Tag: recaps

January/February CMLL & Welcome to Mi Barrio quick reviews

thecubsfan 3 Comments

Handling both of these at once, even if it’s unfair. CMLL & Welcome to Mi Barrio are not on the same level for me. I actually liked a Welcome To Mi Barrio match and I haven’t really liked any CMLL matches this year. Even the stuff that’s gotten praise elsewhere just feels empty to me.

CMLL

Pólvora vs Guerrero Maya Jr.
(01/16 Televisa, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)

A solid professional match between two people working harder than I expect from CMLL at this point. It’s still hard to recommend because there wasn’t a lot memorable to it, but it was not a waste of my time.

Forastero vs Titán
(01/16 Televisa, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Titan works very hard, comes up with at least one new spot, gets the most out of this he can. Forastero messes up his first big move and his last big move. Forastero wins. So it goes.

Virus vs Soberano Jr.
(02/06 Televisa, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Another solidly worked match, with some iffy moments near the end of the first two falls but otherwise. I think I’d have this above the Titan/Forastero but below Maya/Polvora. This was one that was not especially compelling but it was solidly worked. Virus beating Soberano leading to nothing at all is very weird but nothing about CMLL makes sense. Soberano’s got to do something other than passive sit there when Virus takes longer than usual to put on his submission.

Atlantis Jr. & Flyer © vs Cancerbero & Raziel for the Mexican National Tag Team Championship
(02/19 AMX, ok, Google Drive)

Another Flyer match where it appears everyone hates Flyer’s guts. If the rudos didn’t like him to start, they did enough after he kicked Cancerbero in the mouth (leading to a rare mid-match edit to cover up a doctor stoppage.) Raziel gets his revenge on a dropkick to the face and the rudos rip up Flyer’s gear, only for Flyer to make it worse for himself by kicking Raziel in the face too. I’m not sure how he lived. Flyer also apparently can’t wrestle long matches because he looked gassed out (or maybe hurt) by early in the third fall.

Flyer’s not really the issue here – he’s going to be bad for years to come, but it’s not news. Atlantis Jr. looking unspecial was the concerning development. There’s a lot of pandemic-rust on him (clearly has been staying out of the gyms and the tanning bed) but he came off like just another replaceable guy. It didn’t help that his big spot was delayed by referee Metalico stepping into his path, but nothing he did look special and he continued to struggle with his own finishing hold. Atlantis Jr. was never a sure thing but CMLL needs someone to turn into an actual impressive star; they can’t afford him to devolve.

Euforia vs Valiente
(02/13 Televisa, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)

It’s impressive Valiente can still perfectly land the Valiente Special given his current mass. That size seems to be a problem at other times; Euforia loses him on his finish to end the second fall, and there’s an early third fall spot that goes awry. The first two falls here aren’t much, though the first fall has the oddity of the opening mat work actually looking to the finish. The third fall is the best thing to watch, and also Euforia gets to show off all his Jiu-Jitsu submissions. I liked the Stuka/Euforia match better.

Soberano Jr., Titán, Volador Jr. vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
(02/27 Televisa, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Místico, Templario, Volador Jr. vs Ephesto, Mephisto, Titán in a relevos increíbles match
(03/05 AMX, ok, Google Drive)

I just wanted to watch some Titan. The AMX match has him as a rudo but he gets more space; the NGD match is a very NGD match. That one seems like it should set up a rematch since a group of tecnicos beats the trios champs, the other one has the post-match challenge. It doesn’t matter. The common similarity is Volador taking it easy in both; Templario wins a fall with his ramp Sasuke Special, and Volador does an inside cradle for a pin at about the same time. Ephesto & Mephisto aren’t great but that one has more life to it, less a rehearsal of moves.

Welcome to Mi Barrio

Kamik-C & Skalibur (Baja California) vs Hijo del Pantera & Pantera Jr.
(WTMB 01/29, great, +LuchaTV)

Strong building action throughout, turning what had been a decently good match into something really exciting by the end. The 4:20 Brothers pushed the Panteras to try harder than they’ve done in the other Welcome To Mi Barrio matches. The TJ guys go for a little bit too fancy moves, but they’re totally up to make an impression here and really do so. This came across like a big title match rather than just a random one-off.

Charro Negro (Nuevo León) vs Hijo del Pantera
(WTMB 02/12, ok, mluchatv)

This was like Charro Negro was tired or hurt but they still had to do the match, so Pantera did everything and got cradled in the end. The aborted apron piledriver spot early on probably was a sign this wasn’t going to work out. It’s never as close to dangerously falling apart again and Pantera’s offense looks fine, but Charro doesn’t contribute much. Not sure what happened. Maybe there’s a rematch where it’ll make sense.

