IWRG TV 6/22/06:

Kid Tiger & Sibelius vs Bacteria & El Macho II: Another joined in progress during the second fall match.:( That means Sibelius got to show NOTHING b/c the tecs won the first fall, Kid Tiger got in his exchange and the rudos proceeded to take over. Bacteria looked alright. The comeback spot in the third fall was pretty crappy and then Sibelius horribly fucked up a spot where he was supposed to backdrop Kid Tiger by accident. Time stood still as they figured out what to do. It was... awful. Thankfully the rudos ended the match right away.

Panterita/Star Boy/Vertigo vs Cyborg/Fantasma De La Opera/Xibalba: Yay - Panterita! Rudos brawled from the start and appeared to have the fall going their way until a miscommunication near the turnbuckles. This started the big comeback. Vertigo worked a decent enough exchange by his standards with Fantasma De La Opera. Sudden finish right afterwards with Panterita and Star Boy pinned Cyborg and Xibalba with double huracanranas as Fantasma ran from Vertigo. Panterita had a fantastic exchange to start the second fall with all the rudos. Crowd chanted his name afterwards. I wonder if that is going to work with FREE LANCE.:/ Rudos once again took over with brawling but again a miscommunication led to Cyborg and Xibalba getting sent outside. Star Boy nailed Xibalba with a tope suicida and then Panterita came FLYING over the top rope with a running somersault plancha into the crowd!!! This left Vertigo and Fantasma but no referee watching. They tried to do the old Vertigo kicks Fantasma low spot but at the same time Fantasma rips off his mask... except Vertigo's mask wasn't loosened at all and refused to come off. Once again time stood still while they jumped around trying to figure out what to do and the ref had to pretend he didn't turn around too early. Finally Fantasma gave one big yank and the mask came off but the finish was horribly ruined by that point. Tecs win by DQ in two falls.

Felino & Pantera vs Dr. Cerebro & Cerebro Negro - Sin Referi: This type of match always confuses people who don't follow Lucha. See... the match is called "Super Libre sin Referi". So no referee, how does the match end? Well... there IS a referee. Except he is only on the outside of the ring and can't get in the ring to stop any illegal submissions, low blows, etc. But he CAN disqualify a team from the outside. So what is the point of a match like this? Don't ask me. Lots and lots of brawling. It seemed like they just ended each fall whenever they wanted as the ref counted to three for no reason. This may have been part of an angle or something... I really wasn't paying attention. Another ref came out at the end of the match to count the final pinfall for the tecnicos. Afterwards they challenged each other and a tag title match was agreed upon. Except next week's show is from Arena Neza and not Arena Naucalpan so instead of these guys in a tag title match, we get a main event with Enfermero Jr.! YAY!

Brazo De Plata/Mr. Niebla/Sagrado vs Blue Demon Jr./Damian El Terrible/Shigeo Okumura: This was taped after Porky had already been on Triplemania so naturally he was the star of the match and got to do all his signature stuff. Sagrado looked okay when in the ring with Terrible but that's the only other noteworthy thing. After the match Porky kissed the announcers goodbye and gave a short speech which was nice.

Really bad episode. Maybe the change to Arena Neza will bring some good matches...

CMLL Fox Sports Espanol Aug. 27 & Sept. 3/06:

August 27...

Virus/Stuka Jr./Leono vs Canek Jr./Hooligan/Nitro: Sadly, due to the soccer airing beforehand this was joined in the second fall. Judging by the opening clips which had a dive sequence, I'm assuming the first fall was matwork and the tecnicos winning while the third fall had said dive sequence and the finish with Leono being pinned by young Canek. The worst part about this was I enjoyed this second fall way more than any fall from the similar match the following week.:( Stuka Jr. opened up with Hooligan and was all flippy-floppy all over the ring. He busted out an AMAZINGLY SWEET ropeflip armdrag made great by the fact Hooligan is such a pro, he only used ONE ARM to balance Stuka and took the rolling bump as fluid as Herodes in his prime. Imagine how difficult that spot must be to pull off? Virus and Nitro were next with Virus looking great as usual. He has new Rey Bucanero style pants instead of his normal tights. Leono and Canek Jr. then entered and of course Canek immediatly got off on the wrong foot with me by blowing the opening spot. Leono covered and hit a spinning armdrag but then the rudos took over and won the fall easily, mind you the triple teaming was clumsy.

