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)

Fun Lucharesu - Day 1

NJPW/CMLL Fantastica Mania 2016

(2016/01/17)

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

Arena Puebla 12/28

CMLL 2015/12/28

Meyer, Astro, Zaeta Roja vs. Malayo, Guerrero Espacial, Mini Joker

I have never seen any of these dudes wrestle, except for Mini Joker. It was a good match, I liked how they worked a strict and heavily controlled structure instead of chaotic and overambitious botchfest. They kept it tight and the pacing was strong. Zaeta Roja and Malayo looked the best. Fun opener that got enough time to showcase its competitors’ abilities.

***

New CMLL

CMLL 2015/11/06

Astral & Electrico vs. Demus 3:16 & Pequeno Olimpico

Good minis match, but nothing more. Demus was awesome, Olimpico was serviceable, Electrico was… there, and Astral was good, but his execution still makes your brain hurt (many 50+ year olds hit those armdrags much faster). Also, Demus lost twice in a row by DCO. Didn’t care for that. Good shit that could’ve been so much better.

***1/4

Arena Mexico 10/16

CMLL 2015/10/16

Cabellera vs. Cabellera: Shockercito vs. Demus 3:16

Great apuesta match, as one could expect. Primera was bombastic and made sense, which is awesome because too often short primeras don’t look very compelling. Not here, though. Segunda had Demus putting his shit together and finally molesting Shockercito properly via heavy chops and nasty mini-powerhouse moves and combos. Tercera had that one great stretch of nifty back-and-forth with Shockercito executing his glorious signature moves, but all the time he was mostly focused on Demus’ shoulder as the ultimate endgame plan. It made the finish much better and emotionally engaging. Awesome little hair match, with both guys playing their characters masterfully, every fall had great finishes, and the crowd reacted amazingly on Shockercito’s key spots. Big thumbs up for this one!

****1/4

Volador/Rush and Stigma/Virus

CMLL 2015/09/25

Volador Jr. vs. Rush

At the end of the day, this was an angle more than it was a match, but it was a damn fine angle. You’ll totally struggle to find a better dickbag asskicker than Roooosh, he’s a terrific brawler and it’s never boring with him on offense. Also Volador’s always been willing to bump around to make others look good, so there you go. Primera was all about Rush, but he still lost, as Volador caught him off guard for a roll-up win. Segunda was more back-and-forth, with Volador doing his stage plancha and Rush getting a nasty cut on his shoulder. Just as the match was really heating up, Sombra, Mascara and Marco interfered for a DQ and 2-0 for Volador. Some might be upset because of that, but this is still the early phase of the feud, as all signs point to a hair vs. hair match, so all things considered, I’m happy. Good shit!

***3/4

CMLL 2015/09/26

Stigma vs. Virus

Wow, another Virus instant classic, and it came out of nowhere, because this is from a Sabado Retro show, and CMLL doesn’t air those. Thankfully, the good sir TKD117 recorded this doozy clash and shared it with us. Not to mention he had a ringside seat, so he caught all the action, and needless to say – it’s excellent. This match was divided into three acts: one and two were tons of nifty scientific/chain wrestling, good old llaves contra llaves with pure struggle for control, it wasn’t as matcore as Cerebro/Virus, but it was still captivating for some other reasons, mainly due to its sheer simplicity and sense of clear progression from Stigma.

Both “rounds” ended in a stand-off with Stigma standing tall and proud of himself for not being outclassed by Pequeno Maestro, and with Virus smirking in disbelief and probably thinking “oh yeah? let’s see if you can brawl!”, because Virus totally changed his gameplan after that, as he unleashed some nasty smackdown on poor Stigma, all the gnarly chops, rope-running hits and tosses looked painful and beautiful at the same time. It’s been awhile since Virus beat the shit out of someone that way and that hard, Stigma must’ve struck the major nerve during the first half to piss him off like that.

Basically, it was a fantastic piece of character work and storytelling, so subtle yet so enlightening, felt like Matthew Weiner wrote it. To cap it off, Stigma’s hard-earned comeback during the third stage was seriously great, and the way Virus managed to lock him up once and for all was even better. All hail this amazing encounter!

****3/4

CMLL Puebla

CMLL 2015/09/14

Valiente, Angel de Oro, Stuka Jr. vs. Dragon Rojo Jr., Polvora, Hechicero

Badass match made by the awesome rudos and Valiente’s unbelievably awesome dive. Also Hechicero is a god, but you already knew that.

***3/4

CMLL Ketchup

CMLL 2015/08/14

Magnus & Soberano Jr. vs. Cancerbero & Raziel

Very good match, almost great, there was a lot of smart tag team wrestling, you could totally tell Cancerbero and Raziel are Virus’ pals. There was a lot of structure and pacing changes, the tecnico duo made few great hope spots and they got cutoff many times. Cancerbero is just an awesome bruiser. Some really innovative double team shot as well, pretty nice match.

***3/4

Arena Mexico 09/04 Quickie

CMLL 2015/09/04

Four Rather Neat CMLL Trios

CMLL 2015/08/11

Valiente, Dragon Lee, Rey Cometa vs. Ephesto, Hechicero, Luciferno

Great match with all six guys working hard. Primera was marvelous with all the nifty matwork and eventual crazy flying (including Lee’s INSANE dive miss) that led to the tecnico win, which pissed off the rudos and hence segunda being all things dirty bar fighting. Rudos losing primera and then dishing out revenge punishment in segunda is one of my favorite things in CMLL trios. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, it always works. Hechicero and Valiente were fired up. They were involved in the finish that served as a prelude to their mano a mano match one week after this. Also so good to see Cometa back!

****

Park & Wagner Making CMLL Hot Once Again

CMLL 2015/08/28

LA Park, Atlantis, Volador Jr. vs. Dr. Wagner Jr., Sombra, Rush

Wild and out-of-control brawl mixed with some crazy flying, man oh man, this match was all it needed to be. Park and Wagner working their first CMLL match in seven years drew big time and Arena Mexico was filled with red hot fans who created an electrifying atmosphere and were into everything. Wagner was posing and stalling for like 80% of his ringtime, but I didn’t mind it at all, lol. So many stories, plots and subplots in this match, with old grudges and the new ones. Park and Rush have an unbelievable promising chemistry, they beat bajesus out of each other here, there were nasty headbutt and German suplex battles, also Park was choking him with cables and hitting him with a stretcher. Park is bringing it! Assuming Park stays in CMLL long enough, their eventual apuesta clash should be amazing. Park and Wagner also didn’t forget their bitter feud. Atlantis and Sombra did a great job in building towards the upcoming mask vs. mask match at Aniversario, but they were also hinting at Atlantis/Wagner, which is an old beef with some sort of resolution still to come. Volador was here to bump around and do the flying part. All in all, this was a totally crazy scuffle and a proper return match for Park and Wagner, you better watch it.

****1/2