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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AEW Five Fingers of Death 6/3 - 6/9

AEW Collision 6/8/24

Dustin Rhodes vs Johnny TV

MD: As I get older and as the world becomes more jaded and ironic around me, I find myself more and more as a true believer of pro wrestling. The core tenets work. The core tenets always work. They are primal. They play upon certain facets of our brains in the best of ways. There can be holes, flaws, chinks in the armor, dodgy bits of execution, some coldness when it comes to one of the competitors, but so long as you trust in the time-tested theories, it is going to work. And no one makes it work, no one plays upon those theories, better than Dustin Rhodes. 

So there are bits here I wasn't sure about. Some of the execution seemed a little odd, like that Johnny leapfrog that Dustin slid out on, or even some of the strikes. And I can't tell you, because of the quick camera cuts. I get the purpose of quick camera cuts in an HD world, I really do, but if you're not going to trust in Dustin Rhodes to make his strikes look good, then what are you even doing, right? I can't weigh in one way or another except for in saying that the quick cuts took me out of the match far more than actually seeing Dustin's strikes, good or ill, would have. AEW's early success came in pulling back on some of the more "Sports Entertainment" tropes and production elements and now that we're this post-Dunn moment of WWE leaning away from them, AEW only exposes itself with things like that. Trust wrestling. Trust Dustin. I did love the swooping camera shot during the giant swing in the FTR tag though. Experiment but push things forward, not sideways into the land of Dunn cuts. That's my hope at least.

Anyway, the things that worked absolutely worked. Most especially here was the use of Taya. Dustin won the early mind games by sweeping out, taking Johnny's attention to let him hit the flip off the apron. Taya asserted herself almost immediately thereafter and Johnny took over on the steps. Then, during the commercial break they did the old rule of three build to a comeback, except for this time instead of running the same offensive spot over and over until it got reversed, they did the insult to injury kiss leading to the catapult by Dustin. I would have liked that to be the transition instead of the last hope spot building to the double clothesline, but that's a nitpick, and I was all for Johnny going for the dropdown Goldust punch and failing immediately thereafter. Tom and I were going back and forth on Aminata last week, as I think the way she hits makes her a natural heel and he thinks her charisma and story makes her a natural face. My problem there is that as the sort of face she would be she needs a bunch of 80s chickshit heels to run through and I was thinking only Saraya could (or would, or should, as Athena could but should not) really nail that on the roster. Taya's someone else that could probably pull it off though. 

Collision has morphed from whatever it had initially been to a really powerful way to heat up people that need to be heated up for a storyline purpose. On this show, that was the Premier Athletes for instance. They're going to get fed to Joe, Shibata, and Hook, so they needed some credibility. When I heard Dustin had to cancel an appearance at a con to come into Collision, I knew that it wasn't going to be to immediately heat someone else up. The roster is big and broad enough to have people to do that on a weekly basis. It was to set himself up for something bigger. And I think he'll be a great opponent for Perry to really get to flex his heel muscles. I'll be honest though. The Texas residency is coming and I hope there are certain elements of those shows that are constant week after week, because there’s a real opportunity for that in front of a probable repeat audience. There should be some routine and comfort and consistency and I'd hope some things that build from week to week. Maybe that's someone winning a Brass Knucks trophy in week one and defending it each week until the end (with a cash prize for whoever has it at the end). Or maybe, and here's what I was hoping and still am, it could be a multi-week celebration of Dustin's career. I'm not saying you have to do a King of the Road match or anything (though they should), but leaning on Dustin heavily throughout that run in some way meant to be special and to tug on heartstrings would be a blessing both for the booking and for me getting to write up a bunch of Dustin matches.

AEW Dynamite 6/5/24

Bryan Danielson/Jon Moxley/Wheeler Yuta/Claudio Castagnoli vs Magnus/Rudigo/Volador Jr./Esfinge

MD: I'm glad this happened. The CMLL engagement just hits differently. It's closer to my vision of what I'd like lucha to be and while these CMLL in AEW matches only go about 45% of the way stylistically and structurally, tending to be beatdowns that are confined within AEW's rules even if they have some of that old Infernales spirit, it's still somewhat familiar and nostalgic to me. This, and the four-way to start the show, were great ways to follow up from the critical success of the Casino Gauntlet from the following week and to stress the excitement (felt more this year than previous years) of Forbidden Door season. All action, all interesting action, all the sort of action that you can't get week to week anywhere else in the world. 

