Lucha Underground Season 3 Episode 22: The Cup Begins

TL: Would have really enjoyed a leadup episode of Bracketology into the Cueto Cup, where you could have brought on upstarts and underdogs and gave them some screen time. Get Vinnie Massaro to talk about how Sicily needs a big win and show off his favorite pizza recipes. Maybe have King Cuerno show off a trophy buck from his latest hunting excursion. Show Sexy Star training on how not to injure someone legit doing a cross-armbreaker. I would have gladly watched 45 minutes of that.

Instead, it’s probably the biggest brand made star in the company doing a walk on-screen return instead of being in the ring, flexing his healed arm and slinging catchphrases. Really odd way to bring Pentagon Dark back, especially given he’s basically one of a handful of folks who actually should have the title in the company at this point.

TL: Should also be mentioned that Vampiro is dressed like he just got done playing 18 holes at his retirement community’s muni course, complete with horizontal striped polo and horn-rimmed glasses. Now I need to go watch “Mr. Hole-In-One” Barry Darsow on some WCW syndicated TV.

1. Mala Suerte vs. The Mack

ER: This felt like a chubby version of a Nitro era lucha match, and that's a fine thing to be. And that's a good thing, I was in the mood for that kind of popcorn match, and the first round of a pretty silly tournament for an even sillier cup seems like the best place for it. I liked the opening armdrag exchanges, they felt like older exchanges you don't see a lot anymore, Cholo rolling off Mack's back, doing the drags low and quick. Mack is obviously going to be a guy advancing in the cup, so the finish was never in doubt, but considering that they threw out a couple more nearfalls than I expected. Suerte's senton is really over in the building (the one where he jumps off the top and runs across the ring to land it) and if you're going to have silly signature offense I'd rather watch a nice senton than the worm. Mack busts out some nice stuff, especially crazy is him catching Suerte and lifting him all up and around his body before hitting a driver. That's some Cobb strength right there, and Suerte isn't a small dude.

TL: I’m with Eric. I’m definitely here for portly lucha armdrag sequences. I am DEFINITELY not here for Matt Striker saying “Shades of Tenryu!” though. Suerte’s offense is really great, and I was half expecting that senton to be that splash that one Dragon Gate guy does where he leaps off the top rope, lands on his feet, and then leaps again to finish the splash, but this works, too. I’m also a big fan of a Crucifix Driver, as it looks absolutely devastating when thrown correctly. Still think it’s odd that with an offensive repetoire like Mack’s that he finishes with a stunner, but credit Cholo for bumping big on the offense, at least. Glad he got some offense in, too. Definitely fits in on the lucha Nitro matches, would be a fine WCW Pro main event, as well.

ER: I'm a big fan of cartoon CGI lightning, so Cage's lightning infused power glove gets the full point from me. I want him to punch through somebody's body with it.

TL: Think it’s awesome that Dario has a Glove Guy, and now that I’ve seen the lightning in action, they really should have gone full Infinity Gauntlet with it and have gems that make it do weird stuff.

2. Argenis vs. Pentagon Dark

ER: Dang this was good. This is easily the best Argenis performance (would you believe that if you've made it this far, you will have already seen 15 Argenis matches!?!?) and the first time Pentagon has looked interesting since the ninja battle episode. Argenis takes a bunch of great Psychosis bumps from leg kicks, really getting knocked around the ring by Pentagon. You think this is going to be a one sided annihilation, which would make sense. I just pointed out that we have seen 15 Argenis matches on LU and there's a good chance most of you couldn't name a favorite Argenis memory. So it's the opening round of the Cup, obviously Pentagon is going to advance, and you don't expect much from Argenis. But then he gets a nice rana and a nice moonsault to the floor. Pentagon is obviously too much for him, as he runs into too many kicks, gets suplexed violently into the turnbuckles, gets a decent nearfall off a big neckbreaker, basically justifies his appearances up to this point. I expected nothing from this match and Argenis made it mean a little something, and Pentagon actually came off cool for the first time in ages. I think now we actually have Pentagon Dark, and before we were getting Pentagon Baja Blast or Pentagon Gamer Fuel.

TL: Basically an extended squash for Pentagon, really throwing out all the kicks he can in his offensive repertoire and saving the really good offense for Reseda, I’m guessing. Argenis DOES get some neat stuff in, as the timing on the Asai Moonsault was fantastic and that convoluted hammerlock neckbreaker at least looked cool. Dark really has the Fear Factor down to a devastating degree, as he always makes it look nasty. Agree that it was a great Argenis performance in bumping, and the months off occurred when Dark started really making his rounds on the indy scene, so you could tell he came back looking and feeling more like a big deal and it showed.

3. Texano vs. Famous B

ER: Brenda keeps getting more and more "produced" every time she appears. I don't like it. It's like they keep having her do loud and poor Harley Quinn impressions and give her way too many scripted lines to shout. Texano's powerbomb looked good.

TL: Have a soft spot for Famous B, so him taking a big powerbomb in full “first time in Texas and this is what I bought at the first Western store I could find” regalia makes it in to the win column for me. Still don’t get what they’re trying to do with Texano at this point.

TL: Actually dug the take on Mysterio/Mundo 24/7 or what have you, complete with dude with heavy British accent doing the voiceover. Whoever made the final graphic needs to know how vectors work, though, and I totally buy Dario going into his budget to really push the match because he’s such a great promoter.

ER: Michael Schiavello is just about the biggest No Buys guy you can get with me. I think his commentary is genuinely terrible.

4. Drago vs. Aerostar

ER: This didn't really work. I don't care about the lizard people, but I do think working as a defined rudo is a better move for Drago, makes his stuff have some context. But this whole thing was just poorly constructed. Aerostar did some cool things, like Aerostar will do. He also looked like he flew into a brick wall on a dive, shooting right past Drago and hitting solidly into the front row. Vampiro covered admirably by saying that Drago caught and threw him. But damn that was a nasty ending to a dive. But moves in this match meant nothing. There was no rhyme or reason to who would recover faster, no transitions, just getting up and doing moves, several of which looked nice. But this was like me trying to rap, absolutely zero flow. Sometimes Drago would attack Aerostar while he was bouncing on the ropes, other times he would patiently wait in place for the move that came after the bouncing. It didn't add up to enough for me.

TL: The odd thing about this match to me is that it didn’t seem like they had any idea how to cohesively put things together. Striker puts over the “long pauses” as they’re hesitant to go after each other, but he and Vampiro were definitely covering a lot of general mistiming. And yeah, there wasn’t a part of this match that really got going. The Aerostar dive was very Blue Panther/Villano V-esque in its nastiness, but that was a misguided highlight. They need to make up their mind on whether Drago is a willing participant or someone who really has issues taking orders from Kobra Moon. Shades of grey in this particular scenario doesn’t work.

ER: Okay, you have to believe me here, but earlier in this review when I said, "I want [Cage] to punch through somebody's body with [the power glove]," you need to realize that I do not read spoilers for these shows. I have no idea what's going to happen, didn't know about the Sexy Star title win, none of this. I had zero clue 30 minutes later that Cage would literally punch a man's head to a pulp. And not just any man, but Lorenzo Lamas, TV's Renegade ("He was on fucking Falcon Crest!"~Phil Schneider). So now Cage is a murderer, and he seems mentally fine with being a murderer, which means there are several wrestlers I would like for him to murder and will now be confused if he ever loses a match again.

TL: I think the most unrealistic part of the epilogue was the big wig saying Cage got that big lifting weights and drinking protein shakes, when obviously the glove is a synonym for roid rage. Eric is way more prescient than I am, however, and Cage going full-on grindhouse on Lorenzo F’n Lamas makes me wonder what practical in-ring special effects we’re going to get with this glove. Can’t wait for his first Cueto Cup match, where he will most likely punch someone with the glove from the ring through Cueto’s office window thanks to an invisible harness of some kind. Or him hitting the Aztec symbol in the middle of the ring to make the lights in the arena flicker on and off or something. Is it in the budget for him to go full-on Attack on Titan and have him punching holes through people now that we’ve seen what he’s done to poor Lorenzo? Really wish I could have seen the look on Cage’s face when he found out this was going to be his story arc this season, because I don’t think there was anyone else in the company happier to hear what he or she was going to do than him. My favorite storyline LU has ever done and it’s not even close.

ER: I love Tim's idea to have somebody on wires getting punched by Cage and landing 20 feet away. If you're gonna go big and silly with it, go big and silly.

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Lucha Underground Season 3 Episode 14: The Bulls of Boyle Heights

MD: I could watch Dario backstage with people all day. Angelico doesn't portray a tough guy well at all, but there's enough weight built up in his grudge with Mundo from time alone that all of this works. I like that he has to go through one more hoop to get to him. I swear that 2017 WWE wouldn't think through a character enough to run with the Bull theme with Dario like they're doing here. It's obvious that his plan was having Angelico and Matanza in the 4 way next week.

