WWCI Arena San Juan Pantitlan 2/16/19

Another week, another cool looking Indy Lucha show put up by Lucha TV. Grabbed what looked cool to review

Demus vs. Bam Bam

PAS: Bam Bam was a mainstay of the CMLL minis division, but seemed to disappear around 2014. Demus welcomes him to the indies with a classic Demus bloodletting. Bam Bam comes in with Demus style face paint on and Demus tries to wash it off using Bam Bam's blood. Lots of great looking brawling from both guys. Bam Bam hits a great looking tope early, but when he goes for it again, Demus steps aside and flings him head first into some ratty looking chairs. It is a crazy bump and a great way to finish a match. Demus brawls are one of the most fun things in wrestling and welcome back Bam Bam.

ER: Bam Bam was out! He was done! So, welcome back to wrestling Bam Bam, and if you're curious, here's what a bunch of your blood looks like! I loved these two feuding a decade ago, would love to see them feuding right now. Bam Bam is a little chunkier, but that's probably because he was told that people love bleeding chunky luchadors, so he probably took a few years off to get that proper size. The weight doesn't appear to slow him down a lot, his rope running was still whip fast and he hits a tope in the first minute of the match that looks as good as his topes looked a decade ago. Demus won't stand for that, naturally, so proceeds to bust Bam Bam wide open. And it's one of those really great lucha bloodlettings where Bam Bam's face and torso get covered in dark red and you realize Bam Bam is a lunatic who must have wanted this! The finish is incredible, truly a finish worth of a count out victory: We get a scene very similar to the beginning of the match, a Bam Bam feint sends Demus to the floor, tope clearly coming...and Demus steps aside and helps Bam Bam find the front row of painful chairs instead. This needs to be run back all throughout 2019.

Impulso/Drako vs. Fly Star/Toscano

PAS: Three young indy guys and Toscano (the former Tarzan Boy) put on a shortish spotfest. I don't think I have seen Drako before, and I am always going to enjoy a fat guy who wrestles fat. He had a nice tackle, a baseball slide splash to the floor and a stiff powerbomb. Fly Star and Impulso are clearly setting something up, and they try some complex spots, some of which they pull off. The finish was true young guy dippshittery with Fly Star hitting a running electric chair headrop right into the corner, really looked like the kind of thing a backyard wrestler might break a cervical vertebrae with. I think we get hair challenges post match, which makes total sense, I would want to shave a guy bald if he tried to break my neck like that.

Caifan vs. Ultimo Guerrero

PAS: Ultimo Guerrero is one of the five biggest stars in one of the biggest promotions in the world, and for some reason he will show up in a tiny filthy arena to cut him self open and leak all over the ring. I am as captivated by indy brawl Guerrero as I am bored by CMLL main eventer Guerrero. Caifan is a great, great wrestler who never got a break, and he jumps Ultimo and posts him, and 90 seconds into the match Guerrero is dripping. Caifan whoops him all around the ring, including chucking a bunch of beers into his bloody head. Guerrero comes back, opens up Caifan and they just exchange big shots on the floor. This goes about 10 minutes and maybe 90 seconds are in the ring. Finish was kind of a lame low blow DQ, and they set up a hair match on the next show (third hair challenge on this show but they are doing this one.) They sold me.

ER: I loved this! UG is such a bizarre and fascinating glutton for this kind of a dirty gritty small crowd arena brawl, here he is leaving blood souvenirs on chairs and bystanders and merch all over Arena San Juan Pantitlan, beaten bloody and bumping hard on a ring that doesn't move an inch. I don't know what his deal is, but it's weird how my eyeballs glaze over his CMLL matches at this point and yet actively seek his indy work. It would be like if Dean Ambrose were currently working his typical fast forwardable Raw matches, but also bloody brawls from random VFWs near wherever Raw was taped. It makes no sense. Caifan is really great. He's someone who knows just how well to set up UG's trademark offense, while also knowing when to step in and bop him on the nose. And a LOT of the early part of this is nose bopping. I might have to break the stopwatch out to see who started bleeding earlier, UG or Bam Bam, but we're the winners in that race. UG gets smashed around ringside, Caifan is really mean about sending him tumbling and then running after him with a hard kick before UG can regain his bearings, and we get all time great brawl violence like Caifan wrapping UG's head in a banner and then punching his face through the banner. I love Caifan's hockey fight style of lucha. Ultimo's comeback on the floor is great, shoving through fans, grabbing drinks to bounce off Caifan's head, doing his flying hip attack into Caifan who was also sitting on a fan (and that fan went wandering off after being on the bottom of that pile making that teeth sucking face of someone who accidentally opened a car door into their own balls); at one point Ultimo is slamming Caifan's head repeatedly into some chairs and right behind them you can see 4 or 5 young boys just staring at these bloody lunatics in awe, not knowing how to react to the violence right in front of them. I like how Caifan handles a couple signature UG spots, namely how he ran headlong into eating a front suplex off the middle ropes (onto that damn hard ring). We've all seen UG just climb the ropes with his opponent on the way to doing that move, so it's cool that instead we get Caifan setting UG up for something and then getting grabbed on the run. Big ball shot finish works for something like this, and honestly with how much they killed each other here I have no clue what they're going to do in their hair match to top it...but I can't wait to see them try.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Park Familia v. Rush Familia

77. LA Park/Super Parka/ Hijo de LA Park v. Rush/Pierroth/Toscano Liga Elite 4/27

ER: This was great. It was worked at Arena Mexico, but worked as if they were playing a county fair to people who had never seen lucha before. It was great. Everybody brawls into the crowd in the primera and the crowd gets suitably riled. Park Jr. gets whooped around ringside, taking a great post bump, Pierroth walks up to the skeleton crew and throws a full beer in their face; Park and Rush are always the stars in this kind of act, they're larger than life and it's impossible to look away as they stiff the hell out of each other among the fans. Park and Jr. get run into the metal announcer nest, and soon Park disappears and comes back with a box of beer bottle empties and banks it off Rush's head. Broken glass flies onto the announcers desk. Park hits one of his huge dives onto Rush, and Park Jr. hits a huge plancha on Toscano into the front row, crashing Toscano painfully into the seats. We then settle into more county fair work, with Park working comedy chop sequences with all the rudos, starting with he and Rush chopping each other (and Rush winning the battle with nasty knife edges to the throat), but soon Park was chopping them all. The ones between he and Rush felt sinister. This felt like Super Parka's best performance since returning to Arena Mexico. He's 60, which only made those armdrags on Toscano more impressive. Rush also has a primo dickhead performance, my favorite moment being where he pins Park, but Park kicks out, rolling Rush right onto and over the referee. As they both stand up, Rush shoves the ref in the back of the head. I love how these teams match up, and any time Rush/Park are on opposite sides it's must watch.

PAS: I am not sure whether anyone in this match besides PARK and Rush was any good, but those guys are so great it really didn't matter. PARK has gotten so fat, I have no idea how his tope is still as graceful as it is, how does an obese man in his 50s fly like that. There was a great spot which Eric didn't mention in the beginning of the first fall where Rush and Toscano were using a midget as a weapon, it was sort of an awkward camera angle and it really looked like they were using a 10 year old as a bludgeon, before chucking him into the seats. This kind of Tijuana style match is still a total anomaly in Arena Mexico and it was really fun to watch someone get brained with a case of beer in the temple of Lucha Libre once again.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Lucha Memes 12/25/15 Review

Lucha Memes is one of the super indies which have shown up in Mexico lately booking matches out of my brain. A lot of the time they don't live up to the on paper possibility, but always worth checking out. 

Alas de Acero, Aramis, Iron Kid y Demasiado vs Suicida, Freelance, Súper Mega y Séptimo Rayo

PAS: This is a spotfest opener, with a mix of cool and blown spots. Suicida and Freelance are always a welcome sight and they break out the two coolest dives of the match with Suicida going horizontal on a tope and Freelance getting thrown to the celling by his partner in a tope con hilo. There was some pretty bad construction Ric Blade stuff with chairs for the finish, much more of a chance to see some fun guys then a good match

Arez, Impulso y Belial vs Decnnis, Toscano y Zumbido


PAS: This a vetrans vs. young hot shot luchadores Indystrongtibles. The young guys have some fun spots, and I enjoy Zumbido, but parts of this were pretty bad. Toscano especially was clearly just mailing this whole thing in. Not enough good to recommend, most time your veterans work hard on these indy shows, not here.

