Black Terry is Caged By Frail and Fragile Bars

Black Terry/ Kraneo/ Fantasma De La Opera v. Star Boy/Kid Tiger/ Ave Fenix IWRG 7/5/07-FUN

Match had its moments, but primarily existed as a set up for the Terry v. Opera feud. I liked the opening Kid Tiger v. Kraneo mat work although it was nothing exemplary. As expected Terry was the rudo standout, as he spend much of the first two falls kicking the shit out of Star Boy, including ending the first fall by impaling him with a fisherman DDT. Most of the second fall Star Boy spent having a doctor look at his neck, but when he finally comes back Terry hits a spinning neckbreaker and starts kicking him in the head. It almost felt like a Finlay WCWSN level asskicking. Star Boy gets his revenge when Opera and Terry miscommunicate leading Opera to hit Terry multiple times.

Black Terry/Cerebro Negro/Dr. Cerebro v. Negro Navarro/Trauma I/Trauma II IWRG 4/16/09-EPIC

PAS: This is the first match in the Naculpan run of this feud (the Arena Xochimilico series is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Y2vY4DXtA and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4w4XhSMOiY&feature=channel) and is worked as a technical battle of one upsmanship. You have two veteran maestros each bringing in their young charges to determine superiority. The structure of the match was a little unusual especially in the first fall, as guys would lock in a submission and would release it, just to show they could get their opponent. This is the best I have seen Trauma 1 look, he was always the Solar 2 to his Trauma 2's Solar 1, but his mat section with Black Terry was the best of the three long opening mat sections. It had more countering then the others, and Trauma I also gets the first fall with an awesome spinning leg lock. Navarro surprisingly looked stronger in the third fall which was exchanges and brawling, then he did in the first two matwork falls. I loved his handshake takedown, but the Terry v. Navarro on the mat was a little underwhelming. However the Terry v. Navarro brawling was great especially his infighting, a sick headbutt and punch countering. The Cerebros also looked great. I think this was the best of three matches between these teams, but I still think their classic encounter hasn't happened yet. They are working each other twice next week, lets hope our youtube peeps hook us up.

TKG: Trauma 1 is still the Solar II of the Traumas as that was all Black Terry. One of the big differences between the stronger mat guys and the weaker ones in this match is the way the stronger ones will wrench the lesser opponent into the submission. Trauma I and Cerebro Negro are guys who will move one leg here and another leg here and an arm here and “look a cool looking submission”. Terry, Trauma II, Navarro and Dr Cerebro will take their opponent down directly into a sub. Their subs all feel like they’re set up by dragon screw moves as they just absolutely wrench a guy to the mat and wrench them into a tight sub. These aren’t so much cool looking subs as they are absolutely nasty ways to put those subs on. I think my favorites were the sub Terry set up in the first fall that’s set up by kicking the inner thigh and then steeping on the hand; and the application of Dr Cerebro’s sub on Trauma I in the second fall which was amazing, as I’ve always liked his goofy submission but I don’t remember any other time where it looked this much like he was applied with this much force and torque. The one point where Trauma I actually sneaks a sub in, it’s the only time any of his stuff has any torque behind it.

