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ohtani's jacket

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  1. ohtani's jacket

    1992 CMLL

    By ohtani's jacket,

    Kato Kung Lee y Shogun vs. Kung Fu y Xavier Monarca Cruz, 10/2/92
     
    Javier Cruz in 1990 had one of the best babyface runs I've ever seen. There are a lot of classical babyfaces in lucha, but Cruz played the fired up babyface to perfection. He was like a lucha version of Tito Santana, able to play a perpetually pissed off babyface without coming across like a complete dick. The trouble with Cruz is that outside of that run his career really wasn't that interesting. He was a team player more than a leading man, but with the AAA defections beginning to take their toll, there wasn't much of a team to have a run on. Still, they turned him heel and he began wearing a black studded glove to distinguish him from his technico look. They also played up his history of hair matches. He'd won so many hair matches in the past that he'd earnt a rep as an El Tijeras de Oro (Golden Scissors), but after two straight losses to Apolo Dantes he needed some midcard hairs to build him back up, and that's how he wound up in this feud with ex-Fantasticos, guys he'd knocked around with in the past. I'm not sure Shogun was. I don't think he stuck around CMLL for long. At first glance he looks like another guy trying to cash in on the Fantasticos gimmick ala Octagon. This was a fairly tame tag that was build for the year-end show, a card which usually featured a couple of lower profile apuestas matches to see out the year; in this case, Cruz vs. Kato Kung Lee and Pierroth Jr vs. El Supremo, though it would be remiss of me not to point that out that El Supremo's mask had some historical value.
     
    Los Brazos vs. Los Infernales, 10/2/92
     
    This is exactly what you'd want from Los Brazos vs. Los Infernales in a midcard spot as opposed to the main event. Some violence and intensity from the Infernales, a bit of blood from El Brazo, and the usual dive train from both sides. It was fun watching the guys walk around in various stages of their hair regrowth. MS-1 was recovering from a hair loss to El Faraon in the summer, El Satanico had just had his head cleanly shaven after losing to El Dandy at the Anniversary show, and Brazo de Oro had short hair from an issue with Chicana. This wasn't your four star hidden classic, but it was guys you know are good putting on a good performance.
     
    Atlantis, Love Machine y Mano Negra vs. Bestia Salvaje, El Supremo y La Fiera, 10/2/92
     
    This never got going, and aside from a few glimpses of what Atlantis vs. Bestia Salvaje might have looked like around this time was nothing to write home about. It did have a cool ending though, as Fiera was passed a towel which concealed his favourite weapon, the chain. He proceeded to whip the absolute shit out of Love Machine, which may have been hinting at something bigger, but Barr left shortly thereafter.
     
    King Haku, Ultimo Dragon y Vampiro vs. Black Magic, Negro Casas y Pierroth, 10/2/92
     
    King Haku, Ultimo Dragon and Vampiro, that's my trio right there. This started off with a disagreement between Pierroth and Smiley over who the captain was and squabbling among the rudos. Negro Casas squaring off against King Haku has to be seen to be believed. He sold Haku's chop like he'd been shot in the chest with a double-barreled shot gun. The rudos began beating Pierroth up, and in one of those lucha quirks he kept tagging with them instead of an instant technico turn. Ultimo Dragon tried to bring some workrate and had some pretty slick exchanges with Casas, but this match was all story. Pierroth had gotten so big in '92 that they turned him technico, which killed probably one of my favourite runs in lucha history, but he was getting big cheers and they needed to do something with business sagging. Vampiro was surprisingly okay in this, in that "every once in a while Konnan was surprisingly okay" sort of way.
     
    Black Magic vs. Rayo de Jalisco Jr., 11/20/92
     
    I was hoping for a big, dumb and dopey Rayo match and instead I got a grounded, not so good mat display from Smiley. It was kind of interesting that they made him the heavyweight champ, I guess.
     
    Los Metalicos vs. Los Cavernicolas, 12/18/92
     
    This was the most wonderful undercard match I've seen in a mighty long time. I might even go so far as to say it was the perfect lower card CMLL workrate match. Los Cavernicolas were a short-lived repackaging of Popitekus, Verdugo and Hombre Bala as cavemen. All three were breaking down physically, but were still fantastic bases (especially Bala.) The Metalicos were your perfect trio of sensational young fliers, led by the incomparable Oro. Awesome bumping and catching from the rudos and absolutely gorgeous tope suicidas from the Metalicos. This stuff is so beautiful when done right. The highlight was Oro doing a springboard moonsault that will long be embedded in my memory as how to do that move. Really exciting match that I almost didn't watch until I decided I'd watch everything available to me. Would definitely make my short list for best matches of the year.
     
    Xavier Monarca Cruz vs. Kato Kung Lee, hair vs. hair, 12/18/92
     
    This was the type of hair match which you know isn't going to reach any grand heights, but it was simple and effective and stuck to the basic tenets of hair match wrestling: blood, brawling and submission attempts. So long as you stick to those tenets pretty much anyone can have a good apuestas match. It's the great workers that take it to another level. Cruz wasn't really in that category, you'd have to say, at least not without an opponent who was equally as good. Still, this was a decent way to cap a fairly insignificant feud and it probably wouldn't have made sense to have a legendary bloody match in a token end of year apuestas match, though it would have been cool.
     
    As many of you will know, I'm a big fan of the '89-92 CMLL period, but the strain on the promotion was really starting to show here. The guys who you'd expect to be good were good, but dark days were on the horizon and you could tell that the clouds were gathering. Still, I love this era, out of nostalgia if nothing else. Next I'm going to take a look at some CMLL from the lost years of '93-95, where the hardcores stopped taping CMLL and we literally lost stuff.
  2. ohtani's jacket
    Jerry Estrada vs. Ultraman (3/2/84)
     
    Since I've now learnt more about Ultraman than I ever thought possible, I thought I better watch his title match. But this match was more about Jerry Estrada than it was Ultraman. I won't re-air my historical grievances with Jerry Estrada, instead I'm going to praise the kid here. He was a fresh faced young rudo who'd been working in Mexico City for less than two years but looked really comfortable. He didn't have the charisma of other rudos on the set like Sangre Chicana, Satanico or Mocho Cota, but those guys weren't born legends. Everybody makes a start somewhere and this was a very good start for Jerry Estrada. It's easy to see why people within the company thought that he was the future along with El Dandy and La Fiera. If you're expecting the coked out, manic bumper that Estrada later became you're in for a disappointment, but for a year two guy in the big leagues this was really impressive and a big moment for him.
     
    I liked the way he stuck with Ultraman's arm through the first two falls as though he was working to a strategy. This was clearly past whatever athletic prime Ultraman had so there as nothing really slick about the mat exchanges, but for sheer tenacity I liked how Estrada stuck to his game plan despite some pretty sharp looking take downs from the man from the future. I actually thought they'd give the champion the first fall on those swinging neck breakers and was a bit surprised by how many beats they went beyond that, but I'd rather complain about a fall being too long than too short. Jerry went after the arm to start the second caida and his psychology was better than a lot of vets. Ultraman had to resort to some Space Cadets style counters to work his way out of trouble and open his account before a pretty rousing third caida where the arm damage got the better of him. Ultraman was pretty great at stumbling around hurt, falling into the ropes and hitting a tope that looked equal parts ugly and reckless. It may have been a poor tope, but if it was it fit with the narrative and Ultraman even struggled rolling back into the ring. The injury was an interesting way to put Estrada over without having Ultraman job. Usually I'd be kind of ticked off about that, but I loved Estrada's goofy overselling and Ultraman being carried from ringside draped over his second's shoulders. This wasn't a classic; the rhythm and pacing could have been better for starters and the third fall could have lasted longer and been more dramatic, but I thought it was a neat bout that worked well in the smaller setting of Arena Coliseo. Ultraman's no super worker, but Estrada showed a lot of promise even if he wasn't completely there yet. Definitely a case of young Estrada being better than I would have given him credit for before the bout, which makes this a better match than I was expecting and a plus as far as the set goes.
     
    This may be the most positive entry I have ever made about Jerry Estrada. I really am softening up, but he really was very good. Dug his early look too, before the earrings and the leather jackets and Marty Jannetty tights. Good shit.
  3. ohtani's jacket
    Blue Panther vs. Negro Casas, lightning match, 12/13/13
     
    Looks like Casas is starting to shrink in his old age, and man did that close-up of him at the start look bad. They should have struck while the iron was hot and had the Rush/Casas hair match in the summer when things were at a fever pitch. Now things have cooled off and we've got shit like lightning matches and other shortened bouts. I hate lightning matches even when they're between great workers. There's nothing satisfying about watching workers you like in Nitro length bouts.
     
    The opening mat-work was fine. Nothing life changing, but it served its purpose. I still maintain that Casas isn't an elite mat-worker; he knows how to grab an arm, but the early portions would have been better if Panther had been in control. Still, the point of the mat-work was to provide a stalemate and the work flowed nicely into the Casas dive and the various pin attempts. I'm not sure the Santo head-scissors was as pretty as it could've been, but it kind of worked in the context of two greying adversaries battling it out. Panther's tope was a bit like that. The first time I saw it, I thought it was awful. On repeat viewings, I thought it suited an aging maestro.
     
    Not to harp on about them getting old, but I can't be the only one worried about these guys aging. I remember watching this match-up in 2008. That was five years ago. In another five years both these guys will be 60. They can't keep working at this level forever and when they fall there's going to be a pretty big void to fill. To their credit, what they've done since they began feuding in earnest has been better than what they did in 2008, but it's a worry.
     
    I suppose I should enjoy the match more if that's the case, huh? But remember we're always looking for great matches on this blog.
     
    The finish was a finish for the sake of having a finish to a lightning match, which is a bit of an odd thing to say about lucha as you can make the same argument about the finish to most falls, but I still thought it was a bit of a token fall. I do applaud the effort they made to craft a logical lightning match that worked as a self-contained bout rather than an exhibition of lucha, but Casas vs. Panther aside it wasn't anything to get excited over.
     
    Blue Panther vs. Averno, Arena Puebla 12/9/13
     
    This was... a match. It had a really shitty beginning and end, both worked around a Fujiwara armbar, which is an insult to the Fujiwara armbar. In between that we got Panther working a company match. Averno tries hard, but he's extremely limited and thus there were a lot of repetitive exchanges. There was a long stalemate on the mat through the middle portion of the match, which featured some cool punches from Panther, but it didn't make much sense given the instant submissions that permeate the company style. Match wasn't really an improvement on their Anniversary Show bout.
  4. ohtani's jacket
    Kevin Von Erich, Mascara Ano 2000 y Halcon Ortiz vs. Coloso Colosetti, Pirata Morgan y Herodes (9/23/83)
     
    Since I did a write up for this in the Lucha History Lessons thread, I thought I better get around to watching it properly.
     
