Lizmark

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I could watch Lizmark matches all day. I won't, I'll try to keep it to two per, but to me he's one of the most watchable wrestlers out there. Like all tecnicos he had his spots that he tried to use in all of his matches, but through some combination of likability and effort he never got boring. Well, I'm not too familiar with this millennium Lizmark, so actually that remains to be seen. Most of these will end up being from 1989-1994 simply because that hits the sweet spot of TV+push, but I'll try to pepper in stuff from before and after as well.

 

January 27 1994

Lizmark/Rey Misterio/Rey Misterio Jr. vs Jerry Estrada/La Parka/Espanto Jr.

What better way to kick off a look at Lizmark than a match featuring a brilliant performance from... Jerry Estrada? This was in Rey Sr's hometown of Tijuana, and he and Estrada matched up either to set something up for several months down the road or just because they thought it would be interesting here. Either way Estrada was beautiful. He didn't even do anything particularly awful to Misterio, it was just the contrast between how smug he was when he had things under control and how quickly he'd scuttle for safety at the mere hint of danger. I suppose that sounds like fairly generic praise, as to some extent every rudo is like that, but with Estrada it works so perfectly because his whole character is that he's a punk. Even when Rey Sr. was on the apron Estrada managed to be a dick, press slamming Jr. with one hand and turning to Uncle to talk some shit.

 

It all might have gone down as nothing more than some nice character stuff from Estrada, but the two nonprincipals on each team did an excellent job of working a match around the two important figures. Parka and Espanto were perfect goons, and they spent the first fall picking off Jr. and Lizmark every time they jumped in the ring and made a move for Estrada. AAA matches didn't always have that. A lot of times they'd have three separate but equal matchups even when only one of them mattered in the booking. Here Estrada was always the center of the action. It was interesting to watch Espanto Jr. just because how often do you get to see him away from Hijo del Santo? He worked it both on offense and defense, badmouthing Lizmark and later leaping back in shock when Rey Jr. sprang to his feet. Misterio Sr. also was very impressive. It doesn't seem like he gets much discussion as a worker, so I have no clue what his reputation is, but his selling in the crowd was terrific.

 

For the first two falls this was an outstanding Monterrey styled brawl and not even the bottom rope breaking could thwart the rhythm the workers had going, but they lost it with the third fall. The rudos had dominated the first 1.5 falls and the tecnicos made their comeback midway through the second. Instead of going home from there, they went with another rudo controlled fall in the third, which felt like taking the match back to places it had already been. They underscored that point by repeating spots from earlier in the match, and by the end the whole thing had ground to a stop with Lizmark tied to the ringpost and Estrada winning on a truly uncreative fake foul. On the Lizmark front, he was good but clearly the third man on his team. I liked it more when he was pissed off and trying to get to Estrada than when he was on offense, although he did stomp on Parka's foot and fling him into the crowd. Even with the disappointing ending this was still a quite good match overall.

 

February 28 1992

Lizmark/Octagon/Mascara Sagrada vs Pierroth Jr./Emilio Charles Jr./Jerry Estrada

Unremarkable match that was above average only because it had enough good workers in it to always be watchable. Like the last one they worked in two stretches of rudo dominance and two tecnico comebacks which made the whole thing seem longer than it was. Pierroth and Mascara Sagrada continued their rivalry and Pierroth even bled. They weren't building to anything, and Sagrada's assault didn't really merit a bladejob, so the blood just felt cheap. Lizmark and Estrada were good together and Emilio looked like he was just as good a matchup for Octagon as Fuerza. The best part of the match was when the rudos were getting their asses kicked and Pierroth gathered his troops on the outside. Apparently his battle plan was "Emilio, have one of them turn his back to us, and then Estrada, you jump him from behind." Not exactly a creative strategem, but it worked.

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August 1983

Lizmark vs Enfermero Jr.

This is supposedly the earliest Lizmark match of which known video exists. At least I think I remember reading that. I appreciate it whenever the seconds look like actual members of their guy's training camp, and here MS-1 wore a jacket with pretty "ENFERMERO JR" lettering on the back, and Aristoteles had donned a blue and silver pants+jacket combo to signify that he was with Team Lizmark. Enfermero had it tough here. If Lizmark looked like a superhero then the recently unmasked challenger looked like a standard criminal. He did nothing particularly villainous, and everything that Lizmark did just looked so much better that it was hard to ever buy Enfermero as in control. It didn't help that it was the tecnico who was pushing things, with Lizmark the first to start with both big throws and body shots (with some HARD looking kicks to the back), and that when Enfermero finally got the advantage it was simply by escaping a Cavernaria and sending Lizmark into the ropes. That was a weak way to shift the momentum, but I liked how Lizmark started off the third fall aggressively in an attempt to get right back into it and ended up paying the price. Curiously, Enfermero followed this up with a plancha to the outside, usually a trademarked Lizmark spot, so Lizmark later ended up doing a standard tope suicida that actually didn't look very good.

 

Despite those complaints, this was still a good match. Dive aside, Lizmark's offense looked great, and he took two tumbles to the outside (one a rough looking bump) that did more to create a sense of danger than Enfermero could. Enfermero was a quietly solid worker who remained good well into his forties, and here he contributed some excellent selling and a cool backdrop bump where he flew over the top rope and took the bump against the apron. There wasn't much in the way of ingenuity or shooting for the stars, but at the end of the match Lizmark looked like a top technical wrestler, which was the main idea they were going for. This is listed as Lizmark's first defense of the belt, but apparently he was a bit busier than that--Alfonso Morales said this was his sixth defense, with prior ones coming against Fiera and Supremo I.

 

March 6 1992

Lizmark/Salomon Grundy/Aaron Grundy vs Satanico/Pirata Morgan/Nitron

I'm not going to tell you that this was a good match, and even if I did no one would believe it, but this could have been worse. The Grundy brothers and Nitron got their audience, even if they couldn't provide typical CMLL spots, and the regulars did a good job of reacting to and interacting with the big foreigners. Lizmark slugging with Nitron didn't look unbelievable (well, Nitron's punches looked bad, but I mean in terms of Lizmark going toe to toe with a much larger man), which has to be a credit to both of them, and when matched with the Infernales he brought some quality that was more in tune with what the audience was used to seeing. The third fall really dragged, though. After the match (and a big Lizmark plancha), Nitron had to drag Satanico to his feet, and he immediately crashed back down to the floor. I don't think of Satanico as a master comedian, but that was good.

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June 30 1989

Lizmark/Rayo de Jalisco Jr./Atlantis vs Pirata Morgan/Cien Caras/Gran Markus Jr.

