Found Footage Friday: PUNK~! LOD~! DANDY~! SILVER KING~! SHU~! PANTHER~! SUPER PARKA~!

IWRG Retro 7/27/00

El Dandy/Silver King/Black Dragon vs. Shu el Guerrero/Mosco de la Merced/Hijo del Diablo

MD: VQ is tough with a lot of freezing but you can tell what's going on and the talent is so much here that you want to see it through. No real signature pairings here. I'd say that this was driven by the talent, energy, and star power on the tecnico side and structured accordingly. That meant in the primera, each tecnico got a chance to lean into rudo miscommunication and entertainingly fight them all off at once. There are things you'd note, like Silver King sliding across the ring or Dandy's punch or Black Dragon's crave dive at the end of the caida, but it was all good.

Rudos took over in the segunda after they teased pairings and they did the bit where they flip their opponents over and toss them into a kick in the corner. This could have probably used a couple more minutes, for once they hit the tecera, it was a quick reset and into in and out submissions and break-ups and really overall chaos with things breaking down. Finish had Dragon roll forward into a tapitia which you don't see often and Dandy hitting a jumping DDT for the win. Rudos did their job but this really was the tecnicos show, and even with the freezing, it was a good show.

ER: It's a shame this has so many freezes and bits of missing action because everything we get is really great. Everybody got their own moments to cook and I love a trios like this where everyone tries to take over the show the longer it goes. Mosco de la Merced and Hijo del Diablo were the real standouts to me but every brought something big. Silver King is so good at pushing pace and guys like Mosco and Diablo rise to that pace and it makes their bumps even crazier. The Segunda opening with King and Diablo really cooked, Diablo early on looking like the one guy in the match who was going to hang back and let everyone else handle things, building to him stooging and bumping as big as anyone. Mosco took at least four big bumps and worked comedy into half of them, including a great bit where he kept removing pieces of clothing while ramping up for a one on one confrontation, whipping his shirt and bandana into the crowd and firing up by almost removing his pants. Black Dragon is a guy who I literally only remember because of his incredible tope over/past the ringpost into the corner, which he hits beautifully here after pulling off a super smooth rana. His tope is one of the great lucha topes in history, one of those spots like Super Calo's slingshot senton that makes a luchador's career seem bigger than it really was. Shu el Guerrero is a total tank of a luchador, or dream build Valiente, but Mosco and Diablo handle all the toughest basing and catches. Shu's best bit of basing is sliding across the entire ring for a frankly breathtaking Dandy headscissors, Dandy getting full glorious extension and not tucking early, really making it look like he flung Shu 10 feet with his ankles and leverage. It would have been great to have the full uncut action (and crowd noise, and the actual screen presentation instead of the annoying TV screen aesthetic) but there's no denying the action we did see. 

Blue Panther vs. Super Parka

MD: WWA Title match. Parka's the champ. It's worked like a title match with just a bit of the dancing/histrionics from Parka, which he tends to pay for whenever he does. I liked the primera a lot. Nothing too tricked out but they kept close body contact for a lot of it in a way you don't always see in lucha matwork. It was all up tight and combative. Parka had advantage for a lot of it working over the arm. When they got moving towards the end of the caida, you had no idea who would get the ultimate advantage but Parka took it with a snap 'rana. 

Segunda was super short, but Panther won it with the old French Catch standard waistlock into a leg nelson (no roll). Not something you see every day, even from him. Then the tercera had all the bells and whistles and drama. Parka took out Panther's leg early and worked it over. Panther sold big on his comeback attempts. There was another 'rana for a nearfall and a long Cavernaria. Parka hit this amazing tope sending both of them over the barricade. Then Panther went for a submission and then pinned themselves. Only a couple of spotty moments VQ wise with the freezing, thankfully, as this was a very good title match to be unearthed. 

CM Punk/Doug Delicious vs. Legion of Doom WWE 5/13/03

MD: As WWE Vault stuff goes, this is better than something we already had, worse than if they had given it to us in full, and especially worse than giving us Omni shows or something. But it has its novelty and we should cover it, clipped as it is. Punk explaining that he had been on the banned list for doing a hammerlock DDT the night before gives his performance here color. Obviously, just in general facing the Road Warriors in this setting, he's going to do everything he could to stand out and bump and feed and stooge for them.

Since he was in hot water, however, he really went above and beyond, on from the get go. The fans absolutely loved seeing the LOD as a surprise and popped huge for them as Punk covered his head in shock in the ring. They cut out a lot of the stuff with Delicious and only give us Punk but I don't really mind that too much. He screamed as he went over for Animal's power slam and went sailing for the belly-to-belly throw. Hawk was totally on too, hitting his shoulder first post-bump to the floor. He even ate a Punk snap suplex. This isn't the first or hundredth thing I would have wanted, especially not clipped, but I was still smiling despite myself as I watched it, so I'll certainly take this sort of thing over nothing. 

ER: I was not actually expecting this to be really good but I have a feeling the full uncut match was actually quite good. I'm a big fan of 1998 LOD even though history says they were totally washed. Well, they were pretty washed, but Washed Legends is one of my favorite kinds of wrestler. 1998 Hawk was a particular favorite of mine. He wasn't lifting much anymore so he wasn't working as a power wrestler, so he just leaned into being a puncher with a couple of surprising big bumps. Hawk was a great puncher and a guy with great bumps, so it really felt like a super vulnerable version of the Road Warrior Hawk, boiled down to his most basics; still dangerous, now beatable. I loved it. It's a shame they were stuck feuding with DOA for most of the year during their final real run. I have a feeling that some good Hawk stuff was cut from this tag in cutting the Doug Delicious work, and that's a shame. I don't know much about Doug Delicious so maybe they were right to cut most of his work out of this, but I sure stood at attention when he lit Hawk the hell up with chops on the floor. I cannot imagine someone chopping either Road Warrior the way Doug was chopping Hawk in 1986 but this is 2003. That's the kind of things that makes vulnerable legends so compelling. They're on the way down and now fucking Doug Delicious is doing things that would have gotten greater men killed. 

Punk was great in this, reminded me again of why I liked him so much during this era. He bumped huge for everything the LOD did and even sold their entrance music. He fed really well for them both and I was pretty shocked at the amount of offense he got. The snap suplex on Hawk was a real surprise, but I liked how he worked the match as a guy who really belonged in the ring with the Road Warriors and not just a stooge who just lied on the mat in between moves. He set up Hawk's ringpost bump perfectly, moving out of the way at the last second so it made it look like an actual miss and not a set up bump, and Hawk spills past the apron to the floor as well as any of those times a missed western lariat sent Stan Hansen tumbling to the floor. I thought Animal looked good here too, taking on the bulk of the match (well, at least the way the match was edited) and I thought his movement looked strong. That leaping elbowdrop was fire and they each seemed real pumped at the crowd's loud reaction and chanting for them. WWE always hated the idea of bringing back older legends to work undercards but I wish we had years of All Japan old men matches on the undercards of house shows, it would have been incredible. They only viewed people on what they could potentially add to the top of the card but any time they brought back an older name and just plopped them in the third match it worked perfectly. I needed more runs like the Tatanka or, well, Road Warrior Animal mid-2000s Smackdown run. 

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Found Footage Friday: BLACK TERRY~! CEREBROS~! CUBAN ASSASSIN~! GRINGOS~! KANEMOTO~!

Koji Kanemoto vs. Cuban Assassin 11/4/95

MD: We rarely get to highlight what our old pal over at Armstrong Alley posts because it's usually in full episode form, but this absolutely stands out. Kanemoto was in the States for WCW syndi tapings to hype up Starrcade. Both he and Assassin were working these at the start of November but I have no idea where this is or how the booking came to be. There's some of what you'd expect here, Assassin going on the mic pre-match and calling everyone American Dogs and saying that he shook Kanemoto's hand because he wasn't an American Dog or just everyone getting to see Kanemoto do the Tiger Mask headlock to drop toe-hold spot or even the bs double count out finish where Assassin's valet stopped Koji from getting back into the ring. 

But in between all of that stuff, they were really going. Assassin asserted himself in the best ways, just powering Kanemoto over with a shoot-looking belly-to-belly and then dropping headbutts off the turnbuckles. He was more than happy to throw some standing ones too. Kanemoto, in return, would just chop him in the face or throw wild spinning kicks. This was in the old Tampa Sportatorium and these two did not feel at all out of place with whoever might have been destroying some poor jobber for Eddie Graham's amusement. Even in front of this mysterious indy crowd, even when they didn't have to, they came to work.

ER: When we heard a new Kanemoto American indy match had surfaced, America collectively held their breath while we waited to see which of the Jerry Flynn matches it would be. The singles match draw? The tag with Nishimura against Flynn and Dudley Dudley? Has American finally been given the Kanemoto/Dudley Dudley exchanges we've We still don't have the Flynn matches, but this is a fun one in its place. What this match has, that I can almost certainly guarantee the Flynn matches do not have, is a referee wearing a broad shouldered glittering tasseled blouse like he was the ringleader for an off-strip Las Vegas big cat show. Talk all you want about David Manning or Red Shoes trying to steal attention away from the wrestlers, I love a referee wearing the most garish shirt in Florida while working as an otherwise completely normal match. I also love the one commentator who, several times, insists that Ricky Santana is a much better wrestler than David Sierra, refusing to drop the argument after the other commentator said Sierra was the best Cuban wrestler he knew. 

