CMLL Workrate Round Up 7/6/14, 2/9/14, 1/19/14

So I got a lot of things on the back burner wrestling-wise, that should be bumped up to the front burner. I watch lucha more than any other kind of wrestling, but I got to the point where I realized I probably don't need to write about EVERY single lucha match that I watch. I watch plenty of CMLL. How many different things can I really write about a Corleone match or a blown up Shocker performance or a perfectly horrible Volador Jr. main event or a perfectly fine Maximo performance. So I'm gonna combine all the CMLL I watch into more concise write-ups, skipping over the stuff that doesn't need to be written about, writing up in depth the stuff that deserves it, dumping on the stuff that is notably horrible. This will leave more time for other cool stuff, give a little more variety to the blog, and avoid pointless burnout. C'est la vie!

1. Misterioso Jr., Metalico & Bobby Zavala vs. Rey Cometa, Oro Jr., Sagrado (7/6/14)

Great energy here and a nice little rudo showcase. The tecnicos kind of got steamrolled a bit but Misterioso is always a fun rudo when he gets the chance to be. Bobby Zavala has the same kind of unwitting douche charisma as Rush, and Metalico was a fun little bulldog going after Oro. Sagrado is almost always bad and this was no different. What a total long term dud. Every move always misses by just enough with him. Every moonsault gets slightly overshot, can't do painful looking submissions, and can't hold himself into others' submissions. Just a total zero. It was nice seeing Metalico punch him in the jaw a few times. We get several really nice dives in this, with one of them sending Zavala right into a mom and daughter and flattening them in the front row. It let to a incredibly smart (planned?) ending as Rey Cometa has an oh shit moment and is instantly down on his hands and knees apologizing to the women, and back in the ring moments later Sagrado gets submitted handing Cometa's team the loss. Metalico has developed a nice little undercard vicious streak, loved him ripping Oro down off the ropes in the middle of a moonsault attempt. Real fun stuff.

2. Euforia, Okumura & Kamaitachi vs. Guerrero Maya Jr., Atlantis & Delta (7/6/14)

Kamaitachi is showing himself to be a valuable add. Loved how hard he went after Delta in this. I've said it before but he seems like he really enjoys the lucha crowd atmosphere, really seems excited to be there, gets dumped on his head off a clothesline. Maya hits his nice dive past the turnbuckles, Euforia has a kind of lazy night for him, Okumura hits a mean missile dropkick to Delta's face for the win. Atlantis was having a very "Atlantis in a trios" performance until he went on a spirited run opposite Euforia that ended in a capable old man dive.

3. Lightning Match: Bobby Zavala vs. Super Halcon Jr. (2/9/14)

Well hey, this was pretty good! You remember Super Halcon from being the worst guy in the Busca de un Idolo. Here he looks pretty good! They work a tight and smart little 6 minute match with Halcon hitting a big flip dive and nice tope, and Zavala taking advantage of Halcon going for high risk stuff. For every big move Halcon did that worked, the next one would see him taking boots to the face or stomach. He crumpled fantastically on a moonsault-to-boots off the top, and Zavala nicely timed a dropkick to Halcon's stomach off a springboard. Zavala also hit a bunch of stiff clotheslines. Zavala has a sturdy build and does great clotheslines and shoulder blocks the way a guy with a sturdy build should.



4. Atlantis vs. Mr. Niebla (1/19/14)

Man, fun and spirited Niebla really makes you realize what a crap bag that can be in trios matches. I really dug this; both guys worked hard and this was a fun old guy sprint. Niebla took a bunch of big bumps off of simple Atlantis stuff, really whipping himself into the mat of dropkicks and quebradoras, getting crotched on the top turnbuckle violently in the tercera and taking a painful bump to the floor. It was real impressive how quickly both men worked, even though the match went a decent length. Really made things seem more immediate. Atlantis wins the first with a smooth roll up, Niebla wins the second while holding the ropes. The ropes holding turns out to be his undoing as he keeps trying to end it the same way in the third and keeps getting caught. Finish is odd and funny, as both men resort to cheating at the exact same moment, with Atlantis' cheating being more violent and thus more effective: Niebla swipes Atlantis mask off at the same time Atlantis punts him in the balls. Ballshot gets the win. Fans in the crowd yell things at Atlantis that get blurred out. These two matched up again a few months later and that match wasn't very good. This one is definitely worth watching.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 7/12/14

These matches were all from the 6/27/14 Arena Mexico show.

