Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 5/9/15

1. Fuerza Guerrera vs. Super Crazy vs. El Mariachi vs. Rocky Romero

This was the main event of the 2/28/15 show in San Francisco. This show was hyped and advertised around a main event of Super Crazy vs. Juventud Guerrera but to the shock of not one person who follows lucha libre at all, Juvy did not show up and instead sent his father in his place. Now if I had gone to this show I personally would have been way more excited, as seeing Fuerza in a high school gym sounds way more interesting than whatever underactive performance Juvy likely would have put on. I've already seen Juvy in this fed and the most amusing thing was seeing what he could do without actually having to bump. If I'm going to see somebody work Buddy Landell no kneepads style, I'd choose Fuerza over the Juice. Of course, Fuerza vs. Crazy sounds INFINITELY more interesting than what we're getting here: Not only a 4 way, but with the two additions being these two duds. Talk about being elated when Fuerza comes out, to that major kick in the dick when Romero comes out. We'll see.

Annnnnnnd this match was pretty much a total mess. Everybody but Mariachi works rudo, which falls flat when they're all working each other. Crowd was noticeably less heated than normal. Oh, but Mariachi comes back at the end of the match after his elimination to do a heel turn. So that solves that? Fuerza is the first man eliminated, so when the most interesting person in a match is gone halfway through that will never help things. Romero tries to work stooging comedy heel which - believe it or not - may actually be his worst hat. I know it's hard fathoming just what Rocky Romero is worst at, but working stooge comedy when you have zero presence or charisma is just tragic. Romero excels at being bad, but there's an additional layer of badness because he seems to have no idea WHY something he's doing might not work. I have seen Mariachi several times now and he's just not good. He goes through the motions of lucha, but really just doesn't have any substance of any kind to his stuff. His execution isn't good, he routinely blows up midway through every match I've seen him in, he has no idea how to work tecnico or rudo, and he's sluggish even early in matches, his headscissors and armdrags are sloppy and implausible...he's just not good. The promotion routinely pushes him as one of their four top stars, but even they have no idea what to do with him as sometimes he's a rudo, sometimes he's a tecnico, rarely is he over. They gave him a female valet for awhile, had him giving out sombreros, any desperate trick. It hasn't worked.

So we get this elimination match, with three rudos and a poor tecnico who eventually turns, no real focus, no real plan. Fuerza is 60 years old, but did more than you possibly could have hoped for. He still throws a mean right hand and in this match he threw a couple dozen of them; seeing him wander around throwing those rights was easily the best part of the match. For his part, at least Romero did a couple decent spit takes after taking Fuerza's punches. Fuerza didn't really bump much, but damn the dude is 60. Who needs to bump at 60? My dad is 60 and hates walking more than a couple blocks. So really watching Fuerza punch Romero a bunch and kick him in the balls was worth the price of admission. Crazy tried some things here, some of it looked really good (real nice big tumbling bump to the floor, awesome tornillo elbow drop) and some of it didn't like his tarantula that took ages to apply. We've gone over Mariachi and how he's just not good, and Romero worked as expected. He threw one of the worst elbow drops I've seen. Once Fuerza got eliminated halfway through we then went into awkward 3 way dance mode and really Crazy can probably be held accountable more than most for my eyes still having to see fucking 3 way dances in 2015. Mariachi is next out and then in a completely nonsensical move comes back later to cost Romero the pinfall even though Romero was no more responsible for Mariachi's elimination than anybody else, and Mariachi had mostly paired off with Crazy. Just a limp dick finish to a match that had already gotten pretty brutal once Fuerza vamoosed.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution 3/28/15 Workrate Report

The show starts with a really nice, well put together Perro Aguayo tribute video. Really nice stuff and I'm still just stunned by his passing. Like it just does not seem real. Really makes me extremely aware of how close to death any of us are at any given moment. It's humbling and frightening

1. El Mariachi vs. Derek Sanders (6/8/14)

Boy this feud is just dead in the water. I've seen them wrestle several times, and nothing about the matches ever feels different. I watched their hair vs. mask match and it was worked exactly the same as all of their other matches. And just like those matches this is an 8 minute match shown as the entirety of a 30 minute program. We get a long La Migra entrance and promo, which is just like all of the other ones with Derek Sanders telling the audience to SHUT UP for several minutes, and then saying that Mexicans are bad and the US is the best, really compelling stuff. Then commercials and Mariachi entrance and Mariachi tossing sombreros to whatever side is loudest, and then ANOTHER La Migra entrance and more commercials. Match started about 17 minutes into the program. I mean, we really needed to show Derek Sanders saying that he dislikes Mexicans, as many viewers could have misconstrued The Border Patrol's true intentions.

