2018 watch later catch up, part 1 of ∞

As usual, these are interesting looking matches from shows I don’t normally write about when I can get to them. There’s a lot of people who are quicker at reviewing non-big 2 stuff: you should check out Rob’s list or Matt B’s blog or Pushing Upward or other places I can’t think of at the moment. I crib from those lists and from what pops out to me and I’ll still miss a few. The currently goal right now is to get thru a few of these before I get distracted with Elite/Lucha Underground/baseball, even if it means those Puebla & Martes recaps will continue to be way late.

(At least for the moment, I’m doing The Crash Tijuana reviews as part of these posts instead of breaking them out on their own.)

Keyra vs Ricky Marvin
(Lucha Memes @ Coliseo Coacalco on 01/07, 15:05, great, via +LuchaTV)

This match literally beings with a man punching a woman in the face, so you might want to keep on scrolling if you’re not good with wrestling matches like that.

It came across to me that Marvin just destroyed Keyra outside of a few hope spots on the first watch. It’s closer to balanced when I rewatched it for this recap. Keyra really takes over the match for an extended period after Marvin’s blind fall into the board on the outside. There’s a crossup moment about ten seconds in, and everything looked tight and often brutal from that moment on. Ricky Marvin comes the nearest he’s ever going to be to a movie horror monster early on, just destroying Keyra in big and impressive ways. (The fans, including an eight year old girl, lose their minds when Keyra’s easily thrown into one of the support poles.) Ricky Marvin pulls of the fiercest tapatia which ever as excited, and is good taking as getting just by the way that huracanrana spots goes. The Spanish Fly spot, set up by being ignored for about ten minutes, is also spectacular. We saw this level of Ricky Marvin on these indie shows prior to AAA, and hopefully we see a lot more of that this year.

death

Imposible, Karaoui, Eterno, Diablo Jr., Hijo del Alebrije, Alas de Acero, Freelance, Aramis, Rafy, Leo, Teelo, Mike, Dinamic Black, Dragón Fly, Black Dragón, Pantera I in a Zona de Ejecucion match
(IWRG @ Arena Naucalpan on 01/07, good, 19:31, via IWRG tv)

Zona de Ejecution is a four way elimination match, where a new person comes in every time some one’s eliminated until there are no more people. This match is a mess early, with Mike eliminated off a referee pin and Freelance (in a Pantera mask) only not dying because the his shoulder collided with the top rope as he was making a headfirst fall towards the mat. It settles down from there and the strange rules to the match give everyone license to go full out for the few minutes they’re actually in the match. The way they do the match, with everyone waiting to get in just hanging out at ringside, sometimes hard makes it hard to always be sure of who’s in and there’s no sense of who’s coming next. It does mean there’s zero down time between eliminations, and the amount of people passing thru in such a short time makes it hard for anyone but the final two to stick out. Eterno did look good in the time he had, Black Dragon was steadier than usual, Freelance was amazing to keep going after his injury, and Karaoui seemed to be in for about 12 seconds. Aramis looked great on the way to the win. The match was fun as an entire package if you can get past the early iffiness.

Pantera I © vs Aramis for the IWRG Intercontinental Lightweight Championship
(IWRG @ Arena Naucalpan on 01/14, 10:47, good, via IWRG tv)

If I was told there was a young guy and old guy in a match, and one pretty much did dives and Destroyers while the other one was well more rounded with good mat work, I probably would’ve made the wrong guess about who is what. Pantera comes of as a man half his age, but only in that he seems to have no idea how to put together an entertaining match and just wants to do a lot of Canadian Destroyers. Aramis is the far more entertaining luchador who’s held back because of his opponents limitations. This was a match both barely crossing the threshold of good, and totally frustrating. Aramis deserved better.

Rey Horus vs Joey Janela
(The Crash @ Auditorio de Tijuana on 01/20, 19:10, good, via MegaKakashi619)

Janela & Horuz had some really impressive big spots and sometimes didn’t feel like a whole lot in between in it. I’m very willing to believe this one is just me being grumpy, either by burnout or by being over watching The Crash handhelds – watching the corner of the ring while the action is happening elsewhere is getting old, and the seated chair spot is missed by camera. Janela’s wildness fits in here and this is a good enough debut to want to see him back again. Maybe worth a rewatch if the professional footage ever turns up.

Daga, Masada, Penta Zero M vs Bestia 666, Garza Jr., Mr. 450
(The Crash @ Auditorio de Tijuana on 01/20, 24:00, good, via MegaKakashi619)

Camera work isn’t great here, but it remains free and available and that’s more than I can say about whatever the big guy in front of the camera is producing. A wild weapons brawl isn’t always easy to see from a static angle, but we do get to see some of the bigger spots and the chaotic nature of the match does come thru well. Those big spots make the match; I couldn’t believe Garza took the skewers spot even watching it. I don’t quite understand why MechaWolf needed to drink water before doing his spear to his death, but whatever works for him. Bestia bled so much and I’m not even sure what happened. Another ‘maybe it’ll be better if we ever get to see the full version’ match.

Arkángel Divino & Mirage vs Aramis (Estado de México) & Astrolux and Black Danger & Látigo
(Team 1927 @ Rancho Grande, Mexicali, Baja California on 01/21, 6:33, good, 126f Pro Wrestling Magazine)

This is edited, enough to take out pauses and a couple iffy moments, but not distracting so. It leaves a fast paced match, with everyone in so often that it’s hard to remember who’s supposed to be on each team. Mirage hasn’t impressed in previous matches I’ve seen, but does a good job of basing for Astrolux here. Arkangel Divino did a couple near things, as he normally does, though most of it was with Black Danger. Astrolux is willing to try a lot of stuff, but it’s tough for people to stick out too much in the time they had here. Fun is not super substantial.