Dragon Lee vs. Virus from CMLL 12/9

CMLL 2014/12/9

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

A Virus title match in December, against Dragon Lee of all people, you know what it means, it’s the main reason why I didn’t bother with MOTY lists yet, knew this would rock the world. What a sensational match, after many trios, one cibernetico and one relampago, here they are – Dragon Lee and Virus meet in a title match. There’s a big sense of old school, tradition, respect and just the overall importance here, like you’re watching a grand relic from some other CMLL, from an age long gone. The primera is excellent, DL is completely competent to hang with the old maestro on the mat, the segunda is “just” good but only because it was shorter, and then we got the smashing tercera, where the gracious and swank matwork escalates into a much more direct and unforgiving lucha filled with rough big boots, crazy topes and frantic reversals/counter attacks that are totally mouthwatering, there’s drama, suspension, excitement… What a fucking match! This just knocked out Virus/Titan from the top of the CMLL mountain, and is right up there with Demon/Villano for being the overall lucha MOTY, I’m yet to decide which match should take No. 1.

*****

Ray Mendoza Jr.: A Man on a Mission

CMLL 2009/3/27

Guerreros del Atlantida (Ultimo Guerrero, Atlantis, Rey Bucanero) vs. Ray Mendoza Jr. (fka Villano V), Villano IV, Texano Jr.

Rudos contra rudos, this was a revenge match, first time seeing Villano V wrestling unmasked, the new chapter of his life has begun, he’s a man with a mission now, and the first stage is the annihilation of Ultimo Guerrero, and boy oh boy, he did a pretty damn good job here. He was a nasty, surly beast with all them stiff punches, slaps, vicious chops to the neck, etc. He looked like the best goddamn wrestler of all time here, and his hermano VIV was right up there with him in his own quest of trying to avenge his brother’s mask loss. Texano was more than a suitable backup, so naturally this turned out to be a top notch entertainment. The Guerreros’ comeback in the segunda was marvelous, there was that one sequence where UG looked like an action movie character made by Leonardo da Vinci, if that makes any sense, it was unreal, beautiful poetry in motion. Atlantis did his stuff, which is always good, including the gnarly crowd killing tope that might put him in prison some day, he could kill someone in the front row. Bucanero was kind of the weakest link, but that’s absolutely no biggie considering the amount of greatness the other five dudes produced. This is a must-see high-end action, one of the best trios ever, mos def.

****3/4

All Japan 10/29: Go/Joe for the Triple Crown

Raising an Army Memorial Series 2014

(2014/10/29)

1.       Naoya Nomura vs. SUSHI

Quality rookie schooling. Needless to say, Nomura is talented and it should be quite a ride watching him evolve as a performer.

***1/4

2.       Keisuke Ishii & Soma Takao vs. Kotaro Suzuki & Yohei Nakajima

Very good, borderline great Junior tag. The DDT guys have been an incredible addition to All Japan this year, they deliver good shit right, left and center.

***3/4

3.       Masanobu Fuchi & Osamu Nishimura vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Ultimo Dragon

N/A (fucking cocksucking audio/video issues)

4.       Kengo Mashimo & Tank Nagai vs. Big Guns (Zeus & The Bodyguard)

Another good match, hopefully both these teams get a tag title shot soon. It’s so nice to see the K-DOJO wrestlers getting exposure in All Japan.

***

5.       AJPW World Jr. Heavyweight Championship: Hikaru Sato vs. Atsushi Aoki ©

Not a pretty match to watch, matter fact it’s quite unattractive visually and here you just have to be into the characters to appreciate the body of work. Aoki is not your typical modern Junior, his matches have a distinctive heavyweight feel to them, they’re full of struggle and worked in a slower place, with a minimum of flying, see the defenses against Kotaro and Hikaru. This is Hikaru’s second shot at the title during Aoki’s reign and it’s do or die for him. Old school struggle right there.

***3/4

6.       Suwama, Takao Omori, Kento Miyahara vs. Jun Akiyama, Akebono, KENSO

Akiyama and Miyahara were awesome here, tons of hate between them, nothing could stop Akiyama from laying brutal beating on him, he was like a mad dog. Miyahara sold it so good. Unfortunately, the rest of the crew was not as gamesome, especially Omori and Akebono. Shame, this could’ve been great with more heat in few other combinations. However, it’s still a watchable 6-man tag and worth seeing for Akiyama/Miyahara parts alone.

