Chicky Starr & Hercules Ayala vs. Invader III & Carlos Colon (October 1988)

[El Boricua]

Chicky Starr & Hercules Ayala vs. Invader III & Carlos Colon (October 1988)

[elliott]

Opening is tremendous with the babyfaces taking turns beating the crap out of Chicky and he’s just bumping all over the place. He manages to make a desperation tag to Ayala but Colon comes in to cut him off so the heels bail out to the floor and we see Chicky’s head is already busted open. The schtick is just great from the heels with Ayala refusing to lock up with Carlos and bailing out again getting the crowd furious. He comes back to fight Invader III but when III tags out to Carlos, Ayala sprints away as fast as he can before coming back in when Colon tags back out to Invader III. This continues on and it’s all a ton of fun. I’m becoming more impressed by Ayala with each match to the point where I actively look forward to his matches. Crowd goes insane when Colon finally gets his hands on Ayala. Its so great because Invader keeps throwing Ayala back in to Colon, Colon will get in a few shots and then Ayala will run away again only for Invader to throw him back in. Finally Ayala tags out and Chicky gets his butt kicked for a bit before finally getting in a lowblow. But its one of those fake PR transitions as Invader III is able to fight back before finally getting to the corner and tagging out to Ayala who comes in and puts Invader down. This started with like 12 minutes of tremendous face shine/heel schtick. Ayala is able to cut off Carlos by using the same strategy he used all match: Running away from Carlos but he managed to catch Carlos coming back in the ring. Colon comes back really quickly if you ask me and Ayala bails back out to consult with Chicky. Chicky comes in and gets his ass kicked so more by both faces. But Colon tags out to Invader and Starr is able to cut him off before tagging back out to Ayala. Ayala is really good hitting big power spots and posing for the crowd. Invader gets tossed out of the ring and Chicky takes the opportunity to post him busting him open. Invader’s mask is soon covered in blood. We come back from commercial and Invader’s body is covered in blood and heels are working him the fuck over. We get the big hot tag to Carlos and he blasts away at both heels. All 4 men in the ring with Colon working Ayala’s leg as Invader & Chicky brawl in the corner. Crowd goes nuts as Colon locks in the figure 4. Ayala tries to run away so Colon follows him out and works on Ayala’s leg on the floor. Chicky runs to get a chair to save Ayala but Invader gets it and chases the heels off.

 

This was a fantastic match. 22 minutes of fun. Colon wasn’t particularly great in this at times but the other 3 looked awesome, particularly Invader III. Fuck Ayala too. Yeah this was a blast.

[dawho5]

To me this was a great character match for the 3 guys besides Colon, who was just there as The Man. Kinda like when Misawa would stay out of the match until he was needed/Kawada was in there. Invader 3 takes most of the shine because Ayala won't stay in the same zipcode as Colon for very long. I love how when he's on offense he's so deliberate, but once he needs to get away he's lightning quick to get out of there. Invader 3 feeding Ayala back to Colon a few times was great and the crowd ate it up. Invader 3 playing FIP was so fucking good. Chicky Starr doing heel schtick was (as expected) a huge highlight. That opening sequence with him in the ring was about as good a start to any tag match I've ever seen. I've seen all the rave reviews about the Freebirds stalling match in WCW, but I enjoyed this just as much if not more.