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

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

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

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

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


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Lucha Worth Watching: Leyenda de Azul Cibernetico

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

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

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

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

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Lucha Worth Watching: CMLL 6/23/17

1. Pequeno Violencia/Mercurio/Pequeno Nitro vs. Shockercito/Electrico/Stukita (CMLL 6/23/17)

ER: Sometimes you get the feeling that guys are holding back, and then you get a trios on a random Friday where it feels like everyone is firing on all cylinders and the vibe seems light. Violencia/Mercurio are a wonderful tandem, these maskless rudo minis are the best, always super muggy, always jerks, always fun. Shockercito is probably my favorite tecnico mini at this point and this is a nice showcase for his whip fast beautiful headscissors and slick flying, just a really cool guy to watch. Stukita has a couple atypical off moments but makes up for all of it when he hits his torpedo splash from the top to the rampway, and earlier hits a cool headscissors after walking way out on the ring barricade (which CMLL oddly films from the waist up, so it doesn't even read like he walked the plank onto the barricade). Violencia/Mercurio were great show offs, catching guys on springboards and acting condescending (loved Violencia catching Shockercito, setting him down, and superkicking him, and his big splatting senton to end the primera), but stooging great when their cockiness would backfire. We even get cool mat stuff in the primera (which was naturally mostly edited off TV), several cool springboards, just a fun match.

2. Vangellys vs. Pierroth (CMLL 6/23/17)

ER: This is not really the type of guy who gets used in a lightning match, but I think it makes sense as these two can craft a nice single fall ugly brawl that doesn't really need the drama (or length) of three falls. They predictably brawl around ringside and things get good when Vangellys takes a big spill over the barricade and gets hits head rung up in the doorway as a receipt from earlier. The brawling gets really good with Pierroth throwing out nice body shots and punches to the neck, inadvertently stomping him in the balls, even smashing Vangellys with a nasty lariat to the neck. Pierroth splats him with a great senton (theme of the night?) and Vangellys grabs the ref's hand during the pin and then grabs the ropes during his own roll up. This went the right amount of time and was a satisfying slugfest. I'm clearly the one guy excited for a hair match.

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Lucha Worth Watching: CMLL 6/16/17

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Lucha Worth Watching: Spry Panther and All of the Ranas

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

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

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

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

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CMLL Worth Watching 5/5, 5/17 & 5/24/15

1. Blue Panther & Atlantis vs. Negro Casas & Shocker (5/5/15)

This was like a fun little house show touring match, without too many big moves or dives or bumps, and no real large build up to any of the falls, just four professionals who have been working each other for over a couple decades. We get a lot of grappling and mat stuff, and really what more could you want than that? Casas and Panther especially get long goes with each other, and while it's not as tripped out as they can get there are still plenty of satisfying exchanges. Both men fight over headscissor takedowns, and the best part of the match is Panther running around with Casas in a Gory Special, and Casas eventually fighting out of it and becoming an aggressive backpack on BP's shoulders, attacking him while BP fights him back. I was hoping for more with these 4 in a title match, but it was enjoyable seeing what they would do in a barebones tag on a Tuesday.

2. Ultimo Guerrero, Terrible & Vangellys vs. Rush, La Sombra & Super Porky (5/17/15)

So, this kind of immediately flies in the face of what the actual post is called, as at the time of me writing this Cubsfan did not have it uploaded, so there is no actual way for most of you to watch this match. So maybe Cubs will see this and DO THE RIGHT THING. Do the right thing, Cubs. Upload this match for fans of pro wrestling. Do the right thing.

Usually when starting a Super Porky match you can tell if it's going to be one of those times where he shows up. It happens less and less every single year, so they become easier and easier to spot. And right out of the gate this seemed completely different from every other Porky trios. He and Ultimo lock up immediately and while they're in a collar n elbow they start dishing out short headbutts to each other, and then Ultimo is grabbing Porky by the nose and punching him in the head and THINGS FEEL DIFFERENT. Porky and UG are working headlocks and Porky hits a splash, goes for another and UG gets his knees up (when have you EVER seen anybody get their knees up on Porky!?). Porky spills to the floor after UG keeps sneaking in little stiff shots, and UG barrels into him off the apron with his cool diving hip attack. Porky drew some dud partners as Rush and Sombra hang on the floor while the rudos all triple team Porky and stiff the shit out of him. Porky is trapped in the corner and all the rudos are punching him in the face and neck and head at the same time. It's brutal and finally Porky breaks free and starts punching guys, like the little fat kid pushed too far by a bully. And then they punch him a bunch more, and he runs off crying. BUT IT WAS A RUSE! Once Porky runs crying onto the rampway, he then doubles back and runs belly first into UG, sending his team down like dominos, and then runs and does his jumping taint attack on all of them. At this time Rush and Sombra opportunistically sprint in and begin kicking the shit out of the rudos. This was all awesome. Porky is great at earning sympathy, the rudos were stiffing the hell out of him, and Cubsfan just really needs to do the right thing. Do it for the boys in the back.

