Flamita/Volador - No Good

CaraLucha 2015/06/14

Flamita vs. Volador Jr.

Such bitter disappointment, true story. The new Octagon Junior has let me down quite few times in what people pimped as strong singles matches, he underdelivered in those almost every time. He underdelivered here too, obviously. I love the guy in tags and trios because his wrestling mindset looks like perfect fit for those, but in singles competition that requires little bit more of brains and wit – he’s not good yet, he needs much more polishing. His spots are technically impressive, but it’s what he does between those spots that’s bugging me, and he can’t structure a proper match to save his life. It most certainly didn’t help his opponent here was Volador Jr., who’s mostly good and watchable, but his nothing-but-spots mindset often gets better of him. This was the worst possible version of CMLL Volador title match we got, and it was just bound for failure. It’s astounding to me that people would praise this painfully average spotfest as MOTYC. Give me a sloppy Psycho Circus brawl over this all day every day.

**1/2 (and I’m being VERY generous here)

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

Meh

CaraLucha 2015/09/16

3-WAY LUCHA EXTREMA: Pagano vs. Damian 666 vs. LA Park

Damian working instead of Rush, because CMLL vetoed their wrestlers from working indies that have Park and Wagner booked. Park’s “fuck your mothers” thing is now – a thing. Like a new catchphrase. Mkay then. And this match? Well, it was good every time they hit each other with various objects during ringside brawling parts, and it was actively bad almost every time they stepped into the ring. Pagano’s sloppiness was painful to watch, and in general there were lots of awkward moments that are so typical for 3-ways. There was no Rush or Trauma to carry Pagano. Passable hardcore match, but barely.

**

Pagano/Rush

CaraLucha 2015/07/11

Pagano vs. Rush

Furious and relatively quick brawl that is basically another testament to Rush’s strong case for being a Best in the World contender. The fact that Pagano is really sloppy in regular pro-wrestling setting is common sense by now, so naturally Rush did his very best to help him hide his obvious disadvantages by not letting the match run away from brawling style. Rush would always do something to make things going and he really embraced Pagano’s willingness to bump hard. All the chops were raw and nasty, especially Rush’s. Ringside tussles were awesome and rabid, they used chairs well and Rush took a nasty bump on one. I like how he kept hitting Pagano with dropkicks, it’s such a simply bit of psychology that always works. The true mark-out moment of the match was Rush bringing the lighttubes into play, which felt surreal because there’s no chance you’ll ever see him do it in CMLL, for obvious reasons. And then he held nothing back during the killshot on Pagano. This match is great.

****1/4

Satanico/Panther

CaraLucha 2015/07/25

Satanico vs. Blue Panther

Man, this match can serve as a school example of how a shitty and poorly executed “dirty” finish can bring down the whole thing. Everything before the finish was a suave, slick and charming old school llaves loaded with nifty armdrags and armwork. These are two of the very best luchadors of all time and they will always have good matches, no matter the age. I just don’t get the ending route, it just doesn’t make any sense why they went with that, smh…

**3/4

Humans Are Vile Creatures

Cara Lucha 2015/1/1

Flamita, Hijo de Fishman, Skyman vs. Fenix, Hijo del Fantasma, Pentagon Jr.

Cara Lucha versus Triple A, holy motherfucking shit this was phenomenal, a true blueprint of what an interpromotional showdown should look like, in the words of the almighty Excalibur, this is serious. It’s a rather long match (35+ min) that has all the classic lucha phases: tight and flashy matwork, fast counter and combos, rough brawling, and super crazy topes and dives. It all built tremendously here, you got to feel the proper escalation, that’s a huge plus in my book. However, there was one ingredient that’s always essential for a good interpromotional match – heat. Tons and tons of heat, starring Flamita and Fenix, sweet fucking god they beat bajesus out of each other in this match, there were clear moments with both luchadors shooting on each other, some of those shots were headsweeping, Flamita got knocked the fuck out at one point. 

Fortunately, they resolved whatever the beef they had after the match, thank fuck, because that looked nasty to the point where they refused to sell for each other on few instances. Normally I’d hate it, but it fit so perfectly here somehow.

Pentagon was the MVP, though, he did his thing which means the Cara Lucha trio got their asses kicked silly, in a very gruesome manner. Pentagon is so magnificent, his menacing presence alone is enough to carry some segments, every time you stumble upon him working an indie match, don’t fucking miss it, because there’s a guaranteed ass kicking that’s impossible not to enjoy.

What a fucking amazing scuffle, what a way to start 2015.

****3/4