AAA TV 2005/Monterrey Lucha/Older Lucha/CMLL TV/IWRG TV:

Mistico vs Ultimo Guerrero (Lucha Libre Azteca Vol. 2: Well it was definitely longer than the Arena Mexico match but I wouldn't say it was better... not even close in fact. I liked the first fall with Ultimo just destroying Mistico including press slamming him into the guardrail, apron, ringpost, etc. without any care for Mistico's body. Mistico hulked up out of nowhere to win the fall with La Mistica. Second fall started fast with Mistico flying all over and doing his running tornillo onto Ultimo. Soon after Ultimo took the fall with a power bomb and his feet on the ropes in clear view of the ref. I could already smell the usual Monterrey bullshit starting which is never a good sign. Third fall had lots of nearfalls but wasn't as emotional as you'd think it would be considering it was Mistico's first big match at Gimnasio Nuevo Leon. He did a huge plancha over the ringpost. They both seemed to screw up a Gory Special but recovered nicely. Then the Monterrey goofiness kicked in and you had a ref bump... two refs around ringside... low blows... blah... if you followed the online Monterrey TV in 2001/2002 you know exactly what I am refering to so there isn't even a need to describe the finish. Disapointing.

Mascarita 2000/Octagoncito/Rocky Marvin vs Mini Abismo/Mini Psicosis/Jerrito Estrada (Verano De Escandalo 2005): This would have been much better if it were just a tag match - Mascarita 2000/Octcito vs Mini Abismo/Mini Psicosis. I think Jerrito is still great but he is too old-school mini rudo for me. He has no offense and just resorts to kicks and bodyslams so he looks weak compared to his partners. Maybe it'll just take time for the chemistry to kick in? Rocky Marvin is a waste of space. He's obviously gotten footage of his brother in NOAH b/c he now dresses exactly like him and has the same mannerisms... he just can't wrestle like him. He needs to disapear from my TV screen forever. Mini Psic came into the match maskless and hairless, both courtesy of Octagoncito. Fast start as you'd expect including Mascarita doing a SLINGSHOT SOMERSAULT PLANCHA INTO A FRANKENSTEINER ON THE FLOOR to Mini Abismo! Octagoncito also did a springboard plancha into an armdrag on Mini Psicosis right after! Rudos took over but it was sorta weird as Mini Abismo/Mini Psic kept doing double team moves and working together while Jerrito just looked on or was shoved out of the way since he was standing in the wrong place.:/ Tecnicos made their comeback and it was time for more flying. Rocky did a lame tope suicida onto Mini Psic. Octagoncito did a second rope springboard tornillo onto Mini Abismo. Mascarita did an amazing springboard frankensteiner to send Jerrito outside and nailed a HUUUUUUUUUUUGE flip plancha through the ropes. Then for reasons unknown to me the match turned into an elimination match so everyone got pinned except for Mascarita and Jerrito. Mascarita finished him off with an asai moonsault followed by a slingshot 450 splash. The usual great showing by the AAA mini's... or juniors if you are a WWE fan.

Barrio Boys/Laredo Kid vs Gran Apache/Black Family (Verano De Escandalo 2005): Oh maaaaaaaaaaan was this ever fun! They gave these guys a SHITLOAD of time(20 minutes+) and they took full advantage of it. Match started fast with everyone doing spots at the same time. I find it hilarious that the commentators always boast about how AAA has every camera angle possible and yet with all 10 cameras they managed to miss a ton of early spots in the match. Oh well. Alan/Decnis did dual running somersault planchas onto Ozz/Cuervo. Laredo Kid then got absolutely LAUNCHED over the ropes with the scariest backdrop in the world and turned it into a somersault plancha on the same two Black Family members. This was Nino De La Calle level if anyone gets that reference. Match didn't slow down at all and it's hard to remember stuff as I'll have to rewatch but for the first 5-6 minutes it was non-stop armdrags and headscissors. Tons of innovation. Oops, I forgot to mention this was a lumberjack strap match with the mini's at ringside so every time someone left the ring they got chased by the little guys. Apache was looked fantastic for someone his age(more on that later) and was working great with the young guys. Laredo Kid seems to be the best of the new Nuevo Laredo kids(although I have to watch some more Babe Rap). Honestly, I can't say enough about how great the early portion in this match was... just non-stop action. Rudos eventually took over and did a bunch of neat double/triple/quadrople teams including one where Ozz picked Billy Boy up for a power bomb, Cuervo did a springboard enzuigiri to knock Billy upside down so Apache could dropkick him, Ozz did the Styles Clash and then held Billy up for a running dropkick by Escoria! AWESOME! Apache grabbed a chair and busted Billy Boy open to start their still ongoing feud. Tecnicos fought back and Apache ended up outside the ring where the mini's just kept beating the crap out of him. *L* He entered the ring and dared them all to come get him so they did and kept beating him up more! *L* Apache told them to stop and urged everyone to help him fight them off so everyone turned against the mini's and chased them to the back! *LMAO* I've always wanted to see that happen in a match like this! There was some local celebrity sitting beside Fabi Apache at ringside and Apache went nuts and started to hit him with one of the straps he stole from the mini's. It was awkward and the crowd seemed to die afterwards. The guys didn't stop though as the match went on for a good 7-8 minutes more. Bunch of nearfalls and near submissions. Laredo Kid did an impressive 450. Escoria seemed to knock his own teeth out doing a flying legdrop. Finally it was dive train time and the first was awesome as Billy Boy did an assisted ropeflip moonsault onto Apache! The camera kept being annoying and going all over the place which distracted a bit but Ozz follwed up with a corkscrew through the ropes, Alan was assisted by Cuervo into a running corkscrew plancha, Cuervo jumped off Laredo Kid's back and did a somersault over the ropes, Laredo Kid did a GIGANTIC springboard moonsault onto everyone, Escoria did a running corkscrew over the top rope and finally Apache assisted Decnis into a running somersault plancha on EVERYONE! Wait... did I say 'finally' implying it was over? Apache teased a dive but everyone ran away behind the ringpost and then... holy fucking shit... APACHE DID A MOONSAULT OVER THE RINGPOST ONTO EVERYONE!!! APACHE IS 46 YEARS OLD! Why can't Blue Panther do a moonsault over the ringpost? Apache/Billy Boy ended up in the ring and for some reason Estrellita did a run-in and got Billy Boy DQ'ed. Then Tiffany ran in and everyone brawled. I don't get it. I thought Billy Boy and Fabi were the couple in love? Oh well. I loved this and it'd be a shame if Galavision U.S. never ended up airing it.

Los Javiers (Americo Rocca/Javier Cruz/Chamaco Valaguez) vs El Dandy/Guerrero Negro/Talisman (Arena Coliseo 1987): This was pretty fun and spotty for a 1987 match. They skipped the entire matwork portion and just went straight into fast exchanges. The more I watch of Talisman(aka El Hijo Del Gladiador, CMLL HEAD TRAINER *cough*), the more I love love love him! I wonder why I never realized his greatness before. He used to really be able to go and every new old match I see him in, he guides (random tecnico) through an innovative exchange. In this case it was Javier Cruz. Talisman takes perhaps the craziest sallida bump I have ever seen as Cruz is laying near the corner, Talisman jumps onto the second turnbuckle and tries to come down and sit on Cruz but Cruz sticks both his feet up as Talisman comes down and then vaults him back into the air and over the top rope into the crowd!!! HOLY SHIT! Dandy didn't stand out as much as I thought he might as this was mostly a tecnico showcase. Cruz did a plancha off the top rope to the floor at the end of the first fall as his partners put the other rudos away. Second fall seemed to be joined in progress and the rudos won it easily. Third fall also seemed to be joined in progress. Dandy and Rocca did nice tope suicidas. Guerrero Negro low blowed Valaguez for no reason to lose the match for his team. Great effort by both teams.

Lizmark/La Fiera/Kung Fu vs Pirata Morgan/Hombre Bala/Jerry Estrada (Arena Coliseo 1987): A fucking clinic. Honestly... this has to be seen. Just a freakin' amazing clinic in how three rudos can bump their asses off for almost the entire match and make crap(Kung Fu) look like gold. La Fiera was injured but the rudos still made him look great. Honestly, this may have been the most beautiful thing ever. The concept of the match was pretty much laid out like this... tecnicos make the rudos look stupid for 10 minutes, rudos take over and win in 2 minutes with unspectacular moves, tecnicos fight back and rudos run away like chickenshit heels + bump like mofo's and finally tecnicos win. It's not a hard concept to follow but I think the problem today is most wrestlers would laugh at a match planned out like that and ask "where's my shine?". GREAT HEELS DON'T NEED TO SHINE! It reminds me of when cubsfan was totalling up the win/loss records for the CMLL guys and figured out most rudos had losing records and most tecnicos had winning records. DUH. But a match like this really simplifies why it should be like that. The rudos are still getting over even though they are being destroyed. The crowd respects them for taking the beatings and can easily see through when there is a shitty tecnico in the ring who somehow looks like a star for 30 seconds while working with a great rudo. Then when it's time for the rudos to take over, they don't need to hit a bunch of high flying moves or big head dropping moves to get a pop and have the crowd chant "THIS IS AWESOME"... they just punch and kick and bodyslam the crap out of the tecnicos and cover them. Why? Because they had the advantage. DAMN RUDOS! Then the tecnicos fight back and the rudos beg off/run away... why? Because they're scared! So many heel wrestlers these days seem to be afraid to do that b/c they wanna be "badass". The perfect match right here. Get it from Fredo.

La Parka/Safari/Tigre Universitario vs Ultimo Guerrero/Tarzan Boy/Black Tiger (Gimnasio Nuevo Leon 12/17/04): If you are reading this cubsfan, does this count for 2005 trios MOTY voting? I absolutely loved this and for every crappy mailed in Monterrey match, it's worth it for Fredo to get this stuff just for matches like this one. Parka/Ultimo was the feud that was pushed and everyone had their 'A' game going. First fall was great and included a small dive train at the end, the best being Safari doing a tope suicida on Tarzan Boy who was facing away from the ring! Ultimo cheated to win the fall and then tore up Parka's mask. In the second fall the tecnicos fought back led by Parka who began to tear Ultimo's mask and Ultimo was maskless for a good 5 seconds. Seriously, if Fredo took a screen cap he could go to the Box y Lucha board and post the picture. He'd be the most hated guy over there. Fall ends with Parka doing a tope suicida into an armdrag near the ringpost!!! Other tecnicos then pin the rudos with dual frankensteiners. Third fall had more focus on Parka/Ultimo. Tigre Universitario might have done a dive... I forget... but he ended up outside and Safari was inside the ring waiting to do something but I guess one of the rudos wasn't in the right position so he just rolled out of the ring like an idiot. This left Parka/Ultimo and... blah... Monterrey goofiness. Oh well. The finishing seuqnece was a cool low blow spot I hadn't seen before. This match set up...

La Parka vs Ultimo Guerrero (Gimnasio Nuevo Leon 12/24/04): Can't touch the Guadalajara match(which everyone must see!)... then again not much can. It was decent but they didn't go all out like I expected them to and the third fall had too much Monterrey goofiness for my liking. I love watching these guys work when they get going though so that was the highlight for me. Oh, and Ultimo's amazing mask!

In between falls they aired ads for a match that was scheduled to take place the following week but ended up getting switched around. What was that match?

Super Parka, Safari and Hooligan vs Ultimo Guerrero, Rey Bucanero and Tigre Universitario - Relevos Incrielbes.

I have to go cry myself to sleep now...

Lucha Libre Azteca Vol. 24:

Arsenal/Raiden/Angel Dorado Jr. vs Morvius/Panthro Jr./Bengali: This was a bunch of nothing and makes me very happy we don't get to see regular undercard stuff from Gimnasio Nuevo Leon. Just a bunch of brawling. I don't even think they knew what they were trying to accomplish with the match. Morvius is your typical OLX/NWG/XLAW young guy who for no reason will just do a random moonsault or 450 and follow it up with an elbowdrop. *shrug* Raiden is usually good but oh well. THANKFULLY FOR ME the losing team got to face each other.

Arsenal vs Raiden vs Angel Dorado Jr.: Aside from two dives in a row this was more of a nothing match. Arsenal is godawful. I don't even remember reading about him in results so I'm thinking he just needed money and put on a mask. Blech.

Blue Panther/Caifan II/Tigre Universitario vs Black Tiger/Tarzan Boy/Charles Lucero: Way too much Monterrey goofiness involving the referees. The one older ref kept taking it too far as while he was trying to beat Panther up he kept getting in the way of the rudos spots and they had to shove him aside on more than one occasion. I can understand doing this kind of stuff if the crowd is red hot and wants to kill the ref but nobody gave a shit here. Probably the worst Blue Panther match I've ever seen.

Lucha Libre Azteca Vol. 26:

If you are reading this Fredo - the Arena Solidaridad show was from August 1st, 2004.

Chucho Mar Jr./Diluvio Negro I/Silver Star vs Sergio Romo Jr./Monje Negro Jr./La Llamarada: I thought this was going to be AWFUL but the first two falls were actually pretty decent and I really enjoyed the cheap finish to the second fall since it was new to me. But the third fall quickly degenerated into shit so I had to hit the dreaded FF button. Silver Star is really a good worker but he is not spectacular nor does he have any charisma. Every time I see him in the ring all I can think of is what an awesome trio he, Olimpus and Atlantico would form.

Antifaz/Ultimo Dragon/Tinieblas Jr. vs Pentagon/Hator/Hijo Del Diablo: This may as well have been for the Copa Lazy 2004. Average match... nothing you'd remember the next day hence why I don't remember much. I do remember the rudos turned on Diablo at the end but I can't remember why. Maybe he was actually trying to do a few new spots or something.

Damian 666/Caifan II/Oriental I vs Nicho/Tigre Universitario/Oriental II: The usual fun Relevos Incriebles match from Gimnasio Nuevo Leon. Caifan II is *AWESOME*. I really hope he gets out of Monterrey someday and can show his stuff in Distrito Federal. Dude can work tecnico or rudo and is way ahead of everyone else in the area in terms of EVERYTHING. He hit this incredible headscissors takedown on Oriental II who was on the apron in the first fall. I can't even describe it b/c it was so awesome. I remember the match got pretty bad in the third fall with lots of brawling and a cheap finish as Damian threw powder in Nicho's eyes to win but then the commisioner reversed the ruling b/c get this... HE SAW THE POWDER ALL OVER THE RING! Do you know how many times I've wanted to see that happen in America? It just looks stupid when Jarrett smashes someone with a guitar, ref turns around and counts to 3 all the time not noticing the ring full of debris from the guitar.

Hector Garza vs Halloween: *Much* better than I expected but I am a huge Garza mark. If you have never seen a singles match from Monterrey involving tons of run-ins and referees fighting each other - you should get this one. Crowd was soooooooooo into Garza it isn't funny. In fact, that's probably what made the match as great as it was. Halloween had Damian helping him at ringside and Caifan II was supposed to be helping Garza but he was really just helping Halloween. So it was Halloween, Damian, Caifan II and the ref vs Garza. In the middle of the second fall Garza managed to fight back and take everyone out. He LAUNCHED Caifan II outside the ring with a ginormus backdrop onto Damian who did a brutal job of catching the kid. Garza then nailed everyone with one of the most beautiful corkscrew planchas I've ever seen! He won the fall but the odds were too great in the third fall... until Tigre Universitario and Oriental II ran out to help him! Crowd was going nuts. Both tecnicos took out Damian/Caifan II with tope suicidas near the ringpost and then Garza did a sunset flip to Halloween but the rudo ref refused to count so the tecnico ref ran into the ring and made the three count for a GIGANTIC POP. After the match a bunch of fans started being assholes and threw a bunch of stuff at the rudos. I liked this a lot.

AAA in Puebla 8/19/05:

El Angel/Cynthia Moreno/Sexy Piscis/Mascarita Sagrada 2000 vs Picudo/La Diabolica/May Flowers/Jerrito Estrada: Wow... pretty awful for this type of match. Crowd really wasn't into it and nobody seemed to be trying particularly hard and that INCLUDES Mascarita who always seems to work harder than everyone else in AAA. The main problem here aside from that was everyone got paired up with their rival. So you didn't get to see Mascarita vs Picudo or Angel vs Diabolica which is part of what makes these matches fun. A couple of dives couldn't even save this from being awful.


Oriental/Histeria/Estrella Dorada Jr. vs Hator/Psicosis/Zumbido: The AAA announcers are great when they introduce Zumbido. ZZZ...ZZZ...ZZZ...ZUUUUUUUUUUUUUMBIDO! He really fits perfectly in AAA, surrpised he never jumped sooner. This was a pretty fun match. Rudos attacked the tecnicos during their entrances but Oriental managed to slip in through the crowd. Rudos got confused, tecnicos sent them outside and nailed them with three perfect tope suicidas! The tecnicos were FLYING in this one with no regard for their bodies! Histeria had a great exchange with each rudo and ended up nailing both Hator and Psicosis with an awesome Super Crazy style running somersault plancha! Oriental then worked a reallllllllly fast exchange with Zumbido and then Psicosis, ending with another big dive... a moonsault plancha! Both guys hit the guardrail hard. Estrella tried to fly around himself but slipped twice so the rudos decided to just take over. Estrella eventually led the comeback and did a nice tope suicida into the aisle on Hator. Cibernetico did a run-in for the DQ and Shocker(with a new awesome Guapos shirt that I need) made the save for his Guapo buddy Estrella.

They showed highlights from AAA's tour of Nicoragua. They ran a show in a baseball stadium and by the looks of it, I swear there were at least 20,000+ in attendance. The place was PACKED! They also had a cool video package showing some local guys flying all over the place.

El Zorro vs Charly Manson: I did not expect much out of this at all but it turned out to be pretty good. Could Manson be motivated once again? Lots of matwork to start off and even a little finisher teasing as well! Zorro ended up outside and then holy crap... total flashback to 1999 as Manson connected with a BULLET TOPE SUICIDA!!! He used to have the second best tope suicida next to Black Warrior and it looks like he's regained it! Everything was going so well in the match until they did a ref bump and then you had the usual gAAAy ending. I still really enjoyed this though.

Octagon/Tinieblas Jr./Luzbel vs Fuerza Guerrera/Pirata Morgan/Aliens: All I'll say is this... Luzbel makes Gronda look like Blue Panther. The blown spots in this match were just comical and the finish... you guys wouldn't even believe me if I told you. I need more Luzbel footage!

Shocker vs La Parka Jr. vs Cibernetico: Wasn't a complete brawl as I expected. They tried to work an actual match which I will credit 100% to Shocker of course. Usual gAAAy stuff you'd expect at the finish. I forget who won but it isn't as bad as I'm making it out to be.

Decent AAA episode overall. The thing about AAA is a lot of their main eventers blow chunks. If they had better main event wrestlers(i.e. if Los GDI jumped), the TV product would easily be comparable to CMLL.

AAA Verano De Escandalo 9/18/05 Part 1:

La Parka Jr./Vampiro/El Zorro vs Jeff Jarrett/Abismo Negro/Charly Manson: I just wanted to get disc 1 over with and this was the only match left so I sped through it. They edited out Jarrett's entrance which supposedly caused a riot. Vampiro grabbed the mic before the match and swore a bunch of times. Gosh he's so cool! Parka Jr. did nothing here except comedy so it was pretty bad. The only bright moments were when Zorro/Manson entered the ring. They have good chemistry together. Manson once again blew me away by doing another awesome bullet tope suicida near the end of the match! I WANT MORE!!! Pretty fun angle as the heels took over and ended up taping Parka Jr. to the ringpost and Vampiro to the ropes. Mascarita 2000 ran out to untie Parka Jr. who went over to untie Vampiro. Meanwhile Mini Abismo ran out to stop Mascarita 2000. Abismo/Manson chased Mascarita around the ring but he hopped inside. Mini Abismo tried to grab him but Mascarita ducked and they did the worlds fastest run-in complete with 200x speed spinning headscissors and flying frankensteiner to the floor in less than 3.4 seconds. It was... IN-FUCKING-CREDIBLE! Straight out of a cartoon where the roadrunner speeds through the screen knocking everything over. Jarrett just stood in the corner not believe what he was seeing, it was kinda funny. Vampiro won the match for his team with a low blow and caugh the next plane back to Italy during the post-match promos.

Lucha Libre Azteca Vol. 27.:

Los Payasos Tricolor vs Los Divos: Los Divos are Raiden, Bengali and Cats. This was your typical match until the finish. The Payasos aren't really spectacular but the crowd loves them. Los Divos are great bumpers. I actually liked the start of the match where Raiden(or was it Cats?) was on the floor and kept yelling at the crowd but every time he'd put his hands up to tell them to be quiet, Coco Blanco would come over and give him an armdrag. They split the first two falls and for some reason three "fans" jumped over the guardrail wearing masks. Security took them away but total angle alert. Coco Verde did an awesome asai moonsault onto someone in the third fall. Raiden did a not-so-awesome tope suicida to Coco Blanco who refused to sell it b/c it was so awful. Then the masked guys returned and beat everyone up revealing themselves to be Jungla Negra Jr. and Los Orientales I y II. OMG I DON'T CARE!

Mistico/Mr. Niebla/Tigre Universitario vs Rey Bucanero/El Averno/Caifan Rockero II: This was Mistico's debut at Gimnasio Nuevo Leon so as you could expect he was over huge. I gotta say though, the Mistico I'm watching in Monterrey is not the Mistico I know from Mexico City or Guadalajara. He just seems... off. Not that he isn't trying, just that he isn't putting forth all the effort he could. I only got into Lucha after Rey Jr. had been around for 4-5 years regularly on TV/tapes but one thing I always loved about watching him was no matter how small the show was, he would try something new and refuse to go through the same exchange over and over again. Mistico doesn't seem to be like that and is hesitant to try new stuff when he's not "in his element"(i.e. working with Ultimo Guerrero in Arena Mexico). It's a little concerning. The match itself was pretty fun. Niebla looked soooooooooooooooo fucking fat. I am glad CMLL kicked his ass to the curb and told him to get his act together b/c now it seems he's back in shape and willing to work hard like he used to. Caifan II was easily the star of this one. In the third fall Mistico slipped off the top rope trying his corkscrew armdrag to the floor but he improvised so it didn't look that bad. Caifan II totally showed him up with a 12 foot high assisted running somersault plancha. It's so scary to watch, I can't even imagine how scary it is to do! Averno cheated to pin Tigre and then challenged for his WWA Middleweight Title.

Tigre Universitario vs Averno: For the WWA Middleweight Title... duh. This was like Mistico vs Averno except with half the drama and Tigre isn't really spectacular... at all. But the way they worked the match was an exact copy of Averno's series with Mistico in 2005. They split the first two falls and the third fall went about 12 minutes(first two falls went 3 minutes less than that!) with a couple of neat dives by each and some really nice nearfalls including Tigre fighting off Averno's double underhook finisher nicely. Tigre won with a magistral cradle. They shook hands after the match.

Mistico/Perrito vs Ultimo Guerrero/Rey Bucanero: Perrito as a tecnico? EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! I will say this though... he was OVER LIKE A MOFO. Crowd was cheering him more than Mistico in this one. This wasn't the blowaway match I was expecting(maybe the revenge match will be) but it was still really good and I think if more people had a chance to see it, it might have even gotten some votes for 2005 tag team MOTY. Mistico looked really good in the third fall but Perrito looked even better. Perrito did his silla as Mistico did a tornillo. Later Perrito did a pescado onto the rudos and Mistico went for a tope suicida but ended up nailing his partner. Mistico then got pinned so it was 2-on-1. Perrito rolled up Bucanero to even things up. The finish had some MTY goofiness but it wasn't too overdone. Match got about 20-22 minutes. I'd reccomend it but want to see the revenge match on the next disc before telling everyone to get this or not.

Classic Lucha Jan. 27/1984:

I have NO IDEA where Fredo found this but I hope he finds more from said place.

Ringo Mendoza/Hombre Bala/Gran Cochisse vs El Supremo/Enfermero Jr./Talisman: Ringo is just one of those guys who has never impressed me. Even in this match when he was supposed to be in his prime... well okay not really in his prime but he was something like 35 at the time so he should still have been able to go... anyways, he STILL REALLY SUCKED! Dude just can't go. Everything he does is so basic. He was the worst worker in this match by far. Bala looked awesome though. I need more footage of him. Cochisse and Enfermero Jr. feuded which was the main story of the match. Talisman once again stole the show though. Awesome bump in the first fall that I've never seen before. FIND ME MORE TALISMAN FOOTAGE ALFREDO! The finish of the second fall was awesome as Bala has Supremo pinned with a rolling reverse cradle but Enfermero Jr. jumps on Bala to pin him at the same time. As he is celebrating though, Cochisse jumps on him and makes him submit to the Cavernaria for a huge pop. I got a little confused at this point though b/c I swear the tecnicos also won the first fall so in theory the match should have been over 2-0 but they kept wrestling.:/ I'll have to re-watch b/c maybe I fucked up but I'm pretty sure the tecnicos won fall one.

Tony Salazar/Halcon Ortiz/Cien Caras vs Satanico/Colosso Colosetti/Herodes: The announcer kept calling Colosetti - "Benetto" but it definitely wasn't Benetto. I NEED MORE COLOSO COLOSETTI! He was unreal! He had a serious look on his face the entire match and didn't even bother locking up with Cien Caras or Halcon Ortiz, he just walked right up to them and grabbed them in some hold. Then on the mat he refused to stay still and made them fight to keep up with what he was doing. Oh man... it was a thing of beauty. Cien really impressed me as he was the only one who could somewhat keep up with Colosetti. They had good chemistry. Salazar never got in the ring with Colosetti which is a shame b/c it would have been... ummm... interesting... and I'll leave it at that. Herodes was his usual awesome self, taking rolling bumps to perfection and making Halcon Ortiz look good. The finish was funny and innovative at the same time. I really liked this.

Alright Jose, new non-welterweights dream 80's match...

Herodes/Coloso Colosseti/Tony Benetto vs Stuka/Cien Caras/MA2K.

CMLL TV 10/22/05:

Safari/Misterioso II/Metro vs Sagrado/Trueno/Volador Jr.: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I broke my golden rule when it came to this match. NEVER under ANY circumstance think a match will be great just b/c all the workers are pretty good to great. First off, all three falls got a combined time of 6 minutes. Secondly, Volador Jr. got approx. 10 seconds of ring time in what was shown. Third, Sagrado got none. Fourth, everyone looked big time lost at the finish. MOTYC? ... I'm gonna go with no.

