In Case You Weren't Aware, Lucha Indies Kinda Rule!

Lucha Memes Chairo II

(2015/12/25)

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)

Guerra de Titanes - Part 2

Guerra de Titanes - Part 1

CMLL 01/26

2016/01/26

This Match Is Why I Adore Pro-Wrestling

CMLL 2016/01/01

Cabellera vs. Cabellera: Maximo vs. Kamaitachi

Okay now, just hear me out. I think this was a perfect pro-wrestling match. Holiday spirits, New Year’s Day, big Arena Mexico crowd being 99,99% pro-Maximo, evil Japanese prick with long, trendy hair taking on the super beloved exotico, etc. Everything was there. The match was so simple, and yet it was so fucking amazing. Matter fact, I think it turned out so goddamn awesome mostly because the layout and body of work was so simple and straight-forward. They kept it real. It’s impressive, really, after witnessing Kamaitachi’s crazy berserkfests with Dragon Lee to see him work a totally different match with Maximo here. He picked a legwork as his strategy and it almost paid off. It was definitely paying off for like 90% of first two falls, the other 10% is, you guess, Maximo’s comeback.

Primera and segunda were amazing in its simplicity and I loved both finishes, especially Maximo’s to segunda where he made that amazing midair hook on Kamaitachi’s leg for extra leverage. Crazy! Tachi was excellent at dismantling Maximo’s leg, and needless to say, Maximo sold it like a true student of the game. And then in tercera they managed to go the extra mile without having to make the match too similar to Dragon Lee vs. Kamaitachi classics, because Maximo was still selling the legwork amazingly well and it made for such a marvelous pace that made the match stand out. Maximo was always reminding us his leg was in big pain, his desperate highspots were truly – desperate. Masterful selling right there, folks. Drama was high-end and the crowd totally old school and unpretentious, everyone and their mothers were rooting for Maximo, except for that Kamaitachi lady mark and two other tourists from Japan. Arena Mexico was going bananas for every little thing Maximo did on offense. In the climax both competitors faked low-blows and I loved it. The finish was great too.

I have to watch and rewatch a lot of stuff from January, but I don’t think anything will top this as my current Match of the Year.

*****

Fun Lucharesu - Day 1

NJPW/CMLL Fantastica Mania 2016

(2016/01/17)

CMLL 01/19

CMLL 2016/01/19

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

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

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.

***

Random CMLL (Perrito, Mistico, Wagner, Santo...)

CMLL 2008/08/01

Dr. Wagner Jr., Hijo del Perro Aguayo, Hector Garza vs. Mistico, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas

Fun two-fall mayhem, but it was rather short and they didn’t even air all of it. The Arena Mexico crowd was REEEDDDD HOOOTTTT, watching all the grown-ups marking out and making funny faces like they’re kids was very amusing. Niebla/Wagner was central match-up here as they were building to a mano a mano title match, and obviously there was also the eternal Perro/Mistico beef. Lots of surly brawling and manly posing for the crowd. Mistico got his ass kicked pretty bad. Niebla and Wagner were afer each other’s masks. Fun match that needed to be longer.

***1/4

Black Terry Christmas and Cerebro New Year

IWRG 2015/12/20

Cabelleras vs. Cabelleras: Black Terry & Dr. Cerebro vs. Eterno & Apolo Estrada Jr.

Good match, but man, it could’ve been so much better. Obviously the finish was not clean because lucha libre reasons, but that’s not the only negative, because Eterno and Apolo were so fucking bad here, they had to be carried by the veterans and it was a painful ride for me as a viewer. Terry was tremendous, though, but you already knew that, as he once again displayed his amazing brawling abilities, Cerebro had a big match tercera, but all of that was barely enough, because Eterno and Apolo were so sloppy, too slow, tired etc. it felt like watching backyard amateurs. Terry and Cerebro were really into it, they wanted to fight fiercely, but Eterno and Apolo couldn’t meet them half way. They almost ruined all three falls, especially the brawling portions from the first two, but fortunately the booking was strong enough to hide their weaknesses with few neat shortcuts and tricks, and the aforementioned Terry & Cerebro carryjob managed to save things. But at the end of the day, the match was good, and I don’t want to complain too much, let’s rather focus on nice things, such as Terry wrestling like a rabid fucking bulldog and Cerebro busting out his very best in tercera.

***1/4

Carryjobs Are Not Easy

Lucha Memes 2015/11/22

Pagano vs. Ultimo Guerrero

Few months earlier, the almighty RUSH carried Pagano to his best match of career. Not that I watched a big number of Pagano’s matches, lel, but it’s very fucking hard to imagine he’d ever managed to create/accomplish something better than the doozy Rush brawl, which was one helluva experience. Rush is better wrestler than Ultimo Guerrero, and exactly THAT was the difference in match qualities. UG did a very good carryjob, he brawled hard, he bled (which quite a sight!), he gave a beating, he took one too, the fans were so into him, etc. He totally legitimized the shitty Pagano and the match itself. The structure was not much, but the chairshots were damn brutal. Yeah, this was THAT kind of a match, but it was done right and I really liked it.

***1/2