Lucha Worth Watching: As the Casas Turns

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

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

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

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

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Metalico, Policeman & Arkangel: Three Friends Doing a Bit

Metalico, Policeman & Arkangel vs. Tigre Rojo Jr., Arkalis & Millenium (CMLL 1/2/17)

ER: Metalico and Policeman and Arkangel may be my favorite three wrestlers who are usually in matches that aren't very good. And here we have the three of them teaming for what is - at least from what I could tell - the first time, on tape. And they work it like three friends doing a bit. I don't know much about the tecnicos. Rojo seems the most rounded out of the bunch. Millenium is either working a gimmick 17 years expired, or 983 years into the future. Judging by his 2000 Scoot Andrews offense I think it's the former. Arkalis was also in this match. It doesn't matter because it's the rudos who are the stars. Policeman comes out literally brandishing a firearm. He just walks to the ring, unholsters his pistol and just starts aiming it around the arena, as if he was clearing the room. When he gets to the ring Tirantes politely asks him to hand over the weapon, and he does, which makes me laugh more than it should. Please, do not book Policeman in a No DQ match. We need referees to be allowed to take his firearm. Metalico comes out dressed in tan resort wear, looking like someone who would be lounging around the pool at Elliott Gould's house in the 70s. And the three of them proceed to work a few bits, like you do. 

Arkangel is amusing as the guy nonchalantly directing traffic, you can see him lightly waving Policeman into position a few times. Policeman is a generous bumper with some nice strikes, a guy I'm happy is showing up more often. Metalico is the real ham, and I love some of his bits. My favorite is the one after the primera, with his team losing, and he just runs out of the ring down the ramp, out of danger, to avoid eating a pinfall, then trips and falls on his face. He later does a couple variations on the Eddie Guerrero/Hector Garza "head down, eyes averted, hands behind my back" sheepish weenie. You couldn't possibly hit meeeeee, could you? Metalico throws weird lariats, comically puts boots to guys who have wronged him, laughs when Arkangel hits a sharp back elbow, does a dozen spit takes, plays to the crowd in a way a lot of guys don't do any longer; he's a guy working several bits with friends. Rojo eats a couple lariats in nasty fashion (again, he is the only tecnico here that looked like a keeper), Arkalis tries to throw a couple armdrags that don't look great, Millenium gets minimal height on a rana, but nobody watched this for the tecnicos. These three rudos have a shtick, and it's not one I'm anywhere close to tired of seeing. You get the sense that they know each other well, get the sense they have some in-jokes, all due to knowing the same lucha language. Like a roommate who can walk into your bedroom eating a bowl of cereal without announcing himself and you're totally fine with it, such are Metalico, Arkangel and Policeman.

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MLJ: 1000 words on King Jaguar & Lestat vs Disturbio & Policeman

2015-12-14 @ Arena Puebla
King Jaguar & Lestat vs Disturbio & Policeman

25:00 in

So a couple of people I know get together in an online chat room for the Monday Puebla and Friday Arena Mexico shows. It's never more than three or four people and everyone's generally distracted but it's still plenty of fun. It also makes certain things (like Porky matches) more enjoyable. A few of us were really enjoying this one on Monday night. In the end, it's probably just the circles I travel in. There are two types of people in this world, those who are going to go nuts for six minutes of rudos demolishing some poor bastard's leg, ending in a stretcher job, and those who will not. I travel in the circle where that's pretty awesome.

Jaguar lost his mask to Lestat back in July. They don't get along. Lestat also doesn't get along with the rudos. I have no idea why Disturbio is working the second match on Puebla. Policeman belongs there, sure, but in the best possible way. He's the world's best Rey Apocalipsis and Toro Bill, Jr. partner, and I think that if CHIKARA brought them in to King of Trios next year they'd be a smash hit. Physically, he's a pretty appropriate Disturbio partner too. Just from the get go, it looked like a triple stand off with Lestat and Jaguar pushing each other and Policeman in next to face off against both. Disturbio and Policeman were on the same page though, which was the story of the match.

