2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Briscoes vs. Dinastia Munoz

36. Rush/Dragon Lee vs. The Briscoes ROH 6/29

PAS: I watch the Briscoes like once every couple of years, and always wonder why I don't watch more Briscoes. I remember them as clean cut kids killing each other at CZW Best of the Best and am always a little taken back at their current Fentanyl dealer on work release look. This was a 2019 tag match, with lots of big spots and near falls, and not much traditional face in peril. These are four guys who can do a fun 2019 tag match, and we also got Mark Briscoe spewing blood. Rush may not work with blood in CMLL, but he is still a luchadore, and is great using Mark's plasma as body paint and doing a Pirata blood spray. Rush really comes off like a big star in ROH and I need to check out some of his singles stuff.  We got fun dives, big throws and a surprisingly conclusive finish.

ER: Our treatment of the Briscoes is kind of odd. We write up a LOT of guys but there are certain guys we love who also don't get a lot of print from us (like when I noticed recently that we had only written up our second James Mason match, even though both of us have been into that guy since first seeing him practically 20 years ago), and Briscoes clearly fit that bill. I think they easily rank as a top 5 tag team this decade, but they've also been stuck in a promotion that hasn't been interesting since Necro Butcher left a decade ago, shown on a TV channel with rightly zero affiliates anywhere near my state. They're undeniably great, just not on any streaming services or feeds that will cross my eyes, out of sight out of mind.

And this match was great. The Briscoes are a combination of The Moondogs and The Usos, except they're easily the best versions of both The Moondogs and The Usos. Briscoes are trucker's crank cut with bleach. And my god Rush. Rush looked like as much of a damn boss as he did a few years ago in CMLL, when he was first becoming a "do you know who I am" guy in his ring attitude and in real life. This thing was totally breathless, made my heart beat a little faster just sitting in a recliner watching it. Everything in it was done quickly, and with force, like a high speed prime Rock n Roll Express vs. a high speed prime Rock n Roll Express. Everybody in this match was throwing hard dropkicks to chests, with Rush laying them in like his family owned the fucking fed. Briscoes always do everything dialed to 10, yet they have a chawlip Fuck It vibe about it with a crazy eyed intensity that you avoid at a bar. Mark gets busted open, Rush body paints with his blood, Dragon Lee hits a wild rana to the floor, Mark hits a great lariat, both teams pop off quick as hell double teams, several of them fly into the guardrails harder than you'd want to hit a guardrail (Lee hits the hardest and sending them wedging into the front rows. It was great bell to bell. This 12 minute tag match (the first and only ROH match I've watched this year) was so good that just knowing it happened in this promotion made me more interested in seeking out recommended current ROH stuff. They employ the Briscoes and Dinastia Munoz, how bad could they be?


2019 MOTY MASTER 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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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Ageless Negro Casas Teams w/ Pentagon

62. Negro Casas/Penta El Zero M/Cavernario vs. Dragon Lee/Caristico/Mistico CMLL 7/20

ER: This match ends in straight falls with Cavernario stripping Caristico of his mask after kicking him in the balls. And everything before that abrupt but expected finish was straight fire. Pentagon worked way more inspired than we typically have seen from him over the past couple years. Watch him fly recklessly into the front row fans as the match starts and create energy all around ringside. One of my frequent complaints about him is how sluggish he can come off in the ring, especially between moves. But here he's lighting up the tecnicos and not just hanging back when he's not the featured guy. The crowd was into him, and he beats the brakes off of Dragon Lee around ringside. Lee takes that over the barricade fast bump so crazy, he looks like OJ Simpson on the stretcher flying off the second deck at Dodger Stadium in Naked Gun (man that description was a mouthful). Caristico takes his own bump into the front row, getting beaten by Cavernario while fans tried to keep their distance. Cavernario was a bulldozer as well, not giving the tecnicos time to breathe during a beatdown, landing hard kicks and a big springboard splash. But Negro Casas was the main man in this one. He picks apart Mistico in the primera works over his knee and twists his ankle, and after he and Cavernario have beaten him Casas even lifts him up at a 2 count and soaks in the boos. Casas kicks the hell out of Lee on the apron, and I still think Casas is the most exciting apron wrestler in the game. I mean, maybe I can just take the word "apron" out of that sentence. Lee comes close to kicking Casas' chin while draped in the ropes, Casas comes up holding his chin and shows Lee how to land a kick by punting a hole in his chest. Casas hits one of the most violent/gorgeous standing kicks to the face I've seen, hitting the best Kick of Fear on the apron, then gets absolutely leveled by a leaping Lee knee. We get some nice dives and ranas to the floor down the stretch: Lee gets crazy height on a flip dive, Cavernario tries to send his body through the barricade catching a dive, Penta eats a rana, just a fantastic rudo performance. These guys had so much natural charisma together, hopefully we see them team more than this one time.

PAS: This is a match where Negro Casas who is in his late 50s, is teaming with arguably the cream of the crop of luchadores in their 20s and 30s and not only is the superior performer, but also looks on their level athletically. He is 35 years older then Dragon Lee, Dragon Lee is a freak athlete, and Casas looks right there with him move for move. What kind of black magic is this? Pentagon was making his Arena Mexico debut, which I am sure was a dream of his, and he really worked hard, flying around the ring and laying in his shots. Straight falls was a little disappointing, as I really think with a big time Tercera Caida this could have been a real top tier match. Still really cool stuff, and the influx of indy guys has seemingly upped everyone's game.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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New Japan Pro Wrestling: G1 Special in San Francisco 7/7/18

ER: I loosely considered going to this event, just because it was an hour away, but the card wasn't too interesting to me and the prices were way too prohibitive (Tim said the cheap seats were like $60, which - even if that's not true - fully prevented me from even looking further into attending this show), but I'm not someone with a very active social calendar so once I found out this show was airing on television, I figured I can spare the time to watch it. We were at a BBQ earlier, came home and it was literally 4 minutes in, figured it was a sign that I had to ruin the rest of my evening.

Sho/Yoh/Gedo/Yoshihashi/Rocky Romero vs. King Haku/Tama Tonga/Tanga Loa/Chase Owens/Yujiro Takahashi

ER: I like that they start with Haku, but it's pretty silly to have him bumping around right out of the gate for Yoshihashi. But this whole match isn't too interesting. Barely 5 minutes in and Takahashi is settling into a chinlock, which should absolutely NEVER happen when you have 10 guys in a match. Rocky Romero threw some light shoulderblocks, Gedo threw nice punches, Haku dishes a nice old man piledriver, Haku's kids were hardly in it snd they would have been the best parts of the match, Sho/Yoh had a decent double team section, but this was super short and the definition of inconsequential.

Minoru Suzuki/Zack Sabre Jr/ vs. Tomohiro Ishii/Toru Yano

ER:  I have next to no use for Yano, which is a shame as he really muddles up the works here. I love Sabre but seeing him do his thing against Yano is just the least interesting opponent. Things get better once Ishii is scraping his boot all over Suzuki's face and head, but their opening forearm exchange is uber uninteresting. Sabre comes up with a couple fun ways to block Yano's horseshoe, but this match also feels super inconsequential. Everything has so far felt like guys goofing off until it's time for the finish, which is a terrible way to start a show. Maybe there were people there live that were super excited to see Yano's schtick (he does clearly have fans), but I would feel majorly ripped off at this point.

