MLJ: Virus Spotlight 5: Bracito de Oro/Cicloncito Ramirez/Mascarita Magica vs Damiancito el Guerrero/Fierito/Pierrothito

1997-10-3 - Bracito de Oro/Cicloncito Ramirez/Mascarita Magica vs Damiancito el Guerrero/Fierito/Pierrothito

Part 1 (dailymotion)
Part 2 (dailymotion)

Here's our last Virus-As-A-Mini match, at least unless more become available. As I said last week, there's another one on YouTube from our good friend (and mysterious benefactor) Dataincash's channel. I'll post it here as it's worth watching but the VQ is such that it was a bit of a chore to try to write it up.

Instead, I suffered through dailymotion (and I'm too lazy to embed so I put the links up top, sorry), as we all have now and again, but this trios is under the radar (EDIT: under MY radar, and reader Rah who had only mentioned the one above as what was left for CR vs Damiancito online. OJ says it's considered one of the best ever by certain parties that we both respect). It was probably the best total package out of the ones I've seen though it needed just a bit more heat.

Some random thoughts to start: The rudos came out to Enter Sandman which was a little surreal. Mascarita Magica had no mask. He was perfectly fine in his role but it drives me nuts to have a guy called Mascarita anything without a mask. He lost his. That's great. Give him a new name. He'd get one eventually and become "Fire," unless I'm mistaken. Oh get this. so he lost the mask to Ultratumbita and the tercera of that match is online. Holy crap. Check out this tope!

Here's the tercera:

Fierito confused me. I've seen a dozen La Fiera matches but I don't think I've ever seen him with a mask. I'm not seeing much evidence he had a mask, so I'm not quite sure what's going on there. It was sort of an elaborate demon thing, as best as I can tell. He eventually became Pequeno Violencia. (EDIT: Thanks to Nick Knowledge in the comments who let me know that there was actually an El Fiero too. There's one match with him in that gimmick on youtube, and the mask is in full force). I have no idea why Brazo de Oro gets a mini and not any other Brazo.

I can't pull much of the way of gifs in this but there's some fun stuff to be seen. The primera was mostly even with Pierroth and Bracito working well together and Damiancito and Cicloncito working really well together (as always), with Fierito and Mascarita Magica picking up the pace. Magica was super agile. This all led to a Damiancito orchestrated ambush, being the first one to break the sportsmanship, some failed double-teaming due to heel miscommunication, and a surprise cut off allowing the rudos to take the fall.

The fact that they took the primera meant that there didn't need to be a ton of heat. Instead, there was a bit of a reset, some good work, a ton more rudo miscommunication to high comedic effect, and some great dives. So the primera ended with some great submissions and the segunda with some great dives, all of this with good bridging work. A lot of the time that's more than you can ask for out of any trios match.

Then they took it home with an all action tercera. There wasn't much of the way of great selling here, nor was there any sort of build to payoff so I can't tell you that you'll be stumbling into a great match, but this was absolutely a fun match, a spotfest with enough balance and focus that it wasn't big stupid wrestling. There was nothing offensive enough to distract (or detract) from the great action. I'd call it the good sort of spotfest. It's no wonder that Virus got bumped up to the higher weight class, though. He brought so much to the table. It's just too bad we have so few of his matches from the next few years online.

Back to GdI for Weds and Fri, and I'm thinking some Negro Casas deep cuts next week, but we'll see.

EDIT: It's been a while since I was corrected twice on one match, but I'm kind of glad for it. It shows that even after over a year of doing this, there's still so much I don't know. Thanks for the feedback.

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MLJ: Virus Spotlight 4: Cicloncito Ramirez & Último Dragoncito b Damiancito El Guerrero & Pierrothito

1997-03-14 @Arena México
Cicloncito Ramirez & Último Dragoncito b Damiancito El Guerrero & Pierrothito

I found one more match with Nuevo Piratita Morgan from 93, so if I can make it through the VQ on it, we'll hit that Monday (and if not, I'll post it for you guys anyway), then, barring any surprises, it'll be back to GdI during the week, and moving forward with Virus on Mondays. This, though? This I really dug. The 93 tag from Monday was very first-match-on-the-card with a bit of heat, but just a bit. It was mostly shine and fun and the rudos were there to make the tecnicos look good without any real sense of drama.

