IWL iPPV - 7/31/11

1. Ninja De Fuego/Mulusco Jr. vs Centinella/Guerrero Arlequin

Quimico Jr. was announced at first but he was not here. I'm sure of this. Mulusco was a big dude... I want to say fat dude but he was in fine shape compared to what was coming out next. I was disappointed to see Guerrero Arlequin was not dressed like the IWRG Arlequins.:( He did some fun stuff with Ninja De Fuego. Mulusco Jr. ended up doing an asai moonsault and absolutely CRUSHED Centinella. I'm not sure if that was the planned finish or not but it looked painful as hell and Centinella was in obvious pain so they counted to three.

VALERIE RICHTER came out to announce the match was turning into a gauntlet match which sounded like a fine idea until I saw who came out next...

1b. Ninja De Fuego/Mulusco Jr. vs Juan El Ranchero/Big Mama

Yeah. We all know Ranchero from his AULL days. Big Mama is either a man or a woman. I'm not sure which and neither was Phil over at segundacaida.blogspot.com. I'm leaning towards woman based on the photos by BlackTerryJr. I didn't mind seeing these two because I figured we would get a quick comedy match and they would get eliminated right away. I got the quick match but no comedy AND they won! That's not good...

1c. Juan El Ranchero/Big Mama vs Caderno Punk/Matanza 68

What do Enrique Yniesta, the Rudos Neza fans and myself have in common? We were the only people who knew who the new team was! They're Neza locals. If you ever doubt how big of a Lucha Libre fan I am, please just reference the fact I recognized Matanza 68, okay? Much to my anger Ranchero's team won AGAIN!

1d. Juan El Ranchero/Big Mama vs Hammer/Black Heart

Originally I had no idea who Hammer's partner was. He must have watched the last iPPV though b/c he refused to come out at the same time as Hammer and kept his distance the entire time. This was the shortest match yet and ONCE AGAIN Ranchero's team won!

At this point I was absolutely terrified someone in IWL was unhappy with my comments on the last show so this show was a big practical joke on me and the next 3 hours would be spent watching Juan El Ranchero and Big Mama destroy everyone on the roster followed by them dancing. Thankfully nobody else came out. All of this took up 30 minutes (!).

2. Freelance/Turbo/Naruto vs Kensuke/Tribal/Samurai Del Sol/NOT BLACK THUNDER!

A Turbo match without Black Thunder??? QUE??? I thought they came attached at the hip? No complaints though because the rudo team was just fine. Before the match it was announced that all the matches now have time limits which should have been our warning as to what was coming but I just ignored it like an idiot. Match was really great... some awesome matwork to start until Turbo/Samurai Del Sol kicked it into high gear. There was a huge dive train with everyone (EXCEPT TURBO!?!?!?!?!?) doing insane dives with Kensuke getting to finish things off with a somersault off the top that killed everyone. More fun action with Turbo and Freelance shining. And then it happened...

DING DING DING

Yes, the bell rang to signal the time limit had expired. Here's the problem: The wrestlers and referee didn't seem to be informed this was going to happen or were waiting for it to happen after they finished doing their planned match... OR ... the person in charge of ringing the bell was told to ring it at exactly 15 minutes and wasn't told by the wrestlers to wait until they finished their planned match. Either way someone wasn't communicating with someone else because Turbo/Kensuke kept wrestling and the referee kept counting pinfalls even though Enrique was announcing a time limit draw. Everyone was confused so of course out came VALERIE RICHTER to announce 5 more minutes. The wrestlers seemed beyond confused as to what was going on and I think someone just called for the finish right away. It was supposed to be a power bomb off the top rope but Freelance lost Kensuke on the way down so they just set it up one more time and did it right. Cubsfan would be quite unhappy.

So... an excellent match ruined by a bad idea by whoever comes up with ideas like this. After the match the teams agreed to a rematch AND they teased a Freelance/Kensuke hair match. I am okay with both of those!

3. Tony Rivera vs Zumbido

This was sort of like a CMLL style Lightning Match with the pace they worked except they used chairs and both got to bleed. So maybe it was nothing like a CMLL style Lightning Match? Both guys were awesome and for a while I thought this might end up being better than the previous match but then... SEMENTAL AND MORTIZ SHOWED UP! Now that was awesome! A real surprise to see them here instead of on Verano De Escandalo (stop laughing Cubsfan!). They beat up both guys and it was a great angle to introduce them to IWL... until...

