Mil Mascaras vs. Perro Aguayo, Olympic Auditorium, 1982

I believe this is from Hollywood Wrestling, the LA promotion which Kurt Brown immortalises each week on the Slammin' Stan Podcast.

It was taped off the Spanish International Network, and featured guest commentary from British wrestlers Chris Adams and Ringo Rigby, who sounded like the Beatles. I shouldn't really say that, since I'm from the Commonwealth and have been familiar with British accents my entire life, but still I got a kick out of Chris and Ringo.

The match was your typical sort of one fall contest where they grapple for ten minutes before the rudo gets frustrated and calls it quits. Neither guy was about to job here, but I've never understood why bookers and promoters think an "early showers" match will satisfy the paying customer. There was nothing wrong with the work mind you, they just cut it off at the knees.

Mil gets a bad rap as a worker. He may have been difficult to work with, but I like a guy who doesn't give away too much. His brother often fed guys shit they had no business getting over him. With Mil, there was a shootish edge to his matwork. Perro plugged away in this match, and Mil gave him a sniff here and there. I suppose you could argue that Mil had no intention of making Perro look good, but let's face it, aside from some good looking takedowns, Perro was no Wonder Mike on the mat. Perro's big moment in the match was his punch combos in the corner.

I also saw a short clip of a Lucha Leaves Town, Mexican Death Match from the same territory. I'm not sure what classified it as a Mexican death match, but it was a tag match between the Americas champs, Carlos Mata and Kiss, and the Misioneros de la Muerte (Signo and Texano.) The finish wasn't shown, but I'm assuming the Misioneros were run out of town. According to Negro Navarro, Texano was the best mat worker of the Misioneros, and sure enough his grappling was solid.

Last, and definitely least, was a nothing match between Canek and Mario Valenzuela. I can never quite figure Canek out. Mechanically, he did everything a luchador should, but for a guy of his fame and notoriety, he could be as soulless as Blue Demon Jr at times. Valenzuela provided what little there was in the way of interesting spots, but he was a loose sort of a worker and had trouble with his execution. Canek did the worst job of hiding a foreign object in his tights that you will ever see in professional wrestling.