From the 80's into 90's!

Continuing on with my trek through the past...

El Faraon vs Sangre Chicana (1986, unknown location): No clue where this took place since it was shot from ringside and the arena was pretty dark. It probably wasn't a big show considering these two seemed to be having a pretty sub-standard match for what they are capable of and the finish was a double low blow which is a typical cop out nobody has to job on a small show finish. I'm not too broken up since I got to see them have a great match earlier on the DVD.

Next up was supposed to be Los Hermanos Calavera (Oro's dad and uncle) teaming up from Guadalajara in 1982 but the listings were misleading! It was just a clip of challenges after their match was over. BOO!

Rayo De Jalisco Jr./El Faraon vs Asesino Negro/Indio Jeronimo (1982, Arena Coliseo De Guadalajara): After I got over the shock of seeing Asesino Negro almost 30 years younger and 150 pounds lighter I focused on Rayo. For almost any lucha veteran these days you can find at least one person who will come to their defense and say even though they're old and broken down now they used to be good. I say "almost" because Rayo seems to be the exception. I have never come across anyone who has said Rayo used to be even passable. This match pretty much confirmed that. He was only 22 years old, very skinny and the rudos were certainly treating him like the new kid who needed to earn their respect. Fascinating to see how his moveset never even changed throughout the years. Everything you saw him do throughout the 90's and 00's he was doing here except a LITTLE faster. The only blip was a neat headscissors out of the turnbuckles with Asesino Negro taking an awesome bump to the floor. Faraon was excellent as was Jeronimo. Perfectly fine match that the crowd was really into.

Olympus vs Indio Misteca (1985, Monterrey): I believe this was the re-opening of the Coliseo Monterrey after it was shut down for a while but don't quote me on that. It was some sort of big event though as before the match they had a musical performance and the main event was a special legends match. This was the first match so I guess the dude following Chicana around decided it might be cool to keep it on video. He recorded the first 4 or 5 minutes and then the last 4 or 5 minutes. Standard opener outside of some few athletic spots from Olympus and a tope suicida after Indio took a scary backdrop to the floor. After they crawled back inside Olympus did the Cavernaria for the win. THAT SPOT ACTUALLY WORKED FOR ONCE!

Sangre Chicana/Cuautemoc Torres/Dardo Aguilar vs Ruby Rubalcaba/Yuma/Barba Negra (1985, Monterrey): This was the main event of said show shot on handheld by the guy who was following Chicana around. While I appreciate his hard work and rare footage I do have to complain about this match since it was a trios match and for whatever reason he just kept the camera on Chicana the entire time. Even when the crowd was popping for stuff going on in the ring he just zoomed in on Chicana on the apron so this wasn't much of a match. The few bits he did catch were interesting though. One was Torres doing a SPRINGBOARD CROSS BODYBLOCK! IN 1985! That's the earliest I can recall seeing anyone do a springboard. The other cool spot was a ringside POV as Chicana crushed Yuma with a sick as shit tope suicida. The match degenerated into a brawl when Chicana turned on his team and then started fighting with Dardo Aguilar around ringside.

Following the match there is a quick look inside the home of Chicana at the time. In the most stunning development of all-time Chicana lived with a huge portrait of himself on his wall. That is AWESOME! Lots of cool photos with him holding titles and such.

The DVD cut off during the next match which was a handheld of Justiciero Vengador vs El Pervoso at the Plaza De Toros Monumental in Monterrey. What a pretty place to hold Lucha Libre.

Decided I needed a break from handhelds and moved into the early 90's...

Solar I/Apolo Dantes/El Monarca vs Rey Venus/Javier Cruz/Corsario Negro (1991, Arena Coliseo De Monterrey): This match is the definition of why life was so hard for me collecting results back in the day. Everyone knows Javier Cruz's nickname is El Monarca. But there was also a wrestler named El Monarca. Of course I was such a Lucha n00b I didn't know that and just assumed it was the same guy until one day I ran across a result where they were on opposite teams. FUN TIMES! They also look a like too which is really creepy. Anyways... this match was alright when Dantes/Cruz were doing their thing and Monarca even had some fun moments but for the most part I found it rather dull. Solar wasn't really motivated at all and hit the comeback way too early which confused everyone in the match. Finish was a low blow that the camera missed. Pretty lackluster stuff.

Kato Kung Lee/Super Astro/Angel Azteca vs Kung Fu/El Hijo Del Gladiador/Masakre (1991, Arena Coliseo De Monterrey): Kung Fu was doing that annoying gimmick where he hid nunchucks under his sleeve and would constantly use them which made the crowd angry. First fall finish was pretty sweet and perfectly timed by the tecnicos. Second fall had some fun stuff but then it was all downhill with some horrible brawling and Kung Fu just choking guys non-stop. I was hoping they'd at least do a spectacular finish but it just ended up being a flat finish where the rudos won clean. Bleh. In a sorta funny moment they had Bello Kalifa on commentary at ringside and he went up to Gladiador trying to do an interview while the match was in progress and Gladiador just waved him off. Who tries to interview someone in the middle of a match?

Atlantis/Mascara Sagrada/Panterita Del Ring (current Efesto) vs Negro Casas/MS-1/Jerry Estrada (1991, Arena Coliseo De Monterrey): This was pretty fun. I was worried when the first fall seemed to come to a stop as Casas just stood on the top rope and stretched Panterita and the other guys just walked around aimlessly but I guess some folks through beer into the ring and they had to wait while it was mopped up. Estrada played along by slipping on the wet spot and chasing after the dude who was cleaning it up as if it was his fault! Things really picked up in the second fall with some great exchanges and the crowd being really hot for seeing Panterita vs Negro. Panterita even had his own cheering section and anything he did to Negro got a HUGE pop. It looked like they were building to a match between the two which must have been epic. Elsewhere in the match Estrada continued to shine taking some awesome bumps including his famous Jerry-bump and getting flung into the 5th row taking out a bunch of fans! The fans didn't seem too unhappy as one guy even gave Jerry his beer! FTW! Beer is fucking expensive at Leafs/Jays games these days so I'd gladly be flung five rows deep just to get a free one! Finish had Sagrada take MS-1 out with a plancha and Atlantis get Estrada with the Atlantida. Casas/Panterita then traded nearfalls and finally Panterita won with a picture-perfect top rope dropkick. Good stuff here.

