New Footage Friday: RUDGE~! KIDO! ANDRE! FELINO! CASAS! DANDY! FIERA! TEEN EXCITEMENT! WOLFIE! RIP JOCEPHUS!

Andre The Giant/Terry Rudge vs. Osamu Kido/Seiji Sakaguchi NJPW 10/2/76 - GREAT

MD: Unearthed gem where we get all but the first eight minutes, giving us around twenty as a whole. There's almost too much to cover here, and you should just watch it, but the two biggest elements to me were Andre's dynamism and the way Rudge grounded things and kept them along standard tag lines. That is, it'd be bad enough to have to face a heel Andre that would deadlift you from the mat, pick you up off the top and toss you of, or that made every chinlock look downright terrifying (especially when he'd lift you off the ground with it and just hang you there), but you were also dealing with Rudge who, working with Andre, would cut off the ring and draw Sakaguchi in to distract the ref. Basically, things just didn't get better even when Andre got out; I mean, they did, obviously, but not nearly enough. When it was time for Andre and Rudge to clown and stooge, it was Andre with huge, incredibly visual, incredibly engaged bumping. They even did an alley oop spot with Andre caught in the ropes. It's obvious how much we lost with Andre being a babyface distraction until the point where he was virtually immobile. He's so into everything he does here, so dangerous, so alert and active, and the perfect balance of terrifying (even to Rudge after he loses the last fall) and giving. Just great stuff.

PAS: Killer Andre performance, with the three other guys playing their roles. 70s heel Andre is about as cool as it gets. He is like a Grizzly Bear, tossing his opponents around the ring, and any second now looking like he is going to swipe down and disembowel everyone in the ring. His finish run in the second fall was awe inspiring, grabbing Kido by the wasteband, flinging him to the top rope like a porter with a suitcase, flinging him off the top rope and enveloping him in a splash. He had an easier time manhandling Kido then I do with my 4 year old son. He also was great at showing moments of vulnerability, the sport where Sakaguchi can't get him over with the headscissors, only to have Kido flying knee Andre in the back flinging him over, was one of the cooler tag team double teams I have seen from this time period. Rudge was a fun irritant, although he didn't pop in this match like he has in other stuff. 

El Felino/Negro Casas/Black Panther vs. La Fiera/Silver King/El Dandy CMLL 12/23/95

MD:A little bit short, but super talent all around, with a lot of the high spots and moments of personality you'd expect. The central narrative early was keeping Dandy away from Casas. Whenever he'd get him into a hold, one of Casas' partners would rush in to break it up. I argue, often, too often, that you see some new variation in almost every Casas match and here I liked how he rushed in on Fiera with a dropkick to the thigh during a test of strength engagement, keeping his hand up as a feint all the way into the dropkick. That ended poorly for him as Fiera ended up hitting this really cool bicycle kick style enziguri to basically end the fall. This cut off earlier than you'd like with a foul, but obviously it was building on to the next one.

PAS: This never got the big finish to push this into next level territory, but the work we got in the match was very good. I liked all three of the original match ups, Silver King versus Black Panther (Black Warrior) isn't a match up I have ever thought about before, but it was pretty great, and I wish they had a singles match up around this time. Casas and Dandy are of course excellent, and even minor works of theres are worth watching. Two great dives too, Panther's bullet tope, and Fiera's awesome over the top rope dive, which he did as good as anyone. So happy Roy Lucier is filling in the gaps of the 90s lucha we are missing.

Jocephus/Damien Payne vs. Wolfie D/Drew Haskins USWO 8/24/12

MD: This was an enjoyable Southern indy main event and a pretty good look at what Jocephus was up to in that era. Brian Lee wasn't there for some reason so Haskins, who worked earlier in the night, came out to tag with Wolfie. He took a lot of the match as a super dynamic, big bumping FIP, especially good for just propelling himself into the ropes off his opponents' offense. They protected Jocephus quite well here, I thought (Wolfie too, really), as he'd get staggered on blows but not go down easily. A lot of the babyface offense ended up on Payne. Wolfie worked the apron and the mic well and looked good the couple of times he was in there. Everyone came out of this looking better than they came in.

