DEAN~!!! 2 Day 6: CIBERNETICO~!

DEAN~!!! 2 5/24/25

Torneo Cibernetico: Blue Panther/Hologram/Neon/Valiente/Virus vs Volador Jr./Averno/Euforia/Xelhua/Dr. Cerebro

MD: Dean could write about ciberneticos. His style was perfect, bombastic and over the top, throwing praise and emotion and tildes and wild metaphors. He could hone in on all the cool moments and somehow make them seem a hundred times cooler. I'm nowhere near as good at it, but yeah, this was awesome. If you saw this, you know that. I don't think I'm going to have a ton to add to just having lived it. 

I do have some thoughts though. First and foremost, this felt a little more produced than most I've seen, which isn't to say there isn't rhyme or reason for what happens in them. There is, but it all seems a little more honed in on the moment, unless there's a specific feud that it's furthering or leaning upon. When I say focused, there are a lot of things I could highlight. We had exchanges with Xelhua against both Blue Panther and Virus where he got to joust on the mat with them. There was a big elimination moment with Blue Panther and Dr. Cerebro in there. Blue Panther got to go up against the world with everyone stooging, feeding, basing for him. Euforia had his moment to shine as he walked like a giant swatting high flying tecnicos away. Valiente got to hit his fireplug tope. Hologram got to hit his that seemed send them flying halfway to the back. It all ended with Blue Panther and Hologram standing together against Volador and Averno and even then there was that great nearfall with the finishers used earlier used in tandom. 

You'd probably get some of that in any other such match but I don't think you'd get all of it. This was a match that knew its audience and catered to it, while still delighting the crowd at the same time. A bunch of things stuck with me: some kid in the crowd calling Euforia "big boy" when he was getting rocked. Virus working so amazingly hard and taking huge bumps considering his age. What an absolute legend. He's my guy. Panther hitting the flip dive off the apron not once but twice. How great Averno's finish still looks. That it's a joy to see Blue Panther and Dr. Cerebro work in their masks (though most of us are so much more used to seeing Cerebro NOT in the mask). Seeing not just Neon and Xelhua in with these guys but also Cerebro and Hologram. Just seeing Panther tough it out and fight through the end of the match. 

So yeah, the only way to tackle a match like this is by listing all the great stuff. I could have probably gone another two paragraphs with just that and then another on top talking about Danielson but, since I'm not Dean, let me say instead that it's really something to be experienced yourself. Go check it out on YouTube if you haven't already. 

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New Footage Friday: Virus! Commando Bolshoi! Ace Rockwell! Jimmy Rave!

Virus vs. Super Nova Nuevo Leon 5/4/08

MD: The problem with Virus is always footage. We have him as a role player in countless trios but save for when he had a title in CMLL and some late career indy matches (which are still great), it's a lot harder to find him in showcase matches. Even the ones we know about often aren't online for people to see (like the Valiente lightning match that I had to put back up recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfqlxHTQrHs). Another problem is that it's a lot easier to search YouTube for "Negro Casas" or "Hijo del Santo" than Virus, but that's sort of beside the point.

Why is footage a problem? Because the guy is bulletproof. He can do just about everything well, but without the footage (or the opportunities), it's tough to make a case for just how good he is. This is him in a supre libre match and he absolutely delivers on all fronts. Because of his diminutive stature, he can take dropkicks straight to the skull, which is how the match starts, but he quickly locks in the vertebreaker (which is a killer move in 2021 but even more so in 2008) to take a quick first fall and the beatdown ensues after that. It's a great one too, with mask ripping, an awesome posting, just tossing Super Nova over the rail into empty seats and wound biting. Everything you'd want in a rudo beatdown, which means when the comeback happens, it's very deserved and very satisfying. It's all the more so when Virus himself goes sailing into the crowd and bleeds a gusher, basing and feeding and catching the whole way. It builds to a tecera with a lot of selling that actually feels warranted for once, and here he plays around with his clever hooking to score some nice nearfalls before they take it home. Great, visceral showing where Virus basically does everything there is to do.

PAS: Virus is undeniable, much of his stuff on tape is super fast and intricate matwork, and world class basing for high flyers, we don't really have a lot of Super Libre brawls, but of course he is brilliant at that as well. I loved the Veterbreaker as a killshot, setting it up in the first fall allows them to tease it big later, with Nova reversing it to get a submission in the segunda. The rudo beatdown was great, opening up Nova's mask and enraging the crowd, we had some great looking lucha libre fan characters, a big old lady who looked like she was going slap Virus, a weird Dee Snider looking rocker who was enraged by his behavior, real weirdos are way cool then internet weirdos. Nova was kind of along for a ride, although he hit a nice asai moonsault, I kind of didn't buy him rolling up Virus for the pin, Virus is a master, can't believe he don't spin out of that weak inside cradle, otherwise this was great.

Jimmy Rave/Mike Posey/Chip Day/Corey Hollis/Sal Rinauro vs. Kyle Matthews/J-Rod/Ace Rockwell/Patrick Bentley/Adrian Hawkins RPW 10/30/11

MD: It's a War Games that breaks all the rules: the babyfaces start with advantage; it ends up 4 on 4 as people get out of the cage (and head to the back, even). There are only pretty much the only two rules to break: heels get the advantage and there's no escaping the cage. The third one would be that color is needed, I guess, but this checked that box. Despite the broken rules, this still pretty much works. How? Because it leans harder into the traditional shine/heat/comeback structure given the booking. There's a clear two-on-one shine on Jimmy Rave, with him begging off, taking his licks, and bleeding early. It looks like the faces are going to cruise through the periods until the turn happens. After that Matthews gets a hope spot for his side until the numbers game overtakes his side (the babyface advantage doubly damns them due to the turn; for a while there it's 4 on 2 and then 5 on 3). I wish the announcers had built the Rinauro issue through the match a bit more, but I'm sure the crowd watching knew what the story was. He played his part well when he came in and by taking both he and Rave out of the match, they evened out the numbers advantage in a way that made the finish possible. On the one hand, I would have rather some things not be fully resolved (like Matthews tapping Bentley; he could have just contained him or beat on him while the submissions were happening and then gotten a real win later on), but I guess they knew what they were doing for that crowd since they were going to be right back in front of it a week later. I'd say they beat the odds and had a good War Games despite breaking the rules, so full credit to them on this one.

PAS: This had a superkick or two too many for a Wargames match. Jimmy Rave Approved were a bunch of fresh faced youngsters here and I think that this would have worked a little better with the later more grizzled versions of these guys, fat greasy haired Chip Day, the Corey Hollis of Yard Call etc. I also think two turns in a War Games is two turns too many. I still was really into this though, the offense looked like it hurt, the blood was really flowing (especially from Ace Rockwell, that guy was a hidden gem of 2000s wrestling, he always rules). Fun to see Matthews, who was always a technician work in this setting, the Hidaka Octopus hold was surprisingly good War Games submission. I did think they need something to change the babyface advantage in War Games so in that sense the turn worked, but you could get around that by not having a babyface advantage. 