A basic description of what happened in this match would make it sound awesome. Atlantis and Pirata going hold for hold! Rayo Jr. and Cien Caras brawling just as you'd expect! Lizmark having to deal with Gran Markus while keeping an eye out for Fabuloso Blondy, who had a ringside seat! As you can probably tell from the exclamation points, none of this turned out to be that interesting. The technical stuff between Atlantis and Pirata was high energy but not much of a battle, Markus Jr. did nothing I can remember, and all of the matchups seemed to keep to themselves. At a couple of spots it seemed like the match was finally going to explode, but then everything would stop and it would continue on as it had before. On top of all that you had bizarre decisions like the tecnicos making their comeback after the third fall had already ended, and Pirata Morgan submitting to Roberto Rangel pulling him off Atlantis. The best part of the match was probably the scene at the end, with Blondy disappearing into the night as the crowd hurled garbage at him, Lizmark being helped to the back, Pirata holding two masks aloft, and Rayo threatening Gato Montini while wearing a green sweater on his head. Lizmark did a tope suicida again and again it wasn't good.

 

March 20 1992

Lizmark/Rayo de Jalisco Jr./Konnan vs Los Brazos

Los Brazos weren't quite as good in 1992 as they were in 1991, I don't think. Maybe they were overshadowed a bit by the big stars on the tecnico side, or maybe it was just familiarity setting in now that they were CMLL regulars. This was still a decent match. The Brazos weren't the best bumpers for tecnico offense, at least not on this night, but they made up for it in other ways. Rudos shrieking in fright when Konnan flexes should be the lamest shit in the world, but El Brazo and Brazo de Plata can pull it off. They also talked a lot when they were on offense. You don't see the smug side of Brazo de Oro often. Lizmark did some of his usual stuff, and it was good but it's just not as electrifying as Atlantis'. On the other hand, he gave Brazo de Plata a big backbreaker, and this time he went with the tope and it looked pretty good. Maybe those two weak ones were just flukes.

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February 17 1984

Lizmark/Atlantis vs Faraon/Egipcio

I love how natural these teams are, the flying blues against the Egyptians. Lizmark looked better here than in any of the other matches I've watched so far. He did a little bit of everything in this one. What really impressed was how the match began as a brawl, and then Lizmark and Faraon spun it into a tecnico styled fall out of nowhere when Lizmark landed on his feet off a backdrop. That set off the best version of the Lizmark standard that I've seen, and he won the fall with something I've never seen before, a sunset flip off the top used a setup for another move, in this case the greatest one in wrestling, the butterfly suplex. The rest of the match was good but not as eye popping as the first fall, although Lizmark was just as sudden and natural in his third fall comeback as he'd been in the first. Atlantis was good here, but Lizmark was clearly the king of the skies, and Egipcio had some solid bumping. He's a guy who's always baffled me. He moves like a great wrestler, but the only really noteworthy thing about him is that he's the only lefthander in Mexican wrestling I can think of. The finish was a DQ, and I know somewhere out there is a Lizmark vs Faraon match that's missing the third fall. I want to see that now.

 

March 13 1992

Lizmark/Atlantis/Mascara Sagrada vs Los Infernales

This was tip. The Infernales had their purple alternates on, and the first fall showed how good they were as a unit. They operated in complete synchronization at a pace that would seem to make that impossible. It wasn't even that violent, just an efficient cleanup of the tecnico team. If there was a flaw to this it was that at the end of the fall Satanico began to pound away at Lizmark and let everyone know that he was coming for Lizmark's world lightheavyweight title. That in itself wasn't a problem, but he hadn't paid special attention to the champion before that and there didn't seem to be anything that would have set him off. Regardless of how they got there, they were doing Satanico vs Lizmark in this match and Lizmark was perfect in his role. Tecnicos kicking at their tormentor while being held back by the other two rudos is fairly common, but Lizmark really threw his body into his swings for Satanico.

 

Soon enough the tables had turned and the Infernales got to show off how good they were at getting hurled all over the place. On Atlantis--Lizmark sold noticeably better (even though Atlantis was in a slot where his selling wasn't that important), but it's still a close call who was better in this, because Atlantis was that good on offense. Him vs Pirata was outstanding, much better than in that 1989 match (and it's not like that was bad), and it just kept going with Infernales coming into the ring and eventually Atlantis laying them all out on the floor. It wasn't just the Infernales making him look good. Both of the other tecnicos got to do their own versions, and Atlantis' stood far ahead. I liked Lizmark's brawling more than his fast paced stuff. Eventually a desperate Satanico entered the ring with his hand outstretched, but Lizmark knew him too well to fall for that and instead pulled him into a big backbreaker. The Infernales ended up taking this in a shutout and after the match Satanico issued a formal challenge for the belt. Things got hot and it looked like there was going to be a third fall after all, but Satanico decided he had nothing more to prove and walked off. This might be a top ten match for 1992 CMLL. Even if that's too far, this is still the kind of match that supports the Infernales' case as a threesome.

 

April 5 1992

Lizmark vs Satanico

Just the finish to each fall, so I may as well do the resulting title match here. What was shown of Lizmark's selling was weak and the winning move was a blocked victory roll where Satanico didn't press extra hard and Lizmark didn't really struggle to get out. Satanico got to wear a belt again after the Infernales lost theirs two weeks before, but I can't be too cynical, as he and Lizmark had been trading this title for the past two years and it's not like Lizmark had been doing anything important with it.

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July 17 1992

Lizmark vs Satanico

I'd have liked to watch some of the matches that built to this but I couldn't find any on Youtube. This was a disappointment, not much more to it than that. The holds were fine but beneath the ability of either man, the attempts to up the intensity didn't seem to arise from anything, and Lizmark looked better than Satanico in a way that undercut the match rather than serving as the main storyline. If Lizmark looking better was the idea, then there were some spots where Satanico's selling really didn't look like that of a man who was barely in the match, and there wasn't enough craftiness to the offense that he did get. If Lizmark looking better wasn't the idea, then Satanico just couldn't match his offense. And where was the Satanico from the Gran Cochisse match? Remember when he offered his hand to Cochisse and there was this air of tension as Cochisse considered taking it? None of that for the same spot here, because there was no way you could imagine Satanico hurting Lizmark after those first two falls. Not that Satanico ruined this match--there was no real trace of ingenuity from either man--but this feud has a reputation as being disappointing and a lot of that gets dropped in front of Lizmark. As someone who watched this amidst a bunch of Lizmark matches, I thought this was a step down from Lizmark's typical output too. On the bright side, this was the second biggest match on a show that drew extremely well, the last big CMLL success for a while. Satanico dropped the belt to Apolo Dantes eight days later.

 

July 24 1992

Lizmark/Atlantis/Ultimo Dragon vs Bestia Salvaje/Emilio Charles Jr./Felino

This was better in theory than in actuality. Even after AAA broke off you could still get matches like this in Arena Coliseo, with six of the company's most exciting wrestlers being tasked with wrestling an exciting match. Not sure why they booked another round of Atlantis vs Emilio Charles though. Atlantis had already defended his title against him twice during this one reign. Anyway, the first fall was really slow with Emilio refusing to wrestle Atlantis and a lot of stalling around that, and in the end Emilio just got in the ring with him even though Atlantis hadn't goaded him into it at all. Later there was some sort of side issue between Emilio and Lizmark before Emilio switched back to Atlantis, and I just wasn't getting what they were going for. It did result in Lizmark sending Emilio and Bestia out of the ring one after the other, which was a hell of a lot more exciting than anything from Lizmark vs Satanico. I thought Bestia was the best wrestler in this and Emilio was kind of weak as the point man. On the other hand the crowd was into it, so maybe I'm just a wet blanket.