But Cuban Assassin Sierra really did look great here. If a wrestler in 2023 wrestled the way Sierra did here, he'd be one of my current favorites. He was great at taking Kanemoto's strikes and had a lot of nice offense that he wasn't really allowed to do in his WCW role. Give me his short elbowdrop across the throat or his kneedrop springing off the bottom rope or his diving headbutts off the middle buckle and middle rope. Sierra will throw a baseball slide dropkick to set up a missed baseball slide that leads to him getting his ass beat around ringside, taking a nice posting in the process. He throws a powerbomb like Onita and takes a backdrop like a fat guy. 

I didn't really fall in love with Kanemoto until 2001/2002, but here he was a fun junior being held back by his choice in ring gear. If I took a shot every time he adjusted his obnoxious sash belt while he was supposed to be selling, I wouldn't have made it to the end of the match. He felt like a guy working worse versions of Tiger Mask and Muta spots - losing contact during the TM fast spinning drop toehold, overshooting and barely making contact on a moonsault - but looked far better just throwing kicks or elbows, or kneeling on Sierra's head while holding a single leg crab. Just because 1995 Kanemoto isn't as good as 1995 Cuban Assassin doesn't make this any less of a fun oddity, and now we know that David Sierra once hit a piledriver on Koji Kanemoto.

IWRG Retro 17 12/30/23

Miss Gaviota/Dinamic Black vs. Hammer/Eterno 1/22/11

MD: IWRG started doing the Retros a couple of weeks ago and we just figured it out. We'll catch up on the ones we missed later. Hammer here is Danny Casas. The match was best when he and Gaviota, being a very solid exotico, were in there together. They had the better, more competitive matwork, with Dinamic Black and Eterno half a step slower and more going through the motions. I didn't mind Black as a second banana rudo buddy here though. He just had less opportunity to do things as Gaviota got bigger reactions and took bigger, nastier bumps (including off hair throws). It went 3 falls with the rudos taking the first and Eterno getting to show off his big moves (Styles Clash and cross legged fireman's carry driver) in the latter two. Solid undercard stuff with a range of talent and experience overall, but it's the next match that's going to be the draw.

Terribles Cerebros (Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro/Cerebro Negro) vs. Gringos VIP (Hijo Del Diablo/Avisman/Bombero Infernal) 1/22/11 - GREAT

MD: This hit just right. Primera was blink and you'd miss it but you'd miss a hell of a stage dive from Dr. Cerebro. Segunda had some control from Terry and co, fancy while keeping the gang warfare feel, until he edged too close to the wrong corner and got swarmed. That led to a massive beatdown full of Diablo honing in on his wound. The ref called the fall with Terry getting held and kicked over and over again. The tercera had escalating Gringos VIP beatdown, swarming and then having fun with some whips, and then allowing each guy on the other side to valiantly try to come back before stomping him down. They teased a few false comebacks there before Bombero and Avisman missed charges into the corners and ate dives by the Cerebros to set up Diablo and Terry and the savvy finish. I would have enjoyed a bit more coldhearted, bloody revenge from Terry, but a slick win is a revenge of its own, I suppose. Past that, this was pretty much what I wanted it to be.

PAS: This is always a great matchup. The peak of this feud was the year before, with Gringo Loco in the Bombero spot, but Bombero is always welcome. I just love when Black Terry gets into the crowd. He is such a force of nature, throwing chops and headbutts against Avisman to start the match and set up the Cerebro dive. Terry starts the match with a bandage on his head, and that obviously gets ripped off and he starts dripping. We get some brisk brawling lucha after that, and a fun finish. It isn't top level transcendent Terry, but an example of the great stuff he was doing week in and week out. 

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All Time MOTY List HEAD to HEAD: FUTEN War V. IWRG bloodbath

Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro/Chico Che v. El Hijo Del Diablo/Avisman/Gringo Loco IWRG 3/7/10

PAS: Black Terry Jr. HH are one of my favorite things in the history of wrestling, and this was one of my favorite examples of the art. His filming style is so great, especially for this kind of out of control bloody brawl. You get these great close ups of bloody faces, with each shot looking like it could be a pullout in one of those grittier non-Apter wrestling magazines I used to read at DeLauers newsstand in Downtown Oakland. The Gringo team dominates the first part of this match bloodying up all three luchadores. Nasty stuff including pulling out cacti and digging them into the open wounds. We get a great fired up technico comeback with Chico Che looking especially awesome. He had this one year or so run in IWRG where he was incredible, and then he disappeared. It was right up there with Hiroyuki Ito's U-Style run as one of the great short periods in wrestling history, he was like lucha John Cazale. Che has these super heavy right hands that look like he is putting all of his considerable weight behind each shot, he also ran through this incredible signature run of headscissors and armdrags, nothing I love more then fat luchadores who can fly. This was another awesome Terry performance as well. He is so emotive in brawls, he is amazing as the old broken down warrior who keeps fighting because that is all he knows.

 I can just see him retired on a ranch somewhere, and Dr. Cerebro showing up "we have some American's down here causing trouble", "I don't do that anymore Doc, I am done", "They are calling you out Terry, saying you don't have the guts to strap on the boots, I came down here looking for a legend, I guess an old story is all I found, I leave you be." "Wait Doc, you bastard, let me get my trunks."

ER: This is a flat out lucha classic, a true gift to the community from BTJr. His handheld work is majestic and makes this feel more out of control than it even was, and it was plenty out of control. To use an already sadly dated reference, the whole match felt like that amazing chaotic tracking shot from season 1 True Detective, just chaos and brutality lurking around every turn of the camera. When I hear people say they don't get lucha, or just don't like lucha, I have to assume they haven't seen matches like this. Bloody brawls are like the universal wrestling language and this had it all. The disrespectful foreigners, valiant hometown heroes, a fat guy, an old guy, and blood. If you take any 3/5 of those things and throw them into a match, I'm probably going to love it. My favorite in this was Dr. Cerebro. Chico Che brings the awesome fat guy moves, Black Terry brings the old man grit, but there's Cerebro having the best brawling segments, gluing all the transitions together. Every time the camera would pick up Cerebro brawling with Loco it looked like some of the best wrestling brawling you've seen. There was zero light between their shots, and they always mixed them up in cool ways; you wouldn't just see turn taking punches, you'd get punches and slaps and kicks all thrown at different angles at odd timing. PLUS, he gushed twice the blood as his partners. But Terry was great at rallying the troops and bringing every awesome thing he always brings to these matches. To think even just 6 years ago that he would still be having these wild brawls today would have sounded nuts. Chico Che was real unique, and this match was a great example of his peak. He really moved differently, didn't throw punches like anyone else I've seen, and had some great agility. His missile splashes were both painful and gorgeous; seeing him get launched off the top with his arms by his sides was an amazing visual. The rudos could have really coasted here and the match still would have come off pretty classic due to the strength of the tecnico side, but none of these rudoes coasted. Diablo came off like a lanky cheapshotting creep, Loco turned in an excellent brawling performance, and Avisman brought great execution to even the most basic things. The match didn't necessarily need them to be this great, but a great rudo performance in something like this just elevates it sky high, and we got three of them. A true gem for lucha and wrestling fans.

FUTEN Review

Verdict: 

PAS: I loved this match, bloody brawl lucha is one of my favorite things, and this a great example of it. However the FUTEN match may be one of the few matches I would give 5 stars to, it is pretty perfect and will be damn near impossible to beat.

ER: Sadly this match is a victim of our calendar endpoints. If we were doing half years, this would likely win for the first half of 2010, with FUTEN tag winning the second half. If we were doing March to March, this match would likely win March 2009-2010. But we use calendars and it drew just a brutal opponent. I could see this match eventually winning, if we revisit this in a few years. Who knows, Ikeda and Hashi could die of concussion related causes and we'd feel super bad watching them clunk their brains together in gross ways, and a straight up bloody war would make us feel better about vampiric selves. As it is, it's easily good enough to be #1, just drew a brutal opponent.

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MLJ: Black Terry Boot Camp 12: El Hijo del Diablo & Gringo Loco vs Black Terry & Dr. Cerebro [super libre]

2010-01-24 @ Arena Naucalpan
El Hijo del Diablo & Gringo Loco vs Black Terry & Dr. Cerebro


Black Terry & Dr. Cerebro vs Hijo del Diablo... by thecubsfan

Two more Black Terry matches and then I have to move back to Sombra. I'd like to set up a base page that's not necessarily a Complete and Accurate, but at least a journey through his career for people who just need to see every new WWE talent. Part of that is actually making it through more of his career. Black Terry's been a blast though. I'm glad I got cajoled into this. I'm sure I'll be just as glad when I go through a lot of Fujiwara or Dick Togo or whatever, too. If I'm here long enough, I'm sure I will.

