Negro Navarro's Bloodsport 10/27/18

ER: So, Negro Navarro ran a show inside an octagon, for reasons I personally do not know. But I've never seen lucha take place in an octagon. I've seen plenty of lucha cage matches (which are mostly dreadful) and plenty of Octagon (which I couldn't say is completely dreadful) but never lucha in an octagon. This feels worth writing about (even though it is almost certainly going to be dreadful). The show was not actually called Bloodsport, but it probably had some kind of name like Arena Lopez Collision Course! so we'll instead go with Bloodsport.

Explosivo/Murcielago vs. Dankar/Fuerza Ballenata

ER: Well, yep, it's certainly weird. The first part of the match is normal, as it's mostly in the center of the cage and has the guys pairing off doing the kind of lucha exchanges that you'd expect. There's more mat stuff, more arm drags, more standing work around arm twists and blocking hip tosses. It's weird because the partners are just standing inside the cage off to the edge, waiting for their turn. It doesn't turn into a full tornado match until halfway through, and then it gets amusing as we get rope running exchanges with no ropes. So guys are bouncing off the cage, or just working more clever start/stop spots, rolling away to get distance before running back to do quicker lucha spots. I have next to no clue who any of the guys are. I think I have one of them figured out - the stout rudo has "Fuerza Ballenata" across his back, which would seem to be a strong indicator that he is Fuerza Ballenata...but he also has the Batman logo on his shirt. Murcielago = Bat. It's as if these guys weren't even thinking about the white men who would be writing up this show at a later date. There are no sure things. The guy in gold (Explosivo?) took some nice bumps into the cage, Ballenata threw a couple decent low dropkicks and bumped big off a dropkick to his own knee, and one match in we're definitely already feeling confined by the octagon.

Baronessa/Lolita vs. Chika Tormenta/Ludark Shaitan

ER: Also having to guess who is who here. I was hoping one of them would have a Nabokov shirt on or something and then we could move from there. But I'm gonna pretend Tormenta is the blond bully, and this was pretty fun. As in the first match, I think the one on one portions are strong but things get messy once it breaks down into a tornado tag. We need the partners standing awkwardly in their respective corners. I cannot wait for the trios on this card as you'll just have bulky guys lurking around the edges of this very large octagon. I liked the standing exchanges, and Lolita-or-Baronessa had some nice arm work, a few cool ways to work into an armdrag, nice back elbow and she also takes a nice face first bump into the cage. Tormenta has a really impactful dropkick and nice big boot and a cool inverted Samoan drop, and Tormenta/Ludark work a backcracker/chestbreaker combo that doesn't come off forced and looks good. Ludark takes a suplex at a nice high angle and throws a nice butterfly suplex of her own. This was fun.

Demus 3:16/Pasion Cristal vs. Angel Del Amor/Jessy Ventura

ER: This octagon is really proving to be quite a hindrance, as so far all three matches would have been much better inside a normal ring. I am now regretting watching this entire show, and not just the intriguing main event (which was the only reason I even found out about this show). But also, the matches have gone on entirely too long. 18 minute una caida matches in a limiting environment feel eternal, and every match so far has been allotted way too much time. More than anything, this made me want to see a Demus/Jessy singles. I believe this is my first time seeing Ventura (and Jessy Ventura is a GREAT exotico name) and I came away impressed. She has great dramatic exotico chops and slaps, really laces in with stomps and kicks, cut out the knees on a cool backdrop, and seems like someone who would be great within an actual ring. Her brawling with Demus was a real highlight of this, as was her putting the boots to Cristal, as was her 0.8 Zeuxis level hair. Demus didn't go fully enraged honey badger, but it was telling that 15 (!) minutes into this when the octagon door got opened and the combatants started spilling out I thought "oh this might actually be picking up!" This was not bad, the exoticos and Demus looked good (though all seemed completely thrown by not be able to time rope running, and there was a weird botch where Cristal just kind of fell off a cage after taking awhile to get up there), but at least they brought some unique elements to a restricting environment: crowd brawling, and brawling on top of the octagon. And it should be noted that while the octagon is a problem so far, the real problem may be the continued insistence on working traditional lucha style within the octagon. If the matches had all been worked more appropriately to their confines and focused far more on shorter matches structured around matwork, this could have been killer.

