Into the Indies 09.14.10: PDM on PPV!

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column that is heading south of the border by heading north of the border.

In February, Into the Indies took its first look at Perros del Mal, an independent promotion in Mexico that was formed when a heel stable lead by Perro Aguayo, Jr. decided that they were going to leave their home promotion CMLL in order to strike out on their own. It may have sounded like a good idea at the time, but, unfortunately for the Perros, they forgot to account for the fact that it’s very difficult if not impossible for a wrestling promotion to make the money necessary to survive without strong television that can be used to promote and sell tickets to your live shows. PDM didn’t have that strong TV deal, so they quickly faltered, and rumors of the organization’s demise began to swirl on the internet.

However, though their live shows still aren’t doing horribly well, Aguayo and company did cut one deal which will most likely prolong their existence. L.A. Park, who is also known as the original La Parka, had been wrestling for Perros del Mal but ultimately decided to depart and jump to AAA. Park had originally left AAA over a decade ago, and a legal flap resulted in the promotion putting a new man under the La Parka name and costume. Of course, L.A. Park mending his fences with AAA set the stage for the Park-Parka showdown that many followers of lucha libre had been looking forward to for some time. The two went head-to-head in a singles match for the rights to the “La Parka” name at the 2010 installment of TripleMania, AAA’s biggest show of the year.

But, after a while, it became apparent that L.A. Park wasn’t coming alone. In a fairly big surprise to causal observers of the lucha libre world, it turned out that Park didn’t leave Perros del Mal in order to return to AAA. It turned out that Park jumped to AAA and brought the Perros with him. Since that time, though they have not officially joined the promotion, PDM and AAA have had a working relationship which has seen the Perros “invade” and cooperate with AAA’s top heel stable La Legion Extranjera. Now the Perros are still running stand-alone shows whereas previously their bookings had dried up, so apparently the promotion has been hooked back up to life support whereas previously the plug was all but pulled.

Aligning with AAA wasn’t the only thing that Perros del Mal did in order to fight for survival, though. Aguayo and his cronies got wind of a company that had formed in an attempt to market lucha libre pay per view specials to audiences in both the United States and major Spanish-language markets elsewhere. Perros del Mal wound up providing the vast majority of the talent for that company, which took on the name of Viva la Lucha. The promotion’s debut show was taped on May 2, 2010 and debuted on pay per view across the country on June 11 of this year. Though it was held under the Viva la Lucha banner and though it featured a few outside talents, the show was primarily a Perros del Mal card made available right here in the United States, and I had to check it out. So, let’s see what one of the first major attempts to bringing Mexican-style professional wrestling to U.S. audiences has produced . . .

Match Number One: Turbo (c) vs. Black Thunder for the NWA Mexico Light Heavyweight Title

We’ve seen these two men in I2I previously, with both popping up in our prior Perros del Mal review and Turbo appearing even before that when we took a look at Meixcan indy EAW. Both are trainees of Jorge “Skayde” Rivera, a prolific lucha maestro who many in the U.S. will recall from his time in CHIKARA and many more will recall from his time in Dragon Gate.

Thunder kicks his opponent down to begin the match and connects with a dropkick as soon as Turbo looks like he might regain a vertical base. He misses a big boot off of the ropes, giving Turbo an opportunity to hit some strikes, but the second big boot does not miss. Turbo does avoid a senton and gets in an impressive armdrag off of the ropes and a rana which was insane because he WALKED UP THUNDER’S BODY in order to hit the move. Another satellite rana sends Black Thunder to the floor, and Turbo fakes a dive. The challenger comes back to the ring under his own power and immediately scores a cradle for two, but Turbo catches him with an electric chair to cut off his momentum. A leglock is applied by Turbo for a bit, but Thunder slips out quickly . . . only to be hit with an Ace Crusher seconds later. Eventually Thunder goes out to the apron for who knows what reason, but he’s cut off by Turbo and dropkicked in the back, which sends him down to the floor. That sets up a glorious high elevation moonsault from the top by Turbo, and the wrestlers both get back into the ring at the same time. Thunder avoids a Turbo victory roll, and, in an insane spot, the challenger crushes the champion with a cross body block which catches Turbo while he is attempting to run the ropes. A sit-out powerbomb gets two for Thunder, and now he looks for the Razor’s Edge. Turbo turns it into a rana for two and hits another version of the same move for another nearfall. The champion comes off of the ropes once more but has his momentum cut off by an Argentine backbreaker from Black Thunder. Thunder also connects with an INSANE version of the Michinoku Driver II that easily could have been a finish. After more running the ropes, though, it is Turbo who catches his man in a ridiculously complex cradle that looked like it came straight out of Skayde’s playbook in order to get the three count and retain his title.

