Lucha Worth Watching: CMLL Unexpectedly Stretches Out

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

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

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

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Lucha Worth Watching: June CMLL

Puma/Tiger/Okumura vs. Drone/Guerrero Maya Jr./Rey Cometa  CMLL 6/1/18

ER: What a fun little match that snuck right up on me. I was skimming through this card to get to the Park main event, and a lot of the guys in this match have made nice improvements over the last couple years, I've particularly found myself really liking Drone. He's been working with the most confidence he's had in the gimmick, and he's been tossing out more fun sometimes trippy offense, like he's a guy trained by both Skayde and Joel Maximo. And the match delivered all the spotty goods I was hoping for. I don't know if the wrestlers and more and more pumped up from the Park crowds, but guys are working a lot more loose and playful. Puma was really soaking in the crowd and working like a dickhead, Cometa was taking bumps on his head like he was 5 years ago Rey Cometa, Drone is rolling into offense with the flair of a World of Sport guy, Puma and Tiger see who can catch a rana better, it's all tons of fun. Cometa takes a nice beating, takes a really nasty bump off a Puma clothesline, jumps off the top face first into Puma's boots and makes the spot look great, Puma catches him in a huge rana from the top to the floor and swings him into the barricade. We get some dives, some springy armdrags from Maya, fun little moments like Puma kicking the ropes as Maya was getting into the ring, big 450 from Cometa to end the segunda, just a real good go go go pace for this kind of thing.

Rey Cometa/Stuka Jr./Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Templario/Mephisto/Ephesto  CMLL 6/29/18

ER: Rey Cometa works this whole match like a Cometa reborn, acting like he's the hot new flyer in town and bringing some big flying spots and bumps. And then everybody sees that and everybody busts ass and even on a show without LA Park, they act like the big draw on this show isn't Ciber the MAIN MAN (which is a name so bad that he should come out sporting suspenders and snap them obnoxiously before hitting big moves, but that doesn't work when one of your top tecnicos already wears lame suspenders), this whole thing is worked like it mattered, perhaps the homegrown guys showing what they can do while three less talented invaders (though I do like Zorro) work the main event. Everybody is showing off and it's real fun. Mephisto does some nice bully matwork, Maya breaks out a couple big dives with his awesome tope con giro sending him flying upside down into the barricade and another tope right through the legs of Stuka. Stuka hits a gorgeous moonsault over the ringpost to the floor, Templario is a huge bumping rudo who mixes in super athletic flying, and he's a fun complement to the tougher old guys Ephesto and Mephisto. Cometa really felt excitedly reinvigorated here, and that's something I've been noticing from him lately. His big rope climb tornillo to the floor was super fun and a nice surprise, seemed like everyone was working faster to make up for a shorter match. Whatever the reason, this delivered.

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Lucha Worth Watching: 2017 Leyenda de Plata Cibernetico

2017 Leyenda de Plata Cibernetico CMLL 10/13

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

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

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MLJ: Negro Navarro, Trauma I, Trauma II vs Felino, Puma, Tiger

2015-11-22 @ Arena México (Elite)
Negro Navarro, Trauma I, Trauma II vs Felino, Puma, Tiger

I'm playing catch up from Thanksgiving here. I have more Sombra for later in the week, including a really fun trios match that I need to watch the end of and the start of his singles matches against Felino, the first of which I can't watch the end of because it's not online. I think they'll give a good look at his development over the years, however.

This was from last week's Elite show. I know we get fancams pretty quickly on these from one of my favorite uploaders but the vantage isn't always the best. This, on the other hand, is a pretty nice shot of it all. Unfortunately, I still can't tell the Traumas apart. Them matched up against Puma and Tiger is absolutely ideal though, and Felino, while having devolved into a body humor-centric comedy act over the years, can still go in short bursts making him a great potential Navarro foil. And this was a blast. I think I liked it more than what we saw of the Panthers vs Navarros match from a few weeks ago, as while the initial matwork between Navarro and Felino wasn't as good as what he did with Panther, everything else was just a lot of fun.

I'd say the weakest part of the match was the primera. There wasn't quite the sense of struggle that I look for in matwork on the level that this should have been at. There was a lot of showmanship, first between Felino and Navarro and then between the kids, and I even think there was an escalation balanced by some timely working of the crowd to help make things matter, but the weight just wasn't there. They cycled through a couple of times before escalating into an awesome spot where Tiger dropkicked a Trauma on the way out for a dive and Puma powerbomb position lawn-darted him into the guardrail.

Felino locked in the reverse figure four on Navarro shortly thereafter and it felt secondhand earned because his kids pulled off something so devastating.

