Superstar Sleeze

Mil Muertes vs Brian Cage vs Jeremiah Crane - Lucha Underground 10/18/17 Jeremiah Crane is Sami Callihan for those keeping score at home. This is for the Gauntlet of the Gods think Thanos' Gauntlet from Infinity Wars. It is unclear what powers it imbues its holder with, but these three damn sure want it. They have each stolen it from the other. I think Cage is the rightfully owner. This is fine highspot wrestling. It does not go to the gross out extreme of Killshot and Dante Fox except one moment where Callihan JAMS a fistful of skewers into the head of Cage. He did look like a Porcupine like Striker said but it undermine the moment a bit. I mean they were JAMMED in there. Then he DDT's on his head with them in there. One stuck and Jesus. Watching the blood pour from the top of Cage's head was sick. Lets see what else was memorable. Callihan loves slapping on his kicks. He had a good run. I really popped for Mil just Chokeslamming the shit out of him. Callihan is very readily loathsome and odious so always nice to see him get smoked. Vamp says Callihan should try to win when he has a chance, but he dawdles. He eats a couple dives to the outside. A couple minutes later, he is scoring an 11 on the Muta Scale. Well alright then! Mil goes through a pane of glass. Well because. His arm is all cut up. I did like Cage hitting his cool suplex on Callihan through Mil on a table on the floor. Cage hit his finish and eliminates Callihan. Yay! Cage and Mil have a more down to earth pro wrestling match very short. Callihan hits the ring and chairshots Cage, who shrugs it off and Cage FUCKING SMOKES HIM WITH A DISCUS PUNCH! WOW! That was awesome! Cage goes for that against Mil, but Mil sends him STRAIGHT TO HELL ON A CHAIR! 1-2-3! He wins the Gauntlet. Catrina, with bitchin' wavy, big hair, gets the Gauntlet and gives to Mil. King Cuerno returns after a Season off to avenge his loss from last season and steals the Gauntlet and it begins anew. This was alright. Kinda boring honestly besides the highspots, but they were cheap heat highspots, I will say the Skewer was creative but very sickening. ***1/4

LU Champion Pentagon Dark vs Cage - Lucha Underground 8/12/18 Last Man Standing No cool Lucha Underground name for this gimmick match they go with the WWE name of Last Man Standing. Pentagon Jr is the biggest miss of AEW so far. Dude may have zero psychology, but he has a cool look, badass moves and a killer catchphrase. CERO MIEDO! I was a part of the Cero Miedo craze during WrestleMania Weekend 2019 and it is infectious. I had no idea what it was. I just showed up to MLW, House of Glory, whenever and you couldnt stop chanting it. Lucha Underground pretty much always has hot crowds, but these 2018 crowds are MOLTEN for Pentagon. They do not relent in chanting Cero Miedo and incorporating it in a Soccer Style Ole Chant. Let Pentagon's Singles Wings fly, this is your next challenger for Mox. Cero Miedo! As for the match, it is big dumb fun, I think five tables get demolished, seven chairs, a broken glass bottle, a cement block and a ripped mask. Cage rips the Mask earlier and carves with the broken glass bottle so the blood is flowing and the Pentagon mask is replaced with the Crimson Mask. Pentagon really likes Death Valley Drivers through tables. Cage hits his big vertical suplex highspot from the ring through two tables on the floor. Cage hits a DrillClaw and a powerbomb to the railing, but I never really felt like Pentagon was in trouble, this was just a fun uptempo match. I think the finish does separate it from the good matches to the very good matches because of how definitive and explosive the finish is. Pentagon hits a Top Rope Canadian Destroyer through a table, ballshots him (I got hit in the balls for the first time in like a decade or so by a tennis ball ricocheted off the fence, anybody who no sells a ballshot is dead to me) and then Package Piledriver through 6 chairs, breaks both arms and Curb Stomps his head through a cinder block. HELL FUCKING YEAH! All the while the crowd is just going bananas for Pentagon. I think we needed to make the crowd and me believe that Pentagon could have actually lost for the drama level to go up, but as a fun lets see our boy Pentagon wreak havoc and destroy The Machine this was awesome! ***1/2

Killshot vs AR Fox - Lucha Underground 9/27/17 Hell of War Hell of War is Lucha Underground's code for Three Stages of Hell those being First Blood, No DQ and Stretcher. The story here is that each man served in the same US Army unit, but AR Fox has accused Killshot of leaving him to die. Now it is time to show each the Hell of War. This match defies a rating and in a lot of ways I feel rating this in a conventional manner is a slap in the face to both these men. I'll be frank I didnt really care for this match. It was all highspots and no real interesting story or transitions. They put their bodies through such hell and their lives in such danger, it would be disrespectful to lambast them for not having a psychologically sound match or a coherent, cogent narrative. They did a bunch of high flying spots at the beginning, moonsault on the ladder, legdrop from bleachers on some chairs on the opponent's head, urnage on the apron, Spanish Fly on the apron. I was like whatever this is nowhere near as good as Pentagon vs Vampiro. Then the violence became so gratuitous and reckless that I dont want to berate them. Its their bodies and if they want to put them through Hell, I'll watch uncomfortably. I dont know what kind of glass they used. All I can say is when Killshot shattered that glass with their body, he came up bloody. When Killshot hit that insane piledriver on Fox on the all those broken shards of glass, his back became bloody as hell. All I could think about was their eyes and accidentally slicing an artery. Was it an interesting carwreck to watch? Yes ,I couldnt look away. This stopped being a pro wrestling match in my opinion. It became a stunt freak show. It is a spectacle and I can get it. I couldnt take my eyes off of it while I was watching, but it stopped being about the story/narrative. It was wholly about what violent spot was next. They did a Spanish Fly on a chair that warped the chair, there was a powerbomb on a barbed wire board, but that glass, that fucking glass that was insane. AR Fox's back after taking that whacked out piledriver. Holy shit. The stretcher portion that was an insane Death Valley Driver to the stretcher from the top rope which should have been a huge highspot but looked tame. Then they were on top of a balcony. Fox choking Killshot with a cord only have a gimmicked glass bottle broken over his head and then when through another pane of glass falling like 20-25 feet. Fucking madness. The way the glass shattered into such tiny pieces. Maybe it was gimmicked in some way, but the way his entire back was ripped to shreds and bleeding, it could not be. Sheer madness. Rating this would be disrespectful to either man. Every pro wrestling match is inherently dangerous, but they willing accepted a higher probability of danger than most. Sheer madness.