This was more balanced and I have to wonder if it wasn't because it was a few years later and the wrestlers involved were more established. I know the title match between Damiancito and Cicloncito wasn't in front of a big crowd or anything (I think it was at Arena Coliseo) but it still had a ton of time and felt like a bigger deal than you'd expect. This was a month or so after that and it was the first match on a Friday Arena Mexico show which had an Ultimo Dragon vs Scorpio, Jr. title match as the main event. The video I'm linking too is an entire episode of CMLL TV (I think) and the pro to that is you'll get to see some other stuff if you watch it. The con is that I can't pull gifs through my usual means since it's just too long, so we'll have to go without.

I'd seen Pierrothito, but thirteen years later at Sin Salida 2010. Here, he was more impressive, hanging with Ramirez and Damiancito pretty well. Dragon, on offense, was pretty much what you'd expect (kicks), but he was underneath for a chunk of the match and, maybe due to his relative size, was very sympathetic in that role.

The primera was really worth watching, with some great sequence work between Damiancito and Cicloncito. Some of it, I think, was even better than what they did in their title match and very little overlapped; when it did, and this is huge to me, it felt like it was due to a kayfabe sort of familiarity. There was absolutely a sense of struggle and they weren't just running through rote spots. The things I wish I could gif are so simple, like Virus kicking out Cicloncito's leg when he was in a hold, or the way he gets out of another with a drop toe-hold sort of leverage move, or, likewise, how Cicloncito turns a leglock around by trapping Damiancito. Little bits of mat expertise that I loved. There were some great armdrag sequences too.

The primera came to a climax when they started to work on Ultimo Dragoncito's arm. Limbwork feels so novel in lucha because it just doesn't happen all that often. It's another tool in the storytelling arsenal more than an end in and of itself as it might be in something like a Southern Tag. In this match they have some fun armwork in the primera and they go back to it later with Dragoncito selling the arm but it really being used to fill time and build heat and to serve as a way to control him. For the primera, he came back after dodging a corner splash and got a bit of revenge on Pierrothito's arm before the tecnicos caught a flash submission (out of a Russian legsweep) and UD's inside the ring Asai Moonsault to take the fall.

The segunda started back and forth, with a slight tecnico advantage, including Damniancito taking a crazy corner bump to the outside that it's a shame I can't show you. Shortly thereafter, they start back on Dragoncito's arm though, wearing him down. It's deconstructed, used as an equalizer to cut him off and grind him down more than anything else. It led to a cool Damiancito handspring backflip headscissors flip into a pin, though. Virus had a lot of the small things down by this point in his career. He had a lot of the big ones down too, and on top of that, he had an agility that he obviously doesn't almost twenty years later and it made for a really impressive total package.

The tercera had Pierrothito and Damniancito really rudo-ing it up. They pulled on Dragoncito's mask to hold him in their corner, worked on his arm more (including a great springboard elbow drop in by Damiancito), and cut off Cicloncito from behind when he tried to intervene. In the end, though, the tecnicos fought their way back, Damiancito missed a corner shoulder and flew through the ropes, Dragoncito hit a massive moonsault from the top to the floor, and Cicloncito locked in a hold for a submission/countout win.

I haven't talked for a while about the emotion and the art in lucha that comes from building up and paying off but I think that was here much more than in the 1993 trios from Monday. There was more of a sense of the rudos bullying the tecnicos using rougher tactics and after the opening sportsmanship, The armwork stood out as somehow unnecessary from a kayfabe perspective, something over the top, maybe in part because we don't see it much, and all of that made the comeback matter more. More good stuff.

