ohtani's jacket

Personally, I've managed to narrow my tastes to the one or two styles I like. I might sample the odd match from another promotion or take part in a poll if it interests me, but I don't feel the need to track down everything. Just a bit of high end stuff is good. I sometimes take a few months off from watching any wrestling and dive into other hobbies or scale it back to a couple of times a week. This year has been pretty fun so far with the Black Terry Jr. handhelds.

IWRG Las Nuevas Figuras FIL vs. Los Gladiadores IWRG, 2/4/10 IWRG has been on a roll of late, thanks to an influx of new talent and some much improved booking from the men in charge. This was a cibernetico match between the IWRG regulars and the young guys they've been using to fill out the undercard; not a great match, but it serves to illustrate why IWRG has been on an upward swing since the beginning of the year. The first run through was stronger than the elimination half for the simple reason that IWRG guys eliminating rookies is like watching The Dream Team play Angola, but there was some tremendous confidence shown by the IWRG regulars in leading the young guys through their best exchanges to date, especially since a cibernetico match is about outdoing the pair before you. The fact that IWRG could go five/six exchanges deep in such a match shows you how far the group of workers below Terry and Navarro have come in the past twelve months. With the Traumas, it's a case of young workers making huge strides, but with a guy like Dr. Cerebro it's about tapping into the potential that's always been there and making him seem like a major figure alongside Terry. The young guys are important too, because they provide fresh match-ups and allow the bookers some leeway with matchmaking. With a bigger roster and a place for everyone, there's less need for revancha after revancha and arbitrary apuestas matches. So while this was a minor match, I thought it was hugely positive and showed just how much depth and variety there is IWRG these days. Hijo del Pirata, Trauma I y Trauma II vs. Chico Che, Angel y El Hijo del Pantera, 2/7/10 Black Terry Jr. had a hard time filming this as there was just too much going on to capture it all, but from what I could make out it was a pretty decent sprint. Speaking of confidence, Trauma II looked just as good working with Angel here as Black Terry did working with Hijo del Sigo in the cibernetico above, which is high praise considering Terry looked better against Signo than he has all year in regular lucha exchanges. But the guy who impressed me here was Che. I haven't seen him for quite a few months and he seems to have developed into a competent fatboy worker. That's great news because lucha, like rugby, is a game for all shapes and sizes, so if you have competent fatboy workers on your roster then you've got Puebla levels of flavour. I absolutely loved his headbutt in this. Black Terry y Doctor Cerebro vs. Hijo del Diablo y Gringo Loco, Hair/Cage match, 2/7/10 Normally, I wouldn't watch a lucha cage match, but this feud has been so well booked by IWRG standards that I had to see what happens next. Where did they get that cage from? There has to be some story about how they got scrap metal and some half price chain link fence and welded it all together. It was pretty much the perfect looking cage for this scummy gimmick the Gringo Locos are doing. I thought Terry Jr. did a tremendous job of shooting the early parts of this match before the big Cerebro bladejob, because usually IWRG rely on a large number of edits to prevent their brawls from seeming static. Terry obviously has an eye for the business since he pretty much choose the best shots possible to stop this from being too monotonous, although he was sometimes on the wrong side of the action when it came to Hijo del Diablo's kicks. The match was a decent brawl much like their Super Libre match w/ the blood and quality of brawling making it superior to most lucha gimmick matches. Terry was spectacular as usual and the stretch run into the finish was awesome. All in all, it was pretty good stuff. There's got to be some sort of irony in the lucha indy version of Gringo Locos having better matches than the original Gringo Locos. The fan altercation ruled too. CMLL Centella de Oro y Lestat vs. Fuerza Chicana y Policeman, 1/25/10 Holy shit is all I can about this. Centella de Oro and Fuerza Chicana did the best opening matwork I've seen all year and Lestat and Policeman weren't far behind. The locals are only getting a single fall these days but if it wasn't for Lestat and Policeman's poor dive and catch this would've been the perfect lightning match. As it was, it was pretty much three falls in one with all the shifts you'd expect from a trios match. Centella de Oro was amazing in his second go around with Chicana and absolutely destroyed everyone in Mexico with his performance here. Blue Panther, Metro y Valiente vs. Averno, Mephisto y Virus, 2/2/10 I'm feeling more upbeat about lucha than I have at any point since I started this blog, so I'll drop a bit of praise on this. I thought Blue Panther was phenomenal in this match and his mat segment with Averno bordered on genius. Forget about his 2008, this was the best Panther has looked since that 2004 handheld Terry Jr. put up on his old account. His rope exchanges with Virus were awesome too and in a perfect world CMLL would devote 20 minutes to a Blue Panther/Virus singles match. Other than that, the match was average. Virus and Valiente fell well short of what they're capable of and Valiente himself didn't shine until his killer dive at the end of the match. The third fall had the potential to be really exciting with guys lining each other up and charging at one another, but they had to go and do all the bullshit CMLL staples which somehow CMLL think people not only want to see week in, week out but four or five times on the same card. I mean, they laid a pretty decent platform here in the third caida with one-on-one match situations and different guys hitting the ring to take over, but after they'd run through all six guys they went with rudo triple teaming and a whole bunch of other contrived shit. Fucking Averno was in his element, though. So much of the shit he's involved in ought to be abolished. The finish was weak as hell too. Still, this was more good than bad. Panther was great.

