It’s amazing the things that happen when you’ve got TEW IX open and you’re booking an IWRG 2026 file. Among those things that happen is turning on an IWRG show for the first time in ages, getting my Lucha Central credentials restored, and putting out my first review of a lucha show since, let me check here…NOVEMBER 2024?! Now I know how Axl felt when he realized Chinese Democracy was several years into production. In any event, yes, I was in fact booking IWRG in TEW this evening when I remembered the real IWRG had a show on, and like Doc Brown at the end of Back to the Future, I figured “what the hell?” And that’s why you’re now reading a review of a show that, quite frankly, would’ve been lost in the ether otherwise. Well not really, given a certain fired luchador may or may not have shown up. But we’ll get to that after the Charlton Heston meme I created years ago for my own personal amusement.
The show actually opened with an in-ring segment, with Hell Boy cutting a promo before being interrupted by the Revolucion Crew’s Hijo de Canis Lupus and Rey Mictlan. I thought this was leading to an attack to set up the main event later, but it was actually Lupus and Mictlan offering Hell Boy a spot in Revolucion Crew, and a Revolucion Crew t-shirt to go with it. Hell Boy didn’t directly say no, but he did leave the ring in a huff, so it sure felt like a no. My reactions here are a) I had no idea IWRG sold merch and b) Hell Boy’s Iron Maiden t-shirt he had on was sweet. I’d like to think he went backstage and immediately put on “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” Hell, I’m going to do that after the show!
Fly & Maying Fly defeated Fauno & Principe after Maying Fly pinned Principe after a Top Rope Spanish Fly and Fly pinned Fauno after Top Rope Headscissors. I cannot claim to have seen every IWRG opening match but this was very reminiscent of many IWRG opening matches I’ve seen. It got a lot of time, there was a whole lot of sloppiness that made me question what I was doing with my Thursday night, and then moments of sheer brilliance. The Fly’s are very raw and as such are prone to mistakes, but you can tell there’s something there. This was especially the case during the final dive sequence, where Maying Fly (the better of the two Fly’s in my opinion) got enough air on a flip dive that it would’ve impressed Kevin Knight, while Fly did a dive where he springboarded from the second rope out of the ring and back onto the second rope to do a tornillo moonsault!
Now sure, would I prefer more consistency to go with the big move? Yes, but I can also appreciate these youngsters trying and having ideas beyond “Canadian Destroyer and Crucifix Driver.” I can also appreciate Fauno and Principe, who showed off some nice basing and were definitely the most polished of the four, even if their own offense was unremarkable. This wasn’t a great, or even a good opener, but it was a nice glimpse of what could be four luchadors if they can ever figure it out. ** ½
In between matches, we got a quick Maying Fly interview, a lot of stuff about IWRG Tryouts, and then COACH DIOSA QUETZAL hyping up the tryouts. As perhaps the only American fan of Diosa Quetzal out there, I was happy to see her. Would I have been happier seeing her wrestle against someone who could base? Yes, but I’ve gotten used to not getting what I want. If I got things I wanted, the full tape of Mascara Sagrada vs. Black Cat, mask vs. mask from TripleMania II-B would be available. And that’s never happening now that WWE owns AAA. Can we talk about something else?!
Mascara de Hierro & Super Boy defeated Black Dragon Jr & Black Dragon NG after Hierro pinned Black Dragon Jr with a Capture DDT Super Boy pinned Black Dragon NG with a Northern Lights Suplex. There was no time to celebrate as two Seth Rollins style masked men (one a small guy, the other a big guy with long hair) came out and laid out both teams with guitar shots and finishes. I don’t know who the small guy is, but I do know of a big guy with long hair that just lost his job and is huge into hamburgers…but nah, couldn’t be him. Could it? Nah.