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MLJ: Virus Spotlight 3: Damiancito el Guerrero vs Cicloncito Ramirez [CMLL Minis]

1997-02-01
Damiancito el Guerrero vs Cicloncito Ramirez [CMLL Minis]

I'm not 100% sure on the date. It doesn't match the match finder. That's not really important though. When you delve back deep enough into things and are only looking at a select few matches, it doesn't really matter. Here's what matters: this is a great match and you should watch it. It's not a perfect match and I'll get to why later. It's a great title match though and I'm kicking myself on the idea I almost missed it because I was daunted by the word "mini." I'm going to come back to that at the end. There's also a tag match from this period that I'll cover Friday that's really good too. It came right after this so even though I watched it first, not realizing, I rushed to see this. The tag match was good enough that I wanted to see if spots were repeated/built to/etc. and not give you guys things out of order.

Alright, so this was just a really pure, straightforward title match. There was very little rudo-ing out of Damiancito, which I think is a tenet of his title matches even now (though I'll come to learn that one way or another as I go forward) even though he can absolutely bring that element when he's in trios matches. I've only seen three matches so far and am only writing up my second here, but my impression is that Cicloncito Ramirez was very good. He had an awesome sense of timing and his ability to just jump up, get hold of someone with his extremities and flip them is a testament to his opponent, obviously, but also to him. He could also bring it on the mat, which this match is proof of, even if it was more a sense of hanging with Damiancito than bringing anything unique to the equation otherwise, except for, and really, this is the most important thing in any match, an honest sense of struggle.

I'm going to keep my cards to the vest on this one because I'd like people to take the time to see it and I don't want to spoil things. The primera was the feeling out process with matwork building to more faster paced things and a very exciting finish. I'm going to post a gif or too just to show the level we're looking at. Yes, Damiancito can do crazy tie-ups and at least one fall ends with one, but it's the little things that are so amazing to me, both how he moves his opponent around the ring and just tiny grasps such as this:

That's the coolest thing in the world to me because it seems so smooth and so natural. It seems like a small thing but when you realize how few wrestlers you see who can do it like that, it's suddenly no longer a small thing at all.

Likewise Ramirez' natural agility (I think even more so than his Mini-Estrella designation) has him do things that are just slightly different than you'd expect, like this clap kick that shifted the gears in the middle of the primera to lead it towards the finishing stretch:

So it was a nice long primera with a good build and great payoff. The segunda wasn't as long but there was more meat to it than you'd expect these days and everything was good. I try not to just post submissions and dives as a rule, in part because while I feel those are elements that make lucha stand out, they're the flash and not the substance, tools to the overall effect and not the point in and of itself, which is the opposite of the popular perception of lucha with more casual fans. Still, this submission was pretty damn cool (look at that torque):

It's not what finished the fall though. What finished the fall is so cool that I'm not going to post it, even though I want to. I'd never seen it done quite like that before and it came at a perfectly logical moment after a key reversal and it was awesome.

The tercera was very good but I thought just a little unbalanced with the selling, especially around the dives. I'm not sure if that's mini trappings or not, if the level of energy and stamina had to be just a bit higher due to what the fans expected. in a lot of modern title matches, there's a lot of laying around. Here, I think a few things didn't quite get room to breathe. They did a dive-dive-dive sequence where the recovery was just a bit too soon on each one for it to matter as much as it might have. Also there was a moment or two where Damniancito just went a bit too tecnico-y in his move choice (the way he plancha'd in especially).

I'm tempted not to pin these on the mini designation because this match was, in so many other ways, worked like any other title match would be worked, just with heightened agility at certain points. It wasn't nearly as "different" as I was expecting and I'm not sure either of the tag matches I watched this week were either. The one I looked at on Monday was a tecnico shine, get the crowd going, sort of match, with just a bit more comedy miscommunication. The one for Friday is more heated but with some of those same elements worked in. There's actually a decent amount of limbwork to it relative to most lucha matches. At the end of the day, wrestling is wrestling, and while the norms may shift slightly, the basic storytelling tropes and structures are what they are. That's true across genres, but it's especially true within them. I was able to overlay the models I've learned through watching lucha over this without much problem.

So, not a perfect match, but an excellent one. In some ways I'm glad we only have one or two more of these matches online, because I could absolutely spend quite a while in this era and I'm tempted to track down more from Ramirez, even after his gimmick change. Now, just saying, were someone to post some more of the matches from this 93-97 era, I'd probably review them, even if that meant putting some of my other projects aside.

