ohtani's jacket

Personally, I think the Meltzer and WON threads can get a bit pedantic at times and it was a bit sad that they were always the threads with the little orange square next to them whenever I logged on, so I support the drive for fresher content.

Pierrothito vs. Demus 3:16, CMLL 8/24/10 I can't be the only one who didn't know that Pequeño Damián 666 changed his name to Demus 3:16, can I? This was the final of a "Bicentenial tournament" to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Mexican independence and the 18th anniversary of CMLL's Mini-Estrella division, with the winner earning a shot in the regular CMLL weight classes much like Virus did many years ago. The finalists were determined with torneo cibernetico elimination matches, and in a neat piece of booking the final was rudo vs. rudo. Pequeño Damián has been one of the best workers in Mexico for a number of years now, and Pierrothito is a respected veteran of the Mini-Estrella division and a great worker in his own right, so this was one of those rare match-ups where you have two really good workers facing each other. The first two falls here were a perfect example of how you can be compact but still natural through beautiful execution. The first caida was full of jockeying both on the mat and with pin attempts, and there were some neat shows of strength as both guys engaged in the lucha equivalent of puffing your chest out. Demus is a beast in terms of both his look and physique (probably the complete package in Mexico right now) and had Pierrothito's barrel chest to line up in this match, so he brought the stiffness early on. Both these guys are built like a brick shithouse with Pierrothito looking like a smaller version of Rick Steiner and Demus being a hefty guy with a big upper body, and given that they weigh more than many of their compadres they also have the force of that extra weight behind their moves. Demus did a plancha in the second caida, for example, that had some extra venom to it because of his larger build. Stiffness wasn't the only standout feature, however. The finishing stretch to the second caida was a really standard stringing together of moves, but the pacing was just right, and the moves were weighted in such a way that it was an important two or three moves which had been strung together. That may seem a lot of fuss over small details but getting those first two falls to mean something takes some skill in lucha libre. There are thousands of matches worked in Mexico each year; many of which are really quite innocuous or tepid at best (I'm trying to be more polite this year.) This match was for promotion into the higher ranks, and I, for one, appreciated the extra effort. The third fall was the kicker, of course. Phil Schneider described the way the heavy hitting broke down into an actual slugfest as being like Frye vs. Takayama, which is an apt and clever description, but really the structure of the entire fall was brilliant. The only part that didn't work was the mask ripping and bladejob, which felt out of place but was clearly done to create a visual. It didn't really hamstring the match, however, as they were back to brawling within a few seconds, and to be honest it was better than IWRG. Early on in the third, they were like two bulls charging at each other, and then later, Pierrothito's headbutt and Demus' punch combos were just sick. This was a hell of a fight and probably my match of the year for 2010 lucha libre. Both of these guys have worked incredibly hard over the years and I was thrilled that they were able to have a match this good. And thanks to CMLL for letting it happen! Pierrothito/Demus 3:16/Pequeño Warrior vs. Astral/Mascarita Dorada/Ultimo Dragoncito, CMLL 8/13/10 This was a beautiful match. On a certain level it was what you'd expect from the CMLL Mini-Estrella division, but either I haven't watched the minis in a while or they hit upon the perfect rhythm, because I thought this was sensational. It wasn't a particularly long match, but well balanced over the three falls. Particularly impressive was the beatdown section on Mascarita Dorada. One of the things that turned me off CMLL was that the rudos would basically do the same beatdown in the same order in every match on the card, but the beatdown here struck me as far more imaginative -- making good use of not only Dorada's size, but also enjoying their work. If you were a rudo, then Mascarita Dorada would be the perfect target: this small, weedy guy, who looks like the runt of the litter but at the same time is extremely virtuous. The enjoyment in beating the shit out of Mascarita Dorada would be quite the adrenaline rush, I imagine. Dorada, for his part, did a good job underfoot. It's hard for him to sell anything in his suit (aside from shaking his head about and flapping his arms), so bumping becomes more important and I liked the way he was chewed up and spat out in this match. He really is awesome. His big offensive run in the third caida was exciting as shit and everyone followed suit with cool spots. Even spots that are hopelessly set-up looked awesome in this match, and the finish was Demus at his decapitating best. The minis rule. Two excellent matches from CMLL.

