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Satanico and Casas are both alphas with great skill who were treated as such, they both had(/are having) long careers and they both had plenty of success even as older wrestlers. In the ring they aren't anything alike, though. You could group them together, but probably best to just acknowledge each of them as a singular performer in the annals of wrestling. Casas has a lot in common with the Fuerza group, but as I see it he isn't really defined by his zany antics the way those guys are. Santo could go in the group with Atlantis and Lizmark. He just has so many qualities that are unique to him--the moves handed down from his father, the formula criticisms, how natural he found it to work as a vicious bastard--that again I'd probably put him by himself. He shares some qualities with the Perro Aguayo group, but he wasn't a brawler first the way they were. Pirata has a lot in common with the entertainers, but his bloodthirsty image would be out of place with those guys. Very funny when he wanted to be, though. My goal wasto find cohesive groups of similar workers where you can sort of see why things turned out that way for them, rather than to find a label for everyone. I tried to err on the side of leaving guys out, but I'm sure you could find guys who don't quite fit. What were your thoughts?

As requested by ohtani's jacket... Mechanics (listed somewhat chronologically) MS-1, Espanto Jr., Hombre Bala, Rambo, Emilio Charles Jr., Bestia Salvaje, Pierrothito Smooth, bumping bruisers with big grins. Generally maskless, tended who have more personality than starpower. Can captain a team, but generally more natural as the #2 or #3 in a match. Often more workmanlike than their talents necessitate, and as such they tend to be better in 3v3 matches than 1v1s. A lot of these workers ended up in longtime rivalries with tecnicos who were much bigger stars (Espanto vs Santo for instance), perhaps because their inring ability and general selflessness made for a great pairing with guys who actually did need to be the center of attention all the time. Once a fairly common type of worker, but now not as much. Maybe the mechanics all have masks now and expressive faces is no longer an important feature for this group. Entertainers Mocho Cota, Fuerza Guerrera, Brazo de Plata, Jerry Estrada, La Parka Charismatic rudos who incorporated a lot of comedy and zany antics into their performances. Quite athletic as well, maybe because they needed to remind the fans that they were for real and not just pure comedians. Equally comfortable leading a team or in a backup role. Parka and Porky both spent most of their career as tecnicos, but with them I see it as their charisma engulfing the rest of their work until they were more charisma than wrestler. Superstars Cien Caras, Pierroth Jr. Dr. Wagner Jr. possibly a third member here. Alpha rudos whose star presence is their defining attribute. Generally understand that match quality isn't a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. Probably not a very common group historically, as you can't rise through the ranks just by acting like a star. No one's going to buy that. Charisma is something that is earned as much as inborn. Pierroth and Wagner both changed their personality after reaching a certain level, and it's not easy to make that kind of stylistic change midcareer. Maestros Blue Panther, Negro Navarro, Dr. Cerebro, Virus Brilliant rudo technicians whose ability is the main feature of their character. These guys can wrestle typical matches, but they clearly work differently from your standard rudo. Longevity is not so much a tendency of this type of wrestler as it is a prerequisite. Speedsters Silver King, Felino Black Warrior another worker I'd lump with these guys. Similar to the maestros, they seemed to define themselves by their speed. That's hard to make into a strong personality trait, and as such they were minor stars who easily shifted between tecnico and rudo. All of these guys came from wrestling families. Maybe defining themselves by workrate is something that happens only with guys who grow up knowing what impresses workers. For someone who comes into wrestling just to make a buck, it might not make sense to make that a dominant attribute. Complete tecnicos Lizmark, Atlantis, Angel Azteca, Ciclon Ramirez, Ultimo Dragon Stunning flyers who could also work the mat. Very common type of masked wrestler. Not big personalities. Lizmark is more or less the father of this group, although he no doubt was inspired by other similar workers beforehand. In general these guys don't have very many mask matches, Atlantis an obvious exception here, and they're much more technical workers than brawlers. This is a type of wrestler that will get over with a strong push but easily gets lost in the shuffle otherwise. Hard to imagine these guys as rudos (although it did happen with Atlantis). Daredevils Mascarita Sagrada, Rey Misterio Jr., Mascarita Dorada Similar to the other masked tecnico group, but with a greater emphasis on flying. These are the guys fans will seek out just to see a particular spot that they did. I don't know if small size is a necessary part of this personality or if it's because it's hard to do those crazy spots with similar sized wrestlers. Dancers Super Astro, Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Kung Fu Kendo and Kato Kung Lee also in this group. Masked workers who, as much as signature moves, have signature sequences that involve a lot of playing along from the rudos. Not as much emphasis on technique as other masked tecnicos, much greater emphasis on comedy. These guys generally have bigger personalities than the other two masked tecnico groups. Rayo aside, they don't usually end up as main eventers, but in contrast to the Lizmark group this is a type of wrestler that thrives in the midcard. Their personalities shine through with everything they do and allow them to stand out even without a push. Kato is the only one of these guys who could do this maskless. Astro remasked, Kendo remasked and Kung Fu worked a different style when he was unmasked. Fairly tight grouping, not a common type of worker and possibly extinct. Everymen Javier Cruz, Texano, Dandy Kind of an unmasked version of the Lizmark group, but these guys are generally more grounded and more likely to brawl. All three spent substantial time as rudos. Previously quite common (Americo Rocca belongs here), but unmasked workers are a lot rarer now. I'm not 100% confident that this is a cohesive group, especially Texano, who was much more muscled than the other two and is remembered more as a rudo Misionero than as a tecnico. Idols Perro Aguayo, Sangre Chicana, Villano III, Black Terry Beloved workers with a penchant for bloody brawls. Spent time as rudos, some even while still beloved. Black Terry seems out of place here, but he mattered as much to his smaller fanbase as Chicana and Aguayo did to theirs. Not really sure modern wrestling supports this kind of worker, although I guess LA Park has matches in the same style. This was focused on workers who were nominated for the GWE poll, because it was linked to something I was doing there. Plenty more to choose from, and of course you also have plenty of guys who defy categorization.