VALERIE RICHTER came out with her bodyguards and the bodyguards... yes... THE BODYGUARDS... beat the shit out of Mortiz and Semental. They did dives onto them, they armdragged them, they slammed them and eventually Mortiz and Semental... two AAA superstars... ran away from... TWO BODYGUARDS. This was horrible. If Semental and Mortiz are going to come back and wrestle for IWL - that's awesome. I would love it. Everyone would love it. So why did the bodyguards have to beat them up? Are the bodyguards going to be regular wrestlers now? (I know the answer to that unfortunately...)

4. Epidemia/Kung Fu Jr./Medico Asesino Jr./Fishman Jr. vs Cerebro Negro/Cerebro Maligno (w/ Trolly who no-showed Verano De Escandalo!)/Epitafio/Sepulturero - Elimination Match

The announcers mentioned Fishman Jr. and Kung Fu Jr. had problems at the Lucha Libre Expo so I was suspicious something was about to happen! Unfortunately it took almost 20 minutes to get there. Looooooooooooooooooooooooong match with lots of brawling. Even Trolly biting people couldn't save this and trust me if anyone would be entertained just by Trolly biting people it's me! The eliminations eventually came fast and furious. ATM had a 4 on 2 and 3 on 1 advantage at different points thanks to Fishman Jr./Kung Fu Jr. turning on each other. Medico Jr. ended up fighting back to make it 1-on-1 but he couldn't win the match. I understand the point of this match (to make sure the big new stable gets a win and looks impressive) but it took too long to accomplish it. Also you need different opponents because everyone on the other team except Epidemia is just awful.

GUESS WHAT HAPPENED NEXT? If you guessed VALERIE RICHTER was back you win! This time she said she signed Serval and he'd make his IWL debut on the next show. Great news! But couldn't Enrique have announced that? Tribal came out to challenge Serval so I guess that match is on the next iPPV. I'm excited to see that! (Guess that means no rematch of match #2? Or maybe Black Thunder is available?)

5. Daga vs Mike Segura - IWL Internet Title

There is no point even describing this match move-for-move. It wouldn't do the match justice. Just trust me... IT WAS AWESOME! If you're not a Lucha Libre fan (why are you reading my blog?) you will still appreciate this match because it holds up with anything ROH or DGUSA or EVOLVE have had on their shows. Just a fantastic match with everything you could have wanted. The announcers kept talking about why the match had a one hour time limit (all the old title matches used to go an hour - they even referenced a Puebla match w/ Estrella Blanca) and these guys appeared to be going one hour until close to the 30 minute mark Daga did a superplex and Segura held on so they both got pinned. I'm not good with star ratings but this was EASILY ****+. The live crowd was going crazy for everything and threw money in the ring afterwards. I even gave them a standing ovation in my living room! Absolutely a must-see match and worth the price of the iPPV by itself. There is no reason any Lucha Libre fan shouldn't order an IWL iPPV if there is a match like this on every show.

6. Oriental/Craig Classic vs Super Crazy/Heddi Karoui

Am I alone in not knowing who Craig Classic is? I read SuperLuchas talking about him all week and that was the first time I ever heard his name mentioned. My friend said he works for Zero-One but I don't watch that company. Is it really worth it bringing in Craig Classic for one show? I'm just asking, please don't take offense if you're reading this Mr. Classic. Anyways... when Oriental/Super Crazy were in the ring the match was great. I could watch those two wrestle all day. I thought for sure Classic would lose and they would set up a title match on the next show but no... Classic ended up using a really neat cradle to pin Super Crazy.

7. Los Porros vs Low Rider/Mad Man Pondo/Balls Mahoney/Fantasma De La Opera

Same match as the last iPPV. A total brawl with tons of weapons and everyone bleeding. It was very fun and the crowd/announcers seemed to be loving it so I can't complain. I didn't order the show to see Necro Butcher so I didn't care that he didn't show up. Replacing him with Balls Mahoney was fine I guess but I have the opinion that the wrestlers in these types of matches don't actually matter since anyone could have been in the match and hit people with chairs and gotten thrown into barbed wire.:)

Overall: Another excellent show. Well worth the money spent and I've read so many positive reviews that I think the people who missed the show are actually angry they did and will surely buy the next show based on word of mouth.

