ohtani's jacket

I remember being really excited about the WWF right up to SummerSlam then it tapers off a bit with Austin's injury being a momentum killer.

Yeah, that clip is awesome.

Giant Haystacks vs. Big Daddy.

Blogged about this: Lizmark vs. Satanico, NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship match (CMLL 7/17/92) In theory, these two should have been the Flair vs. Steamboat of Mexico, but they never seem to put it all together. This match is a case in point. Lizmark wrestles a beautiful opening caida. His takedowns are quick and aggressive and frustrate Satanico to no end, to the point where Satanico starts grabbing at Lizmark's face and then feigns that he's not really aggravated. Lizmark then uses his athleticism to keep his distance from Satanico and peppers him with dropkicks and headbutts and back breakers. When they do engage in more close quarters grappling, Satanico can't make much headway, and the only hint of an advantage is for him to overpower Lizmark through brawling. Lizmark prevails, however, and in the end it's quite a dominant fall from the challenger. It's by no means a bad fall of wrestling, but for such a long caida there was little in the way of counter wrestling from Satanico. You can chalk that up to excellent strategy from the challenger, but to make that narrative work you need a payoff and that's something which was sorely lacking from the second caida. Lizmark dominated the early going as he should, and you kept waiting for the genius Satanico transition that would tip the match on its head, but that transition was simply a missed headbutt into the corner. A couple of power moves later and a submission was all it took for Satanico to even up the bout even though Lizmark had enjoyed probably three quarters of the offence. Yes, it's lucha, but I'm used to better than that from Satanico, who's one of the smartest wrestlers around when it comes to the big turning point transitions in matches. The third caida began with some fairly intense submission work and the repeated motif of the back breaker, but their attempts to make it seem "even stevens" lacked conviction to me, and Lizmark continuously seemed like the fresher, more dominant wrestler. Satanico's selling throughout the third fall was excellent, but why the decision was made to make Lizmark look like such an incredibly strong challenger is a mystery. He absolutely dominated this match on points. Worst of all was the booking of the finish. Perhaps they'd back themselves into a corner where the finish was always going to be against the run of play, but a contentious and fluky counter pin off a surfboard was about the worst way for Satanico to retain his title. Satanico was one of the all-time great wrestlers, and rudo or not, didn't need parlour tricks to beat his rivals. All told it was a bad showing from him, and even though the match itself wasn't bad, Lizmark got far too much of the offence, denying us an all-time classic.

Don't know if it's on topic, but when cross-eyed Marty Jones is at ringside wearing glasses they are the mother of all lenses.