PAS: I remember really enjoying Haskins as a smirking big bumping pretty boy heel and he does a nice job converting those skills into a babyface in peril. He really flies around for Jocephus's offense flipping head over heels into the ropes with a punch. Wolfie and Drew had some nice chemistry for a make shift team, their vegomatic looked great. Payne and Jocephus were a nice slugging heel team which set up the hot tag nicely, and Jocephus's neckbreaker with a chain was an appropriately nasty finish. Hit all of the points you want from a hot Nashville main event tag.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Demus! Robin! Dark Magic!

Demus vs. Robin RLL 6/1/19

ER: I love seeing Demus pop up in indy singles matches, pretty much regardless of opponent, so seeing him show up against I like is obviously going to be something I seek out. And this kept flirting with jumping up onto MOTY List level, but a couple things held it back. It was worked much more like a lightning match (and was a nice brisk 11 minutes) which means that it didn't have some of the drama, and a couple spots didn't quite hit flush, but these are two guys who will do a couple stupid cool things in a match. Demus is his amusing self: Early he takes his belt off so he can choke Robin with it, but the ref takes it away pretty quick. And I then laughed several times as we get the reveal that it was a load bearing belt, and Demus is pulling up his jeans for the rest of the match. I kept rooting for a spot where Demus asked for the belt back as long as he promised to not use it as a weapon. Robin takes plenty of big bumps on a hard mat, to the floor, and one I'll get to in a bit; he splatted several times missing flying moves into the ring (all his landings on Demus slams looked hard as hell, and his corkscrew moonsault bump landed with a splat), hits a great tope, and is generally a fun opponent to see Demus headbutt a ton (and Demus is going to headbutt you a ton). The absolute spot of the match - and what made me root hard to include this on a list - was crazy and unexpected. Robin sets Demus up on the entrance ramp and goes for a running somersault senton from in ring to out of ring. Demus moves and Robin crashes to the ramp...and then Demus spears him off the ramp, into the crowd and chairs below! Holy shit. I didn't think the rest of the match was tidy enough to make list (Robin gets up from the spear immediately back in control, and kinda whiffs on a tornillo to the floor, Demus drops Robin while attempting the muscle buster, etc.), but had one moment that I loved: Robin has Demus locked in a bow and arrow, and Demus breaks it by reaching behind his head to grab Robin's head, and forces Robin to headbutt the back of his own head. Things like that keep me coming back for more Demus. The double underhook piledriver is completely insane and really shouldn't be allowed in lucha, but who can contain Demus?


Dark Magic/Polvora/Kawato San vs. Black Panther/Blue Panther Jr./Rey Cometa CMLL 7/9/19

ER: I really liked the big energy in this midcard Tuesday Arena Mexico match. Occasionally that happens and it's always great. This was spirited as hell and at times felt like an ECW house show fancam brawl. We get crowd brawling during several points of the match, guys really giving the fans their monies worth by getting them right up close. This kept the crowd loud for the duration of the match and that always makes these things more exciting. Black Panther looks huge, and he hits a nice tope that slams Polvora hard into the barricade; Cometa as Tonto is growing on me and I'm starting to think he looks cool, and it's awesome to see Tonto hitting a nice tope con giro. Dark Magic comes off like a guy trained by Norman Smiley, hitting axe handles and straight kicks to the chest, taking a fun tumble over the barricade, leaping off the apron; what I'm saying is everybody here did something I liked. A bump, a hard shoulderblock, a swift mask rip, all throughout. Add in an engaging crowd brawl and this became one of those fun midcard gems that happen to shine brighter than usual without real reason to.

