My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Saturday Night 5/16/98

Road Block vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan

ER: This was pretty great, maybe my favorite Duggan WCW syndicated match. That's not super high praise, as Duggan was a fairly selfish syndicated worker, prone to no selling punches and kind of gobbling up lower totem pole guys. But Roadblock didn't get gobbled up at all, and got an extended run here as a great 60s style big man. Roadblock wasn't going to move much of a needle in 1998, a guy born way too late. I like his clumsy but heavy kicks to the stomach, high elbow drop, he really gets to beat Duggan around the ring, and he gets a long and awesome bearhug. He's really squeezing Duggan, holding him up in the air, and the camera clearly keeps it above the waist on tight shots, especially when Roadblock starts shaking him. "Nobody needs to see these two violently rubbing mons pubis, keep it high and tight!" Duggan fights out of it with punches and a headbutt, but Roadblock hangs on so we get a cool extended bearhug on television. Duggan works stiff on his comeback, throws a nice "back up" shot, hits this killer and big corner punches. Roadblock misses a huge splash off the middle rope to set up Duggan's clothesline and big kneedrop. This was really competitive for a Duggan match, became an unexpectedly fun big boy banger.

Barry Horowitz vs. Marty Jannetty

ER: Man 1998 Jannetty always looked such a decade behind the times. Horowitz is a guy I really appreciate on these shows. He was beyond the "dependable" tag that gets hung on him, he was a guy who always found a different way to fill 4 minutes. He would experiment with offense, and be entertaining in matches where he dominated (like this one) or ones that he gets worked over. I thought this match was fantastic, Horowitz has nice strikes and dominates the action, throws hard stomps to Duggan's head and drops a leg, comes up with a cool rolling cradle out of a stump puller, a guy who really looks good in control of  a match. But the Jannetty comeback is incredible, as Horowitz comes up with a crazy way to transition Marty back to offense: Horowitz climbs to the top while Jannetty is laid out, but Barry flies balls first into a waiting atomic drop. That's the best transition, totally precision landing, cool concept. Jannetty wins with an absolutely gorgeous fistdrop off the TOP ROPE, truly one of the finest fistdrops I've ever seen, and a fine fistdrop is something that can truly warm my pro wrestling heart. This show could just be one 2 hour GIF.

Mean Gene gives an unfortunate interview with Fit Finlay where they hype his upcoming Slamboree match against Chris Benoit, and Gene says how Benoit is someone who can "really tie you up". What did Gene know?

Horace vs. Juventud Guerrera

ER: My favorite matches on these shows tend to be the ones where the result is somewhat in doubt. And this is a fun example of that. Horace is a guy I seem to be a highish vote on (I like him as a well above average big thug type), but he's not super high on the WCW totem pole. and big guys did mostly steamroll over non Rey Mysterio small guys in WCW, but Juvy was a guy who had been treated as a potential future Mysterio. So this was a fun match with a rare mystery outcome. Horace was great at tossing around Juvy early, and only made Juvy's big comeback more exciting. Juvy looked really explosive on the comeback, even got to hit a big plancha. And Horace does actually win the match, but it big interference from Reese. So Juvy loses, but takes on a full heavyweight and only loses because a freakshow giant crushes him. '98/'99 Juvy was really great.

Johnny Swinger vs. Jerry Flynn

ER: This episode is a real classic so far, full of fun and kind of unexpected gems. Swinger here plays the really underrated role of "overly cocky small guy", and seriously who is the crowd supposed to cheer for in this one? Flynn looks like a meathead doofus karate guy who would be a traitor working as a karate guy for the Vietcong in a direct to video Christopher Mitchum movie. And Swinger is a greasy punk who wears just-sleeves instead of a full ring jacket and grinds his hips in between moves. So you get two stubblemugs working a stiff match, and it's great. Swinger really comes off like an under a under the radar tough guy, always able to eat a beating from tough guys, always seems to get matched up with tough guys and leans into strikes, and always works snug when he gets to work offense, despite a usual size discrepancy. Flynn gets a lot of nice big kicks, Swinger makes those kicks look great, but Swinger also gets a hot start and gets to look on Flynn's level. I'm not sure I've seen Swinger win a match in WCW, but he's a guy I appreciate the more I see.

Len Denton vs. Disco Inferno

ER: Here's a rare bird indeed! A 1998 Len Denton sighting! I really liked 1998 Len Denton. Almost a best case scenario Jim Neidhart. He hits hard on shoulderblocks, throws his body into a lariat, sets up a good backdrop, a good workmanlike body slam. Len Denton is the kind of guy you get excited to see on a Saturday Night. Disco Inferno is the world's most successful Ken Marino character, and for those reasons this easily works. Denton really flies into a missed elbow drop off the middle rope, drops fast on the Chartbuster. It was short, but it was what you wanted.

If this episode were closer to Halloween I would assume that Gene was doing some kind of killer Stop Making Sense costume but this is in May. Mean Gene looks like a man dying before our eyes.

And then we get one of those batshit insane but also smug as hell baller Eric Bischoff promo where he keeps casually and "calmer than you are" challenging Vince to show up at Slamboree to get a shitkicking. What a lunatic concept, just trying to challenge your competition to some kind of shoot. And you just know it actually got under Vince's skin and he probably had to be talked out of showing up. There has to be some good stories behind that angle right?

Disorderly Conduct vs. High Voltage

ER: This episode is a thing of marvelous beauty. This match is sweet heroin rushing into my veins, two dudes with mullets and purple singlets versus two guys with on paper better hair but neon green singlets just doing a hot moves sprint. This is the stuff you want. You want Mean Mike breaking out a chinbreaker and body slam double teams, you want Robbie Rage hitting a huge butterfly suplex and Kenny Kaos hitting a huge powerslam running Tough Tom into the turnbuckles. This was the kind of fast paced short tag match that WCW syndicated shows did so much better at than similar era WWF.

Lenny Lane vs. Kidman

ER: Lane is a fun cruiserweight comedy stooge that probably doesn't get enough credit for being a fun TV performer during this era. Lane's stuff is a little telegraphed, but he has a fun roll up, really great headscissors, a couple unique slams. Kidman is game as a bumper but seems a little uninventive in getting to his spots, kind of awkwardly grabbing his bulldog off the ropes when it looked like he wanted to just end things. The shooting star didn't crush Lane's windpipe, so that's a relief. This was at minimum a nicely paced cruiserweight match, unique in its lack of luchador (it was almost always luchador vs. white guy in the weekly Saturday Night showcase match), this added to the episode's already high bang for the buck factor.

Evan Kourageous vs. Saturn

ER: Seeing Evan Karagias (I used the actual spelling they used onscreen up above) run out for a match makes my heart sink a little. The show had been doing so well. BUT, Saturn comes out, and he's a guy who could be a jerk sometimes, so you instantly think this pretty boy with the bad goatee might get roughed up! Kidman gets on the mic before the match and asks Karagias if he wants to get beat by the Rings of Saturn, or the Death Valley Driver? And this is a tremendous beating from Saturn, total great squash. Karagias gets a somewhat sold dropkick, and Saturn bumps for a flippy DDT, but the rest is Saturn throwing high kicks to the face, a big overhead butterfly belly to belly, hard dropkick while vaulting off a chair, Psychosis level height guillotine legdrop, and sticks him with the dvd. Saturn looked like the most fun wrestler in WCW in this match, he really went through some fun bursts.

Yuji Nagata vs. Goldberg

ER: If you asked people when this match happened "Which of these two guys will be in the Observer Hall of Fame in 20 years?" how many people would have met Nagata. Goldberg was a nuclear megastar here. The crowd goes absolutely mental the entire match. Nagata starts throwing fast high kicks and Goldberg shrugs them off, starts with his weird shit like his rolling knee bar and his backflip and catches a Nagata kick to whip him with his cool dragon screw, and the fans are just losing their minds. When he levels him with an absolute battering ram of a spear, these people can't contain themselves. Goldberg holds the Jackhammer for exactly 7 seconds, and Goldberg had to be the most popular man in all of Springfield, Illinois that afternoon.

Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Fit Finlay

ER: Earlier in the episode they announced this match but I thought it was Finlay vs. Chavo, which I'm sure would have been good, but Finlay vs. Eddie is way more legendary sounding. Oh, and it IS Finlay vs. Chavo, because Eddie is so generous that he opts to give his nephew the TV Title opportunity. So that means that WCW blew its own reveal earlier in the episode where at the very beginning of the show they announced Finlay vs. Chavo. I knew I didn't mishear that shit. Why would they film an angle and then blow the surprise 90 minutes earlier? And sometimes Finlay really comes off like a cold-blooded assassin in matches. Here he gives a joyless beating at Chavo, not wanting to get involved in the uncle/nephew drama, and really showing off some great hard wrestling offense. Chavo doesn't get a lot of extended action but doesn't totally allow himself to be swallowed up. Even if he's not getting a string of moves he still would do things like throw body blows when getting picked up off the mat, at least giving us some struggle. Finlay is busy as usual, tossing constant stomps to a downed Chavo, hitting the hardest forearm to the back, lifting him up for an absurdly high bodyslam (he was holding Chavo by his head and shoulders! Like a vertical suplex almost but just yoinked up like a bodyslam), really buries that shoulder to the gut on the rolling fireman's carry, and Eddie is playing faux concerned the entire time on the floor. Eddie even puts his white towel over his head so he doesn't have to see poor Chavo take a nasty as hell tombstone.

What a perfect little episode of 1998 syndicated WCW. I've somehow written up more 1999 Saturday Night episodes than 1998, and that feels like a misguided mistake. 1998 was really my sweet spot at the time, and this episode really backed up my emotions and memories. Total front to back banger right here.


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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 5/8/99 & 5/15/99

5/8/99

Frankie Lancaster vs. Disco Inferno

ER: In the WWE/WCW mirror universe, Lancaster is Bob Holly. A tag team of Holly/Lancaster would have been amazing. They could have done the Killer Bees switcheroo, unmasked. And this is a quality enough match, constant action and some nice overall work by Lancaster. I hadn't remembered Lancaster still in the company this late, but he worked there for a year after this match! I like him. He's big enough that it looks impressive when he takes offense, and he's surprisingly good at taking offense. He takes a bunch of armdrags and hip tosses to start, eats a backdrop, and doesn't gas even though he looks like someone who would definitely gas. He also hits a really great left arm lariat, really straight arms Disco. The finish is one I don't love, but couldn't have been handled better by Lancaster: He goes up to the middle rope to do something onto Disco, who is on the mat, and Disco gets his boot up. I hate guys jumping off the ropes and landing on their feet, face to boot. What move would they have been doing had that boot not been there? But Lancaster takes it on the chin and does a great stagger while holding onto his chin, the kind of knee knocking stagger that Rick Rude would do after taking an atomic drop. And while Lancaster is stumbling he gets hit with the Chartbuster, continuing to sell that chin. All well played.

