ohtani's jacket

Emilio Charles, Fabuloso Blondy y Pirata Morgan vs. El Dandy, Atlantis & El Faraón (7/21/89) Emilio Charles vs. El Dandy (Hair v. Hair) (7/28/89) Last time, took a look at a short program midcard cabelleras feud in Cruz vs. Bala. This time we'll be concentrating on a more important upper card feud in Dandy vs. Charles. Instead of a few short weeks, it usually takes months (and in some cases years) for upper card wager matches to materialise. In the case of Dandy and Charles, they were embroiled in a feud that lasted the entire second half of the season, including a National Middleweight title bout at the end of the year. The hair match wasn't the blow off to their feud, but rather the first step in a feud that was so good the pair became career long rivals and wrestled many times into the 90s, though unfortunately we only have one of their 90s matches on tape. Dandy had risen to prominence in 1988, was The Man in 1989, and arguably the best worker in the world in 1990. He was a favourite of booker Juan Herrera, but we can't really say he had a rocket strapped to him like Atlantis or Mogur, or as they were trying to do with Angel Azteca. He was earmarked for greatness from the start and his ascension to the top occurred naturally similar to an equally talented guy in El Satanico. This was the Lutteroth philosophy of "serious and stable" promoting; the very bedrock the company was founded on. That bedrock received a shake up in 1989 when Pena got in Paco's ear with all of his colourful characters and wild ideas, and for a while the booking styles of Herrera and Pena had a disharmonious coexistence as the serious stuff (e.g. Dandy vs. Charles) fought for attention with the more populist creations of Antonio Pena. As a product it was endless fascinating with the constant clash between the new school and old school, but internally it was cliquey and extremely political. Dandy was popular with the hardcores and drew well, but it was Pena's Perez inspired, Lucha Libre style creations that drove the television boom. To put it into perspective, Herrera booked feuds were akin to the way American fans viewed Crockett feuds like Flair vs. Steamboat whereas Pena booked feuds had closer parallels to Hogan vs.Savage, both cosmetically and business wise. Charles was also a guy who rose to prominence in 1988 and this feud with Dandy did just as much to rise him into a top spot as it did Dandy. The finish to the hair match, while rare, had occurred a couple of times in the 80s. Off the top of my head, there was the MS-1/Gran Jalisco bout in '82, one of the '82 Satanico/Chicana hair matches, and Dandy vs. Cruz in '84. The first trios, which as you can see was the week before the hair match, is the first appearance on the set of "El Fabuloso Blondy" Ken Timbs. Timbs had worked as one half of the Fabulous Blondes with Eric Embry in several territories, most prominently Southwest Championship Wresting. His travels first took him to Mexico in 1988 where he developed an extremely successful American heel gimmick that would later become the template for Eddy Guerrero and Art Barr. Timbs would come to the ring waving the U.S. flag, sometimes draping it over his shoulders like a cape, and would often paint his face with the red, white and blue. Before matches, he would grab the house mic and belt out "The Star-Spangled Banner." It was staple stuff really; the tricks of the trade for any foreign heel gimmick, but EMLL fans lapped it up and Timbs had what was a fairly hot run in Mexico. It was actually quite radical at the time. While Flores had made a bunch of money having Canek vend off every Tom, Dick and Harry foreign invader, EMLL had by no means followed suit. They'd bring in Andre every time he was on tour, and we saw Kevin Von Erich earlier in the set, which I'm guessing was through his Texas connection with Danny Ortiz. We also saw Misawa and Koshinaka touring in '84, but nothing really like Ken Timbs and his two year heel run. Once Pena got his hooks into him, he really took off, with Pena billing him as "El Gringo Loco" and later having him come out to Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. In fact, Pena was so fond of the Blondy character that he wanted to bring him during the Los Gringos Locos run, but couldn't manage to. Alluding back to the tensions between Herrera and Pena, Timbs was so over that he actually took the NWA World Light Heavyweight Title from Lizmark in what was one of the hottest feuds of '88. Whether it was entirely true or not, back then wrestlers prided themselves on needing to have a basic knowledge of catch to pass the wrestler's license exam, and here you had a guy of questionable merit as a wrestler taking one of the premier NWA World titles from one of the best wrestlers in Mexico. That can only have been a Pena move, much like the screwjob finish to the Popiketus hair match with heel ref, and Pena creation, Gran Davis. Here Timbs had just come off a feud with Los Infernales involving his own trios team "La Locomotora Gringa" that saw Blondy take Satanico's hair on an April show. TImbs and Morgan were tag partners here, but they'd soon be rivals as they squared off for the aforementioned NWA World Light Heavyweight Title at the end of '89. Timbs' push continued through until the first quarter of 1990 where his association with another foreign heel group "Policia de Los Angeles" culimanted in a rare match against brothers Mil Mascaras, Dos Caras and Sicodélico. Eventually he cooled off somewhat, but did get a fresh lease of life on the gimmick in the Monterrey territory before leaving Mexico in mid-93.

