Lucha Worth Watching: Nuevos Dinamitas! A Mask Match! More Wotan!

El Cuatrero/Forastero/Sanson v. Blue Panther Jr./The Panther/Pegasso CMLL 11/8

ER: Man I am loving Nuevo Dinamitas! This is a quick but action packed 2 falls finish. Una caida is standard but with some notable moments from Dinamitas, with their cheapshotting and great pratfall apron bumps; segunda kicks into high gear, with Dinamitas doing one of their huge press slams, Cuatrero and Forastero bumping big into the crowd (with Forastero booting a fan in the face on his way over), all the tecnicos hit massive dives, and later we get the Dinamitas hitting badass dives of their own. I love how the Dinamitas bump around, the way they do classic lucha bumps like the backwards one through the ropes to the floor, or how they take ranas, or how they throw big overhand chops and cut low on clotheslines. It's a classic style done by guys in their mid 20s, making it look great. I'm thinking Cuatrero is clearly the best at this point, but as with the Oficiales several years ago I look forward to monitoring them to see who makes gains.

Delta v. Galactar MDA 11/26

ER: Man did this stink. It was really, really bad. But I think this qualifies as "worth watching", because I hated it, but saw that it had popped up on a few year end top 10 lists. I can't see any explanation for how this would end up in a top 10 of any given month, let alone year, but if you have a spare 40 minutes you'd like to spend watching a match you may hate, then you should watch this. Delta - who you know from being the 5th or 6th best man in a CMLL trios match - versus Galactar - a man whose post-mask career you won't bother following. Spoiler alert. We get a quick primera and quick segunda, with Delta starting the segunda with his amusing rope flip headscissors to the floor, and after that he shows that either he can't properly do another move without stumbling the rest of the match, or that Galactar can be awkwardly out of position for nearly every move. Man Galactar was bad. He was good at taunting the crowd. That's important. Otherwise we would have two guys doing moves in a vacuum, as Delta sure wasn't acknowledging the crowd much. Galactar would at least hit a move and soak in the boos or adulation. It was everything else he stunk at. It seems like he blew up pretty early, and would just be so damn lazy on so many moves. Watch him Irish whip Delta, and by Irish whip I mean he kind of pats Delta's lower back and Delta runs across the ring on his own. This happens at least 4 times. We get a few big dives, always almost completely missing. Galactar hits an insane moonsault to the floor, and mostly hits a moonsault to the floor. His head somewhat grazes Delta. Delta hits a bullet tope and falls mostly short. Galactar has a much easier bump falling back into the seats. 

We get a few moments of them holding each other for balance up top, nobody even pretending they were opponents, just helping each other maintain footing so they could perform another move that would get another 2 count, BUT then give strength to the person taking the move, enough strength that they can stand up and do their own move right back! I mean, not RIGHT back, because they have to lie motionless on the mat in between all of these 2.9zzzz. There must have been 10 total minutes of "lying on mat" time. So they overly sell these moves by lying motionless for so long in between moves...and then they stand up and don't sell at all! It's an interesting, and horrible, approach. Moves mean nothing as they become entirely too predictable, way too quick. There is no drama as you know each close nearfall will just result in the guy who barely kicked out and lied in an exhausted heap, stand up and do a move of his own. For about 20 straight minutes. We get a false finish, and you all can guess that the first move of the restart is what was going to get the win, even though the move looked no more or less devastating than any other moves that got 2 counts the rest of the match, only this one came after a 3 minute break where nobody was taking moves. This was a really shitty match. It was 35 minutes long. 35 minutes of shit.

Wotan v. Impulso WMC 2/11/17

PAS: My quest to find the second great Wotan match continues. This was overall pretty enjoyable, although it had some of the same garbage match elements which made Wotan v. As Charo a chore. Early on in the match Wotan hits this crazy twisting tope which sends both guys into the 6th row, totally out of control and awesome looking, they also have this cool section near the end where they just throw big shots , chops and headbutts on the floor which was pretty violent. Still this had a bunch of stuff with lightubes, some cool and some awkward looking, a spot with a spiked pineapple which looked dumb and the finish which had Wotan light a table on fire, which goes out by the time he hits a top rope move. Wotan definitely has a set of skills but it may take a Black Terry level guy to shepherd it together.

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Lucha Worth Watching 2/5/16 & 2/9/16

Barbaro Cavernario, Negro Casas & Mephisto vs. Mascara Dorada, Volador Jr. & Mistico (CMLL 2/5/16)

Major crowd pleaser Arena Mexico main event with everybody getting the opportunity to shine. Dorada is back from his NJPW sojourn and looks like a star, snapping off ranas and headscissors with more whip than anybody else on the roster, projecting huge on bumps; Cavernario is his perfect dance partner, excellent yin to his yang, taking those ranas and making them look neck breaking. They peak with Dorada catching Barbaro on the apron with a rana that sends him sprawling hard to the floor. Barbaro looked so big time in this match, right from the opening seconds of him entering the arena in his Fred Flintstone smock on up to the mammoth top rope splash to the floor that his knees still somehow allow him to do. Casas is gorgeous in his simplicity and it's always a treat to watch him front kick twerps like Volador square in the mouth while his goons hold onto him. A motivated Casas is a thing to marvel, and here he's in his Arena Mexico hamming-it-up glory, acting as ringleader to the chaos, sneaking shots when needed and stooging when that's needed. He takes a bullet fast flip bump off the top rope to the floor that made my head spin. For his part Volador actually shows some balls here and finally snaps and punts Casas right in the dick to end the match. It's nice to see Volador not looking like an utter wimp for once. Mephisto gets a nice main event appearance and clearly aims to make the most of it. He makes his intentions clear right away as he breaks up a tag by kicking Volador right in the eye with his boot toe. Mephisto gets to hog some nice big moments and gets to show off a bit, too, bumping to the floor a couple times, launching Mistico into the entrance steps; The tecnicos all hit stereo flip dives, tons of beautiful headscissors abound, and the whole thing is worked rather breathlessly. As it should be.

Comandante Pierroth, Sagrado & Misterioso Jr. vs. Delta, Esfinge & Rey Cometa (CMLL 2/9/16)

You know who I really like? La Comando Caribeno. They're just classic rudos, like the nuevo Dinamitas. Dragon Lee and Rush get a lot of deserved praise, but you know who is also awesome? Their papa, the Comandante. He's a juiced up nasty asskicker who really should be getting more love, but isn't exactly part of any major programs so I get it. I'd love to see him team up with Rush and just beat the hell out of flippers. But the team just works so nicely together. Misterioso Jr. has been one of the more underrated CMLL undercarders for years now, so that's not a surprise. Sagrado is the surprise of the team, because Sagrado is a guy you've seen for a decade now, and a guy that has blown for a decade. He was a clueless tecnico, star of several aborted pushes, as once they would try and push him they would again realize "oh wait he still wrestles like Sagrado and also has the charisma of Sagrado." You watched that guy suck for a decade. Or maybe you were smart and did not watch Sagrado. I watched Sagrado. He was terrible. Now he is decidedly not terrible at all. He's a totally different wrestler as a rudo. He has much better instincts and doesn't do wretched highspots. He throws himself into being a rudo (sometimes literally, watch him hurl himself into the barrier after taking an Esfinge dive in the primera). These guys all really fit nicely as a team, which is oddly something I don't often get with lucha teams. Many tecnico teams are fungible. Volador can team with Stuka or Delta or Dragon Lee or Diamante Azul or Valiente and those teams would all seem like guys standing on the apron around each other. And they do. Ingobernales feel like a team. And like them, so do La Comando Caribeno. And Pierroth is somehow becoming a marvel. I don't remember a bunch of Poder Boricua stuff jumping out at me, but suddenly he's old and on the gas and I'm seeking out every new match that pops up. Welting up tecnico chests with hard slaps, stiffing guys with sentons, just running that ring like a real dickhead general. The tecnicos get some fun highspots, Esfinge hits a potentially botched armdrag but hangs in there and makes it work, we get two different stereo dives, but the real fun is watching Caribenos nail all of the little things. Pierroth is working more like Ronnie Garvin than a classic lucha rudo, and it's awesome.

