Lucha Worth Watching: Panther Familia, and Kraneo vs. Smaller Men

Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr. & The Panther vs. Misterioso Jr., Bobby Z & Sagrado (CMLL 8/5/16)

This wasn't the match I expected, but I was pleased with the match we got. I was expecting this to be a showcase of everybody's highflying, but man do the dives keep coming. BP's kids get to show off their fast topes, BP himself hits two sturdy and impressive ones, Misterioso gets his nice rolling senton off the apron, Bobby hits a killer plancha to the floor while Panther Jr. is already lying on the floor, and Sagrado hits a mean springboard flip dive. That's not even counting all the numerous springboard and top rope moves into the ring. Then throw in Misterioso's great Cassandro bump and Bobby's big Jerry bump and this match had way more guys leaving their feet than any Sky Team match I've seen. Wild stuff. There's plenty of great character moments, with Sagrado not playing along with Panther Jr. sequences, and Bobby Z's ever-growing unwitting doofus character that is hopefully finally getting bumped up the card. BP and Misterioso have some wonderful sequences, and I especially loved their mat rolls to start. Blue Panther always does at least one little thing I love in his matches that have some primera matwork, and here I loved him rolling backwards and catching Misterioso's ankle on his way over. A small but wonderful part to a fun big spot match.

Kraneo/Hechicero/Sagrado v. Triton/Hombre Bala Jr./Angel de Oro (CMLL 5/10/16)

I love a good rudo team, and that right there is three rudos I like seeing together, and this is the first time we've been lucky to see them together. Hechicero teaming with Kraneo is a beautiful thing, and together they're like Jack Handey's shark riding on an elephant's back, just trampling and eating everything they see. Sagrado has really found new life as a rudo these last two years, gone are the days of him clumsily blowing tecnico offense, now he's found his calling being an asskicker and bumping great FOR tecnico offense. He takes tons of armdrags from Triton that ramp up faster and faster and make me think my video was glitching and speeding up. I loved all of Hechicero's stuff with Bala, with Bala getting a rare chance to shine (apparently replacing Super Porky, which likely made the match take an entirely different tone than it otherwise would have) as Hechicero takes his ranas and knees with force, and Bala takes all of Hechicero's endless bag of tricks. Loved Hechicero hitting a pointy running knee in the corner, then whipping him with a couple of sick jabs I've never seen him do. Bala mirrors him with a couple of flying knees of his own and Hechicero is great stooging for him. But then Sagrado and Triton get to tear it up on the edges of the camera, with Triton getting flung upside down into the barrier and Sagrado hitting a killer sliding lariat to a slumped-in-the-corner Triton. Kraneo is such an awesome mismatch for most tecnicos, eating and trampling, flattening fliers, elbowing guys off the apron, accidentally booting poor Mije, but he goes down like he got shot for a couple Oro superkicks, really times them perfectly to actually make them look like kicks and not thigh slaps. We get some crazy flying down the stretch, with Triton hitting a big asai moonsault to the floor, and Triton hitting a wild asai tornillo that sees him go upside down through his opponent and possibly onto his own head. And everything ends with Kraneo just flattening Oro with a sick senton which the announcers refer to as a "mega senton". Indeed.

Read more!

CMLL Worth Watching 9/21/14

1. Mercurio, Pierrothito & Pequeno Olimpico vs. Electrico, Ultimo Dragoncito & Stukita (9/21/14)

Fun little match even though the caidas ended in fairly disappointing ways. Still this was a real nice Mercurio showcase as he's arguably the best bumping rudo mini, here he takes a nice back splat bump to the floor, Chris Masters style, and then a great Halloween bump later on. He also shows a lot more personality than most minis, and he with Pierrothito is a rudo mini powerhouse. Stukita is a bit too tiny to buy as any sort of threat, and really the tecnicos are missing somebody with more fluidity, such as Bam Bam. Electric has a couple nice springboard moves and Dragoncito whips around quickly on a Santo roll up, but Mercurio was where it's at in this one.

2. Kamaitachi, Bobby Zavala & Okumura vs. Fuego, Pegasso & Hombre Bala Jr. (9/21/14)

Daaaaamn this was a fun little spotfest! Constant fast exchanges and no down time, all fast action with cool little moments. Kamaitachi is back to being my little replacement Namajague. He looked good throughout from his bigger spots to little mat things like he and Fuego going to the mat and Kamaitachi doing a cool shoulder shrug to buck him off. Zavala also looked killer throughout as he bumped all over for the flippy offense and had a couple great stooge moments, and a real fun bump where he took a back bump and then scooted on his back to safety, but scooted too far and went right out the ring with a back bump to the floor. Hombre Bala had some nice flying including a wild tope en reversa from the top to the floor, Pegasso is always a fun guy to have pop up on TV and his flying is even better with a base like Zavala. Fun stuff that didn't even really feel like a "CMLL" match, would have fit nicely on Lucha Underground.

