Lucha Worth Watching: Heavyweight Cibernetico! Sangre Azteca Stomps Balls!

Kraneo/Valiente/Rush/Volcano/Blue Panther Jr./Diamante Azul vs. Shocker/Rey Bucanero/Terrible/Gran Guerrero/Euforia/Ultimo Guerrero  CMLL 10/9/18

ER: This was a match I didn't really know I wanted until it was right in front of me. A 12 man cibernetico with heavyweights, not a fliers showcase, but a fun heavyweight spotfest. Rush is the fun monkeywrench in this whole thing, and while the teams are divided into tecnicos and rudos, there are still teammates that hate each other and everyone is mostly out for their own interests. Plus it was a good chance for some guys like Shocker and Rey Bucanero to show they can still go in the right situation. Bucanero is going for 2002 status here which is a shock since I saw him live a few months ago and he never moved faster than walking speed. Here he hits the somersault senton, takes a classic Bucanero bump over the top to the floor, gets nailed with a dive, clearly looked like he was working hard here for whatever reason. And everybody was. I'm not sure what will make a bunch of guys in CMLL suddenly make the decision to work hard in a random match, but this whole thing felt spirited, guys worked snug, made the match feel more important than it likely was. We get a lot of Kraneo and a lot of Volcano, and let's just talk about how silly it is to have the two largest guys in the fed (largest guys in lucha) both on the tecnicos side. We need one of the big guys to be rudo and we can then build to a Clash of the Titans. Kraneo is great but was better as a rudo, but also way over as a tecnico, so I get keeping him where he is. I think Volcano and his modern take on Roadblock's gear (his Caltrans vest highlighter and weird brown back brace) look pretty doofy, but maybe working rudo would open him up a bit. Panther Jr. turns in a nice tecnico performance here, Valiente hits a big dive, Terrible don't care who his partners are for the match, he's still gonna stomp out his enemies, Azul gets his class Mexico mask shredded, whole thing was fun. Ciberneticos feel like more of a thing I wanted when I first started watching lucha, but this unexpectedly delivered. Less spots than your typical ciber, but more character and tight work. That's a good trade.

Sangre Azteca/Metalico/Nitro vs. Oro Jr./Star Jr./Retro CMLL 1/15/19

ER: Stiff work and plenty of shtick will almost always win me over, and this undercard gem easily won me over with both. Rudos worked stiff and tecnicos bumped big, and this thing didn't need any dives to make it a ton of fun. Azteca was a real standout and he's a guy I've always really liked, someone whom I assume there must be backstage reasons that he's never been moved up the card before, because he's been great as long as I've been aware of him. He makes it his mission in this match to stomp all over the tecnicos butts, balls, and loins, and succeeding in his mission. At least once a match he usually throws his big high angle dropkick right to the balls (do we not do faultas anymore?) while an opponent is seated in the corner or being held spread eagle...well, here he does that like 7 or 8 times, flying into the corner with precision shots, teasing doing one from the middle rope but then climbing to the TOP rope to drop straight down like Slim Pickens riding a missile to straight to tender tecnico loins. He even kicks the middle rope as Retro is climbing back in the ring, the lucha equivalent of the turkey tap. Nitro gets in on the action, dropping a great elbow drop off the middle rope. Metalico was Metalico, and I love Metalico, so he was taking pratfalls and throwing nice big hooking lariats (Oro Jr. took four lariats in a row, really throwing himself back and landing on his shoulders with gusto), and bailing on the tercera by ripping off a mask rather then suffer a pinfall defeat. Oro Jr. had a really nice performance for a tecnico I don't often notice, I was really impressed with how he ran into rudo strikes. Star Jr. is kind of like Soberano Jr. but with floppier limbs, but he still snapped off a really cool headscissors that was like a cross between a smooth lucha headscissors and a Marty Jannetty one. Retro appears to be working a 70 year old Mil Mascaras gimmick, but his shoulderblock hits snug enough and he leans jaw first into a low Nitro dropkick, and those are a couple things that will at least get you into the 490s of a 500. This match scratched a nice lucha itch for me. A match that might seem inconsequential, but having something like this that doesn't steal flash from later matches, while still presenting high end work, is an important part of any card.

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When They Come to Take LA Park Down, When They Bring That Wagon 'Round

LA Park/Rey Fenix/Volador Jr. vs. Rush/Terrible/Cibernetico CMLL 6/15/18 - FUN

ER: I'm sure there's someone out there who was excited when Cibernetico was suddenly brought into this feud. But I'm also sure there's someone out there who eats their own feces, so that qualifier doesn't mean a whole lot. And, since this is just a numbers game, there are probably actually more people in the world who eat their own feces than there are people who were excited to see Cibernetico in a CMLL main event in 2018. But this also just happened to be the match I was in the mood to watch. We got good energy the previous week, this was a toned down soap opera which had a lot of acting and allowed time for a lot of individual personality. We had a big early peak with some big spots, a big LA Park dive, big flip dives from Fenix and Volador, and a great looking section with Fenix throwing awesome spin kicks to Cibernetico's jaw and rolling into place for moves like a ninja, even back bumping lengthwise on the top rope at one point as part of a springboard arm drag. Fenix is shining in the big Arena, and he's an awesome flashy addition to this group. The rest of this straight falls trios is slow burn gags and schtick, several different bits with different combos that were all allowed to breathe. Long belt whippings by both sides, Park whipping backs and chests, Volador and Terrible with a super long staredown with Volador working a bunch of comedy faces and Terrible cutting off rope running flips from Volador and Fenix with mid air punches. Terrible also misses a big leaping punch and clocks La Comandante. Earlier Comandante rubbed Rush's back to calm him down, and I bet that felt kinda gross. Rush wins both falls with bullshit screw jobs, the first of which inspires Commissioner Rambo to get up on the entrance ramp showing his disappointment in referee Edgar for being such a fuck up, while wearing a full length black overcoat. It's the highspot of the match, which also featured a Park spear on Rush that would have left me with 4 broken ribs. Before that we get a wonderfully slow played Park/Rush moment of Park rubbing his belly across the face of a kneeling Rush, and Rush selling it with this great gulping Vince McMahon face. Cibernetico has trunks that say "Main Man" on the back in kicky letters, which is so douchey it should be on the back of some white jeans. Oh, it might be slightly worth noting that fucking nunchucks get involved and fought over, and then Park actually appears like a man who knows how to use nunchucks and does a stretch of photograph worthy showing off.  The bullshit finishes were silly but fun, overly dramatic and cheesy, but getting loud reactions from the crowd. This was all fun popcorn drama.

PAS: This didn't have the violence of the previous weeks matches, this felt much more like a house show lucha shtick trios, like we needed a star and a spot where everyone misses dives. Park is a great shtick wrestler, I loved him rubbing his fat belly on Rush's face, and the nunchucks spot was classic GIF worthy horseshit, but this was a weird build to a violent singles match. Things really should be escalating and this felt like a week off. Fenix has a bunch of fun rope tricks and great agility, but he is a great brawler too, and I would have liked to see him bring that side to this feud. Cibernetico is an inexplicable addition to the indy CMLL invasion, he brings nothing to the match and is a big step down from Bestia, who is at least a crowbar. I enjoyed this, but it isn't what I wanted to see (spoiler alert.. they turned it around big time next week)

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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Park vs. Rush Family Feud Continues

45. LA Park/Hijo de LA Park/Volador Jr. vs. Rush/Terrible/Bestia del Ring CMLL 6/8/18

ER: I complained the other couple weeks that there was a lack of urgency, and I certainly can't make that same comment about this match. All six guys go right at it, HdP and Volador both hit a couple sets of dives to the floor, Park spearing Rush through the ropes crashing into everybody (and as crazy as his spear through the ropes was, the spear towards the end in the ring was spectacular, with Rush flying into it and Park intercepting him midair like a hawk), Park and Rush exchanging suplexes, Terrible smacking chumps around, Bestia del Ring getting those legs up high and crashing into Park's face on a dropkick, everybody making themselves known around the ring. HdP isn't very good, but damn was he trying here. Park was busting butt too (big shock) and I rewound a bump of his into the barricade a few times, such a big guy to be flying ass over teakettle like that, and he still makes me enjoy getting clonked with a ring door. I didn't love Edgar taking a full force Rush missile dropkick and being up seconds later to call for the DQ and raise Park's hand, and Hijo/Volador really hung Bestia out to dry for too long as he waited to take a springboard legdrop. We get the straight fall DQs, love Rush being unprofessional, love Park being just slightly slow on the ball kick draw. This had flaws, but I liked the energy here more than the two matches that proceeded it.

