[1998-09-11-CMLL] Ultimo Guerrero vs Mr Aguila

[Jetlag]

This may be the case of an apuestas not QUITE delivering on the promise of the buildup trios. These two were fighting like mad everytime they squared off, and there are shades of that in this match – Guerrero starts with an awesome punch combo in the corner, and there are scrappy moments throughout the match. In total this was a big match with big moves where both guys worked hard – it didn't quite have the epic transitions or savage feeling I want from a legendary mask match, but rather huge bumps and dives. I'm probably unfairly harsh here because of how annoying bloodless mask matches got in the 2000s, while this was a far better match than any of these.

[KB8]

Man, I'd forgotten how cool Aguila's mask was. He basically fell off my radar entirely years ago and I haven't seen him in forever. Didn't even know this was out there or that he'd lost the mask. But really, it's a cracker of a mask. This wasn't your granddaddy's apuestas but I thought it was an enjoyable version of one built mostly around dives rather than piss and blood and guts. All of Aguila's dives looked great, especially the corkscrew Asai moonsault, though I guess you'd have liked for Ultimo to take a lunatic bump into the seats and leave someone wearing their own dinner. The way he used UG's kickout to set up a submission was a really cool finish to the primera as well. Ultimo was a fun bruiser when he was on top, especially in the opening few minutes, then after that he was mostly about the bumping. There was one great moment towards the end where he finally managed to pull the plug on one of Aguila's dives and Aguila took a nutso hotshot bump across the top rope. Third caida had some decent drama, and even if it was mostly my turn-your turn they never dragged it out to eternity by lying around selling everything for six minutes at a time. Perfectly fun mask match and I'd like to check out some of the build up now.