1. Cage vs. Texano vs. Joey Ryan vs. Dr. Wagner Jr.

ER: Oh good, I was hoping we'd get some additional Cage/Texano interactions outside of their best of 27 series. And this got a decent amount of time. And was not very good. We did get a lot of Texano/Cage interactions, which we've already seen just...way too much of, and it's still not working. When Texano is announced, Striker said, "One word: GREAT." Texano may have the biggest gap in "actual output in promotion" versus "how promotion wants him to be perceived" in the fed...if it weren't for one TINYYYYYY person in LU illustrating that same thing times 10. Wagner is one of the most charismatic men I've ever seen live, and I'm wondering why it's not coming through on LU. Is it because they want you to think everybody is a big charismatic star? Is it the differences in lucha filming vs. professional high end LU filming? Is he just being portrayed here like "just another guy"? Is it because he was saddled with Famous B - who is amusing in his role but makes a legitimate star like Wagner come off as bottom rung? Wagner still moves like a star, still seems like he has that charisma, but the way they're using him it could really be anybody under that mask. Cage looked pretty impressive here, that moonsault to the floor was nuts (and everybody was nuts for standing right under it), and for what felt like a throwaway match (even though it's part of a larger match concept) Cage came off pretty big here.

MD: This was a typical Lucha Underground multiman. You can't help but contrast it to the match later in the night and while that one had more fun character interactions, this was less stilted and choreographed. I thought both Cage and Texano came off pretty well here, actually. There's zero hook to Texano in lucha underground and generally seeing him here just makes me wish he was teaming with Terrible in CMLL still, but he stood tall against everyone for a decent amount of time. I get what Eric's saying though. I think the problem with Wagner in LU is that he doesn't really get to be Wagner. Everything about this promotion plays against his strengths. He's not a guy who can just come in and hit spots endlessly and then get out of the ring so the next person can take over. It's those dead spaces between spots where he can play to the crowd and make things mean something (or not mean something in a way that makes him look good, which is a Wagner special) where he excels. Even Vampiro pointed out that this wasn't really Wagner's style of match. These things were made for Cage to hit spots though. He was physically astonishing in this match, to the point where I stopped really caring whether or not this was good. Catching Ryan in mid-air and jackhammering him is insanely impressive. It was nice to see the rope come back into play for the finish as it had annoyed me how little its use mattered in the match itself.

MD: The second she told Reyes that he had to go back to the Temple, I was rooting for her to put him under a mask. That they're actually going with that shows how on point this show can be at times.

2. Sexy Star vs. PJ Black

ER: "You can't help but get behind Sexy Star!" You might think that was the case, Striker, but I suppose I just despise poor downtrodden women. That's something about ME that needs work. After all, if I can't get behind this one brave woman, who am I, and what wrong steps have *I* taken as a human? But this match was probably upper tier for Sexy Star. She has no idea how to transition, and no idea how to make up the size difference, and sometimes it's pretty clear she doesn't know how to fall for certain moves, but Black at least knew how to build to her bigger spots and they crafted a nice nearfall off the Styles Clash kickout. I liked Star's rana, and I liked PJ bragging on the top rope to set up his huge nasty drop onto the turnbuckles, and yeah, this was fine. You know she's going to win, and you know the commentary is going to be ridiculously over the top while praising her contributions to the history of womankind, but the match overall worked.

MD: In general, I wish they just moved Star over to Taya. If this had to happen, hwoever, I'm with Eric that the match overall did work. Most of that was on Black, his arrogance (including cheating when he didn't even have to), and is general unwillingness to sell for her unless she really earned it. He seemed to be putting an extra bit of oomph into everything too, which is not something people do with her. I came out of this wondering if I haven't been undervaluing Black. It's a shame he keeps injuring himself on basejumps or whatever. All that said, I'll be honest: I tend to watch Sexy Star matches at 2x speed, so my views on them are suspect.

ER: So Kobra Moon of all people is getting her own stable of reptilians? They're now building her up as some sort of millennia-long leader, when up til now all she's done is lose short matches and flirt with boys. It's a long con, people.

MD: I was wondering how this meshed with her and Daga from last season too. I think the line is that she ate him whole? Still, I'm all for the expansion of the mythos, and even more so the fact that they rationalized spending the money to actually make a GiJoe Serpentor throne in 2017.

3. Marty the Moth Martinez vs. Dragon Azteca Jr. vs. The Mack vs. Mil Muertes

ER: This didn't end the way I was expecting it to, as with the participants I assumed this would be a guaranteed path for Mil Muertes. And Muertes looked pretty awesome in this, loved his big uppercuts, and the showdown with Moth. Moth standing up to him and getting clocked in the jaw, then later speared through the ropes was terrific. Azteca and Mack matched up nicely, and that tornado DDT Azteca hits is insane. The ending was pretty stupid, with Azteca getting almost a visual pinfall on Muertes, then goes up to hit something else, waits there forever for the Matanza run-in (couldn't they have edited that closer together), and then other people just kill time being inactive while Matanza does his thing. His ragdoll slamming of Azteca was cool, but didn't love how it played into the match, with Mack then kind of just vulturing the win.

MD: As much as I liked Marty interacting with everyone, there was a heck of a lot of him putting his head down for a while so Azteca could leap over him or just hanging out so that he could eat that big spear shot off the apron. Him staring down Mil like a madman was the best part of this. Mil looked a step above everyone else. The guy just exudes star power in this gimmick. He moves just a little slower than everyone but everything feels so deliberate and impactful. Again, I did like how Azteca hit his crazy spinning DDT the first time and then got destroyed on the second. The show uses blood relatively sparingly so seeing Dario come out with the gimmick was a striking moment. I can't wait for Rey vs Matanza. I can wait to see Mack and Cage up against each other again considering they just did that towards the end of last season.


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Lucha Underground Season 3 Episode 3: Ultimate Opportunities

MD: I liked the opening scene with Azteca, Rey, and Chavo. Both the Casita and the rolling half crab were shot well for something like this. I get why Rey wouldn't want Azteca to go after Pentagon. I don't what bigger challenge Rey thinks they have though.

1. Matanza vs. The Mack

ER: Fun big man match up, and LU does big man go go go matches better than anyone. There's a match floating around of these two a year ago, and they go a little too long and both guys kinda run out of gas. This is a nice edited down version of that, so we get a couple big bruisers going at it with the help of an edit bay, and it's better for it. At one point Mack chops Matanza across the face and Matanza responds with a headbutt to his chest. I dug the hints on commentary that Matanza's mask might be loaded. "What's that thing made of?" Loaded mask is one of my favorite gimmick items. I liked Mack going for a second silly stunner, getting caught by Matanza and then we get that slowwwww deadlift German which I will never not love. Frog splash hitting knees > Tour of the Islands (Tour of the Temple?) is a satisfying ending. The season has begun with Matanza far more vulnerable, which completely tosses out all of last season, but makes for a more workable character.

MD: Bombs upon bombs upon bombs. If WWE bought up Lucha Underground, they could run a Super-heavyweight Bruiserweight classic and the matches could probably be worked almost exactly the same as the CWC was. I'm not sure if that's a good thing in general, but it makes for an entertaining trainwreck, and in this case, an entertaining sprint. They did the usual good job in protecting Matanza while not having it be a squash by having Mack ambush him (he's more vulnerable but they always give a reason). The best part of this though was when Matanza hit that dangling pumphandle exploder suplex thing and Dario shouted "Break his neck. Next time, vertical. For the neck." If we're grading outside managers on syntax, Dario wins. I do really like how Wrath of the Gods can come out of nowhere and just end a match.

ER: Whoaaaaaaaaa. There is a LOT to unpack in these two last segments. And both of these are among the most entertaining LU non-wrestling segments of all time. The Bagel Bites ad. What can be said about this? Havoc and Sagrada hanging out together in Havoc's basement....."apartment".....Havoc clearly hanging out in jammy pants, and then Havoc's mom interrupts the hang sesh with their favorite snack, Bagel Bites! And then we end on Sagrada saying "Thank you, Mrs. Havoc!" With the delivered-with-a-straight-face "Mrs. was my mother's name. Call me Linda." And then we get a nice little Taya/Mundo/Dario segment with Taya showing her loyalty AND getting to correct Dario that PJ Black is actually, in fact, a DAREwolf. Duh. Great couple minutes of non wrestling right there.

