Sometime around the beginning of the year, I asked the question: "which will last longer, Black Terry Jr.'s handhelds or this good patch IWRG are going through?" Fortunately for us, they both lasted longer than expected.
Now that Terry has quit his handhelds, all that remains is to thank him. I think we're all indebted to BTJr. for capturing a unique period of lucha libre history on film. Hopefully, it can be perserved in a more durable form than internet video sharing files, and hopefully
Black Terry y Negro Navarro vs. Ultraman y Solar, 5/1/10
Since the Celtics couldn't grab a rebound to save themselves, I thought I'd drown my sorrows in some professional lucha libre where the results are fixed and the outcome doesn't matter that much. And people wonder why Dave Meltzer wishes the world was booked.
(I've got to admit, Celtics/Lakers was probably booked the right way storywise but it still sucks.)
This was your typical sort of maestros match. The focus here was on
Black Terry, Negro Navarro y Villano IV vs. Blue Panther, Ultimo Dragon y Olimpico, UWE 4/24/10
This was a beautifully worked match and definitely the purest trios I've seen this year. Black Terry Jr. really spoiled us with this one. Thank you, you magnanimous young man.
I've often complained that when Black Terry works these UWE matches alongside Negro Navarro he's nothing like the Terry we see on his home turf. That Terry is an unqualified legend, but in UWE Terry pretty much does hi
Black Terry y Cerebro Negro vs. Trauma I y Trauma II, IWRG 4/29/10
I took a bit of a break from lucha over the past couple of months. It wasn't something I intended to do, but I'm back and ready to talk about the Grupo Internacional Revolución.
The IWRG style of wrestling isn't perfect, but one thing's clear and that's that their workers try harder than just about anyone in the business. In wrestling you can either work big or small depending on he venue and the size of the crowd. With
Got some catching up to do.
3/21 - Gimnasio Nuevo Leon
Los Cadetes del Espacio (Solar I/Super Astro/Ultraman) vs. Black Terry/Negro Navarro/El Signo
Have people watched this match yet? Because I thought it was tremendous.
Space Cadets and Terry & the Misioneros in a match where everybody looks good? Don't tell me Black Terry Jr. handhelds have spoiled folks. This was only a one fall match, but they really went to town here. Definitely, the slickest this group has looked
Haven't done one of these for a while. Would you please welcome back, Mr. Raging Noodles!
PERRO AGUAYO Y PERRO AGUAYO JR VS. CIEN CARAS Y MASCARA ANO 2000, hair vs. hair, CMLL 3/18/05
aka The Blowoff to Perros vs. Dinamitas
RN:
The Perros started off with a lot of fire, Perrito looked fantastic running in with his rapid fire brawling. Perro really looked to be hurting and struggling at times, but he's always so interesting to watch and no one matches the emotion and charisma h
IWRG 3/14
Los Traumas vs. Oficial 911 y Fierro
This wasn't as balls out awesome as it could've been, but what a crowd. Dhani Jones draws?
The most noteworthy/amusing thing about this match was when Trauma II was getting worked over in the ropes. The action switched to Trauma I on the outside, and when Terry panned back to II, the mask was there but the body was missing. Having read a bunch of old Doom Patrols recently it was kind of surreal to see a mask just swinging from the ro
IWRG 3/11
Negro Navarro, Trauma II, Barba Roja vs. Black Terry, Dr. Cerebro, Hijo del Signo
Negro Navarro was back in Naucalpan this week and took on all three opponents in this match, including a fella by the name of Black Terry.
Black Terry vs. Negro Navarro -- the best match-up in wrestling, save for the fact that it never happens!! For some reason, Black Terry and Negro Navarro go out of their way to avoid each other on most occasions. Even on miscellaneous shows, they avoid
I'm having trouble writing without the aid of cigarettes, so bear with me if this seems like a nothing review.
IWRG 3/8
Freelance, Jack, Ultraman Jr. vs. Oficial 911, Trauma I, Trauma II
This was an enjoyable match and made up for how dull the past few shows have been.
What I liked about this match was how organic it felt. IWRG is a company that doesn't have a lot of great matches. Most of the stuff they run is in the mid-range, and a lot of the time you get the feeling that
Black Jaguar vs. Latin Brother, mask vs. mask, 2/28/10
This was a mask match from Coliseo Coacalco, which for the unfamiliar is an outdoor venue in Coacalco (http://coliseocoacalco.com.mx/COLISEO_COACALCO_360.exe). It's really cool -- kind of like sticking your head into a tent at a school fair or flea market and paying a few bucks to watch two guys beat the shit out of each other. Guys were standing around talking while the luchadores brawled at their feet, and cheered them on like you'd t
IWRG 2/25
Dr. Cerebro, Trauma I y Hijo del Signo vs. Pantera, Hijo del Pantera y Zatura [captains hair]
This was another solid match from the month of February. No-one gave a particularly outstanding performance, but it reminded me of those old-school trios matches that were used to set-up Satanico/Dandy and other such feuds. Dr. Cerebro wasn't able to impose himself on the match to the degree that Black Terry can, but Terry is a big lynchpin to remove and I thought they did fairly wel
IWRG 2/18
Los Oficiales vs. Freelance, Angelico y Angel
Freelance is back and appears to be out of shape. I assume he's been injured as he struggled to get into his usual groove here. Not that it made much difference. IWRG has wiped the slate clean this year with great booking and I don't see the point in continuing with a feud from their muddled past. It's high time they did something different with Freelance, whose career has stalled of late.
Obviously, when a guy's been out in
IWRG 2/11/10
Trauma I y Trauma II vs. Samot y Maldito Jr.