I don't have a lot to say about the specifics. These may not exactly be the CMLL guys I'd like to see the most, but the Depredadores worked well together and Magnus was a perfectly fine face in peril. I liked the extended BCC beatdown and especially how any of the BCC spots (at least those connected to Claudio) can work with anyone. Danielson did the Hart Attack here. Mox did the dropkick on the swing. Yuta did both on Collision. This needed to be a bit of a Yuta showcase and he shined at the end at least. I would have liked to see Volador get hit in the face a bit more, but that's just a personal thing. We've probably got more Hechicero on the way, at least, but I'm all for the Forbidden Door staying open for many months to come. 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 2/5 - 2/11

AEW Dynamite 2/7/24

Bryan Danielson/Jon Moxley/Claudio Castagnoli vs. Hechicero/Volador Jr./Mascara Dorada

MD: This had a number of (what I consider to be) lucha trios trappings and really it did just make me want to see the 2/3 falls Arena Mexico version. I have no idea how they came to the hybrid middle ground that they did, whether it was just the two teams trying to come up with a match in the back or if some agent (maybe Sarah Stock who because of her language skills sometimes works with the luchadors?) intervened or if it's just the lucha that a guy like Danielson, having likely watched more tape in the 00s than the 20s is familiar with, but it was a pretty effective Frankenstein's Monster.

They started with measured and focused and disciplined exchanges with clear beginnings, middle, and ends (as opposed to control on one wrestler or one wrestler shining against the entire side). Hechicero and Danielson picked up right where they left off on the mat. Claudio got to base early and often for Dorada, and Volador got to look flashy and tough against Moxley. I wouldn't say it had a central pairing (no captains, not that captains have to be the central pairing anyway) as the underlying storyline was one of gang warfare instead of a direct rivalry. Case in point, I would have wanted the rudo beatdown to start after Volador's dive onto Moxley where the BCC came in to swarm in the aftermath, but instead they played the spot back with the CMLL guys swarming after Moxley's subsequent dive to send it to commercial break. 

I would have liked for them to cycle through the tecnicos and have the BCC beat down one after another, but this segment was pulled more towards Southern Tag trappings and building to a hot tag instead of an overall momentum shift. I think the former, if they could have made it intense and believable enough, would have led more to the overall feel they were going for. The latter did still mean that we got to see a "Mascara Doroda vs the World" bit where he outslicked two opponents at once. Then, the finishing stretch had a bit of a cycling tercera feel, with Hechicero locking in hold after hold on different BCC members with people breaking it up as opposed to it being alternating holds from a member of each team.

I came in to lament that they didn't fully and entirely commit to a full CMLL trios styled match on a random Dynamite in Arizona but I have to admit, after thinking it all through, the compromise that they came up with was both artful and effective. I just think it might have been a little more so if they had gone into a more definitive beatdown just a little earlier, cycled through the CMLL guys during said beatdown, and then had a bit more focused of a central pairing (Danielson vs Hechicero). Hopefully what we got was a still impressive step in that direction.

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Low-Ki Started Popping Like It Was Legal

Low-Ki vs. Volador Jr. IWC Legacy 4/14/19 - FUN

This was the main event of the most indy wrestling of the four competing lucha feds running in Denver at any one time (There was a different show in town running at the same time with Zumbido in a granite warehouse).  This was a weird show, at one point or another this was supposed to be a supershow with IWC guys working HOG wrestlers, then they had listed CIMA and OWE wrestlers, Darby Allin, Priscilla Kelly, Ricky Martinez and Shazza McKenzie. We actually got Jimmy Havok working the local fake Raven in a garbage match, Bram working a three way with a tubby Puerto Rican and guy billed from Austria working an anti-sugar gimmick (he has I Kicked Sugar on his tights, and after taking a bump says "I need some Stevia"), there was a lucha tag with one local luchador teaming with indy luchador Septimo Dragon and another local luchador teaming with Australian indy wrestler Mick Moretti.

