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ohtani's jacket

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  1. ohtani's jacket
    Negro Casas/Emilio Charles Jr./Mano Negra vs. El Brazo/Ultimo Dragon/Oro, CMLL 3/19/93
     
    Negro Casas could do no wrong at this point. It never really occurred to me that 1993 might be the best year of his career. It was such a dark time for the company that you tend to ignore everything that happened, but in terms of physical prime coinciding with in-ring ability, the period from when he entered the company in 1992 through to an as yet undefined point in 1993 represents the best I've seen from Casas.
     
    One glance at the team sheets should reveal whom he was feuding with here. At first you're like, "I don't want to see Casas feuding with some overrated 90s junior who nobody likes anymore," and then you realise that Ultimo wasn't that bad in Mexico (certainly not by tecnico standards) and that they actually had pretty good chemistry together. It's not as cool a follow-up feud to Dandy vs. Casas as Dandy/Bestia, which was a match-up of two evenly matched guys who brought a level of physicality to their matches similar to the Regal/Benoit/Finlay triumvirate, but it works so much better than you'd expect it to on paper. I'm slowly accepting it as one of Casas' career best feuds, even if it seems a bit unluchalike that a non straight lucha match-up would rank so highly.
     
    But enough apologising; Casas abused poor Ultimo in this match with that kicking game I've talked so much about. I find Casas' kicking game fascinating. I'm not sure it's all that good really, but the fact that he uses it so much against a striker like Ultimo is a great piece of character work/psychology. It's part gamesmanship, part arrogance. It's a straight taunt -- goading Ultimo by saying "I can match your strengths and pick apart your game plan" -- but at the same time he gets his fingers burnt (or perhaps more aptly his toes) by getting caught up in these offensive storms where Ultimo starts launching Street Fighter combos at him. Pissed off Ultimo is not really a known characteristic of Ultimo Dragon in so far as people have broken down the characteristics of El Ultimo Dragon, but Casas pushes those buttons. Casas was straddling the whole "rudo who's so popular he gets cheered like a tecnico" thing at Arena Mexico while still acting like a complete prick. I don't know who Casas was addressing when he boxed the ropes in this match (it may have been the tecnico ref), but it was divine. Absolutely divine. Has anyone ever seen a guy box the ropes like that before? And that's just some riff Casas was messing around. He took things too far in this bout by repeatedly stomping at Ultimo's head while Charles and Negra held him in a martyr-like pose, and the big tecnico ref finally called him out for excessive rudoism, but Casas didn't give a shit and retaliated with some of the coolest mask ripping I've seen. Do you know how hard it is to make mask ripping seem cool? Not only did he (mercifully) rip the thing with a single tug; he delivered a tailor made Matt D GIF in the process. You could feel the Ultimo comeback coming like the wind changing before a storm and the birds and animals acting all freaked, but that's pro-wrestling 101: setup and payoff. Ultimo was bleeding, which is pretty rare for him, and he gave Casas a hiding. I've seen a lot of the spots before in other Casas vs. Ultimo matches, but it's still cool whenever Ultimo stops being courteous and busts out the high end Japanese offence that Casas doesn't have a shit show of blocking. I love the short arm clothesline spot they do. That was the death blow right here.
     
    The other guys were secondary to the Casas/Ultimo fury, though Emilio did bust out a balls-to-the-wall tope on El Brazo. He was surprisingly subdued otherwise. Negra wasn't really good during this run until he dropped the hood, and it wasn't the type of match where Oro was going to shine. But you can still watch this to track Casas and watch an all-time great at his absolute peak.
  2. ohtani's jacket
    Fuerza Guerrera vs. Octagon vs. Huracán Ramírez II, mask vs. mask, CMLL 12/14/90
     
    This was the main event of CMLL's season ending show for 1990. We all know that triangle matches don't make for the best of apuesta matches, especially with a non-brawler like Octagon, but circumstances here were out of the ordinary. CMLL was coming off a record breaking Anniversary Show and business was hot. Arena Mexico was packed, and anticipation rife. Virginia Aguilera once said that the lucha public were barbaric: "we go to the matches because we like to see Christians killing each other." Having whet their appetite on Dandy/Satanico, the crowd were ready for more slaughter.
     
    It took Sevilla literally seconds to prove he was as good as thought, and that it wasn't just Bestia making him look a million bucks. It's rare that a guy working a classic masked luchador gimmick is a good brawler, but Sevilla harkened back to his rudo days at Pavillon Azteca where he used to stomp the shit out of other toy characters.
     
    The hardcores knew La Empressa wasn't giving away Fuerza vs. Octagon so soon, so the booking here was that instead of presenting the obvious wager, Fuerza fought his way to freedom and the final contest was a tecnico vs. tecnico showdown. That meant that Fuerza only wrestled half the match, but what a half of wrestling.
     
    His mask was ripped at the front so you could pretty much tell what he looked like anyway, which would have pleased the ringsiders who paid top dollar. Using the hole in his mask, he got stuck right in there and hacked the shit out of his forehead. The crazy mother was dripping blood everywhere. He got it over himself, Octagon, the ref, and even his second Gran Cochisse. Then came the Fuerza Moment of the Match, which this time wasn't divine comedy but an insane bump off an Octagon arm drag sequence that sent him crowd surfing into the front three rows. There's no way those people left without blood on them.
     
    A word on those arm drags: they were so fucking good. I've lightened up on workers like Super Muneco and Mascara Sagrada and no longer think they're the terrible workers I thought they were when I first started getting tapes, and really I'm starting to care less and less about whether guys are bad workers or not,; but whether you love Octagon or hate him (and I don't think there's anybody who really loves him), you can't tell me those arm drags weren't impressive. It's funny because I was sent this article that Dave Meltzer wrote for his 1990 Yearbook where he talked about how he'd started getting into lucha on Galavison, and how there weren't a lot of what he called "complete" workers. He cited Atlantis as a guy who had great high spots but couldn't work a match. I don't know where he got that idea from, but it fits Octagon to a tee. (Maybe he had his eyes gorged by that shitty Atlantis/Kung Fu feud.) Octagon wasn't a great worker, but he was malleable, and this was, I think, one of his career best bouts with the finishing stretch to the Octagon/Fuerza portion being one of the most legitimately exciting things I've seen in lucha in all my years of watching it. About two or three times, Octagon tried to hook on his La Escalera submission, but Fuerza kept blocking his leg and finally got a counter into a submission of his own. He sort of fell into Cochisse's arms like Shawn Michaels fulfilling his boyhood dream and then gave the most awesome triumphant fist pump. Fuerza Guerrera, your man of the hour. A rudo fan with a cowbell shook his hand, and we should all do the same after that tour de force.
     
    Since they weren't planning to turn Sevilla heel, the actual mask vs. mask part was worked cleanly. They went at each other hard and fast and there were some huge collisions in the centre of the ring. The winning falls came a little easily, but it was very much in keeping with the theatrical style of big time apuesta matches.
     
    With Octagon being one of the biggest stars in the business, and the most popular tecnico in the new television era, they were never going to have him lose, especially not on the season-ending show and not to a guy who was doing a third rate homage/rip-off to/of a classic gimmick; but like any well booked apuesta match there was a reason why the defeated wrestler lost. In this case, Sevilla missed on two topes and the second appeared to separate his shoulder. I'm not sure if it was a legit injury or a work, but he was attended to by two docs after the match and took some time to unmask. When he finally did, he had amazingly long eyelashes, and I couldn't help but wonder if he had a bit of the old Isiah Thomas eye make-up going on.
     
    The best ever triangle apuesta match remains by some distance the Casas vs. Dandy vs. Santo match from 1996, but this was a thoroughly enjoyable match that could have easily been a dud following on the heels of Satanico and Dandy and not delivering on Fuerza vs. Octagon, which was no doubt what everyone wanted to see (except for me, the world's biggest Huracan Sevilla mark.) At the very least, Fuerza's cameo (?) deserved to be talked about more, and you owe it to yourself to watch it if you're a Fuerza fan and you haven't.
  3. ohtani's jacket
    Los Temerarios (Shu El Guerrero, Black Terry & Jose Luis Feliciano) vs. Los Arqueros, LuchaMania
     
    I couldn't pin a date on this one. In fact, I wasn't really sure where it as being held. The Sindicato Nacional de Luchadores y Referees had its name plastered everywhere, but I'm not sure if that means the event was promoted in association with the wrestler's union or if it was some sort of specially promoted union funcion. At any rate, these teams had a long standing feud that involved both the National Trios Titles and individual apuesta matches. Lasser, who was masked here, had taken Black Terry's hair on 12/17/89. A month later, the Arqueros defeated the Temerarios for the trios titles on 1/21/90, and Shu was able to finally get revenge for the Temerarios by unmasking El Arquero/Robin Hood on 2/4/90. This all led to a big apuesta match between the teams, which may or may not have involved Lasser losing his mask (it's all a bit murky.) How this fits in on the road that apuesta match is anybody's guess, but I'd say it's from 1990 at the earliest and '92 at the latest.
     
    Unfortunately, it's all fairly standard. They get a significant amount of time for a trios bout, but don't produce much. The Temerarios with their matching tights and chainmail outfits could easily be people's favourite trio if we had more footage of them, and Jose Luis Feliciano had this great look that could swing both ways; as a tecnico he looked like the mastermind behind some huge selling classic rock band, whereas as a rudo he looked like he convictions in several states and was months behind on his alimony payments. Of course, you're all going to want to watch Terry with jet black hair, and hardcores will also be interested in the Arqueros, all of whom were great journeymen, but aside from that it was nothing special. I'm racking my brains. but I can't remember a single standout exchange or any really great moments. Terry had an awesome smirk when the Arqueros arrived wearing their tiny little archer outfits, but really all this had going for it was that the workers were cool. If I hadn't told you there was history between the teams, you would have never guessed there was bad blood, and to me that's a fail.
     
    Super Brazo, Leon Chino and Scorpio Jr. vs. El Trio Fantasia, LuchaMania
     
    I personally thought was more fun than the Temerarios/Arqueros bout. The Trio Fantasia gimmick naturally lends itself to a lot of fun and silliness, but they were a polished act. Even Super Muneco, who the lucha snob in me would say sucked, was in his element with these guys and as close to an enforcer as a guy with a clown gimmick gets. There were a lot of fat boy exchanges between Super Brazo and Muneco; and Super Raton, being the worker of his side, was naturally everywhere. Holy shit, was Leon Chino awesome. Imagine Negro Casas if Negro Casas were a Richard Simmons looking dude and you have Leon Chino. I need to see more Leon Chino. Even Scorpio Jr got in on the act giving his best Fuerza Guerrera impression. He was smaller here, and mustn't have touched the needles yet because he was a lot more mobile. There was no jeopardy in this, and nothing to get excited about if you're not a hardcore lucha fan. To be honest, I was surprised that the rudos went over as it didn't seem to fit this sort of exhibition show; but you don't watch this sort of match expecting to see an arc. You watch it because you want to see Super Raton square off with Leon Chino for twenty seconds. That's when you know you're a tragic.
     
    Super Astro vs. Leon Chino, WWA World Middleweight Championship
     
    Leon Chino in a suit! I don't think I need to explain the appeal of luchadores in suits. This was rad. I loved the castigos they put on each other in the primera caida and the fact that Chino's second was a veteran journeyman mini was beyond awesome. Unfortunately, there was a bit of time shaving going on for the television broadcast, and they returned to the studio between falls, which broke up the flow, but Super Astro was still in his prime here so his flippy shit looked swank and Chino did a great job of bumping and selling for it while looking legitimately buggered. The tercera caida was fantastic. Really superb tercera caida wrestling. Astro took a big back body bump to the outside, which Chino followed up on with a reckless senton. He kept pressing home the jeopardy Astro was in with pinfall attempt after pinfall attempt. Astro fought back with a beautiful tope and it was Chino's turn to withstand a barrage of pinfall and submission attempts. Both guys were selling fatigue and going at it hammer and tongs. It was a beautiful tercera caida straight out of the textbook. Chino scored a big plancha and staggered back into the ring with the veteran mini toweling him off. Back in the ring something had to give, and when Astro caught Chino flush with a dropkick that was the opening for a beautiful maestro style pinning maneuver that put Chino away. The crowd leapt to their feet and a kid in a Tinieblas mask repeatedly punched his father in celebration. Wonderful third fall. If you enjoyed Arandu vs. Guerrero Negro on the DVDVR set, you'll enjoy the novelty of this.
     
    Bestia Salvaje/La Fiera/Jerry Estrada vs. Huracan Sevilla/Blue Demon Jr./El Hijo del Solitario, CMLL 1/24/92
     
    Bestia vs. Huracan Sevilla, one of the great underrated feuds of the 90s. There were so many scummy looking wrestlers in this. Check out the parts where Bestia, Sevilla, Fiera and Estrada are all in the ring together; it's amazing. Throw in two "shit kid" sons of lucha legends and you have an awesome "advance the storyline" match. Man alive is Bestia awesome in this. Ultimately, he became such a secondary figure that it's easy to forget how good he could be. He's got to be in the conversation when it comes to top brawlers. I mean Huracan Sevilla went nowhere after this feud, but watching him fight Bestia you'd swear he was Dandy. This was a straight falls victory to the rudos, which again may disappoint punters looking for a complete bout, but sometimes you need to book dominant rudo bouts to remind the paying audience that the villains are serious and mean business. And besides, within those two falls were more memorable details than you find in most three fall bouts. Sevilla's comeback railing on Bestia was amazing. Who knew, or in my case remembered, Sevilla could brawl that well?
     
