Day: January 13, 2014

03-14 IWRG: Centvrión, Dinamic Black, Trauma II vs Argenis, Drago, Fenix (AAA): Trauma II replaced Golden Magic, and Trauma II is not doing a crazy go nuts match from this start, so this was a bit more sane. Still, it was crazy enough for Fenix to dropped on his head to end the second fall and either did his best selling job ever or was seriously messed up the rest of the way. (I’d really believe either.) It’s sticks out stronger in a marathon watching how lucky they (and we) are that more guys don’t disappear with injuries for months at at time given the current style. Third fall was worked around Fenix’s injury a bit, but it was stilla pretty good build up match. Fenix not knowing what the title was called takes it down a little bit.

03-15 CMLL (Handcam): La Máscara, Máscara Dorada, Valiente vs Averno, Ephesto, Mephisto: GREAT. This is a handcam – there’s probably a Samurai TV version but I haven’t seen it, and this is the ancient days of lore pre-Terra. Really fun trios which would be bigger than most Tuesday main events but relegated to the segunda for Dos Leyendas. Pretty standard formula which got very good by the end. This match had a stacked up superplex – has the 2 on 1 superplex actually been completed by anyone in the last five years without more people getting involved? Crowd would’ve exploded if Averno beat Máscara clean with the Devil’s Wings at the end of the finisher run – and then they did after the big powerbomb. That’s really enough to push into the list; it’s completely lost without the context (of them never actually just doing that finish), but it’s my list so it’s in there.

03-15 CMLL (Hanicam): Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr., Tritón vs Felino, Puma, Tiger: watched out of order and mildly distracted, but this was a pretty good match with an outstanding finish. Finishes were generally pretty good on this show, but the Cats just destroyed the técnicos at the end here. Felino’s best work all year has come when he’s been paired with his sons and this was no exception. Really surprising CMLL stuck with the Delta/Maya pair all year given how forgetful they are on some midcard concepts (Triton and his Cadetes!) but maybe they’ll stick together next year and we’ll get that tag match against Puma and Tiger.

03-17 IWRG: Dinamic Black vs Carta Brava Jr. for the IWRG Intercontinental Welterweight Championship: I had the AYM version of this playing on my TV. It’s so much easier to watch on my TV than YouTube. I noticed I could watch this on YouTube with the TVCD crew instead, and changed immediately. TVCD not being the flagship IWRG broadcaster is most frustrating story of 2013. This was a IWRG title match, right down to the rudo second interfering and being thrown out, and a very good match in front of a very excited crowd. I’m fairly certain this inverted DDT before the finish wasn’t supposed what it turned out to be, because the finish itself was Carta Brava mostly pinning himself, but it was quite a move.

03-21 IWRG: Dinamic Black vs Fenix (AAA) for the IWRG Intercontinental Welterweight Championship: GREAT. Occasionally, some sequence goes horrendously poor and it causes me to believe lucha libre may be fake. This match caused me to believe lucha libre is real. Very very real. Things kind of broke down at the end of the first fall; it might have been earlier, but it stuck out to me when Dinamic Black just didn’t go for Fenix’s handspring cutter, Fenix responded by not submitting to the motocicleta, and Dinamic Black decided to try to break Fenix’s shoulder. Match wasn’t the crazy move fest I was expecting even before that, but it turned into one of the most hate filled matches of the year for seemingly very genuine reasons. Moves which relied cooperation did not go well for a while, moves that required just hitting someone else very hard were very frequent. Dinamic Black took some hard shots in the second fall, and Fenix did the same in the third (though he ducked out of one dropkick to protect himself.) It’s always possible they did a masterful job of faking the hatred, but it felt very genuine and very intense. It’s conflicting, because giving people acclaim for appearing unprofessional is not a good idea (and usually leads to bad matches), but this was undeniable an entertaining match. It’d probably be an excellent match if they were not (purposefully?) screwing up moves at times – it added to the authenticity of a real fight going on but did make both guys look silly to keep trying them. I think Dinamic tried to screw over Fenix over in the finish, trying to get him down for a five count, and it ended up working out better for Fenix. Fenix was happy to point out the two count to have an out and book his own match. Remind me never to have Trauma II as my corner man – he let Dinamic Black put Fenix in the hold after the match, didn’t do much about it, and sided with the IWRG guys. Argenis couldn’t have been that busy.