Match Thoughts: This was sort of the Mexican version of a couple of young US indy wrestlers going out there and attempting to have a match exactly like what they see in Ring of Honor. In those matches, just like in this one, all of the athleticism and moves were present, but you didn’t have the cohesion and the story telling that you would in a high caliber independent match. Of course, that sort of psychology has historically been less important in Mexico than it has in the United States, which may explain a bit of the difference, but even here there wasn’t nearly as much rhyme or reason to what the wrestlers were doing as there would be in a bout between to pros from south of the border. I did pop hard for some of the more impressive moves of the match – especially the Driver and the cradle that finished it out – but these to do need a bit more seasoning before they move too much further up in the world **

Match Number Two: TJP vs. Mr. Aguila

TJP is a ten year veteran of professional wrestling, and he recently began using the “TJP” initials in both Mexico and EVOLVE, though most American indy fans may know him better as TJ Perkins or as Puma, a name under which he made several appearances for TNA. Mr. Aguila, in addition to being a mainstay of the Perros del Mal group, is the man formerly known as Papi Chulo and Essa Rios in the World Wrestling Federation.

We go to the mat early on, with Aguila applying a toehold and Perkins getting an impressive escape in which he essentially does a front flip out of the hold. Not wanting to be shown up Aguila connects with a flying kick . . . but TJ responds with his own version of the same move. Aguila misses a charge in the corner and gets hit with a Rude Awakening by Perkins, who now avoids an Aguila dive that causes the lucahdore to fall to the outside. However, showing that turnabout is fair play, Aguila gets back into the ring first, and he dropkicks TJP off of the apron while the young man attempts to reenter the squared circle. Aguila follows him out with a big tope con hilo, which actually overshot Perkins a good deal. TJ is launched into the crowd by his opponent, and Aguila goes after him with a wacky running somersault dive over the guardrail, which causes both men to flatten numerous ringside chairs with their bodies. Perkins seeks refuge in the ring, and Aguila follows him with a chair in tow. Aguila connects with the smashmouth and places the American in a seated position on the top rope. An attempt at a superplex is made. TJP blocks it at first, but Aguila crotches him and ultimately does connect with a massive superplex which featured both wrestlers standing right on the top rope. Rather than going for the cover, Aguila goes back up to the top rope, diving of with a high cross. TJP meets it with a dropkick to the luchadore’s gut, and now both men are down. The wrestlers return to their feet at the same time and exchange punches, but Perkins quickly regains the advantage by hitting Aguila in the face with a double knee smash.

The former WWF star rolls out to the floor for a breather, but TJ won’t let him rest, catching him with a breathtaking move in which he slides out of the ring between the top and middle ropes and catches Aguila with a rana. As the wrestlers come back into the ring, TJP hits a high cross from the top, but Aguila rolls through it and gets a two count of his own. Aguila hits the ropes to attempt some offense, but he’s caught in a flying cross arm breaker from the American wrestler. The hold remains on for a fairly long time, but ultimately Aguila makes the ropes to force a break. TJP sets up some sort of wacky move in the corner which Aguila avoids, ultimately taking Perkins down and hitting him with a standing shooting star press. He attempts to follow with a powerbomb but TJP escapes and hits the rope to go for a flying victory roll. Unfortunately for TJ, Aguila sits down on him as the move is being executed, trapping him in a pinning combination and grabbing two hands full of tights to secure the victory.