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May 28 2006

Lizmark/Pantera/La Mascara vs Black Warrior/Emilio Charles Jr./Hijo de Pierroth

I'm unfamiliar with all of this. The style, the storylines, the respective ability of each wrestler, I know nothing, so this is probably going to be all wrong. But I thought Hijo de Pierroth was the best guy here. That could mean he had a good match, and it could mean he just wrestled an outdated style that I happen to like. He and La Mascara were pretty good going hold for hold, and as a rudo he was fun and got some good shots in. He did his one dance move once every two minutes, but it all paid off when he got dropkicked between the legs and incorporated his dance into the selling. Lizmark looked old. Of course he WAS old, but he'd hidden his age for a while. He could still do his regular stuff okay. Everything else looked like it was a challenge. Let me reiterate that I have no idea how good this was.

 

July 31 1992

Lizmark/Atlantis/Ultimo Dragon vs Bestia Salvaje/Emilio Charles Jr./Negro Casas

Same match as the previous week but with Felino swapped out for his older brother. They did a much better job of mixing story and workrate this time around. The rudos battered the tecnicos with an assault that was plenty violent but also saw the rudos show off their athleticism, and Lizmark and Atlantis both got to do their regular thing but first made their comebacks with brawling. This was the second week in a row that Atlantis looked good coming back against Emilio. Lizmark's brawling isn't really a facet of his ability or character that people think of with him, but it's pretty clear that he was good at it. He pounded Bestia with beautiful right hands and in the third fall they had a back and forth slugfest that made me really want to see a match between them. I can't imagine why that would ever happen, but it would have been cool. Very impressive given the two of them were the third men on their teams. At the end of the second fall they ran this spot where the rudos charged Ultimo Dragon and ended up running right into Lizmark's backbreaker. Actually, this might be the best Lizmark's been in any match I've watched. It was about as good as you'd expect Atlantis to be in the same situation.

 

After the match Emilio gave an interview while looking like an absolute lunatic and demanded a shot at Atlantis' world middleweight title, and then stomped the piss out of Atlantis as he was in the middle of countering with an offer of hair vs mask. That led to a brawl that Emilio won by kicking Atlantis in the dick, ripping out a chunk of his mask, and hurling it into the crowd. Needless to say, he was much better here than he'd been the week before. Negro Casas, despite being in the middle of a program with Dragon, was content to act as Emilio's backup. That might disappoint Casas fans but I kind of appreciated it. The crowd was mic'd really well again. Right now this is neck and neck with that Infernales match for the best I've seen so far.

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March 2 1990

Lizmark/Super Astro vs Espanto Jr./Jose Luis Feliciano

Because any time you get the chance to watch wrestlers perform in front of a sparse, quiet crowd you gotta take it. Lizmark was in Japan for a tour with Gran Hamada's promotion, and if nothing else it gave him the chance to wrestle Espanto and Feliciano, two guys you don't see him or Super Astro go against very often. Everyone worked hard and there was a lot of skill on display, but it was all an exhibition and never went much beyond "these guys are talented wrestlers," not even at the start when it was a battle of holds. Super Astro's spots seemed to impress the crowd more than Lizmark's. Good enough but my brain is dumping the memory of this match as I type this.

 

September 18 1992

Lizmark vs Universo 2000

I forgot to mention that the match with Lizmark, Bestia, Emilio and Casas was Lizmark's last televised match for the CMLL until 1995. He was there for a couple more weeks and in his last (known) match unsuccessfully challenged for Pierroth's CMLL world lightheavyweight belt. After that he was off to AAA as part of the second wave of jumps, made up of stragglers who stuck around after the split but changed their minds within a few months (others in this group were Jerry Estrada and Love Machine). In just his second match on AAA TV, he got a shot at another lightheavyweight title, this time Universo 2000's national championship. He probably didn't deserve it, given his record in title matches thus far in 1992, but they were in Lizmark's hometown of Acapulco and AAA was excited to have him, so whatever, right?

 

One of the reasons I like 1992 AAA is the venues. In this case they were in Acapulco's convention center, which Alfonso Morales described as "la catedral de la lucha libre de la Republica Mexicana" (okay) and the hometown hero came to the ring on a throne carried by seven men, one of whom was also shooting silly string into the air. The match was very strange. You had a drawn out process in which Tirantes was replaced by another rudo referee, Lizmark performing a tombstone right in front of the ref in the first fall (no DQ called), Universo actually winning the first two falls before the latter decision was reversed, and Universo then kicking out of the winning move at two and complaining about it during Lizmark's celebration. Is it really that hard to book Lizmark to a hometown win over the third ranked member of the Reyes family? The fans didn't seem bothered by any of this, so I guess I can't call it bad booking. The annoying thing is that the actual wrestling was quite good. Of all of Lizmark's hold for hold exchanges I've seen so far, this one was the best. Lizmark had some nice clotheslines in the second fall and the third felt more even than the third fall of the Satanico match. I don't know if I can say this match was better, because of all the weirdness, but around that they contributed some good work.

[cad]

December 1 1985

Lizmark/Mil Mascaras/Valente Fernandez vs Sangre Chicana/Angel Blanco/Angel Blanco Jr.

Part of the undercard for Wagner vs Solitario, mask vs mask. Honestly, I had trouble following this. Lizmark botched a hiptoss spot with Sangre Chicana (they covered for it okay) and just looked unimpressive in the first fall. In the second he had some good punch exchanges with Angel Blanco Sr. They never went anywhere, I just wanted to point out that Lizmark throws a good punch. Valente Fernandez looked the best for his side. For the rudos, I don't know if he was the best, but Angel Blanco Jr. did some nice bumping and selling for Lizmark's kicks, especially for someone who usually fails to leave an impression on me. No one looked that bad but there wasn't really an overall idea and the work wasn't exciting enough to keep my attention in spite of that.

 

February 12 1993

Lizmark/Eddy Guerrero/Rey Misterio Jr. vs La Parka/Heavy Metal/Psicosis

I THINK that Lizmark and Parka might have started feuding by this point, but I can't say for sure. No big deal, either way this isn't too deep into the program that dominated Lizmark's time in AAA. I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. I guess that's true for any match I don't like so much, but this was a bunch of guys in their twenties (and one in his teens) plus Lizmark, who was over forty, and the old man had no problem keeping up with the younger guys. That could've been a bigger plus if the match had been really good. I liked how the first time Lizmark and Parka met in the ring they weren't quite trading holds but they weren't really running at each other either. It was competitive throws and pin attempts, testing each other's skills for a possible title match down the road. The second time was more standard tag action, and it was notable both for being good and for being a deviation from Lizmark's go to stuff in that spot. If nothing else, Parka was clearly a different kind of opponent for him. They didn't look totally comfortable as opponents yet though. Eddy Guerrero had a good fall and a good match. I know the tide has gone in and out on Guerrero in Mexico, but he was good here and matched up with Metal better than Misterio did. At the end of the first fall, after the tecnicos had already pinned Parka and Psicosis, Metal tried to outquick Guerrero and ended up getting caught with an all time German suplex.

