The Flash of Pirata Morgan's Cards Was Sprayed With Red

Pirata Morgan, Satanico, & Emilio Charles Jr. vs. Blue Demon, Blue Demon Jr., & Ringo Mendoza EMLL 11/25/1988 - EPIC

This is the first match I've ever seen of the legendary Blue Demon, the second biggest star in the history of lucha libre after only El Santo himself. He is 66 years old in this match, and is pretty much at the end of the road, but age seems to be no hindrance to him, as he is balls to the wall fantastic here. His opening mat exchange with Emilio is just stellar, and it would still be considered state of the art if it happened today. Emilio kinda looks like he's being taken for a ride by the old man, but he keeps up pretty well, and his spill out of the ring at the end of it all was neat. Blue Demon Jr. comes in and tries to match his dad's mad skills in an exchange with Pirata. He can't but it's still pretty good, and overall, Junior gives a much better performance than usual. Ringo and Satanico forgo the mat stuff and just have a great, high-energy exchange where Ringo cracks Satanico with headbutts and the sends him out of the ring with a swank flying armdrag. The technicos press the advantage to score the first fall, but the second fall goes the rudos' way, as they isolate Mendoza and really beat the shit out of him. Pirata gets to shine here. I mean, these are three of the all-time great working rudos (with Satanico in particular being on the shortlist for "greatest working rudo"), but I thought he stood out even from this distinguished pack, repeatedly socking Ringo, including a nasty rabbit punch. The Demons manage to break it up eventually, but it's for naught, as Ringo and Blue Demon Sr. get crushed by top rope splashes from Emilio and Pirata respectively, evening things up. Third fall, the rudos try to mob old man Demon, but the technicos rally in style - including Ringo making Pirata pay by dealing two hard straight rights to his face in succession, which was awesome - and pick up the win. Blue Demon is as good as legend says he is, filling the match with tricked-out matwork and drawing some great reactions from the fans. His kid and Ringo bring plenty of energy, and the rudos eat everything and bump around really well, and get to dish out some serious punishment, too, in the second fall. I absolutely loved this, and I really wish more Blue Demon footage was available, because if he was this good at 66, imagine how good he must have been in his prime...though now that I think about it, this is lucha, so 66 might be the peak of his powers.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE PIRATA MORGAN