wrestling / Columns

Into the Indies 08.30.11: World Lucha Libre League

August 30, 2011 | Posted by Ryan Byers

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column that now needs to be trilingual.

Normally in this column, we try to keep fairly current with our coverage of the international independent scene, usually covering cards that have happened with the past year, if not within the past few months. However, this week, I decided to do something a little bit different and get in the wayback machine to 2004 to review a bit of a retro card. Why did I make this decision? To be perfectly honest with you, it was more of a lark than anything else. I was going through my collection of shows, thought that this particular card looked like it had the potential to be an entertaining curiosity that I hadn’t seen before, and I figured that, if I was going to pop it into the player, I may as well get some mileage for the column out of it.

So, what is this curiosity of a show?

It comes to us from March 28, 2004 from a short-lived promotion referred to as World League Lucha Libre, and, in a rarity for this column, it’s a card that took place on American soil, specifically in Atlanta, Georgia. WLLL was the brainchild of Gary Juster, a man whose name long-time wrestling fans are probably familiar with, as he worked as a local promoter for Jim Crockett Promotions and later WCW when they ran shows throughout the American south. With the death of WCW and ECW less than three years old and with TNA barely clinging to life on weekly pay per view, Juster decided that he was going to make a run at promoting some big wrestling shows in 2003 and 2004. However, instead of going with traditional, American professional wrestling, he attempted to tap into the United States’ growing Latino population by importing lucha libre from south of the border and marketing it to Hispanics living in places like Atlanta and the Carolinas. The project did not last for too horribly long, but, of all of the Juster shows, this one is perhaps the most noteworthy because it included one of the biggest matches that he could have possibly promoted, a singles bout between top tier lucha stars El Hijo del Santo and La Parka (the original, not the replacement created by AAA when the first guy took off for WCW).

However, that’s not the only reason why this particular WLLL show is noteworthy. In addition to featuring Santo/Parka, it also featured guest appearances from two ladies from the world of Japanese professional wrestling, Nanae Takahashi and Ayako Hamada. At the time, the two women held the WWWA Tag Team Titles, the top tag belts for All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling, which was at one time the hottest ladies’ promotion in the world. By this point, though, AJW was two years removed from losing its major television deal and one year away from closing its doors for good, so they were essentially on their last legs. (And, really, so was big time joshi as a whole, but that’s another story for another day.) Surprisingly, even though AJW was dying, the fact that its tag champs were on this card were enough to lead to cameramen from Japan’s Samurai TV filming the show and taking the footage back to their home country for a television broadcast, something that, to the best of my knowledge, WLLL never got in either the United States (where the shows were taking place) or in Mexico (where the majority of its wrestlers hailed from). I guess that’s the sort of thing that happens when your country has an entire cable channel that is devoted to nothing other than wrestling, boxing, and mixed marital arts.

So, yes, this is a Mexican professional wrestling show taking place in the United States and being broadcast on Japanese television. If that’s not the sort of oddball mix that makes this show perfect for this column, I’m not sure what is.

Match Numero Uno: Virus vs. Suicida

This is an interesting match in that both wrestlers stand about 5’5″ and, because of their small statures, started out wrestling as bigger guys in the “mini” divisions of lucha libre before ultimately moving on to compete as smaller guys in the “full sized” divisions of lucha libre. Both are still active in wrestling today, with Virus in particular becoming a well-respected in-ring performer and trainer and with Suicida competing under the names Mike Segura (unmasked) and Aeroman (masked).

Virus asks for a handshake after the bell, but it’s a TRAP, as he chops away at Suicida and gives him a single-legged flapjack before dropkicking him in the side of the head. Virus follows up with an axe bomber but misses a second, after which there is some flashy rope-running from both men, culminating in a Virus clothesline. Suicida finally gets some offense when Virus throws him up onto the top rope, with the little guy doing a backflip off and catching his opponent with an armdrag on the way down. A second flippy arm drag sends Virus down to the arena floor, and Suicida gives him a tope con hilo. Virus snaps his opponent’s neck over the top rope as he reenters the ring, setting up a slingshot elbowdrop for two. Suicida fires back with a sloppy sunset flip. It doesn’t get the job done, so he dropkicks Virus square in the face. Virus fires back with a hiptoss, only to be drop toe holded (drop toe held?) into the ropes so that Suicida can connect with the world’s sloooooowest 619. A second rope moonsault also connects for Suicida, but it can’t put Virus away. A rana from Suicida also gets two, and a chop war breaks out. Virus wins it and sends Suicida flying, after which he dropkicks Suicida out of the ring. Virus looks for an Asai moonsault, but Suicida blocks and NAILS Virus with a moonsault of his own from the post to the floor.

