Found Footage Friday: Monterrey Lucha: WAGNER~! ESPANTO~! SOLAR II~! DANTES~! PANTERITA~! JALISCO~! LENADOR~?!

Dr Wagner Jr/Halcon de Oro/Espanto Jr vs. Colosso/Potro/Solar II CMLL 1992

MD: Roy got a lot of uncovered lucha from Monterrey and we'll hit all of it in the weeks to come. Not cherrypicking these means coming in and seeing what there is to see and sometimes that means you get a match that's just sort of a match. That's what we have here. Rudo ambush to start as the tecnicos were getting into the ring one at a time. A short primera beatdown, a segunda beatdown into a comeback, and then some exchanges to start the tercera before the rudos shut things down. This was probably low on the card since we had a dive teased but no actual dive.

I don't know a lot about Colosso or Potro (the latter of which had a "colt" gimmick with a horse on his chest). During the tercera exchanges, Colosso got the most  shine with Espanto basing very well for him. I'd say out of everyone in this one, Espanto looked the best, directing traffic, relishing the beatdown, playing to his partners and the crowd. Said beatdown was very dependent on the ref not allowing the tecnicos to come in to help each other or punch. Wagner already had his flair in making just an elbow to the skull seem more important and took a fun bump out of the ring, but the nature of this was that no one got to show too much of anything.

 

Guerrero Negro/Hombre Bala/Angel Blanco Jr vs. Apolo Dantes/Panterita del Ring/Jalisco CMLL 1992

MD: This was more like it. It was built around Panterita (Sr, being Ephesto, I think) and Guerrero Negro, with all of the build and payoff you'd want. To be honest, the primera was just there. It was nice to get initial exchanges and everything had time but a lot of this was Dante and Angle Blanco Jr. and it was fine but didn't have a lot of build to it. The bit of we got of Hombre Bala sliding out of the ring over and over on bumps for Jalisco was more fun. Where things shined here, however, was in the beatdown. It was brutal and chaotic as you'd like, with Guerrero Negro battering Panterita around the ring and tossing him repeatedly into the seats and Angel Blanco picing up a row of chairs to crush Dantes with them before punching him in the head repeatly as he was stuck. Some great visuals there. The comeback had some of the revenge bits you'd like but they really got right to the finish after that, with some dives and a quick tandem pin clearing things for Guerrero and Panterito but having the tecnicos almost immediately cheat to win thereafter.

I like the little bits of character for the stadium, whether it be the commentators complaining about the fans letting their kids' near the ring, the rudos signing things for said kids before the match, the giant Panterita signs, or Dantes having his own cheerleaders (I think at least), not to mention the chaos of wrestlers tossed into chairs or having chairs tossed at them. It was a good atmosphere overall and this match certainly had more meat to it even if I wish a bit less time had been spent in the primera and a bit more in the tercera.


Tony Rodriguez/Lenador vs. Chuy Escobedo/Sergio Romo Jr CMLL 1992

MD: I had no idea what I was going to be getting with this one. Long story short, I got Lenador. What a wild rudo. He was a balding guy with hair ties in strange places who made absent-minded expressions while strutting around the ring. Plus he hit hard and had just whacking flying clotheslines and a storm zero sort of quick pile driver. So that's that guy. Escobedo was solid, still and calm waters that kept the match flowing. Romo tried more things with about a 70% hit rate and the rudos doing their best to bump it as high as possible.

They were pretty compelling in general, between the surreality of whatever Lenador was up to and Rodriguez bumping through the ropes or darting up into the third row or begging off to lure a tecnico in (which led to the announcers complaining that the tecnicos never learned). I can't say this ever felt like it had tremendous stakes (the heat wasn't that hot and the comebacks weren't that exciting) but it kept moving and had a pretty iconic lowcard rudo side. These felt like the sort of El Batallon de la Muerte style local rudos that no one necessarily bought their ticket for but that entertained the crowd each and every week during the first match. Hopefully more Lenador shows up because I want to see more of that guy.

Read more!

Lucha Worth Watching: June CMLL

Puma/Tiger/Okumura vs. Drone/Guerrero Maya Jr./Rey Cometa  CMLL 6/1/18

ER: What a fun little match that snuck right up on me. I was skimming through this card to get to the Park main event, and a lot of the guys in this match have made nice improvements over the last couple years, I've particularly found myself really liking Drone. He's been working with the most confidence he's had in the gimmick, and he's been tossing out more fun sometimes trippy offense, like he's a guy trained by both Skayde and Joel Maximo. And the match delivered all the spotty goods I was hoping for. I don't know if the wrestlers and more and more pumped up from the Park crowds, but guys are working a lot more loose and playful. Puma was really soaking in the crowd and working like a dickhead, Cometa was taking bumps on his head like he was 5 years ago Rey Cometa, Drone is rolling into offense with the flair of a World of Sport guy, Puma and Tiger see who can catch a rana better, it's all tons of fun. Cometa takes a nice beating, takes a really nasty bump off a Puma clothesline, jumps off the top face first into Puma's boots and makes the spot look great, Puma catches him in a huge rana from the top to the floor and swings him into the barricade. We get some dives, some springy armdrags from Maya, fun little moments like Puma kicking the ropes as Maya was getting into the ring, big 450 from Cometa to end the segunda, just a real good go go go pace for this kind of thing.

Rey Cometa/Stuka Jr./Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Templario/Mephisto/Ephesto  CMLL 6/29/18

ER: Rey Cometa works this whole match like a Cometa reborn, acting like he's the hot new flyer in town and bringing some big flying spots and bumps. And then everybody sees that and everybody busts ass and even on a show without LA Park, they act like the big draw on this show isn't Ciber the MAIN MAN (which is a name so bad that he should come out sporting suspenders and snap them obnoxiously before hitting big moves, but that doesn't work when one of your top tecnicos already wears lame suspenders), this whole thing is worked like it mattered, perhaps the homegrown guys showing what they can do while three less talented invaders (though I do like Zorro) work the main event. Everybody is showing off and it's real fun. Mephisto does some nice bully matwork, Maya breaks out a couple big dives with his awesome tope con giro sending him flying upside down into the barricade and another tope right through the legs of Stuka. Stuka hits a gorgeous moonsault over the ringpost to the floor, Templario is a huge bumping rudo who mixes in super athletic flying, and he's a fun complement to the tougher old guys Ephesto and Mephisto. Cometa really felt excitedly reinvigorated here, and that's something I've been noticing from him lately. His big rope climb tornillo to the floor was super fun and a nice surprise, seemed like everyone was working faster to make up for a shorter match. Whatever the reason, this delivered.

Read more!

Lucha Worth Watching: Soberano Jr. + Bonus Negro Casas

1. Soberano Jr./Guerrero Maya Jr./Fuego vs. Felino/Ephesto/Luciferno (CMLL 8/8/17)

ER: Hot Arena Mexico trios where Soberano comes off like a star and Felino has one of those matches where it's suddenly 1997 again. You never know when Felino is going to have one of those memory lapses and slip back into actual awesome worker, but it happens a couple times a year and it's always awesome when it does. Felino was rudo extraordinaire here, showing off by working super fast armdrag sequences with Soberano, showing him up by doing fancier forward rolls, handsprings and rope running tricks, then turning mean and dropkicking him low, stomping him out with his buddies, and sticking him with a powerbomb off the turnbuckles. I have no idea what motivates Felino at this point, but when he shows up, he still shows up. Fuego and Maya hang back more but still get nice moments, Fuego ends the segunda with a trippy little roll up, Maya hits a fast and accurate tope, but the fans are going ape for the Soberano/Felino interactions. Tercera is when Soberano breaks out, flinging Luciferno with a cool slingshot armdrag on the ramp, hitting his Fosbury Flop on Felino. This whole thing is kept simple and everybody works quick. You get smooth work from the tecnicos and classic rudo misdirection worked at actual non-lazy speed, and the fans love it all. I love a hot lucha crowd more than most things in wrestling, and this was a crowd pleaser.

2. Negro Casas/Barbaro Cavenario/Ultimo Guerrero vs. Rush/Valiente/Mistico (CMLL 8/8/17)

ER: You know Casas wasn't going to get shown up by his brother on a hot Arena Mexico card! All of La Peste Negra were busting butt tonight, with Felino turning in his performance of the year, Niebla turning in his most spirited performance I've seen from him this year in the next match, and then Casas turning in a typical great Casas act in the main. The teams are all weird because Rush is on the tecnicos but and Casas is on the rudos, but the stuff between them is gold, peaking with Casas throwing tons of stiff kicks in the corner on Rush. Not long after Rush gets Casas prone in the corner, stops short on the dropkick, waits for Casas to peak out from his fingers, then pops him in the cheek with the toe of his boot. What a jerk. Valiente takes some big spills and works the match essentially nude (his tiny trunks are like awful early 80s bodybuilder Kevin Sullivan levels of yuck), UG acts as a great base for Mistico, Barbaro turns in a wonderfully hammy performance, and the best part of his ham is when it turns suddenly violent, like in the tercera where he catches a Casas Thesz press off the apron and powerbombs him into the ringpost. I don't know what got into the crowd tonight, not sure if a hot crowd made the workers all kick it up a notch, or the hot workers got the crowd going bananas, but this was one of those Arena Mexico night where everything clicked.