Match Thoughts: Obviously these two are both rather experienced, so they knew what they were doing in there. It helped that Perkins isn’t exactly a novice to the lucha libre style, either, as he has spent some time south of the border previously as a trios partner for Havana Pitbulls Rocky Romero and Ricky Reyes. As a result, this wasn’t the clash of styles that some might expect it to be – it was simply Perkins taking the best of the American indy style and peppering it throughout the body of a lucha singles match. Aside from the finish, which is a bit cheap, and the fact that a few of the moves didn’t hit as cleanly as they could have, I have no serious complaints. ***

Match Number Three: Blue Demon, Jr. vs. Oliver John (c) for the Pro Wrestling Revolution Heavyweight Title

First, the rundown on the wrestlers: The original Blue Demon was a contemporary of El Santo and one of the biggest stars in the entire history of lucha libre. The Blue Demon Jr. we see here is not his biological son but rather an individual to whom the original Demon decided to hand down the gimmick when all of the original’s actual children decided that they did not want to pursue wrestling. Demon Jr. has become a high level wrestler in Mexico himself, and, even if you are an American with no professional wrestling background whatsoever, you may be familiar with the younger Demon’s image because, within the past couple of years, he was briefly a spokesman used by the Coca-Cola company in an attempt to market Full Throttle energy drinks to Latinos in the United States. He was also the first Mexican wrestler to hold the NWA World Heavyweight Title, defeating Adam Pearce and holding the championship for roughly a year and a half before dropping it back to Pearce in May 2010. Oliver John, meanwhile, is an American wrestler based out of southern California’s long-running Pro Wrestling Revolution promotion. Here he is doing perhaps the cheapest gimmick that an American wrestler can do on a lucha show – “The Border Patrol.”

Now, the rundown on the match: This match wasn’t taped with the rest of the Viva la Lucha pay per view. Instead, throughout the show up to this point, the announcers had been telling us that Demon had challenged John to a match but that the American refused to travel to Mexico City where the pay per view was being taped. They then claim that they’re showing us this match to show why the bad blood between the two wrestlers exists. It is a steel cage match from an earlier Pro Wrestling Revolution show held in the United States. Demon is the NWA Champion at the time, but that title is not on the line.

John tries to escape the cage very early, but Demon grabs him by the leg and does the spot where he reels off a series of punches with each one sending Oliver into the mesh. Oliver regains the advantage and hits a vertical splash in the corner before trying to go out the door, but Demon cuts him off and starts working the leg with a series of elbow drops to the knee. Demon also attempts to go through the door, but he is thwarted and the Border Patrol gives him a vertical suplex. John reigns down with forearms in the middle of the ring and rams the luchadore into the cage face-first. Blue Demon is bleeding through his mask as a result of the impact, and John unloads with more generic offense like choking and double sledges. The PWR Champ gets lost on a criss-cross, though, and the result is Demon clotheslining him and climbing to the top rope in an escape attempt. Oliver John follows him and teases a belly-to-back superplex, but he winds up just pulling him off of the top rope and down on to his feet. John tries to escape, Demon grabs his ankle, and I swear to god that prior to watching this match I must have entered into a time machine and been transported back to 1975. After a few more teases of escaping through the door, John pulls at Blue Demon, Jr.’s mask. Good luck with that one, buddy.

Eye gouging and fists to the head set up John’s next escape attempt, but Demon sneaks up on him and pulls him off the top rope with an electric chair. The Mexican wrestler follows up by dropping a couple of knees and applying a chinlock that was presumably meant to wear down John to the point that Demon could escape. That strategy does not work, as Border Patrol cuts off Demon’s escape attempt again, this time hitting him low. The low blow doesn’t incapacitate Demon for long enough to let John escape, though, and the NWA Champ actually catches Oliver low for some sweet revenge when he tries to walk out the door. A headbutt to John’s nether-regions follows from Blue Demon, but it’s still not enough to incapacitate his opponent to the point hat he can get out of the cage. Now the two men are down on their knees trading punches, and it is Demon who gets the better of the series. However, before he can even attempt to win, John catches him with a big kick and tries to scurry up the cage walls. Demon cuts him off and lands a backdrop suplex and a bakcbreaker. John fires back with a powerslam and a diving headbutt from the second rope. He follows up immediately with a flying headbutt from the top as the announcers reference Chris Benoit. Awk. Ward. When we come back from an instant replay of the headbutt, both men are standing on the top rope and exchanging punches, with John getting the worse of it and falling crotch-first on the top rope. Rather than climbing off of the cage, Demon jumps off the top rope, lands on his feet, and then drops an elbow.