 

The second fall kept the momentum going with some complex stuff with Misterio, Parka and Psicosis, but the rudos took over shortly after that and there wasn't much worth watching afterwards. The tecnicos didn't even get a big comeback. It was kind of funny when Psicosis tried untying Lizmark's mask and Lizmark turned around and powerbombed him, and eventually Lizmark and Parka swapped masks somehow. I don't know, the ending needed to do something to make me want to see Lizmark vs Parka or Misterio vs Metal. Instead it was just the rudos disqualified for stomping Misterio all at the same time. I guess in the end it's just good on Lizmark for hanging with the kids and too bad about everything after that.

[cad]

October 1991

Lizmark vs Cien Caras

One fall tournament match held at a nightclub during the strike, with people sitting at tables ringside. Pierroth and his white pants and white shoes came out with Cien Caras for some reason and Lizmark kicked his ass out of the ring, which didn't really seem warranted. Two minutes in they were out cold from a double knockdown, the match got restarted (the prestigious Copa Magic Circus cannot feature any byes) and the finish was Pierroth hooking Lizmark's leg (he brought that upon himself) and Caras schoolboying him for three. Straight out of 1999 WWF. Lizmark didn't even seem like he was trying and looked like a dick on top of it. He got to leave Pierroth laying with the sitout powerbomb though. Afterwards they hyped up Anibal vs Universo 2000 before plans changed on that.

 

February 19 1993

Lizmark/Rey Misterio Jr./Eddy Guerrero vs La Parka/Heavy Metal/Psicosis

Rematch from the previous week. Heavy came out with some of his rocker friends, but he still looked like a big haired '80s girl which is always going to cap how cool you can be. Fortunately for him his opponent was Misterio, who came out with a woman who could have been his mom, wore what looked like a pair of his mom's leopardprint pants, and still used "A Little Respect" as his theme song. You don't have to worry about looking lame tonight, Heavy. Him rolling around the mat with Rey looked positively childish compared to Parka suckershotting Lizmark in the aisle. The match was badly clipped and provided no clue about how the tecnicos got back in control of things, but it did show Parka take something like four crazy bumps in succession culminating in an armdrag from the apron to the floor. Even after that Lizmark wasn't ready to let him off and kicked the hell out of him outside the ring. It was hard to tell with all of the stuff that was missing, but it looked like the brawling was better than last week's. If nothing else this week included Lizmark's kneedrop, which has to be one of the best versions of that move. Despite not really featuring much in the body of the match, Rey vs Metal ended it to set up a title change the next week. Heavy sounded like a teenaged Negro Casas in his promo afterward.

[cad]

1984

Lizmark vs Satanico

Both men looked better here than they did in their 1992 match. It wasn't just athleticism and sharpness, they did better with holds too. This was probably the best opening hold for hold section of any Lizmark match so far. Satanico did a very good job throughout of carrying himself like a champion trying to push back a challenger, a dynamic that wasn't there eight years later. It's hard to pin down why exactly it felt that way, just the way he'd back up from a lockup when Lizmark was gaining momentum, or sit in the ropes until he was ready to fight. He made a face that exuded annoyance more than the desperation in his attempt to do the same kind of thing in the other match. Satanico controlled the pace of the match as a champion would, but the challenger still outwrestled him and took the first fall. Very well done.

 

The rest of the match wasn't bad, but they didn't really build on their good work in the first fall either. Again there was no lingering feeling that Satanico could start to get nasty with his holds and really mess Lizmark up. It was actually Lizmark who brought the pain at the start of the second. Everything he did was executed perfectly, as Lizmark is quite good at wrestling violently, but I couldn't grasp what changed the tone of the match. Maybe there was something to it in the buildup. By itself, it just looked like an overreaction to Satanico stalling at the start of the fall. And I can't understand why they make their third falls feel so small and unimportant. They went to a draw, fine, but before that you could at least wrestle the rest of the fall like it's the two best wrestlers in the world throwing everything they have at each other. Instead it was mostly all Lizmark. It's not just a case of Lizmark wrestling his matches that way. Enfermero Jr. put up more of a fight than Satanico did. The selling was great, but they weren't selling anything memorable. I can't imagine how anyone in the crowd would end up telling stories about this match for the rest of their life, at least not anything beyond "Hey, I saw Lizmark and Satanico in person once."

 

April 23 1993

Lizmark/Mascara Sagrada/Latin Lover vs La Parka/Fantasma/Ice Killer

The final stop before Lizmark vs Parka at Triplemania. This kind of match can be the absolute best use of six men possible, but instead they spent the first fall with Ice Killer on Lizmark and Parka on Latin Lover. Who could possibly care about Mascara Sagrada vs Fantasma in 2016 (I'm sure at the time it was exciting)? And so slowly paced too. That might work with a matchup you want to see but the first fall had not one of those. The second wasn't much better. Lizmark dropped some stairs on Parka and got disqualified for yanking his mask off, and then he and the other tecnicos took down rudo referee El Coyote and stripped him of his shirt. Even Morales disapproved. I guess the idea was that Parka had driven Lizmark mad, but they could have told that story in a way that didn't make him look like a crybaby (he absolutely deserved that DQ) and a bully.

[cad]

September 10 1994

Lizmark/Heavy Metal/Volador vs Misterioso/Ice Killer/Chicano Power

The day after losing his national lightheavyweight title, and now booked in a match that was a mile beneath him, Lizmark still tried. This wasn't even what I'd call a good Lizmark contribution (the match wasn't noticeably better or worse when Volador or Metal was in instead), but the fact that he even put forth any effort for a match like this said something for him. The match itself was a typical midrange brawl wrestled at midrange speed with midrange intensity. Misterioso did some fun stuff as a rudo. Average or somewhat below, probably not worth over twenty minutes of your time.

 

April 30 1993

Lizmark vs La Parka

This was considered a great match at the time. I'd rather not dump on a Lizmark match that may actually have backers, so I'll try to be quick.

- Parka got a ton of nearfalls. Lizmark dominating the match appears to be a phenomenon unique to his matches with Satanico.

- Parka bounced between cool (spitting on Lizmark's hand when offered for a handshake), annoying (that crap where he'd stop Casas' hand from counting three), and in between (him shoving Lizmark away like he didn't want to wrestle anymore, which was salvaged by how good his selling was). His celebration was great.

