in a singles match, let alone a main event title match, so lets see how that goes. Primera ends quickly and one of these days somebody is going to roll *towards* Sombra when goes for his asai moonsault, and then when he does his little follow-up backflip he'll eat mat. That feels like something Finlay would pick up on, but he may be the all time best at getting great matches out of guys while also getting them out of their habits and comfort zones. Segunda is even shorter with Rojo winning with a quick sit out powerbomb. Ladies and gentleman, your CMLL main event singles style. And it doesn't take long before all moves in the tercera lose importance, as we go into an extended "get my stuff in" section where nothing has any consequence. Sombra hits a couple big moves to the floor, but Rojo is first into the ring. Rojo hits a mean spinning powerbomb but who cares? Certainly not Sombra, who's up running around to do more moves mere seconds later. Rojo hits a sick swinging neckbreaker on the floor, draping Sombra's ankles on the apron. But it must not have been that sick, as Sombra is back running and doing ranas immediately after. Crowd is hot for it and the kids love it, so what the hell do I know? They at least do a callback spot with Rojo getting the knees up on Sombra's moonsault backflip, but Sombra literally reverses the very next move Rojo attempts, so he may as well just let Sombra hit that moonsault next time. This may be my least favorite match format ever.

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CMLL on Fox Deportes Workrate Report, 3/1/13

These were the other matches from the 2/15 Arena Mexico show. And like almost every lucha show that I've randomly discovered on my cable, this channel stopped showing CMLL like a couple weeks after this. I don't know why Mexican cable teases me so, but whenever a channel other than Galavision starts showing lucha, it usually just disappears after a couple months. This time it continued to appear on the schedule, and it would record as "Lucha Libre CMLL", but then I'd watch it and it would be an old UFC show from 5 years ago.

1. Amapola/La Comandante/La Seductora vs. Estrellita/Dalis/Silueta

Boy when Silueta is making TV you know you're really digging deep on some women's matches. Amapola blindsides Estrellita during her ring entrance to at least save us all from that sadness. And that's kinda the story of the match. Amapola and Estrellita match up well and work pretty violently with each other but good lord this felt pretty long for what it was. Dalis and Silueta are what they are, Comandante is usually fine as the 3rd best ruda in a trios, and Seductora doesn't do much for me (although I admittedly have hardly ever seen her).  The dive/plancha spot was OK but pretty sloppy, and Estrellita's finisher Indian death lock/armbar was really cool, but took longer than Undertaker's triangle to set up.

2013 Reyes Del Aire Final! 

2. Volador Jr. vs. La Sombra

Holllllllly shit that match was AWESOME! I was excited for it and this was WAY better than I thought it would be. Volador has been one of my favorite wrestlers period over the last couple years and he did not disappoint here. La Sombra was MORE than game and this was an absolutely insane match with some crazy spots. I loved it. You like headscissor hurricanranas? Well I sure do, motherfucker, and there were tons of them on display here. Each of them gorgeous, each of them in a different part of the building: in the ring, on the floor, on the ramp way, into the barricade, tons of ranas and all of them awesome. Volador sending Sombra upside down into the ring barrier. The dives were plentiful and also nuts, with Sombra doing a hands-free flip dive over the ring post and Volador returning the favor with a nutso swanton to the floor. And when you had so many ranas, you know you're gonna get guys getting caught in ranas and planted with powerbombs and motherfucker we had some of that too and it was glorious! Sombra had a couple ridiculous suplex spots, with him going for a schoolboy, rolling through and doing a Backlund-esque one arm dead lift overhead suplex. Later in the match he goes for a wheelbarrow suplex with Volador grabbing his mini sidekick to prevent it, so Sombra ends up heaving both of them overhead and they all sprawl out fantastically across the ring. Everything about this was fucking awesome with Volador stiffing Sombra with kicks, Volador flying all over the place at fast speeds making Sombra shine, a double mask pull-off finish, shit even Tirantes bumps big after getting a dropkick run into his face. I loved it all and this was just truly great. DEFINITELY go out of your way to watch this. You will not regret spending 20 minutes of your life on this. 

