Found Footage Friday: RYUMA GO~! BARR~! BRUISE~! HAMADA~! SCORPIOs~! ESTRADA~! ARANDU~! SUPER PUNK~! DIFUNTO~!

Super Punk/Kendo Star/Milo Caballero vs Sultan Gargola/Ulises/Difunto CMLL 1992

MD: I thought this would be uneventful since we only get ten minutes of in, but we come in during the segunda right at the comeback with Difunto's masked ripped to shreds by Super Punk (Luciferno?) and the tecnicos getting some serious justice on the rudos. Super Punk's mask had been ripped as well and between the segunda and tercera they continued to really go at it.This got a little silly with the tercera exchanges (though I ended up kind of wanting to see more Caballero and his unnecessary flipping) before settling down to Punk and Difunto smacking each other in the face again. The finish was great though. In the midst of the brawling, Difunto ended up on one of the refs. Super Punk tried to leap off the top on him and landed on the ref. That let Difunto get in a foul. Pretty creative stuff. Just at a glance, I don't think we get the undercard apuestas match that this hopefully led to. That's a shame. As for the match itself, who doesn't want to watch ten minutes of goofy chaos, right?

Gigante Warrior/Scorpio Jr y Sr vs Solomon Grundy/Gran Hamada/Centurion CMLL 1992

MD: Pretty out there attraction match. I think that Gigante Warrior is Butch Masters who I've spent a bit too much time with in late 90 AJPW. He'd been around a bit by this point and could contribute in a match like this, even if he'd never be your first choice. Scorpio, Sr. always comes off like the world's best possible Rey Mysterio, Sr. opponent in size, shape, and temperment, so take that as you will. Hamada is there to give this a weird WAR feel. Honestly, I almost had the vibe of one of those matches with Porky and Marco Corleone in them, just with less charisma. Hamada, even in 92, still had bursts of explosiveness and some solid strikes. Scorpio, Jr. could match up with anyone on the other side, which says something, I suppose. Centurion didn't exactly impress, however. Grundy was there to get hit by Warrior and splash people in the corner. I'm never not going to have at least some fun with a matchup like this, but your mileage, gentle reader, may vary.

Jerry Estrada/Arandu/Angel Blanco Jr vs Blue Demon Jr/Panterita del Ring/Transformer CMLL 1992

MD: Pretty straightforward match here. Up front, the biggest things to note are how well Estrada and Arandu fit together visually  and that Panterita continued to feel like a big deal locally. Demon did not impress for the most part, but I'm not surprised there. It did surprise me a little how he let Angel Blanco kind of eat him up on the mat (even with simple things) in their initial exchange and had to goad him back for another go around so that they could at least feign evenness before tagging out. Transformer is Super Kendo, I think, and he's got fun gear but didn't stand out a ton otherwise. Estrada's stooging and selling had the announcers proclaim he was out to get the Oscar for Best Actor. Arandu still wasn't afraid to bump out of the ring.

They went around a couple of times in the primera with Demon looking a little better on his second exchange with Angel Blanco. He did have his timing down on the punches on the outside at least. The beatdown in the segunda was solid but probably not long enough in the grand scheme of things and then the comeback and finishing stretch in the tercera was blink and you'd miss it though Demon did hit a tope to set up the finish at least. Nothing egregious but not super interesting either.

Bruise Brothers (Ron and Don Harris) vs Ryuma Go/Jesse Barr Orienal Pro-Wrestling 12/3/92

MD: As best as I can tell, they'd been feuding both in general and over the tag belts and otherwise off and on since July. This was the big blowoff, a Texas deathmatch in a cage, but one that otherwise followed tag rules for the most part, and Ryuma Go's last match in the promotion.

There was a lot going on here but most of it really worked for me. Bruise Brothers were more apt to break the rules and double team while the faces tended to wait for tags though there were a lot of transitions based around the partner having enough and intervening. The Texas Deathmatch rules allowed for any number of big impressive bombs from Ron and Don (assisted powerbomb, double suplex, Slaughter Cannon with a double axe-handle, top rope power slam, etc.) which would lead to the three count and then the drama of whether Go, or for a huge chunk of the match, Barr (who took the broader heat), would be able to beat the count. Mostly everything else would lead to a somehow still dramatic two count.

