[1990-WWA] El Hijo del Santo & Blue Demon Jr vs Eddy & Mando Guerrero

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This is another strong match, but in a very different way than the trios match. It's more about hate and aggression, with Eddy and Mando taking it to Santo and Demon and doing a lot more brawling. I don't think it's as good as the other match, but it does have a more main event feel, and the Demon turn on Santo is very well done. There's a lot to like here, but it had a tough act to follow.

[PeteF3]

Incredible to see how far Eddy has come along at this point. For me he has the TV squash vs. Terry Funk and then a giant dead zone until his When Worlds Collide match. Here he's pretty much outclassing his brother from both a work and charisma standpoint. This was a little closer to a traditional southern U.S. tag, at least in structure, with the rudos jumping Santo & Demon before the bell and laying waste to them through the first fall until Demon manages to tag in Santo after a double-team lands him in his own corner. Again Santo & Opponent (Eddy in this case) outclass everyone else in the match. Demon looks fine, especially throwing slaps, but some of his other stuff is hit-or-miss, particularly the clothesline spots and the holds. Mando looked great in his two matches on the AWA set but he definitely was a smothering bastard there. No issues with that here but he does seem to be working a step slow, taking some awkwardly delayed bumps at times. His attempts at phony handshakes don't quite carry the panache that Eddy's do, either.

 

We get a little preview of the Eddy heel turn on Santo, Mando playing the role of Art Barr attacking Santo's partner while wearing a silver mask. Ah, the days before TitanTrons and portable cameras where Santo couldn't just say, "Look, dude, it was a misunderstanding. Here, take a look..."

[benj]

Demon turn was the first what the shit moment, but being a Lucha Novice and new to this time period of wrestling (sans WWF/NWA) it will be fun to watch all the 1990 lucha stuff.

[Kevin Ridge]

We get to see the underneath of the ring which seems to be built like a fortress. Guess there wasn't enough left in the budget for the ring skirt. This was below the previous match from set. Guerreros do some double team moves in the first fall to get a pin and submission. Ref goes with it so why not. I haven't seen much of Mando but think I enjoy him more as a face. Late in the match Mando puts on a Santo mask and attacks Blue Demon. Guerrero bails and Demon isn't too pleased with he sees the real Santo in the ring. Not sure how often this trickery is done in Lucha but I liked it.

[soup23]

I thought this was alright. I always enjoy seeing young Eddy as he was able to sprinkle in some great spots early in his career but it just reinforces how great he was later on when he put it all together. I thought for a lucha brawl, the intensity level in this was a notch below what it should be and a lot of the holds were unnecessary. The Demon turn on Santo was pretty cleverly done. Mando has always been my least favorite of the Guerrero bunch and he was pretty clearly the least guy in this match to me. Defintely preferred the WWA lucha exhibition match over this one.

[Cox]

I have to admit, the Demon turn fell flat for me. I don't buy how anybody can possibly believe that the guy who was attacking him in the Santo mask was anybody other than Mando Guerrero. Besides the fact that Santo always wears long silver tights and Mando is wearing short black trunks, Mando is also shorter and pudgier than Santo. That just doesn't work for me.

 

The rest of the match is a good, heat-filled brawl, but the finish took it down a notch for me. I don't mind some wrestling bullshit, but anything that unbelievable just doesn't pass the smell test for me.

[JerryvonKramer]

Gurreros seemed to win the first fall too easily. Ref was allowing an awful lot of double teaming there. Mando has got to be the most minor-league of the Guerrero brothers, but he looked alright here, like a poor man's Manny Fernandez.

 

Blue Demon has one of those Koko B. Ware-style big asses, thick built. Action between him and Mando in the third fall looked sloppy to me.

 

Santo continues to look great. And Eddy doesn't seem anywhere NEAR as young or green as one might expect in 1990.

 

The Mando mask thing was pathetic in my view, sort of trick that wouldn't even work in the Loony Tunes. The fact it did work brings this down for me, ridiciulous. How stupid is Blue Demon meant to be?

[Zenjo]

The Mando mask thing was pathetic in my view, sort of trick that wouldn't even work in the Loony Tunes. The fact it did work brings this down for me, ridiciulous. How stupid is Blue Demon meant to be?

Never underestimate how stupid pro wrestlers are required to be.

 

Watchable enough I guess but nowhere near the previous WWA match. Eddy may have been much better than Chavo Jnr, but it wasn't the same story for their daddies.