The primera was serviceable. Jaguar is not exactly dynamic. He wasn't helped by the loss of his mask. Policeman and Lestat were pretty well matched up though, working in and out of holds competently. They did a nice little parallel spot where Policeman faked a test of strength only to go for a leg dive and then a minute or so later, Lestat doing the same thing. That time Disturbio broke up the subsequent submission, and Lestat was pissed at Jaguar for not stopping him, so it was both paralleled and functional in the grand scheme of the match. Disturbio and Policeman were doing over the top high five tags while Lestat seemed annoyed whenever Jaguar wanted him in the ring. They leaned into the animosity more for the fall's finish. Jaguar saved Lestat from a corner whip by flipping him up and onto the apron but then immediately punched him off. He turned around, hit a pick up/drop down on Disturbio and a leglock as Lestat recovered and dove in and over with a body press and rope run up moonsault on Disturbio. Totally functional, serviceable primera with a couple of clever moments.

They got right to it in the segunda. Jaguar got the better of Disturbio in a quick exchange, but then Disturbio drew him in with a handshake allowing Policeman to dropkick him from behind. They darted across the ring to take out Lestat and the leg mauling was on. Like I said, it was about six minutes and very focused Arn and Tully work or Power and Glory vs Rockers Summerslam '90 work. The latter's probably the better example considering where this ended up. None of it was flashy but I'll take focused over flashy anyday. They were unrelenting, stomping and kicking, one holding and one hitting. They pulled him to the post and slammed it and did a double sledge onto leg that was against the post, which was a nice touch. Disturbio put his foot on the back of the leg and stomped it. They draped it over the rope. Polceman came off the second ropes as Policeman held it with a double sledge and later put it over the guard rail on the ramp and just ground it to dust. At one point, Jaguar made it to Lestat but instead of tagging him, he just wiggled his fingers and kicked at him instead. That didn't work out so well though. With Jaguar incapacitated, they took Lestat out soundly, Policeman pinning him after a second rope splash. Then they dragged the carcass of Jaguar back in for a brutal single leg lock. After he submitted, Disturbio turned to hold the leg straight so that Policeman could put all of his weight upon it. Again, nothing groundbreaking, but still really gritty small stuff.

The tercera was short and sweet, functional again, leading to whatever will come next. They pulled Jaguar out, locking his leg in one of the fixed chairs in the audience, and pounded on it some more. That was the end for him, as the stretcher came shortly thereafter. Policeman and Disturbio started back on Lestat, beating him down until Espirtu Maligno came out in all of his goofy glory for the save, setting up, presumably a Lestat/Espirtu Maligno vs Policeman/Disturbio tag, now that Lestat no longer has to look past an old grudge to find a partner to fight them with? Or something. I thought that the nebulous nature of the bad blood and the finish contrasted well with the really focused legwork. Was it a little scattered narratively in that the sympathy was generated by the work on Jaguar, and Lestat's refusal to help him was part of that but the key moment in the end was Lestat being saved by Espirtu Maligno? Sure. At the same time, though, it all felt character driven. There was no moment in the match where someone did something that felt off. Lestat's pride and frustration was obvious. Jaguar made stupid, angry mistakes in hitting his own partner and refusing to work with him, despite how difficult he was being, and that cost him in the end. Disturbio and Policeman were just vultures preying upon the dissention and hacking away at Jaguar's leg.

So yeah, no Space Flying Tiger Drops if you like that sort of thing and no visceral comebacks if you're like me and like that sort of thing, but this was a functional little match with a pretty brutal, very focused segunda.

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MLJ: Puebla Hotshot: Negro Casas, Barbaro Cavernario, Kamaitachi vs Dragon Lee, Maximo, Blue Panther

2015-9-28 @ Arena Puebla
Negro Casas, Barbaro Cavernario, Kamaitachi vs Dragon Lee, Maximo, Blue Panther

1:15:00 in

I'm messing up my schedule for the next couple of weeks (again) in order to hotshot this. It was from the Monday Puebla show this week and I was higher on it than most of the comments I saw live, comments that I'll get to and that I think were fair and don't even disagree with. Two hundred-plus matches into this project, I've learned some things about myself and my own proclivities, however, and this is a good match to look at for the sake of generalities.