Perro Jr./Hector Garza/Terrible vs Ultimo Guerrero/Rey Bucanero/Universo 2000: Another fun match in the Perros Del Mal vs everyone else feud. The only part that sucked was when Guerrero/Bucanero were holding Perrito upside down and Universo started giving Perrito the WEAKEST KICKS EVER! I know guys like Bix, Tom and Phil love using the word "hate" when it comes to this feud but these kicks were laughable. Universo must have been having an off night.

Momentos was all Arena Mexico which always bums me out. Caligula and Messala made the opening clip so that was alright. They showed Mazada dropping Pantera on his head by accident which is why Volador Jr. replaced him in the opener.

Mistico/El Hijo Del Santo/Negro Casas vs Mr. Aguila/Damian 666/Halloween: This was the main event so not sure why it aired in this position as you could clearly see the fans leaving the building afterwards. Just a total sprint but an awesome one. I really enjoyed it b/c they didn't do the standard rudos win a fall, tecnicos win a fall and go home. They switched it up nicely and did some really cool moves. Mistico is always great when he works with Damian/Halloween. The finish to this match is probably the best finish I've seen all year long. Mistico fakes out Damian/Halloween on the floor, Casas kills Damian with the silla as Santo does a cornerpost tope suicida on Halloween leaving Aguila and Mistico. My man blocks a kick, ducks a spin kick, whip into the ropes reversed, clothesline ducked, double handspring moonsaults right by each other and LA MISTICA! I could watch that finish all day and still not get tired of it.

Dr. Wagner Jr./Dos Caras Jr./Lizmark Jr. vs. Atlantis/Gedo/Jado: I fell asleep during this. When I woke up I rewound it and watched from where I left off. Then I fell asleep again. So I woke up... well let's just say the cycle continued. This was pretty fucking awful. No wonder the Mexican fans shit all over Gedo/Jado's first Mexican appearences before one of them got hurt.

Random other stuff I also watched...

Santo/Mistico vs Atlantis/Ultimo Guerrero(Arena Mexico 11/25/05): Oh man... this was pretty fucking good. The first fall was the beatdown to end all beatdowns by the rudos. Just awesome stuff that I won't spoil. Second fall started REALLY WEIRD as they seemed to clip forward, then out of nowhere they clipped back to the start of the fall and then they clipped forward once again. I don't think we missed much though b/c the girl with the "segunda caida" sign was still walking up the ramp. Tecnicos fought back and did their own beatdown which was fun to watch. With things tied up the crowd was RED HOT. Mistico worked his magic with both rudos but then Atlantis pissed me off as he was busy trying to some guy in the crowd while Ultimo was working hard to act frustrated at Mistico's dominance. Atlantis sucks as a rudo. Finish was as weak as you'll ever see. Atlantis faked a low blow but the ref didn't buy it. As Atlantis was faking it, Mistico just lay down on top of him and got the three count. WTF? If he had rolled up Atlantis it woulda made sense but he just lay on him. Why would Atlantis stay down after faking a low blow? Sense no maketh. Really good match aside from the finish but I'd still out Atlantis/Panther vs Averno/Mephisto and even Mistico/Perrito vs GDI from G.N.L. 3/7/05 over it.

El Angel/Estrella Dorada Jr./Antifaz vs Zumbido/Nozawa/Hator(Verano De Escandalo 2005): Wow... one of the worst lucha matches I've ever seen. If you don't know the story, this was the match before the main event which had Latin Lover in it. But Latin was busy on 'Dancing With The Stars' which is filmed live so these guys had to stall while he made it to the building. So they did the match they had planned for about 8-9 minutes and then spent another 15-20 minutes just clowning around until Tirantes told Zumbido something and Zumbido just yanked off Antifaz's mask for the DQ. The crowd was completely dead. Sevilla got so bored in the middle of the match he began doing flips on the floor all by himself... no joke.

Latin Lover/Shocker vs Cibernetico/Chessman(Verano De Escandalo 2005): Your typical wayyyyyyyyyyy too overbooked AAA main event. The finish sounds great in writing with Chessman about to escape the cage and cost Latin Lover his hair but Mosco II cuts the power to the building so nobody can see Chessman escape and the lights come back on, Chessman is back in the cage fighting with Latin as Abismo blows fire from outside the ring. Chessman sets up a table and tries to escape but gets electrocuted by the cage and falls through the table as Latin escapes. Obviously it didn't come off well as Mosco II had trouble getting the power to go off and everyone at ringside was doing stupid shit to distract from the in-ring stuff. While Chessman was getting shaved I kept trying to think why Mosco II would want Chessman to lose but I'll give AAA credit(twice actually) - they showed a video package explaining it as back at Verano De Escandalo 2004 I had totally forgotten it was Chessman who cost Mosco II his mask. The second thing I'll credit AAA for is having Chessman lose. That was A LOT OF HAIR TO LOSE. It wasn't one of those bullshit CMLL head shavings where Garza/Pierroth/any of the Dinamitas/etc. just grow their hair back within 2 weeks. Really felt like an important moment.

Mistico/Perro Jr. vs Guerrero/Bucanero(Gimnasio Nuevo Leon 3/27/05): The first match was better. Guerrero bladed big time here and was covered in blood courtesy of Mistico. Couple of neat spots and the crowd was big time into Mistico unlike the first match but I hated the finish and short first fall. I kept waiting for Perrito to turn on Mistico by the end of the match but it never happened.

LOS HEGO BOYS!!!: Well this was the highlight of the day wrestling wise... I watched the first match from the AAA TV Taping in Tijuana on 9/30/05 featuring a new team called Los Hego Boys comprised of Luminoso, Genio Del Aire and Airon Boy. Luminoso wears an outfit sorta like Valiente and is actually built like him too. But he wasn't the story here, the other two guys were. They were AWESOME! They also had great looks so I'm hoping Pena does something with them. The announcers kept babbling on about Los Cadetes Del Espacio so if Pena creates a new version of the Cadets with these guys - I will become even more of an AAA mark. They only got about 4 minutes of offense combined but Airon Boy was all over the place doing a bunch of neat headscissors while Genio Del Aire did the same but ended his seuqnece with a SPACE FLYING TIGER DROP!!! He got so much height on the backflip portion that he almost landed right down on the ropes!!! Unfortunately the rudos took over way too soon but there was this awesome moment where King Azteca slapped Airon Boy who(while standing still) took a backflip bump and I swear it he wanted to he could have done an extra rotation and landed on his back! He's gonna be the first guy to take my dream backflip senton bump off a clothesline. Unless Jack Evans reads this and beats him to it! Tecnicos all did running somersault planchas and then the rudos turned on each other. Or rather Aliens turned on them and murdered King Azteca in particular. Naturally first thing I am doing tomorrow is watching the Hego Boys match from Mexicali where I hope they get to do more stuff. My only question is where are these guys now? I can't find them in any of my results past/present. It'd be a shame if Pena abducted them for his personal use. Put Pegasso with these three, give them a cool team name + flashy outfits and I think I've found the newest guys for me to mark out for constantly.

CMLL TV 10/29/05:

Pantera/Tigre Metalico/Tony Rivera vs. Loco Max/Hooligan/Arkangel De La Muerte: Not bad. Felt more like a Trios Lightning Match though. Eight dives in nine minutes - WOW! Still, they did a bunch of fun stuff and kept the action going which is all you can ask for with these Coliseo openers(hence why they need to show more undercard stuff). Third fall had a dive train and then Pantera pinned Arkangel. Great way to start an episode off.

Felino/Heavy Metal/Maximo vs. Gedo/Hajime Ohara/Shigeo Okumura: ... Great way to bring me down after a fun match. Mail-in city. The third fall had a laughable finish where everyone is just standing around doing absolutely nothing and you get the impression everyone realized they had just hit the 10 minute mark which meant they were off the clock so they just went home with no build. Maximo tried... that's the best thing I can say about this.

Momentos was all Arena Mexico once again. Bam Bam with a cool running plancha off the ramp onto Pequeno Violencia. Pequeno Olimpico makes Pequeno Violencia submit to the Invered Cristo. Sagardo with a head and arm suplex to Mazada. Rest was repeated stuff.

El Hijo Del Santo/Volador Jr./Hombre Sin Nombre/Jado vs Misterioso II/El Averno/La Mascara/Negro Casas: Prepare to be shocked... I did NOT enjoy this. They didn't show the battle royale to form teams and joined the elimination match already in progress meaning right in the middle of an exchange which led to a dive. And another dive. And another dive. And then pinfalls to start getting rid of people. So 2 minutes in and we're already seeing the disapearence of Hombre Sin Nombre, La Mascara, Misterioso II and Volador Jr.. WTF? HSN is definitely Safari although I give him points for the random twitches which he never used to do as a tecnico. It actually scares me a bit to be quite honest. I could have told you from the start it would come down to Santo and Negro so that part was no surprise. The draw finish was but then Santo just made Negro submit 15 seconds later so... yay... I think. Huge disapointment. If anyone was calling this a MOTYC(that's what it said in the WON), they must have seen it live and we must have missed at least 15 minutes of awesome action.

Rey Bucanero/Ultimo Guerrero/Universo 2000 vs Perrito/Terrible/Hector Garza: Great stuff. Huge brawl right from the start which is exactly what you want in this feud. I really don't have to explain what happened but rest assured this was another great match between these teams. Hated the run-in finish since the match was going so good up till that point but oh well. See cubs - this is why I dislike CMLL finishes more than AAA ones. I *expect* the run-ins in AAA and if they've already started, I like hearing the pop when they backfire or the tecnicos run in for the save and chaos ensues(see: Parka Jr. vs Cibernetico - Mask vs Mask). What I hate the most is watching a fun match that I am really into and all of a sudden it ends in a split second b/c someone runs in.

Good show overall if you could the opener, certain segments of the Torneo and the main.

CMLL TV 11/5/05:

Marcela/Sahori/India Sioux vs Amapola/Hiroka/La Nazi: VERY GOOD! VERY FUCKING GOOD! Sorry Henrik, you're still my buddy but this was VERY FUCKING GOOD! This was my favorite women's match since the first trios match they had at Arena Mexico. I remember seeing India Sioux in the Torneo for the CMLL Women's Title shot and thinking she wasn't so good and reminded me too much of the awful mid-90's CMLL ladies who really couldn't do anything but she proved me totally wrong in this match. She might be my new favorite luchadora after her performance here. Wait, that's wrong... La Amapola is still my favorite. She was the second best performer in this match and took some amazing bumps. Marcela and Hiroka looked good as usual. La Nazi looked the best she ever has and I was very impressed at how a couple of times the tecnicas were getting a little out of control with their spots and Nazi just slowed them down so the match wouldn't fall apart. That's the sign of a good ruda. Sahori looked the worst of the six but even she looked good. So yeah... this was good, you should all look forward to seeing it. I liked it better than the Hooligan match on 10/29. Yes, I feel dirty saying that. But it's OK b/c India Sioux is HOT!

Gronda visited the doctor. It wasn't a funny skit which made me sad.

Ultimo Dragon/Mistico/El Hijo Del Pierroth/Sagrado vs Atlantis/Gedo/Maximo/El Mephisto: Yeah... this sucked too. Once again battle royale was skipped and the match was joined in progress with Salsero doing a backflip and a running somersault plancha onto Gedo. How is Salsero working a semi-main event at Arena Mexico? What does he know about Pierroth? Or how much money does he owe Pierroth? Mistico did NOT look sharp at the start of this one but got better in the later stages of the match. He tried a slingshot frankensteiner to the floor on Mephisto and wow did he ever fuck it up big time. Ultimo and Gedo had this long exchange that was alright. Sagrado eliminated Maximo with a head and arm suplex dropping Maximo right on his head leading to about 10 security members and 2 doctors entering the ring to remove Maximo. That's a pretty weird move to be using as your finisher on the harder Mexican rings. It came down to Mistico vs Mephisto/Atlantis naturally and after taking two boots to the face trying an asai moonsault dive and getting hit with Mephisto's finisher immediatly afterwards... Mistico kicked out at two. O...k...a...y. He then hit La Mistica right away and Mephisto tapped. O...k...a...y. Mistico had Atlantis beat but Ultimo Guerrero's distraction allowed Atlantis to recover and win. Santo did a run-in afterwards and the four guys brawled. Huge heat!

Momentos had a very special return... the return of... ARENA COLISEO CLIPS!!! Danger did an AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWESOME springboard plancha onto ARTILLERO! More on him later. Lizmark did a plancha onto Olimpico. Back to Arena Mexico as Pequeno Violencia squashed Bam Bam with a flying senton. Metro making Mazada submit to the Swastika rounded out the new clips.

Pierroth/Ultimo Guerrero/Universo 2000 vs Perrito/Damian 666/Halloween: Los Perros Del Mal debuted their new official theme music which I must have but will probably never get. Universo came out first and was ambushed and nailed with a Damian tope suicida. Ultimo was next to get destroyed. Finally Pierroth came out and got beat up and bloodied. Perros Del Mal were DQ'ed in the first fall for excessive violence. Universo's team made a comeback in the second fall. Guerrero did an awesome plancha onto Damian. Perrito went up top but Universo low blowed and pinned him. I liked the match the week before better.

El Hijo Del Santo/Dr. Wagner Jr./Dos Caras Jr. vs Canek/Rey Bucanero/Tarzan Boy: Joined in progress after the entrances and before you can say "wow that ring girl is hot", Bucanero with the Bucanero Driver on Santo to win the first fall. Tecnicos rebound to take the second fall. Canek was looked soooooooooo bad. He almost paid for it too as he could barely get off his feet for a vertical suplex at the end of the fall causing Wagner to dump him on his head. Wagner didn't seem to care and trust me, I doubt many people did. Canek needs to pull an Anibal and fast! Third fall was longer than usual but everyone seemed to be working slower than usual so I didn't know what to make of it. Canek didn't even try to catch Wagner's usual somersault dive off the apron.

Pretty good episode with the best match being the opener.

I couldn't resist waiting so I popped in the 1/14/06 CMLL TV DVD to watch the opener:

Crazzy Boy/Tigre Blanco/Tigre Metalico vs LA FLECHA/ARTILLERO/SUPER COMANDO... ~LOS GUERRILLEROS!: Two things I noticed right away. 1) I think this aired in full b/c Fredo's copy has an extra match from GdR and the DVD started with the segunda caida instead of the usual CMLL TV intro. 2) Part of the crowd had a "GUERRILLEROS" chant going. HOW AMAZING IS THAT??? Oh, also as the fall began I realized this was one of *two* Super Comando matches I had on deck waiting to be watched. How often will that ever happen in my life? Rudos were in control as the second fall began since they won the first fall as the graphic tells us. Before you can say "wow that was a fun triple team spot", Crazzy Boy counters a double hiptoss into a power bomb with a DDT. Los Tigres dropkick Flecha and Comando outside and SQUASH THEM TO DEATH with dual running somersault planchas. If you've ever paid attention to your Momentos clips you should know the Guerrilleros are the best at getting killed with dives. In the ring Crazzy Boy does a death valley driver to pin Artillero. Short but fun. As the third fall starts you notice one thing... the crowd is really into this match! Some really nice exchanges in this fall. Flecha(who is now clearly the experienced rudo working with all the young undercard tecnicos) ends up outside and Tigre Blanco follows him, then hops onto his shoulders possibly for a spinning armdrag. However they lose their balance but recover nicely as Blanco just picks Flecha up and slams him down hard on the floor! Metalico and Artillero have an equally nice exchange ending with Metalico doing... ugh... a dropkick off the apron. He needs to quit doing that pussy move. Crazzy Boy and Super Comando are next up and it's exactly what you'd expect out of Crazzy Boy... random U.S. indy move after another. He fucks up the moonsault into an inverted DDT but fear not, he's got a running dropkick to the face ready as a backup plan to make sure he can reach his 20 spots per minute quota. Every CZW fan would be proud of him b/c he used a shining wizard as well! Blanco and Artillero enter. Artillero ends up taking a GIGANTIC sallida bump with the cameraman getting the best angle possible and Blanco slingshots himself into a spinning headscissors on the outside. Crazzy Boy and Comando then do some more stuff with Crazzy Boy ending up on the apron and kicking Comando away. Flecha comes over to tell Crazzy Boy it's been 10 seconds since he did a random U.S. indy spot so Crazzy Boy grabs him and nails him with a Spanish Fly off the apron injuring Flecha's shoulder. Awesome spot... I will say that. Crowd/announcers/myself went nuts. What was awkward was the 4 seconds beforehand where they stood beside each other and seemed to be counting down 3...2..1...jump. Crazzy Boy earned points from me though as the replays showed he clearly protected Flecha's head/neck and asked him if he was okay afterwards. Los Tigres finish off Artillero/Comando with a doomsday flying cross body press and small package combo. FUCKING EXCELLENT WAY TO OPEN UP A TV SHOW! The *only* bad things about matches like this is the feeling you get afterwards knowing you won't see these guys in a real match for at least another 6 months, if not longer.

CMLL TV 11/12/05:

Pierroth/Universo 2000/Ultimo Guerrero vs Perrito/Damian/Halloween: Aw man I loved this. I keep looking at the listings for each episode and thinking to myself "what? another match with the same guys??? This is gonna get old and fast" and yet... it doesn't. Awesome psychology early on with Pierroth/Ultimo going up the ramp to hide and attack the Perros as they come out b/c that's what happened to them the week before but the Perros were one step ahead and came out through the crowd to beat up Universo who was alone in the ring and the brawl was on! Perros took the first fall easily and the comeback was on in the second fall! Awesome brawling exchanges(what, you expected a technical masterpiece?) leading to the big spot of the match as Ultimo goes up top and obviously can't get his balance on the ringpost but decides to jump anyways and his body twists at this DISGUSTING angle as he comes crashing down onto Halloween and La Nazi. I am *SHOCKED* he wasn't seriously injured with the way he landed right on his head upside down but then again... ULTIMO GUERRERO IS A MACHINE! Halloween was actually the most shaken up as he took a knee to the face. In the ring Universo grabbed Perro Jr. for a tombstone!!! The referees quickly stopped him but right when they pulled Perrito down, Universo grabbed Damian and gave him the Martillo Negro!!! Instant DQ and awesome angle alert. Perrito and Halloween checked on Damian right away as security and doctors came into the ring. When Damian was stretchered off, Universo grabbed the mic and taunted Perrito only to have Halloween steal the mic and begin to challenge Universo himself. In the middle of the challenge... HE SLAPS HIM! UNIVERSO TACKLES HALLOWEEN! THE BRAWL IS ON!!! I'll leave it at that but this was a really awesome angle and must be seen.

Momentos wasn't too hot. All Arena Mexico. Apocalipsis did a flying bodypress to pin someone I forget. Blue Panther did a tope suicida onto someone as Satanico did a senton off the apron at the same time onto Nitro. The best spot was the third as Mr. Aguila comes up with the finish of the week once again. La Mascara whips him into the ropes, Aguila does a handspring backflip over a sliding Mascara but then gets locked in the Campana! Looked beautiful. Rest was repeated footage.

Mistico/La Mascara/Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Rey Bucanero/El Averno/El Mephisto: AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!!! Did I mention this was awesome??? These guys came out looking all fired up and they TORE IT UP! I won't spoil any spots or finishes but I will say Mistico totally made up for the disapointing performance last week and the week before by hitting a couple of incredible spots and La Mascara was not about to be upstaged too much and he looked great as well doing a couple of spots that rivaled what Mistico was doing! Wagner even joined in on the action by doing a wicked spot I had never seen him do before in the third fall. Another rarity was he took some offense instead of just dishing it out courtesy of Bucanero in the second fall. Once again I repeat... THIS WAS AWESOME!!! A really late trios MOTYC for me. The finishing sequence was absolutely sick. Damnit... I gotta rewatch this.

El Hijo Del Santo vs Atlantis: It was gonna be hard to top the previous match but these guys definitely tried. Really fun match that was pretty slow starting off but picked up about halfway through. Atlantis taking off his mask to reveal a second mask except in black was awesome. Ultimo and Atlantis throwing Monito around and onto Santo was also awesome. Atlantis' bump off Santo's kneelift early on was way too awesome. Even though I knew there was a screwjob coming, I really enjoyed this. And I even liked the screwjob b/c it was sorta innovative and not one of thoes deals where you can clearly see the referee is in full sight of the rudo cheating but just ignores it. Everyone hit their cue perfect and the finish was 100% believable. I wonder if Santo and Ultimo can top this?

Needless to say, if you pick one episode to get from Fredo's newest TV batch - make it this one!

Lucha Libre Azteca Vol. 29:

Jungla Negra Jr./Orientales I y II vs Payasos Tricolor: Standard match. Not much emotion even though it was for the trios titles and nobody seemed to be trying harder than usual. Orientales are so much more fun as tecnicos and Jungla Jr. is much better as a rudo. So of course the Orientales played rudo here and Jungla played their tecnico partner. Sad thing is there will be a rematch on a later volume.

Atlantis/Blue Panther/Tigre Universitario vs Super Parka/VOLDOR JR./Charles Lucero: Atlantis should have been studying here b/c Volador Jr. was teaching him how to be AN AMAZING RUDO! I can't say enough about Volador's performance... so amazing. If it weren't for his great highspots, I'd go on for the next month about how he should be turned rudo and team with Misterioso II instead of feuding with him. This makes me all the more sad Fredo never got Mistico/Perrito vs Super Parka/Volador Jr.. Don't underestimate Super Parka either... he was great here too.

Gato Volador/Tigre Universitario/Babe Rap vs Volador Jr./Averno/Potro Jr.: Another great rudo performance by Volador Jr.! He also had on the coolest outfit in the world that I so need a screen cap of so it can be my new wallpaper. The tecnicos were a bunch of fun in this match as well. I've always been a Gato Volador fan even though he does the same stuff all the time... he just does it perfectly. Babe Rap I've only seen a couple of times and he looked really good here. In the first fall he did this INCREDIBLE moonsault off Averno's shoulders but it wasn't like Mistico's where he just jumps up and moonsaults quickly... he actually STOOD on Averno's shoulders for a good 3 seconds before backflipping. That's some awesome balance and agility! In the third fall he did this crazy second rope springboard corkscrew plancha on Averno which is a highlight reel dive. Clean finish gets this match bonus points.

Blue Panther vs Super Parka: Why even bother describing it... the usual singles match from this building involving two referees, the commisioner, two seconds who interfere constantly and holding the ropes to pin your opponent. At least the crowd was red hot. These two can do better, in fact I have a match of theirs from Arena Coliseo De Monterrey in 2002 that is much better than this.

Arena Coliseo De Monterrey 12/26/04:

See how much I love you guys, I even get the AWFUL ARENA COLISEO DE MONTERREY SHOWS just to spread the word on what is good and what is bad! To be fair... I saw the listing and dreaded watching it but I have so many Arena Coliseo shows waiting to be seen I just wanted to get it out of the way... and this wasn't too horrifying at all. The only match that really blew as bad as I thought it would was the semi-main of Konnan Big/Herodes/Ares vs Angel Del Amor/Apolo Estrada Jr./Corazon De Barrio. There were some laughable blown spots in the first and third falls b/c Angel Del Amor is just a stripper who fucked Elizondo and was given a mask to lose within 2 weeks for a little extra cash. Konnan Big is also really awful but he's been around for a while so he at least knows how to take a rolling bump. Herodes is broken down and crippled which sucks. I saw him on a Monterrey show from October 2005 and wow... he looked so bad. Overall this show was average. Opener was fun and had a surprising finish. Segunda was just... there. Semi-main blew. Main event had its' moments thanks to Zumbido. The entire show was dedicated to Jerry Estrada who looked like he didn't even want to be in attendance.

AAA 7/17/05 @ Arena Coliseo De Monterrey:

I think Fredo has a soft spot for me b/c he actually agreed to just send me disc 1 instead of subjecting me to what looked to be an awful disc 2 and boy am I glad he did that b/c this show had another unreal performance by Chessman which I would have been sad to miss.

Incognito/Picudo/Sangre Chicana Jr. vs Sergio Romo Jr./Monje Negro Jr./Estrella Dorada Jr.: Crappy. Incognito is a star and I can't believe they haven't re-gimmicked him yet and pushed him to the moon. He could be HUGE for them. Last I heard he turned down Pena's advanced and went home though. Hator ran-in for absolutely no reason and started to beat people up with no DQ called which confused me. Chicana Jr. did a wicked tope suicida which made me happy since his dad used to have one of the best. Surprisingly not as bad as I thought it'd be.

Oriental/Cynthia Moreno vs Gran Apache/La Diabolica: I expect much more from this so I came out disapointed. Apache was his usual awesome self but you really can't do much with Oriental when he doesn't want to try and work. Cynthia seems to be slowing down and Diabolica doesn't bump like she used to. Total FF material.

I guess this was an actual AAA TV show instead of a Llaves y Candados show b/c they aired a Noti AAA.

Octagon/La Parka Jr./Antifaz vs Sangre Chicana/Zumbido/... ~CHESS-FUCKING-MAN!: So... this was fucking awesome thanks to Chessman(80%) and Zumbido(20%). The story was Chicana was turning tecnico and didn't want to talk to or help his partners which is FINE BY ME b/c it meant he got no ring time. They skipped the matwork and Octagon/Zumbido just started the match with a really fast exchange. Then, it was as if Chessman just said to everyone "FUCK YOU ALL, IT'S TIME FOR ME TO PROVE WHY I AM THE MVP OF THIS PROMOTION"! First he works a nice exchange with Octagon. Then La Parka Jr. starts dancing and Chessman decides he's going to make Parka Jr. throw him around. Chessman gets backdropped onto the ramp and Parka Jr. slingshots himself over the ropes to armdrag Chessman on the ramp! Then... huge monkey flip on the ramp! OUCH! Chessman gets clotheslined into the ring but lands on his feet only to be met with a springboard armdrag sending him outside. Antifaz gets tagged in and it's time to have some more fun! Chessman bumps all over for him and winds up on the ramp once more! Antifaz grabs Zumbido's hands and runs up the ropes... AND TAKES CHESSMAN DOWN ON THE RAMP WITH A FLYING FRANKENSTEINER!!! HOLY SHIT!!! The usual dead quiet Arena Coliseo crowd even reacted and applauded! Antifaz then did his usual exchange with Zumbido and hit a beautiful running somersault plancha! Chessman and Zumbido took over for a short while but the tecnicos fought back. Zumbido took a great knee-to-the-corner bump outside and Parka Jr. connected with a tope suicida ending up with him sitting in the front row as if he were just watching the match! *LMAO* Octagon dumped Chessman and hit a nice tope suicida knocking Chessman into the second row! Antifaz and Chicana entered and Chicana just lay down for the three count. The moral of the match is... Chessman is the AAA MVP.

