Lucha Worth Watching: Wotan vs. Fly Star! Hijo de Canis Lupus! Dragon Bane!

Wotan vs. Fly Star FILLM 3/16/19

ER: Hey, it's 13 minutes of grimy indy lucha asskicking, bleeding, and nasty spills onto concrete. I love those things in my wrestling! This is a super libre which should always be code for "covered in blood" and wouldn't you know, that code is still active! Wotan starts by throwing Fly Star violently into, onto, and through some chairs (those hard ass old wooden arena seats), ripping a chair back loose for later, and hitting quick and mean headbutts whenever Fly Star puts up a fight. By minute 3 of what we have here, Fly Star's face is already covered in blood. Wotan is obviously going to keep headbutting him and punching him in the face, and the great thing about Wotan is even though he might beat the blood out of you, he will happily donate his own plasma to the bottom of your boots. Fly Star hits him with a dropkick on the floor that sends him tumbling, punches him in the head, and eventually tries to do a corner dropkick that had to be Fly Star seeing just how hard he could run and kick Wotan in the jaw. I love when Wotan's mask is ripped and loosely covering only his mouth, blood running everywhere, and both guys still decide who hits harder. I dug Wotan just wasting fly Star with a double chop, with Fly Star taking it as if he'd been hit by a truck, and I imagine Star's chest and neck were already tender, because Wotan had thrown 5 of the hardest possible lariats up to that point in the match. Both guys take HUGE violent bumps to the floor on missed offense, with Fly Star crashing hard on a slingshot senton, and then Wotan crashing hard on a somersault senton off the apron. These guys are dying out there, but neither man really got finished, the batteries just kind of ran out or just plain broke. It looks like we'll have to run this back again with another violent stip.

Dragon Bane/Hijo de Canis Lupus vs. Aramis/Imposible IWRG 4/28/19

ER: Super high octane sprint, that made smart use of partner saves to keep the crazy spots turned up without making for any eye rolling kickouts. They also figured out that the best way to make a stupid dance-y sequence look good is to just work stiff. Spinning around someone and hitting a superkick is fine by me, as long as you're Aramis here and look like you realign a jaw. The dives were expectedly spectacular: Bane and Lupus took both tecnicos with them on bullet topes into the front row, Aramis hits a gorgeous dive past the ringpost in the segunda, Imposible wears impossibly small trunks, etc. They throw in some fun visuals, like Bane running around the ring away from Imposible, only to get caught with a quebradora from Aramis, both Bane and Lupus taking vertical suplex bumps on the entrance ramp, and the saves all got great reactions from me as they went to big moves early and didn't turn the match into a bunch of kickouts and lying around. Hijo de Canis Lupus looked really good, had that same vibe Los Traumas had when they started to get noticed more. Lupus hit some of the hardest damn corner clotheslines I've seen this year, and the forcefulness of many of the strikes and running shots really added to the match. We also got a couple nice powerbombs, including Lupus tossing Aramis onto his partner with one, followed by immediately rolling him through to hit his own sitout powerbomb. The breakdown at the end was fun, and the way they staggered the pins was nice. Aramis surprised me with an awesome ankle lock to finish things, suddenly making me want to see Aramis work a Bloodsport show.

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Relampago v. Imposible

34. Imposible vs. Relampago IWRG 1/22

ER: Here is a match featuring a total knockout of a first half, with one of those big confusing second halves that only seem to happen in lucha. The primera starts hot with Relampago hitting a dive as Imposible is walking to the ring, and the primera never really looks back. We get some nice brawling around ringside and into the crowd, tons of nasty chairshots with those stiff unyielding plastic chairs bouncing off heads and ribs. Relampago gets hiptossed into a bunch of those chairs, later uses them to pull off a double jump rana (chair to barricade to Imposible) into the crowd, later Imposible and him fight on the second level and Imposible flies off with a crossbody. Relampago gets busted open, gets his mask ripped, and Imposible makes sure to punch him a few times right in the cut - cementing his status as "quality Luchador". Primera ends with Relampago locking on a rough sub that sees Imposible hang on too long before tapping, injuring his arm in the process. And then things get kind of weird. Imposible is really rubbing his limp arm, and we get one truly awesome pro wrestling moment where a referee on the floor tries to yank at Imposible's arm to pop it back into place. But again, the segunda gets weird. Suddenly the referee just disappears, and the rudo/tecnicos alliances seem to shift. So we get a couple of pinfall attempts and no referee to count them. Eventually a ref comes out but he never gets in the ring, opting to count pinfalls from the floor. Relampago was cut and bleeding, but not nearly enough to make the ring a quarantine zone. You've seen refs get near wayyyy bloodier luchadors before. So all the pinfalls the rest of the way seem completely off, you don't know if there are rudo ref shenanigans, or if someone got hurt and they don't know what to do, or if Relampago suddenly went full rudo and was getting outside help. It all felt off. And then, Relampago - who had spent the primera as a valiant tecnicos getting bloody and still flying into Imposible - yanks Imposible's mask all the way off and pins him in full view of everyone. So...I don't actually know what happened, but it felt like one of those occurrences that only happen in lucha. Even with the weirdness, match was pretty terrific.

