Mr JMML's Lucha Thread

[Mr JMML]

MS-1 vs. Sangre Chicana (9/23/83) EMLL (Hair vs Hair) 2/3 Falls

This match doesn't need much context to be enjoyed, the brutality speaks for itself, that's why it is the match that we use to introduce lucha because almost every wrestling fan will have fun watching it. Sangre Chicana was a big match wrestler, it means that he isn't by any stretch of the imagination a wrestler of the year candidate in any year but he can have a match of the year contender with the right opponent like Shinobu Kandori in joshi. MS-1 was one of the original members of Los Infernales, the most important heel faction of Mexico for many years. There was someone called MS-2 if you were wondering but he wasn't as successful.

The match began when MS-1 attacked Sangre Chicana from behind, that move paid off big time because around 3 minutes later he won the first fall. During the first fall Sangre Chicana was lacerated, the cut came from  the brutal offense of MS-1 in the early going so he couldn't barely see.  The people in the stands were behind him because of it. The match continues and Sangre Chicana makes the comeback of a lifetime thanks to dives between the ropes and merciless ringside action that unlocks his path to victory, it comes in the form of a count out as a result of a successful suicide dive and MS-1 couldn't make it to the ring so that's how the thrilling second fall ends. After two falls both men are exhausted, from here we can see two different ways to approach the rest of the match, Sangre Chicana tries to maintain the advantage and MS-1 desperately needs to hit his moves if he wants to retain his hair. At the end, after an abdominal stretch Sangre Chicana got the pinfall with a victory roll.

[Mr JMML]

Atlantis vs El Satánico EMLL 1-20-1984

2/3 falls 

El Satánico’s 1984 is widely regarded as one of the best years by any wrestler ever and matches like this one are the reason why, two well known faces of lucha faced each other for Satánico’s NWA Middleweight Title, Atlantis at this point in his career wasn’t the legend he is today, in fact, he was an up and comer that was just named Rookie of the Year of 1983 along with El Hijo del Santo so he wasn’t ‘‘El ídolo de los niños’’ yet. El Satánico was in a very different position though, he was the hottest heel commodity in México, he had been wrestling since 1973, he wore a mask during his early career but we don’t have any footage of him wearing the mask but the mask itself is still well preserved, his style is rough not only for his strikes but also for his holds, they genuinely look painful, I don’t want to be the guy that’s in the receiving end of any of them, Atlantis’ style is more based on aerial maneuvers and traditional lucha libre holds, at some point during the match he even tries to put Satánico in a camel clutch like the original Santo used to do, Santo retired almost two years earlier so the crowd had quite a ‘‘déjá vu’’, this match was a star-making performance from beginning to end, everybody knew that Atlantis wasn’t supposed to win but it didn’t matter there’s always hope, Atlantis won the first fall but it was Satánico’s show from then on, Satánico was always generous, he sold pretty well Atlantis’ offense and did everything in his power to make him look good, so good that the crowd started believing in Atlantis especially during the third fall, Atlantis got Satánico in an abdominal stretch but he got out of the hold then Satánico submitted his young opponent with his trademark hold ‘‘La cruceta con palancas’’.

A thing of beauty if you like lucha you’ll like this match.

[Mr JMML]

El Santo Retirement tag (UWA - 9/12/1982)

El Santo & El Solitario & Gory Guerrero & Huracán Ramírez vs Negro Navarro & El Signo & Texano & Perro Aguayo 

This is the last match of the biggest star in lucha history ( El Santo), the crowd is as hot as any crowd has ever been, it’s the greatest demonstration of his legacy, we don’t have as much footage as we would have liked but there’s a few minutes of some matches in black & white, his matches against Espanto and Black Shadow are canon lucha that’s talked about a lot in the spanish speaking community, lucha libre is made of myths and there’s no myth as big as El Santo, everybody has heard about La Pareja Atómica the tag team formed by Gory Guerrero and El Santo, considered the biggest draw a tag team has ever been even more than the Crush Gals and it showed, the crowd genuinely cares about the match, a contest that turned out to be an all out brawl, it’s amazing that an almost 65 year old Santo said goodbye to lucha libre with that kind of match, we are accustomed to watch Black Terry wrestle matches way more violent than this one at that age but he’s just built different, one of the highlights of the match in my opinion is 37 year old Perro Aguayo bloodied creating chaos everywhere he went. El Santo’s partners aren’t exactly in their prime either, they are just as old as Santo, the age of the competitors wasn’t an issue for the crowd, they were cheering loudly during the whole affair, they knew how important this moment was and that’s something to appreciate, if they didn’t show any interest the match would have been just a DUD but it wasn’t, the match flies by, it’s very entertaining and a match everyone should check out doesn’t matter if you don’t like lucha this match transcends lucha, it’s one of wrestling’s greatest legends last match, I think that’s special and every wrestling fan has to witness it.

[Mr JMML]

Americo Rocca vs Mocho Cota EMLL 01-27-1984 2/3 falls

NWA Welterweight Title

This is the first example of a technical title bout we have, Americo Rocca is the babyface, if what the announcers said is true he was a very prolific Rock ‘n’ Roll singer during his youth, I haven’t researched about it but I’ll take their word for it, the announcers are amazing, they also said that Mocho Cota was a goalkeeper who played for Chivas de Guadalajara one of the best football clubs in Mexico so both of them were quite known before their respective wrestling careers even started, as exhausting and unsufferable as Miguel Linares can be sometimes, he’s also someone that has been watching wrestling for so long, when he talks about lucha libre’s history he becomes the most interesting announcer wrestling has ever had, as I said in a previous review lucha is made of myths, when someone has lived through the history we have romanticized in the last 30 years, I love reading lucha history because it’s such a blindspot for many people, the language barrier makes it even more difficult to put it together, being a native spanish speaker gave me a chance to deep dive on lucha and its history, I love those two minute clips we have from México in the 50’s and 60’s, that’s why I reviewed El Santo’s retirement tag, it’s a piece of lucha history so unique that I had the obligation to highlight it. I love the first match between Mocho Cota and Americo Rocca, it’s a great example of what a title bout should look like, Mocho Cota is a fantastic technical wrestler and an even better heel, I can’t do anything other than like him, Americo Rocca is an amazing babyface, the crowd loves him and rightly so.

Americo Rocca won the first fall but the rest of the match was Mocho Cota’s show, he completely dominated the last two falls with help from his second Talisman, Talisman even helped him win the third fall.

[Mr JMML]

La Ola Lila vs Los Cadetes del Espacio 02-26-1984 2/3 Falls

Rudy Reyna & Sergio el Hermoso & Bello Greco vs Solar #1 & Super Astros & Ultraman

This is a trios match, UWA made those matches famous, this company was the most innovative in México at the time, this match isn’t my thing, it’s the opposite of what I consider a great mexican trios match, it has no redeemable qualities, when I reviewed Los Brazos career I highlighted their appeal, how their style of comedy made their matches memorable, there’s nothing in this match that makes it memorable, their offense is just good on a surface level but the more I think about it the more I realise how dumb it is. Michinoku Pro did things even dumber than this match but they were just figuring out what’s lucha, if you are mexican you can’t use that excuse, you can say that they’re trying to do new things and you would be right but they do it without any personality, I didn’t feel like I was watching a pro wrestling match, lucha is made of personalities and this match doesn’t have that, it’s absolutely soulless, I know this match has some fans but I just don’t see what makes this match special I’m happy thinking that some people see in this contest the wrestling they want, as I said in my review of the 3/16 Michinoku Pro trio almost everybody is right in wrestling, there’s no definitive answers in wrestling and that’s amazing, I can’t imagine a world where wrestling is objective, that’s a dystopian reality for me, I’m sure someone loved this match as much as I hated it and that’s the best part about wrestling, everybody can make their case for everything and most probably you’re right, that’s why I still watch wrestling, I watch wrestling because for me it’s the most special medium there is, professional wrestling is unique but this match just for me at all, I hope someone can change my mind.

[cad]

On 8/11/2023 at 1:39 PM, Mr JMML said:

A thing of beauty if you like lucha you’ll like this match.

To me this is the defining Satanico performance. Maybe he has better matches, but I don't think Satanico himself was ever better than he was in this one. At least not in anything we have video of.

I recall that somewhere in there Atlantis kind of fucks up a backbreaker and the announcer says something along the lines of, "You can see how nervous he is, being in there against a great wrestler like Satanico." I always liked how he acknowledged it, gave a reasonable excuse for it and put over the stakes all at the same time.

[Mr JMML]

His 1984 was legendary, this means a lot from you considering that you aren't Satánico's biggest fan.

[Mr JMML]

Tony Salazar vs. Herodes 03-02-1984
Hair vs Hair 2/3 Falls

A great apuesta that was a part of the Lucha 80’s DVDVR, before the match started Miguel Linares interviewed Tony Salazar, he said that his rivalry with Herodes (by the way, it’s the perfect name for a heel) was something that’s beyond sports, he made it clear that the only way their feud could be settled would be an apuesta, if what Miguel Linares said is true it isn’t the first hair match these two have had against each other, in fact, this match is a rematch but we don’t have the first match or at least I don’t know where it is. The crowd loves Tony Salazar either that or they just hate Herodes’ guts, Herodes is Herod the Great in spanish, in the New Testament he’s the King of Judea and most importantly when it was announced that the King of the Jews ( Jesus) was born he took offense because he considered himself to be that so he ordered to kill the eldest son of every family in the area so he’s considered an antagonist in the Bible but archeological records suggest otherwise, the only thing you really have to know is that Herodes is a badass name for a wrestler, that’s the only thing that matters for today’s match. I personally think that this match is one of lucha’s greatest brawls, from the very beginning with Herodes chasing Salazar around the ring to the strange ending that I’ll try to explain when we get to it with Gran Davis ( the referee) being the main cause of confusion, when the match started Miguel Linares said that Herodes had the intention of finishing his opponent quickly ( spoiler: That didn’t happen). The first fall was surprisingly quick, Tony Salazar won without much trouble, the second fall was all Herodes, he took advantage of Tony’s injured wrist and won via Fujiwara armbar or at least its mexican version, now let’s address the finish, a ref bump happens and Herodes hit a low blow on Tony then he went for the pin and when it looked like Herodes had secured the victory Gran Davis declared a draw, maybe he wasn’t sure about what happened, I don’t know.

If you liked Sangre Chicana vs MS-1 you’ll like this one, a bloody brawl full of drama.

[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.

[Mr JMML]

El Satánico vs El Gran Cochisse 09-14-1984 EMLL

NWA Middleweight Title 

El Satánico’s 1984 is something else, he’s inspired, he couldn’t have a bad match, if I told you that Cochisse is a bad wrestler after watching this match you wouldn’t believe me, this match is the quintessential carry job, Satánico made him look like a decent wrestler something no other performer ever achieved, I think this match was a career-defining moment for him, every time you think of Cochisse you think of this particular match and that’s because he didn’t have any other match that was nearly as good as this one and that speaks of Satanico’s greatness, I don’t blame anyone for thinking he’s the best wrestler México ever produced, his consistency and longevity are enough to put him in the GOAT conversation, I feel like he is México’s version of Terry Funk, doesn’t matter which style he wrestles he will always make the most out of every opportunity, the last match I reviewed was an all out brawl against a very good wrestler (Shiro Koshinaka) that match couldn’t be more different from the one we’re taking a look today, that’s special, having someone so versatile, it doesn’t happen often, young Satánico was incredible but I personally think that Satanico’s 2001 is even better, the feud against Último Guerrero was the highlight of the whole year not only in lucha but also in the world of professional wrestling, we’ll get into that eventually. The match played out as you expect for a mexican title bout, it’s all strictly technical wrestling, there weren’t any heel tactics, it was as clean as wrestling match can be and that makes this match even more impressive, it would have been much easier to carry him in a brawl setting but Satánico didn’t do that he made Cochisse look good in one of the cleanest lucha matches I’ve ever seen.

If you are curious here’s how the match went, the first fall was won comfortably by Satánico, the second fall looked like much of the same until Cochisse rolled him and lastly the third fall was all Satanico, he submitted Cochisse after a dominant performance.

[ohtani's jacket]

What makes you say that Cochisse was a bad wrestler? He was already in his early 40s here and had been wrestling since the late 60s. By the time we get regular footage in ‘89, he is low on the card and barely featured. Is he bad in the rest of the footage we have of him? Or simply not as good as he looked in the match against Satanico? He had a number of big singles matches in the late 70s and early 80s that makes me doubt that the Satanico match is an outlier. 

[Rah]

A while back I made the joke that Satanico was so good that he fooled people into thinking Gran Cochisse was a good worker. I thought I was alone on this island so it's nice to see a fellow believer.

 

On 8/17/2023 at 12:51 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

What makes you say that Cochisse was a bad wrestler? He was already in his early 40s here and had been wrestling since the late 60s. By the time we get regular footage in ‘89, he is low on the card and barely featured. Is he bad in the rest of the footage we have of him? Or simply not as good as he looked in the match against Satanico? He had a number of big singles matches in the late 70s and early 80s that makes me doubt that the Satanico match is an outlier. 

Sure, but we don't have access to this footage. Also, it isn't as if wrestling rewards "good workers" with opportunities. Having big singles matches isn't indicative of talent, but rather how much the worker connects with the audience (or those in booking!). This is very much true for Mexico. Working throwaway matches in the lower card also isn't a means to excuse skill. A good worker will thrive in any environment.

Yes, sure, we can only go by what we see. Perhaps it's unfair to judge someone in their early 40s (which seems the opposite of how we usually approach peak/age in lucha) but the tale of the tape is what it is. When I came into lucha many years ago Cochisse was seen as this "lost" great worker - a wrestler many hoped more footage would drop. While we don't have the 70s footage, we do have spatterings of footage throughout his career, which doesn't do him favors. The Cota/Cochisse hair match is a great example of Cochisse not having the wherewithal of a good wrestler. Cota bumps like a madman to try and keep the match interesting (with one sickening splat to put Cochisse over) but the match never goes out of second-gear thanks to Cochisse. It's a completely dull affair on his side. This is in December 1984. We have a few more matches in the 84/85 timeline. The Hamada/Cochisse match is a letdown. The best he probably looks is in the trios that sets up the Enfermero/Cochisse hair match. Even then the main takeaway is "passable" in that he cannot truly convey "anger" as it comes across as comedic. He feels fine working holds but he's not letting moments breathe or putting the pieces of the puzzle over. The sequence is more meaningful than the parts to him. To me, that's not a good worker. I'm not ordering McDonald's. I don't want a final product, I want to witness the creation of it.

[ohtani's jacket]

I'm going to have to watch some stuff and judge for myself. I think it's a slippery slope when we start saying workers are bad because we can't find any other matches where they look as good as they did in one particular bout, but I will watch whatever I can find. The Cota and Hamada matches you refer to are they the Japanese TV footage or has something new dropped that I'm unaware of?

[Mr JMML]

Perro Aguayo vs. Villano III vs. Sangre Chicana vs. El Faraón (11/09/1984) I promise you this match really happened, it’s difficult to believe, it’s as great as I thought it would be, everyone’s performance was stellar, no one underperformed, this match in particular can’t be explained with just a play-by-play, it can’t be explained because this is actually one of the craziest matches in lucha history, lucha isn’t short of crazy matches but this one in particular deserves a deep dive, it didn’t need a guy in a chicken suit (I don’t have anything against Pollo vs Commando Negro but it was the most notable example of a lucha car crash if you want to watch it it’s available in Powerbomb tv) to be an awesome car crash of a contest, they chose the perfect wrestlers to pull this off smoothly, I already talked about Sangre Chicana when I reviewed the famous apuesta against MS-1, it’s one of my favourite matches of all time and Sangre Chicana had a perfect babyface performance that’s impossible to replicate, for me, it’s the greatest match in lucha history (even better than Atlantis vs Villano III 3/17/00), Chicana’s peak is one of the greatest peaks in wrestling history, the only peak that I think is better than his is Akira Hokuto’s my favourite joshi wrestler, so yeah he was really damn good around this time, Perro Aguayo is a very interesting wrestler because we only have footage of his career from 1982 to 2001 when he retired, it’s something that I touched briefly when I talked about Satánico’s career but it’s an issue we have with almost every mexican wrestler from that era, during the match the announcers talked about his work in Japan, you’ll probably be familiar with his match against Gran Hamada in UWF, a match that I found fascinating. The match can be recapped with very few words, it’s a chaotic lucha brawl with twice as many people and of course twice as chaotic if that’s your thing give it a try.

[Mr JMML]

El Satánico vs Super Astro (EMLL - 10/26/1984)

2/3 Falls

 

We have another Satánico match that’s how great his 1984 is, the match is closer in structure to his match against Atlantis earlier in the year, it isn’t as great as that one but it isn’t far off either, Super Astro is a fantastic masked babyface made even more sympathetic by Satánico’s genius performance, I’m not talking about the brutality his offense provided what made this match standout was the treatment Astro received during the match, how Satánico treated him like a bastly inferior competitor, there’s something very special about it because everyone has been in a similar situation before, it’s difficult to not empathize with him and root for him because of that, Satánico used that to his advantage becoming the most despicable heel in México for the next 28 minutes, I heard criticisms regarding Super Astro’s offense, some people called it ‘‘weak’’, I personally don’t see that, he’s just using high flying moves as a resource to beat his opponent, then the same could be said about Psicosis’ offense but I’ve never heard anyone say that, anyway Satánico is still the highlight of the match bending the rules every time the opportunity arrives and the referee can’t do anything about it, the referee is completely unable to stop him the only one he was fighting against was himself and his greed got the better of him, he wasn’t trying to win he was trying to proof that he was miles ahead of his opponent that night, there’s a moment during the first fall that illustrated that pretty well, Super Astro was down on the ground, Satánico went for the pin but stopped at the count of two giving Astro a second chance needless to say Satánico regretted that, he was pinned minutes later and lost the fall, Satánico ended up losing the match in the third fall after 21 minutes of amazing wrestling.

[Mr JMML]

Crush Gals vs Lola González & Rosa María (Mexico City - 5/12/1985)
2/3 Falls

If you had a déjà vu when you read the title you’re right I reviewed this match before when I watched the Crush Gals, all the things I said in there aged pretty well, I talked about the fast-paced brawling, the brutality and how strange it feels to see the Crush Gals outside Japan, it isn’t that they didn’t adapted to their style they did, in fact, it’s similar to the style they worked with in Japan, the strange thing about watching them in México is not having a crowd completely behind them like they usually have turns out there weren’t many Crush Gals fans in México at the time, I’m curious about how the mexican announcers hyped them up before the match, they usually talk about Japan in such a way that feels like they are talking about Timbuktu, a mythic place that supposedly exists, some people live there, our people has visited it and told amazing barely believable stories about the time they were there, the hyperbole of the mexican announcers is unmatched, what I said is just a slight exaggeration, when Perro Aguayo went back to México after a brief but great stint in Japan that included his famous match against Gran Hamada the announcers said that ‘‘he conquered Japan’’. Today we have the opposite japanese wrestlers working in México, the Crush Gals were actually the babyfaces, you would expect the foreigners to be hated heels but it was the other way around, I’m not sure but I think this match took place in UWA, EMLL didn’t allow women’s wrestling yet as far as I’m concerned.

The first fall was dominated by the Crush Gals, Rosa María and Lola González tried their dirty tactics but they didn’t work as much as they had hoped, in the second fall Rosa and Lola actually took the fall doing the same things they did in the first but harder and the third fall was all Crush Gals, they dominated and won this rough brawl.

[Mr JMML]

Perro Aguayo vs Sangre Chicana EMLL 02-28-1986
Hair vs Hair 2/3 Falls

This match is one of the greatest brawl in lucha history, I consider it to be one of the best matches México ever witnessed, having Sangre Chicana and Perro Aguayo in the same ring together is a dream come true and they delivered, the offense is as brutal as expected, this match has some of the best punches I’ve ever seen, it’s one of the most intense brawls in history, if you like Memphis wrestling you’ll like this match, this apuesta saw Bill Dundee vs Jerry Lawler 06-06-1983 and said I can do better, Sangre Chicana is probably a top 5 brawler in wrestling history and his prime is one of the greatest wrestling has ever seen, I already reviewed his famous apuesta against MS-1 that’s my favourite lucha match ever, Sangre Chicana also participated in the Fatal-4-way of 1984 I reviewed a few days ago, he’s always a standout in every match he was in and this match is no exception, his babyface performance in this one is spectacular, he made the most out of Perro Aguayo’s tendencies, Perro Aguayo is no scrub either, he’s famous for his brawling style, how careless and unorthodox it was, Perro Aguayo is a special wrestler I don’t think there will be another wrestler with his skillset and attitude, he is recognizable from a mile away, a 40 plus year old man shouldn’t be able to do what Perro Aguayo was doing, I wonder how he looked like in his younger years, I talked about him two times previously so I won’t elaborate further about the lack of lucha footage.

There’s no commentary in this match only crowd noise, that situation gave this match an aura that very few matches can replicate, it looks like a real brawl that someone recorded secretly, that’s something only handhelds can do, if all handhelds were like this one, this is not about winning, it’s about beating your opponent up and keeping your hair, Sangre Chicana got to keep his hair after an amazing performance, it was enough to beat the mighty Aguayo.

[Mr JMML]

El Hijo del Santo & Eddie Guerrero v Negro Casas & Blue Panther (Gimnasio Josue Neri Santos, Juárez, ??/??/1987)

This match happened after the first Santo vs Negro Casas apuesta, it appeared on youtube relatively recently (3 years ago), we don’t have a concrete date it as far as I’m concerned, Eddie Guerrero is really young in this match, he’s 20 years old, his partner is El Hijo del Santo, it’s the first time I cover him here, he’s the son of El Santo the legendary mexican wrestler, El Santo was so much of a sensation that he appeared in more than 50 movies and his movies were usually hits during 1960’s when the so called ‘‘golden era’’ of mexican cinema was over (1936-1956), who can forget Vámonos con Pancho Villa or Los Olvidados, both of them fantastic movies that almost no one talks about nowadays, El Santo transcended wrestling to become one of the country’s better known figures, Eddie Guerrero also had a notable father, Gori Guerrero was El Santo’s partner in La Pareja Atómica the tag team with the greatest drawing ability of 20th century according to primary sources, a few days ago I reviewed Santo’s last match and Gori was one of his partners, El Santo demanded that to Francisco Flores UWA’s promoter at the time and he couldn’t say no, after both Gori and Santo retired their sons took over, from then on the new Pareja Atómica consisted of Eddie Guerrero (the youngest of his siblings) and El Hijo del Santo, I think it’s fair to say that they surpassed their fathers at least in the ring, their opponents today are Negro Casas and the veteran in this match is Blue Panther, Blue Panther had been working since 1978 so he was the more experienced wrestler of the four, Casas debuted a year later in 1979.

The match itself was marked by Eddie Guerrero’s performance, it’s one of his first wrestling matches and already he’s performing at a very high level against two of the greatest workers in lucha history, pretty good if you ask me.

The first fall was a long fought out one that the new Pareja Atómica ended up winning, the second was more of the same but this time Casas and Panther got the pinfall, the third was more like the first one, I love the finish Santo got Panther into a camel clutch (in México the hold is known as ‘‘La de a caballo’’) and won after around 25 minutes of action, the match looks like it was clipped at some point so the match may have been longer.

[Mr JMML]

El Hijo del Santo vs Negro Casas (“Mask vs Hair” – WWA – 7/18/1987)

Many people consider the rivalry between El Hijo del Santo and Negro Casas to be the greatest rivalry in wrestling history, I personally think that this rivalry deserves such treatment and this match is one of the reasons why, their matches throughout the 1990’s may have been better but it doesn’t mean this match is bad it just speaks volumes about the overall quality of their matches together, many people consider Negro Casas the greatest of all time and they certainly have good reasons to believe that, he’s the son of the legendary Pepe Casas, I think it’s fair to say that he surpassed his father’s legacy, Negro Casas is one of those names that always gets brought up when discussing lucha, he has been wrestling since 1979 as I said in the previous match I had the pleasure to review, so he’s the veteran in this match but he isn’t the favourite because he’s facing off against the son of the legendary Santo and his mask is sacred, many mexican wrestling fans believe that Negro’s hair has been undervalued because of the amount of times he’s lost it, the first time he lost it was in this match after a grueling battle that lasted around 25 minutes, I really like this match, it isn’t what you expect when you think of an 80’s apuesta, this match is strictly technical, it couldn’t be more different to the last apuesta I reviewed Sangre Chicana vs Perro Aguayo, this match resembles more the style of a title bout instead of a Mask vs Hair match and that’s okay, not every apuesta has to be a wild brawl to be interesting and this rivalry as a whole is the prime example of that there aren’t any heel tactics either it’s as clean as an apuesta can get.

The first fall was comfortably dominated by Negro Casas but the last two were all Santito’s, the third fall is full of nearfalls, there are a lot of instances where Negro Casas kicks out of certain match-ending moves but the camel clutch was too much for Negro to handle, Santito kept his mask and Negro was shaved bald.

[Mr JMML]

El Dandy vs Pirata Morgan (Hair vs Hair - EMLL - 9/23/1988)
CMLL 55th anniversary show

El Dandy in the 1980’s was very impressive, many people act like his career began in 1990 when his most iconic matches happened, like El Dandy vs El Satánico or El Dandy vs Ángel Azteca but his career is deeper than that, he wrestled Javier Cruz in 1984, I think his prime began in the late 80’s and matches like this prove it, El Dandy is a fantastic brawler everybody knows it but the main difference between his 90’s matches and his 1980’s matches is his role, in the 80’s he worked as a babyface while in his famous matches he worked as a heel, in my opinion he’s way more charismatic as a heel, as babyface he’s convincing but not as inspired as he was as a heel, Pirata Morgan is one of the greatest mexican wrestlers ever if you’ve seen my greatest wrestlers ever list featured him around the bottom 25 of that list and that was for a reason, his most acclaimed run happened as a member of the trio Los Infernales I’ve done a primer so you’re free to go there, Segunda Caída did a Complete & Accurate so definately check that out if you’re interested, their match against Los Brazos is considered one of the best matches of 1991, it isn’t even the best trios match of the year but 1991 was a special year for trios all around the world I’m sure you’re aware of the Super Generation Army vs Tsuruta-gun trio, in my opinion the greatest trios match in the history of wrestling, Pirata Morgan also had success as a singles wrestler, he had a fascinating title match against Brazo de Oro, the match we have today is as good as any Pirata Morgan match there is, the bloody brawling, his heel attitude, the way he lost this match and hair it’s all worthy of an aniversario main event, this is all I want in a lucha brawl, it isn’t as good as Sangre Chicana vs Perro Aguayo but it’s still one of the greatest brawls in lucha history.

[Mr JMML]

Lola González vs Pantera Sureña (Hair vs Hair EMLL - 9/12/88)

The first time female wrestlers wrestled in Arena México was in 1935 July 7th to be exact then they were banned from the most iconic in the country but they returned December 21st 1986, the two wrestlers waging their hair wrestled in AJW, Pantera Sureña was known as La Galáctica, under that alter ego she had a legendary match against one of the greatest joshi wrestlers in history (Jaguar Yokota) it was a fantastic brawl but half as wild as this one, the history of women’s wrestling in México is very rich and this match is their magnum opus, it’s the women’s version of Sangre Chicana vs Perro Aguayo that’s quite a compliment, Lola González would be Perro Aguayo here and Pantera Sureña would be Sangre Chicana, I love how Andrés Maroñas (the announcer) seems genuinely worried about everyone’s well being, I recall an instance where Pantera Sureña did a senton to the outside and he said: ‘‘¡Niña cuidado!’’ translated to english it’s ‘‘Girl be careful!’’ sounding concerned about her, that’s something that doesn’t happen men’s wrestling, the announcer wasn’t accostumed to watching women taking the risks these two were taking, the main reason why I think this match is worth reviewing is the announcers’ reaction to the action, that’s the appeal of the match for me, it’s an amazing brawl don’t get me wrong but if it wasn’t for Maroñas this match wouldn’t have ranked 60th in my Greatest Match Ever list, to be fair if the announcers weren’t as special as they were I wouldn’t be watching lucha at all to be honest, the first fall is great, Pantera Sureña is thrown out of the ring by Lola González and she didn’t let her get back to the ring, the second fall is an amazing babyface performance by La Panterita and got away with the fall but it wasn’t enough to keep her hair, Lola submitted her after 27 grueling minutes of tough and gritty wrestling.

[cad]

Praise for Maroñas! I don't know if I've seen anyone compliment that guy, ever. Obviously not here, but not even in Youtube comments or anything. So I guess I'll jump on the bandwagon.

One, I thought he did a really good job in Felino vs Mascara Magica, which is one of my personal classics.
Two, the way that he loved to bring up Emilio Charles's weight loss, even in matches that didn't have Charles in them, helped shape my image of Emilio as a guy who had to take a look at where his career was going and radically transform himself in his early thirties to reach the levels that he did. I don't think that I would have grasped that element of his career, that he wasn't a Hennig type of second generation worker who immediately looked like a future star, if not for the way Maroñas frequently marveled over how hard Charles worked to make that change.

[Mr JMML]

The lucha announcers are incredible, they give a lot of context needed because of the lack of footage.

[Mr JMML]

Sangre Chicana vs El Satánico 5/26/1989
EMLL

Who said draws were boring? El Satánico and Sangre Chicana had a draw for the ages, El Satánico lost his hair a few weeks ago against El Dandy, that’s why he’s almost bald in this one, Daniel López (El Satánico) was a heel as usual, Sangre Chicana is also a heel, he’s best work came as a babyface but he wasn’t bad as a heel, he’s just not as convincing as he is as a heel, Andrés Richardson (Sangre Chicana) was a great brawler if you have been following my lucha journey you already know that, Satánico is a wrestler that has always connected with me, if you’ve seen the 1984 reviews you know how much I like him, he’s still in his prime even tough he had been wrestling for 16 years in 1989 so he was already a veteran by then, the announcers were also aware of that, they said that Satánico was already a veteran, they said that he wasn’t a young wrestler anymore, he wasn’t old man Satánico yet but we are getting there, they also said that Sangre Chicana was the kind of wrestler to make a comeback when you least expect, this one is a match whose appeal is pretty clear from the get go, they are two guys hitting each other very hard, both of them are great in this environment and they proved it, this match is wild, at some point near the end of the match they start brawling in the stands, the announcers had to explain the basic rules of lucha during the first fall because it was so unorganized and crazy that you had to make it clear, it’s a lucha brawl a great one, it’s a match I’d recommend to every lucha fan, even for the non-lucha fans the match is short enough for them to give it a chance, anyway everybody gets a good lucha brawl, Sangre Chicana and El Satánico are the perfect lucha introduction.

[ohtani's jacket]

I'm curious why you didn't review the Santo vs. Espanto Jr mask match.