12/25/16 - Lucha Memes - The Panther/Guerrero Maya Jr vs Black Terry/Negro Navarro

Date: 12/25/16 (Feliz Navidad)

Promotion: Lucha Memes 

Match: The Panther/Guerrero Maya Jr vs Black Terry/Negro Navarro

What a Christmas present this was. A defense of the CMLL Arena Coliseo tag team titles NOT in Arena Coliseo but in Arena Naucalpan on Lucha Memes' Chairo 7 show. The Panther and Guerrero Maya Jr had won the belts a little over a year ago and this match was their sixth title defense. Of course, it's a little odd to be defending a CMLL title belt on an indy lucha show, but, as we have seen of late, CMLL and Lucha Memes have a good working relationship.

The main backstory for this match is the long-standing feud between Guerrero Maya Jr and Black Terry, who once wrestled as Guerrero Maya (Sr). The two are not father and son, although Jr. has in the past referred to Black Terry as a mentor. At some point in the past, the two had a falling out and have engaged in brutal matches that might shock fans that have only seen the old-fashioned tecnico GM Jr on CMLL telecasts. The two had a bloody battle last year on a Chilanga Mask show that Matt (from the magazine and podcast) wrote up both in Odessa Steps issue 5 and on the Segunda Caida website. You can read it here. 

The match here began with Negro Navarro vs Maya. From the opening moments of the match, the crowd was generally for the veterans, although there were sporadic chants for the youngsters. There were three or four minutes of matwork before more kinetic action.  When Navarro tagged in Terry, Maya wanted no part of him and quickly tagged in The Panther. The two had more of a stand-up physical showdown, complete with slaps and such.

It took about 10 minutes into the match before we got our first showdown between Maya and Terry. And the mostly clean contest quickly degenerated into a brawl between the two.  Soon, we had all four men in the ring, exchanging holds and moves, sometimes with all four tied together in a giant lucha puzzle. 

The first "highspot" did not come into around 15 minutes into the match, which was a Panther dropkick of Terry. The action continued until Terry submitted Maya.  Following the only dive of the match by Panther onto Terry, Navarro got Panther back in the ring and quickly pinned him.

Not surprisingly, there was money thrown in after the match. A few days later, Navarro and Terry were on CMLL Informa discussing their win and plans for future title defenses. You can see the video below from the CMLL YouTube channel. You can read a translation of their interview done by (podcast guest) Alfredo Esparza on the Luchaworld website here.

You can see highlights from the match on a couple Youtube site, but if you want the full match, you can order it from Black Terry Jr. You can contact him on Twitter @BLACKTERRY.

05/21/16 - Cara Lucha - Hechicero/Barbaro Cavernario vs Black Terry/Bestia 666

Date: 05/21/16

Promotion: Cara Lucha 

Match: Hechicero / Barbaro Cavernario vs Black Terry / Bestia 666

This was the Cara Lucha second anniversary show from Arena San Juan Pantitlan. The match features three of our favorite wrestlers, along with Bestia 666 (the son of Damian 666). You may recall that Hechicero and Cavernario were a team briefly in CMLL after both men were in En Busca de un Idolo in 2014 (won by Cavernario). Sadly, they did not become a regular pair, as but Cavernario did end up as the fourth member of La Peste Negre. 

This ended up being a very solid match lasting around 25 minutes. There was plenty of hard-hitting action but nothing too outlandish. Cavernario did a tope onto Bestia in the third fall into the seats, but we did not see the top rope splash to the floor that worries some pundits. Other than that, we got to see the CMLL stars do almost all of their trademark moves during the course of the contest. All four men got chants during the match, with Cavernario probably being the most popular. 

After some chain wrestling and mat work, the first fall went to the independent team, as Bestia hit a muscle buster on Hechicero and Black Terry pinned Cavernario after the caveman's middle rope splash was met by BT's knees.

Team CMLL took the second fall when Hechicero pinned Bestia following El Conjuro and Cavernario pinned BT following a successful middle rope splash (with Hechicero holding BT in place to prevent a repeat of the first fall).

The third fall started with all four men brawling around the arena floor. We saw the traditional "beer in the face" shot by Cavernario on BT, followed shortly after by BT ramming Cavernario's head in the ringspot, busting the caveman open.  Once the action was back in the ring, there was an extended chopfest between Bestia and both Hechicero and Cavernario.  The match ended when Hechicero submitted Black Terry with a Rings of Saturn type maneuver and the caveman submitted Bestia with La Cavernaria. 

After the match, money was thrown in and Black Terry asked for a singles match with Cavernario, which was held in the same building three weeks later.

This match is definitely worth checking out. You can order it from Blackterry Jr. He can be reached on twitter at @BLACKTERRY,

Match Review: Team CMLL V Team ROH 10/29

Team CMLL (Ultimo Guerrero, Hechicero, Okumura) vs
Team ROH (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, Kamaitachi)

10/29/16 Baltimore MD

This was first match of ROH TV taping.

Entertainiing match with the CMLL getting to do most of their trademark moves: Ultimo did his dropkick spot, the running hip over the barricade spot, the corner headstand/buster spot and of course, the Guerrero Special, which won the match. Hechicero got to do some mat work, hit the conjuro on Daniels and the flying knee on Kazarian. Hechicero even got to be the jumper in the Guerreros leap frog spot. Okumura did his implant ddt, but as a double team move with Hechiceto, instead of the draping version. Hechicero worked as the face in peril in the middle of the match. Everyone seemed to work well with each other, except for the miscommunication between Daniels and Kamaitachi, which led to their defeat. There was a post-match angle where they may have broken the Ghost Squirrel away from The Addiction. 

Didn't stay around the extra three hours to see Team CMLL's second match. I figured they worked the opener, so the guys could get back for the Dia De Muertes shows on Sunday. Oops. Very sad I didn't get to say hello to internet pal Hechicero. 

Match Review: Puma & Tiger vs Los Traumas 24 June 2016

*NB: Hopefully this is the start of more actual lucha writing on the site. We will see how it goes.

      Friday night, two of the best teams in lucha squared off, not in CMLL or AAA, but on a Cara Lucha show, when Puma and Tiger took on Los Traumas.  The Cats had worked earlier that night in Arena Mexico and so were doing double duty here (as did Volador Jr in the main event). 

      Perhaps because this was the Cats' second match of the evening, it was relatively short (15 minutes or so) and more of a brawl and did not really feature them doing many high-flying maneuvers.  We did get a decent amount of matwork, as you would expect from these second-generation luchadors. But mainly, it was a lot of brawling around ringside, including Tiger using a box of snacks as a foreign object versus Trauma I (see above).

      Maybe the most noticable thing in the match was Puma's selling of his ankle, slammed into one of the ringside seats by Trauma II.  This effected the second half of the match, including a spot where the riingside doctor had to come in and check on the injury.

      There was a screwy finish (a ref bump, foule and mask pull) which hopefully leads to a return engagement between the two teams.   It's doubtful we would get a mask stipulation, but maybe something like a tornado match or even a cage. Perhaps we might even see their fathers (Felino and Negro Navarro) get involved to make it a trios content.

      This match can be purchased from BlackTerry Jr, who shot the footage.  You can get inquire about it and get his match list from him on Twitter @blackterry.