The neat thing about getting to watch this match workshoped around is how different the Naucalpan version of the technical match is from the Xochimilco version. In that match they hid Trauma I by having him not have a mat section at all in the first fall. Instead he worked a Coco Verde v Xibalva fast exchanges section. Here he gets walked through the mat stuff with Black Terry. Both matches have the exact same finishing sequence to set up the rematch. But everything before that is completely different. The Xochimilco match starts with both maestros matching up and working pretty even sections with the stronger junior member of the opposite team. Terry and Navarro worked as Mantell v Lawler, two tough guys who can go toe to toe on the mat and standing. They worked a long Trauma II face in peril getting double and triple teamed until Navarro came in upset about the liberties taken with his son and was attacking folks like Bruno after someone got his Italian up. The Naucalpan match is worked nothing like that. The Naucalpan match is worked with no sense of their being any parity in the matchups. Both teams are trying to set up the match up to take advantage of the other team’s weak side. First fall has the two strongest junior members (Dr and II) match up in a long really cool even section, while each maestro gets to work against the weaker member of the opposite team. They play this up and there is no real attempt to hide that Truama I and Cerebro Negro are outmatched. The Terry/Trauma I, Navarro/Cerebro Negro is not the only mismatch that they play up. Terry isn’t working Dutch in the Naucalpan match he’s working almost Gino. There is nothing Mantell v Lawlerish about the Terry v Navarro matchups. Instead they’re really worked like Tully v Hashimoto. Navarro is an absolute beast and Terry is a guy in over his head but a dangerous shitkicker when given the opportunity. First fall is Black Terry toying with Trauma I, Dr Cerebro working even with Trauma II, and Navarro toying with Cerebro Negro until he decides to submit him. Black Terry comes in to even it out and ends up underestimating Trauma I and gets caught in a submission. The playing up of the mismatch makes this feel like a big deal. Second fall has Navarro toying with Terry, Dr Cerebro avenging Terry by subbing Trauma I, and then Navarro underestimating Terry and getting caught in a sub. Third fall is the stand up section and the cheat to win finish. Pretty great match up and completely different than the Xochimilco one. As the announcer says “Si usted, si usted quiere a la lucha…Aqui, aqui esta la lucha” I like the lucha.

Rey Del Ring IWRG 7/16/09-SKIPPABLE

TKG: It’s time for IWRG's annual Rey Del Ring. This is a thirty man tourney that normally goes between an hour and half and two hours. My memory is that originally it was worked like a cibernetico starting with four men where new participant came in any time someone was eliminated. It has slowly been evolving into pretty much a straight up Royal Rumble type match with guys getting added in every couple minutes. This year the evolution is really pretty complete as no cybernetic feel at all. It’s a Royal Rumble where guys eliminated through pinfall or submission. And it had a real U.S. style feel with the first half being your lightheavyweights and then the second half being the actual heavyweights.

Half way through the match Super X come in and invade the commentary booth. Juvi explains that Super X has a contract available for the winner of this tourney, whoever he may be (the best contract in the business with potential for movie deal,licensing for a video game, a toy, etc). This is a real U.S. type angle and Juvi is really great at selling it. Juvi’s dad is better at selling more traditional Mexican angles (his anger at Trauma II showing disrespect by trying to rip his mask), and when faced with this type of U.S. angle kind of just goes “well we know the only possible winners are these three guys”.

You normally hope in these things to get some more random primera guys or just guys you haven’t seen in ages but unfortunately no Radamantis appearances. Megatronic is the only guy I had never seen before (he seemed too thick to be Cyborg but he felt really familiar). It was also more of an everyman for himself match than it has been in the past. There really didn’t seem to be guys allying themselves along technico/rudo lines or attacking each other based on long term feuds. The two Officiales work together but that’s about it when it comes to cooperation. Dr Cerebro eliminates Negro Navarro which felt like a big deal but that was it. Captain Muerte eliminates former partner Xibalba. One would think that Ricky Cruz and Arlequin Amarillo would have long term issues with Mascara Ano Dos Mill 2000 Jr but when three in the ring together Cruz and Arlequin fight. Veneno is the one representative of invading fed Super X but never get the sense in the match that the IWRG guys have any interest in allying against him. Technicos feuded with technicos, Rudos feuded with rudos. Still they do a nice job at keeping the match moving at a fun clip where there are no real long downtimes till the end.

No Freelance this year. Freelance is often one of the big highlights of the Rey Del Ring as he’ll come in and do seven absolutely insane spots and then be eliminated. The real stars of this match ended up being the Cerebros/Terry team. Never in the ring with each other but when they are in the ring, they absolutely dominate it, each one acting as ring general to keep their section of match together.

The match can really de divided into four sections : Dr Cerbero section, Black Terry section, Cerebro Negro section, and the post Terrible Cerebros section.