Match itself was actually the best match I've witnessed of theirs, with Mariachi actually showing presence and aggression that I haven't seen before. He came after Sanders right at the bell, and throughout the match kept going for his tornado DDT, almost trying to work it into being an "out of nowhere" finisher like the Diamond Cutter. First he tried to run up the corner with it, later the ropes, later on the floor tries to run up the apron and hit it. It lends an immediacy to things and I like it. He hits several nice armdrags that Sanders takes nicely. However, since I've seen their other matches I had a feeling which direction things were going, and sure enough it's only a matter of time before La Migra ref Sparky Ballard pulls up lame with a sore shoulder after a 2 count, and then hero ref Tom Castor runs out to deal with him. Out of all the things this fed can steal from real, actual lucha, their insistence on making referees stars that are paramount to their wrestlers is just maddening. I cannot think of a dumber reoccuring theme in all of the lucha I have watched. So of course that's a trademark that they have to lift, a tradition they have to carry on. So Tom Castor gets the biggest hero moment of the match, dispatching Ballard, but it's all for naught as Sanders punts Mariachi in the balls in all the referee chaos and that's that. I really cannot stand all the stuff with the refs, as it can never build to anything interesting, and it just seems so stupid to me to build all the biggest heat around one ref, and the big hero spot around another. So yes, match itself was fine and their best match-up together, but then end was a predictable crap pile. There is really nothing left in this feud and I really hope they stopped being booked against each other. 

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 2/7/15

Another match from their 6/8/14 show in Watsonville, and after this one there's only Blue Demon vs. Pirata Morgan that hasn't been shown on that card. Boy they've really made that card last damn near two months now.

1. Mask vs. Hair: El Mariachi vs. Derek Sanders

Boy this was disappointing. A hate stip matches that never actually do anything to feel like stip matches. This just felt like a regular match these two would have had, that happened to end in Sanders getting his head shaved. Mariachi was especially bad as he didn't change up his routine in the least, worked this match the same way I've seen him work every other match. There was never any desperation from either man, no struggle, just a regular match that happened to have one participant's mask at stake. Mariachi genuinely worked the match as if he had no idea anything at all was at stake. The big hero of the match was made out to be referee Tom Castor, who ran out halfway through and triumphantly threw rudo ref Sparky Ballard over the top to the floor, even though up until that point Ballard had called the match pretty normally. There was one moment where he kind of argued with Mariachi which led to Sanders ambushing him. Other than that, nothing. It was a real weird moment that had Sanders pull Ballard in the way of a Mariachi missile dropkick, bumping Ballard. Then Sanders hit a move and went for the pin and got the visual 3 count, but Ballard was still selling the dropkick. Then Castor ran out and tossed Ballard. So we get the rudo getting the visual 3 (and then some), and then the hero ref runs in so I guess things will be more fair for Sanders? Real clunky stuff. Sanders looked good throughout this, really liked some of his punches (even shook out his fist after an especially nice one) but by the end this turned to your move/my move, with no drama. Mariachi did not look great throughout, though I liked his tornado DDT that ended the match, so finishing on a nice looking move counts for something. Still, very disappointing when what should be a major stipulation ends up getting worked like other matches I've seen between the two. Man Mariachi is not good. He's real sloppy when he tries to do "lucha" spots (real ugly springboard armdrag…thing…in this), and he does goofy stuff like a horrible people's elbow variation that sees him slam Sanders, then do a way too long zapateado before leaping into an elbow drop. Not only would it look silly in a normal match, it looked completely idiotic for a tecnico to be doing it in a match with his mask at stake. Horrible stuff, disappointing and clueless match.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 12/27/14

More matches from the 6/8/14 Watsonville show, more hilarious use of paid time. Show starts off with a 3 minute Mariachi promo, then him standing in the ring while a loooong Mexican fight song plays in its entirety, then La Migra comes out and beats him down, and then commercials, and then more wrestlers get their full entrance for a match, and then they cut looooong promos. And our first match of the half hour program ends up going on 17 minutes into the show. Last week they had advertised Mariachi vs. Sanders mask vs. hair, but I assume with so little time left in the show that all we'll end up getting is that opening "Mariachi stands in ring while music plays". Think about that. Let's break it down. Let's say they get their time REALLY cheap. I have no idea what paid TV time on a Saturday morning costs, but let's say for this exercise it costs $200 per half hour. Now 8 minutes of that half hour is commercials, so really it's $200 for 22 minutes. You showed a guy standing in the ring while listening to a Mexican fight song for 150 of your 1,320 seconds. That means IF you are paying $200 per half hour of programming, then you just paid over $20 to air that. This kind of time wasting blows my mind.