Marty Scurll/Hangman Page vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi/KUSHIDA

ER: When you see two straight clunkers, and the next thing you hear is "Coming up next, Marty Scurll", that's when you know that you've made a series of awful choices in your evening. We were at a BBQ later, and that was okay, and now we're here and this is less than okay. This whole show feels like a house show, with wrestlers who don't understand how to make a house show interesting. WWE house shows are some of the more interesting and fun shows I've been to, and these guys all seem to think they're really charming and can survive on coasting, but most guys on this show actually have really awful schtick. I think Page and Scurll's schtick is "our offense hits really poorly" then they're actually really good at it. Page's shooting star shoulderblock off the apron is a top contender for Dumbest Wrestling Moves Ever Performed. Page's early 2000s indie offense finishes things, and this show is a heaping crap pile so far. Matches have all ended abruptly and without much interesting happening, an easy 0 for 3 so far.

Jeff Cobb vs. Hirooki Goto

ER: I have higher hopes for this one, and it delivers early with some nice shoulderblocks and one of the flat out coolest belly to belly suplexes any of us have ever seen. Cobb catches Goto, spins around a couple times to find his angle, ducks down into a deep squat, then throws him straight overhead. There's some crazy strength involved here, and it looked awesome. Cobb also takes a nice posting on the floor, and I'm into this. Cobb keeps things interesting, breaking free of a Goto headlock to hit a nice impactful dropkick, nice leaping forearm in the corner, and a cool swinging Saito suplex. Goto has some early 2000s indie offense of his own, and there are many guys in modern New Japan who feel like Ric Blade, just dropping guys sloppily onto his own knee or clotheslining someone stupidly into his own leg or slamming his leg in a car door to own the libs or some stupid shit. I liked the Cobb running wild portions of this, and the Goto control segments where much less interesting. This was still the only thing worth watching so far.

Sanada/EVIL vs. Young Bucks

ER: We run through a lot of crowd pleasing stuff early, a spot where each legal man knocks the opposing partner off the apron, a series of missed elbow drops and sentons, a four person submission, just a bunch of guys working a series of bits. I wish Sanada and EVIL were a little more aggressive while beating down the Bucks. Sanada is a guy I like but he seems a little tentative here. Nick is super smooth in all his work around the apron, but the NJ guys seem a little slow on the timing spots. We still get the timing stuff delivered, there's just a little hesitation. I like Sanada's dragon sleeper giant swing, that's a great spot, but he's arriving to his mark too early to take Bucks' spots and it's pulling back the curtain on this seeming like too much of a moves exhibition. Still I like Nick using a big rope running flipping crossbody to take out EVIL on the floor. Nick is also good at leaping into EVIL's German suplexes and take a big silly fireman's carry/sit out powerbomb, taking it all flat backed so it really landed with a dull thud. The superkicks to the ref were done well, there were a couple nice saves down the stretch, this was a good enough match, but the structure and pacing could have been better.

Bushi/Tetsuya Naito vs. Kazuchika Okada/Will Ospreay

ER: A not bad tag, with a few guys who are bigger than this tag, and everybody kind of works this the same way Misawa might take off a tag 4th from the top at a non-major show. The key is that most people are working this show as very much a non-major show. Ospreay has come off like a big deal recently and comes off pretty low-tier here, as he's primarily matched up with Bushi, but he should be way higher on the card than Bushi. Naito throws a couple nice kicks, and Ospreay takes Bushi's stuff with a nice snap. All of these matches feel like they're taking place a half hour into an episode of Friday Night Smackdown, but specifically a Smackdown match that's worked by people that aren't appearing on an upcoming PPV, and are given orders to not show up the upcoming PPV.

But we're getting a lot of Eddie Trunk commercials.

Dragon Lee vs. Hiromu Takahashi

ER: I'm shocked that they aren't constantly referring to this as the new generation Rey/Psicosis, seems like an easy get that JR would go to often. And we start with a wild Lee rana from the ring to Hiromu on the apron, and follow that up with a fast Lee tope. You just kind of have to decide whose offense you like more and root for the match that way, because there are going to be several times where you're annoyed that someone bounced back to his feet too quickly. Takahashi breaks out some crazy stuff, hitting hard on dropkicks, launching an especially nutty dropkick off the apron, then hitting the big standing senton to the floor. It's a greatest hits collection, but the crowd is a greatest hits crowd. By the time the two of them are trading big German suplexes, I don't care anyway. "These are restaurant quality suplexes, I assure you," says JR, and nobody has any fucking clue what he's assuring us of. You'll care even less about the forearm trading, but Lee will fly stupidly into the turnbuckles off a suplex. The match reaches full retard status when Lee bounces Takahashi headfirst across the mat on a package suplex, I mean literally headfirst, bounced off the mat. Doesn't matter too much, he won a minute later, off of what looked like one of the weakest moves of the match. That appears to be the New Japan way. "Do a bunch of dangerous shit, win with a weak lariat or a light backbreaker."

Juice Robinson vs. Jay White

ER: This works out of the gate because both guys are cool getting thrown violently into the ring barricades, with Juice especially flying hard into it. White needs someone willing to violently throw themselves into things, or else his whole being does not work, but luckily Juice appears to be this guy, throwing himself into the turnbuckles on a suplex and is good at taking a beating. Juice has a broken bandaged up left hand, and he's a southpaw, so we get a lot of stuff with White being a dick and going after the hand. On the floor and Juice takes a nice bump into the post, and then eats a nasty snap suplex into the barricade that actually knocks JR out of his seat, and that leads to Josh Barnett getting into the ring. White plays it nicely and both JR and Barnett are weirdly swearing on commentary, but White was hilarious acting like a smug prick for knocking over JR. Getting another 19 count out spot is a bit much on the same show (there was literally one in the previous match), but Juice is killing himself to make this match work, and White's cold heel demeanor is working off it. The stuff around Juice's left hand is a little too hokey though. Normally I'm a big fan of an injured taped up body part unable to be used, and the heel opponent using that to his advantage, but they integrate it a couple of really clunky ways using Red Shoes (Red Shoes acting too broad and hammy on a spot? Weird), it all could have been stronger. We do get a couple good nearfalls, and it was nice seeing Juice get the win. It was pretty easily the best match on the card so far, but there has also been a lot of very bad wrestling on the card so far.

Cody vs. Kenny Omega

ER: I appreciate the pomp, love Cody coming out in this grade school Roman cape, accompanied by Brandi and some lesser thans to carry him to the ring. His act works best with Brandi, and even if she's not great at ringside like Zelina, her presence can still be strong. It's great to see Cody doing totally shithead things like pulling her in front of him so Omega doesn't finish a dive. We get a lot of brawling on the floor, and it's pretty good. Guys have been taking nasty throws into railings tonight, feels like those things aren't tied down in any way. Juice in the prior match looked like he was bursting through them like the Kool Aid Man. But Kenny brings in a table and my god does it look incredibly painful when he does a flying double stomp to Cody. I was digging it up to this point, but they lost me with some of the trading and overkill, seems like Omega really wants to make his big thigh slap knee look as weak as possible, he throws it out so often and it can look great, but it never feels like a nearfall move anymore. You get nice bits of stuff, like a big flip dive from Omega and a nice headscissors, but I'm sick of stuff like trading dragon suplexes. Almost 20 years ago when I was sitting at home playing Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 and blowing off classes, the dragon suplex felt like a move that nobody could possibly even survive, let alone kick out from.

A ladder gets involved and I like some of the fighting around the ladder, liked the ladder used as a prop that you could get slammed into, but the climbing stuff didn't work for me, even though the two craziest spots in the match all happened because of them climbing that damn ladder. Cody's superplex  off the ladder was a thing of beauty, and I liked how we forgot about the table still sitting out on the floor, unbroken, waiting in position. I definitely could have done without the involvement of Red Shoes and his acting abilities, and they made sure all the worst elements of that dude were on display for the final 10 minutes. And I still cannot stand the one-winged angel, the fact that when an opponent looks like he can be put away Omega needs to go "Cool but let me try to bury my head inside his ass for a bit first", and as I'm talking about how stupid the move is, Omega does something far more violent and powerbombs Cody from the ring "through" the table on the floor, but the powerbomb falls a little short and Cody basically bounces off the table and straight to the floor. I enjoyed the drama with Brandi putting her body in front of Cody's to stop a V-Trigger, but really could have done without some last minute elbow trade offs. The underhook piledriver looked good and is far more plausible than burying your head in someone's ass until they're vertically up on your shoulders, but it was fine. The match went long and to their credit it didn't feel too stretched out. Behind Juice/White it was definitely the best of what's left.


