Mr JMML

Sorry, I completely forgot about that match luckily I wrote about it in the past.

El Hijo del Santo vs Espanto Jr (Mask vs. Mask, 2/3 Falls, 8/31/1986 Plaza de Toros Monumental). This match is historically significant. These two are second generation wrestlers and their fathers had a legendary match 23 years before this happened, in 1963. El Santo defeated Espanto and he had to unmask forever. 20 years after this match El Santo's son debuted with all the pressure in his shoulders to live up to expectations and he did exactly that. It took only 3 years to put his mask on the line with the son of his father's nemesis Espanto Jr and with this in mind let's analyze the match. The first fall was decided with a Gori, it was the shortest fall of the entire match designed to set up El Hijo del Santo's comeback intelligently. Espanto Jr won the first fall. Second fall: El Hijo del Santo began doing his moves and holds and Espanto had no answer to that, after a fun exchange where Santo softened his opponent's back and did some pin combinations, he went for a suicide dive right on target and that was the end of the second fall. I think that Espanto Jr looked weak during the last two falls but that's just a minor complain, the match as a whole was awesome. Third fall: There's urgency in every move they do and this can be felt in both corners. The match was out of control and everyone could've won but in this situation. They pulled every trick they had in their back to win but the pride, legacy and fighting spirit of ''El enmascarado de plata'' was too much for Espanto Jr. He was submitted with the legendary camel clutch the submission that also made his father tap almost 23 years ago in a great callback that gave the match the emotional touch it needed to become a quintessential piece among lucha fans.

Sangre Chicana vs El Satánico 5/26/1989 EMLL Who said draws were boring? El Satánico and Sangre Chicana had a draw for the ages, El Satánico lost his hair a few weeks ago against El Dandy, that’s why he’s almost bald in this one, Daniel López (El Satánico) was a heel as usual, Sangre Chicana is also a heel, he’s best work came as a babyface but he wasn’t bad as a heel, he’s just not as convincing as he is as a heel, Andrés Richardson (Sangre Chicana) was a great brawler if you have been following my lucha journey you already know that, Satánico is a wrestler that has always connected with me, if you’ve seen the 1984 reviews you know how much I like him, he’s still in his prime even tough he had been wrestling for 16 years in 1989 so he was already a veteran by then, the announcers were also aware of that, they said that Satánico was already a veteran, they said that he wasn’t a young wrestler anymore, he wasn’t old man Satánico yet but we are getting there, they also said that Sangre Chicana was the kind of wrestler to make a comeback when you least expect, this one is a match whose appeal is pretty clear from the get go, they are two guys hitting each other very hard, both of them are great in this environment and they proved it, this match is wild, at some point near the end of the match they start brawling in the stands, the announcers had to explain the basic rules of lucha during the first fall because it was so unorganized and crazy that you had to make it clear, it’s a lucha brawl a great one, it’s a match I’d recommend to every lucha fan, even for the non-lucha fans the match is short enough for them to give it a chance, anyway everybody gets a good lucha brawl, Sangre Chicana and El Satánico are the perfect lucha introduction.

Sangre Chicana vs El Satánico 5/26/1989 EMLL Who said draws were boring? El Satánico and Sangre Chicana had a draw for the ages, El Satánico lost his hair a few weeks ago against El Dandy, that’s why he’s almost bald in this one, Daniel López (El Satánico) was a heel as usual, Sangre Chicana is also a heel, he’s best work came as a babyface but he wasn’t bad as a heel, he’s just not as convincing as he is as a heel, Andrés Richardson (Sangre Chicana) was a great brawler if you have been following my lucha journey you already know that, Satánico is a wrestler that has always connected with me, if you’ve seen the 1984 reviews you know how much I like him, he’s still in his prime even tough he had been wrestling for 16 years in 1989 so he was already a veteran by then, the announcers were also aware of that, they said that Satánico was already a veteran, they said that he wasn’t a young wrestler anymore, he wasn’t old man Satánico yet but we are getting there, they also said that Sangre Chicana was the kind of wrestler to make a comeback when you least expect, this one is a match whose appeal is pretty clear from the get go, they are two guys hitting each other very hard, both of them are great in this environment and they proved it, this match is wild, at some point near the end of the match they start brawling in the stands, the announcers had to explain the basic rules of lucha during the first fall because it was so unorganized and crazy that you had to make it clear, it’s a lucha brawl a great one, it’s a match I’d recommend to every lucha fan, even for the non-lucha fans the match is short enough for them to give it a chance, anyway everybody gets a good lucha brawl, Sangre Chicana and El Satánico are the perfect lucha introduction.

