ohtani's jacket

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.

So, after heaping all that praise on minis from 10 years ago, I was encouraged to check out the current crew of CMLL minis: Pequeño Black Warrior, Pequeño Damian 666, Pierrothito vs Atomo, Mascarita Dorada, Tzuki, 12/14/07 Pequeño Black Warrior, Pequeño Damian 666, Pequeno Halloween vs Atomo, Mascarita Dorada, Tzuki, 12/21/07 Bam Bam/Fantasy/Mascarita Dorada vs Pequeno Damian 666/Pequeno Halloween/Mr. Aguilita, 12/25/07 Going into this, I tried to keep in mind that: 1. Nothing about CMLL is as good as 10 years ago. 2. The new style is the new style is the new style. Having said that, I was actually surprised. Not so much by the first match, but the Christmas week matches. My favourite match was the 12/21 trios. The rudos came out like a house on fire. Pequeño Damian 666 and Pequeno Halloween obliterate Damian and Halloween. I mean, Damian was smoked by his mini in a previous life too, but this time it's carnage. They were out to fuck-up the technicos & the part where Halloween kissed the old lady at ringside, while Damian showed her some tongue; fucking foul little minis they are. This was only a 10 minute match, but it felt like longer because the rudos set up the match so well. It was a similar story in the follow-up match, where Mascarita took another beating. Mascarita has all this spinning offence, which looks cool, but is ten times better when he's dishing it out because the rudos tore a hole in his pants. The Christmas Day match is probably better, but I hate Bam Bam's look. Aguilita too. Reminds me of all the Heavy Metal/Jerry Estrada matches that were ruined for me by their shitty look. This was fun stuff. I was suckered into downloading the Altantis/Ultimo Guerrero vs. Averno/Mistico match, which was fucking awful like all CMLL tag title matches these days... Watch the minis instead.

If you're wondering what happened to 4, the link is dead. #5 Octagoncito vs Mini Abismo Negro, AAA 6/5/98 This was a typical AAA match. A bunch of flashy moves, a lot of moving around the ring & outside area, never settling into anything I can get a handle on. The seconds were too involved. #6 Mascarita Sagrada Jr. & La Parkita vs Mini Karis La Momia & Espectrito I, AAA 10/96 I liked this match. The rudos pick on the technicos, the technicos fight back through mini highspots, the rudos bump big & the ref is heelish. Not a great match, but pretty classic lucha libre. #7 La Parkita/Mascarita Sagrada 2000/Octagoncito vs Mini Abismo Negro/Mini Psicosis/Rocky Marvin, AAA 1/16/03 This was supposed to be an elimination match or something, but it was difficult to follow. #8 Mascarita Magica vs Damiancito El Guerrero - CMLL 2/27/96 Solid, straight forward lucha libre title match. Good match, but didn't reach the heights of the Ramirez match as Mascarita Magica is the heads down, toiler type. Hard working & honest, but lacking imagination. The top 3 blew away the rest of the matches. The 10/97 trios & Cicloncito Ramirez/Damiancito El Guerrero match were as good as any lucha I've seen, while the Espectrito/Mascarita Sagrada match was a great AAA style match. I was definitely inspired to track down more CMLL minis from the same period & my feeling about the AAA stuff was the smaller the mini, the more fun the match is.

El Dandy vs. Bestia Salvaje, 9/4/92 (CMLL World Middleweight title) I was sorry to read about the recent death of Bestia Salvaje. Sorry for his friends and family, sorry for the man himself.. A guy like him deserves to get old & tell a bunch of lucha stories. And I'm sure he had a bunch to tell, as he was a lucha libre "professionale" in every sense of the word. In many ways, he was the last of his kind. A thick-set rudo, who could lay in the forearms and was plenty stiff when he needed to be. He was a brawler by trade, but was precise on his bigger spots (dropkick, senton, plancha), bumped well & knew his way around the mat. Tradesmen like Bestia are rare these days. A lot of guys these days try to win rudo fans. Bestia never forgot that the rudo is a foil for the technico. Here, Bestia was a foil for his second Satanico, but it's still a good title match with a prime El Dandy. What really impressed me were the little touches. Dandy was one of the better lucha title match workers, in large part because of his selling, but Bestia throws in all these cool little counters, like fighting the surfboard on the mat, evading the enzugiri & blocking a sunset flip with a takedown. We often look for the flamboyant from lucha, but there's a place for the rock solid. Bestia was all that & more. In Japan, where he could be stiffer, and later on when he was Ric Flair-ish with the suits and gold watches. I swear watching him & Scorpio, Jr. beat down Santo is like watching the Horsemen turn on someone.

