Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 4/25/15

More matches from their most recent show, the 2/28/15 San Francisco show.

1. Kianna Rivera vs. Savanah Riley

Who wants some ref shenanigans!? Not anybody! But as we all know, PWR is a big time fan of referees being the primary focus of a match. Yeah, sometimes is riles the fans up. But I bet if you asked every single fan in attendance if they'd rather see these two work a normal 7 minute match, or a 7 minute match with heel ref schtick, I would be shocked if anybody would request the latter. It's never something that makes a match better. It robs us of actual match time and replaces it with Rivera (who works more commonly as Nicole Savoy) having to argue with ref Sparky Ballard, complain about unfair treatment and slow counts. It also forces Savanah Riley to work like a total putz as due to all of the slow counts to put the ref over, she appears to have had 5 visual losses in just 7 minutes. Both wrestlers are okay workers, but hamstrung having to play second fiddle to the ref. Rivera hits a nice dive (that falls a little short) and keeps going for a KO kick, which eventually lands and must have been one hell of a kick as it keeps Riley down for an 11 second 3 count. I'm just thankful we didn't get Sparky pulling up with a bad shoulder. So in that respect, they fooled me.

2. Vaquero Fantasma vs. Gallo Tapado Jr.

This match is instantly notable as they completely edit out the ring entrances and start with both men in the ring. The main problem with this show is normally how poorly edited it is, with full entrances and unintelligible mic work and "which side of the crowd is louder" being shown in their entirety. This is one of the only times they edit out those things, which have never added one bit to the actual shown matches (that stuff is obviously only shown because the fed does not have enough material for a weekly show, so therefore must streeeeeetch every single match out for content). This shows they actually know how to properly edit a match for maximum impact, and they just choose to not ever do that.

Match itself was weird as we start with some serviceable armdrags and a crossbody exchange, but Tapado appears to get his bell rung taking a crossbody and things seem disjointed and odd the rest of the way out. Tapado is slow getting up, and Fantasma tries picking him up but Tapado clearly does not want to be picked up. But Tapado keeps bumping and going through spots, just much slower and clunkier. A couple of times Fantasma has to put himself into pins. There was supposed to be a pin reversal that ending up seeing Gallo not move a single muscle, so Fantasma had to wiggle himself into position to make it look like his shoulders were down. Then we just cut immediately to Gallo locking on a submission for the end. So....something happened here, not sure what it was. But it looked weird.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 4/11/15

1. Damian 666, Vaquero Fantasma & Cazador del Alma vs. Gallo Tapado Jr., Piloto Suicida & Anarkia

This was from the 10/4/14 King City show, the last match they could wring from that card, and it was both amusing and a complete sloppy mess. I had not seen Anarkia or Cazador before this, and I believe they're both PWR trainees. They did not look very good, but we'll chalk that up to being new at this. There was a corner chop exchange between the two of them that seemed like it would never end. Damian, to the shock of nobody, doesn't really "show up" for these matches. He whips people with his belt, and puts about as much effort into his rope running as modern Super Porky does. Gallo Tapada is a guy I always like, because even though he has obvious physical deficiencies, the dude very clearly ALWAYS tries. Sometimes stuff doesn't look good, sometimes it does! But he puts in effort and the matches he's a part of are NEVER bad because of him. Here he stooges for all of Damian's belt spots, and breaks out a few springboard crossbodies that look like they hit with a thud. They don't look pretty, but they look effective. Fantasma runs a little hot and cold and here he was kind of stuck as Damian's lackey, but towards the end of the match he gets to break out a real nice tope. Piloto Suicida was a pleasant surprise as a guy I've seen several times in SoCal indies but hadn't seen in years. A lot of his stuff had a polish to it that the match really needed. Damian did have some fun rudo moments, my favorite being him begging off from Piloto, getting down on his knees to beg, kissing Piloto's boots...and then punching him right in the dick while he was kissing boots. Overall things were just a little too sloppy, bad lucha exchanges done in almost comical slow motion. But it still had its charms.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 1/31/15

Another match from the 6/8/14 show in Watsonville.