ER: Well I'm not bummed at all that I didn't pay money to see this live, but the presentation was simple and nice, and at least the final 3 matches felt like the workers were treating this like a big show. A few of the big stars were there but clearly didn't show up, and I think I like that Juice match because of that. We get a bunch of guys taking the night off, and Juice shows up and throws himself wildly through guardrails and into suplexes. An awesome performance, with some unexpectedly fun Josh Barnett threats right in the middle of the match! NJPW bringing in Barnett to work a series would be more interesting to me than most of their options. But I genuinely loved the beatdown to close out this show. That was arguably my favorite thing we got to see. Tama Tonga is awesome and one of the more underutilized guys on the roster, one of the NJ guys I actually go out of my way to see. Tama and Tanga looked great dismantling everyone, and even though he's 60 Haku has an undeniable presence and looked intense while stomping guys out. Haku would be an awesome addition as the third man in trios, and I'm really curious to see some high level Tama matches, see how he can step it up with the big opportunity.

So, overall I wouldn't recommend the show. But the big singles matches all delivered (and even though I got bored with Lee/Takahashi, I guarantee most in attendance got exactly the Lee/Takahashi match they wanted, so good for them) and the show ending angle couldn't have been hotter, so it was a show that definitely got better as it went on.

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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Family Feud in Naucalpan

38. LA Park/El Hijo de LA Park vs. Dragon Lee/Rush IWRG 6/17

PAS: Watching Park and Rush work their feud in Arena Mexico is sort of like when a great mixtape rapper releases his studio album, it is going to have the same feel, but it is going to be a bit more produced, a bit less grimey, maybe they will get Chris Brown to sing an R+B hook. Rush and Park working that feud in IWRG was the real street shit, you could hear the DJ Drama tags being yelled out. It starts out with some wild Arena Naculpan brawling, folks getting hurled recklessly into chairs, random pieces of wood being slammed into people's heads, at one point Rush fills a bucket full of beers and hurls it at PARK's skull, later Park uses one of broken bottles to gouge up Rush's forehead. We get some great double team taunting by Rush and Dragon Lee, including some fake soccer and lounging poses. Match drops off a bit in the third fall when Dragon Lee and Hijo do some PWG juniors wrestling, but we do get a huge PARK spear before the inevitable ref nonsense. I doubt CMLL ever lets it get this filthy, so I am glad they took their act into the gutter.

ER: I was going for something similar to Phil, but I like his better. There's a taco truck a few blocks away from our house that is always packed with Mexican families, going there on a Friday night is insane, and there's like one picnic table and questionable cleanliness, but they are legit. Up the street from that (among the 7 other Mexican restaurants on the block) is a "cantina" that is also busy, has good Yelp reviews and will no doubt make you a nice meal at 3x the price. This is street tacos and it is delicious. Get this, Park and Rush brawl around the ring and it's predictably good, and I was flipping out when Park emerges from the crowd with a flat of water bottles, and then a heavy as hell looking metal bucket filled with ice, both aimed at Rush's head. That thing looked SO heavy, totally something I would walk into an arena - knowing I was seeing Park throw down with Rush - and go "Oh my god you guys I hope one of them hits the other with that heavy bucket!!" These two are electric and you know Park is going to bleed and take falls that look impossibly painful because you know he's carrying a lot of extra weight so his knees are killing him and he probably has sore feet. Plus the dude makes towns for life so he probably has a semi-permanent case of driving butt. This up close handheld footage is really good because while thigh slaps are used liberally, you do really get a sense of how hard and fast these two are crashing into each other. The parts with Lee and Hijo were not my favorite, but I do really like Lee working rudo. It makes his flippy stuff come off more cocky, and that makes embellished flipping infinitely more interesting. The close up handheld gave the offense a fun surprise feel, seeing Dragon Lee fly into the frame with a rana or Rush came crashing into frame with a dropkick. It made the match feel more out of control than it might have been, and you get real close-up looks at the agitated Dianabol topography of Rush's back. We get what feels like a lot of mirror exchanges, but they're not bad, and Park is better at it than I assumed. It gets a little taxing once we go through the dueling reverse ranas that are both deadly and yet also cause a man who takes one to spring to his feet to also deliver one. But rudo Lee is great with his bro and Park is a great fat guy to storm triumphantly back into a match. His spears are the best in history, and it would take a lot to make this match-up not work.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

35. Negro Casas vs. Dragon Lee CMLL 5/22

ER: Nice little Leyenda de Plata final. The Arena Mexico crowd liked Casas a little more than Lee, which led to a fun dynamic where they wouldn't totally boo Casas' subtle heeling but would kind of boo Lee's appeals to the crowd. This had a real main event feel to it which many CMLL big time singles matches don't reach. Casas made things nice and clear how things were going to go, reaching for an early knucklelock and tricking Lee into eating a low mule kick. Casas kept going back to that kick and they all looked knee buckling when they landed, and also led to a satisfying Lee reversal later. Lee for his part added some nice little touches that are usually ignored by far more experienced workers. I particularly noticed when he was setting up his big tree of woe double stomp to Casas' chest, he held onto Casas' knees while getting his own balance. That's some wise beyond his years shit right there. Most every other worker would have left Casas up to his own, letting him find his own way to believably dangle there without anything really keeping him. But there's Lee holding Casas' knee while setting him up for the kill. The Casita works great as a flash pin and Casas was masterful going hard for other subs to keep Lee off balance before burying him with it. Lee had a nice big match showing here, Casas is still a top worker, life is happy.

PAS: This was really good. Casas has been having these kind of great main event matches with lesser guys for a while and it was good to see him get to work with a kid with some real ability to bring something to the table. Lee is an athletic marvel and clever worker that he can hang with Casas and not look smoked. I really liked all of the early matwork, with Casas countering the arm drags by flipping over, really simple stuff with Casas using his guile and experience to counter Lee's athleticism advantages. Casas reminded me of late period Bernard Hopkins in this match, outgunned in every way someone can be physically, but such a master of the ring and placement that he can survive and thrive. I loved how he kept grabbing at the arms in the STF to keep Lee from getting a rope break, and how he tried a bunch of different approaches to the Casita before pulling it out. Great Casas performance, and a very good Dragon Lee one.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Lucha Worth Watching: Templario + Metalico, Dinamitas vs. Pierroth Familia

Templario/Metalico/Arkangel vs. Astral/Pegasso/Starman (CMLL 10/3/17)

ER: Who is Templario and why do I need to watch so many more of his undercard matches!? I have never seen him before (though I think he only recently started showing up on occasional Arena Mexico undercards, so I don't think I've missed tons), and he's like a 4th Dinamita. He works really fast in this match, bumping big for the tecnicos, but gives as he gets: he's a guy who will whip fast on an armdrag but also snap one off. I'm not sure I've ever seen Astral look better working fast mat exchanges and quick rope running than here opposite Templario. They matched up most of the match and I came away really impressed. The best was in the tercera when he took and awesome somersault bump through the ropes to the floor after getting faked out by Astral, then perfectly catching Astral's gorgeous handspring rana to the floor (where he vaults from in ring, handsprings off the apron, and flips into a rana). He fit in great with best buds Arkangel and Metalico, always quick with a save (and throwing nice clubbing forearms during saves). Metalico's ham was especially delicious here. He comes out wearing tattered office attire and carrying a rocking horse. Why? For he is Metalico. Later he kisses a woman in the front row. And this was no grandma kiss, he planted one on her lips, lips that have kissed before but never so publicly, paying attention to her, noticing her nice sequined dress, telling her with his eyes that she looks good for her age, making her sister giggle and the woman herself blush and wave it away. The cameras cut to a young lady holding a baby. One might think that lucha camera crews just like cutting to cute ladies. One might also think that this camerawork was implying that this particularly lady was just another in a long line of ladies who have been gifted a child by Metalico. Later, he would eyeball the big butt of the tercera ring card girl. Later still, he would take a nice bump on the floor from a slick Pegasso headscissors. The rudos got each others' backs, I loved the three of them stomping the flipping tecnicos, and again, this was the best my memory can recall Astral looking, and it sure felt like it was because of his dance partner: Templario, my new dreamboat with horrible torso tattoos.

