EDITOR’S NOTE: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Lucha Central and Masked Republic.
By El Cultico
It’s getting late on Thursday, my neck is killing me after I strained it yesterday celebrating Rush tossing Darby Allin around like that Hulk/Loki scene from The Avengers, and my All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling file in TEW IX is waiting for me. All a clear cut sign to take it easy, right? WRONG! Because it’s Thursday night, IWRG is about to run out of Arena Naucalpan, and these sort of events MUST! BE! DOCUMENTED! Am I too excited for this? Probably. Do I care? No! PLAY THE DBZ INTRO MUSIC!
Last time, ON IWRG THURSDAY NIGHT WRESTLING, the mysterious masked men were at it again, with the larger one attacking the luchadors in the opener. Soon after, Hell Boy emerged from the back in a t-shirt with the IWRG logo crossed out, and seemed to turn his back on the company ahead of his main event match with Chicano against Jessy Ventura and La Diva Salvaje. Ultimately, both stories collided in that main event, when it was revealed Hell Boy was in cahoots with the masked men all along, with Chessman also joining their ranks. While the group’s adventures continued this past Sunday in Arena Naucalpan, the next step in this group’s evolution may have to wait a week. Why? Because tonight Thursday Night Wrestling is being overtaken by the ongoing IWRG Tryouts, featuring several young luchadors coached by DMT Azul, Flamita, Hell Boy, Chessman, and the legendary Diosa Quetzal who are looking to secure spots in Arena Naucalpan. Which luchadors will be lucky enough to do so? Will the Hell Boy/Chessman/masked guys group decide to disrupt things? Will the masked guys, whose identities remain a mystery, actually show their faces? And did I go too far in referring to Diosa Quetzal as legendary? Find out…TODAY!
Cobra King & Kenji defeated Angelux & Fauno after Kenji pinned Angelux with a Volador Spiral and Cobra Kid pinned Fauno with a Belly to Belly Suplex into the turnbuckle. This match was not on the poster (or at least any poster I saw), so I was pretty surprised when this hit the ring and not the trainee match. Ultimately, I was very happy this opened because I’m pretty sure it’s the best opener I’ve seen since I began this IWRG crusade. It wasn’t perfect, and Kenji in particular seemed to get a little shaky (and hurt) as the match went along. But there was a lot that crackled here, with Angelux and Fauno putting together their best performances since I’ve been watching them, Cobra King looking very consistent, and Kenji, for all his issues late, looking like a livewire, especially early. I actually got a chance to see Kenji work when I rewatched the IWRG Sunday show from two weeks ago earlier this week, and frankly he showed nothing in the seven way scramble match he was in. It was different tonight; he was pulling out a lot of creative stuff early and hitting all of it, which makes me think the later struggles may have been less performance related and more due to the limp he had. Either way, he showed some great promise, and with everyone else looking strong as well, this was very good. *** ½
Voltrex defeated Principe Vampiro with a Heatseeker from the turnbuckle. It appeared that Moreno, Azul, while only Veneno approved of Vampiro’s performance. As for me, I prefer to do my judgements, at least for this match up, in the form of Darth Vader gifs.