1. Rey Bucanero vs. Vaquero Fantasma

Hey, you know who I've seen dog it a whole bunch in CMLL the last few years? Rey Bucanero. You know who inconceivably did not dog it in a singles match at a county fair in Watsonville, California? Rey Bucanero. Combine that with Fantasma having the best individual performance I've ever seen him have, and this match turned out to me a nice little Saturday morning viewing, and one of the better PWR matches I've seen.

It wasn't long enough to actually fill their half hour, but at this point I just expect them to squander their 30 paid minutes. Heck the match ended at the 21 minute mark of the show and was fleshed out with ample "Revolution Replays" to even get it to that 21 minutes. But at least this match was actually good, compared to other light singles matches that they padded out to fill the time. They do some fun mat stuff and armdrags to start, and right out the gate you can tell Bucanero actually showed up which frankly I was not expecting. He even takes the Halloween belly first sliding bump to the floor at one point. Fantasma has been a hard guy to pin down in this fed as the promotion has him vacillating between rudo and tecnico every show with no explanation ever given. He just kind of works whatever side is convenient, but he's never come off too exceptional at either role. Here he busts ass and really aims to take out the big gun outsider. He has typically been more of a mat/brawling kind of guy but here he breaks out a moonsault to the floor and then nails Bucanero with two consecutive dives. We eventually get into some shenanigans with ref Sparky Ballard, because of course we have to have ref involvement in this fed. So even with some nonsense it was still a plenty fine match, much better than I was expecting. Then I took my cat to the vet for his annual!!

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Uprising: Lucha Libre Workrate Report 9/27/14

As best I can tell this didn't air last week, or it just aired at a different pay for play time. Whatever my DVR recorded was some sort of music festival held in the parking lot of a Mexican market. There was a 7 year old girl who was pretty impressive. And a 12 year old boy who had a lot of work to do with his stage directions. He spent a lot of time not knowing what to do with his non-mic hand, and stared down at the stage a lot.

Talk about feast or famine. The last several weeks (for better or worse) we've been getting matches from PWR's most recent 2014 shows. And now we get matches from 2/27/10, almost 5 years ago! You can tell it was another lifetime ago because Brian Cage is at ringside and looks closer to my size than the freakish size he is today. Or, he actually looks like a normal human being than a bloated, gassed up freak.

1. Kafu vs. Vaquero Fantasma

I'll cut to the chase on this match and say that it went 8 minutes and ended in a double count out. Maybe you have a better explanation than me as to why they'd pay money to show a 5 year old match as inconsequential as this. Surely they have better classic matches than this in their archives? You could argue that both of these guys are still PWR regulars, so here's a look back at an earlier match in their PWR career. I could see that. Now, the problem with that is that both guys looked in way better shape here than they currently are. It was especially noticeable in Fantasma, who was not only way more slender but wrestled noticeably better. I've seen him live a couple of times and always wondered why he seemed better on TV than in person, and now I know. The live matches are current, the TV matches I liked him in were all from 2010. It's kind of shocking to see how much he's regressed as a worker, but there it is. He looked really good here, bringing a lot of energy and nice strikes to it. I really loved his body punches and chops, and he leaned into some Kafu kicks nicely. Kafu looked sluggish as usual. Here he was in full faux Brody mode (keep in mind he's a guy who actually said he had never seen Brody wrestle before. He just must have decided independently to wear fur boots, stomp around holding his wrist and yelling "Huss!"), meaning he threw some of the loosest stomps you've seen. Kafu wrestles like a giant power wrestler, with the problem being that he's not very powerful, and not a giant. He's 6'2" tops, and while his physique has never looked powerful, he's also never shown any kind of impressive strength that would still be possible with a meh body. He throws these dinky little clotheslines that look more like little running punches. Just bad looking stuff. So yeah, we get some guys doing stuff, before Fantasma just leaves the ring with Kafu chasing, and we get the double count out. Yay! Here's what Pro Wrestling Revolution themselves had to say about this match:

"KAFU picked up from when we last saw him and became an over night sensation. Vaquero Fantasma is on the same boat but with not the same amount of fans in his corner."

I'm…not sure what any of that means.

