Dr. Wagner Jr. y Espanto Jr. vs. Celestial y Coloso

Man, Espanto Jr. was good.

This match confirms what we already knew from the Santo title match -- Espanto Jr. was in the top handful of workers in 1992. Sadly, this match, a couple of other tags, and the two Santo matches, are the only footage that exists of his UWA work, but there's enough evidence to suggest that he's one of the lost workers of the 80s. I know there's people who point to his AAA work, but I don't think he was anywhere near as good in that promotion (an argument I'd make rather strongly about El Hijo del Santo as well.)

Wagner, on the other hand, had been in the business since '86, and yet nothing, not even that piece of information, could persuade you from thinking it was his very first match. As far as sons of famous luchadores go, Wagner was one of the all-time worst at this point.

Celestial was actually Black Man of Los Fantásticos fame, but you wouldn't know it to look at him, since he did none of his signature spots. In fact, the only good thing he did was a pescado off a Coloso lift. Coloso had the type of build all the technicos want these days and the moveset to match. He did herd Wagner through a cool rope exchange, where he leapt over the top of him and did an awesome mid-air snapmere. That's a move the young guys should crib, since it's such a virtuoso looking throw.

The match itself was only really good when Espanto Jr. was in the ring, which is unforunate since it went a good twenty minutes. One guy, no matter how talented he is, can't carry a tag match by himself, so this was another of those half-pie UWA matches that make up most of the existing footage.

Can't say the same about this match, however:

Espantos IV y V vs. Las Estrellas Blancas

This was very good, and a sure fire recommendation for lucha enthusiasts.

Traditional tag wrestling is by far the weakest match format in lucha libre, largely because they always try to work a trios style match instead of a Southern style match, but this had all the elements of a good lucha match -- matwork, rope exchanges, bumps, brawling, awesome lucha style submissions, you name it. The heel ref even put one of the Blancas in a wristlock. I'm not sure if the Estrella Blanca here was the original, since luchawiki puts his birth date as 1938 and he kicked so much ass it would make him the greatest 54 year-old technico ever. What I can tell you is that judging by this, the entire Espanto "family" was talented, as these guys smoked a lot of what the other trios combinations were doing in 1992, and that includes the Missioneros, the Brazos, the Villanos and even the Infernales.

The third fall was too short for this to truly be great, but they jam packed more well-paced action into five minutes than you'd see in a year's worth of trios matches these days. The execution was a bit sluggish, since most of these guys were over 40, but the spots were glorious by design. They did this awesome tope sequence, where Estrella Blanca II and Espanto IV did topes on opposite sides of the ring. When Espanto IV looked up, he did these fantastic headshakes as the crowd told each other that the other Blancha was heading their way. With both Espantos tope'd out of their boots, the finish was unusually thoughtful for this type of midcard tag. Espanto IV rolled forward in a sunset flip, and held the legs to save the brothers from losing, which set-up a nice mano a mano finish where Estrella Blanca II took a committed face plant off a no-look moonsault.

Definitely worth checking out if you're a lucha fan.