Same DVD had parts of the 1/6/91 CMLL TV show which had footage from the 1/4/91 show @ Arena Coliseo which is newly discovered footage...

Mascarita Sagrada/Aguilita Solitaria/Pequeno Cobarde vs Espectrito/Piratita Morgan/MS 1/2: This was 50/50 an angle and an amazing showcase. The angle was Pequeno Cobarde turning on his team after a bunch of miscommunications with Aguilita. The amazing showcase was the performance of all six guys when the angle wasn't in progress. HOLY FUCK were there some insane exchanges! Sagrada and Piratita in particular were showing off some amazing chemistry and had at least 3 out of this world exchanges that the crowd was going nuts for. I'm pretty sure Sagrada did at least 2 spots in this match I've never seen him do before. It's no wonder he is considered the best mini of all-time when you see stuff like this. Aguilita and Peq Cobarde even had their time to shine until they got to the angle portions. Rudos won in two falls but two falls was more than enough for me to love this!

Aguila Solitaria/Aguila De Plata/Super Muneco vs Bestia Salvaje/Comando Ruso/Scorpio: Not much to say here... exactly what you'd expect with these guys. Bestia took a huge sallida before being nailed by a Muneco tope suicida was the only memorable spot. Only the first two falls were on the DVD.

Mogur/Misterioso/Volador vs Pirata Morgan/Masakre/Espectro Jr.: This had the occasional edit by whoever was recording which ruined the flow a bit but I got what I wanted out of this: An awesome Volador/Pirata exchange and a great triple dive spot that had the crowd scurrying for safety. Unfortunately in that triple dive spot Misterioso and Masakre crushed Vicky Aguilera (older lady who always sat front row at Arena Coliseo/Mexico until she died) so everyone was worried about her post-match although she seemed to be laughing it off as they tried to stop her nose from bleeding. WHAT A TROOPER!

We're Going Back In Time!

Using our collective brains Fredo and I managed to track down some rare as shit Lucha Libre that will thrill anyone who a) loves Lucha Libre & b) thought the well had run dry on undiscovered 80's Lucha. (BTW that's my 10% finding all the footage needed and Fredo's 90% resources hehehehe) The best part is it's not only one area specific - it covers Arena Mexico (~80'S HANDHELDS! Who the hell had the foresight to take a handheld camera into Arena Mexico and film stuff? Who even had the resources to do that? I want to thank someone but I don't know who to thank unfortunately), Guadalajara and Northern Mexico - mostly Monterrey but ALL the famous Monterrey arenas like Solidaridad, Coliseo and Monumental. Slowly but surely I'm going to review everything I watch. Don't bother asking how to get the footage - I've already explained on my twitter (@robviper) that Fredo will be putting it all up on his website (www.slambamjam.com) soon enough once he organizes everything b/c the actual DVD's are a jumbled assortment of matches that really don't fit together. I'm sure when Fredo gets through with it he'll have it all nice and tidy.:) In the meantime you can read my teasers and build up anticipation!

I was so excited to get these DVD's that in the meantime I went back to watch a bunch of 80's footage (just like @kortej is doing over at luchalayercake.blogspot.com). I meant to do a long post on it but I'm a lazy bum. Some points I wanted to make though:

1. Alfonso Dantes was awesome. I remember initially not liking him when I originally watched the DVD's a few years back but that may have been moreso due to his rep of not letting young guys do anything and always trying to avoid selling during beatdowns. Watching now with an open mind I just found him to be awesome. His big spot was basically just a shoulder tackle but it was an AWESOME shoulder tackle (hence his name "The Tank"). He would hit 3 in a row and the crowd would eat it up as his opponents would get frustrated. He was the perfect no-nonsense vet who just wanted to get down to business and kick ass.

2. There's this myth that matches have gotten shorter as time has passed but I don't see it that way. I see it as the style has changed. No matter what kind of match you watch from the 80's and 90's the Lucha Libre style is generally 'get up and go'. The exception is of course the great brawlers but for the most part it's all about doing as much as you can as fast as you can do it. Tag out. Let the other guys go at it. Tag out. Let the other guys do their thing. Some of these trios matches from the 80's only go 16-17 minutes which is the same as a lot of current stuff but the problem with a lot of current stuff is the wrestlers are more focused on the show part and are constantly posing for the crowd or looking for approval before they do anything. It can get annoying... trust me. That's where the myth comes in. The matches seem shorter these days b/c the wrestlers are generally doing 50% of what the guys in the 80's were doing. I saw a trios match where Atlantis had two exchanges where he did more with all three rudos he faced each time than any CMLL wrestler has done in one match in years! But he was in the ring for less time than Palacio Negro usually gets per match. There's also the myth that current Lucha Libre has incorporated the entire concept of a rudo beatdown and pinfall/submission within a minute to end a fall. But I saw that happen plenty of times in the 80's stuff I watched. The difference is all in the execution. Wrestlers today... sadly... are just not as good when it comes to match structure and rely too much on the "less is more" philosophy which is a philosophy I absolutely despise. The one thing that is true... and nobody will argue with this... is singles matches used to be FAR more epic. Those were the matches that went longer and rightfully so. They were important. A title, hair or mask was usually at risk. Or even when nothing was on the line it was about pride and showing up your opponent. These days you really can't find many singles matches that don't follow the silly formula of either two short falls and one long fall or a long first fall, a surprise roll-up in the second fall and then an epic third fall. Once again... current wrestlers have not learned match structure. (Ultimo Guerrero being a prime example of failure in this regard.)