Comando Negro vs. Pollo, mask vs. mask, IWRG 12/26/10 This is the fantastic mask vs. mask match from Boxing Day between Comando Negro and a guy in a chicken suit. Just an outstanding rudo performance from Comando Negro -- everything you'd want from a rudo beating up a guy in a chicken suit. I really can't overstate how perfectly this worked. First you had Comando Negro completely and utterly outclassing his opponent, stepping out of the way on the best missed dive I've seen in ages. Then you had a really classic technico comeback with the chicken all battered and bloody and woozy, and a third fall where the chicken would not be vanquished. I mentioned in my previous entry that it's difficult to have great matches at Arena Naucalpan but this was positively epic. The crowd were in full voice and right behind Pollo, which gave them a nice rhythm to work from, but the timing on the selling was equally great. Pollo surprised me by throwing both himself and unfolded chairs with equal abandon; I never expected the chicken to put up such a fight. The timing on everything was positively old-school and if there was any sloppiness it didn't matter because it was a guy in a chicken suit who'd lost a bucket of blood. Comando Negro was far from sloppy, however. I don't know if this was his coming out party but it sure as hell impressed me. His finisher was sick. Thoroughly entertaining.

Chico Che vs. Comando Negro, hair vs. mask, IWRG 12/9/10 Chico Che had a fantastic year in 2010. Last year it was Trauma II getting all the plaudits as most improved; this year it has to be Che. He started off as something of a fatboy novelty I suppose, but this match confirms what a good worker he's become. Usually, I'd fire off a bit of hyperbole about how much better he is than everyone else for the hell of it, but the message I want to get across is that he's a guy who everyone should be following. If you have even an inkling of interest in lucha then Che is a guy who can spark that interest further. He reminds me of a latter day version of prime Brazo de Plata, which is another way of saying that he reminds me of the characters who first drew me to lucha. Plata was part of a carefully orchestrated and successful act and as such used a lot more schtick than Che, but you can see a lot of Plata in Che particularly in the way he moves. We've seen a lot of good offence from Che this year and some fine brawling and selling in his trios matches with the Cerebros, but I was surprised to see it all come together here. This wasn't a great apuestas match, but in terms of what passes for a good apuestas in IWRG it was really good. You could tell that both guys were drawing upon every hair and mask match they'd ever seen, and there were a number of cool touches that in the hundreds of matches I've reviewed for this blog I've come to view as real staples of lucha apuestas matches. There were a few moments which were less than desirable, but you get that with any match. What I liked here was the attempt to make the match meaning something. The first two caidas are often the most difficult in an apuestas match because you have to get them out of the way before the big back and forth third caida, and that was pretty much the case here despite some nice looking punches from Chico. The third fall, however, was a real gem. That was where the brawling and the blood and the topes all came together. I haven't seen much lucha in the past few months, but there seemed to be an edge to Chico's work. He threw his full weight into each move and his offence was almighty. Comando Negro looked the part mainly by having a ripped mask and bloodied forehead, but I was also impressed with his impact moves. Arena Naucalpan is a difficult place to have a great match because it's so small. You have to hold back a bit and realise that smaller is bigger when there's bugger all people watching. With this in mind, I thought they did a good job of picking their spots. Their transitions could do with a bit of work and they could spend more time selling instead of pausing a beat or two before continuing but it's not a big arena match and I know these things are difficult to concentrate on. The end result was that there was blood, controversy, a bit of heat and some classy, classy offence from Che.

