I Said I was Gonna get Caught up on 2013 CMLL, so I'm Getting Caught up on 2013 CMLL

Blue Panther, Averno & Shocker v Negro Navarro, Black Terry & Villano IV (CMLL, 4/7/13)

Panther/Navarro is everything you want out of Panther/Navarro in this very wrestling match. Their exchange in the first caida is really the highlight of the whole thing, the way they'll counter and roll through and counter again into nastier and nastier looking shit. It's a shame that there probably isn't going to be a lengthy singles match between the two, because it'd rule. For a fifty six year old man, Negro Navarro has such a genuine badass aura about him, like a balder Danny Trejo wielding Espectrinos rather than machetes. It must suck being the guy Navarro tries all of these medieval torture holds on. You think the Hart kids had it bad? Sheeeeit. I haven't seen any Black Terry in about a year and a half, but shockingly enough he still looked tremendous. He's sixty one years old at this point and he's probably been one of the ten best wrestlers on earth this decade (fuck, about five of those ten guys are in their fifties at least). Villano didn't do a ton on the mat, but he was spin kicking people in the lungs and rolling out super fast tubby guy armdrags. Shocker was, once again, pretty visibly the worst guy in the match. I'm beginning to wonder if he was ever all that good. I mean, I could say I'll go back and watch some 90s Shocker (because I watched a bunch of 00s Shocker over the last couple years, and he wasn't very good in any of it), but I really can't be bothered.


Virus, Puma & Namajague v Angel de Oro, Diamante & Valiente (CMLL, 4/30/13)

Man, Namajague had a rough couple months. First he loses the mask, then he loses his hair. The tag with Okamura against Cometa & Stuka was actually the first time I'd seen him, but I'd read enough pimping of him that my expectations were high. After that match and now this (still need to see the match with Cometa where he loses the locks), I can say they've been pretty well met. He never did it in this match, but in the tag there was this great spot where he went to kick Cometa in the gut, but Cometa caught his leg and pulled him forward, so Namajague wound up doing the splits, and while he was in that position Cometa just kneed him clean in the face. He's clearly a total bump freak of the highest order, and here he takes two AMAZING monkey flip bumps out of the corner where he gets like four seconds hang time. Honestly, I don't remember the last time a Japanese guy came in and took to lucha like this. Still, for all that, the Virus/Valiente section at the start was the highlight of the match. When are we going to get a singles match? Oro and Diamante do a bunch of neat rope-assisted armbrags in this, but they're at their most interesting when the rudos are mugging them. The technicos' stereo topes in the tercera was a pretty great spot, though. I'll take Virus v Valiente now, thanks.