Lucha Underground Season 3 Episode 32: The Cueto Cup

Mask vs. Mask: Veneno vs. Sexy Star

ER: Is this an unannounced MASK MATCH!? I honestly don't remember. I guess it's possible they announced it, but it seems crazy to start off a random episode (an episode where it's not even the main focus! The episode is about the Cueto Cup!!) with a freaking mask match. Oops and it's Cortez Castro. It's Cortez Castro everybody. This mask was mercifully short and we're all thankful for it. Can't these two shitty cops just kill each other in an ineffective standoff?

TL: It was announced, but it was a Joey Ryan skit, so I can understand Eric forgetting it. Might be the best Sexy Star match in LU history because it lasted 45 seconds and barely had her involved in it at all. I’m trying to think of the worst cop standoffs in movie/TV history but I’m drawing a blank. This is way up there, though.

TL: Okay, so Johnny’s manager/agent/stooge, whose name I’ve already forgotten, tries a power play on a guy with multiple homicides under his watch. Smart move. Johnny threatens to take the belt elsewhere, which obviously means down the interstate to Reseda. To be frank, there have been worse title defenses there considering Elgin’s been a champ there. And Adam Cole.

Prince Puma vs. Pentagon Dark

ER: The stock has dropped pretty big for both of these guys, for me at least, so I had low expectations. The whole Cueto Cup tourney has been mostly disappointing filler programming (we need to pad out some episodes of a longer season...let's do a huge tournament!!) with a couple standouts, but a finals is a finals and there should be excitement over them. And if anything, this was a match that was totally made by the crowd. The crowd was in love every step of the way, even when things got completely stupid. If you watched this on mute, you would miss out on the unironic love that the Believers have for these two. The match itself was a lot of things that I don't like about modern wrestling, peaking with a dueling Mexican Destroyer spot. I thought Pentagon looked bad through half of this; it was very noticeable at the beginning how they were trying to hide his poor looking offense by switching off to gimmick camera angles, and later he would do annoying little things like charge into Puma's boot in the corner...and come about a foot shy of boot. But again, the crowd loves these two and this felt like the right match for the setting. I liked a couple of the little moments, like Puma rolling through with a nice armdrag after Pentagon went for his driver, and the camera angle to catch the winning 630, Puma's northern lights rolled through to a deadlift vertical suplex looked insane, and outside of that silly dueling destroyer moment we didn't get any overkill. "Right match for the audience" may sound condescending, but that's not my intention. It wasn't my bag, but it felt right in the moment.

TL: First thing I notice here is that Pentagon Dark, who has this presence that plays bigger than he actually is, is SHORTER than Puma, who’s listed at 5’10”. I know wrestlers are generally shorter these days, but I got a kick out of it. It’s billed as a match that was three years in the making (which is true) and yeah, the crowd is definitely into it. I did like that there was a fight for the Pentagon Driver (aforementioned armdrag was slick as all hell). That dueling Destroyer stuff killed me, too. Just, okay, I want to make this clear to today’s pro wrestlers: Just because you can trade moves to build up heat doesn’t mean ANY move will do. Yes, even your precious Canadian Destroyer. Yes, when Misawa traded neck-breaking Germans with Kawada or Kobashi or Akiyama 20 years ago, it was just as dumb. It makes NO sense. NONE. I’ll say this about Striker: He did EVERYTHING he could to put this thing over as more than it was. Presentation matters, folks. But this fell flat in so many ways for me. I’m glad the crowd found a way to enjoy it, but it’s just not my thing.

Rey Mysterio vs. Johnny Mundo

ER: This was a pretty wonderful match with some pretty historic levels of bullshit. My memory is spotty (as this show has somehow existed for a few years now) but I think this is the first time Dario has actually gotten physically involved in a match (I think he fought with Catrina but I don't think he got in the ring to alter an outcome), and I think this was the first time we had an appearance from Lucha Underground Security. The match itself was really fun, with Rey coming out fast as the aggressor and really pasting Mundo out of the ring and following to the floor with hard elbow shots. and Mundo was really great about using his body as a twisting, crashing weapon. Vampiro takes about 3 minutes and digs his heels in on a really terrible analogy about a jukebox, where I guess Mundo is a jukebox and Rey is a song on the jukebox and the analogy isn't working but he's convinced that the more he talks about the analogy the more the analogy might make sense, and it's the quietest we've ever heard Striker as he's completely letting Vampiro die on the vine and Vampiro just keeps rolling with it. The bullshit gets really fun, with Dario stopping a ref's count and then pie facing Mysterio. This has to be the first time he's gotten physical with a non-Matanzas wrestler, right? Rey sets up the 619 on him, but Mundo gets to Rey and splats him with his finisher that usually overshoots. We get big Dominic running out to double leg Mundo, then paste a member of Lucha Underground Security with a running elbow smash on the escape. Love it.

TL: Holy crap. Vampiro sets this one up as Rey as LeBron James, saying he’s “come home” to get back to his roots. That is a hell of a statement. And Vampiro’s made a lot of statements. Between that and the jukebox thing, along with Striker in the previous match, I’m looking to see if there’s a SAP feed. Rey plays his hits pretty well, with the face-first bump under the bottom rope and the slick baseball slide into the headscissors. He even pulls out the Dragonrana suicida he used to do with Eddie. It was not the pace I was expecting, to be honest. Was expecting more of a control segment from Johnny, but this being a 50/50 match was pretty good for me. I have no idea how there was a Rey Mysterio Canadian Destroyer in this match, but here we are. The worst security in the history of pro wrestling can’t even deal with Dominic. The Dario stuff was at least funny, and Johnny wins on a bullshit finish, which is 100% on brand. Definitely entertaining, definitely creative.