3. Barbaro Cavernario vs. Soberano Jr. (CMLL 8/25/17)

ER: Two wild and crazy guys pulling out all the stops in a 10 minute lightning match? Yes, please. The first 6 minutes of this are a total Barbaro mugging, setting the tone right out the gates as he bullies Soberano around the ring with his chin. There's something awkwardly intimidating about him just jamming chin into jawbone and shoving a guy around the ring with it. But Barbaro is totally coconuts and hits this flat out amazing tornillo through the ropes, I mean just a crazy spot for a bulky guy to do. Soberano takes a mammoth back body drop on the floor and the beating continues, with Barbaro hitting some double stomps and a big reverse springboard splash. Even Zacarias hits a 619 (a 55?). Soberano comes back when Barbaro misses a splash on the rampway, and Soberano superkicks him down the ramp (with a big spit take from Barbaro). Soberano - as you might expect - hits a bonkers tornillo off the top of the entrance way, does one of his effortless double springboard ranas back in the ring, and follows that up with a gorgeous Fosbury flop dive to the floor. Crazy. We get some nice nearfalls and reversals: another tornillo crossbody from Soberano; a vicious package vertical suplex by Barbaro that whips Soberano into the mat; a long, uncomfortable slow zoom shot of Zacarias plaintively looking at the action; a super dangerous looking crucifix bomb gets reversed into a rana by Soberano, and then reversed convincingly into a nice roll up nearfall by Barbaro. Sadly the finish features a vintage Tirantes fuck up (seriously get this guy the hell out of CMLL), as Barbaro goes to dropkick Soberano off the top and gets stuck with a powerbomb, which Barbaro clearly kicks out of. Tirantes calls it the finish, even though the two continue with the actual finish. Ugly stuff, all because of one doofus. But this was the best lightning match in a year or so, and not just for the nutso spots. Barbaro was gluing things together nicely and not just moving from spot to spot. Every pin saw him lay a hard fist or forearm across Soberano's jaw, he moved him into position with big strikes and kicks to the back of the head. This wasn't just guys putting on an exhibition, this stuff had meat.

Read more!

MLJ: Two Years of Lucha: Atlantis, Máscara Sagrada, Pantera Del Ring vs Jerry Estrada, MS-1, Negro Casas

1991-10-27 @ Arena Coliseo
Atlantis, Máscara Sagrada, Pantera Del Ring vs Jerry Estrada, MS-1, Negro Casas

My first actual review here on SC, as part of the lucha journey, was on April 21, 2014. Since then, I've written three match reviews a week, every week, without fail. That's two years and just above 300 reviews. Three hundred is a lot of anything. I never expected to actually stay on schedule. I never thought that I'd still be doing this two years later.

Once again, thanks to Phil and Eric for letting me playing in their sandbox. While I'd read the site for years (and have been attached at the online hip to DVDVR since I was 17 in 1999), I think it surprised me a little how much our collective views tend to sync up. We all piss off the same people for the same reasons, basically. That was a happy accident. Thanks, also, to everyone who takes the time to read these. I started this for myself, as a way to wrap my head around lucha, but it's appreciated when anyone leaves a comment or posts about them on twitter, or links to them, like Cubsfan does religiously. Thank you.

I do think I've hit the realm of diminishing returns. It took me maybe 100 of these to figure out how things like trios matches really worked. After that it was exploration up and down, especially when a new bit of footage popped up, and there are still thousands of matches out there for me to watch, but I think the value in me moving forward as I have been is sort of limited. I'm going to finish the Sombra Spotlight over the next few weeks. It doesn't make much sense to go past 2014 since I already covered those matches. I plan on making a Master List early next week because I do think people who follow NXT but not lucha will be curious and this might give them an in. After that, I think it's time for me to start looking at things that aren't lucha as well, and maybe not with the 3x a week regularity.

So, this is what I picked for the two year anniversary. I wanted some sort of Casas vs Atlantis singles match, after the trios I saw the other day, but they are few and far between. I thought about the Casas/Mistico vs Atlantis/Olimpico tag title match, but this just jumped out at me more. Panterita del Ring is Ephesto, which makes this interesting. That it had an all time rudo side makes it interesting too. MS-1 is the ultimate rudo goon and Estrada, in 91, was just so over the top and dynamic, constant motion with the tassles flowing this way and that.

The match is a beautiful Casas showcase, with him being as nasty and craven as possible. This gif sums it up really well:

Atlantis giving the thumbs up, Cass walking over and casually kicking Panterita between the legs. Panterita selling as he rolls into the crowd. That's the match. It's primarily a Casas vs Panterita focus, with Casas stooging, heeling, ducking and dodging. They have a signles match in January of the next year and I presume this, in part, builds to that. Let's get the big thing out of the way first here. Something happens relatively early in the match (it could be that water is tossed into the ring) and they have to stall for a while. Normally, that's a match-killer. Here, though? They stall by Negro Casas locking in the nastiest armbar that the world had ever seen in 1991, just grinding it back against the metal connective bits of the turnbuckle. It's awesome. The problem is this. He had to lock it on for close to five minutes while his partners play crowd control.

(That's the guy with the mop to clean the ring, by the way).

It's cool enough to be compelling and even if it wasn't, Casas' performance and his intensity and charisma are enough to make it work. It worked well enough that people kept on throwing things into the ring in anger at him. The problem comes in the fact that Panterita totally drops the arm selling the second he's on offense and then for the rest of the match. Generally, that's fine in lucha. It's all about momentum shifts, not that high level consistency. This was such an abberation, though, and the hold was on so long, that it really stood out as a blight upon the match.

It was okay for a while though, with the rudos in control Casas using it as an opening to beat Panterita around the ring, and to his credit, he did sell the big picture stuff well for a time. Really, Casas was just a joy here. He's so good now. He was so good then, but he was so good with just more energy and playfulness and a chip on his shoulder. Estrada was a perfect partner for him too. I love this rudo side.

Eventually, of course, the tecnicos come back, and yes, Panterita just ignores the arm completely. You end up not caring too much because in the midst of the comeback, Casas decides to run and hide behind a cameraman and it's the best thing since the armbar:

Sagrada and Atlantis are in this match too, sure, and they play their parts well enough, especially in the comeback, but this was all about the rudos. When it ends, it ends in a satisfying way. It's a weird one but I'd suggest watching any pairing of Estrada and Casas in this era. It still boggles my mind that I've seen hundreds of matches with Negro Casas and there's something new and fascinating in every new match I see.

Read more!

MLJ: Carístico, Negro Casas, Valiente vs Black Warrior, Ephesto, Mephisto

11/15/2015 @ Arena México
Carístico, Negro Casas, Valiente vs Black Warrior, Ephesto, Mephisto

This might have been the single most straightforward, simple, disposable lucha trios match I've ever seen, and that's saying something. It was there just to tease Cibernetico's arrival, to do a bait and switch with Black Warrior, to let Caristico do his stuff against some familiar opponents, and to give his side a solid win before the post-match beatdown. They had subbed Valiente in for Volador earlier in the week, moving Volador down into a tag against FdT, in a match that might actually lead to an Apuestas, and frankly, that was fine because you didn't really need Volador here.

Despite the simplicity, this was still fun. It just definitely wasn't must see by any means. I think they new they were going short due to the most match angle, which was about as long as the match itself. It meant that none of the exchanges were particularly long and that the beatdown was stilted. From a structural level, it's sort of interesting how they did things then.

For instance, they went A-B-A, with the tecnicos taking the primera, the rudos the segunda, starting a beatdown that lasted a couple of minutes into the tercera until they went home almost immediately with the dives and comeback. The wrinkles were that they slipped the "tecnicos vs the world" section into the primera, made sure that Caristico got to do his dive to set up that finish, had the segunda end with just Caristico getting pinned (by a second rope devil's wings after kicking out of the standard version), and teased a brief reset before continuing that short ambush-laden beatdown.

I'd love to make a statement on how Black Warrior looked, for instance, but there just wasn't much there. He did have a nice exchange with Casas, who seemed to be enjoying playing tecnico (so did Zacarias, for what it was worth; he's a natural anyway). They traded blows, with Casas eating his stuff and rousing the crowd until he caught the second attempt at a big boot. Later on, the only really memorable part of the beatdown was Warrior just smothering Casas with grounded knees and clubbering. The other standout part of the match was Casas' chance to go vs the world in the primera, fighting off Mephisto and Ephesto in the corner. It felt weird because the other tecnicos didn't help. Usually, that makes sense in the tercera when everyone's getting knocked out of the ring and recovering but here it was just a portion of a match moved around due to time issues. Casas was still great in the role though.

