Lucha Worth Watching: More Dinamitas! Liga Elite!

1. Imposible/Diamante v. Jinzo/Ciclon Ramirez Jr. (Liga Elite 9/14/16)

ER: A bunch of younger guys breaking out a bunch of crazy moves and fast work to get noticed, cool. Every guy got several moments in this, but Imposible impressed me the most. He showed a lot of polish, unique sequences, super quick set-ups, and some crazy, ankle destroying high spots. First he places Ciclon in a chair and runs from the entrance stairway to do a balls first Thesz press. Later he has Diamante holding Jinzo in a wheelbarrow on the floor, and just drops balls first onto the back of Jinzo's head from the top rope. It's like he just aimed to crotch himself using Jinzo. I really want to see more from Imposible now. Diamante blew out of CMLL and doesn't seem like he missed a beat as he clearly looked improved. He worked stiff and his timing was on point, came off like a real badass. Jinzo had one of his best showings since the CWC...although I guess this was only a couple months after the CWC stuff was taped. Look, all I know is that I haven't really liked him in anything other than his Kendrick match, and I liked him in this. I'm always kind of skeptical of Jrs. in lucha, as it seems like it's going to be a guy coasting on a legendary mask. That's not really fair, as there's been some amazing Jrs. in lucha, including some of the absolute greatest luchadors. But I see a young guy with a Jr. and my pre-formed opinions are bad. But Ciclon wasn't coasting on a damn thing. He was as good as any of CMLL's more pushed tecnicos, a real pleasant surprise, and hit a batshit crazy rana from the top rope to Diamante on the apron. Balls out craziness from both. He works some swift roll ups and takes some nasty moves from the rudos, real quality modern tecnico. I kept expecting this whole match to fall apart and it never did, they just kept busting out cool, dangerous moves and working some fine drama. Fun stuff.

2. El Cuatrero/Forastero/Sanson vs. The Panther/Blue Panther Jr./Drone (CMLL 12/6/16)

Dinamitas are my favorite new trios team, a real trio of young rudo assbeaters, who do all the lucha rudo things that I love: big bumps, stiff shots, great bases. All of that is on display here, and we also get a nice little standout performance from Drone. Drone, the former Hombre Bala Jr., has always had some pretty great - and pretty diverse high flying spots. He doesn't just stick to a couple of trademark spots like Diamante Azul or others, he's often breaking out new and crazy stuff. His gimmick is kind of dorky, but it's easy to look past that when he's launching himself to the floor with a no hands tope. Cuatrero is still standing out as my favorite Dinamita (and as long as he keeps taking crazy bumps to the floor every match, that probably won't change), but each one always does a couple notable things, even in a short match like this. All the tecnicos get a couple dives, Panther ranas Cuatrero off the apron, Sanson hits a sick kneedrop to the back of BPJr.'s head, Cuatrero does an actually plausible handspring move, and despite a couple awkward timing spots early in the segunda this was loads of fun.

3. El Cuatrero/Forastero/Sanson vs. Pegasso/Black Panther/Blue Panther Jr. (CMLL 12/13/16)

I can't get enough of these rudo asskickers right now. The primera sees them working a traditional and basic assbeating, just literally stomping the tecnicos most of the time, three of them clubbing one of them to the mat all at once, just ganging up and bullying (and ends with a long and painful swanton from Sanson). Tercera sees them break out two of their crazier semi-trademark spots: Sanson's springboard kneedrop (so tough to pull off, and he really plants it nice) and Cuatrero's brutal and pinpoint match ending springboard elbowdrop. Two violent moves that few could make looks this good. Pegasso got to throw out a bunch of his flashy stuff including a sweet no hands tornillo, but this match was mostly about the rudos, and I'm totally cool with that.