COMPLETE GUIDE TO LUCHA UNDERGROUND

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Lucha Underground Season 3 Episode 24: Macho Madness

TL: I want to want something in my life as much as Catrina wants a giant cup with ribbons on it. Also, I’m 1000% certain Vampiro never pronounced Sergio Arau’s name right once in all the shows he played.

1. Veneno vs. Mil Muertes

ER: Man, actual Veneno would have been so much more interesting in LU than Ricky Reyes under a mask. You've seen more violent Muertes squashes. I wonder who designed the cool Veneno mask for a gimmick they don't use?

TL: Man, I’m such a huge fan of Muertes absolutely mauling folks. Yes, there are better squashes, but it’s still worth it to watch him squash folks. He absolutely destroys Veneno Reyes in a way that seems like a waste of three minutes to some, but for me, in the year 2017, our Year of the Sprint, would watch 100 times more. That chokeslam with a twist that he throws looked nasty, like a uranage by the throat, and segues right into the Flatliner. Very much here for Mil Muertes squash matches.

2. Paul London vs. Vibora

ER: "Luchasaurus" has an admittedly better ring to it than "Lucha Lance Hoyt" but the end result is the same. London is an absolute psycho in this, really working vintage death wish London. He plasters Vibora with a couple stiff baseball slide dropkicks, eventually does a bonkers trust fall dive that Vibora has no clue how to catch, so London just topes en reversa to all the way to the floor, almost braining himself on Melissa Santos' seat on the way down. Rabbit Tribe holding Vibora's legs to prevent him from getting back in the ring was a nice way to limit his one on one ring time, and London will be much more interesting in later rounds than Vibora.

TL: Man. I’m definitely not here for a Luchasaurus singles match. I’m also really not here for a Paul London comedy match. Then London is out here bumping big for Vibora and I’m at least enjoying this. The Trust Fall absolutely got me into it due to its nuttiness, and at least they got the booking right with the finish. Alright, I’ll take it. Definitely looking forward to seeing how crazy London is going to bump for Muertes, and Muertes is gonna absolutely maul London. Should be fun.

3. Taya vs. Joey Ryan

ER: Have they dropped the investigation into Dario? I haven't seen any really bad cop vignettes in who knows how many episodes. Have they been doing an Instagram-only storyline tracking all of the movements made against Cueto? This was a perfectly fine first round match, and I thought Taya was really good at aggressively going after Ryan. Her punch/chop combo in the corner looked really good, and I don't think it needed the extra sound sweetening they gave her. Ryan's superkick to knock her off the apron looked good too, and she was smart for going after him with double stomps. Good match, and this was one of the few matches in the first round where I wasn't sure who would advance, and I'd much rather see Taya in the 2nd round than Ryan.

TL: Should have known they would have gone intergender with Joey Ryan. Now, yeah, this is a fine match, but has there been a deep dive on referee Justin Borden? Dude has two AA’s, two BA’s, three Master’s and a Ph.D. And he’s a pro wrestling referee!!! I just finished my first and only Master’s and am finding it hard to get a job and this guy is out here with all of the degrees he can keep himself warm with (Man, College Dropout was really good). And Joey asks him to count faster??? He’s a terrible undercover cop for not knowing how smart Borden was that he’s deliberate in his count. Calling BS on Joey’s cop credentials. Maybe if he got a BA in criminal justice. Anyways, Joey knows how to play off the preconceived gender notions very well and this is at least entertaining. Finish is a bit clunky, but nice to see Taya move on.

ER: I think I'm the only one who thinks these "pure sports build" Rey/Mundo promos have been really lame. It's already fast forward material for me as I cannot stand Michael Schiavello, but I think this kind of "real sports" build is completely pointless in Lucha Underground. They've established a weird fantasy universe where several of their wrestlers have recently murdered people, some people are actual evil time traveling spirits, several people are not 100% human, that trying to do an MMA style tale of the tape build comes off entirely silly to me. But, I really liked Crane's locker room beatdown of Mil Muertes!

TL: Lucha masks and suits will never not be cool. The beatdown was good, but hearing Callahan say “She’s mine!” after what’s been alleged against him is, well, problematic to say the least. Real sport build really needed Cage with his power glove beating up the interviewer. Absolutely over this and I can’t believe I was into this two episodes ago.

4. Jeremiah Crane vs. Killshot

ER: I don't really know what to say about this match. I got a lot more time than every other first round match so far, and they certainly made it their business to do everything they could with that extra time. They did a lot. LU used that one SLAP sound effect they have probably 35 times. So you know guys were hitting each other, because the SLAP sound told us. The problem I had with most of this revolved around Killshot. He's clearly athletic, and can do things that I wouldn't ever be able to do, but his entire tone never changes. He works the first second of the match the same way he works the last second. He doesn't sell, he merely occasionally lets the other guy do moves. He's not having a conversation with his opponent, he's the guy waiting for his opponent to finish talking so it's his turn to talk again. So while it looks awesome when Crane runs all the way around the ring and plasters Killshot into the wall and through several chairs with a cannonball, you also know it's not going to do anything to slow Killshot down (unless it's during those moments where he merely goes into shutdown mode before being reactivated). If instead of making him an army sharpshooter they had made him into a Six Million Dollar Man rebuilt half-robot, then his style would make a lot more sense. Crane eventually gets the pin by dumping Killshot on his head with an underhook piledriver/powerbomb, but Killshot bounced off his head a few times in the match already, and took a few nasty kicks to the back of the head. I'm not sure why this particular shot hurt him any more than those other shots. And I still don't understand what his finisher is. He jumps off the top and lands with his feet on either side of his opponent. I just watched 15 minutes of him landing strikes and suplexes and things that looked much more painful and all somehow had the same SLAP sound effect, so I truly don't know what that move is supposed to be, or why it is somehow worse than the other two dozen moves he successfully landed.