Lizmark vs. Ulises, NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship match (CMLL 4/13/90) Solid albeit unspectacular title match between Lizmark and a then masked Tony Salazar. The opening matwork was built around a number of Lizmark takedowns, as he worked toward the submission he was looking for. Both workers played around with an armbar theme before promptly dropping it, no doubt displeasing those looking for some sort of continuity in their wrestling. Salazar brought back the armbar during the passage where he was overpowering Lizmark, and drove him shoulder first into the turnbuckle a couple of times from a hammerlock position, but targeting a body part isn't a common trope in lucha and it came across as a transition more than anything else. The match cut off after a tope left both men sprawled on the floor; a fitting end to a match I didn't desperately need to see the finish to. Lizmark vs. Satanico, NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship match (CMLL 7/17/92) In theory, these two should have been the Flair vs. Steamboat of Mexico, but they never seem to put it all together. This match is a case in point. Lizmark wrestles a beautiful opening caida. His takedowns are quick and aggressive and frustrate Satanico to no end, to the point where Satanico starts grabbing at Lizmark's face and then feigns that he's not really aggravated. Lizmark then uses his athleticism to keep his distance from Satanico and peppers him with dropkicks and headbutts and back breakers. When they do engage in more close quarters grappling, Satanico can't make much headway, and the only hint of an advantage is for him to overpower Lizmark through brawling. Lizmark prevails, however, and in the end it's quite a dominant fall from the challenger. It's by no means a bad fall of wrestling, but for such a long caida there was little in the way of counter wrestling from Satanico. You can chalk that up to excellent strategy from the challenger, but to make that narrative work you need a payoff and that's something which was sorely lacking from the second caida. Lizmark dominated the early going as he should, which had me waiting for the genius Satanico transition that would tip the match on its head. But that transition was simply a missed headbutt into the corner. A couple of power moves later, and a submission, was all it took for Satanico to even up the bout even though Lizmark had enjoyed probably three quarters of the offence. Yes it's lucha, but I'm used to better than that from Satanico, who's one of the smartest wrestlers around when it comes to the big turning points in matches. The third caida began with some fairly intense submission work and the repeated motif of the back breaker, but their attempts to make it seem "even stevens" lacked conviction, and Lizmark continually seemed like the fresher, more dominant wrestler. Satanico's selling throughout the third fall was excellent, but why Lizmark was made to look like such an incredibly strong challenger is a mystery. He absolutely dominated this match on points. Worst of all was the booking of the finish. Perhaps they'd backed themselves into a corner where the finish was always going to be against the run of play, but a contentious and fluky counter pin from a surfboard was just about the worst way for Satanico to retain his title. Satanico is one of the all-time great wrestlers, and rudo or not, didn't need parlour tricks to beat his rivals. All told it was a bad showing from him, and even though the match itself wasn't bad, Lizmark got far too much of the offence, denying us an all-time classic. Lizmark vs. Jerry Estrada, National Light Heavyweight Championship match (AAA 7/9/95) They fucked around at the beginning getting rid of Tirantes, which rid us of his bullshit, then ended the match with a DQ when the seconds Rey Mysterio, Jr. and Psicosis began fighting with each other. Is it any wonder why I hate this promotion? In between there was some decent action, but it was very much Lizmark vs. Estrada by the numbers. Lizmark vs. La Parka, National Light Heavyweight Championship match (AAA 7/18/94) This took a long time to get going. The action wasn't bad, but it was the single longest feeling out period I've seen in lucha. In fact, it was kind of strange compared to the lucha I'm used to. Of course this being AAA, they couldn't help themselves and made the finish to each fall screwy, and there was some completely non-traditional mask ripping in the third fall that would have had Louis Spota, the long time president of the Comisión de Box y Lucha Libre, spinning in his grave. Parka actually bladed, which is even more sacrilegious. Despite all this, the action was very good, with Lizmark having to increasingly bust out his bigger offence to put Parka away. Come to think of it, it was quite Americanised in that respect. I was a little disappointed that we didn't see the explosive Parka matwork and striking game that the '93 match brought us, but for a match that circled around some pretty bullshit booking, this was more than passable.

Man, that Bigelow/Lawler match is awesome. I think I'd put that in my top 5 Lawler matches.

This is only the second time for me to see the Shield, so I shouldn't be making this sort of a value judgement, but they have to be one of the most overrated things in wrestling in recent memory. I do not get them at all. I guess they're energetic and hit a lot of highspots, but their offence is crap. That Lou Thesz press spot Ambrose does with the punches is awful looking and every other move they do seems involve leaping or diving before hitting a move. It's as bad as modern day CMLL. And for a story match, this had a shitty layout with a really crappy FIP narrative. I wonder if in 10 years time people will be looking back and calling this era of WWE overrated the way they do with the Smackdown Six stuff.

I only watch modern lucha matches I think will appeal to me since I'm not a big fan of the product.

From the latest blog: Felino vs. Ciclon Ramirez, CMLL World Welterweight Championship match (5/21/93) This had everything going for it -- Felino interrupting a Ciclon Ramirez interview in the gym and brawling with him, a contract signing with both men wearing three-piece suits, Ciclon wearing a beautiful boxing robe to the ring and Felino clinging to the oversized welterweight championship like a cat staking out his territory. Even Casas was swanning around with his butt cheeks hanging out of his baby blue trunks. Given all that, the match was a hefty disappointment. The matwork was only decent when Ramirez was in control, which is fairly typical of Felino's early title matches. He didn't really improve at title match matwork until he started working with Santo in '96. Beyond that it was mostly dives before the Casas/Felino angle. Casas does a really good job of selling his bewilderment at Felino pushing him around before throwing in the towel. The angle wasn't as hot as it could have been, but that's 1993 CMLL for you. It was still a beautifully dickish move on Casas' part. It's too bad they didn't give us the full title match before running the angle, and I still think it was a dumb move to unmask Ramirez.

