Black Terry Grew Up Quick and He Grew Up Mean, His Fist Got Hard and His Wits Got Keen

Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro/Cerebro Negro v. Los Officiales v. Freelance/Gemelos Fantasticos v. Trauma I/Trauma II/Zatura IWRG 4/2/09 - FUN

PAS: Total train wreck and a total blast. 12 guys just throwing it all at the wall, some stuff isn't hit cleanly, but there is more great shit then you can demand. This is the kind of shit Freelance is made for, and he is just flying around the ring with abandon, he does three dives into the crowd, each crazier then the last, and is just constantly diving into the ring ranaing the fuck out of dudes. Officiales looked great here, as they ate all of Freelances stuff well, and did I nice job covering for some of the lesser lights (the less I say about the Gemelos the better) Terry is great too, but this was a little chaotic for him to be at his best. This week goes to Freelance.

TKG: Yeah this was a wreck. The whole concept of elimination trios match where you can tag anyone else into the ring is almost TNA level stupid. Hey its two twins forced to wrestle each other in an elimination match, isn’t that clever? Dumb. You also had a couple of awkward Zatura v Freelance sections where both guys looked like they need a rudo. Some spectacular looking Freelance highspots. Plus you get the Zatura “Hey I’m in a match with Freelance I have to do even crazier out of control dives and possibly injure myself” stuff that you get when those two are in a match together. A fun clusterfuck but a dumb match.

Black Terry/Cerebro Negro/Fantasma De La Opera v. Negro Navarro/Trauma I/Trauma II IWRG 7/9/09 - GREAT

TKG: It’s been a while since we’ve seen this type of full on Black Terry match. The Cerebros are enough of a solid unit that Terry can often times take a back seat.The Fantasma/Terry/Cerebro Negro unit is less polished as a unit and Terry fully takes over directing traffic, bumping attacking, always the center of the match. In many of the matches in 09 Terry’s seemed to be a step below what he was in 08. But this is the full on Black Terry show. Pre match Terry says he wants to test the new title holder Trauma II and the match is all about the match up between Terry and both Trauma II and the match up between Terry and Navarro. All that Cerebro Negro and Fantasma need to do is keep Trauma 1 busy while Terry does the rest. First fall involves the heels triple teaming to pin both Truamas. It’s problematic fall, in that you don’t really buy the Fantasma/Cerebro Negro attacks as having taken Navarro out of the match allowing for the triple teams on the kids. I don’t know to what degree that’s the fault of Fantasma/Cerebro Negro’s lack of credibility and what is the way Navarro is unconvincing bumping and eating their stuff. Probably a little of both. Fantasma doesn’t know how to eat Trauma I’s finisher, and while I really liked his heavyweight face off with I, it felt like he worked his faceoff with II exactly the same way. But the point of match was to keep the attention away from Cerebro Negro/Fantasma and Trauma I and let Terry do his thing. And Terry did his thing and was awesome facing off with Navarro and Trauma II. And you leave this match actively wanting to see a Trauma II v Terry match and worrying that Trauma II may be out of his league.

PAS: The Traumas have been on quite a run in the last couple of months, but man when the team with their dad, you see the difference. This is bad ass brawling Navarro, he is pissed at Fuerza talking shit, and he comes out like a B-movie hero who has been pushed too far. Terry is such a great foil to that kind of fury, as he is much more of a B-movie villain, a tough guy, with tough backup, but fundamentally lacking the moral authority of our hero. I love all of the hierarchy stuff these tags do so well, and Terry v. Trauma II could be incredible if they run it.

Black Terry/Chico Che/Dr. Cerebro v. Avisman/Hijo del Diablo/Gringo Loco IWRG 3/7/10 - EPIC

TKG: The booking to add Chico Che to this feud was super smart and really well executed. Adding a tecnico to this feud totally changes the dynamics and Chico Che was really the right tecnico. The feud went form being a rudo v rudo feud (which IWRG is great at running) into a native v foreign team feud (where nationalism unites heels/faces). That change effects the way everyone works. There is a fun vibe that adding a tecnico brings, and you really got the sense that Black Terry/Cerebro were actively enjoying having Chico Che with them. There are these awesome moments where both of them stand back with shit eating grins and direct Chico Che into abusing the foreigners. There is a point where Terry is punching Gringo Loco on the floor and then Chico Che lands a punch of his own on Gringo Loco. Terry lights up “hey you got this, let me do something else”. First fall is mostly Gringos dominated as they leave Cerebro, Terry and Che all bloody, this stretches into the second fall which develops into a real isolate and triple team one guy while keeping other faces away from action fall (except done on the floor instead of in the center of ring) until the tecnicos see an error and take advantage bloodying Avisman and Diablo and then a third fall which starts with tecnicos beating rudos in one on one exchanges (with Che beating the shit out of Avisman on floor, Cerebro really laying into Diablo and Che running through his big spots) back into a section where rudos try to remount control. Part of what makes this kind of classic lucha fight work is that there are not a lot of changes in momentum. Just long periods of one sided action where both teams look strong (for both dishing and eating beating). I imagine if you were to watch this match with a stop watch and a calculator, the heels would have taken more than 75% of the offense in a match where the heels win clean. But this is the furthest thing from a competitive squash. Part of that is the selling which is all about guys toughing it out by taking a giant beating waiting out an opening Chico Corrales style. When it works it works and here it really worked. The actual match finish with everyone but Diablo and Cerebro taken out by dives and Diablo reversing a rana into a desnucadora/slam was also a super cool clean finish that still left you wanting more.

PAS: Man was this filmed spectacularly. This is a gruesome gritty fight, and pretty much every camera shot looked like the cover of a 1987 issue of Wrestling Eye. Black Terry his great exhausted beaten bloody facial expressions. He looks like William Munney at the end of Unforgiven. This is a match with six great performances, Gringo Loco is on fire, beating people, bleeding and taking one of the craziest corner post bumps I have ever seen. It is the kind of thing Cassandro would wince at. Diablo is also great as kind of the rudo glue. He has been in a million seedy Tijuana brawls in his career and this kind of thing is right in his wheelhouse. Then we have Chico Che continuing his June '09 to June '10 run as one of the five best wrestlers in the world. He is just stupendous in this match, as the victim and the deliverer of beatings, and his signature rope running is a little bit of beauty in the ugly.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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Between Heaven and Hell Black Terry Fell In The Deep Crimson Dew

Black Terry vs. Matematico vs. Ultraman vs. Kahoz vs. Cuchillo vs. Astro Boy Jr.vs. Brazo de Plata Jr. vs. Daisuke Haonaka vs. Hijo del Fantasma vs. Toshiya Matsuzaki Toryuman- GREAT 5/3/06

PAS: Ridiculously fun match which was a total train wreck but in a really entertaining way. You got to see a bunch of old luchadores who never see the light of day. Black Terry had an awesome punch exchange with Ultraman. For an ex-high flyer Ultraman has really turned into Jose Luis Castillo in his old age. Cuchillo and Kahoz are guys I haven’t seen in years, and they looked like guys I hadn’t seen in years. Kahoz especially looked shitastic, as he was completely unable to bump over the top on his first attempt, so he has to run to the other side of the ring to bump to the floor Also that actually looked like the real Matematico who must be 70. Total blast.

TKG: Black Terry looked to be guy holding this entire thing together working fun sections with Hijo del Fantasma, Matematico, and Ultraman and one of the Japanese kids. Gran Cuchillo comes out and stretchers the other Japanese kid just smacking him around with the butt of his gun, suplexing him on the ramp and then dropping elbows. Cuchillo hitting opponents with the butt of a pistol may expose the business more than Tiger Jeet Singh hitting opponents with butt of sword. But Cuchillo is way more fun. Cuchillo and Kahoz are really too old to pull off their miscommunication heel double team stuff. But fuck all that other shit: BLACK TERRY~!!!

Black Terry, Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro VS Trauma I, Trauma II, Zatura IWRG 6/4/09-FUN

TKG:I dug this a lot although I don’t know how good it actually was. I left this thinking these two teams match up really well and have a really good match in them, this has hints of it but isn’t it. That’s the same feeling I have leaving every Jumbo v Billy Robinson or Backlund v Adonis. I may have ridiculously high standards. It’s kind of ridiculous to say I liked this match for its sloppiness. I don’t know if Trauma I legit busted his arm up or if he was just selling over the three falls. Don’t know if Trauma II legit fucked up Cerebro Negro’s neck or if that was a match element. Either way the match was constantly broken up by medical staff checking on guys pulling them out of the action and eventually letting them back in, while the rest of the luchadors had to continue to work ignoring the downed guys and medical staff. I’m assuming that this was all guys getting legit tweaked but I really enjoyed the weird pacing and general dynamic (of guys getting pulled out and reinserted) that it created. Not a dynamic that I think they’ll ever be able to recreate. I imagine if they rematch these teams, the rematch will be smoother and not sure if that’s necessarily for the better. Anyway the real shocker of this match was how good both Cerebro Negro and Zatura looked; and how well they matched up opposite each other. Cerebro Negro was a guy who I enjoyed a bunch in 08 as kind of the best of the “flashy innovative offense” IWRG rudos. But he’s really underwhelmed in the Terry/Cerebros v Dinastia Navarro stuff. And well Zatura is a guy who always struck me as being nothing but insane out-of-control dives. But here the two match up shockingly well and felt like working spotty highflyer lit a fire under Cerebro Negro. I get the sense that people are starting to get a better sense of what they can do with Trauma I and really liked both all the Terry work on Trauma I’s arm and how Terry set up and sold all the Trauma I comebacks. The Trauma II v Dr Cerebro interactions were really the least version of that match up and shockingly the most uninteresting part of the match.