Los Temerarios (Shu El Guerrero, Black Terry & Jose Luis Feliciano) vs. Los Arqueros, LuchaMania I couldn't pin a date on this one. In fact, I wasn't really sure where it as being held. The Sindicato Nacional de Luchadores y Referees had its name plastered everywhere, but I'm not sure if that means the event was promoted in association with the wrestler's union or if it was some sort of specially promoted union funcion. At any rate, these teams had a long standing feud that involved both the National Trios Titles and individual apuesta matches. Lasser, who was masked here, had taken Black Terry's hair on 12/17/89. A month later, the Arqueros defeated the Temerarios for the trios titles on 1/21/90, and Shu was able to finally get revenge for the Temerarios by unmasking El Arquero/Robin Hood on 2/4/90. This all led to a big apuesta match between the teams, which may or may not have involved Lasser losing his mask (it's all a bit murky.) How this fits in on the road that apuesta match is anybody's guess, but I'd say it's from 1990 at the earliest and '92 at the latest. Unfortunately, it's all fairly standard. They get a significant amount of time for a trios bout, but don't produce much. The Temerarios with their matching tights and chainmail outfits could easily be people's favourite trio if we had more footage of them, and Jose Luis Feliciano had this great look that could swing both ways; as a tecnico he looked like the mastermind behind some huge selling classic rock band, whereas as a rudo he looked like he convictions in several states and was months behind on his alimony payments. Of course, you're all going to want to watch Terry with jet black hair, and hardcores will also be interested in the Arqueros, all of whom were great journeymen, but aside from that it was nothing special. I'm racking my brains. but I can't remember a single standout exchange or any really great moments. Terry had an awesome smirk when the Arqueros arrived wearing their tiny little archer outfits, but really all this had going for it was that the workers were cool. If I hadn't told you there was history between the teams, you would have never guessed there was bad blood, and to me that's a fail. Super Brazo, Leon Chino and Scorpio Jr. vs. El Trio Fantasia, LuchaMania I personally thought was more fun than the Temerarios/Arqueros bout. The Trio Fantasia gimmick naturally lends itself to a lot of fun and silliness, but they were a polished act. Even Super Muneco, who the lucha snob in me would say sucked, was in his element with these guys and as close to an enforcer as a guy with a clown gimmick gets. There were a lot of fat boy exchanges between Super Brazo and Muneco; and Super Raton, being the worker of his side, was naturally everywhere. Holy shit, was Leon Chino awesome. Imagine Negro Casas if Negro Casas were a Richard Simmons looking dude and you have Leon Chino. I need to see more Leon Chino. Even Scorpio Jr got in on the act giving his best Fuerza Guerrera impression. He was smaller here, and mustn't have touched the needles yet because he was a lot more mobile. There was no jeopardy in this, and nothing to get excited about if you're not a hardcore lucha fan. To be honest, I was surprised that the rudos went over as it didn't seem to fit this sort of exhibition show; but you don't watch this sort of match expecting to see an arc. You watch it because you want to see Super Raton square off with Leon Chino for twenty seconds. That's when you know you're a tragic. Super Astro vs. Leon Chino, WWA World Middleweight Championship Leon Chino in a suit! I don't think I need to explain the appeal of luchadores in suits. This was rad. I loved the castigos they put on each other in the primera caida and the fact that Chino's second was a veteran journeyman mini was beyond awesome. Unfortunately, there was a bit of time shaving going on for the television broadcast, and they returned to the studio between falls, which broke up the flow, but Super Astro was still in his prime here so his flippy shit looked swank and Chino did a great job of bumping and selling for it while looking legitimately buggered. The tercera caida was fantastic. Really superb tercera caida wrestling. Astro took a big back body bump to the outside, which Chino followed up on with a reckless senton. He kept pressing home the jeopardy Astro was in with pinfall attempt after pinfall attempt. Astro fought back with a beautiful tope and it was Chino's turn to withstand a barrage of pinfall and submission attempts. Both guys were selling fatigue and going at it hammer and tongs. It was a beautiful tercera caida straight out of the textbook. Chino scored a big plancha and staggered back into the ring with the veteran mini toweling him off. Back in the ring something had to give, and when Astro caught Chino flush with a dropkick that was the opening for a beautiful maestro style pinning maneuver that put Chino away. The crowd leapt to their feet and a kid in a Tinieblas mask repeatedly punched his father in celebration. Wonderful third fall. If you enjoyed Arandu vs. Guerrero Negro on the DVDVR set, you'll enjoy the novelty of this. Bestia Salvaje/La Fiera/Jerry Estrada vs. Huracan Sevilla/Blue