Speaking of being here, I've been at this for almost two years. I have a pretty good sense of what I like and what I don't like with lucha, and also what I love. I really like the CMLL main event trios match style when they can actually make it feel like a big deal. I like Maestros matches with lots of matwork and escalation. I like Tag Team Title matches. What I like the most though is a good lucha brawl with clear heat segments, and this was great for that. It was a super libre match, earlier in the Gringos Locos feud. Early on, I'm pretty certain the announcers were telling kids not to do this at home and later on, one started to shout DRACULA! to express the action at the time. That sums the match up pretty well. When you realize that it was neither a spotfest or what I'd consider to be an outright garbage match, that really gets over the violence.

The blood was flowing from about a minute in. This was just an outright brawl. They did it in two falls with a comeback and cutoff in the primera and another comeback later on. What's key, I think, is how this showed yet another side of Terry. We've seen him take sympathetic beatings but here it was him getting battered around the arena, and when it came time for the comeback, not only did he get his revenge in, returning every chair shot and slam into the Corona coolers, but made sure to pause and let it all sink in, pointing out to an erupting crowd even as he was a bloody mess.

Things got even crazier in the segunda when Gringos VIP pulled out the Nopal cacti. They had used them in the Chico Che trios but that had been played more for laughs. It's a testament for all these guys that they were able to use the same prop with a slightly different context and it came off like a horror show here, rubbing them into Terry's open wounds. And of course, when Cerebro and Terry managed their comeback (starting with a Benoit/Malenkto style assisted power bomb) Terry made sure to use the cacti in a revenge spot. I don't think there's any other style of wrestling in the world that cares more about closing the circle and symbolically returning ills than lucha. It often provides underlying touchpoints of order and meaning to even the craziest matches. Harm is returned in full exactitude with twice the intensity and twice the reaction. It's a beautiful thing, and here it was a beautiful, terrible thing.

Check this one out if you haven't before. I won't spoil anything else on it. It's worth dealing with Dailymotion to watch. And hey, here's some bonus bloody aftereffects:

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MLJ: Black Terry Boot Camp 10: Black Terry, Chico Che, Dr. Cerebro vs Avisman, El Hijo del Diablo, Gringo Loco

2010-3-14 @ Arena Naucalpan
Black Terry, Chico Che, Dr. Cerebro vs Avisman, El Hijo del Diablo, Gringo Loco


Terry, Chico Che, Dr. Cerebro vs Avisman... by thecubsfan

Phil pointed me this way. Granted, he pointed me to things not currently online, and then pointed me to this as a consolation prize. I might have to dive deeper into this feud though. You get a sense of it from this, which was a TV match. If Terry had the Dinistia Navarro feud that would be enough for 2010 but he had this too.

It's my first look at Gringos VIP, though I'd seen Avisman once or twice before. They had a great act. It was low rent in all the best, sleaziest ways, with them flaunting the US colors and sunglasses that made them look like the unabomber. It's good that they had a great act too since they took most of this match. I'm okay with that. I'd much rather see a match that was 70% beatdown than 70% tecnico clowning. That said, it has to be a good beatdown and this definitely was. The Gringos had a lot of tandem offense, played crowd control well, and were pretty brutal in their execution. Just as important, there was a great hope spot-ish comeback to end the primera, and a lot of heat in the finish.

Terry's side didn't have a lot to do, other than get beaten up, which was a shame because this wasn't a great look for me at Chico Che. What they did do was great, however. Cerebro was a bit delayed in making it out, which lead to the initial numbers game allowed beatdown. When he finally got into things, however, it was with a big dive from the crowd and a comeback, even so early into the match, that felt triumphant (even if it was cut off, both for a flash rudo finish and to lead into the segunda).

Terry's so good at so many things, but I'd yet to really see him on this side of a rudo beatdown in a trios brawl. He shined at that too, doing a great job at fighting back not just valiantly but violently and getting overwhelmed to build sympathy while still looking strong. How can someone who throws headbutts around like that not look strong? The little I got to see from Che looked great too. He was the babyface part of this equation which allowed for the heat to be actual heat, as Terry and Cerebro were rudos. He was the heart of things in that regard, but also had some killer big guy offense when he got to show it (and a great headbutt too).

When the comeback finally came it was goofy but solid, with extraneous objects that were meant to embarrass and were sold like death. That was pretty goofy, and the indy heel ref stuff was frustrating, but this was good enough to make me want to see more.

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Black Terry Forgot to Remember to Forget

Black Terry/Cerebro Negro/Dr. Cerebro v. Aerostar/Gato Eveready/Relampago IWRG 12/9/10-FUN

In the second half of 2010, Terry gave great performances in good matches. He is still a pleasure to watch, but I just wish we had the classics that we got during the first four months. Parts of this match were really great, both Terry and the Dr. did a good job carrying Relampago through some basic lucha mat sequences, it was good looking but I didn't get the sense he was any better then a generic guy from a rookie show. The end of the first fall was awesome with Terry just beating the holy hell of Relampago smashing his leg into the floor and choking him with a cord. Second and third falls were less interesting. The AAA guys aren't really working as hard on IWRG shows, Gato had some nice roll ups and Aerostar had a couple of cool fakes, but Aerostar does a fucking pescada? If you aren't going to be giving me a crazy dive, get the fuck out of my youtube screen. 

Black Terry/Dinamic Black/Alan Extreme v. Bombero Infernal/Comando Negro/El Hijo Del Diablo IWRG 4/12/11-GREAT

Just a killer rudo squad. Infernal is rocking amazing new gear, kind of a emerald green unitard with red flames down the sides. We get a lot of Terry v. Diablo, they have a cool opening match exchange and some nasty fun brawling. I haven't seen much Alan Extreme and Dinamic Black in a while, but they both look like they have smoothed out some of their rougher edges. The end of the first fall exchange between Extreme and Comando Negro was especially pretty, as was their stereo tope con hilos. There were some slow points in the second fall, but this was a very solid match

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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Rifling Through the Trash: The Unfinished Segunda Caida

We here at Segunda Caida all watch a lot of wrestling. We also start a lot of projects. More projects than we can ever ever possibly finish. We start watching something, write about it, don't finish writing about it, and there it sits. We have about 80 unfinished drafts dating back 4 years. Some of them may get finished some day (IWA-MS show reviews, WAR show reviews), others are kind of pointless to ever finish (old CMLL TV write-ups, reviews of WWE Superstars episodes). Still these write ups all took at least SOME time out of our schedules, and it's only fair that we get SOME use out of them. Tom used his best shitty tag team name from his "shitty indy name" rolodex AND made fun of RPGs in almost the same sentence.

The FINAL snippets from TomK's review of ROH's "Take No Prisoners":

Vulture Squad v No Remorse Corpse

TKG: Huh? Why? The bonus match from other show on ROH PPV is kind of a staple, but why this match? Did someone say “hey this show is missing a big moves workrate tag”? This whole entire card has been really well paced with every match being different than the one before, and matches ending without long finisher exchange sequences and excessive kickouts to protect the main event. There is a reason not to do a workrate tag with hot finisher train. The opening Ruckus v Rocky Romero mirror missed stuff was every bit as laughably bad as you’d expect. Where is Julius Smokes? Jigsaw without the mask looks like a guy who should have been on the second season of the Wire. Maybe not White Mike, but White Mike’s skinny cousin. When Ruckus eventually joins Eddy Kingston, I want a Smokes managed Jigsaw/Grim Reefer tag team. Is “Eight Myle” a shitty enough tag name? I also don’t think I’ve mentioned the shitty “pokemon” style tales of the tape that they’ve been doing before each match. I didn’t mind this when they used it for the Aries v Nigel main event as they where actually building the match around the idea that the two knew each others stuff. But really if these are the talking points, give them to the announcers to make. Putting it up on the screen really feels like someone is laying out the profile pages from a role playing game.

Notes for Phil: I think you liked this more than I did and thought the spike piledriver was a good finish and finish train wasn’t too long or something like that. You're wrong. But that's what you were arguing.

Phil reviewing IWRG 6/17/10:

Bombero Infernal v. Dr. Cerebro

PAS: This really felt like heavyweight professional wrestling. Just a pair of big guys throwing big bombs (indy lucha big, I am sure Dr. Cerebro is like 5'4). Infernal jumps Cerebro outside and whoops on him for the first fall. Cerebro has a really great looking trickle of blood rolling down his face. Cerebro fires back with some soup bones, including a spectacular elbow smash plancha which looked like the ghost of Misawa. Finish was decent, although the low blow finish is such a lucha cliche, I don't want to see it infecting IWRG.

