Found Footage Friday: BRAZOS~! CASAS~! COTA~! WAGNER~! SATANICO~! GARZA~! PANTERA~! CARAS~! FIERA~!

Bronco/Máscara Mágica/Pantera vs. Astro Rey Jr./Guerrero De La Muerte/Mocho Cota CMLL 2/23/96

MD: Roy's uploaded a bunch recently and we'll hit some of it. I'm not going to say no to new Mocho Cota, even 1996 Mocho Cota. He's a step slow, but what he does with that step is still great. He'll bump to the floor off a dropkick and then careen towards a little kid, halting at the last moment and menacing him with his missing fingers. What a guy. He also fed into rudo miscommunication as you'd imagine, so they kept things brisk, moving, and fun. According to Rob, this was a couple of weeks before Pantera jumped to AAA. He was matched up with Guerrero here early and looked good the whole way through, especially down the stretch where he got to stand tall at the end with the last pairing, post-dives, hit a great dive of his own, and then come back in to win the thing, which is honestly not a structure you usually see. He also drove the comeback, so he was certainly being featured. Mascara Magica was paired with Cota and they did ok, even if you got the sense that maybe he was still trying to figure it out a bit. You take Pantera and Cota out of this one and it wouldn't be as engaging (even if they did wildly different things) but as is, I enjoyed it.

Los Brazos vs. Negro Casas/Dr Wagner Jr./Rambo CMLL 3/15/96

MD: Apparently Brazo de Plata and Negro Casas really wanted to work with each other on this night, because they put on one hell of a show. Porky's fist was laser focused to Casas' face and it was great. Just the most brutal, mean-spirited, single-minded punches you'll see, no matter if Casas was standing, on the ground, in the ropes. And of course, Casas would just slide back into the ring at full speed only to get walloped again. They had an early exchange too where Casas did a reverse leg sweep and then Porky did the same in return. Great stuff. Porky had his shoulders bandaged and that made him a target overall. They primera had a great bit where the rudos, two at a time, tossed one Brazo after the next off the top rope. Then they tried Porky with all three and got squashed and pinned. Perfect comic build and timing. The segunda had them really hone in on Porky's shoulder, double teaming him and forcing hum to the floor. The remaining Brazos held their own for a bit, but Rambo pulled out an object and bloodied El Brazo and it became an inconclusive mauling. This was great while it lasted though.

ER: You go into this excited to see whatever happens between Super Porky and Negro Casas and then all of the Porky/Casas interactions turn out to be even better than you expected. The whole thing is great but everything that Porky and Casas do - especially to each other - is better than you expect and that means it's all time great. There is one especially great exchange between them that is like extravagant lucha morphing into shootstyle. No, this isn't UWFi, but damn when Porky gets swept and ankle picks Casas on his way down I flipped. Porky aimed carefully guided punches at Casas's face a dozen different times and Casas kept falling for them in bigger and bigger ways. Porky would knock Casas down and lean his weight on him and throw punches from half mount. It all builds to one of the most incredible ways to end a caida, when the rudos press slam El Brazo and Oro off the top turnbuckle. Two men handled them, but all hands were required on deck to press Porky. They all backed him into the corner and Porky started throwing potato shots at everyone, flat footed lefts and rights. Casas gets hit so square that he banana peels all the way to the opposite corner. When all three rudos finally get underneath Porky to slam him, they wind up crushed underneath. 

The segunda shows Porky as one of wrestling's great Targets. Rambo and Casas target his taped up shoulder. Injured Porky is one of my favorite salesmen in wrestling, his movements feel so suddenly real but delivered by the incomparable physique of Porky. He has one of the most sympathetic faces in wrestling (and here he doesn't even cry!) and the way he plops on his butt and kicks his legs while Negro and Rambo and stomping and kicking him is like a giant baby getting stomped out. 

Rambo is always great in matches like this. He's great during bumping for tecnicos (loved him hopping on his back across the ring after a Brazo de Oro quebradora) and then becomes the most violent rudo during the segunda. His wrapped fist shot to Oro was so good it held up in slo motion, and when he gigs El Brazo he really gets the blood flowing. Rambo knows several ways to open a cut, slamming Brazo's face into his boot in the corner as blood gets all over it, then starts kneeing him directly in the cut repeatedly. I wish the DQ had happened in the tercera so we got the full set of falls, but this was great stuff.   

Dos Caras/Héctor Garza/La Fiera vs. Bestia Salvaje/Dr Wagner Jr./Satánico CMLL 4/3/96

MD: The primera here was a super fun two minutes. First Caras and Fiera mowed through Bestia and Satanico with double teams, including a Hart Attack of sorts on Satanico. Then Wagner got the better of them with a flying double clothesline and Garza flew around for him before hitting a clutch roll up. From there, they did one of those multiman submissions where the third guy kneels on the shoulders of the person/people being stretched. You almost never see the tecnicos doing that and Garza paid for his hubris with Wagner pulling him off so he took a nasty bump into the ropes and then got posted, but the tecnicos still took the caida. 

The segunda started with in and out exchanges, with Wagner getting the best of Fiera and then everyone basing for Garza (who had to make frequent comebacks admittedly). They went around with it until Wagner ended up dangling from the ropes on a great bump/stooge spot, before the rudos finally took over. Wagner finished Garza off with both a superplex and a top rope splash, one after the other, doing it all himself (well, Satanico held Garza down at the end, not that it was needed). The beatdown that followed was short and nasty, with Satanico driving his foot into Garza's groin as the other rudos held him and chewing on his fingers. He meandered too close into the tecnico corner and they turned it around for some final exchanges, some rudo miscommunication, and then a triumphant tecnico victory including Wagner walking around forever with Caras on his shoulder holding an armbar before they finally rolled forward. As fun as you'd expect with guys this talented. 

ER: This had a great ramshackle feel to it. Tight rudo team who all had different ways of bumping cool in a large flat CMLL ring. It's a powerhouse rudo team with three workers who were all cool in different ways in 1996. Wagner got to show off his power, Bestia got to show off his speed and his grace while being built like Vincent Pastoricito, Satanico got to show off his cunning and sadistic leadership. But where they're at their best, is coming together to assault sweet young Héctor Garza. I don't know why Garza's magic didn't work in the United States. You watch his work in Mexico before his US run and his tecnico connection to crowds is so obvious, and it's just not there in WCW or WWF. His babyface presence and charisma mostly vanished on US TV. 

He was brought in to both WWF and WCW with plans on making him one of the pushed ones among his niche, but both bailed on him quickly. In WWF he was a two month foreign babyface firebrand, a busted experiment that stumbled so the later-that-year Taka Michinoku foreign babyface firebrand push. He was given the big solo in all the early WCW trios matches but never connected as even a top 5 luchador babyface with any WCW crowds. The charisma always instantly returned in Mexico and it's evident here. Any time the rudos focus on Garza the match becomes laser focused and Important. He is a tecnico muse to each rudo and inspires them to increased punishment. Satanico and Wagner seem like they take joy in assaulting Garza and I think Garza connects the way he does with Mexico crowds because some felt that sadistic joy and either felt he deserved it for being too pretty while other felt he was too pretty to deserve it. Wagner's top rope superplex and Superfly splash on on him was a real highlight, some real Welcome to the Big Leagues moment, and Garza in Mexico was still great at being the victim of those moments several years into his career. 

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Lucha Worth Watching: Niebla's Return! Mephisto's Title Loss!

Mr. Niebla/Mephisto/Rey Bucanero vs. Diamante Azul/Dragon Lee/Mistico CMLL 3/12/19

ER: This was Niebla's return to Arena Mexico after 6 months of suspension, and he kind of owned it. Niebla owned this with the confidence of a white dude waltzing back into his old government job after accepting a voluntary demotion. Niebla was walking around ringside slapping fives with regulars like someone greeting people at the You Served Your Time cookout thrown in his favor. This is a total throwaway straight falls Arena Mexico main event, but I love that straight falls because Niebla lost the first fall for his team because he was kicking too many asses. Always feel bad for the tecnico getting his hand raised because his ass got kicked too hard. This whole thing just livens up the second Niebla high-stepped it across the ring to palm slap Mistico across the dome. I was dying. It looked like a hilarious move Sandman would use to kick someone off the Apollo stage. Niebla just slapped his way through this whole match, in the ring and out, and it was great. He mugged with fans, slapped face, and looked like a megastar. Azul hits a great dive, Bucanero throws some nasty chops at Mistico's throat, Mephisto plants Dragon Lee with a powerbomb, the whole thing was short mean and triumphant.