Watch this. Make sure to stick around for the post match too.

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MLJ: Virus Spotlight 2: Cicloncito Ramirez & Último Dragoncito b Felinito & Piratita Morgan

1993-03-05 @ Arena México
Cicloncito Ramirez & Último Dragoncito b Felinito & Piratita Morgan

So I'm moving backwards, not forwards. I was tempted to name this -1 but I'm sure my pointless and arbitrary numbering conventions are confusing enough as it is. Here's what happened. I wanted to really focus tightly on Virus, especially his singles' matches, and I wanted to start after he got the gimmick. There are obviously a lot of years to cover so I had to control it somehow.

Then, though, "Pogo" Pete Stein mentioned, offhandedly, that Cicloncito Ramirez vs Damiencito was his favorite minis match at all time. I was going to be veering too close to it to not stop. I don't like watching people's best/favorite matches without being more familiar with the genre that they're in. I like to build to them and not just jump right into the best before I can fully understand it. I haven't seen a lot of minis matches and even so, I was going to jump in on the idea I've seen a lot of Virus matches. Instead, I dug deeper and in digging deeper, I found this. So now we're going to do an extra week on Virus to catch up.

This is from 1993, which is cool, and thanks to Rob for posting it. Most of what we have out of Virus is ten to fifteen years later, so I'm glad we can see him at 24 or so. It's so far back that he's not even Damiencito, but instead Nuevo Piratita Morgan. I can't find a lot about Felinito easily. Apparently he ended up in AAA as a regular sized luchador as Mach-1 but with these guys you never know if it's the same guy in the gimmick or not. Apparently he was also called Punch Power at some point which is a ridiculous but awesome name. I think Ultimo Dragoncito is still going with that gimmick.

Cicloncito Ramirez, from what I can tell from a few scant matches, was really good. He's Pequeno Olimpico now. He, like Dragoncito, was only a few years into the business here but he stood out. Virus had been wrestling a while longer, and I need to try to track down a picture of him as his first gimmick "Bird Boy" later. Under that he beat "Super Archie" for the UWA Featherweight championship and because this is lucha libre, land of Thundercats and Ninja Turtles where a completely viable star is absolutely based on The Phantom, I half figure that Super Archie is exactly what it sounds like.

This was a bit more of what I expected out of a minis match, that preconceived notion. It's the sort of heavy tecnico shine match with some big spots and quick action to get the crowd going. Heat was kept to a minimum and quickly defused with miscommunication and comedy clowning.

Felinito and "Nuevo Piritia Morgan" were there to feed the babyfaces and they were more than competent at that role, but it was limited and I didn't really get to see much out of them, nothing unique at least. There was some opening matwork with Virus and he was smooth in moving his opponent around already, but I'm not sure there was a ton of meaning to it yet.

This was a pretty quick two fall affair. The first was a bit of evenness and comedy (like Felinito selling a foul after sliding across the ring and then rolling around the ring to the outside in a grapple) and then all shine, what you'd expect with quebadoras and armdrags. Ramirez hit a pretty jump back 'rana:

and the finish involved a nice reversal out of a back body drop into a flipping senton onto a standing Morgan.

The segunda had some attempts at heat (started by an ambush and then illegal double teaming), including this kickfest:

And they actually got the crowd going:

but this just lasted a minute or two before Dragoncito came back with the help of the aforementioned communication and the tecnicos hit big dives for the perfectly-acceptable-in-a-first-match countout win.

This was fun for what it was and I'm glad we have it easily available since it's an early piece of the Virus puzzle, but I'm ready to see something with a bit more substance to it.

