Mas Niebla

ER: The passing of Niebla has really made me want to go back and seek out Mr. Niebla matches that I either haven't seen at all, or haven't seen in 20 years. I first started watching lucha 20 years ago after happening across it on Galavision, with Niebla being one of the early standouts to my "Never seen lucha outside of WCW" eyes. I'll be doing several posts documenting Niebla's high end 1999-2000, a cool run spanning an entire millennium.


Mr. Niebla/El Hijo Del Santo/Negro Casas/Shocker vs. Blue Panther/Fuerza Guerrera/Black Warrior/Scorpio Jr. CMLL 7/9/99

ER: This was a big fun sprawling mess, a big Blue Panther rudo performance, a match that saw guys always running around on the floor without having tons of big high spots. We got a big Niebla tope con giro in the tercera, but this match was built with charisma and sustained to the DQ finish. Panther was constantly stomping at Casas and looks like he aims to dislocate three of his limbs at once in the primera. And I loved the contrast with Santo and Casas separating Scorpio from the pack in the segunda while Niebla keeps on eye on the helpless Panther and Warrior. The crazy spot we build to is Casas holding Scorpio prone on the floor, with Santo getting overhyped and crazily thinking it would be a good idea to fly into them with a tope. Scorpio breaks free and moves, but it doesn't matter as Santo's leg catches the middle rope and he hits the ground hard. I think the plan was for Scorpio to move and Santo to send Casas into the seats, but this worked even more effectively, and gave us the visual of Santo leaving on a stretcher. Santo feels like a guy crazy enough to work a badly blown painful spot into his matches, so it could have been part of it, but either way it was a hot start to this feud.

Mr. Niebla/El Hijo Del Santo/Negro Casas vs. Pierroth Jr./Shocker/Ricky Santana CMLL 7/16/99

ER: Picks up where the last one left off, with a completely new set of rudos. Niebla/Santo/Casas are a  tremendous tecnico team that just ooze constant charisma, they make every rudo team come off like real dicks. And it helps that Pierroth kicks all kinds of ass and brawls with Santo all around the building. Everyone knows brawling Santo is the best Santo, and this was no different as he gets punched and choked up the ramp by Pierroth, but hits his in ring headbutt and perfect dive past the ringpost to the floor. Shocker is playing such an aloof douche the whole match, fake Niebla causing a constant Who Me? ruckus. Pierroth looks like a crazed uncle as this whole thing brings apart, taking his belt off and threatening everyone. I miss these crazed CMLL DQ ending trios that actually built to bigger matches. You'd think that would be easy to do.

Mr. Niebla vs. Shocker CMLL 7/30/99

ER: This is more angle than match, but sets up and finalizes the Niebla/Niebla mask match and gets there in unprofessional fashion. Niebla sends Shocker into the 3rd row with a tope to start things, and most of the rest of the match is these two grappling and dragging each other around ringside. Shocker starts working Niebla's leg early and soon is literally dragging him by that leg all around the big Arena Mexico ring. The in ring action is fun and played out more like a same era New Japan juniors match (which was a trait I remember about 99-02 Shocker matches), with Shocker hitting a great sitout powerbomb and Niebla hitting a couple of cool suplexes, and we get a genuinely very good kneeling slap exchange (Niebla's final shot gets rightly played as a near KO). But soon the fake Niebla is out, and he and Shocker just nuke Niebla's leg into the entrance ramp. They bash his leg into the edge of the rampway, slamming the front of his thigh right above the knee, with fake Niebla jumping on his hammies, and both delivering a wishbone in the ring. They sign the contract in the ring right after the DQ, and I appreciate this kind of cut right to the chase.

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Mr. Niebla: Descanse en Paz

Mr. Niebla/El Hijo Del Santo/Negro Casas vs. Fuerza Guerrera/Black Warrior/Blue Panther CMLL 11/13/98

PAS: We reviewed an all time great trios match with a lot of the same guys from April of 98, and while this wasn't as good as that, it was still a total blast to watch. Really fun to see Santo and Casas as a tag team, especially so soon after their feud, and they really break out some fun combos here including an awesome flip rana by Santo off of a Casas Romero special. Fuerza vs. Casas was the highlight, with both guys breaking out a ton of full speed tricks and treats. Niebla was mostly matched up with fellow lost generation star Black Warrior, and they really had great chemistry. Warrior breaks out one of his incredible bullet topes which sends Niebla into the third row, where he barreled into what looked like a pre-teen girl. Just another example of how undeniable 1998 CMLL trios were.

ER: This was indeed a noticeable step down from that absolute classic 6 months prior, and Niebla may have been the guy least focused on the entire match. This is a Fuerza/Casas show, a match that essentially made me set out to watch some Niebla and 10 minutes in made me think I should just devote the next couple months to writing up exclusively 1998 Fuerza. Fuerza really appears to HATE Casas as he unleashes match long punishment on Casas's face and balls, the two punching and chopping each other through all three falls, Fuerza sticking him with a nasty inverted atomic drop, later tying him in the ropes and running into him with a straight boot to the jaw. Santo and Casas snap off gorgeous headscissors opposite Panther, Fuerza hits a gorgeous reverse powerbomb on Santo (Santo glides through moves so gracefully that it looks like Fuerza is lifting an empty plastic bag to slam), Black Warrior does indeed send Niebla crashing into a surly 11 year old girl with his trademark tope, and the whole thing felt like the kind of match where you could throw these same 6 together and routinely get something special.

Mr. Niebla vs. Mr Niebla CMLL 8/20/99

PAS: This was a weird situation where a guy had started wrestling in IWRG as Mr. Niebla, and eventually came to CMLL when the original Mr. Niebla was injured. OG Niebla attacked the imposter and it led to a mascara contra mascara match. This was fun stuff, it was one fall and either short or clipped, but what we got was good. There was a lot of pre match shenanigans with Dr. Wagner Jr. leading to IWRG Niebla getting the jump on CMLL Niebla and ripping his mask and bloodying him. CMLL Nieblas get the advantage back but misses a flip dive and lands hard on concrete. We moved pretty quickly into the closing run then, with some big near falls. I really liked how hard both guys were working to end the match or survive, really pressing on pins, and squirming out of holds. Niebla finally locks on the Nieblina to end the match, and IWRG Niebla would end up having a fun run as Mr. Mexico in CMLL.

Mr. Niebla vs. Abismo Negro AAA 2/15/08

PAS: This was part of the Niebla vs. Abismo feud over the leadership of the Vipers, and was a Bull Terrier match (aka Dog Collar). I liked Niebla attacking Negro at the bell and blooding him up, and trying to win the match before he even put on the collar. This was in the six sided ring days of AAA, and having to hit all six turnbuckles drags out that portion of the match even more then in normally does. The parts of this that were brawling were really nifty, but when it devolved into a game of tag, it got less interesting. Still fun to see Niebla in a different setting.