I'm not a big spot guy but there is a joy in watching Puma and Tiger, and it's enhanced somehow when they get their dad into the act. Felino's much more enjoyable with them than he is with Niebla and his brother. Case in point, this spot during the cats' momentum holding into the segunda:

There was a lot of that sort of thing in a short period of time, including Puma and Tiger's usual shtick with superkicks and dragonball posing. We have a few cuts in the match, but just a few. You still get the sense of what's going on and where the transitions are. Here after a sense of superior teamwork from the cats to keep control, one of the Traumas put a hand up to stop Puma so he could posture (and thus stop beating on them). I'd like to say this was deep psychology centered around their need to play to the crowd, but that's a bit of a reach. Anyway, the other Trauma grabbed his leg which let the Navarros come back (with Negro Navarro winning with am STF to make for the parallel structure).

The tercera was pretty much what you'd want for a low stakes, high action match like this. They cycled through with guys going in and out, with spots and cutoffs and playing to the crowd and the Traumas taking it with tandem submissions. The best part about the end was Navarro's pride. It's more fun than great but I'm glad that we have it to watch even though it was on an Elite show.

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MLJ: Dragon Lee vs Virus/Casas 10: Delta, Dragon Lee II, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Kamaitachi, Puma, Virus

2015-02-08 @ Arena México
Delta, Dragon Lee II, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Kamaitachi, Puma, Virus

I've tried to avoid the Kamaitachi feud because it's been covered well elsewhere, but this has Virus in it, so I'll do a brief shot here. I think by now it's obvious that spotty wrestling isn't my favorite wrestling, in and of itself, but when someone is good enough to make those spots matter and resonate, as opposed to just rushing to the next one to get the oohs and the ahhs out of the crowd, then I love it as much as anything in wrestling. It's marrying excitement and drama with logic and meaning and big monents that makes lucha amazing, and I think, even so early into his career, Dragon Lee is well along the path of getting that. Working so much with Virus probably helped, but for his experience level, he's come a long way.

Then you have a wrestler like Delta, who has 1-2 really fantastic dives, can garner some level of sympathy in getting beaten down, and can be led in early matwork or exchanges, but ultimately doesn't seem to be able to put it all together. He was fairly well exposed during this year's Busca and it was frustrating because his big spots are so good. Guerrero Maya, Jr., on the other hand, is someone who I think we only see part of what he can do in the CMLL setting. I was very impressed with his quasi-rudo work against his father earlier this year on the indies. I could see him as the person NJPW selects to go over there for a year as he's as capable to manage a Mil Mascaras impression as anyone on the roster under the age of 50.

This was another fun trios, feeling like one of the older style tecnico spotlights until about midway through the match and ending in a way that kept the momentum going for the Kamaitachi/Dragon Lee apuestas match which was about a month and a half away. Virus was paired with Delta, Puma with GM, Jr., and Kamaitachi with Dragon Lee. The primera had  relatively brief exchanges that escalated in speed. Delta did a good job hanging (or being strung along) with Virus. They rushed to the spots here, with Kamaitachi flying in.

and a really nice flip dive by Delta:

It ended with GM, Jr. cinching his head crusher on Puma and the double stomp on Kamaitachi. The crowd (which was surprisingly rowdy; I think there was a give away or something that night) booed the tecnicos going over.

The segunda was more of the same, a tecnico showcase, right up until the point that Dragon Lee showed some hubris. You can't keep the mandate of heaven if you're a tecnico who goes to mask ripping first in a match. The second he started on Kamaitachi's mask, the rudos ran in and made short work of things, including a nasty Virus vertebreaker.

The tercera continued the beatdown, including Virus being all sorts of great, doing some tandem spots with Puma as if he was Tiger and having a really fun moment of winding up with one hand and smacking GM, Jr. with the other. The late match comeback really felt like the tecnicos just being too much and the rudos not able to beat them up fast enough, which was effective.

I usually try to gif things other than the dives, but GM, jr.'s dive on Puma to set up the finish was just too good:

That helped clear the ring for Kamaitachi and Dragon Lee and the subsequent foul and mask pull right in front of the ref. Effective. Just another fun trios. It's great to be able to pick and choose and keep up with CMLL when they're putting out matches like this (nothing groundbreaking but so easy to watch) just about every week.

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MLJ: Dragon Lee vs Virus/Casas 9: Puma, Tiger, Virus vs Dragon Lee, Esfinge, Pegasso

2015-01-13 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Puma, Tiger, Virus vs Dragon Lee, Esfinge, Pegasso

I finally made it into 2015, so from here on in, with the Dragon Lee spotlight, consider this sort of a secondary look at his year. Keep in mind, I'm only looking at matches where he's up against either Casas or Virus. The way I see it, everyone else has the Kamaitachi stuff covered. This is all additional evidence one way or another. Plus, Virus and Casas are my two current favorite guys in CMLL, so it's win-win. Anyway, this is kind of like comfort food to me. I don't know if I have a lot more to say about CMLL trios in general, but I can delve into specific performances.