Mephisto vs. Dragon Lee CMLL 3/19/19

ER: A match that lost me at points during the long tercera, but that overall felt like a big enough match for a title to change hands. I know lucha titles don't mean a whole lot to American fans, Mexican fans, or the promotion themselves seemingly, but it feels like Mephisto has had this thing for ages and that should mean SOMETHING. They went big enough with this that it felt like a big stip match, so I think it earned it's third fall bloat. Also, I just really liked Mephisto in this, especially his work in the primera/segunda, but he had plenty of nice rudo moments in the tercera. It really felt like a guy sadistically beating down Lee, smacking down this punk coming for his belt, and that's a great pro wrestling feeling. The primera is short but mostly matwork, and it's cool to see Mephisto work some maestro exchanges that we don't often get to see from him, some cool tricks like standing on Lee's foot while shoving him over. He controls all the matwork, and when Lee breaks free into some rope running he immediately tricks Lee into a pin. And then Mephisto only gets MORE dominant in the segunda, when he starts stalking and dishing stiff kicks. He does a flapjack and hits a mean kick on the way down (possibly because Lee didn't get as much height as expected), and then does a second flapjack, Lee gets tons of height, and then gets kicked just as hard on his way down, again. I liked Lee's selling during these nasty kicks a lot, as he showed great pain through the mask, and was also working to loosen the area of his mask around the nose, freeing up the pressure and selling it like Mephisto had broken his nose [note: if I find out later that Lee just got his nose broken, forget all the stuff I said about good selling]. Mephisto goes on to throw a few more kicks, slowly, confidently, letting Lee crawl around on the mat while he would come in with a hard kick to the face or chest, letting the crowd really build a Lee comeback. The comeback stuff wasn't as exciting to me, as we knew we'd eventually get a long series of nearfalls, but some of them I really liked and the match threatened to lose me at a couple points but never did. There was always something to bring me back into it, like Mephisto casually waiting on the apron to catch Lee's high jump rana and just planting him with a nasty powerbomb on that apron, or Lee crashing fast into Mephisto on two straight topes. There were at least two moments where I was positive Mephisto had sealed up the title defense, and while I didn't love a couple of the kickouts in this I thought the overall excitement level sustained. Mephisto is 50 now. He lost his title that is a thing. Now he needs to go on more grimy indy shows like Ultimo Guerrero and be an old guy asskicker.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Recent CMLL, Recent Kurisu

Hechicero/Negro Casas/Mephisto vs. Soberano Jr./Hijo de LA Park/Flyer  CMLL 8/24/18

ER: You ever see a match with sloppy execution and some flubbed sequences, but think that's it's good fun despite its flaws? That would be this kind of match right here. A few of the guys didn't have their best night; Flyer worked like a young guy wrestling the top stars for the first time, really hesitant for some reason, Casas having to really telegraph and lead and RE-lead him through some spots. I've enjoyed Flyer, but this wasn't quite his night. There were plenty of misses here, but the energy kept the crowd way into it and played well. Casas got to work with all three young tecnicos throughout and he looked like he was having a ball. Flyer looked like a real choad trading push kicks to the jaw with him, and the fans were getting way more into rudo Casas as he kicked face and mule kicked his way gleefully around the ring, fouhgt on the apron with Parkito, and took a nice crazy DDT from Park right on his head. Hechicero had one of his best performances of the year, and while the match wasn't quite working, well nobody ever told Hech that. He took big flying moves from everyone, took big bumps to the floor (watch him get flung through the ropes and sprawl out on the floor), dropped a cool elbowdrop from the apron to Park draped over the barricade, and covers nicely for some out of position whoopsies: Late in the match he goes to hit his fast middle rope springboard dropkick, only to find Soberano not in the middle of the ring to get kicked, but waiting in the corner. Hechcero lands on his feet off the springboard and hitting the ground running his does a 360 and perfectly hits his mark to strike Soberano in the corner. All the tecnicos got to fly, and Soberano broke out his big tornillo (one in ring and one to the floor), Park hit a big moonsault, Soberano hit his handspring flipping rana to the floor only to get caught and swung hard into the barricade by Mephisot (Mephisto, who was decked spectacularly out in Villano pink/purple), so as I said the heart and energy was clearly full in this one. This thing threatened to fall apart but never did, it just kept chugging ahead with the aspirations of having a classic.

Rush/Cavernario/Bestia del Ring vs. Volador Jr./Matt Taven/Caristico  CMLL 9/7/18

ER: This was a good, fun-sized snack best enjoyed stoned in the dark in the movie theater. It's that fun-sized pack of Reese's Pieces I grab and throw in my pocket on my way out the door to catch a last minute flick. By the time I'm sitting there an hour into the film, those Pieces are little crunchy manna from heaven. The match is about 6 minutes long, is disposable and forgettable like tiny portion-sized candy, but enjoyed to the fullest in its moment. Rush is in full asshole mode, and we peak with Rush high kicking Matt Taven in the balls in full view of every human in Arena Mexico. To describe Matt Taven's look would be to describe a man who looks like he deserves to have his balls kicked in. We get flash highlights: The rudos kicking around a soccer ball head, Volador flying fast over the barricade, Volador hitting a big flip dive, a stiff lariat from Bestia, big splash from Cavernario, a stiff frog splash from Taven to end it; it was a short hot match. The match went 7 minutes, and had plenty of worthwhile fun in 7 minutes. It definitely made me want to see the hair match.

Masanobu Kurisu/Okumura/Felino vs. Solar/Mano Negra/Villano IV Lucha Expo 9/15/18

PAS: I have no idea how Kurisu ends up working a lucha expo at a museum in 2018, but god bless the guy with the handheld which lets me watch it. We get a bunch of the Kurisu greatest hits, he blasts people with that headbutt right to the side of the head, sick body shots and some nasty chair shots. I really enjoyed the Villano IV vs. Kurisu sections that feels like the great bloody apuestas match which never happened. There was also a moment where Solar gets smacked by Kurisu and remembers he is a tough fucker who had a MMA fight in his 50s and starts wailing away. Solar tried a couple of things he could do in his late 50s, but not in his early 60s and nobody was really taking bumps, but it fuck it, its 2018, its Kurisu, its lucha libre, god is great.

ER: I would wager we've never seen any lucha Kurisu, though we can probably assume that the term "lucharisu" clearly came about due to a portmanteau of Lucha Kurisu. I assume every smaller worker from All Japan or New Japan during that era had at least one Mexico tour, and obviously Kurisu's was historic. This was almost exactly what you would expect, although I didn't expect Kurisu to be wearing baggy denim Dockers shorts and a large weight belt. He looked like an old dad doing yardwork on the weekends. He threw headbutts like Kurisu and choked out people with his boot like Kurisu and got a chair involved like Kurisu, so we can confirm that early 70s Kurisu is still Kurisu. I don't think I've ever witnessed Solar wielding a chair before, so Kurisu is responsible for that. He's a bad influence. Kurisu hits guys in the back with a chair, they all get to hit him, we have fun. The tecnicos all seemed to be in really good shape considering their ages, and we got some fun quick exchanges with V4 and Felino, and even though Solar bailed on something a bit complicated on the ropes, he also ran and booted Okumura hard in the stomach, a stomach kick that looks better than most today. This never really gets past a certain level, but maintains its fun and weird pace throughout, and still maintains it's status as "most unexpected thing to catch my attention on a Monday".

PAS: Did a luchablog search on Kurisu, there are a handful of matches between 1979-81(Including a Gran Hamada title match, and a tag with Scorpio Sr. against Brazos Oro and Plata) and then nothing until 2018. Someone said "Remember that guy from 1979, that we haven't seen in 37 years? Does anyone have a contact number?"

