Found Footage Friday: IWRG RETRO~! HIJO DEL SANTO~! SUPER PARKA~! REY BUCANERO~! SCORPIOS~! CEREBROS BEFORE CEREBROS~!

IWRG Retro 11/12/22

Guerra C3/Multifacetico 2 vs Super Atlas/Epidemia 2/21/02

MD: Quick opener in two caidas. Guerra C3 would become Cerebro Negro but here he was capitalizing on the prequels with a Star Wars gimmick. I don't think we've ever written about Epidemia here but he had cow-print type pants and passed himself off as a virus with that. He was paired with Multifacetico 2 in the primera and they had a solid mat exchange, nothing fancy but some struggle in there. In the segunda, when the rudos took over, Atlas hit pretty hard while Epidemia had a lot of dropkick set-ups (like out of a stunner). Both of them were throwing themselves into the dropkicks. The big comeback was basically Multifacetico pointing to the ceiling and tricking Epidemia, which as big comeback moments go, was dubious at best, but this was fun for what it was overall.

Azor vs Neblina 7/28/96

MD: Azor was a short lived gimmick (hawk mask with wings on the side) for the young Dr. Cerebro, and what I can tell you from seeing this one was that he absolutely had it early on. Talk about a guy who just got it. There was nothing innovative or fancy here. He just beat Neblina all around the ring, peppering in kicks and knees and shots, choking him on the ropes and, once they got to the segunda, pulling on the mask and working the wound. He just had this confident, consistent way of moving around the ring and drowning Neblina from having any space to move. There was chicanery between the ref cutting off Neblina's comebacks and Azor's second (Samoano) sneaking in to help at times, but that didn't really detract. Azor was just able make the most out of all of it. Neblina's comeback, when it came, mostly involved getting cut off a couple of times, the expected quebradora and some revenge mask ripping. Azor had won the primera with a hidden object of all things, slipped to him by his second and then placed into the tights and at the end of the segunda, Neblina got it and smashed Azor with it, but in front of the ref to draw the DQ. Nice early look at Cerebro here.

Hijo del Santo/Mascara Sagrada/Super Parka vs Scorpio, Sr./Scorpio, Jr./Rey Bucanero 12/2/1999

MD: This started with a rudo beatdown and never really settled down into exchanges or sequences, even over three caidas. Old man Scorpio was a sight, carrying a proper gut with all the heft to his blows that came with that, with a face that seemed to be melting right off of his skull, held on maybe only by his mustache, long hair that screamed for an apuestas match, and a surly disposition that leaned towards sneaking in a foul whenever he could. He directed traffic like the best of the rudo captains and for most of the match it worked. When it didn't, Santo was able to dodge a shot and the tecnicos got back into it, both in the primera and to set up the finish in the tercera. You had to like the balance on the rudo side, with Bucanero bringing some flash and innovation in his offense and his bumps, carrying Super Parka over his shoulder into the corner (until he crashed into it himself), skidding across the mat to the floor face first later. Scorpio, Jr. could bring some speed and intensity to the beatdown and then recoil from all of Santo's comeback shots on the floor. On the tecnico side, Parka got to dance and spin when clowning Bucanero and Sagrada was where he ought to have been when he ought to have been there, but all eyes were on Santito throughout. During the second comeback, he fought off all comers, slipping on one submission after the next. The finishing stretch was nothing if not amusing, with Scorpio, Sr. pulling a ref down to take the flipping senton for him and then hitting a perfect foul with no ref to count it. Santo got his revenge with a foul of his own but by then the ref was recovered and he drew the DQ. If this led to a hair vs mask match, I hope that gets uncovered as well, as it was a great finish to build anticipation for such a thing.

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New Footage Friday: Nuevo Lardeo Super Card

This looked like an all-timer of a discovery, and only ended up being a cool novelty

Full Show

Damián 666/El Hijo del Diablo/Espectrito I/Super Crazy vs. Gitano/Mini Rey Misterio Jr/Rey Bucanero/Zorro

MD: This was a ton of fun. I've seen less atomicos with a mini than you'd think and maybe that means that the novelty still gest me, but Mini Rey was really good in his underdog role, Espectrito was very good getting punked by larger guys as a counterpoint, and Damian was incredibly giving (and a real louse, cheating when he didn't have to instead of facing Rey straight!), to the point where I came out of this thing primarily wanting a singles match between him and Mini Rey. I never expected the two of them to be the main pairing for the match but it absolutely worked. Everyone else worked, but maybe not too memorably. I lost track of Zorro after the primera and only caught track of Bucanero at that point. There was a little clipping too but you could tell this was fun nonetheless.

La Mascara vs. Antifaz del Norte

MD: Not going to lie. I'm not sure who Mascara is here, but I thought this was pretty good. They shook hands right at the start, as this was a title match, but Mascara started with the cheapshots almost immediately thereafter. Antifaz had just begun to get back in it when the brazen double-teaming set in and he had to spend the rest of the match fighting the odds. To their credit, they made it fairly compelling and you felt the triumph of his win in the segunda, just as you probably felt like the screwy finish for the tercera made the journey they'd taken you on a little less worthwhile.

Arandu/Pimpinela Escarlata/Pirata Morgan/Psicosis vs. Felino/Mascara Sagrada/Super Parka/Vampiro

PAS: We really only get parts of this, and it gets cut off in the second fall. There were some highlights, with Pimpi looking like a total killer just unloading all of the tecnicos including big overhand right chops and flinging chairs. There was also a great Psicosis vs. Felino exchange, not sure how many times those two interacted, but man did Felino's speed and Psicosis's recklessness meld well. 

Pierroth vs. La Parka

MD: We got a little burned on the promise of this, because really what we have here is most of the primera and segunda and just some clipping of the tercera, but it's ok. I really loved those first two falls. I also really loved the finish. What I didn't love were the glimpses in the tercera of the ref interference, so I'm almost happier not having it. We lose the very initial scene-setting of how Pierroth takes over, but between the heel ref and everything else, you can guess. The beatdown's good enough that it doesn't matter. Pierroth has great clubbing blows and both of these guys can milk absolutely everything, from a punch to the gut to a chairshot on the floor. There was mask-ripping, blood, Pierroth just being a total jerk, and it had that one core element you want from an apuestas match, from lucha in general, that buzzing build towards a comeback. 

Pierroth planted him with a power bomb and the beatdown continued into the segunda. The buzz built too, to the point where the fans were chanting for Parka while Pierroth was all but laying on a chinlock. So it built and built and built, until the lightning crack of Park's kick to the side of Pierroth's head, the greatest thing that can possibly exist in pro wrestling, the moment of comeback in an apuestas match. These guys really milked it too, with Parka having to really fight back after that moment. He did though, getting amazing revenge by wrapping a chair around a trapped Pierroth hanging on the apron. The ultimately finish played off the powerbomb in the primera and that will always work for me. A tercera for an apuestas matters so much more if you don't know the outcome; here, we did. What we didn't know was when and how Parka was going to come back and how that would shoot through the crowd like electricity, the build and the payoff. That's what I want and that's what I got here.

PAS: This is one of the legendary holy grails of lucha libre, a huge drawing feud and one of the bigger mask matches of the 1990s. We have had highlights before, and this looked like it was going to be the most complete version. Unfortunately while we get the first two falls which were great, the third fall was basically clipped to incoherence. There were glimpses of cool shit, though. I loved Parka just slamming Pierroth in the temple with punches, and the big Parka enziguiri was incredible, looked like he beheaded Pierroth. But man this was such a mean tease, hopefully someday more of this will arrive.  

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New Footage Friday: CASAS! AJA! MEIKO! SANTO! PANTHER! TARZAN!