First and foremost, the match was a disappointment. Of course it was. On paper, this is one of the best trios matches that CMLL can put on right now. Unfortunately, it was put on with no real stakes, no major program to build to (though maybe they'll run Casas vs Maximo again?), in front of a really sparse crowd, and on a stilted 2 hour show. They played around with the pairings so that other than a far too brief opening exchange (more on that in a moment) we didn't really get Blue Panther vs Negro Casas, and there wasn't the sort of spotfest destruction we've come to expect from Kamaitachi vs Dragon Lee. There wasn't even a lot of standout character moments between Cavernario and Maximo (though there was a promising moment between Cavernario and Kamaitachi). It was a match that, in another setting, should have been spectacular. That said, for a match without much of a primera and with a rushed I do think it was very solid and I want to talk about why I feel that way.

I'm very forgiving on CMLL trios matches in general. I think that has to do with what I look for in wrestling. A lot of people want brilliant matwork or lightning fast sequence in a primera or spectacular dives and spots in a tercera, and I like that stuff too, but it's a means to an end for me, not the end in and of itself. I'm into this for the build up and the pay off. That can come in a number of forms in these trios matches. It can be in the primera as an escalating series of mat exchanges or rope-running sequences leading to the tecnicos gaining advantage and picking up the fall. Alternative, the pressure could start building that way leading to an underhanded rudo swarm. It can be in the segunda, with a beatdown stemming from either the start of the match or the end of the primera and culminating with a big tecnico comeback. Or, it can be in the tercera, with the whole match building to a specific pairing, the dives clearing the ring of the tertiary luchadores so that the match can end on its real focus.

That's the part of the journey I love, and the best matches give us multiple iterations. That's something I've noticed watching 90s footage relative to now. They'd often give us a really complete primera (for isntance one with escalating tecnico shine), a really complete segunda (with a long beatdown), and then a comeback into a really complete tercera, with a lot of action, a lot of cuts off, and a finishing stretch which highlighted an ongoing feud and paid off the emotion of the entire match.

Rarely now do matches get room to breathe in all of those ways. Personally, if a match is only going to breathe in one, however, I want it to be the beatdown. I think this speaks to my background in wrestling. I love southern tag matches. I love that heat building and building, with hope spots and cut offs, with false tags and ref distraction and cheating heels and overzealous babyfaces. Lucha is generally broader than that, with its own tropes more focused on widescale momentum shifts, but wrestling is wrestling and there are more commonalities than differences.

I thought this match had a good beatdown, one that got enough time and led to a solid comeback (though not an ideal one). I don't love how they went into it. Casas and Panther had really just started to show their maestro wares when the rudos swarmed. That can work, even so early in a match, but it has to be the right situation. I think Ingobernables' title matches are a good situation, for instance, because they're spitting in the face of title match tradition when they do it. Here, it felt more due to time constraints, or because in 2015, for most trios matches, something has to give. You just can't have a complete primera, complete segunda, and complete tercera. I suppose the card has to have variety and this was only second from the top.

No matter how they got into it, it was a good beatdown. Casas, Cavernario, and Kamaitachi are great at keeping things moving and engaging. There was even a little cut-off-the-ring face in peril section on Panther, who's someone skilled enough to pull that off. It took me a long time to really figure out the tendency for these, but so long as there's just one rudo in the ring, they can play to a hot tag instead of just cycling tecnicos in and out. It's a subtle difference but it works. Usually it lasts for a few minutes focusing on one tecnico and sort of provides the best of both worlds. Once he's sufficiently beaten down without having made the tag, they cycle him out and start the double teaming in more force since they have the numbers game. That's exactly what they did here and I think it was effective and compelling, even if there weren't a lot of big spots or moments.

