Found Footage Friday: 1989 CMLL

Full Show

Septiembre Negro/Bufalo Salvaje vs. Pegasso/Sombra Poblama

MD: We come in JIP here, just the finish, but it's a fun one. After a bit of measured rope running, Septiembre Negro takes a wild hefting bump over the top. Sombra Polbama hits a great driving heatbutt off the apron onto him as Pegasso (I think) locks in this cool dangling pulling armhold on Bufalo Salvaje to win it. 

Las Estrellas Blancos vs. Bestia Salvaje/Comando Ruso/Panico

MD: Estrellas aren't super familiar to me but they had a kid or a mini out with them to do tricks pre-match and signed a bunch of autographs. Rudos ambushed to start with one Estrella getting lawn darted into the post. I'm not used to seeing Bestia Salvaje so young and he was really moving around in there well. Start of the segunda had solid tandem rudo offense including pressing an Estrella back against the top rope for a shot off the top and holding him up in Hart Attack position for a bunch of offense. Panico followed it up with a slam onto the side of the ring, but while doing so, the tecnicos came back. Little bit weird timing there. They did a revenge posting on Comando Ruso and then held Panico's arms so they could kick him again and again with big setups. A crowd pleaser that he sold like a foul. Rudos took back over and did a stacking submission with Bestia posing on top. Finish actually had an Estrella come from behind and foul him there, drawing the DQ but a moral victory perhaps. I'm not sure I've ever seen that exact finish to a fall. I had fun with this even if I thought the timing of the comeback as dubious.

Pirata Morgan/Super Halcon/Hijo del Gladiador vs. Jaque Mate/El Egipico/Pierroth Jr.

MD: Rudo vs. rudo war here. Pirata's side ambushed to start though it didn't really pick up until the end of the primera where Gladiador was waistlock dropping people on the ground and Pierroth's mask had been mostly torn apart. Egipico had a pretty solid comeback where he just started to punch everyone. Nothing really sparked it but it was fiery enough all things considered. After the comeback things devolved into lots of formless brawling and mask ripping. I wouldn't say there was any sort of central thesis to it, just things ebbing and flowing as people engaged and withdrew, but when it all came back together, it really all came back together. They were able to isolate Pierroth 3-on-1 and gave him one of the nastiest beatings I've seen in ages, leaving him a bloody mess with a strewn mask barely clinging on to consciousness. It was a hell of a way to end the thing at least.

Los Infernales (MS-1/Satanico/Maskare) vs. Magico/Blue Demon Jr./Huracan Ramirez

MD: Another rudo ambush. They were leaning hard into it on this one. They said this was a super libre, I think. Satanico can direct rudo beatdown traffic better than anyone and that's what we had here. Just a constantly moving beatdown ending in a triple submission that stretched Blue Demon in every direction at once. Notable is that when they were doing the "stand on your opponent" triple submission bit earlier, they saw the tecnico coming to break it up and dismounted to stop him, which you never really see.

Tecnico comeback was driven by Magico (Who would soon become Mascara Sagrada or at least Hombre Sin Nombre? That probably helps date this?) but things would sort of go back and forth with bits of tecnico comeback interspersed with renewed rudo beatdown. All the rudos managed to stooge and take the babyfaces' stuff, Satanico being especially great at it, but soon after they took back over and were undoing the tecnicos masks all at once. It went like that until they had the rudos in some real danger and in response they swarmed, beating the crap out of Huracan Ramirez and drawing the DQ when they wouldn't stop. So not exactly satisfying but you can't fault the rudo talent here certainly.

ER: I don't think we specifically set out to write about Satanico on consecutive days but there sure are worse ways to run this website. Our streak of Consecutive Days to Start 2026 Writing About Satanico will almost surely end with this, but I love our look at first 76 year old Satanico and now 40 year old Satanico. There is no moment of this match where my eyes were not drawn to whatever Satanico was doing. As Matt says, he is very clearly the one running traffic for this entire match. Whenever he is not directly involved in the action, my brain was always saying "Where is Satanico? What is Satanico doing right now?" because whatever he was doing was almost always the thing most worth watching. He is the man directly Los Infernales while dictating the match's tone and energy. It's incredible. It's one thing that his actual ring work is a cut above everyone else (not an insult to anyone, for he is Satanico), it's that he is such a presence at all times. He is the smallest of Los Infernales, but anyone seeing Satanico for the first time would instantly be able to tell that he is In Charge. 

Sometimes, due to 1989 lost lucha video quality and the incredible matching gear/full heads of gorgeous hair on Los Infernales, it would be easy to forget that Masakre or MS-1 was currently in the ring wreaking havoc and not Satanico. But then, our boy would come into frame with that smile and that even better head of hair and the mood would just change. He took offense from tecnicos better (love his fold on Huracan's huracanrana), he stirred shit and stooged better (loved the way he threw up his hands in plea while his boys were being pinned in the segunda), and he was the one who would always enter with punches and devilish charm. My favorite actual moment of the match was MS-1's apron fist fight with Magico. I've seen a lot of bad looking apron fights, and they had such a dramatic battle with both rocking each other with punches to the face, chest and body, both using the ropes to hold themselves up, never just simple back and forth, excellent dramatic movement by MS-1. But this was a six man Satanico match, through and through.   

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Found Footage Friday: CASAS~! PANTERITA~! PIRATA~! ASTRO~! SMILEY~! CARAS~! ARANDU~! SCORPIOS~! DEMON~! VERDUGO~!

Black Magic/Panterita del Ring/Centurion Negro vs. Negro Casas/Cien Caras/Arandu CMLL 1991

MD: Back to another wild trios here, another exciting match in this feud. There's such energy and almost elasticity whenever Casas and Panterita are in there. No one else moves like Casas. The way he hits the ropes almost seems to stretch reality itself, like he's always threatening to tumble off screen at any moment, like the ring itself would give way to him. It was true throughout but most especially as they were careening towards the finish of the tercera (Casas going for a 'rana and getting power bombed). The primera started with Panterita going right after Casas. It looked like there would be an immediate rudo advantage as Casas turned it around but Black Magic was there to toss him off the top and they rolled into exchanges.

This had to be pretty early into Smiley's sojourn into Mexico (in the pre-match interview, he pronounced Panterita's name wrong and couldn't remember Centurion Negro's name, not that he did much in this match) and he has raw size and presence but is still trying to figure out how to fit into a match like this. That's my takeaway at least. He has Casas, Arandu, and Caras to help him along but there are moments where he's coming back way before he's supposed to and I think there are spots here where he ends up getting goozled for his own good. They still were able to get a lot of use out of him though, like Arandu leaping back off the second rope only to get caught or Caras trying it on Smiley later only to get rolled up (the segunda finish). There were little bits of clipping here and there, maybe around fouls, but the long stretches of the beatdown and comeback were still satisfying. Casas was all over Panterita, tossing him into collapsing chairs, ripping the mask, trying to force his head into the space already occupied by the turnbuckle. They started the final exchanges with Casas tossing something in the air to distract him for a punch and set up the finishing stretch with Casas feigning getting fouled so his team could swarm in. I'm not getting sick of this pairing yet, that's for sure.