The lucha announcers are incredible, they give a lot of context needed because of the lack of footage.

Lola González vs Pantera Sureña (Hair vs Hair EMLL - 9/12/88) The first time female wrestlers wrestled in Arena México was in 1935 July 7th to be exact then they were banned from the most iconic in the country but they returned December 21st 1986, the two wrestlers waging their hair wrestled in AJW, Pantera Sureña was known as La Galáctica, under that alter ego she had a legendary match against one of the greatest joshi wrestlers in history (Jaguar Yokota) it was a fantastic brawl but half as wild as this one, the history of women’s wrestling in México is very rich and this match is their magnum opus, it’s the women’s version of Sangre Chicana vs Perro Aguayo that’s quite a compliment, Lola González would be Perro Aguayo here and Pantera Sureña would be Sangre Chicana, I love how Andrés Maroñas (the announcer) seems genuinely worried about everyone’s well being, I recall an instance where Pantera Sureña did a senton to the outside and he said: ‘‘¡Niña cuidado!’’ translated to english it’s ‘‘Girl be careful!’’ sounding concerned about her, that’s something that doesn’t happen men’s wrestling, the announcer wasn’t accostumed to watching women taking the risks these two were taking, the main reason why I think this match is worth reviewing is the announcers’ reaction to the action, that’s the appeal of the match for me, it’s an amazing brawl don’t get me wrong but if it wasn’t for Maroñas this match wouldn’t have ranked 60th in my Greatest Match Ever list, to be fair if the announcers weren’t as special as they were I wouldn’t be watching lucha at all to be honest, the first fall is great, Pantera Sureña is thrown out of the ring by Lola González and she didn’t let her get back to the ring, the second fall is an amazing babyface performance by La Panterita and got away with the fall but it wasn’t enough to keep her hair, Lola submitted her after 27 grueling minutes of tough and gritty wrestling.

El Dandy vs Pirata Morgan (Hair vs Hair - EMLL - 9/23/1988) CMLL 55th anniversary show El Dandy in the 1980’s was very impressive, many people act like his career began in 1990 when his most iconic matches happened, like El Dandy vs El Satánico or El Dandy vs Ángel Azteca but his career is deeper than that, he wrestled Javier Cruz in 1984, I think his prime began in the late 80’s and matches like this prove it, El Dandy is a fantastic brawler everybody knows it but the main difference between his 90’s matches and his 1980’s matches is his role, in the 80’s he worked as a babyface while in his famous matches he worked as a heel, in my opinion he’s way more charismatic as a heel, as babyface he’s convincing but not as inspired as he was as a heel, Pirata Morgan is one of the greatest mexican wrestlers ever if you’ve seen my greatest wrestlers ever list featured him around the bottom 25 of that list and that was for a reason, his most acclaimed run happened as a member of the trio Los Infernales I’ve done a primer so you’re free to go there, Segunda Caída did a Complete & Accurate so definately check that out if you’re interested, their match against Los Brazos is considered one of the best matches of 1991, it isn’t even the best trios match of the year but 1991 was a special year for trios all around the world I’m sure you’re aware of the Super Generation Army vs Tsuruta-gun trio, in my opinion the greatest trios match in the history of wrestling, Pirata Morgan also had success as a singles wrestler, he had a fascinating title match against Brazo de Oro, the match we have today is as good as any Pirata Morgan match there is, the bloody brawling, his heel attitude, the way he lost this match and hair it’s all worthy of an aniversario main event, this is all I want in a lucha brawl, it isn’t as good as Sangre Chicana vs Perro Aguayo but it’s still one of the greatest brawls in lucha history.