En Busca de un Idolo Cibernetico:

1. Negro Casas, Barbaro Cavernario, Dragon Lee, Cachorro & Soberano Jr. vs. Virus, Rey Hechicero, Guerrero Negro Jr., Star Jr. & Super Halcon Jr.

Ciberneticos tend to be fun exhibitions during the initial pairings, and then kinda pointless once they run through the inevitable string of six eliminations in 4 minutes. Out of the early pairings Cavernario/Star Jr. was really fun with really fast work, with Star breaking out really cool armdrags. Hechicero always finds neat new ways to bump to the floor. Cachorro hits the dive of the match, almost beheading Star over the barrier. Soberano hits a crazy tornillo, Casas hits a violent Thesz press off the apron onto Virus, even Halcon hits a nice flip dive. Hechicero was such a big deal in the tourney that I wish he was given more to do here. He gets to hit a great Fuerza bump and takes a nutso slingshot rana from Cachorro, but I wanted more. Seeing Hechicero work Casas was just a brutal tease as it just showed how desperately the upper card needs this guy in there regularly. Dragon Lee makes Guerrero Negro look like a monster, wiping out onto the side of his head on a clothesline. Virus lets Dragon Lee kick him a bunch, and Lee is a guy with some nice looking kicks. I had seen that Phil wrote this up when it happened, and I am stunned that he didn't comment on Cavernario and Hechicero BOTH pulling down their straps when they squared off. Hechicero also does his weird inverted monkey flip to sort of hotshot Cavernario. And then they have to have a double pinfall elimination, because of the stupid awful Torneo Cibernetico charter of 2005, which states "Henceforth all Ciberneticos must have a stupid fucking double pinfall elimination where both men have their shoulders down in a move that otherwise would never be counted as a pinfall, but for dogshit lazy reasons will be counted as a double pinfall in this instance because fuck you." We get a long Casas/Virus showdown to end it which is really fun. Also made me think how odd it is that these two have been around forever, but this was probably the most I've ever seen the two of them match up. Which is sad. I liked this match a lot more than Phil, I thought it was much better than the other ciberneticos over the last few years.

2. Rush, Ultimo Guerrero & La Sombra vs. Atlantis, Shocker & Mr. Niebla

Super fun match that delivered even more than I expected. Sombra really came off like a star here. Really great 1st fall rudo beatdown, with Niebla getting kicked off the rampway into the crowd, Sombra running around giving big boots to everybody, Rush caving in Niebla with his corner dropkick. Big intensity. Tecnicos get quick revenge in the segunda, and the tercera is really hot. Niebla gets to slap Rush around, hitting him with his big slap on the floor, and then back in the ring when Rush covers his face Niebla just sweeps his legs out. Sombra leans way into Shocker's stuff, and they have a good strike exchange with Sombra throwing his awesome left/right elbows. UG obviously rips Atlantis' mask, and Niebla and Shocker awesomely cheat to win, with Niebla pinning Rush with his feet on the ropes. Sombra unmasks himself but Shocker don't care and just pins him, with the ref not noticing. Fun match.

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En Busca de Un Idolo - Cibernetico

6/27

Cachorro/Cavernario/Dragon Lee/Soberano Jr./Negro Casas v. Virus/Hechicero/Star Jr./Guerrero Negro Jr./Super Halcon Jr. - Spare Moment

Pretty flat disappointing match for all the promise it had on paper. Often the best part of Ciberneticos is your first set of exchanges, but we had bad match ups here, your mat section was Cachorro trying to do something interesting with Negro Jr., Virus was stuck with Soberano Jr., Casas was saddled with Halcon, we did get Lee v. Hechicero but that was the fastest of the match ups and was basically just a set up for a dive. For a tourney with some jaw dropping spots, this didn't really have any memorable dives or bumps. Virus looked good and the final run with him agains Lee and Casas was really fun, but overall kind of bummer. Hopefully when Cavernario gets his title shot that will be good.

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En Busca de un Idolo -Week 7

5/13

Cavernario v. Guerrero Negro Jr.- Must See

This was more of brawl then most of these matches and a fun change of pace. Negro Jr. doesn't look particularly good in his brawling, punches are subpar, kicks don't land great, but he does bump OK, and Cavernario absolutely flies around the ring. The finish is what pushes this into Must See territory. Cavernario hits a crazy suplex to the floor and follows it up with his awesome superfly to the floor. Great performance by him, and adds him to the short list of guys who had a good match with Negro.

