Lucha Underground Season 4 Episode 21: Ultima Lucha Cuatro - Part 1

TL: We have gone from this series being one of the most sought after pieces of wrestling IP in a really long time to it being available for free on Tubi to watch from the built-in service that comes with my Smart TV. Just in time for us to put this show to bed for good over Ultima Lucha Cuatro. It's been so long since I've watched this I had to go back and read what I wrote for the last couple episodes to familiarize myself with it again but even then, I'm not sure I'll get there. This is very much going to be in-the-moment, based on the ringwork stuff from me. Character work be damned.

ER: So detective Vazquez has lived through a thousand years of society and she's just a cop? The things she must have seen, the dynasties she saw fall...and she's an LA detective? Are there vampires that just open their own paint store?

TL: For being 1,000 years old, Vazquez looks fantastic. Good for her. Extremely happy that her and Aerostar completed the pendant, as they're now going to be able to withstand a guard attack while traversing the Hidden Temple for their lost tribal icon. Hoping Olmec makes an appearance on commentary tonight.

ER: Lots to talk about in just the intros, because Vampiro makes the most ridiculous faces for the duration of Matt Striker's opening spiel. Vampiro was acting like he was reading along with a script, and was making these bug eyed affirmative faces every time Striker would finish a line. Also, it just hit me that Vampiro has hair. He was a big fat guy who voluntarily was shaving his head, intentionally looking like the boat zombie from Zombie!? Nobody shaves their head just to look cool, it's always a choice that's made for them. But Vampiro has hair and he makes reaction faces bigger than the biggest Jeremy Borash TNA reaction faces. Also, Melissa Santos' had a great dress/headband combo, very flattering and a cool style.


The Rabbit Tribe (Paul London/The White Rabbit/El Bunny) vs. Sammy Guevara/XO Lishus/Ivelisse vs. The Reptile Tribe (Jeremiah Snake/Daga/Kobra Moon)

ER: This kicked ass, the kind of bananas match you want from a LU multiman. I do wish the Rabbit Tribe hadn't been eliminated so early, but I like what they did while they were there. This could have been a real mess, but it turned out to be the best kind of mess. All of the jumbled attacks worked well when everyone was in the ring together, Jeremiah throwing big straight kicks at anyone on his path, then tossing his own team to their death. Jeremiah THROWS Kobra to the floor with a powerbomb, bouncing her right off White Rabbit, who just picks her up off the ground and throws her into the ringpost. Two great back to back bumps from Kobra, and the craziest one was yet to come. The dive train was cool, with El Bunny hitting a tiny tope con hilo while Ivelisse held open the ropes, then Ivelisse bent over the top rope while standing on the middle rope so Guevara could vault over her onto the pile (the camera guy really zoomed right up Ivelisse's birth canal, so I can only assume this episode was guest directed by Larry Clark), then Ivelisse flipped over the ropes to cap it off. I dug how everyone scattered, giving every side of the Temple a cool view of different action, but Sammy and Kobra Moon fight up to the top and get a great tease where Guevara almost throws her right off...before hitting a nutso Spanish Fly off the camera stage instead. Even though the move was performed perfectly and everyone was in place to catch, it's still flat out nuts. Plus, they did a great job in editing to not show the actual floor until they were flying off, so you had no idea if there were seven people or zero people down there to catch them. There were some strong pinfall saves, nice kicks to the back of the head, great use of fake blood when White Rabbit jams his gloved fingers down Guevara's throat, an awesome bit where XO fights back against the whole Reptile Tribe, just a ton of fun. This match really felt like season 1 LU, which is nothing but a big compliment.