Anyway, everyone was eager to work the crowd and try to get them into it. Between that and the brevity, it didn't have the standard CMLL feel. It felt more like a spectacle. It was just a fairly forgettable one, the sort of match that would have made it less special to see Caristico again the next time, were it not for the fact that no one will remember it relative to the post-match angle.

Read more!

CMLL Worth Watching 8/9/15 & 8/28/15

LA Park, Atlantis & Volador Jr. vs. Rush, La Sombra & Dr. Wagner Jr. (8/28/15)

LA Park's big (and he certainly is big...) return to Arena Mexico! The prospect of seeing Rush vs. Park is something that should be high on the wishlist of every lucha fan, and those two together here was magic. Neither holds back, with Park tossing out some nasty headbutts during a headbutt exchange, and several times kicking Rush right in the face. I've seen some people complain about Rush taking liberties, but he never seems to have any problem leaning face first into offense. Park is a tub now, but he still has that Park magic. He still has a way to go to get to full on Kraneo level mega tub. Kraneo is probably better than Park in the ring at this point, but he doesn't have nearly the same level charisma. Clearly we need them to combine fat forces. Anyway, everybody tries to steal the spotlight in this one, and the fans are amped the whole time. Atlantis, Sombra and Volador all took turns seeing who could take the most dangerous ass over crown bump over the rail into the crowd. Sombra did it a couple times. We get all sorts of bullshit leading to the end, all of it pretty fun, with Atlantis going for the Atlantida and accidentally swinging Sombra into the ref, then some ball shots, then Park breaking up a pin by dropkicking the ref (couldn't he have just kicked Sombra....), then a demasking and more ball shots. Park hits a fat guy tope that Rush mans into, Rush hits a gorgeous high speed swan dive, Volador hits a sweet slingshot rana, Wagner hits his somersault dive high and hot on Park, and this whole thing was as good as you expected it to be. I'm not sure if this was a one time deal or not for Park, but I loved seeing him. A Rush feud would be tremendous.

Ephesto, Mephisto & Luciferno vs. Atlantis, Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta (8/9/15)

This is for the trios titles and while it was a fun trios match, it never had the immediacy of a title match. It didn't feel any different from any of the other regular trios matches these teams had around this same time. There was really no drama of any kind. No desperation, no fear over losing the titles, just three falls of standard lucha trios. So that stinks. But the match was fun, so that doesn't stink! Delta is a guy I don't need to see as often as I do, but Maya seems to be steadily improving. I love that one of his regular spots is hitting a super fast dive that sends him into the front row. Here he hits his massive flip dive and then takes out a row of chairs, clotheslining some fan in the process. Ephesto sets up Delta's stuff about as well as possible, even gamely waiting around for his little ropeflip headscissor from the ring to the floor. Atlantis is still super spirited at 53, and at one point he comes in and hits backbreakers on all three rudos with more energy than anybody else showed. All three tecnicos hit stereo dives, but really it was kinda weird how standard the finish to a title match was. They did their dives, Atlantis got back in the ring with Mephisto, and Mephisto hit his top rope pedigree for the win.

Rey Escorpion, Rey Bucanero & Terrible vs. Mistico, Valiente & Volador Jr. (8/9/15)

Super quick paced match with both Reys having a contest to see who could SUWA more rana and headscissors from Mistico and Volador. I think Escorpion wins it, but truly, we ALL win. We. ALL. Win. Escorpion really makes Mistico look maybe the best he's ever looked here, with Mistico getting crazy air on a bunch of stuff and Escorpion catching it all perfectly. Bucanero makes Volador look super smooth. We don't get the usual Escorpion or Terrible violence, although we do get probably the most violent "tie the tecnicos up in knots" posing spot. Tecnicos get all their limbs tangled, Mistico stretched over the top of them, with Escorpion posing on top. I will never complain about a fun bump clinic with excellently hit spots. This is a fun way to spend 10 minutes of your day.

Read more!

MLJ: Blue Panther Lightning Matches 5: Blue Panther vs Ephesto

Aired: 2014-06-28
taped:  2014-06-22 @ Arena Coliseo
Blue Panther vs Ephesto in a lightning match

This has opening credits, which is interesting in and of itself to CMLL Titanes del Ring on Claro Sports. I know that some people reading this watch the TV, but a lot of us just follow through what cubs posts, and we never really get the tv experience the way that it's supposed to be. That's especially true when we're plucking at older matches. Of course, this is CMLL, so the "intention" probably is given less thought than what Hijo del Gladiador is going to have for lunch, but in general medium and presentation matters in how we view this stuff. Just, maybe not all that much.

The credits are sort of interesting, with statues turning into wrestlers. Shocker's the first guy focused upon, which is telling for a show from a year ago, or so. Then came Rush, and it ended with Marco and Sombra and then bodies crashing into each other.

For the amount that something like WWE openings are micromanaged, again, this is CMLL, and no one should probably even start to think about the logic or hierarchy behind any of this. Let's just move on.

So, Blue Panther vs Ephesto is not nearly as exciting as Blue Panther vs Virus or Blue Panther vs Casas. According to Wiki, Ephesto had just turned 49 a week or two before this match and he does not sup from Casas' fountain of youth. Nor is the the sort of mat wizard that Virus is. That said, they tried. They kept things well within limits, and it was all sound, even if not super exciting.

Thankfully, I'm the one guy not in to the lucha to necessarily be excited. What they did give us was sound and well built. the first three minutes were built around full nelson attempts, and it was done well, with various counters and reversals, and served as a feeling out period, culminating with Panther creating distance and thet wo fo them standing off.

The second segment had them go down to the mat, with Panther taking an early advantage, but Ephesto reversing with a headscissors. Panther used a headstand to break out and moved into a cross armbreaker, with Ephesto reversing it into a head-assisted half crab and then a very fun cross-leg submission and a pin attempt.

That brought them into the last third of the match, where Ephesto had a distinct advantage. He really kept the submissions coming, quickly cutting of Panther whenever he tried to do anything at all. He had a nice shoulder breaker in here too, and a few very minor cut offs.

There wasn't really a comeback so much as Panther just getting a few shots in during the finishing stretch. At one point, he just hit a slam and they moved on towards the end, which was fine, with Ephesto getting a nice nearfall off of a complex roll up before Panther locked in the fujiawara arm bar out of nowhere.

There was nothing wrong with this and I liked the way it advanced for the most part, with the work being more than solid. It just lacked that narrative oomph of a come-back moment, when it could have inserted it in due to Ephesto's mini-heat advantage. Ultimately, it was a solid but meaningful match that didn't have the intensity or the oneupsmanship of the Casas matches or the wizardry of the Virus one.

Read more!

MLJ: Dragon Lee vs Virus/Casas 7: Dragon Lee, Fuego, Valiente vs Ephesto, Mephisto, Virus

Aired: 2014-12-06
Taped 2014-12-02 @ Arena México
Dragon Lee, Fuego, Valiente vs Ephesto, Mephisto, Virus

More set up to the Lightweight title match the following week. Valiente and Fuego are both guys who I think shine most in trios matches where they can play a role. I'd rather see Mephisto in a trios match than in a singles match too, certainly. I actually don't have a great sense of Ephesto. Let me go take a look at wiki:

I like that his first persona was based on Blue Panther having trained him. Geez. He's 50? How old is Mephisto? Mephisto is 46. Ok then. Anyway, Ephesto debuted in 1982 according to this. That's nuts. Blue Panther's only a few years older than him anyway. Ah, he was Safari. I don't think I actually knew that. I mean, I did but I forgot at some point. Then he followed the Lucifierno path of being Hombre Sin Nombre for a while before CMLL let the fans come up with a new name for him (being after Hephaestus). That sounds like CMLL. As an aside, I miss Averno, especially given how little Rey Escporion had been used before the Guerrero feud started. They need more rudos who are really rudo and not cool heels or whatever.

On to the match: on paper, I think this should have been good. Some solid flyers/spot guys with personality on the tecnico side, competent beatdown rudos who can eat offense and were anchored by Virus on the other side, a title program shaping up for the following week. Etc. For the most part, I'd say it delivered for what it was trying to do.

Pairings to begin were Mephisto and Valiente, Fuego and Ephesto, and Dragon Lee and Virus (they didn't delay that too much). Lots of methodological and competent matwork to begin. I think it was a conscious pacing decision as the build was for Dragon Lee vs Virus. Once they got to it, the pace picked up and the crowd got into things, only for a Mephisto cheapshot from the outside to cut things off right when it was getting exciting. They did a good job of taking the fight out of Lee here, but the swarm on the tecnicos was a bit too delayed. Usually that happens right on time and we don't get a half minute of them looking like idiots on the apron. Here we did. I kind of like how Ephesto just uses a shoulder-breaker, by the way. It's refreshing, especially in a match with the frigging Valiente Driver.

