CMLL Juicio Final 5/31/19

ER: This show had THREE big stips matches (including a rare retirement match) and all the non-stips matches have on paper potential, so I figured I may as well write up the whole show!

Disturbio/Misterioso Jr./Kawato vs. Rey Cometa/Blue Panther Jr./Black Panther

ER: Quick opener that manages to pack a lot of fireworks into its short runtime. Cometa is out dressed like Johnny Depp's Tonto, a weirdly underrated movie. I'm going to need someone to start wearing Alita: Battle Angel gear to draw some more attention to that one. This is a match that tried to open the show with some big spots and delivered. BP Jr. is gassed to the gills and is starting to work more like Gronda and his father. I'm cool with that as it leads to great moments like him pouncing Kawato over the top rope into Disturbio (who was standing on the ramp). Cometa hit a big 450, huge tornillo to the floor, big crossbody off the entrance stairs (with Black Panther); Kawato hit a big flip dive over the ringpost, Misterioso is basing all over the place, and Kawato gets to yank Black Panther's mask for the DQ. This didn't have a ton of substance but was a nice junkfood snack.

Ephesto/Luciferno/Mephisto vs. Soberano Jr./Niebla Roja/Angel de Oro

ER: This was the match on the card I was least interested in, and it certainly played as something I shouldn't have been interested in. Niebla Roja and Angel de Oro may be my least favorite guys in CMLL, with Roja being a greater offender. I hate how they quit on all of their offense, it always feels like they're running through a practice exhibition and putting 100% of the work on the rudos' shoulders. Roja and Oro move with these big looping gestures, quit 75% of the way through on their ranas, aim to land as gently as possible on everything, all of their offense looks like how guys run through sequences backstage. It puts the rudos in a pretty thankless spot, as these two are only entertaining when rudos beat the shit out of them (which thankfully does happen in some matches, just not here). Roja hits a flip dive, Soberano (who I like much more than these two goofs) hits his Fosbury Flop, but this was a showcase for two guys I don't care to see showcased.

4. Career vs. Career! Virus vs. Metalico

PAS: There is nothing I love more then a random luchador given a big showcase match and stepping all the way up. Metalico has been a random undercard guy for years, and he gets a chance to fight for his career against an all time great and comes up huge. Two pretty great looking topes, an Asai moonsault and a nutty dropkick off the apron, he threw it all out there. I loved how they both stretched the rules, the ref wasn't DQing someone in a one fall career match, so they were throwing hard right hands to the face. Virus is one of the greatest singles match luchadores ever, and he is so great here, he gives Metalico plenty of shine, but comes off so dangerous. There are multiple moments where he just whips out a slick counter into a vicious submission, he was like a devastating counter puncher, any mistake his opponent would make its lights out. Loved that we didn't get a bunch of traded near falls near the end, just Metalico dying on his shield. Small arena lucha libre has been my favorite stuff over the last couple of years, but there is nothing in wrestling like an Arena Mexico match with real consequences, and I was so glad we got this.

ER: I've been a big Metalico drum beater for several years now. He's an undercarder who is basically the only CMLL undercarder who works Memphis stooging into lucha matches. He's a comedy rudo that doesn't really exist much anymore, and I love what he brings to a card. He's not the kind of guy to get long singles matches - or singles matches in general (I'm not sure I've seen a singles match of his since he lost his mask 4 years ago) - and here he gets to have an awesome dying in the ring performance against one of the all time best. Metalico breaks out every single thing he ever learned, from his ring entrance to highspots he hasn't broken out in years, and the crowd gets more and more involved and excited by his absolute refusal to quit. Metalico gets more and more tired as the match goes on - he's not a long singles match guy - and that just adds to his perseverance and desperation. You look at the difference between Metalico's two dives in this match: the first one, early in the match and filled with confidence, sending Virus into the barricade; the second one, late in the match, exhausted, Metalico does more damage to himself by just doing the dive. From minute one Metalico looks like a guy who has no real chance at beating Virus, and at times it looked like Virus was almost just letting Metalico have a respectable showing before letting him know just how quickly he could put a stop to his bullshit. Metalico started breaking out things he hasn't done in years, like a picture perfect Asai moonsault and a rana off the apron, and he started making headway on the bottom end as well. Phil noted how refs were being loose with DQ calls in a single caida big stips match, and I liked how each guy kept pushing the boundaries, hitting closed fist punches to the jaw, dropping a headbutt to the balls, and I loved Metalico's dickish combos where he would punch Virus and also kick him right on the inside of his knee. Metalico was tired but that just made him hit harder. There was a spot in the corner where he was supposed to flip over the ropes to dodge a charging Virus, but when his gas tank wouldn't allow him he merely opted to hit one of the most savage back elbows I've seen. Virus was a monster on the mat and was going to outclass Metalico at every opportunity, so Metalico had to play a little more dirty. But unfortunately for Metalico, Virus doesn't have to get dirty to do damage. When Virus locked in a gross STF, Metalico reaching for the ropes as his literal only chance of survival, Virus grabs that reaching arm and adds that to the pain. I thought it was the finish for sure. I loved desperate, last stand Metalico, and loved how the crowd kept getting excited as he kicked out of a sick vertebreaker and getting flipped off the top, the fans fully buying into Metalico refusing to step away forever. This was a wonderful display of character and storytelling, and I'm glad Virus was there to send my boy off into the sunset.

Hair vs. Hair! Kaho Kobayashi vs. Amapola

ER: I really liked this, and it wouldn't have taken a tong more to get this on a list. I thought the ending was building to something, and what we got was more abrupt than I wanted. But this was a great Amapola performance, with Kaho making up for her shortcomings with great energy and a willingness to be lead around by Amapola. I like Kaho and thought this was a good showing for her, and it felt like the Arena Mexico crowd was getting behind her effort while knowing she had no chance of leaving the ring with hair. This felt like when they let Virus lead a younger luchador through a match, and the younger luchador gets some surprising moments while overall getting worked by Virus. Amapola as Virus is something she can easily handle, she's clearly been one of the top CMLL ladies as long as she's been in the division, and showcase singles are somewhat rare for the women. You could see her really leading Kaho through - at one point she essentially moved herself through a complex pin combo - but she was generous and I think that helped Kaho thrive. This was all about the tercera as the first two falls went very quickly, but there were highlights throughout. Each hits a real rib breaking spear, with Kaho snapping Amapola in half to start and Amapola returning that favor in the tercera. Amapola was really awesome, crushing Kaho on a dive (Kaho kind of gets made fun of for bad catching skills, but she got smooshed here), hitting a hard dropkick to the spin as Kaho was trapped in the ropes, and later Amapola wraps herself around a ringpost violently so that Kaho can hit a beautiful crossbody off the top to the floor. There were some good nearfalls, and I thought they both did a good job building drama down the stretch, and for me I always get more into luchadora hair matches, feels like the stakes are even more real. A lot of women really tightly associate their hair with their femininity, so the drama always feels real to me.

Euforia/Gran Guerrero vs. Valiente/Diamante Azul

ER: This one felt a little low stakes, which was understandable on a card with three high stakes matches, but it had three stout boys so it was at minimum going to be fun. Azul and Valiente are a fun little team of power packs; Azul has been slowly bulking up and he appeared to gas down the stretch (Guerrero even appeared to dump him on the entrance ramp just to get him out of the way), and this didn't reach the heights it could have, but we still got moments. Azul's added heft does add to certain moves, loved his running elbow, high arcing hip toss, and the cannonball off the ramp lands even harder. Guerrero is coming into his own, and he sets up a gross bump taking an armdrag off the apron from Valiente (big splat on the floor there), hitting a nice heavy flip dive of his own in the tercera, and being tasked with taking that super fast Valiente tope. The finish felt a little unnecessarily dangerous, with the rudos hitting a press slam on Azul off the top, then doing the same to Valiente on top of Azul, but they almost end up lawndarting Valiente straight into the mat. The set up was really long and required Valiente to do almost all the climbing and all the work, so you had the ugly combo of "guy taking move doing all the work" with "move looking almost dangerously botched".

Barbaro Cavernario/Negro Casas/Mr. Niebla vs. Mistico/Caristico/Volador Jr.

ER: This one underperformed, had some timing issues, and didn't have a lot of Casas. It had a lot of Niebla dancing and Caristico being a step slower than everyone else, and some ugly moments like Cavernario whiffing a kick and Caristico bumping early on a Niebla slap. It was kept quick, a comedic palette cleanser with dives, mindless entertainment before the main event, and it worked fine on that level. Volador hit the best dive of the match, a high speed tope con giro that Cavernario took nicely. There was a big tandem dive by all the tecnicos and Caristico hit an additional dive into Casas. This was kept breezy, and I was hoping for more.

