ohtani's jacket

He came into his own in '88 and was still contributing to the CMLL renaissance in 1997, so the conventional wisdom would be from '88-97. If you're talking about his absolute peak it's '89-90 with his physical peak being '88-91. His form from '92-94 fluctuates as much as his weight, and from '95 onward is his post prime. He gets overtaken by other workers starting in '92, which isn't the case in '89 or '90 where he's balling at an untouchable level. I'd like to see Gregor chime in because he's insinuated in the past that Dandy's '92 decline is overstated, which is an interesting discourse.

I'm sure there are a lot of workers whom WWE/North American focused types don't know shit about. I doubt they give a shit, either. Again, I don't see why the Dandy thing is a big deal just because he was the punchline of a great promo. Bret got in a great line, that's all. Why should we care that Dandy was the butt of some joke in a promotion that misused Mexican talent? From a worker who shares the same dismissive views of Mexican wrestling that most of his fanbase do. None of those things mean shit in the context of Dandy's real career in Mexico. The only time WWE types seek out a match from Mexico is to see some generic crap like When World's Collide because it's Eddie. They're not worth worrying about. It's like being a metal fan and caring that people think metal's a joke because or some hair band, or that they think it's a joke in general.

I think he's clearly better than Arn, but I don't think it's a good idea to go into the matches in that frame of mind. Dandy was a different sort of worker in a different position from Arn. There are plenty of rudos who play second or third guy in trios where Arn can be used as a barometer. Dandy was in more of a Flair position at least in his weight class. The best way you can watch Dandy is to view as much as his 1990 stuff as you can and if you agree that he was the best worker in the world that year then there's your argument for him having a high ranking. That was his peak and everything else is supplementary.

You can count on one hand the number of people who write articles, run websites and do podcasts about lucha. It's always been the poor cousin in hardcore fandom.

El Dandy, Apolo Dantes y Eddy Guerrero vs. Emilio Charles Jr., Pirata Morgan y Ary Romero (9/29/89) A few new faces here. Obviously, there's Eddy Guerrero, who doesn't need much of an introduction. At this stage of his career, Eddy was mostly working the circuit his father had promoted, which included the El Paso, TX and Cd. Juarez areas. He also worked in Tijuana and California. Here's an interview from Juarez TV where he talks about some of the early highlights of his career, including hair match victories against La Fiera and Negro Casas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzns2T2GT-c#t=83 The earliest appearances we have for Eddy at Arena Mexico are on a couple of Sunday shows in late '86. The most notable appearance he made for EMLL in the 80s was on the undercard of the 54th Anniversary Show, which was billed as Gori Guerrero's retirement show and featured all of his sons in action. Eddy teamed with El Hijo del Santo as the new La Pareja Atómica, taking on El Hijo Del Gladiador (Talisman) and El Dandy in honour of their padres. Those of you who are familiar with AAA will know that Pena took the La Pareja Atómica idea and turned it into one of the hottest feuds of the 90s when he had Guerrero turn on Santo and ally himself with Love Machine Art Barr. CMLL had mostly booked Eddy as the third brother in the Guerreros trio, and largely used them on Coliseo shows since they weren't full-timers, but in the summer of '92 with all the defections to AAA, they were desperately short of talent and tried repackaging Eddy as Mascara Magica. CMLL were fairly serious about the gimmick and gave Eddy his first singles push in the company culminating with a title shot against Bestia Salvaje that main evented one of the Sunday night shows, but Eddy wasn't happy playing an enmascarado and followed his brothers to AAA where he did the unthinkable and voluntarily unmasked before the start of his bout. This was a Monday Night Wars style stunt as CMLL owned the rights to the gimmick and Eddy ripped them on AAA TV for forcing a Guerrero to wear a mask. Eddy instantly became a bigger name than he had been, Mando came up with the idea for the heel turn, and the rest is history. Also featured in this bout is Ari "El Gato" Romero, who was a top rudo in Northern Mexico in the 70s and 80s, especially the Cd. Juarez area where he spent years feuding with the Guerrero family. Alfredo Esparza has written about Romero several times over the years, and I would only be pinching his memories if I used those stories, so please take the time to read the following: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ari_Romero http://www.luchaworld.com/?p=33064 http://www.luchaworld.com/?p=13050 http://www.luchaworld.com/?p=6241 Also featured in this bout is the son of another famous luchador, Apolo Dantes. Following on the heels of his brother Cesar, Apolo had made his debut at Arena Coliseo Guadalajara the previous December. The Dantes family is a dinastia dating back to Apolo's grandfather, Al Amezcua, who wrestled in the 40s and 50s and was the first mask El Santo ever took. Apolo began training for wrestling at the age of 15, and was fortunate enough to be trained by Diablo Velazco before the maestro's health began failing him. He was a mainstay for CMLL in the 90s, remaining loyal to the company during the AAA defections and serving as one of its top tecnicos. The high point of his career was winning the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship in 1995, emulating his father's feats as National Heavyweight Champion. He also had a formidable record in apuesta matches. In 2005, he returned to his roots at Arena Coliseo Guadalajara and became the head promoter there. Four years later, he was pushed out and started his own promotion Dantes Lucha Factory. He returned for another stint at Arena Coliseo in 2011 amid rumours that CMLL was looking to sell up and get out of Guadalajara and was replaced by Satanico in December last year.