1. JR Kratos & "El Chicano" Memo Cuevas vs. Los Campesinos

Well, this match happened. It was kind of clunkily structured as we start with a long heel-in-peril segment with both Campesinos working over Cuevas. I have seen one other not good match with Los Campesinos, and here they looked somewhat better but still sloppy. They both throw really ugly and poorly timed armdrags. I would have been somewhat hesitant to blame the armdrags on both of them, as Cuevas could have been responsible for taking them poorly, but they threw them this badly in the other match I saw them in. Again the promotion is obviously billed as lucha libre, but nothing in this match (or most of their matches) would ever be mistaken for lucha style. This match was just bad American indy wrestling. Campesinos may dress like luchadors, but they aren't fooling *THIS* guy. They just do a bunch of bland dropkick/arm drag/arm wringer spots. They basically wrestle like an AWA jobber tag team. Kratos is a big local guy I like a lot, and he got some fun moments of throwing Los Camps around (big deadlift fallaway slam is impressive, as Los Camps weren't tiny guys). Cuevas was more of a sneaky heel but he doesn't really have schtick, he just had to run into Los Camps (often) poorly timed double teams. He took their implausible double arm lift slam finisher with speed and impact. This whole thing just wasn't much.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 12/13/14

This week we get the main event cage match from the 5/24/14 show in Turlock…

1. Brian Cage & Derek Sanders vs. Blue Demon Jr. & El Mariachi

…and it was not good. The match was about 90% Demon's team, and the cage was actually used as a "weapon" one time. So essentially it was a Texsa Tornado match that happened to take place in a cage. The promotion was clearly pushing this as an epic war, going to the "15 minutes have elapsed, 15 minutes" call approximately 8 minutes into the match (which came barely 2 minutes after the "10 minutes elapsed" call). So that either means 1) they were lying about the match time for…reasons? 2) they clipped the match to air on television (though I didn't see any parts where clipping was apparent), or 3) they clipped the actual match, yet left in the complete ring intros and singing of the national anthem. This match didn't start until the 11 minute mark of the 30 minute broadcast, meaning if they actually DID cut out some of the match it was so they could show full rings entrances, Mexican vs. American promos, Demon standing in the ring while the Mexican national anthem plays, etc. So obviously option 3 would be the most hilariously inept option. Yeah.

So the match itself goes about 12 minutes (or I'm sure 35 if announced by the promotion), and most of the match is Demon's team in control. During brief moments of La Migra gaining control, Demon can't be bothered much to sell or take bumps. He can't even do a back bump off a Cage clothesline, instead falling on his butt with his arm out, the same way you'd fall if you slipped while walking downhill. Midway through Brian Cage escapes, leaving the classic situation of two tecnicos ganging up on the rudo back in the cage. Demon eventually leaves the cage because Cage lures him out by taunting him. Which is kind of hilarious and really plays up the hubris of Demon. Here he and Mariachi have the 2 on 1 advantage over Sanders, but Cage saying he's too scared to come out and fight him followed by Demon actually coming out of the cage and running after Cage makes Demon out to be a laughably insecure twerp. Odd booking decision there. Back in the ring we eventually have heel turn swerve when Demon/Mariachi's second turns on Mariachi allowing Sanders to win. It was telegraphed from the beginning with La Migra having no second, yet some guy under a mask we've never seen before suddenly accompanying Demon. Just a mess of a match.