I can't say I liked the comeback quite as much, but some of that was down to familiarity. I made two real comments while watching this (and it's nice that CMLL on Youtube or Claro lets a number of us watch this at once. It adds to the sense of community), the first being that they really needed to let the beatdown go for a while (and they did) and the second being that I really didn't want the comeback to be centered around Maximo's butt stop spot (where a rudo runs into his ass as he runs up to the second rope). It's fine once and a while but Maximo goes to that well far too often. Well, that's what they did. I think it made the crowd happy, that, the Dragon Lee dive that followed, and the tercera which was heavily focused on Maximo's spots, but there were a number of more interesting ways they could have gone with it.

And that's the most damning thing about the match. It could have been more interesting. It should have been more interesting. Still, I'm glad I watched it and I'm glad I watched it live. There's something primal about the ebb and flow, the build up and the payoff, the beatdown and the comeback that really draws me to trios matches, even the disposable ones. There's something broad and mythic about it, and even a match that doesn't live up to its promise can tap into that just by the nature of its structure. Plus, while this was paint-by-numbers, it was some of the best paint CMLL has to offer and numbers that almost always come through.

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MLJ: Rush vs Negro Casas 7: Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone, Rush vs Negro Casas, Ripper, Shocker

Aired 2014-05-11
taped 2014-04-28 @ Arena Puebla
Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone, Rush vs Negro Casas, Ripper, Shocker

In some ways this match was a breath of fresh air after the previous one with Niebla. There are obviously some similarities between a character such as Niebla and one such as Marco. Both of them have over the top theatrics and lean towards comedy, despite having pretty great punches. Marco rarely over-utilizes it to the detriment of the match, though, especially if they're in a more serious match. On the other hand, there's an element of repetition within a match with him that can sometimes take a viewer out of it. Ripper is a guy who's just there for me so far. I haven't seen a break out performance in 2014 but I also haven't seen him do anything egregiously bad. Azul is someone I don't have a great sense of yet either, but I was glad for the variation here. In some ways, it even felt like it was there more to set up a Ripper vs Diamante Azul match than anything else. Having Rush and Casas there as supporting players was sort of refreshing.

That said, there was definitely some structural wonkiness here. The flow matches where Rush teams with more traditional tecnicos is all over the place. Here, Rush, as usual, acted like a rudo almost completely, and Marco acted like Marco, including dialing on his abs and pretending to call someone at some point; he fits in fairly well with the Ingobernales act when necessary. Azul, however, was absolutely a straight up tecnico, down to hitting the old Atlantis "Let's give everyone a quebadora" spot, which is the most tecnico thing in the world to me, to set up the finish for the primera. Obviously they weren't in Arena Mexico which matters when it comes to Rush's reaction but it still felt weird.

Otherwise, the structure was fine though. They didn't even have the opening match beat down. Everyone got to make their entrances, with a short primera that still had some feeling out and matching up. It ended with the rudos dodging Air Italia so that Marco hit Azul by accident and they pinned both tecnicos at once. The segunda was mostly a rudo beatdown, though not enough of one to make any sort of comeback visceral. Casas and company spend so much time in a lot of these Rush matches on the defense, so it was nice to see them really get to play the rudos, though. The comeback was the Rush dropkick out of the corner again, the third time in four matches or something, but at least this was in front of a different crowd. It's still a knock against him for the year, I think. The tercera began with a reset, had some solid, if a bit deliberately paced Shocker and Marco sequence and comedy, some of the usual Rush dickishness (namely refusing to wrestle Casas and laying on the ramp instead) leading into the standard high quality Rush and Casas exchange with them brawling into the crowd and out of the match, and ended with Ripper pulling off Azul's match for the DQ, leading to calls for a mano a mano match and what not.