Panterita del Ring/Asterisco/Centurion Negro vs. Megatron/Scorpio/Scorpio Jr CMLL 1991

MD: Unfortunately, this was pretty clipped. We got a clear mat exchange between Megatron and Centurion Negro to start, which looked perfectly fine, and then bits and pieces of the beatdown and comeback and then the complete finishing stretch in the tercera. Therefore, I don't have anything intelligent to say about Asterisco (who I don't think was the Asterisco who feuded with Santito) for instance. I do want to stress how over Panterita was with this arena though. He had a cheering section; last match they had pom poms and here they had little flags. He had all the fire you'd want out of a local hero when fighting from underneath or making his comeback. He was probably matched with Scorpio, Sr. here but we didn't get to see much of that. It's a shame because Scorpio, Sr. feels like such a perfect wrestler for this blog given his size and overall scumminess. His nickname is apparently "El Rey Feo" (the Ugly King). Whenever he pops up in footage, I'm glad to see him. Anyway, this ended with things breaking down, the rudos controlling until the Scorpios had a mishap, and then a foul that the refs missed letting them win it anyway. This probably would have been pretty good, if somewhat slight, if we had gotten the whole thing.

Blue Demon Jr./Super Astro/Panterita del Ring vs. Arandu/Pirata Morgan/Verdugo Monterrey 1991 

MD: This is not actually new, but this video is in way more watchable form since it was cut up and misnamed before so we're going to cover it again. Here's the last review: 

(https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2012/08/just-call-me-pirata-morgan-im-sure-to.html)

It was epic then and it's epic now. While Panterita is in almost every match that have popped up in this dump and while I think it probably helps Ephesto's case over all to see these, and while seeing Casas off the beaten trail here has only spoken well of him too, Arandu is a guy who wasn't on anyone's radar and that really looks great in these matches: wild offense, big bumping, a lot of presence, fits right in with Estrada or Angel Blanco, Jr., or whoever. And here, he makes a great third Bucanero with Morgan and his brother. The story of this one was Arandu vs Super Astro and while everyone else played their part, it was some great contrast. Astro was willing to be lawndarted into hard objects and have his mask (and forehead) torn and chewed upon by Arandu and Arandu was more than happy to get chased around the arena and play into all of Astro's signature spots, including bumping out of the ring on the taunt spin.

My favorite moment in this was probably Demon dodging a punch so that Morgan hit Verdugo and then, when Morgan was selling his fist by shaking his hand in the air repeatedly, reaching his hand out to shake Morgan's, causing our one-eyed friend to freak out. The second was definitely Super Astro's final comeback where he burst into the ring and hit a DDT on Arandu that felt just as appropriate as punching him in the face due to how explosive it was. Even Blue Demon looked good in there, flying into hard objects for the rudos and hitting a nice Northern Lights Suplex. And Panterita fit right in on the tecnico side, hitting some of the more complex armdrags and vaults. Just a very complete match with blood, violence, comedy, big spots, something for everyone really.

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Found Footage Friday: RYUMA GO~! BARR~! BRUISE~! HAMADA~! SCORPIOs~! ESTRADA~! ARANDU~! SUPER PUNK~! DIFUNTO~!

Super Punk/Kendo Star/Milo Caballero vs Sultan Gargola/Ulises/Difunto CMLL 1992

MD: I thought this would be uneventful since we only get ten minutes of in, but we come in during the segunda right at the comeback with Difunto's masked ripped to shreds by Super Punk (Luciferno?) and the tecnicos getting some serious justice on the rudos. Super Punk's mask had been ripped as well and between the segunda and tercera they continued to really go at it.This got a little silly with the tercera exchanges (though I ended up kind of wanting to see more Caballero and his unnecessary flipping) before settling down to Punk and Difunto smacking each other in the face again. The finish was great though. In the midst of the brawling, Difunto ended up on one of the refs. Super Punk tried to leap off the top on him and landed on the ref. That let Difunto get in a foul. Pretty creative stuff. Just at a glance, I don't think we get the undercard apuestas match that this hopefully led to. That's a shame. As for the match itself, who doesn't want to watch ten minutes of goofy chaos, right?

Gigante Warrior/Scorpio Jr y Sr vs Solomon Grundy/Gran Hamada/Centurion CMLL 1992

MD: Pretty out there attraction match. I think that Gigante Warrior is Butch Masters who I've spent a bit too much time with in late 90 AJPW. He'd been around a bit by this point and could contribute in a match like this, even if he'd never be your first choice. Scorpio, Sr. always comes off like the world's best possible Rey Mysterio, Sr. opponent in size, shape, and temperment, so take that as you will. Hamada is there to give this a weird WAR feel. Honestly, I almost had the vibe of one of those matches with Porky and Marco Corleone in them, just with less charisma. Hamada, even in 92, still had bursts of explosiveness and some solid strikes. Scorpio, Jr. could match up with anyone on the other side, which says something, I suppose. Centurion didn't exactly impress, however. Grundy was there to get hit by Warrior and splash people in the corner. I'm never not going to have at least some fun with a matchup like this, but your mileage, gentle reader, may vary.

Jerry Estrada/Arandu/Angel Blanco Jr vs Blue Demon Jr/Panterita del Ring/Transformer CMLL 1992

MD: Pretty straightforward match here. Up front, the biggest things to note are how well Estrada and Arandu fit together visually  and that Panterita continued to feel like a big deal locally. Demon did not impress for the most part, but I'm not surprised there. It did surprise me a little how he let Angel Blanco kind of eat him up on the mat (even with simple things) in their initial exchange and had to goad him back for another go around so that they could at least feign evenness before tagging out. Transformer is Super Kendo, I think, and he's got fun gear but didn't stand out a ton otherwise. Estrada's stooging and selling had the announcers proclaim he was out to get the Oscar for Best Actor. Arandu still wasn't afraid to bump out of the ring.

They went around a couple of times in the primera with Demon looking a little better on his second exchange with Angel Blanco. He did have his timing down on the punches on the outside at least. The beatdown in the segunda was solid but probably not long enough in the grand scheme of things and then the comeback and finishing stretch in the tercera was blink and you'd miss it though Demon did hit a tope to set up the finish at least. Nothing egregious but not super interesting either.

Bruise Brothers (Ron and Don Harris) vs Ryuma Go/Jesse Barr Orienal Pro-Wrestling 12/3/92

MD: As best as I can tell, they'd been feuding both in general and over the tag belts and otherwise off and on since July. This was the big blowoff, a Texas deathmatch in a cage, but one that otherwise followed tag rules for the most part, and Ryuma Go's last match in the promotion.

There was a lot going on here but most of it really worked for me. Bruise Brothers were more apt to break the rules and double team while the faces tended to wait for tags though there were a lot of transitions based around the partner having enough and intervening. The Texas Deathmatch rules allowed for any number of big impressive bombs from Ron and Don (assisted powerbomb, double suplex, Slaughter Cannon with a double axe-handle, top rope power slam, etc.) which would lead to the three count and then the drama of whether Go, or for a huge chunk of the match, Barr (who took the broader heat), would be able to beat the count. Mostly everything else would lead to a somehow still dramatic two count.

The Harris Brothers were good at imposing themselves and solid at clubbering even if they were never quite as wild as you'd want. Maybe they made up for it with the big power moves. Early on the cage was the equalizer for Go and Barr (that and Go's headbutts and Barr's fire) but between it and the Deathmatch rules, it never became quite the force I would have wanted. It wasn't a huge part of the beatdown on Barr for instance, just there as part of the connective tissue at times. That's not to say the beatdown and the instances of just barely making the count after some big bomb wasn't compelling, because it was (gushing blood or no; here it was no). I thought it was so well done that my biggest criticism of the match is that he recovered way too soon after the hot tag to set up the finishing stretch (wherein they did this neat belly to back/high angle side slam combo). It also ended on an Octopus Hold, and I get the idea that surrender is probably valid in a Texas Deathmatch but you want to see the count come into play at the end, just like you do the cage; that said, it was really novel to see it used as it was, to ramp up the drama during a face-in-peril segment of a tag match. I can't think of many other tag team Texas Deathmatches and I can say pretty safely that as a proof of concept, there's more there to mine.

