More People Should Be Talking About Metalico

People should talk about Metalico! He's never going to break out of the CMLL undercard, but he brings something different and wonderful to the CMLL undercard. He's a little stoogy Memphis heel. He's that combination of Loco Max and Billy Joe Travis that every single person would still love if those two were still alive*. His one semi-featured match of the decade (his mask match against Angel de Oro) stunk, but I put that squarely on Oro's shoulders. Metalico only makes tape a couple times a month so he's not a tough guy to keep track of in mainstream lucha circles. Seeing him pop up on a Fox deportes rerun just made me want to shine a little spotlight on him. This will be an ongoing miniseries of Metalico appreciation.

Metalico/Hijo del Signo/Canelo Casas vs. Sensei/Magnus/Leono (CMLL 9/3/16)

Not a great match but one with a wonderful Metalico performance and my pleasant surprise that Hijo del Signo is good now! Sensei appears to be not as good as he used to be, and appears to be bulkier. But Metalico is so much fun in this. He's a great rudo base so finds several ways to bump arm drags and he's good at setting up sometimes convoluted offense for tecnicos. At one point Sensei was setting up a headscissor off the top and Metalico was great at occupying himself by jawing with the crowd so Sensei could get into position, then running over to throw a great strike that was meant to be kicked away by Sensei. The "missed strike to set up opponent offense" is someone a lot of wrestlers do real phony, but Metalico brings a great combo of realism and theatricality to them. He's good at running lucha stooge spots in ways that you don't see (when Leono wouldn't shake his hand he went around the ring shaking hands with the ref and his own partners, to show how good he was at trustworthy handshakes), and can work stiff with a big elbowdrop and an awesome western lariat that sees him follow through all the way to the mat. Signo was a generic lucha son last I saw him and now he has genuine presence, really knowing how to sell through the mask and act befuddled by fast tecnicos. He does a decent Fuerza bump and runs some nice base sequences with the tecnicos. But this was Metalico's game. The Coliseo crowd is perfect for a guy like him and really my preferred lucha venue. There's something big missing from Arena Mexico ever since they put up the ringside barrier. Imagine Rush with the benefit of fans being right at ringside. Imagine how less fun Hector Garza would have been in 2006 with a ring barrier up. He wouldn't have been able to fall into all the old ladies and pretty girls. Metalico is real good at crowd work and I think the closeness of the Coliseo crowd plays off that nicely. We need more Coliseo stuff showing up. I miss it.



*Pretty sure Loco Max isn't dead

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CMLL on Fox Deportes Workrate Report 2/17/13

1. Sensei/Oro Jr. vs. Super Comando/Artillero

I always get stoked when Sensei makes TV, and I don't believe I've ever seen Oro Jr. before. Artillero and Comando easily go under the radar as they only work openers, but usually they look pretty decent. HERE,  however, they look downright AWESOME. This was probably my absolute favorite performance by the two brothers. They were just shit kicking, smack talking jerks here. They also got to shine offensively more than usual. Comando hit a beastly missile dropkick that sent Oro sprawling, and Arti got to work a bunch of real cool wrist/arm work on Oro that likely wouldn't have been shown on Galavision. Sensei gets to do cool stuff (love his triangle rana) and love this as the coming out party for Comando/Arti. They are now officially guys I look forward to.



2. The OTHER Reyes Del Aire semifinal!!

Volador Jr vs. Virus vs. Valiente vs. Psicosis vs. Mascara Dorada vs. Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Maximo vs. Sangre Azteca vs. Mephisto vs. Rey Escorpion vs. Angel de Oro vs. Diamante vs. Niebla Roja vs. Puma vs. Triton vs. Fuego

Yeahhhhh buddy. Really looking forward to this as I think my boys Volador and Virus and Valiente can shine in this type of setting. I think on paper this Cibernetico looks stronger than the other one. And there is some awesome shit at the start of this. Psicosis takes a nutty Fuerza bump, Valiente hits an amazing bullet tope that sends Escorpion into the crowd, Maximo hits a gorgeous rana on Virus, and this is just a blast. Sangre Azteca is a guy who more people should talk about as being awesome, because he is. He doesn't get a long run here but he shines BRIGHT. You know that spot where guys drop to their tummy when an opponent is running the ropes to trip him up, but usually it just looks like going through spots as the guy drops down immediately? Well Sangre actually slides into Angel de Oro  , MAKING Oro jump over him or else he actually would have tripped. It's that extra mile. He gets eliminated by Valiente but goes out looking killer, taking two massive monkey flips into the ropes (like Eddy used to!) and shit that guy is good. But then holy shit Guerrero Maya does a flip tope that sends him flying into the 2nd row and YES that guy is awesome. I'm loving this.