MD: As endearing as Son of Havoc and Sagrada and Bagel Bites may be, I think that they did a very solid job building Son of Havoc up between the finale and the premiere and this is two steps backwards. In other vignette news, Taya was great interacting with Dario, pointing out the coke, sure, but with the great "Actually, he's a darewolf" line too.

2. Texano vs. Cage

MD: Texano feels like such a non-factor in the promotion now. Santos sure seems excited about announcing Cage for some reason. This, to me, felt like weightless go-go-go action. Cage focused on the neck to some degree but it wasn't even worth the announcers pointing out because the match didn't call for Texano to sell it. Dario came out after the match to announce this as a best of five series to kill time. Texano, having lost, was happier about that than either Cage or I am.

ER: Since Phil isn't watching anymore, this feels like a good time to bring up his regular complaint of "this fed really loves to book similar matches on the same show. We already opened with a power guys sprint so it's weird to have one right after". Match wasn't very good, either. Texano really is a total zero in LU. I'm sure there are many viewers who have no clue he's any kind of deal in Mexico. I like Matt's use of the word "weightless", because as I was watching this I was thinking about how nothing they did had any weight to it. It was like that Eric Bana Hulk movie, with Hulk just jumping and bouncing around off things. The weight was wrong. Obviously they were in there doing the moves, but they were both selling things like Petey Williams. But lucky us, we'll get to see 4 more chances to get it right!!!

MD: I have absolutely no idea who Ricky Mandel is or why he wants Dario's cool pictures.

ER: Mandel is returning from having his heart ripped out as the least member of the worst stable in LU, the Disciples of Death. Dude's got nothing to lose, may as well just sip a soda and flip through some cool Dario pictures.

3. Aerostar, Drago & Fenix vs. Jack Evans, PJ Black & Taya

MD: I thought they did a pretty good job mixing a Lucha Underground style spotfest trios match with all of the Jack Evans character stuff. I thought PJ Black made for a solid base for Aerostar in particular. I loved the spot where Aerostar evaded a Black corner charge by bounding up onto the ropes and then shifted around and hit a diving armdrag. They also had the great spot to end the match where Black tried to springboard in and Aerostar springboarded from the other corner and caught him with a rana, that was absolutely made by Black's stupid Darewolf scream.

I could probably make ten gifs of petulant Jack Evans but I won't do that to Eric; people should at least check out the goofy entrance though. I love the interactions between the three of them. His reactions to everything were great. It made a nice through story in the match to switch things up (which was good since we've had a lot of bombs and spots on the show already). I thought the payoff was a little frustrating as he just shrugged it off to be where he needed to be to catch dives at the end. I did like how the post match beatdown and save tied everything together. Logical booking is the best.

ER: I thought this was pretty nothing. A lot of guys seemed to be arriving too early at their marks, and there were some weird moments where guys seemed like they were holding way back against Taya. Jack Evans looks like crossfit Necro Butcher so I am in love. His schtick was plenty amusing here and I thought it played great with the team. Drago seemed a step behind, but Aerostar made up for that with a few fun Aerostar-doing-Aerostar moments that Matt covered nicely. This whole thing just felt way too scant, especially for the two major trios teams in the fed. Seems like all the trios teams are way underperforming, especially when compared to the first season. They all have moments you can point to, but none of them have been clicking.

And I wouldn't have minded Jack Evans reactions gifs. Not one bit. Matt's trying to blame me for not wanting them. Don't make me the bad guy, Matt.

MD: The Rey as special ref who wants to be loyal to his apprentice but doesn't want him to win and face Pentagon deal is actually pretty clever. It's the sort of shades of grey booking you don't get in wrestling nearly as much as you should.

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Lucha Underground Season 2 Episode 24: Ultima Lucha Dos - Part I

ER: Matt is going to join me on all of Ultima Lucha, and then before long we'll actually get started on Season 3!

MD: I had seen these back when they aired, but rewatched them now. I had been MOSTLY unspoiled. I knew something big was going to happen with Sexy Star because everyone was mad about it but in general, that was it.

1. Falls Count Anywhere: The Mack vs. Cage

ER: I thought it was going to be a 4 way match, but it looks like it's a 4 man tournament for the unique opportunity? That's probably way better. I'd rather see 3 singles matches than one 4 way. Mack and Cage especially always work nutso against each other. And lo and behold these two go nuts on each other here. Match morphs from a wild IWA-MS brawl into a WWF 1999 hardcore division match and back again, with the crazy ramped up early as - with Cage slumped on the bottom rope - Mack hits a crossbody through him to the floor, sending Cage onto his head from ring to floor. Crazy looking spot. They bash each other with various stashed weapons, though I'm disappointed in Cage's lack of performance vision, as Mack blasts him with a guitar and Cage's head gets stuck inside, but Cage quickly tosses it off. Man, a weapon getting stuck on your dome is a GIFT. Terry Funk would have staggered all the way around the ring with his head inside that guitar. Both guys take wild suplex bumps on the floor, Mack gets put through a table, and the finish plays off their crazy Ultima Lucha match from last year. Didn't really need the Stunner spots as that feels more like Al Snow working a match after a minor league baseball game than two guys having a violent brawl in the Temple, but overall this was real good.

MD: I'd say this was about 2/3rds of real good. This felt like some sort of alternate reality where roided up guys stayed the norm in wrestling as opposed to the general sense of scrawn we have in the WWE these days, but that they were still big tape traders and worked a super indy style. It's big video game wrestling, like when you had the option to give the Big Show Rey Mysterio's moveset. In general, it's absurd. In this vacuum, though, it sort of worked. I thought it did fall apart a bit in the back third when Mack would do things like a shooting star press after being power bombed through chairs. I thought they'd be playing up the fact Cage was going for the kill and Mack was there to have fun. The finish worked despite that, because the zeitgeist with this match was fun. Mack won BECAUSE it had that major league baseball post-game match feel. One advantage Lucha Underground has is writers, real writers, ones who are able to play with continuity, both within the match (as in the case of the beer slip) and in general (with the cinder block that Cage was going to use before said slip). This was one way to get the crowd going at least.

2. Boyle Heights Bar Fight: Texano Jr. vs. Son of Havoc

ER: This wasn't as good as that. Things would have felt more violent without all the styrofoam tables and sugar glass, but even the stuff that was actually violent like Texano blasting Havoc in the balls with a chair didn't come off very violent because Havoc was up a moment later doing moves on the apron. The fake weapons and props came off hokey, and the normal wrestling in between stunt falls was weak. Havoc breaking out a barely-connecting springboard back elbow in a "bar fight" would certainly be hysterical and incredible if you were a live onlooker to an actual bar fight, but here it just comes off lame. Texano takes a big bump off the apron through a bar set, which was probably really painful, but looked silly with bottles effortlessly breaking yet not cutting anybody. In the ring Havoc breaks a bunch of champagne bottles to dust just by stomping on them, and boy was this stupid.

MD: Best part about this was how excited Dario was about it. I thought he was going to revenge the Village People and not a barfight when the saw the two of them in the ring. Actually, Dario might have been the best part of the first match too, where he was able to step out of the office and just watch with glee. I like the idea of Son of Havoc so much more than what we actually get. There's diminishing returns at play here as we were already desensitized from the first match. I'm just glad Texano lost after being the one to go through the bar.

3. Falls Count Anywhere: The Mack vs. Son of Havoc

ER: Pretty disappointing match, and the FCA stip didn't seem necessary. In theory it makes sense that this match would be shorter and less exciting, considering each guy went through their own big match right before this. But that doesn't make it fun to watch. I liked Havoc hitting knees on a shooting star attempt, but it didn't matter as he eventually just won with the shooting star anyway. If I had a choice, I would rather be on the receiving end of a SSP from Son of Havoc, than do a backflip landing teeth first on someone's knees. But my choices are just those of one man.

MD: Again, Dario is the big winner here, declaring this a Falls Count Anywhere match too just because. Eric mentioned the shooting star press onto the knees and what really made that work was the camera angle. I'm not sure I've ever seen that spot look so good. To Havoc's credit, he'd sell the ribs afterwards and into the post match. I don't think I can really give you a dramatic reason for why Havoc won though. He just sort of did.

ER: After saying he would have turned down 250K rather than relinquish his LU title shot, I was pretty happy to hear that Son of Havoc was being screwed out of his title shot. After all, if he ever won the title could you really trust that kind of man with it? And oh SHIT it's Dr. Wagner Jr.!?!? Ohhhhhhh man that's awesome. That means LA PARK could be a future possibility right!?

4. Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Son of Havoc

ER: Dr. Wagner Jr. has always been one of my favorites. When I first started watching lucha he immediately stood out to me with how expressive he was through his mask. Maybe that's a bunch of hokum, I don't know. But it's always stood out to me. This match was short and obviously wasn't meant to be a "great match", just Dario screwing him over. But again, a pro wrestler turning down a suitcase full of money in favor of a title shot? Dario was probably right to teach him a lesson in Net Earnings.