The beatdown flowed into the segunda. There was a moment early on where Mephisto seemed to be going into business for himself on Dragon Lee's mask and Virus made sure to come over and join in to keep the focus where it should have been. This was a fun diversion of a beatdown because it played more into a traditional FIP. The tecnicos ended up back on the apron and they kept one rudo in at a time for the most part. They even played some southern tag tricks with the tecnicos being held back by the ref which allowed illegal changes by the rudos. So long as there aren't three rudos in the ring, I think this does work in lucha. Usually it doesn't pay off well and after a few minutes of it they just let the tecnico out of the ring anyway, but here that didn't happen. Instead, Dragon Lee did his usual handspring off the ropes/heel miscommunication comeback and the tecnicos ran in. Lee hit his big dive here but then Fuego slid out of the ring for no reason in the world except for to have Ephesto hit a dive on him and set up Valiente beating Mephisto. Blatantly bad wrestling there, but it was just a blip in the stream, really.

The tercera was mainly a reset, lots of action, and then a focus on Virus vs Dragon Lee. It's a great pairing, surely less dynamic than Dragon Lee vs Kamaitachi but with enough familiarity by this point that they were able to switch up things (kicks, for instance), and in some ways I like it more as there's more of a contrast. Fuego and Valiented played their roles well, including Fuego dancing about and Valiente hitting the fireplug tope. Virus locked in this awesome submission on Fuego:

and said tope took out Mephisto to leave things as Virus vs Dragon Lee. Lee was challenging the following week, so he had to take the win here, and he did after a pretty good exchange: check out this roll-up counter spot for instance,

Anyway, this was good stuff with just a few iffy moments and I'm looking forward to seeing the title match.

Read more!

CMLL Worth Watching 2/8/15 & 3/27/15

Virus, Kamaitachi & Puma vs. Dragon Lee, Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta (2/8/15)

This was from that All Elite show with Dr. Wagner and LA Park, so everybody involved I suppose had more incentive to bust all sorts of ass on a Sunday afternoon. Everybody was firing on all cylinders here like they each had something to prove. Virus hits everything here with a real vengeance but also has no problem taking all sorts of giant Delta dives. Delta hits a couple wild ones with him vaulting off the ring post for one and moonsaulting off the ring support. Maya is crazy and totally outdoes him by hitting a flip dive that sees him wind up in the 4th row. Kamaitachi dished and took here, impaling Lee with a high jump dropkick that had so much force you really bought that Lee got naturally dumped HARD on his head. Kamaitachi pays it forward by letting Lee stomp him neck first off the top through the mat. Kamaitachi takes all sorts of stuff great, whipping himself into the barrier off a Delta rana, making all the tecnicos look dangerous. Kamaitachi ends the match with the most violent unmasking I've seen, kicking Lee in the balls then punching him in the ear a bunch while brutally ripping the mask off from the bottom without even attempting to loosen the laces. Looked like he was trying to scalp poor Lee. You never know when you're going to strike trios magic in lucha, but 6 guys all working with a certain ferocity while trying to upstage the main is one way to do it. Awesome stuff. 

Valiente, Maximo & Marco Corleone vs. Barbaro Cavernario, Ephesto & Mephisto (2/8/15)

Fun little short and sweet match from that same show, that isn't given time to build anywhere, so all the guys just work harder. Everybody gets cool little spots, with Maximo getting big reactions for his awesome dive (with Barbaro hurling himself into the barrier, which he also did taking an even more brutal Valiente tope earlier) and a big rope walk splash onto everybody. Valiente hits the craziest and fastest Valiente Special that he's hit in some time, Marco throws a bunch of nice lefts, Ephesto bumps big, Mephisto brings charisma and a rad new mask for a big show, and suddenly it's all over. This probably barely goes 8 minutes but everything is hot.

Kamaitachi, Negro Casas & Barbaro Cavernario vs. Dragon Lee, Delta & Guerrero Maya Jr. (3/27/15)

A rematch of sorts from the above match, with Casas and Cavernario replacing Puma and Virus on Kamaitachi's team. And also by this point Kamaitachi had no mask and was still furious at Dragon Lee because of that. This is not as good as that above 2/8 match, as it ended in straight falls and was very short, but the work within was hot. Delta shows more life here than I'm used to, as Casas was his foil who stumbled all around as Delta got to pursue. He and Delta have a real nice fast armdrag sequence that leads to a great moment with Casas getting chased into the crowd, and then he and Delta punching each other with the guardrail separating them. We get some stereo dives from Delta and Maya, Casas giving all of the offense to Delta and Maya, Barbaro being Barbaro ( with tons of cave drawings on his body! Dug his mat stuffs with Maya), and the money is all Kamaitachi vs. Lee. Kamaitachi works real fast, cuts low on clotheslines and cheats to win. Loved the spot where Lee runs Kamaitachi chest first into the ropes to get him off balance and then whips him into the mat with a snap German. Just a brief whisper, over before you know it, but fun.

Read more!

CMLL Worth Watching 1/4/15, 1/18/15 & 2/1/15

Hechicero, Ephesto & Niebla Roja vs. Blue Panther, Valiente & Maximo (1/18/15)

On paper you look at that match and go "man I hope Panther and Hechicero match up a bunch" and if that's what you went in wanting, you'll leave a happy human. There are also many other things that happened that were a blast, but I personally showed up for Panther and Hechicero squaring off. They get a nice long exchange in the primera and more in the tercera. Primera is those two have a bunch of cool struggling matwork, which really is worth the price of admission (zero dollars, technically so easily worth that). Hechicero is a super adaptable mat guy and Panther still looks like Blue Fucking Panther on the mat which is one of the first things that made me fall in love with lucha. All the takeovers and sweeps and arms held painfully behind backs. It's glorious. Hechicero gets runs with all the guys and he really makes Maximo's stuff look spectacular. And all of Hechicero's little roll ups and submissions are so fluidly executed. I'm a fan. Segunda is short but we build to a nice crescendo in the tercera with Valiente hitting the mother of all great topes, just bending Roja in half over the barrier. Just a scud missile flying fast and accurately right at you. Wrestlers are crazy. Ephesto gets a big dive of his own and this delivered in the exact ways I was hoping it would.

Rey Cometa vs. Niebla Roja (Lightning Match) (1/4/15)

This was really cool as Roja throws way more rudo elements into a lightning match than almost anybody I've seen. Usually this format is used for guys to show off their highlight reel in heatless exhibitions. But here's Roja kicking Cometa in the face, ripping at his gear, choking him and being a dick. Cometa is a guy with plenty of great looking spots but he goes along with Roja's match plan and it makes a standard lightning match mean so much more, makes Cometa's few highlight spots seem that much bigger. The opening mat stuff is nice and engaging, and then things go to a new level when Cometa goes for a leaping tornado DDT off the apron but gets caught by Roja and tossed brutally into the barrier. It made Cometa's later rana off the apron mean so much more.We also build to a great Cometa tope that blasts Roja impressively into the barrier. Roja dicks it up the whole time, Cometa's hope spots come off better for it, and all that equals a much more satisfying 7 minutes than we normally get.

Kraneo, Olimpico & Ephesto vs. Blue Panther, Titan & Dragon Rojo Jr. (2/1/15)

So Cubsfan should get around to uploading this one so more people can see it, because it's really fun. I mean, it's not like that guy uploads hundreds of matches over the course of a year or anything. It makes me feel just a tiny shred of minimal importance to write about a match like this, since it does not appear to exist online, and one day somebody might ask "I wonder if anybody ever watched a Kraneo match from 2/1/15?" and then they will find that, yes, at least one man did watch a Kraneo match from that date, and documented it FOR THE WORLD. Match was really fun and would have landed on the MOTY list had the segunda and tercera gotten more time. Primera had some of Titan's best stuff, doing some lightning fast exchanges with Ephesto with no Titan silliness. Then Panther and Olimpico got to roll and that is all of a sudden one of my favorite match-ups in lucha. Olimpico has looked better in the last couple months than he has in 8 years. Now he's working a weird glammy Egyptian gimmick and looks like Ben Kingsley playing the Jaye Davidson role in Stargate. His mat stuff with Panther is great with BP always going after an arm or leg but Olimpico scrambling all over him, working more to disorient. Kraneo continues to be my favorite luchador of the moment as he's all massive shoulderblocks and big bumps and fatness. He always works as if he has something to prove, as if he gets ribbed about his mass all the time and wants to show everybody that he can work harder and better than anybody. He's like the modern lucha Buddy Rose. So yeah, upload this match Cubs! Pretty please?

Read more!

