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 is WrestleMania weekend, a time for WrestleMania, wrestling fans more delirious than Delirious when he’s trying to book good wrestling TV, and oh yeah, a never ending buffet of wrestling shows. Today alone, I have watched four shows already; Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling in Las Vegas, the Mark Hitchcock Memorial Supershow, CMLL in Las Vegas, and AEW Collision. Pretty exhausting right? Yes…but not exhausting enough to miss the most important show of WrestleMania weekend, IWRG Thursday Night Wrestling LIVE IN ARENA NAUCALPAN! To quote every action hero ever, you thought I’d miss this party? CUE UP “THE SAGA CONTINUES,” LUCHA CENTRAL ASSISTANT WHO I DIDN’T JUST CREATE OUT OF THIN AIR, IS TOTALLY REAL!
Last time, ON IWRG Z, Chessman and Hell Boy finally dealt their hand, revealing their mysterious masked allies were Samoa and El Mexicano in an attack during Chessman and Hell Boy’s match against Mala Fama and Los Macizos. Tonight, Hell Boy, Samoa, and Americano will officially team for the first time, while Los Macizos’ Ciclope and Miedo Xtremo seek revenge with the help of Southern California wrestler Fratelli. Meanwhile, Wisin el Dog returned to Arena Naucalpan and went crazy, hitting a moonsault off the balcony. Still, it was not enough for him to get the win over Revolution Crew’s Hijo del Canis Lupus, Multifacetico Jr., and Rey Mictlan, leading to Wisin recruiting Aguila Oriental and Hysteriosis for revenge this week. Will lucha libre’s good boy rise above? Will Samoa and El Mexicano prove they belong alongside Hell Boy? Find out, TODAY!
It’s promo time to kick off the show! Out walk Chessman, Hell Boy, El Mexicano and Samoa, I assume to take a victory lap after last week. It starts out poorly because Chessman’s mic isn’t working. No wonder these guys hate IWRG; the equipment is always failing them! Luckily it works for Hell Boy, so he winds up cutting the first half of the promo, specifically targeting a small group of fans before turning his attention to Fratelli and Los Macizos. Chessman finally gets to speak, and can barely get a word out cause the crowd HATES these guys. Chessman notably brought up Revolution Crew (who got great support from the crowd), so it looks like we could be getting this group against Revolution Crew pretty soon! Sounds great to me. Mexicano then got to say a few words before handing the mic back to Chessman. Samoa…got to say nothing. Not a bad gig honestly; if I had the chance to get paid to stand there while three other guys cut promos, I’d be on my way to Naucalpan faster Titus Welliver when he hears his Bosch royalties are ready to be cashed.
Gasparin & Maying Fly defeated Boca Negra & Fauno after Gasparin pinned Fauno with a Super Rana and Maying Fly pinned Boca Negra after a Jay Driller that Maying took his sweet time hitting. Him lifting Boca Negra up reminded me of the time Kevin Nash tried to Powerbomb The Giant, and ended up nearly ending his career. Fortunately Boca Negra avoided that fate here.