I like that we have matches such as these when CMLL hits places other than Arena Mexico. In this case, this was a match in a series between Ripper and Diamante Azul. The following week in Puebla, Azul would successfully defend his NWA Light Heavyweight title against Ripper. If you're going to have supporting players to help further your feud, Rush and Casas are about as good as you can hope for in 2014 CMLL. This felt somewhat slight as far as the Rush and Casas feud went but I bet it made the Azul vs Ripper feud feel all the more important. I kind of want to go back and see their title match now. Anyway, this was a fun deviation from the norm.

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Monday Night Digging in the Crates

We take a trip down to Puebla to see a bunch of great under-pimped locals, including our favorite lost but not forgotten chubster.



Toro Bill Sr., Toro Bill Jr. & Policeman vs. Asturiano, Lestat & Centella de Oro CMLL 2/2/09

ER: Man do I love this match. This match is only 5 years old but at times feels like it could be 20 years old or 5 years into the future (where people will still be whining about hoverboard technology). Obviously the immediate standout is Toro Bill Sr., who works and looks like fat Satanico. His brawling is nice but you came for the bumps and Bill delivers the bumps. Aside from just an insane bump to the floor, he takes armdrags more gracefully than most luchadors half his size. Centella de Oro seems like a cool regional Freelance type, though with less flying. His arm drags are gorgeous. Lestat has some cool offenense, Toro Bill Jr. hits an out of control fat guy trainee dive, Policeman works like a cool Dinamitas throwback worker. What makes this match so great is that these are six local guys you had never heard of before, being given an opening slot on a CMLL show, and just completely making the most of it. Maybe an opening match shot on a Monday night Puebla show doesn't sound like a big deal, but nobody told these guys if it wasn't. This felt like their M-Pro Barely Legal showcase, and it delivered. Now 5 years removed, Toro Bill Sr. stopped showing up a year after this match, TBJ shows up sporadically (as recently as last year in CMLL for a few matches), Policeman, Lestat, and Centella de Oro haven't made tape in a few years, and Asturiano still gets pretty regular work in CMLL. So they had their shot, delivered, and things don't always work out. But this match will always exist and will always rule.

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CMLL Puebla Workrate Report, 11/18/12

These matches are from the 11/5 Puebla show.



1. Arkangel de la Muerte/Hooligan/Skandalo vs. Virus/Raziel/Cancerbero

THIS excited me to no end because it has to be like 10 years since I remember Virus and Arkangel being on opposite sides since Virus hasn't really been a tecnico since around 2003/04. This is weird as both teams are rudos, and both teams work as rudos. Arkangel appears to take the rudo reins early by cheating a bunch and using his foxy gypsy valet Isis to interfere...but then Virus comes in and he's a dick too. The match never really reaches any sort of great heights, but has plenty of nice sequences throughout. The Virus/Arkangel showdown in the 3rd does not disappoint, as Arkangel gets to rough up the "young" punk (I assume they're both basically the same age) by throwing some awesome overhands to Virus' neck, and then hitting a perfect rolling tope en reversa to knock Virus out of the ring. These guys are all capable of much greater things, but nevertheless this was plenty fun.



2. Misterioso Jr./Vangelis/Euforia vs. Rey Cometa/Maximo/Diamante

Another match that will be rather unimportant in the grand scheme of things. It should be noted that Maximo seems to have lost a bit of weight as he looks to be in the best shape of....well, since whenever I saw my first Maximo match. He's slimmed down quite a bit and it's made him a bit more spry in the ring (he hit a sweet running dive off the apron and a beautiful head scissors, landing on his feet afterwards). Euforia is a good worker who I often forget about. Diamante kinda gets in the way. Cometa is a guy I now look forward to and may start going out of my way to see. Vangelis is maybe the best power worker in CMLL and looks better every time I see him. Misterioso Jr. almost always looks good. But hey, this was a Monday match and it seemed like a Monday match most of the time.