El Hijo Del Santo, Octagon, Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Blue Panther, Fuerza Guerrera, Psicosis (AAA 6/30/95) Perhaps it's just me, but I've always considered Santo/Octagon/Mysterio Jr vs. Blue Panther/Psicosis/Fuerza Guerrera to be the premier trios match-up from this era of AAA. I guess it's because their 3/16/95 match was one of the first tapes that was recommended to me when I was starting out. I can still remember the enjoyment I got from that early taste of lucha libre; and while I've seen many better matches since, I would be remiss in ignoring the role it played in my infatuation with lucha. These days, much of my enjoyment of pro-wrestling comes from discovering new and better matches/workers, which often smacks of revisionism (in so much as one can revise something which has had as little written about it as the wrestling which I presently enjoy); but after watching two more matches from these two teams, I can safely say that their position is unchallenged despite my natural bent towards revisionism. In other words, their matches are still good. This wasn't a huge, operatic trios, but it was a well worked match, and as I've said many times on this blog I take great heart in watching professionals perform lucha libre well. It was a match where the rudos essentially decided to pick on Rey Misterio Jr; not excessive rudoism, but sometimes the rudos' general demeanour is all it takes to piss off a technico. It was the technicos who started throwing punches in this match with Santo throwing better rights than when he was a rudo. He had some awesome exchanges with Psicosis, who was having one of those nights where his contribution was immeasurable. Their exchanges were wilder, and far better, than anything they ever did against other in singles competition. The real star of the match, however, was Rey Misterio Jr., who had the heat put on him early and rose to the occasion with one of the best performances of his young career. I'm not always impressed by early Rey, but he had wonderful control here and the timing of his moves matched the narrative well. The only downer was the finish, which, while not completely unrelated to what had gone before, was gutless in light of Misterio's strong performance. Nice body to this match. I recommend checking it out on youtube.

What does it matter if it's a work? The work is that Luger is a choke artist.

Yeah. Like that fucking hack Shakespeare, for example. That idiot always made his protagonists doubt themselves and commit unspeakably horrible acts. Clearly he didn't know anything about storytelling. The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark would have totally been better if the babyface had just Hammed Up and kicked the heel's ass, instead of whining about all his insecurities for three hours in a row. Wrestling isn't Hamlet. It's not A Wonderful Life, either. It doesn't even have the depth of a comic book. The trouble with the WWE is that you have these writers who want to write for film or TV who've read all the right books or graduated from college writing courses and want to write all these "great" stories in a medium that doesn't let itself well to depth in storytelling and is not properly serviced by it. Look at the angles that people brought up in Dean's WWF thread on DVDVR: they were all simple and direct. A lot of great promos, strong characterisations and decent narratives, but none of this bullshit you see with ham actors like Shawn Michaels making that patented Shawn Michaels look of concern. The WWE became so EMO last decade (for want of a far better word.) Way too many promos about people's feelings.

What is it about Japanese crowds that you like so much?

Do you find any other styles of wrestling phony? What do you think of lucha and the Euro style? Do you like Yoshiaki Fujiwara?

El Hijo Del Santo, El Mariachi, El Mexicano, Octagon vs. Blue Panther, Espanto Jr., Fuerza Guerrera, Psicosis, AAA 8/19/94 I was expecting this to be mat heavy since it read Blue Panther vs. El Mariachi, but actually I don't think it had much to do with Blue Panther vs. El Mariachi at all. It was loosely structured around Fuerza and Mariachi ripping each other's masks, but the action was more tit for tat than anything else. I can't think of a solitary reason why anyone would watch this beyond the week it aired, but I will say that the work itself was extremely fluid. From the rudo side, I was impressed with Fuerza and Espanto. This wasn't the type of match where the rudos impose their will on proceedings and stem the flow of technico offence; it was the type of match where one worker takes over from the last and the exchanges continue along the same rhythm. To that end, I thought Fuerza and Espanto made near perfect working decisions. Wrestling is as much about the choices workers make as anything else. I've long admired the ability wrestlers have to make choices on the spur of the moment, but what set Fuerza and Espanto apart is the effort they put into even the most basic of choices. Even their transitions in and out of the ring were convincing, and that sort of care and attention to detail was in direct contrast to Blue Panther who had an off night. His open-handed strikes swiped the air a lot and his kicks weren't much better. As a result, he had a tendency to wander in and out of the match a lot. Psicosis was much tidier, but his participation was limited to guillotines off the top and so forth. The technicos were all pretty good in this. It wasn't a match with huge momentum shifts or important turning points, so the transitions onto technico offence were all pretty soft, but once they started busting out the ring clearing exchanges, the match had, for the briefest of moments, the sort of cracking pace and electrifying exchanges that wow even the most hardened of fans. This is one of the reasons why I don't like to criticise Octagon. While he'll never win the Palme d'Or for lucha workers, he was perfectly capable of pulling out these Black Man moments when a trios demanded it. Credit often goes to the rudo who bumped, but Octagon had a spectacular way of contorting his body. Santo was also industrious in this match and gave a good performance. Solid stuff, but like I said, not a lot to immortalise it beyond August of 1994.