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ALL TIME MOTY LIST Head to Head 1998: Hotta vs. Kandori VS. Atlantis/Niebla/Casas vs. Santo/Panther/Warrior

Atlantis/Mr. Niebla/Negro Casas vs. El Hijo del Santo/Blue Panther/Black Warrior CMLL 4/24/98

PAS: Pretty much a perfect lucha trios, it has everything beautiful and great about lucha libre wrapped up in three caidas. Traditionally primera caidas in lucha matches are battles of skill, and we get some all time great match ups in the first fall. We open up with Niebla and Warrior squaring off, in a match full of all timers, these two are the outliers. They kind of remind me of that lost group of 90s basketball players who seemed poised to take over for Jordan, Barkley and Hakeem but failed to live up to their potential. Niebla vs Black Warrior is basically Shawn Kemp trying to dunk over Derrick Coleman. Really smooth counter wrestling with some real moments of athletic explosion, prime Niebla's movement was pretty breathtaking. The Primera Caida also gives up Blue Panther grappling with Atlantis and Negro Casas and Santo, which are just legendary and both pairings look amazing. Man did I loved the finish of this fall, with Panther doing a Backlund lift on Casas and Santo just blasting him with a top rope dropkick, and Warrior cleaning out Niebla with his awesome tope. Segunda Caida is quick and more high impact and includes a great assisted Niebla tope con hilo. Tercera Caida gets nice and grimy Santo and Panther beat the bricks off of Casas, the running kicks to the face here are as nasty as in their all time classic the year before, and Panther is throwing some brutal punches. It is a Satanico level rudo beatdown from two guys you don't think of as that kind of asskicker (Warrior is around too, but on the periphery.) I loved the fuck off finish of this too, with Panther just ripping off Atlantis mask and parading around with it, totally unconcerned about losing the match. I don't remember ever seeing this match before, and it as an all timer.

ER: There's just something about a well executed lucha trios, and this just has a great vibe. You get rudo Santo, tecnico Casas, rudo Panther, slender and ridiculously athletic Niebla, Warrior showing all that promise that he continued showing into the early 2000s, just a great cast. Santo and Panther as rudos is always so good, Santo really lays in nasty strikes, and his tecnico work is rarely about strikes. But rudo Santo is always throwing big slaps, clubbing the back, kneelifts to eye sockets; Panther working rudo maestro matwork always has differences from his tecnico matwork, always being the aggressor instead of working reversals. Everybody gets something to do here. 

Niebla as Shawn Kemp is really about as accurate a simile as you can get, a young hyped athlete who delivers as promised...until he keeps getting fatter and keeps dealing with more and more off work hours problems; in lucha he reminds me of Bestia Salvaje, someone who you see young and is just incredible with his movement, and even older and chubbier is still capable of bringing it, but also capable of dogging it. His movement here is so graceful and yet so impactful, it's wild to see how agile he was working in and bouncing off of the ropes, and that backdrop into a tope con hilo was breathtaking. Warrior was a real fast moving, violent luchador when on, one of the guys I watched a lot from 1998-2001 (before he looked like he was playing an evil resort maitre d), and for a guy with a long history of violent bullet topes, I still flipped for him sending Niebla into the crowd with one. Casas is a great tecnico, and in the tercera two legends give that great tecnico a nasty rudo beatdown, and Panther diving in for the "save" at the end to yank Atlantis' mask off (the one he loosened earlier during a beating) was a great dickhead rudo move, not giving the tecnicos the opportunity to get a clean pinfall victory. It was like diving to knock an ice cream cone out of a child's hand.

Kandori vs. Hotta review

Verdict:

PAS: Man this is tough, I absolutely love Hotta vs. Kandori, that kind of visceral Puro war is right up my alley and kind of a dead artform. However lucha libre at its best is the best, and this has so many awesome moments, and all time great at their height I think I am going with the trios match by a hair.

ER: I've definitely not seen this match before, and it was a great leap back to when I first started watching lucha, and while I hadn't seen this match it's pretty easy to figure out why I immediately got into lucha and have stuck around for 20 years. That being said, I think I'm still edging towards Kandori/Hotta, not by much, but I loved the focus and the blood and the mistake capitalization, with the violence. I'd happily watch both of these matches tomorrow, but at the moment I'm saying the champ retains.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SANTO VS. CASAS

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When Black Terry Has Learned To Really Live, He'll be Old Enough to Die

Black Terry/Diablo Jr. vs. Black Warrior/Black Warrior Jr. IWRG 9/3/17 - SKIPPABLE

Black Warrior was a guy I was really into when I first started watching CMLL in the 90's he had a cool tope and an awesome mask, age has not been kind to our man though, he is 15 years younger then Terry but looked 10 years older. This was by far the weakest Terry/Diablo tag I have seen and it's a bummer that they dropped their belts to this team. BW Jr. is OK, but is really green and isn't even wearing the cool black and orange mask. Terry and Diablo try, Diablo hits a nice tope, and Terry really cranked his Primera Caida submission, but at some point even they start looking for the exits. 25 minutes or so, I watched this so you don't have to.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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MLJ: Recent Uploads: El Hijo Del Santo, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas vs Black Warrior, Blue Panther, Fuerza Guerrera

1998-11-13 @ Arena México
El Hijo Del Santo, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas vs Black Warrior, Blue Panther, Fuerza Guerrera

There's a moment in this match towards the end of the third fall, right before Black Warrior hits a huge tope to get himself and Niebla out of the way for the finish, where Warrior very clearly screws up a baseball slide to the ramp. He had been trying to dodge a handspring (presumably a back headbutt) by Niebla. It's clumsy as hell. He recovers by owning it, by standing up, by waving his fingers to the crowd. There's also a moment at the end of the match where Santo and Casas (who had only been teaming for a couple of months after the turn) go for a big high five. It doesn't go well at all. Something that should be triumphant ended up strangely awkward.

Those two moments sum the match up in a nutshell. Amazing talent. Legendary talent, really. A pair of young wrestlers who are game and could go. It's a total mess execution wise. Absolute mess. While, yes, I care less about flawless execution than pretty much everyone else who watches lucha, I put forward the notion that this match is fun enough that it simply doesn't matter.

Panther's an underrated rudo stooge. In a lot of ways he's been misclasified by history. Fuerza is the king of rudo stooges. A huge chunk of the primera is Fuerza and Panther stooging for Santo and Casas. Some of it (like Fuerza hanging on to Casas' hair after every attempt to get out of a headlock or Casas refusing to let the beatdown start and fighting back, pissed off, repeatedly until Fuerza cut him off with a low blow) is pretty standard but still gold. The end of the fall, however, has Santo and Casas working in tandem, setting up double team tecnico spots. It's all mis-timed to a ridiculous degree, and not even in that sort of "faux organic struggle" sense you can sometimes bs. It's still an absolute joy to see the two of them working together like this, especially on Panther and Fuerza. It's downright charming, and while it should be no one's introduction to these wrestlers, if you're heavily familiar with them, it's well worth watching.

Also charming was Fuerza squeezing Santo's hand while he's in a nasty Blue Panther submission that ended the segunda. I have no idea why he might have done it (he had been helping to torque the arms a moment before as they're opponents), but the replay catches it and it's weirdly endearing. Look, if Negro Casas teaming with Santo and winning a fall by using his partner's trademark flipping-rana-sunset flip on one rudo while Santo locks on the caballo on the other is the sort of thing that excites you, you should watch this match. If it's not, then we look for very different things out of lucha.

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 25: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Terrible, Texano vs Black Warrior, Héctor Garza, La Sombra

2011-09-06 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Terrible, Texano vs Black Warrior, Héctor Garza, La Sombra

I'm interjecting this one in as it's between the opening round and the finals of the Universal tournament. I saw Sombra vs Liger, Nakamura, and Goto, and I thought that I should hit this one against Tanahashi too.

This was loads of fun, just full of schtick and sequence. Terrible and Texano were really good together. I love how they were able to really dominate a match with a solid beatdown in the Bucanero match  vs Sombra with a lot of heat that I looked at previously, and then here got to have a real crowd pleaser. They had a really great little stretch against Sombra where he played the dominant tecnico countering everything they did which was probably the best of such I've seen out of him in this process. Warrior brought a lot of energy to things as well. I like him in almost every match I see him in, no matter the year.

