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.