Máscara Mágica/Olímpus/Silver King vs. Guerrero de la Muerte/Negro Casas/Rey Bucanero CMLL 6/29/96

MD: I love dropping into a moment in time like this, even for a mid-card feud with some great window dressing. This set up a Welterweight title match between Mascara Magica and Guerrero de la Muerte which would then set up their apeuestas match, and I have to admit, this actually made me want see all of that. They worked well together, with Guerrero standing out as a particularly effective clubbering bully that could still turn it up a notch. That's to say I didn't mind that the focus of this one was on them and not Casas and Silver King, not that we didn't get some great stuff from each individually and together. They played Sharp Dressed Man for both sets of entrances and Negro Casas had fun with it. He danced and hugged the ref with the expected audacity and familiarity so the pre-match is great. There are certain wrestlers you don't want to take your eye off in a match, no matter what is happening. Terry Funk is one. Casas is another. For the primera, they paired Olimpus with Casas and Bucanero with Silver King, which made sense. Young Bucanero, as always, was ambitious but not always entirely smooth. I loved how Casas reacted to basically everything Olimpus did (even when in a simple hold, as Olimpus would go for the chin or the hair or an arm, etc., Casas just was totally on all the time in his complaining and reacting). We did get some good Casas and Silver King time in the segunda and tercera, with the usual rope running trip spots that no one did better and some fun brawling through the ropes to clear the ring for Magica and Guerrero at the end.

ER: Great match, I loved this. I haven't seen much Guerrero de la Muerte, and I'm not sure I've ever seen Olimpus, and that already helps make it a great on paper match for me. It has two of my all time favorites in Casas and Silver King, two guys I've seen a ton and like in Magica and Bucanero, and two guys who are new or relatively new to me, one of each category on each side. The guys I loved did things that I loved, it's fun seeing the elements of Bucanero that stayed as he matured and the small things that didn't, I loved the rope work of Olimpus and the overall rounded professionalism of GdlM. Everybody fit into their cog nicely, the pairings all looked good, and we got a couple of things I've never seen. Casas and King were the highlights, with King especially moving blisteringly fast. I love seeing these two move, and they both looked excellent. King broke out this cool looking spot, where he and Bucanero had been working a nice sunset flip sequence. King kicked out of one and Bucanero went for another one, and King just tried to run away during the flip. The spot looked minorly blown when Bucanero nudged by him, and the spot became something unique and special. If it started as Bucanero slightly missing his mark and sunset flipping King after a delay, the moment Bucanero was sliding down King's back to pull him down by the legs, King starts to move with Bucanero on his back! So Bucanero was being blocked by King while King basically held him in position for Omori's Axe Guillotine Driver. It was a cool visual, pulled off quick, and felt like something innovative we'd see in French Catch. All I see now is 50s French Catch in wrestling, even if there is zero chance those wrestlers ever even heard of French Catch.

Bucanero wrestled more like a junior (and was sized like a junior), and he still had his lunatic fast spills to the floor. Bucanero was a longtime favorite of mine for the many ways he knows how to get to an arena floor, and is still capable of surprising. The peak of his powers was around 2001, when he and Christian were having weekly TV contests to see who could take the most bumps over the top to the floor in a match. Here he is not taking high bumps to the floor, but fast beautiful lucha rolls to the floor, the way a veteran luchador knows how to kind of back handspring through the ropes to the floor after taking a dropkick.  Young Bucanero, wearing gorgeous plate glass tights, had veteran level bumps to the floor at age 21. Olimpus had a couple of great ropes moments with a couple of nice tricks. I loved the moment at the end of a caida where Casas ran in to break up a pin, and Olimpus ran in the ring behind him to spring off the middle rope with a dropkick to the back of Casas's head. in ring springboard senton to a standing opponent is a fun signature spot, and it was hit and reversed in satisfying ways here. I don't think Olimpus has much of a rep, but he has few enough matches that maybe I should go through an under 10 match Olimpus run, while also doing an under 10 matches Babe Richard run, since there is some overlap with each in the same match. Is it stupid to go through and review the 20 or so available Olimpus and Babe Richard matches before I go through and review 20 or so available Javier Llanes matches? Almost certainly! Will that make a difference? Of course not. Casas made Olimpus look plenty good in their exchanges, and King worked fast with all the rudos. Seeing King try to actually take out Casas's feet with dropdowns during a sequence is just one of those signs that guys are taking their best shot at making this match a good one, and I grinned the whole time.

Aja Kong vs. Meiko Satomura GAEA 12/15/01

MD: At the 22 minute mark here I turned it onto 2x speed so I could just get through this. I was pretty much done after the fourth death valley bomb. I was probably done a minute or two before that. It's a me thing as much as anything else. What I post on the blog is basically what I watch: old French wrestling and what we find for NFF which is basically lucha, German Catch, old Japanese TV and handhelds and occasional territory stuff. The other guys watch things more broadly and much more modern wrestling. The point is that I am not at all mentally prepared for twelve minute excess-laden finishing stretches that end up being more than one third the total length of the match anymore. Wrestling isn't math, but I think that's probably my rule of thumb: while there can be exceptions like anything else, a finishing stretch should be a lot closer to 1/6th the length of the total match than 1/3rd. If anyone wants to engage me on this, I'm happy to write a couple thousand words somewhere. Otherwise, let me just talk about the rest and not drag down NFF.

What I love about Aja, especially Gaea era Aja is that her matches tend to be like thought experiments. Like Hansen and to a degree Brock, what makes them so fascinating is watching how her opponent tries to handle the unstoppable force that she presents. Meiko, obviously, was presented as a force unto herself, but she came in prepared for and experienced against what she was going to face and that let them work in some more early counters. Even so, Aja took most of this on the notion that if she can get her hands on you (and that means running into her hands as well), she's going to cut you off. Her opponents are always working from a point of disadvantage, which with a normal monster heel would be a perfectly fine narrative point, but with Aja means even more. She can attack from all sorts of different angles: my favorite here was when she just sidestepped Meiko and tripped her to cut off a comeback corner charge. I also liked how opportunity-driven Meiko's comebacks were. After getting battered around the ringside area, Aja placed her back on the apron and she used the higher ground for an axe kick in a way that felt perfectly strategic. Later on, Aja dropped her onto some metal with a brainbuster, but the ref demanded the object leave the ring before counting the pin, letting her come back with another Pele kick. She went to that well once too often and the finishing stretch (overextended as it was) was entered by Meiko realizing she didn't have the right distance/angle and jamming herself on launching another which let Aja clothesline her instead. The match was full of little touches like that which kept things both believable (human) and interesting for the first two-thirds. And I'll just leave it at that.

PAS: I agree with Matt, this match really could have used an editor. We only had a clipped version of this match before, and I imagine it might have worked a bit better as a clipped match, as it might night have felt as bloated. Still Joshi has a maximilist style and this is a pair of great wrestlers to watch overeat. Awesome Aja performance as she demonstrates again why she is one the greatest monster heel wrestlers of all time. Violent and brutal offense, mixed with perfectly timed moments of vulnerability.  Meiko is awesome in this match too, she has such credible offense, and is great at finding and taking advantage of openings. She has really good boxing for a pro-wrestler who doesn't throw punches. There were awesome moments where she uses head movement to evade shots, and she fires in these killer fast combos to the face. There were lots of moments when this would have have been an all time classic if they had ended there, and there were just too many of them. I did love the actual ending though, Aja's one count kick out is the best one count kick out I have ever seen. Total hubris, like a fighter who stands up too quick from a knockdown, instead of taking the moment to clear her head she bolts back up, only to get put back down. We just needed less nearfalls before that.


El Hijo Del Santo/La Mascara vs. Blue Panther/Tarzan Boy Monterey 1/1/06

MD: If we were going Epic/Great/Fun/Skip on this, it'd be Fun. Mascara was, not unexpectedly, the weakest link, but that's not to say he didn't carry himself well given who he was in there with. You'd get a 'rana that looked a little off but it'd follow three or four exchanges that hit perfectly. My favorite bits in the match weren't the perfectly smooth Panther vs Santo exchanges or the usual joy in seeing Santo's signature spots, but instead his interaction with Tarzan Boy. They had been on the same side of trios and at least one tag back in 98-00 when Tarzan Boy was much younger and after the tecnicos took the first fall here, Santo patted his cheek and shook his hand only for Tarzan Boy to return the favor. That felt like it really paid off with Tarzan Boy catching Santo with a powerbomb for a pin later on. My other favorite bit was Blue Panther using the drop down double leg nelson move we've been seeing from France so often lately to submit Mascara. The tercera was a little loose and free, feeling more like a local show than something for TV, but there were a bunch of tecnico dives and everyone went home happy. A good match with flashes of excellence from two of the best ever, and we're never going to complain about something like that popping up.