Dos Caras Jr. vs Black Warrior: Shockingly fresh match-up! Maybe even more shocking than that was I thought this was really good! It wasn't as formulatic(is that a word?) as Mistico's singles matches tend to be and the hatred seemed to be stepped up between these two. First fall was fun and had mask ripping from both. It seemed like they were doing the typical rudo dominates fall until Caras rolled up Warrior out of nowhere for the win! Second fall had Caras in control on the outside and when the re-entered the ring, he went for a submission move and this time Warrior rolled him up for the win! Third fall MAY have been joined in progress with nearfalls already taking place. Dos Jr. did his impressive running tope over the top which Warrior did a horrible job catching for. Warrior then nailed his bullet tope soon afterwards. They traded a few nearfalls using roll-ups that got HUGE reactions. Unfortunately the DVD cut off at this point so I missed the finish.:( Reading Victor's reviews, it seems I didn't miss much though as Warrior got one more nearfalls and then Dos Jr. nailed his finisher for the clean win. Even without seeing the finish, I'd say this was a really strong match. Good showing by both.

September 3...

Virus/Stuka Jr./Mascara Purpura vs Hooligan/Loco Max/Nitro: Hey - it's the non-existent undercard Guerreros! Two weeks of Hooligan in a row makes me a happy man.:D Virus and Nitro took it to the mat early. Sadly that ends quick with the rudos jumping the tecnicos and brawling their way to a win. Second fall isn't much better as the tecnicos immediatly fight back, Purpura nails a wicked tope suicida on Nitro and Virus/Stuka Jr. put Loco Max/Hooligan away respectively. So even without a game interrupting the match, it still seemed as if this was just a one fall match.:( At least the one fall was sorta okay. Stuka Jr. and Purpura seemed to be a contest to see who could do the most pointless flips. I think it was a tie in the end. Stuka Jr. did his handspring moonsault TWICE in the span of 20 SECONDS!!! That's only acceptable if your name is Super Fly! Hooligan looked like a pro bumping around for Stuka but what else is new? I wanted to see an exciting finish but it was pretty standard. Virus did his armdrag off the ringpost to Nitro on the outside, then Stuka Jr. slammed Hooligan so Purpura could hit the SSP and then Stuka used his legsweep DDT on Max. Overall disapointing... yet it was fun to see these guys in a disapointing match rather than the usual boring crew of same old regulars.

Mistico/Dos Caras Jr./Lizmark Jr. vs Perro Aguayo Jr./Damian 666/Mr. Aguila: First fall is all rudos including them putting a PdM shirt on Mistico and abusing QueMonito. Crowd seemed especially into this match for some reason but it was mostly comedy and stalling. Perrito in particular was really disapointing as his routine has seemingly turned into 100% shtick. Every second it's a new comedy spot or him running away and hiding. That's fun once in a while but for an entire match? I could go on and on but this match was a joint effort to stink up the building. At one point Lizmark Jr.(who had yet to be in the ring for minutes so in theory should have been 100% fresh) took a double chop from Damian and Aguila... and proceeded to lay on the may for close to a minute before finally doing his stupid same old routine which is just the Booker T kip-up and superkicks. Then he tagged out. AMAZING! Even more business exposing later on was Dos Jr. and Aguila talking and laughing in the corner while they waited for Damian to finish posing for the crowd. Oh, I forgot even more exposing than that... in the second fall as they were doing the finish, Lizmark Jr. just walked up to Aguila who must have been expecting some sort of intricate finish spot but Lizmark instead just grabbed him and forcefully pulled him up into his side slam move while Aguila looked all confused. People need to learn: LIZMARK JR. DOES NOT WANT TO WRESTLE! DON'T EVEN TRY! Mistico did two seperate tope suicidas on Perrito at different points in the match. One time was remarkably stupid as Perrito did a full lap around the ring as Mistico stood aiming up his tope suicida. Perrito then ran to the exact place Mistico was aiming for, waited a few seconds... then took the tope. This guy is a top 5 wrestler?:/ Lizmark Jr. teased a dive but it's Lizmark Jr. so Aguila just dragged him to the outside. Same for Caras Jr. and Damian. This left Mistico, Perrito and a referee bump/missed low blow. Perrito low blowed Mistico a second time and the only remaining referee counted to 2... TWICE... then decided to award the match to Mistico via DQ. Fantastic. I'm gonna go on record and say this was the most mailed in match I have seen all year on CMLL TV. Perrito is AWFUL.