**UPDATE: Cubs has now uploaded it. Watch and enjoy.**

3. Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr. & The Panther vs. Felino, Tiger & Puma (5/24/15)

Okay, so this was pretty sloppy...BUT it had plenty to love. Especially the familial aspect. Family feuds are great, and while this is probably closer to Steve Harvey than Richard Dawson, we still had moments. Panther working the mat and wristlocks with Tiger to start things off is probably the highlight, as I dig how both guys move and really any match that starts with 3-4 minutes of BP grappling and doing his thing is going to wind up getting written up by me in a "worth watching" link dump. Panther's sons are not as good as Felino's sons. Not even close, really. Panther's sons usually seem pretty bad, actually. They did not look great here. They're kinda stumbly. Felino's sons are easily better than Felino at this point, and both (especially Tiger) can come across as fairly savvy vets. Felino always shows up for these non-Casas family feuds, and although he mostly hangs back here and lets his boys do the dirty work, it's great when he gets in and starts smugly running the ropes super fast, bouncing off the bottom rope to show off that he's not always some goof. BP Jr. knocks himself stupid by hitting a sloppy rana off the apron and landing head first. Elder Panther gets to foil the youngsters, and shoot, I dug it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

7:40 in

http://youtu.be/SlvT5hAc9ig

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

http://youtu.be/aXSN10i79Fk

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

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

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

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

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

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 7/6/14

So this week we appear to catch back up to the previous schedule (not sure what the 6 month flashback was all about, but lucha gonna lucha). These matches were all from the 6/8/14 Arena Coliseo show.

1. Puma, Skandalo & Metalico vs. Triton, Oro Jr. & Sagrado

Boy, just about as forgettable a match as you can get. Most CMLL guys have enough talent where if they're given a decent amount of time they can through together something suitable. And even though this was straight falls, it was still given over 10 minutes. And there was practically nothing memorable about it at all. Skandalo did that thing where he targets a guy's taint the whole match, so poor Oro got kicked in the taint a couple times. Triton broke out wretched early 2000s Scoot Andrews offense. Sagrado has improved less than anybody else in CMLL in the last decade. Oro Jr. did the most hilariously bad missed dropkick you've ever seen. You know that overused missed lucha dropkick? The one that happens so much that you just accept it as part of lucha instead of recognizing how awful it looks? The one where a guy kind just jumps up and lands on his tummy, basically to get into position for somebody else to do offense? It always looks bad, some guys make it look less worse. But Oro Jr. took the bad missed lucha dropkick to levels of high art here. To get into position he just dropkicked gently into the center of the ring, with no other wrestlers within 7 feet of him. Anybody watching would have had no reason to believe he was attempting to hurt somebody. It's like he just took a really bad bump from a move that never happened. So…I guess something memorable did happen!

2. Lightning Match: Valiente vs. Vangellys

Too short to be much of anything, shorter than a lot of lightning matches. Valiente blasted Vangellys with a couple of consecutive dives, although that might have been because Vangellys stumbled a bit on the catch of the first one, so when Valiente hit him he looked like he sold it by kind of tripping over a lady's purse in the aisle. For all I know Valiente was like "dude we're doing that again and you're gonna bump down the aisle).

3. Blue Panther, Fuego & La Mascara vs. Virus, Niebla Roja & Comandante Pierroth

Boy that's a WAR-like random assemblage of 6 guys right there. And hey look at that, the match was really fun. Everybody got a chance to do their thing, so we got Panther doing some fun mat stuff with Pierroth, Fuego being a nice punching bag for Virus and Pierroth. Virus was easily the star of this as he always knew what tone to hit at the right time. He stooged for Panther (though really would have rather seen them tear it up), bullied Mascara and especially Fuego, even threw in some comedy when Mascara  took his shirt off and soaked in lady squeals, Virus teased his own shirt removal before shoulder tackling Mascara's knees. Plenty of neat Virus "little things" on display here. He really throws himself into everything, and it adds to the match that he also does that on planned misses. He cuts low on missed clotheslines and leveled teammate Roja with a nasty elbow on a miscommunication spot (you know, as if he was actually aiming for the guy he was supposed to hit and wasn't expecting him to move, sending him into his own guy). Fuego ended it on a real slick trapped leg Russian leg sweep rolled into a snug submission. Looked cool.

4. Negro Casas, Rey Escorpion & Felino vs. Rush, Maximo & Atlantis

Another short match, fitting 3 falls into about 9 minutes. I mean, there was a lot of action, but when the whistle blows and there's only 10 minutes left in the episode you kinda know you're not about to watch a classic. This is kind of an odd match as Casas works most of it rudo and Rush works most of it tecnico but it's pretty clearly opposite when they're opposing each other. So Rush was kind of tecnico for half the time, except when he was being kicked a bunch by Casas. Not enough Escorpion. Escorpion/Rush would have been an interesting pairing, I don't remember the last time I've seen them oppose each other. Also, I just don't want to see Felino on TV anymore. I'm getting sick of the ceiling being "well Felino wasn't entirely miserable to watch during this match". He ran the ropes nicely at one point here. His comedy (?) is very much not funny.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 7/5/14

2014 Leyenda de Azul

feat. Valiente, Maximo, Rush, Rey Escorpion, Ultimo Guerrero, Euforia, Atlantis, Shocker, La Sombra, Super Porky, Mr. Niebla, Terrible, Rey Bucanero, Dragon Rojo Jr., La Mascara & Vangellys

We start with a battle royal to decide Group A and Group B teams and much of the battle royal is spent with me watching and wondering how the hell Porky is going to take a bump over the top rope. La Mascara has never watched a battle royal before as he takes a break to celebrate on the apron while the camera cuts to two people old enough to know better wildly tongue kissing in the crowd. Niebla takes a fast and crazy looking elimination bump. UG takes his elimination like a man getting monkey flipped by Atlantis and flipping wildly to the floor. Escorpion just walked over and punched Porky in the boob (left). Ohhhhh all of the first 8 people eliminated are all in one Group. That makes sense. But also means that I didn't get to see how Porky would take his elimination bump since he was clearly in the group of guys who didn't get eliminated.