Demon Jr./El Hijo del Solitario, CMLL 1/24/92 Bestia vs. Huracan Sevilla, one of the great underrated feuds of the 90s. There were so many scummy looking wrestlers in this. Check out the parts where Bestia, Sevilla, Fiera and Estrada are all in the ring together; it's amazing. Throw in two "shit kid" sons of lucha legends and you have an awesome "advance the storyline" match. Man alive is Bestia awesome in this. Ultimately, he became such a secondary figure that it's easy to forget how good he could be. He's got to be in the conversation when it comes to top brawlers. I mean Huracan Sevilla went nowhere after this feud, but watching him fight Bestia you'd swear he was Dandy. This was a straight falls victory to the rudos, which again may disappoint punters looking for a complete bout, but sometimes you need to book dominant rudo bouts to remind the paying audience that the villains are serious and mean business. And besides, within those two falls were more memorable details than you find in most three fall bouts. Sevilla's comeback railing on Bestia was amazing. Who knew, or in my case remembered, Sevilla could brawl that well? Of course, as I always say with story based trios, you need the complementary story threads, and here you got La Fiera working over Blue Demon in a typically sleazy way and some pretty good retaliation from Junior. El Hijo del Solitario, who we know has a brawling pedigree, also won his way into my heart by choking Fiera with his bandanna. That's a level of hatred that's crying out for a super libre revancha. The finishes were amazing as well. Bestia caught Sevilla midway through a body scissors and suplexed the fuck out of him for the first fall, then caught him coming off the ropes and hooked a killer submission for the two-fall victory. Boy was he pumped afterwards. Sevilla was over-enthusiastic appealing for a hair match so the rudos delivered a hellacious beat down to cap one of the better two fall bouts I've seen. Bestia was the man, but I'm loving washed up Fiera. Not only did he start the melee at the end; he body slammed the top of Solitario's head into the apron edge. You don't cry about a hair match when you've had your ass handed to you in straight falls and you don't fuck with Fiera's bandanna. El Felino/El Supremo II/Titan vs. Ciclon Ramirez/El Pantera/Bronce, CMLL 5/7/93 On paper this reads like a workrate opener, but of course this was during the Ciclon Ramirez/Felino apuesta feud so it was a nasty little affair. El Supremo II (now there's a name you don't hear too often) deserves a ton of credit for getting stuck into everything and giving Pantera a torrid time. Unfortunately, Ramirez and Felino couldn't match the intensity that Supremo brought in the way that Bestia and Sevilla were able to outshine a tremendous Fiera performance, which ought to be a no-no since the bout was all about them. You could argue that Supremo overdid it a bit, but you can't blame the Televisa camera guy for focusing on a guy that active. Even at the end when Felino had unmasked Ramirez and was beating on him, Supremo could be seen in the background leaping in the air and dropping the knee on Pantera. Not a bad little bout -- some nice bumping broke up the monotony of watching guys untie each other's mask strings (hate that shit) -- but I came out of this wanting to see Supremo vs. Pantera and you know that wasn't the intention. Atlantis/Apolo Dantes/Ultimo Dragon vs. Blue Panther/La Fiera/Kendo Nagasaki, CMLL 5/8/92 This began with a classic primera caida style mat exchange between Panther and Dragon that was a real lucha mat exchange not the Japanese inspired stuff Ultimo did with Casas. Despite his rep, you don't actually get to see Panther work the mat all that often so it's a treat when he does. It had me wondering whether I should recheck their singles match in case I've been too dismissive of it; but given Ultimo's track record in singles matches from this era, I probably haven't. Unfortunately, those few minutes were the highlight of the match as opposed to being the kickstarter to something greater. "Old man" Fiera continued to be good to the extent that I'm wondering why I ever said anything to the contrary, but this wasn't a scummy enough match for him. To get the most out of Fiera, you need a dingy, sleazy sort of a match. This match was led by Panther, whom I've never been convinced by as a rudo. I get why he was a rudo -- he was a great worker and a great base for workers who perhaps weren't so great -- but in terms of having the charisma of the truly great rudos? Forget about it. He teased an exchange with Atlantis in the segunda caida and everyone thought back to their classic match from '91, which I still maintain is the greatest pure lucha libre match of all time, but instead of a reprise of what made that match so great, Panther went into full on stooge mode and ended up bumping in a style that was cross between a press up, a breakdance move and a legitimate sell. It seems to me that Panther's selling was always goofy; it's just that no-one ever called him on it. Panther diehards will probably be more forgiving, but this was an average sort of match where I was expecting a Panther vs. Atlantis alert.