Here, the rudo team was just so much fun. I like Puma and Tiger, but I especially like them when Virus is there to ground their tendencies a bit and to direct traffic. This had a ton of time in the primera, or at least it felt that way. Some of that was a testament to Virus, and to Pegasso, who he was paired with, keeping up with him. This was in front of an absurdly hot crowd. Looking back, there might have been some sort of corporate give away of tickets or someting. Some sort of promotion. I have no idea what they're chanting or who they're rooting for but they were into this thing from the get go.

Again, the get go was Virus and Pegasso, with Virus looking like the best wrestler in the world, working an inside armlock from a standing position with Pegasso flipping and twisting and hitting to get out and Virus just hanging on. Yes, he was controlling the flow of this and moving Pegasso around, but I thought it wasn't entirely apparent. It certainly wasn't even from a presentation point of view. By having Pegasso continue to fight, even as Virus remained in control, it made both of them look good.

The other pairings were pretty good too. Tiger was with Esfinge and they picked up the pace a bit. The real strength of that pairing was Tiger's personality, complaining about his mask whenever he lost an exchange. Puma and Dragon Lee brought a ton of energy to the match from the second they stepped in to face off. All good stuff. The fall ended with things breaking down and Virus and Dragon Lee going at it (after holding off from that the entire primera). Virus would catch Lee off the ropes, reversing the second slidekick of the match with his legs into a submission. Very novel spot:

Puma and Tiger are always a blast to watch. The beatdown continued into the segunda, and just watch Puma's dickishness with teasing Pegasso's corner with the tag:

They're the spottiest guys in CMLL but since things follow the usual structure, it adds instead of distracts from the procedeeings. When you add in other players like Dragon Lee and Virus, you end up with fairly elaborate spots:

Anyway, this churned a bit, with a few false moments of comeback. Eventually, the tecnicos were just too much. The rudos could withstand one attempt, but eventually they fell behind and lost the momentum, leading to flip dives by Esfinge and Pegasso on Puma and Tiger and the first real Dragon Lee/Virus exchange of the match. Thanks to some clever positioning knocking Virus off the corner, they actually made the dangling double stomp look pretty natural, which is always a plus.

The tercera was pretty much what you'd expect. Tiger and Puma acted sufficiently rudo, teasing handshakes and trolling the crowd to get heat. Pegasso and Esfinge hit their stuff. They cycled guys in and out. Dragon Lee and Virus faced off again, with Lee getting the clear visual victory, hitting his dive. The tecnicos lost the war, though, as Puma and Tiger were able to get Esfinge and Pegasso down, setting up the flip splash on both and a double pin. Too many talented wrestlers here for this not to be fun and enjoyable, even if it was low stakes.

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CMLL Worth Watching 5/5, 5/17 & 5/24/15

1. Blue Panther & Atlantis vs. Negro Casas & Shocker (5/5/15)

This was like a fun little house show touring match, without too many big moves or dives or bumps, and no real large build up to any of the falls, just four professionals who have been working each other for over a couple decades. We get a lot of grappling and mat stuff, and really what more could you want than that? Casas and Panther especially get long goes with each other, and while it's not as tripped out as they can get there are still plenty of satisfying exchanges. Both men fight over headscissor takedowns, and the best part of the match is Panther running around with Casas in a Gory Special, and Casas eventually fighting out of it and becoming an aggressive backpack on BP's shoulders, attacking him while BP fights him back. I was hoping for more with these 4 in a title match, but it was enjoyable seeing what they would do in a barebones tag on a Tuesday.

2. Ultimo Guerrero, Terrible & Vangellys vs. Rush, La Sombra & Super Porky (5/17/15)

So, this kind of immediately flies in the face of what the actual post is called, as at the time of me writing this Cubsfan did not have it uploaded, so there is no actual way for most of you to watch this match. So maybe Cubs will see this and DO THE RIGHT THING. Do the right thing, Cubs. Upload this match for fans of pro wrestling. Do the right thing.

Usually when starting a Super Porky match you can tell if it's going to be one of those times where he shows up. It happens less and less every single year, so they become easier and easier to spot. And right out of the gate this seemed completely different from every other Porky trios. He and Ultimo lock up immediately and while they're in a collar n elbow they start dishing out short headbutts to each other, and then Ultimo is grabbing Porky by the nose and punching him in the head and THINGS FEEL DIFFERENT. Porky and UG are working headlocks and Porky hits a splash, goes for another and UG gets his knees up (when have you EVER seen anybody get their knees up on Porky!?). Porky spills to the floor after UG keeps sneaking in little stiff shots, and UG barrels into him off the apron with his cool diving hip attack. Porky drew some dud partners as Rush and Sombra hang on the floor while the rudos all triple team Porky and stiff the shit out of him. Porky is trapped in the corner and all the rudos are punching him in the face and neck and head at the same time. It's brutal and finally Porky breaks free and starts punching guys, like the little fat kid pushed too far by a bully. And then they punch him a bunch more, and he runs off crying. BUT IT WAS A RUSE! Once Porky runs crying onto the rampway, he then doubles back and runs belly first into UG, sending his team down like dominos, and then runs and does his jumping taint attack on all of them. At this time Rush and Sombra opportunistically sprint in and begin kicking the shit out of the rudos. This was all awesome. Porky is great at earning sympathy, the rudos were stiffing the hell out of him, and Cubsfan just really needs to do the right thing. Do it for the boys in the back.

