September Release Wrap-Up: ZSJ~! DE LEON~! ANIVERSARIO~! HASHIMOTO/VENY~! SAREEE/MIYU~!

MD: I've always been less of a listmaker than my compatriots, so there's not as much MOTY List stuff over the last couple of years. That said, this feels like a good time to hit some high spots in a quick global roundup of things that either just happened or that were just released. Probably won't be a regular thing except for various Mondays where there isn't an AEW match that fits the criteria or jumps out at me (like when we covered Mio vs Ozaki).

Jake De Leon vs. Zack Sabre Jr. Dexcon 5/26/24

MD: Joseph clued me in to this, as you'd well expect. He has the details on how to get it here. It's well worth watching because it's a great throwback to a world long gone, a champion (in heart and reputation in this case) traveling all around the world to fight the local hero, to give him someone to test his mettle against. It's 2024 and this is a very smart (in the vernacular sense) audience, so there wasn't going to be riots if Jake didn't win, but this match certainly made Sabre look larger than life and like a real world warrior, adding to a globetrotting year, while also allowing De Leon to account for himself far more than honorably and to seize a sort of moral victory. That was often the only sort that the local could obtain against the traveling champ, but for a crowd that might only see the very top of the pro wrestling magazine food chain a couple of times a year (or even less), it was more than enough so long as the wrestlers made it more than enough, and they certainly did that here.

This is pro-shot but there was a hanging sort of darkness with the lighting, a close-in feel that created a mood unlike most other pro-shot wrestling you'll probably be watching in 2024. The crowd was abuzz, holding up their phones, oohing, chanting. Sabre knew his job, pressing in on Leon early and using creative hand signals to try to dissuade the crowd from chanting for him. He was the rare sight, but he was there to help glorify everything around him, not solely for the sake of his own ego.

The ceiling for a guy like Sabre is very often what his opponent can keep up with. This is a year when he was up against Hechicero and Danielson, two opponents that he could do virtually anything with. It's a testament to De Leon then that he seemed like he could do almost anything. Here, too, was the added challenge that they were going to go to the limit.

While De Leon would meet Sabre head on whenever he could manage it, and even put him in real danger through damaging the arm and almost cinching in his favorite holds, Sabre came off as the overall aggressor. It was generally up to De Leon to escape, often as Sabre held on through an attempt or shifted position to continue the punishment. Escape he did though, and he'd fire back, standing tall in the middle of the ring, throwing hands while seated, fighting out of the corner, doing whatever it took. Overall, there was more focus on the arm by De Leon and the leg by Sabre, but things tended to reset back to the middle, more often than not forced there by De Leon's skill to keep his head above water and drive to prove himself as Sabre's exact equal.

They kept this pace for around twenty five minutes. Only in the last five did they really start to shift from damaging and softening up towards trying to seize a victory. That led to things boiling over and the fight heading to the floor. It was only after they came back in that Sabre seemed to understand that time was slipping out of his grasp. He tried to push forth to victory but overextended and De Leon didn't just stay in it but came perilously close to the perceived upset. Sabre got the hold he wanted, as time was ticking down but De Leon had made such a struggle of it, making him fight for every inch of positioning, that the bell rang before Sabre could obtain a tap. As draws go, this was one of the sweetest, for De Leon wasn't just a passenger riding the time out; his defense drove the seconds down and robbed Sabre from another notch on his belt. Maybe not the triumph the crowd would have chosen to revel in but one that they were still more than happy to celebrate.

Sareee/Mayu Iwatani vs. Chihiro Hashimoto/VENY Sareee-ISM Ch. V 9/2/24

MD: There's a Guerreros vs Fantastics match that was part of the Houston collection that was pretty hard to wrap one's mind around when it came out. There wasn't a clear shine/heat/comeback structure. Instead, the Guerreros would cheat to get ahead and then the Fantastics would fight back, even getting a tag, and then the Guerreros would almost immediately cut it off and continue to lean down upon them. I called it stuttering heat and there's something similar going on here, albeit with less actual tags and more simply rushing in. There's an inherent structure to this that keeps it from being formless and aimless noise, no matter how much it threatens to devolve to that at times.

As much as Sareee presents herself as an ace (with all that entails) and Mayu as plucky and effectively opportunistic, Hashimoto and VENY are both larger than life (albeit in different ways) and either on their own or working together, they were able to consistently cut off Sareee and Mayu in a way that kept this from being Your Move/My Move and endowed the match with a constant sense of struggle. Wrestling isn't math, but the start of the match was something like 60/40, with the middle being 70/30, and the finishing stretch a straight 50/50. It was a precarious balance but one that never quite fell apart.

I haven't seen a ton of Sareee this year. I don't think I would necessarily gravitate towards her over Mio, who is more about big selling and big comebacks, but Sareee absolutely wrestles like a star. She's always pushing forward, always standing up, always leaning in, always fighting back. That worked especially well with Hashimoto who was always cutting off, always pressing down, always pushing off. Their opening exchange felt familiar but not collaborative, with a highlight being how both bridged up and out of pins and immediately turned their subsequent advantageous positioning into instant offense. Mayu had more of a never say die spirit and had some fun stuff early where she outquicked both of her opponents at once. VENY on the other hand, is almost unnaturally big relative to her opponents and has this casual, matter-of-fact way of moving that methodologically controls the pace; the contrast stands out.

There were certain things I would have liked to have a little more resonance like Mayu accidentally tagging Sareee with an errant shot, especially since Hashimoto accidentally clotheslining VENY (which left Hash open to Mayu's German and being taken out of the match) set up the finish, but in general, I never felt like they were blowing things off too much. There weren't excessive kickouts as they leaned more towards partners breaking things up instead. Down the stretch they set up the idea of big moves, the struggle to hit them, and the payoff when they actually hit in a satisfying way. Ultimately, this was all action, but the action was smart and measured and played into the natural discrepancies between the teams in a way that elevated this past meaningless sensation and into something that hit just right (not an easy thing!).

