AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 9/15 - 9/21 Part 2

CMLL Aniversario 9/19/25

MJF vs Mistico [Mask vs Belt]

MD: All great apuestas matches come down to the balance between faith and doubt.

Let's start with doubt. The point of comparison to 2025 Mistico is the greatest masked wrestler of our lifetimes, El Hijo del Santo. Santito fought in countless apuestas matches and more often than not, the odds were in his favor on paper. I can't imagine people actually expected him to lose his mask against Gacela del Ring or Guerrero del Futuro, and even less so when it was Nicho or Scorpio Jr's hair on the line and not another mask. But lightning strikes, miracles happen, and anything is possible in pro wrestling. That sheer glimmer of possibility opened the doors for drama beyond belief. So much of that was due to Santito's selling (and to his fiery comebacks). But what truly drove it was possibility, plausibility, an open door to a bleak reality, something that tugged on the minds of the faithful, a feeling at the very bottom of their stomachs.

And that existed for this match. Yes, MJF's title was on the line as opposed to even his hair, let alone a mask, but it was also his pride, his status. He's a star and is treated as such. Titles are his past and his present. Movies are ahead of him. He had defeated everyone they threw at him in the lead up to this and ambushed Mistico time and again. He had the size advantage, the youth advantage. He had a loyal minion in his corner in the form of Honest Jon Cruz.

Maybe that wouldn't have been enough in and of itself. But the match took care of it and covered the distance. Mask vs Title matches are rare and MJF tossed the usual pageantry prelude to title matches out the window with an immediate ambush. He threw Mistico to the floor, slammed his skull into the post, and the blood started to flow. Perhaps not a big deal in the grand scheme of wrestling and even the grand scheme of apuestas matches over the decades, but in Arena Mexico it was as big a deal as one can imagine.

Blood has simply not been allowed to flow there. Wrestling itself had been cauterized in the last decades, a key, primal ingredient to drama cast aside for the sake of sanitized casual tourist fare. Like Hijo del Santo before him, Mistico is perfect for blood. There's no image in wrestling more powerful than a ripped white mask covered in it. As it started to flow, doubt came along with it.

The match was structured simple, straightforward, smart. MJF leaned down upon Mistico. There were three hope spots over the first few minutes of the match and each was cut off definitively by MJF. Max flaunted his skill, hitting a dive (but then not sticking the landing, because it's important to show that while he's talented and dangerous, he is an outsider; one must always see the cracks). He distracted the ref so that Cruz could get in a cheapshot to a chorus of huge boos. 

Then, after the third cutoff, after Max stretched his arrogance just a little too far, Mistico began to fire back, and they crashed into one another with clotheslines, shifting the trajectory of the match. Mistico was able to press an advantage, hitting one dive, then another. On the second, however, the cost was high. Cruz rolled MJF back into the ring. Mistico, however, leaned hard into the blood loss, into the damage already done, and even though he had been the aggressor, he stumbled not just once, but twice on his way back in. It was a distinct selling choice that you almost never see, one that might edge on the ridiculous were the setting not so sublime. In practice, it was some of the greatest selling I'd ever seen.

Recovered enough, Mistico made it back into the ring, had MJF in position for yet another dive, but Max went into his bag of tricks and used Cruz as a human shield. From that distraction stemmed an eyepoke, and a cradle pile driver on the apron, and an even more dramatic last second rush back into the ring by Mistico.

They had reached the bottom, the very height of doubt. The ring was covered in Mistico's blood. Max had stolen the advantage through underhanded chicanery and a forbidden move. He pressed even further with another. Piledriver variations have been allowed for over ten years, be it cradle, double underhook, or destroyer. But a straight up tombstone, a martinete? Those are still exceptionally rare. And MJF hit one right in the middle of the ring. If anything could signify all being lost, it would be that.

Which brings us to faith. Mistico too is an absolute star. He carries himself in the ring as well as any of the great babyfaces who "get it" that I've ever seen, be it Dusty Rhodes of Edouard Carpentier. The sheer level of self-confidence he projects to the back row moves hearts and minds like almost nothing else in pro wrestling. Even when things seemed bleakest, he had the fans because he never stopped fighting, never stopped crawling, never stopped striving. 

And after that martinete failed to put him away, something shifted in the air. It happens in most matches that take place in CMLL, and is essential in understanding the ebbs and flows. At some point in most matches, fate takes a turn. The rudo beatdown fizzles, the tecnico comeback begins. Sometimes it's based on arrogance, a clear mistake. All too often, it's something more heavenly, something more divine, something driven by fate as much as hubris.

To some degree, Mistico made his own fate by not giving up, by refusing to stay down. But in doing so, he inspired the faithful, and they turned that inspiration into belief, and that belief into cheers. Those cheers empowered Mistico and shook MJF. Max went for his ring-loaded punch, but was caught and rolled up for a near fall. He jammed La Mistica and caught Mistico, putting it all on the line with an even more profane attempt at a martinete from the top. 

But he was no longer facing one man. He was facing a hero, a legend. He was facing an army of the faithful. He was facing god and fate itself. 

And despite all of his pride and strength, his youthful skill and his scheming resourcefulness, the weight of the world came down upon him, a twisting headscissor dervish leading to a perfectly cinched La Mistica. He squirmed and fought and rolled, but there was no escape, not from god and not from faith, not with the eyes of the faithful upon him. 

Yes, they had felt doubt, doubt driven by the existence of a true villain, doubt baptized in blood and violence. But that doubt just made them reach deeper into themselves, much as Mistico reached so deep within himself, to reinforce their faith and create a perfect circle that drove them all to the perfect manifestation of pro wrestling salvation. 

Only this. Only here. And despite all odds, even now. There's nothing in the world like it.

AEW All Out 9/20/25

MD: And less than 24 hours later, MJF would have to do it all over again.

This one's about anticipation and payoff.

You can do the most amazing, most spectacular, most brutal things but if you don't frame them correctly, it's all for nothing. The true art of pro wrestling is to create anticipation and then to pay it off. It's to create something that the audience something wants, to make them chase it and anticipate it, and then to give it to them in a way that makes it feel earned and worthwhile. It's taking them on a journey and while the destination is important, it's just part of the mission.

This was a match on a show where there was going to be excess. There was still a coffin match and a ladder match to come. It was no disqualification (allowing for low blows, sure) but the weapons at play were the focus: tables, tacks, and the buckets the tacks were in. Boundaries are often drivers for creativity. They provide form and shape and opportunity. 

Here, the opportunity was to set up and then to maximize key payoffs.

1. Max engaging in the first place. 

Yes, he'd been driven to this fight, but it wasn't one he had wanted a few months ago. Max wanted the title. The opportunity to get it was the Casino Gauntlet. He and Briscoe were the sure things, winning the #1 and #2 spots. The only thing he could count on was that he was going to start against Briscoe. Therefore, he had to get into his head. For Max, it was just business. Yes, he used personal tools, but he didn't really care. He cared about the title. He cared about Hangman (because the crowd forgave him when they never forgave Max), but he didn't care about Briscoe. In making it personal to undermine Mark, however, he created a monster he had to live with. Then once Briscoe intervened in his title match, it became personal for Max too and things escalated.

He bit off more than he could chew. He made the challenge and then couldn't get out of the match. The second Briscoe started pouring tacks in the ring, he turned tail and started to walk away. Briscoe ran out to catch him, got him up on the apron, and then, through attempting an early Jay Driller (intending to leap off the apron and through a table), drove Max to flee into the ring, signifying the real start of the match. Build. Payoff.  

2. The first usage of the tacks. 

The match was going to be over the top. By the end of it, tacks would be everywhere and blood would flow. Everyone knew that. But they didn't rush to it. They built and built and built the anticipation for it. This plays upon the same instinct in all of the best death matches, the very thing that Onita rose to success upon. Put over the gimmick. Show that the wrestlers care. Show that they're wary. Show that they want to avoid it at all cost. 

