[1990-11-16-EMLL] Pirata Morgan vs El Faraon

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

20th Century Fox intro! Awesome! Usually, the matches with great mat work are 90% mat-based. The great high flying matches are mostly dives. The great brawls are mostly bloody brawling. Jif moms be warned, as this is the match for the lucha libre fan who hates to choose, and there is plenty of all three. I love how they work the matwork into the brawling context and it fits in quite well. Pirata is about as bloody as you'll ever see a wrestler, and then he loses his hair to boot. What a match! I wish we could have seen more of these two in 1990, but it is what it is. At least the match we got is a classic.

[PeteF3]

Morgan is repeatedly referred to as the best wrestler in the world, which I strongly question. Morgan clobbers Faraon before the bell and beats him to a pulp to win the first fall, and yes, the transition to technical work makes sense in that it's Morgan slowing the pace down now that he has a fall advantage. Faraon takes things in reverse, utilizing a mat reversal to even the match fall-wise and then taking things to the floor and opening a major cut on Morgan. We go from holds to brawling to a crazy Faraon dive to an even crazier bump into the ringpost by Morgan after he's already been busted. Eventually, after a few inspections, the ringside doctor orders the match stopped. Despite his tactics at the outset Morgan looks rather noble and tough in defeat. Without going back and checking my views on every match this should stand as the #2 lucha MOTYC.

 

Faraon was already in his 40's when this match took place. I wonder how good his mask loss to Fishman or any of his '80s work was.

[soup23]

Great match that made me want to seek out more Faraon. Pirata is also someone that it feels like we have a decent amount of footage of but at the same time I want more. Morgan is a bloody mess and if you ever want to justify a medical stopage, the amount of blood he is pouring out is a good reason. The technical wrestling was well done here but I really loved the gritty brawling aspects. Hair cutting doesn't have the same ramifications to me as a unmasking but this one with Pirata's bloody face was neat to watch.

[Zenjo]

My initial thoughts were that the balding Fareon had negotiated a good deal getting this match! He bled immediately and then got his ass kicked for the first two falls. Total one way traffic before the technico came back to win the 2nd with like one move. At this point I was hardly blown away. The tercera was MOTYC level! Morgan does a disgusting blade job. The juice was just gushing down. The action was super dramatic all of the sudden with great brawling, flying and close near falls. Out of nowhere it was high end, great match level. The Doctor then stopped it for the Dusty finish, which actually worked quite well because there was so much blood splattered everywhere. Talk about a match of 2 halves. Quite extraordinary.

 

Faraon was clearly past his physical prime and was looking old when getting beaten up early on. By the end he was looking like an absolute warrior as he was kicking ass. Fabulous performance, and I can only hope to see much more of him from the 80's. Morgan who I'm more familiar with, also showed great skill and courage. I still haven't decided how high to rate this match. The more I think about it afterwards the better it seems.

[Loss]

The more I think about it afterwards the better it seems.

That's exactly how I would describe this match. And matches like that tend to be my favorites.

[ohtani's jacket]

I've noticed people commenting on the length of the falls in some of these lucha matches, especially the first and second caidas. These shorter falls are usually completely intentional in lucha libre and not indicative of any fault in the work. It's perfectly normal for one worker to dominate the opening fall and most of the second and for the other worker to make a brief comeback to take the second fall. This is because the control segments usually overlap falls. The momentum gained by the worker in winning the second fall will carry over into the third and thus you end up having a relatively even match heading into the back and forth finishes that typify a lucha match. If Morgan was dominating Faraon in the first fall and Faraon suddenly made a comeback it would signal to me that they were doing something a little different like having Faraon go over in straight falls. When you watch lucha, there's always a "beat" where you know the fall will end. Occasionally, they go beyond this beat and keep wrestling. It doesn't happen very often, but it's one of the tricks they have to play with the rhythm and structure of the three fall format, the same as a long opening fall and a rapid fire segunda caida.

 

I also think people have been putting too much stock in the rudo/technico distinction in these wager matches. A wager match usually occurs because a rudo has done a series of objectionable things to a technico over the course of several weeks (sometimes months, sometimes even years.) For space reasons or because sometimes the matches aren't that great, most of the build-up to these matches has been omitted from the yearbooks. Wager matches are usually a chance for the technico to get revenge. They're not supposed to comply with any rules or moral code. I believe the Spanish expression is to fight fire with fire. So, they're not being rudoish as such, but rather fired up babyfaces as you sometimes see in the States.

 

Lastly, Pirata Morgan was probably one of the best workers in the world at this point. At least he was in 1989.

[Childs]

This was awesome. The flip side of the footage shortage in lucha is that you get wonderful surprises from guys like El Faraon, who are little seen but suddenly pop up with brilliant performances. He was terrific in the third fall, unleashing hell on Pirata and hitting one of the greatest topes ever. Pirata is more of a know entity, obviously, but he was tremendous as well, taking some unreal bumps and delivering one of the sickest blade jobs in wrestling history. They did a great job with the narrative tension created by the blood, something that's familiar to boxing fans but doesn't pop up in wrestling all that often. Morgan went from being the clear rudo in the first fall to a sympathetic figure in the third because of his determination to fight through it. Great stuff and probably lucha MOTY in the non-Dandy category.

[Kevin Ridge]

Third fall rocked. Morgan is losing lots of blood. The doctors get involved and we have a stoppage. Looked like Morgan was able to still go and he’s not thrilled with the result. Thought it was going along fine and then what a great third fall.