3. Mephisto/Dragon Rojo Jr./Tama Tonga vs. Mascara Dorada/La Sombra/Mistico II

Good lord Mephisto got HUGE! The guy is enormous and just jacked to the gills. He looks like a boss battle villain in Arkham City. Tonga looks fine but sorta out of place in a lucha setting. I like Dragon Lee as Mistico. He's able to get the same crazy height on bumps. Dorada looked like the star out of the tecnicos but that shouldn't be much of a shock, as he has looked awesome for some time now. Rojo has gotten real good without me really noticing. He never really does much that stands out, but when you watch him you never think "Man this guy stinks," which sounds like some backhanded praise but he's actually quite good. This match was fairly unremarkable outside some nice flying stuff from Dorada and to a lesser extent, Mistico.

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CMLL Puebla Workrate Report, 11/4/12

These matches were from the 10/22/12 Puebla show.

1. Taurus vs. Super Halcon Jr.

This is my first time seeing Taurus and he is apparently the 18 yr. old son of Ultimo Guerrero. He...is not very polished. The camera has to cut away to the crowd a couple of times in the early matwork, so I'm really curious how he blew a monkey flip bump. He works with a lot of delay and hesitation, but still goes over Halcon in like 3 minutes with a stiff powerbomb and some sort of goofy pumphandle F5.

2. Super Comando/Artillero/Inquisidor vs. Hombre Bala Jr./Magnus/Stigma

Ugh, the tecnicos all come out to Limp Bizkit's "Rollin'". At least Stigma is living up to his name, as I can't really think of a bigger disgrace to one's reputation. This seemed to be designed to show just how much better a worker Hombre Bala Jr. is than the other tecnicos in this match. Because he's clearly much better. He deserves to be much higher on the cards. Super Comando is also much better than his brother Artillero, but they all clearly know that as Comando matches up almost exclusively with Bala during this match. Things here were okay but meh. Tecnicos did a whole bunch of armdraggy stuff from the 2nd ropes and Inquisidor and SC are just fine at taking that type of stuff. But that doesn't mean it's fun after 10 minutes of it.

3. Virus/Misterioso Jr./Sangre Azteca vs. Stuka Jr./Triton/Sagrado

Misterioso is completely tassel free, which quite frankly is bullshit. I watched this match with my buddy Charlie who has an occasional drunk interest in wrestling, but basically zero lucha knowledge. After 4 seconds he was already on the Virus bandwagon. This guy has really put together quite a spectacular career and it feels like he still doesn't get talked about enough. The first time I remember seeing him was a singles match vs. Oriental, and that was when I was in high school (Jesus, I graduated in 1998. Was it really that long ago!?) and I was hooked from that match. I can't think of too many workers who have been as consistently excellent from my late teens into my early 30s as Virus has. This match itself wasn't spectacular in any way, but just had enough little Virus moments that made me realize how lucky we are to have so much of his career exist on tape. Too many luchadors go unrealized by the masses until it's too late in their careers. How many amazing 80s Toro Bill matches must have happened? How many bloody Puebla brawls was that guy a part of? And all we have to prove his existence are maybe 10 trios matches while he was in his late 40s. But Virus has spent almost his whole career working on television, and that's a special thing.



4. Ultimo Guerrero/Rey Buccanero/Terrible vs. Marco Corleone/Maximo/Rush

This was an awesome match. Maximo put in one of his best performances of the last year and really owned the 2nd. Corleone jumped high and threw nice lefts and flexed his buttocks, and Rush looked the best I have ever seen Rush look. And he was not just "good for Rush" but moreso "tell me more about this wrestler with the shitty hair, as he seems like somebody I would like to see more". I'm sure somebody can find some flaws with this match, but fuck it I was laughing and rewinding and calling Rachel into the room for 15 minutes. Buccanero and especially UG have gotten back into a nice groove the last year. They were two of my favorites back in 2000-2002, and then UG kind of started to embody my least favorite style of lucha. But over the last couple years I think he started to really hit another career stride. I even got Phil back on the bandwagon and he was one of the most vehement UG haters during the late 2000s. Buccanero's issues may have been injury related, I don't honestly remember. I just know that in 2001 it seemed like he and Christian were having weekly TV battles to see who could take a stupider bump over the top to the floor and I luuuuuved it. So I'm glad they're back on my good side. Terrible's new hair makes me sad. He looked like the coolest Rafi, Brolo El Cunado before :(



