Lucha Worth Watching: CMLL Unexpectedly Stretches Out

Blue Panther/Black Panther/Blue Panther Jr. vs. Misterioso Jr./Puma/Tiger CMLL 7/10

ER: What a smokin' trios hidden in the middle of a Tuesday night Arena Mexico show. For whatever reason they get a ton of time to do their thing, and they make some real cool use of that time. The primera is long and is entirely on the mat, easily the most matwork I've seen in a CMLL match in a couple years, totally cool and unexpected. Most of the time is taken by Panther and Misterioso, as the respective maestros working a bunch of longform leglocks. CMLL just doesn't let matwork stretch out like this any longer, and it was awesome seeing these two work holds, and work in little moments, like Panther getting his leg twisted but you see him start to wedge his free foot in between Misterioso's knees and it leads to him sweeping and cleanly picking up Misterioso's ankle. They go to a couple standoffs and then go right back to attacking legs, the crowd getting more and more into it the longer these two stay in the ring. I cannot recall a recent CMLL match where the same two guys held court longer than this (over 6 minutes) to start a match, and I loved it. BP Jr. comes in to do some more leg lock and Indian deathlock battling with Tiger and ties him up with a cool inverted stretch, part cruceta, part making his shoulder blades touch.

Rudos weren't messing around in the segunda and jump Panther familia and gleefully kick their black and blue asses around the ring until they were black and blue. Panther Jr. takes a few bumps over the barricade, Tiger throws a full beer at BP (who ducks), just a fun mugging around the ring as if Misterioso was a battle hardened general shouting "beat the crap out of them and don't let them roll on the mat with our legs!" The tercera is a continuation and much more of a modern lucha tercera, but better. It never devolves into big move 2 count kickouts, instead jamming in a ton of partner saves which is infinitely more interesting. They kept ramping it up and the crowd got louder with every save. We had a couple false finishes and a couple peaks; you watch enough formula Arena Mexico trios matches and it's obvious when something is doing something a bit differently. Panther Jr. hits a couple dives, Misterioso wraps himself around the ringpost on a great bump, crowd gets super hyped for the elder Panther matching up with Puma and Tiger, really the tercera felt like a whole CMLL trios in itself. Cool vibe with several things out of the norm for this kind of trios, and I smiled the whole time as they kept going and the fans kept getting more rabid for Panther.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Leyenda de Azul Cibernetico

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

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

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

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

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Lucha Worth Watching: Your 2017 CMLL Midcard

Virus/Disturbio/Okumura vs. Pegasso/Soberano Jr./Fuego (CMLL 2/3/17)

ER: We get more of 2017 tecnico superstar Soberano. He's really connecting with the Arena Mexico crowd, and it's always exciting when a crowd starts really reacting to a wrestler, the excitement in a worker's movements when he's getting loud reactions are palpable. Here he gets to show off a lot of flash, and also shows his bump freak side. The bump freak side is my favorite side of his, with him flying recklessly to the floor in the primera off a bull rush shoulderblock from Virus, taking an Okumura lariat on the side of his head, taking a hip toss from the ring to the rampway, and the bumps all lead to bigger reactions on his comebacks. Rudos really take a back seat to tecnicos here, with all three just trying (and succeeding) in drawing heat from the crowd verbally instead of just hogging all the offense. I mean, Virus is always going to look good, but here he hangs back, mostly keeping his offense to simple things (big shoulderblock, sharp elbow drop to the "lower abdomen", big lariat). The finish gets wild with Pegasso hitting a tornillo, Fuego hitting a missile dropkick followed immediately by a springboard missile dropkick, then pins Virus with a cool crucifix variation. Soberano clears the ring with a springboard rana, hits a smooth as hell tornillo off the top, and a moonsault off the middle onto a hanging Okumura wraps it up, crowd flipping their lid the whole time. Fun stuff.

Hechicero/Sagrado/Misterioso Jr. vs. The Panther/Guerrero Maya Jr./Blue Panther Jr. (CMLL 11/17/17)

ER: I really like this rudo team, they same to show up fairly regularly together and they all mesh nicely. They're good at being jerks and bullies, and they're good at allowing openings for any tecnicos that want to grab them. The rudo antics in this one are as good as expected, like The Panther sending Misterioso to the floor with a rana, so Misterioso responds angrily yanking Maya off the apron and then chucking Kemonito into the front row. Just as Stan Hansen turns a pinfall save into an opportunity to beat the hell out of the guy pinning his partner, I love and appreciate how Misterioso took out frustrations on the other team. We get some big bad triple teams too, like Hechicero doing his weird inverted monkey flip to Panther while Sagrado and Misterioso dish kicks on the way down. The tecnicos get some big dives and get to show some stones, like when Hechicero hits his cool moonsault to the floor, and he then gets jumped on the floor by the other two opponents. You don't normally see that from a tecnico team. Guerrero Maya peaks things with an insane tope con giro that sends him flying into the second row, The Panther keeps getting better, and these rudos know how to get an Arena Mexico reaction, and I love when these midcard acts go out of their way to get noticed on a nostalgia show.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Panther Familia, and Kraneo vs. Smaller Men

Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr. & The Panther vs. Misterioso Jr., Bobby Z & Sagrado (CMLL 8/5/16)

This wasn't the match I expected, but I was pleased with the match we got. I was expecting this to be a showcase of everybody's highflying, but man do the dives keep coming. BP's kids get to show off their fast topes, BP himself hits two sturdy and impressive ones, Misterioso gets his nice rolling senton off the apron, Bobby hits a killer plancha to the floor while Panther Jr. is already lying on the floor, and Sagrado hits a mean springboard flip dive. That's not even counting all the numerous springboard and top rope moves into the ring. Then throw in Misterioso's great Cassandro bump and Bobby's big Jerry bump and this match had way more guys leaving their feet than any Sky Team match I've seen. Wild stuff. There's plenty of great character moments, with Sagrado not playing along with Panther Jr. sequences, and Bobby Z's ever-growing unwitting doofus character that is hopefully finally getting bumped up the card. BP and Misterioso have some wonderful sequences, and I especially loved their mat rolls to start. Blue Panther always does at least one little thing I love in his matches that have some primera matwork, and here I loved him rolling backwards and catching Misterioso's ankle on his way over. A small but wonderful part to a fun big spot match.