PAS: I agree that these matches are better in a condensed format. The first trios had a great atmosphere, but needed some more aggression and oomph in the middle sections. This had more of that, and the PARK spear to the floor is a spot of the year contender, and completely insane for such an old dude to be breaking out. Park's spear is great, but we also have to give some credit to Rush for how well he takes a spear, he compresses his entire body and flings it out on impact, I imagine he could have even made Edge look good. I do wish Park had better running partners then Volador and his kid, I guess you can't choose family. Nice moving forward of the feud.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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If You Plant Ice, You are Going to Harvest LA PARK

LA Park/Volador Jr./Hijo de LA Park vs. Rush/Terrible/Bestia del Ring CMLL 6/1/18 - FUN

ER: A sloppy follow-up to the first clash, with Park's son replacing Flyer, but this match felt a little more misguided and had a lot of timing issues, a few multiman set pieces that required awkward waiting around. I think Rush has come off like a megastar in these matches, and Park is a great foil. Park has found numerous entertaining ways to get his face bounced off a ringpost or a barricade door, and the big moments played big, like Park hitting his big fat skeleton dives, Park getting hit with his kid's dive, Rush landing a big flip dive, all dives looked good. We get some greatest hits, Rush kicks around Hijo's head like a soccer ball, pastes Park with a corner dropkick and  stops short to trick him into getting kicked. But nobody was very good at getting into position for offense. There's a cool moment where Park and Rush start to square off, and Park takes off his gloves for some chopping, and you sense things are heating up...but then Rush goes and stands on the apron and challenges Park to follow...and then just stands there the whole time while Park bounces off the opposite ropes and kicks Rush to the floor. We blow threw some ball shots that don't mean much of anything, only to get to an immediate and poorly constructed revenge spot where all three Ingobernales argue with ref Edgar for an extended length of time so Familia Real can set up a silly triple ball punch roll up spot, with the cameras focusing on Volador loudly counting the timing for everybody. I don't look to these guys to work a match based around tandem spot timing, I want some unprofessional brawling. I thought the finish was flat but understandable, with Rush attacking everyone with a stretcher, but the stretcher comes off flimsier than stuff Rush typically attacks guys with. Park also built some drama with an attempted martinete, but I'm wondering why they expect me to still care about martinetes on a show that had a few different flipping piledriver variations for nearfalls. While this did have Park coming through the crowd in a kilt, overall this is feeling a bit too sanitized.

PAS: This was a pretty big step down from the previous week, which was a small step down from the heights of this feud.  Park is universally entertaining, I am going to enjoy him in everything he does, the dives looked great, the spear looked great, but this really did feel like a throw away trios match, which is a shame this early in the feud. Super disappointed to see La Commandante come out with the glass picture of Jesus and not have it smashed over someones head, the whole point of Chekov's gun is that it goes off. They really need an out of control brawl to heat this up again, Volador doesn't need to hit all of his armdrags in every match.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LA PARK

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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: PARK Invades the Cathedral

41. LA Park/Volador Jr./Flyer vs. Rush/Terrible/Bestia del Ring CMLL 5/25/18

ER: This match left me weirdly flat. It wasn't really what I was expecting from the first big Park/Rush showdown in CMLL. I think the match went way, way too long. It felt like the longest non-mask match CMLL main event I've seen in years. And I think it would have been far more effective to have both teams go in there, tear it down for 8 minutes, DQs all around, get things started off nice and rabid. This went on for so long that it left me feeling as if I'd already seen way too much of the feud. After one long match, I'm already not very excited to see more of them. That's not good. It's still recoverable, but a lot of this match felt really uninspired and lazy, tons of guys just walking around casually past guys on the other team, with nobody reaching out to attack. This thing meandered, and really should have been half this length. Leave them wanting more, you know?

I thought Rush looked fantastic in this. He brought the magnetism and came off like a megastar. I loved that big bump he took into the front row after a Park dive in the primera, and the match energy seemed to hinge on whatever he was doing at the time. Most of the Park/Rush stuff was great, especially the tercera. The others seemed to be holding back. We've seen Terrible be sadistic in other matches, and there were prime opportunities for him and Bestia to really bully and mess up Flyer, but that didn't happen. The big Rush/Park moments all landed, though. Park beats Rush with a rolling suitcase (why have I not seen that done before 2018, and why have I now seen that twice? Brad Attitude is an innovator), Rush rips Park's mask and soccer ball kicks his head into the stands, Park absolutely squashes him with a fantastic crossbody off the top to the floor (filmed amazingly, really looked like Park flew 15 feet), but even then I didn't love how Rush was right back in the ring on offense after he just got flattened by the fattest skeleton. I liked Volador resorting to a chairshot for the finish, but overall the tecnicos didn't really looked fired up, and the rudos didn't look mean enough. These men wrestled like it wasn't a very special occurrence, like it was just another Friday night main event. An inauspicious start to the feud, but I think it can be recovered. Perhaps I went in with hopes too high, and I just expect more from these guys. I'm sure if this was a trios with 6 guys I like less, I would have been a higher vote. Park and Rush got a lot of time across each other, and that's almost always going to land on a list.

PAS: I liked this much more then Eric did, although I am probably still a bit of a low voter. I agree that these matches are better off as quick 10-13 minute brawls, there was no reason to watch Flyer and Bestia Del Ring exchange armdrags. I get why this went so long, this was a big shift in CMLL modus operandi and was clearly a big draw.  There was a lot to love about this match though, I really like the Ingobernables coming from the crowd to jump the technicos from behind, while sporting awesome letterman jackets. The others in this match didn't deliver much, but Park vs. Rush is why we are here, and their stuff was great. I loved the rolling bag stuff, especially when it broke open and someones undies ended up all over the filthy floor.  That top rope plancha was incredible, Park is so graceful for an old fat man, and he always lands with such a thud. His spear on Rush was an all time great spear, it was the kind of thing that pre-CTE would have been a highlight shown on every Inside the NFL show. As an opening to the feud I thought this did it's job for sure, and I am looking forward to weekly wars and an all time apuestas match.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LA PARK

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Lucha Worth Watching: Tecnico Kraneo?