    The reaction to this match so far has been interesting. Since it's the first trios on the set, there seems to be this mix of confusion and anticipation over how a trios match should go. There's also been a lot of comments on how lost and out of place Kevin Von Erich looked. On the second point, by the standards of foreigners looking lost or confused in Mexico there have been far worse instances than Von Erich. I'll admit that I'm biased towards him because I find his barefoot quasi shoot style work fascinating, but I don't think he was bad. He didn't seem to understand the flow of a trios match or what the other workers were trying to do, but like I said I dig his strange offence. I think someone raised the point that his offence didn't fit a lucha setting, but Mexico has always been a melting pot of different styles. That's apparent even in this match where you have heavyweights mixing it up with light heavyweights, brawlers working with technicians, bumpers taking on fliers, comedy guys jousting with bleeders, and an American to top it all off. There's a sense that anything goes in trios wrestling because most of the time the matches are just thrown together. Which brings me to my next point, that this was a nothing trios.
     
    I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way. It was one of those trios matches where there aren't any spectacular individual performances but everybody involved is a pretty good worker and the match has a bunch of solid exchanges. It was stock and trade stuff from pretty much everyone involved. The main story was the feud between Halcon Ortiz and Pirata Morgan, who had taken Ortiz' Mexican National Heavyweight title from him earlier that year. They touched on it throughout the match, but really it was an issue for another time and place and would escalate into a hair match. That's why if you take a "Who's feuding with whom? What's the story??" approach to lucha trios you're bound to be disappointed as the majority of the time they roll out of bed and there's the match. What impresses the long time fan are small details in the work or interesting spots. There was no big crescendo in this match because they didn't make an effort for there to be one, so structurally there wasn't anything to get excited about, but the bread and butter stuff was what you'd expect from the rudos and Ortiz held up the technico side of things well. There were at least six memorable things about the match and that's not too bad. It's unfortunate that it's the first trios on the set as we're missing a big chunk in the history of trios wrestling from the front end of the decade, but like so many other trios matches over the years it's more of an introduction to the workers than a great match. The highlight for me was Ortiz body slamming Morgan over the top rope and doing that close quarters tope. That was an impressive spot sequence for heavyweights.
  5. ohtani's jacket
    Black Terry & Jose Luis Feliciano vs. Rocky Santana & Skayde, Luchas 2000 4/1/04
    Black Terry vs. Rocky Santana, hair vs. hair, Luchas 2000 4/1/04
     
    This was interesting stuff. I've spoken before about the transformation that Navarro underwent from a balding, somewhat classical maskless luchador to the shaven-headed, shit talking ass-kicker he became circa 2006, but Terry also went through a similar shift, from a veteran guy still doing his 80s trios schtick to the phenomenal brawler and character actor we know today. In terms of his evolution, it was very much in the early stages here. That was evident in Terry and Feliciano wearing their Los Temerarios outfits and behaving very much like two thirds of a trios instead of the dominant personality that Terry would become, and in essence what we saw here was an older version of the little Terry we have on tape from the early 90s, but Terry is such a great worker that any Terry is key Terry.
     
    The first fall of the tag featured decent "lucha-looking" exchanges. Feliciano was out of shape at this point so his stuff was perhaps a tad bit sluggish, but Skayde was in his element. Where the match got fun was in the second fall when the Temerarios took over. Their teamwork looked as smooth as ever and had that old-school UWA feel to it; the kind of trios work where you can almost smell what a hotbed LLI was for trios with new teams springing up left, right and centre and guys pushing the form with their teaming and triple teaming. And even with Terry not being Terry as we know him, his brawling was still sharp. I can just imagine what it must have been like to watch some of the Temerarios matches, perhaps not at El Toreo but at the smaller, more intimate venues.
     
    Terry cheated to take the second fall and the match, which set up an impromptu hair match with Santana. It was a one fall, bloodless hair match that was more or less a third caida to the tag, but Terry rolled through some sweet looking offence and even showed his guile by pulling out of a top rope dive he would have missed and hitting a move off the apron instead. While I still maintain Terry's forte is brawling and hair matches, this was a reminder of how good younger Terry was offensively. I just love the career of Black Terry and what his talent has carried him to over the years. I'm sure he wishes he'd headlined the biggest arenas in Mexico, but I wouldn't have it any other way. The dude is the hero of this blog.
  6. ohtani's jacket
    Villano III vs. Flama Roja, mask vs. mask, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua 5/87
     
    This was uploaded by DJSpectro a couple of years ago, but the video quality made it difficult to follow, and I never got around to writing about it. Recently, a more complete version surfaced which is easier to watch. It's not the biggest mask match of Villano III's career and it's not the most important, but it's from smack dab in the middle of his prime and any addition to the 80s lucha picture is most welcome.
     
    Flama Roja was a wrestler of some repute in Cd Juarez. He was trained by the legendary Diablo Velazco and was such a cold blooded rudo that he earned such nicknames as "The Lord and Master of the Scandal" and "The Scourge of Technicians." I love that second one -- The Scourge of the Technicians -- not only is it the epitome of what every technico hating rudo should be, Roja faced a litany of face talent in the 70s and 80s in both Texas and Juarez. By '87, he was in his early 40s, which nowdays would make him a maestro but in the talent rich 80s made him an older wrestler looking for a payday. Make no mistake about it, this wasn't a shabby mask for Villano to win, and they did it very professionally, but I doubt Roja got too many more payoffs like this one.
     
    The match itself was a pretty traditional mask vs. mask match. Mask vs. Mask tends to be different from hair vs. hair in that the first fall is often wrestled like a title match with an emphasis on submissions. Lucha is often a show of superiority and making your man submit in a mask vs. mask match is the ultimate expression of this. There's also a sense of how important the masked wrestler's identity is and what a match like this means in a worker's career, hence the slow burn on the mask ripping and violence. Thus, the opening fall was a real arm wrestle with Roja showing his strength in submitting Villano first. There were some technical problems with the video and it skipped ahead deep into the third caida before cutting back to the finish of the second caida. The third fall was your meat and potatoes tercera caida. It had everything from a really nice tope from Roja to blood to Villano attacking the rudo's leg. There were plenty of cool submission attempts and nearfalls and Roja went down swinging, which is all you can ask from the loser in this type of match. It was a pretty cool match, easier to follow than the Rambo mask match and probably a top 30 contender if it had been included on the DVDVR set. It wasn't the kind of match where Villano comes out of it with his reputation enhanced even further, but it was a good watch. The final images of Roja unmasking and Villano holding up the mask to show the crowd the respect he had for his fallen opponent were the stuff that lucha fandom is made of. Make sure you check it out if you're an aficionado.
  7. ohtani's jacket
    Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Angel Blanco, WWF Junior Heavyweight Title, UWA 12/19/79
     
    This was from a Mexico vs. the Rest of the World show at Palacio de los Deportes that drew 27,000 according to Matt Farmer. The Palacio de los Deportes is an indoor area that was originally constructed for the Olympic basketball competition at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games and was used by the LLI as an alternative venue to El Toreo during their run as the top promotion in Mexico.
     
    Here is the card for that evening:
     
    Dorrel Dixon & Masanobu Kurisu beat Babe Face & Fishman by DQ
    Gran Hamada & Satoru Sayama beat Ray Mendoza & Rene Guajardo by DQ
    Tiger Jeet Singh beat El Solitario
    Canek beat Riki Choshu
    WWWF World Junior Heavyweight Title
    Tatsumi Fujinami © beat Angel Blanco
     
    That's a typically stacked card for UWA in this era, taking advantage of their talent sharing agreement with New Japan. Fujinami was the WWWF Junior Heavyweight champion at the time, and as I said in my recent Lucha History Lessons for the DVDVR 80s set, his run as champion really set the belt up as the world's premier junior heavyweight title.
     
    Angel Blanco had been a huge star in the late 60s to mid 70s, first as a member of the trios La Ola Blanca with Dr. Wagner Sr. and El Solitario, then by turning on Solitario as well as feuding with guys like Ray Mendoza and Dory Dixon. Blanco lost his mask to Solitario on 12/8/72 at a sold out Arena Mexico, but was charismatic enough to continue headlining as a rudo through the first part of the 70s. By the time he challenged Fujinami here, he was a lesser draw compared to the likes of Canek, but was still a respected vet.
     
    This wasn't a true lucha match as Fujinami didn't know the style, but there was enough matwork for it to pass as a lucha title match. It as more cool than great, but you won't hear me complaining about a mat flavoured title bout. There was the annoying 70s tendency of ditching the matwork to work a flash fall, but you take that on the chin. Blanco looked solid and his matwork was fine. The finish was one of those shitty double pins, which was questionable in terms of how much they actually needed to protect Blanco, but overall it was a decent bout. Karl Gotch was in Fujinami's corner to add that extra element of legitimacy that the UWA was so fond of and generally it was one of those neat time capsule matches that at least give you a feel for the era. If that sounds like I'm disappointed then you're probably right, as I wanted Blanco to be something special, and I'd definitely recommend the Fujinami/Mendoza match ahead of this, but beggars can't be choosers when it comes to old school lucha footage so definitely check this out.
  8. ohtani's jacket

    Two from '92

    By ohtani's jacket,

    El Canek vs. Dos Caras, UWA 02/02/92
     
    This was on one of the earliest lucha combo tapes I bought and I remember thinking it was pretty great. Not too many people had seen it at the time, but it's been floating around on YouTube for a while now and it was part of the yearbook project where it got positive feedback. I'm not in the habit of re-watching stuff and haven't seen his in a decade or more, so I'm coming at it from a different angle.
     