Tanahashi fit right in too. He was such a flouncy heel, which is really the natural role for him, holding his own on the mat vs Sombra (and that was simple stuff but good and competitive) losing chop battles, getting clowned by Garza and just selling it huge.:

Garza was a comedy machine here. I like his reactions more as a rudo and I like Terrible more as a dangerous wildman but both played their roles really well in this one:

There was at least a bit of the wild beatings too:

Structurally, this had a few inversions (the tecnicos cutting off a rudo takeover at the end of the primera, the rudos coming back out of nowhere at the end of the segunda) which may not seem like much but are really satisfying when you see a lot of these that feel the same.

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 13: Volador Jr./La Sombra/Sagrado vs. Sangre Azteca/Black Warrior/Dragón Rojo [MEX TRIOS]

2009-02-03 @ Arena México
Volador Jr./La Sombra/Sagrado vs. Sangre Azteca/Black Warrior/Dragón Rojo [MEX TRIOS]

Last offramp for now. I thought it would make sense to watch at least one of the Mexican National Trios tag title matches that Sombra had as well, just to cover all the ground before we move on. I like looking at a luchador in all of the different roles he might play and while I won't do that entirely for every stage of Sombra's career, a trios title match seemed logical. I'm not going to go back to the match these three had vs Hijo de Fantasma, Maximo, and Mascara too even if that does look interesting. See, I have some restraint. That's online, for anyone curious though. If you do watch it, let me know how it is.

This was a match that had a lot of time and that showed off a lot of the strengths of the genre, with all the dives and cut offs and fast action you'd want, with a little bit of heat and a spattering of early matwork that I'd call middling, and some big spots and really solid character work. It's not necessarily a trios title match I'm going to remember in two years but I'm not going to hesitate in calling it good.

My biggest takeaways were:

1.) Sombra really stood out at this point. Volador did too, sure, but Sombra felt like more of a total package, even at this point. The biggest example I can give is this: at parts of the match, just from their gear, it was almost impossible to tell Sagrado and Sombra apart. They all had team gear and while Volador had the silver mask, both Volador and Sagrado were in black. Despite that, I never had a hard time here. Why? Because Sombra was so much smoother, so much faster, so much more graceful, and so much more dynamic in almost every aspect of his work, and that's including the opening matwork.

2.) I got a real kick out of the rudo side and it's disappointing to me we don't have more title matches with them. I'm no big fan of Sangre Azteca in general, but he was a little younger here, a lot faster, and didn't JUST launch creative shots to places he shouldn't be striking (though he did that too). Black Warrior was hugely emotive. I need to run through his big matches at some point.

3.) Dragon Rojo, Jr. came off as a very solid foil for Sombra. I've got a number of their matches ahead of me, and I'll probably end up diving a little deeper than I first intended.

and 4.) The crowd was really into this, straight down to the finish. That's another reason I'm sad that there weren't many defenses (if any) by the rudos. This felt like a big deal and some of that was due to the big entrances, some to the work itself, and some just to the time they had.

I'd definitely point to this as another indication of how far Sombra had come up to 2009. It takes a different set of skills to be a cog in a trios match like this than a singles title match, and at this stage Sombra was a solid fit for matches like this.

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MLJ: Villano III Interlude I: Black Warrior, Satánico, Villano III vs Felino, Negro Casas, Tinieblas Jr.

1998-07-28 @ Arena Coliseo
Black Warrior, Satánico, Villano III vs Felino, Negro Casas, Tinieblas Jr.

There are certain luchadores that I still feel I don't have a great handle on. Topping this list is Villano III. There was a lot of recent talk about him for the WON HOF ballot and he's supposed to be one of the all time greats. We don't have a lot of him in his prime though, just bits and pieces, as he spent a lot of his career in the UWA. I think we do have more than enough of him to get the sense of just how great he was, though. I just have to do the legwork, interspering his matches in the midst of whatever else I'm focusing on.

Like any wrestler, I'm not familiar with, I'm going to start in a wrong but familiar place, when he was already deep into his 40s and against opponents I feel very comfortable watching. Satanico and Negro Casas are two of my favorite wrestlers and, in my mind, two of the best wrestlers ever. This is a match with the two of them, and more than that, between the two of them, during Casas' late 90s tecnico run. The central program here was Casas vs Villano III, but I see no sign that it ever led to a singles match. It was a great showing for pretty much everyone but Tinieblas, though (and he, at least, played his role and was a good foil for the others), and a very strong match.

It started with a rudo swarm. The tecnicos tried to create distance and fight back but didn't have a chance against the rudos' ability to work together. Black Warrior held Negro Casas and V3 tossed Felino's head into his brother's gut. After that, they separated, with Villano destroying Casas using the side of the ring and down the rampway, finishing it up with a DDT on the floor. Meanwhile, Satanico was guiding Black Warrior around the ring to demolish the other two tecnicos. Warrior was constant motion and fluidity, darting around the ring during the beatdown. He finished Felino off with the nudo as Satanico patiently held Tinieblas until the time was right for he and Warrior to lock on a double submission, which made sense given Tinieblas' size. Satanico was excellent at knowing exactly how long to wait. No one was ever better at directing mayhem than him.

The beatdown continued on into the segunda. Tinieblas tried to help Casas but got booted in his head for his ineffectual trouble:

Villano was focused and heated and Casas is as good as garnering sympathy during a beatdown as anyone. He was really reveling in his role as tecnico and the crowd loved to be behind him. Here he ate a legdrop over the ropes by Villano and then an axehandle while draped over the apron by Black Warrior:

Villano dragged Casas around the ring and started on his leg on the floor. The ref argued, buying Casas a moment and the mandate of heaven shifted. It's one of those symbolic elements of lucha. If the tecnico who is the focal point of the match is able to start to fight back, his partners will as well. Here Casas started back impassionately, and his partners followed suit. This ended with Villano retreating and a reset into the ring. Felino and Black Warrior were matched up so well. I'll have to try to track down more of them from this era. Here, Felino caught him off a springboard rana and dove forward with a powerbomb in a really spectacular spot to take the segunda for his team:

They reset again in the tercera, with Villano trying to beg off and Casas having no part of it. Casas basked a bit too long after hitting a tilt-a-whirl slam and Villano started to chop back. Even at this relatively late stage of his career, he was gritty, effectively cruel, and had great timing. That's obvious. I love how Casas shut him down though, with a few leg kicks, a stomp on the foot, and his spinning back kick. The stomp on the foot was what made it:

From there, they went towards the last round of exchanges, with Satanico using Tinieblas as prop to be clowned off of and more quick sequence between Felino and Black Warrior. The finish was great too. Tinieblas hit a plancha on Satanico (who caught it admirably), leaving Felino and Casas with Warrior and Villano. The tecnicos reversed a double whip (after Casas charged headlong into his brother to dampen the first rudo attempt), and then hit tandem Casitas, the rudos' heads crashing into each other mid move:

Even though it was past his prime, I thought Villano III showed a lot here, given that he was the focal point of the match. I hate that there was apparently no singles match this led to though, but I already have a slightly better sense of him moving forward. Good match, worth watching.

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MLJ: Carístico, Negro Casas, Valiente vs Black Warrior, Ephesto, Mephisto

11/15/2015 @ Arena México
Carístico, Negro Casas, Valiente vs Black Warrior, Ephesto, Mephisto

This might have been the single most straightforward, simple, disposable lucha trios match I've ever seen, and that's saying something. It was there just to tease Cibernetico's arrival, to do a bait and switch with Black Warrior, to let Caristico do his stuff against some familiar opponents, and to give his side a solid win before the post-match beatdown. They had subbed Valiente in for Volador earlier in the week, moving Volador down into a tag against FdT, in a match that might actually lead to an Apuestas, and frankly, that was fine because you didn't really need Volador here.