MD: Of course, Havoc was going to turn down the money. He's the Tommy Dreamer/Mikey Whipwreck hybrid who's in it because he loves the Temple and all that. Dario was gold again in this. Like I said, I came in unspoiled and this was a huge surprise. Wagner just feels important. I appreciate them bringing him in far more than if they had brought in Ryback or someone with more US star power. Cage not selling a guitar on his head notwithstanding, there's a level of acting and commitment with the Lucha Underground "cast" that you don't always see, and it's appreciated. Famous B and Brenda couldn't have been more committed. As for the match itself, it made Wagner look great in a debut, gave Havoc a hope spot that he desperately needed, and fit what they were trying to do.

MD: At the end of the day, I think all of this really did elevate Havoc. He's in a much stronger position than at the start of the hour and they can get more mileage out of him in the next season because of it. Some of the in-ring execution could have been better, but it was an effective wrestling show and we don't always get that all that much in 2016.


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Lucha Underground Season 2 Episode 20: The Contenders

1. Marty The Moth Martinez vs. Killshot

ER: This was my kind of Killshot match! It was only a minute long and never made it into the ring! They brawl on the floor and Moth hits a brutal powerbomb, launching Killshot painfully into the guardrail (the one in front of the fans who are up a level), then takes a nasty bump into the announce table as they were getting counted out. The end of the segment, however, is truly embarrassing as Moth tries to steal Killshot's super duper special dog tags, and they fight over them with Killshot pulling Moth's hair as Moth screams. But Moth escapes with them, and then they do one of those silly overplayed WWE standoffs, where one guy is in the ring and the other is standing on the entrance ramp, and the camera darts back and forth at their faces as the glower and flare nostrils and breathe spittle out of their mouths. Except the Temple is really small, so they're standing like 6 feet apart from each other. In WWE you at least have a guy way up on the stage, but here the ring entrance is just right next to the ring. So Killshot is glowering at Moth like "you got away this time!" but Moth is basically standing a quick jump away from him. Killshot just could of hopped out and tried to wrest his precious dog tags away some more. So...so so stupid.

ER: At any given hour of the day you can find 60 years of televised cop shows on TV, and I challenge you to find any sort of procedural that is as terrible as these LU cop segments. I mean this is a genre with literally thousands of hours to lift from, there's just no excuse for it being this bad. Cisco tries, and the bead of sweat running down his temple was a nice visual, but Ryan and Castro are just brutally bad. I still have no idea what tone they're going for, as they haven't succeeded in any sort of tone I can think of. Lynchpin for the End of Days? Is this going to evolve into Dario doing some sort of Pacino in Devil's Advocate type of spiel? That could work, actually...

2. Nunchucks Match: Jack Evans & PJ Black vs. Aerostar & Drago

ER: This had the feel of a jumbled mess for awhile, a sloppy tag with a silly stip. Aerostar looked clumsy, Jack Evans had to wait around ages for Aerostar/Drago to hit some unnecessarily complicated offense, just felt like a bit of a mess. Evans being a loon saved things for awhile, and everybody wiping out while Evans/Black went for the nunchucks the first time snapped me awake. But a couple minutes later, when Drago got a set of nunchucks, suddenly things got completely awesome. The visual of Drago whipping the nunchucks around was great, then he whips Evans in the face and does a flip dive onto everybody, Aerostar hits a huge crossbody off the office (filmed from behind so it looked like he launched 20 feet out), the sound sweetening actually made sense for once on the nunchuck shots, and Drago's finish was killer: Misting Evans for what felt like forever (where was he keeping all of that!?) then hitting his slick armdrag/roll up pin off the top for the win. This whole thing really went out on a high note.

3. Prince Puma, Rey Mysterio, Son of Havoc, The Mack, Texano Jr., & Sexy Star vs. Fenix, Ivelisse, King Cuerno, Taya, Johnny Mundo & Pentagon Jr.

ER:  Everybody's reaction to Pentagon's return was kinda strange. As he destroyed Chavo the rest of the match participants just kinda stood around in the ring giving knowing smiles. Were they supposed to be more in awe of a supposed quadriplegic returning, walking again, and wrecking Chavo? They all acted like they had no clue who this dude was, but were just admiring this guy laying a beating on Chavo. That oddness aside, this was a real fun match. If you give it the proper amount of time it's really hard to mess up a big multiman match. Sexy Star stuff was kept to a minimum, and she even got to hit a nice flip dive during the trainwreck sequence. Fenix was probably my favorite in this, this fed has really been an awakening for him. Mundo and Texano take a couple big bumps to the floor (love Mundo bumping in sunglasses), Taya takes a big bump past the ringpost and down the steps, the dive train was really great, Mack had several nice moments (he's really great in these kinds of matches), and yeah, this probably could have had 10 more minutes added to it and really gone for broke. Super fun match.

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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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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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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 14: 2010 CMLL Universal Tournament Part 1

2010-07-30 @ Arena Mexico
CMLL Universal Tournament
La Sombra vs Mephisto

0:36 in

La Sombra vs Texano, Jr.

6:50 in

La Sombra vs Ultimo Guerrero

3:13 in

Tournament lucha! Let's pull off this bandaid together. As I intend to do a big list of all of these Sombra entries and provide it to curious NXT fans as an selected introduction to his career, I'll say something about tournament lucha now. It's bad. The worst. You can get fun little character moments and match ups that you wouldn't normally get, but the matches are usually short and slight and pointless. It's pretty brutal. Think Survivor Series eliminations.

The Universal title is CMLL's yearly showcase of just how many belts they have and don't use properly. The number is a lot and winning this thing, while a big deal, isn't nearly as big a deal as it should be. It's usually a stepping stone for something other match or a consolation prize, or something to give to a foreigner, or who knows what the CMLL bookers are thinking? The best part of the tournament is trying to see them scramble to get the right number of people with belts before it all begins. Here, Sombra was part of the CMLL Trios champions, with La Mascara and Mascara Dorada.

So, despite what I just said? Why do I think this is worth looking at? It shows three major things about Sombra at this stage in his career, as he took a path through Mephisto, Texano, Jr., and Ultimo Guerrero:

1.) He was over. Boy, was he over. The fans were chanting his name through the night. It's strange to see. This was only six years ago. It's like a completely different world. This was pre-Mistico leaving, pre-fake Mistico, when the traditional fans were still in Arena Mexico and  making constant, positive noise, for tecnicos. They would abadon the arena in the years following, which is one thing that led to the Rush/Mascara/Sombra heel turn as Los Ingobernables. Even very good high-flying tecnicos don't get ever now (see Mascara Dorada's recent return from Japan). He was super over here though.

2.) He was smooth, really smooth. There's none of that flubbing and reshifting from a few years earlier. He was flowing through complex offense and spots like it was nothing. I'm not sure I've personally seen much of this Sombra. He was only 21 or so here, but when it came to hitting stuff, he was very good. Springboard dragonrana good:

and dive dragonrana and crazy great tope good:

3.) He had made it. I plan on tackling the finals here next time, and he does come up short there, but he was booked strong through this night. In the semis, here, he beat Ultimo Guerrero, and that was no small thing at any point between 2003 and today, really. Not only that, but he beat him by going through Guerrero's typical third fall sequence. If you're not familiar with big Ultimo Guerrero matches, the finishing stretch goes like this: Opponent tosses Ultimo Guerrero into the corner. Guerrero spins and climbs to the top rope, seated. He beckons his opponent in. Opponent charges in, jumps up for a top rope armdrag (or something). Guerrero hits him with a top rope suplex. Two count. Opponent does one of his signature moves. Two count. Opponent puts Guerrero on top rope for super 'rana. Guerrero blocks it and hits super bomb. Two. Opponent does a move, goes up for the top for a moonsault of some sort. Guerrero cuts it off, hits his Special reverse suplex off the top, and there it's either a pinfall, or a kickout at two followed by a flash roll up from the opponent for the win. There, you never need to see an Ultimo Guerrero tercera caida. Congrats. It's far worse than let's say Bret's five moves of doom, because Bret did a good job of varying the order from match to match, and far more importantly, they weren't nearly as collaborative. Guerrero forces his opponent to do a lot of stuff that he wouldn't normally do, or should at least know better about by now.

THAT SAID (and I know it was a lot, sorry), it was something that the crowd would be familiar with, a ritual of sorts, a rite of passage even, both to lose to it, but especially to go over Guerrero with it. (It should also be noted that Guerrero won with the Special in his first two matches that night, too, so it meant all the more for Sombra to kick out of it).