Mil Muertes vs Prince Puma - Lucha Underground 11/9/16 Casket Match Towards the end of the match, we find out that Mil Muertes had stuffed Konnan, Prince Puma's manager, in a casket, which is probably what prompted this match. I thought this match was helluva lot better than the title match from the Season Finale of the first Season. Really awesome brawl that never let up and each man just went for broke. Surprisingly there was no blood and no mask ripping, but this was still pretty awesome. Puma started it off red hot attacking Muertes on the steps and they brawl through the crowd. The advantage does not last long, Mil throws him through a door and the rout is on. Most of the match is Mil just beating the ever loving shit out of Puma, which is great, but they also do a great job timing the hope spots. Mil busts Puma into the ring bell, but Puma is able to return the favor. Puma's Achilles Heel was definitely too much furniture re-arrangement. He went to go get the Casket but ends up being powerbombed it! Wicked dent! Great sound! Another moment is Puma has an advantage and goes to set up tables on the outside, but he ends up being the one that goes through him. He should have been pressing his advantage. Mil uses the turnbuckle hook, but unfortunately that does not last long. There is a crazy spear through a table that is so devastating one half of the table falls on Puma's head. I did like Puma's comeback when Mil gets caught doing some furniture rearrangement by being the Casket in the ring. Two swift kicks to the head and then a big time 450 splash on the Casket! That's what I am talking about! Puma tries to put Mil in the Casket and ends up just shutting the Lid on him a bunch of times and hitting him with a chair. This is when he goes to set up the tables. He ends up taking Mil's Spinning Chokeslam into the Casket! Puma fights out of the Casket with a lot of kicks. They do Casket teases a lot better in this match than the typical Undertaker match. Best spot of the match was Puma breaking his fall on Straight To Hell with his hands springing back up and Kicking Mil in the head. Enziguiri! Goes for the Dive but Mil sledges him with an elbow as he is shooting through the ropes. Puma starts attacking with a Steel Chair and Van Daminator! I love all the head-hunting! As I said earlier, Mil Chokeslams Puma through the tables he set up and the end is nigh. Mil drags out a second casket, the casket he put Konnan in and he stuffs Puma in this. They make it seem like this Puma leaving Lucha Underground. I dont know when he signed with WWE, but this seems like a plausible timeline. If this is his last match, then it was a helluva one to go out on. No downtime, just a kickass brawl! They did great respecting Mil's power advantage and Puma was using kicks to the head to set up dives. When he deviated or took too long thats when Mil made him pay with big slams. A simple story, but always effective. ****

LU Champion Marty Martinez vs Pentagon Dark - Lucha Underground 11/7/18 Street Fight "Cero Miedo" is super fun to chant live and I got to experience that when I saw like three or four Pentagon matches over Mania Weekend 2019, I even got to see him against La Parka! That was an awesome moment! I fast forwarded to Season 4 and it looks like Lucha Underground has lost its luster. The New Temple looks too sanitary and the promotion does not have the zip it used to. Jack Swagger being the last Lucha Underground Champion is comical and somewhat fitting way to end the strangest promotion of the modern era. Money In The Bank is such a terrible concept but now every promotion has it as a gimmick and LU has the Gift of the Gods which is what Marty used to win the title in the first place. Swagger who is called Jake Strong in LU uses the same gimmick to cash in on Pentagon Jr after Vampiro turned on him and joined with an unknown Master, seems like the Master is played by a wrestler named Australian Suicide who dresses like a Pentagon. I watched this match because it got high marks on Cagematch and I wanted to watch another Marty Martinez match. Very happy to see my boy with title and this is a Cero Miedo match which is a Deathmatch-style street fight. So of course Marty bleeds like a stuck pig minutes into the match. I like the more schticky Marty as it is more unique. He was doing more no selling and more typical death match wrestling, which is find but doesnt really stand out. He rips the mask to FORK Pentagon which raised some eyebrows and looked brutal. Pentagon hit a Jumping Candian Destroyer by the time I went to Mania Weekend 2019 every card had like 8 Canadian Destroyers and 12 Ace Crushers on it. Marty tore up a garbage can with a barbed wire bat that seemed pretty brutal and could have sliced up Pentagon pretty good. At one point, he dumped gasoline on Pentagon, but Pentagon kicked the lighter out of him hand. I figured that was going nowhere. I liked the finish run it was short and compact. It was 2 minutes of violence. Marty hit the top rope with barbed wire back and it ricochets back into already bloody face. Pentagon throws Marty through a table! The rout is on! He HURLS Marty through a glass window pane! Great visual! They do some feng shui but the spot is pretty sick when Pentagon Jr Package Piledrives Marty through some chairs! Not much connective tissue or character work, but as far as hardcore spotfests it was fun for 12 minutes. ***

Marty "The Moth" Martinez vs Killshot - Lucha Underground 9/14/16 TLC Match Matt Striker sucks but out of all his insufferable, obnoxious performances this has to be the most insufferable and obnoxious of them all. You see this is a "Weapons of Mass Destruction" match, which is basically a TLC match that you win by pinfall. Oh the references, oh the horrible, horrible references. Killshot is Isiah "Swerve" Scott from NXT and Marty The Moth, I did some research into him doesnt like he has done much else. I will say Marty The Moth is the one who impressed me more. Killshot looked like your generic create-a-X-Division wrestler and wrestled as such. Marty The Moth has a lot of charisma and pure fucking heel. He is a scummy bastard. I can appreciate that. The other shoutout I want to give is I love how Lucha Underground is the blood & guts promotion of the 2010s. It is still not quite as good as 1980s US Territory wrestling because some 21st Century Workrate bullshit does seep in, BUT blood & guts brawling feels like an endangered species and I am happy someone was waving the torch. Killshot apparently in the military, Wikipedia says he served in the US Army Reserve. Marty The Moth stole his dogtags and is wearing US Military Fatigues. It was love at first sight. I like how hammy he is. He is very 80s. Crowd brawling and Scott is pretty decent. Martinez sells well. Martinez starts busting out some good schtick. He grabs the ring announcer lady as a hostage and then grabs a fistful of Killshot's junk. Hell Yeah! Scott takes a wicked head bump on an ladder. Martinez is bleeding and that adds a little sumthin sumthin. Killshot takes a lot of painful bumps on military boxes that look like they hurt. The big combo is Marty takes a Death Valley Driver on a Ladder, but this isnt the WWE it is a legit Ladder that warps a little but must have a hurt like hell. Killshot hits a Double Stomp and a wicked Piledriver thingy that was insane. Out comes the huge ladder and the match grinds a halt. Up until this point the match was pretty entertaining, but this killed their heat. Mariposa ends up going through the table. The Finish as great and salvages their heat loss. Killshot grabbed a handful of Marty's "mothballs", Matt Striker after an epically shitty performance of 22 minutes finally hit on a good one. Killshot rips the dogtags from Marty, I knew that was essential for the finish and then hit a Double Stomp off the Ladder through a table. Pretty wicked. It is not going to change your world and it could have been 5 minutes shorter, it is the first Lucha Undergrund match to overstay its welcome, but Marty's character work and the finish are worth it. ***1/2

Sexy Star vs Mariposa - Lucha Underground 5/4/16 I Quit Vampiro does an excellent job putting I Quit Matches by saying he has always shied away from them because he is too afraid to say "I Quit" so he might just die instead. Fuck yeah, thats some damn good shit. Technically, this is a "No Mas" match. I liked that Lucha Underground gives their own name to their gimmick matches. Mariposa means Butterfly, I admit I used Google Translate. Mariposa is Cheerleader Melissa for all the SHIMMER fans and TNA fans. Sexy Star is a pretty famous AAA Luchadora, for me the most famous, but I could be wrong when I would watch AAA randomly from like around 2010 she was the one I always remembered. Sexy Star let it fucking rip in this match. I will be honest, the first couple minutes leave a lot to be desired. It is not really all that interesting, kinda go through the motions, here's a couple submissions. Sexy Star just starts wailing on Mariposa on the outside and that's when my interest piqued. I thought Mariposa could have been more heelish and dont know how much covering her face hurt her ability to tell that story. Sexy Star was selling like a million bucks and was just all fire. The best thing Mariposa did was was rip the mask and then they climbed the Scaffolding. This is when the match went from good to great. Sexy Star started bleeding and by the end of the match she was a fucking mess. Mariposa did all these teases like she was going to throw Sexy Star off the Scaffold and they showed how high the fuck up they were and Vampiro sold it so well. It was really great. I hate heights and it was freaking me out. So that was really awesome work. They come back down. Marty "The Moth" Martinez is Mariposa's brother and he is tormenting Sexy Star. He brutalizes her in the crowd. Then The Mack comes in and Mack Trucks this prick and now we are down to Sexy Star and Mariposa. I loved everything Sexy Star did. They trash can attacked was great, just so damn heated. I love how revved she was up and the blood really was flowing by this point. The transition back to Mariposa was not quite as strong as I want. The best part of the match and maybe one of the best moments in wrestling history...Mariposa has Sexy Star in an Inverted Texas Cloverleaf and the ref asks her if she wants to quit and Sexy Star screams "FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU" This was the CHOSHUUUUUUUUUU of the 2010s! The Crowd and ME popped fucking huge! Sexy Star punts her in the Cooch. Sleeper! HELL YEAH! GO SEXY STAR! Marty The Moth back in! FUCK YOUUUUUUUUU! THE MACK STUNNER! OH HELL YEAH! Sexy Star snaps her arm with a Cross-Armbreaker and Mariposa says No Mas! Sexy Star SHOVES THE REF! APPLIES THE CROSS ARMBREAKER AGAIN! HELL YEAH! Then throws her out of the ring like yesterday's garbage! Great visual of a bloody, battered Sexy Star victorious! If you don't love this match, there's only one thing I can say to you, FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! ****

