ohtani's jacket

El Hijo del Santo vs. Espanto Jr, mask vs. mask, 8/31/86 This is a classic Monterrey bloodbath, but the best thing about it is seeing Santo as a young luchador. There wasn't any semblance of a traveling act yet. It was like the match unlocked a period in Santo's early career where he didn't have fixed ideas about working; where he was still searching for the best way to bump and sell & make face comebacks. The Santo roadshow is a great roadshow. Many times I've thought, "Here we go -- same moves, same patterns, different order," yet been surprised by how great the match is. If it's not the greatest traveling act of them all, then it's certainly the most enduring. But this was different. It was like watching old Santo films & getting half a clue to the kind of worker senior was. I may be overreacting due to the fact I just saw this, but I'd go as far as saying it's the most interesting (El Hijo del) Santo match I've seen. It hit me from the beginning that I've never seen Santo grapple like he does here, or sell a bump with an arched back in such a flailing way. Match is a tribute to their seniors ( ), with the usual mask ripping & blood of a wager match. It's not the bloodiest Monterrey brawl, but there's plenty of visuals of bloodied masks & tuffs of hair. It pretty much smokes Santo/Casas from 7/87. Santo/Casas is a great sprint; Casas is magnifico & it's a joy to watch, but hold-for-hold this match is tough to beat. Stakes are high and they really do look like El Santo & Espanto grappling. The camera work gives it an edge too. It's shot from a single camera at ringside, but the guy knew what he was doing. Your average Joe can't hold a camera like that. He got some great pick-ups, especially a shot of Santo kneeling in front of the ringpost, trying to pull himself together between the first & second caida. A bunch of kids come over and pat Santo on the shoulder. It's an awesome scene that would be lost to replays ordinarily. It gives it a raw documentary feel. What you do miss, however, are Espanto's reactions. The match is shot from Santo's corner, so it tells the story from his perspective. Given who's losing, that's a bit of a loss. There's a few jump cuts as well, but nothing too bad. If you're gonna drop the mask, you might as well do it in a Monterrey type setting & hope you have a great match. And that's exactly what they did.

I have nothing but negative things to say about the future of Japanese wrestling, but honestly the coverage has never been that great to begin with.

Pirata Morgan/Gran Markus/Ulises vs. Popitekus/Atlantis/El Dandy, 05/28/89 Wow, this wasn't good... I was surprised since 1989 El Dandy, Atlantis & Pirata Morgan is what hooked me on lucha in the first place. It was almost technicos v technicos, complete with matwork. When it comes to lucha matwork, I'm as big a sucker as the next guy, but this was... middling. Javier Cruz v. Jerry Estrada, hair vs. hair, 10/20/89 For the life of me, I can't figure out what other people see in Jerry Estrada. If you ever wanted to see a wrestler work a match from their lizard brain then this is the match. If I were Cruz, I'd be scared for my safety. You never know what the fuck Estrada's gonna do next. It's like watching a method actor work with an old school Hollywood type. Consensus says this is a great match, so you should check it out for yourself. This is the second or third time I've subjected myself to it, and it's bad. So very, very bad. Estrada's in a stupor from the beginning & can't do the simplest of moves without his brain wiring his extremities. Cruz may have been just as tanked, but he was never the type to take a match by the scruff of the neck. In a sense, I admire him for trying to sell such shitty, slow, botched offence, but the finer points are lost. Estrada is grandiose. If grandiose means showing up to a match all fucked up. Atlantis vs. Emilio Charles, Jr, CMLL Lucha Libre 1984 OK, a match I liked... There's no way of knowing for sure, but this felt like a new kind of lucha. It had an old school build to it, in that there was more emphasis on winning each fall (including working your man over far more than in later lucha), but instead of grounded, leverage-based matwork, they did a lot of awesome fast-paced exchanges. You forget how much of his game Atlantis shelved, or indeed how quick he was... and Emilio was an awesome worker in the 80s. This was the best showcase of 1984 Atlantis I've seen. The kind of match where he reminds me of Lizmark. Given it was a year or less since his debut, credit ought to go to Emilio for being a new school rudo. It would appear that these guys were part of a generation who were shaping a new kind of rhythm in lucha.

I got it from Jeff Lynch. I've never seen it uploaded anywhere. Unfortunately I don't have it with me, otherwise I'd try to be a patron saint.