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Lucha Worth Watching: June CMLL

Puma/Tiger/Okumura vs. Drone/Guerrero Maya Jr./Rey Cometa  CMLL 6/1/18

ER: What a fun little match that snuck right up on me. I was skimming through this card to get to the Park main event, and a lot of the guys in this match have made nice improvements over the last couple years, I've particularly found myself really liking Drone. He's been working with the most confidence he's had in the gimmick, and he's been tossing out more fun sometimes trippy offense, like he's a guy trained by both Skayde and Joel Maximo. And the match delivered all the spotty goods I was hoping for. I don't know if the wrestlers and more and more pumped up from the Park crowds, but guys are working a lot more loose and playful. Puma was really soaking in the crowd and working like a dickhead, Cometa was taking bumps on his head like he was 5 years ago Rey Cometa, Drone is rolling into offense with the flair of a World of Sport guy, Puma and Tiger see who can catch a rana better, it's all tons of fun. Cometa takes a nice beating, takes a really nasty bump off a Puma clothesline, jumps off the top face first into Puma's boots and makes the spot look great, Puma catches him in a huge rana from the top to the floor and swings him into the barricade. We get some dives, some springy armdrags from Maya, fun little moments like Puma kicking the ropes as Maya was getting into the ring, big 450 from Cometa to end the segunda, just a real good go go go pace for this kind of thing.

Rey Cometa/Stuka Jr./Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Templario/Mephisto/Ephesto  CMLL 6/29/18

ER: Rey Cometa works this whole match like a Cometa reborn, acting like he's the hot new flyer in town and bringing some big flying spots and bumps. And then everybody sees that and everybody busts ass and even on a show without LA Park, they act like the big draw on this show isn't Ciber the MAIN MAN (which is a name so bad that he should come out sporting suspenders and snap them obnoxiously before hitting big moves, but that doesn't work when one of your top tecnicos already wears lame suspenders), this whole thing is worked like it mattered, perhaps the homegrown guys showing what they can do while three less talented invaders (though I do like Zorro) work the main event. Everybody is showing off and it's real fun. Mephisto does some nice bully matwork, Maya breaks out a couple big dives with his awesome tope con giro sending him flying upside down into the barricade and another tope right through the legs of Stuka. Stuka hits a gorgeous moonsault over the ringpost to the floor, Templario is a huge bumping rudo who mixes in super athletic flying, and he's a fun complement to the tougher old guys Ephesto and Mephisto. Cometa really felt excitedly reinvigorated here, and that's something I've been noticing from him lately. His big rope climb tornillo to the floor was super fun and a nice surprise, seemed like everyone was working faster to make up for a shorter match. Whatever the reason, this delivered.

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Lucha Worth Watching: 2017 Leyenda de Plata Cibernetico

2017 Leyenda de Plata Cibernetico CMLL 10/13

ER: Ciberneticos were definitely more of my thing when I first started watching lucha in the late 90s, but that would also line up with WCW cruisers being my favorite style of wrestling at that time. Now ciberneticos usually still leave me hungry, unfulfillingly set up spotfests with sudden pinfalls. But I am not made of stone, and sometimes there's a collection of moves too tasty to not force a smile or an oooooohhhh. This started simple and exploded once Guerrero Maya flew at Barbaro with a tope and also flew recklessly into the first row. Full Eric attention achieved. We get a Virus/Casas sequence which is always a thrill, two masters delivering a greatest hits collection. Later we see Virus get his brains stomped to the mat by Dragon Lee. Casas tries to outbump the youngsters by getting thrown fast ass over elbow over the top to the floor. We get a concurrent somersault plancha, Asai moonsault, somersault plancha. Forastero works as if he were a darkside Soberano Jr. and it works better than Soberano Jr. being Soberano Jr. Casas has more charisma and gets louder reactions than anybody in the match, getting the fans rabid just for not locking up right away with Barbaro after pinning Titan. Lee is a dangerously fearless bumper and always wanting to please, so we get him doing a nutty rana from the ring to the floor on Titan, bumping a Virus lariat on his head, dumping himself on his head for Caristico, taking a nutso spinning powerbomb from Sanson. Mephisto is wearing a fantastic gimp outfit that makes him look like a beefy extra from the movie Cruising. I think I saw him in the background set at a bar called The Toolbox. Soberano does a nasty seated tombstone to Barbaro and I guess we just don't give a fuck about the sacred death danger of the martinete anymore.

Mistico and Caristico have the most palatable teacher/student showdown because instead of flipping and rope running they just rip masks. Mistico ripped Caristico's mask like a lifetime solid citizen who finally experienced how fucking good it felt to steal an extra newspaper from the machine. The final 5 contains 4 of my least favorite guys in the entire 16 man match, meaning Sanson is my old hope. Volador also seems rudo by default which is his best side, and he bumps fast to the floor which is better from a rudo. Soberano takes stupid modern era lucha moves real stupid on the back of his head, taking things like fast code reds or reverse ranas - dangerous looking moves that can be botched - in a cartoony rollercoaster manner, rolling off his head and then freeze framing for a second before completing the bump. I want him pinned. Sanson catches Volador on a motherfucking flip dive to the floor, doesn't let him touch the ground, and then powerbombs him SIDEWAYS into the front of the ring barrier. Sanson may have passed Cuatrero on the "baddest ass Dinamita" after this match. This is a cibernetico, so by Mexican law it was required to have one confusingly dogshit double elimination, but at minimum it was done because Sanson pinned Caristico while also suplexing Soberano. Everybody's shoulders looked down. And then Sanson is immediately pinned because they wanted to give me the last final showdown I would have picked out of all 16 participants. But that's life. Dare to err and to dream. Deep meaning often lies in childish plays.

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 19: La Sombra vs Mephisto © [NWA WELTER]

2011-03-13 @ Arena México
La Sombra vs Mephisto © [NWA WELTER]

6:49 in

I'm still under the notion that some people not at all familiar with CMLL might be reading these because they want a primer on Sombra's career. In that case I should take a moment to explain the NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship and how it differed from the NWA World Welterweight Championship, but it really doesn't matter. I could go into Mephisto too, but all you really need to know is that he was a former tecnico that Satanico used dark magic to make into a rudo. He's good at his job, but his job is never very interesting.

This was a big match for Sombra and also a good way to see how far he'd come in singles title matches. And he'd come far. This was a very competant match, which doesn't sound too impressive, but it felt like it accomplished what it set out to do and that doesn't always happen in a match like this.

The hardest part in a title match, debatably at least, is the wrestling-centric primera. It needs to be long enough, with enough competitive, engaging matwork. None of what Sombra and Mephisto did was particular dynamic, but it  hit the other marks. Past a nice Mephisto bridge, they were basically doing simple things well, but they spent enough time doing it well that Sombra came off as credible and deserving. Like a lot of these, it escalated into rope running including the first of a few Devil's Wings counters by Sombra, to set up for the twisting split legged moonsault.

The primera was short but sufficiently back and forth, with Mephisto dropping the sportsmanship and mounting a couple of ambushes, only for Somba's athleticism to allow him to fight back. He went for one too many springboards, however, and landed in a Mephisto powerbomb for the second fall.

The tercera was, once again, exactly what it had to be, with bigger and bigger bombs, selling, and near-falls. Sombra hit the perfect dive, starting by setting it up by tapping the turnbuckle and telegraphing it for the crowd, then running across the ring, leaping and twisting to the top rope and moonsaulting off, finishing it by ending up in the crowd.

Nothing says "Proof of escalating bombs" quite like a muscle buster:

and a sloppy splash mountain:

and other Satanic Rudo Averno hyping the crowd?

And I'll stop the gifs there, but it continued to go back and forth, including Mephisto getting his knees up on Sombra's stupid double moonsault, and the godlike inverted flip dive, before Sombra finally took it with a dragonrana. One great thing about Sombra in this era that he really had four-five ways to realistically win a fall. That's not uncommon in CMLL but it added a lot to the layout of his big matches in the period.

This wasn't the best title match I've seen recently, but it was perfectly fine for a big single's title win for Sombra. He looked like he belonged in the spot and this thusly felt like a big deal.

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 18: Hijo del Fantasma, La Sombra, Máscara Dorada vs Averno, Mephisto, Negro Casas

2011-01-28 @ Arena México
Hijo del Fantasma, La Sombra, Máscara Dorada vs Averno, Mephisto, Negro Casas

0:40 in

I'm kicking myself a little for skipping over the La Aguila singles match from a little before the Dragon Rojo one, as Cubsfan says it's good, and he'd know. He also said it, with the Rojo match, was a sign that Sombra was finally putting it all together, which has been my sense too, going through this. Again, the problem is that there don't seem to be a ton of great looking stuff in 2011, so I'm going to have to pick a bit wildly.