3. Was there ever a better trio than Jerry Estrada, Hombre Bala and Pirata Morgan? I say no. I know there are lots of Infernales fans out there but on an individual basis I can't see anyone arguing Masakre was better than any three of the Bucaneros.

Anyways... onto the reviews of the newly discovered footage...

Cien Caras/Sangre Chicana/Tony Benetto vs Tony Salazar/El Faraon/Tinieblas (1986, Arena Mexico): Shot by a handheld camera which may have been for some sort of Sangre Chicana documentary since the focus is mainly on him. The only negative to having it filmed on handheld is once in a while the action will skip forward b/c the person recording was either trying to save tape or was hiding it from any security walking by. Of course the positive is you can hear the epic crowd heat! Start of the match is just epic as the rudos attack the tecnicos (no Alushe!!!) as the fans are still at ringside and it's chaos with fans running for their lives to avoid the wrestlers. The focus of the match is the Chicana/Faraon feud as they just trade shots non-stop. Cien Caras also plays a great chickenshit heel who takes shots at Tinieblas all match long but then runs away as soon as he's at a disadvantage. Finish isn't caught on film but this was a really fun intro match.

Rayo De Jalisco Jr./Tony Salazar/Atlantis vs Cien Caras/Sangre Chicana/El Faraon (1986, Arena Coliseo): A handheld so once again has some random cuts. More of an angle than a match as Chicana is not getting along with his partners which actually leads to some really funny moments. Crowd is super into Chicana. That's really understimating it though. They were SCREAMING his name all match long! Naturally things fall apart for the rudos and the tecnicos win. We wind up with Faraon and Chicana brawling with each other which sets up...

Sangre Chicana vs Faraon (1986, Arena Coliseo OR Arena Neza): EPIC! Shot via handheld but with less edits than the previous matches. Honestly... you wouldn't be able to tell whether this was a wrestling match or legit brawl between two guys who hate each other. So much awesome realism in this match. Faraon is the first to start bleeding due to Chicana's amazing punches and biting of his forehead. Chicana takes fall one with a half crab (his big submission move at the time) and then grabs a beer bottle from ringside and smashes it over Faraon's head! THE BOTTLE DOESN'T EVEN BREAK! WTF?!!?!?!? Crowd is super hot at this point, especially at the ref for letting this happen. The fact the crowd is reacting like this is why I'm not sure this was Arena Coliseo or Neza. There was a Neza banner and in the previous Coliseo match the crowd LOVED Chicana so it seems weird they'd switch a week later. Anyways back to the match... Chicana keeps pounding Faraon all over the ring and ringside until Faraon makes his comeback and Chicana basically does exactly what you'd do in a real street fight. He leaves the ring... he climbs back inside when Faraon comes out to get him and then tries to kick Faraon as he tries to get into the ring... he tries to outmaneuver Faraon and sneak in cheapshots... it's just awesome. Faraon finally gets his hands on Chicana and begans to beat the crap out of him including whipping him into the ringpost. Soon afterwards Faraon takes the second fall and he goes to get a beer bottle! Chicana has no part of that and runs away. Crowd is MOLTEN at this point - especially when Chicana manages to wrestle the bottle away from Faraon and tries to attack him with it again! Third fall has both guys punching the shit out of each other with the best punches in the world! Just great shit and hearing the crowd reaction is unreal. Of course then... the handheld cuts off.:( A real shame b/c this was heading towards easy top 10 of the 80's material but you take what you can get. This should probably get special mention if such a poll ever takes place.

Next up is about 10 minutes worth of random highlights of a triangle match involving Chicana, Faraon and Perro from Arena Mexico in 1986. I think the idea here was the first person to beat both their opponents (1-on-1 matches at a time) would win and the losers would have a hair match the following week. It was hard to keep track of with the constant edits but you get to see a ton of great brawling and the crowd super pissed when Faraon cheats to win. Plus there is a really great post-match brawl with Perro and Chicana chasing each other all over the place.

Next up is about 3 minutes of highlights of Rayo De Jalisco Jr. and Tony Benetto (Gran Markus Jr.) against Cien Caras and Mascara Ano 2000. Not much to this at all except noting even in 1986 Benetto was running the ropes awkwardly.

Sangre Chicana vs Perro Aguayo (Hair vs Hair - 2/28/86 @ Arena Mexico): THIS. This is the type of match that just makes finding all this footage worthwhile even if every other match is the drizzling shits! A fucking EPIC match along the lines of MS-1 vs Sangre Chicana in 1983. Maybe just as good? Maybe a notch lower? I guess that's up to each person. I fucking loved this though. The stage is set right away as Perro is being carried to the ring like a legend and Chicana is all FUCK THAT and attacks Perro which causes him to fall off the shoulders of whoever was carrying him! They end up brawling in the aisleway and things get crazy as a Chicana fan jumps on Perro! This causes a bunch of Perro fans to circle and try and drag him off which leads to a crazy hectic scene for a few seconds as security breaks through the pile of fans to drag the fans off the wrestlers. WHAT THE FUCK! And then the match begins!:p My description wouldn't do it justice. Nobody's will in fact. You just need to immediatly buy this when Fredo puts it up. Tons of blood. A Chicana tope suicida FOR THE AGES! The most amazing knockout punch I've ever seen via Chicana. And perhaps the greatest moment of all-time as both men covered in blod stand on top of the seats in the third row at Arena Mexico and JUST START SLUGGING EACH OTHER AS THE FANS STAND AROUND THEM CHEERING! Holy shit such an epic visual. If I had to pick one negative and I'd really be stretching here it would be that the finish was way too choreographed as I could see it coming a mile away. But I'm a jaded smark and the live fans ate it up so what do I know? If the match wasn't enough for you - you get the extra bonus of a post-match brawl which sends fans running for their lives. This is truly some spectacular shit here! (Note: Shot via handheld of course but only two or three very minor edits that don't take away from the match at all. THANKFULLY!)

