Found Footage Friday: BRAZOS~! LA OLA BLANCA~! NEGRO CASAS~! COTA~! BRAZOS AGAIN ~! ULTIMO~! CASAS AGAIN~!

Los Brazos vs. Hijo Del Gladiador/Gran Markus Jr./Dr. Wagner Jr. CMLL 3/22/94

MD: Long title match, which meant a lot of it was wrestled clean. You'd still get Porky butt bumps or whatever, but they kept the shtick to the tercera for the most part. The wrestling was good too. Brazo de Oro and Gladiador had a great exchange in the segunda, for instance. Actually, Gladiador ate a bunch of arm-based control in the primera too. I always like Talisman matches when they pop up but his 90s work jumps out less for me. He was very good here though. The whole rudo side was. Markus brought the size and while Wagner wasn't fully developed yet, he still had that ability to pause and draw the crowd to him. Porky had a striking tope to end the primera and had the crowd more than a little behind him towards the end when they dropped the pageantry of title match lucha and let things devolve into fake heart attacks and what have you. Still, this was a pretty good showing all around and highlighted the Brazos' range.

PAS: I am a huge fan of the Porky heart attack spot, just an all time classic bit of pro-wrestling bullshit. This was an all timer version of that, with the rudos stomping him on the chest only to fall victim to a sneaky inside cradle. The crowd just exploded and leaped to their feet. There was lots of great stuff leading up to that too. Oro is a great technician and is tremendous at filling the early parts of the match leading up to the huge Porky moments. Brazos are so good at traditional trios wrestling, it isn't a style which we see much of anymore, and it is fun to see a new version of it pop up.

ER: This was great, a full match that took its time to build to actual real drama. Los Brazos and this version of the Menudo-like Nueva Ola Blanca had really great chemistry. Every single pairing in this match had rockstar moments. Ola Blanca shifted really well between generous rudo bases making Los Brazos look like aces, to vicious bullies who could swarm and dismantle. Brazos are an easy team to showcase and they all have enough material to fill long singles matches and they're smart about fitting their material into trios work. They're incredible. Oro has some really fast reversal and mirror exchanges, but with strong physics and use of speed. They peak the primera with the likely spot of the match, a huge Porky tope that knocks Markus to the back of Coliseo. Imagine the bravery it takes to stand firm in the face of a 1994 Super Porky tope. I love the years long Brazos/Markus feud, it's nothing but big boy classics, so anytime you get more of that story it's pure joy. This was some of El Brazo's finest work, flawless turnbuckle running armdrags and a great European style headscissors, aggressive baseball slide going after Wagner on the floor and some really fast exchanges. He could really go but for understandable reasons doesn't get the same hype as his brothers. There were also some really big bumps on a pretty unforgiving mat. Porky missed a big back splash at one point and it looked like he just did a full force senton to a sidewalk. I thought the heart attack stuff was some incredible pro wrestling, real drama that got the crowd deeply invested. 

Porky got to show off why he's such a mega star, showing off his athleticism in a long match, throwing out cartwheels and splashes and bumps, even showing off his amateur skills with a big delayed Angle Slam. He took some great theatrical bumps, like a fat guy doing a Bill Dundee impression (has Beau James been doing Bill Dundee doing Super Porky this whole time?). Porky took a passionate, sympathetic beatdown that seemed to go on forever, fan support growing as he kept making his sweet little helpless faces. Ola Blanca really put the boots to Porky, and he's holding his heart the entire time, clutching his chest and breathing heavy and hardly noticing the beating. Porky connects like few tecnicos in history, and I love a good match stoppage. It felt really chaotic as the refs call for an actual time out, and the rudos seem real incredulous about time outs suddenly being allowed in wrestling. People crowd around Porky and it adds to the stress of the moment, as the cameras can't get a clear shot of him on the apron being tended to by the doctor. When he insists on continuing and wins with a small package, it's a huge moment. I've seen plenty of mask matches end with less enthusiastic crowd reactions. Men and women alike are on their feet jumping up and down, Porky a slightly shorter Bruno. Off the charts charisma. I love this man. 

Negro Casas vs. Mocha Cota CMLL 3/25/94

MD: Obviously Casas and Cota are two of the most charismatic, interesting, compelling wrestlers ever. Their hair match in fall 94 is just okay due to the one-fall format and the fact that Casas gives Cota the whole thing. This obviously lacks the stakes down the stretch that the hair match has, but it feels superior in a lot of ways. Cota ambushes to start and gets an early pin. Casas comes back with the world's best foul kick out of the corner. It's right in front of the ref but it's so fast and so brazen that the ref has no idea what to even do with it. Casas, trickster god that he is, makes him doubt his own eyes. A fun beating commences, with Casas opening Cota up with a shot to the audience seats. Casas has some fun stuff here, dancing around before he lays in a great punch and taking Cota's hair as they're standing on the apron and just pulling him down face first all the way to the floor. When we get a clear shot of Cota bleeding it's great but the hair, so amazing for apuestas bets, does obscure it at times. They start to really lay it in during the tercera, with Cota getting the better of the scrapping and he parallel opens up Casas on the seats as well. Even without the stakes, Casas sells it like they've been through a war, first out on the floor and then back in the ring, barely beating the 3-count by limply grabbing the rope again and again. They build to a comeback and another foul for the finish but it all fits given who was in there. In some ways, I think this slipping out even made the subsequent hair match better since it provides that bloody bridge that the feud had been previously missing.

PAS: I thought this was awesome, it just built and built and then had just a super violent finish. I loved the nasty fireman's carry throw giving Cota the first fall. Casas's foul to take control in the second fall was about as great as I have ever seen that done, right to the nuts, in the spilt second when the ref turned his head. It is weird to say that a kick to the balls demonstrates how great a wrestler is, but that kick to the balls demonstrated how great Casas was more than any highspot or bit of mat slickness could. Then when it gets violent, it gets super violent. Both guys bleed, Cota smashes Casas' head into the hard Arena Mexico stairs like he was trying to open a piñata that was misbehaving. It isn't a climax of a match, but is about as incredible a middle chapter as you could expect.

ER: These two are magic together. What performers! Casas and Cota are two of the most expressive wrestlers in history and they're great at both being hams without either outworking the other. They kick things (really hard) into gear in the segunda when Casas overcomes a hot Cota primera by kicking him right in the balls as swiftly as I've ever scene someone kick a pair of balls. He sneaks that ball kick in on Cota in the one split second the ref looked away, and it was a real piece of art, like a shoplifter or pickpocket in a French new wave film. Then he gaslights everyone about the ball kick and beats the shit out of Cota. Casas's punches in the segunda were big swinging joyous shots, theatrical with a flashy follow through. Casas had this way of wrestling like a brute, just grabbing guys by the hair (of which Cota had an ample supply) and throwing their face into the mat; but his movements are so beautiful that it's like watching violent Marcel Marceau. His kicks to a kneeling and reeling Cota stung but also played big to back row Arena Mexico, his whole body is doing something.

He hits a stomp from the apron right to Cota's bleeding forehead and it's like he's striking up a big number in The Music Man. Negro Casas at his charismatic peak is a real rush, a real complete performer who knew the exact kind of lucha drama Mexico City wanted to see. He plays this crowd as confidently as any wrestler I've seen, like Flair in the Carolinas. These two know how to fight, and they have a truly great fight while fully recumbent, Cota leaning in with a seated headbutt as Casas throw killer punches to Cota's ear and neck. They really punched it out and it built to Cota beating his ass on the floor, kicking him around ringside and slamming Casas's face into seats. Casas starts bleeding maybe 1/2 as much as Cota, and feigns going into shock at the sight of his own bloody nose. A rudo doing shifty eyed panic at the sight of their own blood is an incredible rudo shtick that someone should steal, even if they wouldn't have the right level of camp as Casas. 

I love when Casas acts like a giant brat, when he's just kicking at Cota to shove him out of the ring, like a teenager throwing a tantrum when her mom bought the wrong prom dress. Casas is throwing these stiff kicks to Cota's torso with this bitchy face, and it's incredible. It all builds to a big punch out, everything thrown in rhythm but out of time, Casas mixing in chops with leg kicks while trying to weather short, perfectly targeted lefts and rights on the chin from Cota. It's a great punch out to finish a fight. This made my night. 

Los Brazos vs. Los Mercenarios CMLL 7/9/94

MD: About as straightforward of a Brazos match as you can get, but still everything the fans wanted, save for maybe a more elaborate and definitive finishing stretch. The crowd wanted nothing more in the world than to see Porky in the ring and to get to cheer and chant for him. The primera had a few comedy spots and ended with one of the biggest Porky splashes off the top I've ever seen, on all three rudos. The segunda was a fairly straightforward beatdown. There was a little bit of blood and not a lot of motion, but with a crowd this hot, you didn't need to do much but stand Porky in the middle of the ring and dropkick him off the top repeatedly. I really liked the double clothesline Hart Attack that Los Mercanarios used since you don't see that sort of thing too often, even in lucha trios. The comeback was straightforward and heated and led to some trios spots before everything broke down on the outside and the match was thrown out. There were most match promos and the Brazos standing strong but it probably could have used a few more elaborate comedy spots either upfront or at the end. Otherwise, it was a definite crowd pleaser.

ER: Oh to be in the crowd for a Los Brazos match. I love when we get Brazos US footage, you really get to see how far Porky's local celebrity status extends. He was a marquee name on this show, a name this crowd all knew in advance, the man getting the chants all through the match. I don't know who any of Los Mercenarios are, but they worked really well within Los Brazos style. They all knew their sequences and knew when to play into the comedy, but always worked the comedy seriously. I loved a spot where one of them was trying to Irish whip Porky and Porky kept holding onto the top rope; the Mercenary was really yanking on Porky's arm to drag him away from the rope, and sincerity makes the humor work its best. In the hot tercera brawl, the shorter stocky Mercenary really beat Porky's ass in the entrance aisle, throwing heavy right hands to knock him down and then rains down with some more. Los Mercenarios try a pretty dangerous missile dropkick while one is holding Porky prone, but he gets scared or something and fucks up the first attempt, and it's kind of a miracle he didn't Gronda his leg. They do it again, he commits to the dropkick, they're a good team. Super Porky hits one of the most spectacular highspots in Brazos history when he hits his big splash at the end of the primera. I hope the Alvarados bought that middle Mercenario extra tortas because that man got absolutely crushed by one of Porky's all time splashes. They give us a lot of momentum shifts, more than I was expecting, and it elevates the match. The action was strong and would shift in believable ways, and by the end I really bought into the fight. But god, imagine hitting a splash like that and the only reason it was documented was because of some guy sitting in the loge seats at Grand Olympic. 

