ohtani's jacket

The Cena/Wyatt match has the most potential to be good.

It wasn't just All Japan that went in that direction. Most Japanese wrestling ended up that way by the end of the 90s. The promotions lacked fresh match-ups and were bereft of new talent. When you run the same matches over and over again, the tendency is to go longer and cram even more moves into your bouts. Japanese crowds pop big for nearfalls, and they went after those pops. The promotions really made a mistake when they lost their early TV time slots. They had this idea that they could reap even greater rewards from VHS sales, and had a sizeable hardcore live audience at the time, but they lost that exposure with the great public, especially the youth, and that really hurt their recruitment of young talent once wrestling faded from public view. Plus the people in charge were getting older and hadn't really set up proper succession plans. From All Japan's point of view, Akiyama wasn't enough. They needed three or four other guys to take over the mantle from the 90s guys. Recruitment was always harder for All Japan than New Japan even in the company's heyday, so it really hurt when the pinch came.

Ringo Mendoza, Atlantis y Ultraman vs. Satanico, Masakre y MS-1 (September 1986) This was the third incarnation of the Infernales that began after Satanico and Pirata Morgan had a falling out, which isn't that surprising since one claimed to be "El Número Uno" and the other "El Mejor Luchador del Mundo" (the best wrestler in the world.) That altercation not only led to hair matches between Morgan and MS-1 and Morgan and Satanico, but a whole new rudo faction known as Los Bucaneros. The original version of the Bucaneros featured Morgan's brother Hombre Bala and a slightly repackaged Jerry Estrada, who swapped the Iron Maiden t-shirts for an eye patch and pirate bandana. The Infernales replaced Morgan with a wrestler by the name of Masakre. Masakre was a guy who was something of a late bloomer. Originally, he intended to be a fireman and was only interested in wrestling as a means of staying in shape. He trained for nearly five years under Raul Reyes before training at the Arena Mexico facilities with Rafael Salamanca. Finally, he made his debut at Pista Arena Revolución on 5/1/83 and was soon given a push as MS-2. That fell by the wayside when EMLL saw the potential in MS-1, and Masakre's career floundered for a few years before he finally got his big break joining the Infernales. He was unmasked by The Kiss, a wrestler from Baja California, on the 8/29/86 Arena Mexico show, and from that point on was a perfect fit for the Infernales as the same type of tall, ruggedly handsome rudo as MS-1. Together they won the Mexican National Tag Team Championship from Los Hermanos Dinamita in March of '87 and began a new chapter in the Infernales' history. Eventually there would be another bloody falling out, but we'll get to that later. Aside from some old rivalries, I don't think there was anything particular important about the match-up here. The last few minutes of the Satanico/Morgan hair match aired on Japanese TV but were fairly disappointing. No blood and they made a real hash of the finish.The match took place on the 12/5 Arena Mexico show in a double billing with the Atlantis/Hombre Bala mask match.

Steve Grey vs. Tim Fitzmaurice (1/9/79) Fitzmaurice was a small little Irish lad who Walton said wrestled like a terrier. World of Sport joined this after Fitzmaurice had already scored a surprise opening fall, which kind of killed the dynamic the workers were going for, but even down a fall this was a walk in the park for Steve Grey. Marty Jones vs. Steve Logan (1/30/79) One thing we're lucky about with WoS footage is that we get a lot of Jones' prime. This is from right smack in the middle of Jones' best years and was a nice, solid bout that I enjoyed. Logan brought his usual bag of tricks and spent most of the bout pissing Jones off, and if you know Marty Jones you'll know he had a filthy temper. Despite it getting heated, Jones was able to use his superior athleticism to get the better of Logan here. The only thing I didn't like was Logan getting straight up after the winning pinfall as though nothing had happened. Other than that it was a good bout. It wasn't off the charts like it could have been if they'd really ratcheted it up, but considering this was 1979 Steve Logan it was pretty good. Chato Pastor vs. Gary Wensor (6/12/79) Pastor was this little Spanish guy who did some cool flips and had interesting ways of attacking the body. Gary Wensor was a much bigger guy who wasn't flashy but a good pro. This was a catchweight contest to put Pastor over before he took on Mal Sanders for the European Middleweight championship. It didn't really work at getting him over, and he probably would have been better off working someone in his own weight class as he struggled on both of his pinfalls, but it's always fun seeing a new, relatively unknown Euro worker. Wayne Bridges vs. Ray Steele (6/27/79) I'm probably in the small minority of people who enjoy this type of match. This was no frills heavyweight British wrestling. Neither guy has much in the way of personality. Bridges I'm not a huge fan of, and Steele I can give or take depending on his opponent. They didn't do much to try to excite the large Wembley Arena crowd like almost all of the workers usually did, but the wrestling was good, there were some nice holds, and the highspots they did work looked great.