TL: The first six minutes of this match take place entirely on the outside and is done in a way that never got me into the match. When you trade dives like that to the point where none of them mattered, I have no idea how you’re supposed to convince me anything else matters in the match. Really over any spit-based offense from Crane, too. He’s no Haruka Eigen, damn it. And yeah, after that Cannonball, how is Killshot even up and doing any offense with force behind it? And then all his athletic based offense? It’s just spots for spots worth. He sells no pain. They only sell until the next spot, then everything is all right. Both guys hit their stuff as crisp as ever with as much force behind it that they’re essentially superhuman. The crowd eats it up because it’s a bunch of cool looking stuff, but the match itself had zero substance and really played into the worst possible impulses of both guys. When Vampiro talks about Crane selling his jaw and then he basically just goes over and grabs a Dragon Sleeper with suddenness two seconds later, you’ve lost me. It’s amazing to think that Crane thinks he’s a top-flight wrestler at this point when he’s had the Finlay matches under his belt and decided to go seemingly the opposite way of what made those matches great. Yeah, a lot of that was due to Finlay, but man, at least there was attention to detail there. Here, there was none. Strickland didn’t sell a damn thing.

TL: Wait, why does Muertes get the lights out effect and you can’t even let Cage pound his damn Power Glove into the mat??? Unreal.

ER: I don't know who Son of Madness is, but I know an impressive beard when I see it, and the guy has a legendary beard. I REALLY hope we build to a Loser Shaves His Beard match. It writes itself.

TL: Okay, please forgive my ignorance, but it literally took me three seasons of this show to realize that with the Son of Havoc/Madness stuff and them being from the “Open Road” that it’s a play on Sons of Anarchy. Man I feel dumb.

COMPLETE GUIDE TO LUCHA UNDERGROUND

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Black Terry/Diablo Scrap w/ Veneno/Chicano

22. Black Terry/Diablo Jr. v. Chicano/Veneno IWRG 2/26

PAS: This is a tourney final for the IWRG intercontinental titles and has exactly what you want from an IWRG title match. The opening fall had some really fun matwork, Veneno is a guy who I didn't like for years, but has turned into a really fun veteran in his old age. He appears to have take a jujitsu class as his mat stuff is more shootstyleish then most lucha. The highlight of this match though is when it got violent. Veneno starts cracking Diablo Jr. with headbutts, Terry tags himself in and they just start smashing each other with gross headbutts including Veneno opening up a huge gash on his forehead. Finish was pretty dumb with Danny Casas running in and throwing a weak chair shot on Veneno so Terry could pin him. Terry is still what he is.

ER: The only logical explanation for what happened with Veneno, is that when Olimpico lost his mask in 2010 some kind of Freaky Friday scenario took place, and Olimpico switched bodies with Veneno, thus making Veneno suddenly very watchable and Olimpico very skippable. It's the only thing that makes sense. I thought Veneno looked great in this. I thought his matwork against Terry was a real highlight; him beating at Terry's clasped hands to try to break them and give him the armbar was awesome. I loved all of Veneno's dropkicks, they pack a nice wallop and were used in cool, different ways (high horizontal dropkick as a big move, low dropkick to Diablo's kneecaps after faking a lock-up, the missed dropkick that blasts the ref). Diablo works with a nice energy, and Terry brings his brand of gravitas to things, peaking with him coming in to sacrifice his own noggin to save Diablo from taking Veneno's vicious headbutts (and my god those headbutts were vicious). Finish is agreeably stupid and lazy, fitting well within 2017's theme of terrible match finishes.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

50. Rey Hechicero/Barbaro Cavernario v. Veneno/Negro Navarro Cara Lucha 11/29

PAS: The awesome Black Terry Jr. run of handhelds continues. As does the unexpected step up from a random dude, a couple weeks ago Ultimo Guerrero looked awesome in a Maestro match, and here Veneno of all people had some really great moments. This was worked more aggressively and quicker paced then most Navarro matches and he fit in really well. At one point he invents this nasty figure four variation which everyone should steal, Cavernario is awesome but he isn't a mat guy, but Navarro made him look golden. The Hechicero v. Veneno stuff was a real highlight too, Hechicero throws Veneno around really violently, and Veneno responds with some really sharp nasty shots, he even throws out the one dive of the match a nutty flip dive. My wife is probably going to get me some nice things for Christmas, might be getting a new leather duffel bag, maybe some slick Rag and Bone shirts, but the highlight of the holiday season is Black Terry Jr. recording Rey Hechicero v. Negro Navarro on Christmas day, they don't match up very much in this match, but when they do it is a total battle of the bulls, that singles match is going to be so awesome.