Kraneo/Diamante Azul/Atlantis vs. Rush/Terrible/La Bestia Del Ring  CMLL 4/13/18

ER: Well, my big boy is a tecnico now, and I'm not totally sure how I feel about it. It's so appealing to have an agile monster fat guy in lucha, on the rudo side. We've dealt with big goony tecnicos like Giant Silva, and we've gotten big hunky tecnicos like Marco, but a big giant fat rudo is something that hasn't been around lucha in awhile. As a tecnico it looks like he'll be doing more offense, which isn't a bad thing, Kraneo has big offense. Here he goes on a tear of hard hitting belly bumps, a big standing splash, big legdrop while lifting Mije into one as well, and a crazy Diamante-assisted top rope splash. But there were also some uncomfortably clumsy moments that have been typically absent from Kraneo matches the last several years. He slips off the ropes while Rush is slumped in the corner, before doing his hip attack, and the finish is set up because he physically can't climb to the middle rope to do...something. He keeps slipping on the middle rope, sort of makes it to the top rope but can't come close to standing up, so instead kind of flops onto the rope like a wet towel tossed over  your shower door. Rush has been lying on the mat for some time now, and Bestia/Terrible just casually walk over at this point and just get him the hell down from there. It was awkward as hell, but it's the only time I've seen this happen to him. Could it have been intentional? Was he purposely showing what his weakness as a tecnico would be? Unable to do larger moves required of modern lucha tecnicos which leads to rudos catching him off guard? Maybe. On first glance, I'm not liking big offense tecnico Kraneo as compared to big bumping violent offense rudo Kraneo. We'll see. Everybody else in this was kind of background to the new tecnico, but still had moments: Bestia eats a couple big monkey flips from Azul, Rush bullies around Atlantis and uses Tirantes to help him remove his pants, Terrible accidentally smacks Commandante off the apron, but this was the Kraneo show. We'll see where the second episode of that show takes us.

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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Corleone & Kraneo CKlash! Diamante Vanquishes Terrible!

9. Kraneo/Vangellys/Terrible vs. Marco Corleone/Diamante Azul/Caristico CMLL 1/12

ER: I love this kind of Godzilla vs. King Ghidora match in wrestling, and it's especially weird and cool in Mexico where you don't really have many "monsters". But they don't come much larger than Kraneo and Marco, and I always love when they cross paths. This seemed more violent than past confrontations, which always had more Kraneo stooging for Marco. This was much more them kicking each other's ass. Diamante Azul is a strong tecnico and probably underrated, and Vangellys is a great heavy who occasionally really steps up, Terrible is always a reliable asskicker, Caristico still has his value to a trios. That's a great lineup of guys for a quality trios. We get a couple nice fired up Diamante moments and Terrible beating him around ringside, Vangellys beats Caristico around ringside and hits a brutal atomic drop on the barricade, and when Kraneo starts mixing in this thing gets great. He punches Marco hard in the face, knees him in the gut, then really chokes him over the ropes while Mije kicks the shit out of Marco's face from the apron! Holy shit!! Terrible keeps smashing Azul into things at ringside, and Kraneo continues to mug Corleone, violently running in with a corner hip attack that whips Marco's neck.

The segunda has an awesome Diamante tecnico hero sequence, with Kraneo and Vangellys holding him while Terrible punches him in the face, and Diamante breaks free just to rip Terrible's shirt and throw it on the ground, only to get beaten back down by all three. Marco gets triple teamed next and his comeback is awesome, flying through the giant Kraneo and Vangellys with a shoulder separating shoulderblock, and Azul fires into the ring with an awesome superkick on Terrible, following it up with hard low dive. Tercera is filled with great moments, like Mije giving his best match performance of his life, with those earlier kicks on Marco, now grinding in his face and then slapping him in the tercera, allowing Kraneo to shoulderblock a distracted Marco (and then later Mije gets absolutely launched onto Kraneo by a Marco press slam). We do get great Kraneo stooging, taking a big bump to the apron that sees him slowly go high up and over, then he wobbly knee sells on the apron before getting upended by a Marco haymaker. Tercera is just packed with great tecnico/rudo showdowns, Azul getting great comeuppance against Terrible, plastering him with a flying elbow and putting him away by catching him midair and dumping him with a deadlift German. Vangellys does a lunatic spear to Marco on the entrance ramp, taking both out of the match. Kraneo catches a Caristico rana better than anybody you've seen take one, whipping over fast and sliding to the floor, then Caristico flattens him with a heavy crossbody to the floor. This trios was all so awesome, you could realistically build three quality singles feuds off this one match, that's how good everyone matches up. Here's to more of this kind of lucha in 2018!!

PAS: There were a lot of really fun performances in this, I especially loved Mije, his Kawada kicks were awesome, he really laid it in for such a tiny human, I also loved Marco hurling him in the air like pizza dough. Kraneo has a great hip attack, he is a super fat dude, with a but that is outsized even for his big body, so it really looks violent when he smashes Marco with it. Last minute was really awesome and what got this match on a list for me. I loved Marco's ramp running in ring plancha, and the Vangellys intercepting it with a spear felt like the kind of thing that would be on an NFL films highlight before the league got all squeamish about head trauma.  Also really love Azul's German, he isn't a great luchador, but that is one great German.


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Lucha Worth Watching: Leyenda de Azul Cibernetico

Leyenda de Azul Cibernetico (CMLL 12/22/17)

ER: Ciberneticos are a fickle creature. It doesn't take too much in one direction to make them good, and it doesn't take much in the other direction to make them totally skippable. This one already starts as a win as Mije and Zakarias sit on the entranceway steps with their heads in hands, as if they're sitting on a curb waiting for their parents to pick them up after soccer practice. Then you see that referee Edgar is sporting cornrows and you know it's going to be a great cibernetico. The strength in a cibernetico is always the action that happens before the eliminations. Eliminations typically come quick and are predictable, and often unsatisfying (and you know there's going to be a double elimination), but the work that takes place before pinfalls start is gonna make it worthwhile, and this had some great action.

Ultimo and Euforia start of with some fast matwork, the kind that UG doesn't often do in CMLL, and it's fun as I don't recall these two ever going opposite each other. It never gets mean, but it's a good exhibition. Bucanero and Terrible do more of the same and we get a nice fun engaging scrap to our cibernetico. Stuff bumps up when Kraneo splats Vangellys with a big legdrop, but then gets backdropped over the top to the ramp, Kraneo taking an awesome big fat guy bump to the ramp and down the side stairs, with Vangellys immeditely shifting his focus and hitting a big dive on Misterioso.  We get a fat guy showdown between Niebla and Kraneo, and Niebla had a pretty nice showing. Maybe the key to Niebla now is just thinking of him as the new Super Porky. Don't be mad at him for having trouble standing up or kind of standing still while people get into place around him, just get excited for the 1-2 matches a year that he shows up for and just enjoy him slapping dudes the rest of the year. With this match and the Caifan match this is two straight Niebla matches where he utilizes his hip swiveling and silliness much more like Dusty than just a fat goof. It's a fine line. But I loved Kraneo slapping him, with every slap leading to Niebla turning around and slapping someone else on the apron. He and Kraneo are the fattest in the match, so I'll always love the two bigguns exchanging armdrags. Shocker has deflated a bit so he's not as fat (you can really see it in his arms, Shocker has really small arms now). Vangellys is the sneaky pick to be 2nd fattest in 2019. Nobody is getting as fat as Kraneo, I really don't think there's a luchador in history who is as big as Kraneo. But if something stressful happens in Vangellys' life, I could see him hitting the tortas pretty hard. Later on Niebla works a couple complicates armdrags with UG, and does a fired up Dusty act against Bucanero, swiveling his hips and pop locking with his legs, even flicking his own nipples. I don't think I've seen the nipple flick before. I'd much rather see that than the loogy.

