Found Footage Friday: MORE BRAZOS IN PANAMA~! IWRG RETRO~! EXTRA EL BRAZO~! BRAZO CIBERNETICO~! DR CEREBRO~! MR NIEBLA~!

El Brazo/Brazo de Plata/Brazo de Oro vs Gemelos Infernales/El Taur Panama

MD: Very fun to see the usual Panamanian rudos as the heroes here. And they gave you no doubt on who to root for. The Brazos ran out with bats and beat their opponents around the ring for a short primera. They kept it going with the usual nice strikes (Oro with big sweeping shots) and Porky ripped at Taur's mask. A little bit of miscommunication led to a pretty spirited comeback, including Porky getting bloodied up and Taur smashing him him from across the arena with a running chair shot. They ripped the sports uniforms off of the Brazos too. The ref was counting quick for the locals too and things advanced on to Brazos comedy into the tercera. Gemelos did their headbutt thing with Oro stooging all over the place. As always one of them was more the worker and the other was more into the theatrics. We didn't get the more advanced exchanges that the one Gemelo was capable of as things stayed pretty light. Taur stood tall against Porky including a big bear hug that popped the crowd. There was more fun miscommunication and another quick splash. You definitely got a lot of the Brazos act here, but you always kind of wish they led with the fun stuff and escalated to the bloody brawling as opposed to the other way around.

PAS: Man 2023 has been the year of new Brazos matches popping up. This was pretty great with the Brazos cleaning house with baseball bats, and Super Porky bleeding a ton. Top rope Porky splash is one of the most violent moves in wrestling history and he breaks it out here. Structure was a bit wonky like Matt mentioned, but it was still a total blast. Panamanian lucha forever!

IWRG Retro 1/20/23

Paramedico/Colt vs Tigre Metalico/Zonik 2000 IWRG 7/12/2001

MD: Short match in two falls, mainly due to Zonik's arm getting hurt (real or otherwise). Tigre Metalico is, in fact Metalico, and he looked good paried with Paramedico at the start. The second Colt and Zonik came in, however, Colt started bullying him. He was solid in that role. The arm went down early and a lot of the rest of the match was a two-on-one against Tigre. There was a bit of hope on the outside in the segunda but Zonik couldn't do with it, selling the arm as he was, and he tapped bringing it back to two-on-one and a definitive win for the rudos.

El Brazo/Bombero Infernal/Dr. Cerebro vs Brazo Cibernetico/Halcon Dorado/Mr. Niebla IWRG 1/17/99

MD: More of an angle than a match. You'd barely know Niebla was in this, for instance. It was all centered around the inner struggle of El Brazo on whether or not he'd punish his brother or even allow his brother to get punished. As angles go, it was a good one, with Brazo really writhing, Halcon Dorado trying to appeal to him and Brazo Cibernetico bleeding all over the place as Cerebro and Bombero got increasingly frustrated at Brazo as he'd fight the other tecnicos but not his brother. To Bombero's credit, he really threw himself around the ring with his dropkicks. He just had a way of tossing his whole body into his offense which really came through in the small bit we had here. Anyway, Brazo decides that blood is thicker than water and saves his bleeding brother, laying down for his opponents. That's when things really pick up though, as Los Oficiales run down to put a beating on the Brazos and Platino running out to make the save (which set up a trios title match the following week).

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CMLL Juicio Final 5/31/19

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

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

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

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

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

4. Career vs. Career! Virus vs. Metalico

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

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

Hair vs. Hair! Kaho Kobayashi vs. Amapola

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

Euforia/Gran Guerrero vs. Valiente/Diamante Azul

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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Lucha Worth Watching: Metalico vs. Disturbio for HAIR! Crash Minis!

Metalico vs. Disturbio CMLL 5/4/19     3ra Caida

ER: Here's me, loving the career ending Virus match, talking to Phil and saying "When was the last time Metalico even worked a singles match!?" Well, it turns out he worked on earlier in the month AND it was also a stips match. It's quick and fun and worked stiff, two rudos going at it while Metalico is default tecnico. Disturbio sneak attacks him to draw a DQ, but sets himself up for an easy segunda win by ramming his knees into Metalico's face a bunch while he's still recovering from that sneak attack. The tercera is where all the action is, with Metalico unleashing two big topes and his Asai moonsault, and we get both men trying to distract the other before hitting cheapshots. Metalico's payback cheapshots were great, loved him getting Disturbio to take his eyes off the action before laying him out with a lariat, and the match ends with Disturbio almost hitting the ref and then getting punched right in the balls. We got a real stiff kneeling punch exchange with both guys comically recoiling before springing up and hitting harder and harder shots, and while this never quite felt like a high stakes apuestas, neither guy was holding back. Also, it's a fact that Disturbio's post haircut look is easily the best he's looked. Everybody wins!

Los Haraganes (Animal/Demencia/Silver Star) vs. Toto/Torito Negro/Xperia The Crash 5/4/19

ER: Real shame this only went 6 minutes or so, because this was a wild super libre match with tons of dives, tons of guys getting thrown into a packed crowd, and tons of stiff shots by our rudos, Los Haraganes (does that really directly translate to "The Lazy"? If so that's my favorite rudo team name ever). We start with a couple dives, including an unhinged flipping moonsault by Demencia, and from there we get a ton of chaos, guys getting launched 5 rows deep with hiptosses and taking out entire sections of chairs, honestly someone either gets thrown or lands in the crowd no less than 8 times in the 6 minute run time, and then come the chair shots. Everywhere you look someone is getting tossed through chairs, hit with hard chair shots, or choked with a chair. A kid gets shoved, more chaos. An important thing about Los Haraganes, is that all of them hit hard. Silver Star throws some forehead bruising punches from the mount, a guy who really makes all of his strikes count (and that's not something that really happens in these kind of spotfests). Animal hits a great dive, Xperia hits a cool climb up headscissors/rana on Demencia, Demencia takes a wild bump off the top when he tries - standing on the top rope - to BODYSLAM Torito, and we get another tornillo into the barricade for good measure. I could have gobbled up another 6 minutes of this, easily, but these guys get deservedly pelted with coin money after this ends (shout out to the kid standing at the entrance ramp launching coins as hard as he can from the back row).

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Lucha Worth Watching: Heavyweight Cibernetico! Sangre Azteca Stomps Balls!

Kraneo/Valiente/Rush/Volcano/Blue Panther Jr./Diamante Azul vs. Shocker/Rey Bucanero/Terrible/Gran Guerrero/Euforia/Ultimo Guerrero  CMLL 10/9/18

ER: This was a match I didn't really know I wanted until it was right in front of me. A 12 man cibernetico with heavyweights, not a fliers showcase, but a fun heavyweight spotfest. Rush is the fun monkeywrench in this whole thing, and while the teams are divided into tecnicos and rudos, there are still teammates that hate each other and everyone is mostly out for their own interests. Plus it was a good chance for some guys like Shocker and Rey Bucanero to show they can still go in the right situation. Bucanero is going for 2002 status here which is a shock since I saw him live a few months ago and he never moved faster than walking speed. Here he hits the somersault senton, takes a classic Bucanero bump over the top to the floor, gets nailed with a dive, clearly looked like he was working hard here for whatever reason. And everybody was. I'm not sure what will make a bunch of guys in CMLL suddenly make the decision to work hard in a random match, but this whole thing felt spirited, guys worked snug, made the match feel more important than it likely was. We get a lot of Kraneo and a lot of Volcano, and let's just talk about how silly it is to have the two largest guys in the fed (largest guys in lucha) both on the tecnicos side. We need one of the big guys to be rudo and we can then build to a Clash of the Titans. Kraneo is great but was better as a rudo, but also way over as a tecnico, so I get keeping him where he is. I think Volcano and his modern take on Roadblock's gear (his Caltrans vest highlighter and weird brown back brace) look pretty doofy, but maybe working rudo would open him up a bit. Panther Jr. turns in a nice tecnico performance here, Valiente hits a big dive, Terrible don't care who his partners are for the match, he's still gonna stomp out his enemies, Azul gets his class Mexico mask shredded, whole thing was fun. Ciberneticos feel like more of a thing I wanted when I first started watching lucha, but this unexpectedly delivered. Less spots than your typical ciber, but more character and tight work. That's a good trade.