52. Hair vs. Hair! Mascara Ano 2000 vs. Ultimo Guerrero

ER: All the CMLL dancers are decked out in sexy Ultimo Guerrero outfits, which I must say seems a little biased. But who cares, because this whole match rules! Ultimo Guerrero does this weird thing where he has a match or two year and just gets punched in the face a ton. And this match keeps coming right back around to Guerrero getting punched in the face, and Mascara gleefully throwing right hands up and down the left side of UG's head. This is really one of the finest big match lucha performances from a 60+ year old in some time. Mascara Ano Dos Mil pulls out every trick he's ever pulled in his long career, all the bullshit is impeccably timed, the cheap shots are cheap, the nearfalls are great, and we always go right back to fists punching face. Mascara hits a nice springboard splash, nice vertical suplex, gets a great nearfall on a backslide, and Disturbio's involvement is excellent. Disturbio and Gran Guerrero are the seconds, and Disturbio eats a great dropkick from UG, and later has a pitch perfect piece of interference: Guerrero locks on the sure fire finishing sub, and Disturbio is able to run in to kick UG away and bail back to the floor just as ref Edgar is turning around. On the floor we get a killer scrap between Gran and Disturbio, a ton of other Dinamitas come out to cause problems on the entrance ramp, Mascara boots UG right in the balls (which got him a win and set up this very match), and it's all incredible theater. There's a series of fun desperate pins, Mascara grabbing the rope, getting his foot on the rope, grabbing ref's hand to stop the count, all of it was great. This is my favorite old man scrap of the year, with all of the drama I love from lucha, plus an old guy punching a less old guy in the eye. It'll work for me every time.

PAS: MA2K can't really bump or run the ropes anymore, but he is very willing to throw multiple punching combos upside UG's head, so Dayenu. This had plenty stuff built around Gran Guerrero and Disturbo which makes sense to pad the time, and give the oldsters in the ring time to catch their breath. Still once the wind came it was nasty stuff, hard knuckles to heads. I liked UG's goofy dive into the crowd, not pretty at all, but this wasn't a pretty match. I kind of wanted a big post match Dinamitas beat down, if your gang is going to come let them roll deep, but this really was aimed at my lucha libre pleasure centers.


ER: This card looked real dynamite to me on paper, and three of the matches delivered various levels of big for me, and the rest of the stuff was either fun or inoffensive. I really liked the women's hair match which wasn't far from making list, Mascara Ano Dos Mil is still a compelling guy into his 60s and I love the couple matches a year where Ultimo Guerrero agrees to get shoot punched in the head, and the retirement was an instant lucha classic. The latter two matches were obvious additions to our 2019 Ongoing Match of the Year List.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Niebla's Return! Mephisto's Title Loss!

Mr. Niebla/Mephisto/Rey Bucanero vs. Diamante Azul/Dragon Lee/Mistico CMLL 3/12/19

ER: This was Niebla's return to Arena Mexico after 6 months of suspension, and he kind of owned it. Niebla owned this with the confidence of a white dude waltzing back into his old government job after accepting a voluntary demotion. Niebla was walking around ringside slapping fives with regulars like someone greeting people at the You Served Your Time cookout thrown in his favor. This is a total throwaway straight falls Arena Mexico main event, but I love that straight falls because Niebla lost the first fall for his team because he was kicking too many asses. Always feel bad for the tecnico getting his hand raised because his ass got kicked too hard. This whole thing just livens up the second Niebla high-stepped it across the ring to palm slap Mistico across the dome. I was dying. It looked like a hilarious move Sandman would use to kick someone off the Apollo stage. Niebla just slapped his way through this whole match, in the ring and out, and it was great. He mugged with fans, slapped face, and looked like a megastar. Azul hits a great dive, Bucanero throws some nasty chops at Mistico's throat, Mephisto plants Dragon Lee with a powerbomb, the whole thing was short mean and triumphant.

Mephisto vs. Dragon Lee CMLL 3/19/19

ER: A match that lost me at points during the long tercera, but that overall felt like a big enough match for a title to change hands. I know lucha titles don't mean a whole lot to American fans, Mexican fans, or the promotion themselves seemingly, but it feels like Mephisto has had this thing for ages and that should mean SOMETHING. They went big enough with this that it felt like a big stip match, so I think it earned it's third fall bloat. Also, I just really liked Mephisto in this, especially his work in the primera/segunda, but he had plenty of nice rudo moments in the tercera. It really felt like a guy sadistically beating down Lee, smacking down this punk coming for his belt, and that's a great pro wrestling feeling. The primera is short but mostly matwork, and it's cool to see Mephisto work some maestro exchanges that we don't often get to see from him, some cool tricks like standing on Lee's foot while shoving him over. He controls all the matwork, and when Lee breaks free into some rope running he immediately tricks Lee into a pin. And then Mephisto only gets MORE dominant in the segunda, when he starts stalking and dishing stiff kicks. He does a flapjack and hits a mean kick on the way down (possibly because Lee didn't get as much height as expected), and then does a second flapjack, Lee gets tons of height, and then gets kicked just as hard on his way down, again. I liked Lee's selling during these nasty kicks a lot, as he showed great pain through the mask, and was also working to loosen the area of his mask around the nose, freeing up the pressure and selling it like Mephisto had broken his nose [note: if I find out later that Lee just got his nose broken, forget all the stuff I said about good selling]. Mephisto goes on to throw a few more kicks, slowly, confidently, letting Lee crawl around on the mat while he would come in with a hard kick to the face or chest, letting the crowd really build a Lee comeback. The comeback stuff wasn't as exciting to me, as we knew we'd eventually get a long series of nearfalls, but some of them I really liked and the match threatened to lose me at a couple points but never did. There was always something to bring me back into it, like Mephisto casually waiting on the apron to catch Lee's high jump rana and just planting him with a nasty powerbomb on that apron, or Lee crashing fast into Mephisto on two straight topes. There were at least two moments where I was positive Mephisto had sealed up the title defense, and while I didn't love a couple of the kickouts in this I thought the overall excitement level sustained. Mephisto is 50 now. He lost his title that is a thing. Now he needs to go on more grimy indy shows like Ultimo Guerrero and be an old guy asskicker.

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 10/8/95

Bunkhouse Buck vs. Ric Flair

ER: My god this is what you LEAD OFF an episode of Worldwide with? And this 100% delivers as an all time syndicated classic. This is a straight up asskicking. Buck beats the absolute hell out of Flair here. This is honestly the stiffest I've ever seen Buck work and Flair leans into a pretty mean beating. Buck is throwing hard back elbows, hard forearms shots to the chest, big punches, a real great corner clothesline, he rips at Flair's nose and mouth, kicks him in the face, drops a boot right down onto Flair's head in a way that Flair looks like his brains rattled, just a total mugging. This looked like Buck got underpaid for a couple of Birmingham, Alabama NWA title opportunities against Flair a decade before, and he's said nothing about it until this match. Flair takes an absolute beating here and it's great. Flair puts on this great big bumping sympathetic performance, with Buck as a real imposing monster. Flair takes three different bumps over the buckles, and they're escalated in a real satisfying way and important to the match: First time he's whipped into the buckles and goes upside down, falling hard back into the ring; second time he goes upside down and falls down the apron and takes a nasty spill out onto the Worldwide stage (with Buck hitting a kickass forearm off the apron); third time is during his comeback when he goes upside down in the corner, but runs the length of the apron to hit Buck with a top rope axe handle! An awesome usage of a signature bump to escalate the story of the match every time it's done. And to put the absolute most perfect cherry on top of this delicious Sunday, Flair wins this match with a running elbow, like he was dispatching of Donovan Morgan on a house show. This was perfection and one of the all time greatest matches in syndicated WCW history.

Kamala/Zodiac vs. Scott D'Amour/Terry Morgan

ER: This completely, unironically RULED. This was total chaos in front of a bunch of Florida elderly people and 12 year old kids in large size t-shirts, and that's kind of when pro wrestling is at its best. Kamala is shrieking around the ring throwing overhand chops and big stomps, Zodiac is running around babbling and fishhooking Scott D'Amore while Kevin Sullivan keeps stomping on D'Amore's fingers. This felt more like a crazy cult doing a home invasion than a wrestling match. Terry Morgan has this great jobber mustache, and Kamala picks him up over his head doing a two handed choke and it looked like he was lifting him up 10 feet in the air before dropping him. This whole thing was ugly and ridiculous and completely great.

Tim Horner vs. Diamond Dallas Page

ER: I always forget Horner got a little WCW run around this time, lots of singles and several matches teaming with various Armstrongs. He's an always fun classic babyface, and he milks a few different convincing surprise nearfalls in this one, a guy who never wins who always has an energy level that feels like he just might win. There was a rolling prawn hold in this that was held super snug, really looked like Horner was going to get the win even though that was obviously not happening. Kimberly  Page was a flat out absurd babe in October of 1995, oh and Tim Horner threw a great babyface dropkick. DDP gives Horner 4 different nice pinfall almost wins here, and then simply puts him away with his nice tilt a whirl slam. I wish Horner was around a year later so we could have seen him against some of the luchadors.