Eliminations start flying fast and Maximo hits a wicked tope with no wussy hands to shield the blow, just face into face, arms at his side. Brutal. Volador and Valiente have a hot segment like you knew they would. And okay why is everybody doing a goofy "powerbomb a guy onto my own knees" spot. Three different guys have now done this same spot in the last 2 minutes. Admittedly Volador may be the guy who brought backcracker offense into Mexico and he seems to be amongst the biggest offenders, but fuck it. He does all that stuff with such speed and snap that I don't give a damn if it's all played out. As with all these matches, they do their thing until the finishes start happening, and then there's a pinfall every 45 seconds. But this was consistently awesome and I would highly recommend checking it out. All the guys seemed to be treating it like a really big deal and this was definitely better than the other one. Tons of awesome stuff.

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report, 11/26/11

Zayco/Camorra vs. Robin/Freesbee:

Freesbee and Camorra ain't that great. Especially Freesbee. That guy is just a stumblebum. Zayco and Robin have made some great strides in 2011, starting the year as guys I didn't think were very good, but being guys I enjoyed by the end of the year. They match up very nicely against each other, too. Maybe they just look good because of their respective tag partners. Huh.



Bronco/Inquisidor/Apocalipsis vs. Sensei/Starman/Metatron:

Fairly forgettable midcard match that wasn't without its moments. Bronco would work out great as a fake Dinamita. He's a real nice throwback to that style of lucha. Here he goes above and beyond by taking a really low and quick bump to the floor. Sensei is like a Great Sasuke throwback, just without the death wish. The others are fine.



Princesa Blanca/Princess Sugei/La Seductora vs. Ayumi/Luna Magica/Estrellita:

Damn do Sugei and Ayumi match up well. Just a whole bunch of nice kicks and knees getting thrown around. Estrellita makes me sad. She's not a very old woman, but dressing so young makes her seem so much older than she really is. I get the fake boobs. Some gals get them to fill out tops better. Others get them because they desperately want attention. Whatever. But the hot pink outfits and now the pigtails? I'm surprised she doesn't have dark red blush painted on her face. She comes off as a mom who wears the same outfit to the mall as her 15 year old daughter and dances with her daughter's friends at birthday parties. Something about it just bums me out. Just...play it down a bit. Your desperation is playing to the back row.



Ultimo Guerrero/Rey Escorpion/Dragon Rojo Jr. vs. Atlantis/Guerrero Maya Jr./Delta:

LATV has this stupid visual effect that they use occasionally, where in the middle of a match they'll start showing it in "widescreen". Now I put widescreen in quotes because it's not actually widescreen, they just add large black bars across the top and bottom of the screen, literally obscuring about 40+% of what's going on. Matwork going on? tough luck, buster, because it's underneath the bottom bar. It's really maddening and happened a bunch in this match. TNA does this as well when they take up the bottom third of the screen with their "Upcoming Events" news. The matwork from the recent Storm/Roode match was almost totally obscured by these screen pop-ups. I just don't get the point in doing that. That being said, I don't think the youtube videos do this, I think it is specifically LATV. Allll that being said, this match was fast-paced and fun, and seemed to be built as a major showcase for Maya and Escorpion. The more time he gets to shine, the more Maya shows that he totally belongs. I love the snap he puts on his dropkicks. Big things should be happening for him. Ultimo continues to have maybe the comeback of the year, as he's been busting ass all 2011.



Terrible/Rey Buccanero/Texano Jr. vs. Hector Garza/La Mascara/Super Porky:

Pretty paint-by-numbers. Garza strips in the 3rd and hits some great headscissors, Mascara hits a few nice ranas (each one faster than the last), Terrible and Texano are total pros bumping around for those two, and the spot where Terrible punches Porky down to the mat and follows up with kicks to his stomach was great. Not much to the match, but there are always fun moments.

