2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Park v. Escorpion

40. LA Park v. Rey Escorpion Liga Elite 11/4

PAS: Really great LA Park style arena brawl with Escorpion predictably fitting in great. Both guys really pound the crap out of each other, chucking chairs and cases of beer at heads and faces. Escorpion has some of the best punches in the world and he really cracks PARK. I loved Rey battling over the snack tray with the vendor, total asshole heel move to steal a guys popcorn just to whack PARK. Also really liked both of PARK's fatboy dives, he is approaching early 90's Super Porky level and is totally smushing people when he lands. Finish was kind of dumb,  but perfectly within the kind of thing you get in your PARK brawls.

ER: These two are a pretty natural match, and even though Rey doesn't stiff Park quite as badly as we've seen him stiff others, this was still plenty fun. Park keeps getting bigger and bigger and I honestly have no clue how he keeps up this pace. He works a lot, and works hard, takes big spills on joints that have to be barking extra loud at this point. But he chose this style and damn if he doesn't excel at it. He and Rey brawl through the crowd to the shock of nobody, hitting each other with beer boxes, beer bottles, beer buckets, beer coolers and aisle end ashtrays. Park is great at finding loose garbage and equipment and incorporating it on the fly, and here he grabs a large plastic beverage tub and clonks Rey with it a bunch on the way back to the ring, and in a crazy spot that could have ended absolutely terribly for all, he powerbombs Rey onto this bin from the apron, and Rey just splats onto it and settles in. Park lobs off a tubby senton from the apron for good measure. Rey was more about facilitating Park in this one, but he was able to sneak back with cheapshots and violent mask rips, yanking Park's cool reptilian mask fully off at a couple points, and even Baby Richard Jr. gets into the fun with a big bump to the floor. Match peaks with Park just absolutely leveling Rey with a mammoth dive off the top to the floor, and you almost expect them to go crashing through the floor like in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Ending is total silliness with low blows and ref bumps aplenty, but you don't really expect finishes in Park matches anymore. I've made the fat Elvis comparison with Park before, and it never stops being relevant (even though Park has shot past the king by a decade at this point): sometimes the wandering gets long, sometimes he introduces the band a third time to catch his breath, but he's a guy who is still captivating even during his performance lows. You can look past the occasional long or lazy move set up as his floor as a performer is just so much higher than most, and the peaks make it all worth it.

2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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CMLL Workrate Round-Up 10/10/14 & 7/20/14

1. Kraneo, Mr. Niebla & Shocker vs. Marco Corleone, Diamante Azul & Valiente (10/10/14)

Short and sweet match with tons of great Kraneo moments. Not only is Kraneo really great, but I think he brings the best out in guys like Niebla. Niebla is not as good as Kraneo, but nobody wants to be the dog of the match. Kraneo is just a total beast though and also makes opponents look great. He spectacularly ends a fall with a wild senton off the top, but also takes a massive bump to the floor off a Marco clothesline, really whipping himself over the top super fast, but also does little detail rudo things like holding Corleone in place by *grabbing his balls from behind*!! Then casually walking off tapping his own inner thigh to the boos of the crowd. Marco kicks things up a notch too in his work opposite Kraneo as he's really the only luchador in CMLL who can match him for size (although Thunder is pretty huge as well), and Marco logically uses his size in the tercera to wipe out Kraneo/Niebla with his huge no hands plancha, this time from ring to floor (instead of his usual ramp to ring). Kraneo is a bull and these kind of matches are almost always worth watching to see what he'll do.

2. Rush, La Sombra & La Mascara vs. Ultimo Guerrero, Thunder & Euforia (10/10/14)

Also quick and to the point, with Ingobernales going over in straight falls, but it is notable for an actual spirited and fine tecnico appearance from Thunder. Thunder is a guy who has not really registered with me so far, other than "hey that guy is large and muscle-y" but here at the end of the primera there he was out on the floor dishing stiff shots to Ingobernales. UG is a guy I like but here he just works like UG, rudo or tecnico, just UG here. Thunder actually worked like a tecnico who had been disrespected by these douchey coveralls wearing punks. You knew what you were getting from the rudos in this, but I was pleasantly surprised by the tecnico I knew least about.

3. Metalico, Cancerbero & Raziel vs. Oro Jr., Starman & Triton (7/20/14)

I love when little matches like this exceed non-existent expectations. Nobody ever expects anything out of a third match on a Sunday card. I've seen dozens of these and most of the time they are exactly what you think they're going to be. I mean look at those 6 names. That is a list of maybe the 6 most "also rans" on any given CMLL midcard. If I asked you "hey name 10 luchadors whose names you always see in results and stuff but you don't actually go out of your way to watch" there is a good chance all six of those names pop up on that top 10. And then occasionally those kind of guys give you get a fun little gem like this one where everybody works hard and seems like they're all trying to stand out. Metalico was a little ball of rage here. Up until now if somebody had asked me about Metalico I would have told them that he was definitely one of the top 5-10 guys in CMLL with a Tiger gimmick. But here he was a total asshole southern heel. He stiffed up all the tecnicos and especially targeted Oro Jr., was constantly taking cheap shots at guys on the apron, and was cursing and spitting at the crowd from the apron, and begging off in the tercera. He was wrestling like a guy who just got laid off but was then asked to finish out the week, oh and also we won't be giving you a recommendation. Oro Jr. was a fun punching bag and took some mean bullying from all the rudos. His "pushed too far" moment was satisfying. Starman hits a wild tope (I think Phil may have dubbed this year the "Return of the Classic Lucha Tope" and this one can be added onto that list) and this match was just unexpectedly fun. And damn man, Metalico. I like this guy pissed off. It was kind of a weird out of nowhere performance as I don't ever remember him doing this stuff before, and other guys in the match were still trying to have a traditional lucha match, but shoot Metalico's act would have played well on the 80s Memphis set.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 10/11/14

So they showed a couple weeks of the Anniversario show and that was nice, but now they hit me up with more damned tournament lucha. I'm pretty sure Cubsfan warned me about this. This is the Copa Jr. tournament which I think has something to do with 2nd generation stars wrestling in crummy unica caida matches. But it features guys like Mephisto and Shocker who have fathers that most current lucha fans couldn't pick out of a lineup so really it's just more tourney filler. Arrrgggh.



1. Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Mephisto

It's nice to see Maya in this as that's kind of a nice bump for him and holy SHIT he does an absolutely insane flip dive that sees him bounce off Mephisto and into the second row. Thank YOU for showing up to the tourney, Maya. Just bounces back first off the barrier and into some annoyed man in a jogging suit. The match was like 2 minutes long and because tournament lucha has a big ol' Eat Shit And Die bumper sticker on its shit heap car, it was all Maya getting to do cool shit before Mephisto hit his finisher to win it. God tourney lucha is such a dick kick. Still, one stupid ass dive into the crowd is way better than you normally get in one of these, so I call it a win. (Link posted so you can see the awesome Maya dive)

2. Misterioso Jr. vs. Shocker

God this was fucking terrible. Misterioso just got to feed into Shocker's lethargic offense. Just literally putting himself into Shocker's slowly applied moves. This went about 1 minute. I don't know if I've ever seen a better example of Fuck You Tournament Lucha than this. Usually the matches at least take longer than the ring entrances.

3. Volador Jr. vs. Tiger

Oof this was dogshit. Both men trade super kicks and are already selling "who's going to get up first" fatigue about one minute in. God this was bad.

4. La Mascara vs. Felino

Another 90 seconds of magic. This show is almost a parody of bad tournament lucha. There aren't many guys these days I get less excited about than Felino. Once he starts walking to the ring it's an immediate "Oh goddammit". But for 90 seconds this was better than the last two matches (which are worst lucha match of the year contenders). Felino at least doesn't advance, he bumps nicely off the apron for a Mascara superkick, and doesn't do much of his wretched comedy. Yay?