Dick Slater vs. Randy Savage

ER: This show was so going so great that you just knew this wasn't going to let you down, and it does not. This a similar kind of asskicking to Buck/Flair - not as good, but same spirit - and made me really hope for a Savage/Flair vs. Buck/Slater tag that gets more than 10 minutes. Seeing what the 4 of them did on this episode makes that tag a lost classic, they could have worked a legendary street fight as evidenced here. Slater and Savage throw nice 80s street fight punches, Savage takes a big bump to the floor, takes hard flat back bumps around the ring for Slater, and the finished has some inspired silliness: Slater puts Savage down and then tries to cheat to win, by removing his cowboy boot to give Savage a good clonking. The Corporal has the ref distracted, and Slater CANNOT get his boot off. He's yanking at it with both hands, kicking at it with his other foot, shaking is leg to get this damn boot off of him, getting more and more desperate to beat Savage with it. He finally shakes it off and Savage gets it and hits a wicked shot right off Slater's forehead. A picture perfect flying elbow finishes it.

This ranks up with my all time favorite episodes of Worldwide that I've watched. A ton of fun from top to bottom, and my review doesn't even cover the genuinely terrific Flair, Johnny B. Badd, and Kevin Sullivan promos that aired throughout, NOR did I cover the three different commercials for 1995 sexpot potboiler JADE, produced by Robert Evans, written by Joe Eszterhas, starring David Caruso fresh off of quitting one of the more lucrative gigs in TV history (which would have been far more hilariously tragic if he didn't somehow land an even more lucrative TV gig a decade later). This episode is what all syndicated WCW should aspire to. And YOU need to watch the Bunkhouse Buck/Ric Flair match linked above. It's genuinely one of my favorite matches I've watched out of allllll the syndicated WCW landscape.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WCW B-SIDES

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Lucha Worth Watching: Heavyweight Cibernetico! Sangre Azteca Stomps Balls!

Kraneo/Valiente/Rush/Volcano/Blue Panther Jr./Diamante Azul vs. Shocker/Rey Bucanero/Terrible/Gran Guerrero/Euforia/Ultimo Guerrero  CMLL 10/9/18

ER: This was a match I didn't really know I wanted until it was right in front of me. A 12 man cibernetico with heavyweights, not a fliers showcase, but a fun heavyweight spotfest. Rush is the fun monkeywrench in this whole thing, and while the teams are divided into tecnicos and rudos, there are still teammates that hate each other and everyone is mostly out for their own interests. Plus it was a good chance for some guys like Shocker and Rey Bucanero to show they can still go in the right situation. Bucanero is going for 2002 status here which is a shock since I saw him live a few months ago and he never moved faster than walking speed. Here he hits the somersault senton, takes a classic Bucanero bump over the top to the floor, gets nailed with a dive, clearly looked like he was working hard here for whatever reason. And everybody was. I'm not sure what will make a bunch of guys in CMLL suddenly make the decision to work hard in a random match, but this whole thing felt spirited, guys worked snug, made the match feel more important than it likely was. We get a lot of Kraneo and a lot of Volcano, and let's just talk about how silly it is to have the two largest guys in the fed (largest guys in lucha) both on the tecnicos side. We need one of the big guys to be rudo and we can then build to a Clash of the Titans. Kraneo is great but was better as a rudo, but also way over as a tecnico, so I get keeping him where he is. I think Volcano and his modern take on Roadblock's gear (his Caltrans vest highlighter and weird brown back brace) look pretty doofy, but maybe working rudo would open him up a bit. Panther Jr. turns in a nice tecnico performance here, Valiente hits a big dive, Terrible don't care who his partners are for the match, he's still gonna stomp out his enemies, Azul gets his class Mexico mask shredded, whole thing was fun. Ciberneticos feel like more of a thing I wanted when I first started watching lucha, but this unexpectedly delivered. Less spots than your typical ciber, but more character and tight work. That's a good trade.

Sangre Azteca/Metalico/Nitro vs. Oro Jr./Star Jr./Retro CMLL 1/15/19

ER: Stiff work and plenty of shtick will almost always win me over, and this undercard gem easily won me over with both. Rudos worked stiff and tecnicos bumped big, and this thing didn't need any dives to make it a ton of fun. Azteca was a real standout and he's a guy I've always really liked, someone whom I assume there must be backstage reasons that he's never been moved up the card before, because he's been great as long as I've been aware of him. He makes it his mission in this match to stomp all over the tecnicos butts, balls, and loins, and succeeding in his mission. At least once a match he usually throws his big high angle dropkick right to the balls (do we not do faultas anymore?) while an opponent is seated in the corner or being held spread eagle...well, here he does that like 7 or 8 times, flying into the corner with precision shots, teasing doing one from the middle rope but then climbing to the TOP rope to drop straight down like Slim Pickens riding a missile to straight to tender tecnico loins. He even kicks the middle rope as Retro is climbing back in the ring, the lucha equivalent of the turkey tap. Nitro gets in on the action, dropping a great elbow drop off the middle rope. Metalico was Metalico, and I love Metalico, so he was taking pratfalls and throwing nice big hooking lariats (Oro Jr. took four lariats in a row, really throwing himself back and landing on his shoulders with gusto), and bailing on the tercera by ripping off a mask rather then suffer a pinfall defeat. Oro Jr. had a really nice performance for a tecnico I don't often notice, I was really impressed with how he ran into rudo strikes. Star Jr. is kind of like Soberano Jr. but with floppier limbs, but he still snapped off a really cool headscissors that was like a cross between a smooth lucha headscissors and a Marty Jannetty one. Retro appears to be working a 70 year old Mil Mascaras gimmick, but his shoulderblock hits snug enough and he leans jaw first into a low Nitro dropkick, and those are a couple things that will at least get you into the 490s of a 500. This match scratched a nice lucha itch for me. A match that might seem inconsequential, but having something like this that doesn't steal flash from later matches, while still presenting high end work, is an important part of any card.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Tecnico Kraneo?

Kraneo/Diamante Azul/Atlantis vs. Rush/Terrible/La Bestia Del Ring  CMLL 4/13/18

ER: Well, my big boy is a tecnico now, and I'm not totally sure how I feel about it. It's so appealing to have an agile monster fat guy in lucha, on the rudo side. We've dealt with big goony tecnicos like Giant Silva, and we've gotten big hunky tecnicos like Marco, but a big giant fat rudo is something that hasn't been around lucha in awhile. As a tecnico it looks like he'll be doing more offense, which isn't a bad thing, Kraneo has big offense. Here he goes on a tear of hard hitting belly bumps, a big standing splash, big legdrop while lifting Mije into one as well, and a crazy Diamante-assisted top rope splash. But there were also some uncomfortably clumsy moments that have been typically absent from Kraneo matches the last several years. He slips off the ropes while Rush is slumped in the corner, before doing his hip attack, and the finish is set up because he physically can't climb to the middle rope to do...something. He keeps slipping on the middle rope, sort of makes it to the top rope but can't come close to standing up, so instead kind of flops onto the rope like a wet towel tossed over  your shower door. Rush has been lying on the mat for some time now, and Bestia/Terrible just casually walk over at this point and just get him the hell down from there. It was awkward as hell, but it's the only time I've seen this happen to him. Could it have been intentional? Was he purposely showing what his weakness as a tecnico would be? Unable to do larger moves required of modern lucha tecnicos which leads to rudos catching him off guard? Maybe. On first glance, I'm not liking big offense tecnico Kraneo as compared to big bumping violent offense rudo Kraneo. We'll see. Everybody else in this was kind of background to the new tecnico, but still had moments: Bestia eats a couple big monkey flips from Azul, Rush bullies around Atlantis and uses Tirantes to help him remove his pants, Terrible accidentally smacks Commandante off the apron, but this was the Kraneo show. We'll see where the second episode of that show takes us.

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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Corleone & Kraneo CKlash! Diamante Vanquishes Terrible!

