[1993-11-21-CMLL] El Dandy vs Emilio Charles Jr (Hair vs Hair)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Great heat, good match. I like their '89 stuff better, but this is still good. Could have used more time and matwork, but I guess this isn't a title match, it's a hair match.

[Zenjo]

This looked awesome on paper, and they largely satisfied my expectations. It makes the stipulation all the sweeter when there's two amazing heads of hair on the line. One Adonis of the squared circle would lose his locks and make the chicas cry. The combatants had history and beforehand they showed clips of them both being trimmed after a DCO in 1989.

 

The first two falls were quite brisk and then a longer tercera. Lively action throughout in addition to the strong rivalry. Dandy took some awesome bumps, particularly one to the ring post. It was Lucha dramatica with near falls. The ending was really fun as Charles used smart ring positioning to obscure the testicular squeeze FTW. Dandy got screwed and it was back to square 1 for the mullet. Really good wager match that just needed some blood to take it to the next level.

[Kevin Ridge]

Ha, I did not put much thought beforehand how both guys had such nice hair. Probably would have bumped up the drama more for me. Thought it was alright as I was expecting a bit more violence with it being a hair match. First fall had Dandy getting his head rammed multiple times into ring post which I thought was setting the table for more.

[PeteF3]

We open with footage from 1989 of Dandy and Charles going to a DCOR, resulting in both men losing their hair--I see CMLL operates under the same "boy who doesn't win" precedent established in Simpson v. Flanders. Back to the present day--Charles does some of the absolute sickest ringpost-shots ever on Dandy, to the point where it was uncomfortable to watch, let alone listen to. Dandy follows that up in the third fall by ramming his shoulder into the post as hard as he can, like "how the fuck did he not shatter his shoulder?" hard. This was one of the stiffest lucha fights I've ever seen--some blood would have been nice and this isn't 1990 levels of greatness, but it's nice to see at this late point in the year that Dandy has kept on keeping on. Fairly consistent story of contrasts throughout as Charles aside from a few token submission is all about brawling, while Dandy works almost entirely cleanly, on the mat. It occurs to me that Charles is pretty much a mini-Brody except that he's about a million times better than him in the ring by every conceivable measure. Awesome ending as Dandy is about to secure the Dandina but gets low-blowed, and Charles locks in a funky rollup of his own to steal Dandy's hair. Dandy got doubly screwed as the referee missed a visual fall while yelling at the seconds.

[Gregor]

This is good, but Dandy and Charles are two of my five favorite wrestlers of all time, so I wish it were better. There's not as much hate here as there is in their '89 hair match. It's kind of odd - you'd think that'd be something they'd try to focus on, given that neither man is as athletic as in '89 and that the two of them are long-time rivals. Still, even if you account for the fact that they go for a different kind of match here, they do some weird stuff that takes me out of it a little. I like how Dandy sneaks in a couple of rollups while Charles catches his breath, but on one of them he just kind of strolls up behind him right after hitting an ugly-looking tope. Then there's the interference. I didn't get that at all - why would the tecnico cheat? Emilio hasn't done anything particularly underhanded up to that point. I do like how it sets up Charles showing Dandy how it's done, as it's easy to imagine Emilio thinking, "So that's how it's gonna be, huh?" after they try that on him. On its own, though, it doesn't make sense to me. Maybe I need to see the trios that set this match up.

 

Still a good match. They hit hard, and like Pete said Dandy looks like the classy technical wrestler and Charles the desperate, crafty brawler. It was strange to see Dandy taking all of the big bumps. I've been watching some '92 Charles lately and he doesn't look washed up at all, still running and flying all over the ring. Here he just looks like a charismatic guy who can sell and punch - good wrestler, but clearly past his prime as a crazy bumper. As a comparison to the Fiera match, to me that one has the feel of a typical hair match with a somewhat strange layout, whereas this one progresses much like a typical hair match but doesn't have the hatred, violence, or blood. I like the Fiera match more, but I don't know if that means that visuals and mood matter more to me than layout or if it just means that the '92 match is executed better.

[garretta]

I wasn't feeling this from the moment Charles rammed Dandy's head into the post no less than five times in a row and Dandy didn't bleed so much as a drop. Between that and the fact that the first two falls were quicker than normal even for lucha, the third fall was bound to be a disappointment even if it was good, which it was.

 

I didn't see Emilio actually squeeze Dandy's testicles to set up the final fall, which puts the ref and me in the same boat, I suppose. Overall, Gregor's right; this match wasn't exactly fought like a battle to the death between two guys desperate to humiliate each other by shaving their opponent bald. It was more like a regular match with the hair stip tacked on at the end.

 

My best moment came after the bout, when Dandy gave Charles the chance to take the first snip himself. It was a nice way to acknowledge that Charles was indeed the better man on this night. I thought for a second that Dandy was going to allow Charles to give him the entire haircut, but I guess that would have taken too long..

 

I don't know about Dandy's hair being all that great, but Charles' hair was certainly a sight to behold as always. I'll bet Kevin wasn't the only one regretting that one of these lovely mops would be no more.

[soup23]

I guess I am the high man here because I loved this. I wonder if Arena Mexico had a blood ban at this time. The post shots were brutal and holy shit did Dandy go full speed into that post in the third fall. The punches and ebb and flow were very believable and the finish is one of my favorite in lucha apuestas history with a very logical foul from the Dandina and then a cool roll up. Rudos winning wager matches against an established name like Dandy are fairly rare from my experience so I loved seeing it play out like this. Dandy takes a hell of a hair cut too. This was some blood away from a MOTYC for me but I still thought it was really great stuff. ****1/4