PAS: The second half of this didn't bother me as much as it bothered Eric. I don't know why the ref only was counting from the floor, but it didn't stop the near falls from being compelling. I was also not really bothered by Relampago pulling off the mask. Relampago was brutalized violently for a fall and half at one point Imposible threw him into what looked like his mother and grandmother, and nearly threw a punch at his mom. When they were brawling on the balcony, Relampago gets fireman carry tossed off a balcony, which felt like an attempted murder. I figure once those stakes have been set, a little mask pulling is fair game. I really dug this, violent intense brawl with some really holy shit moments, like the throw off the balcony and subsequent dive. We get some nice mask ripping and blood and a really nasty submission out of nowhere to end the second fall. Third fall was slightly odd, but nothing too weird. Violent, impressive and fun to watch


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Lucha Worth Watching: IWRG and the Stiffest Punches in Puebla

Dr. Cerebro/Cerebro Negro/Relampago vs. Imposible/Odin/Pantera (IWRG 2/12/17)

ER: Fun rudo beatdown that wouldn't have taken much more to land on our MOTY list. The rudos are all total bullies and it leads to some nice comebacks from the tecnicos. Los Cerebros are the perfect complement to each other: Dr. brings the mean striking and Negro brings the fast bumps that look great on a tecnico comeback, just try not to fall in love with them while they hold a seated Pantera's arms and chop/kick him to a pulp. Both of them lay a beating on Odin - who I had never seen before - but Odin seems like a guy who can take a good beating, leaning into a nasty avalanche from Doc. He had my heart when he got launched by a backdrop, and his gorgeous pop up headscissors in the tercera sealed the deal. While Cerebros are doing damage in the ring, Relampago is dragging Imposible around and throwing him through the crowd, Imposible taking some great bumps through chairs, getting those hard plastic chairs thrown at his head. Later Imposible gets revenge and it's Relampago bumping through the crowd and getting beaten with chairs, Relampago even takes a funny stooge bump getting into the ring, "botching" a springboard and screaming at the crowd, and I loved Relampago's wild Ong Bak-esque headscissors on Imposible down the stretch. Really the only thing holding this back is a few clunky moments in the middle with Pantera, but it's minor and even those were saved by a alley oop dropkick (sending Negro flying super fast to the floor) and a nice armdrag on Doc. Everybody was really busting butt in this one. You could see stuff happening off in the periphery, like Doc slamming Pantera into a post or Relampago flying off the ring barrier with a legdrop, stuff done when the roving camera wasn't even on them. That kind of energy always sets something like this apart.

Negro Casas/Rush v. El Terrible/Sagrado (Puebla 1/8/17)

ER: A 5 minute match on a free show, how good could it be? Well, it fits in several little stories, has the stiffest punches I've seen from any of the 4 men this year, and it's under a circus tent. So, pretty good. Rush and Terrible trade at the start, both men hammering opposite fists, both throwing serious blows. Within any given Terrible match you'll see Terrible punch someone in the head with a wicked stiff punch, and then also throw one of the prettier worked punches you've seen. And you don't know which is going to be which. Rush gets them both. Rush is under a circus tent and he's surely aiming to  be the greatest show on earth here. He hams it up nicely with the crowd, lies in his Burt-Reyonlds-in-Playgirl pose, smacks Casas and yells at him to hit Terrible harder, kicks Terrible so hard in the back that you don't need any Lucha Underground sound sweetening, a real showman. The Casas/Terrible showdown in question is awesome. Terrible, towering over Casas, wants a strike exchange and even allows Casas to have the first few shots. Casas throws a few good ones, then blasts Terrible in the neck and throat with a couple HARD elbows, but they still somehow don't faze Terrible. So Casas awesomely falls back on the middle rope to spring up with the hardest forearm yet, knocking Terrible down. Terrible then gets up, squares up, and breaks Casas' face with a left hook. Casas ends up coming back and hitting a huge Thesz press to the floor to the approval of a loud crowd. Maybe the stiffest lucha match I've seen this year.