Through the magic of editing, both men pop up back in the ring in short order. Virus looks for a powerbomb, but Suicida reverses into a sloppy, sloppy rana for yet another nearfall. There’s an axe bomber from Suicida, after which he sets Virus up on the top rope for another rana. Virus blocks it, though, giving Suicida what I think in theory was supposed to be a Michinoku Driver but in reality looked a lot more like a sit-out bodyslam. From there, Virus applies a Queen Angelito Stretch (a badass submission used frequently used by Bull Nakano) and Suicida rightfully taps out.

Match Thoughts: This was OK. There were some periods of good, back and forth action, but there were also some periods where the wrestlers were doing what would have been good, back and forth wrestling if not for the fact that Suicida was pretty damn sloppy. In fact, he was so out of place and so clunky at some points during this match that I thought it was early in his career, but, when I looked it up, I realized that he had been wrestling for almost twelve years by the time that this match took place. That doesn’t bode too well for me wanting to watch more Suicida in the future. **

Match Numero Dos: Psicosis & Negro Casas vs. Pentagon & Felino

Here we’ve got four veterans who anybody who has spent any amount of time watching lucha libre will at least know the names of. I feel that I should note that this is the original Psicosis – the one who wrestled in ECW, WCW, and WWE – though in this particular match he’s got his old mask back on despite the fact that he’d already lost it in the ring by this point and never went back to wearing it south of the border. Also, in a bit of trivia for those of you who may not be aware, this match is bringing us a little bit of sibling-on-sibling violence, as Felino and Casas, along with fellow luchador Heavy Metal, are all brothers, sons of lucha ref Pepe Casas

Felino and Psicosis start it off, trading quick takedowns in the opening seconds of the match before Felino begs off and tags out to Pentagon. Casas comes in as well, and he gets a hiptoss almost immediately, causing Pentagon to do some begging off of his own. When he gets back to fighting, the two men trade strikes with one another, a sequence that Casas ultimately wins. He looks to apply a leg submission, but Felino runs in and knocks him out of the ring. Virtually nothing happens down on the floor, and, when the wrestlers return to the squared circle, it’s Casas up against Felino. They do some comedy with Casas refusing a handshake from Felino, after which Casas runs the ropes. However, before he can get too far, Pentagon kicks him in the back of the head from the apron. Psicosis tries to run in to save, but he’s whipped into his partner and double teamed by the bad guys. They hit him with a corner attack, but a second one misses as Psicosis moves, setting up a big legdrop by Psi on Felino. Psicosis next takes the cat man back into the corner and unloads on him with several punches, followed up by a version of the face eraser. Psicosis sends Felino to the floor and blasts him with a baseball slide kick, leading to an exchange where Pentagon and Casas reenter the match.