Heddi Karaoui/Zumbi vs. Francois/Pierre Montanez

ER: This definitely felt like the most wholly realized version of the show's gimmick so far. Francois and Montanez come off much more like MMA guys in a lucha environment whereas everyone else on the show have been lucha guys uncomfortably doing lucha in an MMA cage. This match seemed to get the vision right. It was kept to 8 minutes and was almost entirely a tornado tag with guys pairing off working submissions concurrently, with some fun moments of pro wrestling thrown in. It felt exhibition-y, but in a mean aggressive way. The transitions made up for lack of real struggle with what looked like some actual pain, which is good! Karaoui and one of the MMA guys trade armbars and Zumbi is watching from a distance and is really great at getting involved, with my favorite moment being Zumbi running in and breaking up a sub with a hard dropkick. The chaos on this was cool as it looked like 4 guys doing gym sparring so there always looked like danger, with the fun added element of a partner trying to rush over when things got dangerous. Two moments showed that these guys knew how to come up with neat ways to utilize the octagon setting more than anyone else on the card (so far): Early on Karaoui threw an MMA guy into the cage and hit him with a great belly to belly as the guy was recoiling from the cage; and for the finish Zumbi locked in a triangle but was picked up and swung into the cage a few times before sinking in the triangle for the stoppage. I liked Zumbi's energy in this, throwing strikes and mixing up subs, and Karaoui worked some tough looking holds with both MMA guys. If the whole show was like this, I would be recommending this show.

Ricky Marvin/Estudiante Jr./Hijo Del Solar vs. Trauma I/Trauma II/Hijo del Fishman

ER: We're getting a little warmer, but this concept is still dead in the water. The ring ropes can provide such visual distance and now it's just every single person involved in the match standing inside the octagon, off to the side. Someone will lock on a nice submission, but teammates are literally standing a few feet away against the cage, so nothing has time to breathe. Traumas both at least understand that the way to make this work is to just work stiff, so they mostly avoid the prior "just try and work bad lucha without any of the ropes that make it work" and just beat down Hijo del Solar. A lot of this is them cutting off the octagon and stiffing Solar Jr. . Marvin shows good spunk but all of his spectacular spot potential is taken away by the cage, so he does a really nice dropkick and a less successful crossbody off the top. I really liked the Traumas here, but this is a tough style to work with, and they were more successful than most. They really started throwing hard shots (T1 bullied Solar Jr. through the cage door and dragged him back in) and T2 was using the cage to work takedowns, but everyone being so close means there is no drama for submissions.

Negro Navarro/Mascara Ano 2000/Scorpio Jr. vs. Solar/Mano Negra/Canek

ER: We made it! We made it to the end of this cursed show that I was tricked into watching by Siobhan. And this match and the prior were the ones that excited me enough to fall for the obvious trick. But man this match was a bummer. These guys are old, and I love old man matches, but these guys were old old. And what's annoying, is that we were one guy away from having a legitimately 60-and-up match. Scorpio Jr. is 52 (and moves as if he was the 5th oldest in the match) and fucks up everything. However, the mean age of the participants is 61, so make no mistake this match is still filled with old as fuck luchadors. Mascara is easily the most feisty, taking far and away the most bumps on the clearly hard as hell mat. But Mascara took rolling armdrags and was the only one keeping the rhythm tight when the match broke into classic comedy routines. This whole show had been clunky shootstyle and clunky lucha, and it's like Mascara noticed that and fell back on an old routine, an established stand up falling back on greatest hits from their first special. The rudos all accidentally chop each other when tecnicos move, and they work in a genuine funny moment when Mano Negra (masked) is holding Scorpio Jr.'s arms behind his back, and Mascara sneaks in behind Negra aiming to kick him, and Negra turns around as Mascara comically holds back on his kick so as not to kick Scorpio. Navarro repeats the bit. It's a funny bit done by old pros, in the middle of a lucha octagon. But this was rough. Canek is the elder statesman of this group, and while he looks cosmetically in impressive shape for a 67 year old, he moves slower than maybe any wrestler I've seen. He came off slower than late career Andre or Baba. He could barely lift his arm to throw a couple lariats and couldn't hit with any ounce of force, and his best armdrag was him holding out his arm to his side and falling to the mat, as Mascara held the arm and rolled through it like he was being tossed by a legend. Canek was kind of sad here, but weirdly inspiring as he still looked resplendent as fuck in his luminescent deep orange tights. Canek slammed Andre. I'm cool with him throwing bad lariats several years into AARP eligibility. Solar also looked slick as hell; his gray, black, and dashes of red ensemble made him look like an asskicking NES, and as you can imagine we did get moments of he and Navarro doing their thing. Not as many as you'd think (Navarro disappeared entirely for large portions of this), though Solar's climb up victory roll was a cool as hell move for a guy in his 60s to pull off. This was not good, but had some moments of inspired surreality, and made me like Mascara Ano Dos Mil somehow even more than I already do.