Cuatrero/Sanson/Forastero vs. Mistico/Dragon Lee/Comandante Pierroth (CMLL 11/24/17)

ER: This was the finals of a mini tournament that included teams made up of dinasties. You had the Panther family, The Munoz family, the Dinamitas, Felino's family, fun little concept and I love the family tradition in lucha. All styles of wrestling obviously have generations, but the family aspect in lucha seems to be more much powerfully respected in lucha. This is super fun and energetic, with the Munoz family all being heels. I've seen Lee work rudo with Rush on an indy show, but I don't recall seeing Mistico and Lee working rudo on CMLL TV, with their nefarious father. The Dinamitas work tecnico for the first time I've seen, and it's funny as they don't really wrestle any differently, but they're now doing their offense against three guys acting like dicks, so the fans are into it. Munoz familia has some great bullshit in the primera, with the three of them working a new twist on their soccer ball volleying as they instead play a little game of baseball with Lee tossing an invisible head to Mistico who blasts it for a home run, holding the pose. Later, Pierroth fakes the crowd into thinking he'd actually attempt a dive, and ends up slowly bouncing off and flopping through a somersault to pose like Burt Reynolds in Vanity Fair or Shawn Michaels in Playgirl with the belt (which I believe was used as Segunda Caida's masthead from 2007-2008, before I joined). The Dinamitas are all lanky and mean, which makes them seem like valiant tecnicos. I love their catapult monkey flip spot that flings Cuatrero fast and upside down into the corner. They do axe handle attacks and act as great bases for Mistico and Lee, and there's something about rudos doing gracious highflying that seems deliciously disingenuous. It feels like showing someone up, flashy hubris, even if it's done the exact same when they're tecnicos. The rules force the concept force the perception. Lee hits a wild rana leaping from the ring to grab Cuatrero on the apron, with Cuatrero flipping onto the floor. Cuatrero is the best. Naturally Rush comes sliming out at one some point, and I know they rarely do 8 mans but add Rush to one side and Masacara Ano Dos Mil to the other and I'd love to see that. There's mask yanking and shenanigans, but you knew that. This was a real fun role reversal, well worth the time.

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Lucha Worth Watching: 2017 Leyenda de Plata Cibernetico

2017 Leyenda de Plata Cibernetico CMLL 10/13

ER: Ciberneticos were definitely more of my thing when I first started watching lucha in the late 90s, but that would also line up with WCW cruisers being my favorite style of wrestling at that time. Now ciberneticos usually still leave me hungry, unfulfillingly set up spotfests with sudden pinfalls. But I am not made of stone, and sometimes there's a collection of moves too tasty to not force a smile or an oooooohhhh. This started simple and exploded once Guerrero Maya flew at Barbaro with a tope and also flew recklessly into the first row. Full Eric attention achieved. We get a Virus/Casas sequence which is always a thrill, two masters delivering a greatest hits collection. Later we see Virus get his brains stomped to the mat by Dragon Lee. Casas tries to outbump the youngsters by getting thrown fast ass over elbow over the top to the floor. We get a concurrent somersault plancha, Asai moonsault, somersault plancha. Forastero works as if he were a darkside Soberano Jr. and it works better than Soberano Jr. being Soberano Jr. Casas has more charisma and gets louder reactions than anybody in the match, getting the fans rabid just for not locking up right away with Barbaro after pinning Titan. Lee is a dangerously fearless bumper and always wanting to please, so we get him doing a nutty rana from the ring to the floor on Titan, bumping a Virus lariat on his head, dumping himself on his head for Caristico, taking a nutso spinning powerbomb from Sanson. Mephisto is wearing a fantastic gimp outfit that makes him look like a beefy extra from the movie Cruising. I think I saw him in the background set at a bar called The Toolbox. Soberano does a nasty seated tombstone to Barbaro and I guess we just don't give a fuck about the sacred death danger of the martinete anymore.

Mistico and Caristico have the most palatable teacher/student showdown because instead of flipping and rope running they just rip masks. Mistico ripped Caristico's mask like a lifetime solid citizen who finally experienced how fucking good it felt to steal an extra newspaper from the machine. The final 5 contains 4 of my least favorite guys in the entire 16 man match, meaning Sanson is my old hope. Volador also seems rudo by default which is his best side, and he bumps fast to the floor which is better from a rudo. Soberano takes stupid modern era lucha moves real stupid on the back of his head, taking things like fast code reds or reverse ranas - dangerous looking moves that can be botched - in a cartoony rollercoaster manner, rolling off his head and then freeze framing for a second before completing the bump. I want him pinned. Sanson catches Volador on a motherfucking flip dive to the floor, doesn't let him touch the ground, and then powerbombs him SIDEWAYS into the front of the ring barrier. Sanson may have passed Cuatrero on the "baddest ass Dinamita" after this match. This is a cibernetico, so by Mexican law it was required to have one confusingly dogshit double elimination, but at minimum it was done because Sanson pinned Caristico while also suplexing Soberano. Everybody's shoulders looked down. And then Sanson is immediately pinned because they wanted to give me the last final showdown I would have picked out of all 16 participants. But that's life. Dare to err and to dream. Deep meaning often lies in childish plays.

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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: Negro Casas: Tournament Lucha Revelation?

1. Negro Casas vs. Dragon Lee (CMLL 6/30/17)

ER: Casas working WCW syndicated matches was a treasure that we never got to witness. Amusingly, my first exposure to Casas was WWF Superastros when I was in high school. I had read about Casas and Hijo del Santo in PWI, and now I was finally getting to see him in what I thought were ideal lucha matches: Just like WCW 5 minute syndicated matches, the only kind of lucha that I knew at the time. My mind has since been opened wide to Casas' entire career, but I like seeing these 20 year throwbacks of Casas working a 4 minute lucha spotfest, though it doesn't have the entire charm of being worked in front of an uncaring Dayton, OH crowd there to see The Rock. So Casas kicks Lee on the face a bunch (the best being right after Lee does some handsprings and eats boot), Lee kicks Casas in the face a bunch, Casas hits a huge Thesz press off the apron, and Casas generously doesn't make Lee bump on his head a bunch 2 counts. Lee muscles up Casas into a crazy hardway suplex, but at the apex Casas reverses into a brutal DDT, and Lee is a guy who can take a great DDT. Casas hits a vicious lariat that Lee flies into, and La Casita is academic. That lariat, man. Casas in his late 50s can still go against young turks with death wishes.

2. Negro Casas vs. Volador Jr. (CMLL 6/30/17)

ER: And then these two go out and out-crazy everything. Casas takes a fast bump to the floor and Volador matches him later in the match (no clue how these guys don't shatter their ankles) and Volador plasters Casas to the barricade with a great dive. Casas tries to keep up with the kids from a decade ago and does a code red, but then Volador shows him by hitting the grossest sunset flip powerbomb to the floor. Negro, good lord man. La Casita eventually gets a hot nearfall, and Negro out crazies himself by taking the reverse rana to end things. Casas is a psychopath. He is 57 years old, and he is a psychopath. If you have 11 total minutes to kill today, watch this batch of old man lunacy. It's worth it.