    Over the years, I've enjoyed piecing together this early 90s UWA TV bit by bit and I think it would make an interesting comp at some point. The UWA style was clearly different from what CMLL were doing at the time and what AAA would present and that includes the heavyweight style. On top of that, the UWA heavyweight style was different from what was happening on the promotion's under card. It's quite fascinating to watch what has become an antiquated style. Every time I watch Caras, I have to remind myself that he was a heavyweight and not a middle or welterweight like so many of the guys I enjoy. I also find I have to increasingly curb this notion I have that he's some kind of mat genius. I think that's a notion deeply ingrained in my generation because of the artistry of his match with El Samurai, which predated the lucha maestros era, and while he certainly could wrestle that way, it wasn't the way he worked heavyweight title matches from the footage which exists. This match was all Caras and all leg locks. The matwork was good, but not good in an "Oh my God, lucha is the best thing ever" kind of way. Probably the most outstanding thing about the match was that they worked a no-nonsense pace while adhering to the traditional structures, though I suspect that may have been because of how cold it was. Canek is a guy who I've thought in the past is mechanically good, but often dead weight. I don't think he added a ton to this, but he gave Caras a lot of the offence and put him over strongly and I was certainly pleased to see Caras win the match, so it wasn't a Canek performance you could really fault. I'm not so sure how great a match it was, however. There's nothing about it that's quintessentially "lucha," which for me is a big problem, and while I appreciate the difference in the more 70s stylised UWA heavyweight wrestling, I think if you were to study the mechanics of this as a wrestling match and not a particular style, the pace of the match didn't really make up for it not having the sort of dramatic, back and forth deciding fall you associate with lucha. It was good without really kicking into great territory, although Caras continued to salvage his reputation with me with another rock solid performance.
     
    Cien Caras, Máscara Año 2000 & Sangre Chicana vs. Konnan el Barbaro, Perro Aguayo & El Rayo de Jalisco Jr, CMLL 03/01/92
     
    This was an excellent trios. It was actually uploaded for my benefit, but I slept on it the first time presumably because I wasn't in the mood for a brawling trios. It was more of a ringside brawl than a proper match, and it was really these guys plying their stock and trade, but the lengthy heat segment was extremely well done. The main narrative thrust was Konnan vs. Caras, but the star of the show was Sangre Chicana. It was one of those matches where you've got a guy who's charisma is so palpable it's like the glue holding everything together. Here it shone through when he tried to hold onto the leg of a guy in the crowd or when he accidentally slipped from the apron and drew laughs from the crowd. There was a tremendous range in what he was capable of, as he'd do these comedy spots where he looked like some half drunk vagabond and then jaw with the crowd and raise their ire. If you want to see a guy who is to lucha what Jake the Snake is supposed to be to US psychology then Chicana is the guy, especially this older version. Everybody else was solid and what you'd expect from this crew. Konnan had a few weak moments, but this made me want to go through his main events and see if any of them are worth a damn. That may be a dangerous proposition, but it speaks highly to how good this was.
  9. ohtani's jacket

    Recent lucha

    By ohtani's jacket,

    Blue Panther/Negro Casas/Atlantis vs. Black Terry/Negro Navarro/Solar, CMLL 8/16/13
     
    This was Blue Panther's 35th Anniversary match so he got to wear his mask again for the night and work with probably the five most recognisable lucha maestros in the business. The most notable thing from a Panther perspective was his opening exchanges with Solar. When I first got into lucha, Solar vs. Panther was supposed to be this legendary match-up kind of like Solar vs. Navarro before You Tube was inundated with Solar vs. Navarro. Later on, when I got wised up a bit, I realised there's not that much Solar vs. Panther on tape and what does exist isn't that legendary. Still, the exchanges here were fun and the type of lucha you don't see a lot of in CMLL these days.
     
    This was also a good opportunity to see Terry and Navarro work. There hasn't been a lot of good Terry & Navarro this year, not because they've slipped but because there hasn't been much that's made tape and Terry hasn't had a feud to sink his teeth into, which is the kind of wrestling he excels at as he's a real character actor type of wrestler. I liked that Navarro and Casas tried to get something going between falls instead of this being your typical maestros exhibit, and Terry vs. Casas, for the time that it lasted, looked like a match-up I'd like to see.
     
    This isn't essential, but it will appeal to maestros fans. Do yourself a favour and watch the TV version though as the handheld doesn't capture the matwork well.
     
    Rush/Terrible/Vangellys vs. Shocker/Negros Casas/Valiente, CMLL 9/3/13
     
    The only reason to watch this is for the Casas/Rush exchanges, but after a slow beginning it picked up with the technicos' comeback. This feud seems to have breathed new life into Shocker and he actually looked pretty good here working between the ropes and not only punching. Vangellys was pretty solid too. It wasn't a match with a huge amount of substance, but they went at a decent clip and there were some cool spots. Valiente had a nice dive. As a weekly kind of Rush vs. Casas installment it was enjoyable. Actually, it was even pretty decent as a Rush showcase. What I'm getting at is that it's a recommendation.
     
    Super Porky vs. Rey Escorpion, hair vs. hair, CMLL 10/18/13
     
    The first time I saw this I thought it sucked. Not because it isn't the bloodbath that I think cabellera contra cabellera matches should be, but because it sucked as a worked shoot. I didn't expect it to be RINGS and I braced myself for the fact that it was Super Porky and Rey Escorpion trying to do a worked shoot, but I still thought it sucked. Watching it again, I don't think it sucked. It wasn't any good, but there were a couple of spots I thought were okay. Still, it's not something they should ever try again. At least not with Porky or best two out of three falls.
  10. ohtani's jacket
    Pirata Morgan, Babe Face y Cien Caras vs. La Fiera, Lizmark y Rayo De Jalisco Jr. (1986)
    Babe Face, Cien Caras y Mascara Ano 2000 vs. Lizmark, Rayo De Jalisco y La Fiera (1986)
     
    These were a pair of excellent lead-in matches to the Babe Face vs. Fiera match. Not quite up there with Satanico/Dandy, Dandy/Casas or Santo/Felino in my own mini-pantheon of these type of matches, but quality nonetheless.
     
    Babe Face was a UWA guy working the talent exchange program at Arena Mexico, and as with other feuds from the 80s, good things came from talent sharing. The theme to this feud was how many times Babe Face could withstand Fiera's spinning high kick vs. whether Fiera could survive the blood loss, his bad shoulder and just being fucked up in general. What made the lead-in matches so good was that the others complemented them well. The second match in particular is one of the better trios on the set, largely because they achieve what I always bang on about in having a secondary thread to go along with the main issue in Fiera vs. Babe Face. In this case, it's Rayo getting the absolute shit beaten out of him by the Northern ranchers. There's these huge tuffs of hair sticking out of his mask and blood splattered all over his chest; at one point he staggers about ringside like the sole survivor of a car wreck. It's a tasty appetiser for the main course, but both times that Fiera is about to really get his hands on Babe, the devious ltitle squirt worms his way to victory, denying hard working folks the payoff to their working week.
     
    I found their hair match a tad underwhelming in isolation (you can read the review on this blog if you're so inclined), but with my appetite whet I was interested in reviewing what some are calling a top 10 match for the decade.
     
    La Fiera vs. Babe face (8/15/86)
     
    This was more fun than great. I don't think Fiera wanted to hurt Babe Face enough in the beginning. If they wanted to go the route of having Fiera dominate the opening fall and a half, he should have whipped Babe Face from pillar to post and made him bleed sooner. The match doesn't get good until Babe Face holds on to his winning submission for longer than he should and then stands there wiping the blood from out of his eyes. After that, it's the standard you expect from a hair match with some intense brawling from Babe and tremendous selling by Fiera, but that intensity should have been present from the start. Both guys were excellent in the final caida, however, with Babe trying to exploit Fiera's shoulder injury and Fiera trying to score that one big knockout move and almost knocking himself out several times in the process. If you chart where the match ends up from where it begins it's a fairly satisfying arc, so even if it's not a perfectly structured match it at least goes somewhere. Of course, controversy is never far behind when Babe's around and his low blow gets the crowd going. The finish s one of those ethical situations that you could argue about into the night. Personally, I'm not in favour of the technico cheating, but I can see the justice in it. The match was only half a classic and not one of the best matches of the decade in my opinion. There was a whole bunch of stuff I would have liked to have rearranged and ultimately Babe was too limited a worker to really deliver a classic. Fiera gave an excellent performance, but didn't lead from the front enough. It was a fun match though, and I've got to say that Mexico had some awfully competent barbers in the 80s. Nice job shearing those locks.
  11. ohtani's jacket
    Lizmark, Alfonso Dantes y Tony Salazar vs. El Signo, El Texano y Negro Navarro) (8/15/86)
     
    This was a tricky one. If there was more Misioneros footage available from the 80s I could see myself picking out small details and praising the Misioneros for their work, but since there's not this came across as disappointing. Taken on its own it wasn't a bad trios, but it's not the classic you're looking for and it's not even really a precursor to a classic.
     
    I thought the Misioneros looked better individually than they did as a trios. It's often said that Texano was the best worker of the three during their heyday and I can see the case for that. Signo wasn't as good as he is in the early 90s incarnation with Black Power and Navarro's role within the team was extremely different from the Navarro we know today, although there was one instance where Navarro was about to put an arm lock on Lizmark where I suddenly had a flash forward to Navarro v. Solar. The opening fall was poor. I kept waiting for the Misioneros to show they had a thousand tricks up their sleeves like the Masakre version of Los Infernales, but instead they did the most generic double and triple teaming imaginable. They may have been innovators of the trios form, but this fell way short of the showcase I was imagining. The second and third falls were better as the workers matched off individually, but it didn't make much sense that after the beating the technicos received in the first fall they were able to go one-on-one as though nothing had happened. Usually, the beating would continue until the technicos made their comeback and then the third fall would see the momentum shift backwards and forwards until there's a winner. The beatdown the Misioneros delivered would ordinarily come in the second fall as retaliation for coming off second best in the opening caida, and so it seemed to me that the Misioneros got the order wrong in what's a pretty standard trios formula. But it was all kind of forgotten by the time it got to the exciting parts.
     
    The match had a really awesome post-match punch-up that was almost like a fourth caida. To be honest, it was more exciting than anything that happened in the match. Dr. Alfonso Morales did my favourite trick of his where he tries to interview workers in the middle of their post match brawling and the Misioneros got huge heat their mic work. Lizmark busted out his "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" footwork, Navarro was awesome running around and jumping folks, and Signo looked fantastic with his longer hair and runty little moustache. You could totally imagine him bleeding like a stuck pig. "Low Blow" Tony Salazar's gimmick in the 80s seemed to be getting his team DQ'ed and this was all leading to a hair match, but I kind've wished the whole match had been wrestled with the same friction.
     
