Pro Wrestling Revolution Road Report 3/9/19

ER: Jun Akiyama has been wrestling for 27 years, and he decided to work his first ever match in the United States on a Saturday night in San Francisco high school for a lucha fed that doesn't have any actual lucha on it. Why not? We hit up Papito on the way down, me, Tim Livingston, and our friends Sean and Jason. A good crew for a wrestling show. Papito is this great Mexican place owned by a French guy who makes fantastic food. I foolishly had a late lunch, so just sat there sipping sangria and munching chips while Tim got shrimp tacos, Sean got a pork/duck meat combo, and Jason got a great big burrito. I was jealous, but it was my choice and being gluttonous at 38 isn't as fun as it was at 21. That chorizo hamburguesa with queso fresco, avocado, and caramelized onions was staring me in the face on the menu, tempting me with greasy memories. But eating that close together would have had me feeling like total trash through a 3 hour show, so I sad eyed my way through it. We got to the show a little late, and then there was a very long line for being 20 minutes past listed door time. Our saint from above, our friend Brian was inside having come from a different direction, SAVING four other seats. This show was genuinely PACKED and that move probably got him a couple aggressive stares. It was loud as hell throughout a large portion of the night, real cacophonous gym with a full crowd, lots of air horns.

We got there late from dinner and the long line in, so we missed a 6 man scramble match. Our friend Brian - who had saved FOUR seats through a 20 minute late start time AND a full match - when asked about his opinion of the scramble match, wrinkled his nose and narrowed his eyes, and tilted his head a little. A wordless, unimpressed dismissal of six men's nights' work.

Papa Esco/El Dinamita vs. Viento/Rey Leon

ER: This was a perfectly fine tag. One of the tecnicos comes out to Sweet Child of Mine which is one of those cheesy things that means your brain is wired to become a professional independent pro wrestler. Papa Esco is a fun fat guy with a singlet that even says Fat Boy. He has a good fat guy build, nice and sturdy, bald head and big beard. He's not mega fat, but he looks like someone left Monsta Mack in the dryer a little too long. Viento appeared to be the better of the tecnicos as far as fluidity, but he was also in there more with Esco, who is the much better base. Dinamita was really clumsy during some sequences, especially poor at taking offense (which is not a good sign from a rudo), but Esco is really good at taking armdrags, has that great chubby base pendulum style bumping down. This was fine. Esco is one of the PWR homegrowns that I like, so was at minimum hoping for a decent showcase for him, and got it.

Puma Negro vs. Sonico vs. Arkedy Federov vs. Matt Fury

ER: Matt Fury was originally supposed to be Jungle Boy, but due to the week's circumstances Jungle Boy was obviously not here. I didn't catch the name of his replacement, but he was a black flier who my friend Sean kept referring to as "athletic" and wasn't sure why Jason and I kept giving him a hard time about it. He didn't repeatedly refer to Federov as "hard working" so the likely scenario is that Sean doesn't know sports code. Fury got good height on some things and hit a pretty spectacular springboard shooting star press into the entranceway onto everyone, but felt like he put more thought into ways to do high leapfrogs instead of transitions. My favorites in the match were Puma Negro and Sonico. Federov was okayish, but had some really clunky set up on indy offense. There was a moment where he did some awful 9 step set-up kind of move, grabbing an arm, dipping opponent back into a backbreaker, pulling them to feet before locking into a pumphandle, you know one of those moves that needs someone to be perfectly still while you do your 9 point pre-check before dropping them on their face. But Sonico was a real pleasant surprise, a guy I'd love to see again around here. He got real high height leaping off the ropes for ranas and had a really great fast dive. Puma Negro was an Arkangel type rudo, had a nice stiff arm southpaw lariat just like Arkangel's, good base for Sonico's ranas, had a cool sunset flip variation. Federov ends the match with an awful waffle that looked super dangerous. Overall this is what you'd like from a 10 minute 4 way.

Nicole Savoy vs. Heather Monroe

ER: A 13 minute match that probably would have been much better off settling in around 9. Monroe showed a ton of charisma and personality during her ring entrance, really looked like someone who owned the ring and would be a great heel. Once the match started that completely vanished. The way she was stalking the apron and dismissing the crowd during her entrance felt like the kind of confidence that would immediately translate to the match, but the bell rung and she was completely silent. The middle of the match was a long Monroe control segment that was easily the most quiet the crowd got all night, and her stuff didn't look great. Savoy's moments where much better, nice high kick, even better German, tough fisherman buster, big tope (that Monroe caught nicely) but Monroe took way too much of this. It's only a matter of time before Savoy is in NXT, and she's super easy to root for, but the structure of this was all off.

ER: We had an ongoing bet over how long the intermission would go. I had 33 minutes, I laughed at Tim's guess of 25 minutes. To my shock they ended up coming back right at the 25 minute mark. I HATE intermissions, while begrudgingly understanding their purpose, and PWR's intermissions are filled with incredibly loud music blared into a cramped gymnasium. If I sound old, I genuinely don't care. So I leave to stretch my legs and in the hallway I run into Roy Lucier. Roy has been the true MVP of the online wrestling community these past few years, as he's been uploading a wealth of rare and unique wrestling footage in easily searchable categories, at an incredibly fast pace. Old tape traders seem like they always get along when meeting, and he and I got to chat for a good 20 minutes. He told me about a few things he's recently received that are VERY exciting. We even talked about saving it for Christmas because some of it is a gift that has been seen by very few of us. Talking about wrestling with people is fun, real glad we bumped into each other, been a long time coming. You'll be seeing plenty of Roy's uploads written about by us over the next several (!) years.

Tajiri vs. Super Crazy

ER: This feud was pretty important to late teens me, really was some of my absolute favorite stuff at that time and really worked as one of my gateways to wanting to see more and more wrestling from Japan and Mexico. It was cool seeing them run it back now that both are in the back end of their 40s, and this felt like a fun take on the familiar Tajiri/Crazy matches only done by guys in the back end of their 40s. The speed wasn't going to be there, but the ability to work a crowd was there and they knew what they could get by with. Tajiri was getting good reactions just stalking the ring, and he amusing worked the match like a Repo Man match. Tajiri kept going for headlocks and it was pretty great, due to their expert veteran timing. It really could have killed a crowd, as the buzz would be building, fans would start loudly anticipating a Crazy comeback, and right when the comeback was about to happen Tajiri would trick him into a headlock again. Every time the crowd reaction would get louder before the headlock, before Tajiri would quiet them. Tajiri doesn't do fast roundhouse wheel kicks or high kicks anymore, but instead threw a few nice front kicks, just pushing off with a couple stiff kicks to Crazy's chest or chin. Crazy is definitely chubbier these days, but he still gets the exact same height and rotation on his spinkick, hit a moonsault off the middle that looked just like a moonsault of his from '99, and even missed a moonsault off the top that had some of the absolute best arc and grace of anyone to have ever done a moonsault. His form is still that impressive. The finish was really fantastic as the ref gets briefly bumped, and in that brief moment where the ref isn't looking, Tajiri swings off Super Crazy with a cool armdrag...and mists Crazy while midair in the middle of the armdrag. Great visual.