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Lucha Worth Watching: CMLL 6/16/17

1. Rush/Kraneo/Pierroth vs. Terrible/Vangellys/Shocker (CMLL 6/16/17)

ER: Not a great match, but one I was looking forward to and one that delivered what I wanted it to. Vangellys attacked Pierroth with some great bat shots last week and here's the payback, hopefully building to a hair match. The rudo team is a great pairing, one that's been fairly regular in 2017. They all complement each other really well in this kind of bullshit brawl. It's the kind of match Pierroth excels in, it brings out the best asshole qualities in Rush, and Kraneo...well, Kraneo is just always awesome. I really like all the Rush familia ringside brawl stuff, it's great junkfood, guys getting slammed into the announcer corral, guys getting thrown into barriers, balls are almost kicked, big chops are thrown, anabolics are flowing through Los Toros Blancos, complex carbohydrates are flowing through Kraneo, Shocker is wearing headgear to clamp down on his constant snacking, Terrible throws a beautiful left hand, the rudos juggle an imaginary soccer ball around with Kraneo getting extra ball handling time, Pierroth splats Vangellys with a great senton, balls actually get kicked, it's all great fun.

2. Dragon Lee vs. Barbaro Cavernario (CMLL 6/16/17)

ER: A different kind of junkfood, rewarding in different ways, annoying in different ways. I have little interest in the newer trend of luchadors working faux New Japan style. I hate seeing brainless emotionless forearm exchanges when lucha standing exchanges usually have so much passion and eye contact with the crowd. But these guys are crazy and we get a suitably crazy lightning match. Lee hits a couple nice dives including a bullet tope that just glues Cavernario to the barricade, and Cavernario hits a flat out gorgeous dive from the apron past the turnbuckles. I lose a lot of interest once we go into the "look what moves we can do that are dangerous but don't hurt that much because we can still do a lot of moves afterward" portion, but the blockbuster DDT is pretty damn notable just because it turns Lee into a literal exclamation point. These guys both work matches that have more meat to them, this was 9 minutes of expected flash between two guys who could sleepwalk through some exciting spots. They know how to work some exciting spots, and exciting spots was what we gots. They just tend to excite me more when they mean something.

3. Ultimo Guerrero/Sanson vs. Caristico/Soberano Jr. (CMLL 6/16/17)

ER: A fitting finale to the Gran Alternativa tourney, and a nice job by CMLL for actually pushing a new guy who has made some strides. Soberano Jr. has been kicking around for awhile, and was showing promise as early as 2014, and he's obviously been busting his butt in 2017. I flipped my lid for his Dick Fosbury dive to the floor, that takes some stones and looked gorgeous, and he has a great step up headscissors. I think Sanson worked expertly as a Caristico base, catching a dozen armdrags and headscissors that all looked fluid, and the flip dive catch was pillow soft. Caristico himself appeared to be working harder than I've seen him, maybe since his return, bumping big on UG's baseball slide dropkick, tossing out his largest assortment of ranas and headscissors (his slingshot one to the floor still the best) and also hanging in there to take UG's hip attack that sends him sprawling down an aisle. Sanson and Soberano got a chance to shine and outside of a hinky Soberano lariat I thought they looked good. I hope Sanson still stays with Cuatrero/Forastero, but this was a nice bigger match foray for him, overall very satisfying.

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2017 Doesn't Make the List: 4 1/2 & 5 Star Edition

1. Hiromu Takahashi vs. Dragon Lee (NJPW 2/11/17)

What a stupid little match. I genuinely like a lot of their CMLL matches, and I think their 3/4/16 match should land on our MOTY list (but Phil refuses to watch it so we likely won't ever know). But now the moves keep getting bigger and the actual point just skipped town. The Mexico matches had a strong tecnico/rudo leanings, with Kamaitachi being the despised foreigner. Here both guys take turns playing heel, and it's only one of the reasons that none of the moves here meant a damn thing. One minute Lee would do these great dickish condescending kicks to a downed Takahashi, and right after Takahashi would be yanking at Lee's mask. It all rang hollow when they would then fighting spirit their way through some suplexes. Both men were too wimpy to commit to a persona, and it made all of their spots look like geek show exhibition than two guys trying to win; it's that Kurt Angle "We're going to have a 5 star match" said during a supposedly heated promo. One-upsmanship can be compelling, but not nearly as much when neither guy is working a consistent emotion. The Mexico matches benefitted greatly from the 2/3 falls structure, as it gave some natural breathing time (which these two have shown they are incapable of doing, rushing through huge spots as if there was a madman threatening to blow up the arena if they work below a certain speed), and most importantly it allowed 2 extra pinfalls, so that at least a couple of their finishers actually got to finish something. There are some genuinely spectacular spots in this match, and some genuinely stupid ones, often spectacularly stupid. I'd be shocked if Lee could keep a straight train of thought and wasn't slurring speech postmatch after taking that sunset flip powerbomb, getting thrown off the top to the floor while setting up a double stomp, and later getting brained into the guardrail catching Takahashi's wild senton. The problem is that it sure never felt like it was affecting him that much, as he would always go immediately back on offense. The fans didn't even seem to react to much of this until Takahashi awesomely unmasked Lee. Shocking, that actually committing to being a dick lead to an actual emotional reaction. Many moves were done, neither man struggled to do any of the moves, both men were heels until they weren't, many moves were kicked out of, eventually one of the moves was not kicked out of.

2. Michael Elgin vs. Tetsuya Naito (NJPW 2/11/17)

Damn. This one had me, until it lost me. And then after it lost me, it continued existing for another 10 minutes. I was hooked, really into it. Elgin isn't a guy I love but I was really loving his performance. His early power stuff was awesome, and I loved Naito's bug eyed desperation as he had no clue what to do to actually stop the beast. Elgin catching Naito's tope was far and away the most impressive I have ever seen that spot. On paper it's always an impressive spot, but it's really difficult to make it look like the diver didn't know he was being caught ahead of time. Here, with Naito's facials and Elgin's strength, it looked like Naito hit a dive the exact same way he normally would have, and Elgin  unexpectedly caught him and suplexed him (AND sold the suplex himself, as it WOULD hurt to suplex a guy on the floor). So I was pretty sold on the match at that point. And then Naito started working over Elgin's knee, and Elgin sold it really great. Not just limping around, but doing neat things like hitting a german and bridging on his good leg, and two different times using the ropes to assist him in doing a kick (an enziguiri and later a superkick). There were a couple of minor lapses but overall the selling was really spot on, and gave Naito important openings. Elgin was still catching him with some brutal standing shots (including those great standing lariats) and Naito was starting to pull ahead. It was good. It was a smooth, turbulence-free landing on the MOTY list. And then Elgin started doing some rope running spots, some of his big lifts, knee unaffected. Which, okay, nobody is perfect. And then it happened the rest of the match, even when Naito locked in a leg bar, and the crazy moves to Naito ramped up, which means he was kicking out of everything that looked deadly, and then the thing just shot past the end zone and kept running out of the stadium, Gump style. The overkill went on too long, past the point of interest. I could not call it a bad match, as the first 60% had tons of value, but man did they work really really hard to undo all of that. I really loved the build and tone this match had, which makes it a huge disappointment that they went the direction they did. And that's arguably a worse offense than just being a bad match from the bell.

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Lucha Worth Watching: More Familia Pierroth! More Mascara!