Sangre Azteca/Metalico/Nitro vs. Oro Jr./Star Jr./Retro CMLL 1/15/19

ER: Stiff work and plenty of shtick will almost always win me over, and this undercard gem easily won me over with both. Rudos worked stiff and tecnicos bumped big, and this thing didn't need any dives to make it a ton of fun. Azteca was a real standout and he's a guy I've always really liked, someone whom I assume there must be backstage reasons that he's never been moved up the card before, because he's been great as long as I've been aware of him. He makes it his mission in this match to stomp all over the tecnicos butts, balls, and loins, and succeeding in his mission. At least once a match he usually throws his big high angle dropkick right to the balls (do we not do faultas anymore?) while an opponent is seated in the corner or being held spread eagle...well, here he does that like 7 or 8 times, flying into the corner with precision shots, teasing doing one from the middle rope but then climbing to the TOP rope to drop straight down like Slim Pickens riding a missile to straight to tender tecnico loins. He even kicks the middle rope as Retro is climbing back in the ring, the lucha equivalent of the turkey tap. Nitro gets in on the action, dropping a great elbow drop off the middle rope. Metalico was Metalico, and I love Metalico, so he was taking pratfalls and throwing nice big hooking lariats (Oro Jr. took four lariats in a row, really throwing himself back and landing on his shoulders with gusto), and bailing on the tercera by ripping off a mask rather then suffer a pinfall defeat. Oro Jr. had a really nice performance for a tecnico I don't often notice, I was really impressed with how he ran into rudo strikes. Star Jr. is kind of like Soberano Jr. but with floppier limbs, but he still snapped off a really cool headscissors that was like a cross between a smooth lucha headscissors and a Marty Jannetty one. Retro appears to be working a 70 year old Mil Mascaras gimmick, but his shoulderblock hits snug enough and he leans jaw first into a low Nitro dropkick, and those are a couple things that will at least get you into the 490s of a 500. This match scratched a nice lucha itch for me. A match that might seem inconsequential, but having something like this that doesn't steal flash from later matches, while still presenting high end work, is an important part of any card.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Undercarders! A Mask Match!

Metalico/Sangre Azteca/Frezzer vs. Principe Diamante/Fugaz/Reyko  CMLL 1/2/18

ER: I watch a lot of Metalico matches, which not only fills me with joy, but also keeps me up to date on undercarders who I may not normally go out of my way to see. And because of that, now I know about Frezzer! Frezzer, who also sometimes goes by the more reasonable "Freezer". Frezzer, who also sometimes goes by "Dr. Freezer", which is impressive. Luchadors start when they're 12, so I imagine Freezer was a real Doogie Howser type who got his MD in his teens. It's probably safe to assume that teenage Dr. Freezer then lost his medical license, probably due to something innocuous like poor documentation or record keeping (and definitely not due to supplying an abundance of medication to other wrestlers) and was forced to just go be Freezer. Or, Frezzer. He's like a young Arkangel or less offense driven (and de-mulletted) Virus. You want a guy to cut low on missed clotheslines, bump fast to the floor, catch your flip dive, do a great vertical suplex (not just falling ackward but leaping up as you fall), and also set up rudo double teams? Baby you're gonna want some Frezzer in your life. Sangre Azteca is permanently buried at the bottom of the card, but is always better than people remember. His approach to basic lucha sequences is great, he doesn't cut corners, smooth bumps on ranas, fast bumps to the floor, can catch a dive, underrated mat game (he's really strong at takedowns and exchanges). Add in stooging Metalico and we have a fine rudo team. I was mostly unfamiliar with the tecnicos and I wasn't going into this for the tecnicos, but came away liking Reyko. Reyko had this awful bush league Batman gear, but his work was better than his gear. He rolled through nice on armdrags, bumped around for rudos, and hit a pretty nuts somersault plancha off the top to the floor. Undercard rudos are one of my favorite things in lucha, check out one or two you haven't seen before.

Angel Dorado vs. Difunto I  ERLL 1/28/18

ER: This is apparently a match with some contentious opinions. Some have said it's one of the best matches of the year, others assume that those people used their the goodwill of friends to trick people into watching a match that they had already wasted time watching, just paying this nightmare forward, and now it's my duty to trick somebody else so that this lurking, menacing man will stop following me and my friends no matter where we hide and no matter how far we run. We get 28 minutes of match, and it feels majorly clipped in spots. Was this match actually 50 minutes?? I cannot imagine what was deemed not good enough to air, because we got a LOT of footage of two guys hitting some semi-blown spots and then lying on the mat for long periods of time. There was a lot of mat lying. I didn't see how Dorado first got his mask ripped open, but I saw both men lying on the mat for long periods of time. We get a couple of great moments: Dorado hits a gorgeous tornillo through the ropes, a spot that should surely make the gif rounds; Difunto breaks a beer bottle over Dorado's head, and I have no clue what the access to prop glass is down in Monterrey, but I'll assume it's slim. So it's a crazy holy shit moment, a guy busting a bottle over someone's head...but it also happens maybe 4 minutes into this match. Dorado did that tornillo and another huge dive off the top to the floor after having a bottle smashed over his head. Other than that, we get a lot of very lazy moments of getting into position, we get that nasty modern big match lucha thing of a big move off the top (like a Spanish Fly), then a kickout, then both men lie still for a long time, then the guy who took the Spanish Fly is the next to do a move. That happens throughout. The fans are really into Dorado, and both men bleed, but man I wish I had seen a 2 minute highlight video of this match, with no other footage showing up. We all could have thought we'd missed out on a violent classic. But now here I am with my back against the ocean, car facing me on the beach with the parking lights on, watching the trees, waiting for it to appear. Somebody else please watch this before it finds me.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Templario + Metalico, Dinamitas vs. Pierroth Familia

Templario/Metalico/Arkangel vs. Astral/Pegasso/Starman (CMLL 10/3/17)

ER: Who is Templario and why do I need to watch so many more of his undercard matches!? I have never seen him before (though I think he only recently started showing up on occasional Arena Mexico undercards, so I don't think I've missed tons), and he's like a 4th Dinamita. He works really fast in this match, bumping big for the tecnicos, but gives as he gets: he's a guy who will whip fast on an armdrag but also snap one off. I'm not sure I've ever seen Astral look better working fast mat exchanges and quick rope running than here opposite Templario. They matched up most of the match and I came away really impressed. The best was in the tercera when he took and awesome somersault bump through the ropes to the floor after getting faked out by Astral, then perfectly catching Astral's gorgeous handspring rana to the floor (where he vaults from in ring, handsprings off the apron, and flips into a rana). He fit in great with best buds Arkangel and Metalico, always quick with a save (and throwing nice clubbing forearms during saves). Metalico's ham was especially delicious here. He comes out wearing tattered office attire and carrying a rocking horse. Why? For he is Metalico. Later he kisses a woman in the front row. And this was no grandma kiss, he planted one on her lips, lips that have kissed before but never so publicly, paying attention to her, noticing her nice sequined dress, telling her with his eyes that she looks good for her age, making her sister giggle and the woman herself blush and wave it away. The cameras cut to a young lady holding a baby. One might think that lucha camera crews just like cutting to cute ladies. One might also think that this camerawork was implying that this particularly lady was just another in a long line of ladies who have been gifted a child by Metalico. Later, he would eyeball the big butt of the tercera ring card girl. Later still, he would take a nice bump on the floor from a slick Pegasso headscissors. The rudos got each others' backs, I loved the three of them stomping the flipping tecnicos, and again, this was the best my memory can recall Astral looking, and it sure felt like it was because of his dance partner: Templario, my new dreamboat with horrible torso tattoos.