    Americo Rocca, Ringo Mendoza y Tony Salazar vs. Negro Navarro, El Signo y El Texano (Hair vs. Hair) (9/19/86)
     
    This was savaged by the World Pro editor and the replays to stop and describe the moves hindered the flow even further, but the Misioneros looked much better here, as you'd hope and expect from a big hair match. Lots of highlights here (and that's all this was really, highlights within a series of highlights), including Signo being an awesome heat merchant, a fantastic double team submission from Navarro and Texano, two superb pairings in Navarro and Ringo and Texano and Rocca and Signo with the best tope in the west. The finish was awesome as well and foreshadowed all those great one-on-one showdowns in modern Negro Navarro matches. I suddenly remembered why I love Ringo Mendoza when he countered into the submission finish. Hot damn, I wonder if the masters of these matches still exist.
  12. ohtani's jacket

    Recent lucha

    By ohtani's jacket,

    Blue Panther vs. Averno, hair vs. hair, CMLL 9/13/13
     
    This was a mixed bag.
     
    I loved the opening fall. I thought it was a tremendous battle of strength with the counter from the headlock to the cobra clutch being the kind of tough, gutsy wrestling I love. Averno's efforts to flip Panther off him and Panther continuing to hold onto the clutch were beautiful, and when Averno finally did counter the clutch into an arm lock and began guillotining Panther in the face, the only thing that could have been cooler than Panther's transition into the winning submission would have been if he'd gone for a palm strike, which of course Panther wouldn't do.
     
    I didn't mind the immediate reply in the second fall and thought Panther sold it well. Panther's selling has improved since he first lost the mask and has become a strength of his it seems. The third fall started with a pointless dive and then settled into some decent submission work, but it went on for too long and really started to drag. There's only so many submission attempts and so many dives you can do before they become redundant. I would have loved the match to continue in the vein of the first fall, which obviously wasn't going to happen on a big show at Arena Mexico, but the alternative of Averno not knowing the stip (or pretending not to know) kind of sucked. It was a silly distraction considering how great their submission battle had been in the first two falls, but the thing with Averno is that even though he was perfectly solid in this match he's not a guy who's able to do a whole lot of interesting holds. So there were more dives and some bullshit with Averno's second, who threw in the towel and caused Panther and the ref to be distracted which let Averno win with a choke hold. The best thing to come out of all this was Panther selling the choke while his head was being shaved.
     
    I'd say it was the best of the big Panther matches outside of the Casas hair match, but still not great.
     
    Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Virus, CMLL 10/6/13
     
    Now this was a great match. I've thought for a while now that Virus is the best worker in the company and this pretty much confirms it. The surprising thing for me personally was that it wasn't the opening two mat falls that pushed this over the top for me, but the final juniors-esque third fall that I fell for.
     
    The opening stretch-work was stellar and very UWA in the way they worked in and out of wristlocks and hammerlocks and abdominal stretches. It wasn't all Virus either. Guerrero Maya for his part wrestled extremely well. But one of the things that sets Virus apart from his contemporaries is his ability to construct awesome finishes and in a neat bit of detail Virus was able to turn a Russian leg sweep into an octopus like submission that put pressure on the shoulder Maya had already strained from the hammerlock. Nice. The second fall continued with more arm work until Maya realised he'd be better off creating more space during their standing portions, which was smart given their size and reach difference. He caught Virus with a nicely executed shoulder breaker move and won the fall with a cool looking submission of his own.
     
    That set the stage for a scintillating final caida where both guys went hell for leather. They were able to maintain a cracking pace while still selling, still putting some thought into their transitions and bridging their spots with good looking strikes. The Maya tope, which had to be a little lower to strike Virus properly, was stunning, and the new CMLL cameras are really cool. It was one of those caidas where every time they ran a sequence, like the Maya scoop slam or the baseball slide into the top rope plancha, they made good choices. When that happens, it's pretty magic. The new camera that seems to give high definition handheld shot that made Maya look like Spider-Man descending from a building. The nearfalls and slow ref counts added to the drama and the struggle over the simplest of things like a schoolboy was beautiful to watch. The escalating big moves were what made the fall so juniors-esque, but it was wonderfully done. Virus' arm drag off the ring post was superb and his final submission and pose sealed this as a classic.
     
    I would have no problem calling this the match of the year.
     
    Máximo, Stuka Jr. & Super Porky vs. Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora & Rey Escorpión, CMLL 10/4/13
     
    Escorpión really is a c-nt to beat on poor Porky like that. This was extremely well done for what it was. I haven't seen much Escorpión, but he seemed to have a Michael Hayes vibe to him. That was my take anyway. Porky gave Escorpión some receipts for that beating and a hair match is in the works. That could unseed Maya/Virus as MOTY.
  13. ohtani's jacket
    El Hijo del Santo vs. Negro Casas (Mask vs. Hair) (7/18/87)
     
    I think this was the only match to make Jeff Bowdren's Top Matches of the 80s list, and since improving Bowdren's list was the original impetus for the 80s sets, I thought it would be interesting to see how it holds up. The verdict?
     
    It holds up well. It's not a violent match like Santo vs. Espanto the year before, but the work is excellent and if anything I like it more than when I first saw it a decade ago or more. Back then I was framing it against cruiserweight matches and junior heavyweights, now I can appreciate it as a lucha match. The degree to which they struggle over holds is surprising, although not that surprising as the Espanto match shows that it was a Santo staple at the time, but still there were a lot of details that I didn't pick up on as a lucha neophyte.
     
    Probably the most interesting thing for me ten years later is watching 80s Casas. We don't have a lot of 80s Casas as he mostly worked for UWA and the indies, and of the Arena Mexico appearances he made only one of them has been preserved if memory serves me. I don't think he'd been to Japan at this stage as he hadn't adopted the Choshu look yet, and it was evident throughout that he was Casas without really being Casas. That's true of just about all the 90s stars on the set, but Casas would have such a dominant personality by '92 that it was fascinating to watch it in the formative stages. Also of interest was how much Santo had grown into the role of Son of Santo. When you compare this to his Arena Mexico debut where he's so nervous and has that overly long opening exchange with Lobo Rubio, it's amazing how much he'd grown in confidence. His dives here were exquisite. I often bitch and moan about formulaic Santo, but when he hits dives like that the whole world stops for a second. Man are those a thing of beauty.
     
    Pirata Morgan, Hombre Bala y Verdugo vs. Atlantis, Angel Azteca y Ringo Mendoza (3/88)
     
    There's been a lot of brawling trios on this set, which isn't surprising given the viewing committee's tastes, and there's been some straight filler that I'm not sure would've made the set if more footage was available. There's also been a lot of matches that were only ever meant to set up hair matches which we don't have. That's a bit like putting all those great Satanico/Dandy trios matches on the 1990 yearbook and not having the hair match. The reason that I'm saying all this is to emphasise that *this* is a trios match that I thought was a really high quality trios match.
     
    Naturally, not all of the viewing committee were sold on it, which probably makes me an outlier on all things lucha, but let me state my case. A really good trios match should have a little bit of everything: brawling, either matwork or quick fire exchanges, bumping, stooging & selling, a bit of comedy and dives. Of course there are plenty of good trios matches which are predominantly one thing over the other, but I always appreciate a trios that shows the depth and variety of lucha libre wrestling. Add overlapping falls, the right rhythm and pacing and clever finishes and you've generally got a great trios. Everything clicked here for me. I liked the early rudo beatdown on the technicos as well as the technico comeback, which was the right mix of Ringo being a credible enough asskicker to deal to the stockier rudos and Atlantis and Azteca having the skill to both confuse and embarrass the rudos. I really loved Ringo in this match. All of his punches and brawling were great, as were his spinning kicks, no matter how tired they got in the 90s. He was probably a loving family man, but he was one guy I don't think you'd be wise to mess with. You could probably argue that the Azteca fake out spot didn't work so well, though the editing didn't help. To me the only real weak point in the match was the Azteca pinning exchange after Atlantis had done his always brilliant three on one spinning back breakers sequence. No matter how many times Atlantis does that sequence I always mark out like it's the first time I've seen it. Azteca needed to follow it up with something as spectacular or better, similar to the moonsault move that Atlantis does to end the fall, but that's splitting hairs on a great trios. Azteca was still a little green here, but his arm drags were as sensational as ever. Atlantis was out of this world good and really '88-91 marks his absolute peak in my opinion.
     
    It's pretty rare that you get a trios match where all three technicos are good and add to that a solid rudos act and you've got something really good. The match reaches its zenith with an incredible tope from Atlantis, which tomk described as vertical and will live long in the memory of people who watch this set, before the footage cuts out right before an almighty uppercut to the groin area. How the match ended we'll never know. Maybe it's still going on somewhere out there in space.
     
    El Hijo Del Santo vs. Espanto Jr. (4/10/88)
     
    I didn't love this as much as I love their masks match and the '92 title match, but I'm glad we have another match in what is probably Santo's Garvin feud to his Casas Steamboat rivalry.
     
    As we've seen with a lot of this 80s stuff, there's a fantastic atmosphere with the ring being flooded with kids before the bout and later on they're sort of loitering about climbing back in it when Santo and Espanto are selling on the outside and running around during the stretch run. There's one kid who jumps a feet in the air every time Espanto kicks out of a nearfall and actually a section of the crowd seemed to be right behind him despite being largely pro-Santo. These two had wrestled so many times from '85-88 with Espanto losing so many times, including every year in their annual hair match, that I suppose to some people he was the underdog in this feud. He entered the match as champion having finally wrestled the UWA's World Lightweight Championship from Santo the previous summer and was determined to stay that way by the night's end.
     
    I wasn't overly thrilled by the matwork, which involved a lot of jockeying for position and ultimately led to a sort of macho battle where both guys would arm drag the other guy to the outside. The needling I liked, but I don't think the wrestling was top draw. I might change my mind on a re-watch, but that was my gut feeling this time round. The third caida was fantastic, however. I loved how Espanto fought his way out of Santo's submissions and how he managed to kick out of each of Santo's pin attempts, even when Santo would really sit in them. Espanto's submission finishers were awesome. I don't know that he had to cheat to win, but the final submission he got Santo with was a beaut. There's nothing like a little bit of controversy to end a lucha match, but a lot of folks seemed legit happy. You'd think they were swarming the ring because their guy had beaten the touring champ.
     
    What this did highlight for me is just how much we're missing in terms of UWA not taping this stuff. You look at the lists of title defences right through to the early 90s and it's either awe-inspiring or heart breaking. There's nothing you can do about it I suppose unlike the Televisa situation, but I don't think we can even begin to capture what an amazing decade it was for lucha libre with the footage we have. Which is all the more reason to enjoy discoveries like these.
  14. ohtani's jacket
    Kato Kung Lee vs. Kung Fu (Mask vs. Hair) (4/29/88)
     
    One of the best things about lucha is that you can take two guys who aren't that good and put them in a mascara contra cabellera match where big moves and basic timing are all they need to draw heat. A Satanico or a Sangre Chicana will add all sorts of details and craft a masterpiece, but even the goofiest of shit gets over in the cauldron of an apuestas match.
     