Demon tries to go out through the door now, but individuals who are identified as Oliver John’s teammates in the Border Patrol keep the door held shut after taking out the official in charge of the entrance. Indy wrestler Kafu (who was under a WWE developmental deal recently but got cut before it went anywhere) runs in for the save, but he is attacked by American luchadore Vaquero Fantasma. The schmozz allows Oliver John to literally climb over Blue Demon’s back and out the door to win the match and retain his PWR Heavyweight Championship.

Match Thoughts: I can’t say I was a fan of this match. My comment about the 1970’s during the play-by-play ran true from bell to bell. Both of these guys wrestled the match like it took place thirty-five years earlier than it actually did, and it was to the bout’s detriment. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching old school wrestling as much as the next guy, but it works for me because I know it was intended for a 1970’s wrestling audience. Watching two guys attempting to bring that style back in the modern day doesn’t really do anything for me. It would be one thing if there was SOME attempt to throw a modern twist on the old formula, but it just wasn’t there unless you want to count the TNA-esque string of run-ins at the end of the bout. I know that it probably takes a lot to get a guy like the Demon to job, but the finish felt cheap and it was odd for Via la Lucha to air an angle featuring guys from another promotion like Kafu and Vaquero, who as far as I know will not appear on future VLL shows. *

Match Number Four: El Hijo de Rey Misterio & Groon XXX vs. El Oriental & Super Nova

Well, this is an interesting mixture of guys. Oriental and Nova are both veteran luchadores who, at least as of the time of this taping, were without connections to major promotions. Groon is formerly known as Gronda, and he’s a ridiculously muscular wrestler who does a gimmick in which he paints his body red, wears a rubber mask, and pretends that he’s Satan. Like L.A. Park, he’s a guy whose character was created by one promotion and retained by that same promotion, meaning that not only does Groon XXX currently exist but there is also a virtually identical wrestler on the scene currently using Groon’s original name of Gronda. Finally, there’s the man who this whole match is built around, El Hijo de Rey Misterio. As many readers are probably aware, the Rey Misterio Jr. who is currently in WWE and formerly of WCW is actually the nephew of the original wrestler Rey Misterio. El Hijo de Rey Misterio is the actual biological son of the original Rey Misterio, who is significantly younger than the more popular Rey and has just started wrestling within the past couple of years. Here his mask and gear are virtually identical to what Rey Jr. wore in WCW, though he’s also got some outfits that match his cousin’s WWE gear, and as a result there have been some unscrupulous lucha promoters who have tried to book Hijo for a show and make it look like Jr. was appearing.

Also, infamous heel referee Tirantes is the fifth man in the ring for this one, and he’s openly huddling with the Nova/Oriental team before the match. The rudos do some posturing early on, tagging back and forth several times before any actual offense occurs. When the wrestling does begin, it’s Misterio and Nova, with Rey Rey taking Nova down with an amdrag. However, as soon as that happens, Oriental runs in with a kendo stick and uses it to take out both Misterio and Groon. As is his wont in life, Tirantes ignores it. The bad guys continue to double team Rey after the stick is gone, with a drop toe hold and a double splash connecting before Rey rolls to the floor to bring Groon back in. Oriental goes after him with the stick once more, and now both of the good guys have been completely cleared from the ring. After a while, XXX is back in the ring with both Oriental and Nova, who hit him south of the border with the kendo stick. As they are celebrating, Misterio runs in to make the save, but TIRANTES of all people makes the save by decking Rey Rey from behind. Oriental misses a stick shot and hits himself in the face with the weapon, though, allowing Hijo to hit a rana on Nova and several stick shots of his own on both rudos. He dropkicks them into a double clothesline by Groon that sends the bad guys to the floor, and now Misterio will fly. His cross body from the post takes out Super Nova as Oriental runs for the hills.