9. Kraneo/Vangellys/Terrible vs. Marco Corleone/Diamante Azul/Caristico CMLL 1/12

ER: I love this kind of Godzilla vs. King Ghidora match in wrestling, and it's especially weird and cool in Mexico where you don't really have many "monsters". But they don't come much larger than Kraneo and Marco, and I always love when they cross paths. This seemed more violent than past confrontations, which always had more Kraneo stooging for Marco. This was much more them kicking each other's ass. Diamante Azul is a strong tecnico and probably underrated, and Vangellys is a great heavy who occasionally really steps up, Terrible is always a reliable asskicker, Caristico still has his value to a trios. That's a great lineup of guys for a quality trios. We get a couple nice fired up Diamante moments and Terrible beating him around ringside, Vangellys beats Caristico around ringside and hits a brutal atomic drop on the barricade, and when Kraneo starts mixing in this thing gets great. He punches Marco hard in the face, knees him in the gut, then really chokes him over the ropes while Mije kicks the shit out of Marco's face from the apron! Holy shit!! Terrible keeps smashing Azul into things at ringside, and Kraneo continues to mug Corleone, violently running in with a corner hip attack that whips Marco's neck.

The segunda has an awesome Diamante tecnico hero sequence, with Kraneo and Vangellys holding him while Terrible punches him in the face, and Diamante breaks free just to rip Terrible's shirt and throw it on the ground, only to get beaten back down by all three. Marco gets triple teamed next and his comeback is awesome, flying through the giant Kraneo and Vangellys with a shoulder separating shoulderblock, and Azul fires into the ring with an awesome superkick on Terrible, following it up with hard low dive. Tercera is filled with great moments, like Mije giving his best match performance of his life, with those earlier kicks on Marco, now grinding in his face and then slapping him in the tercera, allowing Kraneo to shoulderblock a distracted Marco (and then later Mije gets absolutely launched onto Kraneo by a Marco press slam). We do get great Kraneo stooging, taking a big bump to the apron that sees him slowly go high up and over, then he wobbly knee sells on the apron before getting upended by a Marco haymaker. Tercera is just packed with great tecnico/rudo showdowns, Azul getting great comeuppance against Terrible, plastering him with a flying elbow and putting him away by catching him midair and dumping him with a deadlift German. Vangellys does a lunatic spear to Marco on the entrance ramp, taking both out of the match. Kraneo catches a Caristico rana better than anybody you've seen take one, whipping over fast and sliding to the floor, then Caristico flattens him with a heavy crossbody to the floor. This trios was all so awesome, you could realistically build three quality singles feuds off this one match, that's how good everyone matches up. Here's to more of this kind of lucha in 2018!!

PAS: There were a lot of really fun performances in this, I especially loved Mije, his Kawada kicks were awesome, he really laid it in for such a tiny human, I also loved Marco hurling him in the air like pizza dough. Kraneo has a great hip attack, he is a super fat dude, with a but that is outsized even for his big body, so it really looks violent when he smashes Marco with it. Last minute was really awesome and what got this match on a list for me. I loved Marco's ramp running in ring plancha, and the Vangellys intercepting it with a spear felt like the kind of thing that would be on an NFL films highlight before the league got all squeamish about head trauma.  Also really love Azul's German, he isn't a great luchador, but that is one great German.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Lucha Worth Watching: CMLL 8/25/17

Zeuxis/Amapola/La Comandante vs. Princesa Sugehit/La Vaquerita/Sanely (CMLL 8/25/17)

ER: Short but intense ladies match, the first I've written up in awhile. Too often the ladies seem to go through the motions, but occasionally you get some unexpectedly inspired stuff on a Friday at Arena Mexico. Zeuxis and Sugehit go at it the whole match, with Zeuxis tossing Sugehit around the announcers booth and ripping her mask off to get DQ'd. Zeuxis has the best hair in the division and wrestles like it. Only someone with great hair can rip masks with that much evil glee. And it all builds to a great moment in the segunda where the rudas are dominating and Zeuxis runs down the ramp to get a running start at something sure to be wicked, and Sugehit runs out with a new mask to intercept her by the hair. This leads to a big tecnica comeback, with Sugehit ripping at Zeuxis' mask and throwing her around ringside, Amapola doing a huge Cassandro bump around the ringpost, Comandante and her newly relaxed hair gets dropkicked to the floor, Sanely...well, takes her shirt off to a big reaction, and Sugehit gets the roll up win after yanking Zeuxis' mask. Afterwards we get mask match promos which is a match with a lot of potential. I'm in.

Juice Robinson/Michael Elgin/Matt Taven vs. Volador Jr./Diamante Azul/Ultimo Guerrero (CMLL 8/25/17)

ER: Invading foreigner matches always seem to land less than they should, but this one was a blast even though this wouldn't be my first choice for foreigners or invaders. But the invaders worked like such outright dickbags that it totally worked. Juice Robinson especially was a standout, a real impressive athlete who was a favorite of mine on NXT. He was throwing all these stiff left jabs that reminded me just how much Marco has stopped caring about his left hands over the last year+. Juice kept using these annoying hands to set up other's offense, like punching someone directly into a Elgin german. Elgin is an odd fit for lucha, but he nestled in nicely doing his huge power moves (Arena Mexico seemed impressed when he did the samoan drop on Azul while doing a fallaway slam on Volador) and was around for the big moment which was Azul finally hitting his own huge german on him. Elgin even crushes Kemonito with a huge powerslam, poor guy looked like he really got smooshedTaven always looks like a slime, like every girl's least favorite crush in Color Me Badd, and while I don't think he has great offense I like how his flying moves always seem totally unhinged and out of control: Here he hits a no hands torpedo dive over the top and blasts UG hard into the barricade. Later Taven takes a great splat bump to the floor off UG's baseball slide dropkick. As much as I hate Volador epic main event singles matches, I think he's good in these rally the troops matches, and his superkick right under Juice's chin (with Juice timber sell and spit take) was a real highlight of the match. Finish set up is silly, with Johnny Idol coming out to distract UG, really felt like the same dumb 1999 WWE finish we got sick of 18 years ago, only difference was Idol's theme music didn't play. BUT. But. UG turns right around into Taven kicking him in the balls, and it kind of made it all worth it. Fun match, and I am now pissed that it doesn't appear the Juice/Shocker singles match is online.

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Lucha Worth Watching: CMLL 8/11/17

Mercurio/Pierrothito vs. Shockercito/Stukita (CMLL 8/11/17)

ER: Hot Arena Mexico opener with these guys not slowing down for a second. Stukita stumbles on one quebrada and that's it, the rest of this was don't look back. Mercurio is a real fun ham, he knows how to mock a tecnico and get his comeuppance. He'll run great misdirection spots like sending Shockercito into the ropes and forcing him to duck under a Pierrothito leapfrog, and he'll be right there waiting on the other side with a stiff kick to the chops. But he knows how to do those same set ups to effectively make himself look like a boob, cockily playing to the crowd and then accidentally kicking Pierrothito in the chops. Mercurio is kind of ridiculous, wearing as much dayglo as Neon Joe: Werewolf Hunter and mocking the short (I mean, he's short, but they're shorter, and as our doofus leader has shown us you always gotta pick on people for the things you're most insecure about) tecnicos mercilessly. Shockercito is a real nutter and hits arguably the minis spot of the year, getting monkey flipped off the apron by Pierrothito into a rana to Mercurio on the floor. The rudos run traffic and shine when needed (again, Mercurio is hammy as hell and even threw in a tope of his own), really drawing the fans into it, and the tecnicos know how to bring the flash. Shockercito is arguably the best of the current tecnico minis and this was a nice showcase for all.

Rush vs. Diamante Azul (CMLL 8/11/17)

ER: We get a hot opener, and we get a hot semi-main singles match. Rush comes with the working (tassel) boots on and Diamante feels like a lucha star now. You can tell he's getting good by watching him on the rampway in the segunda. After taking a stiff suplex on the ramp Rush disappears (for probably too long) getting a piece of plasterboard. Diamante nobly gets up from this suplex, timing it so he isn't just lying down waiting for Rush, but not so quick that he's then standing around like a doofus. He's just slowly but strongly standing up, looking around Arena Mexico like he doesn't know where Rush the monster ran off to. Rush blasts him with a couple belly to bellys, dropkicks him hard in the chest, and Diamante stands up to all of it. He ends up hitting rush with a tope headbutt and Rush flings himself hard and stupid backwards into the first row. Some old man throws his entire soda on him. Rush throws in some fun bullshit like grabbing ref Edgar's arm on a close count, but Azul pins Rush clean in the tercera. That feels like a big step. This could be the mask vs. hair match-up, and it could be good. They need to be really careful with who gets to take Rush's hair. It feels like Rush needs to take someone's mask before someone takes his hair. I don't think he's taken a mask before and it feels like he really needs a good one to at to his legend.