Hechicero was treated like a big deal here, so much so that I thought he would win. He had a cool run  where he did his nice middle rope dropkick to knock Sanson to the floor, then gets Mascara Ano Dos Mil to the floor, then taps Vangellys with his awesome inverted bow and arrow choke. I was the drum beater for Pierroth the last couple years and haven't run across too much recommendable Pierroth this year, but I really liked him here, easily best Pierroth moments of the year. We get a nice old guy battle with he and Mascara, we get an actual Rush/Pierroth face off which is something I've never seen, with Pierroth actually soccer kicking Rush before they stand up. Then, he sweetly brushes the hair out of his baby boy's face, and tenderly kisses him on the forehead (much to the hate of the Arena Mexico crowd). Later he helps Rush pin UG from the floor, grabbing his son's hand in a perfect Schwarzenegger/Weathers Predator handshake to give Rush pinfall leverage. I wish Kraneo and Rush got more of a showdown but we did get one, with Kraneo bumping big for him and getting a soccer kick as a thank you. We end with Euforia/Rush and I was rooting for Euforia. He's got kids, man. Euforia takes his always nice ringpost bump and eats a Rush flip dive, and the Rush win is academic. Afterwards Rush stomps on the Blue Demon plaque and HOW COME I HAVE NEVER SEEN THE HORRIBLE BLUE DEMON BELT BEFORE!!?? Has this awful thing been around for years and I somehow keep missing it? Or did I always just stop watching the match after the pinfall and never watch the award ceremony. Oh man that belt is awful. Wearing it essentially gives you a Kuato growing out of your torso, or turns you into Krang's mechanical suit. Just Blue Demon torso flexing around your stomach. It's awful. And the best way to end this cibernetico.

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Lucha Worth Watching: IWRG and the Stiffest Punches in Puebla

Dr. Cerebro/Cerebro Negro/Relampago vs. Imposible/Odin/Pantera (IWRG 2/12/17)

ER: Fun rudo beatdown that wouldn't have taken much more to land on our MOTY list. The rudos are all total bullies and it leads to some nice comebacks from the tecnicos. Los Cerebros are the perfect complement to each other: Dr. brings the mean striking and Negro brings the fast bumps that look great on a tecnico comeback, just try not to fall in love with them while they hold a seated Pantera's arms and chop/kick him to a pulp. Both of them lay a beating on Odin - who I had never seen before - but Odin seems like a guy who can take a good beating, leaning into a nasty avalanche from Doc. He had my heart when he got launched by a backdrop, and his gorgeous pop up headscissors in the tercera sealed the deal. While Cerebros are doing damage in the ring, Relampago is dragging Imposible around and throwing him through the crowd, Imposible taking some great bumps through chairs, getting those hard plastic chairs thrown at his head. Later Imposible gets revenge and it's Relampago bumping through the crowd and getting beaten with chairs, Relampago even takes a funny stooge bump getting into the ring, "botching" a springboard and screaming at the crowd, and I loved Relampago's wild Ong Bak-esque headscissors on Imposible down the stretch. Really the only thing holding this back is a few clunky moments in the middle with Pantera, but it's minor and even those were saved by a alley oop dropkick (sending Negro flying super fast to the floor) and a nice armdrag on Doc. Everybody was really busting butt in this one. You could see stuff happening off in the periphery, like Doc slamming Pantera into a post or Relampago flying off the ring barrier with a legdrop, stuff done when the roving camera wasn't even on them. That kind of energy always sets something like this apart.

Negro Casas/Rush v. El Terrible/Sagrado (Puebla 1/8/17)

ER: A 5 minute match on a free show, how good could it be? Well, it fits in several little stories, has the stiffest punches I've seen from any of the 4 men this year, and it's under a circus tent. So, pretty good. Rush and Terrible trade at the start, both men hammering opposite fists, both throwing serious blows. Within any given Terrible match you'll see Terrible punch someone in the head with a wicked stiff punch, and then also throw one of the prettier worked punches you've seen. And you don't know which is going to be which. Rush gets them both. Rush is under a circus tent and he's surely aiming to  be the greatest show on earth here. He hams it up nicely with the crowd, lies in his Burt-Reyonlds-in-Playgirl pose, smacks Casas and yells at him to hit Terrible harder, kicks Terrible so hard in the back that you don't need any Lucha Underground sound sweetening, a real showman. The Casas/Terrible showdown in question is awesome. Terrible, towering over Casas, wants a strike exchange and even allows Casas to have the first few shots. Casas throws a few good ones, then blasts Terrible in the neck and throat with a couple HARD elbows, but they still somehow don't faze Terrible. So Casas awesomely falls back on the middle rope to spring up with the hardest forearm yet, knocking Terrible down. Terrible then gets up, squares up, and breaks Casas' face with a left hook. Casas ends up coming back and hitting a huge Thesz press to the floor to the approval of a loud crowd. Maybe the stiffest lucha match I've seen this year.

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Lucha Worth Watching: CMLL 6/16/17

1. Rush/Kraneo/Pierroth vs. Terrible/Vangellys/Shocker (CMLL 6/16/17)

ER: Not a great match, but one I was looking forward to and one that delivered what I wanted it to. Vangellys attacked Pierroth with some great bat shots last week and here's the payback, hopefully building to a hair match. The rudo team is a great pairing, one that's been fairly regular in 2017. They all complement each other really well in this kind of bullshit brawl. It's the kind of match Pierroth excels in, it brings out the best asshole qualities in Rush, and Kraneo...well, Kraneo is just always awesome. I really like all the Rush familia ringside brawl stuff, it's great junkfood, guys getting slammed into the announcer corral, guys getting thrown into barriers, balls are almost kicked, big chops are thrown, anabolics are flowing through Los Toros Blancos, complex carbohydrates are flowing through Kraneo, Shocker is wearing headgear to clamp down on his constant snacking, Terrible throws a beautiful left hand, the rudos juggle an imaginary soccer ball around with Kraneo getting extra ball handling time, Pierroth splats Vangellys with a great senton, balls actually get kicked, it's all great fun.

2. Dragon Lee vs. Barbaro Cavernario (CMLL 6/16/17)

ER: A different kind of junkfood, rewarding in different ways, annoying in different ways. I have little interest in the newer trend of luchadors working faux New Japan style. I hate seeing brainless emotionless forearm exchanges when lucha standing exchanges usually have so much passion and eye contact with the crowd. But these guys are crazy and we get a suitably crazy lightning match. Lee hits a couple nice dives including a bullet tope that just glues Cavernario to the barricade, and Cavernario hits a flat out gorgeous dive from the apron past the turnbuckles. I lose a lot of interest once we go into the "look what moves we can do that are dangerous but don't hurt that much because we can still do a lot of moves afterward" portion, but the blockbuster DDT is pretty damn notable just because it turns Lee into a literal exclamation point. These guys both work matches that have more meat to them, this was 9 minutes of expected flash between two guys who could sleepwalk through some exciting spots. They know how to work some exciting spots, and exciting spots was what we gots. They just tend to excite me more when they mean something.

3. Ultimo Guerrero/Sanson vs. Caristico/Soberano Jr. (CMLL 6/16/17)

ER: A fitting finale to the Gran Alternativa tourney, and a nice job by CMLL for actually pushing a new guy who has made some strides. Soberano Jr. has been kicking around for awhile, and was showing promise as early as 2014, and he's obviously been busting his butt in 2017. I flipped my lid for his Dick Fosbury dive to the floor, that takes some stones and looked gorgeous, and he has a great step up headscissors. I think Sanson worked expertly as a Caristico base, catching a dozen armdrags and headscissors that all looked fluid, and the flip dive catch was pillow soft. Caristico himself appeared to be working harder than I've seen him, maybe since his return, bumping big on UG's baseball slide dropkick, tossing out his largest assortment of ranas and headscissors (his slingshot one to the floor still the best) and also hanging in there to take UG's hip attack that sends him sprawling down an aisle. Sanson and Soberano got a chance to shine and outside of a hinky Soberano lariat I thought they looked good. I hope Sanson still stays with Cuatrero/Forastero, but this was a nice bigger match foray for him, overall very satisfying.

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Lucha Worth Watching: More Familia Pierroth! More Mascara!