Despite the simplicity, this was still fun. It just definitely wasn't must see by any means. I think they new they were going short due to the most match angle, which was about as long as the match itself. It meant that none of the exchanges were particularly long and that the beatdown was stilted. From a structural level, it's sort of interesting how they did things then.

For instance, they went A-B-A, with the tecnicos taking the primera, the rudos the segunda, starting a beatdown that lasted a couple of minutes into the tercera until they went home almost immediately with the dives and comeback. The wrinkles were that they slipped the "tecnicos vs the world" section into the primera, made sure that Caristico got to do his dive to set up that finish, had the segunda end with just Caristico getting pinned (by a second rope devil's wings after kicking out of the standard version), and teased a brief reset before continuing that short ambush-laden beatdown.

I'd love to make a statement on how Black Warrior looked, for instance, but there just wasn't much there. He did have a nice exchange with Casas, who seemed to be enjoying playing tecnico (so did Zacarias, for what it was worth; he's a natural anyway). They traded blows, with Casas eating his stuff and rousing the crowd until he caught the second attempt at a big boot. Later on, the only really memorable part of the beatdown was Warrior just smothering Casas with grounded knees and clubbering. The other standout part of the match was Casas' chance to go vs the world in the primera, fighting off Mephisto and Ephesto in the corner. It felt weird because the other tecnicos didn't help. Usually, that makes sense in the tercera when everyone's getting knocked out of the ring and recovering but here it was just a portion of a match moved around due to time issues. Casas was still great in the role though.

Anyway, everyone was eager to work the crowd and try to get them into it. Between that and the brevity, it didn't have the standard CMLL feel. It felt more like a spectacle. It was just a fairly forgettable one, the sort of match that would have made it less special to see Caristico again the next time, were it not for the fact that no one will remember it relative to the post-match angle.

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MLJ: Satanico vs La Familia de Tijuana 1: Atlantis, Black Warrior, Felino, Mr. Niebla vs Damián 666, Halloween, Psicosis I, Satánico

2002-08-16 @ Arena México
Atlantis, Black Warrior, Felino, Mr. Niebla vs Damián 666, Halloween, Psicosis I, Satánico

Satanico is the best. He really is. If we had more available, I'd only watch Satanico matches and this would be My Satanico Journey. As it is, we'll be spending another week and a day with him. "decadas80s90s2000" on youtube posted four of the five matches of Satanico/Infernales vs La Familia de Tijuana from August-October, which started with Satanico teaming with them and ended with a hair match with Damian. It's not the world's best wrestling but it's heated, was a good showcase for Satanico working with Averno and Mephisto, and, in part because La Familia's rougher edges, made for some fun matches.

This was the first. It was an atomicos, which CMLL doesn't seem to want to run anymore. I haven't seen too many, but my impression of them is that they lean towards being more spot heavy than trios matches. Two extra bodies mean quicker switches and more chaos. La Familia here was Halloween, Damian 666, and Nicho/Psicosis. Halloween (who was Ciclope in WCW and lost his match to Antifaz del Norte in 99) would change his look in the midst of this series, going from the dreadlocks to looking more like Nicho. Damian was two years younger than Satanico, to give you a point of reference (around 40 and 42 respectively when these matches took place). No surprises on the tecnico side here, just four guys who would probably be good in this setting (and ultimately were).

So, two things to really mention with this match. The first is that it was absolutely action packed. There were bodies everywhere. Some of it was really good. Some of it was a bit more chaotic as you got the impression that the tecnicos weren't used to working with these specific rudos. There were some massively huge spots. I'm going to gif some below. Felino's top rope to the apron rana was downright amazing, and Nicho's arm drag bump over the top wasn't bad either. I wish that CMLL would do some more atomicos. They're set up to do so right now with all of their factions.

Big spots, yes. The other story of the match was Satanico not quite being on the page with his partners. Some of that was him just being out of position when they wanted to do a triple team, forcing him to scramble to get there. That's a little thing but considering how smoothly he worked with GdI and Averno/Mephisto, it was telling. Satanico was so, so good at directing rudo traffic and that wasn't at play here.

More importantly, after some more miscommunication led to him submitting to the Atlantida, La Familia decided to take their loss out on him, beating on him in the corner. He'd dodge a corner dive and fight back, with Averno and Mephisto to even the odds, but la Familia would introduce chairs and ultimately destroy the other rudo side. My impression is that this got them suspended (I assume because they were working all over as Mexico's Most Wanted at this time?). It'd also lead to a trios title match a month later, which is what we'll look at next.

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MLJ: Guerreros del Infierno Bonus: Emilio Charles Jr., Rey Bucanero, Satánico vs Apolo Dantés, Black Warrior, Dr. Wagner Jr. [CMLL TRIOS, torneo, final]

1997-03-21 @ Arena México
Emilio Charles Jr., Rey Bucanero, Satánico vs Apolo Dantés, Black Warrior, Dr. Wagner Jr. [CMLL TRIOS, torneo, final]

I wanted one more match to ride out the week and it was between this and Satanico vs Mascara Magica. That was before Magica went heel with GdI though so it didn't seem to fit as much. Also, it wasn't as compelling and if I'm going to do Satanico apuestas matches, there are much better ones to choose.

This, on the other hand, looked interesting on paper. It's the youngest I've ever seen Bucanero (21 here), and also the only time I've seen him with his mask (he lost it to Shocker two years later). This was a one-fall final to the CMLL Trios Tournament which took place after Garza jumped to AAA (He'd been teaming with La Fiera and Dos Caras which is a pretty weird team for 1997). Satanico, Charles, and Bucanero had gone through Shinobi, Tsubuasa and Ultraman, Jr, and Atlantis, Lizmark, and Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. to get here. Interesting that they'd finish it with a rudos vs rudos pairing.

A word on Bucanero before we start. I think, in the grand scheme of things, it's tempting to call him an underachiever in his career, especially compared to his contemporaries like Shocker and Ultimo Guerrero, and I certainly went through his tecnico turn and how disappointing that was. This was almost twenty years ago though, and in the crazy non-booked world of CMLL, he's still relevant, even as late as just a few months ago. I don't think he was always the most talented wrestler, and that's true here, in 2001, in 2006, and today, but I do think he's matured into a very skilled one. I love that match with Mistico in 2010, for instance, and that's all on him being a skilled, canny, experienced rudo, and he can still put on performances like that today.

Again, this was just one caida, so they ran through the pairings, Satanico and Wagner, Charles and Dantes, and Bucanero, and Warrior, and then picked up the pace to take things home. I really need to see more Charles. He's good in everything I've seen him in so far. I like Dantes as a sort of opportunistic rudo in the two matches I've seen with him. Warrior was young here and he's generally fine but often I lose track of him in trios matches. It's always surreal to me to see Wagner so colorless, both literally and in his actions; I'm used to him being this larger than life superhero, hamming it up in both the best and the worst ways.

Even subdued, he was a lot of fun paired with Satanico to start things off. They had a few minutes of solid matwork with the highlight probably being Satanico kicking out the Mil Mascaras/Hijo del Santo prone cross-legged headscissors takeovers, which was more than a little surreal to see, being the world's most tecnico hold. The best part was at the end however, when following a top wristlock war, they went head to head like rams:

The other pairings went quickly. Dantes played to the crowd (just as Satanico had introduced some tecnico offense given the situation). He and Charles did a bunch of reversals and some equal matwork. Bucanero and Warrior were there for rope running and arm drags and what not. It was fine but not really memorable. Then they started to switch things up with escalating action and neither side having an advantage. It felt a bit like elements of a primera that led right into elements of a finishing stretch tercera.