- A lot of times, even when they're doing good stuff, it's a bit awkward physically. Lizmark has better chemistry with Satanico in that regard.

- Lizmark did a good job keeping up most of the way but looked tired towards the end of the first portion of the match.

- At first I thought Morales would be right and that Parka wouldn't be able to find the drive after having that big celebration negated, but the nearfalls were good and Parka's bump into the post was a perfect way to signal that it was all over. Overall it felt a lot bigger than the Satanico matches. Still not the most triumphant victory for the man in blue.

- I think I'd rate this second best of the Lizmark one on ones so far, behind only the match with Enfermero Jr.

[cad]

May 7 1993

Lizmark/Mascara Sagrada/Latin Lover vs La Parka/Fantasma/Espectro Jr.

This match was not any better than the one from the week before Lizmark vs Parka. It started off like it might be a big brawl, but then it slowed down and all the intensity dissipated, and by the end I didn't care. They were still pushing that Fantasma vs Mascara Sagrada feud. On Lizmark's end, he didn't have a good match. He blew stuff both with Parka and with Espectro, and this was another match where he looked better brawling than doing his athletic spots. Espectro Jr. is listed as working both AAA and CMLL shows around this time. I assume he wasn't really, but I don't know his mannerisms well enough to know if this one is the real deal. Whoever he was, I thought he was the best guy in the match.

 

May 28 1993

Lizmark/Super Muñeco/Dragon de Oro vs Jerry Estrada/Ice Killer/El Cobarde II

If you ever wanted to know how this program began, it all started when Estrada shot Lizmark the finger while being introduced. I liked how when they first squared off after that, they followed it up with Lizmark chucking Estrada to the outside and scaring him into the crowd by faking a dive. Okay, now they've each pissed each other off, so you'd think things are going to get really heated... but instead Estrada just suplexes and cradles Lizmark to win the fall shortly after. The end of the second fall was well done: Lizmark scattered the rudos with another dive fake, and his teammates wiped out one rudo each, but Lizmark missed his shot at Estrada and ended up submitting. Already Estrada was calling for the belt. If nothing else, he and Lizmark were much smoother working together than Lizmark was with Parka. We also got to see the technical stylings of Cobarde and Dragon de Oro (with Morales talking about how the original Cobarde was much better than this version), and Super Muñeco vs Ice Killer was a fun matchup. It might say something terrible about my tastes but I've never seen Super Muñeco as any kind of awful wrestler. I think I might have liked this more than any of the tags from the Lizmark vs Parka feud.

[cad]

June 4 1993

Lizmark/Octagon/Mascara Sagrada vs Jerry Estrada/Satanico/La Parka

That's one hell of a Lizmark killing lineup. Unfortunately the match was not about killing Lizmark. He trapped Estrada in a tirabuzon at the end of the first fall, and after being released Estrada sat there on his knees fuming. He looked so furious that they freezeframed the shot of his face and made it the first thing they showed when they got back from commercial. You'd expect the rest of the match to be about him trying to get revenge, but nope. The only other memorable thing he did was clothesline a fan (and possibly give a woman a bloody lip) as he sailed into the crowd. As this was Satanico's AAA debut, there was a lot of focus on him vs Octagon. That could have been fine, but like Mascara Sagrada vs Fantasma, it wasn't actually building up to a match, and it also wasn't exactly compelling regardless. Lizmark vs Estrada wasn't much better this week. They took forever to get around to the comeback, and when they finally did each tecnico began his at a different time. A step back from the previous week's match.

 

June 11 1993

Lizmark/Octagon/Mascara Sagrada vs Jerry Estrada/Satanico/La Parka

There was a fan with an aisle seat who was taking pictures of the wrestlers as they made their entrances, but when Mascara Sagrada passed by the guy stuck his middle finger in Sagrada's face. This was a brawl from the start and a lot more intense than the week before. Again, though, they didn't focus on the matchup I wanted them to. It's partly my fault for having this idea of Estrada pummeling Lizmark as Parka and Satanico make sure that their hated rival gets what he deserves, but on the other hand the match ended with Estrada scoring with a low blow and making a public challenge for the belt. Why shouldn't it have been about him? Their matchup was better this week, but every other aspect of the match let them down. We didn't even see the tecnico comeback. They came back from commercial with Mascara Sagrada throwing Estrada to the ropes. Disappointing couple of matches.

[cad]

January 14 1994

Lizmark/Mascara Sagrada vs Fishman/Pirata Morgan

With some guys, you can see them matched up with anyone on the roster and need to know how it turns out. And then there is Mascara Sagrada. Put him in there with Pierroth, with Fantasma, with Fishman, anyone on down the line and I can guarantee you that I will not care about it, at least not if it's just getting through a twenty minute match rather than actually building to something. I don't even think he's that bad, it's just that his mask gets all torn up and he bleeds all over, and that's all there is. It makes for a great sight if it was something interesting that caused it. When there isn't any real reason for him to be bleeding, it's just a shortcut. Now on the bright side that does leave Lizmark and Pirata to be paired up, but they didn't do much more than Sagrada and Fishman. Really the only good moments here were a couple of spurts of offense from Lizmark. It's nice that he can provide bright spots in a dull fight like this, but say that enough times and it becomes a backhanded compliment. Lizmark could contribute in a lot of ways. He was good in technical matches and brawls, singles matches and tags, but it's pretty clear that he wasn't the kind of guy who could make a match good all on his own. The week before they'd run this same match but with Mascarita Sagrada and Piratita Morgan added alongside their larger counterparts, and afterwards Pirata demanded a shot at Lizmark's belt and the crowd approved. If that ever happened then any record of it has been lost to history.

 

June 18 1993

Lizmark vs Jerry Estrada

- The holds in the first fall were good. If the same holds had happened in a Lizmark vs Satanico match, though, they'd probably be considered disappointing.

- I liked that challenger Estrada was almost always the attacker, and it was champion Lizmark's job to counter.

- The succession of moves with which Lizmark won the first fall was the perfect display of tecnico dominance, and some of the credit has to go to Estrada. He usually sells backbreakers comically but treated them like legitimately painful throws here.

- The short second fall isn't a common feature of Lizmark matches. In fact I can't remember ever seeing it in one of his.

- Estrada is good at projecting a palpable shift in attitude when the tables turn in a match. He was bewildered throughout the first fall, and in the third it was clear that he'd been embarrassed by that and that he was eager to humiliate Lizmark just as badly (mocking him with moves like the one footed pinfall attempt, and furiously pacing about while Lizmark took a brief rest on the outside).

- The spot where Lizmark missed a move and flew out of the ring before getting blasted with a dive, one of the best of the match, was taken from the match with Enfermero Jr. and thus likely a Lizmark contribution to this one.

- I really liked how all of the big moves in the third fall shifted the momentum of the match: Estrada assault => Estrada tope into Estrada nearfalls => Lizmark plancha into Lizmark nearfalls => Lizmark missed plancha into Estrada nearfalls.

