Lucha Worth Watching: 2017 Leyenda de Plata Cibernetico

2017 Leyenda de Plata Cibernetico CMLL 10/13

ER: Ciberneticos were definitely more of my thing when I first started watching lucha in the late 90s, but that would also line up with WCW cruisers being my favorite style of wrestling at that time. Now ciberneticos usually still leave me hungry, unfulfillingly set up spotfests with sudden pinfalls. But I am not made of stone, and sometimes there's a collection of moves too tasty to not force a smile or an oooooohhhh. This started simple and exploded once Guerrero Maya flew at Barbaro with a tope and also flew recklessly into the first row. Full Eric attention achieved. We get a Virus/Casas sequence which is always a thrill, two masters delivering a greatest hits collection. Later we see Virus get his brains stomped to the mat by Dragon Lee. Casas tries to outbump the youngsters by getting thrown fast ass over elbow over the top to the floor. We get a concurrent somersault plancha, Asai moonsault, somersault plancha. Forastero works as if he were a darkside Soberano Jr. and it works better than Soberano Jr. being Soberano Jr. Casas has more charisma and gets louder reactions than anybody in the match, getting the fans rabid just for not locking up right away with Barbaro after pinning Titan. Lee is a dangerously fearless bumper and always wanting to please, so we get him doing a nutty rana from the ring to the floor on Titan, bumping a Virus lariat on his head, dumping himself on his head for Caristico, taking a nutso spinning powerbomb from Sanson. Mephisto is wearing a fantastic gimp outfit that makes him look like a beefy extra from the movie Cruising. I think I saw him in the background set at a bar called The Toolbox. Soberano does a nasty seated tombstone to Barbaro and I guess we just don't give a fuck about the sacred death danger of the martinete anymore.

Mistico and Caristico have the most palatable teacher/student showdown because instead of flipping and rope running they just rip masks. Mistico ripped Caristico's mask like a lifetime solid citizen who finally experienced how fucking good it felt to steal an extra newspaper from the machine. The final 5 contains 4 of my least favorite guys in the entire 16 man match, meaning Sanson is my old hope. Volador also seems rudo by default which is his best side, and he bumps fast to the floor which is better from a rudo. Soberano takes stupid modern era lucha moves real stupid on the back of his head, taking things like fast code reds or reverse ranas - dangerous looking moves that can be botched - in a cartoony rollercoaster manner, rolling off his head and then freeze framing for a second before completing the bump. I want him pinned. Sanson catches Volador on a motherfucking flip dive to the floor, doesn't let him touch the ground, and then powerbombs him SIDEWAYS into the front of the ring barrier. Sanson may have passed Cuatrero on the "baddest ass Dinamita" after this match. This is a cibernetico, so by Mexican law it was required to have one confusingly dogshit double elimination, but at minimum it was done because Sanson pinned Caristico while also suplexing Soberano. Everybody's shoulders looked down. And then Sanson is immediately pinned because they wanted to give me the last final showdown I would have picked out of all 16 participants. But that's life. Dare to err and to dream. Deep meaning often lies in childish plays.

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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: Cavernario vs Titan 9: Titán © vs Bárbaro Cavernario for the Mexican National Welterweight Championship (2015)

Aired: 2015-05-09
Taped: 2015-05-03 @ Arena México
Titán © vs Bárbaro Cavernario for the Mexican National Welterweight Championship

I griped at first that I was imposing a delay upon myself before watching this match as I wanted go get through as much as the "series" as I could. Really, though. I caught this less than three weeks after it aired, so I shouldn't complain too much. In short, it was great. It took a lot that I loved about their first title match and made it better. In fact, I'm not entirely sure how they get away with what they do. Does CMLL impose the short segundas on wrestlers? Is it cutting that I just haven't been able to work out? Actually, maybe there is something to that. I know this had a lot of time because they cut out another match (Niebla's and I'm not sure why). I know matches get cut but I rarely seem to notice. I really don't think that's the cause of short segundas in title matches. I kind of blame Ultimo Guerrero for it, which is probably unfair but his matches seem to have it more than most and it detracts from all of them. Regardless, this had all the room it needed to build and breathe and payoff.

I thought there was a great sense of build in the primera. They worked holds and jockeyed for positions and whether intentional or not, they presented a very tangible element of evenness. I never had a sense of one wrestler leading another or moving the other around. I don't think the work was overly complex, but it was executed extremely well. The build came from Cavernario getting a slight advantage and Titan deciding to pick up the pace. In doing so, however, he was the first to blink and the first to make a mistake. Cavernario capitalized on it, catching Titan with a dropkick as he was flying in with a springboard. He followed it up with a border toss and a Caveman Bomb splash. It could have probably gone a minute or two more on the mat or with the rope running but in the context of the match as a whole it worked well.

The segunda had all the room it needed to breathe with a beatdown and a comeback which was more than you can usually hope for in these matches. The best part of Cavernario's work is how much of his character he diffuses into it. The second best part is how compelling he is on offense. Some of that is the character and his body language, but he does a decent amount of different stuff, paces and times it well, knows when to play to the crowd, and it all looks credible. I think some of those elements are more important than others, but it's worth noting that he brings all of them to the table. He put in legdrops, shots to the guardrail, mask pulling, stomps, running kicks, a few yanks and holds, and celebrated once with the worm. It never felt gratuitous either. Titan, to his credit, sold well, even if it was sort of a "going limp" sort of selling. That was all it took to draw the heat, though.

Just one gif here because it was a great running double stomp in the corner:

I should note that they're already layering in moves. Cavernario hits a second border toss (running splash mountain throw? I don't know what to call that other than border toss) to the corner in the midst of the beatdown and I thought the transition might have happened there, but no. Instead it was on a second Caveman Bomb Splash attempt off the ropes that Titan got his feet up and started his comeback. I couldn't tell if he was selling on it or just posing but it was good and spirited and Cavernario tried to fight back which made everything more interesting. They layered in the first attempt at a moonsault (this one split-legged) but Cavernario moved. He also blocked a shot that led to a spinning kick (which is one of Titan's favorite things to do) and this great dive:

Titan plancha-ed back in and then flipped around with the Mistica as a takedown and turned it into his scrunched up roll up for the pin.

People talked up the tercera of their 2014 match and I don't think that this one was necessarily more exciting than that one. I do think it was better in all other ways though. They continued to tease signature moves, including Cavernario cutting off another moonsault before Titan was able to hit it, finally, at the end. Titan also hit his Titanics but only for two. Likewise with a huge Cavernario running power bomb. Cavernario also ate a huge power bomb reversal from Titan when it looked like he was going for a flying rana off the ropes (which made sense in the context of the match). Probably my favorite part was when they both went for leg-submissions, and Cavernario's selling, first his emotive facial expressions when in the hold and then his limping about afterwards. I tend not to hold dropped limb selling against lucha since it's not a huge trapping of the genre, but when it shows up, I definitely give extra points, and I thought he did a very good job here. He also had a great wrap around submission, and an equally great wrap around suplex.

The big moment of the match was a real sign of the familiarity between the two wrestlers and it led perfectly to the finish. After Cavernario hit the running powerbomb and a subsequent superkick, he went up to the top. Titan pushed him off and then climbed up, hitting Cavernario's own top rope to the floor death splash. It felt like one of the big moments of the year to me. Within the confines of the match, however, it was a sign of Titan being both desperate and overreaching all at once. Cavernario eventually made it back into the ring and Titan went for La Cavernaria. He couldn't lock it on correctly though and Cavernario was able to roll back and lock on his own for the win.

Great finish. Great match. Great pairing. It's really striking how young these two are and, barring disaster, how many great years we'll have out of them to come.

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

19. Titan v. Barbaro Cavernario CMLL 5/3

PAS: Excellent title match between two of the most exciting young wrestlers in the world.  Might be Titan's career performance as he is a true crazy lunatic in losing his title.  Cavernario just mauls him in the second fall crushing him with a tope, powerbombing him on the ramp and into the turnbuckles, before Titan catches him with a mistica into a roll up. Third falls has a surprising amount of matwork, with Titan focusing on Cavernarios taped up leg, and an awesome tapitia reversal. Then we move into the hot death section, including Titan crazily stealing Cavernario's superfly splash to the floor. The slower type of Virus/Casas title match is probably close to its end, but this style can be done well and these guys really delivered.

