Virus and other minis

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I've always had a hard time getting a good grasp on the minis. They're cordoned off from the rest of the workers in their own division, so you aren't going to get a glimpse of any of them wrestling guys you already know and instead have to dive into matches where everyone's unfamiliar. Virus of course ended up breaking away from the rest of the minis, but that came after the period I'm most familiar with. Consider this my attempt to seriously familiarize myself with him and other minis even if some of these matches I've seen before. I realize that he no longer identifies as a mini, but you know what? Virus's Luchawiki page and my driver's license have the same height listed on them, so anything I say about him I also say about myself. I've long considered myself a miniposter here anyway.

Virus classics:

Damiancito el Guerrero vs Cicloncito Ramirez, January 7 1997
When I first became aware of lucha opinions, this was the classic Virus match and one of the classic title matches in general. Virus and Cicloncito were probably the two most gifted CMLL workers at this time, in terms of combination of athletic and technical ability, and they wrestled a match which was all about demonstrating that. No other pairing could have done what these two did together. The match didn't have any major plot points, so it wasn't as emotionally resonant as a title match could be, but the minis never really worked that way. They had the same job as the WCW cruisers, going out there to wow the fans and cement their spot with things that the bigger guys couldn't do. That's no easy task when it's just two guys with over twenty minutes to fill and no one to tag out to. To produce a match as competitive and serious as any other classic championship match through work alone took skill and it took guts, and I don't think I can name a better pure workrate match than this.

Virus vs Guerrero Maya Jr., June 7 2011
Did you know that this is the highest rated 1 vs 1 CMLL match on Cagematch.com? It's true. That's kind of weird to me. I looked, and the thread for this match on THIS site has only two comments. The Youtube video for this match has a little over a thousand views. I wonder how that happened. Anyway. The matwork in the first fall, while very good, didn't quite feel like they went all the way with it and had a fall that could have been a match on its own. It reminded me of the opening fall of Atlantis vs Fiera, which isn't remembered as one of the classic title matches, if indeed it's remembered at all. Virus looked like a consummate rudo maestro working the arm in the second, but what was that comeback by Guerrero Maya? A headbutt off the ropes, that's the big transition? It wasn't BAD, but I wasn't really thinking classic after that. What got this over the hump was how GM actually did look like a badass technician in the third fall, just destroying Virus with impossibly complex slams. That shifted the match entirely, not just because Virus had to make a comeback of his own, but because GM was clearly on his level by that point. For two falls, GM had been trying to catch up to Virus technically and failing. Suddenly he was the one doing things that Virus was struggling to match. Virus's reversals and huge senton to the outside were the acts of a desperate man, but even if they didn't get him the victory they kept him alive for a few moments more. It was a bigtime third fall and it also kind of pieced together the first two falls for me, made them better retroactively. This was definitely more dramatic than the match from fourteen years before. Guerrero Maya even had fans from his hometown ("the only Maya from Puebla," joked the announcers) sitting front row cheering him on.

Push comes to shove? I'd take the match from Virus's days as a mini. Him vs GM was worked more like the way I'd prefer my championship classics to be, but him vs Cicloncito was simply a better representative of its style.

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Virus/Maya Jr. as the top rated lucha singles on Cagematch doesn't really surprise me. It got a fair amount of play at the time as a lucha match that even people who normally disliked the style could get into. The matwork in the first 2 falls strikes a nice middle ground of milking the selling and struggle while also including some creative counters and flow sequences to satisfy people who are into more stylish stuff. It also has a neat structure of impact moves being used to set-up for submissions that they wouldn't be able to hit otherwise, instead of just dropping the matwork and going all in on impact moves after a point. The 3rd fall is a bit more CMLL-ish with lots of near falls and laying around, but they build it around some genuine holy shit moments to make it a bit more palatable to people who aren't big into stuff like Atlantis mask matches. For me the biggest thing holding the match back isn't even the fault of the workers, that being CMLL's incredibly obnoxious production and some clipping. Worst is when Maya hits a great dive outside as his biggest move of the match, then they replay it twice and go to commercial, before coming back to Virus controlling the match in the ring again.

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I can get why people would like it. I mean, I like it. What I don't get is what's getting them to watch it to begin with. The other matches on that list with high ratings had people reviewing an instant classic, or they're part of the established list of CMLL all timers. That match got its first rating in 2015. I know it's been highly praised here, but with the short thread on this site and the low viewcount on Youtube it wouldn't figure as something with much exposure elsewhere. I dunno.

Virus classics P2:

Damiancito el Guerrero, Pierrothito and Fierito vs Cicloncito Ramirez, Mascarita Magica and Bracito de Oro, October 3 1997
I really like that Pierrothito was still calling himself the pequeño intocable. The Intocables ceased to exist in 1993 and none of the members remained in the promotion by this point, but I guess he'd sprung for a hat and duster years back and wanted his money's worth. I have no problem with anyone who calls this a great match. They cut a ciberneticoesque pace and still hit all those crazy moves cleanly. It's just never hit me as the apex of 3 vs 3 wrestling like you'll sometimes see it called (the Youtube description gives it five stars, for instance). Even sticking only to technical matches, I think you can find other ones contested on this level, especially since...