Nancy Kumi vs. Devil Masami, 8/81 Masami went after Kumi's injured knee in a pretty boring match. You can keep your legwork psychology, thanks. Chigusa Nagayo vs. Devil Masami, 2/81 This may have been Chigusa's television debut. If not then close to it. This was much more interesting than the Kumi match despite basically being the same thing. Devil added a lot more detail to her work and did a good job stretching Chigusa out. Mimi Hagiwara vs. Lucy Kayama, 2/81 These two matched up really well, and although they were both loose workers this had a nice flow through to a 30 minute draw. Jackie Sato vs. Mami Kumano, 2/81 Mami had a fancy new hairdo that made her barely recognisable, but this was the same old match-up between these two. One of my least favourite to be honest.

Haven't seen much of it outside of the luchadoras who worked in Japan. It was banned in Mexico City until the mid-80s, and despite a huge rise in the number of women's matches that took place after the ban was lifted it wasn't that prominent on television.

Atlantis/Lizmark/Ultimo Dragon vs. Emilio Charles Jr./Bestia Salvaje/Negro Casas (7/31/92) Standard rudo brawling followed by a standard technico comeback, but it all looked fairly good. Emilio and Atlantis continued to brawl, which explains the extra edge to their '92 title match. Espectro Jr./Espectro de Ultratumba/Ponzona vs. Angel Azteca/Apolo Dantes/Eddy Guerrero (9/13/91) Not good. Not much of anything really. The clip began with a lengthy vignette of Angel Azteca and some ladies pretending to be either statutes or figures from an Aztec relief. Ponzona and the Espectros may have had fun gimmicks, but they didn't do anything in the ring to take advantage of their get-ups in the way that Pena did when he wrestled as Kahoz. Match was pretty much an excuse for Apolo Dantes and Eddy Guerrero to gallivant around being second generation superstars and jocks. Blue Panther vs. Octagon, National Middleweight Championship match (8/4/94) The first time I saw these two wrestle I called it one of the worst title matches in history. This wasn't that bad, but it was still rubbish. What a colossal waste of Panther in his prime. Only AAA could produce matches that are worse than Panther's modern bouts. I'd almost call them a blight on Panther's career, but it was obvious that the booking was the millstone here. Felino vs. Ciclon Ramirez, CMLL World Welterweight Championship match (5/21/93) This had everything going for it -- Felino interrupting a Ciclon Ramirez interview in the gym and brawling with him, a contract signing with both men wearing three-piece suits, Ciclon wearing a beautiful boxing robe to the ring and Felino clinging to the oversized welterweight championship like a cat staking out his territory. Even Casas was swanning around with his butt cheeks hanging out of his baby blue trunks. Given all that, the match was a hefty disappointment. The matwork was only decent when Ramirez was in control, which is fairly typical of Felino's early title matches. He didn't really improve at title match matwork until he started working with Santo in '96. Beyond that it was mostly dives before the Casas/Felino angle. Casas does a really good job of selling his bewilderment at Felino pushing him around before throwing in the towel. The angle wasn't as hot as it could have been, but that's 1993 CMLL for you. It was still a beautifully dickish move on Casas' part. It's too bad they didn't give us the full title match before running the angle, and I still think it was a dumb move to unmask Ramirez. Atlantis/Satanico/Angel Azteca vs. Pirata Morgan/Emilio Charles Jr./Jerry Estrada (4/20/90) This was a real "fall out of bed" trios. It was good, but nothing I wouldn't expect from these workers. The novelty of Satanico being on the technico side wasn't lost on anyone and he had some fun exchanges with all three of the rudos. The best match-up was Emilio Charles v. Angel Azteca, as they built to their title match. There was a lengthy brawl at ringside after the bout was over, and it looked like someone through some trash at Emilio and got a receipt for it. Satanico and Morgan put on a bit of a show in front of Doña Vicky, who seemed to enjoy it. I recently saw the finish to their 1986 hair match, which looked wildly disappointing as there appeared to be a lack of blood and an abundance of juniors moves (plus they had an exceptional whiff on a missile dropkick from the top rope.) Their brawling here was much better, but this still a bit of a throwaway bout all the same.