Overall though... enjoyable two episodes. You knew I was gonna say that though b/c any episodes with undercard matches is always fun. Hopefully the streak continues and tomorrow they show the Stuka Jr./Tigres vs Arkangel/Hooligan/Loco Max match. This would be the 3rd time in 4 weeks Stuka Jr. and Hooligan have been matched up. Is that going anywhere?:/

IWRG TV 6/8/06:

Ave Fenix & Kid Tiger vs El Macho II & Kaleth: Fredo has Nemesis listed but it's definitely Kaleth. Not sure who else would have noticed that besides me though.:) Typical opening match with all the spots you've come to expect from these guys. Fenix has yet to seemingly find a rudo he can work fluidly with. I guess Macho II is the closest he has come so far but even they had troubles. Kaleth was okay and used some moves you don't normally see in the openers but it wasn't enough to make this memorable. Tecnicos win.

Fantasma Jr./Kung Fu Jr./Vertigo vs Black Terry/Fantasma De La Opera/Xibalba: PLEASE tell me you weren't expecting a good match with those three tecnicos! They may as well be called bland, blander and blandest. The rudos looked good bumping around but that's about all that can be said about this one. IWRG constantly loses points with me for booking these scrubs and wasting a valuable tercera or semi-main. Vertigo I can understand b/c he's the Arena Aztahuacan booker and gets IWRG guys matches on his show. Kung Fu Jr. does nothing and draws nobody. Same for Fantasma Jr. although I guess it's a favor to Fantasma who is on the commision. Why can't we get the more talented Hijo Del Fantasma instead?

Dr. Cerebro & Cerebro Negro vs Mazada & Shigeo Okumura - IWRG Intercontinental Tag Team Titles Bout: Alright match. Started slow and then turned into your standard beatdown/comeback match. Cerebro Negro/Mazada kept being pushed as the big singles feud. They didn't do too many nearfalls in the third fall and instead went with the approach where Dr. Cerebro and Okumura both got eliminated early which turned it into a singles match. The finish was weird as Cerebro Negro grabbed Mazada for a tombstone but Mazada countered with a crazy headscissors driver type move which spiked Cerebro Negro on his head and earned the rudo a DQ so the Cerebros could keep their belts. You can see the spot I'm talking about right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3c-ozYaLUI

La Parka/Felino/Negro Casas vs Pierroth/Black Warrior/Damian 666: Usual stuff. Felino had on a cool black outfit which seemed to motivate him a LITTLE extra but not enough to save this from being your typical lucha by numbers match. Parka and Pierroth feuded with Parka ending up wrestling with only half his face covered by what was left of his mask. Low blows were the story of the finish.

Disapointing episode. I expected more from the tag title match and main event.

Arenas De Chicago 1/29/2006:

I will be stealing the match listing and comparing to notes based on what cubsfan wrote about the show here -> http://www.thecubsfan.com/cmll/updates/002323.php

Cubs told me to watch the second night before the first night and who am I to argue with someone who thinks the Cubs have a shot of winning the World Series?

Production on the DVD was really impressive as they had different camera angles and the crowd SEEMED to be mic'ed properly which is important for a Lucha Libre show. I say SEEMED b/c there were times where you'd expect to hear a pop but didn't hear one until a few seconds later. Not a big deal though.

Silueta Azul vs Yoko Yamamoto: Been a few days since I originally saw this but I recall it being quite bad. Yamamoto had a manager with him who interfered right from the start. This is the type of match that REALLY should have been one fall but they dragged it out for three. Only the promoter knows why. Azul wins of course b/c it really should be illegal to have the rudo go over in the opener(Bihari Booking 101). Yamamoto ends up turning on his manager. I'm not sure if this is the conclusion to a local angle or just a one night deal.

Angel De La Muerte & Mascara De Jade vs Angel Dorado & Leproshty(WTF?): I have no clue who is who although I assume Angel Dorado was in yellow? He blew a ton of stuff and I really didn't like him. I'll also assume Angel De La Muerte was in black? He blew a ton of stuff as well and I really didn't like him. You know... I actually really didn't like this match. Thankfully it seemed to be a hot crowd so they weren't gonna let this mess bring them down. I've seen California indy Lucha shows with matches like this where they just suck all the life out of the crowd and it's not a pretty sight.