The cibernetico itself starts out pretty hot with Rojo hitting a big rana off the apron onto Euforia and then Porky shockingly being the next person in the ring (I assumed he would need a bit of a breather before getting back in) and damn if I don't really dig Porky's bit with UG, seeing Porky take a big bump off a stiff shoulder block and come back with a deep arm drag. Nice. Escorpion hits a nasty baseball slide through the bottom ropes into Rush, with Rey flying all the way out to the floor. Rush and Vangellys have a real fun run (for two guys who never actually fight each other due to affiliations) with Rush really kicking the shit out of him but also leaning face first into a seated Vangellys dropkick. Shocker adding the Stunner actually fits pretty well with his style and isn't soul crushing like indy Lawler doing it. Valiente hits the most badass high speed headbutt tope on Niebla and then we get a cool UG Euforia showdown which obviously has never happened, ending with Euforia hitting a wild dive. Holy shit and then we get Porky/Maximo…but Sombra and Mascara are dicks and break it up before anything happens, but that does lead to Porky hitting a headscissor/headlock takeover on both so who can be mad? Escorpion hits a giant guillotine leg drop on Rojo, which is not a move you see much anymore, for whatever reason. Porky is a special kind of fat, as his belly sticks out just as much when he's lying down as when he's standing. Rush has mastered the rich dick hair flip. Maximo hits a couple really cool delay hang time arm drags on Escorpion. Eventually things end up with Atlantis opposite Ultimo Guerrero and they have their standard exchanges and work about a 4 minute singles match. We get some mask ripping, a nice Atlantis dive, some big move nearfall exchanges that I zoned out during, and a win for Atlantis.

Overall this was much more interesting than many of the ciberneticos they've run over the last few years. This was given WAY more time than most of those (excluding the battle royal this clocked in at over 30 minutes) so you didn't have a bunch of awful strung together eliminations off moves that would never end a regular caida. Add to that the battle royal setting the teams provided some unique match-ups that I've never seen. It sounds odd to like a match in part because Euforia did a cool headscissors to UG, but lucha match-ups and feuds don't always get mixed up that much, so it was neat seeing brief "new pairing" moments. Fun match, tons of cool stuff in it.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 6/14/14

These matches were from the 5/30 Arena Mexico show.

Ephesto, Mephisto & Gran Guerrero vs. Valiente, Atlantis & Titan

They had been getting away from these short inconsequential matches, but that seems to be the style de rigueur again and it's obnoxious. I do like the energy levels in these shorter matches as there's a lot of action and things are so short that nobody has time to gas out. There's no down time, but everything is too rushed and there's no drama. I had hardly written down who the participants were when Guerrero had already won the first fall by powerbombing Atlantis. There was a nice little Valiente performance in here, including a beautiful rana with him running up the ropes. Atlantis showed a lot of fire here too, and Titan hit a top rope Asai moonsault to the floor that was pretty crazy. But this was all pretty insignificant. Everything was done so quickly that nothing stuck.

Terrible, Vangellys & Rey Bucanero vs. Stuka Jr., Maximo & Super Porky

Fun enough match, with there being way more Porky focus than most recent Porky matches. That can be both a good and bad thing, as his offense is fun, namely when the rudos implausibly always end up sitting three in a row so Porky can run at them butt first. There are also things Porky does that would be completely inexcusable and get any other worker ripped to shreds. He rarely sells strikes and almost always seems to be just waiting for guys to stop hitting him to get to the next spot. Numerous times here guys kick him in the stomach and he can't even be bothered to slightly bend at the waist. It would be one thing if he was doing a comical "your kicks don't hurt me due to my large tummy" thing, but he's clearly not and mores just looks tired. The match did have one extremely watchable segment, with Maximo squaring off against Terrible. Maximo has a bunch of these super cool fast flurries in him, which somehow still surprise me even though I've been watching him for 8 years. He breaks out these cool hanging armdrags that nobody else does and really has a great rhythm with Terrible. Stuka also regularly has standout moments in match. He arms-at-side splash always looks incredible and he and Maximo hit synchronized dives in another big moment. Porky had some good moments where he fought back against numerous guys, and that seems to be the moments where he works best now, as an easy target who gets pushed to far by bullies and then ends up snapping and chopping and punching and flattening them all.

Relevos Increibles!

Rush, La Sombra & La Mascara vs. Negro Casas, Shocker & Volador Jr.

So, this was the first time I kind of started to get bored with the Rush v. Casas/Shocker dynamic. A lot of heel dragging at this point. I like the participants, I like the energy, but it's on Lucha Azteca *every* week it seems like, and they really need to bump things up to a different level, mix up the combatants, something. This isn't quite Dolph Ziggler/Kofi Kingston levels of "how many times can they run this match!?" but I hate that they're even making me think that may be happening. I love Rush mowing throw Casas/Shocker/Volador and kicking torn t-shirts into the Arena Mexico crowd, but whatever direction this story was headed has stalled out. They've upped the heel antics from Sombra/Mascara so that is a slightly new wrinkle, but this is starting to really feel like "this is good, but something I regularly see, and it's no better than their best stuff, and worse because it feels like a rehash". So again, this had elements that you liked in previous encounters. It started as the same squash match formula that happened this week, except this time the tecnicos actually got their comeback. Casas is a great fired up comebacks guy, and his running "balls to Rush's face" off the apron was pretty epic. La Mascara is starting to find his role in the rudo stable. He was kind of lost once Sombra starting being Rush's cheapshot artist. But this match he was good at hanging back and kinda playing bouncer for Rush and Sombra. Rush would be kicking the shit out of Casas and Volador would be all "man my friend is over there! I need to get over there to help my friend" and Mascara would just be all "Hey buddy, a lot of people's friends are over there. Hang behind the rope." Or Sombra would be choking Shocker and the ref would be all "Hey I'm supposed to be over there." And Mascara would be all "Hmmmm...what was your last name again? Says you're not supposed to be over there."