This was a super interesting match; when Gasparin wasn’t involved, it wasn’t very good, and when he was involved, it was super good. The IWRG Tryout standout was an absolute machine whenever he was in the ring, bumping his ass off for Boca and Fauno (he had a bump to the floor that looked painful) and then delivering that compact, hard hitting, high flying offense that made him one of the Tryouts’ brightest stars. I was really happy to see him break out that apron double stomp again too after he hadn’t used it in awhile; that’s a move that continues to look like it hurts like all hell, and he should keep it in the rotation. Sadly, Gasparin couldn’t wrestle the whole match, and Maying Fly couldn’t come close to matching his consistency, having to abandon an ambitious dive attempt when he slipped on the ropes, and taking forever to hit his finisher. A better night from him and this is probably close to being a great match. Fortunately, it was still a good match thanks to Gasparin’s work, and a solid rudo night from Boca and Fauno. *** ¼
Ayumo & Principe Centauro defeated Bronco del Norte & Dezzendiente after Centauro pinned Dezzendiente with a Made in Japan and Ayumo submitted Bronco with a modified Camel Clutch. This was my first time seeing Ayumo; his gimmick appears to be that he’s a drunk who can barely stand while making his entrance, trips over himself getting into the ring, and then snaps out of it and starts wrestling. May Eric Bischoff never see this, because he’ll then go on 83 Weeks and claim the Scott Hall drunk angle was actually a good idea. I will say that as lame as I found that gimmick, Ayumo was solid enough when it came time to wrestle, and he didn’t do any other drunken shenanigans the rest of the match. As for that, it was…fine. There were a few nice dives and Bronco del Norte looked good overall, but it felt like this match never really got into high gear. It doesn’t help that I saw a lot better from Dezzendiente in the Tryout competition, and here he was just a guy. Frankly, it was almost a relief when Centauro faked an injury, allowing Ayumo to use a caution sign to attack the tecnicos and send this match to the showers. If not for the drunk gimmick from Ayumo, I’d probably forget this match by tomorrow. ** ½
Jasper Faster defeated Nicolas Richard in Lucha Random after pinning Richard with a Crucifix Driver. I was not thrilled in the slightest when this match was announced as the Lucha Random folks; in fact, I was preparing to compare this match to Weezer’s post Pinkerton output. Everyone knows that I have not been a fan of Jasper, Richard, or any of their partners matches (save for last week’s trios match, and even then, I attributed that match’s success more to their opponents), and I was expecting this to be a slog. So color me shocked that, when it was over, I actually liked the match!
Penta can’t believe it either!
Now don’t get it confused; this was not a great match. As is the case with Jasper and Richard, there were several sequences that just dragged and were boring, their dives were not great (Richard bumping into the crowd for a Jasper tope was comical given how average it was), and the match seemed to go on for forever. But that latter point also wound up helping the match; the longer it went, the more these guys seemed to get into a groove and start doing what they actually do well, which is hitting hard strikes and big moves. They also had a nice story here as two allies being forced to fight, and the aggression building to the point that Richard was willing to hit a Martinete on Jasper. In the end, that ended up costing him, as Richard hurt his knee on the move, was unable to make the cover in time to get the win, and was so hurt that it gave Jasper an opening to pull it. That’s good stuff. I wish these two were more dynamic so a match with all this stuff could reach greater heights, but given I expected this to suck, I must commend them for proving me wrong and delivering a good match. *** ½
King Charro, Mafioso, and Sexy Andre defeated Rokambole, Rokambole Jr., and Silver King Jr. after Mafioso pinned Silver King Jr. after a mask pull by Sexy Andre and a foul and roll up from Mafioso. I could write a novel about both this match and what happened before the match, but I will have to settle for a paragraph or two. The match itself was what I would call professional; the effort was good, there were no mistakes, and it probably went way too long. But it was memorable for two reasons. First, the pre-match stuff, which saw Sexy Andre (who Andrade El Idolo, Latin Lover, and Los Strippers Big should consider suing for gimmick infringement) bring a bunch of women into the ring and do a Magic Mike style strip routine that had me laughing harder than my last Dr. Strangelove viewing. I have no idea why it happened, but dammit if it wasn’t entertaining. Second, during the match, Silver King Jr. and Sexy Andre started beefing in a way that definitely worked but felt intense as all hell. They were trying to tear into each other in a way that made me want to see them have a one on one match. And if nothing else, some post match challenges indicated we’ll be getting to see them tangle again, perhaps in that one on one environment. Overall, the match outside of those exchanges was the low end of good. But the pre-match was hysterical, and that Andre-Silver rivalry was intense enough that I’m excited to see what’s next. Match: ***. Pre-Match: *****
There appeared to be a birthday celebration for a young fan, who was presented with a mask from Aguila Oriental and cupcakes from Hysteriosis. Come to think of it, that was pretty much my birthday, with the only difference being I got a bigger cake and a Bandido mask (praise be to AEW for selling those). Definitely didn’t get the picture with him like this fan did with Aguila and Hysteriosis though.