Mickie Segura/Trauma I/II v. Los Gringos VIP

PAS: 2010 IWRG is so good that the baseline for an average match is pretty high. It will consistently put out solidly worked excellent matches with occasional flashes of brilliance, that it is kind of hard for a match like this to stand out. This was six very good wrestlers having a very good trios title match. We got a long first fall of mat work, it isn't normally what you expect out of the Lucha Libre VIP team (outside of Avisman, who is the guy who doesn't work the mat in this match), but they are pretty good at it. I especially liked El Hijo Del Diablo v. Trauma I, which was really a pair of powerhouse using their strength to move in and out of hold, Diablo is having a hell of a year. Second fall was rudo triple teams and brawling, which was done well, although there was no huge bump or blood or anything to distinguish it. Third fall was a traditional title match third fall, down to the step over toe hold comedy spot which you see a ton of in classic lucha (the spot which ends with the Technico wiggling in a pinning all three guys.) Good workman like lucha libre, which won't register when we look back at 2010, but is certainly well worth spending 20 minutes watching

Notes from EricR watching the 3/27/14 TNA iMPACT:

~Davey/Edwards vs. Magnus/Abyss: Wow Davey Richards is just a hilariously bad wrestler. I mean, not as horrid as Abyss, who seems to fight every natural way to take bumps and go against every body instinct to fall in the most ridiculous way possible. So Eddie Edwards always does a spit take bump in his matches, and here he took an elbow from Magnus and ended up accidentally spitting directly into Davey's (on the apron) eyes. And what's amazing is Davey sold it! He didn't just casually pretend another human being, his partner, didn't just accidentally spit directly into his eyes. He sold it. But he didn't sell it like a normal human would sell the indignity of feeling another human's warm spit hit your eyes and face, he sold it like Eddie Edwards was a Dilophosaurus and he was Nedry getting acidic mucous spit into his eyes. The goggles! They do nothing!!! He also later took the most hilarious back bump, where it looked like he was jumping up and landing back first on a big trampoline, just 11 year old me getting bounced higher and getting sick air, landing on my back. Or doing a cannonball into a swimming pool, with all the grace of a "mom watch me dive!" child.

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Early One Mornin' While Makin The Rounds Black Terry Took a Shot of Cocaine and Shot His Woman Down

Black Terry/Bombero Infernal/Dr. Cerebro v. Apolo Estrada Jr./Avisman/El Hijo del Diablo IWRG 12/22/13-GREAT

It has been a rough year for IWRG but they close it out with a flashback brawl. Cererbo and Terry had a series of awesome wars with Avisman and Diablo a couple of years ago. Our two new additions Estrada and Infernal acquitted themselves great. Estrada especially ruled he was wandering around bleeding out of his forehead and unleashes two crazy topes in the ending run where everyone in the match is just trying to jam his opponent through the back of the arena with dives. Cerebro is such a bull and he is throwing people around and sneaking in headbutts.  Terry wandering around and throwing punches and chairs is one of my favorite things in wrestling and it is even more awesome with his slick mustache. I did miss the Black Terry Jr. camera work, which added such a grimy awesome look, still lets hope this is more of what we can expect in the new year.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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Black Terry Grew Up Quick and He Grew Up Mean, His Fist Got Hard and His Wits Got Keen

Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro/Cerebro Negro v. Los Officiales v. Freelance/Gemelos Fantasticos v. Trauma I/Trauma II/Zatura IWRG 4/2/09 - FUN

PAS: Total train wreck and a total blast. 12 guys just throwing it all at the wall, some stuff isn't hit cleanly, but there is more great shit then you can demand. This is the kind of shit Freelance is made for, and he is just flying around the ring with abandon, he does three dives into the crowd, each crazier then the last, and is just constantly diving into the ring ranaing the fuck out of dudes. Officiales looked great here, as they ate all of Freelances stuff well, and did I nice job covering for some of the lesser lights (the less I say about the Gemelos the better) Terry is great too, but this was a little chaotic for him to be at his best. This week goes to Freelance.

TKG: Yeah this was a wreck. The whole concept of elimination trios match where you can tag anyone else into the ring is almost TNA level stupid. Hey its two twins forced to wrestle each other in an elimination match, isn’t that clever? Dumb. You also had a couple of awkward Zatura v Freelance sections where both guys looked like they need a rudo. Some spectacular looking Freelance highspots. Plus you get the Zatura “Hey I’m in a match with Freelance I have to do even crazier out of control dives and possibly injure myself” stuff that you get when those two are in a match together. A fun clusterfuck but a dumb match.

Black Terry/Cerebro Negro/Fantasma De La Opera v. Negro Navarro/Trauma I/Trauma II IWRG 7/9/09 - GREAT

TKG: It’s been a while since we’ve seen this type of full on Black Terry match. The Cerebros are enough of a solid unit that Terry can often times take a back seat.The Fantasma/Terry/Cerebro Negro unit is less polished as a unit and Terry fully takes over directing traffic, bumping attacking, always the center of the match. In many of the matches in 09 Terry’s seemed to be a step below what he was in 08. But this is the full on Black Terry show. Pre match Terry says he wants to test the new title holder Trauma II and the match is all about the match up between Terry and both Trauma II and the match up between Terry and Navarro. All that Cerebro Negro and Fantasma need to do is keep Trauma 1 busy while Terry does the rest. First fall involves the heels triple teaming to pin both Truamas. It’s problematic fall, in that you don’t really buy the Fantasma/Cerebro Negro attacks as having taken Navarro out of the match allowing for the triple teams on the kids. I don’t know to what degree that’s the fault of Fantasma/Cerebro Negro’s lack of credibility and what is the way Navarro is unconvincing bumping and eating their stuff. Probably a little of both. Fantasma doesn’t know how to eat Trauma I’s finisher, and while I really liked his heavyweight face off with I, it felt like he worked his faceoff with II exactly the same way. But the point of match was to keep the attention away from Cerebro Negro/Fantasma and Trauma I and let Terry do his thing. And Terry did his thing and was awesome facing off with Navarro and Trauma II. And you leave this match actively wanting to see a Trauma II v Terry match and worrying that Trauma II may be out of his league.

PAS: The Traumas have been on quite a run in the last couple of months, but man when the team with their dad, you see the difference. This is bad ass brawling Navarro, he is pissed at Fuerza talking shit, and he comes out like a B-movie hero who has been pushed too far. Terry is such a great foil to that kind of fury, as he is much more of a B-movie villain, a tough guy, with tough backup, but fundamentally lacking the moral authority of our hero. I love all of the hierarchy stuff these tags do so well, and Terry v. Trauma II could be incredible if they run it.

Black Terry/Chico Che/Dr. Cerebro v. Avisman/Hijo del Diablo/Gringo Loco IWRG 3/7/10 - EPIC

TKG: The booking to add Chico Che to this feud was super smart and really well executed. Adding a tecnico to this feud totally changes the dynamics and Chico Che was really the right tecnico. The feud went form being a rudo v rudo feud (which IWRG is great at running) into a native v foreign team feud (where nationalism unites heels/faces). That change effects the way everyone works. There is a fun vibe that adding a tecnico brings, and you really got the sense that Black Terry/Cerebro were actively enjoying having Chico Che with them. There are these awesome moments where both of them stand back with shit eating grins and direct Chico Che into abusing the foreigners. There is a point where Terry is punching Gringo Loco on the floor and then Chico Che lands a punch of his own on Gringo Loco. Terry lights up “hey you got this, let me do something else”. First fall is mostly Gringos dominated as they leave Cerebro, Terry and Che all bloody, this stretches into the second fall which develops into a real isolate and triple team one guy while keeping other faces away from action fall (except done on the floor instead of in the center of ring) until the tecnicos see an error and take advantage bloodying Avisman and Diablo and then a third fall which starts with tecnicos beating rudos in one on one exchanges (with Che beating the shit out of Avisman on floor, Cerebro really laying into Diablo and Che running through his big spots) back into a section where rudos try to remount control. Part of what makes this kind of classic lucha fight work is that there are not a lot of changes in momentum. Just long periods of one sided action where both teams look strong (for both dishing and eating beating). I imagine if you were to watch this match with a stop watch and a calculator, the heels would have taken more than 75% of the offense in a match where the heels win clean. But this is the furthest thing from a competitive squash. Part of that is the selling which is all about guys toughing it out by taking a giant beating waiting out an opening Chico Corrales style. When it works it works and here it really worked. The actual match finish with everyone but Diablo and Cerebro taken out by dives and Diablo reversing a rana into a desnucadora/slam was also a super cool clean finish that still left you wanting more.

PAS: Man was this filmed spectacularly. This is a gruesome gritty fight, and pretty much every camera shot looked like the cover of a 1987 issue of Wrestling Eye. Black Terry his great exhausted beaten bloody facial expressions. He looks like William Munney at the end of Unforgiven. This is a match with six great performances, Gringo Loco is on fire, beating people, bleeding and taking one of the craziest corner post bumps I have ever seen. It is the kind of thing Cassandro would wince at. Diablo is also great as kind of the rudo glue. He has been in a million seedy Tijuana brawls in his career and this kind of thing is right in his wheelhouse. Then we have Chico Che continuing his June '09 to June '10 run as one of the five best wrestlers in the world. He is just stupendous in this match, as the victim and the deliverer of beatings, and his signature rope running is a little bit of beauty in the ugly.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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IWRG 3/7/10

IWRG on Segunda Caida
Black Terry Jr.'s Youtube page COME BACK SOON

Heros v Alan Extreme

TKG: The really awesome thing about watching these rookies workshop their match is you get to see them try things and fail then try again and succeed. Last show Alan Extreme and Heros tried to work a slower more deliberate version of their opening technical exchanges and they really failed. This week they totally pull it off. Some of this is helped by Eros’ awesome selling which really puts over the deliberate submission work. I think starting with the big throws and working into submissions also helped get across the sense that these things weren’t cooperative/required force. Also there was a sense of guys actually breaking submissions instead of letting go. They also do a nice job of changing speeds as they move form the slow technical stuff to the faster technical armdrag section. Also Eros does an amazing job of selling for Alan Extreme’s signature “toss opponent in air and then do seated double kick as they fall”. Just a super solid first fall. Second fall has a huge Alan Extreme tope and Eros tope eat. But Eros blows a move and looks to tweak his shoulder and struggles not to botch stuff after that.