Cicloncito Ramirez vs Damiancito El Guerrero, CMLL 1/7/97 Another great match. Best three match stretch I've had in ages. This was a beautiful display of lucha libre. Maybe not as exciting as the first two matches, but definitely one for the afficionardos. Everyone's got their own ideas about what great lucha is, I suppose, but we're all searching for it. When I first saw Atlantis/Blue Panther, I wanted to see more of the same. Problem is, great lucha is hard to find. So when you find a match like Cicloncito/Damiancito; a match as good as any you've seen, you're almost glad they're not a dime a dozen. And that was the greatest fuck-up of a victory celebration ever. And he sold it too. Awesome.

Bracito De Oro/Cicloncito Ramirez/Mascarita Magica vs Damiancito El Guerrero/El Fierito/Pierrothito, CMLL 10/3/97 This was incredible. A lot of people have a difficult time getting into lucha & trios make it harder. Hell, I had to watch this twice to realise it was an incredible match. The thing about trios is that you really have to watch a shitload of them to understand how they work. Trios have a loose structure. There's a few basic forms, but almost everything can be varied, which is why guys like Dr Lucha Steve Sims use jazz analogies -- improvised free form over the top of basic structures (something like that, I don't remember the exact quote.) What that basically means is you can work a trios any way you like, since there's only a few basic rules. You can vary just about anything -- from the length of the falls to the style of wrestling used; rhythm, pace, order... Workers probably don't think about it too much, but that's what they're doing in the choices they make. It's almost like each fall has a scale & workers can play notes up and down that scale. At first it's difficult to know whether what you're watching is actually good, but once you figure out the possibilities it becomes much easier. Take this match for example. If you're wondering why it's great, the simple answer is the matwork, fast exchanges and dives. As Phil Schneider pointed out in the original thread -- http://board.deathvalleydriver.com/index.p...503&hl=mini (great read, btw), this is traditional CMLL build. What really impressed me is how they upped the rhythm of each fall. There's not a lot of rudo work in this match, so it's wrestled at pace. In most trios, the rhythm varies between the first and second fall depending on whether the rudos won or lost the opening fall. Here, the second caida is a faster version of the first. Yet it's even more creative. To keep upping the rhythm, while working more & more interesting holds, is the most impressive thing I've seen in a long time. To top that in the third caida is incredible. The first time I saw this, I thought "OK, it's a workrate match, but where's the rudo/technico stuff?" Now I'm thinking I just saw six guys master the workrate form of lucha libre trios. There's an adage I learnt in screenwriting: ""Anxious, inexperienced writers obey rules. Rebellious, unschooled writers break rules. Artists master the form." There's a lot of guys these days who could do with mastering the form before trying this sort of workrate match.

I've barely seen any minis & was ridiculously out of the loop when DVDVR ran their Mini Mini Tourney, so now it's only right that I enter the world of minis... Mascarita Sagrada vs Espectrito I, AAA 3/12/94 So this is the world of minis? Fantastic introduction, if you ask me. I was hooked from the beginning. There was talk about this match not aging well & whether Mascarita Sagrada was all that great, but I cut him some slack since he's an actual mini & a great technico. Espectrito carried this; you could tell that by the way he shaped the falls, but Mexico is full of guys plying that trade or learning it from scratch. The key is how to make it big. How to get people standing like they do in this match. You could be Herodes himself & still the people want a charismatic technico. Super charisma is why Rayo De Jalisco & Cien Caras tear the house down & better matches don't. And while I admire everything Espectrito did -- and they were large falls, in a promotion known for bigger matches -- a match doesn't get this good unless the technico is something special. And he really is a charismatic little fellow. If it doesn't age well it's because AAA was a flashly promotion and flashy stuff doesn't age well, but I still think it's a great match. Three big falls & an awesome ending.