I stopped watching this disc (all that is only half of ONE DISC OF SIXTEEN!) at this point and next up for tomorrow is... another Chicana vs Faraon singles match! Goddamnit.

Some other random matches I skipped forward to watch...

Andre The Giant/Cien Caras vs Alfonso Dantes/Sangre Chicana/Herodes (1982, Arena Coliseo De Guadalajara): I had to see this since at my age my introduction to Andre was when he was already basically crippled in the WWF and since I'm not a New Japan or All Japan fan I've seen very limited footage of a mobile Andre. But this was it... the freakshow at his best. The crowd was absolutely in awe of Andre and the match was actually enjoyable since he was so mobile at the time. The rudos were nothing but stooges of course. Herodes was having the time of his life running from Andre though which amused me. Crowd went nuts when Andre picked both Dantes and Chicana up in wristlocks at the same time! Diablo Velasco was the ref and even got involved at various points by trying to drag Andre away and ending up on his ass.:) Kind of surreal to see Andre to his shtick and suddenly tag in Cien Caras who began doing rolling shoulderblock spots with Alfonso Dantes. Oh, another highlight was Andre trying to do a comedy spot with Cien Caras who had no clue what to do so Andre had to improvise and actually made a clever little spot out of Cien's ignorance. For whatever reason this was 2 out of 3 falls but you can guess how many falls it took for Andre to win.:) If nothing else this is just a historical piece of footage.

Tigro/Panthro/Ninja vs Lasser/Robin Hood/La Flecha (1991, Plaza De Toros Monumental De Monterrey): Cubsfan would not be happy! Neither would Dr. Lucha! This was supposed to be a match for the National Trios Titles but Leono was hurt so the commision approved Ninja to take his place and defend the titles for this night only. CAN THEY DO THAT? (Insert Dr. Lucha explaining about greasing palms!) Typical tecnicos vs tecnicos match with lots of mirror spots and great armdrag sequences. A fascinating change of pace from Perro trying to bite Sangre Chicana's nose off! La Flecha is a young Skayde so naturally I was eager to watch this but I was more impressed with Lasser here. The man is just a machine! First fall was really short ending with Lasser/Robin getting pins as Flecha did a first-rope asai moonsault dive! Second fall was really good with some fast exchanges and the champs evened things up. Third fall had a dive sequence capped off with Robin Hood doing a flip plancha into the crowd! Crowd was super into all this since this was the peak of the fame for the Thundercats. Flecha/Ninja got eliminated which left it two-on-two. Lasser missed a pescado which took him out and Panthro eventually rolled up Robin Hood for the win and huge pop from the kids. Fun match!

Lasser/Robin Hood/La Flecha vs Rocky Santana/El Gallego/El Yaqui (1991, Arena Solidaridad De Monterrey): This match I actually liked better than the previous match b/c it's always more fun watching the Arqueros work with rudos who can be better bases. Some excellent matwork early on which is what you'd expect with this crew. At one point La Flecha did a SPRINGBOARD 360 ARMDRAG! This got me thinking as to who else was doing springboards at this point in time. Skayde is so awesome. Lasser did a super creative wristlock escape into an armdrag in the second fall which had me marking out. Unfortunately we'll never know who won the match b/c it was the last match on this specific DVD and it cut off.:( Really fun while it lasted though! I'd rather have 2 and a half falls of fun than never see any of this!

More to come! Chicana vs Faraon Redux! Oro's father and uncle team up! Legends match from the re-opening of Arena Coliseo Monterrey featuring Dardo Aguilar and Cuautehmoc Torres! Probably the only time you will ever see those legends on film! Pre-1980's Lucha!

CMLL FSE 8/20/11 & CMLL C3 8/20/11

CMLL FSE 8/20/11:

Pegasso/Rey Cometa/Dragon Lee vs Arkangel/Loco Max/Hooligan: I felt kinda ripped off by this match. Very little action with Cometa barely getting to do anything except his big dive and Pegasso must still be hurt b/c he was working at half speed and blew a bunch of simple exchanges with Loco Max. I'm generally not a fan of the Tuereg group since aside from Hooligan and Arkangel most of them are bad bases and their triple team offense is beyond generic for a group that works together so much. Dragon Lee was Dragon Lee... very green but crisp with his high flying spots. Not sure if that's the formula for a successful wrestler but I digress. He did a 360 onto the ramp and then did a crazy somersault dive which popped the crowd. Tecnicos won clean.

Stuka Jr./Sangre Azteca/Hijo Del Fantasma vs Okumura/Yoshihashi/Misterioso II: This tecnico team could be named "Lost In The Shuffle". Stuka seems to be a mid-carder for life (much the same situation his big brother ended up in), Sangre Azteca is a natural rudo being forced to play a tecnico and Fantasma would be a main event player if a third organization existed. This was better than the previous match but nothing to write home about. Azteca's dropkicks used to be so great when they'd come out of nowhere but now he overuses them and you can see the setup a mile away. Since when does Yoshihashi do moves off the top? C'mon guys, put a little thought into your finishes! Tecs won clean.