ER: Chelsea should realize that for just the fraction the cost of a Rag & Bone shirt she could easily make Phil happy by just shelling out for a bunch of Black Terry Jr. exclusives! Seriously, she could be saving some money there. And holy cow how great was Veneno in this! Talk about satisfactory luchadors who I've seen plenty of, and haven't thought about in years! Quick somebody track down and tell me what Mr. Mexico or Karloff Lagarde Jr. have been up to these days. I mean Veneno (!) was just awesome here. He had cool takedowns, nasty kicks to knees, cool short dropkicks to the legs, did this weird headscissors to Hechicero while Rey was deadlifting him, plowed through Cavernario with a wicked senton off the apron, did a weird elbow drop off the top, had some odd Tracy Smothers style kung fu chops…I mean shit Veneno looked like a star here. It made me genuinely want to catch up on what the hell Veneno has been up to the last few years. I mean everybody looked good in this and it's possible Veneno stood out because I'm used to seeing the other three look good, but talk about your fun surprises! Phil is right about Navarro bringing out the best in Cavernario's mat game, as watching the two go at it I was thinking "man this is the best I've seen Cavernario look on the mat!" Also props to Navarro's weird crossed arm submission on Hechicero, crossing Rey's arms across each other in a painful way making it look like he was breaking his wrist with his own other wrist. Great selling by Rey, too.

Ongoing Match of the Year List

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Black Terry Sang A Song as he Rode, His Guns Hung on his Hips

Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro/Veneno v. Oficial 911/Oficial AK47/Tony Rivera IWRG 3/9/14 - GREAT

Old fashioned IWRG brawl with an especially heated focus on Terry v. Rivera. Rivera jumps him coming into the ring and they spend the whole match beating on each other and bleeding, with Rivera posting him and making him bleed, Terry smashing Rivera with the lid of the beer cooler, and Rivera wasting him with a tope. Veneno bleeds too, although mostly wanders around Baba chopping people. More cameo performances from the Oficiales and Cererbo, although the good Doctor did whip out an awesome looking bullet tope. Didn't reach the heights of the brawling trios of yesteryear, but this was well worth watching and enjoying.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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Black Terry Was Tops in All They Said, It Never Once Went To His Head

Black Terry/Kai/Yamato/Masada v. Freelance/Multifacético/Ultramán Jr./Veneno IWRG 12/20/07- FUN

Pretty amusing match worked sort of like a ROH scramble match with everyone flying around. We even have a ridiculous Veneno tope con hilo. Freelance is perfect for these kind of matches as he is going a million miles an hour. They also did a nice job of hiding your green All Japan workers who were really the Lit and Hijinx of this group. Black Terry isn't showcased in this match, but he does do some does some cool shit, including a nasty crossface on Multifacetico. There was a run in finish which I didn't understand.

Black Terry/Cerebro Negro/Dr. Cerebro v, Barba Roja/Pirata Morgan Jr./Hijo del Pirata Morgan IWRG 8/6/09-GREAT

PAS: Really fun trios match. The Jr. Piratas look a little outclassed during the opening mat sections, as their was some nice looking stuff, but they were clearly being led by Terrible Cerebros. They were definitely more comfortable in the second and third falls when they stood up. I really liked all of their triple teams, as they looked more like classic lucha trios moves, as opposed to the more Young Buckish shit that many current lucha teams will do. I also dug the finishes of the second and third falls, as the rudos attempted to out rudo each other. That is one thing I love about lucha, when you match up two rudo teams, their isn't a de facto techinco, they just battle to see who truly represents the spirit of rudismo.

TKG: I get the sense that the Piratas v Officiales is the match up that would play to their strengths better. Still kind of neat to see them forced to work this type of matchup. They seemed really out of sorts as to what to do with the first fall. but they never embarrassed themselves and hung along for the ride. Also amazing how much Terry felt like the real general/anchor of this matchup. One of these days I'd love to write up something on the period of EMLL between the crowd turning on the attempt to make Tarzan Boy a top face at turn of century and the beginning of the success of making Mistico. The real engine of EMLL booking during that period was these rudo v rudo feuds that were anchored by veteran rudos. The IWRg crowd was packed with kids from either the local Buccaneers youth futbol team or the youth booster club for a Buccaneers futbol team. Either way promoting a trio to local youth group with similar name is cool way to sell more tickets and get involved crowd.

Black Terry/Alan Extreme v. Chico Che/Dinamic Black IWRG 1/1/10- GREAT

PAS: This was part of a tourney which was pretty much a testing ground for rudos. Each match basically tests how your veteran rudo can run a match, and as you might have guessed, Black Terry throws off the curve. This was a virtuoso one man show, as his carry job of Dinamic Black may have been as good as what he did with Multifacitico in 2008. Chucked him around the mat, kicked the shit out of him, and then bumped and put him over when he needed to. I liked everyone else a fair amount too, and this was the match of the show and goddamn is Black Terry spectacular.