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Lucha Worth Watching: CMLL Unexpectedly Stretches Out

Blue Panther/Black Panther/Blue Panther Jr. vs. Misterioso Jr./Puma/Tiger CMLL 7/10

ER: What a smokin' trios hidden in the middle of a Tuesday night Arena Mexico show. For whatever reason they get a ton of time to do their thing, and they make some real cool use of that time. The primera is long and is entirely on the mat, easily the most matwork I've seen in a CMLL match in a couple years, totally cool and unexpected. Most of the time is taken by Panther and Misterioso, as the respective maestros working a bunch of longform leglocks. CMLL just doesn't let matwork stretch out like this any longer, and it was awesome seeing these two work holds, and work in little moments, like Panther getting his leg twisted but you see him start to wedge his free foot in between Misterioso's knees and it leads to him sweeping and cleanly picking up Misterioso's ankle. They go to a couple standoffs and then go right back to attacking legs, the crowd getting more and more into it the longer these two stay in the ring. I cannot recall a recent CMLL match where the same two guys held court longer than this (over 6 minutes) to start a match, and I loved it. BP Jr. comes in to do some more leg lock and Indian deathlock battling with Tiger and ties him up with a cool inverted stretch, part cruceta, part making his shoulder blades touch.

Rudos weren't messing around in the segunda and jump Panther familia and gleefully kick their black and blue asses around the ring until they were black and blue. Panther Jr. takes a few bumps over the barricade, Tiger throws a full beer at BP (who ducks), just a fun mugging around the ring as if Misterioso was a battle hardened general shouting "beat the crap out of them and don't let them roll on the mat with our legs!" The tercera is a continuation and much more of a modern lucha tercera, but better. It never devolves into big move 2 count kickouts, instead jamming in a ton of partner saves which is infinitely more interesting. They kept ramping it up and the crowd got louder with every save. We had a couple false finishes and a couple peaks; you watch enough formula Arena Mexico trios matches and it's obvious when something is doing something a bit differently. Panther Jr. hits a couple dives, Misterioso wraps himself around the ringpost on a great bump, crowd gets super hyped for the elder Panther matching up with Puma and Tiger, really the tercera felt like a whole CMLL trios in itself. Cool vibe with several things out of the norm for this kind of trios, and I smiled the whole time as they kept going and the fans kept getting more rabid for Panther.

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MLJ: Cavernario vs Titan 5: Blue Panther Jr., The Panther, Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Boby Zavala, Mr. Águila

Aired: 2015-01-03
Taped: 2014-12-23 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Blue Panther Jr., The Panther, Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Boby Zavala, Mr. Águila

I'll admit that I came into this one with some hope for a fun match. Titan and Cavernario obviously pair off with each other well. I wanted a look at Zavala since he might be in the Busca this year, and hey Panthers are Panthers, right? Plus Aguila is a game veteran. It was all a bit of a mess though, with one of the most brutal (in a bad way) comebacks I've seen.

All of the problem stemmed from Blue Panther, Jr. I've seen him in just a few matches where he's not paired up against an opponent he's very used to wrestling or in matches where he didn't have his father to help direct traffic. Or maybe he just hadn't been given too much responsibility as he was here. Or maybe I just don't pay enough attention. I know there wasn't a lot of excitement for him being in this year's Busca, potentially, and you can kind of see why here.

I'll talk about the things I liked first. Zavala was very earnest with his character. There's an eager jock rudo feel to him. Not everything he did was good, but everything he did seemed to fit a character and a personality and that's a great base for everything else. Aguila rounded out the rudos and I don't get to see him all that much in 2015. He brings a lot to the table, generally, a sort of off-beat offense and way of handling things that isn't quite what most of the CMLL rudos do. He played well to the crowd but he also brought the biting and mask pulling that you rarely see in a match on this part of the card. Maybe they can get away with a bit more at Guadalajara too. That's the stuff I wish I'd see Cavernario do a bit more though. He also did my favorite thing that I've seen all year, something I was actually begging for, but we'll get to that later.

The match was structured well enough. They ran through the pairings and everyone looked well enough, with Panther, Jr. having just a few clumsy moments, like a leg pull against Zavala. The rudos swarmed when he locked on the Fujiwara and it all felt a little more disjointed than usual, not that clean tidal shift. The rudos took it with the Caveman Vader Bomb.

