Hugo's Lucha Libre Live Report 9/12/18

Wife and Little Dude headed down to her parents for a week while I am off to a business trip tomorrow morning. Since I am on my own, I made a last minute trip down to the Fairgrounds to check out some lucha libre. This was part of a fair, so the crowd was probably 40% white, which is very different then previous shows where it was just me percent white.

Red Mask? vs. Komaya

Different opponent for Komaya then listed on the poster. Komaya is a guy with Muta paint and kanji on his trunks who kind of ruins his gimmick by doing a lot of loud crowd work in a Colorado snowboarder accent. This was solid juniors wrestling, Red Mask guy was lucha trained and had a fine armdrag and headscissors offense. Komaya had a stiff shot or two, everything wasn't super crisp, but it moved at a nice pace and ended in a good spot. This would get the old full Worldwide point if it was a WCW syndie match.

Lady Lee/Athena vs. Luna/Alley Gato

Kind of odd that the only three caida match on the show was the luchadoras match, but this was another well worked entertaining match. This was an atomicos with one thick girl and one skinny girl on each team, and for the first part of the match it was skinny vs. skinny and thick vs. thick. The skinny girls (Luna and Athena) looked a little wrestling schoolish in their exchanges, but I liked both big girls. Alley Gato hit this BBW rana and a great second rope rolling senton. Straight falls ruda win which I was not expecting, I remember thinking that the segunda had too many near falls for a segunda and then the Rudas won. Lady Lee had fun submissions and the rudas won the third fall with a cool double bridging Indian death lock. Alley Gato continued to impress, she really should have been in the MYC.

Corsario Negro vs. Sol vs. Rayo vs. Joe Alonzo

This was a nutty four way which felt like a crazy undercard Tijuana spotfest. Lots of dives of varying quality, big bumps by everyone. Really liked Joe Alonzo, he hit a beautiful lionsault, worked stiff, and took a crazy bump where he did a running stage dive over the railing into a bunch of chairs. Corsario Negro had some stiff shots and was a fun rudo. Right after that happens I look over to my right and Rayo is just chilling up near me in the balcony, and he flies maybe 20 feet off the balcony onto everyone below (I don't want to know what stupid shit Aerostar is going to try next month) Rayo took the craziest bump on the last show I saw, so he is clearly the lunatic of this fed. Match falls apart a bit after the stage dive, unsurprisingly, but Rayo goes over which totally makes sense.

Amaya vs. Heros vs. Vago

This is for the Hugo's title which a replica NWA Big Gold Belt with plastic red HUGO pasted on it. Vago comes out with a tiny super cute baby and immediately starts rudoing it up which was lucha as fuck. Much of the early match is the rudos Vago and Amaya double teaming Heros, until they turn on each other. Amaya has a nice right hand, and Vago has a great sleazy rudo charisma. Heros does a tope into a chair which clearly fucked him up. He rolled under the ring and even took his mask off under the ring. When he gets back in he is off, there is a badly blown diving rana. It's his match to win though, so when they set up a super rana for the finish it added a bit of danger because I was worried a concussed guy would kill himself and Vago. They hit it cleanly, Heros wins the belt and the ring announcer pops his shoulder back into place. Post match they set up a title vs. title match with Amaya and his Rocky Mountain Pro belt which is the non-lucha fed with local TV. I might have to start checking them out, because I dig some of the gringos who work this fed.

Bestia 666 vs. Rey Horus

These were the fly-ins and they worked their fly-in match. Bestia was kind of along for the ride, he threw some chops, grabbed a belt from a fan to hit Horus and based for all of Horus's spots. Horus does have some great individual spots, his tope con hilo was super fast and high, and his jumping DDT and dragon rana all look great. Still I didn't think either guy had a ton of superstar presence since I have been in Denver I have seen guys like Zumbido, Demus, Negro Casas and Blue Panther and while they weren't doing dragon rana's they connected to the crowd so much better then either of these two.

Really fun show, no match which would make an MOTY list, but I enjoyed every match I saw and it all moved at a nice pace, the Arena is set up great, with screens and lighting and raised balconies and I am excited that this fed runs every month. Hopefully if I am in town I can check out their AAA Supershow next month with Monster Clown, La Mascara, Pimpinela, Rey Escorpian, Drago, Aerostar, Averno and more.

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Hugo's Lucha Libre Road Report 4/22

One of the cool things about moving to Denver is that there is a thriving lucha libre scene here. There are at least three separate promotions running with seemingly completely different rosters. There was actually two shows going on at the same time tonight, one show that had Hijo Del Dr. Wagner, Hijo Del Dos Caras and Wes Briscoe for some reason, and then this show which was main evented by Blue Panther vs. Octagon. The venue was awesome for wrestling, they were in a fairgrounds and had good bleacher seating, lighting rigs and big screens. I think I might have been the only white person in the crowd, and it was a raucous group. Since I don't speak Spanish, the names for these matches are off the poster, so I can't verify their accuracy.

Alley Gato vs. Psycho vs. Rachelle

Only really sure about Alley Gato's name. She was the standout here, hitting pretty hard and bumping well for the other two greener luchadoras. Rachelle was in an American flag get up, but I don't think was working ruda, she certainly spent a lot of the match smiling. She did bust out an Angle slam which was amusing. This was fun stuff, Alley Gato is legit good and this moved at a nice pace.

Severino vs. Amaya

Amaya had a really good look and was super over with the crowd. Severino had an Italian singlet on and may have been a gringo. He was pretty good, based well for Amaya's stuff and had two great looking suplexes, including an awesome delayed German and snap belly to belly, you really don't expect to see local undercard luchadores throw suplexes like Alexander Otsuka. Amaya had a nice tope too.

Jr. vs. Sol vs. Nueva Estrella

I am really not sure about these names, they are what was on the poster, but it doesn't seem familiar. This was the least match on the show, greenish guys who were trying some stuff but not cleanly hitting it all. Sol gets unmasked and helped to the back and Jr cheats to the get the win over Nueva Estrella who was also working rudo. They need more trios matches and less three ways

They have an intermission where their mascot throws out T-Shirts and the girl who sang the national anthem sings a Mexican song, and then sings It's a Mans World.

Vago/Rayo vs. Corsairo/Heros

There is some angle at the beginning where Vago doesn't show up initially but comes in from the crowd. Lots to like here, Vago is a great rudo, hits hard, muggs to the crowd, bumps big, by far the best local on the show, reminds me a bit of Rey Escorpion. This goes three falls and mostly is solidly executed lucha, Finish is nuts as Heros goes for a tope and Rayo sidesteps him, and Heros goes full speed chest and throat first into the guard rail, totally insane bump. Then Jr. from the earlier three way comes out to interfere and cost Corsairo the match. There are a lot of challenges back and forth setting up something for next month I assume.

Blue Panther vs. Octagon

This was billed as a battle of the Maestros (man I wish they had flown in almost any other maestro besides Octagon), and the first fall was worked Maestro style, with Panther leading Octagon through some mat exchanges, nothing super fancy, but it was fun to see the flourishes Panther lends to simple things. Second and third falls were not what I was expecting. Panther goes full over the top rudo (even thought the crowd was 80% for Panther) slams a chair in to Octagon's nuts, tossed him into the crowd, ties his mask to the ropes yells at fans. We get a full fake Tirantes heel ref, they go full Monterey. Panther doesn't wrestle like this normally and hasn't for years, and it was fun to watch him break out some old tricks. He has great muggy faces, and does a lot of hamming it up. Octagon isn't great even in a match where Panther just worked as Fuerza, Not a great match, but I had a total blast watching Panther perform.

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