ohtani's jacket

Le Vicomte Joël de Noirbreuil & Pierre Lagache vs. Georges Cohen & Abraham Edery (10/16/66) This followed a pretty standard 60s French tag formula of the heels cheating a lot, but who really cares if you've seen it all before when it's this entertaining? Joël de Noirbreuil was doing a "L'Aristocrate du Ring" gimmick and had this smug looking, entitled face that looked as though he'd learnt wrestling from the best private tutors in Europe and expected nothing less than a victory. Lagache naturally did the lion's share of the work and what a vicious piece of work he was. This was a sterling parade of heel cheating, ref confusion and generic French babyface comebacks. I love the way the heels brawl into the commentators' row and give the men calling the action a good whack upside the head, and how later on when Noirbreuil took a spill to the outside, the commentator was in his face with a mic like the Televisa commentators. Lots of great shtick in this. Thoroughly entertaining romp.

One final batch of Reslo: Mike Jordan vs. Steve Peacock (Merthyr, taped 1983) I don't think I'll ever see what Regal saw in Peacock. I'm sure it makes a difference when you know a guy personally and see him work on the same shows as you, but there were so many amazing performers in the history of British wrestling that I'm not sure why you'd single Peacock out for special attention. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. He looked like a shorter, chubbier version of Greg Valentine here, and I was surprised that this was only from 1983 given how big he'd become. Most of the cool stuff was done by Mike Jordan. This Reslo stuff has salvaged Jordan's rep for me; not to the extent that I think he's a blow away worker or anything, but better than the guy I wrote off from his WoS stuff. Rollerball Rocco vs. Kung Fu (Rhyl, taped 7/12/83) This is the definitive Kung Fu vs. Rocco bout in so far as Kung Fu vs. Rocco matches matter. It's also the best Reslo match I've seen in terms of providing a clear arc. Most Reslo bouts feel incomplete and even the good ones are a tad underdone, but this was as complete a match as you're going to get without the master tapes It was wrestled in front of a tiny audience, but Rocco put on a master class anyway. If you know Rocco, you'll know he was hyper all the time, to the point where when you worked against him it was a wild ride with Rocco flying about everywhere and the odd stray knee or finger to the eye. What made this special wasn't so much that Rocco was a ball of energy, but that Kung Fu matched his vigour. Rocco was up to his usual tricks and Kung Fu retaliated with his "shoot" kicks leading to some balls-to-the-wall exchanges, including one of the most amazing arm roll exchanges I've seen in a British ring. Rocco was visibly calling shit as usual, but it didn't really matter because of how good the flurries were. Both guys worked incredibly hard here. Kung Fu's gi was drenched in sweat and Rocco also had a workout even by his standards. There was a guy in the crowd who got so into it he had to be restrained from hitting Rocco (meekly hitting him it should be said, but you've got to love the passion.) Great "cheat to win" finish that was the walk off home run of cheat to win finishes. Rocco cut a fun promo on the people of Wales afterward. One of Rocco's career best. Probably Kung Fu's best match on tape as well. Dave Taylor vs. John Kowalski (Merthyr, taped 1983) Young Dave Taylor! Man was he baby-faced here. This was a decent vet vs. young punk bout, but there wasn't much heat so it was somewhat marred by the sounds of bodies hitting the canvas echoing throughout the sports and leisure centre. Kowalski always reminded me a bit of a British Johnny Valentine, but here he looked more like Dickie Murdoch. Chic Cullen vs. Rocky Moran (Unknown location, taped 1985) This was all right but failed to live up to their WoS title bout. To be fair, I'm starting to wonder if anything can live up to that WoS bout, and whether it set the bar impossibly high for the Moran bouts that followed. Reslo by this stage had become less like the WoS Lord Mountevans style and more like regular American style bouts. That basically meant there wasn't as much cool matwork, but instead a lot of heel vs. face segments. Workers like Rocco thrived in that environment, but I really want to see a guy like Cullen bust out his mat game instead of selling a beating. Rollerball Rocco vs. Johnny South (Amlwch, taped 2/5/87) Fun late period match. A little bit on the short side, but veteran Johnny South is another of the pluses of digging deep into the Reslo catalogue. Match was pretty stiff and would easily rub shoulders with the best of the late period stuff, which isn't very much, but still... Wayne Bridges vs. Rocky Moran (Porthmadog, taped 1987) Now this was a good Moran performance. As with the above matches, it was less WoS and more all-in American style wrestling, but Moran did a good job or working that style and I think he would have fit in quite well in the territories. He's still a bit of a disappointment in terms of not being the Emilio Charles Jr style worker I thought he was after the first few matches I saw, but perhaps he had more of these hidden gem performances in Wales. Chic Cullen vs. Johnny South (Unknown location, taped 1985) This is a match I should probably watch again as on first view it wasn't the kickass blow away Johnny South vs. Chic Cullen bout I was lusting for. Johnny South vs. Johnny Palance (Unknown location, taped 1985) South got a chance to shine here as he was evidently higher up the totem pole than Palance. Veteran Johnny South is just badass. I don't know how well it would translate if you haven't seen the footage we have of him from his younger days until this point, but there's something awesome about watching a fringe guy turn into a veteran journeyman and still maintain a high standard of personal performance in the ring albeit adapted into a veteran's game. Palance got in a bit of offence towards the end and it's still weird seeing a Jack Palance look alike working a match. All sorts of movie quotes start rushing through your head not to mention that breathing sound Jack always made. There's some more Reslo being uploaded on YouTube, which I'll check out in due course, but it was a neat territory that didn't exactly provide blow away matches, but provided an opportunity to see guys who were no longer working for Joint in the 80s and therefore not on television, and for whatever reason, a better stage for workers like Cullen, Johnny South, Mike Jordan and even Caswell Martin to show their wares. Most people are vaguely familiar with early 90s Reslo, but the earlier stuff is much more interesting and worth investing some time in if you're a fan of British or European wrestling.