Dandy is a couple of years younger than Casas and Panther, but Satanico will be 65 this year. Like Childs, I knew this would sad to watch so I haven't bothered.

Sangre Chicana vs. Perro Aguayo (Hair vs. Hair) (2/28/86) This was another match several years in the making. Chicana and Aguayo first began as a tag team in September of 1982, taking on Riki Choshu and Gran Hamada at El Toreo on 9/19/82. This was at a time when the economic crisis was hitting Mexico mercilessly, and promoters had to make the cards increasingly attractive to draw the fans. The sight of two of the biggest rudo names in the sport aligning brought back memories of the great rudo tag teams of the past like La Ola Blanca, Blue Demon y Black Shadow, Mendoza, Guajardo y Lagarde and the Espantos. They continued to tag together a few more times until the violent Chicana/Faraon vs. Aguayo/Fishman feud erupted, spanning Arena Mexico and El Toreo in some of the bloodiest matches ever recorded. Over the next few years, Chicana and Aguayo met in mano a mano matches, and title matches, and trios matches and elimination bouts, but never until this point a hair match. In 1985, Chicana began tagging with the newly turned Cien Caras and together they formed a formidable tag team. EMLL at the time had a lot more focus on their tag team division, which had been dominated for almost three straight years by the Mendoza brothers. Los Hermanos Mendoza had seen off the threats of Perro Aguayo and Fishman, Satanico and his Infernales partners Espectro Jr. and MS-1, and Los Brazos de Oro y Plata, but on 4/12/85, they succumb to the unholy alliance of Cien Caras and Sangre Chicana. Chicana, for much of ’85, was feuding with Tony Benetto, whose hair he took on 3/31/85, and it would be Benetto and Rayo de Jalisco Jr. who lifted the tag belts from Chicana and Caras on 10/28/85. Tensions then began to develop between Chicana and his regular partners Caras and El Faraon, leading to Chicana and Faraon brawling with one another after a trios match. Aguayo got involved somehow, and the end result was a three-way match at Arena Mexico where the first person to earn a submission or pinfall over the two over combatants was eliminated and the losers forced to have a lucha de apuesta match the following week. Faraon cheated to win, and Chicana and Aguayo had a huge post-match brawl. One thing I’ve always admired about Aguayo is his honesty about getting into the business. Most luchadores of his era claim they were inspired by Santo, Blue Demon or Black Shadow, but Aguayo says he was an amateur luchador for 14 years and got into it out of hunger. Born on a ranch in the town of Nochistlan, Zacatecas, the land his family worked didn’t give them enough to eat, so they moved to Guadalajara where eventually Aguayo had to leave school and go to work in Mexico City as a baker. Eventually, he returned to Guadalajara, where he took up boxing to stand up to the street gangs that harassed him. A luchador named Apolo Romano convinced him to take up wrestling training, and he eventually moved to Mexico’s Olympic Center where he won a national championship before Diablo Velasco convinced him to turn professional. Aguayo’s star was made with his legendary 10/3/75 apuesta with El Santo, where according to luchawiki: “Perro ripped Santo's mask and bloodied him like few had before, and Santo retaliated by going back to his beginnings for rudo tactics of his own.” Chicana himself called this match with Perro the high point of his career. In the immediate aftermath, Chicana took Faraon’s hair on the 3/7/86 Arena Mexico show, and later in the year Faraon took Aguayo’s hair in Monterrey. Two hair losses in the same year was a pretty big deal for a wrestler who in 1985 the magazines had called the wrestler of the year, but the Aguayo/Chicana feud would continue for many years, and Aguayo took Chicana’s hair in 1989 in Baja California and again in 1990 at Arena Mexico. This one, however, was the big one, as the later hair matches were overshadowed by the rise of Konnan as a main event player.