On the website it says: March 11th 1978 (Hemel Hempstead, taped 10/11/78) Since it can't have aired before it was taped, I checked the British Wrestling Archive and got this: Making it from January 10th.

Claude Roca & Walter Bordes vs. Albert Sanniez & Pierre Bernaert (8/29/77) Great maestros tag. One of my favourite catch bouts to show up online. The contrast between the teams made this fight. You had two smaller, zippy guys in Roca and Sanniez, a bruiser in Bernaert, who still knew some holds, and the super athletic showman in Bordes. Add to that Roger Delaporte in a patriarchal ref role and an aging Roger Couderc on commentary and you had all the ingredients of a great catch bout the way it used to be. Now that I'm used to the tropes it was particularly warming to see them done in a maestros style. As with all matches of this type, you shouldn't expect a bout that builds to a dramatic climax. Instead, it's about the simple pleasure of a well executed move or a fun exchange. If you love shoot style, lucha matwork, or the maestros style, you should be onto this in a flash. It's basically European BattlARTS meets lucha through a French lens, while remaining distinctly catch.

The following matches were from a special team tournament episode of World of Sport, which, while not the first of its kind, was rare enough for Walton to comment on how unique it was. On paper it was a lopsided match-up with the superstar pairing of Kung Fu and the Royal Brothers taking on Black Jack Mulligan and two heels I'd never heard of, Roy Paul and Terry O'Neill. The heels called themselves The Liverpool Skinheads despite Mulligan being the only one who was remotely skinhead (and that was only because he was bald), while the faces used the generic TV All-Stars name. Vic Faulkner vs. Roy Paul (3/8/78) Roy Paul's get-up! He was wearing wrestling boots, jean shorts, a red belt and a pair of red suspenders. He looked like a cross between a He-Man figure and a model from one of the thousands of British porn mags that flooded New Zealand dairies and stationary shops when I was a kid. Paul wouldn't let Faulkner wrestle his normal match, which Walton lamented but I quite enjoyed since fired up Faulkner is a lot more palpable than smart arse Faulkner. Paul appeared to take the bout, which also pleased me, but fucking MC John Harris told referee Max Ward that Faulkner's foot was in the ropes and the ref disallowed the fall. You're all pro-wrestling fans and you know what happened next. Mulligan was livid at ringside, and if this had been heathen all-in America, I'm sure the Skinheads would have bum rushed the show and beat the shit out of the shitty All-Stars. Alas, the decision stood. Kung Fu vs. Black Jack Mulligan (3/8/78) Black Jack Mulligan has got to be in the conversation for greatest jobber. In his favour is the fact that he always worked competitive squashes, and he had a distinct look and in-ring character despite only being an enhancement talent, but he made Kung Fu look like an absolute world beater here to the point where I forgot that he's not usually this good! Man, did Black Jack eat Kung Fu's kicks. After having his hands tied behind his back, Kung Fu broke free of his shackles (literally!) and beat the shit out of the perpetrator. Mulligan was trying to undo the ring padding and took a head first posting that rung out like the bells on Christmas morning then ate the finish blow to end all finishing blows. That was some Game of Death/Mortal Kombat shit right there. Only Mulligan could make Kung Fu this cool. Bert Royal vs. Terry O'Neill (3/8/78) Terry O'Neill was the captain of the Liverpool Skinheads, and a heavyweight, making his decision to wear the same outfit as Roy Paul even more disturbing. Apparently, they were a regular tag team in the North West, including the big venues at Liverpool stadium and Belle Vue in Manchester. That explains the outfits. I guess they were similar to Les Blousons Noirs. Royal opted to take on O'Neill because Royal's a hero and O'Neill was the heaviest man. Easily the worst of the three bouts with O'Neill being less mobile than the other heels and Royal doing the typical prat Royal Brother shit. According to Walton, O'Neill was also a diver and did public stunts where he'd dive from a 100 feet into a 6 feet pool surrounded by flames. It was hard to imagine a man O'Neill's size pulling off a dive like that and was more interesting than the bout. Terry O'Neill, Roy Paul & Black Jack Mulligan vs. Bert Royal, Vic Faulkner & Kung Fu (3/8/78) Shitty six-man tag, or three aside as they put it. Joint Promotions has the worst six man tags of any promotion I've seen. The faces completed the whitewash by quickly winning 2-0 in a match that was about as necessary as denim shorts with suspenders. Afterwards a pair of local ladies were practically ripping Kung Fu out of his gi. He owed Mulligan a beer for that. Why have the heels go down 4-0? Only Dale Martin would book this kind of shit. At least the first two matches were entertaining.

