Silver Star vs. Charles Lucero, WWA World Middleweight Championship, ACM 3/2/14

Charles Lucero is quickly becoming a must-see worker for me. At present, I'd rate him as the second best maestro in the country behind Virus.

This was a really old-school style title match worked on a stained and faded canvas in front of a tiny Monterrey crowd, and carried all of the traditions of UWA style Monterrey title matches. Watching this, it was easy to imagine what it must have been like to watch Lucero work the Northern circuit during the 80s and early 90s. The first fall was an exhibition in pure lucha libre. It reminded me of how Blue Panther used to wrestle back when he actually wrestled, and how he still sometimes does when he works ACM. Lucero's opponent, Silver Star, worked a type of early BIg Van Vader gimmick; and while it looked like Lucero was feeding him everything, Star did just enough to make it seem like he knew his way around the ring. It was obvious on the slow mo of the finishing sequence (which looked like a slow mo of footage already in slow motion) that Lucero used to be a lot quicker with these elaborate sequences, but the beauty of these old school maestro matches is about the form and not so much the execution.

Lucero had the class to win two-nil and very nearly did if not for a slick arm drag counter from Silver Star that fed into a torture rack submission. It was a short fall that allowed the champ to strike back immediately, but Lucero's bumping style and the way he sold the torture rack was classical lucha libre.

The third fall was your archetypal tercera caida with the action going backwards and forwards as both men tried to win it. I don't know if they went to the end of the line, but they went about as far as you can in front of such a small audience. Dives gave way to submissions, which gave way to suplex attempts. Silver Star looked like he might have the power to win, while Lucero looked like he had all the nous. Both men missed moves from the top rope, as the bout began to slow, then the turning point came when Silver Star missed a big running senton off the apron and suffered a heavy landing on the floor. Lucero was banged up himself, which put a neat twist into the final minutes, but he had just enough to get the big man back to canvas and deliver a second rope senton. A short elbow followed and was clear that Lucero had some pretty bad ass offence, while all the while selling beautifully. He went to the well again from the top and was caught in the torture rack for a second time, but managed to evade it this time and tie the champion in an absolute knot to cap off an extremely good match.

If you like old-school lucha then Lucero is a name you need to start punching into internet search engines.