Commando Bolshoi vs. Akira Nakajima JWP 3/16/08

MD: A few moments really stand out here to me. The match started with Nakajima just an absolute dynamo of energy, hitting shots from every direction with wild abandon. She finally gets Bolshoi down and is just pounding on her and time seems to slow down as Bolshoi's leg comes around to catch the pounding arm changing the course of the match instantaneously. Nakajima would wrestle the rest of the match favoring her arm and unable to capitalize on her hobbled offense because of it. The second moment has her catching Bolshoi off the ropes with a sweeping takedown only to get punched straight in the face from underneath; from there, Bolshoi did this spinning armtrap from her back before locking in a triangle of sorts that was just magic. There was one point where Nakajima was laying in shots with her hurt arm, but each one took more out of her than the last and there was just an almost tragic sense of inevitability, one that carried over to her lightning pinfall attempts. It all felt like a matter of time in the best way. I think they ultimately went a little too long with this because of that. It probably should have ended with Bolshoi's triangle and not gone back up to the top again, but the stuff from the top was pretty nasty and dramatic, as was Bolshoi's late Tiger Suplex (easily locked in when she was blocked earlier) because Nakajima had nothing but desperation and hope left. Nakajima never gave up but you spent good chunks of this match eagerly waiting for her to get caught to see what Bolshoi would do to her next. While that admittedly says more about us than the match, it also says something about Bolshoi's wizardry here.

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CMLL Juicio Final 5/31/19

ER: This show had THREE big stips matches (including a rare retirement match) and all the non-stips matches have on paper potential, so I figured I may as well write up the whole show!

Disturbio/Misterioso Jr./Kawato vs. Rey Cometa/Blue Panther Jr./Black Panther

ER: Quick opener that manages to pack a lot of fireworks into its short runtime. Cometa is out dressed like Johnny Depp's Tonto, a weirdly underrated movie. I'm going to need someone to start wearing Alita: Battle Angel gear to draw some more attention to that one. This is a match that tried to open the show with some big spots and delivered. BP Jr. is gassed to the gills and is starting to work more like Gronda and his father. I'm cool with that as it leads to great moments like him pouncing Kawato over the top rope into Disturbio (who was standing on the ramp). Cometa hit a big 450, huge tornillo to the floor, big crossbody off the entrance stairs (with Black Panther); Kawato hit a big flip dive over the ringpost, Misterioso is basing all over the place, and Kawato gets to yank Black Panther's mask for the DQ. This didn't have a ton of substance but was a nice junkfood snack.

Ephesto/Luciferno/Mephisto vs. Soberano Jr./Niebla Roja/Angel de Oro

ER: This was the match on the card I was least interested in, and it certainly played as something I shouldn't have been interested in. Niebla Roja and Angel de Oro may be my least favorite guys in CMLL, with Roja being a greater offender. I hate how they quit on all of their offense, it always feels like they're running through a practice exhibition and putting 100% of the work on the rudos' shoulders. Roja and Oro move with these big looping gestures, quit 75% of the way through on their ranas, aim to land as gently as possible on everything, all of their offense looks like how guys run through sequences backstage. It puts the rudos in a pretty thankless spot, as these two are only entertaining when rudos beat the shit out of them (which thankfully does happen in some matches, just not here). Roja hits a flip dive, Soberano (who I like much more than these two goofs) hits his Fosbury Flop, but this was a showcase for two guys I don't care to see showcased.

4. Career vs. Career! Virus vs. Metalico

PAS: There is nothing I love more then a random luchador given a big showcase match and stepping all the way up. Metalico has been a random undercard guy for years, and he gets a chance to fight for his career against an all time great and comes up huge. Two pretty great looking topes, an Asai moonsault and a nutty dropkick off the apron, he threw it all out there. I loved how they both stretched the rules, the ref wasn't DQing someone in a one fall career match, so they were throwing hard right hands to the face. Virus is one of the greatest singles match luchadores ever, and he is so great here, he gives Metalico plenty of shine, but comes off so dangerous. There are multiple moments where he just whips out a slick counter into a vicious submission, he was like a devastating counter puncher, any mistake his opponent would make its lights out. Loved that we didn't get a bunch of traded near falls near the end, just Metalico dying on his shield. Small arena lucha libre has been my favorite stuff over the last couple of years, but there is nothing in wrestling like an Arena Mexico match with real consequences, and I was so glad we got this.

ER: I've been a big Metalico drum beater for several years now. He's an undercarder who is basically the only CMLL undercarder who works Memphis stooging into lucha matches. He's a comedy rudo that doesn't really exist much anymore, and I love what he brings to a card. He's not the kind of guy to get long singles matches - or singles matches in general (I'm not sure I've seen a singles match of his since he lost his mask 4 years ago) - and here he gets to have an awesome dying in the ring performance against one of the all time best. Metalico breaks out every single thing he ever learned, from his ring entrance to highspots he hasn't broken out in years, and the crowd gets more and more involved and excited by his absolute refusal to quit. Metalico gets more and more tired as the match goes on - he's not a long singles match guy - and that just adds to his perseverance and desperation. You look at the difference between Metalico's two dives in this match: the first one, early in the match and filled with confidence, sending Virus into the barricade; the second one, late in the match, exhausted, Metalico does more damage to himself by just doing the dive. From minute one Metalico looks like a guy who has no real chance at beating Virus, and at times it looked like Virus was almost just letting Metalico have a respectable showing before letting him know just how quickly he could put a stop to his bullshit. Metalico started breaking out things he hasn't done in years, like a picture perfect Asai moonsault and a rana off the apron, and he started making headway on the bottom end as well. Phil noted how refs were being loose with DQ calls in a single caida big stips match, and I liked how each guy kept pushing the boundaries, hitting closed fist punches to the jaw, dropping a headbutt to the balls, and I loved Metalico's dickish combos where he would punch Virus and also kick him right on the inside of his knee. Metalico was tired but that just made him hit harder. There was a spot in the corner where he was supposed to flip over the ropes to dodge a charging Virus, but when his gas tank wouldn't allow him he merely opted to hit one of the most savage back elbows I've seen. Virus was a monster on the mat and was going to outclass Metalico at every opportunity, so Metalico had to play a little more dirty. But unfortunately for Metalico, Virus doesn't have to get dirty to do damage. When Virus locked in a gross STF, Metalico reaching for the ropes as his literal only chance of survival, Virus grabs that reaching arm and adds that to the pain. I thought it was the finish for sure. I loved desperate, last stand Metalico, and loved how the crowd kept getting excited as he kicked out of a sick vertebreaker and getting flipped off the top, the fans fully buying into Metalico refusing to step away forever. This was a wonderful display of character and storytelling, and I'm glad Virus was there to send my boy off into the sunset.

Hair vs. Hair! Kaho Kobayashi vs. Amapola

ER: I really liked this, and it wouldn't have taken a tong more to get this on a list. I thought the ending was building to something, and what we got was more abrupt than I wanted. But this was a great Amapola performance, with Kaho making up for her shortcomings with great energy and a willingness to be lead around by Amapola. I like Kaho and thought this was a good showing for her, and it felt like the Arena Mexico crowd was getting behind her effort while knowing she had no chance of leaving the ring with hair. This felt like when they let Virus lead a younger luchador through a match, and the younger luchador gets some surprising moments while overall getting worked by Virus. Amapola as Virus is something she can easily handle, she's clearly been one of the top CMLL ladies as long as she's been in the division, and showcase singles are somewhat rare for the women. You could see her really leading Kaho through - at one point she essentially moved herself through a complex pin combo - but she was generous and I think that helped Kaho thrive. This was all about the tercera as the first two falls went very quickly, but there were highlights throughout. Each hits a real rib breaking spear, with Kaho snapping Amapola in half to start and Amapola returning that favor in the tercera. Amapola was really awesome, crushing Kaho on a dive (Kaho kind of gets made fun of for bad catching skills, but she got smooshed here), hitting a hard dropkick to the spin as Kaho was trapped in the ropes, and later Amapola wraps herself around a ringpost violently so that Kaho can hit a beautiful crossbody off the top to the floor. There were some good nearfalls, and I thought they both did a good job building drama down the stretch, and for me I always get more into luchadora hair matches, feels like the stakes are even more real. A lot of women really tightly associate their hair with their femininity, so the drama always feels real to me.