2. Pierrothito vs. Ultimo Dragoncito

Pretty cut and dry touring match for these guys. This is not the UD that is currently in CMLL, this guy is little smaller, slightly more stocky. But if somebody told you that you were about to watch a 7 minute lucha minis singles match, you could jot down the framework of this match ahead of time and easily predict 80% of this. We start with some fun comedy matwork, with UD being the aggressor and trying to work power moves like waist locks and headlocks, with Pierrothito tossing him all around. UD locks on some armbars which Pierrothito stands up out of, with UD getting him back down with armdrags into armbars. Pierrothito bumps nicely to the floor and we get two nice big dives from UD, one large crossbody from the top, and another tope through the bottom ropes. Back in we hit some roll-ups, with the weakest looking one (a majistral that looked like it was not easily holding Pierrothito down) winning the match even though Pierrothito clearly kicked out at two, which leads to awkwardness as even the announcers (recording this in post) don't know what to make of it at first. Seems like an odd thing to purposely include in the broadcast.

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Uprising: Lucha Libre Workrate Report 8/23/14

For this episode we go back to the 2/22/14 SF show that I was at live. My favorite match of the card was a trios featuring Drake Younger and Willie Mack, and then of course there was the main event of Timothy Thatcher vs. Blue Demon Jr. which was an interesting performance seeing one of the absolute best workers in the world go up against one of the laziest.

Oliver John & Brian Cage vs. Rocky Romero & Vaquero Fantasma

Few things can make me less excited for a match than the words "And their opponents....Rocky Romero!" Babyface Rocky is even worse as he doesn't have a very likeable face and just does more goofy faces and dancing in between his random move generator offense. But if they insist on putting him against Cage and John then obviously it wouldn't make sense to have Rocky as a rudo. Oliver John has a pretty belligerent personality so really only makes sense as a rudo and Brian Cage works well as his bloated, gassed up enforcer. But there is just not going to be anything remotely interesting enough about Rocky to make me get behind him in any way. Fantasma is most often on rudo teams in this fed, so here he's just kind of thrown onto the tecnico side (I assume due to lack of other bodies?) and doesn't really work any differently than when he's a rudo. Except that from what I've seen he has more rudo strengths than tecnico strengths. Not necessarily through personality, as he wears a mask and doesn't really bother to emote anything through the mask, but more in his actual work technique.

Live Oliver John got on the stick before the match and called the audience a "bunch of wetbacks" which is a bit too mean and a not too clever racist insult. I mean, there's going to be some blatant racist schtick when you're working a border patrol gimmick in front of a crowd that's 80% hispanic. I'm about as Caucasian as you can get (Swiss-German ancestry) so it doesn't offend me, but the use of the work "wetback" is just lazy and an obvious attempt to shock. There are so many more inventive ways to insult an audience, and this just came off as uncreative and hack. I mean if you're going full on over the top racist hack, might as well just find a couple old Blanche Knott books at the Goodwill and at least fit some structured jokes into your routine. It would at least come off a little more prepared than just red-face screaming "wetbacks!!!" into a mic. Although the hispanic teen girl in front of me was clearly not expecting to hear that word, silently turning to her friend with her mouth and eyes wide open. So...mission accomplished, I guess? Wisely, the TV actually leaves off the opening mic work, which they normally include (you GOTTA include full entrances and middling heel stick work when you're paying for the time!).

Match itself was as okay as a match featuring Rocky Romero is going to be. Cage has packed on so much mass that he's not nearly as mobile as he was even a year ago, but he can still occasionally surprise, like when he bumped nicely for a Romero rana. Romero for his part hit a real nice dive. As with a lot of PWR matches there just isn't a lot of substance. The matches always seem to take a long time to get going, and then they end right when they seem like they're going to roll. There's often a lot of bullshit and rudos taking powders on the floor, some threatening to walk out, some regrouping, and then rudo control segments with holds. The formula works to a degree, and sometimes it doesn't take much more than that. But there needs to be a certain quality level of the workers involved and a lot of guys in PWR aren't at that level. Oliver John is a good heel and I've enjoyed his work in the past. Brian Cage is gassing himself to full Scott Steiner levels of immobility. I mean like he's literally bigger and bigger at every single show I see with him. But he's still young and has ability, so he's still athletic enough to overcome things like not being able to put his arms down all the way. But these two just had nothing to work with opposite Fantasma/Romero. Romero had one hot 15 second bit with a nice rana and that dive, but the rest just shows he has no idea who he is or who he's supposed to be within a match. Him at one point doing horrible "he's standing right behind me, right?" comedy, blindly feeling behind him and discovering Cage was there, is not even normally a babyface spot and yet still was so badly executed that it was embarrassing to watch. I mean this isn't exactly news in 2014, but Romero is just completely clueless as far as working any sort of compelling characters to build drama within a match. Just an awful worker. I could see Cage/John working well with more capable faces. These weren't they.