This is a trios match with a few guys I like. For anyone here just for Sombra, Fantasma is the current King Cuerno in Lucha Underground. He's great as a rudo. He was really good as a tecnico here too. I was high on Averno when I started watching CMLL in 2014 because he was a rudo being a rudo which felt a little rare in the midst of the Negro Casas vs Rush/Shocker feud. The big disappointment in these matches is that the Mascara Dorada of 2011 was not the Mascara Dorada of 2016.

It's a fun match but nothing standout. It's got an initial ambush/beatdown by the rudos and I haven't seen one in a little bit so I enjoyed that. The best part of the first two falls were easily the mascots.

Kemonito looking bemused as his guys are getting beaten on:

Zacarias (Maybe before he was even called that) doing some nasty legwork on Dorada:

And this amazing Zacarias splash and antics in the segunda:

It was your standard beatdown with mask ripping, triple kicks, isolating of the tecnicos valiantly fighting back and all that. The biggest spot was Fantasma eating a double armdrag over the top.

which was especially cool because it actually set up the comeback in a way you almost never see. Tecnicos come back hundreds and hundreds of times with this bounce back of the ropes into a full nelson leading to rudo miscommunication, but here it actually made sense as it was Averno and Mephisto trying the double arm drag over the top once again. Stuff like that makes me way too happy. There's nothing sadder than someone whose day can be made by seeing Flair hit a validating top rope move or Tully hitting a double axe handle  from the second rope on a prone opponent without eating a foot in the face,

Of course, the CMLL Cameras missed the comeback almost entirely since they though it was a good time to go to the crowd. So it goes. Oh, speaking of that, I think, despite saying in the introduction and the graphic confirming it, that Negro Casas was the rudo captain, it was actually Averno. The sequence of falls seemed to indicate that. Not a big deal but it had me confused for a second.

If the mascot antics were the reason to watch the primera and segunda (though, to warn you, Zacarias never gets his comeuppance! The injustice), the tercera was carried by a lot of really good action. All of the tecnicos got to hit their spots. The dives were good even if some of the in ring tandem tecnico offense was a little off. Negro Casas got to be Negro Casas against multiple opponents, including this sequence:

and a great tease of an escape from Fantasma's German before he finally gets flattened. Sombra even hit his insane back flip dive, this time without three people standing around forever to catch him. It ended with a mask rip DQ and more rudo beatdown, which was still not as infuriating as Kemonito never getting his hands on Zacarias. Fun, if disposable, trios match,

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Lucha Worth Watching 2/5/16 & 2/9/16

Barbaro Cavernario, Negro Casas & Mephisto vs. Mascara Dorada, Volador Jr. & Mistico (CMLL 2/5/16)

Major crowd pleaser Arena Mexico main event with everybody getting the opportunity to shine. Dorada is back from his NJPW sojourn and looks like a star, snapping off ranas and headscissors with more whip than anybody else on the roster, projecting huge on bumps; Cavernario is his perfect dance partner, excellent yin to his yang, taking those ranas and making them look neck breaking. They peak with Dorada catching Barbaro on the apron with a rana that sends him sprawling hard to the floor. Barbaro looked so big time in this match, right from the opening seconds of him entering the arena in his Fred Flintstone smock on up to the mammoth top rope splash to the floor that his knees still somehow allow him to do. Casas is gorgeous in his simplicity and it's always a treat to watch him front kick twerps like Volador square in the mouth while his goons hold onto him. A motivated Casas is a thing to marvel, and here he's in his Arena Mexico hamming-it-up glory, acting as ringleader to the chaos, sneaking shots when needed and stooging when that's needed. He takes a bullet fast flip bump off the top rope to the floor that made my head spin. For his part Volador actually shows some balls here and finally snaps and punts Casas right in the dick to end the match. It's nice to see Volador not looking like an utter wimp for once. Mephisto gets a nice main event appearance and clearly aims to make the most of it. He makes his intentions clear right away as he breaks up a tag by kicking Volador right in the eye with his boot toe. Mephisto gets to hog some nice big moments and gets to show off a bit, too, bumping to the floor a couple times, launching Mistico into the entrance steps; The tecnicos all hit stereo flip dives, tons of beautiful headscissors abound, and the whole thing is worked rather breathlessly. As it should be.

Comandante Pierroth, Sagrado & Misterioso Jr. vs. Delta, Esfinge & Rey Cometa (CMLL 2/9/16)

You know who I really like? La Comando Caribeno. They're just classic rudos, like the nuevo Dinamitas. Dragon Lee and Rush get a lot of deserved praise, but you know who is also awesome? Their papa, the Comandante. He's a juiced up nasty asskicker who really should be getting more love, but isn't exactly part of any major programs so I get it. I'd love to see him team up with Rush and just beat the hell out of flippers. But the team just works so nicely together. Misterioso Jr. has been one of the more underrated CMLL undercarders for years now, so that's not a surprise. Sagrado is the surprise of the team, because Sagrado is a guy you've seen for a decade now, and a guy that has blown for a decade. He was a clueless tecnico, star of several aborted pushes, as once they would try and push him they would again realize "oh wait he still wrestles like Sagrado and also has the charisma of Sagrado." You watched that guy suck for a decade. Or maybe you were smart and did not watch Sagrado. I watched Sagrado. He was terrible. Now he is decidedly not terrible at all. He's a totally different wrestler as a rudo. He has much better instincts and doesn't do wretched highspots. He throws himself into being a rudo (sometimes literally, watch him hurl himself into the barrier after taking an Esfinge dive in the primera). These guys all really fit nicely as a team, which is oddly something I don't often get with lucha teams. Many tecnico teams are fungible. Volador can team with Stuka or Delta or Dragon Lee or Diamante Azul or Valiente and those teams would all seem like guys standing on the apron around each other. And they do. Ingobernales feel like a team. And like them, so do La Comando Caribeno. And Pierroth is somehow becoming a marvel. I don't remember a bunch of Poder Boricua stuff jumping out at me, but suddenly he's old and on the gas and I'm seeking out every new match that pops up. Welting up tecnico chests with hard slaps, stiffing guys with sentons, just running that ring like a real dickhead general. The tecnicos get some fun highspots, Esfinge hits a potentially botched armdrag but hangs in there and makes it work, we get two different stereo dives, but the real fun is watching Caribenos nail all of the little things. Pierroth is working more like Ronnie Garvin than a classic lucha rudo, and it's awesome.

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 14: 2010 CMLL Universal Tournament Part 1

2010-07-30 @ Arena Mexico
CMLL Universal Tournament
La Sombra vs Mephisto

0:36 in

La Sombra vs Texano, Jr.

6:50 in

La Sombra vs Ultimo Guerrero

3:13 in

Tournament lucha! Let's pull off this bandaid together. As I intend to do a big list of all of these Sombra entries and provide it to curious NXT fans as an selected introduction to his career, I'll say something about tournament lucha now. It's bad. The worst. You can get fun little character moments and match ups that you wouldn't normally get, but the matches are usually short and slight and pointless. It's pretty brutal. Think Survivor Series eliminations.

The Universal title is CMLL's yearly showcase of just how many belts they have and don't use properly. The number is a lot and winning this thing, while a big deal, isn't nearly as big a deal as it should be. It's usually a stepping stone for something other match or a consolation prize, or something to give to a foreigner, or who knows what the CMLL bookers are thinking? The best part of the tournament is trying to see them scramble to get the right number of people with belts before it all begins. Here, Sombra was part of the CMLL Trios champions, with La Mascara and Mascara Dorada.

So, despite what I just said? Why do I think this is worth looking at? It shows three major things about Sombra at this stage in his career, as he took a path through Mephisto, Texano, Jr., and Ultimo Guerrero:

1.) He was over. Boy, was he over. The fans were chanting his name through the night. It's strange to see. This was only six years ago. It's like a completely different world. This was pre-Mistico leaving, pre-fake Mistico, when the traditional fans were still in Arena Mexico and  making constant, positive noise, for tecnicos. They would abadon the arena in the years following, which is one thing that led to the Rush/Mascara/Sombra heel turn as Los Ingobernables. Even very good high-flying tecnicos don't get ever now (see Mascara Dorada's recent return from Japan). He was super over here though.

