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Clear greats: 7) Sangre Chicana Strengths: There are wrestlers who shoot for big, theatrical selling and there are wrestlers who shoot for selling that's as realistic as possible, but Chicana's big theatrical selling was somehow as believable as anyone else's. Weaknesses: Nothing about his style or abilities played well in a technical match. Peak: Well, he certainly looked like one of the best in the world in the handful of matches we have from September 1983. Without consistent weekly TV from the era it's hard to say, but I'd guess that you could stretch it out through the Perro Aguayo match in early 1986, which would also cover the half-new Faraon match. Best matches: vs MS-1 (1983), vs Faraon (November 1985), vs Perro Aguayo (1986) 8) Pirata Morgan Strengths: Possibly the best 3v3 worker of all time. He did more with blood, both his own and his opponent's, than anyone else in wrestling. Weaknesses: Once he turns thirty, he just isn't that good anymore. And his post-thirty work is hardly an insignificant portion of his career. He still works regularly today. Peak: Top ten worker in Mexico from 1989-1992, probably 1988 as well. 1988 and 1989 might be the best of that run, because he captained a fantastic team in those years. Possible candidate for best in the world when he was with the Bucaneros. Best matches: vs Dandy (1988), Bucaneros vs Brazos (1989, not the title match), vs Faraon (1990), Infernales vs Brazos (1991), vs Masakre (1992), vs Satanico (1993) 9) Espanto Jr. Strengths: Major rudo talent who had an outstanding record in his 1v1 matches for which we have video. Weaknesses: His three 1v1 classics are all against the same guy, who was possibly the best ever at having great matches. Two of those classics are just different variations of the exact same match. I have no idea what Espanto vs Celestial or Valente Fernandez or Super Muñeco would look like, as Espanto vs Santo matches were very much Santo matches, rather than matches that forced Santo to experiment. Peak: It was certainly in the UWA, but the Santo feud seemed to elevate his stature a lot, so he probably reached his apex right around the time the UWA went into decline. The luchadb doesn't show him wrestling many 1v1s against non-Santo opponents until the late '80s. In 1992 he was one of the 5-10 best in the country. Best matches: vs Hijo del Santo (1986), vs Hijo del Santo (1988), vs Hijo del Santo (1992) 10) La Fiera Strengths: Big match worker who thrived on dramatic bumping, selling and offense. Better in Japan than a lot of his contemporaries. Weaknesses: When you think of Fiera, what picture comes to mind? The hotshot prospect apprenticing under scuzzy rudos Chicana and Cota? The dashing tecnico brawling and bleeding in the second half of the eighties? The greasy dude in the sunglasses and leather jacket cracking his rivals with a steel chain? The veteran who could still get up for a big kick to the head or dive over the top? Fiera's career was fragmented by turns and disappearances that prevented a dominant image of him from forming, which leaves him as just a list of accomplishments to some extent. Peak: Supposedly it was in the eighties before he started getting banged up (and with his style getting banged up was an inevitability). I'd have him in my top 5-10 for Mexico in 1992, maybe just short of best in the world consideration. Best matches: vs Tiger Mask (1984), vs Babe Face (1986), vs Jerry Estrada (1991), vs Ultimo Dragon (1992), vs Negro Casas (1993) 11) Dr. Cerebro Strengths: One of the best technical wrestlers in his country's history. If IWRG counts as an indy, possibly the best indy worker of all time. Weaknesses: Like Virus, he's good at bumping and selling and making it funny, but