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MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 12: Gran Alternativa 2010 - Quarter and Semi-Finals

Taped 04/16/2010 @ Arena México ***Arena Mexico 53rd Anniversary***
Gran Alternativa 2010

Tournament Lucha; I was going to skip this but if i am looking at Garza's year it's important for two reasons. 1) He won the tournament. 2) He chose to team with a rudo and really acted like one. That the matches here weren't bad helps, though. I've not seen one of these before, I don't think (Cavernario and Niebla won in 2014). The idea is that it's veterans paired with rookies. Say what you will about CMLL's tournaments but they do have some interesting ones, in theory, ever year. I'd kind of love to see a tag tournament with a WWE wrestler teaming with a NXT wrestler, for instance. Garza had won the tournament before, on the other side of things, way back in 1994 with Negro Casas. Here he teamed with Polvora, which again, was notable since he hadn't turned yet and Polvora was a rudo. He was claiming in interviews at this point that he was still a tecnico, just that he was having some miscommunication with his partners.

It's notable that his quarterfinal match was against Mascara and Sensei. As always, CMLL really got the most out of that idea (note: sarcasm) by running it in the first round instead of building to it later on. The finals end up being against Delta and Volador, Jr. and maybe there was some very important story reason for that, but even putting Garza against his partner that he was about to turn on in the weeks to come in the last match of Block A would have meant something. I've never seen a wrestling company so good at minimizing impact. Regardless, we don't have that match, but Garza and Polvora won.

Here's what we do have.

Héctor Garza & Pólvora vs Blue Panther & Rey Cometa

1:44 in

Tournament lucha tends to be all action and no meaning and I'm not saying that wasn't the case here but the action was good. This started with Cometa hitting a crazy spinning dive and didn't really look back. Garza was pure on rudo beating Panther down on the outside, helping Polovra beat on Cometa on the inside and breaking out the move of 2010 that he could now use as a rudo, sending his opponent off the rope, tossing them up as high as can be and then nailing a kick on the way down. Past the sheer awesomeness of that move, the big takaway from the match for me was Blue Panther's fire. He seemed more than five years younger than he is now and I think some of it was the fact that the porra tecnica was there in force with a big banner and drumming away. They're more or less gone now and it's a shame because they added a lot, a real earnestness and excitement to the proceedings.

As I said, here they helped fuel Panther's fire. He rushed into the ring and forced Garza out with a headscissors takedown, following it up with a tope as Garza humorously punched the air on the outside. Cometa would rana back in, eat a clothesline and eventually get Polvora out but Garza snuck in and dropkicked him in the back of the skull with a cheapshot before he could hit another dive. He was full on rudo here, dancing after the shot. Garza went up to the top, but Cometa tried to stop him, only to get superbombed for his attempt. A moment later Polvora came off the top with a splash and they double pinned Cometa.

Panther rushed back in and matched up with Garza again, and I have to admit that Hector seemed like he was having a blast as a rudo, marching around cockily with Panther's arm right to the point where Panther took advantage and turned it into a Fujiwara arm bar for the tap out. Garza rolled out, selling the arm and Panther quickly locked the same hold on Polvora. Garza, on the outside, helped get him to the ropes though. Panther complained to the ref and got small packaged in the midst of the distraction. Garza celebrated with Polvora, still selling the arm. Definitely good for what it was and Garza was already shining as a rudo.

Héctor Garza & Pólvora vs Diamante & La Sombra

4:07 in

Diamante and Sombra had matching gear for this, so it was a little bit hard to tell them apart. They had gone through the fairly logical pairing of Cancerbero and Mephisto and Atlantis and Inquisidor(no idea who that is; wiki says former mini who's won the bodybuilding tournament a couple of times) to get to the semis. This began with Garza kissing girls on the way down like he was a tecnico but quickly hitting that toss up kick on Diamante, followed by dancing and laughing and mocking Sombra in the corner by making a cross on him before chopping him.

The tecnicos came back and hit some hugely impressive moonsaults (a top rope to the outside one by Diamante and a top rope Asai version by Sombra) before getting swept under. First, Diamante missed a 450 and was pinned by both opponents. Then Sombra, who kept fighting back strong against Garza and Polvora, was ultimately defeated by the numbers game. He had the advantage multiple times but would get hit by a cheapshot (including two kicks to the back) at a key moment. Finally, Garza lifted him onto Polvora's shoulders, while the latter was sitting on the top turnbuckle, and one super facebuster later, the rudo and de facto rudo picked up the win.