Cuatrero/Sanson/Forastero vs. Mistico/Dragon Lee/Comandante Pierroth (CMLL 11/24/17)

ER: This was the finals of a mini tournament that included teams made up of dinasties. You had the Panther family, The Munoz family, the Dinamitas, Felino's family, fun little concept and I love the family tradition in lucha. All styles of wrestling obviously have generations, but the family aspect in lucha seems to be more much powerfully respected in lucha. This is super fun and energetic, with the Munoz family all being heels. I've seen Lee work rudo with Rush on an indy show, but I don't recall seeing Mistico and Lee working rudo on CMLL TV, with their nefarious father. The Dinamitas work tecnico for the first time I've seen, and it's funny as they don't really wrestle any differently, but they're now doing their offense against three guys acting like dicks, so the fans are into it. Munoz familia has some great bullshit in the primera, with the three of them working a new twist on their soccer ball volleying as they instead play a little game of baseball with Lee tossing an invisible head to Mistico who blasts it for a home run, holding the pose. Later, Pierroth fakes the crowd into thinking he'd actually attempt a dive, and ends up slowly bouncing off and flopping through a somersault to pose like Burt Reynolds in Vanity Fair or Shawn Michaels in Playgirl with the belt (which I believe was used as Segunda Caida's masthead from 2007-2008, before I joined). The Dinamitas are all lanky and mean, which makes them seem like valiant tecnicos. I love their catapult monkey flip spot that flings Cuatrero fast and upside down into the corner. They do axe handle attacks and act as great bases for Mistico and Lee, and there's something about rudos doing gracious highflying that seems deliciously disingenuous. It feels like showing someone up, flashy hubris, even if it's done the exact same when they're tecnicos. The rules force the concept force the perception. Lee hits a wild rana leaping from the ring to grab Cuatrero on the apron, with Cuatrero flipping onto the floor. Cuatrero is the best. Naturally Rush comes sliming out at one some point, and I know they rarely do 8 mans but add Rush to one side and Masacara Ano Dos Mil to the other and I'd love to see that. There's mask yanking and shenanigans, but you knew that. This was a real fun role reversal, well worth the time.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Metalico, Policeman & Arkangel: Three Friends Doing a Bit

Metalico, Policeman & Arkangel vs. Tigre Rojo Jr., Arkalis & Millenium (CMLL 1/2/17)

ER: Metalico and Policeman and Arkangel may be my favorite three wrestlers who are usually in matches that aren't very good. And here we have the three of them teaming for what is - at least from what I could tell - the first time, on tape. And they work it like three friends doing a bit. I don't know much about the tecnicos. Rojo seems the most rounded out of the bunch. Millenium is either working a gimmick 17 years expired, or 983 years into the future. Judging by his 2000 Scoot Andrews offense I think it's the former. Arkalis was also in this match. It doesn't matter because it's the rudos who are the stars. Policeman comes out literally brandishing a firearm. He just walks to the ring, unholsters his pistol and just starts aiming it around the arena, as if he was clearing the room. When he gets to the ring Tirantes politely asks him to hand over the weapon, and he does, which makes me laugh more than it should. Please, do not book Policeman in a No DQ match. We need referees to be allowed to take his firearm. Metalico comes out dressed in tan resort wear, looking like someone who would be lounging around the pool at Elliott Gould's house in the 70s. And the three of them proceed to work a few bits, like you do. 

Arkangel is amusing as the guy nonchalantly directing traffic, you can see him lightly waving Policeman into position a few times. Policeman is a generous bumper with some nice strikes, a guy I'm happy is showing up more often. Metalico is the real ham, and I love some of his bits. My favorite is the one after the primera, with his team losing, and he just runs out of the ring down the ramp, out of danger, to avoid eating a pinfall, then trips and falls on his face. He later does a couple variations on the Eddie Guerrero/Hector Garza "head down, eyes averted, hands behind my back" sheepish weenie. You couldn't possibly hit meeeeee, could you? Metalico throws weird lariats, comically puts boots to guys who have wronged him, laughs when Arkangel hits a sharp back elbow, does a dozen spit takes, plays to the crowd in a way a lot of guys don't do any longer; he's a guy working several bits with friends. Rojo eats a couple lariats in nasty fashion (again, he is the only tecnico here that looked like a keeper), Arkalis tries to throw a couple armdrags that don't look great, Millenium gets minimal height on a rana, but nobody watched this for the tecnicos. These three rudos have a shtick, and it's not one I'm anywhere close to tired of seeing. You get the sense that they know each other well, get the sense they have some in-jokes, all due to knowing the same lucha language. Like a roommate who can walk into your bedroom eating a bowl of cereal without announcing himself and you're totally fine with it, such are Metalico, Arkangel and Policeman.

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More People Should Be Talking About Metalico

People should talk about Metalico! He's never going to break out of the CMLL undercard, but he brings something different and wonderful to the CMLL undercard. He's a little stoogy Memphis heel. He's that combination of Loco Max and Billy Joe Travis that every single person would still love if those two were still alive*. His one semi-featured match of the decade (his mask match against Angel de Oro) stunk, but I put that squarely on Oro's shoulders. Metalico only makes tape a couple times a month so he's not a tough guy to keep track of in mainstream lucha circles. Seeing him pop up on a Fox deportes rerun just made me want to shine a little spotlight on him. This will be an ongoing miniseries of Metalico appreciation.

Metalico/Hijo del Signo/Canelo Casas vs. Sensei/Magnus/Leono (CMLL 9/3/16)

Not a great match but one with a wonderful Metalico performance and my pleasant surprise that Hijo del Signo is good now! Sensei appears to be not as good as he used to be, and appears to be bulkier. But Metalico is so much fun in this. He's a great rudo base so finds several ways to bump arm drags and he's good at setting up sometimes convoluted offense for tecnicos. At one point Sensei was setting up a headscissor off the top and Metalico was great at occupying himself by jawing with the crowd so Sensei could get into position, then running over to throw a great strike that was meant to be kicked away by Sensei. The "missed strike to set up opponent offense" is someone a lot of wrestlers do real phony, but Metalico brings a great combo of realism and theatricality to them. He's good at running lucha stooge spots in ways that you don't see (when Leono wouldn't shake his hand he went around the ring shaking hands with the ref and his own partners, to show how good he was at trustworthy handshakes), and can work stiff with a big elbowdrop and an awesome western lariat that sees him follow through all the way to the mat. Signo was a generic lucha son last I saw him and now he has genuine presence, really knowing how to sell through the mask and act befuddled by fast tecnicos. He does a decent Fuerza bump and runs some nice base sequences with the tecnicos. But this was Metalico's game. The Coliseo crowd is perfect for a guy like him and really my preferred lucha venue. There's something big missing from Arena Mexico ever since they put up the ringside barrier. Imagine Rush with the benefit of fans being right at ringside. Imagine how less fun Hector Garza would have been in 2006 with a ring barrier up. He wouldn't have been able to fall into all the old ladies and pretty girls. Metalico is real good at crowd work and I think the closeness of the Coliseo crowd plays off that nicely. We need more Coliseo stuff showing up. I miss it.



