Lucha Azteca7 Elite: 2016-11-12 

Recapped: 11/19/2016

What happened: The two Liga Elite match ended in nonsense. Ozz & Espíritu debuted to help Cibernético attack Carisitco. LA Park & Rey Escorpión fouled each other for a draw (though the idea was also that the referee didn’t see Escorpion’s foul.) Bobby Lashley returned to stand on the apron while Blue Demon wrestled. I reached the point where I’m actively rooting for the show to end so I can stop watching it, and it turns out this is the second to last episode of the season.

What was good: Some good editing would’ve made the LA Park/Rey Escorpión match pretty good and there are points where it is good, but it’s a long way to go for that result.

Where can I watch it: It’s on my channel and the Liga Elite channel

Match 1: Carístico vs Cibernético in a Liga Elite match
Gimnasio Agustín Millán, Toluca, Estado de México, 11/04/2016
Video: thecubsfan

Winner: Carístico (DQ)
Match Time: 8:36
Notes: Carístico reverses a chokeslam into an armbar. Ozz and Espíritu debut, running into break up the pin. Babe Richard backs it up long enough award the win. The climax is an unimpressive Cibernetico spear on Caristico, with the referee doing a quicker job of recovering from attacks than Cibernético.

Review: [below average] There’s a spot so messed up that it’s hard to tell what it was supposed to be. Lucha Azteca replays it, and it’s still not clear, and even more unclear why they’d repeat it. (My best guess is armdrag, but that definitely was not Cibernético’s guess.) Azteca misses a near fall while showing the botched move repeatedly, which is really the peak moment of this section of Elite. The rest of the match is slow paced and cold, with Carístico the more impressive of the two but mostly because Cibernetico’s not that much. Carístico looks slow too and this is not a good outing for him. They don’t mix that well and the crowd is remarkable passive for what’s supposed to be the Elite dream match. This isn’t working.

Match 2: Blue Demon Jr. & Bobby Lashley vs Mr. Electro & Silver King

Gimnasio Agustín Millán, Toluca, Estado de México, 11/04/2016
Video: thecubsfan

1. técnicos
   • Blue Demon Jr. el Pulpo Silver King (7:42)
   • Bobby Lahsley anaconda vice Electroshock (7:42)
2. rudos
   • Mr. Electro & Silver King press slam gutbuster Blue Demon Jr. (1:55)
   • Mr. Electro cutter Bobby Lashley (2:29)
3. técnicos
   • Bobby Lashley spear Silver King (5:18)
   • Blue Demon tirabuzon cradle Mr. Electro (5:28)

Winner: técnicos (1/3)
Match Time: 15:39
Notes: Mr. Electro & Bobby Lashley get tagged in after Silver King & Blue Demon do nothing worth writing about. Electro jumps around to try to fire up the crowd for him, then goes deep into the crowd to confront someone for holding an American flag sign. It’s about two minutes before something happens. I dislike Mr. Electro so much.

Review: [below average] this is the point where I endured thru the show by knowing there was only two more of them after this, and then they would be gone. A third promotion sounds like a good thing, new possibilities and new wrestlers, but what happens in practice if you get a lot of people who you didn’t miss at all when they left the other two promotions. Lashley, when he was something like a regular here, was best at destroying people with his strength. In this match, he mostly stood in the corner or sold as Demon wrestled a whole of time. This was never good or interesting.

Match 3: Alas De Plata, Ciclón Ramírez Jr., Estudiante Jr. vs Eterno, Fresero Jr., Imposible

Gimnasio Agustín Millán, Toluca, Estado de México, 11/04/2016
Video: thecubsfan

1. rudos
   • Eterno super Eterno Clash on Alas de Plata (1:54)
2. técnicos
   • Ciclon Ramirez Jr. torito Impossible (1:44)
   • Alas de Plata huracanrana Eterno (1:52)
   • Estudiante Jr. powerslam Fresero Jr. (1:52)
3. rudos
   • Impossible powerbomb Ciclon Ramirez Jr. (2:10)

Winner: rudos (1/3)
Match Time: 5:56 shown
Notes: Estudiante Jr. is a Mexicali wrestler debuting here – maybe a Silver King recommendation since he was working shows there with Hijo del Santo if I recall correctly. I’ve lost track of the Alas de Platas. This is edited into highlights and edited poorly.

Review: [not rated] too short and too edited to really be wroth rating. Imposible and Eterno are both really good and Fresero worked in what we saw. The rudos were definitely the better group. Estudiante didn’t look particularly good outside throwing himself into the crowd on his dive. The best thing you can say about him as Ciclon Ramirez Jr. didn’t look really good either when he debuted and is suddenly really fun now.

A three minute Golden Magic highlight video airs.

Match 4: Rey Escorpión vs LA Park in a Liga Elite match
Gimnasio Agustín Millán, Toluca, Estado de México, 11/04/2016
Video: thecubsfan

Winner: draw or double DQ
Match Time: 22:58
Notes: Escorpión tries surprising LA Park with a chair. LA Park comes thru the crowd to get Escorpión, but the referee takes away his chair and Escorpión still gets the best of it. They brawl into the crowd for a while, then back in the ring, where Escorpión rips LA Park’s mask off. Escorpión tries to get the referee to award him the win for doing this. Much later, the referee tried holding LA Park again and got hit by LA Park, which set up a long over due LA Park comeback. LA Park grabs a cart, this Rey Escorpión with it repeatedly, powerbomb Escorpión off the apron on it, and jumps on Escorpión himself. LA Park hen stops the match to take the microphone and demand the referee leave. Security takes the referee away and the other one replaces him. Later, Escorpión pulls off LA Park’s mask by mistake, and the referee allows it. The match goes much longer, and that referee is taken out with the luchadors repeatedly and improbably land on him on kick outs. Escorpión fouls LA Park at the first chances, but stops covering at two to complain about the speed of the count. (Park doesn’t kick out, Escorpión’s actions make zero sense.) LA Park fouls Rey Escorpion, and gets a much speedier two. Announcers are laughing at the match. Referee rules a tie, which the camera miss.

Review: [ok] the worst excesses of the promotion – out of control but mostly meandering matches, and nonsensical endings. There’s no logical reason this should’ve ended as a draw (both from what was done here, and with Rey Escorpión was going to the Liga final in a couple weeks.) This promotion started with the idea of a sport like presentation and clear winners and losers, and it’s ended up with referee shenanigans and everyone fouling everyone else for draws. It’s dumb. This match had it’s moments, but it was twice as long as it needed to be. Both trips to into the crowd went way too long and didn’t accomplish all that much, and killed my enthusiasm for the match by the time they got to stuff I would’ve enjoyed (only then they were also too tired to do it at anything better than a crawl.) The LA Park powerbomb onto the cart and would’ve been a great ending, but they weren’t even halfway thru the match. It came off as if they were trying to recreate LA Park vs Rush but it didn’t come close.