Baja Stars USA – July 16, 2016 review

When Baja Stars first announced their lineup for their July 16th show, there were two matches that really stood out to me. The triple threat between Danny Limelight, Douglas James, and Eli Everfly, who are a huge part of this new wave of talent that has been really breaking out in SoCal over the last few years, and the main event with a chance to see Nicho el Millonario again who was always one of my favorites to watch long ago.

Veinom & Nightmare Azteca over Rocketboy D’marco Wilson & Cara de Leon [16’16]

The opener was pretty good. Baja Stars usually has a really strong undercard with wrestlers like Veinom and nightmare Azteca being a huge part of the backbone of that. Rocketboy D’Marco seemingly gets better every match I see him in. He is always a face and he does such a great job of selling in his matches he really makes his opponents look good. Cara de Leon was solid as always. The wrestler who reinvented himself as Cara de Leon has done a good job of changing up his styles and really becoming a completely different wrestler. I think in every match I’ve seen Veinom work up to this point, his one major issue has been hitting his foot on the rope when going for a tope. He did it again in this match as well. I learned that he has actually broken that foot three times and that is what has been causing him issues. Other than that he was as solid as always. He would have been a perfect fit in the old Revolution Pro and I think he’s going to be a guy who is going to start getting a lot of hype outside of the lucha shows soon. Nightmare Azteca did a crazy senton from the top rope into the crowd. Nightmare got the pin on Cara in what was surprisingly a one fall match.

Lady Lee over Cristal, La Golosa, and Heather Monroe [9’03]

This was an elimination match. I think Cristal is really good. Her parts of matches in Baja Stars have been consistently good no matter who her opponent has been. This was my first time seeing Heather Monroe live, having only seen a clip of one of her matches previously, and I thought she did pretty good in the match. She had a sequence with Cristal that really was the highlight of the match. Lady Lee didn’t look crisp and there was some occasions where stuff looked sloppy but when she looked better than normal, especially when she was against Cristal or Heather Monroe. La Golosa is La Golosa. I can think of a better way to sum them up. Golosa was eliminated first, then Cristal, then Lady Lee hit a package tombstone on Heather Monroe for the win.

Douglas James over Eli Everfly and Danny Limelight [13’30]

As you’d expect this was a really good match. To compare it to some of their recent stuff, it wasn’t as good as the singles match between Douglas James and Limelight from a few months ago in FCW, but it was a really solid performance and my match of the night. Surprisingly they really didn’t try to work a lucha libre style. They also used a ton of super kicks. You’d have to watch a Young Bucks match to find more probably, but it fit within the story of the match with each of them trying to out do each other. One thing I noticed with Eli Everfly in this match, and I think it’s a sign of how good he is and how good he is going to be, is when he was outside the ring and it was obvious either James or Limelight was going to do a dive, he would be on the ground selling still or finding some other way to not stand around waiting for the dive to happen, but he would always get there at just the right time when it did happen. I think with the more acrobatic nature of wrestling now as compared to even 10 or 15 years ago there seems to be a lot of standing around waiting for moves to happen, and Eli did a great job of making it look like he wasn’t doing that.

When you’ve watched wrestling for a long time, in your mind you always compare guys to people you’ve seen in the past or think about matches you’d have like to have seen. I can just imagine how crazy a Eli Everfly versus Rising Son in his prime match would be. Anyway, back to the match there was a couple of near fall sequences that weren’t totally crisp, but other than that this was a great match. Douglas Jame hit Eli with a frog splash for the win. This was also a one fall match.

Buffalo Ayalya & Black Danger over Black Boy & Genio del Aire [15’14] 2 out of 3 falls

This was another really good, fun match. Black Danger is another one of the luchadors Baja Stars uses on a regular basis for their undercard who is always solid. Genio del Aire is pretty solid and has a nice looking moonsault. Buffalo Ayala and Black Boy looked good in this too. This match came after a fairly long intermission and I think it hurt the crowd a little, but overall a good match. My second favorite on the show. This was a two out of three falls match.

Los Luchas (Zokre & Phoenix Star) & Misterioso Jr. over Nicho el Millonario,  Shamu Jr., & TJ Boy [12’41] 2 out of 3 falls

There was another intermission before this match. Apparently they were waiting for Shamu Jr. to get there. Star Boy was originally advertised so I’m not sure what happened there. The show had actually gone really fast up until the two intermissions. I was a huge fan of Nicho and I remember this feud he had with Hijo del Santo in Tijuana back in 2001 that ended in a mask versus hair match (that Santo won obviously) that would have broken every fire code known to man with how many people they jammed into the Auditorio de Tijuana if it was in the U.S. It sucks seeing wreslers who were so great after years of the wear on their bodies when in your mind they are still the guy wrestling Rey Misterio Jr. in the ECW Arena. I don’t think Nicho ran in the entire match, but he still seemed to give it all he could and didn’t rely on his name. He was on defense a lot and was catching people on dives etc., though on offense he was mainly limited to brawling. Los Luchas looked great in the match, as did TJ Boy, Misterioso Jr., and Shamu Jr. Los Luchas had quite a few nice sequences. The third fall was decided when Shamu Jr. took a top rope Frankensteiner from Misterioso Jr.

All in all this was a pretty good show from Baja Stars USA. The normal Baja Stars USA formula has been to have a really solids undercard, a women’s match of some sort, and a main event with a few stars in it. With that the undercard is always pretty good but the mains fluctuate depending on the stars. This night was a good night though. If you like lucha libre and you are in the area, I’d easily recommend a Baja Stars USA show.