I think that Hashimoto's skillset is perfect for Battlarts so I'm sure the fans will get used to seeing him as the face of the promotion

I'm so sad, I'll miss him.

Battlarts BORN TO BE BATTLARTS 08-24-1996 Before the event Bas Rutten talks about the promotion’s unique style and he also addresses the wrestlers, he only has good words to say about the people that are going to fight in the main event of the show, Daisuke Ikeda and Yuki Ishikawa settled their differences and they’re going to fight together to defend Battlarts’ honor, Shinya Hashimoto and Masahiro Chono are seen as villains by the crowd and the locker room alike but they aren’t here to make friends, they are here to beat whoever dares to stand up to them, this is the prevalent narrative before the event, the fans are eager to see the ex NJPW giants fall, it isn’t going to be easy but they are professional wrestlers, they are here for the greatest challenge of their lives, it’s time for Daisuke Ikeda and Yuki Ishikawa to prove how much this company means to them, the musketeers are unfaced they don’t care about the result or the company they just want to inflict a world of pain upon the whole Battlarts roster, it’s the only thing they stand for. Daisuke Sekimoto vs Kazunari Murakami It’s time for the two youngest prodigies of the promotion to show their skills against one another, no entrance themes, whoever wins this match may have one in his next match but not today they still have to prove their worth to the Battlarts crowd, no one in the stands is familiar with these two so they don’t who they should cheer, it doesn’t bother any of the wrestlers, in fact, Murakami seems to be encouraged by the lack of involvement during the entrances while Sekimoto is just apathetic, he didn’t show any emotion during the pre-match ceremony but at the end of the day who cares about that, let’s go to the action. The crowd’s apathy disappeared once the match began, Sekimoto hit one of his best moves at the beginning a decapitating lariat that got everyone hooked in the match, they were even more impressed by Murakami’s reaction, he got back on his feet immediately and started kicking Sekimoto’s leg hard to the point where he fell but he got up on the count of five, then Murakami hit a backdrop suplex, Sekimoto landed on his neck, he got up on the count of eight this time. Sekimoto tried an armbar out of desperation but Murakami grabbed the ropes, Murakami ended up winning after submitting his opponent with a kneebar to the left leg he worked on earlier. 15:26 Ian Rotten vs Gary Albright Ian Rotten’s entrance theme: Hellraiser (30th Anniversary Edition - Official Animated Video) Gary Albright’s entrance theme: Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green River (Official Lyric Video) The crowd is already familiar with Gary Albright from his UWF-I run so they know what to expect out of him, they know he’s more of a traditional amateur wrestler, they know they aren’t going to get a bombfest like the last match and they are okay with it, a super-heavyweight with great technical skills, Ian Rotten on the other hand is quite the opposite for the Battlarts audience, an unknown dirty grappler/brawler they are predisposed to hate and they weren’t wrong that’s exactly how Ian Rotten is and he’s proud of it, he’s just an ugly redneck who’s come here to kick ass and that’s exactly what he’s gonna try to do against the legitimate beast he has as an opponent today let’s see how it goes. The first few minutes of the match are spent grappling as expected but Ian Rotten has other ideas, he punches Albright in the face, his opponent doesn’t take it very well and hits Rotten with a german suplex, he got back on his feet on the count of four, Ian threw Gary off the ring then irish whipped him into the barricade and started punching his defenseless opponents, Albright came back throwing his opponent to the ring post, he threw Rotten back in the ring and hit two belly to belly suplexes and an STF afterwards to submit him. 19:37 Naohiro Hoshikawa vs Carl Greco Naohiro Hoshikawa entrance theme: Wreckx n Effect (feat. Teddy Riley) - New Jack Swing {1989} Carl Greco’s entrance theme: Slow Ride Before the match the crowd was skeptic about his ability in a shoot style setting because his skillset isn’t the most common among shoot wrestlers, he was trained by The Great Sasuke in the Michinoku Pro dojo, a style that couldn’t be differ more from Battlarts’ way of understanding pro wrestling but he quickly proved the doubters wrong, Carl Greco has been an amazing shoot wrestler that has proved himself in multiple occasions including a great match against one of today’s main eventers (Yuki Ishikawa) in 1993 so the crowd knows him and knows what he’s capable of, the crowd is behind Hoshikawa because he’s the japanese underdog and that’s enough to get the whole arena on your side. Greco tried grapple on the mat Hoshikawa had other ideas, his offense is more striking based, his speciality is kicking so of course he tried that failing miserably in the process, Greco tries the heel hook but Naohiro grabbed the ropes, he eventually started landing some, he got Greco down and tried his moonsault but it didn’t land, Carl persisted with his approach and got results, he got Hoshikawa in position for an armbar and he got it. 17:29 Takeshi Ono vs King Kong Bundy Takeshi Ono’s entrance theme: Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me - Rage Against The Machine King Kong Bundy’s entrance theme: Hey, Good Lookin' The size difference is the main selling point of the match but you have to consider that King Kong Bundy has no prior experience whatsoever so I’d say the match is pretty even, Takeshi Ono is a talented wrestler that has already worked in two of the biggest shoot style promotions in Japan PWFG and briefly in RINGS so he has plenty of experience, he hopes that his ability and quickness will help him come out of this match absolutely unscaved, the crowd is genuinely curious about how a match like this could potentially play out and that’s what we are about to see here, no one knows what’s going to happen next. The match starts with Takeshi Ono trying to get the giant down, at first he fails but he starts getting results when he kicked King Kong Bundy’s right leg, he’s barely able to keep his balance but he’s visibly hurt, Ono noticed that so he kept attacking his opponent’s weak point, around the 5 minute mark the pain was too much and Bundy lost his balance and in true King Hippo fashion he couldn’t get up so Takeshi Ono won. 4:51 Daisuke Ikeda & Yuki Ishikawa vs Shinya Hashimoto & Masahiro Chono Daisuke Ikeda & Yuki Ishikawa’s entrance theme: Bob James - Nautilus (audio) Shinya Hashimoto & Masahiro Chono’s entrance theme: Personal Jesus The main event, the moment we all have been waiting for, it’s one of those matches that have a legendary aura to them even before they begin that’s something that only happens once every 5 years if you’re lucky but that’s what we have today a match for the ages and everybody in the arena knows it, it’s going to be the most special night in this company’s history, everyone is nervous, this match is about defending Battlarts from wrestlers that don’t care about it, Yuki Ishikawa and Daisuke Ikeda are aware of it, that’s why they weren’t in peace at all when they were interviewed by our reporters, let’s just go see what’s gonna happen. The match is completely dominated by the ex New Japan wrestlers, Shinya Hashimoto manhandled both Daisuke Ikeda and Yuki Ishikawa, they had no chance, Masahiro Chono didn’t appear much, Hashimoto wasn’t going to be stopped, his kicks were otherworldly and there just wasn’t any feasible way to stop such monster, the Battlarts team had brief moments of brilliance but they couldn’t bring him down, Hashimoto proved to be too much for Ikeda and Ishikawa, around the 25 minute mark Daisuke Ikeda submitted to a Fujiwara armbar, the crowd was heartbroken but everyone went out of the arena knowing who was the star of the promotion, the era of Shinya Hashimoto has begun. 24:17

Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Vader (CWA Bremen 12/21/1991) Tatsumi Fujinami in the 1990’s is still great he may not be as great as he once was but it doesn’t mean he is washed far from it, the quality of the footage isn’t the greatest but it’s watchable, most of the german catch footage is in a terrible state to the point where you don’t know what you’re looking at but luckily this match isn’t the case at all, it’s a handheld but a pretty good one, it isn’t like the Dave Taylor vs Franz Van Buyten dog collar match, an absolute classic if you don’t mind having to put together all your energy in order to figure out what’s happening, this one is better in that regard, it’s a classic monster heel against fiery babyface structure, the size differential between the two is notable, Vader weighs more than 200 kg as mobile and agile as he was while Fujinami weighed half of that so Vader had the size advantage by a wide margin, they played into that throughout the match, you can figure out the way they did it, Vader dominated comfortably the early going but then Fujinami starts picking up steam, he gets the advantage by capitalizing on a Vader mistake to start his comeback, Fujinami unleashes a flurry of offense Vader has no response to, no surprises there, the crowd is firmly behind Fujinami if you have read the previous reviews it won’t surprise you, I love how Vader is always presented as a monster, as someone you should be scared of, doesn’t matter where he is things will always be the same except in the last year of his WWF run but that’s a story worth its own essay, Vader ended up winning the match after neutralizing his opponent, I love how he covered him, it was an incredibly badass move if you ask me, it’s the most stereotypical powerhouse move ever but Vader makes it feel special. A german classic I sincerely recommend checking out.