    Of course, as I always say with story based trios, you need the complementary story threads, and here you got La Fiera working over Blue Demon in a typically sleazy way and some pretty good retaliation from Junior. El Hijo del Solitario, who we know has a brawling pedigree, also won his way into my heart by choking Fiera with his bandanna. That's a level of hatred that's crying out for a super libre revancha. The finishes were amazing as well. Bestia caught Sevilla midway through a body scissors and suplexed the fuck out of him for the first fall, then caught him coming off the ropes and hooked a killer submission for the two-fall victory. Boy was he pumped afterwards. Sevilla was over-enthusiastic appealing for a hair match so the rudos delivered a hellacious beat down to cap one of the better two fall bouts I've seen. Bestia was the man, but I'm loving washed up Fiera. Not only did he start the melee at the end; he body slammed the top of Solitario's head into the apron edge. You don't cry about a hair match when you've had your ass handed to you in straight falls and you don't fuck with Fiera's bandanna.
     
    El Felino/El Supremo II/Titan vs. Ciclon Ramirez/El Pantera/Bronce, CMLL 5/7/93
     
    On paper this reads like a workrate opener, but of course this was during the Ciclon Ramirez/Felino apuesta feud so it was a nasty little affair. El Supremo II (now there's a name you don't hear too often) deserves a ton of credit for getting stuck into everything and giving Pantera a torrid time. Unfortunately, Ramirez and Felino couldn't match the intensity that Supremo brought in the way that Bestia and Sevilla were able to outshine a tremendous Fiera performance, which ought to be a no-no since the bout was all about them. You could argue that Supremo overdid it a bit, but you can't blame the Televisa camera guy for focusing on a guy that active. Even at the end when Felino had unmasked Ramirez and was beating on him, Supremo could be seen in the background leaping in the air and dropping the knee on Pantera. Not a bad little bout -- some nice bumping broke up the monotony of watching guys untie each other's mask strings (hate that shit) -- but I came out of this wanting to see Supremo vs. Pantera and you know that wasn't the intention.
     
    Atlantis/Apolo Dantes/Ultimo Dragon vs. Blue Panther/La Fiera/Kendo Nagasaki, CMLL 5/8/92
     
    This began with a classic primera caida style mat exchange between Panther and Dragon that was a real lucha mat exchange not the Japanese inspired stuff Ultimo did with Casas. Despite his rep, you don't actually get to see Panther work the mat all that often so it's a treat when he does. It had me wondering whether I should recheck their singles match in case I've been too dismissive of it; but given Ultimo's track record in singles matches from this era, I probably haven't. Unfortunately, those few minutes were the highlight of the match as opposed to being the kickstarter to something greater. "Old man" Fiera continued to be good to the extent that I'm wondering why I ever said anything to the contrary, but this wasn't a scummy enough match for him. To get the most out of Fiera, you need a dingy, sleazy sort of a match. This match was led by Panther, whom I've never been convinced by as a rudo. I get why he was a rudo -- he was a great worker and a great base for workers who perhaps weren't so great -- but in terms of having the charisma of the truly great rudos? Forget about it. He teased an exchange with Atlantis in the segunda caida and everyone thought back to their classic match from '91, which I still maintain is the greatest pure lucha libre match of all time, but instead of a reprise of what made that match so great, Panther went into full on stooge mode and ended up bumping in a style that was cross between a press up, a breakdance move and a legitimate sell. It seems to me that Panther's selling was always goofy; it's just that no-one ever called him on it. Panther diehards will probably be more forgiving, but this was an average sort of match where I was expecting a Panther vs. Atlantis alert.
  4. ohtani's jacket
    Ultimo Dragon vs. Negro Casas, UWA World Middleweight Championship, CMLL 8/28/92
     
    This was a curious match to say the least. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't all that great either. The build up had been fantastic -- really vintage Casas -- but they made the cardinal mistake of not paying off the set up.
     
    Everyone wanted to see Casas get his ass kicked, and he took a hell of a beating, but for some reason he spent the entire bout working like a sympathetic babyface. That may have worked if they'd been a Mexico vs. Japan vibe to the match, but that wasn't what the build had been about. You were supposed to view Ultimo as a tecnico and not some non-native. He did revert to a fairly standard way of working a juniors bout, including laying around in most of his holds, but that struck me as a fault in the work rather than any sort of story device. Casas spent much of the bout selling a rib injury. His selling was excellent, but the idea that we were supposed to feel sorry for him was foreign to just about every match he'd had in CMLL up to this point, and remember this wasn't a face turn. If the story was meant to be Ultimo humbling Casas somehow, they blew telling that story by not having Casas play up his arrogance in the primera caida. Let's face it, no matter how you try to justify it there's no explaining why Casas suddenly played the baby to such a degree or why the bout was so one-sided. Despite the fact that Casas was able to survive on scraps, all the highlights were of Ultimo offence, whether it was suplexes from the top or his corner post tope.
     
    Weird bout. It was really only held together by Casas' selling and probably deserves a blasting. If it were a worker I don't like, I'm sure i'd be forthcoming with one. Loss mentioned that it may have been a case of a guy having to work someone a few times to figure out how to get a great match out of him, but I'm not sure that's an excuse for Casas doing a 180 on the character he was portraying heading into the match. It's *possible* that he was aiming for a Kandori vs. Hokuto style bout where Hokuto realised she wasn't as shit hot as she thought she was, but that narrative was expertly weaved with Hokuto being over confident to start with. Here Casas was the underdog from the very first blow. It was weird and not very lucha-esque either. It's wrong to ignore it happened, but I'll try to forget about it all the same. It was a bit disappointing actually, because if you'd told me a few months ago that Ultimo Dragon was one of Casas' career rivals, I probably would have scoffed a little. I knew that Loss liked their '93 bout, but I wouldn't have believed they were great rivals until I saw the trios matches. But even considering the '93 bout, I'm not sure they pulled off their singles bouts well enough for me to include Ultimo as a premier rival. The trios exchanges are so good it's almost like there's an unrealised potential in the singles bouts. Partially, it's because Ultimo's probably not as good as he looks in the trios bouts, but there's also a disconnect between what Casas is doing in trios and how he behaves in singles. Instead of glossing over the failures, I hope these Vintage Negro Casas of the Days also put the disappointments under the microscope. It would be easy to wish that Casas were wrestling an Atlantis or Lizmark (not that they were in the same weight classes), or fob it off on the fact that a lot of 1992 CMLL singles matches are on the disappointing side, but the fact remains that Casas fucked this up somehow.
     
    Spilled milk and all that, but I don't want to make it seem like old school Casas was perfect. He was a genius, but he was also fallible and this is another great example. Sure, there's not another wrestler alive who hasn't had a misfire, but because lucha is under valued and under appreciated by most wrestling fans, the bad (or in this case, the disappointing) doesn't tend to be bundled with the good. But for the sake of fairness, and in an effort to rectify that, this could have been so much more. When I think of that great exchange I wrote about the other day and the flip being switched; wrestling's not easy, and structuring a match is no piece of cake, but man, what a blown opportunity.
  5. ohtani's jacket
    Negro Casas/Bestia Salvaje/El Felino vs. El Dandy/Ultimo Dragon/Blue Demon Jr., CMLL 7/17/92
     
    There are times when I'm convinced that Casas' first few months in CMLL represent the absolute peak of his career. It's difficult to describe the excitement generated by his arrival. The fans had been used to the independientes coming in and working EMLL shows, but Casas was special. Not only was he at the height of his powers; it was like watching an artist unleashed.
     
    We don't have much of Casas' early work from the 90s, but what we do have is nowhere near as irrepressible as these first few months in CMLL. The booking in UWA after Flores' death was largely stagnant (and perhaps before then too if we had proper records.) It's clear that Maynes, and whoever was booking at the time, weren't paying special attention to the lightweights the way Flores had done. Watching Casas in his early days with CMLL is like watching a guy turn into a big fish right before your very eyes. The fact that he still holds his spot, like a barnacle cling to a rock, makes witnessing that transformation all the more impressive.
     
    This was a quick-fire trios bridging Casas and Dandy with their next two feuds, but man did I love it. I watched it while having beers and listening to the Minutemen's cover of Have You Ever Seen the Rain? so I may have been a bit loaded at the time, but for such a short trios this was a hell of a bout.
     
    There was a huge "Dandy! Dandy!" chant when he was introduced with the crowd still abuzz following his victory over Casas two weeks prior. Casas, as you'd imagine, took it all in his stride, flashing that by now iconic Casas smile. They launched into an opening exchange that while fun was far from the best the pair had produced. Casas was really just testing the waters and backed off when he copped a knee to the face. There was an element of them not wanting to steal any thunder from the newly created match-ups, as well as generally holding back for the kick ass exchanges to come as this was the type of trios match that doesn't slow down.
     
    Demon and Felino worked a decentish exchange punctuated by Demon ducking on Felino's baseball slide to the outside and delivering an uppercut followed by a dropkick, and Ultimo and Bestia pushed the tempo further with a series of fast paced exchanges based around Bestia's big bumping style. Dandy re-entered the ring with a forward roll that startled Casas. He stepped back through the ropes on to the apron and did a Fuerza style slip which the crowd latched onto straight away. After the heckles, he took advantage of Bestia attacking Dandy from behind to dropkick him out of the ring, raised a defiant arm to the crowd, and immediately tagged out.
     
    That set up a second go round between the match-ups which quickly turned into the finish. Felino missed on a moonsault like a guy aiming for the pool and hitting concrete instead. Dandy, meanwhile, challenged Casas to step in and take him, but Casas didn't want to know about it and stepped off the apron for the safety of the crowd. He stood with his arms folded while Dandy complained about how much of a pussy he was. If you're one of those people who complain about how guys charge into the ring in lucha only to be pinned, you'll appreciate Casas not wanting a piece of it.
     
    The switch from Dandy vs. Casas to the new feuds came in the second caida. Dandy wanted to wrestle Casas, probably to give him a receipt for the dropkick to the outside, but Casas refused under the guise that everyone was switching partners. Blue Demon nominated himself for Casas, but Casas ignored him. Back in high school, we had a Vietnamese teacher who couldn't pronounce the word "shirt" properly. Whenever he wanted us to tuck in our shirt, he'd say: "your shit, kid." It became a running gag among students; a way of instantly dismissing another person's merits. Casas ignoring Demon was one of those "you're shit kid" moments. He went over and whacked Ultimo in the head and they had a really fantastic exchange where Ultimo kept battering him with kicks. I've been really impressed by the way Casas sells Ultimo's kicks. My first instincts about the Casas vs. Ultimo match-up, and the idea of Casas working with a guy who works a martial arts style, would be: it won't work; it'll be lame; I'd rather see Casas work a more traditional lucha style against a more traditional lucha opponent. But it works well. Remarkably well, actually. It brought out a different side in Casas: a more serious, intense side. It was like a switch being flipped between the cocky, flamboyant show pony and the kick ass serious wrestler. He couldn't really go toe-to-toe with Ultimo in a stand up contest and wasn't really known as a guy with a lot of shooting ability; what makes the contest so interesting is that he's on the back foot trying to block these kicks and absorb the impact, and he has a really limited striking game that's so scant it even includes hard shoves, but they do these cool exchanges in and out of the ring that look like out of control sparring sessions.
     
    Bestia went after Dandy with hard chops and punches to the face. Their feud was started over significantly less than Ultimo and Casas, but Bestia was uncorking his shit. The ship had already sailed on Bestia being a singles star to the level of either Dandy or Casas, but he had the talent. Dandy vs. Bestia is a feud that needs revisiting and hopefully we'll be able to do that soon. Back in the ring, the editor missed an important foul by Casas on Ultimo, but we saw Ultimo wriggling about on the mat selling it. Casas backed Ultimo into the corner and began kicking the shit out of him while taunting him to get up. If you thought Casas' taunting of Maximo was special, I would offer this as an example of Casas being vicious in his disrespect for another competitor.
     
    The third caida began with the rudos parading about surveying the carnage they'd created. Felino tried really hard to keep up with the others and beat the crap out of Blue Demon Jr., but there were obviously more important storylines going on. Ultimo vs. Casas Rd 2 was just as intense as Rd 1 w/ Ultimo starting to bust out the Japanese suplexes and finally breaking through Casas' meagre defences to knock him to the canvas. You could maybe argue that in terms of sheer fighting ability Ultimo should have been able to wipe the floor with Casas, but let's just enjoy the pro graps. As I said that, he followed up the knock down with an overly long headlock spot, which was kind of lame. Maybe Felino should have come in and broken it up sooner. Demon dropped a big knee on Felino, which was cool. You're not so shit after all, kid! Dandy vs. Bestia Rd 2 also kicked major ass. Dandy was so fed up he belted Bestia with a right hand then dropped the diving headbutt on him. Not content with that, he took a huge swing at Casas on the apron, who sold his jaw like he was crumbling in his hand. Casa gave him a receipt with a kick to the face while he had Bestia in a hold and it was all on from that point. Casas and Dandy traded blows. Ultimo stepped into the ring and resumed kicking the shit out of Casas, but this time Casas shot on him, took that bastard down and dropped the elbow. Folks really need to watch that sequence as it was so effing cool. Demon sent Felino tumbling to the outside with a dropkick then hit a big tope on him that was possibly the coolest thing I've seen Demon do. Dandy and Bestia then got the mano a mano part of the fall and Bestia wrapped Dandy up in the most beautiful looking, complex pinfall maneuver. It was pretty to watch.
     
    Bestia wanted Dandy's belt, Dandy wanted Bestia's hair, the replay showed just how great Demon's tope had been, Casas blew kisses to the crowd like his hands were six gun shooters, and we were out of here.
     
    Kick ass trios.
  6. ohtani's jacket
    Anibal/Mano Negra/Gallo Tapado vs. Fuerza Guerrera/Espectro Jr./Espectro de Ultratumba, CMLL 2/8/91
     
    This is the kind of match the Observer would have given a single * to back in the day. Actually, I just checked and it was given * 1/2. Now matter how you feel about the Observer and it's lucha coverage over the years, you're not getting a revisionist *** match out of a * 1/2 rating, just like you can't make a silk purse of a sow's ear; but you can enjoy Fuerza's performance.
     
    Fuerza came to the ring wearing a haori-style kimono jacket he must have gotten on the cheap in Tokyo. He had his boys the Espectros with him, because when you need two good men why not the undead?
     
