[1997-09-29-WCW-Nitro] Lucha Libre feature / Rey Misterio Jr vs El Caliente

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Pretty cool lucha feature that they should have done in 1996 when these guys first showed up, but better late than never. This is just a teaser for the future features, but it's really well produced.

 

This segues into Rey vs El Caliente. This guy attacks Rey during his entrance and it's pretty obvious to me right away it's Eddy and of course Mike Tenay points out that he has never heard of the guy. We end up getting a little teaser for Eddy vs Rey and it's a really great one, but this is more angle than match. Caliente is unmasked as Eddy. Surely, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this. Let's give Eddy the benefit of the doubt.

 

Great heat, and I loved this segment.

[Kevin Ridge]

Yeah, those features being shown earlier would been great for fans who didn’t know much about lucha or the wrestlers.

 

DDP was better pretending to be a masked luchadore. Tony is in the know but doesn’t outright say it’s Eddie or maybe he does't know after all. El Caliente keeps trying to untie Rey’s mask. Rey’s knee looked fine on that triple jump hurricarana. Tony, “Guerrero didn’t fool anybody but us.” Looking forward to watching these matches over next couple months.

[Zenjo]

Eddie doesn't even bother disguising his wrestling style. It was awkward afterwards as they struggled to get the mask off. The best thing about this was Rey's ridiculously awesome finisher.

[soup23]

I loved those lucha vignettes they aired with Tenay.

 

I liked how the announcers didn't act totally dumb on this as it was obvious it was Eddy. He bullies around Rey for a while but Rey is able to pull out the win with a great double springboard move. Fun way to get the angle kickstarted.

[El-P]

Yeah, this feature should have aired in 1996. But they look really cool.

 

The angle is a classic and it's well done here. I enjoyed the fact the announcers didn't play dumb and blind to the fact it was Eddie. Wasn't he wearing the old Shane Douglas/Ricky Steamboat masked costume from 93 ?

[PeteF3]

Promising start to this series, in an area where Tenay really excelled at one point.

 

The fans pick up on where this is going in a hurry, once he busts out the somersault senton. Really good little TV match, with Rey busting out a totally WTF double springboard to get a win. And yes, good announcing, too--not blowing the angle but not playing dumb, either. God knows how they were able to recognize Eddie but can never tell that Sting has grown 7 inches.