Rush/Pierroth/La Mascara vs. Terrible/Rey Bucanero/Shocker (CMLL 5/13/16)

I realized I had skipped a couple matches in the Pierroth/Mascara saga, which I have absolutely loved. The was the Ingobernales EXPLODING and it was great. Mascara and Pierroth come out in matching yellow on black masks, and Rush/Pierroth are on fire the whole match. Father and son, juiced to the gills, stooging and stiffing. Pierroth starts things with a running dropkick to Shocker, pops Terrible on the apron and then stomps on a displeased Shocker's head a bunch (Shocker pays him back with a post-match stomp to the back of the head). Mascara's timing screws everything up for the boys, forcing them to look like doofs and hit the wrong guys. C'mon, Mascara. At one point Rush goes to do his soccer kick taunt, drops his invisible soccer ball, Pierroth goes searching on the mat for it, finds it and tosses it back to Rush...who then Pele kicks it into the crowd. Holy shit. Lucha Azteca are ignoramuses and rob me of hearing crowd noise during that segment. Shocker looks slow and a step off throughout, but Ingobernales cover nicely for his shortcomings. Bucanero looks fired up though, and hits a nice crossbody to the floor on Rush/Pierroth. But you want to watch this for Rush and his dad, their cross ups, their beat downs, their ousting of Mascara. I just adore the asshole charisma that Rush and Pierroth bring to this.

Pierroth/Kraneo/Rey Escorpion vs. La Mascara/Terrible/Shocker (CMLL 6/10/16)

Here is some more of the saga to love. I mean, when Kraneo is in a match there is ALWAYS more to love, but take a look at that rudo team! That's a rudo team right there! It's not a team for everybody, but a team of lumpy asskickers is a team for me. Even the entrances are fun as the rudos won't let the tecnicos get into the ring, and as Mascara comes out Pierroth meets him on the ramp and they start beating the hell out of each other. Rudos easily dispatch the tecnicos and it leads to all those great moments of Kraneo and Escorpion holding Mascara prone so Pierroth can land cheap shots in between shit talk. And damn does Pierroth beat down Mascara. I love that overhand chop-knife edge chop combo he does is an awesome strike that he uses so effectively, and here he kicks Mascara's butt into the crowd and plows him into the announce station. Then Pierroth backs down a fan like Vader backing down police dogs!! Shoot even Mije gets in on the beatdown and starts lobbing kicks at Shocker's eye. Jesus, Mije. Pierroth and his thugs get DQ'd for being merciless in assbeating, which has to be like winning a fight because the other guy broke his fists on your nose. The rest of the match isn't quite as exciting as the primera, but the tecnicos get an admirable comeback, Pierroth shows ass by taking his own bump into the announce tower, then gets his mask ripped off by Mascara. Mascara gets his fired up pants removal spot and I pray for a cocky Pierroth coveralls removal spot...AND WE GET IT!! It's incredible. He rips open the coveralls, and then Escorpion starts helping, like a gentleman removing a lady's coat at dinner. And then Pierroth takes forever because coveralls are really hard to take off over wrestling boots, so Mascara attacks!! Nothing else could have happened in this match and if I got that spot I would have loved the match. We get a double ballshot finish, but with some expertly timed interference spots. Pierroth is prone and Mascara is running in for the kill, Escorpion comes out of nowhere with a perfect trip allowing Pierroth to kick some BALLS! Then Shocker makes a last minute save by pulling the ref away before the 3 count, allowing Mascara to punch some BALLS! I really love this feud. Pierroth beats the hell out of Mascara, and then has no problem leaning way in on payback superkicks, and there's just so much attitude and hubris on display. It's too much fun.

Dragon Lee vs. La Mascara (CMLL 7/29/16)

And now we get the great rudo Mascara, picking on Rush's little baby bro, and rudo Mascara is goooood. He's wearing absurdly small trunks that say "Papi", he oles Lee right into the barricade on a tope, powerbombs him into the jagged metal announcers station, rips at his mask, throws some brutal low superkicks to a slumped in the corner Lee, and then puts the exclamation point on things with a swift kick to the balls to end things. Mascara is coming for the Pierroth family's testicles. This didn't get much time, Lee didn't get a whole lot of shine in this, and it really could have used a Pierroth pull apart at the end, but I love the angle of Mascara being the good guy against Pierroth, but being a sadistic asshole to his sons.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Spry Panther and All of the Ranas

Blue Panther, Valiente & Stuka Jr. vs. Terrible, Rey Bucanero & Vangellys (CMLL 2/9/16)

Tuesday night Arena Mexico main events aren't where I go when I'm expecting a bunch of fun primera matwork, but that's what ended up happening here! First Valiente and Terrible went at it. For guys I see wrestle a lot, I don't recall either guy ever going to the mat that often, so it was kind of a treat to see them work through things, roll through headlocks, pick legs, stuff that should be happening more but just doesn't. The real gold is Panther and Bucanero matching up and going on the mat right after, and that's really special. Panther is still one of my absolute favorite mat guys and I relish any time he gets even 30 seconds to got at it in a match. Here he gets to pull out all sorts of tricks and always impresses me with different weird takeovers and a seemingly endless supply of ways he can work himself out of a headscissors. Bucanero also surprised me as he's not a guy who's been super motivated that last several years, but you still get flashes and he still has basics to fall back on when he's not listlessly drifting into trios triple team tropes (TTTT, TM). Here Panther forces him to the mat and Rey is almost frustratingly game, frustrating as in "you were capable of this all along!?" Rey even harkens back to bump machine days by wrapping himself around a ring post. Stuka breaks out an awesome low angle version of his hands-by-his-side splash, firing more straight out as opposed to getting more height, we get some dives, and I just drift away envisioning a world where CMLL allows for more matwork. Sigh...

Hechicero, Ripper & Polvora vs. Dragon Lee, Mistico & Titan (CMLL 6/20/15)

It's tough to keep up with all the lucha with stalwarts like Cubsfan constantly uploading stuff, but I have stuff I save to watch later, stuff that sounds nice on paper, and some days I get to that stuff, and some days it's worth writing about. Whenever it's a Hechicero match I throw it in the "to watch" pile and hey look at that, Hechicero was awesome here. That's a fun rudo team and a flippy tecnico team, and that's a nice combo. Hechicero matched up a lot with Lee and Mistico, and he made Mistico look golden. So many rana variations were tossed out in this match and all three rudos were splatting all around the ring. Lee did his wild no hands high jump rana over the top, sending Polvora off the apron to the floor. Hechicero takes some big bumps on the floor, Ripper does his nice bump past the ringpost and then runs into a Lee backbreaker. Hechicero is awesome at taking armdrags and ranas, he really can navigate a long rotating armdrag sequence like a great minis base. Except he is a full size man! And then Hechicero goes and does graceful flying better than the fliers. I love his spin around on the ropes dropkick. Dragon Lee is quite the crazy bumper, but you knew this. Here he's still honing his into the crowd bumps, but he still does them, as well as take a big bump to the floor and on top of the barricade while getting bullied by Hech. Polvora is a guy who is always good in these kind of matches, but he's one of those guys who does not excel at one specific thing so he goes unnoticed. But Hechicero was the story here. The guy really brings out the best in flippers. And anybody, really. Because he's Hechicero.

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Lucha Worth Watching: More Dragon Lee/Kamaitachi and Porky vs. Ingobernales

Dragon Lee v. Kamaitachi (CMLL 11/27/15)

ER: This is the WorldWide match of all WorldWide matches right here. I am not sure how two guys could cram more into 6 1/2 minutes. This is a lightning match so you have that large clock looming in the background at all times, and after a breathless segment of ducked strikes and missed charges and reversed armdrags the camera pans back to show that we were only 58 seconds into this whole thing. Sheesh. Psych is out the window here, this is just two cool athletes showcasing their coolest shit, and it's most definitely cool. Kamaitachi has a couple cool Canadian Destroyer variations that he's able to hit without it being expected (the match ender off a Lee powerbomb attempt was NOT what I expected to happen). Both men have been taking stupid bumps and murdering the other for practically two years now and this whole thing is no different. Kamaitachi suckers in Lee when Lee attempts to do his top rope stomp, sends Lee flipping fast and painfully to the floor, then caves his neck in with a lariat sending Lee over the ringside barricade. Feet fly into faces, stomps get laid in snug, both men take ludicrous headdrops, Lee breaks out a typical gorgeous dive. These guys enjoy making each other's offense look nasty, and I enjoy watching them murder themselves.