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2022 Ongoing MOTY List: Rayo vs. Demon

13. Rayo del Jalisco Jr. vs. Blue Demon Jr. AAA TripleMania 4/30

ER: This show already had one great old man match at this point, so it felt like asking a bit much for two even older men to have one just 20 minutes later. And yet. 

This match was universally dumped on in every post-show comment I saw, but people have been bad mouthing Rayo de Jalisco matches on the internet for as long as I've been on the internet. Why would that change when the man is 62? I thought Rayo looked like an old guy out there having a great time, and while I can't say what everyone else is seeing, I saw a guy who can still take a match a long way with nostalgic charisma and a big loud overhand chop. They started with preening, posing, and flexing, which I thought was great old man lucha theater. After that theater, Rayo's big overhand chops and hard corner punches were an awesome escalator. His chops looked great and the punches were thrown like a man who knew he was getting punched in the face with a chain later. Rayo put a lot of good space between all of them, mugging to the crowd before each shot, impressively timing each one to bigger reactions. 

Rayo brings big hands and Demon brings weapons, ranging from a thin cookie sheet to his fucking hammer. Weapons are whatever, but a chain wrapped around a fist is pro wrestling perfection. Demon hits at least two great punches across Rayo's jaw with a chain-wrapped fist, and it's all right in front of a woman who must be somebody, sitting by herself looking like a soap star or the Tijuana Cartel version of Helen Mirren in Long Good Friday. Demon has a nice putaway right hand, and I liked how their punch exchanges aren't set to any kind of rhythm, just punching each other around the ringside. I thought both men sold the other's punches really well, and there was this awesome sequence where Demon fell backward into the middle rope after a big Rayo slap, offered up a weak-legged one on his rebound, only to get walloped with a Rayo return volley. The middle rope bump is something reserved exclusively for cool wrestlers like Bobby Eaton and Big Boss Man, so guess what this makes Demon, haters? 

Rayo dug his heels into Demon in little ways, like how he always pressed his full palm or forearm into Demon's face whenever pinning him, and how they kept punching and kicking each other in their old sagging balls so much that the ref finally just throw up his hands at it all. Referees in disbelief at the sight of two old guys kicking each other in the balls. Also, Rayo looks like he has some bad Mike Graham level ink down his right side, mostly covered by his singlet, and that only makes him even cooler, like he's a cool dumb dirtbag/local slap fighting competition champion

God, the fucking Cien Caras walk out, with his perfect style, like a dangerous uncle at a Quinceanera. He's 72 and still has an impeccable mustache, strong head of hair, and uses a cane with no uncertainty. Still looks exactly like Cien Caras. Mascara Ano Dos Mil meanwhile looks like he's on the same train tracks as Bill Dundee and they're going to meet at a plastic surgeon somewhere in the middle. Mascara Ano Dos Mil looks like Al Pacino playing John Gotti. Caras has the same kind of charisma here as mid 90s Rusher Kimura and man I loved it when he was putting the boots to Rayo. The old man who looks like the toughest version of the Bla-Blazo puppet is beating old rival's asses while getting his sons and nephews to do the same, and it made me yearn for more authentic family feuds in American wrestling. None of this was clean, but these old guys with terrible reputations as workers, representing a very different era of lucha stardom, still know how to take big lumps and milk deserved reactions. This match got downvoted to oblivion just like Caras and Rayo matches have been hated for 30 years, slow brawlers who don't have innovative smooth offense. But old men throwing stiff punches to a loud stadium crowd remains one of my favorite things in wrestling, and I fail to predict the circumstances where that will ever change. Don't believe the hate. 

2022 MOTY MASTER LIST

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New Footage Friday: CRYBABY BOB!! SANTO! SUPER PARKA! ! DUSTY! PEDRO! FUJINAMI! INOKI!

Crybaby Bob Corby vs. Sheik Lawrence of Arabia NWA-Los Angeles 2/19/51

MD: Eight minutes of pure entertainment. Corby's definitely my kind of heel: always on, totally committed, and able to be both dangerous and credible with his offense and a complete coward when he loses advantage. He was lightning quick when taking offense, like how he was ready for Lawrence's initial somersault, but then he was just as quick to try to dive behind the ref when the tide turned. And the fans responded accordingly. A group of female fans in the front row throwing jelly beans at a heel because he tried to pull the tights to get a pin is the most 1950s Americana thing possible and a fun counterpoint to all the French Catch we've been seeing lately.

PAS: This was a blast. Corby was a really fun over the top bad guy. I could almost see him as an oafish bank robber in a Keystone Cops short. The fact that he enraged the mothers in the crowd so much that they were chucking jelly beans at him, just incredible stuff. He controlled much of the match with his antics and hard shots, but I liked the little glimpses of Sheik Lawrence we got as well. He seemed really agile, and his Argentinian Backbreaker into a airplane spin into a backslide was a nifty bit of business, someone should jack that finisher.

ER: Loved this look at the LA wrestling scene from a time where my grandpa would have been watching. Crybaby Bob Corby is getting reactions from women in the crowd from the second his name is announced, and it's cool to see a Sheik gimmick as a handsome soft cheeked babyface (as if the next 70 years of wrestling weren't about to happen). This of course is the infamous TE Lawrence, whose pro wrestling career would be made into a real crowd pleaser of a film just a decade later. Lawrence had this fun spinny pirouette bumps off of Crybaby Bob's cheapshot punches, spinning into the mat like he was in a Looney Tunes short. Bob threw several rabbit punches into the back of the Sheik's head, then would run crying and cowering to the ref any time Sheik mounted any kind of comeback. Crybaby had several early variations on Eddie Guerrero's running on his knees to hug his partner at the waist, always trying to get the ref in between he and Lawrence. The ref was a former boxer from the 30s, Cecil Payne. He was billed as 5'5" in his boxing days but he towers over these two like Sterling Hayden, so either those numbers are wrong or Bob and Sheik are 5'2 with good posture. The women of all ages kept getting more loud and upset at Bob's cowardice, and I absolutely adore stuff like that in old pro wrestling. Phil accurately described the awesomeness of Sheik's finish run; some small but strong guy like Lorcan or Gulak could pull that off convincingly and make it work in a match.


Antonio Inoki/Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Dusty Rhodes/Pedro Morales NJPW 10/26/79

PAS: Fun opportunity to see two of the most iconic babyfaces in wrestling history work cheap shot heel, and they are pretty great at it. Dusty has such an iconic vibe, and it is cool that we get to see him apply that vibe to evil rather than to good. Match moves along at a nice pace and then really kicks into gear near the end, with Fujinami hitting an awesome bullet tope which sent Pedro flying into chairs. I wonder how many topes Morales took during his career? It can't be a ton, but he took it like a seasoned luchador.