CMLL C3 8/20/11:

Metalico/Enrique Vera Jr./Hombre Bala Jr. vs Loco Max/Rayos Tapatios I y II: With Loco Max replacing Zavala at the last minute I figured there wouldn't be much to this match since you can't really work on the fly with the Gen11 guys and I was right. The rudo team kept it simple by just brawling and doing quick finishes. The third fall finish in particular was out of nowhere and nobody expected it. Match included the usual Gen11 screw-ups like Vera almost falling off the top rope trying a plancha to the floor and throwing a dropkick that missed by at least 10 feet that Rayo Tapatio I had to sell.

Lady Apache/Silueta/Goya Kong vs Zeuxis/La Seductora/Princesa Blanca: Good! Shockingly good! There may be hope for this division after all with Lady Apache back and Silueta/Zeuxis improving! Even Goya Kong was tolerable here and actually did some creative stuff with Seductora at one point. First fall finish was really put together well. Second fall as well. Third fall had fun stuff with Silueta vs Zeuxis and the finish built off what they did in the first fall. No complaints here.

Diamante/Fuego/Toscano vs Misterioso II/Okumura/Psicosis: Diamante appeared to be taking it easy in his return match so I don't blame him for not doing much here. Fuego carried the workload for his team and had some fun exchanges against Misterioso II. Match was pretty standard until the third fall where they did an excellent finishing sequence with Toscano/Psicosis doing nearfalls and Toscano even escaping from Psicosis' finisher. Diamante/Fuego did double dives and then Toscano used a rana to pin Psicosis.

La Mascara/Blue Panther/Rush vs Mr. Aguila/Olimpico/Volador Jr.: Really enjoyed this match. Volador is so good it's frightening and almost frightening is that he seems to be more over on these Tuesday shows than any rudos not named Averno on the Friday shows. Yes, that includes Ultimo Guerrero. Panther/Olimpico did their usual matwork early on and at one point Panther slipped trying to lock in the inverted Gory Special which caused Olimpico to take a header but he was alright. Mascara/Volador did a great exchange and have fantastic chemistry together. I knew Rush/Aguila were feuding but if you didn't know it specifically it would have been hard to notice in this match until the finish. Mascara ended up taking Volador out with a ringpost plancha and Panther put Olimpico in a figure-four leglock. Aguila did a standing moonsault onto Panther as Rush did his double stomp on Olimpico which led to a double elimination. Aguila then got his knees up as Rush tried a senton and pinned him with a spin kick. Good stuff.

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!)

IWRG TV 7/10/11 (taped 7/7/11)

A review of a current show? YEP!

Rolling Boy/Triton vs ?Anubis?/Keshin Black: I'm not sure if it was Anubis on the rudo team. All the results list him but there was no graphic and I watched without audio. This guy looked very different from the regular Anubis which is why I'm not sure. Or maybe it's a new Anubis? Either way he looked excellent here and basically carried the match for all three guys who are still very green. I liked Triton better when he was dressing like 1993 Triton (aka Pantera). Some rough moments with Rolling Boy/Keshin Black which is to be expected but otherwise nothing was really messed up. They teased dives in the third fall until Rolling Boy hit a weak tope suicida and Triton won with a shooting star press. My style of IWRG opener.

Black Terry/Multifacetico/Angelico vs Los Oficiales: Really fun match! Naturally it was centered around Multi/911 who had their masks ripped up and were both bleeding. Only in IWRG do you see that these days! Black Terry got a few moments to shine. Loved his vicious lariats and selling when AK-47 nailed him with a tope suicida and Terry rolled around like his shoulder had just popped up which got both refs distracted so Multi could nail 911 with a tombstone! Huge heat! (well for the 50 or so fans in attendance that is) Really the only negative here was Angelico who seems to not be a fan of selling and much prefers to be doing his fancy kicks or third-rate flying. Can't wait for the mask match!

Trauma I vs El Hijo De La Park - Juniors Title: Loved it! Park's kid is really starting to get it which is frightening to see. He still needs to get bigger though if he wants to be taken seriously - especially as a rudo. Same advice goes for Bestia 666 although that has nothing to do with this match. I was shocked at how well Park hung in on the mat and at the same time worked the crowd perfectly as a rudo. Some really great matwork as you'd expect and the type of thing you only get here in Naucalpan. In the second fall Park did an awesome tornillo dive that the camera just barely caught in time. My favorite spot was Trauma headbutting Park into the crowd to start the third fall. Looked fucking BRUTAL! He did again a bit later. A couple of times they teased the match was "breaking down" as both guys put their fists up and looked like they were gonna punch the crap out of each other before it settled down. That was very neat. Honestly this would have been the perfect match if not for generic overbooking by IWRG as the seconds (Trauma II/AK-47) got involved for no reason at all since it didn't even effect the finish and why would an Oficial help Park's kid? Finish was also overbooked as after many great nearfalls Trauma I hit a vicious Rosa DDT and Park clearly kicked out at 2 but the ref called the match anyhow. I guess it sets up a future rematch. Well worth checking this one out.

Canek/Negro Navarro/Trauma II vs Pirata Morgan/El Hijo De Pirata Morgan/Barba Roja: I am not a huge fan of Canek obviously but I was surprised at how agile he was even at his age. Last time I saw him he was immobile and here he could do all his usual spots. Must be hoping to get one last run somewhere so he can drop his mask? Who knows with these ancient wrestlers. Navarro and Pirata are ancient too but they were fantastic here. I'm a huge fan of the Pirata family so it was great watching them do their thing. That submission in the first fall was just SICK! Also majorly sick was Navarro's pinning hold to win the second fall for his team. Canek blew me away by doing a plancha off the top rope for the win in the third fall! God bless the reconstruction of knees!

Excellent episode of IWRG TV! Gotta go out of your way to see the top three for sure.

