More People Should Be Talking About Metalico

People should talk about Metalico! He's never going to break out of the CMLL undercard, but he brings something different and wonderful to the CMLL undercard. He's a little stoogy Memphis heel. He's that combination of Loco Max and Billy Joe Travis that every single person would still love if those two were still alive*. His one semi-featured match of the decade (his mask match against Angel de Oro) stunk, but I put that squarely on Oro's shoulders. Metalico only makes tape a couple times a month so he's not a tough guy to keep track of in mainstream lucha circles. Seeing him pop up on a Fox deportes rerun just made me want to shine a little spotlight on him. This will be an ongoing miniseries of Metalico appreciation.

Metalico/Hijo del Signo/Canelo Casas vs. Sensei/Magnus/Leono (CMLL 9/3/16)

Not a great match but one with a wonderful Metalico performance and my pleasant surprise that Hijo del Signo is good now! Sensei appears to be not as good as he used to be, and appears to be bulkier. But Metalico is so much fun in this. He's a great rudo base so finds several ways to bump arm drags and he's good at setting up sometimes convoluted offense for tecnicos. At one point Sensei was setting up a headscissor off the top and Metalico was great at occupying himself by jawing with the crowd so Sensei could get into position, then running over to throw a great strike that was meant to be kicked away by Sensei. The "missed strike to set up opponent offense" is someone a lot of wrestlers do real phony, but Metalico brings a great combo of realism and theatricality to them. He's good at running lucha stooge spots in ways that you don't see (when Leono wouldn't shake his hand he went around the ring shaking hands with the ref and his own partners, to show how good he was at trustworthy handshakes), and can work stiff with a big elbowdrop and an awesome western lariat that sees him follow through all the way to the mat. Signo was a generic lucha son last I saw him and now he has genuine presence, really knowing how to sell through the mask and act befuddled by fast tecnicos. He does a decent Fuerza bump and runs some nice base sequences with the tecnicos. But this was Metalico's game. The Coliseo crowd is perfect for a guy like him and really my preferred lucha venue. There's something big missing from Arena Mexico ever since they put up the ringside barrier. Imagine Rush with the benefit of fans being right at ringside. Imagine how less fun Hector Garza would have been in 2006 with a ring barrier up. He wouldn't have been able to fall into all the old ladies and pretty girls. Metalico is real good at crowd work and I think the closeness of the Coliseo crowd plays off that nicely. We need more Coliseo stuff showing up. I miss it.



*Pretty sure Loco Max isn't dead

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 2: Euforia, Nosferatu, Virus vs. Brillante, Leono, Stuka Jr.

2007-05-11 @ Arena México
Euforia, Nosferatu, Virus vs. Brillante, Leono, Stuka Jr.

Now we've got Brilliante/Sombra in CMLL proper, albeit very early in the card and still in his original gimmick. The mask had developed more almost into a negative of the Sombra mask. Euforia is 40 now. I hadn't realized that. Nor had I realized that Virus more or less headed up the post-Satanico Infernales. Someone should do an infographic mapping out the connections between Los Infernales/Hijo del Infierno/Guerreros del Infierno/etc. I haven't seen Leono in a while but he's still opening up on Arena Mexico cards.

This was a pretty good opening style match. The tecnicos were tecnicos. The rudos were rudos. Structure was rudos swarming in the middle of the primera exchanges, tecnicos coming back to win the fall, rudos taking back over in the segunda, and the tecnicos coming back in the tercera but ultimately getting cut off for a rudo win. The little wrinkles were appreciated. The pace of the primera was great and the heat, though short, felt weighty enough.

The rudo trio was pretty solid here. Virus directed traffic like he was the heir to Satanico. They didn't linger long in any single portion of the match but it still felt like they did a lot of stuff. Some of it was good, like the double clothesline/German that ended the segunda:

Some was less good like this mess of a contrived flip up, flip down, clothesline double team:

And Stuka was younger and more spry too. I promise that this is only a little sped up:

And the big question: how did Sombra look? Promising. He looked promising. He had a lot more to do than in the earlier match I saw him in. I think the fans were hesitant to cheer him as he was still very green, but there was potential. Some of his execution was still getting there. This monkey flip didn't entirely work:

He took a bit of extra effort to turn around on this rana, but followed it up with a really nice dropkick and then this goofy get stuck in the ropes thing he seemed to be doing at this time as his signature dive fake:

So there were cracks that I think the fans did pick up on, but he played his role well enough and was starting to come up with some signature spots. He was developing, but I think was slightly limited by the interchangable, flying tecnico gimmick as Brilliante.