*Pretty sure Loco Max isn't dead

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MLJ: Oro, Jr. vs Metalico [mascara contra mascara]

Aired: 2014-08-10
Taped: 2014-08-10 @ Arena México
Oro Jr. vs Metálico, mask vs mask


4) Oro Jr. vs Metálico, mask vs mask by thecubsfan

This is not a good match. It's the worst mask match I've ever seen on a stage like this. I might even call it the worst big match I've seen on a stage like this. I had been intrigued enough, mainly by Metalico's rudo work in the last trios, to take a look at it. I am a fool. I've been watching big matches out of Cavernario and Titan, both of whom weren't that older than Oro, Jr. and the difference is just striking. Frankly, the difference between the two of them and Metalico, who has years and years more experience than they do, is striking.

A few things to set this up. Oro, Jr. had his father Plata out with him. Metalico had a cool shiny Darth Vader like over-mask. The cat ears definitely look goofy on him as a rudo even if it was look that sort of worked as a tecnico. This was a Sunday show at Arena Mexico. Without doing more research it doesn't look particularly special. They just stuck a mask match on it, fourth match out of six. It's way down there on the poster (which Cubs posted).

That's about where this match deserved to be. Being at Arena Mexico, the crowd was more behind Metalico than Oro, Jr., who I don't think they buy into fully as a tecnico to root for, even if they were inclined to root for tecnicos in the first place. Metalico had more history with them, but he also had this sort of crazy charisma. He was a little too energized by being a rudo and would react to things very broadly. It was sort of endearing in its own way. AND they kept showing his loving mother in the crowd. The flip side was that he had maintained too much of his tecnico offense once things got going.

The primera was okay. It was really what it should have been. Unfortunately, what followed made that a negative, not a positive. Lucha, especially apuestas lucha, is about the build up and the pay off. The primera was the build and it was a build meant to put sympathy on Oro. Metalico ambushed him from the start. He tossed him around the ring and into the guard wall on the floor. He shot down Oro's paltry attempts to come back, stomped the hell out of him, and finished it off with a leg submission (with a nice belly shot to open Oro up so he could get it on).

So far, so good. Now the trick would have been to build to the come back, pay it off, and lead into a dynamic, action packed, fall-heavy, spot-heavy tercera. That didn't happen. The segunda started with more beatdown. Then, Metalico started pulling on Oro's mask, which I get was the signal to come back. Instead of anything actually violent or spirited, this mainly consisted on some rough (in a bad way) rolling suplexes and his really goofy fireman's carry slam finish. It's a really bad finisher and was the tiniest period to punctuate the tiniest sentence of a comeback. Oro just had no idea how to make the emotion work.

The tercera wasn't much better. Metalico did too much tecnico stuff with flipping and roll ups and waht not. He had some good stuff, like catching Metalico on a leapfrog with a samoan drop (very good transition back to offense for him), but they couldn't make it mean anything. They ever ran a second heat segment here, with Oro's dad trying to lead a chant to spur the eventual comeback and it was paced and paid off all wrong. Things that should have meant something felt hollow. When they eventually hit some dives, they barely even sold them. They just moved on to the next thing.

I'm not sure if the finish was clever or a screw up, which says a little about me, I'll admit, but more, I think about the match. Oro's big submission was a rolling arm bar, and he went for it multiple times with his ring positioning horrible the first few. Metalico ended up in the ropes, and maybe it was a brilliant and novel storytelling device: the young tecnico hitting his move, but the match being so close that he can only get it too close to the ropes until he finally hits it in the middle of the ring! Just given the way the rest of the match went, I can't really give them the benefit of the doubt.

Eventually, he did get him in the middle of the ring with it and Metalico was forced to tap. They kept showing his mother after he unmasked and he took it with enthusiasm and grace. He came off way more gallantly than Oro did. A high stakes match with two heat segments and two comebacks should just be more gripping than this. Not good.

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MLJ: Dragon Lee vs Virus/Casas 3: Dragon Lee, Fuego, Oro Jr. vs Metálico, Skándalo, Virus

Aired: 2014-07-27
Taped: 2014-07-27 @ Arena Coliseo
Dragon Lee, Fuego, Oro Jr. vs Metálico, Skándalo, Virus


Dragon Lee, Fuego, Oro Jr. vs Metálico... by thecubsfan

Well, this is match that Dragon Lee and Virus just happen to be in. Most Trios matches have some sort of singles focus, some issue. Sometimes there are multiple issues. Sometimes the issue really is one faction and another. A lot of times, though, like I said, a single focus. In those matches, the other wrestlers play their roles. Sometimes, they get to shine; sometimes they shine too much. Sometimes, like in this match, I wish they had a chance to shine some more.

The issue here is Metalico vs Oro, Jr. I've seen Metalico as a tecnico; he was rudo here (more on that in a second). I've never seen Oro, Jr. but he comes from a big wrestling family. He was 21 or so here, I think. Both he and Metalico had just been in the Busca cibernetico a month or so before, but neither had made it far. That's where the issue came from. Oro had apparently hurt Metlicao on a dive and after coming back, Metalico teamed with him but had fell to some miscommunication and he had gone rudo over it.

I don't remember a whole lot about Metalico as a tecnico. He's been wrestling for twenty some-odd years so the experience level difference between the two is severe. This was, as far as I can tell, his first time as a rudo though and he relished in the role. Maybe it was because he was hanging out with Skandalo but he was opportunistic, gloating, and downright scummy as a rudo here. He seemed to be enjoying himself quite a bit.

He had plenty of time to enjoy himself too. The first 2/3 of the match was a beatdown. Oro had charged up the ramp as Metalico came out and got himself clocked for his trouble. The rudos didn't look back. Once they got Oro into the ring, they knocked the other tecnicos off the apron and started on him. It was one move after the next with a lot of stomping, kicking, and mask-ripping in between. Oro did a pretty good job as a sympathetic face in peril, actually. Given the nature of trios matches with far more cycling in and out of the participants, you rarely get to see a tecnico just sell for so long in that role. The rudos looked good in the beatdown too, but there was, maybe, as always, a bit too much Skandalo groin based offense; here he seemed to get everyone involved, focusing more on the set ups. The best of that was him putting Oro in Shattered Dreams position so Metalico could come flying in with a knee. Shortly thereafter, they tossed Oro out and obliterated the other tecnicos for a minute or two, ending with a Virus submission on Dragon Lee and a Curtain Call by Metalico on Oro. Between falls, Oro ended up with a new mask since his was so tattered by the violence.

Two fun moments from the beatdown (now having gone into the segunda). One: This match had no commentary so we could hear the fans better than usual. One guy, and only one guy, was chanting Virus and Skandalo pumped his arm along with it from the apron which was amusing. Shortly thereafter, Metalico walked around the apron to stomp on Dragon Lee and actually tripped over him, which popped the crowd. He followed up on this with either feigned or actual fury and it fit into the character he was playing well.