The main event was listed as Low-Ki vs. Laredo Kid, which is on paper a way better match, instead we get Ki vs. Volador who is surely a bigger star, but also a guy who is going to mail in a match like this. Ki comes out with Selena De La Renta and she is awesome heeling it up on the mic, insulting the crowd, telling all the Mexican men they are disappointing in bed and all the white guys that they are raising ugly children. Ki worked this as an over the top rudo, we got to see a great in-ring double stomp, and an awesome sell of a tope where he goes back first into the stage. Volador wasn't doing much, and he really leg slaps on his kicks. Got to love Ki refusing to put over Volador Jr. in a event space in Denver, they do the same finish as the Fenix MLW match with Selena pulling off Volador's mask and Ki rolling him up. They do a bunch of post match mic work, including Volador hilariously challenging Ki to Cabellera contra Cabellera, and Ki jumps him, only to get superkicked to the floor. Ki is a superstar, and any chance I have to see him live I'll take, but I would have much rather seen him with someone who would give a shit.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Dalys vs. Isis! Rush & Cavernario Put Up Their Hair!

Dalys vs. Reyna Isis  CMLL 9/7/18

ER: This wasn't in an easy spot on the card, right after a micros trios match that was fairly epic in scope, had a ramp dive and got a lot of time, big triumphant Micro Man finish. So this match had to follow that, and they opted for opening with 3 minutes of snug matwork. They went right out and said "you're getting something different" and I liked it. Dalys works mean throughout the whole match, totally turning a woman who is the QUEEN of ISIS into a tecnica. I liked their mat exchanges, a lot of hard takedowns and nice headlocks. Dalys muscled her around and stomped her around the ring, hit a couple nice throws and looked real scary in spots. Isis had a couple nice tecnica comebacks, a nice rana, dive off the middle rope to the floor, a nice Santo rolling sunset flip. But Dalys was real tough here, came off like someone who could believably work intergender trios. Dalys finished with a stiff senton, and I liked how energized Isis was throughout, and even while getting pinned she was still limply trying to kick her limbs out. I thought this was a tough match, and probably the most interested lightning match I've seen this year.

PAS: Dalys looked awesome in this match, sort of a mix of Finlay and Cris Cyborg. She really punishes Isis, putting her in a STF and yanking up on her neck, driving her knee into Isis chest, lifting her up by her hair. All of her slams had Isis landing flat backed, which is pretty rare in lucha, and felt like she knocked all of the air out of her. Isis had some headscissors and an OK dive, but I really didn't buy her getting any offense on Dalys. Joe Gomez wasn't ripping off offense on Fit or anything. Still a great vicious performance by Dalys and I need to dig around and watch more of her.

Hair vs. Hair: Barbaro Cavenario/Rush vs. Volador Jr. Matt Taven  CMLL 9/14/18

ER: Say what you will about this match, but these are four heads of hair worthy of a hair match. If my head were shaved, it would be grown back to where I typically keep it within 6 weeks. Not a valuable guy to have in a hair match? But Cavernario has the most hair by volume in the fed, Rush has the most valuable hair in wrestling, Volador's is among the longest in the fed, and Matt Taven is a garbage direct to video Pauly Shore as Slender Man. The match has plenty of flaws, Matt Taven stinks up most of his time in the match, but he's countered by a touchstone big match performance from Cavenario, a performance that really cements him among the best main event workers in the world today. A crazy tercera also helps kick this to the good side, with plenty of big moves, a huge moment I don't think I've seen, and that continually crazy Barbaro performance. Barbaro breaks out some some unhinged caveman moments, diving off the entrance ramp with a big splash, diving off the top with a big splash, crazy missile dropkick that he lands on his feet, breaking out his from the apron past the ringpost dive, nearly beheading himself on a Fuerza bump, eating a flip dive from Volador, taking a suicide elbow from Taven, eating Volador's flipping piledriver with a death wish, taking a rana standing on the top rope....it was a fucking stunt show and Cavenario was Hal Needham. Taven looked like shit and even spent a large part of the match getting booed. Did the crowd sense the rudo turn, or were they just sick of his dogshit flipping neckbreaker variations? Sick of him hitting bad springboard dropkicks? Volador does  plenty of stuff I dislike, and I think we're beyond needing a moratorium on backcrackers in lucha, but he throws himself hard into a quebrada and a big flip dive and that adds to the match. Rush walked around like a punk and threw some hard corner dropkicks, had an excellent timely save, and absolutely planted Volador with the piledriver finish. This whole thing was plenty fun, even with flaws, but even if the match stunk it would be worth seeing just for Cavenario.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Recent CMLL, Recent Kurisu