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CMLL on Galavision Workrate Report, 2/9/13

These matches all took place on the 2/1/13 Arena Mexico card.



1. Arkangel de la Muerte/Skandalo/Nitro vs. Hombre Bala Jr./Fuego/Super Halcon Jr.

First fall is kind of a mess as it all boils down to Nitro being the foil for Fuego and Halcon's double teams, and nobody does much of anything very well in the set-up. Arkangel is not surprisingly the highlight of the first fall, as his work with Bala looks pro. Even little things like locking up look engaging when Arkangel is involved. I did really like Fuego's sunset flip that saw him climb up and over Nitro. 2nd fall is all about some awesome Bala/Arkangel sequences. Arkangel has an expert way of falling into position for crazy and/or silly tecnico offense and he puts that to masterful display here. Bala does two weird dives that Arkangel falls for, one of them being a dive through the bottom ropes into a splash on the ramp way, the other being an AWESOME dive while Arkangel is sitting in the corner. Bala vaults off Fuego and goes torpedoing headfirst into Arkangel, coming in at a fierce diagonal. Crazy. Third fall is all about the rudos getting tecnicos into prone positions and then doing running dropkicks to their taints. It seriously happened like 4 times. At one point Fuego hits a balls out insane dive over the top to the floor, coming in completely vertical. Overall the match wasn't much, but definitely worth watching for all the cool Arkangel moments.



2. Amapola/Princesa Blanca/Princesa Sugheit vs. Dark Angel/Marcela/Estrellita

First fall is a pretty good shitkicking of Estrellita. Amapola in particular looked like she wasn't holding back very much , but then things got awesome when Estrellita made her comeback and didn't hold back on Amapola, wrenching her around by her hair and giving her a stiff as hell dropkick to the floor. All that continues into the 2nd with more stiff clotheslines and Amapola taking a brutal Cassandro bump through the corner ropes that saw her barely catch the turnbuckle. She basically did a suicide dive to nobody. Nuts. Dark Angel has some pretty ranas and Blanca is a gal who is great at taking ranas. Tecnicas win in straight falls but it's all action and really fun.



3. Ultimo Guerrero/Mephisto/Terrible vs. Maximo/Rush/Shocker

First couple falls were all angle and a total schmozz, but an awesome schmozz that saw UG attack Atlantis at the announce table and bust his lip open, and then Atlantis take off his belt and threaten UG. Maximo bumps big into the guard rail and Rush continues looking really great while Shocker continues to look slow and busty. UG will take a massive Jerry bump (here he wasn't going to get much height so clearly pushes off with his arms to fling himself higher. Crazy.) but he's mostly occupied with shit talking Atlantis from the ring in this match. Rush is probably the star of the whole thing, hitting a nutso running dropkick from the apron to the floor, timing a superkick great while Maximo is doing a do-so-do with Terrible, and generally jacking up the crowd. Maximo looked great here too as he and Mephisto match up really well together for complicated armdrag spots. So yeah, not much of a "match" as things are fairly short and chaotic, but I would say it's well worth checking out.

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CMLL on Galavision Workrate Report, 2/2/13

These matches are from the 1/25/13 Arena Mexico show.

1. Princesa Sugheit/Amapola/Princesa Blanca vs. Luna Magica/Silueta/Estrellita:

The rudas get to tear it up here and Estrellita makes me sad. She is the the embodiment of every woman who makes out with another woman in a bar for attention from weird guys, just because it's some sort of attention. At this point I'm just hoping she takes to aging more gracefully than Lil' Kim. But boy does it make it that much more fun to watch the rudas beat her down. Match ended with a gang beatdown by those evil women that saw Tigre Hispano thrown down. What's insane is that, racking my brain, I don't remember the last time I saw a ref bumped like that. It was such a constant thing in the late 90s/early 00s. My friend Carlos' grandma used to get furious when somebody would hit the ref to end a match. She wouldn't get furious because it was a crap finish, she would get furious because the ref was impartial. "He didn't DO anything! Why would they HIT HIM!?" She felt for those poor refs, so I imagine Hispano getting bumped and then instantly, proudly standing up and calling it for the tecnicas would have made her happy. But seriously, are ref bumps still a thing and I'm just way out of the loop? I know TNA was still regularly doing them as recently as a few years ago, but that's to be expected when they were still booking like Crash TV was all the rage.