The two wrestlers start running the ropes at odd angles, with Pentagon eventually hitting a dropkick. Casas fires back with a vertical splash and swinging DDT, sending Pentagon to the floor. With Pentagon out, Felino and Psicosis check back into the match, and Psicosis gets the early advantage by reversing a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker into a variation of the Asai DDT. Psicosis goes out to the ring apron to set up god knows what, but that proves to be a bad idea as Felino cuts him off and climbs to the top rope. Felino leaps off the top, GIVING PSICOSIS A RANA OFF THE APRON AND TO THE FLOOR. Yikes. No margin for error on that one, as if either guy was an inch out of position, somebody’s legs would have gotten tangled in the ropes, probably leading to a fatality. Casas and Pentagon take over in the ring with their partners on the floor, and Pentagon is quick to dispatch Casas so that he can hit Psicosis with a tope suicida. There’s sort of an odd edit, and, when we come back from it, Casas and Pentagon are back in the ring with Pentagon trying to take Casas off of his feet. He fails, and Pentagon goes out to the floor yet again. Felino runs into take over on Casas, and, in a weird spot, Felino gets Casas out on the ring apron and tries to run his head into the post, but Casas uses the momentum from Felino running him across the apron to leap off and hit Pentagon with a flying body attack. After that, Psicosis runs in to do battle with Felino, but it is Felino who gets the advantage and sets Psicosis up for a top rope thunder fire bomb. Psicosis REVERSES IT INTO A RANA IN MIDAIR. Jesus. From there, Psi runs up to another one of the corners, climbs to the top rope, and leaps off with one of his patented legdrops to get the victory.

Match Thoughts: Now this was pretty much everything that the first match was trying to be and could have been without Virus’ clunkiness. Luchadors were flying all over the ring at a rapid pace, doing just about everything that an American audience would expect them to do. All four of these guys had been around for years at this point, all four are masters of their craft, and all four had their working shows on here despite the fact that they were working before a crowd that was probably happy to see any lucha libre at all, let alone really good lucha libre. Psicosis/Nicho in particular was one fire. He’s always been one of the nuttiest bumpers in the sport, and I have to say that I’m amazed that in matches like this at this time in his career he was still doing things that would make Mick Foley cringe, all while suffering surprisingly few major injuries as a result of his in-ring hyjinx. The wrestlers here didn’t quite go all out because they weren’t the main event, but this was just about as good as it’s going to get for midcard lucha. ***1/4

The match is followed by the single most AWKWARD vignette I have ever seen on a professional wrestling show. Ever. It starts off with Nanae Takahashi doing calisthenics in a gym while the song “I’m Every Woman” (you know, Oprah’s old theme) plays in the background. Suddenly she is approached by Rocky Romero, who I can only assume was given direction by somebody to hit on her. The problem is that Nanae’s English appears to be very bad while Romero’s Japanese appears to be nonexistent, so he just starts grunting two or three word long English phrases that I’m guessing he thinks are impressive. “Saturday. Atlanta.” “Nosawa, Mazada, easy match.” “Inoki Dojo.” “I am strongest.” “Inoki Dojo.” Then they stare at nothing in particular amidst otherwise dead air.

I have to admit it, there is a large part of me that hopes that Rocky Romero’s strategy for actually picking up women while he’s in Japan consists of namedropping Antonio Inoki.

Match Numero Tres: Brazo de Oro, Brazo “Super Porky” de Plata, & Rocky Romero vs. Scorpio Jr., Nosawa, & Mazada

Sort of an odd mix of talent here. The Brazos are obviously legendary luchadors and Scorpion, though not as historically important, was at least a main event level guy who could have been considered their equal at this point in lucha history. Mazada and Nosawa, though they had an extended run with All Japan in recent years, were really just indy guys at this point, bumming around a variety of different lower level promotions (or in the opening matches on bigger promotions’ shows) and Romero was just a notch or two above them. Also, I should note that this is the only match on the show being contested under traditional lucha libre rules, meaning that its best two of three falls.

Nosawa and Porky are the first two men in the ring, with Nosawa challenging Porky to a sumo match and losing in pretty short order, bouncing off of the fat man’s gut and taking a bump down to the floor. Mazada checks in for the team and takes a different tactic, challenging Porky to an amateur match and going into the down position to start. Porky climbs on top of him and squishes poor Mazada. Scorpio eventually runs in to even the odds for his team, and, after a while, all three bad guys are bullying Porky with slaps. Eventually he slips away from them and crushes both Nosawa and Mazada with a pump splash to a big pop. After that, Brazo de Oro tags in, and we can get down to some serious business. Oro goes after Nosawa and chops him over the head, causing Rongai to tag out to Mazada. Rocky Romero also checks into the match, and they immediately start trading strikes. Romero blocks a scoop slam but is hit with a rana after Mazada goes to the eyes. Rocky follows back with a jumping knee strike, causing Mazada to roll out to the floor. Scorpio immediately runs in and ambushes Romero, but he misses a dive in the corner and is taken out with a spinning heel kick from Rocky. There’s a pause in the action as the wrestlers regroup, and, when they do, Porky returns to the ring to go up against Scorpio. Porky brings the comedic antics once more, constantly dodging attempts at offense from the bad guys and causing them to hit each other. Eventually all three heels wind up stacked in a seated position in the corner, with the good guys hitting various attacks on them, culminating in a bronco buster-esque dive by Porky. From there, Romero hits a rana on Scorpio while the Brothers Brazo give stereo sit-down splashes to Nosawa and Mazada. A three count is registered, and the first fall goes to the good guys.