Hechicero vs. Valiente vs. Esfinge vs. Euforia CMLL 9/14/24

MD: Aniversario. Elimination 4-way. First two out are out of the match. Final two in fight then for the immortal glory of taking a mask. Traditionally, I'd say that these matches tend to be a little bit disappointing, with bombs and action early and too short a one-on-one match towards the end, a poor contrast to a heated 2/3 falls apuestas match. That wasn't the case at all here.

The opening 4-way was certainly action packed. They went right to the four of them flying at each other. The initial image of the match is Hechicero missing a dropkick. Esfinge and Valiente (who needed to be highlighted early for obvious reasons) both hit dives in the first minute or two. They kept things moving and interesting as they cycled through advantages. Euforia matched up against Hechicero. Valiente matched up against Esfinge. All three of them caught Euforia on a dive and power bombed him on the floor. I don't know exactly when Hechicero injured his arm but he was holding it after the Conjuro on Valiente so it's something to keep in mind for the rest of the match; he was working through it (he even bumped over the top rope immediately thereafter, after which they taped him up).

Despite it being a 4-way with all of the inherent difficulties there, the elimination nature and inherent stakes helped things along. It felt paced just right, the level of damage and exhaustion rising so that things slowed down as believable nearfalls began to creep in. For example, Esfinge almost got Hechicero on a complex bridging pin only for Hechicero to pick an ankle to escape. Euforia tapping Esfinge on his body scissors dragon sleeper paid off their feud but was a surprise to a degree as Esfinge vs Euforia was the biggest focus heading into this. Following that was a final bit of Valiente spotlight and an extended matchup with Hechicero where Hech was able to make one last counter to tap him. Again, that was a bit of a surprise as Valiente was maybe the odds on favorite to lose his mask.

So the central feud and the central victim were off the table. What we had left was Euforia and Hechicero, the latter of which was dealing with a bicep tear in real time. They had been trios champs last year and have Infernales history but relative to other apuestas matches, there wasn't as much of a hook. That said, Hechicero is on an international hot streak for 2024, the star run of his life, and Euforia had been waiting his entire career for a moment like this and what they gave us was not at all the rote constrained mask match following eliminations that I've seen at least a few times before. They went all out.

That meant Hechicero reset things with a dive, pulling his straps back up after (another reset in its own way). It meant he let Euforia back in by wiping out on a diving legdrop onto the guardrail. Euforia focused on the arm just a little, but only to set up the mask ripping and the bombs that would follow. And did they ever follow. I lean more towards minimalism than not, of course, and I think you can have an amazing apuestas match with just punches, mask ripping, and blood, but not in 2024 CMLL, of course. This is the one time a year and the one geographic place that a match should go as big as it possibly can. That meant multiple moves off the top (including Hechicero surviving two power bombs). It meant Euforia struggled and struggled to lock in his submission and when he actually did, Hechicero still somehow survived it. It meant big moves like a pumphandle faceplant that were hit and then reversed on the second try.

In any other setting, more on top of more on top of more like this would have been a problem, but here it was the solution. They sold consequence. They channeled pure desperation. They fought exhaustion as much as they fought each other, not to mention injury and cumulative damage. In pro wrestling and in Arena Mexico, nothing could possibly matter more than this, nothing, and every kickout, every reversal, every bit of perseverance to survive a hold, all of it was warranted. And that, as much as anything else, made it feel all the more magical when Hechicero found one last burst of energy to bound off the ropes and hit his headscissors driver and immediately shift it into a hold like he does so well. If you had asked me a few years ago if this sort of glory was still possible to grasp, I might have had my doubts, but they rekindled the fire and recaptured the magic. It's not the bloody and pure magic of days gone by, but it's one still real and vibrant today.

Read more!

AEW Five Fingers of Death 6/3 - 6/9

AEW Collision 6/8/24

Dustin Rhodes vs Johnny TV

MD: As I get older and as the world becomes more jaded and ironic around me, I find myself more and more as a true believer of pro wrestling. The core tenets work. The core tenets always work. They are primal. They play upon certain facets of our brains in the best of ways. There can be holes, flaws, chinks in the armor, dodgy bits of execution, some coldness when it comes to one of the competitors, but so long as you trust in the time-tested theories, it is going to work. And no one makes it work, no one plays upon those theories, better than Dustin Rhodes. 

So there are bits here I wasn't sure about. Some of the execution seemed a little odd, like that Johnny leapfrog that Dustin slid out on, or even some of the strikes. And I can't tell you, because of the quick camera cuts. I get the purpose of quick camera cuts in an HD world, I really do, but if you're not going to trust in Dustin Rhodes to make his strikes look good, then what are you even doing, right? I can't weigh in one way or another except for in saying that the quick cuts took me out of the match far more than actually seeing Dustin's strikes, good or ill, would have. AEW's early success came in pulling back on some of the more "Sports Entertainment" tropes and production elements and now that we're this post-Dunn moment of WWE leaning away from them, AEW only exposes itself with things like that. Trust wrestling. Trust Dustin. I did love the swooping camera shot during the giant swing in the FTR tag though. Experiment but push things forward, not sideways into the land of Dunn cuts. That's my hope at least.

Anyway, the things that worked absolutely worked. Most especially here was the use of Taya. Dustin won the early mind games by sweeping out, taking Johnny's attention to let him hit the flip off the apron. Taya asserted herself almost immediately thereafter and Johnny took over on the steps. Then, during the commercial break they did the old rule of three build to a comeback, except for this time instead of running the same offensive spot over and over until it got reversed, they did the insult to injury kiss leading to the catapult by Dustin. I would have liked that to be the transition instead of the last hope spot building to the double clothesline, but that's a nitpick, and I was all for Johnny going for the dropdown Goldust punch and failing immediately thereafter. Tom and I were going back and forth on Aminata last week, as I think the way she hits makes her a natural heel and he thinks her charisma and story makes her a natural face. My problem there is that as the sort of face she would be she needs a bunch of 80s chickshit heels to run through and I was thinking only Saraya could (or would, or should, as Athena could but should not) really nail that on the roster. Taya's someone else that could probably pull it off though. 