This was a show with some genuine, weird on paper appeal to it. But no match on this card benefitted in any way from that damned octagon, and here we are at the end of the show when we wind up saying aloud, "literally every one of these matches would have been better in an actual ring." I am dedicated to viewing weird things people tell me to view. But goddamn, people. Appreciate my efforts, please.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Herodes/Heddi v. Zumbi/Bandido

66. Herodes Jr./Heddi Karaoui v. Zumbi/El Bandido Liga Elite 9/14

ER: What a cool little match! Liga Elite is really starting to pull together a fabulous undercard. They got a bunch of young hungry guys all fighting to be noticed, and it's really starting to stand out. This card especially felt like the guy who had the craziest night in-ring got the hottest rat in Naucalpan or something. Herodes Jr. was unhinged, working like a young cross between Terrible and Rey Escorpion. He had nice timing and worked real stiff, and had facial expressions that read "yeah, I know how stiff that was." Heddi is like a lucha Chris Dickinson, a real unlikable mug and cocky presence, but also brings violent throws and holds. Heddi had all these cool subs with a twist: a neat Indian deathlock that saw him also wrenching the knee, a stretch muffler with him standing up to wrench that, always grabbing at something for a throw. Zumbi does a capoeira gimmick and is actually pretty entertaining with it, with crazy handstand based offense, and wrestling barefoot always makes me like a guy more. Bandido had a bunch of cool tough headlock throws, some complicated stuff on shoulders, several cool roll ups. All of it blended into a fun style clash, been awhile since I saw a good style clash. Everybody had their own unique stuff, but nobody got crossed on the others' stuff. Crazy spots, and a bunch of danger without veering into overkill.

PAS: I really enjoyed this, Heddi is a guy who has been around for a while and who I always thought stunk, he was pretty great in this, twisting knees, cracking people, having some really aggressive mat wrestling scrambles with Bandido. I also really liked Herodes Jr., again a guy who I hadn't had an opinion of, but felt like he was in the tradition of guys like Emilio Charles Jr. and Bestia Salvaje, which is a tradition I loved. There was a great spot where Zumbi goes for a plancha, Herodes catches him a bear hug and rag dolls him back and forth like a dog playing with a dead squirrel before chucking him kidneys first into the guard rail. Zumbi's capoeira stuff sometimes looked silly, but a couple of times really turned a breakdance into something violent, he did this headspin where he landed knees first into Heddi's windpipe. Overall a really entertaining undercard tag, and I really want to search out more of Herodes and Heddi.

2016 ONGOING MOTY LIST

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MLJ: Lightning Match Bonus: Heddi Karaoui vs Hechicero

Aired: 2015-10-23
taped: 2015-10-23 @ Arena México
Heddi Karaoui vs Hechicero in a lightning match

I'm off schedule here due to our stalwart desire to have a new post every day and my Monday match having to fill the gap a few days early (and how long have we kept that up? Should have put money on it). I could toss two matches up this week and take it easy but it just feels wrong. So, let's shoot for three this week and hotshot in a lightning match from the last week or two.