After an instant replay of the highspot, Groon and Oriental are alone in the ring, and Oriental actually gets in the first offense with some chops until Groon back body drops him. Nova runs in and suffers the same fate, after which both men are clotheslined down. The bad guys try to respond with a double suplex, but Groon blocks it and takes both men over with a suplex of his own. Now we’ve got both Misterio and Groon back in the ring just standing there and posturing. Eventually Super Nova joins Misterio in between the ropes, and, in a weird spot, Oriental feigns falling off the apron and hurting his leg. (At least I hope he was feigning it.) Meanwhile, Nova hits a satellite armdrag on Rey, and Oriental catches him from the apron with another stick shot. Misterio rolls to the floor once more to bring Groon back in, and this match is starting to get a wee bit repetitive. However, I am a bit surprised when Oriental is able to take the legs out from underneath Groon, sending him to the floor where Oriental hits a pescado. Now in the ring, Nova is dominating Misterio, yanking him off the top rope and putting the boots to him before going up to the top rope. Misterio cuts him off, though, and there’s a ONE-MAN SPANISH FLY from the second generation wrestler. Tirantes starts off by slow counting him, but Nova is down for so long that, after a while, he can’t help but slap the mat for the third time.

Match Thoughts: Based on what I’ve seen of him in the past, Oriental knows what he’s doing in between the ropes, and Nova didn’t look particularly bad here either . . . but, for the life of me, I could not get into this match. Though he’s gotten rushed into a prominent position on the lucha indy scene because of his famous family, the inexperienced Hijo de Rey Misterio isn’t yet at a point at his career where he can do well in a long match, even a tag. Things were made even worse by the selection of his partner. Groon is essentially a large, WWE-style “hoss” of a wrestler, which I don’t mind in certain contexts, but he’s hardly suited to be the guy who is guiding a green young wrestler through a bout. The result was an attempt to throw in a lot of smoke and mirrors to get the match to run as long as everybody wanted, and the problem is that, after a while, the smoke and mirrors, whether it was the kendo stick or Tirantes’ antics, got damned repetitive. Pick a better partner for Rey and get him to wrestle the majority of the match with the young star in to hit some big moves, and this could have been significantly better. *1/2

After the bell in the tag match, Perro Aguayo, Jr., Damien 666, and Halloween show up, with Perro laying down a challenge to Misterio. He wants a hair versus mask match, he wants it to go one fall, and he wants it RIGHT NOW. The “match” is really just a series of strikes with no referee even being present. Aguyao fouls Misterio pretty quickly and goes after his mask, but the little guy fires back and catches Perro in a sunset flip. Of course, there’s no referee, but it’s clear Perro was down for a three count. Before Perro can even kick out, the rest of his crew runs into the ring and beats down Rey, ultimately putting him through a table thanks to a second rope powerbomb from Aguayo.

Match Number Five: Sabu vs. L.A. Park (c) for the X-LAW Heavyweight Championship

Most everybody should be familiar with these two competitors. This particular match wasn’t taped with the rest of the pay per view but comes to us from a different Mexican indy promotion known as X-LAW, and it’s for their primary championship. The announcers’ explanation as to why we are seeing this match is that the main event of the pay per view is a hardcore style bout that could put any of the competitors into top contention for the X-LAW Championship.

We’re joined in progress with the men brawling on the outside of the ring, where Sabu posts the masked man. We clip ahead to the inside of the ring, where the Homicidal, Suicidal, Genocidal Maniac takes a spike to Park’s head and rips open his mask in the process. The Mexican wrestler is now placed on a table while Sabu climbs to the top, but Park rolls out of the way and the ECW alum goes crashing through the furniture. Then, out of nowhere, we get a run-in by Super Parka, a luchadore formerly known as Volador, who is the legit uncle of L.A. Park. Super Parka decks the referee and steals his shirt, which the announcers assume makes him the official ref. Well, that makes no sense. Sabu gets a cradle on Park, which Super fast counts. It’s still a two count, though. Air Sabu in the corner connects for another nearfall off of another fast count. Now the man from Bombay, Michigan hits the ropes, but he runs right in to an L.A. Park powerslam. He goes for the cover, but Super Park refuses to count. There’s another edit, and we’re taken to Park hitting the Virginia Necktie. He covers, and Super Parka counts this time, but it’s super-slow. Sabu manages to kick out, so L.A. Park goes for a chair. Super Parka intervenes and takes the weapon even though this is supposed to be a no disqualification match. Because he can’t use the chair, Park decides to go with something that the referee can’t take away, bringing Sabu out to the floor and whipping him through a guardrail. There’s more brawling on the outside, but the lighting and the fact that there’s been a huge border put around the footage by whoever produced the pay per view makes it very difficult to see what’s going on. Then, as we’re focused on Sabu, L.A. Park runs in out of nowhere and busts a light tube over his head like it was a complete throwaway spot. Sabu is next placed on a table in the ring, but one of the legs gives out and the thing collapses. Ah, this is one of the things that I truly love about hardcore wrestling.