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Uprising: Lucha Libre Workrate Report 8/16/14

Another match from the 5/18/14 Morgan Hill show.

Atlantis, Gallo Tapado Jr. & Mascara Sagrada vs. Damian 666, Zokre & Vaquero Fantasma

Gallo Tapado Jr. may be the weirdest lucha fly-in I've ever seen. I'm unsure how big a star his dad was, but his dad likely retired in the 80s or early 90s. I think I've seen this guy on an IWRG undercard, maybe. But that's a weird way to bring in guys. "I think this guy may have worked an IWRG undercard before! Fly him in!" Damian gets on the stick and talks for a few minutes, and literally 80% of what he says is muted. Then Sagrada grabs the mic and the same thing happens. I have no clue what they said, but apparently it was a) bad enough to be unsuitable for TV, and b) so important that it had to be left on the broadcast, even if you couldn't understand what they were saying. And so here we are, 10 minutes into a 30 minute broadcast, with no wrestling having occurred. This would be like Raw starting their first match at the 40 minute mark. Is this why the "Revolution" is in Pro Wrestling Revolution? I'm still completely unclear about what exactly is supposed to be revolutionary about any of this. It's a name that's dumb enough to get angry about if you actually think about it. How, in any way at all, is anything they do revolutionary, or even just a change from the norm?

Match itself was not great, but decent. Sagrada looked enormous here, and I've seen him before in this fed and he was as lazy and selfish as you remember him being. But here he really busts butt and seemed like he was really trying to not dog it. He was slow (his majistral took forever) but he took some big bumps for a fat guy crammed into a bodysuit (nice backdrop bump and a nice spill into the ropes) and while he didn't look great, he tried and that's worth something. Gallo Tapado was probably the best of the bunch here as he really worked from bell to bell, always doing something. It was not a performance I was expecting and he really tried to make this match into something more than "let's work around Damian stooging for Atlantis". He really worked hard to turn it into a tecnicos vs. rudos battle, threw some fine armdrags, nice apron work, did a nice springboard body press onto Damian onto the ground (which always looks extra great when it's outdoors and into dirt, like this was). So yeah, sorry for making fun of you up above Tapado. Damian kind of worked like 2014 Damian would work, which is wander around and punch people, take a couple spots from Atlantis, and then hit the floor to jaw with fans. Zokre had a weird billy goats beard sticking out of the bottom of his mask (unsure if it was real beard or beard on mask) but Atlantis had several fun spots involving him ripping at the beard. I especially liked Atlantis holding the beard while climbing up to the top, then doing a cool leverage "beard drag" jumping off and flinging him. The whole match is essentially arm drags, leading to multi-man pinfall attempts (the estrella, the triple sunset flip, etc.), with the big springboard body press by Tapado being the big high spot. Not a mind-blowing match, but fun enough to air for sure.

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Uprising: Lucha Libre Workrate Report 11/24/13

The main event of the 5/30/09 Milpitas show. This one actually looks really fun on paper.

1. Super Crazy & Hijo de Rey Misterio vs. Incognito & Vaquero Fantasma

A bunch of kids in the crowd are chanting "619" as this starts, which again, what they don't know can't hurt them. When I was young my friend Brigit's dad worked as a mall santa around the holidays for extra cash. He was a supervisor at the Sears auto department by day, and did some Santa stuff by night and weekend. I did not know this. So when my parents took me to see Santa, Santa knew my name and  all the stuff I wanted before I even began to speak. My mind was blown. I'm pretty sure I believed in Santa longer than any of my friends because of that. So you know, the kids here think they're seeing Rey Mysterio at their older brother's high school gym, and it's completely awesome for them. But I bet some guy in the crowd that night just had to tell some of them "you know that's not even the real guy".