This begs the obvious question - do I dare pick up the AAA 8/21/05 show in Pachuca that only has two matches except one of them is with Chessman and this mysterious guy Voodoo who I know nothing about. Hmmm...

CMLL TV 11/19/05:

Diana La Cazadora/India Sioux vs La Nazi/Princesa Sujei: You'll notice in all the past womens matches that have aired, they usually come out, walk to the ring and get down to business trying to prove they can wrestle and aren't just around due to their looks. Even Dark Angel, who I am a huge critic of, doesn't stand around posing for pictures during the match - she tries to wrestle and prove she isn't just a pretty face. (That's a great setup for you Jose!) I say this b/c then we come to... Diana La Cazadora. I pretty much knew why she was brought in right after her entrance. She danced all the way to the ring, then back up the ramp, then back down the ramp and then in the ring. She also made sure to lower her pants so her g-string would show the entire match. While I love her huge tits and amazing ass... she's an awful wrestler. I hope that recent car accident she was in didn't ruin her looks b/c if it did... it's hooker time for her. The other three ladies were perfectly acceptable with India Sioux once again standing out and looking amazing. The match was really bad though as it was like watching Gronda in a tag match. Sure he knows his usual 3 or 4 spots, but the rest of the time he won't know what to do and will be too tired to do anything if he wanted to. Diana was the same way. She did her cartwheel, her handspring elbow and her armdrag... then she was all out of ideas. To make it worse, she was totally gassed right when the rudos began their beatdown and was practically immobile for the rest of the match, especially the finishing sequence which called for her to run a lot. They let this go on way too long with the condition Diana was in so I give it a major thumbs down. *ahem* Happy Valentine's Day to India Sioux, my future wife.

Brazo De Plata/La Mascara/Satanico vs Apolo Dantes/Hombre Sin Nombre/Sangre Azteca: Pretty boring. La Mascara looked decent on a couple of exchanges with Azteca and Dantes but everything else here sucked. There was one scary spot where HSN picked up Mascara for a suplex outside and held him near the ropes so Azteca could dropkick him. It sounds pretty simple but HSN had no clue which way to hold Mascara and almost dropped him on his head after the dropkick.:/ Stop smiling Henrik! Third fall went all of 1 minute and 30 seconds for some reason.

Before Momentos they showed a clip of some girl sitting at ringside cheering Atlantis on. I thought she was just some sick kid(it was Teleton week) but then they showed clips of her playing soccer! She looked all of 12 years old!

Momentos... WITH ARENA COLISEO CLIPS! Bam Bam with a nice running tornillo onto Fire. Ultimo Dragoncito pins Pequeno Halloween(TV debut) with a tiger suplex. Back to Arena Mexico for Mr. Niebla doing a moonsault plancha onto Tarzan Boy and that wraps up the new footage.

Negro Casas/Mr. Niebla/Ultimo Dragon vs Perrito/Canek/El Mephisto: Perrito was awesome here. If his dad really was this awesome in his prime, we need to beg people in Mexico for old UWA footage. And by old I mean '82-'88 stuff. Canek was awful as usual. Everyone else was just their normal selves. Niebla isn't as lazy as he used to be which is a good sign but he still does that stupid dance too many times. And he's still fat. Shockingly in the third fall Ultimo Dragon gave Mephisto some offense! I don't think I have ever seen Ultimo Dragon give any rudo offense in his CMLL appearences. Finish was fun.

Universo 2000 vs Halloween: I lack the intelligence for word power... they should have done something else instead of two matches with these guys within two weeks. This was all angle with Damian 666/Apolo Dantes interfereing in the first fall and Perrito running in to end the second fall. I remember when it originally aired, even the hardcore Perros Del Mal fans were bashing it on the Box y Lucha forum and rightfully so. The hair match is probably gonna be 10x better.

Pretty crappy episode.

Watched Arena Coliseo De Monterrey 1/9/05. Half the show is a King of the Mountain tag tournament which is about as awful as the listings would indicate. The only good match was Zumbido/Willie Wong(what a horrifying name for a wrestler) vs Apolo Estrada Jr./Estrella Dorada Jr.. Zumbido must be 100% on crack when he works these shows b/c he goes all out and does moves he never used to do before. Monje Negro Jr./Anaconda lasted the first four matches and got beat by Apolo Jr./Estrella Jr. who then survived the last three matches to win Group A of some tournament. The entire match lasted the first hour and five minutes of the show which is a great way to waste time. The section where Konnan Big and Red Flamer got into the match was perhaps the best LuchaCrap ever culminating in a laugh out loud moment as both Anaconda and Red Flamer went for leapfrogs and ended up smacking heads. OOPS. The other two matches aren't even worth mentioning. Oh wait... when Angel Del Amor lost his mask in the main event cage match, Elizondo entered the ring and began to feel him up. At least that's what it looked like to me. YIKES.

From Lucha Libre Azteca Vol. 30 I watched Los Orientales I y II vs Chucho Mar Jr. and Babe Rap. These guys must be in great shape b/c they went a good 20 minutes flying all over the ring and not slowing down for even a second. Babe Rap in particular was a machine hitting all his spots perfect(well...) and not getting blown up at all. Each of the first two falls had a great finish. Only negative was the crowd wasn't too into it early on but they sorta got into it in the third fall due to the hard work. They did a dive sequence with Chuchito doing a running somersault plancha on Oriental I or II, Oriental I or II doing a running tornillo onto both his partner and Chuchito and finally Babe Rap doing a DOUBLE CORKSCREW PLANCHA off the top rope! I remember the first guy I saw do that move was Derek Wylde and he had a huge running start and barely nailed it. It seemed like one of the most difficult dives to do and lately I've seen Mr. Aguila nail it perfectly in CMLL, Rey Cometa nail it even better in AAA and now without the help of a running start like everyone else had - Babe Rap nail it perfectly! Then came the rather awkward end to the match. I assume they were going for a double countout with everyone crashing and burning on dives except the idea was everyone had PLANNED to crash and burn on the dives... what actually happened is everyone DID crash and burn. The first part went alright as Oriental I or II tried a somersault off the apron and Chuchito moved out of the way. OUCH! Chuchito got onto the apron and the other Oriental came over to do the old slingshot power bomb to the floor except Chuchito must not have recognized the spot and he just fell straight down hitting his head hard on the apron as Oriental I or II got squashed below. OUCH x2! Babe Rap dropkicked Oriental I or II and then laid him on the floor outside for what I assume was suppoed to be a missed flip plancha through the ropes... except as he dove through the ropes his leg got caught and he *BARELY* picked his head up in time or he would have been impaled into the ground at Gimnasio Nuevo Leon. As it was he knocked himself out anyhow but before they went to commercial they showed him regaining conciousness with a look on his face like "where the fuck am I?" Hard work by everyone gets a thumbs up from me!

CMLL TV 11/26/05:

Negro Casas/Heavy Metal/Blue Panther vs Atlantis/Averno/Mephisto: Saw this on Guerreros Del Ring. Meh.

Momentos started off weak as right away they were showing clips from the Arena Mexico segunda the previous week!!! But thankfully they stayed with it so we saw a Monito plancha off the apron, Maximo with a nice somersault plancha off the top rope and Texano Jr. with a cool slingshot somersault plancha over the turnbuckles!!! Other two spots were repeats from the Ultimo match last week. 5 Momentos clips from 2 matches? Someone was lazy.

Perro Jr./Garza/Halloween vs Pierroth/MA2K/U2K: Not the most enjoyable match between these teams but had a hilarious spot where Perrito and Garza faced the crowd and took off their shirts for all the ladies. Except Pierroth snuck up behind them and when they turned around he used his belt to whip them over and over again! *L* Pierroth was entertaining for once! Halloween pinned Universo to win the match naturally. Pretty sick power bomb also, was surprised he got Universo up for it so easily.

El Hijo Del Santo vs Ultimo Guerrero: This was alright. Very similar to Atlantis/Santo except without the mask ripping and with cooler moves. There's something odd about all of Santo's recent CMLL TV appearences though. Maybe it's just me but it seems like he is either working hurt or just slowing down from all the years of putting his body through so much abuse. I dunno... maybe it's just me. *shrug* Guerrero was great here tossing Santo into the crowd and being the perfect base for all his highspots. Santo needs to stop doing the flying tope to the outside b/c that will just break his body down even faster. The crowd seemed more confused than anything when the fake Mistico ran in for the finish. There wasn't any "hey, he got screwed!" heat, it was just silence. I liked Santo/Atlantis a little better.

Average episode... wouldn't overly reccomend it to anyone.

Also finished off Lucha Libre Azteca Vol. 30 which only had two other matches besides the previously mentioned Chuchito/Babe Rap vs Orientales bout. The first was Dos Caras Jr./Hector Garza vs Black Warrior/Dr. Wagner Jr. in a loooooooooooong(half hourish) match. They seemed to be working a little extra harder than usual for a Monterrey show, Garza in particular. Finish was a ripoff to setup a rematch the following week. Decent match. The other match was just a huge clusterfuck with Gato Volador, Sagrado and Tigre Universitario facing El Potro Jr., Bengali and Angel Blanco Jr.(what was he doing in Monterrey?). The match was just a bunch of angles including:
1) Bengali turning on Potro.
2) Charles Lucero running in and turning on Potro.
3) Bengali being injured and taken out.
4) Gato Volador and Tigre Universitario starting to have problems.

Sagrado and Angel Blanco Jr. pretty much had the night off and just allowed the chaos to unfold around them. Big time disapointing.

CMLL TV 12/3/05:

Blue Panther/Negro Casas/Heavy Metal vs Atlantis/Rey Bucanero/Olimpico: The highlight of this match was Atlantis doing the BEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN HIM DO AS A RUDO SO FAR!!! He kept yelling at Quemonito to help beat up Panther but Monito refused and began to walk away so Atlantis snuck up behind him and KICKED HIM IN THE HEAD! Huge heat! Atlantis then dragged Monito all the way to the back by one leg! *LMAO* It was a priceless moment. After he got rid of him, he started to do the wave! *LMAO* We need more stuff like that Atlantis! Bucanero was fantastic in this but then again he's usually always fantastic. They did a pretty crappy dive sequence in the third fall. Lots of heat for the finish and I was 100% sure they would do a simple boring finish but in a split second they switched it around and it looked awesome. Good stuff.

Momentos started with a big Valiente assisted springboard somersault plancha! WOOHOO!!! Next up was Volador Jr. doing the Spanish Fly to Misterioso II and then getting dropkicked very hard in mid-air by Sangre Azteca. Damn that match looked awesome! Everything else was repeat footage.

Mistico/Dr. Wagner Jr./Dos Caras Jr. vs Perrito/Hector Garza/Tarzan Boy: It should be noted this match didn't even begin till about 50 minutes into the 1:50 episode so there were two really obvious clips(only one in the previous match). Each guy got a seperate entrances seeing as this was a big show and they all brought their 'A' game. This was AWESOME! I really enjoyed Tarzan's performance especially. I hope I'm not spoiling it for anyone but he turned on the PdM and did it perfectly. It came from out of nowhere but everyone just played it perfect and the tecnicos stayed out of the way during the post-match fun. Perrito/Garza were bumping all over the place for the tecnicos and had the crowd in the palm of their hands. It was a thing of beauty. There ain't no wrestler in the States than can control the crowd the way Perrito can control Arena Mexico. Hilarious finish. *L* For those looking for a match full of nearfalls and highspots... this is not it. But if you want to be fucking entertained - this is GOLD. One of the more entertaining matches of the year in my opinion. Great angle post-match with Bucanero coming out to backup Tarzan who was getting beat up by Perrito and Garza. I am pumped for the first Guerreros vs PdM match on the next show!

They kept airing Teleton promos and this long piece about a sick girl that likes Perrito so the main event took another 15 minutes or so to start.

Universo 2000 vs Halloween - Hair vs Hair: Wow... I was really surprised at how little heat this had. I wasn't expecting a MOTY or anything of the sort but I at least expected the crowd to be really into it. Nobody seemed to care... it was scary for the first two falls and early in the third. They only started to get into it when MA2K interfered. Both guys seemed to be trying hard but I don't think they clicked at all which is a shame b/c they are both good individually. MA2K and Damian 666 both got thrown out. Perrito distracted the referee but it wasn't enough for Halloween to pin Universo with an Air Raid Crash. Universo then nailed the Martillo Negro and won. QUESTION: Why wasn't he DQ'ed? He got DQ'ed just three weeks earlier for doing it to Damian. Is the angle just that Roberto Rangel won't allow the move but Rafa El Maya will? That's all I can think of.

Pretty good show as are all CMLL big shows. Well worth picking up.

Arena Coliseo De Monterrey 5/8/05:

Rey Venum/Panterita Del Ring II vs Apolo Chino/Crazzy Demon: Why is there a guy named Rey Venum on the roster when you have Venum II working shows regularly in this same building? And for that matter, why does Rey Venum not wear any special outfit or a mask? He needs a name change. I enjoyed this match... nice throwback to the days of good old Arena Coliseo De MTY shows which always started with an undercard tag team opener to get the crowd warmed up. Apolo Chino is really underrated and I can't believe he's just wasting away doing openers in this building. He's not spectacular or anything but when he grabs a young tecnico, he can guide them through some beautiful exchanges. The stuff with him and Panterita here was just awesome. Things sorta fell apart in the third fall but rookies will be rookies. Good way to start off.

BTW, it was pretty sad to see the camera panning around the building. The entire upper deck was empty and only the first 6-7 rows of ringside on each side were filled with people. Boy did this building die fast. I remember the days of 2001/2002 when this building was sold out every Sunday. This is what happens when you rely on Super Crazy, Crazzy Boy, Joe Lider and women to draw. You bring in the 50 or so hardcore internet fans and 50 or so perverts.

Burrito/Pulga/Riccochet vs Los Teletubbies(as rudos and maskless!): What... the... fuck. I couldn't I.D. any of the Teletubbies. They look like random fat guys(or is it just the suits?) who aren't even wrestlers. Only one of them seems to bump properly. I guess this was Shrek: The Movie and mucha Lucha against The Teletubbies which sounds pretty fucking strange. I have no clue how Burrito wrestles in that giant mask and suit. He even manages to pull off some okay moves. He did a fucking asai moonsault almost into the crowd!!! There were the usual horrifying blown spots but if you overlook those, this wasn't as bad as you would imagine.

Sangre Chicana Jr./Sexy Piscis/Dark Angel vs Magia Negra/Venum II/Princesa Sujei: I'm trying to think of another case in Lucha Libre where a husband and wife have teamed besides Electro Shock and Lady Apache. Anyone? I enjoyed this a bunch. I thought it'd be crappy comedy mixed with brawling but there was actually some work and the comedy wasn't overdone. Venum II actually impressed me although I'd rather he give the gimmick to some undercard flyer. Dark Angel did a tope suicida! WOW! I thought all she did was her plancha off the top! Magia Negra... never heard of him... but he looked decent working with Chicana's son. Once again, not as bad as you'd imagine.

Apolo Estrada Jr./Estrella Dorada Jr./Monje Negro Jr. vs Crazzy Boy/Joe Lider/Black Dragon - FILL Trios Titles: Now THIS was exactly as horrifying as you'd imagine. Easily a worst match of the year candidate for me. At one point Joe Lider gives Monje *20* armdrags in a row. I AM NOT JOKING!!! It was designed to be some sort of comedy spot as the crowd counted along except... JOE LIDER DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO DO AN ARMDRAG! I was dying of laughter by the 5th or 6th and when he reached 12 and kept going, the crowd turned on the spot big time. I should also mention Lider wore a pink outfit and runs like a girl. Hey, I'm just stating the obvious... draw your own conclusions. Black Dragon was the perfect choice of partner for the two hardcore idiots b/c he is the only wrestler in the world worse than both of them combined. When your gimmick is "Kato Kung Lee trained me", you know you're in trouble. Crazzy Boy was funny when he hit a diving knee strike and reacted like it was some big move the crowd would pop for and they just sat on their hands. I have nothing else to say about this debacle.

Super Crazy vs Hator: Yeah... I sorta fell asleep during this but when I woke up Hator was in the Tarantula and from there on it was just a crappy match with a cheap finish. What a weird main event.

Overall I enjoyed the show though. A little good, a little bad, a little horrifying but completely entertaining. More reason to start a petition to get Fredo to convert those old 2003 Arena Coliseo MTY shows with STUKA JR.!

Two random matches I also saw...

Mistico/Dos Caras Jr./Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Hector Garza/Super Parka/Blue Panther: This was from an episode of Lucha Libre VIP TV which I thought was Monterrey based but turns out this was taped in San Luis Potosi? Or maybe that was the previous week? Either way, it's not Monterrey based. *shrug* Mistico was really off the wall here and trying a bunch of new things that really didn't work out but I guess that's what these shows are good for... see what sticks so you can bust it out on the bigger shows and get a huge pop. Garza had really long hair so I'm thinking this was taped just a week or so before his hair match with Pierroth. Super Parka wrestled most of the match with his mask on before Wagner ripped it off to start a third fall comeback. Mistico/Panther got to work together for a bit and I am now really eager to see a singles match between the two. Not that the work was any good but Panther seemed eager to slow Mistico down and guide him through some of the old Santo/Panther spots. I think a singles match between the two would be very interesting to watch. Rudos win when Garza yanks off Wagner's mask and pins him. Crowd seemed to love the match which took up the entire TV episode(30 mins.).

And the match of the day...

IWRG's Rey Del Ring!!! For those who don't know, the Rey Del Ring concept is simple. Four random guys start off in the ring and fight until someone gets pinned or made to submit. He then rolls out of the ring and someone comes out to take his spot. Altogether there are 30 guys much like the WWE Royal Rumble. The only differences are of course... over-the-top-rope eliminations don't count and unlike current Rumbles, this match was not planned spot for spot. It was a lot like the early Royal Rumbles which had a lot of brawling and randomness but I used to be a huge mark for those so I loved this. I'm not a fan of any Rumble since 1998 or so when things got way too... I dunno... it just wasn't random enough for me. Oh look, both Hardys at #1 and #2... wow. Mick Foley coming in 3 times... bleh. Guys getting eliminated and running back in to get thrown out again... bleh. A full ring ends up spreading out conveniently enough so two guys can do a long exchange in the middle leading to an elimination... whatever. This match was definitely not that. Very chaotic and random. Like I said - very much like the old Rumbles. I can't even remember who the first four were to start but there was just a bunch of brawling so I kinda sighed and wanted to hit fast forward if they were just gonna brawl for the entire match. Thankfully they didn't and you had the odd exchange or cool spot thrown in. There was a lot of randomness like Gran Cuchillo returning and doing a bunch of flying including the 6-1-9 which caused Javier Llanes to go on a rant about how Rey Jr. didn't invented that spot. He claims Mano Negra was the first person to use it and Super Astro copied it from him. Andy Barrow got to be the comedy portion of the match as he came in, got attacked by three other guys and thrown outside for a Coco Verde tope suicida, then he got rolled inside and pinned immediatly! He was the only guy all match to enter and exit right away before anyone else left! *LMAO* Some guy named Rey Lobo was in the match. I have NEVER heard of him and he appeared on ZERO IWRG shows after this. Pierroth II came in about halfway through but didn't last long enough to join Pierroth who came in a little after Pierroth II was eliminated. In a shocking twist, Pierroth got eliminated! I thought for sure he was going all the way. When he left and Canek came in, I was sure Canek was going all the way and then Canek got disqualified for a low blow! Fucking awesome twists and turns. Pantera made an awesome entrance as he came into the ring, sent Nemesis(or Kaleth? I forget) outside and did an awesome flip dive through the ropes ending up in the first row!!! THAT'S CLASSIC IWRG!!! At one point two Payasos were in the ring and ended up going at it before deciding to team against Kaleth and Xibalba(I think). Xibalba had an awesome mask by the way. A couple of CMLL guys made appearences such as Nitro and Metro. The original Ultraman even showed up and Black Terry was in the ring so it was vintage UWA! Kid Tiger(Felino's son) was the first guy to enter the ring after one of the original four got eliminated and he did some really nice stuff with Xibalba. Man there was so much... I could go on forever. A little more than halfway through the match people started to BLADE!!! HOW AMAZING IS THAT??? I can't remember all the guys that bled but I know for sure Segura and Cerebro Negro both were bloody messes. Dr. Cerebro may have been the other and he was the victim of my favorite elimination from the match. Like I said, I could go on forever but I'll stop here. YOU ALL WANT THIS! This was like a dream for me since I was a huge Royal Rumble mark as a kid and now I'm a huge Lucha Libre mark. Oh... by the way... ***TOTAL MATCH TIME: ONE HOUR AND THIRTY-FIVE MINUTES!!!*** Tons of fun. Definitely the most entertaining IWRG match I have seen all year long and I'd vote it in for MOTY but a) nobody would vote with me and b) I'm afraid the fact I am a mark for Royal Rumbles would cloud my judgement.

CMLL TV 12/10/05:

Kronos/Maximo/Hijo Del Texano vs Arkangel/Ohara/Shigeo Okumura: Would have been a great opener on a 4 or 5 match show but on a show with only 3 matches you just wonder why they had to show this? Such a waste of time. I really think CMLL is blowing it with Kronos as when he first showed up(and ever as a Brazo Jr.) he was a little pudgy and didn't fly at all. Now they seem to have made him trim down and start to fly which he seems uncomfortable doing. I think Maximo and Mascara make fine smaller Brazos... Kronos should have been encouraged to gain weight and wrestle as a middleweight or heavyweight eventually. I mean, his finish is the Rock Bottom! None of the rudos were particularly impressive here so the tecnicos win by default even though the rudos won the match.

Momentos was all repeat footage since the entire card from the week before made TV. Damn GdR! Now I'll have no more Momentos spot to look forward to!

Garza/Damian 666/Aguila vs Tarzan Boy/Rey Bucanero/Universo 2000: Awesome start as the Perros are waiting in the ring as Universo makes his entrance and Garza taunts him by doing the little praying pose thing he does... and out of nowhere Bucanero comes up behind him and kicks him in the back! *LMAO* Another great match between these teams with a couple of new neat spots. The feud seems to be re-motivating Tarzan Boy. I'd love to see Mascara Ano 2000 get in on the action as I've loved his work in the last quarter of 2005 but he is often excluded from these matches. Third fall was great. Tarzan/Aguila had a nice exchange where Aguila did his handspring moonsault but got CAUGHT by Tarzan. Aguila was going REALLY FAST so I'm surprised Tarzan made such a clean catch. They did a mini dive sequence capped off by MR. AGUILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLA doing a RUNNING DOUBLE TORNILLO! Take that Mistico! Announcers were going apeshit for the spot and the crowd was buzzing big time afterwards. Welcome back to my life Mr. Aguila! I await Fredo's Perros Del Mal vs Guerreros/Capos DVD compilation. Oh yeah... best spot of the match was Bucanero and Garza ending up on the floor... Bucanero ducks a clothesline and hits Garza with a drop toe hold right into the fans in the front row! GENIUS! I can't wait till someone from Chikara sees that and starts using it. Needs to be happen in a fed with no guardrails.

Santo/Mistico/Negro Casas/Blue Panther vs Ultimo Guerrero/Averno/Mephisto/Atlantis: That's a lot of fucking talent for one match. Surely everyone thinks MOTYC when they look at the lineup but I wasn't overly impressed. It was an okay match but they didn't go all out. The scarier thing is that I guess the idea was to hype Santo/Casas vs Averno/Mephisto but I don't think that got over too well aside from one small mask ripping portion. Rudos were all over Mistico in this one. They did this spot about *4* times where he was on the mat and each rudo grabbed a body part and then tossed him high into the air. On the second toss he landed real awkwardly on his neck.:/ They based the comeback spot on that spot but it came off weird... Mistico landed on his feet and all the rudos were around him but instead of trying to slap him in the middle, they just slapped each other? It looked quite odd. Then Atlantis made it worse by taking a snap mare on the ramp from Panther and doing two somersaults to sell it. WHAT THE FUCK? In the third fall Mistico and Ultimo paired off twice, both sequences ending up with nice dives. They had Atlantis and Ultimo beat up Quemonito(he still comes down to the ring with Atlantis after getting beat up over and over???) again except this time Monito gave Atlantis a low blow in revenge. *L* Santo/Casas over Averno/Mephisto to win.

Alright episode b/c of the two main events.

CMLL TV 12/17/05:

Felino/Sagrado/Satanico vs Ohara/Okumura/Hijo Del Pierroth: Already reviewed this in my GdR thread.

Lizmark Jr./Ultimo Dragon/Blue Panther vs Apolo Dantes/MA2K/Pierroth: Ouch... I did NOT like this at all. Panther and MA2K couldn't even save it. Just a whole bunch of boring basically sums it up. They didn't blow anything... they just didn't try to have a great match like they probably could have.

Momentos was only 3 clips! My favorite segment of each show is getting destroyed ever so slowly. Even worse than only 3 clips is they were all repeats.

Perrito/Garza/Terrible vs Bucanero/Tarzan Boy/Atlantis: Do you honestly expect me to say this was bad? C'MON! Revenge time for the Perros as they attacked Los Guerreros from behind this week. Atlantis keep bothering me by waving to the camera and doing his old tecnicos mannerisms every time he starts a comeback. Once he stops doing that stuff he will be a great rudo but until then, I will keep complaining every time he does it. In the second fall the Guerreros did a nasty triple team submission on the Perros where they had Terrible/Garza sitting down with their arms tied up, then they bodyslammed Perrito onto the shoulders of his partners and Bucanero stood on Perrito doing the Guerreros salute as Atlantis/Tarzan stretched the Perros. Very nice! In the third fall Bucanero and Garza crashed into the ref when going for dives but continued to do them anyways. Thankfully for Garza hitting the ref slowed his speed down b/c he overshot his dive big time but had such little momentum that he just landed on his hands instead of his neck.:/ Perrito low blowed Atlantis to win.

Santo/Casas vs Averno/Mephisto - CMLL Tag Team Titles: Right away I'll say Atlantis/Panther vs Averno/Mephisto was better. Not that this was a bad match... it wasn't. First two falls were exactly what you'd expect and third fall got a lot of time. Unfortunately it was vintage Negro Casas in the first fall as he did his stupid schtick where he pretends he got dropped on his head and plays dead even though everyone knows he is alright. They picked it up midway through the third fall and had some VERY believeable near falls. Crowd seemed to be sure Santo/Casas were taking home the belts. Hell, I thought they were taking home the belts the day I read the lineup. But Averno/Mephisto used the tecnicos' own finishers against them and retained. Pretty good effort.