To start fall two, Romero lays out Nosawa with a combination of kicks capped off by another jumping knee strike. They do a really hot sequence of reversals off the ropes, culminating in Nosawa hitting a basement dropkick to the knee and then a shining wizard to get a two count. Romero fires back with an ankle lock after avoiding a Nosawa kick, but a run-in breaks that up. Before long, Brazo de Oro is in the ring, taking on Mazada and Scorpio on his own. He actually succeeds in leveling both of them before tagging out to Porky. Scropio is his opponent this time around, but Scorp distracts him so that Mazada and Nosawa can run in and boot the fat guy out of the ring and to the floor. They then triple team Oro and later Romero, taking out both guys with fairly basic offense until Scorpio pins Romero after a three-man powerbomb variation. It’s not really made clear, but I believe this wins the second fall for the rudos, even though you usually have to pin either the team captain or both of the non-captain members to end a fall under lucha rules, and I didn’t think Romero was captaining his team. Whatever.

Oro slips back into the ring but only winds up taking more punishment, including corner attacks from all of the rudos. Now it’s Porky’s turn to go three-on-one, but he finds a belt somewhere and uses it to whip his opponents. This causes the bad guys to run off, and the technico team stands tall in the ring for a bit. We’re back to a Nosawa/Romero pairing in the ring when things regroup. Romero takes control with a dropkick to the face and a slingshot missile dropkick. Nosawa falls to the floor after that, putting him in position to eat a tope ton hilo from Rocky. That’s the beginning of a train wreck sequence, as Mazada wipes out Romero with a pescado, followed by Brazo de Oro landing a tope suicida on Mazada. Scorpio and Porky are left in the ring, with Porky wiping Scorp out as he tries to run the ropes for his own dive. That sets up Porky’s own tope suicida, and they’re smart enough to have every other man in the match there to catch him. After a quick edit, everybody is back in the ring, and Oro lays out Nosawa with a backbreaker. After a variety of maneuverings by the faces, all three bad guys are laid out side-by-side, and Romero assists Porky in balancing himself up on the top rope. He leaps off with a splash that connects on all three bad guys, and they’re dog piled to give the faces the third fall and the overall victory.

Match Thoughts: This match was pretty much the Super Porky show, as he was the focus while, for most of the match, the other five guys were just there to provide context for Brazo de Plata’s antics. Don’t get me wrong, that is NOT knock on the match. Porky’s act dominated, but Porky’s act is damned entertaining, so I’m never going to complain about that one. Romero was also given a couple of smaller windows in which to shine, and I actually thought he looked better here than a lot of other places in which I’ve seen him. My problem with Romero generally is that he’s a little bit on the bland side, but, when you put him in there with a charisma machine like Porky and allow him to showcase his athleticism in small bursts, he actually looks pretty damn awesome. All in all, this was an entertaining longer match, though it was more entertaining for schtick than it was for straight lucha wrestling. **1/2

Match Numero Cuatro: La Parka vs. El Hijo del Santo

This was actually the main event on the live show (as nothing could follow it in terms of star power), but, because we’re watching the Japanese television broadcast, this bout has been edited down to semi-main status while the match featuring Ayako Hamada and Nanae Takahashi, which in reality was the middle of the card, has been elevated to the spot at the end of the evening.