ER: I would second that this is IMO Titan's best career performance. We've written about a lot of Titan matches here, and he's popped up on several of our "Best of" lists, and while I would never say that any of the great matches he's been involved with have been "total carry jobs" or some other rude comment, but in those matches he was clearly a guy being lifted up to a higher standard than he had previously seen. Here he seemed very much worthy of the praise I've seen him get elsewhere. Cavernario has been one of my (and many others) favorite workers over the last couple years and as the match went on I found myself rooting more and more for Titan. Me, always the contrarian. Titan really put me in his brain, I really felt like he was trying every possible thing in his arsenal to retain his title, and it was epic. Some of his dives were among the best he's done, especially the one that just crushed Cavernario into the barrier. He ups the lunacy by breaking out Barbaro's giant splash to the floor and hitting it with every ounce of force that Barbaro himself normally does. I loved him going after Cavernario's leg in the tercera; that's something that's so out of character/match layout for him and that just added to the vibe of him breaking out all the stops. Cavernario is a wild caveman. He was unfrozen by scientists. Our world likely confuses and frightens him. Imagine how his primitive brain view television! Or cellular telephones! All his brain knows is that when he's being attacked, he needs to attack back, and so he is relentless, as so many cavemen (probably) were before him. Cavernario is always a Tazmanian devil, just windmilling punches and stomps. I love how he kind of responds to matwork the way a cat responds to getting its tail stepped on, and overall there was a nice sense that Cavernario outlasted Titan here. All made for a satisfying title match.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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MLJ: Cavernario vs Titan 7: Ángel de Oro, Dragon Lee, Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Felino, Negro Casas

Aired: 2015-02-28
Taped: 2015-02-17 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Ángel de Oro, Dragon Lee, Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Felino, Negro Casas

Same idea as the last match, with Dragon Lee and Negro Casas subbed in. This is a good thing since, of course, I'll want to check out their Leyenda de Plata final at some point and getting a look at the two of them together can only help in that. Also, I haven't seen a ton of Dragon Lee against opponents other than Kamaitachi, and he's as close to a "next big thing" as CMLL has in some ways. I'm not super enthused so far, to be honest, but I know I'm in the minority there. I wasn't as enthused with Titan before really taking a look at him. I think he's come out of this "series" looking pretty good, with the great 2014 titles match and being the one to hold together that match that Blue Panther, Jr. flubbed to death.

This was also my second look at Oro in close succession and I thought he came off well. He worked the mat strongly against Negro Casas here and maybe that's not hard but they did some very fun stuff with dueling holds (including Oro getting out of a few Casas Crippler Crossfaces) that ended with leg selling from both. He was also good in the comeback and picking up speed in the tecera with Felino. My comparison point there would be a Mascara Dorada maybe? That could just be my subconscious conflating their names though. The one thing I didn't like much out of him was when he was in a chop off with Felino. Don't do it if you can't make it look good. Compared to some of the things I've seen recently (including just about everything Cavernario does) it wasn't good. What was great, however, was how effortlessly he hit a moonsault from the second rope (having climbed it from the apron) to finish clearing the ring for the end of the match.

Dragon Lee accounted well for himself. He had a great exchange with Casas to start out the tecera and I'm excited to see their singles match now. I love Casas' spinning back king. It's got such zing to it. Once they picked up the speed the quality continued and that specific exchange with Lee moving to the apron quicker than I could process and leaping off with a rana to the outside. We didn't get to see much of him in the primera since it was his exchange with Felino that was cut short for the start of the beat down. It should be noted that Cavernario got to rip his match a bit which is exactly what I want out of him.

Structurally, this was straightforward. They ran the opening exchanges up until Dragon Lee was ambushed. Felino directed Cavernario to drop Oro exactly where he wanted him to set up the second rope elbow drop and take the fall. The comeback hinged on rudo miscommunication and another Titan Asai Moonsault. I'm not sure how I feel about Dragon Lee's corner hang double stomp. The set up was very contrived here. I could see it working better if he had a partner that helped get his opponent in position. That ended the fall though. Then they were pretty even in the tercera, with the good Dragon Lee vs Casas stuff. That ultimately ended with Casas reversing a back suplex and locking in the Casita and Cavernario leaping to the second rope in one quick motion as a whip reversal and hitting a missile dropkick and then the Cavernario Vader Bomb on Titan.

There wasn't a ton to this match but what we got was good. I came out of it more impressed with Dragon Lee than how I came in, certainly.

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MLJ: Cavernario vs Titan 6: Ángel de Oro, Stuka Jr., Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Felino, Pólvora

Aired: 2015-01-04
Taped: 2015-01-04 @ Arena México
Ángel de Oro, Stuka Jr., Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Felino, Pólvora

The next two matches have Angel de Oro, which is good since I don't have a great sense of him and I always like broading my luchador base. This one has Polvora and Stuka Jr. The next one has Negro Casas and Dragon Lee. I have to admit I'm looking forward to the next one more, even if I'm not exactly dreading this one. I'll be able to have a better sense of Oro after next match so I'll hold off judgment of him til then. For now, I find the wings on his crotch a little dubious. On the other hand, I love Felino and Cavernario dancing on the way in. Felino has his problems but I'll take him over Niebla for the most part.

The pairings for the primera were Stuka vs Cavernario, Felino vs Titan, and Oro vs Polvora. I thought Cavernario looked good against Stuka, making things a struggle and moving himself and his opponent around well. Titan had to feign annoyance and frustration at Felino's antics (probably wasn't very hard actual). Ultimately, he lost a cheer off, which is not uncommon for poor Titan. Insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Polvora played much more of a traditional rudo role in this and the fans booed him accordingly. My gut says that so many of CMLL's problems would be solved by turning Pesta Negra tecnico and Ingobernables full on rudo but who knows. Some of CMLL's problems seem to stem from the sheer fact that it exists in the first place.

Anyway, the primera turned the corner when the rudos tried to swarm, but it all felt a bit off. That's because instead of being a tidal shift, it just led into an Oro vs the world section and some tandem topes from Titan and Oro. This left Stuka to hit a fireman's carry drop onto Felino and his big splash. After the fall Cavernario tried to eat the camera, which was awesome.

In case I hadn't established this yet, Titan and Cavernario work well together. They did the fun back monkey flip spot. At some point in the last year, Cavernario developed a really nice superkick out of nowhere to cut off his opponents' athletic bs and he hit it here (and then recoiled at Felino's armpit so yeah). Titan (during his "vs the world" exchange) went for the Titanics on Polvora but turned it into a headscissors instead. Little switches like that make the world go round and make it a little less egregious. The crowd still booed him and that's starting to get painful though. Eventually Stuka and Felino picked up the speed with Stuka getting the best only to get swarmed by Cavernario and Polvora. Check out this flurry:

The beatdown led to the Polvora Bomb and the alley oop Cavernario dropkick to let the rudos take the segunda.

The tercera had some mask untying, good control of the tecnicos by the rudos, and some fun comedy with Oro doing a Three Stooges routine in the corner getting chopped. Stuka eventually reverses a double armdrag off the ropes and  ducks a double clothesline to allow tecnicos fight back. Everyone goes down one after the next and this leads to Titan majestically moonsaulting Felino from a springboard. I'm not a big high spot guy or dive guy. It's one of the least important parts of lucha to me, but I like Titan's huge moonsault. He usually works out ways to be clever about it or to set it up well (or to set up the decision on which way to go at least) and then he just gets a ton of hight from the apron out. Anyway, this had followed a Stuka roll up of Polvora and leads to Oro turning a roll up into his swinging suplex on Cavernario.

The fans boo the finish since they weren't really behind the tecnicos, but that's a shame because they deserved some acclaim here.

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MLJ: Cavernario vs Titan 5: Blue Panther Jr., The Panther, Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Boby Zavala, Mr. Águila

Aired: 2015-01-03
Taped: 2014-12-23 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Blue Panther Jr., The Panther, Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Boby Zavala, Mr. Águila

I'll admit that I came into this one with some hope for a fun match. Titan and Cavernario obviously pair off with each other well. I wanted a look at Zavala since he might be in the Busca this year, and hey Panthers are Panthers, right? Plus Aguila is a game veteran. It was all a bit of a mess though, with one of the most brutal (in a bad way) comebacks I've seen.

