Cubsfan should on Tuesday

Great, thanks.

Great, thanks.

It's going to be on NJPW World too.

 

Great, thanks.

It's going to be on NJPW World too.

 

 

 

Their site says it won't be available to anyone outside of Japan though.

This has definitely been a fun card for people to check out so far.

 

I have a theory that UG matches are the Ric Flair mindset of doing signature spots because he would have been upset if Ray Stevens didn't do one taken to the extreme. It's pro wrestling church. Not just expectation but ritual. This is the same building every week. UG's not fooling anyone. He's not trying to. The fans wouldn't want him to. It's church.

That was a very enjoyable show, felt like it went by quickly and did not overstay it's welcome at about 2 hours and 15 minutes and length. Best match of the night for me was Barbaro Cavernario vs. Rey Cometa but I pretty much liked all of the matches and was especially impressed by how Marco Corleone still looks like a super athlete at 39 years old.

Curious what people think of the Caristico v. Histeria mask match from Christmas night. I found myself really liking the third fall which shocked me, but was largely indifferent to the first two

I finally watched Trauma/Lupus and wrote a lengthy review of it here -- http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/blog/8/entry-488-2016-round-up-day-2/

 

The long, the short and the tall of it all: I thought the first two falls were rubbish but everything after the chair shots was amazing and the post-match unmasking was incredible.

 

Strongly agree with this. The first two falls are shockingly poor. It seems like they were just killing time until the double chair spot. Everything after is pretty great though. I would give *** 1/2 - *** 3/4 for the whole deal. Very good but not great. Nowhere near MOTD level for me.

Curious what people think of the Caristico v. Histeria mask match from Christmas night. I found myself really liking the third fall which shocked me, but was largely indifferent to the first two

It had its moments but I thought it was a bit of a mess. I'm not sure the referee helped, but it seemed like they couldn't decide whether to do heel-doing-stuff-behind-ref's-back spots or to not bother hiding it. Plus it is hard to make this kind of match truly dramatic as the result never really seemed in any doubt.

CMLL really needs to cut down on the crowd shots. They make WWE look moderate by comparison in that department.

That Friday night show was pretty great. Found it instructive to see both Cavernario/Cometa and Volador/Mephisto on the same show, as it really showed the difference between a well-worked back-and-forth spot-centric match like the former and a lazy my-turn-your-turn bore like most every Volador Jr. singles match.

I'm just glad someone clued in Volador Jr that the bodysuit look wasn't very flattering for him/looks odd sans mask.

Didn't think Casas vs. Hechicero was much more than *** match, tbh. The first fall was good but once they veered away from the submission stuff they lost my interest.

I'm still plugging away at 2016. I had mostly positive things to say about the Volador Jr vs. Cavernario title bout but the Reyes del Aire final was spottier and had an awful finish. I suppose I should have expected a Reyes del Aire bout to be spotty. There were some spectacular spots in the tercera caida and some nice drama. Until that finish.

I loved that finish. It was total rudo.

I have a lot of Antonio Pena recommendations if you liked that finish!

Everything in moderation.There's a difference between doing that sort of thing every week for the sake of it and doing it once in the Reyes del Aire to get heat (by ending it in the most rudo, disrespectful way possible for that specific crown) for an upcoming match that'll have a cleaner finish.

Shockingly I loved a AAA match between Hector Garza Jr and Hijo del Phantasma. Its hand held and the crowd is hot! Dramatic. Big moves plus some noce intensity shown. Probably like *** 3/4

Pentagon Jr, Hector Garza Jr and Daga all left AAA last weekend and jumped to The Crash Lucha Libre. They proceeded to have a really fun muli man tag against The Hardys, Juventud, Psicosis, Super Crazy, and others.

 

What does this mean for Lucha Undeground, no more Pentagon? All of this is very fascinating.

Also Pentagon Jr is now going by Pentagon El 0M and teaming with Fenix as Los Lucha Brothers.

Apparently AAA is taking a huge percentage of the booking fee when one of their guys works an indy show, and the guys weren't always aware of that until after the fact.

 

Pretty funny to see them using the "guys who want to be here will be here" talking point at the press conference today when they don't seem to want to pay anyone.

Hopefully it won't be an issue for Pentagon to continue with LU, they kept on Sexy Star even though (if I recall) she split with AAA before the season 3 tapings. Then again with season 4 being up in the air it's hard to say. Part of me wonders if LU with switch their relationship to the Crash, it seems like a lot of the AAA guys they originally got were recommended by Konnan anyway.

Didn't LU just name Dorian Roldan as the new person in charge of the wrestling side of things since everyone else involved were TV people?

I've got a new MOTY

 

This title match is worked more like a mask match. The rudo just kills him to the point the crowd interjects three times: blocking the rudo from attacking more, giving the tecnico water, and finally distracting the referee while the rudo has on a submission. The crowd is great and the intensity is there. Awesome awesome shit!!

 

The Impossible/Relampago feud has pretty much single-handedly kept me interested in modern wrestling these past couple of months. There have been great matches and wacky matches and the hate between the two of them has been holding the whole IWRG main event scene together. So much hate and so much passion. It is well worth watching anything with their involvement and this match is right up there with their best efforts. But it feels like they are still building things up and there is much more to come. If they get a mask match down the line it has the potential to be an absolute classic.

Here is my list of the ten best matches in January in lucha libre.

 

https://prowrestlingsuperblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/01/top-10-lucha-matches-of-the-month-january-2017/