PAS: I love formula lucha libre, as a wrestling style performed well it has the highest floor. A basic househow lucha match is better then any other kind of houseshow wrestling. This is a match with two all time greats, a solid young wrestler and a competent hand, so it is going to be super entertaining. Santo and Panther are two of the most perfectly matched dance partners ever and we get some gorgeous exchanges between the two, some classic Santo dives and nifty interactions between Tarzan Boy and Santo, which had a bit more roughness then the smoothness of Santo and Panther. Mascara was pretty replaceable, but didn't do anything giant to drag down the match.

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New Footage Friday: Dick Murdoch! New Kobashi/Kikuchi vs. Can-Ams! Infernales vs. Villanos in TJ!

Dick Murdoch vs. Johnny Rodz WWF Kuwait 1984

PAS: Murdoch is on one in this match. Three stooges selling, phantom air punching, multiple shoving matches with the ring announcers, just the full Murdoch. Rodz was a fun foil in this match, but my goodness what a Murdoch show. It was clear that he was going to take everything to 11 in front of a crowd who may not be familiar with wrestling, so he was especially off his rocker here. There may be five minutes of shtick before the first lock up, some all-time atomic drop sells, everything you would want from a showman in front of a small crowd of Emir’s in a carpeted soccer stadium.

MD: We had a few Kuwait matches to take a look at. After a scan of a few matches (including a pretty fun Adonis/Murdoch/Smirnoff vs. Morales/Johnson/Gama Singh cage match and a 25 minute tag with a fake Masked Superstar, Don Muraco and DeCarlo/Bellomo!) this was the way to go. Two immediate thoughts. First, one of my favorite matches of all time is Funk vs. Martel from Puerto Rico from 1986. In it, Funk wages an indirect war with the entire country of Puerto Rico. This kind of feels like that, with Murdoch spending more time arguing with the crowd and menacing the PA announcer than fighting Rodz. Second, you know how even in the most serious matches, Murdoch ends up stooging in the third act. Like in the amazing Karl Kox match? Here, you don't get anything but the stooging. It's the purest distillation of comedy house show Murdoch and it's a thing of beauty. The way he shooting gallery walks across the ring after getting hit by Rodz is amazing. His reactions to the PA guy calling out every bad thing he does? Brilliant. His stagger shadowpunch selling? He wasn't wrestling for the empty back rows; he was wrestling for someone on Mars. The crowd was a constant buzz. Rodz did his part, but you get the sense he was just happy to be there. This is in no way good but it is in every way great. Dick Murdoch, walking contradiction.

ER: You see some on paper potential for a Murdoch being Murdoch match, and then something so bizarre comes along and ends up out-Murdoching any kind of Murdoch you were hoping to see Murdoch. First, let me say that I really loved Johnny Rodz here. It's tough being the straight man forced to play things normal and not look like a nerd while your opponent is duck walking around the ring and starting fights with timekeepers. Rodz bumps really big for Murdoch to keep him looking like a threat while Murdoch is hilariously stooging to fill in the gaps. There's no chance anyone in the crowd knew who Murdoch was, but because of the work of both men they all got to see Murdoch as a very believable threat and total buffoon. I loved Rodz' big bump off Murdoch's 2nd strike of the match, staggering fast 3/4 of the way across the ring and spilling hard into the ropes, and later Rodz does an awesome twist on Flair's corner bump, flipping over the top and landing hard on his butt on the apron. Murdoch is a great striker, but Rodz had a big variety of shots that made him look super credible. I especially liked him hitting a leaping punch to Murdoch's beer belly, then tags him in the chin when the gut punch causes him to buckle. Obviously Murdoch is a master. He was his own one man Ministry of Silly Walks here, doing this absurd straight leg/straight arm waddle while being punched, and clearly peaking with his atomic drop sell. Murdoch sells an atomic drop like someone who is dangerously close to shitting their pants, knees buckles, on his tip toes, asshole clenched, rubbing out his tailbone, while also moving his hips as if he was working out a major wedgie without using his hands. He punches the air and flops face first with his butt in the air, he punches the air and gets kicked over onto his butt, and every second of it is great. These two men reached people who - honestly - they couldn't have actually known how to reach. They just did what they knew how to do in the most exaggerated way possible, bringing the gift of stooging to Kuwait.

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi/Kenta Kobashi vs. Doug Furnas/Dan Kroffat AJPW 10/7/92

MD: There are a lot of batches of these handhelds. For instance, there's a batch of AJPW dates that we've barely looked at because they were followed so quickly by first Fujiwara vs Fuchi and then by the new NJPW set. This was part of yet another group where we knew these aired on TV but generally JIP or clipped and sometimes just as part of a digest of finishes. As best as I can tell (and I double checked it with Ditch, so we'll call it the best I could tell), only four minutes of this actually aired on TV.

That means that we have for you a never-before-seen-in-the-wild Kobashi/Kikuchi vs Can-Ams match, another iteration of one of the best tags of the 90s.

This is a good and interesting, but lesser version of the match-up. For one thing, the crowd, while definitely abuzz, isn't quite as electric. Also, there isn't quite the same commitment to a singular theme that makes the May match such a great Southern Tag.

This had another six months of history behind it and definitely some of the same elements. I love how Kroffat and Furnas can draw heat in this setting. Every time they cheat or even take a shortcut, the crowd boos. Some of that is Kikuchi's charisma or how beloved Kobashi was, but I think a lot of it is respect and admiration for Furnas and Kroffat. They really lean into it. There are two moments in the match where Furnas comes in behind an opponent who is fighting back against Kroffat and grabs him for a belly to back; the fact they repeat the spot later on adds more than it subtracts because it doubles down on the theme and it gets a reaction each time. I do think overall, there are a number of individual reactions instead of the sort of building one you get in the May match. Ultimately, they instead build to some pretty cool spots and a moonsault that the world for how hard Kobashi had to work for it. Ultimately this was good stuff that couldn't live up to what they'd already laid down months before.

PAS: I thought this was tremendous, their May match is of course an all time classic, and it is so neat that this big run of HH’s had given us two other versions of that match up. Kikuchi is of course a legendary face in peril, and he takes the expected level of beating here. Kroffat was especially nasty throwing knuckle punches like he was trying to open up his eyebrow, Furnas also bends him in two with a variation of a torture rack, which really looked like a guy being tortured. Lots of cool cut offs in this, Kikuchi flies into Furnas when he was about to leap into a rana, Kikuchi grabs Kobashi so he won’t get double team, only to pay the price when Kroffat lariats him off the apron. Video blips out a couple of times so we miss a shot or two, but we are still totally blessed to be able to check this out, and all four guys are at their prime.

Satanico/Rey Bucanero/Ultimo Guerrero vs. Villano IV/Villano V/Atlantis Tijuana 2001

ER: This was from a real hot time in TJ, tons of big talent was coming through fresh off the demise of WCW, and more talent was coming in from CMLL than any time since. This was also around the time me and some friends made some trips down there to finally check out Auditorio Municipal de Tijuana. I got to see some cool things there, and now Roy Lucier is posting a ton of handhelds that not many others have ever seen. This is a great house show style match with some great bits, spirited performances from everyone, and a nice build to a big dive finish. Satanico was an absolute machine in his early 50s, punching everyone in sight, working as ringleader of his Infernales goons, and throwing in a genuinely hilarious spot where Atlantis gets him to flinch and take two fast back bumps in anticipation of getting hit. All of the comedy worked, and there was a really good Bugs Bunny Duck Season/Rabbit Season joke where guys kept turning over sunset flips to favor their side, so the tecnicos flipped it on them and made Infernales flip their own man over, a really fun take on an old spot. Later I laughed when Atlantis started chasing UG around the ring and UG was running full speed but also Atlantis threw out practically a dozen tilt a whirl backbreakers (I know he's slower now, but I have no clue how he has any knees left at all) and worked with big energy; both Villanos looked good, and one in particular (I'm not going to bother to guess which one, as there's no way I'm reading a roman numeral IV or V on a handheld that I'm watching on my phone) has this awesome sequence where he hits a pop up rana, armdrag, and sticks the exclamation point with a cool cutter. All of Infernales alley oop avalanches got real good height, and I laughed at Bucanero/Guerrero locking on their overly complicated rolling leg bars and armbars, because everytime they would roll through Satanico would stroll over and just grab a free limb and start yanking. This was also during the period where Bucanero was maybe the biggest bumper in wrestling, and here he slides to the floor to challenge a Villano to slugfest, then brings it to the apron and takes his big vaulting bump over the turnbuckles to the floor. This all comes to a head with both Villanos hitting stereo dives, capping off the kind of fun and charismatic 15 minute match that anyone would love to have seen live.

