1. Ciclon Ramirez/La Pantera II/Aguila Solitaria vs. Arkangel de la Muerte/Guerrero de la Muerte/Guerrero Negro
Fun opener.
It kinda reminded me of those travel shows where they do a feature on lucha libre. They usually focus on lucha as a live show, as though you've got a front row seat. CMLL TV doesn't give you the same pick-ups from ringside, but this felt like a live match. They could probably fall out of bed and have this trios, but it was good stuff from guys I don't usually writ
Atlantis vs. Blue Panther, Arena Mexico 07/11/08
This was a match to mark Atlantis' 25th Anniversary in wrestling.
Atlantis was one of the great technicos, but he doesn't hit the small shows much, so we don't get to see him work an older style. Some of his Guadlajara stuff is alright, but you know the small show mastery I'm talking about. Fitting then that Panther was chosen to be his opponent, since they had the most pure of title matches in 1991, a match which more than any other sh
More of a heads up than a review.
If you've never seen the Villanos/Brazos masks match, it was uploaded onto youtube a few days ago.
It's not that easy to watch, because of the low tape quality and the guy playing with his camera functions, but it's a big match with an incredible atmosphere. The third fall is a great lucha brawl. You don't get a great look at the dive train or the finish since people are standing, but you do get to see the wrestlers leave the ring, which is footage you
Blue Panther/Shu El Guerrero vs Black Terry/Villano III (2004?)
This is the match that Black Terry's son put on youtube for us.
It's thirty minutes of old school lucha, worked entirely on the mat. I've watched it twice now, and of all the mat based lucha that's ever been pimped, this is up there with the best of it. Of all the small show, veteran matches that have been pimped this decade, this is almost certainly the best. You almost have to watch it twice to catch all the subtleties.
Perro Aguayo vs. Villano III, WWF World Light Heavyweight Title (UWA - 12/5/84)
I'd love to say that Perro could go back in the day, but he was a pretty limited worker.
His approach was pretty direct, either going straight for the pin or submission or throwing out a clothesline, piledriver, tope, senton, double footed stomp, that sort of thing. Similar to his son, though the younger Aguayo is far more athletic.
This was essentially a juniors match and had the same flaws as other
Mascarita Dorada/Tzuki vs. Pequeño Damian 666/Pierrothito, 3/30/08 Guadalajara
When I said lucha had lost its charm, I clearly forgot about Tzuki.
I have all the time in the world for these guys, because they work like rudos v technicos.
The rudo work wasn't great here, but the technicos were oustanding. I'm not a fan of modern lucha offence, but it's amazing how much better the minis are at pacing and set-up (or perhaps they just look awesome running the ropes.) I don't even mind
La Sombra, Sagrado, Volador Jr. vs. El Hijo Del Fantasma, La Mascara, Valiente (Mexican National Trios Titles), 04/30/08
There's no way I'm going to criticise this match, since that would be completely dickish.
Instead I'm going to focus on the good points:
* Valiente is awesome. Not since the days of Halcon Negro has there been such a fun guy on the undercard. Rudo Halcon Negro had the shtick and bump spots, but the plumper, rounder Valiente has Super Astro's footwork and agilit
Mano Negra & Negro Navarro vs. Solar I & Super Astro, 10/14/07
Nice.
There was some beautiful lucha in this match. Nothing amazing, just age old pros working a classic lucha style.
Solar was in fine form, particularly in the vintage second fall, and Super Astro got amazing height on his springboard tope. Watching Super Astro float is a sight to behold. I thought the rudos were a little quiet in this, though Navarro was always lurking. Anytime Navarro and Solar square off,
Satanico vs. Jerry Estrada, hair vs. hair, 3/23/90
Jerry Estrada again.
I swear if you can't work a hair match with Satanico then you can't work.
If I didn't have such a huge dislike for the guy, I might be able to appreciate what he did here, but it was crap.
It was Estrada's match from the start, yet it was nothing like an Estrada match. He seemed more sober than usual, perhaps that was the problem. He developed a strange fixation with Satanico's shoulder and you could fee
Satanico vs. Sangre Chicana (Classic Lucha 5/28/1989)
This was mano a mano and these two were men.
Satanico has a buzz cut from losing his hair the month before and right from the start he's hunched over in his grappling stance, fingers stretched, ready to rearrange Chicana's face. The first lock-up is a beauty. In rugby we call it niggle, in wrestling it's a red rag to a bull.
This isn't a great match by any stretch of the imagination, but it's awesome to watch the bout disintegrate
Dr. Wagner Jr/Mano Negra vs Super Astro/Ultramán Jr, 10/28/07, Arena Coliseo de Monterrey
This seemed like a good opportunity to see Wagner work.
I mean actually work.
His first exchange with Ultraman was really good. It was pretty much test of strength stuff, but both guys have great grappling stances and there was real strength in the takedowns and the way they tried to hook each other. Niebla couldn't grab an arm and do anything with it, so this wasn't bad, but it was soon appa
Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Mr. Niebla, 9/3/97 (CMLL World Light Heavyweight Title)
I wasn't sure what to make of this match.
They worked hard on an Arena Coliseo show, and you never want to criticise something like that, but it was pretty much the epitome of the modern style.
Wagner's a guy I really like, but I kept wishing he'd do something special. Niebla couldn't work the match from the ground up and wanted to head straight into the spots. It was up to Wagner to school him in that reg
Satanico vs. Pirata Morgan, hair vs. hair, AAA 11/26/93
Coming into this fight, I didn't expect it to be any good.
Probably figured Satanico and Morgan had been in one hair match too many, and I just wanted to see what they were up to in AAA, but these guys... These guys were workers.
