01/11 GALLI @ Cicero Stadium

This is what my notes say. This is way too long, as always, but then it lets me get out other ideas in the course of events.

Cicero Stadium is a nice sized building for a indy show. It’s a small gym floor, tight enough so the sound can bounce around and no one seems that far away. Small enough that there was room for the mask stands but not the concessions (and small enough that I wonder how roller derby track fits in there; must be smaller than I know.) Show started around 5:15 (or about a minute after I sat down) and I’d guess the attendance was north of 300, but I don’t really have a good idea of capacity. Unlike most shows, it seemed like the ring side seats were full and the bleachers were 40% full – usually it’s the other way around (until everyone just moves down.)

All matches were 1 fall except for the main event.

Usual dark match between US-style guys was, in fact, the usual. I didn’t get the names but I didn’t try to hard. The guy with the mohawk and Delirious like attitude in the Jimmy Jacobs style one and a half leg tights beat the larger Hispanic? Asian? guy. Highlight was the ref, who might have came here with the idea he might wrestle and decided to put on his wrestling trunks (and sunglasses) even thought he was only refereeing. All the better, he tucked his ref shirt into his trunks. Aces.

Show opening sponsor thanks bit is interrupted by rudo Chilango, who needed to inform us that us (Indians) are in fact the ugliest and stupidest people he’s ever wrestled in front of. Chilango continued his rudo Mesias-ish promo until Emperador made the save and an impromptu match broke out.

1) Chilango b Emperador – I think Emperador was a rudo last time I was at one of these, but he’s was a tecnico tonight. About a 5-7 minute match that I don’t remember a lot from, but Chilango took it with a shapshooter.

2) Silueta Dorada, Electron b Resistencia & Venganza (~7:00) – usual indy inexperienced lucha. There’s going to be segments where everything goes along well, then someone doesn’t know what they’re supposed to do next and things go off kilter for a while. Tecnicos won via submissions.

3) El Potro & Justiciero b Silver Dragon & Simbolo (~9:00) I spent the first few minutes of the match thinking these guys needed some more work, because they didn’t seem to have the rudo/tecnico concepts right. And then I realized I was just a goofball and had the teams backwards. Potro and Justiciero were the tecnicos, Dragon and Simbolo were the rudos. This was good in parts, Potro and Silver Dragon looking very athletic and Simolo taking big bumps, but really just a little better than the previous.

4) Centella de Oro & Meteoro I b Pentagon del Infierno & Guerrillero (~16:00) These times, by the way, were generated by me looking at the clock on my iTouch before the match and then after the match and hoping I did the match right. But this one did feel long. It started off quite good, with Guerrillero doing stuff that reminds me why I sometimes like him and Pentagon del Infierno looking good enough to make me wonder why I don’t like him more. And the beatdown just kept going, and going, and going and…

A common problem with matches on this night is the match would have a rudo beatdown, but never the tecnico comeback. I’m not anti-cool tag team moves by any stretch, but I think people sometimes forget that the point of the beatdown portion of a lucha match isn’t just for rudos to show off their offense, it’s to build up the fans to want to see the tecnicos finally get their revenge, and then to give them that revenge. There were matches here where the rudos would control for a long time, and then the match would just drift back to one on ones with no blowoff. Or it’d go back to one on ones for a second, the tecnico would randomly get in offense (random, because they have no problme doing it after getting worked over for the last four minutes), and then the other rudo would come back in and start working over the tecnico like nothing had happened. It was strange.

Anyway, this match might have not wanted to do the big comeback, because the finish was Centella de Oro getting a quick bodyscissors rollup on Pentagon for the win. Pentagon attacked Centella after, and it was explained that Centella had been beating Pentagon enough lately. After they were separated, they agreed to a singles match next time in Cicero (with the tease of an eventual mask match.)

up to this point: no dives! surprising with this crew

5) Payaso Negro, Payaso Blanco, Demencia b Kamikaze, Furia Roja, Nemesis (~15:00) – lots of stuff going on here. Nemesis wanted no part of his tecnico teammates, and laid down to be pinned by Payaso Negro for the match. As usual, Los Payasos might have been regulars under masks (though different regulars than usual.) I haven’t seen Kamikaze and Furia Roja here before, but they must’ve been wrestling somewhere else for some time (ELLMEX?), because they’re too far along to be rookies and seemed very athletically talented. They did dives at the end, which left them unable to stop Nemesis from giving up the match.

After, the tecnicos went after Nemesis, only for the rudos to attack them again, and Nemesis to join the rudo side.

Intermission was here. This show sailed along, and I like 5pm start times. Now, if only we could do it not against the NFL playoffs.

6) Samuari, Slayer, Tigre b Amenaza de Siglo, Tony Scarpone, Mason Conrad (~14:00) – Tony reached out his hand to me, and then pulled it away. Totally got pwned. Tecnicos (Samuari and company) got offense early, including Tigre doing a plancha to the floor about two minutes in, and his knee hurting for the rest of the match. Rudos controlled match. Tony went to finish the tecnicos off well and good with a chair, but he when he pulled it back to swing, Amenaza snatched it from him. Tony and Mason turned around to question, and got cradled for the finish.

Tony wanted a good explanation from Amenaza after the match (in his favor, chair shots aren’t called DQs much here). Not getting one, Tony attacked Amenaza. Pantera right out of the save, with Tony running rather than face Pantera. Pantear chased him for a bit, let Tony talk (or catch his breath loudly in to the microphone) a bit, and then chased him some more. When Tony finally caught his breath, he complained about the zoo-like nature of this promotion and wanted something done about it. So, they will – next Sunday in Addison, it’s the match you never thought you’d see: Tony Scarpone vs Pantera.

