TNA? Yep... I Watched Some TNA

TNA 2014/9/7

Dave Mastiff vs. Samoa Joe

Ha, two fat fucks going HAM at each other, good match, Mastiff is always a joy to watch (I should do that more often), Joe not so much but I enjoyed him here because he accepted Dave’s pace and played with it. His shit got limited by Dave’s donut-consuming swag, the fast paced heavyweight slugfest layout most certainly helped too. I honestly cannot remember the last time I enjoyed a Samoa Joe match like this. If TNA are smart (they are not), they will sign Mastiff ASAP and push him all the way to the top.

***1/2

TNA 2014/9/7

Noam Dar vs. Austin Aries

Smart little match with Aries being a stiff aggressor and Dar working the hit-and-run routine combined with working a body part that gave him better chances of winning instead of the typical series-of-moves route.

***1/4

TNA 2014/9/7

Rampage Brown vs. Bram

Bram is a generic beard man who likes to yell a lot while making forced angry faces. He’s a decent brawler but I don’t like him. However, he was really good here, the best I’ve seen from him. Rampage is the guy I’ve never watched before and it’s a shame I guess, because he seems like a good wrestler. This was hard-hitting and physical with both guys looking talented.

***1/2

TNA 2014/9/7

Mark Andrews vs. DJ Z

As a preparation for the match, I checked Mandrew’s tribute video on YouTube and holy smokes, he’s only 22 and is a spectacular high flyer who never seems to botch, his moves seem to be inspired by Styles, Rey Mysterio and many other eagles, I’m telling you this dude could go places with correct booking, he’s tailor-made for X Division. This match was good, nothing amazing but just a short simple fast paced X Division affair that didn’t insult anyone’s intelligence.

***1/4

Dat Caveman!

Cara Lucha 2014/10/18

Cavernario vs. Xtreme Tiger

Hey, didn’t know they put this match for free, that’s awesome. Speaking of awesome, this match was awesome, and its participants were also – awesome. Cavernario, despite being 12 years younger than him, was mauling the Tiger mercilessly, huge props to XT for not being an egomaniac, he actually let the caveman destroy him silly, all he did was few nice, flashy comebacks and that’s it, it was so good, what an excellent layout. This was your best Cavernario from CMLL, but this being an indie show, he was even more aggressive and surly, I got some serious Finlay/Villanos/Aguayo vibes from watching him work the Tiger relentlessly. Relatively short match filled with endless awesomeness.

****1/4

Happy Festivities!

CMLL 2000/3/17

Mascara vs. Mascara: Villano III vs. Atlantis

So much ink has been spent on writing about this masterpiece, it really feels futile for me now to try and come up with something even remotely fresh and cool to treat the match with. Simply put, it’s one of the greatest matches ever, not just in Mexico, it’s also one of the biggest matches that ever happened in lucha libre, the hype and anticipation were unbelievable and the match totally delivered. This show was also CMLL’s first ever pay-per-view, so this match was historic from many different angles, here we have two grand superstars wagering their iconic masks, both guys have their own respective armies of rabid and loyal fans, this is one of those bigger-than-life situations where rudo/tecnico institute seems unnecessary and counter effective because these two are cheered/booed no matter what. The drama is insanely high-end and as fabulous as anything you’ll see from your favorite pro-graps. Fucking epic shit. They use grueling and simple old school submission moves that have the crowd going bonkers, less is more indeed, they deserve especial props for an innovative bladejob that came from a vicious dive. It looked nasty, they bled a lot but still managed to continue the match in hellish rhythm. And HOLY SHIT at the finish and crowd reaction, it still gives me chills to this day. The post-match stuff is one of those emotional lucha rollercoasters of warm feelings, excellent stuff.

The timeless classic.

*****

Catching Up With the Summer Time CMLL, Vol. 2

Vol. 1

CMLL 2014/7/1

Mascara, Blue Panther, Solar vs. Shocker, Gran Guerrero, Negro Navarro

Looking at the names involved one would thing this could rock, but nah, it was horrible. The Mascara/Shocker parts were intense and hart hitting, but not enough to polish the turd Navarro and Solar dumped using their awful and super slow over-exhibitiony maestro lucha that leads nowhere. Hell, even Blue Panther fell for it, such a shame.

DUD

CMLL 2014/7/11

Sombra vs. Shocker

A rematch from the fantastic 6/9 match, this was another stiff, hard hitting affair with both dudes looking great, very intense stuff. I don’t know much about Shocker and how/where he earned his bad rep, but he’s been mostly great this year.

****1/4

CMLL 2014/7/15

Mascara vs. Shocker

Falls 1 & 2 were good, but the tercera was not.

**3/4

CMLL 2014/7/18

Campeonato Mundial de Parejas CMLL: Rush & Sombra vs. Negro Casas & Shocker ©

Fucking excellent tag full of manliness with four dudes going HAM at each other, the last major Rush/Casas prelude to the hair match two weeks later. Almost a total brawl with only a few (relatively) calm parts in the tercera, these guys beat the living shit out of each other. The tecnico comeback in the segunda might just as well be the greatest comeback of the year, that was just a sheer thrill of energy and high tension. There was a Rush/Casas sequence at the beginning of the tercera that tore the house down, I don’t think it’s possible to be better at wrestling than what those two displayed right there, pure magical brilliance.

****3/4

CMLL 2014/7/14

Campeonato Mundial de Peso Ligero del CMLL: Stigma vs. Virus ©

This match aired during the G1 Climax madness and when I checked it I didn’t think it was all that great, but now few months later? Forget about it, the match is incredibly good, your typical Virus title match loaded with nifty lucha, the throwback to some other eras. Stigma is the local Arena Puebla fan favorite and everyone’s rooting for him here, it really made for a great feeling and atmosphere. I don’t know, at this point I even feel a little bit ridiculous for throwing all these big amounts of stars on Virus’ matches, but he’s just SO FUCKING AWESOOOME, I can’t help it. Just because it doesn’t feel normal doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve it, let’s face it, dude’s one of the very best wrestlers on this planet. Good thing he only wrestled four title matches this year (Titan, Fuego, this one, Dragon Lee), otherwise you’d all think I’m fucked in the head for praising his body of work on a very regular basis, just imagine 8 or 10 Virus title matches in a single year, we’d lose our shit. You don’t trust me, check around with other people around the corner, you’ll see everyone loving Virus, that savvy maestro with many, many tricks. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if I rewatched this match sometime next year only to find out the sole reason I’m not giving it five stars right now is because I almost feel embarrassed and pretentious for all this praise directed towards Virus, I mean for fuck’s sake, I rated his Dragon Lee match five stars just few days ago, amirite?

****3/4

Enter the lazy ass part, yaaay:

 

CMLL 2014/7/1

Atlantis vs. Ultimo Guerrero

***1/2

CMLL 2014/7/8

Blue Panther, Titan, Cachorro vs. Mr. Niebla, Felino, Cavernario

Despite having a decent primera, this was shit, because Niebla was so fucking terrible he nixed everyone and everything else, even the swell Cachorro/Cavernario sessions. Bad lucha is truly bad, this was very close to the DUD territory.

bad

CMLL 2014/6/30

Blue Panther, Angel de Oro, Stigma vs. Dragon Rojo Jr., Polvora, Virus

***3/4

CMLL 2014/6/30

Rush vs. Shocker

***

CMLL 2014/7/4

Ingobernables (Rush, Mascara, Sombra) vs. Negro Casas, Mr. Niebla, Shocker

bad