MD: This was a blast. The New Infernales were one of the best acts in the world at the turn of the century. Satanico is probably the best guy in history at directing rudo violence. Atlantis was at the height of his power here and the Villanos were Villanos, nothing more said. The initial beatdown was fluid and solid, with everything the Infernales did smooth and practiced. They made each bit of complex tandem offense look natural, like it's obviously what would happen if these three goons teamed up. Even when something didn't quite work perfectly, it still felt like it fit into the match. I really liked the corner alley-oop. I've seen a million GdI matches and they very rarely use it. It made for a great transition. The back half of the match was mostly them feeding comedy spots for the tecnicos. You can hardly imagine Ultimo Guerrero running from Atlantis like that even a year or two later. His knee-bump over the top was at hyperspeed and Bucanero did this twisting trip flip bump over the other turnbuckle which I don't remember seeing him do too often (probably for good reason). I liked the extra (post-)post-dive wrinkle to the finish as I thought it'd end in the ring between Atlantis and Satanico. Just crowd pleasing lucha with some of the best acts in the world at the time.

PAS: This was a very CMLL trios for 2000 Tijuana. Pretty trippy to see these guys work in a different environment. Infernales were just such a smooth lucha machine, the first fall is rudo dominated and dominated in a pretty perfect fashion. Bucanero and UG's shtick eventually began to tire me in 2000, but I can really appreciate it looking back 20 years later. It was fun to see the Villanos who are such master rudos themselves work as technicos against another rudo force. Atlantis is great in this too, he was so fast and agile back then, and having watched him for so long, I was really getting a lot of joy anticipating where he was about to go. Beautiful bumps to the floor from Gdl, in a way that felt totally safe but looked totally dangerous which is really the best way to do it. Great stuff, had a grin on my face the entire time.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Niebla's Return! Mephisto's Title Loss!

Mr. Niebla/Mephisto/Rey Bucanero vs. Diamante Azul/Dragon Lee/Mistico CMLL 3/12/19

ER: This was Niebla's return to Arena Mexico after 6 months of suspension, and he kind of owned it. Niebla owned this with the confidence of a white dude waltzing back into his old government job after accepting a voluntary demotion. Niebla was walking around ringside slapping fives with regulars like someone greeting people at the You Served Your Time cookout thrown in his favor. This is a total throwaway straight falls Arena Mexico main event, but I love that straight falls because Niebla lost the first fall for his team because he was kicking too many asses. Always feel bad for the tecnico getting his hand raised because his ass got kicked too hard. This whole thing just livens up the second Niebla high-stepped it across the ring to palm slap Mistico across the dome. I was dying. It looked like a hilarious move Sandman would use to kick someone off the Apollo stage. Niebla just slapped his way through this whole match, in the ring and out, and it was great. He mugged with fans, slapped face, and looked like a megastar. Azul hits a great dive, Bucanero throws some nasty chops at Mistico's throat, Mephisto plants Dragon Lee with a powerbomb, the whole thing was short mean and triumphant.

Mephisto vs. Dragon Lee CMLL 3/19/19

ER: A match that lost me at points during the long tercera, but that overall felt like a big enough match for a title to change hands. I know lucha titles don't mean a whole lot to American fans, Mexican fans, or the promotion themselves seemingly, but it feels like Mephisto has had this thing for ages and that should mean SOMETHING. They went big enough with this that it felt like a big stip match, so I think it earned it's third fall bloat. Also, I just really liked Mephisto in this, especially his work in the primera/segunda, but he had plenty of nice rudo moments in the tercera. It really felt like a guy sadistically beating down Lee, smacking down this punk coming for his belt, and that's a great pro wrestling feeling. The primera is short but mostly matwork, and it's cool to see Mephisto work some maestro exchanges that we don't often get to see from him, some cool tricks like standing on Lee's foot while shoving him over. He controls all the matwork, and when Lee breaks free into some rope running he immediately tricks Lee into a pin. And then Mephisto only gets MORE dominant in the segunda, when he starts stalking and dishing stiff kicks. He does a flapjack and hits a mean kick on the way down (possibly because Lee didn't get as much height as expected), and then does a second flapjack, Lee gets tons of height, and then gets kicked just as hard on his way down, again. I liked Lee's selling during these nasty kicks a lot, as he showed great pain through the mask, and was also working to loosen the area of his mask around the nose, freeing up the pressure and selling it like Mephisto had broken his nose [note: if I find out later that Lee just got his nose broken, forget all the stuff I said about good selling]. Mephisto goes on to throw a few more kicks, slowly, confidently, letting Lee crawl around on the mat while he would come in with a hard kick to the face or chest, letting the crowd really build a Lee comeback. The comeback stuff wasn't as exciting to me, as we knew we'd eventually get a long series of nearfalls, but some of them I really liked and the match threatened to lose me at a couple points but never did. There was always something to bring me back into it, like Mephisto casually waiting on the apron to catch Lee's high jump rana and just planting him with a nasty powerbomb on that apron, or Lee crashing fast into Mephisto on two straight topes. There were at least two moments where I was positive Mephisto had sealed up the title defense, and while I didn't love a couple of the kickouts in this I thought the overall excitement level sustained. Mephisto is 50 now. He lost his title that is a thing. Now he needs to go on more grimy indy shows like Ultimo Guerrero and be an old guy asskicker.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Heavyweight Cibernetico! Sangre Azteca Stomps Balls!

Kraneo/Valiente/Rush/Volcano/Blue Panther Jr./Diamante Azul vs. Shocker/Rey Bucanero/Terrible/Gran Guerrero/Euforia/Ultimo Guerrero  CMLL 10/9/18

ER: This was a match I didn't really know I wanted until it was right in front of me. A 12 man cibernetico with heavyweights, not a fliers showcase, but a fun heavyweight spotfest. Rush is the fun monkeywrench in this whole thing, and while the teams are divided into tecnicos and rudos, there are still teammates that hate each other and everyone is mostly out for their own interests. Plus it was a good chance for some guys like Shocker and Rey Bucanero to show they can still go in the right situation. Bucanero is going for 2002 status here which is a shock since I saw him live a few months ago and he never moved faster than walking speed. Here he hits the somersault senton, takes a classic Bucanero bump over the top to the floor, gets nailed with a dive, clearly looked like he was working hard here for whatever reason. And everybody was. I'm not sure what will make a bunch of guys in CMLL suddenly make the decision to work hard in a random match, but this whole thing felt spirited, guys worked snug, made the match feel more important than it likely was. We get a lot of Kraneo and a lot of Volcano, and let's just talk about how silly it is to have the two largest guys in the fed (largest guys in lucha) both on the tecnicos side. We need one of the big guys to be rudo and we can then build to a Clash of the Titans. Kraneo is great but was better as a rudo, but also way over as a tecnico, so I get keeping him where he is. I think Volcano and his modern take on Roadblock's gear (his Caltrans vest highlighter and weird brown back brace) look pretty doofy, but maybe working rudo would open him up a bit. Panther Jr. turns in a nice tecnico performance here, Valiente hits a big dive, Terrible don't care who his partners are for the match, he's still gonna stomp out his enemies, Azul gets his class Mexico mask shredded, whole thing was fun. Ciberneticos feel like more of a thing I wanted when I first started watching lucha, but this unexpectedly delivered. Less spots than your typical ciber, but more character and tight work. That's a good trade.