Damiancito el Guerrero and Pierrothito vs Cicloncito Ramirez and Ultimo Dragoncito, March 14 1997
...I think the technical wrestling was even better here. This is the definitive battle of holds between Damiancito and Cicloncito, right up there with the time Blue Panther wrestled Huracan Sevilla for technical work buried in a random multiman. Insane creativity and athleticism. Dragoncito and Pierrothito had some incredible spots together as well. That sort of blocked sunset flip turned into an armdrag didn't even seem physically possible. But if somewhere out there Pierroth Big was watching this match, I bet he'd have been prouder of that faceplant or the way his man beat the shit out of Dragoncito and then stared at his hand like Booker T. And he wasn't even the best on his team. Virus was so good at this point that he made the headbutt to the stomach, which is usually just a thinly disguised shove, look like it actually hurt. Leobardo Magadan went as far as to call him the Michael Jordan of wrestling after a flying elbow. Watch him in this one and you can believe it.

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Piratita Morgan II:

Piratita Morgan II and Espectrito Jr. vs Aguilita Solitaria and Saigoncito Dragon, August 12(?) 1992
This is very likely the first televised Virus match, not just in circulation but literally the first match he ever had that was taped for television. According to the luchadb, he had his first match as Piratita Morgan on July 31 in Cancun, whereas his Luchawiki bio pegs his debut with that gimmick as August 7 in Guadalajara. As far as I can tell, the dates listed on Roy Lucier's Guadalajara uploads are airdates, so this might be that August 7 match. In the prematch interviews, he did mention that he'd had his new name for only eight days. The very popular Tommy Sauer(?) also asked him if he had lost an eye just like his namesake, which seemed to amuse him. The actual match was decent, but everyone was still working out the kinks. There were some good spots in the first fall and a half, most notably when Dragoncito went flying a couple rows back after hitting Piratita with a tope. Dragoncito you probably know. Espectrito Jr. is listed in the Luchadb as either Espectrito I or Espectrito II. I don't think either of those is correct. Aguilita Solitaria stuck around but almost never made TV. Maybe the gimmick would have caught on more if he'd brought a kestrel to ring with him as a mini analog to the hawk that his namesake used to carry. It doesn't quite work, as kestrels and other falcons are more closely related to parrots than they are to hawks, but wrestling fans aren't gonna worry about that stuff. He could've gotten by.

Piratita Morgan II, Felinito and Pequeño de Ultratumba vs Orito, Ultimo Dragoncito and Mascarita Magica, August 28 1992
After about a month's worth of getting a hang of their new gimmicks and learning to work together, the minis got their first crack at wrestling in the capital and on national TV. Pequeño de Ultratumba is listed on the luchadb as Ultratumbita, and I suspect that's who the guy from the last match was. His Luchawiki page has no information other than the day he died, which I guess makes him the Somerton Man of professional wrestling. Somehow he found his way into our world, but all we really know about him is how he left it. You could see how much more accustomed everyone was to working with each other by this point. Piratita and Dragoncito had a whole bunch of new spots to fly through, and they also had figured out how to better set up the ones they'd already done. Look at how they do the armdrag off the apron in this match vs in the Guadalajara one. Virus was clearly talented, but at this stage of his career he was more of a Psicosis type of rudo, acting as a base, doing some comedy and taking big bumps rather than brute forcing his way to respect by putting all of his skills out there for everyone to see. After the big dives from Dragoncito and Orito, Mascarita found himself alone with Ultratumbita and... gave up in a submission hold. Weird that they'd debut this division with a rudo win.

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Piratita Morgan II P2:

PM II and Felinito vs Cicloncito Ramirez and Ultimo Dragoncito, March 5 1993
Of all the minis, Felinito does the best impression of his maxi. He even has Felino's sense of humor down. I think this was the first time Cicloncito Ramirez made TV, and he and Piratita were doing some of their mindblowing 1997 spots but even faster and crisper here if that's possible. He looked every bit the phenom that Rey Jr. was at this point. Drangoncito hit the same crazy moonsault into the aisle that he did in that March 1997 match, and it too landed even better here than it did four years later. This could have been a CMLL MOTYC with a third fall, but the tecnicos smoked 'em in two straight.

PM II, Pierrothito and Ultratumbita vs Broncecito, Cicloncito Ramirez and Ultimo Dragoncito, June 1 1993
Apparently I not only have seen this match before, but I uploaded it to Youtube years and years ago. When thecubsfan knows things about you that even you don't, that's probably a sign that the luchadb is a little bit too encompassing. Speaking of the luchadb, it lists Orito (Mike Segura) instead of Broncecito (a different guy) for this one. The announcers said it was Broncecito, so I'm going with them. There were some pretty ugly spots toward the end of the first fall, and matches like this that are more about the work than the characters can't really afford that. They did their best to make up for it when the rudos took over. My favorite part was when they had already eliminated two tecnicos to win the fall, but a grinning Piratita informed Dragoncito that he was still going to get the same punishment the other two did. Nice selling from him and Cicloncito. The match ended with everyone diving on top of everyone else, capped off with Dragoncito's tope con giro that sent him sailing halfway up the aisle. Can't think of anyone who did that move better.

