[2000-11-02-IWRG] Hijo del Lizmark & Black Dragon & Felino & Ultimo Vampiro & Super Parka vs Enterrador & Super Mega & Mega & Blue Panther & Oficial (Mask Cage)

[gordi]

The cage is a very cool-looking, double-tall lime green chain link job. A couple of minutes in we get a helpful graphic explaining that the Good Guys are: Hijo de Lizmark, Black Dragon, My Boy Felino, Ultimo Vampiro, and Super Parka. The Bad Guys are: Enterrador (who is very large and wearing a Misfits t-shirt), Super Mega and his tag partner Mega, Blue Panther and Oficial (who has a police-style outfit and mask that are kinda reminiscent of early Osaka Pro, so I like him even though he doesn't seem to be all that good at the pro wrestling part of his job).

 

They all kind of mill around for nine minutes and 59 seconds, tossing dudes into the corner and doing some half-hearted mask ripping... but at the ten minute mark there is some kind of explosion, and then everyone goes nuts, scrambling to escape or to stop dudes from escaping. It gets pretty exciting, as dudes don't climb up slowly so that the other guy can catch them. They look for a free corner and fly up there as quickly as possible... you know, like dudes who are actively trying to escape a cage might do. Black Dragon is the first man free, he pulls an amazing athletic leap half-way up the cage and is up and over like Spider-Man, except that he seems to slip going over the top of the cage and just plummets straight to the floor, dead weight style.

 

After that, understandably, most of the other dudes climb up very quickly but then go over the top kind of gingerly and make sure they have secure footing before climbing back down outside the cage.

 

A quick Google search reveals that this is the first ever El Castillo del Terror match. It's become an annual event. The last guy to escape loses his mask or hair. Presumably, nobody is allowed to try to escape until ten minutes have passed. That's a pretty good idea. The problem is that you are left rooting for your boys to escape but then you are left watching the guys who are not your boys, if you get what I mean.

 

The Final Four end up being Ultimo Dragon, Oficial, Super Mega, and Super Parka. They do a nice job of story telling for each of the last four eliminations. One of the tecnicos escapes first, leaving the other tecnioco to take a nasty double team and earn some sympathy, then there is a classic malfunction at the junction spot that evens things up, then outside interference and a turn-about is fair play spot...

 

Overall, pretty unique and very entertaining from the ten minute mark on.

[soup23]

A huge cage for this match. Lucha cage matches are maligned and this gives a pretty good example of why at first. Opening ten minutes is all punches and kicks. Some good stuff mainly from Super Parka and Blue Panther but a lot of mindless feeling action. Then confetti falls from the sky and everyone works to escape the cage by climbing as rapidly as they can. Mega is able to sneak away. Felino is next which is disappointing since I was hoping he would carry the load later on in the match when the ring cleared out from a workrate perspective. Black Dragon and El Hijo Del Lizamark are the next two out and the match is clearing out. Blue Panther then makes his quick escape and we are left with Super Parka and a lot of lower level guys which is another reason these matches do carry stakes in being an apuestas match but usually result in lower level talent duking it out. Super Parka and Enterrador are next out and we are left with Super Mega, Ultimate Vampiro and Offical inside the ring. Oficial gets two quick punches and runs out and we are left with our final two. I’m hopeful that the action will pick up now. It unfortunately doesn’t and we get some sloppy action. Super Mega accidently loses his mask taking a concession box shot in the corner. Vampiro ducks a punch and then escapes and Mega is forced to unmask proper now. Mega is only a 23 year old guy so extremely young to be maskless and we get his name as a graphic on the screen. This didn’t make me hopeful for upcoming lucha cage matches throughout the decade. **1/4

[ohtani's jacket]

I thought this was all right considering that a cage match isn't the most authentic gimmick in Mexico. Yes, the brawling was meandering but no more so than any Battle Royal in history. I found it charming in a way that they didn't really know how to milk the drama out of the escape rules. Even the final pair were fumbling in the dark when it came to basic escape match tropes. But the crowd appreciated it as something different and it wasn't awful by any stretch of the imagination. I'm probably giving them a huge pass but it was more interesting than your run-of-the-mill, slowgoing IWRG trios match.