Viva La Lucha Review
I was able to catch the Viva La Lucha show on Saturday in San Diego. I mostly went because I had nothing much to do that night, so I went just to see what it was like. As soon as I got to the venue, there was a small line of people waiting for the show. As time went by before the show started, the line started to grow and was filled with many Mexican families.Before the show, there was a local radio station doing some kind of promotion and several mask vendors. While the fans were getting settled, a clown made his way to the ring to entertain the fans. He had a bunch of kids race to the ring so that they could win a prize. He had a boy and a girl inside the ring and made them do various challenges to win the prize, and at one point he started to screw over the little girl. After that, two people from the local radio station came into the ring and said some things and the show began.
Los Gallineros III and IV beat Bino Gambino and Disco Machine
-The match was your basic tag match, with Bino and Disco playing the heels and Los Gallineros played the faces. Some lady near me kept calling Bino a stoner in Spanish. Disco and Bino worked over Gallinero III for most of the match, until he was able to make the tag into his partner. The match was alright for what it was, and the reaction for Los Gallineros’ victory was pretty huge.
Around this part of the show, the promoter for Viva La Lucha came out and talked about how Shocker didn’t show up for the event. He said that he had booked Shocker’s hotel room, plane ticket, and paid his booking fee in advance and Shocker still didn’t show up and that he would never book him. He also mentioned that this event was being filmed for a DVD that will be released in stores.
Diablo, Matt Twizted, and SoCal Crazy defeated Huracan Negro, Wama, and X-Torm
-After the first match, there was a gap between the ending of the opener and the second match. I couldn’t tell who was who on the technicos side. The match wasn’t good in my mind. There was a nice exchange between Diablo and someone on the other team at one point in the match, but after that the match started to go downhill. Matt Twizted was the worst wrestler out of the six. He didn’t really do much to connect with the crowd. This was the worst match of the night in my mind. At one point during the match, one of the wrestlers went for a rana off the apron, but ended up falling on his head. It looked botched, but it was hard to tell if it was planned.
Zokre and Phoenix Star(w/Crybaby) defeated Scorpio Sky and Quicksilver(w/Nikki)
-This was the best match of the night. Sky was able to generate a lot of heat from the crowd and the lady who called Bino a stoner kept calling Quicksilver a stoner. Lots of nice looking spots. The only botched spot in this was when Phoenix Star went for a springboard senton to the outside, but slipped and almost fell on his head. Thankfully, Scorpio Sky was there to catch him. After that, Zokre hit a really nice looking Asai off the top rope. The finish came when Los Luchas their Mexican Surfboard/Reverse Angle Slam onto the knees combo and hit double springboard sentons on one of the members of the AXP. It was great to see these guys go out and impress the fans.
Fobia, Inferno, and Depredador defeated TJ Boy, Arandu, and Ruby Gardenia
-Ruby Gardenia got the biggest pop from the crowd up to this point of the show. Lots of gay spots in the match with Ruby, which the crowd seemed to love. This match wasn’t really that good, but it wasn’t really that bad.
Konnan, Angel, and Super Astro(w/Crybaby) defeated Rey Misterio Sr., Abismo Negro, and Kaos(w/ Nikki and Jezabel)
-The fans were really excited for this match, and a lot of the children at ringside came running toward the entrance. Before the match began, several fans ran ringside to get autographs from the stars. The match itself was pretty fun. Lots of crowd brawling in this one, and several spots involving the valets. This was the first time I have seen Super Astro in person and he was pretty awesome. After the match, Super Astro and Rey Misterio Sr cut some promos. I couldn’t understand them since I don’t speak much spanish, but I think they were setting up something for the next show. Konnan stayed several minutes after some of the wrestlers left the ring and signed many autographs for the fans.
Overall, this was a fun show. Best matches of the night were the AXP/Luchas match, the main evnet, and the opener. The crowd was around the 400-500 range, mostly Mexican families with lots of kids running around to get autographs from wrestlers after every match. If you’re in the area and have nothing to do, you should check out one of Viva La Lucha’s shows. The next show takes place on August 19 and will feature Konnan, Rey Misterio Sr, Blue Panther, Super Astro, Human Tornado, Disco Machine, and several others.