The comeback in the segunda was where it all fell apart. The rudos had been controlling things with double teaming ambushes. Zavala and Aguila were in the ring here, Aguila having just ambushed Panther, Jr. They tossed Panther, Jr. into the corner. Aguila charged after and Jr. went up too soon.

Aguila had to stop, wait for Jr. to run around him, and dive into the corner shoulder first for no reason as Panther lamely charged into the other rudos. A botch is a botch and it's not the end of the world. It just goes to show the level of difficulty in spots that we take for granted all the time. A lot of times, a good recovery can even seem more impressive than if they hit what they meant to the first time.

This was not a good recovery. Everything just fell to chaos after that. The fans turned against it. Aguila ran into a terrible quebadora. Cavernario whiffs way too big on a missed clothesline. Titan hit his nice moonsault in the midst for this. Maybe more on that next match, but it was followed by Cavernario being sort of clumsy again though hitting his run up plancha out of the ring well. All of that left the ring clear for Jr. to put a lifting submission on Aguila.

They tried but the match never really recovered. I'll admit that it came closest to recovering due to Titan hitting a lot of stuff nicely and having some good sequence. Zavala seemed absolutely winded throughout this caida, but to his credit, not only ate a lot of offense with gusto but really played his character well throughout. Cavernario even did a bit of mask pulling which is what I wanted forever out of him.

Then came a moment that made the match almost worth it despite it all. The Panther hit a huge tope on Cavernario who had just gone out on a body scissors over the rope. That wasn't it, though. Following that, Titan went for his Titanics, getting in his goofy late match handstand. Aguila dropkicked his gut in half. So great. Maybe they've done that spot thirty times but it was the first time I saw it and I loved it. One moonsault later and the rudos picked up the very satisfying win. I was satisfied at least.

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MLJ: Hijo Del Santo vs Blue Panther 7: Blue Panther, Black Panther y Fuerza Guerrera vs Hector Garza, El Dandy y El Hijo del Santo

1995-11-03 @ Arena Mexico
Blue Panther, Black Panther y Fuerza Guerrera vs Hector Garza, El Dandy y El Hijo del Santo

Honestly, this is starting to feel like cheating. These matches have all been so much fun, and so good. I thought I was going to get at Santo in a sort of esoteric way by using Panther as a lens, and that I'd miss a lot of the classic matches until I was ready for them and knew what I was talking about a little better, but it doesn't feel like that had happened at all. I don't think I'm going to complain though. This stuff may not necessarily be gold, but it's definitely silver.

Here we have a switch to CMLL. Wikipedia says that Santo followed Casas back there. Diving into some old Observers, it looks like Santo gave notice to AAA early in August, 95, in part due to his family's legal action against AAA for the Santo Negro character, which was what they tried to do with Espanto before they settled on Pentagon. Apparently, this had been long expected and he'd been booked accordingly by the company. They used him to put over younger talent and booked him less dates than he wanted because they thought he could leave at any point, so he left. At that point, he was apparently less of a draw than Konnan and Perro Aguayo, and making less money than them too. He told AAA that he mainly just wanted to book himself, but he was back in CMLL before the end of the month. This was a couple of months later.

Fuerza and Blue Panther ending up in CMLL is an even more interesting story. I imagine it's all out there on the web by someone who really knows what they're talking about like Dr. Lucha or someone, but just going through these Observers, it looks like in late September, 1995, Panther and Fuerza tried to create their own rival promotion and got fired by AAA. Panther had two titles at the time and was the head agent for the company. Fuerza was head of the AAA wrestlers union. There's a lot more to the story than that, but this is more background than I usually put in these (because like I said, my writing is not where you should get the history). I just thought it was curious that all of these AAA guys were suddenly back in CMLL, which they were, in this case, because their new promotion, PROMELL had a working relationship. This was, if I'm not mistaken their return to Arena Mexico after a couple of years.

