ohtani's jacket

I often criticise Blue Panther for his rudo performances but I thought he singlehandedly raised the level of this bout compared to the past few IWRG matches. He's clearly having a great year and looks to me to be one of the top 10 workers in Mexico at this point. I'm not a fan of mask ripping in lucha but I have to admit it was pretty cool how Panther had Parka in a hold while he did it. We got glimpses of Dandy vs. Panther, which isn't a matchup you see a lot of, but the real triumph here was that Panther got me interested in seeing a match with Parka. The last time I remember that happening was when he Volador and feuding with Fuerza. If you(re a Panther fan check this out.

This wasn't super-heated but it did give me more of what I wanted which was Super Crazy vs. El Dandy. Plus it had ageless maestro Shu el Guerrero and longtime Dandy partner, Silver King, so it wasn't too bad. They just failed to really ignite anything but you get that sometimes with trios matches.

IWRG continue to tease me with a blowoff to the Cerebro vs. Ciclon feud that I don't think we're going to get. At least we get to see them go at it again here. Cerebro is having a stellar year. I don't think he's as good a worker as Wagner but he sure is doing more relevant things in Mexico if you compare the two doctors. The great thing about this trios (aside from the fact that it was unedited) was that he also had a thing going with Mike Segura. You know you're good when you have two rifts going at the same time. The other workers were good and had fun indy gimmicks but this Cerebro's party and he'll beat the shot out of a tecnico if he wants to. I kind of wish he had hung onto his mask for longer.

Long atomicos match that featured a few match-ups I'd pay to see more of. Namely, Dandy vs. Super Crazy, Dandy vs. Dr. Cerebro and Cerebro vs. Ciclon Ramirez. Dandy may be a bit portly here but I thought he looked more like himself than in previous matches. It's clear to me now how he worked his way back into form for the Navarro feud in 2001. This is the sort of match where the workers improvise like free-form jazz. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't but it was entertaining as a whole. The pay off of fouls and mic work was predictable but at least IWRG appears to do some booking instead of throwing random matches out there. Worth watching to see Super Crazy in Mexico as well.

This was a solid title match. The surprising thing about it continues to be that Scorpio is capable of such performances although I think it's time to acknowledge that Scorpio has been pretty much excellent the entire year and is not, in fact, a Mexican version of Billy Gunn. It's hard to produce a big title match feel in Arena Naucalpan but it's nice to see some long-form lucha libre as an alternative to CMLL.

A quiet month for CMLL ends with a snappy trios match between these teams. Shocker looked fantastic in this. He really has blossomed into a world-class talent. There seems to be a lot of parallels between Shocker and CIMA as far as the year 2000 is concerned. Just like his Monterrey work with Tarzan Boy, he manages to make Niebla look ten times better than usual. The other exciting thing about this was the fire it lit under Casas. You'd think after all those years of Casas feuding with Bestia and Scorpio that the last thing you'd want is more of the same but their ugly mugs bring out a passion and intensity that's been missing from most of Casas' performances to date. There's nothing quite like pissed off Casas and to top it all off we get a fired up Emilio as well. That's hard to beat.

The violence continues. Villano and Perro got stuck into Pierroth who took another hellacious beating. This feud has not been good for Pierroth's health. Pierroth ends up crashing through the CMLL sign on the stage and Villano and Perro use the broken pieces to inflict some further punishment. I'm looking forward to seeing Stone Cold Arturo Mendoza open a can of whoopass on Pierroth in their apuesta match.

This served its purpose in showcasing the trio of Felino, Antifaz, and Safari as well as the camera man's infatuation with that woman. CMLL needs some strong tecnico teams so I think this is a step in the right direction. There were some nice dives in the third caida and it was cool seeing Felino back in his classic costume and seeming relevant again. It's a shame we don't get to see more of Fuerza in Monterrey where he'd get to do more. He seems to be on the periphery a lot but then I suppose Blue Panther and Emilio Charles are as well to name two of his great contemporaries.

