Lucha Worth Watching: El Hijo Del Santo is Turning 56 Years Old.

El Hijo Del Santo/A Fake Rey Mysterio vs. Fishman Jr./Super Comando Lucha Libre NY 7/13/19

ER: El Hijo Del Santo is turning 56 years old soon. Here he is in front of 400 people in New York, moving like someone much younger than 56. I actually kind of like fake Rey Mysterios, and this one was actually good. Fishman comes off like a tough guy and his trades with Santo were a highlight. Comando was a guy I dug when he showed up in early decade CMLL, but I haven't seen him since. This was all really fun and had a classic lucha feel to it. Comando and Fishman are very capable rudo luchadors, so they handle some complicated swinging spots from our tecnicos. Santo shows he has the core work of a 30 year old by lifting himself up and over Fishman into a sunset flip, they worked through Santo's great fireman's carry pendulum armdrag, Santo hits his still-best headscissors, launches Fishman into the ropes with a great monkey flip, throws kneelifts that are ALSO still the best kneelifts in wrestling, the guy is just incredible. He hits a cool in ring headbutt tope, and late in the match does his fantastic, impactful somersault senton off the top, then he stops short to shift direction, catching Fishman past the turnbuckle with a tope that is absolutely insane to be doing at 56 years old. I liked Fake Rey Mysterio's tecnico charisma, and though he strung together Rey-adjacent offense as well as most of the pushed young flyers in CMLL. He had crisp handsprings and nice execution, came off like an older pro at times (and maybe he is a older guy, for all I know). The rudo control section probably went on a bit too long. It was filled with cool stuff, and I really liked how all of Fishman/Comando's offense involves running Santo and Rey headfirst into things. Santo is amazing at it, actually. There's a spot where Santo gets run headfirst into a chair that had been set up in the corner, and this crazy old guy goes into it like it's 1996 ECW. Santo and Rey hit a chair right into Comando's balls, Rey gets run headfirst into Santo's gut, Santo takes a half dozen Irish whips hard into the buckles, all good stuff...but it probably needed to get to the Santo fireworks closer a little earlier. Still, this man is a true legend. Santo is God.

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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 Galavision Workrate Report, 4/14/12 and Jon Polito's Jacket

So I kinda fell off the wagon (got onto the wagon? Whichever one means that I haven't written one in awhile) on these. LATV is showing nothing but reruns from last year, and I had to delete some Galavision episodes to make room for old episodes of Miami Vice. As you can see from the photo of Jon Polito's jacket, I have been continually making the right choice. How is that episode not a meme yet? I mean, that jacket, those gloves. There have been preliminary talks to just change the name of "Segunda Caida" to "Jon Polito's Jacket". He played a character named El Gato. There was a really great episode with Brad Dourif playing a coke dealer, too. So, I watched some Miami Vice and skipped some CMLL. I'm sorry.


1. Lightning Match: Super Commando vs. Angel Azteca Jr.:

This was alright but kinda short, even for a lightning match. Really felt like a match I would have flipped out for if I saw it on an episode of Worldwide in 1998, but now it doesn't do as much for me. Azteca is a guy I really like, as he's similar to the other wetsuit-top-wearing youngish guys, but he's shorter and more squat, like Virus squeezed into a wetsuit top. The dives were fun (although when did Arena Mexico get a BARRIER around ringside!?!? Goddamn does that look wrong and make me sad), and this was a fine 6 minutes.


2. Blue Panther/Hijo Del Fantasma/Black Warrior vs. Psicosis/Mr. Aguila/Olimpico:

Holy shit Blue Panther. This guy is the fucking argument ender. Any argument. "What do you mean you didn't reconcile your monthly reports!?" "Yeah, well...Blue Panther." And then both parties just kind of nod. What don't you do, Panther!? Last year my favorite part of CMLL was watching BP match up against a bunch of different young guys in a bunch of different 6 mans. It was always great, always the best couple minutes of the match. Here he is still breaking out things that surprise me. In the 1st he snaps off an absolutely gorgeous rana off the 2nd rope. I mean it was just so damn beautiful, and the guy is 50. There is also subtle beauty to be found in the way he casually double legs Psicosis and then whips him over by the ankle. It's like clockwork mechanics, just something you can stare at and get lost in all the amazing moving parts.

But you know what? The other guys looked pretty damn good, too. I LOVED the mat segment between Black Warrior and Olimpico. BW is a guy who I liked a bunch when I first started watching lucha and he would do bullet topes 3 rows deep, but he's been kinda diminishing returns for me over the last decade. But damn he showed fire on the mat like I never remember seeing from him, getting into all sorts of weird predicaments that didn't end the way I expected them to end. You get so used to seeing Malenko/Guerrero roll ups and then suddenly BW rolls through a single leg and tosses a guy in a weird fallaway slam variation. BW looked more motivated in this match than I've seen in ages. Psicosis had this awesome mini second who was dressed all Day of the Dead and how can you not get stoked for this guy getting into it with Kemonito!? This whole thing turned out way more awesome than I was anticipating. I thought "Mid card throwaway that will likely have some a cool BP spot" and I got a whip fast 6 man that was short on story but had tons of killer action. And Aguila finally got some more appropriate entrance music. Rad match that is WELL worth checking out.


3. Ultimo Guererro/Negro Casas/Terrible vs. Mascara Dorada/La Mascara/Diamante Azul:

Well I personally was not expecting a 5 minute match with two straight falls by the rudos. That doesn't mean it was bad. The 1st was a whirling rudo dervish of stiff kicks and elbow drops. Casas looks especially badass with his new close-cropped 'do (forgot to mention the same about BP in the prior match) and silver gear (with trunks that aren't hiked up!). Can't say much about something this short, but it was a hot 5 with some neat spots. Dear lord does Dorada have great ranas. His running rana from the rampway, over the ropes and into the ring was spectacular. And say what you will about lucha regularly botching camera angles, but if there is ONE shot they know how to film, it's a running somersault senton off the rampway. CMLL shoots from underneath and makes it look like Diamante flew 25 off the ramp. Awesome.

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