Jun Akiyama/Ultimo Dragon/Misterioso vs. Vinny Massaro/Colt Stevens/JR Kratos

ER: So before the match they ran around passing streamers to ringside fans, and then promoter Gabe got on the mic and explained to the crowd how to throw streamers, and I think it comes off pretty silly to do a quickie "okay Japanese wrestlers only know you respect them if you throw neon garbage at them". Akiyama does come off like a boss during his ring entrance, wearing a large robe, clearly a guy who felt like a big deal to people (actually many in the crowd) who had no idea who he was. But damn if those streamers didn't look cool during his ring introduction (poor Ultimo was a Japanese man who was apparently shown zero respect, streamers for Akiyama only. We felt bad for Ultimo). Bay Area indies have been kicking around "Border Patrol" teams since at least the mid 90s and I'm thankful as hell we don't get any bad "build the wall" shtick from Stevens and Kratos. Vinny is in for a lot of this and the fans are way into Akiyama, which felt great. This wasn't going to be some wild match, it was going to be worked like a NOAH house show match, which was just fine, all that was needed. The rudos worked over Misterioso nicely, especially loved a long full arm lariat from Vinny, and a big release snap suplex from Kratos (a snap vertical suplex, but he let go so Misterioso flew across the ring, looked great). Akiyama came in on two occasions, laid in some nice knees including a great leaping knee into Stevens, and you knew we were getting at least one exploder. They mix it up and don't just go straight for the finish when he tags in the second time, and we even got a cool surprise nearfall from Stevens. I would have loved to see the reaction if Akiyama got pinned. But of course that wasn't REALLY going to happen. This was a perfectly fine crowd pleasing main event, and nothing more, and it didn't need to be.

ER: I've still yet to see a GREAT match from PWR, and they've been around for at least a decade now. But this was a packed house, a genuinely sold out show, with a crowd that stayed loud and invested throughout the whole card. That's a special thing.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Live Report 10/27/18

Tim Livingston Reporting:


Pro Wrestling Revolution Road Report – 10/27/18

I made a day out of my trek to east San Jose to see LA Park at a high school gymnasium, getting matcha soft serve at Matcha Café Maiko in San Francisco and finishing my scenic trip down Skyline Blvd with a pizza cheesesteak at Amato’s in west San Jose. I still remember Delco’s when I was working with the Blue Jays in Florida and it’s difficult to find a good cheesesteak anywhere out here; Amato’s is basically the only place to go in the bay area for your cheesesteak needs.

Pro Wrestling Revolution has been around for over a decade and does a good job with its presentation. My first exposure to them was going down with Eric to a high school gym in the Mission District in SF to see Timothy Thatcher literally carry Blue Demon, Jr. to a very good match years ago, and they have a good following with the Latin fans in the Bay Area. The gym had the entrance across from one section of the bleachers with a ramp (short version of the old WCW ramp) and a full lighting setup that made it look pro. Gym was pretty dang full, probably 750-1000 in total. Sartorial choices were of the Bullet Club variety if they weren’t lucha-themed shirts. PWR is always good for bringing in a big name or two, and bringing in LA Park in 2018 certainly qualifies, along with Silver King (with his mask) in the semi-main. No-brainer $15 ticket here.

Card was subject to change here as it looked like Misterioso was unable to make the show which set a domino effect all the way down the card.

Show began with La Migra interrupting the Mexican National Anthem to cut a promo on how they’re gonna send Park and Damian 666 back over the wall and the Lucha Horsemen were gonna take the tag titles. It’s cheap heat, but damn it, it was good heat. Colt Stevens was looking jacked here, as was former Phoenix Pro Wrestling champ JR Kratos. You also had Sparky Ballard out in his suspenders looking like guero Tirantes (referee hate became a theme throughout the show). But it set the tone, got the crowd off to a hot start, and allowed the show to grow from there.

Cu Cuy/Grappler III/Fuerza Azteca vs. Mariachi Jr./Pantera Jr./Ultra Hashi

Fun opener that did a lot of basic stuff well to build off the promo. Hashi is basically a mini, billed at 120 and if he’s any taller than 5 feet, he’s lying. Cu Cuy is only a few inches taller than Hashi but weighs nearly 300 pounds. Does well moving around for all of Hashi’s armdrags, and has great fat boy offense, including a running splash that looks like it crushed poor Hashi. Grappler is Rik Luxury (the ¼ pound during the intro gave it away) and he gets some cool stuff in as he always does. The other three were kinda non-descript, with the tecnicos trying all types of armdrags but not landing them in the most graceful of ways. Pantera’s big high spot was him doing a pescado onto everyone for the stretch run, leaving it down to Hashi and Cu Cuy for the finish, where Hashi gets the win with a crossbody off the top. Kids were doing his pose to him as he left the ring post-match, which is basically everything you want out of the fan experience for an opener.

Ultimo Panda vs. “The Flying Lion” Marcus Lewis

Lewis wasn’t on the original card so I’m guessing he’s the Misterioso sub as he lives in San Jose, which is cool because I love watching him work. Panda is, of course, Vincenzo Massaro working under the hood, and he comes out to Gangnam Style and is over with the kids. Comedy stylings to start out as they get to do the ol’ “Panda gets tired running the ropes sequence” bit, but when it breaks down into a 50/50 match, it gets fun. Panda using his size against Marcus, Marcus using his speed and his strikes, and then some good nearfalls down the stretch. Marcus even gets sat on attempting a sunset flip. Panda wins with his FFF variation with him seated on the top rope, which Marcus bumps big on for the finish. Then they do the Gangnam Style dance together afterwards. Crowd has been hot all night and on that kick, they’re 2-for-2.

PWR Jr. Heavyweight Title: Bestia 666 © vs. Vapor

Vapor is sometimes PPW hand and DDT hand Royce Isaacs, who’s worked the gimmick in a few spots in California and it’s a good look, kind of like Bane but not on the gas. Bestia is Bestia and I kinda figured he might phone it in here, but they really go at it for a good 12 minutes or so. Vapor controls and hits a bodyslam on the hardwood before leering out into the crowd (I can’t undersell how much the crowd went after the rudos during this show). Also counters a slam into a nice Island Driver variant for a near fall. Bestia eventually comes back and hits a DVD on the apron before retaining, which is the only finish of the match I can’t seem to remember offhand. I remember liking the stretch run, but the finish didn’t stick with me. Odd.

PWR Tag Team Titles – Jungle Boy and Prostipirugolfo © vs. Lucha Horsemen

The Horsemen are Papo Esco and Arkady, with Esco’s tights literally saying “Fat Boy” on them as if they’re booking this show specifically for me. He hits a chokebreaker on the referee during their entrance so that Sparky HAS to be the referee, as he’s the only other guy who could do it, but the champs jump them before the bell to take advantage. This was the Jungle Boy show, as he was flying around and hitting his offense really crisp (along with good basing from Esco and Arkady), and then plays a good face in peril before Prosti gets caught for the longer section. When he gets the hot tag, he takes it up even another notch, clearing the ring and hitting a nice tope to the hard camera side. Of course, the match is full of Sparky shenanigans with either slow counts or not counting or derisively pointing out who the legal man was. That did lead to the finish, where a distraction by Sparky leads to a foul and a quick count pinfall and there’s new champs. For the shenanigans, at least it played into the finish. Jungle Boy was fantastic in this, though, and he seems to be getting a good run in the bay area and with good reason. Slight of build, but he can go. Also of note is the fan next to me continuing to razz Sparky throughout the match, offering him and Esco to eat some chicken nuggets. Popped some of the folks around me, but he did it literally the entire match, which got annoying pretty quickly with me. We get it: Fat guys like fast food.

Silver King vs. El Hijo de LA Park

King comes out wearing the mask, which I was a bit confused about because I remember him without his mask way more than with it. This is where they lost me with the ref stuff, as King and Parkcito take turns trying to coerce him to hit the other one, only for both of them to gang up on him and chop him down. Some matwork to start, where I hope King would work more maestro stuff than try and go 50/50, but Parkcito can go and they trade some nice holds. King starts trying to lay in the strikes but most of them whiff, sadly. Parkcito hits a tremendous tope that pushes King right up against the guardrail. King rudos it up during the second half and unties the mask which leads to him whipping the mask off on a charge and rolling Parkcito up for the win. I have this feeling it might have come off better on tape. Might be worth a second look if I can find it out there.