L.A. Park fumbles with the table awkwardly for some time before he finally gets it set up, and, once he does, he comes off the top rope with a corkscrew moonsault. The table doesn’t break, but Park goes for the cover anyway. Again, it’s slow and Sabu kicks out. More clipping leads to Sabu being choked with a chain by L.A. Park. As Sabu climbs back to the ring, Park brings a pile of light tubes into the ring and lays them on top of a barbed wire board that somehow made its way into the squared circle when we weren’t looking. Sabu and Park both climb up to the top rope, but it’s Park who takes the fall, as Sabu superplexes him down on to the tube/wire combination. Another edit is made, and we see the wrestlers just trading punches. Sabu hits the smashmouth for a fast two count. Park tries to respond with a blind charge into the corner, but Sabu sidesteps it and removes the belt from his opponent’s costume. Super Parka gets ahold of the belt and hits his nephew with it, which sets up a series of belt shots by Sabu as well. Park hits an enzuguiri after more clipping, but again the count isn’t as fast as it should be. More clipping, and now we’ve got Sabu setting up yet another table in the ring and going to the top once more. This time Sabu misses with a superfly splash, and Park FINALLY decides to deck Super Parka. Supes responds with an immediate chairshot, which causes Park to fall on top of Sabu. For some reason, Super Park makes a fast count on this and gives the victory to his nephew.

Match Thoughts: This was edited heavily, so it’s a bit hard to evaluate, but what we did see wasn’t pretty. In a way, it reminded me of the prior match in that the people who were putting it together decided to rely very heavily on gimmicks. Unfortunately, the gimmicks got overused and tired rather quickly, and it’s not as though there was anything here that wrestling fans haven’t seen hundreds of times before, especially in Sabu matches. Plus, if anything, the overuse of these gimmicks was worse here than it was in the prior bout, as at least in the prior match they were trying to cover for a green wrestler and a musclehead whereas in this one we had two veterans who, though they are not at the peak of their respective careers athletically, could still presumably be able to put on a good straight match.

Match Number Six: X-Fly vs. Charly Manson vs. Halloween vs. Damien 666 vs. Supreme

Supreme sort of sticks out like a sore thumb here. The majority of the people who remember him would probably remember him from his time with XPW, during which he bled a lot, was burned rather badly, and fell from high places. Everybody else is a veteran luchadore, with Damien and Halloween having appeared in the past for both WCW and ECW in the 1990’s.

All five men are brawling on the floor as we join the match, and the announcers inform us that this will be an elimination bout. Manson and Supreme are the ones that we first see paired off in the ring, and Chary takes out the American with a cookie sheet. X-Fly runs in and decks Supreme with a crate, and now things break down with everyone hitting everybody else with various blunt objects. Oh, have I mentioned that there is barbed wire wrapped around the ropes on two sides of the ring? X-Fly hits Supreme with a light tube, and now Damian has a spike that he’s using to carve people up. In a unique spot, as Damien is going for a sunset flip on Supreme, Charly Manson grabs Supreme’s legs and catapults his head up into Damien’s crotch. Manson follows up by catapulting Supreme once more, though this time it feeds into a nice spear by Halloween. A light tube board is brought into the ring and propped up in the corner at this point, and poor Damien gets speared through it. X-Fly hits a dive off of the top on to a couple of guys, and, honestly, the camera work is so bad that I can’t tell who he was hitting. Manson takes Supreme out of the ring and hits him with a tope suicida. Another tope, this time featuring Damien, also hits Supreme. Now Halloween and Damien, who are usually tag team partners, square off at mid-ring and slap one another, with Halloween hitting a Yakuza kick. Eventually the two men wind up brawling on the apron, and Damien flies up and over the top rope with a sunset flip powerbomb that yanks Halloween off of the apron and puts him down through a light tube covered table.

