Found Footage Friday: IWRG RETRO 1996~!

IWRG Retro 46 1996

Cassandra/Indomable/Chiola vs. Princesa Dorada/Julisa/Irma Aguilar

MD: You always spend some of these matches just figuring out who you're looking at. I'm no expert on 1996 IWRG luchadoras. Thankfully we had names on screen on the way out. The pairings are Indomable/Irma, Cassandra/Dorada, and Chola/Julisa.It's hard to say too much about any single wrestler here but Indomable hit hard and got hit hard against both Irma and Dorada. Julisa and Chola had some slick (or at least quick) rope running. The primera, in general, had a lot of simple and straightforward matwork n the first two pairings but everything felt like a struggle.

Cassandra stood out the most to me probably. She had a mask with the open hair and a unique look and really played to the crowd a lot. At the start of the segunda she wanted a handshake and when she didn't get it, she shook the ref's hand and give him a big hug instead. The primera was pairings with everything breaking down at the end. The segunda had a lot more in and outs. Sometimes it got a little too chaotic maybe and lost focused and it never settled down to a rudo beatdown and comeback. Instead, it built to a bunch of goofy (in a fun way) rope running where everyone got in there at once and some big tandem spots. Occasionally along the way you got ruda miscommunication. This felt better than the sum of its parts, honestly. At times it was a little rough around the edges but that didn't hurt the entertainment quota overall even if I could have used just a little more heat.

Mini Cochesse/Mini Andy Barrow vs. Mini Flashito/Mini Konnan

MD: Andy Barrow was The Killer's facepaint clad manager who became a rudo himself and this was a mini version of him. I can't say I'm super familiar but I sort of want to be now? I should ask Tom K about him. ANYWAY. This was his mini and this was pretty good. The rudos had no problem bumping, with Barrow sliding out of the ring over and over and Cochesse taking a crazy flight to nowhere through the ropes. They were solid in the beatdowns too though there was one Doomsday Device which seemed to go away afield. 

Flashito had some very nice and interesting stuff and Konnan was beloved by the kids. He also finished a caida with a nasty liontamer-esque standing cloverleaf. Flashito had a great press up dive to set the stage for the finish of the match, clearing the ring for Konnan to get a rana to end it. This hit a lot of the marks you would have wanted it to.

Kato Kung Lee/Tony Rivera/Torero vs. Los Oficiales (Oficial/Guardia/Vigilancia)

MD: A lot of fun and more heated than I expected coming in. The tecnico side was a joy actually. Kato Kung Lee has all of his super stylized faux karate stuff. Rivera has a lot of tricked out stuff including this great trip out of nowhere. And Torero has the bullfighter gimmick and most of what he does is play into that in the best sort of Rayo way. He had them charging at his red flag before the match. They clowned Los Oficiales pretty well during the primera.

Segunda went as you'd expect with three-on-one beatings. All fairly basic stuff but they controlled the ring and tempo well. Surprisingly, Rivera bled and they worked the wound a bit. That led to the big comeback in the tercera. A little bit of miscommunication set up the dives, but they twisted it where they caught each tecnico one after the next and then dragged things down until a rudo beatdown DQ (I think at least). It's always a little tough without the crowd noise but you can imagine how it went given how they worked this one. 

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Found Footage Friday: IWRG RETRO~! LAWLER VS DUNDEE~! INOUE~! RUSHER~! EIGEN~! OKUMA~!

Mighty Inoue/Rusher Kimura vs. Haruka Eigen/Motoshi Okuma AJPW 11/20/90

MD: We've covered the Andre match from this show but it's pretty overlooked otherwise. I'll go through most of it in the weeks to come. It was right during the RWTL and weirdly we have a chunk of HHs from this month so we get to see a lot of the different pairings. This match was not actually part of it, I think, as Inoue and Kimura were in it but Okuma an Eigen weren't. One fun thing about this, however, is because Baba was in the RWTL with Andre, these aren't the usual six mans. That means that all other non-Baba parties get more chance to shine and show individual personality. 

For instance, this match is all about Eigen and Eigen's pretty great in it. It starts with handshakes, and Eigen goes so far to bow to Rusher (drawing light applause) before smacking him in the face (popping the crowd big). He then dashes out of the ring and raises his hands in victory. Then, right as he was about to lock up with Inoue, Eigen turns and smacks Rusher off the apron before running away and raising his hand in victory once more. Then, once they've isolated Inoue and Okuma has him in an armbar, Eigen runs across the apron to stand on the top and taunt Rusher and after a tag and a double chop, he dashes across the ring to smack him again, drawing him in so they can double team Inoue some more. Just great heatseeking from a place not known for it. 

The initial comeback is Inoue slipping around to hit a belly to back on Okuma, so when Rusher comes in, he can't get his hands on Eigen. Then, they take over on Rusher so the gratification of it all is even more delayed. Okuma's fun in here, running all the headbutt spots with Rusher, even as they're beating him down, but this is Eigen's show, right up to the point where Inoue holds his leg as he's trying to come off the top on Rusher and he gets everything that was coming to him (which means he does his big trademark spit spot on the apron as Inoue and then Rusher and then Inoue smacks him in the chest). What an underrated jerk. 

Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee Memphis Power Hour 2/25/06

MD: This is a four and a half minute segment but we're contractually obligated to watch all Lawler vs Dundee matches and this was a fun three minutes which could have been an uproarious ten if they gave it the time. It's 62 year old Dundee vs 56 year old Lawler, who happens to be wearing these triple high Stacks boots. They work about two minutes based around the boot, Dundee having the fans mock him, Lawler mocking the even more severe height difference, Dundee selling a kick like death, Lawler falling on his ass with an over the top trip by Dundee. They could have milked this forever and it would have been endlessly funny, but after a few minutes they play to the interference and the match gets thrown out. At least Dundee got to punch Lawler a lot and trip him again though. Very much 1990 heel Lawler with a different gimmick every week but that probably felt refreshing in 2006. It's just a shame there was only a couple of minutes of this.

Freelance/Tortuguillos I y II vs. Los Oficiales (AK47, Fierro y 911) IWRG (Retro) 11/10/2007

MD: This is from the 4/6 IWRG Retro, which fell through the cracks due to being around Mania, I think. There's another match on there we'll cover later. This was one fall by design but also by necessity. We start out with Tortuguillo Azul and 911 and they have some loose but flowing matwork. There's some of that anticipation where they end up where they should be a half second too early (especially 911), but it all comes off like baiting our turtle friend in by the end with the next counter, so it's ine. We get just a bit from Fierro and Tortuguillo Rojo and that's quite a bit more struggle laden. Before we can even get to Freelance and AK47 though, it all breaks down with the rudo swarm. AK47 decides it's a good idea to do the Sid style leaping kick off the apron to the floor. This is pretty horrific mistake as it was for Sid a few years earlier and that's the last we see him for the match.

Los Oficiales are good at pressing their advantage, however, and Freelance is very good at reaching for the ceiling while eating a double back body drop. They make short work of the the Turtles without much incident even being down one partner. Maybe if that hadn't been the case there would have been a spirited tecnico comeback, but as it was, this was a pretty satisfying mauling. 911's crane kick stylings and clumsy fall off the top splash weren't nearly as good as Fierro's way of asserting himself with his size and power but combined they were better than the sum of their parts. Hopefully AK47 was ok.

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Black Terry Sang A Song as he Rode, His Guns Hung on his Hips

Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro/Veneno v. Oficial 911/Oficial AK47/Tony Rivera IWRG 3/9/14 - GREAT

Old fashioned IWRG brawl with an especially heated focus on Terry v. Rivera. Rivera jumps him coming into the ring and they spend the whole match beating on each other and bleeding, with Rivera posting him and making him bleed, Terry smashing Rivera with the lid of the beer cooler, and Rivera wasting him with a tope. Veneno bleeds too, although mostly wanders around Baba chopping people. More cameo performances from the Oficiales and Cererbo, although the good Doctor did whip out an awesome looking bullet tope. Didn't reach the heights of the brawling trios of yesteryear, but this was well worth watching and enjoying.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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2013 Lucha Roundup

Chico Che/Dinamic Black/Saurman v. Niko/Dave the Clown/Rothen Clown IWRG 3/3

About as bad a Chico Che match as your are going to get. Your fake Psycho Circus are really bad, brawling stinks, they are in the wrong place a lot and can't even seem to catch basic offense, Saruman almost dies as one of the clowns doesn't catch him on a tope and he flies into the seats awkwardly. Chico Che does some Chico Che stuff and there is one fun spot where Dinamic Black topes a clown while he was holding a midget, but this sucked.

Angel v. Trauma 2 v. Oficial 911 IWRG 3/3

3 way section

TV Version of mask match (with finish missing)

HH version of the last 5 minutes with finish shown

This was better then last weeks very good and violent 3 way, although a step below a truly elite match. 3 way part was a bit wanting, had some fun violent parts, this was a match full of nasty stomps to the head by all three guys, but I thought the 911 v. Angel part was a little draggy. This didn't need 911 and they should have gone for the straight mask match. The one on one portion was pretty gruesome and great. Angel is a damn good brawler, as everything he threw was violent and nasty. El Angel braining T2 with the bottle is lunatic, and I really like the Fujiwaraish way T2 catches him when he goes for another bottle shot. Still they didn't have nearly enough time to square off mano v. mano for this to go down in history. Well worth checking out though

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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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Black Terry Grew Up Quick and He Grew Up Mean, His Fist Got Hard and His Wits Got Keen

Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro/Cerebro Negro v. Los Officiales v. Freelance/Gemelos Fantasticos v. Trauma I/Trauma II/Zatura IWRG 4/2/09 - FUN

PAS: Total train wreck and a total blast. 12 guys just throwing it all at the wall, some stuff isn't hit cleanly, but there is more great shit then you can demand. This is the kind of shit Freelance is made for, and he is just flying around the ring with abandon, he does three dives into the crowd, each crazier then the last, and is just constantly diving into the ring ranaing the fuck out of dudes. Officiales looked great here, as they ate all of Freelances stuff well, and did I nice job covering for some of the lesser lights (the less I say about the Gemelos the better) Terry is great too, but this was a little chaotic for him to be at his best. This week goes to Freelance.

TKG: Yeah this was a wreck. The whole concept of elimination trios match where you can tag anyone else into the ring is almost TNA level stupid. Hey its two twins forced to wrestle each other in an elimination match, isn’t that clever? Dumb. You also had a couple of awkward Zatura v Freelance sections where both guys looked like they need a rudo. Some spectacular looking Freelance highspots. Plus you get the Zatura “Hey I’m in a match with Freelance I have to do even crazier out of control dives and possibly injure myself” stuff that you get when those two are in a match together. A fun clusterfuck but a dumb match.

Black Terry/Cerebro Negro/Fantasma De La Opera v. Negro Navarro/Trauma I/Trauma II IWRG 7/9/09 - GREAT

TKG: It’s been a while since we’ve seen this type of full on Black Terry match. The Cerebros are enough of a solid unit that Terry can often times take a back seat.The Fantasma/Terry/Cerebro Negro unit is less polished as a unit and Terry fully takes over directing traffic, bumping attacking, always the center of the match. In many of the matches in 09 Terry’s seemed to be a step below what he was in 08. But this is the full on Black Terry show. Pre match Terry says he wants to test the new title holder Trauma II and the match is all about the match up between Terry and both Trauma II and the match up between Terry and Navarro. All that Cerebro Negro and Fantasma need to do is keep Trauma 1 busy while Terry does the rest. First fall involves the heels triple teaming to pin both Truamas. It’s problematic fall, in that you don’t really buy the Fantasma/Cerebro Negro attacks as having taken Navarro out of the match allowing for the triple teams on the kids. I don’t know to what degree that’s the fault of Fantasma/Cerebro Negro’s lack of credibility and what is the way Navarro is unconvincing bumping and eating their stuff. Probably a little of both. Fantasma doesn’t know how to eat Trauma I’s finisher, and while I really liked his heavyweight face off with I, it felt like he worked his faceoff with II exactly the same way. But the point of match was to keep the attention away from Cerebro Negro/Fantasma and Trauma I and let Terry do his thing. And Terry did his thing and was awesome facing off with Navarro and Trauma II. And you leave this match actively wanting to see a Trauma II v Terry match and worrying that Trauma II may be out of his league.

PAS: The Traumas have been on quite a run in the last couple of months, but man when the team with their dad, you see the difference. This is bad ass brawling Navarro, he is pissed at Fuerza talking shit, and he comes out like a B-movie hero who has been pushed too far. Terry is such a great foil to that kind of fury, as he is much more of a B-movie villain, a tough guy, with tough backup, but fundamentally lacking the moral authority of our hero. I love all of the hierarchy stuff these tags do so well, and Terry v. Trauma II could be incredible if they run it.

Black Terry/Chico Che/Dr. Cerebro v. Avisman/Hijo del Diablo/Gringo Loco IWRG 3/7/10 - EPIC

TKG: The booking to add Chico Che to this feud was super smart and really well executed. Adding a tecnico to this feud totally changes the dynamics and Chico Che was really the right tecnico. The feud went form being a rudo v rudo feud (which IWRG is great at running) into a native v foreign team feud (where nationalism unites heels/faces). That change effects the way everyone works. There is a fun vibe that adding a tecnico brings, and you really got the sense that Black Terry/Cerebro were actively enjoying having Chico Che with them. There are these awesome moments where both of them stand back with shit eating grins and direct Chico Che into abusing the foreigners. There is a point where Terry is punching Gringo Loco on the floor and then Chico Che lands a punch of his own on Gringo Loco. Terry lights up “hey you got this, let me do something else”. First fall is mostly Gringos dominated as they leave Cerebro, Terry and Che all bloody, this stretches into the second fall which develops into a real isolate and triple team one guy while keeping other faces away from action fall (except done on the floor instead of in the center of ring) until the tecnicos see an error and take advantage bloodying Avisman and Diablo and then a third fall which starts with tecnicos beating rudos in one on one exchanges (with Che beating the shit out of Avisman on floor, Cerebro really laying into Diablo and Che running through his big spots) back into a section where rudos try to remount control. Part of what makes this kind of classic lucha fight work is that there are not a lot of changes in momentum. Just long periods of one sided action where both teams look strong (for both dishing and eating beating). I imagine if you were to watch this match with a stop watch and a calculator, the heels would have taken more than 75% of the offense in a match where the heels win clean. But this is the furthest thing from a competitive squash. Part of that is the selling which is all about guys toughing it out by taking a giant beating waiting out an opening Chico Corrales style. When it works it works and here it really worked. The actual match finish with everyone but Diablo and Cerebro taken out by dives and Diablo reversing a rana into a desnucadora/slam was also a super cool clean finish that still left you wanting more.

PAS: Man was this filmed spectacularly. This is a gruesome gritty fight, and pretty much every camera shot looked like the cover of a 1987 issue of Wrestling Eye. Black Terry his great exhausted beaten bloody facial expressions. He looks like William Munney at the end of Unforgiven. This is a match with six great performances, Gringo Loco is on fire, beating people, bleeding and taking one of the craziest corner post bumps I have ever seen. It is the kind of thing Cassandro would wince at. Diablo is also great as kind of the rudo glue. He has been in a million seedy Tijuana brawls in his career and this kind of thing is right in his wheelhouse. Then we have Chico Che continuing his June '09 to June '10 run as one of the five best wrestlers in the world. He is just stupendous in this match, as the victim and the deliverer of beatings, and his signature rope running is a little bit of beauty in the ugly.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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IWRG 2/18/10

http://www.youtube.com/user/tvluchadelpasado

IWRG on Segunda Caida

Guizmo/Heros v. Carta Brava Jr./Alan Extreme

TKG: Yuck. This was a mess. There were a couple moments of nice Heros underdog selling, a couple moments of nice Carta Brava Jr stiffness ( and even that occasionally looked ill timed), and the Guizmo top rope rana set up and eat was cool. But everything else was a mess. Guizmo and Alan Extreme never seemed to click. They had this one chop exchange where the two would do bigger and bigger wind ups only to hit weaker and weaker chops. And Carta Brava Jr was either standing around arms out 30 seconds too early to catch stuff or out of place 30 seconds too late.

PAS: I actually thought Heros was actively good in this, really enjoyed his opening Carta Brava Jr. matwork, liked his dives, thought he took some nasty shots. Still his perfectly fine performance was overshadowed by the crappiness of Alan Extreme and Guizmo. Yikes were they a mess, lots of their exchanges had that 3/4th speed pre match run through feeling to them. Like when we got to see them do it later at regular speed it was going to be fine. Alan Extreme did hit his Matt Sydal clothesline well, and had a decent Orihara moonsault, but otherwise this was probably his worst performance.

Trauma II/Avisman/Gringo Loco v. Brazo Metalico Jr/Fishman Jr./Chico Che

TKG:I don’t seem to see a part one to the first fall here. So we only get the last minute of the first fall where Chico Che looks to legit fuck Avisman up with a face slam. Second fall starts with Chico Che running through all the heels in succession. It's Chico Che and that's always fun to watch. Then Trauma II comes in with his fast hands and works over Fishman Jr. And pretty much that’s the whole match. Trauma II spends the next two falls just destroying Fishman Jr and Brazo Metalico Jr. An absolute beatdown. Just roughing both guys up. I am assuming Fishman Jr isn’t the Fishman Jr who became Blackfish. Fishman Jr has a real lumbering moose-like awkwardness to him that made his mauling seem even nastier. The maulking was so thorough that I have a hard time calling the eventual face comeback a comeback. Barely even a moral victory. Chico Che kind of gets in a comeback. Trauma II just backs away from the faces while they appear to be on a potential roll then just returns to beating them, Metalico Jr asai’s himself on the ring barrier and Trauma II and Fishman Jr. have a post match pull apart brawl where Trauma II looks to block all of Fishman’s shots.

PAS: There is some pretty nasty beatings laid down by Avisman and Loco too, both top rope moves which finish the second fall looked like they landed in injurious ways. Avisman also lays in some nasty short headbutts. This was Trauma II's show. In DC their is a pair of very good pro prospect fighters the Peterson brothers, Anthony and Lamont (one of the guys I trained with actually got matched up with Anthony in his first ever amateur bout, it didn't go well). They have a pretty compelling story growing up homeless and basically being adopted by their trainer, and largely because of that story they have been on a ton of ESPN and HBO fight cards. The Traumas remind me of the Peterson brothers, Trauma I is like Anthony a bigger bruiser who uses power and force to beat on someone, Trauma II is more like Lamont, he uses speed, angles and combination punching to lay his opponent out. The Puncher and the Boxer, this was a pretty masterful Boxing performance by II.

Los Officiales v. El Angel/Angelico/Freelance

PAS: This match had some moments of excellence mixed in with some real moments of crap. Freelance is spectacular as usual, looking really good in the brawling sections, and breaking out some spectacular highspots. Two crazy dives including a rana which sent Fierro flying into a bunch of fans. He looked really, really sharp here, and I hope he gets some more chances to showcase himself. Angel and Angelico however are a different matter, we have talked a ton about Angelico's shittiness, but there is a section near the end where he rips off his big offense which nearly made me cover my eyes in embarrassment. El Angel was pretty bad too, this match was a pretty big brawl through out, including AK-47 bleeding badly, and in the third fall Angel starts whipping out his comedy spots. It was just terrible and killed the match dead. Worth watching for Freelance v. Oficiales, but anytime the camera isn't on him, move along.

TKG: No real reason to move along. Given the tecnicos there were suprsingly few“moments of crap”. This is a 25+ minute match with both Angelico and El Angel where the only time I cringed was in that last minute and a half Angelico run. And this is the best Angel has looked in his IWRG run thus far, and probably the longest Angelico has been kept from embarrassing himself in a trios match. I mean Oficiales have been doing matches opposite Freelance and two schmucks for over two years now and they have this formula down. Watching this I did get the sense that Freelance deserves better. IWRG has a bunch of neat rudo teams: Traumas/Dinastia Navarro, Terribles Cerebros, Jr. Piratas. Ola Maldita, Gringos VIP, hell I’m sure I’m going to enjoy the Comandantes de La Muerte too. IWRG will move rudos around for matches but these guys have team affiliation. But your faces (Freelance, Chico Che, Zatura, Suicida) are kind of thrown around willy nilly. Freelance deserves a regular partner.

Hijo Del Pantera/La Pantera/Zatura v. Trauma I/Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro

PAS: Merciful Mother of Fuck is Black Terry awesome in this match. This was pretty much a three fall brawl, and I don't know if there is a better brawler in the world. He is just kicking everyones ass here. There was a moment in the first fall where he is faced off with Pantera and yells something at him and just cracks him with a headbut. It was a total barfight move. There is also a great point in the post match, Zatura is protecting a downed Hijo Del Pantera and Black Terry lifts his had as if to say "OK the match is over, we are good" and then he just sneak shots Zatura in the chops. I am reading a biography of Gene Tunney and Terry reminds me of the Pittsburgh Windmill Harry Greb. Greb was the master of dirty fighting, he is described as a guy talented enough to win cleanly but his temperament caused him to take every advantage in the ring. That is how Terry felt to me here. For this kind of brawl, Trauma I is a way better third rudo then Hijo Del Signo, he is such a nasty bruiser and totally the guy you would want watching your back in this kind of bar fight.