Halcón Negro vs Olimpico, mask vs. mask, 10/30/98 Halcón Negro was a short, chubby guy with big hair and an awesome mask (see lucha wiki), who'd wipe out members of the crowd with his bumping & sell punch drunk off a Solar armdrag. Really solid in that short, chubby guy kind of way, which basically means he's awesome. He first caught my attention in boss undercard matches like Karloff Lagarde, Jr./Gladiador/Halcon Negro vs. Ringo Mendoza/Mascara Magica/Solar (5/97 TV) and then he had this feud with Olimpico. Not the greatest of matches, but there's fun to be had. Everything about Olimpico screams run-of-the-mill, but Halcon carries the whole thing with his bumping and catching. And like all short, chubby guys, he can really motor. Fun matwork & really great use of the top turnbuckle, too. Herodes was a friend of his father's, so unless you fight with yearling bulls, you won't get better tutilige than that. Regardless, all of that fun is so he can unmask. And what an unfortunate unmasking it was. He had a great mask and was a champ. He was never gonna be a champ again after he unmasked. That was obvious. Sad day.

Blue Panther/Mistico/Volador Jr. vs. Black Warrior/El Averno/El Mephisto, 10/20/06 This was very much in the new style, but the pace was good & it had Blue Panther in it, so the exchanges were better than usual. At this point, I'll take a short match with good rhythm. I watched some longer matches from Arena Mexico recently & they were amazingly shitty. This ain't a style that can go longer than 15 minutes. Anyway, the Mistico/Black Warrior feud was actually quite good, even with BW gyrating every five seconds. I liked his look sin mascara & the way he'd pray to the Lord every time he did something dickish to Mistico or Que Monito. Their exchanges are usually pretty fluid, since BW's been working this style for a while now & they actually work a few payoffs into what they do. It's just a pity CMLL can't book a Mistico feud for shit. You'd think Mistico would be the one guy they actually book well, but nah. Surely Mistico could've taken his hair after brawling for six months straight. Maybe i'm living in a time warp.

I'm sure there's just as much discussion now as there was back in the Monday Night Wars era. Hell, if you mistype the address for this site you get taken to a news site that'll throw you back ten years. Maybe it's a peak in people's interest in online discussion, opposed to the quality. The stuff I read today is far more interesting than ten years ago.

1997 CMLL was stacked full of lucha libre professionales, and since I've been digging the simplest of trios, I thought it was time to rewatch the ciberneticos from early that year. 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 & 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 The April match is the famous one, considered by many to be the match of the decade. The reason people love it, I'm presuming, is because of the opening matwork -- almost a "caida" unto itself -- the strong individual performances, memorable booking & overall display of lucha libre. And I guess the length & that guy with the fur on his shoulders who runs the guantlet at the end. But I'm here to tell you -- don't sell the earlier match short! Well, it is shorter. Guys basically hit the ring as hard as they can and try the most creative exchange they can think of. It's like the famous cibernetico without the matwork. That may sound spotty, but it actually has good rhythm. And the booking is great -- pitting technico vs. technico, rudo vs. rudo, while still working in Casas vs. Santo, Casas vs. Wagner and the thinking smarts of La Fiera. It'll never knock the other match off its perch, but it's quick draw stuff & I enjoyed it immensely.