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MLJ: Dragon Lee vs Virus/Casas 10: Delta, Dragon Lee II, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Kamaitachi, Puma, Virus

2015-02-08 @ Arena México
Delta, Dragon Lee II, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Kamaitachi, Puma, Virus

I've tried to avoid the Kamaitachi feud because it's been covered well elsewhere, but this has Virus in it, so I'll do a brief shot here. I think by now it's obvious that spotty wrestling isn't my favorite wrestling, in and of itself, but when someone is good enough to make those spots matter and resonate, as opposed to just rushing to the next one to get the oohs and the ahhs out of the crowd, then I love it as much as anything in wrestling. It's marrying excitement and drama with logic and meaning and big monents that makes lucha amazing, and I think, even so early into his career, Dragon Lee is well along the path of getting that. Working so much with Virus probably helped, but for his experience level, he's come a long way.

Then you have a wrestler like Delta, who has 1-2 really fantastic dives, can garner some level of sympathy in getting beaten down, and can be led in early matwork or exchanges, but ultimately doesn't seem to be able to put it all together. He was fairly well exposed during this year's Busca and it was frustrating because his big spots are so good. Guerrero Maya, Jr., on the other hand, is someone who I think we only see part of what he can do in the CMLL setting. I was very impressed with his quasi-rudo work against his father earlier this year on the indies. I could see him as the person NJPW selects to go over there for a year as he's as capable to manage a Mil Mascaras impression as anyone on the roster under the age of 50.

This was another fun trios, feeling like one of the older style tecnico spotlights until about midway through the match and ending in a way that kept the momentum going for the Kamaitachi/Dragon Lee apuestas match which was about a month and a half away. Virus was paired with Delta, Puma with GM, Jr., and Kamaitachi with Dragon Lee. The primera had  relatively brief exchanges that escalated in speed. Delta did a good job hanging (or being strung along) with Virus. They rushed to the spots here, with Kamaitachi flying in.

and a really nice flip dive by Delta:

It ended with GM, Jr. cinching his head crusher on Puma and the double stomp on Kamaitachi. The crowd (which was surprisingly rowdy; I think there was a give away or something that night) booed the tecnicos going over.

The segunda was more of the same, a tecnico showcase, right up until the point that Dragon Lee showed some hubris. You can't keep the mandate of heaven if you're a tecnico who goes to mask ripping first in a match. The second he started on Kamaitachi's mask, the rudos ran in and made short work of things, including a nasty Virus vertebreaker.

The tercera continued the beatdown, including Virus being all sorts of great, doing some tandem spots with Puma as if he was Tiger and having a really fun moment of winding up with one hand and smacking GM, Jr. with the other. The late match comeback really felt like the tecnicos just being too much and the rudos not able to beat them up fast enough, which was effective.

I usually try to gif things other than the dives, but GM, jr.'s dive on Puma to set up the finish was just too good:

That helped clear the ring for Kamaitachi and Dragon Lee and the subsequent foul and mask pull right in front of the ref. Effective. Just another fun trios. It's great to be able to pick and choose and keep up with CMLL when they're putting out matches like this (nothing groundbreaking but so easy to watch) just about every week.

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CMLL Worth Watching 8/9/15 & 8/28/15

LA Park, Atlantis & Volador Jr. vs. Rush, La Sombra & Dr. Wagner Jr. (8/28/15)

LA Park's big (and he certainly is big...) return to Arena Mexico! The prospect of seeing Rush vs. Park is something that should be high on the wishlist of every lucha fan, and those two together here was magic. Neither holds back, with Park tossing out some nasty headbutts during a headbutt exchange, and several times kicking Rush right in the face. I've seen some people complain about Rush taking liberties, but he never seems to have any problem leaning face first into offense. Park is a tub now, but he still has that Park magic. He still has a way to go to get to full on Kraneo level mega tub. Kraneo is probably better than Park in the ring at this point, but he doesn't have nearly the same level charisma. Clearly we need them to combine fat forces. Anyway, everybody tries to steal the spotlight in this one, and the fans are amped the whole time. Atlantis, Sombra and Volador all took turns seeing who could take the most dangerous ass over crown bump over the rail into the crowd. Sombra did it a couple times. We get all sorts of bullshit leading to the end, all of it pretty fun, with Atlantis going for the Atlantida and accidentally swinging Sombra into the ref, then some ball shots, then Park breaking up a pin by dropkicking the ref (couldn't he have just kicked Sombra....), then a demasking and more ball shots. Park hits a fat guy tope that Rush mans into, Rush hits a gorgeous high speed swan dive, Volador hits a sweet slingshot rana, Wagner hits his somersault dive high and hot on Park, and this whole thing was as good as you expected it to be. I'm not sure if this was a one time deal or not for Park, but I loved seeing him. A Rush feud would be tremendous.

Ephesto, Mephisto & Luciferno vs. Atlantis, Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta (8/9/15)

This is for the trios titles and while it was a fun trios match, it never had the immediacy of a title match. It didn't feel any different from any of the other regular trios matches these teams had around this same time. There was really no drama of any kind. No desperation, no fear over losing the titles, just three falls of standard lucha trios. So that stinks. But the match was fun, so that doesn't stink! Delta is a guy I don't need to see as often as I do, but Maya seems to be steadily improving. I love that one of his regular spots is hitting a super fast dive that sends him into the front row. Here he hits his massive flip dive and then takes out a row of chairs, clotheslining some fan in the process. Ephesto sets up Delta's stuff about as well as possible, even gamely waiting around for his little ropeflip headscissor from the ring to the floor. Atlantis is still super spirited at 53, and at one point he comes in and hits backbreakers on all three rudos with more energy than anybody else showed. All three tecnicos hit stereo dives, but really it was kinda weird how standard the finish to a title match was. They did their dives, Atlantis got back in the ring with Mephisto, and Mephisto hit his top rope pedigree for the win.

Rey Escorpion, Rey Bucanero & Terrible vs. Mistico, Valiente & Volador Jr. (8/9/15)

Super quick paced match with both Reys having a contest to see who could SUWA more rana and headscissors from Mistico and Volador. I think Escorpion wins it, but truly, we ALL win. We. ALL. Win. Escorpion really makes Mistico look maybe the best he's ever looked here, with Mistico getting crazy air on a bunch of stuff and Escorpion catching it all perfectly. Bucanero makes Volador look super smooth. We don't get the usual Escorpion or Terrible violence, although we do get probably the most violent "tie the tecnicos up in knots" posing spot. Tecnicos get all their limbs tangled, Mistico stretched over the top of them, with Escorpion posing on top. I will never complain about a fun bump clinic with excellently hit spots. This is a fun way to spend 10 minutes of your day.

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CMLL Worth Watching 2/8/15 & 3/27/15

Virus, Kamaitachi & Puma vs. Dragon Lee, Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta (2/8/15)

This was from that All Elite show with Dr. Wagner and LA Park, so everybody involved I suppose had more incentive to bust all sorts of ass on a Sunday afternoon. Everybody was firing on all cylinders here like they each had something to prove. Virus hits everything here with a real vengeance but also has no problem taking all sorts of giant Delta dives. Delta hits a couple wild ones with him vaulting off the ring post for one and moonsaulting off the ring support. Maya is crazy and totally outdoes him by hitting a flip dive that sees him wind up in the 4th row. Kamaitachi dished and took here, impaling Lee with a high jump dropkick that had so much force you really bought that Lee got naturally dumped HARD on his head. Kamaitachi pays it forward by letting Lee stomp him neck first off the top through the mat. Kamaitachi takes all sorts of stuff great, whipping himself into the barrier off a Delta rana, making all the tecnicos look dangerous. Kamaitachi ends the match with the most violent unmasking I've seen, kicking Lee in the balls then punching him in the ear a bunch while brutally ripping the mask off from the bottom without even attempting to loosen the laces. Looked like he was trying to scalp poor Lee. You never know when you're going to strike trios magic in lucha, but 6 guys all working with a certain ferocity while trying to upstage the main is one way to do it. Awesome stuff. 

