[1994-06-07-CMLL] Ciclon Ramirez vs Javier Cruz (Hair vs Hair)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Just a wonderfully constructed, violent match that gets progressively better the longer it goes. Both guys pull off some terrific dives, there's lots of blood and intensity and hatred, and even with CMLL's horribly mic'd crowds, you can hear the heat picking up as the match progresses. There are also some iconic visuals here that really get over the hatred. Everything you want in a hair match. Superb.

[Kevin Ridge]

I don’t know who is who but one of these guys seems be doing some type of Drunken Master as he is falling all over himself outside the ring and takes off his robe while lying down on the floor. He seems fine once they get in the ring. Cool dive that they go into the crowd on. First two falls happen pretty quickly.

 

These guys just launch themselves in their dives. Wow. Very deliberate count by referee. But at least he is consistent. Senton attempt comes up empty with a bump that doesn’t seem pleasant to the back. Another dive into the crowd and those chairs did not have a whole lot of give. Ouch. I’m a novice to Lucha but damn was this good.

[Exposer]

What a fucking awesome hate filled, lucha blood brawl! This had everything one can want out of a lucha hair match. Just really fucking great stuff.

[Dylan Waco]

I am far from an expert, but I really think Cruz is one of the more underrated workers in wrestling history

[soup23]

CMLL has been limited on this set but the snippets we have seen have been great with some less heralded workers including Cruz, Ramirez, and Llanes. The dives here looked extremely painful and forceful and I loved the ending submission on the third caida. Clippers didn't seem to be wroking as good here as int he Jake/Konnan match.

[PeteF3]

Wow. This was, quite simply, a war. Great work by both guys to get over the stakes--Ramirez is clobbered before the bell which typically signifies a quick rudo victory, but he comes back to get a win. Cruz weathers a storm in the second fall to make his own comeback, and gets a clean submission with a cool spinning hangman hold to take Ramirez's hair. Ramirez throws in some great athletic moves including a gorgeous huracanrana, and the dives are among the most high-impact you'll ever see. Done with bullet speed and huge bumps into the ringside seats. Other than Cruz's pre-match attack and doing a fake low blow, the rudo/technico divide is pretty nonexistent--this is just two guys beating the fuck out of each other going all-out to win. One of the best lucha matches of the year.

[Zenjo]

Monarca launched the jump start and made sure he got a quick bite of forehead, a local delicacy. He dominated the first fall before falling victim to a ridiculously awesome dive. They crashed into several rows of ringside fans. A big mark out moment. Micro segunda. Cruz was himself bloodied in the third. This possessed all the grittiness and rivalry that fans like to see in a wager match. Near falls and close calls with submissions adding to the dramatic nature. There was also a spectacular selection of topes. The fans had learnt their lesson and were scramming for cover at the first sign of trouble.

 

I liked the respect shown in the postmatch, making clear that the issue had been resolved. Both fighters had done themselves proud. A big highlight for CMLL in a tough year for the promotion.

[cad]

There's something depressing about this match. I remember someone once saying that the best matches have a way of making whatever small trinket is on the line feel like it means everything, but that's a hard sell with these two heads of hair. Apolo Dantes had already destroyed Cruz's reputation as a bigtime hair match wrestler, and Ciclon Ramirez's career plainly fell apart the moment he lost his mask. I mean, obviously hindsight lets me know how little Ciclon accomplished after this, but even at the time, between his sad eyes, his Huracan Ramirez wannabe tights and the poor 3,500 person turnout here, a lot of fans could probably guess that every important event of Ciclon Ramirez's life had already happened by this stage.

So without much for either man to win, they just went out and fought. There's a lot of flying, and I can certainly sympathize with those who don't like when a hair match ascends into a flashy athletic contest, but this was more like two guys just throwing themselves at each other. Cruz had his signature missile dropkick, and no wrestler was better than Ciclon Ramirez at making it look like his dives were done with the intent to cause harm. This was probably the best performance of Cruz's career. I loved how he swarmed Ciclon in the first fall, really setting the tone for the rest of the match, but he really impressed me with how he wrestled from underneath Ciclon's third fall onslaught. Maybe he went back to his tecnico roots with the way that he slipped off the apron to tease a countout and sell his fatigue, slugged away at Ciclon from his knees and punched his way out of a huracanrana nearfall. And as ever, in spite of all that it was Ciclon who was the more compelling presence to me. He's such a friendly looking guy and he had such a hard luck career, and this is his one of his few big main events. It's hard not to pull for him. He put everything into the match, not just with the dives but with the way he'd fling himself into the turnbuckle or spike Cruz with his backbreakers. Finally he caught Cruz with perhaps the most vicious tope suicida of all time, one that has been .gif'd multiple times and is remembered by anyone who's ever seen this match... and lost on the very next move. Fitting. But because of everything Ciclon had hit him with, and the violence behind all of it, Cruz came out looking like a real survivor rather than Ciclon looking like he'd blown another one. The only thing separating this from entering the mix for greatest of all time is the short second fall. But even then, they had twenty minutes to work with, I wouldn't shave anything off the first or third fall and it makes more sense to abbreviate the rudo's comeback than the tecnico's (as Villano III so often did). I can accept it, and I'm also fine calling it the best hair vs hair match of the '90s.