Anyway, I was actually really digging the match at this point. I like opening technical exchanges as much as the next guy and I think for a while CMLL was really overdoing the ambush/beatdown start for matches (and this match might have been from around that time actually), but there is a good emotional hook to it, especially when there's an actual issue and even more so when there's one tecnico getting beat on. That said, the comeback has to live up to it and I don't think this one did. Oro got beat up some more but eventually got free enough to run out of the ring. Virus gave chase (and why I'm not sure since usually they'd just let another tecnico come in), ran into an apron rana from Dragon Lee, and the comeback was on. Oro was able to get some revenge, even starting to undo Metalico's mask while his partners ran interference, but it wasn't all that heated.

It needed to be more heated too, especially because Metalico was going to squirm away with the victory. He utilized a ref distraction (due to Virus) and tossed his mask at Oro. The ref saw it and the rudos took the win. Dragon Lee didn't really show me much here, but I think I'm going to go and watch the Oro vs Metalico apuestas match that this was building to. I was intrigued enough for that. This is already going to be a 20+ match project. What's one more completely unrelated match right?

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CMLL Worth Watching 8/10/14, 8/31/14 & 9/14/14

Decided to change the name of this from CMLL Workrate Round-Up to CMLL Worth Watching, as really the only CMLL stuff I write up now is stuff that I think is worth watching. Why beat around the bush? I watch the CMLL, I spend time writing about the stuff I think is worth writing about, so let's just say that.

1. Mascara contra Mascara: Oro Jr. vs. Metalico (8/10/14)

This was not great, and not nearly as fun as the few trios matches used to build it up, and that is mainly because Oro Jr. just isn't really that good. The build to this match was pretty lopsided, with almost every part of the trios matches being Metalico walloping Oro and cutting off every single thing he attempted to do. Now obviously the big stipulation singles match couldn't be worked like that, unless it was the weirdest mask match in lucha history. Obviously there was going to be some sort of back and forth, which meant there was going to have to be Oro offense, and Oro is not very good at offense. He can bump well enough and he's flexible so he's good at being twisted into knots by rudos, and he can hit a dive, but his move and submission execution are really, really lacking. Every time he would lock on a flippy arm submission he would end up flipping Metalico close to the ropes. That was fine when the plan was for Metalico to break a hold, but when it was something he had to tap to or create drama, Metalico would have to subtly move himself farther away from the ropes. Oro is just kind of stumbly and clunky. Metalico, on the other hand, continues to impress me and if anything this feud has given me a new cool guy to look for. Metalico has a cool southern heel vibe to him that I've never ever picked up on before this feud, doing great stuff like sneaky little punches and probably my favorite knee lift in current wrestling (depending on whether or not you count Brock Lesnar's sternum-caving knees). At one point in the tercera he drags Oro out of the corner and just blasts him with a bunch of consecutive knees, to the stomach and face. They all looked great. He also locks on a bunch of cool subs that would rank up with any maestro. Metalico's mom also kept getting shown in the crowd rooting him on and that's something that would get me more into everything. So yeah. Match was about what I expected, but overall I'm excited to see where Metalico takes things from here.

2. Felino, Misterioso Jr & Bobby Zavala vs. Stuka Jr., Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta (8/31/14)

Man fuck Felino. It's so much better to have never have experienced love than to love and have lost. Felino is an asshole who is actually a good worker who just chooses to act like the worst worker in lucha 85% of the time. Here he runs ropes faster than anybody in the match (even showing off by bouncing off the bottom rope when he does it), does these really great drop downs, fast dropkick sequences, just a totally different guy than you get most of the time. and why? What's he proving in this match that he doesn't feel the need to prove when working with his brother? Delta hits a wild moonsault to the floor, Stuka always tosses in a couple nice dives or splashes, Zavala is always an amusing low rent Rush, Misterioso is a pro and then there's fucking Felino outworking them all, being the most frustrating guy in lucha.

3. Terrible, Vangellys & Rey Bucanero vs. La Mascara, Titan & Volador Jr. (9/14/14)

I really wasn't expecting much from this on paper but the execution was nice. This became apparent just a minute into the match when Titan took a wild sideways bump into the ring barrier and Terrible decked Volador with a mean right and a hard headbutt. The Volador involvement was limited for most of this, with Terrible always cutting him off with face punching. Volador getting regularly punched in the face is enough to make me recommend a match. There was a story within the match of Mascara naturally not caring about his team, but Volador and Titan trying to make him feel welcome and almost try to recruit him back from the lawless side. That kind of thing can drag a match down but I think it helped this one. It worked because Mascara kept interrupting Titan and Volador's worst offense to just get to the fucking point and finish things. So it was actually a quite clever way to capitalize on guys having to stand around selling while Titan does his little handstand. Titan walks off on his hands and while Terrible is focusing on him for reasons, Mascara just runs in and rolls him into a pendulum sub. It does kind of blow up how silly some of Titan's stuff can be, but I already knew that so thought this worked incredibly well within the existing universe.

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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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CMLL Workrate Round-Up 7/20/14 & 7/27/14

1. Terrible, Vangellys & Rey Bucanero vs. Rey Cometa, Angel de Oro & Titan (7/20/14)

Well hey this was good! Motivated Terrible is a great thing, especially when he's blindsiding floppers. Here he's after Titan and it's glorious. In one of my favorite wrestling spots of the year Titan tags in, slingshots over the ropes and begins hand springing his way across the ring and finishes doing a dorky bow and arrow mime, and Terrible just runs over and throws a brutal left hook, flooring Titan. Awesome spot. This match is full of rudos dropkicking tecnicos right in the middle of dangerous looking moves. Oro and Cometa both do moonsaults at different points and get kicked in the stomach right in the middle of them, which if you think about the physics basically stops their momentum and dumps them on their heads. Vangellys dropkicking Cometa during an Asai moonsault was an especially nasty moment. Bucanero doesn't always show up but he was game here, and aside from throwing shots at the floppers (oh god including powerbombing Cometa right into the freaking ring post) he also took a hilarious bump off a Cometa rana from the apron, making sure to somersault his way towards a couple bosomy ladies in the front row, and then recovering whilst draped over their laps. But this match was the Terrible show, and when he's on he's on. Here he took a bunch of bumps from big springboard offense, and then dished it right back including ending the Segunda by catching a springboard rana into an brutal powerbomb. Awesome stuff in this.

2. Rush, Maximo & Marco Corleone vs. Mr. Niebla, Euforia & Niebla Roja (7/20/14)

What an odd match. I actually had to check the date to make sure LATV wasn't just showing an old match, but no this match actually happened in 2014. What was so weird was everybody worked it as if it were 2012. Rush was working tecnico with Maximo and Corleone as if he hadn't been a total dickbag the entire last year (although the onscreen graphics kept referring to them as rudos). But it wasn't just Rush, as Niebla was also doing little things he hasn't done since 2012, most notably not dressing like a total asshole and just wearing his old Niebla gear, not doing a stupid spit spot, Zacharias was getting involved in the match (and really he's just been sitting at ringside for the last 1-2 years), Niebla also broke out his fun face first apron bump that I haven't seen him do in a couple years, and also the Harley Race "feet caught on bottom ropes" headfirst bump to the floor. This time the Race bump had a fun twist as while he was hung up in the ropes Zacharias was tossed onto him sending both of them crashing to the floor. Euforia seems to match up really well with Marco's big left hands, and he ran into a few great ones here. Maximo also had a spry performance, tossing out some cool armdrag variations and working some nice sequences with Niebla. And there Rush is the whole match, working a weird turn back the clock gimmick. This whole match was seriously bizarre.