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CMLL Worth Watching 9/21/14

1. Mercurio, Pierrothito & Pequeno Olimpico vs. Electrico, Ultimo Dragoncito & Stukita (9/21/14)

Fun little match even though the caidas ended in fairly disappointing ways. Still this was a real nice Mercurio showcase as he's arguably the best bumping rudo mini, here he takes a nice back splat bump to the floor, Chris Masters style, and then a great Halloween bump later on. He also shows a lot more personality than most minis, and he with Pierrothito is a rudo mini powerhouse. Stukita is a bit too tiny to buy as any sort of threat, and really the tecnicos are missing somebody with more fluidity, such as Bam Bam. Electric has a couple nice springboard moves and Dragoncito whips around quickly on a Santo roll up, but Mercurio was where it's at in this one.

2. Kamaitachi, Bobby Zavala & Okumura vs. Fuego, Pegasso & Hombre Bala Jr. (9/21/14)

Daaaaamn this was a fun little spotfest! Constant fast exchanges and no down time, all fast action with cool little moments. Kamaitachi is back to being my little replacement Namajague. He looked good throughout from his bigger spots to little mat things like he and Fuego going to the mat and Kamaitachi doing a cool shoulder shrug to buck him off. Zavala also looked killer throughout as he bumped all over for the flippy offense and had a couple great stooge moments, and a real fun bump where he took a back bump and then scooted on his back to safety, but scooted too far and went right out the ring with a back bump to the floor. Hombre Bala had some nice flying including a wild tope en reversa from the top to the floor, Pegasso is always a fun guy to have pop up on TV and his flying is even better with a base like Zavala. Fun stuff that didn't even really feel like a "CMLL" match, would have fit nicely on Lucha Underground.

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 6/15/14

So after consistently showing matches from two weeks prior for the last several months, suddenly they jump way back in time as these matches were from the 1/5/14 Arena Mexico show. I don't know if this was a trend or just some "hey we never showed that minis cibernetico from 6 months ago. Let's put it up!"

Goya Kong, Dark Angel & Estrellita vs. Tiffany, Amapola & Princesa Sugheit

According to Cubsfan's match finder this is only the 2nd time these 6 women have all been involved in the same match, and the last time was three years ago. That's kinda neat. The match itself was kind of okay. Things got a little unfocused so my attention wandered. At some point it felt kind of like just fillin' time. I do like a good Goya Kong showcase though, and I haven't seen her on TV in some time. She drops a mean leg here and crushes Tiffany in the corner with an avalanche. Haven't seen Tiffany in a long time and she's another favorite of mine. She's all stooging and bitch face and she's awesome. She leans into everything and makes Estrellita look like someone with talent. Really for the six people they assembled here and the time it was given, this should have been way better. Marcela replacing Estrellita would have been the only obvious upgrade. Dalys has been good lately but not sure she's better than the three rudas here. But yeah, real disappointment here. And, the thing is that you'll have to take my word for it! This may be the only match all year that Cubsfan hasn't uploaded. So that's right, these printed words are among the only historical records of this match's existence. In 30 years when somebody is doing The 2010s Project some weirdo will go, "hey did these women ever all match up" and then they will find their answer here, and maybe not trust my opinion that the match kinda blew, but likely believe that Dark Angel looked foxy.

Pequeno Reyes Del Aire!

Demus 3:16, Pierrothito, Pequeno Nitro, Pequeno Olimpico & Mercurio vs. Shockercito, Electrico, Stukita, Ultimo Dragoncito & Astral

This gets 30 (!) minutes, and for the first part I was amped, ready to tell Phil to check it out for our MOTY list. But it loses steam and can't really recover. There is definitely such a thing as a match being too long, and there aren't just enough tecnico minis (does Bam Bam still work?) that I like now to justify them getting this much time. The people you expect to look great, look really great. Demus 3:16 and Pierrothito rarely disappoint and they certainly didn't here. They're clearly the best bases and all the tecnicos are better for it. Mercurio got a little showcase time and showed some big bumping skills that I've never really seen from him before. Astral and Electrico are apparently working like mini La Mascaras which is not really at all what I want to see from my mini tecnicos. I did really dig Stukita and Shockercito and was very pleasantly surprised by Ultimo Dragoncito. Stukita is super tiny, but more in a athletic 13 year old kinda way (as opposed to a Mascarita Sagrada way). But he's got crazy energy and while his stuff doesn't always look ultra impactful (I mean, he does appear to be like 70 lb. so while I'm sure taking a moonsault from a 12 year old would hurt, it's not exactly Scorpio flattening you here) he does put a lot behind it and makes it look as good as possible with his tiny frame. He hits a triple moonsault and eats knees on the third and I admired how he had no problem flying face first into those knees.