In 1997, CMLL had one of the greatest single year runs of any promotion in wrestling history, but what about 1998? It's not a year you hear a lot about. I don't think too many people could tell you what the match of the year was or which workers were on their game that year. Most of the CMLL I've seen from '99 has the company heading down the path of no return, so I thought I'd sample some matches from '98 and see what sort of state the company was in. El Hijo Del Santo, Blue Panther y Black Warrior vs. Negro Casas, Atlantis y Mr. Niebla (CMLL 4/24/98) This started off with some poor exchanges between Black Warrior and Mr. Niebla that were pretty indicative of where this company was heading over the next ten years. CMLL was a lot like other styles of wrestling in the 90s in that it paid off how solid the 70s and 80s had been without producing any workers who could carry on with the job; but watching older matches like these where CMLL is teetering on the point of being crap, you have to wonder why the veterans didn't take the young guys aside and say, "look that dive fake you tried was fucking awful, here's how you do it properly" because Atlantis and Blue Panther did a simple and effective "over the top rope exit" in the second caida which is what these young guys should've been learning from. Instead, you have these great exchanges between Panther and Atlantis and Santo and Casas that make Niebla and Black Warrior stick out like a pair of sore thumbs. Twelve years later, great mat exchanges are nothing to be scoffed at; but looking at the match from the perspective of when it occurred, CMLL were keen to push through guys like Black Warrior and Niebla regardless of match quality, and so as younger guys were pushed to the top, the veterans began succumbing to what is essentially a lazy style and nothing like the way they were brought up. The two young guys were interesting to watch, however. Black Warrior had a knack for making himself invisible in a trios match. You could tell that he was never going to be a star because he didn't want to take the bull by the horns and stand out in any way. I suppose it doesn't hurt to keep a low profile, but he may be the most low-key pinball bumper the world has ever seen. His tope was like a bullet, but he never made much of it and threw it away in the first caida here. Niebla, on the other hand, has always been an awful worker. I honestly think you can chart the downfall of the classic luchador to Angel Azteca's failure to stay on top in the very early 90s, because he was the last technico I can think of who had the offence to carry on with lucha in the traditional sense. Niebla was just a blight; he had some tricked out submissions that saved him from being as mind-numbingly bad as Blue Demon Jr., but so much of what makes a good technico is between the ropes and he was so bad at the stop and pop stuff that he was a lost cause in the end. The guy who held this match together, for the first two falls anyway, was Atlantis. He had something of a resurgence in the late 90s that began around 1996 and culminated with his famous mask match against Villano III in the early part of 2000. He squared off against Blue Panther here, and while it wasn't quite as smooth as some of the other times they've wrestled it was by far the high point of the match. When I first got into lucha, people always said that the must-see Panther exchanges were against Santo and Solar, but I'm pretty convinced now that Atlantis is the best match-up that Panther has ever had. For some reason, Blue Panther brought out the absolute best in Atlantis as a wrestler. Atlantis tried exchanges with Blue Panther that he never really tried with any other worker, which is a curious thing really, because when you think of Atlantis you think of a guy who was a great facilitator. He was a guy who was good at the nuts and bolts of trios work, as can be seen here when he provides the second caida with the necessary rhythm for a quick reply from the technicos, but against Panther he looked like one of the giants of this era of lucha libre and every bit the WON Hall of Famer that he's struggled to become. The other opening exchange was between Santo and Casas, who were still feuding at this point. It was more reminiscent of their UWA work than the Japanese influences they'd dabbled in the year before. Pretty much a bunch of jockeying, but they did a good job of engaging without really engaging to set-up the obvious fight they were gonna have in the third caida. The first two falls were okay and did a decent job of setting up the third caida, but what a mess that turned out to be. The technicos levelled the match with the second caida and Negro Casas spat in Santo's face to let him know they'd levelled it. Santo did an awesome job of wiping his eyes and mask and proceeded to give Casas one of the best asskickings I've seen Santo produce, but instead of the match erupting into a Dandy/Casas style third caida, everything just stopped... I mean dead in its tracks... I don't think I've ever seen these workers just drop a match like this in the third caida. Panther spent an eternity untying Atlantis' mask. The Santo/Casas feud really peaked with those trios matches that built to the Santo/Casas singles match at the end of the summer the year before, and all of their matches thereafter were middling, but none of them qualified as a rut. This was just awful and the confused booking at the end of Panther ripping Atlantis' mask off made it seem like there was no focus whatsoever to where they were trying to head with Santo and Casas. It was as confusing as the late '97 booking where Santo had a falling out Scorpio Jr. but continued on as a rudo unabated. Not a match I'd recommend and strike one against 1998 CMLL.

I haven't seen the Brazos yet. Which match should I watch? The one long, two short formula is easier to watch than three long falls, I think. I sometimes wonder why IWRG don't try to have great trios matches. It's not as though they lack the roster for it.

God, that would not go well.

Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro vs. Gringo Loco/El Hijo del Diablo, 1/24/10 This was pretty cool. Of all the styles Terry works, brawling suits him best because you get a caricature of Black Terry the man. There was nothing pretty about this match; it was about as scummy as you'd expect from two guys working the Gringo Locos gimmick in a lucha indy backwater. They brawled all over the ringside area in a match that never really got going in the ring since neither side wanted to settle it proper, but this sort of rambling match suits Black Terry to a tee. His comebacks were fantastic and I thought his headbutt was incredible. He had a gash on his forehead that needed sewing up, and as he sat there being sutured, the silence got me thinking... Where was he going after the show? What type of car or truck does he drive? What does he listen to on the radio? These are the type of things I want to know. He really is a legend. This was just another fight and a few more stitches, but what a performer. He's like a character in a John Huston film or a Merle Haggard song. Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro/Negro Navarro vs. Solar/Zatura/Suicida, 1/28/10 This was solid. IWRG have a new working style where the first fall goes long and the second and third falls are short. It's somewhat predictable but seems to be working for them. Solar squared off with Navarro to nobody's great surprise. Their exchanges were better than watching Navarro work with Angelico, but you have to wonder what they're gunning for at this point. Solar wanted Navarro and Navarro wanted Solar, but we've seen this all before. It's a draw. Neither guy is better than the other and maybe one day they'll leave it at that. Terry got to work a bit in this match, which I was happy about since he's usually innocuous when Solar and Navarro are about. He did a pretty awesome job of stretching Zatura, but the most notable thing about the match was some rare CONTINUITY. I could hardly believe it when Cerebro went after Suicida. I mean to look at him you wouldn't think he lost his hair a few months ago, but he obviously hasn't forgotten and gave Segura an extra hiding at the end. Dr. Cerebro vs. El Hijo del Diablo, Campeonato Mundial Ligero IWRG, 1/31/10 This was awesome and easily surpassed any IWRG singles match I've seen since Zatura/Trauma. There was a ton of heat for this as El Hijo del Diablo had his own cheering section dressed up in devil costumes, and while he's not much of a worker in the Black Terry sense, this match was exceptionally well booked to make the most of the heat they got. Diablo can't work the mat, but he has size and they used that to great effect. He roughed Cerebro up and opened the cut from the tag match above. I can't recall ever seeing Cerebro sell as well as he did here and his comeback was fantastic, which made this the first time in ages that I was actually pumped to see the third caida of an IWRG match. There was some awesome bullshit in the tercera caida. The fall was mostly dives and selling with Terry trying to protect his man from a mauling. Diablo finally got stuck into Terry and they did the most awesome Dusty finish. It was a real Pena style finish. Terry was being held back by the ref and the commissioner or someone, and Gringo Loco, who'd been ejected from ringside earlier, came running to the ring to potato Cerebro with a foreign object. The ref counted three and it looked like we had a new champ, but Terry saw the whole thing unfold and actually went into Gringo Loco's pants to find the foreign object. I don't think I've ever seen that before. He pulled out a chain and showed it to the ref and the entire arena. The ref overturned his decision and raised Cerebro's hand. Just an all-round awesome spectacle. Instead of an overload of moves and nearfalls, we actually got to see a match that built to a bruised but vindicated champ holding onto his belt. The crowd were into it in a way that they usually aren't and there were plenty of folks screaming at the ref about the fuck-up he'd made. Good shit. Negro Navarro/Trauma I vs. Pirata Morgan/El Hijo del Pirata Morgan, 1/31/10 This was also pretty good, though it couldn't live up to the heat that the previous match got. Everytime I see Pirata Morgan, I can't quite get my head around what he's turned into. I literally find myself asking, "what the fuck is that?" But the mofo can still work. I actually thought he outworked Navarro in this match on a less is more basis. His mat exchange with Trauma I was better than Navarro's work with El Hijo del Pirata Morgan. Granted, Trauma I has probably overtaken Son of Pirata Morgan at this point, but Morgan had a more direct, straightforward way of tackling Trauma. Navarro did a couple of cool submissions, but he's become somewhat overexposed of late. There were a couple of teases that the match would come down to Pirata and Navarro one-on-one, but they wound up giving this match to the kids which I thought was the right idea. The veterans were both pinned while they were in a Pirata Morgan figure four and the finish to the match was that awesome submission stand-off that we first saw in Black Terry's match with Multifacetico. It was a cool finish because you had both Navarro and Pirata at ringside cheering on their kids. They were like a pair of football dads. Navarro was slightly disgusted when his son tapped then his paternal instinct took over. Pretty cool. MATCH OF THE MONTH: It's been a strong month for IWRG, but I don't think you can go past Cerebro/Diablo. Finally, a lucha title match with a little bit of drama that made you want to actually watch the second and third caidas. I don't know what's happening with IWRG right now, but they seem a hell of a lot more focused and actually deserve to be considered the best promotion in Mexico instead of winning by default. Do they have a new booker or something?