3. Metalico, Virus & Skandalo vs. Dragon Lee, Oro Jr. & Fuego (7/27/14)

Fun straight falls match with more of Metalico taking out all of his life's aggressions on Oro Jr. Oro bumps even bigger in this one than their showdown the week before. Even before the match starts Oro is waiting in the aisle for Metalico, which immediately backfires as Metalico sidesteps him, hits a great kneelift, and then tosses Oro into the ring post. Oro takes a really awesome Lawler style bump into the post. Oro takes another big beating from all the rudos here, with Metalico being the standout again as the vicious asskicker. The segunda sees the big tecnico comeback with all of them hitting big dives, Lee getting a big flip dive and a nice rana off the apron, and Oro about to exact his revenge when Metalico unmasks himself and gets the DQ win. I'm really liking this feud as it's really done a great job of making two guys stand out who I have never really giving second thoughts to. The fact I'm looking forward to more Metalico and Oro Jr. stuff really says something.

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CMLL Workrate Round-Up 10/10/14 & 7/20/14

1. Kraneo, Mr. Niebla & Shocker vs. Marco Corleone, Diamante Azul & Valiente (10/10/14)

Short and sweet match with tons of great Kraneo moments. Not only is Kraneo really great, but I think he brings the best out in guys like Niebla. Niebla is not as good as Kraneo, but nobody wants to be the dog of the match. Kraneo is just a total beast though and also makes opponents look great. He spectacularly ends a fall with a wild senton off the top, but also takes a massive bump to the floor off a Marco clothesline, really whipping himself over the top super fast, but also does little detail rudo things like holding Corleone in place by *grabbing his balls from behind*!! Then casually walking off tapping his own inner thigh to the boos of the crowd. Marco kicks things up a notch too in his work opposite Kraneo as he's really the only luchador in CMLL who can match him for size (although Thunder is pretty huge as well), and Marco logically uses his size in the tercera to wipe out Kraneo/Niebla with his huge no hands plancha, this time from ring to floor (instead of his usual ramp to ring). Kraneo is a bull and these kind of matches are almost always worth watching to see what he'll do.

2. Rush, La Sombra & La Mascara vs. Ultimo Guerrero, Thunder & Euforia (10/10/14)

Also quick and to the point, with Ingobernales going over in straight falls, but it is notable for an actual spirited and fine tecnico appearance from Thunder. Thunder is a guy who has not really registered with me so far, other than "hey that guy is large and muscle-y" but here at the end of the primera there he was out on the floor dishing stiff shots to Ingobernales. UG is a guy I like but here he just works like UG, rudo or tecnico, just UG here. Thunder actually worked like a tecnico who had been disrespected by these douchey coveralls wearing punks. You knew what you were getting from the rudos in this, but I was pleasantly surprised by the tecnico I knew least about.

3. Metalico, Cancerbero & Raziel vs. Oro Jr., Starman & Triton (7/20/14)

I love when little matches like this exceed non-existent expectations. Nobody ever expects anything out of a third match on a Sunday card. I've seen dozens of these and most of the time they are exactly what you think they're going to be. I mean look at those 6 names. That is a list of maybe the 6 most "also rans" on any given CMLL midcard. If I asked you "hey name 10 luchadors whose names you always see in results and stuff but you don't actually go out of your way to watch" there is a good chance all six of those names pop up on that top 10. And then occasionally those kind of guys give you get a fun little gem like this one where everybody works hard and seems like they're all trying to stand out. Metalico was a little ball of rage here. Up until now if somebody had asked me about Metalico I would have told them that he was definitely one of the top 5-10 guys in CMLL with a Tiger gimmick. But here he was a total asshole southern heel. He stiffed up all the tecnicos and especially targeted Oro Jr., was constantly taking cheap shots at guys on the apron, and was cursing and spitting at the crowd from the apron, and begging off in the tercera. He was wrestling like a guy who just got laid off but was then asked to finish out the week, oh and also we won't be giving you a recommendation. Oro Jr. was a fun punching bag and took some mean bullying from all the rudos. His "pushed too far" moment was satisfying. Starman hits a wild tope (I think Phil may have dubbed this year the "Return of the Classic Lucha Tope" and this one can be added onto that list) and this match was just unexpectedly fun. And damn man, Metalico. I like this guy pissed off. It was kind of a weird out of nowhere performance as I don't ever remember him doing this stuff before, and other guys in the match were still trying to have a traditional lucha match, but shoot Metalico's act would have played well on the 80s Memphis set.

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CMLL Workrate Round Up 7/6/14, 2/9/14, 1/19/14

So I got a lot of things on the back burner wrestling-wise, that should be bumped up to the front burner. I watch lucha more than any other kind of wrestling, but I got to the point where I realized I probably don't need to write about EVERY single lucha match that I watch. I watch plenty of CMLL. How many different things can I really write about a Corleone match or a blown up Shocker performance or a perfectly horrible Volador Jr. main event or a perfectly fine Maximo performance. So I'm gonna combine all the CMLL I watch into more concise write-ups, skipping over the stuff that doesn't need to be written about, writing up in depth the stuff that deserves it, dumping on the stuff that is notably horrible. This will leave more time for other cool stuff, give a little more variety to the blog, and avoid pointless burnout. C'est la vie!

1. Misterioso Jr., Metalico & Bobby Zavala vs. Rey Cometa, Oro Jr., Sagrado (7/6/14)

Great energy here and a nice little rudo showcase. The tecnicos kind of got steamrolled a bit but Misterioso is always a fun rudo when he gets the chance to be. Bobby Zavala has the same kind of unwitting douche charisma as Rush, and Metalico was a fun little bulldog going after Oro. Sagrado is almost always bad and this was no different. What a total long term dud. Every move always misses by just enough with him. Every moonsault gets slightly overshot, can't do painful looking submissions, and can't hold himself into others' submissions. Just a total zero. It was nice seeing Metalico punch him in the jaw a few times. We get several really nice dives in this, with one of them sending Zavala right into a mom and daughter and flattening them in the front row. It let to a incredibly smart (planned?) ending as Rey Cometa has an oh shit moment and is instantly down on his hands and knees apologizing to the women, and back in the ring moments later Sagrado gets submitted handing Cometa's team the loss. Metalico has developed a nice little undercard vicious streak, loved him ripping Oro down off the ropes in the middle of a moonsault attempt. Real fun stuff.

2. Euforia, Okumura & Kamaitachi vs. Guerrero Maya Jr., Atlantis & Delta (7/6/14)

Kamaitachi is showing himself to be a valuable add. Loved how hard he went after Delta in this. I've said it before but he seems like he really enjoys the lucha crowd atmosphere, really seems excited to be there, gets dumped on his head off a clothesline. Maya hits his nice dive past the turnbuckles, Euforia has a kind of lazy night for him, Okumura hits a mean missile dropkick to Delta's face for the win. Atlantis was having a very "Atlantis in a trios" performance until he went on a spirited run opposite Euforia that ended in a capable old man dive.

3. Lightning Match: Bobby Zavala vs. Super Halcon Jr. (2/9/14)

Well hey, this was pretty good! You remember Super Halcon from being the worst guy in the Busca de un Idolo. Here he looks pretty good! They work a tight and smart little 6 minute match with Halcon hitting a big flip dive and nice tope, and Zavala taking advantage of Halcon going for high risk stuff. For every big move Halcon did that worked, the next one would see him taking boots to the face or stomach. He crumpled fantastically on a moonsault-to-boots off the top, and Zavala nicely timed a dropkick to Halcon's stomach off a springboard. Zavala also hit a bunch of stiff clotheslines. Zavala has a sturdy build and does great clotheslines and shoulder blocks the way a guy with a sturdy build should.