Negro Casas vs. Ultimo Dragon CMLL 7/9/94

MD: I absolutely loved this Casas performance. It might be one of my favorites ever and that's saying something. He and Dragon start it on the mat as they properly should, with Dragon ultimately getting the advantage, with some lightning-quick, explosive twists down onto the leg. Casas eventually has enough and takes advantage of the ref sleeping by launching a clunky foul kick. From there, he doesn't look back, absolutely conducting the crowd to shush and play along. He's all but sweating charisma and personality as he interacts with the ref and with them. Then, after he takes the first fall, he launches a second foul for absolutely no reason, just because he could, and goes even further over the top. Anyone with enough charisma could take this act a decent distance because the crowd is so great, but it's Casas' ability to go and his physicality and emotiveness that makes it all overflow. 

I swear that Dragon's comeback is almost solely due to Casas basking in the interaction he's having with the crowd and getting distracted. But what makes it work, what turns it from a hit into a home run is how he walks right into Dragon's German Suplex and goes over for it so well. He follows it up not by taking ten more moves but instead by using the period between falls to walk out on the absolutely elated crowd. Once he comes back, though, he and Dragon have a great, high-spot laden finishing stretch, with Dragon playing possum with his knee so he can dropkick Casas to the floor, and ultimately getting the best of him in a clear, clean, and hugely entertaining way in the end. Dragon looked really good too throughout most of this, but Casas came off like the biggest, best star in the world here.

PAS: Dragon has a rep as a great worker, which is really undeserved. What he can be is a great passenger, and Casas is a master driver. So with these two matches as examples, was Negro Casas the best wrestler in the world in 1994? What a fucking king he is in this, just conducting the crowd and making every Dragon moment mean so much. 94 Dragon had some stuff, but it is what Casas can do with that stuff that made it special. Imagine how good 1994 Negro Casas vs. 2021 Ninja Mack would have been, or 1994 Casas vs. 2003 Amazing Red (I imagine both those matches would be pretty great right now, Casas is still incredible).  

ER: I've been watching Dragon a lot against lesser opponents lately, and it's a real treat to see him against someone like Casas. Dragon is a guy who is going to match the personality of his opponent, so if his opponent is an iceman with dead eyes you're going to have a heatless move exchange with no consistent story. You put Dragon in with someone like Casas and magically, Dragon has a big personality. In the match up above we got to see Casas sneak in one of the all time great low blows in wrestling history, and here he works two other great spots around low blows, one of which might be just as great. He again plays the game of kick Ultimo low when the ref is distracted, but this time my favorite work was in his foul faking. Fouling and fake fouling was something I really loved when I started getting into lucha, and it's mostly absent in modern lucha. The theatricality around a guy getting hit in the nuts or fervently pretending like you did get hit in the nuts was always wildly entertaining to me, and that's probably because there were real artists like Casas and Satanico who knew how to hit balls and how to pretend their balls were hurt. 

When Casas goes down from a phantom shot the Grand Olympic crowd really turns on him, and the ref knows exactly how to play it, acting like he's going to give Casas the segunda before Ultimo appeals to the crowd and the crowd all stands waving their fingers at Casas. Casas gets up to protest and Ultimo points out that Negro's balls no longer hurt, and Casas does this note perfect "oh yeahhhhhh my balls!" and begins selling them again. I love how Casas looks at the Mexican fans afterward like "man you're gonna support some goof in a mask instead of one of your boys? Come on. We gotta hold ourselves up." The nearfall stretch in the tercera is strong, we get a big Ultimo dive past the ringpost, a Casas powerbomb that feels like it might be it, a snug Ultimo hurricanrana, Casas threatening to walk out, all of it great. Negro Casas getting into it with the LA fans and managing to walk into Ultimo's traps is just hugely entertaining pro wrestling. 

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I Miss Super Porky

Brazo de Plata/Brazo de Oro vs. Gran Hamada/Perro Aguayo UWA 3/10/91

ER: What a great tag, the kind of match where you'd consider yourself lucky if you got to see a variation of it live, and a real tour de force Porky performance. The fans are way into everything Porky brings, and he keeps surprising them. Before the match even starts he does a hilarious pratfall to the floor, falling flat on his face just getting from the ring to the apron. The fans eat it up and want only more Porky, and they get it. This starts nice and ramps up the entire match, and gives us a full feeling match in 11 minutes. There's some simple almost US style matwork from Oro and Aguayo to start, and I like how that played into the gradual ramping up of the match. The 11 minutes felt so complete because of the way they kept building speed throughout and kept working to bigger and bigger things. Hamada got to flash his speed and work blazing fast exchanges with both Brazos, the kind of speed that still stands out as special 30 years later when the foundation modern style of wrestling is based around speed, and his huracanrana roll up still stands as the best of all time. But, that pre-match faceplant pratfall set things in stone, and this was always going to be Porky's match. He gets into slap fights, does muscle pose downs with Perro, hits an awesome big boy tope, hits his crushing Porky splash, and does all the little things like whipping over fast on armdrags and showing his always shocking agility. This match feels like the kind of thing that should have lead to Porky being one of the most popular foreigners in Japan for the next decade, and I'm sure that Hamada recognized that. I imagine Porky wanted to remain in Mexico for good reasons (such as several young children at home), but I love thinking of this alternate timeline where Porky spends his 90s working a bunch of M-Pro and Toryumon tours. 

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New Footage Friday: Porky vs. MA2K for HAIR, Negro Casas, Great Sasuke, Gypsy Joe, Takashi Ishikawa

Dream Machine/Gypsy Joe vs. Takashi Ishikawa/Akio Sato AJPW 1/20/83

MD: This was good stuff. I really like the team of Dream Machine and Gypsy Joe. Joe's so matter-of-fact, just a meat and potatoes, pound and stooge stalwart of the wrestling world. Dream Machine in Japan is a constant treat. He puts a little extra into everything. That may be an extra reversal on an armdrag or the oomph on a knee drop when he could have just gotten away with a stomp or that nasty (really just unnecessary for the match but over the top vicious) chairshot on the outside. This was mainly back and forth but I liked how Joe/DM controlled matters when on offense and the escalation felt surprisingly flashy, including the Sato/Ishikawa veg-o-matic (1983, folks), and the near deadlift German that ended it.

PAS: I am a big Ishikawa guy, and it is really fun to watch him and Gypsy Joe mix it up. Those are a pair of guys who throw hard down the middle shots, and Joe especially always feels like he is taking liberties. Loved the idea of Jimmy Hart's First Family invading japan, and that Ishikawa and Sato were willing to go along with the ride and give as good as they get. Finish with Onita attacking Joe makes me sad we never had a Gypsy Joe run as a top heel in FMW.


Negro Casas vs. Great Sasuke CMLL 7/7/96

MD: This is not 100% new, but it's definitely 100% rare and absolutely 100% worth watching. It's just an amazing Negro Casas performance. The first fall has him working pretty evenly on the mat with Sasuke, though they're both emphasizing the pain and the struggle very well. As I was watching, my thought of them really letting things build and breathe was disrupted by an out of nowhere superplex, but it worked, because of the 2/3 fall structure and because it operated as a tonal shift. That let Sasuke get the first real advantage of the match and take the first fall.

While that first fall was technically competent, things start to sing in the second as Casas the beloved troublemaker rudo is fully unleashed. It starts with chinlocks and headscissors and Casas, at each and every point, claiming it's a choke and getting the ref to break it. Ultimately, Sasuke gets frustrated and starts stomping, but Casas then trips himself in the corner (repeatedly) whenever he's near Sasuke's second, until the ref gets wholly distracted and Casas is able to slip in a perfect foul.

The tercera has Casas pressing the offense, including some immediately blown off legwork (this is the big flaw of the match, but you sort of forgive it because of who Sasuke is and the fact that Casas could only get so far with it before eating an asai moonsault), and then, after more chicanery and fouls (wherein he claims to be fouled himself), he ultimately takes a far too nonchalant approach to things, pays for it, almost loses, and comes back at the last second with la casita for the win. Sasuke has some fire in this, but he generally comes off as an out-of-his-element tourist who's getting fleeced by a savvy local. There's no one else in the world who could have done what Casas did in this match in 1996. I can count on my hand the people in all of history that I think could marry this level of technical skills and emotiveness with presence and just a sheer mastery of every moment without having anything feel contrived and over the top. What's crazy is that he could still probably have 95% of this match today.

ER: What a little treat! Two legends I have never seen face each other, on Casas' home turf, with Casas turning in one of the most generous rudo performances possible. This is a dominant Sasuke performance, Casas gives him at least 90% of the match, and it totally works. This is black tights Casas, which is my favorite Casas look ever, playing not so much a sniveling rudo, but a rudo who is going to focus his energy on cheating even when his focused energy could potentially win decently. It's great. Sasuke dominates the entire primera with matwork, and it's cool seeing Japanese juniors matwork in a lucha ring, nicely stretched half crabs and hard armbar attempts, and Casas is someone really great at putting over that kind of matwork. He repeatedly gets outclassed by Sasuke, and this is last time I'll mention how unselfish he was here, just a luchador with the most confidence possible, letting a flashy junior come in and show off all his coolest stuff. The segunda is where Casas - while still letting Sasuke handle almost all the offense - focuses much of his attention on making Tiger Mask look like a cheating son of a bitch, and it's hilarious. He had four different moments where he would act like TM was swiping his leg from the floor. 