Black Panther is Blue Panther's nephew and had been Vegas in AAA. When he jumped, he lost the right to the character, which is why Black Panther was created for him. He's still in the mix these days teaming with his family, and of course, there was a run as Black Warrior in the 00s as well. El Dandy is awesome and this is my first time looking at him for the blog. He's a guy who absolutely could take over my Monday slot once I move on from Santo. Garza and Black Panther were both twenty-five or twenty-six here and both of them, Black Panther especially, had a ton to prove in the match. This was another match with a lot of good exchanges where it didn't necessarily come together due to a lack of focus in the comeback.

As a very quick aside, I think they had just gotten the music machine in Arena Mexico because the entrances were sort of hilariously botched in when they played Santo's song and when they played the rudos' and what not. Moving on to the match, the primera was great. It's full of escalation and good match ups. Like I said, Black Panther and Garza really felt like they had a lot to prove. They went all at it, with some nice competitive matwork. Dandy and Panther matched up really well too, with Panther showing me a lot more intensity and grittiness than I was expecting. There's matwork as well, but it felt totally different from the Garza/Panther work. Fuerza and Santo then came in to do a broader sequence. All good stuff. It led to Garza taking a crazy handstand corner bump to the outside which allowed the rudos to use the numbers game to take over, including a great dive from Black Panther and a total mauling of Dandy's forehead. They took the caida with a really brutal looking double underhook backbreaker by Blue Panther.

Lucha, to me, is all about pressure and anticipation. A great back and forth primera can lead to you wanting to see the rudos really take over. A great rudo beatdown, on the other hand, starts to make the comeback meter rise and rise. It builds up pressure until the fans and the view are just ready to pop for the comeback. I was starting to feel that here and they just decided to move on with it. The rudos were celebrating in the ring. The tecnicos got Garza (who had eaten that dive from Black Panther) back on his feet and they all swarmed the ring. The tecnicos had sort of an abbreviated comeback. There was mask ripping but I could have used a lot more violent revenge from Dandy.

That'd be the story of the rest of the match really. They'd tease more Dandy vs Blue Panther but once it started to get good, there'd be a cut off from outside or something would happen. Now, some of that stuff was really cool like a double tope suicida from Santo and Dandy and another another fun little exchange from Black Panther and Garza which made both of them look really good and ended with a bit corkscrew dive, and of course the finish which was a Steiner Bulldog of all things leading to the roll up win for the tecnicos.

Lots of fun, memorable stuff, and a great return to Arena Mexico for Fuerza and Blue Panther, but the comeback just wasn't worth the build and while it was a triumphant win for the tecnicos, it wasn't necessarily a satisfying one. Most of all, it made me want to see more Dandy vs Panther and I just don't think that exists. Lucha rewards and disappoints. It is a cruel mistress.

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 6/1/14

These matches were all from the 5/18 Arena Mexico show. I wish they would go back to showing Coliseo shows, but for whatever reason it looks like they've run a couple Sunday Arena Mexico shows. Still these LATV shows are nice as the Sunday afternoon matches always get way more time to breathe than the Friday night ones. We get more matwork and guys don't seem to rush to get all their stuff in nearly as much.

Virus, Tiger & Polvora vs. Black Panther, Triton & Stigma

Just what I was saying about more mat stuff, and the primera here features long Tiger/Triton segments and most excitedly a Virus/Black Panther mat off. Triton's stuff is kind flashy and substance free on the mat, but Tiger is really good and had some leg picks and always finds cool ways to tie up guys at the ankles and wrists. Virus vs. Panther was awesome as both can go and the work looks super cool. I'm glad Panther has gotten so much mat time in his first real year, and even more glad that Virus has gotten tons more mat time as the year has gone on. He was in some more spotty trios at the start of the year but he's had a lot more mat focus the last month plus. Stigma is a guy who I don't think I've ever seen pop up on TV before. Pretty sure he's a Puebla guy but not sure how long he's been on the main roster. He hits a killer slingshot rana to the floor so he has my attention. Stigma in general seems to be in the role of hitting unsuspecting rudos with ranas on the floor, as later he surprises Virus with one off the apron. Stigma hits a pretty wild Valiente springboard moonsault to the floor, but really as long as Virus is in the fed nobody else should be doing that. His is too fast and too pretty. Panther's stuff with Tiger and Virus is the (predictable) highlight of this. Virus is an awesome guy to watch against rookies as he seems like he takes pride in working circles around them, but it never looks like he's showing them up or trying to make them look like trash. It looks like they hang with him, but aren't quite there yet. This didn't quite hit next level, but you knew with some of the guys involved it would be worth it, and it was.