Euforia/Gran Guerrero vs. Valiente/Diamante Azul

ER: This one felt a little low stakes, which was understandable on a card with three high stakes matches, but it had three stout boys so it was at minimum going to be fun. Azul and Valiente are a fun little team of power packs; Azul has been slowly bulking up and he appeared to gas down the stretch (Guerrero even appeared to dump him on the entrance ramp just to get him out of the way), and this didn't reach the heights it could have, but we still got moments. Azul's added heft does add to certain moves, loved his running elbow, high arcing hip toss, and the cannonball off the ramp lands even harder. Guerrero is coming into his own, and he sets up a gross bump taking an armdrag off the apron from Valiente (big splat on the floor there), hitting a nice heavy flip dive of his own in the tercera, and being tasked with taking that super fast Valiente tope. The finish felt a little unnecessarily dangerous, with the rudos hitting a press slam on Azul off the top, then doing the same to Valiente on top of Azul, but they almost end up lawndarting Valiente straight into the mat. The set up was really long and required Valiente to do almost all the climbing and all the work, so you had the ugly combo of "guy taking move doing all the work" with "move looking almost dangerously botched".

Barbaro Cavernario/Negro Casas/Mr. Niebla vs. Mistico/Caristico/Volador Jr.

ER: This one underperformed, had some timing issues, and didn't have a lot of Casas. It had a lot of Niebla dancing and Caristico being a step slower than everyone else, and some ugly moments like Cavernario whiffing a kick and Caristico bumping early on a Niebla slap. It was kept quick, a comedic palette cleanser with dives, mindless entertainment before the main event, and it worked fine on that level. Volador hit the best dive of the match, a high speed tope con giro that Cavernario took nicely. There was a big tandem dive by all the tecnicos and Caristico hit an additional dive into Casas. This was kept breezy, and I was hoping for more.

52. Hair vs. Hair! Mascara Ano 2000 vs. Ultimo Guerrero

ER: All the CMLL dancers are decked out in sexy Ultimo Guerrero outfits, which I must say seems a little biased. But who cares, because this whole match rules! Ultimo Guerrero does this weird thing where he has a match or two year and just gets punched in the face a ton. And this match keeps coming right back around to Guerrero getting punched in the face, and Mascara gleefully throwing right hands up and down the left side of UG's head. This is really one of the finest big match lucha performances from a 60+ year old in some time. Mascara Ano Dos Mil pulls out every trick he's ever pulled in his long career, all the bullshit is impeccably timed, the cheap shots are cheap, the nearfalls are great, and we always go right back to fists punching face. Mascara hits a nice springboard splash, nice vertical suplex, gets a great nearfall on a backslide, and Disturbio's involvement is excellent. Disturbio and Gran Guerrero are the seconds, and Disturbio eats a great dropkick from UG, and later has a pitch perfect piece of interference: Guerrero locks on the sure fire finishing sub, and Disturbio is able to run in to kick UG away and bail back to the floor just as ref Edgar is turning around. On the floor we get a killer scrap between Gran and Disturbio, a ton of other Dinamitas come out to cause problems on the entrance ramp, Mascara boots UG right in the balls (which got him a win and set up this very match), and it's all incredible theater. There's a series of fun desperate pins, Mascara grabbing the rope, getting his foot on the rope, grabbing ref's hand to stop the count, all of it was great. This is my favorite old man scrap of the year, with all of the drama I love from lucha, plus an old guy punching a less old guy in the eye. It'll work for me every time.

PAS: MA2K can't really bump or run the ropes anymore, but he is very willing to throw multiple punching combos upside UG's head, so Dayenu. This had plenty stuff built around Gran Guerrero and Disturbo which makes sense to pad the time, and give the oldsters in the ring time to catch their breath. Still once the wind came it was nasty stuff, hard knuckles to heads. I liked UG's goofy dive into the crowd, not pretty at all, but this wasn't a pretty match. I kind of wanted a big post match Dinamitas beat down, if your gang is going to come let them roll deep, but this really was aimed at my lucha libre pleasure centers.


ER: This card looked real dynamite to me on paper, and three of the matches delivered various levels of big for me, and the rest of the stuff was either fun or inoffensive. I really liked the women's hair match which wasn't far from making list, Mascara Ano Dos Mil is still a compelling guy into his 60s and I love the couple matches a year where Ultimo Guerrero agrees to get shoot punched in the head, and the retirement was an instant lucha classic. The latter two matches were obvious additions to our 2019 Ongoing Match of the Year List.

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2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Demus vs. Virus

9. Virus vs. Demus 3:16 RLL 2/16

PAS: These two had a hell of a brawl back in 2011 where the loser had to go back to being a midget (maybe my favorite wrestling stip ever). It is crazy to see these two pick their war up 8 years later and not miss a beat. You don't normally think of Virus as a brawler, but he was really kicking the shit out Demus early, busting him open, removing the padding of the ring barrier so he could smash Demus's skull into it, chucking chairs, throwing hands. Demus gets some control when they brawl on the ramp and he hits an awesome ramp to the ring spear, and head smushing senton. The in ring lucha was almost as great as the bloodletting early. A lot of lucha indy dream matches underwhelm, this did not.

ER: We get a lot of glimpses into longtime CMLL guys venturing into the indies and brawling in ways that we don't get to see them do in CMLL, and it's no shock that Virus is as good at it as anyone. It's really a treat to get up close and personal into what these guys do, to see that up close magic and see what is magic and what is just tough surly guys clonking each other. Virus really brings the hard chops and meaty fists to Demus' chest, jaw, and back, and I loved all the stuff with that unyielding chair, especially when he kicked it right between Demus' legs. You don't see any kind of "Hey, are your balls protected before I do this?" communication, just Virus blasting Demus in the nards with a chair. I loved all the stuff on the rampway, love the way they come up with fun stuff in tight confines, like Virus bumping chest first into ropes and setting up the rope slide into the ring. Virus throws a bunch of great stiff arm lefty lariats, Demus hits a bitchin spear from the ramp into the ring, and that musclebuster really looks like it would throw my body out of alignment for months, and all that biting and punching is just icing.


Note: Because this is a lucha indy match, which is never easy, there is a "best way" to watch this match.

