Negro Navarro & Killer Family (Rey Krimen, Sadico, Sepulturero I) vs. Ángel Azteca Jr., Brazo de Platino, Mascara Ano 2000 Jr & Shu el Guerrero, AULL 11/29/06
I wasn't sure what to expect from this, but it ended up being a fun match-up. The Killer Family weren't too bad. Apparently they were trained by Rocky Satana, so I guess they've got some ring sense.
And of course they were led by Negro Navarro, who's gotta be the most stoic motherfucker on the planet. He locked up with M
Santo/Dandy/Silver King vs Casas/Satanico/Dantes, CMLL 2/2/96
You don't need me to tell you this was good. Just look at the names.
I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but Satanico was awesome in this. He had a lengthy mat exchange with El Dandy where you'd swear he was twenty years younger the way he was moving. He was carrying some extra weight, but it made him seem more bullish. With the crew cut and taped fingers, he looked primed, and sure enough he kept gaining inside contro
Atlantis vs. Satanico, CMLL 1984
Atlantis was just a kid here. You could see it in the way he swivelled his head, looking for crowd support. That open armed stance is classic rookie behaviour; a type of nervous energy that young technicos have. Satanico, on the other hand, wasn't the least bit unsure of himself, in fact this was Satanico at his cockiest. A vain, ostentatious, altogether glorious display.
At one point, Atlantis was lying on the mat; his mask ripped; forehead bleeding;
Negro Navarro/Shu el Guerrero vs. Solar 1/Skayde, AULL 11/01/02
According to the match finder at cubs' site, this was only the second time that Solar and Navarro had faced each other. Assuming that they wrestled for longer than in the original trios, this may be the beginning of their rivalry. In any event, it's the earliest footage to pop up and a bit of a treasure trove.
Before I discuss early Solar/Navarro, I've got to say that I was actually more impressed with Shu el Guerrero and
Solar I/Super Astro vs. Negro Navarro/Shu El Guerrero, Arena Coliseo De Monterrey 5/18/08
This was really enjoyable. A little on the soft side to be a MOTYC or anything like that, but it was everything they could deliver on paper.
Solar/Navarro is the best match-up in wrestling. No matter how many times you see it, you just wanna see it again. Three times they squared off and each time they flaunted their maestro reps. The opening fall was worked around wristlock takedowns and arm drag
Lizmark vs. Satanico, Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship, AAA 9/17/93 (clipped)
One of my favourite things about lucha libre is classy performances from veteran workers, and this was one such occasion -- Satanico vs. Lizmark in 1993. The match was clipped, so it's impossible to know how much was shelved, but this was a simpler style than they were capable of. The work wasn't amazing by their standards, and in fact there were a few slip-ups, but everything was weighted and that'
Los Brazos vs Santo, Satanico & Eddy Guerrero, CMLL 9/16/90
I've been sick for more than two weeks, but I'm finally on the mend and this match is just what the doctor ordered.
Los Brazos are always entertaining, largely because they've got so many ways of telling the same stories over and over again, but rudo Brazos -- and not Bucaneros/Brazos, "rudos contra rudos" rudos, but actual "rudo" rudos -- is one of their best shticks.
You can follow the fortunes of any Brazo match b
Santo, Corazon de Leon & Ultimo Dragon vs. Negro Casas, Satanico & Emilio Charles Jr., 9/95
Santo, Corazon de Leon & Ultimo Dragon vs. Negro Casas, Satanico & Emilio Charles Jr., 9/95 rematch
Santo hates Casas! Casas hates Santo! as the old deathvalleydrivers would say.
This two-part penny opera starts with Santo dropkicking Casas in the face before everyone's been properly introduced. Casas spends an exorbitant amount of time checking his face for structural damage,
El Dandy vs. Satanico, hair vs. hair, 12/6/91
For some reason these two never had a great match together.
Take this match for example -- almost every hold is a clever piece of work and the attention to detail is amazing, yet somehow it doesn't add up. Hold for hold it's a virtuoso performance, but in the big picture only half satisfying. I suppose the reason for that is the scale. It's quite a minor match; not what you'd expect from a hair match. And the scenario was one sided.
I
La Sombra vs Ephesto, NWA World Welterweight Championship, 12/7/08
This was a strong Match of the Year contender.
It was a modern lucha match, so there was an emphasis on moves and nearfalls, but they managed to work this into quite a dramatic contest.
We often praise guys for working a crowd, but sometimes it's the crowd who can lift a match to greater heights and that was the impression I got here. Both guys seemed to grow in confidence from the crowd willing them on. Sombra's
Los Oficiales vs. Aeroman/Zatura/Freelance, 11/28 TV
Los Oficiales vs. Jack/Multifacético/Pendulo, 12/5 TV
Freelance/Pendulo vs. Comando Negro/Trauma II, 12/12 TV
These weren't that flash. IWRG never show the match-ups you really wanna see and their editor has no clue how to match two shots together. The editing was all over the fucking show, like a monkey at a typewriter. Still, if you haven't been introduced to Freelance or Los Oficiales, youtube is the ticket.
People keep talki
Brazo de Plata & El Brazo vs. Verdugo & Hombre Bala, hair vs. hair, 11/17/89
This was from the same show as the Pirata Morgan/Oro title match.