Read more!

Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 2/15/14

Phil's favorite!!! It's tournament lucha!!! The dry hump of lucha libre!!! This is the Gran Alternativa tourney from 1/31.

1. Blue Panther & Cachorro vs. Averno & Rebelde

Wow, 5 minutes for a tourney lucha match that isn't the finals? Color me spoiled. This was really fun for what it was. Panther and his kid vs. Averno and Hooligan's kid (which is to say, Averno teaming with Hooligan's son. I don't think Averno and Hooligan have a sexual relationship). This is my first time seeing Rebelde and he breaks out a bananas dive on Panther, almost going vertical before crashing into him. In the ring he hits a cool corkscrew splash off the top. Cachorro gets his own big dive, Panther does some swank armlock on Averno. Really this is the most you can hope for with tourney lucha.

2. La Sombra & Oro Jr. vs. Rey Bucanero & Akuma

And then there's this. 150 seconds of dry indie moves delivered heatlessly and pointlessly. Oro hit a pair of nice moonsault presses, one to the floor. Indie move, guy gets up, other guy does indie move, etc.

3. Maximo & Hombre Bala Jr. vs. Terrible & Guerrero Negro Jr.

Wow. If anybody needed any proof of why tourney lucha is the worst, here we have a 45 second match where they go to nearfalls right out of the gate. Maximo goes to kiss Negro, Negro fights, and then amusingly Terrible forces a kiss on Maximo which shocks him enough for Negro to get the pin. Clever, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a waste of everybody's time (is there anything more lame than sitting through entrances that last longer than the match?).

4. Volador Jr. & Soberano Jr. vs. Mephisto & Espanto Jr.

It usually takes about 3-4 matches into a lucha tourney to make you wonder why the hell you even bothered, but then you know you're half way through the whole thing and you've come this far and you still haven't learned to cut your losses after all these years. Soberano is wearing his dorky spider-man jammy jams and does just about the ugliest standing moonsault you've ever seen. Throw in his sloppy backcracker and you have indie goober Yahtzee. Volador took forever to set up a rana off the top rope, which in a match this short was essentially 1/3 of the match. The best part of the match was when they cut to a gal in the crowd drinking beer, 3 solo cups deep. I'd be getting wasted too if I had shown up for some Friday night wrestling and was presented with a collection of 2 minute matches.

5. Blue Panther & Cachorro vs. La Sombra & Oro Jr.

Cachorro hits another epic tope that just plasters Sombra into the back wall. Panther gets hit with Oro's moonsault press and looks like he's starting to turn the pinfall attempt into some sort of cool crucifix submission...but his son runs in and breaks up the pinfall.

6. El Terrible & Guerrero Negro Jr. vs. Volador Jr. & Soberano Jr.

All of the dated indie spots! I'm starting to think when I put a bunch of old Japan and indie wrestling VHS tapes on craigslist that they somehow ended up in the hands of undercard luchadors. Here was Soberano and Volador doing some throwback Scoot Andrews spots while Negro tried his fucking damndest to make it look plausible. A for effort. Volador looks sluggish and bored.

7. THE FINALS: La Sombra & Oro Jr. vs. Volador Jr. & Soberano Jr.

Sombra dumped himself on his dome a couple times whipping off Volador Code Red variations, Volador absolutely brained Oro with a superkick in the corner. The crowd is usually mic'd down quite a bit and you could hear a noticeable uproar immediately following the kick. The ref even checked on him. It looked nasty. But most of this match was inept 2.9 counts with no heat or drama. The most hilariously inept was towards the end when Soberano and Oro, the two featured young guys in this whole tournament, finally were left solo in the ring to square off. They're both getting their sides of the crowd hyped up, crowd is wanting it, Oro rushes at him...and Soberano just powerbombs and pins him. Waah waah. No exchanges, no flash, just...bloop.

Read more!

CMLL on Galavision Workrate Report, 2/9/13

These matches all took place on the 2/1/13 Arena Mexico card.



