Mae Young Classic 2018 Episode 6

Zeuxis vs. Io Shirai

ER: Zeuxis had a better showing here than her 1st round match, and this match had the potential to be a good match, but Shirai is a joshi babyface who transitions back from a beating by suddenly deciding that the beating she has been taking isn't as bad as it seemed, and starts running and screaming and hitting offense again. The Shirai arm injury was set up with quality timing and a nutso bump from Shirai: Zeuxis caught her with a forearm in the middle of a Shirai springboard spot, then hit her with a baseball slide that sent Shirai crashing violently to the floor off the apron. Awesome looking spot, and I liked Zeuxis working her over and bullying her around the ring after. But at a certain point Shirai just decides that she isn't all that hurt after all, and then the running starts. Anybody who hates Hulkamania Hulk must hate joshi babyfaces, those unkillable T-9000s but with cool hair. I knew Zeuxis wasn't advancing, which is fine, I don't have a problem with Shirai advancing. But once she just got up sprinting from a beatdown I knew she was definitely going to win, and the rest of the match would be no looking back. Her overshooting the moonsault for the finish was icing on the cake, and as an accountant I like that she netted out, since she sloppily whipped ankles first into Xia Brookside in the first round. This could have been better, it really wouldn't have taken much more.

Deonna Purrazzo vs. Xia Li

ER: I liked the pace they went with here, and while there were things that didn't hit cleanly I still liked what they were going for. Purrazzo goes after the arm but keeps getting caught with various Li kicks, including a nice dropkick off the top (I mean, it was one of those ugly RVD dropkicks, but it looked like it had some impact), and I liked how Purrazzo kept going for the arm and using any kind of offense to eventually get to the arm. Hit a lariat, go for the arm, Russian leg sweep, go for the arm, oh and also hit Li with some nice thumping chops; doing that opened up some nice counters for Li, a nice cradle reversal, a really fun layout. There was some timing that was off, or some things that took a bit or set-up, but pace and layout were strong.

Nicole Matthews vs. Tegan Nox

ER: This was good enough, and really didn't overstay its welcome, but more to their detriment. There haven't been too many under 4 minute matches in the tournament, and they probably could have easily stretched this out twice as long. Matthews was nice and mean, really bullying Nox around after elbowing her out of a dive attempt and hitting some hard kicks on the apron, and I dug how Matthews kind of walked through Nox's stuff to continue pounding her. Throw some kicks at me? Yeah, I'm just gonna elbow you and hit a nice northern lights. But the finish really felt like they just got a sudden call to wrap it all up, as Nox just gets up from what had been a fairly one-sided beating, throws some iffy uppercuts - maybe better than her 1st round ones, but those looked like she was intentionally missing her opponent - before just hitting a cannonball and a so-so shining wizard. Color me unimpressed with Nox, both because she hasn't looked impressive, and because Michael Cole just will not shut the fuck up about her.

Mia Yim vs. Kaitlyn

ER: Well this ruled and I wasn't really expecting Kaitlyn to be my favorite not-Meiko gal in this tourney. In the first round Yim had a bad version of a match she'd had a dozen times with Allysin Kay, with the announcers selling her hand pain for her in lieu of Yim actually selling it herself. Here she has her hand taped up and immediately hurts it with a chop. Kaitlyn hits a bunch of legdrops and a great cannonball, then works an awesome body vice. Kaitlyn was a powerlifter and always had strong legs, really made the body vice look legit and I loved Yim grinding her elbow into Kaitlyn's leg to get out of it. Yim starts working over Kaitlyn's leg after Kaitlyn misses a baseball slide, slams it into the apron, dishes hard kicks to the hamstring, and works an awesome standing figure 4 (almost like a figure 4 and a stump puller, looked painful as hell). Things get really great when Kaitlyn baits Yim into punching her and dodges so that Yim punches the mat, and then Kaitlyn decides to just try to rip Yim's hand off. Good god I totally wanted a tap there, Kaitlyn looked like she wanted to tear Yim's hand off and wear it like a necklace. Kaitlyn was great going for bodyslams (all powerlifters should have a good bodyslam), her leg buckling at first and her stubbornly going back for them. Yim begging off properly ends with her whiffing an attack so Kaitlyn can hit another slam, and Yim's missed strike was a great way to set that up. We get a couple of very convincing nearfalls, especially Kaitlyn's spear which looked killer, and I *really* wanted to end the match. But just like Yim missed a punch to the mat earlier, Kaitlyn misses a stomp to leave herself open for an ankle lock. This was totally great, although I think they really missed out by not having Kaitlyn advance. Yim has had her best matches against Baszler and Kaitlyn, those styles really complement her style, and someone like Toni Storm is much closer to the typical Yim opponent who all just bring out awful 2018 indy tendencies in each other. But this match was fantastic, and made me really hope for a 2018 full time Kaitlyn return.

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Mae Young Classic 2018 Episode 2

Deonna Purrazzo vs. Priscilla Kelly

ER: Is there anyone other than original World of Sport guys who can make those "crawling on knees through legs" spots look good? So far I don't think I've seen it look anything but dumb. Early parts of this had stuff I didn't like, the WoS cosplay, and Kelly weirdly looking like she was barely running during spots that required running, but I thought the last couple minutes delivered. Once Kelly locked in a nasty dragon sleeper I was into it, and only got more into it when Purrazzo cracked her with a great back elbow. Finish was cool with Purrazzo rolling into a nasty Fujiwara armbar that really looked like she was ripping Kelly's arm off. They kept it short and relatively timely, and did enough things that I dug.