ER: This wasn't good, but I did think Zumbido was actually really good in this. Not good enough to lift up 5 other guys, but his stuff looked like Zumbido's stuff, which is good. Loved him leaning jaw first into a Belial superkick, taking his huge flip bump to the floor, dragging a guy to the apron to paste him with a DDT. I thought he was a bright spot. Skip to those spots. 

Negro Navarro vs Virus

PAS: Maestro match of the year, and just beautiful grappling. No catch and release stuff, all nasty twists and counters. Both guys are like a pair of jazz masters just riffing, Navarro tries an attack, Virus comes up with a trippy way to get out, and Navarro counters his counter. Virus does this awesome thing where he is stuck in a submission and he just shifts his weight around until he finds a weak spot in the submission. Lesser mat workers will just go from hold to hold, you get to see Virus show his work. Navarro is especially great at setting up a submission and have an extra crank, he gets everything lined up and then BOOM here comes a quick extra violent twist. I loved this so much, it is a match up I dreamed about for years and it has always lived up to expectations. 

ER: This was just constant, and so damn impressive. Phil mentions most guys going hold to hold, and it's totally true. Submission, break, start over. Submission, let other guy go, start over. The stuff is impressive, but never advances things. This is constant advancement. There's a rope break and a truce off of it, but most of it is just two men wanting to roll and wanting to beat the other without strikes. It's a benefit of a una caida match, although most una caida matches are just worked like shorter, lesser matches. I can't fathom some of the predicaments each man ends up in during this match, even though they pretty clearly intentionally get into those positions. The foresight is incredible. Navarro on his back with Virus standing, Virus appears to be stepping around to get in the mount, but instead he's just slyly hooking Navarro's leg with his own leg, then dropping down and falling to his left, the momentum naturally rolling Navarro up a bit, as Virus is already focused on clamping down his leg at the knee over Navarro's leg. It's smooth, fast beautiful and the match is full of little things like that. No robotics, just too experts with incredible instincts who make this kind of stuff look easy. We know it's not easy, but you'd never know watching these two. Also let's give a shout out to the awesome ref in cool glasses, bowtie and short sleeve pink shirt. That man is almost distractingly cool. 


Dalys vs Keira


PAS: This was pretty bad, Dalys was a last minute replacement for Marcela and that would have work a lot better as Dalys can't do this kind of workrate joshi luchadora match at all. She is pretty Sexy Starish here, the rollup section early looked totally amateurish. She works kind of stiff but that is her only positive. Double pin finish just adds to the turd sandwich. 

Dr. Cerebro vs Negro Casas

PAS: What we got of this was pretty great, Casas is a wrestling genius and Cerebro is one of the more underrated guys in wrestling history. There was a great strike exchange with both guys laying into each other and doing a great job of selling each shot, Casas especially can write a novel with every expression. Still this goes 5 minutes, which is barely enough for a first fall, much less an entire match. I have no idea why you book this and give it such short shrift. Negro Casas is at the show, you booked a cool first time match, let him do his thing.

ER: I've always been curious about how things like this happen. I don't know how lucha payouts work, but I have to imagine Casas can demand more than your average luchador. So how does this happen? There are a few scenarios, so we can figure out which is the most likely: 1) Casas calls up and says "Hey I'm gonna be in Naucalpan, any room for me to pop in and work a really short match? I won't charge much." 2) Booker in the back says "Alright boys, go out and give me 4 minutes, and NOTHING MORE." 3) Both men just happen to work a short match, get into a shouting match with booker in the back who expected them to go longer. 4) Potentially all three of those things. 


Trauma I y Trauma II vs Black Terry y Negro Navarro

PAS: These two teams had one of my favorite matches of the decade in 2011 and this match hits a lot of the same beats. The match starts with cool mat sections between II and Terry and I and Navarro. Navarro and I were doing some catch and release stuff which I don't usually love, but works fine with a son trying to upstage his father. Navarro ends one mat section with a little tap on the head, and T1 responds with a nasty slap to Pops ear. This causes Navarro to do this great semi concussed selling, and it gets nasty from there with both sons trying to take out their father and their dad's old drinking buddy. Both oldsters are great brawlers, and there is a point where Terry has II in a full mount and is just punching him right in the jaw. I admit it is a little unnerving to see Trauma II slap someone he loves, but I suppose I should divorce art from the news. Finish kept this a bit below the 2011 classic as Navarro gets eliminated and it comes down to Terry v. both Traumas, considering the whole story was patricide, it is off to have Terry be the last man standing. Still Terry is a great last man standing as he opens up his own forehead with a headbutt before succumbing to the spinning figure four.

ER: Weird, cool match that had strange undercurrents to it. I was not expecting that slap to Navarro, and Navarro either did one of the all time great sells or he wasn't much expecting it either. Navarro acted kind funny and bell rung the rest of the match so who the hell knows. But things clearly changed after that. Now Navarro did work a tough match earlier in the night so maybe he just needed a reason to sit out a bit, but I bought it no matter how odd it was. From there the structure was odd, as instead of matwork gamesmanship, with guys working holds and then letting the other guy go, you had brawling gamesmanship. Terry would come in, slap around Trauma I for a bit, then let up. Then Trauma II would come in, slap Terry around a bit, then let up. I thought Terry looked great throughout this and drove the story along with his facials, and then doing his own amazing selling. Him dropping to his knees after a strike exchange reminded me of Lawler/Dundee. Loved him holding onto the headlock a couple times with Trauma trying to push him off, with Terry hitting the breaks and dropping down to the mat. I love headlock spots where the guy holds on. And those mounted punches to Trauma II were some of the nastiest strikes I've seen this decade. Terry might still be the best damn brawler in the game, which is crazy considering he's the age of my father. The two of them each have similar mustaches, one of them is the arguable best brawler in wrestling, the other is thinking of how best to retire from his dentistry practice. So we had a weird match, not the match I was expecting, but a match with tons of nasty charm. 

Atlantis vs Caifán

PAS: This match is a real example of the value of blood. Atlantis is a wrestler who at his prime was a graceful athlete, he has lost almost all of that (there is a bodypress in this match which is really bad), but still has great timing and a sense of a match. Caifan goes ahead and sprays blood out of his head and bumps into the crowd and tries really hard to make this memorable. Don't know he completely succeeds, but I mostly enjoyed it.


***Navarro/Virus was awesome and was an easy addition to our 2015 Ongoing MOTY List***

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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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MLJ: Negro Casas vs Tarzan Boy [HAIR]

2002-09-13 @ Arena México
Tarzan Boy vs Negro Casas

26:39 in

I had to go digging a bit for this one. That's one of the bits of madness about this whole thing. There's more lucha online that I'm ever going to get to, and that's just online, and really that's just the stuff that interests me too. There are things I prioritize though, and a Negro Casas hair match I've never seen anyone talk about is up there.

I have a soft spot for Tarzan Boy too. Because it's one of the first things I came across starting this a couple of years ago, I'm a sucker for the Ultimo Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, Atlantis, Tarzan Boy, Olimpico version of GdI. He's like the world's best, smarmiest Paul Roma, but you know, in a good way. He's absolutely insufferable here, coming out to Simply Irresistible with four girls, tights with 69 on them, and lipstick kisses all over his body. There's a great camera shot early on of Casas entering the ring with Tarzan Boy in the foreground, standing on the second rope posing, partially obscuring the entrance. Later on, he wouldn't stop posing and grinding even as the ref was trying to give him instructions. That'd distract Casas enough that he could rush in and take the early advantage in the match.

This was the main event of the 2002 Anniversary show, so it's not exactly totally under the radar or anything. This footage claims to be unedited but the only way that seems to matter is with some longer pan shots than usual and the fact they don't split screen the replays. It's very watchable.