PM II and Felinito vs Orito and Ultimo Dragoncito, July 30 1993
Felinito has now gone beyond mimicking Felino's mannerisms and is now actually doing Felino spots. Look at this and then look at this. That's dedication to your gimmick. He was badass and had me thinking he was the most charismatic of the mini rudos at this stage. Piratita finally got an exchange of holds but I kind of thought Felinito looked better doing the same thing with Orito. Unfortunately they had grand plans for the first fall finish that didn't come within a mile of where they were supposed to, and then in the second fall Dragoncito took a crazy bump off the ropes and outside of ring that might have legitimately injured him. You can never tell, but refs and even Ray Mendoza were checking on him. Of course, the rudos immediately put him to the test by kicking the shit out of him the instant he entered the ring, and he either continued to sell the effects of that bump throughout the finishing sequence or was still hurt. Orito meanwhile tried to outdo him by making a backdrop bump look like a death blow. Virus was good here but this was the first time I was more impressed with one of his teammates. He didn't have much time left with the Piratita gimmick. Pirata Morgan had already jumped I think, and Piratita was regimmicked as Damiancito el Guerrero before the end of the year.

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Damiancito el Guerrero:

DG and Felinito vs Cicloncito Ramirez and Ultimo Dragoncito, August 4 1995
Not a lot of TV time for Virus in 1994, but let's see what this great match from 1993 looked like two years later. They got into the same kind of groove as they had in 1993, and this was the first time that Virus/Dragoncito looked like just as good a matchup as Virus/Cicloncito. Dragoncito isn't really a technically oriented worker, so Damiancito used the matwork to set up some crazy flip escapes, and off the ropes Dragoncito might have been the fastest worker in the world at this point. Then he did his trademark dive and got hurt again. The rudos didn't mess around and finished off Cicloncito fairly quickly, with Ramirez making Damiancito's handspring elbow look like some kind of decapitating move rather than pointless flash.

DG, Pierrothito and Guerrerito del Futuro vs Bracito de Oro, Bracito de Plata and Mascarita Magica, February 9 1996
Virus looking like Marilyn Manson's mini. Kind of horrifying actually. This was a mess. In the first fall they did that spot where all three tecnicos dogpile all three rudos, but the rudos were late kicking out so Roberto Rangel counted three. But they kept wrestling and it turned out the rudos were supposed to win the fall. Each rudo had a tecnico covered or in a submission hold, and Rangel is telling them, "Let go, idiot, you already lost." I was looking forward to this, because it was a chance to see how Virus wrestled in a match that existed to build to a 1v1 (in this case him vs Mascarita). You couldn't really tell that though, other than maybe when he beat two guys in the third fall. There's an art to this kind of match that they just didn't touch on. A failure on multiple levels.

Damiancito el Guerrero vs Mascarita Magica, February 27 1996
So I'd been wondering when Virus became the worker he's known as, the guy who's the most talented person in the ring and makes sure no one can miss that. I don't know what they were doing on the houses across Mexico, but as far as matches transmitted to a national audience, I think this is that moment. It reminded me of when Eddie Felson would drop the hustler act, and instead of carrying his opponent he put the entire breadth of his skills out there for the world to see (except that whenever Fast Eddie did that something bad always happened to him). It wasn't just the long stretch of matwork to start, which Virus hadn't done much to this point in his career. Look at this backflip armdrag. That's a man who wants to prove that he's the best in the division and maybe the best pound for pound. This didn't quite hit the levels of Damiancito vs Cicloncito, but it didn't trail too far behind either. Maybe they could have been a little more desperate in the third fall, and maybe Mascarita wasn't quite able to match up to the stuff Damiancito was doing. Somewhere in there Damiancito ruined an ice cream vendor's day by busting open the poor guy's crate. That was a Jerry Estrada level comedy spot but it probably wasn't intentional.

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Damiancito el Guerrero P2:
DG, Felinito and Pierrothito vs Bracito de Oro, Cicloncito Ramirez and Orito, December 17 1996
One thing I've learned so far from doing these is that heading into his fantastic 1997 Virus was NOT a finished product waiting to explode on the promotion. Mechanically, no, he probably had nothing to learn. But he was still figuring out how much skill he should show as a rudo and how to work a more character driven match, like with the setup to his challenge against Mascarita Magica. This was a similar deal, building to the famous Cicloncito match, and it felt much more like something out of the minis' 1997, as everything clicked and they even experimented with the structure of the falls. Damiancito hammered Cicloncito with hard punches and stomps while ripping his man's mask up so that everyone could tell what the main issue was, and he held back on the wrestling until the final showdown. It wasn't the most inspired assault on a tecnico. There didn't seem to be anything that caused Damiancito to pick on Cicloncito in particular (which matters to me when the rudo is the defending champion--I like to see the challenger seeking out the champ). He spent a lot of time telling the Coliseo crowd to shut up. But I think this is a match where you can see that he's getting there.

Damiancito el Guerrero vs Ultimo Dragoncito, May 13 1997
Damiancito steamrolls his challenger in two falls. It didn't look like it was supposed to happen. Damiancito was working Dragoncito over with elbowdrops to start the second fall and then got a three count off a nondescript pin attempt. It was Rangel again, and I wonder, was there a front office edict to avoid holding up on the count and exposing the business? Was the perpetually crusty Rangel growing even grouchier as he aged? I've always liked him, but that's shitty if he was actually sabotaging guys' matches, especially undercarders with scant opportunities. Dragoncito had more technical abilty than I gave him credit for BTW.