IWRG Avisman vs. Bushi, 11/26/09 This was the lightweight title switch the Segunda Caida guys wrote about recently. Avisman definitely showed what he's capable of on the mat here. Bushi couldn't follow suit, but I guess he wouldn't really know how. The match peaked with Avisman's final action on the mat, which was a counter into a ankle lock of his own if I recall correctly. Great intensity from Avisman to match his angry little man demeanour. He was like a little Napoleon with his matwork here. The rest of the match bored me, however. CMLL Sangre Azteca/Dragon Rojo Jr./Misterioso II vs. Mascara Dorada/Metro/Stuka Jr, 1/6/10 This was also a title switch. There was an effort to make it seem important, but these guys are only capable of working one style and so this was just a longer version of that style. The rudos are so generic. I fucking hate the synchronised moves they do. You can't distinguish one rudo from another if they all do the same moves. They all look like Scorpio, Jr. to one degree or another, and who would've thought he'd have a lasting influence on the rudo division? Anyway, this was well rehearsed and the same match they do night in, night out. I guess you could call it solid, but the patterns are so predictable that it came across like an over-produced pop single to me. Stuka Jr is worth watching since he has a solid all-round game and a couple of nice dives, but he does the same thing in every match. CMLL Arena Puebla Centella de Oro/Blue Center/King Jaguar vs. Ares/Alarido/Crazy Black, 1/11/10 Haven't seen the locals in a while. When they're on song, the locals produce the truest form of lucha in Mexico. Centella de Oro has to be the most underrated guy in lucha circles. He carried Ares through some fucking great lucha exchanges in this match. Blue Center was awesome too. Like a veteran version of 1991 Atlantis. Stuka Jr./Metro/Fuego vs. Dr. X/Pólvora/Virus, 1/11/10 This started off with the same mat exchanges that Stuka Jr. always does, but Virus is such a great worker that he was able to turn it into a pretty good slow build. Why they chose to work a slow build is beyond me since everyone else wanted to work up tempo. That's another thing I hate -- the token slow build. Whatever happened to working the opening pairs before upping the tempo on the second go through? Virus/Stuka aside, this pretty much sucked. There were a ton of botched spots and no rhythm to bail them out. IWRG Negro Navarro vs. Angelico, 1/21/10 The best worker in Mexico meets the worst worker in Mexico. This was such a weird match to watch. After years of watching Navarro annihilate young guys one on one, he sold for Angelico as if he were a fellow maestro. If Angelico wasn't Navarro's student and just some guy he was matched against on the indy circuit, you have to wonder whether he'd give him anything at all. I was actually annoyed with Navarro here because he was selling for some of the worst looking shit you'll ever see and putting it over huge. Angelico couldn't apply his holds properly and Navarro was submitting to them in the hope of giving his student some rub. There's been a bit of talk about Navarro working "even" with Angelico, but this was beyond even. On one level, his performance was excellent as he showed he can sell as well as he works holds, but Angelico is just not ready for the sort of respect Navarro showed him here. He contributed nothing to the match and looked completely out of place. I don't know whether Navarro has his blinders on in regard to his prodigy's skill, but I sure as hell wish he was giving the rub to somebody else.

Who: My uncle, who was a bit of a black sheep of the family, was making his first trip back to New Zealand in years. We were all sitting around my Grandmother's living room when WWF Superstars came on TV. It had already taken off in Australia and for some reason he wanted to watch it. My parents had gone to NWA New Zealand's On The Mat tapings when they were dating and just after I was born, so they were familiar with several of the wrestlers from their days working the New Zealand territory. The thing that stood out to me was Hacksaw Jim Duggan hitting Andre the Giant over the head with his 2x4. What: The first big angle I remember was Outlaw Ron Bass raking Brutus the Barber Beefcake's face with his spurs. That blew my mind at the time. I remember asking said uncle endless questions about how it could've been allowed to happen. He told me it was fake and they were actors but it seemed pretty real to me. Around that time, it blew up at school. Everybody was watching it and if you missed an episode you were massively out of the loop at school. All the merchandise became huge, especially the trading cards, and I remember the most unpopular girl in school bringing a WWF magazine one day and being cool for a day. We got all the PPVs free-to-air in NZ, though they were six months after the fact. I remember the TV guide had a page devoted to wrestling news and the tabloids would have two or four page spreads complete with posters. I had a massive Megapowers explode poster that I got from renting the Wrestlemania V VHS. When: 1988. Specifically Summer Slam '88. I didn't see Hogan for the first few weeks and remember thinking "Who is this guy?" when Savage brought him out as his partner for Summer Slam. Where: New Zealand. Why: It was a phenomenon, but I was also into comic books, cartoons, action figures and TV shows like the A-Team and Knight Rider so it was tailor made for my interests at the time. The whole thing peaked with Wrestlemania VI and eventually they took it off the air. One day my friend and I were reminiscing about wrestling and decided to rent some old tapes. This was in 1994 or maybe early '95. We were hooked again, though we could only really follow it from PPV to PPV until 1997 when we started getting truncated versions of Raw and some of the WCW shows. There's no way I would've kept watching without the internet, though.

Well, it's probably a running gimmick at this point whether he knows the person or not, but I'm guessing his parents didn't let him watch TV because every kid I knew bargained with their parents to stay up and watch the A-Team. He has a point about TV shows, though. Pop culture osmosis is one thing, but it's not the same as living through it. My sister is six years younger than me and she wouldn't know shit about what happened in the 80s.

The only good lucha last year was from IWRG and Arena Puebla. Check out Zatura vs. Trauma II and the locals trios matches. The only good match I saw from Japan was the Futen mainevent. It was a bad year for wrestling.

Those Mistico/Casas matches are awful.