Collision has morphed from whatever it had initially been to a really powerful way to heat up people that need to be heated up for a storyline purpose. On this show, that was the Premier Athletes for instance. They're going to get fed to Joe, Shibata, and Hook, so they needed some credibility. When I heard Dustin had to cancel an appearance at a con to come into Collision, I knew that it wasn't going to be to immediately heat someone else up. The roster is big and broad enough to have people to do that on a weekly basis. It was to set himself up for something bigger. And I think he'll be a great opponent for Perry to really get to flex his heel muscles. I'll be honest though. The Texas residency is coming and I hope there are certain elements of those shows that are constant week after week, because there’s a real opportunity for that in front of a probable repeat audience. There should be some routine and comfort and consistency and I'd hope some things that build from week to week. Maybe that's someone winning a Brass Knucks trophy in week one and defending it each week until the end (with a cash prize for whoever has it at the end). Or maybe, and here's what I was hoping and still am, it could be a multi-week celebration of Dustin's career. I'm not saying you have to do a King of the Road match or anything (though they should), but leaning on Dustin heavily throughout that run in some way meant to be special and to tug on heartstrings would be a blessing both for the booking and for me getting to write up a bunch of Dustin matches.

AEW Dynamite 6/5/24

Bryan Danielson/Jon Moxley/Wheeler Yuta/Claudio Castagnoli vs Magnus/Rudigo/Volador Jr./Esfinge

MD: I'm glad this happened. The CMLL engagement just hits differently. It's closer to my vision of what I'd like lucha to be and while these CMLL in AEW matches only go about 45% of the way stylistically and structurally, tending to be beatdowns that are confined within AEW's rules even if they have some of that old Infernales spirit, it's still somewhat familiar and nostalgic to me. This, and the four-way to start the show, were great ways to follow up from the critical success of the Casino Gauntlet from the following week and to stress the excitement (felt more this year than previous years) of Forbidden Door season. All action, all interesting action, all the sort of action that you can't get week to week anywhere else in the world. 

I don't have a lot to say about the specifics. These may not exactly be the CMLL guys I'd like to see the most, but the Depredadores worked well together and Magnus was a perfectly fine face in peril. I liked the extended BCC beatdown and especially how any of the BCC spots (at least those connected to Claudio) can work with anyone. Danielson did the Hart Attack here. Mox did the dropkick on the swing. Yuta did both on Collision. This needed to be a bit of a Yuta showcase and he shined at the end at least. I would have liked to see Volador get hit in the face a bit more, but that's just a personal thing. We've probably got more Hechicero on the way, at least, but I'm all for the Forbidden Door staying open for many months to come. 

Read more!

On Brand Segunda: Faarooq vs. Kama! Blue Panther as Rusher Kimura!

Faarooq vs. Kama Mustafa WWF Shotgun Saturday Night 6/20/98

ER: This isn't necessarily a great match, but it's a pretty damn cool match because it is completely different than the short match WWE structure that came over the next 20 years. This feels much more like a WCW match from this era, who had no problems throwing out "slugfest" style matches, and it didn't have any kind of WWE structure tropes (no extended consecutive run of offense from either guy, no chinlock spot to build to a babyface comeback), so the whole thing felt very foreign and unique. Charles Wright is a pretty frustrating wrestler. He was really big (6'6", 300+ lb.) and moved pretty quick, but never had a ton of thump to any of his offense. But this might be the best match I've seen him involved in. Are there actual good Soultaker/Kama/Papa Shango/Godfather matches, in particular singles matches? I can't remember any. Well, here's one. The movement and energy in this whole match was top notch. It was go go go but based around ass beating instead of "kewl moves" and that is the best kind of go go go. There were a couple lariats that felt a little light, but damn does Faarooq come off like a great southern regional babyface here, taking the strap down right as the match starts and working super aggressive. I loved how he whipped Kama around ringside with his belt, hit his nice flying shoulderblock to send Kama to the floor (which lead to a great moment where he missed that same shoulderblock off the top when Kama sidestepped him and smacked him on his way down. Kama works nice body shots and a hard as hell avalanche. Faarooq was a great babyface with the way he would always fight back to transition, but there were several moments where he wasn't a great opponent for Kama, tanking a couple moments with bizarre selling choices. Kama threw nice body shots in the corner and Faarooq didn't even budge for them; later Kama hits a mule kick to the stomach and Faarooq just takes a slow flat back bump from it, which makes zero sense from a physics standpoint. But there's a ton of other stuff that owns and keeps the whole match moving at a pace that WWF heavyweights just didn't often work. Loved Faarooq eating knees on a standing splash, dug a big time mid-ring collision, dug the brawl to count out. This was really good, and wasn't more than a few little things away from being great.

Blue Panther/Stuka Jr./Esfinge vs. Felino/Barbaro Cavernario/Luciferno CMLL 2/12/19

