Lucha Azteca7 Elite: 2016-11-12 

LA Park
LA Park

Recapped: 11/19/2016

What happened: The two Liga Elite match ended in nonsense. Ozz & Espíritu debuted to help Cibernético attack Carisitco. LA Park & Rey Escorpión fouled each other for a draw (though the idea was also that the referee didn’t see Escorpion’s foul.) Bobby Lashley returned to stand on the apron while Blue Demon wrestled. I reached the point where I’m actively rooting for the show to end so I can stop watching it, and it turns out this is the second to last episode of the season.

What was good: Some good editing would’ve made the LA Park/Rey Escorpión match pretty good and there are points where it is good, but it’s a long way to go for that result.

Where can I watch it: It’s on my channel and the Liga Elite channel Read More

Lucha Azteca7 Elite: 2016-10-29

convoluted but fun
convoluted but fun

Recapped: 11/11/2016

What happened: Rey Escorpión & LA Park won “Liga Elite” matches. Cibernético is having issues with a referee.

What was good: Both singles matches were good.

Where can I watch it: It’s on my channel and the Liga Elite one.

This is a Dia De Muertos themed show, including Senora Cometa dressed as the girl from The Ring and the edecanes dancing to Thriller. Shocker is back with the announcers this week. The luchadors enter by climbing up thru a grave.

Match 1: Cibernético & Black Taurus vs Chicano (Puerto Rico) & Mr. 450
Domo del Deportivo Plan Sexenal, Distrito Federal, 10/28/2016
Video: 
Liga ElitethecubsfanR de Rudo

  1. Team Puerto Rico
    • Chicano senton con giro Black Taurus (4:00)
    • double superkick on Cibernético (4:25)
  2. Team Cibernético
    • Cibernético chokeslam Mr. 450 (1:32)
    • Black Taurus pounce Chicano (1:32)
  3. Team Puerto Rico
    • Mr. 450 450 splash Black Taurus (5:00)
    • COR Cibernético (5:02)

Winner: Team Puerto Rico (1/3)
Match Time: 10:59
Notes: Chicano is wearing “Illegal” on his gear – I don’t think anyone but me and maybe him remember he was El Illegal in AAA. For reasons unexplained, maybe having to do with previous attacks, Babe Richard Jr. counts out Cibernético absurdly quick – twenty seconds in the time of two. Cibernético threatens to attack him, but Babe Richard gets away.

Review: [ok] I don’t know what the point of this match was, but it was OK. The Puerto Ricians did fine, didn’t make themselves stars, but they fit in OK. They did well with Taurus, and fought Cibernético like they were specifically told never to actually touch him – the kicks at the end of the first fall didn’t come within inches of him, and it made it more jarring when Mr. 450 actually connected with Cibernético on a tope. Meanwhile, Taurus is the lightest big guy ever. Mr. 450 threw him over the barricade with remarkable ease. Taurus also made a super catch on Mr. 450s moonsault, and was rewarded by no one really catching his dive (though mostly because it came way shorter than they were expecting.) Maybe the point was to continue a Cibernético versus referee feud; that is a very dumb point. Production annoyance of the match: Chicano appears to take a huge bump off Black Taurus’ pounce, and they never find a replay that shows it.

20161029elite1-1mr450
this took a lot of work to fix Elite’s editing.
20161029elite1-2
a light touch
20161029elite1-3
Taurus tornillo

Match 2: El Bandido, Golden Magic, Zumbi vs Hijo De Dos Caras, Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Karonte Jr.
Domo del Deportivo Plan Sexenal, Distrito Federal, 10/28/2016
Video: 
thecubsfanLiga Elite

  1. rudos
    • Hijo de dos Caras double stomp/Dr. Wagner back sulex Zumbi (6:25)
    • Hijo de Dos Cares spear Bandido (6:36)
  2. tecnicos
    • Bandido inverted huracanrana Dr. Karonte Jr. (6:29)
    • Zumbi kick Hijo de Dos Caras (6:40)
  3. rudos
    • Hijo de Dr. Wagner electric chair Michinoku Driver Golden Magic (10:00)

Winner: rudos (2/1)
Match Time: 23:16

Review: [ok] Not bad, but not as good as the previous week. A colder crowd, a slower pace, and some clunkiness. The rudo section really dragged, and the third fall has a tremendous amount of Hijo del Dos Caras taking big moves, something he doesn’t really do well. Still, the third fall picked up with the crowd dives and it was a good match for highlights. Dr. Wagner’s tope looked painful. Elite missed Zumbi’s finish in the second fall here, treating us to a replay of the pinfall instead.