PAS: Yeah I am with Tom, the first fall was pretty solid, although I am not sure that these two are best served by long matwork sections. Probably better off going with armdrags and rope running. I understand that these guys are rookies working things out, and in 2010, I am not going to complain about matwork. Alan Extreme's tope into the stands was a legit "HOLY SHIT" moment (you can see Dhani Jones in the crowd looking pretty surprised), and the match was cooking along at a nice pace. Unfortunately the third fall was pretty sloppy and brings down the match quite a bit.

Oficial 911/Trauma I/Trauma II v Freelance/Jack/Ultraman Jr

TKG: This is one of the bigger Freelance performances of 2010. I haven’t seen an IWRG first fall worked like this in a while, where everyone matches up doing their own specialty (Coco Blanco works old school mat stuff with the mat worker of opposite team, Coco Rojo works powerhouse exchanges with opponents powerhouse, and Coco Verde does his green highflying with the highflyer on opposite team). This is how I would have liked to have seen the Eragon, Suicida, Freelance v Gringos VIP worked. I guess all three technico’s could have worked the technical exchange section but Jack isn’t a guy who you want in the brawling section (part of me would have liked them to have switched Ultraman and Jack’s role) and you want Freelance in your fast exchanges. So you get 6 minutes of Yack and Trauma II doing technical exchanges (about four minutes of them working and selling the legs and then two minutes of them switching up to working the arm/shoulder) with Trauma controlling the majority. This is followed by Freelance and Oficial 911 doing their fast exchange stuff followed by Trauma I lariating Ultraman jr dead. Trauma I also gets to do a nasty Argentine backbreaker into military press into quebradora drop on Freelance. Second fall is the rudos streetfight into isolating and double/triple teaming one tecnico at a time. Freelance is of course a guy who will fly around for this type of stuff. The big tecnicos come back spot here is supposed to happen when 911/Trauma I whip Ultraman Jr into ropes and he turns it into a tope to Trauma II. It is a super “HOLY SHIT” awesome spot. Unfortunately Ultraman Jr busts his jaw on the guard rail in the process. Third fall has tecnicos man down but Freelance calls for one on one matchup and the rudos are good sportsman, so Freelance gets one on one matches with each rudo where Freelance just hits everything at full blast. The Traumas win with a ridiculously nasty double team on Jack. Post match the Traumas beat up 911.

PAS: The way the acting category Emmy awards work, is that actors will submit individual episodes for consideration. If wrestling awards worked the same way this would be Freelance's submission for Flyer of the Year and Wrestler of the Year. Just a balls out awesome show. The difficulty, speed,height and agility were pretty much off the charts. Especially when he was matched up with 911, who felt like the Psicosis to his Rey in this match. I was also really impressed how well Freelance took over the match when Ultraman Jr. broke his mouth, I have seen plenty of trios matches collapse when a guy goes down, but the third fall was as on point as the first two. Freelance hasn't really had the kind of showcase matchups in 2010, he has disappeared for a while, his matches haven't always been recorded, but this was why you are excited to see him show up.

Dr Cerebro/Black Terry/Chico Che v Avisman/Hijo del Diablo/Gringo Loco

TKG: The booking to add Chico Che to this feud was super smart and really well executed. Adding a tecnico to this feud totally changes the dynamics and Chico Che was really the right tecnico. The feud went form being a rudo v rudo feud (which IWRG is great at running) into a native v foreign team feud (where nationalism unites heels/faces). That change effects the way everyone works. There is a fun vibe that adding a tecnico brings, and you really got the sense that Black Terry/Cerebro were actively enjoying having Chico Che with them. There are these awesome moments where both of them stand back with shit eating grins and direct Chico Che into abusing the foreigners. There is a point where Terry is punching Gringo Loco on the floor and then Chico Che lands a punch of his own on Gringo Loco. Terry lights up “hey you got this, let me do something else”. First fall is mostly Gringos dominated as they leave Cerebro, Terry and Che all bloody, this stretches into the second fall which develops into a real isolate and triple team one guy while keeping other faces away from action fall (except done on the floor instead of in the center of ring) until the tecnicos see an error and take advantage bloodying Avisman and Diablo and then a third fall which starts with tecnicos beating rudos in one on one exchanges (with Che beating the shit out of Avisman on floor, Cerebro really laying into Diablo and Che running through his big spots) back into a section where rudos try to remount control. Part of what makes this kind of classic lucha fight work is that there are not a lot of changes in momentum. Just long periods of one sided action where both teams look strong (for both dishing and eating beating). I imagine if you were to watch this match with a stop watch and a calculator, the heels would have taken more than 75% of the offense in a match where the heels win clean. But this is the furthest thing from a competitive squash. Part of that is the selling which is all about guys toughing it out by taking a giant beating waiting out an opening Chico Corrales style. When it works it works and here it really worked. The actual match finish with everyone but Diablo and Cerebro taken out by dives and Diablo reversing a rana into a desnucadora/slam was also a super cool clean finish that still left you wanting more.

PAS: Man was this filmed spectacularly. This is a gruesome gritty fight, and pretty much every camera shot looked like the cover of a 1987 issue of Wrestling Eye. Black Terry his great exhausted beaten bloody facial expressions. He looks like William Munney at the end of Unforgiven. This is a match with six great performances, Gringo Loco is on fire, beating people, bleeding and taking one of the craziest corner post bumps I have ever seen. It is the kind of thing Cassandro would wince at. Diablo is also great as kind of the rudo glue. He has been in a million seedy Tijuana brawls in his career and this kind of thing is right in his wheelhouse. Then we have Chico Che continuing his June '09 to June '10 run as one of the five best wrestlers in the world. He is just stupendous in this match, as the victim and the deliverer of beatings, and his signature rope running is a little bit of beauty in the ugly.

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Where the Miles are Marked in the Blood and Gold I'll Meet Black Terry Further on up the Road

Black Terry/Shu El Guerrero/Jose Luis Feliciano/El Texano/Ricky Boy v. Robin Hood/Los Ninja Turtles UWF 9/12/91-GREAT

This was just a totally entertaining match. This was 2/3 falls unlike a lot of Hamada UWF matches, so we got a nice long extended match. Very similar to the classic MPRO 10 man tags in the mid 90's, with a group of flashy technicos working fast and crazy spots with big bumping skilled rudos. All of the rudos looked really good, Terry works a couple of nice fast exchanges with Turtles, and we get to see a little asskicking as well. Robin Hood was a total standout on the technico side, he did similar spots to the Turtles, but everything was a little faster, a little slicker and with a little more height. I am a big Alverado family fan and he is definitely a guy I need to see more of. This is the kind of match pretty much everyone who likes wrestling would dig, if you are looking to dip your toe into lucha, this is pretty much perfect.

Black Terry/Pirata Morgan/Tóxico v. Brazo de Plata/Chico Che/Suicida IWRG 10/22/09-GREAT

TKG: Man! Man, this was the good stuff! So I was kind of expecting this to be guys doing a match of nothing but comedy spots and charisma but not expecting anything near this good. We saw Brazo de Plata live around the same time and he was enormous, I didn’t expect him to be able to leave his feet let alone do the flying take down of two heels spot or eating a ridiculous slam from Pirata (where Porky looks to go up rotate so he looks like he is falling head first and then follow through to land on back). Plata is a guy who knows how to work comedy but also knows how to work in and out of that comedy. Chico Che hurt himself in the ropes on a dive in the first fall, which leads to Black Terry spending the second fall blading him and working him over on the floor. Third fall is built around Chico Che bleeding like a stuck pig and fighting three on ones trying to get the tag. Lots of near tag spots with the refs missing the tag and lots of heels cutting off ring till Chico Che can get off his in ring shoulder tackle tope and every one goes at it. Really elaborate finish that makes you want to see a revancha.

PAS: Yeah this was a totally great match. Chico Che has a huge shit eating grin during the opening Porky dance, you can tell this is a dream come true for him. We start with some really slick Black Terry v. Suicida matwork. They are a pair of guys who have worked against each other for years, and they clearly have their stuff down pat. This is by far the best Toxico has ever looked, he is a guy who clearly spent a ton on his gear, but nothing on his training, but he looks perfectly mediocre brawling, and beat Suicida with a sick looking lifted flatliner. Third fall is truly awesome as Porky and Pirata start brawling, and Chico Che continues to be one of the best sympathy sellers in the world.

Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro v. Gringo Loco/El Hijo Del Diablo IWRG 2/7/10-EPIC

PAS: I am not usually a fan of lucha cage matches, but this wasn't worked like a normal lucha cage match. This was Slaughter/Kernodle v. Steamboat/Youngblood, four guys locked in a cage trying to beat each other to death. All four guys bleed a ton. Loco breaks out the cactus again, and they were really used like barbed wire boards, as people were taking nasty back bumps on them. Loco escapes first and comes back with a steel chair and all of the guys eat some nasty chair shots. The match ends up with Diablo and Terry, Diablo hits a martinete on a chair which is a finish to match.