That's exactly what they did here, teetering after punches, trying and failing to slam one another, pushing each other's face closer and closer to the tacks. They could have just rushed to spots and dove in and started the carnage, but by delaying and deferring and doing everything they could to avoid the tacks, it made it seem all the more important in the eyes of the fans. If the wrestlers care, the fans will care. Then, of course, Max went dirty, using Bryce as a shield and getting in an eyepoke before finally posting up and letting Briscoe hang in the air before dropping him with a bodyslam. And the crowd went nuts for it. Build. Payoff.

3. Max going into the tacks.

This worked perfectly. MJF leaned hard on Briscoe after that slam, ripping off his shirt, using a waterwheel slam so as to put the back directly in them, bloodying his pants with his taunt, and then repeatedly hitting back body drops to maximize that visual impact of the back crashing down onto the tacks. He hit two back body drops and called for a third, setting the stage perfectly for Briscoe to land on his feet and plant Max directly onto the tacks, time freezing with the impact and the reaction. Build. Payoff.

4. The introduction of the tables.

Given the sheer amount of tables we've seen in our lives, one might think it's hard to make them matter in a match like this, especially with the more pointed narrative element of tacks, but they managed it. It came down to character motivations and reactions. Mark teased that Jay Driller from the start, and would spend much of the middle of the match wanting to hit a Froggy Bow through a table. MJF on the other had was intent on saving himself (and thus denying the fans) by actually breaking the tables down and putting them away. Ultimately, much like the start of the match, he retreated from the ring (and the tacks), only to find himself in front of a table, eating a chair-assisted dive from Briscoe. Mark would then follow up, finally hitting that Froggy Bow through the table. Build. Payoff.

5. The finish. 

It all came together for the finish. They had gone back and forth a bit with nearfalls, including Max hitting a tombstone onto the tacks, but now it was time to tie it all together and take it home. Max put more tacks on one last table in the ring. He did everything in his power to put Briscoe through it, but Mark was able to push him off the turnbuckles and hit one more Froggy Bow onto a standing MJF through that tack-laden table. From there it was one last satisfying Froggy Bow and finally, even more cathartically, the Jay Driller onto the tacks. Build. Payoff.

Instead of hitting every spot they could, instead of overwhelming the crowd with sensation, they kept a disciplined, focused approach. They did big things, huge things, undeniably real and excruciating things, full of biting, blood, and gore, but they built to each and every one of them and then ensured not only the biggest payoff, but the most meaningful consequence. In so many ways, it's the best of both words between the sort of dynamic and over the top action people expect from AEW and the character-driven storytelling that best highlights and frames all those things that makes pro wrestling so special. They made the fans want something badly, made them understand the stakes and the weight, and then paid it all off to huge effect. Build and payoff. They're beautiful things.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 6/16 - 6/22

AEW Dynamite 6/18/25

MJF vs. Mistico

MD: MJF presented himself at his most noxious, donning once again his USA (Gringo Loco) styled gear from his International (American) title run from last year. He was flanked by the Hurt Syndicate, out there with their belts. He jawed with the crowd. He sat on the top turnbuckle staring towards the top of the ramp, Lashley, Benjamin, MVP in front of him. 

And then the music hit. There was always a shrouded religiosity to Mistico, maybe not even so shrouded as he had debuted as a worked disciple of Fray Tormenta, but this felt like a religious experience, like a true celebration, as over ten thousand faithful sang along to Me Muero. And it should well be celebrated. While the moment made for amazing TV, while it went viral perhaps, it's not something you'd see on the other channel. 

For decades, that would have been because of Vince McMahon and his incessant need to control and repackage, to build on success elsewhere by tearing down and rebuilding in his own image. This instinct was bad enough in the 80s and 90s, where humiliation and self-loathing self-consciousness towards the industry that was making him rich ruled. It was even worse in the 00s and beyond when he had won the wars (and failed at every other outside endeavor). 

Now, it's less about spite and spittle-laden snarling ego and far more about simple business. TKO/WWE doesn't want to promote any wrestling that they don't fully control. Maybe they'll bring in someone like Hendry but it will be attached to their own development brand, a way of showing everything else to be lesser than WWE, or if it makes it into the spotlight, it will be to show the world its true and proper place as a vassal. It's in TKO's interest to present all wrestling traditions, both in the States and worldwide, as secondary and subservient to WWE, to rename and reconfigure so that it can own as much as possible and profit off of all of it as much as possible. It's all just business now. 

This was not. This was reverent and respectful. This was Tony Khan going into someone else's home and giving them a gift, one that did not tout the glory of AEW but instead paid homage to their own wants and dreams and desires. 

Maybe it was bad business, but it was beautiful pro wrestling. 

And it left MJF sitting there, covering his ears, staring out a crowd smiling and singing and reveling. It left him fuming like a petulant child because the world did not revolve around him. And it set the tone perfectly for the match to come. 

This was a man not just at war with a wrestler, but with a crowd, with a people, with the Other, with the advice of his mentor, with the raging torment of self-consciousness and self-loathing within his own heart. If Mistico's entrance, the music, the symbolic tearing off of the Sin Cara mask, the brandishing of the flag, and the appeals towards the crowd, was a celebration of pro wrestling, of lucha libre, of culture, then MJF, taking it all in and overreacting like as in immature scrooge, served as no less than a stand-in for Vince himself, and here, upon this holy ground, he put himself forth so that pro wrestling could symbolically defeat him.  

In many ways, Mistico is the perfect opponent for MJF, because Mistico is a star. He's not a star just because he was presented as one, not in 2025. He's not a star because he can do amazing physical feats that no one else can match, not in 2025 when his handspring back elbow has him landing on his feet. Maybe all of those things led him to being a star over the years, but he grew into that role and learned from the experience and now he gets it as well as anyone alive. He knows when to appeal to the crowd, knows when to fire up, knows when to shrink down, knows when to fan the flames and lower them. That is no small thing. There are only so many true stars left in the world of pro wrestling, here in this age where the tenets of workrate and of the junior heavyweight style have won their own wars. 

MJF knows what to do with a star babyface. He knows what to do with a hot crowd that's inclined to hate his guts. To his credit, he knew what to do with MVP on the outside as well. The answer? Commit. Commit fully. In this case, that meant a performance where he tried to make it seem like he was above it all, like it was all beneath him, but the harder he leaned into that, the more he let the crowd know how much it was getting to him. It was in the look on his face, in the way he moved, in the shortcuts he took, in the way he couldn't press an advantage directly but instead had to grind and taunt, had to tear the mask, had to try to humiliate Mistico (and thus the crowd) instead of just beating him. 

When put in an environment like this, he knows how to strike the balance so well. It meant Mistico surprised him early with a Code Red, treated more like a stinging shot to give him comeuppance for his antics to show him that he couldn't simply have his way with Mistico. Later when Misticio tried it when it'd matter more, he had an answer. It meant that he made full use of the Hurt Syndicate, both as a transition where he hid behind them only to burst through and then later to help punctuate his cutoffs of Mistico's hope spots, tossing him out and distracting the ref as he did damage.

And Mistico's hope spots were just as good as you'd want, because he knew when and how to bring the fire and then when to, for instance, have have Shelton put it out with by dropping him on the guardrail. Maybe the best bit of hope was towards the end of the match as MJF was retreating, letting frustration overtake him. Max made it to the top of the ramp but then caught a charging Mistico and drove him down with the most forbidden of all moves, the Martinete, a tombstone onto the unforgiving ramp (not like the ring was all that more forgiving, but that's beside the point). By then, MJF would have been content with a countout, but Mistico, bolstered by the crowd, sat up heroically before forcing himself to stumble back towards the ring, finding a way to have his cake (the heroic moment) and eat it too (the selling to further engage the crowd) like the star he is. 