This link the best camera angle, and we get some great close up shots of punches and headbutts and bleeding:

BEST VIEW OF THE MATCH

However the video cuts off, so the last two minutes can be watched here (link picks up where the first link ends):

REST OF THE MATCH


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Arkangel, One Day Later, Still RIP

Arkangel de la Muerte vs. Solar  CMLL 10/17/00

ER: Arkangel maestro train rolls on. We lost one angel of death yesterday, but today the circle of life continues as we celebrate the day of birth of another one. This was a match I'd never seen and didn't know existed, a fun quick paced match in front of a hot Coliseo crowd (featuring my two favorite beloved old man lucha fans, who I assume have since left us, but regularly showed up on my lucha viewings for 15 years and were likely around long before I noticed them). We get an awesome quick tap in the primera, with Solar locking on a trippy trapped arm standing abdominal stretch, bending part of Arkangel's body one way while grinding and forcing his jaw the other. Arkangel sells it on the mat afterwards like he's been sleeping and someone punched him awake, just sitting on the mat confused about why his jaw was so sore. I got to see Solar live a few months ago and he's still a treat, but here he's just in peak physical form and dazzles with his lucha grace and vicious snap. Solar's cradles are so smooth and have a bunch of different mechanisms working in different directions, like a graceful Rube Goldberg machine. Arkangel really helps Solar look like a master controller of leverage, taking huge flying bumps off a Solar kickout, backdrop, and massive armdrag off the top that throws Arkangel most of the way across on the hard as hell Coliseo ring. I loved Arkangel's big bump off a Solar kickout, flying off him like Bigelow throwing Spike, made it look like Solar knew how to properly leverage his weight and explosiveness for maximum effect. Arkangel isn't going to outclass him so he opts to just rough him up like a bully, blasting him with a cutting running elbow, hard downward angle punches, sharp back elbows, one of his stiffest clotheslines I've seen, just a 2x4 to Solar's chest, and also tossing him around with his nice Northern Lights and big powerbombs. This was a really cool match up, nice and tidy and with a bunch of rewarding moments. And cut to my dear old man ringing his rudo bell after the match.


Arkangel de la Muerte/Negro Casas vs. Virus/Solar  Dragon Mania 5/28/16

ER: Jesus this was 2016, nobody else has this unclipped? No camera phones? Estrellas del Ring seems to exist just to be assholes who exist only to taunt us with 2-4 minute clips of awesome lucha matches that nobody else has. Ooooooo a new Mr. Condor match? Oh, it's just 2 minutes of it and it looks incredible. Kewl. So we get 5 minutes of this match, and not a single second of it is anything less than awesome. One thing I love about lucha is that 47 year old Virus can be the youngest guy in the match and it will only make me more excited to see it. And these guys were clearly in a mood to GO. I can say with no hyperbole that this was the best I've seen Solar look all decade. He moved like a man half his age, never let Arkangel up for air during their run together, breaking out a couple cool ankle picks that saw him already rolling into a sub before Arkangel had even landed, and then peaking with a gorgeous head drag takeover, locking Arkangel's right arm under his own leg and rolling him into this beautifully tangled mess of a lucha submission. It happened so quickly and looked so smooth and painful, like he was forcing Arkangel to headbutt his own taint. They trade fast armdrags, Casas gets in there and Solar is jumping onto buckles, over the ropes, flipping back into the ring, and my jaw was dropped the entire time. Casas brings tremendous energy and presence to everything, and he works so many cool strike and missed strike exchanges, coming up with a couple cool ones here. This match from the 5 minutes we see looks like an absolutely legendary, it's pretty much worse to know this happened. But, we get a tasty 5 minute slice of something glorious, and we get to fall asleep tonight wondering if it is better to have loved and lost, or to never have seen Solar pretzel Arkangel. 18 stars.

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Old Guys in Arena Mexico

92. Solar/Super Astro v. Virus/Black Terry CMLL 11/17

ER: I love the annual (is that right? biannual maybe?) old guys show at Arena Mexico. The matches aren't always great, but they scratch the nostalgia itch, and it's great to see some of them really try to impress the crowd instead of just getting a ring entrance pop. Super Astro has lost a step, but it's somewhat inevitable after 40+ years of wrestling, and he's still able to fire off a big time tope, like a battering ram knocking down a castle gate. Terry gets mostly matched up with Astro, so most of his time is spent facilitating a couple classic Astro spots. But the Virus/Solar exchanges? Those are straight fire. Solar busts ass and while you can see Virus hold back a bit, but he doesn't need to that much for Solar to catch him. He and Solar work some nice submissions, and it's amazing how quickly Solar pops up to his feet after these exchanges. I loved that step up rolling armbar he does to Virus, and the match has an incredible moment of Virus slaps Solar in the chest with both hands, and Solar catches his arms and tosses him with a nasty overhead belly to belly. The "okay, okay old man, ya got me" look on Virus' face after was amazing. I'm glad these guys can still do their thing, and glad a nice Arena Mexico crowd still responds to it.

PAS: PAS: I am always going to be a sucker for a maestros match, and it is a treat to watch these guys perform on a bigger stage. Astro is always a bit problamatic in these as he always tries to wrestle the same athletic style he did 25 years ago, still he does break out an awesome tope and doesn't badly botch anything. Terry is a little miscast in these matches, he is less a mat wrestling wizard then an insane brawler, but he keeps up fine and I liked his role in the long submission train near the finish. Really liked Solar v. Virus, and we clearly need to check out their singles match. Loved that finish Virus pulled off to end the segunda, and Solar looked pretty springy.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST 

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Lucha Worth Watching: Your 2017 CMLL Midcard

Virus/Disturbio/Okumura vs. Pegasso/Soberano Jr./Fuego (CMLL 2/3/17)

ER: We get more of 2017 tecnico superstar Soberano. He's really connecting with the Arena Mexico crowd, and it's always exciting when a crowd starts really reacting to a wrestler, the excitement in a worker's movements when he's getting loud reactions are palpable. Here he gets to show off a lot of flash, and also shows his bump freak side. The bump freak side is my favorite side of his, with him flying recklessly to the floor in the primera off a bull rush shoulderblock from Virus, taking an Okumura lariat on the side of his head, taking a hip toss from the ring to the rampway, and the bumps all lead to bigger reactions on his comebacks. Rudos really take a back seat to tecnicos here, with all three just trying (and succeeding) in drawing heat from the crowd verbally instead of just hogging all the offense. I mean, Virus is always going to look good, but here he hangs back, mostly keeping his offense to simple things (big shoulderblock, sharp elbow drop to the "lower abdomen", big lariat). The finish gets wild with Pegasso hitting a tornillo, Fuego hitting a missile dropkick followed immediately by a springboard missile dropkick, then pins Virus with a cool crucifix variation. Soberano clears the ring with a springboard rana, hits a smooth as hell tornillo off the top, and a moonsault off the middle onto a hanging Okumura wraps it up, crowd flipping their lid the whole time. Fun stuff.

Hechicero/Sagrado/Misterioso Jr. vs. The Panther/Guerrero Maya Jr./Blue Panther Jr. (CMLL 11/17/17)

ER: I really like this rudo team, they same to show up fairly regularly together and they all mesh nicely. They're good at being jerks and bullies, and they're good at allowing openings for any tecnicos that want to grab them. The rudo antics in this one are as good as expected, like The Panther sending Misterioso to the floor with a rana, so Misterioso responds angrily yanking Maya off the apron and then chucking Kemonito into the front row. Just as Stan Hansen turns a pinfall save into an opportunity to beat the hell out of the guy pinning his partner, I love and appreciate how Misterioso took out frustrations on the other team. We get some big bad triple teams too, like Hechicero doing his weird inverted monkey flip to Panther while Sagrado and Misterioso dish kicks on the way down. The tecnicos get some big dives and get to show some stones, like when Hechicero hits his cool moonsault to the floor, and he then gets jumped on the floor by the other two opponents. You don't normally see that from a tecnico team. Guerrero Maya peaks things with an insane tope con giro that sends him flying into the second row, The Panther keeps getting better, and these rudos know how to get an Arena Mexico reaction, and I love when these midcard acts go out of their way to get noticed on a nostalgia show.

