lucha libre matches I watched from September 2021 so far

I’m not promising a return to doing recaps or match reviews, because I’m not good at living up to that promise. I have instead been keeping notes on shows and just leaving them in a folder on my computer like a complete maniac, and I’m condescending a bunch of them here. Everyone wants match reviews, even my terrible takes, so I’ve put them in here too. I wasn’t going to do links – the easier I make this to do, the more likely I’ll find time to do it again – but I have the MOTYC post open in another tab so I can link the one Great one in this batch. (Oh, yea, there’s finally a MOTYC post up.) I’d like to catch up with the missing months but again no promises.

CMLL AMX: 2021-09-03

The Cachorro, Magia Blanca, Panterita del Ring Jr. vs El Audaz, Halcón Suriano Jr., Hombre Bala Jr. match stuck out for being all tecnicos and it was an interesting Good watch. Halcon Suriano Jr. works as the rudos (Halcon’s idea of being a rudo is a lot of crotch chopping) and the match is a solid and fast watch. This group of tecnicos just lacks the spectacularness of the AAA equivalents; Panterita hasn’t flashed as much fancy stuff as he did in his debut.

AAA on Space: 2021-09-04

Chik Tormenta/Hiedra vs Drago Kid/Octagoncito was messy. The second match may have not been meant to be the Komander show, but he stole it. Keep matching him with Parka Negra. I’m pretty sure Sexy Star 2 is the better technician than Sexy Star 1 – she and Flammer did better than Flammer’s looked here, but she hasn’t shown any personality in this character. (It did take years for the previous one to figure it out too, though.) The main had stellar Vikingo/Puma sections and DMT Azul/Pagano segments that were something else. I guess you should watch it but you know what you’re getting into with Pagano.

CMLL AMX: 2021-09-10 

I don’t want to mislead you into believing Cavernario was all that into his singles match with Mistico, but they did very basic things to get people cheering for Mistico and it generally worked. You could skip to the third fall (11:15 in my video) and get six good minutes out it.

CMLL Televisa: 2021-09-11 (on Youtube 09-18)

(Televisa shows are only here for shows that didn’t air on PPV. It’s so confusing.)

Blue Panther Jr., Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Enfermero Jr., Felino Jr., Pólvora was Good; rudos were more organized than usual and Rey Cometa looked great. Espiritu Negro squashed Enfermero Jr. a couple of times. Blue Panther Jr. tried.

Block A Copa Independencia was also Good; both ciberneticos seem more worked out and flow better than usual as a result. The first half of this one is really fun for the most part and starts to get less interesting during a Star Jr./Gemelo sequence. Star Jr. had a rough night. Mistico came off more protected in video than it read, though he still ended up coming off as just another guy when they had more of it. This also turned into Ultimo Guerrero checking off his moves in a mini-match with Volador near the end, not much different from the eventual final. I liked this even though I found so much to complain about.

CMLL 52MX: 2021-09-11

This show had the end of the Ambassador del Mal – Vangellys’ got hurt on the 08/17 show and didn’t recover before quitting. There doesn’t seem to be any specific action that caused it, just wear and tear to end his run after the first fall. Tecnicos quickly win the second and the third only goes long because Dark Magic is green and breaks up a pin meant to end the match. The main event has better moments but doesn’t come together as something. CMLL Villano III is showing signs of improvement. Rey Bucanero looked totally washed; I didn’t think of it then but he would’ve struggled to do a singles match. Not sure why they didn’t just announce Hijo del Pirata to begin with.

AAA on Space: 2021-09-11

Parka Negra, Súper Fly, Villano III Jr. vs Aerostar, Drago, Komander is an easy Good. Komander looked superb, though everyone looks good working with Parka Negra. Super Fly & Villano III Jr. were great too and the older tecnicos had good nights.

Poder del Norte versus Jinetes del Aire 3.0 was the better of the two other trios. There’s way too many cookie pan shots and the new tecnico team was still figuring out what to do together, but they brought good energy to the usual Poder del Norte formula. NGD had better people to work with, though they didn’t work as hard as you’d hope to impress in their debut match. The second straight non-finish was more frustrating than the first; if you can’t beat anyone in the match, maybe just book matches where you can beat someone, I dunno.

CMLL iPPV: 2021-09-17

The tercera (Euforia, Hechicero, Místico vs Atlantis Jr., Negro Casas, Último Guerrero in a relevos increíbles match) was the best match of the show and the only one I’d put at Good, though it’s not that much better than anything else on the show. if I was doing star ratings, I’d give it maybe 3.25 and nothing on this show was worse than 2.5, it’s just wherever you draw the line. Volador/GG and maybe the main event would get more stars by some but they didn’t feel memorable enough to recommend.

Big Lucha: 2021-09-16

I pretty much wrote about this already

• Demonic Flamita & Emperador Azteca vs Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe and Bestia 666 & Rey Horus: good
• El Bandido vs Matt Taven [ROH HEAVY]: great

CMLL Televisa: 2021-09-18 (YouTube 09-25)

Dragon Rojo vs Templario vs Enfermero Jr vs Coyote [Good] gets extra points for the weirdness of seeing a normal four way match in CMLL. The action was strong enough. The other two were just OK; Block B of the cibernetico started off hot and then really slowed down for me in the last section. I think we were intended to root for Gran Guerrero and I’m not sure how they thought that was going to happen. You can largely check out after the Negro Casas/Virus exchange. (They again skipped the women’s match on this show and I’m beginning to wonder if there’s a reason to that or if it’s simply CMLL randomness.)

CMLL AMX: 2021-09-18

Only watched the Inquisidor/Electrico match because you really have to watch the Electrico lightweight title matches if you participate in the meme. It turns out Inquisidor wasn’t ready for a singles title match and there was a lot of sloppiness. Electrico has been working on different ways of getting into cradles, so that’s nice. [OK]

AAA on Space: 2021-09-18

This so much felt like the leftover matches from the last show of a taping, except it was the first one at this location. Sexy Star/Dinastia versus V3/Flammer [OK] especially came off like they knew they had another match and were saving themselves; it was lesser than the similar match a couple of weeks back. Hijo del Tirantes as referee seems like he should be a wrestler and Hijo del Tirantes as a wrestler seems like he should be a referee. The main event was Good, though probably helped from following those other two. They did a lot of stuff and sometimes that’s just enough. They also went through the trouble of coming up with an explanation for Chessman, Pagano and Murder Clown teaming again – not a good one, and not one that explains why they’re doing it to face Los Mercenarios instead of La Empresa, but half efforts at explaining things is better than most stuff this year. There was no try at explaining why Faby Apache was there at the end of the main or Abismo’s crew after it. They may come but my trust in AAA in telling complete stories in 2021 is appropriately nil.