MD: This was a lot of fun. There are only so many heel Dusty matches in existence and while it's a little different when he's a foreigner, he was so good in the role. I don't know if many other heel Pedro matches exist (do any?), and while the first couple of minutes of him being on the wrong end of Fujinami's headlock (which was a strange place for him to be considering he was the one working the shine for most of his career) wasn't exactly dynamic, he seemed to enjoy himself once they started to heel it up. Dusty was great at playing chickenshit and then seizing upon weakness when he saw it. When they did take over, it was by cutting off the ring, making quick tags, frequent double teams, illegal and legal, and goozling there opponent. Once Fujinami made the first hot tag to Inoki, they were just relentless, with the ref admonishing one while the other cheated away and then vice versa. The fans were hugely into this, just a constant buzz, and every time it went to the floor, the beatdown became electric. It had an almost lucha feel with the momentum shifts mattering more than the tags (even rolling hot ones) and with Dusty fouling Inoki from behind once it was obvious he'd taken control to end the first fall. For every cool thing, like Pedro's double stomp or Dusty working over Inoki's stomach through the ropes from the floor, there were certain things that looked iffy like Pedro not making it on a whip or Dusty's hilarious pile driver on the floor, but some of that was counterbalanced by the fact Dusty was doing a pile driver on the floor to get heat, you know? Good look at some legends and a rare look at two of them playing roles that they sparsely played by 79.

ER: I've seen very little heel Dusty, and I'm sure I've never seen any heel Pedro, and I'm pretty sure I'm in love. With the crowd rapturously behind Inoki and an impossibly fired up babyface performance from Fujinami, it was a perfect canvas for two super charismatic babyfaces to show off their heel side. Heel Pedro is a real revelation for me. I've seen enough hot comeback dropkick Pedro, but I've never seen "kick someone directly in the ear" Pedro. Morales was such a thug in this match, it was nuts! He was landing shots on Inoki like Inoki was some young lion, and Dusty was this super cocky opportunist sneaking shots where he could. I loved the spot where Pedro was holding Inoki in a full nelson and trying to let Dusty get in close for a cheap shot, but Inoki keeps kicking his legs out at Dusty, fighting every piece of dirty work. Everything on the floor was really electric, and the Fujinami tope is a real all timer. You can see him building up that head of steam and just letting loose, looked like he flew 12 feet. Matt is right about the outside brawling having a real lucha feel, and that tope just rubber stamped it. I'd love to see how rabid an Arena Mexico crowd would get for a match like this.


El Hijo Del Santo/Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Blue Demon Jr./Super Parka Lucha Libre Reynosa 2/2/08

MD: This was quite the spectacle. A couple of clips but nothing too worrisome. Lots of posturing post match after Wagner turns on Santo, but if you're going to have posturing peppered with post match brawling (and even a dive) these are two good guys to do it. Some overachieving here (Super Parka looked really spry for 2008) and the underachieving you'd expect (Blue Demon's offense looked really good; his bumping and selling less so). The star power carried this though. By 2008, Wagner was a victim of his own charisma and he'd ham it up to an extreme extent but that's what the crowd wanted. The crowd brawling when the rudos took over in the segunda looked good but we were missing a chunk of it due to the camera angles. It devolved first to mask pulling and then to lots of miscommunication between partners, including Santo hitting the somersault senton (pre-dive) on Wagner by accident. That led into the finish and the post-match posturing. Worth watching but something like this is just too weighed down by the sheer mass of its combatants to settle on being great.

PAS: There is no wrestler in history that enjoy watching go through his formula as much as I enjoy watching Santo. He pretty much just breaks out his greatest hits during the wrestling portion of this. match, and man do I love those hits, three great dives, his spinning headscissors, just awesome to watch. Pretty bizarre that Wagner and Demon would go on to have the MOTY 11 years after this match, as their exchanges weren't much here. Super Parka brought some brawling and bumping to the table, and the post match was cool. I didn't really buy the turn, they really should have had Santo hitting Wagner lead to the finish or something, because he just shrugs it off and does some two count exchanges before deciding he was pissed off and attacking Santo. I would be excited to see the singles match this sets up, hopefully that is sitting around somewhere too.

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2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Demon vs. Park

17. LA Park vs. Blue Demon Jr. IWRG 12/15

PAS: So Blue Demon Jr., after basically stinking his entire career, goes ahead and puts out a serious Wrestler of the Year candidacy at age 53. This is a great bloody LA Park brawl, with Demon being right there at every step. Park really might be the best bleeder since prime Tommy Rich, he really gets it red and soppy. We get some classic Naucalpan brawling spots, including some beer cases getting tossed at noggins and using the glass to slice. There is some nonsense with a heel ref, which probably keeps this from the absolute peak of this year, but I did love how Park wasted both Demon and the ref with a huge tope. The Traumas run from the back and hand Demon his trusty claw hammer, which he uses to bang Park on the knee, but Park gets the hammer and KO's Demon (there is a great timber sell from him) there is some more stuff with the Trauma's and Park's kids, but that was basically the finish. Hammer murder is a great wrestling finish.

ER: As a rule I already like any match between two guys in their 50s, but when it's between the greatest tubby skeleton in wrestling history and the guy with the weirdest and most unparalleled career, it gets pretty tough to beat. I keep trying to idly think of any person in any medium who can be compared to Blue Demon Jr.'s career trajectory. Every time I think I come up with someone there are details that just don't compare. Would it be like Nelson coming out with the album of the year in 2020? Maybe, but it's a stretch to call Nelson active musicians for all of the past 30 years. Would it be like Max Landis becoming an actual good person in 20 years? Maybe, but no matter how many people would pay to see him get his head carved open by a broken bottle, it won't happen. So Demon stands alone at the top of his own bruised scarred broken body pedestal, and takes the option of punching Park in the face and getting punched right back. They brawl around Naucalpan, both throwing stiff chops and punches, and I think about how crazy it would have sounded a few years ago to know that I'd look forward to Demon/Park matches in the same way I look forward to Rush/Park matches. There's a lot of BS in the match, some satisfying some not, but even the not satisfying stuff is a means to the great stuff; the combatants age adds to their vulnerability, which adds exponentially to the most violent and crazy parts of the match. I will just react bigger to old man punching, old man diving, old man falling, than I will to the same moves done by a 25 year old. I even weirdly got into the rudo ref fast counts - which is something I'm sick to death of in lucha and especially faux lucha feds - and the payoff to Park crushing that guy into the barricade was a wonderful moment. The hard shots keep landing, Demon gets gouged by a broken bottle and gets that perfect pro wrestler fanned out blood splatter down his chest, and the claw hammer really puts this over the top. Demon smashes that thing into Park's knee and it actually makes an audible thump! If I thumped my knee on the corner of my bed and it made that same sound I would be on the floor screaming. BS happens, but that BS ends with Blue Demon taking a hammer to the head, doing a great tim-berrrrrrrr sell to the mat, and then presumably growing a large cone shaped lump from that spot, so that starry eyed birds may fly around it.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Demon vs. Wagner

1. Blue Demon Jr. vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. AAA 8/3

PAS: This was one of the most viscerally violent matches I can remember seeing. Demon was a wandering dead eyed psychopath in this match, with Wagner doing a great job as a charismatic babyface fight back against a horror movie villain. I have seen plenty of matches with big weapons shots over the years, and this match was a great example of making each weapon shot a memorable moment. Demon opens up the match with by breaking a bottle over the head of Wagner, who had come into the match wearing his mask, which maybe stretched the rules a bit, but did allow for a bloody white mask which is always a great visual. The second huge moment came when a sickeningly bloody Demon goes out of the ring and grabs a claw hammer, and attacks Wagner like he was Richard Speck. He slams Wagner in the back of the head and spine, and hammers his hands like his knuckles were penny nails. It was a great bit of close magic by Demon, it really looks like an attempted murder, and I have no idea how you gimmick a hammer to the back of the head. The final huge moment comes at end of the match, after Wagner gets a bunch of close near falls with nasty Wagner Drivers, Demon’s kid runs into with a cinder block, he awkwardly stands around a bit before getting bums rushed by Wagner’s seconds. Demon Jr. gets his hands on the cinder block and smashes in over Wagner’s head, in a pretty gross tribute to Angel o Demonio,  KOing him and winning his hair. Hell of performance by two guys in their 50s as they just milked every bit of drama out of everything they did with Demon leaving puddles around the ring like an un house broken puppy.