PAS: I don't think anyone would look at this match up on paper and think that Zatura and Cerebro Negro would come out looking the best. Their long mat section was very cool, I especially loved all of the countering based around Zatura's arm. Zatura also broke out a great looking dive, and Negro was probably the top brawler during the brawl section. There is a moment where Trauma II is on his stomach and Cerebro Negro is just unloading with right hands, it really looked like a guy violently finishing someone in MMA. There is such a great mix of trios right now in IWRG, now that it looks like the Trauma's turned on Zatura, I hope we get Negro Navarro back soon, because Dinastia De La Muerte v. Officiales, Juvi/Fuerza/Pirata or Zatura/Chico Che/Freelance all could be incredible

Black Terry/Cerebro Negro/Dr. Cerebro vs. Barba Roja/Hijo de Pirata Morgan/Pirata Morgan Jr. IWRG 8/27/09-FUN

TKG: The Piratas really felt out of their league here. First fall has Dr Cerebro matched up opposite Jr, ,Black Terry matched up opposite Barba Roja and Cerebro Negro opposite Hijo. Black Terry strained his arm on an armdrag had a doctor check it out and then had Barba Roja work over his arm. Terry is really good at the wounded tough warrior stuff and that may have been the best first fall interaction. The other Piratas looked completely lost working technical mat based offense. Second fall was rope running move fall where everyone switched up partners and third fall was all about the big moves where member of team runs in to prevent the fall. Piratas were way more comfortable in those settings. The second fall where they were most comfortable was short, and the third fall felt kind of mechanical.

PAS: Black Terry cuts a post match promo basically saying “It is good for young guys like that to get experience against wrestlers like us.” The match really felt worked like that, with Cerebros being polished professionals, carrying some green rookies through a match. There was individual moments of competence from the Piratas, but this match was 90% Cerebros

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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Back About Eighteen and Twenty Five Black Terry left Naucalpan Very Much Alive

Guerrero Maya/Guerrero Del Futuro/Damien El Guerrero v. Atlantico/Ciclon Ramirez/Zumbido CMLL 9/13/96 - SKIPPABLE
I am still waiting to find the quality Los Guerreros match. Like most midcard CMLL matches of the 90's this had some individual moments of cool shit. We got a fun exchange between Guerrero Maya and Ciclon Ramirez, and Zumbido hit a cool corner tope. Still the last two falls were really short, and there were a couple of really awkward blown spots. Also I think the opening exchange between Damien El Guerrero and Alantico was actively bad. Plus this is another Ciclon Ramirez match without a Ciclon Ramirez tope. NO SIR!!

Black Terry v. Cerebro Negro IWRG 11/22/07 - EPIC

Tremendous match which is a better finish away from being the MOTY for 2007, and is the best Black Terry singles match I have seen. This is a violent hair match which is one of the best things in professional wrestling. This truly felt like a war, there were multiple moments where both guys forgot about lucha and just wailed away at each other with blows. Terry unloads one of the better overhand slaps I can remember, but Cerebro Negro is right there firing back with everything he had, especially landing some nasty coconut headbutts. There is a great moment where the camera pans to a little kid in the audience who is simultaneously horrified and engrossed by the carnage. Both of the first two falls ended on great counters Cerebro Negro counters a shoulder block with a beautiful Pain Game DDT, and Terry just demolishes Cerebro with a backcracker counter to a back tope. It's IWRG I am pretty desensitized to backcrackers but I nearly jumped out of my seat. I also loved Terry tearing apart Negro's pants to get at his knee, it had an almost cinematic quality of desperation, it felt like the end of a Peckinpaugh film. Finish was kind of bullshit, with Fantasma De La Opera running in and chair shotting both guys, total buzzkill to something that was building to one of the great lucha libre apuesta matches of all time.

Black Terry/Cerebro Negro/Dr. Cerebro v. Pantera/Suicida/Zatura IWRG 1/7/10 - GREAT

PAS: Cerebro looked pretty great really nice looking overhand slaps, and an reckless tope. This was just super solid lucha libre, a little shorter then a normally IWRG trios, so we only got one longish mat exchange (Terry v. Sucida and it was pretty sweet) and it was mostly slick armdrags by agile technicos and bumping and stooging by great rudos. Amusing finish with Cerebro grabbing Pantera's leg and causing him to low blow the ref. Nothing which will stand out by the end of year, but if we keep getting twice weekly stuff like this 2010 will be ok.

TKG: Without the hair dye and gel, Cerebro Negro looks like a really scummy Bruno Campos gone to seed. This was laid out really similarly to the fourth match on Sunday’s card: instead of establishing everyone's character by having everyone pair up for a mat section in the first fall you just have one pairing work a mat section and then move directly into first fall brawling. Here you had Black Terry and Suicida pair up for some mat work which led to Dr Cerebro and Pantera doing some first fall toe to toe brawling and Zatura and Cerebro Negro pairing for first fall fast exchanges. It’s a format that I imagine will play well to the Jr Piratas or Oficiales strengths (keeping a match moving). It doesn’t really play to Terribles Cerebros (character work) but it made for a fun match that kept moving at a nice clip.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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Black Terry Ain't Got no Ills, Black Terry Don't Owe No Bills

Black Terry/Pierroth II/Arlequin vs. Chico Che/Fantastik/Multifacetico IWRG 3/19/09-SKIPPABLE

TKG: Aw man this was an awful mess. What the fuck? IWRG shelled out the money for Dr Wagner Jr and didn’t pay anyone else? These guys looked like unpaid trainees. Maybe Dr Wagner Jr has access to the good drugs and partied with the roster preshow. I haven’t seen Fantastik in ages and he looked barely trained. No one but Black Terry and Multifacetico looked like they knew how to run the ropes. Arlequin looked like Jim Belushi disinterestedly brawling in a fight scene in a shitty direct to video action movie. There is a point where Arlequin and Fantastik try to do fighting spirit chop exchanges…I don’t know if Arlequin was doing a Kawada sell, but he sells the pain and then goes to fighting spirit sell by doing push ups but is in too much pain and does girl push ups instead.

PAS: The thing you love about IWRG is that they will give great matches enough time to really be great, the flip side is when you get an abortion like this, it will be a long drawn out abortion. Tom talked a lot about how bad Arlequin was, and he was really bad, but man alive did Chico Che and Pierroth II look like crap. They kept matching up with each other in long rope running sections, where neither guy looked like they had run ropes before. He tried, but Black Terry wasn’t able to do anything with this.

Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro/Cerebro Negro v. Trauma I/Trauma II/Ultraman Jr. IWRG 10/29/09-EPIC

TKG: This starts with Dr Cerebro and Ultraman Jr doing technical exchanges built around trading nasty arm wringer variations. Then Black Terry matches up with Trauma I and Cerebro Negro matches up with Trauma II doing exchanges of submissions. Trauma puts on a submission that hurts the opponent can’t escape but won’t tap to, and then opponent slaps on submission that works the same body part. This whole thing is really made by both Terry and Cerebro Negro’s selling. Second fall is the fast exchange fall and these are superfast Gods Must Be Crazy stop motion animation fast exchanges. Black Terry and Ultraman Jr look to blow a bunch of things but they keep going and the awkwardness gives a real violent feel to the fast exchange section as they look to be forcing each other into stuff. That’s the sense you get throughout this fall as it’s super stiff and super fast. Things may be moving so fast that these guys can’t perform as smoothly as you normally see in most “quick exchange” caidas. Third fall also has some rough moments but these guys are professionals and know how to make that add to the feel of an actual fight. Like Tina Turner these guys can do nothing nice and easy, they’re all about the nice and rough.

PAS: Dinastia De La Muerte v. Terrible Cerebros was the feud of the year in IWRG in 2009, this was that match up with Ultraman Jr. replacing Negro Navarro. That is a huge step down it talent, as Ultraman Jr. is slightly above average and Navarro was the best wrestler in the world in 2009. It kind of works in this match though, as Navarro's absence forces the Traumas to step up huge and really become the focus of the match. The opening mat sections were long and awesome, that kind of machismo mat wrestling, where guys show their skill by tying up and then releasing their opponent can be overdone in IWRG, but it is really great here. Everyone sells pain and frustration tremendously, and you really buy this as a test of machismo, no one is going to tap and they are all desperate to prove the more skilled luchadore. Tom was right about the ragged awesomeness of the second and third falls, it gets faster and more violent and more reckless and it feels like it is going to spiral completely out of control. I have no problem with a low blow finish, but this felt like it should have built to a total explosion, and the finish deflated it a bit. Still a tremendous match, right up there with the best matches of 2009.

Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro/Negro Navarro v. Solar/Sucida/Zatura IWRG 1/28/10-EPIC

PAS: Great, great stuff. These are six of the greatest wrestlers in the world given some time to have a wrestling match. We start out with Solar v. Negro Navarro which is the best match up in wrestling today. They are playing a variation of the same notes, but this was less of an exhibition and more of a struggle. They didn't do the hold, release, hold style, things were being countered and reversed. The tapatia reversed into a tapatia was especially awesome looking. The youtube revolution has allowed us to see this match up a bunch in the last couple of years, that may be seen as a bit of a downside, but it is a weird criticism. They are traveling around the country and the world doing their thing, and they still mix it up a bunch. This isn't 80's WWE guys doing move for move replications of the same house show match, it is two maestros locked in a decade long battle of one upsmanship and I am eager to catch every installment. Next we get a long completely awesome Zatura v. Black Terry mat section, it may be the novelty of it, but this felt as good as the Navarro v. Solar section. They did a lot of battling in and out of leglocks which really felt like a Imanari fight, I also loved how Terry would use wrist locks to transition into throws. A singles match between those two would be unbelievable. The first fall ends with a really great speedy exchange between Suicida and Dr. Cerebro, with Segura flying all over the ring and Cerebro bumping like a king. Just an awesome first fall, as good as any opening caida I can ever remember seeing. Unfortunately the second and third falls were both about four minutes, good but really too abbreviated for this to truly be a classic. Both falls had great shit in them though. The second fall, had more Navarro v. Solar, with both guys jockeying for big throws. The third fall had Cerebro taking Suicida to the floor and beating the shit out him, it added a bit of violence to the artistry which was welcome. Honestly add three minutes to each fall and we have the match of the year, even as is, it is a beautiful piece of wrestling

TKG: Holy crap this was great. Solar and Navarro aren’t just guys exchanging technical holds but there is this real sense of escalation in their exchanges. They start off with arm drag exchanges which lead to arm locks and immobility knots which build into arm locks that can’t be reversed forcing rope breaks. From there they move into this amazing boxing in a phone booth section of mat wrestling (perhaps wrestling in a dumbwaiter) that transitions into both guys trying for ceiling stretches. Each of these sections is given its own weight and there is this real feeling of escalation to this whole exchange. This is followed up by Black Terry v Zatura, and I’m not a guy who particularly cares for shoot interviews and don’t believe in using them as source for actual facts. But listening to self aggrandizing stories told by professional liars gives you some insight into the value system of those liars (the values and morality of the stories). And watching Terry v Zatura after Solar v Navarro really reminded me of all the tales of shooters where there are two schools “yeah I’d stretch a guy see what he had, but I wasn’t a ripper those guys are assholes”. And you have this escalation from Solar v Navarro as pros stretching each other to Terry v Zatura “ripping” which leads into Cerebro and Suicida just wanting to beat each other up. Solar watches all this and goes “Oh this is how we’re going to play” and comes in and just goes at Navarro with added violence. Second fall we get a small little bit of Solar v Cerebro which ends with Solar doing a pretty cool deadlift into armdrag and backbreaker. I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth but it’s kind of a shame we don’t get to see some of the Solar matches where he isn’t paired opposite Navarro, one of the people who taped the Angelico v Navarro match showed clips of Solar’s match on the 1/21 show which looked fun. But it’s back to Solar v Navarro trading big throws. Third fall is all about Cerebro and Suicida having unfinished business. This match just keeps on building and building, and is easily the best thing I’ve seen thus far in 2010.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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IWRG 2/28/10

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

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

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

IWRG on Segunda Caida

Alan Extreme/ Avisman v Eragon/ Pegasso Kid

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chico Che v Hijo del Diablo

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

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

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IWRG 2/18/10

http://www.youtube.com/user/tvluchadelpasado

IWRG on Segunda Caida

Guizmo/Heros v. Carta Brava Jr./Alan Extreme

TKG: Yuck. This was a mess. There were a couple moments of nice Heros underdog selling, a couple moments of nice Carta Brava Jr stiffness ( and even that occasionally looked ill timed), and the Guizmo top rope rana set up and eat was cool. But everything else was a mess. Guizmo and Alan Extreme never seemed to click. They had this one chop exchange where the two would do bigger and bigger wind ups only to hit weaker and weaker chops. And Carta Brava Jr was either standing around arms out 30 seconds too early to catch stuff or out of place 30 seconds too late.

PAS: I actually thought Heros was actively good in this, really enjoyed his opening Carta Brava Jr. matwork, liked his dives, thought he took some nasty shots. Still his perfectly fine performance was overshadowed by the crappiness of Alan Extreme and Guizmo. Yikes were they a mess, lots of their exchanges had that 3/4th speed pre match run through feeling to them. Like when we got to see them do it later at regular speed it was going to be fine. Alan Extreme did hit his Matt Sydal clothesline well, and had a decent Orihara moonsault, but otherwise this was probably his worst performance.

Trauma II/Avisman/Gringo Loco v. Brazo Metalico Jr/Fishman Jr./Chico Che

TKG:I don’t seem to see a part one to the first fall here. So we only get the last minute of the first fall where Chico Che looks to legit fuck Avisman up with a face slam. Second fall starts with Chico Che running through all the heels in succession. It's Chico Che and that's always fun to watch. Then Trauma II comes in with his fast hands and works over Fishman Jr. And pretty much that’s the whole match. Trauma II spends the next two falls just destroying Fishman Jr and Brazo Metalico Jr. An absolute beatdown. Just roughing both guys up. I am assuming Fishman Jr isn’t the Fishman Jr who became Blackfish. Fishman Jr has a real lumbering moose-like awkwardness to him that made his mauling seem even nastier. The maulking was so thorough that I have a hard time calling the eventual face comeback a comeback. Barely even a moral victory. Chico Che kind of gets in a comeback. Trauma II just backs away from the faces while they appear to be on a potential roll then just returns to beating them, Metalico Jr asai’s himself on the ring barrier and Trauma II and Fishman Jr. have a post match pull apart brawl where Trauma II looks to block all of Fishman’s shots.

PAS: There is some pretty nasty beatings laid down by Avisman and Loco too, both top rope moves which finish the second fall looked like they landed in injurious ways. Avisman also lays in some nasty short headbutts. This was Trauma II's show. In DC their is a pair of very good pro prospect fighters the Peterson brothers, Anthony and Lamont (one of the guys I trained with actually got matched up with Anthony in his first ever amateur bout, it didn't go well). They have a pretty compelling story growing up homeless and basically being adopted by their trainer, and largely because of that story they have been on a ton of ESPN and HBO fight cards. The Traumas remind me of the Peterson brothers, Trauma I is like Anthony a bigger bruiser who uses power and force to beat on someone, Trauma II is more like Lamont, he uses speed, angles and combination punching to lay his opponent out. The Puncher and the Boxer, this was a pretty masterful Boxing performance by II.

Los Officiales v. El Angel/Angelico/Freelance

PAS: This match had some moments of excellence mixed in with some real moments of crap. Freelance is spectacular as usual, looking really good in the brawling sections, and breaking out some spectacular highspots. Two crazy dives including a rana which sent Fierro flying into a bunch of fans. He looked really, really sharp here, and I hope he gets some more chances to showcase himself. Angel and Angelico however are a different matter, we have talked a ton about Angelico's shittiness, but there is a section near the end where he rips off his big offense which nearly made me cover my eyes in embarrassment. El Angel was pretty bad too, this match was a pretty big brawl through out, including AK-47 bleeding badly, and in the third fall Angel starts whipping out his comedy spots. It was just terrible and killed the match dead. Worth watching for Freelance v. Oficiales, but anytime the camera isn't on him, move along.

TKG: No real reason to move along. Given the tecnicos there were suprsingly few“moments of crap”. This is a 25+ minute match with both Angelico and El Angel where the only time I cringed was in that last minute and a half Angelico run. And this is the best Angel has looked in his IWRG run thus far, and probably the longest Angelico has been kept from embarrassing himself in a trios match. I mean Oficiales have been doing matches opposite Freelance and two schmucks for over two years now and they have this formula down. Watching this I did get the sense that Freelance deserves better. IWRG has a bunch of neat rudo teams: Traumas/Dinastia Navarro, Terribles Cerebros, Jr. Piratas. Ola Maldita, Gringos VIP, hell I’m sure I’m going to enjoy the Comandantes de La Muerte too. IWRG will move rudos around for matches but these guys have team affiliation. But your faces (Freelance, Chico Che, Zatura, Suicida) are kind of thrown around willy nilly. Freelance deserves a regular partner.

Hijo Del Pantera/La Pantera/Zatura v. Trauma I/Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro

PAS: Merciful Mother of Fuck is Black Terry awesome in this match. This was pretty much a three fall brawl, and I don't know if there is a better brawler in the world. He is just kicking everyones ass here. There was a moment in the first fall where he is faced off with Pantera and yells something at him and just cracks him with a headbut. It was a total barfight move. There is also a great point in the post match, Zatura is protecting a downed Hijo Del Pantera and Black Terry lifts his had as if to say "OK the match is over, we are good" and then he just sneak shots Zatura in the chops. I am reading a biography of Gene Tunney and Terry reminds me of the Pittsburgh Windmill Harry Greb. Greb was the master of dirty fighting, he is described as a guy talented enough to win cleanly but his temperament caused him to take every advantage in the ring. That is how Terry felt to me here. For this kind of brawl, Trauma I is a way better third rudo then Hijo Del Signo, he is such a nasty bruiser and totally the guy you would want watching your back in this kind of bar fight.