It closed out with a couple of big dives. First Satanico hit an awesome senton from the apron on Wagner:

Then Charles hit a tope suicida which actually caused the crowd to move in preparation. Usually they just stand there like deer in headlights:

That cleared things out for Bucanero vs Warrior. After eating an electric chair drop on a victory roll reversal, Rey hit a powerbomb reversal of a 'rana out of nowhere and picked up the win for his team. Fun little tournament final with some good and unique stuff given the cleaner title-match rudos vs rudos pairing.

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MLJ: Guerreros del Infierno B-14: Bestia Salvaje, Emilio Charles Jr., Último Guerrero b Black Warrior, Satánico, Shocker

2001-05-04 @ Arena México
Bestia Salvaje, Emilio Charles Jr., Último Guerrero b Black Warrior, Satánico, Shocker

One of the trickiest parts of doing some of these projects of old matches is that people keep posting things. So far as problems go, this is one that I'm glad to have. I meant to take a week to go through a few more matches on my GdI comp before moving back to something more modern but then I spotted a newly posted singles match between Ultimo Guerrero and Satanico. That reminded me that I really hadn't looked for anything BUT matches with both UG and Rey Bucanero in them, and I should broaded my search just to see what was there. This, from the week before, is what I found, so I'm doubling back to do this one and the singles match, and then I'll figure out something related for Friday.

The Shocker/Satanico alliance is a little weird to me, but it was definitely a thing around here and had been for most of the year. It made sense. They were on the verge of debuting Averno but Satanico needed someone to team with against GdI after they turned on him and Shocker carried at least part of the crowd, even as a rudo. They were certainly in the "babyface" role here, with Warrior relatively non-descript but effective enough as a guy in a mask who wasn't going to turn the crowd.

Charles was very good at what he does. He had great punches and was very solid at rudo control segments, just in being in the right place at the right time and laying in suitable punishment. He was also skilled at stooging and eating offense when the time came. Salvaje seemed like he was maybe a step behind from a few years before but this wasn't the sort of match where he had to eat a lot of quick tecnico offense so it was fine.

These matches are well worth watching for the heat and for the hatred between Ultimo Guerrero and Satanico. CMLL got a year or so out of it and it was a year that didn't feel bloated or inflated, from what I can tell. They probably could have gotten two years out of it. This started violent and ended violent and in some ways was the most "Memphis" CMLL match I can remember seeing.

Guerrero and Satanico went right at it to start the primera. Satanico had rushed the ring and that led to a 3 on 1 for a minute before Shocker came out to even the odds. This was a brief but hard hitting couple of minutes, with brawling around the ring. It ended with Shocker snapping the Reinera on Charles and Salvaje getting hung up dangling in the ropes and legdropped by Black Warrior. It seemed a bit early for that spot back in 2001, but they didn't make it feel contrived at all. It's something that works so much better when there are partners to set it up than in singles matches.

There weren't even breaks between caidas here. The brawling just kept on going, with UG's team getting the advantage by playing the numbers, mainly. Charles drove Black Warrior out and then it was three on two for long enough to shift the momentum and start a very solid beat down with Guerrero biting Satanico, Charles ripping at Warrior's mask, a senton de la muerte on Shocker, a double pancake on Black Warrior, and submissions on Warrior and then Satanico (the latter by UG) following this triple dropkick on Warrior:

Again, the violence continued through the caida shift, with the refs trying to break it up. Then, out of nowhere, they start tossing around an illegal object and use it behind the ref's back, passing it aroudn to avoid detection. I've never seen this before in CMLL (though it could be a staple of either Charles or Salvaje as it'd fit them, sort of). It eventually ended up in what seemed to be a pocket of Guerrero's. Despite taht, Satanico's team came back, with Shocker sticking Salvaje's foot in a chair to trap him. Satanico had one of his great babyface flurries (after putting his straps down, all Memphis-y) with two hart attack clotheslines and some real mask tearing. UG pulled out the object though and nailed him with it for the pin, passing it to Charles after the match in order to keep the ref from seeing it.

I could watch Satanico and Guerrero beat the crap out of eachother over another twenty matches and it's too bad we don't have more. We do have their singles match though, and I'll get to that next.

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MLJ: Hijo del Santo vs Blue Panther 10: Juventud Guerrera, El Hijo del Santo, Negro Casas vs Blue Panther, Black Warrior, Shocker

2001-09-07
Juventud Guerrera, El Hijo del Santo, Negro Casas vs Blue Panther, Black Warrior, Shocker

Just to start, I saw that some people were confused last week since I was talking about AAA when the match had nothing to do with AAA. I was just commenting on how I see the rudo ref trope in AAA a lot these days as a way to get heat in matches and how it's not a huge pull for me. That Panther vs Casas had a lot of it, but they overcame it through the talent of the guys in the match. That's all I was trying to indicate. Sorry if it was confusing. Anyway, just to continue the high level knowledge I'm dropping here, I couldn't possibly have less context for this match. Actually, that's not totally true. I know who all these guys are at least. Black Warrior is Black Panther, Blue Panther's nephew. Juventud is pretty self-evident but it was nice to get to see him within the scope of the project. Shocker was pretty young here.  He was an energetic addition to the trios match to say the least. So no context, and honestly, another problem I wasn't expecting. At the start of the match, I had to really focus on who was on which team: It's just counterintuitive to see Casas and Santo team, for some reason I kept thinking Juvi was a rudo, and even by the end of the match I wasn't entirely used to Black Warrior's mask. Shocker had already lost his by this point and Juvi came out with his on but took it off immediately, which is what Felino does sometimes and what I've seen Espanto, Jr. do even years after he lost the mask match to Santo. Juvi also had a random belt. Maybe it was the IWC Crusierweight title?

So, this is clipped, which is primarily frustrating since it robs us of the Panther vs Santo exchange from the opening segment. Why they'd pick that to cut I have no idea. The VQ isn't great either AND they decided to randomly to an attractive woman during key parts of the opening Shocker vs Juvi exchange. That's sort of funny. It's not as bad as the match I saw recently where they cut to a baby during the comeback. Regardless, the pairings were fun from what I saw. Shocker and Juvi were a natural match, fast-paced and smooth, and full of swagger. Juvi added so much to the match. He was just full of energy and while that might have frustrated me in a different setting, here, grounded by a number of great wrestlers and a solid story, he really added a lot. Black Warrior seemed to have come along a bit more since the last time I saw him and he both did matwork with Casas and had a chopfest.

The structure of the match was a little weird due to the fact they kept playing with injury angles and the ringside doctor, but it all came together in the end. First, after the initial pairings, Warrior totally planted Casas with a DDT; Casas took it really nicely and then sold it like death. Santo ignored everything to check on him while Shocker and Juvi fought in the ring. When it was time to finish the fall, Casas and Santo rushed back in and picked up the fall. Casas did a pretty good job selling throughout. After that we had a cut (and who knows how long this was) to a triple wheelbarrow suplex on Juvi which brought the doctors back in. Now that it was 3 on 2 again, the rudos took the fall with a big Warrior leg drop on Casas and Shocker hitting a death valley driver of all things. The only downside, past the clipping, was that Shocker then screwed up the double wrap around pin that Panther wanted to do with him. It didn't even look all that complicated. He just zigged where he should have zagged. Then the doctor got to check on Santo. They really overplayed their hand here since you so rarely see the doctor involved in other matches.

It did all sort of work, though. The tercera started with a bunch of pounding on Juvi, who made for a quite good FIP, actually. Then Santo tried to run it, got beat on too, and ducked a corner move and the comeback was on. The specter of physical danger from earlier in the match did make the comeback more heated, but it's not something they could do every week. Santo got a massive revenge DDT on the outside. Casas got a revenge inverted DDT on the inside. There's some really solid end-of-match exchanges in here too, setting up a big spot and a few dives. The key spot was Casas freeing Juvi from a standing Black Warrior submission only to dropkick him by accident. The key dives had Santo using Panther as a springboard to sail out onto Shocker and then Panther almost immediately thereafter diving out after him.