Los Terribles Cerebros vs. Los Oficiales, Campeonato de Trios IWRG, 12/25/09 Another poor Cerebros match. They look about done to me. Lazy matwork, weak transitions, unimaginative spots and some terrible finishes of late. I wouldn't mind if they broke up actually, because IWRG really need to run a Black Terry singles feud. Los Traumas I y II vs. Suicida y Zatura, 1/14/09 I'm not sure what to make of Trauma II's new look, but his work here was some of the better stuff I've seen out of IWRG in a while. He had a lengthy opening spell with Suicida, which was the best Mike Segura has looked in ages. I'm not a huge fan of IWRG matwork because I think they give up the holds too easily, but I liked how they worked this into a standing punch exchange then took it back to the mat only for the Traumas to beat the shit out of Mike Segura for the rest of the match. The face-off between Mike Segura and Trauma I didn't quite work, but there was some good brawling in this. The Traumas have developed into real asskickers. Dad must be proud. Pantera, Angelico y Solar vs. Hijo del Pirata, Negro Navarro y Bombero Infernal, 1/14/09 This was lively. Had some glaring faults, but it was lively. I approve of the way they've been mixing things up lately. Bombero Infernal dropped Pantera on this head, but apart from that their work was a nice change of pace and I liked how the match came down to Solar vs. Hijo del Pirata and Navarro vs. Angelico instead of the usual Solar/Navarro finish. IWRG can be short on variety at times, but this felt like a real trios match. There was some loose work, a few botches and some atrocious shit from Angelico, but even he was in the right place at the right time and I dug how they moved from match-up to match-up. If you thought Angelico's Chikara-like stand-up work was bad, wait until you see his kicks. I dunno why he does them since he has a decent looking skinny-guy chop, but he's clearly a guy who watches a bunch of youtube because he even does World of Sport mat tricks, which he probably aped from Chikara instead of the really good World of Sport workers. The best thing I'll say about his kicks is that Navarro did an awesome job of blocking them at the end and his stomach punch ought to have killed Angelico dead, but the finish wasn't bad and again it was the match dynamics that made this worth watching. I dug Navarro teaming up with a couple of bruisers in Hijo del Pirata and Bomber Infernal. Hijo del Pirata is the new Capitán Muerte in terms of bringing the offence and Bombero Infernal is a lucha indy waster. Mostly, I'm digging having weekly Solar in IWRG. If he sticks around, he may be my worker of the year.

No. Is it good?

Bushi vs. Dr. Cerebro, IWRG Intercontinental Lightweight Championship, 1/10/10 Black Terry Jr's handhelds are fast becoming the only way to watch IWRG. Give me Terry's handhelds over their TV production any day. This was nothing like a lucha libre title match, but I've decided to stop caring about that this year. If someone works a decent title match, I'll praise them for it, but it's painfully obvious that these matches are the norm now. They kind of remind me of WWE matches, but I guess lucha is heading that way in general with WWE having a bigger influence in Mexico than ever before. Dr. Cerebro is reasonably proficient at this style of wrestling and his work of late kind of reminds me of Dr. Wagner, Jr during his workrate phase, though on a somewhat miniature scale. The key difference between Wagner and Cerebro is that Cerebro hasn't foresaken his mat game entirely and still busts out strange looking submission holds from time to time. You could probably argue that Cerebro is a better mat worker than Wagner ever was, but he's looking more and more like a spot worker every time I see him. Bushi is a Japanese guy I've never head of since I don't really follow Japanese wrestling anymore, but apparently he's leaving the territory anyway. For a squash match on his way out, I thought this was reasonably okay. Bushi seemed earnest and I guess he learned a thing or two on this excursion. His work was kind of early Yamada-ish in that when in doubt go for a leg lock, but he didn't have any problems working juniors spots with Cerebro and the topes were cool. Terry's camera work captures a lot of the selling that IWRG misses, and my overall impression of the match was that it was reasonably consistent. Cerebro dominated the bout, but there was enough scope for both guys to put the match over even if it was truncated. The piledriver at the end was a nice touch. Might as well show him the way out in a loser leaves town match. So, Cerebro is the lightweight champ. I wonder how long he'll hold the title for. There was trouble brewing between him and El Hijo del Diablo at the end of the match, but you'd have to think that will lead to the latest in the endless series of IWRG hair matches. You'd think IWRG would move this title onto guys like Freelance, Zatura, Trauma II and Angelico, but I guess Cerebro won't defend it for a while.

IWRG 1/07/10 Black Terry/Dr Cerebro/Cerebro Negro vs. Pantera/Suicida/Zatura This had some of the lousiest matwork I've seen in a Terribles Cerebros match. It was like they were trying to do old-school Los Temerarios/Fantásticos exchanges, but they're all a bit too portly. Things picked up in the second fall when the Cerebros started brawling and I dug the camera angle on the technicos' comeback (and the topes in particular), but this was largely forgettable. Angelico/Solar/Ultraman Jr vs. Negro Navarro/Los Traumas I & II Solid match. Angelico is an awful worker, especially when he's working from a standing switch, but I have to give him credit for hanging with Trauma I in this match and doing some reasonably interesting matwork. People keep posting highlights of Angelico on youtube and it always makes me wonder what Navarro sees in this kid, but he's taken him under his wing and we'll see how he improves throughout the year. Trauma I looked better than ever in this match; and while Trauma II couldn't get anything going with Ultraman Jr, the pair of them look like better workers than they were a year ago. If Navarro's work keeps rubbing off on his kids, then Dinastía Navarro will be front runners for trios of the year. I don't think any trios has their bases covered as well as Dinastía Navarro if the Traumas keep improving on the mat. Once again, the highlight was Navarro vs. Solar, but what I liked about this match (aside from the cool ringside view of Solar/Navarro matwork) is that they didn't dominate the bout. The young guys were given a lengthy amount of time to work with each other and Navarro and Solar swapped partners briefly, which made it seem like more of a trios match. It was subtle, but I felt Solar did a good job captaining his side. This was a step closer to the type of trios matches I'd like to see in IWRG, where there's no shortage of competitiveness. I also dug the colours Solar wore here. That change and the ringside camera made the Navarro/Solar stuff seem fresher to me. I guess the mark of any trios match is whether you'd want to see the rematch and in this case I most definitely would.

I only read the transcript of the Bret angle over at DVDVR, but I don't see how he can say "the WWE Universe" so many times without wondering what the fuck has happened in 12 years.