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Lucha Worth Watching: 2017 Leyenda de Plata Cibernetico

2017 Leyenda de Plata Cibernetico CMLL 10/13

ER: Ciberneticos were definitely more of my thing when I first started watching lucha in the late 90s, but that would also line up with WCW cruisers being my favorite style of wrestling at that time. Now ciberneticos usually still leave me hungry, unfulfillingly set up spotfests with sudden pinfalls. But I am not made of stone, and sometimes there's a collection of moves too tasty to not force a smile or an oooooohhhh. This started simple and exploded once Guerrero Maya flew at Barbaro with a tope and also flew recklessly into the first row. Full Eric attention achieved. We get a Virus/Casas sequence which is always a thrill, two masters delivering a greatest hits collection. Later we see Virus get his brains stomped to the mat by Dragon Lee. Casas tries to outbump the youngsters by getting thrown fast ass over elbow over the top to the floor. We get a concurrent somersault plancha, Asai moonsault, somersault plancha. Forastero works as if he were a darkside Soberano Jr. and it works better than Soberano Jr. being Soberano Jr. Casas has more charisma and gets louder reactions than anybody in the match, getting the fans rabid just for not locking up right away with Barbaro after pinning Titan. Lee is a dangerously fearless bumper and always wanting to please, so we get him doing a nutty rana from the ring to the floor on Titan, bumping a Virus lariat on his head, dumping himself on his head for Caristico, taking a nutso spinning powerbomb from Sanson. Mephisto is wearing a fantastic gimp outfit that makes him look like a beefy extra from the movie Cruising. I think I saw him in the background set at a bar called The Toolbox. Soberano does a nasty seated tombstone to Barbaro and I guess we just don't give a fuck about the sacred death danger of the martinete anymore.

Mistico and Caristico have the most palatable teacher/student showdown because instead of flipping and rope running they just rip masks. Mistico ripped Caristico's mask like a lifetime solid citizen who finally experienced how fucking good it felt to steal an extra newspaper from the machine. The final 5 contains 4 of my least favorite guys in the entire 16 man match, meaning Sanson is my old hope. Volador also seems rudo by default which is his best side, and he bumps fast to the floor which is better from a rudo. Soberano takes stupid modern era lucha moves real stupid on the back of his head, taking things like fast code reds or reverse ranas - dangerous looking moves that can be botched - in a cartoony rollercoaster manner, rolling off his head and then freeze framing for a second before completing the bump. I want him pinned. Sanson catches Volador on a motherfucking flip dive to the floor, doesn't let him touch the ground, and then powerbombs him SIDEWAYS into the front of the ring barrier. Sanson may have passed Cuatrero on the "baddest ass Dinamita" after this match. This is a cibernetico, so by Mexican law it was required to have one confusingly dogshit double elimination, but at minimum it was done because Sanson pinned Caristico while also suplexing Soberano. Everybody's shoulders looked down. And then Sanson is immediately pinned because they wanted to give me the last final showdown I would have picked out of all 16 participants. But that's life. Dare to err and to dream. Deep meaning often lies in childish plays.

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Matt & Eric, Two Men Discussing Virus, Separately

2017-03-25 @ Arena Coliseo San Ramón, Puebla, Puebla
Virus vs. Prayer

MD: This dropped a few days ago even though it's from a Lucha Memes show back in March. I couldn't tell you the first thing about Prayer, but Virus was, of course, my #10 on the GWE poll last year, which felt crazy at the time and still feels crazy, but was very much a testament to the power of footage (we've got him almost weekly for the last many years, even if he's just in low card trios). I'll say this: after watching this match, I feel all the more validated with the placement.

We're lucky to have as many maestros matches as we do. In those, what they do is so logical and so intricate and so interesting and (probably most importantly) so full of struggle and commitment, that we forgive the half speed nature of so many of them. We see it as part of the fight, that locking a hold on to someone as expert as Blue Panther or Negro Navarro just takes that much more pressure and effort. It takes longer. In some ways, it's a testament that they can go that much more slowly but still make none of it seem collaborative, like playing a song very slowly and thus having to perfect each and every belabored note. 

This was not that at all. For the first two thirds of the match, they were primarily on the mat. There was struggle. There were intricate leverage moves. There were counters and escapes. It was done at far faster pace, was utterly believable, and didn't miss a beat. They were able to portray that same level of mastery but turned up about three gears. So much of this was Virus. You watch him and you wonder just how he sees the world, if time slows down and he can extrapolate out the ways limbs might twist and contort like an sculptor envisioning a masterpiece or a chess champion looking forward six moves. Prayer kept up well enough; he had to do his part, for Virus just manipulating him wouldn't have allowed for this level of speed or sharpness. Ultimately, though, this was a showcase for El Pequeño Gran Maestro, and since he no longer gets as many singles matches in CMLL as he did a few years ago, it's one we're lucky to have.

A few words about the escalation in the match, too. When they went to spots towards the end of the match, none of them were too excessive. None of them needed to be. Staying on the mat (even while increasing the level of peril) meant that a springboard low dropkick could mean as much as a headdrop or a giant dive. It created believable near-falls when that might not work at all with a less disciplined match. Just the testament of someone who really understands how to imbue meaning into his craft. 

I'm glad Virus is still getting opportunities to have matches like this, even if only on the indies, and I'm glad this dropped, even if it dropped a few months after the fact. Check it out.

Virus/Sagrado/Skandalo v. Soberano Jr./Triton/Esfinge (CMLL 3/28/17)

ER: Virus has to be the king of noteworthy performances in throwaway undercard matches. This falls apart a bit in the segunda/tercera, and Skandalo kind of stumbles around and gets in the way through much of this, Sagrado is really quite good as a rudo so I enjoyed all of his moments (his rudo offense is really great, especially that sunset flip counter, a double stomp into a few elbowdrops, hell yes)...but this was all about Virus. The Virus/Esfinge mat stuff that opens the match is really cool, subtly flashy, all of it compelling; but him picking on Soberano is the money of the match, as they work some fast sequences that end with Virus hitting a stiff shoulderblock that sends Soberano bumping backwards and upside down to the floor, then we cut to Sagrado clotheslining Esfinge's shins out from him on the apron, and then back across the ring to catch Virus hitting the mother of all baseball slide dropkicks on a just-waking-up-on-the-floor Soberano. We get another fun Virus/Soberano segment in the tercera, but it's a shame the rest of the match couldn't hold up the level of the primera. But a match with a floor of "So how good is Virus, right?" is still something with value.

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

26. Virus v. Avisman Chilanga Mask 4/12

PAS: Hey Avisman!! I used to love that dude back during the glory days of IWRG. He was always a guy who could work on the mat, and really developed into a great brawler, and then he disappeared (along with other awesome guys like Chico Che and Freelance) so IWRG could be all crappy fake Capos sons. This is Virus working a straight maestro style, focused on leg and arm locks and cool standing counters. Avisman is perfectly comfortable working this match, he has some very cool abdominal stretch variations, and looks perfectly comfortable countering arms and legs, great performance and I hope he shows up more. Virus is great at working this kind of match too, it is different then what he does in CMLL, and while I liked this a lot, I kind of wanted him to work more of his title match style so we could see Avisman stretch out a bit. This was a great painting, but I wanting to see them use more of their pallete.