What makes MJF stand out relative to some of the more ironic heels of the 2010s (some of which lingered into the 2020s) is vulnerability. The character tries to make it seem like he's better than everyone and everything around him, but through his actions and expressiveness, he shows how much he cares. He's constantly selling every slight perceived or otherwise, and the more he tries to deny it, the more blatant it becomes. It shapes his actions, so that even when he wins, he loses on some level. But he still wins, and everyone else has to deal with him and his inner writhing and the fact that they can't escape him. And thus he gets heat and thus the cycle continues. In some ways, he's perfectly made for our times. And he was perfectly made here to survive La Mistica due to Hurt Syndicate distraction and then, after Mistico survived a foul (that other all powerful weapon of lucha libre) behind the ref's back, lose his cool, throwing a second foul right in the ref's face.

He lost by DQ. He lost because he got upset. He lost because he no longer had faith that he'd be able to win. He lost all the more so with his post-match antics taking Mistico's mask, but he can claim victory for the image of him standing there wearing the mask. And that's a heel for you. He loses when he loses. He loses when he wins. But he claims otherwise either way. Vulnerability is everything and more often than not, Max is brave enough to embrace it. Against a star, in front of a crowd like this, with the sanctity of pro wrestling itself on the line, it is, as I noted, beautiful, beautiful stuff.

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Found Footage Friday: MACHO PUMP~! KOMACHI (MISTICO)~! TOGO~! ORIHARA~! SABU~! TAKA~! SASUKE~!

Masao Orihara/Macho Pump vs. Sabu/MIKAMI Michinoku Pro-Wrestling 10/16/03

MD: We come in a little JIP here but you get the idea quickly. Orihara and Pump grind down on Mikami and it's ok. It's consistent and competent but it's lacking the pep of havint Togo in there. You're just sort of waiting for Sabu to get in. That's the point though, because once he does get in, it's electric. They try to double team him and he just is having none of it. Then he puts the chair in the center of the ring and hits a jumping knee into Macho Pump in the corner; Pump immediately falls throat first onto the opened chair and it's brilliant. Eventually Mikami ends up back in and this turns into an Andre tag where the partner keeps getting dragged down to build up the anticipation for a little bit of Andre. After the second Sabu showcase we get the finishing stretch which has Mikami finally getting to shine with a ton of interesting and seemingly physically impossible roll up attempts on Orihari before Sabu has his final burst and wins the day. Pretty fun stuff once it got going. 

Dick Togo/Masao Orihara/Macho Pump vs. Kesen Numajiro/Hayate/Komachi (Mistico) Michinoku Pro-Wrestling 10/19/03

MD: We've got people kicking and screaming and begging to see a sparring content in front of no crowd between Malenko and Mistico and they can instead watch baby Mistico get beaten on by Togo, Orihara, and Macho Pump. People's priorities are all messed up. This was very good. Bad guys ambushed right from the start and took the first three-fifths before things broke down for the rest. It was a near-perfect balance enabled by the lack of a shine or a feeling out process.

They started on Komachi (who was in matched gear with a matched act with Hayate), and he had one good bit of hope towards the end of this with a handspring but generally just got beat on and screamed. He was figuring it out though his natural instincts were pretty good. They spent longer beating on Numajiro though. Sharp stuff from the rudos though they didn't have a lot of tandem offense. It was more one guy setting up the next for something nasty. As always Togo stood out but everyone carried their weight.

Eventually Numajiro ducked for a heel miscommunication spot and Hayate and Komachi came in hot with big offense and dives. They cycled through a bit after that with everything feeling earned and most things having a little twist to them before Togo finally flattened Numajiro for the win. This went down smooth. Just real easy wrestling to watch and enjoy.



The Great Sasuke/Jinsei Shinzaki/Hayate vs. Dick Togo/Taka Michinoku/Macho Pump  Michinoku Pro-Wrestling 12/16/03

MD: The great thing about heel TAKA is that not only is he a total dick, but he makes everyone around him more of a dick as well. That means that you don't just get him paintbrushing Sasuke in the corner, but you also have Macho Pump playing with Sasuke's mask tassel at the same time. The match was full of stuff like that, but counterbalanced by the fact that the other side, most especially Shinzaki, weren't going to put up with it.

So you got that great mix of the bad guys being really bad and then getting justified and satisfying comeuppance, stooging and bumping and flying around the ring for the other side and taking all of their signature stuff. The video goes around twenty and is a little more back and forth than the other matches we're covering this week but doesn't feel nearly that long at all. Things would build to chaos and calm back down and build back up again until finally boiling over into a hot finishing stretch. We ended up with three different variations of the theme this week (as you might expect) but all three were very watchable. It's so easy to just drop into this stuff and visit for a bit.

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AEW (And CMLL) Five Fingers of Death 3/25 - 3/31

AEW Collision 3/30/24

Bryan Danielson/Claudio Castagnoli/Katsuyori Shibata vs. Dutch/Vincent/Lance Archer

MD: Not quite an all-star trios match but certainly a unique one with Shibata in the mix. We're just at the start of him as a weekly player as opposed to an attraction and on some level, I feel like he'll add as much as Okada and Ospreay, maybe even more, because he is a contrast to a lot of the roster. Every match up with him feels like a fresh match up. Even with Archer, Cagematch says he's only faced Archer two times before this and they paired up really well to start. Likewise the early Dutch vs. Claudio bits where Dutch provided Claudio a massive canvas to work his strength spots on. 

The meat of the match, however, was Danielson working FIP against the unified trio. It was easily explained away by Danielson's jetlag and the Righteous and Archer's superior chemistry (even Danielson and Castagnoli have only teamed up ten times or so in the two years of the BCC existing). Plus, he got to absolutely dominate all three (including him getting up on the apron to take Archer out with a knee with lightning fast speed, really) right before he got dragged down by a Vincent cheapshot out of nowhere. It was a great face-in-peril performance, one that will probably get overlooked in time, but stood out hugely to me on a random Saturday night at the end of March. Danielson knew he had Claudio's strength and Shibata's suddenness and technique on the apron so it made sense for him to be in the role. He had to look strong despite the totally valid excuses because each week he's being judged against what Ospreay is up to. That said, he had to ensure that Archer, Vincent, and Dutch could keep dragging him down for their sake, the sake of the match, to justify this being a main event. And while Archer's instantly credible whenever he enters the room, the Righteous are, through no real fault of their own, deeply below their opponents in the hierarchy.  

That meant that while Danielson would be able to flip back over Dutch or get kicks in on Vincent in the corner, he'd make sure to give his opponents their due: Vincent with his ferocity, Dutch with his size, and Archer with the monstrous combination of both. Given that the crowd was hot all night and it built the pressure just right for Claudio to get the hot tag and come in like a freight train, and then, after everything broke down and we got the swing and various finishers, for Shibata to close things out almost simply by being himself. Overall, a difficult performance managed masterfully by Danielson, and we will continue to appreciate how lucky we are to get to see it week in and week out while we still can.

CMLL Homenaje a Dos Leyendas 3/29/24

Bryan Danielson/Claudio Castagnoli/Jon Moxley/Matt Sydal vs. Blue Panther/Mistico/Ultimo Guerrero/Volador Jr.