Rush/Pierroth/La Mascara vs. Terrible/Rey Bucanero/Shocker (CMLL 5/13/16)

I realized I had skipped a couple matches in the Pierroth/Mascara saga, which I have absolutely loved. The was the Ingobernales EXPLODING and it was great. Mascara and Pierroth come out in matching yellow on black masks, and Rush/Pierroth are on fire the whole match. Father and son, juiced to the gills, stooging and stiffing. Pierroth starts things with a running dropkick to Shocker, pops Terrible on the apron and then stomps on a displeased Shocker's head a bunch (Shocker pays him back with a post-match stomp to the back of the head). Mascara's timing screws everything up for the boys, forcing them to look like doofs and hit the wrong guys. C'mon, Mascara. At one point Rush goes to do his soccer kick taunt, drops his invisible soccer ball, Pierroth goes searching on the mat for it, finds it and tosses it back to Rush...who then Pele kicks it into the crowd. Holy shit. Lucha Azteca are ignoramuses and rob me of hearing crowd noise during that segment. Shocker looks slow and a step off throughout, but Ingobernales cover nicely for his shortcomings. Bucanero looks fired up though, and hits a nice crossbody to the floor on Rush/Pierroth. But you want to watch this for Rush and his dad, their cross ups, their beat downs, their ousting of Mascara. I just adore the asshole charisma that Rush and Pierroth bring to this.

Pierroth/Kraneo/Rey Escorpion vs. La Mascara/Terrible/Shocker (CMLL 6/10/16)

Here is some more of the saga to love. I mean, when Kraneo is in a match there is ALWAYS more to love, but take a look at that rudo team! That's a rudo team right there! It's not a team for everybody, but a team of lumpy asskickers is a team for me. Even the entrances are fun as the rudos won't let the tecnicos get into the ring, and as Mascara comes out Pierroth meets him on the ramp and they start beating the hell out of each other. Rudos easily dispatch the tecnicos and it leads to all those great moments of Kraneo and Escorpion holding Mascara prone so Pierroth can land cheap shots in between shit talk. And damn does Pierroth beat down Mascara. I love that overhand chop-knife edge chop combo he does is an awesome strike that he uses so effectively, and here he kicks Mascara's butt into the crowd and plows him into the announce station. Then Pierroth backs down a fan like Vader backing down police dogs!! Shoot even Mije gets in on the beatdown and starts lobbing kicks at Shocker's eye. Jesus, Mije. Pierroth and his thugs get DQ'd for being merciless in assbeating, which has to be like winning a fight because the other guy broke his fists on your nose. The rest of the match isn't quite as exciting as the primera, but the tecnicos get an admirable comeback, Pierroth shows ass by taking his own bump into the announce tower, then gets his mask ripped off by Mascara. Mascara gets his fired up pants removal spot and I pray for a cocky Pierroth coveralls removal spot...AND WE GET IT!! It's incredible. He rips open the coveralls, and then Escorpion starts helping, like a gentleman removing a lady's coat at dinner. And then Pierroth takes forever because coveralls are really hard to take off over wrestling boots, so Mascara attacks!! Nothing else could have happened in this match and if I got that spot I would have loved the match. We get a double ballshot finish, but with some expertly timed interference spots. Pierroth is prone and Mascara is running in for the kill, Escorpion comes out of nowhere with a perfect trip allowing Pierroth to kick some BALLS! Then Shocker makes a last minute save by pulling the ref away before the 3 count, allowing Mascara to punch some BALLS! I really love this feud. Pierroth beats the hell out of Mascara, and then has no problem leaning way in on payback superkicks, and there's just so much attitude and hubris on display. It's too much fun.

Dragon Lee vs. La Mascara (CMLL 7/29/16)

And now we get the great rudo Mascara, picking on Rush's little baby bro, and rudo Mascara is goooood. He's wearing absurdly small trunks that say "Papi", he oles Lee right into the barricade on a tope, powerbombs him into the jagged metal announcers station, rips at his mask, throws some brutal low superkicks to a slumped in the corner Lee, and then puts the exclamation point on things with a swift kick to the balls to end things. Mascara is coming for the Pierroth family's testicles. This didn't get much time, Lee didn't get a whole lot of shine in this, and it really could have used a Pierroth pull apart at the end, but I love the angle of Mascara being the good guy against Pierroth, but being a sadistic asshole to his sons.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Pierroth and Rush!

24. Pierroth/Rush/Rey Escorpion v. La Mascara/Terrible/Shocker CMLL 5/20/16

ER: Hey look at that, a 10 minute violent brawl with father and son being untethered dickheads, and it's awesome! Rush and dad jump Mascara on the ramp and drag him to ringside, smashing him through the barrier. We get tons of brawling through this, with Pierroth throwing the best strikes. His chops looked brutal, and when he and Terrible matched up it looked like a slaughter. I loved him holding punks nice and snug so Rush could get cheapshots. Pierroth would really yank on arms and Rush would blast them with kicks, then make dumb faces at the crowd. It was glorious. I loved when their mugging would cause a momentary tide shift, like when Pierroth was goofing off and Terrible just ran past him in the ring to break up a pin. Rush is super violent with Mascara and him getting held by Pierroth and Escorpion as Rush rips his mask apart was vicious, like we were witnessing a scalping. It made Mascara charging out with a fresh mask in the segunda even better, hitting a spinebuster on Rush on the rampway. This was a total father and son show, and it was killer.

PAS: I really liked this, had the ragged violent feel of your best lucha brawls. One of the things I love about Rush is his mastery of pace, his fast stuff is really explosive and his taunting really feels like it is in the right place. Also happy to see Rey Escorpion again, he disappears and shows back up and is always worth seeing, he is in the background here but is wailing on dudes in the background. Pierroth was pretty great, he has a very Kurisu crowbar vibe which is awesome, every shot he throws is a little nastier then everyone else, loved his body shots and he had a surprisingly great powerslam. OG Pierroth was also a great old man brawler and new school Pierroth lives up to his legacy.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 25: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Terrible, Texano vs Black Warrior, Héctor Garza, La Sombra

2011-09-06 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Terrible, Texano vs Black Warrior, Héctor Garza, La Sombra

I'm interjecting this one in as it's between the opening round and the finals of the Universal tournament. I saw Sombra vs Liger, Nakamura, and Goto, and I thought that I should hit this one against Tanahashi too.

This was loads of fun, just full of schtick and sequence. Terrible and Texano were really good together. I love how they were able to really dominate a match with a solid beatdown in the Bucanero match  vs Sombra with a lot of heat that I looked at previously, and then here got to have a real crowd pleaser. They had a really great little stretch against Sombra where he played the dominant tecnico countering everything they did which was probably the best of such I've seen out of him in this process. Warrior brought a lot of energy to things as well. I like him in almost every match I see him in, no matter the year.

Tanahashi fit right in too. He was such a flouncy heel, which is really the natural role for him, holding his own on the mat vs Sombra (and that was simple stuff but good and competitive) losing chop battles, getting clowned by Garza and just selling it huge.:

Garza was a comedy machine here. I like his reactions more as a rudo and I like Terrible more as a dangerous wildman but both played their roles really well in this one:

There was at least a bit of the wild beatings too:

Structurally, this had a few inversions (the tecnicos cutting off a rudo takeover at the end of the primera, the rudos coming back out of nowhere at the end of the segunda) which may not seem like much but are really satisfying when you see a lot of these that feel the same.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Spry Panther and All of the Ranas

Blue Panther, Valiente & Stuka Jr. vs. Terrible, Rey Bucanero & Vangellys (CMLL 2/9/16)

Tuesday night Arena Mexico main events aren't where I go when I'm expecting a bunch of fun primera matwork, but that's what ended up happening here! First Valiente and Terrible went at it. For guys I see wrestle a lot, I don't recall either guy ever going to the mat that often, so it was kind of a treat to see them work through things, roll through headlocks, pick legs, stuff that should be happening more but just doesn't. The real gold is Panther and Bucanero matching up and going on the mat right after, and that's really special. Panther is still one of my absolute favorite mat guys and I relish any time he gets even 30 seconds to got at it in a match. Here he gets to pull out all sorts of tricks and always impresses me with different weird takeovers and a seemingly endless supply of ways he can work himself out of a headscissors. Bucanero also surprised me as he's not a guy who's been super motivated that last several years, but you still get flashes and he still has basics to fall back on when he's not listlessly drifting into trios triple team tropes (TTTT, TM). Here Panther forces him to the mat and Rey is almost frustratingly game, frustrating as in "you were capable of this all along!?" Rey even harkens back to bump machine days by wrapping himself around a ring post. Stuka breaks out an awesome low angle version of his hands-by-his-side splash, firing more straight out as opposed to getting more height, we get some dives, and I just drift away envisioning a world where CMLL allows for more matwork. Sigh...