My daughter was a huge fan of a Japanese animation that anthropomorphises food. I guess that's why she's a picky eater.

IIRC, the fans voted for this match-up.

I'm looking for: *MARRIAGE* Savage vs. Elizabeth from the payroll. Could be a lost classic, or a Freudian slip.

Espanto Jr. vs. El Hijo del Santo (Mask vs. Mask) (8/31/86) You’ll recall that a wrestler by the name of Jesus Andrade asked the original Espanto II, Fernando Cisneros Carrillo, for permission to carry on the Espanto name and was granted that permission during 1984. Immediately, Andrade was put into a feud with the son of the Espanto family’s greatest rival, and from the moment they opposed one another a mask match was inevitable. The history here goes back a long way. Los Hermanos Espanto (Espanto I y II) originally tagged with El Santo while Santo was still a rudo. When the time came to turn Santo, it was the Espantos who did the dirty work. On a Friday night show at Arena Mexico, June 22nd, 1962, the team of Rito Romero, Rayo de Jalisco and Henry Pilusso showed Los Hermanos Espanto and El Santo up in an embarrassing two falls to nil loss. Espanto II was so livid with Santo that he attacked him after the bout. A melee ensued and Santo fought back, leaving Espanto II bloodied and bruised; his mask a mess. In true lucha fashion, Santo was abandoned by his rudo partners and left alone with the technicos he was still offside with, and on July 5th he made his debut as a face tagging with Pilusso against the Espanto brothers. (In other versions of events, the details differ slightly, but the upshot is that Espanto II turned on Santo, thereby turning Santo face.) Santo’s face turn was an instant success, and he began regularly tagging with the biggest technico names against the Espantos, who brought a third brother, Espanto III, into the fold. Rubén Juárez ended up taking Espanto II’s mask at the 30th Anniversary show on September 9th, 1963, but just over a month later Santo took the mask of Espanto I in one of the bloodiest Arena Mexico mask matches in memory, dubbed “La Lucha de la muerte” by the magazines. A match that is famous for Santo being so beaten and battered that after the match he turned to known lucha aficionado Don Garcia Erastus and asked who’d won. The Espantos continued to tag together successfully after their unmaskings until tragedy struck as it so often does in these lucha stories. After working a show in Monterrey on May 30th, 1968, Espanto I and another wrestler were shot and killed by a canteen owner during a barroom brawl after he refused to serve them any more drinks. The owner then fled and was on the run for eight years until he was finally caught on March 16th, 1975; however he hung himself in his cell before he could be sentenced. Espanto II was devastated by the loss of his best friend and shirked the limelight after his death, though he continued to wrestle in the Northern part of Mexico and occasionally in other territories. When Andrades took on the lineage, this rematch of the “Fight of Death” was the inevitable course of action, but the El Hijo del Santo vs. Espanto feud didn’t finish here, as we’ll see as the set continues.

Does anyone know if the Network is airing footage of Savage vs. Elizabeth?

