Search - NWA Pro Wrestling: Copa de Lucha on DVD

Not the greatest wrestling, but a good time nonetheless

Christopher Jones | Tampa | 04/10/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"While checking out the wrestling DVD selection at my local Best Buy I came across a box set of four lucha libre wrestling dvds being sold for around $15.00. What a deal, how could I go wrong I thought to myself and gladly spent 15 hard-earned dollars. This dvd happened to be included in the set.

Copa de Lucha is a NWA promotion (yep, the NWA is still alive and kicking) that consists of a tag-team tournament feature 4 teams from various countries (Mexico, USA, Canada, and Japan). Ironically, the team representing Japan actually features, as the announcers point out, two guys wearing masks not from Japan (or China or Korea or anywhere near the orient for that matter)- one from England and the other one from Latin America (the land of the rising sun must have been proud). A second moment of irony is that team USA (Joey Ryan and Karl "Machine Gun" Anderson) are actually heels here despite the fact that the tournament is taking place in Las Vegas. This is due to the fact that most of the crowd is Mexican (FYI - it's worth the price alone to see Anderson and Ryan infuriate the crowd with their antics). In addition to the 3 tournament matches, you get a couple of tag and single matches from the shwo.

The wrestling is pretty bad and much of it is of the lucha libre genre (makes sense since most of the crowd is Mexican). Even the guys you would expect to deliver a good show (Colt Cabana, Franki Kazarian, Adam Pearce, etc...) more or less phone it in. That's not even counting the train wreck tag match featuring 4 of the "older" masked wrestlers or the match that features a visibly injured Konnan (who makes the Wrestlemania 25's version of "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka look like Jack Evans).

That's not to say this dvd is not worth your time - it is a fun in an old school sort of way. The heels are totally over the top and the matches are, for the most part, mercifully quick. The announcers (their names escape me) kept me entertained with some one liners here and there while doing a, shockingly, decent job calling the action. There is a nice crowd on hand (a couple of thousand) who seem to be enjoying themselves. One of my favorite parts was watching them litter the ring with garbage after Ryan and Anderson do their thing (seriously - I don't think I have ever seen two heels get over quicker or more effectively or make me laugh quite as hard as this). Finally, the cover on the DVD looks like it is for a 1960's horror movie - how can you beat that?

Overall, this really isn't a bad buy if you can find it cheap. The wrestling is not great at all, but you will be entertained."

Professional Wrestling The Way It Ought To Be

Mr. Richard D. Coreno | Berea, Ohio USA | 01/26/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"All the props in the world must go to the National Wrestling Alliance. After struggling for years to find an indentity in a landscape where independent promoters matter very little, the revamped NWA has found a new path through a great, old-school concept; a product that is truly Professional Wrestling.

Such a one-night, tag-team tournaments are popular in promotions outside of North America and the featured talent/styles in this event - which took place in Las Vegas - are from the U.S., Mexico, Japan and Canada, with special emphasis on the legendary Lucha Libre mat science.

El Hijo Del Santo, Rey Misterio, Sr., Konnan, Sean Waltman and Black Tiger are the featured performers in an evening of pure entertainment, with the teams aiming for the first Copa de Lucha championship. This DVD is outstanding from the first bell to the final match, when the champs - and fans - have their hands raised in victory.

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