Everything Good Is Happening!
Starting with completely random thoughts that hopefully won't get me in trouble, following it up with match recaps...
- Anyone else starting to feel more afraid than excited every time CMLL does their "coming soon" vignette? It's either going to be Magnus or worse. Think about that.
- Arena Mexico may have been empty from October 7th until (insert present date) but those fans who decided to attend have been missing some good, great and excellent matches. The wrestling quality in CMLL on Friday nights is way up!
- Am I the only one not feeling 'TRT'? I thought they were created to be the top faction in CMLL who would steamroll everyone but they come off more as a comedy trio than anything else. Texano could be a heavyweight star and top rudo but he's completely buried in this group. Bucanero seems less motivated each passing day. I've always thought Terrible is underrated so I'd love to see him on his own. I'd like to see Toscano turn rudo and join up with Bucanero to re-form their Infernales pairing and add Euforia to the group as the "youngster". Bucanero could be the second in charge of the group (which TRT doesn't seem to have) after Toscano which he seems more comfortable with. It's a natural eventual feud against Guerrero, Dragon Rojo & Escorpion.
- AAA continues to try and make me say they have my favorite roster in the world of any promotion during any time period by bringing in Mascarita Dorada. I'm already positive this is my favorite complete year for AAA since 2006. Early 2008 was absolutely fantastic but things completely died in the summer and by the end of 2008 I was very disenchanted with the promotion. This year has been just constant good show after good show. Out of the 30 or so tapings they've run I can't even count on one hand how many have been bad.
- Tercera Caida had highlights of Dinamic Black vs Comando Negro from last Sunday. Really hoping it makes TV b/c in highlight form it looked like the best IWRG match of the year. (EDIT: Between starting to write all this and finishing it appears this match just showed up on youtube so I will watch and recap!)
- Hector Garza will be back in CMLL soon enough. Maybe a few months, maybe a year, maybe just over a year but he's a smart businessman. He knows how Lucha Libre works and he's just taking a break b/c in wrestling the fans only miss you when you're actually gone. He's proved this before and he'll prove it again. The Perros Del Mal win here b/c they have a new face to make their shows somewhat exciting again but it's still the same old Perros Del Mal shows. Young guys opening up doing Spanish Fly's and Code Red's followed by the same four mini's followed by a silly hardcore match, mix in a dive off a high place somewhere in the show and finally bring out Perrito to do his show with whoever his random opponent is in a trios match. End with a DQ and voila... a Perros Del Mal show. If someone with even 1/5th the creativity of Antonio Pena was running their shows they might actually be interesting but right now they are nothing but DTU with big name main eventers.
- CMLL TV on Galavision is completely worthless unless you are a completionist (like myself) who needs all the matches possible. You get 37/38 minutes of actual CMLL and as for actual wrestling you get MAYBE 20-25 minutes. It's pathetic. At least someone realized this and started putting the important matches on Fox Sports which does a tremendous job editing the show to include the maximum amount of wrestling.
- The buildup for Panther vs Negro has been absolutely fantastic. Two masters of Lucha Libre doing a million little things that only they can do. The match this past weekend on Fox Sports w/ Metro, Angel De Oro & Escorpion involved was extremely short but also PERFECT! Those guys can only learn watching Panther/Negro up close and they complimented the feud perfectly. Metro is one of CMLL's best hidden secrets. I hope he gets re-gimmicked down the road.
- I'm pretty sure Hijo Del Santo will end up back in a major promotion (that means not Perros Del Mal) in 2012. It's just a question of whether CMLL business gets so bad that Paco Alonso finally caves and/or the promotion is put under new leadership OR AAA reaches out to Santo on behalf of Park who runs out of opponents he is willing to work with. I'd lean on the AAA option. Although while writing this I had a crazy thought - how great would LA Park be in CMLL right now? He's exactly the type of rudo and draw they need. Of course it'd be better if he was just a part-time attraction who only came in for 3 or 4 shows per month. It could be interesting.
- Really enjoyed the special Teleformula show from this past weekend airing matches from Arena Mexico 10/21. The women's match wasn't much but I had no expectations but the final two matches were tons of fun. Metal Blanco looked great against Okumura and the main event had some fantastic creative finishes to each fall. The ending was just wild! Blue Panther and Virus are the two best guys the companies has when it comes to match structure. I really wish they were in a position to be able to have input on every match on the show.