ER: Just a couple years ago it was the safest bet possible that Blue Demon Jr. would spend the rest of his days in lucha casually making money off his established birthright while also doing the exact level of work that legacy sons can get away with, and not an ounce more. And then for reasons I'm not sure I've seen anyone properly explain, he turned 50 and just decided to hit the ground running and take terrifying death match beatings. It's the 2nd most unexpected plot twist for a 50+ year old wrestler this decade, and it's only 2nd because somehow David Arquette happened. But even that seems up for debate, as we'd have to weigh which was more unexpected between a) shocking return to wrestling *period*, before the near throat slashing vs. b) long time coasting legacy act deciding to suffer for his art and achieve genuine greatness. Blue Demon Jr. just might be the most intriguing wrestling story of the decade, and that makes this match even more special, makes it feel even more historic. The action is perfectly paced and the whole match is spiked with crazy violence. Demon smashes a bottle on Wagner's head and later smashes his hand with a freaking hammer like he caught Wagner counting cards for a buddy. This match really announces what the hell it's going to be and it never veers from that violent promise. I still don't know how Blue Demon Jr. can suddenly be Satanico, but here he is punching Wagner in the chin all over the ring, and Wagner gets absolutely nuclear reactions with fast schoolboy rollups, fast counted by Hijo del Tirantes. Blood spurts like mad, both guys covered, huge puddles on the mat, Demon ripping at Wagner's arm and hand, Wagner spiking him with some savage Wagner Drivers for more great nearfalls; the whole thing is impossible to pull your eyes from. It's amazing how high they kept the drama throughout; this was a huge match on paper and even more huge in execution. This match is the sweetest kind of wrestling gift, the kind of all time great match that nobody could have predicted, bloated in the best ways, shocking in even better ways, just a total classic.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Blue Demon Jr. vs. La Parka vs. Dr. Wagner Jr.

12. Blue Demon Jr. vs. La Parka vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. AAA 3/3

ER: This might be the oldest triple threat match that I've ever seen, every one of these dudes is in their 50s. Blue Demon is the baby of the match at just 52, and it's fascinating to me that Blue Demon only became a remotely interesting wrestler at the age of 50. He hit 50 and suddenly decided to start bleeding and bumping and it's one of the more bizarre career transformations we've seen. A lot of this is Parka and Wagner beating Demon around the building, ripping at his mask, busting him open big time, throwing sturdy as hell chairs off his face, throwing him into those same chairs, really killing him. Demon is somehow now a guy who takes a really great beating, again totally bizarre, but undeniable. He really draws some great tecnico sympathy here, and by the time he makes his big comeback I'm sitting here actually rooting for freaking Blue Demon Jr.! His tope into Wagner is truly a fantastic old guy tope. Now, this is AAA, so we need about a dozen more guys to run in for shenanigans. But when one of those guys is Rey Escorpion, you know the run in will feature enough potatoes to feed a Thanksgiving soup kitchen. Escorpion and Texano target La Parka (as well as any masked fliers dumb enough to try to stop them), with Texano throwing nasty bullrope shots and Escorpion punching him and beating him with chairs. Demon and Wagner brawl through the crowd and Wagner taps his own massive gusher. It's so wild to see these old dudes spurting blood and crashing into chairs, falling over the barricade onto concrete floor, while a half dozen guys get dispatched by two stiff maniacs who aren't even in the match. The whole thing is chaos and plays out like the best of 1995 ECW, but if everybody was as old as Terry Funk when he was in ECW.

PAS: This was a quality bit of lucha mayhem and is about as entertaining a match you can get with basically one good wrestler, although old man Blue Demon is really weirdly turning into a great brawler. It's like when Flair went to ECW and started taking all of these crazy garbage bumps, if Flair was a 30 year veteran who sucked, like instead of Flair it was Jeff Gaylord who turned himself into a cool garbage guy. This match made me excited to see Demon vs. Wagner mascara contra cabellera which isn't something I thought I would say. I dug Escorpion and Texano wrecking half the roster, while Wagner and Demon traded good looking punches and leaked all over each other. It is a good example of what a bloody half ripped mask can add to a match. Overbooked goofiness which shouldn't work but weirdly did.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Mesias Can't Count How Many Heads He Had to Sever

El Mesias/Electroshock v. Blue Demon Jr./La Parka AAA 8/9/15 - FUN

ER: Mesias coming out victorious over the Turks in the Vlad Dracula armor is one of the absolute coolest entrances ever. Juxtapose that with Demon coming out to modern Red Hot Chili Peppers and...yeah. And I actually quite liked this. Demon/Parka is a team of stiffs if ever there was one, but Mesias is great at dragging stuff out of Parka, and he does here. He baits him into a nice punch exchange (Mesias' overhand rights are some of the best in wrestling), brawls with him over the railing and into the crowd, eats a tope by safely catching Parka and slamming hard into the barricade; Mesias bumps big throughout and makes Parka look tough. Electroshock is a guy who is always a bit better than he seems. He's a guy that nobody goes out of their way to watch, but always comes off like a competent not-as-good Mesias when I do see him. He feeds Demon nicely here; I liked their opening older man lucha segment, working as smaller guys, rolling up into armdrags, and I liked their finishing run with Electroshock breaking out a big powerslam and powerbomb, before Demon taps him with a nice octopus. I think this was given just the right amount of time, didn't have that typical AAA overkill, and all guys complemented each other nicely. A nice little carry by Mesias/Electro.

PAS: Mediocre match, but it had it's moments. I really loved the initial Parka v. Mesisas section where they take the lock up all the way into the crowd. I would assume these two had a singles match, and I need to track that down as I imagine it is a fun budget version of Mesias v. LA PARK. Demon looked like Demon, but he didn't do anything egregious, and I liked his head scissors. Messias also hit a nice spear, still this was pretty forgettable overall.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EL MESIAS 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

48. Villano IV v. Blue Demon Jr. AAA 3/18

PAS: VIV shows up twice a year on tape to have these gritty nasty brawls. Blue Demon is sort of luggage set, but he is solid in all the different parts of this match, and that iconic mask soaked in blood is a great visual. Villano is awesome in this, he does a bunch of interesting mat stuff early, lands some beautiful punches on the cuts and builds a lot of drama till the finish. Villano is one of the most interesting punch combos in wrestling, he mixes in hooks, jabs, body shots, the highlight of the match is Demon and Villano IV standing toe to toe and just exchanging until both fall over. I would rather see VIV matched up with someone a little better (man he would be great against Pentagon Jr.) but I am thrilled we still get to see him on a big stage.