The first time I actually thought TM had just missed his mark and Casas was a pro and just be the guy committed to pretending he got hit by a pitch to take his base. When he went back and did it again I saw what he was doing, and LOVED it. Casas was using imaginary trips to distract the ref while Casas could then go punt some ninja in the balls and I was 100% here for it. Sasuke kicking out of a ball kick in Mexico feels like a pretty big deal, and kicking out of a second shot was beyond the pale. Who is this ninja with the invincible scrotum, whose second has the fastest hands in the west? The Sasuke highspots were expectedly impressive, with his big Asai moonsault into the narrow entryway, always connecting so cleanly chest to chest; he hit his tumbling moonsault in ring, and a Bruce Lee style kick off the top to the floor that sent himself into a seat and Casas sprawled down an aisle. Casas hit a gorgeously cocky senton off the top rope (taunting fans as he climbed the turnbuckles), and had a couple big bumps: one fast to the floor off a dropkick, the other late in the match flying off the top rope to the floor off another dropkick, with Casas landing directly on a photographer who humbly gets up and scampers off. But the star of this was Casas repeatedly making Tiger Mask defend his honor, the innocent man accused of guilt, sounding only more and more guilty the more he defends himself. Casas was writing a Hitchcock script around leg swipes and dick kicks.

PAS: All timer by Casas, what an incredible performer. We get to see all of the facets of Casas as a world class rudo, the technical back and forth mat work of the first fall, leads into an award winning performance as a trolling heel, loved how when he fouls Sasuke, he fakes a foul on himself just to muddy the waters and confuse the ref. Later Casas is a generous base for all of Sasuke's crazy highspots, and a violent bastard as he tears up Sasuke's knee. He delivered it all and it was great. Sasuke was a fine dance partner and loved when ever he was ripping apart Casas' knee. Really wish we could have seen Casas against other imports at this time, you get sense he could deliver a great match which virtually anyone.


Super Porky vs. Mascara Ano 2000 CMLL 8/7/98


MD: Super minimalist affair, and generally I'm ok with that because you know it'll be super primal as well, but here I wanted a little move of everything. That's not because I felt unsatisfied but because the bits and pieces we got were so good; unfortunately, they were just bits and pieces. Porky came out charging, just bullying MA2K around the ring and it's a sort of triumphant, dominant Porky that you rarely see, just meaty shots and no mercy. He just took the primera too quickly. He was so dominant that you had to wonder how MA2K could even get back in it, and it went the only way it could, with a missed move off the ropes. The heat here was very brief, the comeback definitive but also too sudden to really enjoy. That led to MA2K loading up the arm-brace and smashing Porky repeatedly until he couldn't fight back. All good ideas. All good execution. We just needed more of it.

PAS: Really hard hitting heavyweight apuestas match, which didn't have enough juice or time to get really great. Porky comes out like a freight train and bowls over Ano for the entire first fall, which is an interest look for a technico in an apuestas match. It reminded me of Dusty Rhodes or Bill Watts walking tall over bumping heels. I loved the dominant first fall, and was fine with the banana peel segunda, and liked the finish with the loaded brace, and Porky's spasmodic selling. I just wished we got some real back and forth before that finish, it feels like we were robbed a dramatic Tercera, and instead they just went right into the finish at the beginning of the fall. Still a fun discovery

ER: I LOVED THIS! Now, there is one absolutely cruel moment to start, and that is that this is a big apuestas match, and we did not get to see ring entrances. You need that pomp, you need to see Mascara coming out with Universo wearing their dusters and suits, and Porky appeared to have a cape with a head and chest piece, and we saw next to none of it! And that is the only mistake they made, because the match itself features another flat out brilliant Super Porky performance. Phil has called Porky arguably the most entertaining wrestler of all time, and you see performances like this and it's hard to argue. What's amusing is Porky has long been a favorite of mine, but this and the other Porky match we've reviewed for NFF have been among my absolute FAVORITE Porky matches. Which means I loved the guy without ever even seeing some of his greatest work, and now I am just over the moon. I have never seen Porky work the mat like he does here, and it's the best. It's so cool seeing him break out these skills, stretch that muscle memory, and even use his belly to his advantage! That Indian deathlock spot was class, the way he locked Mascara's leg and applied pressure while rolling through, and after when he held Mascara's legs in place with his stomach! 

All of Porky's exchanges looked fantastic, just momentum and charisma crashing into Mascara. His energy level was really a sight in the 90s, and then seeing him drop a nice vertical suplex and following with a Perfect Plex is just next level? Super Porky, dropping someone with a Perfect Plex? YESSSSS. He is just so damn fun here. I am a big Mascara fan as well, and he knows to lay back during this one, total foil for Porky's antics. He lets Porky handle the offense, because Porky has spectacular offense, capitalizes on things like Porky missing a huge senton off the top. And I loved all the shenanigans around the loaded arm wrap. I loved how obvious Universo and Mascara were being about it, the very concept of a discreetly hidden weapon trick thrown out the window. But I loved the Snidely Whiplash dastardly gall, and Mascara comes in a clocks Porky right in the throat, and then does it again. I dug Porky's spasm-y selling while Mascara struts around the ring, brazen in his rudo behavior. This was great.  

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New Footage Friday: Piper, Choshu, Inoki, Porky, Nicho, Santo, Rey Sr.

Roddy Piper vs. Riki Choshu NJPW 9/8/77

MD: This was very straightforward. Roddy got outwrestled. Roddy went to the cheapshots first. Choshu came back. Roddy cut him off. They went back and forth towards a clean finish. It was all good though even if nothing was over the top. Piper was maybe 23 here. I like how he sold after holds. I liked the viciousness when he took over. He had a fun gutwrench that Choshu went up too much for. Both distinctive Choshu comebacks were after Roddy was verbally taunting him, which was a nice touch. There was that real sense of struggle in this, from the opening Piper headscissors all the way to the butterfly suplex that ended it. I like how different this was from the Inoki match. That's a testament to young Roddy.

PAS: Really fun to see incubatory versions of both of these all time greats. Piper has some of the better headlock punches I can remember. He really pops Choshu right in the nose and eye. This was before Choshu developed his formula, he has an afro instead of his stringy hair, and doesn't throw a lariat or put on a Scorpion. This was fun, but I can just imagine how amazing a 1985 version of this match would have been.

ER: This is like a great Young Lions match, no highspots or rope running, both guys staying close the whole time, and both laying in shots. Piper was 23 as Matt said, but everything he did looked so good and fully formed. Look at that headscissors where he holds his knees tightly together and scrapes Choshu's head across the mat, or when he whips Choshu's head into the turnbuckle like he's slamming a car door as hard as he can. I also like how Piper would whip his arm into the side of Choshu's head, and also loved how he sold for Choshu. At one point he ate a heavy back suplex, and then lay there pulsing on the mat as if he kept trying to get up but suddenly had no working core. My brain didn't even read Choshu as Choshu in this - as Phil said he wrestled and even looked quite differently - as he looked more like "what if Kantaro Hoshino was a powerlifter?" I dug how he didn't put up with Piper's chippiness, and the two suplexes to end it are a suitable ending for the era.  

Roddy Piper vs. Antonio Inoki NJPW 9/22/77

MD: It's been a bit of a surprise but I've really enjoyed 70s Inoki. Maybe the trick is that I'm watching relatively short matches that highlight his energy? Here, there's a ton of craziness on the outside to start, and Piper capitalizes, and the first few minutes are really good. Piper's great at picking someone apart and Inoki's a quality guy to pick apart. He uses the ring, including ambushing Inoki when he comes back in and unleashing a ton of golden gloves jabs. Inoki's big late 70s move was apparently fighting his way back into the ring; when he does it by getting Piper's leg and then doing repeated bull charges to drive him into the corner, the crowd pops huge. They follow it up with Inoki getting some punching revenge and one of my favorite things, an extended short arm scissors section with Piper constantly engaged from underneath, so I'm all for this one. Piper eventually sneak-shots his way back into it, but it's never a real competition after that; at one point, while facing off for fisticuffs, Inoki's able to just shove him down. Inoki just has this forward momentum, always charging forth, that Piper tries to redirect or sneak around, but there's just no stopping it. Another butterfly suplex ends this. It was a good win, one that made Piper seem like a threat, even if not too much of one, and that made Inoki look great in victory.

PAS: This was a very Piper match which I loved. It starts with Inoki and Blackjack Mulligan brawling on the floor and Piper jumping Inoki from behind. Piper has some great wild punch combos, which he did about as good as anyone. Inoki taking control with his "ruined Ali's career" leg kicks is pretty cool, Inoki knows how to handle a guy with great hand speed and combos. I am also a big time mark for short arm scissors. I liked Piper's comeback, but one of my issues with Inoki matches is when he decides its over he just steamrolls his opponent and ends the match. If this had a more exciting finish it would have been a real hidden classic. It was still a great look at young Piper, who has really become one of my favorite guys to watch.

ER: This was so cool, with Blackjack Mulligan jumping Inoki on the floor and Piper opportunistically taking advantage of that...but I love how the advantage doesn't last long and Inoki comes firing back and just lays into Piper. It felt like an MMA fight where a guy takes advantage of a slip from his opponent, but the guy who slipped is a better fighter and the second he gains his footing he just starts punishing that dude. Inoki overwhelms and clowns Piper, legsweeping him, dodging every attack, catching his strikes and forcing Piper into armbars and short arm scissors and trying to wrench him into the octopus, really punishing him for his insolence. But Piper's comeback is nice and fiery and he really laces some shots into Inoki. I really like Piper's full arm swinging shots, really the only guys I've seen who throw similar arm strikes as him are all luchadors, though I know that was obviously not an influence on him (just as Piper likely wasn't an influence on any luchadors). Phil is right about Inoki just deciding to end matches and ending them quick, but this was still a 10 minute powder keg.

Super Porky/Nicho El Millionario/El Hijo Del Santo vs. Rey Misterio Sr./Halloween/Damian Tijuana 6/2001 (?)