Chino Sato vs. Tomi Aoyama, Guam 9/80 This Sato girl had a good attitude and showed a lot of promise. It must have been a disappointment when she didn't amount to much. Here she got a big win over Tomi Aoyama, which surprised me somewhat. I wonder if the writing was on the wall for Aoyama at this point. Black Pair vs. Queen Angels, 1980 Well, if you're going to do the brawling, cheating style, you might as well go the whole hog and that's what the Black Pair did here, forgoing the match for the sake of injuring Aoyama's already injured knee. I practically despise the commentary team for AJW, but they were good at feigning concern. The female reporter wouldn't shut up as the Black Pair took apart Tomi's leg/knee. Ring girls went flying and even commissioner Ueda took a few bumps to the outside. Earlier on, Kayama did her plancha off the top rope, which she couldn't execute properly to save her life. On this occasion, she hit Kumano in the face somehow and bust her nose open. All in all, this was a pretty wild and chaotic match and a better attempt at creating an out of control brawl than their usual efforts. Black Pair vs. Nancy Kumi/Lucy Kayama, 2/5/80 It's pretty apparent by now that title matches bring out the best in early 80s AJW. What the girls lacked in pacing or execution, they made up for in intensity and this had a championship feel to it. The finish was nuts as Kayama again went for her plancha off the top turnbuckle, missed everyone and clipped the announcer's table on the wall down. That looked like it really, really hurt.

Pierroth Jr./MS-1/Ulises vs. Mogur/El Dandy/Popitekus (1/5/90) A week before their title match, it's the match-up the internet never told you about, Mogur vs. Pierroth Jr. Their exchanges here may have been even better than during their title fight, as they really slapped the shit out of each other. At one point, Mogur was lying prone on the canvas and Pierroth went all romper stomper on him, kicking him in the back until he had finally cleared the ring of him. Another outstanding match-up here was El Dandy vs. MS-1, which was every bit as good as you'd imagine it to be. MS-1 was fantastic around this time. I remember when I first got into lucha thinking that MS-1 was almost like a Mexican Jumbo Tsuruta. Like Jumbo, he got old fast, and when I think about that Infernales/Dinamitas match I watched the other day, his decline sticks out even more. Dandy also slipped from this level really quickly, which makes this an in-ring encounter to savour. Popitekus was a wee bit disappointing here, but Salazar under the hood and MS-1 mostly went the comedy route with him. There was a nice violent rudo control segment in the bout and Pierroth was in fine form. I always thought he took a while to come into his own, but this feud was a nice showcase for him. Match of the night as far as my viewing goes. El Dandy/Ringo Mendoza/Sangre Chicana vs. El Satanico/Fabuloso Blondy/MS-1 (11/16/90) I wouldn't call this weak, but there weren't really any special moments. Dandy and Satanico brawled and there was double juice, but that's nothing we haven't seen before. Everybody else just sort of chipped in without shining. Mascara Sagrada/Octagon/Atlantis vs. Pierroth Jr./Fuerza Guerrera/Kung Fu (1/25/91) Before the match we got a lengthy vignette of Pierroth working out in tight blue bicycle shorts while some up tempo smooth jazz played over the top. If you'd told me that would be the highlight I would've stopped the clip right there. This meandered. A lot. I was so bored that I became overly fascinated by the size difference between Fuerza and Pierroth. I often don't click about things like that until my mind starts to wander. One thing I'll say for this match is it shows how easily these pre-singles match brawling trios can descend into complete bores. The next time you see a really good one remember that. Jerry Estrada/El Satanico/La Parka vs. Lizmark/Octagon/Mascara Sagrada (6/4/93) This started off with a decent effort by Satanico to make Mascara Sagrada look competent on the mat, and some decent enough exchanges between Lizmark and Estrada, but aimless pre-singles match brawling trios were almost AAA's forte, and this dragged on and on without any spectacular moments. Jerry Estrada/El Satanico/La Parka vs. Lizmark/Octagon/Mascara Sagrada (6/11/93) This was also a dull rudo dominated trios. For some reason, Satanico vs. Octagon was one of the least compelling match-ups of the early 90s. It's not like Satanico didn't bump or sell for him, or try any of his bag of tricks; it was just interesting. I was begging for a hot babyface comeback here with the kind of dive train you know AAA is good for, but it never came. These are the kind of matches which have long soured me on AAA, and the fact this was worse than the previous week makes things even worse. Lizmark should have been up against it here against three of his major foes, but they couldn't even thread the Lizmark/Estrada issue through properly and the narratives were pretty pathetic in general. Not a great night for lucha libre watching.

