Day: January 22, 2014

05-26 Chico Che, Dr. Cerebro, Golden Magic vs Alan Extreme, Apolo Estrada Jr., Imposible: A fun trios match aspiring to be nothing more and fine for what it was. Thought it might turn out not so well after Golden magic missed with his 450 splash but Apolo survived and they want onto to have the usual match. Chico Che is very good at what he does and the rudos worked well.

05-26 Dinamic Black, Fenix (AAA), Trauma II vs Black Terry, Fresero Jr., Pentagón Jr.: GREAT – Disappointed this match existed, disappointed that Dinamic Black and Fenix didn’t just start head kicking each other during the pre-match promo (with Trauma II picking up all the title belts and walking away.) No reference at all to that last match in this one, so I really wanted to dislike it, but they won me back. A great first fall, with some awesome Black Terry mat work near the end led into a superb second fall with the rudos being absolute jerks. It was the usual brawling, but it wasn’t the usual brawling because the rudos were so gloriously evil the whole way. There was a spot here in between falls where Fresero stepped on one of Fenix’s hands, Terry stepped on another hand, and Pentagon stopped Fenix in the head repeatedly which was the great rudo moment ever. Tecnicos comeback was good as well. I would’ve declared this excellent and one of those matches to show people when they claim to know that lucha libre is just people flipping around, but then production managed to miss the finish while showing replays and never actually got a replay of it. Still worth checking out if you are prepared for AYM being awful.

05-26 Negro Navarro & Trauma I vs Hijo de Pirata Morgan & Pirata Morgan for the IWRG Intercontinental Tag Team Championship: Okay, maybe Negro Navarro knows the most ways to do a double pin. He’s a UWA veteran after all, where there appeared to be one draw a night. This was epic length technical title match which seemed good but didn’t totally connect with me. Maybe I needed to see more of the Piratas/Navarros leading into it. Better production would’ve helped here too; the announcers were cranked up to the max, the fans were barely audible and the ring was mute. Ending it with a few minutes of just Trauma I and Hijo de Pirata was a nice twist and everything was solid.

06-02 Angel Blanco Jr. & Dr. Wagner Jr. vs LA Park & Villano IV [ACM]: Much more the fatty travelogue version of Dr. Wagner versus LA Park, as they visit many sites of Arena Coliseo Monterrey and bring back souvenirs to use on each other. Meandering brawling at times, making for a much more drawn out match than it needed to be.

Noches de Coliseo only has the one hard camera. That man did a really good job of trying to keep track of the action but this is a hard match to follow into the crowd without someone on the ground (or on a crane.) Wagner & Blanco working as tecnicos strange decision given Park was the hometown favorite but that’s just the way they do this match. Blanco and V4 were here to give Park & Wagner breaks, and breaks from fighting each other – they are background characters to be easily rid of in the end. It kind of amazes me how many people approach the luchadors during the match. La Park punched a fan, punched a drunk fan in that very building, give him a wide birth if you know what’s good for you. I think this was probably a great match in the building (definitely the announcers felt so) but it felt much too long on TV (and wasn’t help by knowing how long it was going in.)

06-02 Centvrión, Chico Che, Golden Magic vs Fulgor I, Fulgor II, Imposible: Another enjoyable midcard match with some really good moments. Chico Che only made occasionally appearances in IWRG in 2013 but seems to be the same. The Fulgors started appearing on TV much more regularlly from here on out and are good additions. The other guys are consistent. Not special enough for a year end list but good enough if you were checking it out on TV that week. Chico Che is good at many things, but applying the Nieblina is not one of them.

06-06 Centvrión, Dinamic Black, Golden Magic vs Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro: I put together this list on a weekly basis without really thing about it in aggregate. Now that I’m spending a lot of time over a few days watching everything, I apparently reimagined the first half of 2013 IWRG as a youth oriented federation centered around the adventures of amigos Golden Magic, Centvrion and Dinamic Black. That period, even in my distorted reality, is shortly coming to an end. It didn’t include a lot of the Oficials as a trios – they’re an effective trio who just wasn’t one in Naucalpan for long stretches, but this match was more about their rudo antics than the técnicos. They’re still smooth with a team and working with the técnicos highspots, and they got a lot of mileage out of one America jersey for what’s basically a regular good build up trios match. Finish was done well. Golden Magic and Centviron have nice time on their double dive spot, especially for two guys doing totally different dives.