Parka mockingly gets down on his hands and knees and kisses Santo’s feet before the bell, then asking for a handshake and slapping the man in the silver mask in the face when he finally reaches for it. The skeleton puts the boots to Santo in the corner and clotheslines him down before we clip ahead a bit. Santo is tossed from the ring by his opponent and whipped into the guardrails before the two wrestlers begin to brawl in the crowd. There’s another edit, after which Parka gives Santo a chairshot to the head and then hiptosses him down across a row of empty chairs. There’s another chairshot after another edit, at which point Parka begins ripping at Santo’s legendary mask. The mask ripping continues when Parka and Santo get back into the ring, and it gets to the point that some of Santo’s hair is exposed and it becomes clear that he’s bleeding. Parka throws a chair into the ring, but, before he does anything with it, he dropkicks Santo in the face and pantomimes jumping rope. Awesome. Santo takes a really safe bump over the chair off of a hiptoss, after which Park places him on the top rope in position for a suplerplex. Santo fires back, though, punching Parka off and leaping at him with a rana before hitting a twisting armdrag and a BIIIIIG high cross when Parka spills out to the floor. We clip ahead with the wrestlers both outside the ring, where now Parka’s mask is ripped open, he’s bloodied, and Santo is wearing him out with a chair.

After more clipping, Santo takes things a bit further by picking up the metal ladder that the wrestlers have been climbing to get in the ring. He runs full speed at Parka, slamming the ladder into his head. We clip again and we’re back in the ring, with Santo landing a side Russian legsweep and putting Parka into a submission hold. The next edit sees Parka missing a dive in the corner and spilling out to the floor, giving Santo the opening to hit a tope suicida OUT OF THE CORNER. We’re back on the inside after an edit; and Santo lands some dropkicks for a two count. More clipping brings us a brainbuster attempt by Park, but Santo reverses it into a crade for two in an amazingly fluid version of a fairly common spot. Parka is essentially unmasked by this point, though there aren’t any clear camera shots of his face. There’s another edit, after which Santo hits a high cross from the top and applies his father’s famous finishing hold, the camel clutch. At this point, Parka’s cornerman Psicosis hits the ring and wipes out the referee, allowing the two rudos to double team Santo. In a weird spot, the ref actually starts to count a pin on Santo after being revived but somehow (through the audience reaction, maybe?) realizes that Parka cheated and stops counting after two, then calling for a disqualification and raising Santo’s hand.

Match Thoughts: I am really quite annoyed by how heavily edited this match was. It felt like at least half of it was missing, which is a pain because what we did see was AWESOME. These two just tour into each other with some intense, hardcore brawling that lead you to believe they really hated one another’s guts, punctuated by some lovely, breathtaking flying by Santo, who always feels like he’s pulling out moves that should be reserved for guys half of his size. Watching this match, it was readily apparent why the wrestlers here are two of the biggest stars in lucha libre history, as they’ve got all of the tools necessary to hold a crowd on the palms of their hands and to leave them begging for more. Hell, a real testament to how well they did here is the fact that this match had one of the lamest finishes imaginable and I’m still talking about how great it was without the ending pissing me off. I can’t rate it, though, as too much wound up on the cutting room floor.

Match Numero Cinco: Ayako Hamda & Nanae Takahashi vs. Princesa Sugey & Diana La Cazadora for the WWWA Tag Team Championship

This is where the show develops somewhat of an unusual dynamic. Throughout the Japanese TV broadcast, we’ve been treated to footage of Takahashi and Hamada visiting various locales in Atlanta, which would lead you to believe that they’re being positioned as babyfaces. However, from the second that they walk down the aisle they’re obviously playing heel, being seconded by Nosawa and Mazada and waiving the Japanese flag everywhere that they can. It’s not just that they’re doing a subtle heel thing that fans in their home country could write off while still cheering them. They are HEELS here, no two ways about it. Also, I haven’t really mentioned their opponents in the column yet. If you’ve followed any women’s lucha at all, you probably know Princess Sugey (whose name has 732 alternate spellings), as she’s been around CMLL and AAA for close to fifteen years, occasionally taking international bookings in Japan and the United States. Her partner, Diana La Cazadora, is a bit of a question mark. Near as I can tell, she had a ten year career beginning in 1997 and was never that great but kept getting booked and kept getting cheered because of her looks. Who says American wrestling and lucha libre have nothing in common?