Here's a reference list for people looking for somewhere to start w/ lucha. It's not a definitive list, but ought to get you hooked. 1. Atlantis vs Blue Panther, 8/9/91 2. El Dandy vs Negro Casas, 7/3/92 3. Angel Azteca vs. El Dandy, 6/1/90 4. El Satanico/El Dandy/Emilio Charles Jr. vs. Atlantis/Javier Cruz/Angel Azteca, 5/13/90 5. Los Infernales (MS-1, Satanico & Pirata Morgan) vs. Los Brazos, 11/22/91 6. Bracito De Oro/Cicloncito Ramirez/Mascarita Magica vs Damiancito El Guerrero/El Fierito/Pierrothito, 10/3/97 7. Cicloncito Ramirez vs Damiancito El Guerrero, 1/7/97 8. Trio Fantasia v. Thundercats, (Masks vs. Masks), 12/8/91 9. Ciclon Ramirez vs Felino (Mask vs Mask), 7/9/93 10. Pirata Morgan vs El Faraon (Hair vs Hair), 11/16/90 11. El Hijo Del Santo vs Brazo De Oro (Mask vs Hair), 1/13/91 12. El Mariachi vs Blue Panther, 10/30/94 13. Ciclon Ramirez vs Javier Cruz (Hair vs Hair), 6/10/94 14. Atlantis/Brazo De Oro/El Dandy/Mascara Magica/La Fiera/Negro Casas/Shocker/Ultimo Dragon vs Black Warrior/Dr. Wagner Jr./El Hijo Del Santo/Felino/Kevin Quinn/Satanico/Scorpio Jr./Silver King, 4/18/97 15. El Hijo del Santo vs. Felino, 7/4/97 16. Rayo De Jalisco Jr. vs Apolo Dantes, 5/31/96 17. Octagon vs Fuerza Guerrera, 11/1/91 18. Mascarita Sagrada vs Espectrito I, 3/12/94 19. Silver King vs Apolo Dantes, 6/23/95 20. Dr. Wagner Jr./El Hijo Del Santo/El Texano/La Fiera/Mascara Magica/Mr. Niebla/Shocker vs Black Warrior/El Dandy/Felino/Mano Negra/Negro Casas/Scorpio Jr./Silver King, 3/28/97

Gran Apache vs. Oscar Sevilla, 3/19/00 Gran Apache is a favourite of a lot of people these days, which doesn't surprise me as he's over 40 & all the best guys in Mexico seem to be over 40. I tried getting into the whole Apache family saga. It seems like a pretty cool angle (apart from the baby being scared out of its wits), the only problem is that Billy Boy sucks. Apache, however, is quite the worker. So I sought out a technico who might not suck as much, and here you have it -- Super Libre in the rain. I also watched their hair match & was amped to see it when the clowns started fighting, but it didn't pick up until the third fall & this was much better. I wasn't so interested in them fighting in the rain, I just thought it was a decent Super Libre brawl. Apache is agile enough to catch all the pretty boy stuff young guys like to do in Mexico and work the junior-esque spots, but compact enough to throw a pretty good punch & I'm sure he'd work circles on the mat if young guys weren't so terrified of the mat these days. Anyway, his blueprint was all over this. I wasn't too sure what they were trying to package Oscar Sevilla as, but he fought through the overbooking to prove himself as a technico who could stick up for himself. Match was a little bit light heavyweight-ish, and a typical AAA-product, but they fought hard & that's what I like to see.

El Brazo vs. Rambo, hair vs. hair, CMLL 3/22/96 Thought I'd compare this to Rambo's earlier fight in AAA. CMLL hair matches always feel like more of a fight than AAA matches. More punching, ramming each other's heads into the ringpost, the mat... Just more scrappy in general. Yet they're far more narrow in scope, even with a double bladejob like this one. Even though they're more solid than AAA hair or mask matches, they lack that big time feel. The structure is largely the same -- two quick falls & a longer one -- but there's much ado about finishes in AAA. To get that big, flashy feel they play up the crescendo of each fall, while CMLL is low key. I like the work better in this match, but the arc of where the match begins & where it ends is really small, despite how pissy the loser is. Sometimes a match needs heat to take it to the next level. Perhaps this wasn't a big feud. Perhaps the approach is too direct, with not enough weight given to the finishes. In any case, the match doesn't resolve anything. There's a sense of justice or injustice in even the screwiest of AAA finishes. Maybe this is just a fight. Kinda seems like a waste of a guy's hair, though.

Is that the one that ends with them piledriving each other on the floor? That was an awkward finish.

What I want to know is when Michaels and Flair became such good friends. Was this in Flair's first or second run with the company?

