Found Footage Friday: ANGEL AZTECA~! MANO NEGRA~! PANTERITA~! MA 2000~! ARANDU~! GARGOLA~! WAGNER~! BLUE FISH~! ESCOBEDO~! MR. TERROR~!

Angel Azteca/Mano Negra/Panterita del Ring vs. Mascara Ano 2000/Arandu/Sultan Gargola CMLL 1992

MD: We've been covering these more or less chronological on when Roy posted them and I don't always check to see if they've been easily available before. I am, however, skipping Mascara Sagrada/Atlantis/Panterita del Ring vs Negro Casas/Jerry Estrada/MS-1 because it wasn't just available but available with better VQ previously. Ah well. This footage has been a lot of fun to go through overall. Monterrey had a pretty wild feel for most matches and this was no different.

Here, though, the focus wasn't on Panterita but on Angel Azteca and Arandu. Obviously one of the big advantages of this footage has been Panterita/Ephesto/Safari/HsN and really getting a better sense of him in this stage of his career as a local hero, but Arandu has quickly become a favorite too. In some ways he looked like Estrada's bulkier brother, the Gordy to his Buddy, but he loved to bump out of the ring just as much. Whereas most guys would fall to the floor on a dropkick or armdrag, he'd go absolutely sailing through the ropes. On the comeback in the segunda here, we don't see how it happened, but when we cut from the ring to the floor, we just see him sprawled over six chairs. Azteca held his own when it was time to chase Arandu around the ring or what not too and obviously, he's the guy who lawn darted him into the seats, even if we didn't see it.

Everyone else was fine here. Mascara Ano 2000 matched his partners well in green. I probably don't give Sultan Gargano's mask with the turban enough credit but he was perfectly solid from what we can see and a natural partner for Arandu and obviously well-practiced working Panterita. Mano Negra really was just there save for one spot in the tercera where he got to punch everyone enjoyably. Panterita had one great flip off the top into a pin to end the segunda too. Finish was fun with Arandu fouling only to drop to the ground selling himself and somehow conning the refs into letting the rudos win. Judging by the objects flying into the ring after the fact, the fans really hated it in the best way.  

Mongol Chino/Blue Fish/Rey Venus vs. Ausente/Luminoso/Chuy Escobedo CMLL 1991

MD: This was undercard stuff and I can't tell you much about the tecnico side past Escobedo. He looked pretty slick here in his exchanges and crazy as he missed a flip dive off the apron to the floor. What probably made this most interesting was how much of local rudo Blue Fish we got to see. No single move or spot stood out, but he was confident and assertive, always in the right place at the right time. Chino was a solid cheapshot artist and did a really nice plancha over the top. While things ended with Fish and Austene after everyone else cleared out with the dives, there was never a clear central story that I could pick up on. The rudos ambushed early, the tecnicos came back, and things went more even for the tercera, sure, but there wasn't one pairing that seemed to be at the center of everything. Amusingly, rudo-leaning ref Guerrero got wiped out into Chino on the outside and the two were at odds for the rest of the match, only making things easier for the tecnicos. This one wasn't essential but I have a better feel for Blue Fish now at least.

 

Super Punk/Platino/Asterisco vs. Dr. Wagner Jr/Alacran/Mr. Terror CMLL 1991

MD: Luchawiki is not a ton of help here. For Mr. Terror it basically tells us that he exists. For Alacran (the Scorpion), it basically says that he existed and was thought to be poor. The Asterisco noted is a Reynosa guy but the mask checks out. Despite what the on screen graphic says, "Latino" is "Platino," and he's got some great gear and robotic taunting. I'll be honest that I spent the whole match tracking Mr. Terror hoping he'd do something cool and it never quite happens. Really, the interesting thing here is that Asterisco eats a nasty toss into the chairs (something common for this footage, right?) at the end of the comeback in the segunda and gets taken to the back and it becomes 3 on 2 with the rudos having a deficit. They were booked to win too and I don't know if it's because Wagner's the biggest name or what, but they didn't switch it. So you get some fun stuff of Wagner and Terror fighting for their lives to try to keep as much advantage as possible with double teams and fouling and attacking people on the outside when they really should have been in heavy deficit. They definitely didn't come up with any narrative reason why the third guy wasn't turning the tide except for the ref occasionally holding him back. And then they won it after a dive and a caverneria by Terror. Post match, Super Punk blew off an interview because there was no way of talking to the match without looking like a chump.

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New Footage Friday: CMLL Handheld 11/25/95

Migra I/Migra II vs. Mexican Blanco/Súper Diablo (Erin O'Grady/Spike Dudley)

MD: I almost skipped this but I'm glad I didn't. It was a very fun opener. Blanco and Diablo were pretty creative and the Migras were solid bullies who weren't afraid to give and stooge. Very emotive and into what was happening. This followed southern tag structure more than you'd expect and the Migras looked like a million bucks in the heat. There were some wild and effective but very unfortunate acrobatics (the sort that land you on your own head) by the babyfaces but ultimately this was all pretty satisfying stuff for an opener.

PAS: I am guessing this was an all APW match. Diablo was listed on the file as Erin O'Grady (Crash Holly) and I am guessing Blanco was Matt Hyson (Spike Dudley). I assume La Migra was a pair of APW guys too (maybe Mike Modest and Maxx Justice). These guys all worked really well together, with Holly and Spike bumping like you would expect those guys to do, flying super high on monkey flips and eating shit on clotheslines. There were a bunch of dives which looked totally reckless in an awesome way, lots of flips which looked seconds away from killing both the guy who took it and the guy who dove. I really liked the German suplex which finished the match, fun stuff from some green guys who would go on to do things.

ER: Phil is right, this is definitely Modest and Justice as La Migra, a gimmick that has somehow sustained itself in northern and southern California indies. Modest and Justice were the first ones doing the gimmick, and after they stopped using it someone else would use it. even Brian Cage was a member of La Migra at one point in the 2010s. I'm not 100% certain that Matt Hyson is the non Erin O'Grady here, but my only other guess would be Chris Cole (I don't think Hyson ever had the muscle the non O'Grady had, and the offense didn't seem like Hyson's from this era). And this match is really great. This ranks among the best APW stuff I've seen, and I've seen more of it than most. Modest was so polished just a few years in, he really was a natural. But Maxx Justice/Mike Diamond also should have gone places and did bigger things. He was a legitimately intimidating dude with a great angry face, tall, with a big upper body (his day job was throwing luggage around for an airline, which feels like a great workingman's job that a 60s/70s regional babyface like The Crusher would have). But he takes moves really well from flyers. He caught dives and saved a huge rana from the top rope to the floor, and had this great base moment where he cut extremely low on a lariat before catching O'Grady. O'Grady had some crazy stuff, a guy who really did deserve to make it. He gets alleyooped into a dragon rana, hits a great tope, tope con hilo, that rana to the floor, all really big stuff for this era, and he also took two big bumps off the apron skidding across the floor. Hyson/Cole/whomever had some wild stuff too, great somersault senton off the apron and from the middle buckle to the floor, and hits a nice tandem dive with O'Grady. La Migra actually felt like a dangerous gimmick to be working in Los Angeles, feels like a thing that could have got Modest jumped. This match really showed the level of talent in mid 90s bay area indies,  incredible to get talents like this all at once, when you looked at what other American indies looked like in 95/96.


Los Brazos vs. Apolo Dantés/Pirata Morgan/Satánico

MD: This was just the second match on the card. The fans were familiar here and knew what they wanted and what they were getting, which was heaping amounts of Porky. The Primera had a bit of feeling out and one rudo swarm tease (the Brazos rushed in) before the rudos went cheap on a handshake and took over for real with triple teams. The segunda was a long bit of FIP heat, cutting off the ring, before the Brazos had enough and rushed forth. I'm not sure I'd have been as okay with that with normal tecnicos (as it defies logic more than having a thematic beatdown on one wrestler after another) but there's such a chaotic element to the Brazos that it worked. Most of the match was in the tercera, with Oro fighting off everyone and Porky doing a lot of comedy before they launched the dives. Satanico hit a nestea plunge off the apron on the far side of the ring which I don't think I've ever seen him do and somehow adds to his legend. They were chanting for Porky to dive well before it was his turn. The finish was fun as it was one of those everyone gets pinned out of a multi-man submission spots that never actually works and did here. I always appreciate that. The fans appreciated all of this and money was tossed in post match. There was literally no way this was going to be bad given who was in there.