Camuflaje, Hijo del Pantera, Pantera Jr. vs Kamik-C, Skalibur, Tiago
(WTMB 02/26, good, mluchatv)

Not as epic as the 2v2, but still an easy watch. Tiago seems motivated to knee people in the face. Skalibur takes a lot of ugly moves. This moves quick.

Lucha Memes: 2021-02-21 (Coacalco Forever)

thecubsfan 2 Comments

Recapped: 2021-03-07

Full Results:

  • Rayo Boy & Valak beat Black Out & Hellboy
  • Skayler beat Noisy Boy & Super Cometa
  • Perro de Guerra Jr. defeated Avisman
  • Alas de Acero & Iron Kid defeated Aero Panther & Fight Panther
  • Tromba defeated Energia
  • Aramis & Arez defeated Voltrex & Mike and Jimmy & Astrolux

The full show is available on IWTV. Donators also received individual video links; you should have them already if you donated.

Notes:

Lucha Memes “Coacalco Forever” was a fundraiser for the long-running Mexico State venue, which has not held events for most of the past year due to the pandemics. If it succeeded in keeping that venue going, then the show was a success. The event itself isn’t much worth watching and is one of the weaker events Lucha Memes has put out.

The scheduled main event was Ricky Marvin versus Jimmy. Marvin missed the show. Nothing was publicly announced, and the changes to the card were not ideal. Most of the exciting wrestlers were bundled together in a three-way tag match, removing multiple unaffected matches. That left not much left for the rest of the show; the main event had to come up big for that change to be worth it.

The main event delivered a spot that went viral (Astrolux getting tossed into a headscissors on Mike), a spot that looked more impressive on social media than it’s presented on this show. The rest of the match has some moments but feels sloppy and thrown together, with no direction or purpose. There’s a few other spots they want to get to, but nothing connecting them. The three-way tag format added little and seemed to waste the talent or interest of those involved. Picking two luchadors out of Aramis, Arez, and Jimmy for a singles match would’ve been more exciting than anything we want, even if some of the matches are repetitive. There are other possible solutions – a trios match is almost always going to be better than a three-way tag – and this main event was an unappealing adjustment. The match didn’t suffer because of that change; the effort and thought weren’t present, despite the talent involved. Arez, Aramis, and Jimmy are among the best-unsigned wrestlers in Mexico, but you wouldn’t have known it from their performance in this match. Mike and Voltrex felt a bit exposed, concentrating on moving around to set up the next spot than attempting to keep up the pretense of a fight. This wasn’t a disaster, but it is much less than it reads on paper.

The rest of the show didn’t have any big surprise success to make up for it; if anything, matches were worse than usual. Perro de Guerra/Avisman’s submission match killed the crowd. A few attempts at stringing moves together and battling them out occurred, making it a very slight improvement of Perro’s match on the recent IAW show. It’s wasn’t enough – this style continues to come off as a two-person co-operative yoga game instead of a wrestling match. Avisman and Perro de Guerra show the fans they can do a hold, then let go so they can show off another hold. Knowledge is useless if it’s not applied, and they weren’t applying these holds to win. The wrestlers successfully trained fans to clap for these matches respectfully, but it’s obvious no one cares; it comes off as taking middle school children to the opera. Tromba/Energia was a slightly more diverse version of this same style, Tromba mixing in more strikes and Energia finding different ways of attacking. Not sure I would’ve replayed Energia nearly crashing and burning on his dive, though.

The Panthers/Iron Boy & Alas de Acero was the second-best match on the show, depending on how you feel about the main event. (Neither was bad, nor something I’ll be thinking about again, ranking them seems irrelevant.) The Panthers are still green; they can perform moves but have trouble taking them. They missed Iron Boy’s dive both times and otherwise looked unpolished. They’ve been working with a lot more experienced people lately, and maybe that’ll help them down the line. The finish was flat, but there’s good action prior.

The opener, Black Out & Hellboy versus Rayo Boy & Valak, was an eight-minute turned into twenty minutes of everyone getting in their moves. There wasn’t anything to the moves. It was simply spots to show they could do them. Super Cometa versus Noisy Boy versus Skayler was derailed by injury, but sloppy also before that. The Mexaboys are too inexperienced without Mike & Voltrex, and this match only served to demonstrate that.