Not the greatest year end show but overall it was alright. With their roster they could have done soooooooooooo much better but isn't that always the case with CMLL big shows?

And that's that for 2005 CMLL TV! Next up we start our search for CMLL 2006 MOTY. First up... DANGER AND SENSEI VS POLVORA AND VAQUERO! That's tomorrow though.

Saw IWRG 11/24/05(as listed on Fredo's site but has the wrong date)... only good match was the Corporacion vs Nitro/Mazada/Averno/Mephisto. Pantera looked great! Dr. Cerebro has a weeeeeeeird new look and after fast forwarding through the intros, I actually thought he was Bestia Salvaje. Now THAT is scary. I wish they would have done an Averno/Mephisto vs Cerebros match or even Averno/Mephisto vs Pantera/Cerebro match. I was gonna say Pantera/Veneno but Veneno is sooooooooooo awful. This show also had an appearence by some Japanese guy named Tomoya. Who is he and where is he from? DDT?

Also saw Sky/Turbina/Mr. Lince Jr.(WHO?) vs Rey Arana(WHO?)/Los Caifanes Rockeros I y II from another Lucha Libre VIP show. I was always told Sky was better than Turbina but this match certainly tells a different story. It took place in a ballroom of all places. Only other time I've seen a fancy building like that is an old Jack Evans comp. tape I have. These guys seemed out to impress and they did a pretty good job. Turbina did a bunch of neat flying moves and the Caifanes were awesome as usual. Rey Arana just bumped around for Mr. Lince Jr. so I'm guessing they are local guys from wherever this was taped who work together a lot. In the third fall after stereo tope suicidas from Sky/Mr. Lince Jr., everyone brawled up the aisleway and suddenly Turbina/Caifan Rockero II appeared on the balcony above. Turbina pushed Caifan II away and then JUMPED OFF THE BALCONY WITH A PLANCHA!!! Dude is fucking nuts!!! That balcony was WAYYYYYYYYYYYY up there! I'm sure all 25 fans in attendance loved seeing that live though.

CMLL TV 1/7/06:

Danger and Sensei vs Polvora and Vaquero: I can't even believe I just typed that. Little info for those unaware... Danger is a relatively new undercarder who just started appearing 3 or 4 months ago. Taller the most of the regular undercard guys and really think. Likes to use a gigantic springboard plancha, bullet tope suicida and various springboard moves. Sensei made his debut back(on TV!) in April 2005. He formerly wrestled in IWRG as Fantasy. He was always a pretty limited worker but the gimmick he has suits him now b/c he can just do his fancy kicks and not have to fly around which always looked awkward for him. His mask is VERY SIMILAR to the one Hayabusa used to wear. Polvora and Vaquero are a brother team that have been around the undercards for ages. Vaquero actually worked as Vaquerito before he was promoted to working with the bigger guys. He'll likely never get pushed any higer than he is now b/c of his size. Polvora is much more bulked up than he used to be. So now you have the background on the guys. You can tell this is the opening match easily... how? Nobody is in attendance yet. The first few rows on the camera side are practically empty and every time they show the side near the entrance way those seats are just as empty. Of course in typical Galavision fashion when they cut to crowd shots, they use the same one always so fans MYSTERIOUSLY APPEAR GOING NUTS AND WAVING FOR THE CAMERA. Then we cut back to the action and those fans have DISAPEARED! Match started slow with some *very nice* matwork. Vaquero in particular looked good and had a nice roll-up or two. Danger kept practicing his springboards while waiting on the apron which was kinda odd. *L* Sensei did a bunch of his kicks which the crowd seemed to like. Both rudos ended up outside and received dual tope suicidas from the tecnicos! There were actually fans on that side of the ring so the rudos took their bumps ONTO the fans which I like seeing. Tecnicos win by countout. Second fall started with the tecnicos showing off their highspots. Danger didn't do anything too spectacular which shows smarts as this is only the opener and the second fall. If you're gonna do something huge, save it for the finish. This would be the OPPOSITE of Crazzy Boy's motto. One really nice spot Danger did was an enzuigiri while Vaquero was hung in the ropes. Never seen that. Rudos eventually took over and maaaaaaaaaaan did they look good. Some great double team moves hit perfectly and two awesome finishes. Vaquero put Sensei on his shoulders and then sat out with a Storm Cradle Driver type move or since I used to be a big time indy spot mark... Chris Hero's Rubix Cube. That is a SICK bump to take in a Mexican ring. Danger then almost fought back against the two-on-one but was stopped and Polvora pinned him with a TOP-ROPE SITOUT INVERTED POWER BOMB! YIKES!!! I don't know if the crowd was just mic'ed better for this episode or they were just louder than usual b/c the rudos seemed to be getting huge heat. During the third fall one of the ring crew tightened up the turnbuckles while the match was still going on. *L* Tecnicos made a very nice comeback. Sensei sent Polvora outside and faked a dive. Danger then came over and showed me exactly why he was practicing his springboards all match long... HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE FUCKING SPRINGBOARD ARMDRAG TO THE FLOOR!!! He got *HIGH* into the air and nailed the spot perfectly! Polvora took a nasty bump as well. In the ring Sensei took Vaquero down and put him in this really weird upside down Indian Deathlock type move for the submission. Crowd seemed to love this. I thought it was perfect. Honestly, there is not a thing I would change about this match and I think it's better these guys got a random TV appearence instead of other guys I would have liked to have seen more, for example Zeta/Molotov vs Caligula/Messala. I would have expected too much and been disapointed. But with these guys, I didn't have any expectations going in and came out loving it. Polvora/Vaquero really impressed me more than I thought they would and Danger/Sensei didn't do bad for themselves at all. I urge everyone to check this out at some point b/c it's a great example of why CMLL has the most talented roster in the world. Yes, even you Tom. These guys are no Dinamitas or Perrito and they do a bunch of cool moves that might scare you off but the work is solid and the crowd really seemed to enjoy it. I think you will too.

~VALIENTE!/Kronos/Chamaco Valaguez Jr. vs Dr. X/Nitro/Loco Max: I can't believe I typed that either. What a truly random match since you would normally NEVER seen Valiente programmed with these rudos. Full entrances shown with Valiente coming out to Sum 41! WTF? Little background on the tecnicos since you should all know the rudos... Kronos is the former Brazo De Plata Jr. and if you go back to the CMLL TV show from 3 weeks ago you can read more about him. Chamaco Valaguez Jr. is the son of... well... take a wild guess. He's really big for a young guy and is another case where I am sure CMLL is telling him to slim down and start flying but he is totally not meant to do that. Problem with being a super heavyweight on the undercard is you have nobody to work with. Hooligan is one of the bigger and bulkier undercarders/midcarders and even he was dwarfed by Chamaco in their older TV appearences. Valiente is... well... I have no fucking clue honestly. I used to think he was a veteran who was just brought in to do a random gimmick and work with the young rudos and make them better ala Skayde when he came in back in 1999/2000. But I was told he's not a youngster and is just a rookie like everyone else. This is very confusing b/c watching him in the few matches of his I've seen, he is just wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too good to be a rookie. I'm not talking about the flying he does. Just his matwork, the way he bumps and the way he guides opponents through exchanges. When two guys are in the ring together you can usually tell who is guiding who and VERY RARELY will the younger guy leading a veteran around the ring. Valiente is ALWAYS in control. Even in this match he goes to the mat with Dr. X early on and absolutely schools him including doing this wicked STO where he hangs on and while they are both on the mat he smoothly turns it over into a facebuster type move and without letting go rolls into a submission. Later on he gets to work an exchange with both Loco Max and Nitro and his style of dropkicks and armdrags is very old-school. I'm thinking he was trained outside of CMLL, possibly by Skayde? He was easily the most impressive worker in this match. My results said the tecnicos won this in two straight falls but that was actually far from the truth. First fall was mostly the Valiente stuff I described above and then a bunch of fast exchanges involving everyone. Valiente took out Nitro with an asai moonsault and the other two tecnicos pinned the rudos with lame power moves. Rudos won fall two with some nice triple team moves. Tecnicos fought back in the third fall but it lasted all of 20 seconds as they all went for dives but were stopped one way or the other. Chamaco got yanked outside, Valiente went for another asai moonsault but got pulled off the apron and this left Kronos alone with all three rudos. BAD ODDS. Rudos win in three falls. EXCELLENT match.

They kept hyping Momentos was coming up but it never aired and in all the hype the spots were repeats of older Momentos clips so we missed nothing.

Torneo Ciberentico: I already reviewed this in my Guerreros Del Ring thread. I definitely liked it a lot more the second time around.

Brazo De Plata/Heavy Metal/Mr. Niebla vs Pierroth/Hijo Del Pierroth/Mascara Ano 2000: There is a skit before this where Hijo Del Pierroth gets yelled at by Pierroth and it is explained why the Pierroths are teaming with their arch rivals the Dinamitas. THANK YOU! THAT'S ALL I EVER WANTED - AN EXPLANATION! I wish they would have done this two months ago but I digress. Porky is just obscenely awful at this point but I'm guessing the WWE asked him to make sure he could be as fat as possible so he has no choice. He really can't even bump at the size he is(or at least WAS on this taping). Heavy Metal looked awful as usual. Niebla really surprised me as he looked great and was doing some moves I hadn't seen him do in a while. Could he be on the rebound for real? Pretty boring match to tell you the truth. Just six guys going through their usual spots and eating up as much time as possible. Metal/Niebla did cool dives near the ringpost in the third fall and then Porky sat on Pierroth. Lucha by numbers.

Dr. Wagner Jr./Mistico/Negro Casas vs Atlantis/Rey Bucanero/Olimpico: Before the match there is an awesome skit where Bucanero and Olimpico meet in a park. Olimpico tells Bucanero he is late and Bucanero says his new year's resolution is to be on time so he'll work on it. He then complains about Ultimo Guerrero showing Atlantis more attention and how Atlantis is ruining the best team in the world. Then he goes on and on about different names for Los Guerreros instead of Los Guerreros De La Atlantida. The skit ends as he suggests "Los Guerreros Bucaneros"(which I *LOVE*) and Olimpico says they need to start running so they take off. This was the match where Wagner/Mistico wore the split masks which really confused me at first b/c there was a side shot of Wagner's mask and he looked soooooooooo skinny. Then I realized it was Mistico. Who was the best worker in this match? You ready? It's gonna be a shock... *drumroll*... AT-LAN-TIS!!! Aside from kissing a little girl on the way to the ring, he was UNFUCKINGBELIEVABLE here! Had me laughing so many times and the crowd was eating out of the palm of his hand so many times during the match when he would run from Wagner or tell them to "SHUT UP"(yes, in English). I was shocked at his performance to tell you the truth. I think this may be the deal... he's perfectly fine at playing a rudo when in there with very over tecnicos but when you put him in a rudos vs rudos match, he gets carried away and he knows he has to play a LITTLE tecnico but he doesn't know what a LITTLE is and it ends up being WAY TOO MUCH which annoys me. I have definitely enjoyed him more in matches where he is opposite either Mistico or especially Wagner. First fall was really fun. In between falls Bucanero and Olimpico DOUBLE SUPLEXED MONITO WHILE SITTING ON THE MAT!!! *LMAO* Mistico did an awesome armdrag using the ringpost to start the tecnico comeback in the second fall. However, he *really* needs to stop using his handspring moonsault in the ring if he insists on landing on his chest 60% of the time. It looks really bad. This was well on its way to being an early MOTYC for me but there was a horrible edit in the third fall(or it seemed like an edit) and I didn't like the way everyone sorta rushed to a finish when things were going so well up till that point. Negro did his silla onto Bucanero, Mistico did a slingshot corkscrew onto Olimpico and Atlantis used the ropes to pin Wagner in FULL VIEW OF THE REFEREE. That's the problem with CMLL refs, you can't do complicated finishes with them b/c they are old and weren't raised on that style. Crowd was really hot throughout the match.

I know this is only the first episode of the year but it's gonna be REAL TOUGH to beat this for episode of the year. It's gonna take either a 3 hour CMLL TV show or another 2 hour show airing the full card to dethrone this episode. The first three matches were just fabulous, you got a nice rest and a laugh or two in the semi-main event and then you had a pretty good main event with the stars you know. Highly reccomended and next time I see someone ask where they should start with current CMLL, I am going to suggest this episode.

On a sidenote, is Tony the Cartoonist retarded? I'm serious. Jose should know.

AAA TV in Tijuana - 9/30/05:

Hego Boys vs Locals + Aliens: Already reviewed this.

Billy Boy/Estrellita vs Gran Apache/Tiffany: Loooooooooooong match by AAA standards. At least 20 minutes. I was really starting to hate it by then 10 minute mark as the rudos just kept controlling the match and I was expecting a fluke tecnico roll-up to end it but after the tecnico comeback they actually worked a pretty damn good match. Estrellita got good! She used to really suck from what I remember. Apache was awesome working with both Billy Boy and Estrellita. While watching I remembered it's no wonder Apache is good working with women b/c in an old Lucha Libre Weekly I read that back in 1992 he was one of only two 'maestros' at the time who were willing to train women. The other might have been Blue Panther... my memory is foggy on that. But he and Lady Apache had their own little gym going where he worked with various women that wanted to tryout. Couple of nice dives near the end a really nice finishing sequence. Excellent effort and looking forward to the rematch from Mexicali on the next show.

Noti AAA had an interview with Mosco De La Merced where he promised to form Los Nuevos Vipers. This was taped in September and it's now February. Where are they?

Oriental/Nautilius/Histeria vs Animaniac/Espia Chino/Angel Negro Jr.: Fun! Nautilius is not one for staying on the mat. He did *3* really nice dives in this short 12 minute or so match. One of them was a killer slingshot corkscrew plancha! Oriental chipped in two dives of his own, as did Histeria. So as usual you can tell this was the typical AAA spotfest which is fun since they stick to one per show. The match ended when Oriental went for a tope suicida but Mazambula ran out to nail him with a chair as he flew through the ropes. The rudos then rolled him inside and pinned him as Histeria/Nautilius chased Mazambula to the back.

Octagon/El Zorro/Triple A vs Charly Manson/Psicosis/Abismo Negro: I thought Triple A was being played by ex-Mascara Sagrada/T.D. but I'm not sure after seeing this. It could have been the guy who used to play Colorman. Ironically enough, Colorman's claim to fame is he crashed and burned horribly on a dive in each of his two TV appearences. So do you want to guess what Triple A is no known for? He was a bloody mess as the entire first 10 minutes of the match were spent on the rudos beating the crap out of the tecnicos. Finally they made their comeback and Octagon did a tope suicida onto Abismo Negro. Triple A then tried the same on Psicosis but got caught in the ropes and seemed to smack his ribs on the edge of the ring while crashing to the outside. Ouch!:/ Doctors and referee came over right away to make sure he was still alive. Psicosis did his part by kicking the poor guy. WOOHOO! Manson fouled Zorro *3 times* to win. Overkill? Really disapointing.

Vampiro/Shocker/La Parka Jr. vs Konnan/Nikozuna(that's what it said)/Paranoia: I don't know who Paranoia is but I'm guessing some guy from California? He had a huge tattoo on his back kinda like what Rey Jr. has. Usual main event brawl. Shocker and Vampiro ended up brawling amonst themselves into the crowd(yes, I am aware they are on the same team) and Vampiro EVER SO CAREFULLY jumped from about 8 feet up to put Shocker through a table. This left La Parka Jr. all alone so some other AAA tecnicos had to come out and save him. I'm not sure who win. I'm equally not sure if I care.

Eh, the opening three matches were fun enough to make this a reccomended show but only for hardcore AAA fans.

CMLL TV 1/14/06:

Crazzy Boy/Tigre's vs LOS GUERRILLEROS: Already reviewed. Very fun.

Sagrado/Texano Jr./Maximo vs Dr. X/Nitro/Mr. Mexico: Too short to do qualify as anything more than an exhibition in my mind. Wasn't edited at all and I doubt they even reached 8 minutes of total wrestling time. Everyone looked good but not like there were many complicated exchanges or anything.

Momentos was all repeat stuff since the entire Coliseo show aired the week before. I can't believe I typed that.

Rayo De Jalisco Jr./Porky/Wagner vs Atlantis/Guerrero/Universo: As you can imagine Wagner had to carry the load for tecnico workrate and I'm not Wagner's biggest supporter so I really didn't enjoy this. Guerrero was perfectly as usual even working with the weaker two tecnicos.

A skit aired where Bucanero complained to Tarzan Boy about Atlantis. Surely these skits MUST be leading somewhere, right?

Bucanero/Olimpico/Tarzan vs Perrito/Garza/Damian: My least favorite match in the Guerreros vs Perros Del Mal feud so far. Lots of brawling which they are usally great at doing but this was far too sloppy and guys were just wandering around at various times. I swear at one point I saw Bucanero and Garza walk right by each other at ringside without doing anything. WTF? Perrito blew a double stomp in the first fall making me think to myself how you can blow a double stomp if all you have to do is step on your opponent? The finishing sequence made no sense to me as all three Perros Del Mal were outside the ring beating on Bucanero. Tarzan tried to make the save by doing a tope suicida and got promply beat on as well. Then Olimpico went for a running somersault plancha and nailed Tarzan Boy. It didn't appear as if Tarzan was pulled into his path either... he knew full well he was going to nail his partner as he set the dive up. So this didn't make much sense to me at all.

Below average episode but if the full version ever pops up and there is another tag team undercard match it may turn into a good episode to pick up.

Arena Coliseo De Monterrey 5/29/05:

I think this was the first week AAA took over with weekly shows so they did interviews with Pena and Parka to start off.

Apolo Chino/Galactar/Tiffany vs Sexy Francis/Sexy Piscis/Estrellita: Not as bad I imagined. I think I tend to say that more when the referees don't get involved in matches which happens so rarely in Monterrey. They wrestled pretty much straight Lucha except when Francis and Piscis got in the ring. GET IT? Blah. Couple of really nice dives at the end. Estrellita's team had problems amongst themselves and ended up getting beat. Chino and Galactar looked great here.

Kumbia Kids vs Black Family: The only match from this show that looked like it could be fun. And... it was pretty fun even if it got weird at the end. Usual flying as you'd expect with Jessy/Yessy doing a tope suicida into an armdrag in the first fall. They split the first two falls and in the third fall Johnny(X-Fly/Mosco/Pierroth Jr.) started having problems with his teammates. They seemed to make up eventually. Johnny did a slingshot somersault senton dive onto Ozz. Javi did a plancha into an armdrag on Cuervo. Jessy/Escoria were fighting in the ring to see who would win and I think Johnny was supposed to dropkick his parnter by accident leading to a fight but he hit Escoria and it was one of those "time stands still" moments as nobody knew what to do. Johnny took the initiative and... walked off. O...K. His buddy followed him but the Black Family attacked and allowed Johnny to walk off all alone. The refs found this as reason enough to DQ the Black Family. HUH??? Oh well. This marked the end of the Kumbia Kids with Johnny. They are still around as a stable though.

Hijo Del Anibal/El Brazo/Corazon De Barrio vs Pirata Morgan/Psicosis/Sangre Chicana Jr.: Boring. Awful. Crappy. Embarassing. Highly reccomended for my worst enemies.

La Parka Jr./Shocker/Juventud Guerrera vs Cibernetico/Fuerza Guerrera/Hator: Juventud refused to fight his dad even though Fuerza kept beating the snot out of him without hesitation. Parka Jr. did an injury angle at some point during the match but I was FF'ing. Antifaz ran out to make his return to this arena and nailed Hator with a running somersault plancha. Tecnicos proceeded to win.

Saw the IWRG 12/15/05 show. One of those all too often boring IWRG shows where absolutely nothing happens. Well, Cerebro Negro gave Mazada a Tombstone Piledriver. I guess that's something. Best match would have to be the Frisbee/Kid Tiger vs Fantasma De La Opera/Rey Estruendo opener.

AAA TV 10/1/05 in Mexicali:

Hego Boys vs Animaniac/Espia Chino/Angel Negro Jr.: I won't go on and on again about how amazing the Hego Boys are(or at least two of them) b/c we'll probably never see them again. They were fucking spectacular here again though. Airon Boy did this UNREAL INSANE double springboard Ludxor dive(that's what I'm calling it). Genio Del Aire did a nice running corkscrew plancha. Later in the match two of the rudos ended up in the crowd and I guess you have to see the show to be able to visualize it but basically there is a huge flight of stairs leading straight to the ring and the wrestlers go down them while circled by a tunnel so the fans can't get to them. So there was a rudo on each side of the entrnace way about two rows deep in the crowd and Airon Boy FLEEEEEEEEEEEEEW onto his guy with a GINORMUS PLANCHA!!! I could have sworn he was going to die as he jumped b/c there was NO WAY any human, even Jack Evans, should have been able to make it that far into the crowd and survive. On the other side Genio Del Aire didn't make it into the crowd but ended up crushing his opponent with a somersault plancha where they got SANDWICHED into the guardrail. Looked pretty sick. Tecnicos won the match with triple frankensteiners and then Konnan came out to beat them up. REMEMBER THIS.

Billy Boy/Estrellita vs Gran Apache/Tiffany: Not as good as the Tijuana match. Some messed up spots and more stalling than anything. Finish might sound farmilar... Konnan comes out and beats everyone up. YAY.

Oriental/Histeria/Nautilius vs King Azteca/Diamantia/Psicosis: Lots of brawling until the tecnicos time to dive. Nautilus did a great slingshot corkscrew plancha. Histeria did an asai moonsault and almost landed on top of the guardrail b/c Psicosis wasn't in position to catch him. Oriental did a lame plancha off the top rope. Nautilius then did a flip plancha through the ropes and landed way short trying to get King Azteca. GUESS WHAT HAPPENED NEXT? Fucking Konnan. Watching this was funny though as earlier in the day I read some magazine article where Oriental complained that nobody takes him seriously and thinks he can't wrestle. Matches like this aren't gonna change anybody's mind buddy.

So by now you've realized the one thing Meltzer has been hiding in his AAA coverage. See, 90% of the AAA news comes striaght from his main source - Konnan. That's why all these mysterious shows in southeast Mexico are drawing amazing crowds when Konnan is main eventing yet where are the results from said shows? Anyways my point is, all I gathered from this AAA episode is Konnan thinks he is better than the entire roster and will use anybody to get himself heat since he can't do crap in the ring any more. First he beat up the rookies who were mega-over. Then he beat up women. Finally he beat up the high flyers the crowd loves to watch. Where was the tombstone on the grandfather in the front row? It's the cheapest of cheap heat. I'm actually a fan of Konnan so I hate saying this stuff but it's the truth. Rant over.

Noti AAA aired and I discovered Shika is not a Kumbia Kid as I thought. He's some dude with a nice mask. I wonder who Chaman is? And this makes me want to get Shika/Kumbias vs Pentagon/Diabolics from Verano De Escandalo even more.

Zorro/Octagon/Triple A vs Konnan/Charly Manson/Abismo Negro: I'll give Konnan his due here, he made up for ruining the entire first half of the show by booking a good finish to this one. The storyline was El Zorro had been beaten by Manson 4 times in previous TV shows. So Zorro was out for revenge obviously. The rudos beat him up all match though until finally it was just Konnan, Manson and Zorro in the ring. Konnan and Manson's teamwork backfired and not only did Zorro finally pin Manson, he also pinned Konnan for the GIGANTIC POP since the crowd hated Konnan so much due to his antics throughout the night. Konnan is a great booker when he's unselfish like this. The live crowd and the TV audience goes home happy. Plus it was good to see a guy like Zorro get the pin since old Konnan booking tendencies would have a friend of his go over or cost him the match. Focus here was solely on Zorro/Manson's feud and that is fine by me since it's interesting. Oh, and Triple A is definitely Mascara Sagrada/T.D.. Dunno why I thought otherwise on the first night in Tijuana.

Vampiro/Shocker/La Parka Jr. vs blah blah blah: I fell asleep and woke up at the end. Vampiro hates Shocker, Shocker hates La Parka Jr., La Parka Jr. hates Vampiro. Get it? Got it? Good b/c $10 says they'll be teaming together on the next show. What is Shocker's deal in AAA? He still does a lot of wrestling so he couldn't have jumped for the decrease in schedule. He's not the top star as we all assumed he would be. I'd still put Vampiro, Konnan, Parka Jr. and Cibernetico above him. I assumed he jumped b/c he'd get roles in soap operas, commercials, TV shows, etc. but I haven't heard of him becoming any sort of mainstream celebrity ala Latin Lover. Should we start a pool on which Arena Mexico show this year will have Shocker's return?

Lucha Libre Azteca Vol. 32:

Sombra De Plata/Gato Volador/Tigre Universitario vs Super Comando/Charles Lucero/El Potro Jr.: It was fun. Major angle was everyone not getting along except for Sombra/Comando obviously. This was good b/c they got to spend the most time in the ring and looked really sharp on this night. Their matwork is tons of fun to watch. Very good match aside from the constant partners wanting to kill each other.

Hector Garza/Tarzan Boy vs Damian 666/Halloween: Meh... I don't blame them for this not being so great b/c I assume they are saving it up for the next show where they have a rematch. Good for what it was but nothing special. Creative finish.

Also finally got to watch Americo Rocca vs Mocho Cota for the NWA LHW Title in January 1984. All matwork and very nicely done. Each picked a body part and went after it. It's weird b/c you could capture that match, put it online and probably 99 out of 100 random wrestling fans wouldn't even think it was Lucha Libre at all b/c everyone expects Lucha to be all high flying. They left the mat only one time in the third fall for some dropkicks and a great Mocho Cota tope suicida where Rocca flew 6/7 rows back in Arena Coliseo. Only letdown for me here was a screwy ending involving a ref bump. Crowd loudly groaned as well so I'm glad I wasn't alone.

Arena Coliseo De Monterrey 6/5/05:

Oscar Sevilla/Corazon De Barrio/Sexy Piscis vs Monje Negro Jr./Pancho Tequila/Sexy Francis: Wow... fun match. Pancho didn't embarass himself for a change!!! Surprisingly the best exchanges in the match were between Piscis and Francis which I would have never predicted. Crowd was really into everything and it built well in the final fall. Great way to open a show up.

