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: Rush vs Negro Casas 3: La Máscara, Rush, Stuka Jr. vs Herodes Jr., Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas

Aired 2014-04-12
taped 2014-04-08 @ Arena México
La Máscara, Rush, Stuka Jr. vs Herodes Jr., Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas

Well, this was short and weird. I've only seen a couple of Stuka, Jr. matches though. I'm a little confused about his gimmick. Google tells me that it might have something to do with the German word Sturzkampfbomber and he, and his older brother before him (who was Stuka) started out as basically German military dive bombers? I guess you can see that with the mask having the pilot's goggles of sort, and the iron cross on the side? It's a unique look at least. This was my first time seeing Herodes, Jr., even though I think his dad was pretty great. He seems like he has a way to go still offense-wise, even if he has a pretty effective savage look. Apparently, he JUST left CMLL after being part of the extended Peste Negra earlier this year, so I guess this is a little bit timely.

So yes, this was short, weird, and really not very good. I'd have to say that it was one of the weaker trios I've seen since starting this project and a lot of that was Niebla and Mascara. I know people tend to either resent Mascara for how he got in and got his push, with family connections or what not, or are just annoyed by him because he's not so great in there, but I haven't had much problem with him, protected as he's been in the trios matches I've seen. Here, though, especially paired with Niebla (wearing a KISS shirt, btw), who is just so hit or miss, he wasn't good at all. It wasn't even the jarring bright green and fuchsia gear. The nature of trios makes it easy to protect someone a lot of times. If you're paired up against someone who really knows what they're doing like Casas or 2014 Shocker or Ultimo Guererro or even a motivated Felino, it's almost hard to look bad, maybe? Against Niebla who is very savvy and charismatic but basically a giant goofball or against someone less experienced like Herodes, Jr., the cracks can show a lot more easily.

Pretty basic formula, with the usual sort of narrative twist that they have to give matches that only go two falls. They skipped the entrances, had a brawl to begin. The rudos won it, and stage a short and non-descript beatdown, but the tecnicos fought back when they tossed Rush out of the corner and he hit a huge dropkick; it's a great spot/transition move so long as they don't overuse it like they sort of do with Rush/Casas reverse course clothesline reversal spot. The crowd was definitely anti-tecnicos here and it's hard to blame them. Every time Rush did anything he was booed. When Mascara took off his shirt, he was booed. When he hit the casita to win the primera caida during the comeback, he was booed.

Probably the only thing that the tecnicos did that wasn't booed was Stuka's nice blind dive from the top to the outside towards the end of the match. They had reset between falls, and this was where we got the especially weak Mascara/Niebla exchange, which was shown to be especially lame when followed by Rush and Casas killing each other with chops. Stuka's choice to dive out on Niebla instead of trying to win the match was a bit head-scratching as things weren't especially heated between them during the match, but hey, at least the crowd didn't boo. It also cleared the ring for Casas vs Rush again, which was back and forth for a moment before, Rush hit an awesome headbutt in the corner and Casas fouled him blatantly to take the thing home. Part of me sort of feels like he just wanted to cut his losses considering the match they were having.

Post-match the rudos all mocked Rush's crotch hurting on the ramp, which was great fun. Pretty disposable match all around though and a shame because I liked Niebla a lot in the Atlantis trios match that had just preceeded it and because I wanted to like Herodes, Jr. more.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 2/22/14

Because I'm an idiot I'm continuing to review the Gran Alternativa tournament. Cubsfan even referred to that pointless show as "the better week of the tournament" which means I am a 100% idiot for watching this.  Even mores because I know I'm an idiot *before* I am watching it. Sometimes I like being a completist in life. It's helped me out a lot in some areas, most certainly as an auditor for the county. But then my brain knowingly walks eyes wide open into the wrestling torture porn that is tournament lucha.