Satanico vs. Shiro Koshinaka, hair vs. hair, EMLL 7/30/84 One of the things I discovered while watching the New Japan set is that I hate Shiro Koshinaka. I don't know why this is, since he's never been a worker I've felt strongly about one way or the other. I think Dylan Waco may have referred to him as a blackhole and that's as good a description of him as any. It did pique my interest in this match, however. It's not a match I remember liking particularly much, but it's Satanico so there has to be something good about it... Satanico cuts a promo at ringside before the bell. Despite being a rudo, he's entering this match against Samurai Shiro as a Mexican wrestler and thus there's a groundswell of support for him. Has there ever been a more charismatic worker than Satanico? Watch how he lays on the charm. It's so thick that you sense something is about to happen; something that will cement Satanico as a technico in this match. Sure enough, Koshinaka jumps him straight away. This in itself is an interesting turn of events, since you don't often see Satanico laid out like that. It's a sign that Satanico is going to sell for most of the fall and more than likely lose, unless he reverses the momentum Koshinaka has generated. Watching it unfold, I wasn't about to give Koshinaka much credit. I figured so long as he brawled okay, Satanico's selling would take care of the rest. However, for a touring wrestler, I thought Koshinaka did a number of excellent things in this fall. For starters, he had the right sort of intensity. It really did seem like he was eager to get the jump on Satanico. He paced about during the match introductions and argued with referee Eddie Palau like a seasoned rudo. As soon as the formalities were over, he begun dishing out more punishment to Satanico, and the tone was set for a excellent fall. Above all, he displayed a surprisingly nuanced understanding of when to cut off Satanico's comebacks. Either he was well advised or studied things with his own eyes, because you don't often see a touring guy with this much understanding of how to work a lucha match. Koshinaka chose to work the arm in this fall, which I guess is a universal way for workers from other countries to work together, but he set it up by stomping on the arm during the early heat segment and wrenching on it good and proper once Satanico was back in the ring. This gave Satanico plenty to sell, but the great thing about Satanico is that like Fujiwara he was such a great defensive wrestler that he was always looking to free himself from the hold. Instead of being meekly led around the ring by Koshinaka's wristlock, he pushed against Koshinaka's chin to try to straighten the arm. Koshinaka responded by moving with Satanico to the point where Satanico gave him his back. There was a nice armdrag takedown into a cruxific armbar, which led to a great spot where Satanico begun violently kneeing Koshinaka in the back. Koshinaka gave up the hold and was kneed in the head as he got to his feet, but he cut off the comeback with a kick to the cut and a nice elbow to the back of the head. Koshinaka went back to the armbar, but Satanico kicked him in the face repeatedly to tell him he'd had enough of all that business, and that was the only regrettable thing about the fall: that they left the mat to work the kind of rope exchanges that Koshinaka isn't particularly good at. Koshinaka took the fall with a backslide, whereas I would've much preferred a submission. Nevertheless, the second fall was also excellent. Satanico took a time out between falls and was like a man possessed trying to fight his way back into this match, but Koshinaka had too much in the tank for Satanico to muscle his way onto offence. I was really impressed with the headbutt spots Koshinaka threw in during the early part of this fall. They were amusing comedy spots and well sold, but they also led to Koshinaka attacking the head via different means; first driving Satanico's skull into the turnbuckle and then coming off the top with a nice diving knee that left El Satanico convulsing. This was the part of the match where they try to open things up a bit and work towards the bigger moves. They weren't in any hurry, however, and the pacing here was exceptionally good. Koshinaka set Satanico up for the move he wanted (another knee from the top) by weakening his leg so he couldn't get up off the mat, but Satanico shifted the weight to his knee and managed to catch Koshinaka with a big slam to the mat. It was a simple back bump, but Koshinaka rolled out of the ring and sold it like the trigger spot that it was. Satanico was limping, but came motoring around to the other side of the ring to finally beat the shit out of Koshinaka, and to everyone's joy, Koshinaka bleed after a series of postings. Great selling from Koshinaka, and a total surprise given that his selling was one of the reasons I hated him so much on the New Japan set. Satanico took the fall with an awesome looking folding press and there was a great shot of him sitting back up on the mat, cognisant of having taken the fall but looking absolutely buggered. A very good fall. The theme surrounding Koshinaka's head was a nice touch. Heading into the third fall, Satanico wasn't about to give Koshinaka any sort of a break. As soon as he caught his breath, he began giving Koshinaka a lesson in what a true hair match is all about. Palau kept trying to raise Satanico's hand and declare the second fall over, but these hair matches are all about an eye for an eye and all the things the bible teaches us not to do. And if there was ever a worker who wasn't about to turn the other cheek, it was El Satanico Daniel Lopez. He was relentless in this fall; hell bent on turning Koshinaka into a bloody pulp as a souvenir of his time in Mexico. Koshinaka fought back with a series of blows to Satanico's head, which sent Satanico into a frenzy at the sight of his own blood. Things were downright ugly now, the way a hair match should be. This was all about blood and guts; not being able to think straight and relying on instinct. Both guys tried to finish it and wound up selling more and more. Imagine my horror then when an amazing match like this ended with a DQ. The finish was bullshit. The match ended with a foul from Koshinaka He tried to feign that it wasn't a foul, but it was as clear as day and Palau was completely within his rights to award the match to Satanico. Koshinaka protested vigorously, but he wasn't quite good enough to pull this off in a way that would make a satisfying post-match out of a cheap finish. The idea was that Koshinaka was trying to counter a bodyslam into a cradle and that Satanico had faked the foul, but the way Koshinaka fed his arm made it look like a clear and blatant foul. Satanico certainly appeared to be faking during the post-match antics, but whatever their intentions it was a bullshit finish to a fantastic match. Bullshit finish aside, this was probably a top ten match for the 80s and likely the best match Koshinaka has ever had. Unfortunately, he didn't take anything he learnt in Mexico back to Japan, but a lot of workers claim that they don't like Mexico or that they can't understand the style, which may be the reason that most workers from other territories point blank suck in Mexico. Koshinaka, for whatever reason, embraced the opportunity to work in Mexico, and at a time when hair matches were still bloody brawls and there were workers like Satanico in their primes, he had a great match in the most visceral of lucha libre styles. And for that reason, I can't quite hate him as much as I did before.

Can't say Trauma's look bothers me. IWRG's Thursday show seems better than their Sunday tapings. They didn't have a great year but some of their stuff was solid. I've seen a bit of Arena Coliseo Monterrey. Seemed a little amateur to me. I'm probably the only guy who watches lucha that hates La Peste Negra. I fucking hate Mr. Niebla and all that comedy shit. Brazos comedy was fantastic. La Peste Negra is juvenile crap.

I guess he's saying that the match won't be very good.

Well Frank, I don't think Bret changing his story a bunch of times is grounds for calling him a liar. I can see that his inconsistency bothers you, but I don't think he has as clear cut an idea about the truth as you expect him to, and I don't think he can separate his emotions from these issues. As for Tiger Woods, he'll recover. The same way Beckham did, and Warne, and Magic Johnson, and Kobe Bryant... and every other major sports star who cheated on his wife.