Hechicero vs Heddi Karaoui. This was to push an All Elite show a couple of days later where these two were in a tag. I don't think Heddi's been booked on a CMLL show since so this was really just another case of CMLL ignoring its own needs (whatever those might be) to get over something that's at least branded non-CMLL. I've read what's out there on this and it still feels like a successful band using its own resources to push one member's vanity side product. At the end of the day, so long as they own Arena Mexico, there's probably some profit to be made, but if anyone explained how the money worked here, I must have missed it.

Heddi is new to me. He's worked a bunch of these All Elite shows and he apparently has a back ground in the NJPW dojo and a lot of indy showings over the last few years. I thought he matched up well to Hechicero here, trying, at least, to hang with all of the esoteric and imaginative offense thrown about. I'm not going to say it all worked; he would have been served by grounding his stuff 20% or so, especially at the beginning and the end. Early on he seemed about a half step behind on the pin exchanges and the finishing strech had a few strikes that were just a little off. In general, he did a good job though.

This was really the Hechicero show, though. He's an incredibly special worker, and in one very specific way, I'd say he is a great one. He's probably the most imaginative worker I've ever seen. In almost every match, he'll do something you haven't seen him do before. The greatness? That he generally tacks it all together and makes it work. He's not the lucha version of 1998 ECW Nova, though he easily could be. Sometimes it gets too much. Sometimes it gets in the way of the match. Usually, though? Usually he pulls it off by the skin of his teeth and it's really fascinating to watch. Sometimes it's just as interesting to see if he's going to manage it or not as it is to see what tricked out bit of lucha he'll apparate next.

So while it's easy to focus on all of the cool stuff he did, it's the little things too. He was the one who drew back after the pin exchanges and after his rolling around the ring with a headlock pin (which is different from the usual rolls I've seen him do:

and let things breathe for a moment. He'd also stop later on after hitting a nice inside the ring springboard dropkick to channel his imaginary fire. Little things, but they're the sort that kept this from being a total spotfest and let the crowd take a breath in anticipation of what would come next.

There are all of the little jabs and elbows and leverage moves too. He has a lot of offense that is contrived on paper, so it's nice that he takes that extra bit of time to set them up believably. It's something as simple as sneaking in a rabbit punch to set up his spinning dive in or the way he'll roll with an ankle lock to gain that extra bit of leverage:

He's just so versatile and brings so much to the table. Look at my favorite exchange of the match. Heddi had him in an armbar, so he managed to deadlift him out of it, which would have been impressive and would have stood out even on its own. Heddi hung on, though, so he ultimately laid in three elbows and very smoothly turned it into a pumphandle pick up.

It doesn't always work but it does more than you'd think. The finishing stretch played back on that anklelock and on the kicks that Heddi had been doing. Hechicero caught a kick, went for the anklelock again. Heddi tried to reverse with some back elbows he'd used previously in the match but Hechicero ducked them, tied him up, and that was that. It could have been a little smoother but the effort was there and the level of difficulty was there, and it's just so much fun to watch Hechicero walk the tightrope of sublime absurdity in the middle of Arena Mexico.

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IWL Extreme Reinforcements 7/31/11

Never got an IPPV before, but I love lucha and I love Necro Butcher and I occasionally make rash Goyimish financial decisions so here we go.

We start with a tag gauntlet where I recognize no one. The opening section had a couple of nice sections between Ninja Del Fuego and some one who might be named Guerrero Arlaquin. Mulusco Jr. had a in ring quebrada which smashed his opponent square in the mouth. Match falls apart after it gets turned into a gauntlet by the ubiquitous Valerie who was all over the first part of the show. One of the worst cases of Dinero Marco I have seen in quite a while. Gauntlet is basically Big Mama and Juan Ranchero squashing rudos. I like fat luchadores, but these two couldn't even pull off fake Super Porky spots competently.

Freelance/Turbo/Naruto vs Kensuke/Tribal/Samurai Del Sol

This was more like it. Freelance has been hit and miss on the 2011 IWRG I have seen, but PPV Freelance is solid gold. We got some really solid fast matwork with Kensuke before all hell broke loose and guys started flying all over the ring. Everybody hit there stuff cleanly and lots of it was spectacular. The dive train was one of the crazier I have seen in a while, topped off with a nutso flip springboard plancha by Freelance. Had never heard of Kensuke before but he was impressive, as was really everyone. Terrible booking though, they call a time limit draw in the middle of the action just so Valerie can come out to add five more minutes. Just killed the match dead and they blow the initial attempt at the superbomb finish. Hell of match which was shit on by the bookers and promoters. They seemed to set up a revanche, which assuming they don't screw it up, will be enough to get my $10.