1. Reapper & Espiritu Negro vs. Shocker & Herodes Jr.

The one tiny thing I can take away from this is this is the first time I've seen a lot of the junior partners. I've never seen Herodes Jr. before and his segments with Reapper here were fun. Reapper looks really good in this with fun mat scrambles with Herodes, a big double missile dropkick, nice Silver King dive to the floor. Shocker looks good too, working fairly stiff with Reapper. Couldn't really gauge Negro.

2. Rush & Dragon Lee vs. Negro Casas & Canelo Casas

Not one bit of Casas/Rush which is disappointing, but not really what this tournament is about. Canelo Casas doesn't look very good. Rush leans way into his springboard dropkick and makes it look killer. Dragon Lee and Negro segments are kinda boring too. Rush looks awesome here though, kicking the snot out of Canelo. I love all his corner stomps and kicks and his hands free thrust headbutt.

3. Diamante Azul & Black Panther vs. Mr. Niebla & Barbaro Cavernario

Never seen Cavernario before and he looks...okayish. Black Panther hits a wicked tope and I like what I've seen from him in the Blue Panther trios. Niebla gets crazy height on a monkey flip and Azul takes a big bump off the top to the floor. Niebla also hits a sweet middle rope senton so it may be easier for him to put on his working boots when the matches are only 3 minutes long. Finish is fun (if not kinda sloppy thanks to Barbaro) with Azul going to press slam Barbaro and getting dropkicked by Niebla, dropping Barbaro on top for the win. Barbaro didn't really fall right for the spot to work, but hey they tried. I love press slam spots and Azul had Barbaro locked in, really impressive.

4. Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Hechicero vs. Atlantis & Star Jr.

Yeah! Loving that Hechicero is in CMLL now. Good pick up for them. Never seen Star Jr. before and this didn't really inspire me to rush out and watch more. He blows a moonsault twice, slipping off the ropes, but still goes through with it eventually. Hechicero was good bumping around for Atlantis and hitting a weird chickenwing backbreaker thing on Star. This was like 2 minutes though.

5. Rush & Dragon Lee vs. Shocker & Herodes Jr.

Rush throws one of the meatier chops in the biz, and I loved the segment with Herodes saving Shocker from a pin, only for Rush to slowly stand up like "Okay, okay" and then chop, headbutt and facekick the hell out of Herodes. And then he bumps big and manly for Shocker, to give back to the people. Herodes has a cool double planted kneedrop. Rush blasts Herodes with his corner dropkick (which makes Rachel sit up and take notice) and then just spikes him with basically a pedigree piledriver. Can't remember the last time I saw a piledriver in lucha. Shocker boots Rush in the balls for good measure. This was probably the best of the GA tourney.

6. Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Hechicero vs. Mr. Niebla & Barbaro Cavernario

Barbaro takes a lightning fast bump to the floor off a UG clothesline, Hechicero throws some nice body shots to Niebla, Barbaro hits a wild tope and Niebla hits a fucking moonsault off the top!!! When was the last time Niebla busted this much ass? Killer spot back in the ring as Niebla vaults Hechicero over his shoulders to get met with a Barbaro missile dropkick. Dayum.

7. Mr. Niebla & Barbaro Cavernario vs. Shocker & Herodes Jr.

How did I know it would come down to caveman on caveman violence? You guys will never get taken seriously by the learned class of homo erectus if you just keep eating your own young like this. This card is the most ass I've seen Niebla bust in a couple years, blasting Shocker with chops and hitting a nice tope. He slams Herodes on the floor and Barbaro gets the holy shit spot of the night by hitting a freaking giant splash from the top turnbuckle to the floor. Holy lord. Gotta say I dug the caveman tag on this card.


Alright Cubs you're crazy, this was the WAYYYY better Gran Alternativa lineup. Out of the 14 total GA matches I'd say 6 of these would be in the top 7 overall. It's not even close. This was actually a fun show that went by quick. That first night was an absolutely brutal slog that ruined my day. You need to explain yourself buddy.

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