    I'm a big fan of Los Fantasticos, especially Black Man, who is sadly absent from the set. but their karate shtick isn't exactly conductive to the brawling environment of a hair vs. mask match. So what they did here was use elements of their trio formula to add the exclamation mark to falls and employ their karate to deliver some wicked looking shots. Kung Fu had a pretty good match with Javier Cruz on the same disc. Cruz was a kid who I really got into when I was going through the 1990 stuff who then fell completely off my radar. Kung Fu wasn't the greatest worker in the world and Cruz didn't have a big enough personality to really put the match over, but the important thing was that the crowd bought into Kung Fu as a rudo. There's a great image in this match of Kung Fu walking around with his mask pulled down below his eyes; he may or may not be bleeding, it's hard to tell, but his eyes pierce through the grainy haze of degraded, handheld video footage and right into your living room. The crowd throw rubbish at him and he throws it back, prompting members of the publico to challenge him to their own apuestas matches.
     
    The real highlights were in the third caida where Kung Fu delivered a vicious looking kick to Lee's head while Lee was backed up in the corner and Lee responded with a chop to Fu's face like some kind of quasi lucha shoot match. Their big moves were on point, and while the match could have done with some more obvious blood, it had all the basic drama you need. Unfortunately, they went for the shittiest finish imaginable denying the crowd something they could really pop for, but this was still an example of how simple and manageable the apuestas formula can be.
  15. ohtani's jacket
    Arandu vs. Guerrero Negro (Hair vs. Hair) (1988)
     
    This was a shitload of fun. I'm not sure if it was technically any good, but if there's been one match on the set that screams "fuck yeah!" then this is it.
     
    Arandu's hair was out of this world. It was like Mocho Cota's afro on steroids. The building was ready to come unhinged at the prospect of him losing it. Every time they went to the outside the heat was amazing, as though there was this push to the front to get at the wrestlers. At one point a woman tried to start a fight with Arandu's manager, which caused all sorts of commotion at ringside. The manager preening Arandu's hair and strutting her big ass was gold. You don't see valets in lucha too often. During the TV boom they'd accompany the workers to ringside and pose with them before the bouts, but this chick was clearly Arandu's woman and together they were like a superior version of Fit Finlay and Princess Paula.
     
    Guerrero Negro didn't do much in this except bleed, though he did throw a couple of great looking punches. He also threw some shitty looking spin kicks, but Arandu's bumping and selling (and hair) made up for Negro's lack of bite. After the valet was accosted, the match swung back and forth before Arandu won the match with an outrageous cheap shot. This lashed the crowd into a fury; one false step and they would have rioted. Instead, the TV crew entered the ring and interviewed the seconds over the foul, treating it like Zidane's send off in the World Cup final. Fans begged for the result to be overturned while others threw their trash in disgust. Arandu's afro could be seen bobbling between the officials as he goaded Negro over his loss, while Negro just knelt there like he was receiving the host. Once his hair had been cut and he'd made the customary lunge at Arandu, the biggest mass of humanity you'll see at a lucha match descended upon the ring and tested the thing to its absolute limits. It still amazes me that they allowed people in the rings in 80s lucha, but that was a different time and a different place.
    If this is what Monterrey was like in the 80s, it was wild.
  16. ohtani's jacket
    Americo Rocca vs. El Talisman (3/29/85)
     
    This was a nice little title match. Nothing fancy just solid lucha.
     
    It didn't have a huge arc in terms of dramatic structure, but the narrative was decent enough. Rocca and Talisman were frequent rivals in the welterweight class and ended up having a hair match a few years later. This date was Rocca's chance at reclaiming the title Talisman had taken from him months earlier, and more or less pit Talisman's strength against Rocca's skill. I liked that it built to a key dive in the third caida and the final submission was one of the best on the set. I'm so used to the workers submitting straight away that it was a real surprise to see someone hold on. You could sense the crowd willing Rocca on and they waited the perfect number of beats before Talisman gave in.
     
    Rocca continues to be one of the better babyfaces on the set, partially because of his wrestling ability, but also because of his babyface charisma. It's a difficult thing to describe, babyface charisma. With rudos you can write screeds about why they're so great, but what makes a babyface likeable? For some it may be their ability to play the underdog, for others it may be their take no bullshit attitude, but Rocca was neither. What struck me about him in the Cota matches was that he never let Cota get under his skin. Cota talked an amazing amount of trash in those matches and Rocca just smirked as though he enjoyed it. He was obviously a guy with a lot of confidence in his ability. He didn't have the greatest foil here as Talisman wasn't an overly skilled worker and not the most charismatic of the rudos, but my interest in Rocca as a babyface was enough to overcome all that.
     
    This probably would've been better if they'd worked more dives and nearfalls into the third fall, but it still did the trick.
  17. ohtani's jacket
    Enrique Vera vs. Dos Caras (2/26/84)
     
    I usually take for granted that Dos Caras is a gran maestro despite the fact that there's really not that much Dos Caras out there. Recently I was watching a tag match of his from his 1980 All Japan tour where he teamed with Jumbo Tsuruta against Dr. Wagner Sr. and Caribs Hurricane. Caribs Hurricane wasn't a luchador but rather Texas draw Ciclon Negro. The match was the usual watered down shit with the Japanese not really getting the lucha spots. To illustrate just how little they understood, the ring boys kindly taped together Wagner's mask after he did the lucha mask ripping spot. But what really stood out was that the matwork between Caras and Wagner wasn't that good. Which got me thinking, is there a mythology we've built up around Caras?
     
    I was anxious to see this again, and y'know what, I was pleased with it. The first thing that's obvious is that Caras was very much a heavyweight worker. He doesn't work the same as the other lighter weight workers on the set. His style is very much in the mold of 1970s NWA heavyweight wrestling, at least in this title bout, and there was little of the surreal expressionism that Caras is often associated with. It's almost as though there was exhibition Caras and serious heavyweight wrestler Caras. I'm a bit iffy on whether I like El Toreo as a venue as I think the outdoor ring set-up looks a bit cheap and there's not the same atmosphere that you get with Arena Mexico where kids flood the ring trying to pocket the coins that people throw. This got good heat and no doubt El Toreo was the site of some legendary bouts, but I wonder if the action might've been better in one of their indoor arenas. The third caida didn't work that well for me. The dives were predictable and always seem to the same dives on the same side at El Toreo, but the match itself quelled my doubts over Caras.
  18. ohtani's jacket
    Tony Salazar vs. Herodes (3/2/84)
     
    This was the first time for me to see Herodes in a single match let alone a mano a mano grudge match. For those of you who don't know, Herodes is considered one of the great forgotten workers of the 80s. This recent discovery sheds some light on that claim and is set up on the disc by a classic brawling trios similar to other blood feuds over the years. Herodes and Salazar bleed heavily in that match, giving the audience a taste for the gore to come.
     
    This wasn't a luchas de apuestas match as far as I'm aware, but that didn't abate the hatred. Salazar was a former lucha golden boy who was a twenty year vet at this point and Herodes was equally well established having worked a "Tijera de Oro" gimmick on his way up, a "golden scissors" shtick where he claimed to have taken the hair of numerous men. The two had crossed paths the previous Autumn with Salazar taking Herodes' hair, so there was bad blood between them.
     
    The opening falls where okay. I can see people possibly having a problem with their length, but as a relatively long time lucha fan, the length of the falls isn't as important to me as the rhythm and timing and what they actually do in those falls. Here they were going for a "technico gets off to a hot start" take on the opening caida with Herodes having to work his way back into the match. They didn't quite pull it off as neither man was the most polished performer, but Salazar busting a gut in the opening fall set the tone for a high stakes grudge match.
     
    First impressions of Herodes are similar to what others have said: he looks like a shorter, stockier version of Harley Race, especially with that beard. I'm not sure his strikes were really that good as there were a lot of lunges and he didn't lay in his shit as much as I would've liked, but for a heavyweight he was a super fun bumper and this match really turns on Salazar's bulldogs on the outside.
     
    The blood in this match is gruesome. Seriously. Salazar looks like he's been shot in the face. They do this long close-up of him trying to stop the bleeding with the palm of his hand and it looks like something out of a Peckinpah film. When Herodes blades, there's so much blood on his hand that he could coat the ring with it. Herodes was attracted to bullfighting in his childhood; the pair of them look like they've been gored.
     
    With all the bleeding and the heavyweight tope and planchas and sentons this match got seriously good. I thought they went a beat or two too far with the nearfalls at least in terms of how I was feeling the rhythm, but that may be because the crowds are so poorly mic'ed that I wasn't sure if the crowd was still with them. It's not the first time on this set that I've felt a fall could've ended at a better point, but I was cool with the finish. It's true that you don't often see a ref take the crowd's word for a DQ, but since this was a mano a mano it didn't demand a proper payoff and since Salazar had lost the trios for the technico side with the same foul it was cheeky of Herodes to think he could make Salazar pay from the irony of it all.
     
    So, this got hot in the third and ended up being pretty great. Herodes' not really a Cota or a Satanico and I thought for large stretches of this that because he was the one selling that he was out on his feet, Salazar was more responsible for the match being good, but still this was a cool find.
  19. ohtani's jacket
    Mocho Cota vs. Americo Rocca (1/27/84)
    Mocho Cota vs. Americo Rocca (2/3/84)
     
    Mocho Cota is such a compelling worker.
     
    On one hand, he looks like an evil genius like the Master from Dr. Who. On the other hand, he's so hyper with his pre-match taunting that when you hear the Bihari relayed stories about how he lost his fingers he may just be a maniac who's on something. Maybe with his "deformity" he's got a whole "if I cannot prove a lover, I'm determined to prove a villain" Richard III thing going on. Whatever the case, he laughs like a madman.
     
    Like all of the truly great workers, he puts an amazing amount of detail into his work. Whether he's working from the top or bottom, he's constantly selling. If it's a hold he's applying, he's always moving, shifting, trying to gain more leverage, selling the effort in his face. You've heard all the cliches about it being a game of human chess and having to think two or three moves ahead. It sounds like Larry Z on an episode of Worldwide, but Cota is that type of worker. The matwork in these matches isn't for show or to undo each other, it's a step-by-step effort at dismantling the opposition, and behind that veneer of maniacal laughter is a great wrestling mind. One of the best on the set.
     