2.) He was smooth, really smooth. There's none of that flubbing and reshifting from a few years earlier. He was flowing through complex offense and spots like it was nothing. I'm not sure I've personally seen much of this Sombra. He was only 21 or so here, but when it came to hitting stuff, he was very good. Springboard dragonrana good:

and dive dragonrana and crazy great tope good:

3.) He had made it. I plan on tackling the finals here next time, and he does come up short there, but he was booked strong through this night. In the semis, here, he beat Ultimo Guerrero, and that was no small thing at any point between 2003 and today, really. Not only that, but he beat him by going through Guerrero's typical third fall sequence. If you're not familiar with big Ultimo Guerrero matches, the finishing stretch goes like this: Opponent tosses Ultimo Guerrero into the corner. Guerrero spins and climbs to the top rope, seated. He beckons his opponent in. Opponent charges in, jumps up for a top rope armdrag (or something). Guerrero hits him with a top rope suplex. Two count. Opponent does one of his signature moves. Two count. Opponent puts Guerrero on top rope for super 'rana. Guerrero blocks it and hits super bomb. Two. Opponent does a move, goes up for the top for a moonsault of some sort. Guerrero cuts it off, hits his Special reverse suplex off the top, and there it's either a pinfall, or a kickout at two followed by a flash roll up from the opponent for the win. There, you never need to see an Ultimo Guerrero tercera caida. Congrats. It's far worse than let's say Bret's five moves of doom, because Bret did a good job of varying the order from match to match, and far more importantly, they weren't nearly as collaborative. Guerrero forces his opponent to do a lot of stuff that he wouldn't normally do, or should at least know better about by now.

THAT SAID (and I know it was a lot, sorry), it was something that the crowd would be familiar with, a ritual of sorts, a rite of passage even, both to lose to it, but especially to go over Guerrero with it. (It should also be noted that Guerrero won with the Special in his first two matches that night, too, so it meant all the more for Sombra to kick out of it).

There's never much to write up in tournament matches. I think the most interesting thing in the whole night was the selling in the Guerrero match. There, they were selling like it WAS a tercera caida, because both wrestlers had gone through other matches in the night. Otherwise, these were slight, but highlighted Sombra's progress very well, both as a wrestler and as a star.

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 12: La Sombra vs Mephisto [NWA WELTER]

2009-01-19 @ Arena Puebla
La Sombra vs Mephisto [NWA WELTER]

The problem with doing any project of any length is that I decide I need to watch more and more matches. That's what this is. Sombra had a NWA Welterweight Title reign from November 2007 to May, 2009. That's the belt that they replaced with the Historic Welterweight Title and that Volador Jr has now. He beat Ohara for it and lost it shortly after this match to Mephisto. There just aren't a lot of his defenses online, but I felt like I had to at least look at one just to see where he was developmentally in a singles title match. He held the thing for a couple of years, almost.

This was a pretty good match which had one really big thing going for it, time. Time, in and of itself, is not the magic answer to title matches, but it's very hard to have one feel weighty or meaningful without it. Lack of time is an issue even if time, in and of itself, isn't a magic bullet. The current style of CMLL title matches (and apuesta matches, really) allow for a lot of selling in the tercera, and that has to feel warranted, generally through enough damage being done to both wrestlers. That happened here.

Unfortunately, it really suffered from the other tendency of modern title matches, the time being allocated unevenly. The tercera had 18 minutes. The primera was a blip, the segunda less so. They at least made lip service to matwork and wrestling to start, as it wasn't just a title match but one of the NWA ones, NWA patch on the ref's shirt and all, but I don't think there was a lot of faith in Sombra to carry a long title match matwork exchange here. He picked up the primera with a cute little reverse on a fireman's carry drop by Mephisto and the split legged moonsault. He pressed the advantage during that short segunda until Mephisto was able to get a nice headscissors roll up out of nowhere. Then they did a couple of extremely sparse minutes of heat before Sombra reversed things, hit a dive and they started the selling and the nearfalls.

As these sort of terceras go, it was a pretty good one. Again, the time helped, as did Mephisto's selling. For instance, at one point he locked in a really nice Cavernaria, right in the middle of the ring. When he finally let it break, his selling and body language really portrayed the sense that he simply couldn't hold it anymore due to the damage done to him throughout the match and the exhaustion that had set hold. It wasn't just a case of him letting go of a hold to keep the match moving along. That sort of effort is appreciated because it feels somewhat rare.

Both the spots and the sense of danger and believability of the nearfalls escalated as the tercera went on, which is really what you want out of this sort of thing. Occasionally, one didn't work out quite as believably as it should due to Sombra trying to balance his selling with the immediacy necessary but the sum was stronger than the parts here, and when he did hit the springboard dragonrana he was doing around this time and picked up the pin, the crowd went nuts and Mascara lifted him up on his shoulders, and it really did feel both warranted and like a big deal. It certainly wasn't my favorite title match that I've seen recently, but Sombra had come a long way to pull off this specific sort of one as well as they did here.

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MLJ: Carístico, Negro Casas, Valiente vs Black Warrior, Ephesto, Mephisto

11/15/2015 @ Arena México
Carístico, Negro Casas, Valiente vs Black Warrior, Ephesto, Mephisto

This might have been the single most straightforward, simple, disposable lucha trios match I've ever seen, and that's saying something. It was there just to tease Cibernetico's arrival, to do a bait and switch with Black Warrior, to let Caristico do his stuff against some familiar opponents, and to give his side a solid win before the post-match beatdown. They had subbed Valiente in for Volador earlier in the week, moving Volador down into a tag against FdT, in a match that might actually lead to an Apuestas, and frankly, that was fine because you didn't really need Volador here.

Despite the simplicity, this was still fun. It just definitely wasn't must see by any means. I think they new they were going short due to the most match angle, which was about as long as the match itself. It meant that none of the exchanges were particularly long and that the beatdown was stilted. From a structural level, it's sort of interesting how they did things then.

For instance, they went A-B-A, with the tecnicos taking the primera, the rudos the segunda, starting a beatdown that lasted a couple of minutes into the tercera until they went home almost immediately with the dives and comeback. The wrinkles were that they slipped the "tecnicos vs the world" section into the primera, made sure that Caristico got to do his dive to set up that finish, had the segunda end with just Caristico getting pinned (by a second rope devil's wings after kicking out of the standard version), and teased a brief reset before continuing that short ambush-laden beatdown.

I'd love to make a statement on how Black Warrior looked, for instance, but there just wasn't much there. He did have a nice exchange with Casas, who seemed to be enjoying playing tecnico (so did Zacarias, for what it was worth; he's a natural anyway). They traded blows, with Casas eating his stuff and rousing the crowd until he caught the second attempt at a big boot. Later on, the only really memorable part of the beatdown was Warrior just smothering Casas with grounded knees and clubbering. The other standout part of the match was Casas' chance to go vs the world in the primera, fighting off Mephisto and Ephesto in the corner. It felt weird because the other tecnicos didn't help. Usually, that makes sense in the tercera when everyone's getting knocked out of the ring and recovering but here it was just a portion of a match moved around due to time issues. Casas was still great in the role though.

Anyway, everyone was eager to work the crowd and try to get them into it. Between that and the brevity, it didn't have the standard CMLL feel. It felt more like a spectacle. It was just a fairly forgettable one, the sort of match that would have made it less special to see Caristico again the next time, were it not for the fact that no one will remember it relative to the post-match angle.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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MLJ: Dragon Lee vs Virus/Casas 7: Dragon Lee, Fuego, Valiente vs Ephesto, Mephisto, Virus

Aired: 2014-12-06
Taped 2014-12-02 @ Arena México
Dragon Lee, Fuego, Valiente vs Ephesto, Mephisto, Virus

More set up to the Lightweight title match the following week. Valiente and Fuego are both guys who I think shine most in trios matches where they can play a role. I'd rather see Mephisto in a trios match than in a singles match too, certainly. I actually don't have a great sense of Ephesto. Let me go take a look at wiki:

I like that his first persona was based on Blue Panther having trained him. Geez. He's 50? How old is Mephisto? Mephisto is 46. Ok then. Anyway, Ephesto debuted in 1982 according to this. That's nuts. Blue Panther's only a few years older than him anyway. Ah, he was Safari. I don't think I actually knew that. I mean, I did but I forgot at some point. Then he followed the Lucifierno path of being Hombre Sin Nombre for a while before CMLL let the fans come up with a new name for him (being after Hephaestus). That sounds like CMLL. As an aside, I miss Averno, especially given how little Rey Escporion had been used before the Guerrero feud started. They need more rudos who are really rudo and not cool heels or whatever.

On to the match: on paper, I think this should have been good. Some solid flyers/spot guys with personality on the tecnico side, competent beatdown rudos who can eat offense and were anchored by Virus on the other side, a title program shaping up for the following week. Etc. For the most part, I'd say it delivered for what it was trying to do.