LU Champion Mil Muertes vs Prince Puma vs Pentagon Jr - Lucha Underground 3/9/16 Second season of Lucha Underground my recollection is the buzz around Lucha Underground cooled off in the second season but I know Rey Mysterio did a couple matches for them so I am excited to see those. These three along with Johnny Mundo and Fenix are their big stars. I am not usually a fan of triple threats but this got good ratings and it is pretty short so lets give it a shot. Pentagon & Puma double up on the larger Muertes, pummeling him in the corner. They shoot the big man off, bad idea. They gave him space and clothesline to both challengers. Powerbomb to Puma and tilt-a-whirl backbreaker to Pentagon. Vampiro gives an oddly specific hockey reference that I am not sure that happened to explain this match saying this is like the Red Wings vs the Flyers in the Stanley Cup in the 70s. A quick check and nope that didnt happen, I thought the Red Wings sucked in the 70s, the Flyer beat the Bruins and Sabres to win back to back cups in 74 and 75, was this the team that earned them the nickname, the Broad Street Bullies? Anyways, weird hockey reference aside, lets go back to the match. Pentagon ends up on the outside and Mil shoots Puma out but he wrangles Pentagon into a tornado DDT on the floor. I kinda feel like he was better off keeping Pentagon at full strength. Mil Slingshot Plancha on puma! Lets go brutha! Puma goes back to the ol head hunting strategy and then walks the railing to Rana on Pentagon Jr. Mil SMOKES Puma as he celebrates. They double up on Mil much better. Big time backbreaker on the apron and Puma bumps & sells so well. If he could learn psychology & escalation, Puma would be killer. Mil gets a big time powerbomb on Pentagon for two. I learned Pentagon broke Mil's arm to set this up and another DDT gets two. Couple Sling Blades from Pentagon, the first significant offense from him. Swandive over the top. Puma does his own swandive to wipe out Mil. Here's another from Pentagon. Puma does a Flosbury Flop on Mil. The Dive Train on Mil Muertes was the best thing so far. With Mil sufficiently beaten down, they brawl in the crowd. FU by Pentagon on Puma on the stairs. Mil is up but Pentagon sees it and dives on him. Since the dive train this has gotten a lot better, significant uptick in energy. Mil starts using that power again. Driving Pentagon into the apron and then wiping out the wooden chairs. Shooting Star Press from the bleachers on both men. I can see why some people really like this, lots of crazy spots, close together. Puma gets a big head kick and then 630??? FUCKING NAILED IT! 1-2-NO! Mil broke it up! Excellent use of the Triple Threat rules to protect the finish, baby! Snap powerslam by the Champion for two. Pentagon needs a nearfall. They take turns to trying to kick Mil's head off. Superkick Party reference by Striker. Topical. Lungblower by Pentagon and insane Piledriver for two. Told you Pentagon needed his nearfall. I can lay these out, baby. Cero Meido! Package Piledriver! Didnt got for the pinfall wanted to break the arm instead. Shaking my head. BIG SPEAR BY MIL! ANOTHER SPEAR BY MIL! Take it home, brutha. DOUBLE STRAIGHT TO HELL! Palm on the chest for both men for the win! Damn! That was definitive! Ballsy. Admittedly, this did not do much for me. The beginning was boring and meaningless. I liked the dive train on the Big Man. The finish run was pretty good but it was just my turn your turn. The 630 was awesome! They set up the big Mil Muertes vs Fenix match in the post-match which I also reviewed. ***

LU Champion Mil Muertes vs Fenix - Lucha Underground 3/16/16 Catrina now has bitchin' bangs! I almost didnt recognize her. More bangs in wrestling. I had high hopes for this because of how good Grave Consequences. Initially I thought this was a meaningless clusterfuck of pointless moves and way too many fancy Ace Crushers (two is two too many, brutha). Then Mil ripped Fenix's mask and slammed a chair into his head on suicide dive and this got a whole lot better. Violence always helps. Fenix taps a gusher. Mil works and bites the cut. He doesnt got back to that enough in this match like Grave Consequences but it was a nice touch. I liked when Fenix was going to walk the tightrope of the railing, Mil just tossed him into the fans. It was a total holy shit spot because it wiped a lot of fans, but it set up the next tight rope splash well because it is not a move that would hurt it just was shocking. The splash looked great and Fenix really sold it well. So it made sense when Mil was the first up and powerbombed him on the table. Fenix used three kicks to the head to set up a big double stomp, back to the strategy that won him Grave Consequences. The best spot in this match is right after this, Fenix RIPPED MIL MUERTES' MASK! Crowd went wild for this! There was something about seeing a babyface do that spot that really popped me. Loved Mil's reaction. BIG SPEAR! Pummels him. Mil gets a chair. Fenix gets the chair and Mil punches the chair, big chairshots to the head and punctuated with chair throw! Badass! Double Juice! Hell Yeah! This match has gotten helluva better! A ton of shots to the head and very cool 450 splash! 1-2-NO! Should have been the finish. That was so cool! They really built to it well and everything! Damn! They went with a quick reversal to Mil with a Spinning Rock Bottom. Didnt like it. Felt like My Turn, Your Turn. Black Mass Kick by Fenix! Great struggle on the German Suplex by Fenix. It seemed like an odd spot in this bloody brawl but I liked how much struggle they put behind this. Bridging German gives Fenix a 2 count. Fenix goes up top and Mil gets a big uppercut. Again, kinda My Turn, Your Turn. DDT from top rope by Mil. The heat has evaporated out of the building, they should gone home two minutes ago. Mil is setting up for Straight to Hell, but Fenix counters into a great inverted Victory Roll. Nice flukey victory for the underdog champ. Catrina is nonplussed about the loss saying Aztec Warfare is for the Title and Fenix is #1 and Mil is #20. Needed a good mwhahahaha there. Clusterfuck at the end, amazing middle, kinda cold finish. Double juice and good spot selection in the middle keeps this in the very good camp. ***1/2