Hechicero/Negro Casas/Mephisto vs. Soberano Jr./Hijo de LA Park/Flyer  CMLL 8/24/18

ER: You ever see a match with sloppy execution and some flubbed sequences, but think that's it's good fun despite its flaws? That would be this kind of match right here. A few of the guys didn't have their best night; Flyer worked like a young guy wrestling the top stars for the first time, really hesitant for some reason, Casas having to really telegraph and lead and RE-lead him through some spots. I've enjoyed Flyer, but this wasn't quite his night. There were plenty of misses here, but the energy kept the crowd way into it and played well. Casas got to work with all three young tecnicos throughout and he looked like he was having a ball. Flyer looked like a real choad trading push kicks to the jaw with him, and the fans were getting way more into rudo Casas as he kicked face and mule kicked his way gleefully around the ring, fouhgt on the apron with Parkito, and took a nice crazy DDT from Park right on his head. Hechicero had one of his best performances of the year, and while the match wasn't quite working, well nobody ever told Hech that. He took big flying moves from everyone, took big bumps to the floor (watch him get flung through the ropes and sprawl out on the floor), dropped a cool elbowdrop from the apron to Park draped over the barricade, and covers nicely for some out of position whoopsies: Late in the match he goes to hit his fast middle rope springboard dropkick, only to find Soberano not in the middle of the ring to get kicked, but waiting in the corner. Hechcero lands on his feet off the springboard and hitting the ground running his does a 360 and perfectly hits his mark to strike Soberano in the corner. All the tecnicos got to fly, and Soberano broke out his big tornillo (one in ring and one to the floor), Park hit a big moonsault, Soberano hit his handspring flipping rana to the floor only to get caught and swung hard into the barricade by Mephisot (Mephisto, who was decked spectacularly out in Villano pink/purple), so as I said the heart and energy was clearly full in this one. This thing threatened to fall apart but never did, it just kept chugging ahead with the aspirations of having a classic.

Rush/Cavernario/Bestia del Ring vs. Volador Jr./Matt Taven/Caristico  CMLL 9/7/18

ER: This was a good, fun-sized snack best enjoyed stoned in the dark in the movie theater. It's that fun-sized pack of Reese's Pieces I grab and throw in my pocket on my way out the door to catch a last minute flick. By the time I'm sitting there an hour into the film, those Pieces are little crunchy manna from heaven. The match is about 6 minutes long, is disposable and forgettable like tiny portion-sized candy, but enjoyed to the fullest in its moment. Rush is in full asshole mode, and we peak with Rush high kicking Matt Taven in the balls in full view of every human in Arena Mexico. To describe Matt Taven's look would be to describe a man who looks like he deserves to have his balls kicked in. We get flash highlights: The rudos kicking around a soccer ball head, Volador flying fast over the barricade, Volador hitting a big flip dive, a stiff lariat from Bestia, big splash from Cavernario, a stiff frog splash from Taven to end it; it was a short hot match. The match went 7 minutes, and had plenty of worthwhile fun in 7 minutes. It definitely made me want to see the hair match.

Masanobu Kurisu/Okumura/Felino vs. Solar/Mano Negra/Villano IV Lucha Expo 9/15/18

PAS: I have no idea how Kurisu ends up working a lucha expo at a museum in 2018, but god bless the guy with the handheld which lets me watch it. We get a bunch of the Kurisu greatest hits, he blasts people with that headbutt right to the side of the head, sick body shots and some nasty chair shots. I really enjoyed the Villano IV vs. Kurisu sections that feels like the great bloody apuestas match which never happened. There was also a moment where Solar gets smacked by Kurisu and remembers he is a tough fucker who had a MMA fight in his 50s and starts wailing away. Solar tried a couple of things he could do in his late 50s, but not in his early 60s and nobody was really taking bumps, but it fuck it, its 2018, its Kurisu, its lucha libre, god is great.