Silver King vs. Horace Hogan

ER: For a match that's 85% one guy in control, this is plenty fun. Horace is out with Stevie Ray and Vincent, and what's great about this is the nWo cheat the entire time. I love they come out here against Silver King, a guy who was rarely even on the winning team during trios matches in WCW, and felt the need to cheat to win. But here's Horace choking King with his nWo belt, throwing King to the floor so that Stevie can put the boots to him. Horace has some nice shots to the body, King takes a big bump into the guardrail and a ringside chair off an Irish whip, and King gets a nice mini run after landing on Horace during a Horace back suplex attempt. Vincent is really good at ringside, that guy really knew how to act (?) like a chump, loved when King hit a kick to a grounded Horace and ran up top, backing Vincent off with a kick from the apron. Vincent acts tough a charges towards him and then does this huge flinch when King barely even threatens to kick him, then Vincent acts like he did everything to stop him once King easily gets to the top. There was no way King was winning this, but since it is WCW you knew we'd be getting 4 solid minutes, which is part of the joy of these.

In an ad after this episode, I find out that Home Movies actually debuted on The CW. It's a show so associated with Adult Swim, and a show I watched from the beginning on AS, and I had no clue until now that it had a remarkably unsuccessful run on CW before getting scooped up by AS.

5/15/99

El Dandy vs. Erik Watts

ER: This is the kind of match up you're going to get in syndicated '99 WCW. Dandy is wearing bright purple gear that I've never seen, and Watts as you know is wearing those gigantic Jnco jeans with legs wide enough to completely engulf his boots. I had no memory of Watts being so muggy. He worked half this match like he was Hugh Morrus, cracking jokes with Charles Robinson, mugging to fans, working like a real jokester for some reason. "What can I do to get noticed? Maybe do some Hugh Morrus shtick? Watts goofing off is what gives Dandy openings to offense. There is a little miscommunication early. Dandy likely carried some luchador loads, but a 6'6" guy tripping over his own jeans is another story. Once they're on the same page it gets pretty decent, with Dandy laying in a nice kick to Watt's jaw and flashing that big right hand that always makes Mike Tenay rightfully swoon. Watts has a lot of indy offense that looks somewhat out of place, but also effective. He kicks Dandy in the stomach and hits an amusingly aloof Rocker Dropper, shrugging before stepping over Dandy to drop the leg over the back of his neck. He also hits a buckle bomb before that was a thing, and his finisher is some kind of weird Flatliner/reverse chokeslam, where his left arm is over Dandy's chest and wrapped around his neck, while his right hand is grabbing the back of Dandy's neck. Erik Watt's: Late 90s imitator. If I could have remixed these episodes I would have much rather seen Dandy vs. King and Horace vs. Watts, but we know how this goes.

The Gambler vs. Dave Taylor

ER: Well this is a WCW syndicated dream match if there ever was one. Gambler looks like old pictures of everyone's dad from when you were a kid. It didn't seem weird at the time but then you look back through photos from a camping trip and there's your dad shirtless and wearing short cut off shorts and tinted sunglasses. Dad's looked like less cool Arn Andersons, and we had no responsibilities. Oh, and this match rules - obviously - but in a way I couldn't have expected, because The Gambler takes 90% of this match, with Taylor getting 5% to start and 5% to finish. This was the most Gambler Showcase I have ever seen in a match. Dave Taylor was mentioned and talked about at the beginning of the episode and hyped up, talked about like a guy everyone was naturally excited to see, "The Bigun from Wigan", talking about him like he was an old friend of the program. And then Gambler comes out later and just eats him for lunch before losing to one move. Taylor's bit of offense at the beginning is a kick to the stomach, dropkick, and a European uppercut, and Gambler takes that uppercut by reeling back into the ropes, then firing off them with an elbow right to Taylor's throat. Gambler hits a couple really nice kneelifts and hits a huge lariat sending Taylor over the top to the floor, then flips him back over the ropes when Taylor tries to get in. This is already as much Gambler offense as I've probably ever seen, but we're not at all done. Gambler has a bunch of really great Arn Anderson offense, as well as a really great Arn Anderson hairline, throwing Taylor into the ropes just to punch him in the stomach, then kneeing Taylor in the face when he buckles from the punch. Taylor is reeling almost the entire match, Gambler wrenches on a cravate, throws in a couple stomps, hits an axe handle off the top, this whole thing is flat out bizarre. Alas, Gambler goes up for another axehandle and gets caught, and Taylor hits his gorgeous butterfly suplex/floatover pin to win it. What the hell happened here!? Because whatever it was I want it in pill form.

Johnny Swinger vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

ER: Swinger comes out wearing his weird tinsel silver collar, looking smug, and then Scott Hudson says "Johnny Swinger, taking an undeserved bow in the ring." Damn, knocking Swinger down a peg there Hudson. Swinger always comes off well in these matches, a guy with a cool cravate, nice elbow to the jaw, nice backdrop suplex, cool running punch, and nice little things like when he really claps Chavo with his knees to kickout of a sunset flip. Johnny Swinger is really good you guys. This is a really cool Swinger showcase. The finish is really cool too, with Swinger burying a knee in Chavo's guy, then hoisting him up for a vertical suplex that Chavo reverses into a gnarly tornado DDT. He really got vertical on the suplex before  whipping straight down into the DDT, it the visual was fantastic and Swinger snapped right into it.

Barry Darsow vs. Chris Adams

ER: What a main! I don't remember Darsow wearing the World of Sport swimsuit singlet before but it looks cool. He looks like Ken Patera or something. Always like seeing that singlet, but maybe because only cool wrestlers wear it (think Finlay, Regal, most recently Dunne). Adams was treated as a real badass during this era, so it's kind of wild to see him get handled by Darsow here. Darsow is a big guy but I don't remember him always working stiff, whereas Adams had been working a cool semi-shooter gimmick. Adams doesn't get steamrolled or anything, he's too good for that, but it's definitely a controlling Darsow performance. They kept a lot of this real tight, as in they were scrapping in close quarters a lot, which is an awesome touch that you really weren't seeing a lot in mainstream 1999 wrestling. Darsow throws a cool right hand that I don't remember him using, and Adams grabs Darsow's arm and bends it a lot of ways while the two are standing, so you get a lot of them standing in the center of the ring working snug headlocks and wristlocks and it feels more like a  Nick Bockwinkel match in Japan than two olds wrestling in North Dakota (I had no idea WCW was running North Dakota tapings in '99, but this taping was two Saturday Nights and a Worldwide and had plenty of good matches, nice bang for your buck tapings). Darsow even gets an insanely dominant victory, winning by REF STOPPAGE after he locks in a nasty camel clutch while ripping at Adams face. The ref straight steps in and throws in the towel for Adams! God bless these shows.

Episode closes with a drunken Hak promo and he's in that hilarious to watch drunken phase of "No no no you don't understand, LISTEN." Gene is trying to corral him and Hak is wandering around stacking ladders and sighing and saying he doesn't know a wristlock from a wristwatch, and when Gene asks him about his plans he's like "Look I don't know I'm just gonna do it or whatever," while his chin is planted in his hand. Brilliant. I love that Sandman got such a great WCW run. It was only a few months, but the guy was EVERYWHERE. He made several PPVs and was on TV all the time. A major bright spot of 1999.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WCW B-SIDES

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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 11: Kaval vs. Chavo

Kaval vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. WWE 9/21/10 - GREAT

PAS: Really well worked television match with a total pro like Chavo. This is sort of a window into an alternate reality for Ki where he was a Rey Mysterio Jr. style excellent TV worker. Chavo works over the ribs, landing some nice simple knees to the ribs and smashing Kaval chest first into the ring barrier. Kaval sells the rib injury for the whole match, and Chavo returns to the well whenever he gets in trouble. We get some nice near fall fake outs, a couple of cool Ki spots, including a bottom rope feint, and a nifty finish where Kaval goes for a top rope rana, Chavo holds on, and when Ki crashes and burns, Chavo hits the frog splash.  Just solid TV wrestling, and I would have liked to see what these two would do with a larger canvas.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI

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Lucha Underground Season 4 Episode 4: Pain, Love and Sacrifice to the Gods

TL: Catrina trades in the dominatrix starter kit for the Jessica Rabbit dress sans sparkles thanks to a reverse Snow White? I mean, considering the magic threshold on this show, a wardrobe change seems like an odd way to show off your newly stolen lifeforce. Also, I’m sorry, but the dude’s LITERALLY NAMED FENIX. As in, HE RISES FROM THE DEAD. How are we not supposed to see him coming back from the dead after this? “Hey, Mark. We’re gonna call you Big Mac not because you’re super strong and your last name is McGwire, but because you’re a big fan of Burger King.” Zigging when they should zag, man.

Also, we get Striker saying Famous B might need a literal leg amputation due to what Jake Strong did to him two weeks ago, which is less believable than anything that happened with Catrina to open the show.

Big Bad Steve vs. Jake Strong

ER: Damn this was shaping up to be my favorite match of the new season, as it had the pacing of a cool big dude stiff fest (really looking forward to see what Google hits we get from "big dude stiff fest"), but then it kind of quickly flipped switch into full Jake Strong showcase squash. Strong and his flesh beard still come off a little mouth breath-y, but with Steve's bumping he came off pretty badass. Steve threw a couple of thee fucking best punches of 2018 in the middle of this, throwing one corker, and than a wrist bending shot right off Strong's forehead, staggering him. Strong had big shots to the gut, hard back elbows, stiff avalanche, wrestling tougher than I expected from his Impact run. After the match Strong hits a nasty powerbomb on the floor, Steve really getting planted. This was cool, really could have been awesome with a bit more time.