Hechicero, Ripper & Polvora vs. Dragon Lee, Mistico & Titan (CMLL 6/20/15)

It's tough to keep up with all the lucha with stalwarts like Cubsfan constantly uploading stuff, but I have stuff I save to watch later, stuff that sounds nice on paper, and some days I get to that stuff, and some days it's worth writing about. Whenever it's a Hechicero match I throw it in the "to watch" pile and hey look at that, Hechicero was awesome here. That's a fun rudo team and a flippy tecnico team, and that's a nice combo. Hechicero matched up a lot with Lee and Mistico, and he made Mistico look golden. So many rana variations were tossed out in this match and all three rudos were splatting all around the ring. Lee did his wild no hands high jump rana over the top, sending Polvora off the apron to the floor. Hechicero takes some big bumps on the floor, Ripper does his nice bump past the ringpost and then runs into a Lee backbreaker. Hechicero is awesome at taking armdrags and ranas, he really can navigate a long rotating armdrag sequence like a great minis base. Except he is a full size man! And then Hechicero goes and does graceful flying better than the fliers. I love his spin around on the ropes dropkick. Dragon Lee is quite the crazy bumper, but you knew this. Here he's still honing his into the crowd bumps, but he still does them, as well as take a big bump to the floor and on top of the barricade while getting bullied by Hech. Polvora is a guy who is always good in these kind of matches, but he's one of those guys who does not excel at one specific thing so he goes unnoticed. But Hechicero was the story here. The guy really brings out the best in flippers. And anybody, really. Because he's Hechicero.

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 24: Héctor Garza, La Sombra, Shocker vs Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Texano

2011-08-26 @ Arena México
Héctor Garza, La Sombra, Shocker vs Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Texano

I'm being a little choosy here. I can't watch every trios match and pick out the best one. Some of what's interesting in watching lucha is doing just that, looking at how a wrestler works the same opponents (or the same set of opponents) week after week, in front of the same crowd, quite often when there's almost nothing at stake. I'm trying to hit more of a broad cross section with Sombra though. I had picked a trios against Negro Casas, Mr. Niebla, and Felino, because it's worth everyone seeing La Pesta Negra at least once (and maybe only once), but when I went to watch the match, it was actually Olimpico in there instead of Casas, and while I like Olimpico more than most people, I don't like him nearly as much as Negro Casas.

So we're going with this instead. TRT (Terrible, Rey, Texano) was another perfectly serviceable trios with matching white hoodies and a lot of dynamic tandem offense that leads to a gif worthy match. It's a good match to see what Sombra could add when he's not the focus too. Much more of the story of this was Garza clashing with ref Tirantes. Garza's irascible scamp act worked equally well whether he's tecnico or a rudo. Sombra was there to provide some of the big action mainly.

Structurally, this started with a rudo swarm and ambush, which let TRT get in all of their offense in the primera, which they won handedly. The comeback in the segunda was more chaotic and less iconic than usual but that sort of felt novel. There were just bodies everywhere. It culminated with Garza reversing an assisted power bomb attempt off the top into a Rana. I always like it when the comeback is just a little more earned than usual and that was the case here. Tercera had a lot of cutoffs and spots, with the overarching story focused on Garza and Tirantes. Generally, I hate rudo heel focuses to matches but here it was just at the margins, not driving the action but affected by it. In the end, he allowed a rope assisted pin on Garza, but called for the DQ after a triple foul on Shocker. I think that was supposed to be a big moment for Tirantes. I know he's considered fairly lovable now.

As for Sombra, he mostly stayed out of the way of the storytelling while adding that flair and flash, which can be a very important role to play in a trios match. It would have been a lot clunkier and tedious without him. He hit this one flip to apron handstand rana outside that was just nuts, as well as some fun "vs the world" sequence in the tercera and eating hot death on a redirected dive to help set up the finish (by getting himself out of the way) I'm not sure I'd ever seen that specific rana before. Good stuff, but we'll move back to a tighter focus next time with his Universal Tournament win (probably skipping the actual tournament itself and going to the finals).

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Lucha Worth Watching: Early 90s Dandy/Panther and a Modern Rudo Dream Team

El Dandy vs. Blue Panther, early 1992?

I'm guessing this is early '92, just because of how each man looks, and Dandy has a buzzcut. Quick check reveals he lost a hair match to Satanico in December '91, and not another one until some time in '94, so I'm just guessing this is early '92 instead of late '94. And overall, this is non-essential work from both men. But it's also work that I don't believe was out there before, and watching two legends like this in any situation is a treat. Dandy was a marvelous athlete in his prime, and that was all on display in his floatovers, the way he worked in the ropes, his crazy high angle dive, flawless missile dropkick, the ease he pops up on headscissors, and then he'll surprise you by popping Panther with a headbutt from the apron. We only get 9 minutes, and we spend like 15% of it with Dandy locked into a surfboard lock that goes nowhere fast. Yeah, yeah things end with a tapatia, but it's not like Dandy's back and neck were bugging him much after that original surfboard. Panther's body looked exactly the same as it looks now, though I think his work now is actually better. Guy has things down and it's locked on gorgeous auto pilot. Now don't get all ruffled, I'm not using this match as a true representation of BP's significant greatness as from the footage we have we know he was already really great in the mid 80s (if UWA footage were available we could actually pinpoint when the greatness hit), just didn't have it as much here.

Kraneo, Hechicero & Terrible vs. Rush, Marco Corleone & Valiente (CMLL 11/3/15)

Okay, so this is kind of cruel, as I'm recommending lucha to watch, and here we have a lucha match that I don't believe it available online (yet?). This aired this past weekend on LATV, and was from a non-descript Tuesday CMLL show. But this seemed notable - even without it being able to watch by a majority of readers - because good lord look at that rudo team! This is the only time those three have teamed, and I can only pray that this is the first of many. Those are three favorites right there, not only separate, but they complement each other oh so nicely in a team. I assume their team name will be something like Fuck, Marry, Kill. The match is kind of weird as it's essentially worked as three matches, with the rudos vs. Valiente, Rush & Corleone vs. Valiente, and Rush & Corleone vs. the rudos. But damn that team of rudos. All three of them seem like guys who won't be pushed to title level for various reasons (some being that CMLL is just weird), so might as well team them up and let them go on a rampage. All three of them are total asskickers, so team 'em up! This is the first I've seen Hechicero in his new skull type mask, and he's kind of sporting a new look with some kind of strappy bodice/corset thing (there has to be a cooler word for "corset" if a guy is wearing it, right?) making him look like a sort of ripped Charly Manson, but with a cool mask instead of bad face paint and stringy hair. Kraneo breaks out his Alebrije skull mask, which is cool and more subtle than his garish skull/mohawk mask. Valiente is in full tiny neon green pants mode, getting closer to being naked every time I see him. He and Rush have matching neon trunks, but that is the only harmony shown by them during the match. Rush and Marco would hang out on the floor, leaving Valiente to the wolves, then come in themselves after the rudos tired out their fists beating Valiente. Valiente is now going full on sleazy early 80s Kevin Sullivan bodybuilding creep, and the trunks just keep getting tinier. Terrible justifiably beat the shit out of him for it. The money was in the Marco/Kraneo match ups, as Kraneo leans way into Marco strikes and Marco seems to tighten things up when working Kraneo. His big left hands in this match ranked among his finest ever. Kraneo is one of the best going at mixing up his cool strikes throughout a match. You won't find lame elbow strikes in a corner, he'll come at you in tons of ways. My favorite this match was him backing Marco into a corner, and instead of both men just lazily getting into position (something that happens so often that we tend to just look the other way, like traveling calls in the NBA), Kraneo drops a sick left body blow, big overhand right, and then a stiff front kick to back Marco in. How many times have you seen one wrestler just walk another one into an Irish whip? It's terrible. But you don't need to look the other way in case Kraneo takes shortcuts, because he just beats a guy's ass into the spot he wants him to be. Valiente eventually gets his comeback in the tercera, and hits a mammoth dive on Terrible. Marco and Rush work nicely as jackals; Hechicero was a little underutilized here, but I imagine he'd get more moments if this beautiful team keeps happening. I was hoping for more of him vs. Rush, since that's a super fresh match-up, but I'm sure we'll get there soon enough. This was all really good, and Cubsfan PLEASE get this uploaded, pretty please?

