Baja Stars USA August 6, 2016 – review

For the most part Baja Stars USA has had some really enjoyable shows in 2016, usually with a fairly strong, exciting undercard with a main event featuring several big names. Their August 6^th show looked to be more of the same, and with a main event scheduled to feature Rush, Extreme Tiger, Bestia 666 and Judas Draven how could you go wrong? Let me tell you.

Kid Tornado over Veinom [8’07]

Both of these guys are usually very solid but the match really seemed off. At times it felt like it was in slow motion and there were several instances where they were not crisp at all in what they were doing. There were a few sequences that were pretty impressive and both Tornado and Veinom had their moments in the match, but overall this wasn’t a good match. Like I said, both are usually really solid, but today wasn’t their day.

Danny Limelight over Donnie Suarez to retain the FCW XRT title [9’45]

Danny Limelight was a late addition to the show, and Donnie Suarez was never announced prior at all. This match was a nice surprise as Danny Limelight has been good and Donnie Suarez is super underrated and has been really good in every match I’ve seen him in this year. It was announced this match was for the FCW XRT title too, so the finish was never really in doubt. I thought they had a really good match with lots of impressive work from both guys. Donnie Suarez spent the majority of the match working over Danny Limelight’s left arm, and Limelight did a really impressive job selling it throughout and even after the match. He would deliver elbow strikes (with his right) but would always continue to hold his left arm in a position to make it seem as if he was favoring it. Suarez got Limelight in a Fujiwara armbar late, but Limelight managed to get to the ropes. Limelight managed to hit his finisher off the ropes and get the pin. There were a couple of spots in the match that weren’t fluid, but this was a really good match overall. It looks like Danny Limelight is becoming a regular at Baja Stars and hopefully Donnie Suarez gets used more often as well.

Sage Sin over Amazona, Lady Lee, and Mariah Moreno in an elimination match to become the 1st Baja Stars USA women’s champion [17’29]

This match was a mess. Lady Lee used to be pretty decent a few years ago, but has been pretty sloppy in most everything I’ve seen her in for awhile. Her match at the last show with Cristal, La Golosa, and Heather Monroe may have been the best I’ve seen her look this year. When she and Amazona were together in this match it was terrible. Nothing was fluid, everything seemed to be at half speed, and it was really sloppy. Amazona is normally pretty good, but this was not good. When Sage Sin and Mariah Moreno matched up they looked great by comparison. Sage Sin looked solid as pretty much always and Mariah Moreno showed some pretty good emotion and charisma in the match. The match was night and day with them in the match versus when Lady Lee and Amazona were in.

The match made no sense. It was an elimination match, but only two wrestlers were in the ring at a time with the other two in the corners like it was a tag match. No one ever tagged and the outside wrestlers would just come in at random times, mainly to break up pins. Why would they break up pinfalls in an elimination match? Who knows. But they did it, repeatedly. Eventually Sage Sin and Mariah Moreno were outside the ring and Lady Lee and Amazona had a very sloppy roll up sequence where Amazona tried to pin Lady Lee then it was “reversed” into Lady Lee pinning Amazona and Amazona was eliminated. Lady Lee laid on the mat and the ref was checking her out then kept both of the other wrestlers out of the ring. He called for help and they wrapped her neck with a t-shirt and took her out of the ring on a stretcher. In rewatching the video I couldn’t really see where she got hurt, unless it was during the roll up. I was told at the show she had a concussion; and she later posted pictures on Facebook in a neck brace and said she went to the doctors and was sent for x-rays. I was also told that before the show Lady Lee was pretty upset when she was told that she wasn’t winning the title and people have claimed she has faked injuries in the past during matches when she is scheduled to lose. I know she had an injury during a match with Datura in OWA in a similar situation involving the OWA women’s title. She has a match scheduled Friday in Tijuana.

After Lady Lee was cleared out, Sage Sin got a pretty quick pin on Mariah Moreno to become the first Baja Stars USA women’s champion.

Black Danger, Sargon, & Buffalo Ayala over Black Boy, Nightmare Azteca, & Rayden in 2 out of 3 falls [21’21]

This was a really good, fun match. In my opinion have been the two MVPs of Baja Stars this year. They both seem to show up for every show and have really good performances. Nightmare Azteca looks to have a new Predator inspired mask when he comes to the ring that looked pretty cool too. When Buffalo Ayala and Black Boy match up it is pretty great. They really work well with each other. Sargon and Rayden both looked pretty good too. Lots of crowd brawling and dives into the crowd in this too. Good stuff here.

Shamu Jr., Piloto Suicida, & Acero Dorado over Damian 666, TJ Boy, & Star Boy in 2 out of 3 falls [13’09]

This was another pretty fun match. The LA Fuckers team of Shamu Jr., Piloto Suicida, and Acero Dorado were getting a ton of heat, though one very vocal section of the crowd was clearly in their corner. Damian 666 still looks pretty good in the ring. Star Boy and TJ Boy have been really good in Baja Stars too. I remember seeing TJ Boy back in 2001 down in Tijuana and being impressed with him then. He is more grounded now days, but I think he has been really solid. Like I said, this was another really fun match.

After the match there was a really long promo between the two teams. The show really went on for a long time with all the time in between matches. There was also a really nice award presentation earlier in the show, but also just a general delay in between every match. The show had been going nearly 3 hours by this point, with only a little over an hour of wrestling. Tightening up the show is one area that Baja Stars could really look at improving on.

Extreme Tiger over Bestia 666 and Rush by DQ [7’50]

This was supposed to be a tag with Judas Draven, but I guess he cancelled before the show and it was switched to a three way. The match started out pretty good with Bestia 666 and Rush double teaming Extreme Tiger. Eventually Rush turned on Bestia 666 with a drop quick after Extreme Tiger was thrown from the ring. Tiger grabbed rushes legs from the outside and pulled him out of the ring, then got in the ring and did a tope con hilo on Bestia then got back in the ring and immediately did one on Rush as well. The match was actually getting pretty good, with a lot of nice sequences from all three guys, then Bestia 66 sits Extreme Tiger on the top rope and you see Extreme Tiger unfasten the bottom part of his mask. Bestia 666 puts Extreme Tiger in a muscle buster position, and Rush walks up and rips off Tiger’s mask. Ref calls for a DQ and declares Extreme Tiger the winner. And that was the match.

A seven minute main event with a DQ finish was a pretty disappointing end to the match. I was told that Rush didn’t want to work more than a five minute match and there were problems with him from when he stepped off the plane. Whatever happened, it wasn’t a good end to what could have been a really good match.

Overall this was probably the weakest Baja Stars USA main show this year (not including their smaller shows). The undercard was still pretty good, with Danny Limelight and Donnie Suarez and the two six-man matches being really enjoyable. However the bad women’s match and the short disappointing main really brought the show down.