Pantera Surena

[Grimmas]

Cad said: "I don't have a strong image of Pantera Sureña as a character. What I can tell you is that she was in the two best women's matches in Mexico that I've seen, one a technical match against Jaguar Yokota in El Toreo and the other a bloody hair vs hair match against Lola Gonzalez in Arena Mexico. She's not flashy and she's not going to jump off the screen at you as a personality, but she was a well rounded worker who stood out in a division that I'm not sure has a single nominee yet."

La Galactica vs Jaguar Yokota (May 5 1983)
PS vs Jaguar Yokota (May 12 1985)
PS vs Lola Gonzalez (December 9 1988)

[Grimmas]

I've only seen the Jaguar matches and she looked like one of the best wrestlers ever. Hopefully there is enough footage to show that.

[elliott]

The hair match against Lola Gonzalez is an incredible match

[Rah]

12 hours ago, Grimmas said:

I've only seen the Jaguar matches and she looked like one of the best wrestlers ever. Hopefully there is enough footage to show that.

Well, from Mexico we have as early as 1980 (with sporadic matches throughout the decade across some random channels), then the AAA run is on tape and she goes under the radar again. I could swear she popped up randomly in those comp tapes that went online about a decade back (Lucha De Ayer etc).

[Jetlag]

A good worker, but it's a long way to a Top 100, especially when footage is scarce. I recall the Yokota match being a bit of a disappointment.

[MichaelZ]

The matches I’ve seen where she is La Galactica against Jaguar are amazing. Jaguar is  an all-time great but Surena is hanging with her and doing impressive work, it’s a great feud. I’d be interested in the Lola match for sure and would like to see if there is a case here. 

[elliott]

The Lola match is awesome. Hell of a find. 

[goc]

Watched the match with Lola Gonzalez this morning and it's as good as any big lucha hair match from the 80s. It's unfortunate there's really no sound on the video because I think that has to be the reason the match has not gained more of an audience since being put on youtube in 2013.

[Kadaveri]

56 minutes ago, goc said:

Watched the match with Lola Gonzalez this morning and it's as good as any big lucha hair match from the 80s. It's unfortunate there's really no sound on the video because I think that has to be the reason the match has not gained more of an audience since being put on youtube in 2013.

Mate it got uploaded with sound just this March. Now watch it again!

My thoughts on Panera generally are there's a good chance she was a Top 100 wrestler ever. 02/27/85 is the best Jaguar Yokota match I've seen (and that covers a lot of ground) and you can see from the Lola match that Pantera was putting a lot of her style into it. It wasn't some Jaguar carryjob. But her problem is add a couple of great tags against the Crush Gals and that's her entire case. Unless a lot more footage surfaces I'm not gonna consider ranking her, I need proof not inference. Can still enjoy those matches though.

[cad]

15 hours ago, goc said:

Watched the match with Lola Gonzalez this morning and it's as good as any big lucha hair match from the 80s. It's unfortunate there's really no sound on the video because I think that has to be the reason the match has not gained more of an audience since being put on youtube in 2013.

It probably has more to do with the fact that women's wrestling from Mexico largely has been ignored by the star rating type of fans. I've been as guilty of it as anyone, maybe more so.

There's plenty of Pantera out there to watch, you just have to be content to see her in opening style tag matches, the kind that are on the card just to warm up the crowd. I recommended the Toreo title match with Jaguar Yokota off memory, haven't seen it in probably five years, but I think that was the match that opened my eyes to her. I badly wish someone would upload it.

[Rah]

57 minutes ago, cad said:

I badly wish someone would upload it.

Do you mean the 12/05/1985 match for the WWWA title? I think I've got the one, I'll upload it:
 

 

[Kadaveri]

 

9 hours ago, Rah said:

Do you mean the 12/05/1985 match for the WWWA title? I think I've got the one, I'll upload it:

The full match is 30+ minutes long. Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plzoAtIMF3w

[cad]

Thanks for the upload and the link to the alternate upload, guys. I really appreciate it.

[Cap]

I have only seen a hand full of matches, but the 2/27/85 match with Jaguar is among the best matches I have ever seen and the above-mentioned Lola match (just watched recently) was incredible in its own right. I think I have only watched one other Jaguar match that was quite solid as well. I'm definitely interested in digging in more on her, especially non-Jaguar matches. Having a great feud against one of the greatest wrestlers ever is one thing, but I hope to find more

[Big Rob]

Is the 27th Feb 85 match available online anywhere? I've seen it be heavily praised from everyone and I've found a few of their matches but none seem to be the most lauded.

[BohsJohnny]

https://youtu.be/cOPewnGdEIQ

[donsem43]

Isn't part of the reason for a lack of footage is that there was a ban on women's wrestling in Mexico City that didn't end till the mid-80's?

Personally, my favourite is the WWWA/UWA unification match on 9/17/84. This version does have hilariously bad (and subtly racist) English commentary but it is less clipped than the version from the last run of AJW Classics. The only real underwhelming match they had was the hair/mask match.

[Clayton Jones]

I really like this match between her and Estela Molina.

Pantera Surena VS Estela Molina - Houston 8/22/1980

I like Molina a good amount in what I've seen of her but Surena is the highlight of the veteran/upstart dynamic for me in this one. I love the feud with Jaguar but haven't seen the Gonzalez match. I'm excited to watch it and to see even this much discussion about Pantera, the absence of North American women's wrestlers I'm considering is glaring on my list and I want to start working on that.