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Lucha Worth Watching: More Dinamitas! Liga Elite!

1. Imposible/Diamante v. Jinzo/Ciclon Ramirez Jr. (Liga Elite 9/14/16)

ER: A bunch of younger guys breaking out a bunch of crazy moves and fast work to get noticed, cool. Every guy got several moments in this, but Imposible impressed me the most. He showed a lot of polish, unique sequences, super quick set-ups, and some crazy, ankle destroying high spots. First he places Ciclon in a chair and runs from the entrance stairway to do a balls first Thesz press. Later he has Diamante holding Jinzo in a wheelbarrow on the floor, and just drops balls first onto the back of Jinzo's head from the top rope. It's like he just aimed to crotch himself using Jinzo. I really want to see more from Imposible now. Diamante blew out of CMLL and doesn't seem like he missed a beat as he clearly looked improved. He worked stiff and his timing was on point, came off like a real badass. Jinzo had one of his best showings since the CWC...although I guess this was only a couple months after the CWC stuff was taped. Look, all I know is that I haven't really liked him in anything other than his Kendrick match, and I liked him in this. I'm always kind of skeptical of Jrs. in lucha, as it seems like it's going to be a guy coasting on a legendary mask. That's not really fair, as there's been some amazing Jrs. in lucha, including some of the absolute greatest luchadors. But I see a young guy with a Jr. and my pre-formed opinions are bad. But Ciclon wasn't coasting on a damn thing. He was as good as any of CMLL's more pushed tecnicos, a real pleasant surprise, and hit a batshit crazy rana from the top rope to Diamante on the apron. Balls out craziness from both. He works some swift roll ups and takes some nasty moves from the rudos, real quality modern tecnico. I kept expecting this whole match to fall apart and it never did, they just kept busting out cool, dangerous moves and working some fine drama. Fun stuff.

2. El Cuatrero/Forastero/Sanson vs. The Panther/Blue Panther Jr./Drone (CMLL 12/6/16)

Dinamitas are my favorite new trios team, a real trio of young rudo assbeaters, who do all the lucha rudo things that I love: big bumps, stiff shots, great bases. All of that is on display here, and we also get a nice little standout performance from Drone. Drone, the former Hombre Bala Jr., has always had some pretty great - and pretty diverse high flying spots. He doesn't just stick to a couple of trademark spots like Diamante Azul or others, he's often breaking out new and crazy stuff. His gimmick is kind of dorky, but it's easy to look past that when he's launching himself to the floor with a no hands tope. Cuatrero is still standing out as my favorite Dinamita (and as long as he keeps taking crazy bumps to the floor every match, that probably won't change), but each one always does a couple notable things, even in a short match like this. All the tecnicos get a couple dives, Panther ranas Cuatrero off the apron, Sanson hits a sick kneedrop to the back of BPJr.'s head, Cuatrero does an actually plausible handspring move, and despite a couple awkward timing spots early in the segunda this was loads of fun.

3. El Cuatrero/Forastero/Sanson vs. Pegasso/Black Panther/Blue Panther Jr. (CMLL 12/13/16)

I can't get enough of these rudo asskickers right now. The primera sees them working a traditional and basic assbeating, just literally stomping the tecnicos most of the time, three of them clubbing one of them to the mat all at once, just ganging up and bullying (and ends with a long and painful swanton from Sanson). Tercera sees them break out two of their crazier semi-trademark spots: Sanson's springboard kneedrop (so tough to pull off, and he really plants it nice) and Cuatrero's brutal and pinpoint match ending springboard elbowdrop. Two violent moves that few could make looks this good. Pegasso got to throw out a bunch of his flashy stuff including a sweet no hands tornillo, but this match was mostly about the rudos, and I'm totally cool with that.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Liga Elite Undercard! Blue Demon as Zandig!