***

7.       AJPW Triple Crown Championship: Go Shiozaki vs. Joe Doering ©

Goddamn it, this sucked. I barely finished it. I don't get it, their Royal Road match was fantastic and now this shit happens. Actually, I do get it. Doering clearly can't work long singles, them sprints is where he thrives (Shiozaki RR, Miyahara), he struggles in long matches, it’s so painfully obvious at this point, his Akebono defense also sucked and the Suwama title win was good, but barely. This one had its good moments but at the end of the day none of it mattered because they already did everything to throw you out.

bad

Chico/Terry: YES YOU ARE FUCKED, SHIT OUT OF LUCK, NOW I'M COMPLETE AND MY COCK YOU WILL SUCK!

IWRG 2012/1/22

Chico Che vs. Black Terry

Complete, total bloodbath, good old vicious lucha brawl with tons and tons of pure hate and throwing kitchen sinks at each other. One of the best matches of this decade, an organic and minimalistic five star masterpiece that will blow your mind, it begins with Chico ambushing Terry during his entrance and what we got afterwards is just a total annihilation of the 60 year old Terry, basically a prolonged squash, cat-and-mouse style, Chico was mauling him right, left and centre with chairs, buckets, ringposts and Mike Tyson punches. Terry got to hit his first hope spot about 8 minutes in, and then it was his turn to dish out some barbaric punishment on CC, he gave him a proper taste of his own medicine, amazing shit. The match is 16 minutes long and has a clean finish, just about everything was picture perfect here. Considering the clean finish here, it’s unclear why it led to the hair match for next week, because the aftermatch stuff is missing here. One more thing, this is a handheld video, it made an experience so gritty and rough looking, you could feel raw intensity and emotion in every strike, every sell possible.

*****

IWRG 2012/1/29

Cabellera vs. Cabellera: Chico Che vs. Black Terry

So, exactly a week after the one fall cult classic here we go with a hair match, and again, Terry is ambushed before even entering the ring, this time with a barbaric headshot chairshot, this time Chico’s perishing control session was even longer than the one from the previous week, here it took 10 minutes for Terry to hit a meaningful comeback move as he was on the verge of losing (Chico has already won the primera in five minutes), he somehow managed to win the segunda and gained some advantage for the tercera where he was a dominant force in the opening stages, it was a 13 min long fall where we saw another great round of gritty, raw manliness and heavy smacking across the body. However, considering this is a hair match, the ref bump and interferences were inevitable and ultimately cost this havoc from reaching the five star territory, but that’s no big deal, because that bar was raised too high, the relative overbooking is just a minor setback in what is really a fanFUCKINGtastic apuesta slugfest. Fucking hell, this was glorious.

****3/4

Newish AAA

AAA 2014/10/10

Averno & Hijo del Fantasma vs. Myzteziz & Mesias

It was raining heavily so it’s not fair to criticize the guys for not having a planned match. They mostly brawled to prevent injuries and it was okay. To see the rain interrupting a wrestling show was quite a sight, though.

N/A

AAA Heroes Inmortales VIII

(2014/10/12)

8-WAY LUCHA DE ESCALERAS for Campeonateo Mundial Crucero de AAA: Steve Pain vs. Super Fly vs. Joe Lider vs. Aerostar vs. Bengala vs. Jack Evans vs. Angelico vs. Hijo del Fantasma ©

This one had no chance of being anything more than a dangerous spotfest full of mindless sequences, and that’s exactly what it delivered. But it was fun to watch at least.

bad

AAA Heroes Inmortales VIII

(2014/10/12)

8-WAY TORNEO for Copa Antonio Pena: Australian Suicide vs. Pentagon Jr. vs. Fenix vs. Zorro vs. Villano IV vs. Myzteziz vs. Parka vs. Blue Demon Jr.

Sure, this was another multi-man clusterfuck with some hilariously bad spots, but it was kind of… fun, a totally mindless guilty pleasure.

bad