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 version of Villanos IV and V. I was impressed with the Traumas' double team moves, however, and the heat they're getting is cementing them as made men, so that's cool.

Black Terry, Dr. Cerebro y H. del Signo vs. Pantera, H. del Pantera y Zatura

Black Terry looks badass with his shaved head. He was in an irritable mood here, which I'm guessing is because the Gringos added injury to insult in last week's hair match. He had a great, niggly fall with Pantera, and I really liked how it was the Cerebros who initiated the brawling in the second caida even though they'd won the opening fall. Usually, the rudos start brawling in order to reclaim a match, but Terry was in full on cock-mode here, which is a little different from the rudo contra rudo version we've been seeing lately. The brawling was fantastic, too, with the Cerebros sauntering around the ring and delivering cheap shots like the Infernales in their prime. I've never thought much of Pantera, but this was by far his best veteran performance since dropping the mask, and his selling in the second caida was superb. His selling reminded me of every great beatdown in movie history. It's a shame that the Cerebros didn't leave his kid half dead so Pantera could turn Archie “The Stomper” Gouldie on them in the coming weeks, but Pantera doing the Super Astro tightrope escape was something you don't see everyday. The third fall lacked a big showdown between Terry and Pantera, and the double pin was a downer no matter which way you look at it, but I'm expecting more fireworks in the coming weeks. I just hope IWRG don't burn through all these feuds in the first half of the year. It's only February, fellas. The other great thing about this match was Dr. Cerebro. He was just oozing with confidence here and worked a hell of a mat exchange with Zatura. Nobody has Pantera's back like Cerebro has Terry's, so I'm looking forward the revancha this week. To me, matches like this are what make IWRG so great -- they're imperfect little classics in a post-90s wrestling world where three stars is the new four stars and veterans are the only guys who know what the fuck they're doing.

Sangre Chicana, Black Terry y Negro Navarro vs. Solar I, Rocky Santana y Olimpico, AULL, 2/13/10

I don't particularly like it when Solar vs. Navarro dominates a match, but this didn't have much else going for it, so I enjoyed their extended exchange in the opening caida. To be fair, it was a pretty great exchange. It started off in typical fashion with Solar getting the early takedowns and Navarro being dismissive of them, but built in intensity to the point where both guys were trying ridiculously complicated submission attempts. Nice arc and a sweet crescendo. Still, I really hate watching Black Terry in these UWE matches. He always plays second or third fiddle to the other vets and is nothing like the Terry we see in IWRG character-wise or even wrestling-wise. The Chicana punch was good and Solar sold it well, but as a huge Sangre Chicana fan I have to say I don't think his performance was anywhere near as good as Pirata Morgan or Pantera in recent weeks, and ultimately the technico side was too weak for this to be anything special.

Black Terry y Shu el Guerrero vs. Negro Navarro y El Signo, 2/14/10

When I was a young boy

Tenements, slums and corner bums

Playing tag with winos

The only way to have some fun

One thing 'bout the ghetto

You don't have to hurry

It'll be there tommorow

So brother don't you worry

Ghetto Life

Talking 'bout ghetto life

Talking 'bout Ghettoo Liiiiiiiiife

This was a hell of a match in a hell of a venue. So many times you check cubfans' match finder and there's all these great looking matches that never see the light of day; now Terry Jr. is taking his camera cross country on weekends and we're discovering lucha is wrestled everywhere in Mexico -- tenements, slums, ghettos, under the fucking ground... this shit is real.

This was a great little match. I might cop flak for this, but I thought the match showed how much Solar/Navarro fucks things up. No Solar meant a very prominent Black Terry and also saw Signo give the best performance he's delivered in five years. I've got nothing against Solar, but the other guys tend to tune out when he and Navarro take centre stage, and this was such a nice mix of matwork and brawling that I was happy to see these guys roll with each other after all those disconnected Space Cadets/Misioneros matches last year.

Once upon a time, Signo was a hell of a worker. In the dying days of UWA, he was a dynamo, captain of the Misioneros and a better worker than Navarro if you can imagine that. Recently, I watched him brawling with Villano III in one of those random UWA trios that were WAR-like in their allegiances and they tore shit down like the El Toreo demolition. This was a throwback performance to those days if ever I saw one. And Shu showed up! I dunno where he magically appeared from, but fuck me if there isn't a greater missing in action luchador than Shu el Guerrero. Good to see that he's still making himself into a ball so that Navarro has to think twice about which limb to attack.

The cool thing about this match was how they kept needling each other. There's been a bit of discussion at the new IWRG board -- http://z7.invisionfree.com/IWRG_Lucha_Libr...dex.php?act=idx -- about whether Terry has taken the mantle back from Negro Navarro as the best worker in Mexico, but the real Navarro came roaring back this weekend, making it a week-to-week contest at this point. The two of them actually brawled a bit in this match, and fuck when is that rematch going to happen? Anyway, there was no Angelico here, so no need for Navarro to be a pussy. I can't believe I just wrote that about Negro Navarro, but I'm telling you this was the real Navarro. The guy who sells without acting like anything really hurts him and doesn't give two fucks. Cool match that the Misioneros won by being bigger ***** than Terry and Shu.