Found Footage Friday: GALLI~!

GALLI 1/11/09 Full Show 

Calypso vs. D-Ray

MD: The ref (animated, sunglasses, shorts) here came off as a bigger star than either of these guys unfortunately. I couldn't tell if he or D-Ray(?) was coming out to the NWO theme. Calypso had an ok act on the way out running around the ring and at times he'd grunt and scurry about, but most of the time he turned it off. D-Ray had that solid Pat Rose physique, was vocal throughout with the fans and ref and his opponent in a good way and controlled the match. At one point he had a pumphandle power slam (Wrath's meltdown) with a slightly different entry position that was kind of neat. Calypso won in less than five minutes with a small package driver (maybe wasn't supposed to be a driver?) out of nowhere. This makes me wonder just how many matches are going to be on this card.

Chilango vs. Emperador Azteca

MD: Chilango here had a tee-shirt and bandana. He did the most heelish thing possible on an indy show; he interrupted the calling out of the sponsers. After that he ran down the fans. The guy in the red mask came out stop him and they rang the bell and got a ref. Chilango was quite the stooge to start, running about. He took over with a foul and didn't really look back. Just a lot of decent jerk offense. Simple, straightforward stuff that was mean and got over who he was. Mask guy didn't even get a comeback before he won with a Sharpshooter. Not sure about the layouts here so far.

El Potro/Justiciero vs. Simbolo/Silver Dragon

MD: Perfectly fine mechanical work until the end, just with a big "but." They were moving fast and hitting things mostly clean with just a slightly tendency to land a little too close to the ropes on armdrags and what not. Things didn't feel overly cooperative. It was a good mix of advanced and basic. The de facto rudos became more than de facto after ending up on the losing end of one too many exchanges and took over with a handshake > kick. Weirdly, there was no actual comeback, just one of the tecnicos coming in on a hold, breaking it up, and cycling on to the finish which was the only thing in the match that looked way off. Some bizarre layout here. Like reality itself was clipped.

Venganza/Resistencia vs. Elektron/Silueta Dorada

MD: I had the sense we hit the part of the show with more of the GALLI regulars. This still didn't have quite the comeback I would have wanted as Elektron just stormed into the ring while Dorada was hung up and there was a bit too much stumbling all around, but in general, it fit into the pattern better and they were working both each other and the crowd in a more concerted way, while still hitting a lot of their exchanges cleanly and crisply. Dorada and Resistencia worked together best overall. They started it and it felt like a living, breathing match instead of guys trying to figure it all out and glue together their spots. So not perfect but on the right track at least.

Centella de Oro/Meteoro I vs. El Guerrillero/Pentagono del Infierno

MD: I feel like over the last few matches, it's been like the meme of the horse drawing where more and more of it is filled in and made complete. Pentagono had a second who was a kid in a mask and I wonder if he has 13 year of experience wrestling by now. There was just more connective tissue between each move, even more working the crowd, everything seeming more alive. The wrestlers tried to get tecnico/rudo chants going since the fans were likely not super familiar with them. The rudos took over after Centella teased a dive and his back was turned. The dives did come towards the finish. I will say again that the comeback was kind of missing even if everything was a bit more fleshed out but I think at this point it's probably just a victim of this being a 9 or 10 match show which is maybe not how lucha should operate?

Demencia/Payaso Blanco/Payaso Negro vs. Furia Roja/Kamikaze/Nemesis

MD: Another match where they didn't actually have a comeback but instead just went straight to the submission cycling. Very weird. The opening exchanges and action was good but needed way more Payaso comedy. That was the best part. We've already seen a bunch of things hit clean. That's what would have made this one stand out. They did have a lot of fun tandem moves when the heat started, including this nice double torture rack. This had a solid enough beatdown that you could have gotten a solid comeback out of it. Pressure was ramped up. My guess is that both the comebacks and the comedy are waiting for later matches? The fans were getting their money's worth spotswise but it's all a bit much by this point.

El Tigre/Samuray del Sol/Slayer vs. Amenaza del Siglo/Mason Conrad/Tony Scarpone

MD: This was a bit of a mess but not an unentertaining one. It never really settled down into any sort of meaningful structure. People hit a bunch of stuff and eventually it ended with Amenaza turning on Conrad and Scarpone since they wanted to use a chair to set up a roll up out of nowhere. In the meantime, Amenaza did a lot of work in trying to base for an out of control Tigre (A for effort, lower score for most other things), Conrad did admirably against Slayer all things considered, and Scarpone postured well against Samuray del Sol but maybe, just maybe, this wasn't the right card for him to be on? He seemed like he'd make a very solid 1987 Crusher opponent on one of those bar shows they ran in the mid-west. 

El Pantera/Incognito/Lince Dorado vs. Cassandro/Charley Manson Jr./Gringo Loco

MD: This was the reward for everyone sitting through the rest of the show and it was quite the reward. To start you had Gringo Loco singing and Cassandro coming out like a head of state, full the sort of methodological grace that only he could encompass, kissing babies, the whole nine yards. The pairings were good in all the falls, Cassandro and Incognito wrestling clean with just a little bit of an exotico bent, Gringo basing for Lince like only he could, Pantera and Manson going tricked out but competitive.

