Catching Up With the Summer Time CMLL, Vol. 3

Vol. 1

Vol. 2

CMLL 2014/7/11

Rush, Marco Corleone, Maximo vs. Ultimo Guerrero, Negro Casas, Cavernario

Infinitely fun brawl with right combos that made for a swell layout and execution, the Rush/Casas sessions were absolutely off the charts, such a natural and crazy intensity with stiff smacking all around, pure brawling right there. Marco and Maximo are unique personalities that meshed so well UG and the whacky caveman, this was so much FUN~!

****

CMLL 2014/8/1

Cabellera vs. Cabellera: Rush vs. Negro Casas

Despite the good star rating, ultimately this was a letdown. It’s one of those cases where the finish just takes a dump all over the hard work put into the match and you simply can’t get over it. That low-blow was both a poor idea and poor execution. But that’s not the only noticeable flaw in the match, as Negro’s both physical and emotional selling was highly suspicious in certain moments, it was so obvious he wasn’t on the top of his game here, not even close. Maybe he felt shit was not worth it because of the finish coming. Rush, on the other hand, Rush is the fucking man, he made this match good with his incredible performance that makes me want to stand up in front of my PC and bow down, he’s a maestro of vehemence, those early stages where he mauled the 30 years older Casas like a football were stunning, marvelous, pure roughness that makes your (in this case, poor Negro’s) meat dark livid. The only “clean lucha” thing he does is an occasional tope, everything else is hellish kicking, punching, racy dropkicking, etc. Basically, he doesn’t care for traditional llaves, he just likes to beat people up, and he’s fucking excellent in it.

Overall the match is good, but not even close to being the best thing in their bitter feud, all the tag title matches were better, and some random prelude trios were also better than this big apuesta climax. Shame, because their chemistry is just mindblowing. Fuck you whoever booked the finish.

***3/4

CMLL 2014/7/25

Atlantis, Dragon Rojo Jr., Titan vs. Ultimo Guerrero, Rey Escorpion, Shocker

Your typical Atlantis/UG prelude trio with UG & Co. dominating the primera and most of the segunda through vivid brawling before an inevitable heroic comeback from Atlantis & Co., it’s such a simple structure that delivers every time. The tercera was not so typical, though, it was more intense than usual, with lots and lots of mask ripping, and the ending ruled on so many levels, Rey Escorpion cemented himself as a DICK for ages.

****

CMLL 2014/7/21

Campeonato Mundial de Trios del CMLL: Atlantis, Volador Jr., Valiente vs. Guerreros Laguneros (Ultimo Guerrero, Euforia, Niebla Roja) ©

This was a rather clean title match with an occasional exception in Atlantis/UG sequences, very good Arena Puebla defense with slick wrestling, would’ve been great if the tercera didn’t drag for a minute or two after the super crazy topes into the paying customers.

***1/2

CMLL 2014/7/29

Campeonato Nacional Peso Welter: Cavernario vs. Titan ©

Kind of spooky to see two young guys produce a match this great, just imagine what they’ll be capable of in few years. Titan has already proved he can produce masterpieces with experienced luchadors (Averno, Virus), and even here with the green caveman he came damn close. These two have a serious five star potential in their chemistry, it’s astonishing. In a year or two, with few more big matches under their respective belts, they need to meet again in a title match, the minor selling game issues will be no more and we’re gonna talk about modern day lucha classics, mos def. This match had such an amazing pacing and layout, captivating stuff, very catchy. Cavernario’s sweet mixture of vivid brawling and direct, in-your-face mat game reminds me of the surly old NWA/puro/UWA guys, his control workovers on Titan were incredible, every now and then he’d get tired of traditional llaves and switch to vicious stomping and chopping. And yes, he did that insane knee-shattering splash to the floor, it’s a visually spectacular move but he needs to stop doing it if he plans to wrestle after 25^th birthday. Titan did his usual stuff, which is always awesome though, there were crazy daredevil dives and tight submission work, nifty little things all around, this was a tremendous styles clash, and like I said earlier, with better selling on one or two particular instances, this would be a Top 10 match of the year.

