I think Baja Stars USA has had a pretty good year, and while not everything they did worked, for the most part they put on some really fun shows. Their shows have normally featured an undercard with local and Baja California indy luchadors mixed in with a few big name luchadors on top. The undercards have consistently been strong, with the top of the cards being hit or miss depending who was on the show.
Mr. Impact over Damian Smith [3’24]
Desterio over Exodus [3’28]
There wasn’t much to either of the first two matches. Both were really short and were neither good nor bad, they were just there.
Motros Jungle & Lady Lee vs. Veinom & Amazona went to a no-contest when Motros turned on Lady Lee [13’58]
This wasn’t very good at all. Motros and Veinom are both normally pretty solid but in their first sequence together in this match it was really sloppy and they didn’t seem to be on the same page. When they tagged out and Lady Lee and Amazona got in the ring, it didn’t get better. Amazona can be really good but her and Lady Lee did not seem to gel well together in this. Lady Lee has been awful in everything I’ve seen her in this year. She is generally sloppy to the point there are other wrestlers who will not work a match with her. I want to be constructive, but when you are wondering what you did so bad in a past life that you have been subjected to so many Lady Lee matches this year it’s hard. When Motros and Veinom got back in the ring for a second sequence it was actually pretty good. The match went back downhill after that however. Eventually Motros turned on Lady Lee and both were beating her down in the ring and the ref ruled it a no contest. A good portion of the crowd was cheering this beat down. Black Danger and Buffalo Ayala ran out and joined in the beat down. Eventually some technicos including Seiya came out for the save.
Nightmare Azteca over Toxik and Efekto via submission on Efekto [12’45]
This was originally supposed to be a tag match, but Maverick wasn’t there so it became a three way. There was some pretty good stuff here. Nightmare Azteca is always solid and both Tokix and Efekto looked pretty good. The setup of the match, with one guy on the outside while the other two are in the ring, didn’t really make any sense as it seemed like the third guy could just come in at any time. Nightmare Azteca got Efekto to tap with a sort of crossface. This was pretty fun, but the booking with the match setup was silly.
Buffalo Ayala, Black Danger, & Zarco over Centurion, Black Boy, & Seiya 2 out of 3 falls [20’54]
This was a fantastic match. This is exactly the type of match why you should support local lucha libre. Black Danger is so fun to watch in the ring. The first fall was basically non-stop fast paced action. Black Boy and Buffalo Ayalya worked at such a fast pace together that every match before this seemed in slow motion in retrospect. Seiya did a pretty crazy tope con giro where it looked like he hit his head on the floor. The techino team of Seiya, Black Boy, and Centurion took the first fall in about five minutes. The second fall consisted mainly of crowd brawling. Lots of luchadors getting thrown through chairs. It actually got kind of funny because the section I was in got destroyed, then security helped line the chairs back up, then it got destroyed again, and then a third time. The rudos ended up taking the second fall. The third fall started out with more crowd brawling but then moved back into the ring. I thought the ending was pretty good, as Black Danger and Buffalo Ayala took their masks off and threw them into Seiya and Centurion’s hands when the ref wasn’t looking then when the ref turned around he awarded the rudos the fall by way of DQ.
H.A.T.E (Rico Dynamite, Tito Escondido, & Che Cabrera) over Douglas James, Jake Atlas, & Darwin Finch [17’28]
This was another really good match. H.A.T.E was of course the rudos and came out wearing sombreros. Everyone got to show off a lot of offense in the match, but the story of the match was H.A.T.E beating down Jake Atlas while he was desperately trying to tag one of his partners. This was my first time seeing Jake Atlas, who just debuted in August and he was really good. The match was originally supposed to have Danny Limelight and D’Marco Wilson as Douglas James partners, and while I’m not saying by any means that I thought Jake Atlas was better than Danny Limelight right now, he probably worked out better in the match because of how convincing his selling was, which was always a knock on Limelight. The only real negative for me in the match is they did a spot where everyone stood in a group waiting for Atlas to do a moonsault (looking at the video they stood there 6 seconds). I thought Darwin Finch had some nice offense, Douglas James was excellent as always, and all three guys in H.A.T.E looked good, but Atlas was really the star of the match. Tito hit a sitdown powerbomb on Atlas and then Che hit the frog splash for the win.
El Heredero Rey Misterio over Moritz [6’42]
This match was a late addition to the show, and wasn’t very good. At least they kept it short. Misterio hit a spanish fly on Mortiz after a run in by someone I wasn’t sure who they were.
Dragon Lee, Maximo, & Rayden over Star Boy, TJ Boy, & Enfermero Jr. 2 out of 3 falls [9’40]
When I mentioned earlier how the main events with the big stars could be hit and miss, this one was a miss for me. The match started with all of the rudos taking turns going up against Maximo, who if you aren’t familiar with plays a sort of gay character that you could only get away with on a lucha libre show in 2016. He sexually assaulted all the rudos, then the ref which lead to an all out brawl. Dragon Lee was tossed from the ring during this, and he got back in for about 20 seconds a little later, but spent the majority of the first fall outside the ring. The second fall starts with Dragon Lee getting in the ring, getting beat down by all three rudos and tossed from the ring. After Maximo and Rayden do most of the work to take out the rudos, Dragon Lee comes in for the pinning sequence, where they lined up all three rudos and all three technicos piled on top of them. During the third fall Dragon lee actually had a sequence with each of the three rudos, and when he was up against Star Boy it was really good. That only lasted all of a few minutes however. The match eventually ended when Maximo rolled up Enfermero Jr. after kissing him for the third fall. This was a fairly disappointing match because there was too much Maximo and Enfermero Jr. and not enough Dragon Lee.
Overall it was an OK show, certainly not the best Baja Stars show of the year, but the mid-card was really fun. This was the last Baja Stars USA show for 2016, and they have not announced any dates for 2017 yet.
