Friday, June 11, 2010

Early November '09 Lucha

CMLL 11/3/09 @ Arena Mexico (11/7/09 C3):

Pegasso, Rey Cometa, Tigre Blanco vs. Hooligan, Pólvora, René Guajardo Jr.: The only thing that needs to be said about this match...

DIVE. OF. THE. DECADE.

My good friend and someone I respect very much Steve 'Dr. Lucha' Sims was on F4D a few days after I uploaded this to youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUghFNMYwIE) and his reaction (besides being impressed) was that someone would come up with something to top this a week later in the never-ending quest of 'top this' in the world of Lucha Libre. But by now I feel completely vindicated in rightfully dubbing this the Dive of the Decade.

1. Nobody has yet to be able to copy the dive.
2. Rey Cometa only managed to successfully hit the dive one more time after this before retiring it permanently after almost hurting himself bad the third time.*
(* -> He tried to bust it out on the 2/26/10 Arena Mexico show but ended up doing it very slowly and using his hands to "cheat")

So the bottom line... that was your Dive of the Decade! As for the match? It was very good. Not only did Rey Cometa provide one of my favorite highlights ever but he also wrestled a spectacular match especially when against Hooligan.

Flash, Metro, Stuka Jr. vs. Euforia, Shigeo Okumura, Vangelis: Standard match. I like the work with Stuka and Euforia along with Flash/Euforia but this was nothing memorable.

Mephisto vs. Tetsuya Naito: Mephisto opened quick with a tope suicida but then Naito took over for the rest of the match. I wished they could be magically transported to Japan b/c then Naito would have actually cared and worked a good match. Instead they kept fighting in Arena Mexico where Naito just takes a vacation and all he did were his silly poses and other stalling tactics. Remember when foreigners used to work hard when they came to Mexico? Yeah... those days are over, especially in CMLL. Okumura and Yujiro ran in for the DQ.

Máscara Dorada, Místico, Volador Jr. vs. Ephesto, Felino, Negro Casas: Too short for my liking but okay for what it was. Typical format of rudos in control early, tecnico comeback and then they all got their exchanges in during the third fall. Dorada kept chasing Negro around which was the first hint of their upcoming feud. Negro ended up low blowing him for the loss.

CMLL 11/6/09 @ Arena Mexico:

Rare five match show, only the opener didn't air anywhere b/c the tercera aired on both TDN and the regular Galavision show.

Eléctrico, Mascarita Dorada, Pequeño Olímpico vs. Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito: This was really good! They all came out working hard, especially Mascarita Dorada and Electrico. Crowd was really into it and the third fall was just absolutely spectacular! Must-see!

Hijo del Fantasma, La Máscara, Sagrado vs. Dragon Rojo Jr., Misterioso II, Sangre Azteca: Obviously it couldn't follow the previous match but it's not like they tried. I honestly expected way more but they worked it like a Sunday Arena Coliseo match. Poor Quemonito took Sangre/Rojo's double dropkick off the top.:( Third fall had lots of back-and-forth stuff but nothing overly creative or exciting. Sangre did use his rare big splash off the second rope to the floor on Sagrado and he tried to protect Sagrado so much that I think he hurt his knees on the landing. *L* Was NOT surprised to see this random tecnico team win clean over the established rudo trio. Not at all.

Mephisto, Terrible, Texano Jr. vs. Ray Mendoza Jr., Tetsuya Naito, Yujiro: Not so good. No Limit have gone so progressively worse since they first showed up. I thought this new feud would bring them around but this first match didn't show any signs of it. Mendoza really stuck out like a sore thumb and doesn't belong in this feud at all. It still boggles the mind that the son of one of the most iconic Mexican wrestlers ever is the generic guy that teams with foreigners and invaders.

Atlantis, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero vs. Brazo de Plata, La Sombra, Shocker: Complete mail-in job. Did everyone think this was an FSE/52MX taping except the mini's? Porky was already stale in only his second appearence. Sombra looked great as usual. Rudos won clean so this should have ended Porky's return to CMLL but alas... it's almost July and he's still around.