Cole Stevens/JR Kratos vs. LA Park/Damian 666

Place comes absolutely unglued for Park, who plays the chair as a guitar on his way down the ramp and just absolutely oozes charisma from every pore, posing on the chair in the ring and looking like the legend he is. There isn’t too much structure early on (spots were easily visibly called here) but the chaos adds to it, especially with Sparky having been involved in the shenanigans earlier on. Kratos mauling on Park is a good visual, and Damian is cool just brawling with Stevens wherever he can. Sparky gets run off (complete with going through the crowd to escape Park), which leads to the ref from the previous match coming in and becoming a part of the match AGAIN (kinda tired at this point), but he at least bumps huge on a corner charge and goes back to doing his job. Park’s belt gets involved and everyone gets whipped with it, with the ref taking the most punishment, of course. Park and Damian hit stereo topes right in front of me which makes my year. After a big miscommunication spot, Park grabs the chair, hits Kratos with it, and spears him for the pin. Folks throw money into the ring afterwards and Park acts like he’s ready to Chippendales it up for even more. He then gets on the mic and cuts a promo thanking folks for coming out to support the show (even with his “terrible fucking English” as he put it). Fun, chaotic brawl that was completely charisma driven and held up by everyone just going for it with the molten crowd, a great way to end the show.

I mean, it’s LA Park in 2018 working a high school gym in Northern California; I’ve now seen both him and PCO in the flesh in high school gyms this year and they both come off as huge presences even in that setting. Pretty sure him being there galvanized the entire card because this was good top to bottom. Nobody wanted to go out there and have a stinker with Park ready to show everyone why he’s the man, and it paid off. Well worth trying to find if the tape shows up somewhere.

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LA Park in Santa Rosa Live Report 7/28/18

ER: I got to see LA Park 16 years ago at a flea market in LA. He walked into the flea market like he was walking on a yacht. I mean, he was wearing a mint green polo tucked into tight Jordache jeans. He may as well have been a chubby Mexican Warren Beatty. He worked Shocker on that show, at a time where Shocker and LA Park were two of my absolute favorite wrestlers. 16 years later and half that statement is still true. I've had unfortunate or awful circumstances lately with all time personal favorites working lucha shows close to my area, with our devastating fires canceling a Negro Casas appearance, and then a broken rib canceling his return date. So tonight LA Park was working 10 minutes from my house and I kind of expected LA Park to suddenly retire earlier this week. But he didn't, and the match happened, and I was there.

LA Park/Skayde vs. Rey Bucanero/Damian 666

This was not going to be a match where Park was going to take one of his crazy bumps or do a dive out onto an unpadded gym floor. But it was going to be a good fat Elvis performance with plenty of brawling, and I love watching Park brawl. The match takes an odd turn pretty early, as the referee just flat out turns on Park, essentially becoming a member of the Bucanero/Damian team. I get having a rudo ref, but this guy didn't slow count, he just started putting the boots to Park and choking him in the corner with his boot. I'm not sure anybody would have actually asked for that, but our eventual payoff was very satisfying.  This match was worked like a lucha match in front of a Memphis audience. Park's belt got ripped off very early and Bucanero whipped him right across the face and chest, and twice across the back. I've not seen Park live in the era of Park belt whippings, and my gracious do those belt whippings read 300% better live. The belt snapped so loudly across Park's body that it sounded like something structural was breaking in the building. We brawl to the floor and Park really lays it in on Damian with big right hands, and Damian takes a big beating around ringside, getting shoved face first into a ringpost and getting slammed into the guardrail. Park was throwing bombs and looked huge. But the big moment of the match came when Park got revenge on everyone with his belt. And before I was verbally cringing at Damian's whippings. But Park made Damian look like a guy who had never whipped another man in front of 300 people in a veteran's building.  Park's belt shots must have felt like being struck by lightning. But the lightning really struck when Park finally got his hands on the ref. The ref was a young man, slender, smaller than any man in the match. And Park hazed him like a frat guy dishing out a racially charged takedown of a pledge. Damian and Bucanero both beg off getting more whippings from Park, and totally throw the referee to the wolf. Damian got a Coke and a bottle of water from the crowd, and offer it up as sacrifice to Park. Skayde lifts the ref's shirt while holding him in pedigree position. Park douses the ref's back in coke and water, and hits it as hard as any man possibly could hit a back with a belt. Rey and Damian stay on the floor and continue fearing the volcano god who is burning his sacrifice whole in the ring. They flip the ref over, lift the shirt again, and Park whips him right across the exposed stomach and ribs. A million times more verbally painful than being whipped across the back. Think of your stomach, exposed, getting slapped as hard as possible with a leather belt. I'd probably puked until I cried.

Now the rest of the match brought plenty of lazy and missable moments. Bucanero wrestled like he had the flu, his offense being worked at about 70%, like he was afraid to make contact with Skayde or Park. Rey went for what I think may have ben a shining wizard at one point, except his leg never came close to making contact with Skayde, so we can only wonder what it was supposed to be. He had a nice punch to a seated Skayde, and dropped a nice legdrop. But he whiffed on stomach kicks and kneelifts and barely grazed Park on a corner splash. Bucanero was not interested in showing up tonight. Skayde took most of the match off, bailing to the floor from most of Park's beatdown, disappearing to the floor later with Bucanero and doing little of note. He's slimmed back down a bit since I saw him earlier in the year, but he did nothing that would remind you of your favorite Skayde memories. That's twice now. But Damian worked hard. The man is 57 years old and isn't anywhere near as graceful as he was 20 years ago, but he hit hard on forearms and threw a couple nice clotheslines, and matched up nicely with a force of nature like Park. Park looked lazy as hell on a couple missed clotheslines with Damian, but commanded the ring like a boss, built to little moments that turned into huge moments because of his superstar aura, and gave everyone a glimpse at what it looked like to see someone perform who really understands their craft. This was not a great match. It was a basic match with a broken structure that spent half it's time on belt whippings. But to see it live on a Saturday night after driving 10 minutes with a lifetime friend? I wouldn't have wanted to watch any other wrestling in the world.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 5/16/15

Brian Cage vs. Bestia 666

This is the last match from the 2/28/15 show in San Francisco, milked to its entirety (with 6 matches stretched to fill FIVE WEEKS! of programming), so I'm excited to see what we get next week. This was a good match, the best match on that 2/28 card, and could have been a very good match if not for  rudo ref shenanigans, or if Cage had sold anything whatsoever. There was a little awkward miscommunication towards the very end, but mostly they worked together really well, except for Cage not selling anything whatsoever.

I'm not sure why but Cage always looks so much more gassed when he works this fed. His Lucha Underground body looks slightly leaner, and his PWR body looks significantly more bloated. I don't understand it. And let me explain what I mean by Cage not selling Bestia's offense: He would take moves, and do little things afterwards such as shake his head, stumble around, etc. to show that the moves has done SOMEthing to him, but then he would always immediately go back on offense. I don't think there was any point in the match where Bestia hit two moves in a row. He was working from underneath the whole match, which made the awful heel ref schtick even worse and more pointless since Cage was never in any point in danger of losing. So we get Cage dominating, and being cheated for, but we never get to see any sort of Bestia comeback. Just a slow plod towards the inevitable. And what is life but a slow plod towards the inevitable?