ER: This match was every damn thing I want in my lucha. 2001 Tijuana is proving to be one of the all time great lucha hotbeds, and let's thank Roy Lucier for letting us see these matches from the tape trading era of lucha. 2001 Tijuana and shows with 2001 Santo matches were the very first lucha I bought from a flea market, and it was the best lucha I had seen in my then 3 year history of watching lucha, which began with WCW luchadors leading me on to WWF Superastros, before finally getting cable TV and finding lucha on Galavision in 1998. 2001 Tijuana was my favorite lucha I had seen, and it only looks better in 2019. This is lucha perfection to me. Super Porky turns into a physical comedy performance for the ages (focus on physical), Rey Mysterio Sr. continues to look like an absolute legend every time I see him, Nicho shows how insane he is with how many dangerous violent spills he takes on a show that to his knowledge wasn't being recorded; Hijo del Santo is a legend who we know has a 100% track record of showing up on every show he's on no matter the crowd size, and Halloween and Damian are two of the more dependable brawlers of the era (at one point Halloween hits this great leaping mule kick, and it's just one cool thing the two of them do). It's a match with so many standout stars that I have no clue who the standout star of the match is.

Super Porky gave a performance that ranks up with the best of them, a great mid career performance. He hits a super far assisted top rope splash, sets up a beautiful version of his headlock takeover/headscissors, works a hilarious comedy spot that sees him do more rope running than I've ever seen him do at any point of his career (building to a great payoff of Halloween and Damian popping each other), he absolutely crushes Familia de Tijuana's valets with a huge body press of the apron, and his dancing after the primera was impossible to not smile through. Nicho is absolutely nutso. He takes all of his most dangerous bumps here, plus some new ones. He falls on his head, throws high dropkicks on the concrete floor, gets suplexed into the 5th row and appears to hit a baby (!), he insanely wraps himself around the ringpost on a missed charge (as crazily as I've ever seen that  bump done), drops a guillotine legdrop onto Mysterio over the guardrail, he gets powerbombed kidneys first through two freaking CHAIRS!! This guy! Mysterio is like lucha Fit Finlay, it's insane how underwritten this guy is. He comes off like a total crime boss here, sending his henchmen into battle, he hits hard, he knows how to stooge, he'll take a great bump into the crowd (and suplex Nicho further in), and he comes off like a total sadist. Santo is lucha grace personified, hitting his flawless headscissors, his big senton into a dive past the ringpost (set up nicely by Porky), but then when Felino runs in at the end of the tercera we get to see Santo the brawler - which is the best Santo. He's so graceful and moves so smoothly, but he's super aggressive in brawls and the way he went after Felino made me want to see that match. This match was insanely hot, insanely violent, all done for locals only. Everything from this era of TJ needs to be seen, just a total early millennium wrestling hotbed.

MD: This was glorious mayhem. I love that it fit into so many traditional tropes while being bonkers and over the top. I'm not sure I've ever seen Rey Mysterio Sr as a rudo before but he definitely fit the look. Nicho as the post-modern, crotch chopping tecnico who wanted to get his hands on him, worked. That he had Hijo del Santo and Brazo de Plata with him just made everything more surreal. There are so many weird moments in this. Porky flips up and over with a rope assist before hitting the headscissors/headlock takeover. He's the one who holds a guy down for the Santo senton/tope combo. Santo positions someone on the guardrail for a Psicosis legdrop. Porky hits a dive on a valet. Psicosis had more distinct hope spots than you generally see, which I assume was the US style rubbing off on him. We miss the absolute moment of tecnico comeback here, which is a shame, and Felino interjecting himself at the end led to an awesome beatdown but maybe wasn't conducive to a good match. That's the thing with some of this footage. It's honestly good booking. They keep building to the next thing. It just means when you watch it as a capsule, the finishes aren't always as satisfying as the match itself.

PAS: This was a total blast, pretty much exactly what you want from a Tijuana lucha match: you know it isn't going to make a ton of sense, you won't get a clean finish, there will be some nonsense with refs and run ins, but you put all time greats and total lunatics in that formula and it is going to rule. Nicho went full Sabu in this, flying all over the ring smashing himself into the post, getting hurled into the crowd, you totally understand why he had such a short career as a great wrestler as he was dying these kind of horrid deaths regularly. Porky at his best is maybe the most entertaining wrestler of all time and here he was at his best. The Porky top rope splash has to feel like getting hit with a bag of hotel laundry, all of the sheets from all of the rooms in a giant bag landing on your chest.  Santo brings class to the insanity and Familia De Tijuana are great rudo foils. It goes off the rails as you expect, but it was a great train crash.

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2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Alvarado Family Feud

24. Maximo vs. La Mascara AAA 2/1

ER: What a tremendous bit of family theater. This was a hair vs. hair match, except that Maximo was fighting for Super Porky's hair, and Mascara was fighting for Goya Kong's hair. It starts pretty simply, two very quick falls, but Maximo gets busted open in the segunda, serving as a sign of the drama that was coming in the tercera. Everybody played their role tremendously, and the fans were literally jumping out of their seats for nearfalls down the finishing stretch. Maximo turns in one of the great tecnico performances of the year, really eating some hard shots from Mascara before finally snapping. Maximo snaps off a couple nice headscissors, hits a plancha off the apron into his sister (with Mascara awesomely moving at the last minute so Goya takes the hit), and then goes nuts in the crowd throwing hard rows of sharp chairs at Mascara's head. Maximo was really throwing those things and suddenly this is an Alvarado take on a Park/Rush brawl. But Maximo manages to hit a better tope than any tope in a Park/Rush match. Maximo has an argument for best tope in lucha, and this is one of his finest ever, his chest and head battering Mascara hard into the barricade, like booby trapped tree knocking a storm trooper down a hill on Endor. I loved all the family interaction: You had Mascara slapping Porky, Porky hitting Mascara in the face with the handle of a ring squeegee, Porky hobbling after Goya - Porky was moving pretty poorly but has lost weight, looked like a lucha Sebastian Gorka - and smacking that handle against the ground with every step before hitting his daughter with it (!), and later an awesome nearfall when Goya runs in to interfere and splats Mascara with a great elbowdrop. The nearfalls down the stretch were fantastic, and the fans were dying with them. They wanted to see Goya without her great head of hair, and every single Maximo kiss into a schoolboy lead to the crowd going bonkers. Maximo even pulls out a triple dip kiss for a nearfall, the ref eats a kick to the back of the head, some other guy gets involved and kicked to the floor; that kind of overbooking can feel like a total mess but here I thought it all added to the chaos and the fact that a couple heads of hair were on the line! This tercera (which was basically the whole match) was too much fun. Maximo is a guy I've pretty much checked out on post-CMLL, but he does always seem to turn in one big early year performance. For all I know he's putting on shows like this all over town.

PAS: I feel like I need to get the backstory of this match with a brother fighting his cousin while wagering the hair of their invalid father and sister, respectively.  The weirdness of this match was really elevated by everyone being family. Porky can barely walk but he is still bleeding and hits a splash on an imposter who he thought was his nephew, and hits his daughter with a giant cane. Maximo ends up getting multiple near falls after he kisses his cousin on the mouth. Hell of Maximo performance, if this had been a bigger match the image of him hurling rows of chairs at his bloody brother would have been iconic, this was a small Arena Lopez Mateos match and only available via handheld, but it felt like a huge main event. Lots of goofiness and shortcuts, but I enjoyed the hell out of it.

2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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THE FATTEST FEUDS: Gran Markus Jr. vs. Los Brazos!!!

Gran Markus Jr./Pierroth Jr./Ulises vs. Los Brazos CMLL 2/4/90

ER: This was so good and immediately told me that I had made the right choice in chasing down chubby dudes to watch. This was much more like a fun 80s house show tag in a southern territory, starting with the rudo team stalling themselves away from Los Brazos, including some fun sneak attacks that backfire (love Ulises missing a running hip attack on the floor and hip attacking the ring apron, don't think I've seen that before). But before long it's a great fight, and Markus starts throwing these short hard punches to Brazo's temple, it looked like he was attempting to slice him open, and within seconds sure enough El Brazo's head, torso, and arms are covered in blood. The Markus/Porky moments are all fire, and there's a long stretch where Porky is just taking kicks and punches and Markus' slashing shots to the head that made me absolutely die for a Brazos ring clearing. Porky hits an absolutely phenomenal butt splash off the top, crazy height and distance, Markus ran in and Porky flies in with a butt first Thesz press and sticks the landing, so incredible. Ulises (much more commonly known before and now as Tony Salazar) has sorta flimsy offense that works for a cheapshotting rudo, but he takes big dramatic bumps which nicely highlight some Brazo punches. We get some chaos as this spills all over, with great shots of Pierroth laying down a beating up in the seats, we get more fun Porky/Markus tradeoffs including some gorgeous fat guy armdrags, the whole thing felt like it made as much sense in 80s Mid-South Coliseum than 1990 Arena Coliseo. The finish was abrupt, a shot to the balls that gives the win to Los Brazos, but you KNOW this is setting up the title shot rematch...

Gran Markus Jr./Pierroth Jr./Ulises vs. Los Brazos CMLL 2/16/90

ER: This is the title match rematch, and it's all action, go go go, no excessive rudo cheating or DQs like in their prior match; this is everybody in the match showing off with speed, quick tags, and super fun sequences. Porky is obviously a standout, he was such a freak athlete and honestly I'd be happy just watching him do his gorgeous rolling handsprings. But he gets to show off his speed and excellent shtick, doing quick leapfrog spots, missing a colossal senton that lands him halfway across the ring, works a fun comedy spot where he shows of his amateur skills by getting into referee's position before casually reaching up an arm to armdrag Ulises, hits a suicide dive onto everyone that must have felt like getting hit with a barrel from Donkey Kong, does his big butt splash off the top, hits an awesome low angle hip pivot belly to belly suplex on Markus, just totally kills it. All the Brazos came in with speed, working several cool fast armdrag spots with Pierroth and Ulises, and I especially thought Ulises had some cool ones, and Pierroth took a really great fast backwards bump to the floor at one point. Markus was much more of a stooge here (no signs of that bare knuckle brawler from their previous match), but he is a really great stooge opposite Porky; his shaky knee sell off Porky shoulderblocks alone would probably get me to recommend the match. The dive train is really fast and exciting, all Brazos really ramped up the speed and flew out of the ring as fast as possible (Porky's was going to be impossible to top, but Oro and Brazo's dives looked fantastic). Total speed match, nothing but fun.