I will sum up what happened between that birthday celebration and the match with the following.
Aguila Oriental, Hysteriosis, and Wisin el Dog defeated Hijo del Canis Lupus, Multifacetico Jr., and Rey Mitclan after Hysteriosis pinned Multifacetico Jr. by reversing a Tiger Bomb into a Snap Hurricanrana. A major development occurred after the match as Chessman, Hell Boy, Samoa, and El Mexicano made good on their words from earlier, attacking Lupus, Multifacetico and Mitclan before Fratelli, Ciclope, and Miedo Xtremo made the save. So there’s your angle to get Revolution Crew involved in this anti-IWRG storyline, probably as tecnicos. It’s like Harvey Dent once said; you either die the villain, or you live long enough to see yourself become the hero…wait, is that right? It’s wrong, isn’t it?
Anyways, you may have noticed, but it took a long, LONG time for them to get to this match. It was thankfully worth the wait! I did think last week’s Wisin match was better than this one (there were no balcony moonsaults or crowd dives), but this was still high quality stuff from the moment Hysteriosis and Multifacetico started this match guns blazing. There was a little more comedy involved compared to last week, with Revolution Crew distracting Wisin with dog treats in order to get the edge. Fortunately, I found it funny, and the rest of the match was strong quality. The Revolution Crew are great rudos, enough so that you worry about them going tecnico for this feud with Hell Boy and co., though they’re talented enough that I’m sure they can pull it off. And Wisin, Hysteriosis, and Aguila were all great here, even if they were limited compared to what Wisin did with El Hijo del Alebrije and Freelance. Easily the best match on the show. ****
Ciclope, Fratelli, and Miedo Xtremo defeated El Mexicano, Hell Boy, and Samoa after Fratelli pinned Hell Boy with a Pop Up Powerbomb/Michinoku Driver combo. I was shocked by this result given it was Hell Boy’s first match with Mexicano and Samoa, but there were challenges immediately after the match from Miedo Xtremo, Ciclope, and Fratelli, as well as a post-match brawl, so there’s definitely more to come, and I wouldn’t be shocked if Fratelli becomes Hell Boy’s next challenger for the IWRG Mexico Championship. This match started immediately after the tecnicos saved Revolution Crew from the Hell Boy/Mexicano/Samoa/Chessman attack, and while it didn’t reach the heights of the previous match, it was paced extremely well from the get go and never let up. Fratelli, who I had never seen before, looked really impressive, moving with great speed despite being a bigger guy, all while maintaining his explosiveness. I’d love to see more with him, and he worked great with Hell Boy, who was once again super impressive. Everyone else was good to very good, with Ciclope and Miedo Xtremo having their usual good performance, while Mexicano and Samoa were just fine in their first big spot. Chessman was very entertaining backing up his group as well, until he was thrown out for getting involved. You can always question beating your big rudo stable this early, but at least there’s other stuff coming up, and in terms of multi-person IWRG main events, this one was all action and very well done. *** ¾
Compared to some of the other Thursday and Sunday shows IWRG has produced over the last month, this show was a bit of a comedown in terms of quality. There wasn’t terrible on the show, but the matches, and the vibe, just felt down from last week’s Thursday show, and especially the Tryout shows before that. Hey; it’s going to happen at times, and there was at least still several things I’d consider memorable, and some strong developments in the main story. And as another plus, IWRG is running Guerra de Golfo this Sunday, so you’re going to get a major apuesta match in a cage with someone losing their mask or hair, and, best of all, Flamita vs. Toxin for Toxin’s IWRG Intercontinental Middleweight Championship. How can you not get excited for that? I won’t be able to watch the show live Sunday, but perhaps a review of the show could be in order for later in the week. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we? Till next time.
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