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MJL: Hijo del Santo vs Blue Panther 3: Fuerza Guerrera/Blue Panther/Espanto Jr./Psicosis vs Hijo del Santo/Octagon/El Mariachi/El Mexicano

Either 1994-12-8 or 1996-8-19
Fuerza Guerrera/Blue Panther/Espanto Jr./Psicosis vs Hijo del Santo/Octagon/El Mariachi/El Mexicano

I'm not sure about the date here. It's a big difference if I'm trying to watch the matches I have available to me in order, but I suppose in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter all that much. It's either twenty years old or eighteen years old. It's also one of those cases where I just can't be sure if what I've been watching is just very, very average or if this was very, very good. I'm a few months into the project now but I've just not delved backwards too much. This had even different generations of luchadors than what I've been used to and while some of the general principles were the same (anticipation!), the match was given more time and room to breathe than a lot of what I see these days, and the level of skill and experience involved here was just off the charts. The match was constant action, with a visceral beatdown and spirited comeback. I've found that eight-man matches can really take things into a different gear due to the extra bodies in the ring.

Mexicano and Mariachi, as far as I can tell, were part of a group with El Charo. Mexicano had been using the gimmick forever and had super cool pants, but Mariachi was actually Solar I with a nice mask that had a music note on it, a tendency to dance, and all the skill of, well, Solar I. Once again I am thankful for luchawiki on this because trying to google "mexicano" and "lucha" was not the most fruitful thing in the world. Both of them were very good at their roles and had a real connection with the crowd. Mariachi took the brunt of punishment in the beatdown. Espanto, of course, was Santo's long time rival. He had lost his mask to him in a great match from 86 but still wore a mask here for most of the match. I suppose that's the sort of thing a rudo can get away with? It's a great mask so I don't really blame him.

There's just too much to note in this match. I can't begin to hit it all. Let's start with structure. There was a long primera which was set up in a series of switch exchanges, with things breaking down and reforming. In the last Santo trios I saw, there were clear demarcations in style between the different pairings. Here, there was much less of that. Maybe Blue Panther and Mexicano did more matwork and Santo and Psicosis turned up the pace a bit, but it was all pretty much along the same lines in the end, with an amazing level of fluidity as one exchange smoothly led into the next, really no matter who was in the ring. The tecnicos take the first fall after a great finishing sequence. What truly made the match work, however, was the way this primera led into the beatdown. Early into the segunda, the rudos finally got an advantage and the pressed it, using the numbers game to isolate Mariachi. They beat the hell out of him, ripping at the mask, bloodying him, biting and swarming and pounding while they kept his partners out of the ring. I feel like there's an element of pressure building up in lucha. During the primera where the tecnicos were winning exchanges, this was building up and up. Then it was unleashed upon Mariachi, and as it was, the pressure began to build again. It paid off in the tercera with Mariachi ducking a double clothesline and coming back just enough for his partners to storm the ring. The moments of revenge were both brutal and sweet with mask ripping and righteous fury, but ultimately, the tecnicos made a huge mistake in the form Mexicano accidentally hitting a dive on Octagon. That allowed Psicosis to hit the most insane senton ever onto a prone Santo on the floor and his partners to swarm Mariachi once again. This time they get the mask off, losing the match, but very much winning the war.

There was too much to note and too many great moments to mention. Panther locked on a hugely cool hold on Mexicano that he had to keep handstanding out of. They even shook at the end of their exchange. Psicosis brought not just the crazy senton but also a couple of huge bumps over the top. Fuerza was all over the place with his usual dickishness, including two pretty blatant fouls when he was holding up an opponent. Santo was smooth as hell, just floating around the ring like he was as light as air. He ended the primera by hitting his big somersault senton on Psicosis (who had just missed one on his own) that goes right into the tope suicida by the corner on another opponent. Fuerza bumped all over the ting. Mariachi had these cool throat thrusts on the outside. Mexicano did a very fun flip from inside of the ring to the outside on his feet. Psicosis finished the segunda with a weird frog-splash elbow drop.

The match had a ton of character moments too. In the primera, Santo drew "Ole"s from the crowd by dodging Psicosis and his horned mask like he was a bull. Espanto fooled Mariachi with a handshake and later on Psicosis actually took over the match by hitting a dropkick after teasing a test of strength. Mariachi had the well-placed dancing. Octagon wasn't fooled by a handshake and instead did a look high-punch low to the stomach that was so good they actually replayed it. Espanto had almost gotten Santo's mask off and during the comeback Santo returned the favor by unmasking him so he had to wrestle the rest of the match without it. I could go on and on here. There was so much cool stuff and all of it was very fluid and fit perfectly within the formula.

Obviously, the finish was there to set up another match. Santo ended up on a gurney and then, because this is wrestling and wrestling is awesome, attacked by the gurney as the rudos just wouldn't let up. To my still somewhat uninitiated eyes, this was the good stuff.