Valiente, Maximo & Marco Corleone vs. Barbaro Cavernario, Ephesto & Mephisto (2/8/15)

Fun little short and sweet match from that same show, that isn't given time to build anywhere, so all the guys just work harder. Everybody gets cool little spots, with Maximo getting big reactions for his awesome dive (with Barbaro hurling himself into the barrier, which he also did taking an even more brutal Valiente tope earlier) and a big rope walk splash onto everybody. Valiente hits the craziest and fastest Valiente Special that he's hit in some time, Marco throws a bunch of nice lefts, Ephesto bumps big, Mephisto brings charisma and a rad new mask for a big show, and suddenly it's all over. This probably barely goes 8 minutes but everything is hot.

Kamaitachi, Negro Casas & Barbaro Cavernario vs. Dragon Lee, Delta & Guerrero Maya Jr. (3/27/15)

A rematch of sorts from the above match, with Casas and Cavernario replacing Puma and Virus on Kamaitachi's team. And also by this point Kamaitachi had no mask and was still furious at Dragon Lee because of that. This is not as good as that above 2/8 match, as it ended in straight falls and was very short, but the work within was hot. Delta shows more life here than I'm used to, as Casas was his foil who stumbled all around as Delta got to pursue. He and Delta have a real nice fast armdrag sequence that leads to a great moment with Casas getting chased into the crowd, and then he and Delta punching each other with the guardrail separating them. We get some stereo dives from Delta and Maya, Casas giving all of the offense to Delta and Maya, Barbaro being Barbaro ( with tons of cave drawings on his body! Dug his mat stuffs with Maya), and the money is all Kamaitachi vs. Lee. Kamaitachi works real fast, cuts low on clotheslines and cheats to win. Loved the spot where Lee runs Kamaitachi chest first into the ropes to get him off balance and then whips him into the mat with a snap German. Just a brief whisper, over before you know it, but fun.

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2015 En Busca De Idolo Qualifying Cibernetico

Not as excited about this years lineups as I was last year, but I figure I will cover it again, and see if anyone breaks out. Like last year, I am going to rate everything either Must See, Spare Moment and Don't Bother

Blue Panther Jr./Boby Zavala/Canelo Casas/Delta/Disturbio/Esfinge/Flyer/Guerrero Maya Jr. v. Akuma/Cancerbero/Gallo/Joker/Pegasso/Raziel/Sagrado/Stigma-Spare Moment

This was less lunatic then last years qualifier, it had less awkward blown stuff (really the only awful thing was Maya Jr. blowing a dive, which is weird because he is the most experienced guy here), but also less holy shit moments. I liked Joker's brawling, and Cancerbero is always good, they were the two stand outs for the non-qualifiers. Flyer looks like he will take the Star. Jr./Dragon Lee role of young guy embracing hot death, will be interesting to see if he has anymore to show. Casas, Maya and Panther Jr. have the genetics and Maya has been pretty good for a long time, although he did look off here. Hard to get much of a sense of anything in a match like this, but I am going to remain optimistic.

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CMLL Worth Watching 10/12/14, 12/26/14 & 1/4/15

1. Welterweight Cibernetico, feat. Rey Cometa, Fuego, Mascara Dorada, Negro Casas, Kamaitachi, Titan, Sangre Azteca, Triton, Delta, & Polvora (12/26/14)

When I first got into lucha it was ciberneticos and Rey/Psicosis matches that broke me in. And then once I discovered lucha brawling I lost interest in ciberneticos. When I started watching lucha I went in not understanding its complexities, went in assuming like it would be like a never-ending WCW Saturday Night spotfest. I didn't realize at the time what a low bar I was setting, and just how deeply I would come to accept lucha into my life. Ciberneticos just became a waste to me, as it was mostly guys rushing through spots with no sort of character, and fairly quickly I learned that lucha was much better as a character piece than as a spotfest. But obviously there can still be some tremendous spots and occasionally you still get a cibernetico such as this one with tons of fun stuff. Cometa and Fuego really shined in this one, with each hitting some nutso dives (gotta compete with the televised craziness of Lucha Underground after all), but Cometa here seemed more fired up than I've seen from him in over a year (that middle rope tornillo is so cool!) and had a nice snap to everything he did, Dorada took some major bumps, Fuego finally looked like the guy that people have been pimping him to me as, Sangre Azteca is dressed like Michael Jackson in The Wiz, and I *love* when Casas gets in a match like this with some younger guys and shows he can run circles around all of them. Casas in these kind of showcases brings out something else entirely in him, as everybody seems nervous about hitting their spots while he just seems like it isn't even a job to him, always smiling big and having a ball. Kamaitachi always misses stuff with gusto and I loved Casas grabbing ahold of him and dismantling his leg. Very fun, well worth the time.

2. Astral vs. Electrico (10/12/14)

Well hey these guys went out and had a nice little match! I can't recall the last minis singles match I really enjoyed but who cares because this was real good. Really I liked all of this, with the opening mat stuff being nice and snug, great headlock takeovers, nice Indian deathlock variations applied nice and quick, Electrico's caida-winning submission was a thing of beauty. The nutsy dives start in the second and we really get a couple of doozies, with an Astral bump around the ringpost leading to an Electrico dive out the corner, and later on we get a huge double springboard Astral tornillo. There was too much cool stuff in here to list it all, but these two really clicked something good.

3. Hechicero, Hombre Sin Nombre & Sagrado vs. Guerrero Maya Jr., Dragon Lee & The Panther (1/4/15) 

New year, and some new blood starts showing up on TV! Hombre sin Nombre is Hooligan this go 'round (not really sure the need to stop being Hooligan, but whatevs) and The Panther is the former Cachorro. Salgado works so much better as a rudo, it's not even funny. We've been putting up with this butthole's bad tecnico routine for a fucking decade now, watching him botch spots and have no clue where to be in the ring. Here he's a bully who makes it his match-long goal to target Lee and it's great. He doesn't even seem to care about winning, just wants to beat down Lee. Hechicero gets to run the joint in there and him matching up against Maya is a blast. Maya himself had a wonderful showing, culminating in him hitting an absolute bonkers flip dive through the ropes on Hechicero, hitting way high up on Hechicero's face/chest, bending him over the barrier and sending himself into the front row. Crowd really responds to Hechicero which is exciting. He has an effortless way about him, and always surprises me by doing things I don't expect out of sequences, like breaking out a springboard dropkick in the middle of a rope running spot. This whole match was tons of fun.

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CMLL Worth Watching 8/10/14, 8/31/14 & 9/14/14

Decided to change the name of this from CMLL Workrate Round-Up to CMLL Worth Watching, as really the only CMLL stuff I write up now is stuff that I think is worth watching. Why beat around the bush? I watch the CMLL, I spend time writing about the stuff I think is worth writing about, so let's just say that.

1. Mascara contra Mascara: Oro Jr. vs. Metalico (8/10/14)

This was not great, and not nearly as fun as the few trios matches used to build it up, and that is mainly because Oro Jr. just isn't really that good. The build to this match was pretty lopsided, with almost every part of the trios matches being Metalico walloping Oro and cutting off every single thing he attempted to do. Now obviously the big stipulation singles match couldn't be worked like that, unless it was the weirdest mask match in lucha history. Obviously there was going to be some sort of back and forth, which meant there was going to have to be Oro offense, and Oro is not very good at offense. He can bump well enough and he's flexible so he's good at being twisted into knots by rudos, and he can hit a dive, but his move and submission execution are really, really lacking. Every time he would lock on a flippy arm submission he would end up flipping Metalico close to the ropes. That was fine when the plan was for Metalico to break a hold, but when it was something he had to tap to or create drama, Metalico would have to subtly move himself farther away from the ropes. Oro is just kind of stumbly and clunky. Metalico, on the other hand, continues to impress me and if anything this feud has given me a new cool guy to look for. Metalico has a cool southern heel vibe to him that I've never ever picked up on before this feud, doing great stuff like sneaky little punches and probably my favorite knee lift in current wrestling (depending on whether or not you count Brock Lesnar's sternum-caving knees). At one point in the tercera he drags Oro out of the corner and just blasts him with a bunch of consecutive knees, to the stomach and face. They all looked great. He also locks on a bunch of cool subs that would rank up with any maestro. Metalico's mom also kept getting shown in the crowd rooting him on and that's something that would get me more into everything. So yeah. Match was about what I expected, but overall I'm excited to see where Metalico takes things from here.