PAS: Brazos are maybe the greatest formula wrestlers of all time. Nothing is more enjoyable then watching them do their match, you don't need any extra juice, the rudos really just have to show up. This match however had two first ballot hall of fame rudos and Dantes who was a king in the 90s. So not only to we get awesome Brazos stuff, but there is so true class to play off of. Satanico is a great Super Porky opponent, very comfortable with playing along, but also willing to get really nasty when it is desired. That Cactus elbow off of the apron was a true Holy Shit moment. We get some big time Pirata bumps too, and Dantes hits a great looking Superfly splash. Porky is of course a joy, he was at both peak fat and near peak agility at this point, and he hits his top rope dive so hard he nearly bounces out of the ring, he also reverses a double wrist lock by springboarding off the top rope into a flip, mind bending stuff from a guy who looks like Homer in the Simpson episode he got Obese to get on disability.


Silver King/Vampiro vs. The Headhunters

MD: This cuts off midway through the segunda, so all we really get is a mauling by the Head Hunters. Really, though, that's all we needed. They were tremendously effective at what they did. Not much more to say here except for that the crowd really wanted to get behind the tecnicos and that Silver King was one of the top guys in the world at working the apron and milking a moment at this point.

Atlantis/Héctor Garza/Pantera vs. Eddy Guerrero/Emilio Charles Jr/Felino

MD: I really liked this. Captains are Atlantis and Charles, and they set the tone immediately by having Charles get a cheapshot in on Atlantis during the announcements. After a brief exchange early where Atlantis gets the advantage, he dodges him for much of the rest of the match (though runs all the way around the ring into a quebradora as the tecnicos take the primera). The other main pairings are Felino and Pantera which works out quite well and Eddy and Garza which starts off a bit slow but on the second and third time through gets great. Late Garza is one of my favorite wrestlers period, so sometimes I don't give Early Garza enough credit, probably, but the point of comparison is always Eddy. I have no idea why the latter is here as he'd been working WCW for a few months now, but I'm not complaining. Once he really unleashes the rudo fury on him (after Felino sneaks in a foul on Pantera to turn the tide in the segunda), the beating is primal. Guerrero refuses to pin him after a nasty, wild powerbomb and then superplexes him and has Felino hold him down for the frog splash. Between falls, he slaps him and hits the brainbuster and locks in a STF for good measure. The comeback is a little all over the place, with Atlantis fighting to get his mask back on and just whipping Charles (who cries foul) around the ring, but Garza sliding all the way from one side of the screen, through the ring, to the other to get revenge on Eddy is great stuff. I could have used another minute or two of comeback, but Pantera gets to creatively upstage Felino, Atlantis gets the decisive win with the Atlantida on Charles, and post match, Eddy perfectly catches Garza on his signature dive. Post match, after the other rudos had left, Eddy wants a shake and Hector gives him one and it felt a little like a passing of the torch even if the real points of comparison would come years later. Always something to see here and it was always something worth seeing.


Mascara Ano Dos Mil vs. Rayo de Jalisco Jr.

MD: Phil's already covered the Casas vs Santo match elsewhere, so this is our de facto main event. Lucky us. Look, it's been a while since I've willingly watched a Rayo match, especially a singles match, but the flip side of that is that it's been so long that maybe I'd be happily surprised? I love how if you go to the official ELP youtube page and find "Touch and Go" almost all of the first comments are in Spanish and about the Dinamitas. This is, obviously, a completely bullshit title match. Instead of matwork in the primera, there's lots of competent Mascara Ano stalling and a bunch of dancing foolishness by Rayo. There are basically two holds, one to stooge Mascara so he can go out and stall again, and one to finish it. The segunda is even less substantial, just a couple quebradoras, a couple of whips, and a missed top rope move by Rayo. My favorite spot in all of this was probably Rayo hitting two bouncing grounding headbutts and then comedically missing the third. My other favorite bit was him accidentally diving on the wrong person twice. We didn't even get Mascara punching him a bunch. This was not good lucha and I was not happily surprised.

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New Footage Friday: Porky vs. MA2K for HAIR, Negro Casas, Great Sasuke, Gypsy Joe, Takashi Ishikawa

Dream Machine/Gypsy Joe vs. Takashi Ishikawa/Akio Sato AJPW 1/20/83

MD: This was good stuff. I really like the team of Dream Machine and Gypsy Joe. Joe's so matter-of-fact, just a meat and potatoes, pound and stooge stalwart of the wrestling world. Dream Machine in Japan is a constant treat. He puts a little extra into everything. That may be an extra reversal on an armdrag or the oomph on a knee drop when he could have just gotten away with a stomp or that nasty (really just unnecessary for the match but over the top vicious) chairshot on the outside. This was mainly back and forth but I liked how Joe/DM controlled matters when on offense and the escalation felt surprisingly flashy, including the Sato/Ishikawa veg-o-matic (1983, folks), and the near deadlift German that ended it.

PAS: I am a big Ishikawa guy, and it is really fun to watch him and Gypsy Joe mix it up. Those are a pair of guys who throw hard down the middle shots, and Joe especially always feels like he is taking liberties. Loved the idea of Jimmy Hart's First Family invading japan, and that Ishikawa and Sato were willing to go along with the ride and give as good as they get. Finish with Onita attacking Joe makes me sad we never had a Gypsy Joe run as a top heel in FMW.


Negro Casas vs. Great Sasuke CMLL 7/7/96

MD: This is not 100% new, but it's definitely 100% rare and absolutely 100% worth watching. It's just an amazing Negro Casas performance. The first fall has him working pretty evenly on the mat with Sasuke, though they're both emphasizing the pain and the struggle very well. As I was watching, my thought of them really letting things build and breathe was disrupted by an out of nowhere superplex, but it worked, because of the 2/3 fall structure and because it operated as a tonal shift. That let Sasuke get the first real advantage of the match and take the first fall.

While that first fall was technically competent, things start to sing in the second as Casas the beloved troublemaker rudo is fully unleashed. It starts with chinlocks and headscissors and Casas, at each and every point, claiming it's a choke and getting the ref to break it. Ultimately, Sasuke gets frustrated and starts stomping, but Casas then trips himself in the corner (repeatedly) whenever he's near Sasuke's second, until the ref gets wholly distracted and Casas is able to slip in a perfect foul.

The tercera has Casas pressing the offense, including some immediately blown off legwork (this is the big flaw of the match, but you sort of forgive it because of who Sasuke is and the fact that Casas could only get so far with it before eating an asai moonsault), and then, after more chicanery and fouls (wherein he claims to be fouled himself), he ultimately takes a far too nonchalant approach to things, pays for it, almost loses, and comes back at the last second with la casita for the win. Sasuke has some fire in this, but he generally comes off as an out-of-his-element tourist who's getting fleeced by a savvy local. There's no one else in the world who could have done what Casas did in this match in 1996. I can count on my hand the people in all of history that I think could marry this level of technical skills and emotiveness with presence and just a sheer mastery of every moment without having anything feel contrived and over the top. What's crazy is that he could still probably have 95% of this match today.

ER: What a little treat! Two legends I have never seen face each other, on Casas' home turf, with Casas turning in one of the most generous rudo performances possible. This is a dominant Sasuke performance, Casas gives him at least 90% of the match, and it totally works. This is black tights Casas, which is my favorite Casas look ever, playing not so much a sniveling rudo, but a rudo who is going to focus his energy on cheating even when his focused energy could potentially win decently. It's great. Sasuke dominates the entire primera with matwork, and it's cool seeing Japanese juniors matwork in a lucha ring, nicely stretched half crabs and hard armbar attempts, and Casas is someone really great at putting over that kind of matwork. He repeatedly gets outclassed by Sasuke, and this is last time I'll mention how unselfish he was here, just a luchador with the most confidence possible, letting a flashy junior come in and show off all his coolest stuff. The segunda is where Casas - while still letting Sasuke handle almost all the offense - focuses much of his attention on making Tiger Mask look like a cheating son of a bitch, and it's hilarious. He had four different moments where he would act like TM was swiping his leg from the floor. 