The primera ended with absolute chaos, just a great mass of bodies hitting the mat from every angle before the tecnicos took it. The segunda went into the rudo beatdown as Cassandro hit a cheapshot dropkick out of nowhere. Gringo and Charley had some great tandem stuff like the rolling monkey flip across the ring into a headbutt. Again, not a very clear cut comeback but you almost don't care because it went right into Cassandro and Incognito doing super cool stuff like a small package out of a cazadora and a top rope dragon rana and then right into the dive train. The rest of the show had its moments, but by the end of it, you were absolutely appreciating the competence and brilliance to be found here.

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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Gringo Loco vs. Bandolero in a Cage!

145. Gringo Loco vs. Bandolero GALLI Lucha 9/9/18 

PAS: We get a bit of a black swan here, with an actual good lucha cage match. With the return of Gringo Loco to the spotlight in recent years, he has been mostly working as a base in spotfests or as a tag worker, but this was main event brawling Loco which is what he made his name on in that amazing IWRG run. It wasn't at that level (Bandolero isn't Black Terry or Chico Che) but it had some good moments. Loco jumped Bandolero in the aisle and worked him over with chair shots and tossed him around ringside, and it's the kind of wild brawling I love and my favorite part of the match. When they got into the cage it turned into more of a 21st century cage match with the cage being used for big spots. And there were some big spots, with Bandolero doing a bunch of cool Spider Man climbing on the cage to fly off and a crazy huge top of the cage rana.

ER: For a match type neither of us like, Phil and I have weirdly written up several lucha cage matches over the past couple years. Is the format getting better, or are Phil and I getting dumber? You know, I take that back as I'm still scarred from that All Cage Match IWRG show and that weird ass Negro Navarro show that took place in an MMA cage. So...no, lucha cage matches are still terrible, but still capable of being fun, and this was plenty fun. It manages to combine two things I dislike - lucha cage matches, and lucha main event big move 2 fall lay around structure - into something palatable, so give these two credit. They managed to sequence nicely overall and build to the big stuff appropriately (even though I did think Gringo hitting a powerbomb, rolled into a piledriver, rolled into a tiger driver.....well that feels pretty "finisher" combo to me), and we got some pretty great big stuff. Gringo is a master at basing, that magical combo of taking moves gracefully while landing heavily. It's the latter thing that most wrestlers don't have. Sure, CrossFit guys can take a reverse rana, but there's never any heft to it. It's like a movie with bad CGI, just 2002 Incredible Hulk bounding around light as a feather. Bandolero does some big flying off the top of the cage, and OFF the cage, like in a cool spot where he leaps off the chain link with a moonsault (not off the top mind you, off the side of the cage itself!). A lucha cage match hinges on cool spots and big bumps and blood; this didn't have blood, but 2 out of 3 ain't bad. Gringo is still a guy with a couple cool bumps into a cage, and when chairs get involved at least the violence is going to have a high floor.

2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Lucha Worth Watching: A Good Lucha Cage Match?

Gringo Loco vs. Bandolero GALLI Lucha 9/9/18

PAS: We get a bit of a black swan here, with an actual good lucha cage match. With the return of Gringo Loco to the spotlight in recent years, he has been mostly working as a base in spotfest or as a tag worker, this was main event brawling Loco which is what he made his name in that amazing IWRG run. It wasn't at that level (Bandolero isn't Black Terry or Chico Che) but it had some moments. Loco jumped Bandolero in the aisle and worked him over with chair shots and tossed him around ringside, its the kind of wild brawling I love, and my favorite part of the match. When they got into the cage it turned more into a 21st century cage match with the cage being used for big spots. There were some big ones too, Bandelero did a bunch of cool Spider Man climbing on the cage to fly off and they did a huge top of the cage rana.

ER: For a match type neither of us like, Phil and I have weirdly written up several lucha cage matches over the past year. Is the format getting better, or are Phil and I getting dumber? You know, I take that back as I watched several matches on that All Cage Match IWRG show and that was terrible. I still need to watch most of that weird ass Negro Navarro show that took place in an MMA cage. So...no, lucha cage matches are still terrible, but still capable of being fun, and this was plenty fun. It manages to combine two things I dislike - lucha cage matches, and lucha main event big move 2 fall lay around structure - into something palatable, so give these two credit. They overall managed to sequence nicely and build to the big stuff appropriately (even though I did think Gringo hitting a powerbomb, rolled into a piledriver, rolled into a tiger driver.....well that feels like a pretty "finisher" combo to me), and we got some pretty great big stuff. Gringo is a master at basing, that magical combo of taking moves gracefully while landing heavily. It's the latter thing that most wrestlers don't have. Sure Petey Williams can take a reverse rana, but there's no heft to it. It's like a movie with bad CGI, nothing has heft, it's just 2002 Incredible Hulk bounding around light as a feather. Bandolero does some big flying off the top of the cage, and OFF the cage, like in a cool spot where he leaps off the chain link with a moonsault (not off the top mind you, off the side of the cage itself!). A lucha cage match hinges on cool spots and big bumps and blood; this didn't have blood, but 2/3 ain't bad, and Gringo is a guy with a couple cool bumps into a cage, and when chairs get involved at least the violence is going to have a high floor.

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