LU Champion Prince Puma vs Mil Muertes - Lucha Underground 8/5/15 The Season 1 Finale of Lucha Underground pits the Champion Prince Puma aka Ricochet who has fended off all challengers thus far against the Horror Movie Monster Mil Muertes aka El Mesias. You may be wondering what happened to our friend Mil after being stuffed inside the Coffin at Grave Consequences against Fenix. Wiki and the like is a little sketchy but basically Catrina said "Psyche!" to Fenix, resurrected Mil Muertes and added more ghouls and goblins to her stable. As a fan of traditional soap operas, the thought of resurrection ala Helena Cassadine bringing Stavros Cassadine back to life pops me huge, but I would have rather Catrina not turned babyface first and then had no good reason to turn heel. Fenix beating Muertes in the Casket Match here being pissed and then plotting revenge by resurrecting him would have been badass. From what I have seen Prince Puma vs Muertes or Pentagon Jr were there two best bets for a money match at the end of the season. I hope there was at least one lengthy Ricochet vs Pentagon Jr match out there. "Beyond the Grave" is a great hometown, I love the Aztec get up that Muertes is in. Catrina looks smokin' hot and definitely should be picked up by WWE or AEW if she is interested in being in wrestling still. Did some research I had not idea she was in WWE?!? This explains why she is jacked, she was a pro wrestler. She was Maxine? Never heard of her and I dont remember her at all. No Konnan with Puma, apparently the first match without Konnan they are making a big deal out of it. Puma throws some rights which seems like a bad idea as Muertes goes all Demolition Ax and clubbers him down. Puma gets back to speed and evasion. Back Handspring Rana and then dropkick, no sell by Muertes smart. I really liked the choke/pieface over the top rope by Muertes. Really puts over the power advantage of Muertes. Muertes kicks ass on the outside and some crowd brawling. I like that Puma is trying to kick ass in this brawl by trying to throw punches. It shows a willingness to fight. He cleans Muertes clock with a punch and sends him into the crowd. Rams him into the wooden bleachers. I like that Puma is brawling. It like the 80s when the pretty boy babyface has to prove his mettle by being just as violent as the monster heel. Fun spot where Puma uses Catrina to beat Muertes silly very cool. They dont really sell it which is a bummer. Muertes throws him into wooden chairs ala Michinoku Pro. I thought that was too easy of a transition. Puma uses the apron as a springboard to hit a cool kick to the head. Similar to Fenix, I think Puma needs to go head-hunting. Just keeping targeting that head. Puma tries to set up a table, but that is dumb. He needed to suffocate the powerful, strong Muertes while he had a chance. Muertes POWERBOMBS Puma on the Wooden Stairs! Hell Yeah! Great sell by Puma! I think Muertes has finally consolidated control. Spoke too soon. Muertes was getting a chair and Puma at the last second dropkicked it into him. Good capitalization on the mistake. Puma is thinking like Fenix to follow up with a dive. MUERTES HOME RUN SHOT WITH A CHAIR SHOT AS PUMA DIVES THROUGH THE ROPES! Touch em all, Mil! Puma going back to hope spots here was weird. Knees and landing on his feet with a double stomp. I love people staying alive and always fighting back. I think Puma as going to the hope spots too quick and too often. He was not selling these BIG SHOTS by Muertes and was really undercutting the drama. Muertes charges into the steel chair and then Puma finishes with his Fireman Carry Pele Kick. 1-2-NO! That would have a great nearfall if Muertes had really beat Puma down. I dont think they really built to it properly. Muertes evades the 630 and snap powerslam puts thing back into the hands of the Man of a Thousand Deaths. Incredible Pele Kick from Puma which again looked amazing, but I question the timing. Northern Lights Suplex, float over and then vertical suplex. I question doing that on a horror movie villain. These are great spots, but they need an editor. If you rearrange these spots and add a strong heat segment, this could be great! Big right punch to the head by Muertes, but Puma kicks him in the head. Muertes hits the Big E style spear on Puma through a table on the floor. I love that Muertes THREW PUMA THE FUCK DOWN THROUGH THE REST OF THE TABLE! AWESOME! Best spots of the match and a strong nearfall for Muertes. Big Spinning Chokeslam by Mil. Puma evades a spear and then Black Mass kick and Roundhouse Kick. Fenix strategy big kicks to the head to set up the 630! The announcers and fans do a great job building the heat to the 630 and he nailed it. 1-2-no! The crowd loved it! Puma does the only thing he can do. He went for it again. Puma absolutely ate it on his ass. SPEAR BY MUERTES! STRAIGHT TO HELL BY MUERTES! 1-2-NO! Ok, I get it you got to give your babyface champion a little love. Muertes is incredulous. Puma kicks him into the head a bunch. Puma is looking top rope, but Muertes punches him in the face. TOP ROPE STRAIGHT TO HELL BY MIL MUERTES! Catrina Lick of Death, definitely not sanitary. Loved the spots and liked Puma did get a lot of offense as their hotshot ace babyface he needed to look strong, but I thought he looked a little too strong on time and also didnt respect Muertes' size and power advantage. Puma treated him like any other opponent. I think by rearranging some of the spots and really building to the 630 properly this could have been great. I think this falls far below Grave Consequences, but still fun. ***

Johnny Mundo vs Prince Puma - Lucha Underground 10/29/14 The inaugural Lucha Underground main event pits John Morrison vs Ricochet. Johnny Mundo looks and acts like John Morrison so dont expect a gimmick change. In my WWE rewatch, Morrison's stock went up huge: hard-hitting, sound psychology and great escalation are the themes of his matches, this aint no spot monkey, folks. Lucha Underground was smart but ballsy in pushing an unproven commodity to the top, but I have said it before and I will say it again, Ricochet is a once in a generation high flyer. In a world where there are too many, Richocet stands out because of his grace, precision and velocity. If you are going to be a highspot artist you need to be as good as Ricochet, the dude is sublime and breath-taking. They played this down the middle, babyface vs babyface with a very symmetrical match. A great first main event to introduce the two main heroes to the crowd and have them put on a great workrate, athletic match without giving too much away. Like I said very symmetrical, each man is given a chance to shine then the next. Ricochet gets the first two highspots, a back handspring rana and then the All Around The World Rana before hitting his signature Superhero Pose which is cool as fuck. Morrison is a little more hard hitting, he does a hotshot and a kick to the head. Then strikes a pose, vogue, vogue, vogue. Morrison does pose a little too much and this leads to Puma getting a dropkick in and a knee springboard senton splash in. Mundo does a cool table flip and then posts Ricochet who takes a massive bump. They each do a standard comeback run up. I like Morrison's a little more because it more strike-oriented and his uppercut knees look good. Puma is focusing more on a cool highspots. Puma gets a nearfall from a Meteroa. Puma crashes & burns on a Springboard 450, high risk leads to big mistakes. They toss Puma a bone by letting him kick out of Moonlight Drive but a Standing Spanish Fly->Starship Pain puts him away. The match does exactly what it is supposed to let you get a glimpse of the two big stars of the new promotion, some of their cool moves. The young upstart falls short which is fine for the first episode, it gives him room to grow. Mundo is a perfect first star as he had national exposure and his style fits well. They do an angle after the match where the Promoter had promised to give the winner $100,000, but he reneged on the deal and his thugs, Ricky Reyes, someone else and Ezekiel Jackson beat up our heroes. A tired angle if there was ever one. Good little match. ***