I liked how they started, with Bestia trying to shoulderblock Cage a bunch. I like when guys don't back down on shoulderblocks. Bestia quickly realized he wasn't going to budge him, so led him into some cat and mouse which led to a great spot, with Cage chasing him around the ring, Bestia rolling back in and fluidly hitting Cage with a legdrop off the middle rope while Cage was rolling back in. It was timed perfectly, with Bestia fluidly hopping up to middle rope and legdropping him right as Cage was rolling in (so Cage in theory wouldn't have seen it happening). Usually that kind of thing seems much more cooperative and here they nailed it. Bestia also had several cool armdrag variations throughout, which Cage took really nicely. Cage himself had a pretty nifty legdrop, working in a couple of quick sliding legdrops like Waltman used to do. The "big slams" portion of the match is fairly uninteresting, and the heel ref stuff kills any interest in the home stretch of the match, but there was good work within, and you could tell the framework of a good match was in there somewhere. I enjoyed it.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 5/9/15

1. Fuerza Guerrera vs. Super Crazy vs. El Mariachi vs. Rocky Romero

This was the main event of the 2/28/15 show in San Francisco. This show was hyped and advertised around a main event of Super Crazy vs. Juventud Guerrera but to the shock of not one person who follows lucha libre at all, Juvy did not show up and instead sent his father in his place. Now if I had gone to this show I personally would have been way more excited, as seeing Fuerza in a high school gym sounds way more interesting than whatever underactive performance Juvy likely would have put on. I've already seen Juvy in this fed and the most amusing thing was seeing what he could do without actually having to bump. If I'm going to see somebody work Buddy Landell no kneepads style, I'd choose Fuerza over the Juice. Of course, Fuerza vs. Crazy sounds INFINITELY more interesting than what we're getting here: Not only a 4 way, but with the two additions being these two duds. Talk about being elated when Fuerza comes out, to that major kick in the dick when Romero comes out. We'll see.

Annnnnnnd this match was pretty much a total mess. Everybody but Mariachi works rudo, which falls flat when they're all working each other. Crowd was noticeably less heated than normal. Oh, but Mariachi comes back at the end of the match after his elimination to do a heel turn. So that solves that? Fuerza is the first man eliminated, so when the most interesting person in a match is gone halfway through that will never help things. Romero tries to work stooging comedy heel which - believe it or not - may actually be his worst hat. I know it's hard fathoming just what Rocky Romero is worst at, but working stooge comedy when you have zero presence or charisma is just tragic. Romero excels at being bad, but there's an additional layer of badness because he seems to have no idea WHY something he's doing might not work. I have seen Mariachi several times now and he's just not good. He goes through the motions of lucha, but really just doesn't have any substance of any kind to his stuff. His execution isn't good, he routinely blows up midway through every match I've seen him in, he has no idea how to work tecnico or rudo, and he's sluggish even early in matches, his headscissors and armdrags are sloppy and implausible...he's just not good. The promotion routinely pushes him as one of their four top stars, but even they have no idea what to do with him as sometimes he's a rudo, sometimes he's a tecnico, rarely is he over. They gave him a female valet for awhile, had him giving out sombreros, any desperate trick. It hasn't worked.

So we get this elimination match, with three rudos and a poor tecnico who eventually turns, no real focus, no real plan. Fuerza is 60 years old, but did more than you possibly could have hoped for. He still throws a mean right hand and in this match he threw a couple dozen of them; seeing him wander around throwing those rights was easily the best part of the match. For his part, at least Romero did a couple decent spit takes after taking Fuerza's punches. Fuerza didn't really bump much, but damn the dude is 60. Who needs to bump at 60? My dad is 60 and hates walking more than a couple blocks. So really watching Fuerza punch Romero a bunch and kick him in the balls was worth the price of admission. Crazy tried some things here, some of it looked really good (real nice big tumbling bump to the floor, awesome tornillo elbow drop) and some of it didn't like his tarantula that took ages to apply. We've gone over Mariachi and how he's just not good, and Romero worked as expected. He threw one of the worst elbow drops I've seen. Once Fuerza got eliminated halfway through we then went into awkward 3 way dance mode and really Crazy can probably be held accountable more than most for my eyes still having to see fucking 3 way dances in 2015. Mariachi is next out and then in a completely nonsensical move comes back later to cost Romero the pinfall even though Romero was no more responsible for Mariachi's elimination than anybody else, and Mariachi had mostly paired off with Crazy. Just a limp dick finish to a match that had already gotten pretty brutal once Fuerza vamoosed.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 5/2/15

1. The Grapplers (Grappler III & VI) vs. Los Campesinos vs. Anarkia & Cazador del Alma vs. Los Chicanos (Memo Cuevas & El Pistolero)

You know you're hilariously bad at pacing your TV show when the show starts with ring entrances, then has to take a commercial break in the middle of the ring entrances, only to return for the rest of the ring entrances. I mean damn, guys. But you know? This match was actually quite good. Sometimes their multi mans can be kind of a mess, and this was still kind of a mess but had plenty of good. The Grapplers looked really good here. They're Rik Luxury and Bay Area vet Bobby Hart under masks with their long ponytail braids popping out the back. They're both the biggest guys in the match, but that doesn't stop them from breaking out some large dude topes. Hart has some cool offense and nice presence, his Psycho Driver looks crushing and rightly gets a pinfall, and I dug him slingshotting Anarkia into an ace crusher. He and Luxury bump around nicely for bigger guys. The dive train in this was a nice one, Anarkia especially had a nice one getting backdropped to the man pile. Oddly the match felt a little clipped, which would be amusing if they clipped the match but showed full ring entrances. Pistolero only got in towards the end, and other things felt rushed or skipped. Some of the match was designed to put over new valet Sada Simone who is a curvy pretty gal who apparently was on a TV show called The Real L Word, which existed, and she was on it. I don't know if it was reality or scripted reality or a drama or what. But she was on it. It is kinda funny to book a woman as distracting and foxy to men, when she's most famous for being a lesbian. The distraction spots were all clunky, through no fault of her own. The finish comes when a Campesino has Cuevas pinned for the likely win, but boneheaded referee Tom Castor stops counting the pin to tell Sada to get off the apron. I'm....unsure why he couldn't have finished counting the pinfall, as she was several feet away on the apron and not affecting the finish in the least. But then of course, as a tecnico, that Campesino has to threaten to forcefully tongue kiss Simone, while the announcer creepily chants "Beso". This leads to him losing. Woof. Still, with this fed it's best to ignore as much of the braindead stuff as possible and try and enjoy the good, and this match had more good than most. A bunch of big dives, really good performance from the Grapplers, some fun armdrags, and some decently paced action (until the too-quick eliminations).  This may have actually been the quickest paced match I've seen from this fed. Normally there is a lot of cliched rudo stalling, or ref shenanigans, or just guys that aren't good at working fast. Here they made good use of having a lot of fresh guys, as multi man matches always should. A pleasant surprise.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 4/25/15

More matches from their most recent show, the 2/28/15 San Francisco show.

1. Kianna Rivera vs. Savanah Riley

Who wants some ref shenanigans!? Not anybody! But as we all know, PWR is a big time fan of referees being the primary focus of a match. Yeah, sometimes is riles the fans up. But I bet if you asked every single fan in attendance if they'd rather see these two work a normal 7 minute match, or a 7 minute match with heel ref schtick, I would be shocked if anybody would request the latter. It's never something that makes a match better. It robs us of actual match time and replaces it with Rivera (who works more commonly as Nicole Savoy) having to argue with ref Sparky Ballard, complain about unfair treatment and slow counts. It also forces Savanah Riley to work like a total putz as due to all of the slow counts to put the ref over, she appears to have had 5 visual losses in just 7 minutes. Both wrestlers are okay workers, but hamstrung having to play second fiddle to the ref. Rivera hits a nice dive (that falls a little short) and keeps going for a KO kick, which eventually lands and must have been one hell of a kick as it keeps Riley down for an 11 second 3 count. I'm just thankful we didn't get Sparky pulling up with a bad shoulder. So in that respect, they fooled me.