I always spoiler tag my ratings to avoid taking away from discussion of a specific wrestler. The idea of starting a "types of wrestler" thread came to mind, but if it were started by me and opened with a post featuring nothing but Mexican wrestling, it probably wouldn't have gotten much participation. I'll move that post to the Microscope, but I bet if you started a thread for grouping wrestlers like that you'd get some good responses.

Pequeño Pierroth reminds me of a mini Bestia Salvaje. Not a worker with the presence of a star or one who builds matches so that he looks like a star, but he nonetheless has personality and his overall game has no real weaknesses. Bestia was probably the better brawler and Pierrothito probably the better technical worker, which makes sense as twenty-first century CMLL and the minis division aren't environments conducive to brawls. I like how his career quietly shadowed that of Virus. After their great matches as teammates in 1997, Virus went off to become big sized and have the classic title matches in his forties that cemented him as a maestro, and all the while Pierrothito just chugged along, putting in invariably solid efforts with the remaining minis and notching the occasional spotlight performance himself. I wish we had more of him from the mid 2000s. A career that spans the eras: Pierrothito and Virus vs Cicloncito Ramirez and Ultimo Dragoncito Pierrothito, Espectrito and Fire vs Mascarita Sagrada, Shockercito and Tzuki Pierrothito, Demus and Pequeño Warrior vs Astral, Mascarita Dorada and Ultimo Dragoncito (Astral backflipping off Pierrothito in the middle of the ring blew my mind when I saw it) Pierrothito vs Astral (P2) (not a great match, but I respected how he tried to make a believable setup for the always awkward hanging guillotine legdrop) Pierrothito vs Shockercito For this one time I decided to group everyone a bit differently:

I tend to associate the releasing of holds with Negro Navarro rather than Solar. I don't remember it happening in, say, Solar vs Virus but it was all over those Navarros vs Cerebros matches I loved so much. Although it makes sense how the maestros stuff could matter more for Solar's case in people's eyes, given how that period saw him presented as a much bigger deal than in his CMLL/AAA runs, he had an entire career before changing his style for the veterans' circuit. It's actually remarkable how little the CMLL front office thought of him (most of his matches there are against the likes of Supremo II and rudo Mogur), but in AAA he did get a chance to show what he could do, even if it resulted in only one major match. There's plenty of Solar vs Panther to be found and he has good exchanges with random talent like Ice Killer, and he turns out to be one of the best opponents for Angel Azteca of all people. Seriously, that was quality work whenever those two matched up. He probably doesn't appear enough in my list of favorite matches to have a shot at my top hundred, and I do consider him a bit one-dimensional. In the end, though, he was great enough at that one dimension for me to rank him as a legitimate candidate. I think this is gonna be nothing but Solar in AAA: Solar, Angel Azteca and Super Astro vs Blue Panther, Parka and Rambo Solar, Panterita del Ring and Super Astro vs Blue Panther, Ice Killer and Jerry Estrada Solar, Katana and Volador vs Angel Azteca, Misterioso and Winners Solar, Misterioso and Super Calo vs Angel Azteca, Volador and Winners Folkloricos vs Blue Panther, Fuerza Guerrera and Fishman (rare-ish chance to see Solar bleed and brawl)