I'm not so sure I think Flair is a scumbag based on what you mentioned, and I find it difficult to believe that everyone in wrestling is on the scummy side. I dunno, maybe scum has a different connotation in the US. It's pretty harsh where I come from. Anyway, wrestling (to me) seems less of a profession & more of a lifestyle, and I think that lifestyle feeds the business as much as the business creates the lifestyle. People talk about wrestlers not being able to separate their character from real life, but it's not like the movies & lord knows actors have a hard time switching off when the director calls cut. Wrestlers are like anyone else in show business. When Flair was cutting all those cool promos in the 80s, he probably was doing all that shit he talked about. The whole business is predicated on bad behaviour. The worse a guy acts the better a heel he is, yet when shit happens in real life people go ape. I'm rambling now. If Flair committed manslaughter, I'd probably agree he was scummy.

Trio Fantasia v. Thundercats, masks vs. masks, 12/8/91 Trio Fantasia are Super Muñeco, Super Raton & Super Pinocho. Thundercats are actually Leono, Tigro and Panthro. Complete costumes and everything. THIS IS A FUCKING GREAT BRAWL. One of the best Monterrey brawls I've ever seen, and definitely one of the best lucha matches of the 90s. I had no idea this was a mask match when I started watching it. I was expecting comedy, maybe a bit of flying. This was amazing. They beat the fuck out of each other in front of 17,000. Super Muñeco's sucked in a thousand matches, but was awesome here. Super Raton was fucking boss. Mangled bodies, ripped masks, one hell of a stained canvas. Panthro's mask was soaked in blood. It was surreal to see gimmicked workers maul each other like this. And to top it all off, Los Thundercats unmasked as the most veteran, journeymen workers you're ever likely to see. Amazing!

As far as the Benoit thing goes, I read about murders in the newspaper all the time without giving them much thought. Hell, shortly before the murder-suicide, I read a magazine article about the growing trend in men killing their families. Didn't give it much thought. Yet when Benoit did it, I was shocked. I don't have kids, but I got married not so long ago & I couldn't understand how anyone could hurt their wife. Happens all the time, I just never thought about it. Can't say I'm outraged; I find the whole thing incomprehensible. It's a fucked-up situation, and I can't blame anyone for the way they react, including not thinking about it too much, which leads to cheering the name drop. I doubt those guys have really thought about what happened, or maybe they're just idiots, but people do stupid shit all the time and this was stupid shit. As far as disattachment goes, I don't know how much I need to know or should care that Flair used coke & fucked around. I'm sure a lot of women have cared over the years, not to mention his wife, but you've gotta draw the line somwhere. Where that line is, I don't really know. I'd hate to say the line is murder or death, but there's only so much you can care about when it doesn't affect you or the people around you.

Villano III vs. Rambo, hair vs. mask, AAA 9/24/93 Rambo was such an awesome gimmick as he looked less like Rambo & more like your average mercenary/militant from an 80s action flick. He wasn't much of a worker aside from easy to set-up spots & big bumps, but this was AAA & the style revolves around big spots & bigger bumps. Brawling Villano is my favourite kind of Villano III. I saw him brawl with El Hijo del Santo the other day, which made me wish there was a widely known match between the two. Likewise I saw him reignite the hate between the Villanos and the Brazos, this time with de Plata Jr & Platino, which was right up my alley. This was a big, dopey AAA style brawl, but a fun match. Rambo took a huge bump to the outside, which was your typical insane AAA bump. I'm still searching for another AAA Classic, but I think a lot of people would dig this.