CMLL 11/9/09 @ Arena Puebla:

Euforia, Pólvora, Virus vs. Fabián el Gitano, Horus, Metro: This was one of THOSE nights for poor Horus. He blew his first spot of the match, barely hit his second spot of the match and then went for his step on the second rope plancha into an armdrag on the floor and Polvora was in completely the wrong position so Horus took a NASTY spill onto his shoulder/face. I (and the announcers for that matter) was shocked he continued the match. Rudos really laid into him extra hard with slaps and Polvora destroyed him with the inverted power bomb off the top for the win.

Barbaro I & Fuerza Chicana vs. Milenium & Tigre Rojo: This was Milenium's debut and it's a good thing he changed the spelling of his name or I would have sued! Sadly his night went much like Horus' night. He blew his first spot of the match and then slipped on the second one as well. Fuerza Chicana wasn't having any of that and just flung him outside. He didn't do much of anything the rest of the match except a big running somersault plancha near the end. Barbaro I in his second TV appearence looked as good as he did the first time. Hopefully he gets some more TV matches and a chance to work with the CMLL guys down the road.

Arkangel de la Muerte, Hooligan, Inquisidor vs. Guerrero Maya Jr., Molotov, Starman: Pretty fun match thanks to the rudos being fantastic bump machines for even the two lazy tecnicos (that'd be Starman/Molotov). Inquisador won the match with his Electric Chair Driver variation which always looks brutal.

Hijo del Fantasma, La Máscara, Valiente vs. Dragon Rojo Jr., Misterioso II, Sangre Azteca: Valiente replaced Sagrado and you had almost the exact same match/level of work from Friday's Arena Mexico match. Total mail-in job.

Brazo de Plata, Héctor Garza, Volador Jr. vs. Atlantis, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero: Rinse, repeat. This was Friday's match all over again with Porky having different partners who do the same thing anyhow. Only change was Porky's team went over clean.

IWRG 10/29/09:

Maldito Jr. & Samoa vs. Mascara Magnifica & Pendulo: Love the rudos. They looked really good here and have only gotten better since. Tecnicos are pretty low on the talent scale when it comes to IWRG tecs but they were just fine here. Enjoyable match.

Avisman, El Hijo del Diablo, Gringo Loco vs. Bushi, Chico Che, Suicida: Rudos were just starting to hit their stride as a team and were great here. Tecnicos... not so much so but they hung in there. Chico Che looked the best of the three which shocked me.

Black Terry, Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro vs. Trauma I, Trauma II, Ultramán Jr.: Excatly what you'd expect from this crew with Ultraman Jr. tossed in to show you what an average wrestler is compared to five professionals. Loved the matwork. Match kinda fell off the rails in the third fall but I'm just going to blame Ultraman Jr. for it.

Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro, Super Porky vs. Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Pirata Morgan, Tóxico: FUCKING PORKY! HE'S ON ALL MY DVD'S IN THIS TIME PERIOD! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! At least he had partners to balance his shitty work out here unlike on the CMLL shows. So I give this match a thumbs up for the hard work of the Oficiales and rudos.

Very good show. Highly reccomended!

IWRG 11/5/09:

This entire show was the Ruleta De La Muerte that Cubsfan and I were marking out over via twitter when it originally occured. Let me just sum up this show by saying it was far more interesting on twitter.:) None of the matches really worked for me and the tournament just seemed thrown together for no reason at all. Case in point: Arlequin Negro was making his debut... in a RULETA DE LA MUERTE. Right there that takes away any importance the show may have had. But you also had shitty guys like Menfis and Miss Gaviota involved which made it even worse. The best match was of course the final with Chico Che vs Gringo Loco but even that had some really awful moments and no drama at all. Major fail.

