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El Dandy vs. Angel Azteca (Shaky) (EMLL 3/23/90) This match kind of defies your usual tecnico/tecnico matchup as these guys just don't like each other and they are both throwing hands in the first minute of this match. When they wind up outside Dandy misses a big punch and Angel Azteca tosses him into the boards twice. I guess I could see where people would say Dandy is the rudo in this, but he just has a very frumpy face. This is a pretty short first fall that Dandy wins after a fancy cradle. Dandy starts to maybe cheat a bit here as he stalls in the ropes after a break playing possum and then comes out with a headbutt to Azteca's gut. Now Azteca is the one bending the rules as the ref decides his chinlock is more of a choke and he pulls Azteca off rather forcefully. Azteca hits like a modified russian leg sweep into a submission to win the second fall and this fall wasn't much longer than the first. The crowd is still very invested in both of these guys not cheating as they seem to boo both of them at different times depending on their tactics. They wind up outside the ring almost immediately into the third fall and Dandy sends Azteca into the boards to extract some revenge from earlier. The announcer is talking about Azteca wrestling for the people but Dandy wrestling for himself and then Dandy starts dragging Angel Azteca around the ring by his mask so yea, Dandy is getting to be a real dick now. Dandy drops an elbow on the back of Azteca's head to the disapproval of the crowd. They definitely seem to be telling a "the crowd is turning on Dandy/Dandy is turning his back on the people" story with a lot of cutaways to the crowd here. Dandy drills Azteca for a german suplex for what looks like a 3 count but the ref calls it only a 2 so Dandy starts to argue with him. It DID look like a 3 count, for posterity's sake. One of my favorite tropes in wrestling occurs as Dandy turns around from arguing with the ref and gets pulled into a small package. Dandy ends up missing his senton off the 2nd rope and then he gets hit with a dive that sends him into the 3rd row! He ends up back in before Azteca though and dropkicks Azteca off the apron and goes for a plancha but Azteca sticks out his knee and Dandy comes down in like a nasty gutbuster. That was cool. Azteca is selling his knee after in a nice touch. Dandy gets hit with ANOTHER dive that sends him into the 2nd row this time. He pulls Azteca back from behind as he's trying to get into the ring then Dandy rolls in and what happened? The refs calls it a draw. Maybe they were both counted out? This was getting hot but the finish sucked. Dandy calls for more, I suppose this is the lucha equivalent of asking for "5 more minutes" as they tease them both wanting to continue the match but the ref is wagging his finger off to let us know it's not going to happen. Dandy hits a cheap shot on Azteca as they get face to face and then challenges Azteca to get up and hit him back. He does, but Dandy drops him on his ass again with 1 punch and then lets us know with his facial expressions that he thinks Azteca is a punk who can't take a punch. This was good but not great but it definitely left me wanting to see more of this matchup.

I liked reading your take on Sandow. I can't believe when I go to other boards like wrestlingforum and see people touting him as some wasted talent who has SO MUCH star potential and who deserves to be in the main event over Roman Reigns, who should still be in NXT apparently.

Sabu vs. Ken Shamrock in a Ladder match had almost no chance to live up to the interest you have when you see it on paper. I guess it's still worth watching though.

