Tag: IWRG

Recapped: 2020-04-14

Matches:

Ave Rex, Hip Hop Man, Mosca beat Baby Extreme, El Mimo, Príncipe Aéreo
(17:54, ok, +LuchaTV)

A trios match moving at a leisurely pace that doesn’t seem to be using everyone. There’s no sense of what Ave Rex can do despite this going 18 minutes. Baby Extreme is really good now but he’s barely in this one. He does get to be the guy who does a dive onto one of the foot tables, a big achievement for Thursday Night wrestling. The action was fine but the rudos could’ve played into Mimo’s mime bit stronger.

Lunatik Xtreme beat Puma de Oro
(4:30, ok, mluchatv)

What Happened: Lunatik Xtreme gets away with a mask pull on the finish (though the finishing move might have beat Puma de Oro anyway.)

Review: This one also didn’t get much going, though it was more due to the lack of time. Puma and Lunatik can show good moves but haven’t been able to pull it together as a full match yet. The post-match challenged were for an apuesta match and maybe it would’ve come together in that match. There wasn’t set up to be a big match with the time given.

 

Ayako Hamada, Lolita, Perla Lagunera beat Diosa Quetzal, Hahastary, Lady Cat
(12:52, ok, mluchat)

This match started very rough, with people lost and confused leading into a dive, but it recovered a bit during the middle. Hahastary got to do her highspots with Ayako Hamada and looked a lot better. Lolita was really good again. Lady Cat is willing to take hard shots from the rudas. The Diosa Quetzal whiffed stunner was very amusing and the rest of her offense was very hit or miss.

Demonio Infernal, Fresero Jr., Shun Skywalker beat Jesse Ventura, Pasion Cristal, Soy Raymunda
(20:37, ok, mluchatv)

A reason I tend to stay away from IWRG are matches which go an extremely long time for no particular reason. This is a twenty-minute light comedy match featuring the exoticos. It was fine. It went on forever. Fresero did good comedy work I wasn’t expecting. Shun Skywalker seems almost as miscast as a rudo as Kawato San. Skywalker is doing better at it, but he has obvious high upside the other way.

Recapped: 2020-04-13

Matches:

Charro Negro (Nuevo León), King Rex, The Mummy beat Fly Warrior, Hip Hop Man, Mosca
(9:46, ok, +LuchaTV)

What Happened: The Mummy’s team are all Monterrey based wrestlers, brought in by promotion Lucha Time but working most of the indie groups in the region.

Review: You can see the potential in the Lucha Times guys, even if this match started to fall apart by the end. Charro Negro seems ready to move into a bigger indie spot as other people get swooped elsewhere. Hip Hop Man had no idea how to absorb Charro Negro’s dive, but I’m not sure I blame him. That thing was athletic but weird. Mummy starting the end game by tripping his way into the ring was rough and it took too long to get the point. The Mummy came off as a regional attraction who was not wrestling in his region. It was nice to see Fly Warrior anyway.

 

Jessy Ventura, Pasion Kristal, Zoy Raymunda beat Fuerza Guerrera NG, Lunatik Xtreme, X-Fly
(9:42, ok, mluchatv)

A thoroughly fine match that I’ll remember little off once I close this window. The sequences feel more out of control and not as patterned as the CMLL ones, but the match feels similarly weightless. I don’t know why it feels like Imposible is less impressive as Fuerza Guerrera NG; it may just be more him treading water even with the new name. The finish worked as mockery of the over done “ref bump, foul” finish, though in no way did it seem like it meant to be subversive. Funny unintentionally maybe.

Demonio Infernal, Fresero Jr., Hijo De Espectro Jr. (Nuevo Leon) beat Emperador Azteca, Hijo del Alebrije, Shun Skywalker
(17:08, ok, +LuchaTV)

There’s a good 13-minute match in the 17-minute semi-main. It seems to hit a peak on the comeback and the last act of the match gets stretched out for too long. Emperador Azteca had a really good match and then knocked himself silly on a handspring in embarrassing fashion. There was a lot of building up of IWRG/Lucha Time issues; maybe the plan was for the IWRG guys to go to Monterrey, but it comes across as Fresero bleeding just for fun.