Back on the inside, Supreme spreads out a bunch of thumbtacks on the mat, and Manson immediately DDTs him on the pile. Damien also gets slammed onto the tacks and Supreme follows up by hitting him with a big splash. Damien responds with a facebuster that drives Supreme into the tacks, and I’m begging for an elimination at this point. Now it’s Manson who gets to take a big bump, as Supreme whips him through a barbed wire board at the same time that Halloween jumps off the top and through X-Fly, who was laying on a table. Supreme is attacked by Damien with a tire and hit with a dropkick. Now all five men are down and recovering for a little bit, which is an odd spot for a match of this sort. Manson, Damien, and Supreme all eventually get to their knees and start punching one another, but X-Fly runs in and hits them all with a cookie sheet. Halloween runs in and takes X-Fly out with a chair, and Damien feeds X-Fly into a second rope powerbomb by Supreme. Fly is covered by Supreme, and there’s a three count for the elimination. A pile of broken boards, covered with both barbed wire and shattered light tubes, is made in one of the corners, and Supreme and Damien wind up fighting on top of the ropes closest to that corner. They stand there doing nothing for an uncomfortably long period of time, and there’s a superplex through the stack of broken boards. The shards of glass hanging out of Damien’s arm at this point are completely disgusting.

For some reason, the announcer keep telling us that the match is now down to Damien and Supreme, and I have no clue what happened to eliminate Halloween and Manson. Damien virtually no-sells the superplex and slams Supreme down on to one of the barbed wire boards. Mr. 666 now snags a light tube and snaps it over his opponent’s head before going back up to the top rope. There’s another fight over the superplex until Perro Aguayo, Jr. runs in with a chair and wallops Supreme over the back with it. The American goes falling down to the mat, and Damien follows him off with an elbow drop. That gets him the three count and brings the match to an end.

Match Thoughts: Over the course of my past year writing this column, I’ve seen a lot more deathmatch wrestling than I have at any other point in my career as a fan. As a result, I think that I’ve got a fairly good handle on the difference between a good deathmatch and a bad deathmatch. In fact, I’ve laid it out in the virtual pages of this column on more than one occasion. A good or great deathmatch is one which has a build similar to a traditional match but involves hardcore spots as opposed to traditional wrestling moves. A bad deathmatch is one in which guys just roam around the ring mindlessly and hit each other with tubes, tacks, and tables, all with no rhyme or reason. At least when I’m watching the former type of match, I completely forget out dangerous and disgusting the spots were and get into the match as I would any other. When I’m watching the latter type of match, I don’t get caught up in the storyline and the action and just sit there thinking about how much easier, safer, and more entertaining it would be for the wrestlers to do a straight match without all of the gimmicks. This was a bad deathmatch. Though I hate to sound vulgar, it was one, big hardcore clusterfuck with nobody seemingly having any clue where the bout was going or who was supposed to be getting over as a result of it. It was violence for violence’s sake, which, surprisingly, doesn’t make for good wrestling. DUD

The show ends with promos to set up the next show. El Hijo de Rey Misterio wants a hardcore tag team with a mystery partner against Perro and a partner of his choosing. Supreme swears a lot and says offers to put his old XPW King of the Deathmatch Title on the line against one of the Perros del Mal. Halloween and Damien accept and somehow manage to be even more vulgar in their response. Things are wrapped up by Blue Demon, Jr., who challenges Oliver John to come to Mexico to face him. Demon is jumped by a masked man, who, of course, reveals himself to be John.

Overall

There’s a part of me that hates to knock any startup wrestling promotion in the United States, especially one that legitimately makes an effort to present something other than the tired style that WWE and TNA currently trot out. However, I also can’t feign excitement for an “alternative” product that just isn’t that good . . . and Viva la Lucha just wasn’t that good. A big part of the problem was that, instead of a more traditional lucha libre product like the one currently presented by CMLL or the heavily storylined, almost soap opera-esque product like the one currently presented by AAA, VLL decided that they were going to present primarily a hardcore style of lucha libre which has repeatedly proven that it will only really work in front of a limited fanbase. If this sort of thing were widely popular, in either the United States or Mexico, we would be seeing CZW or X-LAW getting television deals and drawing respectable audiences. Fans, including me, just aren’t that interested in what this promotion is pushing on top. So, even though there are some exciting young talents like Black Thunder and Turbo as well as some solid vets like TJP and Mr. Aguila on the undercard, I would suggest taking a pass on this promotion unless you’re a big fan of people mindlessly hitting each other with florescent light tubes.

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