Averno vs. Ultimo Guerrero

[7.0] "Yes they are old and can not move that well any more, but they tried hard, got the crowd interested and actually wrestled a good lucha match. 6/10 breads"

[5.0] "Old-and-out-of-shape-guy lucha is my least favourite form of lucha, and this match shows exactly why that's the case. This was still a finely worked match at worst, but it didn't offer any of the usual things I most enjoy in my lucha. It had a generic match structure with the heel jumping the babyface in the pre-match, keeping up the pressure, and getting the 1st fall quite early as a result. Averno earned that fall via an armbar, so it was good to see him continue to target that same arm as he attempted to get his 2nd fall, though Guerrero's arm-selling would be very inconsistent and only show up in real time whenever Averno returned to actively targeting it. Averno's heel character work was very basic, just featuring a bunch of generically arrogant poses and taunts, none of which were too interesting or entertaining. Guerrero had the crowd behind him, but that didn't result in his work being any better than expected. He showed decent energy in his comeback to get his own 1st fall, but it was ridiculous how quickly and with what little relative effort he earned it to even the match up. This stupid, formulaic approach is what always makes lucha so difficult for me to get into, especially when the wrestlers aren't impressing me with their athletic stunts in the mean time. Their work remained very basic as they both competed for the 3rd and final fall, with all their standard lucha spots -- while okay in isolation -- being just far too slow and lacking in finesse compared to the flashy and exciting stunts I want in my lucha, plus I can *actually* see that exciting stuff from the younger guys on these very same shows, which makes me question why I would remotely care about these guys that are far past their prime. They had lots of near falls but they were never that exciting because they all followed from pretty underwhelming attacks, even with their bigger spots. The entire final 1/3rd was literally just both men taking turns hitting each other with top-rope moves and then slowly selling on the mat before making their way back up the turnbuckle for yet another top-rope move, which was annoyingly robotic and just nonsensical from structural standpoint (since you get massively diminishing returns from repeating the exact same type of big spots in such relatively quick succession). I didn't hate this or think it was outright bad, but it really didn't offer much in terms of entertainment, unless you're a long-time fan of lucha in general and/or either of these 2 guys. **3/4"

[8.0] "Was not expecting this to be so good. UG & Averno show they still have great chemistry, can take each other's shot well and had the crowd eating out of their hands. Very good addition to both mens' resumes"

[8.0] "Love how these wrestlers work the crowd. The crowd was very spicy as Averno and UG beat the holy hell out of each other for twenty minutes. Dramatic, technical, and most importantly, entertaining. UG put on his working pants here, thankfully."

[8.0] "A superb gem to watch. They worked the crowd so well. The mexicans were on fire here as Averno was a great rudo as Guerrero did it as a face. Great story told as well. Nothing complicated, but that was so effective. The action had the same feeling, Guerrero and Averno are old bastards, so they kept their energy for the biggest spots as the crowd was mad for these bumps. Not a clear lucha style, that was somewhat a big brawl. Both men showed good resilience despite their tiredness. A superb lesson told by these two veterans."

[8.0] "The crowd was electric for this. They were really into this match and Ultimo in particular. The match starts with Averno attacking Ultimo before the whistle and the first fall quickly ends with Averno beating Ultimo before then taunting the crowd. The second fall is longer but just as good as Ultimo fights his way back into even footing and Averno loses all of his momentum. The final fall was awesome. Ultimo? s selling was excellent as was his tendency to make every nearfall dramatic. It was a great combination of technico and rudo work to make the cmll formula work. ****"

[8.0] "That was a long 20 minute match for the performers, but they were hiding their fatigue as building the tension quite well. Averno played a great bad guy and crowd adores Guerrero who sold his beatings as if it was his last breath. Great showing from both wrestlers, that showed that you don't have to do a ton of flips for a lucha match to be good."