TL: Not gonna lie: Kinda want a shirt with the Big Bad Steve logo on it. The fact they actually made a logo for him is awesome considering a lot of folks in WWE can’t even get a damn shirt made. Steve has some great right hands as previously mentioned, as someone named Big Bad Steve should have, but they just look nasty as all hell, even with Strong’s stiff strikes going right back at him. Really shows how even the simplest of offense can make someone look good like that. We lost our boy Pindar due to beheading at the end of last season, so I’m definitely down to see Steve in his place as burly base with good looking offense. Strong squashes are necessity due to what they want him to be this season, but yeah, I wish this had more back and forth to it. Still, a good piece of business, as the kids say.

TL: As good as lucha masks and sweet suits are, lucha masks and cowboy hats are basically right there with them, and Cuerno makes it look good. Cage gets to flex and flex into a Muertes match next week and yeah, I am on board for that.

Daga/Kobra Moon vs. Johnny Mundo/Taya

ER: Really fun match, Mundo and Taya working full on babyface, and Taya looks to be having a blast with it, and it's kind of infectious. She really laid it in too, hitting some spirited back elbows and strikes, kicking Moon in the back of the head and hitting a sick curb stomp that bounced her forehead off the mat. Mundo hit his timing spots nicely, he and Taya actually come off tas the rare cool "shades of gray" characters, that can work either way one week to the next. Moon took a nice beating here, and Daga runs nicely into Mundo kicks. I liked this a lot more than I expected (just like Strong's performance, I must be in a real good mood, leaded instead of unleaded.

TL: I really want to like Daga because he’s got the athleticism and looks like a guy who can hang either as a tecnico or rudo, but he just doesn’t have charisma like you’d think. Taya was the standout here, doing a good lucha sequence with Daga and just bringing the stiffness with her strikes. That curbstomp was NASTY, as was PJ Black’s kick to set it up. Don’t know if I liked it as much as Eric, but it certainly didn’t suck.

ER: We're definitely into Leaded territory here because I dug that Vibora wrecking ball segment after the mixed tag. Vibora hitting goateed lizard cannonballs and big boots was apparently just what I needed.

TL: So Vibora goes off in the offseason and has some honest-to-god improved offense and looks like way better ring presence. Suffice to say, if this Vibora is the one we get this year, count me in.

Mr. Pectacular vs. Matanza

ER: I didn't feel like seeing Mr. Pectacular (although maybe in my good mood I'd like him in a gassed Power Plant trainee kind of way), and Matanza puts in a nice unlocked and unleashed squash. He hits a cool twisting back suplex after throwing Pecs into the corner, and then hits probably his greatest Wrath of the Gods, stopping, pivoting, feet leaving the mat to slam him the other way. A nice comeback for a person who murdered someone by ripping their face off a couple seasons ago.

TL: Pec just makes me miss Tino Sabbatelli (who, coincidentally has a pec injury right now), but he takes a great beating here. The Matanza body control points have been pointed out time and time again by us, but this was it at the top of its game. Everything had extra oomph to it, and sign me up for an unleashed Matanza, which was my favorite part of Season 2. This was a Mil Muertes-level squash here.

Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. King Cuerno

ER: Wasn't expecting the comeback of Chavo, and it's good to see him still. a guy who should get more credit for what he's done. Chavo can still put on a good show, limps out a tweaked knee, hits a heavy crossbody, bumps hard over the top the floor, eats a chairshot, do some nice balance beam fight work around the raised barrier (which Cuerno hits a great high crossbody off of); Chavo is like the better version of David Sierra, and that's a good thing. We do get an unfortunately messy teeter totter spot, with Chavo setting up way close to the ropes, but Cuerno got through the spot well, and hit his bullet dive right after, which was convenient timing. I thought both came off well overall, but Cuerno came off stronger and that's more important.

TL: It’s funny that Eric waxes strong on Chavo to begin this after what I said about Muertes in our last review. Totally agree that he’s underrated in a way, and that he’s done a lot in a career that’s basically a quarter century long. I think I might be higher on Cuerno than other people, as I always liked his offense, and he shows off some personality here, too, playing to the crowd and helping build to the big spots, like the aforementioned bullet tope (preceded by an awesome top rope sunset flip). Guerrero shtick never really gets old, and Chavo knows how to do little things in matches that stick out. Enjoyable stuff and yeah, a good ending to a good top-to-bottom episode. The further we are away from the season premiere, the more this is turning into a show I enjoy watching again.

ER: My favorite episode of the season so far, We got manageable length matches with big dudes doing cool spots, just a really fun quick moving show. Felt exciting and action packed.


COMPLETE GUIDE TO LUCHA UNDERGROUND

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Lucha Underground Season 4 Episode 1: El Jefe

ER: Yeah yeah, we're back. We're late because of me, but we're back. I am still doing this spoiler free, which is seeming like an exponentially stupid thing to do considering I've liked each season less than the one that preceded it. I'm hoping for a nice return to form this season. Saying that, I don't actually know who is still involved with the fed, which is part of the fun/horror of going into this thing blind.

TL: Hilariously, if we didn't avoid spoilers, we might cherry pick through things instead on here. There's a lot of horror in this one, though. A LOT of horror.

ER: I immediately regret falling behind at the very beginning of the season, since we get introduced to Papa Antonio Cueto, which I imagine caused quite the varied reactions. I both love it for its ridiculousness, and hate it for its everything else. This is clearly a show with some money behind it, surely we have some extra dough in the coffers for a better wig? Cueto's wig was a 0.8 on the Amanda Bynes Courtroom Appearance scale. The beardwork was okay. The voicework was sub-Christian Bale Batman growl voice. The framed photo was as good as any funeral portrait you've seen, but they lose major points for not having a Temple flower arrangement. Okay this was fucking awful.

TL: So, we get the saga of Dario, the feds, and the power glove, complete with Lorenzo Lamas’ removed eyeball and some dude in a Puma mask who may or may not look like someone who has a big match coming up at NXT: Takeover Brooklyn 4. But THEN we get Dario not only dying, but his father coming to his sparsely attended funeral.

AND IT’S THE SAME GUY THAT PLAYED DARIO WHO IS PLAYING HIS FATHER.

Imagine after the aborted Vince car bomb angle that got shelved because He Who Shall Not Be Named did That Which Shall Not Be Described, you get Vince coming back as the ghost of Vince Sr. haunting Raw on a regular basis. It would have been way better than the Twitter bot that played the Raw GM for months upon months. I understand LU is a pulp show on a pulp network and there is some goofiness going on, but this goes beyond the pale on the goofiness scale. Of course, Antonio berates his son, knocks down his memorial portrait in the ring because he finally has control of HIS promotion, and then announces Aztec Warfare for the LU title. That is definitely a way to start off the new season of this show.


Aztec Warfare 4!

ER: Okay, THIS was fucking awful. What a terrible, sluggish, boring, uninteresting match to start your 4th season off with a fart sound. This whole mess was designed to show the dominance of Pentagon, and for a lazy dude he turned in one of his absolutely laziest performances I've seen. Maybe because it was so long and one-note? It was bad. It started with him and Tommy Dreamer having a super slow mo kendo stick battle, and continued with him hitting his finisher on approximately 10 guys. The new entrants appear to be coming in every 30 seconds, and there's an elimination every 30-60 seconds. New guys come in, new guys take one move, new guys leave. It was fucking awful. Even Matt Striker wasn't trying, and brother they don't come more try hard than Matt Striker. In arguably the least inspired moment of a match filled with uninspired moments, Vinny Massaro comes out, gets a pepperoni pizza delivery, starts to eat a slice and in the flattest tone I've ever heard from him Striker weakly says "PizzaGate". That's it. That's the joke. The joke is that there is no joke. There's a reference, but no attempt at a joke. And the reference is already nearly 2 years past expiration. When Pentagon hooked Massaro's leg on the pin I expected him to flatly sputter out a Sandy Hook reference, but no. I rooted pretty hard for Chavo, just because he was infinitely more interesting in this match than Pentagon, and the crowd clearly hates him because he's...well, no LU fans were ever able to give any actual reason why they disliked Chavo. Striker points out how hot Catrina looks, and normally the golf with eyes bugging out and a tongue on the floor reaction from Striker is the lamest, but in an aggressively shitty match like this Catrina's hotness really was a genuine highlight. Fenix was easily the most interesting of the wrestlers involved, and it really wouldn't have taken much effort from him to earn that title. Awful, awful, boring, lazy match.

TL: I actually wrote out a play by play for this because I'm absolutely crazy and also thorough when it comes to pro wrestling things I feel like I have to watch. Good lord almighty was this a slog to get through. I mean absolutely terrible in most ways. The idea behind it was to absolutely make Pentagon The Guy in the promotion, but instead, it's like a Cliff's Notes version of the folks you might see on this program week to week, and it really doesn't do a good job of selling that here. Pentagon is in at 6, and it doesn't get actually entertaining until Fenix is in at 13, where he outshines his brother in like 1/25 the time. The biggest issue I had with this is that all the guys you'd be excited to see, especially someone like Muertes, are in the match for all of like...2 minutes? I mean, Chavo gets a producer's run? Marty gets a shot to try and score an upset on Pentagon as the final guy in the match? Especially after Marty lost to Fenix in the way he did last season? This isn't even a reset. It's like taking the neuralizer from Men In Black. And after this I need it. There isn't a single thing coming out of this that makes me excited for what's to come, and that's a terrible omen for a show that already blows so hot and cold.

ER: And we get more from Papa Cueto, which was a character that just could not have sounded good at any step of the writing process. I'm not as imaginative as I perhaps once was, but I cannot actually imagine a worse way to start a new season of LU. This honestly has to be the worst episode in the history of the series.

TL: Can we get Lorenzo Lamas back up in this thing again please? More Godfrey? Papa Cueto has worn out his welcome and it's only been one show. I started reviewing these with a Sexy Star match. This whole show was worse than that feeling.


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Unicorn Gimmick Matches - Gulf of Mexico Match

Chavo Guerrero v. CM Punk WWECW 2/5/08

PAS: This is a Gulf of Mexico match, where the only way you can win the match is to throw your opponent into the Gulf of Mexico. This was a really fun brawl with Chavo looking totally awesome, he opens the match by taking a huge bump to the floor and is great both brawling and bumping throughout. Early WWE Punk was really hit and miss, but this is one of his better matches. They brawl out into the street, a sedan slams it's breaks on only to have Punk hurled onto the hood. They also smash the windshield of a truck and Chavo scares away some guys fishing and hurls the tackle box at Punk. The current looked really strong every time they showed it, which really added to the danger of the match, this wasn't chucking someone into a swimming pool, the loser really could get swept under. Great hidden gem of a match, and a fun way to spend 10 minutes.