TL: It's so wild to see Killer Kross go from LU to Impact to becoming The Next Big Thing in NXT in the span of like 18 months. I remember when he called out Batista at Bloodsport and kinda scoffed, but now he's pretty undeniable, and as if on cue, he destroys all six of his opponents only to eat a quintuple superkick. Guevara's excitement is so palpable here, and it's really wild to me that he got used as fodder for Jake Strong like he did. The big Spanish Fly dive was really well done, and him getting the first pin to eliminate the Tribe was a nice touch, but again, with how Kross was built up throughout the season, it seemed like a waste of him here, which unfortunately seems to be this season's MO. The blood was a great touch, like Eric said, but I would have just liked to see a Kross/Guevara singles match, especially with how much Guevara has impressed in his AEW run. The final fall started off really well with the Ivelisse near-fall, and even dug Vampiro's comparison to a World Cup match where a team gets a red card and has to play with 10. Okay, the timing of the near falls here has been REALLY good, and has done a good job of building up the challengers as underdogs, and XO's fire out of the corner really played up, and the extra shot by Jeremiah to give Daga the submission was a nice touch. The booking was a bit much, but the match was exactly what it needed to be given the stips. Feels like the least interesting team won, though.


Ricky Mundo vs. Taya

ER: This is exactly what it should have been: a mostly one sided massacre to blow off a story that never had legs. Once Mundo's creepy doll got involved this went beyond a dark obsession story into something into something eyerolling with no chance of an interesting payoff. And so, the only answer was to have Taya take everything in a short match. I liked Taya landing heavy on a couple crossbodies, the curb stomp looked good, and the post match table spot with Taya letting out her ruined wedding aggression was the best this was going to be. It's smart to know your limits and I'm glad they didn't make this into some overblown epic that it was never going to be. They spent the correct amount of time on it, and you need that kind of smart editing.

TL: I'm not really into this at all because of Ricky more than anything, but Taya showed some nice fire. I wish it was more one-sided than it actually was, with a Taya steamrolling being more emphatic, but LU has always been about the hand-holding for references to previous parts of the storyline, so given that, they hit all the right notes and Taya stood tall. As Eric said, was exactly what it should have been.


Mask vs. Mask: Son of Havoc vs. Killshot

ER: This didn't work for me. It never felt like an actual big stip match, really it didn't feel any different from any other singles match these two have had against any other LU opponent. There were big spots, but every LU match with these guys has the exact kind of big spots that this match had, this match just had less of them (so I guess that means that they are more important?). Plus, the big spots didn't really look that great. Havoc's three big moments all saw him land physically short with his arms in front of him, with Striker even having to cover for his short SSP landing by saying he got Killshot with his head. The camera stand dive looked big, but Guevara's Spanish Fly 20 minutes earlier off that same camera stand looked way bigger. I liked the superplex onto the gurney, but the set ups for all these spots felt like they could have been tightened up in editing. The big shock is when Dumb Donald finally takes off his knit cap to reveal Shane Strickland!

TL: The matches that led up to this left a lot to be desired, even though I came away from them thinking Killshot was at least trying to do a bit more than just throw out spots, and figured maybe the blowoff could lead to something more focused, but the focus came more from them remembering walking through their more complicated sequences. And then after the first Killstomp, it slows to a halt once the gurney gets involved, with them chewing up airtime more than them building up to big spots including either that or the table Havoc introduces. I think the play was for the match to be more deliberate than the Hell of War match, which was basically like a 20-minute adrenaline shot, but instead, it came off plodding, and knowing both the Hell of War match and what Sammy did earlier in the night, not even that Havoc splash in the table came off as good. The superplex into the gurney was pretty damn insane, but for Havoc to survive that, a Killstomp, and then a Storm Cradle Driver seems a bit much. The only thought in my head is "I really hope this doesn't end on a roll-up" and I'm holding on tight. I think the reason I'm not feeling this match as much is because I've seen a lot of the stuff they've done better either earlier in the night (strikes, dives, nearfalls) or in previous matches including either guy, but hey, if you're gonna finish a guy, a Shooting Star Press on a guy tied to a gurney will get it done. "History has been made!" says Matt Striker, and I agree, this match is now in my past. There just wasn't enough drama here for me to buy into the nearfalls, nothing was really earned. It came off flat and hollow. And wouldn't you know it, it's Jermaine Strickland, who basically drops the mic and heads for NXT mediocrity, which I guess is better than what can be said for most folks on this show. At the very least, it got the women in the crowd ready to cry, which is what you really need from an apuestas match. But not before Dante Fox shows up in stolen valor for their tribute to the troops as Strickland heads for Orlando.


