Mascara Año 2000, Fuerza Guerrera y Herodes vs. MS-1, El Dandy y Astro de Oro, circa '89

For some reason El Dandy and MS-1 were on the same side here. That didn't last long. Match was pretty much an angle to set up Dandy vs. MS-1 and Mascara Año 2000 vs. Astro de Oro matches. Wouldn't mind seeing that Dandy/MS-1 match if it ever took place.

Satanico, Apolo Dantes y Dr.Wagner Jr vs. The Head Hunters y Emilio Charles Jr., circa '98

This was a lot of fun. Satanico was sporting a skinhead here and I'm guessing this was after Emilio took his hair as the rudos paid Emilio plenty of attention. Broken down Emilio was pretty spry here. The rudo side was really solid and he had to fight his way out of a number of predicaments. It's times like these you need a pair of fat men in your corner. The Head Hunters slotted into lucha well, which isn't usually the case with foreigners but these guys got a lot of mileage out of their girth. The rudos had a field day with the sight gags they were able to create but there was also some good hard hitting action. Most of all I was impressed with the amount of effort Emilio and Satanico put in to this midcard spot. Once a pro always a pro.

Javier Monarca Cruz, Eddie y Mando Guerrero vs. Cachorro Mendoza, Apolo Dantes y Mano Negra, circa '91

This was a pretty standard trios. The match-ups were mostly good but nobody really stood out. I enjoyed watching Apolo Dantes. He was really young here and there was a real fire to everything he did. Watching him here I would have picked him to be a headliner in the mold of Cien Caras. I'm not sure he ever lived up to his potential, but I'm equally unsure that he was given the chance. The highlight of the match was Mando getting right in Apolo's face. He looked like somebody's dad who coaches the local football team, but he sure as hell didn't have any time for snot assed punks. Also worth tracking was Mano Negra, who was always a quietly solid worker. Eddie had a night to forget, including possibly the worst botch of his career. He tried leaping onto the top rope from the apron and fell over face first. I was always under the impression that when this happens in lucha the other worker (in this case Dantes) lays in some stiffer than usual shots to recover, but Dantes went for a rolling cradle where they came out looking even.

Negro Casas vs. El Hijo del Santo, circa '95

I'm guessing this is their September '95 match. This was a really brilliant mano a mano bout. Neither guy could take the upper hand so it descended into this niggly, underhanded brawl with a lot of cheap shots. It was actually the worst I've seen Santo behave as a technico, which laid the seeds for his heel turn presumably. If you like Casas' stuff with Panther you'll love this as his brawling was even better here. He almost had Santo in a mount position and was pummeling him with great looking punches. I don't know if Casas bleed hardway or not, but he wound up with one of the most realistic looking cuts I've seen in wrestling. It was like a boxing cut and provided some great visuals. The finish was this wonderful mass of confusion as the ref caught an elbow from Casas flush in the face, then Santo gave Casas a sunset flip powerbomb off the apron. Somehow there was a DQ in all this and Santo wandered around with his mask torn to shit asking a member of the public whether he thought it was a DQ while Alfonso Morales tried to interview the ref. I need to watch this again.

Pierroth, Satanico y Kung Fu vs. El Dandy, Mogur y Kato Kung Lee, circa '91

I'm not sure what the deal was with this match. There was some sort of karate exhibition before it began, which was embarrasing in how little it resembled karate, and then Satanico cut a promo. By the time all that was over there was only time for one fall. Whether this was a one fall match or the rest of the match is missing or the uploader made a mistake, I'm not sure, but they went through the pairs once and then a second time and that was all that was uploaded. The action was fantastic, though. Even Mogur looked good in this.

Blue Panther, Black Panther y Fuerza Guerrera vs. Hector Garza, El Dandy y El Hijo del Santo, circa '95/96

This was the best of the lot. I don't know if Black Panther was the Puebla worker or not, but he was pretty damn good and led Garza through some pretty decent grappling exchanges to start this. That freed Dandy up to partner Panther and allowed Santo to pair off with Fuerza, two match-ups you don't see enough of. Hardcore fans may be disappointed that they brawl instead of having classic exchanges, but their brawling is every bit as good as you'd expect and the match is packed with wild spots. This was in that period where Garza did insane shit every match and I swear he takes this bump to the outside where his head bounces off the top rope. Deep into the third, Panther's mask is all torn up and it's amusing how easily you can recognise him now with half his face showing. Fuerza also has a torn mask and it never really occurred to me how much hair he has packed under that thing. Match ends with a sensational dive train: Garza's corkscrew plancha, Santo's plancha suicida and a double topes from Santo and Dandy that made them look like the greatest tag team that ever lived. Excellent match.