Cibernetico, December 30 1997
In a year defined by its ciberneticos and its minis division, it's fitting that 1997 CMLL came to a close with a mini cibernetico, the winner getting three matches with wrestlers "de categoria normal." You'd think a cibernetico would be the craziest of all the mini matches, but there were a lot of rarely featured guys in there, so they didn't have intricate spots already worked out. It was still really fun. Damiancito held back on the flash until he had to come back against two guys at the finish, so this ended up as more of a chance to see him work as a base for the likes of Pequeño Sayama. That wonderful worker looked nothing like Sayama and instead seemed to go for a Pequeño Negro Casas con Bigote Mas Flaco que Sus Cejas gimmick. I also liked Tritoncito, who wore the cheapest, ugliest mask imaginable and hit a tope that landed at like seventy degrees. Some of the wrestlers stuck around to watch at the end and it felt like Damiancito's greatest triumph of the year.

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Early Virus:
Virus, Rencor Latino and Ultimo Guerrero vs Angel Azteca, Ninja de Fuego and Oriental, June 19 1998
Damiancito got his promised matches in January of 1998, and then in February he went back to wrestling minis like nothing had happened. According to him, he couldn't get the feeling of working big out of his head and petitioned the commission and CMLL to let him stay that way. By the end of the month they saw things from his point of view. He was working untelevised opening matches against Mano Negra Jr. and Olimpus, but to him that represented progress. It seems to have been around the time of this match that he got his own identity, as that's when the luchadb stops listing him as Damiancito, and a prematch video shows him disappear into a cloud of smoke and emerge as Virus. The actual match wasn't anything special. Ultimo Guerrero carried Angel Azteca through some holds in his hamfisted way, and I lamented that it couldn't be the other way around. Virus's big highlight was an insane legdrop where I can't quite understand how it didn't leave Oriental stone dead. But live he did, so count this as a successful TV debut.

Virus, Halcon Negro and Zumbido vs Olimpico, Oriental and Super Kendo, June 23 1998
Gimmick change for Ninja de Fuego/Super Kendo in this four day span. This is one of my favorite matches from the late '90s. Sacrilegious to Virus canon as it sounds, I thought it was wrestled at the same level as the famous 3v3 from October 1997. That match got more time and maybe had more skill on show, but this one had more focus. Looking only at Virus, I appreciated that by this point he's talking to opponents and individual members of the crowd rather than just yelling "callate" to no one in particular. Don't think he outshone either of his teammates but this was a match in which everyone looked really good.

Virus vs Oriental, March 12 1999
Oriental was Virus's main rival around this time. Virus had beaten him for the national lightweight title and brought the belt to the ring, so Oriental countered by wearing his half of the CMLL Japan tag team titles(?). If this were three falls he'd be down 1-0 just from that. Instead it was a lightning match and they proceeded to have their own version of a WCW cruiser spotfest. To their credit, if this match had taken place on Nitro it would still be talked about today, but I already knew Virus could do all that stuff. The prematch video where he cut a promo and interrupted Oriental's meditation with a kendo stick to the head was more interesting.

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Early Virus P2:
Virus vs Ricky Marvin, December 12 2000
This was the same kind of match as the one Virus had with Oriental, but longer and with even more flips. Maybe if they hadn't clipped out much of the first fall I'd have an easier time seeing it as a continuation of the Damiancito title matches, and I'd just accept the flips as part of these two wrestling a match that no one else on the roster could. As it was presented, it just felt like Mexican wrestling had come too far along if that's what you had to do to be the best in the country.

Virus, Mr. Mexico and Valentin Mayo vs Mascara Magica, Ricky Marvin and Solar, May 1 2001
Another first fall mostly lost to history. The rest of the match was pretty good. I liked Marvin a lot more here, as ran the ropes like the fastest wrestler in the world and had some nice brawling spots on the comeback. Virus did good work as his base and also continued developing as a rudo. He beat up Marvin on the floor, and I really haven't gotten to see many outside the ring beatdowns from Virus so far. Then he let Mr. Mexico know what a beautiful job the bugeyed bodybuilder had done with his winning submission hold in the second fall. I've always liked that guy, just for what a stereotypical pro wrestler he looked like. The only disappointment was Mascara Magica, who seemed miles away from his late '90s prime, but I guess that's not surprising when a talented worker gets neglected by his promotion.

Virus, Averno and Zumbido vs Fiera, Ricky Marvin and Tony Rivera, January 18 2002
Fun, fast paced Arena Coliseo brawl with the rudo team, Zumbido in particular, looking really good. He did this one spot where he tried to do a badass Undertaker ropewalk but got dumped on his crotch, and it made me wonder why Virus didn't do spots like that. The guy's a talented worker, he does like to show off, why not work in some bits where he tries some fancy tecnico move and gets embarrassed? He didn't yet(?) have Zumbido's charisma either. At this point Zumbidowski looked like a Fuerza/Estrada level worker in terms of combining athleticism and wacky antics. Fiera was in the Ringo Mendoza Memorial "What is this old man doing in a match like this?" Spot, but he fit in better than Ringo usually did back in the '90s. I think this was part of a comeback after a being in prison-related absence, and then he disappeared again in the summer and never returned to CMLL rings.

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Tecnico Virus:
Virus vs Fuerza Guerrera, August 30 2002
The question of the day was "Virus: rudo or tecnico?" but I was wondering what got into Fuerza Guerrera. He brought out the hangman dominator, the top rope powerslam and a sick somersault bump to the floor. You're almost 50 years old Fuerza, Arena Mexico already knows who you are and what you can do. Is this just what happens when he matches up with someone he sees as a peer? He didn't do any of his trademark playing with the crowd either, although we got only the third fall here. Fuerza picked up the win when he orchestrated a ref bump so he could land a foul. That's how you do a low blow finish. Virus looked like a natural tecnico.

