Boss Rock

"Bad Medicine" is probably my favorite part about Dr. Wagner Jr.

September 13 episode: "Cien" Well, it's here. The 100th episode of LU. Some unbelievable highs and some pretty disappointing lows, but overall I've had more fun with this show than any other wrestling show I've ever seen. First match is Worldwide Underground vs. Puma, Fenix, Cage, and Sexy Star in an atomicos match. Ricky Mandell was replaced by Marty the Moth as punishment for legally changing his name to "Ricky Mundo" without Johnny's permission. Obviously this match was meant to further the Sexy-Taya, Fenix-Marty, and Puma-Mundo feuds. Decent match and Melissa finally snapped at Marty, which led to the announcement of a tag match between her and Fenix vs. Marty and Mariposa. I know Melissa has some wrestling experience, so will be interesting to see how she does. Cage left the match midway after Crane stole the gauntlet, leading to a very cool scene with him, Catrina, Cage, Mil, and Dario. Won't spoil anything, but let's just say it's pretty clear what match they'll be in at Ultima Lucha. Also, Taya vs. Sexy Star is announced as a Last Luchador Standing match. It's still really weird to watch Sexy after the crap she pulled at Triplemania. This match and the segments involving them really reminded me how much the Worldwide Underground irritates me, and not in a good heel heat kind of way. And the weird thing is that they SHOULD work as a faction. Mundo is a great dickhead heel (even if he's an awful promo) and Jack and P.J. are a fun tag team (literally one of my favorite parts of season 2). And I know LU isn't going to win any Emmys for acting, but I find their backstage segments annoying. Maybe that's the point. Still, they were much better before Jack broke his jaw and could do most of the talking. Pentagon Dark and El Dragon Azteca Jr. faced off for the first time for the final Aztec Medallion. Best match of the night and focused on Pentagon dominating Dragon with a variety of strikes before Dragon would mount his comebacks with aerial maneuvers. The match really seemed to focus on the evolution of Pentagon as a character, from the promising yet unfocused newcomer to the calculating, dominant fighter who's almost put all the pieces together. Main event was Rey Mysterio vs. Matanza, the culmination of Rey being the first person to pin Matanza in LU. A pretty good match with Rey taking advantage early with his speed but Matanza retaking control and dominating pretty much the rest of the match. I'm not sure when Jeff Cobb started to let himself go, but it's clear he was in much better shape during filming of the last two seasons than he's been in the last year. So much more explosive and agile. Only one episode left until Ultima Lucha Tres starts and with it being a 4 night event, I feel like there's still a lot that needs to be covered in just one week. So far we have: Puma-Johnny Marty-Fenix Sexy-Taya Possibly Ivelisse vs. Catrina and the Gift of the Gods match We'll see how they round at the rest of the card.

Yeah, TNA has done it twice. First was Jeff Jarrett vs. Samoa Joe at No Surrender 2006 and the second was Beer Money vs. LAX at Victory Road 2008. Lucha Underground also did at Ultima Lucha 1 for Drago vs. Hernandez. I think each time they've had fans sign waivers before participating.

I really wanted to like this match, but couldn't. Although to be honest, I don't think I've ever seen a single Psycho Clown match I've liked. Even as a garbage match worker, he comes off as slow and sloppy. This wasn't exactly all that sloppy, but it just seemed to drag forever. Didn't really feel much intensity or urgency, just slow brawling. At least the crowd was into it.

Less Authority on TV, the better.

Cody Rhodes. Hat's off to his ability to get over outside WWE and become a big indie star, but he's so grindingly average it's annoying. Most of his "pretty good" matches were against better talent who could carry the action and his worst matches are the downright pits (Juice Robinson at WK). His goofy character work in matches is also annoying.

Headbutt was stupid and ill-advised, but 100% made Owens. Whoever thought that Kevin Steen would be a guy Vince would want to push to the moon? Although he shares at least part of the blame with his bad in-ring habits and occasional laziness, WWE hasn't done him a ton of favors in the past when it comes to character (making him Jericho's comedic sidekick, the Face of America foreign heel #87). This should allow him to play the cold, vindictive character he thrives at.

And LU was an incredible breath of fresh air for me during the bleh WWE year of 2015. Season 1 is easily some of the best wrestling television I've ever seen.