CMLL Puebla - 12/27/10 (taped 12/20/10)

Asturiano/Centella De Oro/Stigma vs Siki Osama Jr./Espiritu Maligno/Centauro De Fuego: Surprising rough matwork early on with Centella and Espiritu who are usually great. They were very loose and looked awkward trying to throw each other around. Stigma got things going against Siki Osama with an amazing quadrople springboard armdrag. Yes. I did say that. QUADROPLE SPRINGBOARD ARMDRAG! AMAZING! He followed with a headscissors on the floor. They did a nice finishing sequence ending with Osama doing a tope suicida and the rudos putting away Stigma/Centella. Second fall was also good with Asturiano getting to show off and then the rudos taking control. They kept doing assisted power bombs on the tecnicos until Stigma countered with a dropkick which led to a running somersault plancha from Centella and the remaining tecnicos put Centauro/Espiritu away. Third fall was good with lots of near submissions and everyone getting to show off armdrags. Stigma/Asturiano did dual dives and then Centella used an awesome roll-up off the second turnbuckle to put Osama away. Really good match!

Rush/Metro/Metal Blanco vs Okumura/Yoshihashi/Polvora: The TVC graphics had Sagrado listed instead of Metal Blanco. If that isn't everything wrong with CMLL, I don't know what is. I believe this was the first time we all got to see Yoshihashi on TV with his new painted face look which my buddy Bill thinks Okumura suggested since he started his career doing that sort of thing. In another bit of irony this match had a mini-feud with Rush/Yoshihashi which as I write this is the big Puebla feud leading to a hair match in 10 days. Match was pretty standard and formulatic outside of Yoshihashi busted out a reckless tope suicida - a first for him in Mexico! Metal Blanco looked really good and I remember remarking back when I originally watch this that it wouldn't last but he's sure proved me wrong! Crowd and announcers went nuts for his big moonsault dive. Rush got Okumura for the win.

Brazo De Plata/Mascara Dorada/Toscano vs Atlantis/El Averno/Rey Bucanero w/ Periquito: This was the Periquito show and nothing more. He began the match by hitting Porky with a frying pan and was basically inside the ring for the rest of the match. All the tecnicos even did spots with him. Crowd was eating it up and I'm a mark for this type of stuff too so I liked it. A match like this is actually okay when it's surrounded by 3 or 4 good matches. Where a match like this is not good is when you just had a bad match and/or another comedy match. But in this place it was good as I said and was a nice way to calm the crowd down leading into the big main event. Tecs won clean.

Ultimo Guerrero/Dragon Rojo Jr. vs La Mascara/Valiente - CMLL Tag Team Titles: Shocker was originally scheduled here as La Mascara's partner but suffered his injury the day before at Arena Coliseo which still has him out of action to this very day. CMLL found a more than suitable substituion but this match suffered from Ultimo Guerrero being involved so you had the generic Ultimo Guerrero match in tag format. Two short falls with flash finishes and then a long third fall with every generic nearfall you can think of and the tecnicos just walking into Guerrero's big moves. Valiente did his Valiente Especial which the crowd went bonkers for which was a positive. Dragon Rojo looked putrid as usual. He topped his terrible performance off by completely losing Valiente on the finishing power bomb as Ultimo Guerrero did the Guerrero Special on La Mascara for the win. Great example of one of those matches that on paper look fantastic but are not so hot in execution.

Show closing highlights had a great double tornillo from #porraReyCometa!

Enjoyable show until the main event. For someone who doesn't follow Lucha Libre hardcore like I do you may enjoy the main event much more than I did which would make this a great show.

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!

AAA Triplemania XIX Thoughts

Argos, Aero Star, Fenix, Sugi vs Dark Dragon, Tito Santana, Tigre Cota, Decnis: Only saw quick highlights on youtube of the middle portion of the match. Seemed like a total divefest but sadly cut off before the finish. Would love to see this pop up randomly on an AAA TV show sometime in the future or via super duper secret handheld.

Cynthia Moreno, Fabi Apache, Mari Apache, Lolita vs Sexy Star, Angelina Love, Velvet Sky, Mickie James: Shockingly not as terrible as I expected. The TNA chicks seemed really confused at first and were standing on the apron during the beatdown waiting to be tagged in. I guess Mari got a memo before the match saying be nice because there were no hard forearms and when she did her senton bomb she barely touched the TNA chick. I'm sure that made a lot of people from the luchablog community very unhappy.:) Crowd seemed to be really into the match which might have made it better than it was. Lolita didn't get to show much but she looked fantastic in the 30 seconds she got. Big dive sequence at the end and then Mickie kissed Fabi and pinned her. Lesbianism as a distraction? Whatever works.

During that first match I noticed the first few rows were filled with folks who you would never catch dead at any random AAA TV taping. Shows you that major events draw a different kind of crowd and that's why you need to go all out with the entrances and big stars. It's an EVENT, not a Lucha Libre show.

Heavy Metal, Joe Lider, Electro Shock vs Chessman, Silver King, Ultimo Gladiador (TLC): Chessman's entrance was AWESOME! Same for Silver King/Ultimo Gladiador. Match was a total cluster as you'd expect. The camerawork was absolutely terrible which took away from the match. They missed the three biggest spots of the match - Chessman spearing Heavy Metal through some chairs, Nicho doing a run-in somersault legdrop through a table and Joe Lider's Spanish Fly to the floor through a table on Silver King. Inexcusable misses since each spot took lots of time to set up so you knew something was coming. I was mad the little guys never got involved and just stood around watching the festivities. Not sure why the women were even out there or that other dude. Finish was a letdown considering you had tons of ladders, tables and chairs around and instead it was just two guys falling off the top rope onto random objects.