MD: Speaking of being fortunate, well, there's this, isn't there? Something that would have been impossible to imagine ten years ago or five years ago and that would have seemed very unlikely just one year ago even. For a lot of us, it's up there with the Sting retirement match as something that's just unbelievably special, so much so that it's hard to even put down words for. Arena Mexico is special. When you get a crowd that's really committed to what they're seeing, it's like nothing else in the world in 2024, or 2014, or 2004, or even maybe 1994 (Outside of Puerto Rico, I imagine). While there is ritual and expectation and that wonderful pro wrestling reality that exists with the particular style of CMLL's lucha, there's still a level of suspension of disbelief and immersion that almost undoes the chemical change that has affected (afflicted?) pro wrestling over the last few decades and has completely changed the incentives of wrestlers. 

That's the environment that the BCC and their erstwhile "captain" Matt Sydal (with his Peace, Love, and Pro Wrestling tron to counter the Violencia sin Limite BCC shirts) walked into. And while it didn't give me 100% of what I wanted, it gave me a lot of it. I wish that there was a longer feeling out process with initial pairings. I get why on a time-crunched PPV that was unlikely and it's total valid to skip that part in a trios or atomicos match in order to get straight to the heat. That's a totally valid way to build a match like this and maybe extra heat was what the doctor called for here given the stylistic issues and, frankly, inexperience of most of the BCC in maintaining the rhythm and flow of a lucha beatdown. I just wanted to see initial pairings, that's all. As for those shortcomings, Claudio was dropped in as natural as could be given his background, the ultimate base in so many ways, and I just can't imagine a world where Jon Moxley, if given two months of weekly Friday and Monday shows, wouldn't be an amazing traffic director; for his first try, he wasn't exactly Satanico in there keeping things moving though.

That meant you ended up with some weird, weird stuff where the more familiar you were with the trappings, the more it'd take you out of the moment. I'm talking about Blue Panther getting a full, momentum shift (mandate-of-heaven) comeback with the big Mistico leap into the ring, only for the BCC to take back over on Ultimo Guerrero (the best of all time in getting beaten up in a corner and still raising the roof to show the fans that he's the toughest star you've seen) to set up that lovely bit of ritual, his power bomb off the top and the real final third of exchanges and break-ups. As a match in a vacuum, it absolutely worked. It just threw me given that watching lucha in Arena Mexico is always a quarter about expectations being met and worshiping at the altar. 

There were a lot of great individual moments though: Panther celebrating Danielson at the start (and celebrating Danielson's celebration of himself, of course), Danielson embracing the yes chants, all the energy that led to things breaking down with that initial beatdown, Sydal being a spin kicking attack dog for the BCC, the giant swing on Volador, Claudio destroying Ultimo Guerrero after he raised the roof, and then the exchanges at the end, with Guerrero and Moxley scrapping and Mistico subverting the Yes chants like only he could, and Claudio basing for everyone, including allowing Panther to be absolutely fearless, down to just charging through the knee when Danielson hit him with it. So yes, overall, very special and they're even giving me what I didn't get here next week by running Danielson vs Panther back. Yes, I have a few nitpicks but absolutely no complaints for something we're all but blessed to have in the end.

AEW Rampage 3/29/24

Dustin Rhodes vs. The Butcher

MD: There are a lot of bad faith arguments about storytelling with AEW. I thought about engaging but we don't really engage with bad faith arguments around here. We focus on the text itself more often than not. Let's do that. Dustin's deferred his retirement which he was thinking might be this year. He feels good. He's ready to go. Butcher and he have history, so a feel good promo was interrupted on Wednesday. That history includes a Bunkhouse Tag back in 2020. They have familiarity. Usually a match on Rampage is either setting something up (including heating someone up), paying something off, or an attraction for a live crowd. Menard was in the main event here to do the last bit (and to set up a chain reaction ending with the Bucks standing triumphant if not tall), but there's probably something to Dustin, being an old WWF guy, popping a Quebec crowd. 

This was straightforward and leaned on that familiarity. That meant that they were able to make things that were less than smooth, like an early backslide attempt, feel like organic struggle and not miscommunication. It meant Butcher was ready for the first dropdown punch. It meant that he was able to capitalize and yank the arm over the top to take over. He had very straightforward, credible offense, mainly headbutts to the arm, but I'm never going to complain about headbutts to the arm. He was able to use it to cut Dustin off and take back over. Dustin, despite his size, was always so good at making himself smaller when he sold, and he did so here, pulling inwards with the arm to get the point across. He was able to tap into his bombs (like the code red) as hope spots, but Butcher was right there to take back over, playing to the crowd as he pressed his advantage. Down the stretch, Butcher had one last tricked out arm assault, a pulling fireman's carry right into a crossface which was something that would have played just as well in 1960s France, but Dustin was able to pay off the kneeling punch, hit his short power slam that the commentators weren't sure he could hit, the Cross Rhodes that he needed two tries on, and then the final reckoning for the win. We won't know for a couple of weeks if this was to heat Dustin up for something or just was an attraction for the crowd, but every chance to see Dustin work from underneath and get a crowd behind him is worthwhile and this crowd was lucky to experience it at least one more time.

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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Ageless Negro Casas Teams w/ Pentagon

62. Negro Casas/Penta El Zero M/Cavernario vs. Dragon Lee/Caristico/Mistico CMLL 7/20

ER: This match ends in straight falls with Cavernario stripping Caristico of his mask after kicking him in the balls. And everything before that abrupt but expected finish was straight fire. Pentagon worked way more inspired than we typically have seen from him over the past couple years. Watch him fly recklessly into the front row fans as the match starts and create energy all around ringside. One of my frequent complaints about him is how sluggish he can come off in the ring, especially between moves. But here he's lighting up the tecnicos and not just hanging back when he's not the featured guy. The crowd was into him, and he beats the brakes off of Dragon Lee around ringside. Lee takes that over the barricade fast bump so crazy, he looks like OJ Simpson on the stretcher flying off the second deck at Dodger Stadium in Naked Gun (man that description was a mouthful). Caristico takes his own bump into the front row, getting beaten by Cavernario while fans tried to keep their distance. Cavernario was a bulldozer as well, not giving the tecnicos time to breathe during a beatdown, landing hard kicks and a big springboard splash. But Negro Casas was the main man in this one. He picks apart Mistico in the primera works over his knee and twists his ankle, and after he and Cavernario have beaten him Casas even lifts him up at a 2 count and soaks in the boos. Casas kicks the hell out of Lee on the apron, and I still think Casas is the most exciting apron wrestler in the game. I mean, maybe I can just take the word "apron" out of that sentence. Lee comes close to kicking Casas' chin while draped in the ropes, Casas comes up holding his chin and shows Lee how to land a kick by punting a hole in his chest. Casas hits one of the most violent/gorgeous standing kicks to the face I've seen, hitting the best Kick of Fear on the apron, then gets absolutely leveled by a leaping Lee knee. We get some nice dives and ranas to the floor down the stretch: Lee gets crazy height on a flip dive, Cavernario tries to send his body through the barricade catching a dive, Penta eats a rana, just a fantastic rudo performance. These guys had so much natural charisma together, hopefully we see them team more than this one time.

