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.

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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.

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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.

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

12. Arkangel De La Muerte v. Gallo CMLL 6/24

PAS: Such a treat to watch Arkangel get some time to stretch out and have a long singles match. He is 48 years old and what was really surprising is how he is still so athletically impressive. A lot of older luchadores used technique, guile and performance to make up for not having as much pop, but Arkangel looks really great eating all of Gallo's offense and really threw an explosive looking tope. He also broke out two awesome looking moves I have never seen before, a Tapitia where he springboards Gallo into a flapjack, and evading a corner run by leaping onto Gallo's back into a backcracker. Gallo was fine, seemed to keep up in the mat sections and had a nice quebrada, but this was mainly a showcase for an all time great, and it was a hell of a showcase

ER: Arkangel!! This guy has been one of my absolute favorites since I started watching lucha some 15 years ago. He trains tons of guys, and most often gets put in the Finlay role of working undercard matches with young guys to guide them through stuff. He also gets matched up with foreigners a lot, which speaks a lot to his ability to tie together a decent match no matter the worker or language barrier. But he sadly doesn't get many singles matches to showcase all of his skills. It's always a blast watching him tear up fliers in trios, or masterminding entire sequences in a trios, but I honestly don't think I've seen a long singles match from him since that random Angel Azteca mask match popped up on Galavision a decade ago. And here he gets to show everybody what they've been missing out on all these years. Here he has no problem filling 20 minutes, even looking like he could easily fill twice that. His mat stuff is arguably the best in the promotion, and I die just knowing that he and Blue Panther have been in the same fed for almost 20 years and only matched up 5 times, none of them making tape. And the matches on paper all sound like all time classics. Last Christmas in Guadalajara saw Blue Panther and Solar vs. Arkangel and Negro Casas. How much money would you pay to see that!? I would plunk down $20 right now to watch that match. That match would headline the first Segunda Caida money mark show. In 2006 Blue Panther and Satanico went against Arkangel and Pierroth. Fuck you, wrestling. How many Dolph Ziggler/Kofi Kingston matches exist on tape? Why does wrestling torture us?!

Anyway, the mat stuff is great, the innovative  offense Phil mentioned is so cool you wonder how you've never seen it before. The slingshot Tapatia was a thing of beauty and would make a cool early fall finisher. Gallo is a larger guy than Arkangel but the move looked entirely plausible and Arkangel managed to throw him (with his legs) with a nice amount of force. The back cracker evasion will be stolen by every worker everywhere. Expect to get sick of it in one years' time, but do remember this first moment where it looked awesome. But even if you don't get that stuff you can still marvel at all the simple stuff Arkangel does better than almost anybody: The tight elbow drops, expertly getting into position for his opponent's offense, believable takedowns, keeping guys honest on drop downs, a brutal tope, a wicked bump over the top to the floor. Hardly ever a wasted movement from this guy, he really does work as the lucha Finlay. Go watch this now.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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