That cleared things up for the finish, with Juvi, still reeling from the Casas dropkick, getting taken out by Warrior. Casas followed up by dodging a low dropkick but as he was about to hit the Casita, Juvi came back in and attacked, causing the DQ. Another great trio with a few different characters to switch things up. It's a shame this was cut, especially the Panther vs Santo section but I came out of it really wanting to see a Juvi vs Casas match, so it definitely did its job.

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My Lucha Journey: The Marco Corleone Experience 2: Vs Ultimo Guerrero and Parejas Increibles 2012

aired 2012-03-03
taped 2012-02-28 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Marco Corleone vs Último Guerrero

10:47 for a three fall match with entrances (albeit shortened ones) doesn't necessarily bode well, and at the very least invites the idea of clipping. This was actually pretty good for what it was though. I'll catch Ultimo Guerrero however I can in the process of whatever I'm working on and there aren't THAT many mano a mano Marco matches out there. This was on CMLL Guadalajara and I'm not entirely sure what that was but the announcers seem to be enjoying themselves. I just figured out that this was RIGHT around the parejas increibles tournament for the year and I'm actually going to make a quick sidetrip to watch the Marco/Guerrero matches since they were paired for some context. Bear with me for a moment.

A few thoughts: Marco could fill time really well in short matches. The eightfinal vs Hijo del Fantasma and Misterioso Jr. was less than four minutes but he started it with a fun, shticky big vs little exchange with Misterioso Jr. I'm happy that Fantasma actually had a Phantom mask, in 2012. It also had probably the best dive I've seen out of Marco, as he just propels himself, no hands, over the top to the floor. They even worked in a little call back spot involving a sunset flip reversal. Not bad for four minutes. The quarterfinal vs Black Warrior/Rey Escorpion got a whopping two minutes. This was my first look at Black Warrior and it was just a glimpse. It was cute though, as Ultimo set up his foes for the Superman dive and Marco landed on all three (and pinned all three, which annoyed Ultimo). I know this tournament lucha is really slight, but you do get some extremely distilled character work at least. The semi was vs Rush and Terrible and clocked in under six minutes. Rush and Terrible were feuding at the time, I think. I've actually yet to see any Terrible of note. This was 2012, but Marco and Rush were part of a trios already. There was this awesome moment of hesitation where Terrible was holding Marco's leg in the corner and Rush seemed like he wasn't going to kick him and then he just unloads. What a jerk. He even followed it up by choking Marco in the corner. Rush is Rush. Marco's comeback was a lot of fun as he ended up leapfrogging everyone twice, it seemed. Unfortunately, Ultimo and Rush were paired off again so Marco didn't get revenge. Instead, he ran right into a huge superkick as Rush reentered the ring. They did a call back to the Superman leap on all three guys but this time, they all kick out. I love continuity within a tournament. Anyway, Rush and Terrible worked better as a unit and ultimately won the thing (after Rush held down Marco so Terrible could splash him). That was a nice little diversion and showed me what I pretty much already knew, that Marco works real well in a tag setting, especially in short falls where he can work to his strengths and really stand out.

Back to the match at hand. I'm not 100% sure if this was right before or right after the tournament but it doesn't really matter. All three caidas were understandably short, but the first, which was shortest of all but had good intensity, did raise one of the major problems I have with Marco. He took the thing with this goofy modified leg-sweep, and yeah, he hit it with some impact, but I don't think it's the sort of move that a giant in the land of lucha should be doing to take a fall. He should have used something that accentuated his stature a bit more. Sometimes he doesn't work as big as he should. It's a necessity, I think, in a setting where he has to continuously give his opponents at least a fall and make them look good and where he also has to face the same guys week in and week out, and often times he hits the balance really well, with some of his more aerial and fancy moves awkward in a way that works towards his character. Sometimes, however, it misses the mark and here I think it did. The flip side is that he's very good at giving his opponents quite a bit and making them look good. Case in point was the end of the short and fairly back and forth segunda caida where he goes up really high for a huge powerbomb that allowed Ultimo to put his feet on the ropes and pick up the pin. Also see his frequent spot where he does a missed body press into the corner and ends up stuck on the top rope in one movement, which he did do here.

That was part of a pretty heated tercera caida, where he also wasn't afraid to eat a pretty visually striking second rope goardbuster. There's good stuff in here, like a momentum shift when Ultimo capitalized on Marco gloating too much, or a nearfall off of Ultimo luring Marco in to do a flying body press and then reversing it. It felt organic, not just happenstance but like Ultimo was savvy and using his wits against Marco. The finish worked well too, as Marco hit a powerbomb of his own and used the ropes, in yet another call back spot. When I was watching a lot of Portland, which is all 2 out of 3 falls matches, I noticed that they used them quite a bit. I had thought that it was maybe just Buddy Rose being so good a pro wrestling, but I'm starting to think it might be a trapping of the medium. It's one of my favorite things in pro wrestling so I consider myself lucky that it shows up so much in lucha. Again, this wasn't a match of the year candidate for 2012, but it was a great way to spend ten minutes and another sign that Marco can hold his own in singles matches too.

The parejas increibles matches are below:

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CMLL on Galavision Workrate Report, 6/9/12

1. Atlantis/La Mascara/Shocker vs. Volador Jr./Mephisto/Yujiro:

Well this is an odd collection of rudos in a match. I'm just happy to finally not get a Black Warrior match. I don't even totally mind Black Warrior, but it seems like fucking Rush and Black Warrior are featured every damn week on Galavision and they are not exactly in my top 50 favorite CMLL workers. But Volador is pretty much one of my top 5 CMLL faves, and finally I get some Volador back on my TV. Volador is awesome (and oddly dressed like Sin Cara here) and throws the best superkick in the biz. His standing superkick looks great, but I really love his running one into the corner. Always looks super rad. Shocker looks pretty motivated in this one, which is nice because he can still go when he wants to (he...often does not want to). Here he leaned into stuff, worked a fun little mat sequence with Yujiro, and bumped around for Volador. Mascara always goes on fun runs during matches and Volador/Mephisto are great working sequences in and around him, getting into position nicely for everything without making it look silly. Volador hits a brutal missle dropkick to the back of Shocker's head and it was glorious. Fun match that delivered about what I wanted from it.



2. Hair vs. Hair: Rey Escorpion vs. Black Warrior:

And just exactly what the doctor ordered, a modern CMLL style main event. Ohhhhhh, yeah. It's all here, baby! You want the first two falls to take one minute apiece? Well you're in luck, mister! You want the 3rd fall to go way too long, but only because the two guys spend tons of time lying on the mat breathing heavily and overselling roll-ups? Well hold on to your fucking hats! Rey goes for a roll up, Baby Richard takes 16 seconds to reach the 2 count, Warrior kicks out. Both men lie there selling total exhaustion. But then Warrior rolls up Escorpion!!!! And Richard counts super slowllllyyyy....1.....2.......but Rey kicks out!!! But then Rey rolls up Warrior!!!! Fucccccckkkk youuuuuuuuuu. 4 minutes of action crammed into 18 minutes. Brutal. Rey takes a nice spill into the crowd off a BW dive, and at least Rey won so BW's greasy thinning mess of a mop can get lopped off. But man this was the pits.

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CMLL on Galavision Workrate Report, 6/2/12

1. Ephesto vs. Stuka Jr.:

Well this was kinda disappointing. These are two guys I like a whole lot, and they get a couple extra minutes more than most lightning matches get...and they just don't do much with the time. The best I can say is that Stuka is a stocky motherfucker and Ephesto has an epic mask.



