Super Estrellas WWC TV Review 12.01.2019

 

Super Estrellas WWC TV Review 12.01.2019

 

The show opens with Orlando Colon (Epico) receiving what appears to be an Amazon package in his front door. A blank envelope is taped to the box. Inside he finds three more black playing cards, numbers 4 and 5 and the Joker, which is traditionally a zero. “450?”- he says. “You want to play? Let’s play”. This is an obvious hint for Mecha Wolf 450, aka the former “Mr. 450” Hammet. Interesting,

Luis Toledo welcomes us to the show, six days from WWC LockOut, their final live event of 2019. He runs down some of the card, including “El Mesias” Ricky Banderas vs “The Precious One” Gilbert in the main event, the live Carlito’s Cabana with Carlito, Eddie and Orlando Colon and hints at an appearance by Mecha Wolf 450. We jump to the excellent Super Estrellas WWC intro package.

 

Match 1:  6-Man Tag Team Match:

Gigante Nihan & La Potencia/ with Juan Manuel Ortega vs Pedro Portillo III & Doom Patrol / with Crystal

 

From Noche de Campeones. I have never seen any of these six guys in action. Portillo managed The Hangmen on the previous show and the Doom Patrol are face-painted dudes with gear that reminds me of the Samoans. I have heard rumors that one of them is related to WWC heel announcer El Wizard and there is sone resemblance there. Gigante Nihan is impressive, legit big guy and they think he has a lot of potential. La Potencia look like two athletic young dudes. The six men face off and Portillo runs away after shoving Nihan. Potencia and Doom Patrol go at it and the babyfaces block an irish whip and connect with dual kicks and clotheslines to send the heels packing. Bear with me as I don’t know the name of these guys yet. It seems the guy with long hair in La Potencia is called Wonka, while the short-haired Doom Patrol is called Kole I think, and they remain legal in the ring. The babyfaces isolate Kole in the corner and kick the crap out of him in a neat reversal of the usual formula. The short-haired guy from La Potencia is called Nemesis and he comes in for some kicks, then tags Nihan. He gets a Stinger Splash on poor Kole and now Wonka comes in with a clothesline off his own, followed by Nemesis coming in and they do the Hady’s classic spot in which Nemesis gets on all fours and Wonka springboards from his back towards the corner with a sidekick. Then Wonka and Nihan combine for a sidewalk slam/neckbreaker double-team move. Nemesis is legal and gets a near fall. He goes to the ropes, but Crystal pulls his leg. He gets distracted and Portillo tries to ambush him, but Nemesis fights back and tosses him outside. He then elbows the other Doom Patrol guy off the apron. Kole is able to capitalize and catches him with a jumping neckbreaker from behind. That gets two. He blatantly chokes Nemesis and goes over to attack Wonka for some reason. Tag to the other Doom Patrol guy, and he quickly tags Portillo (?). Doom Patrol get an awkward double team move (someone must have gotten confused) and then shove Nemesis into a neat T-Bone Suplex from Portillo. That gets a near fall as Wonka breaks it up. Portillo provokes Wonka and he comes in like an idiot, allowing for the illegal double-team on Nemesis. The bigger dude from Doom Patrol remains in the ring and works over Nemesis with boring moves. Nemesis eventually makes the comeback and gets a near fall out of a beautiful picture-perfect dropkick. That is cut short by a Doom Patrol clothesline and they go back to the heat segment as Doom Patrol do another illegal switch. We take a commercial break, including an ad for WWC LockOut.

Back to the action as Kole gets a near fall out of a dropkick to the back of the head. He provokes the babyfaces again, leading to more double teams and illegal switches. Portillo remains in the ring and gets two off a back elbow. He distracts the ref as Doom Patrol continues the massacre on Nemesis. The big dude from Doom Patrol tags in and I finally learned his name: Death Warrant. Cool name for such a so-so wrestler. Kole tags back in and they combine for cool-looking spot as Warrant tosses Nemesis into Kole’s knees (he dropped down to the floor) and then Kole shoves him with his feet and back into a German Suplex for two, as Wonka breaks it up. Nihan has been standing in the corner doing nothing for such a long time that I completely forgot he was in the match. Everybody comes in at once and….it leads nowhere as it seems they forgot what they had to do and everyone kind of flops around until Nemesis and Kole remain in the ring. That was really bad. Nemesis finally wakes up and reverses a move into a Proto Bomb! Kole crawls to the corner and tags Portillo as Nemesis tags Nihan! Portillo attacks, but of course, Nihan’s job is to kick ass. Inverted Atomic Drop followed by a big boot drops Portillo. Before I can crack a Kevin Nash joke, Nihan actually superkicks both members of Doom Patrol out of the ring. I am sure Nash didn’t do that. He goes for another superkick on Portillo, but he rolls under. He charges and eats a Chokeslam for his trouble! That gets two as Death Warrant breaks it up. The ref is trying to get La Potencia out of the ring and this allows Doom Patrol to double-team Nihan. They go high and low with a double tackle (Kole to the back of the knees and Warrant to the chest) of Nihan and that gets two (isn’t Portillo the legal man?) as Wonka breaks it up. Pier 6 brawl as Warrant gets knocked out of the ring. La Potencia grab Kole and drop him with a sitdown powerbomb/neckbreaker combo. That gets two (once again, Portillo and Nihan should be legal here!) as Portillo breaks it up. It all breaks down as bodies fall and Portillo and Nihan remain in the ring. Death Warrrant grabs at Nihan’s leg from the outside as Portilo is putting an object on his kneepad. Juan Manuel Ortega attacks Death Warrant to break it up as the ref gets conveniently distracted. Portillo with a sloppy object-infused Shinning Wizard and that’s enough to keep Gigante Nihan down for the count.