Well, I thought I'd let lucha fans know what's happening on my blog lately. Starting from the beginning of this year, there's a look at some late '92 CMLL, which was the start of a troubling time for CMLL after the AAA split -- http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/blog/8/entry-392-1992-cmll/ Then there's a two-part look at CMLL's "lost years" of '93-95 when hardcores were so enamored with AAA and the business they were doing that they stopped bothering to tape CMLL -- http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/blog/8/entry-393-cmll-the-lost-years-pt-1/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/blog/8/entry-397-cmll-the-lost-years-pt-2/ If you're more interested in recent lucha, there's a review of Virus/Titan, which is one of the only strong lucha matches in what's been a pretty quiet year to date -- http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/blog/8/entry-399-virus-vs-titan/ There's also a brief review of a match off the DVDVR set -- http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/blog/8/entry-400-dvdvr-best-of-the-80s-13/ and the most recent entry is a look at some early 90s lucha from a wonderful YouTube channel -- http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/blog/8/entry-402-90s-lucha/ Please enjoy.

One thing I only just learnt about this match was that they did the same finish as the 1993 Mano Negra/Atlantis mask match where Atlantis won the third fall in 15 seconds with the the La Atlantida torture rack. Since this is a popular match on the set, people might like to know (or alternatively be gutted to hear) that there was a super libre revancha match the following week, as cubsfan discovered on his trip to Mexico.

El Solitario vs. Dr. Wagner (Mask vs. Mask) (12/1/85) Here we go… a match that was 15 years in the making. According to Jose Fernandez’ Wagner bio for the WON HOF, Monterrey was red hot in ‘85. Having maxed out all the smaller arenas in the city, promoter Carlos Elizondo began running weekly shows at the 15,000-seat Plaza de Toros Monumental bullring. Despite a hike in ticket prices, this long awaited mask vs. mask match sold out the bullring and drew the largest gate in the city’s history. It was such a big deal that it was even taped for TV, which was rare back then as we’re all too painfully aware. Wagner was 49 years old at this time and no longer a headliner in Mexico City (his last major match being arguably his hair match against Angel Blanco in 1979 after a short technico turn), but he remained a big draw in Monterrey and Nuevo Laredo, where he turned rudo again and feuded with Solitario and Anibal. It may be difficult to gauge from his one appearance on the set, but Solitario was one of the top three or four stars in the history of lucha libre; making this one of the most famous mask matches in the history of the sport. Wagner had a short run as a headliner at El Toreo after this match, as people in Mexico City where curious to see him sans mask, but the aftermath to the match was nothing short of tragic. On April 6th, 1986, during a match against Fishman in Nuevo Larendo, Solitario took a move that aggravated an injury Solitario had. He was taken to the hospital complaining of abdominal pain, and as the story goes doctors initially misdiagnosed his condition. When the doctors realised he was suffering from internal bleeding, he was rushed into surgery where he died from a cardiac arrest. Rumours have long persisted about the actual cause of death and his general health at the time, but the official story is that he suffered a cardiac arrest from receiving an anesthetic. Twenty one days later, Wagner was driving with a group of wrestlers from a matinee show in Nuevo Larendo to an evening show in Monterrey when a tire on the car exploded, and Wagner lost control of the car and collided with a truck. The wrestlers in the backseat where unharmed, but Blanco in the passenger seat was killed instantly and Wagner suffered a broken back with severe spinal damage. Doctors initially told him he would never walk on his own again, but he eventually learnt to walk with the use of a cane, even taking a taxi driver job in his old age. A grim entry this time, but the tragedy that followed the mask match is a huge part of these wrestlers’ legacies. For anyone interested in their glory days, there are detailed bios at luchawiki and other places.