- Lizmark was on point and everything he did looked good. That missed splash would've been right on the mark.

- The crowd got more and more into the match the longer it went, or at least that's how it sounded.

- I have no idea why Lizmark vs Satanico never feels this big.

- This is probably my match of the year for 1993 Mexico, beating out Negro Casas' matches with Ultimo Dragon and Fiera.

[cad]

July 9 1995

Lizmark vs Jerry Estrada

May as well watch the rarely mentioned rematch from two years later. Estrada was champion going into this one, held in Lizmark's hometown of Acapulco, so unfortunately it didn't have the same dynamic as the 1993 match. Even if Lizmark had been champion, I doubt this would have been particularly good, as they basically filled time for fifteen minutes until it was time for the angle. The only attempts to do anything interesting came in the form of cheap shit like interference from Psicosis, Estrada picking Lizmark up at two, and an apparent submission that Pepe Casas missed. In this instance the angle was seconds Rey Misterio Jr. and Psicosis getting into a tussle in which they looked like two kids fighting in front of their dads. Lizmark had only a month or so left before he'd return to the CMLL.

 

As much as I wish Lizmark vs Estrada was a classic rivalry, it clearly isn't. Either this match needed to be worth watching or the buildup to the 1993 match needed to add to the program. I'd have taken just one of two, but a great longstanding feud is more than just one excellent match.

 

August 20 1993

Lizmark/Mascara Sagrada/Salomon Grundy vs Satanico/MS-1/Pirata Morgan

In 1992, these guys had a match that I loved, except that it was Atlantis in there instead of Salomon Grundy. This match I did not love or even consider good. Therefore it is my contention that Atlantis is a better wrestler than Salomon Grundy.

 

(To be fair, the Infernales were nowhere near the team they'd been in 1992, Satanico and Lizmark did nothing interesting together, and Lizmark slipped on a springboard spot. I don't like focusing on botches but a large part of Lizmark's appeal is his grace and precision, and one mistake can throw that all away.)

[cad]

October 8 2006

Lizmark/Maximo/La Mascara vs Emilio Charles Jr./Averno/Mephisto

Another 2006 match. Lizmark looked painfully old at the end of the first fall, when he struggled to perform even a basic kick and his once beautiful powerbomb was basically Mephisto performing the move on himself. He did better the rest of the way. I thought Maximo looked like someone who'd have fit in fine in the 1990s and the ex-Infernales did some cool two on one stuff with La Mascara. There was a clever finish to the second fall: it looked like the tecnicos were on their way to a shutout win (which seemed strange, with how much time was left on the Youtube video) when Emilio pulled out the old fake foul trick. It got the job done even though the announcers thought he was a bad actor. Maximo got them back with the same move in the third (acted out much worse). Maybe if he was in his prime I would have complained about Lizmark celebrating such a cheap victory, but at this point in his career he could probably have used the win.

 

August 27 1993

Lizmark/Latin Lover/Salomon Grundy vs Satanico/Mocho Cota/Eddy Guerrero

First things first, that is a terrible pair of teams. The best teams are ones where you can imagine all three guys hitting the town later that night, and there is not one pair of wrestlers there that I could envision hanging out together. Satanico and Cota come the closest. I don't really think Cota's classy enough for Satanico to associate with, though. You can overcome all that if the three disparate characters come together and work wonderfully as a unit, but I wouldn't be bringing it up if they had. Cota was working his ass off to get heat. Some of it was forced, like the screaming into the camera, and then there were moments like him darting through the crowd to escape Latin Lover when he really did feel like a lunatic. In between all that he really beat the crap out of Latin, who gave a pretty good performance himself. He didn't get much revenge on the eight fingered madman, but his bumping was impressive and he certainly got across the idea that Cota had pissed him off, like when he tried to leap over Eddy just to get a piece of Cota. It all came together when Cota had his nose almost pressed up against the camera, and then Latin Lover's foot shot into the frame and sent Cota flying.

 

In comparison, Lizmark vs Satanico barely felt like a feud. It wasn't bad, it just could have been a pairing for some random match rather than part of the prelude to a big title defense. There was one point when Cota was beating up Latin Lover, and Lizmark decided to just continue working over Guerrero instead of saving his partner. That never looks good. The announcers called Satanico "Daniel el travieso," which is what Dennis the Menace is called in Spanish, and Salomon Grundy looked as uninterested in his own wrestling match as I have ever seen a wrestler look. Not really good but better than I'd feared going in.

 

July 18 1998

Lizmark/Fishman vs Hijo del Santo/Guerrero del Futuro

Short match that popped up in my related videos, so what the hell. This was part of a loser advances tournament in which the team that lost in the finals would have to wrestle each other mask vs mask. Lizmark looked fine against Guerrero del Futuro (Jose Luis Feliciano in disguise), and then Hijo del Santo came into the ring. A dream match come to life? Not really, Santo just ran into a couple of backbreakers before getting pinned. The video was like nine minutes long but the match was only half that. For some reason the video played it twice. The most interesting thing about this tournament is that apparently Abdul el Esclavo was still wrestling in 1998.

[cad]

July 7 1998

Lizmark/Atlantis/Emilio Charles Jr. vs Satanico/Blue Panther/Apolo Dantes

This appeared to be clipped or very short. Atlantis beat Satanico and challenged him for his middleweight title. In the ring they were good but ordinary, although I appreciated the fact that the match was about them. It was after the match that things got chippy. Atlantis kept shoving Satanico and jamming his hand in Satanico's face as Alfonso Morales was trying to interview him, and eventually they locked up on the outside and headed back to the ring for a scuffle (at which point the broadcast decided to show replays of the finish). You rarely get to see Atlantis actually piss someone off. I don't know what happened, but a week later Satanico defended his title against not Atlantis but Lizmark, who didn't have much of a role in this one. He sort of stumbled around in the first, and he and Blue Panther messed up a submission hold, but he looked better afterwards and even did a cool flipping pin on Panther in the second.

 

September 7 1993

Lizmark/Villano III/Panterita del Ring vs Satanico/Fishman/Rambo

Villano got taken out early with a shot from Rambo's utility belt. That could have led to a dramatic match in which the outnumbered tecnicos made a valiant comeback and showed their heart and skill, but it didn't. The rudos won easy even with Rambo posing throughout most of the first fall. Satanico vs Lizmark was more energetic this week. Lizmark's mask had been yanked almost completely off when he escaped outside the ring with it, and Satanico actually fell to the floor in trying to snatch it back. He hammered away on Lizmark with some good punches too, but it was hard to see how that was much different from Fishman trapping Panterita in the corner and chopping the hell out of him, which was going on at the same time. There just hasn't been much imagination on either man's part in this program. Lizmark might have the best backbreaker ever, though. Fishman wasn't much of a bumper by 1993 and Lizmark's backbreaker on him still looked great. I love how he throws up his arms just before he does it, too.