    I didn't pay enough attention to the January match the first time I watched it. It really is a veritable masterpiece. Some of the best matwork in the history of lucha on tape. The rematch is beautiful and the matwork in the first caida may be even better than the January match. Americo Rocca deserves a ton of credit for the matches being good as he was a more than capable mat worker who shone in the more difficult role of technico, and his selling was every bit as careful and measured as Cota's. They should be commended for working two different mat classics only days apart, but for me it was Cota who really stood out. This was the first time I really saw him being on the level of a Satanico and elevated him to that tier of lucha workers. Watch his reactions in these matches. The way he sells the "strangleholds" that Rocca applies after they've been broken. The way he pounds his fist into his hand when a well planned sequence doesn't pay dividends, or the cocky strut when he knows Rocca has submitted even before the bell. The seriousness with which he wrestles the second caida of the rematch and his selling when he loses a fall demonstrate his range. There's never a point where he isn't selling. I loved the part after the second match where the kids are heckling him at ringside and he scares the shit out of them like a one handed Boogie Monster.
     
    These are also great matches for rudo fans as the old adage of "cheat to win" has never been so boldly played out in a lucha libre title match. Cheating of this magnitude usually doesn't occur in a lucha libre match, but Cota's genius makes all things permissible. The wonderful thing about the rematch is that I found myself wanting Rocca to win. They probably went a beat or two beyond what they needed in that second caida, as I thought Cota could have ended it sooner and added the remainder onto the third caida, but still I was pulling for Cota to knock off the bastard. The fact he lost in such screwy circumstances without Cota actually cheating was poetic and Cota rubbing it in to all in sundry was deliriously good. The part where he openly mocks Rocca by laughing at him is such poor sportsmanship for a title match and so removed from Satanico's near face turn in the Gran Cochisse fight that it almost blew my mind.
     
    I am really high on Mocho Cota.
  20. ohtani's jacket
    So the DVDVR set has finally been released and with it a great opportunity for folks to be introduced to lucha or have their exposure broadened. I'm going to write about a few matches I haven't seen before or which interest me for some reason, starting with this Chicana title fight.
     
    Sangre Chicana vs. Ringo Mendoza (10/28/83)
     
    First thing's first, Mocho Cota was the coolest looking second. Wearing a t-shirt and towel over suit pants and pointed leather shoes with his fresh for '83 hair cut that Gran Cochisse had inflicted on him the month before. I love that he's still sporting his Faustian beard. That motherfucker was one cool cat.
     
    Sangre Chicana is one of the greatest brawlers in lucha libre history and a tremendous performer. This was when he was still a man of the people and hadn't degenerated into one of the scummiest looking wrestlers who ever lived, and a rare opportunity to see him tackle the art of title match wrestling. The impression I got was that he wasn't much of a mat worker. He knew a few holds, but this was worked as more of a mano a mano bout than a lucha title match and I don't think it was because of Ringo, whom I've seen have some impressive first caida mat outings.
     
    What I did like about this was the general structure. It wasn't a great match by any stretch of the imagination but it had a steady build. I liked how cagey they were with their early approaches and how the first hold they agreed to ended up on the outside and back in the ring. The facets of pro-wrestling that Chicana excelled at were intensity and selling and that gave his matches a real energy even when they were low arcing and minimalistic like this one. There was a backbreaker spot that I thought could be the finish. I hadn't bitten on a near fall like that in ages and it was totally because of Chicana's selling.
     
    Where this match fell over was the finish. Double pin finishes suck. You can hem and haw and try to justify them but it's an immutable truth. It didn't seem to bother the crowd though as they mobbed Chicana at the end and carried him out on their shoulders, which seemed like a bit of an over-reaction to what actually happened in the ring, but was another snapshot of how wrestling used to be in Mexico back when fans could still enter the ring. The guy waving to his family was a great "Hi, Mom" moment for the cameras.
  21. ohtani's jacket

    Rudoism

    By ohtani's jacket,

    Been watching a lot of rudo-driven matches this week, so this one's a tribute to rudoism.
     
    Rey Bucanero, Satanico y Emilio Charles Jr. vs. Apolo Dantes, Black Warrior y Dr. Wagner Jr., CMLL 3/21/97
     
    This was a one fall, rudos contra rudos final to decide the vacant trios titles. Since it was a title match, the rudos kept with tradition and worked a technical match instead of brawling with each other. For a single fall match it was a well worked bout and could have been something special if it had been three falls. I loved seeing Satanico work the mat with Wagner. Wagner was one of the unsung heroes of '97 and Satanico was still an extraordinarily talented wrestler at this point. He had a diminishing role within the company after his return from AAA, which I can understand from the promoter's point of view, but as the biggest Satanico mark I know there are so many match-ups I wish we'd gotten with Satanico as a lead guy. This was cool, though, because you weren't getting Satanico vs. Wagner without a turn. The spot where they butt heads with both hands behind their backs should be aped in twenty thirteen.
     
    Mascara Año 2000, Universo 2000 y Miguel Perez vs. Pierroth, Apolo Dantes y Emilio Charles Jr., CMLL 10/6/95
     
    This was rudos contra rudos the way it's supposed to be. If Dusty had been calling this, he would've hollered: "there's no honour among thieves in the first place, Alfonso Morales!" This had it all really. Emilio was stretchered out with a rib injury only to return later in the match and have his ass handed to him. Pierroth and Apolo Dantes fought against their opponents three on two, Dantes bladed, the Dinamitas came within a whisker of turning on Perez for eating a fall, and there was a general feeling that this wasn't your regular night out at the wrestling. And to make matters better, it ended in excessive rudosim.
     
    Tinieblas Jr, La Fiera y Negro Casas vs. Los Villanos IV, V y Bestia Salvaje, CMLL 7/3/98
    Satanico, Black Warrior y Villano III vs. Tinieblas Jr, El Felino y Negro Casas, CMLL 7/28/98
     
    One good thing about 1998 is that you get a lot of Casas vs. Villano III. Sometimes in lucha, trios are the only way you get to see particular match-ups and you're left with these fleeting exchanges to satisfy you. On the other hand, trios teach you which workers were good at working with anybody and are a great leveler in that respect. It's one thing to have an exchange with Negro Casas for the ages and another thing entirely to make Tinieblas Jr. look worthy of stepping in a ring. Tinieblas' biggest problem was that he was a billed 6'4", which was closer to his real height than a worked figure in respect to the size difference between him and most luchadores, and he stuck out like a sore thumb in terms of being less talented. Satanico showed his class by carrying him through some respectable exchanges and Villano IV wasn't far off, but the notable thing about these trios was how good Casas was. I've mentioned before that I don't like the direction Casas took post-97, but these matches were cause for reappraisal. The intensity with which Casas worked and his selling ability made him seem like the best guy in Mexico in 1998, possibly in the world. What we don't have are the singles matches to drive that home, as Casas worked a three match stint with Panther and Satanico to lust for but nothing that made tape. Still, if you're a Casas fan you're going to want to track his starring roles in matches like these.
     
    Scorpio Jr. vs. El Hijo del Santo, Leyenda de Plata final, CMLL 7/31/98
     
    This was nice in that the rudo won in front of his father and all but the match itself lacked imagination. Scorpio Jr. looked several times worse than in his '97 trios matches and I couldn't help but think that if Casas had been his opponent it would've been a much better match as Casas was a level above Santo at this point, particularly at selling where there was no real comparison. In fairness to Santo, the match was truncated and he couldn't work the typical El Hijo del Santo formula, but as I said with El Dandy and Signo recently and saw again with Casas and Satanico in this week's viewing, some workers are able to make any exchange look good even against a borderline stiff like Scorpio through their selling and body language, and I'm not sure that Santo was one of those guys. He'll probably prove me wrong in some random trios to come but it didn't happen here.
     
    Scorpio Jr, Bestia Salvaje y Pierroth Jr vs. Atlantis, Hijo del Santo y Negro Casas, CMLL 8/20/99
     
    This was total carnage. My enduring image of this was the conclusion with bodies lying everywhere, Santo needing to be stretchered and Casas, having leapt from his own stretcher bed to re-enter the cauldron, surveying the battle scene from the ramp. The technico side was stacked, but the rudos leveled the playing field by making this a pure brawl. Pierroth was never the same after 1992, but he was good value here as the kind of prick who'd partner with Scorpio and Bestia. He cut an awesome promo with Morales where he stopped halfway through to beat up Atlantis some more then kept cutting the promo. Damn I love lucha.
     
    Felino, La Fiera y Negro Casas vs. Dr. Wagner, Jr., Black Warrior y Scorpio, Jr., CMLL 4/2/97
     
    This was your typical rudos driven trios where it's mostly slower, more methodical brawling interspersed with the occasional rally from the technicos. A lot of people find this style of lucha boring, and I can see the case for that, but to me matches like these are a strong measure of how creative a rudo is. To prevent these matches from becoming a bore, you really have to make the control segments interesting and I think Wagner around this time grew into one of the rudos capable of doing that. In fact, Casas vs. Wagner is one of my favourite match-ups from '97 that nobody really thinks about when they think about 1997. This was just another installment in a series of rolling trios kind of like how there's been a large number of Casas vs. Rush trios this year, but it's one those matches that shows the quality of TV and depth of the roster for this particular year.
     
    Negro Casas, Black Warrior y Emilio Charles Jr vs. Mr.Niebla, El Dandy y Silver King, CMLL 9/6/96
     
    Man, El Dandy must have done some pretty hard living between 1991 and 1996 because he doesn't look anything like he did during his green-eyed, best in the world days. He was still a quality worker, though, and his exchanges with Casas were class. I thought they stole the show a bit from Silver King and Emilio, who were supposed to have the main issue here, but I guess that's a consequence of them being so good. I was also impressed with Mr. Niebla in this match. For once he looked like the future maestro he was made out to be at the time.
     
