Then Cassandro Disintegrates Between a Wall of Clouds

Cassandro/Faby Apache/Mini Abismo Negro/Alfa vs. Pimpinela Escarlata/Cinthia Moreno/Octagoncito/Oriental AAA 7/15/07 - EPIC

I love these matches. Exotico/Lady/Mini/Dude matches always entertain me to no end. Everybody seems to work up a notch and their is always constant action. There always seems to be a game of one-upsmanship going on and this took place at Triplemania, so they were working in front of a pretty large crowd. Pimpi and Cassandro start and Cassandro has a crazy Justin Beiber haircut. He and Pimpi tie up and do a great hair toss sequence where Cassandro's Beiber 'do just comes right off!! Ah, that's right, he lost his hair the night before in a giant cage match that will never ever see the light of day. So Cassandro is totally buzzed under his Bieber wig. His fury and embarrassment over losing his beautiful locks drives him to completely OWN this match, putting on possibly the greatest performance of his I have ever seen. Every time he's in he just does the most insane things known to man. After his initial exchange with Pimp he takes a monstrous bump over the top to the floor at an incredibly fast speed. Later he charges right at Oriental and takes his trademark insane bump off the ring post to the floor. Throw in an out-of-control Asai moonsault and some great miscommunication spots and he was just on fire here.

Cinthia Morena is always really fun and always matches up with smaller guys impressively, and I always love Faby Apache. Mini Abismo Negro bumps all over the place for everybody and Octagoncito does a crazy hurracanrana to the floor. It's all action all the time and there is not one bland moment here.


Cassandro/Pimpinela Escarlata/Super Fly/El Angel vs. Jesse/Nygma/Polvo de Estrellas/Yuriko AAA, 10/26/07 - GREAT

Night Queens are wearing their ridiculous apricot-colored jammies and are all about coming up with new ways to smack the tecnicos with trash cans in this one. They start off by pummeling Super Fly and dumping him butt first in a trashcan, then putting the can up on the apron with him in it, then double baseball slide dropkicking it to the floor with him in it, landing him in all sorts of pain. Pimpi is the next to take the pain of the trash can, as he comes jumping off the ropes and gets clonked in the side of his head while his body goes splaying. We get some fun dive sequences, we get Cassandro and Pimpi doing their stereo sassy ropewalking into a hurracanrana and a flippy armdrag (respectively), followed by them doing an awesome hopscoth double-dutch tandem dance-off ending with a butt bump that makes you jealous that you don't have someone in your life to work on dance routines with you! Yuriko screams hilariously when he is about to take any sort of offense, Jesse wears the most garish pants ever made (some sort of apricot Zubaz pants with apricot plaid patches), and Cassandro KILLS himself at the end going for a dive as trashcans come back into play. Cassandro sets up a huge dive and one of the Queens holds up a trash can at the last second and Cassandro dives INTO the trashcan. He didn't get hit with it, he swooshed right into it and then got stomped while in the damn thing. Cold. Polvo kicks Pimp right in the balls to end it and this was all sorts of awesome.


Cassandro/Pimpinela Escarlata/Billy Boy/Mascara Divina vs. Jesse/Nygma/Polvo de Estrellas/Yuriko AAA, 1/19/08 - SKIPPABLE

Cassandro and Pimpi are wearing their totally awesome black widow spider outfits and Cassandro has the coolest headdress in the history of humans wearing cool headdresses. The match never really gets going. I don't much care for Divina, especially now that he no longer works his "awesome" Televisa Deportes gimmick (which would be the equivalent of a U.S. worker being named ESPN Sportscenter), and Billy Boy doesn't do too much here. Polvo can be kind of a load at times and while there were fun moments, there was also plenty of patented AAA "Show a shot of people in the crowd while clipping". Still, it does have it's moments, but it is rather short and forgettable.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE CASSANDRO

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Complete and Accurate Cassandro

So many many months ago Phil started the Complete & Accurate Fujiwara, wherein he began reviewing and ranking every single Yoshiaki Fujiwara match that has ever been committed to tape...EVER. It was a massive success. Through the DVDVR Other Japan Men's '80s set and Phil's philanthropy, I think it is safe to say that many people now view Fujiwara among the greatest wrestlers of all-time, let alone the 1980s.