he just doesn't have a big personality. Not a naturally dramatic worker. Peak: I'm not sure. He was on fire from December 2000 to March 2001 with the Santo feud, and in the middle of that was a title defense against Felino that was possibly better than any of the matches he had with Santo. Likely one of the best in the country around that time. A linchpin of IWRG for the majority of that promotion's existence. Best matches: vs Hijo del Santo (2000), vs Felino (2001), vs Hijo del Santo (February 2001), vs Multifacetico (2011), vs Virus (2015) 12) Satanico Strengths: Great longevity, perhaps the premier bully in lucha, well rounded worker. Weaknesses: For me it's aesthetics. There is nothing he does that is wondrous to observe for its form, and consequently he has a whole lot of matches for me that are no more enjoyable to watch than they are to read about. I expect NO ONE else to share that opinion, so I'll add that for a guy who's touted as a candidate for the top spot, only one classic match in the championship style just doesn't cut it. Peak: Satanico would have to be uncharacteristically bad in the 1984 matches that we don't have video of to not be a candidate for best in the world that year. There are those who rate him at that level in 1990 and other years too, and maybe they're right, but even so 1984 was clearly his absolute peak. Best matches: vs Atlantis (1984), vs Samurai Shiro (1984), vs Gran Cochisse (1984), vs Dandy (December 1990), vs Pirata Morgan (1993) 13) Emilio Charles Jr. Strengths: The ideal rudo. Had an ineffable genuineness to him even though he was as over the top as any other rudo of the time. Weaknesses: Sometimes too committed to the rudo cause of making the tecnico look as good as possible, and consequently he didn't feel like a threat to win in the third fall. Maybe that's fine for the promoters, but with more effort into making himself look good he'd have given fans like us some more exciting stretch runs. Peak: In 1989 he's my pick for best worker in Mexico and one of the world's best. He was never as good again. Best matches: vs Dandy (July 1989), vs Dandy (December 1989), vs Atlantis (1992) 14) Black Terry Strengths: Had the people's champion appeal of 1980s Sangre Chicana, but in the more cynical setting of the 2000s-2010s indy scene. Possibly the best old worker ever. Weaknesses: When you're in your fifties working indies, you're not going to get booked against many great workers, which limits how many classics you can put together. Like a lot of great old workers, his memorable old age run came after a midcareer slump (in Terry's case the CMLL years). Peak: I think his peak was probably in the late aughts up through some point in the first half of the 2010s. His most revered classic came after that, though, so who knows? Best matches: vs Multifacetico (2008), vs Aero Boy (June 2016), vs Wotan (2016) (Maybe I should have said 2016 for his peak.) 15) Super Astro Strengths: Astonishing to watch when he takes to the air, and his dives look like they hurt. Extremely consistent and a good entertainer. His act never gets old. Weaknesses: The promotions with TV didn't seem interested in giving him many matches in the '90s. Not sure if he was much of a brawler. Peak: Probably at some point in the 1980s, when he was a top middleweight contender and occasional champion. His case is more about consistency than peak or resume. Best matches: vs Satanico (1984), vs Blue Panther (1992) (I know that second one has gotten tagged as overrated, and once something gets that label it's hard to shake, but there was a time when Astro vs Panther was considered one of the classic old school AAA title matches. Anyway, I don't want to write out full 3v3 listings so I'll just add this and this as two of Astro's best.)