This was a one-fall match for some reason (not unlike the Damien vs Satanico match from around this period). It could have used a few more minutes certainly and almost functions as a hair match sprint, without long spurts of selling you'd expect in the tercera, but it's a very good match for what it is.

What's telling, too, is that you could see where the act breaks would be. Tarzan Boy loses the advantage early as Casas hits this great spear, but he gets it back with a really nice Drop Toe Hold, and they go back and forth a bit until he hits this a killer half nelson slam/chokeslam thing, following it up with a springboard spinning splash. That'd probably be a fall. A few moves later, Casas escapes from a Gory Special/pin, and manages to get in the Scorpion Deathlock; that'd be the comeback and the second fall. Then they brawl back and forth for a bit until Casas puts him in a chair on the outside and as he gets up, hits his running seated senton. That would be the transition point to the finishing stretch in the tercera. So it all makes sense. It just happens to be one fall. In this match, given the time it had, it helps because there's never a real feeling of disappointment from short falls. It all feels like more than the sum of its parts. In situations where they're going to have three or four minutes between the first two falls, maybe they should go this way instead.

So, it's missing some of the drama that you'd get in the end of these because it doesn't nearly have the number of near falls you'd usually expect (Though one at the end is really good). It also does have a slight veneer of its times. Tarzan Boy hits a Scorpion Death Drop and later in the match, Casas hits a full nelson spin out into one. Tarzan Boy launches this pretty silly cradle suplex too which didn't quite have the execution it needed. Those are minor things in the grand scheme though. As part of the Casas canon that doesn't get talked about much, it's worth seeing (But then every part of the Casas canon is worth seeing), and hey, Tarzan Boy's such a jerk in it that a fan even runs in to attack him after the match.

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MLJ: Guerreros del Infierno B-13: Atlantis, Satánico, Shocker vs Rey Bucanero, Tarzan Boy, Último Guerrero

2002-02-01 @ Arena México
Atlantis, Satánico, Shocker vs Rey Bucanero, Tarzan Boy, Último Guerrero

This match was 11 minutes or so of awesome. I almost missed it in going through the GdI comp and I'm so glad I didn't. It's got two things going for it most of all: atmopshere and character. The crowd was super hot. The tecnicos were intense. Shocker was downright gallant. The rudos were evil. Tarzan Boy was as chickenshit as chickenshit comes. And this was true for the beginning, the middle, and the end. Even Satanico seemed to revel in being on the tecnico side.

That's a bit peculiar. He was still with Averno and Mephisto and this was at Arena Mexico so it wasn't like it was some local thing where he got to cross the line. During this period, when placed against GdI in a trios, sometimes he was with tecnicos and when he was, he had that standing. The week after this he might have faced off against Atlantis. It's actually true for Shocker as well, I think. Satanico was there to fight GdI and Shocker was there to fight Tarzan Boy.

That was the main story of the match. The tecnicos (and de facto tecnicos) charged right in to start. Even Atlantis was whipping Ultimo Guerrero around ringside with his jacket. Shocker and Tarzan Boy were captains. Tarzan Boy immediately tried to ambush Shocker, but was held back by the tecnicos. Shocker, however, wanted to face him in a fair fight and told them to let him go, which the crowd loved. A moment later, however, in a bounce off the ropes, the rudos kick Shocker in the back from the outside and start to swarm. That brought the heat in a huge way. It was a great start to the match. Shocker looked noble. Tarzan Boy looked like scum. Maybe best of all, the tecnicos kept fighting even as they were swarmed. This wasn't a case of one guy just standing around as his partners get destroyed. The rudos made sure that no one could make a save.

There were some specifically fun spots too, like this crazy wheelbarrow:

and this great triple pin:

and a double corner clothesline which I swear in my years and years of watching wrestling, I'd never seen before(bonus awesome UG suplex included):

That lead to a double diving headbutt and the end of the fall. GdI were so cool and so sleek and so dickish. This was just a few minutes but it was an awesome few minutes of rudos gang warfare, smooth, brutal, and violent. Tremendously effective and they got all the heat they deserved for it.

As (almost) always, I wish there was just a bit more heat to the segunda, but it's okay here, because the primera was so definitive and because when the comeback happens, the fans want it and it actually means something. That said, I just think of how much more it could have been a minute or two later. Here, they went right to the heart of the match. Shocker's the one who fights back, who ducks a corner attack and causes some heel miscommunication. He stood tall allowing his partners to rush back in. Instead of immediately going to the fall and resetting for the tercera, they ran "tecnicos vs the world" here. That had everything to do with the stunted third fall but it made for an interesting formula. I liked it a lot actually since it began with the sense that maybe Shocker wouldn't be able to maintain the comeback. He had to fight off all the rudos, and when he finally ended up out of the ring (after being ambushed again by Tarzan Boy, a sign that the match was really on focus), Satanico came in and fought them off. The crowd was behind him and he seemed elated in his role. First, Rey Bucanero kept taking this crazy knee first bump for Satanico's back body drops, and then Ultimo Guerrero ate his stuff like a king. Atlantis was in next and maybe he was a half step behind what had just happened but made up for it by innovating awesomely with this spot, which I loved:

He followed it up with a tope which led to a Satanico backslide on UG and Shocker finally getting his hands on Tarzan Boy with the world's hugest bulldog on the floor(it's even better not sped up but I can't get any other gifmaker to work here. Just trust me):

They started the tecera with what seemed to be the payoff, resetting to Tarzan Boy vs Shocker. The former tried to assert himself like the jerk that he was but the latter was just too much. They delayed the ultimate payoff though as Shocker was overzealous and missed a senton, letting Tarzan Boy escape to the outside. This let them close off the other pairings, with Satanico hitting a big plancha from the top to the outside on Ultimo Guerrero and Atlantis rocket launching Rey and then locking him in a rolling submission.

This brought us back to Shocker vs Tarzan Boy and Shocker mercilessly tossed his rival across the ring twice with "urinages." He went in for the kill but Tarzan Boy, hugely desperate, tried for a mule kick foul. Shocker caught it though. This led to an even more desperate kick to the head by TB, followed immediately by him pretending he was fouled. The ref was having none of it though and dq'd the rudos.

The tecnicos got to win. The rudos got to be vile and heelish and chickenshit, but didn't lose so definitively that the crowd wouldn't want to see Shocker get even more revenge last time. Great, functional match, especially in the time it was given.

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MLJ: Guerreros del Infierno B-11: Infierno en el Ring [Cage]

2001-09-28 @ Arena México (68th Annivesario)
Nuevo Nuevo Infernales (Satanico, Averno, Mephisto) vs Nuevo Infernales (Ultimo Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, Tarzan Boy, Mascara Magica) [Cage]

http://youtu.be/qUj_ZEHXxvE

http://youtu.be/8yMbWjFPTr0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eS4qtO1pPE

This one's obviously not on the comp since it's not a straight up tag match but it's such a key moment in the feud, really the blow off in a lot of ways, that I'm glad we have it online, albeit with slightly poor VQ. This was it, the battle over the name, with everyone's masks and hair on the line on the biggest stage of the year.

I don't know if this was a one match show because I don't have enough context but the match second to the top was an atomicos [Wagner, Fuerza, Juventud, and Universo vs Black Tiger III(Silver King), Lizmark, Jr., Casas, and Villano IV] which has a couple of interesting names but doesn't seem a huge draw to me. There was a Mexican Trios title match as well but everything seemed stacked for the main event. I don't see an easy to find attendance number for this so I have no idea how it drew, but my guess is "pretty well."

A few brief notes on Magica Mascara here, since he's the one who's going to end up losing this thing. He's the second guy to have the gimmick. The first, obviously, was Eddy, and him unmasking willingly on TV to claim his birthright was a coming of age for him. You'd think that would make the gimmick radioactive, but whatever. The guy playing it here was Talisman's kid, which you think would have been a good gimmick for him but he lost THAT mask relatively early in his career. He was in GdI to cover for Tarzan Boy when he was injured and he doesn't all that much longer in the stable after this match. He did keep using the name Magica Mascara, which was sort of ballsy on some level, given, you know, the lack of a mask. I have no idea if they promoted he was Talisman's son while wearing the mask.