ER: This is a total hidden gem! I had never heard of this match before, and the stip is straight out of the silliest one off gimmicks. When Phil told me about it I thought he was confused and thinking of that Rey/Swagger match where Swagger gets rana'd into the ocean. But this was totally great, and tt would still be pretty great for its crowd brawling alone, without the stip. They spill to the floor almost immediately, but they don't fill the time with Irish whips or walking into place, they punch each other all around, they're wearing bad jeans and shirts - the kind you save for come-as-you-are street fights and mowing the lawn - and they awesomely punch out into the street. The rental car slamming on its brakes was some terrific bullshit, but the best was yet to come as they fight over to a malecon and tease getting tossed over. Well Chavo does go over, and Punk foolishly acts like he's going to dive onto him (great camera angle showing how far he would have plunged). The best stuff is by the water though, with that fast current, Chavo trying a freaking vertical suplex right next to the water, a bunch of great moments of one trying to dunk the other, like someone's face getting forced into barbed wire, and then Chavo finally gets dropped in. The was a joyous and perfectly ridiculous 10 minutes. I need to go back to watching more WWECW.

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Lucha Underground Season 3 Episode 9: Loser Leaves Lucha

ER: It hasn't been said, but my oh my does Slap Bak seem like a horrible band.

MD: I have no idea about the band. When I watched this, the El Rey promo stuff was cutting off the sound for the first minute or so. I'll take Eric's word on it.

1. Matanza vs. Cortez Castro

ER: This was a little over 2 minutes long but totally great. Castro comes out with his arm in a cast, and Matanza headbutts him at the bell and then starts stomping the broken arm. Castro's anguish was perfect, and then Matanza stands him up and begins twisting and yanking on the broken arm, and in an awesome visual he snaps the cast straight. Castro gets a great hope spot when Matanza slips the broken cast off and threatens to beat him with it, and Castro hits a nice dropkick to the knee. Buuuuuut, Matanza hits one of the coolest flying uppercuts you've seen, and then plants him with the tour of the temple. All of this was really well done.

MD: Dario's joy over the wheel is the best thing. The very best thing. On the other hand, Castro taking the kendo stick to the ring and then not actually using it is pretty ridiculous. I got a kick out of Matanza being fascinated by the cast. In general, I don't think they've presented Castro as strong enough for a central protagonist role relative to his narrative importance, but then I have no idea where the plot's going. His hope spot was great but him actually using that Kendo stick to start would have probably helped.

MD: I get that they probably needed to have Puma speak at some point to flesh out his character since he's the top face and all but less is far more in execution.

2. Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Son of Havoc

ER: Fun match, although I was really surprised at how it ended. We all knew Havoc was winning, because we all knew Sagrada was going to get his chance for revenge against Famous B (which, again, seems weird as B did legitimately get him several singles match opportunities. It's not really B's fault that he lost those matches. We may have to just be honest with ourselves that the man weighs 60 lb. and may not be super competitive against most athletes), but I didn't think Havoc would be pinning Wagner clean. Havoc has now been established over many matches as a surprisingly over fan favorite who loses most of his big singles matches. He exists around the top third of the LU card and is viewed as a tough win for main eventers, but an almost certain win. Wagner has so far been presented as an almost untouchable legend, so it was almost shocking to see them work just a straight match without an ounce of a disputed finish. And it wasn't even treated as a big deal! You'd think there would be more drama wrapped up in whether or not Sagrada would get his shot at revenge, but instead they worked an exciting fast paced Velocity match that was satisfying in a bubble but didn't feel like the right match to work with the stip attached. Still, in a bubble the match was fun. Wagner broke out a couple weird throws and it was impressive seeing him work such a fast style.

MD: Speaking of guys that they haven't presented as strong enough, I'm still griping about Havoc's momentum from the end of last season being squashed. When the lovable loser starts to win matches and gets over for it, capitalize on that. Now he gets a truly big win over Wagner and it's just backdrop to Sagrada vs Famous B. Total backwards priorities. That said, the idea of a Believer's Backlash match is perfect for the feud. I was wondering what sort of gimmick would actually be to Sagrada's advantage, and there you go. This was a fun little TV sprint, though, and Wagner gave a ton more than I would generally expect in this situation. Shame that it probably won't mean much in the end.

3. Loser Leaves Lucha: Chavo Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio

ER: Killer match and a fulfilling end to their literally 20 years long feud. I remember seeing these two fight every couple months on Worldwide and WCWSN in 96/97 and now I feel old. But this was an excellently structured match with some fun twists, a real crowd pleaser. Chavo gets a lot of unnecessary hate from wrestling fans, but I still really enjoy what he brings. This is a match you've seen likely dozens of times but I appreciated them breaking out a couple new tricks. Rey works over the knee early and Chavo is good about wobbling around on it, and you just knew he was going to take the first opportunity to attack Rey's knees as payback. The reversals are cool and play off how well they know each other, and Chavo Classic coming in with the DQ was a perfect Guerrero lie/cheat/steal finish. We all knew Rey wasn't going to be the one retiring so naturally Dario comes out with the crowd hyping restart. I loved Classic running straight at Rey after the restart since it was now No DQ (really thought he should have kept interfering the rest of the match, but oh well) and he took a mean spill through his chair/bottom rope. Chavo gets one last great hope spot when he rolls through Rey's Thesz press into a single leg (and because Striker is an abhorrent know it all shithead he just has to call it the White Out. Look at me! I remember 3 months of a gimmick from over a decade ago!!), but it's not enough. Man I flipped out for that single leg. The result was never in doubt, but these two went out and killed it regardless.

MD: The name Loser Leaves Lucha is, on one hand, absurd, but on the other, kind of great. Alliteration is one of the greatest tools in all of wrestling. Anyway, can you believe people complained about Chavo in LU? He was great here. Rey is always great and it's a joy we still get to see him wrestle. Eric's right in that the ending was never really in doubt but the journey was a blast.
Chavo's early pin attempts got over the sanctity of the stip. His rocket launcher power bomb facebuster thing was aces. The leg work was interesting and varied enough to get me past Striker going on about how the Guerreros were known for their legwork. And yes, if this has to be the last we'll ever see of Chavo Classic, it was a great way to go out. The ending was predictable but I got a kick out of the absolute grace Rey showed in getting Chavo into 619 position.

Also Dario calling for the match to get restarted was downright gif-worthy (sorry, Eric):


Classic Dario Face


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Lucha Underground Season 3 Episode 6: The Open Road to Revenge

MD: The camera shot for all of Chavo's chairshots was pretty surreal. I get what they were going for but it felt like a video game cut scene. They should mock up some old grainy footage of Chavo, Sr. vs Dragon Azteca, Sr. The company can be such a weird mix of history and fiction sometimes. That's where Vampiro and Striker bringing in just a bit too much real history (like they'd do in the main with the WWE Cruiserweight Title) hurts things instead of helping. They're in a surreal alternate reality with life-prolonging magic rocks and Black Lotus ninja clans. Just run with it.

1. Famous B & Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Mascarita Sagrada & Son of Havoc

ER: My, Wagner and B certainly had to be mighty generous in this one. It's more than a little silly to have a star as big as Wagner come in and bump all over the ring from armdrags, headscissors and crossbodies from Sagrada. Sagrada is talented but his stuff is light even for a tiny guy. His crossbodies looked like when my cat got outside and I had to chase him down to bring him back in. He got up on a fence and then jumped off onto me. Now, I have a really big cat. He's a Maine coon and is close to 19 pounds. But it was still a 19 pound cat jumping onto a 160 pound me. It's not like Doc needs to be in every main event, we've been seeing him in main events for years and years. But his fees can't be too cheap, and it's odd seeing him work Sagrada in his first full match. Still I got so annoyed watching Sagrada run his game that I started reacting the same as when everybody has to be super gentle with Sexy Star, it made me turn against Sagrada.

MD: Boy, was Brenda super produced here, and that production was "Call him a baby repeatedly." There's a WWF match from January 92 or so where Dibiase was feuding with Santana (El Matador) for just a little bit and it's a Manager Cam match so the entirety of the match was focused on Sherri and not on the ring. It basically is Sherri shouting "Teddy Bear!" for ten minutes. Granted, it's Sherri so there are still moments of it working, like when she proclaims that she always liked Tito when he's menacing her and then immediately that she was lying and she always hated him when Ted cuts him off. But yeah, too much one-note Brenda. Wagner gave a lot but maybe not too much since spirtually, he was held back by being in there with Famous B, right? I still think they could have done more with Havoc after the end of last season. Anyway, this kept things building at least, with B cockily pinning Sagrada while checking his pulse. It'll be nice when he gets his comeuppance and Wagner's a definite step up from Blue Demon for the guy in that same sort of role in the company.

2. Jack Evans vs. Sexy Star

"[this match] should be nothing short of amazing!"~Matt Striker

ER: It was. It was a failure in just about every way. We get our second match in a row watching a person with implausible offense taking 2/3 of the match, they're still trying to push her history of abuse which is just uncomfortable as hell in a wrestling show context, and we have the continuing annoyance that nobody can beat Sexy Matanza. The only parts of the match that worked were when she would capitalize after Evans was goofing around. The best, most logical moment of the match, was Jack doing several handsprings into a corner eyepoke, but Sexy Star turning the tide and doing several turnbuckle aided corner sentons. That's the stuff we should be seeing more from Sexy Star, just some move spamming to downed opponents; instead we get her offense treated as not just equal, but usually MORE powerful. Evans bumped all over the place for her (I mean, it IS Evans) and she can't return the favor, because she's just not good. So it's that same neverending feeling of watching someone good have to reallllly overextend themselves to make Sexy Star look good, and there's just no satisfying payoff. She rarely encounters adversity on screen, and it all just makes me actively root for her failure. Which then makes me feel like a creep. I hate it.

