Lucha Memes 4th Anniversary 4/25/21

Tony Donati vs. Shocko

ER: Tony Donati is a really fun opening match guy. He's like if Scott Putski ever got good, or Cheetah Master ever worked heel. He works like a late 90s Chicago indy heel but with a lucha base, takes ranas nicely and throws hard strikes, stiff chops, a couple nice headbutts, big hard clothesline. The landings on his vertical and front suplex looked hard on the Coacalco ring, and his middle buckle splash landed harder for the same reason. If a guy looks like a scummy version of a late 90s WCW job guy, I'm going to take notice. Shocko took a beating well, hits a decent middle buckle moonsault, does his end of a rana well, a good guy for Donati to work his great expressive moveset against. The finish looked great, with Donati really Psicosising himself on a Shocko top rope Frankensteiner like it was 1995. Nice and definitive, making sure the greatest hits stay great. 

Perro de Guerra Jr. vs. Baby Extreme

ER: Arena Coacalco is always reliable at delivering younger guys having "here's everything I can do" matches. I'm pretty sure I've never seen either guy before and they already both showed tons of moments of being polished beyond their years. This was worked like a modern version of a classic lucha maestros match, which is a match that has seemed to be fading away as the maestro luchadors age out. Seeing guys work this primera style makes me more hopeful for lucha and that always feels good. They really built through some cool leg submissions and attacks throughout the primera, with Extreme having a cool rolling takedown and both working smoothly into maestro leg grapevines and deathlocks and bow & arrows. They didn't look like amateurs copying what they had seen, they looked like seasoned pros working through sick spinning toehold submissions. Guerra wins the primera with a running Atlantida, and it capped off a super cool round of lucha. 

The segunda and tercera got really crazy, with blood and a bit too much excess, but a ton of punishment. You all associate Coacalco with punishment, and these two knew how to live up to the legendary tin roof. They really up the crazy and turn this into a wild moves match, with several far ranging bullet topes and nasty spills. Extreme hits increasingly more cruel Death Valley drivers, running Guerra into the turnbuckles, then at extremely high speed through rows of chairs, and later back in the ring through a thick pallet for the finish. The spots get more impressive and they do hit peak indy dumb brain when Guerra hit an incredible tope into a flipping piledriver, and it kept Baby Extreme on the ground for maybe all of two seconds (and then does a kind of stupid Spanish Fly). 

And yet, I somehow didn't care? They both get busted open, Guerra gets great rivers of blood down his face, Extreme gets a cheese grater ran across his, and they integrate these weapon well because they're surrounded by sick bumps. The suplexes to the hard mat look just as disgusting as the suplex through the pallet and chairs, Extreme delivering a vertebrae smashing over the shoulder piledriver looked incredibly dangerous, and Extreme's fast body crunching Death Valley driver is a totally believable way to get a 10 count stoppage. This had excess, but these two went for it and whenever guys go for it at Coacalco, magic happens. 

PAS: I liked individual parts of this, but I didn't think they coalesced into a complete match. The running DVD into the chairs was sick shit, but it wasn't really sold as much, similar to the llave sections early, individually cool moves, but kind of one after the other. This felt like the lucha equivalent of one of those IWA-MS tryout matches in 2004 where guys try ever move they saw on tape to try to pop Ian in the back. Lots of blood, lots of huge dives and bumps, would make a hell of youtube video with metal music, but as a whole match it was basically that. 

Makabre vs. Toxin

ER: Another fun probably too long but oh well Coacalco match, where perhaps both guys do too much but it's always fun. Makabre is an under the radar Guadalajara legend, a very solid pro in his late 40s. And I thought the earliest parts of this were really great, before it turned into a more junkyard skewers match. Makabre works like a luchador Brian Kendrick or even Chris Hamrick. He ripped at Toxin's mask, worked stiff leg submissions, exchanged heavy hands, and flew with a beautiful tope. Both guys are willing to bump in painful ways around Coacalco, eat shots with a wooden crate, get gouged and stabbed and busted open, and that's all fine. But I really liked them working more traditional lucha, and thought they were more interesting doing that than what the match devolved into. Both got good reactions from the very full arena, so I'm not going to take that away from them. Makabre could be a cool Apolo Dantes type and I don't think he needs the garbage to do that, just keep taking sky high backdrop bumps. This was another "Coacalco Guys go all out" match and as a rule, those rule, so even the lesser ones like this have that nice high floor. 