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El Brazo v. Brazo De Plata v. Brazo De Oro CMLL Cabellera contra Cabellera contra Cabellera

El Brazo v. Brazo De Plata v. Brazo De Oro CMLL Cabellera contra Cabellera contra Cabellera 3/31/95

This weekend I am going to a lucha show headlined by a La Mascara v. Psycho Clown v. Maximo three way, so I though I would check out an older Alavardo family three way. This was a fun idea which may have under delivered a bit. Super Porky gets two relatively quick pins over his brothers, including absolutely smushing El Brazo with a top rope splash that felt like Wiley Coyote getting a piano dropped on him. The final hair match is El Brazo v. Brazo de Oro and they have a fun brawl which never hits the level of epic hair matches. We do get some grizzly blood from Oro which is even nastier since it his brother chewing on his head. Kind of cheap finish with El Brazo putting his feet on the ropes with a powerbomb. Fun but not the mind blower I was hoping for.

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THE MOTHERFUCKING INTERNET: More Masked 80s Brazos

Los Brazos (Brazo De Oro/Brazo De Plata/El Brazo) v. Rocky Star/Eddy Guerrerro/Lizmark Juarez EMLL 1988?

PAS: Well the world is going to hell, but at least we waltzing on the deck of the Titanic to the sounds of new 80s Brazos matches. This was a great quality pro-shot Juarez show, which hopefully means that more stuff like this exists. This was the earliest Eddie match I can remember, although he is more of an afterthought to the El Brazo v. Rocky Star feud. That is probably the least interesting on paper focus of any of these six guys, although it is still great stuff. Both Rocky and El Brazo bleed buckets, and El Brazo takes some nasty post bumps, El Brazo was clearly a world class 80s bleeder. This was the most serious I have seen the Brazo's work, as they were straight violent rudos including flipping off the crowd and brutalizing the babyfaces. There was some fleeting moments of Super Porky agility including a punishing superfly splash and a dive off of the ring apron. More of a cool discovery then an all time great match, but what a cool discovery.

ER: This is earlier than any Brazos or Eddy match on the 80s lucha set, and I loved this. Brazos are unhinged maniacs in this, and I thought the tecnicos did a great job. I disagree that Rocky/El Brazo is the least interesting match up as I think Rocky was the best tecnico of these three at this point, with Eddy being so young, and Lizmark not being as good as Rocky. The women in the crowd go absolutely insane for Rocky, and the handheld (yet seemingly pro shot?) camera picks up all the screams. When Rocky is really bleeding in the corner there is one woman, voice cracking, dying every step of the way with Rocky. She gets it as by the end Brazo is just coated in his own blood, soaking into his chest and sprayed down his tights. Everybody got their moments: Lizmark had a fun monkey flip segment with Oro, Eddy got a dynamic armdrag sequence with Brazo, and Porky continued to look like a damn superstar. This guy has so much charisma and at 25 was built like a tank. Young Porky flexing, posing, flipping off fans and squashing dudes while leaping around the ring with as much agility as anyone else. Brazo finds 3 different ways to run nastily into a ringpost, Rocky is a great fired up tecnico (watch him leap to the floor after Brazo after finally getting an opening), and this was an excellent find. More 80s Brazos!! More!!

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ALL TIME MOTY LIST Head to Head 1988: Hansen/Gordy v. Tenryu/Kawada V. Brazos v. Destructores

Los Brazos (Brazo De Oro/Brazo De Plata/El Brazo) vs. Los Destructores (Emilio Charles Jr./Vulcano/Tony Arce) EMLL 1988?

PAS: God bless youtube as this tasty slice of lucha libre violence just shows up one day. I didn't even know Emilio Charles Jr. was in Los Destructores and here he is trying to open up El Brazo's head like a difficult coconut. Destructores lose the first fall by DQ by removing Oro's mask, and as he goes to the back, they take a 3 on 2 advantage on the Brazo's and really beat them badly. Brazo is leaking like Reince Preibus, and they tie Plata in the corner and work his ample belly like a heavy bag. Emilio Charles is so great to watch here, the other Destructores are great, but he is on another level, just an amazing explosive brawler. Loved Porky in this too, he may be one of my favorite high flyers ever, he is such a hippo that to watch him fly around is so incongruous, and he knows how to land everything with such force. My favorite kind of holy grail, a match I had no idea existed, which shows up like a surprise present.

ER: Unseen anything popping up is always exciting, feels like something that can just keep happening forever and ever. And when it's a young mid 20s Porky I will get a little extra exciting. Destructores are all really good and them taking apart Brazos was a treat. Arce was great at crowd riling, and Charles was a vicious beast, those punches to the side of Brazo's dome looked line crossing. But I came for the chubs and I rooted for the chubs. Porky at 25 is pure joy. His leaps from the apron are insane. He gets no kind of running start, just does a huge standing broad jumps and gets frankly absurd distance for a butterball. It's fun seeing younger variations on older, fatter Porky spots, like how he just plops immediately on a sunset flip attempt, and while you're laughing he then breaks out a handspring kip up like the fattest Dynamite Kid and you're in love. His big splash off the top early in the match is an all time big splash, and after 20 years of seeing him hold teammates' hands while climbing to the top it's downright shocking to see him fly 60% of the way across the ring and just crush a man. Great find, god bless unseen lucha.

Hansen/Gordy v. Tenryu/Kawada review

Verdict:

PAS: Loved the trios match, so happy it showed up and it was a great showcase for excellent wrestlers in their prime. I thought it was a slight step below an all time great match though, needed a more intense finish run to really put it over the top. AJ tag is an all time great and is going to need a classic to beat it.

ER: I really liked this, but I don't think this was very close to the AJ tag. I thought portions were kind of aimless, and admittedly the poor VQ made it a little difficult to see any emotion on display. It's admittedly cheap to complain about VQ when we otherwise wouldn't have seen the match, but emotion is pretty paramount in lucha for me. What we got was wonderful, but I don't think there were any points of this match where I had it over the AJ tag.

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MLJ: Recent Uploads: Black Magic & Negro Casas vs Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata [CMLL Tag Title Tournament]

1997-02-21 @ Arena México
Black Magic & Negro Casas vs Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata [CMLL Tag Title Tournament]

I've seen a lot of Porky. I've seen a lot of Casas. I haven't seen a lot of them working together. I could be way off but I think Porky, in comedy situations, even when positioned with Pesta Negra, is more likely to be paired with Felino or Niebla (and even that feels rarer than you'd think).

This was the first round of the February 1997 tag team title tournament. The Headhunters were stripped after their title win. I have no idea if that's because of kayfabe reasons or not but you sort of have to assume not. The tournament ended with Silver King and Wagner, Jr. beating Dos Caras and Ultimo Dragon which sounds light and fun and worth tracking down at some point. It's 1997 so they basically had to do it all again in August after Silver King jumped to Promo Azteca.

Anyway, this is that amazing creature, that was probably far more likely in 1997 then it will be in 2017, good tournament lucha. IT was right around ten minutes and felt much more like the Brazos in Japan than more of a CMLL style 2/3 falls match but everyone was in their thirties, all of them were pretty athletic, and it's the Brazos and Casas. Ten minutes of that ended up being just the right mix of shtick and spots, even if it was ultimately going to feel fairly disposable no matter what they did due to the fact it was an early round match that was only going ten.

In many ways, it was a tale of two Brazos opponents. Negro Casas was serene. He bounced off of Porky. He flailed and spasmed whenever a Brazo put him in a hold. He was plucky in bouncing up and charging in again. There was one exchange where he got Flair tossed off the top rope in a manner that was just tighter and more stylistic than you're used to. And for those keeping count about Casas' ability to do new things in almost every match, he locked in a Cavernaria late in the match, which is something I'm sure he's done plenty but I'm not sure I've ever seen him do personally. Of course, it wasn't the Cavernaria in and of itself that made the moment, but instead Casas kicking and grinding upon the back of Porky's leg in order to get it on. It's that attention to detail which makes Negro Casas one of the best, most believable, most engrossing wrestlers ever.

It's also what Smiley absolutely did not bring to the table here. I was, at first, going to give him a pass like I usually do, but then I remembered it's 97 and not 93. He just didn't have it here. There is one or two really good things, execution wise, like a really nasty cravat on Porky, but he's terrible at portraying consequence. Best example of this is him trying to slam Porky early and failing. Normally, this is a transition where someone sells the back, sometimes to set up the slam as a big moment later in the match. He just put him down as if there was no cost to the attempt and when he did hit the slam later on, it really didn't matter. That's Smiley in Mexico in a nutshell. Meanwhile, Casas is stuck in holds and doing the most brutal looking kicks to try to get out, in pure desperation. Night and day.

Just look at this gritty as hell Porky/Casas exchange that ends with the aforementioned top rope toss:

Or how Casas sells the armbreaker:

So past Casas lawn darting and Smiley being stronger, there wasn't much complex storytelling here, but there was plenty of character, some surprising grit and struggle (And killer clotheslines) and all the fun you'd expect.

Like this every person sub:

And Porky doing a twisting senton off the ropes (!):

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Lucha Worth Watching: More Dragon Lee/Kamaitachi and Porky vs. Ingobernales

Dragon Lee v. Kamaitachi (CMLL 11/27/15)

ER: This is the WorldWide match of all WorldWide matches right here. I am not sure how two guys could cram more into 6 1/2 minutes. This is a lightning match so you have that large clock looming in the background at all times, and after a breathless segment of ducked strikes and missed charges and reversed armdrags the camera pans back to show that we were only 58 seconds into this whole thing. Sheesh. Psych is out the window here, this is just two cool athletes showcasing their coolest shit, and it's most definitely cool. Kamaitachi has a couple cool Canadian Destroyer variations that he's able to hit without it being expected (the match ender off a Lee powerbomb attempt was NOT what I expected to happen). Both men have been taking stupid bumps and murdering the other for practically two years now and this whole thing is no different. Kamaitachi suckers in Lee when Lee attempts to do his top rope stomp, sends Lee flipping fast and painfully to the floor, then caves his neck in with a lariat sending Lee over the ringside barricade. Feet fly into faces, stomps get laid in snug, both men take ludicrous headdrops, Lee breaks out a typical gorgeous dive. These guys enjoy making each other's offense look nasty, and I enjoy watching them murder themselves.