They were ahead of All Japan in the 70s as well. Inoki drew some big ratings for his proto-MMA fights. The 80s were a lot more rocky than people tend to realise. Business wasn't great for New Japan after '83. After all the shit went down with Inoki and his profit siphoning, the company struggled to draw with its limited roster. The UWF feud didn't draw as well as people imagine and whatever boost Choshu's return provided was killed by the booking and Sumo Hall debacle at the end of '87. The history of NJPW is similar to WWE in terms of boom periods and not really the "steady as she goes" narrative it's sometimes portrayed as. In that regard, Choshu probably deserves even more credit than he already receives for his booking of NJPW in the 90s, because it was, for a large stretch of the decade, the most profitable company in the world and that was with a flagging TV spot.

Totally agree with Pete and Gregor on this one. Why was Casas working babyface? How come it was so one-sided? This didn't match the build up whatsoever. Frustrating -- http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/blog/8/entry-453-vintage-negro-casas-of-the-day-14/

Ultimo Dragon vs. Negro Casas, UWA World Middleweight Championship, CMLL 8/28/92 This was a curious match to say the least. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't all that great either. The build up had been fantastic -- really vintage Casas -- but they made the cardinal mistake of not paying off the set up. Everyone wanted to see Casas get his ass kicked, and he took a hell of a beating, but for some reason he spent the entire bout working like a sympathetic babyface. That may have worked if they'd been a Mexico vs. Japan vibe to the match, but that wasn't what the build had been about. You were supposed to view Ultimo as a tecnico and not some non-native. He did revert to a fairly standard way of working a juniors bout, including laying around in most of his holds, but that struck me as a fault in the work rather than any sort of story device. Casas spent much of the bout selling a rib injury. His selling was excellent, but the idea that we were supposed to feel sorry for him was foreign to just about every match he'd had in CMLL up to this point, and remember this wasn't a face turn. If the story was meant to be Ultimo humbling Casas somehow, they blew telling that story by not having Casas play up his arrogance in the primera caida. Let's face it, no matter how you try to justify it there's no explaining why Casas suddenly played the baby to such a degree or why the bout was so one-sided. Despite the fact that Casas was able to survive on scraps, all the highlights were of Ultimo offence, whether it was suplexes from the top or his corner post tope. Weird bout. It was really only held together by Casas' selling and probably deserves a blasting. If it were a worker I don't like, I'm sure i'd be forthcoming with one. Loss mentioned that it may have been a case of a guy having to work someone a few times to figure out how to get a great match out of him, but I'm not sure that's an excuse for Casas doing a 180 on the character he was portraying heading into the match. It's *possible* that he was aiming for a Kandori vs. Hokuto style bout where Hokuto realised she wasn't as shit hot as she thought she was, but that narrative was expertly weaved with Hokuto being over confident to start with. Here Casas was the underdog from the very first blow. It was weird and not very lucha-esque either. It's wrong to ignore it happened, but I'll try to forget about it all the same. It was a bit disappointing actually, because if you'd told me a few months ago that Ultimo Dragon was one of Casas' career rivals, I probably would have scoffed a little. I knew that Loss liked their '93 bout, but I wouldn't have believed they were great rivals until I saw the trios matches. But even considering the '93 bout, I'm not sure they pulled off their singles bouts well enough for me to include Ultimo as a premier rival. The trios exchanges are so good it's almost like there's an unrealised potential in the singles bouts. Partially, it's because Ultimo's probably not as good as he looks in the trios bouts, but there's also a disconnect between what Casas is doing in trios and how he behaves in singles. Instead of glossing over the failures, I hope these Vintage Negro Casas of the Days also put the disappointments under the microscope. It would be easy to wish that Casas were wrestling an Atlantis or Lizmark (not that they were in the same weight classes), or fob it off on the fact that a lot of 1992 CMLL singles matches are on the disappointing side, but the fact remains that Casas fucked this up somehow. Spilled milk and all that, but I don't want to make it seem like old school Casas was perfect. He was a genius, but he was also fallible and this is another great example. Sure, there's not another wrestler alive who hasn't had a misfire, but because lucha is under valued and under appreciated by most wrestling fans, the bad (or in this case, the disappointing) doesn't tend to be bundled with the good. But for the sake of fairness, and in an effort to rectify that, this could have been so much more. When I think of that great exchange I wrote about the other day and the flip being switched; wrestling's not easy, and structuring a match is no piece of cake, but man, what a blown opportunity.

You should check out the Casas/Bestia/Felino vs. Dandy/Ultimo/Blue Demon Jr (7/17/92) bout that was uploaded on YouTube recently. Great sprint bridging Casas/Dandy with Casas/Ultimo and Dandy/Bestia.

My only problem with people watching a lot of the "live" product is that projects like the DVDVR sets or the GWE poll aren't as good as they might have been if people had devoted more time to them.