5. Mephisto vs. Shocker

This was at least a pleasant surprise as Mephisto went over. It's kind of crazy how much the crowd responds to Shocker as he looked really bad tonight. Most of the match was Mephisto stiffing Shocker with right hands so it kind of worked. Mephisto looked like he was working opposite a bloated corpse at some points.

6. Volador Jr. vs. La Mascara

Mascara is wearing awesome leather pants/suspenders combo, and then he reveals them to be tearaway pants, and he botches the tearaway spot. They get hung up on something so he has to kind of slowly undo one of the legs. Good grief tournament lucha. We also get a powerbomb/feet on the ropes spot repeated from the previous match. God Volador is so awful and he always gets booked to go all the way to the end of these awful tournaments.

7. Mephisto vs. Volador Jr.

You want near falls? Buddy you GET some near falls in this!! That one move didn't get the pin? Maybe try pinning him after that next one! Now he's pinning you! But you'll get him right back and try pinning him! Express your shock to the arena when he kicks out! Do signature offense! Both of you lie around selling the drama of the near falls! Eventually something made one of the guys stay down for 3 beats instead of 2.9 beats. Catch it!



8. Mascara Dorada, Valiente & Atlantis vs. Negro Casas, Ultimo Guerrero & Mr. Niebla

Hey this was a pleasant little straight falls gem hidden on a turd sandwich show. The match is shorter than normal, but everybody makes up for it by working lightning fast. Often that can make a match feel rushed, but here it just ramps everything up. It's such a joy seeing Casas work equal speed with Dorada and Valiente. Casas is a real marvel in this, always involved in everything, doing weird little things I've never seen like a wicked soccer slide kick to ambush an unsuspecting Atlantis. UG comes out hot after Atlantis after losing his mask, his mullet all hip like Karen O circa 2003. UG brought stiff shots and while I wanted more of a revenge feel, hopefully they match up even more as they make good opposition. Casas and Niebla bullying Dorada around is a blast, as Dorada takes stuff great including a super high backdrop. But damn, Casas. This guys was on fire the whole time, really owning Arena Mexico. It's short, well worth watching.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 9/27/14

So last week the randomly decided to show matches from the 9/13/13 Arena Mexico show. I'm unsure why. It had the Volador/Sombra mask match, so it's possible they were hyping up the Atlantis/UG mask match by showing the promotion's last big wager match? The match that set up the Volador/Sombra match was a relevos increibles match featuring Atlantis/UG vs. Volador/Sombra, with the winners of the match fighting in a singles match for their masks (which seems like an oddly harsh punishment for the winners of a match…), so maybe they were showing just how close Atlantis and UG came to fighting for masks just one year before?

Or maybe the promotion was late delivering the show and they just picked a random show from the last year to air.

Either way, they jump a couple weeks ahead from their normal schedule to bring us the two big WAGER matches from the 9/19/14 Anniversario show!

Hair vs. Hair!

1. Barbaro Cavernario vs. Rey Cometa

This was a real good match, though not as good as the Rush/Casas hair match or the women's mask vs. hair match from that same show. But this was really good. Both guys pulled out some crazy stuff here, with Cometa hitting a moonsault off the entrance and a big time tornillo. Cavernario hits his great array of splashes (the killer one to the floor, all the cool Vader bomb style ones) and bumps all over including a cool Cassandro bump. Cometa leans into all of Cavernario's stiff shots, my favorite being Cavernario blasting him with a superkick on the floor that practically scalps Cometa. Cometa's selling is great afterwards with an awesome "what the hell did I just get hit with!?" expression on his face. I believe Phil pointed it out that it was weird seeing a wager match-as-spotfest, and that's what this was, and it was kind of odd. This did not have the drama of the women's match, it never really felt like either guy had anything major at stake. Even though it should have as both guys have two of the more desirable heads of hair in the promotion, with Cavernario having the MOST hair, and Cometa having a shiny, thick mane (God we're gonna get so much cross-traffic from bronies if I keep typing shit like that). It felt like a big showcase main event for both guys, and I felt it succeeded at that. But it did not feel like MORE than that, which you really need from a great wager match. Still, well worth going out of your way to see.

Mask vs. Mask!!

2. Atlantis vs. Ultimo Guerrero

This match was one of the best of the year and easily made Phil's and my Match of the Year List. I'll just go ahead and link to our review of the match here:

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2014/11/ongoing-2014-match-of-year-list.html

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 9/13/14

These matches were from the 8/29/14 Arena Mexico show.

1. Rush, Atlantis & Dragon Rojo Jr. vs. Negro Casas, Rey Escorpion & Niebla Roja

Absolute nothing first two falls, and absolute blast third fall. First two falls are like 2 minutes. Rojo doesn't even take off his vest. Third fall we get some fun Casas/Atlantis interaction (odd that I just watched a big trios with them from January the other week, but don't remember them interacting at all the rest of the year. I just happened to see them on opposite sides in matches 7 months apart, in the same week), with Casas concurrently playing stooging rudo opposite Atlantis and fiery tecnico opposite Rush. One minute he's stumbling away on his knees after a quebradora, and the next he's firing up the crowd by kicking Rush. Finish is ridiculous and hilarious as Rush gets into it with the ref and while he's arguing chest to chest, Casas reaches through the refs legs, grabbing Rush's foot and forcing it to kick the ref in the balls for the DQ win. Totally absurd. Awesome.



2. Cavernario, Mr. Niebla & Felino vs. Mascara Dorada, Valiente & Rey Cometa

It's funny because if you only watched the Lucha Azteca program, you would have no idea the kind of year Cavernario is having (and really not even know who Cometa is). And this was a really fun match so hopefully these guys make Azteca more often. It's a pretty fun match up with a bunch of guys who you don't see against each other. Mascara Dorada is a complete loon and he really gets to show why here. Oh sure he'll take a high back drop bump and hit some keen headscissors and a smooth flip dive, but then in the tercera he hits a tope on Niebla that practically made me spit out my drink. Dorada gets a full head of steam and hits Niebla while he's completely vertically upside down. They both slam into the barricade and Dorada practically brainbusters himself. I love Dorada. Niebla works smartly with the fliers, brushing off attacks when appropriate (Cometa hits a light dive on him, so he doesn't sell it much, but then moments later gets slammed by a Valiente dive which takes him down). Cavernario got to show off here, kissing a gal in the crowd and then flipping over the barricade into the front row to sell a big dive. A couple of the falls end by ball shot DQs so I can't call this a MOTY, but this was the perfect kind of fun on a groggy Sunday morning.

3. La Sombra vs. Ultimo Guerrero for the CMLL Universal Title

I hate that going into big CMLL main events you always just expect them to be bad. This wasn't bad, but it was disappointing as both of them could have figured out smarter ways to do all of the stuff they did in this match. The thing that bugged me the most was UG popping up to hit his finisher in the 3rd, after taking a move that caused him to be pinned in the 1st. He took La Sombra's running double knees to lose the 1st, but then apparently the move barely damages him in the 3rd. Awful. The match finished with him taking the knees, Sombra going up top to hit a moonsault to polish him off, and UG just jumping up to hit the Guerrero Special. That's just lazy. The match overall wasn't bad as both guys looked good, they just shot the move psychology full of holes. I even had higher hopes as we started with some amusing exhibitiony mat work which usually doesn't happen when the main event is going to turn into a your move/my move affair. We never really got to a traditional awful CMLL ym/mm section, as the move trading in the 3rd made sense. But man what a stupid ending.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 9/6/14

Again, on 8/15/14 (and, now sadly, 8/22/14) it looks like they did a tournament for the CMLL Universal championship. Tournament lucha, baby! Catch that 150 second action!! So we all know these matches will be, best case scenario, the 2nd or 3rd best match on an episode of Worldwide, so I'm not really going to review the matches themselves because why bother. I'll make some notes of standout individual performance. The one positive I can take from this is that we might get some unique match-ups, however brief. It looks like there are a lot of rudos in the tourney so we may get some fun rudo on rudo shenanigans.

