Boss Rock

Main event really killed what was for the most part a really good show.

Same here. Always loved Horowitz and was glad he got a little bit of a push then. Horowitz was the perfect guy for the job, could work, bump, give you a solid match whomever he worked against, had a good look, had character. A unsung hero of US pro-wrestling if the late 80's/90's. Also a big Horowitz fan.

Been watching Onita FMW matches, specifically the Texas death match tag in Korakuen Hall and the first electrified barbed wire match with Goto. Have a Tenryu cage match and the Funk barbed wire match on deck. Also plan on checking out Funk-Abdullah matches from '78.

Undertaker vs. King Mabel is a feud I always revisit. One of the first things I had seen as a kid.

Mordecai: Thought the zealot gimmick had a ton of potential and wasn't like anything I had seen before. Hirooki Goto: Not great, but I think he has some good matches to his name. He may be a sad-sack loser, but he's MY sad-sack loser. The Ascension: Really dug the look, the theme, and their aura of intimidation from NXT. Glacier: Played as him once in Revenge and just liked him ever since. Tye Dillinger: Yes he sucks and is only over because of a chant, but I just find him likable.

Last episode of LU before Ultima Lucha, and here's what the card looks like: Puma vs. Mundo (Career vs. Title) Pentagon Dark vs. Son of Havoc (Ladder match for GOTG) Taya vs. Sexy Star (Last Luchador Standing) Ivelisse vs. Catrina (confirmed as still happening) Dante Fox vs. Killshot (2 out of 3 Falls "Hell of War" match) Fenix vs. Marty the Moth (Mask vs. Hair) Matanza vs. El Dragon Azteca Jr. (Steel Cage) Jeremiah Crane vs. Cage vs. Mil Muertes (for Infinity Gauntlet) Famous B vs. Texano (if Texano loses, Famous B gets Texano's contract) Lots to like and should be a good event, but I feel like they just raced to the finish here with some of these feuds and matches. Fox-Killshot is a really interesting story but I feel like we haven't gotten a whole lot of development in the last few months. Same with Matanza and Dragon. The match makes sense considering the street fight and Matanza brutalizing Mysterio, but it was just like "Oh yeah, they're having a cage match." I will say they've done a very good job with Fenix and Marty. Even if there are some aspects I haven't liked, it's super heated and has been given ample screen time. Just wish they had done the same for some of the other feuds. No word yet on which matches will take place on what nights with the exception of Puma-Mundo.

I've liked what I've seen of him so far. The Liger match is awesome of course but I also love the '97 BOSJ final with Kanemoto. Proof he could be a great heel as well as a great babyface.

A terrific hour of LU with two very strong match with interesting parallels, the two original babyfaces and the two dark angels going at it against each others. The final angle was ver good, although I'm not a fan of the old "security guys" as peons. But it's niceto have a promo that goes for four sentences before shit breaks out. You know in WWE this would have gone for 15 minutes going back and forth with one guy listening to the other while holding his mic before replying. Here Mundo talks shit, Rey jumps him and then... really reminded those old ECW entire roster brawls before big shows. Yeah, I was half-expecting the ECW chants to break out, that's how old I am. Dario Cueto looking the massacre with delight was priceless. And now I really look forward Rey vs Mundo (the build has been extremely effective yet so simple, with only one big angle at the end), Pentagon vs Puma as a great final, Mil vs Cage and of course Marty vs Fénix. (I don't mind Catrina getting a boot in the face because Pentagon is a killer with no soul while she's an immortal witch. Plus the fact Mil got pinned just as she went down really works too, it's like losing the connection made him weaker. Catrina is like the greatest Paul Bearer ever.) Indeed, Mil and Catrina are my favorite acts second only to Pentagon. And the Paul Bearer comparison is absolutely true. My favorite part of that relationship was during Graver Consequences. Once Matanza put Catrina in the casket, there was no hope for Mil to win.

Except for Vinny beating up Joey. But that was still awesome. And seeing Dante and Killshot brawling makes me wish we saw more of that this season. I dunno, I just feel like they could have done more with that feud and Crane-Mil-Catrina. Also, not a whole lot on the relationship between Vamp and Puma since the Cueto Cup.

Favorite heel theme might be "Man With the Harmonica" for Terry Funk. Sorry Undertaker, but THAT is the most frightening theme in wrestling.

My current favorites are probably "Heroes Welcome" for Kassius Ohno and "Stone Pitbull" for Tomohiro Ishii.

"Bad Medicine" is probably my favorite part about Dr. Wagner Jr.