Black Family vs Los Diabolicos: Total bloodbath. Los Diabolicos all got busted up early on and the Black Family got DQ'ed in the first fall. They switched things up in the second fall so by the time the third fall came, everyone except Ozz was bleeding heavily. Chaos at the end with everyone in the ring and Chessman ran out to help his buddies for the DQ Diabolicos win. Crowd was really into it. I would have loved to see this turn into a short-term feud instead of just dying off the next week. A Barrios/Black Family/Diabolicos/Kumbia Kids feud would be pretty sweet if booked right. Hell, I'd go as far as to book it like the Super Calo/Winners vs Angel Mortal/Marabunta series. Have Black Family vs Barrios in a Cage at one taping - the entire team that loses gets shaved. Same thing the following week for Kumbias/Diabolicos. Winning teams meet the week after in a cage match again to see which is the only team to survive and the Diabolicos get shaved by the Black Family. Would have made for a great little feud and given me something else to put on my ballot for feud of the year. I was very unhappy with my choices.

El Brazo vs Sangre Chicana Jr. - Dog Collar Match: Another bloody match. Chicana was gushing bled halfway through. Brazo eventually bled as well but not as much as you'd expect from a Brazo. They did some funny chain spots. One of the better spots they pulled off was Chicana Jr. in the ring recovering and Brazo/Chicana Sr. fighting on the floor. Chicana reaches back to do his patened Chicana Punch on Brazo who counters by pulling the chain causing Chicana Jr. to fly through the ropes with a tope suicida onto his dad! Brazo ends up winning after that and Sevilla runs out to brawl with Chicana Jr. as Brazo/Chicana Sr. go at it. This set up Sevilla losing his hair in a bloodbath to Chicana Jr. and Brazo losing his hair to Chicana.

Latin Lover/Shocker/Antifaz vs Chessman/Hator/Zumbido: Shockingly... disapointing. Third fall was the only thing fun as the rest seem pretty mailed in. Lots of spots where Latin Lover and Zumbido got their pants pulled down so that really sucked.:/ Shocker never got to do a full exchange with Chessman which sucks since I've been waiting to see how they would matchup and Shocker turned rudo soon after this taping. Scary moment in the third fall as Antifaz went for his running corkscrew plancha on Zumbido but took a NASTY SPILL to the floor when he came up short. Shocker had this hilarious look on his face while watching from ringside. Latin Lover then did the same dive only via a slingshot and he hit nailed it perfectly. Note to Antifaz: Next time just have Chessman do the catching, he woulda saved your life! Chicana ran out to attack Shocker for the DQ which is weird b/c that was a heel move and he played face in the previous match. *shrug*

See, for all you people complaining about the lack of blood at Arena Mexico - this show is for you! Two really bloody matches, a decent opener and an okay third fall to the main event. I hate to say it but these Arena Coliseo MTY shows are quickly becoming way better than the Gimnasio Nuevo Leon shows. Who would have predicted that after seeing the listings?

Lucha Libre Azteca Vol. 32:

Flecha Azul/Tiger War/Diana La Cazadora vs Androide/Karonte/Poly Star: OH MY FUCKING GOD, I WILL PAY DIANA TO STOP DOING CARTWHEELS EVERY FIVE SECONDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She must have done at least 20 of them in the first fall alone. And of course the *ONLY* other spot she did in the match was running and jumping on the second turnbuckle which she messed up half the time. On the bright side, her pants kept falling down. Fredo - you MIGHT want to note that to sell some more DVD's. Flecha Azul still sucks. Androide is okay for a bigger rudo... didn't get to show much here. Tiger War looks to be in the NGX mold of high flyers who take backflips bumps off any move. He doesn't appear to be as awful as Morvius though. This had its' moments... mainly Diana's pants falling off and some Tiger War exchanges.

Hector Garza/Tarzan Boy vs Damian 666/Halloween: Everything was going nicely until Garza seemed to fuck up his neck trying a slingshot into the ring and he just lay on the mat so they had to rush and end the second fall as he got checked on. When he recovered they seemed to go home quick in the third fall and with very little action. Low blows all over for the finish but at least the crowd liked it.

What else... oh yeah, saw the IWRG 12/25 show. The Cerebro's + Veneno vs Pirata Jr./Kaleth/Okumura opening trios match was one of the better IWRG matches in a while. Rare fast paced action from a fed that usually slows things down as much as possible. Veneno is so limited as a worker so he only came in for the finishing sequences. Pirata Jr. is soooooooo not what his dad was at this age. And I really wish Okumura would stop wrestling everywhere b/c I get IWRG/CMLL GDL/CMLL Ch. 52 on the same tapes and he seems to pop up every week on each show. If anyone wants a Shigeo Okumura in Mexico comp. tape, PM me. Heavy Metal vs Scorpio Jr. WAS ABSOLUTELY AWFUL! Veneno pulled the ropes open as Heavy Metal was running so Metal took the sofest bump possible to the outside and then sold his ribs so the ref stopped the match and gave the title to Scorpio who now has it in AAA. The next three matches were all cage matches without much action at all. If you are looking at the names of the guys in the match and expecting a high flying cage match or at least one or two nice exchanges/spots... forget it. Both matches really blew. The only highlight for me was when I kept saying to myself Pierroth Jr. looks awfully fat to really be Mosco/X-Fly/Johnny Kumbia. As if on cue, Ultra Mega gave him a spinning backbreak and Pierroth Jr.'s mask flew off to reveal... Mosco. At least we know it's him for sure now. The final match was Ultra Mega vs Nemesis since they were the ultimate losers of the previous two cage matches. Talk about OVERBOOKING! To make it worse, it was a 2/3 falls cage match where you had to win one fall by pin/submissions and the next by climbing out of the cage. They had an amazing finish to the third fall though which I give them tons of points for. Both men were fighting near the top of the cage and Nemesis was a little higher so as Ultra Mega reached up to pull him back down, Nemesis nailed him with a VICIOUS kick to the face. Veeeeeeeeeeeery stiff. Ultra Mega collapsed and Nemesis escaped to win.

Oh, also saw the Okumura/Danger/Chris Stone triangle hair match from Guadalajara. It sucked. Chris should go to AAA and become a Kumbia Kid for my amusement.

Arena Coliseo De Monterrey 7/10/05: Worst Arena Coliseo MTY show yet. Opener was horrible. Psic/Histeria was just an excuse to have the referees start an angle even though there was some good matwork at the begining. The usual fun mixed atomicos match with man/woman/tranny/mini/dwarf wasn't even fun! Couple of funny spots and the usual great Mascarita/Mini Abismo exchanges but other than that they did nothing. Sagrada/Chessman had some nice exchanges in the semi-main but that's all that is worth talking about from that match. Main event had some guy named 'Apolo' who ended up tearing off his bodysuit/mask to reveal INCOGNITO! Chessman/Cuervo ran out to even the odds up and turn the match into an atomicos bout. Incognito did a CRAAAAAAAAAZY top rope springboard twisting moonsault onto Cuervo(NOT CHESSMAN?!?!?!?!?) at the end of the third fall and as Cuervo was laying on the ground, some fan tried to pour a beer on him so Vampiro came over and just knocked it away with a "what the fuck are you doing?" look his face. Priceless!

Guadalajara TV 12/25/05: Two matches as usual. First was the Torneo to crown a local Light Heavyweight champ. Neutron won. They of course showed the entire 8 minute battle royale and then edited the actual elimination portion at the oddest times. At least the crap went out early including BESTIA SALVAJE which is great b/c I thought he'd wind up in the final three at least. He looks sooooooooooo bad these days and he must know it since he wrestles in a t-shirt. I wonder if he's really hurt and keeping it quiet? Entire match was kinda disapointing and lacked any sort of crowd reaction. Neutron beat Toxico to win the belt and then he got to cut a promo. Guess he's the new local star. Main event was the usual mailed-in crap from the usual participants. I remember Mr. Aguila got hurt and couldn't wrestle so Ebola took his place and maybe that's what screwed things up for all the guys but they definitely looked like they were all on different pages and just wanted to go home ASAP.

IWRG TV 12/4/05:

Ultra Mega/Frisbee vs Black Jaguar/Paramedico: I liked this. Frisbee has a cool look and some moves the usual undercard IWRG guys don't do so it's fun watching him. Ultra Mega tore off his chest-protector in the third fall which was UNCOOL b/c I love that outfit. Fun way to start their Anniversary Show. In honor of it being such a big show for them, they had the stupid flying camera like CMLL does for their big shows. Big crowd which is rare for this building.

Avisman I/Matrix/Mike Segura vs Andy Barrow/Cyborg/Tomoya Adachi: Well Adachi coming over was quite random and pointless. Must be a friend of Cacao's. The camera work during this match was brilliant as they managed to miss an entire Segura/Adachi exchange(yes, a 45 second crowd shot), the finish of the first fall and various other little things. Post-production is NOT for lucha tv shows is the lesson to be learnt here. Aside from a nice Segura tope suicida knocking Cyborg into the crowd... this was quite useless.

Veneno/Cerebro/Cerebro Negro vs Mephisto/Nitro/Mazada - D.F. Trios Titles Bout: Great promo by Veneno before the match unfortunately then he had to wrestle. I'll be nice though since he looked okay here. Cerebro Negro has turned into quite the awesome worker. During an exchange in the second fall Dr. Cerebro seemed to tweak his ankle which led to AT LEAST 7 REPLAYS OF THAT ONE SPOT including one for no reason during the third fall which made us miss the comeback and barely caught Dr. Cerebro doing a tope suicida on Nitro. Cerebro Negro used his Air Raid Crash to pin Mazada. Not sure what happened to Veneno and Mephisto... they must have just disapeared into the black hole that swallowed Bombero Infernal! Crowd was hot and match was decent but not memorable. I liked the atomicos match the week before better.

Pierroth/MA2K/U2K vs Perrito/Damian 666/Halloween: Fun brawl. They went into the crowd which was fun since it happens so rarely in IWRG these days. They worked a smart third fall knowing Pierroth's limitations and the obvious fact they didn't want to kill themselves the night before the big CMLL show. Worth checking out if you are a fan of the guys in this match.

Arena Coliseo MTY 7/31/05:

Estrella Dorada Jr./Monje Negro Jr./Veneno Negro vs Picudo/Mascara Purpura/Sexy Piscis: Veneno Negro got unmasked in the second fall and was revealed to be HATOR! It sure got zero pop considering he is the star wrestler in this building. Sadly Mascara Purpura didn't get to do much. Hopefully he has a better showing on tomorrows Galavision Mexico episode(*fingers crossed his match makes the cut*). Purpura got hurt in the third fall and Piscis was taken out leaving Picudo all alone for a beating until Espiritu and Silver Cat showed up and did dual tope suicidas to Estrella/Monje and Picudo pinned Hator to win. Below average opener.

Mascarita Sagrada 2000 vs Jerrito Estrada - National Mini's Title: I was not a fan of this match. As I said above in the Verano De Escandalo comments, at this point Jerrito still needed to adapt from working with the old smaller mini's to the new mini's who can actually do more mat stuff and work the match a different way. An example of this would be when Mascarita 2000/Jerrito both went for single leg takedowns. 1995 Mascarita or Octagoncito would not do that as it'd be the rudo's job to take them down and bully them but Mascarita isn't THAT MUCH smaller than Jerrito so it looked okay if they are equal on the mat. First two falls were pretty much nothing except for one big burst of offense by Mascarita. Third fall was all about the referee getting involved. Disapointing.

Antifaz/Oriental/Histeria vs Hator/Psicosis/Zumbido: More Hator! The angle here was Antifaz was injured so the rudos took him out during the first fall leaving the tecnicos in a handicap match which was a total squash until... GALACTAR ran out and took Hator out with an asai moonsault. With things tied up 1-1 it turned into a pretty good one fall trios match with some neat spots all around. Galactar did a bullet tope suicida on Hator. Histeria did the same on Psicosis soon after. Zumbido got two knees trying a moonsault and Oriental rolled him up for the win. Absolutely nothing wrong with this, a fine showing.

Sangre Chicana vs Sergio Romo Jr. - Hair vs Hair: God bless my FF button. Referee kept being a dick and refusing to count Chicana's pins. Romo won the third fall but the commisioner refused to let them shave Chicana's head and said the ref would get his head shaved instead b/c he was to blame for the loss. GENIUS! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

La Parka Jr. vs Cibernetico - GPCW Title Bout: Oh boy. Arturo Rivera seconded Cibernetico and some old lady in the front row who attends the show weekly seconded Parka Jr. but just sat in her seat for the entire match b/c THAT MAKES SENSE! I guess she was supposed to stop Rivera from interfereing but she never got up to do anything until Parka brought Rivera over to her and even then he just walked away after being smacked once. Maybe the finish was screwed up b/c of that b/c Zumbido came out looking confused and just jumped into the ring to attack Parka for the DQ. Pretty embarassing.

GdR 12/31/05:

Mr. Niebla/Sagrado/Ultimo Dragon vs Apolo Dantes/Mascara Ano 2000/Universo 2000: This was actually alright! Not lucha by numbers at all which was what I expected going in. Niebla did his no-hands springboard off the ropes move which is cool b/c I didn't think his fat ass could do that any more but also not cool b/c one day he will break the ring doing that spot. Sagrado fit right in and had a nice exchange with MA2K I think. Might have been U2K... my memory is foggy. But I know I was pleased with how he looked and how the crowd reacted which means my dreams of a future unmasked push as Genetico are still alive! I'm not being sarcastic either, I like Sagrado and thought he was gonna be a huge star when he debuted as Genetico. In the third fall all three tecnicos did tope suicidas and... THEY KEPT WRESTLING AFTERWARDS! WHOA!!! Very awesome finish as Ultimo went for his finisher but Apolo caught him coming down and then power slammed him so Universo could hit a flying splash and that was that! Amazing effort by all involved.

Mistico vs Atlantis: The Arena Mexico match was better and I didn't even like that match too much so what do you think I thought about this one?:/ Atlantis' four consecutive elbowdrops followed by a delayed half crab may be the worst finish to a fall I've seen in all my new batch of tapes/dvd's. John Cena would say "that was a weak finish bro". Mistico's comeback wasn't too hot. For a guy who uses the 6-1-9 as much as he does, he really needs to start Rey Rey-ing it and coming up with creative ways to hit it... especially to counter moves other guys do to him. The forumla of a leg trip or headscissors before he hits it is getting really old. Third fall had a couple of alright nearfalls but nothing worth going crazy over. Finish was a Monito low blow which the crowd seemed to love. I was indifferent. Who told me once that Sunday Coliseo shows are usually better for workrate?

GdR 1/21/06:

Niebla/Casas/Satanico vs Terrible/Pierroth/Hijo Del Pierroth: Now THIS would be a good example to use for lucha by numbers. Negro clearly low blowed Pierroth in full view of both referees in the third fall but the match kept going. You know, it's always been Negro's pride in his work that has kept me a fan of his. Pierroth got assistance from La Nazi to beat Niebla and win the match for his team. Surprised many people haven't caught on to the fact Satanico has slowed down to Ringo Mendoza level and is open about the fact this is his last year. While seeing him work the mat in the first fall though I thought to the top guys in CMLL and how almost all of the top rudos started their pushes due to Satanico. Ultimo Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, Tarzan Boy, El Averno and El Mephisto. Think about where those guys would have been without their respective feuds/angles with Satanico. He even made Mascara Magica into an overnight star for a month or two.

Mistico/Dos Caras Jr./Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Tarzan Boy/Averno/Mephisto: Well this is definitely an early 2006 MOTYC for me! I thought this was fabulous! It got plenty of time as well as I had it over 15:00 for sure(of note: it had parts edited out) unlike most GdR trios matches which tend to clock in at 10-12 minutes. Well paced right from the start and clearly established who would be matched up with who. Mistico actually MISSED a 6-1-9 in the first fall! THAT'S RARE! Loved the finish to each of the first two falls. Third fall had great heat for the comeback as well as Mistico using the old Shocker handspring moonsault spot to initiate it! Mephisto took a wicked sallida bump late in the match and then ate a Dos Jr. tope over the top to perfection! It came down to Mistico/Averno who could have done a few nearfalls to make this great match even better but they went straight home with La Mistica. I will not complain b/c they did more than enough to make this a special match in my book.

GdR 1/28/06:

Dark Angel/India Sioux/Sahori vs La Amapola/La Nazi/Hiroka: Oh boy... this was one of those matches that never seems to want to end. Cubsfan has it at 13 minutes but it easily felt like a good 25 or so to me. The rudo beatdown went on forever and all the stuff that took place after the comeback went on forever as well. Sahori and Hiroka were clearly the two weak links in the match which doesn't surprise me at all. Amapola was once again the complete star, having a great exchange with both Dark Angel and India Sioux. Amapola cheated to win which started her feud with Dark Angel. Pretty bad showing by the women. Oh, I did like Dark Angel's new finisher. Hope she busts it out more often.

Mistico/Negro Casas/Heavy Metal vs Atlantis/Olimpico/Ultimo Guerrero: *LMAO* when Atlantis rushed into the ring in the first fall and almost had Mistico land right on top of him as he springboarded in with a moonsault! Metal's stuff was kept to a minimum in the match and that is just fine with me! Don't hestitate to keep booking him for short 30 second sequences and dives only! Negro/Olimpico's "who has the bigger muscles" routine is getting stale already. Atlantis tried to smack Mistico to start the third fall but ended up nailing a lady taking pictures at ringside. I was waiting for the Atlantis vs Alexis Salazar feud to start here but sadly the action returned to the ring. Third fall wasn't too hot aside from Negro/Ultimo's work. Mistico/Atlantis blew the Mistica-counter spot and a faked low blow ended it. Not... so... good.

GdR is improving overall, I'll give it that. All it needs now is a Momentos segment to make up for the weeks the two matches are either both average or one is extremely bad and the other is decent.

I also noticed while reading cubs's reviews for match listings that we seem to think the opposite of just about most matches aside from the women. He called Sagrado's match 'by the numbers'! He also ranked Atlantis/Mistico an 88 and only gave poor Dos Jr./Wagner Jr./Mistico vs Tarzan/Averno/Mephisto an 84! I think Atlantis slipped him a $20.

Finally watched the Garza vs Tarzan match from the first GdR show. It was alright but both can obviously do better. Garza was in awesome heel mode though so I really loved that. The finish to the first fall was CLASSIC with Garza faking like he missed a high flying move and eventually rolling up a surprised Tarzan. That would be an AMAZING finish to a hair match instead of a run-in.

Guadalajara TV 12/5/05:

Parka/Santo vs MA2K/U2K was quite the disapointment. I thought they'd come together and work a Parka/Bronco vs MA2K/U2K type match but this was nowhere near it sadly. I continue to stand by my statement that something is wrong with Santo. The semi-main was actually the better match of the show with Danger owning Chris Stone in two falls. Both of Cien Caras' fake kids continue to look like shit. Sheriff used to be good, what happened?

Guadalajara TV 12/12/05:

Flash I and II vs 100 Caras Jr. and Jr. II was decent but mostly due to the Flash brothers(or is it son/father? I think it is) who are really underrated. So naturally this was the match that led to them leaving Arena Coliseo De GDL and vowing to never return. YAY! Cien's kids tag the GDL Tag Titles in two falls. Main event was total mail-in city AGAIN!

Thankfully tomorrow I should get to the 1/2/05 episode with the much talked about(at least on the Box y Lucha forum) Santo/Mascara vs Panther/Tarzan 30 minute match. *fingers crossed*

IWRG TV 12/8/05:

Panterita/Gran Cuchillo(not Galactik as Fredo has listed) vs Colt/Zaiyer was the best match of the show but as usual it was typical IWRG opener formula. Panterita is way too good to not be in the CMLL mini's division yet. Best part was Colt came out wearing... AN AZTECAS RULES T-SHIRT!!! MAJOR MARKOUT MOMENT!!! The second match was a waste, much like Metro. Mazada got stretchered in the semi-main and that's all I remember. Main event was actually a fun brawl with Head Hunter I bleeding an insane amount of blood. It wasn't Nube Roja level but it was definitely up there. He was leaving huge puddles of blood on the mat that Monito could have swam in. Quite the enjoyable brawl if that is your type of thing and some fun promos afterwards. Remember, in Mexico we now use the Nube Roja scale, not the Muta scale!

Arena Coliseo MTY 8/7/05:

Martha Villalobos/Ariel/Poly Star vs Tsunami/Hechicera/Miss Janeth: Janeth was in the match? Barely noticed her while fast forwarding. Villalobos and Hechicera on opposite sides is just a brutal comination. I will say this... the other women tried. But you just can't... not with those two worthless cows. It's amazing to think about how Martha actually used to be in shape.

Barrio Boys vs Tito Santana/Rio Bravo/Oscuridad: I could have sworn I remembered watching this on the online feed when it aired and liking it but I must have been thinking of a match from the week before or week after b/c this was a big mess. No chemistry between the teams led to no exchanges and just various holds broken up by lame dropkicks. This went nowhere and had zero highspots.

Laredo Kid/Hombre Sin Miedo/Babe Rap vs Black Family: Now this was much better! Babe Rap slipped a few times in the first fall but covered each slip well. The Black Family did good at holding the tecnicos in check and making sure they didn't go crazy with spots they couldn't handle. Laredo Kid actually impressed me the most out of the tecnico side. Some nice dives in the third fall. Picudo ran in to cost Cuervo the match via a 450 from Laredo. Really fun match.

Hator/Estrella Dorada Jr./Monje Negro vs Vatos Locos: Bad. Really bad. Espiritu and Estrella Jr. win the respective awards for being the only guys actually trying for their teams. Maybe I'm just high on Espiritu now b/c I saw a recent match of his from the Reina De Reinas and he looks amazing in his new role of main eventer in La Secta. He bulked up too.

Shocker/Cibernetico vs El Zorro/Charly Manson: E-A-S-I-L-Y the best I've seen Shocker look during his AAA stint. This was probably the match of the show the more I think about it as Ciber stayed out of the way until the finish. Shocker looked like he was about to murder Zorro during the opening mat exchange and eventually got so frustrated he just tagged out. This was NOT a work. It was funny watching Shocker work rudo with Zorro later on and do all the spots Ultimo used to do with him in CMLL. Shocker tried the corner bump Ultimo always takes and almost hurt himself. *L* Low blow finish. Bah. But it led to a REALLLLLLLLLLLLY GOOD singles match with Zorro and Manson. They went straight to teasing finishers which I thought was neat as you rarely see teased finishers in Mexico. Zorro had to fight out of Manson's big submission finisher a few times as well. Zorro finally managed to nail Manson with his back suplex driver finisher but Ciber pulled the ref out of the ring, chaos ensued and in the end Zorro retained his title with a fast count.

Good show overall, well worth checking out for the Black Family match and the main event matches.

Rest of Lucha Libre Azteca Vol. 34:

Oriental I/Charles Lucero/Gato Volador vs Oriental II/Tigre Universitario/Potro Jr.: One of those Relevos Incriebles matches that in theory sohuld rule b/c it's 100% tecnico action but this just didn't rule at all. Some fun moments but nothing worth mentioning. Instead I'll just talk about Gato Volador. He really is awesome... and yet I can see why people in Monterrey hate watching him. According to Jose it's b/c he knocks up underage girls and while he may have a point, I have my own theory. Everything he does is PERFECT. He's always nailing his spots, granted they are often the same spots with a little variation, and is always in the right position for the next chain of moves. A lot of the problem is because of that though as he is so ahead of his opponent that EVERYTHING HE DOES LOOKS SO FUCKING CHOREOGRAPHED!!! I know - it's Lucha Libre! But this looks bad even by Lucha standards!!! He'll hold his arm out to armdrag his opponent as his opponent is taking the bump of a headscissor he just took. So you're left thinking "why is the rudo just getting up, tautning the crowd and THEN running into the armdrag?". This is why a lot of people on the MTY boards complain that he always does the same thing. In a sense, he wrestles like a machine that is programmed to do an exchange and he cannot deviate from the plan or a major malfunction will occur. He also has not caught on to the times changing and still throws these awful UWA 1980's undercarder dropkicks and clotheslines. But other than that, the dude is probably the most fluid luchador outside of Skayde, Panther, Negro Navarro, etc. I would still kill to see Skayde vs Gato Volador.

Halcon Galactico/Burrito vs Chuy Oviedo/Cowboy Jr.: Why did this air?:/ Oviedo cracks me up. Brought his son to ringside in a matching outfit and sold an armdrag from him! 100% rudo! Galactico was certainly a blast from the past as I remember him from the Arena Coliseo MTY weekly broadcasts where he was always in those repetitive tag team openers, ala IWRG these days. He hasn't improved at all. Same generic moves and reactions. He's a part-timer anyways so it doesn't matter. I still don't see how Burrito wrestles in that mask, let alone does dives. I wonder what poor shmuck is under the gimmick?

Divos vs Androide/Rey Sagitario/Jungla Negra Jr. - FILL Trios Titles: Androide reminds me a lot of El Indomito. His appearence is deceiving as you think he's just an old fuck who can't go any more and relies on bleeding or comedy but he can go when he wants. I guess he wanted to on this night b/c I liked this match. It was loooooong... at least 25 minutes. Third fall alone went 12 or 13 minutes. I felt bad for the guys b/c they were having a great end to the match with multiple dives and nearfalls and genius spots to trick the crowd into thinking a predictable finish was coming and yet since the show was ending soon, they ran the credits, ads and preview for next week all throughout everything I described above! Divos won *CLEAN* and I chugged b/c that's what you do every time there is a clean finish to a match in Gimnasio Nuevo Leon.

CMLL GdR 2/4/06:

Dark Angel/India Sioux/Luna Magica vs La Amapola/Princesa Sujei/Hiroka: Better than the match from the week before but I'm not sure how much of a compliment that is. Dark Angel and Amapola were impressive as usual. The others were kinda just... there... not much to say about their work. Finish was pretty fun. They need to not have the women on TV for consecutive weeks and maybe they'd be more enjoyable as a special attraction.

Before the main event they played the clip of Shockercito's near-death experience part 2. I still say part 1 was more vicious so when you see part 2(cubsfan has a link in his blog) and go "HOLY SHIT!", imagine how much worse part 1 was. Poor Shockercito. WHY DIDN'T ONE OF THE FANS CATCH HIM? He's like 20 pounds!

Dos Jr./Lizmark Jr./Mr. Niebla vs Atlantis/T-Boy/U2K: Something happened that made me miss this match... I blinked. HA! WTF was this all about? Lizmark Jr. came out with his elbow taped up and left after the first fall leading to a quick two fall win. I'm talking under 6 minutes for the entire match. Was Kronos not available to sub for Lizmark Jr.? *cough* Waste of air time.

I continue to absolutely love(sarcasm!) how GdR only has an hour and yet they still wait till 12-13 minutes into the show before getting to the action. Time well wasted.

This episode is totally skippable. In fact, it shouldn't have even aired.