POSITIVES:

- Camera work was MUCH improved! Unlike the first show I counted ZERO moves missed. They even managed to catch all the action in the semi-main event when you had stuff happening on the outside and inside of the ring at the same time.

- Daga vs Mike Segura. If you have a match like this on your show, you are doing something right.

- Having lots of good matches early in the show. Nothing is worse than having to sit through bad matches just to get to the good ones you want to see. IWL did it right.

- The announcers. Just like last time... they were incredible. They really add to these shows. Also, Enrique Yniesta was great once again.

- Booking Turbo and Freelance. I will ALWAYS order a show that features those guys.

- Storylines make sense and seem to be leading places. Last show we were teased with a Rivera vs Zumbido match. This show we got that match. Last show we were promised Daga vs Suicida. We got that match. On this show they set up at least 4 matches for their next show. Maybe we won't get all 4 but maybe we will! Someone is certainly putting some thought into the shows.

NEGATIVES:

- I'm going to start demanding a $2 refund for every VALERIE RICHTER appearence. So if she shows up 5 times - I get the iPPV for free! Seriously... this shit has to stop. I've talked to 8 people in total who ordered these shows and EVERY SINGLE PERSON agrees we are sick and tired of seeing her. The worst part is she comes out to do things that Enrique Yniesta should be doing! There is no reason for her to be on the screen so much and if she came out less it would actually make it seem important when she does show up. Dorian Roldan actually sent me a tweet just now saying Valerie Richter is hogging the camera. THINK ABOUT THAT!

- The hardcore match in the main event. Don't get me wrong, it was good. So was the main event on the first show. But I hope every show isn't going to have a match like this in the main event because it will get redundant quickly.

- Heddi Karoui. Can we wish him well in his future endevours please?

That's it. Can't really list too many negatives because IWL on iPPV is doing too good of a job! 2 for 2 so far and hopefully 3 for 3 to come soon!

SPECIAL REQUEST: Turbo vs Black Thunder on the next show. Maybe not a singles match? I think it would be awesome to see them work with the maestros in a special exhibition match. Maybe something like Turbo/Negro Navarro vs Black Thunder/Rocky Santana. If you want to give a match 30 minutes to fill time on a show I think that sounds much better than a tag team gauntlet featuring Juan El Ranchero and Big Mama.;)

Thank you IWL!

(If you enjoyed this recap don't forget you can still order the show replay on gofightlive!)

IWL iPPV Thoughts

About a month or so ago a relatively new promotion in Mexico named IWL announced they'd be running an iPPV with Madman Pondo as the top draw. Naturally this was met with a lot of skepticism because most of the companies that do iPPV's barely break even and that's with much more star power and promotion. Not to mention the technology is still relatively new - case in point the last DGUSA iPPV had no video for half the show on the live feed. Nevertheless IWL went ahead and kept plugging the show so I figured if I was free that day I'd order it and see what was up. I'd never ordered an iPPV before and figured if I was ever going to try it out it should at least be now to support Lucha Libre in the hopes IWL will run more of them or other lucha promotions might jump on the bandwagon and give it a shot.

THE GOOD:

- Multiple camera angles. One of my worries was this wouldn't come off looking major league but IWL came through. We had a hard cam and two ringside cams.

- The commentary was SUPERB! I cannot stress this enough. I feel bad now because there were two gentleman on commentary and the only one who's name I know off the top of my head is Milton Eloir (@miltoreioir on twitter). Pardon my French but these two "knew their shit". They were calling everything correctly, putting over the talent, the moves and they dropped tons of references that demonstrated they actually knew a lot about Lucha Libre. (Example: Mentioning Mike Segura almost went to ECW at one point.) But forget all that - the best thing about these guys? THEY WERE EXCITED! You could tell they were having fun watching the show and trying to communicate that to those of us watching. My favorite commentators for any Lucha Libre shows are the Tercera Caida guys (Jose Manuel Guillent/Bernardo Guzman) but these guys were just as good. Now if we can just get Televisa to hire them to do CMLL/AAA instead of that idiot Leonardo Riano.