TL: It really does feel like we're crawling to the finish line of this marathon, but I also feel like, especially given how the finale of previous Ultima Luchas have gone, we're going to see something absolutely wild given the environment they're working, which is really all you can ask for a show doing its swan song. At least send us home on a high note, even if it's been more slog than passion project this season.


COMPLETE GUIDE TO LUCHA UNDERGROUND

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2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Latigo & Atomic Star's Apuestas Blood Drive!

29. Latigo vs. Atomic Star RCH 11/17

ER: Mask vs. Hair, super libre, rudos interfering at will, blood everywhere, love to see it. Latigo must have made a ton of enemies because there are no shortage of rudos who want his mask and, apparently, want to drain him of his blood. When I thought this was going to be constant seconds interfering on Atomic Star's behalf, I had trouble getting involved in the action. But Latigo had such a big tecnico presence that by the time he was busted open, Atomic Star throwing knuckle punches right at his deepening cut, I started pulling for the guy as if he was my best friend. He gets launched into the crowd and within a minute his body shows the bruises from landing on hard plastic chair edges, Atomic Star bouncing those same chairs off his face and busting him open. Latigo's mask is ripped, and he starts bleeding so much that I wonder if he had been scalped. He can't make any headway due to the interference, but his big break does come and man does he make the most of it. He sets up a tope con giro on Star and some goon who has been involved the whole time, and it is maybe the most rewatchable dive of the damn year. The physics of it are violently gorgeous: as Latigo crashes into them, his body flies into the crowd, but the momentum of Latigo sends them whipping ass over crown with him a split second later, his tope con giro ending with a spectacular double lariat. My god.

And soon Atomic Star is bleeding too, and you can see literal drops and puddles of blood any time they slow down. Arena Naucalpan is covered with their blood. In one shot I saw their blood dripping and splatting onto a half dozen plus chairs, seats that are totally ruined for the main event, ruined by a couple of lunatics bleeding onto and then weaponizing them. Even the ref hits a great gusher. Lucha Underground just used blood packets, but give these men long enough and every single person in Naucalpan will be juicing. The fans really get behind Latigo and his mountain of adversity, and we build to some great final moments. Having extra bodies out there means we didn't have to have our guys waste time setting up prop spots. No, our boys continued to punch blood out of each other's faces while the props were set up for them, and Star hits a Spanish Fly off the apron through a table, chairs, and barbed wire...for a big damn nearfall. And when they're finally alone in the ring, and Star delivers that sure to be last kick to the balls, the bloodied ref refuses to count, and by the time a new ref comes in it gives Latigo just enough time to recover. The martinete he saves his mask with is as triumphant as it gets, completely playing off every second of bullshit the match had produced. It's tough to pay off that kind of match-long interference, and that bloodied up ref finally having enough of this mess was a great moment, and the beating Latigo was willing to take really added up to a great long-form lucha story.

PAS: A lot of the lucha extrema stuff I have seen is more about big gross spots than real traditional lucha storytelling, and I normally don't like ref shtick and lots of interference, but this match made all of it work. Eric was right about that dive, honestly it was one of the cooler dives I can remember seeing ever, like an even more violent version of the Super Calo WCW dive into the crowd. I got to give the ref a bunch of credit for breaking out the blade, I imagine that guy had some great apuestas matches in small gyms in the 80s. Big win for Latigo, as he had to basically run through the entire rudo roster to keep his mask, but I bought him doing it and it was a big moment when he finally was triumphant.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Tigre Rojo v. Barbaro 1 Mascara contra Cabellera