^^^ That is what I wrote during the first week of lucha tourney. It was worse than I expected. I expected bad. There was one total match that was not a complete waste of time. I'm willingly going into this expecting to waste my time. And I'm complaining about it. That is the definition of an obnoxious person right there.

1. Ultimo Guerrero vs. Mr. Niebla

Fun mat stuff and headscissor roll throughs that were indeed fun, but always felt very exhibition-y. Niebla broke out his cool code red arm drag, UG threw in the Jerry bump, Niebla did the wild moonsault off the top to the floor and another big moonsault press back in the ring. Niebla is throwing in more cool stuff in his 3 minute allotment than anybody else in this tourney. And it's nice as it actually ties into and leads to the finish, with him going for a 3rd moonsault, allowing UG to polish him off with the Guerrero Special for the win. So that was a good use of the time right there.

2. Virus vs. Dragon Rojo Jr.

Rojo comes out to the theme from Ghostbusters which is kinda weird. It's nice to see Virus in a match like this as he doesn't usually seem to crack the main event picture in CMLL, and at least being in a tournament for a title is something above his usual level. At this rate he might make it into the main event scene when he's 52. Virus works this match real smart, for such an awful format. He's a guy who's really good at mixing up rope running stuff, and is such a different worker than a lot of these guys that you get some unique exchanges. He finds a cool way to reverse Rojo's big seated corner dropkick, by pushing up at the right time to send Rojo's legs under, then locking on a front facelock. Great false finish as Rojo looked taken off guard but was already in the ropes. You got the sense that it could have finished the match otherwise. Finish was smart as it played into the match long story of Virus trying to win using his submission smarts, and it costing him. Virus always breaks out cool subs, and the one that backfired involved him rolling through on his opponent, but Rojo being much larger than Virus, causing him to roll through to far (like over rolling him), ending with Rojo on top and submitting Virus. It even makes sense in the worked setting as Virus usually works guys that are closer to his size, so him locking on a sub incorrectly against a larger guy works for me. Still wish Virus could have gone through to at least the semis.

3. Diamante Azul vs. Niebla Roja

This match was at least a good use of two minutes, though I kind of felt bad for Roja as this was a total Azul showcase. Azul looked really good on the mat with a couple cool ankle picks and looked real good at fluidly moving on to other parts of the body. Really smooth chain wrestling done in a way that didn't feel overly rehearsed. He also hits a big dive (first dive of the whole tournament actually) and then gets to roll back in and hit his awesome delayed german to win. They even put over his finisher by having a doctor come in and check on Roja after the match. Roja got totally steamrolled here, but Azul looked sharp in his showcase.

4. Titan vs. Volador Jr.

Not great, but short and they kept the back spring handstand nonsense to one part of the match. Titan hits a big moonsault and gets a nice false finish by catching Volador in a dragon screw into a sub. Volador's samoa drop driver finisher always looks completely dangerous, like it's just a matter of time before somebody gets their neck snapped.

5. Ultimo Guerrero vs. Dragon Rojo Jr.

Partners collide! But it really wasn't that exciting. Both guys doing moves until it was time for the Guerrero Special. Rojo took a nice bump to the floor off UG's baseball slide, and Rojo's dropkick off the rampway is a truly awesome and incredibly stupid move. Basically just a giant running back bump onto the floor, totally nuts.

6. Diamante Azul vs. Volador Jr.

Super short, very Volador heavy. Azul hit his nice rampway senton. I somehow got bored even though it was 2 minutes.

7. Ultimo Guerrero vs. Volador Jr.

Of course this one gets the most time of the tournament, and since Volador is losing then we get to see tons of goofy ass Volador stuff. None of this was very good. It did have one completely awesome moment though, with UG catching Volador on a flip dive to the floor and power bombing him into the ring post. That looked amazing. But Volador was back in the ring flipping around like a dungus just a few moments later. Match also had a really weird moment where Volador went for a roll up after a superkick, and UG kicked out, and then both of them sat upright on the mat for almost 20 seconds afterwards, just sitting there right next to each other, both staring out at the same direction (but not at each other), not selling or hitting each other or doing anything. Just sitting there. This happened really early in the match too. It was really strange. We'll edit it in post, boys!


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Tournament Lucha: Still the Worst

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 8/30/14

So on 8/15/14 (and, sadly, 8/22/14) it looks like they did a tournament for the CMLL Universal championship. Tournament lucha, baby! Catch that 150 second action!! So we all know these matches will be, best case scenario, the 2nd or 3rd best match on an episode of Worldwide, so I'm not really going to review the matches themselves because why bother. I'll make some notes of standout individual performance. The one positive I can take from this is that we might get some unique match-ups, however brief. It looks like there are a lot of rudos in the tourney so we may get some fun rudo on rudo shenanigans.

1. Terrible vs. Euforia

Terrible and Euforia already start the tourney off with a classic tournament lucha staple: selling like you're in the fight of your life after the first move of the match. Euforia hits a clothesline and gets a two count, and both men linger on the mat, breathing heavily, before valiantly fighting to their feet 20 seconds into the match. Fuck you, tournament lucha. Strike exchanges, sunset flips, no drama, I've clearly made a horrible choice.

2. Felino vs. Shocker

Felino is wearing some spectacular tassel tights (tassels down the legs and around the cuffs) so this is already an early match of the night contender. Felino tries here more than usual, hitting a sweet elbow off the top rope. Match ends pointlessly 2 minutes in after a Shocker sub.

3. Rey Escorpion vs. La Sombra

Now we're getting spoiled as we get almost 3 minutes of action! How horrible would it be to take a trip down to Mexico with the hopes of seeing lucha, and they run a tournament during the show you attend? Escorpion puts the boots to Sombra a bunch and Sombra lays in the running double knees in the corner. They tried to cram a decent amount of stuff into the time, but it still didn't add up to tons.

4. Negro Casas vs. Mephisto

Haven't seen Mephisto in awhile. He's wearing a Spider-man get up which is…something. We get a couple nice Mephisto powerbombs including a big one off the top rope. Casas won it with a wrenched in Crippler Crossface. Never forget.

5. Euforia vs. Shocker

Euforia mixes it up a tiny bit by attacking Shocker on the ramp. This wasn't particularly good but it had an immediacy that the other matches didn't have. The others have been worked more as "last two minutes of a really bad epic" and this one was at least guys trying to go for flash leveraged pinfalls. That at least makes more sense. Shocker's winning roll-up was really snug and looked like any man would have trouble kicking out of it. So that's something.

6. Negro Casas vs. La Sombra

Actually a fun match, not coincidentally the one that has gotten by far the most time so far. Sombra gives Casas a long beating and Casas' comeback is really good, shoving Sombra off the top to the floor and beating him into the crowd barrier. Sombra always flies nicely into a barrier. Also I really dig Casas' dragon screw knee breaker he's been using lately. Looks cool. Finish is kind of weird as Sombra wins with a nut shot schoolboy, with poor Casas' balls taking another beating. But what was weird is that it just looked like a normal schoolboy. I rewound it and didn't see an actual ball shot. Casas may just be dealing with some residual ball aches.

7. La Sombra vs. Shocker

Pretty nondescript match although I like how they're transitioning Sombra's running double knees into a death blow. Also kind of surprising that none of the tourney matches built to a dive of any sort. I was expecting to see a dive exchange in the semi at least. I don't need dives to enjoy my lucha, but it just seemed odd not seeing any.

8. Ultimo Guerrero, Niebla Roja & Gran Guerrero vs. Atlantis, Marco Corleone & Diamante Azul

Pretty paint by numbers, but with a fun tercera. First falls were really quick, with about the only notable thing being UG holding up Marco for a long time on an impressive vertical suplex. Tercera had several fun moments with the Diamante Azul/Gran Guerrero exchanges standing out the most (which was not what I was expecting going in). They did a bunch of cool standing exchanges, Azul threw a high bridge german suplex, fun stuff. Roja and Marco were odd bedfellows who didn't really work great together, but tried. They tried a goofy spot where Roja used Marco's abs to mime dialing a telephone, answered the phone, then handed the phone to Marco before hitting him. Har har guys, but kind of gave me a little nightmare flash forward of lucha becoming wildly obsessed with Chuck Taylor indie goofball dogshit. We've already seen the back cracker become the scourge of the lucha finisher world, now I'm picturing a nightmare hellscape where luchadors come up with shitty move names like "Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto" or "Avoid the Noid".