Pairings to begin were Mephisto and Valiente, Fuego and Ephesto, and Dragon Lee and Virus (they didn't delay that too much). Lots of methodological and competent matwork to begin. I think it was a conscious pacing decision as the build was for Dragon Lee vs Virus. Once they got to it, the pace picked up and the crowd got into things, only for a Mephisto cheapshot from the outside to cut things off right when it was getting exciting. They did a good job of taking the fight out of Lee here, but the swarm on the tecnicos was a bit too delayed. Usually that happens right on time and we don't get a half minute of them looking like idiots on the apron. Here we did. I kind of like how Ephesto just uses a shoulder-breaker, by the way. It's refreshing, especially in a match with the frigging Valiente Driver.

The beatdown flowed into the segunda. There was a moment early on where Mephisto seemed to be going into business for himself on Dragon Lee's mask and Virus made sure to come over and join in to keep the focus where it should have been. This was a fun diversion of a beatdown because it played more into a traditional FIP. The tecnicos ended up back on the apron and they kept one rudo in at a time for the most part. They even played some southern tag tricks with the tecnicos being held back by the ref which allowed illegal changes by the rudos. So long as there aren't three rudos in the ring, I think this does work in lucha. Usually it doesn't pay off well and after a few minutes of it they just let the tecnico out of the ring anyway, but here that didn't happen. Instead, Dragon Lee did his usual handspring off the ropes/heel miscommunication comeback and the tecnicos ran in. Lee hit his big dive here but then Fuego slid out of the ring for no reason in the world except for to have Ephesto hit a dive on him and set up Valiente beating Mephisto. Blatantly bad wrestling there, but it was just a blip in the stream, really.

The tercera was mainly a reset, lots of action, and then a focus on Virus vs Dragon Lee. It's a great pairing, surely less dynamic than Dragon Lee vs Kamaitachi but with enough familiarity by this point that they were able to switch up things (kicks, for instance), and in some ways I like it more as there's more of a contrast. Fuego and Valiented played their roles well, including Fuego dancing about and Valiente hitting the fireplug tope. Virus locked in this awesome submission on Fuego:

and said tope took out Mephisto to leave things as Virus vs Dragon Lee. Lee was challenging the following week, so he had to take the win here, and he did after a pretty good exchange: check out this roll-up counter spot for instance,

Anyway, this was good stuff with just a few iffy moments and I'm looking forward to seeing the title match.

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MLJ: Satanico vs La Familia de Tijuana 3: Averno, Mephisto, Satánico VS Damián 666, Halloween, Psicosis

2002-10-04 @ Arena México
Averno, Mephisto, Satánico VS Damián 666, Halloween, Psicosis I

This was a week after the title change and it was the second match on a Friday night card, which is nuts to me. It was stilted and short, yes, didn't really have a finish and was more of an angle, but it was still heated. After this was Felino, Negro Casas, Virus vs Blue Panther, Fuerza Guerrera, Juventud Guerrera, which apparently didn't make TV, which is a god damn travesty, then an atomicos match with Los Hermanos Dinamita, which did make TV, so there's no justice. The main event was Silva and Vampiro vs Dantes, Wagner, Jr., and Bucanero. Was Vampiro actually over in 2002?

Anyway, I guess I'm glad we have this match. It's super heated. They start with a backstage talk with Satanico getting the troops ready for war and revenge. I love that he can pull this off in a track suit. Only Satanico.

I really quite liked La Familia's entrance. They came out to Oye Como Va (which is stuck in my head now but at least it's not Tarzan Boy's theme). They had the belts. Damian had a singapore cane (more on that later). Halloween had changed his look to match Psicosis more. Psicosis wore his mask out to the ring. Los Infernales' entrance was sort of hilarious in comparison. Satanico rushed the ring. Averno and Mephisto took their time since they had the girls with them. That led to Satanico getting swarmed.

As I said, this was more of an angle than a match, so they got right to it. There was a brief but effective beatdown. La Familia had very solid, if a bit "indy" offense (things like the Hardy Boyz' poetry in motion and tandem legdrops with one to the groin, which is a weird thing for Damian to be doing). Satanico had one of his big comeback moments of rushing the ring and fighting everyone, but he was cut off by a nice Damian headbutt. That let Averno and Mephstio charge the ring. La Familia, being the despicable scoundrels they were, meant to have no part of that. With a quick low blow to set it up, Halloween drilled Mephisto with the cane drawing the DQ, even as the announcer shouted that this wasn't baseball practice! They nailed Averno too, but Satanico made it back in and ducked it while launching a kick, sending the cane into his hands. He went to town and then started to just destroy Halloween's leg with it.

Halloween did the stretcher job (and I swear the announcer was saying pinata over and over) and it was suddenly two on three. That went about as well as you'd expect for Damian and Psicosis. Satanico directed traffic like only he could. Nicho and Damian tried to fight back but the odds were just too far stacked against them. It did lead to a great moment of Damian being defiant and bragging:

Ultimately, Damian had enough, got a quick foul in on Satanico and lived to fight another day. Nice heated match/angle/match that built well to a hair match.

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MLJ: Satanico vs La Familia de Tijuana 2: Damián 666, Halloween, Psicosis I vs Averno, Mephisto, Satánico © [MEX TRIOS]

2002-09-27 @ Arena México

So once the suspension lifted (I think there was a suspension), La Familia challenged for the trios titles. This was just good booking as Los Infernales wanted revenge on them but had to put up their titles to get it. It had a BS ending but it wasn't a feud ender, so it absolutely worked to build up heat for both the next trios match and the hair match. We rarely see Rudos vs Rudos title matches, and this one, while relatively brief and certainly not scientific, was a lot of fun.

Los Infernales had the belts coming in. They had defeated Olimpico, Safari, and Mr. Niebla over a year before. Satanico was de facto babyface here, with La Familia as the invaders and Los Infernales as the bad guys the crowd loved to hate, "their villains." This was all pretty simple (though with La Familia's quasi-indy offense and Mephisto power move layered in) and primal.

Satanico and Damian started with Satanico getting an early advantage off hip tosses. Damian forced some distance with a push and went off to the ramp to sell the arm. La Familia huddled, came up with a game plan, and Damian came back in. A couple of hip tosses later, they swarmed, thus executing the plan. The beat down was on with some great clubbering and their hardy boyz double leg drop to take the primera.

The segunda kept it going, including this brilliant tossing of Averno into the corner:

a Halloween spear, three corner clotheslines. Satanico was great here. He was so good at fighting back in the midst of getting warmed/beat down. I half wonder if Ultimo Guerrero (who always makes sure he looks strong) didn't learn it from him. Ultimately, he ducked a Nicho corner charge (and boy did he go flying) and the come back was on:

It was intense and satisfying, with double teaming, Satanico playing to the crowd, this crazy sunset flip powerbomb to the outside by Mephisto, a triple power bomb (done twice as they lifted Nicho up again after the first) and this triumphant pin:

The Tercera quickly went back to something more even (after a GdI body splash that is), with a Satanico vs Damian punch off, a bunch of cut offs, some chopfests and rope running, tandem power bombs (with feet-on-ropes near falls), Satanico awesomely holding the rope down to force La Famila to go tumbling through on a rope-run which led to these dives:

With the other four out of the way, it became Damian and Satanico, back in the ring, to finish things up. Satanico locked in the Satan's knot but there was no ref. Damian snuck in a low blow. The ref finally made it in, and La Familia stole the titles.

Very satisfying match which left everyone wanting more. For some reason these guys worked really well together.

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CMLL Worth Watching 2/8/15 & 3/27/15

Virus, Kamaitachi & Puma vs. Dragon Lee, Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta (2/8/15)

This was from that All Elite show with Dr. Wagner and LA Park, so everybody involved I suppose had more incentive to bust all sorts of ass on a Sunday afternoon. Everybody was firing on all cylinders here like they each had something to prove. Virus hits everything here with a real vengeance but also has no problem taking all sorts of giant Delta dives. Delta hits a couple wild ones with him vaulting off the ring post for one and moonsaulting off the ring support. Maya is crazy and totally outdoes him by hitting a flip dive that sees him wind up in the 4th row. Kamaitachi dished and took here, impaling Lee with a high jump dropkick that had so much force you really bought that Lee got naturally dumped HARD on his head. Kamaitachi pays it forward by letting Lee stomp him neck first off the top through the mat. Kamaitachi takes all sorts of stuff great, whipping himself into the barrier off a Delta rana, making all the tecnicos look dangerous. Kamaitachi ends the match with the most violent unmasking I've seen, kicking Lee in the balls then punching him in the ear a bunch while brutally ripping the mask off from the bottom without even attempting to loosen the laces. Looked like he was trying to scalp poor Lee. You never know when you're going to strike trios magic in lucha, but 6 guys all working with a certain ferocity while trying to upstage the main is one way to do it. Awesome stuff. 