Since the Fujiwara compendium has been a continued success, we've spoken about branching out and doing a series of wrestlers. We felt that we should profile a luchador next, and felt that Cassandro would be an ideal candidate for the first luchador to receive the illustrious Segunda Caida Complete & Accurate. Not only is he an elite worker, but he has the right amount of mystique.

He has this mystique because despite having been an active wrestler since 1989, there are only about 30 Cassandro matches that have ever been committed to tape, the bulk of them from his 2006/2007 run with AAA. While he's had a very active career, he also happens to work a lot of cool sounding shows that for whatever reason are not recorded. He's worked for Lucha Va Voom the last 3 years, and those matches haven't seen the light of day. He's worked all over Europe with Santo's fed, and little of the stuff has shown up (and what has shown up has been handheld footage). Don't even bother wondering about his stuff from the late '90s. It doesn't exist.

So I will review and rank all the available Cassandro, and hope that one day a little old lady from Yonkers finds a box in the attic containing a rare Bob Dylan white label test pressing of "Blood on the Tracks"...and underneath that vinyl is a video tape with Cassandro vs. Hijo del Santo wrestling at the Louvre. Someday.

2006

Pimpinela Escarlata/Casanova/Sangre Chicana vs. Cassandro/Zumbido/Antifaz Arena Coliseo de (Monterrey 1/8/06) - FUN
Gran Apache/May Flowers/Pimpinela Escarlata/Polvo de Estrellas vs. Cassandro/Alan/Billy Boy/Decnnis (AAA 5/20/06) - FUN
La Fiera/Mocho Cota/Pimpinela Escarlata/Sangre Chicana vs. Cassandro/El Brazo/Espectro Jr./Pirata Morgan (AAA 6/18/06) - VERY GOOD

2007

Cassandro/Faby Apache/Mini Abismo Negro/Alfa vs. Pimpinela Escarlata/Cinthia Moreno/Octagoncito/Oriental (AAA 7/15/07) - EPIC
Oriental/Chikayo Nagashima/Pimpinela Escarlata vs. Takashi Sugiura/Fabi Apache/Cassandro (AAA/SEM 9/3/07) - GREAT
Cassandro/Billy Boy/Fabi Apache/Mini Abismo Negro vs. Cinthia Moreno/Mascarita Sagrada 2007/Pimpinela Escarlata/Super Fly Lumberjack Match  (AAA 10/7/07) - GREAT
Jesse/Nygma/Polvo de Estrellas/Yuriko vs. Cassandro/El Ángel/Pimpinela Escarlata/Super AAA (AAA 10/18/07) - SKIPPABLE
Cassandro/Pimpinela Escarlata/Super Fly/El Angel vs. Jesse/Nygma/Polvo de Estrellas/Yuriko (AAA 10/26/07) - VERY GOOD
Cassandro/Intocable/Mascara Divina/Pimpinela Escarlata vs. Jesse/Nygma/Polvo de Estrellas/Yuriko (AAA 12/14/07) - SKIPPABLE

2008

Cassandro/Pimpinela Escarlata/Billy Boy/Mascara Divina vs. Jesse/Nygma/Polvo de Estrellas/Yuriko (AAA 1/19/08) - SKIPPABLE
Cassandro/Pimpinela Escarlata/Pasion Cristal vs. Nygma/Polvo de Estrellas/Yuriko (AAA 4/10/08) - VERY GOOD
Cassandro/Hijo de Cien Caras vs. Incognito/Mascara Ano Dos Mil Jr. (Promociones Wagner 8/2/08) - SKIPPABLE
Cassandro vs. Chuck Taylor (IWA-MS 9/26/08) - FUN

2009

Cassandro vs. Villano III (Bull Terrier Match, Lucha VaVoom 10/30/09) - EPIC

2010

Cassandro/Lil' Chicken vs. Hector Garza/Mini Kissing Bandit (Lucha VaVoom 2/12/10) - EPIC

2011

Cassandro/Blue Demon Jr./LA Park vs. Halloween/Damien 666/Perro Aguayo Jr. (PDM 7/24/11) - FUN

2013

Cassandro/Hijo de Pirata Morgan vs. Villano IV/Ray Mendoza Jr. (3/16/13) - GREAT

2016

Cassandro/Discovery vs. X-Fly/Skayde (3/26/16) - FUN

2018

Cassandro/Flyer vs. Magnus/Medico Asesino Jr. (FILLM 11/18/18) - VERY GOOD

2020

Cassandro vs. Sonny Kiss (GCW 10/10/20) - VERY GOOD

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IWRG 12/3/09

Only one match from this show has shown up. Pretty good match though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDTZEnsogeg

Oficial 911 v Bushi: Mask v Mask

TKG: Bushi opens the match with two huge dives right off the bat and a top rope armdrag. Bushi is going all out with huge make or miss moves from the start as everything is on the line. Of course the nature of all make or miss moves is you are going to leave openings for opponent and the stronger 911 has some spots but is unprepared for Bushi’s onslaught. He’s unable to take control as he can’t keep up with Bushi’s pace. Bushi wins first fall with backcracker into the same shoulderbreaker he used to win the title. Then he goes into the second fall working over that shoulder. The third fall is pretty epic with a crowd brawling section which includes a dive off the ring ramp, Bushi trying for another pin off the backcracker-shoulderbreaker combo, 911’s shoulder being so fucked that he faceplants off the apron brawling, 911 hitting a huge dive, 911 hitting his big bread and butter power move on the floor sending Bushi into the ring post and the floor and a bunch of other shit. I’m not a fan of most big move lucha, and this is big move lucha. But normally the problem with big move lucha is it’s just two guys trading moves. This match was all about actual guys dominated and controlling with the big moves, really neat transitions and openings for transitions, and lots of continuous selling of impact of the moves. It feels like a match that if I gave play by play description, or put it in some type of wrestling simulator game---would read like a MOTYC. But it didn’t feel quite that good to me watching it. It registered as really good but felt like something was missing. Often times when there is a match that feels like a MOTYC on paper but doesn’t register as such it’s because of poor execution. That isn’t the case here as the execution is all really good. Sometimes it’s because of lack of heat, and well this had heat. There is something about Bushi’s performance here that felt really emotionally detached and took me out of the match. He didn’t come across as emotionless or mechanical. Instead there is this Bill Murray in Lost in Translation feel to Bushi’s performance. He’s there but emotionally elsewhere. Bushi knows he’s leaving Mexico soon, and while he’s trying to save his mask, he can’t help but let his mind wander and worry about the child he’s leaving behind in Mexico and the child he left behind in Japan? His thoughts are on his garden? The lost dreams of his youth? He’s distant. The emotionally disconnected character is a great fictional type: the distant husband who has mentally already checked out of his relationship while still fighting to keep it; the guy who is mentally at home while at work; the guy mentally at work while at home, etc. I guess I can tack on backstory to make this all work. And on some level Bushi as a husk of a man whose soul is broken still trying to hold onto the dignity of his mask while his heart is elsewhere is kind of compelling and relatable. But I think wrestling may require that it’s characters be “in the present”. This is such an intangible thing that I may be seeing something that isn't there and I am curious to see what other people feel about this match, but everytime I watch this I get the same vibe.

PAS: I really love the highflyer going immediately for dives, it really gets across the recklessness of the techinco and his willingness to go all out from the beginning. Very cool start and engaged me right from the jump. I really wish that IWRG would steal a second move from the indies, as multiple backcrackers in every match can be a bit much, Sami Callihan's headlock driver seems pretty simple, steal that, mix it up a bit. I agree with Tomk on Bushi, I think the problem is that he throws pretty loose and weak kicks, elbows and punches. This match is set up to be this epic violent battle, but Bushi's shit is too dainty, and it takes me out of the match. Great performance by 911 though, and a pretty damn good match overall.

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