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 8/23/14

These matches were from the 8/8 Arena Mexico show.

1. Rey Escorpion vs. Dragon Rojo Jr.

I've been loving the build up to this singles over the previous couple weeks, with Escorpion punching the hell out of Rojo's face and blindsiding him in trios matches. I guess I'm a pretty easy guy to please if I can get excited for a match just by seeing a guy hit another guy. But this match was a major letdown. Everything that made me excited for it during the build was completely absent from the match itself. We had a match ruined by bad quick fall formatting, and a bunch of spots - some of them very impressive - that didn't have too much rhyme or reason to them. We also had a lame and oddly out of place strike exchange. Just an uninteresting match. The first two falls are blink-and-you'll-miss-'em, so even though they have some cool matwork in them, you're already kind of set up to see what kind of match this is going to be. And sure enough, the tercera plays out like the worst kind of lightning matches, with them heatlessly taking turns showing off what neat moves they can do. Escorpion does a dive, Rojo hits a gnarly dropkick off the rampway, Rojo hits a powerbomb, whatever. The move order seems like it was drawn out of a hat, with the moves determined ahead of time. No flow, just moves. The strike exchange was hilariously bad, with it coming out of nowhere to start the tercera. Both men immediately start selling like they'd been in a WAR!! with Rojo selling a chop by staggering around like current Pacino milking a heart attack death scene. The match had two incredibly quick falls, and suddenly these guys are just using the last of their strength to throw kick combos. Which is even more hilarious since they were totally fine afterwards, fine enough to run through the depths of their offense. Just a brutally constructed match, made both guys look awful.

2. Marcela, Princesa Sujei & Goya Kong vs. Amapola, La Seductora & Zeuxis

Fun match although it would have meant a bit more if Blanca had been in it the week after losing her hair. Amapola looked good and continued to be her same under appreciated self. I love the way she flings herself into the Cassandro bump. Zeuxis looked pretty sloppy last week and her she was nasty, hitting big running kicks and a wild moonsault off the top onto Kong. Kong has great charisma and I love how excited the Arena Mexico fans get for her. Plus her apron dive can look pretty great. Sujei and Marcela didn't make a giant impression here, but considering they won a mask and a whole lot of hair the week before I think that's fair.

3. Rush, La Sombra & La Mascara vs. Negro Casas, Ultimo Guerrero & Shocker

Not a bad match but I was expecting a lot more after last week's amazing Rush/Casas showdown. Look at me, watching something with raised expectations. La Sombra has really come into his own this year, but this match was not the one to show somebody if you were trying to prove that point. He was off the whole time, flopping bad on a headscissors and over-shooting a big flip dive that sent him stumbling chest first into the ring barrier. Shocker had some nice moments opposite Mascara, with my favorite being Mascara doing a drop down and Shocker just splatting him with the biggest elbow drop. Ultimo Guerrero integrated Sombra's double flip moonsault about the best way you can, by purposely rolling out of it so that he could make Sombra hit his knees. Now Rush vs. Casas. That was about as limp dick revenge as I could have possibly imagined. It's like both guys were sore from the week before so just agreed to take it easy on the other. Casas' big revenge moment came off so bad, where Rush goes to kick him in the balls again, and Casas just kicks him first, with a glancing blow that Rush just kind of falls over from. And then Casas runs around the ring jumping up and down like he's never beaten anybody in his life. It looked so pathetic. If that was supposed to be a moment I can't imagine many ways it could have fallen harder on its face.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 8/16/14

These matches were both from the big 8/1 Juicio Final show. I actually didn't even realize until this episode that there was a luchadoras mask vs. hair match on the undercard of the Rush/Casas hair match.  I saw there was a Volador/Sombra match and I just assumed they would take the opportunity to show the 300th singles match between those two, so I was very pleasantly surprised that they showed the ladies match.

MASCARA CONTRA CABALLERA!



Marcela & Princesa Sujei vs. Princesa Blanca & La Seductora

Sujei and Seductora are putting up their masks, and Marcela and Blanca are putting up their hair! Again, I actually didn't realize this match happened before watching it, and it was extra exciting going into it not knowing who was going to win. Blanca has probably the longest hair of any gal in CMLL, and Sujei and Seductora have had their masks longer than any CMLL gal I can think of. So in my brain there is a lot at stake here, and I think they more than delivered. Marcela is probably the best luchadora in the fed, and her and Sujei make a great team here. Both take some big bumps (Marcela missing a somersault senton off the apron to the floor, Sujei crashing and burning after getting kicked off the ropes onto the apron and also earlier launching herself spectacularly into the front row), and Blanca and Seductora really work like bitches. Seductora was always dropkicking and stomping throats, and Blanca genuinely felt like a woman who desperately did not want to lose her hair, scrambling and brawling the whole time, throwing woman by the hair, or planting them with the most badass spinning powerbomb I've seen in ages. I really loved this match, a lot of it really felt like a struggle and the stakes felt real. The end potential interference was also really exciting, with Seductora getting thwarted from cheating to win, and Marcela and Sujei gratefully embracing on the mat post victory. Crowd was hot for this too, much hotter than most Arena Mexico crowds. I get it.

CABALLERA CONTRA CABALLERA!



Rush vs. Negro Casas

[Note: This match ended up landing at #11 on our Best of 2014 list. My review is reposted below, here's a link to Phil and my co-write up: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2014/10/2014-ongoing-match-of-year-list_15.html]

Well this was awesome. Totally lived up to everything I wanted it to be. Rush comes out in a white suit with his hair tied up in a bun, so he can unfurl its majesty on the hate filled Arena Mexico crowd. And then Rush turns into an absolute hulked up bacne covered steamroller. Some matches you can see guys getting into position for parts of the match, purposely moving the match to a specific turnbuckle they need to be in to hit their mark. But here Rush just organically beats Casas' ass all over the ring. Hits a clothesline, pie faces Casas down to the mat, kicks him to the floor, kicks him on the floor, etc. Casas runs and Rush casual chases him down. Casas peppers in his comebacks when Rush gets cocky, and man does Casas blast in his own kicks. I love Casas' short low kicks to Rush's chest, and I love how every time he got his chance he really tried to make the most of that chance. Watch him desperately/shrewdly latch onto Rush's left arm during La Casita, using any ounce of leverage he can to get the pin. Rush plays a vicious game of oneupsmanship here taking what Casas dishes and bringing it back fiercely. Casas kicks him in the corner? Rush kicks him harder and then gloats to the crowd while standing on his throat. Casas hits the big Thesz press? Rush hits a lunatic dropkick off the apron, not giving a shit how hard his own body thuds onto the ground. And then there's poor Casas getting back into the ring, and Rush punting him right in the face. Casas gets a busted lip and few few brain cells taken off his hands, and the crowd goes silent. I'm not sure I've seen anything like that before. Casas still makes great comebacks and as I told Phil a few days ago, I'm not sure there's a better fired up babyface comeback in wrestling than Negro Casas. I love him going toe to toe with Rush, trying to outwit him, trying to strangle him with subs, ripping at Rush's hands. But it wasn't enough. Rush was too much. He even risks losing the match just for the opportunity to punt Casas in the balls, just because. Great, great match.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 8/9/14

All of these matches were from the 7/25 Arena Mexico show. 