Euforia, Niebla Roja & Gran Guerrero vs. Rey Cometa, Marco Corleone & Titan

Interesting that Marco's left hand is treated as more of a normal punch now. I'm not sure when that change happened. It used to be a spot that rudos would run from or get KO'd by, now here he hits three straight on Gran Guerrero just to back him into a corner. I love Gran Guerrero's baseball slide dropkick that sends dudes crashing and burning off the apron, and Cometa gets into position for it better than anybody else I've seen. He actually looked like he was struggling to get away from the apron while being held in place, unlike most guys who clearly lie still bracing themselves for impact. And Cometa goes flying into the ring barrier and it looks great. Titan seems to always overshoot guys on his flip dives. I'm not sure if this is the catcher or small sample bias or what, but it seems like every flip dive sees him glance off the rudos' shoulder and splat face first into the barricade. It could be Roja is a bad catcher. But Cometa's always seem to hit flush. The Cometa/Euforia stuff in this was a blast. Euforia hits a sweet floppy armdrag and Euforia responds by knocking his fillings loose with a clothesline. Poor placement though as right afterwards Cometa hits a silly handspring headscissors. Niebla Roja wins me over by merely stepping out of the way of Titan's handstand headscissors. He just walks around it and still gets caught by a rana, but this is growth people. And gee whiz Cometa almost dies horrifically taking a flapjack slam off the top rope. He initially came down a little head heavy but luckily landed more on his chest/stomach. It looked nasty as is, but could have been fatal.

Rush, La Sombra & La Mascara vs. Mascara Dorada, Valiente & Volador Jr.

Damn I cannot recall the last time I saw such a one-sided beatdown in lucha. This match was allll Rush's team for the first 10 minutes, until the tecnicos got about 30 seconds before Rush did a combo ball punch/schoolboy to win the whole thing. Seriously there was just no hope for the good guys in this one. It was 10 minutes of Rush and Sombra standing on dudes throats while Mascara tossed off superkicks to unsuspecting victims. Rush and Sombra were dickhead extraordinaires in this, jut beating down all the tecnicos from the word go and never letting up. At one point Sombra throws like 8 straight awesome knees in the corner and it's strange watching a match with no comeback in sight for the good guys. At one point you felt the comeback bubbling, and Rush just cuts everything off and you can just kinda feel all hope slowly draining out of things, like in Bad Lietenant when things start horribly for Harvey Keitel and the whole film just gets worse for him.

Lucha libre as Abel Ferrara urban crime cinema everybody! According to the judges I just got a triple word score for "Worst Possible Simile"! Thanks for reading, everybody!

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En Busca de un Idolo - Week 1

The CMLL En Busca de un Idolo tourney is the most fun non-WWE thing in wrestling in 2014. Pretty much fun WCWSN lucha style 8 minute matches. I like tourneys (although not lucha tourneys usually), and most of these matches are nice and short, so I figure I will review it all, hoping to catch up by the finals. My Complete and Accurate grades don't really work here (I don't think there are going to be any EPICS for example) so I am going to review them with a Must See, If You Have a Spare Moment, Don't Bother.