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 5/31/14

These matches were all from the 5/16 Arena Mexico show.



Kraneo, Mephisto & Ripper vs. Mascara Dorada, Valiente & Titan

I wanted tons more out of this, but that's because I just really want a definitive Kraneo match to beg everybody to watch. He always looks awesome, usually the best guy in a trios, but the trios he's involved with never quite get up to that "Must See" status. Much of this match is fairly middling, until the end run ramps up the crazy. And much of that is because of Titan. It's funny, looking at his name there in our top 5 matches of 2014, just how out of place that keeps looking as the months go by. His spots are silly and he insists on shoehorning them into every match, and they're spots that don't fluidly fit into a match. They're spots that require the match to grind to a halt until he gets his shit out of the way. I am beyond tired of the handstand rana, requiring Ripper to finger pop his asshole so Titan can show off how long he can do a handstand. Then there's the rope run, flip to the floor feint, so he can hit his rana out there. I'm over it, Titan! Kraneo had a completely badass half Kraneo/half Alebrije mask, and he was his awesome horribly shaped self. Running ass attack on Dorada, barreling into Titan like a jock checking a nerd into his locker, hitting a fat man splash, bumping to the floor, and of course a recent addition to Kraneo matches: tecnicos hitting him with consecutive dives because he's large and it takes more to knock him down. Valiente hits his gorgeous and speedy tope, and moments later Dorada hits the spot of the night with an absolutely insane high speed upside down dive crashing and burning into Kraneo. If I were sitting in the front row I would have shoved women out of the way thinking I was going to get tangled in the wreckage. Never change, Dorada. You crazy.

El Terrible, Vangellys & Rey Bucanero vs. Stuka Jr., Diamante Azul & La Mascara

This was short and to the point, much more angle than match, but a trios worked three falls that takes less time than most lightning matches won't be that satisfying to folks. This was all about establishing that La Mascara has been working rudo tendencies with Rush and…he likes it. He's gotten a taste of being a dickhead and he wants mooooore. We don't get tons of oomph here. Azul hits his rampway senton, Bucanero is squeezed into some black vinyl top and skull tights and with his skull face paint he looks like a dumpy asshole in a Misfits cover band. Stuka hits his hands-free splash which always looks beautiful, Terrible kicks the shit out of Mascara, throwing his big left hands almost as stiffly as he threw them against Porky. The big climax is Mascara punting Terrible right in the balls to end the tercera, in full view of Tigre Hispano, who goes ahead and counts anyway because lucha. Azul and Stuka are super disappointed afterwards that Mascara's boot toe touched another mans tender area, even if it was through tights.

Rey Escorpion, Dragon Rojo Jr. & Shocker vs. Maximo, Marco Corleone & Volador Jr.

Good, this will fulfill our tri-weekly Marco Corleone quota. This is another super short match. One on hand, it's too short to mean much of anything. On the other, since it's so short there's no down time and the energy level from everybody is real high. Marco shows off abs and throws tons of left hands into Shocker's face. Maybe too many, as his left hand is usually sold like brief death, and here Shocker takes 4 or 5 of them over the course of 8 minutes. My DVR feed froze right when Escorpion was about to be smooched by Maximo, leaving us locked in a forever will-they-or-won't-they tug of war (I checked youtube, they kissed you guys!). Rojo hits a big stomp off the top, but most of this short running time was Shocker/Corleone, and it was okay.

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

30. Blue Panther/Valiente/Diamante Azul v. Terrible/Vangellys/Rey Bucanero CMLL 4/11

ER: Wasn't really thinking tons of it from the on-paper line-up, just kind of an unhyped Arena Mexico midcard trios, that ended up really delivering. Primera had a bunch of Blue Panther/Terrible mat work and it was so damn good. Terrible is not a guy I think of when I think of matwork, and this is probably the most I've ever seen Terrible hit the mat, and definitely one of Panther's longer mat rolls of the year. It's all really good stuff too, with Terrible working around a keylock and Panther finding ways to reverse out of it. Panther breaks out a cool British style backspin wristlock and a smooth arm drag into a headscissor lock. Terrible yanks on his arm a bunch and BP does simple little things to relieve pressure such as grab his own wrist for leverage. Terrible at one point floats over out of a BP head scissors to grab a headlock in one beautiful motion. Just a bunch of cool mat stuff from two guys I don't recall going at it on the mat (Terrible almost always sticks to brawling so him looking so damn good on that mat just makes me a bigger Terrible fan). We also cut to a Mexican girl in the crowd wearing an Arctic Monkeys trucker hat. That's weird. Plenty of cool moments after the awesome Panther/Terrible twisting. Terrible did leaping punches to guys in corners (abandoning the matwork that got him NOWHERE!), Valiente plastered Bucanero into the barricade with a dive, Comandante looks slimmed down and was on point with the interference, Terrible kicked some guys in the taint in vicious style (Panther even sold it like he was guesting on Chavo, with an incredible Ay Dios Mio hard sell eyeroll into the back of his head, right at the camera). Killer match.