Zeuxis vs. Aerial Monroe

ER: Zeuxis is easily one of my favorite ladies in CMLL, and her shiny hair makes her look like she's in a lucha Pantene Pro-v commercial. The secret is conditioner y'all. There was some awkwardness here, possibly due to language barrier, the first couple rope running and strike exchange spots didn't look good. Zeuxis can be pretty vicious in CMLL and appeared to be holding back a bit here, and it was a weird spot to be in as she was up against the clear local babyface (and also awkward that the local babyface also really wanted to trash talk during the match), and should have worked more overtly ruda. The best parts were when that ruda side was at the forefront, like when she was fishhooking Monroe or tossed her crotch first on the top rope and immediately smacking her, and I really liked her bridging pin. Monroe has good in-ring confidence, but got a little too cute with some of her offense. It wasn't bad, but I was expecting more.

Kacy Catanzaro vs. Reina Gonzalez

ER: Catanzaro is really tiny, which only makes Reina look bigger, and I'm glad Reina's back this year. I really liked her opposite Nicole Savoy in last year's tournament, and that armbar finish was one of the best finishes of 2017. And I liked her here and am really bummed she didn't advance. Catanzaro is clearly an impressive athlete but I can't get too excited for another CrossFit wrestler with tiny offense that couldn't crack an egg. The structure of this was problematic too, as Reina slammed her around the ring for a few minutes, but Catanzaro was springing around for the finish. I liked all of Reina's offense here, and working against someone who is barely 100 lb. is only going to help that. She had nice stuff aside from throwing around a Lilliputian, had nice stomps and a good elbow drop. I'm fine with Catanzaro winning with a roll up I guess, but didn't think any of her offense looked very plausible with the size difference. The "three cheers for Kacy!" post bell stuff, lifting her up like she was Rudy after sacking a QB, only made me dislike it more.

Ashley Rayne vs. Mercedes Martinez

ER: Not sure why we get the Madison Rayne name change, has she actually signed with WWE? I guess it doesn't matter; Rayne has been around for ages now and she's never really impressed me, and that didn't change here. She gets up for and takes offense fine, but never leaves a lasting impression on me. I've literally been seeing her in matches for over a decade now and barely remember a thing. Martinez looked good, like the delayed vertical suplex (odd that we don't see that often anymore, a vertical suplex somehow seems special now), a knee into a fisherman's buster is a good finish, although maybe not in a match that also saw her doing a nasty cradle driver. This whole thing was worked fairly even, which is problematic as I didn't think Rayne's offense looked even with Martinez's. This one got the most time of the episode, but overall didn't do a ton for me.

ER: Episode 2 moved quickly but won't make much of a lasting impression. As with last year I'm sure the matches will continue to get better in the later rounds, and this episode wasn't bad, more "mostly inoffensive".

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Lucha Worth Watching: CMLL 8/25/17

Zeuxis/Amapola/La Comandante vs. Princesa Sugehit/La Vaquerita/Sanely (CMLL 8/25/17)

ER: Short but intense ladies match, the first I've written up in awhile. Too often the ladies seem to go through the motions, but occasionally you get some unexpectedly inspired stuff on a Friday at Arena Mexico. Zeuxis and Sugehit go at it the whole match, with Zeuxis tossing Sugehit around the announcers booth and ripping her mask off to get DQ'd. Zeuxis has the best hair in the division and wrestles like it. Only someone with great hair can rip masks with that much evil glee. And it all builds to a great moment in the segunda where the rudas are dominating and Zeuxis runs down the ramp to get a running start at something sure to be wicked, and Sugehit runs out with a new mask to intercept her by the hair. This leads to a big tecnica comeback, with Sugehit ripping at Zeuxis' mask and throwing her around ringside, Amapola doing a huge Cassandro bump around the ringpost, Comandante and her newly relaxed hair gets dropkicked to the floor, Sanely...well, takes her shirt off to a big reaction, and Sugehit gets the roll up win after yanking Zeuxis' mask. Afterwards we get mask match promos which is a match with a lot of potential. I'm in.

Juice Robinson/Michael Elgin/Matt Taven vs. Volador Jr./Diamante Azul/Ultimo Guerrero (CMLL 8/25/17)

ER: Invading foreigner matches always seem to land less than they should, but this one was a blast even though this wouldn't be my first choice for foreigners or invaders. But the invaders worked like such outright dickbags that it totally worked. Juice Robinson especially was a standout, a real impressive athlete who was a favorite of mine on NXT. He was throwing all these stiff left jabs that reminded me just how much Marco has stopped caring about his left hands over the last year+. Juice kept using these annoying hands to set up other's offense, like punching someone directly into a Elgin german. Elgin is an odd fit for lucha, but he nestled in nicely doing his huge power moves (Arena Mexico seemed impressed when he did the samoan drop on Azul while doing a fallaway slam on Volador) and was around for the big moment which was Azul finally hitting his own huge german on him. Elgin even crushes Kemonito with a huge powerslam, poor guy looked like he really got smooshedTaven always looks like a slime, like every girl's least favorite crush in Color Me Badd, and while I don't think he has great offense I like how his flying moves always seem totally unhinged and out of control: Here he hits a no hands torpedo dive over the top and blasts UG hard into the barricade. Later Taven takes a great splat bump to the floor off UG's baseball slide dropkick. As much as I hate Volador epic main event singles matches, I think he's good in these rally the troops matches, and his superkick right under Juice's chin (with Juice timber sell and spit take) was a real highlight of the match. Finish set up is silly, with Johnny Idol coming out to distract UG, really felt like the same dumb 1999 WWE finish we got sick of 18 years ago, only difference was Idol's theme music didn't play. BUT. But. UG turns right around into Taven kicking him in the balls, and it kind of made it all worth it. Fun match, and I am now pissed that it doesn't appear the Juice/Shocker singles match is online.