4. Atlantis vs. Mr. Niebla (1/19/14)

Man, fun and spirited Niebla really makes you realize what a crap bag that can be in trios matches. I really dug this; both guys worked hard and this was a fun old guy sprint. Niebla took a bunch of big bumps off of simple Atlantis stuff, really whipping himself into the mat of dropkicks and quebradoras, getting crotched on the top turnbuckle violently in the tercera and taking a painful bump to the floor. It was real impressive how quickly both men worked, even though the match went a decent length. Really made things seem more immediate. Atlantis wins the first with a smooth roll up, Niebla wins the second while holding the ropes. The ropes holding turns out to be his undoing as he keeps trying to end it the same way in the third and keeps getting caught. Finish is odd and funny, as both men resort to cheating at the exact same moment, with Atlantis' cheating being more violent and thus more effective: Niebla swipes Atlantis mask off at the same time Atlantis punts him in the balls. Ballshot gets the win. Fans in the crowd yell things at Atlantis that get blurred out. These two matched up again a few months later and that match wasn't very good. This one is definitely worth watching.

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MLJ: Cavernario Spotlight 6: Black Metal, Metálico, Stigma vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Hijo del Signo, Hooligan

Aired 2013-06-29
taped 2013-06-25 @ Arena Mexico
Black Metal, Metálico, Stigma vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Hijo del Signo, Hooligan

This was sort of fun for a few reasons. First and foremost, it was Cavernario's debut at Arena Mexico. It was about a year and a half ago and he was just in the headlining trios match for the Tuesday show last week. I think that's a pretty good ascent. I've not seen a modern CMLL match without commentary, but that's what we have here. It was a little jarring, to be honest. Thankfully, I'd seen most of these guys in the previous matches so I was able to pick them out for the most part. I'll say this, the crowd seemed interesting in seeing Cavernario at least. He had a chant at one point when he was on the apron and when he played to the crowd, they responded.

This was also Metalico's debut and it could have gone better for him. There was a downright brutal exchange with Signo late in the match where I don't even know what they were going for. I'll call it an unfortunate and unnecessary flip followed by a really sad missed drop kick and then Metalico not really skidding out of the ring well to set himself up for a clumsy Signo tope. From what I've seen of Signo so far, he's best when he's playing a poor man's Fuerza, just sort of a dickish goony rudo. He really wasn't doing that here. Stigma did well mostly matched up against Cavernario and Hooligan was fine as a physical presence. I think, maybe, he didn't give enough in the match, including just hammering down after Black Metal's big moment (a tope from the inside onto the ramp) but I can kind of understand why he wouldn't.

The match itself was fairly subdued. It has to be hard to put together an Arena Mexico card, especially one with a bunch of trios, especially when you're doing it week in and week out. I rarely watch whole shows, though I do tend to follow things week to week when I can. You can only go to the same well so many times on a card without burning out the crowd. Therefore, the end to the primera was very abrupt: after the back and forth of the initial pairings, Signo came in, slammed Metalico, and splashed him for three.

Likewise, the 'comeback' was barely there at all. The beatdown was the best part of the match. Both Hooligan and Cavernario were well suited to just beat the crap out of their opponents and it was the brunt of the segunda. They cycled in one after the next with clubbering and triple kicks and one brutal groin corner dropkick by Hooligan. It only lasted a few minutes but they were good minutes and by the end of it, I was ready for a hot comeback. I didn't get one. Metalico reversed a triple team into a quick 'rana on Signo for three. It was one of those moments where the other rudos were supposed to be celebrating since they thought the move went their way, so they missed the pin, but Hooligan was staring right at it embarrassingly. The crowd was somewhere between bemused and confused about it.

Even though he ultimately went out in the tercera to a Stigma double underhook powerbomb, it did feel like Cavernario's debut party. He had a solid, if a bit rehearsed, showing on the mat with Stigma in the primera. He was front and center in the beatdown, really getting a chance to show off his sudden strikes that can make a rudo beatdown compelling. Then he got to hit a few of his big moves, the alley-oop dropkick in the segunda and a jump-back second rope splash and the clothesline backbreaker in the tercera.

It was only as good a match as the card placement and what we'll chalk up to nervousness in Metalico would let it be, but it was a good showing for Cavernario in a match where he really had to deliver. By this point it was pretty safe to say that he was well on his way.

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MLJ: Cavernario Spotlight 4: Bárbaro Cavernario © vs Esfinge [OCCIDENTE MIDDLE] & Bárbaro Cavernario, Disturbio, Hijo del Signo vs Black Metal, Metálico, Molotov

Taped 2013-03-05 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Bárbaro Cavernario © vs Esfinge [OCCIDENTE MIDDLE]

7m43s in

This is really just clips from the tercera, but we skipped 4 months since the last match so I thought it was important to at least look at it. In the form we had it, this was pretty damn exciting actually. It's a shame we don't have the whole thing because you definitely learn different things from singles matches, especially title matches, than you do from trios. The dives with Cavernario missing his crazy flip but then finding a way to catch Esfinge from a prone position, were pretty nuts. The fact he managed that, protected his opponent, but still made it look good deserves a lot of credit. He really put a beating on his body, though, not just missing the dive but eating a Hamrick bump through the ropes which lead to another great Esfinge dive (this time a no hands Asai Moonsault to the floor). The finish was fairly clever as Esfinge gloated after his success, opening himself up to La cavernaria. There's so much ebb and flow to title matches that you can't get a good sense of them through clips, but what we saw here made me want to see more at least.

Taped 2013-06-23 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Bárbaro Cavernario, Disturbio, Hijo del Signo vs Black Metal, Metálico, Molotov

To sum up, there are five guys in this match I've never seen before. I find these opening matches on cards interesting because you get a lot of hard work and more attempts at innovation and trying different things. The flip side is that the work is both more collaborative and sloppier. More than that, though, a lot of the transitions and timing end up stilted. There's a lack of polish. One of my favorite things about lucha is that you rarely ever see the strings. Here you do.

So, five wrestlers I didn't know. I'm not sure I had a great sense of all of them by the end. Molotov has been wrestling for about ten years and I thought he was notably agile, but his opening matwork with Disturbio felt a lot like them just collaboratively trying to get to the next hold. Signo had a decent enough Fuerza act but it felt a little like a pale shadow. Still, he had the most distinct personality of the match outside of Cavenario. Metalico and Black Metal felt sort of interchangeable to me. They were both fairly capable as tecnicos drawing the crowd in and had a couple of good spots, which I'll mention in a minute. Disturbio was funny teasing a crane kick, but was fairly unmemorable in general.

The match was ultimately a mix of fun spots and good ideas and things that were blown. Black Metal let the rudos take over by foolishly running up their turnbuckles to hit a moonsault. He got punched repeatedly and knocked off the ropes instead. That started the beat down. I have in my notes "Molotov vs the world," which is usually when a tecnico fights off multiple rudo opponents; it's followed immediately by "world wins," which was followed by a couple of nice corner clotheslines and a boring Cavernario pin for the primera. He made up for it later though, because in the beatdown, his intensity really shined through. Cavernario, just by the way he worked his gimmick, can make a match like this feel more interesting. It's not stiffness necessarily, but angle of attack, if that makes sense. The way he comes at his opponent is just outlandish enough to stand out. His character work was definitely developed by this point. He was just an unfrozen caveman, but one savvy enough to point one way and watch as his partners swarmed the unassuming, fresh tecnico during a beatdown. He also did a Niebla-style comedic fall off the apron spot that seemed to get over pretty well.