All of the problem stemmed from Blue Panther, Jr. I've seen him in just a few matches where he's not paired up against an opponent he's very used to wrestling or in matches where he didn't have his father to help direct traffic. Or maybe he just hadn't been given too much responsibility as he was here. Or maybe I just don't pay enough attention. I know there wasn't a lot of excitement for him being in this year's Busca, potentially, and you can kind of see why here.

I'll talk about the things I liked first. Zavala was very earnest with his character. There's an eager jock rudo feel to him. Not everything he did was good, but everything he did seemed to fit a character and a personality and that's a great base for everything else. Aguila rounded out the rudos and I don't get to see him all that much in 2015. He brings a lot to the table, generally, a sort of off-beat offense and way of handling things that isn't quite what most of the CMLL rudos do. He played well to the crowd but he also brought the biting and mask pulling that you rarely see in a match on this part of the card. Maybe they can get away with a bit more at Guadalajara too. That's the stuff I wish I'd see Cavernario do a bit more though. He also did my favorite thing that I've seen all year, something I was actually begging for, but we'll get to that later.

The match was structured well enough. They ran through the pairings and everyone looked well enough, with Panther, Jr. having just a few clumsy moments, like a leg pull against Zavala. The rudos swarmed when he locked on the Fujiwara and it all felt a little more disjointed than usual, not that clean tidal shift. The rudos took it with the Caveman Vader Bomb.

The comeback in the segunda was where it all fell apart. The rudos had been controlling things with double teaming ambushes. Zavala and Aguila were in the ring here, Aguila having just ambushed Panther, Jr. They tossed Panther, Jr. into the corner. Aguila charged after and Jr. went up too soon.

Aguila had to stop, wait for Jr. to run around him, and dive into the corner shoulder first for no reason as Panther lamely charged into the other rudos. A botch is a botch and it's not the end of the world. It just goes to show the level of difficulty in spots that we take for granted all the time. A lot of times, a good recovery can even seem more impressive than if they hit what they meant to the first time.

This was not a good recovery. Everything just fell to chaos after that. The fans turned against it. Aguila ran into a terrible quebadora. Cavernario whiffs way too big on a missed clothesline. Titan hit his nice moonsault in the midst for this. Maybe more on that next match, but it was followed by Cavernario being sort of clumsy again though hitting his run up plancha out of the ring well. All of that left the ring clear for Jr. to put a lifting submission on Aguila.

They tried but the match never really recovered. I'll admit that it came closest to recovering due to Titan hitting a lot of stuff nicely and having some good sequence. Zavala seemed absolutely winded throughout this caida, but to his credit, not only ate a lot of offense with gusto but really played his character well throughout. Cavernario even did a bit of mask pulling which is what I wanted forever out of him.

Then came a moment that made the match almost worth it despite it all. The Panther hit a huge tope on Cavernario who had just gone out on a body scissors over the rope. That wasn't it, though. Following that, Titan went for his Titanics, getting in his goofy late match handstand. Aguila dropkicked his gut in half. So great. Maybe they've done that spot thirty times but it was the first time I saw it and I loved it. One moonsault later and the rudos picked up the very satisfying win. I was satisfied at least.

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MLJ: Cavernario vs Titan 4: Titán © vs Cavernario for the Mexican National Welterweight Championship (2014)

Aired: 2014-08-02
Taped: 2014-07-29 @ Arena México
Titán © vs Cavernario for the Mexican National Welterweight Championship

This match received a lot of praise last year and it deserved it. It ranked fairly highly on year end polls and what not. I liked it a lot, but it had some flaws, and I think that it received a bit too much credit for the spot and bump heavy tercera when it was the segunda that really shined.

Part of the problem is diminishing returns. The modern CMLL title structure has an even primera with someone getting a slight advantage in the matwork, the pace getting picked up in response and then a flash pin, a very brief segunda with usually another flash pin (or submission) to even the falls, and then a very long, selling-heavy tercera with lots of near falls, submissions, and the dives. It means that even a spot-filled tercera, while admirable and exciting, doesn't stand out as much as it could otherwise. This match had a good version of one, with some crazy spots and pretty good selling that wasn't just senseless laying around. Cavernario and Titan worked very well together by this point and when there were slight physical miscommunications, they added to the match because it just made things seem more genuine somehow. A lot of times, instead of things being super smooth, it felt like the wrestlers were jockeying for position.

What really made the match work, however, was the segunda. I've seen enough title matches, both current and older to understand how they work. They're cleaner, generally, there's less heat and more sportsmanship. There's an art to them, and that leads to more subtle matches. Well, Cavernario is a freaking Wrestling Caveman, and it's not his goal in life to be subtle. It's his goal to beat the crap out of people with fury and chaos in his heart. That was the segunda and it added emotion and stake and meaning to the match. Without it, the tercera would have been just another spotfest.

Primera did what it had to do. Titan does the little things fairly well on the mat, peppering in punches or utilizing the hair. He is a good package in that regard, since he can be flashy but also bring enough to the table when it comes to substance. That's my sense of him so far. He tries to work the crowd a bit too but they're not really buying what he's selling. This was set up as you'd expect, just with the volume turned up a bit. Matwork, picking up the pace, and ending with a big split legged Asai moonsault to the outside. I really like when they do this spot because Cavenario always tries to charge in first and has to get kicked a few times to create the distance. He makes Titan earn it. The fall ended with Titan flying too much too early and getting caught with a powerbomb followed by the Vader Bomb off the ropes.

That started an outright beatdown that was the segunda. There was no quick recovery pin to even things up here. Cavernario did what he does, moving around the ring, working the crowd, picking his spots, methodologically tearing Titan apart, including a bit of mask ripping. He had an awesome stomp in the corner, a really deep STF, repeated clubbering and paintbrushing, this great arm trap suplex. Titan sold all of it really well and that increased the tension and built up the anticipation for the comeback. A title match doesn't need that necessarily, but if it has it, especially when combined with the better part of other title matches, you can get something pretty special. I'm not sure if this match completely made it there, but it definitely came close.

Eventually, Cavernario got cocky, putting Titan up on the top rope and setting up a rolling leap of some sort. Obviously, this backfired and Titan spent a minute using his own body as a weapon, leaping from any direction he could, before hitting the split-legged moonsault in the ring for the fall.

As I said, other people have focused a lot on the tercera. I won't say much. It was what you'd expect, spot-filled and exciting. I really liked that the crazy over the top to the apron DDT didn't actually connect to the apron this time. It worked more as a takedown than something that should have ended the match. It was followed shortly thereafter by Cavernario's death splash to the floor. Maybe they did these two moves a little bit early into the fall, but I think it was important to sort of justify Cavernario's selling being on the same level as Titan's for the nearfalls to come and it did the job. I'm not going to run through everything else. It's far better to see these submissions and nearfalls and big spots than for me to write them, but it was all well done with some of it being clever call backs and some moves you don't usually see. The finish was a Cavernaria block followed by the Titanics.

I really hate Titanics. I've made a gif or two of it, but the idea is that Titan does a flip to surprise his opponent and a backflip from a handstand to catch his head so he can sort of short victory roll him. I actually think it's a very solid way to end a primera or a comeback segunda in a throwaway trios match. Not every one he's in, but now and again it's a move he can surprise an opponent with. I don't think that Titan should be ending the tercera of a title match that had been an absolute war with a goofy handstand. Wrestling is symbolic but some symbols are more appropriate than others.

That aside, they got a huge score for excitement and effort. I think Titan won over the crowd. It was a war but the escalation was paced well and the near-falls were believable. These guys were young. I think Titan was 23 at the time and Cavernario was 20. So to put on a match like this was a huge feather in the cap of both guys. It has me looking forward, in a big way, to getting to watch their recent match. Also, good on CMLL for giving them the time in the segunda. That makes all the difference in the world and it's one of the thousand things I wish the promotion would realize when it comes to these matches.

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MLJ: Cavernario vs Titan 3: Marco Corleone, Máscara Dorada, Titán vs Cavernario, Rey Bucanero, Terrible

Aired CadenaTres: 2014-07-26
Taped 2014-07-22 @ Arena México
Marco Corleone, Máscara Dorada, Titán vs Cavernario, Rey Bucanero, Terrible

Alright, a match without Niebla in it. He serves his purpose, sure, but a little goes a long, long way. This was to set up Cavernario's challenge for Titan's Mexican National Welterweight title (which he earned, if I'm not mistaken, from winning the Busca), so the goal here would be to have Cavernario getting heat on Titan to set up the challenge.