2. Felino, Misterioso Jr & Bobby Zavala vs. Stuka Jr., Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta (8/31/14)

Man fuck Felino. It's so much better to have never have experienced love than to love and have lost. Felino is an asshole who is actually a good worker who just chooses to act like the worst worker in lucha 85% of the time. Here he runs ropes faster than anybody in the match (even showing off by bouncing off the bottom rope when he does it), does these really great drop downs, fast dropkick sequences, just a totally different guy than you get most of the time. and why? What's he proving in this match that he doesn't feel the need to prove when working with his brother? Delta hits a wild moonsault to the floor, Stuka always tosses in a couple nice dives or splashes, Zavala is always an amusing low rent Rush, Misterioso is a pro and then there's fucking Felino outworking them all, being the most frustrating guy in lucha.

3. Terrible, Vangellys & Rey Bucanero vs. La Mascara, Titan & Volador Jr. (9/14/14)

I really wasn't expecting much from this on paper but the execution was nice. This became apparent just a minute into the match when Titan took a wild sideways bump into the ring barrier and Terrible decked Volador with a mean right and a hard headbutt. The Volador involvement was limited for most of this, with Terrible always cutting him off with face punching. Volador getting regularly punched in the face is enough to make me recommend a match. There was a story within the match of Mascara naturally not caring about his team, but Volador and Titan trying to make him feel welcome and almost try to recruit him back from the lawless side. That kind of thing can drag a match down but I think it helped this one. It worked because Mascara kept interrupting Titan and Volador's worst offense to just get to the fucking point and finish things. So it was actually a quite clever way to capitalize on guys having to stand around selling while Titan does his little handstand. Titan walks off on his hands and while Terrible is focusing on him for reasons, Mascara just runs in and rolls him into a pendulum sub. It does kind of blow up how silly some of Titan's stuff can be, but I already knew that so thought this worked incredibly well within the existing universe.

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2015 Lucha Overview - Arena Coliseo 1/17/15

My main man Black Terry Jr. dropped an belated Christmas present to his customer base by sending us three matches from an Saturday CMLL Arena Coliseo show. Coliseo are shows where they are letting their young guys work longer stuff, kind of an untaped CMLL NXT, and it was neat to get a look at guys working in a different environment.

Astral v. Pequeno Nitro

One fall minis match given about 13 minutes which would have been right at home as a showcase Nitro or fun Lucha Underground match. Starts out a bit slow, neither guy is a stellar mat worker and the first 3 minutes or so felt a little time killerish. When they start breaking out big spots though it picked up. Astral hit a nice tope, a couple of minutes later Nitro lands a really pretty plancha to the floor. Then Nitro nukes himself on a Psicosis/Estrada style ringpost bump and Nitro hits a Taka double jump plancha which was always one of my favorite dives. Finish was also a crazy roll up into a submission. Not a MOTY level match, but a really nifty spotfest I am happy got documented.

Virus v. Star Jr.

Really enjoyed watching Virus work with Black Terry Jr. filming. The camera work really let you see the nastiness of Virus's stuff, kidney shots, super stiff clotheslines. The early matwork was pretty fun, Virus was leading him, but Star Jr. threw in some fun stuff too, including an elaborate roll up, and a Navarro style pin reversal via ankle hook. Would have liked to see a little more flash from Star Jr., but this was a very fun 10 minute match, and a great chance to watch Virus do his thing.

Misterioso Jr./Negro Casas/Sagrado v. Delta/Guerrero Maya Jr./La Mascara

I like watching Negro Casas and this is another opportunity to check out a master work a house show style match. Still the non Casas parts of this were pretty forgettable, and this really felt like a bog standard house show match. On the positive side of average, but not by much

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MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 15: Héctor Garza & Pólvora vs Delta & Volador Jr. [Gran Alternativa, final]

2010-04-30 Arena México 5 of 6:

Héctor Garza & Pólvora vs Delta & Volador Jr. [Gran Alternativa, final]

http://youtu.be/YekpkZa-kbs?t=00h00m30s

http://youtu.be/zgNc0ag-eLQ

Have you ever watched a lot of lucha over a ten month period and decided that you were pretty much done with Volador, Jr? Yes? No? Somehow I imagine I'm not the only one. Don't get me wrong: there are things he's good at, that he was good at in 2010 and that he's still good at now. He hits stuff pretty well most of the time; he can take a beating well enough; he's got good timing on comebacks; really, a lot of the fundamentals work out pretty well with him. He just lacks that certain something. I'm going to call it charm, because I think that applies more than charisma. He hits his stuff but rarely inspires any emotion. Even when he's taking a beating my general feeling wavers from "oh that poor bastard," to "come on, punch him again!" which is about as far from effectively sympathetic babyface as you can get. I realized I probably have a lot of him in my future still since I plan on hanging around this time period, give or take a couple of years, but I rarely come into a match with him where I wouldn't rather have someone else, be it Sombra or Bucanero or what.

Anyway, this was the final of the tournament. Polvora is about to be featured on Fantasticmania so it doesn't hurt to look at him a little more. What surprised me the most about the match was how much they let Delta (who I generally find fun at the very least) pair up with Garza. Watching this match, you'd have less of a sense on who was the veteran and who the rookie than in a lot of the other matches, at least on the tecnico side. I'll be honest that the mostly matching gear didn't help in that regard.

Garza was full on rudo, embracing it and embellishing it, outright listed as it in the image, even if he came out with Hectorcito. Shocker (and Kemonito) were guest announcing, so that was fun, too. This match did feel like a big deal with all of that. They played to their strengths in the primera, with lots of back and forth and rope running and quick counters and interference to break up moves (including a top rope sunset flip to break up an inverted surfboard). Ultimately, Garza caught Delta off of a springboard with a powerbomb and Polvora dodged a similar attack by Volador to hit a sitdown chokeslam for the caida.

The rudos pressed the advantage in the segunda, with Garza heeling it up well. He hit the lift up kick on Delta (and it was so well timed and aimed that it looked like a foul) and then showed his back to draw in his opponent for Polvora to get him. After a few minutes of beatdown they ran a comeback, ending with tandem diving ranas. Unfortunately Delta missed his and if Garza wasn't so good at catching, it would have been a complete disaster of a spot. As it was, he sort of caught him midway down and did a half bodyscissors rana bump instead. Weirdly enough they gave it all another dip before the pin with Delta setting Polvora on the ropes for Volador to legdrop. It was well timed. I usually that sit up in the ropes spot but with someone else to set up it worked well. Good recovery after the mess of a dive.

The tercera was more of the same. The only really egregious spot was a sunset flip powerbomb from the top which took forever to set up and didn't even get paid off as they showed a bunch of bored fans instead of the bump. Garza continued the stooging, with some grade A shadowboxing after he took a shot and Delta got to hit a massive moonsault to clear things for the finish, which was a ref distraction to stop a pin, a ref bump to set up a foul, and that super facebuster by Polvora with Garza setting it up. Wholly rudo-ish and all well executed. Like I said, this felt like an important match and they could have moved both Delta and Polvora up the cards a bit after it if they had wanted to (I'm not sure if they did or not, though Polvora won the Welterweight title in 2012 and Delta was, at least, rookie of the year in 2010).

This was fun though hardly perfect. Most importantly though, that Garza turn was percolating and really about to come to fruition.

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 7/27/14

Alright looks like we're back into a regular rhythm as these matches were all from the 6/22 Coliseo show.