Silver King v. Apolo Dantes, 6/23/95 This is a really good title match between two of the better workers in CMLL at the time. It might not please everyone, since it's kinda small in scope & doesn't bring the drama so necessary to our enjoyment of professional wrestling, but it's well worked & a good example of how you can work in stuff you've picked up from all over the place while still keeping a lucha form. Silver King has always done stuff you don't usually see from a guy his size, and Apolo Dantes was an awesome worker. Very much the all-rounder, with a great rudo swagger. Rayo De Jalisco Jr. v. Apolo Dantes 5/31/96 I dig a big time Rayo De Jalisco singles match and this was fucking EPIC. I was gonna go into a spiel about how digging a Rayo match is like digging the fuck out of the 50s remake of Ben Hur, even though you know there's a dozen better William Wyler movies, but fuck it, Rayo brought all the matwork, submissions and big-time flying you could hope for. He envoured Apolo Dantes with the size difference; everything looking king-sized. And Dantes busted his ass big-time. I adore Rayo's big, dopey offence, but it was Dantes' selling that took this to such a plateau.

I'm curious, where did you hear about Kurosawa being a wrestling fan? Either in a book or documentary. Pretty sure he used to go to the matches with his crew.

Screamin' Jay Hawkins was a wrestling fan. So was Akira Kurosawa for that matter.

I guess over the next few years, people will start talking about the best matches of the decade. My goal is to find 20 lucha matches that I like. Maybe not the greatest matches, but matches that I like. So far, I've got Atlantis/Villano, both Santo/Panther Monterrey matches, Santo/Perro 8/04, Misioneros vs. Space Cadets, the Negro Navarro/Solar tags & maybe El Dandy/Negro Navarro. That leaves about a dozen matches. La Parka vs Ultimo Guerrero (CMLL Light Heavyweight Title), 09/17/04 This is actually the match that made me wonder what the fuck is wrong with lucha these days. Well, it's a few years later and the sky hasn't fallen, but this is still a cheap match. Ultimo Guerrero's a good worker & Parka was making one of those resurgent lucha comebacks in 2004. Hate to see that cheapened by throwaway, ten minute matches. El Dandy v L.A. Park, ENESMA, 10/29/04 I liked the ideas in this match, about how to pace and sell a lucha title match... Which automatically makes it better than the above match, even if El Dandy is slow and limits his bumps. I don't mind if guys are half a step slow if they've got the right ideas. But the finish sucked. Atlantis vs Rey Bucanero, CMLL 7/22/07 This was SHOCKINGLY good. Atlantis sucks as a rudo & I don't like Bucanero one bit, but forget about all that... Atlantis still knows how to work a lucha title match. Match was edited a lot, so perhaps it wasn't actually this good, but for once there was drama in the Arena Coliseo. If you can get your head around the fact that Atlantis is ancient and slow, I doubt you'll see a smarter match than this for a while, even if Atlantis' working boots are all worn out. Averno vs. Mistico, CMLL 1/05/05 These guys are forever trying hard to have a good match. I try hard to like it every time. This is supposed to be their best match together. I think I'm about ready to give up. Ultimo Guerrero/Rey Bucanero v. El Hijo Del Santo/Negro Casas, CMLL 11/02/01 Eh, the only thing lucha about this match was the finish to each fall. I like seeing lucha in lucha matches and not just in the finishes. Shocker vs. Dr Wagner, Jr., CMLL 3/26/02 Shocker vs. Ultimo Guerrero, CMLL 2/14/03 I remember watching the first match at the time & thinking it was a pretty standard, almost pedestrian lucha title match. Funny how it stands out as a quality piece of wrestling these days. The second match I really wanted to like, but too many of their bad habits crept in. El Hijo Del Santo vs La Parka, 12/23/01 The classic Monterrey bloodbath. I'm not really sold on it being a great match, but I need to remind myself that I liked it & it's slim pickings for this decade. Maybe I'm just difficult to please. Santo was quite happy to play the dickish rudo, while Parka was hardly a saint, I just think the best lucha brawls have a bigger arc than this, possibly because they're wager matches or simply because they turn into more of a fight.