I'm closer to Gramsci on this one. If you erased Dandy's 1989-90 from the record, you'd still have the Pirata match, the Casas match and feud, the Llanes match and feud, the Warrior match, the Santo/Casas threeway, the recently unearthed Monterrey Santo match and more. That's a strong top 100 candidate. With Dandy I sometimes wonder if he's hurt by the fact that his character doesn't immediately jump off the page to someone watching old matches. He's not a bombastic rudo or a masked superhero, even if he was a captivating performer to the crowds he wrestled for. Oh, cool, what's the story there? I don't know if that's fair. Would you hold that against Ricky Steamboat or Steve Grey? Or do you think they'd be good heels? Not totally Atlantis's fault he was booked to change sides and they weren't. He probably had gotten a bit stale when he started getting the Cenalike reactions, but he'd also been performing in the same arenas for twenty years by that point. Who else can say that? And twenty years after THAT, he's still around in the same arenas.

Well, if you're ranking any, which ones you got? I've spent the last few years ranking the Mexican candidates, and this is how my list shook out: #1 candidates: 1) Hijo del Santo Greatest strength: Perhaps the best wrestler ever at having great matches. Greatest weakness: Not exactly a figure of great fun or spontaneity. Peak: I'd have Santo as a best in the world candidate for 1995, 1998, 2000, and 2001. I know that he has advocates for his '96 and '97 as well. He might have had years in the UWA when he ranked among the world's top workers as well, but we have very little footage from this era, and UWA Santo was more formulaic than the later version. Prime lasted over ten years. Best matches: Compiling a brief list of Santo's best matches is a daunting task. I'd say the most famous/revered ones are vs. Espanto Jr. (1986), vs. Negro Casas (1987), vs. Brazo de Oro (1991), vs. Dandy and Casas (1996), vs. Casas (1997), and vs. Parka (2001). I'll throw in his 1988 match with Espanto as a personal favorite. 2) Negro Casas Strength: One of the most creative and charismatic wrestlers ever. Weakness: He was incredible in his thirties and had a good old man run in his fifties. I'm not sure his forties do a whole lot for his case. Peak: One of the best workers in the world in 1992-93. Weekly Casas footage doesn't begin until the UWA got TV in late '91, by which point Casas had already entered his peak, so it's not clear how many years before 1992 he'd already been wrestling at that level. In 1996 he was a #1 candidate as well, although he didn't have the big 1v1 matches that he did in '92/'93. Best matches: vs. Santo (1987), vs. Santo (1991), vs. Dandy (1992), vs. Ultimo Dragon (1993), vs. Fiera (1993), vs. Santo (1997), vs. Blue Panther (2012) 3) Fuerza Guerrera Strength: A totally singular approach to villainy that was like 50% comedy, and it somehow worked. Weakness: Doesn't have the resume of the workers around him on this list, in part because he was 5-15 years older than they were and likely had more of his best stuff in the '80s. But he also had a personality that didn't necessarily lend itself well to epic matches, especially against other top workers. Peak: In 1990 he's one of the five best workers in Mexico. In 1991 he's my pick for #1 in the country and a contender for best in the world. He was still great for several years after, but as more of a great entertainer than a worker's worker. 1990-91 had the strongest overlap between his pure wrestling ability and his showmanship. Best matches: vs. Pantera (1990), vs. Octagon (1991), vs. Misterioso (1991), the definitive AAA 3v3 (March 17 1995) (I'm trying to limit the "best matches" to 1v1s, for reasons of space in this post and simplicity of assigning credit, and because I know that's what most people are looking for anyway. I'm also trying to combine my personal preferences with those of the rest of the universe for that section. I don't know if it's working.) 4) El Dandy Strength: A master of two essential matches in the lucha style, the title match and the 3v3 leadup to a bigger match. The latter is especially valuable, as whenever there's a Dandy 1v1 available, it means that there are likely one or two preceding matches worth watching as well. Weakness: Prime is inconsistent in quality, and his WCW years are largely a waste. Several of his best brawls involve rudo ref spots, which for a lot of people is an automatic fail. Peak: One of the best wrestlers in the world in 1989 and 1990. There used to be a mythos around around his 1990 that I'm not sure still exists. Was one of the best in the world in 1996 as well, albeit at a slightly lesser level. Prime starts with the Pirata Morgan match at the latest and ends with the three-way at the end of '96. Best matches: vs. Pirata Morgan (1988), vs. Angel Azteca (June 1990), vs. Satanico (December 1990), vs. Negro Casas (1992), vs. Santo and Casas (1996) 5) Virus Strength: One of the best technical wrestlers who's ever lived. Weakness: He can brawl, but I wouldn't call him a great brawler, and his resume also lacks heated 3v3s. Peak: I think that Virus was at his best 2011-2015, when he was working as an old school rudo champion in a modern CMLL, but his best year (grading the performances rather than the worker) was 1997. He's up there with Eddy Guerrero and Stone Cold for the best in the Western Hemisphere that year. A rare case of peak and prime not aligning. Best matches: Damiancito el Guerrero vs. Cicloncito Ramirez (1997), vs. Guerrero Maya Jr. (2011), vs. Guerrero Maya Jr. (2013), vs. Fuego (2014), vs. Metalico (2019) (I've dropped Virus a couple of spots since the last time I worked on this list. I have a lot of respect for how hard he had to work and how good he had to be to escape the minis division and get bigtime matches on the main roster, and when I went through his career that really hit home with me. A couple years later, I'm a little more focused on how cruiserweighty his minis work is, and his lack of emotional 3v3s does bother me a little.) 6) Atlantis Strength: The best 3v3 worker of all time, and it's not like he's lacking for great 1v1 matches. Weakness: Had a reputation as more of a follower in the ring than a leader. Regardless of how true that is, you're not going to come away from Atlantis matches thinking that he's a genius. And I know that a lot of people grade wrestlers on how smart they are. Peak: Top ten worker in Mexico from 1989-1992 (and looks just as good in the scant footage of 1988 Atlantis). In 1991-92 he's probably top five. In 1988-89 he was one of the best flyers in the world. Best matches: vs. Faraon (1985), vs. Blue Panther (1991), vs. Emilio Charles (1992), vs. Blue Panther (1997), vs. Villano III (2000) (I would rate Atlantis vs. Satanico from 1984 above most of these matches, but I'm not sure if it's a great Atlantis performance even if it is a great match. He was just twenty-one.)