ER: I would wager we've never seen any lucha Kurisu, though we can probably assume that the term "lucharisu" clearly came about due to a portmanteau of Lucha Kurisu. I assume every smaller worker from All Japan or New Japan during that era had at least one Mexico tour, and obviously Kurisu's was historic. This was almost exactly what you would expect, although I didn't expect Kurisu to be wearing baggy denim Dockers shorts and a large weight belt. He looked like an old dad doing yardwork on the weekends. He threw headbutts like Kurisu and choked out people with his boot like Kurisu and got a chair involved like Kurisu, so we can confirm that early 70s Kurisu is still Kurisu. I don't think I've ever witnessed Solar wielding a chair before, so Kurisu is responsible for that. He's a bad influence. Kurisu hits guys in the back with a chair, they all get to hit him, we have fun. The tecnicos all seemed to be in really good shape considering their ages, and we got some fun quick exchanges with V4 and Felino, and even though Solar bailed on something a bit complicated on the ropes, he also ran and booted Okumura hard in the stomach, a stomach kick that looks better than most today. This never really gets past a certain level, but maintains its fun and weird pace throughout, and still maintains it's status as "most unexpected thing to catch my attention on a Monday".

PAS: Did a luchablog search on Kurisu, there are a handful of matches between 1979-81(Including a Gran Hamada title match, and a tag with Scorpio Sr. against Brazos Oro and Plata) and then nothing until 2018. Someone said "Remember that guy from 1979, that we haven't seen in 37 years? Does anyone have a contact number?"

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When They Come to Take LA Park Down, When They Bring That Wagon 'Round

LA Park/Rey Fenix/Volador Jr. vs. Rush/Terrible/Cibernetico CMLL 6/15/18 - FUN

ER: I'm sure there's someone out there who was excited when Cibernetico was suddenly brought into this feud. But I'm also sure there's someone out there who eats their own feces, so that qualifier doesn't mean a whole lot. And, since this is just a numbers game, there are probably actually more people in the world who eat their own feces than there are people who were excited to see Cibernetico in a CMLL main event in 2018. But this also just happened to be the match I was in the mood to watch. We got good energy the previous week, this was a toned down soap opera which had a lot of acting and allowed time for a lot of individual personality. We had a big early peak with some big spots, a big LA Park dive, big flip dives from Fenix and Volador, and a great looking section with Fenix throwing awesome spin kicks to Cibernetico's jaw and rolling into place for moves like a ninja, even back bumping lengthwise on the top rope at one point as part of a springboard arm drag. Fenix is shining in the big Arena, and he's an awesome flashy addition to this group. The rest of this straight falls trios is slow burn gags and schtick, several different bits with different combos that were all allowed to breathe. Long belt whippings by both sides, Park whipping backs and chests, Volador and Terrible with a super long staredown with Volador working a bunch of comedy faces and Terrible cutting off rope running flips from Volador and Fenix with mid air punches. Terrible also misses a big leaping punch and clocks La Comandante. Earlier Comandante rubbed Rush's back to calm him down, and I bet that felt kinda gross. Rush wins both falls with bullshit screw jobs, the first of which inspires Commissioner Rambo to get up on the entrance ramp showing his disappointment in referee Edgar for being such a fuck up, while wearing a full length black overcoat. It's the highspot of the match, which also featured a Park spear on Rush that would have left me with 4 broken ribs. Before that we get a wonderfully slow played Park/Rush moment of Park rubbing his belly across the face of a kneeling Rush, and Rush selling it with this great gulping Vince McMahon face. Cibernetico has trunks that say "Main Man" on the back in kicky letters, which is so douchey it should be on the back of some white jeans. Oh, it might be slightly worth noting that fucking nunchucks get involved and fought over, and then Park actually appears like a man who knows how to use nunchucks and does a stretch of photograph worthy showing off.  The bullshit finishes were silly but fun, overly dramatic and cheesy, but getting loud reactions from the crowd. This was all fun popcorn drama.