**UPDATE: Cubs has now uploaded it. Watch and enjoy.**

3. Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr. & The Panther vs. Felino, Tiger & Puma (5/24/15)

Okay, so this was pretty sloppy...BUT it had plenty to love. Especially the familial aspect. Family feuds are great, and while this is probably closer to Steve Harvey than Richard Dawson, we still had moments. Panther working the mat and wristlocks with Tiger to start things off is probably the highlight, as I dig how both guys move and really any match that starts with 3-4 minutes of BP grappling and doing his thing is going to wind up getting written up by me in a "worth watching" link dump. Panther's sons are not as good as Felino's sons. Not even close, really. Panther's sons usually seem pretty bad, actually. They did not look great here. They're kinda stumbly. Felino's sons are easily better than Felino at this point, and both (especially Tiger) can come across as fairly savvy vets. Felino always shows up for these non-Casas family feuds, and although he mostly hangs back here and lets his boys do the dirty work, it's great when he gets in and starts smugly running the ropes super fast, bouncing off the bottom rope to show off that he's not always some goof. BP Jr. knocks himself stupid by hitting a sloppy rana off the apron and landing head first. Elder Panther gets to foil the youngsters, and shoot, I dug it.

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CMLL Worth Watching 2/8/15 & 3/27/15

Virus, Kamaitachi & Puma vs. Dragon Lee, Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta (2/8/15)

This was from that All Elite show with Dr. Wagner and LA Park, so everybody involved I suppose had more incentive to bust all sorts of ass on a Sunday afternoon. Everybody was firing on all cylinders here like they each had something to prove. Virus hits everything here with a real vengeance but also has no problem taking all sorts of giant Delta dives. Delta hits a couple wild ones with him vaulting off the ring post for one and moonsaulting off the ring support. Maya is crazy and totally outdoes him by hitting a flip dive that sees him wind up in the 4th row. Kamaitachi dished and took here, impaling Lee with a high jump dropkick that had so much force you really bought that Lee got naturally dumped HARD on his head. Kamaitachi pays it forward by letting Lee stomp him neck first off the top through the mat. Kamaitachi takes all sorts of stuff great, whipping himself into the barrier off a Delta rana, making all the tecnicos look dangerous. Kamaitachi ends the match with the most violent unmasking I've seen, kicking Lee in the balls then punching him in the ear a bunch while brutally ripping the mask off from the bottom without even attempting to loosen the laces. Looked like he was trying to scalp poor Lee. You never know when you're going to strike trios magic in lucha, but 6 guys all working with a certain ferocity while trying to upstage the main is one way to do it. Awesome stuff. 

Valiente, Maximo & Marco Corleone vs. Barbaro Cavernario, Ephesto & Mephisto (2/8/15)

Fun little short and sweet match from that same show, that isn't given time to build anywhere, so all the guys just work harder. Everybody gets cool little spots, with Maximo getting big reactions for his awesome dive (with Barbaro hurling himself into the barrier, which he also did taking an even more brutal Valiente tope earlier) and a big rope walk splash onto everybody. Valiente hits the craziest and fastest Valiente Special that he's hit in some time, Marco throws a bunch of nice lefts, Ephesto bumps big, Mephisto brings charisma and a rad new mask for a big show, and suddenly it's all over. This probably barely goes 8 minutes but everything is hot.

Kamaitachi, Negro Casas & Barbaro Cavernario vs. Dragon Lee, Delta & Guerrero Maya Jr. (3/27/15)

A rematch of sorts from the above match, with Casas and Cavernario replacing Puma and Virus on Kamaitachi's team. And also by this point Kamaitachi had no mask and was still furious at Dragon Lee because of that. This is not as good as that above 2/8 match, as it ended in straight falls and was very short, but the work within was hot. Delta shows more life here than I'm used to, as Casas was his foil who stumbled all around as Delta got to pursue. He and Delta have a real nice fast armdrag sequence that leads to a great moment with Casas getting chased into the crowd, and then he and Delta punching each other with the guardrail separating them. We get some stereo dives from Delta and Maya, Casas giving all of the offense to Delta and Maya, Barbaro being Barbaro ( with tons of cave drawings on his body! Dug his mat stuffs with Maya), and the money is all Kamaitachi vs. Lee. Kamaitachi works real fast, cuts low on clotheslines and cheats to win. Loved the spot where Lee runs Kamaitachi chest first into the ropes to get him off balance and then whips him into the mat with a snap German. Just a brief whisper, over before you know it, but fun.