 

January 9 1998

Lizmark/Atlantis vs Fishman/Blue Panther

This was from one of those one night tournaments with nothing at stake that they sometimes ran. Those sometimes get written off as filler, but this one set up a Mr. Niebla/Shocker vs Emilio Charles/Dr. Wagner title match, which would in turn lead to the breakup of the Charles/Wagner team, and it also established a shoulder injury that would bother Emilio for weeks afterwards. So this one was actually well thought out. Atlantis and Fishman traded holds, which was surprisingly good, and then we got Lizmark vs Panther. That was REALLY good, the best technical display I've seen from Lizmark yet, but here's the problem: I'm not sure if it was better than Panther vs Wagner from later that night. It's not a good sign when the best Lizmark's looked at going hold for hold is not even the best exchange of that type his opponent has on that show. I do think that Lizmark was quite good with holds, but on the other hand I can see why people might not find him so impressive. He looked to be in prime form in this one though, better than in that match from July.

[cad]

July 14 1998

Lizmark vs Satanico

One of the first things I remember reading on this board was alexoblivion writing about this match, and until then I hadn't even known it existed. If I recall correctly his summary went something like "If you like watching Lizmark and Satanico wrestle then you'll probably enjoy this. If you're looking for HOLYSHIT SATANICO CLASSICS then you probably won't. Lizmark's chinlocks are really good and the finish is the same kind of finish these guys always do." There's not a lot I'd add to what he said, although I'd probably tweak it a little bit to needle Satanico fans. Actually I liked this the most of their three matches so far. Most of all I liked that Satanico actually got to control the match for a little bit and that Lizmark made a good comeback. Lizmark couldn't move as well as he had even five years before, but Satanico was excellent, especially his selling. Credit to Lizmark for still being able to wrestle such a good match without his athleticism and credit to Satanico for just being really good.

 

September 10 1993

Lizmark/Rayo de Jalisco Jr./Latin Lover vs Satanico/Fishman/Mocho Cota

This aired on TV the week before the match with Rambo and Villano in it but supposedly took place three days after that one did. I'm not sure if that's right, in part because Satanico has a bandage on his shoulder from a gash suffered in the match with Eddy Guerrero and Salomon Grundy, and he didn't have it in the other one. Just spitballing. This had some cool moments from Mocho Cota and Latin Lover, but it was a two fall match and a twenty-eight minute Youtube video. It wasn't THAT bad, as entrances were about seven minutes and challenges+replays were about six, but still. The first fall was really slow. The intensity ramped up in the second with almost everyone sporting either a bloodied face or a torn up mask, and then they ended on a lame DQ. Satanico was fine beating up Lizmark and Lizmark was fine making his comeback, but this whole feud has gone by rote, and here they were actually presented as the third most important pair in the match. Of course theirs was the only match that ended up happening. Cota definitely bailed on a match with Latin Lover. I don't know if Rayo vs Fishman was ever supposed to happen.

[cad]

July 2 1993

Lizmark/Eddy Guerrero/Love Machine vs Blue Panther/Fuerza Guerrera/La Parka

I haven't enjoyed much of the tag work I've seen from Lizmark's 1993, but what I've watched has all been from his programs. Here he's in a backup role. Even though this match featured a lot of things that I generally hate--wrestlers pulling their opponents off the mat at two, referees falling for plainly bogus fake fouls, the Panther vs Love Machine matchup--it was still a lot better than the typical match from Lizmark's feuds. What made this work for me was that there was a clear idea of what the wrestlers were going for. Panther and Love Machine have no chemistry at all, everything they do looks either awkward or soft, but the wrestlers decided that was the focus, the rudos worked together to ruin Love Machine, and the result was something much easier to follow than the three minimatches philosophy. Lizmark was called on to enter the ring now and then and liven things up, and he was up to the task. I complained in an earlier match about Lizmark looking like a crybaby, but I was okay with him stomping Parka after the whistle here. He'd claimed a foul on a headscissors and somehow stolen the fall with that crap. Eddy also looked good here. He and Parka flew around the ring faster than any other pair could have, and he and Fuerza based some fun spots around an airplane spin.

 

September 18 1993

Lizmark vs Satanico

After what's been a truly tedious series of matches, here's the big one. Lizmark looks like a real man of the people shaking hands with all of the fans in the aisleway. Seconds were Lizmark Jr. and MS-1 (making his last appearance on TV for AAA in this run), the two best seconds possible. The holds in the first fall were absolutely terrific. Easily the best I've seen from Lizmark, way up there for Satanico. It wasn't the prettiest or most fluid display, but they put so much thought into it and made it look like a genuine battle down there. There was one spot where Satanico had Lizmark in a simple headlock and Lizmark was trying to force his head up as if he was being held underwater. So when he countered it felt like a huge swing, only Satanico immediately stretched his arms out under the ropes, and the moment Lizmark broke the hold Satanico pounced on him and had him in another one. When Lizmark countered that, Satanico again found the ropes, but this time Lizmark was obviously less agreeable about breaking. Eventually he gave in and of course Satanico was again all over him just like that. It looked like the fall would belong to Lizmark, but Satanico stole it when Lizmark tried the tapatia, which I don't think he's ever applied on Satanico without pinning himself.

 

I liked the way Satanico started off the second fall trying for pins. It made the switch in momentum a little less routine. Lizmark got the win with a nice series of moves, and as Pepe Casas counted the pinfall Alfonso Morales was on the microphone telling the fans at home that the winning hold was the creation of the man presently applying it. That's a pretty nice way to win a fall, even if I kind of agreed with MS-1's protests about how Satanico's shoulders couldn't possibly have been down there (to be fair, I'm not sure Lizmark's were down when he lost the first fall either).

 

That was a very nice two fall start and they may have been on the way to a great match, but I don't think they nailed it with the third fall. It wasn't a bad fall, it just wasn't the kind of closing run you get from the best matches. Lizmark got most of the offense, and when Satanico got his two counts they came off either counters or moves that didn't really compare to Lizmark's big suplexes and dives. The one thing this had that the Estrada match didn't was that this one truly felt like it would determine the best technical wrestler in the lightheavyweight division (no Jerry Estrada match could ever feel like that). In that one the drama instead came from an incredible third fall, with momentum swinging back and forth as Lizmark withstood a series of submission holds, threw everything he had at Estrada, and then once again had to survive Estrada's best shots. There was no point in this fall at which Satanico posed a similar threat to Lizmark's title reign. As a comparison, both matches featured the spot Lizmark does where he misses a headbutt and tumbles outside the ring. Estrada followed that up with a tope that really put Lizmark in jeopardy and set off the first round of nearfalls. Here Satanico just sort of waited in the ring, and when Lizmark climbed back on the apron he headbutted Satanico and took over on offense. Because Lizmark was winning and they'd already used their typical unsatisfying finish in the first, they wrapped this one up with a different face saving finish, as Satanico got his hand on the rope but Casas failed to spot it and counted three (I did enjoy MS-1 getting on his back to demonstrate what had happened). A payoff to Satanico using rope breaks to his advantage in the first? Maybe I'd think so if I hadn't seen Satanico go to that finish in one on one matches before this one. Even with the third fall, this was still a great effort (if not an unimpeachably great match), but the result probably should have been just a bit better.