    During the intros, Fuerza pulled off the hood Gallo wore over his mask and ripped into pieces, scattering the remains among the front row patrons. This was the sort of feud Fuerza was reared on; in fact, Gallo Tapado was one of the men who trained him. It's interesting that in the US a rooster gimmick can dog a guy for the rest of his days whereas in Mexico you can make a 20 year career out of it. There's a difference in philosophies there that I don't think anyone's really tapped into. As a feud, Gallo vs. Fuerza would have been better in a smaller arena somewhere in the provinces or in the smaller city arenas near the markets, as it needed a more dingy atmosphere where Fuerza wouldn't be afraid to go for the jugular and wring the chicken's neck. It was more fun than surreal, though it did feature the classic moment where Fuerza beat Tapado with a live chicken, which has to rate as one of the all-time great Fuerza Guerrera moments.
     
    The early exchanges were really slow. Anibal looked about a thousand years old. It's hard to believe he was ever something in lucha, but he was. I suppose Anibal vs. Espectro de Ultratumba (Gran Cochisse) was "maestros wrestling" before the need for maestros wrestling, but Fuerza and Mano Negra left them in the dust. I'll try not to pick on Anibal too much since his hip was wrecked here and he wouldn't live for too much longer, but the real awkwardness came when either Anibal or Tapado tried to take on two or three rudos at the same time. Normally a real crowd pleaser, neither man had the timing to pull the sequences off and they came across as dud exchanges. Gallo Tapado even tried a Super Astro style sequence where the rudos are mesmerized by his footwork, but that has such a tenuous connection to kayfabe even when performed well that you need perfect timing to make it work and Tapado was struggling to say the least.
     
    Of course, you're only as good as the rudo you're facing in lucha, and Fuerza immediately tried to make things more interesting when he was partnered with Anibal. He fish hooked the mask openings, which more rudos should do, and tried to escape the clutches of Anibal's side headlock by tangling himself in the ropes only to be dragged to and fro. It wasn't great, but Fuerza was trying. All through the match, I got the impression he was working overtime to make something of this bout. Fuerza and Tapado finally squared off in the segunda caida, which led to the funniest moment of the match. Tapado was jukin' and jivin,' and doing his chicken dance, and caught Fuerza flush with an uppercut. Fuerza was laid out on the canvas, and Espectro de Ultratumba came rushing in to raise Fuerza's hand in victory, or maybe to stop the ten count. Either way it was amusing, and the Fuerza Moment of the Match.
     
    After that there was a lot of crappy mask ripping, though Fuerza again impressed me with his kick/punch offence, and Espectro pulled Tapado's mask around so it was back to front which greatly amused me since I'm a simpleton. There was an unflattering close-up of Vicky Aguilera that made her look a bit doddery. Fuerza's mask was so badly ripped you could make out what he looked like and he showed a lot of ass; literally, as his butt really hung out of those leotards. The tecnicos took the tercera and the match ended with more shitty mask ripping before cutting to that cartoonist again, whose work wasn't any better even when he had time to render it.
     
    So, yeah, not a hell of a lot more than * 1/2, but it's easier to watch a match like this these days than it must have been back then when people were collecting tapes. That ties into what I was saying the other day about how easy it is to cherry pick older wrestling. I can watch a match like this on YouTube without worrying about what the company's dishing up. If it's no good, it's just wasted time spent on YouTube and no real skin off my nose. If I were watching it back then, I'd probably be pissed at the direction Pena was taking "la seria y estable" CMLL in, but 25 years later I can pick and choose what to watch, filter it through my tastes, block out the bad stuff and ignore the Pena influence completely if I wish. I'm firmly in the camp that says lucha used to be better, but clicking on YouTube links is a hell of a lot easier than watching things in real time waiting for something good to happen, and in many ways can make an era seem better than it really was. So it doesn't hurt to see some average stuff from the past from time to time to be reminded that not everything was milk and honey in the olden days.
     
    After the match there was an interview segment with Vicky Aguilera. For those of you who don't know, Doña Vicky was a little old lady who attended wrestling shows from 1934 up until a few years before her death in 1997 and had her own front row seat. She showed off her collection of masks, which had to have been the envy of just about every collector in Mexico as she had such gems as a 1964 El Santo mask and the very first El Solitario mask. They also showed some of her awards, such as the one she received from the wrestlers' union for 50 years of unbroken audience, and a clip of the triple dive spot where Misterioso and Masakre left her with a bloody nose. I think they were celebrating her 90th birthday because the Brazos made a big fuss over here, which she loved, and Lizmark presented her with a cake while El Brazo sang to her. She really was a grand old lady; the self-proclaimed "granny of lucha." You can read more about her here -- http://tinyurl.com/psl4yg7
  7. ohtani's jacket
    Negro Casas vs. Maximo, CMLL 1/11/15
     
    This was the first pimped lucha of the year. Naturally, I was a bit dubious given I don't exactly love modern day Casas, but it was actually pretty good. For the life of me, I'll never understand what people see in this present phase of Casas' career with the parrot and the dancing and all of the carry on. Not when I've seen how great he was in his prime. But for the first time in a while, I was actually excited to see him wrestle someone who's not a fellow maestro.
     
    Having said that, Jesus did he look old. Perhaps it's more noticeable after delving into his vintage stuff, but the Rush feud seems to have aged him about ten years. It was particularly noticeable at the end when they were issuing cabellera challenges and there were close-ups of his face. Of course he'd just finished a match, and I should look so good now let alone when I'm 55, but he looks like he's shrinking every time I see him. I guess the short hair plays a part, but he's looking leaner and leaner all the time. I hated him mocking Maximo's limp, because if I were Maximo, I'd just mock how fucking old Casas looks, and you know that strikes right where it hurts.
     
    The early attack on Maximo's leg was good, but nowhere close to outstanding. I wouldn't pin that on Casas as everything he did was logical; Maximo simply isn't able to garner a smidgen of the sympathy his father elicited. To be fair, he's not morbidly obese, but he's also not as charismatic and nowhere near as beloved. Casas could have perhaps been more vicious, but the real problem was that you knew the payoff wasn't going to be very good and so it was with a weak segunda caida comeback. Scoring a flash pin off two clotheslines is weak sauce. Fortunately, Maximo sold the leg well and the focus was soon on the doctor patching him up, but I think a submission would have worked better.
     
    Where the match came to life, as it so often does with modern matches, was in the third caida. Casas flying in with the dropkick was easily the best thing to happen to that point, and I love how the doctor kept taping up Maximo's leg regardless of what Casas tried. The spray to the eyes and the tape around the throat were spots from a bygone age, and I appreciate that. There's been a bit of talk in some places about Maximo dropping his selling, but to be honest I couldn't give a shit given how balls out his tope is. That is one hell of a tope and looks like a surefire concussion*. It wasn't as though he was better off for trying it either, as Casas caught him in that awesome looking choke submission. It's too bad he scratched his nose selling the after effects, but hey, even the greats like to fix this tights or pick their trunks out of their crack. Given he was crawling about on all fours, hobbling during the strike exchange, and even pulling at his bandage, it seems Maximo only dropped his selling for his dives and then again for the finish. Not a criminal offence. If fact, if the leg was so important then why wasn't Casas targeting it more apart from one dropkick to the bad leg while trying to take out the good one? The finish was worse as you were meant to believe an arm drag from the top was all it took to put Casas away. Mano a mano finishes are often weaker than apuesta falls, but unless he was winded, the alternative is that he was reeling from Maximo's kiss. Which, given the exoticos Casas has faced before, is not bloody likely. Casas sold it as though he was winded, Maximo hobbled about like people want him to, and the parrot was depressed. If I were a Casas fan, I'd spin the whole thing as his back playing up due to old age.
     
    All told, it was a solid three star mano a mano that got me excited for the hair match. That's bound to disappoint if it's at Arena Mexico, but I will say it was great to see the babies and young couples in the crowd. A nice throwback to the AAA cutaways I loved so much during my early days a fan.
     
    * His plancha is awesome too. Dude has fab looking dives.
     
  8. ohtani's jacket

    1994 CMLL

    By ohtani's jacket,

    Emilio Charles Jr./Pierroth Jr./Javier Llanes vs. El Dandy/Ultimo Dragon/Silver King, CMLL 1/25/94
     
    Javier Llanes was so good in the Dandy feud. If you only watch the title match, you might think he was along for the ride, but watching the build I'd almost suggest he spearheaded the feud. No matter what you think of Dandy post 1990, whether you think he entered into a steady decline or was still an all-time great, there's no denying he was spinning his wheels until this feud happened. Llanes was sporting emerald green for this bout, making him look every bit the Ace of Arena Coliseo that Misawa was at Budokan. A low angle close-up of his nose and teeth exaggerated his ugliness and made him seem like some repulsive figure from a German expressionist film. The fact that he was the least likely guy to enter into this feud with Dandy worked for him and he ran with it. I love the way he'd line Dandy up for the fingers to the throat or a punch to the jaw; and while we didn't see the fabled digit manipulation, Llanes' arm work was every bit as good.
     
    The primera caida was a great rudo fall with Pierroth and Emilio being perfect in their roles as thug henchmen, and a wonderful image of Dandy trying to crawl back to his corner on his elbows. I know I harp on about it a lot, but there were more points of action in that opening fall than in any trios match I saw last year, and I simply don't understand why no-one has the chops to work this way anymore. It's not like sizing guys up and delivering theatrical looking strikes is difficult. It just takes a bit of panache.
     
    One of the reasons why I don't think Dandy was the one fueling this Llanes feud is because his retaliatory work wasn't anywhere near as strong as Llanes' heel work. Admittedly, there was a whole deal with the ref not allowing Dandy to fully retaliate (and Llanes getting heat by hiding behind the ref), but it wasn't vintage Dandy. I've been known to be harsh on Dandy in the past, so your mileage may vary, but I saw the rudos as carrying things in this match. Llanes used what looked to be a roll of coins to bust Dandy open and pinch the bout, so it was definitely a match where the tecnicos were meant to be stymied; but something about Dandy getting riled up and challenging Llanes didn't quite click for me. I think he put too much windmill on his punches. What I did love was Llanes sticking the object in his knee pad then slipping it to Emilio, who shoved it in his trunks and left promptly; the master conspiracy complete.
     
    Brazo de Plata/El Dandy/Vampiro Casanova vs. Mano Negra/Black Magic/Javier Llanes, CMLL 2/6/94
     
    This was the Javier Llanes show if ever there was one. The footage began with Dandy lying prone and Llanes kicking him in the gut while still wearing his robe ala Ric Flair. Vampiro came over to help and was punched in the face, the same way a babyface would vs. the Horsemen. I love it when a guy like Vampiro gets punked.
     
    Llanes finally got the chance to take his robe off and we were away. He worked Dandy over with a series of rights and knife edge chops, making sure to dish out a little treatment to his partners as well. In particular, he harried poor Porky. The inside shots kept coming and the clothesline chops, and he began dropping the elbow onto Dandy. He even went up top for a plancha like he was Misawa going for the frog splash. Again he made Dandy bleed; this time by ramming his head into the hoardings and punching him repeatedly in the face. That'll please some of you out there! It was actually a nastier cut than it looked as Dandy ended up getting blood on his arms and by the end of the match Llanes had Dandy's blood all over his tights and even smeared against his own forehead. Of course when Dandy wanted to fight mano a mano in the ring, Llanes quickly bailed, which had the Coliseo faithful screaming and shouting at him. When they finally did square off, they went for a Casas/Dandy style inside/outside spot, but it looked like Dandy pulled something getting back into the ring. Vampiro chased Llanes around the ring as Llanes scurried about trying to avoid him and finally Dandy uncorked one on Javier's jaw. There was a real Memphis feel to Llanes' shenanigans. They call him "the worm" in Mexico. Whether that's flattering or not, I'm not sure, but he was certainly worm-like in the way he evaded Dandy here. In a neat little touch, Llanes went for the elbow drop again, but missed, and Dandy turned it into a submission.
     
    The tercera caida was either joined late or one of the shortest on record as Llanes pinned Dandy within seconds. When he stood back up, you got a good look at how bloody his tights were. I'm sure it was Dandy's blood on his face, though he may have jigged himself. Watching Negra trash talk Vampiro over his continued uselessness was a treat. In a hurried trios there wasn't much chance to for the others to shine, but Negra had a few golden moments like his jawing contest with a woman at ringside who stood up and danced while her partner roared with laughter, and his ongoing pestering of Porky. The wild eyed grin he gave Porky before they locked up was classic and later on he tried a comical fake out on a tope before hitting a plancha off the apron. They even had a workrate exchange, Porky style, that saw the same woman catcall Negra. This match was all about Llanes lording it over Arena Coliseo with a part Flair/part Tully performance, and a bloodied Dandy on the mic afterwards looking as though someone had smudged red ink all over his face, but Negra's goofiness was awesome.
     
    I thought Dandy was better in this than the first match. Again the story was him only getting a piece of what makes the Nature Boy tick, but by bell's end, he was rightly looking ahead to their singles match, looking to inflict a little payback even if it was a title bout. I'm not a huge fan of title match feuds where the build up is brawling trios, but this is as fun a Coliseo feud as it gets during the lost years.
     
    Emilio Charles Jr. vs. La Fiera, CMLL 4/1/94
     
    I can't believe these former partners squared off. Remember that consoling nudge Fiera gave Emilio during the Misterioso/Fuerza feud? It's almost sad in a way. Fiera had a falling out with Sangre Chicana in '93, which knowing them was over drugs. Fiera either turned clean, found God, or hated Chicana that much he'd rather be on the tecnico side. Why the tecnicos would let him return to their side is one of those things you shouldn't think too hard about if you're a wrestling fan. I suppose in a heavily Catholic country like Mexico, tecnicos accepting stray lambs back into the fold almost has religious connotations if you think about it. The door's always open, I suppose. You wonder how a guy like Emilio felt about watching a brother turn face. Emilio had a couple of runs as a tecnico, but he was basically a lifer as far as rudos go. Is there a sense of betrayal when a guy you rode with turns tecnico like that?
     