30. Tigre Rojo v. Barbaro 1 ASR 10/15

PAS: Rojo is an old Arena Puebla technico, who is probably in his mid 50s, this is clearly his home arena (a painting of his mask is up on the wall next to Santo), so the crowd is going batshit watching him wager his mask. Barbaro is a Puebla rudo, and instead of working spots in an opening six-man they are spraying blood all over the ring, and doing dangerous dives no one this old and fat should ever try. First two falls are short and good, with both guys bleeding a bunch, but in the third fall it gets truly nuts. Babaro needs the ref's help to get to the top rope, but then he uncorks this crazy flying senton off the top onto Rojo and his seconds. Rojo responds a little later with a flying seated flip senton (imagine Fantastik or Super Astro) to the floor. By the end we get some great near falls, with the crowd going nuts. Some of the execution wasn't the cleanest, but I will forgive wonky execution when it is coated in this much blood

ER: Two fat guys enter wearing mostly blanco, leave almost entirely rojo. This is a mega bloody brawl, with some absolutely spectacular (and entirely unexpected) spots making up an all time great tercera. The primera and the segunda drew blood, big blood, and also set up great false finishes in the tercera. Barbaro crushes Rojo with a falling splash from the top to end the primera, Rojo locks in a Trauma-esque twisting figure 4. Fans are into Rojo and it's weird, I love rudos in my mainstream lucha, but I LOVE regional tecnicos. And this tercera is a real doozy. Both men are absolutely soaked in blood, and we hit an increasing level of highspots that nobody could have expected: Barbaro gets backdropped by the ref into everyone, then hits a fat guy Kamaitachi standing senton off the top to the floor through everybody. But the craziness peaks when Rojo hits a bonkers rolling senton tope to a prostrate Barbaro. Holy cow. This was way more nuts than Super Calo's rolling senton to the floor, as Calo's was done slingshot style. This was a full running tope, through the ropes, and then rolling before hitting Barbaro. If I saw someone super athletic like John Morrison or Ricochet pull of that spot, it would seem crazy. But here's a guy who - at minimum - is in his late 40s, and a chubster at that! Insane spot. We get a couple great nearfalls that were set up early in the match, with Barbaro missing moves off the top on that HARD Coliseo San Ramon mat (that falling splash is brutal hit or miss) that both seem like plausible ways to get yourself pinned. Rojo finally locks on that twisting figure 4 and adds extra leverage to the knee this time, getting the tap. This is the kind of match you dream of getting to witness live in a building like this.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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All Time MOTY List Head to Head 1991: Fujinami vs. Vader Vs. Santo vs. Brazo

Brazo de Oro v. El Hijo Del Santo UWA 1/13/91

ER: I wasn't expecting the primera to be such a Brazo mugging, but he destroys Santo. Santo is always great at taking a beating. He always falls around in dramatic ways and always seems like he's just trying to get to his feet, knowing right when to lean into a punch to send him another way. He's always great at showing that desperation, shooting in for a single leg that Brazo just rolls into a crucifix before continuing the beating. One glorious 10 second run has him throwing a brutal left to the body, attempt to run Santo into a ringpost, Santo blocks, then gets paid back with a straight right hand and a headbutt. 

They do a bunch of really engaging stuff around avoiding that ringpost, better than any "avoid the barbed wire" stuff you've seen, really treating that ringpost like death. Both guys threw violent strikes, Santo punching to the neck and Brazo headbutting away. By the start of the segunda Santo's mask is filling with blood and brother there are few things cooler in wrestling than bloody masks. Santo does on of his classic snap Santo comebacks, catching Oro with a knee, dropkicking him to the floor and hitting a huge dive. Back in Santo locks in the grossest camel clutch you've seen. And now Brazo is busted wide open from hitting the rail and he's spurting blood, and Santo is throwing huge bombs, fighting over submissions, a couple big dives, the best victory roll ever, a mean double stomp to Oro's stomach followed by his always nuts rolling senton, a great momentary Oro comeback and a beartrap rollup for the Santo win. Gorgeous match, with every little thing I love about lucha.

PAS: Man alive is Brazo a killer in this, most of the classic Brazo stuff is really great comedy wrestling, with the two older brothers working around Super Porky, but they started out as Los Mosqueteros del Diablo (The Devil's Musketeers) and the Devil was back for this match. Brazo was throwing these headbutts to Santo's neck which were just vicious stuff and he had great liver lacerating body shots.. I always love the rudo domination first fall and this was a dominating first fall. Santo's comeback was awesome too, I love how he can explode with big dives and attacks and his tope is one of the most gorgeous moves in wrestling history. That caballo to end the second fall may have been nastier then the famous one in the Dandy hair match, gross river of blood and a true chiropractic destruction. Finish run was really exciting and the finish felt like a finish.

