Boss Rock

So far I'd say Ultima Lucha has delivered as a whole. Most of the matches have been good and the booking has been a complete turnaround from last year's.

Ultima Lucha pt. 2 Battle Royale was extremely short but featured the grand return of Pimpinella Escarlata! Mack won and earned a shot at the Trios titles for next week. The twist: his partners will be Killshot and Dante Fox. Catrina vs. Ivelisse was heavily edited and therefore ran shorter than I expected. A decent and very bloody brawl. Marty vs. Fenix was the clear match of the night. For all of his good character work (even if I think it's been over-done at times), I've never thought Marty was a very good wrestler. But man did he deliver the performance of his career while Fenix was great as always. Tons and tons of blood. And I mean tons. Next week will be the trios match, GOTG ladder match, and Taya vs. Sexy Star. That leaves Matanza vs. Dragon, Cage vs. Crane vs. Mil, and Puma vs. Mundo for the final night.

Need to catch up on Ishikawa's CC run (although I wasn't crazy about the finals with Doering), but his run as champ and in Royal Road were very good. I would still say Kento is the best, even if he overdoes the fighting spirit a bit (although I'd wager AJPW does more finisher kickouts than NJPW).

Along with Mundo, Matanza's the only one who's consistently been able to get heel heat from the crowd. I think a lot of it comes down to him beating all of the crowd's favorites, this time being no exception.

And speaking of the Five-O brawl, I still laugh every time I think of the "Smell of burnt hair!" line from Striker.

Agreed 100% on the thematic brawls. The nunchaku match last season in particular was one of my favorites. Campy in the best possible way.

Wouldn't surprise me.

Looks like Fenix-Marty will be the third match this week as they have a Marty promo on Youtube. So that leaves for the next two weeks: Cage-Mil-Crane Sexy-Taya Dragon-Matanza Pentagon-Havoc Puma-Mundo Trios match? Looks like we may not get a two-hour finale unless the matches they choose are really long.

I only just recently got into classic Memphis, but Lance was great. My favorite moment of his will always be him arguing with Funk during the Empty Arena Match.

Next week has Catrina-Ivelisse and a Unique Opportunity battle royal. Most likely will include another match but not sure which one.

Hell of War was absolutely insane. Easily the most violent match LU has ever done, even surpassing Pentagon-Vampiro. There were some issues with selling, but overall an incredible spectacle match.

Larry Csonka of 411Mania is one who comes to mind. He's one of the few that does star ratings.

I think so. Wanna say No Mercy didn't sell out either.

Nope, it needs to be extremely convoluted and counter-productive. The treatment of faces is absolutely mind-blowing.

LU's Twitter announcing that Texano-Famous B is also this Wednesday.

Great point.

Quoted wrong.

It's very possible she puts over Asuka, but it's still extremely counter-productive to the rest of the division when she wins clean every single time.

Heels beating faces clean is indeed a weird trend. Gets the heels over but kills the faces.

You're right they did, but they took another hit post Mania 32. The biggest issue with WWE is that they lack a top star who can have a meaningful impact on business. Reigns has not at this point and very likely never will. Braun was a guy the audience was legitimately hot for and presented an interesting opportunity to try something new. Instead, they're revisiting the same program from almost three years ago between two guys who don't move the needle.

Apparently the issue is live gates. Both Raw and SDL events have supposedly been having trouble selling out. Only Cena is the real difference maker. And while tv ratings have been declining for years on account of wrestling not being as hot as it was during the AE, Cena was the reason they stayed afloat longer than they did. And TV ratings absolutely plummeted post-Mania 32. They haven't bottomed out yet but they haven't been getting better either. So the main issue is the lack of a top star who can sell tickets and get people to watch the product.

I feel like they will too. And if they structure it like Pentagon vs. the Triad, I think it might work. I think Rey is done this season. Supposedly his daughter's quinceanera was around this time.

If you needed any more proof that Juice Robinson is an elite level talent, here it is. Excellent story of Juice trying to keep up with Omega in the early goings and doing the honorable thing by not going for the surgically-repaired knee. But after escaping the One-Winged Angel, Juice realizes what needs to be done and starts working it over. The inner conflict Juice shows on his face is amazing as he looks guilty, almost hesitant at working it over. Juice is able to take control until Kenny hits an insane vertical suplex off the apron to the floor. Juice looks absolutely done and Kenny just blasts him with knee after knee. Kenny is toying with Juice a bit but by hitting so many knees you can tell he recognizes Juice's toughness and wants to make sure he stays down. Juice gets all sorts of fired up and pulls off one of the best babyface comebacks this year, nearly finishing Kenny with Pulp Friction. He attempts to hit Pulp Friction off the top rope but Kenny counters and hits an unbelievable One-Winged Angel off the second rope for the win. While Juice has had a showcase year by taking Goto and Naito to the limit and rallying back in the G1, this was an absolute star-making performance. Kenny hit Juice with everything and yet he STILL came back and nearly pulled it off. I don't think it's hyperbole to say Juice is one of if not THE best babyface in wrestling right now. This felt like one of the few Kenny Omega matches where he took a clear backseat, but it was necessary. Kenny is already an established star who's getting "best in the world" accolades. He didn't need to look amazing in this match, Juice did. My only real gripe was that the opening minutes of the match dragged and they could have gotten to Juice attacking the knee a lot earlier. But at the same time, I feel it was necessary for Juice to attempt to wrestle the match his way early on and only when it was clear Kenny was getting the better of him would he go for the knee. Really set up the internal conflict of Juice needing to do whatever was necessary to win. ****1/2.

I think you could do another Reigns match considering how closely contested their last few has been. Joe has also been booked like a killer. You could also do a David and Goliath match with Finn and have him use the Demon.

Yeah, I also saw the Killshot promo on Youtube. First fall: First Blood Second fall: No DQ (feels like they should flip those two, ha) Third fall: Ambulance or stretcher (did not specify) Should be really good although I am worried it just goes on forever like the WMD match did.