- It'd be nice if it didn't take a reality show for CMLL to book random one fall tag matches once in a while. An actual tag team division could really take off starting with Metal Blanco/Palacio Negro who are working seperately far too much for my liking these days. Together they just connect whereas on their own they are fun but you can tell something is missing. Crowd loves watching them together.
Some specific match comments below...
- Mascara Dorada vs Mephisto (11/4/11)
My MOTY is between this and Sombra/Averno or Guerrero Maya/Virus. Dorada is just SPECTACULAR in this. Probably the best one-man performance in a match I've seen in years. So many spots that had the possibility of making him look terrible with one slip and he pulled everything off fluidly. Don't discredit Mephisto... he was a great base but this was really the Dorada show. He just kept doing more and more and keeping it within the context of an important title match where he knew he had to pull out all the stops to win. He even did the Great Sasuke style somersault plancha to nowhere on the apron! WHY DORADA, WHY??? This is a must-see match.
- Jack Evans, Extreme Tiger & Heavy Metal vs Silver King, Chessman & Ultimo Gladiador (5/13/11)
Excellent match! Everyone was working hard. Tons of fun to see Jack/Chessman work together and do some incredible Red/Lo-Ki circa 2002 exchanges. Tiger was on fire and Gladiador was more than willing to be his personal move dummy. He took a sick dropkick while seated on the apron and BOUNCED off the floor! Later he took a mid-air Canadian Destroyer which was really neat. To finish off his evening he took one of the sickest sunset flip power bombs to the floor that I have ever seen! His head BOUNCED on impact! Totally uncalled for and amazing! There was a really complicated dive sequence with King, Metal and Jack that of course Chessman was involved with to keep together and finally Silver King got the win with a sick DVD on Heavy Metal.
- Super Halcon Jr. vs Keshin Black (10/21/10)
This was a really good simple match and all I kept thinking while watching was - is this really the same Halcon in CMLL? I'm not trying to start any conspiracy theories (@abbyjrzero) since I know it is but how he looked here compared to how he looks in CMLL is like night and day. The IWRG formula for bringing up youngsters is so much better than CMLL's. In CMLL you train with Tony Salazar, Arkangel, etc. and you train in a group where the goal is to not focus on each individual but instead create molds of the same wrestler and go from there. You can see it when you watch any of the Gen 11 guys. There's all the same. Hombre Bala Jr., Super Halcon Jr., Dragon Lee. What's the difference? Nothing except their big moves. They can't learn anything doing CMLL style matches b/c they are all the same generic matwork, a big dive and maybe getting in the ring to do a finishing spot. What can you learn from that? IWRG forces their better young guys to work singles matches in front of crowds who are barely interested and also makes them work a style they may not be used to. I remember when Freelance started as Panterita he had singles matches where he never left the mat or had to work as the rudo. It helps you become more of a complete wrestler. In this match Halcon did zero flying spots and worked as a quasi-rudo. He was great! He blew the finish badly but you will get that with rookies. The point is if you watched him before the finish you could see him improving. In CMLL I've yet to see any improvement for him. He's just another undercard dude who does somersault planchas.
- Freelance/Daga/Black Terry vs Eterno/Comando Negro/Carta Brava Jr. (10/21/10)
An awesome match! Freelance kicked things off with a plancha off the ramp and shit was on! Daga/Eterno have great chemistry since they are buddies in real life and pretty much got to do their own stuff in the match. Freelance looked unreal every time he stepped into the ring and not only took a 20 foot high backdrop but also landed on his feet when the rudos tried it again! The finishing sequence is one of the coolest finishes I have ever seen as Freelance went for his rana off the second rope but Comando Negro caught him for a power bomb and just as he was ready to nail it Black Terry snuck in behind and did the backcracker which Comando Negro took like a man and laid there DEAD! A-MA-ZING! As a sidenote - this is Black Terry working with 5 young guys who work super fast and the complete opposite style Terry does. But did Terry look out of place? Not at all. There mere fact he was inside the ring with these young guys is why I have so much respect for him and why he is probably one of the only true legends in Mexico. You'd never seen a guy like Canek, Santo, Dandy or Fuerza in this situation. They don't work with young guys. They don't respect young wrestlers. They don't care about the future of Lucha Libre. Black Terry does.