TKG: This was a blast. Pantera is a guy who normally does lots of Walking Tall selling, here he did more Dusty beat down struggling to walk tall selling. He constantly had this “what the hell did I do to deserve this” look on his face. After he had already been isolated and triple teamed in the ring and forced to roll to floor to try to regain composure, Pantera crawls back in a second time to go through whole process again. Pantera’s selling of the whole Sisyphean nature of reentering a brawl after you’ve taken a beating is awesome. I have mixed feelings on the Hijo del Signo v Trauma I question here. This is a superlibre match and yeah you want Trauma I in a no DQ match beating people down. And he did a ok job (although not as impressive as last time) at selling for Hijo Del Pantera’s flying. But there were moments where I though we missed the Hijo del Signo/Hijo Del Diablo “young guys as equals dynamic”. As I had a hard time buying Hijo del Pantera when he wasn’t playing victim role. Pantera trades punches then headbutts and posts Dr Cerebro. And it’s only after that, that Hijo del Pantera gets in his offense run against Cerebro. And Hijo del Pantera as a guy who can only get in cheap shots on a hurt opponent makes for a weird baby face. Oh yeah let me echo Phil here: Merciful Mother of Fuck is Black Terry awesome in this match.

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IWRG 2009 Errata

We wanted to go ahead and put a close on 2009 for IWRG by picking up and reviewing some matches which are floating around Youtube.

Trauma I/II/Negro Navarro v. Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro/Cerebro Negro 3/28

PAS: IWRG ran this series twice in Arena Xochmilco before running it twice in Naculpan. This was the feud of the year in wrestling, four great matches between six great wrestlers. We get a long opening mat section between Terry and Trauma II which was really spectacular stuff. One of the problems with IWRG matwork is that is often worked too even, here Terry is clearly superior, II is able to get some reversals using speed, but Terry is the veteran tooling him. There is this great moment where Trauma II tries to lift Terry and can't execute it because his arm has been shredded. Navarro comes in and does a similar job on Cerebro Negro and it really has the feel of the Maestros punishing the lesser members in an attempt to show the other guy up. I would have liked that to lead to a battle of matwork, but instead those two brawl it out, and goddamn is it spectacular. There is a punch exchange between the two on the floor which rivals your best Todd Morton v. Mitch Ryder exchanges. I really loved the finish too, with Terry stealing the fall, after Trauma II had Dr. Cerebro beat. Perfect example of the crafty rudo always being one step ahead.


TKG: I wrote a lot about the Xochmilco match in my review of the Naucalpan one. And I pretty much stand by what I wrote before. The Naucalpan one was built on mismatches with Terry matching up with Trauma I (weakest matworker in Dinastia Navarro) and Navarro working Cerebro Negro (weakest mat worker in Terribles Cerebros). The Xochimilco match is far evener with the two maestros matched up opposite the two stronger non-maestro members of the opposite team. You still get a sense of it mot being even, but it’s not as stark as in the Naucalapn match, and it doesn’t affect the match flow as much. The Trauma II v Terry match up is really neat as you have Trauma selling the arm to the point where he needs to release a hold, and Terry doing the same with the leg. Terry’s leg sell is a really neat realistic working through a pain sell. This match isn’t as good a match overall compared to the Naucalpan one but you still want to see it just for the Terry v Navarro street fight section.


Trauma I/II/Negro Navarro v. Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro/Cerebro Negro 4/4

PAS: This was your Xochmilco revancha match, and worked as a brawl. They pretty much went after each other head on the entire match. Navarro was amazing here, just brutalizing everyone he was in the ring with. There was a point where he had Terry in the corner and he just unloaded with combos and finished up with a nasty headbutt, great stuff. I liked the rudo trickery, with Black Terry faking a foul to win a fall, and Navarro coming back to rip off the mask of his own son to DQ the rudos. Pretty great brawling by everyone else too, as Trauma II is starting to develop the asskicker which he is unleashing in 2010. I think we only get the last two falls here, which is a shame, but what we get is damn great.

TKG: This is JIP but I still counted three falls. This is an absolute blast. One of the things I picked up rewatching these four matches is that Cerbro Negro really contributes a bunch more in these Xochimilco matches then he did in the Naucalpan series. In Naucalpan he really felt like the third wheel. In Xochimilco he is a blast working almost a Dougie Gilbert type role. He isn’t as tough as Dr Cerebro, or Black Terry but he is a dick who will run in to sneak his shots in, then run away. He bumps around a bunch stoogeing constantly getting caught in the wrong place.


Avisman v. Mike Segura v. Freelance v. Testsi Bushi 7/5

TKG: This was kind of a mess. It is a prison fatal: four man everyone for themselves cage match where after ten minutes the participants are allowed to try to escape and the last guy in looses his hair or mask. I can’t remember Avisman using this many headbutts at any other point this year, as he wastes Freelance with one early on, leans into a Segura headbutt later and throws multiple nasty top of the cage headbutts at another point. I enjoyed any point where Freelance and Avisman were matching up. The other matchups (Freelance v Bushi, Avisman v Bushi, Avisman v Segura, Segura v Bushi, Segura v Freelance) had their moments but weren’t as dynamic. Once the participants were allowed to leave the cage, there were way too many battle royale moments where a guy is just standing around, too many points where guys would inexplicably do dives when they could just as easily climb out, and too many points where guys had to wait or had to get into position to slowly climb (including a point where it looked like Avisman didn’t have the upper body strength to pull himself up on the cage and then miraculously got the upper body strength to suplex Mike Segura).

PAS: Yeah this wasn't good, I don't really like multi man lucha cage matches, it is a match which places real limitations on the guys in it. Avisman can't really work the mat, Freelance and Segura can't fly as much and Bushi can't do what ever he does. Freelance was really the only standout, he takes some huge backdrops, rips off some nice ranas and does a sweet moonsault 3/4ths of the way up the cage. Mostly a mess though with all the problems Tom mentioned.

Avisman v. Trauma II 8/16

TKG: This was disappointing. This is a title match and pretty much three falls of guys working submissions. Trauma II isn’t as crisp or smooth here as he is at other points in the year. First fall starts with Avisman mostly making attempts to tie up Trauma’s leg’s, while Trauma II makes attempts at arm based submissions. Neither gets anywhere that way and Avisman switches to going after Trauma II’s shoulders (one of which is bandaged) and Trauma II switches to going after Avisman’s legs (both guys sell that this is the better strategy). Trauma II wins the first fall with a leg arm and neck cranking submission. Second fall is mostly Avisman whipping out shoulder cranking surfboards while Trauma II occasionally gets in some neck cranking surfboards. Avisman wins the fall with the same knee submission that he used to win the non-title brawl (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GaSm92Dq64) except there it was set up with the Gory bomb on the knees, while here it came out of nowhere. The third fall contiues the neckcrank v shoulder crank thing until Trauma II gets in a big tope. He reinjures his shoulder on the tope. The ringside doctor snaps it back in, which gives Avisman enough time to set up his big tope. He takes Trauma II back into the ring hits him with a Satanico style arm DDT, Fujiwara arm bar and then just cranks and the end is a given. It reads better on paper than it comes across watching it. And while I don’t want to say the match was formless, at times it seemed really directionless and rhythmless.

PAS: I liked this a lot more then Tom, this wasn't as good as either Avisman v. Bushi or Trauma II v. Zatura but it wasn't far behind. Your first two falls strictly mat work but that is what you want these two guys to do. I liked how you had more counter wrestling, with guys finding ways out of submissions. I also like how as Trauma's shoulder got worse he had to attempt more rope breaks. You normally don't see that kind of body part selling in a lucha match, but Trauma did a great job getting over the deterioration of the shoulder. I thought the finish was bad ass, with the young guy making the mistake of going for a tope, and the veteran viciously going after the opening. I admit the execution was slightly off for parts of the match, but I thought this was really great and one of the better matches of 2009

Ultraman Jr./Hijo Del Lizmark/Zatura v Oficiales 11/12

TKG: 2009 was a weird year for the Oficiales All three have had individually impressive performances, but as a unit they haven’t done a ton this year. Part of the reason for that is the other major teams in IWRG have been Terrible Cerebros, Dinastia Navarro and Jr Piratas who are all really guys who work outside of the basic Oficial formula. Here though it’s Oficiales working their match: Oficiales vs. three guys with some hot highflying moves. The Oficiales may not know how to fill time to highlight what the Trauma’s bring to the table but they can do this match in their sleep: Oficiales beat up faces, Oficiales then bump and fly around for face offense, then Oficiales catch face dives.

PAS: This was a bunch of fun, Zatura is awesome, but neither other technico is much, but when the Oficiales are on their grind it really doesn't matter. They are just so good at working this basic lucha formula. I do think that 2009 exposed them a bit, they really can't stretch, but I would be fine seeing them work a bunch of highflyers every week all year. Zatura was a freight train in 2009, at the beginning of the year I was calling for them to dump him and find someone else to team with Chico Che and Freelance, by the end of the year he was a top 5 guy in IWRG which is pretty incredible. He did his thing here, crazy ranas, great quebrada into the stands, just looked like a total package.