Sangre Azteca/Metalico/Nitro vs. Oro Jr./Star Jr./Retro CMLL 1/15/19

ER: Stiff work and plenty of shtick will almost always win me over, and this undercard gem easily won me over with both. Rudos worked stiff and tecnicos bumped big, and this thing didn't need any dives to make it a ton of fun. Azteca was a real standout and he's a guy I've always really liked, someone whom I assume there must be backstage reasons that he's never been moved up the card before, because he's been great as long as I've been aware of him. He makes it his mission in this match to stomp all over the tecnicos butts, balls, and loins, and succeeding in his mission. At least once a match he usually throws his big high angle dropkick right to the balls (do we not do faultas anymore?) while an opponent is seated in the corner or being held spread eagle...well, here he does that like 7 or 8 times, flying into the corner with precision shots, teasing doing one from the middle rope but then climbing to the TOP rope to drop straight down like Slim Pickens riding a missile to straight to tender tecnico loins. He even kicks the middle rope as Retro is climbing back in the ring, the lucha equivalent of the turkey tap. Nitro gets in on the action, dropping a great elbow drop off the middle rope. Metalico was Metalico, and I love Metalico, so he was taking pratfalls and throwing nice big hooking lariats (Oro Jr. took four lariats in a row, really throwing himself back and landing on his shoulders with gusto), and bailing on the tercera by ripping off a mask rather then suffer a pinfall defeat. Oro Jr. had a really nice performance for a tecnico I don't often notice, I was really impressed with how he ran into rudo strikes. Star Jr. is kind of like Soberano Jr. but with floppier limbs, but he still snapped off a really cool headscissors that was like a cross between a smooth lucha headscissors and a Marty Jannetty one. Retro appears to be working a 70 year old Mil Mascaras gimmick, but his shoulderblock hits snug enough and he leans jaw first into a low Nitro dropkick, and those are a couple things that will at least get you into the 490s of a 500. This match scratched a nice lucha itch for me. A match that might seem inconsequential, but having something like this that doesn't steal flash from later matches, while still presenting high end work, is an important part of any card.

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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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Lucha Worth Watching: Leyenda de Azul Cibernetico

Leyenda de Azul Cibernetico (CMLL 12/22/17)

ER: Ciberneticos are a fickle creature. It doesn't take too much in one direction to make them good, and it doesn't take much in the other direction to make them totally skippable. This one already starts as a win as Mije and Zakarias sit on the entranceway steps with their heads in hands, as if they're sitting on a curb waiting for their parents to pick them up after soccer practice. Then you see that referee Edgar is sporting cornrows and you know it's going to be a great cibernetico. The strength in a cibernetico is always the action that happens before the eliminations. Eliminations typically come quick and are predictable, and often unsatisfying (and you know there's going to be a double elimination), but the work that takes place before pinfalls start is gonna make it worthwhile, and this had some great action.

Ultimo and Euforia start of with some fast matwork, the kind that UG doesn't often do in CMLL, and it's fun as I don't recall these two ever going opposite each other. It never gets mean, but it's a good exhibition. Bucanero and Terrible do more of the same and we get a nice fun engaging scrap to our cibernetico. Stuff bumps up when Kraneo splats Vangellys with a big legdrop, but then gets backdropped over the top to the ramp, Kraneo taking an awesome big fat guy bump to the ramp and down the side stairs, with Vangellys immeditely shifting his focus and hitting a big dive on Misterioso.  We get a fat guy showdown between Niebla and Kraneo, and Niebla had a pretty nice showing. Maybe the key to Niebla now is just thinking of him as the new Super Porky. Don't be mad at him for having trouble standing up or kind of standing still while people get into place around him, just get excited for the 1-2 matches a year that he shows up for and just enjoy him slapping dudes the rest of the year. With this match and the Caifan match this is two straight Niebla matches where he utilizes his hip swiveling and silliness much more like Dusty than just a fat goof. It's a fine line. But I loved Kraneo slapping him, with every slap leading to Niebla turning around and slapping someone else on the apron. He and Kraneo are the fattest in the match, so I'll always love the two bigguns exchanging armdrags. Shocker has deflated a bit so he's not as fat (you can really see it in his arms, Shocker has really small arms now). Vangellys is the sneaky pick to be 2nd fattest in 2019. Nobody is getting as fat as Kraneo, I really don't think there's a luchador in history who is as big as Kraneo. But if something stressful happens in Vangellys' life, I could see him hitting the tortas pretty hard. Later on Niebla works a couple complicates armdrags with UG, and does a fired up Dusty act against Bucanero, swiveling his hips and pop locking with his legs, even flicking his own nipples. I don't think I've seen the nipple flick before. I'd much rather see that than the loogy.

Hechicero was treated like a big deal here, so much so that I thought he would win. He had a cool run  where he did his nice middle rope dropkick to knock Sanson to the floor, then gets Mascara Ano Dos Mil to the floor, then taps Vangellys with his awesome inverted bow and arrow choke. I was the drum beater for Pierroth the last couple years and haven't run across too much recommendable Pierroth this year, but I really liked him here, easily best Pierroth moments of the year. We get a nice old guy battle with he and Mascara, we get an actual Rush/Pierroth face off which is something I've never seen, with Pierroth actually soccer kicking Rush before they stand up. Then, he sweetly brushes the hair out of his baby boy's face, and tenderly kisses him on the forehead (much to the hate of the Arena Mexico crowd). Later he helps Rush pin UG from the floor, grabbing his son's hand in a perfect Schwarzenegger/Weathers Predator handshake to give Rush pinfall leverage. I wish Kraneo and Rush got more of a showdown but we did get one, with Kraneo bumping big for him and getting a soccer kick as a thank you. We end with Euforia/Rush and I was rooting for Euforia. He's got kids, man. Euforia takes his always nice ringpost bump and eats a Rush flip dive, and the Rush win is academic. Afterwards Rush stomps on the Blue Demon plaque and HOW COME I HAVE NEVER SEEN THE HORRIBLE BLUE DEMON BELT BEFORE!!?? Has this awful thing been around for years and I somehow keep missing it? Or did I always just stop watching the match after the pinfall and never watch the award ceremony. Oh man that belt is awful. Wearing it essentially gives you a Kuato growing out of your torso, or turns you into Krang's mechanical suit. Just Blue Demon torso flexing around your stomach. It's awful. And the best way to end this cibernetico.

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Lucha Worth Watching: More Familia Pierroth! More Mascara!

Rush/Pierroth/La Mascara vs. Terrible/Rey Bucanero/Shocker (CMLL 5/13/16)

I realized I had skipped a couple matches in the Pierroth/Mascara saga, which I have absolutely loved. The was the Ingobernales EXPLODING and it was great. Mascara and Pierroth come out in matching yellow on black masks, and Rush/Pierroth are on fire the whole match. Father and son, juiced to the gills, stooging and stiffing. Pierroth starts things with a running dropkick to Shocker, pops Terrible on the apron and then stomps on a displeased Shocker's head a bunch (Shocker pays him back with a post-match stomp to the back of the head). Mascara's timing screws everything up for the boys, forcing them to look like doofs and hit the wrong guys. C'mon, Mascara. At one point Rush goes to do his soccer kick taunt, drops his invisible soccer ball, Pierroth goes searching on the mat for it, finds it and tosses it back to Rush...who then Pele kicks it into the crowd. Holy shit. Lucha Azteca are ignoramuses and rob me of hearing crowd noise during that segment. Shocker looks slow and a step off throughout, but Ingobernales cover nicely for his shortcomings. Bucanero looks fired up though, and hits a nice crossbody to the floor on Rush/Pierroth. But you want to watch this for Rush and his dad, their cross ups, their beat downs, their ousting of Mascara. I just adore the asshole charisma that Rush and Pierroth bring to this.

Pierroth/Kraneo/Rey Escorpion vs. La Mascara/Terrible/Shocker (CMLL 6/10/16)

Here is some more of the saga to love. I mean, when Kraneo is in a match there is ALWAYS more to love, but take a look at that rudo team! That's a rudo team right there! It's not a team for everybody, but a team of lumpy asskickers is a team for me. Even the entrances are fun as the rudos won't let the tecnicos get into the ring, and as Mascara comes out Pierroth meets him on the ramp and they start beating the hell out of each other. Rudos easily dispatch the tecnicos and it leads to all those great moments of Kraneo and Escorpion holding Mascara prone so Pierroth can land cheap shots in between shit talk. And damn does Pierroth beat down Mascara. I love that overhand chop-knife edge chop combo he does is an awesome strike that he uses so effectively, and here he kicks Mascara's butt into the crowd and plows him into the announce station. Then Pierroth backs down a fan like Vader backing down police dogs!! Shoot even Mije gets in on the beatdown and starts lobbing kicks at Shocker's eye. Jesus, Mije. Pierroth and his thugs get DQ'd for being merciless in assbeating, which has to be like winning a fight because the other guy broke his fists on your nose. The rest of the match isn't quite as exciting as the primera, but the tecnicos get an admirable comeback, Pierroth shows ass by taking his own bump into the announce tower, then gets his mask ripped off by Mascara. Mascara gets his fired up pants removal spot and I pray for a cocky Pierroth coveralls removal spot...AND WE GET IT!! It's incredible. He rips open the coveralls, and then Escorpion starts helping, like a gentleman removing a lady's coat at dinner. And then Pierroth takes forever because coveralls are really hard to take off over wrestling boots, so Mascara attacks!! Nothing else could have happened in this match and if I got that spot I would have loved the match. We get a double ballshot finish, but with some expertly timed interference spots. Pierroth is prone and Mascara is running in for the kill, Escorpion comes out of nowhere with a perfect trip allowing Pierroth to kick some BALLS! Then Shocker makes a last minute save by pulling the ref away before the 3 count, allowing Mascara to punch some BALLS! I really love this feud. Pierroth beats the hell out of Mascara, and then has no problem leaning way in on payback superkicks, and there's just so much attitude and hubris on display. It's too much fun.