1. Rey Escorpion, Ultimo Guerrero & Shocker vs. Atlantis, Dragon Rojo Jr. & Titan

 Fun match that was quick and violent with lots of mask ripping and stiff strikes. Escorpion has been on a roll lately and here's another match with him dishing a beating to Dragon Rojo. He punches him all over the ring and violently rips his mask off. At one point he was tearing Rojo's mask off with his teeth while also punching his face. Rojo hit a great corner flip dive as a comeback at one point. But the match even ends with Escorpion dragging Rojo around by his mask while stomping the hell out of him. It was odd seeing Shocker as a rudo here since he's mostly been featured on TV this year as a tecnico opposite Rush and his goons, but here he gets dropkicked by Kemonito and it's awesome (has Kemonito not appeared with Atlantis for a really long time, or is that just me…). For the most part Shocker and Titan stayed out of the mix. Most of it was naturally centered around Atlantis/UG, and all of their stuff was nice and snug. Both of them dished it out, with Atlantis ripping apart UG's mask, UG hitting a fast Jerry bump, Atlantis handing out quebradoras to every man in his way. Fun, high energy match with a few stories going on at once.

2. Marcela, Goya Kong & Silueta vs. Princesa Blanca, Amapola & Zeuxis

Decent, if sloppy match. Marcela isn't on TV as much as the other gals even though she's clearly heads above all of them. She always breaks out more daring things than the others and looked good here, with a nice rolling senton off the apron, big bump into the front row, does a cool armbar takeover on Blanca over the top rope. Kong is always somebody I get excited to see. I don't know if she's really that good, but she's always fun and the crowd always responds big to her. She breaks out some big splashes, misses a big elbow, does an apron dive, a bunch of fun stuff from a bigger gal. Silueta is cute and is fairly decent at pumping up a crowd, but she's also not that great. She's kind of sloppy and there's a pretty unfortunate botch that is covered up about as much as it can be by Amapola. Amapola is a good hand, but Zeuxis also isn't very good. She gamely attempts big spots but usually blows a couple, so I guess she gets some points for trying. Blanca is a great ruda, one of my absolute favorites to watch, and her and Marcela always work great together. Here is no different as both of them can really wail on each other. Hilariously, the match ends with a powder to the eyes DQ, with Blanca missing her powder shot and Marcela hitting hers, with the ref seeing and DQing Marcela. I cannot remember ever seeing a powder to the eyes finish in a lucha match. That seems like something so American that it was just weird seeing in lucha. Maybe Mexico has a long history of powder to the eyes finishes, but damn if I can't recall any. Now I want to see some hide the object lucha matches!



3. Rush, La Sombra & La Mascara vs. Negro Casas, Mr. Niebla & Volador Jr.

Awesome short match, full of guys working stiff and with a hot surprise finish. Rush and Casas beat the holy hell out of each other here. I'm not sure how Casas' throat can stand up to some of the stomps that Rush unleashes on it. Both guys throw some nasty kicks to the other's chest and face, shove each other violently into the ring barricade. At one point Rush charges Casas in the corner, stops short, whips his hair back and slaps Casas right across the ear. Great dickhead spot. Niebla is a guy who can wrestle lazy when he's not feeling things, but then we get *this* Niebla and all is well. He slaps guys the whole match, really laying the shots in to a nasty degree, and at one point even breaks out his great back bump to the floor (Rush front kicks him and he falls through the ropes backwards onto the floor). Volador stayed out of most of this, spending a lot of it getting kicked and stomped by Sombra/Mascara, but does hit a spectacular top rope moonsault to the floor. And obviously he plays into the finish which I really dug. Sombra is kinda manhandling him, but Volador gets the surprise flash pin by reversing a Sombra samoan drop into a brutal Sombra head drop. Flash pins don't feel like they get used in lucha that often, and I really love how the match just ended since Volador pinned the captain. Felt like they finally outsmarted the rudos and the cuts to a surprised Rush on the floor were a nice touch since Rush hasn't shown tons of ass in this feud. This could have been epic with more time, but for a straight falls match I can't imagine it being much better. This was some of the stiffest ring work I've seen in lucha this year, and no matter how long it was this was a hot match. (Oddly, the TV version of the match completely edits the 2nd caida down to just the Sombra/Volador finishing run, making the total match seem like 7 minutes instead of 12. This caused the episode to end 8 minutes early, so I have no clue why they edited out Casas' comeback or any of the other fun stuff from the segunda. Really strange.)

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 8/2/14

These matches were from the 7/18 Arena Mexico show.

1. Stuka Jr., Atlantis & Dragon Rojo Jr. vs. Rey Escorpion, Ultimo Guerrero & Polvora

Fun match with an asskicking performance from Escorpion and nice contributions for the others. Escorpion went after Rojo right from the beginning and didn't let up the whole match. He was really punching Rojo in the dome, as Escorpion can do, and didn't let up so that it looked like they would eventually work a hair vs. mask match. Even between falls Escorpion would follow him to the floor and club him. Stuka always breaks out impressive stuff. I love his torpedo splash, and he throws a nice flip dive. He also manned up for a beating here, taking a big back bump to the floor off a baseball slide. Nothing revolutionary happened here, but it was all fun while it lasted. Seriously wonder if they're setting up an Escorpion/Rojo feud though.

2. Negro Casas & Shocker vs. Rush & La Sombra for the CMLL Tag Titles

I was not a fan of their tag title match a few weeks before this, but this I liked. I thought that match lacked intensity and drama. Seeing this match shows everything that previous match lacked. These four were at each other's throats the whole match, and both teams actually felt like teams. A key part of what made this match so great was the team work. Not the double teams, but each person saving their partner at key moments throughout the whole match. Saves are a great way to build drama and cut down on silly kickouts, and I loved all the saves in this. Sombra has really come into his own under his rudo persona. It added an edge his character needed and just didn't have as a faceless flier. Now he's a smug shrugging prick who gets bailed out by his even tougher buddy and opportunistically dishes out violence of his own. His running knees to Shocker were brutal, but he has no problem giving back (watch him fly ass over elbow over the barrier off a clothesline). Shocker breaks out his fat guy tope, and some other cool stuff like his abdominal stretch slam (which sends Sombra right onto his head). Casas looked on fire too, having some fun scrambly matwork with Sombra, locking in one of the snuggest STFs onto Rush that you'll ever see, kicking Sombra's chest in while he's tangled in the ropes. This match builds off stuff from their previous tag match, and I especially loved Casas setting Rush up for the Thesz press and Sombra saving him out of nowhere by clotheslining Casas right in the shins. Awesome, heated match.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 7/26/14

All matches were from the 7/11 Arena Mexico show.

1. Dark Angel, Marcela & Estrellita vs. Amapola, Princesa Blanca & Zeuxis

Blanca has awesome crimped hombre hair, looking like the Russian experiment clone on Orphan Black. Primera is really good with Estrellita taking a beating, Marcela missing a somersault senton off the apron and splatting on the floor, and Zeuxis hitting a package piledriver on Dark Angel (so are piledriver type moves legal now in Mexico? Seems like a lot of workers are doing these kind of moves now, which look exactly like automatic DQ moves of the not too distant past). Segunda is really hot, with Amapola taking a big Cassandro bump around the turnbuckles and then Dark Angel hitting a huge crossbody off the top onto her. Marcela especially had a great fall (and match) with some impressive power spots like a sort of deadlift quebradora, throwing a dropkick through Zeuxis' face (while she was leaned up against the bottom rope) and then hitting a nice rana on her off the apron. Straight falls, but the match was really hot. Well worth checking out. 