1. Lightning Match: Blue Panther vs. Ephesto

Well damn this was great. This is like something that would pop up on some cell phone shot indy show, not on an actual TV show. We get 9 minutes of a purely grappling/mat based match that really illustrates how junk most lightning matches are. Most of them are just guys going in to show off their trademark highspots, and here two guys totaling over 100 years of age go in and show what can be done with the unica caida quick match format. It's an extra cool display knowing that Ephesto wanted to be like Blue Panther when he started, and here there are trading hold for hold. The first three minutes are just cool standing exchanges with some neat stuff you haven't seen, and once they take it to cool pendulum armdrags and mat stuff I was beyond hooked. There are some old man moments but they don't detract as they seem more real because hey these guys are old. Sometimes you're gonna end up in awkward positions on the mat. Panther playing possum on the mat before rolling through into a half crab was beautiful. Again this kind of thing showing up on TV, knowing that somewhere a couple of cool old guys are working a no bump grappling match while the cameras are rolling and not just because some flea market ring was too hard to bump on, but because it was a cool match to work is really special. [**This match ended up landing at #51 on our MOTY list, and I used this very same identical review as my review in THAT write-up! Hopefully you find more of value in the rest of this electronic post. If not, tell me that I'm cheating you by re-using 45% of the content from a prior post and you demand more original content. Then I'd likely feel bad and sorta guilty, and probably do something nice. Phil, however, would go tell you to kick rocks.]



2. Okumura, Puma & Kamaitachi vs. Stuka Jr., Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta

Well damn this was really good too! The primera was especially great. The rest of the match had plenty of nice moments but that primera was awesome. It was well on its way to making the MOTY list before finishing merely nice, instead of keeping up that pace. Primera we got all sorts of cool fast match ups, my favorite being the Puma/Stuka mat stuff, but Kamaitachi (first time I've seen him) had cool scrambly mat stuff as well and Puma looked really great. As the match goes on we break down into more 3 on 1 rudo stuff which isn't always interesting, but the tecnico comebacks were always spirited. Maya hits another crazy dive because that's his thing, Kamaitachi feels like this year's Namajague (oh where have you gone Namajague?!) as he bumps all around and looks like he's having a ball working in front of a Mexican audience. All of this was really fun.

3. Rey Escorpion, Dragon Rojo Jr. & Polvora vs. Maximo, Super Porky & Volador Jr.

This one was not as good. It was not very good in general. It's disappointing to remember the fire Escorpion temporarily lit under Porky last year, and then see him here. I've been a long time Porky defender but god is he just mostly horrible now. You occasionally see flashes here and there, but so much of what he does looks so bad and just drags a match down. At one point he gets tossed into the ropes to get kicked by all three rudos, and he wasn't even able to bump backwards into the ropes. Instead he hilariously took the kicks, turned around and walked towards the ropes, then took waaaaay to long to step through the ropes and kind of sit on the apron. It would have been a hilarious comedy spot if it was intentional, and didn't instead look like somebody's grandfather needing to find a place to sit down at the supermarket because he got dizzy. Escorpion didn't bring any of that fire towards Porky, and maybe it's because it wouldn't get returned, who knows. At one point Porky at least hit a crossbody off the apron so he tried something. Maximo looked good here and hit a wild dive, but this whole thing was a dud.

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MLJ: Review 100~!: Delta, Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Hechicero, Hombre sin Nombre, Virus

Aired 2014-11-22
taped 2014-11-11 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Delta, Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Hechicero, Hombre sin Nombre, Virus

So, I did the math clumsily, and this looks to be my 100th MLJ review. I'm not sure I've ever done a hundred of anything so we'll call this a milestone. If I make it to 300, then I'll thank the academy and everyone else. For now, I'll just thank Phil and Eric for giving me the platform. It's only been a little more than half a year but I do feel like I've made some progress here. I'm going to take a break from Cavernario today to hit a request from PWO's Pol. I'm not entirely sure it was a request so much as a demand and one that was more or less rescinded later, but hey, I say it's a reader appreciation day, so what the hell.

This was a mid-card match on a Tuesday show in Guadalajara. Despite that, it was given a ton of time and aired in full (without intros). Despite what I usually write, there isn't just one sort of lucha libre match that I think is good. I know I focus a lot on the ebb and the flow, the build and the payoff, the heat and the comeback. When a match has that and it's good, I generally think the match is good even when other things like execution are iffy. When a match tries for that and fails, even the best execution or "action" in the world won't make up for the fact that they failed at the central bit of narrative that they were attempting. When a match doesn't really attempt it, however, and instead, goes for something else, then it's not entirely fair to judge it on what it's not. Usually that's not an issue as most lucha libre matches I watch happen to go for it. It's a very primal format.

This match, really didn't. I'm not entirely sure if that was by design or how it just worked out. instead there was a bit more of a believable "real sports" feel. It wasn't "your spot, my spot" by any means. There was, however, a sense of struggle throughout that prevented either side from holding the advantage for long. Generally, that'll lead to a weaker match but here it was worked strongly enough that it came out as enjoyable. It's a 25 minute match that really does breeze by to watch.

That's especially true for the first fifteen minutes or so, which was how long the primera had. This felt like a title match as both Virus and Hechicero had plenty of time to do what they do so well. I'll be honest in that I haven't seen much Hechicero. I'm trying to rectify my lack of Cavernario and I can pretty much assure you that Hechicero will be next. He was probably even more of a priority. While I keep an eye on what's going on currently, it's just an eye. I do a lot of doubling back either by a few months or a few years in this project and sometimes things fall behind. This year's Busca was one. I guess I felt like I wanted to get more grounding first. Hechicero's great, though. That's not a surprise to anyone.

Virus had Guerrero Maya to begin and they did a good job. I liked how GM would lock on a headlock early and then, as the matwork went on, go to more complex things as he tried to keep up. Virus is such a master of leverage and positioning. He's also great at making things look not necessarily smooth, but instead realistically competitive. Any sort of flub or hesitation or delay from his opponent, he is able to work into what he's doing. That's a singular talent. What I liked best about what GM brought was the pressure he'd apply to holds. He'd lock his knee in and push down just right to make an armbar look better, or punch the knee repeatedly in a hold. I'd say he kept up but didn't wow me.

There was something more arcane about the Hechicero/Delta pairing. I'm not sure if I would call it more high-end matwork, but I did think Delta kept up better and Hechicero certainly went for flashier and more complex holds. While Virus held a slight advantage storywise in his exchange, Delta had it here and I couldn't really tell how much of what impressed me was him or if it was just Hechicero being so expert at maneuvering himself into the right position. Hechicero finally ended it with a nasty pumphandle backbreaker.

Fuego and Hombre Sin Hombre didn't show me nearly as much on the mat. Fuego's obviously incredibly agile but he's made for fast-paced exchanges. HsN, so far as I remember, is the former Hooligan, and while I thought he brought a certain level of physicality and force, they only went a minute or two before he was knocked out of the ring. Fuego did a cutesy little flip instead of a dive and Virus came in, smashing him from behind and twisting him into a knot. Then he clobbered GM with an awesome short clothesline and let Hechicero twist in on a slingshot and snake around him for a submission. It was a very enjoyable, showy primera.

The Segunda was disjointed compared to what I usually watch but again, not in a necessarily bad way. Virus leaned in on Fuego to begin with some very compelling leg work. Eventually, Fuego made it to the ropes off of a submission, but it didn't feel like a hot tag, as in the next pairing, Hechicero mostly kept the advantage over GM, at least until he went for another slingshot in and missed. Instead of straight heat and comeback here, it did feel like a closely contested bout with GM slowly taking the advantage. Hechicero has some really great offense. Eventually though, it gave way to Delta and HsN and Delta pressed that advantage. It felt like a shine until he ended up trapped in a Styles clash and pinned. Virus made it in only to be submitted by GM quickly. It's actually a little bit amazing to me how rare I see split pins in any caida of a trios match. Usually when I have seen them they've been on lower card matches outside of Arena Mexico. I wonder if that's a trend and I just don't see more of the first or second matches on cards. The caida ended with Hechicero bumping himself into the top rope via a missed dropkick and Fuego rolling him up. It was good action and I think it did work within the confines of what they were going for because of that.