I don't think this was quite as strong as the first match but it was a little flashier and so far as tournament lucha goes, was enjoyable enough to watch. It definitely has me ready for Garza to fully embrace his rudo leanings; post match here he was interviewed and said, once again, that he was a tecnico and it was all just a big misunderstanding.

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CMLL on Fox Deportes Workrate Report, 2/3/13

Well, one local channel that was showing current CMLL Puebla stopped showing it, and then a couple weeks later suddenly this show starts popping up on Fox Deportes (which I didn't actually realize I got). I'm sure I'll get this for a few months, then it will disappear and maybe LATV will start showing stuff again. Who knows?

Awesomely, this appears to be the undercard of the 1/25 Arena Mexico show that aired on Galavision the day before.

1. Virus/Sangre Azteca/Raziel vs. Fuego/Triton/Diamante

This show is already after my heart as this match starts with a few lovely minutes of Virus matwork, and then we get a few very nice minutes of Sangre Azteca/Triton rolling and tumbling around, and then a few awesome minutes of Raziel tying up Diamante, and Diamante's rolling Americano was pretty keen. Virus and Fuego have a fun sequence with Virus putting over a springboard dropkick like a champ, and doing some rope flip arm drag to Fuego on the ramp. Blown spot happens where Fuego is supposed to dropkick both Sangre and Raziel, slips, re-does the spot but by now both rudos are too close, so they just step aside and watch Fuego hilariously take a springboard flat back bump. It actually worked as it lead right to the fall finish. The 3rd was oodles of fun as everybody got to match up with each other and there was tons of big moves and fun roll-up spots. Big trainwreck spot on the floor which had someone dug Fuego's move off the apron, only for Raziel to hit Fuego with a jumping knee from the other side of the apron, leading to Diamante to hit someone with a backbreaker on the floor, leading to Azteca hitting a sweet dropkick through the ropes on Diamante, etc. Match actually ends with Triton hitting a powerbomb and moonsault and pinning Virus, which was like the exact last thing I would have predicted.

2. Rey Cometa/Guerrero Maya Jr./Stuka Jr. vs. Ephesto/Mephisto/Namajague

First fall is awesome as Ephesto/Cometa have some rad sequences together (which is exactly who I was hoping would match up first), which saw Mephisto run in and blast Cometa with a clothesline that almost dumped Rey on his dome. Then Maya/Mephisto match up which leads to Maya hitting a stunning suicide dive-turned-arm drag that looks great. Rudos kick so much butt in the 2nd that I start buying into a potential straight falls win until Maya hits a great springboard rana on Mephisto to take it. Namajague is somebody I rarely think about and yet I'm starting to think this guy should get pimped more. He brings a good energy and works nicely as a style clash. His running elbow in the corner to Cometa looked vicious (helped by Cometa leaning way in with a spit take). Cometa gets roughed up here and he is great at taking a beating. High bumps and not afraid of taking a nasty spill. And speaking of nasty spills, Namajague has a clear death wish here as he just gets dumped on the back of his head taking a clothesline from Stuka. This Namajague, man. Then eventually after making sure his vertebrae are still somewhat connected, he rolls back in so Stuka can just BURY his knee in his stomach. Namajague for President, baby! He also catches his suicide dive manlier than the other two, catching it with both shoulders squared up to Stuka. Eph and Meph both turned their shoulders so they could see where they were bumping. Puuuussssies. Namajague don't need to look behind him, and he probably couldn't see shit out of his mask anyway! Ephesto takes a man sized Jerrito bump but Namajague can't even let him HAVE that shit because he takes a totally insane Cassandro ringpost bump like 3 seconds later!!! And then Cometa hits one of the more spectacular running tornillos I have ever seen and this match is 100% awesome. Go out of your way to find this shit and try telling me that Namajague is not the most awesome worker of 2013.

Namajague!Namajague!Namajague!Namajague!Namajague!Namajague!Namajague!Namajague!!!!!!!!

