2018 watch later catch up, part 9 of ∞

Cavernario vs Ricky Marvin
(Lucha Memes/Cara Lucha @ Coliseo Coacalco on 04/22, 9:48, good, +LuchaTV)

Borderline ok/good match. Neither man seemed all that into it. Marvin took two-thirds of the match, just not with the same energy or intensity seen from him this year in other indie showcase matches. Cavernario seemed disinterested until he started throwing around Marvin near the end of the match. Marvin took big bumps, so maybe that would’ve worked if the match was more that way. This fulfilled the idea of having Cavernario and Marvin fight without the promise of the idea.

Aramis vs Judas el Traidor
(PROLLM @ Coliseo Coacalco on 04/29,8:06, good, REPORTE LUCH)

Somewhat a take on a CMLL lightning match, except with fewer dives forced in. Aramis mat work with Judas goes smoother than it did with Pantera I earlier this year, and they both get to show some flashy flying when it comes to it. The finishing sequence is full on garbage indie lucha libre, and the twenty or so people in Coacalco clapping make it feel like you’re watching a school performance. Still, it’s a good seven minutes.

Rey Horus & The King (Rey Fenix) vs El Mesías & PJ Black
(The Crash @ Auditorio de Tijuana on 05/19, 12:52, good, via MegaKakashi619)

The tag match never came together in any way. The rudos did stuff for a while, the técnicos did stuff for a while, and nothing gelled or escalated. Mesias did enough to know he was there. It was still not All New And Improved performance, just a bit better than his pre-knee surgery AAA outcome. Rey Horus seemed to outperform Fenix at times, which is doesn’t happen much in Fenix matches this year. This was a kind of borderline match. I could see it as higher, but there’s more interesting stuff with all these people. Mesias might be a prisoner of expectations right now, expecting for him to turn into his peak Lucha Underground stuff or his last decade AAA champion run, and he’s instead just a slightly above average lucha heavyweight. Maybe I’d like this more if I had been expecting less.

Penta Zero M vs Carístico
(The Crash @ Auditorio de Tijuana on 05/19, 15:02, good, MegaKakashi619)

Penta/Caristico worked for the live crowd and not as much on the skakey phone cam. It was very much atmosphere match, which they were able to keep up with garbage cans and big moves. Penta does more basing with Carístico then he has in a lot of his matches, but this still was more parts Tijuana brawl than Arena Mexico classic. They spent a lot of time and space to set up a pseudo-table spot for it just to be one unimportant spot, and that slowed down hurt the match a bit for me. I’m still interested in seeing the rematch.

Alas de Acero, Aramis, Mexica vs Atomic Star, Dragón Bane, Gallo Frances
(IWRG @ Arena Naucalpan on 05/27, 19:07, great, thecubsfan)

A nice treat, an IWRG undercard trios match that would fit in any of the action based indies. It wouldn’t be exactly like that, because those fans wouldn’t have the patience for the long but creative and competitive mat wrestling Aramis & Dragon Bane did to start this match. (IWRG fans don’t have more patience, there just many of them to get antsy.) The second fall wasn’t all that much and the video quality on my recording is pretty awful. That shouldn’t stop you from checking it out to see the third fall break down into chaos and then somehow come back together for a great dive sequence and an uncharacteristically good ending. Dragon Bane’s dive looked great, and there’s probably more good stuff from him that’s been missed. I barely noticed Gallo Frances was here.

Austin Theory vs Rey Horuz
(The Crash @ Auditorio de Tijuana on 06/16, 12:35, good, via LNDLC)

A good mix between a flyer and a power guy, at least by CMLL indie standards. Theory and Horus have worked together elsewhere and showed it in their chemistry on the trickier Horus spots. The finish itself looked great, and Theory had plenty of interesting stuff on his own. This felt a lit of an exhibition of what they could do than a big match itself. It worked as a midcard showcase.