Man, the Villanos brutalized Pierroth here. They were just savage. It's nice to see some continuity in CMLL with the Villanos out for revenge after the electrocution. V3 vs. Pierroth is the best thing going in CMLL right now and this was a hell of a set-up for a potential hair match. And after all that violence the director cuts to a baby sleeping in its mother's arms.

CMLL matches continue to be butchered in the edit. This was another Infernales showcase with a heavy focus on the younger pair's bumping. My favorite part was the vaudeville-style bumping for the tecnico comeback. Some nice dives in the third fall but the edits make it hard to get a feel for the rhythm. Satanico vs. Felino seemed like it would be a fun showdown at the end but the double pin didn't serve any purpose. CMLL is lacking a hot summer feud, which isn't that surprising if you've been acquainted with CMLL for a while but frustrating nonetheless.

Fairly standard action between these two teams with the rudos working holds, to begin with before showing their true colours. As usual, there are some awkward jump cuts with the editing but nothing much happens anyway as the match stalls after Lizmark's injury.

This was a fun undercard match. In a sense, it was lucha in its purest sense. Six misfits doing a bit of everything to entertain the crowd -- comedy, brawling, high flying, double teaming and triple teaming. I love the other-the-top theatrics of Valentin Mayo. It's a blast watching him go out there and warm up the crowd. Virus and Marvin looked good in their limited minutes.

Pierroth! Is there a better rudo in all of Mexico now that Satanico doesn't have a regular program? This was pure, unadulterated BS, but it was fun. Not the most sophisticated lucha match you'll see but the rudos did a good job of stacking the odds against Parka and pissing off the crowd. That fan took his life into his own hands when he shoved Wagner and props to the fan who hit the ref with a bottle towards the end. Somewhere in all that was a bloody bladejob from Parka but unlike some of his other bloodstained epics, the wackiness continued to the end. The comedy finish was house show gold and Parka's against-the-odds win got a nice reaction from the crowd.

This was a fun match. I loved how indignant Tenryu was when Hayabusa kicked him in the chest as though Hayabusa didn't deserve a single lick of offense. I didn't really get the hype surrounding Tenryu until I did a deep dive on him during the GWE project and now my appreciation for him grows with every passing match. He's such a great seller and always adds tiny details to his bouts liking shaking out the cobwebs after kicking out of one of Hayabusa(s top rope moves. He was a bit lazy with his transitions in this bout but it was more of an exhibition than anything else and those WAR fans sure knew how to enjoy themselves. I loved that guy clapping after Tenryu(s old man dive. Worth watching simply because it's Tenryu.

Well, this exceeded all expectations. This was a match-up I didn't want to see and it ended up being the best match Toyota has had all year. That was mostly due to the dynamic of her having to figure out how to beat a woman who was much heavier than her but they also did an excellent job of working in a spiteful, bitchy way that fit the buildup to the bout. That type of character work is something that often gets overlooked about Toyota. I wouldn't say she was the greatest actress in women's wrestling but she wasn't purely a spot monkey (to borrow an old internet term), especially when she grew older. The only criticism I would make off the bout was that I don't think the conflict had escalated enough to warrant those dives from the lighting setup. And they ended up being throwaway spots which was stupid. But I was heavily into the finishing stretch and I thought the match achieved a terrific crescendo where I was left wondering how exactly Toyota was going to put this woman away. Even the spots that Sawai was too big for Toyota to execute properly seemed to add some dramatic realism to the bout. I'll probably end up liking this more than anyone else but that's the neat thing about having expectations bowled over.

This looked like it took place in one of those old All Japan rings. Promising match on paper but I thought it was a boring, monotone bout that didn't pick up until the finishing stretch. Bad commentary didn't help either, not to mention the lukewarm crowd and the crappy angle.