MD: Sometimes the fact that Striker knows nothing about CMLL annoys me more than it should. I don't have the first idea the difference between a hilo and a giro and a tornillo but I know what Ultimo Guerrero's Senton De La Muerte is called. Good on Evans for getting the Star Destroyer name over. His blockbuster looked really nasty too, but that was probably more because Star couldn't physically take it and just crumpled instead. I thought all the BS at the end was effective and Evans bumped big for her and looked overall pretty good (though maybe the face puppeting was a bit too much for what this was). If they're building Sexy Star up for a title match, her going through all of Worldwide Underground isn't a bad way to do that. It's traditional and episodic. I just wish it wasn't her. Aerostar's dive was the highlight of all of this. The trust fall back headbutt thing is always insane to begin with but he really tucked himself up this time around.

3. Pentagon Dark vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Rey Mysterio

ER: Would have rather seen a singles match with any combo of these guys, but I say that almost every time. And this match was good enough, but it all leads to Chavo and Rey feuding. And I like Chavo in LU a lot more than most, but there are so many other Rey matches and feuds that I'd rather see at this point. At this point in Rey's career I want fresh matches. It feels like we're one bad landing from not getting Rey at this level of quality, so I'd rather not see him use his remaining bullets against a guy he's faced probably 50 times already. I also still don't think I understand Pentagon "Dark". He was definitely more vicious as just Pentagon Jr., now he's just way more hammy. I think I liked the Pentagon House Blend more. We do get some fun spots mixed in with the clunky 3 way moments, and I really liked the finish with Chavo yanking Rey's leg and then taking a nasty superkick off the apron, leading to Rey taking the package piledriver. But you still had Rey doing all sorts of kung fu earlier in the show in a segment with Chavo, and here he just tried to roll Chavo up a couple of times. Psychology goes out the window in these matches. And poor Dragon Azteca Jr. couldn't be much more dead in the water. Chavo dominates him last week and he only gets his shot at Pentagon because of interference, and on this show he's just silently taken out without even getting his singles match. Not that he would have fared well anyway, but that would have been better for Pentagon. That guy could use an actual singles match win over someone.

MD: For a three way, I liked this. Some of that was Chavo's personality (a hyena behind the lion, which is how Vampiro put it in the best bit of commentary on the show). Some of it was Rey being Rey, hitting stuff that he shouldn't be hitting at his age and physical state and making it all look awesome. Ok, look, I do know what a tornillo is and his was great. I'm not sure I've seen that dive look as good from him in a decade plus. Some of it was just how well it was laid out (there was just one moment towards the end where I thought Rey was gone from the match for too long). Pentagon and Chavo were different but both equally effective bases. I liked the double 619 attempt set up because that's Rey just being tactical. No one else in wrestling could pull that off. I'm with Eric that Pentagon's stuff can be too hammy now. He shouldn't have been banging on the chair to get the crowd into it. He should have been killing Chavo instead. This felt like a big win that Pentagon needed and I like the set up. Sure I'd rather see Rey vs other people but Rey coming in with a bad leg is good enough that I'll happily see it with Chavo once again.




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Lucha Underground Episode 34: Gold and Guerreros Review

1. Delavar Daivari vs. Texano

ER: These two always manage to do some of the absolute worst phone booth fighting that I've seen. Daivari especially just throws the most mournful strikes. Things get a little better with the knee work portions, as I liked Daivari's repeated dropkicks with Texano tied up in the ropes. But it's all a fairly big waste of time as Texano just brushes it off to do a bunch of moves that involve lifting with the legs. Daivari is dead in the water as a character and even worse as a worker, and Texano going over even with Ryck's interference should hopefully spell the end of him in LU.

PAS: I liked some of the chops and Texano's powerbomb but otherwise this was a big batch of nothing. This feud started out with some real promise and ended like a wet fart.

2. Hernandez vs. Drago

ER: Weird running this the week immediately following Drago's brutal beatdown from Muertes. I mean he really got the piss kicked out of him, and then he's just back to normal and getting revenge on Hernandez the next week? They tape this shit months in advance, just bump the match back a week. He certainly didn't work the match any differently than he would normally work. I'm not expecting him to do Kikuchi levels of selling long term damage, but Hernandez jumped him last week, causing him to take a nasty beating from Muertes, and here he is like nothing happened. Pretty poor. He looked really good, his tornillo was incredible, but within context this was all just dumb. Hernandez really does not hold back on him here though, with the apron powerbomb really smarting and then then cool spot with him stealing a belt from a ringside fan and whipping/choking Drago to DQ. I really dug the match in a vacuum, but within story it was foolish.

PAS: I don't have a huge problem with Drago not selling for a week like Eric, it's wrestling, you usually don't see long term weekly selling. Match itself is clearly just setting up the fans strap match, and I think they did a nice job making me want to see that. Hernandez does a nice job as a smarmy prick, and I want to see a bunch of fans strap the shit out of him

3. Marty The Moth Martinez vs. Alberto El Patron

ER: This was exactly what it should have been. Moth has got kind of a surprising amount of offense in his other matches, but really AeP needed to steamroll him here and I'm glad they let it happen. And then he follows it up with arguably his best ever promo (his promo work in LU has really been high end). I mean this was really one of the best wrestling promos you will hear. It was simple, well worded, got over his motivations perfectly, had nice little touches ("Juanito Mundo"), really just all you would want out of a pro wrestling promo. Awesome stuff.

PAS: Yeah this was an asswhooping. I am surprised they used Martinez who they seem to be pushing as the squashee rather then Vinny Massaro or Famous B, but it does make Alberto looking like a bad motherfucker that he cleaned a semi-pushed guy out that quick.

4. No DQ: Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Prince Puma

ER: Well this wasn't much. Chavo looked like he hyperextended his knee pretty early in the match, then we had The Crew and Texano coming in to essentially work their own match for the next couple minutes, leading to the 630. Seemed like this could have been edited down, not sure. If the knee injury was not planned it certainly looked legit.

PAS: It was a bummer Chavo got hurt as this was building to kind of cool match, and Chavo hurting himself kind of blew any future angle with Texano. Mess of a match, and kind of weak sauce show.

ER: The closing segment with Chavo and Blue Demon was bittersweet, as I actually really really loved it. Demon actually came off like a badass, had some nice lines ("I don't attack people who are hurt...I'm not like you"), Chavo got to laugh him off and call him a has been, Demon lifted him up in the air with a choke like he was fucking Darth Vader. Loved all of this. Buuuuuuuuuuut it means that there is still a Chavo vs. Demon feud. It means Demon is still here. It means we have to see more Demon in the ring, still vs. Chavo. This promotion does a good job of getting me psyched to see things that are certainly going to be horrible.

PAS: I dug it too, it isn't setting up a Chavo v. Demon feud, it is clearly setting up Demon v. Texano as Chavo was using mind games with Demon to get him riled up, which is why Chavo was smiling. I liked Demon saying "I am a good man" like every shades of grey protagonist in a cable drama. Low Winter Sun would have been a lot more watchable if all the cops were wearing lucha masks.



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Lucha Underground Episode 15: Eye for an Eye Workrate Report

1. Mil Muertes vs. Chavo Guerrero, Jr.

ER: Well. This was…okay? Kinda felt like treading water. I liked Chavo's plancha. The best stuff all happened post match as Muertes punches a chair out of Chavo's hands and then lands his best right hand of the match. It is kinda funny that Russo rumors circulated last week and this week we have Muertes choking Catrina and almost doing his finisher on her (yes yes I know these were taped months ago). I also liked Fenix and Catrina's super sloppy drunk person make out sesh.

PAS: I liked Chavo in this fine and this was the best in ring match of a pretty weak show. Don't really know if we established Muertes and Catrina's relationship enough to have their break up mean a ton. Also have no idea who the face and who the heel in their relationship is.

ER: I've gotten so used to the low hanging fruit advertising aimed at us dummy wrestling fans that I mostly just tune out and fast forward if possible, but man is it a little jarring seeing gory Lucio Fulci movies advertised on TV during wrestling.

2. Ivelisse vs. Angelico

ER: This was amusing for what it was. Ivelisse's stuff looked good, if unlikely. I liked how supportive and helpful Son of Havoc was. It's refreshing not seeing the jealous man angle. I like the idea of loser Son of Havoc being the jobless stay-at-home boyfriend who still doesn't really do his share of the chores.

PAS: No idea why you'd do two breakup angles back to back. This seemed like sort of a waste of time to me, although Angelico does have some sleazebag charisma.

3. Super Fly vs. Texano

ER: Not really the debut path I would have taken for Texano, working mirror sequences with a flier, but whatever. Now the post match stuff with Patron was great. Texano laces into him with a couple stiff shots on the floor and Alberto goes off and beats him with nasty shots with the bull rope wrapped around his fist.

PAS: Texano's finisher is really dumb looking. I also really dug the post match brawl. I haven't seen any of the Patron v. Texano matches in AAA, but this made me want to check some of them out.

4. Bael, Cortez Castro & Mr. Cisco vs. Pimpinela Escarlata, Sexy Star & Mascarita Sagrada

ER: I thought this served its purpose. Dario set up The Crew with some theoretical tomato cans, two of whom they dispatched easily and the other they toyed with too long. Pimpi got dealt with first and I really liked the way he sold being choked out by the kendo stick. Cisco generously bumps a bit for Sagrada but eventually they hit a rough curb stomp and nasty apron powerbomb on him and B-Boy finally does something that looks decent by yakuza kicking Sagrada on the floor (the overhead camera shot betrays us again as Sagrada does a dive but it doesn't look like much with that view). That leaves us with The Crew taking on Sexy Star, and some stuff looked better than others but I thought this was effective if they actually plan on continuing to push Star. Ryck comes down the temple stairs looking like one hoss motherfucker, allowing Star to get a reverse roll-up on Bael (jeez he could have at least attempted to get one of his shoulders down for the pin. He was leaned way up into her ass crack so that it didn't even look like a pin). Striker even made a Donovan Morgan reference, which is weird.

PAS: I would have rather seen the first part of this match be a little more even until they started taking people out. Pimpi is a great brawler, and he falls really fast. I did like the curbstomp on the chair, if you a writing someone out, that is a nasty way to do it. There were moments in the Sexy Star match, but other stuff did not look good.

ER: Kind of a flat show this week. Most weeks the hour breezes right by but this one kind of dragged. Not much good in the wrestling department and not much to the backstage segments.