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CMLL Worth Watching 2/23/14, 9/21/14 & 9/28/14

1. Ultimo Guerrero, Rey Escorpion & Mephisto vs. Atlantis, Valiente & Volador Jr. (9/21/14)

Wow, really must have been something in the water this show. Every match saw every guy working hard. Lucha is so bizarre and unpredictable in that way. Guys worked harder on this show than a lot of guys on the big Mask show a couple days prior. This is a hot little short match, just two days after Atlantis took UG's mask. UG comes right out and blitzes Atlantis during his entrance and the Coliseo crowd is hot the whole way through this. For a lot of them this is probably the first time seeing UG with no mask. The other 4 guys could have easily hung back and let UG beat the tar out of Atlantis, and they do to a degree but they also pick their spots and hit some nice stuff. Volador doesn't make it about him but he hits his nice slingshot rana to the floor, Valiente hits his giant moonsault to the floor, Escorpion and Mephisto are good at facilitating UG's beat downs on Atlantis. And really a lot of this match was UG taking out his maskless aggression, beating Atlantis into a bunch of fans in the crowd, popping him in the jaw, hitting all his traditional offense extra snug. Guys fighting in the crowd and leaning on and falling into fans is one of my favorite things in lucha, and overall this match was short, sweet but also made me sad about no blood. Feels like it could have been special back in the 90s with UG coming out and immediately bloodying up Atlantis. I miss bloody torn masks :(

2. Skadi, Princesa Sujei, La Vaquerita vs. Zeuxis, La Comandante & La Seductora (9/28/14)

This wasn't a great match, or maybe even a good match, but it was my first exposure to Skadi who I really enjoyed. I was watching this, didn't recognize the thicker well built gal, and apparently she is Marcela's daughter. I also did not realize Marcela was 45 and clearly old enough to have a daughter in her early 20s. Her daughter gets a kind of showcase here, getting long sequences with everybody and while there is some hesitance in some of her offense she does have some nice stuff, and took a real great splat bump to the floor. It's always nice seeing new faces (erm, masks) and this was a perfectly nice women's tag. Zeuxis has also been coming into her own this past year, usually conveying more of a mean streak than the other ruda gals. This probably got too much time, but I liked it.

3. Goya Kong, Estrellita & Lady Afrodita vs. Princesa Blanca, Tiffany & Princesa Sujei (2/23/14)

I have a brazen love for Goya Kong and I do not care who knows it. I love how the crowd reacts to her, love how the men clearly love her but more importantly how the older ladies love her. They react to her like they would react to their own daughter. There's always so much pride in female fans' faces during Kong matches. I can't really think of another current wrestler who inspires these kind of reactions. It's too bad female wrestlers can only go so far in CMLL as I think they have a potentially huge star on their hands. Primera is all about Kong getting to do a bunch of fun offense including a great elbow drop and senton. Segunda sees all the rudas come back for revenge and put the boots to Kong. Tiffany has always been a favorite of mine as she exudes bitch better than most, and Blanca is always a remarkable Fuerza for Estrellita's Octagon. Blanca was on fire in this, she's arguably the best female worker in CMLL. I do not think Estrellita is very good, and she always makes me feel sad, but Blanca always makes her look like a real threat. Blanca was all super slender here and rocking a lime green catsuit, bumping big for all of Estrellita's improbably armdrags. Lady Afrodita is the most ill-fitting and unfortunate gimmick name in lucha.

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CMLL Workrate Round-Up 8/3/14 & 11/14/14

1. Metalico, Virus & Bobby Zavala vs. Rey Cometa, Fuego & Oro Jr. (8/3/14)

More awesome from this little feud that I didn't see anybody talking about. It is very possible I'm just reading the wrong places. But ever since a couple weeks ago when I first noticed Memphis heel Metalico tearing apart Oro Jr., and have since seen two more of their trios, it has become the thing I most look forward to in wrestling. So far, yes, the feud has been one-sided, with Metalico punching his way into my heart. Looking back, even though the tecnicos took the 2nd and 3rd, this match was 90% rudos. The segunda was won by DQ, and the comeback in the tercera didn't happen until late. Up until that point it was Metalico taking out all his frustrations on poor Oro Jr., which meant Oro taking tons of Metalico's cool hooking southpaw lariats, tons of punches to the temple, tons of forearms scraped across his eyes, and tons of getting yanked rudely around by his mask. Virus and Zavala kind of purposely took a backseat to Metalico beating down Oro. At one point I was begging Oro to fight back! Virus and Zavala would keep the other two at bay, and those two are guys I'm always entertained by when they're being dick heels. Virus has a great moment scraping and yanking Cometa's finger crotch over the ropes. Jesus Virus is taking torture to paper cut tantamount levels. Oro Jr. is kind of like a tecnico Stevie Richards, as he bumps big but has basically zero offense. So his big comeback in the tercera falls somewhat flat as he sorta hits Metalico with meek little kicks, but it was still satisfying seeing him rip Metalico's mask right back. Two weeks ago Metalico was just one of those guys who I had seen a bunch but barely registered with me. Now he's a guy I'm actively seeking out. Funny how these things work. Watch this feud now!

