Dandy/Faraon/Lizmark v Casas/Pierroth/Brazo de Oro, 6/22/92

Casas v. Dandy; whoever booked this feud had a rare stroke of genius.

It only just occurred to me how early this was in Casas' run. By booking Dandy as his first opponent, it brought Dandy out of a slump and saw Casas leapfrog his way to the top.

The booking itself was fairly simple. Casas and Dandy had a bunch of exchanges where neither guy came out on top, and therefore a singles match was a must; but it was remarkably well played by Casas. Just because you're two of the best, doesn't mean you have chemistry. With a guy like Satanico, there was always a hint that he was the superior worker in every feud he had, but Casas didn't mind if the other guy looked better. Skills wise, he and Dandy were evenly matched; and in fact it was Casas who pushed a lot of the action, but Dandy was content to kick back and ride out the early exchanges. If there was an opening, it was going to come later in the match, so he was prepared for that and was in no rush to pin back the shoulders. More often than not, it was Casas who resorted to a pushing and shoving contest, which, as Jose's little old ladies would tell you, was a sign that Casas felt more evenly matched than Dandy. As a competitor, Casas knew Dandy was good. As a rudo, his first instinct was that technicos are bullshit. The line he tread between competitiveness and his rudo instincts was really quite superb. He would've dearly loved to have beaten Dandy cleanly, but cheating was in his blood. It ran through his veins; he'd do it and pass the whole thing off as being the better worker anyway.

What was cool about this trios, however, was that it was one of those nights where they get heat for the main guys, but the secondary guys step up and get even more heat, which means you save your main match-up for another bunch of trios. In this case, it was El Faraon who was all fired up and looking to hand Pierroth; and if you're familiar with Pierroth and Faraon, you'll know that's a very good thing. There was also a subplot about Brazo de Oro having respect for Dandy's abilities, which Pierroth thought was ridiculous, and it led to the rudos turning on him unceremoniously. Another cool touch was seeing Casas/Lizmark exchanges, which is the first time I've seen those guys work together.

All these subplots and through-lines is what makes trios wrestling so great. Someone should put all these matches together and make a custom comp. There you go; there's an idea for somebody.

Santo/Azteca/Muneco v Satanico/Parka/Psicosis, AAA 1994

RagingNoodles is the king of finding good AAA matches. Angel Azteca has always been a guy I've been fixated with, since in the earliest lucha I watched, they were really building him up as the next great technico, then suddenly -- POOF -- he was barely on TV anymore. If you watch all that TV from '89 and 1990, you'll wonder what the fuck happened to him. Here he is popping up in a '94 trios and he has an unbelievably great exchange with Satancio. Like all great lucha exchanges, it wasn't well worn spots, but creative and completely original stuff. The rest of the match was standard AAA fare, with up tempo rope work and a whole through-line about Tirantes not supporting the rudos, but it was never short of entertaining and I was amazed by how well Super Muneco hung with these guys. Unless he had a bloodbath in Monterrey or somewhere, he's pretty much useless, but he bobbed and weaved his way through this match and it was pat on the back stuff.

Engendro v. Solar v. Negro Navarro, 12/13/08

These triangular matches are a little odd; they're basically one-on-one and you can tag out anytime you like, which doesn't make a lot of sense, but since this had a whole bunch of maestro matwork, it didn't really matter. The early exchanges between Navarro and Solar were the type of matwork that never gets old: it can never get old, since it's the single most skillful thing about professional wrestling. But you've seen it all before and read all about it -- the real story here was Engendro. Engendro's a weird looking guy. I can't figure out if he's the least looking guy to rule it on the mat, or the most likely. I suppose matwork was such a staple of Engendro's era that he was able to work his way through mat exchanges, even if he wasn't the most skillful guy. The Solar/Engendro exchanges in this were really great and the match-up was fresh. I was a little disappointed when Engrendo was the first to go, since Solar and Navarro are inexplicably poor at ending for their singles matches. This was no different, but the match was two thirds goodness.