PAS: Poor De Barge is really still hung up on Janet. Plus John Singleton is totally baked, that really helps explain Poetic Justice. Zellner lives out in the fucking sticks, I had no idea they still had seperate drinking fountains anymore until we stopped for gas. I was thirsty but I had no idea which fountain Jews were supposed to drink from.
Lucha Show
TKG: So we pick up Zellner, he updates us on Sapp winning title, we recap last nights show (Kris was unable to attend out of loyalty to Billy Black...damnit, Behrens pay him before the next lucha show. C'mon), and get stoked for the lucha. Reflecting on Hardcore Hell we realize that there were no hardcore matches, no blood all straight ahead wrestling and a really Christian main event. We talk about all the dives and how we expect not half as many dives on todays show as we expect it to be built like the last show just straight ahead OLD SCHOOL LUCHA. As last show was pretty much spot fest free. We approach Gwinnet center and spot scalpers. Fuck this is building momentum if there are actual scalpers on the highway. Last show was made up of mostly singles matches with one tag and one trios 2/3 falls match. Again todays show only had one 2/3 falls match but only two singles and the rest tags. Unfortunately, no Villanos on todays show. Oddly no Sicodelico Jr. Did Juster ask him to practice match in front of cameras at last show? And no Pequeno Violencia. A good chunk of booking of last show was spent around building Pequeno Violencia and hes not even on this show.
TKG: Last time we complained about lack of merch tables and well they fixed that problem as they were selling masks (including a kid version of the frowningSuper Muneco mask I've always wanted), shirts (that said Lucha Libre League --they really need to get a non-LLL name for the Atlanta shows), toys etc. Concessions stands. Plenty of sponsors including Hard Workers hardware who provided the ring girls. I assume they are normally just the girls used in the Hardware store advertising suplements but damn if they are the actual hardware store employees, thats genius. Nothing like a hot assed Latina to trick you into buying more expensive tools.
TKG: Meltzer is reporting attendance of 4,000 but I think he's really underreporting as it felt easily to be 1000 to 2000 more people than last time. Meltz is also reporting that the ticket prices were reduced which they weren't so who knows what his source is. They didn't fly in the EMLL play by play guy to do ring announcing, and well this was huge mistake. I assume the guy they used was local radio guy and just wasn't as good at interacting with the crowd, figuring out what was going on, etc...shitty. They did bring in a Norteno band to play for first hour as we got to our seats. One of problems with last show was that there was lots of dead time before show started and between matches as they transitioned from one to the next. You see why something like Nitro Girls is actually usefull. Last time during the beginning of show when they tried to keep the crowd from getting rowdy they would just repeatedly play the Mexican anthem. Here they had this band, in full Lone Ranger masks singing a couple songs about lucha in amongst there set. They claimed to have been flown in from Mexico but who knows. I really dug the drummer who would get up and two step using the sticks as his dancing partner during all sections where the casio acted as solo rhythm section. Did I mention that crowd was huge? Huge I tell ya.
PAS: That dance fucking owned. Really should be stolen by a Dischord band, I sort of know the drummer for the Most Secret Method, if I didn't hate his guts I might suggest this.
Virus v. Latino Kid
PAS: Latino Kid was Mickie Segura, who looked way too old and pockmarked to ever wrestle as a "Kid." Virus was really great in this, but Segura looked off in points.
TKG: Virus was pretty good in this but I'll take the Masda vs. Sicodelico Jr. or the Arkangel de La Muerte vs. Mascara Sagrada OVW lucha over this. Segura hits some spectacular dives and then horribly blows a 619 (which Virus does an admirable job trying to cover for with a nice kick to Seguras face). Segura blows some other stuff and Virus has a nice bitch slap and tries to ground Segura with an Octopus but match is messy.
PAS: God the 619 has quickly turned into the peoples elbow of 03-04. Only non Rey-Jr. one I have really dug was when El Signo did it. Segura is no El Signo.
