You have got to love the Internacional Wrestling Revolucion Grupo peeps. Ever since I returned from my World Cup/moving related hiatus to review IWRG Thursday Night Wrestling two weeks ago, the promotion has been oddly focused on building up angles and matches for upcoming shows, with Festival de la Mascaras seeming like a likely destination for the likes of Kali vs. Sagittarius, Ovett Jr. choosing between his brothers and Los Strippers Big, Hysteriosis vs. Rey Halcon; the list goes on. And with that show set for this Sunday, tonight’s Thursday Night Wrestling would feature the last big push before that show, right, right, RIGHT?! Silly rabbits, this is IWRG. LA MUSICA!
Last time, ON IWRG Z…well it doesn’t really matter what happened last time ON IWRG Z because it may not apply at all to this evening’s show! That’s because the only known match on tonight’s card is the opener, with every other match serving as a Lucha Random. That’s right, IWRG is going full PWG Mystery Vortex (or Vórtice Misterioso if you prefer the Spanish translation, as I do). Will we get some wacky, out of nowhere matches? Will this have anything to do Festival de la Mascaras? And will you be shocked when you looked at the Festival de la Mascaras card and see it features none of the matches IWRG has been working towards? Find out, TODAY!
Kabuki & Leon Rojo Jr. defeated Comando Negro & Misionero del Diablo defeated Kabuki & Leon Rojo Jr. after Kabuki pinned Misionero with a Super Rana and Rojo pinned Comando with a Super Rana. Lot of Super Rana’s in that finish. Another reason to love IWRG; only they could promote a show chock full of Lucha Random matches, and then deliver a match that was already announced. Frankly, you could argue it was the most random bit on the show! Anyways, I went into this with mixed emotions because most IWRG openers are usually like watching a Hayden Christiansen led film, only last week’s opener was actually good in part because of Kabuki, who was in this match. This one wound up…okay? As it turns out, Fly, Dezzendiente, and yes, even Fauno may have had quite a bit to do with why last week’s opener worked so well. That’s not to say Kabuki was bad; he gave a strong effort, delivered a Super Calo dive, and his sequences with Misionero were very creative (you could tell those two have worked together before). The problem is that Kabuki’s partner, Leon Rojo, was largely just a dude, Misionero was just a dude when Kabuki wasn’t around, and Comando Negro was so uninspired, he might as well change his name to WWE Raw. I get it dude, I know it’s the opener, but you saw what Dezzendiente and Fauno did in the spot last week; could you maybe do something other than the generic offense everyone else does? LAME! At least Kabuki remains one to watch, provided the right opponents are provided to him. ** ½
Principe Centauro defeated Big Mike in Lucha Random after pinning Mike after catching a Mike dive off the top with a Sitout Powerbomb. Terrific finish! When I say this match started off hot, I mean it. We got a Principe Centauro tope, a Big Mike spear on the floor, and Mike going full Andrade in taking off his pants, all in the first thirty seconds! The last time I saw something start off this hot, Bob Dylan was singing “The Times, They Are A-Changin’” over the Watchmen credits.
Come gather around people, wherever you roam!
I would say this match didn’t quite live up to the start, but it was still really good and it was largely because of Mike. All due respect to Centauro, who tried and had some cool moments, but you could kind of see his limitations as a singles worker in this one. He has his moments, but he’s not very dynamic nor exciting. Fortunately, the criminally underrated Mike was all of those things. I don’t know if he was just playing the rudo here or if it was somewhat influenced by the issue he’s been having with tag team partner Ovett Jr. over the last few weeks, but this was a super aggressive Mike here. The creativity, great selling, and basing was all there as per usual, but there was a viciousness in Mike’s strikes (one kick to Centauro’s back looked super stiff) that usually isn’t there, and he was also doing his best Cavernario impression with a Splash to the floor (albeit from the apron instead of the top). Here’s a reason Big Mike is one of the best guys no one pays attention to in lucha, and this match hammered it home again, even with a slightly lesser opponent. A fun watch! *** ¼
Aguila Roja defeated Falcon Fire in Lucha Random after pinning Fire by reversing a Tiger Bomb into a Snap Hurricanrana. This match was something, in that I came away a little disappointed with it while still thinking this match was great. Don’t worry, I can explain.