    Here's what I do know: this was a decent mano a mano bout with the obvious caveat being that it was a mano a mano bout, meaning they spent most of the time bleeding. The names might get people excited, but honestly I like Fiera better as a shady rudo than I do a baby, and I can't shake the feeling that as God-like as Emilio is in trios, he's not that good at singles matches. Don't expect anything as good as a grainy Sangre Chicana mano a mano bout where you're squinting to make out the blade job; this was a simple piece of build to their hair match and nothing extraordinary.
  9. ohtani's jacket
    Mocho Cota/Silver King vs. Negro Casas/El Dandy, CMLL 3/18/94
     
    When Cota was released from prison in '93, he went to work for Pena in AAA, and became embroiled in a feud with Latin Lover that was a hell of a lot better than it sounds. The matches were the typical rhythmless AAA affairs, but the brawling beteen Cota and Lover was fairly engaging and there was even a smattering of colour. A week before their hair match, Cota jumped to CMLL, leaving Latin Lover high and dry. In CMLL, he continued his habit of starting shit wherever he went and royally pissed off Casas during this relevos increíbles match.
     
    Forty years old at the time, Cota was mostly viewed as a joke by hardcore fans. There wasn't the same appreciation for maestros in 1994 that there is twenty years later let alone workers who relied on charisma more than workrate. 1994 was the Age of Workrate and a guy like Cota didn't fit the mould. People weren't familiar with his 80s work the way we are and nobody was clamouring for more. He always had a strange body type, and as he aged his skinny torso and chicken legs became even more outstanding the wilder his afro grew. Watching this match with 2015 eyes, firmly believing that Cota was a Machiavellian genius in the 80s, of course I want 90s Cota to be one of the great revelations; but I find myself leaning towards a more even handed view. He wasn't the decrepit, hopeless foggy he was made out to be at the time, but he wasn't exactly Emilio Charles Jr. either. Either prison took something out of him, or we weren't given the chance to familiarise ourselves with the slow, gradual change that time inflicts, making the contrast between the cool, slick Cota that seconded Sangre Chicana and the older ex-con that feuded with Casas too strong to comprehend. Any way you slice it, good but not great sums up my feelings on mid-90s Cota.
     
    This match was in effect an angle. Dandy looked even weirder than ex-con Cota. Knee high boots and a pair of trunks made it look like he was auditioning for a part in UWF-i. The way the match broke down, Cota had a problem tagging with Silver King while Casas simply had a problem with Cota in general. Spanish speakers may be able to understand why Casas disliked Cota. The rest of us will have to fill in the narrative ourselves, not that it's difficult to surmise why someone might dislike Cota. Dandy and Silver King had this whole Los Cowboys Explode workrate thing going on, but the main thrust of the match was Cota not giving a fuck if this was Casas' CMLL or not. After being dropkicked by all three men in the ring (inadvertently), Cota headed to the back and returned with a pair of plastic knuckles. He gave Dandy a shot to the ribs then hit Silver King flush in the jaw. Casas managed to wrest the knuckles from Cota, but the refs saw him wallop Mocho with them and awarded Cota the bout. Casas snapped and attacked the bloodied Cota further, and the refs weren't spared from his wrath either. It wasn't Casas' finest hour in terms of selling or acting, and to be honest the Cota/Lover brawling was stronger, but this was the beginning of several weeks of Casas switching between the tecnico and rudo sides, sometimes tagging with Cota and sometimes opposing him, in the lead up to a hair match pitting afro vs. greasy curls. I have no idea whether the hair match is any good since I've never heard a single soul speak of it. It's one of the great unknowns of the CMLL Lost Years, and though the build hasn't been classic, how can you not look forward to it as VIntage Negro Casas of the Day continues.
  10. ohtani's jacket
    Virus vs. Dragon Lee, CMLL World Super Lightweight Championship, CMLL 12/9/14
     
    Virus' Super Lightweight title reign has been like manna from heaven for lucha fans. For years, Virus was a guy who was only ever showcased in lightning matches. Frustratingly, a great many of those years were right smack dab in the middle of his prime. Even fans who don't see eye to eye wanted him featured in longer singles bouts. That opportunity arose in 2011 when CMLL took an overtimes overlooked and inactive belt and turned it into a showcase for not only Virus but some of the company's best young talent. Since then the maestro has proven to be, without a shadow of a doubt, the best title match worker in CMLL today and probably one of the greatest of all-time. 2014 was the year of the Virus title match with a whopping four of them. And while I think his form was generally better in the first half of the year, I was happy to see him him cranking out the near classics through to December.
     
    The first fall was less intricate than a lot of Virus' primera caida work this year. At first I thought Virus was trying to ground Lee, not only because he comes out all jacked up on Nelly, but because his kicks to the face had given Virus such grief in their lightning match. Watching it again, I noticed Virus trying to start something cool by fighting for the arm but Lee didn't follow his lead. That points to Lee's inexperience, but I could also listen to an argument that Virus should have worked from the top more and made Lee fight harder for his holds. Virus was schooled in that old-school mentality of "if you want the arm, you've got to take the arm." Here he really gave Lee the fall, said you're going over, and took a bit of a backseat to the direction the fall headed in. That led to a poorly coordinated finish that would have looked choreographed even if it had been smooth. The overlap between falls meant that Lee continued his momentum through to the segunda caida where his offence continued to appear haphazard, but a bigger sin was that Virus' transition back onto offence lacked imagination. A baseball slide to the outside and a fake out in the ropes was all it took for the maestro to take over, and even though it's cool that he can spring a flash submission from anywhere, this match up was two from two in average falls.
     
    The third fall was where things began to improve. Virus started the fall with some nasty looking arm work that was easily the most badass thing to happen in the match up to that point. Lee then sprang a tope from nowhere. Ordinarily, I'd hate a spot like that, but here I thought the structure was interesting. Oftentimes in lucha, missed moves carry more weight than moves which actually hit. Everyone at some point or another has made the criticism that the guy hit by the tope was the first to recover. If some grad student were to conduct research into the amount of times the injured party hit the very next move, the tope would probably be viewed as a poor option. In this instance, however, Lee was able to capitalise on it, and it really did function as a momentum shift. Suddenly, Lee's work had a zest to it and he barreled through a series of nearfalls. Another highlight reel dive followed and it was clear Lee was in his element now. Everything he did during the stretch run had a snap to it than the first fall lacked. The trading of german suplexes, and Virus only just managing to get a foot on the ropes during a count, reminded me of the adage I learnt during the Fuerza/Misterioso fight: it doesn't matter how you start so long as you finish strong. Virus took it to another level by countering Lee's sliding baseball kick into a crossface. Lee came back strong with his kick variations -- the front dropkick into the corner, the baseball slide to the face, and the tree of woe into the diving stomp. What cost Lee in the end wasn't that he couldn't go toe to toe with Virus, but that he sent him a letter during the final standoff first by telegraphing his hurricanrana attempt then feeding him the arm when Virus caught his leg. During the first caida, Lee had hit the hurricanrana and managed to out fake Virus in the same exchange where Virus caught his leg, but you don't give a wrestler the class of VIrus a second look at the same exchange. He was also a bit naive by not following up his big sliding kick to Virus' face with a cover (that actually seemed like a legitimate misread by Lee, but the narrative covered for it.) The actual finish wasn't executed as smoothly as Virus would have liked, but as usual he managed a well paced, well sold caida where it was believable that he might lose and his relief at getting the submission was palpable.
     
    In some respects, Virus' title matches got worse as the year progressed, or at least lazier in their build. There was a line of thinking that Lee hung better with Virus than some of this other title match opponents this year, but I don't know that I'd agree with that. He stepped up his execution in the tercera caida and his timing was a lot better, but he's a definitely work in progress. Virus should shoulder the blame for the first two falls being the average CMLL fare, but the final caida was the type of solid lucha you expect from a worker of his calibre. It'll be a sad day when they finally take this belt off him, but I'm curious to see whom they put over him.
  11. ohtani's jacket
    Delta, Fuego y Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Hechicero, Hombre sin Nombre y Virus, CMLL 11/11/14
     
    A good trios match is hard to find these days. I don't know if you can expect anything great from a trios match anymore. They're almost like a dead art form. I'd take something with a little rhythm, but even that's a challenge these days.
     
    This was praised for its matwork, but honestly the Virus/Maya exchanges weren't on the level of Virus' title match work this year. I won't complain about Virus getting extra minutes on the mat, but a little sobriety is needed before dishing out the praise. You could tell it wasn't that great when they signaled for the stalemate and the atmosphere was less than electric. Hechicero and Delta worked harder at breaking through each other's defences and their exchange ended on a more competitive note than Virus'. It wasn't the prettiest of exchanges, but better than the Virus section. Some of that was on Maya, who was disappointing in this despite being given the chance to shine, but it wasn't top drawer Virus either. Hechicero's not in Virus' league as a mat worker, but he uses his height to great effect and this time round I actually saw a lot of similarities between Fiera and him.
     
    Hombre sin Nombre was goofy to say the least. He reminded me of that odd period when Virus was still Damiancito El Guerrero and had just graduated to wrestling normal sized people. Virus was a waif at the time with a similar sort of get-up. He wasn't too bad I guess; Hombre, that is. I've seen worse even in the boom times. Virus injecting himself while Fuego gyrated was a nice touch, but I was perplexed when it didn't signal the finish. I'm so used to synchronized finishes where they all rush in and eat a pin fall or submission that it didn't occur to me the match would continue. A lot of people hate those finishes in lucha; I suppose they've become a comfort to me. The matches lack something in rhythm without them and come across as far less polished. Hechicero took the fall with a nasty looking submission, but it seemed disconnected from the rest of the match. The rudos didn't even set a screen to prevent the tecnicos from interfering. It was as though there was a basic lack of teamwork; the very backbone of trios wrestling.
     
    The second fall began with some sharp looking legwork from Virus that didn't really go anywhere before Maya and Hechicero had a spirited exchange. Mechanically it wasn't that great, but again the purpose and intent were clear, and some of Hechicero's takedowns have a shoot like quality to them that you don't see too often in lucha. In another sign that trios wrestling is dead, they tried mixing things up for the finish with one pin canceling out the other, but it was like trying to light a fire with wet matches.
     
    The tercera began like a weak primera caida, and ironically when they started working together as tandem like I asked for it was an uncoordinated mess. Virus' work with Delta was fluid, but the rest of the exchanges were unspectacular. They front loaded this match with a long primera caida and a flashy finishing sequence in the second fall, and couldn't do anything to top it in the third fall. That's just limp wrestling. At least the mano a mano showdown between Hechicero and Maya had some bite. Of course it wasn't built to in any sort of meaningful way, but at least you came out of the contest thinking that a singles match between the two would be a decent power contest. Hechicero was the best worker in the match by a country mile, but couldn't right the ship structurally.
     
    All of this raises the question of who, or what, killed trios wrestling. On one hand, the workers tried to step outside the box and move away from the generic CMLL style trios work that's plagued Arena Mexico for much of this decade. On the other hand, they stumbled. I've always maintained that you don't need that many cooks to have a great trios match. Just an Atlantis/Lizmark/Solar/Santo type tecnico on one side and at least two great rudos on the other. It would have helped matters considerably if Maya could be that ring general, but he's unfortunately not that talented. That puts the onus on rudos like Hechicero, Virus, Arkangel de la Muerte, and others, to really carry these matches, and I don't think we saw that here. Trim a bit of the fat, put the more spectacular stuff towards the end, make it all about Hechicero vs. Maya, and it would have been much better. The effort wasn't there this year, perhaps synonymous with the downturn in business. When the two most pimped trios matches of the year disappoint that should signal troubling times for lucha fans. Trios are the lifeblood of lucha libre and need to be better than this. Perhaps the lack of great trios wrestling was offset by how much people enjoyed the short one fall matches, but with the old school apuesta match going the way of the dodo, I'd hate to see another tradition lost.
  12. ohtani's jacket
    Ultimo Dragon vs. Negro Casas, UWA World Middleweight Title, Los Angeles 7/9/94
     
    This was the house show version of a lucha title match, and a US house show to boot, but it was still a lot of fun. Casas had the Olympic Auditorium in the palm of his hand and it was a great lesson in watching him work a live crowd.
     
    There wasn't much mat work to speak of in the primera caida. It was mostly Ultimo getting the upper hand over Casas with some limb work, leading to a beautiful counter to Negro's kip up where Ultimo span and caught him with the arm drag. Ultimo was never the most interesting guy on the mat, so I didn't have a problem with them using counters to set a competitive tone. It wasn't as though they were Atlantis and Panther and forgoing the mat work. But when Ultimo went for a left/right combo with his kicks, Casas feigned that one had drifted too high, and with the ref distracted, delivered a low blow. That got the desired heat, but it was a sign that this wasn't going to be your regular sanctioned title bout. From there they threw title match structure out the window and allowed Casas' natural charisma to take over. He spent much of the second fall hugging the ref and egging on the crowd. In one of those great lucha moments, there was a guy with his own towel helping fan Ultimo. That must have aided him in his recovery as he soon cut loose with a barrage of kicks. Casas was sent flying into an old-school guard rail and lay sprawled out on the floor. Some punk kid ran and whispered something in his ear while another tried to kick him. Back in the ring, Casas tried faking a low blow, which had whole sections of the crowd waving it off to the referee. The referee was this little guy who milked his interactions with the crowd for all they were worth. It would have been annoying in a proper title match, but again this was a house show version. Ultimo took the segunda with another flurry of offence and this likewise began to resemble a 1994 juniors match.
     