Psicosis + Negro Casas v. Felino + Pentagon Black
TKG: What the fuck? Last show Casas was the star of the semi main. Here hes stuck in meaningless opener. Casas and Nicho as faces? What the fuck? Last show he was heel. Here hes face. Is Nicho ever a face? I mean yeah in Tijuana but hes a ECW face, not a real technico. They booked these two as technico team? This and the lack of Pequeno Violencia make no sense. Casas and Felino normally work well against each other, for some reason they hardly ever matched up in this as it was mostly Casas paired with Pentagon Black and Nicho paired with Felino. Casas and Black had a nice NOAH section with dueling face slaps into a NJ section of dueling clotheslines and octopuses. Casas did a really awesome Matrix sell of clothesline setting up second clothesline. If I were to tell a young wrestler who to watch tapes of to learn how to sell dueling clotheslines, it would be Negro as he has a bunch of neat clothesline sells. Nicho is wearing his Psicosis mask while ring announcer announces him as Nicho Millionario. He takes the Felino rana to the floor and does the rana reversal to Felino's splash mountain setting up the pin. but this was really a throw away match that really felt less like a Lucha tag than like a "Thunder Lucha" tag.
PAS: This was really dissapointing. Casas was just amazing on the last show, but his charisma is really muted when he is working technico. Still probably the best pure worker on this show, he did this really boss Silla, where he is on the apron and Pentagon tries to throw him into the ringpost, and instead he just throws an awesome Silla on Felino. If you had to book this match, they should have run it as a Rudo v. Rudo brawl.
Ayako Hamada + Nanae Takahashi v. Princess Sugeth/Diana La Cazadora
TKG: I think there was some sort of problem with some of the ring gear getting lost at Airport or something. Princess Sugieth was wrestling in New Balance sneakers while Diana la Cazadora was wearing boots that made me think she was auditioning to be a valet for New Age Horseman's Nise Tully. Sugieth did the same nice looking leg slap kicks that she did on first show made to look ridiculous by the sneakers. She has added some nice punches to her arsenal since last show, and threw the first suplex on this show (she did a really meaningless exchange of suplexes section with Hamada). Hamada looked worse than she did last time and Nanae did next to nothing. And this went on forever. FOREVER. Just endless. Moral of the story, if it isn't Chigusa vs. Devil in 85, you want your Zenjo clipped. Clipped to shreds.
PAS: I have a pretty strong tolarence for dull wrestling, but I was nodding off during this match. Zellner kept having to elbow me. They need to get Aja or something if they are going to keep running these Joshi matches, they are just killing me.
TKG: I like jingoism in my wrestling. And the crowd gt into the Japanese vs. Mexican jingoism but then the work made the crowd loose interest and bored them fast. Crowd would loose interest in match yell jokes at people on other side of the arean, get back into match when Mazda did something or yelled at them, get all pro-Mexico and then loose interest again. Honestly if they're going to go with the Nationalism angle they should have brought back Pequeno Violencia and had him wrestle Espectrito in a Orientale mask. Fuck Pequeno Violencia vs. Buddaman would have smoked this.
PAS: Mazda and Nosawa were the entire match here and I like seconds, but you would really need 1981 Jimmy Hart and 1985 Bobby Heenan in one corner and Julius Smokes and CE Vanderpyle in the other corner to save this match.
TKG: You can build a tag match around a good worker as face in peril and a really scheming heel second firing up the crowd. Mazda and Nosawa were good heel seconds. Sugieth ate a nice beating from Mazda and interacted with the heel seconds well but (A) Sugieth is no Ricky Morton and (B) too much of the match was spent with actual work in the ring. This was just bad. I hope AJW are big enough USA marks that they are paying Juster to have their belts defended on his shows.
TKG: After this endless match, they did an inring promotion for Phone cards and just long pause before the ring announcer realized that we were going to intermission. And we go to intermission. I get some icecream and marvel at just how jam packed the Gwinnet center is. Thus far this show was really dissapointing compared to the last one. Kris is a blast to hang out with and Wes is always well behaved. But mediocre opener followed by quick throw away tag followed by endlessly long shitty joshi tag, compared to first half of last show, one can't help but be disappointed.
PAS: There was just endless time killing on this show, they really need to add a match or two, or just make the show shorter. Parts of time filler felt like the kind of thing a freaked out promoter would do at an STP show while they are getting the needle of adrenaline to restart Scott Weiland's heart.
Brazo De Oro + Brazo De Plata + Rocky Romero v. NOSAWA + MAZADA + Scorpio Jr.