ER: This match had a kind of sloppy, disheveled charm that I really liked, feeling like a lucha version of an opening match All Japan trios that had a couple of the comedy old guys, and a couple young juniors. Blue Panther is finally starting to show his age. Others saw it earlier than I did, but at this point he isn't moving like a guy who is going to be doing three dives and a cool rana in one match. But I love this guy's scruffy face and smiling eyes, and I hope I get to see him be Rusher Kimura forever. Panther has the charisma and ability to be a great Rusher, and that's on display here. He had a fun sequence in the corner with Barbaro, making Milton Berle faces while taking punches, then yanking on Barbaro's hair before jumping off the buckles into a hair drag. He got tangled amusingly when working mat stuff, stumbling like a cute old man when finishing rollups, still working fun sunset flip sequences, and playing to the fans more than anybody. Mildly resurgent Felino is also a thing I really like. He was an early favorite when I started watching lucha 20+ years ago, and then some years later he became the most annoying guy in CMLL. Most annoying guy in a fed that has Volador Jr. is a thing that bummed me out, so I like seeing him work a little harder these last couple years, really ever since his sons gained some prominence. His shtick is a little better (teasing a shirt removal is always a win) and he shows he can still work a fun quick showoff segment, and I like that there's still something there. Barbaro really comes off like a star in matches like these, feels like a guy who will be as big a star as his body will let him. He's not doing splashes from the top to the floor anymore (right!?) but he is still a crazy man, and his fantastic corkscrew press through the ropes to the floor was an incredible looking dive that blows away any dive by Audaz or any of those more brazen fliers. Stuka is a guy who I think I rate higher than most, and I like him in matches like these, feels like a modern guy with late 80s lucha sensibilities. Esfinge hits a really big dive, we get an abundance of funny uncle in an Olive Garden commercial Blue Panther, and it all made me feel the way only lucha can make me feel.

Read more!

Matt & Eric, Two Men Discussing Virus, Separately

2017-03-25 @ Arena Coliseo San Ramón, Puebla, Puebla
Virus vs. Prayer

MD: This dropped a few days ago even though it's from a Lucha Memes show back in March. I couldn't tell you the first thing about Prayer, but Virus was, of course, my #10 on the GWE poll last year, which felt crazy at the time and still feels crazy, but was very much a testament to the power of footage (we've got him almost weekly for the last many years, even if he's just in low card trios). I'll say this: after watching this match, I feel all the more validated with the placement.

We're lucky to have as many maestros matches as we do. In those, what they do is so logical and so intricate and so interesting and (probably most importantly) so full of struggle and commitment, that we forgive the half speed nature of so many of them. We see it as part of the fight, that locking a hold on to someone as expert as Blue Panther or Negro Navarro just takes that much more pressure and effort. It takes longer. In some ways, it's a testament that they can go that much more slowly but still make none of it seem collaborative, like playing a song very slowly and thus having to perfect each and every belabored note. 

This was not that at all. For the first two thirds of the match, they were primarily on the mat. There was struggle. There were intricate leverage moves. There were counters and escapes. It was done at far faster pace, was utterly believable, and didn't miss a beat. They were able to portray that same level of mastery but turned up about three gears. So much of this was Virus. You watch him and you wonder just how he sees the world, if time slows down and he can extrapolate out the ways limbs might twist and contort like an sculptor envisioning a masterpiece or a chess champion looking forward six moves. Prayer kept up well enough; he had to do his part, for Virus just manipulating him wouldn't have allowed for this level of speed or sharpness. Ultimately, though, this was a showcase for El Pequeño Gran Maestro, and since he no longer gets as many singles matches in CMLL as he did a few years ago, it's one we're lucky to have.

A few words about the escalation in the match, too. When they went to spots towards the end of the match, none of them were too excessive. None of them needed to be. Staying on the mat (even while increasing the level of peril) meant that a springboard low dropkick could mean as much as a headdrop or a giant dive. It created believable near-falls when that might not work at all with a less disciplined match. Just the testament of someone who really understands how to imbue meaning into his craft. 

I'm glad Virus is still getting opportunities to have matches like this, even if only on the indies, and I'm glad this dropped, even if it dropped a few months after the fact. Check it out.

Virus/Sagrado/Skandalo v. Soberano Jr./Triton/Esfinge (CMLL 3/28/17)

ER: Virus has to be the king of noteworthy performances in throwaway undercard matches. This falls apart a bit in the segunda/tercera, and Skandalo kind of stumbles around and gets in the way through much of this, Sagrado is really quite good as a rudo so I enjoyed all of his moments (his rudo offense is really great, especially that sunset flip counter, a double stomp into a few elbowdrops, hell yes)...but this was all about Virus. The Virus/Esfinge mat stuff that opens the match is really cool, subtly flashy, all of it compelling; but him picking on Soberano is the money of the match, as they work some fast sequences that end with Virus hitting a stiff shoulderblock that sends Soberano bumping backwards and upside down to the floor, then we cut to Sagrado clotheslining Esfinge's shins out from him on the apron, and then back across the ring to catch Virus hitting the mother of all baseball slide dropkicks on a just-waking-up-on-the-floor Soberano. We get another fun Virus/Soberano segment in the tercera, but it's a shame the rest of the match couldn't hold up the level of the primera. But a match with a floor of "So how good is Virus, right?" is still something with value.

Read more!

Lucha Worth Watching 2/5/16 & 2/9/16

Barbaro Cavernario, Negro Casas & Mephisto vs. Mascara Dorada, Volador Jr. & Mistico (CMLL 2/5/16)

Major crowd pleaser Arena Mexico main event with everybody getting the opportunity to shine. Dorada is back from his NJPW sojourn and looks like a star, snapping off ranas and headscissors with more whip than anybody else on the roster, projecting huge on bumps; Cavernario is his perfect dance partner, excellent yin to his yang, taking those ranas and making them look neck breaking. They peak with Dorada catching Barbaro on the apron with a rana that sends him sprawling hard to the floor. Barbaro looked so big time in this match, right from the opening seconds of him entering the arena in his Fred Flintstone smock on up to the mammoth top rope splash to the floor that his knees still somehow allow him to do. Casas is gorgeous in his simplicity and it's always a treat to watch him front kick twerps like Volador square in the mouth while his goons hold onto him. A motivated Casas is a thing to marvel, and here he's in his Arena Mexico hamming-it-up glory, acting as ringleader to the chaos, sneaking shots when needed and stooging when that's needed. He takes a bullet fast flip bump off the top rope to the floor that made my head spin. For his part Volador actually shows some balls here and finally snaps and punts Casas right in the dick to end the match. It's nice to see Volador not looking like an utter wimp for once. Mephisto gets a nice main event appearance and clearly aims to make the most of it. He makes his intentions clear right away as he breaks up a tag by kicking Volador right in the eye with his boot toe. Mephisto gets to hog some nice big moments and gets to show off a bit, too, bumping to the floor a couple times, launching Mistico into the entrance steps; The tecnicos all hit stereo flip dives, tons of beautiful headscissors abound, and the whole thing is worked rather breathlessly. As it should be.