The Harris Brothers were good at imposing themselves and solid at clubbering even if they were never quite as wild as you'd want. Maybe they made up for it with the big power moves. Early on the cage was the equalizer for Go and Barr (that and Go's headbutts and Barr's fire) but between it and the Deathmatch rules, it never became quite the force I would have wanted. It wasn't a huge part of the beatdown on Barr for instance, just there as part of the connective tissue at times. That's not to say the beatdown and the instances of just barely making the count after some big bomb wasn't compelling, because it was (gushing blood or no; here it was no). I thought it was so well done that my biggest criticism of the match is that he recovered way too soon after the hot tag to set up the finishing stretch (wherein they did this neat belly to back/high angle side slam combo). It also ended on an Octopus Hold, and I get the idea that surrender is probably valid in a Texas Deathmatch but you want to see the count come into play at the end, just like you do the cage; that said, it was really novel to see it used as it was, to ramp up the drama during a face-in-peril segment of a tag match. I can't think of many other tag team Texas Deathmatches and I can say pretty safely that as a proof of concept, there's more there to mine.

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On Brand Segunda: Faarooq vs. Kama! Blue Panther as Rusher Kimura!

Faarooq vs. Kama Mustafa WWF Shotgun Saturday Night 6/20/98

ER: This isn't necessarily a great match, but it's a pretty damn cool match because it is completely different than the short match WWE structure that came over the next 20 years. This feels much more like a WCW match from this era, who had no problems throwing out "slugfest" style matches, and it didn't have any kind of WWE structure tropes (no extended consecutive run of offense from either guy, no chinlock spot to build to a babyface comeback), so the whole thing felt very foreign and unique. Charles Wright is a pretty frustrating wrestler. He was really big (6'6", 300+ lb.) and moved pretty quick, but never had a ton of thump to any of his offense. But this might be the best match I've seen him involved in. Are there actual good Soultaker/Kama/Papa Shango/Godfather matches, in particular singles matches? I can't remember any. Well, here's one. The movement and energy in this whole match was top notch. It was go go go but based around ass beating instead of "kewl moves" and that is the best kind of go go go. There were a couple lariats that felt a little light, but damn does Faarooq come off like a great southern regional babyface here, taking the strap down right as the match starts and working super aggressive. I loved how he whipped Kama around ringside with his belt, hit his nice flying shoulderblock to send Kama to the floor (which lead to a great moment where he missed that same shoulderblock off the top when Kama sidestepped him and smacked him on his way down. Kama works nice body shots and a hard as hell avalanche. Faarooq was a great babyface with the way he would always fight back to transition, but there were several moments where he wasn't a great opponent for Kama, tanking a couple moments with bizarre selling choices. Kama threw nice body shots in the corner and Faarooq didn't even budge for them; later Kama hits a mule kick to the stomach and Faarooq just takes a slow flat back bump from it, which makes zero sense from a physics standpoint. But there's a ton of other stuff that owns and keeps the whole match moving at a pace that WWF heavyweights just didn't often work. Loved Faarooq eating knees on a standing splash, dug a big time mid-ring collision, dug the brawl to count out. This was really good, and wasn't more than a few little things away from being great.

Blue Panther/Stuka Jr./Esfinge vs. Felino/Barbaro Cavernario/Luciferno CMLL 2/12/19