He went to Japan and worked shootstyle, went to Mexico and was a heavyweight champion, went to the US and quickly grasped what got US workers over at the time. He was a smart guy who could adapt to whatever was in front of him, but he wasn't very smooth (sweet windup bodyslam aside) and his WCW run might actually be the most over and most successful he ever was. Not really the place or the style to produce much in the way of excellent matches, though. It makes sense that someone like that would end up as a longtime trainer. His Wikipedia page says that he's also a vocalist who specializes in Gregorian chant. Somehow I don't expect that revision to last much longer.

Likable, endearing worker who always tries. I just haven't found the matches that would make the foundation of a GWE case for him. There's a spark of greatness in most Demus matches but they never seem to erupt into full fledged greatness. I liked him more as a CMLL mini than as a guy who uses light tubes and tables. But I did like: Demus vs Bam Bam Demus, Pierrothito and Pequeño Violencia vs Electrico, Mascarita Dorada and Pequeño Olimpico Demus vs Pequeño Warrior Demus vs Virus

Hmmm... Brazos vs Infernales was for the newly formed trios titles. Atlantis vs Blue Panther in 1997 was the final of the Copa Victoria. I loved Felino vs Mascara Magica in 1996 even more than those two matches, but I don't get the impression it's thought of on the same level. There are probably others from 2000 and beyond that I've never even heard of. I never really thought about the subgenre of Mexican tourney finals before.

Bestia, Pirata Morgan and Fuerza Guerrera vs Dandy, Guerrero Samurai and Mantuz, 1988-90 Here's a look at Bestia before he became a CMLL fixture and a chance to see elusive Arena Coliseo Guadalajara footage. I can't figure out when this is from or what it's building to. He's feuding with Dandy and their listed matches from around this time all took place in the capital. The uploader cut out most of the first fall, so most of Bestia's offense in the video is just low blows, but he gets good heat and bleeds more than I've ever seen him do. I don't know where or if Bestia registers on the long list of Dandy rivals, but this made me wish we had the whole match and made for a fun watch on its own.

It turns out that the Pierrothito fedora logo I mentioned last week was an Ingobernales logo. Now who looks silly? Demus P2: Demus vs Pierrothito, August 24 2010 This had a little bit of everything. Technical work, high flying, brawling, you name it. Consequently I never really got a sense for what they wanted this to be about. They started slugging it out in the third fall and it looked like the match would erupt into a wild brawl, but it ended shortly after that. The wrestlers displayed a lot of ability but they looked better than the match, if that makes any sense. Demus vs Pequeño Warrior, September 18 2011 Look, I'm not a fan of hair vs hair in post-'90s CMLL. At some point, perhaps because of time restraints, they stopped working the matches by building and building to a big comeback from one of the wrestlers. My favorite Arena Mexico hair match from this millennium is when Casas and Panther attempted to redefine the style. This had most of the trappings of a modern hair match but was just about as good as you could get from that stipulation. They didn't need to fly, but at least they did it with something like a flying senton to the back of the neck. It felt like a fight all the way, and if they couldn't bleed and didn't have masks to shred, they achieved a similar visual effect by tearing each other's pants up. Warrior actually tried to cut Demus off during one of his pointless poses, and then he used his wrist tape to tie Demus to the ropes by the hole in his earlobe. Does he do that all the time, like Octagon, or was that special just for this match? I liked this one a lot. Demus vs Wotan, December 18 2017 The first seven minutes featured some of the wildest brawling you'll ever see in a wrestling ring. The next four minutes were spent setting up a spot involving a board, the ref and like ten chairs. Then it was over. The big spot was not one that was worth spending four minutes to set up, by the way. The turning point in the match came when Wotan went for a tope but flew over Demus's head because Demus was too short. Once a mini, always a mini.

Even in this timeline, though, isn't there a real possibility of Victor Quiñones ending up in a very high ranking position in the WWF? You'd probably get just as much depravity coming from their management if that happens.