El Hijo del Santo vs Negro Casas (“Mask vs Hair” – WWA – 7/18/1987) Many people consider the rivalry between El Hijo del Santo and Negro Casas to be the greatest rivalry in wrestling history, I personally think that this rivalry deserves such treatment and this match is one of the reasons why, their matches throughout the 1990’s may have been better but it doesn’t mean this match is bad it just speaks volumes about the overall quality of their matches together, many people consider Negro Casas the greatest of all time and they certainly have good reasons to believe that, he’s the son of the legendary Pepe Casas, I think it’s fair to say that he surpassed his father’s legacy, Negro Casas is one of those names that always gets brought up when discussing lucha, he has been wrestling since 1979 as I said in the previous match I had the pleasure to review, so he’s the veteran in this match but he isn’t the favourite because he’s facing off against the son of the legendary Santo and his mask is sacred, many mexican wrestling fans believe that Negro’s hair has been undervalued because of the amount of times he’s lost it, the first time he lost it was in this match after a grueling battle that lasted around 25 minutes, I really like this match, it isn’t what you expect when you think of an 80’s apuesta, this match is strictly technical, it couldn’t be more different to the last apuesta I reviewed Sangre Chicana vs Perro Aguayo, this match resembles more the style of a title bout instead of a Mask vs Hair match and that’s okay, not every apuesta has to be a wild brawl to be interesting and this rivalry as a whole is the prime example of that there aren’t any heel tactics either it’s as clean as an apuesta can get. The first fall was comfortably dominated by Negro Casas but the last two were all Santito’s, the third fall is full of nearfalls, there are a lot of instances where Negro Casas kicks out of certain match-ending moves but the camel clutch was too much for Negro to handle, Santito kept his mask and Negro was shaved bald.

I never thought a shitty grapplefuck could be this fun.

If the Volk Han vs Kohsaka rivalry is half as good as it was in real life we got something special on our hands.

El Hijo del Santo & Eddie Guerrero v Negro Casas & Blue Panther (Gimnasio Josue Neri Santos, Juárez, ??/??/1987) This match happened after the first Santo vs Negro Casas apuesta, it appeared on youtube relatively recently (3 years ago), we don’t have a concrete date it as far as I’m concerned, Eddie Guerrero is really young in this match, he’s 20 years old, his partner is El Hijo del Santo, it’s the first time I cover him here, he’s the son of El Santo the legendary mexican wrestler, El Santo was so much of a sensation that he appeared in more than 50 movies and his movies were usually hits during 1960’s when the so called ‘‘golden era’’ of mexican cinema was over (1936-1956), who can forget Vámonos con Pancho Villa or Los Olvidados, both of them fantastic movies that almost no one talks about nowadays, El Santo transcended wrestling to become one of the country’s better known figures, Eddie Guerrero also had a notable father, Gori Guerrero was El Santo’s partner in La Pareja Atómica the tag team with the greatest drawing ability of 20th century according to primary sources, a few days ago I reviewed Santo’s last match and Gori was one of his partners, El Santo demanded that to Francisco Flores UWA’s promoter at the time and he couldn’t say no, after both Gori and Santo retired their sons took over, from then on the new Pareja Atómica consisted of Eddie Guerrero (the youngest of his siblings) and El Hijo del Santo, I think it’s fair to say that they surpassed their fathers at least in the ring, their opponents today are Negro Casas and the veteran in this match is Blue Panther, Blue Panther had been working since 1978 so he was the more experienced wrestler of the four, Casas debuted a year later in 1979. The match itself was marked by Eddie Guerrero’s performance, it’s one of his first wrestling matches and already he’s performing at a very high level against two of the greatest workers in lucha history, pretty good if you ask me. The first fall was a long fought out one that the new Pareja Atómica ended up winning, the second was more of the same but this time Casas and Panther got the pinfall, the third was more like the first one, I love the finish Santo got Panther into a camel clutch (in México the hold is known as ‘‘La de a caballo’’) and won after around 25 minutes of action, the match looks like it was clipped at some point so the match may have been longer.

