Satanico vs. Sangre Chicana, NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship, Arena Puebla 9/24/83
Ever wondered what a luchador does the night after a legendary hair match? Take a booking for a title match of course.
This was very much a "house show title match" in that the fans were left short changed by the finish. I imagine a lot of matches from the 80s that look awesome on paper were booked this way. The really great thing about the footage is that it was a handheld shot from ringside; so
Atlantis/La Fiera/Vampiro Casanova vs. Negro Casas/Mano Negra/Black Magic, CMLL 9/17/93
Negro Casas/Dr. Wagner Jr./Sangre Chicana vs. La Fiera/King Haku/Pegasus Kid, CMLL 9/24/93
Some more of the lead in to the Casas vs. Fiera Anniversary Show match has become available. I think the Haku match was on YouTube previously but the account was deleted. Matt reviewed it a while back mostly for the novelty of seeing Haku in Mexico; which reminds me, since he's probably reading this, that he needs
Volador vs. Pirata Morgan, mano a mano, Monterrey 1991
Now here's a hidden gem for you: a disgustingly bloody Pirata Morgan bout.
I haven't seen a Morgan bout this good in ages. With Morgan, you can draw a line in the sand between the stuff that's good and everything that came after. Fortunately for us, this was during the period where he could rightly lay claim to best in the world, at least in the world he moved in, and still looked as dashing and cavalier as his namesake rather than
Negro Casas/Emilio Charles Jr./Mano Negra vs. El Brazo/Ultimo Dragon/Oro, CMLL 3/19/93
Negro Casas could do no wrong at this point. It never really occurred to me that 1993 might be the best year of his career. It was such a dark time for the company that you tend to ignore everything that happened, but in terms of physical prime coinciding with in-ring ability, the period from when he entered the company in 1992 through to an as yet undefined point in 1993 represents the best I've seen from
Negro Casas vs. La Fiera, hair vs. hair, CMLL 10/1/93
This looks like it was the show-stealer on the 1993 Anniversary Show. I'm not sure how wildly available it was before, but if Lynch sold it I doubt many people bought it.
It was a fascinating match for me on a number of levels. Casas was going through his whole "is he or isn't he a tecnico?" phase, and Fiera appeals to me as a scumbag rudo and not a worn out baby face, so I wasn't sure how the heel/face dynamic would play out. There
Fuerza Guerrera vs. Octagon vs. Huracán Ramírez II, mask vs. mask, CMLL 12/14/90
This was the main event of CMLL's season ending show for 1990. We all know that triangle matches don't make for the best of apuesta matches, especially with a non-brawler like Octagon, but circumstances here were out of the ordinary. CMLL was coming off a record breaking Anniversary Show and business was hot. Arena Mexico was packed, and anticipation rife. Virginia Aguilera once said that the lucha public were b
La Fiera/Espectro Jr./Kahoz vs. El Brazo/Brazo de Oro/Brazo de Plata, CMLL 12/25/92
So, we've established that washed up Fiera (who really wasn't that old) was better than I ever gave him credit for, especially in scummy lowdown trios matches that reflected the shadiness of his character outside the ring, but here he got to show off his comedic talents. Comedy is an important (often misunderstood) element of lucha libre. No matter how great your brawling is, or how bloody your apuesta matche
El Hijo del Santo/Espanto Jr. vs. Blue Panther/Black Man, UWA 3/25/90
This was discovered by Phil Schneider in the middle of a six hour YouTube video. Don't ask me how he does it; he's like a bloodhound when it comes to these things. The match was billed as the first time rivals Santo and Espanto had tagged together, and could have easily been parejas increibles given Panther had taken Black Man's mask in '86. Santo was swarmed by kids to start with and I swear he wasn't that much taller tha
Los Temerarios (Shu El Guerrero, Black Terry & Jose Luis Feliciano) vs. Los Arqueros, LuchaMania
I couldn't pin a date on this one. In fact, I wasn't really sure where it as being held. The Sindicato Nacional de Luchadores y Referees had its name plastered everywhere, but I'm not sure if that means the event was promoted in association with the wrestler's union or if it was some sort of specially promoted union funcion. At any rate, these teams had a long standing feud that involved bot
Ultimo Dragon vs. Negro Casas, UWA World Middleweight Championship, CMLL 8/28/92
This was a curious match to say the least. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't all that great either. The build up had been fantastic -- really vintage Casas -- but they made the cardinal mistake of not paying off the set up.
Everyone wanted to see Casas get his ass kicked, and he took a hell of a beating, but for some reason he spent the entire bout working like a sympathetic babyface. That may have worked if they
Negro Casas/Bestia Salvaje/El Felino vs. El Dandy/Ultimo Dragon/Blue Demon Jr., CMLL 7/17/92
There are times when I'm convinced that Casas' first few months in CMLL represent the absolute peak of his career. It's difficult to describe the excitement generated by his arrival. The fans had been used to the independientes coming in and working EMLL shows, but Casas was special. Not only was he at the height of his powers; it was like watching an artist unleashed.
We don't have much of Casa
Anibal/Mano Negra/Gallo Tapado vs. Fuerza Guerrera/Espectro Jr./Espectro de Ultratumba, CMLL 2/8/91
This is the kind of match the Observer would have given a single * to back in the day. Actually, I just checked and it was given * 1/2. Now matter how you feel about the Observer and it's lucha coverage over the years, you're not getting a revisionist *** match out of a * 1/2 rating, just like you can't make a silk purse of a sow's ear; but you can enjoy Fuerza's performance.