Everybody needs to check out this clip of Los Brazos vs. Los Fantasticos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLTOJ7Fa8bA Such an amazingly great caida of wrestling. Everything you need to know about lucha, you can learn from watching Los Brazos. Brazos vs. MS-1/Pirata Morgan/Emilio Charles, Jr. (early 90s, aired WWO) Brazos vs. Kato Kung Lee/Super Astro/Volador, CMLL 2/8/91 Brazos vs. Atlantis/Mascara Sagrada/Octagon, CMLL 5/17/91 These aren't outstanding matches, in fact they're mostly Brazos shtick, but shtick is part of what makes lucha great. Porky's girth was a big reason why Los Brazos were a success. If Porky hit a splash, they won a lot of falls, but he was a simple soul; easily distracted & forever getting yelled at by his brothers. Which always led to Porky crying & wanting to leave. If you've never seen Porky cry, it's a sight to behold. Fans would pull him by the arm to keep him from leaving, & El Brazo would try to console him, but the classy part was when the technicos won the fall. They'd invite Porky to celebrate with them, & after it slowly dawned on him, he'd leap for joy. The brothers were never very happy about that, and Porky would have to be nudged back over to his side. Some people might wonder how the middle of a match can be consumed by comedy like that, or how a potentially great match-up in Brazos vs. MS-1, Pirata & Emilio can be built around miscommunication between Pirata & Emilio and still be a blast... Simply put it's part & parcel of lucha libre. The reason it's gold is that it's actually funny. The comedy's never based on stupidity. It's always genuine humour. Charisma and humour. Like The Destroyer or Fujiwara. Aside from the skits, I've seen a few people express frustration at great workers like Atlantis being paired with Mascara Sagradas or Octagons in trios... That's not a problem when the rudos are Brazos. When searching for lucha, there's no guarantees about match quality. The greatest looking trios can be letdowns, while entertaining matches feature the worst workers. General rule of thumb -- at least one great technico & two great rudos. Lucha is this kind of all-embracing style where even the shittiest of workers have their moments.

Miguel Perez Jr./Ricky Santana vs Los Head Hunters I y II, CMLL 8/5/94 Here's a match I wasn't too sure about that ended up being pretty damn good. I guess I'm a bit iffy about foreigners working Mexico, but these guys took to it well. It's a beatdown to start with; Los Head Hunters cutting off the face comebacks, before taking it to the outside & working the foreign objects. An older lady complains to the ref while Santana blades at her feet. Awesome. Bloodied & battered, the faces fight back & it's all big moves and even bigger misses. I reckon the Head Hunters' huge splashes when Santana or Perez roll out of the way are even cooler than their planchas, though it does look cool when guys that big do planchas. The Head Hunters are massively fun. Love that rolly polly bumping. Santana and Perez, Jr. are straight out of 1994. Haircuts, tights, "bulked-up" power based offence. You name it. Great lucha finish, though. This smokes almost any other foreigner's work from '93-95. You can find this on youtube.

Atlantis, Cien Caras & Rayo de Jalisco Jr vs Mocho Cota, La Fiera & Sangre Chicana, CMLL '84 This ruled. It was a trios built around punches, heel shtick & cheap shots. Mocho Cota may be one of the great, all-time rudo stooges if this is anything to go by & worked the comedy as effortlessly as he worked the mat against Rocca. The two sides barely locked up once. So entertaining. And the kids swarming the ring at the end was awesome.

Brazo de Oro vs. Sangre Chicana, hair vs. hair, 6/19/92 Jesus Christ this was awesome. The heat was amazing. Most of us are familiar with Sangre Chicana as the sympathetic babyface who takes one hell of a beating from MS-1 in their '83 bloodbath, selling every blow as sheer brutality... Here he's a veteran rudo, who only has to take a few steps for the heat to start rising. Unbelievable charisma. At one point he starts jawing with a fan and it's so convincing that you can believe those crazy lucha stories about fans waiting outside to shoot/knife a rudo. Hell, he can hardly work. He's in his 40s, with 20 years in the business, but he can still sell. Brazo de Oro takes his leg apart in the third caida, really doing a number on it. Chicana sells it for everything he's worth. Theatrical, but not too big. Just enough that everyone in the building can see him pleading, begging for mercy... The ref's all suckered in. He doesn't know where he should draw the line. Brazo de Oro's unsure whether he should break the guy's leg. Super Porky keeps urging his brother to "attack!" So, of course the ref wants Porky to pipe down. Getting the ref to turn his back. One of the oldest cons in the book. This is a really simple match where the heat never dies off because the rudo's so good.

That's also what I thought. Wasn't Flair illicting a pop by mentioning his name?