El Dandy, Chavo Guerrero y El Texano vs. Angel Azteca, Americo Rocca y Javier Cruz (EMLL 3/16/90) Well those graphics aren't gospel because Chavo Guerrero had been wrestling longer than 10 years in 1990 despite what his graphic says. This starts with about 5 minutes of Dandy vs. Angel Azteca and I still really enjoy watching these two. I don't dislike technical lucha, I dislike technical lucha that looks like an exhibition or a sparring session like some of the stuff I complained about in the earlier tecnico vs. tecnico matchups. Here everything between Dandy & Azteca feels like a real struggle to counter and maintain control. Things look they are about to get scrappy between Dandy & Azteca so their partners are in again like the last match to get them separated. After that we go back to the Cruz vs. Texano matchup from the end of the last match (I had Cruz & Rocca mixed up that whole review, I just edited it to fix it) and Cruz seems like he wants to redeem himself for getting tossed around by Texano because he drops Texano with a nasty one hand armed body slam. Yea, I am still really digging Texano who does what looks a lot like a kimura and then an STF. Texano continues to be a little bruiser as he kind of dominants the Cruz exchange again and ends it with another big slam on Cruz and the crowd seems to kind of turning on him here as there are some boos now. I guess the lucha funs don't like a bully. Chavo & Rocca get in against each other and then Rocca gets sent outside as he and Chavo are rolling through an arm bar and Rocca lands hard. Cruz doesn't like that and continues his role as the shit starter of his team by coming in and getting into a shoving match with Chavo but this ends up getting smoothed over as Chavo shakes hands with Rocca. After the dust up Dandy & Azteca get back in against each other. They run through some stuff for a little bit until Dandy shoves Azteca down in find of a pie face way and we get all the partners in to break things up again. I'm ready for this to break out into the fight they keep teasing already. Cruz & Texano get paired up again and this time they try and work really fast and end up fucking up some of their timing. After a short Rocca/Chavo pairing we get Dandy/Rocca and then it quickly breaks down into everyone in the ring and Cruz just drilling El Dandy with a top rope dropkick and a pin for his team to win the first fall. The second fall starts with a few minutes Chavo/Azteca that I really liked. Chavo as a heavyweight bully works better than Chavo trying to do these fast exchanges. Things are heating up as Dandy clotheslines Cruz in the throat and the crowd starts booing him for that. Rocca and Cruz both start with some running knees and kicks after that and things are escalating now because Dandy & Texano just start double teaming and take out Rocca & Cruz. The crowd does not appreciate their tactics either. Angel Azteca takes exception to it and he and Dandy face off. Texano has a crisis of conscience moment as he runs in to do a cheapshot from behind on Azteca but stops himself. The announcer is doing a lot of talking about what is and isn't "limpio" here especially when Chavo holds Cruz for Texano to hit but the crowd & the refs talk Texano out of it. Things break down and everyone but Dandy & Azteca wind up down outside the ring. Azteca dives at Dandy in the corner but Dandy moves and Azteca takes a nasty crossbody bump into the turnbuckles. I like how invested the crowd is in these guys wrestling clean as they admonish both Dandy & Azteca when they go up to the top rope to come down on their prone opponent. Azteca ends up catching El Dandy in the rana that usually signals a 3 count and that does end it, and Angel Azteca's team wins in 2 straight falls. I liked this a lot and Azteca's team winning in 2 straight falls really caught me off guard. I really liked how this started to get more and more heated and guys started caring less and less about breaking the rules but didn't go all the way into not caring at all. Next match is a singles match between Dandy & Azteca and I expect that to be really good.

EDIT: Nevermind. Got Len Denton & Joel Deaton mixed up. Ricky Morton is not listed anywhere.

Maybe it would be better to put the guys without a home in a "Free Agent" category instead of freelancer? Because I noticed a few guys I have in my mind not on any rosters who I guess would be free agents at this time.

Oh ok. Have we come up with a plan for what to do with freelance guys in general? Are people going to be able to draft Bruiser Brody & Abdullah or is there going to be some kind of sharing agreement?

Another thing, how are we defining freelance? There are a lot of those names that fit but some others that I'm not sure about like Leo Burke. Burke was a journeyman but he would also go into a territory and work there for an extended time instead of being a true freelance like Abby or Brody who were in for short spurts and were never guys who were going to work the same place every night for 6 months.

Man these two Kamala in Mexico matches make me think Kamala is a much better worker than anyone's ever given him credit for. I don't know how much he had worked Mexico before those matches in 1991 but he seemed to fit in perfectly in the trios format and I've seen enough non-Mexican wrestlers get dropped into it and have no idea what to do that it's impressive. The massive dog pile to pin Kamala was a lot of fun. That spot where Black Magic jumped over Pierroth and then german suplexed the shit out of him was pretty nice too. The crowd couldn't have been happier to see Gran Davis get splashed.

On a different note, since some people may decide to make their territory about tag teams, what if someone wants to save a tag team off their existing roster? Since we only have 1 save and a tag team counts as 2 draft picks, would they forfeit their 1st round pick for saving a tag team?

You have Luke Williams listed for Southwest but not Butch Miller. EDIT: Ok tried to do a little research on that and wikipedia had this to say: After the team left WWC, Butch decided that he wanted to return closer to home and went to Australia to wrestle. Luke remained in the United States determined to keep the "Sheepherders" name on everyone's lips by teaming up with "Lord" Jonathan Boyd (formerly of the Royal Kangaroos). In 1983, Boyd and Williams were working for Southwest Championship Wrestling when in June, Jonathan Boyd legitimately broke his leg in a car accident. While Boyd was out with the broken leg Butch returned from Australia to reunite with his old tag-team partner. But looking at the TV listings from the time it doesn't look like Butch is in by July 1st.

Well we know El Boricua wants WWC, Boon seems to wants Southeastern and I'd like Southwest. I can't see someone NOT taking Memphis or Florida either really.

