Recapped: 02/07/2017
For the sake of this post, I’m just reviewing the two matches as part of the VOD, offered for $3USD. I’ll add Hechicero/Cerbero to another post if/when it turns up, and I may do other matches from that show, but I wanted to write about it as the distinct product that’s been sold.
I really liked the atomicos match. It was the sort of action I was hoping for with the originally announced Ronnie/Laredo vs Kriminal Boyz match, but taken farther because of having so many people and probably helped out a little bit by spreading the more experienced guys on both sides. I don’t care for the Rush/Rowe match, which is consistent on where I’ve felt on Rush for the last few months. I would probably keep using him on my shows if I was promoter because he appeared to be the most over guy in the building, but it also felt like he was coasting. The other match, with guys wrestling like they had something to prove, is obviously going to appeal a little more to those looking to an alternative to the main promotions.
+LuchaTV handled the production of these matches, and they look at their usual high level we’re used to with them. You could put these matches on TV and they’d production looks as good or better than usual lucha libre TV. Besides the matches, there’s also highlights of the post-match interview from the night before, building up the Rowe/Rush match at Arena Mexico. The commentary, handled by Jose Manuel Guillen and Bernardo Guzman, was good.
The only criticism I’d have is more could’ve been done to identify the luchadors in the opening match. The appeal of the match was having unknowns or barely known guys get a spotlight shot, but it also meant most people didn’t know who those luchadors were before they all started moving 50km and hour. Those name and identities can and were communicated on commentary, but it still seemed like an obstacle to newer fans and non-Spanish speakers. I’m a bigger believer in a lot of information on screen than most people, but even something as small as a graphic indicating with each guy’s name on it the first time they come in goes a long way. Maybe some feature like the Rowe/Rush interview was prepared for the originally planned match and then couldn’t be done again for the replacement one, but it’s a thing to consider for the future.
I’m generally supportive of this sort of endeavors because it feels like Mexico wrestling is in the embryonic stages of this and even an interesting failure would still be pretty interesting at this point. Still, in a world with where these kind of offerings were the norm, I’d still thing the opener was worth the three dollars itself (and the Rush/Rowe match added a little bit too.) The only disappointing was not being able to spend a few more dollars to get the rest of the show.
Astrolux, Baby Star, Black Metal, Jack Evans vs Alas de Acero, Aramis, Iron Kid, Rey Horuz
Arena Naucalpan, 01/29/2017
Video: mluchatv
Winner: Team Rey Horuz (quadruple pin)
Match Time: 13:50
Notes: everyone hit a top rope move at the same time at the end.
Review: [great] an insane spot fest from before the bell to the big finish. It wasn’t nonstop, there was a warmup sequence with Horuz and Jack Evans after the dive to kind of reset things, but they went at a crazy pace once the big dives started up again. Astrolux and Babe Star are both particularly tiny – the Kamikazes are not really big themselves but towered over these guys – but their small size helped them fly around great. Astrolux’s early headscissors spot was crazy. The Kamikazes have really come along in the last couple year sand looked like the more steady team of the two trios, and Rey Horuz & Jack Evans felt like a big time battle when they did sequences. I have no idea how Horuz didn’t get knocked out again in Arena Naucalpan near the end on the German suplex spot. There were things that could’ve been cleaned up (Black Metal avoiding breaking up the Horuz pin to run to a new spot near the end frustrated me more than anything that looked a little off), but this was an amazing spectacle.
Rush vs Ray Rowe
Arena Naucalpan, 01/29/2017
Video: mluchatv
Winner: Rush (Rush Driver)
Match Time: 12:49
Review: [ok] An alright match but nothing to get too excited about, never getting to a high level. It was a long stretch for Rowe with Rush playing dead, a long stretch for Rush, and a back and forth ending that was technically fine but didn’t pull me in all that match. This felt like it should’ve been two big guys hitting each other hard, and the chop fight they was disappointing. It was generally a match with much loud clapping on strikes that didn’t look like close to connecting. Some of this was Rush, because Rush seemed no more into this than a miscellaneous Puebla match. Still, the match up with Matt Taven last August was much better.
