ohtani's jacket

This was an interesting match as they weren't afraid to have a minimalist title match in front of an Arena Coliseo crowd. You could tell it was different when Solar won the opening fall with an arm submission that would never win a fall in an ordinary title match. From that point on, the match was fought in close quarters. It wasn't entirely devoid of tension -- there was some nice back and forth in the tercera -- but it was deliberately small. I thought it was a thing of beauty but wrestling small is right up my alley so YMMV.

3/12/65 was the air date for this. The Peruvians were Inca Wiracocha and Antonio Tejero (sometimes billed as Inca Viracocha and Anton Tejero.) Chemoul should be listed as Rene Ben Chemoul for database purposes.

You'd have to be living under a rock to not guess how this turned out. Prior to the Capos showing up, it was a pretty average brawl. Emilio, Perro and SIlva made for a bit of a wildman team and this had a different edge to the previous SIlva bouts. The comedy was still there, including some priceless reactions from Gran Markus Jr. and Pierroth when they tried to go one-on-one with the Giant, but there wasn't as much stooging as before and Silva is no longer wiping the mat with everyone. In fact, this time the Boricuas taped his wrists to the ropes and we had a bit of Gigante In Peril. It was pretty lame since it was tape instead of handcuffs and he should have been able to tear himself free. Plus he sold it poorly, bobbing about instead of thrashing. The Capos showed up and managed to get Pierroth alone in the ring. I thought they would do something heinous to him, perhaps break his arm and put him out of wrestling for a while, but they just slapped him around a bit. Somewhat weakly if I'm being honest. The execution seemed way off for this entire segment. Some of the weaker story stuff in awhile.

Is there a reason why the date comes first? I'm so used match/promotion/date that it hurts my tiny brain. When it shows the latest post I'm not sure if I want to check the match based on a date.

This was an excellent bout. It started out as a Guapos showcase with the rudos fixing each other's hair every time they got upset and turned into a thrilling contest thanks to the brilliance of the tecnicos. Good things happen when you have a slick rudo trio and good tecnicos. Lizmark dialed back the clock and gave his best performance of the year. There was pinpoint accuracy in his topes and tilt-a-whirl backbreakers that reminded me of Atlantis in his prime. It would have been nice if Lizmark had ventured to the indies at some point and had a classic maestro title match. I feel like that's something missing from my life. Shocker was brilliant throughout demonstrating time and time again his star quality. The tecnicos upped the tempo at the right times and contributed beautiful dives and the finishing moves from both teams were pretty to watch. The fans got their money's worth with this one and Televisa were so impressed they showed a good 20 minutes of the bout. That says it all. Must watch 2000 lucha here.

Another of my favourite match-ups from 2000. Benoit working heel makes for a much better dynamic than the Triple H match as he can dominate offensively without going overboard. The match is fine though it never reaches great heights since it's just an excuse for the Big Show to pull one over the Rock.

Triple H vs. Benoit was one of the better match-ups in 2000 but I thought Benoit got too much offense here which made the standard Triple H sequences look weak. I realize they were trying to put Benoit over strong but their work didn't really jell for me.

This is worked as a straight trios match instead of a comedy bout. The Capos' tactics seem to be to keep Atlantis and Rayo in the ring. The only bit of offense that Silva gets is a plancha off the apron which is like having a tree fall on you. Things are going pretty well for the tecnicos and Rayo whips the crowd into a frenzy by threatening to piledrive Universo 2000 when suddenly the Boricuas attack. They give the Capos a beatdown Horsemen style. Well, maybe not that intensely but Pierroth gets revenge for the week prior and talks shit to Dr. Morales. Even if you can't speak Spanish it's obvious that Pierroth is killer on the mic. Puerto Rico, baby!

Somehow I really like Rayo de Jalisco Jr and never tire of his feud with Caras. This had a lot of fun moments. Caras' reaction to Porky bumping and grinding was priceless. Alfonso Morales was interviewing Caras and Rayo when a fan got involved. I don't know what Caras said to him but I think it was something along the lines of: "these are the kind of fans Rayo has." Atlantis and Dante wrestled a bit too, which you can go for months without seeing in CMLL. Nice dives too. Just a fun package overall.

The tecnicos should have brought Silva to every fight. They would have never lost. I liked the Guapos' comedy spots in this match.

Los Capos vs. Los Boricuas! This was a slick little trios match that danced around the main beef of Pierroth vs. Mascara Anos 2000 but managed to stoke the fire. Cien Caras did the heavy work for his team while Pierroth was tailgating it to the safety of the commentary box when the heat got too much. The match wasn't as violent as you might expect but did show tremendous potential for a gang war. Remember, Los Capos may be rudos but they're Mexican rudos.

This was a mano a mano bout that highlighted how far Tarzan Boy had come since the beginning of this feud. Satanico attacks him while still wearing his jacket and do-rag and Tarzan Boy immediately fights back and rips Satanico's jacket in half. Now Tarzan Boy is the aggressor, beating on Satanico and making him hurt. Satanico takes a beating for a large portion of this match and Tarzan Boy's confidence borders on arrogance. You can feel the pendulum shifting even if Tarzan Boy is still a tecnico at this stage. They slip in some fouls and there are the usual shenanigans with Satanico faking a foul but it's well sold and the tecnico fans are pretty hot for a mano a mano bout. The tercera caida has some nice counters and escapes and again Tarzan Boy shows how much he's grown since the start of the year. He botches the finish, which hurts the overall effectiveness of the bout, but it's still worth watching if you've followed the Satanico vs. Tarzan Boy feud and is the missing piece between the hair match and the double turn.

