Digging in the Crates Podcast #5

Phil is joined by multiplatformed Internet journalist David Bixenspan to discuss some cool under the radar matches

Digging in the Crates #5

Perros Del Mal v. Dinamitas

Caribbean Sunshine Boys v. Kung Fu Fighters

Danny Cannon v. Kongo Kong

The Weeds podcast

Some CTI Records Jazz

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MLJ: Recent Uploads: El Hijo del Perro Aguayo, Rey Bucanero, Último Guerrero vs El Hijo Del Santo, LA Park, Negro Casas

2004-09-10 @ Arena México
El Hijo del Perro Aguayo, Rey Bucanero, Último Guerrero vs El Hijo Del Santo, LA Park, Negro Casas

More from the recent uploads pile and this one was an absolute blast. I'd compare this to the Wagner/Park trios from Arena Mexico a couple of months ago. It just had that level of heat, and that level of star power. I've been avoiding Perro, Jr., I guess because I didn't want things to seem too gimmicky. I've seen very few of his matches, though I'd like to watch a lot of Perrito & Garza at some point. I think there's enough distance now that I can start on something like that soon.

This was shortly after Perro's big turn during the Leyenda de Plata in 2004, where he broke the plaque. GdI had been together for something like five years at this point and their act was a well-oiled machine. Park was Park. Casas was Casas, and this was heated. The simplest formula in the world. Ambush-Brawl-Beatdown/Comeback/Reset into a heated back and forth finishing stretch. I'm not saying that's the perfect trios formula (I like opening mat/feeling out exchanges a lot, for instance), but when done well and when there's some heat behind it, there's not a lot better.

The rudos took an immediate advantage with the ambush and superior brawling/numbers game. Pairings, so much as there were parings were Perro/Santo (with slams into the rampway), UG/Park (mask ripping), and Rey/Casas (postings). GdI's act was definitely actualized for a lucha beatdown. They'd run through their spots, but it all just worked. Here, the alley-oop body splash looked awesome:

They followed it up with a very fun sequence where GdI would hit their spots and Perro would punctuate it with a double stomp. He'd even be out of place now and again but it was somehow endearing. It all felt in chararcter.They ended it with Rey's twisting senton onto Santo (who was on UG's knees), which looked great from the overhead cam, and was followed by the bandit celebration.

So, the transition. Yes, it was rote and repetitive, used again and again and again, but them going for the alley-oop splash for a second time was probably one of the most effective transition spots in tag team wrestling history. This time, at least, it was executed really well with a beautiful Casas kick:

Even better, it led to a hot comeback. Casas and Parka were both extremely intense here, with the Casas vs Perro exchange feeling every bit as hot as what he'd do with Rush ten years later, and Park was just in a league of his own. Everyone looked great in this match, but I think he might have looked like the best guy in the ring, that perfect mix of unlikely athleticism and over the top charisma. Santo's senton/dive spot is one of the things he's so well known for and it usually works in an organic way, with him breaking up a pin or something along those lines. Here, Parka just grabbed Rey and slid him down, holding him for it, but it worked because he's someone who can do something so self-aware believably:

Everyone was great though. Staring the tercera, there was this really triumphant moment where Casas leapt up upon the apron to stop Perro from ambushing him:

And he followed it up with a great sequence ending with his usual apron drive and one of the best "basking" moments I've ever seen in wrestling:

Great, great stuff.

The tercera was a few minutes of everything you want in this sort of a match, Park vs the world, mask ripping revenge, a crazy top rope rana, Ultimo Guerrero's knee bump over the top, an impossible flipping dive by Park that showed so much agility, Santo drawing all eyes upon him against Rey Bucanero, even after everything that happened and a great dickish rudo finish. This was the good stuff. I could have grabbed ten more gifs than I did but everything had weight and felt like it mattered and everyone shined.

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MLJ: Atlantida Rising 6: Relevos Super-Increibles! Último Dragón, Great Muta y Último Guerrero vs. Atlantis, Hijo del Perro Aguayo y Dr. Wagner Jr.