TKG: I like lucha cage matches more than Phil. Once they get down to few enough people, I like the dynamic where participants are forced to choose between the loyalties to allies and the need for self preservation. At their best I also like the change in strategy from first ten minutes where participants are not allowed to escape and that ten minute mark where they can make a run for it. I thought they played into that really well here. The first ten minutes had Dr Cerebro working at (RIP) King of the Cage Rusher Kimura speed. He would stoically eat stuff and attack opponent with real slow deliberateness. No fast exchanges or speedy explosiveness. Just deliberately walking over and blasting guys. The ten minutes end and the race is on. He shifts up in speed but he can’t move at his normal full speed as he’s selling damage of first ten minutes. Sense that you are watching beat down marathoner trying to pick up speed to race for the finish line. I have watched a ton of lucha cage matches and this is the most I can ever remember that ten minute mark announcement and the shifts that result from it contributing to building the drama. Once guys finally do escape and it comes down to Terry and Hijo del Diablo, all the various attempts at outside interference are done really well and just raise the tension of the whole thing. But when it comes down to it, what matters is the final battle between Black Terry v Hijo Del Pirata. Everything else contributes to the drama but these guys needed to deliver, and fuck do they deliver.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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IWRG 2/28/10

HH of opener at http://www.youtube.com/user/tvluchadelpasado

Rest of show from Teleformula Tv show can be seen at cubsfans dailymotion page

http://www.dailymotion.com/search/IWRG#hp-h-9

IWRG on Segunda Caida

Alan Extreme/ Avisman v Eragon/ Pegasso Kid

TKG:First fall had a nice long section of Eragon and Avisman fighting for submissions, for pinfalls, for top wrist locks, etc. They really cranked in their stuff (including an awesome spot where Avisman cranked a ceiling hold) as they really got across the idea that they weren’t just putting on cool looking things but actually fucking with each other. Unfortunately, their opening fall interaction is really all you need to watch. Avisman had some nice stuff in the rest of the match too: his elbow drops were better than I ever remember them being; his stuff working over Eragon in corner was nice; the techincos do the second rope dropkick to taint double team (this time not as a receipt spot but as comedy one) and Avisman is really amusing doing the MX style rubbing of partner’s hurt ass to elicit anti-gay heat. But you got to slog through bad messy couple falls to find those couple bright spots.

PAS: In this match Avisman is back in his traditional role of veteran rudo to work long mat sections with younger guys. He has spent most of 2010 as a Gringo VIP working brawls, which he is fine in, but this is the best of Avisman. He and Eragon absolutely rip the mat to shreds, so many cool twist as both guys very realistically twist their opponent into ludicrous knots. You can safely stop watching after the first youtube section, as none of the rest of the match is worth watching. There is a long tradition in lucha libre of elaborate gimmicks and names, however for them to work I have to buy the wrestler really personifies his gimmick. At his best Satanico can truly feel like Satan himself has come to the ring to wreck havok, Blue Panther wrestles with the lithe speed of a jungle cat, if someone is going to work as Pegasso Kid in 2010, you had better make me believe you are crazy enough to choke your family to death, maybe prime Emilio Charles Jr. could pull it off, not the chump under this gimmick.

Chico Che v Gringo Loco v Tinieblas Jr v Zatura v Scorpio Jr v Hijo Del Signo v Veneno v Hijo De Pirata Morgan

TKG: This type of cage match is built around guys brawling and slapping each other around for ten plus minutes until the numbers get low enough to create some match structure. For 15 + minutes of guys smacking each other this was a good group of guys. Tinieblas Jr was once a guy whose appearances I used to absolutely dread. Some point around 02/03 he briefly worked heel and became a fun heavyweight who I look forward to seeing. And he’s pretty fun in the first ten minutes of pre-escape brawling. Just all of his offense looks good (well there is one awkward quebradora), a great drop kick, and has fun interactions with Veneno, Zatura, Scorpio Jr, Hijo del Signo and pretty much everyone in the ring outside of Hijo del Pirata (who spent huge chunks of match gently unlacing opponents masks). They did two sections of guys standing on top of third rope exchanging blows (one with Zatura v Hijo de Pirata and one with Veneno v Chico Che) and for a spot that can often come off contrived and awkward, I liked both of those sections. Eventually half of participants escape and we get two tecnicos and two rudos.

PAS: Really fun Chico Che performance, he was losing the match so he was going to take a beating, fight the odds and come close to escape before failing. He did all of those things well. His brawling with Veneno is some of the better Veneno in recent memory. I loved how they would exchange headbutts, and smacking the back of each others heads into the steel. Finish came down to Gringo Loco v. Chico Che, which is a long running feud and it was a pretty great finish run. I loved how Loco got beat around in this, even other rudos weren't going to team up with a guy in American flag pants.

Hijo Del Diablo v Oficial 911 v Angelico v Arlequin Amarillo v El Angel v Pirata Morgan v Jack v Mascara Ano 2000 Jr.

TKG: We don’t get the first ten minutes of this and well this isn’t a group of guy who you want to see trade blows as much as the last one. Well let me rephrase that cause I did enjoy Pirata and Oficial 911 trading blows. There are three tecnicos in this match (Angelico, Angel, and Jack), none of whom are particularly good brawlers. And for a match with eight guys squeezed in a small space there was way too much irish whipping and running exchanges. It’s an ugly mess. It eventually forms into something watchable once we’re down to three rudos and one tecnico. And then it becomes pretty awesome when it’s down to 911 and Hijo del Diablo. We get about six minutes of those two having a cool cage singles match filled with stiffness, mask ripping, blood, finish teases and big cage bumps.

PAS: I think I liked this more then Tom did. Angelico is awful here, but I think the match is pretty great when he gets eliminated. I like Jack in the role of the fast technico darting around avoiding the brusiers, and I also really dug the Pirata v. MA2K Jr. exchanges. Pirata wrapping his fist with Mascaras mask was a totally awesome little moment. This was another great performance by El Hijo Del Diablo as the last violent mini match with 911 was truly tremendous. I like how they weaved in the Cerebros v. Gringos Locos VIP feud by having Cerebro interfere.

Chico Che v Hijo del Diablo

TKG: This is a weird heel/face match structure. As Chico Che has had plenty of time to recover while Hijo Del Diablo is coming into this a bloody mess. So Hijo del Diablo works desperate underdog while Chico Che just whoops on him. Chico Che just hits Hijo Del Diablo with one big unanswered offensive move after another and then Hijo Del Diablo scurries desperately to fight to keep Che in the cage. Hijo del Diablo is struggling to get off the floor and then just digs deep to attack Che’s legs as Che tries to scurry out. Diablo tries to get the martinete on Che but doesn’t have the strength. Che goes for a martinete of his own but Diablo on his last legs wills himself to fight out. Diablo smartly gets Che next to ropes and uses the ropes to help lift and prop up the big Che for a martinete and then has to evade the outside interference of Dr Cerebro to escape. It is an a really dramatic "man fights against the odds to keep his hair" performance, although weird one for a rudo.

PAS: Don't get the booking at all, but it was pretty great stuff. Chico Che is awesome as a guy laying in a beating, and he really pummels the bloody Diablo. There is one point where he soccer kicks him in the face and you see the blood spray which was just a great visual moment. All the fighting for the martinete was really cool, and I would love to see these two guys in a longer proper hair match.

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IWRG 2/7/10

Show can be watched at http://www.youtube.com/user/tvluchadelpasado.

I would also recommend IWRG fans to check out the interviews at http://www.youtube.com/user/amolaluchalibre

IWRG on Segunda Caida

Alan Extreme v. Imperial

PAS: This really felt like two training partners debuting their touring match on an IWA-MS show. I almost expected Pirata Morgan to come out with a microphone and put over these two youngsters as the future of the business. For that match it was really well done, both guys have cool spots which they execute well with each other. Alan Extreme really broke out some nasty power moves, and landed the stiffest Matt Sydal/Miz corner clothesline I have seen.

TKG:Dinamic Black is Alan Extreme’s indy touring partner. This wasn’t as polished but still worked well together. Alan won this in two straight falls and worked a real tough (almost bruiser) heel cutting off underdog babyface. Phil mentioned the Miz/Sydal lariat in the corner but at different points in the match Alan also cuts Imperial off and wastes him with a nasty kick to the chest, does a thigh slapping face cracker where he launches his shins through Imperial’s face, and lariats Imperial’s legs off the apron. I’ve said before that Imperial is really good at charismatic underdog eating a beating and worth rewinding all these bits to see how Imperial sells them. I’m not sure if Alan Extreme v Guizmo would be as effective.

Avisman/El Hijo De Signo v. Heros/Eragon

PAS: This was a pretty awesome one man Avisman show. He is married with Heros who is game but lacking. First he leads him through a nice looking mat section where he twist and turns him all over. Then he kicks the shit out of him for the next couple of falls, while nicely eating all of his comebacks. Subpar performances by Eragon and Hijo Del Signo, both of whom I am souring on, but this totally worth checking out for kick ass Avisman.