(On a SECOND side note - that same TV show also aired Oficiales vs Chiva/Gato Eveready/Relampago from 10/28/10 which was tons of fun. The TV show aired 11/7/10 and is probably the best overall IWRG TV show I've seen in a long time. Well worth getting!)
- Astro Rey Jr./Astro De Plata vs Gemelos Fantasticos I y II (11/13/11)
Excellent match! The tecnico team has been tearing shit up lately and I think Astro De Plata is going to be the ace of IWRG along with Golden Magic in 2012. He's so fluid and innovative. He's got nowhere to go but up. The Gemelos are very underrated as a team but impress me every time they show up which unfortunately isn't too often. Their tag moves here were great and they were surpisingly excellent bases for the flying of the tecnicos. I still have no clue how Astro De Plata does that moonault off the top rope onto the apron without crotching himself on the ropes! Very happy BTJr had the camera recording for this!
- Centurion/Saruman/Triton vs Alan Xtreme/Carta Brava Jr./Imposible (11/6/11)
Really good match! Had some screw-ups you'd expect from rookies but overall this match came off as five guys who have a ton of potential and Alan Xtreme who is the best wrestler nobody knows. I can't wait for IWRG to start moving him up on the cards b/c Alan Xtreme teaming with the Piratas against the Traumas and Negro Navarro is a personal dream of mine. This match had tons of action and absolutely no slowing down to do boring brawling or stalling to get the crowd to cheer for poses. I.e. This is the exact match no CMLL rookies could pull off.:) Saruman took some absurd bumps that he really needs to cut out of his repitoire if he's hoping to have a long career but as a viewer made the match very enjoyable.:P Great finishing sequence!
- Anyone else starting to feel more afraid than excited every time CMLL does their "coming soon" vignette? It's either going to be Magnus or worse. Think about that.
- Arena Mexico may have been empty from October 7th until (insert present date) but those fans who decided to attend have been missing some good, great and excellent matches. The wrestling quality in CMLL on Friday nights is way up!
- Am I the only one not feeling 'TRT'? I thought they were created to be the top faction in CMLL who would steamroll everyone but they come off more as a comedy trio than anything else. Texano could be a heavyweight star and top rudo but he's completely buried in this group. Bucanero seems less motivated each passing day. I've always thought Terrible is underrated so I'd love to see him on his own. I'd like to see Toscano turn rudo and join up with Bucanero to re-form their Infernales pairing and add Euforia to the group as the "youngster". Bucanero could be the second in charge of the group (which TRT doesn't seem to have) after Toscano which he seems more comfortable with. It's a natural eventual feud against Guerrero, Dragon Rojo & Escorpion.
- AAA continues to try and make me say they have my favorite roster in the world of any promotion during any time period by bringing in Mascarita Dorada. I'm already positive this is my favorite complete year for AAA since 2006. Early 2008 was absolutely fantastic but things completely died in the summer and by the end of 2008 I was very disenchanted with the promotion. This year has been just constant good show after good show. Out of the 30 or so tapings they've run I can't even count on one hand how many have been bad.
- Tercera Caida had highlights of Dinamic Black vs Comando Negro from last Sunday. Really hoping it makes TV b/c in highlight form it looked like the best IWRG match of the year. (EDIT: Between starting to write all this and finishing it appears this match just showed up on youtube so I will watch and recap!)
- Hector Garza will be back in CMLL soon enough. Maybe a few months, maybe a year, maybe just over a year but he's a smart businessman. He knows how Lucha Libre works and he's just taking a break b/c in wrestling the fans only miss you when you're actually gone. He's proved this before and he'll prove it again. The Perros Del Mal win here b/c they have a new face to make their shows somewhat exciting again but it's still the same old Perros Del Mal shows. Young guys opening up doing Spanish Fly's and Code Red's followed by the same four mini's followed by a silly hardcore match, mix in a dive off a high place somewhere in the show and finally bring out Perrito to do his show with whoever his random opponent is in a trios match. End with a DQ and voila... a Perros Del Mal show. If someone with even 1/5th the creativity of Antonio Pena was running their shows they might actually be interesting but right now they are nothing but DTU with big name main eventers.