The tercera was more of a fun showcase. Virus had a fun exchange with Delta, at the end of which, he laughed, seeming delighted by Delta's spunk. Hechicero had an equally fun one with GM. He's exceptionally skilled at latching onto a limb and moving his opponent where he needs him to be. Fuego finally got to show off his speed and agility a bit. They ran a few interesting synchronized spots with sunset flips and 'ranas and at least one tope suicida was hit. Virus fell to a nice Delta Reienera and the match ended with Hechicero hitting GM with one huge corner powerbomb and trying for another, only to get sunset flipped for three.

It's a match well worth watching and I wouldn't be surprised to see it end up somewhere on the SC list. When you give an expert or two a lot of time to do what they do best, good things happen. Thanks to Pol for pointing it out and to cubsfan for posting it (as always). And thanks to everyone who's been reading. I don't get a ton of feedback, but if there is ever anything that someone wants me to check out or thinks that I should, I'll fit it in.

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 7/13/14

Last week we got 6/8/14 show, no we magically jump back in time to the 2/2/14 Arena Coliseo show…but then the third match (with Blue Panther) is from the 2/9 Coliseo show. So you'd think they're just showcasing the best matches from Coliseo shows until they catch up to current…but that can't be because they showed a Hijo del Signo showcase match. No "best of" would actually include a Hijo del Signo match. I don't know what they're doing here.

1. Lightning Match: Dragon Lee II vs. Hijo del Signo

Hey, you guys. Hijo del Signo isn't good. He's really bad. This match gets tons of time (for a lightning match) and almost all of it is just totally misspent. Signo is just laughably awful on the mat. He works really slow but looks completely clueless most of the time. Here he did a slow motion kick while Lee was on the mat, the whole thing looked like he was just practicing sequences and moves before fans arrived at the arena. His positioning is worse than anybody in CMLL, like he had no clue where he was in the ring at any given time. He hit a nice dive, so there's that. Lee took a crazy apron bump off a clothesline, getting dumped on his head to the floor. Lee is good for one nice stupid bump per match. Signo wins with this ugly squatting figure 4. This guy does not have the goods.



2. Negro Casas, Puma & Tiger vs. Atlantis, Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta

Really fun revanche, an immediate next week follow up to a match that made our MOTY list. This one has less bullshit than that one, but that means it also has less personality. This was still really good though. Same set up with the younger guys getting the bulk of the match to build to all the Casas/Atlantis moments. Casas is a great ringleader of the rudos and as I've said before I like how Puma and Tiger actually work as rudos, as opposed to most luchadors who just work the same no matter what the pre-match designation is. Maya's through-the-ropes flip dive is one of my favorite lucha spots, and Delta always throws in his spectacular flip dive off the ring post. Casas gets to mug and bump and his rudo bumping is always a real treat. It's a mixture of nasty spills and fun pratfalls. The nasty spill here was going down on the apron as if he was shot, putting over an Atlantis elbow. Really good match that I think just narrowly misses the MOTY cut.

3. Blue Panther, Valiente & La Mascara vs. Terrible, Gran Guerrero & Rey Bucanero

Another really fun match. Panther and GG matched up a bunch throughout this and this may have been the best I've seen GG look. He took some big bumps (including the big Jerry bump with a less graceful spill to the floor than UG usually takes, meaning this looked up more painful), and his mat stuff with Panther to start everything was good, and a fresh match up. He also took a nasty posting in the tercera. Bucanero looked more spirited than normal, although man I hate his lazy as hell standing clothesline. It has no force whatsoever and guys bumping for it always look silly. Valiente hits a massive dive that just blast Bucanero into the aisle, Terrible punches Mascara in the ear a couple times, and this just had a real good flow. Good long trios, everybody got to shine, but again I especially loved the Panther/GG showdowns. Good week of wrestling (Signo be damned).

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

44. Negro Casas, Puma & Tiger vs. Guerrero Maya Jr., Atlantis & Delta CMLL 1/26

ER: It's amazing how refreshing a match like this can be when compared opposite Arena Mexico main events. I've been watching Casas get his butt handed to him for months by Rush, and here we jump back to the beginning of the year and Casas is an awesome stooging heel, tripping over himself as he runs from Atlantis, hiding behind moms, taking pratfalls down the aisles while his nephews jump in to protect him. The bulk of the match is taken by the nephews opposite Delta and Maya, and every time Casas gets in opposite Atlantis he either bails or runs directly into a quebradora. Puma and Tiger look really good in this, they've really jumped out to me this year and wrestle like a couple of vets. They really know how to work rudo and bring more to a match than "athletic guys working athletically" which while it can be fun, really seems like 70% of CMLL matches are worked in that style and it can make things forgettable fast. Puma and Tiger both helped carry the psych of the match. Delta can be silly sometimes (and is here) but also throws out a neat headscissors to the floor and an awesome tandem dive with Maya past the turnbuckles. Maya is a favorite of mine and I love seeing him with a big role in a match like this. And we all do this to build to the Casas/Atlantis moments which are a blast. I just said a week ago that Casas might be the best current sympathetic babyface in wrestling, well it turns out he might concurrently be the best chicken shit heel in wrestling. He puts on a clinic here and it's funny to see him punt Atlantis in the balls considering what the fate of his own balls has been lately. Post match we get Casas riling up the crowd with Atlantis' mask and this was all a bunch of fun.

PAS: I really dug watching Casas go back to his roots as a sniveling heel. He is great in his current roll, but this is where he is a master. Atlantis is great too, and this is the kind of match that he and Casas have probably done a thousand times, and I could watch a thousand more. I thought all the young guys in this were fine, but this was all about the maestros being maestros.


2014 MASTER LIST

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 6/28/14

All these matches were from the 6/13 Arena Mexico show.

1. Euforia, Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero vs. Maximo, Atlantis & Super Porky

Fairly short match, also fairly by the numbers. Maximo is one of the more underrated guys in wrestling today (at least I think he is? I really like Maximo but I don't see him getting talked about tons, but maybe I only go to like two web pages. Also I say "web pages"), and Porky at this point is on his last legs, so I'm looking forward to some day when Maximo isn't automatically in Porky matches. I've been seeing Porky matches for so damn long that it's funny all of the things that I overlook that would seem bizarre in anybody else's match. Watching Porky stand wide-legged and walk his hands up until he's upright just seems normal now. Porky can still surprise me in matches, as right in the middle of his schtick he'll occasionally pop someone, or do a neat little bit of selling (which makes up for most of time in Porky's matches where he doesn't really sell, he just kind of focuses on breathing). Euforia runs into him a bunch and makes him look good. Atlantis and UG always match up well, but their feud will truly be the Moonlighting of lucha as they'll eventually get it on for reals and my mom won't care about them anymore (who am I kidding that shit will get over).

2. Blue Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta vs. Rey Escorpion, Dragon Rojo Jr. & Polvora

Another short match, this one ending is straight falls. Nobody had much time to make too big of an impression here, though Panther hits a nice tope and Guerrero Maya (so glad he is back on TV more!) hits an awesome flipping tope. The rest of this is too sped through. Fast falls, big silly indy move finishers instead of matwork. Meh.

3. CMLL Tag Title Match: Rush & La Mascara vs. Negro Casas & Shocker

Well this was the big tag title change, for the belts Rush and Mascara have held for 8 months, and I could not imagine a less dramatic title change. The match was fine, I suppose, but there just wasn't much to it. Rush and Mascara have spent many months cheating and beating the snot out of these two, and here they just work a straight tag match, one of the falls ends with Rush getting DQ'd for Mascara pulling the ref out, there's no struggle, no dramatic tide turns, nothing. Things happened, eventually Casas and Shocker won the tag titles. I know titles in lucha really don't mean a whole lot, but damn was this bland. In the segunda Shocker did the exact same sequence he did in the trios last week, catch Rush, twist his arm, hit a stunner, Mascara goes for a dropkick, hits Rush instead, etc. But it looked way better in the trios. Shocker looked tired but still hit a big tubby tope and Casas hit a massive running balls to the face off the apron. But nothing about this even hinted at this being an important match. Very disappointing.

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 6/22/14

No idea what happened last week with their weird 6 month flashback, but these matches all took place on the 6/1 Arena Coliseo show so they didn't skip a week, they're now just three weeks behind instead of two. Weird.