The first time I actually thought TM had just missed his mark and Casas was a pro and just be the guy committed to pretending he got hit by a pitch to take his base. When he went back and did it again I saw what he was doing, and LOVED it. Casas was using imaginary trips to distract the ref while Casas could then go punt some ninja in the balls and I was 100% here for it. Sasuke kicking out of a ball kick in Mexico feels like a pretty big deal, and kicking out of a second shot was beyond the pale. Who is this ninja with the invincible scrotum, whose second has the fastest hands in the west? The Sasuke highspots were expectedly impressive, with his big Asai moonsault into the narrow entryway, always connecting so cleanly chest to chest; he hit his tumbling moonsault in ring, and a Bruce Lee style kick off the top to the floor that sent himself into a seat and Casas sprawled down an aisle. Casas hit a gorgeously cocky senton off the top rope (taunting fans as he climbed the turnbuckles), and had a couple big bumps: one fast to the floor off a dropkick, the other late in the match flying off the top rope to the floor off another dropkick, with Casas landing directly on a photographer who humbly gets up and scampers off. But the star of this was Casas repeatedly making Tiger Mask defend his honor, the innocent man accused of guilt, sounding only more and more guilty the more he defends himself. Casas was writing a Hitchcock script around leg swipes and dick kicks.

PAS: All timer by Casas, what an incredible performer. We get to see all of the facets of Casas as a world class rudo, the technical back and forth mat work of the first fall, leads into an award winning performance as a trolling heel, loved how when he fouls Sasuke, he fakes a foul on himself just to muddy the waters and confuse the ref. Later Casas is a generous base for all of Sasuke's crazy highspots, and a violent bastard as he tears up Sasuke's knee. He delivered it all and it was great. Sasuke was a fine dance partner and loved when ever he was ripping apart Casas' knee. Really wish we could have seen Casas against other imports at this time, you get sense he could deliver a great match which virtually anyone.


Super Porky vs. Mascara Ano 2000 CMLL 8/7/98


MD: Super minimalist affair, and generally I'm ok with that because you know it'll be super primal as well, but here I wanted a little move of everything. That's not because I felt unsatisfied but because the bits and pieces we got were so good; unfortunately, they were just bits and pieces. Porky came out charging, just bullying MA2K around the ring and it's a sort of triumphant, dominant Porky that you rarely see, just meaty shots and no mercy. He just took the primera too quickly. He was so dominant that you had to wonder how MA2K could even get back in it, and it went the only way it could, with a missed move off the ropes. The heat here was very brief, the comeback definitive but also too sudden to really enjoy. That led to MA2K loading up the arm-brace and smashing Porky repeatedly until he couldn't fight back. All good ideas. All good execution. We just needed more of it.

PAS: Really hard hitting heavyweight apuestas match, which didn't have enough juice or time to get really great. Porky comes out like a freight train and bowls over Ano for the entire first fall, which is an interest look for a technico in an apuestas match. It reminded me of Dusty Rhodes or Bill Watts walking tall over bumping heels. I loved the dominant first fall, and was fine with the banana peel segunda, and liked the finish with the loaded brace, and Porky's spasmodic selling. I just wished we got some real back and forth before that finish, it feels like we were robbed a dramatic Tercera, and instead they just went right into the finish at the beginning of the fall. Still a fun discovery

ER: I LOVED THIS! Now, there is one absolutely cruel moment to start, and that is that this is a big apuestas match, and we did not get to see ring entrances. You need that pomp, you need to see Mascara coming out with Universo wearing their dusters and suits, and Porky appeared to have a cape with a head and chest piece, and we saw next to none of it! And that is the only mistake they made, because the match itself features another flat out brilliant Super Porky performance. Phil has called Porky arguably the most entertaining wrestler of all time, and you see performances like this and it's hard to argue. What's amusing is Porky has long been a favorite of mine, but this and the other Porky match we've reviewed for NFF have been among my absolute FAVORITE Porky matches. Which means I loved the guy without ever even seeing some of his greatest work, and now I am just over the moon. I have never seen Porky work the mat like he does here, and it's the best. It's so cool seeing him break out these skills, stretch that muscle memory, and even use his belly to his advantage! That Indian deathlock spot was class, the way he locked Mascara's leg and applied pressure while rolling through, and after when he held Mascara's legs in place with his stomach! 

All of Porky's exchanges looked fantastic, just momentum and charisma crashing into Mascara. His energy level was really a sight in the 90s, and then seeing him drop a nice vertical suplex and following with a Perfect Plex is just next level? Super Porky, dropping someone with a Perfect Plex? YESSSSS. He is just so damn fun here. I am a big Mascara fan as well, and he knows to lay back during this one, total foil for Porky's antics. He lets Porky handle the offense, because Porky has spectacular offense, capitalizes on things like Porky missing a huge senton off the top. And I loved all the shenanigans around the loaded arm wrap. I loved how obvious Universo and Mascara were being about it, the very concept of a discreetly hidden weapon trick thrown out the window. But I loved the Snidely Whiplash dastardly gall, and Mascara comes in a clocks Porky right in the throat, and then does it again. I dug Porky's spasm-y selling while Mascara struts around the ring, brazen in his rudo behavior. This was great.  

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Negro Navarro's Bloodsport 10/27/18

ER: So, Negro Navarro ran a show inside an octagon, for reasons I personally do not know. But I've never seen lucha take place in an octagon. I've seen plenty of lucha cage matches (which are mostly dreadful) and plenty of Octagon (which I couldn't say is completely dreadful) but never lucha in an octagon. This feels worth writing about (even though it is almost certainly going to be dreadful). The show was not actually called Bloodsport, but it probably had some kind of name like Arena Lopez Collision Course! so we'll instead go with Bloodsport.

Explosivo/Murcielago vs. Dankar/Fuerza Ballenata

ER: Well, yep, it's certainly weird. The first part of the match is normal, as it's mostly in the center of the cage and has the guys pairing off doing the kind of lucha exchanges that you'd expect. There's more mat stuff, more arm drags, more standing work around arm twists and blocking hip tosses. It's weird because the partners are just standing inside the cage off to the edge, waiting for their turn. It doesn't turn into a full tornado match until halfway through, and then it gets amusing as we get rope running exchanges with no ropes. So guys are bouncing off the cage, or just working more clever start/stop spots, rolling away to get distance before running back to do quicker lucha spots. I have next to no clue who any of the guys are. I think I have one of them figured out - the stout rudo has "Fuerza Ballenata" across his back, which would seem to be a strong indicator that he is Fuerza Ballenata...but he also has the Batman logo on his shirt. Murcielago = Bat. It's as if these guys weren't even thinking about the white men who would be writing up this show at a later date. There are no sure things. The guy in gold (Explosivo?) took some nice bumps into the cage, Ballenata threw a couple decent low dropkicks and bumped big off a dropkick to his own knee, and one match in we're definitely already feeling confined by the octagon.

Baronessa/Lolita vs. Chika Tormenta/Ludark Shaitan

ER: Also having to guess who is who here. I was hoping one of them would have a Nabokov shirt on or something and then we could move from there. But I'm gonna pretend Tormenta is the blond bully, and this was pretty fun. As in the first match, I think the one on one portions are strong but things get messy once it breaks down into a tornado tag. We need the partners standing awkwardly in their respective corners. I cannot wait for the trios on this card as you'll just have bulky guys lurking around the edges of this very large octagon. I liked the standing exchanges, and Lolita-or-Baronessa had some nice arm work, a few cool ways to work into an armdrag, nice back elbow and she also takes a nice face first bump into the cage. Tormenta has a really impactful dropkick and nice big boot and a cool inverted Samoan drop, and Tormenta/Ludark work a backcracker/chestbreaker combo that doesn't come off forced and looks good. Ludark takes a suplex at a nice high angle and throws a nice butterfly suplex of her own. This was fun.