One wonders what the voting base will be like in ten years time. Surely if people think it's bad now it's only going to get worse.

Sure, if you ignore the Korean War, the Cold War, the witchhunts, social and political conservativism, segregation, fear of the bomb, rigid sexual attitudes, paranoia over juvenile delinquency, the materialistic nuclear family and the "other America" who lived in poverty, the 50s were a great old time. Regardless of all that, winning the war doesn't really make up for the fact there was a war in the first place.

7/29/94 AAA: El Hijo Del Santo/Octagon/Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Blue Panther/Fuerza Guerrera/Jerry Estrada - Arena Coliseo De Monterrey Not a lot going on in this match. It seemed like they wanted to put their 20 minutes in and get it over with. The structure wasn't bad, since these guys know how to put on a 20 minute trios match, but there wasn't the extra bit of effort that's need to make a trios stand out from the hundreds of others that are wrestled each year. Can't say I blame them considering they probably worked somewhere else the same day or were on a back-to-back or something, but there wasn't a single highlight in 20 minutes of wrestling. Forgettable, really.

I don't get it.

I don't think they lost huge amounts of money. SWS mostly broke up due to in fighting. Megane scaled back their sponsorship, but they did help bankroll both WAR and NOW.

It's my understanding that he passed the New Japan entrance test but opted to go to Ashikaga-kodai High School because it was a famous wrestling school. He was also invited to join SWS, which would've changed his career significantly.

I don't see what Tamana, Kumamoto means even to hardcore fans, and Birmingham is pretty infamous for its crappiness. So is Cleveland, but they still announce the Miz from there. Presumably, Cleveland means something to US fans that Birmingham doesn't.

I don't see what Tamana, Kumamoto means even to hardcore fans, and Birmingham is pretty infamous for its crappiness.

Why is it so surprising that good bookers would have bad ideas? Isn't that kind of natural?

Hamada had a hand in training the original JWP girls. Ultimately, both he and Onita wanted the book. UWA and FMW are what JWP would've turned into had the girls not resisted.

Hey Graham, thanks for the feedback. As I said in my newest entry, I can understand why Peña booked AAA the way he did, but for the most part it was a colossal waste of talent. A successful waste of talent but a waste of talent nonetheless. Which isn't to say that Santo was booked poorly in AAA or given a raw deal because that's patently untrue. I'm sure if you asked Santo how he felt about his AAA days he'd have nothing but good things to say since we know that most wrestlers judge success on the size of the gate and the number of tickets sold, but for us fans (in our tiny little corner of fandom), I agree that it could've been so much more. Santo was far from the worst misuse, however. How does Espanto Jr. go from being on par with all the top guys in Mexico in 1992 to being so useless in AAA? It seems like he spent most of his time in AAA getting fucked up.

