Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 4/18/15

We flash forward to their most recent show which is cool, this is from the 2/28/15 show in San Francisco. I have attended a few of their SF shows in the past, but this card really didn't do much for me on paper. Last year Timothy Thatcher was on the card in a singles match so that got my money. After this card I found out Fuerza worked it (in place of his son, who was announced and billed for well over a month, and shockingly* didn't make the trip) and it really would have been cool to see Fuerza work a high school gym. He seems like the kind of worker who would have some nice stuff to see up close in a high school gym. So hopefully they eventually show that match (and considering they milk every single match on a card so they can turn one card into 8 TV shows, I'm sure they will).

1. Willie Mack & Ultimo Panda vs. Los Luchas (Zokre & Phoenix Star)

Mack has been getting some nice TV time lately, not only through this but obviously Lucha Underground (I would be curious what kind of numbers this show draws. I can't imagine it's much, and it is possible that I'm the one person who DVRs it every week, but I'm curious nonetheless. PWR has not exactly been helpful whenever I've emailed them with questions) and he is a guy I love having on my TV. Crowds dig him as well and here he does a bunch of cool stuff, a guy who has some spectacular spots but also pays tons of attention to making his clotheslines, shoulderblocks and other contact look good. Maybe his best moment here was when Los Luchas were slumped in opposing corners and Mack kept charging back and forth with increasingly nasty avalanches. He kept building up more steam and just really went crashing into both guys. Sadly it seems like PWR always sticks him with Ultimo Panda, who outside of a cute mask brings next to nothing to the table. An amusing gimmick to hide Vinny Massaro cosplaying as a bad worker, which becomes not amusing when he's holding back the best worker on the show. You would think he would end up being hidden more in tags, but more often than not he works more of the match than his partner. Most of his work is shtick, or moves that take way too long to set up. Here he hits a very nice crossbody off the top but my god the set up involved one of Los Luchas holding his hand while he got to the top, and both members just standing there waiting for him to stabilize his balance. The end result only looks good if you turn a blind eye to the previous 10 seconds of men standing around waiting. Los Luchas are a shade under efficient as they never do anything memorable, but they're often put into positions in this fed to not succeed. This fed specializes in "Heel in Peril" tags meaning that the rudos don't often get to rudo, and instead are just constantly put into a loop of taking offense. Los Luchas don't do anything spectacular, but I'm sure they would work up to an occasion. Match itself was fine enough and well worth watching just to see Mack do his thing.





*not shocking to anyone

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 2/28/15

This week we get a match from their 10/4/14 show at the King City fairgrounds. What's odd is this was the main event of the show, and usually this promotion milks every single match on their cards, showing just one per week and making a 2 hour card last two months. But they almost always show the main event last, going through all the undercard matches first. So it's curious that the first King City match we get is the main.

1. Juventud Guerrera & Alex Koslov vs. Los Luchas (Phoenix Star & Zokre)

As expected, this was a customary Juventud indy match, where he is on the apron for 80% of the match, doesn't get involved in any situations where he has to sell, just comes in to hit his stuff and pop the crowd, then gets back out. That was expected. The match was odd as there were no real heat segments, yet Los Luchas were supposed to be the rudos (despite not really doing anything rudo-ish). So Koslov was the FIP but was never really in that much danger, and worked fairly even with Los Luchas. Juvy tagged himself in and at this point he kind of works like Rey after his 14th knee surgery, except without taking bumps. His stuff in ring looked good, threw some really nice kicks and ran some quick exchanges, but it was clear and at times pretty obvious he didn't really want to bump or practically leave his feet. At one point he hip tosses one of Los Luchas over the top to the floor, then does the same to the other, tossing him into his partner. Then he teases a dive, but doesn't dive. Then he gets out onto the apron, but doesn't dive. He did do a really great crossbody off the top in ring, but it did seem like most of the time he was actively trying to not leave his feet. It's an interesting workaround and a testament to the skills he still has, that he can still be engaging while also being lazy. Alex Koslov was fine enough here, although not doing tons to stand out. His forearms were much tighter than Los Luchas, which again made the FIP section not great since he seemed to regularly overpower LL. This was pretty much the match you would expect.

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