El Toreo "Requiem por una Era", 12/3/08

This was a farewell show for Toreo de Cuatro Caminos (aka El Toreo), the famous wrestling venue, which, after 64 years, is being torn down and replaced by a shopping mall and apartment complex.

Elimination tournament for the Copa UWA Toreo:

- Scorpio Jr./Shu el Guerrero vs. Super Astro/Ultraman

- Villano IV/Villano V vs. Rambo/Kahoz

If you've ever seen any of the tournaments that the lucha promotions run, you'll know what to expect from this. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, but not much in the way of matches. Still, there was a good crowd on hand and I enjoyed it for what it was.

The Space Cadets were a bit disappointing and Shu got stuck partnering Scorpio Jr., who was gravely ill only a few months before. As you can imagine, he wasn't about to bump and guys took it real easy with him. Try as he may, he hasn't got a knack for the bastard rudo thing, where a broken down guy gets by on charisma.

A lot of guys are high on Villano V at the moment, and I can see why, since he hits hard, but once you get past that, the guy doesn't move particularly well. One of the highlights of the tournament was Villano IV working the mat with Rambo. Another was his tope. I don't think there's any question who the better Villano is. With all this talk about how good a brawler Villano V is, the final was rudos contra rudos and an old style brawl, where they actually ripped each other's masks; something a certain mask match could've used.

Dos Caras/Canek vs. Dr Wagner Jr./Mil Mascaras

Dos Caras is amazing. The guy is almost 60 years old, but man can he go. If you enjoyed the Santo/Caras matwork on the Todo x el Todo show, you need to see this, as Caras wrestles for longer and actually makes Wagner work for a change. This was fantastic stuff.

Mil Mascaras, on the other hand, was hilarious. He's gotta be pushing 70 by now and saying he's decrepit would be putting it nicely. Wagner did all his usual bullshit, and Mascaras kept staring at it like "what the fuck is this guy doing?" Finally he demanded to be tagged in and did some of the frailest looking shit you'll ever see. Canek was working with him, and I've never seen a guy work so softly with another guy in all my life. There was a whole bunch of Wagner bullshit at the end, and Mascaras stood there adjusting his crotch. Wagner challenged Canek to a mask match and Mascaras stopped, listened for a while and walked off like an Alzheimer's patient.

Seriously you want to see this for the Dos Caras matwork and submissions.