Virus, Skandalo & Tiger vs. Guerrero Maya Jr., Fuego & Delta

Really fun match featuring a few guys I haven't seen in awhile. Primera gets some fun mat pairings, as Maya (one of the guys I haven't seen in awhile) and Skandalo (that would be the other) do a bunch of cool stuff, like a sweet kneebar rolled into a snug side headlock, and a cool headscissors from Maya that started on the mat and worked itself up to standing in a neat way. Virus and Fuego come in and try to top them and pretty much do, as Virus is an expert at working mat stuff with guys like Fuego. Virus knows when to lay it in and knows when to let the other guy breathe and pepper in little armdrag or speed comebacks. Fuego is a guy with cool armdrags and speed comebacks, so it's a natural and fun match. Virus also has a freshly shorn mullet so I assume this whole weekend was just coming up Virus.  Rest is really good too as Delta does some silly and crazy stuff like his handstand headscissors to Tiger and a giant moonsault to the floor from the turnbuckles. Tiger continues to be one of the nicest surprises of the year, Virus wrestles exactly as you'd hope Virus to wrestle, Fuego hits a big crossbody to the floor on Virus. This was all good stuff.

Titan vs. Niebla Roja

Damn, I thought this was pretty great, and it was kind of unexpectedly so. Not an insult to each guy, but I wasn't too excited for this one on paper, but they shut my face up. Roja is a guy I find fine in trios but I couldn't tell you much about him. He doesn't stay in the old memory banks too long. I don't think I've ever had a problem with him in a trios, but I've never come away telling Phil he needs to check out some Niebla Roja. Titan is a guy who can be alternately impressive and frustrating in trios, often one within seconds of the other. So the thought of them having a long title match just brought up bad memories of awful Volador singles matches. But I thought this was awesome. Even with all of the great Busca matches happening this year, a lot of CMLL singles matches have been lacking a certain drama, and I thought this match had that in spades. Nearfalls were actually used great, with the most engaging submission tease I remember seeing in lucha in ages. We get some snug matwork to start which I wasn't really expecting, especially cool was Roja forcing Titan to the mat by holding his wrist and stepping down on his arm. Once they went into "big spot" mode I fully expected it to devolve into awful "Big move -> 2.9 count -> Lie on mat breathing heavy -> Repeat" that so many lucha title matches have fallen victim to, but it never did. Drama kicked in and there weren't just meaningless pinfalls, it really felt like both guys pulling out all the stops to try and win the Mexican Welterweight title. Titan has some beautiful ranas and headscissors and he breaks one out from apron to floor that was a real beauty. They work in a convincing knee injury spot and honestly I can't remember the last time any sort of "work the limb" spots in lucha ended up actually going anywhere. But this comes up as a theme throughout the whole match. Roja flapjacks Titan and kicks him on the way down, in a spot that both make look great. Roja does it again right after, and Titan catches the kick on the way down and snaps off a nasty dragon screw. Roja's knee keeps coming into play for the rest of the match, leading to some cool submission attempts from Titan. Titan ramping up the tightness of knee submissions trying to break Roja was one of my favorite wrestling moments of the year. He starts with a cool roll through knee bar, but Roja makes the ropes. He pulls him to the center, locks on a modified figure four, Roja doesn't give. Titan just keeps adjusting the submission, moving into more painful and painful submissions, and it's awesome. There are plenty of impressive dives and flips, and Roja is great at playing off Titan's occasional silliness with rudo tactics. At one point when Titan is doing a bunch of "here hold my hand while I bounce on the ropes a bunch", Roja just lets go and leaves Titan standing on the middle of the top rope. They pause and Roja does a funny "well get on with it!" and Titan ranas him. On the down side the match did peak a little too early and went a couple minutes too long. If it had ended with the submission attempts it would have been better, but they worked through those and ended a little flat moments later. Still, not only did this more than exceed my expectations, I thought it was a great match.

Negro Casas, Ripper & Felino vs. La Sombra, Marco Corleone & La Mascara

Short weird match. Sombra's team worked as rudos the who time, Casas' team worked as tecnico's, but they were billed as opposite. I'm not really sure what the long term plan is for all this. Once you start going shades of grey for all these characters then it's really hard to put that genie back in the bottle. It already feels like things are starting to spiral. Several months ago you had Rush as a tecnico working as a rudo. There were always legends who would jump back and forth depending on the match situation. But here now we have Marco working as a rudo with Felino working sly tecnico speed spots. One you just start flipping the switch like this I have to imagine it will make it mean absolutely nothing. Corleone did have some amusing heel work, and I'd love to see the choke/pushup be a regular spot. Felino continues to be maddening, as he worked a real cool quick segment with Sombra, doing some real fast rope running into a cool dropkick…and then moments later we get more awful armpit licking schtick. Match was short and pretty inconsequential, and maybe I'm way off base on this rudo/tecnico stuff. Maybe it's just me personally who's starting to think that nobody is seeming special here.

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 5/11/14

These matches were from the 4/27 Arena Mexico show, billed as the Arena Mexico 58th Anniversary, and also Kids Day! Traditionally I know that there have been a lot of fun matches on Kids Day, so hopefully that's true here. Anniversary show and a Kids Day show, should equal something worthwhile.

Negro Casas, Barbaro Cavernario & Mr. Niebla vs. Maximo, Titan & Super Porky

Fun but inconsequential match. I've been one of the longer term Porky supporters, but at this point it sure seems like he mostly gets in the way as opposed to adding much. A lot of his trios feature long segments focusing on him and it can really drag things. I'm thinking his tecnico work with Escorpion may have been his late career peak. Maximo had a real shining performance here, working in his schtick (along with a bunch of rarely busted out schtick such as fainting into Niebla's arms when Niebla charged him). Maximo got to work some cool arm drag reversal segments with Casas, and Casas isn't a guy I've seen Maximo work very long segments with so that was cool. We've all seen what Cavernario can do now that the Busca is over, so it was kind of a bummer to watch him play 3rd fiddle in his team here. I much rather would have seen him tearing it up with Titan and Maximo (which we did get a little bit of, with him catching a nice Titan rana off the apron on the floor) but instead we got some assbiting comedy spots as if it was a midget match at the county fair. Of course we also got Casas performing violent CPR on Kemonito, so the comedy wasn't a total wash. Casas pounding on Kemonito's chest and listening for a heartbeat, combined with Maximo's performance among other things kept this worthwhile.



Reyes Del Aire, w/ Puma, Tiger, Ephesto, Averno, Mephisto, Niebla Roja, Valiente, Stuka Jr., Rey Cometa, Guerrero Maya Jr., Triton & Delta

Nice seeing Maya back on TV, feels like it's been a few months. He and Mephisto get a fun sequence together, fun armdrags and some brief quirky mat stuff. Valiente/Ephesto is the burliest possible match up this match can give me, and they deliver immediately. Ephesto levels Valiente with a sweet flying back elbow, Valiente does the fastest Fuerza bump to the floor and immediately gets smashed by an Ephesto tope. More please. Tiger is really great at occupying himself while Cometa flips all around him, missing moves and making it really look like Cometa is one step ahead of him, and he makes Cometa look like a star by bumping his slick rana on the floor. The dives start coming fast, with Cometa hitting his awesome tornillo on Puma, but then Maya completely obliterating Roja with a flip dive. He just plastered him into the barricade, hitting him horizontally and with insane speed. One of the most awesome dives I can recall. Just Roja taking a cannonball to the chest. Triton starts going off, springing all over the ropes like a spider monkey, ending with him hitting a wild moonsault to the floor. Things slow down a bit and we get a couple too soon eliminations, with Triton, Maya and Ephesto getting the boot. Maya especially I was hoping would go long. Cometa runs face first into a Puma superkick that folds him right in half (it's fine, since Cometa just hits his own seconds later. d'oh.), but the Puma submits him much to my surprise. I assumed Cometa would be around at the end. And Valiente punishes Puma for the elimination by hitting a stout man tope. God the dives in the match have been incredible. Poor Tiger hardly gets to shine in this, and then gets eliminated by Delta, having to do that old stupid Scoot Andrews/Billy Kidman "I'm draped over the middle rope killing time while you jump off onto me" that I thought people had retired by now. He makes poor Averno go through the exact same fucking thing minutes later. It's a cool double foot stomp, but man do the poor rudos look dorky seated on the middle rope waiting to be leapt on. Retire this move set up!!! Puma and Valiente find neat ways to give each other weird chest breakers, that kind of defy all believable physics if you think about them for more than a second (so just don't do that and enjoy Puma taking Valiente's knees to his chin). Valiente Especial is still spectacular and it's a wonder he hasn't died doing this yet. That's a lot of man crashing upside down into other men at very high speeds. Mephisto and Stuka are weird finalists. Not Stuka really, but Mephisto is maybe the last rudo in this match I wanted to see work the extended finale. They work okay together, but really would have liked to see Puma or Tiger be the final rudo since those guys have really come on strong this year. It would have been nice to see them get some extended time. Still this was almost a half hour of awesome dives and cool moves, probably what a lot of us originally thought lucha was going to be like whenever it was that we all started watching lucha (personally, when I started watching lucha in 1998 I assumed it would be a lot like the luchador matches on WCW Saturday Night. I assume I wasn't the only one who thought that way). This is well worth going out of your way to watch. Tons of fun.