Mil Muertes vs Fenix - Lucha Underground 3/18/15 Casket Match In my opinion, the most famous match of Lucha Underground, so famous is that I sought it out and watched it back in 2015. My recollection is that this rocked! The story of this match is that Fenix was the first man to beat Mil Muertes (Thousand Deaths in English), but it was kinda flukey. In the following match, Muertes' manager, Catrina threw the Magic Stone to Fenix and he clobber Mil with it. Catrina gave Mil the Lick of Death and then snogged Fenix. So Catrina, who is pretty jacked, was she a wrestler?, is with Fenix. Mil is doubly pissed for losing to this pipsqueek and losing his woman. Fenix is such a great babyface. AEW has really squandered Pentagon & Fenix thus far. Big charisma in both! Muertes Suicide Dive for the red hot start! Muertes is Mesias for TNA & AAA fans and in my research, I found out he is Puerto Rican, which I didnt know. Mesias is kicking ass and he is looking better than I remember from TNA watching. Fenix uses a quick kick to gain control, but tries to set up for a long run to dropkick but Muertes moves out of the way and Fenix bumps on the apron. Fenix uses another kick to the head to set up a Swandive over the top to the floor. That's what Fenix needs to do against the bigger and more powerful. Big aerial assault with lots of velocity to create momentum to compensate for his lack of mass. Muertes rises from the dead and Chops the hell out of Fenix's back. Slams his head into the Casket. Stop calling it a box you fucking idiot, Striker. Muertes beats Fenix with the Floral Arrangement I enjoy that. Fenix DDTs Muertes on the Casket. Fenis goes for another dives but ends up spearing the Casket! Muertes had lifted the Casket as a shield . Sick spot, probably the best of the match. Muertes tears the mask of Fenix almost clean off. Then does the bottom turnbuckle and smashes the turnbuckles into his head. The crowd chants "We Want Blood". Hell Yeah! Lucha Underground is best violent brawling territory of the 2010s. Muertes gnawing at the cut while choking him with the turnbuckle. This is fucking awesome! He beats Fenix up the stairs. This is a fantastic heat segment. Fenix is selling like a million bucks. They are up in the balcony. Muertes slams Fenix face-first into some metal vent duct. Damn! They teased a big highspot, but nada. Muertes POWERBOMBS Fenix on the announce table, but it doesnt break! That hurt! Fenix is selling like a million bucks while bleeding like a stuck pig. Muertes has dragged the Casket into the ring. Fenix takes a wicked bump, a back drop into the Casket and that's quite the dent. Back to biting the cut! Spitting Fenix's blood. Best Lucha Underground match of all time, baby! Superkick by Fenix! Got to go for headshots! Muertes big time Uppercut! Codebreaker from the top by Mil Muertes! Blood is just spurting from Fenix, who is selling so damn well. Mil wooden chair throws to the head! I love Chair Throws! Another big head kick by Fenix. It has been his best offense. Just keep trying to kick his head off. This sets up the Bleacher dive on Muertes. Kick to head->Dive is his best offensive combination. He deviated it from it again and back to getting slammed into the metal railing, repeatedly. Superkick to the head again and Moonsault from railing to Muertes. Head Kick->Dive! Keep it up! They slug it out. Muertes accidentally decks Catrina. He hestiates and Fenix Enziguiri! Head kick! Muertes bites the cut in retaliation! Catrina opens the Casket as they are struggling over a Suplex. BIG ROUNDHOUSE KICK TO THE HEAD! Fenix walks the ropes and Double Stomp! Catrina Lick Of Death to the Magic Stone and throws it into the Casket. If Catrina still wants to be in wrestling, a promotion should look into picking her up, she has a great presence and charisma to her. Fantastic bloody brawl. Muertes was a powerhouse, horror movie monster come to life and just destroying Fenix. Fenix, bloody & battered, just kept fighting back and I loved the Kick To The Head/Dive Offensive Combination that was the theme of the match and that was ultimately the finish too! One of the best matches of the 2010s! ****1/2

Pentagon Jr. vs Vampiro - Lucha Underground 8/5/15 Street Fight Calling all Vampires, watch this match pronto! This was sick, twisted violence at its best. Total gorefest. Deathmatch Wrestling at its best. Matt Striker is the drizzling shits, just try to ignore him and his Ian bullshit, its fucking Vampiro in there, brutha. A Cero Miedo (Zero Fear) match is just Lucha Underground name for a street fight. Pentagon Jr breaks people's arms to appease a mysterious Master. He was going to break Sexy Star's arm but Vampiro stopped him. Now it is on! Vampiro had been watching some Ghost BC and came out dressed as the Black Pope with his face paint. It was cool as hell. One of the best entrances I have ever seen. Pentagon Jr has such a cool look too. The match is insane and they are so efficient. Everything kickass and no downtime. Pentagon beats the shit out of Vamp. Not letting his disrobe and just attacking him with a steel chair. They do some good crowd brawling. Vamp gets a brief comeback to let you know the Old Man still got it, but Pentagon is rocking. He exposes the concrete and Pentagon FUs him on the concrete and then more chairshots. The ref calls the match and they stretcher Vamp out only for Vamp to attack the EMTs and it is on! Vamp hulks up and here come the tacks. The Fluorescent Light Tubes up the ante a thousandfold! I dont know how they work and if they are gimmicked or not, BUT I dont think so. Pentagon breaks it over the back of his neck and head. Vampiro is a BLOODY MESS! FIVE ALARM! Somehow he is bleeding from the eye too, I dont know how. They way they have worked this entire match has been awesome. It feels like a war. I like how the bumps are few and far between but they are earned. They selling like they are fighting through pain. Vamp hiptosses him on the next light tube. Then rips the masks. He CROWNS Pentagon with the Final Light Tube. HOLY SHIT! Pentagon has tapped a gusher! Well his Mask got replaced by a Crimson Mask. Pentagon BALLSHOT! Love it! They tussle on top. Vamp Super Belly to Belly Throws Pentagon from the top to the Tacks & Glass Shards! HOLY SHIT! How do they climax this blood-soaked mayhem! Well how else! A FLAMING FUCKING TABLE! Pentagon Throws Vamp through the Table Ablaze! Vamp is on fucking fire! Like how shit! Dude was on fucking fire! Pentagon pinned him! Great finish! Terrific violent brawl, loved every minute. ****1/4

LU Trios Champions Son of Havoc & Ivelisse & Angelico vs The Crew (Cortez Castro & Mr Cisco & Bael) - Lucha Underground 5/20/15 Ladder Match Ivelisse is injured in a foot cast coming into the match and gets jumped by the Thugs, this is Matt Striker's reaction "Don't feel bad for Ivelisse, she is fair game". This could be the worst call in the history of the match. He follows this gem up with "Angelico must feel so alone after winning the titles". Bro, he is a TAG TEAM champion, I know they are dysfunctional, but he has TEAMATES! Jesus. Solid ladder match. Crew are good bruisers. I like their one highspot in the corner with the double dropkicks in the corner. They used it in both matches. Angelico is definitely the standout in these matches. I am not saying AEW should push him to the moon, but I think they should give him a crack for a couple months and see if he clicks. He definitely has big highspot potential. He does a big somersault plancha over the top rope onto the ladder wiping out two members of the Crew. They relied on Havoc to carry the bulk of the match. He is fine and Matt Cross has always been fine, but nothing that really popped my eyes. They did a nice spot where they ripped open a hole in Dario's office. One of the Crew members got dumped in the office only to spring out in a tope to tackle someone. I think I would have had Havoc do that spot because it was a babyface spot, but good spot. Ivelisse basically saw no action due to the injury which I dont know if it was a shoot or work, but 95% sure it was a work. The holy shit highspot and the only reason this match should be sought out is Angelico hits an INSANE DROPKICK FROM THE BALCONY TO THE RING AND WIPING REYES OFF THE LADDER! Awesome! Ivelisse is over huge with the live crowd, climbs the ladder to win. Watch for that spot and AEW give Angelico a shot. ***3/4