PAS: This didn't have the violence of the previous weeks matches, this felt much more like a house show lucha shtick trios, like we needed a star and a spot where everyone misses dives. Park is a great shtick wrestler, I loved him rubbing his fat belly on Rush's face, and the nunchucks spot was classic GIF worthy horseshit, but this was a weird build to a violent singles match. Things really should be escalating and this felt like a week off. Fenix has a bunch of fun rope tricks and great agility, but he is a great brawler too, and I would have liked to see him bring that side to this feud. Cibernetico is an inexplicable addition to the indy CMLL invasion, he brings nothing to the match and is a big step down from Bestia, who is at least a crowbar. I enjoyed this, but it isn't what I wanted to see (spoiler alert.. they turned it around big time next week)

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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Park vs. Rush Family Feud Continues

45. LA Park/Hijo de LA Park/Volador Jr. vs. Rush/Terrible/Bestia del Ring CMLL 6/8/18

ER: I complained the other couple weeks that there was a lack of urgency, and I certainly can't make that same comment about this match. All six guys go right at it, HdP and Volador both hit a couple sets of dives to the floor, Park spearing Rush through the ropes crashing into everybody (and as crazy as his spear through the ropes was, the spear towards the end in the ring was spectacular, with Rush flying into it and Park intercepting him midair like a hawk), Park and Rush exchanging suplexes, Terrible smacking chumps around, Bestia del Ring getting those legs up high and crashing into Park's face on a dropkick, everybody making themselves known around the ring. HdP isn't very good, but damn was he trying here. Park was busting butt too (big shock) and I rewound a bump of his into the barricade a few times, such a big guy to be flying ass over teakettle like that, and he still makes me enjoy getting clonked with a ring door. I didn't love Edgar taking a full force Rush missile dropkick and being up seconds later to call for the DQ and raise Park's hand, and Hijo/Volador really hung Bestia out to dry for too long as he waited to take a springboard legdrop. We get the straight fall DQs, love Rush being unprofessional, love Park being just slightly slow on the ball kick draw. This had flaws, but I liked the energy here more than the two matches that proceeded it.

PAS: I agree that these matches are better in a condensed format. The first trios had a great atmosphere, but needed some more aggression and oomph in the middle sections. This had more of that, and the PARK spear to the floor is a spot of the year contender, and completely insane for such an old dude to be breaking out. Park's spear is great, but we also have to give some credit to Rush for how well he takes a spear, he compresses his entire body and flings it out on impact, I imagine he could have even made Edge look good. I do wish Park had better running partners then Volador and his kid, I guess you can't choose family. Nice moving forward of the feud.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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If You Plant Ice, You are Going to Harvest LA PARK

LA Park/Volador Jr./Hijo de LA Park vs. Rush/Terrible/Bestia del Ring CMLL 6/1/18 - FUN

ER: A sloppy follow-up to the first clash, with Park's son replacing Flyer, but this match felt a little more misguided and had a lot of timing issues, a few multiman set pieces that required awkward waiting around. I think Rush has come off like a megastar in these matches, and Park is a great foil. Park has found numerous entertaining ways to get his face bounced off a ringpost or a barricade door, and the big moments played big, like Park hitting his big fat skeleton dives, Park getting hit with his kid's dive, Rush landing a big flip dive, all dives looked good. We get some greatest hits, Rush kicks around Hijo's head like a soccer ball, pastes Park with a corner dropkick and  stops short to trick him into getting kicked. But nobody was very good at getting into position for offense. There's a cool moment where Park and Rush start to square off, and Park takes off his gloves for some chopping, and you sense things are heating up...but then Rush goes and stands on the apron and challenges Park to follow...and then just stands there the whole time while Park bounces off the opposite ropes and kicks Rush to the floor. We blow threw some ball shots that don't mean much of anything, only to get to an immediate and poorly constructed revenge spot where all three Ingobernales argue with ref Edgar for an extended length of time so Familia Real can set up a silly triple ball punch roll up spot, with the cameras focusing on Volador loudly counting the timing for everybody. I don't look to these guys to work a match based around tandem spot timing, I want some unprofessional brawling. I thought the finish was flat but understandable, with Rush attacking everyone with a stretcher, but the stretcher comes off flimsier than stuff Rush typically attacks guys with. Park also built some drama with an attempted martinete, but I'm wondering why they expect me to still care about martinetes on a show that had a few different flipping piledriver variations for nearfalls. While this did have Park coming through the crowd in a kilt, overall this is feeling a bit too sanitized.