Verdict:

ER: This match has it all and wastes no time giving it to us. Blood, brawling, drama and tremendous execution. This one takes it for me.

PAS: Fujinami v. Vader is a really fun discovery and a great brawl, but the added stakes of mascara contra cabellera and the all time legendary Brazo De Oro performance give this the nod


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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Terry v. Aero Boy Mascara contra Cabellera

5. Black Terry v. Aero Boy Tulacingo Lucha 6/10

PAS: This is a apuestas match the way it should be, seedy dirty gym, both guys bleeding and getting dirt in open cuts, nothing slickly produced or fancy, just a nasty bit of business. Terry is still a great brawler, Aeroboy jumps him in the aisle but Terry takes over and posts him and cracks him with a chair shot. He rips the mask and digs a piece of broken plastic chair into Aero Boy's head Abby style. Aero boy takes over when Terry dives off the ring apron right into a thrown chair, which is a crazy pants spot for an old ass man to take. Terry gets busted open as well, and we get some great visuals of Terry as a broken bloody old man fighting for his life. Finish run was a bit sloppy, with Terry kind of blowing a code red, but it had some great moments too. Aero Boy was game, but a great example of how Terry can still bring it.

ER: Wow this was good. I guess I shouldn't be too shocked because Black Terry, but wow this was good. Terry comes bursting out to Judas Priest and starts lacing right into Aero Boy, stiffing the hell out of his and beating on him with an unforgiving metal charir. It's a dim scummy little room and there's no place I would rather be seeing this match right now. Aero Boy hits a crazy tope that sends both me sprawling into stackable plastic chairs, and also into a 4 year old boy who starts crying out of fear and confusion. And then the camera weirdly reveals how deep the room is, as bodies start appearing out of the darkness and suddenly it looks like David Lynch filming scenes for Fight Club. Terry is such a savage in this, lacing into Aero Boy with stiff kicks and chops, ripping his mask, dropping one of the best elbows you've ever seen, stabbing him with busted plastic. Aero Boy is effective at everything he needs to be effective at. His screams the first time Terry stabbed him were legitimately chilling. The way the room looked combined with the gritty camera (BTJr. even filmed the stabbing with the camera on its side, as if the camera was a passed out voyeur witnessing the terror), and the sound of Aero Boy's screams made Terry look like an absolute sadistic monster, and made for great moments whenever Aero Boy would stage a comeback. Terry leaping off the apron into a thrown chair from Aero was just absolutely crazy, looks like a good way to tear all sorts of muscles in your body and throw everything out of alignment, and here is old man Black motherfucking Terry just taking that wild leap. BT bleeds and just makes me miss blood in lucha matches. Aero Boy kicks him in the face in the corner and Terry has no problem making the kid look good, and in the end Terry returns that scream as Aero boy locks in an armbar. I really loved this from the first second of the match, the whole vibe of the thing immediately made me think "who could not 'get' lucha!?" This feels like something that believers and non-believers alike would love, something that would rate high on any of the 80s sets. So, so good.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE & ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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MLJ: Black Terry Boot Camp 13: Black Terry vs Multifacético [hair]

2008-04-17 @ Arena Naucalpan
Black Terry vs Multifacético [hair]

I'm finishing my look at Black Terry with a bang. Multifacetico is the current Guerrero Maya, Jr. They had an awesome match last year which we've covered here. In some ways, this was even better, because the stakes were higher. Multifacetico was 22 here, almost 23. Terry kind of felt like he was at the end of the transition into the Terry we know today. He had awesome music and the studded leather jacket still.