The match had some MLJ all stars, Marco and Rey. I came in really wanting to see some Cavernario vs Marco (which we didn't get much of). Rey Bucanero is very good at what he does now, a lot better than he was when he was more athletic. He's very savvy in 2014-15 and able to do a lot of little things that he just didn't have the ring experience and presence to do back during the GdI heyday. He's less "workrate-y" but that's just about the last thing I care about so I'm usually glad to see him in a match. Dorada is a bit like Titan in that I just haven't seen a lot of him. I'm the one guy in the world who isn't in this for flashy tecnicos, I guess. I'm all for them when they can ground their stuff into a match with resonance and meaning but if I want to watch spots, there are youtube clips for that. I don't really have a sense yet exactly what Dorada and Titan bring to the table, but I'm watching matches to find out.

Primera was exchanges. Dorada and Rey did good, simple, competitive stuff, looking for openings and teasing clean breaks. Marco vs Terrible was shtick. The girls screamed for Marco, who was a little clunky on putting his head down for a presumed Back Body Drop to eat a Terrible kick, but he did hit some fun armdrags to make up for it. Then Cavernario and Titan picked up the pace. They had a spot where Cavernario moved out of the way of the TITANICS (Titan's endlessly stupid backflip victory roll finish - more on that next time), but that in avoiding it, became vulnerable to a pick-up/drop down (and Titan likes to do his out of a fireman's carry). He followed with his other finisher, a split-legged moonsault from the middle of the ropes, but Cavernario got his feet up. They run this spot occasionally and it always looks good, so good on them. This led to Cavernario's Vader Bomb and the pin. Clever set up to the finish that showed strong familiarity. The caida could have used another minute or two though.

The segunda followed from the primera, with a beatdown. The rudos worked very well together, with a triple flip powerbomb and tandem boots. Here's the powerbomb, posted mainly so you can see Cavernario go into hyper rage mode afterwards:

This lifting kick assault was a lot of fun too:

They even did a Terrible Giant Swing/Rey Dropkick. Rey was there to beg off every time a babyface came in so that the ambush could come into play. The comeback was cute. Titan hit a rope climb rana out of nowhere and a huge flipping dive. Then Dorada tried to hit Air Italia  from the ramp, was caught and tossed away, only for Marco to follow with the same move and score the pin.

The tercera was really a lot of fun. There was a lot of focus on Cavernario and Titan, with Cavernario playing canny early on and leading Titan into an ambush. This was where we had some Cavernario vs Marco (and a GdI huddle with Rey and Cavernario too which made me happy). At one point Marco smacked the bone off of his head which was a great visual. They kept things moving towards the end, with guys breaking up pins and slipping in and out of the ring. It all built to a massive dives (a hilo by Dorada, an Asai moonsault by Titan), and Marco diving off of the apron. Dorada moonsaulted himself onto Rey's foot, and got pinned that way. Rey got taken out after he and Cavernario tried for the old GdI double wheelbarrow. When Cavernario turned his back to celebrate, Titan rolled up Rey. It's a great finish so long as it's used sparingly. This left things with Cavernario and Titan, with Cavernario needing to go over to set up the title match. They did a quick minute of work, culminating with Titan getting cocky after getting the best of a strike exchange, playing to the crowd (a crowd that was still sort of booing to him) and getting locked in the Cavernaria from behind.

I'm a few matches in now and I'm really enjoying the Cavernario/Titan pairing. That said, I think Cavernario is what makes it work more than Titan. I didn't watch their title match last year so I'll see if my opinion changes there next.

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MLJ: Cavernario vs Titan 2: Cavernario, Euforia, Mr. Niebla vs Máximo, Titán, Valiente

Aired 2014-07-19
Taped 2014-07-15 @ Arena México
Cavernario, Euforia, Mr. Niebla vs Máximo, Titán, Valiente

If the trios with Blue Panther and Cachorro leaned gallant, this leaned goofus. It was the following Friday from the previous match with Felino subbed out and Euforia subbed in. CMLL does that all the time, just mixing and matching their rudo factions, but it felt particularly odd here. To be honest, Euforia didn't really do much so it hardly mattered (which was especially damning since he and Valiente got the focus of the finish).

Structurally, this actually had a lot going for it. There were two heat segments, one in the primera with a cut off with a comeback that let the tecnicos go over and then from the end of the segunda into the tercera which lead on towards the finish. Despite Cavernario's intensity, and Maximo and Titan generally being sympathetic, it was hard to take any of it seriously though. Matches with Niebla spanking Maximo are generally not the ones to utilize a double heat format on. While double heat generally means double comebacks as well, this was a match that needed much more in the way of shine.

Instead, it started with a rudo ambush, including Zacarias doing the 619. Cavernario's great in this role. He charged in with his staff and stomped away. It's also not a bad role for Niebla. He's good at crowd control and has those big, broad strikes. It's just when he does anything else that any possible meaning gets pissed down the drain. The comeback came with a Maximo butt spot, one of Valiente's huge Jim-Neidhart shaped topes, and Titan doing the handstand backflip headscissors cradle, again. Twice in two weeks was probably a bad choice for that move. It's just too contrived to do too often.

We did get some of that shine at the beginning of the segunda, with the tecnicos going vs the world. The crowed wanted absolutely zero of it though. Even Maximo, who was usually over, was getting boos. Niebla was more than happy to do the cheer-off with Titan and this time, there was no Blue Panther to turn the crwod back. Instead, Titan did some backflips, a headscissors, and then a pose, and the crowd booed the hell out of him. Maybe a pose wasn't the right move there.

What was the right move was this really cool reverse monkey flip backflip thing. That was pretty cool:

Which leads us to this apron ddt spot, which (and hey, maybe Titan and Cavenario do this a dozen times and I just don't know it yet) would be one of the spots of the year, easily, if not for the fact it didn't even end the frigging fall. It was too big a spot to use in the middle of such a throwaway match like this. At the least they should have saved it for their title match. Geez:

After that, Niebla would pull Maximo around by his hair and spank him. Great tonal cohesion there. A submission on Maximo followed shortly thereafter, with (of course) Cavernario back up to beat on Titan. I'm pretty certain Titan was double crotched on the outside by Niebla and Cavernario which led to him being counted out.

I do think that Niebla helped Cavernario a lot one with one aspect of his game, namely the playing to the crowd. Cavernario is so over the top and into his character and if I tried to capture all of his flourishes and temper tantrums, we'd have twenty gifs. There's a limit to the effectiveness of this though, and Niebla doesn't know the first thing about limits.

Instead I'm going to post a couple of gifs from the tercera, which had some of the fun, tecnicos heavy spirit that the match should have had more of (after Cavernario missed a corner charge which let Valiente come back).

This great monkey flip:

and this pretty clever Kiss of Death:

All that led to tandem topes by Maximo and Titan, which was to set up Valiente vs Euforia A blatant (frustrated) foul by Euforia led to the mostly unsatisfying DQ. It led to a trios defense and a singles match, but the focus was off earlier in the match to make it mean anything here. Titan was fine, dynamic, with the apron DDT being an amazing spot (albeit one that wasn't worth nearly as much as it should have been), but he sure was illiterate when it came to reading the crowd.

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MLJ: Cavernario vs Titan 1: Blue Panther, Cachorro, Titán vs Cavernario, Felino, Mr. Niebla

Aired 2014-07-12
Taped 2014-07-08 @ Arena México
Blue Panther, Cachorro, Titán vs Cavernario, Felino, Mr. Niebla

I'm dropping everything I've been doing for this. Thus was the power of the recent Barbaro Cavernario vs Titan title match. People really talked it up and while I haven't had a chance to see it yet, I figured it was about time I did a focus on something very up to date.

I'll be honest that Titan is a tecnico that I've seen a bit of, but just a bit, and in what I've seen, I didn't really have the strong need to look for more. I know I'm less high on people like Valiente than most (and certainly Volador, Jr., but I think none of us are super high on him).

I'm sure he hits his moves well, that he's smooth, that he's dynamic. What I don't know is whether he hits the marks I really care about too though, his character work and making those moves matter, and storytelling. I haven't seen enough though, so I don't know, but hey, he's touted highly by a lot of people and I'm looking forward to figuring it out.

I wanted to start after the Busca last year because that's been covered heavily and some of these mid-card trios haven't as much. I'll probably be avoiding tournaments because no one wants to watch tournament lucha. So the plan is to watch everything that they've done  together in the last year or so ending with their recent title match.