Kraneo/Hechicero/Sagrado v. Triton/Hombre Bala Jr./Angel de Oro (CMLL 5/10/16)

I love a good rudo team, and that right there is three rudos I like seeing together, and this is the first time we've been lucky to see them together. Hechicero teaming with Kraneo is a beautiful thing, and together they're like Jack Handey's shark riding on an elephant's back, just trampling and eating everything they see. Sagrado has really found new life as a rudo these last two years, gone are the days of him clumsily blowing tecnico offense, now he's found his calling being an asskicker and bumping great FOR tecnico offense. He takes tons of armdrags from Triton that ramp up faster and faster and make me think my video was glitching and speeding up. I loved all of Hechicero's stuff with Bala, with Bala getting a rare chance to shine (apparently replacing Super Porky, which likely made the match take an entirely different tone than it otherwise would have) as Hechicero takes his ranas and knees with force, and Bala takes all of Hechicero's endless bag of tricks. Loved Hechicero hitting a pointy running knee in the corner, then whipping him with a couple of sick jabs I've never seen him do. Bala mirrors him with a couple of flying knees of his own and Hechicero is great stooging for him. But then Sagrado and Triton get to tear it up on the edges of the camera, with Triton getting flung upside down into the barrier and Sagrado hitting a killer sliding lariat to a slumped-in-the-corner Triton. Kraneo is such an awesome mismatch for most tecnicos, eating and trampling, flattening fliers, elbowing guys off the apron, accidentally booting poor Mije, but he goes down like he got shot for a couple Oro superkicks, really times them perfectly to actually make them look like kicks and not thigh slaps. We get some crazy flying down the stretch, with Triton hitting a big asai moonsault to the floor, and Triton hitting a wild asai tornillo that sees him go upside down through his opponent and possibly onto his own head. And everything ends with Kraneo just flattening Oro with a sick senton which the announcers refer to as a "mega senton". Indeed.

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

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

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

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

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

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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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2015 Lucha Overview - Arena Coliseo 1/17/15

My main man Black Terry Jr. dropped an belated Christmas present to his customer base by sending us three matches from an Saturday CMLL Arena Coliseo show. Coliseo are shows where they are letting their young guys work longer stuff, kind of an untaped CMLL NXT, and it was neat to get a look at guys working in a different environment.

Astral v. Pequeno Nitro

One fall minis match given about 13 minutes which would have been right at home as a showcase Nitro or fun Lucha Underground match. Starts out a bit slow, neither guy is a stellar mat worker and the first 3 minutes or so felt a little time killerish. When they start breaking out big spots though it picked up. Astral hit a nice tope, a couple of minutes later Nitro lands a really pretty plancha to the floor. Then Nitro nukes himself on a Psicosis/Estrada style ringpost bump and Nitro hits a Taka double jump plancha which was always one of my favorite dives. Finish was also a crazy roll up into a submission. Not a MOTY level match, but a really nifty spotfest I am happy got documented.

Virus v. Star Jr.

Really enjoyed watching Virus work with Black Terry Jr. filming. The camera work really let you see the nastiness of Virus's stuff, kidney shots, super stiff clotheslines. The early matwork was pretty fun, Virus was leading him, but Star Jr. threw in some fun stuff too, including an elaborate roll up, and a Navarro style pin reversal via ankle hook. Would have liked to see a little more flash from Star Jr., but this was a very fun 10 minute match, and a great chance to watch Virus do his thing.

Misterioso Jr./Negro Casas/Sagrado v. Delta/Guerrero Maya Jr./La Mascara

I like watching Negro Casas and this is another opportunity to check out a master work a house show style match. Still the non Casas parts of this were pretty forgettable, and this really felt like a bog standard house show match. On the positive side of average, but not by much

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MLJ: Hechicero Spotlight 2: Máscara Púrpura, Súper Nova, Valiente vs. Misterioso II, Rey Hechicero, Virus

2008-07-05 @ Arena Monterrey, Monterrey, Nuevo León
Máscara Púrpura, Súper Nova, Valiente vs. Misterioso II, Rey Hechicero, Virus

This match had a pretty cool setting. It was on a card in Monterrey's big arena with maybe 10K people there. That's about as far from the gym the last Hechicero match was in as you can get. The top of this card was the Ruleta de la Muerte which lead to the Blue Panther vs Tigre Universito mask match. The youtube link above is for for the back half of the show and I bet that Wagner/Garza/Marco vs Averno/Ephesto/Mephisto was fun too, but there's only so much time in the world and I have Hechicero to watch.

This is bonus since I get Virus too. I don't know a whole lot about Mascara Purpura or Super Nova, but at least they all had distinct looks so I can tell them apart. Valiente's entrance was pretty great, complete with faux armor. Valiente and Virus were the captains. Hechicero was initially matched up with Nova and Misterioso with Purpura. Immediate takeaways were that Hechicero was a bit too much of a ham in trying to get the crowd to cheer for him (or to heel them by making it seem that they should; I couldn't tell where the line was) and that Purpura should have been 2009's Fuego (as in a super agile trios worker who does plenty of impressive things but probably shouldn't be in there on his own) and I'm not quite sure why he wasn't. Some of what he did was off the charts but his matwork left a lot to be desired.

That was in the primera, where he had some of that really pesky moving himself in and out of position without struggle which felt so frustrating relative to what everyone else in the match was doing. Hechicero and Nova were fine, a little clumsy but absolutely interesting. I'm sure most of you have seen Hechicero's rolling bow and arrow entry but I hadn't and it's a really cool little move. I especially liked the physicality between Virus and Valiente. It may have been the setting but the two of them were making noise and putting a lot into it. The rudos took over when Nova went for an Asai moonsault and Virus kicked the rope. I laughed at the tecnicos misfortune which probably makes me a horrible person. Rudos had some fun tandem beat down offense, including battering ramming Nova butt first into the post. This ended with a sort of ridiculous alley-oop set up where they tossed Purpura to the top rope so that Misterioso could hit his sitting headlock jam buster thing (wiki calls it a "Hammerlock sitout inverted atomic drop off the second or third rope") followed by Hechicero hitting the goofy Valiente finish chestcracker on Nova. Valiente had to steal that from him, right? Anyway, it wasn't the prettiest primera in the world but it was brisk with a couple of spirited pairings and a nice transition to beatdown.