Pierrotito/Damiancito el Guerrero vs Ultimo Dragoncito/Cicloncito Ramirez, 4/97 TV This didn't have the beautiful structure of the Mini Classics from '97, but even in an average sort of a match (average meaning "good" or "very good" by comparison), there's a ridiculous amount of talent on show. I've seen a few comments about how Damiancito el Guerrero (now Virus) is one of the great, underrated workers of the last decade or so, but I'm not feeling that in so far as they were all great. Whenever Damiancito steps into the ring with Cicloncito Ramirez, it's a rare instance of luchadors matching each other hold for hold. Most luchadors try to work hold for hold, but either the technico is poor, meaning the rudo has to bump a lot, or the rudo is crappy & nothing the technico does looks good. The former is OK if the rudo is great. The latter never good. Watching these guys here and in other trios, whatever sequence Damiancito pulls out, Cicloncito can match it with something equally spectacular, until one sequence is so spectacular that you have a "winner" & the next pair take over. For people new to lucha, these pairings can be confusing as they don't build to a finish in the way you might expect, in fact the finish can seem disconnected from what's come before, but as you start to learn about patterns in lucha, you'll get a sense for momentum -- how showmanship builds momentum & how you can pick the winner of the first caida based on who has the upper hand in the exchanges. Finishes seem random at first, with everybody entering the ring & walking into a finisher, but falls are won in the exchanges. Now if a technico and a rudo match each other hold for hold, the technico should ultimately win, since they have superior technique (in theory anyway.) In lucha, falls are won on virtue more than anything else -- the technicos win through superior technique, the rudos through their rudo ways... If the rudos get jostled into one-upmanship in the first fall, it won't be too long until a rudo like Pierrotito decides beating the crap out of the technico is a much better option than wrestling him, & man do Pierrotito (and Damiancito's) cut-offs rule in this match. This doesn't go three falls, so you don't get the true pay-off, but they do such a great job of slowing down the pace & dictating the second caida, until coughing up the fall. Pierrotito was so awesome -- he wasn't as quick or agile as Damiancito & maybe couldn't bump as big or get as deep on an armdrag -- but he was great at cutting off technico offence & working the punches & he could go toe-to-toe in any style, most importantly on the mat and in comedy spots. Ultimo Dragoncito had a little bit of a gut, which made him a tad awkward at times, but as many people will attest to, he was a crazy motherfucker with insane topes. Put them altogether & you have a crew with great chemistry.

Negro Navarro vs. Solar, 10/12/06 This was from an UD show at Korakuen Hall. Korakuen Hall's not my favourite place for lucha -- some of the early Hamada shows were all right, but lucha is a novelty for Japanese people & that's the way it always comes across. If you wind up talking pro wrestling at a bar or something, older guys will always talk about Mil Mascaras, which is why Mil still gets gigs & is "mobbed" by salarymen on his way to the ring, but lucha itself is a curiosity. Hence this was a lucha libre exhibition. Solar and Navarro did spots they routinely do & keyed the crowd into when to applaud. Solar/Negro Navarro spots are a beautiful form of lucha libre, but they're better viewed in small lucha indies. Wouldn't go out of my way to see this, unless Solar & Navarro are your saving grace these days. Plus it was clipped.

Pequeno Reyes Del Aire, 1/04/08 Pequeno Damian 666 vs. Mascarita Dorada, 1/11/08 Bam Bam/Pequeno Olimpico/Ultimo Dragoncito vs Pequeno Black Warrior/Pequeno Violencia/Pierrothito, 2/15/08 Mini FdT vs Dorada, Tzuky, Shockercito, 2/24/08 Bam Bam/Tzuky/Mascarita Dorada vs Fire/Pequeno Pierroth/Pequeno Damian, 3/21/08 What I appreciate most about the current crew of minis is how they build a match from the ground up, even if the results are sometimes average. They'll start on the mat before getting into the faster exchanges & dives, or vary the pace through rudo work. You'll even find lucha comedy spots. It's almost all in rhythm, especially the dive trains. Tricked-out variations in spots is not my favourite thing about modern lucha, but these guys won me over a little. Dorada went into overdrive with the spinning variations in the Dos Leyendas match, but it was OK because I was enamoured with Tzuky & his chemistry with Pierrothito. I still think they're searching for greatness, but they manage a fair bit. The title match was average. If Espectrito/Mascarita Sagrada had a big match feel, then this had a small match feel. With everything happening in quick succession in trios, the crutches are gone in a singles match. Still, I don't think this was all to do with the limits of the new style; I just think Mascarita Dorada needs to be seriously carried & Pequeno Damian isn't there yet. Perro Aguayo, Jr vs Hector Garza (hair vs hair), 3/21/08 This was more of a spectacle than a match. I suppose the actual wrestling was OK, but it was more or less finishers the whole time. There was a big crowd on hand & lucha crowds these days only seem to care about whoever they want to win. I guess there's no reason to change the current style when you're drawing sell-outs. Nevertheless, Perro has delivered some pretty good performances in singles matches over the last four years. This wasn't one of them. I guess Garza plays his new gimmick well. I'm not really sure what it's all about, but it involves a padre & some angels or something. You'd think Perro would get under Garza's skin about that, but he's way too into his heat these days. I thought Garza used to be part of Perros del Mal? There really needs to be blood in Arena Mexico again, but what do I know? Old ladies were losing it. A kid was crying. Kinda reminded me of a WWE match, but with a better crowd.