2. Lightning Match: Atlantis vs. Mr. Niebla:

Well this is already the greatest lightning match I've ever seen because Niebla ambushes Atlantis with a fucking CHAIN wrapped around his fist and punches ATL right in the face a few times, then WHIPS him while he's prone on the entrance ramp!! Whipping a guy with a chain is a tough thing to pull off in wrestling, as to make it look good you pretty much have to whip a dude with a chain. And these chain whips looked brutal, right across the ribs. Then these guys whip each other into the ringside barriers, and usually those little do-si-do Irish whips look pretty silly but here I totally bought into the physics and momentum of the whole thing. Rest of match was a cool sprint with powerbombs, a great Atlantis dive, nice missile dropkick, slick dana and mask ripping and ball shots and a jacked dude in the crowd wearing a Kemonito mask which made me super jealous. Best lightning match of the last year +.

3. Volador Jr./Psicosis/Mr. Aguila vs. Mascara Dorada/La Sombra/Titan:

First fall of this is a little choppy with some stuff being out of sync and guys hitting their marks a bit early (or a bit late). Volador takes a rana better than just about anybody, and his reverse rana is one of the sickest moves in wrestling (especially with Sombra snapping back over from it). Things pick up a bit in the 2nd with some cool triple teams (love the pendulum powerbomb with Volador running through Titan and making him spin up and over and splat. Dorada's springboard moves are always spectacular and his ranas in this are no different. Him going from the apron, to the inside middle rope, to a rana that ends with him standing just looks impossible to pull off. He also takes a sky high bump over the top to the floor. Volador shows everybody how to take a dive by absorbing Sombra's hilo like a man, and Sombra later repays the favor by leaning way in to Volador's nutso moonsault to the floor. After a shaky start there were plenty of rad spots in the 2nd and 3rd. This was kinda like lucha junkfood as there wasn't much substance but was plenty enjoyable.

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CMLL on Galavision Workrate Report, 2/11/12

1. Princess Sugehit/Princesa Blanca/Amapola vs. Lady Apache/Estrellita/Dallys:

Pretty short match, so the falls ended way too quickly, but everybody seemed to work more aggressive than normal so it benefitted from that. I like the rudas team a lot, they have no problem just wandering around and smacking ladies. Sugehit is always a treat in matches like this. Apache always looks way better than the other tecnicas, just a whole level or two higher. Estrellita comes off so desperate all the time. Something about her just seems to constantly scream "Oh please please look at me."



2. Ultimo Guerrero vs. Atlantis:

This was definitely a modern era CMLL main event. First two falls? 3 minutes total. Then a long, laborious your move/my move third fall, filled with big moves, guys kicking out of those big moves, and then guys lying around for a long time before getting up and switching. It just went on forever and wouldn't end. All the goodwill UG built up in 2011 with me (and he had TONS of awesome performances in 2011) pretty much went right out the window here, as this was every UG main event I hated from 2004-2010.

And naturally that Reyes Del Aire was on this same card, but that gets scrapped. Should I mention again how much I hate that CMLL is only 1 hour? I'll watch the RdA sometime soon and post the match with a review.