Ayako Hamada, Lolita, Miss Delicious beat Diosa Quetzal, Hahastary, Mary Caporal
(13:27, good, mluchatv)

What Happened: This is the International Day of Women, so the women are in the main event spot.

Review: The women’s match was a pleasant surprise, a clear improvement over the recent action. This might be the best assembly of the women available to IWRG at the moment, though it was also a lot more figuring out what wasn’t working and getting rid of it. (The Hamada wheel kick only shows up here as something intentionally missed. It seemed like it would take a remarkable Ayako performance to have a good match but this was more everyone taking a step forward; this was the best match so far for Miss Delicious and Mary Caporal in particular. Lolita was the quiet star of the match, just a solid wrestler who seems so useful in a division full of wildcards. Lolita hasn’t figured out the personality side – this might be a time for her to come up with a new character – but she’s the glue these matches need. Diosa Quetzal looked great working with Lolita, and Quetzal hasn’t looked great often. Hahastary seemed to have the weakest match. There was some confusion with her and Quetzal on the comeback spots. The bigger problem is Hahastary can’t do her flying spots (or doesn’t trust doing them) with most of these women, and she’s not worked out a whole lot else to do.

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Recapped: 04/04/2020

Matches:

Dragón Fly, Hip Hop Man, Mosca beat Alas de Oro, Alas De Plata, Manchas
(15:13, ok, +LuchaTV)

This TV opener was technically fine as a generic Mexican wrestling trios – tecnicos controlled early, rudos took over, tecnicos make a comeback, rudos use a foul to win – but seemed just that generic. The Alas duo is missing a personalty or actions to make them seem like more than the latest take on the Místico mold. Rudos trying to actually win the match during the beatdown was a nice deviation from usual.

Lunatik Extreme went to a draw Puma de Oro
(14:46, DCOR, ok, +LuchaTV)

Puma de Oro fits the mold of a young tecnico, fun in trios, and showing some gaps in a singles match. This was good to go long for the experience for both guys but they didn’t have ten minutes of ideas and nearly went fifteen. They also couldn’t totally pull off the ideas they did have. It wasn’t a disaster, though there were moments like Puma de Oro trying a pin while completely under the ropes where he came off as very green. There were also a few cool spots, but it wasn’t worth the entire time. Doing a draw finish on a show about people getting drunk is a bold choice

I wrote about the Death Metal vs Black Dragón hair vs hair match previously.

Big Chicoche, Big Mike, Big Ovett beat Demonio Infernal, Shun Skywalker, X-Fly
(10:26, ok, +LuchaTV)

Just an extended Strippers Big showcase. It fits the mood of the night but it doesn’t try to do anything remarkable. It’s good to see if you’ve never seen them but not particularly memorable.

Recapped: 2020-04-01

Matches:

Ayako Hamada, Lolita, Miss Delicious beat Diosa Quetzal, Mary Caporal, Miku
(16:39, below average, +LuchaTV)

Ayako Hamada looked visibly frustrated by the end of the women’s match. Hard to blame her after twice doing her wheel kick spot and having the receiving women bail on taking the kick way too soon. Once was Diosa Quetzal, who is supposed to be one of the more experienced luchadoras in the group and had some poor moments. Lolita did well, everyone seems like they’re trying, they’re just not there.

