Hey, this wasn't half bad. Not great, not something you're likely remember in a ton of detail weeks later, but a perfectly solid lucha title match. I haven't seen a ton of Lagarde Jr. He has a sort of Christopher Moltisanti face, though I assume Lagarde is better at the lucha matwork. The primera was pretty basic in terms of how they worked holds, but it was fairly smooth and had a decent sense of struggle. The tercera was heavy on the dives, but they were well-placed, a couple looked really nice, and we even got a little sub-story with Magica injuring his ribs/midsection. I guess I'm easily pleased with this sort of thing. Even an average lucha title match is something I'll be able to sit through and be mostly content. So if middling lucha title match is right up your alley then hot damn what are you waiting for?!
El Felino v Dr. Cerebro (IWRG, 1/18/01)
This, on the other hand, was excellent. I don't know exactly where Felino ranks among your all-time lucha mat workers. Probably not sky high and very likely not as high as his opponent, but he's a guy who will pretty often knock it out the park in a title match. I suppose it can be easy to forget that he was pretty awesome for a while there if all you've watched in recent years is scuzzy old maskless Felino with the painted on abs and armpit shtick. He hung with Cerebro every step of the way in the primera and it made for an awesome nine minutes of matwork, lots of slick counters while maintaining some GRIT. There's also something to be said for a great second caida in a title match. It's rare that you'll get one of those considering they're often short and mostly for the purposes of quickly evening up the score. They don't beat about the bush and revenge is usually dealt swiftly in a lucha title match, so I suppose you judge great with those caveats in mind. A great second fall in a lucha title match might be great compared to other second falls, but probably not when compared to great first or third falls. Great being relative, basically. But the segunda here had a short little narrative all of its own and was capped off by Cerebro hitting a tope that about snapped Felino in half. As far as dives go it was also properly organic, to the point where I was sure he was only going to fake Felino out before he full on crushed him instead. The tercera built the drama and we even got a callback to that second caida narrative playing into the finish, which I'll always appreciate. Cerebro had himself quite the year in 2001 and this was top drawer.
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