Rah

Cornette was hyping Rollins as the next big thing in WWE long before anyone I believe (during Seth's RoH time). Whatever we see Rollins as, WWE seems to be on the same kool-aid.

If anyone is interested, you can find three of his matches from his Iraqi days here: https://www.youtube.com/@beemanbeeman/search?query=Adnan Al Qaisi I put together the Campbell match (as it seemed the most complete) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKLmTYtGZyY

Tony Reyna (who would be exactly 50 here) was brother (in-law?) to Ari Romero and a trainer for multiple luchadors, most successfully I believe is Cinta de Oro of Juarez fame. He, along with his real-life brother Alex Reyna, were a tag-team that made a name for themselves in Gimnasio Josué Neri Santos and Gimnasio Auditorio Municipal where Tony became a bit of a local "leyenda". For context to this match, at one point he was also billed as the "Master of Monterrey". Fun aside, he was doing the "619" long before Super Astro (who was doing it before Rey Rey). I don't think there's any connection beyond "hey, they have the same name!" here.

A while back I made the joke that Satanico was so good that he fooled people into thinking Gran Cochisse was a good worker. I thought I was alone on this island so it's nice to see a fellow believer. Sure, but we don't have access to this footage. Also, it isn't as if wrestling rewards "good workers" with opportunities. Having big singles matches isn't indicative of talent, but rather how much the worker connects with the audience (or those in booking!). This is very much true for Mexico. Working throwaway matches in the lower card also isn't a means to excuse skill. A good worker will thrive in any environment. Yes, sure, we can only go by what we see. Perhaps it's unfair to judge someone in their early 40s (which seems the opposite of how we usually approach peak/age in lucha) but the tale of the tape is what it is. When I came into lucha many years ago Cochisse was seen as this "lost" great worker - a wrestler many hoped more footage would drop. While we don't have the 70s footage, we do have spatterings of footage throughout his career, which doesn't do him favors. The Cota/Cochisse hair match is a great example of Cochisse not having the wherewithal of a good wrestler. Cota bumps like a madman to try and keep the match interesting (with one sickening splat to put Cochisse over) but the match never goes out of second-gear thanks to Cochisse. It's a completely dull affair on his side. This is in December 1984. We have a few more matches in the 84/85 timeline. The Hamada/Cochisse match is a letdown. The best he probably looks is in the trios that sets up the Enfermero/Cochisse hair match. Even then the main takeaway is "passable" in that he cannot truly convey "anger" as it comes across as comedic. He feels fine working holds but he's not letting moments breathe or putting the pieces of the puzzle over. The sequence is more meaningful than the parts to him. To me, that's not a good worker. I'm not ordering McDonald's. I don't want a final product, I want to witness the creation of it.

I can't remember where I got this from, but I truly wish we had more Navarro/Perro for that very reason.

Okada had a single match in Chikara (2006).

Negro Casas in Battlarts. He also may have had a stint in Super Astros, but Casas had a single match in 1983 WWF. That's the most bonkers to me.

Would there be gift tax implications if he was to donate higher than that? Of course TK did drop 10K on Shad Gaspard's GoFundMe but that 5k seems to be quite a commonly given amount. I'm obviously not in/from the USA so treat that with a grain of salt.

There are quite a few sources. The only issue, of course, is almost none of it is in English so there's an intertwine of cultural as well as language barriers to the bigger, Western world over and above the foreignity of their wrestling style. For instance, Matt already mentioned that we're working on Panama via Segunda Caida and, from what I can tell, we're moving on uncharted territory pretty much. It's a little bit daunting, frankly, but latin America is filled with a kaleidoscope of rich history when it comes to wrestling. It's my hope that I can, little by little, help to unearth it to the rest of us. El Salvador, like Guatemala, has quite a lot of its history already mapped out by a few historians. I'd recommend starting here and here for Guatemala. As for El Salvador, there's a great summary of its history by Manuel Canadas (part 1 and part 2). The same website has a few other articles that might interest you. Here's another. Salvadorian lucha looks nuts. Here's Tony Jackson jumping from the third rope to perform his signature "tope mortal" on el Bucanero:

From what I can work out, it seems the charges have been upgraded to include attempted femicide. Cuartero claims to have audio (and witness) evidence he isn't in the wrong but a previous partner has come out to share a similar experience that she had with him where she claims he pushed her onto the bed and choked her. She said she pretended to fall unconscious for fear of being killed ("If I hadn't faked the fainting spell, really, I'm being very honest, I wouldn't be here talking to you, because he was really going to kill me").

Rocky Romero was also the inaugural challenger for Santo's latest vanity championship. If you prefer Santo's style to Volador and are a Romero fan, I'd recommend tracking that match down. Match was March 21, 2021.

@Loss @GSR This is actually the lead-in to the Triplemania match. It's [1994-05-08-AAA] Mascara Sagrada vs Black Cat Little more information: AAA TV (SUN) 05/08/1994 Irapuato, Guanajuato Attendance: 1500 The finish here sets up the ending to the Triplemania Match where

It seems to be that he was accused of rape and the story got out so they canned him. Dude was a real piece of work: https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2000-10-14-0010140209-story.html

I'd really love to just get ONE Panther match before it's too late. https://youtu.be/H-luCsmxYXo

They met in another tag a few months earlier (09/04/1994 - Lynch has it listed: AJW SUPER HURRICANE Commercial Tape). I know @Evito-X (welcome!) reviewed it on JPI a while back but I don't know if it was ever uploaded to their YT.

Yes, I wish we got old Penta a little bit more https://youtu.be/_BxY4p2gzQY

Please don't get your hopes up but... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMqZIlUVveI

They had a match a couple months ago. Clear recency bias at play.

Yeah, I realised this morning going through a list of UWA tapes a trader sent me, that it has been out there in some form. Canek made a lot of UWA compilations for whatever reason, so as much as I/we knock his work, he was an in-demand talent. I got the list almost over a year ago but never bothered to check it. Uploaded it here, in the hopes we find something useful (e.g. that elusive Solar/Casas singles from 1991). But with Roy Lucier really spoiling us over the last bit, I'm not so sure. Ha! That's awesome. For all his tall tales, that should be something he runs with in every interview. Badass.

We've got a couple new Canek in his 'prime' matches since. The Andre tag has Canek in foreign territory as a heel where he is surprisingly... OK? More a comedic touch and Andre showcase than anything. The Torreon match vs Choshu is a Canek greatest hits performance. If you want to understand his candidacy nothing else quite sums him up like this. Lethargic when being worked over. Steamroll then energetically hit some comeback spots at the end of a fall only. Hokey underlying narrative with a finish that's disjointed and feels more akin to 'I'm bored let's end it' than having any meaningful use. Perhaps my favourite find in this journey. I think about this GWE thread often. I still hold out hope someone will come in here and turn on the light. Until then, Canek is my mystery. Why do I love him so yet think so little of him? Perhaps one day I'll crack this enigma.

For sure. Though I think a lot of those guys buy into it with the belief that they'll more easily catch a PWG (or, now, AEW) payday because of AAA work rather than the possibility of getting an American gig then getting pulled for no discernible reason because CMLL is CMLL

or "I wouldn't have hired 80% of you with your current output but I know you've got much better in you!"

As per Henry Klimkowski (Hank Hudson - the ring announcer for the event):