Rush, La Sombra & La Mascara vs. Super Porky, Super Parka & Angel de Oro (CMLL 10/9/15)

ER: I didn't go into this one expecting too much, it being buried in the middle of a card featuring a singles match tournament, but something about the match-up intrigued me. Ingobernales are the big trios team, and here they were against a curiously tossed together team, none of whom have anything to do with one another. I mean, Porky and Parka share a Super, and Porky's arm is silver while he's teaming with a gold angel, but those are some loose slippery connections. I was drawn to this one as it's Ingobernales versus an undercard, weird team. It's not quite the 4 Horseman vs. Joey Maggs, Frankie Lancaster and Men at Work, but it's an odd match-up for a big team. And nobody dogs it, which everybody essentially could have. We come *this* close to getting one of THOSE Porky performances, the kind where a bunch of bullies pick on him until he snaps and starts stiffing dudes. He does throw more strikes than normal and they are plenty stiff, after all the Ingobernales take turns seeing who can slap him harder. Rush was a king-sized cocky beast in this, slicking his hair back after throwing stiff kicks, laughing off strikes to blast Oro and Parka with his sick thrust headbutts. Mascara and Sombra are left bumping around for Porky comebacks, including his running bombs away on the rampway, and even better a trust fall senton on both of them. Parka knocked them down and kept jumping on them with splashes, and we were all waiting for Porky to do a sloppy belly first leap....and then he just turns around and timmmberrrrr falls backwards onto them. Squish. It set up a great spot later when it looked like Porky looks like he might finally get one up on Rush, knocks him unexpectedly on his ass, does a quick trust fall...but alas Rush moves and then gives Porky a double stomp. Parka and Oro hit stereo dives and Parka is a lunatic near-60 year old man!! Doing a dive sounds crazy to now-35 year old me, I can't imagine it will sound like a better idea in 25 years. Oro is getting better about picking his spots and looks better for it. Ingobernales did tons of terrific poses all throughout. One of the poses looked like if all three decided on the three gayest 1995 Shawn Michaels poses and then did all of them, so you have Sombra lying down all spread awkwardly like Michael's Playgirl photoshoot, while Rush stands over him doing the sexy boy dance, while Mascara kinda fawns over Sombra's abs. It was glorious. Shoot just writing about the match makes me love the match that much more.

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MLJ: Brazos vs Villanos/Hijo Del Santo

1991-03-07
El Hijo Del Santo/Los Villanos I, III & IV vs. El Brazo/Brazo de Oro/Brazo de Plata/Super Brazo


Santo/Villanos vs Los Brazos 3/7/91 Part I by ragingnoodles

Santo/Villanos vs Los Brazos 3/7/91 Part 2 by ragingnoodles

I've seen some of these UWF (or other assorted Japanese) shows from this era, and while they can have fun match ups and really interesting crowds, usually the matches are more style than substance. They're single fall and meant to pop and amuse the crowd. I couldn't pass this one up though as we had four Brazos (the usual suspects plus Super Brazo) against three Villanos and Hijo del Santo, which is such a weird atomicos group.

It was more or less exactly what you would expect, but in the best possible way: disposable, fun, with memorable suplexes and rote comedy spots executed to perfection. The surprise came in the restraint and the build. They cobbled together at least the loose frame of a match, with some really hilarious comedic stalling with the crowd, even exchanges, a tecnico shine (lots of arm drags), building to rudo miscommunication and dive teases, at least some lip service towards heat, with the Brazos using teamwork and girth to keep control, a comeback moment, and a drawn out finishing stretch with languid cutoffs building to some big throws, the promised dives, and a finish.

There were individual things that stood out, some of the suplexes, certainly, that comedic stalling in the beginning, Santo's super sharp work with Oro (I think it was Oro at least), the Villanos playing the tecnico role during the rudo miscommunication so well, some big bumps on back body drops or out of the ring, and how well the Brazos played to the crowd with one shout or mannerism anytime that they seemed to be losing interest. It didn't really coalesce into anything greater than the sum of its parts though, which was a shame given that they really did show some restraint and build. I think if everything was broken up with the 2/3 fall structure, it could have really been great. Those pauses and logical break points can be so valuable when it comes to pacing.

They didn't really seem to pay off to the crowd though. I don't know if it was because the finishing stretch was just a bit too methodological or they were burnt out by how fun the start of the match was, or maybe because it was a match that just tried to be too much, but they seemed much more into things at the start than the end. In some ways, the match was a huge testament to the versatility of the wrestlers, but you can only give that so much credit when you're not sure at how the end result was received. Ultimately, it worked for me, though perhaps more as a novelty and a spectacle than a fully formed match.

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CMLL Worth Watching 5/10/15 & 6/19/15

Comandante Pierroth, Tiger & Sagrado vs. Fuego, The Panther & Blue Panther Jr. (5/10/15)

Man I dug this. Pierroth has been one of my favorite CMLL guys this year, real high energy ass kicker who always wings nasty clubbing shots, stomps guys into oblivion, jumps all over them while stomping them, breaks out some nice slams, etc. He's like a throwback Dinamita. As in, if you've been missing Mascara Ano 2000, Cien Caras or Universo 2000 on your TV (and I have been), Pierroth has been an oddly, unexpectedly great fill-in this year. Sagrado as a rudo is the only worthwhile stuff he has done in his entire career. This guy was just a clueless tecnico, always tripping over himself, and now suddenly he looks capable, has nice presence, takes a tope like a man (god did Panther just snap Sagrado's back over the barrier on a tope) and hits a mean piledriver to end the primera (say aren't those things sorta illegal down there?). BP Jr. is pretty green and can't really work long sequences, but he hits a nice dive in the tercera, and the greenness of BP's kids works to the match's advantage, as the segunda has a satisfying finish with the rudos getting cocky, chasing BP Jr. and Fuego up the ramp, allowing Panther to get a surprise roll up on Pierroth as he roots on his goons. Tiger sold the loss great, like he could not believe they lost even one fall to these wimps. Real satisfying story here, and the work fit the match nicely.

Blue Panther, Maximo & Marco Corleone vs. Euforia, Niebla Roja & Gran Guerrero (5/10/15)

You've probably seen some combination of this trios a dozen times, but sometimes guys show up a bit more spirited than other times, and this was one of those times. I always love Panther but spirited Panther is just the best. Here he works a nice long opening mat sequence with GG, which was arguably the most interesting thing GG has ever been involved in. Panther has a million reversals and the way he rolls through into various grapevines and leverage moves always leaves me slack-jawed. We don't get any dives in this, and the falls go quick, but the tecnicos amusingly must have decided before the match to see who could throw the nicest/neatest arm drag. Panther throws more in this match than I've seen him in years, including one where he gets tilt-a-whirled by Roja into performing an upside down arm drag on Euforia; Maximo throws some nice rolling ones too, one springing high off the top rope and another rolling over Roja's back. Even Marco throws a shockingly good one while rolling over Euforia's back. Marco's punches have been looking kinda lackluster this year, and here he breaks out some nice ones as he pinballs his fists back and forth between Roja and Euforia. Kind of a one sided affair for the tecnicos, but everybody busted ass and it's stunning to see Panther so spry at 54.

Stuka Jr., Angel de Oro & Super Porky vs. Barbaro Cavernario, Felino & Okumura (6/19/15)

So I'm not sure this is very good, but "worth watching" and "very good" are two different things, and I thought this was worth watching, more for its parts than its sum. Firstly, Porky takes FOUR bumps in the primera. This feels noteworthy to me. Porky is a guy who goes to great lengths to avoid bumping. Yet here he's splatting all over the mat for shoulderblocks and lariats. Think of the effort it takes him to stand up from a back bump!!! And here he does it 4 times in about 40 seconds. I admittedly starting writing this up right after witnessing that. I had made up my mind to immediately include it in a "worth watching" list. Beyond that we got one of the better Oro performances, as he hits a couple very impressive flying spots, and then spikes himself on an Okumura apron DDT. We get a Kemonito apron splash, Porky doing a seated senton to the rudos on the rampway, Felino not acting like current Felino (including getting heat from starting the match wearing his mask and jawing with the Arena Mexico old people) and Stuka Jr. doing his awesome bullet splash. It's like 8 minutes of your life, and it will bring you joy.

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CMLL Worth Watching 5/5, 5/17 & 5/24/15

1. Blue Panther & Atlantis vs. Negro Casas & Shocker (5/5/15)

This was like a fun little house show touring match, without too many big moves or dives or bumps, and no real large build up to any of the falls, just four professionals who have been working each other for over a couple decades. We get a lot of grappling and mat stuff, and really what more could you want than that? Casas and Panther especially get long goes with each other, and while it's not as tripped out as they can get there are still plenty of satisfying exchanges. Both men fight over headscissor takedowns, and the best part of the match is Panther running around with Casas in a Gory Special, and Casas eventually fighting out of it and becoming an aggressive backpack on BP's shoulders, attacking him while BP fights him back. I was hoping for more with these 4 in a title match, but it was enjoyable seeing what they would do in a barebones tag on a Tuesday.

2. Ultimo Guerrero, Terrible & Vangellys vs. Rush, La Sombra & Super Porky (5/17/15)

So, this kind of immediately flies in the face of what the actual post is called, as at the time of me writing this Cubsfan did not have it uploaded, so there is no actual way for most of you to watch this match. So maybe Cubs will see this and DO THE RIGHT THING. Do the right thing, Cubs. Upload this match for fans of pro wrestling. Do the right thing.

Usually when starting a Super Porky match you can tell if it's going to be one of those times where he shows up. It happens less and less every single year, so they become easier and easier to spot. And right out of the gate this seemed completely different from every other Porky trios. He and Ultimo lock up immediately and while they're in a collar n elbow they start dishing out short headbutts to each other, and then Ultimo is grabbing Porky by the nose and punching him in the head and THINGS FEEL DIFFERENT. Porky and UG are working headlocks and Porky hits a splash, goes for another and UG gets his knees up (when have you EVER seen anybody get their knees up on Porky!?). Porky spills to the floor after UG keeps sneaking in little stiff shots, and UG barrels into him off the apron with his cool diving hip attack. Porky drew some dud partners as Rush and Sombra hang on the floor while the rudos all triple team Porky and stiff the shit out of him. Porky is trapped in the corner and all the rudos are punching him in the face and neck and head at the same time. It's brutal and finally Porky breaks free and starts punching guys, like the little fat kid pushed too far by a bully. And then they punch him a bunch more, and he runs off crying. BUT IT WAS A RUSE! Once Porky runs crying onto the rampway, he then doubles back and runs belly first into UG, sending his team down like dominos, and then runs and does his jumping taint attack on all of them. At this time Rush and Sombra opportunistically sprint in and begin kicking the shit out of the rudos. This was all awesome. Porky is great at earning sympathy, the rudos were stiffing the hell out of him, and Cubsfan just really needs to do the right thing. Do it for the boys in the back.

