[1984-07-30-EMLL] El Satanico vs Shiro Koshinaka

[Microstatistics]

Wanted to create a thread for this because I personally think this is not only one of the best Satanico matches but one of the best of all time.

 

Unique and brilliantly executed story of the Local anti-hero taking on the invading foreigner. Perfectly paced and structured. Amazing brawling and selling. Clever and poetic finish + an awesome post-match. This has it all. ****5/8

[Rah]

I haven't seen this in almost two years but I recall I'm less a fan than most.

 

Tremendous start, and a real good way of shifting the tecnico/rudo dynamic but, boy, does Shiro fall off. I quickly went from enjoying Koshinaka's violent start, and the majority of the first fall, to sticking out the rest of the video in the hopes Satanico would just maul the ever-loving shit out of him as a penance for making me sit through this. The latter happened in parts, but nowhere near enough. I'd make an off-hand comment that Shiro being posted, and walking around like nothing happened, only to fall over, exhausted, after DELIVERING a piledriver is the most Ibushi thing I've ever seen but, at least, Ibushi got better.

[MikeCampbell]

I was back and forth between really digging this, and hoping it would start getting good again. The only thing that I really didn't understand was the piledriver, since I've always understood the piledriver to be an instant death sort of thing, but Satanico kicked out like it was just another near fall, and despite Koshinaka losing by DQ, it wasn't from the piledriver.

[Mr JMML]

Satánico vs Shiro Koshinaka (EMLL - 7/30/1984)
Hair vs Hair

Shiro is absolutely wild in this match, this match is notorious for breaking most of lucha’s rules and the explanation for most of those rule-breaking moments is the lack of an NWA commissioner that’s the same thing that usually happened in Puerto Rico, I’m sure you’re at least familiar with the brawls World Wrestling Council was known for, Hugo Savinovich (a terribly obnoxious announcer) used to highlight his presence whenever he showed up to a match, if that happened a brawl was absolutely guaranteed, the commissioner was always upset and Hugo never failed to tell the viewer about it, the most famous instance of that happening was that Carlos Colón vs Abdullah The Butcher, the one where Carlitos poked Abdullah’s eye to such an extent that the match had to be stopped and Savinovich tried his best to maintain Colón’s image as the puerto rican hero. In México this situations are rarer but they can happen once in a while and this match is the prime example of it, Shiro Koshinaka proved himself in front of the mexican crowd against the greatest wrestler of the year and officially the best rudo in EMLL the previous year if you’re curious the best wrestler of EMLL in 1983 was Sangre Chicana, he also had a classic against Satánico that year, that’s how good Satánico is, his work is just different, it’s special and as rough as lucha can get, during this match the announcer said that Satoru Sayama and Mitsuharu Misawa worked in México and that made me think ‘‘if what we have is this good imagine what we don’t have’’ that’s the same thing that happens with the great workers from the 1950’s and before, Lou Thesz debuted in 1929 and we consider him one of the greatest wrestlers in history with what we have since 1950, lucha is very similar, we start to have consistent footage in 1983 so everything before that is a blindspot of the wrestling community.

The first fall went to Shiro, he hit Satánico before the introduction and maintained the advantage, the second was won comfortably by Satánico and the third is the funniest part, Shiro hit a piledriver on Satánico and somehow he kicked out, if you are piledrived in lucha you’re supposed to leave the arena stretched off so kicking out is just badass anyway Satánico won because Koshinaka hit a low blow and the referee saw it.

[fxnj]

I think I like this one a little bit more every time I watch it. I wasn't into Shiro's armlocks in the first fall but I got into it once it became a brawl. Satanico is really great with lots of nice details in his stagger selling. Note also his body part selling and how he sells the blood. Satanico might be one of those guys whose stuff gets better the more you pay attention. It also should be pointed how hard every bump looks on this mat, and how it's always sold as a big thing. I really got into what they were doing with the 3rd fall in creating a feeling of them both running on fumes. They milk the hell out of every near fall and each kick out feels impactful. Finish is dog shit but whatever.