Negro Casas/Bestia Salvaje/El Felino vs. El Dandy/Ultimo Dragon/Blue Demon Jr., CMLL 7/17/92 There are times when I'm convinced that Casas' first few months in CMLL represent the absolute peak of his career. It's difficult to describe the excitement generated by his arrival. The fans had been used to the independientes coming in and working EMLL shows, but Casas was special. Not only was he at the height of his powers; it was like watching an artist unleashed. We don't have much of Casas' early work from the 90s, but what we do have is nowhere near as irrepressible as these first few months in CMLL. The booking in UWA after Flores' death was largely stagnant (and perhaps before then too if we had proper records.) It's clear that Maynes, and whoever was booking at the time, weren't paying special attention to the lightweights the way Flores had done. Watching Casas in his early days with CMLL is like watching a guy turn into a big fish right before your very eyes. The fact that he still holds his spot, like a barnacle cling to a rock, makes witnessing that transformation all the more impressive. This was a quick-fire trios bridging Casas and Dandy with their next two feuds, but man did I love it. I watched it while having beers and listening to the Minutemen's cover of Have You Ever Seen the Rain? so I may have been a bit loaded at the time, but for such a short trios this was a hell of a bout. There was a huge "Dandy! Dandy!" chant when he was introduced with the crowd still abuzz following his victory over Casas two weeks prior. Casas, as you'd imagine, took it all in his stride, flashing that by now iconic Casas smile. They launched into an opening exchange that while fun was far from the best the pair had produced. Casas was really just testing the waters and backed off when he copped a knee to the face. There was an element of them not wanting to steal any thunder from the newly created match-ups, as well as generally holding back for the kick ass exchanges to come as this was the type of trios match that doesn't slow down. Demon and Felino worked a decentish exchange punctuated by Demon ducking on Felino's baseball slide to the outside and delivering an uppercut followed by a dropkick, and Ultimo and Bestia pushed the tempo further with a series of fast paced exchanges based around Bestia's big bumping style. Dandy re-entered the ring with a forward roll that startled Casas. He stepped back through the ropes on to the apron and did a Fuerza style slip which the crowd latched onto straight away. After the heckles, he took advantage of Bestia attacking Dandy from behind to dropkick him out of the ring, raised a defiant arm to the crowd, and immediately tagged out. That set up a second go round between the match-ups which quickly turned into the finish. Felino missed on a moonsault like a guy aiming for the pool and hitting concrete instead. Dandy, meanwhile, challenged Casas to step in and take him, but Casas didn't want to know about it and stepped off the apron for the safety of the crowd. He stood with his arms folded while Dandy complained about how much of a pussy he was. If you're one of those people who complain about how guys charge into the ring in lucha only to be pinned, you'll appreciate Casas not wanting a piece of it. The switch from Dandy vs. Casas to the new feuds came in the second caida. Dandy wanted to wrestle Casas, probably to give him a receipt for the dropkick to the outside, but Casas refused under the guise that everyone was switching partners. Blue Demon nominated himself for Casas, but Casas ignored him. Back in high school, we had a Vietnamese teacher who couldn't pronounce the word "shirt" properly. Whenever he wanted us to tuck in our shirt, he'd say: "your shit, kid." It became a running gag among students; a way of instantly dismissing another person's merits. Casas ignoring Demon was one of those "you're shit kid" moments. He went over and whacked Ultimo in the head and they had a really fantastic exchange where Ultimo kept battering him with kicks. I've been really impressed by the way Casas sells Ultimo's kicks. My first instincts about the Casas vs. Ultimo match-up, and the idea of Casas working with a guy who works a martial arts style, would be: it won't work; it'll be lame; I'd rather see Casas work a more traditional lucha style against a more traditional lucha opponent. But it works well. Remarkably well, actually. It brought out a different side in Casas: a more serious, intense side. It was like a switch being flipped between the cocky, flamboyant show pony and the kick ass serious wrestler. He couldn't really go toe-to-toe with Ultimo in a stand up contest and wasn't really known as a guy with a lot of shooting ability; what makes the contest so interesting is that he's on the back foot trying to block these kicks and absorb the impact, and he has a really limited striking game that's so scant it even includes hard shoves, but they do these cool exchanges in and out of the ring that look like out of control sparring sessions. Bestia went after Dandy with hard chops and punches to the face. Their feud was started over significantly less than Ultimo and Casas, but Bestia was uncorking his shit. The ship had already sailed on Bestia being a singles star to the level of either Dandy or Casas, but he had the talent. Dandy vs. Bestia is a feud that needs revisiting and hopefully we'll be able to do that soon. Back in the ring, the editor missed an important foul by Casas on Ultimo, but we saw Ultimo wriggling about on the mat selling it. Casas backed Ultimo into the corner and began kicking the shit out of him while taunting him to get up. If you thought Casas' taunting of Maximo was special, I would offer this as an example of Casas being vicious in his disrespect for another competitor. The third caida began with the rudos parading about surveying the carnage they'd created. Felino tried really hard to keep up with the others and beat the crap out of Blue Demon Jr., but there were obviously more important storylines going on. Ultimo vs. Casas Rd 2 was just as intense as Rd 1 w/ Ultimo starting to bust out the Japanese suplexes and finally breaking through Casas' meagre defences to knock him to the canvas. You could maybe argue that in terms of sheer fighting ability Ultimo should have been able to wipe the floor with Casas, but let's just enjoy the pro graps. As I said that, he followed up the knock down with an overly long headlock spot, which was kind of lame. Maybe Felino should have come in and broken it up sooner. Demon dropped a big knee on Felino, which was cool. You're not so shit after all, kid! Dandy vs. Bestia Rd 2 also kicked major ass. Dandy was so fed up he belted Bestia with a right hand then dropped the diving headbutt on him. Not content with that, he took a huge swing at Casas on the apron, who sold his jaw like he was crumbling in his hand. Casa gave him a receipt with a kick to the face while he had Bestia in a hold and it was all on from that point. Casas and Dandy traded blows. Ultimo stepped into the ring and resumed kicking the shit out of Casas, but this time Casas shot on him, took that bastard down and dropped the elbow. Folks really need to watch that sequence as it was so effing cool. Demon sent Felino tumbling to the outside with a dropkick then hit a big tope on him that was possibly the coolest thing I've seen Demon do. Dandy and Bestia then got the mano a mano part of the fall and Bestia wrapped Dandy up in the most beautiful looking, complex pinfall maneuver. It was pretty to watch. Bestia wanted Dandy's belt, Dandy wanted Bestia's hair, the replay showed just how great Demon's tope had been, Casas blew kisses to the crowd like his hands were six gun shooters, and we were out of here. Kick ass trios.

Technically, it is three syllables (sa-i-toh), but when 'a' and 'i' are together it's pronounced like the 'i' in 'ice.' Aikawa, for example, is eye-ka-wa not ah-e-ka-wa -- https://www.cpp.edu/~pronunciation/sounds/japanese/aikawa.wav And Saito becomes sigh-toe -- https://www.cpp.edu/~pronunciation/sounds/japanese/saito.wav