The insane camera switches late in the semi-main and main event made them annoying to watch. It felt like an editor who had gotten bored with the show and was entertaining themselves. It followed the same pattern as the recent Coliseo Coacalco shows, where there are production elements to do them, which actively detract from the wrestling. Lucha Memes obviously follows the common wrestling promoter pattern of not watching their own shows because those issues are never addressed.

It would be best if you didn’t waste your time watching this show either. Hopefully, the money helps Coliseo Coacalco, but I’d be hard-pressed to support another Lucha Memes fundraiser if this is what they thought was good enough. The drop-off from the Guerra de Naciones show to this one was massive, and it just makes sense to wait for the show to turn up on IWTV if that’s going to happen regardless of contributing or not. Martinez & the Foundation’s assistance on that previous show seemed more vital without them being part of this show.

Dumb Ratings For Completion Purposes

  • Rayo Boy & Valak vs. Black Out & Hellboy: [ok]
  • Skayler vs Noisy Boy & Super Cometa: [ok]
  • Perro de Guerra Jr. vs. Avisman: [below average]
  • Alas de Acero & Iron Kid vs Aero Panther & Fight Panther: [ok]
  • Tromba vs Energia: [ok]
  • Aramis & Arez vs Voltrex & Mike and Jimmy & Astrolux: [ok]

Lucha Memes & Martinez Entertainment: Guerra de Naciones (2021-01-22)

thecubsfan

Recapped: 2021-02-13

What Happened:

US’s Martinez Entertainment co-promoted a show with Mexico’s Lucha Memes. This was billed as of Mexican wrestlers versus Jonathan Gresham’s endorsed (US) Foundation wrestlers. Mexico won five to two.

The show is available for VOD viewing on IWTV.

What’s Worth Watching:

There are two defining themes to this show

  • Most of the undercard were highly technical matches, similar in style to ROH’s Pure Matches (though not under those rules) and most of those were generally well done.
  • The (sparser than usual) Martinez crowd gets bored with that style of fighting quickly. They never turn on the show, but they’re remarkably disinterested in the majority of it.

Shows with little or no fan reactions have become standard for the last year; perhaps you’ve already given up current wrestling if you can’t watch without getting those reactions. It was hard to ignore; these matches were good but would’ve been more enjoyable in front of a crowd who wanted to see them. (This is a huge buzzed-about show if it happened at a WrestleMania weekend-like event with that crowd, though I’m not sure if it would’ve sold any more tickets.)

Gresham/Aramis was the best of the bunch, something obviously very skillful while going at an incredible pace. The match was a Gresham-style match and Aramis kept up with him the entire way, maybe pushed him to go even faster.

Deppen/Marvin did the strongest job of drawing in the reluctant crowd; Tony Deppen is just mentally built to irritate lucha libre crowds and get into arguments with children. He shifted back and forth well from comedy to serious well, and Ricky Marvin was super motivated to have a great match. It’s about as strong as you could expect a Deppen/Marvin match to be in 2021.

Tiger/Yuta had the hardest spot – being the sixth of the technical matches live, coming after Gresham/Aramis. Even I was tired of seeing these type of matches by that point. They pulled me back into it, with just really strong effort. The Tiger reverse crucifix faceslam thing was crazy.

Arez/Garcia was a very solid opener, the two working well together and establishing the style they were going for on this night. It felt at the time they could’ve gone a bit longer, but it was the right call to end it when they did in the big picture.

Laredo Kid versus Black Taurus, added in part because Taurus happened to be free after the Impact tapings, is totally unlike those other four matches. It’s a very Laredo Kid big spots match. It doesn’t go too long but both men look insane while it lasts, peaking with a Taurus piledriver that really could’ve been the finish. They’re capable of a bigger match but it’s easily enjoyable for a random US appearance.

You should turn off the show instead of watching the main event. Medina/Martin (late sub for Dante Caballero) is not much. Aeroboy looked great against Wavra, but there were more flaws in that match than the other similar matches.

The other production note is the announcing is fine for a person who’s seeing most of the people the first time. If you’re coming at it from a lucha libre standpoint, you’re probably coming in with more knowledge about the Mexican guys than you’re going to get, but it’s not going to take away from the show. I wish we got English lucha libre announcers who were both comfortable in English and also knowledgeable about lucha libre (or had the foresight to ask a million questions to people who are before calling the show), but just getting one of the two is better than average.