The comeback was pretty tepid, just the usual ducking of a double clothesline and a rana. There was a bit of a revenge beatdown on the outside between falls, but we didn't get to see much of it before they went into the tercera reset. Here we had a decent amount of showcase sequence, with Molotov looking agile again and Metalico matched up well with Signo. He did do the most ridiculous spot, though, slowly rolling into a back somersault on the apron so that he could put on a headscissors takedown onto Signo who was on the floor. It was like watching horribly colored paint dry in the worst way. Ultimately, Disturbio and Black Metal had a pretty good set of pin exchanges, before they got each other eliminated on a double pin, which is not anything I've seen before in a trios match but it actually made a lot of sense and should probably be used more. From there, Cavernario and hit each other with a double clothesline and they teased another double pin as the opportunistic partners rushed in before clearing ther ring for Disturbio and Black Metal. That was followed by gallant (a really nice sunset flip done by hanging on to the midsection during a back drop in a way I've never seen before) and goofus (a really flubbed Alabama slam out of the corner), before Metalico locked in a nice submission for the win.

It's hard to rate matches like this relative to what I usually see. On a quality standpoint, they're not better, not even in the ballpark. On a fun standpoint, they can come close, though. What they are, first and foremost, is interesting. You see different trends in watching opening matches like these, some positive, some negative. What does stand out is how Cavernario, even more than a year ago, just popped in them, though.

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 7/6/14

So this week we appear to catch back up to the previous schedule (not sure what the 6 month flashback was all about, but lucha gonna lucha). These matches were all from the 6/8/14 Arena Coliseo show.

1. Puma, Skandalo & Metalico vs. Triton, Oro Jr. & Sagrado

Boy, just about as forgettable a match as you can get. Most CMLL guys have enough talent where if they're given a decent amount of time they can through together something suitable. And even though this was straight falls, it was still given over 10 minutes. And there was practically nothing memorable about it at all. Skandalo did that thing where he targets a guy's taint the whole match, so poor Oro got kicked in the taint a couple times. Triton broke out wretched early 2000s Scoot Andrews offense. Sagrado has improved less than anybody else in CMLL in the last decade. Oro Jr. did the most hilariously bad missed dropkick you've ever seen. You know that overused missed lucha dropkick? The one that happens so much that you just accept it as part of lucha instead of recognizing how awful it looks? The one where a guy kind just jumps up and lands on his tummy, basically to get into position for somebody else to do offense? It always looks bad, some guys make it look less worse. But Oro Jr. took the bad missed lucha dropkick to levels of high art here. To get into position he just dropkicked gently into the center of the ring, with no other wrestlers within 7 feet of him. Anybody watching would have had no reason to believe he was attempting to hurt somebody. It's like he just took a really bad bump from a move that never happened. So…I guess something memorable did happen!

2. Lightning Match: Valiente vs. Vangellys

Too short to be much of anything, shorter than a lot of lightning matches. Valiente blasted Vangellys with a couple of consecutive dives, although that might have been because Vangellys stumbled a bit on the catch of the first one, so when Valiente hit him he looked like he sold it by kind of tripping over a lady's purse in the aisle. For all I know Valiente was like "dude we're doing that again and you're gonna bump down the aisle).

3. Blue Panther, Fuego & La Mascara vs. Virus, Niebla Roja & Comandante Pierroth

Boy that's a WAR-like random assemblage of 6 guys right there. And hey look at that, the match was really fun. Everybody got a chance to do their thing, so we got Panther doing some fun mat stuff with Pierroth, Fuego being a nice punching bag for Virus and Pierroth. Virus was easily the star of this as he always knew what tone to hit at the right time. He stooged for Panther (though really would have rather seen them tear it up), bullied Mascara and especially Fuego, even threw in some comedy when Mascara  took his shirt off and soaked in lady squeals, Virus teased his own shirt removal before shoulder tackling Mascara's knees. Plenty of neat Virus "little things" on display here. He really throws himself into everything, and it adds to the match that he also does that on planned misses. He cuts low on missed clotheslines and leveled teammate Roja with a nasty elbow on a miscommunication spot (you know, as if he was actually aiming for the guy he was supposed to hit and wasn't expecting him to move, sending him into his own guy). Fuego ended it on a real slick trapped leg Russian leg sweep rolled into a snug submission. Looked cool.

4. Negro Casas, Rey Escorpion & Felino vs. Rush, Maximo & Atlantis

Another short match, fitting 3 falls into about 9 minutes. I mean, there was a lot of action, but when the whistle blows and there's only 10 minutes left in the episode you kinda know you're not about to watch a classic. This is kind of an odd match as Casas works most of it rudo and Rush works most of it tecnico but it's pretty clearly opposite when they're opposing each other. So Rush was kind of tecnico for half the time, except when he was being kicked a bunch by Casas. Not enough Escorpion. Escorpion/Rush would have been an interesting pairing, I don't remember the last time I've seen them oppose each other. Also, I just don't want to see Felino on TV anymore. I'm getting sick of the ceiling being "well Felino wasn't entirely miserable to watch during this match". He ran the ropes nicely at one point here. His comedy (?) is very much not funny.

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En Busca de un Idolo - Week 1

The CMLL En Busca de un Idolo tourney is the most fun non-WWE thing in wrestling in 2014. Pretty much fun WCWSN lucha style 8 minute matches. I like tourneys (although not lucha tourneys usually), and most of these matches are nice and short, so I figure I will review it all, hoping to catch up by the finals. My Complete and Accurate grades don't really work here (I don't think there are going to be any EPICS for example) so I am going to review them with a Must See, If You Have a Spare Moment, Don't Bother.

3/25

Qualifying Cibernetico (Black Panther, Cachorro, Canelo Casas, Cavernario, Dragon Lee, El Rebelde, Espiritu Negro, Flyer, Guerrero Negro Jr., Hechircero, Herodes Jr., Metalico, Oro Jr., Soberno Jr., Star Jr., Super Halcon Jr.) - Spare Moment

These matches are like Ice Cream Sundae's for the most part. Sweet, will give you a head rush, but not a ton of substance and you definitely don't want too much. This goes 30 minutes +, and while the first couple of bites are great, you are going to have a stomach ache when you are done. It is hard to really focus on one guy, or one crazy dive when the match has 20+ dives. Watching them all, I decided I am pretty much a fan of a simple tope, and there are some great ones here, especially by Panther's kids. Star Jr. gets the most height on his dive and Hechicero takes the biggest bump. It seems like the picked the right 8 guys to advance (although I would have liked to see more Black Panther), but this is a hard platform to judge people on. Plenty of crazy individual moments, and if you just want to see crazy kids do every spot they know this is fine in an ROH scramble kind of way

4/4

Cachorro v. Star Jr. - Must See

Cachorro is the son of Blue Panther and one of the most exciting young wrestlers in the world. Star Jr. is a 20 year old technico with all of the nut up testosterone of a kid that age. Star Jr. looked a little tentative in the exchanges, although he hit them all fine. What you want from Star Jr. is one crazy bump and one crazy dive and you get both as he flies through the ropes head first to the floor and hits a springboard flippy twist. Cachorro throws out his tope although it isn't as crushing as it has been, he also ends with a rana counter leglock which would make his daddy proud. Fun stuff.

Dragon Lee v. Soberano Jr. - Spare Moment 

Parts of this were a bit of a mess, Soberano kind of blows his first big dive, an inside to out asai moonsault which he doesn't clear cleanly and looks like he clips Dragon Lee. There are also off a bit on some of their in ring exchanges. Still this had some cool stuff, Lee is a really graceful flyer and that signature hip toss to the floor bump is one of the crazier signature spots I have seen. Not much to this, but it had enough moments for a mild rec.

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