alexoblivion

There is a Santo/Scorpio/Bestia vs Casas/Felino/Fiera trios from 7/10/98 that has Casas saving Santo from a beatdown from Bestia and Scorpio. There is a long drawn out moment where Casas gives Santo his kneepad for his injured arm, and Santo reluctantly shakes hands with Casas. Scorpio and Bestias subsequent celebration for turning on Santo was pretty great, and there is a really fun moment with a few fans hoisting Scorpio on their shoulder. The next week, Santo wrestles clean in the Santo/Villano III/Scropio vs Casas/Pantera/Fiera trios and eventually turns on his rudo teammates.

Lizmark vs El Satánico (7/14/98) I should preface this by saying that I think highly of both the wrestlers and their rivalry, so I’m probably not the most objective person when it comes to examining this particular match. I feel that others opinion on this will depend on how they feel about their previous matches, but I found this to be above average and a solid addition to their rivalry. The opening matwork was what I wanted it to be as nothing came easy, and both guys had to struggle to get hold to hold. Lizmark in particular had a great front face lock that not only looked painful, but looked nasty as he would repeatedly rub his forearms in Satánico’s eye. Despite his age in this, Lizmark still had good execution, and one title-a-whirl backbreaker in this was particularly impressive as Satánico did not come at Lizmark with much speed and the strength that it required to pull off was pretty impressive. Second fall was interesting as Lizmark dominates, which he did a very good job conveying his surprise that his long-term rival was not putting up much of a fight, and I liked that Satánico had to resort to a foul to not only change the momentum, but to even stay in this one. Given their previous matches, I found the double pin finish to be fitting. Satánico allows himself to be pinned in order to pin Lizmark as well and retain the title. Postmatch reactions put the finish over as well; Satánico is celebrating and posing with the belt, while Lizmark is pissed. Without a doubt both showed their age in this one, Satánico more so, but I found this to be an above average match.

Rewatched the Ricky Santana/El Texano hair match from the CMLL anniversary show in 94 as given the talent involved its one I really want to like, but it falls flat for me. I found it weird that Santana didn't blade in that one as well. Just to show how fucked my memory is, I actually misremembered it as being two out of three falls when it is just one. So I guess all the hair matches that week were one fall. The post-match celebration was cool though, as Miguel Perez comes out and rudo cowbell fan is feeling it, even going up to congratulate Santana. The 4/18/93 AAA show has Latin Lover somberly coming down on crutches to Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You before a six-man, which is either the greatest or most ridiculous moment I've seen. What was shown of Parka mocking and subsequently attacking Lover was amusing though.

Thanks for that information gregor. I had never really noticed how many apuesta matches in 94 didn't have seconds. Can anyone think of a particular apuesta match in cmll in 94 that has seconds? Offhand I can only recall the ones that don't.

Has anyone else watched this match between Zaratustra and Ceinfuegos? According to the intro it took place in Arena Isabel in 1993. The music that was added will taste your patience, but it was worth watching. https://youtu.be/HMNlcumDJwk

It wasn't really something I had thought about before, but in OJ's review of Cota/Casas he mentioned there were no seconds in their match, but I actually don't think CMLL was using seconds in 1994, as there are quite a few single matches without them.

Not that it changes anything, but they actually cut to a replay as Cota is tearing the shoe off of Casas. I'm not sure why or when the decision was made, but I don't think CMLL was using seconds in 94.

There doesn't seem to be too much discussion regarding Black Terry as Guerrero Maya out there.

There’s a Headhunters/Cota vs Casas/Dandy/Plata trios leading up to the hair match that I wish was worked with more intensity. It’s alright, and I guess it furthers the narrative of the Casas/Mota feud with Casas faking a foul to steal the victory. There is one crazy moment with Cota covering Casas’ mouth and nose while the Headhunters are choking him, which in the year 2015 stands out to me as particularly violent.

La Fiera vs. Kahoz (7/9/96) I enjoyed this for Fiera’s selling, which was excessive, but I thought he pulled it off. His blade job was a tad gruesome, but because I’m a terrible person I appreciated it. Kahoz doesn’t have the same willingness as Fiera to destroy his body at this point in his career for posterity, so he doesn’t offer too much other than being smart enough to keep to the structure, which was pretty simple. Simple enough that I could understand criticizing it for lack of creativity, but I found it to be satisfying.

It’s up. Pretentious title and everything.

