Uprising Lucha Libre Workrate Report 12/1/13

These matches were from the 5/31/10 show at the Sacramento County fair. Outdoor show, probably blazing hot. And also, next week Blue Demon Jr. will have a big announcement! I'll give them credit for advertising a big name the week before.

1. Vinny Massaro & Rik Luxury vs. The Polyester Express (Matt Carlos & Dave Dutra)

This match was okay, something you may be mildly entertained by if you were there live. But when you think about it within the context of "we are paying money to air this match" then I wouldn't make sense to most people to have this representing your company. The Polyester Express is one of the lamest duds of a gimmick you could possibly saddle a couple guys with. It appears to be a disco gimmick, and both guys wear white bell-bottomish pants. That's the joke. But what's the point? There aren't any disco puns, they don't wrestle as if they were kooky disco dancers, they just have names and wear the pants. Matt Carlos is super bland, and wrestles the same no matter what the gimmick, so why have a gimmick? Disco Matt Carlos worked the same as Out of Control Matt Carlos who worked the same as heel Matt Carlos. It's just a lazy, irrelevant gimmick. It's like a shitty, easy Halloween costume. "Oh I'll just throw on some old pants and a zany shirt and be disco guy!" "Look, I'm a luchador because I wear this mask and sometimes I throw a dropkick!" It's disco portrayed by somebody who not only has not heard of disco, but isn't a huge music fan. The last great disco records were released almost 30 years before this. Who is their reference supposed to appeal to? If their entrance music was some cool Arthur Russell track or a Moroder b-side I'd shut my mouth. It's completely irrelevent to dress these guys in white pants and just go "Hey...Disco! Right!?" How is that pertinent at all to any sort of audience? Unless they are looking at working up to a bunch of long term music type gimmicks where we can build up to some sort of Disco Demolition match with a Dead Kennedys team against our Disco Defenders. There, look what I just shot out! Disco Defenders. My brain just spat out a better name for the team, as long as they're insisting on shoehorning them into a braindead do-nothing disco gimmick. Within the name Disco Defenders it already is implying how passe and irrelevant it is for two guys in their 20s to be working a disco gimmick in this decade, but at least gives them some sort of vague justification of them defending disco from the badmouthing it's (mostly wrongly) received since before they were born. But nope. We get Matt Carlos in white pants, working the same spots with the same mannerisms that Matt Carlos in black tights works.


2. Octagoncito vs. Pequeno Pierroth

We get a lot of stalling at first as Pierroth is super proud of his Puerto Rican flag. But Octagoncito is super proud of Mexico. So we have some capture the flag shenanigans, and I'm not sure why a war between PR and Mexico in front of a bunch of white people at a fair seemed like something that needed to happen. They work their standard match, although something seems a bit off and I'll probably just chalk that up to a couple of guys in masks working outside on a 90 degree day. Still they hit a cool dive sequence which looked extra nutty due to no mats around the ring, just the dirt.

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APW TV Workrate Report: 5/14/11

We start this week almost immediately with a match.

1. "Out of Control" Matt Carlos vs. Sheik Khan Abadi. Both of these guys can take real nice beatings from larger opponents (especially Abadi), so I'm curious how the two small guys work each other. Opening matwork scrambles are nice, with both guys slipping out of holds and neither really gaining an advantage. Cool spot where Abadi leapfrogs and lands in the splits, and Carlos dropkicks him in the face causing Abadi to bump big through the ropes to the floor. Carlos misses a plancha, Abadi hits a nice kneedrop, and Carlos takes over with an enzuigiri. Carlos also hits a completely awesome fist drop off the middle rope. He flew kinda recklessly towards Abadi, and it kinda was an "out of control" fistdrop. What's funny is crummy announcer John Roberts keeps saying things like "Out of Control Matt Carlos is in control of Abadi right now" seemingly oblivious to how stupid that sounds. I hope if Carlos goes heel he'll become "Cool, Collected and In Control" Matt Carlos. Big spots start coming, as Carlos hits a leaping DDT (he was on the middle rope, Abadi was in the center of the ring), and suplexes Abadi to the floor in a big bump, Abadi hits a dragon suplex, Carlos hits a Sliced Bread (that Abadi bumps nuttily on his head) for the win. This was a pretty workrate-y match with a bunch of moves being traded back and forth, often with minimal regard to selling, but for what it was it was pretty decent.

2. Larry Blackwell vs. Dylan Drake is the main event, and FINALLY we get a Blackwell singles match on TV! Story of this one was Drake continually attempting to lock on the Bay to Breaker submission (Sharpshooter) but every attempt resulted in Blackwell kicking him off and beating him more. Blackwell jumps at the bell and hits some rad clubbing crossface blows. Drake leaps at Blackwell, gets caught in a bearhug, maneuvers into a sunset flip, Blackwell blocks and misses a giant butt splash, and Drake hits a big shoulderblock to a seated Blackwell. Drake starts working over Blackwell's knee and Larry's great at fighting for the ropes and hitting nasty forearms and elbows to counter Drake. Blackwell fights back to his feet and throws Drake to the floor, elbowing the snot out of him all around the ring. Blackwell misses a charge and smashes into the ringpost, and Drake hits a cool somersault senton off the apron. Blackwell is eventually able to use his size advantage to take back over, clubbing Drake all over the ring and hitting a sweet 'Taker leg drop on the apron, really splatting Drake. Blackwell gets missle dropkicked and does the cool stuck in the ropes spot, but he's still able to use his fat to come back and hit a HUGE belly to belly suplex, really chucking him like an even fatter Gary Albright. Drake hits some shoulderblocks which on paper sound like a horrible idea, but he really smashes into Blackwell, a few times. I guarantee Drake's shoulder was killing him the next day. Blackwell takes over again with clubbering, and goes up top to hit a Vader Bomb, and Drake AWESOMELY climbs up and German's Blackwell off the middle rope. That was EASILY the most spectacular spot I've seen in APW since I've started reviewing their TV shows, that was just INSANE. I rewound the DVR 5 times to watch that one. Blackwell taking a massive German out of the corner is something pretty much everybody needs to see. This allows Drake to finally lock on the Bay to Breaker without getting kicked off by Blackwell, but then the Dark Carnival runs in for the DQ. Wow, pretty damn disappointing ending right there, since the match had gone like 17 minutes and then just ended in a run-in. Still, match was pretty awesome and one of the top APW TV matches I've seen.

Next week is the debut of some guy named Kay Jutler. That is one of the stupidest names I have heard. I mean, say what you want about Michael McGillicutty, but fucking Kay Jutler? Really?! I can't wait to see the debut of Ren Boethlisberger or Brew Dees.

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