Lucha Underground: S2E1

Season 2, Episode 1

Lucha Underground: Episode 39

Back in August of 2015 when Part 2 of Ultima Lucha aired, I was so mesmerized I didn't want to review it until I rewatched it few times. And then I simply couldn't make myself do it, lel, I was waiting for Season 2 debut instead, to revisit the show again and review it excatly on a day of premiere, so here it is (yes, I know I'm one day late, heh):

Episode 39: Ultima Lucha - Part 2

Fun Lucharesu - Day 1

NJPW/CMLL Fantastica Mania 2016

(2016/01/17)

CMLL 01/19

CMLL 2016/01/19

Magnum Opus KAI

What's this? A brand new project on the old blog? Yes it is. Today we are trying something new. Chismo and I are both going to watch a match and rate it separately. That way we can see how our tastes and views differ. Chismo approached me with this idea a while back and I immediately thought it sounded like a fun idea. When he then suggested that we do it with one of my boys, Wrestle-1 star Kai, I got the added idea of making this a series, a chronicle of Kai's descent into madness as he goes from AJPW's golden boy and Mutoh's anointed one, to the self proclaimed ace all the way to his current Onita/Dean Ambrose cosplaying gimmick. Strap in, this is going to be a wacky ride.

Who is Kai? Kai is a Japanese wrestler trained in the Animal Hamaguchi/Keiji Mutoh/All Japan Pro-Wrestling school. Up until 2012 he worked as a junior heavyweight and things were going smoothly, winning the Junior League in August of 2008. Only a few short months after his re-debut post excursion to Mexico. Kai was set up as the future top junior heavyweight of All Japan alongside his training mate Hiroshi Yamato and things were trucking on well for him (for more info on his junior days, please visit his Wikipedia page). But in 2012 he made the announcement that he was going to move up to Heavyweight, and that was seemingly the gunshot that set off all the events that has led to this day in his career. Kai's initial heavyweight run in All Japan started just as strong as his junior run. He slotted into the Champion's Carnival and had a good run in it, which takes us to this match….

This first match in this descent into Kai madness is from his Champion Carnival run. And it is the semi final match of the tournament where he faces off against at the time recent import Go Shiozaki. The winner would face Jun Akiyama in the finals of the tournament. Without further stalling, let's get to it!

Finlay and Rey-Rey Spirits

WWE SmackDown 2016/01/12

WWE United States Championship: Alberto del Rio vs. Kalisto ©

DDT 2015/12/13

Super Star Lanes 2015

(2015/12/13)

Sombra and Volador - The Last Stand!

CMLL 2015/10/30

Campeonato Mundial Peso Welter Historico de NWA: Sombra vs. Volador Jr. ©

Sure, these two faced each other more than 20 times in singles competition, and sure, their matches range from two stars (or less) to four stars (and more), and sure, there’s no real novelty to this pairing anymore, but this match is maybe their last meeting ever and main event of one of the 5-6 biggest CMLL shows of the year, so all things considered – it’s a must-watch. And really, every lucha fan should check this match, because it’s really great and they went all-in for one last time, you could clearly see them going the extra mile, in both moves arsenal and passion/intensity. Even in usually short primera and segunda they were hitting each other super hard, as well as shoving each other into barricades. Tercera was epic, with the crowd rooting hard for Volador and both guys busting out devastating high-impact moves. Every spot was hit with surgical precision the way they were landing on their neck was on Misawa levels of scary, that’s some true living on a thin line right there. Excellent clash!

****1/2

God Bless DDT

Never Mind 2015

(2015/12/23)

Have a Lucha New Year!

CaraLucha 2015/09/16

Centvrion & Latigo vs. Fly Warrior & Mr. Leo

Sooo, thecubsfan uploaded this match today for free because he watched it live and loved it, but the match is simply not good, IMHO. It’s a generic athletic indie match, no different than what you see in USA, but here it just happens that participants wear cool masks and the crowd chants “esto es lucha” instead of “this is wrestling”. The best parts of the match were the opening five minutes of cool matwork and maybe two really awesome fancy moves/dives, but that’s about it, because everything else was just – average. Technically, they did everything mostly right, but the match lacked flow and there was no emotional depth. Basically – a match. Some cool and visually attractive shit happened, that’s for sure, but it wasn’t enough to make this match good.

Apparently a turn and stable formation happened after the end, and I always take that stuff into account (rating), but it’s not shown in this video, therefore I don’t know whether it added or took away from the overall story.

**3/4