Much like the opener surprised me, this match really surprised me. I was expecting really green luchadors, and instead, both of these guys looked really polished and really good. There was one moment where they appeared to get lost on an Irish Whip spot, but otherwise I came away thinking both of these guys had something. Vampiro showed great basing chops and a really solid tope suicida, and Voltrex definitely has a bit of Flamita in him, flying around all over the place, showing great explosiveness on his tope and some good creativity with that Heatseeker variation he pulled out. It seems only Voltrex will stick around, which is a shame, because I though Vampiro showed just as much. A promising start! *** ½
Dezzendiente defeated Estirpe after submitting him with La Cavernaria. Much like the last match, this one had one hiccup early and was otherwise smooth. Unlike the last match, this one had some straight up INSANITY! First, Dezzendiente was attempting a triple jump springboard rana, only for Estirpe to send him back first onto the floor in one of the crazier bumps you’ll see. Minutes later, Dezzendiente returned the favor, sending Estirpe into the front row with a sick tope. The crazy bumps died down there, in favor of some really good wrestling, great strikes, and a crowd that got really into this just as much as I did. The judges all sided with Dezzendiente in this one, but this was one where both guys should’ve been applauded. A legitimately, honest to Grodd great match, and I hope to see more of these guys, either in IWRG or elsewhere. ****
Madness defeated Boca Negra after pinning Negra with a Springboard Split Legged Moonsault. To my utter shock, DMT Azul and Moreno voted in favor of Boca Negra to make this one close; fortunately, they all voted in favor of Madness, preventing me from ordering a criminal investigation into them. This was the weakest of the Tryout matches to this point, and it was largely because it was a one man show. They started off hot, with Madness hitting a Frog Splash ten seconds in and the two working at a Masato Yoshino esque pace, but it quickly became apparent that Negra was lacking when he couldn’t fully rotate on a Springboard Moonsault. I wasn’t impressed much with him after that, but fortunately Madness lived up to his name. Not only did he show explosive athleticism, but his strikes looked good, and he absolutely folded Negra with one of the better German Suplexes I’ve seen in a minute. Yet another diamond in the rough IWRG seems to have found in this competition. Let’s hope he gets someone better on the next go around. ** ¾
Falcon Fire and El Actor wrestled to a draw after both being counted out following a Twisting Neckbreaker to the floor by…I’m honestly not sure which one, it could’ve gone either way! This was the first match of the competition to feature students from the same teacher, Diosa Quetzal! Understandably I was very excited about that, until Diosa was nowhere to be found, with Sagittarius and another luchador cornering the two. As you can expect, I took the news like a professional.
Fortunately, I calmed down quickly, focused on the match, and was rewarded with another GREAT match! This was frankly even better than Dezzendiente and Estirpe just a few minutes earlier, for two specific reasons. First, these two didn’t appear to mess anything up, whereas Dezzendiente and Estirpe had some issues early. Second, the pace of this match was just sick; they were going 100 mph from the get go and never let up. And they did it while doing some absolutely crazy shit. Unique flip dives off the turnbuckle, a tope con hilo through the ropes and into the crowd, a Yota Tsuji style double stomp, the aforementioned neckbreaker off the apron, and so much good back and forth offense in between. Falcon Fire ultimately got the vote from the judges (barely), but this was another one where both of these guys looked like absolute studs and IWRG would be wise to use both of them. Brilliant stuff, and if you couldn’t tell, this is going so much better than I thought. It’s the best turnaround since going from Project Hail Mary, the trailer, to Project Hail Mary, the film! **** ¼
Carinoso Jr. defeated Psicodelia after pinning Psicodelia with a Superplex. That’s right; a Superplex was a finisher in a 2026 lucha match. What next; Pink Floyd reuniting to make The Wall II? The shocking finish aside, this was probably the tamest match of the competition to this point, although that’s not to say it was bad. Given that Carinoso Jr. is an exotico, he and Psicodelia basically followed the exotico playbook; a lot of kiss teases, a few dances, and a little less flying than the previous matches. Psicodelia did try a few out there ideas to try and spice things up, but unfortunately he seemed to bite off a bit more than he could chew, not quite hitting those bigger moves. Still, I don’t want to make it seem like this was a waste of time. They worked hard, what they did was mostly good, Carinoso looked very sound (a good sign for a lucha libre world in desperate need of exoticos that know how to work) and his reaction to getting the judges vote was really good (though not as good as Flamita carrying him out. And they say romance is dead!). Overall, it was a solid match that couldn’t help but feel less exciting in contrast to the high octane matches surrounding it. *** ¼
Gasparin Jr. defeated Mufasa after pinning Mufasa with a Saluting Splash. Coming into this match, I was impressed that IWRG was able to reach the rate of one of the biggest Disney legends going today. By the end of this match, I’m guessing Mufasa wished he had never taken this booking, given this match was basically the equivalent of this.
