[1990-02-04-EMLL] Comando Ruso, Fuerza Guerrera & El Hijo del Gladiator vs Remo Banda, Chamaco Valaguez & Mogur

[KB8]

This was building to the Remo Banda/Comando Ruso hair match, and I can say they all did their job splendidly. It's actually been a fun feud whenever it's been showcased up to now, going from something in January I wouldn't have been immediately interested in to something I now want to see the climax to. The whole match itself was one big tease of Ruso getting his comeuppance. He wanted no part of Banda to start with and refused to engage, immediately tagging when they wound up in the ring together. A couple times he just left the ring and scurried up the ramp. Of course he threw his cheapshots and was fine to step on Banda's neck whenever the latter was mid-exchange with someone else. Banda got more and more pissed, but the coolest part of this was how they flipped the payoff. Banda did get some measure of revenge, except he took it too early and by the end the rudos had coordinated a total mugging. They went after the arm hard and I thought Banda sold it remarkably well. Long-term limb selling isn't necessarily something I associate with lucha, but Banda would even switch up submission attempts because he couldn't use the bad arm properly, and he at least drew attention to the fact it was bothering him right until the finish. Maybe he needs to pick better partners next time because he was a man on an island by the end and the rudos couldn't have been any more emphatic in putting him away. It was a cool way to book things and I'm interested in where they go with him and Ruso next. Fuerza was Fuerza here. Where Ruso was determined to avoid Banda, Fuerza was similarly opposed to any interaction with Mogur. He got humiliated more than once and more than once it ended with him Fuerza Flopping in the corner (the evolution of the Flair Flop, if you will). At one point he also got bounced off the ropes from the apron and it pretty much reinforces how you can't not watch him at any point in a match. Hijo del Gladiator probably deserves a bit more talk as an awesome rudo stooge. He was a hoot in this and absolutely did not take a backseat to Fuerza in the shithead sweepstakes. I hope he gets a singles showcase at some point during the year.