1. Arkangel de la Muerte/Skandalo/Nitro vs. Hombre Bala Jr./Fuego/Super Halcon Jr.

First fall is kind of a mess as it all boils down to Nitro being the foil for Fuego and Halcon's double teams, and nobody does much of anything very well in the set-up. Arkangel is not surprisingly the highlight of the first fall, as his work with Bala looks pro. Even little things like locking up look engaging when Arkangel is involved. I did really like Fuego's sunset flip that saw him climb up and over Nitro. 2nd fall is all about some awesome Bala/Arkangel sequences. Arkangel has an expert way of falling into position for crazy and/or silly tecnico offense and he puts that to masterful display here. Bala does two weird dives that Arkangel falls for, one of them being a dive through the bottom ropes into a splash on the ramp way, the other being an AWESOME dive while Arkangel is sitting in the corner. Bala vaults off Fuego and goes torpedoing headfirst into Arkangel, coming in at a fierce diagonal. Crazy. Third fall is all about the rudos getting tecnicos into prone positions and then doing running dropkicks to their taints. It seriously happened like 4 times. At one point Fuego hits a balls out insane dive over the top to the floor, coming in completely vertical. Overall the match wasn't much, but definitely worth watching for all the cool Arkangel moments.



2. Amapola/Princesa Blanca/Princesa Sugheit vs. Dark Angel/Marcela/Estrellita

First fall is a pretty good shitkicking of Estrellita. Amapola in particular looked like she wasn't holding back very much , but then things got awesome when Estrellita made her comeback and didn't hold back on Amapola, wrenching her around by her hair and giving her a stiff as hell dropkick to the floor. All that continues into the 2nd with more stiff clotheslines and Amapola taking a brutal Cassandro bump through the corner ropes that saw her barely catch the turnbuckle. She basically did a suicide dive to nobody. Nuts. Dark Angel has some pretty ranas and Blanca is a gal who is great at taking ranas. Tecnicas win in straight falls but it's all action and really fun.



3. Ultimo Guerrero/Mephisto/Terrible vs. Maximo/Rush/Shocker

First couple falls were all angle and a total schmozz, but an awesome schmozz that saw UG attack Atlantis at the announce table and bust his lip open, and then Atlantis take off his belt and threaten UG. Maximo bumps big into the guard rail and Rush continues looking really great while Shocker continues to look slow and busty. UG will take a massive Jerry bump (here he wasn't going to get much height so clearly pushes off with his arms to fling himself higher. Crazy.) but he's mostly occupied with shit talking Atlantis from the ring in this match. Rush is probably the star of the whole thing, hitting a nutso running dropkick from the apron to the floor, timing a superkick great while Maximo is doing a do-so-do with Terrible, and generally jacking up the crowd. Maximo looked great here too as he and Mephisto match up really well together for complicated armdrag spots. So yeah, not much of a "match" as things are fairly short and chaotic, but I would say it's well worth checking out.

Read more!

CMLL Puebla Workrate Report, 11/4/12

These matches were from the 10/22/12 Puebla show.

1. Taurus vs. Super Halcon Jr.

This is my first time seeing Taurus and he is apparently the 18 yr. old son of Ultimo Guerrero. He...is not very polished. The camera has to cut away to the crowd a couple of times in the early matwork, so I'm really curious how he blew a monkey flip bump. He works with a lot of delay and hesitation, but still goes over Halcon in like 3 minutes with a stiff powerbomb and some sort of goofy pumphandle F5.

2. Super Comando/Artillero/Inquisidor vs. Hombre Bala Jr./Magnus/Stigma

Ugh, the tecnicos all come out to Limp Bizkit's "Rollin'". At least Stigma is living up to his name, as I can't really think of a bigger disgrace to one's reputation. This seemed to be designed to show just how much better a worker Hombre Bala Jr. is than the other tecnicos in this match. Because he's clearly much better. He deserves to be much higher on the cards. Super Comando is also much better than his brother Artillero, but they all clearly know that as Comando matches up almost exclusively with Bala during this match. Things here were okay but meh. Tecnicos did a whole bunch of armdraggy stuff from the 2nd ropes and Inquisidor and SC are just fine at taking that type of stuff. But that doesn't mean it's fun after 10 minutes of it.

3. Virus/Misterioso Jr./Sangre Azteca vs. Stuka Jr./Triton/Sagrado

Misterioso is completely tassel free, which quite frankly is bullshit. I watched this match with my buddy Charlie who has an occasional drunk interest in wrestling, but basically zero lucha knowledge. After 4 seconds he was already on the Virus bandwagon. This guy has really put together quite a spectacular career and it feels like he still doesn't get talked about enough. The first time I remember seeing him was a singles match vs. Oriental, and that was when I was in high school (Jesus, I graduated in 1998. Was it really that long ago!?) and I was hooked from that match. I can't think of too many workers who have been as consistently excellent from my late teens into my early 30s as Virus has. This match itself wasn't spectacular in any way, but just had enough little Virus moments that made me realize how lucky we are to have so much of his career exist on tape. Too many luchadors go unrealized by the masses until it's too late in their careers. How many amazing 80s Toro Bill matches must have happened? How many bloody Puebla brawls was that guy a part of? And all we have to prove his existence are maybe 10 trios matches while he was in his late 40s. But Virus has spent almost his whole career working on television, and that's a special thing.