2. Vaquero Fantasma vs. Gallo Tapado Jr.

This match is instantly notable as they completely edit out the ring entrances and start with both men in the ring. The main problem with this show is normally how poorly edited it is, with full entrances and unintelligible mic work and "which side of the crowd is louder" being shown in their entirety. This is one of the only times they edit out those things, which have never added one bit to the actual shown matches (that stuff is obviously only shown because the fed does not have enough material for a weekly show, so therefore must streeeeeetch every single match out for content). This shows they actually know how to properly edit a match for maximum impact, and they just choose to not ever do that.

Match itself was weird as we start with some serviceable armdrags and a crossbody exchange, but Tapado appears to get his bell rung taking a crossbody and things seem disjointed and odd the rest of the way out. Tapado is slow getting up, and Fantasma tries picking him up but Tapado clearly does not want to be picked up. But Tapado keeps bumping and going through spots, just much slower and clunkier. A couple of times Fantasma has to put himself into pins. There was supposed to be a pin reversal that ending up seeing Gallo not move a single muscle, so Fantasma had to wiggle himself into position to make it look like his shoulders were down. Then we just cut immediately to Gallo locking on a submission for the end. So....something happened here, not sure what it was. But it looked weird.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 4/18/15

We flash forward to their most recent show which is cool, this is from the 2/28/15 show in San Francisco. I have attended a few of their SF shows in the past, but this card really didn't do much for me on paper. Last year Timothy Thatcher was on the card in a singles match so that got my money. After this card I found out Fuerza worked it (in place of his son, who was announced and billed for well over a month, and shockingly* didn't make the trip) and it really would have been cool to see Fuerza work a high school gym. He seems like the kind of worker who would have some nice stuff to see up close in a high school gym. So hopefully they eventually show that match (and considering they milk every single match on a card so they can turn one card into 8 TV shows, I'm sure they will).

1. Willie Mack & Ultimo Panda vs. Los Luchas (Zokre & Phoenix Star)

Mack has been getting some nice TV time lately, not only through this but obviously Lucha Underground (I would be curious what kind of numbers this show draws. I can't imagine it's much, and it is possible that I'm the one person who DVRs it every week, but I'm curious nonetheless. PWR has not exactly been helpful whenever I've emailed them with questions) and he is a guy I love having on my TV. Crowds dig him as well and here he does a bunch of cool stuff, a guy who has some spectacular spots but also pays tons of attention to making his clotheslines, shoulderblocks and other contact look good. Maybe his best moment here was when Los Luchas were slumped in opposing corners and Mack kept charging back and forth with increasingly nasty avalanches. He kept building up more steam and just really went crashing into both guys. Sadly it seems like PWR always sticks him with Ultimo Panda, who outside of a cute mask brings next to nothing to the table. An amusing gimmick to hide Vinny Massaro cosplaying as a bad worker, which becomes not amusing when he's holding back the best worker on the show. You would think he would end up being hidden more in tags, but more often than not he works more of the match than his partner. Most of his work is shtick, or moves that take way too long to set up. Here he hits a very nice crossbody off the top but my god the set up involved one of Los Luchas holding his hand while he got to the top, and both members just standing there waiting for him to stabilize his balance. The end result only looks good if you turn a blind eye to the previous 10 seconds of men standing around waiting. Los Luchas are a shade under efficient as they never do anything memorable, but they're often put into positions in this fed to not succeed. This fed specializes in "Heel in Peril" tags meaning that the rudos don't often get to rudo, and instead are just constantly put into a loop of taking offense. Los Luchas don't do anything spectacular, but I'm sure they would work up to an occasion. Match itself was fine enough and well worth watching just to see Mack do his thing.





*not shocking to anyone

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 4/11/15

1. Damian 666, Vaquero Fantasma & Cazador del Alma vs. Gallo Tapado Jr., Piloto Suicida & Anarkia

This was from the 10/4/14 King City show, the last match they could wring from that card, and it was both amusing and a complete sloppy mess. I had not seen Anarkia or Cazador before this, and I believe they're both PWR trainees. They did not look very good, but we'll chalk that up to being new at this. There was a corner chop exchange between the two of them that seemed like it would never end. Damian, to the shock of nobody, doesn't really "show up" for these matches. He whips people with his belt, and puts about as much effort into his rope running as modern Super Porky does. Gallo Tapada is a guy I always like, because even though he has obvious physical deficiencies, the dude very clearly ALWAYS tries. Sometimes stuff doesn't look good, sometimes it does! But he puts in effort and the matches he's a part of are NEVER bad because of him. Here he stooges for all of Damian's belt spots, and breaks out a few springboard crossbodies that look like they hit with a thud. They don't look pretty, but they look effective. Fantasma runs a little hot and cold and here he was kind of stuck as Damian's lackey, but towards the end of the match he gets to break out a real nice tope. Piloto Suicida was a pleasant surprise as a guy I've seen several times in SoCal indies but hadn't seen in years. A lot of his stuff had a polish to it that the match really needed. Damian did have some fun rudo moments, my favorite being him begging off from Piloto, getting down on his knees to beg, kissing Piloto's boots...and then punching him right in the dick while he was kissing boots. Overall things were just a little too sloppy, bad lucha exchanges done in almost comical slow motion. But it still had its charms.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution 3/28/15 Workrate Report

The show starts with a really nice, well put together Perro Aguayo tribute video. Really nice stuff and I'm still just stunned by his passing. Like it just does not seem real. Really makes me extremely aware of how close to death any of us are at any given moment. It's humbling and frightening

1. El Mariachi vs. Derek Sanders (6/8/14)

Boy this feud is just dead in the water. I've seen them wrestle several times, and nothing about the matches ever feels different. I watched their hair vs. mask match and it was worked exactly the same as all of their other matches. And just like those matches this is an 8 minute match shown as the entirety of a 30 minute program. We get a long La Migra entrance and promo, which is just like all of the other ones with Derek Sanders telling the audience to SHUT UP for several minutes, and then saying that Mexicans are bad and the US is the best, really compelling stuff. Then commercials and Mariachi entrance and Mariachi tossing sombreros to whatever side is loudest, and then ANOTHER La Migra entrance and more commercials. Match started about 17 minutes into the program. I mean, we really needed to show Derek Sanders saying that he dislikes Mexicans, as many viewers could have misconstrued The Border Patrol's true intentions.

Match itself was actually the best match I've witnessed of theirs, with Mariachi actually showing presence and aggression that I haven't seen before. He came after Sanders right at the bell, and throughout the match kept going for his tornado DDT, almost trying to work it into being an "out of nowhere" finisher like the Diamond Cutter. First he tried to run up the corner with it, later the ropes, later on the floor tries to run up the apron and hit it. It lends an immediacy to things and I like it. He hits several nice armdrags that Sanders takes nicely. However, since I've seen their other matches I had a feeling which direction things were going, and sure enough it's only a matter of time before La Migra ref Sparky Ballard pulls up lame with a sore shoulder after a 2 count, and then hero ref Tom Castor runs out to deal with him. Out of all the things this fed can steal from real, actual lucha, their insistence on making referees stars that are paramount to their wrestlers is just maddening. I cannot think of a dumber reoccuring theme in all of the lucha I have watched. So of course that's a trademark that they have to lift, a tradition they have to carry on. So Tom Castor gets the biggest hero moment of the match, dispatching Ballard, but it's all for naught as Sanders punts Mariachi in the balls in all the referee chaos and that's that. I really cannot stand all the stuff with the refs, as it can never build to anything interesting, and it just seems so stupid to me to build all the biggest heat around one ref, and the big hero spot around another. So yes, match itself was fine and their best match-up together, but then end was a predictable crap pile. There is really nothing left in this feud and I really hope they stopped being booked against each other. 