Dragon Lee vs. La Mascara (CMLL 7/29/16)

And now we get the great rudo Mascara, picking on Rush's little baby bro, and rudo Mascara is goooood. He's wearing absurdly small trunks that say "Papi", he oles Lee right into the barricade on a tope, powerbombs him into the jagged metal announcers station, rips at his mask, throws some brutal low superkicks to a slumped in the corner Lee, and then puts the exclamation point on things with a swift kick to the balls to end things. Mascara is coming for the Pierroth family's testicles. This didn't get much time, Lee didn't get a whole lot of shine in this, and it really could have used a Pierroth pull apart at the end, but I love the angle of Mascara being the good guy against Pierroth, but being a sadistic asshole to his sons.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Tournament Lucha!?

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

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

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

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

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Lucha Worth Watching: Spry Panther and All of the Ranas

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

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

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

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

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 24: Héctor Garza, La Sombra, Shocker vs Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Texano

2011-08-26 @ Arena México
Héctor Garza, La Sombra, Shocker vs Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Texano

I'm being a little choosy here. I can't watch every trios match and pick out the best one. Some of what's interesting in watching lucha is doing just that, looking at how a wrestler works the same opponents (or the same set of opponents) week after week, in front of the same crowd, quite often when there's almost nothing at stake. I'm trying to hit more of a broad cross section with Sombra though. I had picked a trios against Negro Casas, Mr. Niebla, and Felino, because it's worth everyone seeing La Pesta Negra at least once (and maybe only once), but when I went to watch the match, it was actually Olimpico in there instead of Casas, and while I like Olimpico more than most people, I don't like him nearly as much as Negro Casas.

So we're going with this instead. TRT (Terrible, Rey, Texano) was another perfectly serviceable trios with matching white hoodies and a lot of dynamic tandem offense that leads to a gif worthy match. It's a good match to see what Sombra could add when he's not the focus too. Much more of the story of this was Garza clashing with ref Tirantes. Garza's irascible scamp act worked equally well whether he's tecnico or a rudo. Sombra was there to provide some of the big action mainly.

Structurally, this started with a rudo swarm and ambush, which let TRT get in all of their offense in the primera, which they won handedly. The comeback in the segunda was more chaotic and less iconic than usual but that sort of felt novel. There were just bodies everywhere. It culminated with Garza reversing an assisted power bomb attempt off the top into a Rana. I always like it when the comeback is just a little more earned than usual and that was the case here. Tercera had a lot of cutoffs and spots, with the overarching story focused on Garza and Tirantes. Generally, I hate rudo heel focuses to matches but here it was just at the margins, not driving the action but affected by it. In the end, he allowed a rope assisted pin on Garza, but called for the DQ after a triple foul on Shocker. I think that was supposed to be a big moment for Tirantes. I know he's considered fairly lovable now.

As for Sombra, he mostly stayed out of the way of the storytelling while adding that flair and flash, which can be a very important role to play in a trios match. It would have been a lot clunkier and tedious without him. He hit this one flip to apron handstand rana outside that was just nuts, as well as some fun "vs the world" sequence in the tercera and eating hot death on a redirected dive to help set up the finish (by getting himself out of the way) I'm not sure I'd ever seen that specific rana before. Good stuff, but we'll move back to a tighter focus next time with his Universal Tournament win (probably skipping the actual tournament itself and going to the finals).

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 11: La Sombra & Volador Jr. vs Atlantis & Rey Bucanero [CMLL TAG]

2009-04-07 @ Arena México
La Sombra & Volador Jr. vs Atlantis & Rey Bucanero [CMLL TAG]

So yeah, it's probably good to watch until the end of a match before judging it. I thought I was going to end up writing something about diminishing returns and the frustration inherent with watching too much of a wrestler, especially in lucha, especially when they run the same sorts of matches week after week and in front of multiple audiences. Cubsfan wrote something recently about the frustration of CMLL thinking there isn't overlap in front of its crowds in what they watch.

This match was heading the same way. Yes, there are some common tropes in lucha. I talk about the structure a lot, but there's a huge difference between holding true to a primal structure that works and hitting the same exact specifics the same exact way. Obviously wrestlers can't twist things in every match or else eventually wrestling would become a self-referential mess, and there are always signature spots and counters and transitions, but there has to be a balance and it has to be consistent within the world that the wrestlers inhabit. Someone who's never used a powerbomb before trying to powerbomb Kidman is problematic. Flair forcing people into his spots can be problematic in the same way. Maximo using the same butt stop on the second rope as his comeback in most of his matches tends to work because it's easier to set up. Rey Mysterio, Jr. using the 619 tends to work because he is like a sharpshooter, working the move into his strategy. If people just haphazardly ended up on the ropes, it'd be different. GdI having their opponents' comeback almost always be on the second alley oop works sometimes and not others. It generally depends on the execution. They're such dicks and so arrogant that it's often believable, especially since it usually leads to them taking the first fall; why not do it again, even though it never works. It would be nice if they DID hit it once in a while. One of my favorite moments in watching wrestling was seeing Tully Blanchard hit a double axe-handle to a prone opponent off the second rope. Why? Because I've seen that move countered a thousand times by a babyface getting his feet up, but I'd never seen someone actually hit it before. Execution makes a difference.

Here, a tecnico advantage in the primera exchanges ended abruptly with a shot from a rudo knee on the apron off rope running. Then in the segunda, the tecnico comeback was punctuated by kicking Rey Bucanero into the ropes so he could eat Volador's dangling legdrop which was followed on the other side of the ring by Sombra hitting the split-legged moonsault. These were the exact elements that I saw in the previous matches, just repeated. The difference, though, made it all worth it. Towards the end of the match, they went for that spot again, with Rey kicked into the ropes. This time though, Rey caught him in a goofy combo and Atlantis got his knees up. The physical execution of this wasn't perfect, but the idea absolutely was. I love callbacks like this, within a match, between matches. It's the ideal opportunity provided by the 2/3 falls format. I really think we'd all be better off if more matches went that way. I watch indy tag spotfests sometimes and there's just this dropped moment after a big move where a pinfall would make so much more sense and would better control the sense of escalation.

Volador and Sombra kicked out at two from the reversals. That was a great near-fall because it was set up to be. In general, this was a solid match. The beatdown didn't live up to Casas/Heavy Metal and the action in general didn't live up to Casas/Felino but Atlantis and Bucanero showed a lot of character. Also, despite having a lot of support coming out, they were more traditional rudos. Bucanero especially seemed to get heat, which helped the emotion of the match. This one had me worried for a moment with going back to the same well but they were smart enough to switch it up. I do wish that Sombra/Volador hadn't dressed in the goofy mixed gear though. Even the announcers got switched up on who was who once or twice. The Sombra/Volador team really did lead to some strong matches.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Great, great stuff.