Virus and Hombre sin Nombre vs Fuerza Guerrera and Juventud Guerrera, September 16, 2002
I love that when you start something with Fuerza, it means you also have to deal with his fuckup son, who shows up wearing baggy pants and a bandana with no shirt on. It's very white trash and I can appreciate that. Turning tecnico gave Virus a chance to show off his scrappy side, more than he ever really did as a rudo. It helped that he had Juvi selling those shots like Terry Funk or somebody. In the third fall the two of them were slugging it out and Fuerza was cheering his boy on, but Juvi got dropped so dad had to step in to finish the little punk tecnico off. Another fun family moment was when Fuerza kept telling Juvi to drag Virus farther and farther away for the big dive spot. Trying his best to be a good son, Juvi complied but you could tell from the look on his face that he knew what a fool his father was being. The match didn't reach another level in the third fall, so it never really approached greatness, but I liked it.

Virus vs Rocky Romero, December 10 2004
This was too short (especially the second fall comeback) to be a Virus classic, but for a workrate title match it represented a big improvement over Virus vs Marvin from four years prior and came off as two quick, skilled guys fighting it out. I also got a better sense of each guy's personality and what they wanted to accomplish. Rocky Romero, aka Ricky Romero, aka Havana Brother Number One, was a Sonjay Dutt lookalike who didn't have much of a counter game, but he knew some good submissions and clearly wanted to catch Virus clean in the center with his cross armbreaker. He tried to punk out the champion and my favorite moment of the match came when Virus took control and started slapping him back. I can see why Virus was a rudo, he excelled at the bumping and basing that you need from that role, but I think his natural personality might have been more suited for working tecnico.

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Tecnico Virus works the indies:
Virus, Ricky Marvin and Volador Jr. vs Caifan Rockero I, Caifan Rockero II and Raiden, December 7 2003
Smackdown Six-esque match with a bunch of complicated sequences that never saw the workers lose their way. The finish to the first fall was incredibly slick, with Raiden dropkicking Virus into a powerbomb and landing on Ricky Marvin for the pin. Now, Marvin had already been pinned, but still. Volador is so much more tolerable with a mask on, just so I don't have to see his smug face, and Marvin was much more well rounded than two or three years before. I had Virus as the man of the match, though. The rest of the guys ran out of steam a bit in the third fall, but Virus kept going strong and finished things off with an inverted Gory into a slam into a campana. He hadn't looked that unstoppable since his mini division days.

Virus, Atlantis and Sagrado vs Black Tiger, Charles Lucero and Violencia, May 30 2004
This was a lot better than I expected. Atlantis was over forty and a big star, so he didn't have to try here, but he was still a worker at heart. Sagrado was the beta run of Mistico and supposedly flopped because his wrestling didn't cut it, but you couldn't tell from this match. It probably helped that he had three really good rudos to work with. Obviously Virus vs Lucero is the matchup to hope for here, but Lucero wasn't interested. He sent the other two in to take out Virus, and when that didn't work, only then did he step in, just to get flattened with one punch. He sold the shit out of that and still remembered by the time his team had the advantage. Virus got a beating on the outside, and I continue to be impressed by how he seems like such a natural tecnico. It's not easy to punk out a rudo the way he did, badly enough to create a main issue for the match, while seeming justified. And Virus vs Lucero ended up as quite the matchup even while looking nothing like I'd hoped.

Virus and Suicida vs Cerebro Negro and Dr. Cerebro, August 25 2005
Now here the matchup to watch for was Virus vs Dr. Cerebro, but again they went in a different direction, so we got these cool images of Virus on the apron intently studying his rival. Virus looked good and Cerebro Negro wasn't bad, but he didn't have the counters to keep up with Segura vs the doctor. Those two had long duels on the mat in the first and in the third, both excellent. Segura was thirty-six here and somehow just rocketed around the ring. I'd say he was like a man ten years younger, but not many twenty-six year olds could go that fast either. Dr. Cerebro gave a best in the world level performance, not just on the mat but in taking smooth stagger bumps outside, or hitting a badass tope just to get disintegrated seconds later. The conclusion to this wonderful demonstration of wrestling skill was, naturally, one team throwing the ref in the way on a plancha, and the other team committing a foul. Doesn't matter who did what or which action caused the DQ. I tell you again, IWRG would not know a good finish if it bit them in the ass. And this is a post where the competition is two matches from Monterrey for crying out loud.

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Virus title reign:
Virus vs Fuego, October 1 2012
Not too sure about this one. Fuego seemed as if he could follow along but not quite keep up, if that makes any sense. Those holds in the first fall were so SLOW, like he needed time to work it all out in his head instead of just reacting. And the second fall was screaming for a bigtime counter to one of Virus's submissions, but Fuego just didn't have one in him. Even Virus was a little off. He did this spot, turning around to celebrate on the apron before getting knocked off, that made sense for Piratita Morgan in a 3v3, but not for a battle tested maestro. He also did this. Now I consider myself a pretty easy sell when it comes to buying in to wrestling's internal logic, but what's keeping Fuego's left leg in place there for Virus to hook it with his right? Suicida used the same move in that 2005 IWRG match, and I didn't want to bitch about something so minor in a match that good. This match wasn't bad, but clearly it wasn't good enough for me to extend to it the same courtesy.