My Grodd was this a one man demolition derby the likes of which I enjoyed immensely. It also was probably for the best; offensively, Mufasa seemed more live action Lion King than animated Lion King. But he sure as hell took punishment well and Gasparin Jr. was more than happy to provide it. Among the highlights was Gasparin doing a wicked cool corner dropkicks through the turnbuckles, followed by top rope double stomp onto the apron that, at first glance, looked like it may have broken Mufasa’s face, neck, back, shoulder, and spirit. Gasparin just kept the pedal to the medal from there, and he gave us our second crowd dive of the evening as well just for good measure. It was an exceptional performance, and given how good Gasparin looked working with what was essentially a crash test dummy, I’d love to see him with an actual base. This was too one sided to be great, but it was wildly entertaining. *** ¾
Aztec Fly defeats Sangre Dorada after pinning Dorada with a Tornado DDT. First a Superplex was a finisher, and now a Tornado DDT is finishing people off. Big night for moves that were finishers in 1998 I suppose. This match started out looking like a carbon copy of the last match, with Dorada beating the pulp out of Azteca with some great strikes. Eventually, Aztec Fly evened things out, hit a great tope, and the match was back and forth till he put Dorada away. Of the two, Dorada seemed to be the better; as said, his striking was on point, his basing was great, and he just seemed far more polished, whereas Aztec Fly had a few moments that were lacking, including a Powerslam where it looked like Dorada mostly slammed himself. Alas, the judges still went with Aztec Fly in the end (except for Chessman), so that goes to show you that I know nothing. That or this thing is rigged…actually yeah, it’s definitely that one. Anyways, good match! *** ½
Ganador de Nominacion defeated El Hijo de Carta Brava after pinning Brava with a Knee Strike out of a Double Underhook position. This was the first match where none of the judges voted for anyone, and you can understand why. After all the good stuff that came before this, IWRG sadly didn’t save their best for last when it came to these tryouts. I wouldn’t call this terrible, but there wasn’t much to it. The newest Carta Brava (seriously, how many of them are there?!) looked the best of the two, showing some nice spark and being a bit more ambitious with his offense, though I did blurt out laughing when he whiffed on a Shotgun Dropkick worse than Aaron Judge in a clutch situation. Frankly though, the most impressive thing about him was that he wasn’t his opponent. I can’t tell you how much Ganador de Nominacion did in this match, and part of that is because nothing he did was memorable aside from his finish. Even his basing was lacking, as seen by him falling the wrong way on Brava’s tope. It was a lifeless performance, the likes of which the guy playing Victor Lazlo in Casablanca would thumb his nose at. Just a total misfire across the board, making this easily the worst of the Tryout matches. ** ¼
El Hijo del Pandemonium, Gran Pandemonium, and Pandemonium defeated Rokambole, Rokambole Jr., and Villano V Jr. two falls to one to retain the Estado de Mexico Trios Championships. The finish came after one of the Pandemonium’s (I can never tell which is which) submitted Rokambole. There were several things working against this match. First, the show was already running long. Second, the start was delayed by all the judges (save DMT Azul) from the Tryout competition coming down, seemingly to do some last minute maintenance for the competition. And finally, it briefly appeared the match had ended after La Pandemia had submitted all the Villanos, only for us to learn the match was two out of three falls. If I hadn’t known any better, I would’ve thought some force out there was trying to sabotage this match, Beastie Boys style.
It’s a shame all of that happened because once this match finally got going, I actually thought it was pretty good. I caught the match these two teams had a couple of Sundays ago and found it to be fine, but this one seemed a step above. The Villanos are the Villanos; even if the Rokambole’s and Villano V Jr. aren’t quite at the level of their more famous family members (and Villano V Jr. is close, both in how he wrestles and looks like his father), they’re still fundamentally sound and know exactly what to do. And La Pandemia are a great act, incorporating comedy with a very fun style, which they unleashed again here. There was unfortunately just no way this match was going to be able to stick out coming this late on the show and with all the delays. A strong effort that was wasted via circumstances. *** ¼
And that’s that! This was a very, very, very, very, VERY long show, and felt even longer than it actually was (the opposite of an AEW show if I’m being honest). And yet, it was also a pretty good show, and probably the best I’ve seen from IWRG since I began watching them again. There’s still room for improvement, particularly in cutting down the length, and some of the Tryout matches could’ve been better. But most were good, two were great (at least in my opinion), and I was reminded a lot of the En Busca de un Idolo competition CMLL used to do back in the early to mid-2010s, which is a very good thing to remind one of. All in all, this was a good way to spend a Thursday night. And if it had been shorter, it would’ve been the greatest thing since Chessman decided to wear sunglasses at night.
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