There's never much to write up in tournament matches. I think the most interesting thing in the whole night was the selling in the Guerrero match. There, they were selling like it WAS a tercera caida, because both wrestlers had gone through other matches in the night. Otherwise, these were slight, but highlighted Sombra's progress very well, both as a wrestler and as a star.

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MLJ: Pentagón Jr. & Texano Jr. vs Fénix & Toscano in a University Parking Lot

2014-5-9 @ UNAM Facultad de Contaduria y Administracion, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal Pentagón Jr. & Texano Jr. vs Fénix & Toscano

So here we have one of the most dreaded heels going, one of the best high flying tecnicos, a great journeyman rudo, and a slightly over the hill former heartthrob. Sounds fun, huh? Except for the dreaded heel doesn't act very evil and the flyer doesn't really fly. That sounds less fun right? Actually, no. This thing was a blast, and so much of that was the location and the fact that they were willing to be so playful and really bask in it.

Somewhere in the last month or two I pushed my way through Lucha Underground Season 1. Unsurprisingly, I fall pretty close to Eric and Phil's thoughts on things (probably slightly closer to Eric than Phil), so there's no reason to go into details. I thought the good stuff (Grave Consequences, Puma vs Muertes, Morrison as a heel, the use of the super-heavyweights) was good and the bad stuff (Sexy Star, Davari, how ill-protected Pentagon was) was bad. In general, what I liked the most was the episodic storytelling. I didn't mind some of the goofy, non-wrestling stuff so much as it all moved in a productive direction. It reminded me of NXT more than anything else, in pacing and build, both of which remind me of old studio wrestling to some degree.

Anyway, I haven't seen much of Pentagon, Jr. or Fenix outside of Lucha Underground, but I wanted to catch more of their work for DVDVR March Madness purposes, which is as good or as bad a reason to do anything. I have no idea what was going on here. This is at a Mexican university outside venue, just on the street between buildings. I have no context, but this is a casual crowd. Moreover, they have Dr. Alfonso Morales piping in comments to said crowd and trying to get them to chant or respond, most especially to get heat on the ref, which was funny.

It's all a lot of fun, like I said, and on some level, it's really impressive that these guys were able to work so engaging and accessible a match when it was so far out of their normal wheelhouse. It's probably something they've done before plenty of times but it was new to me to see them in this context.

There was some semblance of structure, sure, with clowning between Fenix and Pentagon at first, based around who was the better tecnico (which was as funny as it sounds), then, once it was obvious Fenix might actually win, a swarming, with plenty of extracurricular activity from rudo luchadora Ludark Shaitan. Then there was a comeback and plenty of rudo comeuppance (especially on Ludark, maybe a little too much so, maybe). They did a thousand comedy spots in the comeback, broad stuff that the crowd loved, but I wonder if a match like this should have ever really been taped. Should there be video evidence of Pentagon, Jr. getting shoved into a mooned Texano's ass? It was great for the live crowd, absolutely the right thing for the moment, but in the grand scheme of things? I'm not making a gif, regardless. Toscano looked good. I have no idea why he's not a CMLL lifer (I'm sure there's a good reason), but he'd bring a lot more to the table than someone like Olimpico in 2016. Fenix really didn't do a ton, but he's naturally charismatic enough that it didn't matter.

I probably like shtick more than you do, but it's probably worth watching anyway, just to see Pentagon and Fenix out of their comfort zone.

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Lucha Underground Episode 34: Gold and Guerreros Review

1. Delavar Daivari vs. Texano

ER: These two always manage to do some of the absolute worst phone booth fighting that I've seen. Daivari especially just throws the most mournful strikes. Things get a little better with the knee work portions, as I liked Daivari's repeated dropkicks with Texano tied up in the ropes. But it's all a fairly big waste of time as Texano just brushes it off to do a bunch of moves that involve lifting with the legs. Daivari is dead in the water as a character and even worse as a worker, and Texano going over even with Ryck's interference should hopefully spell the end of him in LU.

PAS: I liked some of the chops and Texano's powerbomb but otherwise this was a big batch of nothing. This feud started out with some real promise and ended like a wet fart.

2. Hernandez vs. Drago

ER: Weird running this the week immediately following Drago's brutal beatdown from Muertes. I mean he really got the piss kicked out of him, and then he's just back to normal and getting revenge on Hernandez the next week? They tape this shit months in advance, just bump the match back a week. He certainly didn't work the match any differently than he would normally work. I'm not expecting him to do Kikuchi levels of selling long term damage, but Hernandez jumped him last week, causing him to take a nasty beating from Muertes, and here he is like nothing happened. Pretty poor. He looked really good, his tornillo was incredible, but within context this was all just dumb. Hernandez really does not hold back on him here though, with the apron powerbomb really smarting and then then cool spot with him stealing a belt from a ringside fan and whipping/choking Drago to DQ. I really dug the match in a vacuum, but within story it was foolish.

PAS: I don't have a huge problem with Drago not selling for a week like Eric, it's wrestling, you usually don't see long term weekly selling. Match itself is clearly just setting up the fans strap match, and I think they did a nice job making me want to see that. Hernandez does a nice job as a smarmy prick, and I want to see a bunch of fans strap the shit out of him

3. Marty The Moth Martinez vs. Alberto El Patron

ER: This was exactly what it should have been. Moth has got kind of a surprising amount of offense in his other matches, but really AeP needed to steamroll him here and I'm glad they let it happen. And then he follows it up with arguably his best ever promo (his promo work in LU has really been high end). I mean this was really one of the best wrestling promos you will hear. It was simple, well worded, got over his motivations perfectly, had nice little touches ("Juanito Mundo"), really just all you would want out of a pro wrestling promo. Awesome stuff.

PAS: Yeah this was an asswhooping. I am surprised they used Martinez who they seem to be pushing as the squashee rather then Vinny Massaro or Famous B, but it does make Alberto looking like a bad motherfucker that he cleaned a semi-pushed guy out that quick.

4. No DQ: Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Prince Puma

ER: Well this wasn't much. Chavo looked like he hyperextended his knee pretty early in the match, then we had The Crew and Texano coming in to essentially work their own match for the next couple minutes, leading to the 630. Seemed like this could have been edited down, not sure. If the knee injury was not planned it certainly looked legit.

PAS: It was a bummer Chavo got hurt as this was building to kind of cool match, and Chavo hurting himself kind of blew any future angle with Texano. Mess of a match, and kind of weak sauce show.

ER: The closing segment with Chavo and Blue Demon was bittersweet, as I actually really really loved it. Demon actually came off like a badass, had some nice lines ("I don't attack people who are hurt...I'm not like you"), Chavo got to laugh him off and call him a has been, Demon lifted him up in the air with a choke like he was fucking Darth Vader. Loved all of this. Buuuuuuuuuuut it means that there is still a Chavo vs. Demon feud. It means Demon is still here. It means we have to see more Demon in the ring, still vs. Chavo. This promotion does a good job of getting me psyched to see things that are certainly going to be horrible.

PAS: I dug it too, it isn't setting up a Chavo v. Demon feud, it is clearly setting up Demon v. Texano as Chavo was using mind games with Demon to get him riled up, which is why Chavo was smiling. I liked Demon saying "I am a good man" like every shades of grey protagonist in a cable drama. Low Winter Sun would have been a lot more watchable if all the cops were wearing lucha masks.



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MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 21: Héctor Garza, Terrible, Texano Jr. vs La Máscara, Máximo, Volador Jr.

Taped 2010-06-04 @ Arena México
Héctor Garza, Terrible, Texano Jr. vs La Máscara, Máximo, Volador Jr.

5:16 in

http://youtu.be/9WmEfVHzI8c

http://youtu.be/LFvfbwcU61w

http://youtu.be/yksgFHVHT0c

Oh CMLL, you crazy, hapless diamond. So, this is the last show before Sin Salida (this was a Friday. That was a Sunday), which, as we remember, was the show CMLL was putting up against a pretty stacked Triplemania (LA Park vs La Parka over the name La Parka). The theme of the show was CMLL vs Invasores. Past Garza and the visiting Giant Bernard who was not actually affiliated with the group, I don't think there was one Invasor on this Friday card (it did have the Virus vs Valiente lightning match though). Nor did it have CMLL ally Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. Or... look, I'm boggled. There's just no build at all. It's maddening. A lot of the build in this specific match was because Latin Lover was at ringside, and that seemed thematically on point. Maybe he'd join Los Invasores. Maybe he'd be loyal to CMLL. Hector Garza, leader of the invaders, was right there after all. They had a history, and lo and behold, at the end of the match, they hugged and then Garza clocked him. Aha! He'd be a force at Sin Salida after all, right? No, not right. He didn't show up again until November! There HAS to be some crazy internal power struggle between the people who book the outer shows and the ones who book the Arena Mexico shows but I've got no idea. It all just hurts my head.

