Congress Thoughts, 09/24

I don’t remember what I actually wanted to say. Oh well. I’ll just babble.

As a counterpoint the late start (the crowd actually started to rebel about this, which was fantastic), the ticket situation was done as professionally as I’ve seen them do. Good on them for that.

They were selling copies of the January DVD along with the usual masks and shirts at the merchandise stand. Didn’t see any new ones available.

Popcorn was good. YAY popcorn.

For the first half of the show, they were actually good at not having the long match pause. And then things went back to normal (ie bad). Did give me an excellent occasion to stare at the ceiling.

I have no idea what they were doing with the lighting. No lighting rig, and they started off just using moving spotlights on the ring, and big spotlights on the stage. (Which wasn’t very fun when someone was on the stage and talking, and I was staring into the light.)

They removed some of the floor seating – this and the lighting rig were things Rob pointed out to me, so I think him for that – and moved the ring farther from the stage than usual. They had guardrails to prevent people from freely getting into the ringside seats, and the usual barricades were in place to keep people from getting to the stage, which would make sense at the end of the night.

Sadly, this wasn’t a night where they let all the kids hit the ring for mayhem and fake violence.

I failed to bring my Rey Bucanero mask for the billionth time in a row. I just need to bring it to wear on the CTA and see if anyone notices.

Your refs were
– el Apuntes
– the guy who always does it in blue jeans, and half tucked in his shirt

The OMLL promoter who doubles as a ref was also around. Both refs were working as rudo referee, and strongly as rudo referees, which old by the third match.

1) Sileuta Azul b Tigre de Nunchucks (not an actual name) via “ankelock?”

Tigre – he might have been Tigre Oriental, but I don’t think that’s what it said on his tights – had “Dude Looks Like a Lady” as entrance music. This was a fine random joke.

Swear to Robot Jesus, Sileuta Azul put on a hold that involved the lower leg of Tigre (not the old Tigre – whatever happened to him?), I turned to Rob to ask what it was supposed to be, and by the time he looks, it’s over and the match is over. Very much an opening match and a good idea to be a one fall match. I didn’t think it was a good match, but I wasn’t expecting one here.

Post match, Tigre attacked Silueta Azul with his nunchucks to – get his heat back? Tigre would hang around outside for the rest of the show.

2) Guerrito del Futuro & Angel del Muerte b Pato Loco & Acero Dorado

After this match, I now realize I’ve underated Guerrerito del Futuro all along – he held this match together, and made it far better than it would’ve been with a random local here. The Dorado/Loco tag team was the same as always – some talent, some good moves hit, some good moves not hit. Muerte and Futuro didn’t have much chemistry as a team, but I blame Muerte. Pato Loco is still not good, but he’s over with the duck gimmick and seeing as there seems to be no locals who are over, good and tecnico, you might as well push hard a guy who’s two of the three. Start using him as a local Super Muneco, put him in the semimains against the LA/indy Mexico guys, and see if he gets it. Dorado’s much more interchangeable (and it’s all about having the unique look), and they were chanting for Pato when he was out of the match.

This show’s suggestions for wacky Pato Loco bits
– Daffy Duck related theme music (assuming they could ever play the right entrance music)
– feathered arm sleeve
– a duck tail!
– HEADBUTTS! BILLBUTTS!

It’s a good thing I have no idea who Pato Loco is, or I might talk his head off with wacky duck ideas.

Post match, Acero Dorado challenged the rudos to face them once more, the rudos came back, and the rudos laid out the tecnicos. This was quite the poor strategical choice by Mr. Acero Dorado.

3) Mascara de Jade & Gringo Loco (w/Joey Eastman) b SWAT Kat & Lancer 2000

This is a variation of the Loco/GdF vs Kat/Lancer match they seem to have been doing for months, and this is also the point where the show went off the rails for me. The first two matches were as good as I were expecting, but this match was far lesser than the recent ones. I know I just hyped Futuro, but Jade was as good as Jade ever can be, and Gringo Loco was as good as always.

The problem here was with the tecnicos. Lancer 2000 wasn’t as good as he normally is, and SWAT Kat was really bad. At one point, SWAT Kat was the highlight of these shows, and it’s depressing to see him be a negative now. He’s really been going downhill for quite a while, and hasn’t been as good as he was for months. Don’t know what the deal is – this night, it could’ve been the ropes (everyone seemed not to trust them, but no one ever went to fix them) – but the bottom line is this match had more bad looking spots than I’ve seen lately.

I say all of this, but I want to make sure you know the match was as over as any undercard match has been of late. This is totally due to pre-match mic work by Tyme Page and Joey Eastman, Immigration Agent. (Eastman, bald and in a suit, looks like Dana White, but that’s neither here or there. And I think I’m not using the right amount of constants in his name) Joey’s threat to deport all of us was great, though I maybe you leave of the Wife Beating comment at a family show. (Then again, it is wrestling.) I think, if this was a free show, Joey may or may not have made it out of the building alive. As it was, he got pelted with a popcorn box about every fifteen seconds. His managing was great too.