This was a damn sight better than I thought it would be. The thing I look for in a match like this is whether it lives up to the video package. And for the most part, this lived up to the hype. I was expecting a lot of shitty looking work from the Rock but he worked pretty well with Benoit. I didn't love the restart or the finish but the pair matched up well and it was a hard fought fight. Gets the thumbs up from me.

This was a nice tag. I like the dynamic between NANA*MOMO with the big power girl and the smaller, energetic highflyer. Nanae was way better than I remembered her being. She was actually a pretty good power work if you ask me. Noumi and Wakizawa weren't the greatest opposition but they were able to keep things moving along. Wakizawa sure was mouthy even by Joshi standards.

Carl Greco is one of my favorite workers ever so you know I ate this up. Taira looked like he had improved since his debut. I loved all the grappling in this and the finish was awesome. I even liked that wayward moment where Carl tried a lariat off the ropes. The BattlARTS commentators sure are annoying though.

This was a nice piece of booking. On paper, the NANA*MOMO team were helplessly outmatched by the experienced LCO team. Throughout the bout, LCO had the advantage but they couldn't put the younger girls away and every time Nana or Momoe kicked out it gave them a glimmer of hope. The first time I watched this I was bored with LCO. I ended up getting distracted and didn't make it through to the end so I wound up watching it from the beginning again. LCO's heel work was more engrossing the second time 'round which led me to believe that my enjoyment of the average LCO brawl depends on my mood or how much wrestling I've watched that day. They're not an act that makes me take notice but what I did notice about this match was that Shimoda looked far better working with Momoe and Nana than she did working with Watanabe and Maekawa. Shimoda can be sloppy at times and shows a lot of daylight but with these girls her work looked snug. One of the reasons the dynamic worked was that Nana had a Taue-like vibe to her work. Taue probably isn't the best example, in fact, you could probably use Jumbo Hori instead. But by being a bigger girl she could negate the advantage that Mita brings to LCO matches with her height. Then you had a bloodied Momoe being a dynamo and bringing a ton of energy to the bout to offset the rudo ring generalship of Shimoda. This wasn't an iconic match because Joshi was in a down period but it did produce one of the endings that only seem to happen in Joshi matches -- that raw emotion that perfectly summarizes the passion on display. This was good enough to slot in behind Aja vs. Satomura as the second best Joshi match of the year, IMO.

Another fine match from Osaka Pro. This was an all-action tag highlighted by the Dick Togo vs. Murahama match-up. With all the praise Murahama has been getting in July it was Togo who shone here. IT wasn't a match with a ton of depth but Togo gave a swank performance all the same. Notch one up for the rudos in the Murahama Trial Series.

Ishii may have been close to unrecognizable with his full head of hair and his fluorescent get-up but this was exactly the time of hard-hitting match he likes to work. The shots came thick and fast and there was plenty of oomph to this undercard match. Solid bout

This was more of a straightforward heel vs. face match than the Buffalo bout w/ Murahama taking an extended beating from Osaka's Big Red Machine. That was all right though as Murahama has proven to be more than adept at working from underneath. Not as many dynamics at play as the previous trial but entertaining nonetheless.

I have to admit that Onita's look here was pretty cool. He'd moved away from the Hong Kong action star look to more of a veteran Yakuza look. His entrance was also pretty cool and he seemed to enjoy soaking up the atmosphere. Good thing too because as soon as Choshu arrived you could tell Onita was on a hiding to nothing. The size difference would have been too much for him to overcome let alone the hornet's nest he stirred up by pissing Riki off. Choshu manhandled him the entire bout and the end result was a lopsided bout where another promotional outsider gets squashed like a bug. Choshu was never going to take a bump into the wire or explosives but they could have at least given Onita some shine. Ah well, he talked a good game.

These teams don't like each other in case you needed a reminder but this was strangely flat and couldn't break out of the LCO mold. The only part I really liked was when Maekawa tried to rip off Shimoda's head. The rest of the bout failed to live up to that intensity.