Also for some reason Telfortuna showed the undercard of the Nov 11th show

Carta Brava Jr/Hijo del Signo v Mascara Magnifica/Star Boy

TKG: I really dug this. We already know that Starboy and Carta Brava Jr match up well, but Hijo del Signo and Mascara Magnifica really stepped it up here as well. Hijo Del Signo and Magnifica work a fun first fall mat section where every sub attempt is reversed into a takedown, (leglock turned into leg scissors takedown, arm lock is turned into armdrag etc.) Hijo del Signo really launches himself across the ring eating armdrags.. Second fall was all about Mascara Magnifica selling like he was Misawa. He does nasty SuperCalo style skull first eat of a Signo clothesline, which is followed up by a giant swing into a dropkick to his dome, followed by a double backcracker where his arms are crossed around his neck. Mascara Magnifica ate all this and sold in away that made me totally buy “that guy just had his spinal column broken”. Later he did one of the better sells of a dropkick to the inner thighs. His offense in the third fall wasn’t as cool as his selling in the second but this was still a match well worth seeing.

PAS: I wasn't in love with either Star Boy or Carta Brava Jr. in this match, but El Hijo Del Signo is becoming one of my favorite IWRG undercarders to watch. He doesn't do anything spectacular, but he does everything very solid, eats things well, has nice offense. Magnifica selling and bumping was really awesome, but his offense wasn't much. I really like IWRG undercard wrestlers

Flor Metalica/Josseline v La Diabolica/Lady Metal

TKG: LADY METAL~!!! I haven’t seen Lady Metal in ages, and she’s one of my favorite luchadoras: stiff, big bumping butch ruda with a mullet and light mustache. Essentially the story of the match was Josseline and Flor Metalica are too tough girls who are being beaten into La Diabolica and Lady Metal’s gang. And you have three falls mostly built around the rudas beating and humiliating the tecnicas leading to a third fall of tecnica fighting spirit where they show their toughness by New Japan selling clotheslines and answering in kind. A couple awkward moments; Lady Metal blows her Halloween chest first baseball slide bump (although taking it knee first may be even more nasty) and Flor Metalica really shouldn’t try springboard moves, but otherwise this delivered exactly what it was supposed to deliver.

PAS: Total cosigning this match. Great shit, nasty little fight. It felt like a barfight in an El Paso Dykes on Bikes bar. There is a point where Diabolica is on top of Josseline and she is grabbing her by her hair and smashing the back of her head against the mat. Diabolica is a monster here, awesome devil mask, crazy bumps and vicious brawling, she was like a distaff 1989 Pirata Morgan. Lady Metal was great too, she looks like Cagney and Lacey era Tyne Daley and will kick a bitches ass. Technicas bring the fight right back, and I enjoyed this more then any ladies match in years.

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IWRG 3/19/09

PAS: Alfredo got in a batch of IWRG including some shows that didn’t show up on youtube, this show was earlier in the year then any of the other stuff we have reviewed.

Black Thunder, Mr. Condor, Muerte Roja vs. Turbo, Bushi, Pendulo

TKG: Mr Condor was pretty bad ass here. And you wanted to watch whatever he did but this was a mess. Black Thunder is the rudo who specializes in eating Turbo’s stuff better than anyone else (Averno to Turbo’s Mistico), but he looked like a mess eating either Bushi or Pendulo’s offense. Surprisingly, he didn’t look that great opposite Turbo either. Where is Marabunta? The Bestias Metalicos? Mr Condor deserves better Nuevo Diabolicos.

PAS: Turbo has some nice looking armdrags, but they were only occasionally eaten nicely. This was the first time I had seen Muerte Roja and he really wasn’t doing it for me, really a poor mans Hysteria. This was all about Mr. Condor as he was in the role Black Terry often plays in IWRG, legendary rudo carrying five other guys.

Black Terry, Pierroth II, Arlequin vs. Chico Che, Fantastik, Multifacetico

TKG: Aw man this was an awful mess. What the fuck? IWRG shelled out the money for Dr Wagner Jr and didn’t pay anyone else? These guys looked like unpaid trainees. Maybe Dr Wagner Jr has access to the good drugs and partied with the roster preshow. I haven’t seen Fantastik in ages and he looked barely trained. No one but Black Terry and Multifacetico looked like they knew how to run the ropes. Arlequin looked like Jim Belushi disinterestedly brawling in a fight scene in a shitty direct to video action movie. There is a point where Arlequin and Fantastik try to do fighting spirit chop exchanges…I don’t know if Arlequin was doing a Kawada sell, but he sells the pain and then goes to fighting spirit sell by doing push ups but is in too much pain and does girl push ups instead.

PAS: The thing you love about IWRG is that they will give great matches enough time to really be great, the flip side is when you get an abortion like this, it will be a long drawn out abortion. Tom talked a lot about how bad Arlequin was, and he was really bad, but man alive did Chico Che and Pierroth II look like crap. They kept matching up with each other in long rope running sections, where neither guy looked like they had run ropes before. I thought Condor kind of kept that last match together, but Black Terry wasn’t able to do anything with this.

Hijo del Pierroth, Oficial 911, Máscara Año 2000 Jr. vs. Zatura, Fuerza Guerrera, Dr. Wagner Jr.

TKG: This wasn't really much until the third fall. House show Dr Wagner working mailed in brawl through crowd and running through his charisma posing spots. Wagner does have a ton of charisma and him tearing off 911's police hat and posing with it was amusing. Official 911 looked really amusing without the hat,as he still had the visor and looked like a highschool football coach or retiree golfer. I was surprised by how well Mascara Ano dos Mill Jr looked doing the half assed brawl through the crowd. Third fall was the IWRG regulars getiing all their stuff in, the fall in the Wagner touring match thats built on locals showcasing their stuff and they all delivered.

PAS: This was the best match of this sub par episode. Like Tom mentioned it was a big batch of nothing up until the third fall, but the third fall was really good. Zatura was all over the ring, in a show with some impressive flyers (Turbo, Fantastik) underwhelming, Zatura busted it out. My favorite move was his rana to the floor which sent 911 somersaullting into the crowd where he totally wipes out a fan. This dude was flipped head over heels. Fuerza had some fun interactions with 911 too. For a guy with shtick, Wagner doesn't really have shtick I love, but I don't hate it either.

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IWRG 6/18/09

TKG: Boo! We missed a week. I was stoked to see Black Terry opposite Fuerza, Trauma II v Zatura in a superlibre and if Pendulo was as charismatic when teamed with heterosexuals. Instead we get a week of IWRG with no Negro Navarro, Black Terry or Freelance. Thankfully everyone else stepped up their game.

PAS: Apparently the station showed a repeat, so that stuff may be lost in the mists of time. As always the goodness is provided by the amazing

Lucha Libre Nation

PAS: Folks should check out the two opening matches from this weeks Puebla show too, good shit.

Azoka/Sauron v Jack/Exodia

TKG: I assume Azoka and Exodia are Ultimo trainees. They announce this as Exodia’s debut match and he really had the feel of guy in a ring for the first time. I don’t think Sauron’s really the rudo who is going to elicit the best out of this type of green rookie. Where is Paramedico? Azoka is now working heel and he is still really green but still a guy who I kind of like as sells guy struggling out of mat work and submissions well. Surprisingly Jack does a nice job of walking him through some violent mat work. Selling struggle isn’t a skill that’s particularly in demand among Japanese lucharesu feds, and I imagine when he goes to Japan it will be drilled out of Azoka, but it’s nice touch in actual real lucha.

PAS: Sauron seems like he is on enough roids that he should be in AAA, rather then stuck working IWRG openers. He isn't even mediocre, but still better then Groon XXX. Too bad Growth Hormone can't make you grow. He looked decent taking an armdrag or two, but throw those awful looking Davey Boy Smith "trying to avoid a bicep tear" clotheslines. Despite the matwork Yack's fake La Parka is still painful. This was one of those matches where the IWRG willingness to give everything 25 minutes bites you in the ass a little.

Chico Che, Rigo, Trauma I v Barbra Roja, Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Pirata Morgan Jr.

TKG: RIGO~!!! OK this is hilarious. Rigo is a guy working a Rigo Tovar (70s Mexican Cumbia star)look alike gimmick. I’m really bad at explaining music nerd jokes and this requires alot of context. Chico Che is also a guy working a 70s Cumbia musician look alike gimmick. His new short hair hurts the gimmick but on some level he's always been a guy who dresses like Chico Che doesn't so much look like him. Still there is something really amusing about the guy who hands out gimmicks in IWRG doing this type of Cumbia look alike gimmicks. As though the WWE had a Deep South tag team with one guy working a Giorgio Moroder look alike gimmick tagged with a Barry White look alike with neither working a musical gimmick. I can’t come up with anything better than the disco comparison. Part of the weirdness is that while a really popular music in Mexico, Cumbia is a genre whose roots are foreign (Columbia and Panama). It doesn’t have the volk kultur connotations of Los Folkloricos in AAA.
http://www.cuarteto-continental.unlugar.com/cuartetocontinental/cumbiamexicana.html has a nice history of cumbia in Mexico plus youtube link to Conjunto Africanos singing "Los Luchadores". So all that contributes to the humor of the Rigo lookalike gimmick, but really what puts it over the top is the degree to which Rigo actually has the emaciated look of a 70s musician who has shocked everyone by living into the new century.I don’t know how old Ringo is but he doesn’t have the emaciated look of 70s era Joe Perry, Dee Dee Ramone, Ozzy or Iggy so much as he has the emaciated look of late 90s era Joe Perry, Dee Dee Ramone, Ozzy or Iggy. I really liked the way Riggo sold for the Pirata Family’s stuff and liked his tough brawling offense. He had a dive and a couple of rope assisted flashy spots that had a real tough awkward look to them. It’s possible that against lesser opponents, that stuff would have just looked blown. But for now I am a Rigo fan. Trauma I is getting the hang of his bruiser gimmick and I liked the whole three tough brawlers as a face team deal they had going.