Valiente, Maximo & Marco Corleone vs. Barbaro Cavernario, Ephesto & Mephisto (2/8/15)

Fun little short and sweet match from that same show, that isn't given time to build anywhere, so all the guys just work harder. Everybody gets cool little spots, with Maximo getting big reactions for his awesome dive (with Barbaro hurling himself into the barrier, which he also did taking an even more brutal Valiente tope earlier) and a big rope walk splash onto everybody. Valiente hits the craziest and fastest Valiente Special that he's hit in some time, Marco throws a bunch of nice lefts, Ephesto bumps big, Mephisto brings charisma and a rad new mask for a big show, and suddenly it's all over. This probably barely goes 8 minutes but everything is hot.

Kamaitachi, Negro Casas & Barbaro Cavernario vs. Dragon Lee, Delta & Guerrero Maya Jr. (3/27/15)

A rematch of sorts from the above match, with Casas and Cavernario replacing Puma and Virus on Kamaitachi's team. And also by this point Kamaitachi had no mask and was still furious at Dragon Lee because of that. This is not as good as that above 2/8 match, as it ended in straight falls and was very short, but the work within was hot. Delta shows more life here than I'm used to, as Casas was his foil who stumbled all around as Delta got to pursue. He and Delta have a real nice fast armdrag sequence that leads to a great moment with Casas getting chased into the crowd, and then he and Delta punching each other with the guardrail separating them. We get some stereo dives from Delta and Maya, Casas giving all of the offense to Delta and Maya, Barbaro being Barbaro ( with tons of cave drawings on his body! Dug his mat stuffs with Maya), and the money is all Kamaitachi vs. Lee. Kamaitachi works real fast, cuts low on clotheslines and cheats to win. Loved the spot where Lee runs Kamaitachi chest first into the ropes to get him off balance and then whips him into the mat with a snap German. Just a brief whisper, over before you know it, but fun.

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MLJ: Guerreros del Infierno B-11: Infierno en el Ring [Cage]

2001-09-28 @ Arena México (68th Annivesario)
Nuevo Nuevo Infernales (Satanico, Averno, Mephisto) vs Nuevo Infernales (Ultimo Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, Tarzan Boy, Mascara Magica) [Cage]

http://youtu.be/qUj_ZEHXxvE

http://youtu.be/8yMbWjFPTr0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eS4qtO1pPE

This one's obviously not on the comp since it's not a straight up tag match but it's such a key moment in the feud, really the blow off in a lot of ways, that I'm glad we have it online, albeit with slightly poor VQ. This was it, the battle over the name, with everyone's masks and hair on the line on the biggest stage of the year.

I don't know if this was a one match show because I don't have enough context but the match second to the top was an atomicos [Wagner, Fuerza, Juventud, and Universo vs Black Tiger III(Silver King), Lizmark, Jr., Casas, and Villano IV] which has a couple of interesting names but doesn't seem a huge draw to me. There was a Mexican Trios title match as well but everything seemed stacked for the main event. I don't see an easy to find attendance number for this so I have no idea how it drew, but my guess is "pretty well."

A few brief notes on Magica Mascara here, since he's the one who's going to end up losing this thing. He's the second guy to have the gimmick. The first, obviously, was Eddy, and him unmasking willingly on TV to claim his birthright was a coming of age for him. You'd think that would make the gimmick radioactive, but whatever. The guy playing it here was Talisman's kid, which you think would have been a good gimmick for him but he lost THAT mask relatively early in his career. He was in GdI to cover for Tarzan Boy when he was injured and he doesn't all that much longer in the stable after this match. He did keep using the name Magica Mascara, which was sort of ballsy on some level, given, you know, the lack of a mask. I have no idea if they promoted he was Talisman's son while wearing the mask.

So, this isn't your standard lucha cage match. I've only seen a few, mind you, but the general idea is that the "escape rules" actually mean something since those who don't make it out end up fighting for their life (well, their mask or hair, but those things MEAN something). One thing I stress again and again, even if not necessarily in these words, is that understanding lucha isn't about understanding the rules (that the last two in the ring have a one fall apuesta match or that they can only leave after X amount of minutes when the whistle blows, or that you only have to straddle the cage to get out, not get all the way to the floor) but the narrative elements, the stories being told, the way they tell them. Understanding wrestling isn't about knowing what a pile driver is called, but what a pile driver means in the context of the match. That to me, is the biggest mistake for people who introduce lucha to others.

So you have the extreme desire to escape here, but it's also combined with both the blood feud element of Infernales vs Infernales and the fact they're fighting over the name. It's not every man for himself. It's a four-on-three war and that gives it all a bit more substance than the average cage match. A little more focus too which was good because the VQ is kind of rough and there's a lot of chaos in the ring. They have a habit of switching camera angles at the worst times, too. Sometimes I'll get Mephisto and Averno confused, and I had to double back three times to figure out how Ultimo Guerrero got out at the end for instance.

That said, it was a really well put together cage match. By its nature, there couldn't just be guys brawling about. Maybe if it was 3 vs 3 they could have done that but this had to be more structured and the match lived and died not on its violence but on its transitions, on the momentum flows. I've seen tons of standard trios that were put together with less care and thought than this, despite its chaotic nature.

So, let's talk about the transitions. The story for the first part of the match was going to be the numbers game. I'm not sure why Satanico agreed to a four-on-three match with such high stakes, but it made his group the favorites for the Annivesario crowd. It also meant that GdI got off to an early advantage after just a bit of brawling. They hit a double kick on Satanico, the double choke drop on Averno and then a triple dropkick on Mephisto after a huge facebuster. Then we get transition #1. All of them tried to climb out at once, but it wasn't time yet so the explosions went off and they all fell off the cage. This let the Infernales take over, and they were awesome in this, outnumbered but using their momentary advantage to pick off GdI with shoulder blocks and nasty chops, really just stalking them. Then, they tried to climb out and got blown up as well. Everyone ended up on the ground (and Satanico laid in these great headbutts from that position, but that's neither here nor there).

Finally, the whistle went off so that's the end to the explosions. I'll admit I bought GdI's attempt to get out more than Los Infernales' attempt since they'd just seen what had happened to their opponents when they tried but it was the heat of the moment and that whistle might be easy to miss. The numbers game came back into play pretty quickly, and GdI took back over. This lasted for a minute or two before Tarzan Boy used it to basically kick and stomp his way over everyone's heads in the corner and get out. Thus came into play the endless problem of tag team cage matches with escape rules. By leaving, he theoretically "scored a point" for his team as now they only had to get three guys out instead of four, but he also sacrificed the numerical advantage for them. Since this match had additional stakes, it also had additional nuances. He left to protect his hair, and while he tried to encourage his partners on, the name was on the line too and they were more than a little furious at him. In fact, in the fit of them arguing from both sides of the cage, Los Infernales were able to recover and attack from behind, leading to another transition. GdI shrugged off headlocks into a triple charge, taking the momentum back but almost immediately thereafter, they did the alley oop body splash spot, with Rey landing on Mephisto but then immediately climbing over.

Now it was three on two and for the first time in the match, Los Infernales (very much due to how successful their opponents had been) had the numbers advantage. Ultimo Guerrero and Mascara Magica, realizing it, immediately rushed to get out of the cage but they were caught and pounded upon for a few minutes until UG was able to duck a double dropkick as Satanico was holding him, thus shifting the momentum again as GdI fought like hell against the odds. This was pretty brutal with heads going into cage, a tree of woe being utilized, and the senton de la muerte in the corner on Averno. When they tried to climb up and out, however, everyone ended on top of each other and Mephisto was the one to ultimately make it out.