TKG: Alan Extreme is now a rudo. Not sure when that happened. He also now has the star with tassels on his belly and not his buttocks. Still don’t know what his gimmick is. Is he supposed to be an Extreme version of Alan from the Barrio Boys? What is more extreme than an underage boy prostitute? Does Alan Extreme insist on bareback, only work for IV drug users, have no safe word? With Extreme Barrio Boy working rudo, I’m assuming Dinamic Black is part of some type of face version of the Black Family. Was there an episode of the Munsters where they tried to rid the neighborhood of the child street whore menace? Both Alan Extreme and Dinamic Black have some entertaining multiple springboard armdrags.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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IWRG 2/28/10

HH of opener at http://www.youtube.com/user/tvluchadelpasado

Rest of show from Teleformula Tv show can be seen at cubsfans dailymotion page

http://www.dailymotion.com/search/IWRG#hp-h-9

IWRG on Segunda Caida

Alan Extreme/ Avisman v Eragon/ Pegasso Kid

TKG:First fall had a nice long section of Eragon and Avisman fighting for submissions, for pinfalls, for top wrist locks, etc. They really cranked in their stuff (including an awesome spot where Avisman cranked a ceiling hold) as they really got across the idea that they weren’t just putting on cool looking things but actually fucking with each other. Unfortunately, their opening fall interaction is really all you need to watch. Avisman had some nice stuff in the rest of the match too: his elbow drops were better than I ever remember them being; his stuff working over Eragon in corner was nice; the techincos do the second rope dropkick to taint double team (this time not as a receipt spot but as comedy one) and Avisman is really amusing doing the MX style rubbing of partner’s hurt ass to elicit anti-gay heat. But you got to slog through bad messy couple falls to find those couple bright spots.

PAS: In this match Avisman is back in his traditional role of veteran rudo to work long mat sections with younger guys. He has spent most of 2010 as a Gringo VIP working brawls, which he is fine in, but this is the best of Avisman. He and Eragon absolutely rip the mat to shreds, so many cool twist as both guys very realistically twist their opponent into ludicrous knots. You can safely stop watching after the first youtube section, as none of the rest of the match is worth watching. There is a long tradition in lucha libre of elaborate gimmicks and names, however for them to work I have to buy the wrestler really personifies his gimmick. At his best Satanico can truly feel like Satan himself has come to the ring to wreck havok, Blue Panther wrestles with the lithe speed of a jungle cat, if someone is going to work as Pegasso Kid in 2010, you had better make me believe you are crazy enough to choke your family to death, maybe prime Emilio Charles Jr. could pull it off, not the chump under this gimmick.

Chico Che v Gringo Loco v Tinieblas Jr v Zatura v Scorpio Jr v Hijo Del Signo v Veneno v Hijo De Pirata Morgan

TKG: This type of cage match is built around guys brawling and slapping each other around for ten plus minutes until the numbers get low enough to create some match structure. For 15 + minutes of guys smacking each other this was a good group of guys. Tinieblas Jr was once a guy whose appearances I used to absolutely dread. Some point around 02/03 he briefly worked heel and became a fun heavyweight who I look forward to seeing. And he’s pretty fun in the first ten minutes of pre-escape brawling. Just all of his offense looks good (well there is one awkward quebradora), a great drop kick, and has fun interactions with Veneno, Zatura, Scorpio Jr, Hijo del Signo and pretty much everyone in the ring outside of Hijo del Pirata (who spent huge chunks of match gently unlacing opponents masks). They did two sections of guys standing on top of third rope exchanging blows (one with Zatura v Hijo de Pirata and one with Veneno v Chico Che) and for a spot that can often come off contrived and awkward, I liked both of those sections. Eventually half of participants escape and we get two tecnicos and two rudos.

PAS: Really fun Chico Che performance, he was losing the match so he was going to take a beating, fight the odds and come close to escape before failing. He did all of those things well. His brawling with Veneno is some of the better Veneno in recent memory. I loved how they would exchange headbutts, and smacking the back of each others heads into the steel. Finish came down to Gringo Loco v. Chico Che, which is a long running feud and it was a pretty great finish run. I loved how Loco got beat around in this, even other rudos weren't going to team up with a guy in American flag pants.

Hijo Del Diablo v Oficial 911 v Angelico v Arlequin Amarillo v El Angel v Pirata Morgan v Jack v Mascara Ano 2000 Jr.

TKG: We don’t get the first ten minutes of this and well this isn’t a group of guy who you want to see trade blows as much as the last one. Well let me rephrase that cause I did enjoy Pirata and Oficial 911 trading blows. There are three tecnicos in this match (Angelico, Angel, and Jack), none of whom are particularly good brawlers. And for a match with eight guys squeezed in a small space there was way too much irish whipping and running exchanges. It’s an ugly mess. It eventually forms into something watchable once we’re down to three rudos and one tecnico. And then it becomes pretty awesome when it’s down to 911 and Hijo del Diablo. We get about six minutes of those two having a cool cage singles match filled with stiffness, mask ripping, blood, finish teases and big cage bumps.

PAS: I think I liked this more then Tom did. Angelico is awful here, but I think the match is pretty great when he gets eliminated. I like Jack in the role of the fast technico darting around avoiding the brusiers, and I also really dug the Pirata v. MA2K Jr. exchanges. Pirata wrapping his fist with Mascaras mask was a totally awesome little moment. This was another great performance by El Hijo Del Diablo as the last violent mini match with 911 was truly tremendous. I like how they weaved in the Cerebros v. Gringos Locos VIP feud by having Cerebro interfere.

Chico Che v Hijo del Diablo

TKG: This is a weird heel/face match structure. As Chico Che has had plenty of time to recover while Hijo Del Diablo is coming into this a bloody mess. So Hijo del Diablo works desperate underdog while Chico Che just whoops on him. Chico Che just hits Hijo Del Diablo with one big unanswered offensive move after another and then Hijo Del Diablo scurries desperately to fight to keep Che in the cage. Hijo del Diablo is struggling to get off the floor and then just digs deep to attack Che’s legs as Che tries to scurry out. Diablo tries to get the martinete on Che but doesn’t have the strength. Che goes for a martinete of his own but Diablo on his last legs wills himself to fight out. Diablo smartly gets Che next to ropes and uses the ropes to help lift and prop up the big Che for a martinete and then has to evade the outside interference of Dr Cerebro to escape. It is an a really dramatic "man fights against the odds to keep his hair" performance, although weird one for a rudo.