TKG: This was a blast. Pantera is a guy who normally does lots of Walking Tall selling, here he did more Dusty beat down struggling to walk tall selling. He constantly had this “what the hell did I do to deserve this” look on his face. After he had already been isolated and triple teamed in the ring and forced to roll to floor to try to regain composure, Pantera crawls back in a second time to go through whole process again. Pantera’s selling of the whole Sisyphean nature of reentering a brawl after you’ve taken a beating is awesome. I have mixed feelings on the Hijo del Signo v Trauma I question here. This is a superlibre match and yeah you want Trauma I in a no DQ match beating people down. And he did a ok job (although not as impressive as last time) at selling for Hijo Del Pantera’s flying. But there were moments where I though we missed the Hijo del Signo/Hijo Del Diablo “young guys as equals dynamic”. As I had a hard time buying Hijo del Pantera when he wasn’t playing victim role. Pantera trades punches then headbutts and posts Dr Cerebro. And it’s only after that, that Hijo del Pantera gets in his offense run against Cerebro. And Hijo del Pantera as a guy who can only get in cheap shots on a hurt opponent makes for a weird baby face. Oh yeah let me echo Phil here: Merciful Mother of Fuck is Black Terry awesome in this match.

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IWRG 2009 Errata

We wanted to go ahead and put a close on 2009 for IWRG by picking up and reviewing some matches which are floating around Youtube.

Trauma I/II/Negro Navarro v. Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro/Cerebro Negro 3/28

PAS: IWRG ran this series twice in Arena Xochmilco before running it twice in Naculpan. This was the feud of the year in wrestling, four great matches between six great wrestlers. We get a long opening mat section between Terry and Trauma II which was really spectacular stuff. One of the problems with IWRG matwork is that is often worked too even, here Terry is clearly superior, II is able to get some reversals using speed, but Terry is the veteran tooling him. There is this great moment where Trauma II tries to lift Terry and can't execute it because his arm has been shredded. Navarro comes in and does a similar job on Cerebro Negro and it really has the feel of the Maestros punishing the lesser members in an attempt to show the other guy up. I would have liked that to lead to a battle of matwork, but instead those two brawl it out, and goddamn is it spectacular. There is a punch exchange between the two on the floor which rivals your best Todd Morton v. Mitch Ryder exchanges. I really loved the finish too, with Terry stealing the fall, after Trauma II had Dr. Cerebro beat. Perfect example of the crafty rudo always being one step ahead.


TKG: I wrote a lot about the Xochmilco match in my review of the Naucalpan one. And I pretty much stand by what I wrote before. The Naucalpan one was built on mismatches with Terry matching up with Trauma I (weakest matworker in Dinastia Navarro) and Navarro working Cerebro Negro (weakest mat worker in Terribles Cerebros). The Xochimilco match is far evener with the two maestros matched up opposite the two stronger non-maestro members of the opposite team. You still get a sense of it mot being even, but it’s not as stark as in the Naucalapn match, and it doesn’t affect the match flow as much. The Trauma II v Terry match up is really neat as you have Trauma selling the arm to the point where he needs to release a hold, and Terry doing the same with the leg. Terry’s leg sell is a really neat realistic working through a pain sell. This match isn’t as good a match overall compared to the Naucalpan one but you still want to see it just for the Terry v Navarro street fight section.


Trauma I/II/Negro Navarro v. Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro/Cerebro Negro 4/4

PAS: This was your Xochmilco revancha match, and worked as a brawl. They pretty much went after each other head on the entire match. Navarro was amazing here, just brutalizing everyone he was in the ring with. There was a point where he had Terry in the corner and he just unloaded with combos and finished up with a nasty headbutt, great stuff. I liked the rudo trickery, with Black Terry faking a foul to win a fall, and Navarro coming back to rip off the mask of his own son to DQ the rudos. Pretty great brawling by everyone else too, as Trauma II is starting to develop the asskicker which he is unleashing in 2010. I think we only get the last two falls here, which is a shame, but what we get is damn great.

TKG: This is JIP but I still counted three falls. This is an absolute blast. One of the things I picked up rewatching these four matches is that Cerbro Negro really contributes a bunch more in these Xochimilco matches then he did in the Naucalpan series. In Naucalpan he really felt like the third wheel. In Xochimilco he is a blast working almost a Dougie Gilbert type role. He isn’t as tough as Dr Cerebro, or Black Terry but he is a dick who will run in to sneak his shots in, then run away. He bumps around a bunch stoogeing constantly getting caught in the wrong place.


Avisman v. Mike Segura v. Freelance v. Testsi Bushi 7/5

TKG: This was kind of a mess. It is a prison fatal: four man everyone for themselves cage match where after ten minutes the participants are allowed to try to escape and the last guy in looses his hair or mask. I can’t remember Avisman using this many headbutts at any other point this year, as he wastes Freelance with one early on, leans into a Segura headbutt later and throws multiple nasty top of the cage headbutts at another point. I enjoyed any point where Freelance and Avisman were matching up. The other matchups (Freelance v Bushi, Avisman v Bushi, Avisman v Segura, Segura v Bushi, Segura v Freelance) had their moments but weren’t as dynamic. Once the participants were allowed to leave the cage, there were way too many battle royale moments where a guy is just standing around, too many points where guys would inexplicably do dives when they could just as easily climb out, and too many points where guys had to wait or had to get into position to slowly climb (including a point where it looked like Avisman didn’t have the upper body strength to pull himself up on the cage and then miraculously got the upper body strength to suplex Mike Segura).

PAS: Yeah this wasn't good, I don't really like multi man lucha cage matches, it is a match which places real limitations on the guys in it. Avisman can't really work the mat, Freelance and Segura can't fly as much and Bushi can't do what ever he does. Freelance was really the only standout, he takes some huge backdrops, rips off some nice ranas and does a sweet moonsault 3/4ths of the way up the cage. Mostly a mess though with all the problems Tom mentioned.

Avisman v. Trauma II 8/16

TKG: This was disappointing. This is a title match and pretty much three falls of guys working submissions. Trauma II isn’t as crisp or smooth here as he is at other points in the year. First fall starts with Avisman mostly making attempts to tie up Trauma’s leg’s, while Trauma II makes attempts at arm based submissions. Neither gets anywhere that way and Avisman switches to going after Trauma II’s shoulders (one of which is bandaged) and Trauma II switches to going after Avisman’s legs (both guys sell that this is the better strategy). Trauma II wins the first fall with a leg arm and neck cranking submission. Second fall is mostly Avisman whipping out shoulder cranking surfboards while Trauma II occasionally gets in some neck cranking surfboards. Avisman wins the fall with the same knee submission that he used to win the non-title brawl (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GaSm92Dq64) except there it was set up with the Gory bomb on the knees, while here it came out of nowhere. The third fall contiues the neckcrank v shoulder crank thing until Trauma II gets in a big tope. He reinjures his shoulder on the tope. The ringside doctor snaps it back in, which gives Avisman enough time to set up his big tope. He takes Trauma II back into the ring hits him with a Satanico style arm DDT, Fujiwara arm bar and then just cranks and the end is a given. It reads better on paper than it comes across watching it. And while I don’t want to say the match was formless, at times it seemed really directionless and rhythmless.

