Super Estrellas WWC 12.29.2019 TV Review
- Your hosts are Luis Toledo and Victor Rivera.
- Luis Toledo welcomes us to the show and runs down the upcoming WWC Euphoria card. Then we cut to the WWC intro package.
Match 1: Gigante Nihan/ with Juan Manuel Ortega vs Pedro Portillo III
This is from WWC LockOut. Portillo uses his quickness to elude Nihan and take pot shots at him, but Nihan no sells and Portillo bails. This happens a second time after Nihan overpowers Portillo to the corner, the ref asks for a clean break and as Nihan complies Portillo slaps him. He bails again and gets into an argument with Ortega outside, shoving him to the ground. Nihan attacks him and forces Portillo back to the ring. Nihan with the Kevin Nash offensive repertoire as Portillo pinballs around for him. Stringer Splash connects! He follows that up with a Body Slam and drops three running elbowdrops in sequence. That gets two. There is a significant segment of the crowd who are cheering for Portillo here. His chicken shit heel act is over. Nihan with more punchy-kicky stuff. He whips Portillo and goes for a catapult, but Portillo counters into an arm-breaker and starts working the arm of Nihan on the ground. He drags Nihan and smashes the arm against the ring post as we head to commercial.
When we come back Portillo slaps Nihan and that is a big mistake! Nihan with a big knee to the gut and the CLUBBERIN’ blows. He gets another knee and sends Portillo to the corner. He charges blindly and Portillo moves, sending Nihan shoulder first into the post. Then he gets an armbreaker using the middle rope for leverage. Back in the ring he kicks the arm and heads to the top rope. He gets distracted jawing with Ortega and Nihan recovers and goozles him. Portillo is able to counter into a hanging armbar! The ref starts the five count and Portillo breaks at four. Back in the ring, Portillo continues to focus on the arm. Basic stuff like stomping the arm, elbows to the arm, using the ropes for leverage in an arm wringer, basically the 80’s heel playbook. He goes up top looking for something, but Nihan catches him in chokeslam position! Of course, Portillo attacks the arm to break it off. Portillo is just putting on a clinic on heel heat here. Nihan eventually counters an Irish Whip and Portillo goes under a sidekick and a big boot attempt before Nihan finally catches him coming with a superkick and the crowd erupts! Nihan with a jumping tackle and an inverted atomic drop on Portillo. He goes for a big boot, but Portillo blocks and gives him a blatant field goal kick low blow in front of the ref who barely admonishes him. Come on ref! Portillo uses the knees to get another armbreaker variant. That gets two.
A frustrated Portillo starts digging in his trunks for a set of brass knuckles. The ref spots him and Portillo says, “I don’t care” and goes after Nihan, but he is stopped by a big boot and drops the knucks. Nihan gets the knucks and the ref, of course, decides to stop him. This buys Portillo some time to get white powder out of his trunks. Ortega gets on the apron and kicks it in Portillo’s face! He staggers back blindly and eats the Big Lariat from Gigante Nihan and that’s all she wrote. Props to Nihan for selling the arm after the lariat.
Winner: Gigante Nihan by pinfall (9:50 shown) Rating: *** Perfectly acceptable wrestling here. Portillo did a great job working the arm and being a dick. Nihan did what he was supposed to do: big power moves and have Portillo pinball around for him. Nihan winning in-spite of Portillo’s usual attempts at cheating is great comeuppance for the heel and based on what happened with Xavant on the previous show, it seems Nihan is moving on from Portillo to work with Xavant. Hopefully they have something good cooking for Portillo because I think he is WWC’s best heel at the moment. His ringwork is solid, he draws a ton of heat, he has great psychology and he is over to the point that some fans are starting to cheer him.
Match 2: WWC Tag Team Titles:
La Revolucion© vs The Hangmen (Khaos & Abbadon)/with Pedro Portillo III
From WWC LockOut. The Hangmen try to ambush La Revolucion during their entrance but the champs are ready and this quickly turns into a Pier 6 Brawl all over the arena. The babyfaces have the upper hand for the early portion and they even steal the bull rope and choke the heels with it. One of the members of La Revolucion gets a walking stick from someone in the first row and whacks Khaos with it for good measure. Lots of walking and punching now. Back in the ring as Khaos gets in and one of the members of La Revolucion chases him inside. He goes to the top rope but Portillo III shoves him down and this allows Khaos to take over. The heat segment begins as Portillo keeps getting involved behind the ref’s back and The Hangmen work their usual slow and plodding heat segment. Khaos gets two of a big elbowdrop. Body Slam and a big splash gets two again. After a headlock, Revolucion fights back and connects with a jawbreaker. He hits the ropes and we get a double clothesline spot and both men are down as we head to commercial.