Galactar y Rico Rodriguez vs. Alberto Dos Rios y Charles Lucero, ACM 3/9/14 I didn't pay too much attention to what the other guys were doing, but when Lucero was in, he showed he could still work rapid fire lucha sequences, at least with the younger guys. So, I guess the slower exchanges in the title match had more to do with Silver Star's bumping than Lucero's timing. These one fall Monterrey tags are completely unnoteworthy, but it's good to see Lucero is an even more complete worker than I thought. Diluvio Negro I, Diluvio Negro II y Silver Star vs. Antifaz del Norte, Charles Lucero y Sergio Romo Jr., ACM 1/24/10 This was really fun. It was like those early 90s Monterrey trios matches only in 2010. Monterrey is famous for its bloody brawls and wacky gimmicks, but it also has its own style of trios matches. If I were to have a go at describing them, I'd call them free spirited affairs with plenty of fun exchanges. Everyone stepped in and had the kind of pure lucha exchanges you go out of your way to see. Silver Star was a whole lot better four years ago and had some crisp exchanges with Lucero, but they were basically all good, and this was blissfully uncomplicated. Chucho Mar Jr., Stuka Jr. y Sombra de Plata vs. Charles Lucero, Caifan I, y Super Comando, Gimnasio Nuevo Leon 1/18/04 Decent mat opening with Lucero and Chucho Mar. Not a blow-away pairing, but they spent plenty of time on the mat. After that, it was mostly rope running and dives. Stuka's spots were fun if you haven't seen them in a while. Hijo Del Centurion Negro, Rey Hechicero y Símbolo vs. Black Spirit, Charles Lucero y Golden Boy, ACM 7/21/13 This was worth watching for the Hechicero/Lucero exchanges, but was a bit of a mess otherwise. Lucero was really off on his double teaming spots, which is the first time I've seen Lucero look weak in any area, but his exchanges with Hechicero were too good to label it a weak performance overall. I wouldn't say any of the exchanges added to the singles matches they had, but since we're unlikely to see this match-up again any time soon it's worth flicking on if you're looking for more of their work.

El Ninja, Hector Garza y Ruben Juarez Jr vs. Blue Fish, Charles Lucero y Gato del Ring, Monterrey 11/11/92 Yep, early 90s Charles Lucero is awesome. You knew that it would be, but here's the confirmation. This was a fun Monterrey trios that took place a few months after Garza's debut. Lucero was about as close to his prime as we have on tape, Gato del Ring was one of those awesome Monterrey style journeymen who usually do all the wacky gimmicks, and Blue Fish is a legendary Monterrey rudo. This was my first time to see Blue Fish and he didn't disappoint. His sparring with "El Ninja" Mario Segura and the way he orchestrated his team's attack showed all the hallmarks of a great rudo worker. Garza and Juarez were fresh faced kids here. They wore these matching shorts that made them look like outcasts from a Japanese shoot fed. Juarez looked the better of the two and had a fun opening exchange with Gato del Ring, but their best contribution to the match was a neat two-man variation on a gori special that I would totally pinch if I were a modern day trio. Segura did all of Stuka and Super Astro's signature spots and worked a nice pace, but this was all about the rudos and getting to see Lucero work. His bumping and selling had that extra bit of snap to it, and he looked like the complete worker from his rolling bumps through to his double teams with Blue Fish. Cuadrangular Copa Lugman 2014 (Panthro, Charles Lucero, Silver Star, Tigre Universitario), ACM 1/19/14 Only in Monterrey could an unmasked Panthro still be wrestling in 2014. This was a four way elimination match to decide the winner of a tiny little cup called the "Lugman." I don't usually care for these type of three or four way bouts, but hey when you're wrestling for the Lugman that's different. Actually, it was more like a straight tag as they worked one on one most of the time. Lucero's opening mat exchange was about as good a mat exchange as I've seen in lucha this year, and certainly the best maestro stuff. Silver Star and Tigre Universitario know a few holds, but their exchanges tend to come unstuck compared to Lucero's work. We got to see a bit more of Silver Star and Lucero here. Nothing they did was quite as good as their title match, but it was still an interesting series of exchanges. A double pin cleared them out of the way and then Panthro showed some maestro skills of his own to take out the Lugman. The audience, which was a lot healthier than the anemic title match crowd, seemed to like the dives and threw money in the ring. I dunno if it was worth coin, but it was definitely watchable. Charles Lucero y Silver Star vs. Tigre Universitario y Panthro, Arena Gladiadores, January 2014 Arena Gladiadores, looks more like a loading bay than a wrestling arena. This was a handheld shot from ringside, reminding me of the old Black Terry Jr days. Like the Black Terry crew, these four have been wrestling this match for the past decade or so, and it was very much the Monterrey version of those Naucalpan bouts. I don't know what was wrong with the ring here, but the mat wasn't stretched all the way over the canvas and it looked like they were wrestling on a duvet at times. For that reason, they kept the exchanges pretty simple and mostly went through their stock exchanges. The version I watched was missing the opening Lucero/Panthro mat work, but a different upload provided the action. I'm enjoying their work together, and I've got to give props to Panthro. Twenty three years after he unmasked and he's still wearing Panthro-style Thundercat costumes. Either he can't afford any new duds or that's some serious dedication to your gimmick. Not worth going out of your way to see, but it fills a gap that the IWRG guys once did. Alberto Dos Rios y Charles Lucero vs. Androide y Diluvio Negro I, ACM 2/16/14 Lucha tournament wrestling. You all know the drill. Albert Dos Rios and Diluvio Negro I got most of the ring time, and went too long with too little purpose, but Lucero continues to look like Black Terry and Negro Navarro rolled into one.