PAS: This was a pretty big step down from the previous week, which was a small step down from the heights of this feud.  Park is universally entertaining, I am going to enjoy him in everything he does, the dives looked great, the spear looked great, but this really did feel like a throw away trios match, which is a shame this early in the feud. Super disappointed to see La Commandante come out with the glass picture of Jesus and not have it smashed over someones head, the whole point of Chekov's gun is that it goes off. They really need an out of control brawl to heat this up again, Volador doesn't need to hit all of his armdrags in every match.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LA PARK

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Lucha Worth Watching: Gran Alternativa Final

Templario/Ultimo Guerrero vs. Flyer/Volador Jr.  CMLL 5/18/18

ER: Huge, bloated, overkilled Arena Mexico main event, which was the match the crowd was amped to see, that totally delivered with some huge spots, and two excellent performances from the two younger guys. If the point of the Gran Alternativa is to come out of it with a couple of stronger young guys, then they nailed it. Templario and Flyer put on two really tremendous performances, and the crowd responded excitedly to them. Flyer took some major tumbles here, and some big time bumps on hard surfaces. It wasn't just him taking big bumps to the floor and hitting a dive, it was him taking all of this big UG power offense, getting bounced off the mat on a middle rope powerbomb, taking the big reverse suplex off the top, just taking a lot of body damage on the mat and floor. Templario is one of my new favorite guys who I don't think I even saw until late 2017. He's got a lot of nice flying spots, but also a lot of great power offense. I guess you can say the power/flyer combo reminds me of a younger Hechicero? He's really great at catching flyer spots, has cool press slams kind of spots, catches and swings Flyer into the barricade, but then can hit a big springboard move of his own. Volador really allowed Flyer to shine, and when he did start breaking out big spots he did them to complement Flyer, and UG did the same thing with Templario. Volador following up Flyer's big Asai moonsault to the floor with his own massive rana to the floor just makes Flyer look at his level, and the fans responded as such. We get a ton of ridiculous but fun kickouts, but if you're going to do overkill, have fun with it. And with the fans flipping out for every kickout, everybody in the ring looked like they were having a ball.

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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: PARK Invades the Cathedral

41. LA Park/Volador Jr./Flyer vs. Rush/Terrible/Bestia del Ring CMLL 5/25/18

ER: This match left me weirdly flat. It wasn't really what I was expecting from the first big Park/Rush showdown in CMLL. I think the match went way, way too long. It felt like the longest non-mask match CMLL main event I've seen in years. And I think it would have been far more effective to have both teams go in there, tear it down for 8 minutes, DQs all around, get things started off nice and rabid. This went on for so long that it left me feeling as if I'd already seen way too much of the feud. After one long match, I'm already not very excited to see more of them. That's not good. It's still recoverable, but a lot of this match felt really uninspired and lazy, tons of guys just walking around casually past guys on the other team, with nobody reaching out to attack. This thing meandered, and really should have been half this length. Leave them wanting more, you know?

I thought Rush looked fantastic in this. He brought the magnetism and came off like a megastar. I loved that big bump he took into the front row after a Park dive in the primera, and the match energy seemed to hinge on whatever he was doing at the time. Most of the Park/Rush stuff was great, especially the tercera. The others seemed to be holding back. We've seen Terrible be sadistic in other matches, and there were prime opportunities for him and Bestia to really bully and mess up Flyer, but that didn't happen. The big Rush/Park moments all landed, though. Park beats Rush with a rolling suitcase (why have I not seen that done before 2018, and why have I now seen that twice? Brad Attitude is an innovator), Rush rips Park's mask and soccer ball kicks his head into the stands, Park absolutely squashes him with a fantastic crossbody off the top to the floor (filmed amazingly, really looked like Park flew 15 feet), but even then I didn't love how Rush was right back in the ring on offense after he just got flattened by the fattest skeleton. I liked Volador resorting to a chairshot for the finish, but overall the tecnicos didn't really looked fired up, and the rudos didn't look mean enough. These men wrestled like it wasn't a very special occurrence, like it was just another Friday night main event. An inauspicious start to the feud, but I think it can be recovered. Perhaps I went in with hopes too high, and I just expect more from these guys. I'm sure if this was a trios with 6 guys I like less, I would have been a higher vote. Park and Rush got a lot of time across each other, and that's almost always going to land on a list.