PAS: This is a match where Negro Casas who is in his late 50s, is teaming with arguably the cream of the crop of luchadores in their 20s and 30s and not only is the superior performer, but also looks on their level athletically. He is 35 years older then Dragon Lee, Dragon Lee is a freak athlete, and Casas looks right there with him move for move. What kind of black magic is this? Pentagon was making his Arena Mexico debut, which I am sure was a dream of his, and he really worked hard, flying around the ring and laying in his shots. Straight falls was a little disappointing, as I really think with a big time Tercera Caida this could have been a real top tier match. Still really cool stuff, and the influx of indy guys has seemingly upped everyone's game.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Lucha Worth Watching: Fenix Debuts

Negro Casas/Barbaro Cavenario/Ultimo Guerrero vs. Rey Fenix/Mistico/Caristico  CMLL 6/8/18

ER: Casas/Fenix is one of the modern lucha match-ups I've been most excited to see, and I didn't think that CMLL would be the place where I would see it. This match was a nice taste of that, and while it didn't strive to be much more than some greatest hits from all participants, these are guys with some nice greatest hits. The crowd was REALLY loud for the Mistico/Casas segments and I wish they would have built off that, wish they would have picked up on that and wish Casas would have been a little more vicious. He seemed understandably focused on keeping up with everyone, which is what this whole match is all about, and it's good enough as that. Everyone gets big moments, a high Jerry bump to the floor from UG, big ranas off the top to the floor by Mistico and Caristico (with outstanding catches on both from UG and Cavernario), Barbaro throwing nice worked punches and his big Vader Bomb, Casas works fast segments like he somehow still can, but this match was clearly designed to introduce Fenix to anyone who might not have seen him. Fenix is the focus of the rudo beatdown on the floor, Barbaro tosses him over the barricade, he works with everyone (with them saving the Casas showdown until the tercera), gets a pin on UG, really only has one awkward moment as he whiffs on a spin kick in the corner opposite UG (and I don't think UG leaned out of it). He hits an awesome late rotation flip dive off the top to the floor, splats spectacularly on the floor after eating the running dropkick from the apron, works a bunch of fast exchanges with Casas that ends with Negro taking two boots to the face. This was designed to get Fenix over, and he got over. Looking forward to where this all goes, and want even more of him against Casas.

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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Dinamitas vs. Young Fliers

49. Cuatrero/Forastero/Sanson vs. Soberano Jr./Mistico/Angel de Oro CMLL 5/18

ER: Dinamitas getting to go all out against a team of fliers dying to impress has been a really fun match type the past year. Dinamitas are all such great fast bumpers, really know how to whip themselves out of and around the ring on ranas and armdrags, and are also great classic lucha brawlers; not theatrical, but very believable as asskickers. I love Forastero's deadlift tilt a whirl backbreaker, and their springboard elbowdrop is one of my favorite finishers of the past several years, and they broke out all kinds of new crazy with Cuatrero catching a rana and spinning around a couple times before hitting a powerbomb, and Forastero hitting a wild springboard dropkick to a seated Soberano. There rudo offense is super athletic but explosive. But I always look forward to them for their bumping. I love how these guys fall. And the fliers all dial it way up and by the tercera we got some fantastic spots. Soberano sometimes comes off as a bit much, but I like that he seems like he's out there just thinking up things he wants to try, just crazy ideas that might end with him falling on his face. But when he's on we get intricate multi jump huracanranas, gorgeous Fosbury Flop dive, a tornillo into the ring, and a physics defying handless tornillo over the top. That tornillo was just insane, looking like he wouldn't clear the ropes and instinctively lifts his body at the right time. Mistico doesn't want to be outdone and he throws in a nice flip dive and then blows that effort away with a huge flip dive running from the rampway and running up and over the turnbuckles. A hot lucha crowd is a wonderful thing, and the crowd was getting to fever pitch levels as these guys kept building the match hotter and hotter. Great fun.

PAS: This reminded me of the really great run of IWRG Oficiales matches a while back. This wasn't at that level because none of these technicos are Freelance or Suicide Segura level dudes, but the Nuevo Dinamitas are a great classic rudo team. The group of kids in this match are just up to try crazy shit, and lots of it would have gone very badly if not for a solid group of rudos keeping it together. I believe that Soberano will get really good, he really has moments of off the charts craziness, but then will hit something off or awkward. Once he works off the yips I think he will be a real treat to watch. I imagine having him really pair off the the Dinamitas will help that development. I haven't seen much of Mistico 2 before, but he had some really impressive moments. I was never a big Mistico 1 fan, maybe I will debut the Slate pitch claiming M2 as the superior Mistico like the people who like the Monkees more than the Beatles.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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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: Soberano Jr. + Bonus Negro Casas

1. Soberano Jr./Guerrero Maya Jr./Fuego vs. Felino/Ephesto/Luciferno (CMLL 8/8/17)

ER: Hot Arena Mexico trios where Soberano comes off like a star and Felino has one of those matches where it's suddenly 1997 again. You never know when Felino is going to have one of those memory lapses and slip back into actual awesome worker, but it happens a couple times a year and it's always awesome when it does. Felino was rudo extraordinaire here, showing off by working super fast armdrag sequences with Soberano, showing him up by doing fancier forward rolls, handsprings and rope running tricks, then turning mean and dropkicking him low, stomping him out with his buddies, and sticking him with a powerbomb off the turnbuckles. I have no idea what motivates Felino at this point, but when he shows up, he still shows up. Fuego and Maya hang back more but still get nice moments, Fuego ends the segunda with a trippy little roll up, Maya hits a fast and accurate tope, but the fans are going ape for the Soberano/Felino interactions. Tercera is when Soberano breaks out, flinging Luciferno with a cool slingshot armdrag on the ramp, hitting his Fosbury Flop on Felino. This whole thing is kept simple and everybody works quick. You get smooth work from the tecnicos and classic rudo misdirection worked at actual non-lazy speed, and the fans love it all. I love a hot lucha crowd more than most things in wrestling, and this was a crowd pleaser.

2. Negro Casas/Barbaro Cavenario/Ultimo Guerrero vs. Rush/Valiente/Mistico (CMLL 8/8/17)

ER: You know Casas wasn't going to get shown up by his brother on a hot Arena Mexico card! All of La Peste Negra were busting butt tonight, with Felino turning in his performance of the year, Niebla turning in his most spirited performance I've seen from him this year in the next match, and then Casas turning in a typical great Casas act in the main. The teams are all weird because Rush is on the tecnicos but and Casas is on the rudos, but the stuff between them is gold, peaking with Casas throwing tons of stiff kicks in the corner on Rush. Not long after Rush gets Casas prone in the corner, stops short on the dropkick, waits for Casas to peak out from his fingers, then pops him in the cheek with the toe of his boot. What a jerk. Valiente takes some big spills and works the match essentially nude (his tiny trunks are like awful early 80s bodybuilder Kevin Sullivan levels of yuck), UG acts as a great base for Mistico, Barbaro turns in a wonderfully hammy performance, and the best part of his ham is when it turns suddenly violent, like in the tercera where he catches a Casas Thesz press off the apron and powerbombs him into the ringpost. I don't know what got into the crowd tonight, not sure if a hot crowd made the workers all kick it up a notch, or the hot workers got the crowd going bananas, but this was one of those Arena Mexico night where everything clicked.

3. Barbaro Cavernario vs. Soberano Jr. (CMLL 8/25/17)

ER: Two wild and crazy guys pulling out all the stops in a 10 minute lightning match? Yes, please. The first 6 minutes of this are a total Barbaro mugging, setting the tone right out the gates as he bullies Soberano around the ring with his chin. There's something awkwardly intimidating about him just jamming chin into jawbone and shoving a guy around the ring with it. But Barbaro is totally coconuts and hits this flat out amazing tornillo through the ropes, I mean just a crazy spot for a bulky guy to do. Soberano takes a mammoth back body drop on the floor and the beating continues, with Barbaro hitting some double stomps and a big reverse springboard splash. Even Zacarias hits a 619 (a 55?). Soberano comes back when Barbaro misses a splash on the rampway, and Soberano superkicks him down the ramp (with a big spit take from Barbaro). Soberano - as you might expect - hits a bonkers tornillo off the top of the entrance way, does one of his effortless double springboard ranas back in the ring, and follows that up with a gorgeous Fosbury flop dive to the floor. Crazy. We get some nice nearfalls and reversals: another tornillo crossbody from Soberano; a vicious package vertical suplex by Barbaro that whips Soberano into the mat; a long, uncomfortable slow zoom shot of Zacarias plaintively looking at the action; a super dangerous looking crucifix bomb gets reversed into a rana by Soberano, and then reversed convincingly into a nice roll up nearfall by Barbaro. Sadly the finish features a vintage Tirantes fuck up (seriously get this guy the hell out of CMLL), as Barbaro goes to dropkick Soberano off the top and gets stuck with a powerbomb, which Barbaro clearly kicks out of. Tirantes calls it the finish, even though the two continue with the actual finish. Ugly stuff, all because of one doofus. But this was the best lightning match in a year or so, and not just for the nutso spots. Barbaro was gluing things together nicely and not just moving from spot to spot. Every pin saw him lay a hard fist or forearm across Soberano's jaw, he moved him into position with big strikes and kicks to the back of the head. This wasn't just guys putting on an exhibition, this stuff had meat.