ER: I really liked this, it combined the kind of clumsy stiffness you typically see from old white guy wrestling, with the slow grace of old luchadors fighting. When old guys fight there's a built in vulnerability that really appeals to me. Every spill resonates more as these guys are long past the days of feeling invincible. At this point they have a finite number of falls left in their bodies. Both men operate to a degree as symbols. Demon is a legend who isn't a legend, more like a son running his father's drywall business into the ground, but the long time employees still like him despite his faults because of how much they loved his father. V4 is much closer to a legend, but probably pales when compared to V3 and V5. But here they are both legends, older slower, still willing to takes risks, still utilizing their tools. I love the slowed down old man lucha spots, the slower armdrags, the slower go behinds, and we get those; but things take a turn as V4 backs Demon back into the corner with punches to the face, body, short kicks to the ribs and kidneys, and soon we get biting and mask ripping and bleeding, and any ounce of grace is gone. V4 drops that classic leg on the apron, falls short on a dive, Demon hits a rana off the top rope; these are things they don't need to do and don't often do anymore, but you can hear the fans getting deeper and deeper involved as they see what level the two luchadors are taking it to. The big moment comes - and this is legitimately one of my absolute favorite wrestling moments of the last few years - where V4 comes out of the corner throwing tight balled up fists right at Demon's chin, and Demon responds in kind, and you have these two just standing in the middle of the ring punching each other in the face, not taking turns, just swinging until collapse. Hearing the fan murmur slowly starting to build to a roar was really special. I love it when old guys really show up. These kinds of matches are just made for me.


2015 ONGOING MOTY LIST

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MLJ: Misterioso/Volador 3: Blue Panther, Emilio Charles Jr., Fuerza Guerrera vs Blue Demon Jr., Misterioso, Volador I

1992-01-10 @ Arena Coliseo
Blue Panther, Emilio Charles Jr., Fuerza Guerrera vs Blue Demon Jr., Misterioso, Volador I

Going off of the almighty match finder, this was the third match in a three match series pitting Misterioso and Volador against Fuerza Gurrera at Arena Coliseo. This followed the title match (and matches that built it) a month prior in Arena Mexico. I covered the second match on Wednesday but the first one isn't online, which is a shame because it had Nitron, and I can only imagine him taking Volador and Misterioso's stuff. Anyway, this was a pretty weird match, but if it was a blowoff to help Fuerza get his heat back, I can sort of understand it. That said, there's almost no one in the history of wrestling who feels as Teflon when it comes to losses as Fuerza.

I've seen extremely little Blue Demon Jr. He was around 25 here, so my guess is that a lot of his more negative tendencies I've heard about developed later. Granted, most of what he had to do was get beat on and some rope running. He did take some good bumps for Charles and I wouldn't be against watching a title match against Blue Panther from this era if it existed (it doesn't) but he was a supporting player here.

Like I said, weird structure. Unless it was clipped, and I saw no sign of that, it went two falls, with the rudos taking both, and a tecnico comeback in the middle. There wasn't any sort of shine or feeling out at the beginning either. The rudos just swarmed in after a bit of Fuerza vs Misterioso. Then there was a lot of post match brawling and posturing, including a face off between Fuerza and Misterioso once again. Looking at results and Observers, this didn't go anywhere. It was just it. Fuerza started teaming with Satanico and Panther against Vampiro, Dragon, and Octagon.

The opening swarm was effective enough given the guys you had on the rudo side. The tecnicos cycled in and out to get beaten on and there was a decent amount of tandem offense with the highlight being Misterioso lifted up onto two rudos' knees for a triple gutbuster. My favorite spot, however, was an electric chair splash by Panther and Fuerza. I always like how they work together. They really balanced one another:

Also, while we're at it, check out this pretty mare by Panther:

The comeback wasn't too much to write home about (just a quebradora out of nowhere). Really all you need to know about it is Emilio Charles' sell of a later quebradora:

He also took a back body drop bump out. The match ended with Misterioso getting slammed off the top by Fuerza and put into a double underhook backbreaker/submission by Panther. It was very sudden, but I guess it set up the Fuerza/Panther tandem to be at the top of the card for the next month (except for this was at Arena Coliseo and that was at Arena Mexico and frankly I'm probably looking too deeply at CMLL booking, even old CMLL booking). In short, I have no idea why this went two falls, why it ended with brawling and posturing. The previous match was better since it was more complete. I'm pretty sure that this was fine for what it was. I'm just still not sure what exactly that was.

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Lucha Underground Episode 39: UltimaLucha - Part II Review

Tomk joins us again for the season (and hopefully not the series) finale.

ER: I hadn't thought about who would be replacing Vampire since he'd be wrestling tonight, but my heart dropped when I saw Schiavello sitting there. He's a guy who I think can be decent but gets too blustery, wrapped up in shoehorning his awful catchphrases, and never builds to anything because from the beginning bell he's already screaming at 10. He comes off like a horrible Hawk Harrelson type.
TKG: This was first time listening to English language commentary and yikes, I’m sticking with Hugo. I did eventually re-watch the show with Hugo commentary and they should just really have Hugo comment the shows and then use some sort of translation bot for the English version. Hugo did an exceptional job calling Mundo v Alberto which was a real old school match and plays to him being knowledgeable about that type of match and match strategies. He really got over the Alberto blindness and how that would allow Mundo to do stick and run offense and meant that Alberto had to work more close range stuff, did a bit on how the potential of a tweaked leg would effect Alberto’s work and another bit on how a weakened arm might effect Mundo’s strategy. I don’t know if this reflected any of the actual in ring work but it made the details of work seem important, like you should pay attention to nuance that may not actually be there. Also Hugo understood the whole old school psychology of face spanking heel girl. Matt Striker called that spot like a guy raised on ECW. Hugo understood the Dusty trope where spanking a woman is understood as being an appeal to audience not to engage in domestic violence. Even if a woman slaps a man multiple times, a true man should never strike a woman…a “gentleman” knows to spank her instead. Hugo tearfully pointed to Dusty in the sky and said that Alberto spanked Melina like a “caballero”. 

1. Johnny Mundo vs. Alberto El Patron 

 
ER: I really liked most of this match, but the ending was a pretty loud fart noise. I don't think anybody wanted the return of Melina, and he's never able to hit The End of the World very well. He always lands really hard on his hip while his shoulder sort of grazes his opponent. So Melina with a weak belt shot combined with finishing on the least impactful move of the match, made for a pretty sour note. Still the first 90% of this was really good, with both guys taking turns getting tossed into railings and tables, Mundo tightening up his punches more than normal, AeP trying to rip Mundo's arm off, AeP getting dirt thrown in his eyes, tons of fun stuff. After the horrible finish we at least get more of Mundo getting tossed violently through things, with a nasty spill through chairs and then the payback revenge shot through a window. Melina was terrible throughout as Mundo bumps through chairs and she screams "No! Nooooooooo!" through tears, as if Mundo hadn't just been taking nasty bumps like that over the previous 20 minutes. Then we get that played out wrestling spot of a man spanking a naughty misbehaving woman, and Striker ups the ick factor with "I'm gonna rewind THAT on my DVR I can't TELL you how many times!" Yeesh. Coulda cleaned that one up in post.

PAS: I thought the handful of dirt as Mr. Fuji's salt was pretty great. I thought all of the wrestling exchanges in this were pretty good, feels like the kind of thing which would steal a WWE PPV if they were given some time. I didn't care for Mundo as a face in this fed but he has been pretty strong as a heel. Thought it was weird for Patron to immediately get his comeuppance after losing, felt like that could have been saved for a hypothetical next season. Also not sure why Mundo is squirting blood like that right before your garbage match. 