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Lucha Worth Watching: CMLL 7/21/17

Rush/Kraneo/Pierroth vs. Marco Corleone/Caristico/Diamante Azul 

ER: I really like this rudo trio, whenever Kraneo fills in it brings a different kind of chaos, the guys pair off differently, and he's just awesome. They all bully Caristico around, Rush slams his head in the barricade door, later goes to hit his high jump corner dropkick, stops as Caristico braces for the dropkick, then just kicks Caristico in the teeth with his boot toe. The rudos run wild, Kraneo hits the running hip attack and dances around the ring, Pierroth hits a stiff senton on Azul, Marco punches a bunch to comeback but it's not enough. I love when Kraneo is opposite Marco as otherwise you don't have a heavyweight presence large enough to counter the biggest tecnico. Dominant tecnico is a difficult thing to pull off, and it's easier with Kraneo looking massive across from him. Pierroth rips off Caristico's head, kicks it over to Pierroth, Pierroth juggles it a bit, kicks it up to his chest and belly, bounces it around some more, kicks it up for Rush, and Rush boots it DEEP into the Arena Mexico cheap seats. We get some nice comebacks, with Caristico hitting a crashing dive into Kraneo, Rush takes a couple big bumps to the floor, Marco hitting the high jump crossbody and even Azul hitting a high jump flying clothesline. I love how Rush and his team never truly get comeuppance, it's going to be the biggest thing in lucha history when it finally happens. The second things are going badly for the team, Rush boots Caristico in the balls directly in front of the referee, then rips his mask off. He is hate.

Euforia/Gran Guerrero/Ultimo Guerrero vs. Niebla Roja/Dragon Lee/Volador Jr. 

ER: A lot of these guys feel like they match up a lot, so it becomes clear pretty early in a match when they're doing something a bit beyond typical. This is the best version of their match, long enough to satisfy, short enough that everyone could go go go, nobody dogging it, and some actual hate instead of just through-the-motions spot rehearsal. Euphoria gets matched up with Dragon Lee a bunch and admirably keeps up, and both Euforia and Niebla Roja had star caliber performances. I thought the rudos gelled great and had some great taunts (the huddle rally while holding the tecnicos in Gory Specials was inspired), all of them bump big and put on super impressive catching displays, and their double teams all looked violent (Gran's powerbomb off a Roja springboard was gross). It was fun to see Lee mix it up with a different kind of rudo; usually he's against younger, crazier guys, so it's cool to see him against older sturdy guys like Euforia and UG. They both know how to eat his creative kick combos, loved the one where he slams a guy's head into the buckle from the apron and kicks it. Roja broke out impressive flying and made me jump out of my seat when he dodged Euforia (Euforia takes his nice bump around the ringpost) and then hit a BOSS rolling elbow all the way across the ring. UG takes his fast Jerry bump to the floor, Lee smooshes him with a big flip dive, but Volador/Euforia break out the holy shit moment of the evening, when Volador doesn't just hit a hurricanrana to the floor, he does a SPRINGBOARD first, and Euforia is standing close to the barricade, so Volador really has to leap to grab him, and Euforia is a crazy person for catching something that far. Awesome spot. Gran Guerrero and Roja mix it up most of the match, and GG has really improved over the last 6 months. He's acting like a real violent rudo, and I'd love a mask match between the two. Everybody in this match busted ass and made this thing pop. Nothing better than some young guys showing star power, and old guys showing they still belong.

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Lucha Worth Watching: CMLL as Late 80s NWA

Blue Panther/Soberano Jr./Diamante Azul vs. Sam Adonis/Negro Casas/Dragon Rojo Jr. (CMLL 7/14/17)

ER: Well this starts with some great chaos. Sam Adonis is packing on the pounds and he's wearing a Love Machine mask and going right after Panther. He hits a big boot on the floor and then punches BP in the back of the head, fishhooks him, and eventually shoves Tirantes for the DQ. A commissioner gets in Adonis' face to remove the mask that's not his identity, and this commissioner with his ponytail, working goatee and nice fitting suit is a classic "guy I would not make eye contact with". Adonis throws meaty chops and I love Panther going after him and clotheslining him into the crowd. Rojo Jr. hits a nasty double stomp off the top, and Azul press slams his own boy into Casas/Rojo, and this match is a lot more gritty than I expected. Casas and Soberano have a nice standoff, with Casas putting over Soberano's power by getting shoved hard into and through the ropes, and Casas pays him back with a hard shoulderblock. Azul grabs a snug headlock on Casas, drags Casas from the apron into the ring with that headlock, absorbs a bunch of shoulderblocks...and I kinda REALLY like Azul working as babyface Luger. Press slams, flexing, no selling heel strikes, he's kind of good at it. Azul is working as babyface Luger and Panther is working as Dusty and it's pretty great. Adonis is good at forcing the fight momentum into Tirantes, to distract BP, and I like Adonis' hooking punches to Panther's neck. Then we get Azul/Soberano's Fabulous Flying Azul's tumbling routine, with Soberano getting monkey flipped to the floor, and it's pretty great. This was a real simple but real effective trios. If I had known ahead of time that Casas would be the least involved member of this match, I would not have expected it to be this fun. I really want some more Adonis/Panther feud and more of 1990 babyface Azul.

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MLJ: Dragon Lee vs Virus/Casas 4: Diamante Azul, Dragon Lee, La Sombra vs Cavernario, Hechicero, Negro Casas

Aired: 2014-09-27 

Taped: 2014-09-16 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara 

Diamante Azul, Dragon Lee, La Sombra vs Cavernario, Hechicero, Negro Casas

This is lucha comfort food. Sure, it's got a few twists and folds (Sombra being a tweener) and one pretty glaring weakness (Azul), but in general, it just felt right. Sombra was aloof and a little impatient but not over the top in his Ingobernable rudoness. This didn't feel like a revelos increibles match or anything. Azul was stiff and wooden but played his part and, most importantly, the rudos he had to work against were so good that they did all the hard work. It's probably my ideal 2014-2015 rudo side. Cavernario, Hechicero, Casas. You don't get better than that right now. This was right after Casas' hair loss too so he was extra grumpy. 

Then came the segunda, and after some nice back and forth (including Casas and Dragon Lee trading paralleled moves, Cavernario feeding well for Azul, and Sombra and Casas having another intense exchange, with Sombra cutting his legs out as he went for the running apron senton, as he does so well), they finally had the rudos take over with a great spot of Lee going for a hanging sleeper on Hechicero only to get clocked by Cavernario, which led to the arm hook spinning backbreaker. Good stuff:

This led to the rudos taking the segunda. My favorite thing about Sombra as a rudo, past his wonderfully dickish attitude, is how he always goes for the little thing, grabs from the outside, for instance. Here, he tried to break up the Cavernario bomb, but couldn't. It was a nice little touch. Then he really didn't want to get back into the ring to eat the fall but ultimately did. 

Anyway, the beating continued into the tercera, including this awesome tandem goardbuster onto the top rope/dropkick combo:

The comeback was mild at best, which is a shame. I blame Azul even though he had a good moment of tossing Cavernario around by his hair (which was set up earlier in the match). At least hit had a great finish with Sombra embracing his partners, hoisting Dragon Lee up for a dive and hitting a parallel suplex/slam with Azul:

All in all, this was good. Azul was frustrating. He reminded me a bit of Dos Caras, Jr., just without the connection to the crowd (albeit quizzical) that Caras had. He had some good spots but there was nothing meaningful behind them. They teased Sombra vs Hechicero twice and didn't deliver, which was frustrating too. Worst of all, though, were the endless chopfests. They just went at each other the whole match. It's okay when Sombra and Casas do it, with intensity and hatred, but everyone was doing it. They just went to that well way too often. In the matches with Rush and Casas, it always felt like a big moment when everything stopped and they tore into each other. This match was the exact opposite. Those criticisms aside, it was a good one though.

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

72. Diamante Azul/Dragon Lee/La Sombra v. Hechicero/Cavernario/Negro Casas CMLL 9/16

PAS: Just a great trios match with a bunch of guys hitting on all cylinders. Hechicero, Lee and Cavernario are such great additions to the CMLL mix. Hechicero does some really nifty twisty matwork livening up the normally dull Diamante Azul, Cavernario is a whirlwind, just flying around the ring getting huge air on all of the armdrags and monkey flips, while Lee also bumps big and throws in a huge assisted tope con hilo where he gets major air. While the young kids are doing there thing, Casas and Sombra are doing a only slightly bargain bin version of Casas v. Rush. I never cared much for high flying technico Sombra, but nasty fake technico Sombra throwing headbuts to the bridge of Casas's nose and mafia kicking him in the mouth I can get behind. Shocking how hard everyone was working in a random Guadalajara trios, so much fun

ER: It's weird to me how CMLL runs hundreds of trios matches per year, including tons of different ones where at least half of the opponents are the same, yet there's really no formula to predicting which ones will be MOTY level and which ones you forget the moment you're done watching them. There's no algorithm like "Blue Panther + Arena Coliseo + 3rd match from the top + minimum two other guys you like in the match = Really Good Match!" The matches all feature the same guys and sometimes they're really good and sometimes they're really not. Watching them all is pure insanity, but cherry picking your favorite guys can make you miss little unexpected gems. Now this match obviously has a bunch of guys worth going out of your way for, but it's also a Tuesday evening match in Guadalajara with nothing at stake. All of that just to say, this was really fun. Seeing Casas team with Hechicero and Cavernario is just a cruel middle finger with all the Felino/Niebla quarter assed performances making tape. La Sombra as rudo opportunistic shit kicker has been a real revelation this year, and his exchanges with Casas in this were excellent. Cavernario really went for broke here, Dragon Lee hit the highest tope con hilo of the year, Casas hangs back in a non-lazy way but just lets the young guys shine while throwing out great stuff of his own (helllllo headbutt to Sombra's face). Really really fun.