2. Negro Casas, Barbaro Cavernario & Ultimo Guerrero vs. Rush, Maximo & Marco Corleone

Very fun match ruined by the most hot dogshit finish you can possibly imagine. It's nice to see Cavernario in with the big boys, and Casas had a hell of a showing here. Casas got to take it to Rush throughout most of this, hitting all sorts of big kicks to the chest and face (which Rush leaned right into). Rush worked a lot of this as a traditional tecnico, which didn't garner much sympathy from the Arena Mexico fans, but was fun to see. Marco stuck to UG/Cavernario, flexing his abs, hitting his nice lefts and some big crossbodies. Now lets get to that most garbage of finishes, where Casas beats Rush around the ring, and we're talking the most offense Casas has gotten on Rush in ages. Gets him in the corner and kicks the hell out of him, kicks him to the floor where he hits the Thesz press off the apron, drags him around by the hair so Cavernario can hit his giant awesome big splash from the top to the floor, rolls Rush back in the ring…

and Rush just powerbombs Casas for the win. Well, fuck us then. What an awful, pointless, lazy finish. This is one of the worst no sells I've ever seen in pro wrestling. And it's not like Rush collapsed after hitting the powerbomb either. He was totally fine, walking around, back to normal as if the big splash recharged him or something. Just an awful finish that made everybody look bad. The kind of finish that would make anybody who got sucked into the match feel like a doofus. Casas gave him everything he had, and Rush basically just shrugged. Is Rush just Jason Vorhees now?

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 7/19/14

These matches were all from the 7/4 Arena Mexico show, on a day that was decidedly less celebratory than any events happening in the United States that day. I'm not sure anybody in Mexico sat through a fireworks show while a Lee Greenwood CD played.

1. Valiente, Titan & Atlantis vs. Ultimo Guerrero, Niebla Roja & Gran Guerrero

Really fun match. Primera had some fun mat rolls with Valiente and Gran Guerrero, two guys I've never seen go on the mat against each other. They do a series of fun little ankle picks leading into some nice Valiente arm drags. We get UG ripping Atlantis' mask and a big time Atlantis dive. Valiente had some more killer moments in the tercera, hitting some nice ranas (with a beautiful one off the top on Roja) and a super fast dive that Roja mans up for on the catch. Titan and Guerrero clumsy up some things here, with both doing offense that dumps them on their own heads. Titan throws in more silly somersaults than usual, coming off like a more snug RVD at some points. Ending was a nice little surprise as it looked like Atlantis was gonna get the pinfall on UG, but GG sneaks in and snares him into a nasty little submission.

2. Tiffany, Dalys & La Seductora vs. Princesa Sugheit, Lluvia & La Vaquerita

Damn this is kind of digging deep for the women's division. Vaquerita isn't somebody who really pops up that often. And the match is about as forgettable as a lucha trios can be. It's super short, even for just a straight falls match, and is really just a bunch of chopping and poor rope running with some nice apron dives thrown in at the end. Vaquerita didn't look like much, Dalys seemed off her game, Sugheit was working tecnica and seems to thrive when being a dick. Tiffany is always eminently watchable to me, but there just wasn't enough here to warrant even showing it.



3. Rush, La Sombra & La Mascara vs. Negro Casas, Shocker & Mr. Niebla

Oh man, Rush and his boys come out in suits, pork pie hats, Mascara is wearing a vest, Sombra has his dress shirt unbuttoned way too low under a suit jacket, Rush is wearing no shirt under his jacket. They look like the three most aggressive dry humpers at the club. They look douchey enough that one of them should have "Don't you know who I am?!" tattooed on them. And this match was awesome. It was way more even than most matches between these two teams, and while there was never any real flow to it, that was because each team kept cutting off the other in logical ways. It was a really great use of 6 people as right when one side would gain an advantage, a guy who had been on the floor or apron would come in and cut the momentum right off. The work in this was as stiff as expected, with Sombra rattling Shocker's teeth with plenty of elbows, Mascara delivering plenty of on-point superkicks of the non-thigh slap variety, Rush and Casas each leaving boot imprints on the other's face. Shocker had a great showing here with some of his best selling ever. At one point he fell on his butt after some Sombra elbows and it was downright Kawada-esque. Earlier while selling his knee he valiantly limped right into a Mascara superkick. Niebla hits a dive out the corner past the turnbuckles like it was 1999, Rush boots a charging Casas right off the rampway, Sombra goes full douche by posing while splayed out across the middle rope, and this shit was all awesome. Go watch this.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 7/5/14

2014 Leyenda de Azul

feat. Valiente, Maximo, Rush, Rey Escorpion, Ultimo Guerrero, Euforia, Atlantis, Shocker, La Sombra, Super Porky, Mr. Niebla, Terrible, Rey Bucanero, Dragon Rojo Jr., La Mascara & Vangellys

We start with a battle royal to decide Group A and Group B teams and much of the battle royal is spent with me watching and wondering how the hell Porky is going to take a bump over the top rope. La Mascara has never watched a battle royal before as he takes a break to celebrate on the apron while the camera cuts to two people old enough to know better wildly tongue kissing in the crowd. Niebla takes a fast and crazy looking elimination bump. UG takes his elimination like a man getting monkey flipped by Atlantis and flipping wildly to the floor. Escorpion just walked over and punched Porky in the boob (left). Ohhhhh all of the first 8 people eliminated are all in one Group. That makes sense. But also means that I didn't get to see how Porky would take his elimination bump since he was clearly in the group of guys who didn't get eliminated.

The cibernetico itself starts out pretty hot with Rojo hitting a big rana off the apron onto Euforia and then Porky shockingly being the next person in the ring (I assumed he would need a bit of a breather before getting back in) and damn if I don't really dig Porky's bit with UG, seeing Porky take a big bump off a stiff shoulder block and come back with a deep arm drag. Nice. Escorpion hits a nasty baseball slide through the bottom ropes into Rush, with Rey flying all the way out to the floor. Rush and Vangellys have a real fun run (for two guys who never actually fight each other due to affiliations) with Rush really kicking the shit out of him but also leaning face first into a seated Vangellys dropkick. Shocker adding the Stunner actually fits pretty well with his style and isn't soul crushing like indy Lawler doing it. Valiente hits the most badass high speed headbutt tope on Niebla and then we get a cool UG Euforia showdown which obviously has never happened, ending with Euforia hitting a wild dive. Holy shit and then we get Porky/Maximo…but Sombra and Mascara are dicks and break it up before anything happens, but that does lead to Porky hitting a headscissor/headlock takeover on both so who can be mad? Escorpion hits a giant guillotine leg drop on Rojo, which is not a move you see much anymore, for whatever reason. Porky is a special kind of fat, as his belly sticks out just as much when he's lying down as when he's standing. Rush has mastered the rich dick hair flip. Maximo hits a couple really cool delay hang time arm drags on Escorpion. Eventually things end up with Atlantis opposite Ultimo Guerrero and they have their standard exchanges and work about a 4 minute singles match. We get some mask ripping, a nice Atlantis dive, some big move nearfall exchanges that I zoned out during, and a win for Atlantis.

Overall this was much more interesting than many of the ciberneticos they've run over the last few years. This was given WAY more time than most of those (excluding the battle royal this clocked in at over 30 minutes) so you didn't have a bunch of awful strung together eliminations off moves that would never end a regular caida. Add to that the battle royal setting the teams provided some unique match-ups that I've never seen. It sounds odd to like a match in part because Euforia did a cool headscissors to UG, but lucha match-ups and feuds don't always get mixed up that much, so it was neat seeing brief "new pairing" moments. Fun match, tons of cool stuff in it.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 6/28/14

All these matches were from the 6/13 Arena Mexico show.

1. Euforia, Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero vs. Maximo, Atlantis & Super Porky

Fairly short match, also fairly by the numbers. Maximo is one of the more underrated guys in wrestling today (at least I think he is? I really like Maximo but I don't see him getting talked about tons, but maybe I only go to like two web pages. Also I say "web pages"), and Porky at this point is on his last legs, so I'm looking forward to some day when Maximo isn't automatically in Porky matches. I've been seeing Porky matches for so damn long that it's funny all of the things that I overlook that would seem bizarre in anybody else's match. Watching Porky stand wide-legged and walk his hands up until he's upright just seems normal now. Porky can still surprise me in matches, as right in the middle of his schtick he'll occasionally pop someone, or do a neat little bit of selling (which makes up for most of time in Porky's matches where he doesn't really sell, he just kind of focuses on breathing). Euforia runs into him a bunch and makes him look good. Atlantis and UG always match up well, but their feud will truly be the Moonlighting of lucha as they'll eventually get it on for reals and my mom won't care about them anymore (who am I kidding that shit will get over).