- Enrique Yniesta made a special appearence as ring announcer and he did a fine job getting the crowd pumped up and making sure we knew who was wrestling. I'm a hardcore Lucha Libre fan so obviously I know who I'm watching but having an audible ring announcer announce the wrestlers one-by-one for the average fans who might be watching is very important. If I could offer one suggestion it would be to have Enrique do quick post-match interviews with the winners on future shows. Mike Segura won his match and then did an interview by himself and then walked onto the stage to do another interview. They should have just had Enrique go to the ring and talk to Mike afterwards.

- The wrestling was generally good to very good. This was the most important part of the show for me personally because while I always want to support Lucha Libre I am not going to support something bad that I am not having fun watching. I had lots of fun watching this show and a lot of that was beacause almost all the wrestlers were working very hard.

- 5 matches announced, 7 matches took place. Always good to get more bang for your buck!;)

- There were some storylines and build for future matches. I'm a hardcore fan so I would have been happy just watching a normal Lucha Libre show but it was nice for the average viewer to see a new group created, an impromptu match and challenges after the main event for a possible hair match.

- The main event far exceeded my expectations. I am not a fan of hardcore wrestling at all but I had a blast watching the main event. I'm not sure if I would regularly get into watching a match like that but once in a while is fine and I liked how they did it. It wasn't like the DTU hardcore matches where guys are planning their moves 3 minutes in advance and have the security setting up the weapons to use. I hate that and anyone who knows me knows that. This was just six (+ Hilario) guys beating the crap out of each other and bleeding all over the place. Worked for me!

- The show finished in less than 3 hours. This is PERFECT! I don't care how great the wrestling is or isn't - there is no reason shows should be lasting 4 hours or more. Are you listening ROH?

- TROLLY STOLE MY HEART!

THE BAD:

- Obviously the technical issues early on which caused us to miss most of the first match and the angle leading into the second match. I expected this though and was just happy it was one really long outage rather than a bunch of them throughout the show. That already put these guys ahead of Dragon Gate USA.

- The "shoot fight". Much like hardcore wrestling, I am not a fan of MMA. If I want to watch MMA, I will watch an actual MMA show. If I want to watch MMA, I will watch actual MMA where the guys aren't faking it. I prefer wrestling over MMA b/c wrestling is exciting and MMA is not. So I don't want to see two guys fake fighting and even worse - making it as boring as possible so it looks like real MMA. I'm hoping this was a one-time thing or the next one with Zumbi will be the last one.

- I like surprises and matches getting changed while the show is going on because it leads to fun things sometimes but I think it can be bad business to advertise certain matches/wrestlers and then not deliver them when the show happens. It didn't really effect this show at all but it's something to make note of for the future.

- Sometimes the camera guys missed some of the important action. The few of us watching together in the chat knew what moves were coming either because we've seen it before or the wrestlers were taking so long to get prepared to do them so surely the cameramen must have known they were coming too but each time they missed showing it. Example: Peligro's finisher. They showed him setting up the move and cut away exactly when he was about to jump off the top rope.

- This is a really minor thing but the show should have ended with a goodbye. We didn't know if the show was over or not until the camera just shut off.

- HAMMER!

As for the match-by-match comments...

Veneno vs Emo Extreme

All of us watching went nuts for Emo Extreme just for the surprise factor. I love random people showing up out of nowhere.:) Good match until the feed cut out.

Cerebro Maligno, Epitafio, Fantasma de la Ópera, Sepulcro vs Amenaza Infernal Jr., Epidemia, Niño de Fuego, Quimico Jr

We joined this as the ATM were cutting a promo and the match was turned into 4 on 4. So the first few minutes we were trying to figure out who was who since we had never seen these guys before. Infernal Jr. really looked like Madman Pondo under a mask. If it wasn't Pondo the maybe a friend of his? The hiptosses were from the wrong side and he wasn't doing anything else but bumping into his opponents. Trolly got to do a splash so that was awesome to see. Tecnicos really didn't get to do anything except for Quimico Jr. who had a great series of moves. Rudos won easily. Nothing special of a match.

Daga vs Heavy Boy

Daga's promo was good and we could actually hear him! That's another step-up from DGUSA/ROH iPPV's! Turned into an unscheduled match against Heavy Boy. Daga did a dive and they brawled for a bit. It actually kind of dragged in the middle but the ending was awesome as Daga made a comeback and absolutely MURDERED Heavy Boy with a Reinera Driver. We all went nuts after seeing that move! A fine bonus match.