Comandante Pierroth, Sagrado & Misterioso Jr. vs. Delta, Esfinge & Rey Cometa (CMLL 2/9/16)

You know who I really like? La Comando Caribeno. They're just classic rudos, like the nuevo Dinamitas. Dragon Lee and Rush get a lot of deserved praise, but you know who is also awesome? Their papa, the Comandante. He's a juiced up nasty asskicker who really should be getting more love, but isn't exactly part of any major programs so I get it. I'd love to see him team up with Rush and just beat the hell out of flippers. But the team just works so nicely together. Misterioso Jr. has been one of the more underrated CMLL undercarders for years now, so that's not a surprise. Sagrado is the surprise of the team, because Sagrado is a guy you've seen for a decade now, and a guy that has blown for a decade. He was a clueless tecnico, star of several aborted pushes, as once they would try and push him they would again realize "oh wait he still wrestles like Sagrado and also has the charisma of Sagrado." You watched that guy suck for a decade. Or maybe you were smart and did not watch Sagrado. I watched Sagrado. He was terrible. Now he is decidedly not terrible at all. He's a totally different wrestler as a rudo. He has much better instincts and doesn't do wretched highspots. He throws himself into being a rudo (sometimes literally, watch him hurl himself into the barrier after taking an Esfinge dive in the primera). These guys all really fit nicely as a team, which is oddly something I don't often get with lucha teams. Many tecnico teams are fungible. Volador can team with Stuka or Delta or Dragon Lee or Diamante Azul or Valiente and those teams would all seem like guys standing on the apron around each other. And they do. Ingobernales feel like a team. And like them, so do La Comando Caribeno. And Pierroth is somehow becoming a marvel. I don't remember a bunch of Poder Boricua stuff jumping out at me, but suddenly he's old and on the gas and I'm seeking out every new match that pops up. Welting up tecnico chests with hard slaps, stiffing guys with sentons, just running that ring like a real dickhead general. The tecnicos get some fun highspots, Esfinge hits a potentially botched armdrag but hangs in there and makes it work, we get two different stereo dives, but the real fun is watching Caribenos nail all of the little things. Pierroth is working more like Ronnie Garvin than a classic lucha rudo, and it's awesome.

Read more!

MLJ: Dragon Lee vs Virus/Casas 9: Puma, Tiger, Virus vs Dragon Lee, Esfinge, Pegasso

2015-01-13 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Puma, Tiger, Virus vs Dragon Lee, Esfinge, Pegasso

I finally made it into 2015, so from here on in, with the Dragon Lee spotlight, consider this sort of a secondary look at his year. Keep in mind, I'm only looking at matches where he's up against either Casas or Virus. The way I see it, everyone else has the Kamaitachi stuff covered. This is all additional evidence one way or another. Plus, Virus and Casas are my two current favorite guys in CMLL, so it's win-win. Anyway, this is kind of like comfort food to me. I don't know if I have a lot more to say about CMLL trios in general, but I can delve into specific performances.

Here, the rudo team was just so much fun. I like Puma and Tiger, but I especially like them when Virus is there to ground their tendencies a bit and to direct traffic. This had a ton of time in the primera, or at least it felt that way. Some of that was a testament to Virus, and to Pegasso, who he was paired with, keeping up with him. This was in front of an absurdly hot crowd. Looking back, there might have been some sort of corporate give away of tickets or someting. Some sort of promotion. I have no idea what they're chanting or who they're rooting for but they were into this thing from the get go.

Again, the get go was Virus and Pegasso, with Virus looking like the best wrestler in the world, working an inside armlock from a standing position with Pegasso flipping and twisting and hitting to get out and Virus just hanging on. Yes, he was controlling the flow of this and moving Pegasso around, but I thought it wasn't entirely apparent. It certainly wasn't even from a presentation point of view. By having Pegasso continue to fight, even as Virus remained in control, it made both of them look good.

The other pairings were pretty good too. Tiger was with Esfinge and they picked up the pace a bit. The real strength of that pairing was Tiger's personality, complaining about his mask whenever he lost an exchange. Puma and Dragon Lee brought a ton of energy to the match from the second they stepped in to face off. All good stuff. The fall ended with things breaking down and Virus and Dragon Lee going at it (after holding off from that the entire primera). Virus would catch Lee off the ropes, reversing the second slidekick of the match with his legs into a submission. Very novel spot:

Puma and Tiger are always a blast to watch. The beatdown continued into the segunda, and just watch Puma's dickishness with teasing Pegasso's corner with the tag:

They're the spottiest guys in CMLL but since things follow the usual structure, it adds instead of distracts from the procedeeings. When you add in other players like Dragon Lee and Virus, you end up with fairly elaborate spots:

Anyway, this churned a bit, with a few false moments of comeback. Eventually, the tecnicos were just too much. The rudos could withstand one attempt, but eventually they fell behind and lost the momentum, leading to flip dives by Esfinge and Pegasso on Puma and Tiger and the first real Dragon Lee/Virus exchange of the match. Thanks to some clever positioning knocking Virus off the corner, they actually made the dangling double stomp look pretty natural, which is always a plus.

The tercera was pretty much what you'd expect. Tiger and Puma acted sufficiently rudo, teasing handshakes and trolling the crowd to get heat. Pegasso and Esfinge hit their stuff. They cycled guys in and out. Dragon Lee and Virus faced off again, with Lee getting the clear visual victory, hitting his dive. The tecnicos lost the war, though, as Puma and Tiger were able to get Esfinge and Pegasso down, setting up the flip splash on both and a double pin. Too many talented wrestlers here for this not to be fun and enjoyable, even if it was low stakes.