03-24 ACM: Silencio vs Símbolo for the Arena el Jaguar championship which might be the FILL Absolute Championship and probably doesn’t specifically matter either way: A generally good title match with some flaws but a lot of effort. I liked parts of the third fall finishing sequence. Silencio tried to go all Mascara Dorada and slipped on the ropes, which was sad. Second fall finish was Silencio losing by being dumb, which is probably not the way to go in a title match. Finish looked clunky, but there was still a lot of good stuff here.

02-17 IWRG: Centvrión vs Golden Magic, Carta Brava Jr., Dinamic Black, Alan Extreme- A match where Alan Xtreme gets piledrived so hard that he loses his mask – and then Dinamic Black piledrivers him again. (I think they screwed up the finish.) More sane than I was expecting, working it mostly as a series of one on ones with a third person jumping into to take over at points – though there was some crazy five way action. Ambitious but too choreographed to set up the planned spots. Fun good if flawed match.

02-26 GDL: Astral, Fantasy, Último Dragoncito vs Demus 3:16, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito: a time when I was excited about the CMLL minis! For good reason, because this was much better than the matches of most of the year. The guys were more creative here – first fall finish is a good example – and generally working smoothier. This is not great, with Astral specifically having good and bad moments, and it’s helped by having a having healthy Demus. It’s also helped by guys appearing more motivated and more practiced. There’s a four man spot which goes perfectly fine here which was blown many ways ten months later with the same exact guys. The CMLL minis division has fallen on tough times, but they had better moments not that long ago.

02-26 GDL: Rey Escorpion, Okumura, Namajague vs Hijo del Fantasma, Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr.: A match so old, Namajague is wearing a mask. Hoped for a hot trios match but they were focused on building up the upcoming mask/hair match and this didn’t develop into anything more, especially given the time and the abrupt DQ finish. This is a match with an extended Rey Escorpion/Hijo del Fantasma pose off. (Escorpion does pull off a big flip to the floor soon after.) You can skip this.

02-28 IWRG: Dinamic Black, Dr. Cerebro, Golden Magic vs Canis Lupus, Carta Brava Jr., Eterno:  Fun build up trios match that didn’t feel like one. They were setting up Dinamic/Carta for next week, though Dinamic getting the win is a bit mitigated by Dinamic Black laying face first on the mat after the finish for an extended period of time and had to be strechered out. (And so, in that, it wasn’t a great build up.) Rudos were sharp and Golden Magic did destroyed some chairs.

03-03 IWRG:  Centvrión, Dr. Cerebro, Pantera vs Apolo Estrada Jr., Eita, Tomahawk: back in the day where Tomahawk didn’t have gear despite about 50 different people in the Mexico City area who make gear (including probably a couple guys on this card.) If you’re making a list of the best running lucha libre jokes of 2013, Tomahawk’s shorts are somewhere behind Fusion/Evolucion. This was a very average match with some occasional good moments. Apolo and Doc Cerebro have good chemistry, they should try to feud about 8 months from here.

03-07 IWRG: Centvrión, Dinamic Black, Golden Magic DCOR Argenis, Drago, Fenix (AAA): I watched this while trying to watch something else. It worked out OK; there was no story to be miss. Crazy go nuts match from the start which kind of lost a bit of steam after the first fall. This is a good match of big moves and break ups but absolutely nothing more, and one with an unsatisfying finish to build to the rematch next week. Great if you want the moves. I wanted something different than they they were doing but this will work if you just want high spots – they were pretty on with most of them.