DRAGONMANIA I
2006-05-13 @ Arena Mexico
(Toryumon Mexico)

This match wasn't very good. I have to lead with that and it hurts me to do so, far more than you know. Sometimes a match can be well worth watching, even essential to watch, but it's really, truly, absolutely not good. There can be good things about it. There can be good efforts and performances and ideas and crowd heat and a thousand other things, but the parts just don't add up. They don't here, and it's a shame, because they could, maybe, if things were just a little different. Still, watch it.

So, this was from Dragonmania which was run by Ultimo Dragon's Toryumon promotion, of which I know very little about. There was a sense of celebration at the end of the show, so this was probably a big deal to him. I would have missed it completely but I was trying to fill in gaps using cagematch, since I have very few Guerreros matches I've found online for May and June of 06. It was a Relevos Super-Increibles match, which is something I haven't looked at yet. This was one-fall, with mixed affiliation partners.

So, I've said that it's both not very good and pretty much a can't miss. The reason why, put simply, is the dedication these wrestlers have in playing to their characters. The match was Ultimo Dragon and five insane people, basically. You get the sense that he put himself right in the center of this crazy storm, and it's hugely entertaining. Just watching these wrestlers interact with each other is hugely entertaining.

Let me break it down a bit. On one side you had Ultimo Guerrero, Perro Aguayo, Jr., and Dr. Wagner, Jr., two rudos and a tecnico. Now I've been mostly avoiding Perro since the footage we have with Perros Del Mal seems a little spotty for 2006 and I've been able to look at los Guerreros without really having it bleed over, but the imperssion I get is that his stable was feuding throughout the year with both various tecnicos AND with los Guerreros. He's charismatic and intense, so I'll come back to him at some point later in my watching. Ultimo's usually sane, if a bit over the top. Wagner's usually over the top, if at least somewhat sane. On the other side there was Ultimo Dragon, of course, Atlantis, and Muta. Muta, here, was in 2006 mode, with the spikey red mask. He generally moved around the ring like some sort of alien monster who did not fully understand where he was or what he was doing there but that found all of this very strange and interesting.

It was all about the interactions, though. Perro and Wagner had a reluctant alliance, one that was tested by two miscommunication spots, the second being a missed kick on the ramp that sent Perro into the seats as part of an amazing sell job. Atlantis and UG started out with a sportsmanlike demonstration of chain wrestling, applauding each other at every point, until their partners rebelled against them. Later on, they would outright work together to maul Dragon. Dragon spent part of the match acting as Muta's handler, trying to keep him from terrorizing poor women and children in the crowd. Wagner, on the other hand, seemed to find Muta fascinating and postured and posed around him in some attempt to communicate, especially after his attempts to hurt him seemed to fail completely.

There was entertaining stuff. Wagner eating Muta's offense was tons of fun, especially how he sold the leg on the dragon screw. He even did a dragon screw of his own late in the match. Atlantis oscillating between cheering on UG and Dragon (who was his actual partner) was a lot of fun. Really, all of his reactions were just far less dignified than you'd expect. He seemed like he was having a blast. Wagner got to do his big sommersault dive off the stage. All of the luchadors got to have some well-worked exchanges with each other, and hey, it was engaging just watching the other five try to make sense of Muta's lumbering around the ring and blowing of mist.

The thing just never comes together. All of the character work is there without purpose. It's just these absurd characters tossed into a hotel with the power cut and the roads blocked by snow and you have to watch them interact with each other while there's a murderer (in this case Muta) in the house. There's no Poirot to come in at the end and make sense of it all. The Perro/Wagner alliance never breaks down into dissention even though they more than teased it. By the end, they just get everyone out of the ring with dives so Muta can mist Wagner off the top rope and pick up the win with the shining wizard. It doesn't work at all, but it's still compelling. If some indy tried to pull this off, it wouldn't be. Instead, however, you had these iconic characters in the ring playing against each other and that's what makes it worth watching. I'm glad I found it.

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Now Don't Think You're the Only One Who Harbours a Self Hate/Cassandro's Just as Guilty of Selling What His Sweet Soul Creates

It's been awhile, friends.

