CMLL Juicio Final 2011 - Averno vs. La Mascara Review

After a long week of college courses I was certainly jovial when I arrived home and saw that the CMLL Juicio Final DVD had arrived in my mailbox. For those who are unaware, the 2011 CMLL Juicio Final took place on 6/17/11 and hosted a huge main event that featured a mask vs. mask match between La Mascara and the greatest rudo in lucha libre today, Averno.

-Averno vs. La Mascara – Mask vs. Mask – CMLL Juicio Final 2011 (6/17/11)

The 15,000 or so fans packed into Arena Mexico go crazy as Mascara and Averno make their big entrances. Mascara meets Averno at the bottom ramp and they start going at it. Mascara gives him a hurracarana into the ring, a flying armdrag to the outside, and then goes for a big dive, but Averno pulls two cooking sheets out of thin air and slams them into his head. Averno, being the awesome rudo that he is, punctuates this by posing around ringside for a few seconds making sure to take his time. Back in the ring, and Averno crotches him backwards on the top and starts tearing off his mask, punches him a few times and then hits the Devil’s Wings for the first fall. Averno shows a ton of personality in this match, but after seeing him without a mask for a couple months I think it can be safely said that he is a much better rudo without his mask, especially with the awesome hairstyle he’s sporting these days.

Second fall begins and Mascara’s mask is showing a lot of damage already and his slightly exposed. Averno pulls him to the apron and drives his head into the ring post, taking his time afterwards to pose for the crowd and ham it up. Mascara’s father, his second, gets in the referee’s face over Averno’s rudisimo actions and Mephisto, Averno’s second, comes over and gets in his face, while the camera shows a close up of the blood leaking through Mascara’s mask from getting his head rammed directly into the ring post. Mascara stumbles around selling the blood, climbs to the apron, and is grabbed by Averno. Averno goes to ram his head into the post again but Mascara blocks it, kicks him in the face with the move Mistico always does, hits a leaping tornado DDT off the top and follows it up with an awesome tope on Averno, who is standing with his back turned and hilariously covering his head like someone at a baseball game who knows a foul ball is coming towards them but doesn’t know where it is. They get back in the ring and Averno gets rolled up by Mascara to end the second fall as the fans loudly chant Mascara’s name.