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2013 Lucha Roundup

Polvora v. Titan CMLL 1/1

Not really my kind of lucha, as this was pretty much just young guys throwing out all of there spots. Still this was a singles match which got some time, and some of the spots were pretty crazy. All the second caida stuff around the ramp was nuts, as was Titan's tope to Polvora's back. CMLL is going have this kind of match and this isn't a bad version of it.

Leono/Tigre Blanco v. Bobby Zavala/Disturbio CMLL 1/1

I liked this a bunch, four guys given a shot to have a hair match in Arena Mexico and they left it all on the mat. Really liked the rudos they were both really aggressive, bumped huge and eat all of the technicos offense. Liked Zavala's chops a bunch, he threw them in a different way, big dives and some real drama with out overkill like the title match. Would like to see all of these guys get more chances

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report, 10/15/11

1. Pequeno Halcon/Aereo vs. Pequeno Universo 2000/Mercurio:

A bunch of minis who rarely make TV, I really like the two rudos though. Mercurio and Universo bump around great for the bland tecnico offense, especially Univero. He adds an extra snap to all the little armdrags and other things that could look really lifeless otherwise. Mercurio hits a boss corkscrew plancha and there isn't too much to this, all empty calories but it goes down super smooth. Suddenly 20 minutes goes by and you don't remember much of what happened, but nothing offended you and you had a good time.



2. Leono/Molotov/Trueno vs. Bronco/Rayo Tapatio I/Rayo Tapatio II:

Yes! The Tapatios finally back on my TV screen. This was like a throwback match to LATV a year ago, where they would just throw on these heatless openers with fun rudos who never make TV. This was from a Fan Appreciation show so the crowd is heated and it rocks. Los Rayos and Bronco are great old style rudos who don't do much on offense but they make so-so tecnicos shine and put over their offense wonderfully. The older Rayo is just the best, as he really works like my favorite type of rudo (like an Arkangel or Dinamitas type) who will throw a great back elbow, work the mat, and then take a bunch of armdrags. He blasts Molotov with a back elbow out of the corner that just made me squeal with glee. Bronco is like the Stevie Richards of lucha, as he has zero offense, but is always compelling in matches. All the tecnicos are just fine, but this was a great show for the rudos. I'm glad CMLL throws these guys on TV every so often.



3. Angel de Plata/Fuego/Pegasso vs. Hijo Del Signo/Nosferatu/Raziel:

Theme of the night is solid rudos who know their role. Pegasso kinda bums me out because I always think he's Rey Cometa when I first see him, but Cometa is way better. Pegasso usually hits a decent dive or rana or something, but whatever. Fuego keeps getting TV time and the more I see him, the more I like him. Signo seems like the kind of worker who is guaranteed to never get pushed. All the young fliers get pushed, and he's like a young Cien Caras, which is not what the young women and children want to see these days. I love you though, Signo. Plata hits a big dive, Signo boots dudes in the stomach, business as usual, nothing flashy nothing bad, fun solid 2011 lucha match.



4. Ephesto/Misterioso Jr./Vangelis vs. Angel de Oro/Black Warrior/Metro:

Too short to mean much of anything, but I like all the guys here. Vangelis inspires fans to bring a bunch of Nazi signs to Arena Mexico which is...difficult...to explain to my girlfriend. This just went by so freaking quick that I hardly remember anything in this.



5. Atlantis/Hijo Del Fantasma/La Mascara vs. Mr. Niebla/Ultimo Guerrero/Volador Jr.:

Another super quick match as it goes by in two straight falls, but there is TONS of stuff to see in these quick falls. This was a total Volador showcase as he really makes Mascara work for his tecnico pops. Cuts him realllll low on missed clotheslines and really allows Mascara's spots to have maximum value. Niebla and Ultimo ain't no slouches here either, with Ultimo hitting his awesome butt splash in the corner and Niebla just blasting somebody in the corner with his awesome left hand. Atlantis is really a truly great tecnico as he was just on fire throughout all of this. But still, Volador, people. Volador. His timing is expert and he carries himself like a total superstar. It's hard not to get into everything that this guy does. He's like the best possible version of rudo Mistico. So yeah, super short match, nothing MOTY worthy, but there's tons of good stuff here crammed into a tiny amount of time.

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