Hercules Ayala v. Carlos Colon (Texas Death Match) (7/18/87)

[El Boricua]

Hercules Ayala v. Carlos Colon (Texas Death Match) (7/18/87)

[elliott]

Joined in progress with Ayala beating the crap out of Colon and Ayala already bleeding. They’re brawling on the infield at the start. Ayala sets up a table but is reversed and thrown into it by Colon to a huge reaction. Jaggers and Hugo on commentary so this should be fun. OH FUCK Ayala is choking Colon out with a table. Goddamn. This is brutal. Ayala is just beating the crap out of Colon. Colon is AWESOME selling in this. Its not Invader level, but Colon is really good doing the punch drunk stumble routine and occasionally firing back with big right hands. They finally get back into the ring and Ayala continues working over Colon. Ayala goes after Colon’s knee and puts on Colon’s own figure 4. Really cool stuff. Colon is awesome selling the damage. Colon manages to make a comeback with his own legwork. Great job as Colon does his routine legwork at a slower more deliberate pace than usual selling the damage he’s taken. He’s not able to jump as high as normal but he’ll grind it in a little more. This of course leads to Colon getting a figure 4 of his own on and you can see the fans jumping up and down in the background as Colon locks it in. Ayala is awesome selling it. Colon gets a 3 count off the figure 4. Ayala staggers to his feet to beat the count and Colon goes right back to the leg. Jaggers is more Scott Levy than Jesse Ventura on commentary in this one. Hugo is brilliant calling the match and dealing with Jaggers. Colon’s repeated legwork is awesome. Chicky Starr manages to slip Ayala some brass knuckles and he NAILS Colon with them. Colon is bleeding right away. Colon tries to fight back with punches and even a headbutt but Ayala’s brassknucks hit may have been too much. Ayala continues to work over Colon and man Colon is really bleeding. Every punch and kick from Ayala is to Colon’s head and Colon’s face is just covered in blood. Ayala keeps punching and kicking Colon and going for pins but Colon keeps kicking out. Colon is fantastic selling. He’s completely out on his feet. The doctor wants to stop the match but the ref won’t let him because it’s a Texas Death match. That’s such a great touch and it really fits. This is brutal. They should stop this match. Jeez. Colon just keeps kicking out but he can’t even fight back. Stop this match. Finally the bell rings because Colon is completely helpless as Ayala stomps away again and again and again right on his face. This has gotten uncomfortable. Holy shit.

[AJS]

Out of all the Colon matches on the set, I think this is his biggest thrashing so far. He takes one hell of a beating in this. He is absolutely covered with blood as Ayala continues to pound on him after the match. Really brutal stuff. On a lighter note, i'm really enjoying the Hugo and Jaggers commentary.

[KB8]

This probably could've done with being trimmed by five minutes or so, but it's easily the best Ayala performance so far, and one of the best Colon performances. Purely from a selling perspective I thought it was his best, actually. He's not as expressive a seller as Invader, being more about conveying gritty toughness than sympathy-garnering, but his blood loss selling in the back half of this was truly outstanding, and at times made the beating he was taking pretty harrowing. It's also the craziest blade job he's done. I mean dude is an absolute mess by the end of this, blood streaming out his forehead, his face and chest covered; it was horrifying. In the last few minutes he keeps trying to stand up and fight, but he's out on his feet and Ayala just keeps battering him with punches and stomps. The visual at the end with Colon lying there lifeless as Ayala punches him in the head was like something from a horror movie. He's already dead, just let it be over! I'm still not really sure how good Ayala is, but I get the sense he's at least someone who's easy to work with. He did a lot of nasty shit in this, including choking Colon with the edge of a table and then jumping on said table while it was placed over Colon's face. I also liked him using Colon's own tricks against him by going to the figure four, and that led to Colon breaking it by heeling Ayala in the balls, which is probably the best escape from a figure four I've seen. These two have a barbed wire match coming up and I'm looking forward to seeing how Colon exacts revenge, because if there's one thing about Colon it's that he'll exact revenge in the grizzliest ways possible.

[Edwin]

Brutal, bloody brawl. Carlos does one of the nastiest blade jobs I've ever seen. There's a puddle of blood in the corner and the camera catches a great angle of it near the end.

 

Aside from Stan Hansen, I would say Hercules is the other guy who really puts some beating on Carlos as proven here.

 

Despite the brutality dished out by both ends, this went on for way to long and would've benefited if it ran 5-10 minutes shorter as a lot of WWC matches seem to run around the 10-15 minute time frame at best.

 

Also the editing for the commentary hurt this as you could barely hear the hot Puerto Rican crowd in the background.

[AstroBoy]

This was an awesome, harrowing brawl.

 

Right from the get-go Colon's selling is off the charts and it's all little things that set his performance apart. He finds that sweet spot after being choked to death by a table, firing off one small punch to the gut, but not able to muster more. Later he starts kicking out Ayala's legs and then just falls down in exhaustion from the beating he's taken.

 

Chicky Starr is pretty fantastic here just standing around in his neckbrace and instigating the fans, helping out Ayala, of course giving him the brass knucks. Hugo and Jaggers are absolutely killing me here with Jaggers constantly calling for the headbutt to be outlawed and insisting that Ayala hit a flying crossbody to take over.

 

The beating that Colon takes as he slowly just succumbs to blood loss and damage is completely harrowing and uncomfortable. It did have that feel of starting to drag until it became clear that the sustained nature of the beatdown became the reason to end the match. Really violent image of Colon just motionless finally being stomped over and over as the doctor calls off the match. An all-timer of a performance by Colon. Ayala didn't have to do much else other than beat down Colon and he did that just fine. Ayala not selling the leg so much after the big figure four section irked me just slightly but this was a pretty memorable brawl.

[dawho5]

This match is where I started to think Hugo was one of the all-time great announcers. He really does a tremendous job. Ayala destroying Colon after the shot with the brass knuckles is gory and probably would have been edited out anywhere else besides Japan. That is so much blood, beating goes way too far before it is stopped, but you have to make the boss look good even in defeat.