There was a match, though, and I really love the Texano, Terrible, Garza trios. They were made for each other and balanced one another very well. Moreover, by this point, they'd worked together a couple of times and were more in sync. This was your stereotypical modern CMLL trios. They teased a few feeling out exchanges. At a key moment, the rudos swarmed. There was an extended beatdown that carried into the segunda and lasted until a bit of miscommunication let the tecnicos take a quick fall. Then they reset in the tercera for some exchanges, tecnico shine, dive cut offs and pay offs, and the finish. I've seen this match dozens and dozens of times and I bet most people reading this have seen it more, and I don't care. It works. When done well, it's great. It's the bread and butter of modern CMLL and there's a reason why they go back to it. It's sort of the "southern tag" of CMLL and so long as the characters are good and the work is spirited, I could watch these all day. Maybe I'll feel differently after a few more years. I know so many of you have been drowning in this stuff week in and week out for a decade now, but I'm not there yet. It's not fresh to me anymore, but it's still a lot of fun, and in that regard, this match delivered.

Things of note: Kemonito came out on his own (or maybe right before Maximo) and had a little stuffed Kemonito with him. He got beaten up a little after the primera but we mostly missed it. They showed Latin Lover a lot. One of the best spots was during a comeback where it looked like Mascara was going to take out Garza either with a dive, but instead slid out, faked a punch, and shook Lover's hand.

 I really miss the tecnico fans. Look at these guys in their pink shirts cheer for Volador. CMLL seems to have driven them away for the most part now and it's a shame.

As noted, TGT's tandem offense was great. They crotched Maximo and then dropkicked him out. They did this really neat toss out of the corner into the Garza kick.

That took out Mascara. Then they brutalized Volador with a catapult, kick to put him over Terrible's knees, moonsault from the ropes back in. It was hugely ouchworthy and the two tandem moves ended the fall.

The comeback was fun but not super memorable. There was miscommunication. Mascara hit a clumsy roll up. Again, I'm not necessarily in this for smoothness and beauty, so it's ok. The reset was fine with some fun stuff. I loved this Volador spot where he hit a rana and landed on his feet, driving Garza out, who then shadowpunched hilariously.

I don't love Volador or Mascara but at least with the former, I'm perfectly fine watching him get beaten up and then hitting some flashy things on the way out. On the other hand I alawys love Maximo/Terrible interaction, especially when they do spots like having Maximo leap off the apron, Terrible catch him and then crush his spine on the pole:

That was followed by Volador getting tossed and eating the best kick I've seen this week.

This all ended with Mascara getting a kick in on Commandante, to keep some heat, and then walking into a flip up double powerbomb and a splash to end the match (I'm not quite sure how since he wasn't the captain but whatever).

Post match they do the super-heated Latin Lover thing that didn't go anywhere and certainly didn't build to the big show on Sunday.

CMLL: booked by stuffed Kemonitos? 

You tell me.

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MLJ: A Garza Odyssey 19: Gigante Bernard, Shocker, Strong Man vs Héctor Garza, Terrible, Texano, Jr.

2010-05-28 @ Arena México
Gigante Bernard, Shocker, Strong Man vs Héctor Garza, Terrible, Texano, Jr.

1:30 in

http://youtu.be/gdI8S2N2HPw

http://youtu.be/ozq_PIup4QM

The Garza train rolls on. Yes, this had more Strongman, but it also had Garza teaming with Terrible and Texano, Jr, which is just a killer rudo trio. Texano and Terrible really had a great act and I'm glad that I have a bit more time with the three of them now. I'm still not entirely sure where I'm going next or even how long I'll stay in 2010. I thought about ending at Sin Salida since I'm just about there but I might make it all the way to the Anniversary show, because that'd let me see some of La Peste Negro vs Los Invasores and Olimpico (who I am still high on from the 06 GdI stuff I saw) lose his mask. Moving on, I'm going to be headed to either the Casas vs Mistico feud or more likely the Terrible vs Rush feud. We'll see though.

This was sort of a double spectacle since it had a visiting Giant Bernard who had been pushed with bottom of the screen graphics earlier on. I know they had sent Sombra to New Japan around this time and obviously Tanahashi had just been in to win (and then lose) the trios titles. Bernard was going to be a rudo for the rest of the tour but for some reason he was on the tecnico side here. I get the impression that they pretty much ignored the Invasores stuff on the Friday night show too. CMLL politics and booking are, once again, beyond me.

This was Texano, Terrible, and Garza getting to play full on cowardly and dastardly rudos against the sheer force that was Strongman and Bernard. Shocker was there and maybe he had a terrible 2012 and 2013 but I really haven't seen lazy Shocker yet. I've seen overly pandering Shocker, sure, but he's been energetic and dynamic throughout. For what it's worth Garza's still shrugging about his turn and slapping fans' hands. He can't help himself. He's just bad by nature.

Ideally they would have run this with Shocker playing FIP and maybe even Strongman showing some signs of vulnerability in order to get Bernard over big. That's not really what happened. There weren't a ton of moments in the two caidas this went where the tecnicos were in trouble. Early on Shocker got to shine only to fall prey to Garza being nefarious, but it didn't last.

As I said, part of the story of the match was this: Texano and Terrible (and Garza) were used to Strongman; they knew how to deal with him. They were able to triple team and temporarily get the better of him, but Bernard was an unknown quantity. I don't think Strongman really played into that well, but Bernard did. Little things like a double noggin knocker that you don't see a lot in trios matches made him feel like a force in total control despite the fact he was double or triple teamed. He even got to walk over and kiss Commandante knocking her off the apron. The primera ended with both he and Strongman hitting Vader bombs in opposite corners. Then, as Garza went to break up the pins, Shocker hit the ropes, causing Garza to drop down in a pretty hilarious fit of begging.

There was about a minute of heat in the segunda. Commandate distracted the larger tecnicos on the outside, allowing for Garza to kick Shocker in the skull and for the rudos to swarm him. They did the double hiptoss in the double bomb. But Bernard found his way back and the expression Garza had when he realized it was golden.

It all came to a head shortly thereafter, with Shocker hitting a dive, Strongman locking in his torture rack, and Garza, when he tried to break it all up again, jumping right into Bernard's double choke bomb.

Certainly a good showcase for Bernard, but really that had more to do with the rudos being very good at what they did than the tecnicos getting out of the way to let him shine.

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MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 11: Terrible, Texano Jr., Vangelis vs Héctor Garza, Hijo del Fantasma, La Máscara

Taped 2010-04-09 @ Arena México
Terrible, Texano Jr., Vangelis vs Héctor Garza, Hijo del Fantasma, La Máscara

7:40 in

http://youtu.be/SlvT5hAc9ig

http://youtu.be/XYFtQYP2aqI?t=00h02m13s

http://youtu.be/aXSN10i79Fk

Alright, now we're in business. The Garza/Porky interaction from before was actually broader foreshadowing. Our friend Hector is in the midst of his rudo turn. You wouldn't have known it from what I've seen so far in 2010 but Garza, Fantasma, and Mascara were trios champions and had been off and on for a couple of years. There is dissension in the ranks here though and it's a lovely thing.

I hadn't seen a lot of Vangelis either. He's got a nazi gimmick which is always charming in this day and age. Apparently he won the Busca de un Idolo last year, which is on the one hand baffling and on the other pure CMLL. That said, he did fit in pretty well with Texano and Terrible who were great foils for bickering tecnicos since they had the ability to get straight to the point with an opportunistic and immediate beatdown when necessary. I've liked what I've seen out of them a lot so far and if we weren't right on the verge of the Garza turn I might veer off to see more.

The primera was made up of a few solid exchanges with the dissention storyline leading into the start of the beatdown. Fantasma was good at what he did; here it was some nice, physical matwork with Texano. Vangelis and Mascara held up their own too, though parts of it seemed a little too collaborative and rushed (to get to the next spot) which was definitely a problem of Mascara's from this period. Garza came in and immediately looked like a star. He was shoved out by Terrible, hugged a granny in the front row before coming back in and took right over. Then he did the handstop/strip to Texano and Vangelis before ultimately being pushed into Commandate on the apron who he kissed. It was Garza vs the World and he was doing fine. Fantasma didn't think so, however, and he rushed in to even odds with a superkick. This pissed Garza off and he shoved his partner which let the rudos take over. They hit a big flipping facebuster and then a nasty dropkick out of a wheelbarrow position to crush the tecnicos, finally finishing off Mascara with an assisted inverted surfboard. All good stuff.