**UPDATE: Cubs has now uploaded it. Watch and enjoy.**

3. Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr. & The Panther vs. Felino, Tiger & Puma (5/24/15)

Okay, so this was pretty sloppy...BUT it had plenty to love. Especially the familial aspect. Family feuds are great, and while this is probably closer to Steve Harvey than Richard Dawson, we still had moments. Panther working the mat and wristlocks with Tiger to start things off is probably the highlight, as I dig how both guys move and really any match that starts with 3-4 minutes of BP grappling and doing his thing is going to wind up getting written up by me in a "worth watching" link dump. Panther's sons are not as good as Felino's sons. Not even close, really. Panther's sons usually seem pretty bad, actually. They did not look great here. They're kinda stumbly. Felino's sons are easily better than Felino at this point, and both (especially Tiger) can come across as fairly savvy vets. Felino always shows up for these non-Casas family feuds, and although he mostly hangs back here and lets his boys do the dirty work, it's great when he gets in and starts smugly running the ropes super fast, bouncing off the bottom rope to show off that he's not always some goof. BP Jr. knocks himself stupid by hitting a sloppy rana off the apron and landing head first. Elder Panther gets to foil the youngsters, and shoot, I dug it.

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MLJ: Cavernario vs Titan 8: Marco Corleone, Super Porky, Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Mr. Niebla, Thunder & BONUS Casas/Santo vs Juvi/Nicho

Aired: 2015-05-09
Taped: 2015-04-28 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Marco Corleone, Super Porky, Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Mr. Niebla, Thunder

I'm keeping this one short and tacking on another match, because this was probably the most Nothing Match in the history of Nothing Matches. My guess is that they actually did more to build up the Titan vs Cavernario title match during the cibernetico they ran around this time. That was in Arena Mexico a week before the title match. This was after that but in Guadalarja and there's just nothing to it. When I was halfway through it, the Busca cibernetico started and that was a godsend because it let me pause this and watch that instead.

I think it was clipped which didn't help but even if it wasn't I'm not sure that it'd matter. Niebla had been suspended after the Japan tour for being Niebla and he was completely and utterly unrepentent here upon his return. Porky was more immobile than ever. No one wants to see Thunder and Marco and I like Marco more than most people. I do think that they've worked enough that they've developed some effective shtick but it's nothing I want to see. They didn't let anything breathe. The heat lasted less than a minute. The comeback, the same. The opening exchanges were brief. On the one hand, it drained any emotional reaction from the match other than a slight guffaw. On the other, I'm not sure I wanted to see five minutes of punishment on Porky by Thunder.

In the midst of all this, you'd figure that Titan and Cavernario would be the saving grace of the match, and maybe in a bubble it should have been. They hit a lot of their stuff, including the reverse monkey flip/superkick spot. Titan hit his moonsault at the end. Cavernario had some great flurries of offense. They did the press up dropkick. It's just that I've seen them run through this stuff so much recently that it, in and of itself, wasn't enough to carry a match.

I will say this. The crowd seemed really happy with this match, and they always seem happy with matches like this. They get a kick out of Marco's antics. They love the spit spot. Porky got a big chant after he fell off the apron onto Niebla. Zacarias got involved. You can't fault a match too much when it's a big crowd pleaser. It sure didn't add to my excitement for the impending title match though.

2001-12-21 @ Arena México
El Hijo Del Santo & Negro Casas © b Juventud Guerrera & Nicho el Millionario [CMLL TAG]

I felt bad for dumping the previous match on everyone without providing something a little more interesting as well. This just dropped online in the last week or two. It's a bit of a mess to be honest, but it's a mess wrestled by guys so talented that it's still worth watching. There's a real novelty to seeing Santo and Casas pair up against Nicho and Juvi.

I just don't have a ton to say about it. Juvi was so dynamic and so great at using his own body as a weapon, but he and Nicho could definitely hang. They felt like they belonged in the ring, but there was also a sense of them being outsiders having come in to challenge for the belts. There were some individually nice spots, like the way Nicho took out Santo on a reversal in the primera or Casas killing Juvi with a hotshot and the huge Santo tope that followed. It was the first time I've seen Santo and Casas do a Doomsday Device with a Santo tope (non-suicida) off the top and the first time I've seen Santo do a sunset flip powerbomb off the apron.

All in all, it had the real feel of an attraction match. It just needed a few more minutes and a bit more focus. It's worth watching as a novelty though.

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

8. Kraneo, Morphosis & Olimpico v. Blue Panther, Fuego & Super Porky CMLL 1/11

ER: I didn't go into this expecting much, even though I always love Kraneo and Panther. But then every single guy in this match wrestles like they have something to prove, nobody dogs it, and all of it works. Panther and Olimpico tangle to start and I really love their matwork together, both are quick and very familiar with each other, but it managed to look smooth and graceful while never feeling rehearsed. The whole rudo team busts ass the whole time, like they had a running bet to see who could work harder. This was the best Morphosis has looked in over a year, really throwing everything he had into bumps, being the perfect base for Fuego and breaking out a couple awesome pendulum arm drags. Kraneo matches up a lot with Porky and this was also the hardest I've seen Porky work since probably the Escorpion feud over a year ago. He actually seems like he is actually trying to run, he leaves his feet a LOT which is rare for him, and he and Kraneo start by just trying to dislocate each other's shoulder with some huge shoulder blocks. Both guys really slam into each other and Kraneo is a master of making Porky look great. Kraneo bumps like a maniac through all of this, getting super height on a back drop from Porky (and truthfully bumping a little too freely for Fuego). Even Kemonito gets in on the action with some of his best stuff in ages, coming in and potatoing Mije a bunch in the eye socket and hitting a great low (high?) dropkick. It's great seeing just a random trios with a tossed together team, where everybody just decides to go for broke. It's one of those little lucha mysteries, but it's so wonderful when it happens.

PAS: I enjoyed the hell out of this too, I had completely forgotten that Morphosis existed (apparently he is the ex-Histeria), and really haven't enjoyed a Olimpico match this much since the 90's, but both guys ruled. Olimpico used to be a mat guy, and he and Panther have a throwback thursday exchange or two. The Porky v. Kraneo sumo section was probably the highlight, but this had a bunch of fun stuff. Porky wasn't doing comedy at all, he was just rumbling, including doing an apron dive, which is still crazy looking. I love trying hard Porky, last time I remember it was when he and Rey Escorpion were trying to punch each others eyes out, so it is weird to see it show up in a random trios. They should just set up him taking Kraneo's mask at an Anniversary show. Maybe I need to be watch all the Invasors matches

2015 MASTER LIST

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MLJ: Sin Salida 2010 Part 4: Brazo de Plata, Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Strong Man vs Gigante Bernard, Máscara Año 2000, Universo 2000

Taped 2010-06-06
Brazo de Plata, Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Strong Man vs Gigante Bernard, Máscara Año 2000, Universo 2000

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdoazb_porky-rayo-strongman-vs-bernard-m20_latino


Sin Salida 2010 had been a pretty good show so far. Sure, the booking was a mess but the minis match was fun, and the two lower card matches with Los Invasores had the same sort of energy that their matches over the last month had and then the Revelos Increibles match was heated and effective.

Then we had this. It was definitely a nostalgia fest. Los Hermanos Dinomita and Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. were moving less smoothly than Porky in there at times. They had a few dives and I could have sworn the slow motion replay was on. Then to balance them you had Bernard and Strongman. I don't get how anyone thought this would be a good idea.

Rayo came out with a hat and a UWA title. Universo and Mascara Ano wore their masks to the ring. The rudos took an early advantage, mainly due to Bernard being such a force but their tandem offense wasn't exactly dynamite. There was a lackluster double lift snake eyes in the corner. Really, their best move for most of this match was to toss people into Albert's foot, after which point, he'd do his overhead X with thumbs down pose. It was kind of fun the first time but it got old.

Basically, the match had two things going for it. First, Bernard did well. He was doing little things like driving his forearm into Porky's face on a pin, and he did match up well with Strongman. By the time the comeback came around in the tercera he was playing into some of Porky's spots and selling and hamming it up big. The second thing was that Strongman is a pretty effective tool for rudos to run into. I was wondering how they were going to kill something like nine minutes for the tercera (the peril of watching match online is that you know how long is left in it at almost any point) and 2-3 minutes can be taken up by Strongman top wristlock strength spots and shoulder tackles or what not.

Another minute or two was taken up by Albert doing some really brutal armwork onto Strongman in order to take him out of the match. I could have watched another five or six minutes of that, really. It made me want to track down some more Bernard in Japan. Anyway, the whole point of it was to distract the refs with the carnage of him finding a foreign object to smash the arm (which he then failed to find?) so that Universo could hit a pile driver on Rayo.

In all the lucha matches I've seen over the last year, well over two or three hundred, I think this is the first time I actually saw a pile driver executed (and not, for instance, Rush's double underhook pile driver). For this. By Universo, on Rayo. The upside to this is that Universo and Rayo were sticking around for a bit at least. They even had a WWA title match main event at Puebla at the end of the month, so it's not like it was a total waste, but the fans, who were otherwise into this, didn't seem all that upset by it certainly.

Anyway, this was a match and I kind of wish it hadn't been.

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MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 17: Convergence

Taped 2010-05-16 @Arena México
El Alebrije, Histeria, Maniaco vs Brazo de Plata, Héctor Garza, Toscano

Porky, Héctor, Toscano vs Alebrije, Histeria...

Embedding isn't working well on this one, unfortunately.