2. Silueta vs. Zeuxis (8/3/14)

Another good match for these two. It got a lot of time and I think they filled it pretty admirably. The tercera went probably a little too long, but overall I liked this. The primera especially was fun as they do some cool mat stuff and standing exchanges that doesn't usually happen in the women's matches. Silueta grapevines the leg of a standing Zeuxis and kicks out her other knee, felt like William Regal with a prettier face. They throw out some pretty big things in this, with Zeuxis doing a nice Spanish Fly and a great moonsault to the floor, wiping out both seconds (Halcon and Super Comando). Silueta has a nice rana roll up and manages to do the "opponent trapped in ropes while I dropkick them from the top" spot without making it look too absurd. Crowd was really hot throughout the whole tercera so they were doing something right, even if I thought it had too many near fall exchanges. Crowd was into every one of them.

3. Mephisto, Kamaitachi & Ephesto vs. Titan, Valiente & Angel de Oro (11/14/14)

Really fun sprint with a nice spirited Mephisto performance, and one of Titan's best showings of the year. Angel de Oro continues to look sorta clunky but it was easy to just watch all the other guys do their thing. I'm really starting to love rudos cutting off Titan. Last week we watched Terrible punch him right in the face after a handspring floor routine, and now he somersaults onto the rampway from the ring, turns around to run back and runs right into a mean Ephesto clothesline. Mephisto was really great at cutting guys off all match, catching all the flying offense and even hitting a great dive. Ephesto also hit a nice big chubster dive. Kamaitachi continues being a blast, love his high jump dropkick from the ramp. Everything was worked super fast and didn't have any time to get bad.

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CMLL Workrate Round-Up 7/27/14, 10/17/14 & 10/31/14

1. Silueta vs. Zeuxis (7/27/14)

Nice little women's match, the kind we don't normally get to see. It was billed as a lightning match but really wasn't worked like one, other than it being una caida. We get a nice 10 minutes match with a bunch of cool arm and leg work and some big flashy spots. They both have a couple cool armbar roll throughs and there was an especially good sequence with Zeuxis locking on an armbar and sort of rolling it through into a Yes Lock as Silueta was about to get to the ropes. We even get a Frye/Shamrock dueling knee bar section. Zeuxis throws a bunch of stiff kicks during this and does a great running double knee attack in the corner, Silueta does some nice ranas, and this was all fun. Although is it just me or do most women wrestlers run the ropes really awkwardly? It seems like every time they had to run ropes or run into the turnbuckles it was like their bodies were just not designed to do so. I've noticed this before with others and all the movements just look completely foreign.

2. Mascara Dorada, Stuka Jr. & Maximo vs. Shocker, Thunder & Euforia (10/17/14)

So…I think I kinda like Thunder. He's a big lug and I'll probably get sick of him at some point, but right now I dig what he brings to matches. He seems very mobile which already sets him apart from past large white guys that CMLL has brought in. I like his power offense based around catching guys mid-flying move and then just tossing them. He's got a really great fallaway slam and some nice strikes. I like how he mixed up his corner shots with kicks, nice punches, and then ends it with a Zidane headbutt. This was probably the best Shocker has looked in a match this year. The Rush series was good, but more about a young punk taking advantage of an out of shape older guy. Shocker was a jerk in this and looked more fired up than any non-Rush match I've seen him in lately. Not only did he break out some nasty strikes, including a couple stiff punches and a rough stomp to the face, but he did a cool fat guy senton, and even took the straps down to mockingly flex his chubbiness to the crowd. Dorada is a guy I like a lot, probably more than most, as I like the way he incorporates his athleticism into matches, always taking super high bumps on backdrops, and doing cool things that most workers can't do. Here he does his awesome high jump rana, sprinting from the ramp over the ropes and into the ring. This was short and sweet, real good mix of stuff.

3. Lightning Match: Dragon Lee vs. Kamaitachi (10/17/14)

Well this was crazy! Going a little over 6 minutes, this would have been a legendary WorldWide match. Both guys get to show off wild offense, both guys take big bumps, both guys were very likely sore on Saturday. We get a run of Kamaitachi doing running horizontal dropkicks (the kind where you fling your legs straight out and land in a back bump), first a normal one in the ring, then one leaping from the rampway over the ropes into the ring (which Lee runs stupidly/awesomely chin first right into, flipping him asshole over elbow), then one running from the apron to the floor. Awesome. Then Lee does a crazy one of his own to the floor and I'm fully invested at this point. Both guys really fly into the other's offense with gusto, with Kamaitachi launching himself off a German and getting his chest caved in while hung up on the turnbuckle and taking a Lee double stomp off the top. The finish is great as they have a really cool strike exchange, with both men throwing stiff shots and mixing up the timing of them, cutting each other off, all building to Lee hitting one of the more insane suplexes that I've seen, kind of like a Musclebuster but dropped more like a Northern Lights. It certainly looked like Kamaitachi will end up an inch or two shorter. Go watch this. In 6 easy minutes it will bring joy to your day.

