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 Skayde in this match. Shu worked this cool gimmick where he was an immovable object on the mat, and no matter which side Skayde tried to work from, Shu wound up in the upper position. He was incredibly quick for a big man and was able to go ten minutes on the mat without any trouble. I don't think I've seen Skayde before. He was impressive and more than held his own. In fact he was Black Terry-esque. They didn't try anything as difficult as Navarro and Solar, but they had their own little thing going, from Shu's sitting bull pose to his funky power moves, and Skayde was a tremendous foil.

The big difference between early Solar/Navarro and what you see today was two-fold. First, they worked at a more frenetic pace, with Solar, in particular, being far more fired up than you see him these days. Secondly, Navarro hadn't grown into his role of El MVP de los independientes. In 2001/02, he was still settling into the whole maestro act. He didn't cut quite as authorative a figure. Obviously they know each other inside out by now, but here they were calling stuff for the first time. Some of it was fantastic, some of it was skin of the teeth stuff. It was a lot rawer than the exchanges we're used to. Still, most people will enjoy watching them find their feet against each other.

At the least it's 25 minutes of matwork.