    There was a whole bunch of shtick between Casas and his second during the toweling off period that the camera man didn't really catch and I didn't really get, but I think the crowd were taunting him with the "ole" chant. Noodles would probably know. He knows everything like that. As for the third fall, it was basically Casas trying to survive an onslaught of Ultimo's Japanese offence by taking out his leg in the guardrail, which is not a very "title match" thing to do, is it? Casas tried getting Ultimo to submit in the scorpion deathlock then Ultimo popped up when Negro went to the top, which won't delight too many people. Casas took a neat bump from a dropkick, though, and then Ultimo followed up with a cool looking tope w/ the cameraman zooming in on Casas' selling to make you forget that egregious pop up. Casas does great work out on the floor, it has to be said. I loved the way he crawled along on all fours before getting up. Back in the ring, the nearfalls came thick and fast and even Casas went to the mid-90s juniors well with a type of powerbomb. Really good selling from Casas down the stretch. You bought that he couldn't withstand the moonsault at the end after almost biting it on a few of the moves prior. Ultimo winning got a big pop even though it was a bit of a blah-ish sequence of 1994 juniors moves, but hey it was 1994.
     
    Not really essential, but plenty of fun watching Casas do his thing in front of a receptive crowd.
  13. ohtani's jacket
    El Hijo del Santo, Misterioso, Ultimo Dragon vs. Emilio Charles Jr., Fuerza Guerrera, La Fiera, CMLL 11/22/91
     
    This was another match from the Misterioso feud; this one happening the week before the trios match I wrote about last time. The match had tremendous heat but wasn't as fun as the return bout.
     
    Fiera took an inordinately long time folding his bandanna and seemed disinterested in his opening exchange with Misterioso. Emilio tried to get something going with Ultimo, but Asai was still quite green in '91 so the stuff Emilio was bumping for didn't look that good. Then Fuerza didn't want to wrestle Santo, which had a payoff later on but sucked in the meantime. The second go through gave us our first real look at Misterioso working a fast paced trios exchange. Not surprisingly, it was the splitting image of modern lucha. 1991 Misterioso could walk straight off the street and fight in in with the current lot. If anything, he was faster than the present mob. Emilio had another go at making Ultimo look good and they actually got into a pretty good groove sprinting between the ropes. Ultimo did that Peking Opera School move of his where he dives over the top of his man, but Emilio outfoxed him with a lariat. He was so pleased with himself that he was celebrating in the ropes like Cota, which led to the Fuerza Moment of the Match w/ Fuerza coming across and ruffling up his hair. The rest of the Ultimo exchange was pretty good as well. They did this neat spot where Emilio caught Ultimo and put him on top turnbuckle. Then as he was going to hit Ultimo, Asai blocked his punch with a kick and countered with a reverse hurricanrana. Emilio went sprawling to the outside and did one of his stock bumps onto his ass. I also loved the way he sold Ultimo's enziguiri as though he'd been shot. He even saluted when catching the leg, which looked brilliant in slow mo. Santo's diving headbutt also looked killer on the replay, but sadly for us taking one to the noggin was about Fuerza's only contribution to the match at that point.
     
    The segunda caida was a tidy rudo response. It began with more of the dream match-up, Santo vs. Emilio, and progressed to a lesson from the rudos to Ultimo in how you kick the shit out of someone rudo style. Then a couple of fouls when the refs weren't looking (which Emilio claimed were the inner thigh), and enough right hands to need ice afterwards, and you've got yourself a deciding fall. Fuerza was pretty happy with pinning Santo despite the fact he'd still barely wrestled. I'll say one thing for Fuerza, though: he was extremely good at kick/punch brawling. If you're not good at kick/punch brawling it can be extremely meandering, especially in lucha rudo falls, but Fuerza was a master at it. Fiera flog splashed the crap out of Ultimo at the end of the fall. He crushed him like a bug or a lizard. Whatever works for you. Early on in the tercera caida, there was more quality brawling from Emilio and Fuerza, two of the greats. The tecnico comeback was lively and spirited with the rudos eating plenty of postings. Santo finally got his hands on Fuerza and bulldogged him into the mat. Then he whipped him into the corner and Fuerza took a Psicosis style bump into the ring post and out to the floor. That's another thing Fuerza could do well -- take nutty bumps. It's also where being smaller came in handy as he would take such pastings when the tecnicos finally got their hands on him. The match ended with two big dives and a mano a mano section where Misterioso got a submission victory over Guerrera. Fiera avoided Ultimo's tope only to walk straight into a rocket-like plancha from Santo. That looked so fucking cool. The early 90s truly were Santo's peak. Not to be outclassed, Ultimo followed it up with his Asai moonsault on a helpless Emilio.
     
    Bits and pieces of this were good, but as the build-up to Fuerza vs. Misterioso, the actual exchanges between them continued to be underwhelming with Fuerza not really doing enough to push the feud to the forefront of the matches. I'm not sure why he was so big on avoiding Santo here. I guess the switch to Misterioso at the end set up the revancha and title shot. Again a lot of the entertainment was provided by Emilio. Fiera was okay, but not as good as he was in the revancha. Next up is the title match.
  14. ohtani's jacket
    Virus vs. Stigma, CMLL World Super Lightweight Championship, CMLL 7/14/14
     
    This was generally regarded as the weakest of Virus' title matches this year, largely because Stigma didn't hold up his end of the bout as well as Virus' other opponents, but it was still a decent title bout.
     
    I especially liked the opening fall. It was great seeing Virus back in his element after the somewhat disappointing Navarro bout. Virus was back in the driver's seat where he belongs and guided Stigma through a high quality primera caida. I liked the way Virus rode Stigma here and the force with which he applied his take downs, especially the arm lock. Like most Virus opponents, Stigma was mostly limited to counters, but Virus did a sterling job selling each hold and it never felt like he was leading Stigma by the nose. Stigma's problem wasn't on the mat, but in the standing exchanges. He had one beautiful arm drag in the opening fall, but another instance where he was all at sea figuring out what to do with a hunched over Virus, who really had to feed Stigma a lot of his counters when they were standing. Stigma's the kind of youngster who likes to add a flip to everything to stand out from the pack, but he really needs to work on his transitions. Fortunately, Virus gave him plenty of examples like the little shoulder tackle that led to the power slam and submission. Neat fall that played out well in Arena Puebla. I don't know if you can have a fall like that in Arena Mexico these days as the workers are cordoned off so much from the crowd. The ring looks like it's surrounded by a moat and the atmosphere's not really conductive to title match wrestling.
     
    The worst part of Stigma's performance came in the second fall. Virus was dominating the fall and it was time for Stigma to make his comeback, but it didn't seem like he had a cool how to transition back onto offence. There was an awkward pause in the corner where it was almost like they were taking a timeout. Even Virus seemed to be thinking "don't you wanna win this fall, kid?" Then when he did make the transition his offence was less than inspiring and the submission he applied was laboured. Tecnicos are meant to have superior technique to rudos or at least do cool shit. Still, Virus sold it like a champ and the match continued. The third fall was an honest attempt at an old school barn burner. It didn't really work because of how nervous Stigma seemed on offence, but once Virus took over he did his damnedest to make it seem like he was going deep in the pocket to pull out the win. There were some nice nearfalls towards the end, and I thought the selling and pacing were good which meant the effort was there even if the execution wasn't. The only real misstep Virus made was not saving his best stuff for late in the stretch run. Unlike his other title matches this year, he didn't take any bumps to the outside or hit any big moves. Stigma had already tossed out his best dive; the one where he takes off from the second rope. I don't know if it's just me, but it looks like a blown spot in real time. It's kind of ugly and pretty at the same time. Without any big artillery, they ran out of things to do, which is surprising in a match laid out by Virus. I liked the way he took it home w/ the heel hook and elbows that set up the finish (more examples of the transitions Stigma lacked), but the match didn't really end on the right beat. Despite all that, it was the best Virus performance so far during this catch up period and an enjoyable attempt at trying to create something memorable amid the millions of hours of regular programming.
     
    Virus vs. Dragon Lee, lightning match, CMLL 9/2/14
     
    This was skippable. I liked the tenacity that Virus showed while they were rolling around on the mat and some of the chippiness later on when neither man had any qualms about kicking the other in the face, but for the most part it was a generic lightning match that was geared towards the finishing stretch. Regrettably, the finishing stretch was unremarkable, and Lee wound up over doing the boot to the face to the point where he seemed to be aping New Japan workers. Not a great Virus performance this one. Wouldn't really bother with it if I were you. Lee brings a lot of energy to his bouts, but I wish he would slow down and stop being so hyperactive. If he picked his spots more, he'd be better to watch. We'll see how good he looks in the title match to cap this year-end review.
  15. ohtani's jacket

    Virus vs. Navarro

    By ohtani's jacket,

    Virus vs. Negro Navarro, Arena Olimpico Laguna, 11/15/14
     
    When I first watched this, my initial thoughts were: "Was that even a match? That was some weird minimalist shit I didn't get. Was it some sort of anti-match?" Watching it again, I can see what they were going for, but I still wish it had been more of a match. The reason I like Charlie Lucero bouts so much is that even though there are execution problems he's trying to emulate a 1992 Monterrey title bout. This bout was like a gym sparring session which turned into a masochistic contest where they each took turns trying to make the other submit. I might have dug it if the grappling had been better, but it was that catch and release style matwork that lacks any sort of struggle. I did like the way the match escalated as a one fall contest, and I can see people digging it if they get into the whole "test of strength" vibe it had going, but I would have liked to have seen them wrestle a more traditional bout, or even worked a few more stand-up exchanges even if they were strikes. On one hand, this was just a YouTube clip we were fortunate enough to have recorded. On the other hand, it was a dream match five or six years too late. I would have liked something like those old Terry vs. Navarro clips that were set to Metallica. That would have been epic. Navarro forcing the win was cool; it just needed to be more of a slog. You always wanna feel that the guy who won knew he was in a fight, and I'm not sure this was grueling enough for the level of the guys involved. At no point did I think that any of this was bad ass and that's rare for Navarro. Still there was some nice escalation from the early castigos and their counters to the punch and the "say uncle" finale, even if I'm not sure that Virus was treated as entirely first rate.
  16. ohtani's jacket
    Fuerza Guerrera/Emilio Charles Jr./La Fiera vs. El Hijo del Santo/Mascara Sagrada/Misterioso, CMLL 11/29/91
     
    You all like Fuerza right? Everyone likes Fuerza, but not enough is written or said about him. So whenever I have an hour to spare I'm going to write one of these. I read something cool about Fuerza when I was doing some research for the Lucha History Lessons. Apparently he was a big lucha fan growing up, but his family didn't have enough money for him to attend the big arenas in the Federal District, so he would go to the smaller shows instead. There he was exposed to a lot of costumed gimmick workers, who maybe weren't as talented as the guys working in the larger arenas, but who were great entertainers. That experience clearly had an influence on his own wrestling philosophy, and throughout this series I'm going to point that one Fuerza moment in every match that typifies the charm of Mexican lucha libre.
     
    This was trios was part of the build up to a rematch between Guerrera and Misterioso for the NWA World Welterweight Title on 12/8. Misterioso, for the unaware, was a protege of Rey Misterio Sr, who'd knocked around the Tijuana/California area for a number of years before being brought in by Pena on the advice of Konnan. Pena, as you'll know, was always looking for fresh new talent to play the gimmicks he'd dreamt up in the CMLL back office, and this feud with Fuerza was the fabled rocket strap you hear so much about on wrestling forums.
     
    The rudos attacked from the get-go, and I tell you, if there was ever a guy I'd want to take to the ring with me to attack from the get-go it would be Emilio Charles Jr. He was so great as the secondary guy in a classic rudo fall. In the span of a few short minutes, he'd done a number on his own man (Mascara Sagrada), helped Fuerza work over his own man, got the crowd all hyped up, worked beautifully in tandem with the other rudos, and made Santo submit while biting his fingers. Fiera was also good in this fall, really fucking with Santo and the referees, which made me think two things: one, maybe that chain match with Estrada wasn't an anomaly and I just haven't been paying attention to early 90s Fiera, and two, Fuerza was good at choosing rudo partners. A really succinct and efficient rudo fall. It wasn't particularly violent, but everything the rudos did was bound to piss the tecnicos off, and Fiera's frog splash was picture perfect.
     
    There was a great shot between falls of the tecnicos recouping on the outside and Santo raring to go. Fiera had worn his bandanna for the entire first fall, but he pulled it down around his neck during the interval like a bandito. The stage was set for a tecnico comeback attempt and with the bell came a charge of sorts. It was more like a confrontation really as Misterioso was determined to show he wouldn't back down from Guerrera. The rudos tried to double team the young man, but both Emilio and Fiera at Fuerza right hands, and in the ring Santo went to town on Fiera as the son of El Santo has been known to do. Fiera's exaggerated sell of Sagrada's backbreaker was one of the golden moments of the bout as he froze in pain while twisting and contorting himself like Wild E. Coyote. I don't know if it was the quality of the rudos, or if Sagrada was particularly on this day, but he was a perfect clog in this. He did a series of nice drop toeholds on Emilio, which led to the Fuerza Moment of the Match. This one was a double act. Every time Sagrada hit his toehold, Emilio would sell his nose being smacked into the canvas. Finally, he became irate and kicked the bottom rope that Fuerza had been leaning on. Fuerza took the most brilliant spill between the ropes. It even looked in real time like he'd hit his head on the middle rope. It was the kind of spot Psicosis would have been proud of and there was probably a boyish glint in his eye recalling those long ago cards in tiny arenas.
     
    The match dipped a bit as Fuerza began dancing about feigning a foul and ripping Misterioso's mask, which are tactics I'm not particularly fond of, but there were still a lot of great moments in the tercera caida. I loved the camaraderie of the rudos to begin with. Fiera put his arm around Fuerza to reassure him they weren't letting this one get away and gave Emilio the same kind of assurances. The fall began with Emilio vs. Santo, which is an absolute dream match-up. If those two had been booked in a match during this time period and given more than the truncated amount of time that Emilio often got for singles matches then you'd probably be looking at an all time classic. The mask ripping sucked, but interspersed between it all was some tremendous bumping from Emilio and Fiera. Fiera took a glorious posting while Emilio got his legs caught in the bottom ropes and had his head rammed into the hoardings. Later on, Fiera missed his spinning heel kick and sent Emilio flailing to the outside, which set up the tope de cristo sequence that ends with Santo running across the ring, going through the corner and hitting the tope suicida. No matter how many times he's hit that, it's still the best sequence in lucha. This time was kind of cool as he entered from off camera and dove into the darkness. Afterwards there was a clear replay of it, but I dug the spontaneity. (The replay also showed Fiera shuffling into position, which was too bad.) That was pretty much the end of the fun, though, as Misterioso got the big win over Fuerza, whose mask was sprouting tuffs of dark black hair.
     