The beatdown had a couple of memorable spots before everything moved along. They held Valiente in the ropes, upside down, so that he could be dropkicked low and then Virus did the set up for Valiente's stupid move on Nova but dropped him straight down instead of onto his own knees, which looked a thousand times better. There wasn't much to the comeback. Purpura ducked one shot and set up the rudo miscommunication which knocked Virus out. Then, when they tossed him off the ropes, he didnt bounce but hit a dive instead, which is always a great visual. Nova came in with the Santo sunset flip and Val put on La Cruz Del Norte (or I think that's what it is). There was some good stuff in here but given the card placement they had to keep things brisk.

Tercera had a reset and a lot of tecnico shine. Basically, each tecnico got to face off against the rudos one after the next. Highlights here were Hechicero trying and failing to get the crowd behind him again, Purpura hitting Misterioso with some amazing armdrags including one out of a code red type set up and another with a huge springboard flip in, Nova finally getting to hit the teased Asai moonsault from the start of the match, and the Valiente Special to clear things out and set up the finish. After a bit of action, Purpura set virus up and hit him with a shooting star press to win it.

This was probably exactly what it should be, a nice little spectacle with the rudos taking over with a cheapshot and ultimately getting their comeuppance that kept the fans pumped for the bigger matches to come. Hechicero had some fun moves here but wanted the crowd to react too badly. Steve Austin, on a podcast recently, complained that some of the wrestlers today try to force fan interaction instead of bringing them in with the work and it wasn't an argument I had put a lot of stock in at the time because I think things like ten count punches are actually underused now, especially now when the fans want so badly to be part of the show. Here though, it felt like pandering; I'm not sure if it was because he knew he had a lot more eyes on him than usual and wanted to make a mark by calling forward some of his local fanbase or what. I think he would have been better off either focusing more on his opponent or being more heelish in the interactions like Misterioso.

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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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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 10/11/14

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



1. Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Mephisto

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

2. Misterioso Jr. vs. Shocker

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

3. Volador Jr. vs. Tiger

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

4. La Mascara vs. Felino

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

5. Mephisto vs. Shocker

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

6. Volador Jr. vs. La Mascara

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

7. Mephisto vs. Volador Jr.

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



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

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

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MLJ: Atlantida Rising 9: Averno, Mephisto, Último Guerrero b Damián 666, Misterioso II, Mr. Águila

Aired 2006-06-17
Taped 2006-06-11 @ Arena Coliseo
Averno, Mephisto, Último Guerrero vs Damián 666, Misterioso II, Mr. Águila

I've been actively avoiding Los Perros del Mal in 2006. For one thing, I get the feeling that we have a lot of them available, which means that I could double back and do another sweep of the year at some later point. Some of what I look at is dictated by availability. It also just seemed sort of tangential to what I was doing. There are some rudos vs rudos matches with Los Guerreros but they seemed to mainly be feuding with the same tecnicos. I do have a fairly long gap in June of 2006 when it comes to Los Guerreros though, so I figured what the heck. If this match just had Tarzan Boy or Olimpico, I probably would have skipped it, but since it's Ultimo, I took a look. He was teaming with Averno and Mephisto, which is fun too, since I just saw them teaming with Rey in the match that his turn started in.

I really don't know the rudos well at all. Damian I've seen from a couple of tags with Halloween and some from WCW. I love the idea that when he was given the gimmick, he was working as Ultraman (II). That's really nice dissonance. Mr. Aguila I know from the WWF run and Misterioso Jr. I don't think I've seen much at all. Wikipedia says his nickname is El Rey del Yogurt, which is one of those things I could probably waste too much time trying to figure out googling, so we're just going to put it out there and move on.

I need to get something out of the way before we talk about the actual ringwork. I will chalk this up to a production issue but there is something seriously wrong with the world when they call Ultimo, Averno, and Mephisto the tecnicos in the match.

So in general, it was fun to see UG working against a few different luchadors and teamed with some others. Averno, as best as I can tell, didn't really get pushed up the card until after Perrito left, which is when they switched Perros del Mal's role over to Hijos de Averno. I really do think he's somehow less special with the mask, and that's something you don't say about too many wrestlers. I'm not saying that UG's side work like tecnicos here, but they do play to the crowd. That's not too surprising with UG considering he always had pockets of fans. Standing out the most were things like how the Perros knocked him into said pocket during the end of the the beatdown in the segunda and Averno signaling to the crowd before his big dive in the tecera.

To be honest, the Perros didn't stand out all that much to me, which might have been the nature of the match as much as anything else. This definitely wasn't a match full of crisp exchanges and paired off opponents. It was worked sort of rudos vs rudos with a decent amount of chaos, but maybe without the sort of violence I had come to anticipate from that. The Perros ambushed their opponents before they could all make it out and took the first fall, right on until UG got to fight out of a corner in the segunda. Then his side had the advantage until Aguila slipped through the cracks and they pushed towards the dive and the finish of UG pinning Damian after a power bomb reversal off the top. It was almost worked like each side had their own tecnico style comeback which was kind of neat but given how unfocused the chaos ultimately was, wasn't enough to take the match over the top.

I think Misterioso had a cool look and Aguila seemed like the sort of guy that someone could get a lot out of due to his physical charisma. I thought his flippy evasions of Averno and Mephisto to set up the comeback in the tercera were impressive. Damian was gritty and had good presence. He hit a sliding-on-his-belly splash out of the ring on Ultimo during that first beat down. UG later got revenge by tossing him out of the ring face first that same way. Averno and Mephisto worked well with UG, including setting up a big flip powerbomb on Misterioso and all three of them doing corner attacks ending with UG's seated senton. You could probably have slotted them in with most other rudos at this point to make a serviceable trios side.

This was probably one of the more skippable matches I've seen in this, but I will probably hit one or two of the big Guerreros vs Perros trios later on in the year. I know there's a title match or two and those might be more interesting.

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My Lucha Journey: The Marco Corleone Experience 2: Vs Ultimo Guerrero and Parejas Increibles 2012

aired 2012-03-03
taped 2012-02-28 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Marco Corleone vs Último Guerrero

10:47 for a three fall match with entrances (albeit shortened ones) doesn't necessarily bode well, and at the very least invites the idea of clipping. This was actually pretty good for what it was though. I'll catch Ultimo Guerrero however I can in the process of whatever I'm working on and there aren't THAT many mano a mano Marco matches out there. This was on CMLL Guadalajara and I'm not entirely sure what that was but the announcers seem to be enjoying themselves. I just figured out that this was RIGHT around the parejas increibles tournament for the year and I'm actually going to make a quick sidetrip to watch the Marco/Guerrero matches since they were paired for some context. Bear with me for a moment.