Shocker is shown in the crowd in a full suit, pumping his fist and cheering on the tecnico. On the other side of the ring, Mephisto comforts Averno and lets him know that everything will be just fine. Third fall starts and Averno smacks the crap out of Mascara’s chest and they whip each other around until Mascara hits a big armdrag and tears half of Averno’s mask off as Averno looks shocked and angry. Kick to the head by Mascara followed by a diving hurracarana from the top and a tope con giro to the outside on Averno, and the crowd, that is very heated right by this point, loudly chants Mascara’s name again. This may mark the first time that I’ve seen Mascara in a match and really felt that he came across as a big star. I may have been taking his work for granted before this point, but you can really tell in this match that the crowd loves him and he knows exactly how to put them in the palm of his hand. A series of roll-ups by Mascara but he repeatedly only gets 2 out of the 3 before Averno dramatically kicks out each time. Averno starts to manage to get some of his fans to cheer for him now and hits a tilt a whirl facebuster on Mascara for the two. They fight out onto the apron and Mascara superkicks Averno off to the ground. Mascara goes for a running hurracarana off the apron but Averno holds on and powerbombs him hard into the ring post and Mascara crumples into a heap. Trying to top Mascara’s dive, Averno climbs into the ring and hits a beautiful tope con giro of his own and both men are down. They come to their feet in the ring and Mascara goes for another diving hurracarana but gets powerbombed again and folded up for only a two count. Averno pumphandle slams Mascara for another two count and the crowd is loudly chanting Mascara’s name again, begging him to recuperate. Averno, feeling cocky, signifies the end with a throat slash, and goes for the second Devil’s Wings of the match. Mascara, having already fallen to this move once, struggles his way out, drops Averno and sets up for La Campana but Averno struggles his way to the ropes before Mascara can lock it in, teasing a finish and making the crowd even hotter. Mascara sets up for a dive, Averno moves, Mascara baseball slides out and then comes off the apron with a hurracarana onto Averno who takes a big bump on the outside. In the ring again, and Mascara rolls up Averno for a very close 2.9 count and each guy works on the crowd for support as they stir to their feet. Averno rolls Mascara into a schoolboy and gets a 2.9 of his own as the crowd continues to scream Mascara’s name. They work their way to the top rope and Averno hits a huge Devil’s Wings off the top rope but only gets a two count to the crowd’s approval. Averno hits his first headscissors of the match on Mascara, sending him spilling to the outside, and hits a perfect quebrada to the outside, as the rudo fans begin to get loud for him. Averno goes to suplex Mascara from the apron into the ring but Mascara reverses it and hits a Devil’s Wings (or would it be Angel’s Wings in that case?) on Averno and covers him for a two count. Averno runs at Mascara in the corner, misses, and Mascara kicks him in the head to send him over the top to the floor. Mascara takes advantage, climbs up top, and hits an enormous plancha dive on Averno with perfect form. Averno is up first and locks Mascara in a cavernaria inside the ring and rips at his mask and Mascara flails in pain. Averno finally lets go, and at this point the crowd is starting to really boil over as both men fight to their feet. Mascara goes for a hurricarana but gets powerbombed straight down and Averno pins him with his legs on the ropes for leverage but only gets a two count again. Averno slowly goes up top and goes for a swanton but Mascara rolls out of the way and Averno goes splat. Mascara grabs Averno, bodyslams him down, and goes up top for a swanton of his own that misses again. Averno twists Mascara’s leg and puts him in a casita for a two count. Averno tries to roll Mascara up but Mascara rolls through and starts to set up La Campana which Averno quickly runs away from. Averno goes for another rollup and gets another two count and both men are exhausted in the ring. Slowly up again, and Mascara goes for the diving rollup this time but Averno blocks it for a Campana of his own, but Mascara finds the ropes at the last second when it looks like it’s all but over. They trade a series of rollups and Mascara barely gets his foot on the ropes for the two. Averno misses a clothesline and Mascara turns it into a Devil’s Wings in the center of the ring, followed up by another even bigger Devil’s Wings, and then locks him in La Campana, and Averno submits to lose his mask as the crowd goes insane for their hero La Mascara.

Post match, Super Porky, Maximo, and others come down to the ring to congratulate Mascara as pyro goes off. Mephisto embraces the downed Averno in the ring, and possibly informs him not to worry because he will be a better rudo without his mask anyways. Mascara poses with a kid who I might guess is his son. Averno tells Mascara on the microphone that he lost his mask because on this night Mascara was better than him, and raises Mascara's hand. Averno embraces Mephisto and Ephesto one more time before the two of them remove his mask for him and Averno hands his mask to Mascara as confetti falls in the ring.

This was a really great match, I’m going to have to watch Guerrero Maya vs. Virus from June again and compare it to this but I think I like this better given how much the crowd was into it and how well these two pulled everything off. Mascara shined as bright as a star could here and Averno, who was equal here in his star power, played the perfect rudo to complement him. I would suggest anyone go out of their way to see this match if you are a fan of lucha libre.

Jeff Lynch Classic Lucha Review - 1A

Jeff Lynch Lucha Tape #1A Review

We are going to be reviewing the tapes from Lynch’s collection of Mexican wrestling, starting, naturally, with tape 1. Some of the tapes, including the first one, are divided up into two DVDs. For this installment we will be reviewing the three matches on disc 1A of his collection, each from the period of 1983-84 in CMLL.

1. Sangre Chicana d. Ringo Mendoza (C) – Mexican Heavyweight Title

I am having a hard time confirming which specific belt this is, but Lynch has it listed as the Mexican Heavyweight Title, so there you go.

Sangre Chicana is incredibly over with this crowd. I was told that he was the most over tecnico in EMLL during this time period, and this match is solid proof of that. The place comes unglued for just about everything he does in the ring and treats him like a superstar. This is not to suggest that Mendoza isn’t over, he manages to get a ton of heat from the crowd as well. The two start out with some great lucha matwork, and the two roll around in pins with Sangre getting some really inventive rope breaks, stuff that looked innovative even 30 or so years later. The two of them show a lot of chemistry working in a lot of cool transitions, and Sangre pulls off a really graceful looking cartwheel into headscissors takedown on Ringo. After sharing a bunch of transitions, the two of them face off in the center of the ring and shake each other’s hand to the crowd’s approval. This is possibly where Gabe Sapolsky got his inspiration for the Code of Honor, but I won’t jump to any conclusions here. Ringo teases a big dive but stops, Sangre climbs up on the apron, Ringo dropkicks him to the floor and hits a springboard plancha to the outside on Sangre. Sangre rolls back into the ring, gets shoulder blocked twice and then Ringo rolls him up with a cradle and gets a three count for the first fall.