Demus 3:16/Pasion Cristal vs. Angel Del Amor/Jessy Ventura

ER: This octagon is really proving to be quite a hindrance, as so far all three matches would have been much better inside a normal ring. I am now regretting watching this entire show, and not just the intriguing main event (which was the only reason I even found out about this show). But also, the matches have gone on entirely too long. 18 minute una caida matches in a limiting environment feel eternal, and every match so far has been allotted way too much time. More than anything, this made me want to see a Demus/Jessy singles. I believe this is my first time seeing Ventura (and Jessy Ventura is a GREAT exotico name) and I came away impressed. She has great dramatic exotico chops and slaps, really laces in with stomps and kicks, cut out the knees on a cool backdrop, and seems like someone who would be great within an actual ring. Her brawling with Demus was a real highlight of this, as was her putting the boots to Cristal, as was her 0.8 Zeuxis level hair. Demus didn't go fully enraged honey badger, but it was telling that 15 (!) minutes into this when the octagon door got opened and the combatants started spilling out I thought "oh this might actually be picking up!" This was not bad, the exoticos and Demus looked good (though all seemed completely thrown by not be able to time rope running, and there was a weird botch where Cristal just kind of fell off a cage after taking awhile to get up there), but at least they brought some unique elements to a restricting environment: crowd brawling, and brawling on top of the octagon. And it should be noted that while the octagon is a problem so far, the real problem may be the continued insistence on working traditional lucha style within the octagon. If the matches had all been worked more appropriately to their confines and focused far more on shorter matches structured around matwork, this could have been killer.

Heddi Karaoui/Zumbi vs. Francois/Pierre Montanez

ER: This definitely felt like the most wholly realized version of the show's gimmick so far. Francois and Montanez come off much more like MMA guys in a lucha environment whereas everyone else on the show have been lucha guys uncomfortably doing lucha in an MMA cage. This match seemed to get the vision right. It was kept to 8 minutes and was almost entirely a tornado tag with guys pairing off working submissions concurrently, with some fun moments of pro wrestling thrown in. It felt exhibition-y, but in a mean aggressive way. The transitions made up for lack of real struggle with what looked like some actual pain, which is good! Karaoui and one of the MMA guys trade armbars and Zumbi is watching from a distance and is really great at getting involved, with my favorite moment being Zumbi running in and breaking up a sub with a hard dropkick. The chaos on this was cool as it looked like 4 guys doing gym sparring so there always looked like danger, with the fun added element of a partner trying to rush over when things got dangerous. Two moments showed that these guys knew how to come up with neat ways to utilize the octagon setting more than anyone else on the card (so far): Early on Karaoui threw an MMA guy into the cage and hit him with a great belly to belly as the guy was recoiling from the cage; and for the finish Zumbi locked in a triangle but was picked up and swung into the cage a few times before sinking in the triangle for the stoppage. I liked Zumbi's energy in this, throwing strikes and mixing up subs, and Karaoui worked some tough looking holds with both MMA guys. If the whole show was like this, I would be recommending this show.

Ricky Marvin/Estudiante Jr./Hijo Del Solar vs. Trauma I/Trauma II/Hijo del Fishman

ER: We're getting a little warmer, but this concept is still dead in the water. The ring ropes can provide such visual distance and now it's just every single person involved in the match standing inside the octagon, off to the side. Someone will lock on a nice submission, but teammates are literally standing a few feet away against the cage, so nothing has time to breathe. Traumas both at least understand that the way to make this work is to just work stiff, so they mostly avoid the prior "just try and work bad lucha without any of the ropes that make it work" and just beat down Hijo del Solar. A lot of this is them cutting off the octagon and stiffing Solar Jr. . Marvin shows good spunk but all of his spectacular spot potential is taken away by the cage, so he does a really nice dropkick and a less successful crossbody off the top. I really liked the Traumas here, but this is a tough style to work with, and they were more successful than most. They really started throwing hard shots (T1 bullied Solar Jr. through the cage door and dragged him back in) and T2 was using the cage to work takedowns, but everyone being so close means there is no drama for submissions.

Negro Navarro/Mascara Ano 2000/Scorpio Jr. vs. Solar/Mano Negra/Canek

ER: We made it! We made it to the end of this cursed show that I was tricked into watching by Siobhan. And this match and the prior were the ones that excited me enough to fall for the obvious trick. But man this match was a bummer. These guys are old, and I love old man matches, but these guys were old old. And what's annoying, is that we were one guy away from having a legitimately 60-and-up match. Scorpio Jr. is 52 (and moves as if he was the 5th oldest in the match) and fucks up everything. However, the mean age of the participants is 61, so make no mistake this match is still filled with old as fuck luchadors. Mascara is easily the most feisty, taking far and away the most bumps on the clearly hard as hell mat. But Mascara took rolling armdrags and was the only one keeping the rhythm tight when the match broke into classic comedy routines. This whole show had been clunky shootstyle and clunky lucha, and it's like Mascara noticed that and fell back on an old routine, an established stand up falling back on greatest hits from their first special. The rudos all accidentally chop each other when tecnicos move, and they work in a genuine funny moment when Mano Negra (masked) is holding Scorpio Jr.'s arms behind his back, and Mascara sneaks in behind Negra aiming to kick him, and Negra turns around as Mascara comically holds back on his kick so as not to kick Scorpio. Navarro repeats the bit. It's a funny bit done by old pros, in the middle of a lucha octagon. But this was rough. Canek is the elder statesman of this group, and while he looks cosmetically in impressive shape for a 67 year old, he moves slower than maybe any wrestler I've seen. He came off slower than late career Andre or Baba. He could barely lift his arm to throw a couple lariats and couldn't hit with any ounce of force, and his best armdrag was him holding out his arm to his side and falling to the mat, as Mascara held the arm and rolled through it like he was being tossed by a legend. Canek was kind of sad here, but weirdly inspiring as he still looked resplendent as fuck in his luminescent deep orange tights. Canek slammed Andre. I'm cool with him throwing bad lariats several years into AARP eligibility. Solar also looked slick as hell; his gray, black, and dashes of red ensemble made him look like an asskicking NES, and as you can imagine we did get moments of he and Navarro doing their thing. Not as many as you'd think (Navarro disappeared entirely for large portions of this), though Solar's climb up victory roll was a cool as hell move for a guy in his 60s to pull off. This was not good, but had some moments of inspired surreality, and made me like Mascara Ano Dos Mil somehow even more than I already do.

This was a show with some genuine, weird on paper appeal to it. But no match on this card benefitted in any way from that damned octagon, and here we are at the end of the show when we wind up saying aloud, "literally every one of these matches would have been better in an actual ring." I am dedicated to viewing weird things people tell me to view. But goddamn, people. Appreciate my efforts, please.

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CMLL Juicio Final 5/31/19

ER: This show had THREE big stips matches (including a rare retirement match) and all the non-stips matches have on paper potential, so I figured I may as well write up the whole show!

Disturbio/Misterioso Jr./Kawato vs. Rey Cometa/Blue Panther Jr./Black Panther

ER: Quick opener that manages to pack a lot of fireworks into its short runtime. Cometa is out dressed like Johnny Depp's Tonto, a weirdly underrated movie. I'm going to need someone to start wearing Alita: Battle Angel gear to draw some more attention to that one. This is a match that tried to open the show with some big spots and delivered. BP Jr. is gassed to the gills and is starting to work more like Gronda and his father. I'm cool with that as it leads to great moments like him pouncing Kawato over the top rope into Disturbio (who was standing on the ramp). Cometa hit a big 450, huge tornillo to the floor, big crossbody off the entrance stairs (with Black Panther); Kawato hit a big flip dive over the ringpost, Misterioso is basing all over the place, and Kawato gets to yank Black Panther's mask for the DQ. This didn't have a ton of substance but was a nice junkfood snack.

Ephesto/Luciferno/Mephisto vs. Soberano Jr./Niebla Roja/Angel de Oro

ER: This was the match on the card I was least interested in, and it certainly played as something I shouldn't have been interested in. Niebla Roja and Angel de Oro may be my least favorite guys in CMLL, with Roja being a greater offender. I hate how they quit on all of their offense, it always feels like they're running through a practice exhibition and putting 100% of the work on the rudos' shoulders. Roja and Oro move with these big looping gestures, quit 75% of the way through on their ranas, aim to land as gently as possible on everything, all of their offense looks like how guys run through sequences backstage. It puts the rudos in a pretty thankless spot, as these two are only entertaining when rudos beat the shit out of them (which thankfully does happen in some matches, just not here). Roja hits a flip dive, Soberano (who I like much more than these two goofs) hits his Fosbury Flop, but this was a showcase for two guys I don't care to see showcased.