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CMLL on Galavision Workrate Report, 11/5/11

Virus/Okumura/Yoshihashi vs. Valiente/Sangre Azteca/Dragon Lee:

Man, what a bunch of teases. You have Virus and you have Valiente, on opposite sides, and I don't think they exchanged more than one move. I think Virus did his awesome running pendulum dropkick to him. And that was it. I like Valiente matched up against Okumura. I like Virus matches up with Sangre Azteca or Dragon Lee. But I would have fucking LOVED Virus and Valiente, just...doing shit, against each other. Dragon Lee hits his super cool running dragon rana from the ramp to the ring, but I can't even enjoy it fully because I should be watching an insane amount of super fast Virus/Valiente sequences. Valiente was at his most Super Astro here, too, so it would have been otherworldly. Virus was crazy dickish, and while the match was good, it could have been sooooo much better, just with a slight re-matching.



Marcela vs. Amapola:

Pretty short match from two of the better CMLL ladies, and it was really good, but didn't really have enough time to become an excellent match. A lot of moves had to be kinda brushed off since they were rushing through, so it didn't have as epic a feel as it could have Amapola came out with her hair stuck into her cape, and I thought she had cut her hair into a super stylish bob. But she tricked me. First fall is really fun with some nice engaging matwork that the crowd is actually into, and then a great rana and missle dropkick from Marcela (with Amapola taking them like a champ). 2nd fall sees two really cool overhead backbreaker slams by Marcela, and a cool full nelson (applied with her legs) submission. Amapola takes a great Cassandro corner bump in the 3rd, then does a cool flip dive (landing on Marcela's knee though. Ouch.) and Marcela hits a cool dive off the 2nd turnbuckle to the floor. Both women will def. be bruised after this one. There have been some nasty spills. The ending falls really really flat and was part of what kept the match from being great. Amapola missed an elbow off the top (even though Marcela moved a few seconds before Amapola leapt), then Marcela hits a Wagner Driver, which Amapola kicks out at 2 from, and the ref counts 3. Hard to have a much flatter ending than that.

Still, two good matches make for a nice hour of TV. I'm actually surprised Galavision didn't show the two main event matches from this card, as the star power was WAY bigger in those two matches. Panther/Liger/Rush vs. Peste Negra and Averno/Ephesto/Mephisto vs. Garza/Sombra/Dorada. I probably also would have rather seen those matches on TV, but I'm fine with what we got since they mostly delivered.

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report, 10/8/11

1. Trueno/Bengala vs. Camorra/Zayko

Well...this wasn't that good. I don't really like the two rudos, but I can see Zayko being OK in a couple years. I don't think Camorra has been doing this for too long so I don't really expect much out of him and don't get much. He's your pretty standard newbie rudo, backcrackers and all. He bumps in really slow motion and is just boring. Zayko can at least bump to the outside off headscissors OK. Bengala is a guy I've seen a bunch and he regularly shows why he is right where he belongs, working paint-by-numbers openers at Arena Mexico. He never shows any emotion and there's rarely any flow to anything he does. It seems like before he does anything, he says to himself, "OK, now I have to do *this*". "OK, now I have to flip him over. OK, now I have to put on a surfboard." There's that delay. Trueno is a good tecnico and seems to have more potential than the others here, though he has a problem overshooting things. This was the definition of a skippable opener.



2. Goya Kong/Marcela/Ray vs. Amapola/La Seductora/Mima Shimoda:

Quick and fun women's match. Goya Kong is always a blast as the crowd always loves her and she uses her size well (big butt attacks, and an awesome "trust fall" senton where she just fell straight backwards onto an opponent), but also does really nice armdrags and has a very nice springboard arm drag that looks impressive. Marcela always looks great and is arguably the best luchadora in CMLL, with Amapola the being the other one I would argue for. This is great because they match up a few times and look great. Ray is a Tajiri student who I had never seen, but had some fun flying offense, nice rana, silly little dive off the apron. I really dug Shimoda's axe kick to a seated Ray. Fun popcorn match with not too much substance, but plenty of fun individual moments.