Fresero Jr. beat El Hijo del Medico Asesino © to win the IWRG Junior de Juniors Championship
(14:59, bad, mluchatv)

Two shows ago, Shun Skywalker and Super Nova were counted out. Hijo del Medico Asesino leaves the ringside area seconds into this match after a bad looking axhandle on the floor and does not return for four and a half minutes. He is not counted out. The referee waits a full minute before he starts counting, then counts as slow as humanly possible, and then stops counting because he has no idea what’s supposed to be happening. Demonio Infernal & Fresero argue with the commissioner, then actually just give up and go the back to look for Medico Asesino. Asesino returns protecting one of his arms, with limited mobility. They then brawl around ringside for a while, and it’s five full minutes before he makes it back in the ring (to cut Fresero with a broken bottle.) The referee checks both men and teases stopping the match, before letting them finish a minute later. Medico kicks out of what is obviously meant to be the finish; Fresero just covers him again and immediately gets the three.

Review: Medico got hurt seconds into this match (or was already hurt, or just decided to play up his injury as an excuse for losing), couldn’t do anything, and just wasted everyone’s time. They went long in a mistaken belief it would give people a real match, but the match they got was a one-armed guy working as an unconvincing rudo. It does have lots of bottle shards to head for blood if you’re looking for that, but it’s IWRG, you can get it a lot. I continue to regret any and all time spent watching Medico Asesino matches; he’s not any good and seems to do unprofessional stuff.

 

Big Chico Che, Big Mike, Big Ovett beat Capo del Norte, Demonio Infernal, X-Fly
(10:03, good, mluchatv)

Chico Che bleeds a horrifying amount, fights back to do a big tope, it’s very good. Mike did a couple of good flying moves. I didn’t really notice much anyone else, except X-Fly was much better in this feud than the Capos have been at all so far. There’s not a lot to this match but it’s good at what it does (and competent, which is much better than the rest of this match.)

Chicano, Estrella Divina, Tiago beat Emperador Azteca, Fuerza Guerrera NG, Shun Skywalker
(15:45, good, mluchatv)

The main event was surprisingly good. It shouldn’t be surprising but guessing on the effort level of these shows is tough. Chicano was working super hard and looked great, with Tiago not far behind. Estrella Divina being the third to bring in more personality works on paper, but Divina’s selling was rough and the offense was iffy. The opposition (who knows with tecnicos and rudos here) didn’t stand out much but made for a good showcase match.

Recapped: 2020-03-30

Matches:

Alas de Oro, Alas De Plata, Puma de Oro beat Hip Hop Man, Mosca, Rey Halcón Jr.
(17:42, ok, +LuchaTV)

What Happened: Mosca & Hip Hop Man beat up Halcon for taking the loss.

Review: The action here was fine, no major problems, but the pace was slow and the rudos seemed that way in name only. Hip Hop Man did the most at that (though he wanted no part of being posted), but Halcon seemed on the wrong side. Alas de Oro & Plata did little teamwork for a set duo.

Black Dragón, Eragón, Hijo del Alebrije beat Canival King, Death Metal, Toxin
(17:36, ok, mluchatv)

What Happened: Death Metal gave Black Dragon a martinete for the DQ.

Review: It’s a long way to go for a DQ finish, but this does do a lot to heat up the Black Dragon/Death Metal feud. They bled and brawled all match, and it came off as a big issue going into their hair match feud. (I’m now more disappointed it wasn’t better.) The other four ware fine but nothing special but the focus was very IWRG.

Big Chico Che, Big Mike, Big Ovett beat Capo del Norte, Capo del Sur, Lunatik Xtreme
(10:10, ok, mluchatv)

The role of the Capos here was to bump around for the Big Strippers, and they didn’t even do that well. They also struggled at standing close enough to the ring to catch dives. Lunatik Exterme at least took the finish great. These matches are all about the same but I got the least out of these easily.

Puma King, Relámpago, Shun Skywalker beat Demonio Infernal, Fuerza Guerrera NG, Súper Nova
(17:08, good, mluchatv)

The main event had no particular story to it, but the action was good and the match held together well. Demonio Infernal & Puma King had some serious exchanged which felt like they could’ve done a lot more with a spotlight. This is a borderline match, getting a higher grade maybe because I just wanted to like something.