IWRG TV 1/1/05:

This was actually a show airing the best matches of the year according to Javier Llanes who narrated in front of a giant TV screen. First up was the previously unaired(or I just didn't get it) Wagner vs Canek match from 2/9 for the UWA Heavyweight Title. If you like old-school clean Lucha Libre... this is for you! Unfortunately, I'm me so... yeah. To be fair, these guys had a great match. It was 30 minutes+ and 100% clean. No dumb stalling, stupid interference or even a cheap finish. I was majorly impressed. Crowd was really into it and fuck I'll admit it... they got me into it at the end. ONLY A LITTLE BIT! Next up was the gigantic Revolucionarios vs Corporacion elimination match which was either 7 on 7 or 8 on 8... I forget. Either way, it stunk. They went to the eliminations way too fast and nobody seemed to be trying particularly hard. All the good workers got dumped early which is always a negative. I would actually go as far as to call this a worst match of the year candidate for 2005. Third best match of the year was Mistico/Sagrado/Matrix vs Scorpio Jr./Ultimo Guerrero/Rey Bucanero. I have yet to see this and actually just ordered the full show from Fredo so regretfully I had to fast forward this b/c if I'm paying for something, I'm damn sure gonna watch it! I have high hopes for this and hope it comes tomorrow. To finish the show off they aired the 10 man Fatal Prison match where Cerebro Negro lost his mask after being tombstoned by Mazada and left for dead. I loved the angle! Mazada was great as he was bleeding a ton and used the tombstone as a last resort, then as he was at the top of the cage he celebrated until he looked down and saw 8 other angry Mexicans(who had already escaped) waiting to beat his ass as he came down and boy did they ever! Really good story-telling match. Dr. Cerebro/Cerebro Negro vs Mazada and friends was probably the IWRG feud of the year... wish footage had come in earlier though.

GDL TV 1/2/05:

Clips of Metro vs Rey Trueno were useless.

Next up was Brazo De Oro/Neutron/Nube Roja vs Bestia Salvaje/Cesar Dantes/Malefico. Henrik is actually looking forward to this... who knows why. Neutron looked great as usual but he really had nobody to work with. Unfortunately I have to say this... IT FINALLY HAPPENED. I was always dreading this since the moment I first saw the spot and am surprised it took this long to happen but Neutron FINALLY slipped off the ringpost trying his moonsault plancha. Cesar Dantes tried to catch him but Neutron was way out of control and hit the ground pretty hard. He got stretchered and Dantes was a complete pro as he beat the shit out of Neutron while he lay on the stretcher. He even unmasked him! Great way to start their feud.

El Hijo Del Santo/La Mascara vs Blue Panther/Tarzan Boy: I really liked this. Definitely the best match on GDL TV since October. Pretty funny to hear the announcers argue over where it was match of the year or not(since it was taped January 1, 2006 - ). Santo/Panther were smooth as silk every time they got in the ring together. I was impressed with Mascara/Tarzan's stuff as well but Mascara/Panther seemed to have trouble clicking during the second fall. 20 minutes of great clean action and a clean finish... what more can you ask for? I'm adding it to my MOTYC list even though I wasn't blown away.

Lucha Libre Azteca Vol. 35:

Tigre Universitario/Los Orientales I y II vs Maniaco/Potro Jr./Jungla Negra Jr.: HOW DOES MANIACO WRESTLE IN THOSE GLASSES?!?!?!?!? Not to mention a necklace, a jacket and those baggy pants. Aside from the facepaint, does he even have to put anything on from the moment he arrives at the building and goes into the ring? Yes, questions like that are important to me. Weird outfit aside - Maniaco is still awesome but more on him later. All three rudos had problems during this match so the tecnicos had a pretty easy time. Funny spot where Oriental I or II did a running flippy deal onto his feet and Potro Jr. went crazy and claimed he could do it better so everyone got in the ring and watched him embarass himself trying. *L* Some nice dives and a solid match, nothing to complain about. Finish involved a run-in from what I thought was a gay 13 year old but turned out to be Sky. He did a running somersault plancha onto Potro Jr. for some reason. I ain't complaining.

Mistico vs Perro Aguayo Jr. - NON-TITLE!!!: How dare Fredo list this as a title match! Mistico is still the champ!!! Yes folks, Mistico *LOST*!!! It was cheap and I hate Perrito. BUT NO TITLE WAS ON THE LINE! YAY MISTICO! Definitely not as good as their Arena Mexico match but I enjoyed it a lot. Crowd was the hottest I've heard in a while in this building and they did some GREAT nearfalls before doing the cheap finish where the ref got dropkicked, Perrito yanked Mistico's mask and pinned him to win. I was pissed. And after I was pissed I got to thinking about something I have yet to mention about why I love Mistico so much.

***rant on***

*I WANT HIM TO WIN*!!! You see, it's rare for smart marks such as ourselves to actually watch wrestling and want certain guys to win, we'd rather bitch and complain about why the match sucked or what spots were blown and such. Hell, this entire thread is devoted to me doing that. But the stuff I don't write about is how much I enjoy watching Mistico wrestle not just to see his crazy highspots... just b/c I WANT HIM TO WIN!!! It's fun! It takes me back to the days of liking Hulk Hogan, The Rockers, Blue Blazer and Shawn Michaels. Back when I didn't know all the inside info or focused on how great a match was... those were just guys I wanted to win b/c I liked watching them. Obviously even as a kid I knew Hogan wasn't the greatest wrestler but that never stopped me from cheering him on and going nuts when he'd kick the crap out of everyone who stepped in his way. It's exactly like that with Mistico and always will be with Rey Jr. when it comes to me. Sure I go on and on about who the "great", "good" and "okay" workers are in my comments re: the stuff I watch but I also have a seperate category for guys I just love and want to see win, no matter who they are facing or how many spots they blow during the match on the way to the win. Guys like Mistico, Hooligan, Chessman, Tzuki, Mascarita 2000, Rey Bucanero(when not opposite Mistico), etc. When I watch those guys, I still mark out like a kid when they get the advantage and beat their opponent, even if it's by cheating. But back to Mistico... I remember an older thread where people were talking about Volador Jr. being just as spectacular as Mistico and that may be true. But personally, Volador Jr. doesn't make that connection with me where I want to see him win. If he goes up top and Sangre Azteca nails him with a dropkick, I'm happy and don't care if he loses b/c it was a cool spot. But when Mistico does the same thing and gets dropkicked, I still think it's a cool spot but I don't want him to lose. I want him to get up and slap on La Mistica to win! I hope in 10 years I haven't fully become a smart mark who just talks about matches and lineups instead of enjoying certain wrestling just b/c... I enjoy them! And want them to win! That would really suck. Wrestling is a lot more fun when you are actually watching someone b/c you want them to win and aren't just waiting to see if a match will be "good or bad". In closing, the smart mark in me knows Black Warrior will turn on Mistico this Friday but the mark in me is hoping to wake up Saturday morning and read Ovaciones' new headline: "NUEVOS CAMPEONES!!!"

***rant over***

On a sidenote, the Mistico/Warrior vs Averno/Mephisto feud has been absolutely tremendous so far. Warrior has been more inspired than I have seen him since at least early 2002 and the champs have been total dickheads/pinballs for their opponents when need be. In particular the 1/27 and 2/10 Arena Mexico matches are standouts.

Continuing with Lucha Libre Azteca Vol. 35...

Los Divos vs Androide/Rey Sagitario/Jungla Negra Jr.: I don't know why but Jungla was ignored by his partners throughout the entire match. Since when do they have problems with him??? Another great match with these two teams. Androide and Sagitario are really underrated, Androide moreso. They both took ringpost shoulder bumps > Universo's in the first fall setting up big tecnico dives from Cats and Raiden. Final fall had another pair of cool dives by the same guys and then Jungla threw a drink in Bengali's eyes leading to him being pinned. Good stuff.

Sky/Gato Volador/Tigre Universitario vs Potro Jr./C. Lucero/Maniaco: MANIACO RULES! He led Sky through an awesome exchange in the second fall and then saved the kid's life when he was coming up way short on a running somersault plancha OVER the ringpost! The third fall was great. The rudos grabbed Sky and threw him like a dart through the ropes(like a tope suicida) right into a board that Maniaco was holding up! GENIUS! That took care of Sky and the rudos appeared to have everything under control until they fucked up a couple of times. Still, they had a 3-on-2 advantage and went for a triple team submission but Sky finally regained his senses and crawled into the ring, laid on top of them and got the win! Great finish. I think this means Potro Jr./Lucero/Maniaco have a hair match next week and I know Maniaco isn't losing that one!

Atlantis/Brazo De Plata vs Mephisto/Rey Bucanero: Pretty bad until the third fall. Bucanero bled which seems odd to me. Atlantis had his mask ripped and might have been bleeding as well but I think that was just Bucanero's blood. They were obviously the focus of the match but you could smell the cheap finish coming a mile away. Great post-match brawl with Bucanero stealing Atlantis' mask and throwing him all over the building leaving blood stains on the walls.

Lucha Libre Azteca Vol. 36:

El Potro Jr. vs Charles Lucero vs Maniaco - Hair Match: This was joined in progress as I guess these guys lost to Los Divos earlier in the show. Everyone knew Maniaco wasn't losing so it was between Potro Jr. and Lucero but then Maniaco started helping Lucero out so Potro Jr. was defeated quite easily. Weird as he got a little comeback but they didn't even try to pretend like he could have pulled off the upset so it came off like a squash, at least to me. Potro Jr. got a haircut but he has Negro Navarro style hair.:/ I remember when this was being advertised, a lot of people complained as the week before the lineup said "CAERA UNA MASCARA O CABALLERA" so they drew a healthy crowd and then the crowd found out the week before was only the START of the tournament where someone would lose a mask or hair and it caused a little stir. In the end it was a total sham as the guy who lost his hair grew it back within a week.

Atlantis vs Rey Bucanero - NWA LHW Title Bout: Joined in progress as well. Sorta the same match they had in Guadalajara around the same time. Third fall was pretty good and I loved the finish. Bucanero's second kept interfereing so Atlantis took him down and put him in a figure-four leglock. Bucanero got up and laughed b/c he knew he had Atlantis at his mercy but when he reached down to pick him up, Atlantis rolled him up for the 1-2-3 and Bucanero's second could do nothing about it since he was trapped in the figure-four! GENIUS!

Rest of it tomorrow maybe. I really wanna see Mistico/Wagner vs Garza/Panther.

The new AAA came!!! Skimmed through the DVD's before watching and gotta say AAA's TV product looks 1000% times better than CMLL for obvious reasons. Guerra De Titanes had the look and feel of a PPV event. New big screen at the entrance area was nice. Everyone looked to have their own music and special entrance as well.

Starting off with an older episode b/c I gave in and bought it just b/c it had Chessman and some random guy named Voodoo...

AAA 8/21/05:

Alebrije/Zorro/Voodoo vs Pirata Morgan/Monster/Charly Manson: So I thought Voodoo would be some crazy awesome local guy and I was half right... he was definitely a local guy. Just a short, fat, old local guy who looked like he was wearing one of Hechicera's(yes, the female wrestler) extra outfits.:/ I'm guessing he co-promoted the show or caught Pena doing something naughty to get a position like this on the show. He did absolutely nothing but was probably happy enough just being on TV. Only standouts in the match were Zorro/Manson as usual. They did a great spot near the finish where Zorro went for his rolling dropkick but Manson caught him and slammed him down with that facebuster move he uses a lot. Funny spot saw Pirata Morgan catch Cuije on a tope suicida and LAUNCH him into the crowd onto some dude's lap!

Vampiro/Shocker/La Parka Jr. vs Cibernetico/Chessman/Paranoia: Not even a match. There was one Parka Jr./Chessman exchange that wasn't too hot and then Vampiro accidentally knocked Shocker off the apron. Shocker and Vampiro had words, shoved and eventually brawled while the rudos buried Parka under a bunch of chairs and then started hitting him with more chairs until they got DQ'ed.

The best part of the show followed the main event as they showed highlights of the rest of the show that I guess Fredo's guy never taped. WE MISSED A BARRIO BOYS VS BLACK FAMILY MATCH!!! *kills himself* There also appeared to be a Mascarita 2000/Parkita vs Mini Abismo/Jerrito Estrada match and there was a cool clip from some trios match where Oriental/Histeria did dual running somersault planchas with opposite results... Oriental fell way short of his target and Histeria got so much air that he landed in the first row! *L*

I'd say Fredo ripped me off by not warning me this was such a horrible show but it's not that, it was my own stupidity. Only buy this if Fredo adds something good to make it a 2 hour DVD. Something like say... the first hour of the next show...

AAA TV 10/14/05 in Aguascalientes:

Shika/Mascarita 2000/Polvo De Estrellas/Martha Villalobos vs Policeman/Jerrito Estrada/May Flowers/La Hechicera: This was good and I can easily explain why: Martha Vilallobos made a 10 second appearences and then didn't come in again till the finish. GENIUS BOOKING! I have no clue who Shika is but he's in the Verano De Escandalo opener that I still need to get from one of those Puroresu King shows. He has a cool outfit and seems like an okay flyer. Almost crushed his neck coming short on a bullet tope suicida to Hechicera early on. Mascarita and Jerrito worked well together. The rudos/rudas took over for only a short while(which also helped the match being good) and Polvo/May Flowers actually had a good exchange! Mascarita did a wicked plancha over the ringpost onto Jerrito! The eliminations kicked into high gear after that. Mascarita did a wicked combo: slingshot splash, asai moonsault, springboard 450 splash to get rid of Jerrito. Shika got eliminated by Hechicera. Mascarita by Policeman. Policeman by Martha which left Martha/Polvo vs Hechicera/May Flowers. EW! Announcers were funny saying the match had turned into a womens match, hehe. Martha's team took the win after Polvo kissed Hechicera who fainted and got splashed by Martha. Cleverly worked match with lots of fun moments.

Laredo Kid/Rey Cometa/Principe Diamante vs Angel Mortal/Kaoma Jr./Rio Bravo: NOW THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!! Laredo Kid came off an awesome showing at Verano De Escandalo and came out wearing a Nautilius-esque outfit. Rey Cometa debuted a few years back on AAA TV but nobody remembers that sadly. Kaoma Jr. debuted with him in the same match and they tore the place down in a great tag match. Fast forward five years and he made another debut on the 7/1/05 AAA TV taping in Queretaro where he and Kaoma Jr. stole the show again. They aren't rookies, both have been around a while(especially Kaoma Jr.) so they aren't all about flying - they can work the mat big time. Principe Diamante was new to me until about 2 minutes into the match when I realized he is the former Babe Rap. This is good for two reasons. 1) Babe Rap had absolutely no charisma whatsoever and now he doesn't need to have charisma b/c he has an awesome outfit. 2) Babe Rap is a stupid name, Principe Diamante is the name Space Cadet wannabe's are made of. In fact, if Hombre Sin Miedo got a cooler name and teamed up with these three - there's your new Space Cadets Pena if you refuse to use the TJ guys. As for the rudos, Angel Mortal has been around forever and is the PERFECT RUDO for these tecnicos. Rio Bravo came in with the other Nuevo Laredo guys and is another solid rudo who is perfect for these tecnicos. And Kaoma Jr. is just perfect. Cometa/Kaoma got to start off and they TOOK IT TO THE FUCKING MAT! What an amazing exchange. There was this one crazy sequence where Cometa went for a magistral cradle and somehow Kaoma rolled right through into the original headlock he has been working for an entire minute beforehand. W-O-W! I can't even describe the rest of what they did but it was pure brilliance and the crowd gave them a big ovation. Rudos took over after that which is good b/c the crowd expected them to go straight to highspots so it was a nice tease. All the rudos hit some nasty moves on the tecnicos. There was no comeback as Mortal just wanted Laredo alone in the ring and ended up the victim of some neat armdrags. Kaoma Jr. met the same fate and finally Rio Bravo got nailed with a crazy satellite headscissors sending him outside. Laredo Kid tried a springboard but slipped, caught himself, stood back on the top rope and went for a frankensteiner to the floor but had wayyyyyyyy too much momentum and just ended up sitting on Rio Bravo. OUCH! Principe Diamante was next to work with all the rudos and he looked just as good with the in-ring stuff as Laredo Kid did. He nailed a bunch of backflips from various positions including eating a clothesline by doing one. I know a lot of people hate that spot but not me! Each tecnico actually took that bump in this match which was neat as it isn't common in Mexico yet. Rey Cometa came in next and he had a couple of problems with using the ropes for moves but more than made up for it by nailing other spots perfectly. He did the running frankensteiner spot that every luchador and their mom use these days except he swung over the ropes and took Kaoma Jr. over the top and outside! He then ran and nailed his patened running double corkscrew plancha!!! THAT IS THE MOST AMAZING DIVE!!! Crowd loved it. Laredo Kid dropkicked Angel Mortal outside and once again slipped trying a springboard but got it the second time and hit a completely out-of-control corkscrew plancha on Angel Mortal. He almost got an extra rotation on the corkscrew and since they were using the six-sided ring, he even almost hit one of the ringposts on the way down. Only one guy left of course and it was Principe Diamante who slapped Rio Bravo knocking him outside and then he too slipped climbing the ropes but in one fluid motion was back up top for a corkscrew plancha of his own! All the rudos got counted out afterwards. Fantastic match! Exactly what you'd expect for the AAA undercarders... a match with some blown spots combined with insane spots but this time it had a great mat exchange and some neat in-ring moves included as well. This kinda stuff is what you'll never see on CMLL TV and I'm not saying that is a bad thing, I'm just pointing it out. Sometimes AAA airs undercard matches that are soooooo awful and makes them look completely minor league compared to CMLL but this was definitely not the case here. The only negative is I liked the match so much, I'm now tempted to skip forward to watch Guerra De Titanes which had a four-on-four match featuring four of these same guys. I'll be able to hold off as the next few AAA episodes have these guys in action as well. ... I hope.

Next up was a segment where the D.F. commision talked about their rules and explained how they wanted the Middleweight Title Tournament to be 100% clean so a real champion could be crowned. This is AAA... saying that is absolutely pointless.

Oriental, El Angel, Histeria, Nuevo Audaz? El Hijo Del Audaz? Audaz Jr?, El Hijo Del Fantasma, Zumbido, Charly Manson, Psicosis, Hator and Gran Apache came out for a battle royale to decide the pairings in the tournament. Histeria/Psicosis didn't get to participate as they received automatic buys to the final. Did they really have to get dressed up in their complete outfits just to have that announced??? So weird. Maybe they'll do a run-in later on. The battle royale was one of the more fun ones I've seen in a while, especially as guys got tossed out. Angel was the first to go after... get this... a springboard ~SLAP! by Zumbidoski! Awesome! The slap is OVER! Apache went crazy and decided he wanted to take everyone including the ref on so naturally they all dumped him. Hator was next out and Hijo Del Fantasma then did a plancha off the top rope onto him which eliminated him as well. S-T-U-P-I-D! Manson went out next leaving Zumbido all alone with two tecnicos. Audaz looked alright before being dumped by Oriental who double-crossed him. Oriental/Histeria had a quick exchange before the refs broke them up since there was no reason to keep fighting. So the tournament was set:

Angel vs Apache
Hijo Del Fantasma vs Hator
Nuevo Hijo Del Audaz Jr. vs Charly Manson
Oriental vs Zumbido

I have results from every match except Hijo Del Fantasma vs Hator so I'm guessing that never actually happened unless AAA had a special show in Rio De Janiero over the last two months. I think they were supposed to meet on the 10/20 Zacatecas show which Fredo is missing the first part of but Hator had another match on that show and by the time they had their next taping they were on the Audaz Jr. II vs Manson match. Who knows. Do I care? Yes. I like brackets and real tournaments.

El Angel vs Gran Apache: AWESOME! Reminded me a lot of the old-school CMLL Lightning Matches. Angel and Apache have worked together for so long now that they are great with each other. They did about 5 minutes of matwork to start off which was really good and then picked up the pace with an Angel tope suicida. Apache was big time over with the crowd and he's hilarious to watch. He also has the ~SLAP! which kills anyone and everyone! Angel connected with an asai moonsault later on in the match. They did some nearfalls but that was the only negative of the match as Tirantes was the ref and he counted slow for Angel and really fast for Apache. There goes the "100% clean" motto. After about 13 minutes, Angel caught Apache in a WAAAAAAAAAAAACKY pinning move that I'm sure Apache taught him and Skayde would be mighty proud of. I had actually never seen it before this. Tirantes reluctantly counted to three and Angel moves on.

Noti AAA had a Tiffany harassing an obviously pregnant Fabi Apache. I still don't get the Billy Boy/Fabi Apache/Gran Apache/Tiffany angle. Billy loves Fabi, Gran Apache doesn't like Billy messing with his daughter but how does Tiffany fit into things? And why does Estrellita always come to Billy's rescue? Is she in love with Billy or just mad at Tiffany for some other reason? EXPLAIN THIS ALL TO ME CUBS!

First half of this show was fucking awesome so I already reccomend it even before watching the last two matches.

AAA in Aguascalientes 10/14/05:

Alebrije/S. Chicana/Tinieblas Jr. vs Pirata Morgan/Monster/Abismo Negro: Abismo was VERY over... much like a tecnico so Pena made the smart move to turn him eventually. I was confused as Tinieblas Jr. was just a rudo who turned tecnico and yet the crowd kept boo'ing him and he had problems with Alebrije which led to shoving after the match. Was he being booked to go heel again? He hasn't been on any recent shows so maybe he was but then he decided to leave? Match was better than expected. Chicana and Morgan are good in these types of matches where they don't have to actually wrestle for more than 4-5 minutes overall.

Vampiro/La Parka Jr. vs Shocker/Nikozuna: WELL HOW THE FUCK DID THIS TURN INTO A GOOD MATCH??? As I said above, easily my second favorite match of the taping and definitely the best AAA main event of 2005. I don't know who laid the match out but they deserve a gold star for all the twists and turns. There was some okay(but not great obviously) wrestling at the start. Vampiro bled BIG TIME! If you miss blood you definitely need some AAA b/c this was the first of two straight shows with great blade jobs. Vampiro was a "crimson mask" so to speak. Shocker grabbed Parka Jr. and dragged him backstage where they ran into Psicosis and Manson having a drink. This actually turned into a hilarious "OOPS" moment as in the background Zumbido and his drug dealer were talking outside the dressing room and realized the cameras were shooting the main event angle so Zumbido kept banging on the dressing room door trying to be let back in - *LMAO*!!! PRICELESS!!! It didn't matter much as the camera came back out and so did Manson/Psicosis with a giant board which they setup on the guardrail. They put Parka Jr. on it and here is where the amazing drama began to unfold. Psic went to help Shocker beat up Vampiro while Manson got attacked by Parka Jr. who had recovered. Parka Jr. took off his soccer jersey(both he and Vamp wore them to the ring) and put it on Manson, then grabbed a mask from a ringside fan and put in on Manson... which mask you say? Why of course... A LA PARKA MASK! He put a KO'ed Manson on the board just in time for Nikozuna and Psicosis to walk back over and see "Parka" laying there dead. Nikozuna got on the apron and splashed "Parka" through the board!!! The real Parka then came out of hiding and both Psicosis and Shocker!!! Nikozuna lay on the floor hurt as Manson played dead and had the doctors come check on him. Histeria then ran out(see, I told you they wouldn't make Histeria/Psic get dressed up for only one appearence) and took Psicosis out of the equation with an asai moonsault! Manson was loaded on a stretcher as Vampiro had Shocker all alone in the ring with the crowd going NUTS! He hammered Shocker with a chairshot and suddenly a fan wearing a 1000% Guapo shirt got in the ring. Wait... it wasn't a fan... it was Pato Soria, Shocker's dad! He begged Vamp not to hit Shocker again with the chair and Vamp reluctantly dropped the chair... turned around... AND GOT LOW BLOWED!!! Shocker then covered him for the win! Awesome fucking angle which didn't fall apart in execution as most AAA angles tend to do. If you're a fan of old-school ECW style overbooked main events - this is for you!

10/14 Aguascalientes was awesome! I'd reccomend it to anyone who wants to try and get back into AAA. No bad matches and you get to see everyone from the mini's, the crazy new flyers, the midcard guys who put on the best matches, the usual AAA comedy crew and a big main event that actually feels like just that... A BIG MAIN EVENT! Fantastic stuff.

AAA TV 10/20 in Zacatecas:

Unfortunately Fredo only got the last two matches from this show.

La Parka Jr./Tinieblas Jr./Luzbel vs Espectro Jr./Fuerza Guerrera/Pirata Morgan: Well this was a weird match, that's for sure. Rudos brawled early on but tecnicos made the usual comeback. During the comeback both Parka Jr. and Fuerza ended up switching masks which is a classic old comedy spot that Fuerza used to do with the original Parka. Only problem here was Fuerza couldn't get the Parka mask on properly. Pirata Morgan tried to help him but this led to a weird moment where neither could figure out how the mask goes on and Fuerza was actually unmasked on TV for a good 5 seconds.:/ There goes tradition. Luzbel was soooooooooo awful. I think I could take him a fight. For a guy as big as he is, he did one of those shoulderblock spots with Espectro Jr. where IN THEORY he should stay still and Espectro should take the bump. Well when they hit, Luzbel seemed to take the worst of it and he almost fell backwards! What the fuck? If I'm a fan watching that I'm wondering why the big scary monster almost fell down from a shoulderblock from a guy half his size. Pena should teach these guys about wrestling psychology before putting them out there. Match was horrendus but finish was kinda neat as Parka Jr. gave Fuerza back his mask but Pirata still had Parka's so Tinieblas Jr. came over to get his mask for him but in the process Parka got low blowed and pinned. When he got up he saw Tinieblas holding his mask and got mad at him. They shoved and brawled outside the ring. Yes, this means Parka went at least 2-3 minutes on TV without a mask but he has long hair that easily covered his face. In fact he looks a lot like the original La Parka if you ask me.

Vampiro/El Zorro vs Shocker/Charly Manson: No miracles this time. Match wasn't bad but the drama wasn't there at the end like it should have been for two big returns. Zorro bled big time here and Vampiro had no help so some music hit and Electro Shock made his return to AAA. It's funny how when he came out, he came off like a huge star whereas in CMLL when he came out it looked like amateur hour. Of course Electro proved to be worthless as a Shocker yakuza kick took him down and more music played which led to El Intocable making his AAA return and cleaning house. I forget who won but the TV production crew did great as the last clip on TV is Vampiro, Zorro, Intocable and Electro Shock posing together.