Dr Cererbo is really the star of the first third of what was aired as he just runs around punching folks, kicking folks, eating topes, topeing people,tossing people around and eating peoples offense better than you'd think possible. I really liked the section where Captain Muerte had Dr Cerebro draped over top of ring post punching him while Dr Cerebro fought back throwing body shots.

Once Dr Cerebro is eliminated you have this sketchy period where you have Angelico, Exodia, Buschi, Mascara Ano Dos Mil Jr, and 911 in the ring by themselves. Then Black Terry comes in and tries to save the match.He transitons the match from that kind of green guys and 911 start to the real heavyweight brawlers section. As when he leaves the participants in the ring are all heavyweights Arlequin Amarillo, Olimpico, Mascara ano Dos Mill Jr, Ricky Cruz, Olimpico, AK-47, and again 911. They almost work this transition period like a Steiners/Nasty Boys or RNR/Poffos match where you have guys brawling on the outside and guys wrestling in ring. Exodia v Angelico is the world’s crappiest Gibson v Lanny Poffo/Scott v Saggs. Terry is the guy who moves back and forth between these two worlds and tries to keep them both watchable.

Once Black Terry is eliminated again you have this kind of sketchy all heavyweight section where Arlequin Amarillo appears to be carrying the interactions with Olimpico and the Officiales are double teaming the Dinamita to keep him busy. And then Cerebro Negro runs in to save the match. He just runs in and is small guy in heavyweight match who sticks and moves, blasts folks and then moves. He's the one guy who will get tossed around and eat stuff in a ring full of guys reluctant to leave their feet. They add Toxico who I never realized was that big, Veneno and Trauma II who really has no idea how to work opposite heavyweights.

Post Terrible Cerebros all you can hope for is interactions between IWRG regulars Rigo, Chico Che, and Fantasma de La Opera to keep you distracted from the stink. Then once they’re all gone just avert your eyes. I can’t decide who looked worse Olimpico or his green awkward son Exodia. The final singles match up between Cruz and Veneno didn’t do a ton for me but I think might appeal to people who dig Taker v HBK stuff. On some level that’s the story of the entire match: it felt like the type of Royal Rumble that gets a bunch of praise but I was left disappointed.

PAS: Tomk covered this pretty well, a couple of things he didn't mention. For the best wrestler in the world, Negro Navarro didn't look good here at all. He didn't really brawl like he is capable, and wasn't bumping. This was the worst Navarro performance in 2009 by far, still think he is #1, but we will see how Rey does against Dolph Ziggler tonight. There were a couple of nice double teams with Captain Muerte and Dr. Cerebro and I would much rather see Captain Muerte in the mix as a replacement Terrible Cerebro then Fantasma De La Opera. I am still on the fence with the Super X angle, I like the Navarro family as defenders of IWRG, but Ricky Cruz doesn't do much for me in the Sting role of top recruit. Also behind the Guerrerra's the Super X side is pretty thin, it is all Horace Hogans and Bryan Adamses left there.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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At Black Terry's Feet They Will Cast Their Golden Crowns

Black Terry/Shu El Guererro v. Kendo/Blackman UWF 3/2/90- GREAT

PAS: This was exactly what you want from a fourth from the top tag. Kendo and Blackman have some really fun spots, and both rudos bump and stooge like champs. Kendo is a guy with out a ton of substance, but has some serious flash. Black Terry is such an asskicker, there is a section where they trap Blackman in the corner and you have some black on black violence so bad that someone should call Bill Cosby.

TKG: Kendo is super super fast here. He isn’t as good as guy eating opponent’s offense as he is as guy running through his own spots. But majority of match was spent with the rudos eating stuff and getting outwitted, so not much of a problem. Kendo does a spectacular dropkick where he spreads his legs and simultaneously knocks both Terry and Shu out of ring. It looks like no one has tightened the ropes and Shu does a nice job protecting Blackman from dieing on his top rope arm drag. Shu grabs at Blackman’s legs and makes it look like he’s trying to prevent Blackman from hitting his spot, while actually holding Blackman up.