 

Early 1990s

Lizmark/Villano III/Gran Hamada vs Sangre Chicana/La Fiera/Rambo

Another shorty, this time from Monterrey (actually the first match in this post was from Monterrey but that was AAA in Monterrey). Fantastic lineup but the match being held in La Monumental Monterrey meant that it was going to be half-assed and badly clipped. Actually from what was shown it didn't look all that half-assed. Lizmark and Fiera (sporting a beard) were in the ring together, which is a dream match for me, but the best part of that was when Rambo came in afterwards and got starched. Hey, it's Lizmark's tope again. It didn't look that good this time but maybe it was the camera angle.

[cad]

July 15 1994

Lizmark/Perro Aguayo/Konnan/Mascara Sagrada vs La Parka/Hermanos Dinamita

There was a Parka fan club in attendance that was mostly all women. Why was Konnan dressed in stereotypical Indian garb? Although Lizmark's feud with Parka had been fairly quiet on TV, they'd been swapping Lizmark's WWA world lightheavyweight title (not to be confused with Lizmark's national lightheavyweight title, the one he'd been defending on TV) back and forth on house shows since the previous August. Their brawling here was better than it was in 1993. Through two falls this probably wasn't much better than a lot of Lizmark's disappointing 1993 buildup matches, but I focused on Lizmark and Parka so I was happy enough. Everything they did after the match came back from commercial, though, was on a different level. It was easily the best brawling I've seen from Lizmark. Even the mask ripping looked violent. Lizmark fought part of the fall looking through the mouthhole of his mask, that's how torn up it was. They spent maybe two straight minutes slugging each other on the canvas, and soon after that was broken up they were back at it on the outside. Eventually they were just holding on to each other like boxers in a twelfth round clinch. They topped that off with two long stretches of nearfalls, which was cool, although I kind of wish that after kicking out of big move after big move Parka had won the match with something a little more decisive than just a cradle. After the match Parka's music was playing and he did his stupid dance right in front of Lizmark, staring the champion down the whole time, so Lizmark winged a jab at him. As a brawl, what they did here would have fit perfectly in a big mask vs mask match, but I'm guessing that wasn't an option so Parka just got another crack at the national belt.

 

July 18 1994

Lizmark vs La Parka

During introductions, the announcer stretched out Parka's name for sixteen and then fourteen seconds. This wasn't a technical classic and was more of a title match with a violent underside to it. The whole thing felt very tense. That added to the holds in the first fall. I wasn't a huge fan of Parka's performance, though. He was a bit sloppy and at one point took a crazy flip into the ropes off a shove (clearly he was expecting a kick there), and then there was the edgy stuff he does in these matches. Some of it can be cool. I liked when Lizmark offered a handshake and Parka popped him in the face instead. But stuff like breaking holds by digging at Lizmark's mask just feels like chasing heat. In the third fall they again did the thing where Parka doesn't want to wrestle anymore and keeps pushing Lizmark away, which made Lizmark's eventual victory feel kind of anticlimactic, especially after Parka had looked like the better man over the first two falls. They'd both been draws, something you don't see often, but the first fall ended when Parka nailed Lizmark with a tope and then they were counted out brawling outside, and in the second Parka rolled Lizmark up from behind but Lizmark was able to pin Parka's shoulders to the mat too (hey, so at least he learned something from that happening to him every time he wrestled Satanico). The Observer's account of this said that Lizmark struggled to keep up in the match (there were a few brief moments when he looked tired, but I thought he gave his standard title match performance) and that Parka had broken his nose and legitimately didn't want to wrestle in the third. Either way this got a 3.25 there and that's about what I'd have rated it also. It kind of felt like they'd have been better off having a mano a mano match or something, though.

[cad]

September 3 1994

Lizmark/Tinieblas Jr./Hijo del Santo vs La Parka/Blue Panther/Fuerza Guerrera

The first fall was pretty fun, with Santo vs Parka, Lizmark looking good against Fuerza and Panther (although not as good as he did vs Panther in 1998), and Fuerza vs Tinieblas being kinda neat. Lizmark did his flipping pin on Panther again, which I've never seen him do against anyone else. Not much worthwhile after that. Eighteen minutes in the tecnicos were still in control, and the rudos didn't really do anything with their part of the match. Lizmark vs Parka didn't become the focus until the third fall. Their brawling was okay but nowhere near the atomicos from July. The referee who'd called their July title match down the middle was now fast counting for Parka and slow counting for Lizmark. On a positive note, I liked Lizmark's kneedrop+DDT combo, and even though this wasn't that good none of it was Tinieblas' fault.

 

September 9 1994

Lizmark vs La Parka

Anyone who follows pro wrestling knows that if a ref screws a guy over in the buildup to a big match then he'll invariably get the assignment for the big one as well. That would be kind of frustrating, with this being Parka's last shot at the belt he'd been chasing for almost two years, but it didn't end up mattering as they made no attempt to wrestle a good match anyway. Parka and his second Vulcano cheated all the way through, it was wrestled more like a mano a mano, and even by that standard it was pretty bad. You'd think they'd maybe give Parka a win where he earns Lizmark's respect after the long feud and with him turning tecnico not long after, but nope.

 

October 13 1995

Lizmark/Atlantis/Canek vs Emilio Charles Jr./Headhunters

It was between this and a tag title match between Lizmark/Atlantis and the Headhunters. I went with the one that wasn't twenty-eight minutes long. Too bad barely anything happened in it. No crazy brawling, no fun Headhunters spots besides one missed moonsault, and not even any Atlantis and Emilio interaction. Charles did take a crazy backdrop out of the ring, though. Lizmark's missile dropkick looked so good in the second fall that he decided to use it again to win the third fall.

 

August 16 1991

Lizmark/Hijo de Lizmark/Atlantis vs Los Brazos

El Hijo de Lizmark had been wrestling as "Hijo de ?" and here he revealed himself as Lizmark's son. Los Brazos gave their usual effort with the comedy and also some good bodyshots and trashtalk. Lizmark seemed to tone his performance down a bit so that he didn't take any attention away from his son. A tall man, especially by EMLL standards, Jr. had obvious athletic ability but going by this match he couldn't yet do his stuff with the speed and accuracy of a top tecnico. Nice enough match.

[alexoblivion]

Out of curiosity Cad, what would you rate higher, that Lizmark trios or the Bestia/Kato match that aired on the same episode? I only ask since you rate the trios so highly, and I had completely slept on the greatness of it as well.

[cad]

IIRC Bestia/Kato was good in a fun, much better than I expected kind of way. The Infernales match was just really good. I liked the six man more but wouldn't go to war over it or anything. I'm probably wrong about it being in the top ten for 1992 or whatever I said.