4. Ultimo Guerrero/Rey Buccanero/Terrible vs. Marco Corleone/Maximo/Rush

This was an awesome match. Maximo put in one of his best performances of the last year and really owned the 2nd. Corleone jumped high and threw nice lefts and flexed his buttocks, and Rush looked the best I have ever seen Rush look. And he was not just "good for Rush" but moreso "tell me more about this wrestler with the shitty hair, as he seems like somebody I would like to see more". I'm sure somebody can find some flaws with this match, but fuck it I was laughing and rewinding and calling Rachel into the room for 15 minutes. Buccanero and especially UG have gotten back into a nice groove the last year. They were two of my favorites back in 2000-2002, and then UG kind of started to embody my least favorite style of lucha. But over the last couple years I think he started to really hit another career stride. I even got Phil back on the bandwagon and he was one of the most vehement UG haters during the late 2000s. Buccanero's issues may have been injury related, I don't honestly remember. I just know that in 2001 it seemed like he and Christian were having weekly TV battles to see who could take a stupider bump over the top to the floor and I luuuuuved it. So I'm glad they're back on my good side. Terrible's new hair makes me sad. He looked like the coolest Rafi, Brolo El Cunado before :(



5. Valiente vs. Dragon Rojo Jr.

Is Valiente a main event guy now? I've been in and out of CMLL, so I'm not sure. Maybe this is more of a Puebla B show thing, not necessarily an Arena Mexico thing? Also is it wrong that I liked Valiente more when he was a chubster? Now he's all jacked to the gills and still does things all purty but I liked him when he was flippy and fat. This was a CMLL main event. Moves were done. Moves were kicked out of. Turns were traded. Valiente slipped a couple times which was sad. Rojo had some rad roll-up combinations. The 2nd caida went like 30 seconds. You knew all of this going in.

Read more!

CMLL on Galavision Workrate Report, 5/12/12

1. Hombre Bala Jr./Super Halcon Jr. vs. Cholo/Apocalipsis:

Damn, Cholo and Apocalipsis? Did I accidentally start reviewing an LATV show? This was kind of a tale of the two good guys on each team, Cholo and Bala. Those guys rule. The other two aren't bad but they're just kind of...guys. Bala was awesome here, and he broke out all sorts of tope variations that I haven't seen before. He did one onto the rampway, splashing Apocalipsis in the process. It was basically him doing a giant running Pete Rose head first slide but landing right on the guy. Later he did the same Pete Rose to Cholo sitting in the corner and ended it in a headbutt instead of a splash. Awesome. Does Osaka Pro still have a large baseball stable? Change his name around and make him the Human Baseball.



2. Tiffany/Princesa Blanca/La Commandante vs. Lady Apache/Marcela/Dark Angel:

Really fun women's match with all ladies firing on all cylinders. Marcela and Tiffany always match up nicely together, always dig them on the mat and Tiffany kicking her face, and dig Marcela's cool springboard double knees to the stomach (which later cost her). They start the first few minutes and have a nice singles match. Lady Apache looked really fired up here. She always looks good, but she was approaching her peak level work here, though Blanca tends to bring out the best in other ladies. When Dark Angel was in with Commandante, it sure felt like one of the largest "foxy" to "rake face" ratio I've seen in some time. Match sputtered a bit at the end with the normally awesome Tiffany looking a little lost at sea, but I take my good women's wrestling when I can get it, and this was mostly really good.



3. Ephesto/Rey Escorpion/Mephisto vs. La Mascara/Mascara Dorada/Black Warrior:

Well God Damn is Dorada awesome or is Dorada awesome? The answer, in fact, is that Mascara Dorada is awesome. I know I spent last week's review just blowing La Mascara but good lord did Dorada just outclass him here. I could watch a match that was nothing but Dorada ranas. So smooth, so effortless. How neat is it when he does one and lands on his feet as the other guy goes sprawling away? You know I love me some Ephesto and Escorpion, and those guys always shine against Dorada and Mascara, as they are the aforementioned other guys that go sprawling. Black Warrior seems to be one of the main pushed guys in CMLL right now, at least that's how it comes across on TV. I don't know. I don't mind the guy. He does some cool things, has some good energy. I like his slingshot elbow. Hits a fast tope. But is he really a guy they're pushing that hard? It seems like Galavision is really pushing Rush and Black Warrior. Am I crazy?

Read more!