Current Watch List:

• Dean Allmark vs. Vitto Furo (ASW)
• James Storm & Abyss vs. Matt & Jeff Hardy (TNA)
• Bobby Roode vs. Eric Young (TNA)
• Kurt Angle, Gunner, Austin Aries & Bobby Lashley vs. MVP, Samoa Joe, Low Ki & Kenny King in a Lethal Lockdown match (TNA)
• Shocker & Negro Casas (c) vs. La Sombra & La Mascara for the CMLL World Tag Team championship (CMLL)
• Maximo vs. Rey Bucanero in a lightning match (CMLL)

Matches Watched:

Dean Allmark vs. Vitto Furo
Europe
ASW

The standard light fare but filling Dean Allmark match.  Furo is from Finland so they go hard on the nationalistic stuff at the beginning, with Allmark leading the kids in an “England” chant.  The referee was great in his role during this, egging Furo on in a folksy, old man way and really selling the crowd’s reaction.  As much fun as Allmark is in the ASW setting, I do wish he was given a spotlight in a more standard, modern setting.  The little I have seen of him outside of ASW (Preston City Wrestling, his one shot with Wrestle-1 last year), he has adapted well.  As fun as these matches are, they are all wrestled from the same blueprint and you know the ending before they get there.  He’s talented enough that I wish I got more of an opportunity to see him in different contexts.

James Storm & Abyss vs. Matt & Jeff Hardy
United States
TNA
Cage

There is no way this should have been as awful as it was, but then again, that’s the TNA story.  I mean, you have Jeff & Matt Hardy who invented the modern stunt who tag team match.  Jeff is still searching for different ways to kill himself during a pro wrestling match and Matt is a smart, veteran worker.  James Storm is a decent-ish bawler who works hard and Abyss . . . well, I guess Abyss in a hardcore match is better than Abyss in a non-hardcore match.  Yet it was just so incredibly dull.  Jeff took some big bumps but they didn’t have their usual impact.  The rest was just noise.  Not good at all.

Bobby Roode vs. Eric Young
United States
TNA
Cage

On the positive side, they got the booking right.  Roode beat Eric Young up a bunch, Young Bleed, and Roode got a decisive revenge win.  On the downside, the work was dull and unmemorable.  TNA usually struggles with getting these low-hanging-fruit booking deals right, so I’ll take what I can.

Kurt Angle, Gunner, Austin Aries & Bobby Lashley vs. MVP, Samoa Joe, Low Ki & Kenny King
United States
TNA
Lethal Lockdown 

Unusual over booked Lethal Lockdown match.  More entertaining the previous matches on the same card, but I still found myself just wanting to see this end.  Ki is wasting his (possibly) last few good years away here.  He could and should be doing so much more.

Negro Casas & Shocker © vs. La Sombra & La Mascara
Lucha
CMLL
CMLL World Tag Team Championship

Good match.  I had the Sombra/Rush vs. Casas/Shocker tag title match from last July in my top 10 of 2014.  This match was a couple steps below, but still very good.  I loved the first fall as it was essentially Casas fighting from behind with Mascara and Sombra cutting him off.  The entire match came off that way, but I liked the way the first fall was worked the most.  Felt almost southern tag-ish in nature.  It was a good formula because Casas is great at taking a beating and it giving it back, while Shocker is best suited to hit a stiff clothesline or a nice spear then disappear for a while.  The double dive spot with Casas and Shocker was awesome – Shocker’s tope is one consistently excellent move at this stage of his career.  Sombra is getting legit heat in Arena Mexico these days and that added to the match.  It goes without saying that this would have been far better with Rush in the place of La Mascara, but Mascara did not ruin the match at all.   I think Casas might be off to a strong start in ’15 than he was last year at this time, which is saying something.

Maximo vs. Rey Bucanero
Lucha
CMLL
Lightning

It has been a good start to 2015 for lightning matches with several good/memorable ones.  Maximo and Rey Bucanero did not add to that list.  Bucanero does not bring much to the table these days and this was really flat as a result.  The ending also stunk.  Not just because it was a foul, but because it felt tacked on.  The match certainly did not get me any more excited for the upcoming double hair match which is was the entire point.