ER: This match had a kind of sloppy, disheveled charm that I really liked, feeling like a lucha version of an opening match All Japan trios that had a couple of the comedy old guys, and a couple young juniors. Blue Panther is finally starting to show his age. Others saw it earlier than I did, but at this point he isn't moving like a guy who is going to be doing three dives and a cool rana in one match. But I love this guy's scruffy face and smiling eyes, and I hope I get to see him be Rusher Kimura forever. Panther has the charisma and ability to be a great Rusher, and that's on display here. He had a fun sequence in the corner with Barbaro, making Milton Berle faces while taking punches, then yanking on Barbaro's hair before jumping off the buckles into a hair drag. He got tangled amusingly when working mat stuff, stumbling like a cute old man when finishing rollups, still working fun sunset flip sequences, and playing to the fans more than anybody. Mildly resurgent Felino is also a thing I really like. He was an early favorite when I started watching lucha 20+ years ago, and then some years later he became the most annoying guy in CMLL. Most annoying guy in a fed that has Volador Jr. is a thing that bummed me out, so I like seeing him work a little harder these last couple years, really ever since his sons gained some prominence. His shtick is a little better (teasing a shirt removal is always a win) and he shows he can still work a fun quick showoff segment, and I like that there's still something there. Barbaro really comes off like a star in matches like these, feels like a guy who will be as big a star as his body will let him. He's not doing splashes from the top to the floor anymore (right!?) but he is still a crazy man, and his fantastic corkscrew press through the ropes to the floor was an incredible looking dive that blows away any dive by Audaz or any of those more brazen fliers. Stuka is a guy who I think I rate higher than most, and I like him in matches like these, feels like a modern guy with late 80s lucha sensibilities. Esfinge hits a really big dive, we get an abundance of funny uncle in an Olive Garden commercial Blue Panther, and it all made me feel the way only lucha can make me feel.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Soberano Jr. + Bonus Negro Casas

1. Soberano Jr./Guerrero Maya Jr./Fuego vs. Felino/Ephesto/Luciferno (CMLL 8/8/17)

ER: Hot Arena Mexico trios where Soberano comes off like a star and Felino has one of those matches where it's suddenly 1997 again. You never know when Felino is going to have one of those memory lapses and slip back into actual awesome worker, but it happens a couple times a year and it's always awesome when it does. Felino was rudo extraordinaire here, showing off by working super fast armdrag sequences with Soberano, showing him up by doing fancier forward rolls, handsprings and rope running tricks, then turning mean and dropkicking him low, stomping him out with his buddies, and sticking him with a powerbomb off the turnbuckles. I have no idea what motivates Felino at this point, but when he shows up, he still shows up. Fuego and Maya hang back more but still get nice moments, Fuego ends the segunda with a trippy little roll up, Maya hits a fast and accurate tope, but the fans are going ape for the Soberano/Felino interactions. Tercera is when Soberano breaks out, flinging Luciferno with a cool slingshot armdrag on the ramp, hitting his Fosbury Flop on Felino. This whole thing is kept simple and everybody works quick. You get smooth work from the tecnicos and classic rudo misdirection worked at actual non-lazy speed, and the fans love it all. I love a hot lucha crowd more than most things in wrestling, and this was a crowd pleaser.

2. Negro Casas/Barbaro Cavenario/Ultimo Guerrero vs. Rush/Valiente/Mistico (CMLL 8/8/17)

ER: You know Casas wasn't going to get shown up by his brother on a hot Arena Mexico card! All of La Peste Negra were busting butt tonight, with Felino turning in his performance of the year, Niebla turning in his most spirited performance I've seen from him this year in the next match, and then Casas turning in a typical great Casas act in the main. The teams are all weird because Rush is on the tecnicos but and Casas is on the rudos, but the stuff between them is gold, peaking with Casas throwing tons of stiff kicks in the corner on Rush. Not long after Rush gets Casas prone in the corner, stops short on the dropkick, waits for Casas to peak out from his fingers, then pops him in the cheek with the toe of his boot. What a jerk. Valiente takes some big spills and works the match essentially nude (his tiny trunks are like awful early 80s bodybuilder Kevin Sullivan levels of yuck), UG acts as a great base for Mistico, Barbaro turns in a wonderfully hammy performance, and the best part of his ham is when it turns suddenly violent, like in the tercera where he catches a Casas Thesz press off the apron and powerbombs him into the ringpost. I don't know what got into the crowd tonight, not sure if a hot crowd made the workers all kick it up a notch, or the hot workers got the crowd going bananas, but this was one of those Arena Mexico night where everything clicked.