Atlantis/Apolo Dantes/Octagon vs. Blue Panther/Javier Cruz/Emilio Charles Jr. (8/2/91) It's always exciting when you see a rudo line-up like that. I don't know if they cranked up the pace or it was just edited that way, but this was one lively trios. Under ordinary circumstances, they might have meandered along setting up the Cruz vs. Dantes hair match and Panther vs. Atlantis title match, but in this case there was always something interesting going on. Dantes wore a purple wrestling leotard that made him look like an exotico (lilac even, for those of you who get the reference.) I'm sure his dad could have pulled it off, as dad wasn't the sort you messed with. Still, it's not the colour of your leotard that counts but how hard you pack a punch, and Dantes' fists caused Cruz to blade here. Cruz was good value here as the annoying little jackass alter-ego to his awesome fired up babyface act of 1990. Interesting enough, Atlantis v. Panther brought the violence during the technico's comeback. Their title match may have been a breathtaking display of pure lucha libre, but they beat the tar out of each other here. The finishing stretch was wild with everyone going for broke. Octagon, who I'll defend until the day I sign off from this blog, pulled off a big dive which he sold beautifully, and Panther caught Atlantis in no man's land for the submission finish. As soon as he got the call, he dropped Atlantis like a sack of potatoes and motioned for the title around his waist. I was pumped to say the least. Fun trios. Pierroth Jr. vs. Mogur, National Light Heavyweight Championship match (1/12/90) This was surprisingly good. I almost passed up the opportunity to watch it as it didn't seem that interesting, but by the first fall I was hooked. It was a lengthy Arena Coliseo match with a heavy focus on (light) heavyweight style mat work. There was a lot of selling, which gave it a slightly different feel stylistically. One really cool thing they did was sell the impact of such heavy bodies being thrown about and slammed into the canvas. They'd do an armdrag, for example, and sell both the impact and the strain on the person's shoulder. It was probably took long for what these guys are capable of, and being a traditionalist I didn't particularly care for Pierroth cheating during a title match, but there was a lot to like here in terms of details. It's also a side of Pierroth that he didn't show a lot of later on, particularly his mat game. Worth checking out as a match that's well under the radar. Atlantis/Lizmark/Ultimo Dragon vs. Emilio Charles Jr./Bestia Salvaje/Felino (7/24/92) I don't know who runs the channel that I'm getting this stuff from, but whoever it is he's a Godsend. I'm hauled up inside with a stuffy nose and my second bout of influenza in a month and this stuff is the perfect tonic. I continue to change my tune on Ultimo Dragon. Sometimes when a guy is flashy it's easy to go off him, but flashy works well in trios matches and his exchanges here were lightning quick. This had a cracking pace. I just sat back and enjoyed this one. I need to reel myself in before I start comparing it to my recent obsession with New York disco funk. What was really cool here was that Atlantis started brawling with Emilio, which is the closest we're ever going to get to an Altantis vs. Emilio apuesta match, and it was awesome. It's a shame that Atlantis didn't work more mask matches in places like Monterrey as he looked as good a brawler as Santo. Cien Caras/Mascara Ano 2000/Pirata Morgan vs. MS-1/Satanico/Pirata Morgan (7/9/93) Not as awesome as I imagine some of those rudos contra rudos bouts from the early 80s to be, but still a pretty fun trios. It's debatable how well the Infernales fit with what AAA was going for, but I get the feeling that Pena was like Eric Bischoff with Turner's checkbook just buying up everyone from the competition. The Infernales were still a polished act and had a number of fun moments, but Los Hermanos Dinamita weren't so cohesive and their control segment lacked imagination. Mascara Ano 2000 bled, but having just lost his mask his selling was a little weak. Caras, looking suave with an almost Richard Gere-like hairdo, slipped in here and there to have a neat exchange with MS-1, but it was all too fleeting. Regardless of all that, Satanico looked good with his punch exchanges, and it was still a dream match of sorts. Espectro Jr./Espectro de Ultratumba/Bestia Salvaje vs. El Dandy/Angel Azteca/El Jalisco (5/1/92) Ha, Bestia was with his boys the Espectros. This wasn't as smooth as some of the other trios I watched since the workers weren't as good, but Dandy was oozing with confidence and his mat exchange with Espectro de Ultratumba (of all people) is a must-see if you're a Dandy fan. Azteca continued to look like the next in the Lizmark/Atlantis lineage, and I still regret that his rise to that top babyface worker level evaporated after his super push. I dug the rudo comeback here, and I loved the way it continued through to the beginning of the third fall. Trios were so fluid in this era and the action seemed so close to the crowd, not like the current sterile Arena Mexico set-up. Nice babyface ending here. Dandy would've looked cocky if he was anyone but El Dandy.This is a wonderful YouTube channel.