CMLL Workrate Round-Up 8/3/14 & 11/14/14

1. Metalico, Virus & Bobby Zavala vs. Rey Cometa, Fuego & Oro Jr. (8/3/14)

More awesome from this little feud that I didn't see anybody talking about. It is very possible I'm just reading the wrong places. But ever since a couple weeks ago when I first noticed Memphis heel Metalico tearing apart Oro Jr., and have since seen two more of their trios, it has become the thing I most look forward to in wrestling. So far, yes, the feud has been one-sided, with Metalico punching his way into my heart. Looking back, even though the tecnicos took the 2nd and 3rd, this match was 90% rudos. The segunda was won by DQ, and the comeback in the tercera didn't happen until late. Up until that point it was Metalico taking out all his frustrations on poor Oro Jr., which meant Oro taking tons of Metalico's cool hooking southpaw lariats, tons of punches to the temple, tons of forearms scraped across his eyes, and tons of getting yanked rudely around by his mask. Virus and Zavala kind of purposely took a backseat to Metalico beating down Oro. At one point I was begging Oro to fight back! Virus and Zavala would keep the other two at bay, and those two are guys I'm always entertained by when they're being dick heels. Virus has a great moment scraping and yanking Cometa's finger crotch over the ropes. Jesus Virus is taking torture to paper cut tantamount levels. Oro Jr. is kind of like a tecnico Stevie Richards, as he bumps big but has basically zero offense. So his big comeback in the tercera falls somewhat flat as he sorta hits Metalico with meek little kicks, but it was still satisfying seeing him rip Metalico's mask right back. Two weeks ago Metalico was just one of those guys who I had seen a bunch but barely registered with me. Now he's a guy I'm actively seeking out. Funny how these things work. Watch this feud now!

2. Silueta vs. Zeuxis (8/3/14)

Another good match for these two. It got a lot of time and I think they filled it pretty admirably. The tercera went probably a little too long, but overall I liked this. The primera especially was fun as they do some cool mat stuff and standing exchanges that doesn't usually happen in the women's matches. Silueta grapevines the leg of a standing Zeuxis and kicks out her other knee, felt like William Regal with a prettier face. They throw out some pretty big things in this, with Zeuxis doing a nice Spanish Fly and a great moonsault to the floor, wiping out both seconds (Halcon and Super Comando). Silueta has a nice rana roll up and manages to do the "opponent trapped in ropes while I dropkick them from the top" spot without making it look too absurd. Crowd was really hot throughout the whole tercera so they were doing something right, even if I thought it had too many near fall exchanges. Crowd was into every one of them.

3. Mephisto, Kamaitachi & Ephesto vs. Titan, Valiente & Angel de Oro (11/14/14)

Really fun sprint with a nice spirited Mephisto performance, and one of Titan's best showings of the year. Angel de Oro continues to look sorta clunky but it was easy to just watch all the other guys do their thing. I'm really starting to love rudos cutting off Titan. Last week we watched Terrible punch him right in the face after a handspring floor routine, and now he somersaults onto the rampway from the ring, turns around to run back and runs right into a mean Ephesto clothesline. Mephisto was really great at cutting guys off all match, catching all the flying offense and even hitting a great dive. Ephesto also hit a nice big chubster dive. Kamaitachi continues being a blast, love his high jump dropkick from the ramp. Everything was worked super fast and didn't have any time to get bad.

Read more!

CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 7/27/14

Alright looks like we're back into a regular rhythm as these matches were all from the 6/22 Coliseo show.



1. Lightning Match: Blue Panther vs. Ephesto

Well damn this was great. This is like something that would pop up on some cell phone shot indy show, not on an actual TV show. We get 9 minutes of a purely grappling/mat based match that really illustrates how junk most lightning matches are. Most of them are just guys going in to show off their trademark highspots, and here two guys totaling over 100 years of age go in and show what can be done with the unica caida quick match format. It's an extra cool display knowing that Ephesto wanted to be like Blue Panther when he started, and here there are trading hold for hold. The first three minutes are just cool standing exchanges with some neat stuff you haven't seen, and once they take it to cool pendulum armdrags and mat stuff I was beyond hooked. There are some old man moments but they don't detract as they seem more real because hey these guys are old. Sometimes you're gonna end up in awkward positions on the mat. Panther playing possum on the mat before rolling through into a half crab was beautiful. Again this kind of thing showing up on TV, knowing that somewhere a couple of cool old guys are working a no bump grappling match while the cameras are rolling and not just because some flea market ring was too hard to bump on, but because it was a cool match to work is really special. [**This match ended up landing at #51 on our MOTY list, and I used this very same identical review as my review in THAT write-up! Hopefully you find more of value in the rest of this electronic post. If not, tell me that I'm cheating you by re-using 45% of the content from a prior post and you demand more original content. Then I'd likely feel bad and sorta guilty, and probably do something nice. Phil, however, would go tell you to kick rocks.]



2. Okumura, Puma & Kamaitachi vs. Stuka Jr., Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta

Well damn this was really good too! The primera was especially great. The rest of the match had plenty of nice moments but that primera was awesome. It was well on its way to making the MOTY list before finishing merely nice, instead of keeping up that pace. Primera we got all sorts of cool fast match ups, my favorite being the Puma/Stuka mat stuff, but Kamaitachi (first time I've seen him) had cool scrambly mat stuff as well and Puma looked really great. As the match goes on we break down into more 3 on 1 rudo stuff which isn't always interesting, but the tecnico comebacks were always spirited. Maya hits another crazy dive because that's his thing, Kamaitachi feels like this year's Namajague (oh where have you gone Namajague?!) as he bumps all around and looks like he's having a ball working in front of a Mexican audience. All of this was really fun.

3. Rey Escorpion, Dragon Rojo Jr. & Polvora vs. Maximo, Super Porky & Volador Jr.

This one was not as good. It was not very good in general. It's disappointing to remember the fire Escorpion temporarily lit under Porky last year, and then see him here. I've been a long time Porky defender but god is he just mostly horrible now. You occasionally see flashes here and there, but so much of what he does looks so bad and just drags a match down. At one point he gets tossed into the ropes to get kicked by all three rudos, and he wasn't even able to bump backwards into the ropes. Instead he hilariously took the kicks, turned around and walked towards the ropes, then took waaaaay to long to step through the ropes and kind of sit on the apron. It would have been a hilarious comedy spot if it was intentional, and didn't instead look like somebody's grandfather needing to find a place to sit down at the supermarket because he got dizzy. Escorpion didn't bring any of that fire towards Porky, and maybe it's because it wouldn't get returned, who knows. At one point Porky at least hit a crossbody off the apron so he tried something. Maximo looked good here and hit a wild dive, but this whole thing was a dud.

Read more!

2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

51. Blue Panther v. Ephesto CMLL 6/22

ER: Well damn this was great. This is like something that would pop up on some cell phone shot indy show, not on an actual TV show. We get 9 minutes of a purely grappling/mat based match that really illustrates how junk most lightning matches are. Most of them are just guys going in to show off their trademark highspots, and here two guys totaling over 100 years of age go in and show what can be done with the unica caida quick match format. It's an extra cool display knowing that Ephesto wanted to be like Blue Panther when he started, and here they are trading hold for hold. The first three minutes are just cool standing exchanges with some neat stuff you haven't seen, and once they take it to cool pendulum armdrags and mat stuff I was beyond hooked. There are some old man moments but they don't detract as they seem more real because hey these guys are old. Sometimes you're gonna end up in awkward positions on the mat. Panther playing possum on the mat before rolling through into a half crab was beautiful. Again this kind of thing showing up on TV, knowing that somewhere a couple of cool old guys are working a no bump grappling match while the cameras are rolling and not just because some flea market ring was too hard to bump on, but because it was a cool match to work is really special.

PAS: This kind of straight Maestro match is pretty rare to see on CMLL TV. Thanks to guys like Black Terry Jr. we have had a chance to see a bunch of lucha matches based around grappling in the last couple of years. This isn't a high end version of that, but Ephesto doesn't get a chance to work those kind of matches much, and acquits him self well. I really liked all of the standing counters and struggles early. Could have used a bit more aggression, I never got the sense anyone was going in for the kill, but this was pretty stuff.


2014 MASTER LIST

Read more!

MLJ: 2010: Mistico Interlude 3: Torneo Nacional de Parejas Increibles

 Torneo Nacional de Parejas Increibles 2010
taped 2010-01-22 @ Arena Mexico

As best as I can tell, this parejas increibles tournament was on the same night as the Garza /Ultimo Guerrero title match, so I'm going in circles, but at least I know where I am. It was also the first of the yearly tournaments. This is definitely one of those cases where I wish I knew Spanish better because Rey Bucanero was a guest on commentary and not only would I have wanted to known how the usual announcers reacted to what was going on but he'd be interesting too, having just had matches with Mistico.

Averno/Mistico vs Ephesto/Euforia

3:07 in

I'm assuming that Euforia was already a junior member of GdI but for tournament lucha I'm not going to do the legwork to figure it out. Averno and Ephesto were stablemates (I think). It's interesting that they had to field a rudo/rudo team. I'm only looking at Mistico's matches here, but Maximo and Niebla were teamed too and that sounds pretty fun.