PAS: Yeah I was totally blown away at how comfortable Terrible looked hitting the mat with Panther. He wasn't just a passenger he was delivering as many cool little additions as a Panther. Loved that backspin wristlock. Middle of this match meanders a bit, and then it comes back together with a really cool finally run. Vangellys is a big dude and he takes a really high monkey flip, and I loved Azul's delayed Tamon Honda style german suplcex. Good overall lucha match with the matwork being truly first class

2014 MASTER LIST

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 5/4/14

These matches were all from the 4/20 Arena Mexico show. Earlier today I watched part of an episode of The Price is Right and some chubby goof in a bucket cap on contestant's row guessed $420 on some jewelry, then made an obnoxious "did I say that!?" face and turned to his matching-shirt friends who were all going "ohhhhhhhhh!" Then it cut back to Drew Carey who was shaking his head as if to say "Man what a doof." People, man.

Blue Panther, Valiente & La Mascara vs. Puma, Tiger & Vangellys

Damn this was really good. This is two matches within about a week where Panther gets to stretch out a bit on the mat, and his 4 minutes here with Puma was probably his best mat stuff of the year (so far). What's great is it was completely different from the stuff with Terrible from 4/11. He and Puma do a bunch of cool leg takedowns, with BP doing cool roll throughs and leverage moves. It is true poetry watching him do his thing. Valiente and Vangellys roll as well which is fun as you don't get to see two of the stockier guys do extended mat sequences. It's also good, in a different way from BP/Puma, more brutish, with each guy trying to use his size to hold the other down while twisting limbs. Segunda is fun in as Valiente and BP switch partners and get to show off their fun ranas, with it ending on a nice throwback to the primera, with Mascara going to the well the won it before, and the rudos immediately recognizing it and cutting it off. Tercera was nice and extended with us actually getting some drama with eliminations. It's such a regular part of lucha that it's easy to forget how lame the "all three guys pin/submit the other three guys at about the same time to end a fall" ending is, and here we get the non-captains getting picked off first, actually making the finish built to something. Vangellys sells Valiente's silly-and-nasty inverted power bomb to knees great, mainly because he took Valiente's boot toe right to the mouth. Panther started the year nicely and has been really ramping up his work in trios as the year goes on. Puma and Tiger have also gone from guys I didn't really know last year to guys I actively look forward to in 2014.

Negro Casas, Felino & Mr. Niebla vs. Rush, Atlantis & Titan

Match immediately feels different than other Casas/Rush affairs, as Casas attacks from the get go and controls most of the early action. Just when I get used to seeing Casas as sympathetic old man he turns into sadistic ass beater, kicking Rush into the crowd and attacking him in front of families on a Sunday afternoon. At one point in the ring Rush does his (arguably the current most awesome thing in pro wres) thrust headbutt into Casas' chin and Casas appropriately sells it as if he just took a thrust headbutt to the chin. Tercera has nice moments from everybody, with Felino working fast and feeding Atlantis admirably, Niebla taking a fun Race bump to the floor and dumping himself on his neck and shoulders Titan hitting a giant moonsault off the top to the floor (although I really wanted Felino to punch him in the dick during his handstand, which actually seems like something that would fit the current Felino…"character"). But we all want the Rush/Casas interaction, and we get it. Casas dominated the first, and Rush gets his heat back in the third, breaking down Casas in the corner in the most beautiful way. Arms flying, and when Casas starts to buckle he kicks Casas' legs out from under him, dropping him onto his seat where Rush then leaps and stomps all over him (to the hisses of the crowd). The match was pretty short but the work was quick, and the match-ups ranged from solid to great. Not one of the must see matches in the Rush/Casas canon, but as watchable as ever.

Rey Escorpion vs. Maximo, for the CMLL Light Heavyweight Title

Good lord, Escorpion is all painted up in blue wearing  some sort of Avatar get up, and it is every bit as horrible and cringeworthy as when Volador did it last year. Is Avatar still a really big deal in Mexico? His hair is in a ponytail, but not in a tight braid (which it will need to be in order to have sex with a dragon's ponytail vagina). This was a fairly short match for a Title match, but they crammed a lot of action into it. Maximo did his really nice pendulum rana, and hit maybe his burliest tope ever, looking much more like a flying shoulder tackle than a dive. He really just slammed right into Escorpion. I get kind sucked out of the match as they do one of my least favorite "big match feel" lucha tropes, where the match devolves quickly into Move > Pinfall > Both Lie On Mat Selling > Repeat. It's obnoxious and I suppose it's supposed to make things more dramatic, but it really makes the whole affair disjointed to this viewer. Hurricanrana roll-up, slow count, kick out at two, both guys lie there breathing heavy and selling. I'm not sure why Maximo was selling the effort it took to get his move kicked out of, but apparently this wrestling is tiring business! I'm about as far removed from a go-go-go super workrate freak as you can get, but this style just doesn't feel like a match to me. It feels like several separate move demonstrations, with breaks in the middle for both demonstrators to rest. This match is hardly the guiltiest offender, or even a bad match (it was actually a pretty decent match, both guys looked good....well, in a wrestling sense. Escoprion of course did not LOOK good, due to his dorkgasm Avatar cosplay), this is just me finally coming to terms with being sick of this phony big match feel. The classicly slow lucha pinfall counts only make it more exasperating to me. Sorry guys, wrong place wrong time.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 4/26/14

These matches were all from the 4/11 Arena Mexico show.

