Lucha Libre TV Report for June 5th, 2001

(Arena Coliseo) Ultimo Guerrero, Fuerza Guerrera, Rencor Latino vs. Felino, Tony Rivera & Mascara Magica- Before this match they aired a little piece where both Ultimo Guerrero and Satanico tried to persuade Rencor Latino to join forces with them. Felino & Fuerza and Ultimo Guerrero & Rivera both work a nice set, although the Guerrero/Rivera once was much better. Oddly enough, Guerrero works as a peacemaker here, shaking hands with tecnicos and what not. Ultimo ends up being taken out with a tope from Rivera, while Fuerza misses a corner charge and takes a nice post bump. He gets rolled up by Felino, while Mascara Magica gets Rencor in a Villano 4 torture rack to end the fall. Magica starts the segunda off with a gorgeous armdrag and backbreaker on the floor on Rencor. Then Fuerza tags in and the match picks up, with Rivera doing headscissors to everyone and nailing Ultimo Guerrero with a second rope springboard DDT that was gorgeous beyond belief. Then seconds later, he goes to the apron where Rencor Latino was just returning, leaps off and hits a swinging headscissors to the floor. Great stuff. Guerrero beats Felino out in a rope running sequence but doesn’t finish him, leaving Fuerza and Rencor to end the fall with low blows. Third fall picks up late. Guerrero continues to help Magica out of the ring. Rivera gets eliminated when he misses a rana from the top rope and is pinned by Fuerza. Felino and Fuerza then end up being taken out when they do one of those goofy armdrags over the top. Mascara Magica and Rencor Latino are then left to continue their feud, and it looks like Rencor gets the upper hand with a fireman’s carry stunner and a powerbomb, but as the ref counts- 1…2… Ultimo Guerrero knocks Rencor down and out of the ring and puts on his headscissors/leglock hold to steal the win from his own teammate! He does pay for it, as Satanico does a run in and rips apart his mask. This was really good stuff. Rivera was on fire, hitting great spots with the fluidity he had in ’99 when I was singing his praises. Guerrero does great sets and sequences with everyone. This is such a great feud because it is like a war almost with all the alliances.

Apollo Dantes, Mascara Ano 2000, Satanico, Cien Caras vs. Tinieblas Jr., Gigante Silva and Brazo del Plata- Oh joy. Satanico gets to go from his hot feud with Guerrero to being a mere pebble stone for the mighty Silva to step on. Apollo Dantes ended up shaking the ropes when Silva went for a plancha, and covered for the win.

Ricky Marvin plugs his hair match with Americo Rocca, which won’t air because it would have to take the place of a Silva match.

Safari, Olimpico, Mr. Niebla vs. Violencia, Zumbido, Gran Markus- Well this is good to see, the other trios champs on TV for once. They edit the first fall, to where Markus uses his gargantuan masse to belly bump all the tecnicos to doom. Then Zumbido hits a top rope frankensteiner and Violencia follows with a cross ring splash to pin Niebla, the captain. The rudos continue to use teamwork in the second, as do the tecnicos. They especially have to to move planet Markus. Olimpcio ends up sending him out with a springboard dropkick, then Safari mangles a flip over the ropes onto the apron, but manages to hit a sommersault dive onto Markus. Olimpico flash pins Zumbido with the flying bodyscissors small package, while Niebla hits his tope en reverse to floor Violencia and follows with an insane reverse swandive tope to him. Third fall has some ok back and forth action, although Violencia’s arm was hurt catching that dive from before. Olimpico ends up nailing Zumbido with a great bullet over the top tope. Niebla uses a rana to pin Markus. This was a pretty good match, I thought. “La Nueva Ola Azul” work well together. Zumbido is just plain fun to watch.

Universo 2000, Emilio Charles, Scorpio Jr vs Hijo de Rayo, Rayo de Jalisco, Negro Casas- The Capos and Guapos make an alliance before the match. First fall is over quick. Rayo Sr. puts out Universo with a fat old man’s tope. Casas gets Charles in an armbar, then Rayo Jr does a sommersault over that and in one motion turns it into tope en reverse to pin Scorpio. Rudos turn it around with pure brawling in the second. Scorpio makes “Rayitito” submit to a half crab. Magadan makes fun of Morales’ name for Rayo Jr. by saying it like “Ray y Tito.” In the third, tecnicos have their little comeback. Casas and Scorpio both bite and yell at each other in animal fashion. Rayitito hits his double backflip headbutt on Scorpio, then Casas does a giant silla dive to take him down! Rayo Jr. hits an over the top tope on Charles. The ref goes down, they do a few falls then Universo low blows Rayo after the Capo Boss trips him with the cane and gets the win. After the match Universo says he’s basically beaten Rayo in everyway, and asks what does he want? Rayo’s response is to have his son fight Universo one on one next week. Universo accepts but to one fall only. I like this feud. Rayo Jr. is very fun to watch. He has that Olimpico-esque “small tecnico underdog” thing going for him.

AAA(Nuevo Laredo)-

Nino de Calle, Oscar Sevilla, Boby Lee Jr. vs. Los Bravos del Norte I II and III- Wow, poor Oscar Sevilla. He takes Apache’s hair in a big feud, and his reward is to be stuck in the openers with locals. The first fall is mostly decent action, nothing too risky but it was all executed well. Sevilla ends up pinning one of the Bravos with a wacky rollup, while Boby Lee hits another with a springboard reverse tope. Second fall Bobby Lee shows improvements by hitting a Shocker spot- where he does a sommersault over the ropes, lands in a handstand on the apron and then gets to his feet on the floor. Bravos brawl around for most of this fall. One of them hits a slingshot senton atomico to the floor. Sevilla ends up pinned with a triple team reverse powerbomb. Third fall, the tecnicos make a comeback to the applause of what sounded like two people in the audience. Nino de Calle does a horrible tope, and Boby Lee follows with a plancha over it. Sevilla pins a Bravo with what I think tried to be a flying frankensteiner, but the rudo fell back and it looked like Doink’s cannonball move instead. A very, very bad match. When Bobby Lee Jr. looks the best in the ring, watch out…

Hector Garza© vs. Elektro Shock for the National Welterweight (I think)Title- Garza is looking very Shawn Michaels-like. The first fall is over in seconds, as Elektro Shock counters a rana with a powerbomb and Garza isn’t able to get out. Second fall, Garza evades a spinwheel kick in the corner so Shock spills out, then Garza does a crazy tornillo dive off the top rope to the floor! The lighting structure was so close to the turnbuckles Garza could actually grab a hold of it. Shock can’t answer the count so the falls are even. They trade nearfalls in the third, with Shock trying to get Garza near his corner so Abismo could blowtorch him, but Garza keeps getting out of the way. Poor Zorro(Garza’s second) ends up getting torched as does Pepe Casas. Shock gets slammed in the corner admist the chaos, so Garza climbs up and hits a moonsault to win the match. Hector looked scared as fuck of hitting his feet on the lighting thing up there. Pepe Casas has a bandage placed on his face, so Abismo laughs at him and calls he and Shock part of the Black Family. I thought this was going to be bad because it had Electro Suck in it, but he suprised me and managed not to ruin the match, in fact he looked kind of… average. Eh, maybe it was the guys in the last match.

Parka Jr, Mascara Segrada, El Zorro vs. Jerry Estrada, Pirata Morgan, Texano- Tecnicos take the first fall with flash pins on Pirata and Estrada. Second fall is almost as quick, with a Cobarde run in causing enough distraction for the tecnicos to hit flash pins again. Well this was very annoying… I wish these guys would have done a little work before the angle stuff started.