That made it two on two and GdI immediately tried to swing the odds in their favor by rushing to the attack and tying Averno's mask to the top rope. Satanico took a bit of a beating but then came back in another momentum shift, with the crowd hugely behind him, hitting a slew of hangman's noose clotheslines and starting the process to untie Averno, who really played it up when he did get free. Satanico was really great here, punching and headbutting away. More than that, though, his character work was really solid. He had the most invested in the Infernales name and there was something almost fatherly in how he protected Averno, first by untying him but then, after he and Ultimo Guerrero hit big tandem moves (UG with a chokeslam on Averno and Satanico with a goardbuster on Magica), he let Ultimo Guerrero escape (this is where I had camera angle issues) but instead of escaping himself, rushed back in to make sure that Magica didn't make it out. He kept Magica contained so that Averno could make it out, leaving him in there vulnerable to losing his hair but in control of the fate of the Infernales name.

The match that followed was short but heated. Magica belonged in this match as much as Averno or Mephisto certainly. There was a real sense of stakes to this. Everything felt big and important and it was very much rudo vs rudo with Magica trying to win with his feet on the ropes multiple times. In the end, though, Satanico locked in the Satan's Knot, criss-crossing the arms and leaning forward to make a pin out of it, and he won the match, the name, and Mascara Magica's mask. He was elated. The fans were elated. The woman (his wife?) that he gave the mask to ultimately was elated. Magica removed his mask and stormed out of the ring, but tried to put on a strong face afterwards. It was a satisfying end to the feud and while gimmicky and lacking in blood, felt big enough to be the feud ender.

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CMLL Worth Watching 2/23/14, 9/21/14 & 9/28/14

1. Ultimo Guerrero, Rey Escorpion & Mephisto vs. Atlantis, Valiente & Volador Jr. (9/21/14)

Wow, really must have been something in the water this show. Every match saw every guy working hard. Lucha is so bizarre and unpredictable in that way. Guys worked harder on this show than a lot of guys on the big Mask show a couple days prior. This is a hot little short match, just two days after Atlantis took UG's mask. UG comes right out and blitzes Atlantis during his entrance and the Coliseo crowd is hot the whole way through this. For a lot of them this is probably the first time seeing UG with no mask. The other 4 guys could have easily hung back and let UG beat the tar out of Atlantis, and they do to a degree but they also pick their spots and hit some nice stuff. Volador doesn't make it about him but he hits his nice slingshot rana to the floor, Valiente hits his giant moonsault to the floor, Escorpion and Mephisto are good at facilitating UG's beat downs on Atlantis. And really a lot of this match was UG taking out his maskless aggression, beating Atlantis into a bunch of fans in the crowd, popping him in the jaw, hitting all his traditional offense extra snug. Guys fighting in the crowd and leaning on and falling into fans is one of my favorite things in lucha, and overall this match was short, sweet but also made me sad about no blood. Feels like it could have been special back in the 90s with UG coming out and immediately bloodying up Atlantis. I miss bloody torn masks :(

2. Skadi, Princesa Sujei, La Vaquerita vs. Zeuxis, La Comandante & La Seductora (9/28/14)

This wasn't a great match, or maybe even a good match, but it was my first exposure to Skadi who I really enjoyed. I was watching this, didn't recognize the thicker well built gal, and apparently she is Marcela's daughter. I also did not realize Marcela was 45 and clearly old enough to have a daughter in her early 20s. Her daughter gets a kind of showcase here, getting long sequences with everybody and while there is some hesitance in some of her offense she does have some nice stuff, and took a real great splat bump to the floor. It's always nice seeing new faces (erm, masks) and this was a perfectly nice women's tag. Zeuxis has also been coming into her own this past year, usually conveying more of a mean streak than the other ruda gals. This probably got too much time, but I liked it.

3. Goya Kong, Estrellita & Lady Afrodita vs. Princesa Blanca, Tiffany & Princesa Sujei (2/23/14)

I have a brazen love for Goya Kong and I do not care who knows it. I love how the crowd reacts to her, love how the men clearly love her but more importantly how the older ladies love her. They react to her like they would react to their own daughter. There's always so much pride in female fans' faces during Kong matches. I can't really think of another current wrestler who inspires these kind of reactions. It's too bad female wrestlers can only go so far in CMLL as I think they have a potentially huge star on their hands. Primera is all about Kong getting to do a bunch of fun offense including a great elbow drop and senton. Segunda sees all the rudas come back for revenge and put the boots to Kong. Tiffany has always been a favorite of mine as she exudes bitch better than most, and Blanca is always a remarkable Fuerza for Estrellita's Octagon. Blanca was on fire in this, she's arguably the best female worker in CMLL. I do not think Estrellita is very good, and she always makes me feel sad, but Blanca always makes her look like a real threat. Blanca was all super slender here and rocking a lime green catsuit, bumping big for all of Estrellita's improbably armdrags. Lady Afrodita is the most ill-fitting and unfortunate gimmick name in lucha.

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CMLL Workrate Round-Up 8/3/14 & 11/14/14

1. Metalico, Virus & Bobby Zavala vs. Rey Cometa, Fuego & Oro Jr. (8/3/14)

More awesome from this little feud that I didn't see anybody talking about. It is very possible I'm just reading the wrong places. But ever since a couple weeks ago when I first noticed Memphis heel Metalico tearing apart Oro Jr., and have since seen two more of their trios, it has become the thing I most look forward to in wrestling. So far, yes, the feud has been one-sided, with Metalico punching his way into my heart. Looking back, even though the tecnicos took the 2nd and 3rd, this match was 90% rudos. The segunda was won by DQ, and the comeback in the tercera didn't happen until late. Up until that point it was Metalico taking out all his frustrations on poor Oro Jr., which meant Oro taking tons of Metalico's cool hooking southpaw lariats, tons of punches to the temple, tons of forearms scraped across his eyes, and tons of getting yanked rudely around by his mask. Virus and Zavala kind of purposely took a backseat to Metalico beating down Oro. At one point I was begging Oro to fight back! Virus and Zavala would keep the other two at bay, and those two are guys I'm always entertained by when they're being dick heels. Virus has a great moment scraping and yanking Cometa's finger crotch over the ropes. Jesus Virus is taking torture to paper cut tantamount levels. Oro Jr. is kind of like a tecnico Stevie Richards, as he bumps big but has basically zero offense. So his big comeback in the tercera falls somewhat flat as he sorta hits Metalico with meek little kicks, but it was still satisfying seeing him rip Metalico's mask right back. Two weeks ago Metalico was just one of those guys who I had seen a bunch but barely registered with me. Now he's a guy I'm actively seeking out. Funny how these things work. Watch this feud now!

2. Silueta vs. Zeuxis (8/3/14)

Another good match for these two. It got a lot of time and I think they filled it pretty admirably. The tercera went probably a little too long, but overall I liked this. The primera especially was fun as they do some cool mat stuff and standing exchanges that doesn't usually happen in the women's matches. Silueta grapevines the leg of a standing Zeuxis and kicks out her other knee, felt like William Regal with a prettier face. They throw out some pretty big things in this, with Zeuxis doing a nice Spanish Fly and a great moonsault to the floor, wiping out both seconds (Halcon and Super Comando). Silueta has a nice rana roll up and manages to do the "opponent trapped in ropes while I dropkick them from the top" spot without making it look too absurd. Crowd was really hot throughout the whole tercera so they were doing something right, even if I thought it had too many near fall exchanges. Crowd was into every one of them.

3. Mephisto, Kamaitachi & Ephesto vs. Titan, Valiente & Angel de Oro (11/14/14)

Really fun sprint with a nice spirited Mephisto performance, and one of Titan's best showings of the year. Angel de Oro continues to look sorta clunky but it was easy to just watch all the other guys do their thing. I'm really starting to love rudos cutting off Titan. Last week we watched Terrible punch him right in the face after a handspring floor routine, and now he somersaults onto the rampway from the ring, turns around to run back and runs right into a mean Ephesto clothesline. Mephisto was really great at cutting guys off all match, catching all the flying offense and even hitting a great dive. Ephesto also hit a nice big chubster dive. Kamaitachi continues being a blast, love his high jump dropkick from the ramp. Everything was worked super fast and didn't have any time to get bad.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 10/11/14

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



1. Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Mephisto

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

2. Misterioso Jr. vs. Shocker

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

3. Volador Jr. vs. Tiger

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

4. La Mascara vs. Felino

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

5. Mephisto vs. Shocker

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

6. Volador Jr. vs. La Mascara

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

7. Mephisto vs. Volador Jr.

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



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

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

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