So I went to a lucha show last weekend...
Very interesting deal...they drew more than twice as much as the Oaktown show I saw, most likely because of people who came for the metal, and the lucha fans. The doors opened a little late (about 15 minutes), and it turns out that I was slightly mistaken about the current location of the Oakland Metro...they moved about 4 blocks away from the old location, to a somewhat more industrial area. We were warned not to park on a particular street by a security guy who said "they" (he never said who) would bust our windows. Mind you, the place he suggested parking was across the street, so I doubt he knew what he was talking about, but whatever. Better merch tables than the Oaktown show, but still not that great. There was one table for the band, Savage Machine, one table with some lucha t-shirts and some dolls (mostly in kids sizes, to my chagrin), and a table with lucha masks (too small for me). They also had a lot of WWE stuff...a bunch of signed photos of random WWE guys, a pile of Rey Misterio masks, and some Rey Misterio t-shirts. The only guy at the show who had his own merch available was Chupacabra, who had some photos. Food-wise, the show was pretty awesome, as one of the sponsors was a Mexican restaurant, so they had freshly made tacos for $1.50.
I'm not a great match recapper, and my memory for the names of wrestlers I've seen for the first time is shitty, so bear with me here. The show was put on by Califa Promotions, whose website describes them as a group dedicated to bringing a mix of lucha and American style wrestling to Northern California. I also heard rumblings of them doing this again every two months or so, but take that with a grain of salt. The ring (and some of the staff) were on loan from Big Time wrestling, who apparently brought one of their cheaper, duct-tape ridden rings with them. The Ballard Brothers were there as well, as the Ring Announcer and the Referee (not sure which was which). I ran into the promoter (I think) for Big Time Wrestling, as well as some guys (one of whom is apparently half of the ICW tag team champions) from Insane Championship Wrestling. There were three of them, two guys and a girl, all in ICW t-shirts, handing out photocopied flyers for a show in San Bruno titled "Hardcore August Nights". They seemed like nice enough kids, but San Bruno is kind of a hike for me. Funnily enough the girl won a guitar from Savage Machine because she bought an assload of raffle tickets. Go figure.
So anyway...the wrestling. I didn't think much of the opening match, but it wasn't bad. I enjoyed seeing Vinny Massaro wrestle again. I didn't enjoy him walking out wearing Santino Marella's jacket quite so much, but what can you do? He hit some sweet lariats, but this wasn't really his show, so he didn't really get all of his big spots in...he did carry most of the work for the heels though. His partner was a thin guy in a vaguely Great Sasuke-esque outfit in blue and black. Also on the card was that local Sheik guy, who was working as a face tonight. The undercard had a fair amount of comedy, much of it involving manly beyond my wildest expectations jokes (the heels falling on top of each other suggestively, clutching one another in a cowardly fashion, etc.) and the crowd chanting vaguely homophobic stuff in Spanish. This is normally the kind of shit I ignore, but I was with a friend of mine who isn't much of a wrestling fan, and pointed it out. Not much to say about it other than it was lazy heeling all around, with the exception of Ryan Styles (who tagged with Michael Modest) and another white guy whose name escapes me. They had a good rhythm of spacing the wrestling with musical intermissions. The Main event was alright, but the finish was off...one of the faces hit this...shit, I forget the name, but it's a flipping thing sorta like a Canadian Destroyer, but it's from a 'rana position...it's in Fire Pro, but I forget the name. Anyway, he hits that, and the motherfucker kicks out of it?! And then they finish it with a shitty looking chair spot a minute later. The crowd was totally ready to buy the finish with the flipping thing, it was the most finisher-like thing they'd seen all night outside of Modest's Air Raid Crash, which was broken up too quickly to be taken seriously as a finish.
There were a couple of miscues throughout the night, with some guys being sloppier than others. At some point the crowd started chanting "You Fucked Up", which is how I knew there were some smarks in attendance...I couldn't see it the first time, but during the main even they moved, and I could see that it was the ICW guys chanting. Oddly enough, the ICW guys apparently don't hang out or promote themselves on Internet forums, which surprised me. Apparently they just use Myspace. I mean really...what the hell, dude? How do any of these promotions expect to draw wrestling fans using only MySpace and their own word of mouth? How hard is it to put a link to your website or whatever in a forum sig, and troll about some forums? Or at least post someplace like NorCal Uncensored? Ah well.
