As Del Espacio & As Del Espacio Jr. vs Hijo De Rey Pantera & Rey Pantera Jr., masks vs masks
(PANTERA @ Arena Xalapa on 01/14, 29:10 [1:41, 3:28, 24:01], great, via Xalapa es)
Match starts at 6:55 (no whistle), but you miss Rey Pantera Jr. jamming with a band if you skip the intros. I am immediately angry that both teams are basically wearing black and silver
A dramatic and emotionally satisfying apuesta battle, a match both made greater by the stake and one that made the masks themselves feel more important by being on the line in something this hard fought. This is a long watch, and one that occasionally feels like typical lucha indie brawling early on. It grows into something bigger as it goes on, and the best wrestling sequences feel like they’re in the last half of the third fall. As del Espacio Jr.’s impressive dives took place late, as did a superplex that seemed like it could’ve finished both men. I didn’t like the meaningless chair spots, but it was part of them keeping up the intensity on near falls for an extended period of time. Again, this is a long time, and I’m not sure if everyone’s going to be want to spend that much time with people they don’t really know, but these fans definitely did know them and care all the way. Even just the fans crowding around the ring in the third fall made it feel something special, not a regular match with people sitting down and watching, but an event masses of people were drawn towards. (Watching fans repeatedly push the bottom rope to help their side get out of submission holds was something.) The finish was superb and something that might be stolen by a half dozen other people if it was happening some place more well known, and the reaction to the loss was incredible. I think there will be better wrestling matches but this was as good a scene as you’ll get in.
Princesa Sugehit vs Zeuxis
(Pura Raza @ Arena Lopez Mateos on 03/03, 8:51, ok, via hector godfrey)
A perfectly fine match that’s also a disappointment because if these two aren’t having an obviously good match than who exactly among the CMLL women will? It’s fun how enraged the front row becomes when Zeuxis tosses a beer at Sugehit and mostly gets the fans, and everyone’s entertained by Sugehit getting revenge, but it leaves the match as a lot of walk and grab thru the crowd semi-brawling. They’re in the ring for the start and fort the finish not much more, and the brawling wasn’t compelling enough to make this really worthwhile.
Sádico & Yoruba vs Audaz & Titán
(Pura Raza @ Arena Lopez Mateos on 03/03, 20:37, good, via hector godfrey)
The pairs match started off pretty well, but Yoruba & Sadico seemed to get sloppy as the match went on and cooled my enthusiasm for the match. It was never the action match I thought it could be; Titan looked like the best guy in the match, but he spent a lot of time with chops and kicks and not a lot of flying. They might have done a little better if they had cut a few minutes of the match (especially after the dive.) Audaz felt way into the background until the end, and not showing up as big on a non-CMLL seems a tiny bit of a bad sign. There still was fun sequences, I just thought it’d look a little sharper.
Blue Panther vs Hechicero
(Pura Raza @ Arena Lopez Mateos on 03/03, 12:02, good, via hector godfrey)
What Happened:
This match goes to a surprise overtime period. It’s enough of a surprise that both the complete hector godfrey video and the Estrellas del Ring edited video don’t include it. The R de Rudo clips do have a few moments.
Review:
Hechicero versus Blue Panther was a well worked match, but well worked mostly by one man. It was tough to consider Blue Panther a threat to Hechicero when Hechicero seemed to be 90% of the work, especially after the early mat portion. Hechicero was doing his own offense and Blue Panther’s offense in moments. The crowd was still way into Blue Panther and that’s an obvious reason for him still to be in this role but I was left wanting to see someone in that spot who maybe wouldn’t be as over but would have more to contribute.
Dragón Lee, Mistico, Rush vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
(Pura Raza @ Arena Lopez Mateos on 03/03, 13:58, good, via hector godfrey)
The Dinamitas/Munoz brawl to start it off was a lot of fun. Dragon Lee can brawl well when he’s given a chance to do it, and was more interesting at it than his brothers. The crowd, even for a CMLL focused indie show, didn’t seem to totally know the NGD trio and were surprised by the monkey flip attack. The match slowed down a lot when they finally got to their corners. It wasn’t bad, but there needed to be an escalation after the técnicos ran thru their offense, and instead in just seemed to come to a sudden end. This was still entertaining but left me thinking there was a lot more they could’ve done.
Ricky Marvin vs Dr. Cerebro
(IWRG @ Arena Naucalpan on 03/04, 11:03, good, via IWRG tv)
A very good first fall to a three fall match, only it was a one fall match. Cerebro & Marvin went onto fight many more ties so I guess it still works. This was worked at a strongly medium pace, everything looking solid if never overwhelming action. It’s not as violent as Marvin’s Lucha Memes work but it did make up with it for smoothiness. I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to watch this entire program but this match was good enough to want more. Some authentically bad lucha libre refereeing on the finish.