(There is no commentary for Laredo/Taurus; it appears that match wasn’t sent to the announcer. Wrestling is so weird.)

dumb match ratings

Arez vs Daniel García [good]
Aeroboy vs Joshua Wavra [ok]
Gino Medina vs Eric Martin [ok]
Ricky Marvin vs Tony Deppen [great]
Laredo Kid vs Black Taurus [good]
Aramis vs Jonathan Gresham [excellent]
Xtreme Tiger vs Wheeler Yuta [good but maybe higher]
Blue Demon & Low Rider vs Fred Yehi & Mecha Wolf [ok]

Mexa Wrestling Origen Part 2 (2021-01-27) + La Alternativa 1 & 2 (02-03, 02-10)

thecubsfan

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.

AAA AutoLuchas episodes 9, 10, and 11

thecubsfan

I’m still going through these three at a time, though it’s mostly just to check it off a list. It’s not the fault of the luchadors – even ‘ok’ here is a much more palatable watch than equally aged CMLL – but these can’t help but feel very stale when we’re up to episode 9 of seeing them perform at the same drive-in. There are few angles, with some intending to lead-in to TripleMania matches which happened months ago (or didn’t end up happening) and others just running in place. They’re easy shows to throw in the background while you’re doing something else, but it’s also transparent the purpose of these show are just to keep the TV slots warm and not to do anything too interesting.

AutoLuchas 9:

10-18: Lady Shani beat Faby Apache and La Hiedra for a title shot at the Reina de Reinas championship [good]
10-18: Big Mami & Myzteziz Jr. b Australian Suicide & Hades [ok]
10-18: Niño Hamburguesa & Octagón Jr. b Carta Brava Jr. & Mocho Cota Jr. [ok]
10-18: Pagano b Chessman [ok]

Chessman gives Pagano a martinete after their match, which came off like it was meant to lead into TripleMania. Lady Shani seemed previously owed a title shot, would seem likely to get the title match even without one, and that match might have been designed when AAA believed Taya would be available for TripleMania. Shani cleanly submitting Apache seems worth nothing, though here it was more about leading into a Maravilla & Hiedra post-match attack.

That contenders match is about as good as you’d expect with the names. It’s a shame the women’s division had their worst match of the year on the one show non-AAA people watched, but so it goes. Pagano vs Chessman is a more wrestling moves ordinated version of their match, though that’s also with Chessman going through a table and coming in the neighborhood of hitting his head on cement.

Octagon mostly sits out of his match. Hades displays more ruda personality than usual in the other tag match.

AutoLuchas 10:

10-17: Australian Suicide b Mr. Iguana and Tito Santana [ok]
10-17: Argenis b Myzteziz Jr. and La Parka Negra [good]
10-17: Big Mami & Lady Shani b Faby Apache & La Hiedra [ok]
10-17: Chessman b Psycho Clown and Texano [ok]

Argenis unmasks Myzteziz (after an ugly Destroyer) to keep that feud ticking over. I liked that three-way a bit better than the previous one, but this was the point where I was again tired of seeing threeways. Big Mami didn’t look sharp this weekend but the women’s match was more about Faby & Hiedra not getting along.

AutoLuchas 11:

10-17: Faby Apache b Lady Shani [good]
10-17: Texano Jr. b Octagon Jr. [good]
10-17: Murder Clown beat Tito Santana and Parka Negra [ok]
10-17: Maximo & Niño Hamburguesa beat Carta Brava & Mocho Cota [ok]

Texano fouled and piledrived Octagon, who seemed a little shook up afterward. Argenis attacked Octagon after the second match for no reason other than to set up a Myzteziz making the save. Maximo hurt his right hand (maybe fingers?) on a dive early on, sat out while it was taped, and then essentially tried to do the rest of the match with one good arm.

That main event wasn’t much as a result of Maximo’s injury. Semi-main went very long for something that was mostly Murder Clown throwing around two smaller guys. The two singles matches were enjoyable but missing any increased drama as the match went along; they started off hot (or maybe more warm) and then just stayed on that same note for the entire match. There’s not much build, which is a common issue. Faby being willing to lose Lady Shani makes a lot more sense knowing she won the day before; the two matches should’ve aired in the opposite order. It’s a CMLL thing to do it this way.

AAA went back to 10-18 for episode 12, which I’ll have in the next batch. They can get at least one more episode of the 10/17-10/18 weekend. (We haven’t seen the minis much, and they’re all over those.) AAA also largely skipped over most of the 10/10-10/11 weekend, that’s 4-5 episodes. This can go on for a while longer, though I’d probably also be ok with it wrapping up soon.

