Don't Ask if They Are Real, Pirata Morgan, His Lips Are Sealed

Pirata Morgan vs. Fabuloso Blondy EMLL 12/10/1989 - EPIC

It should be said that Ken Timbs sings our national anthem better than most. The Star-Spangled Banner is a notoriously difficult national anthem to sing, and he was doing it every night like it was second nature. I appreciate that. This match makes a very interesting contrast to Pirata's title match with Brazo de Oro, which was all about two guys who don't really fit the lucha title match style trying to adjust to it's standards. This is a match where reigning champ Pirata seems to have acclimated to the style, and it's outsider Blondy who initially finds himself at odds with it, and how that affects the way the match plays out. This means a couple of things. For one, this is easily the most matwork-heavy performance I've ever seen Pirata give, and I was genuinely impressed by how much depth he showed in that area. He pulled out a pretty wide variety of cool stuff that I did not know he had, and looked comfortable enough in the role that I'm almost surprised we don't see him working more of a Black Terry-ish brawler/maestro dual-class style today, because he could probably still do a lot of that and would be less physically demanding. Secondly, this is probably the closest thing I've seen to a territory era Ric Flair NWA Title defense in lucha. Georgia heel Timbs is even more out of place in this setting than Pirata and Brazo were in their match, but like that match, that's the fun of it. But watching him stooging while Pirata tangled him up on the mat reminded me less of any other lucha title match and more of Flair stooging for Kevin Von Erich's MUGA headscissors routine in 1983. And like Flair, when Blondy takes control, it's through more unsportsmanlike methods than you would normally associate with lucha title matches. Yet every time Morgan makes a comeback, he ends up going back to working holds. Yeah, this is a match where Pirata Morgan deliberately avoids brawling, and as uncharacteristic as that is of him, it really works for this kind of "my kung fu is stronger than yours" story. This had a pretty spectacular finish, too, as Gran Davis gets distracted, and Blondy takes advantage with what I can only describe as a foul suplex that gets the win. No friendly handshakes at the end of this lucha title match. I just hope I can find a nice, bloody hair vs. hair match to complement this.


Pirata Morga, Fuerza Guerrera, & Ricky Cruz vs. Scorpio Jr., Angelico, & Bobby Lee Jr. IWRG 6/4/2009 - FUN

This is right on the borderline of SKIPPABLE and FUN, as it's a match that didn't necessarily look good on paper, but did look intriguing on paper. It posed a lot of questions that I thought might be worth answering. How would Pirata and Fuerza - two of my personal favorite luchadors of all time - fare as partners? How would Pirata deal with the black hole of suck that is Angelico, whom even Negro Navarro struggled to get something watchable out of. Can Scorpio Jr. actually work technico? All these questions and more were not really answered to my satisfaction, so this was kind of a letdown. Pirata and Fuerza didn't really work together much, save for one bizarre sequence in the third fall where they tease dissension for no real reason and then hug epically. Angelico was kept in a supporting role, which was a good thing, but didn't answer any questions I might have had about him. Scorpio didn't really work any differently as a face than as a heel, though he was a lot more broken down, and at times, this almost felt like a Great Khali match, where you have to accept that he is not going to react to stuff like he's supposed to because he flat out can't. But while none of the questions I asked got answered, and a lot of the frustrations I expected from this crew were present, it was still mostly enjoyable. Ricky Cruz looks like he is auditioning to be El Mesias Jr. in case Ricky Banderas ever falls out of favor with AAA, and he acquitted himself well with his hurty power/brawler offense. He also was paired off with Angelico a lot, and he handled that task about as well as one could reasonably expect. For his own part, Angelico looked like shit throughout this, but he did at least bust out a Vader Double Stomp (that's a Vader Bomb ending in a double stomp instead of a splash), which was pretty nasty. Pirata and Fuerza both looked good holding the match together. Bobby Lee Jr. was unremarkable but fine. There was also a weird bit with the rudo ref getting involved that could've been lame, but ended too spectacularly for me to hold against it. So, yeah, very flawed, not very interesting, but Ricky Cruz beating on dudes was entertaining.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE PIRATA MORGAN