Cage vs The Mack - Lucha Underground 7/29/15 Falls Count Anywhere Never seen or heard of the Mack before, but this got high marks on Cagematch & I wanted to see more Brian Cage. This is part one of the first Season Finale of Lucha Underground. Awesome brawl that is very entertaining. Matt Striker is terrible and Vampiro is useless. What makes this match is fun is that almost all fun babyface spots. Like Mack spearing Cage through a door, a massive powerbomb off the top rope through a table on the floor and the peak babyface awesome spot, Mack cracking up a couple beers, KICK WHAM STUNNER, TALK SOME STONE COLD TRASH! The crowd and I both popped huge for that! Striker wants to talk about Cage's resiliency and fighting spirit. Fuck you, bro, he's the heel. Put over Mack's kickass babyface offense and that he is so close to putting down The Machine, but just needs that little something. Cage was great at feeding and making Mack look great. He get a heel hope spot, just enough to Mack always had an obstacle to overcome, but he was in the driver's seat for most of the match. Cage hit his suplex highspot on the railing on their Crow's Nest. Then curbstomped Mack through a gimmicked cement block. I would have liked Cage to do something more heelish to set up is last two moves, maybe an eyerake or a ballshot, but still this was refreshingly babyface-oriented, which I loved. It gave the match a real upbeat, fun feel while still being a good kickass brawl. I love how quick and efficient Lucha Underground matches are. ***1/2

Cage vs. Fenix vs. Killshot vs. King Cuerno vs. Pentagon Jr. vs. Sexy Star vs. The Mack - Lucha Undergound 5/13/15 So this match is for some Aztec Medallion that is going to give you immortality. Whether literally or figuratively, I like that they always give the luchadors something to wrestle for. Again, I am just in the mood for mindless action and this was pretty good. I liked Mascarita Sagrada more in the last match from individual performance perspective but overall this match was better. Sexy Star was used really well. She was clearly over. She has a good spirit to her. I really liked Brian Cage in his match against Moxley and watching him here, I just feel like this dude is special. Great combination of look, athleticism and power. I like to see more character work out of him, but the dude can flat out go. The Powerplex on the outside was wicked. Pretty much the beginning and end of the match tell the story, everyone cleared out for the real stars and that is Pentagon Jr and Fenix. Fenix, like Ricochet, is a once in a lifetime flier, absolutely sublime in the air and wonderful balance & coordination. His brother Pentagon contrasts that with a beautifully, wickedly violent style. They used Sexy Star perfectly here to garner more face heat and really put Pentagon over as a prick. He hit Sexy Star with a Widow's Peak and simultaneously piledrove his brother. Just as Pentagon was going to break Fenix's arm, Sexy Star interferes and but Pentagon Press Slams her into a Gutbuster. Nice! This gives him for Fenix to recover. Dragonrana! Awesome one too, standing moonsault for the win. Nice little match. ***

Son of Havoc, Ivelisse & Angelico vs The Crew - Lucha Underground 4/22/15 No DQ Inaugural Trios Tag Champs Apparently, the babyfaces are doing the whole dysfunctional family gimmick. The evil promoter throws one last curveball at them by sending out his Crew in a No DQ and winner wins the titles. I recognize Ricky Reyes but not the other two members. This got high marks on Cagematch but it is only like 5-6 minutes and there's not much to it. The Crew lay a pretty good beatdown on the faces. They use Ivelisse very effectively to maximize sympathy. Isolating her in the ring with a bad knee totally at the Thugs' mercy. Havoc saves but Vampiro calls him "Whipped" for saving his ex-girlfriend. Fuck you, Vampiro, you prick. Havoc gets as ass kicked in the corner with big facewashes. The HUGE spot of the match is Angelico's INSANE LEAP from the balcony to the ring wiping out the Crew. Ivelisse gets a measure of revenge with the Singapore Cane and then Havoc and Angelico each hit moves off the top for the feel good win. The Leap was insane worth a watch just for that. I am glad Ivelisse exacted her revenge and good climax. Good little match. ***1/4

Big Ryck vs. Drago vs. El Mariachi Loco vs. Fenix vs. King Cuerno vs. Mascarita Sagrada vs. Pentagon Jr. vs. Prince Puma vs. Son Of Havoc vs. Super Fly - Lucha Underground 12/11/14 I have seen bits and pieces of Lucha Underground from the first Season. I always had trouble finding it on my cable to DVR it, but I wanted something fun, mindless to watch and this fit the bill. Standouts: Masacrita Sagrada, I have no clue if this is the same dude from the 90s, but if it is holy shit WOW and if it is not he did the original proud! So much charisma! I loved how he did some push-ups to pump himself up before going after Big Ryck aka Ezekiel Jackson. He was so expressive. Great exchange with Pentagon Jr leading to a monkey flip rana. He does his standard big spot where he goes all around the world before the rana. The big three of Puma (Richocet), Fenix and Pentagon Jr were the other stars. Lucha Underground definitely launches those stars. Fenix is awesome to watch and I like that he hits hard in addition to the flying. Pentagon Jr took a little more of a backseat but when he was in there. He made his presence known. Richocet, brutha, this dude is a once in a generation flyer. There are so many "flyers" nowadays, but Richocet is breath-taking and he should be pushed above the rest. He was having a pretty good run in WWE, but being in a tag team with Cedric Alexander is a waste of his talent. This dude is a star. My other standout is Drago, a little on the short side, but the dude had some big time highspots. I liked him. Big Ryck is fucking awful. The dude should have the easiest job in the world. He is like twice the size of everyone and should just mow everyone down. He was the least intimidating big man I have ever seen. Just weak shit. Mascarita Sagrada was so fun in their exchange and he should have sent the little dude flying, but he couldnt even do that in a cool way. Two big thumbs down for him. Fun, match exactly what I wanted for right, now, scratched my itch. ***

TNA World Heavyweight Champion Bully Ray vs AJ Styles - TNA Bound For Glory 2013 NO DQ In typical TNA fashion, they tried to copy the Summer(s) of Punk storylines with AJ having no contract, but I guess AJ really did not have a contract. He did do them a courtesy of coming back and jobbing to Aldis on his way out, but he clearly had no intention of staying as he was working Ring Of Honor and the Indies soon after. It just made TNA look bad. While the angle was the shits, this match was anything but. I enjoy these types of matches a lot, but only in moderation. I think maybe 2-4 times a year they should bust a match out like this. I am talking about an overbooking extravaganza with tons of bells & whistles like run-ins and weapons. You know a real circus! The ultimate version of that match will always be Austin vs Dude Love, but this was still a good take on it. I like the premise & aesthetic of Aces & Eights. A biker gang is a good look, a good basis for a faction, I like that they went all in with the biker lingo, the positions in the Club and the look. Sons of Anarchy was big around this time so it was topical and Bully Ray fit it well. Shoehorning Dixie in as an ally of the outside, anti-establishment faction feels very forced and artificial. I like AJ Styles growing his hair and freshening up his look. As a man who grows his hair out, he is in that terrible awkward stage of the growth where product is your friend otherwise you look like an Emo teen. Emo, moody, brooding AJ is not my cup of tea BUT he is still wrestles like normal, awesome, greatest of all time AJ so I will excuse the look and the pre-match character work. I like how they start with an anti-shine. Bully Ray well bullies him with big bodyslams and meaty lariats. He demonstrating his power advantage. AJ has been a World Champion many more times and a lot longer than Bully Ray. He is the Singles Star. Bully Ray became a main event act. However, I think it was important to establish that Bully is the champion and is a mountain that AJ needs to climb. Now, you feel as a fan that AJ needs to prove himself, you know he is capable since he won his first World Championship in 2003 and a decade later he is every bit capable, but can he. Bully Ray talks some trash about his wife and kids. It is ON~! AJ explodes in a fury and climaxes with the Calf-Killer on Calfzilla, which Taz loves. Bischoff's kid interrupts...I forgot he tried his hand at wrestling whatever happened to him and Brisco's kid? Bully has the hammer. They tussle over it, but not much comes of it. Bully chops the shit out of AJ. They really did a great job working an old school babyface/heel match with a ton of fire and heat. You really wanted to see AJ win and kick this dude's ass. Knux, formerly Mike Knox who had the coolest crossbody in wrestling until Bray Wyatt cribbed it, chokeslammed AJ. It is a Kangaroo Court. AJ kicks out. In the chaos, Bully DECKS Knux! AJ takes a gnarly and very cool bump to the floor as he was in between the middle and bottom rope and Bully Kicked him through. There is more fighting over the hammer. AJ goes to Springboard 450 Splash through a table on the floor, but ends up crashing & burning! Great spot! They milk it well. Bully cuts up the ring to expose the boards and here comes Dixie to celebrate, prematurely I might add. She hands Bully a chair, but AJ Clobbers him with a Sprinboard Forearm and the Springboard 450. Dixie scolds Hebner into not counting. Dixie is NO Vince, no siree Bob. AJ takes a wicked backdrop on the boards and then Bully hits a Stan Hansen pose and wicked nice Senton for two. PELE~! SPIRAL TAP~! 1-2-3! Excellent finish! I thought this match was wicked tight and efficient. Perfect amount of storytelling, cool plot devices underpinned by hard-hitting action with breezy escalation. Bully Ray was such a great heel in this, utterly despicable. AJ rocks as a babyface, big bumping, great selling and kick ass offense. An underrated gem in the TNA catalog. ****1/4