Dragon Lee v. Super Halcon Jr. - Don't Bother

Match was a mess, first real trainwreck of the tourney. Most things both guys tried were awkward looking or semi blown, and the cool things in the match weren't enough to outweigh that. The last minute was especially bad looking, with Lee trying to hook in his bridged suplex and dropping Halcon before fully landing it. This is the kind of thing you are bound to have with young kids, so I don't mind a strikeout or two, but that is what this was.

5/16

Cachorro v. Super Halcon Jr. -Spare Moment

The boys come out throwing huge bombs, within the first three minutes, we have a Cachorro bullet tope, a Cachorro running powerbomb on the floor, and a Halcon running death valley bomb into the ring boards. I appreciate the balls outetness of the whole thing, but that much front loaded is bound to lead to a slightly underwhelming finish run. Halcon Jr. also breaks out a Virus/Super Astro somesault senton to the prone Cachorro, and a throw into the turnbuckles, before getting caught in a flash Fujiwara. I do love how Cachorro has made that a kill shot move, always adds a bit of unpredictability.

Cavernario v. Soberano Jr. - Spare Moment

Fun match with Cavernario going full rudo and ripping up Soberano's mask and throwing him around. Soberano had some awkward moments, not hitting his stuff as cleanly as he had in other matches. I did love the finish with Soberano taking a nasty bump on missed top before getting splatted by the superfly to the floor. Another great Cavernario carry job, he seems to be really good at putting together compelling finishes.

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En Busca de un Idolo - Week 4

4/22

Super Halcon Jr. v. Star Jr.-Spare Moment

Fun poor mans version of the Star Jr. v. Dragon Lee spotfest. Halcon isn't going to hold up his end as much, but Star Jr. was even nuttier. Flying around with ranas and headscissors, including a top rope asai moonsault. He also lands a great left hook. Halcon pretty much runs through the same spots in each match, and they are fine, but I am getting tired of them already.

Hechicero v. Soberano Jr.-Must See

Man was this a blast. This was a real Hechicero as rudo maestro performance. Soberano Jr. has some spots and some athleticism, but is probably the greenest guy in a tournament of green guys. They start the match by running through some very nifty and pretty complex mat and standing exchanges. Hechicero is leading him through it clearly, but Soberano is contributing some moments of his own. Soberano gets flipped on to the apron and as Hechicero runs in he goes to flip up kick him, it is a spot that you have seen in a million lucha matches, but the Wizard isn't having it, he grabs the leg and uses it to tie the kid up in the ropes and kick his ass, it was very Finlayish. There were lots of moments like that in this match where the expected thing wasn't what you got.  Soberano hits one dive a beautiful corkscrew plancha, but goes for a rana to the floor, gets caught, powerbombed into the ringpost and chucked into the front row.  Then we get Soberano trying to survive an onslaught, until he is able to roll up Hechicero into a leg lock. Lots of cool moments, a great individual performance, lots of things to like in this match.

4/25

Hechicero v. Star Jr.-Must See

Another very fun Hechicero vs. flyer match, he is a really great base, takes ranas, headscissors and dives really well, and isn't afraid to get nasty. Star Jr. tries his entry in the craziest bump contest as Hechicero powerboms him on the top turnbuckle, bouncing him all the way to the floor. He also corked out a top rope springboard twisting moonsault. Hechicero caught a rana and folded him with a nasty powerbomb. This only goes about five minutes, but it is a nifty five minutes.

Super Halcon Jr. v. Soberano Jr.-Don't Bother

Had a couple of moments, Soberano went really high on a monkey flip and had a nice tope con hilo. Still not much else was good, there was one badly blown spot, and Halcon did his same stuff which I am tired of. He has this really awkward looking tope con hilo where he has this pause before the leap like Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon trying to get courage to leap across a building. It never looks good and he keeps doing it.

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En Busca de un Idolo-Week 2

4/8

Super Halcon Jr. v. Guerrero Negro Jr.-Don't Bother

No real execution problems, but really vanilla uninteresting wrestling. Felt a little like an undercard black trunk New Japan juniors match in the early 2000's. Super Halcon Jr. hit a tope con hilo but it didn't have the speed or height on the really great looking dives we are seeing in this tourney. Finish was a solidly executed moonsault which also lacked pizzaz. Forgettable stuff, I really prefer the home run or strike out approach of guys like Star Jr. and Dragon Lee.