People were selling it at the time as a shoot style match/worked shoot, or at least the WWE/John Cena equivalent of one, and I thought that was bollocks.

I'll never understand why people are bothered by this. It was a great promo by Bret.

That's not necessarily the case. I watched both cold and thought Punk/Cena was outstanding and Punk/Lesnar overrated.

Y'know something, I think you may be right. It looks like they re-aired the Atlantis/Lizmark/Rayo vs. Kung Fu/Mascara Ano 2000/Universo 2000 trios as well as the Fuerza/Octagon fight. The Brazos match from the same 11/3 TV show is a different Brazos match from the 2/1 taping and looks like it's clearly from a different show than the Octagon match. Goddammit, lucha.

Back to the 70s: Steve Veidor vs. Phil Rowe (10/4/77) You may remember me mentioning the "Duchess" from this episode of World of Sport -- an eccentric female fan who wore a cheap looking Disney princess outfit and gave gifts to the wrestlers on the way to ringside. She was wearing a homemade t-shirt that read "Steve's Lady," so apparently Veidor was her favourite. Can't fault her taste, but Veidor didn't seem that comfortable with it. She gave him a basket of fruit, which he presented to MC Mike Judd, and Judd stood there doing the introductions with the basket in his hand. Unfortunately, that was about as eventful as the match got. Rowe was from Cleveland originally near North Yorkshire, but according to Walton learnt to wrestle in South Africa. This was his television debut and they basically worked some holds until Rowe started cheating. Veidor overreacted massively and drew a public warning, stream rolling Rowe for the win. Afterwards, the Duchess tried to make her way to Veidor's corner, but he looked ready to bolt. Sandy Scott vs. Johnny Kincaid (1/10/78) This had a surprise start with the Scot Sandy Scott absolutely railing on Kincaid from the get-go. It was a squash match for all intents and purposes, but Scott made sure to get his licks in. Kincaid had such a great heel run in the late 70s. It's a shame the racial element made it too hot for television, because I'd actually put it in my top 10 heel runs for the entire period we have footage from. He took a bunch of shots from Scott before a really beautiful gut wrench suplex put Sandy out of business. Kincaid seems like such a nice guy outside the ring, but talk about a guy born to play the heel. Tally Ho Kaye vs. Chris Adams (7/12/78) Well, here you have Chris Adams' television debut for all of you Gentlemen Chris Adams fans out there. Kaye was one of those trusted hands like Cooper or Breaks that the promoters could put with a newcomer like Adams and ensure he got over with the crowd. The story here was that Adams had the judo background but Kaye knew all the tricks of the trade professionally. As far as television debuts go, it was an entertaining bout with some pretty good wrestling mixed in with the heat seeking elements. Adams definitely looked a ton better than he really was in the early part of his career, so there's a testament to Tally Ho Kaye. Kendo Nagasaki vs. Pete Roberts (7/29/77) I'll say this for Nagasaki: he knew how to work a crowd. His manager Gorgeous George was decent on the mic, but after the bell rang it was Nagasaki's ability to pace a performance that really shone. He'd start with some legit grappling, which he was only half way decent at but good enough to look credible, then slowly start backing off as his man took the upperhand. Then he'd begin with the inside moves and cheating and bring the house down. Here Roberts got a questionable fall where it really did seem like Nagasaki's shoulders were up, and he took it out on Roberts by giving him a hard head first posting after the bell and dishing out quite a lot of violent punishment. Roberts was doing a silly "Kung Fu Fighter" gimmick at this time being the era of Bruce Lee and Shaw Brothers films, and Walton showed the limits of his ability to dress this slop up by claiming that Roberts had picked kung fu up in Japan and Korea. At any rate, Roberts used a chop he hardly ever used in ordinary bouts and went after Nagasaki's mask lucha style trying to pull it up over Nagasaki's nose while Kendo fought to cover his face. The crowd were worked into a lather by this point, and even though the schmozz finish was inevitable, it was a great television brawl that I imagine the ITV higher ups frowned upon. If they had a problem with Rocco and the Caribbean Sunshine Boys then I couldn't see them approving of this as it was much more violent than your ordinary World of Sport bout. Gorgeous George, who looked like a member of Sweet during this