For starters, my expectations for these two are really high, given Falcon Fire is one of the most promising young luchadors IWRG has and Aguila Roja is one of the best luchadors IWRG has period. So I expected a lot here, and it felt like they left something on the table. And a big reason for that, in my view, was that they had Fire, who is normally a tecnico, work as a rudo while Roja, a member of the top rudo stable in IWRG mind you, worked as a tecnico. It threw me a bit, and I’m not sure Fire totally took to it completely, as evident by him using a chinlock several times in this match instead of doing more dives. So yeah; it wasn’t as great as I would’ve liked. But like I said, it was still a great watch. Roja was awesome as always and provided plenty of highlights, Fire was still good even if he was out of his element, and everything they did was, as Dave Meltzer would say, crisp. I wanted more, but objectively speaking, this was something you should go out of your way to see, and maybe even something you’ll like more than me if you prefer more deliberate work as opposed to high octane craziness. ****
Rey Halcon defeated Sagittarius in Lucha Random by DQ after Hysteriosis ran in to attack Halcon, continuing their feud. Just as interesting was Hysteriosis helped Sagittarius up to her feet after, though she shoved him away and helped Halcon up, though he didn’t seem convinced that she wasn’t in cahoots with Hysteriosis. More to come with that I suppose! As for the match, the story was simple here; Sagittarius and Halcon are both in Revolution Crew, Halcon had no interest in fighting Sagittarius (both because they’re stablemates and because she’s a woman), and Sagittarius had no time for that. As a result, she whooped Halcon’s ass until he finally started fighting back and took control, only to then have second thoughts again and allowing Sagittarius to get back in it. It’s a story that’s been done to death, but I thought it worked here, in big part because these two worked very well together. Halcon is a solid worker anyway, but it was Sagittarius who really stood out here. She’s not always the most consistent, but even in her weaker matches you can tell there’s something there, and she seemed more confident than usual, probably cause she knew she could pull of what she wanted with Halcon in there. She did just that, and she even did a hell of a job taking moves, like that awesome Super Rana Halcon hit right before Hysteriosis ran out. I don’t love DQ finishes, and I didn’t love it here, but the match leading up to it was solid, and at least the run-in continues the issues between Halcon and Hysteriosis. *** ½
Cerebro Negro defeated Halcon Suriano Jr. in Lucha Random after submitting Suriano with a Modified Octopus. This match got a lot of time, so much so that it wasn’t a hindrance that I had to step away for 30 seconds to check on my cat while he was coughing up a furball. Alas, I’m not sure this match deserved the time it got. It wasn’t bad; in fact, I would describe it as very workman like and solid. It was also utterly unspectacular; it was like watching Troy, and I should know because I just watched that earlier today. Unlike Troy, however, this match didn’t have Diane Kruger, Rose Byrne, Peter O’Toole, and Eric Bana giving strong performances to give this match brief glimpses of greatness. Instead it had Cerebro Negro, who’s very good but needs a higher tier opponent to deliver something great at this stage, and a Halcon Suriano who has the dynamism of a piece of lint sticking out of the carpet. Watching him here, and the last few weeks, it’s hard to reconcile that this was once a guy in CMLL who showed a lot of promise. He left CMLL because he was never going to get a push and wanted to bet on himself; it sure seems like he lost that bet, and he knows it too. His work here just felt like he was going through the motions, and the fact that he wore a shirt like he was Tetsuya Naito on 2017 New Japan Road to Show was the cherry on top of this lackluster performance. I can understand why IWRG would book this as, not too long ago, this match would look appealing. Tonight though, it was the most disappointing part of the randomness. **
Caballero de Plata defeated Dark Cuervo in Lucha Random after rolling up Cuervo with a School Boy following Chessman throwing popcorn in Cuervo’s face. It wouldn’t be an IWRG Lucha Random show if they didn’t do something super random, as I thought this was the main event trios match, only to realize IWRG had added another match during the intros. Maybe they thought they needed another match after Halcon Suriano put them to sleep.
There’s probably several other combos I would’ve gone with before this one if I was IWRG, but to my surprise, this wound up being decent. I admit that I was intrigued to see how Dark Cuervo looked; I hadn’t seen any of his recent IWRG work, and the last time I saw him in AAA years ago he was the lesser of his team with Escoria. He’s certainly limited, but he does know how to walk and brawl, he can move alright, and he tried, which is more than I can say from other people on this show. It also helped that Caballero de Plata is pretty good, was working hard, and was able to provide the solid work to offset any of Cuervo’s deficiencies. I honestly would’ve liked this more if the finish didn’t involve Cuervo getting distracted by popcorn. Seriously, popcorn?! If you’re going to give me a shit finish, at least put some effort into it. Oh well; I suppose this means we’re ging to get more Chessman-Cuervo stuff. As the guys at Voices of Wrestling would say, GET INTO IT! But not really, cause I’m not sure who wants to see Chessman vs. Cuervo in 2026, year of The Odyssey. ** ¾
Puerquiza Extrema (Pig Destructor, Pig Destroyer, and Pig Pool) defeated Revolution Crew (Hijo de Canis Lupus, Multifacetico Jr., and Rey Mictlan) in Lucha Random after Pig Destructor and Pig Destroyer pinned Lupus and Mictlan after fouling them while the ref was on the floor. I must say, it would’ve been pretty disappointing if IWRG didn’t have some creature gimmicks on the show, so I applaud them for delivering not just a pig, but multiple Pigs; three different ones in fact! And yes, if the Pigs didn’t come out to “Pigs (Three Different Ones” by Pink Floyd, only the greatest song of all time, for their entrance, then I will no longer consider them true Pigs and will sentence them to a lifetime of mediocrity. Give ‘em the stare Timeless Tone!
If you can believe it, this is actually the first time I’ve ever seen the Pigs work before. And I must say they lived up to everything I’ve heard about them; they’re weird, they like to brawl, they’re very over, and they’re so limited that it’s almost an insult to the word limited. All of that was on display here, and with another team this probably would’ve been a disaster. Fortunately Revolution Crew are absolute pros, they did absolutely everything they could to make this match watchable, and they succeeded. Granted, that doesn’t mean I need to see it again, and it does seem like we will be seeing it again as the Pigs challenged the group to a rematch after. But we’ll worry about that when we get there. This match wasn’t good, but it also wasn’t bad, and that’s a win! ** ½
And so, IWRG’s Lucha Random show, or Vórtice Misterioso if you’re cool like that, has come and gone, and the one thing you can say is it certainly delivered the randomness. It also was, overall, pretty disappointing from my view. Don’t get me wrong; there were good matches, and one that I thought was great. But even that match fell short of my expectations, and a lot of the good stuff was canceled out by stuff that was forgettable or eyerolling (looking at you again Halcon Suriano Jr.). IWRG will, and should, try this concept again, but hopefully when they do they put a little bit more thought behind it, because by the end of this show, I was thinking I would’ve preferred a normal edition of Thursday Night Wrestling compared to what we got. At least we’ll get that next week I suppose. Till we meet again, how about a small light in the darkness.
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