Ultimo Dragoncito has the spot of the match with his crazy flip dive that sees him fly back first and upside down into the ringside barricade. All the dive stuff was great with Pierrothito flattening someone with his Silver King dive and three tecnicos hitting epic stereo corner dives. This was worked a lot more like a normal trios match (yes yes, even through there were 10 people) as there were a lot of double teams and general teamwork spots as opposed to the usual exclusive one on one stuff you normally get from ciberneticos. Not sure how I felt about it as I didn't end up loving the overall match anyway as there just wasn't enough meat to fill 30, but it was an interesting change of pace at least. Lame eliminations are kind of a cibernetico staple at this point so you expect a few of them, and they often come from moves that would never normally pin a guy, and there's always that moment where you get the feeling that the plan was "okay, we worked our allotted time, now to start burning through the eliminations". You get your lame finish where one guy pins another with a suplex but it turns out HIS shoulders were actually down and everybody groans and there's nobody who could possibly like this finish. Not sure why we needed to protect Pequeno Olimpico on a finish. "Ya gotta let Peq. Olimpico leave with his heat! Fans are gonna remember the 5th elimination of a Cibernetico!" Match ends on the flattest note possible as someone either legit or storyline gets hurt and the doctors wave it off, so Electrico wins by not getting injured. Yay?

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 4/20/14

These matches were from the 4/6 Anniversario show at Arena Coliseo. I got higher than normal hopes for this one as I know guys historically have pulled out all the stops on big Anniversary shows, so I'm hoping for some better than average stuff here. I'm watching the show with my buddy Charlie who is always fun to watch wrestling with, as he loves it enough so that when I visit him he requests I pick out cool wrestling for us to watch…but at the same time he would never and has never watched any wrestling on his own (past the age of 12). It's always great watching wrestling with Rachel or somebody like Charlie, as they are watching this stuff with completely different eyes and always make some fresh-faced observations from a perspective that I wouldn't consider. It makes me appreciate things in a whole different way.

Averno, Ephesto  & Dragon Rojo Jr. vs. Mistico II, Valiente & La Sombra

This was really fun, not so much flat out great as past Anniversario spotfests have been, but really fun nonetheless. The tecnicos all got to do tons of spectacular stuff, with Valiente especially shining by hitting a crazy fast tope and a somehow even faster Valiente Special. It is probably the craziest spot in wrestling, two crazy fast springboards into a no-look moonsault. He did it so fast here my brain could hardly process it, meaning I can't imagine actually willing my body to do it. Sombra and Mistico each do a couple big flip dives, Averno catches a bunch of Mistico ranas, Sombra breaks out some cool tilt-a-whirl floppy armdrags. So, a bunch of fun stuff, but not quite bumping up to that next level.

Mr. Niebla vs. Atlantis

First two falls were way too short, but the tercera was worked a little bit more like a longer lightning match. It was funny as Atlantis took so much of the match that it turned Niebla tecnico, as after seeing Atlantis control so much the fans spontaneously starts a Niebla chant! Niebla is great at catching onto that and using it to hulk up. Atlantis can kinda hold back in trios and blend into the background, so it was nice seeing him forced to break out enough offense for a singles match. Few guys do roll-ups and old school lucha ranas as graceful as Atlantis, so it's always a treat to see. Niebla takes a big bump to the floor and mans up to catch a big Atlantis tope. Niebla also works some fun comedy in at appropriate times, such as doing the most blatant ropes hold on a rolling reverse cradle (picture Andre stuck in the ropes with both arms draped over, and that was Niebla holding the ropes while pinning Atlantis with his legs). Not much drama in this as Atlantis wins the first with a roll up, Niebla wins the segunda after a splash after Atlantis misses a dropkick, and then even with all the fans newly behind Niebla in the tercera, he doesn't really even get any sort of pitfalls. It just eventually ends up with Atlantis winning, as everybody assumed he would.