taping, cut a promo afterwards claiming that Kendo deserved a shot at Tony St. Clair and rubbishing the likes of Roberts as an opponent and Pete got another of his sharp tongued retorts in. It's funny how a guy with such little in-ring personality could have such a sharp wit on the mic. Kendo Nagasaki vs. Pete Roberts (7/12/78) Same match a year later. Same sort of bout, same finish, and just as entertaining. Nagasaki was unmasked and wearing those crazy red contacts that made his eyes look the kids from Village of the Damned. He also did this great bit of schtick where he'd try to block out the crowd noise by covering up both his ears. I'm actually starting to gain a bit more respect for him as a performer. He wasn't a great worker, but he had a well honed act and pushed the limits of what was acceptable on TV. Here he actually beat on a second, which you never saw happen on television. Of course it helped that he was wrestling Pete Roberts, who didn't mind working stiff, but both these matches were wild brawls that would have maybe had some blood if they'd been wrestled in the halls but were otherwise great theatre for Saturday afternoon TV. Brian Maxine vs. Gary Wensor (2/6/78) Fun squash with Mick McManus on ringside at the commentary and both wrestlers making sure to spill out onto the announcing table as a rib. Maxine got on the mic afterwards and cut a rousing promo where he was drowned out by the crowd. Tremendous heat for wrestling's greatest self-promoter. (Note to John: the ITV site has a typo on that last date listing it as 6/12/78 instead of 6/2/78. The Kincaid bout should also be 10/1/78 not 10/11/78.)

I've been noticing a lot more suplexes in the late 70s footage I've been watching. They tend to do them in transition as opposed to setting them up as a big highspot. I think they're kind of cool. They seem like more legitimate throws than pro-wrestling moves.

Some extra bouts from '82: Pat Patton vs. John Wilkie (2/3/82) This was from one of those Davis Cup style team tournaments they'd run between a team of blue eyes and a team of villains, in this case the "Jets" vs. the "Ring Battlers." Despite Wilkie being the "pride of the Potteries," he was too much of a journeyman to really trouble Patton, but they managed to fill in a fun couple of minutes before taking it home. I love me some Pat Patton, so I didn't mind watching this despite the fact it was a bit of fluff. Big DaddyKwik Kick Lee vs. Crusher Brannigan/Tony Walsh (5/11/82) This was actually pretty entertaining. I have no idea whether Maeda understood the significance of Cup Final Day, but it was a hot match nonetheless with the heels going full throttle and Walsh pin-balling all over the place. The awkwardness of Daddy tagging with a guy who doesn't speak English is painful to beyond, but it worked in the bout's favour as I don't think anybody clued Maeda into the fact that this was a bout where he should pull his kicks. Walsh was great and again I lamented the fact that he worked so many of these tags instead of appearing in "proper" television bouts. Brannigan, of LA, New Zealand and Australia fame, was also game, charging about like a smaller John Quinn. Generally speaking, these Daddy bouts live and die by how good the heel performances are, and this was definitely one of the better ones. Marty Jones vs. Bret Hart (11/30/81) We only really saw the latter scoring rounds of this, so I have no idea how good it really was, but if you've ever seen early Bret you'll know he was fairly nondescript with a focus on execution and not much in the way of charisma or playing to the crowd. He tried to play the outside foreign heel w/ his heathen North American "all-in" rules in the same subtle heel manner he'd perfect later on, but it was in direct contrast to Walton trying to put him over as one of twelve children, and so on. Marty Jones vs. Bret Hart is actually a match-up with a lot of potential, but the timing wasn't right with each man peaking ten years apart. Dave Taylor vs. Jamaica Kid (Caernarfon, taped 1982) This was supposedly from the very first Reslo taping on 8/18/82, but I can't confirm that. In any event, it appears to be the first Taylor match to make tape, so if you're interested in that sort of history/trivia you should check this out on that basis alone. Taylor is pretty smooth for such a young worker even in spite of his family pedigree, and Jamaica Kid (or "George" as he was more commonly known) was another in a long line of solid West Indian UK grapplers. Not an epic in terms of structure, as you ought to be aware, but some nice work from a WCW b-show favourite who'd go on to be a staple in the German scene.