I thought this match really delivered, maybe the best PWR match I've seen. I dug the Mascarita Dorada/Pequeno Pierroth and Mini Halloween matches, but I've seen matches very similar from those workers elsewhere. This match felt more unique to this specific fed, and was absolutely crazy. Super Crazy is super chubby (Super Carby?) here but it doesn't slow him down much and god bless him for doing a bunch of nutty spots in a high school gym. Misterio isn't really great, but Incognito and Fantasma are two good guys to base him, as they whip around ultra fast SUWA style on his ranas, and catch him on a couple lunatic spots that are wilder than anything else I've seen him do (including a legdrop to a prone Incognito, from the top rope to the guardrail on the outside!). Crazy hits a mammoth flip dive over the ref to the floor, sending guys flying dangerously into the front entrance ramp. Incognito looks really great here, tying up Misterio with a couple really cool mat sequences, and leaning way into stiff shots from Crazy. This is the first "all lucha" match I've seen Vaquero Fantasma (one of PWR's trainers) in, as usually the matches have some non-luchadors, and he really shines in this setting. Bunch of big bumps (which look fantastic with all the fringe on his gear). Again, big props to Crazy for working up a sweat on a tiny show like this, but really everybody was going balls out. This is the kind of wild main event type stuff they need to be showing on the reg, not their 12 for 10 cents opening card stuff. This stuff actually sets them apart from most other feds and presents a unique feel. I need more.

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Uprising: Lucha Libre Workrate Report 10/13/13

Looks like we're back to 2009 matches this week. I'm not sure why nothing from 2010-2012 is being shown here, as some of the matches they've shown from 2009 have been pretty uninspiring (the Mr. Wrestling IV match especially standing out as a poor use of air time). I mean, they have 5 years of shows to cherry pick from, you'd think that would mean some pretty strong material

1. Cheerleader Melissa vs. Christina Von Eerie

First few minutes are mostly Melissa domination which is fun. Von Eerie gets some counter roll-ups but mostly it's a Melissa stomping. She grabs Von Eerie in a wheelbarrow lock and walks around the ring, swinging her into the guard rail on every side of the ring numerous times. Awesome. Melissa also bends her in half with a neat modified Texas Cloverleaf. Ladies always make submissions look cool with how flexible they can be, really getting contorted while in a move. Melissa hits a hardway pump handle slam, looking like Von Eerie sandbagged her the whole time. Von Eerie is tiny but Melissa still looked like she had some Backlund strength there. I dig Von Eerie struggling out of a DVD attempt by Melissa and planting her with a DDT (Melissa really took it great, too). CVE sets up a chair in the ring to vault off of into the corner, but Melissa catches her and plants her on the chair with an Air Raid Crash. Melissa looked really great here, but it was pretty clear she was holding CVE's hand through this, even having to do moves to herself.

2. Vaquero Fantasma vs. Hijo de Rey Misterio

Again, they have 5 years of matches to cull from, so not sure why they seem to be showcasing fake Rey Misterio. I fully understand having fake Rey Misterio on your live shows, but don't understand the purpose of showcasing his 4 year old matches on their valuable air time. Is their goal to trick new viewers into thinking they're watching a Rey Mysterio match? Or is their goal to bring new viewers to their live shows. The former seems odd, as it won't bring them new business. I'm pretty sure the fake Misterio no longer even works. The latter would make more sense, except this match is showcasing a guy who no longer works, and I've yet to see the TV show advertise any upcoming events. They advertise the training academy, and I believe Fantasma is the trainer...but they don't specifically mention that in the ads. So...I'm really wondering what the goal of this TV show is supposed to be. I'm trying to remember if they even advertise the website, and I'm drawing the blank. All I remember seeing ads for each episode is the training academy, and the Killers-meets-Dashboard Confessional theme song.