Hechicero v. Cavernario-Must See

Both of these guys were kind of local cult heroes, Cavernario was a guy you would search out being crazy in Guadalajara, while Hechicero was the local mat wizard of Monterey. Pretty cool to see them both get a shot at the big time, and both perform so well. The opening matwork was a step above what we had seen before, that is Hechicero's calling card, but the caveman was really solid too. Then we get one of the crazier back to back spots in the history of professional wrestling. Hechicero had last years bump of the year with his chair leg tope, he tries for the 2014 title as he attempts to dive on Cavernario from the ring apron, catches the barrier with his feet and smashes the back of his neck on the floor. Cavernario one ups him, with his crazy top rope to the floor Superfly splash. They battle back in the ring for a bit, and we get some nasty Cavernario headbutts and a great counter into a spinning submission by Hechicero. These guys really set the bar on day 3, not hard to see how they ended up doing so well in the judging.

4/11

Hechicero v. Guerrero Negro Jr.-Spare Moment

I enjoyed the early parts of this a bunch. It was really fun to watch Hechicero eat up Guerrero Negro Jr. with really cool standing counters and leverage arm twists. Negro is about the most generic maskless luchador ever, even his name seems like it comes out of a random lucha name generator. He is fine when asked to do simple things, but when he tries to get fancier the match falls apart. He tries a slingshot double stomp to the floor, but only grazes Hecheicero, then tries an octopus and ends up falling into the ropes. By the time Negro wins with a power bomb, it felt like a mercy killing. Worth checking out for the first part, but it got messy.

Super Halcon Jr. v. Cavernario- Spare Moment

Similar to the previous match, as we had one of the best guys in this tourney trying to pull something out of one of the dullest. This didn't have the high points of the previous match, we got some cool Cavernerio brawling, but nothing as cool as Hechicero's judo,  but it didn't fall apart either, just kind of chugged along. I really like Cavernario's shoulder scars, it looks like he was swiped by a sabertooth tiger. Unmemorable, but inoffensive.

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CMLL on Galavision Workrate Report, 5/12/12

1. Hombre Bala Jr./Super Halcon Jr. vs. Cholo/Apocalipsis:

Damn, Cholo and Apocalipsis? Did I accidentally start reviewing an LATV show? This was kind of a tale of the two good guys on each team, Cholo and Bala. Those guys rule. The other two aren't bad but they're just kind of...guys. Bala was awesome here, and he broke out all sorts of tope variations that I haven't seen before. He did one onto the rampway, splashing Apocalipsis in the process. It was basically him doing a giant running Pete Rose head first slide but landing right on the guy. Later he did the same Pete Rose to Cholo sitting in the corner and ended it in a headbutt instead of a splash. Awesome. Does Osaka Pro still have a large baseball stable? Change his name around and make him the Human Baseball.



2. Tiffany/Princesa Blanca/La Commandante vs. Lady Apache/Marcela/Dark Angel:

Really fun women's match with all ladies firing on all cylinders. Marcela and Tiffany always match up nicely together, always dig them on the mat and Tiffany kicking her face, and dig Marcela's cool springboard double knees to the stomach (which later cost her). They start the first few minutes and have a nice singles match. Lady Apache looked really fired up here. She always looks good, but she was approaching her peak level work here, though Blanca tends to bring out the best in other ladies. When Dark Angel was in with Commandante, it sure felt like one of the largest "foxy" to "rake face" ratio I've seen in some time. Match sputtered a bit at the end with the normally awesome Tiffany looking a little lost at sea, but I take my good women's wrestling when I can get it, and this was mostly really good.



3. Ephesto/Rey Escorpion/Mephisto vs. La Mascara/Mascara Dorada/Black Warrior:

Well God Damn is Dorada awesome or is Dorada awesome? The answer, in fact, is that Mascara Dorada is awesome. I know I spent last week's review just blowing La Mascara but good lord did Dorada just outclass him here. I could watch a match that was nothing but Dorada ranas. So smooth, so effortless. How neat is it when he does one and lands on his feet as the other guy goes sprawling away? You know I love me some Ephesto and Escorpion, and those guys always shine against Dorada and Mascara, as they are the aforementioned other guys that go sprawling. Black Warrior seems to be one of the main pushed guys in CMLL right now, at least that's how it comes across on TV. I don't know. I don't mind the guy. He does some cool things, has some good energy. I like his slingshot elbow. Hits a fast tope. But is he really a guy they're pushing that hard? It seems like Galavision is really pushing Rush and Black Warrior. Am I crazy?

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