Lucha Worth Watching: Aeroboy vs. Aramis! Diabolicos vs. Super Pinocho/Super Raton/Super Muneco!

Aeroboy vs. Aramis MDA 2/17/19

ER: Sadly this is going to be another one of those LWW posts where I didn't actually like the match I was recommended, but wanted to write it up just to show I did the leg work and gave it an actual chance. This is one of those modern lucha matches that I absolutely despise, the kind that borrows from every single awful American indy trope and sullies my beautiful lucha with stupid suplex no sells and mirror sequences. What makes this actually worth watching is 2-3 legitimately spectacular spots peppered throughout. I don't love a lot of the stuff in between those matches, although things don't get too egregious until the back half of the match. Before we get to the "I take a nasty German suplex but it rolls me onto my feet so I run at you and hit a huge lariat but that you pop up from that lariat and hit a superkick and then the superkick bounces me into the ropes and I hit you with a superkick and then we lie on the mat selling but also I adjust my gear a ton while selling" portion of the match there was some stuff I actually enjoyed. There were a couple nice pop up ranas and headscissors early, Aeroboy hit a hard tope that smooshed up his body while crunching Aramis into the barricade, and Aramis gets thrown nicely into the ringpost. A lot of the rest is that "run into the corner and lariat me, but then I'll turn around and run right after you when you run back and hit you" kind of stuff that is a pox on modern lucha. But again, the two spectacular spots are spectacular: Aramis hits a bonkers tope, super fast, hard contact, that sends both of them smashing violently into the second row through a few fans. Later, Aeroboy is in the crowd, and Aramis climbs to the top, rope walks a few feet out on the top rope, and hits an amazing tope con giro into the crowd. The match itself never really matched those two moments, and didn't offer me a ton more than those moments, but your mileage may vary.

Romano Garcia/Gallego/Rocky Santana vs. Super Muñeco/Super Raton/Super Pinocho Sanchez 3/2/19

ER: Man I love lucha. This wasn't technically good, but it sure was enjoyable, and it had all the silly charm that really drew me to lucha 20 years ago. I think Romano Garcia is so good. He's getting older (he's literally 61!) but he has such a great brain for lucha and still knows how to put together a satisfying match, shining with a few moments worthy of being stolen by younger guys. He set up a couple comedy pratfalls including one where he really took his time before missing a planned spot, it was great. Gallego is fun too and it's cool we're getting full length Diabolicos matches in 2019. For awhile none of them were making tape, so either they all took a few years off or they just worked out of sight. Our tecnicos looked crazy, truly a collection of looks and gimmicks that could only work within lucha libre: Raton and Pinocho in particular, with their tiny little shorts and massive bellies with tight little shirts and suspenders doing some major heavy lifting. I presume that these are at least 2/3 original members, which would put them all in their late 50s/early 60s, and that's an old age to be wearing this gear. It's fun seeing old tubby guys pulling off armdrags, and I flipped out when Pinocho did a huge fat guy tope in the tercera. I mean that was just completely unexpected. It's lucha and it can be ridiculous, and it certainly gets there as Muneco steals the segunda pin while Pinocho is setting up a Vader bomb, and then to pay him back he punts Muneco right in the balls to give the match to Los Diabolicos. You have a man in his 60s dressed as a little wooden boy, kicking a clown in the balls, all for free. I love spending time with this kind of lucha.

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There Are Diabolicos Matches Online That I Haven't Watched

Romano Garcia/Mr. Condor is one of my absolute favorite luchadors, yet most of his matches that turn up online are highlights. The highlights always look great, but are just cruel tastes. Well, I saw that there were a couple full Diabolicos matches that I missed from 2015, so let's dive in!

Romano Garcia/Gallego/Rocky Santana vs. Dante/Euro/Filder (AULL 4/19/15)

ER: Tecnicos team is made of three perfectly cromulent guys that I've never seen before, and who I won't actively seek out again. This is really more of a showcase for Los Diabolicos. Gallego is the youngest of the bunch, and he's 50. Garcia is almost 60 and Rocky is into his 60s. And they're all impossibly smooth and it still amazes me how ageless so many luchadors are. For the most part they match up as Rocky/Euro, Gallego/Dante and Garcia/Filder, and all segments are worth watching. Santana and Gallego break out some smooth maestro matwork, and it's noticeable how differently old luchadors move, how they take armdrags a little differently, how they transition on the mat differently. Santana and Euro work some really nice wristlock sequences and work up to snug headlock takeovers and headscissors, all with Santana moving like a guy half his age. Gallego works a lot of neat standing exchanges with Dante, more leveraged wristlock takedowns. Garcia is really great at fast rope exchanges, quick armdrag, headscissor, hiptoss and legsweep counters, always brings violent snap to rote lucha spots. Santana is still impressively graceful for a man who would be eligible for social security, still pulling off rope flip armdrags while getting 15% discounts on Tuesdays at Ross Dress for Less, I really loved his "missed punch flip bump", another example of an old-style lucha bump that you don't see much anymore. Things get a little messy when everybody gets in the ring, but we build to a big double dive by Filder and Dante, with Gallego eating a great Filder dive and Garcia throwing Dante in midair right into the barricade in nasty fashion. Match was unica caida for whatever reason, but I really dug all of what we got. It's crazy how these old guys can still go.

Romano Garcia/Gallego/Rocky Santana vs. Coco Rojo/Coco Verde/Coco Rojo Jr. (AULL 5/30/15)

ER: Ahhhh, lucha clowns, one of my least favorite things in lucha. They usually aren't good at wrestling, they're usually slow and fat, they're never funny and often don't even try to be, and really if you're a clown who's not good at your craft in any way, then why have you even made this life choice? All of us have myriad life failures, but at least the majority of us don't fail while also wearing grease paint, a yarn wig and giant toddler clothing. It's one thing to fail, it's another to look every bit the part of a failure while failing. So you get a great team in Los Diabolicos basically spending the whole time armdragging themselves, setting up everything, while a couple fat clowns constantly pull their yarn wig out of their eyes while wearing shitty sherbet colored baggy clothes. The segunda ends with Gallego standing around for an eternity while Coco Rojo Jr. literally falls off the top rope, then gets back up only to do his lousy body press. It's okay, because as this was happening Coco Verde was taking an eternity to lock Santana into a submission. Diabolicos try to add some little things: Garcia whips his head into the ringpost when getting thrown into it, Santana takes a couple nice pratfall bumps including a great faceplant with him holding his mouth afterwards...but man Los Payasos stink.

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