TKG: And its trios wreslting 2/3 falls. Lucha Baybe! Ok there must have been luggage problems as Super Porky comes out wearing a pair of jeans with one cut off leg FloJo/BJ Travis style, like he was back stage turning his jeans into shorts and only finished one leg... and dress shoes. He has to borrow his brothers jacket to grind on. The sound man repeatedly fucks up Porkys music too. But none of this matters as he's just a fucking superstar and the crowd goes crazy for everything he does. I should point out that he was also sporting Teddy Hart's haircut as he had these little blonde braids on top of his short hair.
PAS: Outside of Shinya Hashimoto and Ric Flair I don't think I have ever seen a wrestler who just oozes Rock stardom the way Super Porky does. He is a guy I have always enjoyed on tape, but it is nothing like when you see him live.
TKG: Nosawa comes out wrapped in Japanese flag. Masda does this neat silent movie era hunched over villain walk. With his recently shaved hair, Scorpio Jr. looks less like Helmsley and more like Kazuyuki Fujita.
TKG: First fall starts with Brazo de Plata controlling against the three heels. He and Nosawa go to Sumo stance and do dueling sumo thrusts and belly bucks with Porky getting the advantage. He works an extended standing section with Nosawa where Porky escapes standing switches and headlocks by really stiffly Baba chopping Nosawa. He does the amateur ride out of the partier challenge with Masda which of course he wins. And Porky does the brawling into corner butt bump section with Scorpio Jr. Oro and Scorpio Jr start to lay out there story for match pairing off against each other and laying out where they're going and Masda and Romero pair off. Faces dominate all exchanges in this fall. Nosawa at one point in this fall does a shinning wizard followed by Muta pose---the crowd gives this no response.
TKG: Second fall is the quick rudo fall. Built around isolating Romero. The heels work to get Porky out of ring. Scorpio and Oro have both nice wrestling and bralwing exchangesd that eventually lead to Oro being dumped out of picture so the heels can triple team Romero. Romero is pinned after eating a narsty triple team spike powerbomb before his partners get a chance to make a save. I was somewhat worried about this match. Last show Brazos faced Casas and Villanos. The Brazo/Villano feud has gone back two decades and well Casas is a top level guy. With Nosawa/Masda/Scorpio Jr, you had Brazos working against what essentially is a midcard indy team. Guys who were stooging for women in the last match. Neat to see how Brazos were able to realistically sell for a team that isn't on their level, in this rudo fall. It really felt AJ style where you new everyones rank in the match and everything made sense in that setting. I would have prefered to see another Brazo Villano face off, or a Brazo vs. Casas bros spin off from previous show, but it was neat to see them give a clinic in how to work a team that 's beneath them. At one point during this fall Nosawa does a letter perfect flip flop and fly elbow---the crowd gives this no response.
TKG: Tercera caida. Dive train time. Most of the fall is built around Masda vs. Romero who do a nicejob working kind of NJ juniors exchanges combined with super fast lucha exchanges. Match ends with Super Porky going for top rope splash completely UNASSISTED. Yeah his partners offer to help hold him up but he refuses and goes for the fucking unassisted top rope splash. Beautifull and nasty looking. Fuck 630s and 970s this was most impresive spot in the last two days. After finish Porky is spent which allows for post match heel beatdown on Rocky Romero. Than Rocky Romero gets to clean house on all three heels. Romero is put over big by both Brazos post match and put over big by the booking. I've been watching a ton of WWE wrestling lately and well they do these half assed attempts at puting over young talent...nothing as smart as this match. Of course Pequeno Violencia was put over big last show and hes nowhere to be seen. I think at some point during this fall Nosawa contemplated wagging his finger and doing a leg drop but then realized, fuck it the crowd responds better when I actually wrestle.
PAS: Tom covered this pretty well. This match was dominated by Porky alot more then the last trios match. The last match had Negro being kingsized and alot of nifty things by the Villanos and Brazo De Oro. Here it really was the Porky show, with Oro being a lot less noticeably awesome then he was last time. Romero did look good, although not really in a straight lucha way.
El Hijo Del Santo v. La Parka
PAS: Parka runs the gambit of lucha cheap heat, and in about 90 seconds turns the entire crowd against him. You had people wearing La Parka masks calling him a culero.
TKG: Wow that was amazing. Pre match shitty announcer gets on mic to explain what happened at last show (blows this) and then does a "Hey who came here to see La Parka?" "Who came for Santo thing." The crowd is pretty split in their loyalties. Parka comes out with Nicho insults everyone, peoples fathers, their mothers, their nationalities, their Mexicanness, etc. He calls out guys in Parka masks who end up taking them off and angrily stepping on them. Fucking amazing. If Parkas going to be working heel hes gonna make sure hes getting a heel response.