Blue Panther, Valiente & Diamante Azul vs. Terrible, Vangellys & Rey Bucanero

Primera gives us a bunch of Blue Panther/Terrible mat work and it rules. This is maybe the most I've ever seen Terrible hit the mat, and definitely one of Panther's longer mat rolls of the year. It's all really good stuff too, with Terrible working around a keylock and Panther finding ways to reverse out of it. Panther breaks out a cool British style backspin wristlock and a smooth arm drag into a headscissor lock. Terrible yanks on his arm a bunch and BP does simple little things to relieve pressure such as grab his own wrist. Terrible at one point floats over out of a BP head scissors to grab a headlock in one motion. Just a bunch of cool mat stuff from two guys I don't recall going at it on the mat (Terrible almost always sticks to brawling so him looking so damn good on that mat just makes me a bigger Terrible fan). We cut to a Mexican girl in the crowd wearing an Arctic Monkeys trucker hat. That's weird. The match overall is shorter than I would have liked, but was crammed with a bunch of cool moments, even after the awesome Panther/Terrible twisting. Terrible did leaping punches to guys in corners, Valiente plastered Bucanero into the barricade with a dive, Comandante looks slimmed down and was on point with the interference, Terrible kicked some guys in the taint in vicious style (Panther even sold it like he was guesting on Chavo, with an incredible Ay Dios Mio hard sell eyeroll into the back of his head, right at the camera). Killer match.

Puma, Misteriso Jr. & Boby Zavala vs. Fuego, Triton & Sagrado

This might be the absolute shortest three fall lucha match I have ever seen. Maybe Lucha Azteca clipped it (I can't get Dailymotion to play at the moment to see the real match time) but this whole thing was 3 falls in 5 minutes, and that's including the replays of how each fall ended. What in the actual fuck? Misterioso had a cool inverted powerslam, Zavala caught a Triton rana from the ring to the floor, Triton took a cool apron-to-floor bump, Sagrado continued to hold his crown as worst CMLL wrestler (going on several years now), Puma is great and we're done. Where was the fire? (aside from on Fuego's pants)

Rush, Rey Escorpion & La Sombra vs. Negro Casas, Maximo & Volador Jr.

Relevos Increibles matches are almost always fun, as you get to see tecnicos working like rudos and some cool match dynamics. And this match is a blast. Rey Escorpion is a dickhead, you knew that. Rush is a dickhead, you knew that. But La Sombra working rudo is a new favorite of mine. He chose to work rudo not long ago in a singles match against Volador which took a match I was expecting to dread and turned it into something that was super fun (until Volador invincibility took over). Casas is such a joyful rudo that I forget how sympathetic he can be as a tecnico, and how killer his triumphant comebacks can be. You come for Rush stomping and kicking Negro Casas a bunch, and you stay for Sombra being a jerk. At one point he teased taking his shirt off, and when squeals started up he slowly rolled his shirt back down. Yes. Sombra is a total shit kicker here, at one point just destroying Volador into the corner with rapid fire successive left and right elbows (which Volador threatened to ruin with his goof troop dazed selling). Sombra needs to be a rudo NOW. Ever since Volador turned tecnico and also turned horrible the promotion has been missing a highflier/rudo presence. As advertised, Casas took a big beating here, with Rush and Escorpion stomping on him with glee, all leading up to a brief but fired up Casas comeback that saw him thrust headbutt Rush to the floor. Alas, as he's going for his Thesz press off the apron Rush catches him and plants him with a powerbomb on the floor, taking him out of the tercera. Sombra tapes Volador to the corner in real menacing fashion and I like Volador fighting back by catching him with one last superkick, before he gets ganged up on and wins by DQ.  I really dug this. Strong rudo/tecnico dynamics from some real charismatic guys.

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 4/13/14

These matches were from the 3/30 Arena Coliseo show. We get another big Fuego dance party entrance, which is just awesome. Stupidly catchy song, choreography, on screen heart graphics made with Sculptris, essentially everything you would want.

Lightning Match: Fuego vs. Ephesto

I'm not really sure what they were going for in this match. Seems like CMLL is pushing Fuego pretty hard, but Ephesto goes over pretty easily by just rolling him up. As a Fuego showcase the match didn't really work, as there are other guys in the promotion with flashier offense. Fuego's offense here is pretty standard issue, with a couple nice dives and a couple normal armdrags, and moonsaulting into Ephesto's boots (which is now becoming almost as standard a spot in lucha as the backcracker). If they were going for Ephesto being a bully it didn't really work, as Fuego took like 80% of the match and then Ephesto just kinda won at the end. There was some nice moments, with Ephesto taking a fast armdrag through the middle rope to the floor, but most of this was just drab. None of the transitions felt very well thought out. Fuego hits his dives, and then spends a minute back in the ring getting the crowd into it, and Ephesto just walks back in and starts doing his offense. I'm just not sure what all was supposed to be accomplished here. It wasn't so much a bad match, as it was a boring match.