Atlantis/Emilio Charles Jr./Felino vs Black Warrior/Blue Panther/Dr. Wagner Jr, 1/22/99 This was a really good trios. The heel/face dynamic was a little weak, so it wasn't as good as the stuff from the early 90s. but Atlantis was channeling 1991 in his matwork with Panther & the way he sold and bumped for everyone else. Apollo Dantes/ Fuerza Guerrera/ Villano 3 vs Brazo de Plata/ Olympico/ Emilio Charles Jr, 2/99 TV Searching for great lucha is like searching for the perfect beat. Here's a match to remind you that above all lucha should be fun. Super Porky's been doing his shtick forever. Fuzera's been doing his shtick forever. Never gets old. El Hijo Del Santo/Negro Casas vs Bestia Salvaje/Scorpio Jr. (Mask/Hair vs Hair/Mask), 3/11/99 This is really classic CMLL booking -- trios after trios after trios, building up a feud until the public finally want the big hair match, big mask match or in this case both. Negro Casas and Bestia Salvaje had been feuding for years at this point. Hell, this match doesn't even end the feud, but it's for all the money. Perhaps not the best match to watch cold, but you'll figure it out. Looking back at old reviews, Bestia Salvaje & Scorpio Jr. were maligned in favour of the Black Warriors, Shockers & Mr. Nieblas of the day. I'm late to the party, but I gotta say Bestia & Scorpio Jr. are a hell of a lot more solid than those guys ever turned out to be. Solid rudos. Hombre Balas with a push. People didn't like how they'd slow a match down, but slow, methodical rudo work is how you shape the rhythm of a match. Negro Casas/Shocker/Mr Niebla vs. Apolo Dantes/Dr Wagner, Jr./Scorpio Jr., 5/99 TV And the feud continues... This was a lot of fun. The rudos gave Casas a ton of shit & Casas was in full on technico mode, brawling with all three at once. The great thing about Casas as a technico is how his ego switches. He was such a cocky rudo, yet as a face he won't tolerate the slightest insult. Ha. Casas is classic. He'd switch back in a second. Match also continued Shocker's turn, but Casas could give a fuck because Scorpio just pisses him off.

Love Machine, Eddy Guerrero & Hijo Del Santo vs Fuerza Guerrera, Fishman & Blue Panther, AAA - 7/23//93 I've never really liked AAA no matter how many of their workers I like or how good the booking might have been. Something about the style, I guess. That goes double for Gringos Locos. The Panther/Love Machine hair match, the 11/93 45 minute tag, the WWC hair vs. masks match. I don't like any of it. This, however, is a classic trios. Most people remember it for the double (or is it triple?) switch -- Love Machine tricking Eddie into turning on Santo & Panther coming to his rescue, but the match itself is great, which obviously makes the angle even better. Even a washed up Fishman can't drag this down. Love Machine was on point here. I dare say he never looked better. He broke up the Santo/Panther matwork, but never you mind... Because that's clearly rudo & Santo's not happy. In between Love Machine wanting to kick the shit out of Panther and rip his mask off, and Santo insisting that the righteous never do so, there's the usual masterful performance from Fuerza Guerrera, who, if I remember correctly, had a really beautiful exchange with Eddie that rekindled my appreciation for Guerrera as a worker. Of all the guys who jumped to AAA, I think Fuerza's the one who shone the most, even if it was in trios. The angle is slow burning & great & moreover convincing, as it's set up really well. I don't wanna spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it, just let me say I've enjoyed a lot of great rudos & Love Machine was on point here. I'll watch more AAA because of this.