3. Barbaro Cavernario vs. Soberano Jr. (CMLL 8/25/17)

ER: Two wild and crazy guys pulling out all the stops in a 10 minute lightning match? Yes, please. The first 6 minutes of this are a total Barbaro mugging, setting the tone right out the gates as he bullies Soberano around the ring with his chin. There's something awkwardly intimidating about him just jamming chin into jawbone and shoving a guy around the ring with it. But Barbaro is totally coconuts and hits this flat out amazing tornillo through the ropes, I mean just a crazy spot for a bulky guy to do. Soberano takes a mammoth back body drop on the floor and the beating continues, with Barbaro hitting some double stomps and a big reverse springboard splash. Even Zacarias hits a 619 (a 55?). Soberano comes back when Barbaro misses a splash on the rampway, and Soberano superkicks him down the ramp (with a big spit take from Barbaro). Soberano - as you might expect - hits a bonkers tornillo off the top of the entrance way, does one of his effortless double springboard ranas back in the ring, and follows that up with a gorgeous Fosbury flop dive to the floor. Crazy. We get some nice nearfalls and reversals: another tornillo crossbody from Soberano; a vicious package vertical suplex by Barbaro that whips Soberano into the mat; a long, uncomfortable slow zoom shot of Zacarias plaintively looking at the action; a super dangerous looking crucifix bomb gets reversed into a rana by Soberano, and then reversed convincingly into a nice roll up nearfall by Barbaro. Sadly the finish features a vintage Tirantes fuck up (seriously get this guy the hell out of CMLL), as Barbaro goes to dropkick Soberano off the top and gets stuck with a powerbomb, which Barbaro clearly kicks out of. Tirantes calls it the finish, even though the two continue with the actual finish. Ugly stuff, all because of one doofus. But this was the best lightning match in a year or so, and not just for the nutso spots. Barbaro was gluing things together nicely and not just moving from spot to spot. Every pin saw him lay a hard fist or forearm across Soberano's jaw, he moved him into position with big strikes and kicks to the back of the head. This wasn't just guys putting on an exhibition, this stuff had meat.

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Lucha Worth Watching 8/1/15 & 10/2/15

L.A. Park & Volador Jr. vs. La Sombra & Pagano AULL 8/1/15

So okay, this isn't "great", because Pagano. Nobody gets excited seeing Pagano's name in a match. He usually pops up against actual good wrestlers, and he himself is not an actual good wrestler. He's essentially an early round CZW Tournament of Death guy, or a guy wrestling the 4 AM slot at a Gathering of the Juggalos. And really this was the tale of two matches. That feels like a sentence I've typed a lot. It's a feeling I often experience. I start a movie, enjoy it, and suddenly things take a turn that I don't care for and I'm left feeling like it was directed by two different people - one who had my interests and one who had Hollywood's interests.  This match had my interests in mind for the first half, and then kind of burned my eyeballs for the second half. Spoiler alert the match is approximately 40 minutes long. But the first half is awesome. The first half is all wild crowd brawling, big bumps, big spots and nasty chairshots. Sombra takes a powerbomb into the crowd, beers get taken from fans, get drank, and then get thrown in faces, every guy throws stiff shots, every guy gets brained with chairs, Park does a huge dive, fans get in the way, it's all awesome. And the whole time I'm looking at that video length and thinking "how the hell are they gonna keep this up for 40 minutes?? Does the match end halfway through and someone just left the camera rolling?" Well, the match kind of grinds to a halt midway through once the action gets back to the ring. Pagano gasses out hard, and somehow manages to bring down three other, capable men in the process. It turns mostly into Pagano setting up spots and then slowly, tiredly but stubbornly and doggedly going through them. Watch himself almost die on a double jump moonsault! Watch his horrible springboard tope en reversa Stunner that Park doesn't really know how to take (and who can blame him). Pagano braining people with chairs and getting punched hard by Park? Awesome. Pagano running through his modern day Sabu spots while barely able to breathe? Dreadful. Sombra comes in and tries to save things by getting dumped brutally on his head by a Volador reverse rana, and Park still breaks out his neat snap powerslam, but the latter half of the match is slow motion moves trading that is not very fulfilling. So tell you what: Watch this, soak in the violence and chaos, and the SECOND you start to dislike it, just move on. Don't look back, don't be a foolish Lot's Wife, just don't look back. You have other pro wrestling to watch. That first half though...

Dragon Lee vs. Luciferno (CMLL 10/2/15)

Tournament lucha: the Nerf football your dog stole and chewed up and half-buried in your sideyard.  So while the matches are mostly a waste, here we at least have Dragon Lee taking tons of stupid bumps. He eats it on a clothesline, eats it on the apron, flies like a loon on a flip dive (later against Shocker he does a wildly misguided flip dive and crashes into the barrier/floor; Shocker looked fatter than ever and noticeably terrible in ring). Luciferno clobbers him, Lee has a deathwish, so of course this is worth watching.