A few thoughts: Marco could fill time really well in short matches. The eightfinal vs Hijo del Fantasma and Misterioso Jr. was less than four minutes but he started it with a fun, shticky big vs little exchange with Misterioso Jr. I'm happy that Fantasma actually had a Phantom mask, in 2012. It also had probably the best dive I've seen out of Marco, as he just propels himself, no hands, over the top to the floor. They even worked in a little call back spot involving a sunset flip reversal. Not bad for four minutes. The quarterfinal vs Black Warrior/Rey Escorpion got a whopping two minutes. This was my first look at Black Warrior and it was just a glimpse. It was cute though, as Ultimo set up his foes for the Superman dive and Marco landed on all three (and pinned all three, which annoyed Ultimo). I know this tournament lucha is really slight, but you do get some extremely distilled character work at least. The semi was vs Rush and Terrible and clocked in under six minutes. Rush and Terrible were feuding at the time, I think. I've actually yet to see any Terrible of note. This was 2012, but Marco and Rush were part of a trios already. There was this awesome moment of hesitation where Terrible was holding Marco's leg in the corner and Rush seemed like he wasn't going to kick him and then he just unloads. What a jerk. He even followed it up by choking Marco in the corner. Rush is Rush. Marco's comeback was a lot of fun as he ended up leapfrogging everyone twice, it seemed. Unfortunately, Ultimo and Rush were paired off again so Marco didn't get revenge. Instead, he ran right into a huge superkick as Rush reentered the ring. They did a call back to the Superman leap on all three guys but this time, they all kick out. I love continuity within a tournament. Anyway, Rush and Terrible worked better as a unit and ultimately won the thing (after Rush held down Marco so Terrible could splash him). That was a nice little diversion and showed me what I pretty much already knew, that Marco works real well in a tag setting, especially in short falls where he can work to his strengths and really stand out.

Back to the match at hand. I'm not 100% sure if this was right before or right after the tournament but it doesn't really matter. All three caidas were understandably short, but the first, which was shortest of all but had good intensity, did raise one of the major problems I have with Marco. He took the thing with this goofy modified leg-sweep, and yeah, he hit it with some impact, but I don't think it's the sort of move that a giant in the land of lucha should be doing to take a fall. He should have used something that accentuated his stature a bit more. Sometimes he doesn't work as big as he should. It's a necessity, I think, in a setting where he has to continuously give his opponents at least a fall and make them look good and where he also has to face the same guys week in and week out, and often times he hits the balance really well, with some of his more aerial and fancy moves awkward in a way that works towards his character. Sometimes, however, it misses the mark and here I think it did. The flip side is that he's very good at giving his opponents quite a bit and making them look good. Case in point was the end of the short and fairly back and forth segunda caida where he goes up really high for a huge powerbomb that allowed Ultimo to put his feet on the ropes and pick up the pin. Also see his frequent spot where he does a missed body press into the corner and ends up stuck on the top rope in one movement, which he did do here.

That was part of a pretty heated tercera caida, where he also wasn't afraid to eat a pretty visually striking second rope goardbuster. There's good stuff in here, like a momentum shift when Ultimo capitalized on Marco gloating too much, or a nearfall off of Ultimo luring Marco in to do a flying body press and then reversing it. It felt organic, not just happenstance but like Ultimo was savvy and using his wits against Marco. The finish worked well too, as Marco hit a powerbomb of his own and used the ropes, in yet another call back spot. When I was watching a lot of Portland, which is all 2 out of 3 falls matches, I noticed that they used them quite a bit. I had thought that it was maybe just Buddy Rose being so good a pro wrestling, but I'm starting to think it might be a trapping of the medium. It's one of my favorite things in pro wrestling so I consider myself lucky that it shows up so much in lucha. Again, this wasn't a match of the year candidate for 2012, but it was a great way to spend ten minutes and another sign that Marco can hold his own in singles matches too.

The parejas increibles matches are below:

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 4/26/14

These matches were all from the 4/11 Arena Mexico show.

Blue Panther, Valiente & Diamante Azul vs. Terrible, Vangellys & Rey Bucanero

Primera gives us a bunch of Blue Panther/Terrible mat work and it rules. This is maybe the most I've ever seen Terrible hit the mat, and definitely one of Panther's longer mat rolls of the year. It's all really good stuff too, with Terrible working around a keylock and Panther finding ways to reverse out of it. Panther breaks out a cool British style backspin wristlock and a smooth arm drag into a headscissor lock. Terrible yanks on his arm a bunch and BP does simple little things to relieve pressure such as grab his own wrist. Terrible at one point floats over out of a BP head scissors to grab a headlock in one motion. Just a bunch of cool mat stuff from two guys I don't recall going at it on the mat (Terrible almost always sticks to brawling so him looking so damn good on that mat just makes me a bigger Terrible fan). We cut to a Mexican girl in the crowd wearing an Arctic Monkeys trucker hat. That's weird. The match overall is shorter than I would have liked, but was crammed with a bunch of cool moments, even after the awesome Panther/Terrible twisting. Terrible did leaping punches to guys in corners, Valiente plastered Bucanero into the barricade with a dive, Comandante looks slimmed down and was on point with the interference, Terrible kicked some guys in the taint in vicious style (Panther even sold it like he was guesting on Chavo, with an incredible Ay Dios Mio hard sell eyeroll into the back of his head, right at the camera). Killer match.

Puma, Misteriso Jr. & Boby Zavala vs. Fuego, Triton & Sagrado

This might be the absolute shortest three fall lucha match I have ever seen. Maybe Lucha Azteca clipped it (I can't get Dailymotion to play at the moment to see the real match time) but this whole thing was 3 falls in 5 minutes, and that's including the replays of how each fall ended. What in the actual fuck? Misterioso had a cool inverted powerslam, Zavala caught a Triton rana from the ring to the floor, Triton took a cool apron-to-floor bump, Sagrado continued to hold his crown as worst CMLL wrestler (going on several years now), Puma is great and we're done. Where was the fire? (aside from on Fuego's pants)

Rush, Rey Escorpion & La Sombra vs. Negro Casas, Maximo & Volador Jr.