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CMLL Worth Watching 8/9/15 & 8/28/15

LA Park, Atlantis & Volador Jr. vs. Rush, La Sombra & Dr. Wagner Jr. (8/28/15)

LA Park's big (and he certainly is big...) return to Arena Mexico! The prospect of seeing Rush vs. Park is something that should be high on the wishlist of every lucha fan, and those two together here was magic. Neither holds back, with Park tossing out some nasty headbutts during a headbutt exchange, and several times kicking Rush right in the face. I've seen some people complain about Rush taking liberties, but he never seems to have any problem leaning face first into offense. Park is a tub now, but he still has that Park magic. He still has a way to go to get to full on Kraneo level mega tub. Kraneo is probably better than Park in the ring at this point, but he doesn't have nearly the same level charisma. Clearly we need them to combine fat forces. Anyway, everybody tries to steal the spotlight in this one, and the fans are amped the whole time. Atlantis, Sombra and Volador all took turns seeing who could take the most dangerous ass over crown bump over the rail into the crowd. Sombra did it a couple times. We get all sorts of bullshit leading to the end, all of it pretty fun, with Atlantis going for the Atlantida and accidentally swinging Sombra into the ref, then some ball shots, then Park breaking up a pin by dropkicking the ref (couldn't he have just kicked Sombra....), then a demasking and more ball shots. Park hits a fat guy tope that Rush mans into, Rush hits a gorgeous high speed swan dive, Volador hits a sweet slingshot rana, Wagner hits his somersault dive high and hot on Park, and this whole thing was as good as you expected it to be. I'm not sure if this was a one time deal or not for Park, but I loved seeing him. A Rush feud would be tremendous.

Ephesto, Mephisto & Luciferno vs. Atlantis, Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta (8/9/15)

This is for the trios titles and while it was a fun trios match, it never had the immediacy of a title match. It didn't feel any different from any of the other regular trios matches these teams had around this same time. There was really no drama of any kind. No desperation, no fear over losing the titles, just three falls of standard lucha trios. So that stinks. But the match was fun, so that doesn't stink! Delta is a guy I don't need to see as often as I do, but Maya seems to be steadily improving. I love that one of his regular spots is hitting a super fast dive that sends him into the front row. Here he hits his massive flip dive and then takes out a row of chairs, clotheslining some fan in the process. Ephesto sets up Delta's stuff about as well as possible, even gamely waiting around for his little ropeflip headscissor from the ring to the floor. Atlantis is still super spirited at 53, and at one point he comes in and hits backbreakers on all three rudos with more energy than anybody else showed. All three tecnicos hit stereo dives, but really it was kinda weird how standard the finish to a title match was. They did their dives, Atlantis got back in the ring with Mephisto, and Mephisto hit his top rope pedigree for the win.

Rey Escorpion, Rey Bucanero & Terrible vs. Mistico, Valiente & Volador Jr. (8/9/15)

Super quick paced match with both Reys having a contest to see who could SUWA more rana and headscissors from Mistico and Volador. I think Escorpion wins it, but truly, we ALL win. We. ALL. Win. Escorpion really makes Mistico look maybe the best he's ever looked here, with Mistico getting crazy air on a bunch of stuff and Escorpion catching it all perfectly. Bucanero makes Volador look super smooth. We don't get the usual Escorpion or Terrible violence, although we do get probably the most violent "tie the tecnicos up in knots" posing spot. Tecnicos get all their limbs tangled, Mistico stretched over the top of them, with Escorpion posing on top. I will never complain about a fun bump clinic with excellently hit spots. This is a fun way to spend 10 minutes of your day.

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MLJ: The Volador Train Keeps on Rolling through 2015 7: Máximo & Volador Jr. vs Rey Bucanero & Terrible, hair vs hair

Aired: 2015-03-28
taped: 2015-03-20 @ Arena México
Máximo & Volador Jr. vs Rey Bucanero & Terrible, hair vs hair

Back to our good friend Volador. I'm feeling an itch for slightly older lucha so I'll either dust off my GdI comp, hope dataintcash posts something else soon, or check out some Texano/Silver King tags since I've seen next to none of those, for next week. Right now, I need to make it through some more 2015 Volador. I'd like to at least make it to some of the more hyped matches for the sake of fairness, even though you learn plenty from any match. Let's get through this one first, though, as it's on a relatively big stage.

This was a comedown after seeing Ultimo Guerrero vs Rey Escorpion, but I wouldn't necessarily call it bad. It was just sort of there. Some of that is just the fault of CMLL's booking. Terrible and Maximo have history. Rey Bucanero was riding whatever tiny, tiny wave he had gotten from taking Felino's hair a few months before. Terrible and Bucanero are certainly competent at being bad guys. Maximo is one of the only over tecnicos on the roster. They had a slight story coming in that Bucanero and Terrible were just the better team. It just never reached a point where it felt like it mattered or was a big deal or was all that serious. Popcorn matches are fine and good. Popcorn apuesta matches are a problem.

I do want to talk a little about tag team apuestas matches though, mainly about the long terceras common in this type of match. I think they are sort of unique in and of themselves, just in the pacing. With a trios match (and you don't get too many trios apuestas matches from what I've seen, but you do get title matches and ones with high stakes), they can move wrestlers in and out once things break down torwards a finishing stretch. You don't get a lot of that laying around, but at the same time, exactly because of that, there's not often a big feel of selling. It's on to the next near-fall and there's a real threat everything becomes noise. On the other hand, in a singles match, any near fall has to be a kick out and the selling can be overdone, not earned by the first two, often quite short, caidas. You can sort of get the best of both worlds in a straight tag team match though, where you can use saves instead of kick outs in order to control the escalation and make it more believable but also have more extended selling to make things matter.

I think that was the case here. On a structural level, I liked the tercera. I wish there was more heat though, a little more visceral intensity. That's not what this was. It was a "fun" apuestas, one that matched the build, with some cute spots and miscommunication and Maximo wiping off Volador's sweat and a bunch of dives and roll ups out of nowhere. I get what they were going for, but I'm not sure I've seen too many hair matches that were played up like this and that made it all a little jarring. Even the Maximo ones I've seen in the past have come off a little more serious.

There were a lot of independent things to like. The tecnicos tried to rush the rudos up the ramp to start but were overwhelmed and within seconds destroyed with a couple of tandem moves. Then the comeback was fluff (and had a painfully flubbed vault to the top by Volador to hit a Spanish Fly), but followed by Terrible taking an amusing bump off of a dive that sent him into the crowd. The dives were all pretty good, Maximo having two rope walk ones, Bucanero careening off of the ramp, Volador leaping into the crowd from the top. The flash roll up exchange was good in a vacuum, some of the near falls came off well down the stretch and I liked, in part, Terrible's attempt at interference in the finish. I do sort of wish Volador had neutralized him on the second roll up, though, since that would have punctuated things better.