Barbaro Cavernario vs. Ultimo Guerrero (CMLL 10/2/15)

This is only like 3 minutes because tournament lucha hates you, doesn't care much about you, and my birthday was actually 2 months ago but thanks anyway dad. But Barbaro jumps UG and goes wild on him in the corner with punches, then does the worm before getting clotheslined. Later he hits a badass tope through the turnbuckles and UG goes flying blindly into the barrier. Barbaro hates his knees and takes UG's front suplex and Guerrero Special better than most. Fans seemed like they wanted Barbaro to advance.

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CMLL Worth Watching 8/9/15 & 8/28/15

LA Park, Atlantis & Volador Jr. vs. Rush, La Sombra & Dr. Wagner Jr. (8/28/15)

LA Park's big (and he certainly is big...) return to Arena Mexico! The prospect of seeing Rush vs. Park is something that should be high on the wishlist of every lucha fan, and those two together here was magic. Neither holds back, with Park tossing out some nasty headbutts during a headbutt exchange, and several times kicking Rush right in the face. I've seen some people complain about Rush taking liberties, but he never seems to have any problem leaning face first into offense. Park is a tub now, but he still has that Park magic. He still has a way to go to get to full on Kraneo level mega tub. Kraneo is probably better than Park in the ring at this point, but he doesn't have nearly the same level charisma. Clearly we need them to combine fat forces. Anyway, everybody tries to steal the spotlight in this one, and the fans are amped the whole time. Atlantis, Sombra and Volador all took turns seeing who could take the most dangerous ass over crown bump over the rail into the crowd. Sombra did it a couple times. We get all sorts of bullshit leading to the end, all of it pretty fun, with Atlantis going for the Atlantida and accidentally swinging Sombra into the ref, then some ball shots, then Park breaking up a pin by dropkicking the ref (couldn't he have just kicked Sombra....), then a demasking and more ball shots. Park hits a fat guy tope that Rush mans into, Rush hits a gorgeous high speed swan dive, Volador hits a sweet slingshot rana, Wagner hits his somersault dive high and hot on Park, and this whole thing was as good as you expected it to be. I'm not sure if this was a one time deal or not for Park, but I loved seeing him. A Rush feud would be tremendous.

Ephesto, Mephisto & Luciferno vs. Atlantis, Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta (8/9/15)

This is for the trios titles and while it was a fun trios match, it never had the immediacy of a title match. It didn't feel any different from any of the other regular trios matches these teams had around this same time. There was really no drama of any kind. No desperation, no fear over losing the titles, just three falls of standard lucha trios. So that stinks. But the match was fun, so that doesn't stink! Delta is a guy I don't need to see as often as I do, but Maya seems to be steadily improving. I love that one of his regular spots is hitting a super fast dive that sends him into the front row. Here he hits his massive flip dive and then takes out a row of chairs, clotheslining some fan in the process. Ephesto sets up Delta's stuff about as well as possible, even gamely waiting around for his little ropeflip headscissor from the ring to the floor. Atlantis is still super spirited at 53, and at one point he comes in and hits backbreakers on all three rudos with more energy than anybody else showed. All three tecnicos hit stereo dives, but really it was kinda weird how standard the finish to a title match was. They did their dives, Atlantis got back in the ring with Mephisto, and Mephisto hit his top rope pedigree for the win.

Rey Escorpion, Rey Bucanero & Terrible vs. Mistico, Valiente & Volador Jr. (8/9/15)

Super quick paced match with both Reys having a contest to see who could SUWA more rana and headscissors from Mistico and Volador. I think Escorpion wins it, but truly, we ALL win. We. ALL. Win. Escorpion really makes Mistico look maybe the best he's ever looked here, with Mistico getting crazy air on a bunch of stuff and Escorpion catching it all perfectly. Bucanero makes Volador look super smooth. We don't get the usual Escorpion or Terrible violence, although we do get probably the most violent "tie the tecnicos up in knots" posing spot. Tecnicos get all their limbs tangled, Mistico stretched over the top of them, with Escorpion posing on top. I will never complain about a fun bump clinic with excellently hit spots. This is a fun way to spend 10 minutes of your day.

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