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 3/21/15

More matches from the 10/4/14 King City show (that's right, King City! This isn't Salinas motherfuckers!)

1. Virgil Flynn & Orion vs. Willie Mack & Ultimo Panda

Ah Pro Wrestling Revolution, where wrestlers I enjoy go to have boring matches. And this was another program highlighting their staggeringly awful time management. This is an 11 minute match. This is a 30 minute TV show. The only thing they showed was this match. No promos, no highlights, nothing else. Just one 11 minute match, stretched out over a 30 minute broadcast. Unacceptable. And the match itself was very much nothing. I like Virgil Flynn, always love Willie Mack, and yet here Mack had one of his weakest showings. I get that this is not a workmate fed, so why would guys ever bust ass more than necessary if the live crowd is entertained? I get it. Ultimo Panda actually handles the first 50% + of this, which is bad. The guy is not good. He's fine in a six man when he can come in, hit some okays fat dude offense, and then dance while other guys do the heavy lifting. Here he works half the match around slapping Virgil on the ass and then dancing. Amusing once, unbearable after you realize this is the only match they're gonna air. Mack does none of his awesome fat dude flying spots, also relying on dancing, as well as a couple of his nice kicks. I'm still beyond tickled the promotion just calls Virgil Flynn "Virgil" on its advertising. Like what other reason could there be for that!? I would LOVE to see the one person who wanted to see Wrestling Superstar Virgil. I'm surprised they don't bill Orion as "The Viper" Randy Orion. The match was much filler. Much, much filler. Again nearly half of it was Panda working ass slapping and/or dancing exchanges with Flynn. Mack didn't do any of his impressive flying spots, instead sticking to some schtick and the occasional nice kick (I do like his fast flying heel kick). Panda and Mack hit a pair of nasty stereo over-the-shoulder piledrivers for the win, and this was essentially an 11 minute squash, broadcast over 30 minutes. Rough, rough stuff.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 3/14/15

1. Vinny Massaro vs. El Dinamita

This was billed as being from the 10/4/14 show in King City, but I couldn't find any actual record of this match taking place. It seems like it would have been earlier than that, as Vinny looked pretty flabby here, and when I saw him a week ago he looked fairly slim (for him). It's possible that he's done some hard work the last 5 months, but this fed has also pretended matches are from more recent cards before. Who knows. The match only goes about 5 minutes, and Dinamita looked really bad. Vinny always takes nice bumps and throws stiff strikes, but Dinamita looked sloppy and loose. Massaro is always really firm on things like shoulder blocks, but Dinamita kinda took a lot of this and he just throws weak chops, loose slams, attempted the Flair turnbuckle flip and didn't really pull it off, real ugly somersault senton, etc. No good. At one point Vinny did a spot where Dinamita tried to flip him into the ring from the apron (the old slingshot maneuver) but Vinny just let go of the ropes and slugged him. It made me feel all nostalgiac as the only guy I've ever seen do that was Mike Modest. I assume Modest trained Vinny in APW, and it's a great play on a traditionally silly wrestling spot, so I'm glad Vinny is keeping it alive. I know Mike was real proud of coming up with that one.

2. The Grappler III & The Grappler VI vs. Los Campesinos

The Grapplers even have trunks that say Grappler III and Grappler VI, and they're even billed as being from Portland. What a weird little in joke that none of the mostly hispanic crowd would understand. Grappler III is clearly Rik Luxury, not sure who the other guy is as he's larger than Luxury but similarly built. Los Campesinos are one of those "lucha" teams that PWR has that don't actually wrestle anything like lucha style. Instead of armdrags and playing to the crowd they do hammerlock go behinds and body slam exchanges. They're dressed like luchadors, like head to toe bodysuits and masks, but they wrestle like fucking Well Dunn. Every luchador in this fucking promotion wrestles like Rex King. It's like watching a bad southern tag under the guise of a bad lucha match. Oh shit there was a frog splash!? Why the hell do I watch this show!!??

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 3/7/15

Not sure what they're trying to do with this episode as they have Derek Sanders come out at the start of the episode with the rest of La Migra, and then we get about 5 minutes of him running down Mexicans. You know, real groundbreaking stuff like "Go back to Mexico" repeated several times. Most of it we can't hear because it's indy wrestling and it's never mic'd properly, but based on what was audible it's a promo we've all heard hundreds of times before. Now Sanders' match wasn't even on this episode, and they didn't advertise a match for him on any upcoming episode…so I guess they just really wanted to show 5 minutes of him running down Mexicans, and then show a singles match between two Mexicans? What's weirder is this Sanders promo took place on the October 2014 King City show, and the match that aired afterwards was from a January 2013 show in Watsonville, but the commentary guy kept acting like it was from the same King City show. Now, I have no idea what's to gain with pretending you were in King City instead of Watsonville. That's like correcting a police officer with "Actually officer it was my WIFE I strangled to death, not my girlfriend. You are mistaken." Both towns are places you wouldn't want to visit, so I'd love to hear the thought process behind pretending you were in the illustrious King City, and pretending the Sanders segment was from the same show as the match (even though the people in the crowd were completely different, and the walls were filled with advertisements for local Watsonville/Salinas businesses) is a weird and seemingly pointless decision.

1. Bestia 666 vs. Rey Horus

Now, I can understand why they'd want to show a match with Bestia 666, considering he was working Brian Cage on their 2/28 show in SF, but if the point was to highlight Bestia then it probably would have made more sense to show the match a week or two ago before the new show he was on actually took place. Now, last week they showed a Juvy match, which made a lot of sense since their SF show was later that night and Juvy was in the main event (although I'm pretty sure Juvy ended up no-showing and/or sending his father in his place, which really I think there's a higher likelihood of Fuerza putting in a fun high school gym performance than Juvy). So not sure why they felt the need to show a 2+ year old match and present it as happening 5 months ago. What's the difference at that point?

So I figured it would be kind of pointless to write up the match they actually showed, since it's over two years old and these two are frequent opponents. A quick search brought me to a match from 9/6/14, so I just decided to link to that one, and offer some words about it. Now I think this match was better than the one that aired, although it's not my intention to dump on the match that took place in PWR. The PWR match had less exciting sequences, and added in an extended run of Bestia climbing the buckles to get booed by the crowd, following by Horus climbing the same buckles to get cheers. That kind of thing seems like it happens so damn much in PWR matches. Yeah, I know, it's an easy way to get a reaction but man it bores me every single time. So the 9/6/14 match felt like much more of a fight, and 2 years on each guy felt more polished. Both guys had flaws, but Horus especially worked some nice real fast exchanges. A couple times it looked like the video had actually sped up, had to rewind to see if the video glitches (it hadn't). Wasn't sure what to expect and then early on Horus takes a nutty bump into the guardrail, really flying recklessly into it. That made me stand up and take notice. They each take turns chucking chairs at each other's face, Bestia lands a few stiff strikes, Horus hits a nice dive and a nice rana on the floor, overall a real fun match that didn't overstay its welcome.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 2/28/15

This week we get a match from their 10/4/14 show at the King City fairgrounds. What's odd is this was the main event of the show, and usually this promotion milks every single match on their cards, showing just one per week and making a 2 hour card last two months. But they almost always show the main event last, going through all the undercard matches first. So it's curious that the first King City match we get is the main.