PAS: I am still a little unsold on the Pirata kids, they were guys with lots of nasty triple teams, but also some not so good looking triple teams. Came off a little Thomasellish at times, however I still dug this match and will certainly be willing to give them a bunch more chances to impress me. I am amused at Tomk's explanation of the Rigo gimmick because I was on the phone with Dean when I first watched this, and described him as looking like current Gene Simmons. He kind of wrestles like you might imagine Gene Simmons would wrestle if instead of starting a rock band he moved to Mexico and became a luchadore.

Zatura VS Trauma II [Campeonato Mundial Peso Ligero]

TKG:This wasn’t an organic match, it was very much a match of guys who had “ideas” they wanted to try out, but the ideas were really good ones and left this enjoying the match and thinking both guys are smart and have more promise than I thought going in. I mean this wasn’t Pareja Toxico lots of “innovative” spots, so much as smart ideas. Match still exists very much in the world of matches between guys who watch a lot of tapes and have a bunch of “innovative ideas” that they want to work in. While that often can lead in bad directions, I really enjoyed it here. Trauma II and Zatura are young guys who have good execution and timing on this stuff, the actual ideas they have are actually really smart and creative, they understand how to fit them into the title match structure well, and you get the sense that this will become organic for them pretty quickly. Both guys come in with taped shoulders and Zatura does some nice arm selling in first fall with Trauma working it over well, while Trauma tweaks himself leading to nice selling and work later, first fall had lots of rolling into locks with lots of stuff put on near ropes setting up escapes that felt like someone had watched some PWFG Shamrock with lucha eyes and really understood it, they worked in a smart handspeed exchange section that made sense in context, some huge spots including a powerbomb into corner followed by a top rope dive that again didn’t feel back and forward so much as everything set up well. My favorite thing was the way they moved from one body part to the next. First fall starts with both guys working extremities (leg locks followed by Trauma moves up to work the arm of Zatura) with both guys being able to either reverse the holds or reach the ropes with extremity that isn’t in a lock. Zatura wins the fall by putting Trauma II into essentially a neblina variation. As soon as he did it, you knew he had won the fall. Neblina isn’t a move that I think of as an answer to reversals or rope breaks-being a way to capture and put pressure on all the extremities at once. But they made it make sense. Second fall has Trauma II use a sub with a choke as the answer to not being able to tap opponent by working arm or leg. Third fall has Zatura put Trauma II in a Romero Special and fuck you pop for the Romero Special cause he’s got all the extremities locked up, and then II slips out and grabs the Romero Special with a choke and you want to get up and do dance with noisemaker. The “innovative idea” was a way to build a match to set up and get you to pop for a Romero special. So smart. Face v face title match isn’t the easiest thing to pull off to begin with, that they were able to workshop this many outside ideas into it was pretty impressive.

PAS: This kind of felt to me like the ECWA Low-Ki v. American Dragon matches or the AAA Juventud Guererra v. Rey Mysterio series. You were watching a pair of really talented young guys work out a different way to wrestle. This didn't look like a traditional lucha title match, or a bad US Indy style current CMLL title match. It felt like they were trying to find a third way to do things. Trauma II is the son of Negro Navarro who is currently the best wrestler in the world, but one who really works in an archaic style. As much as I dig what he does, Navarro doesn't wrestle like current lucha libre stars. Which is good because current lucha libre is pretty terrible, this match felt like Trauma looked at what was present and now, and said "How can I do this and still be a Navarro." The take downs in this match weren't as slick as your Maestros, but they were neat looking and the execution of the holds was very violent looking. This also had some slick reversal stuff although some of it looked like it needed to go a beat faster. I was pretty blown away by Zatura here too, look back four or five reviews ago and I was dissing him as a guy not worthy of a third spot on the Chico Che, Freelance team, now he is more them holding his own in a tremendous title match. Just a huge leap in my estimation of him. You can never really tell in lucha, as I remember a point where both Shocker and Rey Buccanaro finished top five in a DVDVR 500, but I do get the sense that these two are going to having matches this great for decades to come.

Juventud Guerrera VS Dr. Cerebro

TKG:CEREBRINA DRIVER!!!!!! Holy fuck. They follow the face v face match with this heel v heel one. And really no one does heel v heel better than lucha. Juvi is great as really strutting pretty sissy style heel while Dr Cerebro at this point is a complete vicious bull who will bowl right through people. Juventud’s execution was really questionable the last time we saw him in IWRG but his stuff looked good here and he sold in ways that reminded you of how great Juvi can be. For this type of tough heel vs sissy heel who can still fuck you up, this wasn’t anywhere near as good as the best Shocker v Tarzan Boy stuff from the beginning of the decade. But it’s been a bunch of yeara since then and no one is really doing this these days and I am stoked for the hair match.

PAS: I really dug this, Juvi is so hateable as a sleazy little prick. You really want to see Cerebro kill him, and he totally does. This had the feel of a hypothetical Manny Fernandez v. John Tatum match, and was as good as you would expect that to be. Juvi must have been on a different combo of drugs here vs. the last match, he actually looked like he belonged in the ring, and wasn't just the worlds greatest Johnny Fairplay. And holy fuck was that finish a finish. With the spotty broadcast of IWRG lately it would be a tragedy to miss this hair v. hair match.

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IWRG 6/4/09

PAS: We are all members of the Lucha Libre Nation

Lucha Libre Nation
TKG: Sadly they didn't air the Gizmo v Radamantis opener.

Epidemia, Heavy Boy VS Comando Negro, Goleador

TKG:So neither of us wrote anything about Commando Negro in the 4/2/09 show. Commando Negro is a undercard heel who works a pretty simple heel style of guy who is always bested by the faces. He’s not a big bumping heel or an Averno style guy who eats face offense spectacularly. Just a guy who the faces get the better of. He has nice punches, works nice mat exchanges, nice rope running exchanges but the point with him is that he will always loose those exchanges. He’s never guy in control. When he wins a fall it’s normally a quick cheap win where he either cheats or takes advantages of a slip. Combine that with some good heel shtick and that’s a fine way to work as a heel. But here he is working as a defacto face. Face who is always on the loosing end of exchanges and has no hope spots feels especially jobberish. The Pareja Toxico have worked IWRG a couple times in the past and they’re a indy rudo tag team with lots of “innovative” combo moves. A couple neat spots here and there that someone should steal (I liked both leg drop combo finishers in first fall) but the good ideas are drowned out by the sheer volume of ugly looking show- offy elaborate innovation for innovation garbage. On some level this felt like a political burial as your flashy indy team gets to do all their spots and control 85% of the match and yet still loose to an ad hoc team of midcard face and undercard heel.

PAS: Yeah the whole booking was very odd, it would be the equivalent of the WWE bringing in the Motor City Machine Guns, having them hit all their spots, but still job to a makeshift Zach Ryder and K-Krush team, or ROH signing Osiarian Portal and having lose to Shawn Spears and Sugarfoot. That would actually be a perfectly appropriate use of both teams, but if it happened you would suspect something was up. IWRG is full of guys who aren't any good, but I enjoy, and Goledor has definitely turned into one of them. Maybe it is the height he gets on his springboard armdrag, or his goofy mask, I don't like soccer but I dig him.

Diva Salvaje, Miss Gaviota, Péndulo VS Avisman, Fantasma de la Ópera, Bushi

TKG: They finally got rid of Xibalba in this feud. This was a really fun all over the place brawl. On paper you wouldn’t think adding Bushi and Pendulo would work this well in this context. They start with some Bushi v Diva Salvaje mat exchanges which were inexplicably better than you’d expect. From there they went pretty much straight into a brawl. Pendulo’s a guy who I always thought of as a really dull rote technico, but he came off really charismatic here. I’m not completely sold yet. He may have gotten better. May just be that a pendulum swing both ways and there is an extra bit of sugar in his step when he’s swinging with the queens.

PAS: Diva Salvaje really has the look of a guy who lived in a small town in Indiana his whole life, and at 42 decides out of the blue to start taking hormones and live as a woman. "Well I have bought Insurance from Sam for years, if he wants to call himself Samantha now, well that is his concern and he won't lose my business." This was the best of your 2009 Exoctico matches. I am surprised how well Bushi fit in here, lucha exoticos work very differently then Men's Teiho or Dino, and I am impressed that he could adjust.