Important Cagematch UPDATE: Virus vs Maya I has moved into the top overall spot on their CMLL list. Star rating canon doesn't really have a firm spot for anything from Mexico that I know of, meaning that no highly praised match goes unshit upon. There's no pressure to like anything, even an Observer MOTY like Atlantis-Villano, which is part of what makes lucha interesting in a way. But Virus-Maya, unrated by the Observer AFAIK, has yet to receive a rating below 8, and over half its ratings are 10s. Maybe it's just a small sample size, or maybe it's going down as an unimpeachable classic. Not that it matters for today's post, which is called... Pierrothito goes for the gold: Pierrothito vs Ultimo Dragoncito, October 16 2001 It is very hard to make a three fall title match feel like a big deal in just 12:47 (with replays, even). They pulled it off for three reasons. One, Pierroth was at ringside, acting as if this was the pivotal moment in this history of the Boricuas. He has to be the best second of all time, out here making matches better without even being in them. Two, Dragoncito continued this thread's running storyline of him nearly dying in a match when he sailed over Pierrothito's shoulder on an Asai moonsault. He was out of the ring for almost a full minute, but he pulled himself up out of a pool of his own blood to make sure his longtime dance partner got his moment clean in the middle. And three, even with the frightening miss, they were believable as the two best in the division the whole way. Pierrothito vs Mascarita Dorada, September 23 2008 I found it interesting that Pierrothito treated the much smaller Mascarita as an equal standing up. Yeah, he ragdolled the little guy at points, but MD didn't have to soar through the air or hit an acrobatic counter just to get the advantage. In fact his flying cost him in the second and third falls, when Pierroth hit some nasty looking counters to close things out. They were also competing for the vacant lightweight title instead of the minis belt. Anyway, the match was really good and a lot fuller than the Dragoncito match. Pierrothito vs Shockercito, July 31 2017 I joked about Pierrothito calling himself the pequeño Intocable in a 1997 match, but in 2017 the logo on his jacket still included a G-man fedora, because when you're Intocable, dude, you're Intocable 4 life (Pierrothito was never a member of the Intocables). I liked this match even more than the one with Mascarita Dorada. Pierrothito worked more like a bully, but Shockercito's ability ensured that he still looked like a legitimate champion, so the effect was just that the match had more of a hook. That's how wrestling works, right? Shockercito had some insane counters, more mindblowing than MD's dives, and pretty much everything hit cleanly. Maybe they wanted to finish with the reinera at the end, but if that was a botch than they deserve a bunch of credit for quickly devising something even better on the spot.

I've never been a believer in Barr, even his lost potential in the States. He was small by US standards and wasn't an impossible to overlook athlete like Mysterio, Benoit and Guerrero, and he didn't have an in-ring mind like those three either. He got tons of heat as an anti-Mexico heel in AAA, but what did that prove? It never translated to anything for Ken Timbs. He could be a giant pain in the ass for promoters as well. I think to avoid getting lost in the shuffle he would have needed to demonstrate a knack for creating and refining a memorable character the way that Jericho and Pillman did, and I don't know if I'd bet on him having that ability. Even if he somehow survived 1994 and cleaned up, it would have been fairly likely, IMO, that he'd have ended up going back to AAA trying to recreate his 1993-94 run to diminishing returns every time. Maybe he'd have gotten a shot in the WWF lightheavy division.

The fuckin' Juice, man. I don't have a lot of use for Juvi in AAA. I've never bought that he was the best worker in the States in 1998. I'm not a believer in Guerrera vs Kidman as a classic series of matches. I've never seen his NOAH run. But you have to be a damn sorry worker to be worse than Vampiro, and I don't think Juvi has anything to worry about there.

I'm a little bit less impressed by Psicosis after watching a lot of early Virus lately. From 1993-95, Virus could do pretty much everything that Psicosis could, even if Psicosis got to work bigger matches with better wrestlers. Virus of course went on to change his game up quite a bit, and you'd hardly call that period the peak of his career. That probably is the Psicosis's peak, though. Not the best look for a guy whose case is more about his best work than about the sum of his whole career, as a candidate like that should look like one of a kind when he's at his best. He did have a couple of classics with Misterio, and was in a bunch of the best AAA matches. I know that William Regal and Paul London have said he was a dream to work with, so give him points for adaptability. Maybe someone out there still loves that match with Santo from '95.