PAS: Yeah this was the worst show they have done. Also really odd booking having implied sexual assault in three separate segments. Really hurts the main event threatened rape, if that is an undercard spot too. Really feels like the part of Foley's book where he had a bloody match planned against Gilbert and they ran a first blood battle royal as the opener.


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Lucha Underground Episode 9: Aztec Warfare Workrate Report

PAS: One match show with no backstage vignettes which does take away a bit from the camp part of the show I enjoy so much. Aztec Warfare was a Royal Rumble with pinfalls and submissions which allowed guys to do dives, and we got a bunch of them. Lots of crazy flips, but again my favorite was Cuerno's bullet tope which was a missile. They did a nice job of weaving a bunch of stories through the match, the Chavo v. Sexy Star stuff, finishing how they started with Puma and Mundo. It had a very Pat Patterson rumble feel to it. Loved Ryck obliteration Sagrada, they really should have done a stretcher job. I also liked how they protected Ryck and Muertes by having them take multiple kill shots before going down.  Just solid stuff, which makes me intrigued about where they go forward

ER: "Aztec Warfare continues to change wrestling as we know it," said Matt Striker, 4 minutes into what was introduced as "the most brutal match in existence". But it's a Royal Rumble with pinfalls instead of over the top rope eliminations. They've had a couple of pretty violent matches in their short history so the build up and hype for what turned out to be a battle royal was kind of perplexing. I don't love the idea of one match taking up a whole episode, but I thought overall it worked as a large collection of spots. I did get majorly burnt out on Mundo by the end of this, especially his ultra athletic bumping. Most of the times his bumps feel really disconnected from the actual moves he is taking. It's like he takes the move, and there's a split second pause before he just does a flip. The worst was taking a nice rana from Sexy Star, he just stood afterwards and then somersaulted on his own. There were many moments of stuff just like this. A whole episode of Mundo is too mucho. But, he did blast Katrina with a crazy kick while she was on the apron, that might have gotten the biggest cheer of the entire match. Kind of came out of nowhere and made a big sound, great spot. Also felt like this match played like an In Memoriam to the superkick. Like this is the last time they were using it, so everybody was required to do a few of them. You could probably put together a pretty compelling tribute video of all the superkicks in this match, complete with Sarah MacLachlan's "Angel" playing over it. There had to be 30+ superkicks in this. It also drove me completely bonkers how Striker pronounced Blue Demon Jr. BLOO-dee-MOAN! BLOO-dee-MOAN. Just say Demon. Say fucking Demon. His emphasis is so fucking bizarre, it's like weird old movies from the 30s where they have foreign actors reading English words they don't know. I do love Vampiro pointing out stupid match strategy like breaking up pinfalls, and giving a logical reason for guys laying around all the time.

Still there was plenty about the match to like. I'd have to be a negative jerk to feel my time watching this was wasted. Almost all of the guys in here got fun moments to shine. I had complained about everybody working even with Sagrada in the last match, and this was like a direct response to me as Fenix dropkicks the shit out of him and Ryck smother clotheslines him to get him out of there quick. Chavo gets to come in and actually work the match logically, by blasting guys with chairs and eliminating them. Although it kind of made everybody else seem pretty stupid to not ever use a chair. I really dug Sexy Star's spots on Chavo, dug Mundo/Puma's 450s to vanquish a distracted and enraged Muertes, Cuerno has the best tope in lucha presently, even dug stuff like Mr. Cisco's chubby full contact sentons. Overall it felt like it was the end of a chapter, with some new stories beginning and others working towards more of a blow off, which makes for satisfying episodic television.


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Lucha Underground Episode 8: A Unique Opportunity Workrate Report

1. 10 Man 1 Fall to Finish

ER: Dug Cueto hiding his shiner behind a pair of big shades. So I thought this was a battle royal, but then they explained the rules that first pinfall wins it, so really it was more like a 10 man scramble. This match both worked for me and did not work for me. There were some really fun moments. I liked Havoc's stuff with Puma, dug Cuerno's flattening tope, Havoc had some crazy high speed Space Flying Tiger Something into a crowd of people, tons of fun spots and go go go. What I couldn't stand about it was that everybody was on a completely equal plane and there was no established hierarchy. In the first 7 weeks the show did a nice job of establishing a hierarchy. We knew the top of the food chain and the bottom. Here everybody was the same. Mariachi Loco got more showcase spots than King Cuerno. Sagrada worked equally with Big Ryck. The Sagrada shit is really starting to annoy me at this point. Not only does everybody in the fed now work equal to him, but he sells less than any worker in the fed.  He'll take a move that would put a larger worker down, but when he takes it he's already moving into position to hit his next spot. The novelty is still there for most of the crowd so I get the push, but the novelty is over for me and seeing him put over so strongly over more believable, capable workers is just strange to my eyes.

PAS: Lots of fun dives in this, but this would have been a below average ROH scramble, it really needed Dixie to give it some structure. I don't get what Son of Havoc's deal is, he was a thug biker who was getting humiliated, and now he is breaking out the craziest high flying spots of the match. If they wanted Matt Cross to do his stuff, give him a different gimmick. Individually fun stuff, and I liked the end run with Puma and Fenix, although I am not sure how that singles match is going to work.

ER: Another Cage promo. "I am not a man, I am a machine." A machine that manufactures triceps tears, I imagine.

2. Boyle Heights Battle Royal

ER: Okay this is the battle royal. So another 10 people but more traditional "feet touch the floor" rules. And for a battle royal it was okayish. I like how Sexy Star went after Chavo until she was eliminated, how she had the blinders on to the rest of things and just wanted his blood. Mundo did his standard "guy who can't be eliminated" schtick, always hanging on during potential eliminations. Vampiro made me laugh one of the times he hung on by dropping "If Fit Finlay were in this he would have kicked Mundo's lungs out through his chest right now." I'm not sure what it had to do with anything, but he's probably right, and I kind of would like a regular "What Would Finlay Do" updates during matches. Shoot, any wrestler ever could think WWFD and it would always make them a better wrestler. Last week Vampiro randomly brought up his Wrestle Society X match with X-Pac (the best match of that promotion's run), so who knows what other surprises lurk in his brain. The ending went on a little too long for me, felt like an endless series of Mundo getting almost tossed, then getting back in. Plus once it was down to Mundo and a couple others we got a bunch of really bad Mundo offense. Really bad knees from the clinch (a couple really whiffed by 2 feet), floppy kicks to nowhere, pretty flashy bunch of nothing.

PAS: I don't mind Mundo's goofy stuff, and the last three with Chavo, Mundo and Muertes was pretty neat. Chavo taking that German suplex like Kenta Kobashi was pretty crazy. Chavo has been so good in this fed so far, I really hope he gets something interesting to do. Still it was a battle royal, and had the flaws of a battle royal.

3. Mil Muertes vs. Fenix

ER: This match didn't do tons for me either. Dario's pre-match promo was kind of clunky, taking the scenic route to get to his announcement of AZTEC WARFARE, which is the most dangerous and extreme match EVER devised…and I suppose we'll find out what it actually is in a few weeks when they come back after the holidays. Fenix and Muertes didn't match up very well, with Muertes have to stand around for some silly offense (the worst offender being a dorky handspring into a diamond cutter). I just wasn't feeling this one.

PAS: Fenix gets really exposed in singles matches, and Muertes isn't a great opponent for him. Nothing much to see here.

PAS: I did love Dario backstage with the belt. "I know you like to break pretty things" is a pretty bad ass line, really looking forward to this surprise.


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Lucha Underground Episode 7: The Top of the Ladder Workrate Report

Danny Trejo is in the house for this episode!

1. Super Fly vs. King Cuerno

PAS: Super Fly shows up on Lucha Underground with a mask four days after losing it in Mexico, they should probably coordinate that stuff better. This was a fun match, with Super Fly being good in the role of enhancement guy. His Space Flying Tiger Drop was pretty great looking. Pretty much just a set up for more Cuerno v Drago, but I liked it

ER: This was a fun extended Cuerno showcase. Cuerno has nice stomps, which is not really something anybody has anymore. When you think about it the stomp used to be a pretty common thing for a bad guy to do, but you just don't see many guys using them anymore. At least the guys doing them are apparently doing them with pride. So I didn't have much problems with it in the past episodes, but pretty sure we can officially get rid of the vertical hanging camera. I don't think it adds to any shots, and often it takes away from them. Here Cuerno took what looked like a cool bump to the floor but you couldn't really get a feel for the gravity of it with the overhead shot.

PAS: Pentagon Jr. vignette was fun. I don't really get violent Ninja warrior from what he is doing so far, but I liked the Kung Fu B-Movie feel.

ER: Oh man the zoom in on the victim when Pentagon Jr. breaks the poor guy's arm during a sparring session was hilarious. He's like a villain in Bloodsport or something. Also laughed at the dual superman punch by two Aztec warriors on a sunset hillside.

2. Fenix v. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

ER: Did not love this, although it actually had a bunch of individual moments that I liked. I loved the spot where Fenix was taking Chavo apart with leg kicks and Chavo levels him with a clothesline. Fenix took the clothesline great. Loved Chavo twisting his boot on Fenix's mask. Loved Pentagon's interference. But it was very disjointed and at the end felt like a bunch of things happened, but it didn't add up to a lot. We've talked about how Fenix has trouble stringing his big spots together as he doesn't seem to know what to do between the big moments. We had the return of the overhead camera shot as I had no idea what happened with a miscommunication spot, as both men ran towards the ropes but Chavo ended up falling through them to the floor or…something. It looked clunky from that camera, and it's possible it was a bad looking spot that looked worse than clunky when shot normally, so they opted for the overheard traffic cam, but either way I'm no fan. Also did not like the Chavo reversal spot on Fenix's big double knees from the top. Almost every reversal spot I've ever seen from a top rope move looks bad, as the reverser ends up taking the full brunt of the move, then just rolls through to do his thing as if the move didn't happen. Here Chavo takes the double knees, then just grabs a half crab. It "looked cool" but it also made the double knees (which I thought was a pretty great spot) look like garbage. I get those moves being risky, but the risk shouldn't be "ah HA! You hit the move flush but *I* just chose to ignore that even happened!!"