4. Rush vs. Ultimo Guerrero (10/31/14)

This was from the Halloween show which was probably the most batshit atmosphere of any show this year. The crowd was hot, and the mood was freaking weird as most of the guys on the show were wearing skeleton body and face paint, even the referees were all decked out like skeletons, and all the CMLL chicas were painted up like sugar skulls while the arena was filled with overworking smoke machines and eerie red lights. Truly unique atmosphere for everything. I got a huge kick out of all the girls rhythmically dancing in their calavera get-ups. I thought the whole show was lifted up by the presentation, and this match especially was really fun. Both guys really pulled out all the stops to try and one up the other. This felt like something that could have really been classic if there was blood allowed. I enjoyed it as it, but the environment was just begging for blood. Both guys worked plenty stiff and there were some nice nearfalls, really dig UG planting Rush with a mean Liger bomb. The week before Rush planted UG with a brutal ballshot and I wish that would have been played up more here, but UG did sorta get revenge by winning with his own tiny ballshot.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 8/23/14

These matches were from the 8/8 Arena Mexico show.

1. Rey Escorpion vs. Dragon Rojo Jr.

I've been loving the build up to this singles over the previous couple weeks, with Escorpion punching the hell out of Rojo's face and blindsiding him in trios matches. I guess I'm a pretty easy guy to please if I can get excited for a match just by seeing a guy hit another guy. But this match was a major letdown. Everything that made me excited for it during the build was completely absent from the match itself. We had a match ruined by bad quick fall formatting, and a bunch of spots - some of them very impressive - that didn't have too much rhyme or reason to them. We also had a lame and oddly out of place strike exchange. Just an uninteresting match. The first two falls are blink-and-you'll-miss-'em, so even though they have some cool matwork in them, you're already kind of set up to see what kind of match this is going to be. And sure enough, the tercera plays out like the worst kind of lightning matches, with them heatlessly taking turns showing off what neat moves they can do. Escorpion does a dive, Rojo hits a gnarly dropkick off the rampway, Rojo hits a powerbomb, whatever. The move order seems like it was drawn out of a hat, with the moves determined ahead of time. No flow, just moves. The strike exchange was hilariously bad, with it coming out of nowhere to start the tercera. Both men immediately start selling like they'd been in a WAR!! with Rojo selling a chop by staggering around like current Pacino milking a heart attack death scene. The match had two incredibly quick falls, and suddenly these guys are just using the last of their strength to throw kick combos. Which is even more hilarious since they were totally fine afterwards, fine enough to run through the depths of their offense. Just a brutally constructed match, made both guys look awful.

2. Marcela, Princesa Sujei & Goya Kong vs. Amapola, La Seductora & Zeuxis

Fun match although it would have meant a bit more if Blanca had been in it the week after losing her hair. Amapola looked good and continued to be her same under appreciated self. I love the way she flings herself into the Cassandro bump. Zeuxis looked pretty sloppy last week and her she was nasty, hitting big running kicks and a wild moonsault off the top onto Kong. Kong has great charisma and I love how excited the Arena Mexico fans get for her. Plus her apron dive can look pretty great. Sujei and Marcela didn't make a giant impression here, but considering they won a mask and a whole lot of hair the week before I think that's fair.

3. Rush, La Sombra & La Mascara vs. Negro Casas, Ultimo Guerrero & Shocker

Not a bad match but I was expecting a lot more after last week's amazing Rush/Casas showdown. Look at me, watching something with raised expectations. La Sombra has really come into his own this year, but this match was not the one to show somebody if you were trying to prove that point. He was off the whole time, flopping bad on a headscissors and over-shooting a big flip dive that sent him stumbling chest first into the ring barrier. Shocker had some nice moments opposite Mascara, with my favorite being Mascara doing a drop down and Shocker just splatting him with the biggest elbow drop. Ultimo Guerrero integrated Sombra's double flip moonsault about the best way you can, by purposely rolling out of it so that he could make Sombra hit his knees. Now Rush vs. Casas. That was about as limp dick revenge as I could have possibly imagined. It's like both guys were sore from the week before so just agreed to take it easy on the other. Casas' big revenge moment came off so bad, where Rush goes to kick him in the balls again, and Casas just kicks him first, with a glancing blow that Rush just kind of falls over from. And then Casas runs around the ring jumping up and down like he's never beaten anybody in his life. It looked so pathetic. If that was supposed to be a moment I can't imagine many ways it could have fallen harder on its face.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 8/9/14

All of these matches were from the 7/25 Arena Mexico show. 