Drako/Corsario Negro Jr. vs. Kastigador/Vengador

ER: This went nearly 20 minutes and really could have been a sick 12 minute tag. This match more than most Coacalco matches just did not need the superfluous weapons stuff. Drako and Corsario Negro are both really good, hard hitting rudos (well, they were treated as tecnicos by this crowd, but they are clearly the rudo team) and the parts of the match where Drako was throwing great punches and lariats, Negro was throwing hard lariats, and both were just crunching the fliers with doubles teams were WAY more interesting than the boring ass stakes getting pounded into their heads. The wrestling looked way more vicious than the weapons, and I must wanted more of Drako working as pudgy Halloween. I had already been thinking he was pudgy Halloween, and then he goes and slides on his belly out of the ring to squish Kastigador. Everyone bleeds, and pudgy guys bleeding is one of the best thing in lucha, and some of the rudo double teams are truly sicko shit. Drako has no qualms lifting both tecnicos into the air and dropping them in disgusting ways over Negro's knee. I really love how Corsario catches dives like it's a game of chicken. He doesn't even use his hands! He literally takes dives with his arms at his sides, like he knows exactly where to be to slow someone's momentum. It's risky as hell but Vengador survived both of his dives so it merely looks cool. Vengador hit a tope con giro and a huge moonsault to the floor, and seeing Negro not even bracing to catch a moonsault was just incredibly cool. Vengador's moonsault looked great, but seeing Negro stand straight and shrug it perfectly off his shoulder, followed by a great kip up from Vengador, very cool shit. Both rudos take suplexes in the dirt, match devolves into some silly flipping piledriver nonsense, but all worth seeing for Drako and Negro. 

Jimmy vs. Aramis

ER: Not good. Did Jimmy get hurt in Japan or something? Because for such a young guy he turns in a very lazy and slow performance here. Dragons Gate has a ton of rope running so maybe when he's not in DG he does the opposite and moves incredibly slow through sequences and locks on a couple of go nowhere chinlocks within the first 5 minutes of a 10 minute match. The guy looks bored to be there, and it doesn't matter how many cool handsprings and rope feints Aramis does, if one guy is bored then it will almost always be a boring match. His lack of effort is almost offensive. I've never seen someone put so little strength into spots. At one point he catches a rana and is supposed to powerbomb Aramis into the corner, but Aramis has to lift himself up just to be powerbombed! There are several of those spots where one guy hits a big move, there's a kickout, and then both lie on the mat for 20 seconds. Just brutally boring stuff, and in between Aramis is trying his damndest to spark something but cannot motivate Jimmy. The dance rehearsal kick exchanges were so bad, real slow motion stuff, that it doesn't matter when something occasionally looks good. We also get a silly finish with Aramis accidentally superkicking the ref, just bad all around. Easily the worst match on the show. 

Latigo vs. Tromba

ER: This was at its best when they didn't get too cute, with some genuinely great stuff mixed in with some less interesting thigh slap missed kicks. I actually liked a lot of the rehearsed chair spots as they always found interesting twists to throw in, not just repeating Tanaka/Balls spots from 20+ years ago. Tromba used his chair like he's in Master of the Flying Guillotine, using the open back to hook Latigo by the ankles a couple times, wraps it around his neck and runs him into the ringpost, then keeps it around his neck to drag him through the dirt. Not sure what chamber of Shaolin a man with a folding chair would be, but I dig it. They do some nice fighting right in front of the front row Coacalco mutants, exchanging some nasty headbutts that makes one woman stare frozen in horror, hand to hairline. I liked Latigo running Tromba into a ringpost and sliding in on the apron with a kick, then hits a crossbody off the apron to a seated Tromba. Tromba gets nice impact on his middle rope frog splash, both clearly have nice chemistry with each other, and we get a fun little match out of it. 