I watched a lot of Virus over the past couple of months. One of the most important matches of his career that hasn't been listed here is the February 1996 match where he won the minis title from Mascarita Magica. He'd been good before that, pretty much from the moment he debuted on TV, but it was in the Psicosis high energy mold of rudo. When they decided to trust him with a belt, it seemed to open the door for him to start laying out entire matches to showcase his technical ability and basically start wrestling like Virus. He wasn't yet a fully formed or actualized worker for that legendary 1997 run, but he was like a young Michael Jordan or Roberto Duran in that he could dominate at such an early stage in his career because of how athletically gifted he was and how quickly he grasped the game. That led to a graduation from the mini division, which he probably viewed as a major personal triumph but changed him from the main man in all his matches to a small fish in a big pond. For the next ten years Virus chugged along and worked hard and occasionally got a showcase match thrown his way. His big outings didn't get a bunch of time, and the most interesting thing about this period was that he wrestled tecnico for a few years. I actually think that his understated personality and the way that he defines himself through his skill play better as a tecnico, even if I understand why they've never tried that again. Anyway, for some reason, with Virus kicking around in his early forties, they decided to give him his own trio and another big spotlight title run. Now, the Cancerberos are nonexistent in Virus canon (if you do a search on this site for "cancerberos" you get two efed posts and three posts by me, and I'm telling you right now I don't know any more about them than you do). That championship reign, though, is just as big a part of his legacy as his 1997, maybe even bigger. He was no longer wrestling peers or contemporaries, but this to me represented Virus as a final product, still a top worker physically and now with much stronger ideas about how to take the audience on a roller coaster ride with a title match. It wasn't the end of him, either. He has produced some excellent work since then and still may have more to come. Virus has been a good worker for thirty years (TV debut in August 1992) at minimum. He tries hard even away from Arena Mexico, and that consistency plus the sheer number of great matches is a killer combination maybe unmatched. For me, the one knock on him is that he has a small personality for a worker of his stature. It's not that he doesn't have charisma. He does, but it's the kind that's based on his ability and the fans' knowledge of what he's done, kind of like Atlantis. But he also isn't really the type to totally take over a 3v3, where the crowd is focusing about him even when he isn't really doing anything. In fact I don't know of a single superheated 3v3 Virus match. I'd put him in the Espanto Jr./Dr. Cerebro family of workers, supremely gifted rudos who aren't very loud characters, but he has a better resume than either of them (Panther is comparable too, but I just think Virus was more talented). Atlantis is a tecnico who has similar strengths, but I think Virus played a greater role in shaping his matches than Atlantis did. He barely made the top hundred in 2016. I don't think I'd rate him number one, but I think that's closer to being correct than a ranking of ninety-nine. Other Virus matches: Piratita Morgan II and Felinito vs Cicloncito Ramirez and Ultimo Dragoncito (his best match from his young days) Damiancito el Guerrero vs Mascarita Magica (a major turning point in his career IMO) Virus vs Fuego (one of the best defenses from his 2011-15 title reign) Virus vs Dr. Cerebro (Virus in a genuine maestro match against a similarly skilled worker)

Lightning round (some of this stuff I barely remember): Virus vs Ricky Marvin (2021) had good technical work, a lot of nasty legwork, and a hot finishing stretch, but the legwork ended up as filler with how little it mattered afterward. Still a big improvement on their 2000 match. The two 3v3 matches that built up to Virus vs Guerrero Maya Jr. in 2013 were pretty unmemorable. Mediocre rudo performances from Virus. The setup for Virus vs Fuego in 2014 was better. The first match was good, and I liked how Virus tried to avoid Fuego in the second. The better rudo work came in the weaker overall match though. Virus vs Fly Star, mentioned in Virus's nomination thread, was a really good combo of wrestling and garbage brawling. I'm always a sucker for guys taking it back to wrestling after making each other bleed. Fly Star's comeback could've used a little more oomph. After the match Virus said that Fly Star had lots of ability but lacked respect. I wonder if that was in character or if he was legitimately annoyed. Damiancito and Felinito vs Cicloncito and Dragoncito took one of the 1997 Virus classics and added my main man Felinito. Unfortunately the primary matchups were Virus vs Dragoncito and Cicloncito vs Felinito, so no Virus/Cicloncito magic. Solid, but disappointing by '97 mini standards. Felinito jumped shortly after this and missed out on most of the legendary year for the mini division. This match from IWRG has mostly escaped my memory. I remember Fuerza offering a genuine handshake, Fuerza flipping off the fans and Fuerza vs Virus not being terribly exciting. Navarro worked the mat and was good rather than annoying. You never know with him. Virus vs Mistico was a one fall title match with the ref counting super fast. Not a whole lot differentiating a CMLL match from any other match at this point. I got the impression this was more of a Mistico match than a Virus match. Mistico is incredibly over, though. I watched a couple (literally a couple) of matches from Virus's team that no one ever talks about. In 2013 they had a much better match involving Guerrero Maya than the ones from the buildup to the title challenge. Triton's mask looked like the butterfly divas title. In 2021 they had a title match that wasn't as good, but it was eight years later and not everyone ages as well as Virus. Unfortunately, they never lost the belts, as Raziel passed away in 2022.