PAS: I liked this a lot more then Tom, this wasn't as good as either Avisman v. Bushi or Trauma II v. Zatura but it wasn't far behind. Your first two falls strictly mat work but that is what you want these two guys to do. I liked how you had more counter wrestling, with guys finding ways out of submissions. I also like how as Trauma's shoulder got worse he had to attempt more rope breaks. You normally don't see that kind of body part selling in a lucha match, but Trauma did a great job getting over the deterioration of the shoulder. I thought the finish was bad ass, with the young guy making the mistake of going for a tope, and the veteran viciously going after the opening. I admit the execution was slightly off for parts of the match, but I thought this was really great and one of the better matches of 2009

Ultraman Jr./Hijo Del Lizmark/Zatura v Oficiales 11/12

TKG: 2009 was a weird year for the Oficiales All three have had individually impressive performances, but as a unit they haven’t done a ton this year. Part of the reason for that is the other major teams in IWRG have been Terrible Cerebros, Dinastia Navarro and Jr Piratas who are all really guys who work outside of the basic Oficial formula. Here though it’s Oficiales working their match: Oficiales vs. three guys with some hot highflying moves. The Oficiales may not know how to fill time to highlight what the Trauma’s bring to the table but they can do this match in their sleep: Oficiales beat up faces, Oficiales then bump and fly around for face offense, then Oficiales catch face dives.

PAS: This was a bunch of fun, Zatura is awesome, but neither other technico is much, but when the Oficiales are on their grind it really doesn't matter. They are just so good at working this basic lucha formula. I do think that 2009 exposed them a bit, they really can't stretch, but I would be fine seeing them work a bunch of highflyers every week all year. Zatura was a freight train in 2009, at the beginning of the year I was calling for them to dump him and find someone else to team with Chico Che and Freelance, by the end of the year he was a top 5 guy in IWRG which is pretty incredible. He did his thing here, crazy ranas, great quebrada into the stands, just looked like a total package.

Also for some reason Telfortuna showed the undercard of the Nov 11th show

Carta Brava Jr/Hijo del Signo v Mascara Magnifica/Star Boy

TKG: I really dug this. We already know that Starboy and Carta Brava Jr match up well, but Hijo del Signo and Mascara Magnifica really stepped it up here as well. Hijo Del Signo and Magnifica work a fun first fall mat section where every sub attempt is reversed into a takedown, (leglock turned into leg scissors takedown, arm lock is turned into armdrag etc.) Hijo del Signo really launches himself across the ring eating armdrags.. Second fall was all about Mascara Magnifica selling like he was Misawa. He does nasty SuperCalo style skull first eat of a Signo clothesline, which is followed up by a giant swing into a dropkick to his dome, followed by a double backcracker where his arms are crossed around his neck. Mascara Magnifica ate all this and sold in away that made me totally buy “that guy just had his spinal column broken”. Later he did one of the better sells of a dropkick to the inner thighs. His offense in the third fall wasn’t as cool as his selling in the second but this was still a match well worth seeing.

PAS: I wasn't in love with either Star Boy or Carta Brava Jr. in this match, but El Hijo Del Signo is becoming one of my favorite IWRG undercarders to watch. He doesn't do anything spectacular, but he does everything very solid, eats things well, has nice offense. Magnifica selling and bumping was really awesome, but his offense wasn't much. I really like IWRG undercard wrestlers

Flor Metalica/Josseline v La Diabolica/Lady Metal

TKG: LADY METAL~!!! I haven’t seen Lady Metal in ages, and she’s one of my favorite luchadoras: stiff, big bumping butch ruda with a mullet and light mustache. Essentially the story of the match was Josseline and Flor Metalica are too tough girls who are being beaten into La Diabolica and Lady Metal’s gang. And you have three falls mostly built around the rudas beating and humiliating the tecnicas leading to a third fall of tecnica fighting spirit where they show their toughness by New Japan selling clotheslines and answering in kind. A couple awkward moments; Lady Metal blows her Halloween chest first baseball slide bump (although taking it knee first may be even more nasty) and Flor Metalica really shouldn’t try springboard moves, but otherwise this delivered exactly what it was supposed to deliver.

PAS: Total cosigning this match. Great shit, nasty little fight. It felt like a barfight in an El Paso Dykes on Bikes bar. There is a point where Diabolica is on top of Josseline and she is grabbing her by her hair and smashing the back of her head against the mat. Diabolica is a monster here, awesome devil mask, crazy bumps and vicious brawling, she was like a distaff 1989 Pirata Morgan. Lady Metal was great too, she looks like Cagney and Lacey era Tyne Daley and will kick a bitches ass. Technicas bring the fight right back, and I enjoyed this more then any ladies match in years.

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IWRG 5/28/09

After being oppressed by the fascist Viacom Yotube stormtroopers Roberto has come storming back with a new youtube account and reloaded the IWRG for us

http://www.youtube.com/user/LuchaLibreNation

This is the first show of 2009 without either of your legendary maestros Terry and Navarro, so we get to see what the youngsters can do.

Vampiro Metálico & Carta Brava Jr. VS Galactik & Máscara Magnífica

PAS: These are four of your most solid opener guys, and this was a darn good little match. Brava Jr. and Metalico have a bunch of nifty double teams. They are both great at finding inventive ways to backcrack and frontcrack their opponents, which is a huge part of current lucha. The technicos were a bit vanilla, but they ate everything well and I liked an early Galactik rope running section.

TKG: Week two of me enjoying Vampiro Metalico’s “innovative” spots. He’s a lot more backcrackerish this week but still he has a nice way of getting over the innovative stuff without it being elaborate or show offy. Carta Brava is really solid and a bunch of steps above Metalico when it comes to crispness and polish. The two are a real nice pairing and instead of working the segunda tag format where each guy pairs off with one face, they do more of an almost US tag with both guys getting shots at both faces, lots of quick tags cutting off the ring, low blows behind refs back, keeping face tag partner out of ring etc. And this really felt like a match that if it took place in a US indy against Generico/ Fire Ant would get a ton of pimping. Galaktik and Mascara Magnifica are better than Generico or Fire Ant but it’s lucha so neither of the faces do real sympathy baby face selling during what essentially amounts to a FIP section, and although both faces do angry Robert Gibson on apron being kept out of ring sections…neither do fired up hot tag when they enter ring. Fun second match.