****1/2

CMLL 2014/8/5

Rush vs. Ultimo Guerrero

Hella tussle in the first two falls which I fucking adored, it was gearing towards a classic match, but unfortunately the tercera was kind of too “my turn-your turn” heavy, the selling wasn’t very good and they seemed to be in rush, also Rush’s tope was awful, but overall the match is still fucking good, and the first two falls were pure greatness. Christ, I hope these two main event the next anniversary show in a hair match.

***3/4

CMLL 2014/8/1

NWA World Welterweight Championship: Volador Jr. vs. Sombra ©

The first two falls were weak, they got literally less than one minute for both, they used their respective sig moves to win them, which is something they basically do in every match, and then they bank everything on the tercera, sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t. Here? It didn’t pay off. Big guns were pulled out, the bodies were flying around, the visuals were spectacular, but also the reset button was pushed once or twice too many. Mediocre match, skip this.

**1/4

CMLL 2014/8/1

Mascaras vs. Cabelleras: Marcela & Princesa Sujei vs. Princesa Blanca & Seductora

Holy hell, this was sensational, 16 minutes of fabulous women-on-women violence, a picture perfect helter-skelter scuffle that put Rush/Casas from the same show to a fucking shame. These four girls were beating each other silly, nasty strikes and kicks from hell were thrown, Daisuke Ikeda must be proud somewhere. Tons of hate and intense animosity, and the best thing is, they maintained the fantastic pace throughout entire duration. Fuck me, I’m in love with this match.

*****

CMLL 2014/7/28

Mascara vs. Mascara: Tigre Rojo Jr. vs. Blue Center

Glorious mask match between two guys I’ve never seen before, true story. They built and built and built until the eventual payoff, this was an excellent lucha de apuesta with clear cut character roles that were played to perfection, they got both me and Arena Puebla emotionally invested into them. Sweet and smart finish too, that’s a high wrestling IQ right there. Also this match is a living testament to the incredible depth of CMLL’s roster, here are two luchadors I wasn’t even aware they existed, tearing the house down in a killer mask match, I mean that’s a serious WTF.

****1/2

CMLL 2014/8/12

Cabellera vs. Cabellera: Omar Brunetti vs. Disturbio

Nice little hair match between the young prelim guys. Came into it looking forward to Omar, but Disturbio was the one carrying the match and being the abusive boss. This had an old school feel to it, I dug it very much. The finish setup could’ve been little less complicated, but it is what it is, waddaya gonna do.

***1/2

CMLL 2014/8/22

Volador Jr. vs. Ultimo Guerrero

The beginning was awesome with Volador being all over UG with his crazy agility and flying, but unfortunately the rest of this one fall match was hilariously average… at best. Too much parity, way too much.

**1/4

CMLL 2014/8/4

Ingobernables (Rush, Sombra, Mascara) vs. Mr. Niebla, Ultimo Guerrero, Shocker

All the right combos happened here (Rush/Niebla, Sombra/UG, Mascara/Shocker) and it resulted in a very fun brawl, they went hard on each other and the finish was legit hilarious. Rush/Niebla chemistry is so fucking promising.

***3/4

CMLL 2014/8/19

Titan vs. Gran Guerrero

Damn fine one fall match between the young guns, lots of nifty counters and high spots, Titan is a killer and GG is rock solid for his age too. Titan is much more experienced and it showed, but GG is smart enough – he doesn’t leave his comfort zone and keeps doing simple stuff, that’s called a good work within limitations.

***1/2

CMLL 2014/8/26

Maximo vs. Shocker

Good clash of styles with Shocker being an excellent rudo, the way he bickered with the fans was glorious. Seriously, that was a lot of bickering.

***1/2

CMLL 2014/8/8

Campeonato Mundial Peso Medio de CMLL: Rey Escorpion vs. Dragon Rojo Jr. ©

Great Escorpion showcase, too bad Rojo is a sack of mediocrity who couldn’t match his opponent’s swagger.

