Recapped: 09/29-30/2017
All matches took place at Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California on June 23rd.
Long review short: had this aired on TV (or iPPV or whatever), this would been seen as one of the better lucha shows of the year. It’s missing the one breakout match, but the semimain isn’t far off. Everything but the cage match is good, and the cage match at least has big spots.
Matches:
Oráculo beat Black Danger
(6:58, Canadian Destroyer, good, via MegaKakashi619)
Lots of action match. This match is a brawl on the opposite side of the side of the ring from MegaKakashi, so his handheld isn’t really useful for the first half of the match. The best option is 126f’s edited video, but of course it’s edited video.
Oraculo tries a lot of spectacular stuff but it doesn’t come off clean. His opening tope con giro is short, there’s a high knee later where the clapping motion he does to create sound is more obvious than the impact of the knee. The moonsault he does later looks good. Oraculo is much more the moves guy of the two. Black Danger is fine at setting him up and tossing Oraculo around, but doesn’t show a lot of emotional or come across as a personality at all. The most you get out of him is holding his head after a near fall.
Rey Horus © beat Matt Sydal, Lio Rush, Sami Callihan to keep The Crash cruiserweight championship
(15:20, casadora bomb on Lio Rush, great, via MegaKakashi619)
A really great all action match, with the three outsiders (including the one heading to WWE not long after this), all giving full effort for a spot fest. Horuz is obviously going to win from the start as the only regular here, but a common thread of Crash shows is how hard the outsiders generally work on these shows. That’s not the norm for foreigners visiting Mexico, but Rush, Sydal and Callihan are going full speed the whole way. Lio Rush sticks out the most, with the big frogsplash at the end super impressive, but the others aren’t far behind. This would be an easier recommendation with a professional camera version available, since a lot of action isn’t really watchable thru the only full version available. It’s also a match that people who follow the US indies may see as covering familiar ground and less interesting as a result.
Douglas James, Jack Evans, Joey Ryan beat Bestia 666, Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Mr. 450
(18:24, Evans bridging backslide Bestia 666, good, via MegaKakashi619)
Fine enough trios match that seemed to go on for a long time, longer than it needed to be. Action was generally strong, and it’s one of those matches where enough was done that I left obligated to call it good even though nothing about it strongly appealed to me personally. Joey Ryan doesn’t fit in the match much, especially on what turns out to be the técnico side, but this is also a crowd that wants to see famous pots and he’s definitely got one of those. Mr 450 nearly pulled a Rey Escorpión, almost throwing Jack to the floor on a corner powerbomb.
Jeff Cobb & Keith Lee beat Brian Cage & Willie Mack
(15:48, Cobb German suplex Brian Cage, good, via MegaKakashi619)
The all heavyweight spectacular didn’t seem to be getting over to the crowd early on (and maybe not as much as hoped by the end.) They were doing impressive stuff, but the crowd just seemed to see it as stuff, and no really defined rudo/tecnico sides made it a tougher sell. The dive sequence, or really Keith Lee waiting to let people think about the dive he was about to do, seemed to pick up things and the fans got into it for the next few minutes. Still, this seemed like something that would’ve gotten over better elsewhere. Props to the teams for color coordinating.
Penta Zero M & The King beat La Máscara & M-ximo
(13:00, Fenix top rope double stomp/Penta package piledriver on La Mascara, great, via MegaKakashi619)
Notes: Rey Escorpion debuts, running into help Maximo & La Mascara. It doesn’t work, but they beat up Penta & Fenix after the match.
Review: La Mascara & Máximo worked so hard in their first match here outside of CMLL, harder than either man worked in Arena Mexico outside of the biggest matches, and they’re still completely outclassed by Fenix & Penta in this match. Those guys own freelance journies have made them as sharp as a blade’s edge, with Fenix especially having the confidence to try big moves I’m not sure he would’ve done before. This is still a workable matchup and a very watchable match, and Mascara & Máximo are over enough that it doesn’t matter if they’re not on the other guys levels. This is a hot start to this feud, enough here to make people want to see more. I’m not a fan of the “one team wins, other team beats them up anyway after” 50/50 finish normally, but I did really like Fenix kicking out after Rey Escorpión had helped Máximo & La Mascara get the edge. That kind of survival and the win that follows is something that top guys should get, and those two are clearly the top guys. There’s no real choice but to have the Ingober-indys attack them after to avoid killing off the feud after one night, and I’ll deal with the 50/50 in exchange for that kickout.
Nicho el Millionario lost to Daga, Garza Jr., Damián 666 in a cage match, losing his hair
(24:42, ok, via MegaKakashi619)
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Damian escapes (9:01)
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Garza escapes (11:38)
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Daga escapes (24:42)
Notes: Garza and Daga repeatedly have problems in the cage match. Garza cowardly hides on the apron and refuses to help while Nicho & Damian beat up Daga. Later, Daga accidentally this Garza with a chair. Daga regrets that and tries to encourage a disoriented Garza to climb out with him and leave Nicho behind. Garza insists on staying, then fouls Daga and betrays him while still being out of it. Garza fulls Nicho too, and takes out the ref for no reason reason before escaping. Nicho can barely move on one leg but Daga tries to give the win to him, but Nicho won’t accept it. They battle it out until Nicho falls into one weapon pit too much and Daga escapes.
Garza attacks Daga afterwards, which is the setup to the Rebellion being split into Red (tecnico) and Yellow (rudo) factions. Escorpion, Maximo and Mascara also join in, with Penta & Fenix eventually running them off.
Review: This is a lucha cage match. It’s not especially interesting. This one is really slow at times, especially when Nicho decides to spend a few minutes building contraptions instead of trying to win. It’s really more a long angle to set up the Rebellion turn that also happens to give Nicho a payoff. The bit of Garza betraying Daga gives this a story these matches don’t normally have, but the massive amounts of dead time for setting things up makes this a chore at times. This is available in 42 minute and 12 minute versions, and that’s a good impression of how much you can miss.