garetta's criticisms aren't unique. Meltzer wrote a similar sort of thing in his 1990 Yearbook where he claimed that the only "complete" workes in CMLL were Dandy, Morgan and Estrada, and that the rest of them didn't compare favourably to American and Japanese workers. But the whole "I'm not invested in the match/I don't care about the characters" thing is a two way street. If you're sitting there waiting to be impressed then you're not making an effort to be invested. You can't get into lucha watching a match here and there. If you don't speak the language, can't understand the interviews or vignettes and aren't following the stories or characterisations in the magazines then it takes time to learn about the workers. Watching them on a Yearbook may be enough of an introduction, but w/ a trios like this one it helps if you're familiar with the workers because on paper this is an exciting match-up with six of the best workers on the company and expectations should be high. I think Matt would admit that he struggled to find the narrrative in lucha at first, and now it's like he's been a fan his entire life, but he watched a lot of lucha to get to that point. I can't remember what motivated him to continue watching, but he aptly described it as a journey. The point is that he made a concerted effort to watch something that didn't have an immediate appeal to him. Of course, nobody's saying that you need to do that -- if you don't like something, you don't like it, and that may never change -- but writing matches off for reasons that are patently untrue like these guys aren't great workers or have no character, or whatever, just seems baseless.

Do you agree that lucha commentary is poor?

The Wu Tang Clan watching WWWF isn't as cool as Screamin' Jay Hawkins being a fan of that era.

I only know half a dozen Spanish words, but Alfonso Morales and Arturo Rivera always seem excited to me. I usually listen to music while watching wrestling. The only commentator I make a point of listening to is Walton.