3/25

Qualifying Cibernetico (Black Panther, Cachorro, Canelo Casas, Cavernario, Dragon Lee, El Rebelde, Espiritu Negro, Flyer, Guerrero Negro Jr., Hechircero, Herodes Jr., Metalico, Oro Jr., Soberno Jr., Star Jr., Super Halcon Jr.) - Spare Moment

These matches are like Ice Cream Sundae's for the most part. Sweet, will give you a head rush, but not a ton of substance and you definitely don't want too much. This goes 30 minutes +, and while the first couple of bites are great, you are going to have a stomach ache when you are done. It is hard to really focus on one guy, or one crazy dive when the match has 20+ dives. Watching them all, I decided I am pretty much a fan of a simple tope, and there are some great ones here, especially by Panther's kids. Star Jr. gets the most height on his dive and Hechicero takes the biggest bump. It seems like the picked the right 8 guys to advance (although I would have liked to see more Black Panther), but this is a hard platform to judge people on. Plenty of crazy individual moments, and if you just want to see crazy kids do every spot they know this is fine in an ROH scramble kind of way

4/4

Cachorro v. Star Jr. - Must See

Cachorro is the son of Blue Panther and one of the most exciting young wrestlers in the world. Star Jr. is a 20 year old technico with all of the nut up testosterone of a kid that age. Star Jr. looked a little tentative in the exchanges, although he hit them all fine. What you want from Star Jr. is one crazy bump and one crazy dive and you get both as he flies through the ropes head first to the floor and hits a springboard flippy twist. Cachorro throws out his tope although it isn't as crushing as it has been, he also ends with a rana counter leglock which would make his daddy proud. Fun stuff.

Dragon Lee v. Soberano Jr. - Spare Moment 

Parts of this were a bit of a mess, Soberano kind of blows his first big dive, an inside to out asai moonsault which he doesn't clear cleanly and looks like he clips Dragon Lee. There are also off a bit on some of their in ring exchanges. Still this had some cool stuff, Lee is a really graceful flyer and that signature hip toss to the floor bump is one of the crazier signature spots I have seen. Not much to this, but it had enough moments for a mild rec.

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

17. Blue Panther/Black Panther/Cachorro v. Felino/Puma/Tiger CMLL 3/24

PAS: I have really enjoyed all of the Casas v. Panther family feud matches, but this was the best. It is in Arena Puebla and they get a chance to stretch out and riff a bit more then they would in Arena Mexico. We get an awesome long matwork heavy opening fall, with Blue Panther and Puma ripping it up, and an awesome Felino v. Black Panther section. Felino has been mainly horeshit for so long it is great to see him actually strut his stuff, and Black Panther looks like he is going to be awesome. There is a cool meta story here as the Panthers dominate when it is wrestling based, while the Casas boys get the advantage when it gets a bit rougher. Third fall has a bunch of nifty near falls, a couple of awesome dives and a great finish. Just a high quality lucha trios which got me nostalgic for the past and excited for the future.

ER: So I can't decide if it's a great and magical thing when Felino hits the mat and busts ass for a whole match and shows that, yes, he is indeed still Felino; or instead a giant slap in the face for making me watch an armpit licking goober 95% of the time. Is it better to not know? No matter, because this match is awesome and Felino is awesome in it. Puma and Tiger have gotten real good over the last couple months with Tiger getting all bump crazy and now Puma getting a great mat showcase. Sometimes Panther can kind of go into Atlantis mode and just sorta run through some bare minimum spots and hang back in a 6 man. And then you get a match like this where he does everything that Blue Panther does and everything is okay. I probably would have thrown this match on if it ended after the primera, just because shit remember when CMLL gave you 9 minute primeras? I've seen so many damn 90 second opening falls that it's just maddening. There were so many nice little touches throughout this match, things like Tiger kicking the middle rope as Cachorro starts to get back in the ring, or Felino in-ring leaping to try and prevent a dive. Little things like that don't always happen, but thrown into a match that's already good it just bumps it up that much more.


2014 MASTER LIST

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 2/22/14

Because I'm an idiot I'm continuing to review the Gran Alternativa tournament. Cubsfan even referred to that pointless show as "the better week of the tournament" which means I am a 100% idiot for watching this.  Even mores because I know I'm an idiot *before* I am watching it. Sometimes I like being a completist in life. It's helped me out a lot in some areas, most certainly as an auditor for the county. But then my brain knowingly walks eyes wide open into the wrestling torture porn that is tournament lucha.