2. Mercurio/Pequeno Nitro/Pequeno Olimpico vs. Aereo/Astral/Electrico:

Who among us doesn't lie awake at night wondering "Who is my favorite CMLL mini...after Demus 3:16...and Pierrothito...and Bam Bam...and Mascarita Dorada..." Well, this match sought to answer that question. And apparently the answer is Mercurio. Pretty obviously Mercurio, actually. Dude looked awesome here and bumped for all the flippiness of the tecnicos. Astral has politely started wearing a shirt to cover up his hideous chest acne. The world thanks you.



3. Kraneo/Psicosis/Rey Escorpion vs. Delta/Guerrero Maya Jr./Black Warrior:

Awwwwwww yeah! Fat Alebrije is FAT! And he's Kraneo now! Again! And fat Kraneo is so damn awesome, always the best part of his six mans. He's still really fast and he is just poured right into that suit but makes moves look super great by being super fat. For a mid card rudo team I really like these three randomly assembled guys. And it wouldn't be a week of CMLL on Galavision without Black Warrior in the main event. And I am still beyond perplexed by that. Why now? I assume this guy has been wrestling since the late 80s, and it seems like he's getting the push of his career right now despite being Black Warrior. He has a nice tope. He looks like the weirdest slimiest version of Edward James Olmos in "Blade Runner" . He has horrible singles matches. He is Black Warrior. WE NEED TO MAKE SURE HE IS HIGHLIGHTED EVERY SHOW!!! I just don't get it. Somebody, please explain it to me already. Could there be a more random 40+ year old on the roster to push? Is Rammstein over 40? If not, I don't think I can think of a more random, odd person to be getting such a large push on TV.

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CMLL on Galavision Workrate Report, 5/12/12

1. Hombre Bala Jr./Super Halcon Jr. vs. Cholo/Apocalipsis:

Damn, Cholo and Apocalipsis? Did I accidentally start reviewing an LATV show? This was kind of a tale of the two good guys on each team, Cholo and Bala. Those guys rule. The other two aren't bad but they're just kind of...guys. Bala was awesome here, and he broke out all sorts of tope variations that I haven't seen before. He did one onto the rampway, splashing Apocalipsis in the process. It was basically him doing a giant running Pete Rose head first slide but landing right on the guy. Later he did the same Pete Rose to Cholo sitting in the corner and ended it in a headbutt instead of a splash. Awesome. Does Osaka Pro still have a large baseball stable? Change his name around and make him the Human Baseball.



2. Tiffany/Princesa Blanca/La Commandante vs. Lady Apache/Marcela/Dark Angel:

Really fun women's match with all ladies firing on all cylinders. Marcela and Tiffany always match up nicely together, always dig them on the mat and Tiffany kicking her face, and dig Marcela's cool springboard double knees to the stomach (which later cost her). They start the first few minutes and have a nice singles match. Lady Apache looked really fired up here. She always looks good, but she was approaching her peak level work here, though Blanca tends to bring out the best in other ladies. When Dark Angel was in with Commandante, it sure felt like one of the largest "foxy" to "rake face" ratio I've seen in some time. Match sputtered a bit at the end with the normally awesome Tiffany looking a little lost at sea, but I take my good women's wrestling when I can get it, and this was mostly really good.



3. Ephesto/Rey Escorpion/Mephisto vs. La Mascara/Mascara Dorada/Black Warrior:

Well God Damn is Dorada awesome or is Dorada awesome? The answer, in fact, is that Mascara Dorada is awesome. I know I spent last week's review just blowing La Mascara but good lord did Dorada just outclass him here. I could watch a match that was nothing but Dorada ranas. So smooth, so effortless. How neat is it when he does one and lands on his feet as the other guy goes sprawling away? You know I love me some Ephesto and Escorpion, and those guys always shine against Dorada and Mascara, as they are the aforementioned other guys that go sprawling. Black Warrior seems to be one of the main pushed guys in CMLL right now, at least that's how it comes across on TV. I don't know. I don't mind the guy. He does some cool things, has some good energy. I like his slingshot elbow. Hits a fast tope. But is he really a guy they're pushing that hard? It seems like Galavision is really pushing Rush and Black Warrior. Am I crazy?

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CMLL on Galavision Workrate Report, 5/5/12

1. Astral/Electrico vs. Demus 3:16/Pierrothito:

Two of my favorite minis teaming against two of my least favorite minis (stockier almost equals better in my book, so no mystery who my favorites are). Astral and Electrico are pretty meh, always adjusting and awkwardly getting into position, but capable of pulling of a neat move here or there. Demus/Pierrothito are ass kicking big bumpers and here their bumping is fine indeed. The first two falls don't rouse much in my guts. Demus makes a couple ranas look great, Pierrothito does a neat springboard back elbow drop, also does a nice Fuerza bump. Nice stuff all, but stuff you'd expect. 3rd fall is more of the same, but made TOTALLY worth it by one spot. It starts with Astral doing a rana on Demus from the apron to the floor. I am disappointed because Demus kinda wimps out of it and doesn't so much splat as he does spin out. But then Astral bounces off the opposite ropes and does a running somersault senton to the floor, while Demus is lying there. The kicker is that Demus is lying perpendicularly to the ring, so Astral comes crashing down lengthwise across Demus!! HOLY SHIT!! Not only did Astral have a white fucking hot death wish by just winging his body over the ropes to the floor, but Demus didn't even flinch while lying prone!! Both guys are straight nutso. I don't even give a shit how the match ended. It could have been 12 minutes of headlocks with that spot at the end and I would have gone nuts.



2. Virus/Rey Escorpion/Vangelis vs. Valiente/La Mascara/Black Warrior:

Short match, but I find it hard to believe that any man would dislike the 2nd caida here. Everybody was killing it there. Virus was just a master in here, like those sequences in Bruce Lee movies where he is just directing traffic mid-fight, getting into and out of position for guys and just letting the fight happen all around him while also being involved in everything. Great little 5 minute Virus primer for beginners. Vangelis is another awesome stocky guy I dig, and he works cool powerhouse spots while always leaning into a superkick or standing manly while Valiente crashes into him from 10'. Valiente takes spectacular bumps for a chubster, and the Valiente Special he busts out here was seamless and spectacular (again, props to Vangelis for standing tall while taking it). La Mascara also put on a great show and he is really becoming a young tecnico I really look forward to. He also owns the 2nd caida, and his body is all painted up like Captain America. I mean, it looks more like somebody's Captain America costume on Fire Island, but whatever. He looks really great here sprinting all over the place, flying into offense, flying his offense into people, and just being fun. Wish it would've gone longer, but what was here was real good.



3. Rey Buccanero/Terrible/Tiger vs. Marco Corleono/Maximo/Rush:

I did not realize Corleone was back. I assume this was his return match for the big Anniversary show, and I have to think he performed up to expectations. I've always liked the guy more than most, digging his big planchas and big left hands. Crowd was way into him, too. I loved Buccanero trying to anticipate Marco's punches, ducking early, and then getting popped. Bunch of neat spots in this one, with Terrible being a bumping standout. Rush even had some nice moments (love him blocking a Tiger punch and blasting him with a headbutt). When Rush has a nice moment, that's a pretty neat little feather in the cap for a match.