**3/4

Christmas-1: Sanada/Muto for the Strap

2014/12/22

5.       Yusuke Kodama vs. Yasufumi Nakanoue

Technically the match was totally fine, but for the most part it lacked true emotion, too many dry parts in the first 2/3s although like I said, the technical stuff and layout were fine. The climax was nice, though, it elevated the match from mediocrity as they finally managed to get some color into the mix. So… good match at the end of the day.

***

6.       Masato Tanaka & Hideki Suzuki vs. Masakatsu Funaki & KAI

Interpromotional chaotic smackfest that had Korakuen going nuts, Suzuki and Funaki just beat the holy Christ on a cross out of each other, mesmerizing stuff that was sooo fun to watch. Suzuki and Funaki had a good old shoot style brawl that just kept escalating to the point where they made Tanaka and KAI totally unnecessary, and those two were hitting each other hard too (see KAI’s disgusting chest)! The match had no a proper finish (twice!) and needless to say, an eventual Suzuki/Funaki singles match is already the most anticipated singles match for early 2015, goddamn that’s going to rock.

****1/4

7.       WRESTLE-1 Tag Championship: Masayuki Kono & TAJIRI vs. Team 246 (Kaz Hayashi & Shuji Kondo) ©

Total clusterfuck with few ref bumps and constant interferences, certain moments were cool and fun, but as a whole this match sucked. At least the right team won.

bad

8.       WRESTLE-1 Championship: Seiya Sanada vs. Keiji Muto ©

Muto is the main reason why W-1 doesn’t have a very good reputation because the whole promotion is seen as his vanity project, the bad word of mouth completely escalated after he won the title from Kono. I gotta say, I wasn’t pleased with that call either, but after watching this match I kind of understand the ratio behind it. Muto is one of the biggest names ever and one day someone’s gonna look at the champion lineage and see his name, it’s gonna mean something, no one’s gonna ask how old he was. Muto’s knees are famously in bad condition and it’s been discussed for years already, but after watching some recent matches of his, I wonder if there’s much truth in it. The guy’s in his 50s and yet still able to take few super athletic bumps that would look impressive even for Sanada and other young guys.

He worked his ass off in this title match, and without me going into details – just watch it, it’s a must-see display of intelligent puroresu, best Sanada match ever (it might easily stay that way) and it’s quite mindblowing that Keiji Muto is able to have this amazing matches in his 50s. I guess if Tenryu could, why not Muto too?

****1/2

80s' Lucha, Vol.1

DVDVR Top Lucha Matches of the 80s – Disc 1:

UWA 1980/4/13

Gran Hamada & Satoru Sayama vs. Perro Aguayo & Baby Face

Great match and a terrific way to start the project. Hamada and Sayama are crazy athletic, especially for that period, they do moves and chain them into sequences straight outta karate movies, it looks quite cinematic, must’ve been a breathtaking thing to see back then. On the other hand, Perro and Baby Face are the perfect counterparts, two surly charros who will punch you right across the nose just because they can’t stand your catlike shit. This felt like Aztecs meet Ninjas, great tag match.

****1/4

UWA 1981/?/?

3-on-2 HANDICAP MATCH: Sangre Chicana, Alfonso Dantes, Herodes vs. Cien Caras & Andre the Giant

Fun Andre showcase, he’s an unstoppable behemoth here, this is basically a Wild Kingdom episode about three hungry coyotes trying to tackle a huge badass buffalo, and it fucking works. There’s a lot of campy wrestling here, just think of Star Trek TOS, good match.

***3/4

UWA 1982/2/14

Campeonato Mundial Peso Medio de UWA: Gran Hamada vs. Centurion Negro ©

I don’t really know what to write about this match other than “bunch of damn fine matwork and high flying”. Clean as a whistle lucha title match. Would’ve been even better with a less confusing finish, Thesz kind of fucked it up.

