Recapped: 2020-04-25
Matches:
This is a one-day tournament taking place in CAR The Crash. The videos themselves were released one a day.
This is a tournament where each people representing different areas of Mexico City and Mexico State, like the same as the Lucha Libre Vanguardia tournament of a similar name. I think there might have been a battle royal to set up brackets, but it didn’t seem necessary to watch.
Látigo beat Kunay in a quarterfinal
(10:32, good, Lucha Army Tv)
La Fuerza beat Príncipe Azteca Jr. in a quarterfinal
(10:33, ok, Lucha Army Tv)
Jitsu beat Ciclón Infernal in a quarterfinal
(10:06, ok, Lucha Army Tv)
Heroe Romero beat Desorden in a quarterfinal
(6:41, ok, Lucha Army Tv)
Santy Hernández © beat Deimos for the NERW REVIVAL Championship
(8:51, ok, Lucha Army Tv)
Látigo beat La Fuerza in a semifinal
(6:41, ok, Lucha Army Tv)
Dragosth beat Energía
(11:02, ok, Lucha Army Tv)
Jitsu beat Heroe Romero in a semifinal
(6:19, ok, Lucha Army Tv)
Enjambre & Perseo beat Blue Win & Deus
(11:07, good, Lucha Army Tv)
Látigo beat Jitsu in the final
(7:50, ok, Lucha Army Tv)
What happened:
Do you want to see a tournament where Latigo is the overwhelming favorite? This is not an affront to Latigo, just he turns up more often in an ensemble of like skilled luchadors, usually in a secondary role. This is the rare show where Latigo’s definitely two notches better than pretty much everyone else, a foil who gets to be a protagonist. It doesn’t completely show a new side of Latigo, but it does make this watchable when it would’ve been a struggle without it.
Most of the matches have the same flaws, to the point where it seems pointless to write about them individually. The luchadors are unused to having singles matches, seemingly not prepared for them, and often go longer than they’re comfortable. There’s a couple of matches where it seems to be a fitness issue, where they just can’t physically do this on their own as long as they’re trying. There are creative flaws too. These guys are generally used to tag matches or other multiman situations and don’t have the offense or the ideas to make a ten-minute match interesting. There’s also an uncomfortable adjustment to the flow of a singles match. Two guys would go through a sequence decently well, then the guy on offense waited for the victim to finish selling so they can get back to their starting position for the next series. They often didn’t try to connect those or build them in any way, and the awkward pauses left one to dwell on those flaws. The tag match was a much easier watch; those pauses are replaced by the victim rolling out and the next guy coming in to keep it moving. It came off as an experience issue and a common problem with Mexican wrestling moving more towards singles matches in this moment.
Latigo/Kunay was the best tournament match, though it’s still hard to figure if Kunay is good or if he’s just good with good people. Jitsu hasn’t impressed me in this and the +LuchaTV, with a tendency towards strange finishes. Not even the announcer seemed to know what was supposed to happen with Romero. He could do better at committing more to his quick submissions.
Santy Hernandez is someone I don’t seem to be getting but the people he’s interacting with (both here and on the Vanguardia show) seem to react like he’s totally entertaining. I’m chalking it up to a language barrier. The Latigo/Fuerza match didn’t come together totally but it had some good ideas.
I like that these projects exist. They are works in progress, but the experience should be helpful. The luchadors can learn from these matches and IAW’s got a chance to create content on their own.