Relevos Increibles matches are almost always fun, as you get to see tecnicos working like rudos and some cool match dynamics. And this match is a blast. Rey Escorpion is a dickhead, you knew that. Rush is a dickhead, you knew that. But La Sombra working rudo is a new favorite of mine. He chose to work rudo not long ago in a singles match against Volador which took a match I was expecting to dread and turned it into something that was super fun (until Volador invincibility took over). Casas is such a joyful rudo that I forget how sympathetic he can be as a tecnico, and how killer his triumphant comebacks can be. You come for Rush stomping and kicking Negro Casas a bunch, and you stay for Sombra being a jerk. At one point he teased taking his shirt off, and when squeals started up he slowly rolled his shirt back down. Yes. Sombra is a total shit kicker here, at one point just destroying Volador into the corner with rapid fire successive left and right elbows (which Volador threatened to ruin with his goof troop dazed selling). Sombra needs to be a rudo NOW. Ever since Volador turned tecnico and also turned horrible the promotion has been missing a highflier/rudo presence. As advertised, Casas took a big beating here, with Rush and Escorpion stomping on him with glee, all leading up to a brief but fired up Casas comeback that saw him thrust headbutt Rush to the floor. Alas, as he's going for his Thesz press off the apron Rush catches him and plants him with a powerbomb on the floor, taking him out of the tercera. Sombra tapes Volador to the corner in real menacing fashion and I like Volador fighting back by catching him with one last superkick, before he gets ganged up on and wins by DQ.  I really dug this. Strong rudo/tecnico dynamics from some real charismatic guys.

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 3/23/14

These matches were from the 3/9 Arena Coliseo show.


Lightning Match: Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Sangre Azteca

Maya is awesome because he breaks out the matwork in a lightning match. Fight the good fight, my man! Also there's a woman in the crowd marking out wearing a Maya mask. YES! They go through some cool indian deathlocks. Stuff kinda gets aimless from there as we go through some various slams and ranas and missed dropkicks and it doesn't really seem to be going any place. Maya does hit a great dive past the turnbuckles (I love Coliseo as there are no barriers so guys fly right into scrambling fans of all ages). Maya ends it with a boss submission, like a standing Rings of Saturn while also trapping Azteca's leg.

Rey Cometa, Delta & Super Porky vs. Misterioso Jr., Puma & Tiger

I don't know how I've made it 3+ months into 2014 without seeing any Rey Cometa. He's become a guy I actively seek out over the last couple years after graduating from mere Arkangel whipping boy, but apparently I'm not seeking that hard. I'm glad Porky finally has his mustache back. It makes him look like Jon Polito got hair plugs. Or what I assume present day Ron Jeremy looks like. Cometa gets a fun opening sequence with Puma, and Misterioso gets a nice roll with Delta. Tiger bumps big to the floor off a running Porky belly bump. He does an equally impressive spill after a Delta dropkick so it appears Tiger is separating himself from the pack here. Cometa runs face first into a Puma superkick and gets folded in half in nasty fashion. Because of lucha camera work reasons, we cut to a girl in the crowd shouting something that requires her mouth being blurred out. Cometa has no problem eating kicks or bumping on the metal entranceway. Cometa breaks out his crazy rana from the top to the apron, with Puma eating floor below, while Misterioso takes a big Cassandro bump, Delta hits a lunatic rope walk moonsault to the floor and Cometa crashes and burns on a tornillo. Even Porky gets in on the action hitting his "dive" off the apron which is essentially him falling on Misterioso (doing the lords work by catching it alllll the way to the floor). This was a bunch of fun.

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CMLL on Galavision Workrate Report 2/16/13

These matches originally happened on the 2/8/13 Arena Mexico show.

1. Demus 3:16/Pequeno Violencia//Pequeno Olimpico vs. Bam Bam/Fantasy/Astral

Hey! A TV appearance from Fantasy! Demus vs. Bam Bam is one of the modern great lucha match-ups, so I always get excited when they're opposite each other. Demus' charisma is a cut above the rest of the minis division and it's a shame he didn't get to become a real boy the other year. Match is good junk food. No substance but goes down pleasantly. Fantasy is always good for some fun (his springboard moonsault while his opponent is hung up in the ropes is pretty nutty), Astral at least finally works with a shirt on to spare me from his topographical back, Bam Bam crashes and burns pretty spectacularly (though not as good as Demus), and the ending made me jump forward in my chair. Demus has Bam Bam up in a muscle buster, parades him around the ring, and Bam Bam wriggles free and drops straight down, catching Demus legs at the last minute and rolling him up. Sounds normal, but the way it looked flipped me out. Bam Bam just sheer vertical dropped, head straight down, and tucked at the very last minute possible. I thought he was just going to get spiked and die. Dude is crazy.


2. Namajague/Misterioso Jr./Okumura vs. Rey Cometa/Stuka Jr./Hijo Del Fantasma

Short but really fun match to build up to the eventual hair/mask match. Namajague is his awesome self here, blowing mist and ripping Stuka's mask, throwing nasty back elbows and taking a massive monkey flip bump on the rampway. Fantasma hits his really cool running ramp-to-ring clothesline and a massive flip dive. Cometa gets spectacularly bullied by Misterioso and does his great flip bump off a stiff clothesline. Misterioso beats him up good and it all builds to some beautiful ranas and the tornillo you want to see. Okumura looked great here, too working his low-rent SUWA/Dinamitas style. I dig all these guys.



3. Ultimo Guerrero/Terrible/Tiger vs. Atlantis/Rush/Shocker

This was alright but also was used to build up the UG/Atlantis mask match, which is a MASSIVE mask match right there. The UG resurgence these past couple years has been really awesome. He's a guy who was one of my absolute favorites in 2000-2001, and my the middle of the decade he kinda personified all my least favorite parts of lucha. So it's nice to see him so energized and awesome again. Speaking of guys who were amongst my favorites 12 years ago, Shocker looks soooo sloooow these days. He looks to be getting in better shape than last year, but he still tries to do all his old spots, just so much slower. Terrible is fun here slapping around Rush and I know I'm way down to see UG and Atlantis tear it up. UG levels him at one point in the match with a brutal baseball slide dropkick (basically did a Fuerza bump dropkick) that sent Atlantis flying. Best "through the ropes" dropkick since the Owen Hart/1-2-3 Kid KOTR match. I'm game for two dudes in their 40s bleeding and dying for their masks.