First on the docket is Blue Panther, Cachorro, and Titan vs La Pesta Negra. I'd rather we have Casas in this instead of Felino or Niebla, but neither were too offensive here. Felino had his working boots on and Niebla's stooging was a little more tightly focused than usual due to Panther reining him in.

A lot of these matches are going to be fun, mid-card lucha trios and that was the case here. The primera was enjoyable enough. Felino and Cachorro did well together, with a few leglocks and clean breaks. BP and Cavernario did as well (And I liked that they put the young guys in with the vets instead of just matching them up), with their share of limb grabbing and positioning. The second Blue Panther got the advantage the rudos swarmed (Starting with a nice Niebla punch). Titan didn't get a spotlight here save for his bump into the railing on the outside as Cavernario hit his mid ring Vader Bomb to pin BP. This was a pretty standard start, some game, competitive matwork and rudos being rudos.

Between falls the rudos goofed about, with Felino kissing a woman and Cavernario doing goofy kissy faces. Goofy but kind of awesome too:

The lucha equivalent of southern tag ref distraction is absolutely "goading the tecnico in and having your partner ambush him from behind." And Pesta Negra does it really well in the segunda. At one point Felino drew Titan in only to roll away so his partners could get him. At another, Panther came in only to immediately get double teamed by Niebla and Cavernario; then they danced:

Niebla is a bad example for Cavernario. Case in point: the tecnicos come back because Niebla's so busy slapping everyone that he accidentally hit his partner. To make it up, he kissed Cavernario. This distracted everyone in a two mile radius and let the comeback begin. Titan didn't get to do much here, just a plancha into the ring, but he did finish it with a great headstand into a roll up.

And I think that's evidence towards quality. The body language of Cavernario made that work but he couldn't accomplish it without something worthwhile to react to. I think it does show why the two of them are potentially so great a pairing.

They reset for the tercera and there were a number of pairings. Cachorro and Cavernario worked well together with a lot of elaborate but organic stuff. Titan vs Felino was interesting since Felino, more or less went into business himself, trying to get the crowd to boo Titan. The payoff here (and I'm not convinced this payoff would exist without Panther in the ring to control things) was BP working with Titan and getting the crowd to boo Felino big. I'm sure they've done that spot a lot of times, but I think without Panther as the equalizer, Titan's crowd-favor would have been eaten alive by Felino. Panther in general showed me a bunch of character, containing Felino and then clowning for Niebla's strikes:

Especially masterful is how BP manages to sell his belly after getting punched in the face a bunch in order to do a Shocker-Style pulling of his tights. A real maestro, folks. As you can imagine the spit spot followed and then BP clocked Niebla, because that's what he does. It's amazing how much the crowd loves that stupid spot.

Titan vs Cavernario followed and I thought Titan worked the crowd well in a chop exchange. This was followed by an awesome ducked clothesline/hangman's clothesline, crazy stomping and even crazier Cavernario-ing. Great stuff:

Cavernario ended up the top rope but was bicycle kicked off by Titan who then had to contend with Niebla (he did this by matrix-ing under a clothesline so Niebla could go sailing through the ropes). It was a fun little Titan vs the World Segment tht ended with him backflipping over the top rope for fun (which was impressive bug cognitively goofy).

The finish was fun. I always like when it looks like it's going one way and veers another. Here, the tecnicos had set up an estrella, with Titan about to victory roll Niebla in the middle, but Niebla dropped him right on his partner in sort of an unintentional assisted splash. The falls came quick after that, first with a rudo double press slam and Felino elbow drop, then with a Cachorro Fujiwara arm bar out of nowhere, and then, finally due to the numbers game, the press-up into a Cavernario missile dropkick, which is probably the most underrated finisher of 2014.

This was definitely good for what it was, which was a sort of disposable Pesta Negra match. I was impressed by how well Titan and Cavernario worked together, with Titan's impressive agility bouncing well off of Cavernario's outlandish ferocity. Both of them showed a good deal of charisma too.

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CMLL Worth Watching 9/19/14, 2/6/15 & 3/8/15

Negro Casas & Shocker vs. Rush & La Mascara (9/19/14)

PAS: I am never going to get tired of Rush and Casas beating on each, and Rush was at his douchebag best, smacking the old guys around violently slapping and dropkick them. Casas was firing back and using his guile to catch the younger more powerful team unaware. Rush was a beast in this, as was La Mascara and you really got the sense the veterans escaped with their titles by the skin of their teeth. I also liked Casas getting a bit of revenge for getting steamrolled for his hair.

ER: Just realized I hadn't watched this which is strange since I watched the rest of the Anniversario show. I think I just thought I had seen it as I know I've seen these teams square off a couple times, and I'm pretty sure that was in 2014 as well. And I thought this match was easily the best of the three, actually felt like a title match, and actually felt like a big match on a big Anniversary show. All guys work up to the show, and finally we get Casas not looking neutered in a match against Rush. It felt like he lost his hair too easily with no real revenge. Here he gets to lace into both guys, at one point stiffing up Rush on the floor with mean punches that all lead up to a thrust headbutt into the chin. Shocker also mans up here and really goes after both rudos. It's kinda shocking how Rush and his gang have really gotten to be such bullies for over a year. They've really been a part of some stunning one-sided beat downs and while they haven't necessarily won tag titles, they usually come out looking like ass kickers who cared more about being dickheads than winning gold. They still do those things here (pull up early on pinfalls, showboat) but never feel like they're quite steamrolling the tecnicos. I loved all of Shocker's roll ups and subs, loved Casas' aggression (and him hitting a somersault dive instead of the usual Thesz press!), Mascara bumped all over (him getting thrown into the barricade by Casas was brutal) and Rush was Rush. Really good stuff, glad I realized I hadn't watched it.

Negro Casas & Shocker vs. La Sombra & La Mascara (2/6/15)

Boy Shocker really brings it for these tag title matches, which is nice to see. He obviously has more physical limitations than he did a decade ago, and his gas tank empties quicker (a lot quicker, he usually looks pretty slow by the tercera), but you can tell when he's really busting ass and it's awesome. This was a match saved by a great tercera, and it really was a great tercera. The first two falls were nothing. Blink and you'll miss them, silly endings. The tercera though, was great. It got tons of time and our tecnico champions came out of the gates hard. Mascara and Sombra stooged all over for them and didn't do their too cool for school routine, instead showing ass all over. Shocker looked super motivated, even breaking out mat stuff that he usually doesn't, and flying with a reckless tope. Sombra does his great bump over the barrier, we get some nice pins broken up with superkicks, tecnicos finally get to look strong against these punks.

Virus, Hechicero & Comandante Pierroth vs. Blue Panther, Titan & Dragon Rojo Jr. (3/8/15)

You a see a match with a lot of these guys and expect it to be good, and look at that it is! I really dug Pierroth here. He's working like he should be, as a lost Dinamita. He didn't do anything fancy but was great cutting off guys with stiff kicks to the stomach, nice strikes and an occasional senton. He seemed on paper to be the weak link on a team with Hechicero and Virus, but I ended up digging him just as much as the two stalwarts. Virus always brings out the best in Titan and there stuff together here was as good as their best. Panther got to mix it up with Virus and Hechicero and of course that was glorious. Rojo was kind of a weak link in this but I just don't see a match with Virus, Panther and Hechicero being anything but good. But now I find myself more excited for Pierroth which is awesome as I don't recall ever being like "oh nice, a Poder Boricua match!!!" That family is looking like the super unfuckwithable wrestling family of 2015.

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CMLL Worth Watching 1/4/15, 1/18/15 & 2/1/15

Hechicero, Ephesto & Niebla Roja vs. Blue Panther, Valiente & Maximo (1/18/15)

On paper you look at that match and go "man I hope Panther and Hechicero match up a bunch" and if that's what you went in wanting, you'll leave a happy human. There are also many other things that happened that were a blast, but I personally showed up for Panther and Hechicero squaring off. They get a nice long exchange in the primera and more in the tercera. Primera is those two have a bunch of cool struggling matwork, which really is worth the price of admission (zero dollars, technically so easily worth that). Hechicero is a super adaptable mat guy and Panther still looks like Blue Fucking Panther on the mat which is one of the first things that made me fall in love with lucha. All the takeovers and sweeps and arms held painfully behind backs. It's glorious. Hechicero gets runs with all the guys and he really makes Maximo's stuff look spectacular. And all of Hechicero's little roll ups and submissions are so fluidly executed. I'm a fan. Segunda is short but we build to a nice crescendo in the tercera with Valiente hitting the mother of all great topes, just bending Roja in half over the barrier. Just a scud missile flying fast and accurately right at you. Wrestlers are crazy. Ephesto gets a big dive of his own and this delivered in the exact ways I was hoping it would.