Virus classics P3: Virus vs Dr. Cerebro, August 16 2015 How did I miss this while looking for Cerebro classics last year? It was exactly what you'd expect and exactly what you'd want from possibly the two best Mexican workers of the 2000s. I haven't seen Virus matched up with a genuine peer since Cicloncito Ramirez, and though his technical work with Guerrero Maya and Fuego was excellent, this was a different level entirely. It was wrestled more as a Cerebro match than a Virus title match, but Virus slipped into the maestro style with ease and might actually have been the better of the two. After the match he posed on the turnbuckle and didn't even fall off. Virus vs Metalico, May 31 2019 I guess career vs career is the only way that two unmasked wrestlers can match the emotion of a big mask match. In a way it felt like Virus's take on Atlantis vs Villano III. I liked that a lot of Metalico's offense was fancy rollups rather than big bombs, and I liked how his only way out of Virus's submissions was rope breaks, as if he really didn't have a chance to counter or fight out of them. His punches were cool and on some of the back and forths he'd wear this great expression of a man who knew he was outgunned but simply didn't give a damn. Finally Virus started landing some knockout shots, and though Metalico had the heart to keep fighting after a couple, the body can take only so much. It all made sense and the crowd was into it, but something about it didn't completely work for me. I guess my problem was that it wasn't really a match that built and built to that climactic finishing sequence, and rather about 75% was wrestled at the same level from a dramatic standpoint. You could swap the placement of a bunch of the spots without really affecting the story at all. It felt like they were in the same place for most of the match. I dunno, I wouldn't argue with anyone who called it a great match, but I probably wouldn't argue for it either. Impressive Virus apuestas match is something else I can check off on the list, though.

The Central American countries are a lot more similar stylistically to Mexico than Puerto Rico is. Panama doesn't seem to have much of a wrestling scene nowadays, but in the 1980s they were able to run shows in the top boxing arena in the country. Guatemala had televised wrestling at one point, don't think they do anymore, apparently they haven't had a national superstar since Astro de Oro (a 1980s-1990s wrestler).

Virus vs Demus Virus vs Demus 3:16, March 1 2011 Decent mano a mano with some hard hitting stuff from Demus and a lot of posing from Demus. I liked the dramatic tecnico way Virus sold those kneelifts, but the layout didn't give him much to do. He won in two falls, with a DQ in the first and a quick comeback in the second, so he never brawled with Demus at all. Virus vs Demus 3:16, March 11 2011 This might have had the most stakes in any apuestas match ever. Not the highest stakes, but the most--loser loses his hair, loser gets demoted to the mini division and winner gets the Cancerberos. I don't know why you'd want to team with some guys who would have abandoned you if you'd lost, obviously those aren't your boys, but maybe I'd understand if I watched more of the buildup. The actual contest ended up as a typical CMLL hair match from the era, with some token brawling before the wrestlers quickly began trading spots like they would in any other match. It was Demus who did almost all of the real fighting. I know that by this point there wasn't going to be blood in Arena Mexico, but it was rudo vs rudo and Virus at least could have matched the violence that Demus inflicted on him. Almost everything Virus did here could have come out of one of his title defenses. Virus vs Demus 3:16, February 16 2019 You'd think that once you've relegated an opponent to a lower division where he's literally not allowed to wrestle you anymore, that's it, you're done with him. Eight years is a long time though, and Demus no longer had to accept his CMLL-assigned mini status, freeing him up for matches with Travis Banks, Neil Diamond Cutter and his old enemy Virus. I don't know if Virus had changed a lot since the hair match or if he too was reaping the benefits of working away from Arena Mexico, but he wrestled like a completely different person. He flat out tore into Demus like I've never seen him do before. There were chairshots and crowd brawling and blood, but it wasn't just that. He did a spot where he dared Demus to pick himself up, crawl over the railing and get back to fighting, and then when Demus did that Virus beat his ass again. Where was that sort of personal touch in the CMLL matches? Demus's spear into the ring took forever to develop for some reason, but other than that this was really good. More importantly it's nice that I can check this type of match off because I was beginning to wonder if Virus had it in him.