Angelico, Chico Ché, Freelance VS Capitán Muerte, Durango Kid, Tetsuya Bushi

PAS: I have talked before about how IWRG really needs a good third technico for the Freelance and Chico Che team, well Angelico is very much not that guy. Angleico looks kind of like Jeff Spicoli, while he might be a very light skinned Mexican, he really felt like a random Texas indy dude who figured that an IWRG run would help him get into CZW or something. The match opens with Angelico and Bushi doing a long mat exchange, and it was as bad as you might expect an All Japan rookie and a fake Marek Brave doing ras de lone segment would be. When Angelico stands up he basically does a bunch of poorly executed Low-Ki spots, his kicks and knees looked like a guy doing a poor CM Punk imitation of a poor KENTA imitation. Freelance was in this match, and he is consistantly awesome, there was an awesome section where Durango Kid is seeing how high he can launch him with backdrops and monkey flips, which ends with him throwing Freelance into the fourth row with a somersault plancha. Worth watching for that stuff, but not a good match.

TKG: I don’t know if Chico Che and Freelance really need a good third technico so much as they need to be the captains. I really liked Chico Che’s sections with everyone, and enjoyed Freelance’s sections with everyone as well (especially loved all the Freelance v Captain Muerte stuff). This would have probably been a good match if it was structured for either Che or Freelance to be captain. But for some reason instead of having Angelico and Durango Kid work ancillary roles, they were booked as the team captains. They announce Angelico as being from Spain and he looks like he’s working some sort of ridiculous Russell Brand gimmick. I can’t believe that he’s supposed to be a face, I mean he doesn’t look like he’s working a BXB Hulk gimmick so much as a parody of BXB Hulk gimmick. One announcer starts talking about how visually Angelico reminds him of British wrestler Steve Wright who he saw tour Mexico in the seventies “ and have great matches with Rene Guajardo and Karloff Lagarde”… and now I’m even more pissed that I’m stuck watching this turd. I have no idea why Phil harped on the piss poor opening mat work instead of the match finish run between Angelico and Durango Kid. Last week I wrote that “ I think Durango Kid is the La dojo guy who taught lucha to Rocky Romero and Alex Koslov but I’m not going to hold that against him”. This week I’m holding it against him as that finish section really felt like it was put together by a guy who was “taught lucha” by Rocky Romero and Alex Koslov.

Diva Salvaje, Goleador, Miss Gaviota VS Avisman, Fantasma de la Ópera, Xibalva

PAS: I have been consistently enjoying these exotico matches, even though I can't say any of them are actually any good. A spirited little heavyweight brawl with Goleador showing some nice athleticism (and didn't really show the matching awkwardness). I wonder if Diva Salvaje is Bestia's gay younger brother, he definitely has all of Bestia's Guapo good looks.

TKG: Last week I described the team working the Exoticos as “the rudo team at best is Carta Brava Jr who is really solid if unspectacular and at worse is Xibabla who is really mediocre but competent. Somewhere in between those two lies Avisman who can be completely hit or miss” This week they replaced Carta Brava with Fantasma de La Opera. Like Brava he is a really super solid rudo but Fantasma is flashier. He brawls a little rougher and has a bunch of really nasty unprotected throws which he hasn’t really figured out how to integrate into his match. They often come out of nowhere and can feel out of place. This week Xibalva looked even shittier than last week and Avisman didn’t have Freelance to work against (he had some nice mat sections and running sections with Goleador but also some awful strike/brawling stuff). But the rudo star was Fantasma de La Opera. You take a guy who doesn’t know how to incorporate his dangerous throws into his big matches and you put him in a match with two trannies and soccer mascot and suddenly the inappropriateness of his offense comes across as deliberate heelish jerk move.


Los Oficiales VS Traumas & Zatura

PAS: Tremendous match, as good with the best stuff we have seen from IWRG this year. Really a battle of captains with 911 and Trauma II just going at it. The match opens with a really long mat battle between the two. They aren't as smooth as Navarro, but make up for it with a lot more countering then you normally see in IWRG, there was an especially awesome Trauma II counter of a tapitia. We also get a big showdown between 911 and II at the end with both guys getting some pretty great near falls, before the clean finish. Everyone else played their roles well too, Trauma I has improved a lot, he is still the weaker guy, but he doesn't drag the match down as he has in the past, Zatura isn't much outside of nice dives, but he had an awesome dive, and your other Oficiales were bumping all over the ring. It is pretty great to see IWRG put something together this good, without any of the superworkers, and makes me even more excited to see what else they will do this year.


TKG: Phil is way overselling this. This is the best match we’ve seen from the Officiales in 09. This is a title match which is their bread and butter. They don’t get to eat that many fancy aerial moves here but they can do more complicated mat stuff with the Truamas then they could with Multifaceto/Pendulo. I think this match was also helped a bunch by having Trauma II work captain instead of Zatura. I enjoyed the Trauma II v 911 stuff and liked the way 911 upped the stiffness which Trauma II answered by upping the speed. But oddly my favorite performer here was AK -47. He has probably had the most impressive performances of the Officiales in 09. This was the best Trauma 1 has looked to me and a lot of that had to do with matching him up opposite AK-47 (the powerhouse off the Officiales). Trauma 1 always comes across somewhat awkward and his mat section with AK-47 was awkward. But it worked as you weren’t watching him try to work a Urijah Faber style featherweight smooth quick exchanges but instead more of a Brad Imes deliberate hard lumbering heavyweight exchanges. AK-47 gets caught in the first fall and submits to a super slick Trauma II sub. Part of why that finish is rewarding is the contrast between the heavyweight sections with Trauma I and the finesse stuff from II. This isn’t as good as the high end Navarro/Terry stuff this year but a nice use of everyone and a fine lil title match that works as rewarding main event.

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IWRG 5/14/09

PAS: After a three week swine flu hiatus, IWRG makes it triumphant return.

http://www.youtube.com/user/r0b3rt0x3L14S

TKG: I feel sorry for the creators of Corridos Marranos as I imagine there is less demand for comic books with covers depicting voluptuous women being sexually ravaged by pigs. I’m sure the Corridos Marranos albulms have also been hurt. Everyone on this show feels a step off, like working off ring rust or something. One of the cameramen wears a facemask. Fantasma de La Opera wears one for cheap heat as well.

Halcon 2000 v. Radamantis

PAS: Since IWRG has shown up on youtube, this is the first time we have really gotten to see an IWRG opener. IWRG openers are always worked in this really basic way. They almost have to spend twice as much time on the mat as they do standing, and you won't be seeing any dives or 2004 US Indy finishers here.

TKG: They actually do tease a dive as Radamantis gets tossed out of ring twice. First time Halcon follows to the floor for ringside brawling; second time he gets up on second rope but doesn’t have his footing. He has repeated problems with hat second rope. Halcon 2000 isn’t a very engaging technico but really liked his hold onto the headlock amateur ride. Radamantis on the other hand is kind of a blast. Everyone in IWRG watches way too much Smackdown, and you get the sense that Radamantis is a Finlay fan..as he has nice European uppercuts, nasty elbow drop, and some neat fire man’s carry based throws. He also has a preposterous Zorackish alien mantis costume. I look forward to him hopefully moving up the card.