Rey Cometa vs. Niebla Roja (Lightning Match) (1/4/15)

This was really cool as Roja throws way more rudo elements into a lightning match than almost anybody I've seen. Usually this format is used for guys to show off their highlight reel in heatless exhibitions. But here's Roja kicking Cometa in the face, ripping at his gear, choking him and being a dick. Cometa is a guy with plenty of great looking spots but he goes along with Roja's match plan and it makes a standard lightning match mean so much more, makes Cometa's few highlight spots seem that much bigger. The opening mat stuff is nice and engaging, and then things go to a new level when Cometa goes for a leaping tornado DDT off the apron but gets caught by Roja and tossed brutally into the barrier. It made Cometa's later rana off the apron mean so much more.We also build to a great Cometa tope that blasts Roja impressively into the barrier. Roja dicks it up the whole time, Cometa's hope spots come off better for it, and all that equals a much more satisfying 7 minutes than we normally get.

Kraneo, Olimpico & Ephesto vs. Blue Panther, Titan & Dragon Rojo Jr. (2/1/15)

So Cubsfan should get around to uploading this one so more people can see it, because it's really fun. I mean, it's not like that guy uploads hundreds of matches over the course of a year or anything. It makes me feel just a tiny shred of minimal importance to write about a match like this, since it does not appear to exist online, and one day somebody might ask "I wonder if anybody ever watched a Kraneo match from 2/1/15?" and then they will find that, yes, at least one man did watch a Kraneo match from that date, and documented it FOR THE WORLD. Match was really fun and would have landed on the MOTY list had the segunda and tercera gotten more time. Primera had some of Titan's best stuff, doing some lightning fast exchanges with Ephesto with no Titan silliness. Then Panther and Olimpico got to roll and that is all of a sudden one of my favorite match-ups in lucha. Olimpico has looked better in the last couple months than he has in 8 years. Now he's working a weird glammy Egyptian gimmick and looks like Ben Kingsley playing the Jaye Davidson role in Stargate. His mat stuff with Panther is great with BP always going after an arm or leg but Olimpico scrambling all over him, working more to disorient. Kraneo continues to be my favorite luchador of the moment as he's all massive shoulderblocks and big bumps and fatness. He always works as if he has something to prove, as if he gets ribbed about his mass all the time and wants to show everybody that he can work harder and better than anybody. He's like the modern lucha Buddy Rose. So yeah, upload this match Cubs! Pretty please?

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CMLL Worth Watching 1/2/15, 1/4/15 & 1/9/15

1. Barbaro Cavernario, Felino & Polvora vs. Stuka Jr., Titan & Angel de Oro (1/4/15)

Another fun match from a card with a few fun matches. Felino really works best when separated from Niebla and his brother. He always ends up looking like an actual wrestler instead of spending the whole match honing his comedy chops. He must have lost a hair match at some point too as he's all buzzed (different kind of buzzed than when he teams with Niebla) although it would be amusing if he just showed up with a shaved head without cashing in. Barbaro gets a bunch of great runs in this, the guy really knows his way around a nice standing sequence. He also takes a nice reckless Cassandro bump to the floor leading to the other rudos also spilling out, and some big dives by the tecnicos. Titan had some supreme dorkiness during this as he comes off at times like he's working a parody of Chris Hero's old "indy athleticism" gimmick. Stuka is always a nut and it feels like he should get talked about way more. I am a sucker for his "hands at sides" dives. Match also featured an unintentionally humorous spot where Polvora was fighting with Titan, and Felino threw a chop block at Titan but didn't connect enough so Titan didn't know to sell the chop block. So basically we saw Felino fly into frame stage right, and then roll away stage left...while nobody else reacted.

2. Negro Casas vs. Mascara Dorada (1/2/15)

I always love when one my favorite old guys shows up in singles matches, against anybody really. If there's a Panther or Casas singles, I'll watch it no matter who the opponent is. And Dorada is a guy I really like so naturally I'd be excited for this match-up. And these two are really no strangers to each other in singles matches, as they've matched up several times over the last 5 years, often over this very title. And while this match is somewhat disappointing, that does not mean that it's not worth watching. It's disappointing in its formatting, which is almost always the reason a CMLL main event is disappointing. I can't recall the last time I thought a CMLL match would have been good if not for one man's performance, it's almost always due to lousy format. And it stinks to see Casas wedged into a format. Casas matches always excel because of his wonderful attention to details, and this match was too much boiled down to his moves and nearfalls that it didn't have as much room for character. There were still those terrific Casas moments here, such as him pumping his boots into Dorada's face on a moonsault attempt, then smiling giddily to the crowd over his shoulder as he scrambled for a pin; or him screaming to the heavens after getting beaten by the Casita for the second time in the match. But there just wasn't as many classic Casas moments as you'll find in his best work. But these two are both good, and formatting be damned there will be enough good moments that shine through, enough to make it better than most CMLL main event singles. Their standing go behinds had nice struggle, Dorada's dive was fast and hit high, Casas' press off the apron hit with such force that it sent him flipping wildly into the front row. Those kinds of things add up to a fun watch, and while it wasn't as great as it could have been there was still plenty to appreciate.

3. Kamaitachi vs. Dragon Lee (Lightning Match) (1/9/15)

Only 6 minutes, but played out like a really fun Lucha Underground style match. The opening strike exchange had elements of old Low-Ki stuff and was really fun when both guys knocked each other down with stereo roundhouse kicks. Kamaitachi always leans into things and Lee has a bunch of cool strikes that look great when guys lean into them. We also get one of Lee's trademark suicidal topes with his head plowing into the side of Kamaitachi's neck at high speed and both men sprawling out. There were a bunch of cool reversals in ring, Lee got dumped on his head by a clothesline, Kamaitachi got dumped on his head with a suplex. Crowd was not liking that Kamaitachi won while sneakily unmasking Lee.

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CMLL Worth Watching 10/12/14, 12/26/14 & 1/4/15

1. Welterweight Cibernetico, feat. Rey Cometa, Fuego, Mascara Dorada, Negro Casas, Kamaitachi, Titan, Sangre Azteca, Triton, Delta, & Polvora (12/26/14)

When I first got into lucha it was ciberneticos and Rey/Psicosis matches that broke me in. And then once I discovered lucha brawling I lost interest in ciberneticos. When I started watching lucha I went in not understanding its complexities, went in assuming like it would be like a never-ending WCW Saturday Night spotfest. I didn't realize at the time what a low bar I was setting, and just how deeply I would come to accept lucha into my life. Ciberneticos just became a waste to me, as it was mostly guys rushing through spots with no sort of character, and fairly quickly I learned that lucha was much better as a character piece than as a spotfest. But obviously there can still be some tremendous spots and occasionally you still get a cibernetico such as this one with tons of fun stuff. Cometa and Fuego really shined in this one, with each hitting some nutso dives (gotta compete with the televised craziness of Lucha Underground after all), but Cometa here seemed more fired up than I've seen from him in over a year (that middle rope tornillo is so cool!) and had a nice snap to everything he did, Dorada took some major bumps, Fuego finally looked like the guy that people have been pimping him to me as, Sangre Azteca is dressed like Michael Jackson in The Wiz, and I *love* when Casas gets in a match like this with some younger guys and shows he can run circles around all of them. Casas in these kind of showcases brings out something else entirely in him, as everybody seems nervous about hitting their spots while he just seems like it isn't even a job to him, always smiling big and having a ball. Kamaitachi always misses stuff with gusto and I loved Casas grabbing ahold of him and dismantling his leg. Very fun, well worth the time.

2. Astral vs. Electrico (10/12/14)

Well hey these guys went out and had a nice little match! I can't recall the last minis singles match I really enjoyed but who cares because this was real good. Really I liked all of this, with the opening mat stuff being nice and snug, great headlock takeovers, nice Indian deathlock variations applied nice and quick, Electrico's caida-winning submission was a thing of beauty. The nutsy dives start in the second and we really get a couple of doozies, with an Astral bump around the ringpost leading to an Electrico dive out the corner, and later on we get a huge double springboard Astral tornillo. There was too much cool stuff in here to list it all, but these two really clicked something good.