52. Rey Hechicero v. Barbaro Cavernario CMLL 6/20

PAS: Very good final, between the top two wrestlers in the tourney. Match was going good with Hechicero throwing Cavernario around early. Cavernario took briefly over until he caught his kneepad on the ring post and ended up crashing and burning on a dive. Hechicero clearly called an audible and really worked over Cavernario turning this into an underdog fighting to survive match. Cavernario got a couple of big hope spots, including the craziest superfly to the floor yet, but was mostly on defense, absorbing a beating and clawing his way back by biting at the knee, and headbutts. The finish was great, Cavernario survives some big spots, including a Liger bomb and a powerbomb into the turnbuckles, and as Hechciero gets him up in a submission he squirms down and hooks in his knees to the back camel clutch which has been his kill move all tourney. Really great match, with both guys on the fly working in a blown spot into a compelling match. Hell of a finish to a hell of a tourney

ER: Really great way to end the tournament, felt like both guys were really leaving it all out there. I will forever be curious what the plan for the rest of the match was, had Cavernario hit that misguided tope past the ring post. Hechicero is a great guy to take over and control a match as he has freak strength and it's easy to buy him as a man overpowering another. All his reversal spots and slams have more credibility and look more vicious because of this. Hechicero is also incredibly agile for a bulky guy, and his moonsault variations are among the prettiest in wrestling. His agility in his springboard moonsault to the floor was incredible. Barbaro is a total nut who absolutely despises his knees and decides to punish them with the nastiest big splash from the top to the floor possible. This was an exciting final to a tourney where both guys killed themselves. And for that they were awarded with the dinkiest looking trophies possible.


2014 MASTER LIST

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CMLL Workrate Round-Up 10/10/14 & 7/20/14

1. Kraneo, Mr. Niebla & Shocker vs. Marco Corleone, Diamante Azul & Valiente (10/10/14)

Short and sweet match with tons of great Kraneo moments. Not only is Kraneo really great, but I think he brings the best out in guys like Niebla. Niebla is not as good as Kraneo, but nobody wants to be the dog of the match. Kraneo is just a total beast though and also makes opponents look great. He spectacularly ends a fall with a wild senton off the top, but also takes a massive bump to the floor off a Marco clothesline, really whipping himself over the top super fast, but also does little detail rudo things like holding Corleone in place by *grabbing his balls from behind*!! Then casually walking off tapping his own inner thigh to the boos of the crowd. Marco kicks things up a notch too in his work opposite Kraneo as he's really the only luchador in CMLL who can match him for size (although Thunder is pretty huge as well), and Marco logically uses his size in the tercera to wipe out Kraneo/Niebla with his huge no hands plancha, this time from ring to floor (instead of his usual ramp to ring). Kraneo is a bull and these kind of matches are almost always worth watching to see what he'll do.

2. Rush, La Sombra & La Mascara vs. Ultimo Guerrero, Thunder & Euforia (10/10/14)

Also quick and to the point, with Ingobernales going over in straight falls, but it is notable for an actual spirited and fine tecnico appearance from Thunder. Thunder is a guy who has not really registered with me so far, other than "hey that guy is large and muscle-y" but here at the end of the primera there he was out on the floor dishing stiff shots to Ingobernales. UG is a guy I like but here he just works like UG, rudo or tecnico, just UG here. Thunder actually worked like a tecnico who had been disrespected by these douchey coveralls wearing punks. You knew what you were getting from the rudos in this, but I was pleasantly surprised by the tecnico I knew least about.

3. Metalico, Cancerbero & Raziel vs. Oro Jr., Starman & Triton (7/20/14)

I love when little matches like this exceed non-existent expectations. Nobody ever expects anything out of a third match on a Sunday card. I've seen dozens of these and most of the time they are exactly what you think they're going to be. I mean look at those 6 names. That is a list of maybe the 6 most "also rans" on any given CMLL midcard. If I asked you "hey name 10 luchadors whose names you always see in results and stuff but you don't actually go out of your way to watch" there is a good chance all six of those names pop up on that top 10. And then occasionally those kind of guys give you get a fun little gem like this one where everybody works hard and seems like they're all trying to stand out. Metalico was a little ball of rage here. Up until now if somebody had asked me about Metalico I would have told them that he was definitely one of the top 5-10 guys in CMLL with a Tiger gimmick. But here he was a total asshole southern heel. He stiffed up all the tecnicos and especially targeted Oro Jr., was constantly taking cheap shots at guys on the apron, and was cursing and spitting at the crowd from the apron, and begging off in the tercera. He was wrestling like a guy who just got laid off but was then asked to finish out the week, oh and also we won't be giving you a recommendation. Oro Jr. was a fun punching bag and took some mean bullying from all the rudos. His "pushed too far" moment was satisfying. Starman hits a wild tope (I think Phil may have dubbed this year the "Return of the Classic Lucha Tope" and this one can be added onto that list) and this match was just unexpectedly fun. And damn man, Metalico. I like this guy pissed off. It was kind of a weird out of nowhere performance as I don't ever remember him doing this stuff before, and other guys in the match were still trying to have a traditional lucha match, but shoot Metalico's act would have played well on the 80s Memphis set.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 9/6/14

Again, on 8/15/14 (and, now sadly, 8/22/14) it looks like they did a tournament for the CMLL Universal championship. Tournament lucha, baby! Catch that 150 second action!! So we all know these matches will be, best case scenario, the 2nd or 3rd best match on an episode of Worldwide, so I'm not really going to review the matches themselves because why bother. I'll make some notes of standout individual performance. The one positive I can take from this is that we might get some unique match-ups, however brief. It looks like there are a lot of rudos in the tourney so we may get some fun rudo on rudo shenanigans.

^^^ That is what I wrote during the first week of lucha tourney. It was worse than I expected. I expected bad. There was one total match that was not a complete waste of time. I'm willingly going into this expecting to waste my time. And I'm complaining about it. That is the definition of an obnoxious person right there.

1. Ultimo Guerrero vs. Mr. Niebla

Fun mat stuff and headscissor roll throughs that were indeed fun, but always felt very exhibition-y. Niebla broke out his cool code red arm drag, UG threw in the Jerry bump, Niebla did the wild moonsault off the top to the floor and another big moonsault press back in the ring. Niebla is throwing in more cool stuff in his 3 minute allotment than anybody else in this tourney. And it's nice as it actually ties into and leads to the finish, with him going for a 3rd moonsault, allowing UG to polish him off with the Guerrero Special for the win. So that was a good use of the time right there.

2. Virus vs. Dragon Rojo Jr.

Rojo comes out to the theme from Ghostbusters which is kinda weird. It's nice to see Virus in a match like this as he doesn't usually seem to crack the main event picture in CMLL, and at least being in a tournament for a title is something above his usual level. At this rate he might make it into the main event scene when he's 52. Virus works this match real smart, for such an awful format. He's a guy who's really good at mixing up rope running stuff, and is such a different worker than a lot of these guys that you get some unique exchanges. He finds a cool way to reverse Rojo's big seated corner dropkick, by pushing up at the right time to send Rojo's legs under, then locking on a front facelock. Great false finish as Rojo looked taken off guard but was already in the ropes. You got the sense that it could have finished the match otherwise. Finish was smart as it played into the match long story of Virus trying to win using his submission smarts, and it costing him. Virus always breaks out cool subs, and the one that backfired involved him rolling through on his opponent, but Rojo being much larger than Virus, causing him to roll through to far (like over rolling him), ending with Rojo on top and submitting Virus. It even makes sense in the worked setting as Virus usually works guys that are closer to his size, so him locking on a sub incorrectly against a larger guy works for me. Still wish Virus could have gone through to at least the semis.

3. Diamante Azul vs. Niebla Roja

This match was at least a good use of two minutes, though I kind of felt bad for Roja as this was a total Azul showcase. Azul looked really good on the mat with a couple cool ankle picks and looked real good at fluidly moving on to other parts of the body. Really smooth chain wrestling done in a way that didn't feel overly rehearsed. He also hits a big dive (first dive of the whole tournament actually) and then gets to roll back in and hit his awesome delayed german to win. They even put over his finisher by having a doctor come in and check on Roja after the match. Roja got totally steamrolled here, but Azul looked sharp in his showcase.