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Thursday, June 10, 2010

Ranting & Raving

Let's address various topics that are annoying me...

1. Sombra in the Super Juniors Tournament

I think he's had a great showing so far based on the 3 matches I've seen (vs Gedo, vs Davey, vs Ibushi). He clearly "gets" the style better than any of the other CMLL guys who have went over. He's giving 100% and is also working WITH his opponents rather than making them work down to his level like Mistico did. He isn't constantly stalling to look for crowd support and takes his opponents big moves with ease even though he would have never come across some of these spots in his Mexican career. If you want a good comparison - watch Mistico's first tour of Japan in 2003. Before he had the fame and was just Astro Boy he went over to Michinoku Pro as Komachi and worked 100x better than he did in his recent New Japan run b/c he was more open to learning new things and a lot of the bad habbits hadn't yet crept into his game.

Here's my problem with Sombra in New Japan though: He's losing. Don't get me wrong - I'm not angry with New Japan for having him lose. I'm angry with CMLL for not doing this when New Japan sends their scrubs over. What's with the inferiority complex that Mexicans seem to have? Every wrestler New Japan sends over CMLL immediatly pushes to the top of the cards as if they are somehow better than every CMLL guy. Let's run down a quick list...

Taguchi, Ohara, Tanihashi, Nakamura, Gedo, Jado, Lyger, Yujiro, Naito, Goto, Taichi and Giant Bernard.

All wrestlers sent by New Japan. Every one of them immediatly started working at semi-main event level and destroyed every Mexican wrestler in their path for the most part. I understand if you are bringing in some foreigners to work a few weeks/months you need them to get victories so they seem important and by the time they lose it feels like the Mexicans have really accomplished something but CMLL overpushes *EVERY SINGLE ONE* of the Japan guys that come over. It's an automatic that if you are Japanese and are sent to Mexico, CMLL will immediatly have you destroy one of their top wrestlers. At some point wouldn't it be a good idea to treat the Japanese guys like the Mexicans are treated in Japan? Terrible and Texano lost their tag match in under 10 minutes. Mistico lost the IWGP Jr. Title in his second defense in under 10 minutes or so. Mephisto wasn't given any wins to hype his match against Mistico. Neither was Averno. Sombra is currently losing to wrestlers like KUSHIDA and Davey Richards. CMLL isn't more important to New Japan than SMASH or a random overhyped U.S. indy wrestler? C'mon now.

At some point CMLL needs to stop with this nonsense and bury the New Japan guys as much as the CMLL guys get buried in Japan. It's horrible for business when you tell your own fans that the wrestlers they pay to see on a nightly basis aren't even better than a guy like Taichi who is the lowest of the low on the New Japan chain.

I would love a Mexican to explain to me what's up with the inferiority complex most seem to have. I'd love to ask on the Box y Lucha board but foristas over there don't handle English very well (understanding it AND accepting when someone posts in it).

2. Was the CMLL vs Independents feud worth it?

It seemed like a brilliant idea at the start. You had ex-AAA wrestlers running in with no prior press conference to announce they were coming. You had Quemonito getting abused by Cuije. You had fun trios matches and eventually fun singles matches. Then... something went wrong. CMLL seemed to jump the gun on an angle that should have been stretched out for months. Within a couple of weeks the group of ex-AAA wrestlers turned into Los Capos returning, Mr. Aguila returning, Rayo De Jalisco Jr. returning... except being an invader who supported CMLL, Olimpico returning, Ray Mendoza Jr. & the Japanese wrestlers teaming with the invaders, Latin Lover showing up only to get attacked by Hector Garza - leader of the independents - who announced he wasn't happy with Latin Lover invading a CMLL arena, etc.

Oh... and there was that moment last Tuesday where Olimpico... who returned to CMLL as an invader only 1 week earlier and promised to destroy everyone in the company to prove independent wrestlers were better... kissed the ring at Arena Mexico. I'm guessing he didn't kiss the ring on the first Arena Naucalpan show he worked or the ring in Coacalco on the first indy show he did after he left CMLL originally.