Lupillo/Rayo Lasser/SWAT Kat vs Guerrerito Del Futuro/Coco Verde/Coco Negro: So as legend goes, one wrestler from my old favorite stable Los Cadetes Del Espacio now lives in Chicago and wrestles quite often - that wrestler being Discovery. I swear I remember cubs saying he thought Discovery was Rayo Lasser. Now granted I haven't seen Discovery wrestle since 1999... but his style was very obvious. Now this Lupillo guy(Lupillo was the bald guy, right? If not, I have no point for rambling) seemed to match all of Discovery's old charachteristics, right down to the entire not giving a crap about the match while on the apron and doing the exact same sequence Discovery used to do during all his matches with the 360 armdrag. Coincidence? Perhaps. Rayo Lasser seemed too short and unathletic to be Discovery for sure. But who knows... cubs has seen Discovery live in the last 8 years whereas I haven't. A lot can change in 8 years. But onto the match itself... I quite liked it. I'm sure some of you have seen it already since cubs uploaded it. Los Payasos are definitely not the IWRG guys but they are quite good in their own right. Guerrerito is 100% definitely Espectrito II. I liked what I saw throughout the match. Some nice exchanges and good comedy. The second fall ending was a bit of a mess but it happens. Lupillo did a nice plancha to the outside while covered in blood. Crowd really seemed to enjoy all these guys and they had the benefit of following that previous match. Would like to see more from these guys, especially Lupillo, Guerrerito and the Payasos.

I think I saw torgaman during the previous match in a white/red shirt at ringside moving chairs. Yes? No?

Atomo and Principe Unlimited vs Shamu Jr. & Aguila Del America: I've actually seen two of these guys! Unlimited and Shamu Jr. were on some of the old California indy tapes I have laying around. I remember liking them. Why were they brought in though? Does it have something to do with this also being billed an FMLL show? Pretty good match here with the SoCal/TJ veterans doing a bunch of neat stuff. Principe Unlimited did some cool flying including a frankensteiner to the outside and a sweet asai moonsault in the third fall. Atomo didn't look as good but held up his part of the match. I hate how they set up for double dives at the end, made sure to do their a few second apart so the fans could react to both but even with post-production being done on the show - they still missed whatever it was Atomo did! When I used to edit videos, I'd actually go back and re-edit stuff if I saw I missed a big move! I liked the finish b/c the Code Red is one of my favorite moves. Great way to setup the main event.

Mistico & La Parka vs Dr. Wagner Jr. & Rey Bucanero: ... and 13 minutes later the match begins.:P The atmosphere was pretty electric although I rightly assumed that a match like this would be much better to see live than on tape/DVD just b/c I expected lots of stalling and brawling into the crowd. I gotta point out there were security guys at ringside although one wonders WHY? Every time Parka and Wagner took it into the crowd, security always seemed to be watching and would be two or three steps behind wherever they went. At one point Wagner lost his mask and Parka was teasing like he was gonna throw it into the crowd so of course a bunch of kids run up to him to try and grab the mask with no security in sight. One of the guys taking pictures actually had to act as a human shield for Parka for a few seconds.:) I knew Parka wasn't throwing the mask into the crowd though, Wagner could easily sell that to someone for some extra cash so the ref stole it back and presumably gave it to Wagner when he came back to the ring. As expected... lots of comedy to stretch the match out but it's the kinda shtick you don't get to see too much these days when you can actually hear the crowd responding unlike IWRG TV. Rudos took the first fall. Tecnicos fought back and nailed double tope suicidas in the second fall and ended up winning in the ring with a Parka roll-up and La Mistica, which pretty much guaranteed Mistico would not be involved in the finish of the match.:) It was actually interesting to see Mistico and Bucanero taking a background role to Parka/Wagner's shtick. Mistico didn't look too comfortable unlike Bucanero who seemed to be used to it and having a fun time just taking his bumps whenever it was time. Mistico seemed hesitant to do stuff as I assume he's used to always being the center of attention in Mexico no matter where the match takes place. Something like that should always be considered over the next few years when rumors start to come up about Mistico doing a Japan tour or having a stint in TNA. I don't think at this point in his career he would do well, even with his jaw-dropping spots. The third fall was really good and had a bunch of neat spots and neat comedy spots. The one thing I disliked was when they seemed to stop the match for no reason and started doing mic work. I guess that would be something that works better live though b/c you are reacting to what is going on whereas watching on tape/DVD, it just feels like they are stalling. Mistico ended up nailing Bucanero with a slingshot tornillo that the camera guy totally missed even though he was RIGHT THERE! The finish was a bit awkward as the ref raised Parka's hand and I really didn't hear any sort of pop until he raised it a second time and they announced who really won the match by DQ. Overall, one of the most entertaining matches I've seen all year long.