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MLJ: Maestro Monday: Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., The Panther vs Puma, Tiger, Virus

Aired: 2015-03-07
Taped: 2015-03-03 @ Arena México
Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., The Panther vs Puma, Tiger, Virus

I wanted to tackle something vaguely current this monday and I figured I could write about the parejas increibles tournament or I could write about this. I'm a lot more partial to the parejas increibles concept than a lot of people are, because I can forgive crummy matches if there's something I find fun about them, but that doesn't necessarily mean I want to WRITE about it, especially not when there's a super solid, very enjoyable trios match just sitting out there.

This was an older style of match, and I say that not with any real knowledge but just anecdotally. I've seen this style more in the 90s than I do now. It wasn't Exchanges - Rudo Swarming - Rudo Beatdown - Comeback - Reset - Exchanges - Dives - Finish, which is usually what I call A-B-A (though that's not a hugely accurate way to explain it), or the similar counterpart which skips the opening exchanges and starts with an ambush (which is my B-A-C, a little more accurate). The best way I'd explain this match would be a primera of feeling out, a segunda of cutting off, and a tercera of teased paying off shaped by the rudo leanings finally coming into play.

Let me break that down a bit. The primera had the opening exchanges and generally they went to their conclusions. I'll fully admit to getting Puma and Tiger confused sometimes (maybe for the whole match) but Blue Panther was paired with Tiger, Blue Panther, Jr. with Puma, and The Panther with Virus. Anytime Virus and Blue Panther are near each other, you want to see them go at it so that was a bit of initial frustration, but ultimately okay since all of these guys are very good. Of these, the pairing without a maestro involved was the weakest, but all three were good. It amazes me how Virus can move a body around the ring. Just little things like this:

Look at that. It's such a tiny thing, but you're watching and suddenly The Panther's on the mat, and you have no idea how it happened and then you see the positioning of the legs and it's like magic. So these went to their conclusion building from the initial BP/Tiger exchange which was very matbased to heavy rope running and The Panther hitting a tope on Virus. When he went for a second one though, he got caught by Tiger and Puma's double superkick and then their taunt. I have no desire to see a Young Bucks match ever, but were I to see one, I'd want it to be against Tiger and Puma:

Anyway, while they were gloating on the ramp, The Panther locked in a Fujiwara Armbar on Virus and the tecnicos took the primera.

The segunda revisited a lot of the previous match ups but with more intensity. Instead of simply moving on to the next after an advantage was taken, there were cut offs. For instance, Tiger was able to kick Blue Panther out, but The Panther flew in off the top to plancha him and he rana'd him out. Then Puma rushed in to knock him out of the ring, only for Panther, Jr. to come right in with an arm drag, and so on. The rudo advantage finally came when The Panther went for his roll through snap mare double jump second rope kick thing, but Virus, having been hit by it a few times in his life, dodged. Shortly thereafter Puma hit a great tope con hilo through the ropes and Tiger locked in a STF on Blue Panther.

The tercera was about teasing payoff and snatching it away. It began with Virus vs Blue Panther, which was certainly what I wanted. Almost immediately, though, Puma rushed in and interfered, kicking BP in the head. From there we get controlled chaos culmanating with Blue Panther Jr. locking in a submission he had failed to get to work earlier in the match and the Panther hitting a sort of sloppy Hijo del Santo style flipping roll up to take the match. I thought the tercera could have had a little more payoff as they teased Virus vs BP which got heat on the rudos, but they never really paid it off as much as they could have. Other than that this was really enjoyable.

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 7/27/14

Alright looks like we're back into a regular rhythm as these matches were all from the 6/22 Coliseo show.



1. Lightning Match: Blue Panther vs. Ephesto

Well damn this was great. This is like something that would pop up on some cell phone shot indy show, not on an actual TV show. We get 9 minutes of a purely grappling/mat based match that really illustrates how junk most lightning matches are. Most of them are just guys going in to show off their trademark highspots, and here two guys totaling over 100 years of age go in and show what can be done with the unica caida quick match format. It's an extra cool display knowing that Ephesto wanted to be like Blue Panther when he started, and here there are trading hold for hold. The first three minutes are just cool standing exchanges with some neat stuff you haven't seen, and once they take it to cool pendulum armdrags and mat stuff I was beyond hooked. There are some old man moments but they don't detract as they seem more real because hey these guys are old. Sometimes you're gonna end up in awkward positions on the mat. Panther playing possum on the mat before rolling through into a half crab was beautiful. Again this kind of thing showing up on TV, knowing that somewhere a couple of cool old guys are working a no bump grappling match while the cameras are rolling and not just because some flea market ring was too hard to bump on, but because it was a cool match to work is really special. [**This match ended up landing at #51 on our MOTY list, and I used this very same identical review as my review in THAT write-up! Hopefully you find more of value in the rest of this electronic post. If not, tell me that I'm cheating you by re-using 45% of the content from a prior post and you demand more original content. Then I'd likely feel bad and sorta guilty, and probably do something nice. Phil, however, would go tell you to kick rocks.]