Read more!

MLJ: July 2015 Matches Week: Negro Casas/Esfinge/Guerrero Maya, Jr. vs Virus/Disturbio/Boby Zavala

Taped 2015/7/24 @ Arena Mexico
Negro Casas/Esfinge/Guerrero Maya, Jr. vs Virus/Disturbio/Boby Zavala

I wanted to take a little break from my fair, impartial, and critically beloved look at Volador in 2015 to check out a few other things from July. This was the Busca trios match. I looked at the one from last year not that long ago. Generally, due to Negro Casas and Virus' involvement, if you're going to watch one match from these things, this is the one to go with.

I think everyone agrees that the field this year was terribly lackluster. If you're someone who wants kinetic action and big dives, then things were particularly weak. They tended to work a more subdued sort of match with more (often meandering) matwork. Canelo Casas and Blue Panther, Jr. stunk up their share of matches. The guys who can fly big like Flyer tended to move gingerly and without confidence. The judging bordered from embarrassing (Hijo del Gladiador's reactions explains so much about CMLL's booking) to hilariously embarrassing (Blue Panther, Sr. refusing to judge Blue Panther, Jr.) to just hilarious (Porky giving everyone 10s). Add in the shadiness of Esfinge advancing and the specter of last year's highly enjoyable field and it's really just depressing. You'll notice that Segunda Caida didn't cover it to any great degree.

But hey, this match has Casas and Virus and I'll watch any match with Casas and Virus, so here we go. If you remember, last year's trio match was smart with its pairings, starting with the maestros (and Hechicero) separated so that there were three solid exchanges to begin things. It also had the weirdness of Cachorro on the rudo side. Here, the split is very clean. Casas, super over with the Arena Mexico crowd, would play babyface (if not tecnico) and Virus, Disturbio, and Zavala would naturally play rudo.

This year they started with Disturbio vs Esfinge, which was tolerable. I know Esfinge has gotten criticized for the nepotism but he's seasoned enough to do the little things here. Disturbio probably has the best facial reactions in CMLL right now. I'm trying to think who would be better an coming up blank. He's just such a goon. Anyway, the matwork here was perfectly okay. They led into what I'd consider the main rivalry of the match, and it was a surprising one, the sort that really didn't exist in last year's more heralded match, Casas vs Zavala. They were paired up numerous times throughout the match. If anyone was the breakout star of the Busca this year, it was Boby, and Casas bent over backwards to highlight him here. They were presented as very even in strike exchanges and in Casas just respecting him as an opponent worth his time. Virus was paired with Maya and tat was fine, if brief, leading to a pace picking up for the primera's finish. It looked like it was going to be the tecnicos ascendant with Esfinge hitting a dive and Casas locking in the Casita on Zavala, but Esfinge wiped out and Zavala blocked the Casita to hit a power bomb. I watched this back a few times, and I'm pretty certain that Zavala shook the ropes to make Esfinge wipe out. If so, that was really clever and it's not something you see all the time. The camera just didn't catch it well. It was a good primera which set the tone for the match.

I think the really exciting stuff here was Casas' face in peril during the segunda. That said, I wasn't quite as high on it as some people, if only because I wish it went a little longer. The nature of lucha trios matches is that you don't get extended face in peril segments. You get a side-in-peril, yes, but they tend to keep things moving and the importance of a "tag" instead of a momentum shift is minimized. It's a little like focused limbwork. It's rare enough that when you do see it, it really stands out. Here they cut off the ring for a few minutes (maybe even less than that) and kept Casas from tagging. Virus was especially great here. It sort of led to nothing when Disturbio came in and just launched Casas into his own corner, but I'm more than willing to give the match the benefit of the doubt and say that it was inexperience that caused it. Disturbio's such a goon. The comeback led to an awesome Virus vs Casas exchange and then Maya getting the pin on Virus after his skullbreaker over the knee. I liked how they let Zavala pin Casas in the primera and Maya pin Virus in the segunda. It's almost like they knew what they were doing.

The tercera was all action with Casas looking like the best guy in the world between how crisp he was hitting things, the emotion he was inspiring form the fans through his selling, and his timing in repeatedly grabbing the ropes on pins. More than that, though, he made Zavala feel like a big deal. He didn't have to, and there are so many other wrestlers at his level, even put into a mentor role, that wouldn't. We've seen that already from Casas this year vs Dragon Lee and others but Zavala feels a little lower on the card (and also a rudo) and it just really stood out. I was expecting them to go back to Virus vs Casas to finish things up but it was Zavala vs Casas and it made perfect sense within the confines of the match and didn't feel forced at all. Yes, Casas won the match for his side with the Casita on him but Zavala came out looking even better than he did coming in. It wasn't nearly as special a match as last year's maestro trios but it's still probably the highlight of the tournament this year and just more proof of how amazing Negro Casas is.

Read more!

2015 En Busca De Idolo Qualifying Cibernetico

Not as excited about this years lineups as I was last year, but I figure I will cover it again, and see if anyone breaks out. Like last year, I am going to rate everything either Must See, Spare Moment and Don't Bother

Blue Panther Jr./Boby Zavala/Canelo Casas/Delta/Disturbio/Esfinge/Flyer/Guerrero Maya Jr. v. Akuma/Cancerbero/Gallo/Joker/Pegasso/Raziel/Sagrado/Stigma-Spare Moment

This was less lunatic then last years qualifier, it had less awkward blown stuff (really the only awful thing was Maya Jr. blowing a dive, which is weird because he is the most experienced guy here), but also less holy shit moments. I liked Joker's brawling, and Cancerbero is always good, they were the two stand outs for the non-qualifiers. Flyer looks like he will take the Star. Jr./Dragon Lee role of young guy embracing hot death, will be interesting to see if he has anymore to show. Casas, Maya and Panther Jr. have the genetics and Maya has been pretty good for a long time, although he did look off here. Hard to get much of a sense of anything in a match like this, but I am going to remain optimistic.