From match 3 and on, it was a very good show. I guess if you're attending a smaller indy show, you have to expect those types of opening matches. Though I've seen MUCH worse on some of the SoCal indy shows I have. The main event is obviously the show stealer and the type of match you can pretty much assume those same four guys work throughout Mexico whenever they are programmed together. Cubs, you're a lucky guy to have seen it live!

Now... do I dare watch the first night or wait a day or two so the matches don't seem too similar?

AULL Lightweight Tournament First Round/Semi-Final Thoughts:

Now THIS was something I was looking forward to and it totally came through! This tournament reminded me a lot of the CMLL Welterweight Title tournament from 1996 mostly b/c that was when I began watching Lucha Libre and still didn't know any of the guys... much like the guys in this tournament. So back in '96, that tournament was great b/c I got to see lots of new guys at once and they all got the time to show off their offense and have credible 5+ minute matches. Poor new lucha fans who are only used to seeing recent CMLL tournaments which are just 1-2 minute matches with a dive and a finisher being mandatory. If you go over the 2 mnutes, they edit your match to 30 seconds as punishment ala the Copa Jr. Finals.:)

First up I gotta praise the great old-school feel to the tournament as they had a giant board with the brackets in the back of the arena(visible on TV) and they brought out all 8 guys to "randomly" draw their opponents. I am a HUGE mark for stuff like that. After all was said and done, it was time for the tournament...

Round 1:

Super Nova vs Psicopata: This is indeed the new Super Nova that has began appearing on CMLL undercards lately. Psicopata might be farmilar to a few Chikara fans as he was on the Best of Mike Quackenbush DVD in an eight man tag from Mexico in this very arena. His gimmick may be farmilar to WWF fans as he has his own "Head" at ringside that gives him advice throughout the match. Match started on the mat with both guys looking good going through various exchange. Nova took to the air a few minutes in with a nice running somersault plancha! Psicopata used a nice armdrag to send Nova outside and nailed a slingshot tornillo! Psicopata then got a bunch of nearfalls with moves off the top rope. Nova finally managed to fight back and the two traded submission attempts. Finally Nova grabbed Psicopata and hit a fireman's carry slam for the win! Solid showing by both guys. I want to see more Psicopata for sure!

Tortuguillo Ninja III vs Sadico: Yes! Ninja Turtle gimmick is back!:D Sadico is a local young rudo that is often praised on the Box y Lucha forums so I was looking forward to seeing him here. They also started slow and had some nice exchanges. Karateka sped things up and looked alright but seemed nervous which is to be expected since this building used to draw 80 people on a good day and with the new television show, the crowds now look to be 200-400 fans. It was definitely jam packed for this tournament as Mistico was main eventing. Anyways, Sadico took some good bumps and ended up taking a plancha from the Ninja Turtle who slipped as he was climbing the ropes which led to the crowd laughing at him. Sadico showed off his impressive offense including a spot I really liked where he hiptossed his opponent onto the top turnbuckle and then nailed a running tree of woe dropkick! They seemed to mess something up at the end so after some talking, Sadico just picked up the poor Ninja Turtle and dumped him RIGHT ON HIS HEAD with a Sadi-Krusher(nice, huh?). Crowd was 100% pro Sadico.

Gato Karateka vs Krimen: Gato Karateka is not a Ninja Turtle. In fact, I don't know what he was. Just some dude in a weird orange outfit. Krimen is in Sadico's stable(which also includes Locky) so they look alike but Krimen is definitely older. Rough start with Karateka looking a little lost on the mat but Krimen calmed him down and then bumped around for some armdrags before taking a tope suicida. Krimen looked good dominating Karateka for a while and then gave him his comeback which looked awkward. Once again Krimen just allowed himself to be sent outside and he ate another tope suicida. Krimen seemed to have enough of Karateka and nailed an AWESOME inverted power bomb, then a wicked suplex variation and locked on an IN-FUCKING-CREDIBLE submission move that I have never seen before to get the win. MUST - SEE - MORE - KRIMEN!