La Parka, Octagon, Ozz, Drago vs Cibernetico, Charly Manson, Escoria, Billy el Malo: Still not a fan of Cibernetico getting a seperate entrance from his own group. It makes them come off weak (something they don't need any help with) and makes no sense if the leader doesn't want to be with his buddies. On the other hand Drago had THE BEST ENTRANCE OF THE ENTIRE SHOW! That was some epic stuff right there. Match was alright although a bit messy at times. I bet nobody noticed b/c the camera was doing funny things but Manson/Escoria/Billy did an awesome spot early on. Comeback was great with Drago doing a huge dive (camera caught it!). Each tecnico got a little showcase with Ozz's being disappointing and Drago's being the best. They teased a double submission finish and then did a dive sequence with Charly Manson trying to show off busting out the Brillo Dorado but I thought he ended up looking dumb b/c he was going to slow and almost hit his head on the apron. Bullet tope, Charly. Use it. You're good at it. Drago finished things with an awesome asai tornillo! Finish was that angle with Taboo and Parka's kid. It was a decent enough angle but completely unbelievable if you try to actually think about it. I'm not even sure what changed here. Taboo was with the Bizarros beforehand and still is now. So how was this a big plan to hurt Parka? I guess these guys will have some sort of big match at Verano De Escandalo or Heroes Inmortales in exchange for being stuck in the middle of the card here.

Extreme Tiger/Jack Evans vs Mr. Anderson/Abyss (Cage - AAA Tag Team Titles): Was it just me or was it hard to watch this? The cage seemed hard to see through and the extra platform above it made it even harder to peek into the cage with the roaming camerashot. They seemed to be doing some complicated spots early on but it was hard to follow. Less than 4 minutes into the match Tiger climbed to the top of the structure above the ring and did a tornillo which was INSANE, so much so that Abyss was getting out of the way without even being hit. Tiger escaped first leaving it two-on-one vs Jack which was the right call. With this being a TNA show I assumed it would be two-on-one vs one of the heels and Bryan Alvarez would flip out. Anderson escaped next and in doing so got his easiest payday yet since I can't remember if he did ANYTHING in this match. Abyss and Jack did a complicated spot that was supposed to end with a frankensteiner but Abyss botched it. Finish was very silly as Jack climbed the cage and the crowd cheered b/c he was sitting on the top so the match was over. But Abyss poured out some thumbtacks and began climbing (2 minutes later). For whatever reason this caused Jack to slide down to meet him halfway and then power bomb him onto the thumbtacks and then climb back up to do a plancha off the cage which in very un-Jack-like fashion was very awkward. He then climbed back up top and they played his music too early which led to the camera cutting to a crowdshot and they missed the entire awesome finish where Anderson wouldn't let Jack's feet hit the floor so Jack rammed him into the cage and then moonsaulted off to the floor. If AAA is serious about running PPV's they may want to clue the PPV guys into what camerashots they need to be ready for.

Psycho Circus vs Perros Del Mal (AAA Trios Titles): Color me confused as I had no idea there was a fourth clown running around until a few minutes into the match. That ain't no mini. Usual brawl you'd expect with these teams but very enjoyable. Since it was the big show everyone was taking big bumps and they pulled out all the stops including a PLANCHA TO THE FLOOR BY MONSTER CLOWN! I can't believe 40-year old Damian was taking hiptosses onto the entrance ramp and hard whips into tables. That man tries hard and/or wanted to make sure the Perros brand stays over even with Perrito doing all he can to make sure it dies. Monster/Damian took each other out with a suplex into a bunch of equipment that exploded. Back when the WWF did this spot the entire power in the arena went out to explain why that equipment was located there. In AAA the power in the arena didn't go out so we are just to assume the AAA production staff leaves random explosive devices laying around. SAFETY FIRST KIDS! X-Fly took a brutal bump when he somersaulted off the top rope to the floor onto a garbage can. Halloween won the match with a top rope Death Valley Driver on Psycho Clown. Great effort by both teams. My only complaint here would be the DTU-ness of the match. It looked so amateur having the ringside crew removing weapons/tables after they were used and then running up and down the ramp to set up the equipment Damian/Monster were going to demolish later in the match. I realize they were rushed for time but you have to either do this off-camera or not at all. Remember that spot on a recent WWE PPV where all the chairs fell onto The Miz (or some other dude)? Imagine if during the match you had seen all the WWE ringside dudes running back and forth to set the spot up in full view of everyone. It makes the product look terribly amateur. For DTU it's okay... that is a somewhat amateur product and they make no pretense about that. AAA is supposed to be professional and this was not even close to professional.

It was at this point I realized the last pinfall attempt (not including finishes obviously) I saw on this show was near the end of the women's match and that was when Hijo De Tirantes refused to count. There were no attemps to win in the TLC match, only two submission attempts in the four on four match, then we had a cage and finally the Clowns/Perros where the only pinfall attempted was the finish. Someone in charge backstage may want to clue the guys in next time to at least create a pretense that a match is going on instead of just a collection of spots until the ref says wrap things up.

El Zorro vs Jeff Jarrett (Mega Heavyweight Title): Was not looking forward to this but to be fair to these guys they stood no chance. Let's recap: The fans had just seen a TLC match with tons of stunts, a four on four match that was mostly all action, a cage match with dives from the top and a hardcore match with tons of stunts. Now you expect the fans to be okay with watching an old-school Jeff Jarrett match? Meltzer always mentions the 'death spot' on WWE PPV's being the match right before the main event and this was the death spot on this show. Not only the match right before the main event but also the match coming on after a stuntshow. They didn't stand a chance even if both had wrestled the match of their lives. Not to mention Zorro looked like walking death as he made his entrance. Jarrett's guitar shot only got a two count and the only reason it even got a pop was b/c nothing had happened in the match up until that point. We already saw guitar shots in an earlier match. He then had powder kicked into his own face which was very 80's. Finally he got the win to a very timid reaction. I'm sure he immediatly went on twitter to talk about how he started a riot. Easily the worst match on the show.