2. Okumura, Puma & Kamaitachi vs. Stuka Jr., Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta

Well damn this was really good too! The primera was especially great. The rest of the match had plenty of nice moments but that primera was awesome. It was well on its way to making the MOTY list before finishing merely nice, instead of keeping up that pace. Primera we got all sorts of cool fast match ups, my favorite being the Puma/Stuka mat stuff, but Kamaitachi (first time I've seen him) had cool scrambly mat stuff as well and Puma looked really great. As the match goes on we break down into more 3 on 1 rudo stuff which isn't always interesting, but the tecnico comebacks were always spirited. Maya hits another crazy dive because that's his thing, Kamaitachi feels like this year's Namajague (oh where have you gone Namajague?!) as he bumps all around and looks like he's having a ball working in front of a Mexican audience. All of this was really fun.

3. Rey Escorpion, Dragon Rojo Jr. & Polvora vs. Maximo, Super Porky & Volador Jr.

This one was not as good. It was not very good in general. It's disappointing to remember the fire Escorpion temporarily lit under Porky last year, and then see him here. I've been a long time Porky defender but god is he just mostly horrible now. You occasionally see flashes here and there, but so much of what he does looks so bad and just drags a match down. At one point he gets tossed into the ropes to get kicked by all three rudos, and he wasn't even able to bump backwards into the ropes. Instead he hilariously took the kicks, turned around and walked towards the ropes, then took waaaaay to long to step through the ropes and kind of sit on the apron. It would have been a hilarious comedy spot if it was intentional, and didn't instead look like somebody's grandfather needing to find a place to sit down at the supermarket because he got dizzy. Escorpion didn't bring any of that fire towards Porky, and maybe it's because it wouldn't get returned, who knows. At one point Porky at least hit a crossbody off the apron so he tried something. Maximo looked good here and hit a wild dive, but this whole thing was a dud.

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 7/13/14

Last week we got 6/8/14 show, no we magically jump back in time to the 2/2/14 Arena Coliseo show…but then the third match (with Blue Panther) is from the 2/9 Coliseo show. So you'd think they're just showcasing the best matches from Coliseo shows until they catch up to current…but that can't be because they showed a Hijo del Signo showcase match. No "best of" would actually include a Hijo del Signo match. I don't know what they're doing here.

1. Lightning Match: Dragon Lee II vs. Hijo del Signo

Hey, you guys. Hijo del Signo isn't good. He's really bad. This match gets tons of time (for a lightning match) and almost all of it is just totally misspent. Signo is just laughably awful on the mat. He works really slow but looks completely clueless most of the time. Here he did a slow motion kick while Lee was on the mat, the whole thing looked like he was just practicing sequences and moves before fans arrived at the arena. His positioning is worse than anybody in CMLL, like he had no clue where he was in the ring at any given time. He hit a nice dive, so there's that. Lee took a crazy apron bump off a clothesline, getting dumped on his head to the floor. Lee is good for one nice stupid bump per match. Signo wins with this ugly squatting figure 4. This guy does not have the goods.



2. Negro Casas, Puma & Tiger vs. Atlantis, Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta

Really fun revanche, an immediate next week follow up to a match that made our MOTY list. This one has less bullshit than that one, but that means it also has less personality. This was still really good though. Same set up with the younger guys getting the bulk of the match to build to all the Casas/Atlantis moments. Casas is a great ringleader of the rudos and as I've said before I like how Puma and Tiger actually work as rudos, as opposed to most luchadors who just work the same no matter what the pre-match designation is. Maya's through-the-ropes flip dive is one of my favorite lucha spots, and Delta always throws in his spectacular flip dive off the ring post. Casas gets to mug and bump and his rudo bumping is always a real treat. It's a mixture of nasty spills and fun pratfalls. The nasty spill here was going down on the apron as if he was shot, putting over an Atlantis elbow. Really good match that I think just narrowly misses the MOTY cut.

3. Blue Panther, Valiente & La Mascara vs. Terrible, Gran Guerrero & Rey Bucanero

Another really fun match. Panther and GG matched up a bunch throughout this and this may have been the best I've seen GG look. He took some big bumps (including the big Jerry bump with a less graceful spill to the floor than UG usually takes, meaning this looked up more painful), and his mat stuff with Panther to start everything was good, and a fresh match up. He also took a nasty posting in the tercera. Bucanero looked more spirited than normal, although man I hate his lazy as hell standing clothesline. It has no force whatsoever and guys bumping for it always look silly. Valiente hits a massive dive that just blast Bucanero into the aisle, Terrible punches Mascara in the ear a couple times, and this just had a real good flow. Good long trios, everybody got to shine, but again I especially loved the Panther/GG showdowns. Good week of wrestling (Signo be damned).