He may end up doing a full turn but it doesn't seem like he's gone past working aggressively with Azteca because of their issue. He's definitely not outright cheating yet. The crowd is still treating him like a tecnico so far too. Those 2 teams have a rematch I'm going to get to next, maybe he starts to turn in that one. EDIT: According to the little TV graphic for the next match that includes his height, weight & place of birth he's got "Estilo: Tecnico" still listed.

It didn't really seem that way since he never cheated at all and his partners kept trying to keep the match clean but I'll take your word for it.

I'm just gonna go through all the 1990 I have on the El Dandy comp since I am really digging the Angel Azteca feud so far. This is what I have left on DVD to go through for 1990, I guess I'll check this against the Yearbook to see if there's anything else to add: El Dandy, El Satanico y Atlantis vs. Ulises, MS1 y Emilio Charles Jr. (EMLL 5/4/90) El Dandy, El Satanico y Emilio Charles Jr. vs. Atlantis, Angel Azteca y Javier Cruz (EMLL 5/18/90) El Dandy y Angel Azteca vs. Javier Cruz y Emilio Charles Jr. (EMLL 5/25/90) El Dandy vs. Angel Azteca (EMLL 6/1/90) EL Dandy y El Satanico vs. Angel Azteca y Atlantis (EMLL 6/15/90) El Dandy, Javier Cruz y El Satanico vs. Ringo Mendoza, Masakre y MS1 (EMLL 7/27/90) El Dandy, Rayo De Jalisco Jr. y Satanico vs. Cien Caras, Mascara Ano 2000 y MS-1 (EMLL 8/17/90) El Dandy vs. El Satanico (EMLL 10/26/90) El Dandy, Sangre Chicana y Lizmark vs. El Satanico, Emilio Charles Jr. y Jerry Estrada (EMLL 11/9/90) El Dandy vs. El Satanico (Hair Match) (EMLL 12/14/90)

You must really hate yourself to be doing this and early TNA at the same time. You know, Ring Ka King was right there as a pallet cleanser for either one of these

El Dandy, Chavo Guerrero y El Texano vs. Angel Azteca, Americo Rocca y Javier Cruz (EMLL 3/9/90) Right now I'd like to get through the Angel Azteca stuff before I get to the Satanico feud, especially after how much I liked the angle from the last match. That could change depending on the number of handshakes we do or don't get. I have no idea what is going on at the start of this as they are still putting the ring ropes up while both teams are already in the ring. That's odd. This is finally a trio where Dandy's feud is the focus, as they spend a lot of time at the beginning building up the tension over who is going to start the match and the crowd clearly wants the Dandy/Angel Azteca match up that Javier Cruz keeps trying to ruin. But the crowd gets their wish and the entire first fall is essentially a singles match between Dandy & Azteca. I liked the first fall a lot, 'ticked off with something to prove' El Dandy is much better than 'we're all tecnico buddies here' Dandy. He seems to cinch on his holds more here and he hits a really hard slam on Azteca that led to the submission. Dandy looked almost dominant over Azteca at the end there. I liked the tease of breaking up the Dandy/Azteca pairing after Azteca spilled outside of the ring with Cruz continuing to be a little shit. Second fall starts off with Chavo vs. Rocca and Chavo is looking kinda old and fat here. Then we get Texano/Cruz for a bit and Texano is a guy I'm starting to like. Not sure why I find his tecnical stuff more interesting than most. We get back to Dandy/Azteca after that and their timing seems a little off as they try to run through a whole bunch of stuff and then Azteca takes a swing at Dandy that misses and everyone rushes in to separate them before they start brawling. We go back to Chavo/Rocca and then Dandy/Rocca have some nice exchanges until Rocca gets Dandy up on his shoulders and Cruz comes out of nowhere with a top rope dropkick and pins Dandy to end the 2nd fall. Man that came out nowhere and looked good. Chavo & Texano complain about the way that went down between falls. Everyone gets a new dance partner in the 3rd fall as we get all the pairings that we haven't seen yet and then after a Dandy/Cruz exchange, Dandy calls Angel Azteca to get in the ring. This time Dandy gets the worst of the exchange as he ends up in a Boston Crab but starts pulling himself to the ropes and then...Azteca just lets go of it. Ok. Then he switches out with Rocca who comes in and gets pinned by Chavo after a little bit. Then we get Texano/Cruz and Cruz ends up getting his ass handed to him. Now I know why I like Texano he will slam and powerbomb the shit out of you. They make you think Texano is gonna finish off Cruz and rob of you a finish to Dandy/Azteca but then Azteca makes a save for Cruz and Texano & Cruz end up outside the ring getting us back to El Dandy vs. Angel Azteca. The crowd has been into this pairing all match. They exchange a bunch of nearfalls and then Azteca pulls Dandy into a cradle as he's going for a submission attempt and gets a 3 count. This was very good and the first trio I've seen so far where El Dandy was clearly the star. Part of that is that they gave him and Angel Azteca so much of the spotlight but I thought Dandy looked like the better of the 2. I am definitely going to just keep watching Dandy's 1990 in order now and not skip ahead to the Satanico stuff.