It was a simple match that even a guy with a headcold could figure out. It didn't live up to their trios match, and they were happy to walk around doing stuff, but the publico loved it and Hombre Bala continues to be my hero. The finish was cool, as El Brazo went 2 on 1 against the Bucaneros and when he scored the winning fall the crowd
Eddy Guerrero/El Hijo Del Santo vs. Espanto Jr./Jerry Estrada (AAA; 1/31/93)
This opened with a lengthy mat exchange between Santo and Espanto. It wasn't as perfect as I would've liked, but it was an extended mat exchange between two of my favourite luchadores, so I should thank heaven for small mercies. You can turn if off after that, though, because the rest of the match was bad. Bad matches tend to lead to a lot of sweeping generalisations, but I haven't seen a lot of evidence that Eddi
Brazo de Oro vs. Pirata Morgan, NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship, 11/17/89
This was a long match with a slower rhythm than usual. I had to watch it twice to catch all the subtleties, and in the end I decided it was a match I had to think about too much.
Sometimes a slower rhythm is beguiling, but here it was a little too much. As a match, it was like watching the game of human chess. Oro was weary of Morgan's illegal holds, which frustrated Morgan into using illegal holds, unt
El Dandy vs. Javier Llanes, CMLL Middleweight Championship, 3/11/94
This was the toughest thing I've seen in ages... If people think lucha isn't real wrestling, they need to watch this match. Never before have I see two guys wrestle with such ferocity. It takes practice to make this look believable, and an even greater commitment to go out there and do it as a work, and the close-ups of both guys were more than just selling, they showed effort and bloody-minded determination.
In many
Blue Panther vs. Ángel Azteca, Mexican National Middleweight Champion, AAA 9/4/92
It's good to revisit things every once in a while.
This was one of the first lucha tapes I ever bought, and while I could swear the version I had was complete, I could only find a clipped version of this floating around. Obviously that breaks the rhythm of a match, and can make it seem better than it really is, but despite the cut this was vintage Blue Panther.
They only showed the finish to each f
From 9/6/92 TV:
Super Astro/Solar I/Angel Azteca vs. Blue Panther/El Indomito/El Cobarde
This was really good.
It had a lot of stalling to begin with, so you knew you weren't gojng to see a mat classic, but once they locked up we got some good, older style exchanges. I was impressed with Panther as the main rudo. He's not a guy I see as a strong rudo worker, but they were playing to a red hot crowd in Tijuana, and the public were for the technicos like a lucha crowd should be. He
Octagon/Rey Misterio Jr./El Hijo Del Santo vs. Jerry Estrada/Psicosis/Espanto Jr. (AAA; 1/14/94 Tulancingo)
This was another chance to see Santo wrestle Espanto, but despite Espanto having a fucking awesome moustache and the two of them poised to grapple, there was precious little matwork to speak of. Why? Because AAA is the nadir of lucha libre professional wrestling. It's OK if you like flash in the pan stuff, but there's no rhythm to it. They spend an eternity stalling and blow half the
Los Brazos vs. Los Bucaneros (Pirata Morgan/Hombre Bala/El Verdugo), CMLL Oct/Nov 1989
This started off as a joke about Super Porky's gut and ended in a bloody mess.
Porky was feeling it from the start, going through his warm-ups (!) before the bell had even sounded. There's nothing quite as devastating as that man's gut and this time the recipient was Pirata Morgan.
Morgan was lavish with his over-selling and it led to some really great spots where the Bucaneros were afraid of
Blue Panther vs. Averno, Arena Mexico 11/04/08
This was Panther's 30th Anniversary match, so he got to wrestle his kind of match. A lot of grappling and pin attempts and the usual matwork and submissions. It didn't matter that he was without his mask; work-wise he looked like his old self.
I actually watched a handheld of this, which is probably more satisfying than watching it taped. The guy had good seats; a few rows in, with all the action on his side. Great line of sight, especiall
Gran Cochisse vs. Satanico, NWA World Middleweight Championship, Arena Mexico 9/14/84
This is one of the great lucha matches; a "Greco-Roman" classic with a dramatic shift in paradigm from rudo challenger to numero uno.
People often make the mistake of thinking Gran Cochisse was at the end of his career here, but he'd go on to compete for and hold this title for a few more years, as well as capturing the UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship four years later, so he was a form
Eddy, Chavo y Mando Guerrero vs. El Satanico, MS1 y Masakre (8/23/91)
Every time I've seen Chavo Guerrero work Mexico he's been awesome and this was no exception. I'm fairly confident that he could've been one of the great luchadores had his father stayed put.
Here he squared off with Satanico and we were treated to a real arm wrestle between the two. Towards the end they gave a master class in how to work a lucha exchange. I watched it several times to see how skillfully they caught
Los Oficiales vs. Freelance, Pegasso Xtreme, Rey Cometa, 10/9/08
Los Oficiales vs. Freelance, Pegasso Xtreme, Rey Cometa, Distrito Federal Trios Titles, 10/17/08
Some of the best trios wrestling to come out of Mexico this year.
I actually preferred the title match, largely because Los Oficiales are better at mano a mano exchanges than working as a trios. What their "Los Destructores" act lacks are the comeuppance spots, where the double and triple teaming breaks down and they end up