CMLL June/July 1997 Scorpio/Wagner/Santo vs Fiera/Dragon/Casas, 6/6/97 Scorpio/Wagner/Santo vs Fiera/Dragon/Casas, 6/13/97 Santo/Emilio/Wagner vs Casas/Ultimo Dragon/Felino, 6/20 or 6/27/97 El Hijo del Santo vs. Felino for the WWA Welterweight Title, 7/4/97 A lot of people are familiar with the Santo heel turn & the mask vs. hair match from the 64th Anniversary show, but man was the TV leading into that match great. Here you've got a month's worth of trios building to the Santo/Felino title match; heated, brawling trios, all spun around the Casas Brothers vs. Santo feud and all of them fucking great. You couldn't ask for more. All that heat & brawling leads to a straight up title match between Santo and Felino that's wrestled exactly like a lucha title match, with Negro and Bestia as seconds. The first caida is almost entirely mat work & it's some of the best I've seen from Santo. Around this time, lucha guys started to get a lot stiffer & work the mat like Japanese promotions... There were more lariats & powerbombs & moves that make it easy for people who don't like lucha to like this stuff. I was never happy with the way Santo and Casas work the mat in the Anniversary show match, since it's just not lucha. But there's no denying that this was a great match even in that style. The matwork and stiffness seems nastier. The match is fantastic. The ending beyond awesome, recalling all the great second moments in lucha libre history. Outrage and talk of mascara contra mascara. CMLL was shit-hot in 1997 and this was great booking.

Man am I ever digging Black Terry, especially now he has a moustache. Seems daft, but I managed to find his hair match against Cerebro Negro from November, music videos of his feud with Fantasma de la Ópera & February's match against Multifacetico. The kids aren't up to much, but Terry can still go. He moves incredibly well for a guy his age and can still bump. And he's like this journeyman, who can work the mat lucha style or do all the indie shit that these youngs are into. Plus he has a great welterweight punch. And his moustache is just awesome.

Negro Navarro vs. El Dandy, IWRG 11/18/01 I liked this more than I did three or four years ago. At the time I was really into Dandy in his prime, so I found this a bit slow. You're never too old to learn a different kind of rhythm, I guess. Having said that, I'm not gonna pretend I love it because it's Navarro and Dandy working the mat in a longish title match. The match is wrestled at the same pace throughout, since Navarro doesn't really have the stamina to work a longer singles match at his age & the selling isn't the greatest, so it has the same rhythm across each fall. Lately I've been doubtful about how good Dandy really was/is on the mat & while he wasn't schooled, I thought there was a gap between what he can do & what Navarro does. El Dandy/Ultimo Vampiro/Fantasma vs. Negro Navarro/El Pantera/Bomber Infernal (IWRG - 3/4/02) Fun match. The Dandy/Navarro exchanges were awesome, especially the punching segments. The others were along for the ride, so I wouldn't call it a great trios, but it was good. El Texano, Negro Navarro & El Signo v Villano III, IV & V, IWRG 12/04 What can I say? I thought this was terrible. Slow, plodding, awkward. Signo was awful. i liked the ending where they start punching each other, but this was the flipside of veterans still working. On a positive note, the youtube clips of Solar/Kenzo vs. Panther/Navarro are awesome. As much as I love Navarro, his age does show at times. There's a Blue Panther/Navarro clip on youtube that's disappointing in that respect. His work is much better in tags or trios from a standing base.

Solar/Mano Negra vs. Negro Navarro/Black Terry, AULL VIP 3/10/07 This was such a great match. I wanted to write about how this is real lucha & how young guys in Mexico don't know how to work anymore, but I'm trying to keep an open mind about that, so instead I'll praise Mexico for being a place where veterans can work a match that's not only "old-school", but as good as any lucha I've seen. I mean, Solar is 51. Mano Negra is 56. Negro Navarro is 50 and Black Terry is 55. It's obvious you're watching 30 years of wrestling experience when you see mat work like this, but who lit a fire under Mano Negra? He sure as hell wasn't working like this when he dropped his mask. I saw bits and pieces of Todo X El Todo on youtube & those guys were working hard too. The exchanges between Santo & Dos Caras were almost as good. I dunno if it's for money or pride, but they're outworking everybody. Made me wanna check out more Black Terry, so I tracked down a singles match against Santo in Hamada's UWF. He was quite the bumper. Quite the bumper indeed. He can still fucking go too.