This looks like it was two singles matches and not a tag match. I have corrected the original entry.

Rayo De Jalisco Jr. vs. Mascara Ano 2000 (8/15/86) Mascara Ano 2000 had turned heel by this point and formed the original version of Los Hermanos Dinamita with his brother Cien Caras, which would later become a trio when their younger brother Universo 2000 started working Mexico City. Los Hermanos Dinamita had taken the Mexican National Tag Team titles from Rayo and Tony Benetto on 4/16/86, and now MA2k was after Rayo's NWA World Light Heavyweight title. This was a belt that Mascara had held for several months back in '82 before losing to El Faraon, and he would have another rematch for the title in December of '86. Later on, he became a frequent challenger for the title during Lizmark's three year run as the top light heavyweight in Mexico. La Fiera vs. Babyface (8/15/86) Sometime, in I want to say early '86, La Fiera turned technico. (I think, you can never be sure with this patchy lucha history of ours.) On 2/23/86, he had a hair match with El Faraon right in the middle of all that Faraon/Chicana/Aguayo drama, and by the summer he seems to have definitely turned. Babe Face, you'll remember, was one of the original UWA wrestlers. He had a number of bloody hair matches over the years, always with great opponents like Villano III, Brazo de Oro, El Signo, Texano, and even his old partner Perro Aguayo. Like many people, I've always assumed that there was a working agreement that allowed UWA wrestlers to appear on EMLL shows and vice versa, but the last time I spoke with Jose Fernandez he claimed this wasn't the case and that the wrestlers simply took bookings for both companies. Looking at some of the records we have, it seems this wasn't the first time Babe Face worked EMLL and it didn't end with this hair match as he was back for more dates in the final third of '86, but I believe this was the only time he booked in any sort of program at Arena Mexico. La Fiera took several months off in '87 due to injury and returned late in the season where he had a hastily arranged hair match against Sangre Chicana, but according to hardcores he was never the same after his return.

Isn't it Karl Anderson?

My blog entry -- http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/blog/8/entry-406-silver-star-vs-charles-lucero/

Silver Star vs. Charles Lucero, WWA World Middleweight Championship, ACM 3/2/14

That's all true, but don't forget there were things in the late 90s like the big nwo Japan storyline that we tended to ignore.

NJPW I still think has a Japanese quality to it. It reminds me a lot of 90s Joshi. I don't think the big finishing stretches and mounting nearfalls are a WWE trait.

Lucha evolved over time. As tim mentioned, it became very junior-esque in the late 80s as workers like Dandy, Atlantis, Emilio Charles, Pirata Morgan and Satanico began upping their workrate, particularly in the third caida of both hair matches and title matches. AAA pushed workrate even further, and there were already Japanese influences by the mid-90s brought back from the workers who went over there. Look at the elements that Santo brings to his CMLL bouts after his return in '95. Where it seemed to escalate was with the generational change at the end of the 90s, where the Emilio Charles Jrs of the world were too banged up to carry the load anymore and you got young workers like Shocker, Mr. Niebla, Rey Bucanero and Ultimo Guerrero, who were fundamentally solid to different degrees, but didn't carry on the torch of traditional lucha libre wrestling. As I've mentioned a million times on my blog, the lineage of classic lucha was Lizmark to Atlantis to Angel Azteca, but that lineage died with Azteca. And workers like Casas and Panther know what their meal ticket is and adapted to the new style. The shortened falls and formatting changes for TV also took their toll, and just the whole look of the reconfigured Arena Mexico has the crowd further away from the ring and everything is too bright (or was until the stopped lighting up the crowd.) The ring girls, the ramps and the big screen TVs are other changes that make it look homogenized. Having said all that, CMLL is going through a down period at the moment, which has greatly increased the quality of the matches. You get longer, more traditional style bouts a couple of times a year.

