[1996-02-15-CMLL] El Hijo del Santo & El Dandy & Dos Caras vs Blue Panther & Apolo Dantes & Emilio Charles Jr

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I love that this match features a lot of older guys from late 80s and early 90s EMLL providing the best lucha match on this set so far. I don't think I've ever seen an Emilio Charles match after 1990, so this was a treat, and he hasn't missed a beat. He looks like he's been living in a cave since 1990 and came out just for this match. He and El Dandy still have the same chemistry, doing some really nice looking matwork for the first few minutes of this and wow, everyone in this match is just awesome. Dos Caras may be my favorite guy, picking Apolo Dantes up and literally running around the ring with him for about two minutes while Dantes is in a panic before finally showing a little mercy and dropping him. You want to see this.

[KB8]

Emilio's look around this time was awesome. Like a lucha Bruiser Brody.

[Tim Evans]

What is the deal with the 2 straight falls matches? I liked this mostly for Santo and Charles. Emilio was in a whole different realm from his partners. I agree about the Dos Caras carrying Dantes thing. That was awesome.

 

Loss, You've never seen Emlio's Los Guapos matches from the early 2000s?

[Loss]

What is the deal with the 2 straight falls matches? I liked this mostly for Santo and Charles. Emilio was in a whole different realm from his partners. I agree about the Dos Caras carrying Dantes thing. That was awesome.

 

Loss, You've never seen Emlio's Los Guapos matches from the early 2000s?

No. For some reason, I was under the impression that Emilio Charles was a late 80s/early 90s wrestler who disappeared. This is great to know.

 

While we're on that subject, what about Americo Rocca? El Faraon? Javier Cruz? Pirata Morgan? Is there more anything from, say, the late 90s forward that I need to know about with any of these guys featured?

[Tim Evans]

Pirata Morgan is still wresting in IWRG with his sons and the fake Caras brothers. He was in AAA for years feuding with guys like Perro Jr. and the Black Family. He's still pretty awesome. As for Faraon and Javier, Faraon disappeared in 92 and Javier Cruz in 95 although Cruz returned in Guadalajara in 2004 for a short time. I know Emilio wrestled in CMLL till about 2008.

[ohtani's jacket]

I'm surprised you didn't include the Rayo/Dantes match on this set. One of the best lucha matches of the 90s (in my opinion, anyway.)

[Loss]

No one recommended it.

[KB8]

Thought this was pretty great. Like the match from the 10th I was a bit disappointed that it only went two falls, but the rudos saying "fuck it" and just stomping the shit out of Santo while Panther tries to rip his mask off was a finish that kept me happy enough. I mean, Panther biting Santo's fingers as he desperately tries to keep his mask on was fucking awesome. The Panther/Caras section in the first fall was too brief, but man was it good. Emilio Brody Jr. was as great as I was hoping he'd be too, especially his bullshit in the first fall.

 

Slightly prefer this to the 2/10 trios, but I enjoyed both quite a bit.

[Kevin Ridge]

The interviewer must be the Mexican version of Dave Brown as he towers over the wrestlers. Charles looked like a smaller Terry Gordy. Charles was easily the standout for his team. Second fall action was all over the place. Would have been interesting to see this go the full three falls but still ends up being a really good match.

[Zenjo]

Back the following week and good Lord it's another straight sets victory. This time for team tecnico. Emilio looked like a caveman who'd discovered the razor. Whilst past his physical prime he could certainly still go in the ring and was radiating character and personality. Once they got past the initial stalling things got hot with some sweet action. Caras vs Panther was particularly tasty, two legends of the mat. Again the rudos took control in the 2nd. That's fine but you need a 3rd fall to make the format work. Last week the 2-0 worked well but this time there was a horrible DQ finish. It was the better match before that yet ends up ranking slightly below the previous trios. Both were good level.

[PeteF3]

Is that THE Dr. Alfonso Morales? Five-plus Yearbooks in and I think this is the first time we've seen him on-camera. Some utterly gorgeous mat wrestling and escapes here, done with grace and incredible speed. Dandy can still go. As can everyone else, of course. Glorious finish to the second fall as Caras locks Dantes in a sort of Gory Special thing and piggybacks him around the ring as he's submitting. The technicos then triple team all 3 rudos into oblivion, one after the other. The rudos retaliate on Caras and try to unmask him, to draw a WEAK DQ. That's some Hogan levels of babyface favoritism, right there. This made you want to see more but there could have been a better way to book a fuck finish. Someone should have consulted Antonio Pena. Too bad as this was shaping up to be a legit MOTY.

[soup23]

Another great match from CMLL 96 as this one again featured some awesome pairings highlighted by Dandy/Charles and Panther/Santo. I thought the finish of this was more nonsensical than the last match making it dip a bit for me comparatively but this has been a strong effort and resurgence for the promotion as a whole. ***3/4

[tim]

CMLL brings it with a trios again -- and another 2-0 to boot! Match starts with some rudo schtick but then we get some nice matwork from Dos/Panther and Charles/Dandy pairings, before finishing the first fall with some flashier offense for the tecnicos. I don't know if it's pure bias from style preference, but although today you see juniors do all kind of flips and over the top offense, somehow it's just not as graceful and awe-inspiring as when Santito busts out the flashy offense. Second fall starts off as a good extended rudo mugging, tecnicos stage a great comeback but then the rudos all beat down on Santo and rip at the mask for the 2-0 DQ. Would've liked to see this one go to a third fall, and would have liked to see more matwork in the beginning, but this had enough good stuff that I sure didn't feel cheated by the ending.