TKG: I really dug this. I’m so used to current generation of workers only knowing how to do heel runs from face WWFSNME style, that really cool seeing these guys do more of a Memphis thing which less about face giving chase and more about face standing off semi amused but wanting to get things started. The whole use of blindness to set up heel run and the slow recovery from that blindness, also felt super Mempho. I think I accepted flimsy chain being sold as death as being Memphisy too. I have positive feelings about Melina as being useful. I’ve seen Melina enough times live where she seemed to have real sense of when match had crowd and when was losing crowd that she knew when to lay back and when to egg on fans. I’ve also seen her Puerto Rican role as second to Davey Richards where she was kind of an Albano style manager who did both the mic work and the actual emoting for worker who couldn’t do either. That said, Mundo isn’t a Wild Samoan or Davey Richards, he needs a more Grand Wizard/JJ Dillon type second and not sure if Melina is up to that.

2. Pentagon Jr. vs. Vampiro 

ER: Vampire looks exactly like the fat bald bloated zombie on the boat, from the opening scene of Zombi 2. I assume that just shows Vampiro's loyalty and dedication to being on the El Rey network. I thought this was awesome, blew away all expectations for it. I'm not going to get into the Master reveal because really I don't care, because the match itself delivered for me in ways I wasn't expecting. This was a nasty violent W*ing brawl and Vampiro as immobile gorehound worked great opposite the vicious Pentagon. All the garbage spots built nicely, the spills into tacks and light tube remains were nasty, Pentagon punching Vampiro in the side of his bloody head was a helluva visual, and Pentagon did other neat things like just ignore Vamp's punches that whiffed. Pentagon gushing blood through his torn mask was crazy (maybe not as crazy as Striker ranking Vamp ahead of Terry Funk in terms of brawling. His comparison to Abdullah was at least physically accurate), and then the flaming table spot with Vamp on fire for way too long while the extinguisher guy was way out of position, just a nutso appropriate finish.

PAS: Pretty shocked that they would go full IWA KOTDM on TV like this, I like Vampiro theoretically but I have never enjoyed him in ring, and the fact he is willing to take this level of beating after multiple neck surgeries is pretty nutty. I would have liked to see this be the only brawl on this show, but if you are going to take it to the next level this is how you do it. Add Vampiro to Cage, Mack and Hernandez to guys who had career performances on this show

TKG: I don’t understand people’s confusion or surprise about the finish. I think I texted Phil several weeks earlier predicting that Vampiro was Pentagon Jr’s master, it seemed obvious to me. I’ve watched a lot of Kevin Sullivan/Raven/Who is higher power wrestling angles, this is how those end. I’ve watched plenty of Golan-Globus action movies, this is how those end. My wife watches the Steven Moffatt Dr Who episodes, this is how those end. It seemed obvious that they were doing the master makes student bring the monster back out of the domesticated master in order to beat the master at his most monstrous. I’ve always thought of Vampiro as second rate Chris Champion and whole angle probably makes a lot more sense if you think of it as Yoshi Kwan forcing student to transform Kwan back into Sinn. Champion also has time travel experience which would maybe add more depth to child is the father of the man stuff. Vampiro coming out looking that bloated also screamed “this match is setting up Vampiro with Penagon Jr v Vampiro’s evil twin Pogo the Clown with The Altar Boy in a no-rope Caribbean spider-web tag-match on some California XPW tribute indy”, so of course they were coming out as partners.

3. Aerostar vs. Fenix vs. Big Ryck vs. Jack Evans vs. King Cuerno vs. Bengala vs. Sexy Star

ER: Plenty of fun spots in this one, and I didn't have to flip out over Sexy Star winning. I really would have bet on her winning this thing. She looked predictably terrible here, but she wasn't in tons so it wasn't much of an issue. But that does highlight the main problem of the match, which was almost immediately they went to 5 people disappearing all at once, while two people work in the ring. That means at some times you had people selling on the floor for 5+ consecutive minutes, which is just ludicrous. I know a lot of it won't be captured on camera, but at least brawl around the floor. So there was a lot of stupidity wrapped around having 7 people crammed into something essentially worked as a singles match. But a lot of the spots worked and overall that's what counts. Evans took a couple of bumps to the floor, Aerostar hit his enormous cliff dive splash onto everybody, Cuerno just annihilated Bengala with his tope, Ryck crushes Sexy Star with a urunage (not long after taking one of the uglier and improbable ranas from her), and yeah this delivered about what I was expecting. They could have had more false finishes but they decided early that they were mostly gonna have 5 people selling around the ring and less dramatic saves, but whatever.

PAS: Some big spots here but didn't flow as well as some of their better multi man matches, I think 7 guys is just too many, and Sexy Star is the poops. Also Fenix, Aeorstar and Bengala all fill the same role in a match like this,there is a certain number of spots for your face high flyer and having three of them in the same match makes it hard for any one of them to stand out.

TKG: I guess this was fine Xdivision/WWA cruiserweight multi-person clusterfuck. I think it was hurt by them working little guys v Andre structure with Big Ryck instead of working any face/heel structure. And for the most part you had heel King Cuerno matched up with heel Evans, face Bengala matched w face Sexy Star, and face Aerostar matched with face Fenix. It felt like it weakened everyone’s character.

4. Texano vs. Blue Demon Jr. (No DQ) 

ER: "Everything you've ever known about lucha libre comes from this guy", Matt Striker, when talking about Blue Demon. Yeesh, what fucking lucha do you watch, Striker? Well, at least all of this was kept short. This had some pretty weak weapons shots considering what we saw earlier in the night. Nothing in this was memorable or interesting. 

PAS: Blue Demon is the wrong guy for this role, Santo would have been awesome as a the delusional lucha legend who refuses to believe his time is past, Universo 2000 would have worked, or hell use a Villano. Demon just can't deliver anything in the ring, and can't pull off this match. Still I do like Chavo and the idea of lucha families joining, just wish it was Chavo uniting with Brazo De Oro.

TKG: So I guess if I want to say the first match was Memphis tribute, second W*NG tribute, third WWA tribute, then this was an attempt to do an Antonio Peña AAA one. Maybe that’s the genius of Peña, it’s not so easy to do a watchable “overbooked immobile old guy v semi mobile roided out youngster with a couple of hungry local indy guys doing interference & bumps” match. Or maybe it’s just that Blue Demon sucks. Weren’t the guys from Lucha Libre USA involved in this thing? They used Tinieblas Jr as a fun chickenshit heel. Tinieblas Jr would’ve also been perfect in this role and I imagine would not cost much.

5. Mil Muertes vs. Prince Puma

ER: Awesome match, easily the best non-gimmick singles match in the promotion's history. If they end up never coming back for a second season they will have at least gone out with a bang. Both guys brought out the big guns and hit some pretty spectacular stuff. Puma was nuts in this, taking so many of Muertes' things right on the side of his face, crashing spectacularly on the missed dive into a chairshot, blasting through rows of chairs, but then also hitting all sorts of quirky kicks from impossible angles, and at one point managing to deadlift Muertes up into a big suplex. A real pull out all stops performance from Puma. Muertes leaned face first into everything, hit a couple wicked powerslams, delivered one of the best spears you'll see, really played off Puma nicely. This was just a real high end main event that really did feel like a big deal. Great way to go out on Season 1. 

PAS: Yeah this was what you would hope a clash of the titans main event would be. Both guys were kept super strong and Puma dies in this match, if he was going to lose his belt he was going to go down hard. I am not sure about Puma throwing suplexes when he is working monsters, but that deadlift was nutty strength so I bought it. Muertes might be top five wrestler for 2015, would hope Mesias will do something cool in AAA if we don't get a season 2 this year.