Name of worker: Rick Martel Promotion (and year): WWF 1990 Link to promo: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ck63h_wwf-royal-rumble-1990-superstars-royal-rumble-promos_sport Why you think it's great: Because it's the best promo, and the fittest promo, of them all.

I think if you went back and read archived discussion of the Undertaker angles you'd find plenty of people bashing them (as well as defending them.) The Ministry of Darkness stuff was controversial at the time and had a shitty payoff that failed to match the fantasy booking of most smarks. It was similar to the Austin hit and run mystery, which was another dud surprise. Maybe people didn't stop watching over these things, but they chipped away at people's fandom. People want payoffs and WWE didn't fail in a day.

NB: La Locomotora Gringa may have been actually been called La Maquina Gringa

Thanks, bud. I've been led down the garden path so many times since this whole thing began that I almost regret doing it, but hopefully I can see it through. Blue Panther, Emilio Charles Jr. y Hombre Bala vs. Blue Demon, Javier Cruz y Hombre Sin Nombre (8/4/89) This was an undercard match from one of the Friday night Arena Mexico shows. It would be a stretch to say it had anything to do with Cruz' feud with Charles during his previous life as a Destructor or even the mini-program with Bala from a few months earlier. Cruz and Charles would go on to develop a rivalry over the National Middleweight title in the early 90s, but this match was card filler. Hombre Sin Nombre was of course Magico without a name, as the original worker had claimed the rights to the name. Pena was running a competition at the time to give Hombre a name and would soon roll out his new moniker Mascara Sagrada.* Panther was working for EMLL fairly regularly at this point and mostly used in these sort of undercard matches as a rudo foil for the likes of Blue Demon Jr and Mascara Sagrada. He wouldn't receive a bigger push until he signed with CMLL full time in July of '91. * Actually, he may have been announced as Mascara Sagrada already with the onscreen caption being wrong. MS-1 y Masakre vs. El Dandy y El Satanico (8/11/89) As much as I'd love to explain why the Infernales were feuding with Satanico, I couldn't find a single scrap of information about the build-up to the Anniversary show; not even the usual faulty recollections. The Infernales were always breaking up and getting back together. Probably no other trio in history broke up and reconciled as many times as the Infernales. The first break-up was the nasty split between Morgan and Satanico in '86. The acrimony between Infernales v2 lasted for five years before they patched things up for their 90s run, but it wasn't the most volatile of the incarnations. That honour goes to the Masakre version, which split up three times during its turbulent existence. The first was in '88 after Masakre and MS-1 lost the National Tag Titles to Atlantis and Angel Azteca on 3/6/88. That led to a MS-1 tecnico run and a big hair match with Masakre on 6/17. At some point, either late in the '88 season or in January '89, they buried their differences and the Infernales reformed. In March they began the short program with La Locomotora Gringa that I mentioned last time which culminated with a trios hair vs. hair match that saw Satanico pin Mikey Stone to take his hair. Blondy took Satanico's hair a week later as retribution, but Satanico was back on top of the world when he took the light heavyweight title from Lizmark in July. What caused the tensions between Satanico and his partners is unknown, but they began to emerge at the end of the month. A 7/28/89 match between the Infernales and Atlantis, Ringo Mendoza and Steve Nelson saw the rudos lose in straight falls and begin having issues with each other, and the following week's 8/4/89 Dandy, Atlantis and El Faraon vs. Infernales trios presumably led to Masakre and MS-1 attacking Satanico, which in turn led to this match and the main event of the following month's Anniversary Show. In early '91, the Masakre Infernales reformed one last time and had a run which lasted right through the year until Masakre was kicked out of the team and sensationally replaced with Pirata Morgan before the CMLL World Trios tournament. I believe the kayfabe reason for this was fairly weak -- Satanico and MS-1 claimed that Masakre never co-operated with them outside of the ring, and Masakre claimed the other two envied him -- but the rudos vs. rudos feud that resulted from Masakre forming Los Intocables with Pierroth Jr and Jaque Mate was anything but weak. In a real throwback to the rudo vs. rudo feuds of a decade before, a second hair match between MS-1 and Masakre on the season ending December show was the first shot fired in a year long war between the two rudo factions. But this match was part of the build to the EMLL 56th Anniversary Show and a pairing between Atlantis and Satanico that would have seemed unfathomable in 1984 but was actually an example of EMLL booking their biggest show of the year on the fly. More on that later.

You have to pay for the entire month no matter which day you sign up. You then pay in advance at the beginning of each month. So if you've paid three times that means you've paid for December, January and February. The reason you were charged on the 30th was because the first day of February was a Sunday.

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