The cover to Love and Rockets 46 reminds me I have a blog to update. 7/15/94 AAA: El Hijo Del Santo/Octagon/Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Blue Panther/Fuerza Guerrera/Psicosis - Gimnasio Juan De La Barera After saying my piece about Santo last time, allow me to turn around and praise him this week. Santo was phenomenal here and gave arguably his best AAA performance in this little known trios match. The difference between this and a lot of Santo's other performances is that this actually started out on the mat. One of the things that bugs me most about this era of AAA is the lack of matwork. The other day I was watching a match where Satanico squared off with Solar. Rather foolishly, I expected them to work like maestros, and well, you can imagine how I felt when all they did were shoulder-checks. I understand why AAA had the style that it did and I realise that my tastes in lucha are far more in line with Juan Herrera than Antonio Peña. I also acknowlege that there was a large fanbase for Peña's ideas and that many of them made money, but that money has been long since spent and it's just so frustrating to see great workers tumbling when they should be working the mat. That's what made this much such a wonderful exception. Santo and Panther wrestled on the mat for a good two to three minutes; and while it may not have been as deep or as long as some people would like, it was matwork that Blue Panther and Atlantis would be proud of. The thing that struck me most about watching them work is that unlike the lousy, assisted matwork of the Psicosis title match, their knowledge of the ins and outs of each hold extended to the proper counters, which meant that none of their escapes looked aided or assisted. It's not a very original thing to say, but for once the term "mat clinic" can be applied without sounding like a lazy cop out. I was also impressed with their second go-around, which was much more in keeping with the "Bull and the Matador" routine where one luchador clears the ring of the other but more inspired than usual. To top it all off, Santo produced once of the most exciting finishes to a caida I've ever seen. Octagon had Psicosis in the set-up position for a powerbomb, and all in one motion, Santo managed to turn a leapfrog into a forward somersault and a forward somersault into a huracarrana and the pin. Just a fantastic piece of athleticism from El Hijo del Santo and a kickass way for a technico to prove their superiority. The rest of the match was fairly decent too. It was pretty much standard fare for AAA with the technicos looking to get out on the break and the rudos being fooled into running with them, but it went down to the wire and had an exciting final play. AAA trios basically amount to either a technico showcase or a bone for the rudos and this was a case of the latter. None of the other parties gave an outstanding performance and Santo was less involved after the first caida, but he absolutely flew on one of this planchas to further prove he was on point.

You had me thinking he'd died.