ER: I really loved this, my favorite Virus performance of 2015, and Avisman is a cool guy to see him match up against. This could have easily devolved into heatless holds trading as there are hardly any strikes to speak of, but these two didn't let that come close to happening. These holds had meaning and Virus always looked like he was going for a finish, working over moves with actual substance. Avisman doesn't have the grace of other luchadors, which I thought really worked to the advantage of this kind of maestro style mat work. He would thud into the mat, land tailbone first on a double leg, his sunset flip and code red looked like actual scrambling pinfall attempts instead of large looping gestures. And the best thing he brought was, oddly, Avisman is a great screamer. His screaming helped Virus' holds as much as Virus being awesome helped is holds. Virus was so damn good at showing progression of holds, never ever making it look like he was just holding a guy static to fill time. You see Virus do a single leg, you can see 6+ different points of progression through it. You see him lock it in, you see him grab his own hand to tighten the hold, you see him grit his teeth which immediately gives the impression he's wrenching it in even more, you see him broaden his squat which bends the leg and back even more, and he does this stuff for every hold! This is about as far away as you can possibly get from Muta lying in a legbar for two minutes. And Avisman helps this move progression, as he yelps at all the right times, howls when an arm starts getting bent back, really made Virus sound like a sadistic dungeon master. Virus kept working different nasty bow and arrow variations, a standing abdominal stretch type one, one with him on his back, the classic knee into opponents back style, and he kept going back to that the entire match. So when Virus hit s his killer chopblock and locks it on again, it really felt like the finish. I loved Avisman's stiff unpolished counters to Virus' almost muscle memory skill, and this may have actually been my favorite of the last couple years of mat-based indy lucha.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Hechicero v. Virus

22. Rey Hechicero v. Virus Lucha Memes 5/14

PAS: One cool thing about 2016 wrestling is the number of lucha feds running dream match lucha. It is almost a Mexican version of the way US Indy wrestling was in 2005. These matches run the gamut from pretty great to disappointing, we haven't had the true all time classic from these fed yet. This was more in the pretty great realm too. It goes about 10 minutes, and we get some really great mat wrestling, with Virus especially looking brilliant, they have a cool stand up run with Hechicero hitting his spinning hammerlock backbreaker about as nasty as I have seen it hit, and an awesome submission finish. Still this was more like an awesome Smackdown match, rather then a big epic clash, and I really want Lucha Memes or Chilanga Mask to let these guys stretch out a bit.

ER:  Phil's right, we have been getting an absurd amount of dream match lucha, and it's almost all been worked like one off WCW syndicated matches. That isn't a bad thing at all, and it's hard to complain about getting indy lucha in crystal HD video. And not just the clarity, but the way they film lucha is far more desirable than AAA and CMLL. I know larger arenas have to be filmed a certain way, but it's a treat to see these two work so up close. And while this was a simple match, these two are so skilled that just watching them run through the basics for 2/3 of a match is engaging. The mat work and even some of the standing exchanges are simple, yet while there's never any sort of hint of either man being uncooperative, everything they do has weight. We get a lot of roll throughs and floatovers and other grace on the mat, but it all feels like neither man is allowing the other to get away with it very easily. There's none of the Dean Malenko assisted pinfall/kickout nonsense, just guys doing simple leverage stuff with real meat behind it. And it's not just mat stuff that had weight, we had heavy slams, a heavy elbow drop off the top. blame it on the seemingly concrete mats, or give credit to these two. I love how these two move so it was great seeing them once they started with some standing exchanges. We even get a strap removal/shirt off spot which I'm a mark for. Hechicero throws some wicked chops (and I always end up loving how loud indy crowds get for Hechicero, he's a real man of the people down there), hits a big leaping kick on Virus, and Virus always looks so effortless on his feet that you get the sense he could lose his eyesight and still be able to work at 80%. Let's hope these guys keep getting these kind of gigs and they keep popping up, more and more stretched.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Lucha Memes 12/25/15 Review

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

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

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

Arez, Impulso y Belial vs Decnnis, Toscano y Zumbido


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

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

Negro Navarro vs Virus

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

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


Dalys vs Keira


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

Dr. Cerebro vs Negro Casas

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

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


Trauma I y Trauma II vs Black Terry y Negro Navarro

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

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

Atlantis vs Caifán

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


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

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MLJ: Chairo II: Negro Navarro vs Virus

2015-12-25 @ Arena Naucalpan
Negro Navarro vs Virus

36:35 in

Maybe more Sombra next week. For now, Chairo II finally dropped and while I haven't been able to watch it all yet (it begins with a bunch of spot heavy matches with wrestlers I'm not super familiar with), I did jump to Navarro vs Virus. This was the card where Navarro had to work twice because of El Dandy's health issues. He teamed with Terry against the Traumas later in the night. It also has Atlantis vs Caifan and Casas vs Cerebro. I'll check that stuff out later but I'm not sure I'll write it up. We'll see.

I wanted to tackle this, however, because I'd read some criticism recently on Virus, on his matwork looking particularly cooperative. Now, it was in the midst of DVDVR March Madness which is an interesting (if frustrating) time, because you get a lot of people watching lucha who aren't very familiar with it or accepting of the quirks of the style. Still, it was someone I respect, and criticism is criticism and I wanted to take another look.

This was a maestros match, one fall, and it was the most subdued and focused I've seen Navarro work in his later career. Usually, his matches, even in this sort of setting against this sort of opponent, are about his charisma and striking and attitude. This was extremely straightforward and was really the best look I've had at his mat skills, far better than a lot of other matches where you'd expect a showcase. He more than held his own, but it probably still would have been a slightly more compelling match if he had been a bit broader. At the same time, some of that broadness leads to him not taking elements of a match seriously, and he absolutely took everything seriously here, so it's a trade-off.

And hey, you know what? Virus was great as always. Wrestling is symbolic. That's its nature. Nothing is literal. Lucha tends to be slightly more symbolic than other wrestling. Virus, whenever he sets up a move or whenever he gets out of one, earns it. He doesn't just slip out of a hold; he criss-crosses his legs so that he can gain the leverage to turn his way out. He doesn't just put on a hold; he works his way around to get the right positioning and does something a little extra for leverage. He does this again and again and it creates a sense of struggle that's tonally different than what you'd get in a shootstyle setting, for instance. With this matwork, there's a lot of effort made to tying up your opponent so that he can't utilize any of his limbs or leverage, but in doing so, too much effort is exerted in the holds. That's why they can't always be kept. The flipside is that when it's not done, reversals happen through openings. It's not true of all lucha matwork, but it was true here and it created a really satisfying sense of symbolic competition. If you go with it, just a little, like you have to do with all wrestling in one way or another, it really pays off.

As Navarro works in the same way for this match, earning every limb he picks and trying to make the most of it, it turned out to be a good, little match, one that was worth the wait of a couple of months for them to release. I'm glad we got to see it.

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Lucha Worth Watching 1/22/16 & 2/2/16

Blue Panther vs. Reapper (CMLL 1/22/16)

I couldn't imagine putting this on our MOTY list, but I also couldn't ever imagine not wanting to watch a Blue Panther singles match that gets 9 minutes. Opponent doesn't matter to me in that instance. You tell me "9 minute BP singles match" and I'm already following the link. Panther is old and has some things he hits in every match, but he's also not afraid to take risks during matches like this. Some stuff works, some doesn't, and it's always neat to see his process. Here he and Reapper do an odd extended martinete reversal segment that was more struggling than smooth, felt like guys weirdly fighting to be in odd positions, ending with Reapper in sort of a backpack, and every step of the way I was wondering where they were headed. Loved Panther's fast dive at the end, loved them playing around with little leglocks, love his beautiful middle rope rana, and love Panther's flash Fujiwara to end things. Your life would roll on just fine without matches like this, but I always love just seeing Panther be Panther.