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Uprising: Lucha Libre Workrate Report 7/19/14

This week they show more matches from the SF show we went to on 2/22/14. At least they're showing matches, plural, as opposed to stretching an 11 minute match out to fill 30 minutes.

Pistolero vs. El Campesino

I believe both of these guys are Pro Wrestling Revolution trainees. I've seen Pistolero before and he seemed fine, and this would be my first time seeing Campesino. We did not see this match live as we felt it was more important to savor our delicious meal at Papito than rush over to see an opener. I'm pretty sure this was the only match that happened before the woman's 3 way (that I wrote up a couple weeks back). I really liked Pistolero in this. He doesn't really work a "lucha libre" style but instead more of an American indy style (especially with his snap mare into big kick to the back), but he has nice chops, cuts low on a clothesline, commits to missing a big elbow off the top, feeds Campesino's armdrags well, and hits a mean Tenryu-style falling clothesline that had a bunch of speed and force behind it. Campesino didn't show me tons here, but didn't look bad. He didn't really have offense, instead doing some armdrags and sunset flip variations to win. I'd really like to see Pistolero against somebody else. His style would work easily with almost any worker, and while I'm not sure how long he's been working, he definitely had some polish.

El Mariachi vs. "La Migra" Derek Sanders

Live I remember this match being an evenly worked affair with no cheating, just two guys working a normal match, and with Mariachi coming off like the whiniest tecnico possible always whining about not getting a fair shake during the match. Here's what I wrote the other week about the promotion always making tecnicos look weak:

"Later in the live card there was a match between Border Patrol member Derek Sanders, against clear tecnico El Mariachi. I mean, he was the obvious tecnico, coming out in full mariachi gear in front of a 85% hispanic crowd, doing a stylish zapateado with his intricately dressed valet, facing a guy who came out shouting about sending Mexicans back home. And all through the match you had El Mariachi yelling at his valet, complaining about interference to the ref, and then threatening to break up with his valet when he lost. The thing is, there WAS no interference, and he lost 100% clean to Sanders. So your big tecnico just whined the whole match and then blamed his loss on his chica, and the promotion genuinely thought he would leave to a polite ovation from the fans. I mean just a completely clueless way to book tecnicos."

Watching the match again and match itself was better than I remember, with a finish way more confusing than I originally thought. Sanders looked good in this, working around the limited Mariachi. Mariachi worked a lot of headlocks and Sanders actually found ways to make them amusing. Another decidedly non-lucha match in a "lucha libre" fed (for the most part the only lucha thing in the fed is that they broadcast on spanish-speaking TV stations and a lot of their wrestlers wear masks). Mariachi's comeback is really just two clotheslines (nice ones) and a nice body press. The confusing moment I mentioned comes at the end, with Mariachi suplexing Sanders back into the ring, with Mariachi's valet then holding Mariachi's legs, allowing Sanders to fall on him for the win. I could not see that from where I was sitting. We were directly across the ring side that the "interference" happened on so from our angle it just looked like Sanders reversed the suplex for the win, and then Mariachi complained about interference that didn't happen.

But this finish was somehow even worse than that. What they did here was book Mariachi's own valet, who was not established in the least or had any sort of history with this audience, to turn on Mariachi…but then show immediate remorse and apologize to Mariachi. There was nothing whatsoever indicating that she was working with La Migra, and what would her motives be anyway? Is this some sort of far reaching plan that's been in the works for a year, just so Sanders could win the 3rd match on a card at some point?  She's wearing a traditional Mexican dress, does nothing to help Mariachi throughout the match, and apparently was only there to lead to a SHOCKING finish which nobody whomsoever could possibly care about. Just because something is unexpected doesn't make it good, or interesting. What could possibly be gained from telling an audience "Hey here's Mariachi's valet! SHE TURNED ON HIM! They're back together." All told over the span of 10 minutes. Introducing a character for the sole purpose of turning them is one of the cheapest, most narratively bankrupt ideas a writer can do, and here they didn't even have the balls to go all the way with it. Instead they pathetically tried to go for something deeper, really focusing on the valet's tortured facials as she held down Mariachi's boots. The ANGUISH she was going through! Hand to the temple, what had she done! Was it all worth it!? And it's not like this fed runs shows very frequently, so if god forbid this lamebrain story is something they actually intend to come back to, it will be months and months before the next chapter in this thrilling tale of betrayal. Truly one of the more clueless ways they could have chosen to finish this match. Unless they're really targeting a demographic of Mexican American males who feel like the only thing holding them back in life is their traditional Mexican spouse. That seemed to be the lesson I learned from this. Mariachi was making a name for himself, and about to win the title, until his traditional Mexican spouse held him back and crushed his dreams. Were men in the crowd supposed to go "hey yeahhhhh. My life would be WAY better without my woman holding me back!" So, so much dumber than I initially thought.