Terry 2000 vs Digital: Terry 2000 is the son of local star Terry Boleanos Jr. so he is HUGE over with the audience. He has an ugly Fugaz-style bodysuit and looks to be 16 years old... MAYBE. For having such a cool name, Digital really just looks like your average Mogur-esque luchador. Both guys looked good early on. I nearly lost it when Digital used a ropeflip armdrag right into a Skayde Special! Terry 2000 kicked out but held on and turned it into a backslide somehow! I ALREADY LOVE THIS MATCH! Unforunately Digital then went on offense and you can't do that unless you actually have moves to use much like Sadico showed us earlier on. So after some awkward moments of Digital not knowing what moves to use, Terry 2000 fought back and countered a spinning backbreaker into an armbar for the win! Nice finish.

Semi-Finals:

Super Nova vs Sadico: Holy crap, I've been waiting for this match since... well... since both their matches ended and I knew they'd be facing each other! Fast start with Nova doing a handspring backflip, then ducked a clothesline by doing a cool drop down into a kip-up and armdragging Sadico outside. He then went for a dive but Sadico slid back into the ring. Nova landed on the apron and punched Sadico, then went up top for a plancha... AND GOT DROPKICKED BRUTALLY! Sadico got a few nearfalls but then missed a somersault off the top. Nova nailed a flying splash and got two. He got another few nearfalls. Then he tried to whip Sadico into the turnbuckles but Sadico kept resisting so Nova had to keep kicking him till he had enough leverage. Sadico reversed though and Nova tried to leap over Sadico who caught him on his shoulders, move his leg out of the way... AND NAILED THE SADICO CRADLE DRIVER! YOU KNOW IT'S OVER! Huge pop for the finishing move and the fact Sadico advanced. This was probably my favorite match of the tournament even though it was the shortest(double the length of CMLL tournament matches though). Everything made sense and the match was laid out brilliantly. Finish was sick and that's exactly how you want to end a match.

Terry 2000 vs Krimen: Joined with Krimen making his entrance when out of nowhere Terry 2000 comes FLYING AT HIM with a bullet tope suicida!!! Krimen looked to take a bad fall into the entrance steps and clutched his back in pain but he continued the match. Terry 2000 to show off more of his armdrags and headscissors until Krimen took over but he kept selling his back injury. He used a cool corner dropkick and pumphandle slam but only got two counts. Terry 2000 fought back and used a wicked corkscrew armdrag, backflipped onto his feet and dropkick Krimen outside. He teased a big dive but then nailed Krimen with a frankensteiner off the apron taking the rudo into the crowd! Terry 2000 got back inside to recover as Krimen grabbed his back and tried to get up but was having troubles. Just as he was about to get over the guardrail... TERRY 2000 COMES OUT OF NOWHERE WITH A RUNNING PLANCHA OVER THE RINGPOST *OVER A FAN* AND INTO THE CROWD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!! Venum Black/Oro Jr. in Promo Azteca level!!! Crowd went absolutely insane and began chanting 'Terry, Terry, Terry!' He hopped the guardrail and rolled into the ring while obviously Krimen was done for so he got counted out.

This sets up Terry 2000 vs Sadico which is being taped on Wednesday with the winner getting the AULL Lightweight Title which looks pretty.

*GREAT TOURNAMENT*! All the wrestlers looked great, the crowd was into everything and the announcers treated the guys like real stars instead of spending the match talking about the main events coming up. I went in with high expectations and the entire tournament surpassed them!

As a bonus treat for those who read my reviews, here are links to where you can download the tournament for yourself:

Round 1: http://www.sendspace.com/file/dsdwrt
Semi-Finals: http://www.sendspace.com/file/littxq

IWRG TV 6/1/06:

Ave Fenix & Kid Tiger vs Black Stone & Fantasma De La Opera: Joined in progress which sucks b/c this ended up being really good. Kid Tiger pretty much has it all to join the CMLL roster now except for another 20-30 pounds. He's sorta like Panterita in the sense they both started working undercards here and needed to be carried big time but now they have both progressed to the point where it looks like they don't belong working with guys like Ave Fenix and Black Stone any more. Fenix seems really green and is gonna hurt himself one day with the spots he botches. Third fall was really good.