Read more!

MLJ: Cavernario Spotlight 8: Esfinge, Gallo, Tritón vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Nitro, Nosferatu

Aired 2014-01-04
taped 2013-12-25 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Esfinge, Gallo, Tritón vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Nitro, Nosferatu

I like this because it sort of takes me full circle. Some of those early Cavernario matches were with Esfinge and Gallo and we're back to them. This reminded me of a lot of similar matches I've sen lately. There was a lot of good stuff here but some of the execution was off. Usually, though there's a bit of a balance. If the execution is off, it'll be off the whole match but the level is about equal so it doesn't actually hurt things too much. Basically, you know what you're getting. Here, though, they started strong, had a strong middle, but then sort of fell apart by the end due primarily to basic talent levels and maybe getting a bit overexcited or blown up.

Lots of good matwork to begin, surprisingly good really. I liked Nosferatu (who, if not new to me, is someone I've only seen once or twice) and Esfinge's exchange since they started with some more basic work, a top wristlock test of strength and even rolling around on the ring a bit in a front facelock. It was basic but well worked and sort of stood out in context since you don't always see such things in lucha. Then Cavernario and Triton came in and did much higher level work; it felt a lot like a shooty exhibition of grabbing legs and finding escapes. My only problem with it was that it didn't quite escalate the way I wanted.

Nitro and Gallo was a bit more high impact, a bit less smooth. Gallo really feels like the sort of local hero you'd get on an indy show in the US. The crowd is into him and he'll puff up (pun intended, but it's true!) to make sure he gets every little bit he can out of it. The transition was great. He knocked Nitro out and went for a tope but Nosferatu dropkicked him from the apron as his head went out between the ropes. Then the swarm began.

This had a very good beatdown that felt like it got a couple of extra minutes and used them well. The rudos were showing off and posturing and having fun while beating the crap out of the tecnicos. There was a lot of clowning the tecnicos, be it by offering a handshake and a hug before ambushing or faking a foul to get a moment's distraction (even when they didn't need it) before ambushing. It was fun and by the end of it, the tecnicos didn't even know which way to look when they came in. Eventually Nitro powerbombed gallo and put on a crab/arm pull(that probably has a name too) for the caida. They'd continue on into the segunda, really controlling the flow and the match. Gallo tried to fight back but got pushed down. Esfinge would try to dropkick in but miss. Eventually Esfinge flipped over on a corner toss and ducked out of an attempt to hold and hit him allowing Triton to fly in with a rana and a pin and Esfinge himself to springboard back in with a splash (as Gallo heroically chased the retreating Nitro) for the segunda.

Unfortunately, it all fell apart after the comeback. To be fair, I thought Cavernario looked pretty good. Cavernario's highlights were dodging a backflip off the rope with perfect timing, taking soem dubious offense from Triton very well, and managing to end up first stuck in the ropes for a nasty sliding dropkick and then through them in a great Hamrick bump before he caught a nice Asai Moonsault by Triton. Unfortunately, no one else looked good. There were some rough rope running segments, some really dubious and barely hit armdrags, and a brutally botched roll up by Gallo and Nitro. It's a shame too because I was feeling it.

I'm going to go away from Cavernario for a while now. My biggest takeaway from these matches, however, is that he was really quite good, even a few years back. There were some things that he still did that needed work; for instance, he'd have great mat exchanges that didn't really build to a resolution or the chop exchanges that were sometimes there for the sake of it, but he was such an enjoyable part of a lot of these matches. He played his character so well and brought a lot of color to trios where it was really needed. I think he was ready to explode and I'm glad that he ended up with the opportunity to.

Read more!

MLJ: Cavernario Spotlight 4: Bárbaro Cavernario © vs Esfinge [OCCIDENTE MIDDLE] & Bárbaro Cavernario, Disturbio, Hijo del Signo vs Black Metal, Metálico, Molotov

Taped 2013-03-05 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Bárbaro Cavernario © vs Esfinge [OCCIDENTE MIDDLE]

7m43s in

This is really just clips from the tercera, but we skipped 4 months since the last match so I thought it was important to at least look at it. In the form we had it, this was pretty damn exciting actually. It's a shame we don't have the whole thing because you definitely learn different things from singles matches, especially title matches, than you do from trios. The dives with Cavernario missing his crazy flip but then finding a way to catch Esfinge from a prone position, were pretty nuts. The fact he managed that, protected his opponent, but still made it look good deserves a lot of credit. He really put a beating on his body, though, not just missing the dive but eating a Hamrick bump through the ropes which lead to another great Esfinge dive (this time a no hands Asai Moonsault to the floor). The finish was fairly clever as Esfinge gloated after his success, opening himself up to La cavernaria. There's so much ebb and flow to title matches that you can't get a good sense of them through clips, but what we saw here made me want to see more at least.

Taped 2013-06-23 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Bárbaro Cavernario, Disturbio, Hijo del Signo vs Black Metal, Metálico, Molotov

To sum up, there are five guys in this match I've never seen before. I find these opening matches on cards interesting because you get a lot of hard work and more attempts at innovation and trying different things. The flip side is that the work is both more collaborative and sloppier. More than that, though, a lot of the transitions and timing end up stilted. There's a lack of polish. One of my favorite things about lucha is that you rarely ever see the strings. Here you do.

So, five wrestlers I didn't know. I'm not sure I had a great sense of all of them by the end. Molotov has been wrestling for about ten years and I thought he was notably agile, but his opening matwork with Disturbio felt a lot like them just collaboratively trying to get to the next hold. Signo had a decent enough Fuerza act but it felt a little like a pale shadow. Still, he had the most distinct personality of the match outside of Cavenario. Metalico and Black Metal felt sort of interchangeable to me. They were both fairly capable as tecnicos drawing the crowd in and had a couple of good spots, which I'll mention in a minute. Disturbio was funny teasing a crane kick, but was fairly unmemorable in general.