    Not really a showcase match for Fuerza as his partners did a lot of the heavy lifting, but this is the kind of lucha I love. It wasn't a four star classic or a hidden gem, but the kind of lucha you can sit back and enjoy and trust you're in competent hands. Hopefully, we'll have much more of that and more as the Fuerza hours continue.
  17. ohtani's jacket
    Virus is my favourite guy left in lucha and yet I never watch his matches the week they air. That's terrible.
     
    Hopefully, I can catch up by the end of the year.
     
    Virus vs. Cachorro, lightning match, CMLL 10/21/14
     
    This was pretty good. It was nice to watch a lightning match where you weren't reminded of the clock every five seconds. Props to the editor for concentrating on the action. Lightning matches are tricky even for maestros like Virus because they put the worker in two minds: you can either work them like one long primera caida or try to condense a three fall match into 10 minutes. The latter is more dynamic but often quite telegraphed in the way workers move from section to section without the natural break in falls. The first approach is sound, but it's rare that anyone works a primera caida that lasts 7-8 minutes so the workers run out of things to do. Here Virus seemed to take the primera caida approach, extend it out a bit, and loop it. It worked out pretty well despite some sloppiness from both men.
     
    The matwork in an opening caida usually ends in a stalemate or draw, which is basically what happened here. Virus kept going for the arm, and in true maestro fashion was thinking several moves ahead and all the rest of the cliches. Cachorro had no choice but to counter with the leg, which meant they switched positions a lot. There was a lot of movement on the mat although not a lot of fluidity. I wouldn't really call it great matwork as Cachorro's only real contribution was to trip Virus, though in fairness to him, Virus kept blocking his submission attempts and didn't really give him anything. Still, a good five minutes of holds and counter holds is nothing to sneeze at.
     
    In a typical primera caida, they end the stalemate by working some up tempo exchanges that usually end in a pinfall or submission. Here they had a bit more time to fill so Virus actually aborted the first rope exchange and went back to the mat and back to the arm. This led to the only real false note in the match when Cachorro hit a tope. It was a good looking tope and you can justify it in many ways, but to me the tope's not a primera caida move. Younger guys are increasingly doing it at any point in a match, but I was reared on a different sort of lucha where topes came deep in the match. Yes, it was a one fall bout and not a primera caida, but it didn't fit in with the general theme, Virus shouldn't have been dazed enough for Cachorro to even hit it, and it ended up being little more than a transition into a typical first fall finishing stretch where the workers chance their arm on a flash fall. Virus in fact shelved a lot of the bigger stuff that he probably would have done if the workers had been going for broke with a three fall narrative arc. The match ended with a final flourish and Virus came out on top with a flash submission that probably would have looked better if he hadn't lost his balance. Still, the muscle pose while in the Virus Clutch makes for a great statement, and he finally got that persistence with the arm to pay off.
     
    Definitely better than your typical lightning match, but not a match where Cachorro was made to look particular good. He looked better in the En Busca de un Idol, in my opinion. Virus could have done more to make him shine, but Cachorro could also do with taking a page out of his old man's book and mastering the mat before he worries about the mechanics of anything else. If he could become a bit more forceful on the mat in the way that say Trauma II did, he'd show a heap of potential. As for Virus, he's slowing down a bit as he approaches the wrong side of 45, but still a modern day genius. If only he had a running partner to create something special with. That's sort of the catch with Virus these days. He's getting more and more singles opportunities but it's mostly carrying young guys. Still, beggars can't be choosers, and we'll see what the rest of his year brought.
  18. ohtani's jacket
    El Dandy/Pierroth Jr./Ultimo Dragon vs. Negro Casas/La Fiera/El Supremo, CMLL 10/30/92
     
    Hot damn this was good. The Fiera/Dandy feud is much better than I realised. This was an outstanding trios with an early 80s feel to it. Fiera had a great scummy look to him with his jacket and chain and cheap pair of dark sunglasses. I've always thought Sangre Chicana was the scummiest of the early 90s luchadores, but Fiera looked like he was not only snorting something around this time period but pushing it in the locker room. He was the Man in this. Not only did he methodically and systematically take apart Dandy's shoulder, he was throwing right hands like an absolute chief. No-one had respect for anyone in this bout. It wasn't just Fiera vs. Dandy, everyone kept getting up in each other's grill. The great thing about it was that instead of the meandering rudo bout it could have been there was a continuous flow of guys intervening and working awesome brawl exchanges. You'd have these sequences like the one where Casas and Pierroth were fighting in the ropes and Ultimo jumped on top of Casas and spilled to the outside where he was immediately attacked by Fiera. Later on, Supremo, who was surprisingly great in this, was pummeling Pierroth into submission when Ultimo jumped in and began wasting Supremo with knee strikes. All of the cut offs and double teaming were awesome in this. Pierroth and Casas had this fantastic rivalry going on where Pierroth would chop him right in the nose. The stuff they did together was so great that this could have easily made Vintage Negro Casas of the Day. Casas vs. Pierroth is now a dream match for me after seeing this. Ultimo vs. Supremo was also brilliant for what was the third string match-up and you also had moments of Casas vs. Dandy peppered throughout, including a nasty looking posting Casas gave Dandy on the outside. If that wasn't enough, there was even some Pierroth/Fiera interactions as pretty much everyone took turns working each other here. The finish seemed confusing and weak at first, but on replay it was amusing as everyone bar Casas was scattered on the outside and Casas did a wickedly funny impersonation of Roberto Rangel counting everyone out. Pierroth had a lot to say afterwards and just seeing Dandy in shot with him afterwards has got me pumped for the continuation of this feud. This was quality.
  19. ohtani's jacket
    Negro Casas/El Felino/Javier Cruz vs. Atlantis/Ultimo Dragon/Ciclon Ramirez, CMLL 6/25/93
     
    This began with Javier Cruz pacing back and forth in the ring cutting a promo in front of an empty arena. He was wearing a black (leather?) trench coat and doing what I took to be his best Bobby De Niro impersonation. At one point a valet appeared and gave him the thumbs up, then she disappeared again... was she real or just a figment of his imagination? It's like Twin Peaks.
     
    On paper this should have been a good trios match. We all know how hot trios matches can be in the lead up to a singles match, and this had all the ingredients. You had Cruz as the next challenger for Ultimo's middleweight crown, Felino and Ramirez building towards their mask vs. mask match, and simmering tensions between the Casas brothers. The rudo side wasn't that great, but the technico side was flashy, and everyone involved was at minimum a pretty good worker. The trouble was they couldn't decide whether it was a match about Cruz vs. Ultimo, Felino vs. Ramirez, or the Casas brothers squabbling.
     
    The secret to these lead in trios is that you have one match-up that's the central story line and then another match-up or two that serve as subplots, and as with a good screenplay those subplots either contrast or complement the central theme. Since they aired the Cruz vignette beforehand, ideally his title shot should have provided the main thrust to the bout, especially given they were a week out from it. Instead, the Cruz/Dragon issue was swallowed up by the Casas brothers' antics. The reason for this was two-fold: firstly, Cruz was such a passive personality that he was hardly going to stop the Casas brothers from overshadowing him, and secondly, apuesta matches tend to provide more interesting builds than a run-of-the-mill title match. In the case of the former, Casas was such an alpha male that he brought what should have been a third string story thread too far to the fore. In the case of the latter, if the focus was meant to be on Cruz vs. Dragon, they should have worked an up tempo workrate bout and saved the mask ripping and other apuesta motifs for a different bout.
     
    From memory there were a couple of neat moments in this, but sticking to my wider point about the narrative structure, there were two common lucha tropes on display here. The first was mask ripping and the second was infighting among rudos. I hate both of them. I really do. After hundreds upon hundreds of lucha matches and years watching the stuff, I detest those spots. They have to be done absolutely brilliantly to sway me otherwise they're just egregious time wasting. They're not done well here and in the case of the infighting, the bout literally stopped to accommodate it. I mentioned to new lucha scribe Matt D the other day that I don't think lucha does 'story' well. Obviously, it would make a difference if I could understand Spanish. That way I wouldn't be struggling to make heads or tails of the Casas vs. Felino soap opera or mysterious valets. But the language barrier doesn't explain away everything. You learn pretty quickly that lucha isn't episodic TV in the way that say Portland was. If you get a singles match with three weeks of good trios you're happy as Larry, but when it comes to angles, especially face turns, the promoters are about as committal as the apuesta challenges thrown out after every brawl. The mask ripping here was uninspired, though it did lead to some comical moments where Casas was tying Felino's mask back together. The squabbling between them was a distraction, to be honest. If it were American wrestling, you'd expect them to turn on each other and build to a hair vs. mask match. And while I don't expect what I'm watching to be Americanised, I don't think we should excuse or overlook bad booking because the wrestling's foreign.
     
    Lucha would be much better if there weren't so many loose threads. The booking at times is the epitome of throwing shit against the wall. Watching 1993 CMLL there are so many ways it could have been better. Too many ways, really. You don't feel like you're in safe hands. And it doesn't make sense from a business point of view. Surely, if they'd pulled the trigger on Casas turning face it would have done business. Perhaps those are the frustrations Pena had with Herrera and his faction. In any event, this failed to get me excited for either Cruz/Dragon or Felino/Ramirez, and made me wary of any other 1993 match involving both Negro Casas and Felino. So that's not vintage.
  20. ohtani's jacket
    Negro Casas, Black Magic y Mano Negra vs. Mocho Cota, Bestia Salvaje y Emilio Charles Jr., CMLL 5/13/94
     
    Jesus, Cota, Salvaje and Emilio! Check out the mugs on those three.
     
    This was rudos contra rudos and started off with some nifty matwork between Black Magic and Salvaje. It's been a while since I've seen Bestia look good in a match and I was instantly reminded of what an underrated talent he was. It was also the best Smiley has looked on the mat in CMLL, which was a nice surprise. Mano Negra and Emilio followed suit and were rock solid. Negra continued his inspired post mask loss run, which was miles better than the lead in to his apuesta match. As they grappled, Cota began stirring trouble from the apron in his usual maniacal fashion. The camera stayed on for quite some time and it was interesting watching him snap from one extreme to the other. As soon as Casas was in, he went straight after Cota, so I'm guessing this was early build towards their hair match. Cota ended up taking over and Bestia impressed me to no end with the sharpness of his rudo beatdown on Smiley. Great punches. A quick search of the Match Finder found no trace of a singles match. The things we miss out on. Emilio helped beat the shit out of Casas to end the fall, thus beginning perhaps the best thread to the match, Emilio vs. Casas. It's not every day you see Emilio Charles Jr and Casas work together, so you better drop what you're doing and watch this. While that particular ass kicking was going on, Bestia was giving one of the patrons a nice up close look at how great his punches look from a foot away.
     
    Casas sold his beating like he was in another postal code. At one point, he was trying to punch his way out of the corner and collapsed, desperately lunging at Cota's tights. There was some weird storyline going on where Smiley was trying to help Casas but Negra wasn't. I'm sure it didn't make much sense even in Spanish. Negra then tried this cool choke takedown on Cota, but the Cota team were no mugs in the ring. Bestia threw the most beautiful left hand I think I've ever seen, and of course Cota was in the thick of it all like some kind of vindictive ringmaster. Casas popped back up on the apron in a not-so-great moment of selling, but if you're going to pop up on the apron to lead your side's comeback then there's no better way than the headbutt he gave Cota to turn the tide. Unfortunately, Smiley's retaliatory beatdown of Bestia wasn't in the same league as the one he'd had dished out to him, but it got the job done. There was an amusing moment between falls when Casas began beating on Cota in front of some front row seats. The patrons cleared the seats to avoid being hurt and Casas used the woman's handbag to thrash Cota. Cota picked the thing up and flung it across to the other side of the ring, and you could see the woman aghast about her handbag. Eventually, the ref handed it back to her companion while Cota did his best Terry Funk impersonation and tried to pick a fight with a photographer.
     
    The third caida started with a series of exchanges where teammates were making saves for one another until finally it came down to Cota and Negra with no one from Negra's side willing to help him. Negra threw a punch at Casas, who was hugging the apron, but as you'd expect by now there was no big angle. Instead we got more Casas vs. Emilio and God was it great. The finishing stretch was a lot of fun with Cota doing a hilarious punch drunk sell off a Smiley body check then getting caught in a bear hug submission. But as Smiley was shaking Cota all over the ring, Casas ran straight into an Emilio power bomb and that was the match one, two, three. Not a vintage performance from Casas kayfabe wise. The match was fun, though there's definitely better rudos contra rudos stuff out there. Cota was good, but didn't have the same aura as his 80s stuff and was a bit of a sideshow act compared to his godliness on the 80s set. Still, he managed to amuse.
  21. ohtani's jacket
    Atlantis vs. Ultimo Guerrero, mask vs. mask, 9/19/14
     
    This was the most emotional mask match in lucha since the Atlantis/Villano III bout in 2000. The work was simple and effective. It was mostly built around nearfalls, and got better as the match went along, but the match itself didn't really matter. The result and the post-match afterwards were all about the emotion of a mask match.
     
    Jose Fernandez reckoned that Ultimo Guerrero kayfabed his family about the result and it's easy to believe. I've never been a fan of Ultimo Guerrero, but from the close-up of him telling the ring announcer his name and birthplace to the unmasking and the scenes that followed, the guy deserves a massive amount of props.
     