So, this isn't your standard lucha cage match. I've only seen a few, mind you, but the general idea is that the "escape rules" actually mean something since those who don't make it out end up fighting for their life (well, their mask or hair, but those things MEAN something). One thing I stress again and again, even if not necessarily in these words, is that understanding lucha isn't about understanding the rules (that the last two in the ring have a one fall apuesta match or that they can only leave after X amount of minutes when the whistle blows, or that you only have to straddle the cage to get out, not get all the way to the floor) but the narrative elements, the stories being told, the way they tell them. Understanding wrestling isn't about knowing what a pile driver is called, but what a pile driver means in the context of the match. That to me, is the biggest mistake for people who introduce lucha to others.

So you have the extreme desire to escape here, but it's also combined with both the blood feud element of Infernales vs Infernales and the fact they're fighting over the name. It's not every man for himself. It's a four-on-three war and that gives it all a bit more substance than the average cage match. A little more focus too which was good because the VQ is kind of rough and there's a lot of chaos in the ring. They have a habit of switching camera angles at the worst times, too. Sometimes I'll get Mephisto and Averno confused, and I had to double back three times to figure out how Ultimo Guerrero got out at the end for instance.

That said, it was a really well put together cage match. By its nature, there couldn't just be guys brawling about. Maybe if it was 3 vs 3 they could have done that but this had to be more structured and the match lived and died not on its violence but on its transitions, on the momentum flows. I've seen tons of standard trios that were put together with less care and thought than this, despite its chaotic nature.

So, let's talk about the transitions. The story for the first part of the match was going to be the numbers game. I'm not sure why Satanico agreed to a four-on-three match with such high stakes, but it made his group the favorites for the Annivesario crowd. It also meant that GdI got off to an early advantage after just a bit of brawling. They hit a double kick on Satanico, the double choke drop on Averno and then a triple dropkick on Mephisto after a huge facebuster. Then we get transition #1. All of them tried to climb out at once, but it wasn't time yet so the explosions went off and they all fell off the cage. This let the Infernales take over, and they were awesome in this, outnumbered but using their momentary advantage to pick off GdI with shoulder blocks and nasty chops, really just stalking them. Then, they tried to climb out and got blown up as well. Everyone ended up on the ground (and Satanico laid in these great headbutts from that position, but that's neither here nor there).

Finally, the whistle went off so that's the end to the explosions. I'll admit I bought GdI's attempt to get out more than Los Infernales' attempt since they'd just seen what had happened to their opponents when they tried but it was the heat of the moment and that whistle might be easy to miss. The numbers game came back into play pretty quickly, and GdI took back over. This lasted for a minute or two before Tarzan Boy used it to basically kick and stomp his way over everyone's heads in the corner and get out. Thus came into play the endless problem of tag team cage matches with escape rules. By leaving, he theoretically "scored a point" for his team as now they only had to get three guys out instead of four, but he also sacrificed the numerical advantage for them. Since this match had additional stakes, it also had additional nuances. He left to protect his hair, and while he tried to encourage his partners on, the name was on the line too and they were more than a little furious at him. In fact, in the fit of them arguing from both sides of the cage, Los Infernales were able to recover and attack from behind, leading to another transition. GdI shrugged off headlocks into a triple charge, taking the momentum back but almost immediately thereafter, they did the alley oop body splash spot, with Rey landing on Mephisto but then immediately climbing over.

Now it was three on two and for the first time in the match, Los Infernales (very much due to how successful their opponents had been) had the numbers advantage. Ultimo Guerrero and Mascara Magica, realizing it, immediately rushed to get out of the cage but they were caught and pounded upon for a few minutes until UG was able to duck a double dropkick as Satanico was holding him, thus shifting the momentum again as GdI fought like hell against the odds. This was pretty brutal with heads going into cage, a tree of woe being utilized, and the senton de la muerte in the corner on Averno. When they tried to climb up and out, however, everyone ended on top of each other and Mephisto was the one to ultimately make it out.

That made it two on two and GdI immediately tried to swing the odds in their favor by rushing to the attack and tying Averno's mask to the top rope. Satanico took a bit of a beating but then came back in another momentum shift, with the crowd hugely behind him, hitting a slew of hangman's noose clotheslines and starting the process to untie Averno, who really played it up when he did get free. Satanico was really great here, punching and headbutting away. More than that, though, his character work was really solid. He had the most invested in the Infernales name and there was something almost fatherly in how he protected Averno, first by untying him but then, after he and Ultimo Guerrero hit big tandem moves (UG with a chokeslam on Averno and Satanico with a goardbuster on Magica), he let Ultimo Guerrero escape (this is where I had camera angle issues) but instead of escaping himself, rushed back in to make sure that Magica didn't make it out. He kept Magica contained so that Averno could make it out, leaving him in there vulnerable to losing his hair but in control of the fate of the Infernales name.

The match that followed was short but heated. Magica belonged in this match as much as Averno or Mephisto certainly. There was a real sense of stakes to this. Everything felt big and important and it was very much rudo vs rudo with Magica trying to win with his feet on the ropes multiple times. In the end, though, Satanico locked in the Satan's Knot, criss-crossing the arms and leaning forward to make a pin out of it, and he won the match, the name, and Mascara Magica's mask. He was elated. The fans were elated. The woman (his wife?) that he gave the mask to ultimately was elated. Magica removed his mask and stormed out of the ring, but tried to put on a strong face afterwards. It was a satisfying end to the feud and while gimmicky and lacking in blood, felt big enough to be the feud ender.

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MLJ: Guerreros del Infierno B-7 and A-8: Rey Bucanero & Último Guerrero vs Satanico and Averno

Hey! So I almost covered a match I had already covered, which would be a great way to start the second year, right? Thankfully, I didn't, but I am still going to post a link to it here because it lets people watch one of these matches, in sequence, even though it's not on the comp.

Here's the link where the match is posted. I looked at this way back last August. It's blurry but still fun. I only remembered I'd seen it once they ripped up Averno's mask. So that's B-7.

And here's some additional viewing.

As promised, this is Rencor Latino (who I looked at briefly on Monday) turned into Averno and it's just as awesome as you'd expect with magic lightning and everything.

So next up is A-8. Watching lucha from an honest to goodness comp is great. The only problem is that I can't always figure out dates. Friday's match, which is Satanico and Shocker vs GdI from Monterrey is pretty easy since there's only one of those on Cubsfan's match finder. The pairing of Averno and Satanico vs GdI happened a lot though and this match had an inconclusive ending.

I think this could be From 7-26, in Arena Isabel, Cuernavaca, Morelos. It could also be from 8-03, but then that would be after the next match on the set. Really, it's amazing our information is as good as it is for most of this when you think about it. It's in that gap period after we have easy online access to Wrestling Observers but before Cubsfan had started the modern version of his blog. There were other resources once upon the time but the internet ate them up.

This is fun and heated and it gives a very good look (with the match I wrote up before) of the feud at the time. They must have been having fun matches week in and week out. Let's get some notes out of the way to start. Instead of Tecnicos/Rudos they listed U.Guerrero and Satanico on the screen to note who had what falls. Poor Rey Bucanero. Averno had this weird mask that I think was supposed to be half of Rey's old mask and half of Ultimo Guerrero's but I have no real idea. Mascara Magica was outside. Or so we were led to believe. When Tarzan Boy was injured earlier in the year, he rounded out the team. His look was really out of place for GdI. Mephisto was on the outside with his arm in a sling. This is presumably for the titles.

What I saw in both this and the other Averno/Satanico vs GdI match was that Rey and UG were presented as having the superior teamwork and generally used that to isolate their opponents and keep control. Here, they took over by Rey doing one of the things he does best, being a total chickenshit heel. Rey kept interfering anytime that Satanico or Averno had an advantage on UG and Satanico would charge after him. The second or third time this happened, he had the ref get between them and layed in a cheapshot on Satanico, crushing him on the post. They kept the pressure on, did the double lift up/sit down choke slam, the armflips and the foot chokes on Averno followed by the double crab on Satanico.