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

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CMLL Worth Watching 8/9/15 & 8/28/15

LA Park, Atlantis & Volador Jr. vs. Rush, La Sombra & Dr. Wagner Jr. (8/28/15)

LA Park's big (and he certainly is big...) return to Arena Mexico! The prospect of seeing Rush vs. Park is something that should be high on the wishlist of every lucha fan, and those two together here was magic. Neither holds back, with Park tossing out some nasty headbutts during a headbutt exchange, and several times kicking Rush right in the face. I've seen some people complain about Rush taking liberties, but he never seems to have any problem leaning face first into offense. Park is a tub now, but he still has that Park magic. He still has a way to go to get to full on Kraneo level mega tub. Kraneo is probably better than Park in the ring at this point, but he doesn't have nearly the same level charisma. Clearly we need them to combine fat forces. Anyway, everybody tries to steal the spotlight in this one, and the fans are amped the whole time. Atlantis, Sombra and Volador all took turns seeing who could take the most dangerous ass over crown bump over the rail into the crowd. Sombra did it a couple times. We get all sorts of bullshit leading to the end, all of it pretty fun, with Atlantis going for the Atlantida and accidentally swinging Sombra into the ref, then some ball shots, then Park breaking up a pin by dropkicking the ref (couldn't he have just kicked Sombra....), then a demasking and more ball shots. Park hits a fat guy tope that Rush mans into, Rush hits a gorgeous high speed swan dive, Volador hits a sweet slingshot rana, Wagner hits his somersault dive high and hot on Park, and this whole thing was as good as you expected it to be. I'm not sure if this was a one time deal or not for Park, but I loved seeing him. A Rush feud would be tremendous.

Ephesto, Mephisto & Luciferno vs. Atlantis, Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta (8/9/15)

This is for the trios titles and while it was a fun trios match, it never had the immediacy of a title match. It didn't feel any different from any of the other regular trios matches these teams had around this same time. There was really no drama of any kind. No desperation, no fear over losing the titles, just three falls of standard lucha trios. So that stinks. But the match was fun, so that doesn't stink! Delta is a guy I don't need to see as often as I do, but Maya seems to be steadily improving. I love that one of his regular spots is hitting a super fast dive that sends him into the front row. Here he hits his massive flip dive and then takes out a row of chairs, clotheslining some fan in the process. Ephesto sets up Delta's stuff about as well as possible, even gamely waiting around for his little ropeflip headscissor from the ring to the floor. Atlantis is still super spirited at 53, and at one point he comes in and hits backbreakers on all three rudos with more energy than anybody else showed. All three tecnicos hit stereo dives, but really it was kinda weird how standard the finish to a title match was. They did their dives, Atlantis got back in the ring with Mephisto, and Mephisto hit his top rope pedigree for the win.

Rey Escorpion, Rey Bucanero & Terrible vs. Mistico, Valiente & Volador Jr. (8/9/15)

Super quick paced match with both Reys having a contest to see who could SUWA more rana and headscissors from Mistico and Volador. I think Escorpion wins it, but truly, we ALL win. We. ALL. Win. Escorpion really makes Mistico look maybe the best he's ever looked here, with Mistico getting crazy air on a bunch of stuff and Escorpion catching it all perfectly. Bucanero makes Volador look super smooth. We don't get the usual Escorpion or Terrible violence, although we do get probably the most violent "tie the tecnicos up in knots" posing spot. Tecnicos get all their limbs tangled, Mistico stretched over the top of them, with Escorpion posing on top. I will never complain about a fun bump clinic with excellently hit spots. This is a fun way to spend 10 minutes of your day.

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CMLL Worth Watching 8/23/15 & 9/11/15

Blue Panther, Dragon Lee & Stuka Jr. vs. Kamaitachi, Ripper & Rey Bucanero (8/23/15)

Oh man this was fun. Nothing at stake, just all these guys you like doing things you want to see. Bucanero and Panther get a long roll on the mat, and it never fails to impress me how smooth a fluid Panther still does things, rolling through a leg lock or doing a side roll to advance a transition just isn't done better by anybody else in lucha, let alone guys half his age. In the segunda he locks Bucanero into an ankle lock that actually looks like it hurts, a rarity! I live for these little 2 minute mat segments of Panther. Even doing things like quickly bumping through the ropes to the floor are done like he's not even in control of his body, his muscle memory just allows it to happen. Like he bumps backwards off a shoulder block, out through the bottom and middle rope, lands on his feet and has no idea how he got there. His body just knows what to do. Ripper brings back his gorgeous flipping Cassandro bump, kind of fusing a somersault Hamrick bump to the floor with a Cassandro wrap-around the post bump, and Stuka's signature stuff always impresses me. Lee/Kamaitachi has been one of the more fun match-ups of the last year as they always go hard at each other, with each taking stupid bumps at awkward angles, both working blindingly fast and really know each other like the back of their respective hands. Lee always flies stupidly into Kamaitachi's rampway sprint dropkick, always dumping himself ass over elbow, Kamaitachi also dumps him with a couple of rolling Germans, and later Lee hits the craziest high speed flip dive to the floor, just leveling Lee. Every time these two are in against each other it's total must see. Wrestlers you like, doing wrestling you like. Easy recommendation.

Marco Corleone, Rush & Maximo vs. Super Parka, Volador Jr. & Valiente (9/11/15)

Hey I didn't realize Super Parka was also coming in! He is truly old (just about 60) so I'm an instant sucker for this. Rush and Marco don't let up on him, and after a little bit of early awkwardness Parka settles in fine. Marco looked really great here, more inspired and nasty than I've seen him a...sheesh all year. His left hands were awesome, blasting Valiente several times, leveling everybody with shots. This was technically two tecnico teams but Rush's team was obviously default rudos, and they all thrived in the role. The three of them at one point set up Rush's "punt" feint, with Maximo holding the invisible ball (laces out, hopefully). Parka and Volador work nice together and I always love father/son dynamics. Volador works like an actual brawling badass here, his pops already being a good influence. Volador also bumps like a loon, peaking with a flip bump on the apron off a Marco punch....and then getting up and doing the same damn thing right after! Parka hit a nice 60 yr old man tope, Marco hit 3 variations of his big no hands crossbody (seriously Marco looked really great throughout this), both teams had well set up moments where a big dive hit their own teammate, with Marco doing a crossbody to Maximo, and Valiente diving into Volador. Parka was really fun here, wandering around punching guys (especially cracking Maximo a few times), kind of like a late career  Pierroth. Super fun match. I want a Park/Parka/Volador team to take on Rush/Comandante Pierroth/Dragon Lee team. Make this happen!!

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MLJ: The Volador Train Keeps on Rolling through 2015 7: Máximo & Volador Jr. vs Rey Bucanero & Terrible, hair vs hair

Aired: 2015-03-28
taped: 2015-03-20 @ Arena México
Máximo & Volador Jr. vs Rey Bucanero & Terrible, hair vs hair

Back to our good friend Volador. I'm feeling an itch for slightly older lucha so I'll either dust off my GdI comp, hope dataintcash posts something else soon, or check out some Texano/Silver King tags since I've seen next to none of those, for next week. Right now, I need to make it through some more 2015 Volador. I'd like to at least make it to some of the more hyped matches for the sake of fairness, even though you learn plenty from any match. Let's get through this one first, though, as it's on a relatively big stage.

This was a comedown after seeing Ultimo Guerrero vs Rey Escorpion, but I wouldn't necessarily call it bad. It was just sort of there. Some of that is just the fault of CMLL's booking. Terrible and Maximo have history. Rey Bucanero was riding whatever tiny, tiny wave he had gotten from taking Felino's hair a few months before. Terrible and Bucanero are certainly competent at being bad guys. Maximo is one of the only over tecnicos on the roster. They had a slight story coming in that Bucanero and Terrible were just the better team. It just never reached a point where it felt like it mattered or was a big deal or was all that serious. Popcorn matches are fine and good. Popcorn apuesta matches are a problem.

I do want to talk a little about tag team apuestas matches though, mainly about the long terceras common in this type of match. I think they are sort of unique in and of themselves, just in the pacing. With a trios match (and you don't get too many trios apuestas matches from what I've seen, but you do get title matches and ones with high stakes), they can move wrestlers in and out once things break down torwards a finishing stretch. You don't get a lot of that laying around, but at the same time, exactly because of that, there's not often a big feel of selling. It's on to the next near-fall and there's a real threat everything becomes noise. On the other hand, in a singles match, any near fall has to be a kick out and the selling can be overdone, not earned by the first two, often quite short, caidas. You can sort of get the best of both worlds in a straight tag team match though, where you can use saves instead of kick outs in order to control the escalation and make it more believable but also have more extended selling to make things matter.

I think that was the case here. On a structural level, I liked the tercera. I wish there was more heat though, a little more visceral intensity. That's not what this was. It was a "fun" apuestas, one that matched the build, with some cute spots and miscommunication and Maximo wiping off Volador's sweat and a bunch of dives and roll ups out of nowhere. I get what they were going for, but I'm not sure I've seen too many hair matches that were played up like this and that made it all a little jarring. Even the Maximo ones I've seen in the past have come off a little more serious.