El Hijo del Santo vs. Felino, CMLL 7/25/97 This was a revancha for Santo's title loss to Felino on July 4th; a match that ended with one of the great screwjob finishes of all time. If you've never seen that bout, I highly recommend it. It's one of the best lucha matches of the 90s and the finish is pure Casas. This revancha didn't offer much in the way of revenge, and I should've known by the number of times they showed Casas at ringside that they were just furthering the angle, but a few things stood out: The first was how natural an actor Casas was. The camera kept looking for him in this bout. I have no idea whether Casas knew that the camera was on him, but he looked so legitimately concerned for his brother that it really did con me into thinking that this was a serious bout with serious consequences. I don't know how worthy professional wrestling is as a form of acting, but I will say that Casas had amazing range as a performer. Santo, on the other hand, didn't have quite as much range. This was a poor rudo performance from my perspective. The Santo heel turn is deservedly famous, as it was a surprisingly shrewd piece of booking that drew back the crowds to Arena Mexico, but I'd have to say that Santo's part was mostly carried by the charisma of his opponents and the reality of seeing him on the same side as a cretin like Bestia Salvaje. Santo did a few things to "act" rudo here. He jumped Felino before the bell, roughed up him slightly and paused between normal Santo moves to convey some sort of disconnect with the crowd, but he never really had the convictions of a rudo, and that's why it was so easy to turn him technico after the feud had run dry. Santo, in truth, never wanted to be a rudo, which is something he claimed in interviews but couldn't project in the ring. Perhaps that's expecting too much, but there was a revancha match for a guy who was screwed out of his title. Most rudos would be baying for blood; Felino's first and then his brother's. In fairness to Santo, he'd begun ripping Felino's mask when Casas ran into the ring to cause a DQ, but the earlier work was neither aggressive enough from Santo nor sold well enough by Felino. If Santo's dislike for Negro Casas was so consuming that it forced him to turn rudo, then it ought to have been incessant at this point. He might not have felt it in his gut earlier, but had he played this role better, I think he would have sunk further into "rudoism" with this match. On the flipside, Santo's dives were awesome in this. They were the same dives that Santo always does, but it never ceases to amaze me how outstanding they are each time. These days, workers are constantly diving. They might as well be diving through hoops in a three ring circus. Take one look at it and your first reaction is: "what the fuck are they doing?" It's astounding how much mileage Santo got out of his dives when you take one look at modern matches and never want to see the workers again. OK, that's not true. There's a few guys who do dives which are worth watching again, but none of them are mainevent workers like Santo was. So, how did he do it? It's not really a matter of execution; there's guys doing far more difficult dives these days and executing them perfectly. It helps that he held off on them until late in the match, instead of jumping the gun. It also helps that he was a proper wrestler and not some guy who had no business being in the ring; but I think the reason is that they were simple moves albeit incredibly well executed. No matter how many new ideas people try to come up, there hasn't been a dive yet that beats a well executed tope. I hate springboard moves with a passion. If I were in charge of training luchadores, I'd tell them that the lord gave them three ropes through which to dive and a top turnbuckle from which to jump off, and if any of them wish to dive over the top rope or springboard themselves, they better be able to wrestle. I'm sure Diablo Velasco would approve. Anyway, this was a decent watch in the context of the Santo/Casas brothers feud, but not a compelling watch on its own.