After the main event they showed highlights of everything from the first half of the show. UNDERCARD ATOMICOS SPOTFEST!!! *cries* Some insane spots in those clips. Then clips of a different six man tag with a couple cool dives and clips from the Hijo Del Fantasma vs Hator match. BTW, AAA got the better Fantasma kid.

AAA TV in Monterrey 10/30/05:

Antifaz/Incognito/Pimpinela vs Medico/Sergio Romo Jr./Monje Negro Jr.: Monje had a full head of hair which must mean he lost it soon after. Romo was bald but I forget why. All you need to know about this match though is... IN-FUCKING-COGNITO. I can now safely say there are only two guys you could take straight from AAA, re-gimmick and insert into CMLL main events where they wouldn't look out of place at all. The other is Chessman obviously - DUH! This guy was sooooooooooooooooo good in this match. Honestly, if I was a first-time lucha viewer and saw this match, I'd guess he was the best worker in Mexico. I remember back when Mistico first made his debut and the Juarez supporters were all ragging on him and saying the original Mistico was better overall... well they may have been right. The guy is the complete package and I am *SHOCKED* Pena has yet to give him a main event push with a new gimmick. The way he moves around the ring, sells, hits all his stuff... it's all perfect. If Pena doesn't do anything with him, he needs to give in, rename himself Mistico de Juarez and go drop his mask to CMLL Mistico. At the very least it will be a sign of good faith since it will end the Mistico debate once and for all and he might get to stay on with CMLL much like IWRG Mr. Niebla(Mr. Mexico). I need some Juarez footage of this guy STAT!

Billy Boy/Laredo Kid/Principe Diamante vs Gran Apache/Rio Bravo/Tito Santana: How do I put this... mmm... IN-FUCKING-SANITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so impressed with these new guys. The days of undercard spotfests with guys in shiny outfits is back! REJOICE NAYLOR!!! This was a looooooong match, I had it timed at 23 minutes in fact and it was only one fall. But there were a couple of sequences in between the brawling where the tecnicos went crazy hitting some of the most insane moves. Diamante did a wicked corkscrew armdrag, a bunch of backflips and a shooting star press. Laredo Kid did some crazy armdrags and headscissors off springboards in addition to a Stardust Press and he even stole the old Babe Rap(Principe Diamante) springboard somersault armdrag move that looks like the most difficult move in the world to perform! He also did this insane running somersault plancha where he landed on his feet with nobody to catch him!!! HOW DO YOU DO THAT??? Laredo has a death wish though as he takes head bumps in Mexican rings. This is the second show in a row where he has taken a german suplex and power bomb right on his head ala CZW. I'm not a fan of that. Maybe once in a while but definitely not in every match. Oh yeah, Billy Boy was good too. Seriously, he and Apache have fantastic chemistry. The finish of this match was just too insane for words but I'll try. Principe Diamante did a bullet tope suicida knocking Tito Santana into the crowd but then he picked Santana up and slammed him, went up top... and this is where I fear he would die... 450 SPLASH TO THE FLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!!! AT ARENA COLISEO DE MONTERREY!!! WHO DOES THAT? Well, Extreme Tiger I guess. Unfucking believeable! He's already > Extreme Tiger b/c he can actually do other stuff beside that spot inside the ring. Laredo Kid was next to die as he did a second rope springboard tornillo and CRUSHED his kness on the landing. That can't be good.:/ Billy Boy then traded nearfalls with Apache before submitting to a wicked rolling octopus submission. LOS RUDOS, LOS RUDOS, LOS RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDOS!!! Awesome match.

Amazing AAA undercards are back with a vengeance! Look out Naylor, for I have a new comp. for you soon with all the stuff these guys are doing!

Only non-AAA thing I watched was the IWRG 6/23/05 show(though I think the date is wrong b/c they kept talking about Mistico putting his mask up in a cage match in two weeks which actually took place on 6/17/05). Undercard was pretty bad. I dunno who the fuck Black Shadow Jr. was but he was 100% not co-operating with the rudos he was facing and they decided to end things in two falls. He didn't even want to submit at the finish. Weird stuff. Kung Fu Jr./Rey De Corazones/Fantasma Jr. vs Pirata Jr./Nemesis/Kaleth wasn't as good as their match from the previous week. Rey De Corazones did a PSYCHO running tornillo over the top rope and almost ended up in the crowd. ?Luckily? he only ended up crotching himself on the guardrail. When will people learn Arena Naucalpan is only meant for two kinds of dives - the pussy tope suicidas or the crazy tope suicidas where you have to end up in the crowd no matter what. These guys need some lessons from Black Dragon, Mike Segura and Super Mega. Semi-main was the X-Strangers vs Marvin's team match. Not too bad although a lot of the moves they did were waaaaaaaaay too advanced for the Naucalpan crowd. Marvin is sooooooooooooo good. He's in a class of his own when he comes down to Mexico. I understand CMLL doesn't want to push him b/c he is never around but I think it would be good to mix him with the top guys b/c he will look great and they can say "hey, this guy started with us and look how good he got". No-lose situation b/c he doesn't even have to go over to impress the crowd. Gigolo did a really nice tope suicida in the third fall which had me marking out. Everything went wrong at the finish though. I have no clue what happened but the four guys in the ring looked so lost and Marvin seemed to be yelling out instructions from the floor.:/ Aside from the weird ending not a bad match. ARRIBA ONTARIO! Main event was Mistico/Sagrado/Matrix(who was originally caled Mystic but CMLL forced a name change) against Scorpio Jr./Guerrero/Bucanero. Storyline was Guerreros didn't want to team with a Corporacion member but the focus of the match was Mistico and ONLY Mistico since this was his Arena Naucalpan debut. He didn't too much but at the same time managed to hit some signature spots to pop the crowd. Sagrado and Matrix looked pretty bad. Finish had Mistico rolling up Scorpio Jr. as the Guerreros were distracted and the rudos argued amonst themselves afterwards.

AAA TV in Monterrey 10/30/05 Part 2:

Zorro/Intocable/Electro Shock vs Psicosis/Zumbido/Charly Manson: Pretty awful. Intocable doesn't seem 100% comfortable in the ring like he was before his injury. Electro didn't have Chessman to make him look good so he was pretty worthless much like this entire match.

Vampiro/La Parka Jr. vs Abismo Negro/Konnan: This was a Luchas De Oscuras match meaning it was wrestled in the dark. They had special neon lights in the ring plus the wrestlers wore special outfits so you can tell who was who but maybe it was the lighting in the building... I dunno... I couldn't see ANYTHING. I'm thinking the fans had the same problem b/c 5-6 minutes into the match they turned the lights up a bit and immediatly went home. Horrific.

Estrella Dorada Jr. vs Sangre Chicana vs Hator vs Pirata Morgan - Cage Match: Estrella escaped first but got tombstoned on the ramp by Abismo Negro which was neat. Then chaos ensued with everyone climbing in and out of the cage eventually leaving Pirata and Sergio Romo Jr. alone inside to lose. Romo was already bald so Pirata got his hair cut a bit(not much) and left the building with more hair than Negro Navarro and Villano III put on the line in all their stip matches.

Entire show started off with a bang and ended on a huge whimper.

AAA TV in Leon 11/7/05:

Rey Cometa/Barrio Boys vs Gran Apache/Los Diabolicos: Looooooooooong match. About 25 minutes in total but it was alright at some points. Billy Boy busted out his entire Alfa moveset including the moonsault off Apache's shoulders! They work sooooooo great together. Oh yeah, before the match they did a COMPLETELY RANDOM SKIT where Brandon of Los Warriors showed up for no-reason and was offered money by Tiffany and Apache to do something. Weird stuff. Cometa looked good here even though he flubbed two or three things. There was a bird trapped in the arena!!! The camera kept showing it hopping around the ringside area every time it made an appearence which was funny. They did a mini dive sequence with Cometa doing an asai moonsault in the best spot. Apache pinned Billy Boy to win.

Nuevo Audaz vs Charly Manson: Another match in the Middleweight Title Tournament but this kinda sucked. Not due to Manson... mostly Audaz. He wrestles very old-school and has no charisma. Not to mention his physique is pretty bad for a guy whose gimmick is to be in better shape than everyone else. He reminds me wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much of a mix between Atlantico and Olimpus. That would be a bad thing. Manson wins after Electro Shock accidentally KO's Audaz. About 9 minutes long.

Alan Stone/El Angel/Pimpinela vs Sergio Romo Jr./Hator/ESPANTAPAJROS!: I'm going to take a wild guess and say Espantapajros was Brandon? Maybe Mini Psicosis? I really don't know but he was definitely the best rudo in the match. His entrance was wayyyyyyyy too awesome and must be seen! Stone looked the best I've seen him in AAA so far even though there was one scary spot where he slipped off the ropes and was falling backwards but managed to regain his balance right before he plummeted to the floor. Yikes! Angel looked like his usual shitty self. Pimpinela almost crashed and burned on a running somersault plancha which was the cue for the rudos take over and bloody up Pimpi. Tecnicos fought back with Alan doing a PSYCHO running somersault plancha which was a big time flashback to the Alan Stone/Moto Cross days for me. El Angel did a lame springboard twisting plancha on Hator. Romo low blowed Pimpi to win.

Intocable/Electro Shock/Sangre Chicana vs Shocker/Chessman/Zumbido: Way too much brawling for my liking. The first 15 minutes had absolutely nothing going on aside from Chicana bleeding. It looked like they had the comeback setup at least 3 times before they finally pulled it off properly. Tecnicos blew a bunch of spots when trying to work with the rudos. Even Chessman was having an off-night probably b/c he had short hair and Chessman w/ short hair < src="http://luchaworld.com/phpBB2/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif" alt="Smile" border="0"> Octagon did a tope suicida that the cameras missed as well. Ciber low blowed Parka to win.

Vampiro came out after the match and challenged Cibernetico to come fight him in the graveyard. Ooooohhhhhhh... scary. Show ended with Ciber driving off to meet him.

Disapointing episode and well worth skipping. But don't forget about the awesome 10/14 Aguascalientes show!

Lucha Libre Azteca Vol. 36 continuted...

Sky/Turbina/Diana La Cazadora vs Karonte/El Tacua/La Bruja: El Tacua doubles as a ref which is so stupid but whatever - it's Monterrey. Sky and Turbina just double as gay 13 year olds. It's true, ask Jose. They are both all about the spots and nothing else. Sky did a tope suicida into an armdrag on Tacua in the first fall. In the second fall Turbina lept over the guardrail to do a plancha on Tacua. In the third fall Sky did an asai moonsault on Karonte and Turbina did a running somersault plancha off a chair onto three guys. Diana did a bunch of cartwheels to win the match. Yes, La Bruja was just amazed by the cartwheels and fainted. Diana then cartwheeled all the way to her job at the weather desk!

El Potro Jr./Los Orientales I y II vs Tiger Universitario/Androide/Rey Sagitario: Not bad... not good... just there. I can't really remember a lot about it which probably says all you need to know. Orientales did a couple of neat dives and from what I remember the only bad parts of the match were when Potro Jr./Tigre were in the ring.

Mistico/Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Blue Panther/Hector Garza: They mailed it in. Or phoned it in. Or faxed it in. Whatever definition you use... they did it. I didn't get my Mistico/Panther matwork that I dreamt of. Ah... soooooooooo disapointing.

IWRG TV 8/25/05:

Motherfucker... this was like flashback to 2001/2002 IWRG where everyone wanted to die and take about six fans with them!

Avisman/Kung Fu Jr./Panterita vs Pirata Jr./Kaleth/Nemesis: You know... I just noticed Fredo has 'Super Siesar' listed but it's most definitely Panterita unless Shisa changed his look big time and shrunk. Pretty good match mostly thanks to Panterita and the rudos. In the second fall the tecnicos made a comeback and even though the camera butchered it, Panterita did an over the top plancha taking both and Pirata Jr. into the crowd! In the third fall Avisman tried to one-up Panterita but ended up paying for it himself as he went for a tope suicida on Pirata Jr. and overshot, jamming his shoulder into the guardrail and flipping into the crowd. OUCH! They tried to do a cool finish with the remaining four guys but it sorta fell apart. Very entertaining and that's rare for IWRG mid-card matches!

Mike Segura/Virus vs Dr. Cerebro/Cerebro Negro: AWESOME! Not MOTYC awesome but still AWESOME! My only complaint would be they seemed to screw up the finishes to both the first and second fall. Everything else they did was pretty great though including some awesome matwork and submissions. In the third fall Dr. Cerebro nailed Virus with a tope suicida and then Segura went all Super Mega on Cerebro's ass - driving him upside down into the first row with a motherfucking INSANE tope suicida! How they did not die... I do not know. I do know we need more matches like this and dives like that on IWRG TV to prevent me from sleeping through half the episodes. Virus low blowed Cerebro Negro so Segura could pin him but the referee reversed the decision after counting to three.

Black Tiger/Pantera/Pentagon Black/Scorpio Jr. vs Pierroth/El Hijo Del Pierroth/Pierroth Jr./Pierroth II: Long brawl until the third fall when they paired off for a very short time but didn't do anything too special. Pierroth bled but that's about it. Or was Scorpio Jr. bleeding? I forget who won but I'm sure it wasn't clean.

Good show to check out if you haven't seen IWRG and don't want to just dive in with guys you don't know. Virus will bring farmiliarty. Naylor must be drooling at the Virus/Super Nova tag team!

IWRG TV 1/8/05:

Frisbee/Panterita vs Black Jaguar(or Zaiyer?)/Black Stone: Now I'm all confused on my listings but I know someone was booked here and didn't show so Black Stone took his place and it was a last second switch so everyone was on a different page in the match which sucks b/c I looked forward to Frisbee/Panterita undercard matches. Lots of blown spots and this was really going nowhere right from the intros.

Los Payasos Tricolor vs Pirata Morgan Jr./Kaleth/Nemesis: The rudos are usually good but they were working with the Payasos here soooooo... yeah.:/ Aside from a nice triple dive by the rudos, I didn't really care for anything in this match. The Payasos were lazier than usual.

Mike Segura/Matrix/Star Boy vs Cyborg/Enterrador 2000/Xibalba: I think this was the start of an Enterrador 2000 push as he heads toward losing his mask. He basically destroyed all the tecnicos by himself and ended up pinning both Segura and Matrix in the second fall for the rudos clean sweep. Segura looked like his usual great self and Star Boy had some moments as well.

Negro Casas/Felino/Heavy Metal vs Scorpio Jr./El Veneno/Cerebro Negro - IWRG IC Trios Titles: Rudos won the titles after... ummm... I don't really give a fuck to tell you the truth. Usual lazy IWRG main event. Scorpio is smart as within a month and a half of his jump to AAA he managed to make sure both the IWRG Heavyweight Title and IWRG Trios Title were in his possession.

Waste of a taping.

CMLL Guadalajara 1/9/05:

Clips of Ringo Mendoza/Nube Roja vs Infierno/Malefico. Springboard plancha by Nube Roja is the only memorable thing. Surprised to see Ringo still wrestling. Actually... not really.

Volador Jr./Neutron/Kronos vs Bestia Salvaje/Cien Caras Jr./Malefico: On paper this looked fantastic but it wasn't really anything special aside from one or two exchanges by Neutron and Volador. The first fall had the rudos in total control until Nube Roja walked out and distracted Malefico so Neutron could roll him up. In the second fall Volador Jr. nailed Bestia with an assisted plancha and the cameras cut to a replay right as Kronos went for a dive of his own. Smartly they cut back *just in time* to see Kronos hit a plancha off the top rope. Did they learn from the mistake of going to a repeat while action is still happening? NOPE! They cut to a replay of both the previous dives and thus managed to miss the entire finishing sequence with Neutron and Malefico. Cesar Dantes ran in for the DQ. This is why GDL TV has been sucking dick lately aside from the miracle match.

Negro Casas/Brazo De Plata vs Pierroth/El Hijo Del Pierroth: In a sign of friendship, I shall let my DVDVR buddies review this one when Fredo gets the DVD.

AAA TV in Puebla 11/12/05:

What a gorgeous setup for a TV taping. 3 hours of AAA TV is like watching a weekly house show... it's so fantastic. I can't even begin to imagine how amazing CMLL would be with a weekly 3 hour time slot covering a match from Arena Coliseo and the entire Arena Mexico show. As I told Fredo in an e-mail - I'm actually enjoying this new batch of AAA TV way more than the CMLL TV batch covering 10/22/05 to 1/14/06 that he got in a month ago.

LOS KUMBIA KIDS vs Escoria/Cuervo/Ozz: Tonight's version of the Kumbia Kids were Kevin(I think the same one from the Warriors but I'd have to go check to be sure), Jessy and Javi. I don't really know how to explain this match but basically... it's exactly what I want to see when the Kumbia Kids make TV. Some funky armdrags and headscissors that only turn out well half the time mixed in with some crazy dives. That's really all I ask for and they came through big time here. Jessy looked like the best member of his team(he's the one related to Tiffany) as he actually worked the mat for a bit and was crisp with some of his offense. Ozz is a genius. I know the CMLL way is if your opponent fucks up - you kick the shit out of him. However, I *much* prefered what Ozz did here as Javi tried to flip into the ring but lost his balance. Did Ozz beat him up or laugh? Nope, he carefully climbed to the top rope and then looked scared so he climbed down ever so slowly and jumped off the first turnbuckle as the crowd laughed at him. PERFECT way to get the heat on you and make the crowd forget about the fact their tecnico just looked like an idiot. The general idea of the match was each Kumbia Kid got to work an exchange with each rudo so this was sorta like a exhibition match. Kevin was up first and finished his sequence with a tope suicida into an armdrag. Javi was next and did some alright stuff including a wicked springboard into a ropeflip moonsault armdrag combo on Escoria! He did not dive. Jessy was next and went absolutely crazzy with two fucking INSANE armdrag variations... one of which was just a thing of BEAUTY! He finished his sequences by doing a plancha off the top rope into an armdrag on Ozz on the floor! Great spot! Rudos took over and seemed to be trying out some new triple team moves of their own to see what would stick and what wouldn't. Interesting comeback spot as Ozz lay on the floor and both his partners kept sliding the Kumbias under the ropes and onto his knees. Finally Kevin didn't slide and just stopped at the ropes and dove onto Ozz with a slingshot somersault senton! The other Kumbias sent Escoria/Cuervo outside and did tope suicidas. We weren't done there as back inside Kevin sent Ozz back to the floor and nailed a nice tope suicida taking both into the guardrail! Jessy was next up as he did a running corkscrew plancha onto Cuervo. Javi then did a flying dropkick on Escoria who took a cool bump. Javi then locked on a submission hold... AND ESCORIA GAVE UP! KUMBIAS WIN! KUMBIAS WIN! KUMBIAS WIN!!! WTF!!! Did the top heel stable in AAA just lose an opening match to a team that makes TV once every three months? *L* Well, it was one of the first matches at the arena live and you do want to keep the fans happy so maybe it was the right decision but still... how odd. Great way to start a show off. AAA has the right idea.

Estrellita/Martha Villlalobos/Karina Duval vs Tiffany/La Diabolica/Rossy Ventura: Duval? Ventura? Who? Pretty shitty match as you'd expect although Estrellita/Tiffany looked good when in there together. Apache ran out at the end and threw some stuff in Estrellita's eyes to cause her to lose.

Pimpinela Escarlata/Billy Boy/El Angel vs Pirata Morgan/Gran Apache/Apocalipsis: No, El Koreano did NOT jump for one night only and this was not the Apocalipsis from Guadalajara's NWG. Just some local guy put under a random gimmick much like Espantapajros on the last show I assume. It's not a bad idea... kinda fun for the randomness of it all. Cubs would probably disagree. Anyways, this was a pretty fun match as Billy Boy, Angel and Apache were ON! Apocalipsis wasn't too bad himself and took some brutal punishment from some blown Angel spots. I felt bad for him when Angel tried a legdrop as Apocalipsis hung on the ropes but ended up sitting on his head instead! Billy Boy looked fantastic and is really taking advantage of this push he is getting. He seems to be fighting Charly Manson for best bullet tope suicida! Nailed another killer one in this match. Later he ran at Pirata Morgan and got tossed into a corkscrew plancha at Apache. Cameraman filmed it perfectly b/c I had no idea Apache was even waiting to catch Billy Boy and just thought the tecnico was going to take an INSANE BUMP to the outside. Very weird stuff to finish the match as Pirata Morgan beat up Hijo Del Tirantes which led to Tirantes(in street clothes) doing a run-in and a TOPE SUICIDA on Pirata. Where did this feud come from and why did I not hear about it back when the taping occured?

Oriental vs Zumbido: Another match in the Mexican National Middleweight Title Tournament. You ready for this one Cubs? It went... *drumroll*... a whopping... *drumroll*... ***SIXTEEN AND A HALF MINUTES***!!! Find me how many CMLL trios matches(forget even checking singles matches b/c it's a lost cause) got 16:30+ in 2005/2006 so far! I'm not gonna say this was a great match or anything but it actually felt like a match unlike the rushed CMLL singles matches and by the 10 minute mark you actually got the feeling that both guys wanted to win since they were battling so hard. Lots of dives, mind you some were setup pretty clumsily. Oriental fucked up a tope suicida early on but then did it again properly. Zumbido did his plancha off the second rope in the ring. Zumbido missed a moonsault off the apron but landed on his feet only to take an Oriental frankensteiner. Oriental pushed Zumbido into the crowd, then overcame his fear of heights and lept over the ringpost into the crowd with a plancha! Later he rounded out all the dives with a moonsault plancha where Zumbido was in the wrong position and they cut to a crowd shot as he walked into the right place to take the dive properly. Eh... it's Lucha, what can you do? Some nice nearfalls in the ring including Zumbido doing a corkscrew off the top right into two feet from Oriental! Zumbido gets the win *clean* with an upside-down Indian Deathlock pinning move. Yes, that is how I am going to describe it! Zumbido praised Oriental over the mic afterwards and they shook hands. 16+ minutes... clean finish... good buildup to the finish... *blinks*... AAA rules!

Histeria and Electro Shock vs Charly Manson and Psicosis: Psic got things going fast with a tope suicida as Histeria made his entrance. Then everyone brawled for a really long time. Electro bled through his mask/face covering. Tecnicos took way too long to fight back but there was a ton of heat when they finally did. Histeria did a pescado onto Psicosis. Later he did a somersault plancha off the second rope inside the ring as well. They had a couple of nice exchanges but I wish the exchanges would have gone as long as the brawling. Oh well. Electro somehow got worse after his CMLL/indy run. He used to do some neat stuff(granted it was mostly with Chessman) but now is just a waste. Maybe he'll be better as a rudo since he was the one who turned on Pena at AAA's TV taping tonight. Tecnicos won *CLEAN*. ***3 CLEAN FINISHES ON AN AAA TV SHOW!*** NEW RECORD!!!

La Parka Jr./Intocable/Sangre Chicana vs Abismo Negro/Chessman/Shocker: Shocker/Chicana feud was the main storyline here. Intocable had a decent exchange with both Abismo and Chessman but he still doesn't look as comfortable as he was before the injury. Parka did a nice running somersault plancha over Abismo's back and onto Chessman. For a guy who was about to make a big tecnico turn - Abismo really wasn't teasing much of anything here. Pirata Morgan did a run-in to help Shocker pin Chicana and then Tirantes came back out to brawl with Pirata. Huh?

Aside from the stupidity with Tirantes, this show is well worth checking out. Probably my second favorite all-around AAA show of 2005 now after the 10/14 Aguascalientes show. The next episode up is 11/19 in Tlaxcala and it looks like it might just blown this one away... at least on paper.

Arena Coliseo De MTY 8/28/05:

Kumbia Kids vs Ares/Muerte Subita/Mongol Chino Jr.: Blech... unfortunately this was the crappy group of Kumbia Kids with Javi, Jessy and Tee-Wee. No Kevin who is great. Tee-Wee is just beyond awful and the whitest Mexican I have ever seen. He wrestles how he looks though and would fit right into the CZW undercards. The only shining spot of the match was Jessy who tried but this couldn't be saved. Lots of dives as you'd expect though nothing really crazy.

Billy Boy/El Angel/Laredo Kid vs Gran Apache/Escoria/Ozz: Pretty fun but not a great match. Billy Boy/Apache continue to absolutely RULE together! In fact I'm really feeling bad about not voting Apache as my Legend of the Year and especially about putting Negro Navarro over him. The usual fun exchanges with all these guys as you'd expect. Weird finish as it looked like Laredo Kid was supposed to attempt a pescado and Ozz was going to move but Laredo Kid must have forgotten and he crashed and burned extra harder than he was supposed to.:/ If he was just selling - that was an AWESOME sell!

Sangre Chicana and Sangre Chicana Jr. vs El Brazo and Pirata Morgan: Yeah... well... it was... okay... I guess. I'll be nice b/c I honestly expected this to be horrific beyond words but the third fall was fun. The Chicana's did nice dual tope suicidas with Chicana Sr. accidentally nailing a little kid at ringside and then apologizing and asking the kid to help him up. No harm, no foul I guess. Usual screwiness at the finish involving Sergio Romo Jr. doing a run-in.

La Parka Jr./Estrella Dorada Jr./Demolition vs Cibernetico/Chessman/Hator: Before the match they show a note from Shocker(typed on GUAPOS V.I.P. stationary!) explaining why he couldn't make the show. I really wish he had come though b/c his replacement BLEW. Demolition is the same guy who played Paranoia on AAA TV in Tijuana and Mexicali. No idea why he changed names. I'm assuming it's a SoCal guy but have no clue who it could be. Seeing him work tecnico here was odd and this show is probably what made them decide to use him as a heel. He tried hard but a guy his size and doing his moves should not be a tecnico. I was scared for Chessman's life when he had to catch the dude doing a wild tope suicida.:/ Chessman can survive anything now - IT'S OFFICIAL! Estrella Dorada Jr. and Hator worked well together but they really have no excuse not to as they've been working together since they were kids(they're brothers). It sucks Estrella joined AAA and then left so quickly. He looks like he has a lot of potential and would have been great instead of Scorpio Jr. for the Guapos V.I.P. vs Secta feud.

Alright show but I expected way more from the opening two matches.

AAA TV in Tlaxcala 11/19/05:

Super Fly/Flecha Roja vs Los Perversos I y II: Before the match they had an interview with the local tecnicos as they did various flips around the ring which was neat. Super Fly(TV spells it 'Flay' but they also say 'X-Flay' instead of 'X-Fly' which is obviously wrong) seemed to be the guy they were pushing the most which was evident when he kept appearing on more AAA tapings. He's alright but not in the flying class of the other newer AAA guys. He does one neat Pegasso-esque spot where he does a forward flip and then a 360 onto his feet which seems difficult as hell to pull off. Pretty simple match formula here with two matwork exchanges, each tecnico gets to fly around, rudos take over, tecnicos fight back and do dual dives and then win with dual huracanranas. Fun way to open up the show.