4. Career vs. Career! Virus vs. Metalico

PAS: There is nothing I love more then a random luchador given a big showcase match and stepping all the way up. Metalico has been a random undercard guy for years, and he gets a chance to fight for his career against an all time great and comes up huge. Two pretty great looking topes, an Asai moonsault and a nutty dropkick off the apron, he threw it all out there. I loved how they both stretched the rules, the ref wasn't DQing someone in a one fall career match, so they were throwing hard right hands to the face. Virus is one of the greatest singles match luchadores ever, and he is so great here, he gives Metalico plenty of shine, but comes off so dangerous. There are multiple moments where he just whips out a slick counter into a vicious submission, he was like a devastating counter puncher, any mistake his opponent would make its lights out. Loved that we didn't get a bunch of traded near falls near the end, just Metalico dying on his shield. Small arena lucha libre has been my favorite stuff over the last couple of years, but there is nothing in wrestling like an Arena Mexico match with real consequences, and I was so glad we got this.

ER: I've been a big Metalico drum beater for several years now. He's an undercarder who is basically the only CMLL undercarder who works Memphis stooging into lucha matches. He's a comedy rudo that doesn't really exist much anymore, and I love what he brings to a card. He's not the kind of guy to get long singles matches - or singles matches in general (I'm not sure I've seen a singles match of his since he lost his mask 4 years ago) - and here he gets to have an awesome dying in the ring performance against one of the all time best. Metalico breaks out every single thing he ever learned, from his ring entrance to highspots he hasn't broken out in years, and the crowd gets more and more involved and excited by his absolute refusal to quit. Metalico gets more and more tired as the match goes on - he's not a long singles match guy - and that just adds to his perseverance and desperation. You look at the difference between Metalico's two dives in this match: the first one, early in the match and filled with confidence, sending Virus into the barricade; the second one, late in the match, exhausted, Metalico does more damage to himself by just doing the dive. From minute one Metalico looks like a guy who has no real chance at beating Virus, and at times it looked like Virus was almost just letting Metalico have a respectable showing before letting him know just how quickly he could put a stop to his bullshit. Metalico started breaking out things he hasn't done in years, like a picture perfect Asai moonsault and a rana off the apron, and he started making headway on the bottom end as well. Phil noted how refs were being loose with DQ calls in a single caida big stips match, and I liked how each guy kept pushing the boundaries, hitting closed fist punches to the jaw, dropping a headbutt to the balls, and I loved Metalico's dickish combos where he would punch Virus and also kick him right on the inside of his knee. Metalico was tired but that just made him hit harder. There was a spot in the corner where he was supposed to flip over the ropes to dodge a charging Virus, but when his gas tank wouldn't allow him he merely opted to hit one of the most savage back elbows I've seen. Virus was a monster on the mat and was going to outclass Metalico at every opportunity, so Metalico had to play a little more dirty. But unfortunately for Metalico, Virus doesn't have to get dirty to do damage. When Virus locked in a gross STF, Metalico reaching for the ropes as his literal only chance of survival, Virus grabs that reaching arm and adds that to the pain. I thought it was the finish for sure. I loved desperate, last stand Metalico, and loved how the crowd kept getting excited as he kicked out of a sick vertebreaker and getting flipped off the top, the fans fully buying into Metalico refusing to step away forever. This was a wonderful display of character and storytelling, and I'm glad Virus was there to send my boy off into the sunset.

Hair vs. Hair! Kaho Kobayashi vs. Amapola

ER: I really liked this, and it wouldn't have taken a tong more to get this on a list. I thought the ending was building to something, and what we got was more abrupt than I wanted. But this was a great Amapola performance, with Kaho making up for her shortcomings with great energy and a willingness to be lead around by Amapola. I like Kaho and thought this was a good showing for her, and it felt like the Arena Mexico crowd was getting behind her effort while knowing she had no chance of leaving the ring with hair. This felt like when they let Virus lead a younger luchador through a match, and the younger luchador gets some surprising moments while overall getting worked by Virus. Amapola as Virus is something she can easily handle, she's clearly been one of the top CMLL ladies as long as she's been in the division, and showcase singles are somewhat rare for the women. You could see her really leading Kaho through - at one point she essentially moved herself through a complex pin combo - but she was generous and I think that helped Kaho thrive. This was all about the tercera as the first two falls went very quickly, but there were highlights throughout. Each hits a real rib breaking spear, with Kaho snapping Amapola in half to start and Amapola returning that favor in the tercera. Amapola was really awesome, crushing Kaho on a dive (Kaho kind of gets made fun of for bad catching skills, but she got smooshed here), hitting a hard dropkick to the spin as Kaho was trapped in the ropes, and later Amapola wraps herself around a ringpost violently so that Kaho can hit a beautiful crossbody off the top to the floor. There were some good nearfalls, and I thought they both did a good job building drama down the stretch, and for me I always get more into luchadora hair matches, feels like the stakes are even more real. A lot of women really tightly associate their hair with their femininity, so the drama always feels real to me.

Euforia/Gran Guerrero vs. Valiente/Diamante Azul

ER: This one felt a little low stakes, which was understandable on a card with three high stakes matches, but it had three stout boys so it was at minimum going to be fun. Azul and Valiente are a fun little team of power packs; Azul has been slowly bulking up and he appeared to gas down the stretch (Guerrero even appeared to dump him on the entrance ramp just to get him out of the way), and this didn't reach the heights it could have, but we still got moments. Azul's added heft does add to certain moves, loved his running elbow, high arcing hip toss, and the cannonball off the ramp lands even harder. Guerrero is coming into his own, and he sets up a gross bump taking an armdrag off the apron from Valiente (big splat on the floor there), hitting a nice heavy flip dive of his own in the tercera, and being tasked with taking that super fast Valiente tope. The finish felt a little unnecessarily dangerous, with the rudos hitting a press slam on Azul off the top, then doing the same to Valiente on top of Azul, but they almost end up lawndarting Valiente straight into the mat. The set up was really long and required Valiente to do almost all the climbing and all the work, so you had the ugly combo of "guy taking move doing all the work" with "move looking almost dangerously botched".

Barbaro Cavernario/Negro Casas/Mr. Niebla vs. Mistico/Caristico/Volador Jr.

ER: This one underperformed, had some timing issues, and didn't have a lot of Casas. It had a lot of Niebla dancing and Caristico being a step slower than everyone else, and some ugly moments like Cavernario whiffing a kick and Caristico bumping early on a Niebla slap. It was kept quick, a comedic palette cleanser with dives, mindless entertainment before the main event, and it worked fine on that level. Volador hit the best dive of the match, a high speed tope con giro that Cavernario took nicely. There was a big tandem dive by all the tecnicos and Caristico hit an additional dive into Casas. This was kept breezy, and I was hoping for more.

52. Hair vs. Hair! Mascara Ano 2000 vs. Ultimo Guerrero

ER: All the CMLL dancers are decked out in sexy Ultimo Guerrero outfits, which I must say seems a little biased. But who cares, because this whole match rules! Ultimo Guerrero does this weird thing where he has a match or two year and just gets punched in the face a ton. And this match keeps coming right back around to Guerrero getting punched in the face, and Mascara gleefully throwing right hands up and down the left side of UG's head. This is really one of the finest big match lucha performances from a 60+ year old in some time. Mascara Ano Dos Mil pulls out every trick he's ever pulled in his long career, all the bullshit is impeccably timed, the cheap shots are cheap, the nearfalls are great, and we always go right back to fists punching face. Mascara hits a nice springboard splash, nice vertical suplex, gets a great nearfall on a backslide, and Disturbio's involvement is excellent. Disturbio and Gran Guerrero are the seconds, and Disturbio eats a great dropkick from UG, and later has a pitch perfect piece of interference: Guerrero locks on the sure fire finishing sub, and Disturbio is able to run in to kick UG away and bail back to the floor just as ref Edgar is turning around. On the floor we get a killer scrap between Gran and Disturbio, a ton of other Dinamitas come out to cause problems on the entrance ramp, Mascara boots UG right in the balls (which got him a win and set up this very match), and it's all incredible theater. There's a series of fun desperate pins, Mascara grabbing the rope, getting his foot on the rope, grabbing ref's hand to stop the count, all of it was great. This is my favorite old man scrap of the year, with all of the drama I love from lucha, plus an old guy punching a less old guy in the eye. It'll work for me every time.

PAS: MA2K can't really bump or run the ropes anymore, but he is very willing to throw multiple punching combos upside UG's head, so Dayenu. This had plenty stuff built around Gran Guerrero and Disturbo which makes sense to pad the time, and give the oldsters in the ring time to catch their breath. Still once the wind came it was nasty stuff, hard knuckles to heads. I liked UG's goofy dive into the crowd, not pretty at all, but this wasn't a pretty match. I kind of wanted a big post match Dinamitas beat down, if your gang is going to come let them roll deep, but this really was aimed at my lucha libre pleasure centers.