Shibuya -- She-boo-ya Saito -- Sigh-toe

Back to the 70s: Count Bartelli vs. Johnny Czeslaw (3/27/74) I figured if Barteli was ever going to have a fun match it would be against Czeslaw since the Pole had a good sense of humour; and sure enough it was decent while it lasted, but just as Czeslaw was warming to the task they went with an awful, awful finish where Czeslaw crotched himself on the ropes and continued continue. Mike Marino vs. Johnny Yearsley (10/10/74) This was part of a one night knockout tournament. Unlike the 80s where these sort of matches had a time limit, this was a regular six round bout. Ordinarily that would be a welcome change, but this was 25 minutes of Yearsley threatening to cheat without going the whole hog and Marino retaliating without going all the way. The end result of all the tentativeness was that they didn't do much of anything and it went on like that for 25 excruciating minutes. If it had been any other worker, Walton would have been critical of the match, but not his boy Marino. Actually, in fairness to Kent, he had a veiled criticism towards the promoters about Yearsley and Marino being paired together when a catchweight contest would have been more exciting. Spencer Churchill vs. Ivan Penzecoff (8/1/74) This was all right, but of all the interesting things about Spencer Churchill, his wrestling ability is the least. I like the fact he was into modern jazz more than I do his matches. Walton was surprised that the crowd were mildly into the match as he thought it was slow without much action (try watching your boy Marino against Yearsley, Kent.) He repeated the criticism after the bout so it must have bugged him for some reason. Mick McManus vs. Catweazle (10/8/75) This was always such a fun match-up. I have no idea why Colt Cabana and Regal thought McManus never gave Catweazle anything. He gave him about a thousand times better a match than Catweazle usually had; that's what he gave him. Do you wanna watch a guy do comedy all the time or do you want to see him have a dramatic bout every now and again? Because this bout did more to get Catweazle over as a serious competitor than feed McManus' ego. I'm not sure if it was better than their Wembley bout in '77, but it was better than the typical Catweazle outing. Mike Marino vs. Johnny Yearsley (4/17/75) Not a hell of a lot better than their '74 bout to be honest. Call it a coincidence, but these two don't seem like a good match-up. I've seen Yearsey do good stuff against other opponents and Marino was a hell of a grappler, but together they were boring. This had a ridiculous structure where Yearsley took a one fall advantage deep into the bout and Marino ended up squashing him with two quick falls. Yuck. I was was excited to get the last bit of Marino I hadn't seen, but these were easily the worst Marino bouts I've seen. Mick McManus & Steve Logan vs. Mick McMichael & Eddie Capelli (4/17/75) This was a fun bout. It was too short to be of much consequence, but McManus and Logan showed why they were such a good heel act and Capelli was so fired up he was retaliating without so much as a boo from McManus or Logan. Fun stuff. Caswell Martin vs. The Exorcist (1/23/75) This was much better than I thought it would be. Walton and the Exorcist weren't on the same page to start with as Walton thought the Exorcist was shaping to make the claw and he wound up doing a bunch of free style moves, but man was Martin pretty to watch in full flight. What a beautifully fluid worker. Eventually, the match descended into the type of rule-bending that Walton was expecting. Martin got the chance to make a big comeback and kicked a bunch of arse before the Exorcist took over. Considering these matches are usually a squash in the masked wrestler's favour, there was a competitiveness to this that was well welcomed. Usually, you'd look at a bout like this on the match listings and think "ah, there's a waste of Martin's talents" or "I wish we had another of his bouts available instead," but it was a pleasant surprise to see not only the fist he made of this sort of booking but how decent the bout was. Count Bartelli vs. Pete Roberts (2/10/76) This was a defence of Bartelli's Commonwealth Heavyweight title. It's pretty rare to see one of the non World, British or European titles defended on television, and I was eager to see how Roberts would fare in a title match against Bartelli, but unfortunately this was also a rare case of TWC channel being joined in progress. A disappointingly small amount of the bout aired and I couldn't get much of a feel for what was shown. Bartelli won in straight falls, though, so it's unlikely that the early rounds would have salvaged much. Johnny Czeslaw & Ivan Penzecoff vs.Tiger Dalibar Singh & Rajendra Singh (2/21/77) Another fun tag. Dalibar and Rajendra Singh getting introduced as the "coloured Indian stars" was cringe worthy, and Walton's insistence that every Indian wrestler was from the Punjab was also colonial, but these matches reflected the melting pot that England had become and race was clearly part of the way the product was promoted and sold. Some fun exchanges here between Rajendra Singh and Johnny Czeslaw and Gil came across like a real bruiser. Good stuff.

Javier Cruz vs. Hombre Bala (Hair vs. Hair) (6/30/89) There wasn't much more to this than a midcard cabellera feud. They were feuding in the weeks prior and this was the blow off match. You can see part of the build here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdrFGaDQF60 (NB: Cubsfan made an educated guess on the venue and date based on Lynch' tapelist, but the match is from Arena Mexico and must be from either 6/9 or 6/16. Since there wasn't a strong focus on Javier vs. Bala yet, I'd suggest the earlier date.) For some reason, the back office liked booking Cruz in hair matches. Most likely Juan Herrera since he preferred pushing the Velazco trained workers. As I've mentioned before, he had the nickname El Tijeras de Oro (Golden Scissors) and won a string of hair matches at Arena Mexico from 1988 to 1994, perhaps more than were warranted. The way EMLL was traditionally booked was that they'd break the season into three or four month blocks that would end with a funcion or series of funciones that blew off the major apuesta or title match feuds for that quarter. They still book this way to a large degree with the season built around the major shows like Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, the Aniversario show and the year-end Sin Piedad show. Cruz was involved in a lot of these short term programs during his career. He was still tagging with the other members of Los Xavieres (Chamaco Valaguez, Americo Rocca and Javier Llanes) when he had a trilogy of apuesta matches with each of the members of Los Destructores (Emilio Charles Jr., Tony Arce and Vulcano); not quite managing the trifecta as he lost to Emilio. Bala was in the midst of his run with Los Bucaneros and during the same period had been trying to plunder the National Tag Titles from Atlantis and Azteca. Unfortunately, Los Xavieres and Bucaneros never really crossed paths in the meaningful way fans like to see from wrestling booking, so just think of this as a short program before the Bucaneros moved on to the Brazos and Cruz moved on to Estrada.