Aside from Seth Rollins’ unfortunate influence seeping into lucha libre, I found this match to be an improved version of the opener. The Dragon’s didn’t have as many spectacular moments as the Fly’s, but they were crisper, more confident, and NG had a a dive sequence to the floor (where he springboarded off Dragon Jr. to the floor) that was super cool. Likewise, Hierro and Super Boy, one of the few guys I’m familiar with on this show, were evolved versions of Fauno and Principe, with some nice offense to go along with the good basing. Good match! Would watch these four again. *** ¼
More videos for the IWRG Tryouts, this time featuring Coach Chessman! Remember when he was one of the most reliable luchadors in AAA? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Aguila Oriental, Big Mike, and Big Ovett Jr. defeated Aguila Roja, El Mosko, and Rey Halcon after Aguila Oriental pinned Aguila Roja with a Code Red that would’ve made Darby Allin cry tears of joy. After two matches with very little indie tropes, they began to creep in here, with a few Crucifix Destroyers and Aguila Roja pulling out Canadian Destroyers as if his life depended on it. That annoyed me; what didn’t annoy me was pretty much everything else that went on. I was thrilled to see Los Strippers Big again, and even more thrilled to see that Big Mike remains one of the unsung heroes of lucha libre; he has lost no steps when it comes to basing or flying around, and his fingerprints were all over the structure of this bout. Ovett Jr. also looked really impressive; he’s not as big as his father, but he ain’t small either, so the fact that he was flying around as much as Oriental and Roja were was pretty impressive. Everyone else was good or fine. I will say I might’ve respected more from Revolucion Crew’s Roja and Halcon, given they’re part of the top stable in the promotion and all, but it’s not like they were bad, and even with the bad tendencies, you can tell Roja has something if ever decides to work seriously. This loses points for some of its indulgences, but I enjoyed this. *** ½
After the match, Aguila Oriental and Big Mike cut promos, and it seems Oriental wanted a singles match of sorts against Aguila Roja. Roja, Rey Halcon, and El Mosko totally blew it off and went to the back, so that seems like something to keep in mind for the weeks to come.
DMT Azul is a coach for these tryouts too? My god, I am never going to escape this man, am I? After that, we got a video package that again confirmed Diosa Quetzal is a coach, as well as Villano V Jr., Shocker and Flamita! Good to see Flamita again. How he’s not doing something on a big stage is a mystery the likes of which is only rivaled by The Swellers not getting a major record deal.
Heddi Karaoui defeated El Veneno in a Lucha Random Match after submitting Veneno with a Pentagon style armbreaker. This was essentially an unadvertised, PWG Mystery Vortex style match, a concept that I would’ve enjoyed if not for the fact that IWRG picked someone that I, an untrained simpleton, could’ve outwrestled. I get what IWRG was going for nostalgia here given Karaoui and Veneno used to be IWRG regulars. The problem is Veneno wasn’t good a decade ago, and at 55 years old going on 80, he was even worse here. It just goes to show you that Tobey Maguire’s Nick Carraway was right.
So yeah; this match sucked. And yet, it could’ve been even worse if not for Karaoui’s presence. The Bloodsport veteran did all he could to make this interesting, bumping into the crowd, sharing beers with fans, burying Veneno with chairs, and at one point even exchanging Tomohiro Ishii/Katsuyori Shibata shoot headbutts with Veneno! Personally, I’d have just mailed it in and opposed to risking brain damage, but you do you Heddi. I’ll also say this for Karaoui; he’s obviously not Eddie Kingston, but the way he carried himself was very Eddie Kingston esq, from the way he walked to the way he took himself seriously. Again; don’t do shoot headbutts, and definitely work matches that don’t involve Veneno. But I can at least walk away from this match respecting that Karaoui did all he could to make it work. And thus ends the nicest review of a match I hated in history. * 1/4
It was downtime and video packages galore for the next few minutes. We got a cross over IWRG promoting upcoming events, then more hype for the tryouts, then hype for the Revolucion Group, followed by some standard IWRG highlights. It finally closed with a video package for lucha libre legend El Solar, which explains why I just heard Kevin Kleinrock popping in his cubicle at Lucha Central headquarters.