El Mesias vs L.A. Park (Hair vs Mask): I'm not sure if they were rushed for time, Mesias was unhappy, a huge mistake by the person that put the show together or all of the above but for whatever reason Mesias came out to the most generic entrance of his career. His entrances on regular AAA TV tapings are more dramatic. Park meanwhile had his son with him and also wheeled out Pierroth who unmasked himself and was crying. That was terribly sad and from all accounts Pierroth is basically an invalid who is out of it most of the day so I wonder if he even wanted to be there. I know it wasn't in mean spirit but if the real Noberto Salgado was around I wonder if he'd have wanted to go out there in his condition. As for the match - I liked it better than their Guerra De Titanes match. The GdT match lost it for me when Mesias kicked out of a tombstone and was on offense less than 20 seconds later. There are people who bashed the HHH/Taker from Mania as being finisher killing who raved about Park/Mesias from GdT. How dumb is that? They brawled around early on which was expected. The match didn't really get going until Park had his mask torn and both guys were a bloody mess. They both did big dives and hit their big moves for nearfalls. Park did his corkscrew bodyblock and barely clipped Mesias. Mesias did his finisher while we were watching a replay of something else. The spot of the match was Park setting up a table, doing his dance and getting speared through said table. It was criminal that wasn't the finish! One of the greatest nearfalls I've seen in a long time! Everyone seems to agree the finish was a letdown as there was a ref bump and Park used brass knux to KO Mesias. I still prefer that over the GdT ending. They shaved Mesias really quickly and Park celebrated with fans at ringside including mocking Marisela Pena who sure loves to be on TV. I thought the match was really good but in no way was it a MOTYC most people said. Perhaps you had to be there live to get the full effect. It was a fine match to headline a PPV and end a feud. What hurt them a lot was they relied so much on brutal chairshots, tables and brawling at ringside but we had already seen three matches so far that had all of that and more. AAA has certainly taken a turn for the hardcore over the past year under Konnan's leadership but it was really at an extreme on this show and hurt the product more than it helped.

Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Rob Van Dam(e) (Latin America Heavyweight Title): I'm already taking bets on whether we ever see this title defended. Actually I take that back. The belt is perfect for Wagner to defend when AAA asks him to lose a big match and instead of losing a belt that matters or his mask he can just offer up this pointless title. RVD had a pretty generic entrance. Wagner came out to mariachi music combined with Bad Medicine. Cheap. Match was alright, actually MUCH BETTER than I expected since I thought for sure Wagner and RVD wouldn't be able to get on the same page. But keep in mind I haven't seen RVD in many years and it was a surprise to me at how much he's slowed down. Crowd was dead tired and who can blame them? Not only was this show really long and the previous match was so intense - these guys once again started WRESTLING. You can't do that on a show that had a billion hardcore spots. Crowd only seemed to wake up when they went to the floor which shouldn't have surprised anyone who understands psychology. They ended up using a chair which was pretty tame compared to other weapons we had seen thus far (CELLO!). The nearfalls were done really well. RVD almost slipped off the top at one point when Wagner went to crotch him. RVD kicked out of the Wagner Driver and Wagner kicked out of the Five Star Frog Splash (is it still called that?). Another letdown of a finish as Wagner hit a DDT on RVD off the ropes for the win. I think RVD was supposed to take his wacky headstand bump but couldn't pull it off. Wagner closed the show celebrating with the AAA tecnicos who didn't make the show or weren't important enough to be in any big matches.

My favorite matches in order from best to worst:

1. Park/Mesias
2. Clowns/Perros
3. Wagner/RVD
4. Inframundo vs Bizarros
5. Cage
6. TLC
7. Women
8. Jarrett/Zorro

Overall it was a good show. It had it's ups and downs but more ups than downs in my opinion. I think the two major flaws were the match order and the usage of weapons. If you had changed the order up and told some of the guys to cut down on the weapons/gimmicks (i.e.: thumbtacks were pointless in a cage match) the show would have been much better. If I was in chrage I'd have put the show on in this order:

1. Wagner/RVD
2. Clowns/Perros
3. Inframundo vs Bizarros
4. Jarrett/Zorro
5. TLC
6. Cage
7. Women
8. Park/Mesias

It would have taken a lot of convincing to get Wagner/RVD to work the opener but I think it could have been done and would have set a good precedent for future shows. The tradition in Mexico is to have the main events go on last but time's have changed and with such loaded shows you need to seperate your big matches to not burn the crowd out. I'm sure Wagner is a WWE fan and watched Wrestlemania so he knows starting the show with a big title match isn't "wrong". It would just take lots of convincing. By starting the show with that match it allows them to do their thing and if they run long you can cut time from MANY matches later on. Before the last three matches are due up you have all the hardcore stuff out of the way so Park/Mesias using chairs/tables will be more 'fresh' in the eyes of the fans. The women's match is the perfect match for the dead spot b/c action will be limited but the crowd will still be into it for the eye candy.

On a final note - was Leonardo Riano doing commentary on AAA TV while Arturo Rivera was sick and I just completely missed it? Or was he just added to this show b/c of his daddy connections? He seemed to be really up to date on what was going on with AAA which balanced out the fact that he was still annoying as ever and his mic just happened to be the only one that actually worked. Conspriacy theory! I know it's Televisa's decision on which announcers to use but you would think CMLL would be unhappy with one of their main guys working the biggest AAA show of the year.

I'll be back with a CMLL Juicio Final recap in January. Not because I'm lazy and won't update my blog until then but because CMLL is still stuck in 1989 and doesn't understand making money on DVD sales, PPV or treating your fans with respect.