    In the days and weeks to come, I may go back and look at it as a match, but like the smart crowd with its large contingent of older fans there in anticipation of an Atlantis mask loss, let me just bask in the surprise. I never thought CMLL would do something to move me in 2014, not after the dog's breakfast that was the Rush/Casas hair match, but with one BS free main event they proved there's life in lucha libre yet. And that's enough to make a true believer out of anyone.
  22. ohtani's jacket

    Villano III

    By ohtani's jacket,

    Villano is a guy whose prime is almost completely missing. We have bits and pieces of it -- matches he had in EMLL, matches he had in Japan, matches that aired in Japan or were filmed by Japanese crews, and a few handhelds of his apuesta matches -- but mostly we're left with ring results and pictures, and Jose Fernandez' bio.
     
    By the time the UWA got television, he was nearly 40. Forty is not old by lucha standards, but it's not considered most workers' physical peak. Judging by the footage, he had gained a fair bit of weight but was still in tremendous physical shape. The TV at the time is helpful, but the matches weren't shown in full, we don't have the complete run, and the show only lasted from '91 to 92. After that it's slim pickings from AAA and CMLL up until his famous mask match. For a guy who's a potential hall of famer that's not great.
     
    The other problem that exists is that a lot of what did make tape or video in '91-92 is from his feud with Chris Benoit, a guy who wasn't a luchador and not proficient in the style. It's never a good idea to judge a luchador against a non-luchador, but that's what we're forced to do. Still, we can see some trends emerge from his matches with Benoit, and fortunately we have a match against his long time rival Rambo to compare those trends with.
     
    Villano III vs. Rambo, WWF Light Heavyweight Championship, UWA 2/23/91
     
    This was edited down to fit one of those 'Idolos de hoy en la lucha libre' videos the UWA released in 1991, but what they showed was a blast.
     
    Rambo was never the most talented guy in lucha. When you think of the things he did well, there were a dozen or more guys who were better at each of them, but the one thing he had was gusto. If you ever want to see a moderately talented wrestler wrestle with bravado then Rambo is your man. That takes away from the fact that he did a lot of things well, but what made Rambo special was his ability to get under Villano's skin. On the surface, Rambo should have been just another mask, but the mercenary's hatred for Villano was so visceral that the feud never died. They wrestled each other in hair vs. mask matches and title bouts, in trios matches and in mano a mano fights. When Rambo couldn't get the job done, he'd enlist the help of others. He'd be their second, their corner man, their eyes and ears at ringside. Christ, he even had it in for the rest of the family. Even when Villano unmasked, Rambo was invested in taking his hair (what little of it there was left.) Despite the fact he never beat Villano in an apuesta match, he would have gone to the ends of the earth to try. All told, they fought an apuesta match in four different decades.
     
    The first thing you notice about this match is the matwork. It's lucha matwork, which means they don't just lie around in an ordinary looking hold. They twist and bend that hold until they shape it into something expressive. Some people may turn their noses up at that, but let's face it, those people will never be invited to a lucha dinner party. For the initiated, it's pure joy. For the hardcore fan, it's the only time Villano gets to stretch his lucha legs in this set of matches. It wasn't just Salvador Dalí stuff, though. They took some nasty jabs at each other with Rambo headbutting Villano's leg and Villano giving him a knee drop to the eye, and the matwork towards the end got down and dirty before they stood back up and delighted me with some good old fashioned butt offence off the ropes. Only in lucha could it all come together.
     
    (It was actually kind of smart from Rambo as it looked like he was going to lead with the butt again, but he hooked the waist and flipped Villano over for the pin.)
     
    Another notable thing about the bout is that Villano lost the first fall and struck back quickly to take the second. Villano loved that trope. You might even say he was the master of it. To be honest, he over used it. The way he'd do it was smart, but when it happens match after match you start to raise an eyebrow.
     
    The third fall was a tidy fall, and if there's one word if use to describe Villano in this set of matches it's tidy. The matches didn't hit any high notes, but they were as solid as the gym sessions interspersed throughout the tape and overseen by the patriarch Ray Mendoza. Does that mean that Villano III wasn't as special as the history lessons make out? Probably not when you consider how difficult the craft of lucha singles matches is. His bloody mano a mano bouts and apuesta bouts were no doubt better than his title fights, but he's still one of the all round better lucha singles match workers you'll see. Both guys sold like they were buggered, which they probably were. Rambo tried to take a short cut by claiming he was fouled then gave Villano a legitimate mule kick to the Mendoza family jewels. Unfortunately, his big nearfall off a top rope sunset flip was mistimed and Villano had to step into it, which didn't look good on the replay. After nailing that over the head, double legged takedown spot Rambo loved so much, the big man went to the well one too many times, and Villano countered it for what else -- a tidy finish.
     
    Fun match, especially if you're familiar with the rest of their work.
     
    Villano III vs. Pegasus Kid, WWF Light Heavyweight Championship, UWA 3/3/91
     
    This is probably the best lucha title match I've seen from a non-luchador. The mat work wasn't what you'd expect from a lucha title match. Benoit had some good ideas for holds, but then he'd just lie in them. It was interesting that Villano didn't appear to carry him. Perhaps it was his experience working with so many foreigners, but he seemed to tap into that international juniors style that workers never left home without in the 1980s. His own holds and counters were solid and he knew how to make a theatrical production out of a nearfall. What Benoit was good at even in '91 was what I would loosely call kick/punch transitions. When they were off the mat and transitioning into mid range offence like his snap suplex, he was excellent at setting those holds up. It was all cribbed from Dynamite Kid, but like Keiichi Yamada, he was a devout pupil.
     
    The second fall was longer than the usual Villano response. Sticklers will notice that he went after the leg which was then completely dropped, but it was awesome watching him cut loose with the arm drags. They got a lot of mileage out of the snap suplex and DDT, and Benoit had enough in his holster with the diving headbutt and plancha to provide solid tercera caida action. Their counters were a bit sloppy in the final fall, but it was acceptable in the same way that play breaks down in any close game. The pacing and selling were very good, and if Villano wasn't exactly carrying the action, he was making sure the crowd stayed involved with his appeals for their support. The third fall could have gone either way and was nicely balanced. Benoit won under a cloud of controversy as Villano claimed to have been fouled. Rambo didn't care, though. He was over the moon.
     
    The alleged foul was quite a good one. It came when Benoit set Villano on the top turnbuckle for the superplex. Villano claimed that he'd posted him on the turnbuckle, but Benoit signaled to the ref that it had caught the inside of Villano's thigh. Nevertheless, Villano kept selling the posting after the superplex and the pin. Lord knows if it was intentional or not, but it created a tremendous grey area where Benoit could easily claim it was non-intentional and a pure accident, while Villano could push for a mask vs. mask match.
     
    Villano III vs. Pegasus Kid, mask vs. mask, UWA 11/3/91
     
    Deathly dull. The only time this resembled an apuesta match was towards the end when Benoit ripped Villano's mask. The rest of the time they lay around in holds like it was a title match. Since Villano had been in so many bloody wager matches and mano a mano bouts, I'd place the blame squarely on his shoulders. He should have taken this kid and led him by the nose through a proper mask match. That's not the worst of it, though. There's no commentary for this fight, and the guy who led the rudo chant every thirty seconds was doing my head in. I made it through without muting it or playing some music, but never again.
     
    El Hijo del Santo y Villano III vs. Negro Casas y Pegasus Kid, UWA 1/19/92
     
    It looks like they were pretty liberal with the editing here as I can't imagine the full match was this truncated. Still, this was a lot of fun. It's not every day you see Villano III and El Hijo del Santo team together. If I were a kid, that would be like Marvel Two-in-One.
     
    Casas was sporting the oddest outfit I've seen him wear -- this gold amateur singlet. It didn't affect his wrestling, though, as he tore it up with Santo. If you need a Santo/Casas fix then this is a double espresso. It's standard Santo stuff, but they rush headlong into it and the takedowns are amazingly quick.
     
    Villano III vs. Benoit is nicely chippy in anticipation of their return title match. The match was nicely structured actually with Benoit finally getting the hang of rudo tactics and having an excellent teacher in the form of Negro Casas, but hey, it's Santo and Villano, you think that team-up is going to fail? Watching Santo eliminate Casas from this match was sublime and could have/should have easily made Vintage Negro Casas of the Day. Detail lovers will also get a kick out of Villano punching Casas repeatedly while he was in the Santo surfboard. I know I did.
     
    Villano III vs. Pegasus Kid, WWF Light Heavyweight Championship, UWA 1/26/92
     
    I seem to remember this being longer on the version I had. The matwork again wasn't great here, but there were signs that Benoit grew during this time in Mexico as he was beginning to make an honest attempt at countering holds instead of simply letting them die. Villano dug into his bag of tricks and managed to make an extended leg lock sequence pretty interesting. He also had a really nice knee-to-the-face counter to a backbreaker where Benoit was really grinding and rolling Villano's back against his knee. It looked like Benoit had the first fall with a series of submissions where the drained Villano would fall prey to the snap suplex between holds, really taking it out of him, but this seemed like Villano's game 7 here, more so than the mask vs. mask match. It actually gave me a sense of how much the title meant to the Villano character, which I never really had before. Those of you who are used to other styles of lucha may be surprised by how long they resisted submitting compared to the instantaneous submissions which are much more common in Mexico, but interestingly this fall was structured like a tercera caida. Benoit won it with the diving headbutt, which was a hell of a punctuation mark, and when it was over there was time to catch your breath and realise that was a hell of an opening fall in terms of the scope. There was none of that work the mat, take it to the ropes, one wrestler makes a mistake and the other captialises waltz that you really see. This was pretty epic even if the work didn't quite match the production.
     
    Villano won the second fall in a matter of seconds. It worked and the crowd ate it up even though they'd surely seen it before. It was a tremendous shift in pace like the jolt you get from a small earthquake, but there's a nagging voice at the back of my head that says that's an overused trope. But Villano really wanted that win so we moved on. Again, Benoit looked to systematically take Villano apart in the final caida. This was Benoit at his best -- methodical, precise. It wasn't very lucha like, but it worked in a high stakes bout like this one. The crowd popped big when Villano got his knees up on a Benoit dive and I thought this would have a good time to switch the title, but the UWA had other ideas, and after a valiant effort at refusing to submit where all he could do was crawl across the mat after every attempt, the ref finally called the bout off when Villano refused to give up. His brother wouldn't throw the towel in and it seemed like Villano was about to pass out. It was a big call, but the right call, and y'know you don't see too many workers get put over like that in Mexico. Villano saved face by not visibly submitting, but Benoit clearly beat him unlike the foul controversy surrounding their first title switch. It seems that the promoters wanted to turn Benoit face and did so through pushing his wrestling skill. At least it seems that way from the match results.
     
    Pretty good match that got better with repeat viewings.
     
    So what can be said about Villano III?
     
    A very good worker during this time, excellent even, but like Santo a very formulaic worker. It was notable for me that when Casas made his brief appearance in the matches he was instantly more interesting than Villano had been and that was only showing a spark of his usual genius. There was something spontaneous and exciting about him whereas Villano was well rehearsed and assured. I'm not sure Villano screams top 100 for me as I wouldn't have him in my top 10 luchadores,
     
    Points in Villano's favour would be the handicap of working with a non-luchador and doing pretty well to the point where Benoit got better as the footage progressed. The mask match is a negative, but most luchadores have experiences in failing at apuesta matches. He was a solid all-round performer, though a bit hefty during these days and blew the odd spot. One thing that surprised me was that he was surprisingly good at selling. He was great at staggering before he fell and falling in a crumpled heap, and he sold his head hitting the canvas with aplomb. I just didn't get the feeling he was brilliant like the best workers are.
  23. ohtani's jacket
    It's early days in the once a decade revisit of the Smarkschoice Greatest Wrestler Ever poll, but so far plenty of people have Santo pinned as their number one luchador. Santo's an easy pick, but is it the right pick? I cued up a half dozen matches to see how much greatness I could find.
     
    El Hijo del Santo y Black Shadow Jr. vs. Octagon y Fuerza Guerrera, Monterrey 12/15/91
     
    Relevos Suicidas is such a waste of time. Even in a bout like this where the action isn't so bad it eats up what would ordinarily be the first two falls of the apuesta match. There's a theory going that Black Shadow Jr. intentionally fouled to get a shot at Santo's mask, but I don't think that's true at all. If that were the angle, he would have fouled straight away instead of getting valuable energy sapped by his contest with Fuerza. If you watch closely, he tries to pin Fuerza after the low blow and is in as much disbelief as Santo over the ref's call. I think it was pretty clearly a rudo reflex.
     
    On the boards we discussed how people never tire of the Santo formula because of how good his execution is, and I don't think it's possible to tire of his bleeding either. His blood soaked mask is as iconic an image as Ric Flair's crimson mask and a visual you immediately associate with lucha. Santo's bleeding here provided a series of fantastic visuals, it was just a pity about the rest of the fall. As far as Santo's apuesta matches go, this was fairly weak. BSJr didn't do enough to make him bleed. It was some enthusiastic assistance from Perro Aguayo that caused Santo to bleed so much, and he didn't wait anywhere near long enough to make his comeback. The intensity of a comeback is in direct proportion to the length of the beating, and Santo wasn't in nearly enough jeopardy from the blood loss. The cameraman failed to capture BSJr's big dive adequately; and for a guy who was so good at working his formula, Santo didn't didn't place his signature spots anywhere near as well as he usually did. The finish was a prime example. It was begging for the camel clutch or something equally as iconic and instead it was an inside cradle. Legend has it that the finish to the Santo/Black Shadow Sr. fight was the camel clutch, so it surprised me that they didn't reprise that piece of history. Ultimately, it was worth watching because of the blood, but it was hard to know why it fell short of Santo's best apuesta work. Was it because the first two falls were wasted on Relevos Suicidas, or because BSJr wasn't that great at dictating the bout? Perhaps it was because Santo didn't stick to his formula. More importantly, how many other average apuesta matches did he have in his long career? Probably more than we'd like to think.
     