2. Blue Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta vs. Rey Escorpion, Dragon Rojo Jr. & Polvora

Another short match, this one ending is straight falls. Nobody had much time to make too big of an impression here, though Panther hits a nice tope and Guerrero Maya (so glad he is back on TV more!) hits an awesome flipping tope. The rest of this is too sped through. Fast falls, big silly indy move finishers instead of matwork. Meh.

3. CMLL Tag Title Match: Rush & La Mascara vs. Negro Casas & Shocker

Well this was the big tag title change, for the belts Rush and Mascara have held for 8 months, and I could not imagine a less dramatic title change. The match was fine, I suppose, but there just wasn't much to it. Rush and Mascara have spent many months cheating and beating the snot out of these two, and here they just work a straight tag match, one of the falls ends with Rush getting DQ'd for Mascara pulling the ref out, there's no struggle, no dramatic tide turns, nothing. Things happened, eventually Casas and Shocker won the tag titles. I know titles in lucha really don't mean a whole lot, but damn was this bland. In the segunda Shocker did the exact same sequence he did in the trios last week, catch Rush, twist his arm, hit a stunner, Mascara goes for a dropkick, hits Rush instead, etc. But it looked way better in the trios. Shocker looked tired but still hit a big tubby tope and Casas hit a massive running balls to the face off the apron. But nothing about this even hinted at this being an important match. Very disappointing.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 6/21/14

These matches were all from the 6/6 Arena Mexico show.



1. Rush, Titan & La Mascara vs. Negro Casas, Shocker & Felino

Match that started pretty same ol' and was saved by a great tercera. These Casas vs. Rush trios are already starting to seem pretty samey, with this one being slightly different due to Titan replacing Sombra (in the title match later). But they all have a real similar construct to them that seemed unique a few months ago but now is getting stale. Rush jumps Casas on the ramp, we get a one-sided primera and a one-sided segunda that leads to Rush's team dropping a fall by DQ. This pattern seems to happen in every Rush trios now. It's kind of shocking how dominated the tecnicos get in all of these. I would think guys would be worried about not looking "weak" (or is that only predominant in WWE?), as Rush always just mows through these guys. I'm not sure Rush strutting around, dishing big boots and puffing out his chest will ever get old to me, but it definitely feels less fresh than earlier in the year. Where they surprise me is by actually letting Casas and crew come back and kick ass in the tercera. Shocker had maybe his best fall of the year in the 3rd, looked like a guy fighting for his job. He threw a bunch of great elbows, worked some cool sequences with Rush/Mascara where he would foil their double teams. All of them looked really cool with him ducking guys at the right time and working circles around them. I also really dig the snug Stunner he's added. Felino also looked not as awful as normal, even becoming my momentary hero by dropkicking Titan in the face during his little handstand. I was ready to kinda glaze over during the tercera here, and they go and shut my face with an awesome one.



2. La Sombra vs. Volador Jr. (NWA Welter/Middleweight Title Match)

Wow. I was not expecting to like this one. I have seen these two match up a few times, and even when I liked rudo Volador this was a match-up that embodied my least favorite things about modern lucha. But I gotta say, I actually dug this one. Volador comes hot out of the gates with a couple big dives, never letting Sombra get a chance to catch his breath. Sombra finally catches him in the segunda and then slows the pace way down, to a satisfying rudo pace. Volador's dives looked pretty great, and here he puts over Sombra, taking an eminently rewindable bump over the guardrail off a Sombra clothesline. I mean holy shit. Sombra went for bell ringing, but good lord Volador flew over at a lunatic speed. In the tercera Volador throws out some really slick ranas, including a nice slingshot one over the top to the floor. Sombra also has no problem dumping himself on his head several times to put over Volador's reverse rana and crucifix slams. Rush puts the capper on things by interfering to spike Volador with an arm-trapped piledriver. Now, the moves in this looked great. The execution was on point, many of them looked way dangerous, and they seemed to build in a somewhat logical way. The transitions were a problem, as the moves looked so big sometimes that there was minor silliness when the other would go back on offense. But, nothing was bad enough that it couldn't be written off by "adrenaline because of double title match". It didn't devolve into awful move trading 2.9 counts like I was expecting from the beginning, and I was into it the whole way through. Somebody rewatch this, maybe I was drunk. Maybe I've hated their other singles matches so much that anything remotely passable would look like a  classic. But I'm pretty sure that was actually good.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 6/7/14

These matches all happened on the 5/23 Arena Mexico show.

Rey Escorpion, Ripper & Mr. Aguila vs. Maximo, Marco Corleone & Titan

Well this is becoming a bad trend. Short, short matches with practically non-existant primeras. Remember when the primera used to be awesome? It still happens occasionally, but it's becoming more and more rare. Aguila may be the worst worker in CMLL, especially among the ones higher up the card. He looks horrible here. Can you name me a worst moonsault in wrestling? He still insists on doing it in just about every match, but I can't remember the last time it actually hit. Usually it ends with his arms draped over the other guy's knees, and usually it ends a fall. Woof. This whole match was plagued by poor timing and sloppy work, namely from Aguila and Ripper. Titan didn't do any of his silly stuff, and hit a nice springboard somersault dive. Corleone looked good, hitting a few nice rolling arm drags and the Superman bodypress from the ring to the floor, still doing it with no hands. That looked great, and I don't know if I've ever seen him do that. He almost always hits it from the rampway to the ring, really don't remember him doing to the floor before. And with this, we're well underway in our Complete & Accurate Marco Corleone project.

Dark Angel, Marcela & Princesa Sugheit vs. Dalys, Princesa Blanca & Zeuxis

So are piledrivers and ball shots totally cool in Mexico now? Are the times a-changin'? Last show had Mascara win a match with a plain view shot to the balls, and Zeuxis wins a fall her with a package piledriver. Match was short and fun. I really love the nasty streak that Dalys has embraced ever since getting her head shaved. Her charisma is coming through more now and her work with Marcela in this was quality. Loved the running double knees into Marcela's chest from Zeuxis and Dalys. Blanca and Sugheit were kind of working their own match this whole time, constantly going at it and tearing each other apart.

Relevos Increibles!

Rush, Ultimo Guerrero & La Sombra vs. Atlantis, Shocker & Volador Jr.

A bit of a letdown compared to other Relevos Increibles but still exciting because you have Rush and his sneak attack lacky La Sombra. The other guys kinda did their own thing. UG and Atlantis tore into each other during the entrances and didn't stop, replete with mask tearing and I can only assume mask challenges post match off camera. But Rush and Sombra delivered and Shocker really ramps up his work when facing Rush, at one point hitting a heavy body press from the top rope to the floor. Haven't seen him do something like that in awhile. Sombra continues his awesome dick trend of blindsiding guys, really leveling Shocker with a dropkick to the back that Shocker couldn't have seen coming. Right between the shoulder blades, sends him face first into ropes. He and Rush each take their shots on him in the corner with Sombra hitting the running double knees and Rush caving his chest in with a dropkick. Match ends when Rush and Sombra get disqualified for beating the hell out of Shocker for too long, which is really the dry hump of the lucha match finishes.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 4/26/14

These matches were all from the 4/11 Arena Mexico show.

Blue Panther, Valiente & Diamante Azul vs. Terrible, Vangellys & Rey Bucanero

Primera gives us a bunch of Blue Panther/Terrible mat work and it rules. This is maybe the most I've ever seen Terrible hit the mat, and definitely one of Panther's longer mat rolls of the year. It's all really good stuff too, with Terrible working around a keylock and Panther finding ways to reverse out of it. Panther breaks out a cool British style backspin wristlock and a smooth arm drag into a headscissor lock. Terrible yanks on his arm a bunch and BP does simple little things to relieve pressure such as grab his own wrist. Terrible at one point floats over out of a BP head scissors to grab a headlock in one motion. Just a bunch of cool mat stuff from two guys I don't recall going at it on the mat (Terrible almost always sticks to brawling so him looking so damn good on that mat just makes me a bigger Terrible fan). We cut to a Mexican girl in the crowd wearing an Arctic Monkeys trucker hat. That's weird. The match overall is shorter than I would have liked, but was crammed with a bunch of cool moments, even after the awesome Panther/Terrible twisting. Terrible did leaping punches to guys in corners, Valiente plastered Bucanero into the barricade with a dive, Comandante looks slimmed down and was on point with the interference, Terrible kicked some guys in the taint in vicious style (Panther even sold it like he was guesting on Chavo, with an incredible Ay Dios Mio hard sell eyeroll into the back of his head, right at the camera). Killer match.