Silver Star vs. Charles Lucero, WWA World Middleweight Championship, ACM 3/2/14 Charles Lucero is quickly becoming a must-see worker for me. At present, I'd rate him as the second best maestro in the country behind Virus. This was a really old-school style title match worked on a stained and faded canvas in front of a tiny Monterrey crowd, and carried all of the traditions of UWA style Monterrey title matches. Watching this, it was easy to imagine what it must have been like to watch Lucero work the Northern circuit during the 80s and early 90s. The first fall was an exhibition in pure lucha libre. It reminded me of how Blue Panther used to wrestle back when he actually wrestled, and how he still sometimes does when he works ACM. Lucero's opponent, Silver Star, worked a type of early BIg Van Vader gimmick; and while it looked like Lucero was feeding him everything, Star did just enough to make it seem like he knew his way around the ring. It was obvious on the slow mo of the finishing sequence (which looked like a slow mo of footage already in slow motion) that Lucero used to be a lot quicker with these elaborate sequences, but the beauty of these old school maestro matches is about the form and not so much the execution. Lucero had the class to win two-nil and very nearly did if not for a slick arm drag counter from Silver Star that fed into a torture rack submission. It was a short fall that allowed the champ to strike back immediately, but Lucero's bumping style and the way he sold the torture rack was classical lucha libre. The third fall was your archetypal tercera caida with the action going backwards and forwards as both men tried to win it. I don't know if they went to the end of the line, but they went about as far as you can in front of such a small audience. Dives gave way to submissions, which gave way to suplex attempts. Silver Star looked like he might have the power to win, while Lucero looked like he had all the nous. Both men missed moves from the top rope, as the bout began to slow, then the turning point came when Silver Star missed a big running senton off the apron and suffered a heavy landing on the floor. Lucero was banged up himself, which put a neat twist into the final minutes, but he had just enough to get the big man back to canvas and deliver a second rope senton. A short elbow followed and was clear that Lucero had some pretty bad ass offence, while all the while selling beautifully. He went to the well again from the top and was caught in the torture rack for a second time, but managed to evade it this time and tie the champion in an absolute knot to cap off an extremely good match. If you like old-school lucha then Lucero is a name you need to start punching into internet search engines.