This ended up only going two caidas, since the period where the tecnicos would have taken a fall was used up by infighting to get the story across. The beatdown was quite short but it involved a lot of biting and swarming that had enough intensity behind it to get across the idea well enough. Texano and Terrible could make a decent amount out of a little. Finally, though Garza backflipped off the ropes and the tecnicos started to fight back. This was punctuated by Fantasma using the ramp to leap into the ring with a shoulder block. After that came the complaining with Mascara as peace maker. Trios matches are pretty predictable in that when a fall doesn't come at a certain point, the opportunity is missed. It's not hard to tell when something's going to go only two falls because of the timing. This was not ending well for the tecnicos.

And, of course, it didn't. They veered into a reset with broader exchanges. Most of them were pretty good but Mascara's quebadora sure needed work. Again, I thought Fantasma looked good. I'm not sure how he is in 2014 but unless he's deteriorated considerably then CMLL would have been better off to find a way to keep both him and Texano. Ah well. They go through the pairings until Garza accidentally kicked Mascara (from what I can tell this was a callback to a trios match we don't have where he thought he was attacked by one of his partners). Fantasma helped Mascara recover and they hit double dropkicks and then topes leaving Garza with Vangelis. Garza got the better of it, hit his moonsault press for two, and then locked in a grab but Fantasma and Mascara came in to complain and duly got rolled up from behind as Garza shrugged and did his pray taunt in the corner. Post match, they argued, Garza left, and then remaining tecnicos got ambushed by the rudos. More of an angle than a complete match but it was enough of a match to make for an enjoyable angle, if that makes sense. I am ready for this turn.

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MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 10: Héctor Garza, Hijo del Fantasma, La Máscara vs Taichi, Terrible, Texano Jr.

Taped 2010-04-02 @ Arena México

Héctor Garza, Hijo del Fantasma, La Máscara vs Taichi, Terrible, Texano Jr.

2 mins in

http://youtu.be/OV7yWOIidDA?t=00h04m12s

http://youtu.be/JD7L8Z7_Lzg

Ok, I'll admit it. There are probably better ways to watch lucha. Maybe I should just be watching a number of apuestas matches and the few weeks leading up to them. Or I should find the most critically acclaimed stuff, or something extremely topical. Or every Negro Navarro match ever. What can't be understated, however, is just how little I knew coming into this project when I started back in April. A number of people have been a big help in suggesting matches or clarifying things to me, but I'm still feeling things out. Going through a year, week by week, helps me see a lot of different things. I'm bound somewhat by the footage available online and then somewhat by having an entry point, or a control. Here it's Garza. I could have used Ultimo Guerrero or Mistico or Casas just as easily. I wanted someone I was a little bit familiar with, but hadn't seen that much of, and I knew his rudo run from later in the year seemed interesting. Mainly, I wanted to see what CMLL looked like in 2010 and to be exposed to a lot of luchadors I hadn't seen much of or any at all. That said, I'm probably going to try to stack the deck by phasing out Cavernario on Monday and phasing in either Hechicero or Virus. We'll see.

For now, this is a great way for me to see more Terrible and Texano, who had a hugely entertaining act. It lets me see some Hijo Del Fantasma too, who seemed more than competent. I love the gimmick. It feels very detached from its comic strip roots. Instead, he seems to be over for being his father's son and that legacy means more than the particular gimmick. That, kind of ironically, actually sort of plays into the Phantom's own generational mythos.  I have no idea if that resonates with fans or not.

One major change between then and now are the fans. This is a few years after the hottest period as best as I can tell but there seemed to be a much larger tecnico following. In this match Mascara and Fantasma both received chants (though, like in most i've seen in 2010, Garza was the captain). With the blurred lines today there's hardly any real tecnico to even get behind. It feels like a lot of the loudest fans have left accordingly.

This was an A-B-A structure, with a very long first A. In a southern style tag, that's generally a week point. More often than not, you'd want the heat to start as early into the match as possible so that the emotional resonance has a lot of time to build. With recent lucha matches, everything tends to be so stilted that having a nice long back and forth showcase for the tecnicos before things break down can be really enjoyable and add to a match.

A lot of the exchanges were very good too. I liked Fantasma and Terrible a lot, though maybe given his gimmick (which he worked quite well generally), Terrible shouldn't be doing a flip up to end it. Texano led Mascara through the paces fairly well. They kept relatively close contact but there were moments where I swear Mascara moved himself off of a pin in order to hit the next spot which is the sign of not being all that good at your job or at least not leading with the meaning behind what you do. Taichi was generally a good foil for Garza, and for Kemonito too as the two of them had a small face off. Garza got all of his clothes off without getting attacked here, which was a minor miracle and the sort of thing he could probably only get away with against a goof like Taichi. The primera ended with Garza dodging a kick (which went sailing to the apron and nailed Comandate in the face) and hitting a big dive which cleared the ring for Fantasma and Mascara to take the caida (with a German suplex from Fantasma and a submission that I should know the name of from Mascara - Oh hey, it's his Campana, which is apparently his finish, which I've never seen him use. Ok then; this is how I learn).

The segunda started with more exchanges and shine and ended with the beatdown. Mascara looked particularly bad here against Texano and Terrible. They fed into his offense and bumped around for him, but at times he didn't seem to be where he had to be which made it all look disjointed. The transition was fun as the rudos decided they weren't getting anywhere and had a huddle. immediately afterwards, they illegally nailed Garza during some rope running and swarmed. Rudo huddles are great and underutilized. The caida ended with a double heave how powerbomb of sorts followed by Taichi hitting a running kick.

The tercera was short and sweet. Between falls they did the double lift up/drop on Kemonito too (the fiends). After a triple corner attack on Fantasma, they tried the same to Garza, but he backflipped over and then ducked an unintentionally clumsy grab from Taichi who got double dropkicked by his partners. This led to Mascara barely getting Garza up for an alley oop top rope rana and a finishing frog splash from Fantasma and the win. There was a lot of fun stuff here, especially in the first caida and a half but Mascara and Taichi did drag things down a bit.

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MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 8: Taichi, Terrible, Texano Jr. vs Blue Panther, Brazo de Plata, Héctor Garza

2010-03-26 @ Arena México
Taichi, Terrible, Texano Jr. vs Blue Panther, Brazo de Plata, Héctor Garza

4:09 in

http://youtu.be/JFKLRFZKNRk

http://youtu.be/NTJVeefCBeA

http://youtu.be/KrQCJ5FnCBE

I'm definitely bumping into Porky a lot in these 2010 Garza matches. To be fair, he's sort of hard to avoid. Because he's fat. See? Sorry. You can hit your limit of Porky matches pretty easily, but it is fun to see him against different opponents to see how they utilize him. He's a prop, really, albeit a charismatic one. He was used pretty well here, to be honest. We'll get to that.

So this is actually my first Texano, Jr. match ever. He's obviously on top in AAA so I probably should have seen some more of him by now. I haven't. Maddeningly, this is a panned out shot for most of the match and the only way I can easily tell him apart from Terrible is that he has tassels on his boots. They were both in Averno's stable here. Taichi still has the awesomely goofy jester mask that he comes out with. It's a shame he couldn't wrestle with it on. He's about good for a dropkick and not much else, unfortunately.

There was actually a lot to like here. I just with there was a little more of it, which is a feeling I've had from a lot of these 2010 matches recently. For instance, the primera didn't give us all three match ups again. I'm okay with a beatdown from the start and I'm okay with a cheap cut off after the match-ups, but I do sort of feel cheated if they only give us one and a half before starting the beatdown. On the other hand, it's probably better, in context, if they change things up as much as they can. I still feel a little cheated. here, I liked Terrible and Panther's matwork starting out. I keep thinking that I might go back to Panther again sometime soon, but I doubt with Terrible. If I'm still doing this in six months, I'll definitely look at the Rush/Terrible series, though. I came up with a match list and everything. Also to be fair, they teased the beatdown before it happened. Panther got nailed from behind and rolled out but Garza got to fight back for a moment before the Commandante(?) grabbed his leg from the outside; when he was looking at her, he got taken out. Little twists make the world go round.

The beatdown was fine but not super memorable. Texano's fireman's carry into a backbreaker was really nice and I like it a lot more than similarly contrived things like Valiente's facebreaker finish. I actually thought Texano and Terrible worked really well as a unit and I'd be open to seeing more there, certainly. I could have used a couple more minutes of beatdown. Porky only got in there very briefly, for instance. It ended, nicely enough, with Panther hitting a sunset flip and rolling through to toss his opponent into a Garza shot from the outside. I hadn't seen that before and it's a spot that should be used more. Unsurprisingly Porky falls on everyone (after kissing the valet after a Garza tease of it) and the tecnicos take the segunda.

