08/30 Perros del Mal (or really FMLL) @ Congress Theatre

Stuff LLL wants to know: I twittered 500 people in attendance early, but it kept filling up. By the end, the lower section was full (though it seats much less than it used to) and there appeared to be people watching from the second floor. I’d say in the 750-800 range, but I have no good idea of what capacity is nowadays.

Stuff people on the fence on GA for DGUSA want to know: you’re going to be fine where ever you sit, unless the thing really outsells it’s expectations. Also, but the parking lots they’re using are easy to get to and no problem if you want to use them. The ones they were using on this night were a heck of a lot closer than the school parking lot they used to send you towards.

Stuff people thinking about Lucha Va Voom may want to know: They were promoting Cassandro, Alebrije, and Cuije for the show.

Stuff DGUSA needs to know: you’re setting the main camera up on the stage. There’s no choice, that’s where it’s gotta be. Also, at least once, pan up to the big dome just to make the place look a bit classy.

All the other stuff:

I started to do undercard match report, but I’m not doing one. I stopped taking notes after opener and preferred playing Russian Roulette to watching the other matches too closely. (The solitaire game, not the other, though if I had the option…) There’s not enough names, and not the right names, on the poster to put the lineup back together from scratch. I tried, it didn’t work.

What I can recall is we had an opener – Silueta Azul over Xavier Defust, if the name on the poster is right – then a battle royal to determine teams for a Copa Chicago tournament. A lucha one night tournament remains a bad bad thing, though I would’ve much preferred all these matches going sub 3 minutes CMLL-style than what we got. It was 12 man, 6 team tournament with three first round matches

– the match where two rudos faced one tecnico and one rudo and won (another Xavier Defust appearance)

– the match where two tecnicos faced one rudo and one tecnico and won (winning team was Principe Franky & Discovery, who looked as good as any one on the undercard but would not have impressed under any other circumstance)

– the match which just happens to include the teams set up by post-match run ins during the opener. Rudo team, who advanced, were Bazooka & Great Malaki. Xavier Defust, managing them as well, mentioned Great Malaki wrestling in this very building next Sunday, and that was the closest thing to an overt plug for the DGUSA show all night. Meanwhile, the Lucha Va Voom show was being pushed hard all night, between every match and with a video ad that was playing non-stop before the show. (There were also movie card type ads for both shows at the concessions stands, but if you didn’t know who these Japanese gentleman were, there wasn’t much to pull you in.)

The final came down to rudos Principe Azteca (1?) & I think Profeta (someone from Cal anyway) vs rudos Great Malaki (who has a great unintentionally silly entrance, but slow, so he better come out first for the Fray or he’ll be in trouble) and Bazooka vs Principe Franky & Discovery. Malaki & Bazooka get eliminated somehow – I didn’t ever see, and it diden’t seem like people knew until it was announced as such. Azteca & Discovery get pinned at the same time, and the referee – who had a shirt and little more – started to give the match to Principe Franky until Franky explained to him that 1 and 1 left. After a couple minutes of not so good near falls, Discovery wandered back into the ring and started to attack (let’s say) Profeta. Discovery was told he wasn’t in the match any longer, bizarrely stayed into argue the point, and Azteca came in to foul Franky in the meantime. It actually looked like Discovery turned on his partner, but since no one reacted that way after the match, I have no idea what was going on. Profeta and Azteca got the trophies (two, not the same size – also, can’t believe they spent money on this) and Profeta talked about how much better California was than Chicago.

During this tournament, and before the opener when they were killing time for no reason (the main eventers all worked LA the night before and had nothing else to do, there was no reason they needed to stall and the show was even more annoying for it), the 3 different announcers brought fans out of the crowd to fight each other in the ring. They wanted them to pretend to be the main eventers, but the first couple of kids just barely hit each other before they wanted out of there, the last two guys were “White Guys From France” who just kinda grappled with each other before they were gassed. The middle two worked spots. Like, really bad looking spots, but two guys coming from different parts of the crowd and doing (and slipping, and trying again, and getting it that time) a springboard armdrag is impressive. Until they get out of the ring, go back to their actual seats, and it turns out they’re sitting next to each other in the front row VIP section because they were plants.

So. Yea. Got into the line around 5:15, doors didn’t open until 5:45 for a show that was listed to start at 6 and didn’t start until a few minutes before 7. Lots of time killing for no reason, lots of ring announcers who think they’re hilarious talking over the matches, the usual bit of walking around the fans with a live microphone so they can screech into the microphone and distract you from the match. Congress’ website telling me tickets were $15, handing the ticket guy $20, and him telling me it’s $25. A can of Coke for $3! (Concession stands people are still nice and friendly if a bit overworked.) Everyone undercard match being bad->horrible. Every reason why I stopped coming to shows in this building, and it was about 9:20….

and they sent a singer onto the stage. I have no idea why. I have no idea what he sang, I couldn’t hear it over all the people whistling at him to get off. They stopped him at one song, which may have saved lives. Still, I was clearly going mad, assuming I really did send out those text messages.

And the main event turned me around 180. It was worth it to see that match live. You NEED to see Perro Aguayo Junior live, before he gets old and starts doing a self-parody. Here, about as far away as Mexico he’s going to wrestle with crossing an ocean, he wrestling like he was the best rudo in the world and everyone in the world knew it. It wasn’t moves or even athletic skills, but it’s the interaction and the expressions, all of which are so much more real when you’re watching it live and not on a TV. I want to suggest that he’s the last of a dying breed, of guys who were taught to work to the person in the second row than to the camera, but it doesn’t really hold – he’s been on TV since the day he started. Some people just have it.

It wasn’t just Perro Aguayo Jr., as great as he was. I’ve seen LA Park do the same act in the same building many times over the years, and it still gets over and are still fun. (Though Perro selling of the chops made them even better.) Damian did a fine job playing Perro’s right hand man. And Blue Demon Jr. continues his magic act, convincing people he’s actually Hijo del Santo.

They did mic work suggesting the third fall of the main event was going to be double mask vs double hair. It was not. Park got the win on Perro with a foul small package. They did post match work talking about doing one more fall for the same stips, but then the rudos just walked off and the tecnicos chased after them. None of it took away anything for me, because I knew that was what I was going to get (and was even pleasantly surprised to actually get a finish.)

DGUSA runs Congress this Sunday. I’ve already bought tickets, it’ll be a smoother run show, and it should have some outstanding matches. Lucha Va Voom is running there on the 18th, and it should be a extremely entertaining show. Not sure if I’m going to make it out for that, but I highly recommend it if you’re even thinking about it. I don’t know when they’ll run straight lucha again at the building, but I highly recommend you show up a couple hours after the time listed on the show, and hope you get a good seat for the actual main event.

Bonus:

Rob from chicagoprowrestling.com took video for the main event. If you don’t like shaky video, you’ll probably want to skip it, but I think it’s worth checking out.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/2ii7kk
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ux1b09
http://www.sendspace.com/file/bqqdwv
http://www.sendspace.com/file/2xalr3

One thought to “08/30 Perros del Mal (or really FMLL) @ Congress Theatre”

  1. Cubs, as a Perro fan who lives in Mexico City, I feel the need to point out that you have seen him the same number of times this year. This seems horribly unfair to me.

    That being said, I am glad that they are doing some US dates and giving people a chance to see them live. Perro is definitely best experienced live. I wish he would return to tv, but his ability to play to a live crowd is a rare skill indeed.

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