Virus vs Guerrero Maya, October 6 2013
At first I was wondering why they were doing nothing but standup submissions. It was distracting, but they were also digging in shots to the ribs to manipulate each other into better positions, and then they started doing pretty complicated stuff like the Gory attempts. That was enough to convince me this was a serious title challenge. Virus took the fall with a hold so badass that, as one of announcers noted, it would have scored a pinfall had Maya not already submitted to it. In the previous GM match and the Fuego defense, Virus's first fall win led to him dominating much of the second fall, but here GM was still right there with him and they spent most of the fall on the mat trying to break each other down and find an opening. It was skillful stuff, and Maya wasn't being carried at all here, rather legitimately hanging with Virus. The broadcast referenced the first match in the opening of the video, and even I couldn't miss how much Maya had improved since 2011. How much was kayfabe and how much was better work I don't really know, but he was harder to put away here and it was Virus who tried to up the pace and paid for it. Maya evened the score with the same submission from 2011's second fall but with a much better setup move.

Of course they cut loose in the third fall, but there was no disconnect with what they'd done in the first two. This was like one long Spy vs Spy sequence, with each man reacting and dodging and countering, none of it choreographed, and all maintaining the spirit of the way they tried to outwit each other while working holds, just with more at stake with each move. At one point Virus kicked out of a pin and crawled across the ring to grab the bottom rope, looking for a preemptive rope break on whatever Maya had in store for him next. He had some big shots of his own, but his move off the top got him only two (it won him the first match, so again you can see GM's improvement). Eventually it seemed they had nothing left but desperation rollups, still reversing holds like they'd done all match. The fans were cheering Virus on, and he had one last submission left in him to seal it (another much better finish than in 2011). I gotta say that I went in thinking that this might be a rehash. Instead I'm wondering how Guerrero Maya didn't win a CMLL singles belt until this year, because I've seen him in three great matches now and he looked better in each successive one. As for Virus, I'd be surprised if he had a better title match than this, simply because I don't think there are many title matches better than this, period. You don't find many guys reaching a new level of brilliance in their forties, but he'd probably been dreaming about a run like this in Arena Mexico since he'd been kicking around with an eyepatch on.

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Virus title reign P2:
Virus vs Titan, January 28 2014
Not technically part of Virus's reign, as he's trying to move up in weight and take Titan's welterweight title, but this got better reviews than the Stigma defense. I thought Titan did a really good job hanging with Virus on the mat. Virus was doing all the complex holds, and I loved how he fought off the camel clutch until he could find the counter, but Titan never looked lost and always had an answer. It was pretty disappointing when they mutually decided to start running the ropes to end that portion of the match. Virus's work in the second fall was almost like an American style control segment, with pinfall attempts and cutoffs, a neat change of pace, but Titan fought back with way too much choreographed offense and kind of knocked me out of it. I did like that he beat Virus with his own handspring victory roll from the '90s. Third fall had some nice counter submission holds from Virus but went on too long. Good match that could have been better.

Virus vs Fuego, June 15 2014
Didn't expect much from this. I thought Fuego looked mediocre in their first match, and he was wrestling in his home arena and already in his thirties for that one. No real reason to expect him to have any more skills or put in a better effort here. But he did, he really did. Like Guerrero Maya, he looked like he was on Virus's level the second time around, and it was apparent from the matwork in the first fall. Somewhere in there Virus put on a hold that was begging for a schoolboy counter, and the instant Fuego applied the schoolboy Virus snapped on a reversal. That was real chessgame stuff, whether it was the effect he intended or not. I much preferred how they moved away from the holds in this match, with Virus getting frustrated that he couldn't shake Fuego and just smacking him in the chest. He worked another aggressive second fall before Fuego came back with some kinda spotty dropkicks, but he took the fall like an old school wrestler, tying Virus up in a slick cradle for three. The third fall had some wonderful selling from both men, some of it intentional and some of it involuntary (you could see Fuego gasping for air through the fabric of the mask), and it had me wondering. Is there a more lowkey great bumper than Virus in history? Where does his elbowdrop rank on the alltime list? 45 years old and he was still a physical marvel. He picked up the win with his famous Gori-campana combo to the dismay of those guys in green who'd been mugging for the camera all match cheering for Fuego. Afterwards Virus cut a babyface promo thanking the fans and putting Fuego over strong. He said that Fuego deserved it all, but it's 2023 and Fuego has yet to win a major singles title and spent time this year wrestling as an anthropomorphic bottle of liquid candy, and now I'm a little bit sad.  Right now I have this as Virus's second or third best match, behind Virus vs GM II and about even with Virus vs Cicloncito.

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Virus title reign P3:
Virus vs Dragon Lee, December 9 2014
Virus switched things up by losing the first fall, and he had an awesome counter of a low dropkick in the third, but those were just about the only interesting ideas all match. I actually came away thinking that he had a few too many stock spots that he seemed to use every time out (the dodge he does through the ropes, the move where he baits his opponent outside the ring). It was also the sloppiest Virus match I've seen maybe ever. So not really a good night.

