wrestling / Columns

Into the Indies 07.13.10: Pro Wrestling from ARGENTINA

July 13, 2010 | Posted by Ryan Byers

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column that will always be jealous of Brazil.

This week, we’re adding a new entry to the list of countries that Into the Indies has covered. We regularly stop off in Japan, we’ve periodically ventured down to Mexico, and we’ve made one-time stops in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. This time we add not only a new country but also a new continent by checking out our first South American wrestling, specifically wrestling from Argentina.

There are many people reading this website who probably do not know that pro wrestling exists or has ever existed in Argentina aside from what WWE and other American companies have managed to import. Heck, I wasn’t even aware that there was native pro wrestling in the South America until a couple of years ago when legendary Argentine wrestler and promoter Martin Karadagian was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame. The induction lead several fans who had not heard of him before – or who had heard of him but hadn’t really cared to look into his background – to discover one of the most interesting and revolutionary stories in the history of professional wrestling.

Karadagian began wrestling in his home country in the 1940’s and, by the 1960’s, was perhaps the top heel in all of South America. His popularity and reputation reached the point that, when the promoter of Argentina’s top wrestling outfit decided to step out of the industry early in the 60’s, it was Karadagian who was passed the torch and given the opportunity to begin promoting his own shows. Almost immediately upon coming into power, Karadagian shifted the focus of Argentina’s wrestling from traditional matches to what we in the twenty-first century would be more likely to refer to as “sports entertainment,” as he booked himself and other wrestlers in his troupe in matches against comedians, boxers, and, some cases, even bears.

Eventually Karadagian’s promotion evolved into a regular wrestling television show named “Titanes en el Ring.” Titanes en el Ring promoted bizarre, over the top professional wrestling which was barely portrayed as a sport and largely marketed to children. The characters who wrestled on the show included caricatures of hippies, clowns, and, most notably, A MUMMY, which became the biggest star in the entire promotion, rivaling even the popularity of Karadagian himself. The notoriety of Titanes en el Ring grew to the point that, for a limited period, their broadcasts were literally the most-viewed television shows in all of Argentina, a claim no wrestling program in the United States has ever been able to make. (Though, for many years, top-level wrestling matches featuring men like the Destroyer and Fred Blassie were among the highest rated broadcasts in Japanese television history.)

Karadagian had brilliant ideas regarding what to do with his promotion’s popularity as well, as he was a pioneer when it came to merchandising professional wrestling. In the 1970’s, he was selling albums of wrestlers’ entrance music, wrestler t-shirts, and toys based on his wrestlers, none of which was occurring in the United States at the time and would not become a regular part of the industry until almost a decade and a half later. The promotion remained popular until the late 1980’s, when the demise of its popular mummy and the end of Karadagian’s in-ring career combined to put an end to the company.

As with any television property that reaches the level of popularity that Titanes en el Ring reached, there were imitators. While the promotion was still in business, there were multiple copycat companies in Argentina itself and others that popped up in other countries in the area, such as Peru. Recently, an updated version of the old Titanes en el Ring show has begun airing in Argentina. Dubbed “100% Lucha,” the company has regularly aired its wrestling television shows since 2006. In addition to featuring over the top characters like its predecessor, the company is also focused on a “league” system in which every wrestler is awarded points for winning a match and the individual with the most points at the end of the season will be deemed the company’s champion. In addition to being incredibly popular with Argentine children and spawning at least two spin-off movies in which the wrestlers play their characters from the show, the promotion has attracted international attention as well, with then-WWE executives Shane McMahon and Carl DeMarco attending a taping when they were visiting Argentina in 2007 and Japanese independent wrestler Dick Togo making one of the most off-the-wall cameos in wrestling history when he decided to participate in the promotion’s 2008 season.

And now, 100% Lucha has captured the attention of Into the Indies, who will be taking a look at the June 20, 2010 episode of their television program. Let’s do it.


Match Number One: Fiscal Brunetti vs. Gorutta Jones

Here’s a clash of the wacky gimmick wrestlers for you. Gorutta is billed as hailing from Montreal and being a former hockey player, though I don’t know many French Canadians with Latin names (as his real name is) and I also don’t know many successful hockey players who have builds that remind me of a slightly more bloated version of the Warlord. Brunetti, meanwhile, is a wrestler by night and a lawyer of all things by day. It’s a ridiculous gimmick, because we all know that no attorney would lower himself to having anything to do with professional wrestling.