1. Rey Escorpion, Ultimo Guerrero & Shocker vs. Atlantis, Dragon Rojo Jr. & Titan

 Fun match that was quick and violent with lots of mask ripping and stiff strikes. Escorpion has been on a roll lately and here's another match with him dishing a beating to Dragon Rojo. He punches him all over the ring and violently rips his mask off. At one point he was tearing Rojo's mask off with his teeth while also punching his face. Rojo hit a great corner flip dive as a comeback at one point. But the match even ends with Escorpion dragging Rojo around by his mask while stomping the hell out of him. It was odd seeing Shocker as a rudo here since he's mostly been featured on TV this year as a tecnico opposite Rush and his goons, but here he gets dropkicked by Kemonito and it's awesome (has Kemonito not appeared with Atlantis for a really long time, or is that just me…). For the most part Shocker and Titan stayed out of the mix. Most of it was naturally centered around Atlantis/UG, and all of their stuff was nice and snug. Both of them dished it out, with Atlantis ripping apart UG's mask, UG hitting a fast Jerry bump, Atlantis handing out quebradoras to every man in his way. Fun, high energy match with a few stories going on at once.

2. Marcela, Goya Kong & Silueta vs. Princesa Blanca, Amapola & Zeuxis

Decent, if sloppy match. Marcela isn't on TV as much as the other gals even though she's clearly heads above all of them. She always breaks out more daring things than the others and looked good here, with a nice rolling senton off the apron, big bump into the front row, does a cool armbar takeover on Blanca over the top rope. Kong is always somebody I get excited to see. I don't know if she's really that good, but she's always fun and the crowd always responds big to her. She breaks out some big splashes, misses a big elbow, does an apron dive, a bunch of fun stuff from a bigger gal. Silueta is cute and is fairly decent at pumping up a crowd, but she's also not that great. She's kind of sloppy and there's a pretty unfortunate botch that is covered up about as much as it can be by Amapola. Amapola is a good hand, but Zeuxis also isn't very good. She gamely attempts big spots but usually blows a couple, so I guess she gets some points for trying. Blanca is a great ruda, one of my absolute favorites to watch, and her and Marcela always work great together. Here is no different as both of them can really wail on each other. Hilariously, the match ends with a powder to the eyes DQ, with Blanca missing her powder shot and Marcela hitting hers, with the ref seeing and DQing Marcela. I cannot remember ever seeing a powder to the eyes finish in a lucha match. That seems like something so American that it was just weird seeing in lucha. Maybe Mexico has a long history of powder to the eyes finishes, but damn if I can't recall any. Now I want to see some hide the object lucha matches!



3. Rush, La Sombra & La Mascara vs. Negro Casas, Mr. Niebla & Volador Jr.

Awesome short match, full of guys working stiff and with a hot surprise finish. Rush and Casas beat the holy hell out of each other here. I'm not sure how Casas' throat can stand up to some of the stomps that Rush unleashes on it. Both guys throw some nasty kicks to the other's chest and face, shove each other violently into the ring barricade. At one point Rush charges Casas in the corner, stops short, whips his hair back and slaps Casas right across the ear. Great dickhead spot. Niebla is a guy who can wrestle lazy when he's not feeling things, but then we get *this* Niebla and all is well. He slaps guys the whole match, really laying the shots in to a nasty degree, and at one point even breaks out his great back bump to the floor (Rush front kicks him and he falls through the ropes backwards onto the floor). Volador stayed out of most of this, spending a lot of it getting kicked and stomped by Sombra/Mascara, but does hit a spectacular top rope moonsault to the floor. And obviously he plays into the finish which I really dug. Sombra is kinda manhandling him, but Volador gets the surprise flash pin by reversing a Sombra samoan drop into a brutal Sombra head drop. Flash pins don't feel like they get used in lucha that often, and I really love how the match just ended since Volador pinned the captain. Felt like they finally outsmarted the rudos and the cuts to a surprised Rush on the floor were a nice touch since Rush hasn't shown tons of ass in this feud. This could have been epic with more time, but for a straight falls match I can't imagine it being much better. This was some of the stiffest ring work I've seen in lucha this year, and no matter how long it was this was a hot match. (Oddly, the TV version of the match completely edits the 2nd caida down to just the Sombra/Volador finishing run, making the total match seem like 7 minutes instead of 12. This caused the episode to end 8 minutes early, so I have no clue why they edited out Casas' comeback or any of the other fun stuff from the segunda. Really strange.)

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 7/26/14

All matches were from the 7/11 Arena Mexico show.

1. Dark Angel, Marcela & Estrellita vs. Amapola, Princesa Blanca & Zeuxis

Blanca has awesome crimped hombre hair, looking like the Russian experiment clone on Orphan Black. Primera is really good with Estrellita taking a beating, Marcela missing a somersault senton off the apron and splatting on the floor, and Zeuxis hitting a package piledriver on Dark Angel (so are piledriver type moves legal now in Mexico? Seems like a lot of workers are doing these kind of moves now, which look exactly like automatic DQ moves of the not too distant past). Segunda is really hot, with Amapola taking a big Cassandro bump around the turnbuckles and then Dark Angel hitting a huge crossbody off the top onto her. Marcela especially had a great fall (and match) with some impressive power spots like a sort of deadlift quebradora, throwing a dropkick through Zeuxis' face (while she was leaned up against the bottom rope) and then hitting a nice rana on her off the apron. Straight falls, but the match was really hot. Well worth checking out. 