I checked the match on YouTube and I don't think the crowd were being disrespectful. They were reacting the way Japanese fans always reacted to lucha, which was to play along with it. The "ooohs" are mostly genuine.

The following matches can be best summed up in the words of the inimitable Dr. Alfonso Morales: "¡Super Super Super Super POOOOOOPI!" Atlantis, El Dandy y Popitekus vs. Gran Markus Jr., Pirata Morgan y Ulises (5/26/89) Popitekus, Angel Azteca y Steve Nelson vs. Emilio Charles Jr., Gran Markus Jr. y Masakre (6/9/89) Popitekus, or Super Popi as he was more lovingly referred to, was something of a cult figure among lucha tape traders in the late 80s and early 90s: in no small part to a 1991 Brazos vs. Super Astro, El Dandy & Popitekus match that featured the world's biggest dive train: Lucha aficionado Kurt Brown wrote a great piece about Popi here explaining his appeal -- http://www.luchaworld.com/?p=4732 Super Popi had the soul of a lightweight trapped in a heavyweight's body. In this case, 130 kilos of heavyweight. Like a lot of bigger guys, his knees gave way quickly, but in a relatively short competitive career he managed to acquire a cult-like following and leave a lasting impression on fans from that era. He was trained by Pedro Nieves, who was one of the great trainers in Mexico at the time, and got his start at Arena Puebla. By now you will have all heard of Diablo Velazco and his famous school in Guadalajara, but Nieves was one of the best trainers in the capital and had a hand in training many names on the set like Talisman, Villano III and "El Halcon" Danny Ortiz. Popi was called up from Puebla in short order and for the next five years was a rudo favourite at Arena Mexico. He turned tecnico in 1988 and was one of the first to stand up to "El Gringo Loco" Fabuloso Blondy, who was generating tremendous heat with his American heel gimmick. The pair had a hair match on 11/18/88 pitting 125 kilos against 130. Many felt Popi would take the American down a peg or two, but Blondy won the bout with help from rudo ref Gran Davies. A few days prior to the first trios, Popi defeated Gran Markus Jr at an Arena Coliseo show in the final of a tournament to decade the vacant National Heavyweight title. This sparked a year long rivalry with Markus Jr that saw Markus finally take the belt on 7/9/90. In the beginning of 1992, Popi was repackaged along with Hombre Bala and Verdugo as wrestling cavemen, Los Cavernicolas. The trio lasted through until the summer of '93 and produced several fun matches, especially their bouts against Los Metálicos. Popi's competitive career lasted just a few more years after the gimmick folded. He was said to have worked for the DF government after retiring. Sadly, he died in 2010 from thrombosis brought about by diabetes. He was 53 years old. Popi's other claim to fame was appearing briefly in the 1989 Alejandro Jodorowsky film Santa Sangre along with fellow wrestlers TNT and Rinoceronte in a short scene with a transsexual wrestler that according to some critics is a parody of Ladrón de Cadáveres and other lucha horror films. Popi appears nude (!), which according to Meltzer (via Sims, I suppose) caused some controversy at the time. For those of you keeping record at home, Markus appeared as Tony Benetto earlier on the set and Ulises is Tony Salazar. Steve Nelson is the son of Winnipeg wrestler, Gordon Nelson, a tremendous amateur wrestler who worked as "Mr. Wrestling" in the Amarillo territory and "The Outlaw" for Dale Martin promotions, as well as various other territories. His son Steve, a long time Texas high school wrestling coach, wrestled for Oklahoma State, won two world silver medals in sambo, fought in Shooto and Japan Vale Tudo, founded the USWF (Unified Shoot Wrestling Federation) promotion, did worked shoots for UWF-i, and somehow took a trip down to Mexico in 1989 where he lost his hair to Pirata Morgan. An odd story about Steve Nelson: according to Terry Funk, when Nelson was trying to make it to the World Sambo Championships in Moscow in 1990 and struggling to pay his way, someone told the story to Vince, and Vince sent him the money without knowing the kid or his father.

They'd just come off a big drawing period; even if attendance was down, they should have been able to cover costs and pay wrestlers. The debt must have been massive if they were selling off property to generate liquidity. We don't have a clear timeline on when their investments went bust as the bubble burst over time. It's possible that they were losing money earlier and were reliant on the mid-90s drawing period for positive cash flow, but if that's the case, I don't think they could have created new stars in time for a seamless transition. It takes a good five years for talent to mature so even if they'd had better rookie classes in the early 90s, they still would have struggled. Dave's analysis was a bit off on the spot show attendance. In Tokyo you might have hardcores following the new emerging wrestlers, but in the sticks the draw was always women's wrestling. He's not wrong about the business model being broken, but that raises the question of why the boom period was praised in the first place.

Rick Martel cut one of the all-time great Royal Rumble promos in 1990, Parv.