Jones opens the match with some body blows and a vertical suplex, which he follows up with the World’s Strongest Slam for two. More body blows and a back body drop are up next, but Brunetti catches his opponent from behind as he plays to the crowd. Fiscal applies an armbar and does an unusual spot in which, while continuing to hold the arm, he floats over his opponent’s back and turns it into an armdrag. The goon responds with more punches and a leaping clothesline, the latter of which earns him a nearfall. A standing version of the Rock Bottom connects for Jones, and he drops a series of elbows. The faux French Canadian comes off of the top rope with another clothesline, but it can’t put the lethal litigator away. Jones is apparently angry now, as he removes the gloves that he’s been wearing for the entire match and challenges Fiscal to trade fists. They do so, with Jones having the advantage throughout before he hits a big running punch that knocks Brunetti down and keeps him there for a ten count. It’s not just a knockout punch, either. After it connects, poor Fiscal has to do a stretcher job out of the ring.

Match Thoughts: The first thing that struck me about this match is that there are apparently no wellness policies in Argentina. With the exception of outright physical monsters like the Great Khali or Mark Henry, these two men were significantly larger than anybody on the modern day WWE roster and, with a little bit more definition, they look like they would have fit right in twenty-five years ago in that company. Despite the hulking bodies, the two moved fairly well and made sure that the match was all action, even if it was relatively brief. There wasn’t anything revolutionary here nor did it make the Argentine “style” seem that much different than what we see in the United States, but this was certainly no worse than a lot of what I see on Monday Night Raw on a weekly basis. **

In between matches, the announce team takes the time to plug a product of one of the show’s sponsors, which appears to be some sort of rubber top on a string.


Match Number Two: Balut Cuniescu vs. Hip Hop Man

We’ve got more weird gimmicks. Hip Hop Man, whose name may or may not have been created to remind us all of the Honky Tonk Man, is billed as hailing from New York City, though my research indicates that he’s just another Argentine. In case you skipped it, he’s the fellow wrestling Dick Togo in the video that I posted at the top of the column. Cuniescu has an even more bizarre fake hometown than his opponet, as he is supposedly a Romanian mountain man. Why a Romanian would come to Argentina to pursue a career in professional wrestling is beyond me, and it may even make less sense than a Quebecois hockey player doing the same thing. There is also a wacky pre-match angle. I have no clue exactly what is going on, but, after Balut comes out to the ring, one of the announcers pulls out a photograph in which he is shown posing with an incredibly obese woman wearing wrestling gear and a mask. He tells a story about the photo while lilting music plays in the background. For whatever reason, it causes Balut to yell.

Balut hits clothesline and a full body slam as soon as the bell rings, but he misses a big boot, allowing Hip Hop Man to get some shots in. The Romanian wrestler leaves the ring to avoid further offense from HHM, but that backfires as he’s followed out with a tope suicida. That leads to some brawling on the floor, in which Balut dominates. Back in between the ropes, the big man unloads with some punches in the corner and a vertical splash before applying a “submission hold” which makes it look like he is attempting to aggressively remove HHM’s boot. That is followed by a submission hold which would be a half Boston crab if Balut would just take the time to flip his opponent onto his stomach, which HHM counters by getting the Romanian in a small package. It gets two, and hippity hoppity climbs the ropes. He’s cut off and slammed with a rudimentary version of the iconoclasm, which Balut follows with a powerbomb. His cover was rather arrogant, though, so it only results in a two count. The tombstone piledriver Balut hits seconds later does put his opponent away, and the Romanian even decides to steal the Undertaker’s signature pinning combination.

Match Thoughts: There wasn’t much of note here. The guys hit everything they attemped to hit with a seeming minimum of difficulty, but there was only so much that they could do with the time allotted. Looking at the relative sizes of the two men, I figured that they would go with a classic “David versus Goliath” story at first, but they really didn’t even have enough time to do that, so they just had a regular, back-and-forth quickie wrestling match. *1/2

Our next plug from the announcers is a set of dolls shaped like soccer players. I guess it’s the Argentine equivalent of the Starting Lineup toys that were popular when I was a kid.


Match Number Three: Huevo Gutierrez vs. Vicente Viloni

Viloni, who looks sort of like a younger Fabio doing a 1980’s rocker gimmick, makes his entrance on a motorcycle to a great reaction from the crowd. Based on everything that I’ve read about the promotion, he appears to be one of the top babyfaces if not THE top babyface. Heuvo, meanwhile, appears to simply be a large man in black trunks with no readily discernable gimmick. It’s a novel concept for professional wrestling, and I wonder how well it’s actually working out for him.