Time for some lucha awards. 2009 was a frustrating year that saw a lot of sources for IWRG and Arena Puebla appear and disappear, but at the same time a lot of random lucha indy footage made its way onto the internet. These awards are unashamedly based on the Tapatía Awards at cubsfan's site, and this year I asked Raging Noodles to give us his thoughts too. Don't bother reading them if you like CMLL and AAA. Best Wrestler: RN -- Negro Navarro This was one of the best years for Negro Navarro. He looked great in all of the Dinastía Navarro vs Terribles Cerebros trios, especially when working against Dr. Cerebro and Black Terry. He brought his underrated brawling skills to the memorable feud, and had some awesome moments of brawling with his fellow maestro Black Terry. When it's the right time in a feud, Navarro can throw down like he's Bill Dundee. He had a MOTYC with Solar I back in May and his Delaware Chikara match (which popped up for one Summer night on a Brazilian video streaming site before disappearing forever) featured some incredible action with Solar I in the primera caida, and a great destruction of Quackenbush in the segunda caida. Has had scattered matches all throughout YouTube over 2009, some were great while others were merely routine contests. His last great match of the year involved Navarro teaming up with Fishman Jr. & Arcanos to take on Perro Mastin, Platino, & Solar I (11/22/09) in another match with some brilliant Solar/Navarro matwork. OJ -- Negro Navarro Navarro wins this by default simply by being the best wrestler in Mexico. An interesting tidbit about Negro Navarro came our way this year courtesy of Mike Quackenbush, who wrote: "Super Crazy, like my mentor Jorge Rivera, is a generous person, and if there was some bit of information or knowledge you'd like him to share, he wouldn't hesitate. Anything he knew he'd be happy to teach you, from the tiniest transition to the most intricate of holds. This stands in contrast to the disposition of another luchador I crossed paths with earlier in the year - Negro Navarro. Well-respected for his mastery on the mat, Navarro is anything but generous, and delights in taking advantage of his opponents." When Raging Noodles asked Steve Sims about Navarro, he got the following reply: "[Negro Navarro] has little respect for people not in his generation, and does not care for the path that modern day lucha libre has taken away form the mat work. He will really stretch people with whom he is working, if he is not very respectful of them prior to the match." All of that makes Negro Navarro seem incredibly badass, regardless of how unfair it is on the workers he doesn't respect, but I have to admit that the stretching got a little old this year. If Navarro doesn't care for the path that modern day lucha libre has taken (and God knows why anyone would), I'd like to see him working proper matches for a change. It seems to me that we got more Negro Navarro this year, but less quality matches than in previous years. Best Match: RG: 1. Zatura vs Trauma II (6/18/09) Excellent match from two young guys, and Trauma II's coming out party. They had some ambitious and creative ideas that were interesting to watch unfold. But while some didn't turn out smoothly in execution, this deserves a million points for what they were able to create as a whole. It was an earnest effort from both these grapplers and they managed to pull off some really complex matwork that felt totally fresh and alive. One of the best things about this match was how unique it was, at certain moments it felt like a BattlArts contest, with some beautiful matwork naturally blended in with some very violent bodypart work, some headbutts, the very memorable striking exchange in the 3rd fall and a couple of awesome highspots. They did a lot in this match, but they still managed to pace things, create a nice flow, and they actually sold their shoulder injuries in a remarkable manner. These two give me a little hope that maybe the future of lucha libre won't be so bad if these guys continue to get better and better. 2. Toro Bill Sr., Espiritu Maligno, and Mister Rafaga vs Tigre Rojo, Black Tiger and Blue Center (3/2/09) This felt like an actual classic lucha libre match, and all the workers in this match made it look so easy. The effortlessness displayed in this match shows how good these guys are and how familiar they must be with each other. Toro Bill Sr. is such a great veteran rudo, dude can work the mat, take lighting quick roll bumps, and lead a good rudo beatdown. Blue Center is a great technico that works so gracefully and moves around the ring like Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire. Everyone else fills their role nicely, and Espirutu Maligno is a pretty insane bump maniac and takes some nasty bumps. All the finishes to the 3 falls are spectacular as well. Beautiful wrestling. OJ: Zatura vs Trauma II (6/18/09) Originally, I was going to go with the Delaware trios for the same reasons that I chose the Lucha Libre London trios last year, but in the end I decided that Zatura vs. Trauma II was the most promising thing to come out of Mexico since I started writing this blog. Those of you who read this blog on a regular basis will know that I have almost nothing good to say about young workers or the path that modern lucha libre has taken, but this was an excellent match. I wouldn't say that it left me optimistic about the future, because it was wrestled in IWRG and I've barely seen anything from either guy since, but the best thing about this match is that it wasn't some sort of throwback lucha libre match; it was a perfectly modern match, which shows that if these young guys want to wrestle in a way that's different from the older generation, they can, so long as they're good enough. Best Technico: RN -- Solar I If Blue Center had made more tape and had performed at the level he was performing in his 3/2/09 and 6/15/09 matches, he probably should have gotten the pick. Maybe in 2010, some great Blue Center work will suddenly appear and I'll be able to retroactively pick him for this category. But as it is, in 2009, the best technico is still Solar and he's the Kiyoshi Tamura to Navarro's Volk Han. Such a graceful worker, can still pull off some of the most beautiful matwork sequences in the world, as he proved many times throughout the year in numerous matches in front of crowds of under 100 people. Some of the quickness and speed he displayed is astonishing for a guy his age. His work in Chikara and in the 11/22/09 trios are the matches to check out to see a perfect example of this. He's still a charming technico that you get up and root for. OJ -- Valiente Earlier in the year, Freelance and Valiente were neck and neck in this category. One guy would give an awesome performance and the other guy would challenge it, and there was a bit of a duel going on (in my eyes, that is.) Then Freelance injured himself and Valiente decided the best way to get ahead was to look like those CMLL callboys in pose in bodybuilding contests each year. Both guys are shittily booked and qualify for this award on potential more than anything else, but I'm going with Valiente since he's one of the few guys whose stuff looks good in CMLL. Best Rudo: RN -- Negro Casas I was thinking about rudos in general, and no one really stands out the way MS-1, El Satanico, Perro Aguayo Sr., or Sangre Chicana stood out in previous decades. Even a few years ago, we at least had Universo 2000 standing tall as a top notch charismatic rudo that knows how to work great arena matches. This...to put it nicely, wasn't the best of years for professional wrestling. I was impressed by some undercard workers like Toro Bill Sr., who proved to be a great journeyman and a few others caught my eye as well. But for best rudo, I guess I'll go with the obvious pick of Negro Casas. Casas' has always been a guy who works so much better as a loud expressionistic rudo than as a technico. I wasn't as crazy about his work as others seemed to be, and his rudo shtick seems a bit minor compared to his previous great rudo runs like in 1992. But in a year like this, Casas seems like the right and obvious answer. His tag team title match, some trios and his matches with Mistico (which I enjoyed while still thinking they were ridiculously overrated) still had small moments of Casas' past greatness, and he is still a guy that can sell a technico comeback as good as anyone. Not to mention, his inring charisma and facial expressions are still pretty great. OJ -- Policeman Fuck La Peste Negra. You couldn't pay me to watch Negro Casas' crap this year. I had to think long and hard about this category. To be honest, I don't think there's anyone deserving of this award. The best thing you can say for most rudoes these days are that they're decent foils for the technicos, but did anybody really work rudo this year? I mean really work rudo. Policeman may seem like an absurd choice, but he's a guy with an obvious rudo gimmick who managed to have an entertaining feud with Centella de Oro. It was mostly built around lowblows, but led to one of the better hair matches this year and was one of the only successfully booked things to make it onto TV all year, presumably because the CMLL higher ups don't give a fuck about the Puebla shows. So my vote goes to a guy who bumped and stooged, was ran out of town and came back for more. Best Unit: RN -- Terribles Cerebros I mentioned their memorable feud with the Navarro family earlier, but they also ended up being in a bunch of other really good IWRG matches. Black Terry is a great captain, a grizzled journeyman who's done it all, and one of the handful of workers that is Navarro's equal. Dr. Cerebro has stepped it up to become one of the most talented workers in the world, and Cerebro Negro is such a reliable solid smart performer. Another match worth checking out is a Terribles Cerebros vs Pirata Morgan Jr., Hijo Del Pirata Morgan, and Barba Roja from 8/6/09. Both teams felt like real trios teams, and created an excellent match full of matwork, great trios teamwork, and very creative finishes to the segunda and tercera caidas. OJ -- Terribles Cerebros These guys were hands down the best trios in Mexico this year. They developed their act so that any of the three guys could be the lead-off guy, but it worked best when Dr. Cerebro started things off on the mat. Cerebro had arguably the best year of his career in 2009; I say arguably because it's not like we're actually in a position to know, but he was oustanding nonetheless. Cerebro's strong form meant that the Terribles Cerebros could keep Terry in the back pocket, which is really where you want a guy like Black Terry to be, to work that last exchange before everyone hits the ring for the finish. It's just a shame that we can't see IWRG's Thursday night tapings anymore, since everyone appears to work individually on this weekend show of theirs. Oddly enough, last year's clear cut winners, Los Officiales, looked remarkably better in individual matches this year. Best Promotion: RN -- IWRG Although CMLL Puebla also offered some good stuff, I have to give the nod to IWRG. It offered us the most interesting matches of the year, but at the same time, frustrated us since they could have done a much better job at so many other things. They had Freelance and they failed to do anything special with him. OJ -- IWRG IWRG offered the best matches this year, so they win this award, but anything good that comes out of this promotion is happening by accident. Best Rivalry: RN -- Terribles Cerebros vs. Dinastía Navarro One of the few feuds in 2009 that provided us with some great matwork AND great brawling. It also helped developed the most improved worker of 2009... OJ -- Terribles Cerebros vs. Dinastia Navarro This was a match-up that we got to see four times this year. Each match had its flaws and none of them were the MOTY candidate that they looked like on paper; in fact, the feud reminded me of Los Infernales vs. Los Intocables in that all of the matches were entertaining yet none of them were outstanding. Having said that, Terry vs. Navarro is the best thing in lucha right now. Bringing in Navarro's kids and having Terry's boys rumble with the Navarro family makes it even cooler and gives their on again/off again feud a trios base to work from. IWRG brought this match-up back in October, which we didn't get to see, but hopefully they get bored and run it again next year. Most Improved: RN -- Trauma II In 2008, Trauma II was working some nice holds but lacking confidence and exhibiting nervousness. He was struggling quite a bit, although he always exhibited a lot of effort. In 2009, throughout the Terribles Cerebros vs Dinastia Navarro rivalry, he grew in confidence and as a worker. He started showing incredible potential and finally started performing like what one would expect the son of Negro Navarro to perform like. His peak was the aforementioned MOTY and I hope he continues to grow as a worker. OJ -- Trauma II Yeah, Trauma II went from being this weedy guy who couldn't throw a strike very well and was frustrating to watch on the mat to a legit top ten guy this year. Most of this happened "off screen" since we were living on scraps, but it was an amazing transformation. The last time I saw him, I couldn't believe how confident he'd become. I kinda wonder how far he can go with that skinny frame of his, and right now he's idling since IWRG never really have anything for anybody to do, but he ought to sweep this in the actual Tapatía Awards.