Fuerza Guerrera vs. Octagon vs. Huracán Ramírez II, mask vs. mask, CMLL 12/14/90 This was the main event of CMLL's season ending show for 1990. We all know that triangle matches don't make for the best of apuesta matches, especially with a non-brawler like Octagon, but circumstances here were out of the ordinary. CMLL was coming off a record breaking Anniversary Show and business was hot. Arena Mexico was packed, and anticipation rife. Virginia Aguilera once said that the lucha public were barbaric: "we go to the matches because we like to see Christians killing each other." Having whet their appetite on Dandy/Satanico, the crowd were ready for more slaughter. It took Sevilla literally seconds to prove he was as good as thought, and that it wasn't just Bestia making him look a million bucks. It's rare that a guy working a classic masked luchador gimmick is a good brawler, but Sevilla harkened back to his rudo days at Pavillon Azteca where he used to stomp the shit out of other toy characters. The hardcores knew La Empressa wasn't giving away Fuerza vs. Octagon so soon, so the booking here was that instead of presenting the obvious wager, Fuerza fought his way to freedom and the final contest was a tecnico vs. tecnico showdown. That meant that Fuerza only wrestled half the match, but what a half of wrestling. His mask was ripped at the front so you could pretty much tell what he looked like anyway, which would have pleased the ringsiders who paid top dollar. Using the hole in his mask, he got stuck right in there and hacked the shit out of his forehead. The crazy mother was dripping blood everywhere. He got it over himself, Octagon, the ref, and even his second Gran Cochisse. Then came the Fuerza Moment of the Match, which this time wasn't divine comedy but an insane bump off an Octagon arm drag sequence that sent him crowd surfing into the front three rows. There's no way those people left without blood on them. A word on those arm drags: they were so fucking good. I've lightened up on workers like Super Muneco and Mascara Sagrada and no longer think they're the terrible workers I thought they were when I first started getting tapes, and really I'm starting to care less and less about whether guys are bad workers or not,; but whether you love Octagon or hate him (and I don't think there's anybody who really loves him), you can't tell me those arm drags weren't impressive. It's funny because I was sent this article that Dave Meltzer wrote for his 1990 Yearbook where he talked about how he'd started getting into lucha on Galavison, and how there weren't a lot of what he called "complete" workers. He cited Atlantis as a guy who had great high spots but couldn't work a match. I don't know where he got that idea from, but it fits Octagon to a tee. (Maybe he had his eyes gorged by that shitty Atlantis/Kung Fu feud.) Octagon wasn't a great worker, but he was malleable, and this was, I think, one of his career best bouts with the finishing stretch to the Octagon/Fuerza portion being one of the most legitimately exciting things I've seen in lucha in all my years of watching it. About two or three times, Octagon tried to hook on his La Escalera submission, but Fuerza kept blocking his leg and finally got a counter into a submission of his own. He sort of fell into Cochisse's arms like Shawn Michaels fulfilling his boyhood dream and then gave the most awesome triumphant fist pump. Fuerza Guerrera, your man of the hour. A rudo fan with a cowbell shook his hand, and we should all do the same after that tour de force. Since they weren't planning to turn Sevilla heel, the actual mask vs. mask part was worked cleanly. They went at each other hard and fast and there were some huge collisions in the centre of the ring. The winning falls came a little easily, but it was very much in keeping with the theatrical style of big time apuesta matches. With Octagon being one of the biggest stars in the business, and the most popular tecnico in the new television era, they were never going to have him lose, especially not on the season-ending show and not to a guy who was doing a third rate homage/rip-off to/of a classic gimmick; but like any well booked apuesta match there was a reason why the defeated wrestler lost. In this case, Sevilla missed on two topes and the second appeared to separate his shoulder. I'm not sure if it was a legit injury or a work, but he was attended to by two docs after the match and took some time to unmask. When he finally did, he had amazingly long eyelashes, and I couldn't help but wonder if he had a bit of the old Isiah Thomas eye make-up going on. The best ever triangle apuesta match remains by some distance the Casas vs. Dandy vs. Santo match from 1996, but this was a thoroughly enjoyable match that could have easily been a dud following on the heels of Satanico and Dandy and not delivering on Fuerza vs. Octagon, which was no doubt what everyone wanted to see (except for me, the world's biggest Huracan Sevilla mark.) At the very least, Fuerza's cameo (?) deserved to be talked about more, and you owe it to yourself to watch it if you're a Fuerza fan and you haven't.

I like some of Perro's later stuff for the spectacle, but I don't think he was the most coordinated of workers. Even in the 80s footage, the way he moves about the ring or applies a hold is unaesthetically pleasing to me. He was a tremendous brawler with unbelievable charisma, but even if we had footage from his prime I'm not sure he'd be that much better technique-wise. It's possible that I'm overrating Azteca and Faraon. I like the idea of ranking the luchadores, but when I sit down to do it, I feel like I'm forgetting everybody. Then I figure I'll go through luchawiki so I don't miss somebody, but give up after "A." Azteca I have different expectations for since I regard him as a classic masked tecnico. Faraon I'm not even sure how I feel about as it's been ages since I've watched him. I change my opinion on guys from one match to the next in a very fickle "what have you done for me lately?" kind of a way, but with lucha so much of how you judge a guy is based on what they contribute to trios matches, and I tend to get swayed one way or the other depending on what I've been watching.

A few years ago Dr. Wagner Jr. and LA Park would have fit the bill, but they've worn out their welcome by jerking around promoters. Perro Aguayo Jr. was another guy who had that sort of appeal but pissed it all away.

Ha, I'll probably knock him off the list the next time I see one of his drug fueled train wrecks.