3. Hechicero, Hombre Sin Nombre & Sagrado vs. Guerrero Maya Jr., Dragon Lee & The Panther (1/4/15) 

New year, and some new blood starts showing up on TV! Hombre sin Nombre is Hooligan this go 'round (not really sure the need to stop being Hooligan, but whatevs) and The Panther is the former Cachorro. Salgado works so much better as a rudo, it's not even funny. We've been putting up with this butthole's bad tecnico routine for a fucking decade now, watching him botch spots and have no clue where to be in the ring. Here he's a bully who makes it his match-long goal to target Lee and it's great. He doesn't even seem to care about winning, just wants to beat down Lee. Hechicero gets to run the joint in there and him matching up against Maya is a blast. Maya himself had a wonderful showing, culminating in him hitting an absolute bonkers flip dive through the ropes on Hechicero, hitting way high up on Hechicero's face/chest, bending him over the barrier and sending himself into the front row. Crowd really responds to Hechicero which is exciting. He has an effortless way about him, and always surprises me by doing things I don't expect out of sequences, like breaking out a springboard dropkick in the middle of a rope running spot. This whole match was tons of fun.

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CMLL Worth Watching 8/10/14, 8/31/14 & 9/14/14

Decided to change the name of this from CMLL Workrate Round-Up to CMLL Worth Watching, as really the only CMLL stuff I write up now is stuff that I think is worth watching. Why beat around the bush? I watch the CMLL, I spend time writing about the stuff I think is worth writing about, so let's just say that.

1. Mascara contra Mascara: Oro Jr. vs. Metalico (8/10/14)

This was not great, and not nearly as fun as the few trios matches used to build it up, and that is mainly because Oro Jr. just isn't really that good. The build to this match was pretty lopsided, with almost every part of the trios matches being Metalico walloping Oro and cutting off every single thing he attempted to do. Now obviously the big stipulation singles match couldn't be worked like that, unless it was the weirdest mask match in lucha history. Obviously there was going to be some sort of back and forth, which meant there was going to have to be Oro offense, and Oro is not very good at offense. He can bump well enough and he's flexible so he's good at being twisted into knots by rudos, and he can hit a dive, but his move and submission execution are really, really lacking. Every time he would lock on a flippy arm submission he would end up flipping Metalico close to the ropes. That was fine when the plan was for Metalico to break a hold, but when it was something he had to tap to or create drama, Metalico would have to subtly move himself farther away from the ropes. Oro is just kind of stumbly and clunky. Metalico, on the other hand, continues to impress me and if anything this feud has given me a new cool guy to look for. Metalico has a cool southern heel vibe to him that I've never ever picked up on before this feud, doing great stuff like sneaky little punches and probably my favorite knee lift in current wrestling (depending on whether or not you count Brock Lesnar's sternum-caving knees). At one point in the tercera he drags Oro out of the corner and just blasts him with a bunch of consecutive knees, to the stomach and face. They all looked great. He also locks on a bunch of cool subs that would rank up with any maestro. Metalico's mom also kept getting shown in the crowd rooting him on and that's something that would get me more into everything. So yeah. Match was about what I expected, but overall I'm excited to see where Metalico takes things from here.

2. Felino, Misterioso Jr & Bobby Zavala vs. Stuka Jr., Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta (8/31/14)

Man fuck Felino. It's so much better to have never have experienced love than to love and have lost. Felino is an asshole who is actually a good worker who just chooses to act like the worst worker in lucha 85% of the time. Here he runs ropes faster than anybody in the match (even showing off by bouncing off the bottom rope when he does it), does these really great drop downs, fast dropkick sequences, just a totally different guy than you get most of the time. and why? What's he proving in this match that he doesn't feel the need to prove when working with his brother? Delta hits a wild moonsault to the floor, Stuka always tosses in a couple nice dives or splashes, Zavala is always an amusing low rent Rush, Misterioso is a pro and then there's fucking Felino outworking them all, being the most frustrating guy in lucha.

3. Terrible, Vangellys & Rey Bucanero vs. La Mascara, Titan & Volador Jr. (9/14/14)

I really wasn't expecting much from this on paper but the execution was nice. This became apparent just a minute into the match when Titan took a wild sideways bump into the ring barrier and Terrible decked Volador with a mean right and a hard headbutt. The Volador involvement was limited for most of this, with Terrible always cutting him off with face punching. Volador getting regularly punched in the face is enough to make me recommend a match. There was a story within the match of Mascara naturally not caring about his team, but Volador and Titan trying to make him feel welcome and almost try to recruit him back from the lawless side. That kind of thing can drag a match down but I think it helped this one. It worked because Mascara kept interrupting Titan and Volador's worst offense to just get to the fucking point and finish things. So it was actually a quite clever way to capitalize on guys having to stand around selling while Titan does his little handstand. Titan walks off on his hands and while Terrible is focusing on him for reasons, Mascara just runs in and rolls him into a pendulum sub. It does kind of blow up how silly some of Titan's stuff can be, but I already knew that so thought this worked incredibly well within the existing universe.

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CMLL Workrate Round-Up 8/3/14 & 11/14/14

1. Metalico, Virus & Bobby Zavala vs. Rey Cometa, Fuego & Oro Jr. (8/3/14)

More awesome from this little feud that I didn't see anybody talking about. It is very possible I'm just reading the wrong places. But ever since a couple weeks ago when I first noticed Memphis heel Metalico tearing apart Oro Jr., and have since seen two more of their trios, it has become the thing I most look forward to in wrestling. So far, yes, the feud has been one-sided, with Metalico punching his way into my heart. Looking back, even though the tecnicos took the 2nd and 3rd, this match was 90% rudos. The segunda was won by DQ, and the comeback in the tercera didn't happen until late. Up until that point it was Metalico taking out all his frustrations on poor Oro Jr., which meant Oro taking tons of Metalico's cool hooking southpaw lariats, tons of punches to the temple, tons of forearms scraped across his eyes, and tons of getting yanked rudely around by his mask. Virus and Zavala kind of purposely took a backseat to Metalico beating down Oro. At one point I was begging Oro to fight back! Virus and Zavala would keep the other two at bay, and those two are guys I'm always entertained by when they're being dick heels. Virus has a great moment scraping and yanking Cometa's finger crotch over the ropes. Jesus Virus is taking torture to paper cut tantamount levels. Oro Jr. is kind of like a tecnico Stevie Richards, as he bumps big but has basically zero offense. So his big comeback in the tercera falls somewhat flat as he sorta hits Metalico with meek little kicks, but it was still satisfying seeing him rip Metalico's mask right back. Two weeks ago Metalico was just one of those guys who I had seen a bunch but barely registered with me. Now he's a guy I'm actively seeking out. Funny how these things work. Watch this feud now!

2. Silueta vs. Zeuxis (8/3/14)

Another good match for these two. It got a lot of time and I think they filled it pretty admirably. The tercera went probably a little too long, but overall I liked this. The primera especially was fun as they do some cool mat stuff and standing exchanges that doesn't usually happen in the women's matches. Silueta grapevines the leg of a standing Zeuxis and kicks out her other knee, felt like William Regal with a prettier face. They throw out some pretty big things in this, with Zeuxis doing a nice Spanish Fly and a great moonsault to the floor, wiping out both seconds (Halcon and Super Comando). Silueta has a nice rana roll up and manages to do the "opponent trapped in ropes while I dropkick them from the top" spot without making it look too absurd. Crowd was really hot throughout the whole tercera so they were doing something right, even if I thought it had too many near fall exchanges. Crowd was into every one of them.

3. Mephisto, Kamaitachi & Ephesto vs. Titan, Valiente & Angel de Oro (11/14/14)

Really fun sprint with a nice spirited Mephisto performance, and one of Titan's best showings of the year. Angel de Oro continues to look sorta clunky but it was easy to just watch all the other guys do their thing. I'm really starting to love rudos cutting off Titan. Last week we watched Terrible punch him right in the face after a handspring floor routine, and now he somersaults onto the rampway from the ring, turns around to run back and runs right into a mean Ephesto clothesline. Mephisto was really great at cutting guys off all match, catching all the flying offense and even hitting a great dive. Ephesto also hit a nice big chubster dive. Kamaitachi continues being a blast, love his high jump dropkick from the ramp. Everything was worked super fast and didn't have any time to get bad.