    Felino, La Fiera y Negro Casas vs. Blue Panther, Scorpio Jr. y El Hijo del Santo, CMLL 11/28/97
     
    This was another "story match" where they shuffled along the angle of Santo turning face and teaming with Casas to take on Scorpio and Bestia. Casas was elite here again. I'm not sure there's ever been a better guy in Mexico at working feuds. He pretty much takes on all three guys at once in this match and you could easily imagine it splintering off into him feuding with all three simultaneously. And his look after losing his hair to Santo is probably the best look he ever had. I'm almost tempted to dub this his "badass" phase for a guy who's traditionally been an exhibitionist who blurred the lines a bit about his sexuality. Bestia was at ringside with that fucking nose. Jesus, he looked like W.C. Fields with that honker. Scorpio & Bestia did their horsemen act on Casas, Santo objected to it on principle and the promotion continued the slow tease on the Mega Powers combining. Felino and Panther were superfluous to requirements, but did a few good things. I can't remember if Santo did his tope during this match, but throughout this week's viewing I kept thinking about how Santo's tope has got to be top five. It just looks so good every single time.
  22. ohtani's jacket

    A mix of stuff

    By ohtani's jacket,

    Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Juventud Guerrera (AAA handheld 3/16/96)
     
    I was all ready to moan about how this wasn't real lucha, but the first two falls of this were actually really cool. It was a really spiteful match compared to most Rey Mysterio vs. Juventud Guerrera bouts and the atmosphere was fantastic with a seat right at ringside and a pan of the arena that made it seem like an amphitheater. There were a lot of neat details that a pro shot match would never dwell on, like a "long take" of Rey Mysterio in his corner trying to recover before the next round. I was really impressed with Juventud in this match. He's not a worker I've ever fully embraced, but there was a real sting to his offence here and from the moment they spat at each other, he brought a real intensity to the match. Of course, anybody who knows anything about this match knows what happens in the third fall. There's a series of run-ins which are indefensible. They don't just ruin the match as a contest, but they decimate it. It's bad enough that it's not worth watching the match, but if you can tolerate the unbelievable shittiness of the third fall the first two falls are excellent.
     
    Dr Wagner Jr vs. LA Park (TXT 5/11/13)
     
    This isn't the kind of wrestling I like but I forced myself to watch it because so many people are saying it's one of the matches of the year. Usually when there's crowd brawling and chair shots I start to tune out. I can't figure out what was wrong with a good old fashioned ring posting and a little bit of brawling out on the floor, but I will say that as far as dragging a guy through the crowd and the stunts that go along with it, so to speak, these guys are pretty good. I didn't love what they did, but matches like these are all about visuals and they created some great ones. By the time the third caida rolled round, you had Parka with this horrendous blade job that the ref, Black Terry, had to tear off a strip of his mask or something to tie round his head to stop the bleeding, and Wagner with his eyes almost bulging out of his mask, all glass-eyed, probably from the numerous chair shots and Parka slamming his head repeatedly into the mat. The doc did some running repairs on Parka while he was out on the floor, but the bandage went flying as soon as he was back inside. A few people had a problem with the back and forth, your turn/my turn nature of the third caida, but I thought it was pretty typical. In matches like these, the workers tend to take turns dominating the opening two caidas and then the third caida is largely 50/50. They could've done a better job with the overlapping of the falls perhaps and had a third caida turning point similar to the spear into the chairs that began Wagner's comeback in the second fall, but I didn't really find myself wishing for more. The match was largely okay. The finish was bullshit, but that was always on the cards. They could have cut out a bit of the crowd brawling and tightened things up a bit, but I can see the appeal the match has. With the tinge of grey that Wagner was showing and Parka being fat and middle-aged, I did wonder about who'd be better off losing their mask if their long awaited mask match ever pans out. I'm thinking that Parka is so dependent on the skeleton costume that losing the mask would be a pretty big blow. Wagner could probably do his Rock rip-off schtick and still be over. Mind you, I'll probably be middle-aged by the time they find a money mark to put up the cash. Do check this out.
     
    Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Juventud Guerrera (AAA 4/21/95)
     
    This was better than I remembered. It's a good thing I watched it during this period where I've softened on AAA. It wasn't really lucha (ha, there's the moan), but it was reasonably well worked and probably the best Rey vs. Juvi match from AAA. There were a couple of things they blew, but the match had a good energy to it and there was an obvious chemistry between the workers. Psicosis worked the corner well with his FMW t-shirt that looked like it was personally signed by Atsushi Onita. There was a spot I really dug where Juvi had his back turned to Mysterio on the outside and Rey did a tope into his back. That was cool. They did a bunch of other crazy shit too and I've got to give Mysterio his due here: he really is the greatest high flyer of all time. I don't think any of the other flyers have had quite the balance that Mysterio achieved. He really was an extraordinary athlete in his day. I also really dug the way these two would pin each other. If they could have rubbed each other's faces into the mat while getting the three count they would have stuck it to each other. They lent into those pins and there was a whole bunch of extra holding. Good match.
     
    Fuerza Guerrera vs. Mike Segura, hair vs. mask (IWRG 11/4/99)
     
    This was a fun one-fall apuestas match. Segura's a good worker so I was fairly confident this would be worth the watch. He had a real early 90s grunge look going on for this apuestas match and I half expected him to start singing Even Flow, even though he looked closer to Iggy Pop's age than Eddie Vedder in his close-ups. This being one fall was a bit of a twist on the apuestas format as instead of having the match broken up into three there were twists and turns along the way. There wasn't the blood that you associate with hair vs. mask matches and the brawling was mostly limited to Segura ripping Fuerza's mask, but it wasn't a bad little match. I thought the mask ripping was about as interesting as mask ripping can get. There were some really neat touches from Fuerza, as you'd imagine. He's actually had surprisingly few apuestas matches in his career if his record's correct (like half a dozen), so this is worth watching if you're a particularly big Fuerza Guerrera fan, which most of us are. I was amused by the advertisement on the ring apron for IWRG's angelfire site. Those were the days.
     
    Rayo de Jalisco Jr vs. Universo 2000 (CMLL 12/10/99)
     
    This was a fun "CMLL is where the big boys play" match before Villano III and a couple of other rudos did a run-in to attack Atlantis at ringside. Whoever was booking this must have had one eye on the Monday Night Wars. Bit of a crock really, but fun to see Rayo and Universo Dos Mil dropping bombs.
     
    El Hijo Del Santo, Fuerza Guerrera y Villano III vs. Negro Casas, Shocker y Felino (CMLL 9/4/98)
     
    1998 was a real come down for CMLL after their amazingly hot 1997. They still had an extraordinarily talented roster, but the booking became lax and things turned average pretty quickly. I still think they dragged the Santo technico turn out for too long, though Jose disagreed with me over that the last time we spoke. Week after week of the rudos not wanting Santo in the club anymore but the technicos not being ready to welcome him back into the fold got a bit old to me. This was one of those matches, but look at the talent in the match lineup. There's no way this is going to be anything less than an enjoyable television match and that's exactly what they delivered. Some great match-ups in this -- Casas vs. Fuerza and Casas vs. Villano III to go along with the usual Santo vs. Casas riffs. Negro was really good in this and had an MVP night.
     
    Lizmark, La Fiera y Atlantis vs. Bestia Salvaje, Emilio Charles y Dr. Wagner Jr. (CMLL 2/6/98)
     
    Fun match that ends in a big pull-apart between Emilio Charles Jr. and Dr Wagner. It starts off with a bunch of heat between Atlantis and Wagner, actually. Their exchanges spill out of the ring several times and it's all very much apuestas tease stuff with a bunch of ground and pound to take advantage of the UFC's rising notoriety?... Seriously, I don't know why they were doing mounts, but they were. Wagner was really starting to come into his own at this point and cracked me up on a few occasions. Emilio was sporting his Triple H look here. He did some decent stuff with Atlantis before the angle. He couldn't bump like before with all the theatrics, but he was busting ass to get back up after each bump. Bestia didn't get to do much and Lizmark still looked pretty good, but Fiera was actively bad. It was kind of sad, to be honest. Match was still technically fun, though.
  23. ohtani's jacket
    La Parka vs. Jerry Estrada, Mexican National Light Heavyweight title, AAA 3/28/95
     
    Man, how good was Parka at this point? He brought the same sort of attitude to this as the Lizmark match, shoving Estrada early and gyrating in his face. And if there was ever a guy who deserved a Park gyration it was Jerry Estrada. This wasn't as epic as the Lizmark match as it had a ton of bullshit with Tirantes, but it was a similar brew of uncooperative matwork and killer high spots. On the Jerry Estrada scale of out of his mind to utterly disinterested, he ranked about an inoffensive, but there was some visible spot calling in the third caida that hurt this a bit. It was also shorter than average for a title match, but that was largely because of the Tirantes angle.
     
    Lizmark vs. Enfermero Jr., NWA World Middleweight Championship, EMLL 8/83
     
    Early 80s lucha has a different vibe to it. It's kind of like when you watch older sports matches and the crowds are completely different from the ones you get today. You watch a match from the Boston Garden for example and it seems like a special time. This was the same. Kids would flood the ring before and after the match, hoping to get an autograph from one of the workers and there was the kind of buzz about the crowd that only happens when there's a solidarity of everybody being there to see the wrestling. And the work itself was different. From the workers' grappling stance to the exaggerated stylings of some of their moves and holds, it seems like early lucha may have been even more expressive than the work we're used to. Enfermero Jr was Jaque Mate before he repackaged himself as such (and had that really fun Intocables run.) His gimmick was an evil nurse. Don't ask me what Mexico has against doctors and nurses, other than some serious mistrust in the healthcare system. The match was really good. It didn't maximise the dramatic potential of a title match, but the work was really strong, and any and all Lizmark is worth watching. Enfermero looked like a capable worker, albeit not a serious challenger to the title.
     
    Satanico/La Parka/Fuerza Guerrera vs. Lizmark/Mascara Sagrada/Volador, AAA 2/15/94
     
    This had a really solid mat exchange between Lizmark and a rather portly looking Satanico, but the AAA style exchanges dragged on and on and eventually this became a bore. Mascara Sagrada looked surprisingly smooth, however. First I softened on AAA, now Mascara Sagrada. What's wrong with me?
     
    Lizmark/Rey Misterio/Rey Misterio Jr. vs. La Parka/Psicosis/Espectro Jr., AAA 5/5/94
     
    This was the kind of all-action match that AAA was good at even if it fell short of a classic. Lizmark again got the mat section, this time with Espectro Jr. They put on some really good exchanges, which were further proof of how good Lizmark was in AAA. The others couldn't really match that pairing, but this had better rhythm in the AAA rope exchanges.
     
    Blue Panther/Fuerza Guerrera/Psicosis vs. El Mariachi/El Charro/El Mexicano, AAA 10/15/94
     
    AAA tended to let only one pairing work the mat in the primera caida. In this case, it was Blue Panther and El Mexicano instead of Panther and Solar. Panther had a couple of short exchanges with Solar later in the mat, but Solar (or El Mariachi as he was packaged here) squared off against Fuerza to start in what was a pretty disappointing match-up. The rudos weren't really on their game here and the technicos, for all their costumes, weren't that charismatic, but it was still okay.
     