    El Hijo del Santo vs. Psicosis, Promo Azteca 10/3/97
     
    i had to curb my expectations for this as it was only a house show match, but Santo was in good form around this time so I still had some hopes for it. The early mat work was well executed by Santo, but mat work was never the strongest part of Psicosis' game, so it wasn't very competitive. Psicosis' strengths were his bumping and stooging. He took some incredible bumps in this, but his stooging was all crotch chops and pulling the finger. The Psicosis I'm used to had a better sense of humour than that. He won the first fall in weak fashion then missed a lunging charge at Santo and did his shoulder first bump into the ring post. Santo seized the initiative and won the second fall with ease. At that point I was ready to chalk it up as house show fare, but they worked some exciting dives into final fall, which had to have pleased the paying customer. The finish didn't do Psicosis justice, and I came out of it thinking he hadn't really progressed in his struggle with Santo, but that's Psicosis in a nutshell really. He was a limited worker who never really grew or progressed past the point where he had some decent shtick.
     
    El Hijo del Santo/Angel Azteca vs. Fuerza Guerrera/Psicosis, AAA 2/13/94
     
    There was no messing around here as Psicosis was disqualified for fouling Santo before he'd even removed his jacket. The rudos got stuck into their work with a lengthy beat down that saw Santo dragged around the ring by his mask (but no blood.) This lacked the intensity of say Emilio Charles and Satanico in the recent Dandy vs. Fiera build I watched. Psicosis wound up removing the hood, which led to more sluggish moments where Santo had to protect his identity (always an awkward part of any mask ripping bout.) Santo ran to the back to change masks and returned with a vengeance. He went after Psicosis with a chair, which was worse than anything Psicosis had done to him, but that's wrestling for you. The upshot of all this was that Santo removed Psicosis mask to reveal that the mighty buffalo mane was only part of the mask (always a shock to me), and there was a surreal finish to the segment where Psicosis came back to ringside in a Santo mask and tried to continue the fight before cutting a promo in the full Psicosis body suit and Santo mask.
     
    On one hand, this was a regular TV taping and not meant to be a hidden gem from the 90s. On the other hand, it was the build to a title match and they were throwing out challenges. But even ignoring that, this wasn't exactly great. If I'd thought it was a legitimately great angle I would have praised it to the moon, instead I would probably rank it alongside other Santo vs. Psicosis disappointments or consistently weak Santo in AAA material.
     
    El Hijo del Santo/Super Muñeco/Angel Azteca vs. Satanico/Espectro Jr./Ice Killer, AAA 8/1/94
     
    This was a mediocre trios that could have been from any time and any place in lucha history. Mediocre trios are par for the course in lucha, and even Santo can't shine in all of them, but it's surprisingly that his signature spots were absent from a match where they would have been most useful. It was up to Angel Azteca to provide the highspots instead. Santo wasn't exactly apron hugging, but if you believe in Ric Flair's story about going to see Ray Stevens and not seeing his signature spots then this was Santo's Stevens match, which would have been okay if he'd done something else that was cool, but he didn't. I'll you this though -- Satanico vs. Santo was a match the world needed to see. It's just like lucha to not provide what the world needs.
     
    El Hijo del Santo/Lizmark/Eddy Guerrero vs. Fuerza Guerrera/Jerry Estrada/Marabunta, AAA 12/18/92
     
    This was like every other AAA trios match of its era. It started off with a fall that wasn't far off classic trios structure. The match-ups were solid without being spectacular, and Santo didn't stand out one way or another, but there were little touches like Fuerza vs. Lizmark which were only available here while everyone was in their prime. Then it started to drag. It went on and on until finally you were waiting for it to end. Waiting is better than praying I suppose, but these long falls were a killer in AAA.
     
    Fuerza Guerrera/Blue Panther/Espanto Jr./Psicosis vs. El Hijo del Santo/Octagon/El Mariachi/El Mexicano, 8/12/94
     
    This was everything that was good and bad about AAA in the same match. The opening fall and a half was high energy, up tempo stuff with a bunch of great exchanges. It threatened to turn into a brawl at times, but kept on the straight and narrow and there was enough action in the first fall to fill an entire match. Santo stuck to his formula and tellingly looked better than in any of the other trios I watched. The rudos were pinballing left, right and center, and if I never get tired of the Emilio monkey flip and charge into the backbreaker, the same can be said for Espanto's bump from the slingshot. What a great worker that guy was. Everything was going swimmingly until the rudos decided to slow things down and give Mariachi a working over. That immediately changed the tone of the match and frankly went on too long. The technicos made a brief comeback at the end, but by that point I was checking how much time was left. After slowing things to a crawl, the rudos were DQ'ed for excessive rudoism and the match was in the books. Why they had to stretch these things out to half an hour with disparate tones in each half is beyond me. The first fall was draining enough without dragging things out. Psicosis did kill Santo dead with a senton to the outside from high off the top turnbuckle. That was a crazy spot made all the more reckless by Psicosis' natural awkwardness. IIRC. this led to a return match which I reviewed somewhere on this blog, but man, talk about a manuscript that badly needed an edit.
     
    Some final thoughts on Santo:
     
    Santo was a great worker who had a lot of memorable matches, but he wasn't the type of performer where you can watch any of this matches and get something out of it. He looked great when he stuck to his formula and struggled to make an impression when he didn't. He wasn't a details guy like Satanico, Chicana or Cota. He was all about execution. For that reason, I can't really see him as my number one ranked luchador, though it's a different story if you're talking about highly ranked technicos. I don't mean to imply that Santo was inconsistent or overrated somehow, rather that because of his working style and the fact he was a technico and enmascarado, he doesn't quite stand out like some of the wrestling geniuses in Mexico. At least not on random viewings.
     
  24. ohtani's jacket

    Doubting El Dandy

    By ohtani's jacket,

    Nothing bugs me more in lucha than the lack of critical appraisal that El Dandy and other all-time greats receive. I can understand there not being as much evaluation of Dandy as workers we all grew up on, but to me it's a sign that he's not taken that seriously. Of course when you watch El Dandy for the first time, as many people did on the 1990 Pro-Wrestling Only Yearbook, you're struck by how good he was -- one of the best in the world that year, and possibly one of the best of all-time -- but you wouldn't base your entire opinion of Ric Flair on his best year and neither should you with Dandy.
     
    Don't get me wrong, I love Dandy and have done for close to a decade now, but here on the Great Lucha blog I've always tried to turn a critical eye not only towards workers I dislike but favourites too, and particularly the workers who people seemingly do nothing but praise, the Negro Casas, the Blue Panthers and the El Hijo del Santos. It may come across as negative at times, but that doesn't bother me so long as it's fair. Recently, I've been a bit disappointed in how Dandy's come across in Vintage Negro Casas of the Day particularly in comparison to Casas, so I wanted to take a fresh look at him away from Casas but still in the same era. Here's what I came up with:
     
    El Dandy/La Fiera/Apolo Dantes vs. Pierroth Jr./Bestia Salvaje/Mano Negra, CMLL 4/29/94
     
    Bestia's nose was well and truly like W.C. Fields at this point. Mano Negra was still sporting his Dave Finlay look and hammed it up for the camera as George Thorogood blared through Arena Coliseo.
     
    There's no way a match with this many good workers should be a lame duck. It was a stock trios; one you've seen a thousand times before where the technicos get the better of the early exchanges, the rudos beat them down as penance, and the technicos make a comeback. But there was a strange disconnect between the workers as though they weren't paying attention to what the other pairs were doing. It didn't help that the match wasn't filmed very well, but talk about another Arena Coliseo stinker. Pierroth kept bickering with Negra, which is a pain in the ass as it distracts from the match and meant that Negra couldn't continue his rich vein of form. The rudos also chose to beat on Fiera, who was caught on camera making no effort to sell whatsoever. It was embarrassing really.
     
    These were hard times for CMLL and even good workers like these were struggling for motivation. Dandy had gotten back into shape in '94, suspiciously so it must be said, but didn't add a single bit of spark to this. That's a big difference between Dandy and Casas and even this Dandy and the 1990 version. In 1990, business would pick up every time he was in the ring. It was magic the way he'd dazzle the crowd whenever he stepped between the ropes. Here he had the chance to do something special with Dave "Mano Negra" Finlay and didn't take it. In 1990 he would have been all over that action.
     
    El Dandy/Atlantis/Pierroth Jr. vs. La Fiera/El Satanico/Emilio Charles Jr., CMLL 11/13/92
     
    Now this kicked ass. They did a rare pre-match angle where Dandy was being interviewed back stage and was jumped by Fiera and his boys. Fiera was great here wearing a jacket and shades and looking every bit the sleaze thread material that he was. The technicos escaped to ringside, and the camera stayed on the rudos as they did their jackets up for their entrance, which was unintentionally awesome. The rudo beat down to begin this was one of the best rudo beat downs I've seen in a long, long time. The vigour with which Emilio got stuck into his work was brilliant. He was such an unbelievably awesome worker. I still think he's under-appreciated even by hardcore lucha fans. Gregor mentioned recently that Emilio taking the monkey flip from Atlantis and charging into the backbreaker is a routine he wants to see every time and I wholeheartedly agree with that position. Satanico and Pierroth also teared into each other. They still had a lot of heat from the Infernales/Intocables feud, and what you basically had here were three great match-ups where the guys were all feuding with each other. Dandy bled (yeeesss), the technicos made their comeback and Fiera bled (yeeesss), and then his chain got involved. The whole thing was very Memphis and a throwback to the early 80s Arena Mexico shows. This really made me want to see the Fiera/Dandy hair match again even though I recall it being disappointing.
     
    El Dandy/Atlantis/Ultimo Dragon vs. Bestia Salvaje/Felino/Mano Negra, CMLL 8/20/93
     
    We get an erotic workout video to start this. It must be apuestas time if they're showing gym workout videos. The Atlantis vs. Mano Negra feud wasn't very good. I'd dearly love it to be, but I just got done popping for the hundredth time as Atlantis and Emilio did their signature spots and didn't pop once here. I don't know how they could have made it any better actually. The limb work they did was boring, but mask ripping and having Atlantis face to canvas covering his identity would have been just as bad. They just didn't have any chemistry.
     
    Dandy was in a secondary role here, but still found a way to be unimpressive. One of the great disappointments of 1993 CMLL has to be any time Dandy and Felino square off. Felino was trying too hard to be charismatic in '93 and his humour came across as forced. I can't say I blame him for overacting since his push was new and he was in his brother's shadow, but even today he's a ham actor. He gelled more with Ultimo in this match since they did pure workrate stuff. Bestia might as well have had a table cloth draped over him for as much of a part as he really played in this. It's amazing what an afterthought he became after an excellent 1992. Things were definitely going south for him. It's rare that you see a match like this where something's always happening yet none of it is interesting.
     
    Los Infernales vs. El Dandy/Ultimo Dragon/Atlantis, CMLL 09/11/92
     
    This was better than most of the build for the 1992 Satanico/Dandy hair match, probably because the Infernales were involved, but still a case of diminishing returns. Dandy bled, which was a good thing, and the Infernales were lack of a pack of wolves in the opening caida working over the cut. Satanico really grew his hair out for the Anniversary Show, so he definitely looked the part even if he was the wrong wrestler for the match. Wrong match or not, he did an excellent job of working Dandy over here and had a few women in the audience engaged in running arguments with him. Dandy was good, but this was mostly a Satanico special. The other Infernales contributed nice little touches and I loved the way they bumped and sold for the technico comeback, which was build around a pair of dives from Atlantis and Ultimo Dragon. The technicos were excellent as well with snarky little stomps and kicks. I liked the way Atlantis laid the boot in after Pirata had taken his back crawl bump to the outside. Not a very long match and no big comeback from Dandy to show where he was in this match work wise, but like I said it was the best piece of build in a largely forgettable rematch of a rematch of a rematch.
  25. ohtani's jacket
    Negro Casas, Babe Face y Rambo vs. Villano I, Villano IV y Villano V, UWA 3/6/92
     
    This was a blast. I know I've said this a thousand times but these 1991-92 UWA television matches were so much fun. This was clipped, but even the sped up version was great with exchanges so good they're like candy.
     
    Casas started off by wrestling Villano IV. If you're cut from the same cloth I am, you're going to want to watch this when you hear they wrestled. It was rad. Casas was rocking this black trunks/black boots combo with "UWA" written on the boots and was all business. It wasn't a long exchange, but it's got to be one of the highlights of vintage Negro Casas thus far.
     
    Babe Face surprised me here. I expected him to be washed up, which he was, but he could still take a nice bump off an arm drag and he had some really fun punch exchanges with the Villanos that led some outrageous punch drunk selling. Rambo didn't do a hell of a lot in ring, but his enthusiasm was infectious and he seemed to drive the match from the apron and with his interjections. There was a great moment where Casas had Villano IV in a headlock and Rambo was pulling on his own arm to encourage Casas to torque the hold a bit more. Aside from Babe Face's wobbly legs, other motifs included miscommunication spots between the rudos and repeat use of the low blow. Rambo was brilliant at both, interjecting himself only to fuck up and delivering one of my all-time favourite fouls. The low blow in lucha can either attain heights it never does in any other form of wrestling or be the absolute nadir of professional lucha libre. Here the rudos won with a low blow thanks to a heel ref, but you won't believe what happened next as those shitty websites keep telling me every day. I didn't catch which Villano was clutching the Mendoza jewels, but Rambo was helping to stretch out his legs when suddenly he dropped a knee to the nether regions. The rudos' reaction was priceless. They bolted faster than I've ever seen a trio exit. Villanos IV and V chased them, but they were like rats up a drain pipe. It's moments like that which make it all worth while.
     
    Villanos IV and V did most of the wrestling for their side and they were largely excellent. I love the twisting, wristy arm drags they do, and at one point one of them had Rambo on the outside and did kind of a wristlock shoulder throw for a nice Rambo bump. Quinto also had a nice matador type spot where he kept making Babe Face look like Humpty Dumpty with a spinning back kick.
     
    Casas was class through all of this and worth watching the match twice for to pick up on all the nuances. I love his finger wag when selling a bulldog and the look on his face when he mistimed a move on top of Rambo. I also loved the way he shouted at his corner when he came off second best in the first exchange to fire himself up for the reset. Really fun bout.
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