Fuerza came t
Negro Casas vs. Maximo, CMLL 1/11/15
This was the first pimped lucha of the year. Naturally, I was a bit dubious given I don't exactly love modern day Casas, but it was actually pretty good. For the life of me, I'll never understand what people see in this present phase of Casas' career with the parrot and the dancing and all of the carry on. Not when I've seen how great he was in his prime. But for the first time in a while, I was actually excited to see him wrestle someone who's not a fell
Emilio Charles Jr./Pierroth Jr./Javier Llanes vs. El Dandy/Ultimo Dragon/Silver King, CMLL 1/25/94
Javier Llanes was so good in the Dandy feud. If you only watch the title match, you might think he was along for the ride, but watching the build I'd almost suggest he spearheaded the feud. No matter what you think of Dandy post 1990, whether you think he entered into a steady decline or was still an all-time great, there's no denying he was spinning his wheels until this feud happened. Llanes
Mocho Cota/Silver King vs. Negro Casas/El Dandy, CMLL 3/18/94
When Cota was released from prison in '93, he went to work for Pena in AAA, and became embroiled in a feud with Latin Lover that was a hell of a lot better than it sounds. The matches were the typical rhythmless AAA affairs, but the brawling beteen Cota and Lover was fairly engaging and there was even a smattering of colour. A week before their hair match, Cota jumped to CMLL, leaving Latin Lover high and dry. In CMLL, he continue
Virus vs. Dragon Lee, CMLL World Super Lightweight Championship, CMLL 12/9/14
Virus' Super Lightweight title reign has been like manna from heaven for lucha fans. For years, Virus was a guy who was only ever showcased in lightning matches. Frustratingly, a great many of those years were right smack dab in the middle of his prime. Even fans who don't see eye to eye wanted him featured in longer singles bouts. That opportunity arose in 2011 when CMLL took an overtimes overlooked and inactive
Fuerza Guerrera vs. Misterioso, NWA World Welterweight Championship, CMLL 12/8/91
So let's recap: Misterioso was a modern style worker (great build, pretty athletic, not much in the way of wrestling ability) who was given a mask and a back story and pushed to the moon by Antonio Pena. As with other Pena creations, charismatic rudo Fuerza Guerrera was the go-to guy for a star making tilt. Just about everything in the lead up to the title match was good except for the Fuerza vs. Misterioso exc
Delta, Fuego y Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Hechicero, Hombre sin Nombre y Virus, CMLL 11/11/14
A good trios match is hard to find these days. I don't know if you can expect anything great from a trios match anymore. They're almost like a dead art form. I'd take something with a little rhythm, but even that's a challenge these days.
This was praised for its matwork, but honestly the Virus/Maya exchanges weren't on the level of Virus' title match work this year. I won't complain about Virus gett
Ultimo Dragon vs. Negro Casas, UWA World Middleweight Title, Los Angeles 7/9/94
This was the house show version of a lucha title match, and a US house show to boot, but it was still a lot of fun. Casas had the Olympic Auditorium in the palm of his hand and it was a great lesson in watching him work a live crowd.
There wasn't much mat work to speak of in the primera caida. It was mostly Ultimo getting the upper hand over Casas with some limb work, leading to a beautiful counter to Negro'
El Hijo del Santo, Misterioso, Ultimo Dragon vs. Emilio Charles Jr., Fuerza Guerrera, La Fiera, CMLL 11/22/91
This was another match from the Misterioso feud; this one happening the week before the trios match I wrote about last time. The match had tremendous heat but wasn't as fun as the return bout.
Fiera took an inordinately long time folding his bandanna and seemed disinterested in his opening exchange with Misterioso. Emilio tried to get something going with Ultimo, but Asai was sti
Virus vs. Stigma, CMLL World Super Lightweight Championship, CMLL 7/14/14
This was generally regarded as the weakest of Virus' title matches this year, largely because Stigma didn't hold up his end of the bout as well as Virus' other opponents, but it was still a decent title bout.
I especially liked the opening fall. It was great seeing Virus back in his element after the somewhat disappointing Navarro bout. Virus was back in the driver's seat where he belongs and guided Stigma through
Virus vs. Negro Navarro, Arena Olimpico Laguna, 11/15/14
When I first watched this, my initial thoughts were: "Was that even a match? That was some weird minimalist shit I didn't get. Was it some sort of anti-match?" Watching it again, I can see what they were going for, but I still wish it had been more of a match. The reason I like Charlie Lucero bouts so much is that even though there are execution problems he's trying to emulate a 1992 Monterrey title bout. This bout was like a gym sparr
Fuerza Guerrera/Emilio Charles Jr./La Fiera vs. El Hijo del Santo/Mascara Sagrada/Misterioso, CMLL 11/29/91
You all like Fuerza right? Everyone likes Fuerza, but not enough is written or said about him. So whenever I have an hour to spare I'm going to write one of these. I read something cool about Fuerza when I was doing some research for the Lucha History Lessons. Apparently he was a big lucha fan growing up, but his family didn't have enough money for him to attend the big arenas in the F
