ohtani's jacket

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.

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.