The tercera was your standard reset so everyone could hit some stuff, but the stuff was good. Terrible made a great foil for Porky, flying around the ring for him and it was pretty funny. Garza has to be the best wrestler in history at doing stupid things like taking bits of clothes off and playing to the crowd that get him clobbered. He manages it, on average, three times per match. It's impressive. Charismatic though. This all went rather briskly with guys going in and out of the ring, including a Panther vs the world segment, and Taichi hilariously running into Porky. In the end Porky sits on Terrible for 3, but he still manages to interfere from the outside in to reverse a sunset flip and let the rudos win. Fun for what it was, but it needed to be a bit more.

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Cassandro Could Show You Everywhere You're Wrong/But He's Never Talking to You Again

Cassandro/Hijo de Pirata Morgan vs. Villano IV/Ray Mendoza Jr. - GREAT

ER: CASSANDRO! is back wrestling after a long layoff, and finally a couple matches of his have started popping back up.

This all starts as Texano Jr./Super Nova  vs. Mendoza/V4, in some sort of show-long mask/hair tag tournament on Mendoza Jr.'s retirement show. Losers advance to the next round and here we are, with both Villanos (Mendoza is the former Villano V but I assume most people reading a specialty column on an obscure lucha star would know that already) beating the hell out of Nova/Texano (posting Nova and hurling chairs, Mendoza dishing some sick punches, and doing more of their classic legdrop/elbow drop double teams). Things really ramp up when V5 accidentally clotheslines V4 over the top (with both spilling out in spectacular ways) before eating great dives from Nova/Texano. V5 goes spilling into chairs and V4 splats on the floor. Back in the ring and V5 is soaking it all in, working over Nova's cut and torn mask with punches, then biting the cut!!! And then spitting out blood!!! But then they lose moments later and....

Cassandro and his partner hit the ring with his partner. This is the finals. Either Pirata loses his mask and Cassandro loses his hair, or Villano IV loses his mask and Mendoza loses his hair. V5 gets worked over pretty nicely by Pirata, bumping around the floor for him and letting Pirata blast him with a chairshot. I woulda liked to see what Cassandro and V4 were doing on the other side, but what we got wasn't bad. Cassandro is limping pretty bad (possibly from an earlier match?) but otherwise looks to be in incredible shape. He starts breaking out awesome JYD falling headbutts that I have NEVER seen him use before, and wouldn't you know that he does them better than anybody I've ever seen attempt them, really whipping his head into V5. His stomps are epic too, but he's always had incredible stomps, where he coils up and really gets full extension on his leg, right to the back of chumps' heads. When the tables turn Cassandro shows that he eats offense better than just about anybody, bumping viciously for a V5 clothesline (really whipped his head back into the mat) and then leaning in chin-first for V4's jabs. V4 hits him in the back of the head with a chair and good lord Cassandro is as insane as ever. He decides he hates his brain and whips his head into the mat again off a brutal V4 powerbomb, and then eats a brick wall clothesline from V5.

It should be noted that Los Villanos are just great here as well and it's incredibly fun seeing them stiff Pirata's son, but Cassandro keeps stealing the show from them (which is what we all expected going in). Cassandro can make a sunset flip look painful. I was hoping we'd get a Cassandro dive and we were not let down with Cassandro plowing through both Villano IV and the first couple rows of chairs.  Cassandro eliminates V4 with a beautiful rana, V5 eliminates Cassandro with a slick sunset flip, and I suddenly don't like Cassandro's hair's odds. Pirata does a couple aesthetically awful moonsaults on V5, but they work since even though sloppy they look painful as all hell, landing knees first on V5.

Cassandro even knows how to sell a haircutting properly, snatching the scissors away and forcefully snipping away while crying. Crowd totally gets behind him at this point and begins chanting his name. Awesome match that goes by in a flash, hopefully more and more Cassandro stuff keeps popping up. Hopefully we get some sort of revanche?

PAS: Very good match, up there with the best stuff anywhere this year. V4 is incredible, he is brilliant as a wild old brawler clearing out a bar. Rey Mendoza Jr. has put on the pounds but he can still move around and brawl. Hijo Del Pirata isn't much and his performance keeps this from being the MOTY. However Cassandro comes limping in and we all remember why we love him, wild, violent and brilliant. I hope that leg injury isn't more serious, because with Finlay, Rey, Lawler and Dick Togo all stepping away last year wrestling needs Cassandro.

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report, 2/11/12

Haven't done one of these in quite awhile, but that's because CMLL on Galavision hasn't been airing in my area, and LATV has been nothing but reruns dating back to December. It seems like LATV is showing mostly shows from November, some that have already been shown 3 or 4 times. So this show was also taped in November (11/22/11 at Arena Mexico to be exact, thanks Cubsfan!), but I don't know if this actually originally aired. I'm pretty sure I never missed an episode, and this never turned up where it should have. So this may be the first time this has aired in America, even if it's 3 months late.



1. Princess Sugei (Sugheit? I never get this name right)/La Commandante/Zeuxis vs. Dark Angel/Luna Magica/Lluvia:

Well this had a couple nasty spills that came to define the match. First fall went very nicely with Commandante leading Lluvia through some capable-looking matwork and some fun arm drag sequences, and Lluvia holding up her end while wearing an awesome mesh catsuit. Mesh catsuit might have made me forgive some sloppy mat transitions. Sugei and Magica tag in and smoke the previous moves exchanges, but also lacks the mesh. Fall ends with Zeuxis hitting an insane dive on Commandante that sees her fly way overhead and splat at a horribly awkward angle into chairs and chubby front row guys. I'm worried about her spine and Rachel is wondering how her boobs didn't fall out. Magica then splats her with an awesome apron Thesz press. Full point for Zeuxis for getting up from that splat and instantly taking that move. Rest of the match is pretty fun. Dark Angel and Sugei match up nicely together, and I'm a big fan of Sugei who always walks around and slaps people and kicks them in the face. Match ends abruptly with Dark Angel falling off the top rope and crashing to the floor, and then the other two calling an audible and quickly finishing the match with Angel being stretchered out. Too bad the ending had to be that way, the rest of the match was quite nice.



2. Misterioso Jr./Okumrua/Vangellis vs. Sangre Azteca/Diamante/Sagrado:

Really fun match with a bunch of guys that nobody ever really talks about. Misterioso Jr. is probably one of the best current lucha guys that nobody really pimps that much. He takes offense really well and bumps big and can control and reign in a match nicely. Here he gets matched up with the weakest of the bunch, Sagrado, and makes him look good through the whole match (going down like a gunshot for his superkick, splaying out on the floor for his rana). I really like Sangre Azteca, and loved his little mat section with Okumura. Fast paced and he did a few cool ankle picks. Vangellis is a stocky nazi powerhouse who moves fast and can barrel into guys. Diamante is very young but always has a couple nice highspots in his matches (here he hit a solid chest to chest springboard 450). Well worth your 20 minutes.



3. Terrible/Rey Buccanero/Texano Jr. vs. Maximo/Super Porky/Rush:

LATV pulls a vintage LATV move here, showing the first fall of this match, going to commercial and coming back with the 3rd fall of a different match from one week later. They used to do this all the time when they randomly started showing IWRG/AULL stuff. First fall didn't really make me want to watch the other two on youtube. I have been one of the staunchest Porky defenders over the last decade, but some of these throwaway six man performances are getting pretty brutal. The man can still go when he wants to, but the big key is how often does he want to? The hair match teaming with Maximo from early 2011 saw him looking really good, but the first fall had some pretty bad moments including the slowest bump through the ropes onto the rampway I have ever seen. It looked like a youtube video of a panda bear falling off a teeter totter.



4. Averno vs. La Mascara

If this had about 8 minutes lopped off the end then I probably would have liked it a lot more. It just kind of kept going, and the nearfalls just got less exciting the more of them they did. First 8 minutes were all about Averno tearing apart Mascara's knee, and it was some fine knee tearing. I was expecting Mascara to have plenty of moments where he just conveniently sold the knee, but to his credit he sold that knee for like >90% of the match, so gets full credit for that. He even hit an awesome limping tope in the 2nd. The selling wasn't the problem, it's just that there was so much damn lying around by both guys. It had its moments to be sure, but there was so much "Averno bumps to floor, Mascara stays in ring, Averno slowly gets up and walks back to ring" moments. Some of them were cool, like when Brazo de Oro would be glaring at him and Averno would just smugly strut past him. Some of the nearfalls worked great, but it was diminishing returns. 18 minutes of work in a 25 minute match. Not the worst crime as the work onscreen wasn't ever bad, just. needed. to. end.

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