The other side to Saito was the bungling yet affable commentator who often made gaffes like calling Jushin Liger or El Samurai by their real names. And his love of the Calpis soft drink was legendary. Rumour had it that he would eat the sachet without diluting it but apparently that's untrue.

This was a handicap match similar to the bouts that Andre used to have in Mexico. I'm not sure which was more surreal -- Silva hugging Porky and making him look like some kind of stuffed toy or guys like Rayo and Caras looking like minis next to the Giant. If you've even see Kamala in Mexico, or any other big man, you'll know that Mexican rudos are good at stooging in these situations. Bit of harmless fun.

When you take away the blood and the brawling, and the Jake the Snake like psychology. Pierroth is pretty limited. But he's excellent on the mic and this match was a chance for him to gather a little heat and build some momentum toward his feud vs. feud with Mascara Ano 2000 that promised a lot at this stage but wouldn't come to a head for a few years yet.

Fun opener from the minis. The tecnicos' dives at the end were spectacular. Makes you wish that the minis aired more often.

This was a heavyweight title shot for Porky. Prior to the bout there was a vignette of him at Super Astro's restaurant ordering one of those giant tortas. If you've ever seen a Porky apuestas match, or a Porky singles match for that matter, you'll know what to expect from this. Watch it purely for the novelty and nothing else.

Not the best Infernales match though it did have a nice tecnico comeback. It wasn't really earned, though, which summed up how much these guys were on autopilot.

What an awesome rudo team. The tecnicos didn't stand a chance. I feel like Televisa needs to air more Mr. Mexico and Valentin Mayo matches, don't you?

Wagner and Los Infernales made a pretty cool team. The good bits in this were good but a little bit predictable. Mind you, Televisa is editing it so that you only see the good bits which also makes things predictable. This built to a Wagner vs. Rayo singles match which I don't think we have on tape. That's a shame because it's an interesting match-up and I feel like we got shortchanged on Wagner's best run in the company during the Summer season. No Rayo singles match, no Casas matches, His standing in the year-end awards may have been higher if we'd had that stuff. Heck, we even got shafted on the trios title feud with the Villanos where we're missing a lot of the matches. Hopefully, I can find a few of those since I know that they aired.

Ringo Mendoza was out there doing his thing. He still knew how to work a fired up babyface comeback. This featured spectacular moves from Antifaz and Safari and big-time bumping from the rudos. I'm not sure what happened to the trio of Felino, Antifaz and Safari. They were pushed as an excitement machine during the Summer months but it only last the Summer. This came down to Ringo vs. Panther and I was disappointed when Panther caught him the armbar. The replay showed that Panther held onto the rope 'cos you know Ringo would have quit otherwise. Heart of a champion, Ringo Mendoza.

This was the night after Tarzan Boy took Satanico's hair for a second time at Arena Puebla. Satanico went after him a bit but not with the fury you'd expect, He wore a do- rag to begin with but lost it after the first caida and I think this is the first time that I've seen Satanico completely bald. Tarzan Boy trash talked him a lot. You can see the seeds of rudoism were always there when he does that sort of thing. The match is mostly a showcase for Porky. Did he need another showcase? Your enjoyment of this will depend on how interested you are in seeing Porky dance to his theme music for the hundredth time this year.

The rudos don't care about winning these matches anymore. It's all about hurting and humiliating their opponents with Entre Torre Infernal just weeks away. This was a quick rudo beatdown with multiple disqualifications and some in-your-face mic work to top it off. Villano III tried to get involved again but Perro waved him off and Mr.Niebla carried him away. Another crash TV match from CMLL.

Vignette with Vilano III at the doctor's office. He has a shoulder injury and is in no state to wrestle. This was crash TV but the crowd had just sat through a tag tournament so it was a welcome change of pace. The tecnicos went at the rudos hard. Rayo, in particular, was fired up and the rudos bumped and stooged for the cleanouts. An old guy in the crowd took great delight in jawing with Dantes. Right on cue, Mascara Ano 2000 ran in and began beating the crap out of Perro. Then Villano ran to ringside against doctor's orders and attacked Pierroth and Mascara with a steel pipe, which may or may not have been cardboard. Villano was escorted to the back and everyone started making threats . What's gonna happen, King, when these four men meet at Entre Torre Infernal?

This was disappointing. These were two of the best guys in Japan in 2000 and should have had a better match. I just wanted to see them wrestle but Togo slowed things down unnecessarily with the chair shot and legwork. I don't care that Delfin blew off the legwork since it was shitty work to begin. What bothered me was Delfin calling out the name of each move. Once or twice may have been bearable but he kept doing it over and over again. By that stage, I didn't really care about this bout. The only consolation I could draw from it was that both men would go on to have much better matches with other people through the course of the year and that Osaka Pro would get a hell of a lot better.