20161029elite2-1goldenmagic
springboard headscissors to the floor
20161029elite2-3
those barriers don’t hold up
20161029elite2-4hijodedrwagner
the floor is closer than they’re used to

Match 3: Xtreme Tiger vs LA Park in a Liga Elite match
Domo del Deportivo Plan Sexenal, Distrito Federal, 10/28/2016
Video: 
Liga EliteR de Rudo

Winner: LA Park (nudo lagunero)
Match Time: 14:25
Notes: Extreme Tiger seems to hurt his head on the opening takedown of the match, grabbing it in obvious pain and not getting up even as Park grabs him. Park gives him a moment and they continue without it coming up again.

Review: [good] easily the best of Extreme Tiger’s Liga Elite matches against bigger guys; they went in with a plan of Tiger being the tough underdog who won’t give up and came back a couple times. It was maybe a few minutes too long, going too long in the one sided portion early and a little bit too long in the near falls in the end, but the crowd bought into the last double stomp near fall as much as anything. (Much more than they did early on – Tiger finally getting in a move after seven minutes got almost no reaction.) LA Park dominated, but he sold big for Tiger when it was that itme and did a heroic job catching the big dive. Both guys have had better singles matches this year, but this wasn’t bad.

20161029elite3-1
head impact two ways
20161029elite3-2extremtiger
heroic armdrag
20161029elite3-3
super belly to belly

Match 4: Carístico vs Rey Escorpión in a Liga Elite match
Domo del Deportivo Plan Sexenal, Distrito Federal, 10/28/2016
Video: 
Liga EliteR de Rudo

Winner: Rey Escorpión (Aguijon Mortal)
Match Time: 8:57
Notes: Escorpión wears Dia del Muertos facepaint. Crowd seems especially quiet for this match. They cut in shots of Senora Cometa, as in the style of the Ring, during the match.

Review: [good] Less of a story here, just move turn taking. They probably could’ve organized the moves better – nothing was going to top Rey Escorpion’s top rope reverse frankensteiner – but they were really big moves. Crowd didn’t really care at all; they reacted a little bit the La Mistica and the teases of Agujion Mortal, but the lack of atmosphere hurt what should’ve felt like a big match. This match’s production error was missing Escoprion having his foot in the ropes after taking La Mistica, then missing the next move while showing a replay.

20161029elite4-1caristico
a fine way to hurt your foot
20161029elite4-2caristico
dive went much better
20161029elite4-3reyecorpion
super inverted frankensteiner

Lucha Azteca7 Elite: 2016-10-22

kaboom
kaboom

Recapped: 11/07/16

What happened:  Carístico won a cage match with LA Park, though mostly only because LA Park helped him out of the cage after Rey Escorpión earlier stoppped Park from leaving. Earlier, Rey Escorpión beat Blue Demon with a mask pull

What was good:  The semimain tercera was great, and the cage match was fun until the usual Elite booking kicked in at the end. Arena Lopez Mateos looked good on this TV show and the crowd was very into the show.

Where can I watch it:  It’s on the Liga Elite YouTube channel complete Read More

Lucha Azteca7 Elite: 2016-10-08

cartoon levels of voilence
cartoon levels of voilence

Recapped: 10/08/2016

What happened: Rey Escorpión pinned Carístico, who got hurt along the way. Cibernético attacked a ref again. Black Tauro debuted.

What was good: I liked the second match. Other people might like the main event better but it was stuff I was very tired of seeing.

Where can I watch it: It’s on the Liga Elite channel and my own

Read More

Lucha Azteca7 Elite: 2016-09-24 

20160924elite_mexico-5-3
Tiger spinning DDT

Recapped: 10/10/2016

What happened: Rey Escorpion beat Cibernético via DQ. Carístico beat Extreme Tiger in a singles match. Both were presented as “mano y mano” matches, and all talk of points and a Liga Elite seems to have been dropped. None of the matches seem to mean anything right now.

What was good: I liked the main event, once it got going. The clipped match airing right before it was good but really just highlights.

Where can I watch it: It’s on my channel and the faux Liga Elite channel. Read More

Lucha Azteca7 Elite: 2016-09-10

Extreme Tiger cleans house
Extreme Tiger cleans house

Recapped: 10/03/2016

What happened: I finally got back to recapping after a break. Elite taped their first show outside of Arena Mexico, moving to Arena Naucalpan for what would be a two week stint. This is their first TV show without CMLL, which is not acknowledged during the show. The show generally feels like they’re just putting out a card to fill out TV time, and haven’t yet figured out how the show is going to work with most of the Liga Elite guys no longer available. (Even near a month later, it’s unclear if they’re figured it out.) This show is really not notable outside of it being the start of the post-CMLL era; nothing really happens besides Rey Escorpion showing up at the end and Octagon & Fuerza having another singles match. 

What was good: Nothing much. There were good spots, but the action never held up thru a whole match.

Where can I watch it: The YouTube Liga Elite channel. Read More