Puma, Misteriso Jr. & Boby Zavala vs. Fuego, Triton & Sagrado

This might be the absolute shortest three fall lucha match I have ever seen. Maybe Lucha Azteca clipped it (I can't get Dailymotion to play at the moment to see the real match time) but this whole thing was 3 falls in 5 minutes, and that's including the replays of how each fall ended. What in the actual fuck? Misterioso had a cool inverted powerslam, Zavala caught a Triton rana from the ring to the floor, Triton took a cool apron-to-floor bump, Sagrado continued to hold his crown as worst CMLL wrestler (going on several years now), Puma is great and we're done. Where was the fire? (aside from on Fuego's pants)

Rush, Rey Escorpion & La Sombra vs. Negro Casas, Maximo & Volador Jr.

Relevos Increibles matches are almost always fun, as you get to see tecnicos working like rudos and some cool match dynamics. And this match is a blast. Rey Escorpion is a dickhead, you knew that. Rush is a dickhead, you knew that. But La Sombra working rudo is a new favorite of mine. He chose to work rudo not long ago in a singles match against Volador which took a match I was expecting to dread and turned it into something that was super fun (until Volador invincibility took over). Casas is such a joyful rudo that I forget how sympathetic he can be as a tecnico, and how killer his triumphant comebacks can be. You come for Rush stomping and kicking Negro Casas a bunch, and you stay for Sombra being a jerk. At one point he teased taking his shirt off, and when squeals started up he slowly rolled his shirt back down. Yes. Sombra is a total shit kicker here, at one point just destroying Volador into the corner with rapid fire successive left and right elbows (which Volador threatened to ruin with his goof troop dazed selling). Sombra needs to be a rudo NOW. Ever since Volador turned tecnico and also turned horrible the promotion has been missing a highflier/rudo presence. As advertised, Casas took a big beating here, with Rush and Escorpion stomping on him with glee, all leading up to a brief but fired up Casas comeback that saw him thrust headbutt Rush to the floor. Alas, as he's going for his Thesz press off the apron Rush catches him and plants him with a powerbomb on the floor, taking him out of the tercera. Sombra tapes Volador to the corner in real menacing fashion and I like Volador fighting back by catching him with one last superkick, before he gets ganged up on and wins by DQ.  I really dug this. Strong rudo/tecnico dynamics from some real charismatic guys.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 4/19/14

All matches are from the 4/4 Arena Mexico show. We start with an extended 4 minute Feugo entrance, complete with full choreography and a bunch of dancers wearing matching Fuego outfits. But what's odd is that Fuego didn't even wrestle on this card. He just came out, danced to start the show...and then they went to the announcers.



Kraneo, Reapper & Morphosis vs. Mascara Dorada, Mistico & Volador Jr.

Yeah buddy, rolling like a big shot! Kraneo is the man in all this and watching all the fliers gang up on him was a hoot. At one point in the tercera he gets hit by three straight dives; first Volador, then Dorada hitting him vertically all crazy, and then Mistico finally taking him off his feet with a flip dive. But all match Kraneo is ruling with his fatness (loved his running shoulder/belly attack that sent Mistico flying to the floor) and catching ranas as agile as men half his size (which, most luchadors are clearly half his size). Haven't seen Morphosis (former Hysteria) in some time, and he's a good trios member for that team. He and Reapper are really similar so they balance out the fast bumping fatness of Kraneo with cool back elbows and sentons. Dorada and Mistico get to do most of the coolest flying spots here, with Dorada also taking a big bump to the floor that sees him crashing into the barricade. But of course Volador is made out to be the star, despite his stuff not looking as impressive as anybody else's.



Negro Casas, Shocker & Mr. Niebla vs. Rush, La Mascara & Atlantis

Hot match that had everything going for it except for a disappointingly abrupt finish. Up until then it was a hot 15 minutes with everybody ramping up the intensity. Casas has been known to dog it on some Arena Mexico shows, but when he's in a program that matters you can tell he soaks up everything from the crowd. He's practically beaming in his interactions with Rush. The glee on his face as his kicks Rush in the face on the rampway is infectious. Shocker has also been reinvigorated by the Rush feud and has been more electric (har har) the last several months than at any time over the last 5 years. Him running around straight kicking people in the face was beautiful, as were all his assorted elbow drops. Mascara was on the receiving end of several of those kicks and elbow drops, and he took them like a man. Rush of course was awesome in this, kicking face and rubbing into the face of the Arena Mexico crowd. At one point he kicks Casas' butt to the floor and throws him into the crowd, hopping the barricade to soak Casas in random beer glasses he finds. One fan throws his beer at Rush who catches it, then mimes drinking it the way a man would guzzle water handed to him with a mile to go in a marathon. Awesome Rush moment, amongst plenty of others (especially nice was his short thrust hands-free headbutt to Shocker). Everybody got little moments in this, even Niebla got to splat Atlantis with a nasty top rope senton. Ending was abrupt and disappointing, as Shocker forces to straight pins with just a short double leg takedown. Not even a spear either, just a double leg takedown. The one on Rush is while he's holding Casas, so it's supposed to look like Rush getting his legs taken out while Casas falls on him, but the execution doesn't really work. Still, most of the match is killer stuff.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 4/12/14

These matches were from the 3/28 Arena Mexico show.


Volador Jr. vs. La Sombra

This is tecnico vs. tecnico but Sombra wins me over immediately by working as a dick. Jumps Volador on the ramp and when Volador goes for a dive Sombra ole's him right into the barrier. Sombra's electric chair dropped down into a German suplex is a pretty fun goofy move that I assume was either stolen by a tiny indy guy, or stolen from a tiny indy guy. I think I dig rudo-ish Sombra as then he starts off the Segunda with some stiff forearms and some nasty knees on the floor, then takes a nasty spill over the barricade into a beer vendor's tray. Volador follows with a flip dive over the barrier into the crowd and holy shit I'm digging this! They do some silly fighting up on the ropes leading to Volador's frankensteiner, but it was a much better way to get to that move than they usually do (usually a guy gets caught up there, and then not only has to wait for Volador to get in position, they have to hold onto each other to balance each other. ). Sombra has a bunch of cool offense on display here, and I especially dug his running double knees into the corner (like the old Elijah Express) and a fun and goofy backflip mule kick thing. Volador eventually switches on that classic Volador invincibility and just hops up after taking all these moves and does his inverted Canadian Destroyer thing. So that ending blew. But this match was a blast and so much damn better than I was expecting. Sombra working rudo was a touch I wasn't expecting and his work totally made the match.

Mascara Dorada, Valiente & Mistico vs. Euforia, Ultimo Guerrero & Niebla Roja

Maybe my hopes were up really high for this one, as it's for the CMLL trios titles. But this felt like something that could have been a potential MOTY, but instead kinda rushed to the finish line. It had a bunch of cool stuff, and seemed like it would be taking it's time at the beginning, but then flew to the end. Mistico got to shine which is tough to do in a match with Dorada. But damn is Euforia catch the dragon rana one of the crazier spots in lucha. I don't even understand how a human being can stay balanced while catching another human flying at him that fast. This was just odd in that everybody looked fine, the spots all worked, but it just didn't add up to very much for me. A title match should have a little something extra, and while this was good it didn't feel any different than a non-title match between these teams. There was no extra struggle, no real feel of anything important being at stake.

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