Virus title reign P3: Virus vs Dragon Lee, December 9 2014 Virus switched things up by losing the first fall, and he had an awesome counter of a low dropkick in the third, but those were just about the only interesting ideas all match. I actually came away thinking that he had a few too many stock spots that he seemed to use every time out (the dodge he does through the ropes, the move where he baits his opponent outside the ring). It was also the sloppiest Virus match I've seen maybe ever. So not really a good night. Virus vs Dragon Lee, April 15 2015 Virus always seems to do better his second time out with an opponent. There were more interesting moments in the four or five opening minutes than in all of last match. I wouldn't call this great (all that sweet legwork sure ended up going nowhere, huh?), but it was a good match that did an excellent job of demonstrating that Dragon Lee was the man to end Virus's reign. Virus just had nothing left by the end of the third fall and got overwhelmed. Too bad his great run had to end on such a corny spot, with Virus holding himself up on the ropes so that Dragon Lee could hit him with a double stomp. Anyway, this led to the Dragon Lee-Kamaitachi series that got rave reviews, not bad for a belt that apparently was created just for CMLL tours of Japan.

Virus title reign P2: Virus vs Titan, January 28 2014 Not technically part of Virus's reign, as he's trying to move up in weight and take Titan's welterweight title, but this got better reviews than the Stigma defense. I thought Titan did a really good job hanging with Virus on the mat. Virus was doing all the complex holds, and I loved how he fought off the camel clutch until he could find the counter, but Titan never looked lost and always had an answer. It was pretty disappointing when they mutually decided to start running the ropes to end that portion of the match. Virus's work in the second fall was almost like an American style control segment, with pinfall attempts and cutoffs, a neat change of pace, but Titan fought back with way too much choreographed offense and kind of knocked me out of it. I did like that he beat Virus with his own handspring victory roll from the '90s. Third fall had some nice counter submission holds from Virus but went on too long. Good match that could have been better. Virus vs Fuego, June 15 2014 Didn't expect much from this. I thought Fuego looked mediocre in their first match, and he was wrestling in his home arena and already in his thirties for that one. No real reason to expect him to have any more skills or put in a better effort here. But he did, he really did. Like Guerrero Maya, he looked like he was on Virus's level the second time around, and it was apparent from the matwork in the first fall. Somewhere in there Virus put on a hold that was begging for a schoolboy counter, and the instant Fuego applied the schoolboy Virus snapped on a reversal. That was real chessgame stuff, whether it was the effect he intended or not. I much preferred how they moved away from the holds in this match, with Virus getting frustrated that he couldn't shake Fuego and just smacking him in the chest. He worked another aggressive second fall before Fuego came back with some kinda spotty dropkicks, but he took the fall like an old school wrestler, tying Virus up in a slick cradle for three. The third fall had some wonderful selling from both men, some of it intentional and some of it involuntary (you could see Fuego gasping for air through the fabric of the mask), and it had me wondering. Is there a more lowkey great bumper than Virus in history? Where does his elbowdrop rank on the alltime list? 45 years old and he was still a physical marvel. He picked up the win with his famous Gori-campana combo to the dismay of those guys in green who'd been mugging for the camera all match cheering for Fuego. Afterwards Virus cut a babyface promo thanking the fans and putting Fuego over strong. He said that Fuego deserved it all, but it's 2023 and Fuego has yet to win a major singles title and spent time this year wrestling as an anthropomorphic bottle of liquid candy, and now I'm a little bit sad. Right now I have this as Virus's second or third best match, behind Virus vs GM II and about even with Virus vs Cicloncito.