Mistico and Averno came out with matching gear, which meant Mistico had Averno's colors and the horns on his mask. Averno's mask had some of Mistico's elements in it. This came as a pretty big surprise to the crowd as they'd been feuding forever. Mistico was still slapping the crowds hands though and he worked pretty straightforward as a tecnico here. He did his usual stuff with Euforia, flips, headscissors, armdrags in, back and forth. Averno and Ephesto worked together well and I imagine they were having fun with it. It ended with a pause in the action and handshake attempts by Ephesto and Euforia. Averno screwed Ephesto with a kick and the devil's wings. Mistico dodged the cheapshot and locked on La Mistica and that was the win.

Post match Averno and Mistico were pumped but there was nothing too suspicious. There was some mild booing though.

Averno/Mistico vs Volador, Jr./Terrible

Here's the turn. I think the earlier match set it up very well actually, because there was just enough weirdness in the Averno/Mistico team to make people wonder, to make them uncomfortable. It set the tone for this.

Terrible was a stablemate of Averno too. More importantly, Mistico and Volador, with Sombra, were a trios called the Super Sky Team at this point. They had certain parts of their act honed together and that shined through early. They moved in tandem to hit their respective opponents with two big dives. Shortly thereafter Volador would hit a Spanish fly on Averno to pin him and then Mistico would take advantage of a distraction to knock Terrible into Volador and roll him up.

This left Volador and Mistico and they immediately bounced off the ropes and did tandem backflips. Instead of setting up a long back and forth, Mistico speared Volador and started punching him and working over the mask. He started taunting the crowd now, going full on rudo. Voladar fought back and did some mask pulling of his own. They had a pretty heated chop fest and bounced off the ropes again. This time Volador first stumbled and then was full on tripped by Averno. Mistico was tripped by Terrible a moment later which allowed Volador to go for La Mistica, but Mistico blocked it and fouled him huge for the win.

I could have done without the Terrible trip which sort of muddied the waters but in general this was a pretty dramatic and effective turn. The fact it came almost immediately after they did some tandem movements was visually striking. Post match, they pounded on Volador some more and everyone yelled at each other on the mic. Notably, Mistico ended it by tossing beer on Volador.

Averno/Mistico vs Atlantis/Mascara Dorada

4:48 in

This was the semi-finals and Atlantis was sporting his white tecnico mask. Mistico had taken off his shirt during the post-match of the quarter-final so the only way to tell Averno from him easily was the body type; Averno was a little bulkier. Atlantis was sort of a sentimental favorite here, almost by default.

There was more mask-ripping and heeling by Mistico but the real story of the match was just how well and thoroughly Averno and Mistico worked together. My favorite moment was when they both faked a dive and did the Mistico pray-pose together to huge boos. Ultimately, Atlantis made his comeback and Dorada hit a really nice dive to take Mistico out. One Atlantida later and this branch of the tournament was over.

I think they probably should have put Averno and Mistico over in the entire tournament if they wanted to really get over the turn but what they did do over the night was pretty effective. It was all tournament lucha, short, flashy, not all that deep, but the overarching story of the turn was quite well played out in and out of the ring. The crowd was hugely into it, especially after the foul.

Read more!

CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 6/8/14

These matches all took place at the 5/25 Arena Coliseo show. So glad they're back in Coliseo on these Sunday shows. I was getting a little burnt out on Arena Mexico performances.

Blue Panther, Fuego & Sagrado vs. Ephesto, Mephisto & Dragon Rojo Jr.

Hoo boy we get a mostly toothless woman in the crowd yelling at Mephisto, looking like Sir Cecil Creape, to start the show. Oh my. This is my favorite Blue Panther performance of the year, guy moved around like he's still in his 20s. We get a long mat exchange with he and Ephesto to start which is filled with all sorts of nifty things. I really loved is headstand reversals which seems like a young man's game but he pulled off fabulously. All throughout he had some great exchanges, on the mat, super fast standing reversals like he was a young junior, in the tercera he hit a gorgeous rana off the top (him leaping off the top to his opponent standing on the mat). I mean just incredible stuff all through the match, not just one quick segment and then catch your breath on the apron. I really liked everybody here, really. Sagrado even had a nice showing, probably the most I've ever liked Sagrado. He did some cool exchanges including a nice rana off the apron onto Mephisto. We got a bunch of fast dives with guys given hardly any time to set up to catch which is always exciting. For example in the tercera Sagrado takes a move to the floor and right when he lands Ephesto hits him with a tope. Fuego hits some really nice stuff here including a couple flip dives and some slick armdrags. The team of BP/Fuego/Sagrado seems a little random but it totally works here as all three worked like they had something to prove. Awesome little match.

Shocker, Niebla Roja & Comandante Pierroth vs. Marco Corleone, Titan & La Mascara

Damn this match had some crazy heat the whole way through. I don't know if it's just because Coliseo is smaller and the sound is more cacophonous, but it really made a match-up like Shocker/Marco seem like a big deal. Nothing mind blowing happens here, but the crowd is so amped that it sucked me right in. They cut back to that Sir Cecil woman again and have to blur out the foul atrocities that she screams, and then they regularly cut back to a foxy redhead woman who screams for Mascara's shirt removal and acts completely unimpressed when Marco flexes. Marco is really entertaining here as I'm starting to like him working more equal with other luchadors. Before there was always kind of a Giant Silva disconnect where (even though Marco is a WAY better worker than Silva) the whole match was always everybody else working Silva into the match and selling all his stuff like death, and it was the same with tiny Mexicans always running from giant Marco. But I think it's much better to just treat him like another worker, as it keeps the match moving at a more brisk pace. You still get spots where guys gang up on Marco and he believably throws lefts to all of them to break free, but it works better within the match. Niebla Roja was really good here, always keeping busy and working a bunch of high traffic spots with his team, always interjecting himself at the right moments to eat a rana or kick a tecnicos leg out.

Rush vs. Volador Jr.

Disappointing match but it served its purpose I suppose. Things got way too Attitude era for me, with the finish being Rush taking some backcrackers, bumping the ref, Mascara hitting Volador with his own backcracker, you know the drill. The kinda finish that more makes me eye roll than anything. Primera makes Volador look like a weenie because he only wins because Rush gets DQ'd, then Rush wins the segued by kicking the hell out of him more. The tercera makes Volador look like a dummy as he sees the ref get bumped but still holds the pin on Rush for way too long. Just sloppy work most of the way through from Volador and Tirantes. Rush looked good and had the crowd all fired up, and I even liked some of Volador's comeback in the tercera, with him hitting a couple low superkicks on Rush in the corner. But too much overdone and dated booking took me out.

Read more!

Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 6/14/14

These matches were from the 5/30 Arena Mexico show.

Ephesto, Mephisto & Gran Guerrero vs. Valiente, Atlantis & Titan

They had been getting away from these short inconsequential matches, but that seems to be the style de rigueur again and it's obnoxious. I do like the energy levels in these shorter matches as there's a lot of action and things are so short that nobody has time to gas out. There's no down time, but everything is too rushed and there's no drama. I had hardly written down who the participants were when Guerrero had already won the first fall by powerbombing Atlantis. There was a nice little Valiente performance in here, including a beautiful rana with him running up the ropes. Atlantis showed a lot of fire here too, and Titan hit a top rope Asai moonsault to the floor that was pretty crazy. But this was all pretty insignificant. Everything was done so quickly that nothing stuck.

Terrible, Vangellys & Rey Bucanero vs. Stuka Jr., Maximo & Super Porky

Fun enough match, with there being way more Porky focus than most recent Porky matches. That can be both a good and bad thing, as his offense is fun, namely when the rudos implausibly always end up sitting three in a row so Porky can run at them butt first. There are also things Porky does that would be completely inexcusable and get any other worker ripped to shreds. He rarely sells strikes and almost always seems to be just waiting for guys to stop hitting him to get to the next spot. Numerous times here guys kick him in the stomach and he can't even be bothered to slightly bend at the waist. It would be one thing if he was doing a comical "your kicks don't hurt me due to my large tummy" thing, but he's clearly not and mores just looks tired. The match did have one extremely watchable segment, with Maximo squaring off against Terrible. Maximo has a bunch of these super cool fast flurries in him, which somehow still surprise me even though I've been watching him for 8 years. He breaks out these cool hanging armdrags that nobody else does and really has a great rhythm with Terrible. Stuka also regularly has standout moments in match. He arms-at-side splash always looks incredible and he and Maximo hit synchronized dives in another big moment. Porky had some good moments where he fought back against numerous guys, and that seems to be the moments where he works best now, as an easy target who gets pushed to far by bullies and then ends up snapping and chopping and punching and flattening them all.

Relevos Increibles!

Rush, La Sombra & La Mascara vs. Negro Casas, Shocker & Volador Jr.