[Matt D]

This was great. I love how each guy has his own themed girl with him. The beatdown was great and bloody, full of wound work and biting and all that good stuff. The DDT made for a good hope spot but it was too little and too late. They kept it going into the segunda too with Faraon slowly coming back but ultimately too damaged relative to Morgan so he kept getting cut off until he finally made it with a lucky move. And that tercera was just beautiful hate-filled hair match lucha: Morgan starts out stronger, still, even recovering from getting hit with a dive but Faraon finally made it the rest of the way back. Once he's in control, he crashed over him stepping on him on the way across and went for the splash. The foul false finish worked really well because it looked so organic, almost inadvertent and it happened right when Faraon really finally had the advantage. I don't love the stoppage, if only because I thought Faraon was a bloody mess too, so it was almost better to throw the thing out and do it again the following week with the hair AND a money purse on the line or something like that. It didn't feel to me like Morgan was THAT much bloodier than Faraon, really. Very fun brawl though.

[garretta]

The action and blood were tremendous, especially when you consider that Faraon was just repaying in the third fall what Morgan did to him in the first two. The last post shot, the one that nearly tapped an artery in Morgan's head, was particularly vicious, and it was only a matter of time before the match was stopped after that. I liked how they interviewed the ringside doctor after the match to lend some legitimacy to the finish as well. Overall, Dandy/Azteca from 6/1 is still my lucha Match of the Year, but this one's a close second with only December to go. I did have two issues, though:

 

1. This is more of a general question: Is there any specific reason why Mexican referees are so slow when they count pinfalls? Do they think it's more dramatic? Are they trying to give the wrestlers more of a chance to kick out and thus avoid losing their hair/mask? Or did this match just have a ref that was noticeably worse than the others I've seen?

 

2. I understand the stakes of the bout, but since Morgan was bleeding badly enough to have the match stopped by the ringside doctor, shouldn't they have put off the haircut until after he was stitched up? Surely the fans would have understood under the circumstances, and they could have brought Morgan back out and still done the haircut in public once the bleeding had been stopped. By waiting as long as they did, they unintentionally exposed the business. After all, who could stand there relatively calmly while the barber took five minutes to shave his head if he was really pumping blood from his head by the pintful, as it looked like Morgan was? Shouldn't he have been screaming, "Never mind the stupid haircut! I'm bleeding to death here! Get me stitched up RIGHT NOW!"

 

Despite my criticisms above, this was one hell of a match. Let's hope that Dandy and Satanico can top it in December.

[Microstatistics]

The first time I saw this I thought it was great but I wasn't blown away. However it has become one of my favorite brawls after rewatching it. Morgan ambushes Faraon in the first fall and viciously beats and bloodies him. Faraon does manage to fight back with fire but he has been weakened and Morgan bags the fall. I thought the second fall has a cool bit of storytelling as Morgan slows the pace down and works many submission holds. This backfires though because Faraon turns out to be better on the mat and reverses one of the holds to get the submission. Morgan has lost control of the match and now the crowd wants to the rudo to get what's coming to him as Faraon assaults him to exact revenge for the first fall beating. Then there is another twist after Morgan does that gory bladejob (literally his entire upper body is just drenched in blood) and now he has trouble defending himself (or even standing). Still he shows guts and determination to continue fighting but the match is eventually called as Faraon continues beating on him and you almost feel bad for him for losing his hair in that manner. Just fantastic brawling coupled perfectly with, like Loss mentioned, matwork and dives as well as the superb story. Brilliant selling from both guys as well. ****1/4

[drew wardlaw]

This is my second favorite lucha match of the year. This was laid out really clear for someone like me and I was able to follow each fall and the progression of the match throughout the change in styles. Pirata Morgan really impressed me here, this was a great match. The brawling in the third fall was especially great, really gritty feeling.

[JKWebb]

I think this might be my favorite lucha match of the year thus far. My most anticipated match is the upcoming Dandy/Satanico match, so we'll see how it turns out, but I loved this. This was a non-stop bloody brawl. I loved the way the match begins. Morgan goes to work on Faraon before he even steps in the ring and that sets up this brawl perfectly. I actually loved the finish of this match with Morgan unable to continue due to loss of blood. This is just brutal. Awesome. Great selling. ****3/4

 

Coming back to add this hit #61 on the list put together by Loss.

 

placetobenation.com/countdown-top-500-matches-of-the-90s-100-51/2/

 

This is one of two matches that really put Lucha on the map for me. I was enjoying and getting into throughout the 1990 YB, but after this match (and one other), I knew that I had become a true fan and I've been taking deeper dives into Lucha ever since.

[dawho5]

Given that I've already seen the Satanico vs. Dandy December hair match, this is my second favorite so far. The earlier Dandy vs. Satanico sits at number 3.

[Jetlag]

When I first watched this, I thought this was a contender for the greatest match I'd ever seen. On rewatch, it's not quite at that level, but this is still one of the most memorable lucha bloodbaths.

 

Everything about this match is ridiculously high end: of course the blood is great, but they remind you with every move that they are world class pro wrestlers. One of the greatest DDTs I've ever seen is casually thrown out, both guys throw great punches; Faraon has some cool Mr. Perfect-esque corner bumps (for a dude in his mid 40s). All the basic stuff, like a chest bump into the corner or a backdrop is executed perfectly. There are also some pin combos and dives executed past the capability of most wrestlers on the planet. The layout is strong with Pirata immediately getting the advantage, but Faraon is always fighting back. Pirata tries to grind it out with some holds but Faraon turns the tables on him. Pirata was a total bump freak here including flying over the top to the outside. After Pirata started gushing blood, it was something else to watch him refusing to quit even while close to passing out, and the doctor trying to hold him back. Faraon bashing Pirata's head into the post was such a sick moment and the punch exchange felt epic. You can debate on the ending, but I thought it nailed the story of the match. Near transcendent stuff and one of the finest on Pirata's resume.