Also was I napping or did CMLL rock una caida matches this week?

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CMLL Puebla Workrate Report, 11/18/12

These matches are from the 11/5 Puebla show.



1. Arkangel de la Muerte/Hooligan/Skandalo vs. Virus/Raziel/Cancerbero

THIS excited me to no end because it has to be like 10 years since I remember Virus and Arkangel being on opposite sides since Virus hasn't really been a tecnico since around 2003/04. This is weird as both teams are rudos, and both teams work as rudos. Arkangel appears to take the rudo reins early by cheating a bunch and using his foxy gypsy valet Isis to interfere...but then Virus comes in and he's a dick too. The match never really reaches any sort of great heights, but has plenty of nice sequences throughout. The Virus/Arkangel showdown in the 3rd does not disappoint, as Arkangel gets to rough up the "young" punk (I assume they're both basically the same age) by throwing some awesome overhands to Virus' neck, and then hitting a perfect rolling tope en reversa to knock Virus out of the ring. These guys are all capable of much greater things, but nevertheless this was plenty fun.



2. Misterioso Jr./Vangelis/Euforia vs. Rey Cometa/Maximo/Diamante

Another match that will be rather unimportant in the grand scheme of things. It should be noted that Maximo seems to have lost a bit of weight as he looks to be in the best shape of....well, since whenever I saw my first Maximo match. He's slimmed down quite a bit and it's made him a bit more spry in the ring (he hit a sweet running dive off the apron and a beautiful head scissors, landing on his feet afterwards). Euforia is a good worker who I often forget about. Diamante kinda gets in the way. Cometa is a guy I now look forward to and may start going out of my way to see. Vangelis is maybe the best power worker in CMLL and looks better every time I see him. Misterioso Jr. almost always looks good. But hey, this was a Monday match and it seemed like a Monday match most of the time.



3. Mephisto/Dragon Rojo Jr./Tama Tonga vs. Mascara Dorada/La Sombra/Mistico II

Good lord Mephisto got HUGE! The guy is enormous and just jacked to the gills. He looks like a boss battle villain in Arkham City. Tonga looks fine but sorta out of place in a lucha setting. I like Dragon Lee as Mistico. He's able to get the same crazy height on bumps. Dorada looked like the star out of the tecnicos but that shouldn't be much of a shock, as he has looked awesome for some time now. Rojo has gotten real good without me really noticing. He never really does much that stands out, but when you watch him you never think "Man this guy stinks," which sounds like some backhanded praise but he's actually quite good. This match was fairly unremarkable outside some nice flying stuff from Dorada and to a lesser extent, Mistico.

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CMLL Puebla Workrate Report, 11/4/12

These matches were from the 10/22/12 Puebla show.

1. Taurus vs. Super Halcon Jr.

This is my first time seeing Taurus and he is apparently the 18 yr. old son of Ultimo Guerrero. He...is not very polished. The camera has to cut away to the crowd a couple of times in the early matwork, so I'm really curious how he blew a monkey flip bump. He works with a lot of delay and hesitation, but still goes over Halcon in like 3 minutes with a stiff powerbomb and some sort of goofy pumphandle F5.

2. Super Comando/Artillero/Inquisidor vs. Hombre Bala Jr./Magnus/Stigma

Ugh, the tecnicos all come out to Limp Bizkit's "Rollin'". At least Stigma is living up to his name, as I can't really think of a bigger disgrace to one's reputation. This seemed to be designed to show just how much better a worker Hombre Bala Jr. is than the other tecnicos in this match. Because he's clearly much better. He deserves to be much higher on the cards. Super Comando is also much better than his brother Artillero, but they all clearly know that as Comando matches up almost exclusively with Bala during this match. Things here were okay but meh. Tecnicos did a whole bunch of armdraggy stuff from the 2nd ropes and Inquisidor and SC are just fine at taking that type of stuff. But that doesn't mean it's fun after 10 minutes of it.

3. Virus/Misterioso Jr./Sangre Azteca vs. Stuka Jr./Triton/Sagrado

Misterioso is completely tassel free, which quite frankly is bullshit. I watched this match with my buddy Charlie who has an occasional drunk interest in wrestling, but basically zero lucha knowledge. After 4 seconds he was already on the Virus bandwagon. This guy has really put together quite a spectacular career and it feels like he still doesn't get talked about enough. The first time I remember seeing him was a singles match vs. Oriental, and that was when I was in high school (Jesus, I graduated in 1998. Was it really that long ago!?) and I was hooked from that match. I can't think of too many workers who have been as consistently excellent from my late teens into my early 30s as Virus has. This match itself wasn't spectacular in any way, but just had enough little Virus moments that made me realize how lucky we are to have so much of his career exist on tape. Too many luchadors go unrealized by the masses until it's too late in their careers. How many amazing 80s Toro Bill matches must have happened? How many bloody Puebla brawls was that guy a part of? And all we have to prove his existence are maybe 10 trios matches while he was in his late 40s. But Virus has spent almost his whole career working on television, and that's a special thing.



4. Ultimo Guerrero/Rey Buccanero/Terrible vs. Marco Corleone/Maximo/Rush

This was an awesome match. Maximo put in one of his best performances of the last year and really owned the 2nd. Corleone jumped high and threw nice lefts and flexed his buttocks, and Rush looked the best I have ever seen Rush look. And he was not just "good for Rush" but moreso "tell me more about this wrestler with the shitty hair, as he seems like somebody I would like to see more". I'm sure somebody can find some flaws with this match, but fuck it I was laughing and rewinding and calling Rachel into the room for 15 minutes. Buccanero and especially UG have gotten back into a nice groove the last year. They were two of my favorites back in 2000-2002, and then UG kind of started to embody my least favorite style of lucha. But over the last couple years I think he started to really hit another career stride. I even got Phil back on the bandwagon and he was one of the most vehement UG haters during the late 2000s. Buccanero's issues may have been injury related, I don't honestly remember. I just know that in 2001 it seemed like he and Christian were having weekly TV battles to see who could take a stupider bump over the top to the floor and I luuuuuved it. So I'm glad they're back on my good side. Terrible's new hair makes me sad. He looked like the coolest Rafi, Brolo El Cunado before :(



5. Valiente vs. Dragon Rojo Jr.

Is Valiente a main event guy now? I've been in and out of CMLL, so I'm not sure. Maybe this is more of a Puebla B show thing, not necessarily an Arena Mexico thing? Also is it wrong that I liked Valiente more when he was a chubster? Now he's all jacked to the gills and still does things all purty but I liked him when he was flippy and fat. This was a CMLL main event. Moves were done. Moves were kicked out of. Turns were traded. Valiente slipped a couple times which was sad. Rojo had some rad roll-up combinations. The 2nd caida went like 30 seconds. You knew all of this going in.

