[1990-06-07-Hamada's UWF] El Hijo del Santo vs Fuerza Guerrera

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I was disappointed in this. Fuerza Guerrera is a fine wrestler, but he's not meant to be this credible. Some of the sequences seemed to be missing some snap, and this was too short to really build to something big. I still like the idea of it being here, as these guys were world class workers in spite of the match falling short, and it's an interesting look at them taking their act around the world.

[PeteF3]

None of this technical, mat-based title match lucha shit here--Fuerza crotches Santo on the ringpost and both guys dive onto each other with impunity. Santo electric-chairs Fuerza off the turnbuckles and then applies La De a Caballo for the submission to win the first fall...and, oh, fuck, it's a one-fall match. Yeah, this ended just as it got going, then.

[soup23]

I am definitely higher on this as everyone else as I thought it was a really good sprint type match. We get some showcase spots early then Fuerza says fuck that and crotches santo and drops him right on top of his dome. I always like Santo selling when he milks it and this was no exception. Ending stretch is good with some power moves and maybe one of my favorite Santo dives of all time with the glare from the lights in the screen. Fuerza makes a costly escape allowing Santo to win with the clutch.

[shoe]

I thought this was good. It seemed the finish came right when these guys were heating the match up. I think Fuerza's stuff plays better in trio matches though. Or at least I prefer him in trios.

[Kevin Ridge]

No more fan cam. Santo kind of sluggish to start. Guerrera with a vicious looking powerbomb where he dropped Santo his his neck. Wasn’t treated as anything big though. I thought they were starting to get going but it was just the one fall so match was short.

[Zenjo]

You can tell if it's going to be 1 or 3 falls by listening to the ring introductions...

 

As it only went 10m they showed the Japanese fans a sample of what they could do. They mainly stuck to aerial warfare as quite rightly they thought that this is the type of Lucha most accessible to foreigners. The matwork and brawling styles are more of an acquired taste. I thought that this was a nice compact little match.

[Cox]

This was fine as a showcase style match but not anything more. At least we get the pro shot video rather than the camcorder, though one of the cameras is in bad need of white balance.

[garretta]

This was a nifty little bout, but I can't believe that there wasn't more done with the crotch shots, especially since both of these guys are high flyers. Shouldn't a groin injury, particularly the one Santo got (nasty post job from Fuerza, by the way) restrict your ability to jump around? These two shrugged of their crotch postings like they were incidental bumps. Comparatlvely, a much lesser bump than this supposedly put Lawler out of action for six months in '87 (I think it was actually a cover for legitimate testicular surgery).

[drew wardlaw]

Wait, this was only a one fall match. Just as I thought I was getting accustomed to things here, it changes! This was pretty cool. This match did help me articulate something though. I really enjoyed the snap and energy in Kendo's offense in the previous match, so for this match I was looking for that same thing, and didn't quite get it here as much as I would have liked. So from here on out, I think that's something I'll be looking for.

[dawho5]

Seemed like they were a little off all match. Until they hit the finishing stretch and really brought things home well. I also questioned shrugging off the low blows, but it's a ten minute exhibition match.

[G. Badger]

I'm with soup23 & Zenjo on this. I thought it was a very good sprint match. Everything looked like a struggle but still very smooth and clean. Something like this is what laid the foundation for Jr. lucharesu of 90's Michinoku Pro. Since I'm a big fan of that then, I really dug this. I've seen better matches with these two but, its been awhile so, this was a nice treat.