Rush, La Sombra & La Mascara vs. Super Porky, Super Parka & Angel de Oro (CMLL 10/9/15)

ER: I didn't go into this one expecting too much, it being buried in the middle of a card featuring a singles match tournament, but something about the match-up intrigued me. Ingobernales are the big trios team, and here they were against a curiously tossed together team, none of whom have anything to do with one another. I mean, Porky and Parka share a Super, and Porky's arm is silver while he's teaming with a gold angel, but those are some loose slippery connections. I was drawn to this one as it's Ingobernales versus an undercard, weird team. It's not quite the 4 Horseman vs. Joey Maggs, Frankie Lancaster and Men at Work, but it's an odd match-up for a big team. And nobody dogs it, which everybody essentially could have. We come *this* close to getting one of THOSE Porky performances, the kind where a bunch of bullies pick on him until he snaps and starts stiffing dudes. He does throw more strikes than normal and they are plenty stiff, after all the Ingobernales take turns seeing who can slap him harder. Rush was a king-sized cocky beast in this, slicking his hair back after throwing stiff kicks, laughing off strikes to blast Oro and Parka with his sick thrust headbutts. Mascara and Sombra are left bumping around for Porky comebacks, including his running bombs away on the rampway, and even better a trust fall senton on both of them. Parka knocked them down and kept jumping on them with splashes, and we were all waiting for Porky to do a sloppy belly first leap....and then he just turns around and timmmberrrrr falls backwards onto them. Squish. It set up a great spot later when it looked like Porky looks like he might finally get one up on Rush, knocks him unexpectedly on his ass, does a quick trust fall...but alas Rush moves and then gives Porky a double stomp. Parka and Oro hit stereo dives and Parka is a lunatic near-60 year old man!! Doing a dive sounds crazy to now-35 year old me, I can't imagine it will sound like a better idea in 25 years. Oro is getting better about picking his spots and looks better for it. Ingobernales did tons of terrific poses all throughout. One of the poses looked like if all three decided on the three gayest 1995 Shawn Michaels poses and then did all of them, so you have Sombra lying down all spread awkwardly like Michael's Playgirl photoshoot, while Rush stands over him doing the sexy boy dance, while Mascara kinda fawns over Sombra's abs. It was glorious. Shoot just writing about the match makes me love the match that much more.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Dragon Lee/Kamaitachi and Caristico/Sombra

Dragon Lee vs. Kamaitachi (CMLL 12/4/15)

These two have built up the rep of doing some high speed crazy moves in the last year +, and this match does not disprove that rep. But it also felt like the most "moves exhibition" of all their singles matches so far. Some of the stuff is crazier than any of their other matches, but moreso than any other of their matches (even their lightning match, somehow) this felt like a super series of unrelated gifs. Many of the gifs looked awesome, but the order of them didn't make any sense whatsoever, and oftentimes one of them would take a giant move, only to beat the person delivering the move to his feet, and do one of his own. There was some nutty as hell stuff happening here, and that counts for something. The crazy stuff looked crazy. I mean the match starts with Kamaitachi missing a crazy ass dropkick from the apron to the floor, to be followed up with a Lee dive that sees him plowing upside down into the barricade. That's the level we start at. It's like starting a first date with a blow job. We get tons of lunatic reverse ranas and Canadian Destroyers, tons of headdrops, dropkicks to the face and back of the head, Kamaitachi hits an AWESOME senton from the top to the floor onto a standing Lee, we get a couple engaging moments of both men fighting on the top rope, a Japanese woman at ringside wildly cheers for Kamaitachi (including when he stomps on the title). We get a fun silly restart when it's revealed Lee's foot was on the ropes (and I'm kind of a fan of fun silly restarts) and I like the end sequence of Kamaitachi setting up his rampway dropkicks which has leveled Lee for the past year, and Lee timing it right to counter it (like Little Mac properly countering the Bald Bull Charge) and then dumping him with a suplex. So tons of things looked cool. But it just didn't add up to anything of substance for me. I thought the 8/30 match built really well and the spots kept getting crazier as the match went on, really making it feel like they were pulling out all of the stops. This felt like showing off. And both guys got a lot of cool shit to show off. But there really felt like no rhyme or reason behind what moves could end a fall, what moves were devastating, what moves are setting up bigger moves. Sometimes a move would end a fall, and then get kicked out of when performed moments later. It's an easy way to suck me out of a match. But, there was plenty here to just sit back and marvel at.

La Sombra & Ultimo Guerrero vs. Caristico & Atlantis (All Elite 11/8/15)

Matt wrote up some other All Elite Caristico so I figured I would tackle the other one, also because I've been more interested in soaking up all of the post mask loss Sombra. And the match itself is fun, if not extremely by the numbers for these guys. The first fall is probably the most inspired thing here, with Sombra especially looking awesome with tons of sliding kick variations to Caristico that all looked really good. As the (short) match went on he eventually became Caristico's Averno, impressively catching a slingshot rana and big springboard dive to the floor corner. Caristico looked hesitant or off in spots, or just plain rough. It's cool you can land on your feet after your alley oop dropkick and all, but it would be cooler if you made contact with your opponent. Ultimo and Atlantis continue doing the house show version of their feud, and this match could probably be quite good if fleshed out a bit more, but the bare bones version was fun enough.

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Lucha Worth Watching 8/1/15 & 10/2/15

L.A. Park & Volador Jr. vs. La Sombra & Pagano AULL 8/1/15

So okay, this isn't "great", because Pagano. Nobody gets excited seeing Pagano's name in a match. He usually pops up against actual good wrestlers, and he himself is not an actual good wrestler. He's essentially an early round CZW Tournament of Death guy, or a guy wrestling the 4 AM slot at a Gathering of the Juggalos. And really this was the tale of two matches. That feels like a sentence I've typed a lot. It's a feeling I often experience. I start a movie, enjoy it, and suddenly things take a turn that I don't care for and I'm left feeling like it was directed by two different people - one who had my interests and one who had Hollywood's interests.  This match had my interests in mind for the first half, and then kind of burned my eyeballs for the second half. Spoiler alert the match is approximately 40 minutes long. But the first half is awesome. The first half is all wild crowd brawling, big bumps, big spots and nasty chairshots. Sombra takes a powerbomb into the crowd, beers get taken from fans, get drank, and then get thrown in faces, every guy throws stiff shots, every guy gets brained with chairs, Park does a huge dive, fans get in the way, it's all awesome. And the whole time I'm looking at that video length and thinking "how the hell are they gonna keep this up for 40 minutes?? Does the match end halfway through and someone just left the camera rolling?" Well, the match kind of grinds to a halt midway through once the action gets back to the ring. Pagano gasses out hard, and somehow manages to bring down three other, capable men in the process. It turns mostly into Pagano setting up spots and then slowly, tiredly but stubbornly and doggedly going through them. Watch himself almost die on a double jump moonsault! Watch his horrible springboard tope en reversa Stunner that Park doesn't really know how to take (and who can blame him). Pagano braining people with chairs and getting punched hard by Park? Awesome. Pagano running through his modern day Sabu spots while barely able to breathe? Dreadful. Sombra comes in and tries to save things by getting dumped brutally on his head by a Volador reverse rana, and Park still breaks out his neat snap powerslam, but the latter half of the match is slow motion moves trading that is not very fulfilling. So tell you what: Watch this, soak in the violence and chaos, and the SECOND you start to dislike it, just move on. Don't look back, don't be a foolish Lot's Wife, just don't look back. You have other pro wrestling to watch. That first half though...