1. Imposible/Peligro vs. Ciclon Ramirez Jr./Leon Dorado Jr. (Liga Elite 9/30/16)

I'm continuing to dig this Liga Elite undercard, with Imposible especially standing out. I've never seen Peligro or Leon Dorado before this, but Ciclon has been impressing me as well. Dorado seemed really green, hitting some kind of sloppy flying offense, but he took a nice post bump and got dragged around nicely by Imposible, gets blasted by an awesome Thesz press while stuck in a chair, basically seems up for a beating. His big moment comes later in the match where he hits a nutso balcony dive, just plunging into the crowd. They filmed it from underneath and from behind, so you get the angle of him diving into nothingness, and him crashing onto dudes. Imposible runs the primera like a great rudo, all building to Ciclon's big comeback in the segunda. Imposible takes a big Fuerza bump, knocking Peligro into the crowd, then Ciclon hits an out of control dive that plasters Imposible into the barrier and sends himself into the crowd. Tercera continues the wild end of the segunda, with Ciclon tying up Imposible in a trippy submission, then Imposible hitting him with a flapjack chestbreaker. Dorado and Peligro aren't as good as their partners, but they aren't in for nearly as long, and I loved how Ciclon inserted himself back in the match by breaking up a pinfall with a huge diving dropkick. Both tecnicos hit big suicide dives, then Peligro nearly dies hitting his own dive, catching his heels on the top rope and thanking the heavens that Ciclon rushed up to save his bacon. Imposible puts down Dorado with a tricked out rolling armbar for the match. They tried a lot of stuff, and not all of it worked, but the energy was high, Imposible and Ciclon are legit, and the undercard of Elite is busting their collective butts.

2. LA Park vs. Blue Demon Jr. (Liga Elite 9/30/16)

Park is a fat, out of control original Sheik at this point. Now that Elite is touring through other towns and not allowed (?) to use Arena Mexico, they're hitting up these smaller cool arenas, and Park is just kicking in the door, kicking balls, throwing chairs and garbage, wresting trays away from vendors, tearings masks, bleeding, and then soaking it all up before leaving without a decisive victory or loss. Is he killing towns? Or is he bringing chaos and excitement to lives? I think the latter. Blue Demon's transformation is still a shock to me, and I have no idea what brought it on. He takes such furious beatings now, and now that he's 50 he tries harder in his matches than I've seen previously. Park jumps him in the aisle, which is how these things go now, and he beats the hell out of Demon, throws him into the crowd as Demon lands grossly on chairs, powerbombs him through a couple of folding chairs in a way no 50 year old man should be powerbombed, whips Demon with his belt, yanks a wooden beer tray out of the hands of a vendor who looked like he did not want to lose his beer tray, and before long Demon is busted open. It's a great visual as the blood is running down his arms and on his hands and chest. But Demon's walking tall comebacks have been great, and Park knows how to facilitate them. Now Park bumps wildly into chairs and Demon hits a big dive, and the crowd is hot. Before long the match devolves into several ref bumps, both men bleeding and kicking balls, trading nearfalls, Park taking his corner flip bump, Park hitting a big powerslam, and upon getting DQ'd Park starts flipping out and undoing the ring ropes. This was a real blast. Park is arguably the most charismatic man in wrestling, and Demon has put on them working boots as best as he can. Great old guy battle.

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2013 Lucha Roundup

Chico Che/Saruman/Freelance v. Eita/Tomahawk/Imposible IWRG 3/21

Pretty mediocre match. The DG guys didn't do anything as bad as they have in previous matches, but this was a really subdued Freelance and Che performance. No real crazy dives, Che threw some nice headbutts but didn't fly around or anything. More forgettable then bad, but pretty forgettable.

El Hijo Del Santo v. Oliver John TXT 4/7

Great to see a Santo singles match show up. Haven't had much of an opinion of John before but he definitely worked hard here, he took some big bumps including doing a diving headbutt directly into Santo's feet and flying to the floor. I also really liked his piledriver counter. Santo did cool Santo things, headscissors, headbutts, mat counters, topes. Built to a pretty exciting finish run and a satisfying finish. Very good match better then I was expecting

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2013 Lucha Roundup

Angel del Amor/Chico Che/Freelance v. Danny Casas/Imposible/Alan Extreme IWRG 2/14

Not at the level of the match later in the week, but house show Che and Freelance is still well worth checking out. Your other four here were solid but didn't really stand out, Alan Extreme had a fun tope con hilo, but I have seen him do better. Freelance and Chico were the stars and they brought the crazy shit, Freelance broke out a bunch of his crazy flipping counters and a couple of nutso dives including a rana to the floor which chuck Alan into the third row. Chico Che didn't break out the brawling, but his exchanges were as graceful and athletic as always, his top rope splash is just awesome looking. Undercardish style match, but I am some glad we got the real killers back making these undcard matches such a treat

El Angel v. Trauma 2 v. Oficial 911 IWRG 2/17

Had some 3-wayish issues early, but once this got down to violence it got really awesomely violent. Trauma was just smashing his head into Angel's bloody skull and cracking him and 911 with chairshots. There is a point where T2 and Angel are lying in the beer and blood and the mud just pummeling each other while 911 crawls to the ring to win the match. One of the cooler finishes in recent memory. Very exited to see these guys amp it up even more for a mask match.

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