1. Juventud Guerrera & Alex Koslov vs. Los Luchas (Phoenix Star & Zokre)

As expected, this was a customary Juventud indy match, where he is on the apron for 80% of the match, doesn't get involved in any situations where he has to sell, just comes in to hit his stuff and pop the crowd, then gets back out. That was expected. The match was odd as there were no real heat segments, yet Los Luchas were supposed to be the rudos (despite not really doing anything rudo-ish). So Koslov was the FIP but was never really in that much danger, and worked fairly even with Los Luchas. Juvy tagged himself in and at this point he kind of works like Rey after his 14th knee surgery, except without taking bumps. His stuff in ring looked good, threw some really nice kicks and ran some quick exchanges, but it was clear and at times pretty obvious he didn't really want to bump or practically leave his feet. At one point he hip tosses one of Los Luchas over the top to the floor, then does the same to the other, tossing him into his partner. Then he teases a dive, but doesn't dive. Then he gets out onto the apron, but doesn't dive. He did do a really great crossbody off the top in ring, but it did seem like most of the time he was actively trying to not leave his feet. It's an interesting workaround and a testament to the skills he still has, that he can still be engaging while also being lazy. Alex Koslov was fine enough here, although not doing tons to stand out. His forearms were much tighter than Los Luchas, which again made the FIP section not great since he seemed to regularly overpower LL. This was pretty much the match you would expect.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 2/14/15

The final match from the overly milked 6/8/14 Watsonville, CA show and perhaps the most intriguing as it's old lumpy Pirata Morgan working in a crappy small town with his nephew as his second. To my knowledge this is the first Demon match in PWR against another actual luchador. All the others have been against NorCal heels like various members of La Migra, or weird matches like the Jushin Liger singles match at a fairgrounds.

1. Pirata Morgan vs. Blue Demon Jr.

Well the match was not great, but it seemed like they had a plan and succeeded in that plan. It's just that one is old and broken, and the other is just not very good. But they worked a 16 minute match and had almost enough to fill the time. Morgan tried to open with some matwork but Demon is maybe the least interesting mat guy in lucha history as he's not good at conveying anything while in holds, and he can't transition or reverse holds at all. The other guy just has to stop doing a hold, then hold still while Demon locks own a hold of his own. Morgan is a fine rudo throughout this, holds the ropes in amusing ways, has Bucanero casually cheat by holding Demon's boot, blasts Demon with a few stiff rights. Morgan also hits a mean fat old guy crossbody at one point. Demon doesn't do much with his comebacks, because Demon has absolutely zero sense of comeback timing, just no clue how to build drama so the matches always just kind of end when he feels like it. Amusingly the match ends with Demon's second grabbing Morgan's boot while Morgan is shot into the ropes, Morgan turning to yell at him, Demon getting a roll up and hero referee Tom Castor fast counting Morgan. This promotion is always obliviously bad at giving Demon wins that make him look like a rudo. It's like they're booking him against their will so they try and book him to look crappy. Except that's not the case.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 2/7/15

Another match from their 6/8/14 show in Watsonville, and after this one there's only Blue Demon vs. Pirata Morgan that hasn't been shown on that card. Boy they've really made that card last damn near two months now.

1. Mask vs. Hair: El Mariachi vs. Derek Sanders

Boy this was disappointing. A hate stip matches that never actually do anything to feel like stip matches. This just felt like a regular match these two would have had, that happened to end in Sanders getting his head shaved. Mariachi was especially bad as he didn't change up his routine in the least, worked this match the same way I've seen him work every other match. There was never any desperation from either man, no struggle, just a regular match that happened to have one participant's mask at stake. Mariachi genuinely worked the match as if he had no idea anything at all was at stake. The big hero of the match was made out to be referee Tom Castor, who ran out halfway through and triumphantly threw rudo ref Sparky Ballard over the top to the floor, even though up until that point Ballard had called the match pretty normally. There was one moment where he kind of argued with Mariachi which led to Sanders ambushing him. Other than that, nothing. It was a real weird moment that had Sanders pull Ballard in the way of a Mariachi missile dropkick, bumping Ballard. Then Sanders hit a move and went for the pin and got the visual 3 count, but Ballard was still selling the dropkick. Then Castor ran out and tossed Ballard. So we get the rudo getting the visual 3 (and then some), and then the hero ref runs in so I guess things will be more fair for Sanders? Real clunky stuff. Sanders looked good throughout this, really liked some of his punches (even shook out his fist after an especially nice one) but by the end this turned to your move/my move, with no drama. Mariachi did not look great throughout, though I liked his tornado DDT that ended the match, so finishing on a nice looking move counts for something. Still, very disappointing when what should be a major stipulation ends up getting worked like other matches I've seen between the two. Man Mariachi is not good. He's real sloppy when he tries to do "lucha" spots (real ugly springboard armdrag…thing…in this), and he does goofy stuff like a horrible people's elbow variation that sees him slam Sanders, then do a way too long zapateado before leaping into an elbow drop. Not only would it look silly in a normal match, it looked completely idiotic for a tecnico to be doing it in a match with his mask at stake. Horrible stuff, disappointing and clueless match.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 1/31/15

Another match from the 6/8/14 show in Watsonville.

1. Rey Bucanero vs. Vaquero Fantasma

Hey, you know who I've seen dog it a whole bunch in CMLL the last few years? Rey Bucanero. You know who inconceivably did not dog it in a singles match at a county fair in Watsonville, California? Rey Bucanero. Combine that with Fantasma having the best individual performance I've ever seen him have, and this match turned out to me a nice little Saturday morning viewing, and one of the better PWR matches I've seen.

It wasn't long enough to actually fill their half hour, but at this point I just expect them to squander their 30 paid minutes. Heck the match ended at the 21 minute mark of the show and was fleshed out with ample "Revolution Replays" to even get it to that 21 minutes. But at least this match was actually good, compared to other light singles matches that they padded out to fill the time. They do some fun mat stuff and armdrags to start, and right out the gate you can tell Bucanero actually showed up which frankly I was not expecting. He even takes the Halloween belly first sliding bump to the floor at one point. Fantasma has been a hard guy to pin down in this fed as the promotion has him vacillating between rudo and tecnico every show with no explanation ever given. He just kind of works whatever side is convenient, but he's never come off too exceptional at either role. Here he busts ass and really aims to take out the big gun outsider. He has typically been more of a mat/brawling kind of guy but here he breaks out a moonsault to the floor and then nails Bucanero with two consecutive dives. We eventually get into some shenanigans with ref Sparky Ballard, because of course we have to have ref involvement in this fed. So even with some nonsense it was still a plenty fine match, much better than I was expecting. Then I took my cat to the vet for his annual!!

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 1/24/15

This match was from the 6/8/14 Watsonville show.