In between falls, we got to see Averno and Satanico, in a flashback, tearing the Infernales colors off of Rey and UG to help set this up. I wish we had more of it alone, more of the trios and some of the big matches (for instance the Juicio Final 2001 match of Satanico/Shocker/Black Warrior vs UG, Rey, and Tarzan Boy), because it all seems great.

Anyway, the segunda was brief, with a quick double clothesline into one another and everything breaking down ending with Rey missing a corner charge and sailing over the top rope so as to eata dive by Averno. This let Satanico hit a backslide (which was one of his favorite things to do in this period) on UG as the other two were counted out.

The tercera was pretty interesting, actually, in that after some good action (though with varying execution), it ended with a surprise and some contention. First Mascara Magica interfered, allowing for GdI to double pin Satanico. Then they ran that spot where Rey gets rolled up during the double facebuster as UG had already turned around to gloat. It's not a bad spot but I'd worry that they overused it now that I've seen it twice. Once it became Averno vs UG, it really broke down, with Mascara Magica interfering again and Satanico brazenly coming in while UG had Averno up in a Muscle Buster position (which I'd never seen him do before) to foul UG. One ref counted it anyway. The other DQed them. There was pandemonium.

And then, right at the end, Mascara Magica pulled his mask and shirt off to reveal that he was a returned Tarzan Boy, which did feel like a big moment, especially for one involving Tarzan Boy. In a bubble, this was a lot of fun, but it would have definitely resonated more if I was watching this feud in greater detail.

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MLJ: Guerreros del Infierno A-6: Rey Bucanero & Último Guerrero © vs El Hijo Del Santo & Negro Casas [CMLL TAG]

2000-12-15? @ Arena México
Rey Bucanero & Último Guerrero © vs El Hijo Del Santo & Negro Casas [CMLL TAG]

I'm not 100% sure on this date. The comp doesn't have dates and my research skills are limited. Wikipedia seems to have the same information whether you look at Ultimo Guerrero or Satanico or Guerreros del Infierno, but going off Cubs' match finder, this has to be the match, which would make it the second to last match on Sin Piedad 2000. There's some wonky bits timeline-wise though.

Satanico is announced as GdI's second, but he doesn't come out. Instead Tarzan Boy comes out, so this must have been right after the break up of Los Nuevo Infernales. Both Satanico and Tarzan Boy were in a Relevos Increibles match earlier in the night, on opposite sides (interestingly enough Niebla was on one side of that and Charles on the other). There's a match after this where Satanico teams with GdI and at least one where Tarzan Boy is on the opposite side in a trios from the two of them, but I'm guessing these were all part of the twists and turns.

The main reason I doubt it is that the match write ups I've seen (and they're scant, as is any coverage of this period online in English, which was one reason I wanted to get this comp) have the action going differently. Given the big entrances they got, I would believe this was something on the level of Sin Piedad. Regardless, the action was good. The pairing of Casas and Santo over multiple matches against GdI was one of the most appealing thing about this. It's really an exciting match up on paper, the two veteran rivals come together, just masters of their craft, and the upstarts, with their flashy teamwork and brazen attitude.

And that's exactly what we got here. This was as good as I expected it to be (as in quite good) but maybe not as great as I hoped for. Structurally, I liked it a lot. It's very easy to compare GdI in 2000-2001 to the modern day Ingobernables. Sure there were a few less shades of grey, but it's not like Rush and company are subtle in 2015. In all of the Ingobernables tag titles matches, they'd tease some traditional opening match work before going into cheap shots and the beatdown to take the primera, building up heat for the comeback in the segunda and then a reset for a bunch of near-falls in the tercera. There was an element of that here but they twisted it to make it feel a bit more like a traditional title match.

Rey and Santo started out with some decent matwork. Rey kept up with him for the most part and fed into his reversals and comebacks. I think that he still had some ways to go at this point though (and I'm not completely convinced he ever mastered this element of the game, even if his character work, which was already pretty good here, got even better as the years went on). It ended with Santo holding the advantage and offering a handshake, which Rey took. Shortly thereafter, however, Ultimo Guerrero brought out the cheapshots and the knees. The tecnicos came back though, and it all led to one of the best tope suicidas I've ever seen from Santo. He made it through the ropes with such impact, that he was coming DOWN upon Rey. It was great and I'm sorry I can't gif it. It also led into the big moment of the segunda, and more immediately, to a Casita and Caballo for the fall.

That great moment in the segunda came after a few minutes of really good back and forth action. Casas' selling especially was good here as he ate some tandem offense. Ultimately, though, the tecnicos took the advantage again with Santo dropkicking the taunting GdI out of the ring. Then, Casas took hold of Rey from behind, setting him up on the floor for another Santo tope. This was Tarzan Boy's big moment though, hammering Casas from behind as the refs were distracted which left him open to be moved into the path of the tope. Some tandem offense later and the rudos took the segunda.

What followed was a pretty exciting, back and forth tercera with the highlights being Casas feeding off of the crowd, Santo's arm submission spots, lots of well timed pin break ups, and Santo, finally getting frustrated by all of it and kicking out the violence (literally). In the end, GdI just had the superior teamwork. Santo went up for a moonsault or turning body press, but Rey bounded off of UG's back, dropkicking him and allowing UG to hit the Guerrero special. It was a striking moment as Casas and Santo really did feel like bigger stars to me in this match. Santo, especially, had only been back wrestling for CMLL for a month or two at this point, and I think it was a big deal for them to put over the younger wrestlers so cleanly. Definitely a good match and I'm excited to know I have a few more with these four upcoming.

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MLJ: Guerreros del Infierno A-3: 2000 CMLL Tag Team Title Tournament

Alright, onto the comp itself (so this is the third entry in this series, but it's an A category). Again, apologies for not having matches to show people here, but Fredo was kind enough to transfer this over from VHS for me so it's out there. We're starting with the tag team tournament for the CMLL titles. These were vacated around this time due to El Hijo Del Santo going independent instead of working for CMLL full time. He had been teaming with Negro Casas.

It took me a little bit to figure out what happened here, as I have this listed as one half of the tournament bracket, with Emilio Charles, Jr. and Mr. Niebla winning the other side. On the comp itself though, this is listed as the 1st round, semi finals, and finals. Apparently what happened was that Charles was injured, so GdI having won their side of the bracket got the belts by forfeit, and then had their first defense against Niebla and a substitute partner (Villano IV) at the Entre Torre Infernal PPV where the finals were supposed to take place.

So this side of the bracket had Felino and Tarzan Boy, Blue Panther and Bestia Salvaje(who with Scorpio, Jr. had been the team trading the belts with Santo and Casas), Porky and Olimpico, Lizmarks Sr. and Jr., Cien Caras and Universo 2000, Gran Markus, Jr. and Pimpinela Escarlata, and GdI. In case anyone's curious, the other side had Niebla and Charles, Jr., Fuerza and Black Warrior, Scorpio, Jr. and Zumbido, Tony Rivera and Antifaz del Norte, Wagner, Jr. and Shocker, Rayo and Atlantis, Tinieblas, Jr. and Rivera, and Satanico and Apolo Dantes.

This was absolutely CMLL tournament lucha, but that's okay, because tournament lucha can be fun if you come in with the right expectations and are looking for specific things. Here, I wanted to see just what GdI brought to the table in 2000, both giving and taking. I've seen them in trios with Satanico to lead them, but here they were out there on their own on what would probably have been one of the biggest nights of their careers up until this point.

And I have to admit, it was all a lot of fun. Before the first match, they showed us this awesome training video with the two of them running tumbling drills and hyping each other up. That's going to be a theme in this. They are a team, a unit, in the sort of way that I've rarely seen with a tag team in my CMLL watching. Titles are defended so rarely and straight up tag matches, as opposed to trios that are almost always there to push a singles program, are pretty rare too. GdI were a team and I think that's part of why they stood out so much.