RIP. It's sad that possibly the most famous, charismatic and beloved wrestler ever, at least stateside, got booed out of the building in his last appearance on a wrestling show. He brought it on himself, but it's still sad to see a story turn out that way. On the other hand, on a former stomping ground for some of the hardest of the hardcores, nothing could be more appropriate than a thread about his death being filled with mostly ill will. Eventually it got to a point where even they had to admit that the guy knew what he was he doing between the ropes, but this is much more tonally consistent with workrate fans' feelings about Hogan throughout his career.

Satanico vs Fiera, spring 1996 The first fall was missing, which is often the most interesting part of a title match, and all they showed was Fiera winning it with a pretty simple short arm scissors. Then the second fall began and Fiera was trying to get a hold of that arm and Satanico was desperate to keep it away from him. It had me flashing back to the way tecnico Fiera readily worked like a rudo against Negro Casas in 1993, or how Satanico and Cochisse kept working holds throughout their match in '84. That lasted for just a fleeting moment, though, before they just started working a standard, forgettable match. By the third fall both men looked like they were running out of ideas, as they basically did the same crossbody counter spot twice within a span of minutes. Fiera's offense worked much better in a brawling setting, and I dunno if Satanico was going through a sort of midcareer crisis or if he was just having a bad night, but his third fall offense was a lot better against Averno seven years later. The match was fine but not something to list in either guy's catalog.

Couple of things about Pirata Morgan: 1. Pirata's birthday is listed as July 29 1962. I know he has the Satanico match in 1993, and I know there must be some other stuff that somebody likes from his later career. but for the most part he made his case almost entirely in his twenties. How many other candidates can say the same thing? I assume some joshi workers. 2. Pirata is almost universally regarded as a great worker by lucha fans, and again that's with a case made up almost entirely of his work from his twenties. Does he have the best twenties of any candidate? 3. On closer inspection, the other Bucaneros all wore eyepatches that they could see through, so they weren't actually wrestling half blind. I was wrong about that, and I'm upset about that. Not as much as when I found out that MS-1 was not actually Mungo the Alien (I was wrong about that too), but I'd still rather have avoided that mistake.

Lotta Freelance fans here. I watched a couple of matches where he squared off with the master. Freelance vs Dr. Cerebro, May 21 2017 This was a good match. It was a little less mat based than your typical Cerebro match but he's not a one dimensional worker. Freelance clearly had more talent than a lot of the pikers I've seen Cerebro try to match holds with. On the other hand, it didn't really have anything special going for it, and Freelance pretty clearly just let go of a hold and walked away at one point. Keep that shit limited to Negro Navarro matches, please. Freelance, Fenix and Aeroman vs Dr. Cerebro, Fantasma de la Opera and Cerebro Negro, July 31 2008 Dr. Cerebro beat the absolute shit out of Freelance here. This was the kind of rudo performance I've wanted to see from the doctor for a long time. It wasn't heatseeking stuff, he just destroyed Freelance, who was a great sympathetic babyface. The other rudos got into it too and I loved how Freelance just collapsed with exhaustion after evening the match. They were two thirds of the way to a great one. I didn't really like Freelance's third fall offense. It was good tecnico offense in and of itself, and I have no problem with tecnicos making a comeback on rudos with flashy tecnico offense. I'm just kind of OCD about blood, I guess. Once you're busted open and having trouble even standing, that should be a sign that you're in no condition to be doing crazy standing flips or whatever. As usual with IWRG I can't understand what they wanted to do with the finish, which saw Freelance eliminated early before Aeroman and Cerebro landed winning blows simultaneously. Still, I gotta call the match a big success, as it improved my (already very high) opinion of Cerebro and made me want to see more Freelance.