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CMLL on Galavision Workrate Report, 4/14/12 and Jon Polito's Jacket

So I kinda fell off the wagon (got onto the wagon? Whichever one means that I haven't written one in awhile) on these. LATV is showing nothing but reruns from last year, and I had to delete some Galavision episodes to make room for old episodes of Miami Vice. As you can see from the photo of Jon Polito's jacket, I have been continually making the right choice. How is that episode not a meme yet? I mean, that jacket, those gloves. There have been preliminary talks to just change the name of "Segunda Caida" to "Jon Polito's Jacket". He played a character named El Gato. There was a really great episode with Brad Dourif playing a coke dealer, too. So, I watched some Miami Vice and skipped some CMLL. I'm sorry.


1. Lightning Match: Super Commando vs. Angel Azteca Jr.:

This was alright but kinda short, even for a lightning match. Really felt like a match I would have flipped out for if I saw it on an episode of Worldwide in 1998, but now it doesn't do as much for me. Azteca is a guy I really like, as he's similar to the other wetsuit-top-wearing youngish guys, but he's shorter and more squat, like Virus squeezed into a wetsuit top. The dives were fun (although when did Arena Mexico get a BARRIER around ringside!?!? Goddamn does that look wrong and make me sad), and this was a fine 6 minutes.


2. Blue Panther/Hijo Del Fantasma/Black Warrior vs. Psicosis/Mr. Aguila/Olimpico:

Holy shit Blue Panther. This guy is the fucking argument ender. Any argument. "What do you mean you didn't reconcile your monthly reports!?" "Yeah, well...Blue Panther." And then both parties just kind of nod. What don't you do, Panther!? Last year my favorite part of CMLL was watching BP match up against a bunch of different young guys in a bunch of different 6 mans. It was always great, always the best couple minutes of the match. Here he is still breaking out things that surprise me. In the 1st he snaps off an absolutely gorgeous rana off the 2nd rope. I mean it was just so damn beautiful, and the guy is 50. There is also subtle beauty to be found in the way he casually double legs Psicosis and then whips him over by the ankle. It's like clockwork mechanics, just something you can stare at and get lost in all the amazing moving parts.

But you know what? The other guys looked pretty damn good, too. I LOVED the mat segment between Black Warrior and Olimpico. BW is a guy who I liked a bunch when I first started watching lucha and he would do bullet topes 3 rows deep, but he's been kinda diminishing returns for me over the last decade. But damn he showed fire on the mat like I never remember seeing from him, getting into all sorts of weird predicaments that didn't end the way I expected them to end. You get so used to seeing Malenko/Guerrero roll ups and then suddenly BW rolls through a single leg and tosses a guy in a weird fallaway slam variation. BW looked more motivated in this match than I've seen in ages. Psicosis had this awesome mini second who was dressed all Day of the Dead and how can you not get stoked for this guy getting into it with Kemonito!? This whole thing turned out way more awesome than I was anticipating. I thought "Mid card throwaway that will likely have some a cool BP spot" and I got a whip fast 6 man that was short on story but had tons of killer action. And Aguila finally got some more appropriate entrance music. Rad match that is WELL worth checking out.


3. Ultimo Guererro/Negro Casas/Terrible vs. Mascara Dorada/La Mascara/Diamante Azul:

Well I personally was not expecting a 5 minute match with two straight falls by the rudos. That doesn't mean it was bad. The 1st was a whirling rudo dervish of stiff kicks and elbow drops. Casas looks especially badass with his new close-cropped 'do (forgot to mention the same about BP in the prior match) and silver gear (with trunks that aren't hiked up!). Can't say much about something this short, but it was a hot 5 with some neat spots. Dear lord does Dorada have great ranas. His running rana from the rampway, over the ropes and into the ring was spectacular. And say what you will about lucha regularly botching camera angles, but if there is ONE shot they know how to film, it's a running somersault senton off the rampway. CMLL shoots from underneath and makes it look like Diamante flew 25 off the ramp. Awesome.

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report, 10/29/11

1. Arkangel/Loco Max/Skandalo vs. Dragon Lee/Angel de Plata/Pegasso:

Really good first fall, 2nd fall got derailed by an injury, 3rd was non-existent. First fall you knew would be good, because it was a bunch of expert rudos beating up a bunch of fliers. Pre-match graphic lists Rey Cometa instead of Plata, but it's definitely Plata. I like Plata, but this got me falsely excited for a Cometa/Arkangel mat sequence that was not to be. All the rudos are wearing Dr. X tribute shirts which makes me sad. What a shame. Arkangel matching up against Pegasso was awesome, as Arkangel matching up anybody kinda so-so always is. I want him to put a hurting on Pegasso, as Pegasso was wearing a tank top cut so that his nipples *just* peeked out the sides. Make him pay for that. Arkangel always has really great takedowns, really forces a guy to the ground with his leg scissors takedowns. He breaks out some cool mat submissions and generally twists Pegasso around, which was exactly what I hoped for. 2nd starts with rudos kinda killing time until the tecnico comeback (though it did feature a nasty Loco Max kick to Dragon Lee's taint), Skandalo takes a great spill to the floor, and when Pegasso/Lee do stereo springboard moves, Lee gets stumbly on the ropes and basically does a swanton to the floor. Luckily he was able to compose himself enough to flip all the way over and didn't just go head first. He gets stretchered out (as CMLL replays it 5 times) and Skandalo is awesome beating up Lee on the stretcher. But then they cut to a quick Plata roll up finish, and the 3rd is a nothing fall ending in quick rudo DQ.



2. Silueta vs. Ray:

Really good women's match that would be well worth going out of your way to check out. I have only seen these two a couple times each and it was always in a trios so I never got a great feel for how good they were. Well, I would like to see more after this match. First two falls were very quick but had some good spots and good action. Ray's roll up to win the 2nd looked cool. But the 3rd is where it really picks up, and it's mainly because suddenly Ray starts working as a southern heel out of nowhere. It had been worked as a face/face match up until this point, and Ray comes out in the 3rd and starts, well, chopping Silueta right in the tits. Ouch. I mean, like 15 chops, right to the tits. Not upper chest, is what I'm saying. And the fans INSTANTLY turn on Ray. Sounds like mostly dudes booing her, too. Ray soaks it up and starts choking Silueta in the ropes and then kneels on her head while choking her in the ropes and I am loving evil Ray! Sadly, she gets less evil as the fall goes on and it does fall a bit into move trade offs, but it still was very very good and kept me engaged. Each woman gets to do their take on a somersault dive off the apron, nice superplex by Silueta, a GREAT nearfall for Silueta, and then the ending is kinda botched as the ref holds up on the 3 count, the whole crowd reacts to the nearfall...10 seconds go by....and then the ref just kinda raises Silueta's hand. Flat finish for a title win, but the match was very good and the CMLL ladies have really been delivering this year.



3. Misterioso Jr./Rey Escorpion/Vangelis vs. Angel de Oro/Black Warrior/Delta:

A match that had a lot of fun moments and nice individual spots, but wasn't really much of a match. Misterioso always brings it and he was probably the best guy here. Even if he wasn't he is always tassled out, which would make a bad wrestler look at minimum awesome. Delta didn't break out any real insane spots like he usually does, Vangellis hit his rad spear through the ropes onto the ramp, Oro hit a bunch of nice looking stuff (sweet little moonsault from the middle turnbuckle to the floor in the 3rd). Escorpion looked kinda off in this one, though. Overshot two moonsaults bad, and then took forever to do the "pull off mask, roll up Delta" finish. It was already a cheap finish, and then he kinda made it worse. So, some good moments, not much as a whole.



4. Dragon Rojo Jr./Averno/Mr. Niebla vs. Rush/Super Porky/La Sombra:

This went pretty much like the last match: Not much to it, but some good individual spots. And too much Rosa Concha. Averno takes Sombra's stuff real well, Rush hits a giant flip dive (Rush actually got cheered for doing it!), and that's about it. Not a very good main event by any means.

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