This match is basically all Misterio, with Vaquero Fantasma tasked with getting into proper position for Misterio's random move generator offense, and attempt to put it into some sort of structure. It's not much use though. Fantasma bumps around nicely, and Misterio's moves look mostly fine, but they're all fairly meaningless. It's the type of moveset that works really well when making a 3 minute youtube music video, but doesn't do a whole lot for me watching it in full. Every time I see a Hijo de Rey Misterio match he's added one or two "hey that move looks cool I want that!" This time it was the Code Red. His aresenal really is a greatest hits of the last few years of indy lucha. I was stunned he never went for a Backcracker. Hats off to Fantasma for making one of the more contrived spots look killer, as Misterio took a while setting up Fantasma seated on the apron, holding a chair in front of his face (similar to that old Scoot Andrews spot where a guy has to balance himself on the ropes as if he's stuck, so Scoot could do a legdrop from the middle rope), so Misterio could do a baseball slide into him. Well Fantasma leans all the way into it and take an incredible Hamrick-esque bump from the apron back-first onto the floor. Awesome bump, above and beyond what he needed to do (and for that, we thank him). In summary, Misterio getting the pin was never in question, match was worked as Misterio moves exhibition, Fantasma gets full point for trying to string it all together.

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Uprising: Lucha Libre Workrate Report, 10/6/13

This is from that same 5/11/13 Turlock show as last week's matches (they really love showing Turlock cards apparently) that had Santo in the main event. We'll see if we ever get the Santo match. I have been to Turlock exactly one time, for one weekend. My girlfriend-at-the time Hillary had a friend getting married on a Sunday (come on, people, do you know how inconvenient that is?) and it was 88 degrees and all the girls' hair was melting and they had a horrible loooooong service that had every bullshit wedding thing you can think of (lord knows we needed a candle lighting ceremony while "My Heart Will Go On" played). And the rehearsal dinner was at a really bad pizza place. Turlock, everybody! Catch it!

1. Fantasma De la Opera vs. Willie Mack vs. Ultimo Panda vs. Zokre (Phoenix Star?) vs. Vaquero Fantasma

Website lists this as being Zokre, onscreen graphic lists it as Phoenix Star. I've seen both live a couple times, but that was long enough ago that I couldn't tell you which was which in this match. I also know one Uso has a small tattoo on his pec and the other doesn't, but since I regularly forget if Jon or Jey or Jimmy has the tattoo it doesn't do me much good. Announcers refer to him as Phoenix Star so we'll go with that. Mac is a chubby black guy who moves real well. I've seen him live a bunch, at PWG and Lucha Va Voom and I'm always really impressed by his agility. He's got great leaping skills for a big man and throws some power moves with some oomph, stiff shoulderbocks and some decent comedy as well. This is an elimination match and it's pretty hot. Mac gets eliminated first which is a shame but he gets tons of cool stuff in before taking the fall. His standing moonsault is super impressive as he hits it really fast. It would be impressive if he were 100 lb. less, but as a man of size it looks pretty incredible (his kip-up also is pretty stunning). Match kinda goes lame right after the Mac elimination as two guys get eliminated almost immediately. Fantasma looked good but we only got to see a little bit of him before he was gone. Vaquero Fantasma also seems fairly solid, and he's perfected the "take lucha arm drag while sliding under the bottom rope to the floor" bump. Ultimo Panda is a fat guy in a Kung Fu Panda suit who doesn't seem that good, so naturally he goes over with some sort of dangerous looking torture rack piledriver thing. Match would have been worlds better if it hadn't been elimination style, as a 10 minute match where 4 people have to be eliminated just does not work. Guys start getting pinned after taking next to no offense the entire match. The work WITHIN the match was real good, but the match format and pacing just gave it no chance.