1. Virgil Flynn & Famous B vs. Willie Mack & Ultimo Panda vs. Brian Cage & Colt Stevens vs. Gallo Tapado Jr. & Orion

Seems like an odd resource allocation to bring in a bunch of talent and then just dump them all in to a 4 team tag match, but we'll see how it all goes. Virgil Flynn, who wrestles a lot all over the Bay Area (and even won the main event of the inaugural Phoenix Pro Wrestling show that I did commentary for) is billed only as "Virgil" here, and appears to always just go by Virgil on PWR shows. That's strange since he wrestles everywhere as Virgil Flynn, which makes me think that PWR is doing the world's most hilarious bait and switch, trying to lure Wrestling Superstar Virgil's biggest fan. And wrestling shows draw some weird people. People who aren't up on current names and could very well think they're seeing the same Virgil who they barely remember from two decades prior. We once saw three weird obese racist triplets in their 60s at a WWE show screaming at the black wrestlers. People are weird. I saw somebody rent War of the Worlds 2 at a Redbox because they loved Tom Cruise and didn't realize he had made a second one (he did not). People are dummies. But potentially using the name Virgil as a means to lure somebody is really something. This is a promotion who booked several Hijo de Rey Misterio matches, and while they never stated "WWE's own Rey Misterio", I''m positive that most kids and even many adults were expecting Rey Misterio based on the way they advertised him. But I mean, at least that's Rey Misterio. I'm endlessly tickled by the idea of trying to game unsuspecting ticket buyers with Virgil.

The match itself was plenty fun, although as I predicted there were too many guys so some stuff was rushed and the eliminations coming as quickly as they did was predictable and silly. Going through each of the guys, Flynn didn't get tons of time but looked good when in. He and Panda don't match up very well as Flynn is tiny and Panda is not very good. So those parts weren't the best. But he got to hit one of his awesome cannonballs into the corner on Gallo and hit a big somersault dive to the floor. Willie Mack always shines in multi man matches and this was no different as he has great looking offense that really fits a tag type setting. Cool flying offense for a big'un and at one point he took a nasty bump off a Cage clothesline. Always love seeing Mack. Panda was really in this too much. There's 8 guys, and even with the match spread across 7 other guys his act started wearing thin. A bunch of comedy spots with ref Sparky Ballard isn't my cup of tea, and Panda is just really clunky at times. Cage is humongous here compared to how he's looked recently on Lucha Underground (which was likely taped a couple months ago), and he always shows a bunch of ass in PWR. So far he's been a monster in LU, so it's weird seeing him selling Panda comedy one day and mowing through fliers the next. Colt Stevens wasn't really in enough to make an impression. Gallo Tapada is arguably the weirdest luchador to have gotten a few working dates in America. I don't know if I'd call him "good" but he always tries and that counts for something. I actually thought he was going to do a crazy dive onto everybody towards the end divetrain, but he kinda wisely pulled back and did more of a crossbody. But the guy leans into offense (didn't flinch while taking Virgil's nasty cannonball) so I never mind seeing him. Orion was your kind of workrate-y indy guy who did a couple nice things, but didn't make a huge impression on me.

Match was fun but had eliminations the way they always do in those ciberneticos: the match goes on for awhile with no eliminations, and then suddenly all of them happen within 2 minutes. I hate that, like they got the call to go home and are like "Crap nobody is eliminated! 'Sko!!" There was also a fun divetrain that was kinda sloppy, everybody was really bad at catching everybody else. Maybe I'm spoiled watching King Cuerno regularly demolish Drago, but it was kind of funny watching almost every dive end with a guy mostly missing a sea of bodies.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 12/27/14

More matches from the 6/8/14 Watsonville show, more hilarious use of paid time. Show starts off with a 3 minute Mariachi promo, then him standing in the ring while a loooong Mexican fight song plays in its entirety, then La Migra comes out and beats him down, and then commercials, and then more wrestlers get their full entrance for a match, and then they cut looooong promos. And our first match of the half hour program ends up going on 17 minutes into the show. Last week they had advertised Mariachi vs. Sanders mask vs. hair, but I assume with so little time left in the show that all we'll end up getting is that opening "Mariachi stands in ring while music plays". Think about that. Let's break it down. Let's say they get their time REALLY cheap. I have no idea what paid TV time on a Saturday morning costs, but let's say for this exercise it costs $200 per half hour. Now 8 minutes of that half hour is commercials, so really it's $200 for 22 minutes. You showed a guy standing in the ring while listening to a Mexican fight song for 150 of your 1,320 seconds. That means IF you are paying $200 per half hour of programming, then you just paid over $20 to air that. This kind of time wasting blows my mind.

1. JR Kratos & "El Chicano" Memo Cuevas vs. Los Campesinos

Well, this match happened. It was kind of clunkily structured as we start with a long heel-in-peril segment with both Campesinos working over Cuevas. I have seen one other not good match with Los Campesinos, and here they looked somewhat better but still sloppy. They both throw really ugly and poorly timed armdrags. I would have been somewhat hesitant to blame the armdrags on both of them, as Cuevas could have been responsible for taking them poorly, but they threw them this badly in the other match I saw them in. Again the promotion is obviously billed as lucha libre, but nothing in this match (or most of their matches) would ever be mistaken for lucha style. This match was just bad American indy wrestling. Campesinos may dress like luchadors, but they aren't fooling *THIS* guy. They just do a bunch of bland dropkick/arm drag/arm wringer spots. They basically wrestle like an AWA jobber tag team. Kratos is a big local guy I like a lot, and he got some fun moments of throwing Los Camps around (big deadlift fallaway slam is impressive, as Los Camps weren't tiny guys). Cuevas was more of a sneaky heel but he doesn't really have schtick, he just had to run into Los Camps (often) poorly timed double teams. He took their implausible double arm lift slam finisher with speed and impact. This whole thing just wasn't much.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 12/20/14

The matches from this episode were from the 6/8/14 show in Watsonville, CA which actually looked kind of stacked. Pirata Morgan was in the main event (against Blue Demon) and I'm very interested in seeing 2014 Morgan in a podunk CA town so hopefully that gets aired at some point. Show also had a mask vs. hair match and some other interesting sounding stuff. They've been good about showing new things so hopefully we get to see the complete show over the next few weeks.



1. Timothy Thatcher vs. El Pistolero

Well shoot, I can't complain too much about a fed who's putting a Thatcher match on Saturday morning television for all to see. Maybe it's possible that some young child will be skipping through TV channels, come across Thatcher stomping the life out of someone's arm and think, "Hey, wrestling is cool!" But that won't happen because ugh kids these days am I right? With their tablet devices and Nintendo Power Gloves. This match was mostly a Thatcher showcase, with a short fun comeback burst from Pistolero. So you got to see a bunch of cool Thatcher stuff that you love to watch in Thatcher matches. He doesn't always do things the same way, and he doesn't do things in a similar order, so they're always a treat. You know you're getting some nasty uppercuts, you know you're getting some arm work, and you know you're going to enjoy it. His arm stuff is always cool and I never get tired of seeing him bend somebody's wrist in different directions, hold down somebody's arm with his boot while he twists their ankle, stomp on somebody's hand if they are on the mat for too long. He does some awesome stuff here on the mat that's unique and logical. He crawls all around Pistolero while always keeping some sort of pressure on some tender area. Working on the arm he digs his knees into Pistolero's back as he transitions to another limb. It's stuff I haven't seen somebody else do, and I loved seeing it used here. Pistoleror's comeback is fun as he gets to blast Thatcher with some forearms and a leaping elbow, but Thatcher catches him quickly and puts him down with a Fujiwara. Note: Probably a bad idea to go into a Thatcher match with your arm already wrapped. It's like showing up to an orgy already naked. It's something that's going to happen anyway, but we prefer that it happens organically.

2. Kikyo Nakamura vs. "La Diamante Negra" Kianna Rivera

These were two women I've never seen before, who I'd like to see again some time. Match was short but both showed promise. Nakamura is a large woman who tries to work like Aja Kong, and I will never criticize a gal for that. She doesn't have the stiffness or bulldozer mentality of Aja, but she has size and attitude and is willing to take some shots. She could be one to watch. Rivera had some cool running kicks and was an easy face to get behind, so while this was probably a standard touring match or practice match for them it was still plenty fun for a 5 minute match.

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