Dr. Cerebro & Cerebro Negro vs Mazada & Shigeo Okumura: Worked CMLL style meaning a lot of stalling and then rushing through a fall in 2 minutes. The work they did was perfectly fine but they only had to do 4 or 5 minutes of good work in total so they have no excuse to have not looked good. Dr. Cerebro had an awesome exchange with both rudos in the third fall but the Japanese team won clean and asked for a tag title match next week.

Felino/Mr. Niebla/Pantera vs Misterioso II/Nitro/Pierroth Jr.: Pantera looked a little extra motivated than usual and did some nice stuff in the first two falls with all the rudos. The other two tecnicos may as well have just sent other guys to work under their masks for all I care. Third fall was big time disapointing. There was no finishing sequence or any tease of dives/finishers/anything. They just packed it up in 10 seconds. Crowd even seemed a bit let down.

Canek vs Dr. Wagner Jr. - IWRG Heavyweight Title Bout: I feel like I've seen this before. Probably b/c I have since IWRG has done this match twice in the past year and the format never changes. If you're a Canek fan you will enjoy it b/c he does all his trademark stuff. It was Wagner's turn to lose since he won two UWA Title matches in this building already. But Canek was nice enough to let it be via DQ so he could save face. Now that both men get to still look like stars, perhaps they could think about why next week this building will have half the fans due to the stupid finish. PERHAPS.

Dissapointing episode. IWRG has been on a bad run lately.

Misc. Arena Coliseo De Monterrey from March/April 2005:

Dark Angel vs Princesa Sujei - FILL Women's Title (3/27/05): Better than any singles match involving the women in CMLL rings. This went three falls and was worked straight with no interference or usual Monterrey goofiness. Fans boo'ed the finish b/c it ended in a draw but the match itself was enjoyed by all. Angel seems to really enjoy working with Sujei and steps it up any time they are in the ring together. Would have liked to have seen the rematch.

Hator/Pimpinela Escarlata/Sangre Chicana vs Picudo/Espiritu/Silver Cat (3/27/05): Nothing really of note aside from Picudo deciding to only paint half his face for a change and Silver Cat bleeding a bunch which was the first time I've seen him do that. Lots of brawling that went nowhere and a run-in finish with Hator's brothers coming out to help him.

Hatar Kong vs El Texano and Sika (4/17/05): What did Texano do to deserve THIS??? Typical shitty Arena Coliseo MTY booking where you have a guy who might draw if put in the main event against someone like Chicana but instead the strippers get to occupy that role and Texano gets to work a pointless undercard match with a midget and a tall skinny guy in lifts. Entire match was all comedy until the rudos took over and Texano used the bullrope to tie Hatar Kong to the ropes. More shitty booking rears it's head at the end as Hatar is pinned clean by both rudos. Way to kill the unbeatable gimmick!

Nicho El Millonario vs Psicosis - Street Fight (4/17/05): Largely a brawl with lots of funny moments b/c of the unbreakable board they used. They set it up in every position possible and it just wouldn't break! Finally Nicho bridged it across the front row seats and the apron, then did a flying legdrop putting himself through the board when Psicosis moved. Match ended in a double countout which the fans hated. Noticing a trend with the finishes?

Sexy Piscis/Dark Angel/La Diabolica vs Venum II/La Diabolica/Tiffany (4/24/05): Exactly what you'd expect. Some wrestling, lots of comedy and a bit of brawling in the rudo/ruda fall. Piscis did a nice running somersault plancha onto Venum II in the third fall. Tiffany's team cheated to win.

Black Dragon/Corazon De Barrio/Sangre Chicana Jr. vs Apolo Estrada Jr./Estrella Dorada Jr./Monje Negro Jr. (4/24/05): I dunno what was wrong with me but I expected this to be good for some reason.:/ Needless to say... it wasn't. Chicana Jr. looked good and had a nice bullet tope suicida but everything else was lucha by numbers in slow motion. I forget how it ended b/c I fell asleep.

BRING ON THE 2003 MONTERRY LUCHA FREDO! I CAN TAKE IT!