Pirata Morgan was heavier in this match than I'm used to seeing and no longer the amazing bumper of the late 80s to early 90s. The extra weight hindered his mobility, but it didn't really matter sin
Cicloncito Ramirez, Pequeño Cochisse, Platita & Pequeño Sayama vs. Damiancito el Guerrero, Fierito, Tritoncito & Guerrerito del Futuro
This was a Cibernetico at the end of '97, where the winner earned the right to wrestle in a "regular" tag match.
If you read this blog, then you probably know who won.
Bit of a shame really. There was never any guarantee of seeing the Minis on TV, but this was it for one of the best divisions anywhere in wrestling. There were classics to be
Satanico vs. El Dandy, hair vs. hair, 9/18/92 (59th Anniversary Show)
This was the third time these guys had squared off in as many years and not a match the fans wanted to see.
Satanico and El Dandy were great workers, so there were enough touches to make it enjoyable, but it wasn't as good as their previous matches -- which weren't the greatest to begin with. It was kinda in keeping with Dandy's matches against Bestia Salvaje (9/4) and La Fiera (11/27), two competent rudos with whom
El Hijo del Santo vs. El Averno, 10/22/04 (WWA World Welterweight Championship)
Man, Lucha has lost its charm.
After watching raw, grainy footage of Santo and Espanto Jr, this came across as pretty damn lifeless.
I was kinda hoping that Averno would prove himself to be more than a foil, but he took little or no initiative in the matwork and despite Santo still being pretty slick, this was just a series of spots.
It's all neatly packaged, but I saw better work on the Todos X e
Villano III vs Negro Casas (IWRG 11-1-07)
Another decent sort of a match.
Villano III is in his late 50s and kinda creaks around the ring, but he still looks like he could break a guy in half if he wanted to. Casas has always been good at hiding his age, partly out of vanity (one would assume.) Here he's wrestling a guy who's at least ten years older than him, so he doesn't have to hide it so much, but he kinda wrestles what's in front of him, which I thought was decent of him. The ma
Kahos/El Engendro vs. El Celestial/El Coloso, 10/3/92, UWA
Fun match.
The matwork was pretty simple, and perhaps a bit slow, but I dug the selling points.
Engendro gives a great burlesque performance. The trick to that, of course, is being an asskicker after the comedy spots, which Engendro most certainly is. There's about five or six genuine laughs, which is pretty good for an undercard match. Engendro lords over proceedings, working the refs, crowd and his opponents, but he ex
El Hijo del Santo vs. Negro Casas, 5/17/91, Tijuana (handheld)
Not a great match compared to the matches Santo had against Brazo de Oro and Espanto Jr, or the stuff Casas was doing with El Dandy a year later, but it had the usual awesome atmosphere, with local kids climbing all over the ring and plenty of activity in the audience.
One kid in particular leads a pretty rousing ovation at the end, while the other kids bang on the apron. Once again, the handheld gives you a feel for what a r
Negro Navarro/El Signo/Black Power vs. Silver King/El Texano/El Gran Hamada - 10/17/92, UWA
This wasn't as awesome as it sounds, but it did make me lament that AAA became popular & UWA died out.
(There's perfectly good reasons why that happened, but I'll take vets working a style I like. Even if it's non-drawing Misioneros w/ a bum partner.)
Black Power's a third stringer, but the rest of these guys could work. There's something reassuring about that in this day and age. The phys
Espanto Jr. vs. El Hijo Del Santo (UWA World Welterweight Title Match), 5/14/92
This was such a beautiful Lucha Libre match & made a fool of me thinking Santo wasn't one of the great Lucha mat workers. If more of his UWA work was available, I think we'd get a bigger picture of how good Santo really was.
Again, the single camera at ringside gives this a raw documentary feel, only it's not a glimpse of Santo working Durango. Sure he looks every bit the superhero during the introducti
El Engendro vs. Negro Navarro (NWG Intercontinental Title), 2/15/03
Negro Navarro's one of the only guys I enjoy in wrestling anymore, so if there's any dirt on him I don't want to hear it. I just want to enjoy seeing him do what he does for a living, even if it's in front of a tiny crowd in some gym in Guadalajara.
The match is a throwback to when wrestling was about holds. They work their way in and out of holds, trying to catch each other out. There's not a lot of "fight", so to sp
El Hijo del Santo vs. Psicosis, AAA 5/3/95
There was some talk over at the surviving Smarkschoice board about whether this is any good. MJH mentioned that "at other times (especially the matwork and the finish) some of the execution is just really, really poor" and that "for a full singles match, Psicosis and Santo were having a bad night together." I thought this couldn't be right, but after a dozen sendspace attempts, I gotta admit -- stock's going down.
Whenever people used to doubt
El Hijo del Santo vs. Espanto Jr, mask vs. mask, 8/31/86
This is a classic Monterrey bloodbath, but the best thing about it is seeing Santo as a young luchador. There wasn't any semblance of a traveling act yet. It was like the match unlocked a period in Santo's early career where he didn't have fixed ideas about working; where he was still searching for the best way to bump and sell & make face comebacks. The Santo roadshow is a great roadshow. Many times I've thought, "Here we go -- s
Pirata Morgan/Gran Markus/Ulises vs. Popitekus/Atlantis/El Dandy, 05/28/89
Wow, this wasn't good... I was surprised since 1989 El Dandy, Atlantis & Pirata Morgan is what hooked me on lucha in the first place. It was almost technicos v technicos, complete with matwork. When it comes to lucha matwork, I'm as big a sucker as the next guy, but this was... middling.
Javier Cruz v. Jerry Estrada, hair vs. hair, 10/20/89
For the life of me, I can't figure out what other people see i