- CMLL TV on Galavision is completely worthless unless you are a completionist (like myself) who needs all the matches possible. You get 37/38 minutes of actual CMLL and as for actual wrestling you get MAYBE 20-25 minutes. It's pathetic. At least someone realized this and started putting the important matches on Fox Sports which does a tremendous job editing the show to include the maximum amount of wrestling.
- The buildup for Panther vs Negro has been absolutely fantastic. Two masters of Lucha Libre doing a million little things that only they can do. The match this past weekend on Fox Sports w/ Metro, Angel De Oro & Escorpion involved was extremely short but also PERFECT! Those guys can only learn watching Panther/Negro up close and they complimented the feud perfectly. Metro is one of CMLL's best hidden secrets. I hope he gets re-gimmicked down the road.
- I'm pretty sure Hijo Del Santo will end up back in a major promotion (that means not Perros Del Mal) in 2012. It's just a question of whether CMLL business gets so bad that Paco Alonso finally caves and/or the promotion is put under new leadership OR AAA reaches out to Santo on behalf of Park who runs out of opponents he is willing to work with. I'd lean on the AAA option. Although while writing this I had a crazy thought - how great would LA Park be in CMLL right now? He's exactly the type of rudo and draw they need. Of course it'd be better if he was just a part-time attraction who only came in for 3 or 4 shows per month. It could be interesting.
- Really enjoyed the special Teleformula show from this past weekend airing matches from Arena Mexico 10/21. The women's match wasn't much but I had no expectations but the final two matches were tons of fun. Metal Blanco looked great against Okumura and the main event had some fantastic creative finishes to each fall. The ending was just wild! Blue Panther and Virus are the two best guys the companies has when it comes to match structure. I really wish they were in a position to be able to have input on every match on the show.
- It'd be nice if it didn't take a reality show for CMLL to book random one fall tag matches once in a while. An actual tag team division could really take off starting with Metal Blanco/Palacio Negro who are working seperately far too much for my liking these days. Together they just connect whereas on their own they are fun but you can tell something is missing. Crowd loves watching them together.
Some specific match comments below...
- Mascara Dorada vs Mephisto (11/4/11)
My MOTY is between this and Sombra/Averno or Guerrero Maya/Virus. Dorada is just SPECTACULAR in this. Probably the best one-man performance in a match I've seen in years. So many spots that had the possibility of making him look terrible with one slip and he pulled everything off fluidly. Don't discredit Mephisto... he was a great base but this was really the Dorada show. He just kept doing more and more and keeping it within the context of an important title match where he knew he had to pull out all the stops to win. He even did the Great Sasuke style somersault plancha to nowhere on the apron! WHY DORADA, WHY??? This is a must-see match.
- Jack Evans, Extreme Tiger & Heavy Metal vs Silver King, Chessman & Ultimo Gladiador (5/13/11)
Excellent match! Everyone was working hard. Tons of fun to see Jack/Chessman work together and do some incredible Red/Lo-Ki circa 2002 exchanges. Tiger was on fire and Gladiador was more than willing to be his personal move dummy. He took a sick dropkick while seated on the apron and BOUNCED off the floor! Later he took a mid-air Canadian Destroyer which was really neat. To finish off his evening he took one of the sickest sunset flip power bombs to the floor that I have ever seen! His head BOUNCED on impact! Totally uncalled for and amazing! There was a really complicated dive sequence with King, Metal and Jack that of course Chessman was involved with to keep together and finally Silver King got the win with a sick DVD on Heavy Metal.
- Super Halcon Jr. vs Keshin Black (10/21/10)
This was a really good simple match and all I kept thinking while watching was - is this really the same Halcon in CMLL? I'm not trying to start any conspiracy theories (@abbyjrzero) since I know it is but how he looked here compared to how he looks in CMLL is like night and day. The IWRG formula for bringing up youngsters is so much better than CMLL's. In CMLL you train with Tony Salazar, Arkangel, etc. and you train in a group where the goal is to not focus on each individual but instead create molds of the same wrestler and go from there. You can see it when you watch any of the Gen 11 guys. There's all the same. Hombre Bala Jr., Super Halcon Jr., Dragon Lee. What's the difference? Nothing except their big moves. They can't learn anything doing CMLL style matches b/c they are all the same generic matwork, a big dive and maybe getting in the ring to do a finishing spot. What can you learn from that? IWRG forces their better young guys to work singles matches in front of crowds who are barely interested and also makes them work a style they may not be used to. I remember when Freelance started as Panterita he had singles matches where he never left the mat or had to work as the rudo. It helps you become more of a complete wrestler. In this match Halcon did zero flying spots and worked as a quasi-rudo. He was great! He blew the finish badly but you will get that with rookies. The point is if you watched him before the finish you could see him improving. In CMLL I've yet to see any improvement for him. He's just another undercard dude who does somersault planchas.