    Eddie Guerrero/Art Barr/Lizmark vs. Blue Panther/Fuerza Guerrera/La Parka, AAA 7/11/1993
     
    For a while, Art Barr's life must have been pretty good. Snort some coke, come to the ring to Van Halen, hobnob with Roddy Piper and get plenty of love from the publico. I've never been much of a fan of Love Machine, but I thought he was pretty much perfect here. This was a really hot match from AAA's big '93 run. It's not a great match because of the booking but Parka rocks and just about everyone else is good. Watching this, I began to wonder if Parka was the best worker in Mexico in 1993. I think he certainly has a case. I always thought of Parka as being somewhat green at this time, but watching this stuff is blowing my mind. I can't think of anyone significantly better than him in 1993.
  24. ohtani's jacket

    More older stuff

    By ohtani's jacket,

    Villano III vs. Rambo, mask vs. mask, UWA 10/25/87
     
    This was the match Cronicas y Leyenda teased us with a few years ago and which I posted so pictures of from DJ Spectro's blog about a year ago. Finally, the bout is in circulation and while it's hurt a bit by clipping what's shown is good enough to take pride of place alongside the other great Luchas de Apuestas matches that exist from the 80s.
     
    The exact chain of events aren't shown in the first two falls, but basically Villano III takes such a beating that his mask is in tatters and his forehead heavily cut. When it comes to lucha bleeders, I know Phil Schneider loves to tell the story about how Pirata Morgan would blade his empty eye socket, and then there's Sangre Chicana and other noted bladers, but I don't think Villano III gets quite his due as a lucha brawler. He's got a forehead to match Perro Aguayo, but people tend to think of him as a technical wrestler, I think. He was tremendous here, especially working his bloodied comeback. Rambo was a solid hand and these two had a series of great matches over the years, but if not for Villano this might have been a bit too heavy on Rambo attempting his finishers. The third fall was what you want from this sort of match -- big sweeping arc, nearfalls, plenty of dives and nutty highspots, and some great moments of desperation. The highlight being Villano's armdrag from the apron, which Rambo took as a really heavy looking bump onto the concrete. The finish was one you don't see a lot of in lucha and that's a chair shot. I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first until Rambo unmasked and began complaining. I loved how it seemed Rambo had a legitimate gripe despite the fact he brought the chair into the ring and that anything generally goes in these type of matches. Rambo got repeatedly screwed in this feud over the years and it amused me to see how it all began. Minus the clipping, this might've had a good shot at my top 10 for the 80s. As it is, it's another piece of 80s treasure.
     
    Fuerza Guerrera vs. Misterioso, NWA World Welterweight Championship match, CMLL 12/8/91
     
    This was exactly what you'd expect from Fuerza Guerrera carrying Misterioso. Not something I really want to see. Some people might appreciate Fuerza putting on a one man show, but to me it reminded me a lot of modern matches where you have a guy like Casas doing all of the work and the recipient not really contributing.
     
    Fishman & Blue Panther vs. Atlantis & Lizmark, CMLL 1/9/98
     
    This was one of those short, one fall tournament bouts that usually don't amount to much, but in this case they decided to take it to that wonderful place we call the mat. It was probably the hardest Fishman had worked on the mat the entire decade and unfortunately he wasn't that crash hot, but what followed was some of the most beautiful lucha libre I've seen in all my years of watching. To my knowledge, there has never been a known Lizmark vs. Blue Panther singles match. This is as close to heaven as we're going to get. To put their work in context, it smoked the Virus/Panther lightening match that got a lot of acclaim this year and was probably better than the best Panther/Atlantis stuff in terms of pure exchanges. I hope I haven't built that up too much, but I watched it again tonight and was blown away a second time. The stand-up stuff wasn't as good and Fishman struggled to keep pace, but there were some fun exchanges between Atlantis and Panther and Panther and Lizmark before the necessary fall to move the tournament ahead. Considering how close this was to the 12/97 Panther/Atlantis match, Panther may have been the best guy in Mexico at this point.
     
    Lizmark vs. La Parka, AAA Triplemania I 4/30/93
     
    This was ridiculously great. I had no idea La Parka could be in a match this good in 1993. This was one of the least co-operative looking lucha matches I've seen. The matwork had a shoot like edge to and later on the dives and all of the offence seemed to have extra impact, and the transitions and set-up spots seemed to be peppered with headbutts and other strikes. The match went to a commissioner enforced "extra period" and even that as gritty. Everything just seemed to work so perfectly. It was like watching 2004 La Parka not the early version. A lot of the credit has to go to Lizmark, I suppose. Lizmark has been off my radar for a while now and I'd forgotten how good he was in AAA. If there's one thing AAA did better than CMLL, and there's probably a few since I'm feeling generous about AAA right now, it's book Lizmark in long title matches. To be honest, when I think of this match and the Estrada match I actually think he was a better singles match worker than Atlantis and should probably rank higher in the lucha hierarchy. This deserves a better write-up than I have the time or energy for right now, but I was super high on it and I hope people check it out. There's no doubt in my mind it's an AAA classic and it would probably push top 20 for the decade if I ever get round to revising my list.
  25. ohtani's jacket
    Blue Panther/Fuerza Guerrera/Pierroth vs. Atlantis/Super Astro/Angel Azteca, CMLL 11/8/91
     
    This was nowhere near as good as these teams are capable of, but there was still a lot of talent on show. I liked how we got some match-ups that you don't usually see like Fuerza vs. Angel Azteca. It's always bugged me how they didn't do more with Azteca during his cooling off period. They groomed him to be the next Atlantis, at least in my eyes, and then he fell by the wayside as Octagon got over. Of course they've gotten another two decades out of Atlantis, and there's nothing to suggest he wouldn't have jumped to AAA even with a bigger push, but in my revisionist little brain he ought to have been a bigger star instead of being lost in the shuffle. Anyway, to cut back to the match, the Fuerza/Azteca exchanges were a lot of fun and something you good folks should check out. There was also a great nod to the Atlantis/Panther rivalry where they had a brief stare off before locking up. The negatives were that it was a one fall bout so lacked the rhythm of an ordinary trios match, Pierroth was about 1/5th as good as he'd become in 1992 and they became overly obsessed with double leg takedowns during the finishing stretch.
     
    Blue Panther vs. Octagon, National Middleweight Championship match, AAA 4/30/94
     
    Never heard of this one? Possibly because it's one of the worst title matches in lucha history. You look at this on paper and you think, "gee, I wonder what Blue Panther can do with Octagon in a title match" and then you get an endless repetitious stalling exchange where Octagon won't let Tirantes check his boots, a bunch of non-title match looking action that wouldn't wash in a mano a mano bout, and to top it all off a title change on a freakin' DQ. Octagon spent longer celebrating with whoever the old guy was seconding him and the woman who joined them in the ring at the end than he did wrestling. Really just a joke of a title match.
     
    Atlantis vs. Emilio Charles Jr., NWA World Middleweight Championship match, CMLL 3/22/91
     
    This was a good title match, but not a great one. It was notable for a performance from Emilio Charles, Jr. that was pretty close to prime Charles. It wasn't one of Atlantis' better performances, however, though this was offset somewhat by him doing a lot of long term selling which fit into the narrative of his title being at risk. The first fall had some typically good Atlantis/Charles matwork as these two had a good working chemistry. I liked the way that Charles was able to outfox Atlantis, keep him at arm's distance and finally work his way towards the standing submission he wanted. Intelligent heel workers is one of the things that really endears me to lucha and title matches are obviously where they get to showcase their ability most. Unfortunately, Atlantis' comebacks in the match weren't timed as well as you'd expect. That's an issue as said comebacks are important turning points in lucha libre title matches. Charles covered for the first comeback by producing some of his classic bumping and selling, but things stalled a bit in the third caida. There were some good dives, but Atlantis actually blew the spot he was supposed to make his comeback on. Charles was able to lay into him a bit and cover for the mistake and Atlantis sold the slip like it was a result of match fatigue, but it took me out of the match a bit. And unfortunately, the finish was not so much poor conceived as poorly timed. None of this should take away from a top performance from Emilio, but it's a match that could've been a lot better.
     
    Atlantis/El Dandy/Octagon vs. Satanico/Emilio Charles Jr./Kung Fu, CMLL 10/12/90
     
    One of those fun advance the angle matches. In this case, the main angle was Atlantis vs. Kung Fu with Dandy and Satanico being a secondary issue. Emilio slotted right in there as the guy with historic issues against both Dandy and Atlantis.
     
    Satanico/Mascara Ano 2000/Pirata Morgan vs. El Dandy/Sangre Chicana/El Faraon, CMLL 11/2/90
     
    This was the same sort of story as the match above, but much more disappointing given the talent involved. The highlight of the match for me was Mascara Ano 2000 being thrown to the outside and then flinging himself into the ring post because he was dizzy. That made me laugh. Was expecting far more from the technicos.
     
    Negro Casas/MS-1/Jerry Estrada vs. Atlantis/Mascara Sagrada/Panterita del Ring, Monterrey October 1991
     
    This was pretty piss poor. I wasn't kidding when I said Monterrey was a vacation for some of these guys. Jerry Estrada didn't do anything until a comedy bump after the match where he took out the television interviewer and it took forever for Atlantis to enter the match. Casas was a pest and had some decent exchanges with Panterita, but he also worked this silly submission spot where he had Panterita hunched in the corner and he was standing on the middle rope posing to the crowd and occasionally wrenching the arm as the other rudos meandered around doing lazy rudo brawling. This went on for a good three or four minutes and I probably should have tuned out at that point. Casas did have a rad UWA jacket, though.
     
    Satanico, MS 1 & Pirata Morgan vs. Lizmark, Mascara Sagrada & Atlantis, CMLL 1991
     
    This was a classic Infernales match filled with all sorts of smooth double and triple teaming. We obviously don't have the full picture on lucha libre trios and which teams were the most influential in establishing the style, but it's hard to believe that Los Infernales didn't lay down some of the groundwork in teams of rudo teamwork. This was your run-of-the-mill TV match not your all-time classic that people yearn for, but it's always a pleasure to enjoy how solid these by the numbers television matches were. Lizmark spent a lot of this match with the top of his mask missing and his hair sticking out. He looked a bit like Super Muñeco. He had some beautiful exchanges, but what really stuck out for me on the technico side was how good Sagrada looked. I don't think I've ever seen him as on point as he was here. Not sure if that was because of the Infernales or if Sagrada just had his head together, but it surprised me. There was also a spectacular sequence in the match where Atlantis took on the Infernales three on one, first in the ring and then again on the outside. The Infernales bumped for his spinning back breaker better than anybody else and Pirata took his trademark back bodydrop bump over the top rope which never fails to wow me. This was some seriously exciting stuff and one of Atlantis' best ever trios moments.
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