PAS: As part of the heeling section Parka and Nicho were roughing up the ring announcer. This drive time dipshit wouldn't go up for a bodyslam and kept getting in the face of Parka instead of showing ass. Parka should have popped his eyeball out and stepped on it.
TKG: Santo has on a bright Silver mask that was so shiny it was hard to look at. Shinyest mask ever seen. Blindingly shiny. It was glowing silver like chrome on a No-Limit Cd cover. Shinier than that.
PAS: Goddamn this was great, just a balls out brawl, which was as good as their Monterey gorefest from 2001. Santo hits a big tope early, but Psicosis helps Parka, and Parka takes over and starts throwing Santo all around the arena. Santo taking some nice sized chair surf bumps. The security starts freaking out at this point, as Parka is just chucking a bloody Santo into rows of fans. They take it back into the ring and do a great series of lucha near falls. Santo is incredible as he can do really beautiful mat work, great looking flying and then can have an insane Memphis brawl like this, here he did all three in one match and made it work.
TKG: The pre blood parts of this were pretty balls to the wall too. It just starts with a killer tope and just they're off running. Parka does this hanging suplex which Santo reverses into an inside cradle---which is spot we've all seen a couple dozen times--but here it was holly shit worthy, in just how smooth it looked. I mean you bought it as a fall. I should mention here that the Arena Mexico ref (who early in the match has to eject Nicho for his heelish interference) is just amazing as he is all over the place making every near fall seem like a near fall. The Monterey match had a lot of Santo blood (more than alot a ton) this one had both guys bleeding a ton plus mask ripping. Santo just gets flinged into stairs and then does these great Bill Dundee stairs bumps and I don't know if Juster authorized this as it felt like security was completely at loss as to what the fuck was going on. Crowd is apeshit.
PAS: The Arena Mexico ref does really rule. Alot of lucha refs can be Bronco Lubishish in their immobility, this guy was Pee Wee Anderson's latino cousin.
PAS: Juster really needs to cue in ringside security, at one point Parka rips out a part of the ring barrier to use as a weapon, and when he goes back into the ring to get Santo, the dummy working security puts it back in place. Later Parka pushes the barrier back to eat a dive and the security guy almost gets toped while replacing it. Maybe Juster should fly in Atlas like MLW did.
TKG: They get back into the ring and its as intense as it was on the floor. Parka for some reason wrestles a good section of the match without ditching his gig thus he's getting punted all over while holding a blade in his hand. They go for a ton of near falls untill Parka is about to tap when Nicho just headbutts the ref hard in the ass. Nicho takes a bunch of really crazy bumps (well not crazy for Nicho but crazy for anyone else). Parka punts Santo in the cock. Ref calls DQ. Post match everyone argues as Parka claims he had Santo beat, Santo claims he had Parka beat, Ref explains his decision, Santo challenges Parka to mask v mask for next Atlanta show and before Parka gets the mic to weasel his way out of challenge, the idiot ring announcer announces "Shows over, next show we have Santo vs Parka mask v mask." Parka decides fuck this forget challenges I better just brawl some-more to make audience forget idiot ring announcer...audience starts a spontaneous PORKY PORKY chant to get Porky to make save. Arena Mexico ref goes to back to get Porky who comes out having finally finished making his cutoffs. FUCK THIS ALL WAS GREAT!!!! I mean for a show that was really underwhelming compared to the last one, this main event really made up for that.
PAS: Post show we go to a fake Caribbean restaurant with really good wings. The lesbian waitress was read to renounce Sappho to get a piece of big Phil, but I have a lady back home. Back in the hotel we watched the VHI greatest celebrity feuds, where Biggie v. Tupac finished 3rd. I believe that Diamond Dave and Van Halen have heat, but nobody got shot or anything.
TKG: Britney vs Fred Durst was ranked above Biggie v Tupac. WTF? I have no steady lady waiting on me back home, and I point out to to waitress that there is a mouthwash dispenser in the men's bathroom...but everyone needs to get home. Fun couple of days enjoyed hanging out with Wes and Kriz. My ticket back to DC gets all screwed up and I have to go through security once again to get home on time for work. Looking forward to next Juster show.