Winners: Pedro Portillo & Doom Patrol (12:07 shown). Rating: ** Once again, WWC’s confusing disregard for tag team rules (tags seem to be sporadically enforced, it’s like a weird cross between normal American tag team rules and Mexican Lucha Libre) get in the way and there where a few rough spots in which they seemed to forget what they where supposed to do, but overall I enjoyed the match. La Potencia really impressed me with their moves and Nihan and Portillo both have that “it” factor that leads me to think they will be big players soon.

 

Match 2:  WWC Television Championship: Zcion RT1 vs El Gran Armando ©/ with El Wizard

 

This is also from Noche de Campeones. Armando used to be Gigante Nihan’s tag team partner and is a fellow big guy with a mullet. I think he is the one who turned on Nihan since he has remained a heel. He comes to the ring with the TV belt and a whip. Per the stipulations of the match, El Wizard will be suspended 20-feet in the air in a SkyJack. He makes a big show off it and says he has vertigo and has a medical certificate that says he cannot be suspended in the air. He says that if the fans came to see him up in the air, they are screwed and basically tells them to fuck themselves as WWC beeps the audio. Of course, the ref points out the medical certificate is from a gynecologist (haha) and up he goes. He acts like he is about to faint. Zcion RT1 is another of those new young talents I have never seen before. I read somewhere online that he pulls double duty by being one of the masked members of La Revolucion, the WWC Tag Team Champions, but that has not been confirmed. He pulls a Bret Hart and gives his sunglasses to a kid in the front row. For some reason they spend a good 4 minutes of wasted time as Zcion mocks Wizard and Armando (who is bigger, stronger and meaner looking) actually looks like a lost puppy because his manager is up there. Hey, they have a female ref too. Cool to see WWC not stuck in the 70’s. Bell finally rings and Zcion slaps the shit out of Armando! That’s a bad idea as El Gran Armando proceeds to kick his ass. Zcion finally escapes by going under a clothesline and countering with a jump kick, followed by a Japanese Arm Drag (!). He gets 4 punches in the corner before being shoved off and Armando counters a charge with a drop-toe hold into the bottom buckle as we go to commercial.

We come back as Armando is stalking Zcion, but Zcion catches him with a sloppy Ace Crusher for two. The roles are reversed as now Armando catches a stalking Zcion with a side kick. That gets two. Armando with a series of hip tosses and then locks the arm. I wonder why wrestlers bother working the arm and leg if they have ZERO submission moves that target that limb? Anyways, they roll around for a bit until Zcion can escape and they are back on their feet. Armando eats a superkick and Zcion heads up top: He nails the Buffed Blockbuster! (Buff Bagwell’s flipping neckbreaker) but it only gets two. Damn, such a great move and it is not anyone’s finish. Someone in WWE or AEW needs to steal that. Now it’s Zcion’s turn to work the arm until Armando escapes with a blatant low blow that the ref somehow missed. They trade offense for a bit until Zcion takes over with a flapjack and an enziguiri. Armando charges Zcion with his arms up like an idiot and eats a spear for two. “El Hombre Bestia” Enyel (wasn’t it spelled Angel the last time I saw him?) shows up to distract Zcion and the ref as Wizard drops a set of brass knuckles tied with a cord! Armando gets the knucks, blasts Zcion and gets the win to retain.

Winner and still WWC Television Champion: El Gran Armando (10:18 shown) Rating: **1/2 Very energetic and well-worked match for the most part, but WWC’s tendency to overdue the interferences and cheap finishes rears its ugly head again. Two matches, both with cheap foreign object finishes. Why not split these two bouts in two different shows instead of showing them back to back?

They announce that due to the events of this match, Zcion RT1 will face “El Hombre Bestia” Enyel at WWC LockOut. Also, Gigante Nihan vs Pedro Portillo III in a one on one match and Bellito Calderon vs Mighty Ursus for the WWC Puerto Rican Title are added to the show.

Up next is “El Wizard Analiza” (The Wizard Analysis) which is essentially the same thing as “What’s happening in WWC but from a heel perspective.

They recap the events from La Revolucion vs The Hangmen that we saw on the previous show. They will have a rematch at WWC LockOut and both teams take turns doing promos, with Portillo III talking for the heels.

They recap the return of Ricky Banderas and hype his match with Gilbert. More promo time for both men regarding their chair on a pole match at WWC LockOut. Banderas is the “master of the chair” due to his stiff chair shots and that’s why the match makes sense on paper. Banderas promises chair shots galore to teach Gilbert why they call him El Mesias.

They confirm that Orlando “Epico” Colon will defend the WWC Universal Championship against Mecha Wolf 450 at WWC LockOut. The show closes with a video of Mecha Wolf dropping some playing cards. Orlando walks into his locker and is going through his things and…. the show ends? I think something got clipped in the transition to YouTube and they didn’t bother to add it back.

 

 

6.0

The final score: review Average

The 411

Once again, this was a decent show and better than the previous one since both matches were decent. There were some blown spots and the lack of graphics during the introductions means that it is hard to tell apart who is who if you are not a fan. I didn’t knew the names of 4 of the 6 guys in the ring in the opening match and that is a problem. Also, the overbooking and lame finishes rear their ugly heads again. I understand the need to keep Nihan strong and Portillo’s only chance to beat him needs to be with some dirty means, but why do the same in the second match? The whole Orlando vs Mecha Wolf match is built as a local dream match and in a way, it is, but it had very little buildup outside of the playing card vignettes. Sure, Mecha Wolf is in Mexico working for The Crash and doing some stuff in the USA, but I feel like it needed more. Still, the show felt like a breeze to go through, the production values and overall ringwork is better, and I am excited to keep watching. It seems Carlito and Eddie putting more time and effort into the company and modernizing it is paying off.