1. Reapper & Espiritu Negro vs. Shocker & Herodes Jr.

The one tiny thing I can take away from this is this is the first time I've seen a lot of the junior partners. I've never seen Herodes Jr. before and his segments with Reapper here were fun. Reapper looks really good in this with fun mat scrambles with Herodes, a big double missile dropkick, nice Silver King dive to the floor. Shocker looks good too, working fairly stiff with Reapper. Couldn't really gauge Negro.

2. Rush & Dragon Lee vs. Negro Casas & Canelo Casas

Not one bit of Casas/Rush which is disappointing, but not really what this tournament is about. Canelo Casas doesn't look very good. Rush leans way into his springboard dropkick and makes it look killer. Dragon Lee and Negro segments are kinda boring too. Rush looks awesome here though, kicking the snot out of Canelo. I love all his corner stomps and kicks and his hands free thrust headbutt.

3. Diamante Azul & Black Panther vs. Mr. Niebla & Barbaro Cavernario

Never seen Cavernario before and he looks...okayish. Black Panther hits a wicked tope and I like what I've seen from him in the Blue Panther trios. Niebla gets crazy height on a monkey flip and Azul takes a big bump off the top to the floor. Niebla also hits a sweet middle rope senton so it may be easier for him to put on his working boots when the matches are only 3 minutes long. Finish is fun (if not kinda sloppy thanks to Barbaro) with Azul going to press slam Barbaro and getting dropkicked by Niebla, dropping Barbaro on top for the win. Barbaro didn't really fall right for the spot to work, but hey they tried. I love press slam spots and Azul had Barbaro locked in, really impressive.

4. Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Hechicero vs. Atlantis & Star Jr.

Yeah! Loving that Hechicero is in CMLL now. Good pick up for them. Never seen Star Jr. before and this didn't really inspire me to rush out and watch more. He blows a moonsault twice, slipping off the ropes, but still goes through with it eventually. Hechicero was good bumping around for Atlantis and hitting a weird chickenwing backbreaker thing on Star. This was like 2 minutes though.

5. Rush & Dragon Lee vs. Shocker & Herodes Jr.

Rush throws one of the meatier chops in the biz, and I loved the segment with Herodes saving Shocker from a pin, only for Rush to slowly stand up like "Okay, okay" and then chop, headbutt and facekick the hell out of Herodes. And then he bumps big and manly for Shocker, to give back to the people. Herodes has a cool double planted kneedrop. Rush blasts Herodes with his corner dropkick (which makes Rachel sit up and take notice) and then just spikes him with basically a pedigree piledriver. Can't remember the last time I saw a piledriver in lucha. Shocker boots Rush in the balls for good measure. This was probably the best of the GA tourney.

6. Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Hechicero vs. Mr. Niebla & Barbaro Cavernario

Barbaro takes a lightning fast bump to the floor off a UG clothesline, Hechicero throws some nice body shots to Niebla, Barbaro hits a wild tope and Niebla hits a fucking moonsault off the top!!! When was the last time Niebla busted this much ass? Killer spot back in the ring as Niebla vaults Hechicero over his shoulders to get met with a Barbaro missile dropkick. Dayum.

7. Mr. Niebla & Barbaro Cavernario vs. Shocker & Herodes Jr.

How did I know it would come down to caveman on caveman violence? You guys will never get taken seriously by the learned class of homo erectus if you just keep eating your own young like this. This card is the most ass I've seen Niebla bust in a couple years, blasting Shocker with chops and hitting a nice tope. He slams Herodes on the floor and Barbaro gets the holy shit spot of the night by hitting a freaking giant splash from the top turnbuckle to the floor. Holy lord. Gotta say I dug the caveman tag on this card.


Alright Cubs you're crazy, this was the WAYYYY better Gran Alternativa lineup. Out of the 14 total GA matches I'd say 6 of these would be in the top 7 overall. It's not even close. This was actually a fun show that went by quick. That first night was an absolutely brutal slog that ruined my day. You need to explain yourself buddy.

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