Toro Bill Jr./Rey Apocalipsis vs. Avisman/Judas el Traidor

PAS: Really great old fashioned Coacalco brawl. Bill and Apocalipsis are Puebla guys who came in to beat on the pair of Naucalpan veterans. Traidor looks great with the bald head and salt and pepper goatee. I loved how Avisman and Traidor just fling their body into the rudos while they are sitting in the crowd. They hit each other with dirty garbage on the floor, Avisman bleeds a bunch, and Puebla team hit very cool submissions to get the win. This match got a bunch of juice from the Arena, so cool to watch guys brawl in outdoor filth and really go for it.

Black Terry vs. Ricky Marvin - EPIC

PAS: When Black Terry was having his incredible early 2010s run, it was this incredible swan song on an amazing career, here was a guy who was in his early 60s who was the best brawler in the world. Now it is nearly a decade later and Terry is 68 years old and this is as good as the IWRG trios matches or his Wotan brawl. Marvin has been tremendous over the last couple of years and is a hell of a foil for the Terry dirt floor war. Marvin jumps Terry early, opening him with a post shot, and really stiffing him with punches and kicks, giving him a spin kick right in the heart! Terry is older than Giant Baba, and this is like Kawada hitting Baba as hard as he hit Misawa. Terry fights back with great looking punches of his own, but is really only able to take control when he cuts off a Marvin tope by obliterating him with a wooden crate. We then get some really great back and forth bloody punching, before Marvin distracts the ref and obliterates Terry with a guitar shot. Incredible stuff, easily the best brawl in the world in several years (maybe Wagner vs. Demon, but arguably since Terry vs. Wotan). Terry continues his improbable AARP run, and Marvin proves what a legend he has become.

JR: I feel as though I’ve been beating the drum for Ricky Marvin’s brilliant second act about as long and as hard as anyone, and aside from the Keyra match, this might be his standout performance. Really, this whole weekend is a showcase for Marvin, who is both a specialist and an incredibly versatile performer. On night one, he wrestles Villano 3 Jr. and does a credible impression of Daniel Bryan’s mid aughts indie work, and then follows it up with a truly harrowing brawl.

I don’t even really know where to start with this match. It’s one of those matches that flows wonderfully and organically to the point where transitions are hard to spot. Large portions of it remind me of the fight scene from Bresson’s Lancelot du Lac, where two men just run in to one another over and over and get progressively dirtier and more tired. It has a visceral quality that is wholly unique.

This quality makes the moments that do feel like more standard pro wrestling stand out as noteworthy. The missed dive, which marks the first true change in the match, is something that seems obvious even as it happens but manages to feel “real”, as though Marvin really has no other choice but to try and dive, even when everyone in the world aside from him will know it will fail. Of course he will be hit by a weapon he introduced. He will be hoisted by his own petard. That's irrelevant. It's something he must do.

In some way, this is more of an experience than a match. Both Marvin and Terry are loud performers, grunting and panting and shuffling around in ways that almost force you to watch them at all times. Once he starts bleeding, Terry looks dead on his feet, going purely on instinct and that instinct is enough to still beat almost anyone. Marvin looks perturbed throughout, the pissed off look of someone whose head hurts in a way that is truly unhealthy. He moves as though he wants this to be over because if it continues he likely will be hurt in ways he can’t come back from. It’s two unstoppable forces bouncing off one another and falling into a cloud of dust and blood. It’s incredible.

ER: What an incredible fight. Just when you expect Black Terry to fade off and become and actual old man, the King of Coacalco manages to reign supreme. This is a classic Terry brawl, with a major difference. In some of the greatest Terry brawls he can come off as the real punisher, the way Satanico is often left old, bloody, and grinning over his opponents. Black Terry is savage enough that old man sympathy doesn't always play into his matches, as he is often the one causing the worst violence. I'm not sure he's had someone try to bruise up his body the way Ricky Marvin does here. Marvin looks like a man who is casually trying to retire Black Terry, whose eyes keep getting wider the longer the match goes and the longer Black Terry is still fighting back. 