PAS: Don't get the booking at all, but it was pretty great stuff. Chico Che is awesome as a guy laying in a beating, and he really pummels the bloody Diablo. There is one point where he soccer kicks him in the face and you see the blood spray which was just a great visual moment. All the fighting for the martinete was really cool, and I would love to see these two guys in a longer proper hair match.

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IWRG 1/1/10

Black Terry Jr., IWRG and Segunda Caida open 2010 with a bang
http://www.youtube.com/user/tvluchadelpasado

1.Avisman/Flama Infernal v. Eragon/Volaris

PAS: First fall is pretty fun, as it is about 8 minutes of Avisman twisting and stretching Eragon, as he does a pretty passable Negro Navarro impression. The rest of the match was pretty bad as Volaris and Flama Infernal are super green and it had a real Chikarish awkwardness. Still Avisman matwork is always a blast and if we got weekly tastes of him stretching rookies I could dig that.

TKG: Flama Infernal and Volaris have clearly worked together but weren’t good and their WWEish stuff Batista powerbombs, bronco busters, and spears were just painfully ugly. I don’t know what was going on but Avisman’s third fall throws looked far nastier and more punishing than they have ever looked before. He had a hundred ways to pick up Volaris and then drop him kidney first across Avisman’s knee. They would start all Kanyonesque and end with real Gary Albright/Ron Simmons type thud.

This was a tag tourney, for what purpose I do not know

2. Veneno/Keshin Black v. Ultraman Jr./Guizmo

PAS: This was better then it looked on paper. This was a showcase for Guizmo and he looked pretty good. You don't really think of Veneno as a maestro, but their mat section was pretty nice, with Veneno showing me something. Guizmo also had some nice ranas and armdrags, including winning the match with a sweet looking dragon rana. Still clearly green as goose shit, but totally a guy I wouldn't mind check out again.

TKG: As a general rule, lucha tourney stuff disappoints. All matches being single falls means they often don’t have a sense of development, they come across really abbreviated, and they normally feel like you’re only getting to see the second fall in what would’ve been a neat three fall match. But this is IWRG where stuff gets some time and this goes almost twenty and builds from ground up. Veneno and Guizmo match up on the mat followed by Ultraman Jr and Keshin Black, then they switch off for brawling section, switch back, build to some big dives etc. Keshin Black feels like the Black Thunder/Averno to Guizmo’s Turbo/Mistico. He’s a guy who does an amazing job of eating Guizmo’s stuff. His own offense left something to be desired. I really dug Ultraman Jr’s “early 80s Florida technical worker” style matwork, was less pleased with his “early 80s Florida technical worker” style indifferent selling during brawling.

3. Dr. Cerebro/El Hijo Del Signo v. Imperial/Rocket

PAS: Same idea as the first match with a single veteran rudo in with three rookies. Rocket showed me nothing, but Imperial had some fun if slightly awkward highspots. He got some really height on his tope con hilo, and a really nice rana. Cerebro is super solid at this point, probably at top 20 worker in the world. His carry the rookie matwork was a nice carrying of a rookie.

TKG: Hijo Del Signo is really developing fast and all his stuff looks crisp. His huge superfly splash was nice looking as well. Imperial really flays his body awkwardly as he's eating a beating and also just kind of tosses himself out to rana (or hit whatever other move he's going for on) his opponet in a style that really reminded me of Masato Yakashiji. I don't know how to describe that style. It isn't spastic or sloppy but it's just throwing himself out there without abandon.

4. Black Terry/Alan Extreme v. Chico Che/Dinamic Black

PAS: This tourney is pretty much a testing ground for rudos. Each match basically tests how your veteran rudo can run a match, and as why might have guessed, Black Terry throws off the curve. This was a virtuoso one man show, as his carry job of Dinamic Black may have been as good as what he did with Multifacitico in 2008. Chucked him around the mat, kicked the shit out of him, and then bumped and put him over when he needed to. I liked everyone else a fair amount too, and this was the match of the show and goddamn is Black Terry spectacular.

TKG: Alan Extreme is now a rudo. Not sure when that happened. He also now has the star with tassels on his belly and not his buttocks. Still don’t know what his gimmick is. Is he supposed to be an Extreme version of Alan from the Barrio Boys? What is more extreme than an underage boy prostitute? Does Alan Extreme insist on bareback, only work for IV drug users, have no safe word? With Extreme Barrio Boy working rudo, I’m assuming Dinamic Black is part of some type of face version of the Black Family. Was there an episode of the Munsters where they tried to rid the neighborhood of the child street whore menace? Both Alan Extreme and Dinamic Black have some entertaining multiple springboard armdrags.

5. Oficial 911/Comando Negro v Bushi/Guerrero 2000

TKG: This was more what I expect out of a lucha tourney, super short match that starts with the brawling into highflying, Guerrero 2000 is a chubby guys stuffed in a smaller ring gear, he has the Abismo Negro white face paint and a look that’s a little too close to IWRG’s Mascara Magnifica. He got huge height in his jump into a rana but outside of that got no sense.

PAS: The faces had a nice double tope, and it fun to watch an Oficial eat a tope, but outside of that this wasn't much. I did like the red and black Oficial gear though.