So, this was the first time I kind of started to get bored with the Rush v. Casas/Shocker dynamic. A lot of heel dragging at this point. I like the participants, I like the energy, but it's on Lucha Azteca *every* week it seems like, and they really need to bump things up to a different level, mix up the combatants, something. This isn't quite Dolph Ziggler/Kofi Kingston levels of "how many times can they run this match!?" but I hate that they're even making me think that may be happening. I love Rush mowing throw Casas/Shocker/Volador and kicking torn t-shirts into the Arena Mexico crowd, but whatever direction this story was headed has stalled out. They've upped the heel antics from Sombra/Mascara so that is a slightly new wrinkle, but this is starting to really feel like "this is good, but something I regularly see, and it's no better than their best stuff, and worse because it feels like a rehash". So again, this had elements that you liked in previous encounters. It started as the same squash match formula that happened this week, except this time the tecnicos actually got their comeback. Casas is a great fired up comebacks guy, and his running "balls to Rush's face" off the apron was pretty epic. La Mascara is starting to find his role in the rudo stable. He was kind of lost once Sombra starting being Rush's cheapshot artist. But this match he was good at hanging back and kinda playing bouncer for Rush and Sombra. Rush would be kicking the shit out of Casas and Volador would be all "man my friend is over there! I need to get over there to help my friend" and Mascara would just be all "Hey buddy, a lot of people's friends are over there. Hang behind the rope." Or Sombra would be choking Shocker and the ref would be all "Hey I'm supposed to be over there." And Mascara would be all "Hmmmm...what was your last name again? Says you're not supposed to be over there."

Read more!

Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 5/24/14

These matches were from the 5/9 Arena Mexico show



Ephesto, Mephisto & Dragon Rojo Jr. vs. Valiente, Titan & Marco Corleone

Real fun match, bunch of cool Ephesto stuff, nice Mephisto showing and maybe the best Marco performance of the year. Definitely the best showing from him in my recent memory (jeez we sure do talk a lot about Marco Corleone on SC these days). With just a liiiitle bit more time and a littttttle less Titan silliness I could see throwing this on the MOTY list. Primera was a short blast, with Valiente and Ephesto tearing it up on the mat (wish I got to see these two go on the mat more), Marco tightening up his punches more than he has in a long time (he's been doing these big looping hooks, here he was tossing them more like a short left uppercut and they looked real good). Ephesto and Mephisto did a nice job of cutting off Marco, especially Ephesto coming in and blindsiding him with a big kick to the chest. Marco still does obnoxious stuff (here he bumps to the floor off a dropkick, and the first thing he does is bend over and hike his kneepads), but also breaks out some great stuff like using his abs to mime punching buttons on a telephone, before walloping Dragon Rojo, and tosses out some real slick armdrags that would look cool even if they were done by a smaller man. Valiente hits his lightning fast dive (probably the best straight dive in lucha today), Mephisto has a goofy devil mask like he's in a Damn Yankees production, Titan hits a nice rana on the floor, and this was a nice brisk 15 minutes. Tons of fun.

Tiffany, Princesa Blanca & Dalys vs. Marcela, Princesa Sugheir & Lluvia

YES! Tiffany is back on my TV! It's been too damn long. She and Blanca have the matching pleather catsuits like they're in the Doll Squad or something and this is awesome. Dalys is sporting her fashionably short 'do with pride! Dalys looks awesome here, breaking out a sweet running Akiyama knee in the corner on Sugheit, and a mean running corner clothesline on Lluvia. The rudas absolutely own the first fall and get DQ'd for Blanca shoving a ref, because they're strong women who don't let men run their lives. Dalys continues to rule throughout this, catching a slick Marcela rana from the apron to the floor. Lluvia's fishnet bodysuit seems like it would take ages to get into. Oh shit the match ended with Sugheit hitting La Mistica. Damn that was short. Fun for the time allotted, maybe best Dalys performance I've seen, and it's been too long since I've seen Tiffany. She's like the Christine Baranski of CMLL.



Mascara Dorada, Atlantis & Volador Jr. vs. Ultimo Guerrero, Niebla Roja & Gran Guerrero

Well blink and you'd miss this match as the whole thing is less than 10 minutes, but it's packed with tons of killer action. Dorada was on fire here and had a pretty wild death wish. His ranas always look spectacular but here he includes his high speed tornillo which is just so sick. Volador can snap off a nice rana of his own when he's not being a shithead, and he looked better here than he has during most of his 2014 run. UG was a good ringleader here (though I like the team WAY more when Euforia replaces Gran G) and took his Jerry bump super fast (since the whole match looked like their normal match, but played about 25% faster). My dvr cut off the very end so I assume there were Atlantis/Ultimo Guerrero mask challenges lobbed back and forth. Skim through for some Dorada craziness.

Read more!

CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 5/11/14

These matches were from the 4/27 Arena Mexico show, billed as the Arena Mexico 58th Anniversary, and also Kids Day! Traditionally I know that there have been a lot of fun matches on Kids Day, so hopefully that's true here. Anniversary show and a Kids Day show, should equal something worthwhile.

Negro Casas, Barbaro Cavernario & Mr. Niebla vs. Maximo, Titan & Super Porky

Fun but inconsequential match. I've been one of the longer term Porky supporters, but at this point it sure seems like he mostly gets in the way as opposed to adding much. A lot of his trios feature long segments focusing on him and it can really drag things. I'm thinking his tecnico work with Escorpion may have been his late career peak. Maximo had a real shining performance here, working in his schtick (along with a bunch of rarely busted out schtick such as fainting into Niebla's arms when Niebla charged him). Maximo got to work some cool arm drag reversal segments with Casas, and Casas isn't a guy I've seen Maximo work very long segments with so that was cool. We've all seen what Cavernario can do now that the Busca is over, so it was kind of a bummer to watch him play 3rd fiddle in his team here. I much rather would have seen him tearing it up with Titan and Maximo (which we did get a little bit of, with him catching a nice Titan rana off the apron on the floor) but instead we got some assbiting comedy spots as if it was a midget match at the county fair. Of course we also got Casas performing violent CPR on Kemonito, so the comedy wasn't a total wash. Casas pounding on Kemonito's chest and listening for a heartbeat, combined with Maximo's performance among other things kept this worthwhile.



Reyes Del Aire, w/ Puma, Tiger, Ephesto, Averno, Mephisto, Niebla Roja, Valiente, Stuka Jr., Rey Cometa, Guerrero Maya Jr., Triton & Delta

Nice seeing Maya back on TV, feels like it's been a few months. He and Mephisto get a fun sequence together, fun armdrags and some brief quirky mat stuff. Valiente/Ephesto is the burliest possible match up this match can give me, and they deliver immediately. Ephesto levels Valiente with a sweet flying back elbow, Valiente does the fastest Fuerza bump to the floor and immediately gets smashed by an Ephesto tope. More please. Tiger is really great at occupying himself while Cometa flips all around him, missing moves and making it really look like Cometa is one step ahead of him, and he makes Cometa look like a star by bumping his slick rana on the floor. The dives start coming fast, with Cometa hitting his awesome tornillo on Puma, but then Maya completely obliterating Roja with a flip dive. He just plastered him into the barricade, hitting him horizontally and with insane speed. One of the most awesome dives I can recall. Just Roja taking a cannonball to the chest. Triton starts going off, springing all over the ropes like a spider monkey, ending with him hitting a wild moonsault to the floor. Things slow down a bit and we get a couple too soon eliminations, with Triton, Maya and Ephesto getting the boot. Maya especially I was hoping would go long. Cometa runs face first into a Puma superkick that folds him right in half (it's fine, since Cometa just hits his own seconds later. d'oh.), but the Puma submits him much to my surprise. I assumed Cometa would be around at the end. And Valiente punishes Puma for the elimination by hitting a stout man tope. God the dives in the match have been incredible. Poor Tiger hardly gets to shine in this, and then gets eliminated by Delta, having to do that old stupid Scoot Andrews/Billy Kidman "I'm draped over the middle rope killing time while you jump off onto me" that I thought people had retired by now. He makes poor Averno go through the exact same fucking thing minutes later. It's a cool double foot stomp, but man do the poor rudos look dorky seated on the middle rope waiting to be leapt on. Retire this move set up!!! Puma and Valiente find neat ways to give each other weird chest breakers, that kind of defy all believable physics if you think about them for more than a second (so just don't do that and enjoy Puma taking Valiente's knees to his chin). Valiente Especial is still spectacular and it's a wonder he hasn't died doing this yet. That's a lot of man crashing upside down into other men at very high speeds. Mephisto and Stuka are weird finalists. Not Stuka really, but Mephisto is maybe the last rudo in this match I wanted to see work the extended finale. They work okay together, but really would have liked to see Puma or Tiger be the final rudo since those guys have really come on strong this year. It would have been nice to see them get some extended time. Still this was almost a half hour of awesome dives and cool moves, probably what a lot of us originally thought lucha was going to be like whenever it was that we all started watching lucha (personally, when I started watching lucha in 1998 I assumed it would be a lot like the luchador matches on WCW Saturday Night. I assume I wasn't the only one who thought that way). This is well worth going out of your way to watch. Tons of fun.