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 3/23/14

These matches were from the 3/9 Arena Coliseo show.


Lightning Match: Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Sangre Azteca

Maya is awesome because he breaks out the matwork in a lightning match. Fight the good fight, my man! Also there's a woman in the crowd marking out wearing a Maya mask. YES! They go through some cool indian deathlocks. Stuff kinda gets aimless from there as we go through some various slams and ranas and missed dropkicks and it doesn't really seem to be going any place. Maya does hit a great dive past the turnbuckles (I love Coliseo as there are no barriers so guys fly right into scrambling fans of all ages). Maya ends it with a boss submission, like a standing Rings of Saturn while also trapping Azteca's leg.

Rey Cometa, Delta & Super Porky vs. Misterioso Jr., Puma & Tiger

I don't know how I've made it 3+ months into 2014 without seeing any Rey Cometa. He's become a guy I actively seek out over the last couple years after graduating from mere Arkangel whipping boy, but apparently I'm not seeking that hard. I'm glad Porky finally has his mustache back. It makes him look like Jon Polito got hair plugs. Or what I assume present day Ron Jeremy looks like. Cometa gets a fun opening sequence with Puma, and Misterioso gets a nice roll with Delta. Tiger bumps big to the floor off a running Porky belly bump. He does an equally impressive spill after a Delta dropkick so it appears Tiger is separating himself from the pack here. Cometa runs face first into a Puma superkick and gets folded in half in nasty fashion. Because of lucha camera work reasons, we cut to a girl in the crowd shouting something that requires her mouth being blurred out. Cometa has no problem eating kicks or bumping on the metal entranceway. Cometa breaks out his crazy rana from the top to the apron, with Puma eating floor below, while Misterioso takes a big Cassandro bump, Delta hits a lunatic rope walk moonsault to the floor and Cometa crashes and burns on a tornillo. Even Porky gets in on the action hitting his "dive" off the apron which is essentially him falling on Misterioso (doing the lords work by catching it alllll the way to the floor). This was a bunch of fun.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 1/4/14

These matches all aired on the 12/20 Arena Mexico card.

1. Leyenda de Plata semi-final cibernetico: Virus, Averno, Okumura, Olimpico, Felino & Tiger vs. Titan, Stuka Jr., Atlantis, Delta, Triton & La Mascara

This had the right amount of big spots to work well for me. I had some friends over while watching it so it's kind of the perfect thing to throw on while you're part watching/part chatting as you don't have to follow any sort of psychology or match storyline very closely. It's just guys coming in and doing their thing, so big spots stand out to you and stop the conversation, and the rest of the stuff kinda flies by the subconscious. Atlantis had a nice run in the middle, giving out spinning backbreakers to anybody that got close. Averno bumped all around for flippy juiced up tecnicos, including a painful bump off the apron from a nutty Titan somersault headscissors. La Mascara splats on the floor with a flip dive that doesn't quite get caught. Stuka's hands-free body press over the turnbuckle is absolutely breathtaking and completely insane, as is Delta's crazy flip dive that sees him run up the turnbuckles from the apron and vault over the other side. Also, Virus is Virus. This match was a blast and was made to look infinitely better when I stopped my DVR and Impact was on and killed the entire room.

2. Reapper vs. Volador Jr.

Boy, I am just not feeling Volador ever since the tecnico turn. He feels just totally neutered now. He used to work real well as a tweener, and he had great body charisma. That seems almost completely gone now, and getting to see his smooth pretty boy face doesn't really help things. The mask match basically killed any sort of rudo believability in him. I also used to think it was cool when he would do something goofy like come out dressed as Darth Maul, but now dressing like Spider-man -without a mask - just makes him look like a kid wearing his Spider-man jammie jams while his mother screams at him to stop doing flips on the couch. "But moooooommmmm, I'm practicing almost killing Reapper with a Spanish Flyyyyy!!!!!"

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CMLL on Fox Deportes Workrate Report, 2/10/13

Yay! I was hoping since it wasn't shown on Galavision that the Reyes del Aire would be shown on Fox Deportes, and they have not let me down! And it looks like no other matches will be shown on this episode so this should be a rock solid 35+ minutes of awesome, with likely zero minutes of awesome provided by Sagrado.



1.  Rey Cometa vs. Averno vs. Namajague vs. Felino vs. Stuka Jr. vs. La Sombra vs. La Mascara vs. Dragon Rojo Jr. vs. Euforia vs. Delta vs. Titan vs. Mr. Aguila vs. Hijo del Fantasma vs. Polvora vs. Tiger vs. Sagrado

I've been super high on Namajague after his killer performance in a recent trios, so was hoping for more out of him in this match and lo if he does not take a lunatic bump over the rail within the first 10 seconds of this match. Again, the Namajague bandwagon line forms to the left. First 5 minutes are pretty crazy with some assorted dives (Sagrado hits a nice bullet tope that Averno eats, big flip dive by Aguila, Rey Cometa hits a missile dropkick and then a gorgeous tornillo), but then Namajague comes in and steals things again by taking a wild out of control bump to the floor after getting crossed up by Stuka, and then gets bent in half into the rail on a Stuka dive. Mascara has the Brazos throwback gear and it looks incredible. Booking crew knows I'm watching as Sagrado gets eliminated early after clumsily running through some spots.

Rudos team is awesome as Fantasma hits a nice moonsault to the floor, and then they all jump him. Namajague is SUWA as he jaws with fans, pushes Stuka into Baby Richard and then kicks Stuka right in the balls. Felino is awesome as Namajague's cheerleader at ringside. Namajague is in for like 5 straight minutes and he kinda gets dumped directly on his head by Cometa. He goes all limp and Cometa seems totally oblivious as started picking him up by his head and then Nama is a total lunatic as he keeps kicking out of shit even though it seems like his head may not be connected to his spinal column any longer. What the hell is wrong with this guy!?

A few of the guys I like most are gone at this point but Titan is emerging as being pretty awesome as he flies into kicks and dishes swift kicks of his own that remind me of Black Terry. Euforia has also quietly become a very nice rudo base. He's never a guy that I think about but he really holds these kind of matches together. Although in the same match Averno is right there eating all the dives and taking head scissors off the apron to the floor, so Euforia is a pretty easy guy to overlook.

And the last part of the match is really just Averno doing his best to get in the way of La Sombra's unlikely offense, which Sombra always seems to doing kind of selfishly. He'll bump Averno to the floor mid-ring, and then immediately start to set up his "over the ring post" moonsault to the floor before Averno has even gotten up. So it makes Averno look like a total goon who has to get up and just happens to move 16 feet over to catch it. It's pretty hard to do that stuff convincingly.

This match was plenty fun but there's always that sense just a couple minutes into these things that Sombra is going to win no matter what, and that takes most of the drama out of them.

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