Goleador/Jack v Misteco Jr/Avisman

TKG: This is odd. After talking smack about Jack, I enjoyed his mat section and after talking smack about Avisman I really enjoyed all his stand up rope running exchanges (and big dive). Goleador is an awkwardly crowbaring mobile heavyweight. It’s hard to tell who is a heavyweight in the ring opposite your normal tiny IWRG regulars, but I think Goleador is around Arlequin's size. My impression is for awkward mobile heavyweights he is a lot greener than Arlequin. Either Avsiman decides to sell like Goleador is constantly fucking him up or Goleador constantly awkwardly fucks Avisman up, including twisting his ankle wrong on a Romero special.

PAS: This is the most I have enjoyed Jack, this is the first time he has looked like a poor man's La Parka instead of a poor man's La Parka Jr.. Goleador is weird, he shows a bunch of agility during parts of the match, and in other parts he looks completely awkward and clumsy. You figure either a guy is a good athlete or he isn't. Avisman had one nice submission and a nice dive, but no one was really up to working the mat with him.


Fantasma de La Opera/ Capitan Muerte/Cerebro Negro v Miss Gaviota, Diva Salvaje, and Sexy Gladis

TKG: I’ve seen Miss Gaviota before but never seen the other two exoticos. Diva Salvaje is an amusing tranny trainwreck. He’s just a hot mess; big ole queen in an unflattering outfit that makes him look even fatter, can’t get his perm right, just can’t get himself together. Other trannys model themselves on Garbo, Cher, Tyra Banks, Hayley Mills, etc…Diva Salvaje is aiming for Abyss’ unattractive sister. It’s an amusing look. This match is clipped to shit and ends after the first fall so I never get any sense of Sexy Gladis. Well the sense I get, is “hey they clipped everything with him out of this”. Captain Muerte takes a bunch of amusing bumps trying to leap to break up rope walking and the Salvaje/Fantasma interactions are amusing but this is clipped to pieces. Miss Gaviota is stretchered after taking Fantasma’s nasty DDT variation and the heels do mic work talking about how they’re not here for kisses but to break people, etc.

PAS: I live off of 17th St. in Dupont Circle here in Washington DC, they have drag races every year right in front of my building, and I have never seen a drag queen look as busted as Diva Salvaje, not even after a full on heels wearing sprint. Fantasma de La Opera coming out with a flu mask to block both the Swine Flu and the Exotico kiss is an awesome heel spot, and Diva Salvaje ripping it off to give him a grim tongue kiss was funny. I also loved the badass heels stretchering the Exoticos, although it didn't appear to go anywhere next week. IWRG booking doesn't seem to ever build.

Officiales v Chico Che, Zakura, Freelance

TKG:Didn’t Chico Che have more of a bowl haircut at one point. His hair is thinning fast. This was a pretty classically constructed match designed to set up either a singles match with the technico captain (Zakura) or another trio with the technico captain’s normal trio (Zakura’s normal trio being him and the Traumas, with this Chico Che/ Freelance/ Zakura being more of an ad hoc team). I’ve seen matches with Chico Che as captain.and matches with Freelance as captain. Both guys can pull that role off well. And both are a blast as secondary guys here. The problem is Zakura really isn’t a guy who is capable of working captain at this point ( I don’t know if he’ll ever be ready). Zakura is fine as secondary guy with dives but can't pull this thing off at all. He just looked like shit in the captain role and it hurt the match. This match had a bunch of neat dives and good performances from the Officiales, Freelance and Chico Che but it needed someone else to play captain.

PAS: Zatura has a real AAA feel to him, as he is a guy with some really pretty spots, but everything in between those spots looks bad. That is fine when he has a secondary role in a match, but his flaws are really exaserbated when he is the focus. I really enjoyed Chico Che in this, as he is one of the better technicos in these midcard trios match. This did have some really sweet individual stuff, Freelances rana into the stands was especially awesome, but not a great match. I think they really need another quality mid card technico in this fed, Freelance rules, and I like Chico Che, but they need to bring back Mickie Segura.

Fuerza Guerrera,Juventud Guerrera, Dr Cerebro v Negro Navarro, Trauma 1, Trauma II

TKG: “Black is black and I want my baby back. It’s grey, it’s grey since she went away.” I want to say the story with Los Bravos was that after one of their members committed suicide, the label forced them to tour with a replacement member wearing a lone ranger mask so as to hide the suicide. As you can imagine the combination of instant celebrity, suicide and on stage masked hiding of the suicide fucked with everyone’s mind. It’s possible I’m confusing them with another Spanish garage rock type band, but I think that’s them. I don’t know what happened to Pirata, Juve at times looked really off and at other times had hints of being the worlds best Andy Barrow (guy more concerned with heat and eating stuff then anything else)I hope he gets his shit together. Dr Cerebro looked spectacular, all his mat work was nasty, his brawling was great and he can eat a tope like nobodies business. The post match DDT on the trashcan was also nasty and Black Terry confronting Fuerza is an awesome development. "Bad is bad, it makes me sad. It's Time. It's time. Time that I found piece of mind."

PAS: Juvi looked really athletically off here, which is weird as you figure he would still be able to hit his spots. Hey looked more physically shot then guys twice his age. I did enjoy him as a totally obnoxious heel, sort of Bobby Heenanish. Like his new gimmick is "guy you want to see Jack Evans Thai knee in the face." Navarro was awesome as usual, kind of directing traffic and sending his kids after Juvi. For a guy who is primarily known as a Maestro mat worker, Navarro may be one of the best brawlers in the world, his section against Dr. Cerebro was great, I love his little short headbutt, it feels like the kind of thing you would uncork in a bar fight. After watching Cerebro and Navarro work the mat and brawl I really want a singles match.

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IWRG 4/2/09

PAS: Hits keep coming, r0b3rt0x3L14S is the king of youtube, just uploading all of the lucha, I am obsessively checking his page and he just keeps delivering.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=1EA3D88F6D1F8C22

Eragon/Mascara Magnifica v Commando Negro/Avisman

TKG: YES! We get a opener this week. IWRG OPENING MATCH!!!! I don’t get Avisman. I feel like I should go back and watch old Avisman singles matches and old Avisman and Avisman II tags. He’s now working openers and is really weird. He’s a guy who is really tricked out and fluid on the mat and doing technical exchanges but just looks completely lost and awkward in stand up rope running sections. Is he the anti-HHH? Has he always been this way or did he have a horrible rope running accident which has made him tentative? Does he need to remask? Perhaps with a mask on he wouldn’t always look like a deer in headlights worried about what to do next during the standing sections of a match (mask wouldn’t help his kicks/boot scrapes to back). Given this problem he really is ill suited to be working as base for green highflyers in openers. I mean the primera caidas will be good but really you can’t be a base when you’re this uncomfortable getting into place for stand up sections.