Black Terry, Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro VS Trauma I, Trauma II, Zatura

TKG:I dug this a lot although I don’t know how good it actually was. I left this thinking these two teams match up really well and have a really good match in them, this has hints of it but isn’t it. That’s the same feeling I have leaving every Jumbo v Billy Robinson or Backlund v Adonis. I may have ridiculously high standards. It’s kind of ridiculous to say I liked this match for its sloppiness. I don’t know if Trauma I legit busted his arm up or if he was just selling over the three falls. Don’t know if Trauma II legit fucked up Cerebro Negro’s neck or if that was a match element. Either way the match was constantly broken up by medical staff checking on guys pulling them out of the action and eventually letting them back in, while the rest of the luchadors had to continue to work ignoring the downed guys and medical staff. I’m assuming that this was all guys getting legit tweaked but I really enjoyed the weird pacing and general dynamic (of guys getting pulled out and reinserted) that it created. Not a dynamic that I think they’ll ever be able to recreate. I imagine if they rematch these teams, the rematch will be smoother and not sure if that’s necessarily for the better. Anyway the real shocker of this match was how good both Cerebro Negro and Zatura looked; and how well they matched up opposite each other. Cerebro Negro was a guy who I enjoyed a bunch in 08 as kind of the best of the “flashy innovative offense” IWRG rudos. But he’s really underwhelmed in the Terry/Cerebros v Dinastia Navarro stuff. And well Zatura is a guy who always struck me as being nothing but insane out-of-control dives. But here the two match up shockingly well and felt like working spotty highflyer lit a fire under Cerebro Negro. I get the sense that people are starting to get a better sense of what they can do with Trauma I and really liked both all the Terry work on Trauma I’s arm and how Terry set up and sold all the Trauma I comebacks. The Trauma II v Dr Cerebro interactions were really the least version of that match up and shockingly the most uninteresting part of the match.

PAS: I don't think anyone would look at this match up on paper and think that Zatura and Cerebro Negro would come out looking the best. Their long mat section was very cool, I especially loved all of the countering based around Zatura's arm. Zatura also broke out a great looking dive, and Negro was probably the top brawler during the brawl section. There is a moment where Trauma II is on his stomach and Cerebro Negro is just unloading with right hands, it really looked like a guy violently finishing someone in MMA. There is such a great mix of trios right now in IWRG, now that it looks like the Trauma's turned on Zatura, I hope we get Negro Navarro back soon, because Dinastia De La Muerte v. Officiales, Juvi/Fuerza/Pirata or Zatura/Chico Che/Freelance all could be incredible


Scorpio Jr, Angelico, Bobby Lee Jr VS Pirata Morgan, Fuerza Guerrera, Ricky Cruz

TKG: Last time I saw Scorpio Jr work a match, he looked completely immobile and a week away from death. I don’t want to say he looked "healthy" here. In his quarter century career I don’t think there’s ever been a period where I’d describe Scorpio Jr as a "healthy looking guy". But he was a lot of fun here, a guy who I will look forawrd to seeing in the ring in the future, commanding presence, bumped around a bunch and for the most part held the technico side of this match together. Unfortunately one of his fellow technicos was Angelico. My wrestling opinions are not infallible. Watching last weeks show I opined that the problem with Angelico was that he was working captain, when he’s a guy who would be less objectionable working ancillary role. Holy shit was I wrong. Working ancillary he was an awful guy who completely took me out of this match. This rudo team is a really superior team to the brawling rudos in the second match but wow Angelico stinks. I mean if you replaced him with Pendulo, Goleador, or either of the Exoticos I think this could have been a blast. Watching Angelico v Cruz, it might be possible that Angelico could work Puerto Rico as an evil chicken shit pussy Spaniard. In that role the Puerto Rican wouldn’t have to sell for him. I don’t even know if he can do that as that doesn't work if the heel is sloppily busting his opponent open. Was Travesti Man from Spain? Travesti Man v Angelico working a Lou Perlman v Nick Carter feud in Spain might be fun. There may be a role for Angelico somewhere in wrestling…just not in Mexico.

PAS: I really liked parts of this, Bobby Lee Jr. had a nice in ring back tope and a tope to the floor. Fuerza and Pirata both owned and I loved all of their interactions with each other. Fuerza doing the ringpost shoulder bump and fouling his partner was a cool heel miscommunication spot I have never seen before, and should be stolen by Austin Aries and D'Lo. Scorpio Jr. really looks facially like an old jew now, and his brawling with Pirata looked like an especially violent Buddy Hackett v. Ruth Buzzi slapfight. Lots of things to like, but man is Angelico the fucking worst, he isn't in this much, but just drags the match into the toilet every time he tags in. He didn't potato Cruz with his awful looking kicks, but when he slipped on his Low-Ki rip off double stomp and kicked him in the eye. I am hoping this was just a short visit over in Mexico and he returns to his feud with the Catalanian separatist heel faction in whatever random Spanish indy he normally works

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IWRG 5/28/09

After being oppressed by the fascist Viacom Yotube stormtroopers Roberto has come storming back with a new youtube account and reloaded the IWRG for us

http://www.youtube.com/user/LuchaLibreNation

This is the first show of 2009 without either of your legendary maestros Terry and Navarro, so we get to see what the youngsters can do.

Vampiro Metálico & Carta Brava Jr. VS Galactik & Máscara Magnífica

PAS: These are four of your most solid opener guys, and this was a darn good little match. Brava Jr. and Metalico have a bunch of nifty double teams. They are both great at finding inventive ways to backcrack and frontcrack their opponents, which is a huge part of current lucha. The technicos were a bit vanilla, but they ate everything well and I liked an early Galactik rope running section.

TKG: Week two of me enjoying Vampiro Metalico’s “innovative” spots. He’s a lot more backcrackerish this week but still he has a nice way of getting over the innovative stuff without it being elaborate or show offy. Carta Brava is really solid and a bunch of steps above Metalico when it comes to crispness and polish. The two are a real nice pairing and instead of working the segunda tag format where each guy pairs off with one face, they do more of an almost US tag with both guys getting shots at both faces, lots of quick tags cutting off the ring, low blows behind refs back, keeping face tag partner out of ring etc. And this really felt like a match that if it took place in a US indy against Generico/ Fire Ant would get a ton of pimping. Galaktik and Mascara Magnifica are better than Generico or Fire Ant but it’s lucha so neither of the faces do real sympathy baby face selling during what essentially amounts to a FIP section, and although both faces do angry Robert Gibson on apron being kept out of ring sections…neither do fired up hot tag when they enter ring. Fun second match.

Angelico, Chico Ché, Freelance VS Capitán Muerte, Durango Kid, Tetsuya Bushi

PAS: I have talked before about how IWRG really needs a good third technico for the Freelance and Chico Che team, well Angelico is very much not that guy. Angleico looks kind of like Jeff Spicoli, while he might be a very light skinned Mexican, he really felt like a random Texas indy dude who figured that an IWRG run would help him get into CZW or something. The match opens with Angelico and Bushi doing a long mat exchange, and it was as bad as you might expect an All Japan rookie and a fake Marek Brave doing ras de lone segment would be. When Angelico stands up he basically does a bunch of poorly executed Low-Ki spots, his kicks and knees looked like a guy doing a poor CM Punk imitation of a poor KENTA imitation. Freelance was in this match, and he is consistantly awesome, there was an awesome section where Durango Kid is seeing how high he can launch him with backdrops and monkey flips, which ends with him throwing Freelance into the fourth row with a somersault plancha. Worth watching for that stuff, but not a good match.

TKG: I don’t know if Chico Che and Freelance really need a good third technico so much as they need to be the captains. I really liked Chico Che’s sections with everyone, and enjoyed Freelance’s sections with everyone as well (especially loved all the Freelance v Captain Muerte stuff). This would have probably been a good match if it was structured for either Che or Freelance to be captain. But for some reason instead of having Angelico and Durango Kid work ancillary roles, they were booked as the team captains. They announce Angelico as being from Spain and he looks like he’s working some sort of ridiculous Russell Brand gimmick. I can’t believe that he’s supposed to be a face, I mean he doesn’t look like he’s working a BXB Hulk gimmick so much as a parody of BXB Hulk gimmick. One announcer starts talking about how visually Angelico reminds him of British wrestler Steve Wright who he saw tour Mexico in the seventies “ and have great matches with Rene Guajardo and Karloff Lagarde”… and now I’m even more pissed that I’m stuck watching this turd. I have no idea why Phil harped on the piss poor opening mat work instead of the match finish run between Angelico and Durango Kid. Last week I wrote that “ I think Durango Kid is the La dojo guy who taught lucha to Rocky Romero and Alex Koslov but I’m not going to hold that against him”. This week I’m holding it against him as that finish section really felt like it was put together by a guy who was “taught lucha” by Rocky Romero and Alex Koslov.

Diva Salvaje, Goleador, Miss Gaviota VS Avisman, Fantasma de la Ópera, Xibalva

PAS: I have been consistently enjoying these exotico matches, even though I can't say any of them are actually any good. A spirited little heavyweight brawl with Goleador showing some nice athleticism (and didn't really show the matching awkwardness). I wonder if Diva Salvaje is Bestia's gay younger brother, he definitely has all of Bestia's Guapo good looks.

TKG: Last week I described the team working the Exoticos as “the rudo team at best is Carta Brava Jr who is really solid if unspectacular and at worse is Xibabla who is really mediocre but competent. Somewhere in between those two lies Avisman who can be completely hit or miss” This week they replaced Carta Brava with Fantasma de La Opera. Like Brava he is a really super solid rudo but Fantasma is flashier. He brawls a little rougher and has a bunch of really nasty unprotected throws which he hasn’t really figured out how to integrate into his match. They often come out of nowhere and can feel out of place. This week Xibalva looked even shittier than last week and Avisman didn’t have Freelance to work against (he had some nice mat sections and running sections with Goleador but also some awful strike/brawling stuff). But the rudo star was Fantasma de La Opera. You take a guy who doesn’t know how to incorporate his dangerous throws into his big matches and you put him in a match with two trannies and soccer mascot and suddenly the inappropriateness of his offense comes across as deliberate heelish jerk move.