Cassandro/Blue Demon Jr./LA Park vs. Halloween/Damien 666/Perro Aguayo Jr., (Lucha Expo, 7/24/11) - FUN

This is the first Cassandro match to come to light in ages, so I had to jump on it and throw this thing up. I think this took place at some kind of lucha expo where all the major promotions put on a show. This match was basically divided up into 3 sections: sluggish rudo beatdown, tecnico comeback showcase, and Park turning on his partners. The middle section was awesome fun, the sections that bookended that were not very good.

Entrances were fun, as all the guys acted like tecnicos. Cassandro was wearing an epic waistcoat/robe and mamboing to Gloria Gaynor, Blue Demon Jr. had an insanely ornate headdress, Park strutted to Thriller more than he usually does (he has to be sick of that song at this point), Halloween was dressed up as some sort of toddler Angus Young, wearing ski bib overalls over a cut off dress shirt with a child's necktie.

Rudo beatdown was the most energy-lacking thing I've seen in 2011 lucha. Taking a full minute to set up chairshots, walking while holding a guy's hair, tecnicos just idling in the corner waiting calmly for their turn to get hit. Just through-the-motions stuff. The ref actually shows more fire than Perro here, getting thrown by La Familia and "forced" to do a corner clothesline. Halloween throws the most listless clothesline that I have ever seen in this match. Blue Demon tried to throw himself into a chair interestingly, but it wasn't enough.

And then, as these things can happen in lucha, the tecnicos just suddenly hopped up and made a comeback. Cassandro was just on fire during all this, blasting Halloween into the corner with a dropkick, running down the ramp and dropkicking Perro, giving Damien an Attitude Adjustment on the ramp...then climbing the entrance way scaffolding and doing a massive dive onto everybody. Crazy.

Back in the ring and all three tecnicos get showcase sequences. Demon gets to do a couple fun headscissor spots with Damien and Halloween, and Cassandro gets to try and give everyone smooches (Damien takes it like a man, Halloween dodges it only to do his strut and turn around and catch one on the lips, and Perro fights his as if he were a child fending off his mom trying to give him a spoonful of cold medicine, just hands out, arms flailing, mouth shut tight with his lips tucked). Park comes in and does a bunch of distraction spots. He certainly seems to work harder as a main event rudo in AAA, where he's all stiffness and giant bumps. Here he was almost all schtick. Park is a guy whose schtick I love, but once you've seen main event rudo Park it's hard to go back.

Perro teases hitting Park with a chair, Park begs off...then turns on Cassandro and Demon. Bestia 666 (I think) also runs down to join the beatdown. Perro and Demon yell at each other a bunch on the mic. Last 20 seconds of video are pretty great with an awesome Demon/Perro slugfest, fighting each other down to their knees, and then exchanging low blows and then lying there holding their balls.

Seeing who was involved, this should have been way better, so in that it was disappointing. But once they got in the ring it was a good waste of 15 minutes.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE CASSANDRO

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Thoughts on Dragondoor?Gate? Hole? whatever in Mexico from DVDVR 158

Arena Mexico- 5/13/06

Arkangel de la Muerte/Negro Navarro/Skayde vs. Hayato Fujita Jr. /Kanjyuro Matsuyama/Shinji Nohashi

PAS: We only got about half of this match but it was pretty fun. It is always a treat to see Negro Navarro, and he was pretty great here, locking up a nice submission and doing his great kip-up. Nohashi hit a cool tope with a nice camera angle.

TKG: Yeah that was a great camera angle. Arkangel threw some really nice elbow drops and Navarro took a posting well and any time you get to see Navarro it‘s a treat but there really wasn’t much to this match.

Dark Angel/India Sioux vs. Mima Shimoda/Raven Hiroka_

PAS: Hiroka is the worlds shittiest Etsuko Mita, but she did have a really nice exchange with Dark Angel. Mima Shimoda doesn’t do a ton here, and we didn’t get a ton of time.

TKG: This was real clipped and nothing you want to see again. I liked India Sioux’s version of Virus’ finisher.