At this point in the match the thing I have noticed the most is how awesome these two are at selling, especially Sangre Chicana. He sells everything so realistically, it makes a lot of sense why the crowd gets so behind him and gets so passionate when he’s making his comeback. Ringo beats down Sangre for a while at the beginning of the second fall but misses a twisting moonsault and Sangre pulls him into the stretch muffler for the submission and the second fall.

The third fall starts and the two men are stumbling around the ring dizzy, tired and beaten. Sangre twists Ringo around and lifts him up into the Gory Especial but cannot manage to get him to submit even though both men look beaten down at this point. Ringo slides down his back and rolls him up but only gets a two count and the crowd is molten at this point for the nearfalls. Ringo tries to roll him up again but gets the same result. They do a cool spot where Sangre whips Ringo into the ropes and goes for a bodyslam, but Ringo lands on his feet and throws Sangre for a bodyslam of his own and then locks him in the Texas Cloverleaf, though Sangre makes his way out. Sangre then locks on a goofy looking seated wrist submission that I have never seen before, almost like an inverted test of strength from the STO position. Ringo makes the best of this situation by reversing it into a kneeling torture rack but Sangre makes his way out. These two are submission crazy at this point, and Ringo locks Sangre in a camel clutch. Ringo transitions the move into a standing campana, but Sangre switches it into his own Campana, then flips onto his back to pin Ringo’s shoulders and gets the three count, winning the match and Ringo’s belt. After the match, Ringo and Sangre share a handshake, money is thrown into the ring as a show of appreciation for the awesome match, and then the fans rush the ring to celebrate with their hero Sangre Chicana. This was a really good match between two guys who had great chemistry and clearly understood how to work well with each other. They put on a lucha clinic while keeping the dives simple and keeping the fans interested. Sangre Chicana is an exceptionally good luchador who I need to see more of.

2. Blackman/Kung Fu/Cato Kung Lee (Los Fantasticos) vs. Talisman/El Puma/El Enfermo Jr.

This is your classic lucha trios match with each guy taking turns in the ring doing their spots. El Enfermo is a classic rudo who does all the little things right, taking every cheap shot possible and pissing off the tecnico fans in the process. Enfermo holds one of the tecnicos down on the ground and Talisman repeatedly slips his legs through the middle ropes and dropkicks him in the face, an awesome spot that any heel tag team should mimic immediately. Enfermo shines in this match from the start and is immediately a favorite of mine here. The way he makes so much happen in the ring with his actions is great, he does all the little things right. The rudos continue to beat down the tecnicos and score the first fall via submission. They then proceed to pose in the ring in a style that would make Edge and Christian jealous. Well, not really, they just stand there talking shit to the fans and opponents.

The rudos do a lot of holding the tecnicos down and stomping on them, especially putting the tecnicos in surfboard holds while their teammates stomp and punch them in the chest. Blackman/Kung Fu/Kung Lee finally make a comeback and start giving the other team a taste of their own medicine with the group beatdowns. Kung Fu gets in the ring and starts doing, what else, kung-fu style offense on El Enfermo. Unfortunately he gets immediately cut off by Puma, who is then cut off by Cato Kung Lee with more thrilling kung-fu kicks and chops. Talisman has Lee down in a nerve hold and Blackman proceeds to do the greatest hold break-up ever: climbs in the ring, It is at this point that I notice how absolutely enormous the ref is; he looks like a Mexican Vic Grimes and is at least a head taller than all the other guys in the ring, though he still gets pushed around by the luchadors at every opportunity. This guy has to be well-known, because, well, he is really hard to miss. The ring empties down to Kung Lee alone with the rudos, and they proceed to do a spot straight out of Jackie Chan movie, if a Jackie Chan movie took place in a wrestling ring. The rudos chase Kung Lee around the ring and he leaps up to the turnbuckle and does a 180, leaving them looking confused, then does it again, does some weird dancing and a reverse backfist the two guys, and finally hits a Mistico-style springboard back elbow. Blackman hits a hurracarana on Talisman and pins him while Lee pins Enfermo for the second fall, and the match (or at least, the footage) ends here. Fun little trios match, Talisman and Enfermo both stand out as guys who looked great here.