Thanks Pro Wrestling Revolution!!

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Uprising: Lucha Libre Workrate Report 2/1/14

This is from the 1/27/13 show in Watsonville, CA, so we're at least getting stuff within a calendar year. So, I've done over 15 reports on this TV show. You readers that actually read the reports have probably noticed that I bitch and complain about how lousy (for the most part) this show has been. This is not hate-viewing on my part, I just really, really want this show to actually be good. They're a local fed with some workers that I like and it's rough watching them botch so many things in regards to the TV show and presentation. I don't think they're maximizing their opportunity. Over the last few episodes they've at least advertised the dates of their upcoming shows, which should have been a no-brainer from the beginning. They don't do any interviews or background on any of the wrestlers, the spend WAY too much time showing entrances (more on that in a bit), they often feature workers that haven't worked the fed in 2+ years, they put over the referees way too much during commentary. It's like the only lucha they've watched is Guadalajara, as it genuinely feels like the only episode-to-episode continuity they're building up is a potential Tom Castor vs. Sparky Ballard referees feud. There is no rhyme or reason to the matches they air. The dates of shows jump around wildly. The last three weeks have been one match each from one card in July 2012, the week before was some random matches from May 2010. One of the matches was not even particularly good. I'm unsure the benefits of showing almost 4 year old material, but there can't be many if the material in question isn't even good. "Hey, did you hear this Stone Temple Pilots album from 2010? It was horrible! But you should check out their new stuff!" Who are you? Why are you talking about a bad album from 4 years ago?  Why are you talking about STP? But then add to that the fact this is a PAID timeslot. They are paying to show this stuff. So if you're not showing your most recent stuff and making people want to see your current product, you'd likely want to showcase your best all-time matches. A mixture of both would make a lot of sense. "Here's some of our current roster, and here's a classic example of the kind of action you can expect LIVE!" It seems so simple. And yet...

1. El Mariachi, La Pantera & Ultimo Panda vs. Famous B, Fantasma de la Opera & Persian Prince

Over the last few weeks they've gone in a simple presentation direction, either as a way to focus more on specific guys, or (more realistically) as a way to milk their recorded footage to cover more airings. To do this they've been airing just one match per episode, regardless of match length. Thing is, I don't know if I've seen a match in the promotion go over 15 minutes, which means they have one short match stretched out over a full 1/2 hour of programming. It happened the other week with the Lady Apache match, and here we go again. We get FULL wrestler ring entrances and full announcer introduction. Each wrestler comes out separately. Slaps fives with the fans, walks all around the ring. We see ALL of this. We get to the 11 minute mark. Still entrances. We go to a commercial break. Long story long the first actual physical exchange does not happen until my DVR reads 16 minutes. 16 minutes!! Of a 30 minute show that you PAY TO AIR! How is this even possible!? Even then we get a lot of stalling to start, leading us into another commercial. So essentially most of the first 2/3 of their money was spent on guys walking to the ring, standing in the ring, and then doing "who can get this side of the crowd to cheer louder!?" spots. Good lord.

Match itself was fairly decent, as decent as a 9 minute match hacked by commercial breaks into 3 parts could be. La Pantera is not *THEE* Pantera, so pretty lame choice of name there. Panda is a smart gimmick by the promotion of putting a chubby not-very-good guy into a Kung Fu Panda costume. Doesn't matter that he's not good, the kids love it and it gets easy pops. Smart move. The rudos (team with Famous B) don't really get much offense, which is another thing that's really starting to grate on me about this promotion. Most of the matches are just extended tecnico squash matches. It's fine to have those on the card, give the kids something to cheer for, but 80% of the matches they air are tecnicos running wild on rudos, rudos rolling to the floor, and then tecnicos winning. Hardly any times in peril.

Why am I paying money to see these goofs live this weekend? Well, because they booked Timothy Thatcher and Super Crazy. But also...Rocky Romero Workrate Report coming this weekend!!!

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