It just had so very little of what I look for an an apuestas match. It had none of the mood, none of the violence, none of the stakes. For the most part, it was compete wrestling, and it was fun wrestling, but it was empty where it counted. Maybe if they had drawn out the heat at the beginning, it'd have been better. If there was more of a sense of peril some of the more fun stuff might have felt more like pay off, or even a narrative of triumphant tecnicos being true to themselves to overcome adversity in the face of nefarious rudos dwelling in an Ingobernable world, something like that. What we got instead didn't quite cut it.

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MLJ: 2015 Volador, Jr! Wrestler of the Year? Still Sort of Crummy? 5: Rey Bucanero & Volador Jr. vs Máximo & Terrible in a National Parejas Increible Tournament match

Aired: 2015-03-21
Taped: 2015-03-06 @ Arena México
Rey Bucanero & Volador Jr. vs Máximo & Terrible in a National Parejas Increible Tournament match

I thought about skipping this, and really skipping everything up to the hair match. I had for the title trios after all, but A) the hair match was a bigger main event so I should try to catch some of the build and B) I'm a sucker for the parejas increibles stuff, especially with this line up. The matches aren't conventionally good and if you're watching them in sequence, a whole bunch at once, they're a lot of the same. Thankfully, I'm not, and because of that, I can catch some fun character stuff and not be overwhelmed by crummy tournament lucha.

I mention this pairing because three out of the four guys, being Maximo, Terrible, and yeah, Bucanero, are really solid with their shtick. I like Rey best when he's being a dickish, chickenshit heel. Terrible's sort of a gruff straight man but he's had a thousand matches with Maximo and they do their stuff well together. Maximo is talked about so little, but he does what he does so well. I think part of the problem is that exoticos in the past probably do tower above him, but likewise, he towers above a lot of the tecnico roster. He hits his stuff cleanly, makes things matter within the context of the match, but most of all, is actually over with any crowd he gets in front of for being a good guy (albeit an exotico one) when most of the tecnicos aren't over at all.

So the Leyenda match was already set, putting an odd spin on this. Were it not for that, you'd expect the rudos to care more about who won. As it was, what mattered was getting one over on their upcoming opponents. It was hair match upcoming after all and that's serious business. This started with Volador vs Maximo, with some quick-paced matwork and I actually liked it a lot. It felt more organic and natural than usual for Volador. Some of that was the bits of routine Maximo was tossing in and Volador having to respond to them in a way that he doesn't usually have to. I liked it though. It's always a bit of a novelty, whether in a match like this or in a cibernetico to see tecnico vs tecnico and both this, and when they did it again later in the match, was fun.

Of course, when Terrible and Bucanero faced off, they refused to wrestle and immediately attacked the tecnicos, and in this, both here, and later in the match when they teased it again but instead hugged, I thought that the match very much served its purpose in building to the apuestas main event at the bigger show. Almost every other match I've seen like this eventually has the rudos break down and dissent. This didn't and their solidarity was very welcome. I'm not going to say it put into question the result of the Leyenda match, because that was never in question, but if CMLL's booking was better (or existent) in general, it might well have, just through the ringwork alone. In fact, the back half of the match had Terrible and Bucanero trying to give each other the win with the partners breaking it up, like so:

including a very funny moment of Rey hitting a foul and then dropping down himself so that he could let Terrible pin him.

Shortly thereafter, after a Commandante leg pull, Rey interfered again, distracting Volador and letting Terrible pick up the win. I thought this was a bit of a mess, but really quite fun given expectations, and it set up the rudos as being absolutely on the same page for their upcoming match, which was a worthwhile idea on paper at least.

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MLJ: 2015 Volador, Jr! Wrestler of the Year? Still Sort of Crummy? 2: Máximo, Mistico, Volador Jr. vs Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Último Guerrero

Aired: 2015-01-31
Taped 2015-01-23 @ Arena México
Máximo, Mistico, Volador Jr. vs Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Último Guerrero

I realize I'm taking some heat for Monday's match, but I'm going to keep going. There is a method to this. I'm moving chronologically and I thought the first singles match of the year we have posted online with a luchador isn't a bad way to start an examination of his work. I plan on hitting a number of matches, more than ten. The idea that you would just look at the most heavily regarded matches of a wrestler in order to understand how good he was in a certain year is completely and utterly against the way I look at wrestling. You look at a broad spectrum and try to get a total picture. I'll watch as many singles matches as I can. On the docket through his March work is this trios, the tag title trios, a singles match with Ultimo Guerrero, the Parejas Increibles finals, another trios vs Casas and Cavernario, and then the hair match. Then I'll see what we have online after that.

In general, I'm going to make sure to find things that interest me as I move chronologically. A 2015 GdI reunion interests me. It happens, not often, but it happens. Really, more often than not they're on opposite sides but sometimes Bucanero and Guerrero do team together. This is one of those times.

I have another theory about Volador, and it's that he's a lot more functional in trios than he is in singles matches. That's true with almost anyone though (Valiente is a great example of that). Guys who are good at hitting their stuff, getting beat upon, and having spectacular (if emotionally wooden) comebacks, are better off in trios than in singles matches. Other people can carry the other things. The only problem is if they're the focus.

Anyway, this delivered what I wanted it to, a GdI nostalgia fest. UG ambushed Mistico on the way out, and that I didn't mind in the least because after seeing that start to a match a thousand times in 2013-2014, I just haven't seen it that often lately. When you only see it once in a while, it's fine. From there Guerrero whipped Mistico with his jacket, Maximo got beat on in the corner, and Volador got thrashed on the ramp. This led to the GdI special body splash and while they didn't do the huddle, at least Rey got to do his repeated arm thing. This led to a triple corner attack ending with the Senton de la Muerte and a pretty hilarious triple submission (watch Volador just give his limbs up like usual) and as three minute beatdown opening falls go this was about as enjoyable as it gets and really brought back what made GdI so effective in that scenario.

The segunda wasn't quite as much beatdown as I would have liked but the comeback had zip to it, and it had some solid moments. My absolute favorite was Rey Bucanero holding Maximo down and taunting his partners so Maximo couldn't tag. You rarely get little face-in-peril moments like that in Mexico but it's the sort of attitude that Bucanero brings to the table when he's at his very best. Terrible kissed his hand, touched Maximo's face, and punched him which is a sign that they've worked together a thousand times, but it was also welcome. UG even went after Mistico's mask a bit. Eventually though he missed a corner charge, basically due to his own hubris, and then ate a superkick and a rana and the tecnicos just unloaded, culmanating with a flying top rope Maximo rana, doubel topes, and the Mistica on UG. Good stuff, and even better, Kemonito got to terrorize UG between caidas (with Maximo almost kissing him too).

They reset for the tercera, and we got a lot of rope running and cutoffs. I like how Terrible portrays a bully when he has the advantage and a coward when he does. It's solid stuff. There was a lot of tecnico showcase here but it was perfectly fine and really quite enjoyable given the setting. The rudos were all great bases for it including eating double flip dives towards the end. The biggest problem I had with the finish was that the tecnicos got a pinfall on a non-captain but it wasn't evened up, so it meant that the last exchange, Maximo vs Terrible was really obvious. It all would have been better if Terrible was the captain since then there'd be some question on the finish. Regardless, he ate MAximo's top rope armdrag for the pin.

When I say "I could watch fun, throwaway trios like this all day," I mean a match like this. It was no match of the year contender but everyone did what they were supposed to and it was good, fun candy, with high flying tecnicos and underhanded, cruel rudos. This is the sort of match that Volador looks his best in.

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