3. Lizmark (C) vs. El Enfermo Jr. – NWA Middleweight Title

Just like that, another El Enfermo Jr. match! Fans flock the ring before the match and Enfermo signs a few autographs for the fans that clearly love Enfermo as much as I do. Lizmark, on the opposite side, signs autographs as well in his blue lucha cape. The fantastic thing about this match from the start is the ring announcer’s shiny gold blazer, he might make about $50000 off that thing these days if that is real gold. I’m going to take a guess here and say that the ring announcer’s coat is not made of solid gold. There appears to be a chunk of something stuck to the mat in the ring, it may be some tape, it may be some hair, it may be some type of hair tape that I don’t know about, either way it really enhances the fact that the ring seems to be made of solid concrete and the ring canvas looks like it was used to clean the inside of a septic tank. The start off trading holds and Enfermo does an awesome submission where Lizmark is in front of him facing opposite and Enfermo does a log roll and trips him with his feet while at the same time rolling him up into like a one legged figure four leglock. If anyone can help me out by telling me the name of this move, or sending me $100 via PayPal to research the subject, that’d help me greatly. Enfermo is great at selling these submissions as he is squirming and grimacing in Lizmark’s holds with the most agonized look on his face. Lizmark keeps giving him backbreakers and Enfermo sells it by sliding up and down the mat looking like he’s about to cry. Lizmark locks him in the gory especial, continuing to go after his back, takes it to the mat and gets Enfermo to submit to get the primera caida.

The segunda caida starts and Lizmark goes right back to his back with hard kicks that send Enfermo reeling back with a group of kicks, and then puts him in a bow and arrow , but Enfermo gets out, bodyslams him and hits a running senton splash to turn the momentum his way. Enfermo then starts just kicking his ass and submits him with a crazy camel clutch variation where he lays back and locks in Lizmark’s ankles as well.

They start the third fall by going for the highflying stuff, running at each other with body blocks. Enfermo then drops Lizmark to the outside and goes to the top rope for a big plancha to the outside that the crowd goes crazy for. THAT is how you build to a highspot. They get back into the ring, Lizmark dumps Enfermo to the outside and hits a tope through the middle rope. Lizmark goes for a big plancha afterwards but Enfermo moves out of the way and Lizmark goes SPLAT right on the ground and there was a split second where I might have guessed that he was dead. Eh, not really. They start brawling in the ring and Lizmark hits two brutal looking powerbombs and rolls him up for two. He then hits Enfermo with a butterfly suplex and gets the three count to retain his title. Great match, I could have easily watched another ten minutes of it, but they finished it on a high point so no complaints here.

4. Kevin Von Erich/Halcon Ortiz/Mascara Ano 2000 vs. Pirata Morgan/Herodes/Colosso Colosetti

Von Erich is flying all over the place, sin zapatos, of course. Pirata Morgan is awesome from the beginning, just from the way he looks with his ring outfit. Colosetti is a jacked, mean looking guy who looks almost like a short haired Conan the Barbarian with short hair and a beard. Herode is about the exact opposite, resembling a giant human egg with immense body hair and white tights that he really should have thought twice about wearing. Kevin throws Herode around for a while at the beginning, getting the better hand on all the chain wrestling, and then hitting a big dropkick to the crowd’s approval. Pirata Morgan’s antics as he goes back and forth with Halcon are pretty awesome. Pirata gets backdropped and gets some crazy air making the move look amazing, and then gets monkey flipped to the outside in a very painful looking spot. Kevin and Halcon roll up two rudos to get the first fall after Von Erich hits some big dropkicks and a standing senton. The rudos beat Von Erich down for a long time and finally get the pin for the segunda caida. For the tercera caida, they do all their big spots, including Von Erich hitting a giant crossbody off the top rope for the fall. The move of the third fall worth noting is that Halcon threw Colosso over the top rope with a body slam straight down to the floor that looked like it really sucked. I think he may have instantly regretted doing that.

That is it for disc 1A. I will be back as soon as possible with the review for disc 1B and so on and so forth.