Recapped: 2021-01-31
All three episodes are on Mas Lucha
My recap of episode 1 is here. As best I can figure without interrogating people involved, these are all episodes airing in two parts. MexaWrestling hasn’t made this clear. I’m trying to catch up here, but next week could be La Alternativa Part 3 for all I know. Mexa themselves isn’t saying more about these than a post the day of the show. It’s no big deal talking about three shows at once, for reasons that’ll become obvious.
What Happened:
On Origen 1, Atomic Star got the best of Baby Star in their match following last week’s break up with an unseen foul. Atomic Star clearly wanted a title match (Baby Star has a belt from Arena Revolucion) but no match was made. Also, Fulgor I & Centviron beat The Mummy & Fuerza Guerrera NG when Fulgor cleanly beat Lucha Time’s the Mummy. That seemed to be hype for Fulgor’s previously taped Lucha Time matches; there’s no follow on the Mexa Wrestling shows.
The implied but never-quite-explained concept for La Alternativa appears to be drastic experience differences in the singles main event. Centvrion faces rookie Karma I in week 1, then old vet Toro Negro Jr. in week 2. Centvrion wins both matches. There are seven other matches over the two shows, and nothing much happens. A trios match on week 1 keeps the Atomic Star/Baby Star and Lunatik Extreme/Mexica feuds alive without giving them the next step. Fulgor & Torito Negro talk about being a pair going forward. That’s about it.
Results and match links from Origen Part 2, La Alternativa Part 1, and La Alternativa Part 2 can be found on the database. Dumb detail note: the video lists Succi Love in Alternativa Part 1 and I think it was Therius instead. Succi Love does appear on Part 2.
What’s Worth Watching:
The Fulgor/Centvrion vs Fuerza/Mummy tag match on Origen 2 is the best match of this bunch by a distance. It feels more polished than all the other tags, they’re going at a good pace, it’s a satisfying finish. Fuerza Guerrera as a tecnico feels odd, but not so much it takes away from the match. Motivation is a question for all empty arena shows, but the guys in that showed a lot of effort (and have generally looked good in the rest.)
Baby Star versus Atomic on Origen 2 had a good idea but a bad finish; either the match is no DQ and everything legal or you need to distract the referee to foul, it can’t be both. It’s not cheating if there are no rules and that match was a no rules match until the finish.
There’s not much on the Origen show or elsewhere which is especially worth seeking out. The MexaBoys match has great moments but a lot of hesitations; it’s evident how much they have to work those out in advance and didn’t this time. A lot of the matched would’ve been better three minutes shorter. The Centvrion/Toro Negro Jr. match was good for how long it lasted and I was happy with something going shorter than expected.
Overall I feel disappointed and wonder if I just expected something the promotion wasn’t trying to do. If this just going to be matches for the sake of matches, there are other places to get that and these aren’t so much better or more interesting than what anyone else is doing. If they’re going to do episodic shows, something needs to happen on every show. If this is just televised training for when shows resume again, that’s fine for them but not much of an interesting weekly video product. There’s no cost in trying to do something – everything can be ignored if it doesn’t work – so wasting this chance to experiment seems like a big flaw.
MexaWrestling is also having the same hard transition in mindset from live experience to video content that most of the Mexican promotions are struggling with. It sucks that whatever happened at the end of Karma versus Centviron happened, but no one knew it happened until Mexa (and MasLucha) decided to air the referee not counting three. There are so many different options to handle it – redo the finish to edit it, just edit down to the second three count, don’t air the match entirely for three – that leaving it as it says something disappointing about the level of care in this. It feels like just something aimless for bored people during the pandemic, for both the wrestlers and the viewers. I’d rather watch flawed ambitious wrestling rather than lucha libre without any mental energy – I already have CMLL to watch if I want matches where the people have given up caring.
Ratings for Completeness:
Camuflaje & Yoruba vs Glen Calavera & Shere Khan: [ok]
Calibus & Therius vs Dehyna & Karma I and Chris Stone Jr. & Mary Caporal: [ok]
Centurion & Fulgor I vs Fuerza Guerrera NG & The Mummy: [good]
Baby Star vs Atomic Star: [ok]
Skyler vs Magia vs Gravity [ok, Gravity far better than the other two]
Caballero de Plata, Sol, Theirus vs Chris Stone Jr., Dehyna, X-Devil Jr. [ok]
Atomic Star, Especie Maligna, Mexica vs Baby Star Jr., Lunatik Extreme, Lunatik Fly [ok]
Centvrión vs Karma I [below average]
Dash vs Guerrero Olímpico: [ok]
Nahual & Sucii Love vs Fussion & Therius: [ok]
Blue Monster Jr. & Rey León vs Fulgor I & Torito Negro: [ok]
Águila Oriental, Noicy Boy, Sol vs Mike, Teelo, Voltrex: [good but flawed]
Centvrión vs Toro Negro Jr. [good though short]
What’s Next:
Episode 5 should air on Wednesday.