Zumbido v. Tony Rivera

Zumbido is not a good person, but a good wrestler, and he and Rivera have worked each other a bunch. This was a fun bloody brawl, with Zumbido breaking out some of his big bumps to the floor. His Estrada style floating over the top rope bump is still beautiful. Rivera worked hard too, and this built into a really exciting match. The booker couldn't resist though as we get a run in from Setimental and Mortiz who attack both guys. Valerie comes to the rescue and has her security run them off with ranas and topes. At this point I am getting really exasperated by this show. The luchadores were working hard and just being killed by the booking.

Cerebro Negro/Cerebro Maligno/Epitafia/Heavy Boy v. Kung Fu Jr./El Hijo Del Fishman/Medico Assesino Jr./Epidemia

Kind of a dull match which really dragged. Medico Assessino Jr. was really tall for and indy luchadore and was pretty impressive, I also always like seeing Cerebro Negro although he didn't do a ton to stand out here. Match was booked to set up Kung Fu Jr. and Fishman Jr. turning on each other. This show was dragging a bit at this point and they could have achieved the purpose quicker.

Daga v. Mickey Suicida Segura

These guys turned the show completely around. A hell of match, up there with the best stuff anywhere in the world and justified the purchase on its own. This was for the internet title and worked as a hybrid of a lucha title match and a indy juniors match. We got a long very well executed mat section early. Both guys looked very comfortable locking in holds and countering them, and it came off as a struggle not a exhibition. They moved seamlessly into a long, very cool finishing run. Lots of awesome big moves, including a great Sucida tope, a nasty back suplex on the apron by Daga, Daga hitting an Alantida into a headrop and and top rope German, while Segura hit a crazy top rope rana and a moonsault. Finish comes after a big Daga superplex, with Segura hooking his legs for a double pin. No problem with that finish, as it felt like a match that neither guy should have lost. They may have kicked out of a little too much, but that was a small complaint. The crowd was going bonkers as I imagine everyone watching IPPV was as well. Great stuff, I think it would be a good idea for IWL to throw this match on youtube, I could see it convincing folks to pick up the next IPPV.

Super Crazy/Heddi Karroui v. Craig Classic/Oriental

Oriental and Crazy have a very cool opening section with each other, fast intricate and cool. When Karroui and Classic tag in unfortunately it falls apart. I have no idea what Heddi's deal is, he appears to be a Turkish kickboxer from France and performs lucha as well as one might guess a Parisian Turk MMA guy would perform if thrown in a lucha match. Just a mess anytime he is the ring. I have no idea what he is doing in this fed, and I felt bad for the other three guys. Classic is pretty inoffensive, although he seems like a waste of a plane ticket too. Crazy seemed more lively then I have seen him in recent years and I would like to see him and Oriental match up without the millstone around there necks

Los Porros vs. Low Rider/Mad Man Pondo/Balls Mahoney/Fantasma de la Opera

Necro no-shows much to my chagrin. Balls Mahoney is the replacement, which is like being promised a Porterhouse steak and instead having someone shit in your mouth. Balls and Pondo didn't do much but the Mexcians in this match bumped pretty big, getting thrown through barbedwire tables and going face first into light tubes. Most lucha garbage matches are awful and backyardy, but this felt like less of an exhibition and more of a fight. There was some awkward stuff, but I was entertained. Necro would have actually been pretty awesome in this context, bummer about the no show.

Certainly some frustrations, but a definite thumbs up. Two entertaining matches, part of a third, and one absolute classic is enough for me. It did go too long, the show could have used some tightening. Plus this is an indy lucha show, they are doing a nice job of having a little bit of everything, give me some Maestros. Navarro, Solar, Terry, Super Astro. It doesn't feel like an indy lucha show without those guys doing their thing.

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