3. Angel de Plata/Metal Blanco/Palacio Negro vs. Cancerbero/Nosferatu/Raziel:

Some good moments, some stumbly moments, overall fairly decent. The rudos trio are kinda hard to pin down into a "quality of work" hierarchy. Every match I see, a different member of the group looks like the better worker. I think it's called the "Los Oficiales Conundrum". Cancerbero seems to get better every match, and Raziel is probably the most consistent. Nosferatu has impressed me before but has had a pretty bleh 2011. So I'd go Cancerbero, Raziel, Nosferatu. Nosferatu also doesn't do anything remotely like a vampire. He doesn't even have fangs on his mask as far as I can tell. Blanco can be fun when his spots are on, but he seemed just a *little* off in this one. And his knees and ankles hate him for not being able to enter a ring without doing a springboard flip while landing on his feet. I do like Blanco's springboard "crotch myself, then bounce off the middle rope back to the top rope and do a rana" spot. Palacio Negro seems to get some praise around the internet, and sometimes his spots are cool, but other times there is a hilariously awesome amount of set-up time. It's like when Chris Hero was working his "2001 JAPW throwback" gimmick and the NOAH fans were confused. Negro can't just do a rana to the guy on the floor, he has to bounce off the opposite ropes, roll over the top rope to the floor, spin around, then do a rana. That being said, his ranas always do look nice when he actually finally does them.



4. Blue Panther/Super Porky/Toscano vs. Ephesto/Euforia/Vangelis:

This was good, and quite frankly if it had been nothing but the two minutes of Panther/Ephesto matwork then I would've loved it just as much. Panther is having one helluva year, and my favorite part of it is all the different people he's worked. When Panther comes into the match against an opponent I haven't seen him work so far this year, it's always a really exciting moment, and it seems like he always gets a solid 2 minutes against a bunch of these guys. So far when looking back at the year, when you think of who so and so matched up best with, Panther's name is always the one that immediately comes up. Panther, Virus and Arkangel all can hang their hats on certain workers' "best 2 minutes" this year. I'm pretty sure this was Ephesto's best 2 minutes this year, and he's always good. Panther seems to work the mat different with every single person he works, doing things I've never seen him do before each and every time. Him slowly getting out of an Ephesto headscissors was maybe my favorite mat transition of the year. All the bridging back and forth and fighting for leverage just looked totally great.

Toscano was wearing some absolutely ridiculous jorts that just came off too desperate. I just don't know what to do with you Tarzan Boy. Dude has to be one of the lazier workers of the last 10 years, and it's annoying because when he tries then he can totally rock it. His 3rd fall performance here (once he did a Garza and removed the stupid pants) was awesome, with him whipping off a great rana and a great missle dropkick. The more I see Euforia the more I love him, just a big bumping rudo who allows tecnicos to shine. Vangelis always stands out since he's a power worker and usually the only power worker in a given match. Here he hits a cool spear through the ropes onto the rampway and a nice dive into Panther. Also of note was Blue Panther getting a hot tag and starting to undo his pants, threatening to remove his tights while poking fun at Toscano getting a cheap pop from the ladies. Blue Panther, ladies and gentleman: Best wrestler in the world, 2011?



5. Atlantis/Hijo Del Fantasma/Mascara vs. Mr. Niebla/Ultimo Guerrero/Volador Jr.:

Niebla hides on the rampway to start and blindside Atlantis after he makes it down the stairs and while all of this is fun while it lasts, I knew we weren't long for this world (match started with about 11 minutes left in the show). Rudos get DQ'd 2 straight falls in a row, first one for taking Atlantis' mask off, 2nd for Niebla just punting Atlantis in the balls right in front of the ref. Volador was awesome trying to roll up Atlantis immediately following the ball shot, as if nothing happened. The rudos get fun runs with Fantasma in the 2nd, with Ultimo leveling him with a shoulderblock (great bump by Fantasma), Fantasma and Ultimo work a lightning fast segment where Fantasma charged, got tossed to the top rop by Ultimo, Ultimo gets his arm kicked away (love that spot) and then Fantasma snaps off a rana. Volador has the same luck against him, with Fantasma nailing him with a big enziguiri. Niebla figures out the Fantasma riddle by just punching him in the face and it rules. Super short match, but enough fun moments for me to enjoy.

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