Emilio Charles Jr., Negro Casas & Bestia Salvaje vs. Atlantis, La Fiera & Apolo Dantes, 6/3/94

Fantastic looking match-up on paper that was just some bullshit excuse to turn Casas technico. CMLL became hopeless at turning people once the TV boom began. In the 80s when rudos turned on each other, it would lead to these incredibly heated matches where the rudos would ratchet up the violence and turn Arena Mexico into a madhouse. Rudos would have these ongoing feuds with each other that wouldn't be settled until there was a wager match and even then the bad blood would continue. Here, Casas whimpered and cowered while his rudo partners flogged him. Instead of fighting back and starting a blood feud, he looked meeker than at any point in his career. Casas had done the same thing to other rudos in the past and knew the rules that the rudo fraternity abide by, but the stupid thing about these matches is that it's not like you get the hot match and then the angle. There's no Good God Almighties in CMLL; they suck dry whatever dramatic potential there is in these turns with the shittiest of execution. The commercials you see on old lucha tapes for Mexican soap operas and B films look like brilliantly penned dramas compared to the amount of effort CMLL puts into its television angles. Not something you want to watch if you're one of those guys who believe all wrestling is story; but hey, you get a bit of Casas vs. Atlantis, which isn't a match-up you see a lot of.

Hayabusa, Pantera & Ciclon Ramirez vs. Mogur, Cachorro Mendoza & Javier Cruz, 6/3/94

What was the point in turning Cachorro Mendoza heel? He ambles to ringside like a technico, patting kids on the head, looking to get a legend pop from the one or two guys who can remember when he was a big deal. In the ring he does a reasonable facsimile of a rudo, but it's not like his heart's in it. And then there's poor Mogur, the failed "next big thing." In case you didn't realise he's rudo, he's wearing a black leather jacket. And what about Ciclon Ramirez? Of all the bad ideas floating around CMLL at this time, his unmasking may have been the worst. So, okay, maybe I'm the biggest Ciclon Ramirez fan I know, but compare the masked guy with the best looking tope in lucha history with the goofy looking bugger who unmasked. And the faux pas of wearing the high top lucha tights without the mask. There was no way this unmasking was doing for him what it did for pretty boys like Faraon and MS-1. This was right before his hair match with Cruz and they both did these small bladejobs that were like trickles down the bridge of their nose. Nobody told Hayabusa what you're supposed to do in a trios where the wrestlers are brawling around ringside, so he just stayed in the ring and watched. Yip.

Cachorro Mendoza, Mocho Cota & Jaque Mate vs. Hayabusa, Blue Demon Jr & Hijo del Solitario, 7/15/94

About as bad as it looks on paper. Didn't do the "Cota was never as bad as we thought in the 90s" bandwagon any favours.

Emilio Charles Jr, El Satanico & Negro Casas vs. El Hijo del Santo, Corazon de Leon & Ultimo Dragon, 9/15/95

Someone forgot to tell Santo and Casas that this was a trios match and a mano a mano broke out. This was pretty badass, actually.

Rayo de Jalisco, Atlantis & Pegasus Kid vs. Pierroth Jr, Emilio Charles Jr & Bestia Salvaje, 7/15/94

This wasn't the most spectacular trios you'll ever seen, but it was pretty comfortably the best of this week's batch. The action was carried by Atlantis and Emilio Charles, who had lost none of their chemistry in 1994. Even their brawling was good. Atlantis doesn't have much of a rep as a brawler, but I reckon he can throw a pretty good right hand and he delivers a pretty solid looking posting too. Pierroth vs. Rayo is almost like a dream match as far as I'm concerned and was every bit as dopey as I could have hoped for. Bestia was solid, but if anyone ever writes the Bestia Salvaje story they better acknowledge how quickly he fell from his '92 heights. Benoit was better than most foreigners. Only two falls here, but Atlantis vs. Emilio stuff is always worth seeing.

Pierroth Jr. vs. El Boricua, mask vs. mask, 9/29/95

On one hand, this is the kind of big, cumbersome main event I love in lucha. I'm a sucker for Pierroth and he had his mask ripped here with a big dark crimson stain everywhere. And the crowd were heavily into the Mexico vs. Puerto Rico theme with people bringing full size Mexican flags to the area and fans running around on camera with huge Pierroth signs. On the other hand, it's pretty sad that this was the main event of the Anniversary show. It probably would have been better in Puerto Rico where they would have been able to bleed far more than at Arena Mexico, but when you look at the past apuestas on Anniversary shows this kind of sums up where the promotion was at. I'm not a huge of the Santo vs. Casas feud, but it sure did turn things around, and I have a new appreciation for it in that sense. At least Pierroth got to be the man here and score the winning goal for Mexico. That was cool to watch as a Pierroth mark.