Dustin and Brodie was fantastic! Best Brodie match since joining AEW. Notice how they minimized the bumps and knockdowns to MAXIMIZE their meaning. Terrific hoss fight! I love Dustin! They HAVE TO do a “Dustin tries to finally win the Big One” storyline. I would be pumped!

Wow! Just watched the Miro promo and either I have gone soft or I’m insane but I feel like people are making a mountain out of a mole hill. He had what 3 sentences about WWE. It was necessary and real. He is pissed. He talked about DEVOURING people in the ring and being ELITE. There were NO jokes. It was a straight ahead, efficient promo. What’s the big deal? What’s people major malfunction?

TNA World Heavyweight Champion Drew Galloway vs Bobby Lashley - TNA Slammiversary 2016 KO Or Submission For some reason I have much more interest in this than in their WWE PPV main event from a couple months ago that I skipped. I thought this was great, not perfect, but really good Big Man wrestling for the 2010s. The KO or Submission gimmick unfortunately does not mean this worked like UWFi which would have been sick but it gives MMA fighter, Lashley a decided advantage. McIntyre has developed a new submission, The Iron Maiden (a badass name for submission as a heavy metal fan and I would love to see him bust it out in WWE), which bizarrely is used twice in the opening 5 or so minutes and then never even attempted again. He does have the Claymore already and that will be his mainstay to try to KO Lashley. I wish we could get more out of Lashley. He reminds me so much of Jack Swagger! I want to like NO I want to LOVE these guys. They are big powerful studs with legit amateur credentials and a fighting background. They both should be my dudes. They wrestle so dry and subdued. There is a point where McIntrye accidentally shoot stomps on the eye of Lashley to break a submission causing what must have been a painful cut to form on the edge of the eye. The announcers were like fight or flight has been triggered will Lashely be incensed or will he cower? I said to myself "Neither of you know Lashley nothing will change. He will cool as a cucumber and just hum right along" and I was right. I didnt want to be right. If someone stomping your face so hard that you get cut, doesnt fire you up I dont know what will. I know it is accident. I am not saying D-Mac deserved a receipt. I am just saying REV THE FUCK UP, BOBBY! I LOVED THE CLAYMORE RIGHT AT THE BELL! I HATED THE FOLLOW-UP! They are selling the rules as in favor of the MMA Fighter Lashley and in a snap of the fingers D-Mac throws that narrative out the fucking window by nearly taking Lashley's head off with a Claymore. Fuck yeah! It puts over the gimmick great. What a fantastic start! The follow-up undermined the Claymore completely. No Ref Count! No D-Mac offensive shine! Instead Lashley schoolboys D-Mac and puts him in a lame legbar. The Fuck? Lashley clotheslines D-Mac over the top. D-Mac has been brainwashed by WWE and has WWE Ace Babyface Syndrome where one offensive move renders you glassy-eyed and looking like you have seen 20 minutes of action. Way too much overselling from Drew here. Lashley generally pummels. A good spear that is turned into a GREAT one by Drew's bump and sell of it. Got to give to him on that. Iron Maiden shows up here but never again. Odd. Lashley is going for a Cross-Armbreaker or maybe a Triangle and thats when Drew stomps the eye a little too hard and cuts the eye. Lashley hits a big Spinebuster, but nothing shakes the unflappable Bobby Lashley unfortunately. Highspot of the match was the Super Front Suplex by Drew that was sickkkkkkkkkkkkkk. CLAYMORE~! But he hits him so hard that Lashley rolls through back on his feet and propped up by the ropes so the ref cant count. That was on the right side of cute for me. The big series of moves is D-Mac hits the Celtic Cross (called as such by Josh Matthews) on the ring steps then it is the Sharpshooter on the steps and Claymore on the outside! This all sets up the Big Highspot (I thought the Super Front Suplex was cooler, but I am weird). The Big Highspot is D-Mac does a Swandive over the top rope and demolishes a table with his body. It was impressive. This was a great transition to get Lashley back on offense. Lashley punches D-Mac in the head a lot and I think this is an excuse for him to blade so that when he Hulks Up at 9 he has some blood to show for it. This pops the crowd huge. No Selling is a very effective babyface tool and D-Mac does that well. Loved the Headbutt by McIntrye, he calls it the Glasgow kiss now. I thought they too quickly went to a Lashley submission there was a fire burning here that could have been an inferno. Tombstone for D-Mac was great. Goes for the Claymore and Lashley catches him in a flash Arm Triangle submission now that I dug. They avoided a lot of what is bad about Last Man Standing matches. It didnt feel like a slog or a very boring pummeling heat segment. They kept it upbeat and exciting with thoughtful momentum changes. I enjoyed D-Mac on offense a lot more than Lashley. Drew does have a tendency to oversell when a register would work better but thats true of every 21st Century babyface now. Lashley needs a personality transplant. He has every physical gift necessary but he is boring as hell. That withstanding, a great layout and inspired D-Mac performance make this the best Lashley match I have ever seen. ***3/4