****

UWA 1982/2/14

Campeonato Mundial Peso Completo de UWA: Don Corleone vs. Canek ©

Good match, but they didn’t wow me, and I’m pretty sure this doesn’t belong on this set. While Canek was good both on offense and as the FIP, Corleone’s workover session in the tercera was very boring. Fortunately, there was more than enough good stuff elsewhere to call this match good.

***1/2

UWA 1983/6/12

Campeonato Mundial Peso Completo de UWA: Canek vs. Tatsumi Fujinami ©

Great match until the bullshit ending, seriously WTF was the all about? Another one that doesn’t belong on the set, mos def.

***

CMLL 1983/9/23

Herodes, Pirata Morgan, Coloso Colosetti vs. Kevin Von Erich, Mascara Ano 2000, Halcon Ortiz

Good trio, but I see better every week in CMLL.

***

CMLL 1983/9/23

Cabellera vs. Cabellera: MS-1 vs. Sangre Chicana

One of the most famous lucha libre matches amongst the internet community aficionados. However, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who’s just getting into lucha, because the match is quite challenging and demanding, it’s pure 100% selling and the work is as minimalistic as anything old school you’ll ever see. It’s a pure, total brawl with both gladiators bleeding a lot, I means seriously, they were covered in blood and messed the ring mat in process, I’d give my left nut to see a remastered version of this one day just to enjoy the stunning visual violence. MS-1 was an unbelievable dickbag aggressor who beat the shit out of Chicana, pure hate 101 there, all he did was punching and stomping, but it worked. Insane heat, and seeing the old ladies yelling at him and pushing him away from Chicana was fucking priceless, what a fantastic rudo. Chicana’s comeback in the segunda was immense, it’s amongst the best comebacks ever, I say. The tercera was simply a pure masterpiece, they were selling for each other like they got hit by a train, they were desperately rolling on a bloodied mat trying to pin each other, such a sluggish power struggle right there. Despite the strong and constant selling, it never looked over-the-top or cartoonish, it felt more than earned. The finish, of course, was a super fitting end to this cult classic tussle.

A definite lucha brawl, must-see match.

*****

CMLL 1983/9/30

Satanico, Espectro Jr., MS-1 vs. Sangre Chicana, Mocho Cota, Fiera

Never seen this trio before, and holy shit – it’s a fucking amazing follow-up to the hair match from one week earlier. I even dare to say it’s a better match, as crazy as it sounds. It’s just a violent orgy of nasty smacking, there were tons of surly punches and obligatory stomping. There was no traditional llaves here, not even a little bit, instead the entire match was one giant chaos with six angry men mauling each other mercilessly. Satanico delivered one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen in this match.

*****

CMLL 1983/10/28

Campeonato Mundial Semi Completo de NWA & Campeonato Mundial Semi Completo de UWA: Ringo Mendoza (NWA) © vs. Sangre Chicana (UWA) ©

After watching Sangre Chicana in two bloodied brawls, here he is in a title match, and he’s just as amazing as in slugfest tussles. The sanctity of traditional title match llaves is respected down to a T here, as we got a clean as a whistle title bout between the men who know their shit. The hold-for-hold sessions were innovative, creative and super compelling, they didn’t overcomplicate things, not even once. I knew what Chicana was capable of, but senor Ringo also delivered a breathtaking performance going toe-to-toe with SC, it was an amazing watch. I’m a reviewer who rarely touches play-by-play and all the rigid technical stuff such as which move got hit here and there, I’m rather a story guy, I like to try and picture stories wrestlers are telling in the squared circle, and this match is exactly an example where I don’t even want to bother with moves and shit, all I can say is – wow.

*****

CMLL 1983/11/25

Fuerza Guerrera & Lobo Rubio vs. Hijo del Santo & Atlantis

Killer tag with Santo and Atlantis shining as the young promising tecnicos, this was truly a spectacular showcase of speed, agility and perky high flying. The rudo duo served as a perfectly suitable roughhouse tandem designed to solidify the babyafaces as real deals.

****1/2