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 7/6/14

So this week we appear to catch back up to the previous schedule (not sure what the 6 month flashback was all about, but lucha gonna lucha). These matches were all from the 6/8/14 Arena Coliseo show.

1. Puma, Skandalo & Metalico vs. Triton, Oro Jr. & Sagrado

Boy, just about as forgettable a match as you can get. Most CMLL guys have enough talent where if they're given a decent amount of time they can through together something suitable. And even though this was straight falls, it was still given over 10 minutes. And there was practically nothing memorable about it at all. Skandalo did that thing where he targets a guy's taint the whole match, so poor Oro got kicked in the taint a couple times. Triton broke out wretched early 2000s Scoot Andrews offense. Sagrado has improved less than anybody else in CMLL in the last decade. Oro Jr. did the most hilariously bad missed dropkick you've ever seen. You know that overused missed lucha dropkick? The one that happens so much that you just accept it as part of lucha instead of recognizing how awful it looks? The one where a guy kind just jumps up and lands on his tummy, basically to get into position for somebody else to do offense? It always looks bad, some guys make it look less worse. But Oro Jr. took the bad missed lucha dropkick to levels of high art here. To get into position he just dropkicked gently into the center of the ring, with no other wrestlers within 7 feet of him. Anybody watching would have had no reason to believe he was attempting to hurt somebody. It's like he just took a really bad bump from a move that never happened. So…I guess something memorable did happen!

2. Lightning Match: Valiente vs. Vangellys

Too short to be much of anything, shorter than a lot of lightning matches. Valiente blasted Vangellys with a couple of consecutive dives, although that might have been because Vangellys stumbled a bit on the catch of the first one, so when Valiente hit him he looked like he sold it by kind of tripping over a lady's purse in the aisle. For all I know Valiente was like "dude we're doing that again and you're gonna bump down the aisle).

3. Blue Panther, Fuego & La Mascara vs. Virus, Niebla Roja & Comandante Pierroth

Boy that's a WAR-like random assemblage of 6 guys right there. And hey look at that, the match was really fun. Everybody got a chance to do their thing, so we got Panther doing some fun mat stuff with Pierroth, Fuego being a nice punching bag for Virus and Pierroth. Virus was easily the star of this as he always knew what tone to hit at the right time. He stooged for Panther (though really would have rather seen them tear it up), bullied Mascara and especially Fuego, even threw in some comedy when Mascara  took his shirt off and soaked in lady squeals, Virus teased his own shirt removal before shoulder tackling Mascara's knees. Plenty of neat Virus "little things" on display here. He really throws himself into everything, and it adds to the match that he also does that on planned misses. He cuts low on missed clotheslines and leveled teammate Roja with a nasty elbow on a miscommunication spot (you know, as if he was actually aiming for the guy he was supposed to hit and wasn't expecting him to move, sending him into his own guy). Fuego ended it on a real slick trapped leg Russian leg sweep rolled into a snug submission. Looked cool.

4. Negro Casas, Rey Escorpion & Felino vs. Rush, Maximo & Atlantis

Another short match, fitting 3 falls into about 9 minutes. I mean, there was a lot of action, but when the whistle blows and there's only 10 minutes left in the episode you kinda know you're not about to watch a classic. This is kind of an odd match as Casas works most of it rudo and Rush works most of it tecnico but it's pretty clearly opposite when they're opposing each other. So Rush was kind of tecnico for half the time, except when he was being kicked a bunch by Casas. Not enough Escorpion. Escorpion/Rush would have been an interesting pairing, I don't remember the last time I've seen them oppose each other. Also, I just don't want to see Felino on TV anymore. I'm getting sick of the ceiling being "well Felino wasn't entirely miserable to watch during this match". He ran the ropes nicely at one point here. His comedy (?) is very much not funny.