Well, if Bret's account doesn't sound plausible then you already know who to believe. My question is why the need for Bret to admit that he's wrong? Of all the things Bret has bullshitted to himself about over the years, I don't think the Bad News Allen story is a major factor in whether Bret is warped or not. Surely there must be better examples from the book. C'mon, you don't know what Dynamite Kid's intentions were for including the story in his book. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Dynamite spill some dirt on Bret in his book, which IIRC Bret didn't particularly appreciate at the time, only to turn around and confess in his own book that he wasn't the clean living, family guy he played on TV? The impression I always got was that DK was taking some none so subtle jabs at Bret, which isn't to say that DK was lying about the Bad News story, but I think it's in the book for a reason because it's not that interesting a story without Bret getting his knickers in a twist about it. Well, I think you'd need to read a book written by a historian. Unfortunately, most wrestling books are written by fans turned authors. Why do you believe this? I'm just curious as to how you decide one thing is plausible and another isn't. Well, that's true, but I think if I were Bret Hart I'd be pretty torn between moving on and being fucked off at all the things that happened to me even if some of them were my fault. At any rate, it'll be interesting to see what they do with Bret. Same reason why people will love Tiger Woods again when he returns. Anyone who's excited about Bret returning is more than likely someone who's always dreamed that Bret would have one last run with the WWE. Entertainment matters more than anything else in pro-wrestling.

El Hijo del Santo vs. Felino, Mexican National Middleweight Championship, CMLL 4/5/96 This was a good match. It wasn't a mat classic like the Blue Panther vs. Atlantis Copa Victoria final, but it had a lot in common with how I think lucha should be wrestled these days, i.e., if you're not going to wrestle close to the canvas, you should at least be clever about how you put a match together. This started off on the mat, but didn't really go anywhere because Felino wasn't able to work from underneath at this point. It was fairly typical matwork in that the guy working underneath reversed the hold into one of his own, but Felino wasn't able to do anything interesting with the limbs he was fed. Santo for his part looked good, and established that the mat wasn't a place where Felino was going to gain an advantage; it was just a little disappointing in the sense that Santo is a guy who I'd like to see wrestle a bit more. Oftentimes, he'll work the spots he's known for and little else. Here, he stayed away from the mat spots he's known for and worked a pretty solid ground game, but Felino couldn't counter effectively and that meant that Santo didn't have to wrestle as much as he could have. In the end, they left the mat altogether. Usually, I hate it when workers leave the mat to finish a fall, but it made sense here from Felino's perspective as challenger. The only real success he was having was with his throws and thus he was better off on his feet. What I liked about the finish was that they put a little thought into it. Felino bumped to the outside, and scattered when Santo faked a tope. Santo wound up baseball sliding through the ropes to chase Felino, but the feline Casas was quicker than his opponent and caught him with a spinning heel kick as he re-entered the ring. This set-up Felino's crucifix powerbomb, which may seem like an annoying way to finish a fall's worth of matwork, but it was pretty clear that Felino needed to create distance between himself and his opponent, and strike from there. Felino is your atypical modern luchador in the sense that he's really an armdrag type guy. He likes to bump and roll and use the ropes, and it's his gimmick after all that he's the fastest luchador. Modern luchadores need to play to these strengths as well, since it's the only thing they know how to do; the trouble is, it really is the only thing they know how to do, so you don't get the same sort of grounding that Felino had here before he decided to chance his arm by charging at Santo, who we know could've avoided the spin kick and countered it into a pin. Felino didn't have a clue what he was doing in the second fall and looked like he was making it up as he went along, but again he had success with his throws, which gave Santo something to sell after taking a big back bump from the crucifix bomb. I didn't really mind that Felino looked clueless, because I can buy that the challenger isn't sure what to do next, but it was one of those weak bridging falls where the guy who ate the pinfall in the first caida reverses the tables in no time whatsoever. It was a nice belly-to-belly suplex off the top rope, though. Good impact and the most decisive throw of the match, so it had those things going for it, I suppose. If you're going to throw bombs, at least make them emphatic. The bridging fall I'm talking about is an important part of lucha singles matches in that it quickly undoes the work that was done in winning the first caida; I just thought the transition was a little weak, though psychology bookworms will note that Santo avoided the spinning heel kick and thus it was part of the tapestry of the match. Deciding the length of the fall is somewhat tricky. These days, the length of each fall is determined by television time, which is unfortunate, because the ability to lengthen or shorten a fall is how you build momentum for the third caida. If the falls are of equal length, then there's a predictablity about the third caida. Some might argue that there's always a predictability about the third caida, but shortened falls put the heat on whoever lost the fall. Nowdays, every fall is short, which is part of the ongoing problem of nothing really mattering anymore. Santo hit his Tope de Cristo to kick start the third fall (I think I got that right, that flying somersault headbutt to the outside that Santo likes to do); a caida that was filled with the type of inconsistent selling that people hate about lucha. Some people might question why they sell so much after hitting a move or kicking out of a nearfall only to spring to their feet for the next attempt, but the stagger sell on a pinfall cover is better than no pacing at all. It's always an indicator that the end is near and at least that creates some tension for the fans. Besides, Felino was the type of worker who liked to miss moves from the top, like his moonsault to canvas which led to the finish here. So long as both guys are running out of lives, so to speak, you can build a reasonably dramatic fall even if you're not selling that well. Santo took this match with a camel clutch that Felino sort of tried to fight, and while it wasn't a great match, I really felt that rhythm was the key here. Lucha matches these days don't seem to have rhythm. If you watch a match until it's conclusion and think back on how they got there, there doesn't seem to be many twists and turns along the way. Guys aren't gelling and forcing each other to go in different directions. It's pretty much a catching contest with dives in the first fall, dives in the second fall, and dives in the third fall. You can plug any set of luchadores in there and they'll follow the same pattern. This wasn't one of the better Santo/Felino matches, but it had a hell of a lot more scope than the average match today. Felino came up short for a reason, and how many matches can you say that about these days? Lucha is as arbitrary right now as the amount of unmaskings and hair cuts in IWRG. Felino was the type of worker that all the young guys want to be, and while I wouldn't call him a particularly great worker, he had much better matches than we're seeing today despite the fact that he looked clueless half the time, and the reason for that is because he could follow the rhythm of a match and time his stuff accordingly. If more workers could do that, then more stuff would be passable. Instead, people have lowered their standards dramatically to be able to enjoy present day CMLL or whatever else they're watching, and funnily enough Felino is a part of that now. Instead of asking where the good Felino matches are these days, it's more a case of where's a match with a minute of good Felino work while he does that stupid La Peste Negra crap. This title match from '96 is the type of match they should be able to put out with ease these days, but they can't. It's dumbfounding to me that so many of the basic skills have been lost in such a short span of time, but I guess you reap what you sow.

Yeah, even I'll admit that Alverez quote is fucking stupid.