Negro Casas, Babe Face y Rambo vs. Villano I, Villano IV y Villano V, UWA 3/6/92

This was a blast. I know I've said this a thousand times but these 1991-92 UWA television matches were so much fun. This was clipped, but even the sped up version was great with exchanges so good they're like candy.

Casas started off by wrestling Villano IV. If you're cut from the same cloth I am, you're going to want to watch this when you hear they wrestled. It was rad. Casas was rocking this black trunks/black boots combo with "UWA" written on the boots and was all business. It wasn't a long exchange, but it's got to be one of the highlights of vintage Negro Casas thus far.

Babe Face surprised me here. I expected him to be washed up, which he was, but he could still take a nice bump off an arm drag and he had some really fun punch exchanges with the Villanos that led some outrageous punch drunk selling. Rambo didn't do a hell of a lot in ring, but his enthusiasm was infectious and he seemed to drive the match from the apron and with his interjections. There was a great moment where Casas had Villano IV in a headlock and Rambo was pulling on his own arm to encourage Casas to torque the hold a bit more. Aside from Babe Face's wobbly legs, other motifs included miscommunication spots between the rudos and repeat use of the low blow. Rambo was brilliant at both, interjecting himself only to fuck up and delivering one of my all-time favourite fouls. The low blow in lucha can either attain heights it never does in any other form of wrestling or be the absolute nadir of professional lucha libre. Here the rudos won with a low blow thanks to a heel ref, but you won't believe what happened next as those shitty websites keep telling me every day. I didn't catch which Villano was clutching the Mendoza jewels, but Rambo was helping to stretch out his legs when suddenly he dropped a knee to the nether regions. The rudos' reaction was priceless. They bolted faster than I've ever seen a trio exit. Villanos IV and V chased them, but they were like rats up a drain pipe. It's moments like that which make it all worth while.

Villanos IV and V did most of the wrestling for their side and they were largely excellent. I love the twisting, wristy arm drags they do, and at one point one of them had Rambo on the outside and did kind of a wristlock shoulder throw for a nice Rambo bump. Quinto also had a nice matador type spot where he kept making Babe Face look like Humpty Dumpty with a spinning back kick.

Casas was class through all of this and worth watching the match twice for to pick up on all the nuances. I love his finger wag when selling a bulldog and the look on his face when he mistimed a move on top of Rambo. I also loved the way he shouted at his corner when he came off second best in the first exchange to fire himself up for the reset. Really fun bout.