Two things stood out here. The first, and this is no surprise, was just how great Terry was in an apuestas match. His pacing was off the charts. Everything mattered. Everything resonated. The beating was brutal. The end of the match selling felt completely earned (which is one of the most important things in these matches). He had big spots and moves and a steady methodological heat segment and crowd interaction, and some exclamation points of visceral violence. The second was just how good Multifacetico was so young. Some of that was being led around by Terry (and they had been feuding for a while), sure, but he was excellent at fighting back just enough in the beatdown and selling throughout, especially at the end; his portrayal of exhaustion in the tercera was exactly what you'd want in a match like this, and he even did and admirable joy to match Terry's level of violence in his comeback.

Terry just did so many cool things here. He didn't need to. He could have coasted with stompting and punching and biting, and he did all that, but he'd bring things up to a high spot and then down again and up once more. I'm going to just gif a few things:

First, there were the facebreakers, which looked as good as I've ever seen them:

Then there's the hanging back legscissors choke through the ropes. I don't think I've ever seen this done quite in this way. It's a great visual:

And speaking of great visuals, here's a bottle to the forehead:

Multifacetico's comeback was spirited, had all the revenge spots you wanted and a really nice submission. There were a few rough things in here (like the finish to the primera) but they only made the match seem more wild and out of control. The finish to the tercera had a lot of BS, but it made sense to try to protect the loser in this one. There was enough escalation and gravitas to things, and some really great near falls at the end that I didn't mind. Another match well worth going out of your way to see.

Terry's awesome. I'm glad I took the time. Sometimes I'm hesitant to cover the same ground that Phil, Tom, Eric, etc. have in the past with complete and accurate lists, but for someone to get that treatment around here, they have to really be worth it. Terry absolutely was. I just wish we had more of him from earlier in his career.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 2/7/15

Another match from their 6/8/14 show in Watsonville, and after this one there's only Blue Demon vs. Pirata Morgan that hasn't been shown on that card. Boy they've really made that card last damn near two months now.

1. Mask vs. Hair: El Mariachi vs. Derek Sanders

Boy this was disappointing. A hate stip matches that never actually do anything to feel like stip matches. This just felt like a regular match these two would have had, that happened to end in Sanders getting his head shaved. Mariachi was especially bad as he didn't change up his routine in the least, worked this match the same way I've seen him work every other match. There was never any desperation from either man, no struggle, just a regular match that happened to have one participant's mask at stake. Mariachi genuinely worked the match as if he had no idea anything at all was at stake. The big hero of the match was made out to be referee Tom Castor, who ran out halfway through and triumphantly threw rudo ref Sparky Ballard over the top to the floor, even though up until that point Ballard had called the match pretty normally. There was one moment where he kind of argued with Mariachi which led to Sanders ambushing him. Other than that, nothing. It was a real weird moment that had Sanders pull Ballard in the way of a Mariachi missile dropkick, bumping Ballard. Then Sanders hit a move and went for the pin and got the visual 3 count, but Ballard was still selling the dropkick. Then Castor ran out and tossed Ballard. So we get the rudo getting the visual 3 (and then some), and then the hero ref runs in so I guess things will be more fair for Sanders? Real clunky stuff. Sanders looked good throughout this, really liked some of his punches (even shook out his fist after an especially nice one) but by the end this turned to your move/my move, with no drama. Mariachi did not look great throughout, though I liked his tornado DDT that ended the match, so finishing on a nice looking move counts for something. Still, very disappointing when what should be a major stipulation ends up getting worked like other matches I've seen between the two. Man Mariachi is not good. He's real sloppy when he tries to do "lucha" spots (real ugly springboard armdrag…thing…in this), and he does goofy stuff like a horrible people's elbow variation that sees him slam Sanders, then do a way too long zapateado before leaping into an elbow drop. Not only would it look silly in a normal match, it looked completely idiotic for a tecnico to be doing it in a match with his mask at stake. Horrible stuff, disappointing and clueless match.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 8/16/14

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

MASCARA CONTRA CABALLERA!



Marcela & Princesa Sujei vs. Princesa Blanca & La Seductora

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

CABALLERA CONTRA CABALLERA!



Rush vs. Negro Casas

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

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

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