2. Negro Casas, Barbaro Cavernario & Ultimo Guerrero vs. Rush, Maximo & Marco Corleone

Very fun match ruined by the most hot dogshit finish you can possibly imagine. It's nice to see Cavernario in with the big boys, and Casas had a hell of a showing here. Casas got to take it to Rush throughout most of this, hitting all sorts of big kicks to the chest and face (which Rush leaned right into). Rush worked a lot of this as a traditional tecnico, which didn't garner much sympathy from the Arena Mexico fans, but was fun to see. Marco stuck to UG/Cavernario, flexing his abs, hitting his nice lefts and some big crossbodies. Now lets get to that most garbage of finishes, where Casas beats Rush around the ring, and we're talking the most offense Casas has gotten on Rush in ages. Gets him in the corner and kicks the hell out of him, kicks him to the floor where he hits the Thesz press off the apron, drags him around by the hair so Cavernario can hit his giant awesome big splash from the top to the floor, rolls Rush back in the ring…

and Rush just powerbombs Casas for the win. Well, fuck us then. What an awful, pointless, lazy finish. This is one of the worst no sells I've ever seen in pro wrestling. And it's not like Rush collapsed after hitting the powerbomb either. He was totally fine, walking around, back to normal as if the big splash recharged him or something. Just an awful finish that made everybody look bad. The kind of finish that would make anybody who got sucked into the match feel like a doofus. Casas gave him everything he had, and Rush basically just shrugged. Is Rush just Jason Vorhees now?

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 6/7/14

These matches all happened on the 5/23 Arena Mexico show.

Rey Escorpion, Ripper & Mr. Aguila vs. Maximo, Marco Corleone & Titan

Well this is becoming a bad trend. Short, short matches with practically non-existant primeras. Remember when the primera used to be awesome? It still happens occasionally, but it's becoming more and more rare. Aguila may be the worst worker in CMLL, especially among the ones higher up the card. He looks horrible here. Can you name me a worst moonsault in wrestling? He still insists on doing it in just about every match, but I can't remember the last time it actually hit. Usually it ends with his arms draped over the other guy's knees, and usually it ends a fall. Woof. This whole match was plagued by poor timing and sloppy work, namely from Aguila and Ripper. Titan didn't do any of his silly stuff, and hit a nice springboard somersault dive. Corleone looked good, hitting a few nice rolling arm drags and the Superman bodypress from the ring to the floor, still doing it with no hands. That looked great, and I don't know if I've ever seen him do that. He almost always hits it from the rampway to the ring, really don't remember him doing to the floor before. And with this, we're well underway in our Complete & Accurate Marco Corleone project.

Dark Angel, Marcela & Princesa Sugheit vs. Dalys, Princesa Blanca & Zeuxis

So are piledrivers and ball shots totally cool in Mexico now? Are the times a-changin'? Last show had Mascara win a match with a plain view shot to the balls, and Zeuxis wins a fall her with a package piledriver. Match was short and fun. I really love the nasty streak that Dalys has embraced ever since getting her head shaved. Her charisma is coming through more now and her work with Marcela in this was quality. Loved the running double knees into Marcela's chest from Zeuxis and Dalys. Blanca and Sugheit were kind of working their own match this whole time, constantly going at it and tearing each other apart.

Relevos Increibles!

Rush, Ultimo Guerrero & La Sombra vs. Atlantis, Shocker & Volador Jr.

A bit of a letdown compared to other Relevos Increibles but still exciting because you have Rush and his sneak attack lacky La Sombra. The other guys kinda did their own thing. UG and Atlantis tore into each other during the entrances and didn't stop, replete with mask tearing and I can only assume mask challenges post match off camera. But Rush and Sombra delivered and Shocker really ramps up his work when facing Rush, at one point hitting a heavy body press from the top rope to the floor. Haven't seen him do something like that in awhile. Sombra continues his awesome dick trend of blindsiding guys, really leveling Shocker with a dropkick to the back that Shocker couldn't have seen coming. Right between the shoulder blades, sends him face first into ropes. He and Rush each take their shots on him in the corner with Sombra hitting the running double knees and Rush caving his chest in with a dropkick. Match ends when Rush and Sombra get disqualified for beating the hell out of Shocker for too long, which is really the dry hump of the lucha match finishes.

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 4/6/14

These matches were from the 3/23 Arena Coliseo show.


Dark Angel, Goya Kong & Estrellita vs. Princesa Blanca, Princesa Sugheit & Zeuxis

Really awesome women's match. I haven't seen Blanca in awhile and she's slimmed down a bunch and looked great in the ring. She was really great at fast turnaround rope segments, did smart little rudo apron work like grab or kick at girls if they got too close to their corner. Dark Angel looked really great here too with all sorts of cool roll ups and fast work. Estrellita had one of her best showings in a while, and I absolutely loved her float-over backslide to win the tercera. That thing looked snug as hell and there was no way Blanca could have kicked out. Zeuxis here showed more energy than I'm used to seeing from her. Kong is super over and has fun big girl offense and charisma. I mean this was just a great lady trios, best one I've seen in ages. Everybody had their boots on, the crowd was fueling them, everything just clicked.

Reaper, Olimpico & Felino vs. Valiente, Super Porky & La Sombra

Same thing as the previous match, in that everybody had their boots on so the match seemed so much tighter than standard matches with some of these guys. Olimpico appears to be working a Keegan Michael Key gimmick now, and he looked awesome. Stooging all over, bumping big, all his sequences looked tight. Valiente also threw out one of his best performances in awhile, looking like a total star with giant dives, slick ranas, fast ringwork and great body charisma. Porky is practically immobile at this point but can still work fun sequences. I liked his punch exchange with Olimpico, and him holding his arms out for the ref to pick him up after sitting on Reaper is either the saddest thing or the most endearing thing. He was just holding out his short little arms towards the ref, in the same way a child will ask their father to pick them up because they're tired of walking (I wonder if Porky also pretends to be asleep in the car so his dad will carry him inside after a long car trip!).