2000-06-30 @ Arena México
Rey Bucanero & Último Guerrero vs Felino & Tarzan Boy [CMLL TAG, 1st]

I want to stage the complaint of having Tarzan Boy's theme in my head once again. Just to give some perspective here, UG was 28, Rey was 26, Tarzan Boy was 27, and Felino was 36. According to cubs' Match Finder, Rey and UG only had one straight up tag match together in their career up til this point. GdI took over immediately, using either tandem offense or paralleled offense (as in Rey would hit a flapjack and then UG would hit a flapjack). After some mauling, both Tarzan Boy and Felino got to do "vs. the world" exchanges where they out-quicked both opponents. UG was more agile at this point and ate this stuff especially well.

Eventually though, Felino ran into a double flapjack/facebuster thing and then a cool double lift up into a double sit down choke slam. They were very smooth with this tandem offense and it really stood out. Then they flipped back with the arms into a cool double submission:

Tarzan Boy met much the same fate with another double flapjack, then a double wheelbarrow suplex and a really nasty arm pull/foot choke double submission. Striking stuff.

Rey Bucanero & Último Guerrero vs Villano IV & Villano V [CMLL TAG, quarterfinal]

The Villanos had pretty awesome music. They were tecnicos here and took a good chunk of the short match due to well-timed rudo miscommunication. The best spot here was Rey accidentally clotheslining UG over the top to set up stereo topes and a nice little exchange where UG got shrugged off while trying to bulldog a Villano into Rey's foot (as he was on the apron), followed by him shrugging off the Villano, only to see him float back over and hit a powerslam for two.

Eventually though, GdI took back over with whip reversals and tandem dropkicks. They hit another double facebuster, yet another (and different) double submission and then a double corner clothesline which I don't think I've ever seen before but it looked great. Then they finished it all up with this cool double leg lock roll into a double crab. I didn't grab screen caps of all these but you have to take my word on it that they were novel and cool, but at the same time fit well into the albeitly short matches.

Rey Bucanero & Último Guerrero vs Hijo del Lizmark & Lizmark Sr. [CMLL TAG, semifinal (de facto finals)]

Like I said, Charles' team had already won their bracket (I think the week before on June 23). The match finder has him wrestling up until July 28, and then not again until August 18, with the supercard being on August 4, so unless it was an angle, they didn't book this match with the injury in mind.

I say that because, for a de facto tournament final, this was very, very decisive. GdI swarmed. UG hit a corner clothesline. Rey leapt off his back with a poetry in motion body attack. UG slapped a leglock on Lizmark and leaned down a bit. Rey leapt off his back again (while he kept on the leglock) and hit a dropkick on Lizmark, Jr. in a really spectacular and novel spot. Rey locked in a reverse figure four and UG grabbed a double-underhook to really grind in the leglock. He rolled back. Rey turned over and just like that, within a minute, they won. It was a massive exclamation point to the night.

So, to sum up, this was tournament lucha so nothing went long or had much substance but GdI got to show off their teamwork in their first match, how well they could feed tecnicos in their second match (as well as some cool offense), and then totally dominated in the third, and I think the crowd absolutely noticed their presence. All of this was a lot of fun for what it was.

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MLJ: Guerreros del Infierno B-2: Héctor Garza, Latin Lover, Tarzan Boy vs Rey Bucanero, Satánico, Último Guerrero

2000-06-17 @ Plaza de Toros, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal
Héctor Garza, Latin Lover, Tarzan Boy vs Rey Bucanero, Satánico, Último Guerrero

5:03 in

B match (thus not a comp one). Chronologically, the Villanos and IWRG Niebla (http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2014/08/mlj-los-guerreros-flashback-los-nuevos.html) trios match that I looked at back in August comes before this. So, I'm almost a year into the journey now and I still get a kick out of how much I just don't know. It's not even obscure things like how Inquisidor is the brother of Polvora (thanks, Jay Cordingley), but big things.

For instance, did you know that there was an big 25,000 people outdoor AAA vs CMLL stadium show in 2000? Probably. You probably did. I sure didn't. I'm going to liken that to not knowing that WWE bought WCW and ran the invasion angle in 2001 for a relatively new American wrestling fan. I do think that there are lucha hot points, namely the early-mid 90s (with the emergence of Rey and Psicosis and AAA and before the Mexican economy collapsed and a lot of the big names went to WCW) and the mid 00s (with Perros del Mal and the rise of Mistico) and the period in the middle is a bit more of a black hole.

Case in point, I actually couldn't find a ton about this show (called Padrisimo: Father's Day seems like a day for big shows in Mexico) in English. Best I came up with was that Televisa insisted upon it and CMLL agreed, kicking and screaming. It's actually a pretty fun looking card with an atomicos main event, though dulled a little bit by how many guys would jump back and forth in the years to come.

This was the second match on the card and Garza, Lover, and Tarzan Boy were all currently AAA talent. I know Garza and Lover had been through CMLL first (not sure about Tarzan Boy). They were a pretty logical trio though, as they all had that pretty boy look. The key to figuring out who was who here (since with the video quality and far shots and the fact they're all in white, it can be hard) is that Garza has the long pants, Tarzan Boy has the white kneepads, and Lover has the darker kneepads. They all get pretty big entrances, with Lover's the most ridiculous. The first match in the tag tournament with GdI that I'll cover on Weds has Tarzan Boy. I've seen a bunch of TB/Toscano matches but all after his rudo turn so I'm having to deal with the damn Tarzan Boy song being stuck in my head now which is a new problem for me. I hadn't realized he actually came out to that. Satanico came out with his Nuevo Infernales, but to We Will Rock you. they all had awesome jackets. I can't find any photos from the entrance and the VQ isn't screenshot-worthy, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

This was only one fall and it didn't last that long, but the tecnicos were perfect Infernales opponents in that they were all high flying babyfaces who could take a beating. And they did, getting rushed early. A lot of the key GdI spots were already in the equation, including the alley oop body drop and the corner clotheslines ending with the senton de la muerte. There were more of these trademark unit moves too, ones I hadn't seen, like Satanico hitting a drop toehold and his partners sliding out to kick the head protruding on the apron, and them outright sliding their opponent to the floor.

The comeback was another staple, the two-guys-letting-their-partner-backflip so that he could corner charge spot, where it works twice but is countered the third time. Here it was countered with a ducked clothesline and a powerbomb by Lover to eliminate Bucanero, only for him to get taken out by Satanico being deft in turning a roll up into a submission. Then we had some Ultimo Guerrero vs Hector Garza, which was fun, as these two would be big rivals many years later and this was the first time that I can find that they were against each other.

It all broke down into a spot fest with the tecnicos sort of interchangeably leaping from high places. It finished fun with Satanico rolling up Garza, but using the ropes. The CMLL ref counted it. The AAA ref argued. They shoved each other. Garza took advantage of this and  hit his corkscrew moonsault from the top to let both sides claim victory if they so wanted.

Definitely a fun match in an amazing setting. I love seeing Los Nuevo Infernales as a full unit, especially against opponents who were so fitting for them.

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MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 17: Convergence

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 14: Héctor Garza, Shocker, Toscano vs Rey Bucanero, Shigeo Okumura, Taichi

Taped 2010-04-25 @ Arena Coliseo
Héctor Garza, Shocker, Toscano vs Rey Bucanero, Shigeo Okumura, Taichi



On the one hand, I don't entirely get what's going on here. On the other, it's really not important enough for me to figure it out. This was about a week after he had just wrestled Toscano and Shocker and really, there wasn't much of the way of dissension. Garza had mentioned that he had done the previous match since he really just wanted to show people he could do it on both sides of the aisle or something dismissive like that.

Dissension: after the primera, Shocker seemed surprised when Garza made sure to raise his hand. Later on Garza didn't seem too excited about helping his partners when they were getting beat down, even, and this is much more a travesty, when poor Kemonito was eating a suplex from Rey. That seemed to incense Shocker, at least. In the tercera, Garza stopped a Shocker dive since he wanted to do it himself. Shocker persisted but the delay meant that he got kicked from the outside. It didn't really impact the finish.

So those were the interesting interpersonal bits (and the mascot getting suplexed). Past those, it was a sort of lackluster trios match. Taichi was a fun foil for Garza when it came to some of the comedy spots but he was not very good. Okemura was better but didn't really do anything of note. Toscano was just there too. He's a capable role player in these matches but never really stands out as a tecnico. He was a bit lost in the shuffle back in the GdI matches in 06 as a rudo, but even then, his athleticism shined through more.