PAS: I liked this much more then Eric did, although I am probably still a bit of a low voter. I agree that these matches are better off as quick 10-13 minute brawls, there was no reason to watch Flyer and Bestia Del Ring exchange armdrags. I get why this went so long, this was a big shift in CMLL modus operandi and was clearly a big draw.  There was a lot to love about this match though, I really like the Ingobernables coming from the crowd to jump the technicos from behind, while sporting awesome letterman jackets. The others in this match didn't deliver much, but Park vs. Rush is why we are here, and their stuff was great. I loved the rolling bag stuff, especially when it broke open and someones undies ended up all over the filthy floor.  That top rope plancha was incredible, Park is so graceful for an old fat man, and he always lands with such a thud. His spear on Rush was an all time great spear, it was the kind of thing that pre-CTE would have been a highlight shown on every Inside the NFL show. As an opening to the feud I thought this did it's job for sure, and I am looking forward to weekly wars and an all time apuestas match.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LA PARK

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Lucha Worth Watching: Cuatrero/Angel de Oro!

Cuatrero/Negro Casas/Ultimo Guerrero vs. Angel de Oro/Volador Jr./Atlantis  CMLL 3/9/18

ER: Hot sprint building up next week's mask match between Oro and Cuatrero, with the two of them getting super loud crowd reactions with some mask ripping and mask removal, Cuatrero blatantly pulls Oro's off to lose the primera (with Oro returning and flying off the entrance balcony) and Oro getting a huge reaction when he rips Cuatrero's in the middle of the ring. I've never seen Oro appear so interesting. The other four aren't as important to the match, but all make solid cameos. Casas is back from his rib injury and looking energized (and he's so tan that I assume he's going to start working as Chief Jay Casas any day now), UG took his big Jerry bump to the floor, Volador came in with a huge springboard rana, Atlantis and Casas have an old guys showdown, all fun noise. Oro has never made an impression on me, Cuatrero is my favorite Dinamita, and I am suddenly more interested in their mask match, all in about 7 minutes of work. Well done. You all thought this was gonna be the mask match write up. That's coming next.

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Negro Casas Worth Watching

Rush/La Sombra/La Mascara v. Negro Casas/Shocker/Mr. Niebla CMLL 7/4/14

ER: Oh man, Rush and his boys come out in suits, pork pie hats, Mascara is wearing a vest, Sombra has his dress shirt unbuttoned way too low under a suit jacket, Rush is wearing no shirt under his jacket. They look like the three most aggressive dry humpers at the club. They look douchey enough that one of them should have "Don't you know who I am?!" tattooed on them. And this match was awesome. It was way more even than most matches between these two teams, and while there was never any real flow to it, that was because each team kept cutting off the other in logical ways. It was a really great use of 6 people as right when one side would gain an advantage, a guy who had been on the floor or apron would come in and cut the momentum right off. The work in this was as stiff as expected, with Sombra rattling Shocker's teeth with plenty of elbows, Mascara delivering plenty of on-point superkicks of the non-thigh slap variety, Rush and Casas each leaving boot imprints on the other's face. Shocker had a great showing here with some of his best selling ever. At one point he fell on his butt after some Sombra elbows and it was downright Kawada-esque. Earlier while selling his knee he valiantly limped right into a Mascara superkick. Niebla hits a dive out the corner past the turnbuckles like it was 1999, Rush boots a charging Casas right off the rampway, Sombra goes full douche by posing while splayed out across the middle rope, and this shit was all awesome. Go watch this.

Negro Casas v. Volador Jr. CMLL 5/31/15

ER: Fun short match with both guys working fast and tossing in little extra dickish things, and Casas almost rubbing it in Volador's face that the Arena Mexico crowd will always like him more. Both guys work stiff here but also really fly into the other's offense. Volador flies fast and nose first into a Casas DDT (with Casas adding a stiff senton afterwards to an unsuspecting Volador), both guys take a few really fast bumps over the top to the floor. You can tell right from go that they were working hard, with Volador jumping him and hitting a dive right before the bell. Later Volador hits a flip dive and then "slips" back first on Casas' face, but slow mo replays clearly show him doing it on purpose. No wonder he got that little senton receipt later. Casas brings some atmosphere and gravity to this, both things normally absent from Volador singles matches. Strikes were on point throughout, both guys gunning for the other's knee on dropkicks, Casas going jaw first into a superkick, Volador manning up into a Casas Thesz press. The whole thing was worked like they were trying to prove something, and this made it a cut above other match-ups I've seen between these two.

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