ER: This card looked real dynamite to me on paper, and three of the matches delivered various levels of big for me, and the rest of the stuff was either fun or inoffensive. I really liked the women's hair match which wasn't far from making list, Mascara Ano Dos Mil is still a compelling guy into his 60s and I love the couple matches a year where Ultimo Guerrero agrees to get shoot punched in the head, and the retirement was an instant lucha classic. The latter two matches were obvious additions to our 2019 Ongoing Match of the Year List.

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RIP Silver King, Part 3

Silver King/Dr. Wagner Jr./Fuerza Guerrera/Pierroth Jr. vs. La Parka/Super Parka/Emilio Charles Jr./Antifaz Del Norte Monterrey 7/9/00    Pt. 2    Pt. 3

ER: This was during the era of getting excited to buy Monterrey tapes based upon on paper match-ups, and then getting the tape and realizing a significant portion of the match was going to be devoted to the two referees. And this had that! And maybe it's just the mood I was in while watching this, but I didn't mind it. You still had 8 absolutely fantastic in the year 2000 luchadors (yes Pierroth obviously ruled, all Pierroths do; Antifaz was a guy I don't think about in 2019 who I really liked during this era). You get King and Wagner as stooging brothers, a great sequence with Pierroth and Park holding each other up by their shirts as they slap each other silly (Pierroth especially is so fun here, really milking that holding onto Park's shirt was the only thing keeping him standing), Emilio Charles is always fun as a fired up babyface away from Arena Mexico, and Antifaz shows that he was good back then and that I wasn't crazy. The whole primera is the rudo team (both teams look like on paper rudo teams, but when in doubt just assume the one with Fuerza is it and you'll almost always be correct) beating down the tecnicos, hitting them with garbage and brawling around the ring. Segunda is the comeuppance and ref involvement, with the tecnicos dragging a section of connected arena seats into the ring and sending King and Pierroth into them, then getting all 4 rudos seated while kicking over the seats. The ref spots are actually fairly funny and executed well, with Parka getting beaten down by the four rudos in a huddle, and then swapping the ref for himself without the rudos noticing. If you're going to work some kind of a Bugs Bunny spot, Park seems like one of the few that would be able to make it work. We do get a great Park dive, a nice splingshot splash by Super Parka, mean spots like SP getting rammed balls first into the ringpost and then getting Emilio Charles' head tossed into his groin, and seemingly the entire tercera is made up of ballshots. This whole thing was spirited and felt like everyone having a great time on a house show, which will almost always be my thing.

Black Tiger III/Atlantis/Vampiro vs. Dr. Wagner Jr./Universo 2000/Mascara Ano 2000 CMLL 6/15/01

ER: This is really fun as we get two brothers colliding, the criminally underrated early 2000s Dinamitas tearing it up, Atlantis getting stretchered out after taking a Wagner Driver, Atlantis reminding me of what a damn athlete he still was in 2001, and...Vampiro. 83% is something I would be cool with on my report cards, so I should be cool with it in my lucha trios. A lot of this feels like the Dinamitas show and while Universo wasn't the captain here he was certainly the primary shit disturber. Dinamitas were great bullies and I could watch a match of them just putting boots to guys like Atlantis. They always get it paid back, and I dug Universo falling on front row regulars to draw sympathy (god I hate that stupid ring barricade they've had this decade), and Mascara takes a wildly fast bump to the floor off Atlantis' tumbleweed. Wagner outdoes them both and makes Vampiro appear to be not a load: Vampiro throws Wagner merely towards the crowd, and Wagner goes off and tope con hilos himself into the second row, turning one poor individual into the most expected base of the day. They should've signed that guy, it was a great catch. King-as-Tiger hits his big caida ending rapid moonsaults and we get two different sequences of Tiger/Wagner, both working some playful spots off rope running, with a great moment of Tiger headbutting Wagner when he goes for a leapfrog. I only remember seeing the brothers in CMLL on opposite sides a couple times during this era, and this was a fun look at that.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Rush!! Pierroth!! Kraneo!! Mascara Ano Dos Mil!!

Kraneo/Rush/Pierroth vs. Marco Corleone/Mascara Ano Dos Mil/Gran Guerrero  CMLL 2/27/18

ER: Two fiery falls, really all I need. This is a cool rudo team, we got the most fired up Pierroth performance we've seen in many months, and Kraneo and Rush as a team could take over the world. Kraneo is bullying and headbutting guys right from jump and Rush follows his lead, with Pierroth acting as the enforcer who would run in and windmill punch and chop guys in the corner if they got out of line waiting for their beating. Kraneo looked resplendent and massive in his red/black gear, and he's really feeling like a guy who should be a major star in CMLL (and they seem to be treating him as such). Marco is a good tecnicos foil for Rush/Kraneo, eating the apron kicks from Mije, finding his spots to fire back with his big punches, still hitting the huge crossbody. But, he also got his head ripped off his body and had it volleyed around by the rudos (including several chest volleys by Kraneo). All three rudos looked like total asskickers throughout, but I really liked Mascara as a tecnicos here, old guys make good tecnicos and I like that he's typically a rudo but is default tecnicos against the assholery of Rush. Mascara's segments with Pierroth were fired up when they could have been slow, and added a nice dimension to the match. Pierroth losing a quick exchange and just casually walking up and punting Mascara in the balls was a fine finish for this. The meanest rudo behavior happens the match when upon being DQ'd Pierroth immediately rushes Tirantes and starts muscling him around, with Rush soon joining in. Tirantes' facials read that he had no clue these two were coming at him, and as they tried to throw him he was clearly holding onto the ropes for dear life and not going along with their plans. I don't remember the last time I saw Tirantes get a beatdown, but it's not been often and when it has happened it's been clearly part of an angle. This did not look cooperative in any way, it really looked like Pierroth and Rush just stomping him and ripping at his shirt and suspenders. The fans sounded really pissed too as you just don't see refs take a beating in CMLL. Rush even kicks him hard right in the legs as he's walking away. Perfect deranged ending to all of this.

La Bestia Del Ring vs. Mascara Ano Dos Mil  CMLL 3/13/17

ER: This match may not be worth watching for some, but it felt like if anyone was going to watch and review Pierroth vs. Mascara Ano Dos Mil, two men with an average age of 55. As Phil said to me, "So you have to review the MA2K vs. Bestia Del Ring match. It is singing your song...You are the biggest Bestia Del Ring stan on the internet." I can't really say he's wrong. And I really liked the match. It had problems that a lot of people won't be able to get past: it was slow, these two are old and less graceful than many luchadors, and there are no highspots. So, climb aboard! I like old guy matches more than most people (any people?) as it always feels like there's more at stake: they're old, they break easier, old rudos are awesome, old tecnicos are the most sympathetic tecnicos. MA2K is a Capo! But because he's opposite Pierroth the fans are cheering for him. Pierroth is an island I'm fine being stranded on. I like what he brings to a match. Here he's a dick by making Mascara do a bunch of rope running early in the match (nothing like gassing out your opponent in the first minute), throws him into the ring barricades, smashes a full soda in his face, really takes the entire primera other than MA2K geting a quick octopus hold to end it. The camera pans the crowd to find a dozen white people, who are all certainly trying to reconcile the few things they thought they knew about lucha libre, with this maskless old man fight happening front of them. Nitro provides some strong work as Pierroth's second (and considering one man has three sons and one has three nephews in the fed, I was surprised to see Nitro and Cancerbero as seconds), filling in some of the energy for the match, really stomping Mascara like a jerk at any opportunity, and Nitro does one of the all time greatest trips from the floor that I've ever seen. He hooks Mascara's foot in the corner and Mascara goes down hard like he had no clue his foot was being hooked. Awesome spot. Pierroth wins the segunda by holding the ropes, and the fans hate it. I love when Pierroth apes Rush's moves (he's not exactly going to ape his other son's moves) like the front dropkick and the opponent's head as soccer ball move, and I love how much the crowd is getting into MA2K. Finish is great as we get Pierroth pulling the ref in the way and sneaking in a roll up, which felt like the finish but instead was a great kickout by Mascara, who then gets Pierroth in a sub AND holds the ropes for the tap. The rope hold was the first time he did anything rudo the entire match, and totally wrapped up the story of the match. I enjoyed this. Your mileage may vary.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Leyenda de Azul Cibernetico

Leyenda de Azul Cibernetico (CMLL 12/22/17)

ER: Ciberneticos are a fickle creature. It doesn't take too much in one direction to make them good, and it doesn't take much in the other direction to make them totally skippable. This one already starts as a win as Mije and Zakarias sit on the entranceway steps with their heads in hands, as if they're sitting on a curb waiting for their parents to pick them up after soccer practice. Then you see that referee Edgar is sporting cornrows and you know it's going to be a great cibernetico. The strength in a cibernetico is always the action that happens before the eliminations. Eliminations typically come quick and are predictable, and often unsatisfying (and you know there's going to be a double elimination), but the work that takes place before pinfalls start is gonna make it worthwhile, and this had some great action.