Lizmark, Alfonso Dantes y Tony Salazar vs. El Signo, El Texano y Negro Navarro (8/15/86) And finally we come to the Misioneros. For those of you looking for a detailed write-up on the trio, look no further than the obituary which Steve Sims wrote for El Texano in 2006. Some of the dates are off, but it’s an excellent resource. I’ll go over the basics and add a few points. It’s a shame that the only televised footage we have of the Misioneros is from the end of their drawing run, because their EMLL appearances don’t really convey what a big deal they were in the early part of the decade. We do have some grainy and incomplete footage of them at El Toreo, but it pales in comparison to people’s recollections and the magazine photos we have from their pomp. At some point in ’86, the Misioneros lost their UWA World Trios Championship titles to the Villanos and then left the UWA to begin working at Pavillón Azteca where they feuded with Trio Fantasia and the exotico pairing of Adorable Rubi, Sergio el Hermoso and Bello Greco. EMLL brought them in over the summer to headline their 53rd Anniversary show where they fought Americo Rocca, Tony Salazar and Ringo Mendoza in a rare triple hair match. A few weeks prior, they had defeated El Dandy, Talisman and Jerry Estrada (substituting for the masked Fuerza Guerrera) under the same stipulations, and it remains somewhat odd that EMLL used the Misioneros to put over their midcard stalwarts instead of giving Dandy and Estrada the rub. After all, the Misioneros began as wrestlers in Dandy and Estrada’s position. As the story goes, Francisco Flores noticed that despite the fact the best heavyweights in Mexico were working at El Toreo, often against top class international competition, EMLL promoter Salvador Lutteroth was still able to draw using smaller wrestlers like Fishman, Sangre Chicana and Satoru Sayama. Flores’ response was to scout young light-weight talent, the first group of which included Signo, Texano, Navarro, Brazo de Oro, and his brothers. At the end of 1977, Flores instructed Shadito Cruz, the patriarch of the Brazo family and a referee and trainer at the time, to take his boys and the young Misioneros to one of the smaller venues in Mexico City, and work a series of Sunday shows culminating in a Brazo de Oro vs. El Texano mask vs. mask match. The lucha magazines soon got behind the two trios, and in 1980 a fortuitous, if nearly tragic, incident occurred during an El Toreo match between the Misioneros and El Santo, Blue Demon and Huracán Ramírez when Santo had the first of several heart attacks that eventually claimed his life. Santo was laid up for several months while he recuperated, and the Misioneros were instantly hailed as the rudos who almost killed the biggest legend of all-time. The magazines lapped it up and the Misioneros became an overnight sensation. The climax of El Santo’s retirement tour in 1982 was a huge atomicos main event at El Toreo that saw him team up with Gori Guerrero, Huracan Ramirez and El Solitario to take on the Misioneros and Perro Aguayo. As with the Wagner/Solitario mask match, the ticket prices were raised but the show still drew 25,000 and set a box office for El Toreo. Over the next few years, the Misioneros were involved in a number of high profile feuds with various different trios teams, some of which we have already documented, such as their role in turning Villano III technico. As I’ve mentioned before, El Toreo was by far the “bloodiest” of the major arenas in Mexico City, and to this day the Misioneros have a reputation for being one of the bloodiest, most violent trios teams this side of the Brazos and Villanos, who also bled buckets in the 80s. El Signo was usually the captain of the team and was involved in a number of memorable hair matches during their run with Villano III, El Solitario and Babe Face, and all three were decorated singles workers in their weight classes. In ’87, as their star was fading, the Misioneros won the UWA World Trios titles back from the Villanos and held onto them for a few months before losing to the Brazos, but rumours persisted about differences between the team members. Then on 11/13/87, during a match against the Villanos, El Texano threw in the towel when it seemed like El Signo was losing consciousness in a submission hold. After the match, Signo and Navarro turned on Texano, and the Misioneros as we know them were no more. Texano was laid out and left for EMLL, and Flores and subsequent UWA bookers’ efforts to replace him with a new member fell increasingly limp. The Misioneros never drew again, and strangely when just about everyone was picked up by either CMLL or AAA after UWA fell apart, Navarro and Signo had only the briefest of runs in AAA before working the independents for the rest of their careers. Texano was much more successful, enjoying a 90s international run with El Dandy and then Silver King as Los Cowboys. Negro Navarro still wrestles today and has changed his style to more of a mat based one. He is considered one of the finest maestros in the sport today. Signo, who may have been the best worker of them all, retired only a few years ago, while Texano died of pneumonia in 2006 after a number of years of poor health and wrestling related injuries.

Tomoko Kitamura vs. Mami Kumano, 1981 These rudo matches work a lot better when it's a veteran heel against a young rookie. This was a decent match for that particular genre. I went through a real anti-Asuka stage for a while, but I've got to say she hasn't done much to annoy me of late. Rimi Yokota vs. Mami Kumano, 1981 This wasn't half as enjoyable and didn't work half as well as the Asuka squash for the simple reason that Yokota should have been above the rookie treatment as this point, especially considering she gets the big win here.

I'm sure I could come up with a top 25 for modern workers; I just don't get the Shield. Is Reigns as good as Rey Escorpion? It doesn't seem so yet people are saying Reigns is one of the best workers in the world. I did enjoy the PPV match, though.

I was skeptical heading into this, but they won me over with the stretch run. And it was mercifully short. Loved Aja's tope, and the nearfalls were a great example of how well this sort of style plays to a Japanese audience. I did think Kyoko could have sold the post match a bit better, but that's not much of a complaint. Enjoyable match.

Unfortunately, there's not that much Scorpion on tape and after unmasking she only appears a couple of more times on TV before disappearing.