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CMLL on Galavision Workrate Report, 4/21/12

1. Diamante vs. Polvora:

So last week I was going nutso and being super impressed by Diamante Azul, thinking that Diamante (who I previously thought was good) had suddenly gotten really good and got pushed into main events under some sort of Blue Demon "Blue Diamonds" gimmick, and I fawned all over his somersault senton off the rampway last week. But now I found out that Diamante Azul was actually the repackaged Metro. And I'm a guy who looooves me some Metro. Metro is like a top 50 CMLL guy for me, which sounds pretty unimportant, but I'm a guy who likes CMLL more than the average joe. I genuinely think there are at least 50 really good wrestlers on their gigantic roster. Shoot, I like over 125 guys on the CMLL roster. If I ever get off our collective butts and do a 500 (totally my fault, as I know Phil and Dylan and Tom would be well on board if I spearheaded) then CMLL guys would likely take up 25% of the 500. Shoot, the top 100 would probably be 25% CMLL guys. So I dig Metro and would probably have him somewhere in the 101-200 range. And Diamante is a guy who I enjoyed last year, but would probably fall somewhere in the 400-500 range.

And then this match happened and made me feel like an idiot for doubting Diamante. And feel like an idiot for doubting Polvora. You know, some of these lightning matches feel like lame little exhibitions where the guys run through some tepid sequences in about 5 minutes (last week's Super Commando match felt like a guy who really didn't need anymore singles match time), but Diamante and Polvora treat this match as if their jobs depended on it, and it was full on best possible 1 A.M. Worldwide performance ever. Diamante is just nuts in this, spilling to the floor spectacularly on a couple occasions, making Polvora's baseball slide dropkick look deadly, taking a backdrop on the rampway, just throwing that body around. After one of the spills he gets up, runs back to the apron and immediately snaps off a springboard rana (then gets caught doing the same thing later in the match! Callback!). Polvora takes a nice Cassandro bump, Diamante breaks out a cool rolling armbar as if he just got done watching some 2001 Minoru Tanaka matches, and the match ends with a nasty spill from the top. I can't imagine a lightning match getting much better than this one. Well worth your 6 minutes.



2. Misterioso Jr./Shigeo Okumura/Namajague vs. Valiente/Stuka Jr./Hijo Del Fantasma:

Awwwww yeah! Valiente is starting to fatten up again and that can only mean good things for all of us. The chubbier he gets, the more awesome he gets, and he was pretty awesome here. Okumura is another guy I really like who I feel nobody else in the world of online pro wrestling fans really cares about. He really reminds me of guys like SUWA or Cien Caras who know how to rile up a crowd and stooge great for a tecnico. Here he helps Fantasma get a great reaction (and bumps great for Fantasma's awesome ramp-run flying clothesline). Stuka has a death with and his hands-to-his-sides tope en reversa to the floor is a thing of beauty and pure insanity. Misterioso brings big bumps and flawless tassles without fail. Here he takes a great Cassandro bump and a huge monkey flip on the floor (followed by Kemonito splash off the apron!). And then there was Namajague, whom I had never seen before this. Apparently he's a NJPW junior and here he's dressed up like Onibaba or some other Japanese ghost who has nothing better to do than hang around some Japan village waiting for some poor guy to break an insignificant promise or tell somebody an unimportant secret. Then kill him when he does after waiting for like 10 years. I feel that Namajague's matwork was about as interesting as that ghost waiting around 10 years for that guy to slip up and reveal a secret.



3. Averno/Ephesto/Mephisto vs. La Sombra/Diamante Azul/Rush:

So in my break from CMLL, it appears that guys have gotten fatter. Valiente has chubbed out again, Stuka looks fatter, and Averno/Ephesto/Mephisto have all packed on some weight. So things change, guys get fatter and still stay awesome...and yet Rush is still a tecnico. Why, oh why, is Rush still a tecnico!? This match was worked at a super fast pace, which some people will not like. Usually when you see a CMLL main event that has guys rushing through spots, then you know you're in store for about an 8 minute match with a bunch of quick, silly falls. But then this match kept going, and it kept up that pace. So really you just had a nice long match with constant action. Sombra/Averno/Ephesto put on a helluva show in the 3rd. I have no idea how those guys weren't just totally gassed. Sombra did tons of ranas, and (without checking the actual tally) I estimate that Averno/Ephesto took about 17 monkey flip bumps. The pace didn't stop for the duration, just constant bumps and neat movez. I can deal.

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report, 2/11/12

Haven't done one of these in quite awhile, but that's because CMLL on Galavision hasn't been airing in my area, and LATV has been nothing but reruns dating back to December. It seems like LATV is showing mostly shows from November, some that have already been shown 3 or 4 times. So this show was also taped in November (11/22/11 at Arena Mexico to be exact, thanks Cubsfan!), but I don't know if this actually originally aired. I'm pretty sure I never missed an episode, and this never turned up where it should have. So this may be the first time this has aired in America, even if it's 3 months late.



1. Princess Sugei (Sugheit? I never get this name right)/La Commandante/Zeuxis vs. Dark Angel/Luna Magica/Lluvia:

Well this had a couple nasty spills that came to define the match. First fall went very nicely with Commandante leading Lluvia through some capable-looking matwork and some fun arm drag sequences, and Lluvia holding up her end while wearing an awesome mesh catsuit. Mesh catsuit might have made me forgive some sloppy mat transitions. Sugei and Magica tag in and smoke the previous moves exchanges, but also lacks the mesh. Fall ends with Zeuxis hitting an insane dive on Commandante that sees her fly way overhead and splat at a horribly awkward angle into chairs and chubby front row guys. I'm worried about her spine and Rachel is wondering how her boobs didn't fall out. Magica then splats her with an awesome apron Thesz press. Full point for Zeuxis for getting up from that splat and instantly taking that move. Rest of the match is pretty fun. Dark Angel and Sugei match up nicely together, and I'm a big fan of Sugei who always walks around and slaps people and kicks them in the face. Match ends abruptly with Dark Angel falling off the top rope and crashing to the floor, and then the other two calling an audible and quickly finishing the match with Angel being stretchered out. Too bad the ending had to be that way, the rest of the match was quite nice.



2. Misterioso Jr./Okumrua/Vangellis vs. Sangre Azteca/Diamante/Sagrado:

Really fun match with a bunch of guys that nobody ever really talks about. Misterioso Jr. is probably one of the best current lucha guys that nobody really pimps that much. He takes offense really well and bumps big and can control and reign in a match nicely. Here he gets matched up with the weakest of the bunch, Sagrado, and makes him look good through the whole match (going down like a gunshot for his superkick, splaying out on the floor for his rana). I really like Sangre Azteca, and loved his little mat section with Okumura. Fast paced and he did a few cool ankle picks. Vangellis is a stocky nazi powerhouse who moves fast and can barrel into guys. Diamante is very young but always has a couple nice highspots in his matches (here he hit a solid chest to chest springboard 450). Well worth your 20 minutes.



3. Terrible/Rey Buccanero/Texano Jr. vs. Maximo/Super Porky/Rush:

LATV pulls a vintage LATV move here, showing the first fall of this match, going to commercial and coming back with the 3rd fall of a different match from one week later. They used to do this all the time when they randomly started showing IWRG/AULL stuff. First fall didn't really make me want to watch the other two on youtube. I have been one of the staunchest Porky defenders over the last decade, but some of these throwaway six man performances are getting pretty brutal. The man can still go when he wants to, but the big key is how often does he want to? The hair match teaming with Maximo from early 2011 saw him looking really good, but the first fall had some pretty bad moments including the slowest bump through the ropes onto the rampway I have ever seen. It looked like a youtube video of a panda bear falling off a teeter totter.



4. Averno vs. La Mascara

If this had about 8 minutes lopped off the end then I probably would have liked it a lot more. It just kind of kept going, and the nearfalls just got less exciting the more of them they did. First 8 minutes were all about Averno tearing apart Mascara's knee, and it was some fine knee tearing. I was expecting Mascara to have plenty of moments where he just conveniently sold the knee, but to his credit he sold that knee for like >90% of the match, so gets full credit for that. He even hit an awesome limping tope in the 2nd. The selling wasn't the problem, it's just that there was so much damn lying around by both guys. It had its moments to be sure, but there was so much "Averno bumps to floor, Mascara stays in ring, Averno slowly gets up and walks back to ring" moments. Some of them were cool, like when Brazo de Oro would be glaring at him and Averno would just smugly strut past him. Some of the nearfalls worked great, but it was diminishing returns. 18 minutes of work in a 25 minute match. Not the worst crime as the work onscreen wasn't ever bad, just. needed. to. end.

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report, 12/10/11

Princesa Blanca/La Commandante/Zeuxis vs. Marcela/Luna Magica/Lluvia:

Not really sure why this match needed so much time to stretch its legs. It's good to see Luna Magica back on TV, as she brings something different to the table than most of the tecnicas. Her butt splash in the corner in the match was awesome. Blanca/Marcela is always a match-up worth seeing, but Lluvia/Zeuxis is about as polar opposite as you can get. And we got a lot of that here, with a lengthy match never really evolving beyond "one side lying around while the other side does sloppy triple teams". Plenty of painful moments of Zeuxis or Commandante struggling to lock on lousy submissions. Just mostly ugly stuff here. Zeuxis' bodysuit is pretty fantastic, though.



Arkangel de la Muerte/Nitro/Skandalo vs. Rey Cometa/Stuka Jr./Dragon Lee:

This was all about Rey Cometa: Bump Freak, and Arkangel: Twister of Young Tecnico Limbs (you probably already guessed that last one would happen). Arkangel gets cool sequences with everybody here, including throwing Lee around by his arm in the first fall, but the 3rd is really his time to shine. He works some cool spots with Cometa, and Arkangel/Cometa is fast becoming one of my favorite pairings in all of lucha. CMLL must agree with me, too. Arkangel is just the perfect base for this guy, never getting lost on his inside out armdrags and catching all his ranas (dropping from some great heights). Arkangel looked flat out great here. Cometa, though, also looked great. He took two nasty bumps in the 1st, one a flat back bump to the floor after spilling through the ropes; the other a massive bump from the ropes to the ring ramp, sending him asshole over elbow after being dropkicked by Nitro. Lee is always good for some spectacular flying, same goes for Stuka. There were also two separate synchronized dive trains by the tecnicos (the first with all three doing big somersault topes almost totally in sync). This match really had potential to be just a tossed off throwaway midcard trios, and the longer it went the more it kinda built into something special. It just kept gaining momentum and being just about the best possible version of this match-up. I recommend you watch it.



Misterioso Jr./Polvora/Okumura vs. Valiente/Metro/Sagrado:

Pretty longish match that doesn't really go anywhere but is never unpleasant. Kinda seemed like a house show match instead of a match taped for TV. None of the faces get to unload and do anything really spectacular (though Valiente did leap up like he was about to do Valiente Special, but leaped back into the ring to do a halfway-across-the-ring rana). Misterioso still got to look like a tassly, slick-bumping star, Okumura threw some fine back elbows, Sagrado threw in a surprisingly good performance, and Metro had an brutal somersault senton into the corner in the first fall. Just full on sprint and then splatted right into Misterioso. Ending move was pretty great as Sagrado just leveled Polvora with a superkick, which knocked him into a bridged Metro german suplex (landing him on his head).



Terrible/Rey Buccanero/Mephisto vs. La Mascara/Angel de Oro/Rush:

Second match in a row with a kind of random rudo team of guys who usually team with others. First fall showed potential for this to be a pretty great main event, but then the rest of it got kinda rushed. Rudos were getting good heat (not exactly difficult to do opposite Rush), Terrible has stepped up his game over the last couple months and has been coming off like a superstar, and Mephisto stepped things up here (maybe saw an opportunity to shine more than usual since he wasn't teaming with Averno and Ephesto). Oro has been bringing it, too, and Rush kinda just stayed out of the way so it could have been worse. Kind of the story of most of this episode, with a bunch of wrestling that mostly stayed out of the way, exiting your memory as soon as you see it. The Arkangel/Rey Cometa match is worth spending 20 minutes on, but the others are kinda "fan only" affairs.

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