From what I can tell, Rey was having a great little rudo year on these Coliseo shows. Here he was a complete and utter chickshit dick to Shocker, running and nailing him at times and then dashing away before he could get his comeuppance. I don't think we have any sort of blowoff singles match between them but I would have liked to see it if we did. It actually looks like they had two singles matches BEFORE this and we're on the downslope of the feud. None of them seem to be easily available though. Ah well. Maybe it's not the worst thing because lazy Shocker was in full effect here. There was a lift-up dropkick in here which saw Shocker barely getting off the ground even after the assist from Toscano.

Outside of some fun Kemonito moments (face off with Rey, legdrop, splash, getting suplexed, the Shocker headband!), Garza being passive aggressive, and Rey Bucanero's great chickenshit work, there wasn't much notable here. I'm tempted to track down more of Rey from 2010 though. If I make it into summer, 2010 with Garza, I'll get a few fun looking Invasores vs Peste Negra matches so those might be fun.

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MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 13: Shocker, Strong Man, Toscano vs Atlantis, Héctor Garza, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]

Taped 2010-04-18 @ Arena México
Shocker, Strong Man, Toscano vs Atlantis, Héctor Garza, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]

2:11 in

http://youtu.be/TjQrOuYcDmo

http://youtu.be/kk4qWR__P5A

Simply put, this is what I sat through those Porky matches to get to. This was a Relevos Increíbles match, sure, but after a cute first minute or two, Garza was all out rudo. Rarely in my life have I seen a wrestler who was enjoying himself as much as I think Garza did as a newly minted rudo. It's a damn good thing too because this match also had 2010 Shocker and Jon (Anderson) Strongman (so that first sentence could be "THIS is what I sat through those matches for?!!!" or something, but that would be unfair. I enjoyed this).

I think Shocker had a pretty good 2014. The nominal rudo turn motivated him. The feud with Rush was heated and he remained pretty spirited after it. Before that, though, he had a reputation of being a step behind, fat and lazy relative to earlier in his career, and that was sort of evident here, but only sort of since after the start, he kind of drops out until the very end. Anderson was HUGE. Absolutely huge. Scott Steiner at his hugest huge. He was a bodybuilder, strong man, powerlifter, etc and storyline was Shocker found him and brought him in to be part of a new Guapos unit. I'm pretty certain most people saw him as the worst part of 2009-2010 CMLL at the time. I actually didn't mind his act much at first but it was old by the end of the match, which really does say a lot. Third tecnico was Toscano, the former Tarzan Boy, who I always find more than competent and good at what he does.

The quick sum up is that this match had a beat down in the primera into the segunda, a comeback, and then a reset with way too much Strongman shtick in the tercera. Really, though, I'd like to just follow Garza around the ring a bit. Bear with me as I try to highlight just how fun he was in his role:

He came out fourth, after the tecnicos, and immediately prayed and shrugged to the sky, as if he asking god if he really blamed him for being in this match. He snuck behind one of the dancers and danced with her while he was waiting for his teammates to come down and actively seemed excited and surprised when the GdI theme hit. Then, once they hit the ring, he hung outside, doing some push-ps on the ramp. This annoyed Strongman who came out to the ramp. Garza dropped to a knee, prayed, and offered a hand shake. He then pulled the hand back just as Guerrero and Atlantis swarmed in from behind. Even then, Garza shadowboxed in the air for a few seconds before casually coming in and kicking Strongman from behind. They slipped back out to the ramp and he rather triumphantly hit the three man GdI body splash, making sure to kick imaginary dirt onto Strongman on his way back in. A couple of little kicks to the other tecnicos later and the rudos took the first fall. This was all highly entertaining.

It continued to be so into the segunda. Hector jawed with fans at ringside only stopping to kick a set up Strongman, happily nailed Toscano from behind when he was starting to come back, and then as Ultimo Guerrero had Toscano in the camel clutch, looked to the crowd, laughed, winked, and then finally kicked him. He was kind enough to caringly and carefully roll Toscano out of the ring though. Very earnest. He cut off Strongman's first comeback attempt to with (surprise, surprise) a kick to the back. After his partners hit charges into the corner, though, he ended up in a big choke and press slam, followed by another choke to lift him up. Here he begged and pleaded, but Strongman ripped off his shirt and hit a huge chop in the corner. As Toscano and Shocker rolled up the other rudos, Garza headed for the hills down the rampway, letting it happen.

I'm not going to go all the way through the tercera, because there was way too much of people chopping Strongman to no effect or bouncing around him, and I've got a few more weeks of Garza, at the least, lined up, so best not to use it all up at once, but I will note a few things. The tercera started with Garza teasing the ring girl. When he tried to chop Strongman, he hurt his hand; when Ultimo Guerrero tried to do it, he did not. I think that follows along with how UG presents himself in general. He's willing to show ass at key moments, but he works very hard to keep himself strong, sometimes to the detriment of the match, but to the benefit of a persona that can be used from match to match. To point, Toscano actually sold a high five from Strongman.

The tercera ended with Garza running away again, allowing the tecnicos to pick up the win. That wasn't a bad start to the revamped character, but I really would have liked some sort of DQ-foul finish instead (and it's not every day I say that; clean finishes are generally great after all), but those usually only happen when building up a specific feud, not just to establish a character. Anyway, this was a lot of fun, despite all of the strikes it had against it coming in, and that bodes well for the next number of matches.

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MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 5: Brazo de Plata, Héctor Garza, Toscano vs Naito, Ray Mendoza Jr., Taichi

Taped 2010-03-02 @ Arena México
Brazo de Plata, Héctor Garza, Toscano vs Naito, Ray Mendoza Jr., Taichi

6:49 in

http://youtu.be/kpXDyYGwkUs

http://youtu.be/fAbVrAYoxi0

http://youtu.be/NhojlPV6NYg

We're back to the land of Garza. I'm probably a terrible wrestling fan in 2014 for having never seen Naito before, but New Japan just isn't my thing. I can probably be forgiven for never seeing Taichi. Mendoza is the unmasked Villano V. I got confused for a minute because I saw a Rey Mendoza, Jr. in WCW but that was IV unmasked. He's probably my biggest draw into this match. Toscano is Tarzan Boy just as a tecnico. He'd peaked and was on the downslope (and I think he's still there). I swear that Porky looked better in 2013 than he did here.

This was a comedy match, no ifs ands or buts. Mendoza directed traffic well for his side and showed a certain glee when paired off against Porky. Garza fit in nicely as he does in most matches. Naito stood out due to the character work, including interacting with the ring girls which is pretty rare in these things. I wouldn't say he was good based just on this but he had been around CMLL for a year or so at that point and he certainly knew what he was doing. Taichi didn't show me much but I think he was fairly new to all of this. Toscano had one fun bit where he clowned Naito with fake handshakes but didn't stand out much past that. Ultimately, this was on the low end of Porky comedy matches.

There were some novel bits. I thought Naito and Toscano did well enough in their early matwork (prior to that Garza led Taichi around but it was not memorable in the least). The rudos took over with a triple kick on Porky and won the primera by making him run the ropes over and over again, which was amusing. The Japanese wrestlers had a thing where they'd send diving awkward kicks from weird angles.

I wouldn't necessarily call the comeback well executed but it was elaborate enough, in a trudging through molasses sort of way. It ended with a double drop toe-hold by Toscano and Garza sending a head into a groin and all three rudos into the corner for a Porky charge followed by a couple of roll ups and a Porky second rope splash on Taichi who certainly had dues to pay apparently.

I wish we had more Mendoza here. He was fun in stooging against Garza, messing around with the latter's taken off shirt like the world's greatest Felino, but he had been paired up with Porky to begin so there wasn't much chance. That probably says all you need to know about me though: I'd rather see old man Villano V than Naito if given the chance. Anyway, the slow trickle of comedy slowly slowly drained to its end and Porky hit a dive onto poor Mendoza on the outside and Toscano and Garza (who made for pretty good partners, really) locked in a fun double submission for the tecnico win. I swear that Porky seems bigger now, but he seemed way more likely to have a heart attack when I see him in matches from a few years ago. Ah well, they can't all be winners. I'd be open to see some more Naito now, I suppose, but I assume his NJPW work is more "main event style" and less dickish. Instead, let's just move on to a few more GdI matches, which is what's next.