Ultimo and Euforia start of with some fast matwork, the kind that UG doesn't often do in CMLL, and it's fun as I don't recall these two ever going opposite each other. It never gets mean, but it's a good exhibition. Bucanero and Terrible do more of the same and we get a nice fun engaging scrap to our cibernetico. Stuff bumps up when Kraneo splats Vangellys with a big legdrop, but then gets backdropped over the top to the ramp, Kraneo taking an awesome big fat guy bump to the ramp and down the side stairs, with Vangellys immeditely shifting his focus and hitting a big dive on Misterioso.  We get a fat guy showdown between Niebla and Kraneo, and Niebla had a pretty nice showing. Maybe the key to Niebla now is just thinking of him as the new Super Porky. Don't be mad at him for having trouble standing up or kind of standing still while people get into place around him, just get excited for the 1-2 matches a year that he shows up for and just enjoy him slapping dudes the rest of the year. With this match and the Caifan match this is two straight Niebla matches where he utilizes his hip swiveling and silliness much more like Dusty than just a fat goof. It's a fine line. But I loved Kraneo slapping him, with every slap leading to Niebla turning around and slapping someone else on the apron. He and Kraneo are the fattest in the match, so I'll always love the two bigguns exchanging armdrags. Shocker has deflated a bit so he's not as fat (you can really see it in his arms, Shocker has really small arms now). Vangellys is the sneaky pick to be 2nd fattest in 2019. Nobody is getting as fat as Kraneo, I really don't think there's a luchador in history who is as big as Kraneo. But if something stressful happens in Vangellys' life, I could see him hitting the tortas pretty hard. Later on Niebla works a couple complicates armdrags with UG, and does a fired up Dusty act against Bucanero, swiveling his hips and pop locking with his legs, even flicking his own nipples. I don't think I've seen the nipple flick before. I'd much rather see that than the loogy.

Hechicero was treated like a big deal here, so much so that I thought he would win. He had a cool run  where he did his nice middle rope dropkick to knock Sanson to the floor, then gets Mascara Ano Dos Mil to the floor, then taps Vangellys with his awesome inverted bow and arrow choke. I was the drum beater for Pierroth the last couple years and haven't run across too much recommendable Pierroth this year, but I really liked him here, easily best Pierroth moments of the year. We get a nice old guy battle with he and Mascara, we get an actual Rush/Pierroth face off which is something I've never seen, with Pierroth actually soccer kicking Rush before they stand up. Then, he sweetly brushes the hair out of his baby boy's face, and tenderly kisses him on the forehead (much to the hate of the Arena Mexico crowd). Later he helps Rush pin UG from the floor, grabbing his son's hand in a perfect Schwarzenegger/Weathers Predator handshake to give Rush pinfall leverage. I wish Kraneo and Rush got more of a showdown but we did get one, with Kraneo bumping big for him and getting a soccer kick as a thank you. We end with Euforia/Rush and I was rooting for Euforia. He's got kids, man. Euforia takes his always nice ringpost bump and eats a Rush flip dive, and the Rush win is academic. Afterwards Rush stomps on the Blue Demon plaque and HOW COME I HAVE NEVER SEEN THE HORRIBLE BLUE DEMON BELT BEFORE!!?? Has this awful thing been around for years and I somehow keep missing it? Or did I always just stop watching the match after the pinfall and never watch the award ceremony. Oh man that belt is awful. Wearing it essentially gives you a Kuato growing out of your torso, or turns you into Krang's mechanical suit. Just Blue Demon torso flexing around your stomach. It's awful. And the best way to end this cibernetico.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Panthers & Dinamitas & Metalico, Oh My!

Blue Panther Jr./The Panther/Blue Panther vs. Sanson/Cuatrero/Mascara Ano 2000 (CMLL 6/6/17)

ER: I love this feud! New guys are always stepping up depending on the match, you never know who the star is going to be but they always treat the match up like a big deal. BP was fired up crazy eyes tecnico, Mascara was amusing rudo stooge, and all the sons ramped up the meanness. My favorite thing about this match was all of the great pinfall saves, especially from the Panthers. Panther runs in to break up a pin by kicking Sanson in the eye, Jr. runs in and just fully double stomps to break up a pin, and it went on like that the whole match! I loved 2000 playing chicken, actually running around the ring and hiding behind the ref to prevent being touched. BP looked like he was having a blast during their showdowns. All the Panthers hit dives, but they always do that. This might have been the most impressed overall I've been by the Panther clan, as the kids brought more than just dives and really seemed to be gelling as a team. Cuatrero dialed back the crazy bumps and instead worked in and around all the Panther clan's offense, and I think he's really great at that type of thing. Sanson brought more offense, thought the clip towards the end of he and Jr. running to attack in opposite corners came off great, that kind of thing can usually seem cheesy. They also structured falls differently that you see from most CMLL trios matches. You didn't get three pinfalls/subs happening all at once, you would get scattered pinfalls that didn't mean the end of a fall, which is far more exciting. Like Brazo kids vs. Villano kids, this is a match up I'm always going to go out of my way to see.

Metalico/Sangre Azteca/Arkangel vs. Oro Jr./Principe Diamante/Star Jr. (CMLL 6/13/17)

ER: Metalico gets us off on the right note by driving out on a constantly stalling motorcycle (that gets pushed at one point), dressed up like a highway patrolman cosplaying Mussolini. His entrances are wonderful low budget Sakuraba. And in the primera we get some fun and uncommon matwork with him working over Diamante, and he shows that his grudge against Oro for taking his mask is not any less than it was 3 years ago. Sangre Azteca ties Oro up in some really great knots,  my favorite being his backpack full nelson maneuvered into a nasty octopus hold. And every time Oro starts to reverse the tide, Metalico comes in and kicks or slaps him back into Azteca's advantage. Diamante and Star each try springboard moonsaults to the floor, but Azteca yanks Star's legs and Metlalico clotheslines Diamante right in the shins, both of them take great chin first bumps into the apron. The segunda is filled with rudos holding tecnicos prone so Azteca can dropkick and elbow drop them in the taint, and we get other fun moments throughout the tercera: A neat midair flip headscissors from Star, a tornado lariat from Arkangel; I especially liked a little moment where Star went to snapmare Metalico and Metalico held onto the ropes to reverse it. I love that kind of stuff. It all builds to a showdown with Metalico/Star Jr. in the tercera. Every time Metalico had battered Oro, Star had run in at his defense, always backing Metalico down. When they finally go at it it's really fun. Metalico ends up hitting a weird bearhug overhead suplex to get the win, and while Oro sits on the mat in disbelief at the loss, Metalico helps him out to the floor by booting him in the chest.

Blue Panther/Rey Cometa/Titan vs. Hechicero/Morphosis/Rey Bucanero (CMLL 6/13/17)

ER: I'm sure I've seen Panther and Hechicero match up before, but it feels like something I haven't seen in several years, and even then I don't know if I've ever seen this much of them together. Hechicero is super generous and Panther looks like he belongs, and the two have a few of the most fun sequences I've seen in a couple months. The primera ends with those two going at it, Hechicero being the aggressor with Panther rolling through with cool counters, getting some slow counter matwork with Hechicero showing off his strength, Panther holding onto armbars even while Hechicero is standing up and propping BP on his head, culminating in Panther rolling through to wristlock that bends Hechicero's forearm back over his bicep, and Hechicero is still smarting from that lock in the segunda. We get some fine Cometa headscissors and a nice rana off the apron to Bucanero. Bucanero looks extremely sluggish but still catches fine. It's obviously been a day since I've seen Morphosis, since I haven't seen him unmasked until now. He mainly stays out of things, throws some big time chops at Titan, and then catches a huge top rope springboard moonsault to the floor towards the end. But I was too busy waiting to see more Panther/Hechicero, and we got another nice run with Panther again showing he can keep up. Hechicero grabs a waist lock, Panther runs him into the ropes, sends him rolling with a back to front armdrag, gets run into the corner and hits a pretty headscissors that sends Hechicero rolling to the floor, and completes a happy Saturday morning for me. Those two were the center of the match, which naturally makes it essential viewing for me - and hopefully you.