Minis Cage Match up next, loser unmasks!! I don't think I've really seen a very good multi-man lucha cage match, as escape rules matches don't usually do too much for me. Mini matches are usually made spectacular by their crazy spots and awesome rudo bases, but a cage takes away all spots to the floor, and escape rules make doing top rope spots psychologically stupid, as the guy should just climb over the top.

Pierrothito vs. Pequeno Olimpico vs. Fantasy vs. Stukita vs. Ultimo Dragoncito vs. Electrico vs. Astral vs. Acero vs. Pequeno Halcon vs. Pequeno Nitro

Yeah this match was pretty much what I was afraid of. Ten people crammed into a cage, more worried about climbing over the cage than doing cool stuff. I'm sure some have to exist out there, but is there such a thing as a good multi-man lucha cage match? I'm thinking 6 combatants or higher. I have no doubts there could be a good singles cage match, or even a tag team. But at 6+ people I'm asking you, tell me the good lucha cage matches. I'll watch those motherfuckers right here. So we had a long series of assorted guys jumping up to turnbuckles, only to be pulled off of those same turnbuckles. Moreover, we had a series of assorted guys jumping up to turnbuckles, only to evade capture, climb to the top of the cage, flex muscles in celebration at the top of the cage, and then escape. Escape rules do not leave much room for highspots, unless the psychology is all out of whack (he wanted to hit a gigantic move off the top sooooo badly that it overrode his desire to escape!!), and there are not many here. Stukita tries to fit some stuff in, and in cramped quarters is somewhat successful. I applaud his effort. Pierrothito is a standout at working with the match constraints, as he is one of the only ones who manages to show some sort of personality while working escapes and battle royal-type bullshit. It comes down to Pequeno Halcon and Astral. They work some pretty decent submission exchanges, in that both guys were able to get across the consequences of tapping out. Astral wins, Halcon unmasks. He looks like many Mexican men you have known in your life. He was my pick to lose from the beginning, as he had a) the most boring mask, and b) the least interesting look and gimmick. I don't think losing the Pequeno Halcon identity will make any difference over his long term career. I may not know the whole story, but I'm failing to see the Halcon identity being a huge boon to his career. Are there many Halcon fans out there still? People going "I used to watch Super Halcon. This man is dressed much like him, but smaller. He looks somewhat like a smaller Halcon."

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 4/13/14

These matches were from the 3/30 Arena Coliseo show. We get another big Fuego dance party entrance, which is just awesome. Stupidly catchy song, choreography, on screen heart graphics made with Sculptris, essentially everything you would want.

Lightning Match: Fuego vs. Ephesto

I'm not really sure what they were going for in this match. Seems like CMLL is pushing Fuego pretty hard, but Ephesto goes over pretty easily by just rolling him up. As a Fuego showcase the match didn't really work, as there are other guys in the promotion with flashier offense. Fuego's offense here is pretty standard issue, with a couple nice dives and a couple normal armdrags, and moonsaulting into Ephesto's boots (which is now becoming almost as standard a spot in lucha as the backcracker). If they were going for Ephesto being a bully it didn't really work, as Fuego took like 80% of the match and then Ephesto just kinda won at the end. There was some nice moments, with Ephesto taking a fast armdrag through the middle rope to the floor, but most of this was just drab. None of the transitions felt very well thought out. Fuego hits his dives, and then spends a minute back in the ring getting the crowd into it, and Ephesto just walks back in and starts doing his offense. I'm just not sure what all was supposed to be accomplished here. It wasn't so much a bad match, as it was a boring match.