Gutierrez does not appear to be a fan of the rock and roll music, as he jumps Viloni at the bell. Vicente will not be played for a fool, though, as he immediately goes in for some punches and an axe bomber before placing his opponent on the top rope and bringing him off with a POP-UP RANA. Viloni’s next trick is a spinning heel kick followed by an armdrag, and now we’re slowing things down with the armbar. In a counter that we probably don’t see often enough, Gutierrez simply uses his free arm to punch his way out of the hold. He goes on to the offensive as well, hitting a flying forearm before applying his own armbar on a limb of Vicente which appears to have been taped up prior to the match. Gutierrez unloads a couple of headbutts and then some right hands, after which he hits a weird variation on Matt Hardy’s Side Effect in which, instead of jumping upward with Vicente’s body, he simply fell forward. Viloni starts to get a bit of momentum back, though, as his opponent tries to whip him into the buckles but instead he is able to run up them and hit a body attack. A BIG Yakuza style kick to the side of the head sends Gutierrez to the floor, and Viloni decides he’s going to follow his man to the outside with a cross body off the ropes. Gutierrez is clotheslined on the outside before being tossed back in, but he still has the presence of mind to cut off Violni’s attempt at climbing the ropes on reentry. Gutierrez tries to go for the ROLLING GERMANS, but Viloni elbows out after the first one and connects with a backdrop suplex. Gutierrez responds with another German, so Viloni responds with another backdrop. Viloni attempts to get in some punches to his downed opponent, but Gutierrez grabs one of his free arms and applies a version of the cross arm breaker. Vicente fights to get to the ropes, but Gutierrez does a good job of slightly tweaking the position of the hold from time-to-time to block his body from getting there. The announcers FREAK OUT, as though this were a major upset.

Match Thoughts: This was another short match, but I enjoyed it for what it was largely because there were a lot of little touches here that I don’t see in many promotions, even between wrestlers who are more seasoned. I particularly dug the armbar escape using nothing but fisticuffs and, as previously mentioned, Gutierrez’s slight repositioning of his body as necessary to block Vicente’s attempts to get the ropes during the cross arm breaker spot. The German suplex also looked particularly nice, and the pop-up rana spot in the early going was very impressive given the size of the men, even if it wasn’t the most polished looking version of the move that I’ve seen. **3/4


Match Number Four: El Primo vs. Tito Moran

Primo is billed as the cousin of Vicente, though I would have pegged them as brothers if I saw them standing side-by-side. His opponent here is Tito Moran, who, I kid you not, is billed as a wrestling bus driver. In addition to that oddity, he is also set apart from the rest of the roster in that he’s the only one who doesn’t have a body which appears to have been obtained through the same training methods as the Ultimate Warrior. In fact, he’s outright FAT. Primo spits in Tito’s face as soon as the match starts . . . good thing this isn’t America, or he’d be on the first bus to CHIKARA. Moran responds by punching him in the face and pulling a chain out of his tights, though the weapon never gets used. Instead, Tito applies a leglock, which Primo escapes by biting the fat man’s calf. Moran makes an attempt to backdrop his opponent out of the ring, but it fails as Primo gets caught up on the ropes. Tito shoves him the rest of the way out to the floor, and, in a very awkward spot, follows him with a “splash” off of the apron. In reality, Tito jumped off of the apron, landed on his feet, and fell forward on to Primo. The men exchange punches at ringside, including a spinning back fist from Primo. Tito answers with a low blow, and the brawl spills into the backstage area. Eventually we cut to the referee in the ring frantically waving his arms, which I suppose is the signal that he’s decided to throw the match out.

Match Thoughts: This one didn’t do anything for me. Perhaps the language barrier or the fact that I don’t watch this promotion regularly (or both) lead to me missing something, but watching this pudgy bus driver comedy figure going toe-to-toe with a “serious” wrestler in an all-out brawl looked incredibly out of place. Top that off with the fact that the action provided by the two (Moran especially) didn’t look particularly polished, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. DUD

Overall

Based on what I’d heard about Titanes en el Ring and based on the fact that this is a relatively young promotion in a company that hasn’t exactly been known for professional wrestling in the last twenty years, I was a little bit scared of what I might see here. I figured it would be a ton of fairly green guys relying on nutty gimmicks to get by with little to no focus on actual professional wrestling. I was pleasantly surprised by the product that I did watch, even though my initial assumptions were wrong. Some of the gimmicks are goofy, but they aren’t nearly as goofy as the heyday of Titanes or even as bad as some of the characters that Antonio Pena created for his Mexican AAA promotion. And, believe it or not, the wrestling wasn’t that bad, all things considered. The matches were short but no better or worse than many of the short matches that you’ll see on American wrestling television. As a matter of fact, 100% Lucha might be a decent place for WWE’s developmental program to scout in order to pick up a couple of names, as the majority of the roster has a look at the E would love and all of the guys are pre-trained and appear to be somewhat competent.

Overall, the show wasn’t so compelling that I will now be a 100% Lucha fan for the rest of my years, but it was nice to know that there are countries other than the “big three” we normally think of (US, Japan, and Mexico) that can support a viable, native form of professional wrestling on a scale larger than a local independent group.


Looking forward to the next instalment of Into the Indies? Keep an eye on 411’s Twitter accounts, and you just might see it pop up!

http://www.twitter.com/411mania
http://www.twitter.com/411wrestling
http://www.twitter.com/411moviestv
http://www.twitter.com/411music
http://www.twitter.com/411games
http://www.twitter.com/411mma

See you all next week!

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