We come back as both men crawl to the corner. Abbadon sees that Khaos won’t make it and he rush into the ring and attacks Revolucion preventing the tag. As the ref pushes him out, Revolucion makes the tag but the ref didn’t see it and he order him outside. This allows the heels to double team the already hurt member of La Revolucion and a double suplex gets two. Abbadon grabs a headlock, Revolucion fights out and connects with a dropkick but Abbadon quickly puts his fire out with a big clothesline for two. Abbadon now lures the other Revolucion into the ring. Of course, he comes in like an idiot, distracts the ref and his partner gets slaughtered by Khaos and Portillo outside. Back in the ring, The Hangmen get Demolition Decapitation for two. They drag Revolucion to the corner and get a double team series of hammering blows. Then Portillo gets involved again. Tag to Abbadon who livens things up with a headlock (yawn). Revolucion FINALLY fights out and drops him with a neck breaker. HOT TAG! Revolucion comes in and drops Khaos with a couple of back suplexes and a powerbomb pin for two as Abbadon breaks it up by splashing his own partner when Revolucion moves. He then flapjacks Abbadon into Khaos! He charges at Abbadon and gets tossed outside as the other Revolucion recovers and comes in. He goes for the ten punches in the corner on Khaos, but at 8 Khaos gives him the Buckle Bomb, followed by a Bossman Slam for two! The heels go for the Hart Attack, but Revolucion counters by giving Abbadon a DDT and then catches Khaos with a spinebuster on the rebound! 1-2…NO! As Portillo gets on the apron and distracts the ref who stupidly stops counting! Revolucion goes after him and gets low-bridged to the outside. The other Revolucion knocks Portillo from the apron with a right hand but turns into a kick from Khaos. The heels set him up for their finisher: The Powerbomb/Neckbreaker Combo (Let’s call it the Guillotine Bomb) for the pinfall win.
Winners and NEW WWC Tag Team Champions: The Hangmen by pinfall (12:40 shown) Rating: *** Another good if unspectacular match between these two teams. I gave it a higher score than last time since the heat segment was livelier with less rest holds than in their previous match. They also didn’t botch any moves as everything was crisp, if formulaic. The finish was not clean, but at least it wasn’t another foreign object finish. The beginning of the match with the heated brawl was also welcome. However, these two teams have faced each other so much that their matches tend to look the same. There is nothing technically wrong with them, but there is little difference between one and the next. Was this good? Yes. Do I want to see it again? Probably not. But we do have yet another rematch coming at WWC Euphoria. Let’s see how that one goes. I also want to give props to both teams because their ringwork is a lot better than it was two years ago when I last paid attention to WWC.
The Wizard Analysis:
- The entire first segment is Eddie Colon, Peter John Ramos and “The Precious One” Gilbert. They are walking in a parking lot somewhere and cut promos on Carlito, Ricky Banderas and Rey Gonzalez. Peter says he is going to squash Rey like a cockroach. Gilbert insults the Colon family and makes note that although Eddie is a Colon he is not the same. “Never the same”– says Eddie. They enter a building and apparently rent a private jet. We cut to the jet as they are drinking champagne and preparing themselves to live a “champions life”. It fades to back with a new logo for The Dynasty.
- The second segment is a video package for The Dynasty set to some Spanish Hip-hop. They interpose scenes of them walking in slow motion and posing with scenes from wrestling events, including Eddie turning on his brother and cousin, Gilbert beating down Carlito and Banderas and Peter John giving Rey Gonzalez a chokeslam. Well put together! Then we fade to black as the show ends.
The Final Word: 7.0/10 Two good matches with satisfying finishes and a well-put together segment/video package with The Dynasty made for a good show that flew very fast. I wish we didn’t have another match coming between Revolucion and The Hangmen, but what can we do? Maybe they needed some fresh opponents interposed between their matches or something but what we had was good, better than their previous match. Pedro Portillo continues to be the MVP of these shows with his chicken shit heel character and solid ringwork making him one of my favorites. Nihan is still green and probably is not capable of going full-tilt yet, but he is watchable and allows himself to be guided by a better hand and when you are that big and have that look sometimes that’s all you need. Thumbs up for Super Estrellas WWC this week.
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