Same here. Not crazy about some of the ridiculous spotfests (Dante Fox, looking at you there, although the spots he does are indeed incredible, he just needs to learn to sell and pace his matches), but this a still super refreshing as a pro-wrestling TV show. Slowly getting back into the groove. EP29 had the cool, classic (as in "old-school") Dominic angle. Can't believe so much time has passed since the Eddie stuff, and really, it's hard for me to see Rey Rey as the father of this all grown up kid. That's me showing my age, but I still see Rey as this 20 something guy in WCW. The fact he probably doesn't look his age under the mask (really, he looked 17 in 2000) also helps. Really enjoys the Melissa Santos/Fénix/Marty the Moth storyline too, cool to see Melissa finally get more involved. Best ring announcer that I'm aware of currently. Keep the Eddie angle in mind for the next episode or so.

September 6 episode Mack and Drago fought for an Aztec Medallion in a really fun sprint. Unfortunately, it ended in another dumb distraction finish where Mack dropped Drago and focused on Kobra Moon simply because she was on the apron. Drago took advantage and pinned Mack with his Dragon's Lair pin. Mack hit a stunner in retaliation and attempted to hit Kobra with one as well but the Reptile Tribe beat him down. Still not crazy about this stable but perhaps Mack rounds up a team to challenge them for the Trios Titles? In what should have been the main event, Cortez Castro and Joey Ryan faced off in a 5-0 Street Fight for an Aztec Medallion. Like Havoc-Madness and Mascarita-Famous B, this was a really fun, goofy No DQ match. There were riot officers surrounding the ring and shields, night sticks, a glove with lube (don't ask), coffee, donuts, a police car, and a taser (!) were all used. Won't give too many details because this really needs to be seen to be believed, but Castro picked up what might be his first singles win in LU history and earned the medallion. And as bad as Striker and Vamp are, they had some funny lines here. The actual main event was Matanza vs. the Rabbit Tribe in a 3-on-1 handicap match. Prior to the match, Dario announced Pentagon vs. Dragon Azteca Jr. for the last medallion next week. He also banned Rey from the building and said if he didn't leave, he would fire Dragon Azteca. Not a fan of Dario becoming more heelish, but I guess that's what happens when you feel like your family has been insulted. Anyway, Matanza beat the tribe in fairly quick fashion but it wasn't a complete shut-out, as there was a pretty dramatic nearfall. Perhaps they want to prevent the three from looking like complete chumps considering they're in the Gift of the Gods match. Decent match overall. Show ended with Prince Puma and Johnny Mundo having an in-ring confrontation. They have an atomicos match next week but before Puma could announce his partners, Mundo interrupted and challenged Puma to put his mask on the line at Ultima Lucha. Dario intervened and said because there is already a mask vs. hair match, Puma will need to put his career on the line. Vamp says no but Puma says yes. Although Puma didn't even announce his partners like he was supposed to, it was cool to have both guys acknowledge each other's history with each other over the past three seasons. Solid episode with no bad matches. I would definitely recommend watching the 5-0 Street Fight.

40 episodes.

Really great match with some excellent storytelling. Tenryu starts off as THE battle-hardened veteran. He's been through so many wars, every time Kawada hits him he gives him that "You're gonna have to do better than that, kid" expression. It almost gets to the point of no-selling but the longer the match goes on, the more and more visibly hurt Tenryu is. He really makes Kawada earn it through each kick and chop. Kawada overcomes some near KO-worthy punches and leg submissions to start absolutely dominating, busting open Tenryu's nose and battering him on the outside. But just as it appears Kawada has this in the bag, Tenryu proves that the old man still has some fight in him by landing some wicked lariats, a KO punch, and Ki Crusher for the win. I thought Tenryu was a bit too dominant in the beginning for him to get a win, but Kawada weathering the storm and absolutely beating the shit out of him in the second half makes the victory well-earned.

Randy Orton and Alberto el Patron. Orton to me is someone who COULD be great because his timing and execution is downright beautiful at times, but there's absolutely no heart or soul to anything he does. He's had his fair share of good to great matches, but they were usually with someone who was far more interesting (Christian, Bryan, etc). I feel the same way about Patron. I feel like he SHOULD work as a heel being the arrogant aristocrat and he played a good bully to Kalisto last year. But similar to Orton, he's a technically proficient dude with absolutely nothing behind it. And I never liked him as a face, even in LU.