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report, 11/5/11

1. Robin/Freesbee vs. Camorra/Zayko:

Probably my favorite Robin match of the year so far, seems to be breaking out a bit and gaining confidence. I liked his armdrag exchanges (and they looked better compared to a couple of Freesbee's). I also loved his fast fall-ending rana (and I forget if it was Zayko or Camorra that SUWA'd the rana and made it look worthy of finishing a fall). Robin also had an awesome out of control dive in the 3rd, sending Camorra flying. Zayko and Camorra are serviceable but fairly uninteresting rudos. Camorra at least is starting to make it look like he's legitimately missing things like clotheslines, instead of just looking like he's getting into position. Freesbee don't do much for me.



2. Metatron/Sensei/Starman vs. Apocalipsis/Bronco/Inquisidor:

That was good clean fun that was about the same amount of time as the first match, but flew by much quicker. Plenty of dives (really liked Sensei's corkscrew asai moonsault), and Bronco hit an insanely great top rope splash to end the 2nd that saw him leap 2/3 of the way across the (large) ring. Very impressive. Inquisidor had a fun but goofy springboard assisted lungblower, Metatron did nothing I remember, and it's always fun seeing a Sensei appearance. It seems like he's only on like once every 6-8 weeks.



3. Ayumi/Estrellita/Luna Magica vs. La Seductora/Princesa Blanca/Princesa Sugei:

Opening match card says it's Estrella Magica, but it's kind of hard to miss that it's Estrellita. This match was really fun and the CMLL women have been bringing it pretty nicely in 2011. I'm far from the biggest women's wrestling fan in the world, but I've found myself enjoying a bunch of the CMLL ladies this year. Sugei has quietly been having a real good year, always works stiff and still puts over all the tecnicas (stooges better than maybe all the other women), and Blanca has been just as good, but in different ways. Blanca bumps tecnica offense really well (really gets high on monkey flips, slides far on armdrags). I liked Ayumi's comeback offense, but it was done in a real puro kinda way and the fans didn't seem to respond to it much. Luna Magica is very underrated but always seems to put on a good show. Estrellita has ridiculous fake boobs. And where has Tiffany been, now that I think about it...seems like I haven't seen her in months and she has always been one of my favorite luchadoras.



4. Atlantis/Delta/Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Ultimo Guerrero/Rey Escorpion/Dragon Rojo Jr.:

First 2 falls were pretty rushed, but the 3rd had tons of good action. Delta especially got to throw in some awesome stuff in the 3rd, with Rey and Rojo bumping around great for him. Delta's rope flip headscissors was done slower than he normally does it, but the end result looked really good. I would have liked more Atlantis vs. Ultimo as all their sections seemed short, but this had tons of moments showcasing the worth of Rey/Maya/Delta.



5. Hector Garza/La Mascara/Super Porky vs. Rey Buccanero/Terrible/Texano Jr.:

It's really weird that LATV has commercials for syndicated episodes of "The Big Bang Theory" every commercial break. That seems like a very strange show to be pushing to hispanic households. I can't imagine too many spanish speaking American homes gathering around to watch nerds crack jokes about theoretical physics and Deep Space 9, but I'm not in advertising. Very good match that would have been downright awesome if it had a real 2nd fall. La Mascara got to look like a star all throughout this, hitting a bunch of great rana variations and really whipping around on them all cool. There's a fan in the crowd that looks exactly like Terrible. I looked up and saw him standing in the crowd and thought it was Terrible...until I realized Terrible was standing in the ring LOOKING at that guy. It's like wearing a t-shirt of you wearing a t-shirt of you wearing a t-shirt. Garza must have it written into his contract that he just gets to totally own the 3rd fall of every match he's in. He tore it up here with all sorts of cool kicks, made women scream, hit a neat assisted headscissors, Porky hit a fat crossbody off the apron, crowd was way into Mascara, and there was a great moment in the first fall where Terrible just beats the shit out of Porky. Just beats him down with great punches and then kicks him a bunch while he's down. Looked awesome. Porky looks infinitely better with a goatee. I'm so glad it's back. He looked weird with just jowls. Fun match, easily worth the time.

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