PAS: Yeah this was weird, I enjoyed the heck out of the first fall especially the Eragon v. Avisman mat sections. Really solid stuff. It feels like you should be able to hide Avisman more, no reason not to put him in trios match, where he works a long opening mat section and then stays the fuck out of the ring. IWRG opener is too structured, so after the good mat section Avisman has to try to eat ranas and that isn't something he can do. It is weird, there are a bunch of really old luchadores who are still super strong on the mat, you would think that athletic counters would be a weak spot for them, but Navarro, Dos Caras, Solar et all never look this awkward on their feet. Avisman may only be in his 30's but he wrestles like you might expect a broken down hypothetical Maestro to wrestle, even thought they don't.

Yack/Azoka v Capitan Muerte/Hijo del Signo

TKG: And its week two of the Captain Muerte World Beater 2009 Tour. Captain Muerte is one of those guys like Hijo Del Diablo where you’re always pleased to see him in a match and he’s always super competent veteran rudo but it’s been ages since he’s been a guy who did anything that really blew you away. This is two weeks in a row where Muerte has looked like a world beater. Yack is a guy working essentially poor man’s indy La Parka schtick, and Hijo Del Signo and Azoka both feel super green (Azoka does eat stuff nicely, kicks a bunch when put in short arm scissors and is really flexible when put in submissions). But this is pretty much a one man show, As Captain Muerte elevates this thing: beating folks, awesomely selling for technico offense, rudoing it up when the crowd gets on his partner for blowing stuff, interjecting in match to keep things moving, etc. Finish is awkward but I am on the 2009 Captain Muerte bandwagon.

PAS: This reminded me of the first 4-way on the 2nd night of the Chikara KOT, Muerte was in the Austin Aries role of "trained wrestler amongst backyardy chumps." There wasn't even a dark hair Young Buck in this match, it was like three Fire Ants. Still I think a lucha formula allows you to make something out of a match with only one real wrestler in it. Watching Yack do shitty fake La Parka really allows you to appreciate the professionalism of not just La Parka, but Super Parka, La Parkita and La Parka Jr.

Hijo Del Pierroth/Pierroth II v Arlequin Amarillo/Arlequin Verde

TKG: I was dreading this but it was nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. Maybe Phil was right in bitching about the Headhunters. I mean the Arlequins actively suck. Green Arlequin has some Shawn Michaels level execution and may be even shittier than Yellow Arlequin. But this was perfectly fine mediocre brawl. I mean it wasn’t good but didn’t bore me or make me want to tear my eyes out like the six man from last week. They work a basic Nastys v Steiners/RNR v Poffos “one man brawling on the floor/ one man in the ring” structure with lots of spots where guy on floor is taken out leading to two-on-ones in ring. Instead of listless arena walking around brawling, the on the floor brawling is pretty much all ring ramp and ring ramp stairs spots/bumps. Kept the brawl moving at a fine pace and held interest for the whole thing.

PAS: Yeah this was shockingly okay, they kept it moving, wasn't particularly stiff and there weren't any big bumps, but it didn't drag. I liked the mediocre Arlequin double tope, and Hijo Del Pierroth had nice wind up on his punches, they didn't look good when they landed, but I enjoyed the demonstrativeness.

Officiales v. Freelance/Gemelos Fantasticos v. Trauma 1 y 2/Zatura v. Dr. Cerebro/Cerebro Negro/Black Terry

PAS: Total train wreck and a total blast. 12 guys just throwing it all at the wall, some stuff isn't hit cleanly, but there is more great shit then you can demand. This is the kind of shit Freelance is made for, and he is just flying around the ring with abandon, he does three dives into the crowd, each crazier then the last, and is just constantly diving into the ring ranaing the fuck out of dudes. Officiales looked great here, as they ate all of Freelances stuff well, and did I nice job covering for some of the lesser lights (the less I say about the Gemelos the better) Terry is great too, but this was a little chaotic for him to be at his best. This week goes to Freelance.

TKG: Yeah this was a wreck. The whole concept of elimination trios match where you can tag anyone else into the ring is almost TNA level stupid. Hey its two twins forced to wrestle each other in an elimination match, isn’t that clever? Dumb. You also had a couple of awkward Zatura v Freelance sections where both guys looked like they need a rudo. Some spectacular looking Freelance highspots. Plus you get the Zatura “Hey I’m in a match with Freelance I have to do even crazier out of control dives and possibly injure myself” stuff that you get when those two are in a match together. A fun clusterfuck but a dumb match.

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Phil's Ongoing 2008 MOTY List

1. Blue Panther v. Villano V CMLL 9/19
2. Yuki Ishikawa + Alexander Otsuka + Munenori Sawa v Daisuke Ikeda + Katsumi Usuda + Super Tiger II BattlArts 7/26
3. Jimmy Jacobs v. B.J. Whitmer IWA-MS 3/1
4. Floyd Mayweather v. Big Show WWE 3/30
5. Mike Quakenbush v. Johnny Saint WXW 3/8
6. Teddy Hart v. Eddie Kingston v. Homicide JAPW 1/19
7. Yuki Ishikawa v. Carl Greco BattlArts 6/1
8. Necro Butcher v. Sami Callihan IWA-MS 10/4
9. Rey Cometa/Pegasso/Freelance vs Los Oficiales IWRG 10/17
10. Necro Butcher v. Predator IGF 6/23
11. Blue Panther v. Atlantis CMLL 7/11
12. Necro Butcher v. 2 Cold Scorpio IWA-MS 8//17
13. Blue Panther v. Villano V CMLL 9/29
14. Yuki Ishikawa v. Alexander Otsuka RJPW 6/18
15. Mitsuhara Misawa v. Takeshi Morishima NOAH 3/2
16. Bryan Danielson v. Nigel McGuiness ROH 2/23
17. Erick Stevens v. Roderick Strong FIP 2/8
18. Trik Davis v. Sami Callihan IWA-MS 8/17
19. Nigel McGuiness v. Austin Aries ROH 3/28
20. Evan Bourne v. Chavo Guererro WWE 10/14
21. Finlay v. JBL WWE 3/30
22. Shawn Michaels v. Ric Flair WWE 3/30
23. Blue Panther v. Averno CMLL 11/4
24. El Valiente + El Hijo Del Fantasma + La Mascara v. La Sombra + Volador Jr. + Sagrado CMLL 4/30

9. Rey Cometa/Pegasso/Freelance vs Los Oficiales IWRG 10/17

In an area where most lucha trios match feel clipped even when they aren’t, IWRG is still a place where they let things draw out a bit. This didn’t have the matwork you will occasionally see in IWRG, as this was worked more like a classic 90’s AAA match then a classic 90’s CMLL match. Oficiales have awesome masks, and are like a trio of 1994 Psicosi, crazy bumps to the floor, a sick tope, and incredible eating of all of the flyers spots. They basically keep the AAA guys out of this match, outside of their big dives, and give us plenty of Freelance. If you aren’t on the Freelance bandwagon, jump on, as he is the single most spectacular wrestler in the world. It isn’t even his dives (although he bust out an insane springboard tope con hilo into the seats), but his rope running, headscissors and armdrags are as fast and slick as Rey Mysterio at his greatest. I think this would even appeal to the lamers who don’t “get” lucha, as this doesn’t take much getting.

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