Black Terry/Asesino Negro Jr./Dr. Mortus v. Ave Fenix/Kid Tiger/Star Boy IWRG 7/12/07-FUN

The rudo team in this was a lot of fun. Dr. Mortus and Asesino Negro Jr. are both big fat dudes, and both are good at fat rudo spots (similar to Samot and Maldito Jr. in 2010), both of them bumped pretty good too. Terry had more of a minor role, hitting some fun cheap shots. Technicos really didn't contribute much to the match though, Kid Tiger and Ave Fenix were both pretty green, and there were points where they were clearly out of place or flubbing spots. Not a bad match, but not a memorable one either.


Dr. Cerebro/Black Terry/El Hijo Del Signo v. Pantera/El Hijo Del Pantera/Zatura IWRG 2/11/10-GREAT

PAS: Really great match which was a step below epic. We get a long opening mat section (which we are getting in a ton of lucha matches lately, not just in IWRG, WELCOME BACK LUCHA MAT WRESTLING! FUCK YEAH!) with some really beautiful stuff being done by Cerebro and Zatura. Then it breaks down into pretty damn great brawling. What was really strange is that your technicos were acting really dickish. Terry and Cerebro are coming off this bloody feud defending Mexico, and the Technicos are smacking Terry on his bad neck and trying to bite open wounds. Terry does an amazing job as a wounded Rottweiler, still dangerous and violent, but there is both a hurt paw and hurt pride. Hijo Del Pantera is not ready for this kind of match, he hit his signature spots fine, but this required more, and he didn't really have it. Signo was better, he took an insane bump into the chairs for example, but this match needed Cerebro Negro and Freelance.

TKG: I liked Hijo del Pantera and Hijo del Signo in this. In the past I’ve thought of Hijo Del Pantera as a guy who is ill prepared for the push he’s getting. But he actually worked fine here and this was the sharpest his brawling has looked. I actually liked the dynamic where you had those two almost always working against each other. It almost had the feel of Japanese tags where rookie or junior teams with heavyweight. I mean neither of these guys are (or will ever be) Kikuchi or Fuchi but I liked the way that role worked in the match, thought there exchanges all were nice and thought the final Hijo del Pantera submission on Hijo del Signo looked awesome. Phil has mentioned the Zatura v Cerebro mat exchanges which were super tough looking, but the opening Pantera v Terry matwork was also a blast as Terry continued to sell the neck and head (from martinete on chair in last match) throughout the matwork…and you had this neat story of when is Pantera going to decide to exploit that injury.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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IWRG 10/22/09

La Rata v. Exodia

TKG: I don’t think I’ve seen La Rata in over a decade. Was he always this bad? I think one of the problems with the DVD revolution is that everything looks so clean. La Rata with live rats on his head on a third generation dubbed videotape off Mexican TV really looked scummy. On a DVD on an HD flatscreen, the rats just look clean and well cared for. I’ve also seen Crispin Glover sing Ben, and it takes more than one rat in someone’s hair to make me go “ick”.

PAS: This maybe one of the only Exodia matches I have ever seen where he didn’t seriously injure himself. Considering how awkward and sloppy La Rata looked you wouldn’t think this would be the match he would break his streak.

El Hijo del Diablo & Gringo Loco vs. Pendulo & Star Boy

PAS: I wasn’t expecting this to be much, as Gringo Loco didn’t seem to catch fire in his 2009 stuff, but this was surprisingly great. Star Boy is both the ugliest and talented of the guys working stripper gimmicks in the indies and he looked totally awesome, working some very fast exchanges with both rudos. Pendulo had some cool roll ups. Diablo is tremendous and this was his debut in the Gringo gimmick, his stuff lands with a nice thud and he really is really expressive in everything he does.