Not to pile on CMLL too much, but cubsfan chimed in with his thoughts here and I thought he raised some interesting points -- http://www.thecubsfan.com/cmll/2015/01/23/all-the-problems-i-have-with-mascara-dorada-going-to-njpw-enumerated/

Weren't they in financial trouble because of their real estate investments? It was covered in the Observer here: http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/78-bryan-and-vinny-show/39636-sep-1-1997-wrestling-observer-newsletter-arn-anderson-retires-steve-austin-neck-update-all-japan-women-future-tenuous-more

I can't remember the last CMLL singles match I saw that didn't feature a dive, and I could name on one hand the number of lucha matches where there's any sort of sustained body part damage. That's what made Casas' point of attack interesting because it was different from the norm. I don't see why Maximo wouldn't dive in that situation, especially in front of that sort of crowd (which as Matt said looked partially comped), and also because the tope is being used more and more in modern CMLL as the transition for the tecnico comeback.

I don't know if you can really call a luchador doing dives in the third caida "getting their shit in." It's pretty much a fundamental aspect of lucha libre. The whole point of Casas working Maximo's leg over was for Maximo to make a comeback; people just didn't like the way he did it.

I'm not a fan of one or the other (CMLL or NJPW.) I read the WON results and thought they fit in fairly well with the prevailing sentiment, but without dragging up Tweets, I also read the arguments about CMLL being better than NJPW or at least having a better year. I'll admit to being slightly skeptical of the claim, but I think it's worth fleshing out and Twitter doesn't appear to be the forum to do that. Other than that, I don't have any stake in the matter.

Maximo sold the leg after the match and for most of the third caida really. Even when he hit his tope (and he has one of the best topes in lucha history, IMO), he was the worst for wear afterwards. It wasn't like he went on an offensive tear like Manami Toyota is so often accused of. What could he have done differently? Grimaced and clutched at his leg before attempting the tope? Sort of projecting "I know this is going to hurt, but I'm going to try it anyway." That would have been a nice touch, but it would have hardly bumped the match up to MOTY level. Or perhaps he could have chosen not to do the tope because of his bad wheel. We wouldn't have seen one of the best topes in lucha history, which is sad, but it would have been more realistic I suppose. The problem with that is that we'd already seen what he could do on one leg in the second caida which were only lariats. Like I said in my review, if the leg was so important then Casas should have gone after it more during the stretch run. The whole thing got buried for a kiss anyway.

Are you saying you watch CMLL shows from top to bottom? How long has CMLL been the best promotion in the world for? Who are the top 20 workers in the promotion?

I don't have an account. I just follow the PWO account. My understanding from reading cubsfan's year-end write up for the Cubed Circle newsletter is that while Atlantis and Ultimo Guerrero popped a huge gate for the Anniversary Show it did nothing to boost regular audience, even the shows immediately afterwards where Guerrero worked unmasked. It may have been the biggest gate ever at Arena Mexico (due to ticket prices), but I don't think it compares to other big drawing matches in CMLL history like Rayo de Jalisco vs. Cien Caras, which clearly had more of an effect on business. Was Atlantis vs. Guerrero well promoted? If Jedo and Gedo's booking deserves more criticism, or at least more of a critique, then what about the debacle at the 80th Anniversary Show? If CMLL is going to be held to the same degree of relevancy as New Japan it can't be simply that more people discuss how great the workers or matches are, there ought to be proper debate over the way they do business as well, which you only really get in Lucha blog/Lucha world circles. CMLL, from my experience, has historically been the laziest booked promotion in history. Whether that's because of the fact they own the arenas, their "serious and stable" philosophy, or the fact that the Lutteroth family don't really care about the company (as Jose always says), I'm not sure. They just seem lucky to me that so many older fans were willing to pay high prices for the chance to see something historic. Perhaps CMLL can draw another big gate when, and if, Atlantis finally unmasks, but that's a bit like the criticism of the Wrestlemania cards over the past few years. The idolo tournament was by far the best tournament CMLL has ever done (which isn't that big a hurdle to clear, but nevertheless it was a good tournament), but CMLL history is littered with the fallen bodies of workers who received a push, so I would hold off on declaring their star making efforts a success. Again, if CMLL were taken more seriously, there would be an acknowledgement that they're just as bad as WWE when it comes to pushes that crash and burn. I agree with stomperspc that it's difficult to compare the companies in terms of match quality. NJPW is set up to give it's workers every chance possible to deliver multiple WON-style MOTYC bouts per year, whereas CMLL is mostly booked to fill the hours upon hours of regular programming they produce. CMLL match quality has increased during the business downturn, as the workers and company generally have to work harder to please the core fanbase, but the one thing I would argue about the match output is that with the hours of programming CMLL produce there should be more pimped matches to watch each month. Their quality output seems really low in that respect. We're almost at the end of Jan and how many good matches have there been? It's only the beginning of the season, and January's not a big month for wrestling in Mexico, but matches that may or may not ever lead to apuesta matches and booking that lacks any sort of focus other than random heel vs. face match-ups and the odd lightning match leading to a title bout isn't going to win people over who have a WON mindset.

Maximo vs. Casas was never going to be a MOTYC even if Maximo had sold the way people want because it was just a precursor for a hair match. Too much was made out of Maximo's selling; he really only dropped it for his dives and one other sequence I can remember. The finishes to the second and third caidas were much weaker than Maximo's selling.