Virus title reign: Virus vs Fuego, October 1 2012 Not too sure about this one. Fuego seemed as if he could follow along but not quite keep up, if that makes any sense. Those holds in the first fall were so SLOW, like he needed time to work it all out in his head instead of just reacting. And the second fall was screaming for a bigtime counter to one of Virus's submissions, but Fuego just didn't have one in him. Even Virus was a little off. He did this spot, turning around to celebrate on the apron before getting knocked off, that made sense for Piratita Morgan in a 3v3, but not for a battle tested maestro. He also did this. Now I consider myself a pretty easy sell when it comes to buying in to wrestling's internal logic, but what's keeping Fuego's left leg in place there for Virus to hook it with his right? Suicida used the same move in that 2005 IWRG match, and I didn't want to bitch about something so minor in a match that good. This match wasn't bad, but clearly it wasn't good enough for me to extend to it the same courtesy. Virus vs Guerrero Maya, October 6 2013 At first I was wondering why they were doing nothing but standup submissions. It was distracting, but they were also digging in shots to the ribs to manipulate each other into better positions, and then they started doing pretty complicated stuff like the Gory attempts. That was enough to convince me this was a serious title challenge. Virus took the fall with a hold so badass that, as one of announcers noted, it would have scored a pinfall had Maya not already submitted to it. In the previous GM match and the Fuego defense, Virus's first fall win led to him dominating much of the second fall, but here GM was still right there with him and they spent most of the fall on the mat trying to break each other down and find an opening. It was skillful stuff, and Maya wasn't being carried at all here, rather legitimately hanging with Virus. The broadcast referenced the first match in the opening of the video, and even I couldn't miss how much Maya had improved since 2011. How much was kayfabe and how much was better work I don't really know, but he was harder to put away here and it was Virus who tried to up the pace and paid for it. Maya evened the score with the same submission from 2011's second fall but with a much better setup move. Of course they cut loose in the third fall, but there was no disconnect with what they'd done in the first two. This was like one long Spy vs Spy sequence, with each man reacting and dodging and countering, none of it choreographed, and all maintaining the spirit of the way they tried to outwit each other while working holds, just with more at stake with each move. At one point Virus kicked out of a pin and crawled across the ring to grab the bottom rope, looking for a preemptive rope break on whatever Maya had in store for him next. He had some big shots of his own, but his move off the top got him only two (it won him the first match, so again you can see GM's improvement). Eventually it seemed they had nothing left but desperation rollups, still reversing holds like they'd done all match. The fans were cheering Virus on, and he had one last submission left in him to seal it (another much better finish than in 2011). I gotta say that I went in thinking that this might be a rehash. Instead I'm wondering how Guerrero Maya didn't win a CMLL singles belt until this year, because I've seen him in three great matches now and he looked better in each successive one. As for Virus, I'd be surprised if he had a better title match than this, simply because I don't think there are many title matches better than this, period. You don't find many guys reaching a new level of brilliance in their forties, but he'd probably been dreaming about a run like this in Arena Mexico since he'd been kicking around with an eyepatch on.

Tecnico Virus works the indies: Virus, Ricky Marvin and Volador Jr. vs Caifan Rockero I, Caifan Rockero II and Raiden, December 7 2003 Smackdown Six-esque match with a bunch of complicated sequences that never saw the workers lose their way. The finish to the first fall was incredibly slick, with Raiden dropkicking Virus into a powerbomb and landing on Ricky Marvin for the pin. Now, Marvin had already been pinned, but still. Volador is so much more tolerable with a mask on, just so I don't have to see his smug face, and Marvin was much more well rounded than two or three years before. I had Virus as the man of the match, though. The rest of the guys ran out of steam a bit in the third fall, but Virus kept going strong and finished things off with an inverted Gory into a slam into a campana. He hadn't looked that unstoppable since his mini division days. Virus, Atlantis and Sagrado vs Black Tiger, Charles Lucero and Violencia, May 30 2004 This was a lot better than I expected. Atlantis was over forty and a big star, so he didn't have to try here, but he was still a worker at heart. Sagrado was the beta run of Mistico and supposedly flopped because his wrestling didn't cut it, but you couldn't tell from this match. It probably helped that he had three really good rudos to work with. Obviously Virus vs Lucero is the matchup to hope for here, but Lucero wasn't interested. He sent the other two in to take out Virus, and when that didn't work, only then did he step in, just to get flattened with one punch. He sold the shit out of that and still remembered by the time his team had the advantage. Virus got a beating on the outside, and I continue to be impressed by how he seems like such a natural tecnico. It's not easy to punk out a rudo the way he did, badly enough to create a main issue for the match, while seeming justified. And Virus vs Lucero ended up as quite the matchup even while looking nothing like I'd hoped. Virus and Suicida vs Cerebro Negro and Dr. Cerebro, August 25 2005 Now here the matchup to watch for was Virus vs Dr. Cerebro, but again they went in a different direction, so we got these cool images of Virus on the apron intently studying his rival. Virus looked good and Cerebro Negro wasn't bad, but he didn't have the counters to keep up with Segura vs the doctor. Those two had long duels on the mat in the first and in the third, both excellent. Segura was thirty-six here and somehow just rocketed around the ring. I'd say he was like a man ten years younger, but not many twenty-six year olds could go that fast either. Dr. Cerebro gave a best in the world level performance, not just on the mat but in taking smooth stagger bumps outside, or hitting a badass tope just to get disintegrated seconds later. The conclusion to this wonderful demonstration of wrestling skill was, naturally, one team throwing the ref in the way on a plancha, and the other team committing a foul. Doesn't matter who did what or which action caused the DQ. I tell you again, IWRG would not know a good finish if it bit them in the ass. And this is a post where the competition is two matches from Monterrey for crying out loud.

Part of me wants to nominate Cicloncito Ramirez/Pequeño Olimpico, who probably raised Virus's game more than any other opponent. But would it lead to any discussion, or anyone seriously considering the guy? It feels like I'd just be doing it for myself.