Los Oficiales VS Traumas & Zatura

PAS: Tremendous match, as good with the best stuff we have seen from IWRG this year. Really a battle of captains with 911 and Trauma II just going at it. The match opens with a really long mat battle between the two. They aren't as smooth as Navarro, but make up for it with a lot more countering then you normally see in IWRG, there was an especially awesome Trauma II counter of a tapitia. We also get a big showdown between 911 and II at the end with both guys getting some pretty great near falls, before the clean finish. Everyone else played their roles well too, Trauma I has improved a lot, he is still the weaker guy, but he doesn't drag the match down as he has in the past, Zatura isn't much outside of nice dives, but he had an awesome dive, and your other Oficiales were bumping all over the ring. It is pretty great to see IWRG put something together this good, without any of the superworkers, and makes me even more excited to see what else they will do this year.


TKG: Phil is way overselling this. This is the best match we’ve seen from the Officiales in 09. This is a title match which is their bread and butter. They don’t get to eat that many fancy aerial moves here but they can do more complicated mat stuff with the Truamas then they could with Multifaceto/Pendulo. I think this match was also helped a bunch by having Trauma II work captain instead of Zatura. I enjoyed the Trauma II v 911 stuff and liked the way 911 upped the stiffness which Trauma II answered by upping the speed. But oddly my favorite performer here was AK -47. He has probably had the most impressive performances of the Officiales in 09. This was the best Trauma 1 has looked to me and a lot of that had to do with matching him up opposite AK-47 (the powerhouse off the Officiales). Trauma 1 always comes across somewhat awkward and his mat section with AK-47 was awkward. But it worked as you weren’t watching him try to work a Urijah Faber style featherweight smooth quick exchanges but instead more of a Brad Imes deliberate hard lumbering heavyweight exchanges. AK-47 gets caught in the first fall and submits to a super slick Trauma II sub. Part of why that finish is rewarding is the contrast between the heavyweight sections with Trauma I and the finesse stuff from II. This isn’t as good as the high end Navarro/Terry stuff this year but a nice use of everyone and a fine lil title match that works as rewarding main event.

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IWRG 5/14/09

PAS: After a three week swine flu hiatus, IWRG makes it triumphant return.

http://www.youtube.com/user/r0b3rt0x3L14S

TKG: I feel sorry for the creators of Corridos Marranos as I imagine there is less demand for comic books with covers depicting voluptuous women being sexually ravaged by pigs. I’m sure the Corridos Marranos albulms have also been hurt. Everyone on this show feels a step off, like working off ring rust or something. One of the cameramen wears a facemask. Fantasma de La Opera wears one for cheap heat as well.

Halcon 2000 v. Radamantis

PAS: Since IWRG has shown up on youtube, this is the first time we have really gotten to see an IWRG opener. IWRG openers are always worked in this really basic way. They almost have to spend twice as much time on the mat as they do standing, and you won't be seeing any dives or 2004 US Indy finishers here.

TKG: They actually do tease a dive as Radamantis gets tossed out of ring twice. First time Halcon follows to the floor for ringside brawling; second time he gets up on second rope but doesn’t have his footing. He has repeated problems with hat second rope. Halcon 2000 isn’t a very engaging technico but really liked his hold onto the headlock amateur ride. Radamantis on the other hand is kind of a blast. Everyone in IWRG watches way too much Smackdown, and you get the sense that Radamantis is a Finlay fan..as he has nice European uppercuts, nasty elbow drop, and some neat fire man’s carry based throws. He also has a preposterous Zorackish alien mantis costume. I look forward to him hopefully moving up the card.

Goleador/Jack v Misteco Jr/Avisman

TKG: This is odd. After talking smack about Jack, I enjoyed his mat section and after talking smack about Avisman I really enjoyed all his stand up rope running exchanges (and big dive). Goleador is an awkwardly crowbaring mobile heavyweight. It’s hard to tell who is a heavyweight in the ring opposite your normal tiny IWRG regulars, but I think Goleador is around Arlequin's size. My impression is for awkward mobile heavyweights he is a lot greener than Arlequin. Either Avsiman decides to sell like Goleador is constantly fucking him up or Goleador constantly awkwardly fucks Avisman up, including twisting his ankle wrong on a Romero special.

PAS: This is the most I have enjoyed Jack, this is the first time he has looked like a poor man's La Parka instead of a poor man's La Parka Jr.. Goleador is weird, he shows a bunch of agility during parts of the match, and in other parts he looks completely awkward and clumsy. You figure either a guy is a good athlete or he isn't. Avisman had one nice submission and a nice dive, but no one was really up to working the mat with him.


Fantasma de La Opera/ Capitan Muerte/Cerebro Negro v Miss Gaviota, Diva Salvaje, and Sexy Gladis

TKG: I’ve seen Miss Gaviota before but never seen the other two exoticos. Diva Salvaje is an amusing tranny trainwreck. He’s just a hot mess; big ole queen in an unflattering outfit that makes him look even fatter, can’t get his perm right, just can’t get himself together. Other trannys model themselves on Garbo, Cher, Tyra Banks, Hayley Mills, etc…Diva Salvaje is aiming for Abyss’ unattractive sister. It’s an amusing look. This match is clipped to shit and ends after the first fall so I never get any sense of Sexy Gladis. Well the sense I get, is “hey they clipped everything with him out of this”. Captain Muerte takes a bunch of amusing bumps trying to leap to break up rope walking and the Salvaje/Fantasma interactions are amusing but this is clipped to pieces. Miss Gaviota is stretchered after taking Fantasma’s nasty DDT variation and the heels do mic work talking about how they’re not here for kisses but to break people, etc.

PAS: I live off of 17th St. in Dupont Circle here in Washington DC, they have drag races every year right in front of my building, and I have never seen a drag queen look as busted as Diva Salvaje, not even after a full on heels wearing sprint. Fantasma de La Opera coming out with a flu mask to block both the Swine Flu and the Exotico kiss is an awesome heel spot, and Diva Salvaje ripping it off to give him a grim tongue kiss was funny. I also loved the badass heels stretchering the Exoticos, although it didn't appear to go anywhere next week. IWRG booking doesn't seem to ever build.

Officiales v Chico Che, Zakura, Freelance

TKG:Didn’t Chico Che have more of a bowl haircut at one point. His hair is thinning fast. This was a pretty classically constructed match designed to set up either a singles match with the technico captain (Zakura) or another trio with the technico captain’s normal trio (Zakura’s normal trio being him and the Traumas, with this Chico Che/ Freelance/ Zakura being more of an ad hoc team). I’ve seen matches with Chico Che as captain.and matches with Freelance as captain. Both guys can pull that role off well. And both are a blast as secondary guys here. The problem is Zakura really isn’t a guy who is capable of working captain at this point ( I don’t know if he’ll ever be ready). Zakura is fine as secondary guy with dives but can't pull this thing off at all. He just looked like shit in the captain role and it hurt the match. This match had a bunch of neat dives and good performances from the Officiales, Freelance and Chico Che but it needed someone else to play captain.

PAS: Zatura has a real AAA feel to him, as he is a guy with some really pretty spots, but everything in between those spots looks bad. That is fine when he has a secondary role in a match, but his flaws are really exaserbated when he is the focus. I really enjoyed Chico Che in this, as he is one of the better technicos in these midcard trios match. This did have some really sweet individual stuff, Freelances rana into the stands was especially awesome, but not a great match. I think they really need another quality mid card technico in this fed, Freelance rules, and I like Chico Che, but they need to bring back Mickie Segura.

Fuerza Guerrera,Juventud Guerrera, Dr Cerebro v Negro Navarro, Trauma 1, Trauma II

TKG: “Black is black and I want my baby back. It’s grey, it’s grey since she went away.” I want to say the story with Los Bravos was that after one of their members committed suicide, the label forced them to tour with a replacement member wearing a lone ranger mask so as to hide the suicide. As you can imagine the combination of instant celebrity, suicide and on stage masked hiding of the suicide fucked with everyone’s mind. It’s possible I’m confusing them with another Spanish garage rock type band, but I think that’s them. I don’t know what happened to Pirata, Juve at times looked really off and at other times had hints of being the worlds best Andy Barrow (guy more concerned with heat and eating stuff then anything else)I hope he gets his shit together. Dr Cerebro looked spectacular, all his mat work was nasty, his brawling was great and he can eat a tope like nobodies business. The post match DDT on the trashcan was also nasty and Black Terry confronting Fuerza is an awesome development. "Bad is bad, it makes me sad. It's Time. It's time. Time that I found piece of mind."

PAS: Juvi looked really athletically off here, which is weird as you figure he would still be able to hit his spots. Hey looked more physically shot then guys twice his age. I did enjoy him as a totally obnoxious heel, sort of Bobby Heenanish. Like his new gimmick is "guy you want to see Jack Evans Thai knee in the face." Navarro was awesome as usual, kind of directing traffic and sending his kids after Juvi. For a guy who is primarily known as a Maestro mat worker, Navarro may be one of the best brawlers in the world, his section against Dr. Cerebro was great, I love his little short headbutt, it feels like the kind of thing you would uncork in a bar fight. After watching Cerebro and Navarro work the mat and brawl I really want a singles match.

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