For the Satanico feud are there any trios I should watch before El Dandy vs. El Satanico (EMLL 10/26/90) other than the one I already have in the microscope with the Aguayo, Satanico, Kung Fu team?

I did write in the microscope thread that I'm gonna get into the Satanico feud soon. Any time I see them matched up against each other in a trios setting, it seems like it brings the best out of Dandy. There are still tecnicos that I like in lucha such as Hijo del Santo, Super Astro, Atlantis, Brazo de Plata, hell I found myself really digging Tony Salazar on the lucha set so it's not just a thing where I only like rudos, although I do tend to enjoy them more. I did watch the Dandy/Emilio Charles Jr. series from 89 that was on the lucha set and seemed to like it less than most everyone else. I just didn't bring any of that stuff over from DVDVR to put in the Microscope thread.

That's true for the roster you can churn it as much as you want, but for me I'd like to not go into a territory and completely blow up it's roster & it's style. For me, I'd feel obligated to do a bunch of long 2/3 falls matches if I was booking Portland or run a bunch of wild angles if I have Memphis. Roster wise, if I get Southwest (or wherever really) I'd like to at least keep a few of the pieces of the roster, even if I don't have long term plans for them, just as guys to put people over as I get started. But that's just the way I plan to do it because it'd be more fun for me, and give me more to work with, than just a total blank slate. I don't expect everyone will feel that way or necessarily have the familiarity with their roster to do it.

I could be wrong, but I think attracting attention (and keeping people actually involved and not quitting in a few weeks) is going to be dependent on people getting the territory they want. I think Kris's idea of having people choose in the order of who signed up will work out because then the people who are already in have a good shot at getting what they want and the people who haven't signed up yet can see what promotions are left and make an informed decision on whether they have interest in what's left. Rather than someone signing up, pinning all their hopes on booking Mid-South and instead getting Montreal and having no idea what to do with it and losing interest after a month.

I think I'd rather see how things work out with people getting their own choice first before deciding on a random draw. I mean I think random draw should be last resort based on whether fighting over who gets what becomes an issue. I mean if I couldn't get Southwest I'd still rather have a shot at my 2nd or 3rd choice instead of possibly getting stuck with something I wouldn't like to book like Central States or Portland.

El Dandy, Angel Azteca y El Texano vs. Fuerza Guerrera, Pierroth Jr. y Jerry Estrada (EMLL 3/2/90) If this was a planned angle it's an EXTREMELY good one. If this is an improv effort then well it's also really damn good. Pierroth Jr. is running the ropes and the top rope breaks sending him spilling to the outside and he has to be taken out of the match. This led to the babyfaces arguing over whether one of them should bow out of the match. I loved how the issue grew and how it really ramped up after Azteca got pinned in the 2nd fall after Texano & Dandy had agreed with each other that Azteca should leave. As a match it's just ok. There were things I liked in the match itself though like Jerry Estrada being a bumping lunatic especially the exchange where he misses all these big haymakers he's throwing at Texano and then Texano connects with one punch that sends Estrada out of the ring with his signature insane bump. I also liked the exchanges between Estrada & Dandy with Dandy clearly thinking Estrada is a piece of a shit (and he is, I mean look at that outfit)

My feeling on Jeff Jarrett at that time is that it was Vince Russo living vicariously through Jeff's character as Stone Cold Vince Russo the bad ass rebel fighting against the NWA good old boys. He also has some extremely unprofessional chairshots during this time period. I mean just absolutely killing dudes for no reason, especially the non wrestlers.

I really wish I knew whether the rope breaking was part of an intentional angle to start an issue with El Dandy & Angel Azteca. If this WAS intentional this is one of the smartest angles I've ever seen. If it wasn't intentional then these guys did an amazing job of turning an accident into something that ended up being an overall good. I really liked how the "hey which one of us should bow out of the match?" thing escalated especially after Angel Azteca got beat in the 2nd fall after Texano & Dandy had agreed he should go.