Yeah, grizzled. It's a shame there's not a lot of footage of Harley in New Zealand. Would be interesting to see Harley vs. more Samoan wrestlers.

I watched Race/Windham 7/83 from Florida. Pretty decent match for old man Harley, most due to Windham's bladejob/selling. Harley was slow and kinda throwing out the spots. Windham blocked the piledriver early on, later Harley got a two count with it. Windham got to his feet, ran the ropes & was back on offence. Piledriver was the last big spot before the babyface went back on offence, but neither Harley or Windham felt like making a big deal out of it, even though Windham blocked it earlier and was going over. Afterwards, Dusty took a piledriver on the concrete and never got up. What it all means, I don't know. Harley was slow as fuck. I kinda buy the idea that Harley had a touring champ act & didn't adjust so well when he wasn't the champ anymore (though he was a decent grizzly, old-as-fuck heel), but I feel the need to stress the old-as-fuck part. Not really expecting 80s Harley Race to be great. And, really, how many workers have an act that never got old?

El Hijo del Santo vs. Negro Casas, mask vs. hair, 9/19/97 I've never liked this match. I was hoping that watching CMLL TV of the Santo vs. Casas brothers feud would reveal exactly what's great about it, but it remains a mystery. I have no idea what they were trying to do in this match. Portions of the match are kinda like shoot-style -- a junior heavyweight approximation of shoot-style, really, like BattlARTS -- but lucha has no counts for rope breaks or downs, so most of the match is worked in the ropes. This is meant to imply a brawl, since they stay tied up in the ropes a lot... The ref can't get a clean break & it spills outside at times... but as a blowoff to a feud it's pretty damn listless. Lucha has a great tradition of brawling, and an even greater tradition of brawling in wager matches & this was a pretty fucking epic wager. Again, I have no idea what they were thinking. Casas simply doesn't have the offence to work "shoot style." And he can't sell it, either. It's kinda cool when Santo comes out of the ropes with a strike, but he's never gonna stiff him, Casas drops to the mat to do his face down, death selling & there's no count, naturally. That sounds like the criticism of someone who's never watched lucha before, but this was a crappy hybrid style & not lucha. Even as a fight, Santo completely owns Casas in this. At no point does Santo ever look like losing. It may be the lack of three falls, but I saw a shitty Casas/Bestia Salvaje hair match where Casas sold death for two falls only to mount a comeback based around some crappy missile dropkick offence. I dig a lot of things about this era of CMLL but Casas' technico singles match run isn't one of them. I'm generally of the opinion that you have to take a match for what it is, not what it could've been or should've been,.. Yet this was disappointing in the context of what they'd done up until then. I'd rather watch the most predictable Santo/Casas match imaginable than this. Which puts me in a camp of one. But there you go.

Mocho Cota vs. Americo Rocca, 1/27/84 Mocho Cota always looked great whenever he showed up on tape as an ancient rudo brawler. This discovery was a chance to see him as a masterful rudo. In Kevin Cook's words, "Cota's Dickensian sinsterness is something to behold; what a crabbed, warped rassler" and indeed Cota has an awesome sneer and Cook a way with words. The match starts out with some conventional, US-style matwork, which leads to all sorts of impossible to answer questions about the evolution of lucha matwork in a title match setting, & whether all pro-wrestling matwork originated from the same place, taking twists and turns as it spread out over the territories. Certainly, luchadores were schooled in the US style, since they moved around the territories more often during this era. And they showed similar habits to US pro-wrestling -- not all of them good, like dropping the matwork to run the ropes for the finish -- even if the finish was distinctly lucha. The second fall was where the match took off. One of the greatest second fall rudo comebacks I've seen in a lucha title match. So many times lucha has a quick second fall to even up the stakes, but Cota was masterful at working his way back into this fight, and his tope was completely unexpected. But what really sold me on Cota was his cheating to win. A wrestler of Cota's calibre needn't cheat to win -- Rocca was all flash, Cotta a grappler -- but he does, because he's rudo... How satisfying for a rudo to watch as a technico crumples to the mat in sheer frustration. A rudo is always looking to bring a technico to his knees, and what better way than to completely screw him? This was a nice blend of the fair fight & the machiavellian, all wrapped up in a time capsule.