TKG: At one point the complaint about Avisman was that he was really great at first fall stretching rookie, but not as good at second/third fall brawling and eating hot face offense. That is no longer the case. As he is really great in the second and third fall here. Eragon and Signo have a hard time moving from feeling out mat work straight into quick exchanges in first fall. But I liked what I think was an Eragon reversal of Avisman F5 thing in first fall (2:45 into second part) and Signo is good through most of the heel beating up faces falls. Eros may replace Imperial as my favorite Novato when it comes to selling a beating. I especially liked the point in the third fall when he is being lifted for the double team (2:50 in third) and he just goes scarecrow limp.

El Hijo Del Pirata/Trauma I/Trauma II v. El Hijo Del Pantera/Chico Che/Angel

PAS: Fun trios match, Traumas are pretty much unimpeachable at this point. They are just delivering every week. El Hijo Del Pirata is also on a big run of great matches. Not the strongest technico performance. Angel is pretty worthless, and Trauma II was stuck trying to work him on the mat. Both Chico Che and Hijo Del Pantera had fun rope running sections in the third fall, but didn't do a ton in the first two. Still the rudos are strong enough that you want to watch them wrestle.

TKG: The “Rudos get the better part of a street fight which leads to them isolating and triple teaming tecnicos., which gives other tecnicos time to recover and mount a comeback” match isn’t a match that demands a ton from the tecnicos. At best they should sell and be able to hit their third fall spots. Hijo del Pantera isn’t any good at selling but the Traumas are guys you want to watch in a streetfight and beating folks up. I was super impressed with Trauma I here. I expected him to match up in the end opposite Chico Che in a battle of powerhouses. Instead they match him up with the most juniory of opponents in Hijo del Pantera. Trauma I does a really good job of credibly selling for Hijo del Pantera potentially dainty looking offense.

Gringo Loco/El Hijo Del Diablo v. Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro

PAS: I am not usually a fan of lucha cage matches, but this wasn't worked like a normal lucha cage match. This was Slaughter/Kernodle v. Steamboat/Youngblood, four guys locked in a cage trying to beat each other to death. All four guys bleed a ton. Loco breaks out the cactus again, and they were really used like barbed wire boards, as people were taking nasty back bumps on them. Loco escapes first and comes back with a steel chair and all of the guys eat some nasty chair shots. The match ends up with Diablo and Terry, Diablo hits a martinete on a chair which is a finish to match.

TKG: I like lucha cage matches more than Phil. Once they get down to few enough people, I like the dynamic where participants are forced to choose between the loyalties to allies and the need for self preservation. At their best I also like the change in strategy from first ten minutes where participants are not allowed to escape and that ten minute mark where they can make a run for it. I thought they played into that really well here. The first ten minutes had Dr Cerebro working at (RIP) King of the Cage Rusher Kimura speed. He would stoically eat stuff and attack opponent with real slow deliberateness. No fast exchanges or speedy explosiveness. Just deliberately walking over and blasting guys. The ten minutes end and the race is on. He shifts up in speed but he can’t move at his normal full speed as he’s selling damage of first ten minutes. Sense that you are watching beat down marathoner trying to pick up speed to race for the finish line. I have watched a ton of lucha cage matches and this is the most I can ever remember that ten minute mark announcement and the shifts that result from it contributing to building the drama. Once guys finally do escape and it comes down to Terry and Hijo del Diablo, all the various attempts at outside interference are done really well and just raise the tension of the whole thing. But when it comes down to it, what matters is the final battle between Black Terry v Hijo Del Pirata. Everything else contributes to the drama but these guys needed to deliver, and fuck do they deliver.

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IWRG 10/29/09

Pendulo/Mascara Magnifica v. Maldito Jr./Samot

TKG: This starts with some really fun Samot v Mascara Magnifica exchanges, some real pretty arm drags, then we get two on one beatings of Magnifica while keeping Pendulo out of the ring. Pendulo is fun as fired up babyface trying to get into ring, trying to attack against the odds, etc. But outside of the fire he doesn’t get to do much and looks off in a couple points.

PAS: I really like the Samot and Maldito Jr. team, they have really gotten good at the fat heel tag team. They remind me of a lucha Don Bass and Dirty Rhodes. They just kill the technicos in the first fall, chucking them around and hitting them with big throws and clotheslines. The second fall was like that too, although I liked how the technicos got their comeback with Magnifica hitting a really fast crazy dive, and Pendulo getting a trip and an armbar. Third fall was a little more back and forth which isn’t as good as when the heel dominated, but still fine. Solid stuff.

Avisman/Gringo Loco/El Hijo Del Diablo v. Bushi/Chico Che/Suicida

TKG: Not a ton happens in the first fall here. Avisman has some nice sections opposite Buschi and it’s kind of shitty that after all their work together All Japan hires some other luchador to work Buschi in Japan. Avisman could use a Japanese payday. Second fall Avisman looks to shoot headbutt Chico Che open and the match moves into a higher gear. Chico Che starts chasing Avisman to give him a receipt and then destroys Gringo Loco. Third fall has Chico Che doing some crazy Mascarita Sagrada level fast headscissors and exchanges with all the heels and we have crazy multiple dive trains from all your tecnicos.

PAS: Chico Che was an absolute superstar in this match, just a tremendous performance. I have talked a bunch before about how great he is selling as a bloodied babyface. Avisman is just vicious ripping him open and when Chico Che sees red he goes off. His opening exchanges in the third fall was some of the most spectacular, fast and beautiful lucha I can remember seeing and he does it all perfectly in the context of a bloody brawl. Che has had a great 2010 so far, and it looks like his 2009 might have been just as special

Dr. Cerebro/Cerebro Negro/Black Terry v. Trauma I/Trauma II/Ultraman Jr.

TKG: This starts with Dr Cerebro and Ultraman Jr doing technical exchanges built around trading nasty arm wringer variations. Then Black Terry matches up with Trauma I and Cerebro Negro matches up with Trauma II doing exchanges of submissions. Trauma puts on a submission that hurts the opponent can’t escape but won’t tap to, and then opponent slaps on submission that works the same body part. This whole thing is really made by both Terry and Cerebro Negro’s selling. Second fall is the fast exchange fall and these are superfast Gods Must Be Crazy stop motion animation fast exchanges. Black Terry and Ultraman Jr look to blow a bunch of things but they keep going and the awkwardness gives a real violent feel to the fast exchange section as they look to be forcing each other into stuff. That’s the sense you get throughout this fall as it’s super stiff and super fast. Things may be moving so fast that these guys can’t perform as smoothly as you normally see in most “quick exchange” caidas. Third fall also has some rough moments but these guys are professionals and know how to make that add to the feel of an actual fight. Like Tina Turner these guys can do nothing nice and easy, they’re all about the nice and rough.

PAS: Dinastia De La Muerte v. Terrible Cerebros was the feud of the year in IWRG in 2009, this was that match up with Ultraman Jr. replacing Negro Navarro. That is a huge step down it talent, as Ultraman Jr. is slightly above average and Navarro was the best wrestler in the world in 2009. It kind of works in this match though, as Navarro's absence forces the Traumas to step up huge and really become the focus of the match. The opening mat sections were long and awesome, that kind of machismo mat wrestling, where guys show their skill by tying up and then releasing their opponent can be overdone in IWRG, but it is really great here. Everyone sells pain and frustration tremendously, and you really buy this as a test of machismo, no one is going to tap and they are all desperate to prove the more skilled luchadore. Tom was right about the ragged awesomeness of the second and third falls, it gets faster and more violent and more reckless and it feels like it is going to spiral completely out of control. I have no problem with a low blow finish, but this felt like it should have built to a total explosion, and the finish deflated it a bit. Still a tremendous match, right up there with the best matches of 2009.

Pirata Morgan/Toxico/Hijo Del Pirata Morgan v. Brazo De Plata/911/Fiero


TKG: So it's Pirata Family and Toxico v Team Pig, which is an odd match up as you wouldn't expect Porky and the Oficiales to work as a team. But Porky and Pirata have issues and Oficiales having issues with Jr Piratas and somehow the whole dynamic of Super Porky as Commando Zero with Oficiales ends up working. Brazo again goes up for the big slam from Pirata and does a splash from apron to floor. Him and 911 do an amusing comedy spot built around them stopping the match to preplan how they will handle being irish whipped into each other (heels do same thing only to both go for leapfrogs and crash). Fierro is also really fun in this, fighting back from three on ones, doing an in ring baseball slide to avoid a clothesline, hitting a big tope, throwing some nasty clotheslines and covering for Toxico's more creative nonsense.

PAS: This was the least match on the show which is really no slur considering how great this show was. Toxico doesn't even come in with his spark shooting gimmick, so he serves zero purpose. Porky as the third Oficiale really is great, you get a sense you could stick Porky in a trios with any two good luchadores and he can tailor his shtick to make it work. Hijo Del Pirata looked better then usual too, as he executed all of the horseshit well and was cracking people with his superkick.

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IWRG 10/22/09

La Rata v. Exodia

TKG: I don’t think I’ve seen La Rata in over a decade. Was he always this bad? I think one of the problems with the DVD revolution is that everything looks so clean. La Rata with live rats on his head on a third generation dubbed videotape off Mexican TV really looked scummy. On a DVD on an HD flatscreen, the rats just look clean and well cared for. I’ve also seen Crispin Glover sing Ben, and it takes more than one rat in someone’s hair to make me go “ick”.

