El Dandy vs. Pirata Morgan, hair vs. hair, 9/23/88

So, here it is -- the elusive hair match. Only available in Japan and at a rental store to boot.

This will have its grand unveiling on the DVDVR Lucha set, so you'll have to wait until then to see it. I know a lot of people are dying to see it, so I won't tell you too much about what happens, but if you've ever scanned through lucha records and let all those untaped matches kill you, then have I got a present for you. Where it rates in the grand scheme of things is up to the voters to decide, it was hard enough just getting it. I've actually seen it once before, and took my sweet eff time getting it out to people, but it's in the can and ready to go.

Consider this a teaser:

Dandy blades from the get-go. He's still in his gym sweater when Morgan attacks and blades on the outside. Morgan knees him in the back and he spends most of the fall with his arms crossed in front of his chest. There's blood in his eye and shit splattered all over his chest. It even trickles down to his waist. Morgan gets a decent handprint out of it and licks it off his palm. They have these awesome punch exchanges where Dandy follows up a Morgan right with some flush uppercuts, but Gran Davis keeps hooking Dandy's arm and Morgan plays them both for suckers. Morgan has a field day in the opening minutes. The trigger spot for Dandy's comeback is awesome. I don't wanna give it away, but it leads to a flying headbutt right into the sternum. Morgan sells a foul on a Dandy leg trip, and Dandy is incredulous when Davis threatens him with a DQ. Lots of heavy breathing and finger pointing. Morgan bleeds from his eye socket in the third caida and the left hand side of his face is a mess.

The third caida is the most tape inspired fall I've seen from El Dandy. He does a whole bunch of Dynamite Kid spots, including the standing version of the diving headbutt where you sell the impact afterward. Somebody tell me whether that was a regular El Dandy spot. To be honest, the selling wasn't as good as in later Dandy matches and they only needed half the amount of spots, but there's always a temptation to crank up the tercera caida. I wouldn't have minded so much if the transitions hadn't been there for all the world to see. Guess I'm used to a slower rhythm from these guys and not as many spots. I'll give you an example: after a swandive tope from El Dandy, he met up with Pirata Morgan in the ring and transitioned into a German suplex. It kind of made me want to watch that '89 title match with Emilio again to see whether juniors inspired El Dandy holds up.

On the other hand, you never really know whether it's you or the match. A different day and I might go along with the nearfall blitz. I rewound it a couple of times and found some nice little touches. With so much New Japan on the brain, I think I'll watch it another day. Can't spoil the post-match but it wrapped up pretty well. The crowd gave them money, so don't let my two and a quarter falls worth of enjoyment curb your enthusiasm.