September 13 episode: "Cien" Well, it's here. The 100th episode of LU. Some unbelievable highs and some pretty disappointing lows, but overall I've had more fun with this show than any other wrestling show I've ever seen. First match is Worldwide Underground vs. Puma, Fenix, Cage, and Sexy Star in an atomicos match. Ricky Mandell was replaced by Marty the Moth as punishment for legally changing his name to "Ricky Mundo" without Johnny's permission. Obviously this match was meant to further the Sexy-Taya, Fenix-Marty, and Puma-Mundo feuds. Decent match and Melissa finally snapped at Marty, which led to the announcement of a tag match between her and Fenix vs. Marty and Mariposa. I know Melissa has some wrestling experience, so will be interesting to see how she does. Cage left the match midway after Crane stole the gauntlet, leading to a very cool scene with him, Catrina, Cage, Mil, and Dario. Won't spoil anything, but let's just say it's pretty clear what match they'll be in at Ultima Lucha. Also, Taya vs. Sexy Star is announced as a Last Luchador Standing match. It's still really weird to watch Sexy after the crap she pulled at Triplemania. This match and the segments involving them really reminded me how much the Worldwide Underground irritates me, and not in a good heel heat kind of way. And the weird thing is that they SHOULD work as a faction. Mundo is a great dickhead heel (even if he's an awful promo) and Jack and P.J. are a fun tag team (literally one of my favorite parts of season 2). And I know LU isn't going to win any Emmys for acting, but I find their backstage segments annoying. Maybe that's the point. Still, they were much better before Jack broke his jaw and could do most of the talking. Pentagon Dark and El Dragon Azteca Jr. faced off for the first time for the final Aztec Medallion. Best match of the night and focused on Pentagon dominating Dragon with a variety of strikes before Dragon would mount his comebacks with aerial maneuvers. The match really seemed to focus on the evolution of Pentagon as a character, from the promising yet unfocused newcomer to the calculating, dominant fighter who's almost put all the pieces together. Main event was Rey Mysterio vs. Matanza, the culmination of Rey being the first person to pin Matanza in LU. A pretty good match with Rey taking advantage early with his speed but Matanza retaking control and dominating pretty much the rest of the match. I'm not sure when Jeff Cobb started to let himself go, but it's clear he was in much better shape during filming of the last two seasons than he's been in the last year. So much more explosive and agile. Only one episode left until Ultima Lucha Tres starts and with it being a 4 night event, I feel like there's still a lot that needs to be covered in just one week. So far we have: Puma-Johnny Marty-Fenix Sexy-Taya Possibly Ivelisse vs. Catrina and the Gift of the Gods match We'll see how they round at the rest of the card.

Yeah, TNA has done it twice. First was Jeff Jarrett vs. Samoa Joe at No Surrender 2006 and the second was Beer Money vs. LAX at Victory Road 2008. Lucha Underground also did at Ultima Lucha 1 for Drago vs. Hernandez. I think each time they've had fans sign waivers before participating.

I really wanted to like this match, but couldn't. Although to be honest, I don't think I've ever seen a single Psycho Clown match I've liked. Even as a garbage match worker, he comes off as slow and sloppy. This wasn't exactly all that sloppy, but it just seemed to drag forever. Didn't really feel much intensity or urgency, just slow brawling. At least the crowd was into it.

Less Authority on TV, the better.

Cody Rhodes. Hat's off to his ability to get over outside WWE and become a big indie star, but he's so grindingly average it's annoying. Most of his "pretty good" matches were against better talent who could carry the action and his worst matches are the downright pits (Juice Robinson at WK). His goofy character work in matches is also annoying.

Headbutt was stupid and ill-advised, but 100% made Owens. Whoever thought that Kevin Steen would be a guy Vince would want to push to the moon? Although he shares at least part of the blame with his bad in-ring habits and occasional laziness, WWE hasn't done him a ton of favors in the past when it comes to character (making him Jericho's comedic sidekick, the Face of America foreign heel #87). This should allow him to play the cold, vindictive character he thrives at.

And LU was an incredible breath of fresh air for me during the bleh WWE year of 2015. Season 1 is easily some of the best wrestling television I've ever seen.

Same here. Not crazy about some of the ridiculous spotfests (Dante Fox, looking at you there, although the spots he does are indeed incredible, he just needs to learn to sell and pace his matches), but this a still super refreshing as a pro-wrestling TV show. Slowly getting back into the groove. EP29 had the cool, classic (as in "old-school") Dominic angle. Can't believe so much time has passed since the Eddie stuff, and really, it's hard for me to see Rey Rey as the father of this all grown up kid. That's me showing my age, but I still see Rey as this 20 something guy in WCW. The fact he probably doesn't look his age under the mask (really, he looked 17 in 2000) also helps. Really enjoys the Melissa Santos/Fénix/Marty the Moth storyline too, cool to see Melissa finally get more involved. Best ring announcer that I'm aware of currently. Keep the Eddie angle in mind for the next episode or so.