The match was ultimately a mix of fun spots and good ideas and things that were blown. Black Metal let the rudos take over by foolishly running up their turnbuckles to hit a moonsault. He got punched repeatedly and knocked off the ropes instead. That started the beat down. I have in my notes "Molotov vs the world," which is usually when a tecnico fights off multiple rudo opponents; it's followed immediately by "world wins," which was followed by a couple of nice corner clotheslines and a boring Cavernario pin for the primera. He made up for it later though, because in the beatdown, his intensity really shined through. Cavernario, just by the way he worked his gimmick, can make a match like this feel more interesting. It's not stiffness necessarily, but angle of attack, if that makes sense. The way he comes at his opponent is just outlandish enough to stand out. His character work was definitely developed by this point. He was just an unfrozen caveman, but one savvy enough to point one way and watch as his partners swarmed the unassuming, fresh tecnico during a beatdown. He also did a Niebla-style comedic fall off the apron spot that seemed to get over pretty well.

The comeback was pretty tepid, just the usual ducking of a double clothesline and a rana. There was a bit of a revenge beatdown on the outside between falls, but we didn't get to see much of it before they went into the tercera reset. Here we had a decent amount of showcase sequence, with Molotov looking agile again and Metalico matched up well with Signo. He did do the most ridiculous spot, though, slowly rolling into a back somersault on the apron so that he could put on a headscissors takedown onto Signo who was on the floor. It was like watching horribly colored paint dry in the worst way. Ultimately, Disturbio and Black Metal had a pretty good set of pin exchanges, before they got each other eliminated on a double pin, which is not anything I've seen before in a trios match but it actually made a lot of sense and should probably be used more. From there, Cavernario and hit each other with a double clothesline and they teased another double pin as the opportunistic partners rushed in before clearing ther ring for Disturbio and Black Metal. That was followed by gallant (a really nice sunset flip done by hanging on to the midsection during a back drop in a way I've never seen before) and goofus (a really flubbed Alabama slam out of the corner), before Metalico locked in a nice submission for the win.

It's hard to rate matches like this relative to what I usually see. On a quality standpoint, they're not better, not even in the ballpark. On a fun standpoint, they can come close, though. What they are, first and foremost, is interesting. You see different trends in watching opening matches like these, some positive, some negative. What does stand out is how Cavernario, even more than a year ago, just popped in them, though.

Read more!

MLJ: Cavernario Spotlight 3: Esfinge & Gallo vs Bárbaro Cavernario & Espectrum

Aired 2012-11-10
taped 2012-11-06 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Esfinge & Gallo vs Bárbaro Cavernario & Espectrum

This was an opening match on a Guadalajara show, not the sort of lucha I usually get to watch. I know that there's a lot that I just don't see, like, you know, the entirety of modern AAA, and I see all the posters for indy shows, so there's just a lot out there. There's just so much that I haven't seen that it's hard to rationalize some of that when there are, let's say, a whole bunch of El Dandy matches I need to eventually get to. Thankfully, I can watch something like this and it still feels sort of relevant.

The immediate downside is that I have no idea who the other three luchadors in the match are. Esfinge looks to be a third generation member of the Halcon Furia family, who had only been wrestling for three years or so at this point, which is good, because I liked a lot about him but he still obviously had a long way to go. I'd be curious to check in on him now. El Gallo (which means the Rooster!) is the son of El Lider and has apparently been a local attraction in Guadalajara for years. He has a hair match with Hijo del Fantasma vs Mascara Magica and Malefico from 2008 where I wonder if it made tape. He does have a mascot, so good for him. Espectrum has an amazing match, a big cheshire cat type smile across his face. Luchawiki has almost nothing on him. He was a bit more sluggish than the others, but hey, great mask!

So, I would describe this as a mix of energy, clumsiness, inventiveness and some annoying stuff I'm not used to in lucha. For instance, after a couple of harsh rear waistlock takedowns by Cavernario (who's sporting some lines for facepaint, by the way), he and Gallo ended up in a pretty ridiculous chopfest. They just kept hitting each other back and forth in the ring, and then out, and then back in. I liked Cavernario's retreating during this but not much else. Espectrum and Esfinge worked pretty well together though, with Espectrum a suitable enough base for Esfinge's flying about. They ended the primera with some of that inventiveness: the over the head alley oop into a top rope Cavernario dropkick, and a crazy double knee counter to an Esfinge back springboard body press. The alley oop spot worked much better than in the trios because it worked organically in as a 'rana counter. It was the transition away from tecnico shine and went right into the finish of the caida.

The beatdown wasn't much to write home about but again, it had a nice little inventive transition that I don't see much. Cavernario went down on his hands and knees so that Espectrum could bound off of his back for some poetry in motion. He was dragged out before it could work, however, causing Espectrum to wipe out in the corner and the tecnicos to fire back. The timing of the comeback spots seemed a little off throughout, ending with dual quebadoras that didn't quite work out (it seemed like Espectrum didn't go up for his well enough), though they recovered quickly as the tecnicos locked on submissions to take the caida. The comeback was a good idea but the execution just wasn't there. They did pick up the mascot for an assisted legdrop between falls.

The tercera had the rudos clowned and the tecnicos looking good. My favorite moment in it was Cavernario kicking the ropes as Esfinge tried to launch an Asai moonsault from the floor, causing him to wipe out. I don't think I've ever seen that before. They followed immediately with Cavernario going for a tope but Esfinge moving. Then they rushed right to the finish with a cool Esfinge submission and Gallo hitting this goofy sit down belly to back over the shoulder back breaker on Cavernario. This was fine for what it was. A little sloppy with some good ideas and ultimately fun. Esfinge showed me some potential but I had the impression that Gallo and Espectrum were sort of coasting by this part of their career. Cavernario played his role okay but it wasn't really a showcase match for him.

Read more!