2. "La Migra" Brian Cage vs. El Mariachi

I'm sure I've seen Cage before in PWG, but here he is like 25+ pounds larger than I remember. Dude has been hitting the gas HARD. He's been hanging out with Jon Anderson too much. Mariachi is pretty so-so. They work a lot of reversal spots where timing is pretty important, and he's just a split second off which makes everything look confusing. For example, a spot where both guys are supposed to throw forearms, but Mariachi is supposed to be quicker on the draw, ended with Mariachi being late, so both guys hitting each other at the exact same time. Only Cage was supposed to be hit, but both guys took a shot, but they went with the end result anyway which means Cage bumped for the shot, while Mariachi didn't and just kinda stood there. Stuff like this happened a few times. For a guy named "La Migra" I expected a little bit of crowd work from Cage, but there was none. The crowd appeared to be 90% hispanic (if not more) and you're playing a Border Patrol guard. And there's not the least bit pointing to the crowd bullshit. This did not work for me. 

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Uprising: Lucha Libre Workrate Report, 9/15/13

So again, living in a heavily hispanic area I tend to get random lucha shows popping up for 6 weeks on Mexican channels I didn't even realize I get ( this is on Azteca America). It appears to be affiliated with the Bay Area's Pro Wrestling Revolution, but I have no clue what dates the matches orginally happened. It's odd that no channels I get show CMLL anymore, but I can see Willie Mac lucha matches at midnight on a Saturday.

1. Vaquero Fantasma/Incognito/Rockero Del Diablo vs. El Amante/Ulysses/Magno

Okay these matches may be up to 4 years old, if they're still using Incognito. The announcer mentions Santa Maria, CA. A (not very ) quick internet search shows me that holy lord this match was from 6/26/09! That's right, some local channel is showing high school gymnasium lucha from over 4 years ago at midnight on a Saturday night. I am unsure if this is the IWRG Rockero, but it actually appears to be. Amante and Ulysses are small tecnicos and Incognito and Fantasma are good at tossing them around with powerbombs and backdrops. We get a pretty great dive sequence into the entrance way with stereo topes and all 6 guys spilling out dangerously. Magno is pretty slick and with his height it's surprising he wasn't also signed by WWE when they took Incognito. Match goes a little under 10 minutes and was fine. They try and end it on a triple rana, but the timing is all off and a couple guys have to get their faces grinded on for a really long time while the third group completes their rana.

2. Felino/El Chupacabra vs. Hijo de Rey Misterio/Hijo del Rayo de Jalisco Jr.

This match is even older as it's from 3/28/09 (pretty sure the fake Misterio doesn't even work anymore, but not positive about that). I have no clue who the Rayo son is, but I assume he is one of a dozen guys who pay Rayo Jr. money to wear a Rayo mask. Chupacabra is still a bay area guy though this is when he still wore a full green bodysuit with spikes down his spine. Now he just wears tights and face paint (with some fangs). Match starts and the announcer actually does drop "Rayman" so maybe this really is Rayo's son. I loved me some Hombre Sin Nombre back in the day. Now I'm thinking it actually is Rayman as he and Felino pair off and he doesn't look lost in the least and it's not Felino just working stiff matwork against a rook (though Felino's matwork is killer here). Chupacabra is awesome from the apron, sneaking in kicks on Rayman, until Rayman gets sick of it and hits a running forearm, with Chupacabra taking an admirable bump from the apron into the guardrail. I went to a PWR show once and they are clearly very shady about pretending this Mysterio cousin is actually Rey Mysterio. Most of the kids don't know the difference so I suppose there's really no harm in it; gives them a thrill and the parents don't pay an arm and a leg to drag them to a WWE show. When I was a kid my dad took me to see the Harlem Clowns performing in my home town of Healdsburg against some combo of the Healdsburg Fire Dept. and Police Dept. Clearly it wasn't the Globetrotters, but it had former Globetrotter "Showboat" Robinson and they did old Globetrotter routines as well as some new schtick. It was $10 and a 5 minute drive and it was a blast. I can't imagine 10 year old me having more fun seeing the Globetrotters at the Oakland Arena than I did seeing the Clowns in the Healdsburg High gymnasium. So fake Rey does a (bad) 619 and a decent dive to the floor, and a bunch of kids are stoked. Match ends not too long after that with Rayman hitting a majistral on Felino. So, not much of a match at 7 minutes, but pleasantly weird to find it on TV on a Saturday night after Svengoolie.

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