Mercurio, Pequeno Olimpico & Pequeno Warrior vs. Stukita, Acero & Pequeno Halcon

This is a pretty deep cut as far as CMLL minis trios go. Acero, Stukita, etc. aren't usually the guys that pop up on TV. In fact I'm pretty positive I have never seen Stukita. He's really tiny. Not like Mascarita Dorada tiny, but tiny as in he looks like an in-shape 13 yr old. His moves don't really have much oomph to them (his triple moonsaults look pillow soft, hard to look that impactful when you're 80 lb.), but he has a lot of energy and the crowd gets loud when he gets crazy distance on a dive and he ties Mercurio up into a cool knot to end the segunda. Warrior and Olimpico were awesome dickhead rudos, and Warrior had a cool slingshot Bombs Away to the floor. Not as spectacular as some minis matches can be, as none of the rudos are really monster bumpers and none of the tecnicos are really spectacular fliers, but this was a fun deep cut minis sighting.

Terrible, Vangellys & Rey Bucanero vs. La Mascara, Titan & Diamante Azul

Man where's the fire guys? I don't think all three falls even totaled 8 minutes. Everything was rushed through and while the work was good it was pretty impossible to get that invested when things just kept ending. Titan and Azul seemed confused how to take Vangelly's clothesline/spear (it's basically him doing a sliding clothesline to his opponent's stomach) as the both take the impact of the move and then kind of jump into a back bump after a delay, basically making it look like a real phony takedown. Terrible threw some good punches throughout and his work with Mascara was fun. Titan has a not-very-good split legged moonsault which of course means he did it a couple times. He over-rotates and lands heavy on his ankles. Bucanero caught a fun headscissors on the floor from Titan, and flew into an older lady in the front row, who consoled his pain with a hug. Bucanero also asked a foxy younger lady to rub out a painful spot on his backside, which she (half-heartedly) obliged.  

Negro Casas, Rey Escorpion & Mr. Niebla vs. Maximo, Atlantis & Marco Corleone

This match was awesome and would be a MOTY if it were a little longer with a better ending. Negro Casas is just so great in smaller arenas, really hamming it up and it's just impossible to take your eyes off him. He stooges his way all around the ring and ringside, ducking Corleone's punches in hilarious manner, and spilling out awesomely when they connect. Maximo hits his massive dive, Corleone punches tons of people in the face (Escorpion especially takes a great stoogey bump off the ropes from one after taunting Marco). This is all well worth going out of your way just to bask in all the joy of Negro Casas being Negro Casas. This man can do it all. 

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CMLL on Galavision Workrate Report, 6/2/12

1. Ephesto vs. Stuka Jr.:

Well this was kinda disappointing. These are two guys I like a whole lot, and they get a couple extra minutes more than most lightning matches get...and they just don't do much with the time. The best I can say is that Stuka is a stocky motherfucker and Ephesto has an epic mask.



2. Mercurio/Pequeno Nitro/Pequeno Olimpico vs. Aereo/Astral/Electrico:

Who among us doesn't lie awake at night wondering "Who is my favorite CMLL mini...after Demus 3:16...and Pierrothito...and Bam Bam...and Mascarita Dorada..." Well, this match sought to answer that question. And apparently the answer is Mercurio. Pretty obviously Mercurio, actually. Dude looked awesome here and bumped for all the flippiness of the tecnicos. Astral has politely started wearing a shirt to cover up his hideous chest acne. The world thanks you.



3. Kraneo/Psicosis/Rey Escorpion vs. Delta/Guerrero Maya Jr./Black Warrior:

Awwwwwww yeah! Fat Alebrije is FAT! And he's Kraneo now! Again! And fat Kraneo is so damn awesome, always the best part of his six mans. He's still really fast and he is just poured right into that suit but makes moves look super great by being super fat. For a mid card rudo team I really like these three randomly assembled guys. And it wouldn't be a week of CMLL on Galavision without Black Warrior in the main event. And I am still beyond perplexed by that. Why now? I assume this guy has been wrestling since the late 80s, and it seems like he's getting the push of his career right now despite being Black Warrior. He has a nice tope. He looks like the weirdest slimiest version of Edward James Olmos in "Blade Runner" . He has horrible singles matches. He is Black Warrior. WE NEED TO MAKE SURE HE IS HIGHLIGHTED EVERY SHOW!!! I just don't get it. Somebody, please explain it to me already. Could there be a more random 40+ year old on the roster to push? Is Rammstein over 40? If not, I don't think I can think of a more random, odd person to be getting such a large push on TV.

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