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Lucha Worth Watching: 2017 Leyenda de Plata Cibernetico

2017 Leyenda de Plata Cibernetico CMLL 10/13

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

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

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Casas/Ultimo/Euforia v. Atlantis/Mistico/Valiente

63. Negro Casas/Ultimo Guerrero/Euforia v. Atlantis/Mistico/Valiente CMLL 5/20

ER: Really fun Arena Mexico semi main, with Mistico getting to shine more than ever, Ultimo and Euforia putting on a catching clinic, and Casas showing off more of that criminally underseen matwork that we saw in the Hechicero match. I loved Casas and Atlantis rolling in the primera, with Negro showing off a couple variations on that neat pop up spin ankle pick that he used on Hechicero, here he keeps getting pushed off of Atlantis and every time Atlantis uses his legs to push him off Casas hangs on to an ankle. It's fun seeing a couple old dogs fighting and still coming up with new tricks. Segunda starts with some rudo bragging as they bend Valiente into a pyramid photo up, and as Euforia is standing on his back flexing Mistico springs in with a big rana. The rest of the match is a blur of wild Mistico spots with Ultimo and Euforia catching crazier spot after crazier spot: a springboard rana to the rampway, a HUGE leaping rana from the top to the floor (he really leapt crazy far too), a major flip dive that Euforia totally absorbed; none of them were easy catches and these two made them look flawless. Mistico doesn't get to have all the fun though as Valiente plasters Negro with a huge dive as well, and this was just a fun, consequences-free trios.

PAS: I enjoyed this as well. Nueva Mistico isn't a guy I have seen a ton of, and is clearly the least of his brothers, but I thought he was pretty great here, hitting nutty dive after nutty dive with some very impressive height on all of them. I especially loved his springboard rana counter to the pyramid spot, really flew out of nowhere to take Euforia down. Casas is really fun to watch even in small roles like this, he is amazing as both a star and a character actor, and this was the equivalent of Dennis Hopper coming in to True Romance for two scenes and stealing the movie.

2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Lucha Worth Watching: Tournament Lucha!?

Triton & Mistico vs. Rey Bucanero & El Cuatrero (CMLL 3/22/16)

Man, a tournament lucha match that actually gets some heat from the crowd, AND features guys taking silly bumps as if the match actually mattered? Are the Gran Alternativa's always this interesting? It's still tourney lucha so it ain't perfect, or great, or very good, but damn did this exceed some expectations. Triton decides to take a Bucanero shoulderblock like Chris Hamrick and just flies through the ropes to the floor without slowing himself down, then later gets yanked out of the ring onto his stomach and into the barrier. Mistico also didn't get told this was just a tourney as he does this great dead fish sell off a Bucanero clothesline and does things I've never noticed him doing before like a sneaky little drop down during a Bucanero rope run. We get some dives that mostly hit, and most excitedly we get a series of pinfalls that are unexpected. Often in these quick tournament matches, we go through each match with both members of one team getting pinned at the same time. It's an end to a caida you've gotten used to after years of watching lucha. Yet here we get each pinfall staggered, 4 in all, which is something very rare in early tourney matches and helped add to the overall unique feeling of this match. This was a pleasant surprise.

Mascara Dorada & Boby Zavala vs. Mr. Niebla & Volador Jr. (CMLL 4/15/16)

This is from the parejas increibles tourney and I feel like if this had been on WorldWide in '98 it would be one of those legendary syndicated matches. It's just 4 minutes, but Dorada is flat out insane. He starts the match taking two of the highest backdrop bumps you've ever seen (Niebla and Volador tossed him up at the same time), and then takes a big splat hiptoss onto the entrance ramp. Niebla cuts the ring off by just shoving Zavala to the floor, and Dorada runs smack into a Niebla slap. But we do build to one of Dorada's high speed dives and man is it a crazy one, with him flying almost vertically to the floor. Volador gets a nice flip dive, Dorada gets planted with a flip piledriver, Niebla plants Zavala with a big senton, and yeah this would be a legendary C-show WCW match. Watch it thinking about your fond WCW Pro memories. (Match starts at the 1 hour 50 minute portion of the video)

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Lucha Worth Watching: Spry Panther and All of the Ranas

Blue Panther, Valiente & Stuka Jr. vs. Terrible, Rey Bucanero & Vangellys (CMLL 2/9/16)

Tuesday night Arena Mexico main events aren't where I go when I'm expecting a bunch of fun primera matwork, but that's what ended up happening here! First Valiente and Terrible went at it. For guys I see wrestle a lot, I don't recall either guy ever going to the mat that often, so it was kind of a treat to see them work through things, roll through headlocks, pick legs, stuff that should be happening more but just doesn't. The real gold is Panther and Bucanero matching up and going on the mat right after, and that's really special. Panther is still one of my absolute favorite mat guys and I relish any time he gets even 30 seconds to got at it in a match. Here he gets to pull out all sorts of tricks and always impresses me with different weird takeovers and a seemingly endless supply of ways he can work himself out of a headscissors. Bucanero also surprised me as he's not a guy who's been super motivated that last several years, but you still get flashes and he still has basics to fall back on when he's not listlessly drifting into trios triple team tropes (TTTT, TM). Here Panther forces him to the mat and Rey is almost frustratingly game, frustrating as in "you were capable of this all along!?" Rey even harkens back to bump machine days by wrapping himself around a ring post. Stuka breaks out an awesome low angle version of his hands-by-his-side splash, firing more straight out as opposed to getting more height, we get some dives, and I just drift away envisioning a world where CMLL allows for more matwork. Sigh...

Hechicero, Ripper & Polvora vs. Dragon Lee, Mistico & Titan (CMLL 6/20/15)

It's tough to keep up with all the lucha with stalwarts like Cubsfan constantly uploading stuff, but I have stuff I save to watch later, stuff that sounds nice on paper, and some days I get to that stuff, and some days it's worth writing about. Whenever it's a Hechicero match I throw it in the "to watch" pile and hey look at that, Hechicero was awesome here. That's a fun rudo team and a flippy tecnico team, and that's a nice combo. Hechicero matched up a lot with Lee and Mistico, and he made Mistico look golden. So many rana variations were tossed out in this match and all three rudos were splatting all around the ring. Lee did his wild no hands high jump rana over the top, sending Polvora off the apron to the floor. Hechicero takes some big bumps on the floor, Ripper does his nice bump past the ringpost and then runs into a Lee backbreaker. Hechicero is awesome at taking armdrags and ranas, he really can navigate a long rotating armdrag sequence like a great minis base. Except he is a full size man! And then Hechicero goes and does graceful flying better than the fliers. I love his spin around on the ropes dropkick. Dragon Lee is quite the crazy bumper, but you knew this. Here he's still honing his into the crowd bumps, but he still does them, as well as take a big bump to the floor and on top of the barricade while getting bullied by Hech. Polvora is a guy who is always good in these kind of matches, but he's one of those guys who does not excel at one specific thing so he goes unnoticed. But Hechicero was the story here. The guy really brings out the best in flippers. And anybody, really. Because he's Hechicero.

