2015 watch later catch up, part 1 of ∞

The annual attempt to catch up is on! This year, I’m going to try to actually post these instead of letting them die on my hard drive. The idea is to start doing these now so I’m not stuck hurriedly watching 9 hours of lucha day in January and to space out some of the TV recaps.

Matches are generally taken from Black Terry Jr.’s offerings or from the TV shows I don’t normally recap. (That means you might want to yell at me to watch handheld matches which aren’t in those two groups.)

The what happened/what was good bit doesn’t quite work for this format. Let’s start by just listing the matches I’ve watched and figure out how to make it better along the way.

Matches recapped in this post

• Donatelo, Leonardo, Miguel Angel, Rafael vs Leo (IWRG), Mike, Rafy, Teelo
• La Sombra, Rush, Último Guerrero vs Eterno, Trauma I, Trauma II
• Jimmy, Kevin, Tony vs Arez, Belial, Impulso
• Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Black Terry, Rey Hechicero, Aero Boy
• ACH vs Extreme Tiger
• Leo, Mike, Rafy, Teelo vs Liderk, Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Rayan

Donatelo, Leonardo, Miguel Angel, Rafael vs Leo (IWRG), Mike, Rafy, Teelo
Arena Lopez Mateos, 02/22/2015
Video: Tortuguillos Karatekas vs Tort

Winner: none (DDQ? NC?)
Match Time: run in starts at 7:46, post match brawl continues for a couple more minutes, unclear when match officially waved off
Notes: Both the Tortuage Mutantes and Los Bastardos run in for the DQ.

Review: [good] rated well more for the visual than the match, which has a few good ideas but also exposed the AULL turtles as mostly not very good. I think Donatello might have something, but Leonardo and Miguel Angel are iffy at best. I have no opinion on the wrestling skill of AULL Ninja Turtle Rafael, but the match overall slows down when the AULL team is in control. It’s so strange to see the IWRG turtles as rudos but it made sense given the match. The nonfinish doesn’t help, especially since they (predictably!) never got around to going anywhere with this, but the lady screaming in horror when the Mutantes hit the ring was well timed.

La Sombra, Rush, Último Guerrero vs Eterno, Trauma I, Trauma II
Arena San Juan Pantitlan, Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Estado de México, 03/07/2015

• Ultimo Guerrero front superplex Eterno (17:20)
• Sombra pins Trauma II (18:!2)

Winner: CMLL
Match Time: 18:12
Notes: Team CMLL attacks the Naucalpan opposition before the start of the match. Sombra and Rush stop an Ultimo Guerrero pinfall on Eterno, in their own moment of disagreement. Rush pulled the referee out on a near fall, then Sombra pulled of Trauma II’s mask to set up the winning cradle. Rush cuts off Trauma I with a foul (where Trauma I jumps way too soon.) A fight breaks out between female fans right after the finish.

Review: [good] seemed like it was going to be higher early on; this is worked like most Ingobernables/veteran rudo CMLL brawls, only Eterno & the Traumas can do more than Shocker or the Guerreros (Negro Casas is still better.) Traumas & Eterno playing out of character tecnicos was fun, with the visual of Eterno toping Sombra to start the comeback and Trauma I lifting UG’s handspring was a nice touch. It slowed down a lot near the end, with UG forcing in his spots as always, something going wrong with him and Eterno, and the Ingobernables beating the Traumas feeling like a footnote after they already did one pinfall. There was more intensity in the fans fighting after than the finish, though the atmosphere was pretty strong for most of the match.

Jimmy, Kevin, Tony vs Arez, Belial, Impulso
Arena Neza, 03/15/2015
Video: MisticieroTV, +LuchaTV, tvluchadelpasado

Winner: Indystrongibles (Arez cradle buster Jimmy)
Match Time: 24:25

Review: [great] This is a lot longer match than I would’ve expected for these two highspot focused teams, and they work at that twenty minute pace instead of going nuts early. The crowd gets a restless early, but it pays off as the build big spots on top of big spots for the last half of the match. It worked out, with everyone getting big moves by the end, without feeling exhausted by the number of moves done at any time. There’s no real story except for the Indys working as a rudos a bit, there’s just lot of spots, but they’re the spots you want to see from these two teams. Might have been come off as a stronger match in front of a hotter crowd; it seems like there’s more people than than in Arena San Juan but it feels much quieter.

Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Black Terry, Rey Hechicero, Aero Boy
Coliseo Coacalco, Coacalco, Estado de México, 03/22/2015
Video: +LuchaTV

• DQ Hechicero [GuerreroMaya mask removal] 7:11
• Aeroboy cross armbreaker 9:43
• Guerrero Maya Sacrifica Maya 14:30

Winner: tecnicos
Match Time: 14:30

Review: [good] I thought I would like this match more than I did. I really liked it early, when it felt like a four way brawl (and not just two guys fighting while two guys sat out), and it was interesting when Hechicero was just dominating the ring against all comers before he got eliminated. His cold elimination took things down a notch and it really never got up to that level again. Aeroboy’s elimination of Black Terry looked great and it give the unexpected final of Aeroboy versus Guerrero Maya, but it seemed to backfire a little with the crowd not really being into the match. There was a good dive and the crowd believed Aeroboy was going to win at one point and reacted strong for the finish.

ACH vs Extreme Tiger
Coliseo Coacalco, Coacalco, Estado de México, 03/22/2015
Video: +LuchaTV

Winner: ACH (two german suplexes)
Match Time: 14:18
Review: [great] borderline; these two didn’t mesh well and it’s worked at a much slower pace than you’d expect. The thing is, ACH and this crowd totally meshed well and it’s worth watching just to see the people fall in love with this crazy foreigner. He must’ve had a good entrance because the normally pro-Tiger crowd is rooting for him as we join the match, and sticks with him most of the way. ACH does a lot of dancing, a lot of playing to the crowd and generally seems to be trying to have fun instead of just doing moves, and this serious crowd eats it up. There are some good spots, and also ACH almost crashing and burning when Tiger was in the wrong spot on a dive. Tiger really could’ve been replaced with anyone (and it might have been better depending on who.) Still can’t figure out how ACH never came back after the World Cup.

Leo, Mike, Rafy, Teelo vs Liderk, Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Rayan
Arena Naucalpan, 01/25/2015
Video: thecubsfan

1. Police
   • 911 & AK47 double crab Mike (6:00)
   • triple submission on Teelo (7:00)
2. Tortuga Ninjas
   • Mike huracanrana Liderk (3:22)
   • Teelo huracanrana Rayan (3:22)
3. Tortuga Ninjas
   • Mike small package Rayan (4:54)
   • Teelo small package Liderk (4:54)

Winner: Tortuga Ninjas
Match Time: 15:16
Notes: Leo is hurt on a tope con giro at the end of the second fall. He lays on the floor motionless for about five minutes before they finally can get a stretcher to take him away.

Review: [ok] I’m not really sure why I picked this match other than I needed a regular Ninja Turtle match in there and this was the week for one of them. This was a bad pick! Leo powerbombs himself on his tope con giro to end the second fall and they just leave himself outside with a referee for minutes. This kind of puts a damper on the wacky turtle antics going on in the ring. The match wasn’t strong before that point. The last minute of the first fall is not so good, as the rudos blow a triple team faceslam, take forever to set it up again, and then one rudo wanders away to mess with Leo. The referee calls a submission just to end it. The turtle comedy in the third fall is fine but there are probably better matches I should’ve picked.