Read more!

CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 4/20/14

These matches were from the 4/6 Anniversario show at Arena Coliseo. I got higher than normal hopes for this one as I know guys historically have pulled out all the stops on big Anniversary shows, so I'm hoping for some better than average stuff here. I'm watching the show with my buddy Charlie who is always fun to watch wrestling with, as he loves it enough so that when I visit him he requests I pick out cool wrestling for us to watch…but at the same time he would never and has never watched any wrestling on his own (past the age of 12). It's always great watching wrestling with Rachel or somebody like Charlie, as they are watching this stuff with completely different eyes and always make some fresh-faced observations from a perspective that I wouldn't consider. It makes me appreciate things in a whole different way.

Averno, Ephesto  & Dragon Rojo Jr. vs. Mistico II, Valiente & La Sombra

This was really fun, not so much flat out great as past Anniversario spotfests have been, but really fun nonetheless. The tecnicos all got to do tons of spectacular stuff, with Valiente especially shining by hitting a crazy fast tope and a somehow even faster Valiente Special. It is probably the craziest spot in wrestling, two crazy fast springboards into a no-look moonsault. He did it so fast here my brain could hardly process it, meaning I can't imagine actually willing my body to do it. Sombra and Mistico each do a couple big flip dives, Averno catches a bunch of Mistico ranas, Sombra breaks out some cool tilt-a-whirl floppy armdrags. So, a bunch of fun stuff, but not quite bumping up to that next level.

Mr. Niebla vs. Atlantis

First two falls were way too short, but the tercera was worked a little bit more like a longer lightning match. It was funny as Atlantis took so much of the match that it turned Niebla tecnico, as after seeing Atlantis control so much the fans spontaneously starts a Niebla chant! Niebla is great at catching onto that and using it to hulk up. Atlantis can kinda hold back in trios and blend into the background, so it was nice seeing him forced to break out enough offense for a singles match. Few guys do roll-ups and old school lucha ranas as graceful as Atlantis, so it's always a treat to see. Niebla takes a big bump to the floor and mans up to catch a big Atlantis tope. Niebla also works some fun comedy in at appropriate times, such as doing the most blatant ropes hold on a rolling reverse cradle (picture Andre stuck in the ropes with both arms draped over, and that was Niebla holding the ropes while pinning Atlantis with his legs). Not much drama in this as Atlantis wins the first with a roll up, Niebla wins the segunda after a splash after Atlantis misses a dropkick, and then even with all the fans newly behind Niebla in the tercera, he doesn't really even get any sort of pitfalls. It just eventually ends up with Atlantis winning, as everybody assumed he would.

Minis Cage Match up next, loser unmasks!! I don't think I've really seen a very good multi-man lucha cage match, as escape rules matches don't usually do too much for me. Mini matches are usually made spectacular by their crazy spots and awesome rudo bases, but a cage takes away all spots to the floor, and escape rules make doing top rope spots psychologically stupid, as the guy should just climb over the top.

Pierrothito vs. Pequeno Olimpico vs. Fantasy vs. Stukita vs. Ultimo Dragoncito vs. Electrico vs. Astral vs. Acero vs. Pequeno Halcon vs. Pequeno Nitro

Yeah this match was pretty much what I was afraid of. Ten people crammed into a cage, more worried about climbing over the cage than doing cool stuff. I'm sure some have to exist out there, but is there such a thing as a good multi-man lucha cage match? I'm thinking 6 combatants or higher. I have no doubts there could be a good singles cage match, or even a tag team. But at 6+ people I'm asking you, tell me the good lucha cage matches. I'll watch those motherfuckers right here. So we had a long series of assorted guys jumping up to turnbuckles, only to be pulled off of those same turnbuckles. Moreover, we had a series of assorted guys jumping up to turnbuckles, only to evade capture, climb to the top of the cage, flex muscles in celebration at the top of the cage, and then escape. Escape rules do not leave much room for highspots, unless the psychology is all out of whack (he wanted to hit a gigantic move off the top sooooo badly that it overrode his desire to escape!!), and there are not many here. Stukita tries to fit some stuff in, and in cramped quarters is somewhat successful. I applaud his effort. Pierrothito is a standout at working with the match constraints, as he is one of the only ones who manages to show some sort of personality while working escapes and battle royal-type bullshit. It comes down to Pequeno Halcon and Astral. They work some pretty decent submission exchanges, in that both guys were able to get across the consequences of tapping out. Astral wins, Halcon unmasks. He looks like many Mexican men you have known in your life. He was my pick to lose from the beginning, as he had a) the most boring mask, and b) the least interesting look and gimmick. I don't think losing the Pequeno Halcon identity will make any difference over his long term career. I may not know the whole story, but I'm failing to see the Halcon identity being a huge boon to his career. Are there many Halcon fans out there still? People going "I used to watch Super Halcon. This man is dressed much like him, but smaller. He looks somewhat like a smaller Halcon."

Read more!

CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 4/13/14

These matches were from the 3/30 Arena Coliseo show. We get another big Fuego dance party entrance, which is just awesome. Stupidly catchy song, choreography, on screen heart graphics made with Sculptris, essentially everything you would want.

Lightning Match: Fuego vs. Ephesto

I'm not really sure what they were going for in this match. Seems like CMLL is pushing Fuego pretty hard, but Ephesto goes over pretty easily by just rolling him up. As a Fuego showcase the match didn't really work, as there are other guys in the promotion with flashier offense. Fuego's offense here is pretty standard issue, with a couple nice dives and a couple normal armdrags, and moonsaulting into Ephesto's boots (which is now becoming almost as standard a spot in lucha as the backcracker). If they were going for Ephesto being a bully it didn't really work, as Fuego took like 80% of the match and then Ephesto just kinda won at the end. There was some nice moments, with Ephesto taking a fast armdrag through the middle rope to the floor, but most of this was just drab. None of the transitions felt very well thought out. Fuego hits his dives, and then spends a minute back in the ring getting the crowd into it, and Ephesto just walks back in and starts doing his offense. I'm just not sure what all was supposed to be accomplished here. It wasn't so much a bad match, as it was a boring match.

Mercurio, Pequeno Olimpico & Pequeno Warrior vs. Stukita, Acero & Pequeno Halcon

This is a pretty deep cut as far as CMLL minis trios go. Acero, Stukita, etc. aren't usually the guys that pop up on TV. In fact I'm pretty positive I have never seen Stukita. He's really tiny. Not like Mascarita Dorada tiny, but tiny as in he looks like an in-shape 13 yr old. His moves don't really have much oomph to them (his triple moonsaults look pillow soft, hard to look that impactful when you're 80 lb.), but he has a lot of energy and the crowd gets loud when he gets crazy distance on a dive and he ties Mercurio up into a cool knot to end the segunda. Warrior and Olimpico were awesome dickhead rudos, and Warrior had a cool slingshot Bombs Away to the floor. Not as spectacular as some minis matches can be, as none of the rudos are really monster bumpers and none of the tecnicos are really spectacular fliers, but this was a fun deep cut minis sighting.

Terrible, Vangellys & Rey Bucanero vs. La Mascara, Titan & Diamante Azul

Man where's the fire guys? I don't think all three falls even totaled 8 minutes. Everything was rushed through and while the work was good it was pretty impossible to get that invested when things just kept ending. Titan and Azul seemed confused how to take Vangelly's clothesline/spear (it's basically him doing a sliding clothesline to his opponent's stomach) as the both take the impact of the move and then kind of jump into a back bump after a delay, basically making it look like a real phony takedown. Terrible threw some good punches throughout and his work with Mascara was fun. Titan has a not-very-good split legged moonsault which of course means he did it a couple times. He over-rotates and lands heavy on his ankles. Bucanero caught a fun headscissors on the floor from Titan, and flew into an older lady in the front row, who consoled his pain with a hug. Bucanero also asked a foxy younger lady to rub out a painful spot on his backside, which she (half-heartedly) obliged.  

Negro Casas, Rey Escorpion & Mr. Niebla vs. Maximo, Atlantis & Marco Corleone

This match was awesome and would be a MOTY if it were a little longer with a better ending. Negro Casas is just so great in smaller arenas, really hamming it up and it's just impossible to take your eyes off him. He stooges his way all around the ring and ringside, ducking Corleone's punches in hilarious manner, and spilling out awesomely when they connect. Maximo hits his massive dive, Corleone punches tons of people in the face (Escorpion especially takes a great stoogey bump off the ropes from one after taunting Marco). This is all well worth going out of your way just to bask in all the joy of Negro Casas being Negro Casas. This man can do it all. 

Read more!