Mike Segura vs Pesadilla vs Naruto

Pesadilla had some awesome gear. Naruto is TINY! Segura is usually the smallest guy in any matches he is in but he dwarfed Naruto. Typical three-way match with one guy often outside resting while the other two fought inside the ring. Segura did an awesome moonsault plancha. We all groaned when Pesadilla got the lighttubes from under the ring but the live crowd cheered so clearly the crowd came to see some hardcore wrestling. This was also when we figured out why Naruto was wearing gloves and a hoodie.;) Segura eliminated Pesadilla who was my pick to win so good thing I didn't bet on it. A table got involved and Segura power bombed Naruto off the top rope when he tried a frankensteiner. Looked vicious and surely it HAD to be the finish... except Naruto kicked out. I'm not sure why. Segura pushed him back down and tried one more time... this time getting the 3 count. Very confusing finish. Daga vs Segura will be a great match whether it's on iPPV or not.

Freelance, Tribal, Hammer vs Cyborg, Cerebro Negro, Peligro

We thought it was Toxico at first but that's my fault. First off this man looked exactly like Toxico but second the announcers called him Peligro and I thought Toxico was the one who changed his name to Peligro. We did eventually figure out it was Ragde. There was some awesome matwork early on, the type of which you only see in IWRG most of the time. Rudos then began brawling. Freelance took a SCARY backdrop. Eventually we got everyone chopping each other which turned out to be the only thing Hammer was good at. The guys were just killing each other and the crowd loved it. We loved it! Both Freelance and Tribal got to show off their high flying which is always fun to watch. Freelance took his happy pills I guess because he looked the best I have seen him in a while. Hammer was useless so we were begging him to get chopped some more. They did the expected dives and Freelance came CLOSE to landing in the crowd on a springboard moonsault! I think we all wanted the match to go longer but they ended it right when they got back in the ring with the cameras missing the finish. Cyborg posed for pictures afterwards and we got more shoutouts from the announcers!

Heddi Karaoui vs Jorge Macias

I think I've said all I can about this already.:)

Angel o Demonio, Super Crazy, Tony Rivera vs Fantasma De La Opera, Madman Pondo, Zumbido w/ Hilario

Announcers mentioned Tony Rivera's recent "issues" as he came to the ring. Super Crazy sure looks old with no hair. Zumbido had the most professional ring entrance of the show so far with music and dancing (everyone else just walked to the ring). I can't tell if it was planned or not but somehow Angel o Demonio ended up on his back as soon as he stepped out from backstage. Oops? Hilario showed up as a surprise and cut an English promo which was perfect for us in the chat room!:D Match turned into a brawl right away and everyone bled... EXCEPT PONDO! He eventually got cut later on but at first it was very weird to see Rivera bleeding and Pondo not. They tore the building apart including Rivera being buried under 20 chairs, a table being broken (camera missed it!) and fans + announcers running for their lives. After about 15 minutes of chaos we had Rivera do an INSANE somersault dive on Zumbido and Hilario followed by a moonsault from Super Crazy. The finish was supposed to be a suplex onto a table on fire but it wouldn't go up in flames. Oops. Pondo put Demonio through the table and covered him anyways. Then after the match he got his lighttubes from under the ring and they put Demonio through those also! All the undercard rudos and tecnicos got involved and then Rivera/Zumbido began challenging each other. It was the typical ending to a live Lucha Libre show but it was a little chaotic watching for us b/c we didn't know if the show was done or there was going to be a big ending.

Overall I'd give the show a B+. I would 110% order another show if they announced one. The show exceeded all my expectations and more. We all had a ton of fun watching and chatting at the same time. If there is another iPPV they certainly set it up well with possible matches including Daga vs Segura, Rivera vs Zumbido and Zumbi vs Heddi. That means IWL has more intriguing matches coming up than CMLL has had all year!:o If you are any sort of Lucha Libre fan you can't go wrong for putting $10 down to see an authentic independent Lucha Libre show. Who knows... maybe a few years from now both AAA/CMLL will be running iPPV's or whatever iPPV's will be called then and we can all think back to the first company in Mexico that ran a show like this - IWL!

Thanks to IWL management for making a show like this happen, thanks to the announcers for all the shoutouts, thanks to the wrestlers for putting on a fun show, thanks to Trolly for being adorable and thanks to Cubsfan for hosting a fun chat and not throwing me under the bus for confusing everyone into thinking we were watching Toxico!