So anyway, good show, lots of fun, the metal was great, the wrestling was alright, and it was worth the $12 I spent. They drew pretty good for a sunday night in Oakland, filling all of the seats they put down on the floor plus a decent number (20+) people standing. I'd check it out again if they ran in that venue. I think they should set down more chairs next time though, and put the merch tables in a more visible place. As it was, when I first got in there, I could barely see any of the t-shirts because the lights were low. It was pretty clear that the venue staff weren't familiar with setting up for a wrestling show, but they can learn.
I'm not a great match recapper, and my memory for the names of wrestlers I've seen for the first time is shitty, so bear with me here. The show was put on by Califa Promotions, whose website describes them as a group dedicated to bringing a mix of lucha and American style wrestling to Northern California. I also heard rumblings of them doing this again every two months or so, but take that with a grain of salt. The ring (and some of the staff) were on loan from Big Time wrestling, who apparently brought one of their cheaper, duct-tape ridden rings with them. The Ballard Brothers were there as well, as the Ring Announcer and the Referee (not sure which was which). I ran into the promoter (I think) for Big Time Wrestling, as well as some guys (one of whom is apparently half of the ICW tag team champions) from Insane Championship Wrestling. There were three of them, two guys and a girl, all in ICW t-shirts, handing out photocopied flyers for a show in San Bruno titled "Hardcore August Nights". They seemed like nice enough kids, but San Bruno is kind of a hike for me. Funnily enough the girl won a guitar from Savage Machine because she bought an assload of raffle tickets. Go figure.
So anyway...the wrestling. I didn't think much of the opening match, but it wasn't bad. I enjoyed seeing Vinny Massaro wrestle again. I didn't enjoy him walking out wearing Santino Marella's jacket quite so much, but what can you do? He hit some sweet lariats, but this wasn't really his show, so he didn't really get all of his big spots in...he did carry most of the work for the heels though. His partner was a thin guy in a vaguely Great Sasuke-esque outfit in blue and black. Also on the card was that local Sheik guy, who was working as a face tonight. The undercard had a fair amount of comedy, much of it involving manly beyond my wildest expectations jokes (the heels falling on top of each other suggestively, clutching one another in a cowardly fashion, etc.) and the crowd chanting vaguely homophobic stuff in Spanish. This is normally the kind of shit I ignore, but I was with a friend of mine who isn't much of a wrestling fan, and pointed it out. Not much to say about it other than it was lazy heeling all around, with the exception of Ryan Styles (who tagged with Michael Modest) and another white guy whose name escapes me. They had a good rhythm of spacing the wrestling with musical intermissions. The Main event was alright, but the finish was off...one of the faces hit this...shit, I forget the name, but it's a flipping thing sorta like a Canadian Destroyer, but it's from a 'rana position...it's in Fire Pro, but I forget the name. Anyway, he hits that, and the motherfucker kicks out of it?! And then they finish it with a shitty looking chair spot a minute later. The crowd was totally ready to buy the finish with the flipping thing, it was the most finisher-like thing they'd seen all night outside of Modest's Air Raid Crash, which was broken up too quickly to be taken seriously as a finish.
There were a couple of miscues throughout the night, with some guys being sloppier than others. At some point the crowd started chanting "You Fucked Up", which is how I knew there were some smarks in attendance...I couldn't see it the first time, but during the main even they moved, and I could see that it was the ICW guys chanting. Oddly enough, the ICW guys apparently don't hang out or promote themselves on Internet forums, which surprised me. Apparently they just use Myspace. I mean really...what the hell, dude? How do any of these promotions expect to draw wrestling fans using only MySpace and their own word of mouth? How hard is it to put a link to your website or whatever in a forum sig, and troll about some forums? Or at least post someplace like NorCal Uncensored? Ah well.
So anyway, good show, lots of fun, the metal was great, the wrestling was alright, and it was worth the $12 I spent. They drew pretty good for a sunday night in Oakland, filling all of the seats they put down on the floor plus a decent number (20+) people standing. I'd check it out again if they ran in that venue. I think they should set down more chairs next time though, and put the merch tables in a more visible place. As it was, when I first got in there, I could barely see any of the t-shirts because the lights were low. It was pretty clear that the venue staff weren't familiar with setting up for a wrestling show, but they can learn.