- Freelance/Daga/Black Terry vs Eterno/Comando Negro/Carta Brava Jr. (10/21/10)
An awesome match! Freelance kicked things off with a plancha off the ramp and shit was on! Daga/Eterno have great chemistry since they are buddies in real life and pretty much got to do their own stuff in the match. Freelance looked unreal every time he stepped into the ring and not only took a 20 foot high backdrop but also landed on his feet when the rudos tried it again! The finishing sequence is one of the coolest finishes I have ever seen as Freelance went for his rana off the second rope but Comando Negro caught him for a power bomb and just as he was ready to nail it Black Terry snuck in behind and did the backcracker which Comando Negro took like a man and laid there DEAD! A-MA-ZING! As a sidenote - this is Black Terry working with 5 young guys who work super fast and the complete opposite style Terry does. But did Terry look out of place? Not at all. There mere fact he was inside the ring with these young guys is why I have so much respect for him and why he is probably one of the only true legends in Mexico. You'd never seen a guy like Canek, Santo, Dandy or Fuerza in this situation. They don't work with young guys. They don't respect young wrestlers. They don't care about the future of Lucha Libre. Black Terry does.
(On a SECOND side note - that same TV show also aired Oficiales vs Chiva/Gato Eveready/Relampago from 10/28/10 which was tons of fun. The TV show aired 11/7/10 and is probably the best overall IWRG TV show I've seen in a long time. Well worth getting!)
- Astro Rey Jr./Astro De Plata vs Gemelos Fantasticos I y II (11/13/11)
Excellent match! The tecnico team has been tearing shit up lately and I think Astro De Plata is going to be the ace of IWRG along with Golden Magic in 2012. He's so fluid and innovative. He's got nowhere to go but up. The Gemelos are very underrated as a team but impress me every time they show up which unfortunately isn't too often. Their tag moves here were great and they were surpisingly excellent bases for the flying of the tecnicos. I still have no clue how Astro De Plata does that moonault off the top rope onto the apron without crotching himself on the ropes! Very happy BTJr had the camera recording for this!
- Centurion/Saruman/Triton vs Alan Xtreme/Carta Brava Jr./Imposible (11/6/11)
Really good match! Had some screw-ups you'd expect from rookies but overall this match came off as five guys who have a ton of potential and Alan Xtreme who is the best wrestler nobody knows. I can't wait for IWRG to start moving him up on the cards b/c Alan Xtreme teaming with the Piratas against the Traumas and Negro Navarro is a personal dream of mine. This match had tons of action and absolutely no slowing down to do boring brawling or stalling to get the crowd to cheer for poses. I.e. This is the exact match no CMLL rookies could pull off.:) Saruman took some absurd bumps that he really needs to cut out of his repitoire if he's hoping to have a long career but as a viewer made the match very enjoyable.:P Great finishing sequence!
Labels: aaa, cmll, lucha libre, mexico, wrestling
posted by Rob at 7:57 PM
4 Comments:
Hi there,
My name is Kally Vittala and I am a producer for CBC Radio's Day 6.
I am looking for someone to talk about MTV2's Lucha Libre USA and found your blog. I am on a very tight deadline so can you give me a call ASAP at 416-205-2179 or email me at Kalyani.Vittala@cbc.ca
Thanks. - kally
You are right about Fox Sports. The only change I would make to the show is reduce the musical intros and use the time to show promos/angles/press conferences.
Hi! I'm currently working on a documentary about Lucha Libre and will be headed to El Paso and Juarez to do some research and interviews. Do you know how to find out if there are any matches or events between January 7th and January 15th? Also, would you know how to contact any other luchadores in that area to get a few more interviews? We're looking to meet as many people in the sport as we can and I'm reaching out to you because you have such incredible information on your site about recent matches. Any of your help would be much appreciated.
geez
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