PAS: This maybe one of the only Exodia matches I have ever seen where he didn’t seriously injure himself. Considering how awkward and sloppy La Rata looked you wouldn’t think this would be the match he would break his streak.

El Hijo del Diablo & Gringo Loco vs. Pendulo & Star Boy

PAS: I wasn’t expecting this to be much, as Gringo Loco didn’t seem to catch fire in his 2009 stuff, but this was surprisingly great. Star Boy is both the ugliest and talented of the guys working stripper gimmicks in the indies and he looked totally awesome, working some very fast exchanges with both rudos. Pendulo had some cool roll ups. Diablo is tremendous and this was his debut in the Gringo gimmick, his stuff lands with a nice thud and he really is really expressive in everything he does.

TKG: I thought Pendulo was more hit and miss than usual but Star Boy was hitting everything on all cylinders. His opening mat exchanges with Diablo were really cool, as were his last fall opening quick exchanges with Gringo Loco (they do an awesome sweep the leg spot), all his highflying was really violent looking and he gets huge height for a guy who looks like he’d have trouble getting off a barstool. Both the technicos and the rudos try to counter getting thrown into their own partners through a whole series of “grab your partner doesy doe spins” only for the tecnicos to catch the rudos in a star. This match put a big smile on my face.

Black Terry, Pirata Morgan, Tóxico vs. Brazo de Plata, Chico Che, Suicida

TKG: Man! Man, this was the good stuff! So I was kind of expecting this to be guys doing a match of nothing but comedy spots and charisma but not expecting anything near this good. We saw Brazo de Plata live around the same time and he was enormous, I didn’t expect him to be able to leave his feet let alone do the flying take down of two heels spot or eating a ridiculous slam from Pirata (where Porky looks to go up rotate so he looks like he is falling head first and then follow through to land on back). Plata is a guy who knows how to work comedy but also knows how to work in and out of that comedy. Chico Che hurt himself in the ropes on a dive in the first fall, which leads to Black Terry spending the second fall blading him and working him over on the floor. Third fall is built around Chico Che bleeding like a stuck pig and fighting three on ones trying to get the tag. Lots of near tag spots with the refs missing the tag and lots of heels cutting off ring till Chico Che can get off his in ring shoulder tackle tope and every one goes at it. Really elaborate finish that makes you want to see a revancha.

PAS: Yeah this was a totally great match. Chico Che has a huge shit eating grin during the opening Porky dance, you can tell this is a dream come true for him. We start with some really slick Black Terry v. Suicida matwork. They are a pair of guys who have worked against each other for years, and they clearly have their stuff down pat. This is by far the best Toxico has ever looked, he is a guy who clearly spent a ton on his gear, but nothing on his training, but he looks perfectly mediocre brawling, and beat Suicida with a sick looking lifted flatliner. Third fall is truly awesome as Porky and Pirata start brawling, and Chico Che continues to be one of the best sympathy sellers in the world.


Flor Metalica vs. Atsuko Emoto

TKG: This is a show that didn’t look like much on paper but outside of the opener has delivered the goods. This isn’t a particularly good match but it is a really fun spectacle. This is worked very much joshi style where the whole match is built around seconds interference. In lucha you expect the ref to throw out the seconds or the commissioner to throw out the ref or something. In joshi the face’s seconds would constantly run in and interfere on the heels’s seconds interference. But this is lucha where the ref had to pretend not to see stuff, and Metalica’s second had to play Robert Gibson role of guy distracting the ref with complaints. I don’t know how much johsi or RnR Express Bushi has seen but he didn’t add much. Still Flor Metalica took a beating (Emoto would braid her hair into a pony tail before hair mareing her around ring) , bled a bunch and would comeback with nasty crowbar offense and a spectacularly stiff silla dive.

PAS: This was tremendously entertaining stuff although I am not sure how good it was. Flor Metlaica gets triple teamed choked and bloodied with chain, and she fires back with some absolutely teeth loosening shots. Emoto apparently fights MMA and I don’t know if anyone in Smackgirl hit her harder then she got hit with that corner clothesline. Tom was really accurate about the style clash, Emoto isn’t particularly good at LCO joshi shtick, but even that shtick done well wouldn’t really fit in lucha libre.

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IWRG 1/10/10

2. Imperial/Dinamic Black v Comando Negro/Alan Extreme

TKG: Alan Extreme and Dinamic Black are clearly guys who trained together, perhaps brothers and they have their stuff against each other down. I haven’t had much good to say about either one against anyone else but they had a Willow Wisp v Surge level of polish. I’m not a big fan of touring matches but they structure the tag match around their stuff really well. The structure of the tag match means they do some switching up but it’s kind of kept to a minimum and really is done in a way that keeps both of them from being exposed. There is some goofy stuff in this match, Imperial being the guy who deadlifts Comando Negro for Dinamic Black’s front cracker feels like the wrong guy in the wrong position on a double team but this is the best “second match on the card” that we’ve seen in 2010.

PAS: This class of young guys have had individually strong moments, or good secondary performances, but this is their first really good match. Tom was right about Alan Extreme and Dinamic Black, they really have their stuff down and it is some nice looking stuff. I also liked how Negro and Imperial matched up, they also worked well together in a way which didn't look as rehearsed. Good building first fall with nice matwork and standing exchanges, solid beat down second fall, building into a big move third fall with some crazy dives (Alan Extreme does a twisting spinning top rope quebrada which was Flip Kendrick crazy), this is lucha libre right here.

3. Hijo Del Diablo/ Gringo Loco/ Masada v Chico Che/ Eragon/ Hijo del Pantera

PAS: This was really a match of peaks and valleys. When Chico Che is on, he is one of the most fun wrestlers in the world to watch. I love an agile fat dude, and his flying spots look great, floats in the air on his headscissors and splashes and moves shockingly quick for a big dude. I can't remember the last time I have seen Masada, but he is a welcome addition to the Gringos team, he is really expressive and charismatic, and he pulls off simple stooging and shtick so well. He also isn't afraid to take a weak Eragon tope by flying backwards through six rows of chairs. So a lot of good in this match, still there was some bad, a couple of spots near the end of the first fall get blown badly, and the big comeback face brawling didn't look good at all. El Hijo Del Pantera has some strenghts, but asskicking is not one of them.

TKG: Yeah I can't say enough about how fun this rudo team is. On the 1/7 show I described Eragon as a guy who is awesome at primera caida technical exchanges and not knowing what to do in the other two falls. The more I watch I think it’s less that he doesn’t know how to fill time in caida 2 and 3 then it is that he actually is uncomfortable drawing attention to himself there and kind of works tentative trying to fade into the background. Gringo Loco, Hijo del Diablo, and Mazda are super shticky stoogeing bumping guys who really do everything to make the technico look effective and won’t allow him to fade into the background. Eragon does do the really odd move of being the tecnico who looses all chop exchanges, which only works if you’re doing really underdog tecnico and I don’t think he’ll ever be able to pull off. I really like the pairing of Chico Che and Eragon but this could have used Rigo. Maybe they could regimmick Eragon as Perez Prado or replace the dragons on his mask with Farsifa Organs.

4. Dr Cerebro v Bushi (IWRG IC light title)

PAS: This was a really odd match, I am not 100% sure how I feel about it. Dr. Cerebro is an amazing performer, but this is the second singles match in a row which has felt really strange. For most of this match Cerebro was just squashing Bushi. It almost felt like a guy on his way out Mid-South wrestling. The handhelds which Black Terry Jr. are really awesome, you get a great close up look at how lucha is performed, when Cerebro applied his crazy upside submission to win the first fall, we really get a great view of exactly how it is applied. The first half of the second fall is also dominated by Cerebro, but then they go into a weird 2.9 section. Cerebro hits an insane top rope uranage for a two count, and Bushi hits the next move, all of a sudden this was a 2002 Chris Daniels match. Finish is kind of odd too, Bushi hits a tope, just smashing Cerebro into rows of chairs, while Cerebro is selling his thigh and the ref is distracted, El Hijo Del Diablo hits a martinete on Bushi, rolls Cerebro into the ring and he wins in two straight falls. So after being eaten alive by Cerebro for most of the match, Bushi leaves the country looking strong because it took two guys to beat him. You would also think this would lead to Bushi v. Diablo in a hair match or something, but Bushi is on a plane the next day. Lots of good stuff in the match, but this wasn't a good match.

TKG: I dug this more than Phil but it still is problematic match. I described Avisman as working like a “poor man’s Dr Cerebro”in his title match with Bushi so I was expecting a lot more from this. Dr Cerebro really dominates the first fall and it’s a really cool matwork fall as everything feels less cooperative than it often does (Cerebro and Bushi appear to be forcing their ways into and out of holds) and you don’t see either releasing holds on their own. Dr Cerebro isn’t Avisman (guy who can be beat off the ropes) as Dr Cerebro is a pretty solid highflyer himself. And it felt like the rope running fall was being worked as the highflying equivalent of volume puncher v power puncher where Bushi would try to overwhelm Cerebro with the speed and volume of his aerial stuff while Cerebro would slow Bushi down with harder stuff.. It’s more complex story than the Avisman one and I don’t think the match fully accomplished getting it across. For a match that was really one sided, it did accomplish giving you the sense that both Dr Cerebro was tough for being so dominant and Bushi was tough for surviving that level of beating.

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