Hey Rube, I Love Tacos!
Doug Had A Weekend of Lucha Libre & Laughs
I’m still on the high of what was an amazing weekend here in Colorado. I don’t know if it is the house special of PBR’s and tequila from The O, all the tacos from the Denver Taco Festival, or just all of the awesome wrestling I got to take in. Either way, it made for a memorable weekend consisting of Lucha Libre and Laughs (LLL) both at the The O on Friday night and The National Western Complex for the Denver Taco Festival
Lucha Libre and Laughs isn’t your typical wrestling show. It is a terrific mix of wrestling and comedy. The night consists of a host, usually a comedian, wrestling matches that have live commentary for the audience to hear from comedian commentators, and stand-up comedy in between the matches from local and national comedians. Nick Gossert, the promoter of Lucha Libre and Laughs, has been putting on shows in Colorado for nine years. He has done a superb job of utilizing great local talent as well as bringing in some of the best and coolest independent wrestlers from all over the country. Over the years, there have been amazing wrestlers at the shows such as Colt Cabana, Orange Cassidy, Keith Lee, Shotzi Blackheart, Chuck Taylor, Kikutaro, Effy, Matt Sydal, Abadon, Dark Shiek, Edith Surreal and many more
This last Friday, Lucha Libre and Laughs presented Hey Rube! Yet Another Anniversary Show at The O in Denver, Colorado. Like the anniversary shows before them, Hey Rube! was an absolute show to behold. We reserved a four-top table as we have for the last three shows. If you’re planning on coming as a group of four, I would highly recommend buying one of these tables. The show consisted of six matches and three comedians. The matches were:
Caleb Crush vs Lonnie Valdez
Six Way Shit Show – Austin Reddick vs Hoodie vs Lypto vs Logan vs Bruce Rogers vs Joan Jetson
Ruby Raze vs Cody Devine
Heidi Howitzer vs Stormi Renee
LLL Championship Match:
(c)Royce Issacs vs Anaya vs Dak Draper
From top to bottom, the whole night was a lot of fun. There were definitely some great matches, and shocking moments. It all started when Caleb Crush attacked Lonnie Valdez before the bell even rang. This brutal attack led to Lonnie being busted open and Caleb picking up the victory in only a couple of minutes. The six way shit show was my match of the night. It was non-stop action from start to finish. Austin Reddick continued to impress me and is definitely one of my favorites that we get to see on a regular basis now.Logan and Lypto were impressive as well. Both got in some high spots and looked great in the process. In the end, it was Hoodie Howlett getting the victory. I’ve seen him almost every time since the first LLL event I attended back in 2017 and I believe this is the best I’ve seen him look, with the match with him teaming up with Anaya as the Howletts versus the West Coast Wrecking Crew, Royce Isaacs and Jorell Nelsoncoming in a close second.
Heidi Howitzer, who is one of my personal favorites in wrestling right now, was a lot of fun to watch, as always. She went up against Stormi Renee, who was wrestling in Colorado for the first time. Heidi, who has made three appearances on AEW Dark, is a crowd favorite who enjoys doing her own commentary during her matches, and always enters the crowd during her LLL matches to fuel up with a beer or two. For April’s The Medium Is The Message Show, I thought I would do what I could to help her out against Edith Surreal and Viva Van. As per custom I handed her a beer for the appropriate nutrition that she needed for her victory. So I gave her the beer and then she proceeded to get knocked through six chairs and loose her Lucha Libre and Laugh’s Women’s Championship (sorry Heidi). This time was different. I once again proceeded to give her the nutrition that she needs and this time she connected with the stunner and got the 1,2,3.
Now on to our main event! We got to see three Denver LLL originals, who have since all moved to different states to continue their wrestling careers. These three individuals tore the house down. The match made its way through the crowd. Dak Draper and Anaya fought in the middle of the crowd up on one of the dividing walls. A new Lucha Libre and Laughs Champion was crowned, as Anaya, who took a page out of the Mr Fuji playbook and used powder to the eyes, got the pinfall.
On the way out I had a nice conversation with Austin Reddick, gave Heidi a high five and stopped and bought a shirt from Royce Isaacs. It was a pleasure to finally get to speak with Royce. I have been a huge fan of his since I first saw him. Bill had caught a match of his a few months earlier and would not stop telling me how good he was, so I had to see it for myself. Since then both Bill and I have been big supporters of his. Royce and I talked about the first time I attended Lucha Libre and Laughs back in 2017, where he wrestled Chuck Taylor that night. I told him we were glad to see the success he has achieved and it was awesome to watch him on a NJPW PPV. He also thanked us for the support we’ve been showing him the last year or so from the podcast and the social media. After buying a West Coast Wrecking Crew shirt and taking a picture with Royce, it was time to stop at In N Out and then head home to Wellington.
The Denver Taco Festival was the next day. Lucha Libre and Laughs had a ring set up in the parking lot and ran three matches throughout the day. And boy did Nick spoil us. In the first match, we got to see Heidi Howitzer and Austin Reddick team up against Logan and Stormi Renee. Heidi continued to do her own commentary throughout the entire match, which was refreshing and fun to watch. She had my beautiful and talented wife entertained and smiling the whole match! It was fantastic to see all four wrestlers put on such a good match and be able to stand five feet away from the ring to watch the action.The following match was a 3-Way Match with Dak Draper vs Hoodie vs Lypto. My 24 ½ year old daughter was thrilled for this match. Lypto is one of her favorites, as he was the very first wrestler she ever got to see live. She was holding her Lypto plush doll I bought her the night before. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see the last match, but it was the new champ, Anaya, going one on one against that real piece of shit, Cody Devine. I did have the pleasure of talking with Dak before we left. He is an awesome guy and incredibly down to earth. I bought one of his shirts, and made my way home, where I then realized that I’m the worst and didn’t put on sunscreen. I’m now burnt to shit!!
There were several sounds that stuck with me throughout the weekend. The first was Heidi Howitzer coming through the crowd and yelling “who has a beer?” The next is the clap of thunder that was Austin Reddick landing a running European uppercut to Logan in the corner about five feet away from me. It was so loud and so beautiful. At the Taco Festival Hoodie made his entrance through the crowd, he yelled at a guy, which scared the shit out of him. The guy looked at me and said “what was his problem? I didn’t even do anything!” This followed up by Hoodie yelling at the guy again. The final sounds of the weekend come from the Mile High Magnum, Dak Draper. Dak was laying on the mat after getting dropped by Hoodie and after about five seconds, as he starts to get up and you hear him say, “OUCH!”, and there for absolutely no reason his chest is covered in blood. After the match he looked down and yelled to the crowd,“Hey, I’m not bleeding anymore. Who wants a Dak Draper t-shirt?”
If Bill and I were to have a home promotion, it would certainly be Lucha Libre and Laughs. We have been attending matches at The O for around five or six years now. Each show has been a ton of fun. We have laughed, cheered, booed and yelled “fuck you Cody” many times over the years. We now have made it a priority to just commit and buy tickets as soon as they go on sale. If you have never made it to a LLL show, do yourself a favor and buy tickets now for the next show Lucha Libre and Laughs presents Do What Thou Wilt on August 12th. It is already announced that Effy, Dark Sheik, Edith Surreal, Anaya, Austin Reddick and Bryan Keith will be wrestling. We hope to see all of you there. Come by, say hi and have a drink with us at the best party in Denver!
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