Lucha Libre Vanguardia: Galardón Vanguardia (2021-01-31)

thecubsfan

What Is It:

Lucha Libre Vanguardia held a first-ever award show. They treat it like a music award show, where the announcements are broken up by match performances. This is a four-match card with the regular Vanguardia roster, taped indoors sometime in December or January.

Mas Lucha has the complete show. luchadb results are here.

What Happened: 

It’s a legit award show, best as I can tell. There’s a panel of votes of people associated with the promotion but not in the promotion (Mas Lucha, Black Mask, local journalists) voting on these categories.

The award winners (cribbing from here) were

  • Luchador of the Year: Gasparin Jr.
  • Match of the Year: Jimmy vs Aeroboy
  • Relevacion of the Year: Lobo Blanco Jr.
  • Moment of the Year: Ciclope tying Santy Hernandez to a truck
  • Major signing of the year: Crazy King
  • Faction of the Year: Odaiba Squad

That last one also makes it feel like it’s legit: Odaiba Squad got disregarded for El Sindicato a couple of shows back, and the winners are talking about how they hope the new group wins in 2021. I can’t believe the invisible man explosion lost. I’m surprised at Gasparin. I didn’t watch the Jimmy/Aeroboy match previously, so this got me to go back and watch it. (It’s in Mas Lucha’s Premium.) I haven’t thought much about what would be the best Vanguardia match of 2020 but I could definitely see why people would pick that one.

Two titles change hands during the night. Lobo Blanco Jr. wins a three-way with Rey Dragon and Falcon Fire to the Black Mask Cruiserweight Championship, previously held by Fire. Lobo Blanco is already Vanguardia 4×4 champion. His double championship doesn’t last long. Ciclope, who’d been carrying around (and drinking often) from a wine glass all evening, congratulates Lobo Blanco as a setup to smashing the glass on Blanco and pinning him for this group’s 24×7 title.

A show-closing angle repeats a similar on the last show; Ciclon Infernal and two masked men representing Mexico City’s IAW promotion lay out both Calibus and Jimmy. Jimmy’s already announced as facing IAW champion Latigo on the IAW 02/14 show, Ciclon Infernal will defend the IAW Junior championship against Jitsu on that show. This appeared to be a setup for Ciclon Infernal coming back to Vanguardia for another title match, maybe defending against Calibus.

Santy Hernandez, who’s been all over the Vanguardia shows as the lead heel, was noticeably absent.

What’s Worth Watching:

All of the matches, maybe? Every match wasn’t superb, but every match was successful at what they were trying to achieve. This show didn’t have the bombastic moments of other Vanguardia shows, yet it may have been the best overall show they’ve produced in this era.

The ten-person tag (Cíclope, Crazy King, El Mago, Miedo Extremo, Símbolo Azteca versus Billy, Dayami, Devitt Rodríguez, Jeff Killer, Luigi) was the standout match of the bunch and is among the best normal matches the promotion’s put out. It’s a vets versus the rookies setup and just seems like a normal bit of showcasing the new guys before they get squashed. It builds and builds upon itself until there’s suddenly three people diving into the ring to break up a pinfall like a Japanese match. The rookies get so much in this and get to look like future stars in it – Luigi and Dayami the most – with the veterans doing their best to keep it together. This is just great.

The three-way cruiserweight match is messy in the way those sometimes are. It’s also all action and a lot of dangerous-looking spots onto a cement floor. Calibus didn’t seem up to the new & improved Jimmy’s level, though there were good parts to the match and it was refreshing to see them get the main event. (This was an award show, but the booking seemed intentionally designed to celebrate the entire roster; it’s wasn’t a promotion just about one guy or a couple of people.) Jitsu/Gasparin wasn’t much, which was exactly what an opener should be. They got in, they did a few things and kept the show moving.

What’s Worth Skipping:

Not much. Maybe if you don’t care about the awards, you can watch those announcements in double speed.

Dumb Ratings For Completeness:

Jitsu vs Gasparín Jr. [ok]
Lobo Blanco Jr. vs Rey Dragón vs Falcón Fire © [BMLL CRUISER] [good]
Cíclope, Crazy King, El Mago, Miedo Extremo, Símbolo Azteca vs Billy, Dayami, Devitt Rodríguez, Jeff Killer, Luigi [GREAT]
Jimmy vs Calibus [good? ok? somewhere in the middle?]

What’s Next:

Vanguardia’s next show is called Amor y Control, which doesn’t have a date but obviously is coming in February. They’ve announced Aeroboy as a guest.