Dragon Scramble Match: Matematico vs. Ultraman vs. Kahoz vs. Cuchillo vs. Black Terry vs. Astro Boy Jr.vs. Brazo de Plata Jr. vs. Daisuke Haonaka vs. Hijo del Fantasma vs. Toshiya Matsuzaki

PAS: Ridiculously fun match which was a total train wreck but in a really entertaining way. You got to see a bunch of old luchadores who never see the light of day. Black Terry had an awesome punch exchange with Ultraman. For an ex-high flyer Ultraman has really turned into Jose Luis Castillo in his old age. Cuchillo and Kahoz are guys I haven’t seen in years, and they looked like guys I hadn’t seen in years. Kahoz especially looked shitastic, as he was completely unable to bump over the top on his first attempt, so he has to run to the other side of the ring to bump to the floor Also that actually looked like the real Matematico who must be 70. Total blast.

TKG: Black Terry looked to be guy holding this entire thing together working fun sections with Hijo del Fantasma, Matematico, and Ultraman and one of the Japanese kids. Gran Cuchillo comes out and stretchers the other Japanese kid just smacking him around with the butt of his gun, suplexing him on the ramp and then dropping elbows. Cuchillo hitting opponents with the butt of a pistol may expose the business more than Tiger Jeet Singh hitting opponents with butt of sword. But Cuchillo is way more fun. Cuchillo and Kahoz are really too old to pull off their miscommunication heel double team stuff. But fuck all that other shit: BLACK TERRY~!!!

Brazo De Oro/Brazo De Platino/Passion Hasegawa vs. Mazada/NOSAWA/Katsushi Takemura

PAS: This was alot of fun, the early parts were a little rough, as Platino spent the opening parts just doing all of Super Porky's spots but not as well as Super Porky. However when it got kicking it got really fun. Oro was especially awesome here, especially his stuff with NOSAWA, and his incredible tope. Passion was really fun as the fake Brazo fucking up all of the Brazo spots, and when Platino stopped apeing his brother and started hitting all of his dives he looked great too. Easily the match of the show.

TKG: Was that really Brazo De Platino. I remember him looking more scummy and garbagey. He does all of Platinos big dives but I don’t remember Platino looking that kind of classically handsome. Platino’s section where he was apeing Plata spots wasn’t much and the Passion v. Takemura exchanges weren’t much. But then fucking Brazo de Oro worked his section with Nosawa where they essentially did Ki vs. Red spots with Oro working superfast to dodge all of NOSAWA’s offense and then getting in his own strikes. Brazo de Oro’s speed was just amazing. And then once the match got going it was just on. I think my favorite Passion being too small to do Brazo signature spots was when he kept trying to lay across the heels only to get tossed off while Platino set up his big dive.

4 Way Dance: Averno/Mephisto vs. Trent Acid/American Gigolo vs. Brute Issei/Shigeo Okumura vs. Milano Collection AT/Kazuchida Okada

PAS: The match listing listed the Backseat Boyz, but instead American Gigolo was Trent Acid’s partner. You know someone sucks when you are pissed about being baited and switched out of Johnny Kashmere. Okada took some big bumps, but this match may have been the worst multi man match of Trent Acid’s career. Imagine what that entails.

TKG: The screen says that this went 11:23 but I swear it felt twice as long. They do the everyone puts everyone else in a headlock section before the big guy comes out only to do a big man miss-communication spot two or three times. With Issei really playing poor man’s Pancho Tequilla playing a poor man’s Brazo Platino playing a poor man’s Brazo de Plata. Averno and Mephisto are first eliminated for excessive rudisimo. Yeah so the Arena Mexico crowd is left to watch Issei/Okamura vs. Gigolo/Trent Acid. Do the Arena Mexico fans have any stake in an All Japan vs. PWU match up. All Japan is eliminated for PWU vs. Toryumon finish. This needed Slugger.

Decision Match for the vacant NWA Welterweight Title: La Mascara vs. Hajime Ohara

PAS: This was okayish. Mascara is a little green to lead Ohara through a real lucha title match, and it came off as more of a mediocred BOSJ match which doesn’t make TV.