Dragon Lee vs. Luciferno (CMLL 10/2/15)

Tournament lucha: the Nerf football your dog stole and chewed up and half-buried in your sideyard.  So while the matches are mostly a waste, here we at least have Dragon Lee taking tons of stupid bumps. He eats it on a clothesline, eats it on the apron, flies like a loon on a flip dive (later against Shocker he does a wildly misguided flip dive and crashes into the barrier/floor; Shocker looked fatter than ever and noticeably terrible in ring). Luciferno clobbers him, Lee has a deathwish, so of course this is worth watching.

Barbaro Cavernario vs. Ultimo Guerrero (CMLL 10/2/15)

This is only like 3 minutes because tournament lucha hates you, doesn't care much about you, and my birthday was actually 2 months ago but thanks anyway dad. But Barbaro jumps UG and goes wild on him in the corner with punches, then does the worm before getting clotheslined. Later he hits a badass tope through the turnbuckles and UG goes flying blindly into the barrier. Barbaro hates his knees and takes UG's front suplex and Guerrero Special better than most. Fans seemed like they wanted Barbaro to advance.

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CMLL Worth Watching 8/23/15 & 9/11/15

Blue Panther, Dragon Lee & Stuka Jr. vs. Kamaitachi, Ripper & Rey Bucanero (8/23/15)

Oh man this was fun. Nothing at stake, just all these guys you like doing things you want to see. Bucanero and Panther get a long roll on the mat, and it never fails to impress me how smooth a fluid Panther still does things, rolling through a leg lock or doing a side roll to advance a transition just isn't done better by anybody else in lucha, let alone guys half his age. In the segunda he locks Bucanero into an ankle lock that actually looks like it hurts, a rarity! I live for these little 2 minute mat segments of Panther. Even doing things like quickly bumping through the ropes to the floor are done like he's not even in control of his body, his muscle memory just allows it to happen. Like he bumps backwards off a shoulder block, out through the bottom and middle rope, lands on his feet and has no idea how he got there. His body just knows what to do. Ripper brings back his gorgeous flipping Cassandro bump, kind of fusing a somersault Hamrick bump to the floor with a Cassandro wrap-around the post bump, and Stuka's signature stuff always impresses me. Lee/Kamaitachi has been one of the more fun match-ups of the last year as they always go hard at each other, with each taking stupid bumps at awkward angles, both working blindingly fast and really know each other like the back of their respective hands. Lee always flies stupidly into Kamaitachi's rampway sprint dropkick, always dumping himself ass over elbow, Kamaitachi also dumps him with a couple of rolling Germans, and later Lee hits the craziest high speed flip dive to the floor, just leveling Lee. Every time these two are in against each other it's total must see. Wrestlers you like, doing wrestling you like. Easy recommendation.

Marco Corleone, Rush & Maximo vs. Super Parka, Volador Jr. & Valiente (9/11/15)

Hey I didn't realize Super Parka was also coming in! He is truly old (just about 60) so I'm an instant sucker for this. Rush and Marco don't let up on him, and after a little bit of early awkwardness Parka settles in fine. Marco looked really great here, more inspired and nasty than I've seen him a...sheesh all year. His left hands were awesome, blasting Valiente several times, leveling everybody with shots. This was technically two tecnico teams but Rush's team was obviously default rudos, and they all thrived in the role. The three of them at one point set up Rush's "punt" feint, with Maximo holding the invisible ball (laces out, hopefully). Parka and Volador work nice together and I always love father/son dynamics. Volador works like an actual brawling badass here, his pops already being a good influence. Volador also bumps like a loon, peaking with a flip bump on the apron off a Marco punch....and then getting up and doing the same damn thing right after! Parka hit a nice 60 yr old man tope, Marco hit 3 variations of his big no hands crossbody (seriously Marco looked really great throughout this), both teams had well set up moments where a big dive hit their own teammate, with Marco doing a crossbody to Maximo, and Valiente diving into Volador. Parka was really fun here, wandering around punching guys (especially cracking Maximo a few times), kind of like a late career  Pierroth. Super fun match. I want a Park/Parka/Volador team to take on Rush/Comandante Pierroth/Dragon Lee team. Make this happen!!

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MLJ: Dragon Lee vs Virus/Casas 8: Virus © vs Dragon Lee for the CMLL World Super Lightweight Championship

Aired: 2014-12-13
Taped: 2014-12-09 @ Arena México
Virus © vs Dragon Lee for the CMLL World Super Lightweight Championship

Virus is great. Virus with a game opponent, one that he can really do something with is even better. I'll admit that this entire mini-project is something of a cheat. I'd learn a hell of a lot more watching Dragon Lee against inferior opponents, but what is very much apparent through a match as good as this one, is that either he was a very quick study, Virus is simply that good, or the nature of the lucha title match, in and of itself, simply makes wrestlers look better. I think it's a good chunk of A and a ton of B, though probably a little bit of C as well, as it pertains to storytelling.

This was a blast. I know that Kamaitachi and Dragon Lee have had some big matches over the last year, but I can't imagine myself liking them more than I liked this. That's wholly on me, though. I was going nuts not for the big spots but for how both wrestlers were using little punches and little leverage moves to get in and out of holds in the primera. Stuff like this:

How cool is that? He didn't have to do that. I can't speak of why he's doing things like this, if it's due to his training or just due to working with Virus, but that he finds them worth his time in a setting like this is something that actively excites me for the rest of Dragon Lee's career. It's not the sort of thing you unlearn. If he finds it valuable and worth doing now, he'll probably still find it valuable five years from now. That, to me, is as exciting as any of his big spots or dives. Striking a balance between the big things and the little things is what makes a wrestler great, and he showed the potential for that in this primera.

It was absolutely good, with the sense of struggle that you need in something like this. They were making each other work for everything and through doing that, it makes everything mean something more. Everything escalated. Struggle and escalation, meaning and direction, suspension of belief and purpose behind what's being done; this is the stuff that makes for a great title match primera and they had it here. Finally, they picked up the pace, with a few counters and teases before Dragon Lee locked on his spider arm-bar.

The segunda was relatively breif but still good. I liked that Dragon Lee started with the distinct advantage since you usually see a reset here. Virus had to really fight his way back, with escapes, like this one, which I thought was worth gif'ing:

counters, retreats, and ultimately a dodge during rope running. It was a very incrimental transition, leading into a pick up/drop down and a stump puller. I really liked the way they chose to do it.

Then the tercera was all out action. Once again, they didn't start with a reset, instead making Dragon Lee work to regain and even footing. It wasn't an outright beatdown like you'd get in a mask match but there was a distinct advantage from Virus up until the point that Lee was able to string together a series of counters (see below), punctuating it with a tope.

If the first half of the match was Virus dictating the tempo and Dragon Lee keeping up on the mat, then the back half was Lee really getting to show off and Virus being there to feed into his offense and serve as his base (while still being admirably showy himself). They brought things up and down, trading counters and building to things like the following: I don't usually gif dives, but here's the slow motion version of this one because it was spectucular:

Really, I don't want to write up too much of the tercera. I'd rather people who haven't seen it yet see it for themselves. It had call backs and paralleled moves, and it all led into an exciting finishing run that ended with Virus pulling it out as it just wasn't Dragon Lee's time yet. He came out looking stronger than he came in though, even in defeat, which is one of the very best things wrestling can ever accomplish. Instead of me going more in depth than that, let me sum it up with Virus' second, Disturbio, showing you how he felt about everything:

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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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