Arandu vs. Guerrero Negro (Hair vs. Hair) (1988)

This was a shitload of fun. I'm not sure if it was technically any good, but if there's been one match on the set that screams "fuck yeah!" then this is it.

Arandu's hair was out of this world. It was like Mocho Cota's afro on steroids. The building was ready to come unhinged at the prospect of him losing it. Every time they went to the outside the heat was amazing, as though there was this push to the front to get at the wrestlers. At one point a woman tried to start a fight with Arandu's manager, which caused all sorts of commotion at ringside. The manager preening Arandu's hair and strutting her big ass was gold. You don't see valets in lucha too often. During the TV boom they'd accompany the workers to ringside and pose with them before the bouts, but this chick was clearly Arandu's woman and together they were like a superior version of Fit Finlay and Princess Paula.

Guerrero Negro didn't do much in this except bleed, though he did throw a couple of great looking punches. He also threw some shitty looking spin kicks, but Arandu's bumping and selling (and hair) made up for Negro's lack of bite. After the valet was accosted, the match swung back and forth before Arandu won the match with an outrageous cheap shot. This lashed the crowd into a fury; one false step and they would have rioted. Instead, the TV crew entered the ring and interviewed the seconds over the foul, treating it like Zidane's send off in the World Cup final. Fans begged for the result to be overturned while others threw their trash in disgust. Arandu's afro could be seen bobbling between the officials as he goaded Negro over his loss, while Negro just knelt there like he was receiving the host. Once his hair had been cut and he'd made the customary lunge at Arandu, the biggest mass of humanity you'll see at a lucha match descended upon the ring and tested the thing to its absolute limits. It still amazes me that they allowed people in the rings in 80s lucha, but that was a different time and a different place.

If this is what Monterrey was like in the 80s, it was wild.