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report, 2/11/12

Haven't done one of these in quite awhile, but that's because CMLL on Galavision hasn't been airing in my area, and LATV has been nothing but reruns dating back to December. It seems like LATV is showing mostly shows from November, some that have already been shown 3 or 4 times. So this show was also taped in November (11/22/11 at Arena Mexico to be exact, thanks Cubsfan!), but I don't know if this actually originally aired. I'm pretty sure I never missed an episode, and this never turned up where it should have. So this may be the first time this has aired in America, even if it's 3 months late.



1. Princess Sugei (Sugheit? I never get this name right)/La Commandante/Zeuxis vs. Dark Angel/Luna Magica/Lluvia:

Well this had a couple nasty spills that came to define the match. First fall went very nicely with Commandante leading Lluvia through some capable-looking matwork and some fun arm drag sequences, and Lluvia holding up her end while wearing an awesome mesh catsuit. Mesh catsuit might have made me forgive some sloppy mat transitions. Sugei and Magica tag in and smoke the previous moves exchanges, but also lacks the mesh. Fall ends with Zeuxis hitting an insane dive on Commandante that sees her fly way overhead and splat at a horribly awkward angle into chairs and chubby front row guys. I'm worried about her spine and Rachel is wondering how her boobs didn't fall out. Magica then splats her with an awesome apron Thesz press. Full point for Zeuxis for getting up from that splat and instantly taking that move. Rest of the match is pretty fun. Dark Angel and Sugei match up nicely together, and I'm a big fan of Sugei who always walks around and slaps people and kicks them in the face. Match ends abruptly with Dark Angel falling off the top rope and crashing to the floor, and then the other two calling an audible and quickly finishing the match with Angel being stretchered out. Too bad the ending had to be that way, the rest of the match was quite nice.



2. Misterioso Jr./Okumrua/Vangellis vs. Sangre Azteca/Diamante/Sagrado:

Really fun match with a bunch of guys that nobody ever really talks about. Misterioso Jr. is probably one of the best current lucha guys that nobody really pimps that much. He takes offense really well and bumps big and can control and reign in a match nicely. Here he gets matched up with the weakest of the bunch, Sagrado, and makes him look good through the whole match (going down like a gunshot for his superkick, splaying out on the floor for his rana). I really like Sangre Azteca, and loved his little mat section with Okumura. Fast paced and he did a few cool ankle picks. Vangellis is a stocky nazi powerhouse who moves fast and can barrel into guys. Diamante is very young but always has a couple nice highspots in his matches (here he hit a solid chest to chest springboard 450). Well worth your 20 minutes.



3. Terrible/Rey Buccanero/Texano Jr. vs. Maximo/Super Porky/Rush:

LATV pulls a vintage LATV move here, showing the first fall of this match, going to commercial and coming back with the 3rd fall of a different match from one week later. They used to do this all the time when they randomly started showing IWRG/AULL stuff. First fall didn't really make me want to watch the other two on youtube. I have been one of the staunchest Porky defenders over the last decade, but some of these throwaway six man performances are getting pretty brutal. The man can still go when he wants to, but the big key is how often does he want to? The hair match teaming with Maximo from early 2011 saw him looking really good, but the first fall had some pretty bad moments including the slowest bump through the ropes onto the rampway I have ever seen. It looked like a youtube video of a panda bear falling off a teeter totter.



4. Averno vs. La Mascara

If this had about 8 minutes lopped off the end then I probably would have liked it a lot more. It just kind of kept going, and the nearfalls just got less exciting the more of them they did. First 8 minutes were all about Averno tearing apart Mascara's knee, and it was some fine knee tearing. I was expecting Mascara to have plenty of moments where he just conveniently sold the knee, but to his credit he sold that knee for like >90% of the match, so gets full credit for that. He even hit an awesome limping tope in the 2nd. The selling wasn't the problem, it's just that there was so much damn lying around by both guys. It had its moments to be sure, but there was so much "Averno bumps to floor, Mascara stays in ring, Averno slowly gets up and walks back to ring" moments. Some of them were cool, like when Brazo de Oro would be glaring at him and Averno would just smugly strut past him. Some of the nearfalls worked great, but it was diminishing returns. 18 minutes of work in a 25 minute match. Not the worst crime as the work onscreen wasn't ever bad, just. needed. to. end.

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