Chicano, El Hijo del Alebrije, and Hysteriosis defeated Jasper, Silver King Jr., and Shocko after Chicano pinned Silver King Jr. with a Top Rope Splash. This felt like a long match which offered some glimpses of good stuff and otherwise a whole lot of nothing. It kind of reminded me of 2017 AAA main event matches, where the rudos dominated for a long stretch, the technicos would then dominate for a long stretch, and by the time we got to the good stuff, no one cared. Alas, the good stuff didn’t really come here, in part because Jasper and Shocko were out of position for Hysteriosis’ big dive (a Speedball Mike Bailey esq Triangle Moonsault), leading Hysteriosis rushing to get back into positions and botching the move. Everything and everyone else was just there; Jasper and Shocko were solid but unspectacular, Chicano (the long-time Puerto Rican star) at times looked really good and at other times looked old, and Silver King Jr. and Hijo del Alebrije showed promise in between long stretches of them doing nothing. Well that’s not true, I guess Alebrije got to strap people like a poor man’s LA Park. The only one that really intrigued me was Hysteriosis; even with his botch, the son of Histeria certainly showed some pep in his step, and there were some moments that showed there’s a good wrestler in there. But even he was limited in what he could do, and once again, his big moment went up in smoke. All things considered, this was a snooze fest; the Hayden Christiansen of lucha matches if you will. Hot damn has it been a minute since I’ve made a Hayden Christiansen crack. Felt great honestly.
Revolucion Crew (Hijo de Canis Lupis, Multifacetico Jr., and Rey Mictlan) defeated Las Shotas (Jessy Ventura & La Diva Salvaje) and Hell Boy after Mictlan and Lupus rolled up Salvaje and Ventura. Normally I’d start off with praise towards Rey Mictlan doing the ring announcing duties for Revolucion Crew, which he did really well, but there is bigger fish to fry. The story at the end of the match was Jessy Ventura accidentally hitting Hell Boy with a suicide dive, leading to Hell Boy and Ventura nearly coming to blows, and Hell Boy ultimately deciding not to help Las Shotas when Revolucion Crew rolled them up. No sooner was the match over did Ventura and Salvaje then turned on Hell Boy (though not to join Revolucion Crew, who promptly bounced), leading to Chicano making the save, and issuing a challenge for him and Hell Boy to face Las Shotas, which I’m pretty sure was accepted.
Honestly, I want to focus more on this angle given that the match was essentially secondary; there wasn’t anything wrong with it and Hell Boy and Revolucion Crew looked great when allowed, but it was inconsequential in the big picture. The problem is, of all the endings IWRG could’ve done, this was the least interesting. Nothing against Las Shotas (I think Jessy Ventura in particular is underrated), but them teaming against Hell Boy and Chicano, especially after the less than inspired Chicano performance I just saw, is a big meh. It’s an even bigger one when you consider the show opened with a tease of Hell Boy joining Revolucion Crew, and the masked man angle that, for all it’s WWE tomfoolery, sure felt like it was teasing Nino Hamburguesa coming in just days after AAA fired him. Granted, I am parachuting in for this show, and it’s possible everything with Hell Boy and Las Shotas makes more sense than I’m giving it credit for. Even still, it’s hard for this to look all that impressive when there were more impressive angles teased earlier. Hopefully the tag match next week makes up for it. **
I guess that will do it. Not bad for a two year layoff I suppose. Honestly, I’d like to make this a regular thing; with AAA now dead in my eyes and me having no interest in the 9,001st Nacion Lucha Libre revival or Alberto El Patron’s new project, it would be nice to watch some lucha that isn’t CMLL and give it some attention. So we’ll see. Perhaps this will become a regular thing, perhaps it’ll be another two years before I review another lucha show. As a wise man once said…