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MLJ: Atlantida Rising 12: Dr. Wagner Jr., Mr. Niebla, Rey Bucanero vs Atlantis, Tarzan Boy, Último Guerrero

Aired 2006-07-15
taped 2006-07-09 @ Arena Coliseo
Dr. Wagner Jr., Mr. Niebla, Rey Bucanero vs Atlantis, Tarzan Boy, Último Guerrero

This is an interesting match to poke at. It has some of its own merits and drawbacks but at the same time, it's very structurally similar to the previous match, just with a few different motifs and a differently set up tercera (though one that got across a lot of the same ideas). Here, the focus wasn't necessarily on Rey vs UG, though he did ambush Rey coming out and they did pair off in the tercera, but instead on Atlantis vs Niebla, to set up a mask match that they've actually teased a few times over the years with it never actually happening. What makes this match better than the last one is a more visceral beatdown in the primera and then a more balanced tercera that led to a cleaner and clearer big moment, even if the actual payoff to that moment wasn't great.

I really liked the rudo mugging in the primera that bled into the segunda. It's not any longer than in the last match but it was grittier. Like I said, they started out by ambushing Rey again, as the second guy out. Tarzan Boy looked as good as I've ever seen him with elbows and knees in the corner. Atlantis, in a theme for the match, went right after Niebla's mask, doing some real damage. As a brief aside, Atlantis and UG have these cool combo masks for this match, with both of their looks on it. Rey leaving Los Guerreros seemed to have helped solidarity, just like it pushed Tarzan Boy up the ladder of importance. Niebla also had a taped up shoulder and they beat the crap out of that; even though that didn't pay off later it did add to the grindhouse feel of the beating. They hit the three corner moves on Rey, ending with UG's handstand body splash. Later on a fan actually had to help Rey up which was a nice little visual.

They also did a great job negating Wagner and Niebla's usual BS. I was sort of excited to see them on the same time because they both have this crazy charisma, but Wagner has a tendency to no-sell things to get the crowd behind him and Niebla has a tendency to go off on crazy comedy tangents. Los Guerreros had such a dominant and focused attack that even when Wagner tried to do his stuff, they just beat him down more (including holding his arms so he could eat a Tarzan Boy dropkick). Again, it added to the feel when it might have otherwise taken away from it. The caida ended with a great Atlantida on Wagner, where the momentum of he being tossed into it really made it stand out. It was only four minutes but it felt like a lot longer even before it bled into the segunda, where they hit both the triple body splash on Rey, and the catapult-clothesline-top rope move (this time Tarzan Boy's rope walk legdrop) on Wagner. For some reason, I've come to quite enjoy the rudo triple kick off the ropes even though it's so simple a move. The beatdown was so absolute that they even took the time to do the Guerreros huddle afterwards.

I think a great sign of how effective the beating had been was how, at the end, the fans were chanting for Niebla. His mask was torn. He was battered, and everyone in that arena was very much ready for the comeback. Unfortunately, his part in it was underwhelming enough to drag the whole thing down, even if he didn't actively do anything to hurt it, which had been my initial worry. Los Guerreros went for the triple body splash again, but this time, the tecnicos on the floor grabbed Tarzan Boy's leg. Niebla started to come back against Atlantis, tearing at HIS mask and the tecnicos hit a body splash of their own (Rey doing the flying) before taking the fall on Tarzan Boy and UG (with Atlantis taking a powder to set up the anticipation of him facing Niebla in the tercera).

The tercera was still tecnico heavy, sort of an extension of the comeback, but it was more focused on the individual match ups and setting up that potential Atlantis/Niebla match that never seemed to happen. The rudos would start the match ups with the advantage but the tecnicos would quickly take over. Past some fun headscissors spots by Rey and UG, the big focus was between Atlantis and Niebla, who had a couple of good slaps and managed to keep the jiving hulk up to a minimum. It was all a bit in slow motion, though, and not due to selling or conscious pacing to make things look important. There just wasn't the intensity there to pay off the early mugging. Rey and Wagner hit their big dives and Niebla lost to a crucifix roll up that seemed like it was in slow motion as well. Very solid, very visceral Guerreros offensive showcase in the beginning with a good productive structure but ultimately hurt by a lack of intensity by the main player in the comeback. Still probably worth watching though, even if the Atlantis/Niebla match never ended up happening.

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MLJ: Atlantida Rising 11: Místico, Negro Casas, Rey Bucanero vs Atlantis, Tarzan Boy, Último Guerrero

Aired 52MX: 2006-07-01

taped 2006-06-25 @ Arena Coliseo 

Místico, Negro Casas, Rey Bucanero vs Atlantis, Tarzan Boy, Último Guerrero

So, even despite hitting some less than pertinent matches, I still missed a thing or two due to footage availability. There was a bit more of a build to Dos Caras, Jr. vs Ultimo Guerrero for his World Light Heavyweight Championship and also the title match where UG defended it. There was also a tag match between Atlantis and Rey and Mutoh and Dragon where Atlantis accidentally hit Rey to set up the turn to begin with, back from May 12 or so. I only see it clipped so I didn't do a full write up but I'll attach it at the bottom of this entry. It's fun to see Rey eat Mutoh's offense as well as some of the fun Guerreros tandem moves. I also don't have the match where Atlantis and Tarzan Boy turn on Rey. Ah well.

What I do have is this, which is either the first real Rey vs Guerreros match or close enough to it for my purposes, and it's pretty satisfying. Rey got to face off against all of his former teammates. It set up the title match to come vs UG. The crowd was hot the whole time. There wasn't a ton of depth to the structure here but sometimes basic really is the way to go. Rudos ambushed and thoroughly won the primera. Tecnicos came back to win a quick segunda and then they got to shine in the tercera to set up the matches to come. Paint by numbers but with a lot of frenetic offense and visceral hate. Who can argue about that?

The details were pretty great too. Los Guerreros' beatdown was full of flourishes. They hit the clothesline over the knees/top rope move on Rey. Usually that was Rey's corkscrew senton to finish it. This time it was Tarzan Boy's legdrop. The evolution of UG's press slam on Mistico continued. Here it was onto both Atlantis' and Tarzan Boy's knees (He'd do an awesome one handed slam in the tercera). They finished it with this insane multi man submission (including power bombing Mistico onto the other two). Skip ahead to 6:10 on the video to see it. It's nuts.

The tecnicos really got to shine in the back half of the match. In the segunda, Rey got to make the comeback out of the corner and then hit the Guerreros' alley oop body splash. Mistico flew with his giant one hand dive even as Casas hit his seated senton dive. Rey got to fight off Atlantis and UG at once in the tercera, and then recover from a Tarzan Boy cheapshot to take him out as well. Mistico had some brief but fun exchanges with UG and Atlantis too. Casas got to tough it out with Tarzan Boy and then they all came together for a triple tecnico pin at the end.

There were a few tiny issues, though; things to worry about in the future perhaps. For one, Mistico was still way more over than Rey. He got to come out last, was the captain, and was the first one that the crowd chanted for. To be fair, later on, when faced off against Tarzan Boy in the tecera, they did chant for Casas too (it was just that sort of crowd) but even when they chanted for Rey during his comeback, they couldn't wait for Mistico to get back in there. There was an absolute cap for how far Rey could go as a tecnico, just like there had been for him in Los Guerreros after the Atlantis turn. Mistico also had picked up Wagner's terrible habit of trying to get the fans to cheer for him by holding his hand to his ear during a beatdown. Terrible stuff. And mainly, like I said, there wasn't a whole lot to the match. The tecnicos took almost the entire back half which let them have plenty of time to shine, which was what the situation called for, but also means that this won't end up on anyone's match of the year lists.

That's fine. It was a match with a purpose and it served that purpose very well, setting up the title match and showcasing tecnico Rey Bucanero vs his former teammates. For the moment at least, things had to seem pretty promising.

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