Virus, Cancerbero & Raziel vs. Triton, Oro Jr. & Pegasso (CMLL 2/2/16)

I love when matches take an unexpected turn, no matter how slight. You're watching a match, in your comfort zone, and suddenly the tone shifts or moods change, and it kind of snaps you forward in your chair a little. Here I was watching match 3 of a 6 match Tuesday CMLL show, 80% watching Triton and Raziel go through some lucha single leg exchanges that wouldn't look much out of place if they were just roll practicing in the gym. And then all of a sudden Triton stands up and just hands-free headbutts Raziel. And then Raziel returns the favor. And then they start throwing nasty chops and elbows to each other's chest, and then I am suddenly 100% invested in match 3 of a 6 match Tuesday CMLL show. And then we just get a delightful little classic rudo vs. tecnico battle with some flippy guys vs. the black clad rudos. And Virus is a good guy to lead a couple of black clad rudo bullies. They're like Team Iceland in Mighty Ducks 2, except Virus' has more engaging hockey fight offense. Marvel as he lariats the piss out of Pegasso a couple of times. Watch Cancerbero work like a chubby lost Dinamita. See Oro Jr. have maybe his most fun and consistent performance ever, as he flawlessly breaks out a couple of gorgeous armdrags (him doing a full 360 around Cancerbero's arm before tossing him off in a different direction looked killer). Glimpse Triton getting held in the ropes by the goons as Virus lunges off the opposite rope and dropkicks him square in the taint, sending him sprawling hard onto the entrance. Look on in amazement as Pegasso sets up a dogshit Scoot Andrews tribute "Hey Virus please balance yourself across the middle rope but like hang your torso into the ring a bit so I can jump on you" legdrop and just as you roll your eyes Triton then actually makes the spot work by HOLDING VIRUS BY THE LEGS so he was actually trapped in the ropes as Pegasso did his 2001 ECWA Tuesday Night Tribute. This whole thing was fun as hell, and more maddening proof that you must watch EVERY lucha trios match, because you never know which ones are going to give you that magic. Stupid lucha.

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MLJ: Black Terry Boot Camp 7: Black Terry vs Virus

2015-11-22 @ Arena Lopez Mateos (Lucha Memes)
Virus vs Black Terry

This was a hell of a maestro match between two of the best wrestlers of the last ten years. It's exactly what you'd expect and every bit as good as you'd hope for. I'm not going to run through any sort of play by play here. That'd be doing it a disservice. Instead, I'll just note a few things that stood out to me.

The first is the notion of ego in Black Terry matches. He's physically unimposing and not as hugely charismatic as Navarro, for instance, but I've found it very tangible in these matches in a way I don't always pick up on with other wrestlers. Pride might be a better term, but there's a level of hubris to it as well when it comes to the complexity of the submissions. Here there were a number of completely unsustainable holds that both wrestlers locked in to cause a short term amount of damage or just to show that they had control of the situation. Virus repeatedly went for a version of the Scorpion Crosslock and I think each attempt, as he wasn't able to get it on, cost him within the narrative of the match. Also, Terry was the first one to go to a "move" after ten minutes of grappling, and while it bought him an advantage, it almost felt like it cost him something to blink first in that way.

As for the actual matwork, what stood out the most was the constant contact. There weren't just escapes, but escapes into reversals. It wasn't enough to kick out of a pinfall or break a hold. In doing so, the person escaping would almost every time grab a limb and find a way to transition into a counterhold. They made it look like the most natural thing in the world while still making it seem like a legitimate struggle. I've seen it before in matches, but rarely so endemic. It was the circulatory system of the match, the river connecting one moment to the next. Advantages were hopelessly fleeting because both men were just that skilled. Moreover, that sense of contact meant that any minor flubs ended up feeling more like resistance and countering attempts than mistakes. Nothing says skill quite like creating a mist of competence covering a match so well that mistakes come off as believable and intentional.

The crowd was appreciative, but in a way I've rarely seen in lucha. It reminded me more of Japan, actually, where occasionally, a crowd will appreciate whoever manages to be on top in the moment. There were dueling chants early, but as the match went on, support seemed to be given, not necessarily to a personal favorite, but in appreciation of whoever had scored the last escape or had locked on the present hold. That added to the tone of the match as well while still keeping it feeling like a competition and not an exhibition.

I'm not sure I'd put it at the very top tier of what I saw in 2015, but it's something everyone should look into checking out if they have a few dollars to spare.

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MLJ: Virus vs Rocky Romero [CMLL SL]

2004-12-10 @ Arena México
Rocky Romero vs Virus [CMLL SL]

22:23 in

So in my search for Negro Casas vs Tarzan Boy, I came across this. We really don't have a ton of Virus online from 2000 to 2009 or so. And this isn't just Virus but title match Virus against, at the least, an interesting opponent. Romera was in as Habana Brother I and he was the first Super Lightweight champion. Virus had beaten him back around a year before, though it doesn't look like he defended it too many times. Averno and Volador, Jr. were the seconds.

I'm really glad I bumped into this one, because it's a great look at a younger Virus, firmly into the gimmick, and with some momentum. Some of the general rules that apply to younger Negro Casas apply here too. He showed his usual mastery on the mat, had that sense of competition and struggle, even when they were doing quick pin spots, but he did everything about 25% faster than he does now and while that's not the most important thing in the world to me, it was still great to see him lock in his complex holds at the higher speed.

Romero was fine. He had some vaguely indytastic offense but it fit the match they were working. Even the more elaborate strikes didn't seem nearly as choreographed as they could have. He also brought enough attitude and general emotion (especially frustration) to things that it made the fans get behind Virus when he was fighting his way out of holds. I don't think I'd ever heard a Virus chant before seeing this match.

I just wish more Virus from this era was online. One of these days I'm actually going to go out and try to see if I can find the Ricky Marvin title matches and the Fuerza/Juventud singles matches. Virus is worth it. Anyway, check this one out.

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MLJ: Fantasticamania: Hechicero & Virus vs Dragon Lee & Jay White

2016-01-17 @ Kochi Sunpia CHRES, Kochi, Japan
Hechicero & Virus vs Dragon Lee & Jay White

We've gotten crazy snow where I am, and it's been 110% toddler time for me the last few days. Thankfully, I've been able to sneak in just a bit of lucha, even if I'm behind on the things I was planning to watch. I have every intention on braving the most dreaded of disappointing lucha libre, CMLL Tournaments, because I Want to get back to Sombra, and the 2010 Universal Tournament where he ended up in the finals with Liger seems like a fun choice. I may regret it.

For now, though, this is up on russian youtube (Alfredo's tweeted out the links, I think, but feel free to go to rutube and search for "hechicero"), and it was a lot of fun. It's obviously one of the best rudo pairings CMLL Could possibly put together up against the most dynamic tecnico of the last year. White is a perfectly acceptable foreign young lion. Virus and Hechicero have to position guys around far clunkier than him all of the time, so this was going to be good no matter what, really.

What was the most fun, however, was the presentation. It was in front of prety small looking crowd and everyone wanted to make a splash. Virus was slapping hands. He and Hechicero made some great poses for the cameras. Hech really stood out with his character playing. He had a mask over his normal one like Mil Mascaras and locked in a bunch of his normal rolling submissions and the conjuro. The "wizardry" he was doing to befuddle White with his hands, refusing to lock up and casting a spell repeatedly, then either gaining advantage with a quick legdive or armlock. He's started to do this a little more in CMLL, but this was 300% over the top and I loved it. He's had better matches but this was probably my favorite performance of his in a long time. He was desperately trying to impress and thus came off like not just a star, but an extremely unique star.