6. Trauma I+II v. Gringo Loco/Fantasma De La Opera

PAS: Gringo Loco is a Chicago luchadore I remember really digging, and he looked very good here. He bumped well, hung with Trauma II nicely on the mat and had some amusing shtick. First fall was pretty darn good with some really nice mat wrestling between II and Loco. Match never really lived up to the promise of the first fall withe some uninspired brawling in the second and third. Fantasma De La Opera was wearing a CM Punk t-shirt, straight edge Phantom is a really weird gimmick. Is he living the bowls of the Black Cat and Gillman Street? Do people hear ghostly hardcore rifts late at night?

TKG: This was a non-tourney match and disappointing considering the folks involved. First fall had a lot more momentum changes than I expect in a primera caida: there is a mat section between Loco and II, double team rudos section and a Trauma I based fired up tandem combo section. For a second I mistook it for another single fall tourney match. And that first fall would have been a fine tourney match. Second fall was rope running fall and I thought it looked very sloppy and off. Post second fall they had the start of a fun streetfight, and there were sections of entertaining brawling in the third but I expected better.

7. Dr Cerebro/Hijo Del Signo v Ultraman Jr/Guizmo (semifinal match)

TKG: This was actively disappointing. At times this year, Dr Cerebro has looked like one of the top 20 wrestlers in the world. Hijo Del Signo and Ultraman Jr lately have been some of my favorite of all the anonymous interchangeable masked IWRG underders. Both Hijo Del Signo and Ultraman Jr used big top rope splashes in their prelim rounds, and I love a “battle of the top rope splashes”. Plus it’s a son of a Missionero De La Muerte v son of Space Cadet. I wanted more than this. Ultraman Jr wussies out on taking a posting, Hijo del Signo does a really bad eat of rana out of a ring, and this just felt like a real throw away match. This was the typical underwhelming meandering lucha tourney match with guys who you expect more from.

PAS: I liked the first four minutes of this, Ultraman Jr. and Cerebro have some perfectly fine matwork and a nice rope running section, with Ultraman taking a fine bump to the floor. Last five minutes weren't much, and after Cerebro's first round performance I was hoping for more.

8.Oficial 911/Comando Negro v Chico Che/Dimanic Black (semifinal match)

TKG: Neither 911 or Commando Negro are Black Terry. Nope they aren’t and neither really could do much of anything with Dinamic Black. This came together for a bit when Chico Che was in it. I imagine Chico Che and Oficial 911 have matched up as captains multiple times before and they do essentially a captain face off that was fun. Chico Che also does his fast spot exchange with big in ring shoulder tackle opposite Comando Negro. It’s a good looking spot but this match was less a big semifinal than essentially just one Chico Che segment.

PAS: Pretty disappointing performance by the rudos. I figured they would throw a bit of spark into the proceedings, but they seemed like they were sleepwalking a bit through the match. Black was green, although I did like his out to in second rope rana, Chico Che has a really great looking flying shoulder tackle.

9. Dr Cerebro/Hijo del Signo v Oficial 911/Comando Negro

TKG: This is rudo contra rudo which is also an odd way to end a tourney. The Oficial/Comando team dumps Signo out of the ring and double teams Dr Cerebro until he is able to dump Comando out of the ring so that Signo and the Dr can double team the Oficial and then isolate the Comando; the Oficial/Comando team threaten a Zbysco walk to the back and then come back to settle into a Commando v Signo one on one exchange that leads to big dives from the Signo/Cerebro team; and then it’s back into the ring for some near falls. There was a second there where it felt like both uppercard heels were going to pin both lower card heels and we might get a singles match up between Cerebro and 911. It felt like we were about to get something epic and then instead we got a straight forward second fall finish. This match was short and again felt more like a second fall then an actual match. But it was an actively good satisfying second fall where I left wanting to see the full match. Unfortunately, it’s a match I can’t imagine them ever booking toward in any other context. This was a weird tourney where for the most part I enjoyed the long opening rounds which felt like complete matches. I thought the semifinals both felt like mediocre segunda caidas while the final felt like an actively good one.

PAS: Cerebro comes flying back after a mediocre Segunda, as he is just killing it here. He has a really great punch section where he is mixing up hooks to the body and the head. He also breaks out a sweet looking tope. 911 looked good here too, but I was a little underwhelmed by Signo and Commando. Tom is right about this feeling abrupt. I don't like lucha tournaments, they are often really intriguing match ups which invariably disappoint. This actually had some match ups which overachieved, but it was still less then the sum of its parts.

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IWRG 3/26/09

PAS: After a too long 3 month hiatus, IWRG has returned. Arena Puebla undercards had been picking up the real lucha slack in its absence, but man am I happy to have it back. and along with our other full show feds (XCW-Midwest, IWA-MS, BattlArts and LGN) we will be reviewing it all here.

TKG: We were going to do full shows and this doesn’t actually feel like a full show. I think we are missing an opener but beggars can’t be choosers.