Absolutely, an amazing 11 year career.

Perro Aguayo vs Sangre Chicana EMLL 02-28-1986 Hair vs Hair 2/3 Falls This match is one of the greatest brawl in lucha history, I consider it to be one of the best matches México ever witnessed, having Sangre Chicana and Perro Aguayo in the same ring together is a dream come true and they delivered, the offense is as brutal as expected, this match has some of the best punches I’ve ever seen, it’s one of the most intense brawls in history, if you like Memphis wrestling you’ll like this match, this apuesta saw Bill Dundee vs Jerry Lawler 06-06-1983 and said I can do better, Sangre Chicana is probably a top 5 brawler in wrestling history and his prime is one of the greatest wrestling has ever seen, I already reviewed his famous apuesta against MS-1 that’s my favourite lucha match ever, Sangre Chicana also participated in the Fatal-4-way of 1984 I reviewed a few days ago, he’s always a standout in every match he was in and this match is no exception, his babyface performance in this one is spectacular, he made the most out of Perro Aguayo’s tendencies, Perro Aguayo is no scrub either, he’s famous for his brawling style, how careless and unorthodox it was, Perro Aguayo is a special wrestler I don’t think there will be another wrestler with his skillset and attitude, he is recognizable from a mile away, a 40 plus year old man shouldn’t be able to do what Perro Aguayo was doing, I wonder how he looked like in his younger years, I talked about him two times previously so I won’t elaborate further about the lack of lucha footage. There’s no commentary in this match only crowd noise, that situation gave this match an aura that very few matches can replicate, it looks like a real brawl that someone recorded secretly, that’s something only handhelds can do, if all handhelds were like this one, this is not about winning, it’s about beating your opponent up and keeping your hair, Sangre Chicana got to keep his hair after an amazing performance, it was enough to beat the mighty Aguayo.

She has a case for women's MMA GOAT.

Me too, I actually did a microscope.

Crush Gals vs Lola González & Rosa María (Mexico City - 5/12/1985) 2/3 Falls If you had a déjà vu when you read the title you’re right I reviewed this match before when I watched the Crush Gals, all the things I said in there aged pretty well, I talked about the fast-paced brawling, the brutality and how strange it feels to see the Crush Gals outside Japan, it isn’t that they didn’t adapted to their style they did, in fact, it’s similar to the style they worked with in Japan, the strange thing about watching them in México is not having a crowd completely behind them like they usually have turns out there weren’t many Crush Gals fans in México at the time, I’m curious about how the mexican announcers hyped them up before the match, they usually talk about Japan in such a way that feels like they are talking about Timbuktu, a mythic place that supposedly exists, some people live there, our people has visited it and told amazing barely believable stories about the time they were there, the hyperbole of the mexican announcers is unmatched, what I said is just a slight exaggeration, when Perro Aguayo went back to México after a brief but great stint in Japan that included his famous match against Gran Hamada the announcers said that ‘‘he conquered Japan’’. Today we have the opposite japanese wrestlers working in México, the Crush Gals were actually the babyfaces, you would expect the foreigners to be hated heels but it was the other way around, I’m not sure but I think this match took place in UWA, EMLL didn’t allow women’s wrestling yet as far as I’m concerned. The first fall was dominated by the Crush Gals, Rosa María and Lola González tried their dirty tactics but they didn’t work as much as they had hoped, in the second fall Rosa and Lola actually took the fall doing the same things they did in the first but harder and the third fall was all Crush Gals, they dominated and won this rough brawl.