Escoria/El Cuervo/Ozz vs Picudo/Espiritu/Silver Cat: More of an angle than a match as before things get started, Cibernetico and La Secta come out to offer Espiritu a chance to join their group. He thinks it over as the match goes on which leads to lots of "friendliness" between him and his opponents. Obviously Picudo and Silver Cat don't like this which leads to the Vatos arguing amongst themselves. The problem here is in between the angle they tried to wrestle and the Black Family were amazing as usual but this is not the type of match for the Vatos. Maybe Espiritu since he's good but Picudo and Silver Cat cannot work tecnico style. They are pure rudos who work best when catching the Barrios or Kumbias. So aside from Espiritu working with any Black Family member, the exchanges were real awkward. Vatos did a couple of dives during a comeback. Escoria did a moonsault off the apron onto Silver Cat. Black Family won and Espiritu left with the Vatos.

El Angel vs El Hijo Del Fantasma - Mexican National Middleweight Title Tournament: This was short... THANKFULLY! Ugly matwork to start off and then it appeared they had no idea where to go so Angel just walked around the ring until Fantasma got the hint and nailed him with a bullet tope suicida. When they got back inside they looked even more lost and Fantasma quickly applied a submission to win. Barely reached 5 minutes. VERY DISAPOINTING. Don't even have a guess as to what went wrong. Then again, if they had gone long this might have turned into a two-disc set so good job guys!

Billy Boy/Histeria/Oriental vs Gran Apache/Psicosis/Zumbido: Usual really fun AAA mid-card match. If you've been following the shows or even just my reviews you can pretty much guess how this match went and who looked good/who didn't. The finish was quite awkward though as Oriental got pinned and then Histeria/Psicosis/Zumbido just brawled into the crowd as Billy Boy/Apache did nearfalls. Histeria ended up doing a moonsault from about 10 feet up onto Psicosis and then a somersault off a ledge(show was in a bull ring) onto Zumbido. They took forever to get to where they wanted to do those spots and then even longer to set them up so it was pretty weak. Oriental interfered so Billy Boy could win. Aside from the awkward finish I enjoyed the match. Zumbido looked fantastic.

El Intocable and El Zorro vs Charly Manson and Shocker: Holy fuck... A CLEAN AAA TAG TEAM MATCH!!! I was shocked as I was sure they were building to a Zumbido or Electro Shock run-in but it never came! Some good wrestling and some good brawling mixed with some sloppiness from Intocable but most importantly... A CLEAN FINISH! Kinda funny too as Manson grabbed Zorro's cane and went to hit Zorro who moved so he nailed Shocker. He then tried to hit Zorro on the ropes but ended up hitting himself and both rudos got pinned afterwards. Crowd loved it so you can't ask for much more.

There was a skit where Vampiro stalked Cibernetico in a cemetery and eventually made his presence known. Cibernetico took off his jacket and the two brawled until Chessman and Charly Manson appeared from out of nowhere and Vampiro got his ass kicked and then buried! Hilarious shit. This is right up there with the greatest CMLL skits, especially the part where Vampiro is laying on the ground and Chessman puts a shovel on him, then Manson grabs another shovel and started smashing the shovel on Vampiro. Makes a great sound but sooooooooo obvious it was doing nothing to Vampiro who still had to sell it as death since he was about to be KO'ed and buried. This was the conclusion of a 3 week long skit on AAA TV and I hope they keep doing them. Actually, before the Apache match they concluded another 3 week long shit involving Billy Boy, Apache, Tiffany, Fabi Apache and Brandon. I wasn't following that though. Billy Boy looked awful pissed about whatever it was that was going on though!

La Parka Jr./Octagon/El Alebrije vs Cibernetico/Chessman/Espiritu: Obviously before the match Cibernetico offered Espiritu another chance to join La Secta and Espiritu accepted. He didn't seem to break up with the Vatos though as they shook hands on the ramp before he ran into the ring and put on his new eyewear and Secta shirt. Good to see Espiritu working main events(ignoring the fact I've already seen him work some recent AAA main events), he deserves it. The entire Secta watched the match from the ramp which was a total giveaway of what was going to happen. *L* Tecnicos dominated the entire first half of the match for obvious reasons. Alebrije looked great in his return to AAA TV. Cuije was funny but ended up getting tossed into the crowd which is always a scary spot since nobody ever wants to catch him! As expected the entire Secta ran in for the DQ and then got chased off by Intocable, Zorro and ... someone else who I forget right now. But... the coolest part was before they ran away to the back they all posed for a group photo and it looked AWESOME! Very reminisant(sp.?) of when Los Vipers formed and posed for a huge group photo that you can find almost anywhere on the net these days.

Overall it was a pretty good show and I'd reccomend it along with AAA 10/14 and AAA 11/12 as the must get AAA shows of 2005. Of course Guerra De Titantes will probably blow all those shows away but that's coming up another time.

AAA TV in Central America + Distrito Federal November/December 2005:

La Parka Jr./Pimpinela/El Alebrije/Martha Villlalobos vs El Brazo/Polvo De Estrellas/The Monster/Tiffany: This was from that XXX show and I gotta commend AAA on the great production for this show. Entrances took up *15 MINUTES* as each person had their own music video and did a dance in most cases. Not that I'm suggesting CMLL copy this and have Bucanero dance but it works for AAA's roster. The entire match was pure comedy as you'd expect but the (mostly drunk) crowd (filled with hot chicks) absolutely loved it. All the spots were the same stuff you've been watching on AAA TV for years though but the crowd was reacting great b/c it was their first time seeing it much like when AAA had this type of match at the Hustle show. The only actual wrestling part of the match was when Alebrije and Monster got the ring. It constantly amazes me how some people that read KrisZ's news reports feel the need to mark out over El Signo working an indy match against Brazo De Platino but The Monster gets no recognition as being an old-school luchador who can still go. Hell, Signo hasn't looked even passable since early 2002 unless you count that one IWRG match but I guess it's fun to live in the past for some. Meanwhile The Monster, another aging/balding luchador who used to rock in the 80's gets no mention even though he has actually gotten better over the years. I think it's the gimmick. I sometimes find it hard to take a guy wearing his mask and outfit seriously as well but you can't turn a blind eye to good wrestling if you're a true fan. Cuije continues to try and die as he got flung into the crowd late in the match and was actually thrown upside down with nobody waiting to catch him! HE'S 15 POUNDS SOAKING WET - JUST STICK A HAND OUT AND GRAB HIM!!!

Mascarita 2000/Novillerito vs Mini Abismo/Mini Psicosis: Long intros once again. I am amazed they dug out old Novillerito footage for his video. Both mini tecnicos wrestled in tiny tights and Mascarita didn't even wear his usual mask, instead he wore a Sagrada face covering but it just covered his eyes and nose. Are he and Novillerito not only brothers but also twins? The problem with this new "mask" is it obviously wasn't tested before the match b/c it kept falling off, especially late in the match. Oh well, not like he was going to wear it regularly anyways. Usual great stuff as you'd expect from the AAA mini's. Mascarita/Mini Abismo looked as on as I've ever seen them. They weren't going all-out spectacular as this was not the type of crowd you do that stuff for but they were certainly crisp and faster than usual with all their normal spots. Novillerito looked good as well but his brother is wayyyyyyyyy better. Mini tecnicos win which the crowd of course loved. Novillerito nailed Mini Psicosis with a tope suicida and Mascarita made Mini Abismo submit to the satellite octopus that nobody does better!

El Zorro/Anthony W. Mori/BxB Hulk vs Charly Manson/Mr. Aguila/Hator: Hey, this means Aguila was on AAA and CMLL TV on the same weekend! The DG guys have the perfect gimmick(not to mention - look) for this type of show as their dancing routine got over huge. Why the fuck was Shisa with them??? He just stood outside the ring the entire match. This was alright and I was impressed how well the DG guys worked with their new AAA opponents. It wasn't perfect or anything but it could have been a much bigger mess(see: CIMA at Triplemania). Nice finishing sequence with Zorro having to take out all three rudos to finally pin Aguila with his finisher. He got attacked after the match and left laying with an Aguila flying legdrop as he lay on the specially constructed ramp.

Billy Boy and Decnis vs Gran Apache and El Cuervo: This was from El Salvador! SCOTT! The ring was obviously a local one as it was way too small for all the spots the AAA guys like to do. In fact, this is one of the things that holds me back from getting into Chikara. The entire promotion is based around Lucha spots but those spots are hard to do in tiny rings since the rudos usually have to fly across the ring and all the spots look much better when you are flying through the air - not ducking to avoid hitting the ceiling. These guys did good with the small ring and loose ropes though. This was classic 2/3 falls which is rare for AAA. In the first fall Billy Boy nailed Apache with a bullet tope suicida and Apache absolutely murdered some kid in the front row who wasn't smart enough to move. Apache apologized afterwards but I could have sworn someone came down to ringside and told Hijo Del Tirantes to tell the guys no more spots outside the ring since he went over and told Cuervo something who then relayed the info onto Apache. Anywho... they split the first two falls and in the third fall... I guess I was wrong b/c Decnis did a tope suicida on Cuervo who took all the impact but didn't stumble back into the crowd even though they got the hint this time and ran for cover. Billy Boy made Apache submit to win. Really good traditional style tag match.

I think this was actually two AAA TV episodes combined into one DVD since there was no closing segment but oh well. I doubt we missed anything too special.

AAA 'Guerra De Titanes' 12/10/05:

Well god damn... AAA sure knows how to put on a huge show. This was one (long) fucking great way to end the year for them and establish the new top heel group going into 2006.

Chiva Rayada I/Rey Cometa/Laredo Kid/Hombre Sin Miedo vs Kaoma Jr./Rio Bravo/Tito Santana/Oscuridad: What a fucking great way to open a show up! I expected non-stop 10-15 minutes worth of highspots but they instead worked a solid match which the crowd was really into and ended it off in spectacular fashion. Chiva looked to be played by one of the ex-Kumbia Kids... maybe Javi? I guess it really doesn't matter as he wasn't the focus as he was just a late replacement for the injured Principe Diamante. Cometa/Rio Bravo started off with a short mat exchange before the rudos all attacked the tecnicos and took over. That didn't last long and then it was time for the tecnicos to show their stuff! Really awesome work with everyone getting in an exchange and blowing nothing. Rey Cometa looked the best including this crazzy asai moonsault right into a headstand spinning headscissors and this crazy spinning armdrag move he uses all the time. Hopefully Pena doesn't scare this kid away. Hombre Sin Miedo looked good too and did a nice slingshot into a frankensteiner to the floor on Kaoma Jr. who was easily the best rudo in the match although I wish we would have gotten to see more of Oscuridad who has an AWESOME outfit and would make a great captain of the new Rudos De La Galaxia team. Finish was really cool as they did a new spot where all the rudos went for sentons on each tecnico laying on the apron but they ended up piled on top of each other. It's hard to explain. Either way it all ended with Laredo Kid and Hombre Sin Miedo doing dual *10 FOOT HIGH SOMERSAULT PLANCHAS OVER THE RINGPOST*!!! Camera missed Miedo's but Laredo Kid's looked absolutely unreal. That dive should not be tried without a trusted rudo catching! Cometa missed a tornillo off the top and was pinned but he wasn't the captain so the soccer goat ended up pinning Kaoma for the win. All the guys got a huge ovation afterwards which was certainly well deserved. GET THIS!

Mascarita 2000/Octagoncito/? vs Mini Abismo/Mini Psicosis/Jerrito Estrada: OK... this was weird. Octcito and Mascarita came out with a mini in a white mask(Novillerito - but nobody is supposed to know that). Pena came out as well and announced Mascarita 2000 could no longer use the gimmick so instead they were giving him a new mask and still calling him Mascarita Sagrada. What the fuck? So he took off the Mascarita mask and slipped on a new mask at the same time. The new mask was an early version of Misterioso's mask. O...K. He then put his old Mascarita mask on the new mini and said he would be Mascarita Sagrada Jr.! What the fuck? What makes this even more confusing(yes, it is possible) to me is I've seen AAA TV since this point and the original Mascarita 2000 is still doing the gimmick so what was the point of all this? Anywho... Cibernetico invades the lovefest and tells Mini Abismo he has a choice - join La Secta or DIE! Wow, that musta been a toughie. Naturally Mini Abismo joins and then... LA BOMBA plays over the loudspeaker and out comes Octagon! Yes folks, he was so stale that they gave him new music which gets him an instant pop. Fucking Polvora could have walked out with that music and gotten the same reaction. Octagon chased off Ciber allowing the mini's to temporarily have their match. Usual great action as you'd expect from these guys. "New Mascarita" obviously couldn't match his brother but he tried harder than usual. "Old Mascarita" was still awesome with his new look. All the mini tecnicos did cool dives including "Old Mascarita" doing two great ones. Octagoncito had the match won until Cibernetico ran out and fucking MURDERED HIM with a huge choke slam. This was Vampiro/Tarzan Boy level with no protection at all as Ciber just slammed Octcito right down at a disgusting angle. If Octcito hadn't have came out later in the show, I would just have assumed he was out forever with a serious injury. They even replayed it using a skeleton in place of Octagoncito and showing exactly where the bones would have snapped. I am NOT joking about that. God bless Televisa.

Shika(w/ Chupitas) vs Chaman(w/ La Hechicera): I have no idea who played Chaman but he didn't get to do much anyways. This was the weirdest fucking thing in the world as Hechicera didn't even try to hide her interference... she just wrestled the entire match while Chupitas ran around the ring and at various points just walked around the ring as the match was going on! WHO THINKS THIS SHIT UP? And to make matters worse they gave these guys 2 out of 3 falls! The only save grace was two cool dives by Shika - an asai moonsault into the guardrail and a bullet tope suicida. Chupitas actually counted the pinfall for the second fall. Should that count? Naturally the rudos lost and Hechicera got her head shaved as per the stipulation. Crowd seemed to enjoy the finish but were just as confused as me for the first two falls.

Zorro/Intocable/Electro Shock vs Pirata Morgan/Charly Manson/Zumbido: Idiot fans at ringside decided to be assholes and throw a bunch of garbage at Manson and Pirata so the early portion of the match was a mess as security came over(with the riot squad!) and took a bunch of people out of the building. I thought it would get good when Manson jumped into the crowd to throw a chair but he smartened up and went back in the ring to lead the rest of the crowd in a chant of "FUERA, FUERA, FUERA"! Charly is a smart man. Tecnicos fought back to a huge response. Intocable tried a frankensteiner off the apron but did not rotate enough and cracked his head on the floor. Zumbido took the bump anyways which looked awkward.:/ Some okay in-ring stuff when Pirata wasn't involved(imagine saying that back in the late 80's/early 90's...). Alan Stone did a run-in and attacked Intocable. Chicana did a run-in and hit a tope suicida on Pirata. He almost crashed and burned though. Should you really be risking that kind of a spot on a guy scheduled to work a hair match in an hour? Intocable did a wicked asai moonsault on Alan. Zorro hit a no-hands running somersault plancha over the top on Manson. Tecnicos went over which is the right result for a mid-card match that means nothing. Why kill the crowd and have the rudos win?

All the mixed tag teams came out to flip a coin to see who would face who. ~CHESSMAN! began his MVP night by catching the coin in mid-air and throwing it into the crowd! FUCK YEAH! He was also being a total ass and shoving any woman who came near him. If I had seen this show the day before the Tapatia awards - Chessman would have won the Wrestler of the Year.

Billy Boy/Estrellita vs Chessman/La Diabolica: Usual good match with Billy Boy/Chessman working great together and Estrellita looking hotter/working better than usual. She did a nice plancha off the top onto Diabolica near the finish. Apache did a run-in to cost Billy Boy's team the match. Chessman took about 350 bumps during this match for the tecnicos.

Oriental/Cynthia Moreno vs Gran Apache/Tiffany: How lucky does Oriental get to be? First he gets to work here with Apache and later he gets to work with Chessman. It was IMPOSSIBLE for him to look bad on this night. Cynthia was super-motivated and had some nice sequences with both Apache and Tiffany. They did a nice little finishing sequence ending with Billy Boy costing Apache's team the match and setting up...

Oriental/Cynthia Moreno vs Chessman/La Diabolica - AAA Mixed Tag Team Titles Bout: No time to rest as Chessman ran out with a steel chair and bashed both Morenos to get the match started. To explain this match you only need to know one thing... CHESSMAN IS A FUCKING GOD. He doubled his bumps in this match, taking at least 700 but I lost track. He took every move Oriental has in his arsenal and still had the stamina to keep going and work exchanges with Cynthia. Halfway through the match he had lost almost all his facepaint b/c he was sweating so much but he kicked into high-gear for the last half of the match. Lots of nearfalls. Oriental did a slingshot into a frankensteiner to the floor on... duh... Chessman! Then it was time for a dive sequence but when Chessman is involved with a dive sequence, he ALWAYS does ALL the catching. First he caught Cynthia's dive, then he caught La Diabolica's dive and finally he caught Oriental's huge moonsault plancha. WHAT CAN'T CHESSMAN DO? They didn't even let him rest as he got right back in the ring to work more nearfalls. He even missed a skytwister off the top rope!!! La Diabolica COMPLETELY DISAPEARED for the finishing sequence leaving Chessman all alone to take:
1. A DDT out of a power bomb from Oriental.
2. A moonsault from Oriental.
3. A flying double foot stomp from Cynthia.
4. A completely out of control tornillo off the top rope from Oriental.

It was brutal the amount of punishment Chessman took in this match. The doctors actually came in to check on him as the post-match activites were going on but c'mon - IT'S CHESSMAN!!! He got up on his own as everyone celebrated and the crowd cheered. No fucking respect for the MVP of the match! The other teams all hugged and shook hands but Chessman just spit at all of them and walked out. MV-FUCKING-P PERFORMANCE!!! GET THIS! This ranks all the way up on the list of greatest one man performance by a luchador in history.

Sangre Chicana vs Shocker - Hair vs Hair: This was also made 2 out of 3 falls which hurt it. A 1 fall match would have been way better. Chicana bled early. He won fall one when Shocker refused to let go of a submission hold. Same story for fall two except roles reversed. By the third fall they were both a bloody mess and brawling in the crowd. Still... it wasn't as good as I thought it'd be. No real drama even with the blood. I guess everyone knew who was winning. They didn't even tease the various screwjobs as Alan Stone/Zumbido just ran out to attack Chicana and Shocker covered him after an Alan flying dropkick for the win. Very odd ending. Before the head shaving, chaos erupted as Super Calo and JJ/JJ Jr. barged into the building with like 20 people and they all yelled at Shocker who cut a promo on them in return. This went on forever and was so fucking stupid. Chicana got a haircut while this was going on. JJ Jr. got the shit beat out of him by the Guapos. I don't like this story.

Octagon/La Parka/Abismo Negro vs Cibernetico/Ozz/Escoria/El Cuervo/Chessman: The intros were fantastic. Much like the old days of AAA and I hope they keep doing that for their big shows. La Secta's deal is they have everyone at ringside and they enter whenever they want. Works for me since it was just a bump-a-thon with one exception... CHESSMAN GOT TO REST! I thought for sure with him out there, he would just take billions of bumps for the tecnicos until it was time for Cibernetico to win but the Black Family actually took that role. Ozz in particular was off the charts with his bumping. Mini Abismo did a run-in to turn the match in favor of the rudos. The finish was hilarious as La Secta all jumped in the ring and there was a huge pop... was Intocable coming out to save? Maybe Chicana? Maybe Electro Shock? How about a brand new face like Konnan or Vampiro? How about... none of the above! It was... Mascarita 2000, Mascarita Jr. and Octagoncito!!! *LMAO* To be fair it was one of the better run-ins of all time. Octagoncito did a spinning armdrag sending Escoria outside and nailed him with a huge twisting tope suicida through the ropes!!! Mascarita Jr. then lept off the ringpost with a plancha on Mini Abismo!!! Finally Mascarita 2000 lept off the ringpost as well with an insane frankensteiner into the aisleway on... you guessed it... ~MVP CHESSMAN! Cibernetico low blowed Parka to win the match which is what La Secta needed... a big win. Crowd was sorta pissed but shrugged it off when Parka cleaned house and danced.

Awesome show! Only a few moments of stupidity. Some great wrestling, some good wrestling, a few insane highspots, ~CHESSMAN! and just an overall enjoyable atmosphere. Well worth the $15 to get it from Fredo. Might sell you on buying some 2006 AAA shows when he gets them in.

The TV show also aired Vampiro/Latin Lover/Shocker vs Cibernetico/Abismo Negro/Psicosis from the XXX show. Exactly what you'd expect. All the ladies were completely loaded at this point and just wanted to see Latin Lover dance. Nice finishing sequence.

I'm getting tired of writing so I'll skip(for now) a large write-up of the other thing I've been watching...

...

1989 EMLL!!!

First off, I must obviously thank ohtani's jacket. Thanks to him, some great 80's Lucha footage was NOT lost forever as he could have just thrown it into storage never to be seen again but instead he shipped it to me so I could convert it to DVD(hopefully). He is our saviour for the time being b/c so far these two tapes have been fucking UNREAL. Quickly...

Atlantis/Lizmark/Popitekus vs Emilio Charles Jr./Jerry Estrada/Pierroth Jr.: Motherfucking great! Jerry was awesome. All the rudos were awesome actually. It has been a common trend so far on the '89 Lucha. Jerry took a bad spill to the floor and hurt his head in the second fall but took an even worse spill in the third fall when he went for a running somersault plancha on Popitekus who just decided to stand in one spot instead of moving forward and thus Jerry hit the ground HARD. Amazing match but still only the fifth best match I've seen so far on these tapes.

CICLON RAMIREZ/SUPER ASTRO/APOLO DANTES VS BLUE PANTHER/NEGRO CASAS/EMILIO CHARLES JR.: Do you honestly need me to tell you this was great? Because it really wasn't. It was more than great. Someone come up with a word for it. Let's put it this way... Negro Casas in the 80's only made RARE appearences at Arena Mexico. So do you think he mailed it in? Ummm... NO. But fuck Negro, Super Astro and Blue Panther were the stars of this match. 10 billion trillion gazillion stars and geuss what? Only the SECOND BEST MATCH OF THE TAPES SO FAR!

Atlantis/Blue Demon Jr./Huracan Ramirez Jr. vs Emilio Charles Jr./Pirata Morgan/Pierroth Jr.: Really great match. Notice a trend? Atlantis was the fucking king at this point but everything has been about the rudos so far and the trend continued here. Bumps, bumps and more bumps. Then... some more bumps! Atlantis went all crazy in first fall with some sweet armdrags and in the third fall he blew the roof off the place with a HUUUUUUUUUGE TOPE SUICIDA *OVER* THE TOP ROPE! Oh man... it was a thing of beauty. 5 and a half billion stars. Only the fourth best match I've seen so far.

Atlantis/Angel Azteca/Blue Demon Jr. vs El Dandy/El Texano/Super Muneco: Two words - *EL DANDY*. Read my comments about Chessman in the Guerra De Titanes thread and that sums up El Dandy's work here. He nailed EVERYTHING, sold like a champ and fucked up every tecnico. This was worked tecnico vs tecnico style and was far from the normal lucha style people expect. You could say some of the match was a little slow but everything they did made sense and the psychology(I hate that word but it applies here) was fantastic. The crowd began to pop for the simplest of things. The only time the match seemed to get a little weird was obviously when Muneco/Demon Jr. had to be in the ring together but thankfully El Dandy always came in next to save the day. EL DANDY IS A MACHINE! This match was fucking beautiful and I say that even though it had very little flying. Third best match I've seen so far but I can easily see others saying it was the best or second best. In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say this will be in Phil's top 5 when it comes time to do the 80's Lucha deal.

And my favorite match so far...

Atlantis/Mascara Sagrada/Super Astro vs Pirata Morgan/El Verdugo/Hombre Bala: Match of the decade? Probably not. Most entertaining match of the decade? You'd have to be a fool not to say yes! This was UNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNREAL! Only one fall(part of a four team trios tournament - I wonder who the other teams were?) and 12 minutes or so but it may have been the best 12 minutes of Lucha Libre I have ever seen in my life. To put this into context, let's link it up to current Lucha - Super Astro(Mistico)/Mascara Sagrada(La Mascara)/Atlantis(Felino?) vs *THREE REY BUCANEROS*! Yes, *THREE REY BUCANEROS*!!! That is the best way I can explain it to people who didn't follow old Lucha. The rudos got about 30 second of offense before the tecnicos made a spectacular comeback and from that point forward it was MOVE AFTER MOVE AFTER MOVE AFTER BUMP AFTER BUMP AFTER BUMP. The crowd was loving it b/c everything the rudos did was so fantastic. The little things might have been better than the big things but I only remember the big things such as dual sallida bumps by Pirata/Verdugo and then Bala goes nuts, runs into the ropes and gets kicked in the ass by Atlantis and proceeds to rocket through the ropes with a tope suicida on his own partners! Pirata was on a mission to die taking every bump possible including an armdrag where he not only slid all the way across the ring, but also under the ropes and right into a back bump on the floor! He took a huge sallida bump while the rudos were doing a confusion spot and the visual of him taking the bump while Verdugo runs out of the way and Bala jumps to catch his brother in mid-air will never leave my mind. I'll go out on a limb to say the greatest spot in the history of rudo bumping. The bumping spree went on for a good 12 minutes straight until each tecnico hit a spectacular dive and they won by countout. Atlantis actually hit the best dive - his famous asai moonsault - onto Pirata. Best match I've seen so far on these tapes. Just an amazing spectacle from six of the best at the time. Once I get over how amazing all the bumps and dives were, I'll probably put this third and the Panther/Astro trios match first with the previous trios match second. But for right now, this is #1 and a must-see. When I convert to DVD I'll see how I can get this ripped and uploaded for all to enjoy. *THREE REY BUCANEROS*!!!

Of course there are a bunch more matches to watch so I'm just assuming nothing better will come along.

What have we learned?

1. Chessman = AAA's Ultimo Guerrero.
2. El Dandy = 1989 Wrestler of the Year who isn't afraid to kick Angel Azteca right in the face if he dares try to blow a spot.
3. Pirata Morgan = 1989 Rudo of the Year who isn't afraid to die a horrible death for my enjoyment.
4. Jerry Estrada = 1989 Runner-up Rudo of the Year who wishes Pirata Morgan wasn't around so he could be #1.
5. I need more 1980's Lucha.