7) Pantera, Incognito, Lince Dorada b Cassandro, Charly Manson Jr., Gringo Loco – hey, now it’s cool to add Lince to the wiki! Also, I can confirm Cassandro still has the belt of mysterious origins, because it was seriously like a foot away from me as he walked by. I really should’ve charged my photo before I left. Between the tecnico side being the 2008 CHIKARA King of Trios and Cassandro’s CHIKARA Light Heavyweight Championship, this might be the closest thing to CHIKARA running out here in 2009. Except Lince was not booed, though I don’t know he was really recognized by most of the crowd. He came out with Pantera and many kids in Pantera masks, so it was more a “YAY PANTERA and the other fellow we don’t know.” But, by the end of the match, Lince Dorada was cheered for his great wrestling ability. No lie!

Three fall match. Everyone else was good and this felt like a ***+ match boosted a star higher by a loud crowd way into the action. You would’ve thought Pantera was a living legend of Cicero or that he’d come off a stretch of seven straight Arena Mexico main events, he was uberover. Cassandro was unbelievably great, a level better than everyone else. I’ve seen Cassandro in person quite a few times by now, and he’s always good, but this was something beyond – like if you were sitting in that gym watching this match and I started to make a “greatest wrestler in the world – at this singular moment in time” argument, you’d have to work hard to disagree. Well, maybe you’d just tell me to shut up because I’m talking over a great performance.

Like I said, this one went three falls

1: Tecnicos in 12 – rudos elbow drop each other, tecnicos keep splashng the rudos until they run out of gas, everyone pile on top for the cover. Piling on top here meant a Lince splash, Incognito sitting on top of him and holding Pantera in a headstand on the pile. This was the tecnico showcase fall, except really it was Cassandro showcased against Incognito, instead of the other way around. Other pairs was okay, and Pantera/Charly, which was hilarious for Pantera making short jokes at (the ex-Mini) Charly because Pantera’s only a couple inches taller. Pantera had a very loud chest slap this night.

2: Rudos in 7. Gringo/Lince took place in this fall, with Lince looking good. Incognito got some offense, but the rudos took control for the beatdown. As would become notable later, it was a lot of Charly/Gringo doing tandem spots, Cassandro doing his own thing. Cassandro got Incognito with a sunset flip, the locals hit did hold over the knees/slingshot legdrop spot to Pantera, and Cassandro got Lince with a German suplex.

3: And then there was this. Rudos still in control, Incognito catches Charly on a plancha, Cassandro trips him up from outside. I pay attention Cassandro, and then notice Incognito is somehow on top of Charly and pounding him. And ignoring Gringo’s kicks to break it up, and picking up the speed and ferocity where every one in the building suddenly realized that fight was a bit more real than everything else, and did the deep inhale hush reaction. I’m sure I’ve seen wrestlers lose their minds and take it out on other wrestlers in person before and can’t remember it at the moment, but this was something – one of those 15 second instants that seem to last 15 minutes. Incognito killed Charly with a boot to the face to finish it, whatever it was.

FWIW, working backwards after the fact, there was a bit a little before were Charly clearly screwed up – it seemed to be a communication issue with Cassandro, and Cassandro very visibly expressed his displeasure about it at the time. It was a spot with Incognito, so maybe Incognito felt it made him look bad and wanted to express his displeasure in a different way? (Not sure that’d be the way.) I don’t know, I’m just guessing, I don’t really know.

Anyway, Cassandro quickly grabbed a chair and hit Incognito with it, to get the heat back on the rudos and distract the fans away from what just happened. They did eventually get there, which still kinda amazes me because the guys in the match weren’t done being distracted. Charly got to his feet, grabbed his face, and just walked away from the ring (not to the locker room, but way out of the light.) The promoter hurried to ringside, not spending much time with Charly at first, but going around to the different guys (and referees) and trying to the circumstances of what we just saw. Like I said, the wrestlers got the crowd into the match, rudos still generally controlling despite only two being left. A couple minutes later, Charly walked back to ringside and his corner, and told his partners he was fine. Match just continued on – there was a great/scary Cassandro middle rope reverse ‘rana on Incognito in here that beat all.

Tecnicos got their comeback, and there was a six man dive train pile up at the end. Pantera and Charly made it back into the ring, and Pantera caught Charly with a middle rope Styles Clash for the pin. Last fall was about 8 minutes.

Post match, there were more challenges. Cassandro walked off, and Incognito hung outside the ring (I don’t remember he and Charly interacting much in the match after) since he was to sign masks after the main event. The other four set up agreed to a tag team title match – Gringo & Charly putting up their GALLI titles against Pantera & Lince, also for the next Cicero show – and then did a super quick Pantera/Gringo “match”, because Gringo had almost made it thru a show without mooning the crowd. And that was that.

This was a really fun show. The main event was great, nothing dragged, and it was a loud crowd.

The next GALLI show is next Sunday in Addison. There’s more info on their website, and I’m pretty sure I’d go if it wasn’t right during the NFL Championship games. Not sure when that Cicero show is, but I’d definitely recommend checking it out.

Oh – one more thing. They mentioned they were taping the show to put up on their website. If that main event turns up, I gotta link to it here so y’all can figure out if it holds up on tape.