Finish saw the tecnicos get roll ups, and the ref and Eastman reverse them for the three. Afterwards, the big Samoan-looking guy who’s at every one of these shows showed up in a mask to declare the tecnicos champions. (If he wanted his identity to be secret, he probably should’ve have worn the SDSU jersey he wears every single show.) This went on for a while, and you may note we’re 3 for 3 in post match wackiness.

4) Hijo del Diablo, Coco Verde, Coco Negro (w/Coco Anaranjado) DQ Rayo Laser, El Dorado, Aguila del America

I actually figured out what was going on here! I might have been the only one. Sequence of events

– Three Cocos (clowns) walk out. Coco Anaranjado (orange) is wearing opposite great as everyone else, and ends up staying out the ring and managing (or just acting goofy.) This wasn’t made clear.

– Hijo del Diablo enters. This is weird for two reasons – first, it’s el Hijo del Diablo, what is he doing here? (make that three – why is he in the semimain?). Second, he hangs out with the clowns, and since we don’t know Orange is out of the match, it seems like the first atomicos ever in Congress Theatre (maybe)

– Rayo Lasser and El Dorado (it doesn’t seem like he’s been around in a while) enter. Good so far.

– Aguila del America, who’s been a rudo since the day he’s born, and a rudo every show here (and usually in a strong position) enters. Now we’re all lost. I’m thinking this is some sort of wacky battle royal, but then the Cocos make a show of wanting Aguila del America on their side. The whole thing’s very confused, with the referees even signaling “5 versus 2?!?!?” to the ring announcer, who offers no help.

– and then Diablo attacks Aguila, the Cocos attack the other tecnicos, and the match started.

The fact that I have to make a chart of what happened is a bad sign. This was all a crowd brawl and nothing I haven’t seen in this building a dozen times. Aguila’s a good rudo and got to use some of the tecnico spots he usually falls for, but the fact that he was used as a tecnico speaks to the overwhelming lack of tecnicos on the card. The finish saw the Cocos pull off their masks and throw them to the tecnicos, and Diablo forcing Aguila to low blow him, all in front of the refs, who of course awarded the match to the rudos.

Post match, Aguila, Rayo, and Diablo all did mic work. I amused myself by thinking Diablo’s fallen so far, the big mask match is apparently going to be against Aguila del America. Perhaps not quite yet, but I’m sure they made those challenges.

This month and last month, Coco Verde, who’s a rudo, thanked the fans and talked about his new child before and after the match. I think. I don’t know enough to know what he said, but I’m beginning to think I’d still be confused.

5) El Hijo del Santo & Mistico b Averno & Mephisto

I described this elsewhere as a house show like – it was all the spots you paid to see except the Mistico big dive (though he did work in a pescado) and I think that might have been for the best – people almost got laid out on Santo’s tope, and I think Mistico might have got mobbed if he went out to the floor too much alone. But then they did fight in the crowd, same as everyone else, some – Mephisto and Santo went over the barricade to get to the stage about 5 feet from me, which was fun.

It’s unfair to expect more out of them they got, because this was about the level everyone works when they come thru (and, to be completely honest, the level they should work on a show that’s in the middle of nowhere in the lucha world and where the difference between *** and **** means nothing except to a few marks.) Buuuuuut…the January match was sure better and went longer, and I really needed that match to make this show work here. I can’t blame them for the rest of the show being disappointing my low standards, but it sure would’ve been nice if they worked a bit harder to save it.

Anyway, Mistico got La Mistica for the win (with CO on the other), and then everyone bolted. Rudos were hustled out of there while the tecnicos distracted the crowd by beating up both rudo referees, and Santo and Mistico nearly pushed their way to get to the back.

Santo was advertised to come back for pictures, but by then, I wanted out of there. He must’ve come out, because Dr. Keith did get his time. (All those fine questions for Mephisto were wasted, sadly.)

Show went 3:00, which is at least :30 and probably 1:00 too long for a 5 match show on a Sunday night.

If the DVD comes out, and they don’t get around to doing this exact match elsewhere, than it’s worth getting just go see the match, but it’s not a huge loss if you miss it.

I have some pictures for here and short cell phone videos (really short – my phone caps them at 15 seconds) I might put up, if I can get them off easy.

I don’t know if I’m coming back to Congress. I mean, I guess I will, because I always seem to go, but – I’m sick of long shows on Sunday with long dead pauses and underwhelming undercard matches with post match angles which go on forever and yet never actually go anywhere, and the only thing that overcomes that is seeing people who are really good and/or I haven’t seen. Now that I’ve finally gotten to see Santo, I’m not sure who’s left that I haven’t seen, so it’s going to be a tough sell for a main event. They may have used up all the carrots to get me there, and they’re not actually fixing any of the problems. I hope they surprise me and blow me away, but I’m not anticipating it.

They did not announce a next show, so maybe I’m talking a lot for no reason.

I am so sick of writing now.