Can't say I was too enthused by this this. Trauma II had difficulty working his mat routine against a larger opponent; he should really know by now that you don't have to work the mat in every match, especially if your opponent has no skill in that area. There was enough stiffness in this to keep the punters happy, but it seemed lke a repeat of the Traumas match against Zatura and Suicida, only this time against a poor man's v
Blue Panther vs. Atlantis, NWA World Middleweight Championship, 8/9/91
I thought I ought to do something a little special to mark my 200th entry, so since I've been talking about Blue Panther vs. Atlantis lately, I decided to go back and watch their match from '91. This match was part of the first batch of lucha I ever bought and is a large part of why I became hooked on lucha. I'm not particularly fond of watching matches I've seen before, particularly when I'm comparing it to the exciteme
IWRG
Las Nuevas Figuras FIL vs. Los Gladiadores IWRG, 2/4/10
IWRG has been on a roll of late, thanks to an influx of new talent and some much improved booking from the men in charge. This was a
cibernetico match between the IWRG regulars and the young guys they've been using to fill out the undercard; not a great match, but it serves to illustrate why IWRG has been on an upward swing since the beginning of the year. The first run through was stronger than the elimination half for th
In 1997, CMLL had one of the greatest single year runs of any promotion in wrestling history, but what about 1998?
It's not a year you hear a lot about. I don't think too many people could tell you what the match of the year was or which workers were on their game that year. Most of the CMLL I've seen from '99 has the company heading down the path of no return, so I thought I'd sample some matches from '98 and see what sort of state the company was in.
El Hijo Del Santo, Blue Panthe
Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro vs. Gringo Loco/El Hijo del Diablo, 1/24/10
This was pretty cool.
Of all the styles Terry works, brawling suits him best because you get a caricature of Black Terry the man. There was nothing pretty about this match; it was about as scummy as you'd expect from two guys working the Gringo Locos gimmick in a lucha indy backwater. They brawled all over the ringside area in a match that never really got going in the ring since neither side wanted to settle it prope
IWRG
Avisman vs. Bushi, 11/26/09
This was the lightweight title switch the Segunda Caida guys wrote about recently. Avisman definitely showed what he's capable of on the mat here. Bushi couldn't follow suit, but I guess he wouldn't really know how. The match peaked with Avisman's final action on the mat, which was a counter into a ankle lock of his own if I recall correctly. Great intensity from Avisman to match his angry little man demeanour. He was like a little Napoleon with his mat
Los Terribles Cerebros vs. Los Oficiales, Campeonato de Trios IWRG, 12/25/09
Another poor Cerebros match. They look about done to me. Lazy matwork, weak transitions, unimaginative spots and some terrible finishes of late. I wouldn't mind if they broke up actually, because IWRG really need to run a Black Terry singles feud.
Los Traumas I y II vs. Suicida y Zatura, 1/14/09
I'm not sure what to make of Trauma II's new look, but his work here was some of the better stuff I've seen ou
Bushi vs. Dr. Cerebro, IWRG Intercontinental Lightweight Championship, 1/10/10
Black Terry Jr's handhelds are fast becoming the only way to watch IWRG. Give me Terry's handhelds over their TV production any day.
This was nothing like a lucha libre title match, but I've decided to stop caring about that this year. If someone works a decent title match, I'll praise them for it, but it's painfully obvious that these matches are the norm now. They kind of remind me of WWE matches, but I g
IWRG 1/07/10
Black Terry/Dr Cerebro/Cerebro Negro vs. Pantera/Suicida/Zatura
This had some of the lousiest matwork I've seen in a Terribles Cerebros match. It was like they were trying to do old-school Los Temerarios/Fantásticos exchanges, but they're all a bit too portly. Things picked up in the second fall when the Cerebros started brawling and I dug the camera angle on the technicos' comeback (and the topes in particular), but this was largely forgettable.
Angelico/Solar/Ultra
Satanico vs. Shiro Koshinaka, hair vs. hair, EMLL 7/30/84
One of the things I discovered while watching the New Japan set is that I hate Shiro Koshinaka. I don't know why this is, since he's never been a worker I've felt strongly about one way or the other. I think Dylan Waco may have referred to him as a blackhole and that's as good a description of him as any. It did pique my interest in this match, however. It's not a match I remember liking particularly much, but it's Satanico so there
El Hijo del Santo vs. Felino, CMLL 7/25/97
This was a revancha for Santo's title loss to Felino on July 4th; a match that ended with one of the great screwjob finishes of all time. If you've never seen that bout, I highly recommend it. It's one of the best lucha matches of the 90s and the finish is pure Casas.
This revancha didn't offer much in the way of revenge, and I should've known by the number of times they showed Casas at ringside that they were just furthering the angle, but a
Time for some lucha awards.
2009 was a frustrating year that saw a lot of sources for IWRG and Arena Puebla appear and disappear, but at the same time a lot of random lucha indy footage made its way onto the internet. These awards are unashamedly based on the Tapatía Awards at cubsfan's site, and this year I asked Raging Noodles to give us his thoughts too. Don't bother reading them if you like CMLL and AAA.
Best Wrestler:
RN -- Negro Navarro
This was one of the best years
El Hijo del Santo vs. Felino, Mexican National Middleweight Championship, CMLL 4/5/96
This was a good match. It wasn't a mat classic like the Blue Panther vs. Atlantis Copa Victoria final, but it had a lot in common with how I think lucha should be wrestled these days, i.e., if you're not going to wrestle close to the canvas, you should at least be clever about how you put a match together.
This started off on the mat, but didn't really go anywhere because Felino wasn't able to work fr