TKG: I thought Pendulo was more hit and miss than usual but Star Boy was hitting everything on all cylinders. His opening mat exchanges with Diablo were really cool, as were his last fall opening quick exchanges with Gringo Loco (they do an awesome sweep the leg spot), all his highflying was really violent looking and he gets huge height for a guy who looks like he’d have trouble getting off a barstool. Both the technicos and the rudos try to counter getting thrown into their own partners through a whole series of “grab your partner doesy doe spins” only for the tecnicos to catch the rudos in a star. This match put a big smile on my face.

Black Terry, Pirata Morgan, Tóxico vs. Brazo de Plata, Chico Che, Suicida

TKG: Man! Man, this was the good stuff! So I was kind of expecting this to be guys doing a match of nothing but comedy spots and charisma but not expecting anything near this good. We saw Brazo de Plata live around the same time and he was enormous, I didn’t expect him to be able to leave his feet let alone do the flying take down of two heels spot or eating a ridiculous slam from Pirata (where Porky looks to go up rotate so he looks like he is falling head first and then follow through to land on back). Plata is a guy who knows how to work comedy but also knows how to work in and out of that comedy. Chico Che hurt himself in the ropes on a dive in the first fall, which leads to Black Terry spending the second fall blading him and working him over on the floor. Third fall is built around Chico Che bleeding like a stuck pig and fighting three on ones trying to get the tag. Lots of near tag spots with the refs missing the tag and lots of heels cutting off ring till Chico Che can get off his in ring shoulder tackle tope and every one goes at it. Really elaborate finish that makes you want to see a revancha.

PAS: Yeah this was a totally great match. Chico Che has a huge shit eating grin during the opening Porky dance, you can tell this is a dream come true for him. We start with some really slick Black Terry v. Suicida matwork. They are a pair of guys who have worked against each other for years, and they clearly have their stuff down pat. This is by far the best Toxico has ever looked, he is a guy who clearly spent a ton on his gear, but nothing on his training, but he looks perfectly mediocre brawling, and beat Suicida with a sick looking lifted flatliner. Third fall is truly awesome as Porky and Pirata start brawling, and Chico Che continues to be one of the best sympathy sellers in the world.


Flor Metalica vs. Atsuko Emoto

TKG: This is a show that didn’t look like much on paper but outside of the opener has delivered the goods. This isn’t a particularly good match but it is a really fun spectacle. This is worked very much joshi style where the whole match is built around seconds interference. In lucha you expect the ref to throw out the seconds or the commissioner to throw out the ref or something. In joshi the face’s seconds would constantly run in and interfere on the heels’s seconds interference. But this is lucha where the ref had to pretend not to see stuff, and Metalica’s second had to play Robert Gibson role of guy distracting the ref with complaints. I don’t know how much johsi or RnR Express Bushi has seen but he didn’t add much. Still Flor Metalica took a beating (Emoto would braid her hair into a pony tail before hair mareing her around ring) , bled a bunch and would comeback with nasty crowbar offense and a spectacularly stiff silla dive.

PAS: This was tremendously entertaining stuff although I am not sure how good it was. Flor Metlaica gets triple teamed choked and bloodied with chain, and she fires back with some absolutely teeth loosening shots. Emoto apparently fights MMA and I don’t know if anyone in Smackgirl hit her harder then she got hit with that corner clothesline. Tom was really accurate about the style clash, Emoto isn’t particularly good at LCO joshi shtick, but even that shtick done well wouldn’t really fit in lucha libre.

IRWG list

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IWRG 8/27/09

More Slambamjam IWRG, god love Alfredo

Miss Gaviota/Star Boy vs. Carta Brava Jr./Vampiro Metálico

TKG: I dug the first two falls of this a bunch. Carta Brava and Star Boy match up really well as did Gaviota and Metalico. The crotching of StarBoy into heel offense was a fun transition spot. These opener tags sometimes fall apart either during the heel double team section or when the faces comeback from those double teams. It didn’t here as Metalico/Brava team have some nice heel double team stuff and both of he faces are guys who can do comebacks well. Unfortunately, it did fall apart during the third face dominated fall as a lot of stuff felt off.