Lizmark, Mil Mascaras & Valente Fernandez vs. Sangre Chicana, Angel Blanco & Angel Blanco Jr. (12/1/85) More action from the Wagner/Solitario card… Angel Blanco was Wagner’s long time friend and tag team partner. Together they had formed La Ola Blanca, one of the most legendary tag teams of the 60s and 70s. In the late 60s, the team became a trio when they added El Solitario to their ranks. Solitario was a young rudo star who had rocked the lucha world by taking the hair of both Ray Mendoza and René Guajardo in a matter of weeks. A high flier with incredible natural charisma, his meteoric rise had many claiming he was the best worker in Mexico. By 1969, La Ola Blanca were the hottest act in Mexico, described by Jose Fernandez as “a pre-Four Horsemen type unit where all three were considered among the top ten wrestlers in the country.” With Solitario’s appeal growing by the week, EMLL struck gold by having Wagner and Blanco turn on him. Solitario instantly became the hottest babyface act in the country. Solitario vs. La Ola Blanca set business on fire all over Mexico, and Solitario had a record string of sellouts at Arena Mexico. After two years of chasing each other around the country, Solitario and Blanco met in a mask vs. mask match in front of yet another Arena Mexico sellout. Solitario took Blanco’s mask, but the feud continued to do great business. The downturn in Blanco’s career came when he jumped to UWA and was swept aside by the new wave of main eventers. By the 80s, he was working predominantly in the Northern states and remained popular in Monterrey. He died on 4/26/86 in the car accident that ended Wagner’s career. The Angel Blanco Jr. here is Rey Salomon, who was the original Blanco’s son-in-law. He used the gimmick until his divorce from Blanco’s daughter where upon it was given to one of Blanco’s sons (the one who works in Santo’s Todo x el Todo promotion.) Valente Fernandez was a light heavyweight/middleweight worker from Nuevo Leon who worked for UWA right up until ’92 and continued to work the independents for some time after. He had a reputation as an excellent worker, but never made a huge impact in the capital. Notable career matches include a mask match against legendary Monterrey rudo Fishman, a hair match against Negro Casas and title matches against the likes of Mano Negra, Solar, Blue Panther and Sangre Chicana.

It can take advantage of narrative opportunities that real sports can't. It's crazy when they squander that for one reason or another. What narrative opportunities does it present that real sports can't? Wrestling is nowhere near as dramatic as real sports.

Perro Aguayo vs. Sangre Chicana vs. El Faraón vs. Villano III (Elimination Match) (10/84) Skip all the stuff at the beginning and head straight to the Chicana tope on Villano III. That has to be one of the best topes I've seen. An absolute bullet that was made even better by the camera being fixed on Villano III on the outside, and Chicana rocketing into frame at a million miles an hour. For a guy who's mostly known for brawling and selling, Chicana had an awesome tope and the big gamble on a tope suicida is something that really fit his character. This was a four way elimination match featuring Perro Aguayo against three of his biggest rivals at the time. It came down to Perro vs. Chicana, one of the best match-ups in lucha history if not all of wrestling. Watching these two work is fantastic, even in a match like this where they're essentially holding back. I love the theatrical spin they put on every bump and every bit of selling.They get so much mileage out of the kick-punch style that typifies 80s lucha brawling. The nuts and bolts of what they're doing couldn't be simpler, in fact it's very Memphis-like the way they're able to weave a compelling narrative around knocking each other to canvas. I also love how the highspots are missed or teased more often than they're hit. The message is clear on the big tope bailout and the DQ finish: nothing's settled here, but if the crowd's lucky they'll get that hair match sooner or later.

The whole selling thing in wrestling is bizarre. Like, I've yet to watch a baseball game, see a guy get hit in the arm with a line drive, then keep playing with it hanging limply at his side for six innings. Or that time Joe Thornton played a playoff series for the Bruins with a busted rib but he just forgot to sell I guess. The whole notion of pro wrestling is that it's a fake competitive event, and while there are guys that have used the ole' wounded duck trick well in wrestling, most of the time I just find myself asking "if that other guy is trying to kick your ass why are you making it as obvious as possible where he should be hitting you". Exactly. The way some wrestlers sell a body part they should be out for the season with a torn ACL or medial meniscus tear yet they're out their next match happy as Larry. I much prefer wrestling styles where they don't try to injure an opponent's body part or where injuries are worked like accidents.