I gotta rewatch this. I remember it being a 3.75 kind of match myself, but I don't have any memory of the technical work being brilliant. It exists in my head as a lesser version of Mogur vs Pierroth from a couple months later.

If it were to come out that one day a spaceship flew down to Earth and dropped off Bobby Backlund with express instructions of blending in with the humans as best as possible... well, maybe I'd be a little surprised, but definitely less surprised than for any other candidate I can think of. He's always just a couple of steps away from looking like an honest to goodness actual person. Whoa whoa whoa whoa.

That's interesting that it was a 3v3 that shaped your views of lucha. For a lot of people it seems like they can maybe get into the big apuestas or title matches but 3v3s just don't work for them. I hope you keep doing these.

October 2003 (Part two) February 2004 June 2004 November 2004

Satanico got a bit of play in Guadalajara during the first decade of the 2000s: Satanico vs Charro (October 19 2003) Even in his fifties Satanico still knew how to carve a fellow up. I don't know Charro from Adam, so maybe he was a brilliant local worker, but as far as I could tell the first fall was fantastic just because of how good Satanico was at beating up and bloodying tecnicos. This is the sort of specific thing that I would point to if I ever wanted to make the case for Satanico as the GOAT, or for Satanico over Negro Casas. Not many could do it like Satanico. Charro made a bizarre choice in his second fall comeback, but I suppose it was the sort of Attitude Era influenced move that wrestling saw a lot of around then. They didn't really go big in the third fall, but there's no taking away that first fall. Satanico vs Averno (February 15 2004) Satanico vs Averno (November 7 2004) Couple of title matches. The first one was for the welterweight (yeah right, Satanico) belt and saw some cheating from Averno and a rather muted response from Satanico. I'm used to tecnico Satanico fighting fire with fire, but I guess he wanted to play it babyface. The second match was for the middleweight championship and was really good. They didn't really dig into the first fall technical work enough or display enough creativity for it to be a classic title match, but the falls were paced well and the third fall had all the dramatic swings and nearfalls that you'd hope for. I was impressed with how Satanico pulled that off without busting out some new-gen offense. He still had the sense of timing to get it done with moves he could have been using twenty years back. I still think that the Cochisse match is doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to Satanico's reputation in title matches, but this was at the level of the handheld match with Chicana or maybe one of the better Lizmark matches. Satanico vs Ringo Mendoza (June 27 2004) This felt like two Diablo Velazco students doing their own take on the burgeoning style of maestros wrestling. Not much flash, just one fall of trading barebones holds, with an attempt to keep it realistic and grounded in the principles taught to them in the '70s and '60s (Ringo is OLD). Same as they'd have done in the first fall of a title defense from 1982.

Positives are that he gets incredible heat for modern wrestling and that he brought a sense of violence to 2010s Arena Mexico that no one else could. But he's so one dimensional. Doesn't sell much, and never emotes anything other than smugness. Pretty much any early '90s rudo was a more varied performer. Yeah, I know that prime Rush was "the most hated tecnico" or something, rather than a true rudo, but still.

Never hated Triple H. I respect a lot of his matches. But even with peak HHH, I don't really know what I'd say his greatest strength was as a wrestler. Does that mean it was some nebulous quality like "ring generalship" or "a sense of the moment"? Maybe he was just "more than the sum of his parts." I do think that he was good at being a loathsome heel while still making himself look like one of the top wrestlers in the promotion, instead of working as a weasel/coward or an unstoppable badass.

Overachiever. Warrior almost objectively sucked giant ass as a worker but his list of good matches (and MEMORABLE good matches) is better than it has any right to be. Like, I doubt he was more talented than Vampiro, but Warrior clearly has the better matches. I don't think it was just his opponents, either. Warrior's character somehow lent itself naturally to big, important matches, and I'm sure it helped that Hellwig seemed to fancy himself a genuine real life superhero. If you're one of those guys who rate squashes, I'm not sure there was ever a more legendary squash than Warrior vs Honky Tonk Man.