PAS: This was the best I have seen Miss Gaviota look, I am not sure she is much of a wrestler, but this had a ton of really amusing well worked exotico spots. I loved the octopus which forced her opponent to wave effeminately, and all of the showing of ass and kissing was timed really well. I am with Tom on the first couple of falls being good, and the third fall not being good, although in the second fall Star Boy does blow a kip up about as badly as I have seen. It looked like if I was taking a Pilates class and tried to kip up to impress a divorcee.

Bushi/Chico Che/Freelance vs. Avisman/Fantasma de la Ópera/Gringo Loco

TKG: The announcer describing all the participants in the match says that Gringo Loco reminds him of the great touring artist of the seventies Kris Kristopherson. I didn’t know Kristopherson was a country icon in Mexico. And really never really associated him with Gringo Loco. But now I can’t separate them in my head. He mostly does a bunch of Alice Doesn’t Live Here any More heel shtick here although he and Avisman have a bunch of neat double teams including The Sunday Morning Coming Down double leg drop. Somewhere in the long first fall Freelance absolutely concusses himself performing a top rope leap into a rana. Fantasma does a swanton type headbutt to Freelance prone head. And the whole thing is absolutely scary. Freelance looks completely loopy and you expect the whole match to fall apart. Instead he gets back in for another two falls takes every bump for a chop on the back of his head and does a ton of crazy suicidal dives. I mean I think this was a good match but I really couldn’t pay attention to anything but Freelance’s toughness and insanity.

PAS: Yeah this was really hard to judge as a match, as the second and third falls are completely judged through the lens of Freelance being the badest motherfucker on earth. Minutes after spiking himself on the top rope diving rana on the mat, he decided to do the same move to the floor. He also does an Asai moonsault which landed really nastily into the crowd. Chico Che looked really great too, as he has some really great moments of graceful flying. Freelance wins the match and does some post match mike work which I assume was something like “I want to thank the fans of El Salvador for the welcome, Pineapple, Wheelbarrow, Turkey Sandwich”

Black Terry, Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro vs. Barba Roja, Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Pirata Morgan Jr. [EdM Trios]

TKG: The Piratas really felt out of their league here. First fall has Dr Cerebro matched up opposite Jr, ,Black Terry matched up opposite Barba Roja and Cerebro Negro opposite Hijo. Black Terry strained his arm on an armdrag had a doctor check it out and then had Barba Roja work over his arm. Terry is really good at the wounded tough warrior stuff and that may have been the best first fall interaction. The other Piratas looked completely lost working technical mat based offense. Second fall was rope running move fall where everyone switched up partners and third fall was all about the big moves where member of team runs in to prevent the fall. Piratas were way more comfortable in those settings. The second fall where they were most comfortable was short, and the third fall felt kind of mechanical.

PAS: Black Terry cuts a post match promo basically saying “It is good for young guys like that to get experience against wrestlers like us.” The match really felt worked like that, with Cerebros being polished professionals, carrying some green rookies through a match. There was individual moments of competence from the Piratas, but this match was 90% Cerebros

Head Hunter I & Sangre Chicana vs. Scorpio Jr. & Villano III

TKG: This is a bunch of old guys stabbing each other and bleeding. Head Hunter I is a guy with a lot of Japanese experience and really plays to the ring side cameras, there were moments where he really delivered a great Pro Wrestling Gold Abby v Austin Idol cover shot opposite Scorpio. The Villano III comebacks didn’t involve any DDTs and really weren’t as energetic as his comeback run in the trios match. Heels win two straight falls which is kind of an odd booking for a show built around celebrating 25th anniversary of Scorpio Jr in wrestling. All four do mic work post match and all four are really good on the mic and make me want to see the matches this set up.

PAS: Scorpio Jr. spent most of those 25 years as a rudo, so it is appropriate to have the rudos dominate. Chicana was truly the standout here, as he was pretty energetically running around stabbing dudes in the head. He really has an expressive forking. Lots of gory headwounds from old dudes, which is what you want from this match.

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