PAS: I really enjoyed Chavo in this, as I think he is pretty good in the rudo base roll against high flyers, and I liked the double knee reversal thing, I buy if you know something is coming you can brace yourself and prep a roll through. Fenix is sort of a mess though, he has some cool highspots, but they aren't any cooler then Drago or Puma and he looks very lost in between them, and that is with a vet like Chavo and editing, he is obviously being built for bigger things in this fed and I am not sure he can live up to them

ER: We get a Cage vignette which is really nothing more than a throwaway UFC pre-fight video, with him flipping tractor tires and doing bicep curls. Brian Cage is a huge gassed up guy who 18 months ago was about 50 pounds of muscle lighter. This is an extreme case of wrestling body dysmorphia. He still has some surprising agility that occasionally breaks through the layers of mass, kind of like early super gassed era Scott Steiner. You know, how most of the time he looked like a guy who couldn't properly put his arms down at his sides, but would from time to time break out some impressive things the way he used to. I've seen Cage look good in matches, and I've seen matches hurt by his newfound physique. Curious to see how he does here.

PAS: I had kind of assumed the key was to unlock the Brian Cage, but him in this vignette seem to suggest that he is going to be used in a different way. With Cage and Big Ryck it is weird that this lucha fed has more roid monsters then the WWE.

3. Big Ryck vs. Johnny Mundo vs. Prince Puma ($100,000 LADDER MATCH)

ER: Ladder match is starting at just the 30 minute mark of the episode which seems kind crazy, but intriguing (but made more sense when the show went off the air at the 54 minute mark). But by the end of this match I was still just kinda bored. Everything I loved about the street fight a couple weeks back was lacking here. All of the run ins and garbage spots in that match felt very organic, and here the run ins operated much more on super obvious spot set up. All the garbage spots were integrated really seamlessly into the street fight, and here the set up for all of them was clunky and obvious. Plenty of great individual moments, such as Puma's cool dive through the ladder, and an ESPECIALLY  awesome Steamboat Bill  spot with Puma and a falling ladder. Never seen that before outside the magic of the cinemaplex and I fell in love all over again. Puma and Morrison both pulled out some pretty crazy stuff, with Puma breaking a ladder in half by falling through it on the way to the floor, Morrison making a slingshot spot look brutal by going in nose first. But I thought almost all of the run in moments were bad, as opposed to them being a strength like they were in the street fight. The match still had its strengths, and I really liked Big Ryck in this. While the set up for the crazy spots was at times bad, the crazy spots themselves all looked great. The worst thing about the match was the run in. Phil told me afterwards on the phone that it was B-Boy, who I have seen live a bunch (jeeeeez dating back over a DECADE!) and when he ran in Striker was all "who is this some sort of fan or something? Jesus get security out here" and I was rolling my eyes because it sounded like "That's Lance Storm!! HEEEE doesn't work HEREEEE!!!" but then all of this mystery man's strikes looked insanely bad , like he was fake fighting a little kid with progeria and had to be extra gentle, and then he took the worst ever bump off a Mundo superkick, kinda pausing for a goofy "Did I do that!?" look at a camera that wasn't there before falling the wrong direction. After all that I thought "oh shit that HAD to have been a fan, Striker was right!! because clearly a guy who had actual wrestling training wouldn't have looked that bad." But again, Phil told me it was B-Boy. Now, in fairness to B-Boy, maybe he's a method wrestler and really got into his character and thought "okay, you have to look bad. Bad enough for the announcer to confuse you for some lowlife fan. Wear cargo shorts. Pooch out your belly a bit. Throw punches that wouldn't break wet paper. Look like a man who has not had formal training in any sort of occupation, least of all pro wrestling. BEEE that possible fan, running in, confusing announcers." So that's a possibility.

PAS: I liked this but didn't love it. Mundo has looked pretty bad brawling during this entire show, and it was rough when he had to exchange punches. I also thought this went long, I like that give main events this long without commercial breaks, but this dragged a bit. Also kind of silly to have a surprise run in, have it be a guy nowone knows, in a match where there are already lots of non-surprise run ins. Did love all of the big bumps, which were totally crazy, that Puma fall into the ladder was bonkers, and Ryck was great, the set up for the nut shot where he tries to climb two ladders ruled. I always like Big Show in ladder matches and Ryck played a similar roll of a monster totally out of his element, but still dangerous. Nice bump by Cuerto in the post match angle too, that guy is just awesome.


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Lucha Underground Episode 6: The Key Workrate Report

ER: Noticed Chris DeJoseph's name in the producer credits for the first time. So I was wrong when I said no former WWE writers/producers were involved. Apparently the guy who wrote himself onto TV as Big Dick Johnson was picked as the wrestling mind involved with this show. Can't say I actually ever saw one of his segments as Big Dick Johnson, because I have the magic powers of fast forward.

PAS: I liked the opening segment with Big Ryck and Dario, although Big Ryck probably shouldn't talk as his Island accent kind of goes against the character a bit.

ER: Yeah the island accent was totally jarring as I didn't remember what he sounded like in WWE. Although damn now I'm kinda bummed that they didn't tweak his gimmick a bit and make him more of an island thug, like Julius Harris in Live and Let Die.

ER: Pre-match Ivelisse says that "they didn't sign a 7 year contract to fight women and half men". Jesus, a 7 year contract handed out to Son of Havoc?! Clearly a guy the promotion probably could have afforded to go year-to-year on.

1. Son of Havoc vs. Pimpinela Escarlata

PAS: Fun match with Pimpi being as electric as I remembered him. His over hand chops are Ron Garvin great. Son of Havoc should have left that goofus gymnastics ring post splash back in his MadDogg20 days, it is a dumb spot when it is done by a guy who's gimmick is straight edge yarder, it is really dumb if he is supposed to be a masked biker. Match went a little off the rails when Pimpi torched his arm, although he is such a pro that he pretty seamlessly integrated it into the match.

ER: YES! It's great to see Pimpi back on my TV. It's been too long. Actually quite surprised that Cassandro wasn't signed up for this show now that I think about it. I loved this match. If this was something that had taken place on WCW Worldwide it would be legendary. Pimpi was great as ever, his chops were brutal (the ones to Havoc's back were Fassbender-esque), he always has a nice missile dropkick, and also broke out a crazy spinning heel kick off the apron. And of course the bumps. Here he takes a big one into the corner and another spilling to the floor off the apron in sick fashion. Now, that shoulder injury…I think he may just be really great at setting up a "I think that was real!" fall (the way Chris Hamrick used to do) and then is just good enough to make it look like he has a real shoulder injury. I remember seeing him do something similar to this years ago in AAA with a knee injury. I don't think this is quite like seeing KISS for a second time and being disappointed that Ace Frehley (Bruce Kulick?) knocks the SAME light fixture loose with his firework launching guitar. I think Pimpi is just real good at setting up unique match plots and then following them through (the only two tells for me were him holding the ropes to block the sunset flip, and the ref holding up the arm with the bad shoulder). I also though Havoc looked fine in this, and I kind of like the dorky ass flagpole elbow drop. Phil's right that it doesn't work at all for some sort of masked biker, but I like it as a CrossFit douchebag showoff spot. I hope it has a name like "The P90X-Factor".

2. Mil Muertes v. Famous B

PAS: I am over the Mil Murtes squash, I think they have established the guy enough over the last couple of weeks, hell they had him squash a guy pushed as an iconic legend in his first week, no need to have him squash a jobber in week six. He also needs a better finisher, there is nothing more played out then the flatliner. I like Mesias, I enjoyed the Drago match, I just am over this, and if anyone out there can hear me, GET HIM BETTER PANTS!!

ER: Good god those pants. How hard would it be to get some black tights with Aztec imagery? He's got the headdress already! That had to be way harder to obtain. Famous B did his job in this match, bumping around nicely for Muertes' Attitude Era offense. I look forward to seeing how Muerte's Roll the Dice or Play of the Day look.

PAS: I was asking for a Drago vignette and they delivered. I loved the little kid voice over, it sounded like it was the intro to a Wu-Tang track, like something off of a Killa Priest solo project.

3. King Cuerno v. Drago

PAS: These guys match up really well. Like their previous match Cuerno does a good job modulating speed, his gimmick of the deliberate hunter, stalking athletic pray works nicely in this kind of spot fest. He also has one of the best tope's in wrestling which can capture my heart. They mentioned that they are tied up one to one, so I hope the rubber match is in the main event time slot so it can get a little more time.

ER: Another fun sprint from these guys. I like how they're keeping track of wins and losses, always referencing who beat who and how they beat them. Striker can be insufferable ("how can I force in a Michael Dokes reference…") but he gets full credit for making near falls mean more by pointing out what move a guy beat another guy with, stuff like that. Drago's flip dive was crazy as about 5" farther would have sent his tailbone into the temple steps. Cuerno's dive though, is just a flawless tope. Highspeed, great follow through (doesn't just make contact and bail away from opponent) and just totally engulfs his opponent. Drago has huge balls to man up to it.

PAS: Nice set up to the 3-way ladder match, Cuerto has been a little too bumbling in the last couple of weeks so it is good to see him show a little cunning. I also am official intrigued by the key, there hasn't been a good mystery angle in wrestling in forever (ever? has there ever been a good mystery angle?)

ER: Boy at the same time I noticed Puma's right hands looking nice during this, I also noticed how shockingly bad Mundo's looked. It looked like he was running a Chris Chetti throwback gimmick. 3-way matches as a rule don't get me very excited, but last week this fed did a classic overbooked ECW garbage match and it was awesome, maybe they can work some magic with this format. Man, as for successful mystery angles….probably just Hogan joining the nWo? I wasn't really watching wrestling at the time so I couldn't say if it was actually shockingly to "insider" fans. Actually, and this may sound ridiculous, but Kurt Angle debuting with TNA was genuinely surprising, and the "what big star will debut" mystery was kept pretty secret if I remember right. I mean, I wasn't excited about watching Angle in TNA, but that was a mystery angle (harhar) with a satisfying and surprising reveal to a lot of fans. Which is possibly because most people assumed the debuting big star would be Jim Neidhart or something.

4. Chavo Guerrero Jr./Pentagon Jr. v. Sexy Star/Fenix

PAS: Tag matches are a much better place for Sexy Star then singles matches, she can hit and run and we don't have to watch her try to overpower a much bigger man one and one for an extended time. Liked the pacing of this too, as Chavo and Pentagon cut the ring off, and punish Fenix before the big wild finish. Not completely sold on Fenix, he has some flashy stuff, but his in between work isn't nearly as solid as most of the other pushed guys on this show. He is obviously being pushed big, and I am not sure he is ready for it. Not sure where Chavo goes from here, but he is clearly playing his role with gusto.