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CMLL Workrate Round-Up 7/20/14 & 7/27/14

1. Terrible, Vangellys & Rey Bucanero vs. Rey Cometa, Angel de Oro & Titan (7/20/14)

Well hey this was good! Motivated Terrible is a great thing, especially when he's blindsiding floppers. Here he's after Titan and it's glorious. In one of my favorite wrestling spots of the year Titan tags in, slingshots over the ropes and begins hand springing his way across the ring and finishes doing a dorky bow and arrow mime, and Terrible just runs over and throws a brutal left hook, flooring Titan. Awesome spot. This match is full of rudos dropkicking tecnicos right in the middle of dangerous looking moves. Oro and Cometa both do moonsaults at different points and get kicked in the stomach right in the middle of them, which if you think about the physics basically stops their momentum and dumps them on their heads. Vangellys dropkicking Cometa during an Asai moonsault was an especially nasty moment. Bucanero doesn't always show up but he was game here, and aside from throwing shots at the floppers (oh god including powerbombing Cometa right into the freaking ring post) he also took a hilarious bump off a Cometa rana from the apron, making sure to somersault his way towards a couple bosomy ladies in the front row, and then recovering whilst draped over their laps. But this match was the Terrible show, and when he's on he's on. Here he took a bunch of bumps from big springboard offense, and then dished it right back including ending the Segunda by catching a springboard rana into an brutal powerbomb. Awesome stuff in this.

2. Rush, Maximo & Marco Corleone vs. Mr. Niebla, Euforia & Niebla Roja (7/20/14)

What an odd match. I actually had to check the date to make sure LATV wasn't just showing an old match, but no this match actually happened in 2014. What was so weird was everybody worked it as if it were 2012. Rush was working tecnico with Maximo and Corleone as if he hadn't been a total dickbag the entire last year (although the onscreen graphics kept referring to them as rudos). But it wasn't just Rush, as Niebla was also doing little things he hasn't done since 2012, most notably not dressing like a total asshole and just wearing his old Niebla gear, not doing a stupid spit spot, Zacharias was getting involved in the match (and really he's just been sitting at ringside for the last 1-2 years), Niebla also broke out his fun face first apron bump that I haven't seen him do in a couple years, and also the Harley Race "feet caught on bottom ropes" headfirst bump to the floor. This time the Race bump had a fun twist as while he was hung up in the ropes Zacharias was tossed onto him sending both of them crashing to the floor. Euforia seems to match up really well with Marco's big left hands, and he ran into a few great ones here. Maximo also had a spry performance, tossing out some cool armdrag variations and working some nice sequences with Niebla. And there Rush is the whole match, working a weird turn back the clock gimmick. This whole match was seriously bizarre.

3. Metalico, Virus & Skandalo vs. Dragon Lee, Oro Jr. & Fuego (7/27/14)

Fun straight falls match with more of Metalico taking out all of his life's aggressions on Oro Jr. Oro bumps even bigger in this one than their showdown the week before. Even before the match starts Oro is waiting in the aisle for Metalico, which immediately backfires as Metalico sidesteps him, hits a great kneelift, and then tosses Oro into the ring post. Oro takes a really awesome Lawler style bump into the post. Oro takes another big beating from all the rudos here, with Metalico being the standout again as the vicious asskicker. The segunda sees the big tecnico comeback with all of them hitting big dives, Lee getting a big flip dive and a nice rana off the apron, and Oro about to exact his revenge when Metalico unmasks himself and gets the DQ win. I'm really liking this feud as it's really done a great job of making two guys stand out who I have never really giving second thoughts to. The fact I'm looking forward to more Metalico and Oro Jr. stuff really says something.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 9/6/14

Again, on 8/15/14 (and, now sadly, 8/22/14) it looks like they did a tournament for the CMLL Universal championship. Tournament lucha, baby! Catch that 150 second action!! So we all know these matches will be, best case scenario, the 2nd or 3rd best match on an episode of Worldwide, so I'm not really going to review the matches themselves because why bother. I'll make some notes of standout individual performance. The one positive I can take from this is that we might get some unique match-ups, however brief. It looks like there are a lot of rudos in the tourney so we may get some fun rudo on rudo shenanigans.

^^^ That is what I wrote during the first week of lucha tourney. It was worse than I expected. I expected bad. There was one total match that was not a complete waste of time. I'm willingly going into this expecting to waste my time. And I'm complaining about it. That is the definition of an obnoxious person right there.

1. Ultimo Guerrero vs. Mr. Niebla

Fun mat stuff and headscissor roll throughs that were indeed fun, but always felt very exhibition-y. Niebla broke out his cool code red arm drag, UG threw in the Jerry bump, Niebla did the wild moonsault off the top to the floor and another big moonsault press back in the ring. Niebla is throwing in more cool stuff in his 3 minute allotment than anybody else in this tourney. And it's nice as it actually ties into and leads to the finish, with him going for a 3rd moonsault, allowing UG to polish him off with the Guerrero Special for the win. So that was a good use of the time right there.

2. Virus vs. Dragon Rojo Jr.

Rojo comes out to the theme from Ghostbusters which is kinda weird. It's nice to see Virus in a match like this as he doesn't usually seem to crack the main event picture in CMLL, and at least being in a tournament for a title is something above his usual level. At this rate he might make it into the main event scene when he's 52. Virus works this match real smart, for such an awful format. He's a guy who's really good at mixing up rope running stuff, and is such a different worker than a lot of these guys that you get some unique exchanges. He finds a cool way to reverse Rojo's big seated corner dropkick, by pushing up at the right time to send Rojo's legs under, then locking on a front facelock. Great false finish as Rojo looked taken off guard but was already in the ropes. You got the sense that it could have finished the match otherwise. Finish was smart as it played into the match long story of Virus trying to win using his submission smarts, and it costing him. Virus always breaks out cool subs, and the one that backfired involved him rolling through on his opponent, but Rojo being much larger than Virus, causing him to roll through to far (like over rolling him), ending with Rojo on top and submitting Virus. It even makes sense in the worked setting as Virus usually works guys that are closer to his size, so him locking on a sub incorrectly against a larger guy works for me. Still wish Virus could have gone through to at least the semis.

3. Diamante Azul vs. Niebla Roja

This match was at least a good use of two minutes, though I kind of felt bad for Roja as this was a total Azul showcase. Azul looked really good on the mat with a couple cool ankle picks and looked real good at fluidly moving on to other parts of the body. Really smooth chain wrestling done in a way that didn't feel overly rehearsed. He also hits a big dive (first dive of the whole tournament actually) and then gets to roll back in and hit his awesome delayed german to win. They even put over his finisher by having a doctor come in and check on Roja after the match. Roja got totally steamrolled here, but Azul looked sharp in his showcase.

4. Titan vs. Volador Jr.

Not great, but short and they kept the back spring handstand nonsense to one part of the match. Titan hits a big moonsault and gets a nice false finish by catching Volador in a dragon screw into a sub. Volador's samoa drop driver finisher always looks completely dangerous, like it's just a matter of time before somebody gets their neck snapped.

5. Ultimo Guerrero vs. Dragon Rojo Jr.

Partners collide! But it really wasn't that exciting. Both guys doing moves until it was time for the Guerrero Special. Rojo took a nice bump to the floor off UG's baseball slide, and Rojo's dropkick off the rampway is a truly awesome and incredibly stupid move. Basically just a giant running back bump onto the floor, totally nuts.

6. Diamante Azul vs. Volador Jr.

Super short, very Volador heavy. Azul hit his nice rampway senton. I somehow got bored even though it was 2 minutes.

7. Ultimo Guerrero vs. Volador Jr.

Of course this one gets the most time of the tournament, and since Volador is losing then we get to see tons of goofy ass Volador stuff. None of this was very good. It did have one completely awesome moment though, with UG catching Volador on a flip dive to the floor and power bombing him into the ring post. That looked amazing. But Volador was back in the ring flipping around like a dungus just a few moments later. Match also had a really weird moment where Volador went for a roll up after a superkick, and UG kicked out, and then both of them sat upright on the mat for almost 20 seconds afterwards, just sitting there right next to each other, both staring out at the same direction (but not at each other), not selling or hitting each other or doing anything. Just sitting there. This happened really early in the match too. It was really strange. We'll edit it in post, boys!


Headline:

Tournament Lucha: Still the Worst

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