This was one fall and they worked it with a bit of primera feeling out (between Lee and Virus and White and Hechicero), going through the pairings a couple of times with the usual escalation, and then went into the cutoffs and spots of a tercera finishing stretch. It was very cool to see three of everyone's favorites take their act on the road though. I'd love to see Virus and Hechicero as a more regular team over the rest of the year.

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MLJ: Recent Uploads: Metro, Satánico, Virus b Mr. México, Ohara, Shigeo Okumura

2006-09-17 @ Arena Coliseo
Metro, Satánico, Virus b Mr. México, Ohara, Shigeo Okumura

Midcard lucha from Arena Coliseo in 2006. With all the matches that are out there, why this one? It's a recent upload, so I figure not many people have seen it for a while. I always think late era tecnico Satanico is worth watching since it's both surreal and vaguely masterful. He was limited here but so smart in how he worked. Moreover, there's a bit of a black hole for Virus between 98 and the start of his current rudo run, so it feels worthwhile to fill in that gap whenever possible.

Ohara was an Ultimo Dragon trainee and is currently in NOAH. Metro is, as best as I can tell, the current Neutron. Mr. Mexico, is of course, the IWRG Niebla unmasked. Metro and Mr. Mexico were practically made for each other. That's a lot of the joy in this match, watching these two goofballs paired up. Mr. Mexico has this stiff sort of charisma that reminds me of Mike Masters or someone, like the bully in a Charles Atlas comic book ad who kicks the sand on the 80-pound weakling before he gets on the juice. There's not a lot subtle about it, but it's sure fun. Metro on the other hand is someone who hits everything cleanly but with a weird awkwardness, the sort of guy who just makes it over the pole, and whose body weight seems distributed poorly, Valiente without the preternatural grace.

So this was pretty good for what it was. A tecnico shine match for the most part with some heat in the middle. Satanico was a lot of fun it, bringing the little leverage moves and tricks to compensate for the fact he's old as hell, just the way he grabs the ropes to stop a whip or yanks his opponent out of the ring after getting tossed himstelf. They're simple little things but not everyone does them:

Even weirder is the fact that that Kemonito was there, I guess for virus or Metro? Look at this and tell me it's not unnerving, horror show, Varsity Club stuff. Get away from Kemonito, Satanico!

For some reason, I find no-face paint Virus doing much more straightforward tecnico offense (and doing it well) a little unnerving too. He's still got the mullet and he definitely matched up well against both Ohara (who was leadable at least) and Okamura. I think it's little question that if we had more of this era easily available, it'd only help Virus' case.

The finish was pretty badly botched, or at least confusing, one of those cases where even if the shoulder wasn't entirely down, you wish the ref would have just counted for the sake of everyone there. At least Satanico got to encourage Kemonito to do an apron splash after the match. I'm just disappointed that there's not a Mr. Mexico vs Metro/Neutron singles match out there.

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

31. Blue Panther, Rey Cometa & Angel de Oro v. Virus, Polvora & Dragon Rojo Jr. CMLL 9/11

ER: This is pretty much what you hope for when you watch a trios featuring non-feuding guys. There's nothing major at stake, just guys wanting to put their best foot forward. And you can always tell pretty quickly in non-stake trios if guys are going to be dogging it a bit or at least attempting to do something special. And right out of the gate Panther and Polvora look like they're really going for something. A spirited Panther is still one of my absolute favorite things in wrestling, and this match was a great BP performance. He and Polvora get a few minutes to tear things up and it's all good, cool float overs, Panther doing a great headstand out of a headscissors, just beautiful lucha matwork. That starts the match on a great note and the rest of the match is all smooth, quick work, everybody showing what they got. Oro isn't great but hits some big moonsaults including one from the middle turnbuckles to the floor. Cometa starts off a little glitchy but by the tercera he's rolling. Virus eats a big Oro dive in the primera.....but you know what you want from this match when looking at the lineup, and it delivers wonderfully. Right around the 22 minute mark Virus locks a nasty bow and arrow on Oro, really bending him back, and then Panther casually walks in pats Virus on the shoulder, and Virus just drops the submission while keeping his eyes on Panther the whole time. You start to get excited, and the crowd got that same kind of excited. Crowd started getting nice and electric when they saw BP/Virus about to happen. Up to this point they matched up for literally 4 seconds of the match, and suddenly it was like the dance floor cleared to make space for a showdown. And we got a killer little showdown with Virus clearly showing off and Panther looking impossibly smooth. I could watch these two roll and tumble and work in and out of sequences on an infinite loop. This all peaks with Virus getting plastered by a high speed Panther tope, crowd going nuts, Panther jumping up and down.....and then Panther hitting a second awesome tope. Virus pays him back by winning with a nasty looking sub that had BP yelping immediately. Match had a super quick pace, tons of spots, everybody working with something to prove, and that little slice of heaven that was BP/Virus. What more would you want?

PAS: This was a solid slightly above average trios for most of the matches. The Panther v. Polvora stuff was really solid, and another example of how great Panther still is. It isn't like you are searching out Polvora matches, but he looks totally awesome matched up with Panther. The finish run with Panther stepping up and going after Virus was spectacular. I loved the idea of Panther tapping on Virus's shoulder and saying "let's move the kids out of the way and show the fans some lucha." Totally unexpected treat, the equivalent of putting on an old pair of pants and finding $20.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 2: Euforia, Nosferatu, Virus vs. Brillante, Leono, Stuka Jr.

2007-05-11 @ Arena México
Euforia, Nosferatu, Virus vs. Brillante, Leono, Stuka Jr.

Now we've got Brilliante/Sombra in CMLL proper, albeit very early in the card and still in his original gimmick. The mask had developed more almost into a negative of the Sombra mask. Euforia is 40 now. I hadn't realized that. Nor had I realized that Virus more or less headed up the post-Satanico Infernales. Someone should do an infographic mapping out the connections between Los Infernales/Hijo del Infierno/Guerreros del Infierno/etc. I haven't seen Leono in a while but he's still opening up on Arena Mexico cards.

This was a pretty good opening style match. The tecnicos were tecnicos. The rudos were rudos. Structure was rudos swarming in the middle of the primera exchanges, tecnicos coming back to win the fall, rudos taking back over in the segunda, and the tecnicos coming back in the tercera but ultimately getting cut off for a rudo win. The little wrinkles were appreciated. The pace of the primera was great and the heat, though short, felt weighty enough.

The rudo trio was pretty solid here. Virus directed traffic like he was the heir to Satanico. They didn't linger long in any single portion of the match but it still felt like they did a lot of stuff. Some of it was good, like the double clothesline/German that ended the segunda:

Some was less good like this mess of a contrived flip up, flip down, clothesline double team:

And Stuka was younger and more spry too. I promise that this is only a little sped up:

And the big question: how did Sombra look? Promising. He looked promising. He had a lot more to do than in the earlier match I saw him in. I think the fans were hesitant to cheer him as he was still very green, but there was potential. Some of his execution was still getting there. This monkey flip didn't entirely work:

He took a bit of extra effort to turn around on this rana, but followed it up with a really nice dropkick and then this goofy get stuck in the ropes thing he seemed to be doing at this time as his signature dive fake:

So there were cracks that I think the fans did pick up on, but he played his role well enough and was starting to come up with some signature spots. He was developing, but I think was slightly limited by the interchangable, flying tecnico gimmick as Brilliante.

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