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

44. Negro Casas, Puma & Tiger vs. Guerrero Maya Jr., Atlantis & Delta CMLL 1/26

ER: It's amazing how refreshing a match like this can be when compared opposite Arena Mexico main events. I've been watching Casas get his butt handed to him for months by Rush, and here we jump back to the beginning of the year and Casas is an awesome stooging heel, tripping over himself as he runs from Atlantis, hiding behind moms, taking pratfalls down the aisles while his nephews jump in to protect him. The bulk of the match is taken by the nephews opposite Delta and Maya, and every time Casas gets in opposite Atlantis he either bails or runs directly into a quebradora. Puma and Tiger look really good in this, they've really jumped out to me this year and wrestle like a couple of vets. They really know how to work rudo and bring more to a match than "athletic guys working athletically" which while it can be fun, really seems like 70% of CMLL matches are worked in that style and it can make things forgettable fast. Puma and Tiger both helped carry the psych of the match. Delta can be silly sometimes (and is here) but also throws out a neat headscissors to the floor and an awesome tandem dive with Maya past the turnbuckles. Maya is a favorite of mine and I love seeing him with a big role in a match like this. And we all do this to build to the Casas/Atlantis moments which are a blast. I just said a week ago that Casas might be the best current sympathetic babyface in wrestling, well it turns out he might concurrently be the best chicken shit heel in wrestling. He puts on a clinic here and it's funny to see him punt Atlantis in the balls considering what the fate of his own balls has been lately. Post match we get Casas riling up the crowd with Atlantis' mask and this was all a bunch of fun.

PAS: I really dug watching Casas go back to his roots as a sniveling heel. He is great in his current roll, but this is where he is a master. Atlantis is great too, and this is the kind of match that he and Casas have probably done a thousand times, and I could watch a thousand more. I thought all the young guys in this were fine, but this was all about the maestros being maestros.


2014 MASTER LIST

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Live CMLL Aniversario Review

You can get the stream here

http://deportes.terra.com/en-vivo/26907/

I'll update with some thoughts after every match

Blue Panther/Dragon Lee/Cachorro beat Puma/Tiger/Felino

Fun but not great opener, which I imagine did it’s job in the arena. Had a hot beginning, bit of a meandering middle, and a crazy hot finish. Dragon Lee was as nuts as you would hope he would be. Doing a crazy dropkick to the floor, and a nutty assisted tope con hilo. Panther also broke out a triple tope which is bonkers for such an old dude. Match was sort of neither fish nor foul though, as we didn’t get to see Panther and Felino do their thing, and they might have been better off just making the match all crazy young guys.

Zeuxis won the Copa Femil beating Goya Kong/Marcela/Estrellita/Amapola/Tiffany/Dallys la Carbina/Princess Sugehit

Match with some highs and lows. The luchadoras cleared went all out for the big stage, and this had some big spots, although that ambition led to some stuff that didn’t look particularly good. I hadn’t seen Zeuxis before, she had some very crazy moves, including an asai moonsault and a bunch of nasty suplexes which ended up dropping ladies heads on her knees, although in between spots she would often look lost, she felt really indy. Still I was never bored.

Volador Jr./Mascara Dorada/Valiente beat Thunder/Euforia/Mr. Niebla

Short and mostly uneventful. Nibela has the outfit of the night so far with an awesome Kiss combo mask and paint. Match was mostly Thunder as a giant with everyone trying to knock him down, and he is not very good at wrestling. They had a nice dive train, but outside of that, this wasn’t very good, but it was compact.

Barbaro Cavenario beat Rey Cometa in a Cabellera contra Cabellera

Good match, although a step below a real MOTYC. It had each guy throwing out all of the crazy shit including Cometa opening up the match with a moonsault off of the ring entrance, and Barbaro hitting his superfly splash to the floor which is my favorite spot in wrestling, it is so reckless and violent looking. I still am not used to wager matches as spotfests, which is what this was. I need something a little more violent and a little less exhibitiony for me to truly fall in love with it. Still very much worth watching.

Negro Casas/Shocker beat Rush/La Mascara

Match of the night so far. I am never going to get tired of Rush and Casas beating on each, and Rush was at his douchebag best, smacking the old guys around violently slapping and dropkick them. Casas was firing back and using his guile to catch the younger more powerful team unaware. Rush was a beast in this, as was La Mascara and you really got the sense the veterans escaped with their titles by the skin of their teeth. I also liked Casas getting a bit of revenge for getting steamrolled for his hair.

Ultimo Guerrerro v. Atlantis

Wow. Totally exceeded my expectations. Really felt like a classic mascara contra mascara match. The stakes felt really high, two huge stars wagering their masks, which made every near fall huge. Ultimo Guerrero was throwing huge bombs, and Atlantis was trying to survive and catch him with the Alantida, there was a great moment where Guerrero hits the superbomb, rushes in an gets caught with the Altantida, only to have Atlantis collapse against the ropes unable to hold him. I didn't love the finish with UG hitting his reverse superplex, which is always a kill shot, only to get two, and then get caught in the Alantida, almost felt like Atlantis no sold it a bit. This was a superhero in a mask match, so I forgive it a bit, but I thought it was slightly abrupt. Still this might be the MOTY, I will have to rewatch it, but it felt huge. Postmatch is great with UG surrendering his mask while his family is sobbing and the crowd is throwing money

Such a treat to get to watch this live, and while some of the undercard was slightly disappointing, that main event was a treasure. 

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