Earlier this year Baja Stars USA announced it would be going on hiatus, possibly for good. Luckily that didn’t last very long at all, and they are back to running pretty regularly. Over the last few years they have been one of, if not the best pure lucha libre promotions in Southern California.
The promotion will normally bring in some bigger names in lucha libre, some top wrestlers from Tijuana, and fill out the card with local luchadors and independent wrestlers. Their August 18 event was no different.
I figured the crowd would be down a lot with the card not being as stacked on top as some of their shows, NXT Takeover going on, and four different pro-wrestling events all going on in the San Diego area on the same day. They managed to draw a decent crowd however, far from what they have done at times, but north of 150 people.
Dementor over Motros Jungle. [5’48]
There were some apparent miscommunications in this, but it was kept really short. I always feel like Motros is a great example of the ceiling on these lucha shows. He shows up on so many different lucha shows, does fairly solid work, but never really moves up the cards.
Stigma & Anton Carrillo over Veinom & Inframundo Jr., Death Scorpio & Nightmare Azteca, and Star Dragon & Tigrillo in an torneo cibernetico de parejas increibles. [21’30]
This was a mess. I had no idea what the rules to the match were going in. If it was explained I missed it with my limited Spanish. The match started out with all eight wrestlers in the ring fighting, and then after some time it turned into a tag-team tournament with the teams assembled somewhat at random. If there was a mechanism for deciding the teams I missed it. There was lots of sloppy looking brawling throughout. Veinom looked like he was hit in the nuts and was running funny the rest of the match after. Either that or he really has mastered selling a nut shot. Veinom is pretty underrated. He puts in some pretty good work and takes a ton of punishment in these matches. I thought Nightmare Azteca and Anton Carillo also stood out in the match as well, but this wasn’t good at all. I’m not sure what the reward was for Stigma and Anton Carillo winning the match was either, as neither of them are on the next show.
Danny Limelight over Adrian Quest, Matt Vandagriff, & Rocketboy D’Marco Wilson to win the Baja Stars USA Cruiserweight Championship. [8’14]
This was basically an exhibition to show off what these four guys can do. Limelight and Wilson fought on the outside early while Vandagriff and Quest were in the ring. After that they traded off opponents throughout the match. Vandagriff has some incredibly athletic offense. While the match didn’t have a lot in the way of a structure and was pretty much a spotfest with some crowd brawling tossed in, it was a lot of fun and never had a lull in the action. Limelight won with a Spanish Fly on Vandagriff. Limelight is now the first Baja Stars USA Cruiserweight Champion. I hope this title gets more use than the women’s championship that hasn’t been defended in the promotion in over a year. This was the best match on the show.
TJ Boy & Danny Limelight over RockNES Monsters (Yuma & Kevin Martenson). [8’35]
After Limelight won the title, RockNES came to the ring to celebrate with him, but then ended up jumping him. TJ Boy came out for the save and this became a tag match between TJ Boy and Limelight versus RockNES Monsters. They brawled throughout the gym and Martenson even hung from the basketball nets to attack his opponent. This was a much better brawl than whatever was going on in the second match. I liked how they transitioned straight from the previous match into this one, keeping the action going without a break. One issue Baja Stars USA sometimes has is that there is too much time between matches. This was pretty fun.
Daga & Barbaro Cavenario over Rey Horus & Extreme Tiger. [11’52]
This was supposed to be a four corners match but it somehow became a tag team match. There was some nice sequences in this, but it never really got its flow going. There was once again a lot of crowd brawling but nothing too crazy. The ending was a little weird, as TJ Boy came out and pushed Cavenario off the top rope, Extreme Tiger went for the pin, the ref counted two, then awarded the match to Daga and Barbaro Cavenario. I guess this is to set up TJ Boy and Cavenario being on opposite sides of a trios match on the next show.
Overall this wasn’t one of Baja Stars USA’s better shows. Danny Limelight had a great performance wrestling two matches. The cruiserweight title match and the tag match that followed it were both fun and easily the two best matches on the show.
Baja Stars USA will be back on October 20th at the Montgomery Waller Rec. Center in San Diego. That show is headlined by Negro Casas, Felino, and Barbaro Cavenario facing TJ Boy, Arandu, and Star Boy.