TKG: LuchaUndergound has kind of quietly found a way to make their title matches feel like a big deal. They’re not “lucha title” matches, these are matches filled with outside brawling. It’s also a fed where every match has outside brawling, so they can’t do the easy WWF move of having irish whip into steps be a way to make title match feel more important than undercard. But they manage to make the title match feel like it’s a different thing than rest of card. This is a card where lots of matches were about the violence, Alberto trying to get revenge and hurt/humiliate Mundo, the “cero Miedo” match was about the violence. The title match wasn’t personal, felt like it was about winning the title. Match with three sections. You had early floor brawling section with the idea that Muertes is more dominant on the floor and then the in ring section where Puma is the more dominant, and the post table spot section where Muertes better able to hold his own in ring. I liked all three sections and the face/heel as well as big/ little stuff that they were able to pull off in all of them. Also liked how the sections were connected/flowed together. Often with matches with clear sections you can make up fake falls in your head, ie “this is mat section, this is where mat section now over, this is the section where they’re working a body part and now that’s stopped”. That wasn’t the case here, really some of the cooler stuff in the match was the way they transitioning from one section to the next. I really liked the big table spot being used as a NOAH dome show title match apron spot instead of as a finish. I don’t think ever seen that done before. It’s a match I’ve now watched several times and enjoyed a little bit more each time. And while yes it is a real satisfying match for a promotion to end with, this was a wrestling supercard that really felt like it built up a bunch of strong faces to challenge new heel title holder. Muertes has to give Puma a rematch, has to give Drago a title shot, Fenix has the one win over him and the gift of the Gods, Alberto is done with Mundo, and of course what happens when the Mil Muertes the king of death meets the man with zero fear. It was a satisfying ending and teased a neat new season.

ER: Final video package was really good, although earlier Dario unlocked Matanza so casually that I'm wondering what suddenly made him rush and scramble away. I love the little coda it gave to all the major players. 

TKG: I loved Fenix driving off in his Pontiac Firebird. Immediately wanted buy the whole set of non-existent Lucha Underground Matchbox toys and then to take son to local hobby store and ask him if he wants to work with me on the non-existent” Drago Dragster” or the non-existent “Mil Muertes Hearse” Kustom Model Car Kits. Or more likely buy the hobby kits first, get frustrated with glue and tiny parts and then buy the matchbox ones to make up for it.


PAS: I liked the finishing video package too, although I think the entire Matanza, Dragon Azteca, Black Lotus stuff is super dumb. Cueto is a fun enough actor to mitigate it a bit, but the whole thing is super corny, Black Lotus is sub-porn acting level and the angle makes no sense if you think about it for more then a second.

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Lucha Underground Episode 31: The Desolation of Drago Review

1. Blue Demon Jr. vs. Chavo Guerrerro

PAS: The rematch 31 weeks in the making. Man I guess I get that Demon Jr. is iconic and all, but he is poopy, and I am bummed he is back. Listless nothing brawl from Demon in a blue suit and Chavo. Thought Chavo looked crisp and like his alliance with the Crew but this was pretty meaningless.

ER: Just think where we all were in life 31 weeks ago. I was a young, virile 33 year old, head full of dreams. Now I'm a worn out zombie of a 34 year old, victim to the inevitable march of Time. I would love to hear HHH's Tough Enough take on Blue Demon's back bumps. Replacing B-Boy with Chavo is a major upgrade for The Crew so that's a good thing. But yeah this wasn't much.

2. Disciples of Death vs. Pimpinela Escarlata, Mascarita Sagrada & Bengala

PAS: Kind of strange to debut your new creepy monster tag team against a comedy trio. I love Pimpi, but demons from the underworld probably shouldn't have to sell fear of his taint. Bengala is apparently Ricky Marvin, and that dude has gotten tubby. Nothing I love more then a tubby highflyer and he hit some cool stuff. I am not sure who is under the Disciples masks, but I was pretty unimpressed, cool look and some cool mannerisms, but not much in the ring.

ER: I couldn't get a feel for any of the Disciples, but none of them looked very good doing the limited things they did. Their formula appeared to be weak stomp -> weak clubbing forearm -> tilt your head to the side -> take a long time to set up your two triple team moves. I do like Ricky Marvin coming in, and am also amused at Phil fat shaming him when he looks maybe 10 lb. heavier than when I last saw him. That Phil can be a real catty bitch. Liked Marvin's tornillo, liked Pimpi flying crotch first into a fan, but overall this wasn't good.

ER: "Johnny, you gave me a black eye. Who cares? I look great in sunglasses." Dario is awesome. But then Dario agrees to put Mundo in a 45 minutes match, and suddenly I don't find him as awesome.

3. Drago vs. King Cuerno vs. Hernandez vs. Cage

PAS: Drago gets in the match because all four guys had previously fought Puma, but because was banned he had to put up his mask. Awesome more impromptu mask matches, one of my least favorite things about this fed. This was a fun indy four-way which is a match type this fed does well. All four guys hit very cool dives, although it was pretty ominous that Cuerno was calling out Killshot, I was hoping he was Matanza food not a guy getting a high profile singles feud. Seemed to be setting up Cage v. Cuerno, but they never really faced off. For a guy putting up his mask, never got a huge amount of urgency from Drago.

ER: Awesome new gear on Drago, love the bat wings. And not only did they inform the TV viewer of the mask match in an earlier vignette, it appears like they announced it to the live crowd literally right before the bell. That is just so so stupid. Also, I was actually bummed when Drago got banished from the fed. I figured he was actually gone for good, or at minimum several months. But here we are like 5 weeks later and I haven't even had the chance to miss him. That's just lazy and pointless writing, and you can only play loose with stipulations so many times before a fanbase doesn't care. Right now there's a nice little bubble of people who are way into this fed, best to not squander that. Vampiro also points out how scaly Drago is looking, and I'm now thinking they should have saved this gimmick for a young flyer with psoriasis. I mean that is a skin condition that practically looks identical to the name of a famous luchador anyway. Starting to feel like a missed opportunity to bring some charity awareness to it. But I liked the match, I think just about every 4 way the fed has put on has been good. Couple rough moments like Drago and Hernandez not really catching Cage on a moonsault to the floor (though that did inadvertently create a good reason for Cage to be on the floor during the pinfall), and of course Cuerno takes the loss because fuck that guy apparently. Still, good action, and their 4 ways never overstay their welcome and that's a very important and often overlooked thing with this kind of match. I liked little moments like Drago going for a double clothesline and not budging Hernandez/Cage, dug Cuerno's right hands, Cage's surprisingly effective moonsault, and both men know how to work well in a multi man, without everybody getting in everybody's way.

PAS: This fed constantly makes the same weird booking mistake, running the same kind of thing on one show in multiple different ways, diluting the impact. We have had shows where multiple guys were breaking up with their valets, multiple shows where Puma faces a muscled up monster on the same show that Fenix faces a muscled up monster, now we have a show built around the return of the exiled Drago on the same show with the return of the exiled Blue Demon Jr., the exiled Chavo Guerrero Jr., the exiled Mascarita Sagrada and the exiled Escarlata Pimpinela, basically every wrestler who has been sent away from the temple all came back on the same show. It makes no basic storytelling sense.

PAS: This was another lackluster show, and I don't have high hopes for an hour of Johnny Mundo next week

ER: I think the last match at least made this episode better than Episode 30 (which was one of the worst of the series), but next week's iron man match with Mundo has me not expecting much. I mean, how many good iron matches have even happened in wrestling history? Rude/Steamboat is easily the best. Does Rock/HHH hold up? So right there we have one, maybe two good iron man matches, ever. That doesn't give very good odds for next week. And with that, Catrina's tits bring us to episode's end.


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