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MLJ: Sin Salida 2010 Part 4: Brazo de Plata, Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Strong Man vs Gigante Bernard, Máscara Año 2000, Universo 2000

Taped 2010-06-06
Brazo de Plata, Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Strong Man vs Gigante Bernard, Máscara Año 2000, Universo 2000

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdoazb_porky-rayo-strongman-vs-bernard-m20_latino


Sin Salida 2010 had been a pretty good show so far. Sure, the booking was a mess but the minis match was fun, and the two lower card matches with Los Invasores had the same sort of energy that their matches over the last month had and then the Revelos Increibles match was heated and effective.

Then we had this. It was definitely a nostalgia fest. Los Hermanos Dinomita and Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. were moving less smoothly than Porky in there at times. They had a few dives and I could have sworn the slow motion replay was on. Then to balance them you had Bernard and Strongman. I don't get how anyone thought this would be a good idea.

Rayo came out with a hat and a UWA title. Universo and Mascara Ano wore their masks to the ring. The rudos took an early advantage, mainly due to Bernard being such a force but their tandem offense wasn't exactly dynamite. There was a lackluster double lift snake eyes in the corner. Really, their best move for most of this match was to toss people into Albert's foot, after which point, he'd do his overhead X with thumbs down pose. It was kind of fun the first time but it got old.

Basically, the match had two things going for it. First, Bernard did well. He was doing little things like driving his forearm into Porky's face on a pin, and he did match up well with Strongman. By the time the comeback came around in the tercera he was playing into some of Porky's spots and selling and hamming it up big. The second thing was that Strongman is a pretty effective tool for rudos to run into. I was wondering how they were going to kill something like nine minutes for the tercera (the peril of watching match online is that you know how long is left in it at almost any point) and 2-3 minutes can be taken up by Strongman top wristlock strength spots and shoulder tackles or what not.

Another minute or two was taken up by Albert doing some really brutal armwork onto Strongman in order to take him out of the match. I could have watched another five or six minutes of that, really. It made me want to track down some more Bernard in Japan. Anyway, the whole point of it was to distract the refs with the carnage of him finding a foreign object to smash the arm (which he then failed to find?) so that Universo could hit a pile driver on Rayo.

In all the lucha matches I've seen over the last year, well over two or three hundred, I think this is the first time I actually saw a pile driver executed (and not, for instance, Rush's double underhook pile driver). For this. By Universo, on Rayo. The upside to this is that Universo and Rayo were sticking around for a bit at least. They even had a WWA title match main event at Puebla at the end of the month, so it's not like it was a total waste, but the fans, who were otherwise into this, didn't seem all that upset by it certainly.

Anyway, this was a match and I kind of wish it hadn't been.

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Pirata Morgan, Killing So His Power Grows

Pirata Morgan, Satanico, & MS-1 vs. La Fiera, El Faraon, & El Egipcio EMLL 3/29/1985 - EPIC

Damn, that was violent. I've had the chance to see Pirata in a bunch of different settings thanks to this project, but at the end of the day, he's still a guy at his best working out-of-control lucha brawls, and this here was an out-of-control lucha brawl. He starts right out by punching El Egipcio in the face when he tries to get in the ring. Egipcio returns the favor, and their brawling is sort of the big hook throughout this match (unsurprising, as they were building to a hair match between the two). I've seen a handful of Egipcio matches now, but this is the first time he's actually stood out to me. And yeah, that's probably because he was booked so prominently in the match, but when you're throwing hands with Pirata and look like you're actually in his league, I'm inclined to think you're doing something right. They pave a nice little path of destruction through the post-apocalyptic wasteland that is any good Infernales brawl, including some great brawling around the ring where Pirata wins the award for most violent apron bumping now and forever, actually breaking the wooden barricades surrounding the ring. Satanico and the recently deceased MS-1 lend some very able support. Satanico in particular almost stole the match from Pirata and Egipcio. Phil said he looked like the abusive husband in a Lifetime made-for-TV movie, and I'm hard-pressed to disagree. Fiera and Faraon maybe perform below expectations insofar as they don't stand out the way they usually do, but you'll be too busy in awe of the Infernales' brutality to notice. Although you will notice at the end of the match when Fiera uncorks a "Hector Garza under-rotating on a shooting star press to the floor"-level horrifying botched dive. He comes off of the top rope with essentially a completely vertical upside-down bodypress to Satanico, except he lands just short of the target and Martinetes himself on the floor. Ouch. Surprisingly, for a brawl this intense, there actually wasn't any blood, but I don't suspect you'll find too many bloodless brawls better than this one.

Pirata Morgan, Antifaz del Norte, & Charly Manson vs. Sangre Chicana, Alebrije, & Vampiro Canadiense Monterrey 5/21/2006 - GREAT

This is a big step up from the last Monterrey match I reviewed for this. There are still some annoying heel ref shenanigans, but he eats a Sangre Chicana armdrag really nicely, so I can't really complain too much. Also, there's no Hator in sight, and everyone looks really game here, even a load like Vampiro. This is a garbage brawl, and like most lucha garbage brawls, it feels less violent than it does when they leave the foreign objects alone, especially after the match above. But it's still on the higher end of your lucha garbage brawls, with Alebrije in particular looking like a star here. He eats and bumps for everything really well, including getting his head taken off with a nasty clothesline from Pirata, and taking some nutty bumps on the wooden ramp to the ring. And there's plenty of fun abuse of Cujie as well, with Pirata putting the little guy in a Romero special, before he's used as a projectile by Alebrije to get his revenge later. I thought Antifaz looked really good here as well. His foreign object shots all had some nice pop to them. This wasn't a standout Chicana performance, but I don't think I've ever seen a match where he looked bad, and this is no exception. If nothing else, he clotheslined a wooden board into Antifaz's face. That was pretty cool. I'm a little iffy on the finish, but I admire the gusto with which Pirata faked his getting fouled, especially after the ref didn't believe him right away and he started to sell more frantically.

Pirata Morgan, Emilio Charles Jr., & Astro de Oro vs. Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Mascara Ano 2000, & Cien Caras EMLL 1989 - FUN

This was a one-fall tournament match, but it's a four-team tourney, so they still get 10+ minutes and I can review it, just with lowered expectations. It's also apparently a parejas increibles tournament, as Rayo is not getting along with the Dinamitas, and Astro de Oro is not getting along with Pirata and Emilio. I am not familiar with this Astro de Oro character, so I checked out luchawiki to see what his deal was.

"Greatest Guatemala superstar. Tecnico, who teamed with Rayo Lazer, Skeletor, Starman (Guatemala), Silverman, Arriero de San Juan. Astro de Oro received 50 Quetzales in his first match.

His best match was versus Mascara Ano 2000 in June of 1989, and his worst was against Dr. Wagner Jr.. Astro de Oro's favorite wrestler is Ric Flair.

In his other life, Astro de Oro is an educator. Astro de Oro also claims to be a very successful amateur wrestler before entering lucha libre.

Greatest Guatemala superstar"

Well that clears that up. I don't know when exactly in 1989 this match was in relation to his career best match against Mascara Ano 2000, but I don't remember any especially great exchanges between the two. Overall, the greatest Guatemala superstar didn't make me forget Super Astro or Brazo de Oro, but he was harmless. Pirata and Rayo were the best guys on their respective teams, and their work against each other was plenty fun and fired up. Emilio looked good, but you'll see much better from him, and the Dinamitas were solid but unspectacular. Still, Rayo doing his comedic evasive twirl face-first into Pirata's fist with nobody else fucking anything up will at least earn this FUN status. In conclusion, greatest Guatemala superstar.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE PIRATA MORGAN

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