In creating my own list, my top 3 comes down to Hansen, Kobashi, and Misawa. At the end of the day, I'm more inclined to go Misawa for a couple of reasons Took part in some of the greatest singles if not THE greatest singles matches of all time. Took part in some of the greatest if not THE greatest tag matches of all time. Had a case for best in the world for close to a decade. Was an offensive dynamo with incredible execution yet still a masterful storyteller. Could still put on an entertaining and logical match past his prime. While late-90's AJPW could get a bit excessive with multiple kick-outs and false finishes, Misawa (and to their credit the other 4 pillars as well) knew how to build up to those moments. Almost everything he did made sense and made those spots like the tiger suplex in the '98 Kobashi match really feel as big as they were. He was also a fascinating worker to watch outside of those big epics, especially as an underdog where he had to resort to the forearm simply because it was the only thing that could hurt guys like Morishima or Vader. Simply put, Misawa was awesome.

Really good match and a showcase for Morishima. He absolutely batters Misawa for about 70% of this match with Vader-like looping strikes and lariats. Old man Misawa still looks good here as well, occasionally flying but mostly relying on his trusty forearm to wear the big man down. Misawa actually loses his cool twice and just beats the shit out of Morishima with forearms in a "Stay down!" sort of way. Really reminded me a lot of the Misawa-Vader matches with Misawa having nothing but the forearm and roaring elbow to even phase the big man. Misawa gets the win but Morishima looks like a million bucks.

While Hansen and Misawa may not have been each other's best rivals, I do think their matches are underrated. I loved this. Misawa went after Hansen from the get go, playing his game by taking things to the outside and just absolutely brutalizing him and his arm. For a match focused almost entirely on limb work, they made this engrossing as hell. And while Hansen was still able to finish off Misawa with just one lariat, I think it fit the story perfectly. Hansen selling and showing ass has always been to portray him as a wounded animal-vulnerable and in trouble, but still very dangerous. And seeing as how Misawa's mega-push was coming later, this match did a terrific job in making him a legitimate and credible challenger. A fun, crazy brawl with great limb work and an excellent story.

When I was younger, I remember thinking the countless gimmick matches were cool but looking back it's like...wow, that was really, REALLY stupid.

Was a great facial reaction, especially considering how serious Itami is most of the time.

I think Dave is just trying to always stay "ahead of the curve". i.e. evolutions to styles were almost always met with derision and Dave wants to make sure he's part of the "just wait, this stuff will be celebrated years later" crowd. I think there's something to that in change doesn't always mean "killing the business" and people who like PWG stuff shouldn't be told they're stupid or don't "get" wrestling. But I also think not all change is necessarily for the better. Sometimes angles or in ring work gets too meta as opposed to working face/heel dynamics or doing heated, personal feuds. Not to say that's always a bad thing, but I'd hate that to become the dominant force behind all matches. I also think it's possible to find enjoyment out of everything and don't think it should always be an "us vs. them" scenario. I like Kenny Omega and think Jerry Lawler is one of the greatest wrestlers to have ever lived. I find the Young Bucks entertaining while the Holy Demon Army is my favorite tag team of all time.

Really good episode. Almas squash was a lot of fun, Lars destroying people makes me long for a match with Braun, and the main event was good. Still not crazy about Deville. The presentation of her as an MMA fighter just seems so forced (which is ironic considering she did MMA) as opposed to the more natural charisma and presence of Shayna.

Pushing Braun as a top face and champion is a bit of a conundrum, but I lean more towards just going for it and see what happens. On the one hand, the amount of television WWE produces dictates that Braun will need to be on TV a lot. I think WWE could easily rectify this by not having him show up every week or at least keep him out of random matches for the sake of filling time, but that doesn't seem to be WWE's MO anymore unless you're Brock. And while I think they could give him a Goldberg-style monster face push, I do wonder if there is a shelf life for that due to, again, how much TV there is. On the other hand, Brock doesn't move the needle in any significant way, the fans have made up their minds about Reigns, and they seemingly have no interest in pushing an over babyface like Finn. Why not take a chance on a guy who's already super hot with the audience?

This. Not to say there's anything wrong with disliking a particular style, but the whole "those fans" mentality is something I've always hated.

2005 was probably their peak in terms of in-ring quality. But there was still lots of good stuff to be had scattered around amidst all the absurdity.

Finished the second round of videos. Really good stuff overall. While I'm not sure it's quite reached the peaks of the CWC, it more than makes up for it in volume and consistency. Kairi and Shayna have been the MVP's thus far, but Mercedes, Toni, and Piper have stood out as well. And seeing how Bianca did against Kairi, the sky is clearly the limit for her.

21st anniversary of this match! Don't think it's as good as their '91 or '93 encounters, but still an absolute perfect match to end the Kobashi-Hansen rivalry with. Every time Kobashi would get just a liiiiiitle bit closer to victory only to fall short, but this time Kobashi is Hansen's clear superior and has what it takes to take down his fiercest rival of all time.