Penguin's Lucha Corner: La Jarochita & Lluvia vs. La Metalica & Reyna Isis
CMLL Super Viernes, Arena Mexico (03.02.22)
Front Matter
Each image used in this newsletter is linked to the Twitter account responsible for it: simply click through to bring up the original post. If you are a photographer whose image I have used here, and you do not grant me permission to reproduce your work, please let me know (Twitter: @FlupkeDiFlupke) and I will remove it. Thanks!
写真家さん、ここにイメージが写すことが許可しなければ聞いて下さって私は大至急除きます (ツイターの @FlupkeDiFlupke です)。ありがとうございます!
Subscribe to Marshmallow Bomb for free to receive all our posts direct to your inbox, or donate $5 a month to access the full archive. A portion of every subscription supports Amazon Frontlines, an organisation dedicated to working with Indigenous peoples to defend their way of life, the Amazon rainforest, and our climate future.
CMLL’s investment in their Amazonas division goes in cycles. There are times where they really, deeply care and position the women on their roster well, and then there’s times (often years at a time) where they’re barely an afterthought. Since 2019, we’ve thankfully been in a time where the women on the roster matter, are constantly booked on the biggest shows and even have spotlight tournaments and international showcases.
Time will tell whether or not this has anything to do with Sofia Alonso gaining power in the promotion and taking over as primary owner in 2019, but sinc taking over a lot of changes with the women have taken place, and an expansion of their roles in the company has taken place. One of these changes was the reintroduction of the Mexican National Women’s Tag Team titles, which had been vacant and inactive since 1997, in 2020. On a Friday Night in Arena Mexico that Octobe, La Jarochita and Lluvia, collectively known as Las Chicas Indomables, became the first women to hold the belts in 23 years.
In the more than two years since, they’ve successfully defended those titles against a variety of opponents and team combinations. They’ve also won numerous tournaments as a team and individually as singles wrestlers, including a fantastic Universal de Amazonas Tournament finals match where Lluvia was able to defeat La Jarochita to win the tournament that La Jarochita had won the previous year. They defended their belts on this show, their 11th defense, against La Metalica and Reyna Isis, both of whom they had a lot of history with.
La Metalica was on the team they defeated to win the vacant titles in the first place, and both have challenged before with different partners since. There’s also a deeply, deeply personal rivalry and hatred between La Jarochita and Reyna Isis, which lead to them facing off in Penguin’s Match of the Year at the biggest show of the year for CMLL, that saw La Jarochita defeat Reyna Isis and claim her mask.
There’s a LOT going into this: La Metalica wants to take what’s been denied her several times, and Reyna Isis has had five months to stew about what La Jarochita took from her, and to speculate about how best to take her revenge. And what better way to get that revenge than to take the title that La Jarochita has held dear for more than two years? This match played into all of that, with La Metalica and Reyna Isis fighting with a mean-spirited strength and viciousness that put Las Chicas Indomables on their back heels to start, with the champions finding their way back on top through technical skill, teamwork and grace.
It’s a formula for them at this point, but it’s a damn good formula that works incredibly well every time they have a match, let alone a title match on the big weekly stage. This match built brilliantly towards the final moments when La Metalica and Reyna Isis’ aggression got the better of them, allowing Las Chicas Indomables to gain the upperhand and get the win. The coup de grace was a visually stunning and spectacular double submission that saw Lluvia put La Metalica in a Seated Armbar while La Jarochita took her legs for an Elevated Crab, at the same time holding Reyna Isis on her back in a Gory Special.
It was the 11th successful defense for Las Chicas Indomables, whose two year-long elevation shows no signs of stopping. Marcela is the all time great, Princesa Sugehit is a legend and the reigning singles champion, but these two, still only in their 30s, are on a fast ascent up the ranks. They’re the best of the tag teams, the most prominent duo in CMLL’s women’s division, and one of the more important acts in the company as a whole. They’ve both had great success as singles respectively and I can see them eyeing singles prizes in the future, but right now they are setting very, very high bar for tag team wrestling across the world.