4. Titan vs. Volador Jr.

Not great, but short and they kept the back spring handstand nonsense to one part of the match. Titan hits a big moonsault and gets a nice false finish by catching Volador in a dragon screw into a sub. Volador's samoa drop driver finisher always looks completely dangerous, like it's just a matter of time before somebody gets their neck snapped.

5. Ultimo Guerrero vs. Dragon Rojo Jr.

Partners collide! But it really wasn't that exciting. Both guys doing moves until it was time for the Guerrero Special. Rojo took a nice bump to the floor off UG's baseball slide, and Rojo's dropkick off the rampway is a truly awesome and incredibly stupid move. Basically just a giant running back bump onto the floor, totally nuts.

6. Diamante Azul vs. Volador Jr.

Super short, very Volador heavy. Azul hit his nice rampway senton. I somehow got bored even though it was 2 minutes.

7. Ultimo Guerrero vs. Volador Jr.

Of course this one gets the most time of the tournament, and since Volador is losing then we get to see tons of goofy ass Volador stuff. None of this was very good. It did have one completely awesome moment though, with UG catching Volador on a flip dive to the floor and power bombing him into the ring post. That looked amazing. But Volador was back in the ring flipping around like a dungus just a few moments later. Match also had a really weird moment where Volador went for a roll up after a superkick, and UG kicked out, and then both of them sat upright on the mat for almost 20 seconds afterwards, just sitting there right next to each other, both staring out at the same direction (but not at each other), not selling or hitting each other or doing anything. Just sitting there. This happened really early in the match too. It was really strange. We'll edit it in post, boys!


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Tournament Lucha: Still the Worst

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 8/30/14

So on 8/15/14 (and, sadly, 8/22/14) it looks like they did a tournament for the CMLL Universal championship. Tournament lucha, baby! Catch that 150 second action!! So we all know these matches will be, best case scenario, the 2nd or 3rd best match on an episode of Worldwide, so I'm not really going to review the matches themselves because why bother. I'll make some notes of standout individual performance. The one positive I can take from this is that we might get some unique match-ups, however brief. It looks like there are a lot of rudos in the tourney so we may get some fun rudo on rudo shenanigans.

1. Terrible vs. Euforia

Terrible and Euforia already start the tourney off with a classic tournament lucha staple: selling like you're in the fight of your life after the first move of the match. Euforia hits a clothesline and gets a two count, and both men linger on the mat, breathing heavily, before valiantly fighting to their feet 20 seconds into the match. Fuck you, tournament lucha. Strike exchanges, sunset flips, no drama, I've clearly made a horrible choice.

2. Felino vs. Shocker

Felino is wearing some spectacular tassel tights (tassels down the legs and around the cuffs) so this is already an early match of the night contender. Felino tries here more than usual, hitting a sweet elbow off the top rope. Match ends pointlessly 2 minutes in after a Shocker sub.

3. Rey Escorpion vs. La Sombra

Now we're getting spoiled as we get almost 3 minutes of action! How horrible would it be to take a trip down to Mexico with the hopes of seeing lucha, and they run a tournament during the show you attend? Escorpion puts the boots to Sombra a bunch and Sombra lays in the running double knees in the corner. They tried to cram a decent amount of stuff into the time, but it still didn't add up to tons.

4. Negro Casas vs. Mephisto

Haven't seen Mephisto in awhile. He's wearing a Spider-man get up which is…something. We get a couple nice Mephisto powerbombs including a big one off the top rope. Casas won it with a wrenched in Crippler Crossface. Never forget.

5. Euforia vs. Shocker

Euforia mixes it up a tiny bit by attacking Shocker on the ramp. This wasn't particularly good but it had an immediacy that the other matches didn't have. The others have been worked more as "last two minutes of a really bad epic" and this one was at least guys trying to go for flash leveraged pinfalls. That at least makes more sense. Shocker's winning roll-up was really snug and looked like any man would have trouble kicking out of it. So that's something.

6. Negro Casas vs. La Sombra

Actually a fun match, not coincidentally the one that has gotten by far the most time so far. Sombra gives Casas a long beating and Casas' comeback is really good, shoving Sombra off the top to the floor and beating him into the crowd barrier. Sombra always flies nicely into a barrier. Also I really dig Casas' dragon screw knee breaker he's been using lately. Looks cool. Finish is kind of weird as Sombra wins with a nut shot schoolboy, with poor Casas' balls taking another beating. But what was weird is that it just looked like a normal schoolboy. I rewound it and didn't see an actual ball shot. Casas may just be dealing with some residual ball aches.

7. La Sombra vs. Shocker

Pretty nondescript match although I like how they're transitioning Sombra's running double knees into a death blow. Also kind of surprising that none of the tourney matches built to a dive of any sort. I was expecting to see a dive exchange in the semi at least. I don't need dives to enjoy my lucha, but it just seemed odd not seeing any.

8. Ultimo Guerrero, Niebla Roja & Gran Guerrero vs. Atlantis, Marco Corleone & Diamante Azul

Pretty paint by numbers, but with a fun tercera. First falls were really quick, with about the only notable thing being UG holding up Marco for a long time on an impressive vertical suplex. Tercera had several fun moments with the Diamante Azul/Gran Guerrero exchanges standing out the most (which was not what I was expecting going in). They did a bunch of cool standing exchanges, Azul threw a high bridge german suplex, fun stuff. Roja and Marco were odd bedfellows who didn't really work great together, but tried. They tried a goofy spot where Roja used Marco's abs to mime dialing a telephone, answered the phone, then handed the phone to Marco before hitting him. Har har guys, but kind of gave me a little nightmare flash forward of lucha becoming wildly obsessed with Chuck Taylor indie goofball dogshit. We've already seen the back cracker become the scourge of the lucha finisher world, now I'm picturing a nightmare hellscape where luchadors come up with shitty move names like "Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto" or "Avoid the Noid".

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 5/31/14

These matches were all from the 5/16 Arena Mexico show.



Kraneo, Mephisto & Ripper vs. Mascara Dorada, Valiente & Titan

I wanted tons more out of this, but that's because I just really want a definitive Kraneo match to beg everybody to watch. He always looks awesome, usually the best guy in a trios, but the trios he's involved with never quite get up to that "Must See" status. Much of this match is fairly middling, until the end run ramps up the crazy. And much of that is because of Titan. It's funny, looking at his name there in our top 5 matches of 2014, just how out of place that keeps looking as the months go by. His spots are silly and he insists on shoehorning them into every match, and they're spots that don't fluidly fit into a match. They're spots that require the match to grind to a halt until he gets his shit out of the way. I am beyond tired of the handstand rana, requiring Ripper to finger pop his asshole so Titan can show off how long he can do a handstand. Then there's the rope run, flip to the floor feint, so he can hit his rana out there. I'm over it, Titan! Kraneo had a completely badass half Kraneo/half Alebrije mask, and he was his awesome horribly shaped self. Running ass attack on Dorada, barreling into Titan like a jock checking a nerd into his locker, hitting a fat man splash, bumping to the floor, and of course a recent addition to Kraneo matches: tecnicos hitting him with consecutive dives because he's large and it takes more to knock him down. Valiente hits his gorgeous and speedy tope, and moments later Dorada hits the spot of the night with an absolutely insane high speed upside down dive crashing and burning into Kraneo. If I were sitting in the front row I would have shoved women out of the way thinking I was going to get tangled in the wreckage. Never change, Dorada. You crazy.

El Terrible, Vangellys & Rey Bucanero vs. Stuka Jr., Diamante Azul & La Mascara

This was short and to the point, much more angle than match, but a trios worked three falls that takes less time than most lightning matches won't be that satisfying to folks. This was all about establishing that La Mascara has been working rudo tendencies with Rush and…he likes it. He's gotten a taste of being a dickhead and he wants mooooore. We don't get tons of oomph here. Azul hits his rampway senton, Bucanero is squeezed into some black vinyl top and skull tights and with his skull face paint he looks like a dumpy asshole in a Misfits cover band. Stuka hits his hands-free splash which always looks beautiful, Terrible kicks the shit out of Mascara, throwing his big left hands almost as stiffly as he threw them against Porky. The big climax is Mascara punting Terrible right in the balls to end the tercera, in full view of Tigre Hispano, who goes ahead and counts anyway because lucha. Azul and Stuka are super disappointed afterwards that Mascara's boot toe touched another mans tender area, even if it was through tights.

Rey Escorpion, Dragon Rojo Jr. & Shocker vs. Maximo, Marco Corleone & Volador Jr.

