[1992-02-14-CMLL] Bestia Salvaje vs Huracan Sevilla (Hair vs Hair)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

The first two falls end really quickly, with Sevilla taking fall #1 and Salvaje taking fall #2. The third fall is better, with Salvaje being busted open and both of them hitting a few nice dives, but it doesn't pick up in a big way until the final 10 minutes or so when the nice nearfalls kick in and we get some really balls out highspots. Salvaje finally takes the match and Sevilla loses his hair.

 

Very good match once it got going, but takes too long to get going, and the first two falls were pretty bland and short.

 

Fun seeing Norman Smiley as a second.

[Tim Evans]

Those final 10 minutes are better than almost everything on this set so far. Just incredible dive after dive and some sick bumps by Bestia. Yeah the first 2 falls were short and uneventful but the final one makes up for it.

[ohtani's jacket]

Since when did the first two falls being short in lucha matter?

[Loss]

I was just pointing out that it was arbitrary. Not pointing to the length of the falls per se. It's the equivalent of a one-fall match where nothing of interest happens until the very end.

[ohtani's jacket]

I'll have to watch it again at some point because I don't remember the opening falls being a problem.

[shoe]

I loved this match. The drama in the 3rd fall was off the charts. We got some nice hate spots, amazing dives, got a lot of hate. Just good, good stuff.

[DocSarpolis]

God damn this was great. I was only half paying attention at first because I thought it was a match I had seen before and within the past year. I kept noticing moments that I didn't remember and began to think, 'this was better than I remembered.' That thought eventually gave way to, 'wait a minute. i don't remember any of this. i haven't seen this before'. Awesome match and sort of a reverse Dragon Gate match. Instead of being structured around spots, this is structured around bumping and all the more entertaining because of it.

[Kevin Ridge]

Heck of a match. Yes, the first two falls are short but isn't not too much of a negative to me as something to expect with Lucha. The third fall has some great action though. Love the dives as they are hit with some fantastic accuracy.

[MikeCampbell]

Maybe it's because I'm not very familiar with either of these two, but I just wasn't feeling this. I could recognize cool things, like the near falls toward the end and the insane spot when Salvaje propelled Sevilla over the top, but I just wasn't into this all that much.

[Zenjo]

It was unusual in that the rudo Salvaje was generally fighting straight up whereas the tecnico Sevilla was angry and busted his opponant. He tried numerous punches but the ref kept grabbing his arm and giving the opponant a helping hand. Not only that but the two submissions looked highly debatable. Make no doubt Sevilla was royally screwed over by the referee here.

 

The high flying moves were excellent and so was the selling of exhaustion down the stretch. Yet what made this match so special to me wasn't as much the action in the ring but the story about corruption and injustice that it told. Mexican wrestling is often akin to a morality play with the eternal battle between good and evil. More often than not the faces are proud and honourable, whereas the heels are sneaky, dirty cheats. In this case there was a 3rd party with the heel ref, perfectly representing the corrupt authority figure. Huracan Sevilla portrayed the beaten down working man, punished time and again for the pettiest of transgressions. On the other side of the fence he knew his opponant could get away with whatever he wished as he had the official in his pocket. Sevilla fought with a great deal of anger which amplified the sense of injustice felt during and particularly after the match. The hair vs hair stipulation was vital as losing due to heel chicanery was a common thing. Here the referee took Sevilla's pride by twice calling him a quitter, and he took his dignity as his head was shaved. In the postmatch the loser presented a handful of his fallen locks to both men responsible for his dishonourable defeat.

[WingedEagle]

First two falls were very quick with a hint of what was to come in Salvaje's big tope. Once they squared things up it really took off in the third fall with Salvaje bleeding and a ton of awesome dives before the submission and a big haircut. Love it!

 

***3/4

[PeteF3]

There's a big rudo ref storyline encompassing this match. I bitched about some of the Gran Davis stuff earlier and I don't know if this led anywhere, but at least the heel ref here was consistent. He gives an incredibly slow count when Selvaje is pinned to end the first fall, and both submissions come across as Montreal finishes judging by the reactions of Sevilla and Norman Smiley. Plus he was constantly cutting Sevilla off whenever he was throwing a punch or trying to work over Salvaje in the corner. For two guys I don't really have any emotional connection to, the third fall was certainly full of drama, with some stupefying bumps to the floor and dives from Sevilla that were practically out of the overhead lights. I was a little torn on Sevilla's conduct...I mean, there was no doubt the referee was against him but at times he still comes off as a whiner. Sevilla loses his hair but absolutely nothing appears settled. This turned into a fine match, but I do hope this leads to a rematch that's wrestled straight-up.

[Robert S]

They completely lost me in the second fall with all the heel referee shit. I don't think there is a wrestling gimmick / angle that I hate more than the heel ref. It's usually highly inconsistent (if the ref just wants to screw a guy he can call a finish anytime he likes) and puts the heat on the wrong guy.

[garretta]

For the record, I didn't think the second fall submission was particularly screwy; most lucha submissions in the first two falls of a match happen quickly to get them out of the way and get to the third fall as quickly as possible. The decisive fall's ending was definitely Montreal-esque, but what bothered me more was the ref grabbing Sevilla by the hair and holding him so Salvaje could hit him. That made the fix all too obvious and took most of the drama out of the whole match, especially since Bestia ended up winning anyway.

 

The dives and bumps taken in this match were off-the-charts insane. The monkey flip from Sevilla (I think) that launched Salvaje out of the ring and almost into orbit around the sun was the one that stood out the most, but every time either guy went to the top, I knew that they were going to try once again to commit suicide. The dives weren't particularly picturesque, but they sure projected a ton of energy and hatred on both sides, which was the point.

 

Has any wrestler who's ever lost a hair match in Mexico been booked to refuse the haircut and walk out? I'd love to know what kind of match would be up next in the feud and how the crowd would react, especially if the wrestler in question was a tecnico. If anyone ever had a case for doing something like that, it was Sevilla after this match, considering how he was screwed over.

[dawho5]

Heel ref almost took me out of this. The hate and massive bumps and dives in the third were enough to reel me back in and think it was really good.