NWA World Tag Team Champions Triple X (Christopher Daniels & Elix Skipper) vs America's Most Wanted - NWA-TNA 6/25/03 Steel Cage I really should take the time to watch their entire series because these four have great chemistry with each other. Their 2004 Six Sides of Steel is more famous but this is still a banger and in a light year for United States Match of the Year Contenders this is a definite contender, violent with big ass highspots. Triple X are the tag team champions but only thanks to Low-Ki and the other members of SEX. Tenay/West do a great job explaining the steel cage is to prevent outside interference. Russo is trying to keep all the SEX to himself and is forbidding Triple X to wear their SEX shirts to the ring. What a selfish prick! There's plenty SEX to go around! I really liked America's Most Wanted babyface shine, it was short, but that battering ram spot they do is really cool and I wish some babyface team would crib that. Based on what I have seen I think AMW is easily a Top 50 tag team of all time maybe even Top 25. They do a double face in peril starting with Wildcat. They bust him wide open using the cage. Really good cage heat segment. Harris does a good job staying alive but selling. Storm was a great hot tag. Skipper takes a nasty bump. Reverse Suplex into the cage and a nasty fall. He is selling his ribs. Storm climaxes with the Powerslam. Superkick caught and swift kick to the 'nads puts Daniels in control. The idiot announcers are too busy praising Triple X for resiliency that they missed that they cheat to garner the advantage. Morons. Daniels busts Storm open on the cage and crashes his body on top of his sandwiching Storm with the Cage. Skipper hits a Powerplex but he is selling his ribs. This does not last long before the melee ensues when Harris gets the hot tag. The finish stretch is red hot. Daniels busts out Angels Wings on Harris, smashing Storm into the Cage and then falling back into the ring with him, and Last Rites. Skipper, of course, goes all out. Nothing will ever top the Cage Tight Rope into the Frankensteiner which is the greatest highspot of all time, but he does have some doozies in this. He takes a Powerbomb off the top of the cage, a crossbody block from the top of the cage and he takes not one, BUT TWO GNARLY BUMPS from the cage to the floor. The last one he skidded off the floor into the railing. Skipper kept going for these big highspots and AMW did the wise thing by just shoving him off. You can ONLY win by pinfall or submission MEANING that AMW now has a 2-1 advantage! First Death Sentence goes awry. I think someone got their signals crossed BUT the finish was AWESOME! TOP OF THE CAGE DEATH SENTENCE! THAT WAS BITCHIN'! I know Skipper cant cut a promo to save his life but with so much emphasis on workrate I cant believe Primetime couldnt have found more work throughout the world in 21st Century. Dude was wicked athletic, could do all the workrate spots PLUS he was fucking crazy so he could all the nutty stunts too! AMW are awesome old school, Southern-fried blood feud workers. Perfect blend of blood-soaked Southern Cage wrestling and 21st Century highspot stunt wrestling. I still think the 2004 is slightly better but this rocked! ****1/2

I agree you the story, announcers, and the beginning dont really justify the intensity and violence of the latter stages of the match but the latter stages are a welcomed sight to see in a Kurt Angle match. Kurt Angle vs Mr. Anderson - TNA Lockdown 2010 I don't know what it is about Angle and Lockdown, but he tends to bring his best inside the Steel Cage. Either Mr. Anderson has a nasty shiner or he is into wearing eyeliner, which I am not opposed to as a big glam metalhead. Anderson is doing his "I am an asshole" gimmick. I guess he disrespected the military in the buildup and known patriot Angle took umbrage with this. The wrinkle of this match is you can only leave through the door and Anderson won the right to have the key. Anderson makes the obvious mistake of going for the door way too early, he hit one dropkick to the knee. After two premature attempts, the key ends up lodged in the lock and now the playing field is level. Well there goes one plot device. Ok lets move onto the next one. Anderson drives Angle's head into the cage. They get some good shots of this. There's some meander back & forth. They ratchet up the violence when Anderson chokes Angle out with tape very convincingly. This is the first time the match really feels great. This match has quite the rep in spite of the two wrestlers in this. The tape choke out was their best spot. It was one of the most credible versions I have ever seen of the spot and it was enhanced by Angle struggle combined with his open wound meant more blood flowing. Angle goes on a tear with lots of suplexes. Anderson gets a hope spot with the Somersault Samoan Drop but cant get the Mic Check (a truly terrible finish, he sweeps the legs the wrong way). Angle nails 6 suplexes and really takes his time to milk it. Then they do the whole Angle has it won multiple times but decides he has not punished Anderson enough. I dont really see how this has been warranted. I would have liked to see Anderson be more of a little shit, eyerakes, taunts, ballshots, spitting and choking (ok he did the last thing). What makes me really want to see Anderson get his just desserts. The first iteration leads to AngleLock but Anderson whips him into the Cage. Mic Check. Anderson goes for it and Angle hits the Olympic Slam. This time Angle throws away the key into the crowd and as if to say he does not care to win, he is hear to beat the shit out of Anderson, which is a surprisingly effective moment even though the story does not warrant it. This is when Angle goes all out with the two big highspots of the match: German Suplex off the Top Rope and the Moonsault off the cage. Anderson has balls of steel taking that spot. That was fucking crazy! He landed on his fucking face! That was insane! Now for a third time, Angle has the match won but looks back and Anderson flips off Angle. This defiance is enough for Angle to know he needs to dish out more punishment. I feel like Anderson's character work is the main flaw of the match. It is too neutral throughout but then shows flashes. It creates for inconsistency and the big moments to be not as hot. Anderson low blows him, where was that earlier!?! Angle gets back up and chokes him out with a chain and that was great payback for the best part of the match. Then triumphantly stomps on his balls as he walks out for the win. This is a great match that could have been match of the decade contender if Anderson was a stronger character. I think this is one of Angle's best individual performances. He was strong, violent asskicker hellbent on punishing Anderson and his usual workrate-centric self. I just wish Anderson matched him either in intensity or cowardice one way or the other. Really strong steel cage match. ****1/4

Impact World Heavyweight Champion Brian Cage vs Sami Callihan - Impact Wrestling Bound for Glory 2019 Street Fight I have always liked the look of Brian Cage, got to see him at a Beyond Wrestling event and he looked great. I was further impressed by how great he was in that match with Moxley. I think thats the best Moxley match I have seen in AEW. Callihan I have only seen in a couple MLW shows I attended live. I find spit to exceptionally gross and the amount of fucking saliva in his matches grossed me the fuck out. He seems like an edgy, too cool for school pro wrestler. For some weird reason, I saw the angle leading up to this where Callihan & goons piledrive Cage's wife in front of him. So this is PERSONAL~! I really enjoyed this and thought it was great. I think the best of the match is how well they adhered to babyface/heel psychology. Cage as the avenging babyface got the bulk of the match and it gave the match an upbeat, chest-beating feel to it. Caliihan as the heel was nasty, violent cheater. His first major advantage came from a testicular claw, thats pretty low-down. This being the 21st Century there were times when there was still some workrate in a match so personal and some furniture re-arrangement, but they did keep to a minimum. Cage bitting Callihan and drawing blood was a great start. Using the Wolverine claws swiping at the cut was also tremendous. Anytime Callihan would get a shot in, Cage would pay him back tenfold! Powerbomb into the ringpost, Back Suplex into the table. Cage was kicking ass. He would NOT BE DENIED! Then came the testicular claw which led to the Piledriver on the railing. Perfect way to transition to the heat segment. Cheap (testicular claw) and powerful (piledriver). Callihan FACEWASHES in the corner. Cage fires up on the third one, I like it. Things get a little too workrate-y down the stretch. Lots of complicated combinations. Cage hopping onto Callihan's shoulder for the Death Valley Driver not my favorite spot, but I did like Callihan's piledriver through the ropes. Again they get complicated with a top rope spot and Callihan powerbombs Cage on the railing. Callihan cant believe it! He gets the tacks. Piledriver on the tacks, which is actually a super safe way not to take tacks! ONE COUNT! KICKOUT! AMAZING NO-SELL! THATS HOW YOU FUCKING HULK UP! Cage hits the DrillClaw, Steiner Screwdriver for the win! HELL YEAH! I love a well-timed NO SELL that was just Supacharged No Sell and emphatic finish to avenge his wife's broken neck at the hands of Callihan and a piledriver. The beginning was better than the finish as that played better into the hatred and brawling. They got a little cute down the stretch but they saved it was with an AWESOME FINISH! ***3/4