September 6 episode Mack and Drago fought for an Aztec Medallion in a really fun sprint. Unfortunately, it ended in another dumb distraction finish where Mack dropped Drago and focused on Kobra Moon simply because she was on the apron. Drago took advantage and pinned Mack with his Dragon's Lair pin. Mack hit a stunner in retaliation and attempted to hit Kobra with one as well but the Reptile Tribe beat him down. Still not crazy about this stable but perhaps Mack rounds up a team to challenge them for the Trios Titles? In what should have been the main event, Cortez Castro and Joey Ryan faced off in a 5-0 Street Fight for an Aztec Medallion. Like Havoc-Madness and Mascarita-Famous B, this was a really fun, goofy No DQ match. There were riot officers surrounding the ring and shields, night sticks, a glove with lube (don't ask), coffee, donuts, a police car, and a taser (!) were all used. Won't give too many details because this really needs to be seen to be believed, but Castro picked up what might be his first singles win in LU history and earned the medallion. And as bad as Striker and Vamp are, they had some funny lines here. The actual main event was Matanza vs. the Rabbit Tribe in a 3-on-1 handicap match. Prior to the match, Dario announced Pentagon vs. Dragon Azteca Jr. for the last medallion next week. He also banned Rey from the building and said if he didn't leave, he would fire Dragon Azteca. Not a fan of Dario becoming more heelish, but I guess that's what happens when you feel like your family has been insulted. Anyway, Matanza beat the tribe in fairly quick fashion but it wasn't a complete shut-out, as there was a pretty dramatic nearfall. Perhaps they want to prevent the three from looking like complete chumps considering they're in the Gift of the Gods match. Decent match overall. Show ended with Prince Puma and Johnny Mundo having an in-ring confrontation. They have an atomicos match next week but before Puma could announce his partners, Mundo interrupted and challenged Puma to put his mask on the line at Ultima Lucha. Dario intervened and said because there is already a mask vs. hair match, Puma will need to put his career on the line. Vamp says no but Puma says yes. Although Puma didn't even announce his partners like he was supposed to, it was cool to have both guys acknowledge each other's history with each other over the past three seasons. Solid episode with no bad matches. I would definitely recommend watching the 5-0 Street Fight.

40 episodes.

Really great match with some excellent storytelling. Tenryu starts off as THE battle-hardened veteran. He's been through so many wars, every time Kawada hits him he gives him that "You're gonna have to do better than that, kid" expression. It almost gets to the point of no-selling but the longer the match goes on, the more and more visibly hurt Tenryu is. He really makes Kawada earn it through each kick and chop. Kawada overcomes some near KO-worthy punches and leg submissions to start absolutely dominating, busting open Tenryu's nose and battering him on the outside. But just as it appears Kawada has this in the bag, Tenryu proves that the old man still has some fight in him by landing some wicked lariats, a KO punch, and Ki Crusher for the win. I thought Tenryu was a bit too dominant in the beginning for him to get a win, but Kawada weathering the storm and absolutely beating the shit out of him in the second half makes the victory well-earned.

Randy Orton and Alberto el Patron. Orton to me is someone who COULD be great because his timing and execution is downright beautiful at times, but there's absolutely no heart or soul to anything he does. He's had his fair share of good to great matches, but they were usually with someone who was far more interesting (Christian, Bryan, etc). I feel the same way about Patron. I feel like he SHOULD work as a heel being the arrogant aristocrat and he played a good bully to Kalisto last year. But similar to Orton, he's a technically proficient dude with absolutely nothing behind it. And I never liked him as a face, even in LU.

In creating my own list, my top 3 comes down to Hansen, Kobashi, and Misawa. At the end of the day, I'm more inclined to go Misawa for a couple of reasons Took part in some of the greatest singles if not THE greatest singles matches of all time. Took part in some of the greatest if not THE greatest tag matches of all time. Had a case for best in the world for close to a decade. Was an offensive dynamo with incredible execution yet still a masterful storyteller. Could still put on an entertaining and logical match past his prime. While late-90's AJPW could get a bit excessive with multiple kick-outs and false finishes, Misawa (and to their credit the other 4 pillars as well) knew how to build up to those moments. Almost everything he did made sense and made those spots like the tiger suplex in the '98 Kobashi match really feel as big as they were. He was also a fascinating worker to watch outside of those big epics, especially as an underdog where he had to resort to the forearm simply because it was the only thing that could hurt guys like Morishima or Vader. Simply put, Misawa was awesome.