Rey Escorpion, Averno & Polvora vs. Maximo, Diamante Azul & Marco Corleone

This was also a match that was on the show. It was also happening at that critical time where I had just enough booze in me where several minutes can go by and leave me with zero memory of those minutes. It was fun seeing Azul in Coliseo, as he couldn't just rely on doing his cool rampway flip dive. Corleone has been working a little too gingerly lately. His body presses land super soft. Maximo has been on fire lately, breaking out some smooth and fast sequences like he's Virus or something. Plus good lord I want that LEGO Maximo shirt. I wear size M. Come on people. The back of it says he the master of sex or something!

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CMLL on LATV Workrate Report, 2/11/12

Haven't done one of these in quite awhile, but that's because CMLL on Galavision hasn't been airing in my area, and LATV has been nothing but reruns dating back to December. It seems like LATV is showing mostly shows from November, some that have already been shown 3 or 4 times. So this show was also taped in November (11/22/11 at Arena Mexico to be exact, thanks Cubsfan!), but I don't know if this actually originally aired. I'm pretty sure I never missed an episode, and this never turned up where it should have. So this may be the first time this has aired in America, even if it's 3 months late.



1. Princess Sugei (Sugheit? I never get this name right)/La Commandante/Zeuxis vs. Dark Angel/Luna Magica/Lluvia:

Well this had a couple nasty spills that came to define the match. First fall went very nicely with Commandante leading Lluvia through some capable-looking matwork and some fun arm drag sequences, and Lluvia holding up her end while wearing an awesome mesh catsuit. Mesh catsuit might have made me forgive some sloppy mat transitions. Sugei and Magica tag in and smoke the previous moves exchanges, but also lacks the mesh. Fall ends with Zeuxis hitting an insane dive on Commandante that sees her fly way overhead and splat at a horribly awkward angle into chairs and chubby front row guys. I'm worried about her spine and Rachel is wondering how her boobs didn't fall out. Magica then splats her with an awesome apron Thesz press. Full point for Zeuxis for getting up from that splat and instantly taking that move. Rest of the match is pretty fun. Dark Angel and Sugei match up nicely together, and I'm a big fan of Sugei who always walks around and slaps people and kicks them in the face. Match ends abruptly with Dark Angel falling off the top rope and crashing to the floor, and then the other two calling an audible and quickly finishing the match with Angel being stretchered out. Too bad the ending had to be that way, the rest of the match was quite nice.



2. Misterioso Jr./Okumrua/Vangellis vs. Sangre Azteca/Diamante/Sagrado:

Really fun match with a bunch of guys that nobody ever really talks about. Misterioso Jr. is probably one of the best current lucha guys that nobody really pimps that much. He takes offense really well and bumps big and can control and reign in a match nicely. Here he gets matched up with the weakest of the bunch, Sagrado, and makes him look good through the whole match (going down like a gunshot for his superkick, splaying out on the floor for his rana). I really like Sangre Azteca, and loved his little mat section with Okumura. Fast paced and he did a few cool ankle picks. Vangellis is a stocky nazi powerhouse who moves fast and can barrel into guys. Diamante is very young but always has a couple nice highspots in his matches (here he hit a solid chest to chest springboard 450). Well worth your 20 minutes.



3. Terrible/Rey Buccanero/Texano Jr. vs. Maximo/Super Porky/Rush:

LATV pulls a vintage LATV move here, showing the first fall of this match, going to commercial and coming back with the 3rd fall of a different match from one week later. They used to do this all the time when they randomly started showing IWRG/AULL stuff. First fall didn't really make me want to watch the other two on youtube. I have been one of the staunchest Porky defenders over the last decade, but some of these throwaway six man performances are getting pretty brutal. The man can still go when he wants to, but the big key is how often does he want to? The hair match teaming with Maximo from early 2011 saw him looking really good, but the first fall had some pretty bad moments including the slowest bump through the ropes onto the rampway I have ever seen. It looked like a youtube video of a panda bear falling off a teeter totter.



4. Averno vs. La Mascara

If this had about 8 minutes lopped off the end then I probably would have liked it a lot more. It just kind of kept going, and the nearfalls just got less exciting the more of them they did. First 8 minutes were all about Averno tearing apart Mascara's knee, and it was some fine knee tearing. I was expecting Mascara to have plenty of moments where he just conveniently sold the knee, but to his credit he sold that knee for like >90% of the match, so gets full credit for that. He even hit an awesome limping tope in the 2nd. The selling wasn't the problem, it's just that there was so much damn lying around by both guys. It had its moments to be sure, but there was so much "Averno bumps to floor, Mascara stays in ring, Averno slowly gets up and walks back to ring" moments. Some of them were cool, like when Brazo de Oro would be glaring at him and Averno would just smugly strut past him. Some of the nearfalls worked great, but it was diminishing returns. 18 minutes of work in a 25 minute match. Not the worst crime as the work onscreen wasn't ever bad, just. needed. to. end.

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