5. Valiente vs. Dragon Rojo Jr.

Is Valiente a main event guy now? I've been in and out of CMLL, so I'm not sure. Maybe this is more of a Puebla B show thing, not necessarily an Arena Mexico thing? Also is it wrong that I liked Valiente more when he was a chubster? Now he's all jacked to the gills and still does things all purty but I liked him when he was flippy and fat. This was a CMLL main event. Moves were done. Moves were kicked out of. Turns were traded. Valiente slipped a couple times which was sad. Rojo had some rad roll-up combinations. The 2nd caida went like 30 seconds. You knew all of this going in.

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CMLL Puebla Workrate Report, 10/8/12

One of the benefits of living in an area with a huge hispanic population is awesome Mexican food within walking distance (more places in a half mile area than I can count on one hand!!). A close second is sometimes local stations start showing random lucha with no sort of announcement. A few years ago some channel started showing random, horribly edited IWRG and AULL that I think we determined was only being seen by me. And now some channel just started showing CMLL Puebla shows 2 weeks after they happen. From what I can tell they edit out the opening match with the Puebal locals, which is a bummer, but show all the other matches in full with all the matwork and everything intact. Awesome.

1. Pierrothito/Mercurio/Pequeno Olimpico vs. Shockercito/Fantasy/Acero:

I've never seen Acero before, so KTNC channel 19 is impressing me with their minis crate-digging. Match itself was pretty nondescript with nobody looking bad but nobody busting ass. Pierrothito is one of the best workers in the world (who more people should really be talking about, as this has been going on for years now), Shockercito is a fine not-Bam Bam, Olimpico is easy to overlook because he's a non-flashy mini, and this was all just fine.

2. Virus/Cancerbero/Raziel vs. Stuka Jr./Metatron/Triton:

This was a pretty non-spectacular match, until Virus. This so-so thing happened, but then Virus. I like Cancerbero and Raziel just fine. They're like fractions of Arkangel de la Muerte. Maybe someday they'll be as good as him, but for right now they have elements of him and for right now, that's enough. The tecnicos are kinda diminishing returns. I really like Stuka, and Metatron and Triton seem OK. I've not seen much Triton. Match is all business as usual, fun and games, until one point in the 2nd when Virus tags in. And then shit gets real, as Virus is a whirling dervish of fists and elbows, like a mulleted Tazmanian devil. He just throws flipper floppers left and right directs traffic like few luchadors can. People are flying all over and he's in the middle of it all throwing elbows and shouldertackles to knees and stretching dudes' leg ligaments. You usually don't see a guy run roughshod over a whole half a lucha match but damn did Virus just get sick of messing around during this.

3. Guerrero Maya Jr./Hijo Del Fantasma/Delta vs. Negro Casas/Puma King/Tiger:

I have never heard of Tiger before. Maybe another Felino son? Any way you cut it, despite any language barriers, Tiger is just about the weakest name possible. I mean, it's no Televisa Deportes, but it is pretty weak. Fantasma has gone full on amazing Phantom Limb from Venture Bros. and his work with Casas is super strong. I realize that isn't a very impressive thing to say about a worker since Casas could carry me to something watchable, I mean that to say that Fantasma is looking like he's starting to belong. Just like the prior match, this was allllll the Casas show. There's a point during the match where he just decides to turn it on and then doesn't turn it off until it's all over. He's throwing his mini 2nd Zacarias around all recklessly and kicking guys in the face and jumping balls first off the apron and just playing to the crowd like wild. You heard it hear first, check this Negro Casas guy out!

My DVR cut off the main event but heck I'll live. If somebody can or cannot confirm that I'm the person that is getting this show, that would be swell. I don't see any of these matches up on Cubsfan's youtube page, and if I'm the only guy seeing this stuff then I need to get some sort of DVD Recorder set-up so at least somebody is saving this stuff.

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