ohtani's jacket

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.

I took this thread to me underrated by the promotion and not the fans. I don't think Yagi was underrated by her promotion. What more could she have achieved? Tibor wasn't underrated by Dale Martin as he won the Royal Albert Hall trophy more than any other man. Rudge was underrated to an extent, but he preferred to make more money in Germany and Japan so wasn't on TV a lot. With British wrestlers it's harder to define what "underrated' means. Is it not holding a major championship or not appearing on TV a lot?

I see this mentioned a lot on PWO related Twitter accounts and I'd like to hear the case for it.

Japan gets typhoons every year. I don't see what the big deal is.

Anibal/Mano Negra/Gallo Tapado vs. Fuerza Guerrera/Espectro Jr./Espectro de Ultratumba, CMLL 2/8/91 This is the kind of match the Observer would have given a single * to back in the day. Actually, I just checked and it was given * 1/2. Now matter how you feel about the Observer and it's lucha coverage over the years, you're not getting a revisionist *** match out of a * 1/2 rating, just like you can't make a silk purse of a sow's ear; but you can enjoy Fuerza's performance. Fuerza came to the ring wearing a haori-style kimono jacket he must have gotten on the cheap in Tokyo. He had his boys the Espectros with him, because when you need two good men why not the undead? During the intros, Fuerza pulled off the hood Gallo wore over his mask and ripped into pieces, scattering the remains among the front row patrons. This was the sort of feud Fuerza was reared on; in fact, Gallo Tapado was one of the men who trained him. It's interesting that in the US a rooster gimmick can dog a guy for the rest of his days whereas in Mexico you can make a 20 year career out of it. There's a difference in philosophies there that I don't think anyone's really tapped into. As a feud, Gallo vs. Fuerza would have been better in a smaller arena somewhere in the provinces or in the smaller city arenas near the markets, as it needed a more dingy atmosphere where Fuerza wouldn't be afraid to go for the jugular and wring the chicken's neck. It was more fun than surreal, though it did feature the classic moment where Fuerza beat Tapado with a live chicken, which has to rate as one of the all-time great Fuerza Guerrera moments. The early exchanges were really slow. Anibal looked about a thousand years old. It's hard to believe he was ever something in lucha, but he was. I suppose Anibal vs. Espectro de Ultratumba (Gran Cochisse) was "maestros wrestling" before the need for maestros wrestling, but Fuerza and Mano Negra left them in the dust. I'll try not to pick on Anibal too much since his hip was wrecked here and he wouldn't live for too much longer, but the real awkwardness came when either Anibal or Tapado tried to take on two or three rudos at the same time. Normally a real crowd pleaser, neither man had the timing to pull the sequences off and they came across as dud exchanges. Gallo Tapado even tried a Super Astro style sequence where the rudos are mesmerized by his footwork, but that has such a tenuous connection to kayfabe even when performed well that you need perfect timing to make it work and Tapado was struggling to say the least. Of course, you're only as good as the rudo you're facing in lucha, and Fuerza immediately tried to make things more interesting when he was partnered with Anibal. He fish hooked the mask openings, which more rudos should do, and tried to escape the clutches of Anibal's side headlock by tangling himself in the ropes only to be dragged to and fro. It wasn't great, but Fuerza was trying. All through the match, I got the impression he was working overtime to make something of this bout. Fuerza and Tapado finally squared off in the segunda caida, which led to the funniest moment of the match. Tapado was jukin' and jivin,' and doing his chicken dance, and caught Fuerza flush with an uppercut. Fuerza was laid out on the canvas, and Espectro de Ultratumba came rushing in to raise Fuerza's hand in victory, or maybe to stop the ten count. Either way it was amusing, and the Fuerza Moment of the Match. After that there was a lot of crappy mask ripping, though Fuerza again impressed me with his kick/punch offence, and Espectro pulled Tapado's mask around so it was back to front which greatly amused me since I'm a simpleton. There was an unflattering close-up of Vicky Aguilera that made her look a bit doddery. Fuerza's mask was so badly ripped you could make out what he looked like and he showed a lot of ass; literally, as his butt really hung out of those leotards. The tecnicos took the tercera and the match ended with more shitty mask ripping before cutting to that cartoonist again, whose work wasn't any better even when he had time to render it. So, yeah, not a hell of a lot more than * 1/2, but it's easier to watch a match like this these days than it must have been back then when people were collecting tapes. That ties into what I was saying the other day about how easy it is to cherry pick older wrestling. I can watch a match like this on YouTube without worrying about what the company's dishing up. If it's no good, it's just wasted time spent on YouTube and no real skin off my nose. If I were watching it back then, I'd probably be pissed at the direction Pena was taking "la seria y estable" CMLL in, but 25 years later I can pick and choose what to watch, filter it through my tastes, block out the bad stuff and ignore the Pena influence completely if I wish. I'm firmly in the camp that says lucha used to be better, but clicking on YouTube links is a hell of a lot easier than watching things in real time waiting for something good to happen, and in many ways can make an era seem better than it really was. So it doesn't hurt to see some average stuff from the past from time to time to be reminded that not everything was milk and honey in the olden days. After the match there was an interview segment with Vicky Aguilera. For those of you who don't know, Doña Vicky was a little old lady who attended wrestling shows from 1934 up until a few years before her death in 1997 and had her own front row seat. She showed off her collection of masks, which had to have been the envy of just about every collector in Mexico as she had such gems as a 1964 El Santo mask and the very first El Solitario mask. They also showed some of her awards, such as the one she received from the wrestlers' union for 50 years of unbroken audience, and a clip of the triple dive spot where Misterioso and Masakre left her with a bloody nose. I think they were celebrating her 90th birthday because the Brazos made a big fuss over here, which she loved, and Lizmark presented her with a cake while El Brazo sang to her. She really was a grand old lady; the self-proclaimed "granny of lucha." You can read more about her here -- http://tinyurl.com/psl4yg7

Sangre Chicana vs. Satanico (5/26/89) This was a mano a mano bout which, unfortunately for us, never led to a hair match. Chicana was suspended by the Comisión for throwing a row of seats at Satanico; allegedly for six months, but he was back for the Anniversary Show in September so it was more like six weeks (if that.) The incident wasn't broadcast on Galavision, but if you watch closely you can see him pick up the seats as they cut to the next graphic. By the time Chicana returned, Satanico had already moved on to other things and the promoters had presumably cooled on the idea of a hair match (if, in fact, they were keen on one in the first place.) It's possible the Comisión wouldn't sanction one, but more likely that the hair match was supposed to take place on the following week's show and they nixed it when Chicana was suspended. Chicana didn't work much in the Federal District in the late 80s, preferring to ply his talents in Monterrey and Tijuana. If you're wondering why it looks like he'd had a hair cut, it's because Aguayo had taken his scalp at the Auditorio de Tijuana in January. Satanico had also suffered a recent hair loss to Fabuloso Blondy. Chicana began working more regularly for CMLL again after they scored their television deal, but wasn't pushed as strongly by Pena as either Perro Aguayo or CIen Caras.

Those matches were building more towards Cota vs. Latin Lover than Satanico/Lizmark. It's a shame Cota bailed before the hair match as the Cota/Lover feud was better than you'd expect. I went off on a tangent about 90s Cota the other day -- http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/blog/8/entry-448-vintage-negro-casas-of-the-day-12/ In a nutshell, I think he was better than people thought at the time, but not as good as the top rudos.

Some Pavillon Azteca footage & photographs: Here are some brief clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmEdXg6oqWI This one's a cheat since it's from the 70s: My favourite Pavillon Azteca gimmick: