Lost Lucha

[Rah]

The title is probably a little hyperbolic but "Digging Through The Crates" is already a Segunda Caida staple. In this thread I'm going to go through (mostly) lucha that has either (1) not been online before as its stuff I've bought from guys in Mexico or (2) has been online before but hasn't received any traction in our circles. I won't claim to have found any hidden gems or holy grails (we'll see!) but there is a bucket-load of stuff out there that we haven't got our hands on yet.

For instance, I tracked down two guys who have that Shu/Robin Hood match Cubsfan wrote about (one is a luchadore in CMLL and the other is Shu himself). Shu won't sell it. I made progress with the former but shipping to my country is an obvious no-go so all talks subsequently died. If anyone speaks Spanish and lives in a shippable part of the USA I'd gladly pay the money and have it shipped to you if you can convince them. Be warned, though, this is a fancam with no audio (here's 6 seconds of it). There's also a mask match where Super Astro drops his mask to Villano III on tape which Astro has - no dice convincing him, either, but it's there.

But back to what we do have! Because this is an unabashedly stolen idea from Segunda Caida I'll also rank all matches in the same order: EPIC, GREAT, FUN and SKIPPABLE.

 

Epic

Spoiler

nothing yet

 

Great

Spoiler

El Dandy vs Último Dragón (??/??/1993 SWS)

 

Fun

Spoiler

El Satanico vs Último Dragón (18/04/1992 SWS)

Virus vs Super Nova (05/04/2008 Azteca)

 

Skippable

Spoiler

Último Dragón, Kato Kung Lee & Masao Orihara vs Blue Panther, Emilio Charles Jr & Toshiyu Nakahara (14/02/1992 SWS) 

 

[Rah]

Virus vs Super Nova (05/04/2008 Azteca)
One criticism I've seen against Virus is that he doesn't have that "bloodbath" match to his credit. While he's certainly busted up a few opponents in the past few years (cf. vs Demus and vs Fly Star ), he hasn't actually bled for us. Here that changes. Watching him work as a bloodthirsty heel seems so foreign at this point and I wouldn't bet against it being foreign for him, too. Virus is a guy who relies a lot on feeling and intuition for his spots and you could almost see the cogs at work at how he could spin his formula into something more violent. In that sense, this feels like a prototypical take on his title match structure if only the intricately woven matwork was supplanted by gnawing into his opponent's skin. Much the same, Virus is one to "semi-crescendo" his matches by going into hyperdrive with lesser skilled performers so as not to lose the crowd. It probably drives the Arena Mexico abuelos nuts but I don't mind high-flying in my title matches. Super Libres are a little bit of a different story, though. I could really do with less dives and acrobatics in this type of match but you take what you can get with finds like this. What ifs only lead to disappointment. I mean, what if Pirata Morgan beefed with Virus back in 1993 when he was playing his mini? What if they feuded here? Frankly 2008 Pirata is twice the worker Super Nova is but that's besides the point. The kid was along for the ride and nothing more so he did his bit.

Unfortunately this is 2008 Virus not 2018 Virus so he's still putting things together as the "older" mini in this part of his career but that's like saying you're driving a 7 series and not a Chiron. Really fun stuff.

Último Dragón, Kato Kung Lee & Masao Orihara vs Blue Panther, Emilio Charles Jr & Toshiyu Nakahara (14/02/1992 SWS)
30 years out and Blue Panther's work still looks like magic. It's almost a crime he was saddled with that lump Ultimo for so long - what with every hold or turn ending with Ultimo awkwardly falling over. Kato isn't much better but he's at least got cat-like reflexes and can bounce around with ease which plays out with him as Road Runner to Emilio's Wile E Coyote, much to my amusement. Orihara loves his dropkicks but seems decent enough (with some rather good selling) and can bring some innovative moments of his own. Fantastic little moment as he tagged in on a trapped Ultimo - using Panther's own surfboard hold against him by pressing Ultimo down on his shoulders. As for Nakahara, I'm guessing they got him because Estrada was drunk, again. 

Certainly a diamond in the rough but this was picking up nicely before the finish where Ultimo dogged it. Run again as a tag and this would have produced. 

El Satanico vs Último Dragón (18/04/1992 SWS)
Weird to rate as this is clearly Satanico doing his damnedest to make this watchable but Último really has the Mierdas Touch. 

El Dandy vs Último Dragón (??/??/1993 SWS)
I've got to give the devil his dues, Último was on point here. There were a lot of similarities in his control segments to the Satanico match but he hit everything clean as a whistle this time. It also really helps when you've got early 90s Dandy holding your hand through 12 minutes of action, too. This was clearly on the card as an Último showcase, so YMMV there, but this was probably as good as that's ever going to get. That said, I probably prefer the Panther (or Casas) singles match in Mexico but not by much. Great match. Just don't tell the "lucha is too cooperative" brigade.

Stopping the disc here, I'll continue tomorrow with:
1. ASAI VS. EMILIO CHARLES JR. (10/11/91)
2. ÚLTIMO DRAGÓN (ASAI) VS. JERRY ESTRADA (12/12/91)
3. ÚLTIMO DRAGÓN (ASAI) VS. BESTIA SALVAJE (06/1/92)
6. MASAO ORIHARA VS. ATLANTIS (FAN CAM)
7. MASAO ORIHARA VS. EL DANDY (FAN CAM)

[cad]

Dandy vs Dragon is from Dandy's March 1992 tour of SWS and has been on Youtube for like five years.

[cad]

.

[Rah]

5 hours ago, cad said:

Dandy vs Dragon is from Dandy's March 1992 tour of SWS and has been on Youtube for like five years.

Sure, but as I've said in the original post, this is looking at matches I've bought and not seen online as well as ones that have been online but I don't see any commentary on - hence the "digging through the crates" line.  I'm going by DVD so we'll have some overlap, sure.

I'll get through the other Dragon matches and check but he was the drizzling shits in that tag match and whiffed almost every dive or (more) complex spot against Satanico. Nevermind him just sitting there while Satanico punches him in the back of the noggin'. I strongly dislike Myztezizzzzzzzzzz/Caristico, or whatever his name is now, but he'd be a much better foil in that spot (as example). Bless the guy for running Luchamania each year but he's crap.

[Phil Schneider]

Awesome post, looking forward to what else you dig up. There is a Monterey lucha blood bath between Panther and Santo which exists on tape but hasn't been uploaded

Here is a twitter exchange about it

 

I loved that Virus match, would at least have it as Great!

 

[cad]

On 8/19/2021 at 12:33 AM, Rah said:

I'll get through the other Dragon matches and check but he was the drizzling shits in that tag match and whiffed almost every dive or (more) complex spot against Satanico. Nevermind him just sitting there while Satanico punches him in the back of the noggin'. I strongly dislike Myztezizzzzzzzzzz/Caristico, or whatever his name is now, but he'd be a much better foil in that spot (as example). Bless the guy for running Luchamania each year but he's crap.

It's a two way street though. One of the ugly moves in that match was Dragon's handspring tope, a move that connected perfectly in his Japan matches with Fiera and Bestia Salvaje. Was he more reckless against Satanico? Possible, but look at how Bestia flies into position to take that move. Could you even imagine Satanico doing that? He wasn't as good a base as those guys were.

Really the biggest problem with that match was that it was mostly a showcase for Satanico's 1980s offense, which wasn't going to pop a crowd in 1992 Japan. He also couldn't bump like Dragon's other touring opponents, his biggest being getting chucked off the second rope. Anyway, I don't know why I let Satanico praise get me so wound up. I was needlessly snide about it earlier, sorry.