TKG: Yeah this was where the lucha and the resu in your lucharesu just fall apart. This isn’t worked like a lucha title match at all. There is a cool part early on where La Mascara appears to get pissed as though Ohara is taking liberties with him and the two just start swinging at each other. Baby Richard keeps on trying to remind Ohara about his closed fists and elbows. This would be fine in a lucha brawl but you build to the brawling parts of match. Ohara paces his stuff like a puroresu match so you don’t have the lucha ebb and flow where wrestling section leads to break down into brawling section which leads to a regroup to wrestling section.

Super Libre: Dos Caras Jr./Hijo del Lizmark vs. Mark Jindrak/Johnny Stamboli

PAS: This was a pretty fun WWE Heat main event tag (2002 Heat, all four of these guys are liver enzymerific.) I don’t think this was as good as the technicos v. Stamboli/Palumbo would have been, and definitely not as good as the technicos v. Jindrak/Cade (especially with all the real life familial heat between Dos Caras Jr. and Lance Cade) Still these teams work each other alot, and they have a ton spots with each other. Jindrak looks like a total superstar as he hits all of his high spots and is a taunting fuck, doing a little bird flapping with his arms after he flew. He has crazy ups, and if he actually moves to Mexico he will be a big ass star.

TKG: Not as good as a Heat main event tag…closer to a RAW one. Jindrak’s taunts are great and him and Stamboli work like a touring tag team with lots of heel miscommunication spots that they could work against any face team. They do the old MX arm pull over rope spot that always makes me smile. And well, so about a year ago New York Times printed an article about the success of lucha libre in Mexico. Someone in WWE read the article and said “the only people who watch our shows are gays and wetbacks, we need more wetbacks”. There was all kinds of writing on the internet about WWE bringing in Mistico and Ultimo Guerrero and who they should and shouldn’t bring in. I proposed that they bring in Dos Caras Jr and either Sicodelico Jr or Hijo del Lizmark as they essentially can work you’re basic OVW style and are tall and masked and would be easy to plug in and build around..WWE ended up bringing in a bunch of minis and having them work US midget comedy spots. After watching this match, if I were to fantasy book luchadors in WWE, I’d use Sicodelico Jr as my Dos Caras Jr partner. But still fun, full Worldwide point.

Relevos Increibles: Atlantis/GREAT MUTA/Ultimo Dragon vs. Perro Jr./Dr. Wagner Jr./Ultimo Guerrero

TKG: Man I was expecting this to be BA—AD. Arena Mexico announcer says that Ultimo Dragon is thought of in Japan the way Santo is thought of in Mexico…and I was all ready for the worst type of money mark match. But this turned out to be pretty fun. Dr Wagner and Perro come out and agree to team while Atlantis and Ultimo Guerrero are pissed that they are on opposite sides. And they do a lot of great lucha storytelling throughout the match with Atlantis and Guerrero sparring happily. Guerrero unhappy whenever his partners go after Atlantis. Atlantis and Perro Jr stoked to match up, etc. Atlantis just looks super great in this as he has to carry his team in ring. Ulitmo Dragon has been useless for years and for the most part never eats anything. At least in this match he spent a lot of time eating offense. Muta has had twenty years of great ring entrances and essentially works as Abby here. Guy wandering around looking deranged and scary. His elbow drop isn’t as good as Abby’s and Abby can work a simple effective match around opponent stealing his fork and forking Abby while Muta having opponent dragon screw him really doesn’t mean a ton in Arena Mexico. Also the Arena Mexico crowd has become enough of a heel crowd that they react to Muta’s stuff like its camp while the Coliseo crowd seemed to have a more visceral reaction. Still Muta was hell of fun in this and the movement back and forward from guys just doing shtick and storyline to guys wrestling is what you want out of this type of main event lucha.

PAS: I liked this a lot too. MUTA is fun as an old old guy who still kind of can hit some of his signature spots at half speed. It’s lucha every weekend there are a dozen shows main evented by guys like that. Ultimo who normally works exactly like a old old guy who hits some of his signature spots at half speed, actually seemed kind of energized, with his spots being hit more 3/4 speed.

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