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

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

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

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

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

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MLJ: Recent Elite matches: Traumas vs Guerrero Maya Jr./Rey Cometa and Cavernario/Negro Casas vs Mistico/Caristico

2015-12-27 @ Arena México
Trauma I & Trauma II vs Guerrero Maya Jr. & Rey Cometa

El Cavernario & Negro Casas vs Carístico & Mistico

I'm still playing catch up, so here are two Elite matches from the last couple of weeks. There are two different video shots for them, one having better VQ, the other being less cut. You get the idea for both though.

You could tell, clipping or no, that they were fairly short, brisk affairs, but they were both a lot of fun. I still can't tell the Traumas apart as in I couldn't tell you which of the two was better, but their act is great (and they were paired up well against Puma/Tiger in previous weeks). I love how they dominated early on here, with a choreographed attack of letting Cometa in, only to slide out pull him back out to set up the double team dive onto the apron. 

The comeback here was very brief, a missed move, a dive, and Maya's finisher. In general, I thought Maya looked better than Cometa. I really don't think he ever quite recovered from losing his mask, even if it was for a good cause. He comes off as a poor man's Volador and could probably do well if he was paired with him in a trios. Maya just comes off as far more charismatic, even if Cometa does his his stuff cleanly. The tercera was a lot of tecnico shine until the Traumas finished it out of nowhere. Not a classic but a great use of ten minutes.

People could watch the Traumas tag and be happy. They should actively watch the Casas/Cavernario tag, though. That's probably my favorite quasi-makeshift tag team in the world. They're great together and the Misticos were great foils for them (though really, of course, it was meant to be the other way around). This was just as brief. 

It won't take you much more than ten minutes to watch, less if you watch the clipped version, but the clipped version sort of comes off as a good parts version, and it's all good parts, from the initial ambush to every bit of awesome Cavernario offense, to Zacarias getting to do a 619, to Casas doing a Fargo Strut, to seeing Caristico interact with Casas and Cavernario, to sort of accepting Mistico's crummy superkick, to the way that Casas and Cavernario make the tecnicos work for their comeback, to the fun back and forth tercera, ending with Casas' Oscar-deserving antics to break up the last pinfall so his team can win.

Negro Casas never not been revitalized but he feels even further so against Caristico. I'm looking forward to them having a singles match. Cavernario's such a star too, seeming like he absolutely belongs in there with the rest. 

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 8: Felino vs Sombra 5: Místico & Volador Jr. vs Felino & La Sombra

2010-03-19 @ Arena México (Homenaje 2 Leyendas)
Místico vs Volador Jr. vs Felino vs La Sombra
Mistico vs La Sombra (mascara vs mascara)

3:35 in

This was a perfectly acceptable main event for one of CMLL's big shows of the year. It was however, somewhat disappointing as the match where Felino lost his mask. I had gone back to Cubsfan's news/comments from the time, and there was a sense that while Felino wasn't going to let this stop his career (and it's funny that Cubs posted he thought Felino could easily still be active five years later as he'd refound himself as part of Pesta Negra), he would have preferred a singles match. I would have too. Here's the quote from him about that:

"While in Guadalajara in Tuesdya, Felino did interviews about the mask match. Felino doesn’t feel like he’s close to retiring – if this was a four way with “Tony Salazar, Ringo Mendoza, and Pierroth”, he’d feel that way – and instead thinks it proves he can still go with the young guys. Felino knows he’s the underdog, but believe his experience outweighs any edge the others might have in youthful athleticism. Felino says that if he were to lose the mask, he would take it off with great pride and dignity and not try to hide, nor retire right after. Felino still would’ve rather had the one on one match."

Like I said, though, this was a perfectly fine main event. Adding Mistico to something like this only heats things up. The outcome wasn't really in question, save for some backstage stuff about Mistico's potential future. The front half here was good, worked more or less as a straight tercera of a tag match. Volador and Sombra made a solid high flying unit and Mistico and Felino worked well together as straightforward rudos. They did a little bit of heat, did a quick comeback, set up giant moonsaults off the same turnbuckle to the floor from Sombra and Volador, set back up Mistico vs Sombra some needless backflipping, some more than welcome mask ripping, some revenge mask ripping by Volador, and then a giant Mistico tornillo. All good action which, if you're not going to get heavy heat, is the way to go in something like this.

One thing that the CMLL style of lucha does not get enough credit for are the callbacks and build, not just in matches (and it's easy to do that in a three fall match) but from week to week. Dave Meltzer recently did a big play by play review in the Observer of Kamaitachi vs Dragon Lee and while he praised the action and gave it a high star rating, he overlooked so much of the psychology because it was built on their previous encounters. In that sense, I am glad I went back and watched the build to this. For one thing, it made the way Sombra at the fall so much more interesting. Felino had him primed for the elbow drop off the ropes, but Mistico picked him up for the michinoku driver to steal the fall. This paralleled Felino stealing the fall from Mistico in the previous trios. It drove a wedge between the two of them, who had been working so well before and led to Mistico kicking Felino in the head after taking a tag. That was supposed to set up Volador pinning him and the DUELO FINAL between Felino and Sombra, but they gave it one extra twist I didn't like. After the kick Felino set up for a Razor's Edge/Splash mountain and ate a 'rana reversal for the pin. I would have liked it a lot more if Volador just hit him with something after the kick. It would have punctuated it better than Felino still trying a move.

For the singles portion of the match, the callbacks really helped. They only had one fall to get things over so being able to call on previous matches was huge in getting over certain nearfalls. Case in point was Felino's catching of Sombra's flying rana attempt and turning it into a power bomb. That's how he won a fall on him in a previous match. If you knew that coming in, it became a much more potent near-fall. People who just hop from hyped great match to great match miss so much with lucha. Unfortunately, they went to that in the ring after they had already done something similar on the rampway. If they had switched the order of those spots it would have worked better, because it almost felt like it reversed the escalation. They also used the feet-up counter to the split-legged moonsault, which was a big transition in a previous match, so thus meant more here. Moreover, after the big splash mountain reversals, Felino actually hitting one was the best possible near-fall.

In the end, of course Felino was going to lose his mask, but the finish was appropriate to the match and very respectful of the family's move. He was great post match, really owning the moment of taking his mask off. And yes, he's still going now. This was a perfectly fine main event for a big show but by its nature, it couldn't have the sort of heat and hatred that you'd want out of match that cost a guy like Felino his mask. Sombra certainly had come a long way though.

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 7: Felino vs Sombra 4: Felino, Místico, Negro Casas vs La Máscara, La Sombra, Volador Jr.

2010-03-12 @ Arena México
Felino, Místico, Negro Casas vs La Máscara, La Sombra, Volador Jr.

This was more of the same as the last trios, just with Mascara in for Dorada and Mistico in white. It was on the road to him going tecnico again, which I think was a shame. The neither rudo nor tecnico thing had its issues but they could have run with it for a few more months at least. You got the feeling that Mistico was relishing in the role. Still, this was a solid trios that juggled a lot of balls (starting the go home for Felino vs Sombra, furthering Volador vs Mistico, with the double turn coming, and even setting up Dorada vs Casas somewhat as they had a lot of title matches around this period).

I liked how the tecnicos were ready for the ambush here, staring down Felino and Casas on the ramp only for Mistico to come out of the crowd and ambush them anyway. It led to a pretty vicious beatdown with a lot of highlights, including Mistico doing a double stomp with Volador hanging off the apron, which I'm not sure I've seen before, and then power bombing him into the guardrail:

and then powerbombing Mascara onto Sombra on the rampway.