Sugey and Hamada start it off, with Sugey getting a quick beal early but then eating a bunch of offense from Hamada, including a legdrop and a dropkick to the face. Nanae runs in for no real reason and double teams Sugey alongside Hamada for a bit, but it’s ultimately fruitless as Sugey makes her own comeback and wipes out both of her opponents, including a big backbreaker on Hamada. She tries to follow up by running the ropes, but Mazada trips her up and pulls her out of the ring, ultimately just punching the woman square in the face. Ouch. While that’s going on outside, Cazadora, instead of saving her partner, just runs into the ring and begins waylaying Ayako Hamada. Diana does a really awkard looking leapfrog and these splashes where she appears to just be falling on her opponents. After a while, all four women wind up in the ring, with the Mexican girls hitting stereo armdrags and dropkicks to send their opponents to the floor. It looks like they’re also going to do stereo dive fakes, but Takahashi and Hamada grab them by the ankles and pull them out to the arena floor.

After doing that, Takahashi gets back in to the ring to do a dive, and it looks really bad. She hit Sugey dead on, but it looked like she caught Diana with an errant boot to the face as she was flying, most likely because Diana was out of position. Hamada follows it up with a much better looking Asai moonsault, after which we clip ahead to a point where everybody is still outside the ring but the Mexican women have apparently regained the advantage and are kicking the hell out of Nosawa. We clip again and we’re back in the ring, with Sugey applying a satellite abdominal stretch on Hamada. Diana puts a non-satellite abdominal stretch on Nanae, at which point Nosawa and Mazada run in right in front of the ref and attack the lucha girls. No clue why that wasn’t a DQ. After another edit, Hamada hits her moonsault press on Sugey. More editing and the Japanese girls are still in control, with Takahashi setting Sugey up to eat a missile dropkick from Ayako. Cazadora breaks up the subsequent pin attempt with a dropkick, and, before long, the Mexicans have isolated Nanae. They give her a double hiptoss and a double suplex, followed by what would have been a double dropkick if not for the fact that Diana missed by a mile. That sends Nanae to the floor while Hamada runs in to take up the mantle for her team. Despite being outnumbered, she actually manages to powerbomb Diana, though Sugey catches her with a facebuster and drops an elbow for two. Sugey also connects with a gordbuster, but Nosawa interferes again to break up her momentum, distracting the referee long enough for Mazada to run in and hit Sugey with a foreign object. That leads immediately into Hamada connecting with the AP Cross on Sugey, ultimately pinning her to get the win and retain the WWWA Titles.

Match Thoughts: I’m a big fan of Hamada, and I’ve seen Takahashi and Sugey do some good stuff over the years, but this was pretty lousy. There were a couple of factors that contributed to it being subpar. The first Cazadora, as she was several levels beneath the other three women in the ring and was out of position on several occasions, dragging down the quality of the match overall. However, the thing that dragged the match down even more than Cazadora’s apparent lack of talent was the reliance on Nosawa and Mazada running interference to get the heat for the Japanese team. Hamada and Takahashi are both very talented and easily could have played bad girls without all of the gaga if that were really necessary, and the reliance on cheap heat really left a bad taste in my mouth. Now I’m going to have to do some digging to see if there was ever a straight Hamada/Sugey match, because I’m curious what they could do against one another. *

Overall

At only an hour long, watching this show isn’t a huge time commitment if you can find a copy of it. Is there enough quality action to justify you spending your hour on it? I would say so. Granted, the television “main event” is a pretty big letdown and the opener wasn’t much to write home about. However, you’ve got yourself a very compelling undercard tag team match, highlights of what appears to have been an ASTONISHING match between two of lucha’s biggest names, and the always-entertaining antics of Super Porky. Those three items more than made up for the less than optima portions of the card and left me having a good time with the show overall. Given that the card reportedly drew well in addition to being fairly solid in the ring, I’m frankly curious as to why Gary Juster’s lucha promotion didn’t become a bigger deal.

Cheap Plug!size=4>

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