One could argue that this angle was no different than the first "live" TNA Impact this year where every segment had the return of a famous ex-star who did a major angle. None of that never went anywhere and it seems like none of the CMLL vs Independents matches are going anywhere.

So what does CMLL have to show from this angle?

As far as I can tell:

1. Rayo De Jalisco Jr. back in CMLL rings.
2. Mascara Ano 2000 and Universo 2000 back in CMLL rings.
3. Olimpico being groomed to lose his mask to Hijo Del Fantasma by the end of the year.

So was it really worth it? Were the mark out moments from the end of April until early June worth now having to put up with Rayo and the Capos on every CMLL show? Was seeing Quemonito vs Cuije a few times worth having Olimpico working CMLL main events instead of Euforia or Sangre Azteca?

My answer: No.

Of course there is still time to see if something else comes out of this feud and there is still the chance that CMLL will just have Rayo and the Capos work the rest of the month and then let them go because they will have overstayed their welcome but I doubt that is happening. I think those guys are here to stay...

3. Volador turning rudo

This is how it should have been from the very begining. I think CMLL knows this and just decided to hit the reset button. Volador is a good rudo. He has proved that in the past when put in the position and I'm very positive that it will work out this time around. But the worst thing CMLL can do right now is follow the same format they did when Mistico "turned rudo" in January. If Volador is going rudo - he has to start teaming with the rudos regularly in matches that aren't just opposite Mistico. The last thing I want to see happen is Volador win this Sunday and then announce he is not a rudo, he just hates Mistico. WE'VE BEEN DOWN THAT ROAD BEFORE - IT GETS US NOWHERE! Lucha Libre needs TECNICOS and RUDOS. Hopefully CMLL learned from their past mistakes and clearly defines which side each wrestler is on as this feud kicks back into high gear heading into September.

4. LA Park losing his mask

I've said it before but I'm going to repeat it here so when I'm right I can find this saved somewhere and can proceed to brag about being right...

L.A. Park will not lose his mask in AAA. He will not lose his mask to La ParkAAA. He will not lose a singles match cleanly to anyone in his entire time with AAA. He will stick around for as long as things are going his way and as soon as he even sniffs anything about doing a job or taking a pinfall on a big show - he will be out the door and giving interviews to TheGladiatores.com/Fuego En El Ring/every website except luchablog.com about how he proved everything he needed to by destroying the fake Parka and defeating all the AAA stars.

You can all sit there and dream about all these fancy scenarios where Park loses his mask to either ParkAAA or Wagner but it won't happen. Park has an ego almost as big as Mil Mascaras at this point. He hates ParkAAA and will never let him be seen as the better man even in a random singles match on a small TV taping. He's smart enough to know if he takes a pinfall (even from a screwjob finish) AAA will edit the footage up and use it against him if he ever leaves. I'm sure Park would have no problem losing his mask to Wagner if the price was right but the price would never be right for AAA since they can draw just as many fans and just as big of a gate with or without that match on one of their shows. So if Park and Wagner ever have a mask match - it's going to be in Torreon, Monterrey or Tijuana on a show run by a moneymark in a giant stadium/bullring.

The only reason Park is working with AAA right now is b/c Konnan is in charge and they are former friends. Konnan is always looking for hotshot angles that not only work for the casual fans but also work for the hardcore insider fans and you can't do any better than this Park vs Parka feud. Park knows Konnan doesn't have the guts to tell him to job and he also knows Konnan isn't a huge fan of ParkAAA so there will be no biased booking in his favor even though it's ParkAAA's own company. So enjoy the angle while it lasts but don't come crying to me when the Pena Memorial rolls around and Park is back to working indy shows b/c he refused to job to ParkAAA in the finals of the Pena Memorial Battle Royale.

Feels good to get that stuff off my chest without hijacking cubsfan's blog in order to do so.

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