It was another case of Mistico just being a dick to everyone. Sure he's the tecnico who drove the last boom but he was really born to be a rudo. Just about everything we actually know about the guy seems to call for that. Anyway, they gave this a wrinkle and let the tecnicos come back, punctuating it with a triple dive before taking the fall and an awesome Volador revenge power bomb onto the guardrail after it, paralleled revenge spots being one of my favorite things about lucha:

They more or less reset in the segunda, running through the pairings and having Mistico dodge Volador dickishly. They'd ramp up the heat here through the fall, culmanating with mask ripping before the rudos took it out of nowhere.

The tercera began with Mistico hitting his falcon arrow and Casas being just amazing vs Mascara:

before they finally paid off Mistico vs Volador, starting with Volador sneaking up behind him, probably the best thing I've ever seen him do. It was as fast paced and manic as ever and set the pace for the tercera and the end of the match:

The spots came quickly, well paced and well executed as they cycled through combatants all leading to the great moment of Mistico hitting the low dropkick but Felino darting in to lock in La Mistica and steal the win from his partner. Casas was amazing in the celebration as Mistico walked away disgruntled, helping to build heat to the elimination match at Homenaje 2 Leyendas as it'd be Sombra vs Felino vs Mistico vs Volador, with the two eliminated fighting for their mask. Another fun, functional trios from these guys. Sombra felt more or less fully developed a a high-flying tecnico trios worker by this point, far more so than Mascara, for instance.

Also, this happened:

Felino had his followers I guess?

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 6: Felino vs Sombra 3: La Sombra, Máscara Dorada, Volador Jr. vs Felino, Místico, Negro Casas

2010-03-05 @ Arena México
La Sombra, Máscara Dorada, Volador Jr. vs Felino, Místico, Negro Casas

6:00 in

This is why I can't be allowed to do career retrospectives, or really anything with too broad a focus. It made sense to look at Felino vs Sombra as that felt like Sombra's first big singles feud in CMLL, at least that we have footage of online, and there were three definitive singles matches, all different in format, with the last being an apuestas match, surely the biggest of his career up until that point. Then I decided I liked the pairing and in order to appreciate the apuestas match I should look at the trios match that made up the build even though I pretty much knew how it was going to go. Beatdowns, mask-pulling, revenge mask pulling, challenges. It's the CMLL build.

Still, I wanted to look, for Felino vs Sombra, sure, but also because it'd let me tackle a few things from my previous 2010 watch, most specifically rudo Mistico. Also, while most of the weekly TV is online for the year, it's very hard to search for. You pretty much have to know what you're looking for or go through the match finder. For that reason, pulling out matches theoretically has a purpose. Also, it's just cool to see Mistico and Casas teaming as rudos, even if this was the road to Mistico going tecnico again.

He was billed as neither rudo nor tecnico here, but was also in red with the horns. I'm not the world's biggest Mistico fan, but I really enjoy rudo Mistico from this period. He wrestled like a bully. For one thing, while he was feuding with Volador, he didn't differentiate. He'd beat the hell out of anyone he was in the match with (and on comebacks feed for anyone). It made his matches seem more unfocused but also more chaotic and less orchastrated. He'd also wrestle 'bigger' than he was, including gleefully utilizing a press slam falcon arrow thing, which no guy his size should probably be doing. So long as he was playing a rudo bully, it worked. More on that for the finish of the match.

Volador was feuding with Mistico. Sombra was feuding with Felino. They were building to singles matches (and eventually to the Volador/Mistico double turn). Casas and Dorada were just there. The point of the match then was to keep heat on the feuds and then to give the tecnicos the shine at the end. So they went with the rudo ambush to begin, Casas mainly playing crowd control as the other rudos got to focus on their opponents. The beatdown was wild enough that the camera had a hard time catching the right thing. We'd get the last second of Mistico slamming Volador into the post or Felino diving off the ropes as Casas held Sombra for him. Everyone got some individual focal time on the rampway. This all ended with Sombra getting propelled over the top rope from the ramp into the a Felino foul in the ring, and losing his mask immediately thereafter (at which point Casas casually stepped on him before doing a cartwheel). When the rudos have a long beatdown and lose the fall by DQ in that way, it's often a sign that things are just going two falls.

That was the case here. The tecnicos finally came back (though it wasn't a very clear thing. We had yet another wasted Volador stage dive. It's one of the most spectacular spots in the company and he wastes it in almost every match. It drives me nuts. If you're going to dive off the stage on your opponent as part of a trios comeback, make that the key moment of comeback. He almost always gets beaten on again afterwards). Anyway, all of this led to the dives clearing the ring and Mistico fighting against Sombra and Volador, both at once. They had come out with matching ski masks and actually felt a little like the Misterioso/Volador, sr. team to me. This felt like the main event bully against the up and coming team, and was worked as such. Mistico really held his own believably but fell to a tandem Spanish fly. It was one of those exchanges where everyone came out looking better than they came in though.

Post match there were the expected challenges. This was good. It let the tecnicos get over, but only in part because Felino had been so nasty with the foul and the mask ripping on Sombra. It let Mistico look like a world beater but Volador and Sombra still had the rub of beating him through working together. Since Sombra was going to ultimately go over Felino, this let him have a win and look strong so that Felino could get the next couple to build heat for the match. Good, functional stuff.

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 3: Dr. Wagner Jr., Euforia, Último Guerrero vs La Sombra, Místico, Negro Casas

2007-07-06 @ Arena México
Dr. Wagner Jr., Euforia, Último Guerrero vs La Sombra, Místico, Negro Casas

So, rough guess has this as #250 for the lucha journey. I might be 1-2 off, but it's still a hell of a lot of matches to have watched and I'm glad this is a milestone number. It was really good. How good was it? It was good enough that I want to go down the Mistico and Negro Casas tag team rabbit hole. We're missing some matches online, and I really want to keep covering Sombra ground, so I won't do that, but this was one of those really dynamic, charismatic, exciting main event trios, like the one we had a few months ago with LA Park and Dr. Wagner. It had star power and a lot of heat and just felt special. I'd suggest everyone watch it.

So, this was setting up Wagner, Jr. and Ultimo Guerrero vs Mistico and Negro Casas. They'd end up trading the tag belts back and forth. Wagner was fresh as a rudo here, and it felt a whole lot like him teaming with Los Ingobernables, just with Guerreros Del Infierno instead. He did the huddle. He did his hand signal with them. I eat that stuff up. The focus, despite the tag element was very distinctly on Mistico vs Wagner, with the crowd thoroughly split.

The structure was exchanges, beatdown, comeback, cutoffs and finish. Really, it's so standard a formula that what made this work were the intangibles. Some of that is the specific moves the wrestlers do. Some of it's the timing, knowing how much to hype up the crowd, riling them more and more for the key exchanges. No one likes to milk that more than Wagner and he had the perfect opponent for it in Mistico. It was just one of those magical main event lucha trios, that perfect cross-section of charisma and action, and in this case I'd rather you watch it than me break it down further. I'm not sure if it's good on the level of a MOTYC, but it's good on the level of lucha feeling transcendently larger than life.

I picked this specifically to see how Sombra fit in with the main event players, and I think he did well for the most part. He wasn't paired up with Euforia as much as you'd think. Instead, it was him vs Guerrero in the primera and Guerrero did a great job selling for him, letting him win exchanges, guiding him through things and making him look good. He couldn't do that with a broomstick though and Sombra projected the confidence needed and the acrobatic skill to back it up. The one major flub (at least I think it's a flub, which is the sign of a relatively painless flub) was Sombra getting projected up to the top rope. From there, I'm pretty certain Guerrero was supposed to superbomb him. He fell off, though, and they recovered, immediately, into the front suplex off the top. So, not perfect, but a really good sign that he could be in a match like this and not feel wildly out of place.

I'm not even going to spoil moments with gifs here. Instead, here's this awesome gifs of Wagner, pre match and Mistico from a commercial towards the end of the match.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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