Mercurio, Pequeno Olimpico & Pequeno Warrior vs. Stukita, Acero & Pequeno Halcon

This is a pretty deep cut as far as CMLL minis trios go. Acero, Stukita, etc. aren't usually the guys that pop up on TV. In fact I'm pretty positive I have never seen Stukita. He's really tiny. Not like Mascarita Dorada tiny, but tiny as in he looks like an in-shape 13 yr old. His moves don't really have much oomph to them (his triple moonsaults look pillow soft, hard to look that impactful when you're 80 lb.), but he has a lot of energy and the crowd gets loud when he gets crazy distance on a dive and he ties Mercurio up into a cool knot to end the segunda. Warrior and Olimpico were awesome dickhead rudos, and Warrior had a cool slingshot Bombs Away to the floor. Not as spectacular as some minis matches can be, as none of the rudos are really monster bumpers and none of the tecnicos are really spectacular fliers, but this was a fun deep cut minis sighting.

Terrible, Vangellys & Rey Bucanero vs. La Mascara, Titan & Diamante Azul

Man where's the fire guys? I don't think all three falls even totaled 8 minutes. Everything was rushed through and while the work was good it was pretty impossible to get that invested when things just kept ending. Titan and Azul seemed confused how to take Vangelly's clothesline/spear (it's basically him doing a sliding clothesline to his opponent's stomach) as the both take the impact of the move and then kind of jump into a back bump after a delay, basically making it look like a real phony takedown. Terrible threw some good punches throughout and his work with Mascara was fun. Titan has a not-very-good split legged moonsault which of course means he did it a couple times. He over-rotates and lands heavy on his ankles. Bucanero caught a fun headscissors on the floor from Titan, and flew into an older lady in the front row, who consoled his pain with a hug. Bucanero also asked a foxy younger lady to rub out a painful spot on his backside, which she (half-heartedly) obliged.  

Negro Casas, Rey Escorpion & Mr. Niebla vs. Maximo, Atlantis & Marco Corleone

This match was awesome and would be a MOTY if it were a little longer with a better ending. Negro Casas is just so great in smaller arenas, really hamming it up and it's just impossible to take your eyes off him. He stooges his way all around the ring and ringside, ducking Corleone's punches in hilarious manner, and spilling out awesomely when they connect. Maximo hits his massive dive, Corleone punches tons of people in the face (Escorpion especially takes a great stoogey bump off the ropes from one after taunting Marco). This is all well worth going out of your way just to bask in all the joy of Negro Casas being Negro Casas. This man can do it all. 

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 3/22/14

These matches were from the 3/7 Arena Mexico show and is part of the Parejas Increible tournament, where a rudo and a tecnico team up, one keeps the apartment messy and one's a neat freak, but they end up learning a lot about the other, they learn to live, they learn to love. They learn how to be a man.

Reaper & Mistico vs. Titan & Felino

Zacharias is sitting creepily in the background this whole match, on the entranceway steps. A creepy child-sized man in a bird mask sitting on steps like he's being punished seems like something you'd find by opening the wrong door at the Overlook Hotel. For the most part tournament lucha is the worst lucha. But I always kind of dig the PI tourney as you get some unique tecnico/tecnico and rude/rudo match ups. So while you still get mostly short una caida matches you get to see something a little different. That being said this doesn't linger too long or give much of a sense of any one guy. Boy sometimes Felino really busts ass and then turns around one second later and looks like the laziest guy in lucha. Reaper started out the year as a crazy bump freak and now it's been a couple of months since I've seen him take wild bumps.

Rey Cometa & Polvora vs. Rey Escorpion & Maximo

Tournament lucha! This is pretty nothing although Maximo gets some good moments. Within the last 24 hours I've now seen Porky, Goya and Maximo all do the exact same leap off the apron. Cat's in the cradle and all. Cometa does his springboard tornillo and catches Escorpions knees on the floor. Ouch.

Valiente & Vangellys vs. Ultimo Guerrero & La Sombra

See this had a couple cool match-ups, with UG pairing off with Vangellys and Valiente pairing with Sombra, so it was kind of a trip seeing them trade sequences. But we get basically nothing. No substance. Valiente takes UG's top rope reverse suplex nicely, really skidding across the mat. But this was short and blew.

Averno & Volador Jr. vs. Ephesto & La Mascara

Damn this was the Ephesto show right here! That guy is so damn good and he really needs to be on TV more. Here he did his killer ram's head tope and all his tricked out armdrags with him whiplashing all over the ropes. This is lucha. There needs to be more tricked out armdrags in lucha. Where have all the tricked out armdrags gone!?!? Me loving Ephesto so much ensures that his team takes the loss.

Reaper & Mistico vs. Rey Escorpion & Maximo

Mistico hits the epic rana off the top to the floor that Escorpion takes like a freak. He also takes a mean one back inside. Maximo is one of the only guys in this tourney that is actually embracing the concept, as he goes rudo on Mistico and starts trying to unmask him. He also hits his awesome tope, so Maximo is the current one-minute match tourney MVP.

Averno & Volador Jr. vs. Ultimo Guerrero & La Sombra

UG kinda works tecnico and it's weird seeing him hit dives onto guys on the floor. Never really been his style. Sombra's wheelbarrow suplex looks cool. Two longtime rudos like UG and Averno going toe to toe feels like something that should get time. Naturally this gets not much time.

Rey Escorpion & Maximo vs. Ultimo Guerrero & La Sombra

The Pasion de Maximo almost blows it for their team, as he plants an accidental beso on Escorpion. They win confusingly anyway, with Escorpion planting Sombra with a double underhook piledriver (I thought those things were illegal...). Pretty underwhelming way to finish off an expectedly underwhelming episode.