Good, this will fulfill our tri-weekly Marco Corleone quota. This is another super short match. One on hand, it's too short to mean much of anything. On the other, since it's so short there's no down time and the energy level from everybody is real high. Marco shows off abs and throws tons of left hands into Shocker's face. Maybe too many, as his left hand is usually sold like brief death, and here Shocker takes 4 or 5 of them over the course of 8 minutes. My DVR feed froze right when Escorpion was about to be smooched by Maximo, leaving us locked in a forever will-they-or-won't-they tug of war (I checked youtube, they kissed you guys!). Rojo hits a big stomp off the top, but most of this short running time was Shocker/Corleone, and it was okay.

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

30. Blue Panther/Valiente/Diamante Azul v. Terrible/Vangellys/Rey Bucanero CMLL 4/11

ER: Wasn't really thinking tons of it from the on-paper line-up, just kind of an unhyped Arena Mexico midcard trios, that ended up really delivering. Primera had a bunch of Blue Panther/Terrible mat work and it was so damn good. Terrible is not a guy I think of when I think of matwork, and this is probably the most I've ever seen Terrible hit the mat, and definitely one of Panther's longer mat rolls of the year. It's all really good stuff too, with Terrible working around a keylock and Panther finding ways to reverse out of it. Panther breaks out a cool British style backspin wristlock and a smooth arm drag into a headscissor lock. Terrible yanks on his arm a bunch and BP does simple little things to relieve pressure such as grab his own wrist for leverage. Terrible at one point floats over out of a BP head scissors to grab a headlock in one beautiful motion. Just a bunch of cool mat stuff from two guys I don't recall going at it on the mat (Terrible almost always sticks to brawling so him looking so damn good on that mat just makes me a bigger Terrible fan). We also cut to a Mexican girl in the crowd wearing an Arctic Monkeys trucker hat. That's weird. Plenty of cool moments after the awesome Panther/Terrible twisting. Terrible did leaping punches to guys in corners (abandoning the matwork that got him NOWHERE!), Valiente plastered Bucanero into the barricade with a dive, Comandante looks slimmed down and was on point with the interference, Terrible kicked some guys in the taint in vicious style (Panther even sold it like he was guesting on Chavo, with an incredible Ay Dios Mio hard sell eyeroll into the back of his head, right at the camera). Killer match.

PAS: Yeah I was totally blown away at how comfortable Terrible looked hitting the mat with Panther. He wasn't just a passenger he was delivering as many cool little additions as a Panther. Loved that backspin wristlock. Middle of this match meanders a bit, and then it comes back together with a really cool finally run. Vangellys is a big dude and he takes a really high monkey flip, and I loved Azul's delayed Tamon Honda style german suplcex. Good overall lucha match with the matwork being truly first class

2014 MASTER LIST

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 5/17/14

These matches took place at the 5/2 Arena Mexico show.



Euforia, Ultimo Guerrero & Niebla Roja vs. Atlantis, Marco Corleone & Diamante Azul

Match seemed like it would be just kind of Arena Mexico filler into that tercera started and blew my ass away. Primera is a total mugging, with the tecnicos getting no offense at all. UG and the gang jumped them on the ramp and dished out a nice beating, with Euforia really lacing into Marco, and the group doing all the Guerreros Laguneros spots I dig, like the press slam into a kick to the stomach. Segunda ends quick with the tecnicos catching the rudos celebrating and Marco hitting his big running rampway crossbody on UG/Euforia. I'm getting pretty restless as they burned through the first two falls in like 4 minutes and this is seeming like a total throwaway, and then the tercera starts and they decide to have a completely awesome 9 minute set, with good back and forth, with everybody getting cool moments. Roja's exchanges with Marco were fun, with Roja ducking under the big left and stomping Marco's feet. Marco shines more in this than he has in awhile, throwing two of the nicer rolling armdrags I've ever seen him throw. Euforia and UG bring the big bumps, Azul sends Roja and Euforia scattering like bowling pins with his rampway dive, Marco hits a mammoth no-hands running plancha to the floor, UG does some great cowardly begging off with Atlantis, masks get ripped, balls get kicked at. I mean just a red hot, balls out tercera, tacked onto a match where you'd least expect it.



Rush, La Sombra & La Mascara vs. Negro Casas, Ripper & Mr. Niebla

Rush vs. Casas is pretty much the most current "Must See" match-up in wrestling. Some matches add up to more than others, but every one of them is eminently watchable, always leaves me feeling like my time was well spent, and always leaves me smiling. Sombra and Mascara are both really blossoming as rudos, with Sombra especially putting in the most compelling work of his career as a total sneaky punk. At one point here he blasts Niebla in the back of the head with a nasty superkick, and really takes the time afterwards to soak up that hate. He's great as Rush's footman, always adding the insult to the injuries Rush inflicts. Rush is of course electric here, throwing countless high speed running dropkicks that look like he was shot out of a cannon, all of the stomps, the stiff senton, the threats to Tirantes, tying his hair back in a scrunchy like a dick. Just a total unique performer to wrestling history. I'm pretty sure I actually forget to blink whenever Casas and Rush are opposing each other. Niebla was fun here too, walking around slapping people and even hitting a tubby tope. This match up is just so much damn fun.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 4/26/14

These matches were all from the 4/11 Arena Mexico show.

Blue Panther, Valiente & Diamante Azul vs. Terrible, Vangellys & Rey Bucanero

Primera gives us a bunch of Blue Panther/Terrible mat work and it rules. This is maybe the most I've ever seen Terrible hit the mat, and definitely one of Panther's longer mat rolls of the year. It's all really good stuff too, with Terrible working around a keylock and Panther finding ways to reverse out of it. Panther breaks out a cool British style backspin wristlock and a smooth arm drag into a headscissor lock. Terrible yanks on his arm a bunch and BP does simple little things to relieve pressure such as grab his own wrist. Terrible at one point floats over out of a BP head scissors to grab a headlock in one motion. Just a bunch of cool mat stuff from two guys I don't recall going at it on the mat (Terrible almost always sticks to brawling so him looking so damn good on that mat just makes me a bigger Terrible fan). We cut to a Mexican girl in the crowd wearing an Arctic Monkeys trucker hat. That's weird. The match overall is shorter than I would have liked, but was crammed with a bunch of cool moments, even after the awesome Panther/Terrible twisting. Terrible did leaping punches to guys in corners, Valiente plastered Bucanero into the barricade with a dive, Comandante looks slimmed down and was on point with the interference, Terrible kicked some guys in the taint in vicious style (Panther even sold it like he was guesting on Chavo, with an incredible Ay Dios Mio hard sell eyeroll into the back of his head, right at the camera). Killer match.

Puma, Misteriso Jr. & Boby Zavala vs. Fuego, Triton & Sagrado

This might be the absolute shortest three fall lucha match I have ever seen. Maybe Lucha Azteca clipped it (I can't get Dailymotion to play at the moment to see the real match time) but this whole thing was 3 falls in 5 minutes, and that's including the replays of how each fall ended. What in the actual fuck? Misterioso had a cool inverted powerslam, Zavala caught a Triton rana from the ring to the floor, Triton took a cool apron-to-floor bump, Sagrado continued to hold his crown as worst CMLL wrestler (going on several years now), Puma is great and we're done. Where was the fire? (aside from on Fuego's pants)

Rush, Rey Escorpion & La Sombra vs. Negro Casas, Maximo & Volador Jr.

Relevos Increibles matches are almost always fun, as you get to see tecnicos working like rudos and some cool match dynamics. And this match is a blast. Rey Escorpion is a dickhead, you knew that. Rush is a dickhead, you knew that. But La Sombra working rudo is a new favorite of mine. He chose to work rudo not long ago in a singles match against Volador which took a match I was expecting to dread and turned it into something that was super fun (until Volador invincibility took over). Casas is such a joyful rudo that I forget how sympathetic he can be as a tecnico, and how killer his triumphant comebacks can be. You come for Rush stomping and kicking Negro Casas a bunch, and you stay for Sombra being a jerk. At one point he teased taking his shirt off, and when squeals started up he slowly rolled his shirt back down. Yes. Sombra is a total shit kicker here, at one point just destroying Volador into the corner with rapid fire successive left and right elbows (which Volador threatened to ruin with his goof troop dazed selling). Sombra needs to be a rudo NOW. Ever since Volador turned tecnico and also turned horrible the promotion has been missing a highflier/rudo presence. As advertised, Casas took a big beating here, with Rush and Escorpion stomping on him with glee, all leading up to a brief but fired up Casas comeback that saw him thrust headbutt Rush to the floor. Alas, as he's going for his Thesz press off the apron Rush catches him and plants him with a powerbomb on the floor, taking him out of the tercera. Sombra tapes Volador to the corner in real menacing fashion and I like Volador fighting back by catching him with one last superkick, before he gets ganged up on and wins by DQ.  I really dug this. Strong rudo/tecnico dynamics from some real charismatic guys.

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