Virus vs Dragon Lee, April 15 2015
Virus always seems to do better his second time out with an opponent. There were more interesting moments in the four or five opening minutes than in all of last match. I wouldn't call this great (all that sweet legwork sure ended up going nowhere, huh?), but it was a good match that did an excellent job of demonstrating that Dragon Lee was the man to end Virus's reign. Virus just had nothing left by the end of the third fall and got overwhelmed. Too bad his great run had to end on such a corny spot, with Virus holding himself up on the ropes so that Dragon Lee could hit him with a double stomp. Anyway, this led to the Dragon Lee-Kamaitachi series that got rave reviews, not bad for a belt that apparently was created just for CMLL tours of Japan.

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Virus vs Demus
Virus vs Demus 3:16, March 1 2011
Decent mano a mano with some hard hitting stuff from Demus and a lot of posing from Demus. I liked the dramatic tecnico way Virus sold those kneelifts, but the layout didn't give him much to do. He won in two falls, with a DQ in the first and a quick comeback in the second, so he never brawled with Demus at all.

Virus vs Demus 3:16, March 11 2011
This might have had the most stakes in any apuestas match ever. Not the highest stakes, but the most--loser loses his hair, loser gets demoted to the mini division and winner gets the Cancerberos. I don't know why you'd want to team with some guys who would have abandoned you if you'd lost, obviously those aren't your boys, but maybe I'd understand if I watched more of the buildup. The actual contest ended up as a typical CMLL hair match from the era, with some token brawling before the wrestlers quickly began trading spots like they would in any other match. It was Demus who did almost all of the real fighting. I know that by this point there wasn't going to be blood in Arena Mexico, but it was rudo vs rudo and Virus at least could have matched the violence that Demus inflicted on him. Almost everything Virus did here could have come out of one of his title defenses.

Virus vs Demus 3:16, February 16 2019
You'd think that once you've relegated an opponent to a lower division where he's literally not allowed to wrestle you anymore, that's it, you're done with him. Eight years is a long time though, and Demus no longer had to accept his CMLL-assigned mini status, freeing him up for matches with Travis Banks, Neil Diamond Cutter and his old enemy Virus. I don't know if Virus had changed a lot since the hair match or if he too was reaping the benefits of working away from Arena Mexico, but he wrestled like a completely different person. He flat out tore into Demus like I've never seen him do before. There were chairshots and crowd brawling and blood, but it wasn't just that. He did a spot where he dared Demus to pick himself up, crawl over the railing and get back to fighting, and then when Demus did that Virus beat his ass again. Where was that sort of personal touch in the CMLL matches? Demus's spear into the ring took forever to develop for some reason, but other than that this was really good. More importantly it's nice that I can check this type of match off because I was beginning to wonder if Virus had it in him.

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Virus classics P3:
Virus vs Dr. Cerebro, August 16 2015
How did I miss this while looking for Cerebro classics last year? It was exactly what you'd expect and exactly what you'd want from possibly the two best Mexican workers of the 2000s. I haven't seen Virus matched up with a genuine peer since Cicloncito Ramirez, and though his technical work with Guerrero Maya and Fuego was excellent, this was a different level entirely. It was wrestled more as a Cerebro match than a Virus title match, but Virus slipped into the maestro style with ease and might actually have been the better of the two. After the match he posed on the turnbuckle and didn't even fall off.

Virus vs Metalico, May 31 2019
I guess career vs career is the only way that two unmasked wrestlers can match the emotion of a big mask match. In a way it felt like Virus's take on Atlantis vs Villano III. I liked that a lot of Metalico's offense was fancy rollups rather than big bombs, and I liked how his only way out of Virus's submissions was rope breaks, as if he really didn't have a chance to counter or fight out of them. His punches were cool and on some of the back and forths he'd wear this great expression of a man who knew he was outgunned but simply didn't give a damn. Finally Virus started landing some knockout shots, and though Metalico had the heart to keep fighting after a couple, the body can take only so much. It all made sense and the crowd was into it, but something about it didn't completely work for me. I guess my problem was that it wasn't really a match that built and built to that climactic finishing sequence, and rather about 75% was wrestled at the same level from a dramatic standpoint. You could swap the placement of a bunch of the spots without really affecting the story at all. It felt like they were in the same place for most of the match. I dunno, I wouldn't argue with anyone who called it a great match, but I probably wouldn't argue for it either. Impressive Virus apuestas match is something else I can check off on the list, though.