Regular readers will know that I don't like classic, hot period AAA very much, but I do like it more than any of the current stuff that's being put out so for the time being there will be an AAA season here at the Great Lucha blog w/ the occasional interlude should anything catch my eye. Some of these reviews will be critical and some will be filled with praise, but we start the season off with some criticism of a man who's hardly ever criticised: El Hijo Del Santo. 2/16/94 AAA: El Hijo Del Santo vs Psicosis (WWA Welterweight Title) - Aguascalientes Some time ago, I was prompted to watch Psicosis and El Hijo del Santo's 1995 WWA Welterweight title match again after reading the only criticism of the match I had ever come across. It was a bit of an eye opener really, not only because it changed my opinion of a match I had thought was pretty good, but because it drove home how little there is in the way of lucha match discussion. I figure most people who read this blog will agree with me that it can be tough finding match recommendations let alone a discourse. The reason for this is that there just aren't enough people who care, but one of the side effects of this lack of discourse is that folks tend to believe what they "hear," and one of the things folks tend to believe (without really knowing) is that El Hijo Del Santo is one of the greatest workers ever. Now before this starts sounding like tall poppy syndrome, let me just state that I like El Hijo Del Santo. Not as much as some people, but the next review I intend to write will be full of praise for Santo's performance. My gripe with Santo is the notion that he can't put a foot wrong. In many ways, this type of thinking was a by-product of this hot period of AAA where lucha went from being something Dave Meltzer didn't particularly like to a hot ticket that he could get behind. 1993-95 AAA was the peak of lucha's popularity among sheet readers (most of whom aren't around anymore), and because its popularity never grew from there, we're left with even more tired ideas than usual. I mean, Santo as superworker is a really 90s idea. It's the equivalent of a bunch of sheet readers saying, "oh, he's the Jushin Thunder Liger of Mexico." The point of this entry isn't to belittle anyone but to point out the lack of discourse, because I'd put it to folks that not only is El Hijo Del Santo not a superworker but these two years represent the worst two years of El Hijo Del Santo's prime. Take this match, for example. Santo coasted through plenty of trios matches in AAA but trios matches are there to be coasted through sometimes. This was a singles match and those are rare in lucha. It came on the back of some truly awful matches between Santo and Heavy Metal in 1993 and can't be explained away easily. Santo was given three falls, 20+ minutes and all the scope in the world to have a great match. It's difficult to say how much influence Peña had over the style Santo worked, but Santo certainly had all the allowances he needed to have a great match with 1994 AAA matches being longer and much more mat based than they would later become. But you take the first fall alone and it's just a shockingly bad fall. One thing I've noticed about Santo over the years is that there's really two Santos: the one who's in there with a great worker and the one who's not. The one who's in there with a great worker tends to test his skills against those of his opponent and is exceptionally creative. The one who's in there with a lesser worker tends to lead them through the standard Santo match. That's not a terrible knock on Santo; the guy's a pro who understands a house and always gives the fans what they came to see, but it seems to me that he judged Psicosis as being in the lesser category, and well, 20+ minutes of the Santo show isn't particularly inspiring. As uninspiring as it may be, was it necessary? I've always told people who judge Psicosis on his US work that he can't be judged on his US work for the sheer reason that he never showed even a fraction of his true personality in the US. It's night and day comparing WCW Psicosis to AAA Psicosis. One had a cult following and the other fell off the map completely. His strength wasn't in singles matches, however. Psicosis' strength was being an outrageous character in trios matches. In time, he may have been the heir to Fuerza or Pierroth in terms of being "that guy" in a trios match. You could argue that he was on the way already, but despite being most famous for his matches with Rey Mysterio, Jr., he wasn't a singles guy. You can see it in the first fall matwork here, which was an embarrassing series of released holds. Psicosis was more often than not taller than his opponent and this appears to have added to his difficulties on the mat, but you are what you are on the mat and the best you can do is try. My beef here is with Santo who did little to lead Psicosis through an acceptable opening fall to a lucha title match. His matwork was just as disjointed as Psicosis' attempts at countering it and to make matters worse he went to one of his worst finishes to end the fall. The subsequent fall only confused matters more. Psicosis sold the second fall like a technico while Santo dominated it like a rudo. It started off with the old "there's no timeouts in wrestling" schtick that Southern heels loved to pull, but then Santo started beating on him pretty hard. Call me crazy, but it made for uncomfortable viewing. No technico looks good injurying a rudo even if that rudo is stalling. It was better matwork than the first fall, but it was unbecoming of Santo as a technico and didn't really belong in a title match either, especially when the champion was a fall up. I can only imagine that Psicosis had done something penis like in the trios matches leading into this bout for Santo to behave like this. They may have been trying to get the crowd behind Psicosis since Peña liked to book him over Santo during this era, but the crowd didn't seem to particularly like it and who can blame them with no discernable story? There wasn't any particular rhythm to it either. I didn't really understand what they were playing at here and Santo over-sold some back bumps to finish the fall. Two bad falls in a row. The third fall was lucha at its worst and bored the shit out of me the first time I watched it. Watching it again now, I can't believe how much they're selling between rounds. They're obviously trying to heighten the drama but it's completely unwarranted. Had they been through two tough falls it might have geared me up for the third but it was completely Santo ran through his staples like a Saturday morning cartoon. It was probably their best work of the match but I don't care about nearfalls deep in a match when I didn't give a shit about the first two falls, and watching Santo whiz overhead for a tope is just so predctable even if it was picture perfect. A few seconds later (i.e. right on cue), Psiscois did an unbelievably awesome dive. A few seconds after that, he did his corner shoulder bump through the ropes and out onto the concrete, and Santo followed that up with a dive (you can guess which one.) I can't really fault the effort here. They were trying to hit the right spots and have a great match and Tirantes was getting into it with his counting, but a match doesn't start with the dives. (Well, they do these days, but that tells you what's wrong with modern lucha.) To sum up the night, the match ended with someone being out of position for the ref bump, which was more like a forward somersault into a takedown than an accidental collision. Look, it's never easy to create drama in a wrestling match, but this match was majorly botched. Santo didn't set the right sort of platform in the opening fall and Psicosis' selling was off-key. Santo tried to sell the same as Psicosis to give it the match the sort of symmetry that luchadores like to give their matches but by that point they were lost at sea. This match probably needed to be a carry but it was poorly done by Santo. They came back a year later at the same venue and had another ugly match. Obviously, they couldn't iron out the flaws. The point to all this isn't to prove Santo is shit, it's to point out the inconsistencies within his work. It's not my intention to disprove the notion that El Hijo Del Santo is a superworker, though I certainly don't believe it, but I'd like to float the idea because when I first got into lucha there was practically no criticism of name workers. I'm sure of the reasons for this, though I suspect it has something to do with the fact that because lucha is so underappreciated its fans constantly have to promote and protect it. Anyway, I've stated my case on Santo being an inconsistent worker. Decide for yourselves.

