RNRs & Lothario v Guerreros & Landell

[Loss]

Rock & Roll Express & Jose Lothario v Chavo & Hector Guerrero & Buddy Landell - Mid South 1984 (Mexican Death Match)

 

Man, the Guerreros are awesome! I wish Chavo and Hector had had a run in the NWA, because they'd probably be remembered as being close to the same level as the Midnight Express and far ahead of the Rock & Roll Express. They're the ones doing the majority of the work that resonates here -- check out the competition the Guerreros and Landell get into trying to see who can sell Jose's weak punches the best, and so many of the stooging tactics (i.e. getting shown up and retreating to the arms of your tag team partner) are things Eddy took from them and still does when working as a heel today. Landell, when he's in, is pretty good too, mainly for his selling and his tremendous body language. He's not quite in Flair's class as a worker, but the gap isn't as huge as you'd think, as his flailing and huge movements are perfect for a six-man tag environment. They sell for Jose like he's the top draw and the promoter's son or something, almost lining up and fighting each other for the opportunity to take bumps off of him. The heels are also the ones who bring the cool moves to the match, like Hector's awesome vertical suplex and Chavo's terrific bear hug into a belly-to-belly suplex and leg lariat.

 

The faces are just ordinary. They're not particularly bad, but there's no real extended face in peril segment to speak of, and no real point where the outcome seems anything but immiment. This is a short match, but it's paced early on like they're going broadway. The Rock & Rolls do some nice stuff, but it's over-the-hill Jose Lothario who makes the most of the spotlight he's given, believe it or not. Lothario's punches mean more than a thousand double dropkicks, even if it's the double dropkick that wins the faces the match. Again, getting there, it's not so much that they did anything wrong, but the finish seemed to come out of nowhere.

 

Time management was a problem here, because for all of the fun heel work, the faces dominated too much and too long early on, when that's probably the one part of the match that was the most disposable. They also waste time by teasing Gibson as the face in peril briefly before tagging Morton, which wasn't designed to go anywhere and didn't have enough impact or good work to be meaningful anyway. Don't get me wrong -- there's some excellent work contained in this, but all watching this made me want to do was see Chavo & Hector work against other teams.

[sek69]

It's pretty amazing to consider that as much as he's universally praised, Eddy is probably only the second or third most talented member of his family.

 

Chavo especially was doing stuff in the 70s that was completely nuts for the time. Hector was one of the best junior heavyweights of his time, which unfortunately happened to be smack in the middle of the roid era. It's a shame his US run that most people remember is when he held the NWA Jr title under a mask as Lazer Tron.

[goodhelmet]

Hey Loss, I haven't actually watched this match yet so I am curious... how does the Mexican Death Match stipulation play into the bigger scheme of things or does it at all?

[Loss]

Hey Loss, I haven't actually watched this match yet so I am curious... how does the Mexican Death Match stipulation play into the bigger scheme of things or does it at all?

The stipulation doesn't play into the match at all, so I wonder why they even bothered with it. It seemed that every Guerreros tag around that time was called a Mexican Death Match, though.