There were a lot of independent things to like. The tecnicos tried to rush the rudos up the ramp to start but were overwhelmed and within seconds destroyed with a couple of tandem moves. Then the comeback was fluff (and had a painfully flubbed vault to the top by Volador to hit a Spanish Fly), but followed by Terrible taking an amusing bump off of a dive that sent him into the crowd. The dives were all pretty good, Maximo having two rope walk ones, Bucanero careening off of the ramp, Volador leaping into the crowd from the top. The flash roll up exchange was good in a vacuum, some of the near falls came off well down the stretch and I liked, in part, Terrible's attempt at interference in the finish. I do sort of wish Volador had neutralized him on the second roll up, though, since that would have punctuated things better.

It just had so very little of what I look for an an apuestas match. It had none of the mood, none of the violence, none of the stakes. For the most part, it was compete wrestling, and it was fun wrestling, but it was empty where it counted. Maybe if they had drawn out the heat at the beginning, it'd have been better. If there was more of a sense of peril some of the more fun stuff might have felt more like pay off, or even a narrative of triumphant tecnicos being true to themselves to overcome adversity in the face of nefarious rudos dwelling in an Ingobernable world, something like that. What we got instead didn't quite cut it.

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MLJ: 2015 Volador, Jr! Wrestler of the Year? Still Sort of Crummy? 5: Rey Bucanero & Volador Jr. vs Máximo & Terrible in a National Parejas Increible Tournament match

Aired: 2015-03-21
Taped: 2015-03-06 @ Arena México
Rey Bucanero & Volador Jr. vs Máximo & Terrible in a National Parejas Increible Tournament match

I thought about skipping this, and really skipping everything up to the hair match. I had for the title trios after all, but A) the hair match was a bigger main event so I should try to catch some of the build and B) I'm a sucker for the parejas increibles stuff, especially with this line up. The matches aren't conventionally good and if you're watching them in sequence, a whole bunch at once, they're a lot of the same. Thankfully, I'm not, and because of that, I can catch some fun character stuff and not be overwhelmed by crummy tournament lucha.

I mention this pairing because three out of the four guys, being Maximo, Terrible, and yeah, Bucanero, are really solid with their shtick. I like Rey best when he's being a dickish, chickenshit heel. Terrible's sort of a gruff straight man but he's had a thousand matches with Maximo and they do their stuff well together. Maximo is talked about so little, but he does what he does so well. I think part of the problem is that exoticos in the past probably do tower above him, but likewise, he towers above a lot of the tecnico roster. He hits his stuff cleanly, makes things matter within the context of the match, but most of all, is actually over with any crowd he gets in front of for being a good guy (albeit an exotico one) when most of the tecnicos aren't over at all.

So the Leyenda match was already set, putting an odd spin on this. Were it not for that, you'd expect the rudos to care more about who won. As it was, what mattered was getting one over on their upcoming opponents. It was hair match upcoming after all and that's serious business. This started with Volador vs Maximo, with some quick-paced matwork and I actually liked it a lot. It felt more organic and natural than usual for Volador. Some of that was the bits of routine Maximo was tossing in and Volador having to respond to them in a way that he doesn't usually have to. I liked it though. It's always a bit of a novelty, whether in a match like this or in a cibernetico to see tecnico vs tecnico and both this, and when they did it again later in the match, was fun.

Of course, when Terrible and Bucanero faced off, they refused to wrestle and immediately attacked the tecnicos, and in this, both here, and later in the match when they teased it again but instead hugged, I thought that the match very much served its purpose in building to the apuestas main event at the bigger show. Almost every other match I've seen like this eventually has the rudos break down and dissent. This didn't and their solidarity was very welcome. I'm not going to say it put into question the result of the Leyenda match, because that was never in question, but if CMLL's booking was better (or existent) in general, it might well have, just through the ringwork alone. In fact, the back half of the match had Terrible and Bucanero trying to give each other the win with the partners breaking it up, like so:

including a very funny moment of Rey hitting a foul and then dropping down himself so that he could let Terrible pin him.

Shortly thereafter, after a Commandante leg pull, Rey interfered again, distracting Volador and letting Terrible pick up the win. I thought this was a bit of a mess, but really quite fun given expectations, and it set up the rudos as being absolutely on the same page for their upcoming match, which was a worthwhile idea on paper at least.

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MLJ: 2015 Volador, Jr! Wrestler of the Year? Still Sort of Crummy? 2: Máximo, Mistico, Volador Jr. vs Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Último Guerrero

Aired: 2015-01-31
Taped 2015-01-23 @ Arena México
Máximo, Mistico, Volador Jr. vs Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Último Guerrero

I realize I'm taking some heat for Monday's match, but I'm going to keep going. There is a method to this. I'm moving chronologically and I thought the first singles match of the year we have posted online with a luchador isn't a bad way to start an examination of his work. I plan on hitting a number of matches, more than ten. The idea that you would just look at the most heavily regarded matches of a wrestler in order to understand how good he was in a certain year is completely and utterly against the way I look at wrestling. You look at a broad spectrum and try to get a total picture. I'll watch as many singles matches as I can. On the docket through his March work is this trios, the tag title trios, a singles match with Ultimo Guerrero, the Parejas Increibles finals, another trios vs Casas and Cavernario, and then the hair match. Then I'll see what we have online after that.

In general, I'm going to make sure to find things that interest me as I move chronologically. A 2015 GdI reunion interests me. It happens, not often, but it happens. Really, more often than not they're on opposite sides but sometimes Bucanero and Guerrero do team together. This is one of those times.

I have another theory about Volador, and it's that he's a lot more functional in trios than he is in singles matches. That's true with almost anyone though (Valiente is a great example of that). Guys who are good at hitting their stuff, getting beat upon, and having spectacular (if emotionally wooden) comebacks, are better off in trios than in singles matches. Other people can carry the other things. The only problem is if they're the focus.

Anyway, this delivered what I wanted it to, a GdI nostalgia fest. UG ambushed Mistico on the way out, and that I didn't mind in the least because after seeing that start to a match a thousand times in 2013-2014, I just haven't seen it that often lately. When you only see it once in a while, it's fine. From there Guerrero whipped Mistico with his jacket, Maximo got beat on in the corner, and Volador got thrashed on the ramp. This led to the GdI special body splash and while they didn't do the huddle, at least Rey got to do his repeated arm thing. This led to a triple corner attack ending with the Senton de la Muerte and a pretty hilarious triple submission (watch Volador just give his limbs up like usual) and as three minute beatdown opening falls go this was about as enjoyable as it gets and really brought back what made GdI so effective in that scenario.

The segunda wasn't quite as much beatdown as I would have liked but the comeback had zip to it, and it had some solid moments. My absolute favorite was Rey Bucanero holding Maximo down and taunting his partners so Maximo couldn't tag. You rarely get little face-in-peril moments like that in Mexico but it's the sort of attitude that Bucanero brings to the table when he's at his very best. Terrible kissed his hand, touched Maximo's face, and punched him which is a sign that they've worked together a thousand times, but it was also welcome. UG even went after Mistico's mask a bit. Eventually though he missed a corner charge, basically due to his own hubris, and then ate a superkick and a rana and the tecnicos just unloaded, culmanating with a flying top rope Maximo rana, doubel topes, and the Mistica on UG. Good stuff, and even better, Kemonito got to terrorize UG between caidas (with Maximo almost kissing him too).

They reset for the tercera, and we got a lot of rope running and cutoffs. I like how Terrible portrays a bully when he has the advantage and a coward when he does. It's solid stuff. There was a lot of tecnico showcase here but it was perfectly fine and really quite enjoyable given the setting. The rudos were all great bases for it including eating double flip dives towards the end. The biggest problem I had with the finish was that the tecnicos got a pinfall on a non-captain but it wasn't evened up, so it meant that the last exchange, Maximo vs Terrible was really obvious. It all would have been better if Terrible was the captain since then there'd be some question on the finish. Regardless, he ate MAximo's top rope armdrag for the pin.

When I say "I could watch fun, throwaway trios like this all day," I mean a match like this. It was no match of the year contender but everyone did what they were supposed to and it was good, fun candy, with high flying tecnicos and underhanded, cruel rudos. This is the sort of match that Volador looks his best in.

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