Los Intocables vs. Octagon/Apolo Dantes/Mascara Sagrada, 4/3/92 Los Intocables was the trios Pierroth Jr. formed in 1992 with Masakre and Jaque Mate, which represented probably the highwater mark of Pierroth's career. Individually, they weren't as good as the Brazos or Infernales, or even some of the more randomly thrown together trios in Mexico at the time; in fact, you could probably argue that in this case the whole was equal to the sum of the parts, but the trios gave Pierroth a chance to shine as leader of a group and he took the bull by both horns and had a fantastic 1992. This wasn't a particularly outstanding match (in truth none of Los Intocables' matches were), but it was interesting to see what the rudos did with their share of the match. Pierroth was always a guy with a flair for the dramatic. He used to take the kraziest of bumps in even the most banal trios matches until a particularly nasty one almost marked the end of Pierroth Jr. Now that he was starting to get noticed, he shelves the killer bumps, but he still loved attention and nowhere was that more noticeable than in the extended and incredibly detailed sell he did from a slap to the face. For a guy wearing a mask, you'd swear he was Brando. The rudo beatdown was good too. I swear it was more measured than all of the rudo beatdowns in the last three years of CMLL combined. How difficult is it to kick, punch or knee someone then sell like you think you're great for kicking or punching someone? Here's another thing I swear, the next guy who watches old tapes and copies this will be declared a genius new wrestler. The other interesting thing about this match was watching a young Apolo Dantes. Dantes would go on to become a good worker and modest star, but man was his style all over the place. Somebody should've put him on the straight and narrow. The great failing of lucha is similar to Japan in that the next generation of great wrestlers never emerged. Workers like Dantes should've taken us through to an early 2000s full of great matches but it never happened and the seeds for that are back in the early 90s as good as that period was. Mano Negra/Gallo Tapado/El Misterioso vs. Espectro Jr./Espectro de Ultratumba/Fuerza Guerrera, 2/24/91 This was part of the fun mini-feud between Fuerza Guerrera and Gallo Tapado, the Rooster. CMLL had a habit during this era of bringing in older guys who were willing to drop their masks to rudos like Fuerza and Pierroth Jr. who could benefit from an apuestas win. It was all very respectfully done and in this case Gallo Tapado was a maestro of Fuerza, so there were no problems. Fuerza is a guy who I always forget about for the sole reason that he doesn't have a lot of singles programs that made tape, so this is a rare-ish opportunity to see him in a lead role and to be honest I think his charisma is on parallel with someone like Negro Casas. Casas was a little different in that he was maskless (along with being one of the greatest actors in the history of professional wrestling, as well as one of the most multi-faceted characters), but for a guy with a mask Fuerza was remarkably expressive. It seems that for awhile their careers were on a similar trajectory, but Fuerza never really got that career defining push possibly because he was too small. Anyway, this wasn't a great match, otherwise I would've devoted an entire entry to it, but it had its fair share of fun moments. Some nice comedy from the Espectros. El Satanico/Kamala/Pierroth vs. Rayo de Jalisco Jr./Black Magic/Ringo Mendoza, 3/24/91 Kamala vs. Rayo de Jalisco Jr is worthy of a Jack Kirby splash page. This was another fun "Kamala in Mexico" match. It didn't quite live up to the last Kamala match I commented on, but there was a krazy Pierroth bump (as referred to above), a glorious experiment in how to remove a limb from its joint between falls (whatever happened to that sort of work?), and a rough end to the night for El Gran Davis. Lucha should be fun and that's exactly what this was. Los Misioneros de la Muerte (Negro Navarro/El Signo/El Texano) vs. Jason/Leatherface/Chessman, LLL, 11/16/03 Disappointing. It would be easy to blame the AAA guys and say they can't work but the Misioneros were just as uninspiring. Villanos III, IV & V vs. Blue Panther, Pimpinela & Enterrador, 5/18/00 Decent "scientific" match. I love that term -- scientific wrestling. The only problem with the match was that it was too slow. The Villanos have always been a trios that struggled with rhythm and IWRG matches are wrestled at a slower pace than most lucha but this was slow even by those standards. In isolation it may not have been a problem, but contrasting it with those early 90s matches it seemed a bit faded.