It's great seeing the love Terry gets from the crowd during his entrance, and that love is present but changed later when he is getting dirty on the Arena (yard?) floor, taking punches to the eye and kicks that seem to be aiming for individual internal organs. Marvin is a total casual killer, hitting super hard and utilizing a Finlay approach to using his surroundings. This match was filled with sick violence, but the "small" violence played as mean as the big violent spots. My favorite part of the match might have been when Marvin was forcing Terry's head into a ringpost, interlocking his fingers to get a better grip on Terry's head as he looked to change the shape of Terry's skull. But we also get so many up close magic displays of hard punches, stiff elbows, loud slaps, and all of the sounds of the strikes and the men are amplified in the environment. Both are really great at selling the punishment of their strikes, elevating the strike exchange far beyond the played out strike exchanges we've grown accustomed to this decade. There seem to be stakes in their fighting, you keep waiting for Black Terry to get dropped by the younger fighter who is hitting harder, and yet he keeps finding his way back in. 

Marvin diving headlong through a wooden crate (that he brought out, naturally) and essentially landing head and knees first in the Coacalco dirt is Terry smelling all of the blood in the water, and when he picks up one of the splintered stakes from that crate you get the sense that there are too many parts of Marvin's body that Terry could have started slicing. All of the brawling on the floor is fantastic, and since the crate worked so well for Marvin, he also introduces a guitar. I loved all of their fighting around who would be taking the guitar shot, who would wrestle away and use this heavy guitar, and Marvin winds up really braining Terry with a shot. My initial impression that Marvin was aiming to retire Terry in this match is only backed up by that guitar shot. This delivered beyond what could have been reasonably expected, an exciting on paper match up that kept surprising in the most painful ways. The rain pouring down during the climax of a fight, potentially putting an old man out of commission, gave them their Coacalco Blade Runner moment. 

Iron Kid vs. Demus

PAS: By the time they start this match it is pouring rain and Demus jumps Iron Kid and starts jabbing him with a bottle and fork while folks are setting up the ring. They brawl in the wet dirt (it wasn't mud yet, but getting there) with Kid getting a bit of advantage when he throws a beer in Demus's face. They finally get into the cage and they both smash each other through wooden boxes. Demus teases leaving the cage a couple of times, and they do some stuff where he beats up the ref. Kid is a bit along for the ride, although he does do a cage dive, which is really crazy seeing how wet everything is and how slapdash the cage was Demus is a force though, what a seedy little psycho. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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WWCI Arena San Juan Pantitlan 2/16/19

Another week, another cool looking Indy Lucha show put up by Lucha TV. Grabbed what looked cool to review

Demus vs. Bam Bam

PAS: Bam Bam was a mainstay of the CMLL minis division, but seemed to disappear around 2014. Demus welcomes him to the indies with a classic Demus bloodletting. Bam Bam comes in with Demus style face paint on and Demus tries to wash it off using Bam Bam's blood. Lots of great looking brawling from both guys. Bam Bam hits a great looking tope early, but when he goes for it again, Demus steps aside and flings him head first into some ratty looking chairs. It is a crazy bump and a great way to finish a match. Demus brawls are one of the most fun things in wrestling and welcome back Bam Bam.

ER: Bam Bam was out! He was done! So, welcome back to wrestling Bam Bam, and if you're curious, here's what a bunch of your blood looks like! I loved these two feuding a decade ago, would love to see them feuding right now. Bam Bam is a little chunkier, but that's probably because he was told that people love bleeding chunky luchadors, so he probably took a few years off to get that proper size. The weight doesn't appear to slow him down a lot, his rope running was still whip fast and he hits a tope in the first minute of the match that looks as good as his topes looked a decade ago. Demus won't stand for that, naturally, so proceeds to bust Bam Bam wide open. And it's one of those really great lucha bloodlettings where Bam Bam's face and torso get covered in dark red and you realize Bam Bam is a lunatic who must have wanted this! The finish is incredible, truly a finish worth of a count out victory: We get a scene very similar to the beginning of the match, a Bam Bam feint sends Demus to the floor, tope clearly coming...and Demus steps aside and helps Bam Bam find the front row of painful chairs instead. This needs to be run back all throughout 2019.