I was wondering how their UWA run was. I wasn’t sure if their CMLL stuff was as good as it was because of how long they had been working in Mexico, but it sounds like they didn’t have problems adjusting.

There’s a cool Mano Negra v. Santo tournament match from 96 that has Negra working over a cut on Santo’s thumb, which is something I can’t say I have really seen before. Negra makes it work with plenty of biting and bending. It’s kind of frustrating, as the show has an hour and half of AAA, and then 30 minutes of CMLL with Santo/Negra being JIP.

This aired on a really entertaining episode of CMLL with the Jaque Mate/ Solitario title match delivering as well. Interesting booking decision by CMLL, as Santana/Perez win over the crowd and then have to face Los Cowboys in the same night, which oddly enough, is a booking decision criticized years later by whoever wrote that Texano obituary that is posted on Luchawiki (Steve Sims maybe?). I’ve watched this a few times, and I’m still not sure where I would rank this, but I thought it was a good showcase for both teams, and both Perez and Santana looked great in this. The blood gave it the shot in the arm it needed, and structure wise, I thought this was well laid out. Though, as much as I like the Headhunters breaking out the spike to regain control, I didn’t really get the impression that they were out of control or desperate, more that they were sticking to the layout. Whereas Santana and Perez on offense felt more spontaneous and desperate, and both provided a sense of urgency that made this feel important. What made this feel wild to me though, were the dives throughout this had a go for broke feel, and treated as major way to shift the momentum. I didn’t have a problem with the length, as I though it fit the structure. Both Santana and Perez were really good additions to the CMLL roster, and this a good showcase of their versatility. Should be mentioned that Santana always had ridiculously awesome prematch gear in CMLL.

Hey OJ, I googled this and your blog entry came up. Crazy to think seven years later and this match still doesn’t have a lot of discussion around it. I watched this yesterday and was blinded by the heat, blood, and Pirata’s bumping, so I overrated it. On rewatch, I found it to be satisfying as it played to my unfair expectations of what I initially look for in a hair match, though I’m not sure if I can be objective, as again, the heat, blood, and bumping is clouding my judgment. Structure wise they kinda played it safe. I thought Masakre had some nice moments, but I think you were right about Masakre’s lack of intensity at times. There were a few moments were Masakre was almost hesitant to go after Morgan, but he did enough, such as attempting his own Muta mist with the Morgan’s blood, that I didn’t think he detracted from this too much. Pierroth’s need for attention is ridiculous, but it only makes me love him more.

I was wondering the same thing. I think it may be because they ran three more hair matches that week, and may have been saving the 2/3 for Santana/Texano, as Scorpio/Silver King was only one fall as well, though Im not sure about MS-1/Morgan

Soup23, that's interesting that you compared it to Cena/Owens as I seem to recall a minor debate on whether it was smartly worked or not, and I've made the claim that Cota/Casas was smartly worked. I look forward to reading your thoughts OJ.

90's CMLL has been has been a mixed bag, but it’s been interesting nonetheless. My goal was to watch as much 94 CMLL as possible and go from there, but at the moment I'm just picking shows from the 93-97 range that look interesting or to get a better look at certain guys. Definitely a few things out there, good and bad, that I should do a quick write up on. Regarding that Magic/Fiera hair match, isn't that the one where Fiera works over Magic's arm a majority of the time? Pretty crazy to think that there is one person out there responsible for so much of the footage that we do have of CMLL from the 90’s and that if he happened to miss a recording, then it doesn’t seem to be circulating. Watching AAA from the same time period can be difficult. Even when the booking doesn’t kill the match, so much of it feels disjointed and meandering, though the company does have its moments. AAA entrances are great though, sometimes more interesting than the match itself.

I don't know, looking at what made tape for Casas, I think there might be the possibility that he was the wrestler of the year for CMLL in 94 as there is quite a bit out there. Cota feud has its moments, and not including their hair match or tagging together, they only have 6 matches or so against each other that made tape so there is more out for his 94 besides Cota.

Maybe try watching the Lizmark and Estrada matches to get a different look at Parka.

I think you summarized the positive and negatives pretty well. I initially had the same frustrations, but after watching it a few times, I still think it’s really good. I think they went an interesting direction and gave us a more thoughtful match than we would have gotten with the Latin Lover hair match. No doubt it would have been a good bloodbath though. It’s also a match I think very few are capable of, and it feels unique to me. Looking at results and what’s on tape, I’m thinking it might be the last big singles match that made tape for Cota.