PAS: God Bless Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=1EA3D88F6D1F8C22

Freelance/Chico Che/Turbo v. Black Terry/Black Thunder/Captain Muerte

PAS: Any match with Freelance on one side and Black Terry on the other is going to kick ass, right there are two of the top 10 wrestlers in the world, they are going to deliver, and all you really need to make a lucha libre trios is one good technico and one good rudo. Luckily for us, the other four were bringing it too. Chico Che is a guy I remember enjoying in last years Battle Royal, but I figured he was just an opening match dude, a guy who could work an exchange or two with Judas El Traitor, but not some one you want higher on the card. Here though he looked damn good, agile, fun arm drags, nice fat boy tope, he looked like good tertiary Brazo, lets say Brazo de Bronce. I was also shocked at how awesome the Turbo v. Black Terry mat section was, as that is not something I imagined Turbo had in him, although that was clearly a bunch of Black Terry. I imagine that every week will be a running battle between Black Terry and Freelance for IWRG god hood, and I think Terry takes week #1. Freelance was great, his flipping Fujiwara to end the first fall was fucking great,

TKG: I’m not really comfortable with running battle analogy. Lucha trios are about how guys are positioned in the trio. There are captains and secondary guys, sometimes those secondary guys are the featured guys with an important story in the match and sometimes they are secondary figures who are there to shine the light on the guys in the important story. The real story of the match is that Turbo comes in with the new NWA lightweight belt and Black Terry wants to challenge for it. Everything else is filler. Chico Che and Capitan Muerte were the captains. For guy who by design isn’t supposed to be featured performer Freelance still is pretty great. Freelance has the coolest finisher to first fall, eats the nastiest finisher for second and does a large FIP section in third, still the match is built around highlighting Terry and Turbo. This is a pretty classically constructed match with some neat twists. First fall is all about Turbo v Black Terry technical mat sections that make you stoked for possible title match. They do some Black Thunder v Freelance technical exchanges where everytime Freelance gets Thunder in a hold Captain Muerte comes in to break it up leading to Chico Che coming in to stop Muerte. Thunder is a guy who works with Turbo a lot and is a guy who eats Turbos stuff pretty spectacularly (there is an amazing multiple Tijeras thing Turbo does around BlackThunder). He’s got some interesting ideas for offense that aren’t quite worked out. Captain Muerte looks like a world beater here as trio captain. He’s been through maybe four gimmicks since last time I remember seeing him look this bad ass. Your opening technical stuff is eventually broken up by an absolutely nasty Muerte mafia kick to Freelance’s back and a bunch of rudo two-on-one and three-on-one ass-whooping. You get a last minute change of momentum with Che taking out Muerte and technico comeback. Second fall is your faster fall starting with faces taking turns besting each of three heels in one-on-one match ups, which leads to more rudo two and three-on- ones. Third fall is all nasty brawling with Turbo and Terry matching up again, Freelance ends up working an extended 6 minute or so FIP section as the rudos go all Anderson bros quick tags on his arm and Chico Che gets super Robert Gibson indignant only to eat a face destroying second rope Alabama Jam when he finally gets in the ring. Still Freelance and Che were all secondary, everything about this match made me want to see Terry v Turbo for title.

Headhunters 1+2/Veneno v. Hijo Del Pierroth/Pierroth Jr./Arliquin

PAS: Man this was rough, like all 90's tape traders I always dug me some Headhunters, they were these guys who looked like twin Abdullah the Butchers and did crazy moonsaults into plates of glass, and that was back before you had lots of dudes moonsaulting through plate glass. Well shockingly being morbidly obese and doing crazy highspots ages you quick as they now look like a pair of slower and less agile Abdullah the Butchers. It was a shame, this was a plodding stinky brawl, there was an occasional nice punch by one of the Pierroth's but this was not the IWRG that excites you.

TKG: Really you’re going to complain about the Headhunters? Arlequin is right there. Arlequin is easily the worst wrestler in this mess and is a guy who IWRG appears to be pushing hard. He has been pushed as a heavyweight since the cage match where he lost his mask and he just sucks. He really works like a guy trained to wrestle by Shane Mcmahon or like he was inspired to become a wrestler by watching tapes of Shane. Although he doesn’t do the big Shane highspots, just the Shane Mcmahon midrange stuff and Shane Mcmahon level selling.

Fuerza Guerrera v. Offical 911

TKG: Freelance is seconding Fuerza and comes in wearing a DTU shirt. While I’d like to see Freelance v Jimmy Jacobs, I can’t think becoming involved with DTU is a good thing. I was kind of disappointed in this match. Maybe Fuerza v Official Fierro would have worked better, I don’t know. I’ve written before about how there are different ways to work different types of wrestling matches in lucha. This was advertised as a title match and it never worked for me as a title match. At some point in the first fall I kind of figured out that they were working this like a match that was being worked like a mano a mano or hair match that was building to big interference spots in the third. There is an inherent drama in a hair v hair match where something important is on the line, there is a level of “hate” and “bad intention” underlying in rudo v rudo mano a mano. This match was structured like those but didn’t ever feel like these guys had anything on the line or had any bad intentions. After the match is over Fuerza laid out a challenge for mask match or a superlibre rudo v rudo style duelo sin referi match and I’d be stoked for any of those things. This was a match that teased those things and made me want to see them. I don’t know if doing heatless version of match to set up the heated version really makes sense but whatever. This was perfectly ok and I think if this was a trios match worked exactly the same way with none of the other participants ever tagging in until the Freelance/AK47 finish I would have loved this. But this never really worked for me as a title match.

PAS: This was undoubtably a solidly worked match. Pretty good opening mat section, really nice second fall with Fuerza looking especially spry, and a fun third fall. However you really expect more from guys like this in a showcase title match. Really the only truly memorable thing in the match is the crazy Freelance dive, and I want something more to pop out at me with such great wrestlers. I really don't think Fuerza is at his best as a technico, and while I adjusted to technico Blue Panther and rudo Atlantis, virtuous Fuerza seem out of place. Although honestly I could be just looking for a reason why something with out obvious flaws, and that I was looking so forward to, fell flat to me

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