Impulso/Drako vs. Fly Star/Toscano

PAS: Three young indy guys and Toscano (the former Tarzan Boy) put on a shortish spotfest. I don't think I have seen Drako before, and I am always going to enjoy a fat guy who wrestles fat. He had a nice tackle, a baseball slide splash to the floor and a stiff powerbomb. Fly Star and Impulso are clearly setting something up, and they try some complex spots, some of which they pull off. The finish was true young guy dippshittery with Fly Star hitting a running electric chair headrop right into the corner, really looked like the kind of thing a backyard wrestler might break a cervical vertebrae with. I think we get hair challenges post match, which makes total sense, I would want to shave a guy bald if he tried to break my neck like that.

Caifan vs. Ultimo Guerrero

PAS: Ultimo Guerrero is one of the five biggest stars in one of the biggest promotions in the world, and for some reason he will show up in a tiny filthy arena to cut him self open and leak all over the ring. I am as captivated by indy brawl Guerrero as I am bored by CMLL main eventer Guerrero. Caifan is a great, great wrestler who never got a break, and he jumps Ultimo and posts him, and 90 seconds into the match Guerrero is dripping. Caifan whoops him all around the ring, including chucking a bunch of beers into his bloody head. Guerrero comes back, opens up Caifan and they just exchange big shots on the floor. This goes about 10 minutes and maybe 90 seconds are in the ring. Finish was kind of a lame low blow DQ, and they set up a hair match on the next show (third hair challenge on this show but they are doing this one.) They sold me.

ER: I loved this! UG is such a bizarre and fascinating glutton for this kind of a dirty gritty small crowd arena brawl, here he is leaving blood souvenirs on chairs and bystanders and merch all over Arena San Juan Pantitlan, beaten bloody and bumping hard on a ring that doesn't move an inch. I don't know what his deal is, but it's weird how my eyeballs glaze over his CMLL matches at this point and yet actively seek his indy work. It would be like if Dean Ambrose were currently working his typical fast forwardable Raw matches, but also bloody brawls from random VFWs near wherever Raw was taped. It makes no sense. Caifan is really great. He's someone who knows just how well to set up UG's trademark offense, while also knowing when to step in and bop him on the nose. And a LOT of the early part of this is nose bopping. I might have to break the stopwatch out to see who started bleeding earlier, UG or Bam Bam, but we're the winners in that race. UG gets smashed around ringside, Caifan is really mean about sending him tumbling and then running after him with a hard kick before UG can regain his bearings, and we get all time great brawl violence like Caifan wrapping UG's head in a banner and then punching his face through the banner. I love Caifan's hockey fight style of lucha. Ultimo's comeback on the floor is great, shoving through fans, grabbing drinks to bounce off Caifan's head, doing his flying hip attack into Caifan who was also sitting on a fan (and that fan went wandering off after being on the bottom of that pile making that teeth sucking face of someone who accidentally opened a car door into their own balls); at one point Ultimo is slamming Caifan's head repeatedly into some chairs and right behind them you can see 4 or 5 young boys just staring at these bloody lunatics in awe, not knowing how to react to the violence right in front of them. I like how Caifan handles a couple signature UG spots, namely how he ran headlong into eating a front suplex off the middle ropes (onto that damn hard ring). We've all seen UG just climb the ropes with his opponent on the way to doing that move, so it's cool that instead we get Caifan setting UG up for something and then getting grabbed on the run. Big ball shot finish works for something like this, and honestly with how much they killed each other here I have no clue what they're going to do in their hair match to top it...but I can't wait to see them try.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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