Fun Lucharesu - Day 1

NJPW/CMLL Fantastica Mania 2016

(2016/01/17)

1.      Yohei Komatsu & Sho Tanaka vs. Stuka Jr. & KUSHIDA

**1/2

2.      Okumura & Boby Z vs. Guerrero Maya Jr. & The Panther

***3/4

3.      Barbaro Cavernario & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Titan & Fuego

***1/2

4.      Virus & Hechicero vs. Dragon Lee & Jay White

****

5.      Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, BUSHI) vs. Atlantis, Mascara Dorada, Juice Robinson

***1/4

6.      Mephisto & Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Volador Jr. & Ryusuke Taguchi

***1/2

7.      Mistico, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jushin Liger vs. Ultimo Guerrero, Kazuchika Okada, Gedo

***1/2

Really fun show, with every match but opener being good, and Virus & Hech vs. Lee & White being rather great. I didn’t review every match separately because the tone was similar to them, this was a somewhat light-hearted show but still with lots of compelling heat and intense action. The Fakeobernables vs. Team Atlantis was a fun brawl done in lovely lucha fashion, and I’m totally into potential Atlantis vs. Naito lucha de apuesta, even though the chances of that happening are extremely slim, but one can always dream, amirite?

Random observations: Okumura was great, Caveman & Y-H as well as Virus and Hechicero are legit dream team duos, Juice Robinson is truly awful, Mephisto is the black hole of the visitors’ roster, I marked out at Volador superkicking Nakamura, Mistico Nueva Era is soooo over with Japanese fans, it was so cool to see, and he should spend a year over there, it might do wonders for his Arena Mexico status (or not, idk). The most important observation, tho: VIRUS is such a boss.