Super Astro, Atlantis y El Faraón vs. Fuerza Guerrera, Blue Panther y Emilio Charles (8/18/89) Atlantis, Mascara Sagrada y Super Astro vs. Hombre Bala, Pirata Morgan y Verdugo (September 1989) These were a pair of standard trios matches. Just like Blue Panther, Super Astro began working for EMLL more frequently in the late 80s. He'd made spot appearances for EMLL in the past (we have one of them on the set, you'll recall), but after Flores' death in '87 there was a real trend in independientes branching out and looking for work in other places. They still worked shows for Carlos Maynes, but it as no longer the case where they'd work the UWA shows each week and fill in their schedules with additional bookings. UWA shows were becoming additional bookings for guys who had moved on to Monterrey or the Tijuana circuit. A lot of guys worked under the tent for Pavillon Azteca while they had TV. Even the big Sunday shows at El Toreo had the thinnest of cards compared to the bullring's heyday. It really was quite disparate from how the decade began. Astro was working all over the show at this point. Los Cadetes Del Espacio had well and truly broken up, and while Astro still traveled the road with Solar, he mostly took his own bookings in either Tijuana or the Federal District. Japan opened up as an option the following year with Hamada's UWF promotion, and unlike a lot of "UWA guys," Astro remained a freelancer for the rest of his career. He was treated pretty well by EMLL despite not being a full-timer. He was over with crowds and brought a lot of novelty value to cards. They even booked him in singles matches from time to time such as his UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Title match against Gran Cochisse on the undercard of the Popitekus/Blondy hair match. Atlantis y Satanico vs. MS-1 y Tierra Viento y Fuego (Hair/Mask vs. Hair/Mask) (9/22/89) This was the main event of EMLL's 55th Anniversary Show. As mentioned before, EMLL didn't always put a maximum of effort into their Anniversary Show cards. Sometimes the cards would be stacked and sometimes they'd be thrown together. Sometimes they had big plans that didn't eventuate and sometimes they made panic moves, changing the card at the last moment. For a show that's supposed to EMLL's equivalent of WrestleMania, it has a checkered history of delivering memorable main events. To illustrate the contrast from one year to the next, the following year's show would deliver the biggest match in the company's history when 23,000 people packed Arena Mexico to witness Cien Caras drop his mask to Rayo de Jalisco Jr with thousands more watching on giant screens outside the arena. The UWA, for all its struggles, managed to draw 21,000 to its 4/23/89 Palacio de los Deportes show (again headlined by that man Rayo de Jalisco Jr.), but despite business being up, EMLL failed to strike while the iron was hot and delivered an unmasking that nobody wanted to see. To the wrestlers' credit, the show sold out, but there wasn't the crush to enter the building that there had been for other historic main events. Originally, the plan was supposed to be for Atlantis to fight an American, but the plans fell through when there were either visa issues or the American disappeared. Given his hot run the year before with Lizmark, and the fact that they used him in singles matches later in the year (including an IWA title shot against Mil Mascaras at Arena Mexico in November), I think it's safe to say that Blondy is the unnamed wrestler, if in fact the rumour is true. Whether it would have been a mask vs. hair match, I'm not sure, but that seems like a hot main. The plan then changed to the Satanico face turn and the pairing of bitter rivals Satanico and Atlantis against the Infernales. Unlike the Mega Powers explode angle, which was a year in the making, EMLL turned Satanico face a month before the show. The initial plan was to have an Atlantis/Satanico/Faraon vs. MS-1/Masakre/Tierra Viento y Fuego trios apuesta match, but Masakre was injured (I believe) and they slot Faraon back down the card. It's often said that Tierra Viento y Fuego joined the Infernales to replace Satanico, but from the records we have he was plucked out of the midcard at the last moment as a guy who was obviously willing to lose his mask and later tagged with MS-1 on cards where Masare was absent. There wasn't any sort of Summer long feud with Satanico feuding against the Tierra Viento y Fuego Infernales. Tierra Viento y Fuego, whose real name was Alfonso Lira Román, was a midcarder originally from the Ciudad Altamirano area in Guerrero. He'd been an EMLL regular since the early 80s mostly working in the 2nd or 3rd match of a card. After unmasking that's more or less where he returned, but like a lot of midcard vets in the television era, Pena repackaged him with new gimmick: Damián El Guerrero. Along with Guerrero Maya (Black Terry) and Guerrero del Futuro (José Luis Feliciano), he formed the mid card trio act Los Guerreros del Futuro and managed to eke out another 10 years with the company.

The standard answer would probably be Casas or Rush.