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Lightning round (some of this stuff I barely remember):
Virus vs Ricky Marvin (2021) had good technical work, a lot of nasty legwork, and a hot finishing stretch, but the legwork ended up as filler with how little it mattered afterward. Still a big improvement on their 2000 match.
The two 3v3 matches that built up to Virus vs Guerrero Maya Jr. in 2013 were pretty unmemorable. Mediocre rudo performances from Virus.
The setup for Virus vs Fuego in 2014 was better. The first match was good, and I liked how Virus tried to avoid Fuego in the second. The better rudo work came in the weaker overall match though.
Virus vs Fly Star, mentioned in Virus's nomination thread, was a really good combo of wrestling and garbage brawling. I'm always a sucker for guys taking it back to wrestling after making each other bleed. Fly Star's comeback could've used a little more oomph. After the match Virus said that Fly Star had lots of ability but lacked respect. I wonder if that was in character or if he was legitimately annoyed.
Damiancito and Felinito vs Cicloncito and Dragoncito took one of the 1997 Virus classics and added my main man Felinito. Unfortunately the primary matchups were Virus vs Dragoncito and Cicloncito vs Felinito, so no Virus/Cicloncito magic. Solid, but disappointing by '97 mini standards. Felinito jumped shortly after this and missed out on most of the legendary year for the mini division.
This match from IWRG has mostly escaped my memory. I remember Fuerza offering a genuine handshake, Fuerza flipping off the fans and Fuerza vs Virus not being terribly exciting. Navarro worked the mat and was good rather than annoying. You never know with him.
Virus vs Mistico was a one fall title match with the ref counting super fast. Not a whole lot differentiating a CMLL match from any other match at this point. I got the impression this was more of a Mistico match than a Virus match. Mistico is incredibly over, though.
I watched a couple (literally a couple) of matches from Virus's team that no one ever talks about. In 2013 they had a much better match involving Guerrero Maya than the ones from the buildup to the title challenge. Triton's mask looked like the butterfly divas title. In 2021 they had a title match that wasn't as good, but it was eight years later and not everyone ages as well as Virus. Unfortunately, they never lost the belts, as Raziel passed away in 2022.

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Important Cagematch UPDATE: Virus vs Maya I has moved into the top overall spot on their CMLL list. Star rating canon doesn't really have a firm spot for anything from Mexico that I know of, meaning that no highly praised match goes unshit upon. There's no pressure to like anything, even an Observer MOTY like Atlantis-Villano, which is part of what makes lucha interesting in a way. But Virus-Maya, unrated by the Observer AFAIK, has yet to receive a rating below 8, and over half its ratings are 10s. Maybe it's just a small sample size, or maybe it's going down as an unimpeachable classic. Not that it matters for today's post, which is called...

Pierrothito goes for the gold:
Pierrothito vs Ultimo Dragoncito, October 16 2001
It is very hard to make a three fall title match feel like a big deal in just 12:47 (with replays, even). They pulled it off for three reasons. One, Pierroth was at ringside, acting as if this was the pivotal moment in this history of the Boricuas. He has to be the best second of all time, out here making matches better without even being in them. Two, Dragoncito continued this thread's running storyline of him nearly dying in a match when he sailed over Pierrothito's shoulder on an Asai moonsault. He was out of the ring for almost a full minute, but he pulled himself up out of a pool of his own blood to make sure his longtime dance partner got his moment clean in the middle. And three, even with the frightening miss, they were believable as the two best in the division the whole way.

Pierrothito vs Mascarita Dorada, September 23 2008
I found it interesting that Pierrothito treated the much smaller Mascarita as an equal standing up. Yeah, he ragdolled the little guy at points, but MD didn't have to soar through the air or hit an acrobatic counter just to get the advantage. In fact his flying cost him in the second and third falls, when Pierroth hit some nasty looking counters to close things out. They were also competing for the vacant lightweight title instead of the minis belt. Anyway, the match was really good and a lot fuller than the Dragoncito match.

Pierrothito vs Shockercito, July 31 2017
I joked about Pierrothito calling himself the pequeño Intocable in a 1997 match, but in 2017 the logo on his jacket still included a G-man fedora, because when you're Intocable, dude, you're Intocable 4 life (Pierrothito was never a member of the Intocables). I liked this match even more than the one with Mascarita Dorada. Pierrothito worked more like a bully, but Shockercito's ability ensured that he still looked like a legitimate champion, so the effect was just that the match had more of a hook. That's how wrestling works, right? Shockercito had some insane counters, more mindblowing than MD's dives, and pretty much everything hit cleanly. Maybe they wanted to finish with the reinera at the end, but if that was a botch than they deserve a bunch of credit for quickly devising something even better on the spot.

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It turns out that the Pierrothito fedora logo I mentioned last week was an Ingobernales logo. Now who looks silly?

Demus P2:
Demus vs Pierrothito, August 24 2010
This had a little bit of everything. Technical work, high flying, brawling, you name it. Consequently I never really got a sense for what they wanted this to be about. They started slugging it out in the third fall and it looked like the match would erupt into a wild brawl, but it ended shortly after that. The wrestlers displayed a lot of ability but they looked better than the match, if that makes any sense.

Demus vs Pequeño Warrior, September 18 2011
Look, I'm not a fan of hair vs hair in post-'90s CMLL. At some point, perhaps because of time restraints, they stopped working the matches by building and building to a big comeback from one of the wrestlers. My favorite Arena Mexico hair match from this millennium is when Casas and Panther attempted to redefine the style. This had most of the trappings of a modern hair match but was just about as good as you could get from that stipulation. They didn't need to fly, but at least they did it with something like a flying senton to the back of the neck. It felt like a fight all the way, and if they couldn't bleed and didn't have masks to shred, they achieved a similar visual effect by tearing each other's pants up. Warrior actually tried to cut Demus off during one of his pointless poses, and then he used his wrist tape to tie Demus to the ropes by the hole in his earlobe. Does he do that all the time, like Octagon, or was that special just for this match? I liked this one a lot.

Demus vs Wotan, December 18 2017
The first seven minutes featured some of the wildest brawling you'll ever see in a wrestling ring. The next four minutes were spent setting up a spot involving a board, the ref and like ten chairs. Then it was over. The big spot was not one that was worth spending four minutes to set up, by the way. The turning point in the match came when Wotan went for a tope but flew over Demus's head because Demus was too short. Once a mini, always a mini.