[stunning_grover]

This was pretty good. It was interesting to see Eddy Guerrero at such an early stage in his career. He clearly showed potential to become great, but he wasn’t close to hitting his peak yet. He showed some good work and he executed some great looking uppercuts. In the third fall, Blue Demon Jr. turned on El Hijo Del Santo after the Guerreros tricked Demon into thinking that Santo attacked him. The angle was executed quite poorly though. The angle reminded me a lot of how Love Machine Art Barr would convince Eddy Guerrero in 1993 that he should turn on Santo. That angle in 1993 was executed quite well though.

[Laney]

I would rank this below the previous lucha match, but this is still a good watch. A lot more brawling in this one with Eddy executing a lot of his nice looking European uppercuts. The match seemed to go down a notch when Mando was in the ring. The trickery with Mando wearing Santo's mask is an entertaining concept, but it's one of those things where if you stop and analyze it, it doesn't make much sense.

[Bix]

Fun but disappointing. The obviously canned commentary messed up the presentation for me since it was theoretically a hot angle.

[kingliam]

Just didn't click with me like the first match. Mando was fun, but didn't bring much to the fight, and Blue Demon also was less than impressive. The ending just confused me, especially since he seems to be happy to be with the Guerrero's five seconds after they were kicking his backside.

[DR Ackermann]

I have to disagree with a lot of people saying Mando was the worst guy here. If you thought that then you had to have had a bias against him coming into this. Demon clearly sucked. I've never seen so many slaps. The other three made up for Demon's obvious lack of talent and did a really good job carrying this match. It wasn't anything too crazy, but they did a really good job. I actually think Mando's performance stood out here. I wouldn't argue if you disagreed with that, but Mando held up his end of this match. Mando sold for both guys and at the same time made it seem like a fight with some great brawling.

[smitlick]

The only thing that annoyed me about this match was the ref after the turn. Motherfucker wouldn't leave the ring and it looked like Mando tried to throw him out and he's having none of it

[garretta]

Now that I understand Demon's turn, I agree that it was stupid. Nice to see Eddie and Mando in their native environment. Lucha's a lot like shoot style for me: I can appreciate the athleticism and effort, but without JR or Lance or Gino to explain what's going on in English, it's not much more than a moves exhibition to me. Two-minute Hogan squashes connect more with me as a fan. Sorry, but that's the way it is.

[Johnny Guitar]

Decent match. The turn didnt really work for me, but I guess its because I'm unfamilar with the story leading onto the match. Cool to see young Eddy here knowing whats to come from him in this decade.

[Woof]

The problem I have with the mask bit is that we don't see how they got there. Mando is working over Demon outside the ring, but then they cut to Eddie and Santo going at on the other side. When we move back over into the ring a masked Mando is stomping Demon, so we never see how it is that they got there. It would have helped immensely if we had seen how Demon wound up back in the ring and whether or not he could have reasonably seen the masked Mando before he was attacked by him. It might have worked fine for the live audience, but for the filmed version it was very unclear, which hurts the angle.

[MLD1083]

First time seeing Mando I think, and getting to see young Eddie is a treat. Los Guerreros turn this into a brawl straight from the start and i wonder if there was a feud here or if this was just a one-off match. The Guerrero brothers both pin Santo somehow which must be legal and they try the same move on Demon only this time for a submission. You must have to gain a fall on both team members to get the full fall. Eddie and Mando work this match similar to Tully and Arn respectively. Tecnicos start to get the upper hand and clean house. Eddie and Santo have a great exchange and it’s fun to see how good Eddie is already at this point in his career. Guerreros counted out for the 2nd fall. Mando putting the boots to Demon with a Santo mask on and when Santo comes in, Demon attacks him thinking he was jumped by his partner. Brilliant (not really but this is pro wrestling)! The Guerreros attack making it a 3 on 1. That was an unexpected ending, kinda sloppy. I love that the Guerreros were lying, cheating and stealing way back in 1990. Fun stuff.

[dawho5]

Young Eddie is really great. Santo is awesome as always. Mando is better than Blue Demon by far, as already mentioned. Angle at the end is annoying at best because it's just so stupid. Hard to believe anyone could fall for that.

[Stiva]

Very fun tag with a kinda silly ending angle. Maybe hindsight helps here but you can already see that Eddie has a lot of the intangibles that would make him a star.