El Satánico vs Super Astro (EMLL - 10/26/1984) 2/3 Falls We have another Satánico match that’s how great his 1984 is, the match is closer in structure to his match against Atlantis earlier in the year, it isn’t as great as that one but it isn’t far off either, Super Astro is a fantastic masked babyface made even more sympathetic by Satánico’s genius performance, I’m not talking about the brutality his offense provided what made this match standout was the treatment Astro received during the match, how Satánico treated him like a bastly inferior competitor, there’s something very special about it because everyone has been in a similar situation before, it’s difficult to not empathize with him and root for him because of that, Satánico used that to his advantage becoming the most despicable heel in México for the next 28 minutes, I heard criticisms regarding Super Astro’s offense, some people called it ‘‘weak’’, I personally don’t see that, he’s just using high flying moves as a resource to beat his opponent, then the same could be said about Psicosis’ offense but I’ve never heard anyone say that, anyway Satánico is still the highlight of the match bending the rules every time the opportunity arrives and the referee can’t do anything about it, the referee is completely unable to stop him the only one he was fighting against was himself and his greed got the better of him, he wasn’t trying to win he was trying to proof that he was miles ahead of his opponent that night, there’s a moment during the first fall that illustrated that pretty well, Super Astro was down on the ground, Satánico went for the pin but stopped at the count of two giving Astro a second chance needless to say Satánico regretted that, he was pinned minutes later and lost the fall, Satánico ended up losing the match in the third fall after 21 minutes of amazing wrestling.

I just enjoy Shinya Hashimoto way more than I enjoy Inoki's work.

WCW in 1992 was great, just watch Wargames.

Battlarts BORN TO BE BATTLARTS 08-24-1996 The Card Daisuke Sekimoto vs Kazunari Murakami Ian Rotten vs Gary Albright Naohiro Hoshikawa vs Carl Greco Takeshi Ono vs King Kong Bundy Daisuke Ikeda & Yuki Ishikawa vs Shinya Hashimoto & Masahiro Chono

Perro Aguayo vs. Villano III vs. Sangre Chicana vs. El Faraón (11/09/1984) I promise you this match really happened, it’s difficult to believe, it’s as great as I thought it would be, everyone’s performance was stellar, no one underperformed, this match in particular can’t be explained with just a play-by-play, it can’t be explained because this is actually one of the craziest matches in lucha history, lucha isn’t short of crazy matches but this one in particular deserves a deep dive, it didn’t need a guy in a chicken suit (I don’t have anything against Pollo vs Commando Negro but it was the most notable example of a lucha car crash if you want to watch it it’s available in Powerbomb tv) to be an awesome car crash of a contest, they chose the perfect wrestlers to pull this off smoothly, I already talked about Sangre Chicana when I reviewed the famous apuesta against MS-1, it’s one of my favourite matches of all time and Sangre Chicana had a perfect babyface performance that’s impossible to replicate, for me, it’s the greatest match in lucha history (even better than Atlantis vs Villano III 3/17/00), Chicana’s peak is one of the greatest peaks in wrestling history, the only peak that I think is better than his is Akira Hokuto’s my favourite joshi wrestler, so yeah he was really damn good around this time, Perro Aguayo is a very interesting wrestler because we only have footage of his career from 1982 to 2001 when he retired, it’s something that I touched briefly when I talked about Satánico’s career but it’s an issue we have with almost every mexican wrestler from that era, during the match the announcers talked about his work in Japan, you’ll probably be familiar with his match against Gran Hamada in UWF, a match that I found fascinating. The match can be recapped with very few words, it’s a chaotic lucha brawl with twice as many people and of course twice as chaotic if that’s your thing give it a try.