ER: I liked this match and especially dug the Chavo/Pentagon team. Fenix was a little exposed in an actual tag format, as he still has some spectacular looking spots but they work better when he's able to run through a bunch of them while a base gets into position for him. His stuff is harder to integrate in a hot tag situation, or when he has to, you know, sell. Still I love that flipping powerbomb rana, and his floppy dives are fun. Chavo looked really good here and I know people have complained about some "WWE style" stuff creeping into Lucha Underground, but when you see a match like this and Chavo is really the only one who knows how to do a convincing headlock to build heat, you kinda appreciate it.


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Lucha Underground Episode 5: Boyle Heights Street Fight Workrate Report

PAS: I really liked the opening office scene between Dario Cuento and Konan. Konan is so good in this role, sort of the street gang elder dealing with the low level Columbian connect.

ER: Not sure if this is an idea that is going to stick around, but I dug the Antibalas-esque house band they had playing. I've been to a few music/wrestling shows that are always a bad idea, as they were "watch a match, then watch a bad metal band!" with the bands always playing a few songs in between matches. They were awful and killed the mood for both. But having more of a house band to play during down time is a kind of cool idea.

1. Mil Muertes vs. Drago

ER: I really liked this one. Drago got soundly beat, but he put up a good fight and it wasn't just him getting demolished. Muertes finally looked impressive in a LU match. Part of it was Drago bumping big for him, but Muertes' stuff really looked on point, from the power moves down to the simple stuff. His overhand rights looked nice, his shoulder blocks looked painful, he had a cool standing powerslam that dumped Drago on his shoulder, and spearing Drago out of the sky was an awesome finish. Drago still got to hit cool speed stuff like a nice corkscrew body block and a sweet tornado DDT. This was a high quality Worldwide match.

PAS: Drago might be my favorite guy in Lucha Underground, I haven't seen a ton of his AAA stuff, but he is just crazy fast and athletic and has an awesome look. This is also the best Muertes has looked that big right into a standing powerslam was nasty looking. He still needs better pants and a better finisher, but he felt a little more like Mesisas here, who is a guy I have loved in the past.

2. Son of Havoc vs. Mascarita Sagrada

ER: Striker: "What does it say about Havoc that he's willing to beat up a woman, willing to beat up a little person." I would assume that Son of Havoc does not control who he gets booked against. His employer tells him to wrestle, he makes the most of his opportunity. Having Sagrada go over here makes that first episode Sexy Star loss to Havoc look even sillier. Sagrada took like 60% of this match, too, which reallllly makes me lose interest kind of quickly. There's only so much I can watch of an 80 lb guy tossing around a 190 lb guy before I get bored. It approaches something more like Kenny Omega wrestling a blow-up doll at a certain point. Not to mention that Sexy Star couldn't beat Havoc one on one, and Sagrada was able to beat him while also dealing with constant interference from Ivelisse (which, incidentally, was my favorite part of the match. I thought her interference - especially her neat yakuza kick - was really good). So now I'm supposed to buy Star against Chavo, even though she couldn't come close to beating a guy who just got beat by a little person. They're really losing me with all of this.

PAS: I really think Sagrada should be working trios or tags rather then singles matches, in and out quick hits work way better then expect us to buy a head on victory. I did like his tope to Ivelisse, but otherwise this felt like a waste of time.

3. Sexy Star vs. Chavo Guerrero

ER: And this ends up being not too much of anything. Chavo tosses her around for a bit, goes for a kiss, gets knocked to the floor, then Star grabs a chair and goes crazy going after all of the male genitalia, starting with the ref for the DQ. We get a Pentagon/Fenix run in with Pentagon kindly holding a chair in front of his face for a long time so Fenix can kick it. I did really like Star's alley-oop rana, with Fenix tossing her up into it. But this was almost all angle, no match. We'll see what it sets up I guess.

PAS: I thought Chavo came off like a total sleazeball rapist here, that kiss felt like a UVA frat boy. This is the best character work he has done in a decade. I do wish I could see whether that translates into a real match. Hopefully the tag this sets up will be a great in ring Chavo performance.


4. Big Ryck vs. Prince Puma

PAS: I thought this was about as good an overbooked ECWish match as I have seen in quite a while. Ryck looked way better then he looked last week, everything was really stiff looking, and he was great at knowing when to bump and when to shrug off his smaller guy. All the little beats of this match were great, Ryck catching the kendo stick, deciding to chill on a chair while his boys did the work, leading to Puma dropkicking him, that brutal looking KO forearm, and then the crazy Parkour leap from the rafters for the save. The finish felt a little telegraphed, but otherwise this was way better then it had any right to be.

ER: I thought this was pretty great. It was a great example of run-ins and interference actually adding to a match. I was expecting having to see a bunch of the massive Ryck taking a bunch of flipping armdrags. Instead Ryck got to break out a bunch of brutal offense, and Puma's comebacks were handled in really smart ways like having Cortez and Cisco interfere to take all the cool moves, which would lead to Ryck being taken off guard. The progression of the match is just really smart, with Puma fighting this monster, and Ryck actually coming off like a monster. Every one of Ryck's shots looked brutal, loved him flexing over the ropes while choking Puma, loved him pulling him into a KO forearm tug-o-war style, loved his big kneelifts. The spot where Ryck pulls up a chair to watch his goons take apart Puma, only to have Puma take them apart and then blast Ryck with a dropkick is just smart, fun, and unique. Poor props to the camera work for the way they filmed Mundo dropping in from above. It really looked like he flew 20 feet into the ring. This was a really impressive match, with a super smart layout that made every person involved look great.


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Lucha Underground Episode 2: Los Demonios Workrate Report

1. Johnny Mundo/Prince Puma v. Cortez/Cisco

PAS: I enjoyed Zeke as Suge Knight, I think it is a fine wrestling role we haven't seen much of. He really needs to get some double breasted suits. This was better then the Puma/Mondo match the week before, we had some tag structure to build the big spots around, and the heel time was a fine bumping stooging, hard hitting squad, and did a nice job letting the flashy babyfaces shine. That missed tornillo by Mundo was lunatic, and I liked the finish. Great opener which the gave some time too.

ER: Agreed about Zeke needing some double breasted suits. The cigar is a nice touch, but a tight black t-shirt and jeans just makes him look like a bouncer. And yeah, this was a better match in every way than the hyped main event from last week. I really liked everybody here, the tag team format suits Reyes/Cholo much better than singles matches as Cholo can bump (loved his corner Psicosis bump) and Reyes has crisp looking offense but no real good way to string it together in singles matches. Both guys complement each other nicely and the team makes them greater than the sum. Mundo has really impressed for a guy who took tons of time off the last few years. From simple things like his nice forearm shots, to stuff like the crazy high speed tornillo to nowhere, he really comes off like a star in this show so far. Match a lot to like, with plenty of cool spots strung together nicely.

I was also amused how during this match Matt Striker would babble on with some cliches and/or bullshit, and Vampiro would call him out on it using 4 words. At one point Striker was making a big deal over what a large "style clash" this was, and Vampiro just goes "And what style is that?" forcing Striker to actually explain and think out his babbling. At another point he's just talking for ages about bar fights and saying hack stuff like "it's always the guy you least expect in a bar fight who punches you in the nose, and I've been in countless bar fights" and Vampiro just goes "Well I've never been in a bar fight, so…I wouldn't know." Also how lame is it for your announcer to casually pretend he's been in "countless" bar fights?

PAS: Liked Konan as grizzled trainer again this week, and I thought they did a nice job slowly working a heel turn, Vampiro needs to stop overselling Konan as evil on commentary though.

2. Sexy Star/Chavo Guerrero v. Son of Havoc/Ivelisse

PAS: Served it's purpose by giving Sexy Star a win, and shorthanding a relationship between Sexy Star and Chavo for the final angle. Liked Evalise's super kick.

ER: Fun little match. Chavo has looked really good the last two weeks, loved him yanking Son of Havoc's beard and breaking out the corner kappa kick. Also impressed by Ivelisse, someone I haven't seen since she was on Tough Enough. The wrist clutch superkick looked great and kind of surprised I haven't seen it before (though it was similar to one of Booker T's old kicks that never looked good). Camera crew seems to know what they are doing and the directing is really good at covering up sloppy spots. Havoc looked like he somewhat whiffed on a running knee and they really picked the best angle to cover that up, without looking like they cut to an awkward long shot. They did this on another spot that looked somewhat off. I don't like their use of the random sky cam cutaway, but they actually seem further ahead of any other wrestling promotion at blown spot coverage. That's a huge feather. I also loved the need for Vampiro's analysis of Striker calling him just "Havok" during the match: "Technically Matt, this is not Havok. This is Havok's son."

3. Blue Demon Jr. v. Mil Muertes

PAS: Liked Mesias's new gimmick, but I think he needs a cooler mask. You only get so much out of a Demon match, but if this is it for him I think he served his purpose. Pretty surprised he did a clean job, El Ray must be paying real money. Muertes had his moments, his knock out punch was pretty cool, but man spear into a flatliner has got to be the most played out finisher combo ever.

ER: Phil brings up the Muertes mask needing some work, but somehow completely misses those total disaster tights. Pin stripe blue? It looked like he was sporting the bottom half of a seersucker suit southern lawyer gimmick. I never thought I would want somebody to go back to a corset wearing goth gimmick. This match was pretty bad, but it had some elements I liked. I like Demon's short right hand, like the sound sweetened chops, especially when saved for their heavyweights, and I really dug the interference of Katrina. I'm not sure who she is but she had real presence and a good look. Loved the short kick to Demon's face and the drop down choke while wearing heels was impressive.

PAS: I thought the ending angle came off better in execution then it read on paper. Chavo was a great hateble sleaze, and the chair shot on Sexy Star looked nasty, and I imagine was pretty safe. WWE doing no man on woman violence, and no chairs to the head for so long, really helped this angle seem like a step too far. I hope this is it for Blue Demon, and as a Chavo fan, I want to see what he does with a top heel role.

ER: Again want to give it up to the direction/camera crew as I think they shot the chairshot to look really devastating. Sexy Star fell really well for it and I think the low camera shot was really best for it. Really impressed by the technical work so far on this show.


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