So, this is where it all comes together as if I knew what I was doing from the beginning. I really didn't. Garza had been straddling the line for a better part of a month now. He'd been having dissension with two sets of tecnicos, really, with Fantasma and Mascara on the one side (and he walked out on them costing them the trios title) and Porky and Toscano on the other, and of course had won the Gran Alternativa with a rudo, despite claiming that he still wasn't. Meanwhile, Los Invasores had invaded, most of them being previous AAA wrestlers.

All of that set the stage for this match which was the first time on TV that Garza teamed with Porky and Toscano since walking out on his other partners and since winning the Gran Alternativa the week before. It was also the first time he was paired up against the Invasores. Unsurprisingly things came to a head, though maybe in potentially ambiguous ways.

Like usual for matches of this project, this was the Garza show, with him stooging and hamming and emoting and everything else, while the Invasores got to show their dominance, Porky was able to be Porky and Toscano was able to fight against huge odds and show righteous fury towards Garza. As the culmination of a turn, it was anti-climactic but some of that was due to the sheer length of said turn. My gut says that they hadn't really worked out the whole Invasores thing when they began it.

This was my first look at Maniaco and he didn't really stand out as being much different from Histeria, but his mask was awesome, with a fully on bat in the middle of it, with eyes and fangs and everything. Over the top and it fit in perfectly with his stablemates. By the way, they had a bunch of little promos/videos with the invaders around this time, usually with Psicosis II doing the talking. They were all set in some sort of backstage factory type lot and involved them destroying things to high effect. They definitely played up on the wild elements they brought to the table.

The story of the match was Garza doing everything humanly possible to avoid tagging in and his partners getting more and more frustrated with him. Porky started the match by charging Alebrije on the ramp, which was pretty great, but then the rudos used their numerical advantage to take over. Even Kemonito looked like he was going to kill Garza as he kept pulling his hand back in or faking a leg injury. It was a distraction like that which let Cuije nail the poor little monkey guy from behind and knock him off the apron. Immediately thereafter, Cuije let himself be used as a projectile bomb onto Porky and the rudos pinned him. They followed that up with a brutal double armdrag into an Alebrije Power Bomb on Toscano, who then ate a Maniaco senton bomb as well to end the primera.

Then things got pretty perilous. First, Garza "accidentally" stands on Kemonito for about twenty seconds. Then, the rudos pulled out this insane spiked metal bat, the sort of thing you never see in CMLL during this era, and they spent about three minutes menacing Garza with it. They made a big deal out of this before Garza finally escaped untouched and started selling the leg again on the outside as Toscano pushed him. They went back in, did a reset and some decent sequence with Toscano before once again making a big deal about Garza coming in, this time, forced by his partners, against Alebrije. Even at this point Porky was trying to rouse the crowd to encourage Garza. Or mockingly encourage him. And I suppose to either their credit or their lack of credit, there was some animosity there. Garza played his character, trying to avoid conflict, going for the time out , but Alebrije kept pushing, and Garza fought back. While the bat sequence was cute, there wasn't any real drama here, except for whether or not Garza wasn't just a rudo now, but with the invaders.

We've seen dozens of great heel turns in tag matches where the turner avoids tags and contact until the last second. That didn't happen here. Garza just came off as so amazingly irritating that everyone wanted to hit him. That would have been well and good if he wasn't to be revealed at a press conference a few days later as one of the leaders of the faction. It made the back half of this match, once he started to get physical, seem weird. The tercera ended with Garza knocking Toscano off the top so the rudos could pin him and then just laying down so they could pin him, but we'd seen behavior like that out of him over the few weeks before. He seemed like he had turned up the passive aggressiveness but not like this was a big stop on the "turn" roadmap. Still, watching him stand on Kemonito (especially after how pissed the monkey was at him earlier in the match) was pretty damn entertaining, so the match had that going for it.

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MLJ: 2010: Invasores Interlude 3: Brazo de Plata, La Sombra, Toscano vs El Alebrije, Histeria, Psicosis

2010-05-02 @ Arena México
Brazo de Plata, La Sombra, Toscano vs El Alebrije, Histeria, Psicosis


Alebrije, Histeria, Psicosis vs Porky, Sombra...

I come from a place of ignorance. That's the whole point of this project on some level, to push back against that. A lot of the people who check out what I write have been watching lucha for years or decades or even their entire life. There is cognitive disconnect that I need to put aside sometimes in doing this. I don't mean things like "why don't the tecnicos do something when their partner is getting triple teamed in a trios match?" or anything like that. I mean general booking and revenue issues, the underpinning behind what I see. CMLL owns the building(s?). They get their money by fans showing up and paying for tickets and concessions. They get some more money by selling as much TV product as possible. That leads to lazy and outright bad booking (which sometimes feels like no booking at all) being forgivable economically.

Still, this match is maddening. As best as I can tell, this was the invaders first match in Arena Mexico. They may not have been the biggest names, but they had a unified look with the outlandish purple colors, with Alebrije's size and Psicosis' over the top mask and Cuije's presence. They had a total surprise entrance to the company and then a very strong first match in Puebla. And here they gave way too much to Porky, a total comedy wrestler, even if he was a beloved one, and ultimately had to be saved by the near 50-something Mascara Ano 2000 and Universo 2000, who were better known and remembered names, certainly, but hardly had a rousing last run in the company and didn't fit the look of the other invaders at all. I'm not going to compare it to, let's say, Brian Adams in the NWO, but that's the vibe I got. I don't know if it was because someone else was booking the Puebla shows and it was just a regional angle that gathered more steam than they were expecting, which led to it getting play (but not positive play) at Arena Mexico or what. I have no idea what the arrival of Los Invasores did for business, but it felt like a hot angle to the live crowd when they arrived and the first match with them was very good. This felt like the worst way possible to capitalize on it.

That's not to say it was a bad match. It wasn't. Sombra had a good mix of athleticism and a general sense of knowing what he was doing back in 2010. Toscano was more than capable still. I even wanted to see Alebrije and Porky go at it from a morbid curiosity point of view. It was just very much the wrong match with the wrong outcome at this point of the story.

Still, not bad. The rudo beat down went well enough. Psicosis and Sombra started, with a nice Bow and Arrow from Psicosis; when Sombra went for a hold of his own, the rudos swarmed. After that, they mainly beat up Porky in the corner while his partners rotated in to get double teamed. It ended with some fun use of Cuije as a melee weapon and nice teamwork, two clotheslines in the corner followed by a double back kick in the corner, which shoved out Toscano for Alebrije's spear. This particular rudo trip was more the sum of its parts and I really do love the double armpit lift-up, charging battering ram flip finish.

They teased a reset to start the segunda but Sombra quickly got lured into an ambush. This immediately set up Porky charging out of the corner with a Porky Attack, Sombra hitting a visually impressive fireman's carry drop on Alebrije, and a split-legged senton/roll up/Porky splash finish to the lightning quick comeback.

So far so good, but it would devolve from there. They'd attack Cuije a bit. Toscano took his pants off and Porky did the spot where he smells them and fell over. Toscano went up against the world (which was fine, including really leaning into a dropkick), Porky pinched Alebrije (which was less fine). And the rudos all ended up in the corner for Porky to jump on. It devolved into stooging and the Porky show, ending with Los Capos running in to break up a Porky second rope splash, and this would have been fine and entertaining for a random mid-card match with no feuds behind it (and I imagine Porky was quite happy to have some new fodder to work with), but placed where it was in the angle, it was just brutal.

I guess that's CMLL for you. We're just not allowed to have nice things for long.

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MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 9: Brazo de Plata, Héctor Garza, La Sombra vs Felino, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero

Taped 2010-03-29 @ Arena Puebla
Brazo de Plata, Héctor Garza, La Sombra vs Felino, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero

So, here's one thing that Hector Garza and I have in common during this match: we're both sort of tired of 2010 Porky. He's frustrated the entire match. I'm a little more positive but that's because the comedy spots hit well here, and the frustration spots actually added a lot to it. That said, looking ahead at my next few matches on tap, if I kept having more ones that looked the same, I'd probably move on. Thankfully I don't.

To be fair, this one felt a little different because it was in Puebla as well. The fans absolutely loved him and the comedy spots played off Garza a little more than the same rudo feedings which was refreshing. They weren't high art or anything. Garza, after losing the shirt and pants, tossed them at Porky and Porky fell over and then sniffed them, and then tried to get Sombra to sniff them. Or, after the tecnicos take the segunda, Porky mimics Garza's little pray taunt to tease him. Post match, they almost get into it and that would have been well-deserved, but Sombra mostly stopped it. From what I can tell this never actually went anywhere.

The rest of the match was okay, fine within the structure, coasting with the comedy, a backdrop to the Garza/Porky antics, and with a few good little match ups. Felino beat the hell out of Sombra on the outside to begin, so that was nice. You'd barely know Casas was in the primera. It's strange to me how someone so charismatic can disappear into a match so thoroughly. It ended with them tossing Porky into Garza in the corner.

The beatdown was fine but not too memorable. Felino hit a big running low dropkick and the announcers went nuts. I have no idea why they go nuts for Felino's name but they quite often do. UG and Casas hit a double suplex on Porky. Tellingly, UG, the heavyweight, didn't sell the back afterwards and Casas did. Comeback came when Garza lifted Sombra out of harm's way on a charge in and had a lot of rudo miscommunication. That's something which we don't get enough of on top in CMLL now given the rudo/tecnico blurring. It's something very natural for La Peste Negra but not when they're de facto tecnicos.

Tercera was fun with a lot of different match ups. Garza and Casas worked well together, but then Casas works well with most people. He has as much of a range as anyone I've seen. He reminds me a little of Regal in that regard. I think deep down he loves comedy best but he can excel as well as anyone when things get serious. They did a decent job of building to Felino vs Sombra with the early beating and mid-match dodging by Felino, and it paid off alright, I guess, with the crowd into it. Felino seems to know how to latch on to something that he thinks might get over.

The tecnicos took it after a bit more miscommunication from Porky and Garza. Afterwards came the arguing. I'm not sure why they chose to do this in front of the Puebla crowd. There might be some results I don't have in front of me, so maybe it did get somewhere. We're still another couple of months away from Garza's rudo turn. Of all the Porky matches I've seen in 2010, this might be the most fun. I've definitely had my fill though.

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