Ahhhhh tournament lucha.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 3/15/14

These matches were all from the 2/28 Arena Mexico show.

Rush, La Sombra & Diamante Azul vs.  Terrible, Rey Bucanero & Shocker

More angle than match, building up the Rush/Shocker hair match (Rachel hates Rush's hair so wants it IDO) but I do really love how Rush and Shocker match up. The whole Rush dynamic is pretty fascinating to me, as it seems like Rush turned rudo a year ago yet he's been a tecnico the whole time (technically) but the guy is just a total cock. Every dumb party douche gesture is great because it's always followed by a cut to the crowd of a pissed off older lady just p'shawing the whole thing and talking to their son or daughter about how disrespectful that young man is. Hector Garza was the last guy to really get that kind of "anger the oldest fans" heat although Garza was really forward with it and would openly flaunt it right to all the old ladies in the front row. Rush ain't there - yet - but he was still great here. Shocker brought the heat too, dishing some big knees and showing more energy that he normally has over the last couple years. Terrible threw in a nice background performance, Bucanero did the worst dive catch possible by completely whiffing Sombra's flip dive, and Azul's cool apron flip (he does every match) looked especially reckless. So, all angle, but very worthwhile. Plus you need your weekly fill of Rush corner kicks.

Lightning Match: Stuka Jr. vs. Vangellys

Fun little match highlighted by Stuka getting planted into the ring barricade by a big Vangellys tope and  then throwing out a move that shows he is clearly insane: a moonsault over the ringpost to the floor, all the while with his hands glued to his sides. Think about your body momentum for a moment, and how difficult it would be to do something like that with your hands held at your sides. Stuka also adds a cool  new wrinkle to the Cesaro/Nigel rebound clothesline, doing a cool rebound headscissors against the barrier on the floor. I've not seen that one before.



Mascara Dorada, Valiente & Mistico vs. Ultimo Guerrero, Euforia & Niebla Roja

Well this was awesome. Tons of great spots at a breathless pace. You get all your alley-oop spots with Roja getting tossed into a tornillo and vaulted into a rana, Mistico gets vaulted into a rana, everybody gets to show off their high jump rana skills with Dorada naturally winning. Euforia is still your base god and he makes Mistico look godly here by taking his ring-to-floor dragon rana and there's such a great moment where Mistico tries the same thing in the tercera, Euforia catches it and powerbombs him into the ringpost. Yessssss. Dorada is maybe the most spectacular flier in wrestling today. His tope is one of the best, his ranas are beautiful, he really just dances all around on those ropes and it's pretty stunning. He's really becoming a guy I go out of my way to see. Roja has never stood out tons to me but he looked good here and is clearly a better UG/Euforia partner than Gran Guerrero. The dive sequences here were all amazing, the rudos were working as a well oiled machine doing a bunch of little things that can get glossed over when going through standard rudo sequences (like actually making kicks look good on the triple team kick spot, UG picking up tecnicos by the mask holes, guys making their forearms look good when they're not the focus, etc.) and you should really check it out.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 12/7/13

These matches were from the 11/22 Arena Mexico show. Also, I should be thanking cubsfan a lot more than I do, not only for uploading all these matches, but for sending a lot of you our way whenever we do lucha reviews. The guy is awesome. You knew that.



1. Blue Panther, Atlantis & La Mascara vs. Kraneo, Psyco Ripper & Vangellys

This was really fun and what's funny is the TV version cut out the coolest minute of the match. At the 17:30-18:45 part, Panther hits a sweet rana off the top, Kraneo bumps huge to the floor and takes a dangerous looking backdrop into the ropes, and then Psyco Ripper takes some sort of maniacal hybrid Cassandro/Hamrick bump by flying out the corner and around the ringpost, then landing on his back. Pretty sure Kraneo and Psyco Ripper are my new favorite guys. Kraneo is the former Alebrije, whose body is now 35% Golden Corral Chocolate Wonderfall. Psyco is the former Psicosis II who was always much better than most people assumed. Kraneo is just the coolest as he's gigantic both in height and in width, but he busts his ass harder the fatter he gets. I can just picture him at dinner with other workers saying "Yeah, I'm gonna eat this second entree. And then I'll get in the ring and work harder than all of you!" He's super fat now and he's working harder than I've ever seen him work. Everybody needs to get on the Kraneo bus (it makes frequent stops for snacks).




2. Negro Casas vs. Rush

Well this was a match I assume a lot of internet lucha fans were looking forward to. But I could not tell you why it was so damn short. I'm not sure why it wasn't the main event, and I'm not sure why it was only a una caida. I would assume there are going to be more singles between these two, hopefully including a hair match with blood! For a 10 minute match, this was really good. I wanted a 25 minute epic, but for the 10 minute match I got, it was really good. Both guys have great chemistry with the other and holy lord do they have no problem dishing out seated dropkicks to each others' face. So many nasty kicks, with one on the outside against the barricade being especially gross. I liked the end with Casas cheating to win with leg wrapped around the ropes. I liked seeing Casas on the defense for the bulk of this after taking an early nasty kick from Rush. It gave it a Fujiwara type "looking for a way to sneak a comeback" element. I was pretty bummed when I realized the one pinfall was the end, as I was thinking "Oh man, if the first fall was THAT hot then this is shaping up to be LEGENDARY!" but for what we got it was a real good roll in the hay.

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