MLJ: Recent Uploads: Black Magic vs La Fiera

1992-04-19 @ Arena Coliseo
La Fiera vs Black Magic (mano a mano)

If I wasn't sold on early 90s rudo Fiera before this match, I am now. I can't say the same for Smiley, though I do think he brought a lot to the table here. A quick note to begin. The video for this match is 23 minutes, but the match itself is probably ten minutes less between a pre-match Fiera promo and post match posturing and replays and credits. I expected a much longer tercera than we got. In some ways, it's good. One of the downsides in watching matches on youtube is that you usually have a good sense when they're going to end, and more importantly when they're NOT going to end. This one took me by surprise. I just wanted to manage expectations by pointing it out.

Also, we need a whole paragraph to talk about Fiera's look and feel at the start of the match. He had the chain/dog collar again. He had sunglasses. he had a cut down tank top thing and I have no idea what was on it, a band maybe? His fingers were taped up. He had some crazy aquamarine zubaz-style-on-the-side tights and white boots that went up to knee pads. I think I like his tecnico "crazy tiger shirt" look better, but this was such a spotlight of the time. So, he came down, Black Magic came down. They had words for each other, moved around the ring. When Smiley was announced, he posed around the ring a bit. Fiera used that as a chance to ambush him with the chain. The ref (who was certainly inclined towards the rudos, annoyingly so, but not as annoyingly so as in other matches I've seen), halfheartedly tried to take the chain away, which led to this utterly amazing double clothesline spot, with Fiera clapping at the end:

Even better? Fiera kept beating on Smiley for another minute or so before finally taking the sunglasses off, to surprisingly big heat. Smiley would come back and set up a ten punch in the corner only to have the ref cut him off. With both of them distracted in that position, Fiera hit an awesome low blow, setting the stage for the rest of the primera:

Fiera followed this up by forcing Smiley out of the ring and slammed his arm into the post, and here's where the real meat of the match began. We know from the Casas hair match that Fiera could mount a great, focused limb assault. He did so here, unrelentingly keeping on the arm and shoulder, even as Smiley sold extremely well, and tried to fight back with one arm even better. You'd get moments of hope and temporary rudo comeuppance like this:

but between the ref stopping Smiley's haymakers and Fiera being too focused in his attack, it was a futile effort. Fiera ended the caida with a shoulderbreaker and a submission. Good primera that really became something substantial once the limbwork set in.

It continued into the segunda too, with Smiley's initial comeback attempt stymied by some ref slow counting and a subsequent Fiera ambush as he complained. That led to Fiera going back to the arm and a very solid transition. Fiera went for another weighty-feeling stepover armbar, but Smiley, playing up the strength gimmick, lifted his opponent up out of it, placed him on the top rope, and after a few shots, dropkicked him out. On the outside, he slammed Fiera's back into apron, and we found ourselves in one of my favorite narratives in wrestling, dueling limbwork.

I'm not going to say that this was super elaborate (though Smiley got full points in the primera for trying to fight back with one arm). It was focused though, with Smiley really targeting the back for a few minutes before putting Fiera away with a half crab. Within the confines of pro-wrestling, it's one of the most believable ways in the world for a wrestler to fight back from such a deficit and it just feels right. It's paralleled and I thought it worked really well here.

It would have worked even better if they were going to continue the duel into the tercera. They only had time to play with it a bit though. Instead, Smiley went back to complaining to the ref, Fiera ambushed (and the crowd hated that), hit a really nice corner clothesline but missed the next. There'd be some lip service to the limbwork (Fiera got back on offense for a moment by driving the shoulder into Smiley's arm out of the corner; Smiley reversed a whip into a bear hug, targeting the back, but couldn't keep it on due to the arm), but after the little back and forth, they'd rush to a pretty good finish of Smiley going for the German, Fiera blocking, and Smiley reversing the reversal attempt into a Nothern Lights.

This was another great Fiera performance. Smiley's selling was top notch, but his offense was a little over the top. It's what would help him stand out later in WCW, but as of yet, I just haven't seen it fit right in Mexico. This also had probably the least painful heel ref work I've ever seen. The match itself is less than fifteen minutes and well worth watching though.

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PWG Battle of Los Angeles Night 2

Marty Scrull v. Rich Swann

This was fine indy juniors wrestling. Scrull had a lot of shtick which I began to tire of, I liked the finger breaking spots, but it didn’t really lead anywhere. Still this was short enough and didn’t have a ton of things I hated. Would get the full Worldwide point

Angelico v. Jack Evans

Well if you are going to do a goofy indy comedy match, I much prefer this kind of thing to stupid shit like slow motion or hypnotizing. Jack Evans is talking shit to the audience and goes to grab a beer, he drinks it and breaks out Drunken Kung Fu, which he was totally awesome at, so much fun to watch him and Angelico do Jackie Chan spots. The rest of the match was fine, but they probably should have made that the apex of the match.

Chris Hero v. Timothy Thatcher.

This was really great, and the kind of change of pace night one really needed. Less grappling then EVOLVE Thatcher matches, as this was more of a FUTENish slugfest. Hero was absolutely blitzing Thatcher with kicks and elbows, which Thatcher would do a great stunned sell of. Thatcher meanwhile would fire back with uppercuts and grabbing ankle picks, including one in the ropes which looked like it might shred Hero’s achilles. Lots of great violence here, including a Hero short snap piledriver which Thatcher sold like it paralyzed his arm, and a headbutt counter by Thatcher which looked like it dislocated Hero’s jaw. I didn’t love the finish, which had Hero hit a sick tombstone, and have Thatcher grab a Fujiwara  but get countered to a Hero’s welcome for the pin. Hero’s welcome is a real Novaish finisher to end a slugfest like this, should have just had Hero get the pin after the tombstone. Still this was a blast.

Fenix/Aeorstar v Drago/Pentagon Jr.

Hyped up version of a Nitro Lucha tag. None of these guys are prime Juventud Guerrera, but this was a blast. Fenix especially looked good, hitting a really insane dive really fast. I thought Aerostar was a bit botchy, but outside of him everything was hit cleanly and Pentagon continues to look like a total badass.

Drew Gulak v. Tommy End

I enjoyed this, it was worked as sort of a bankrupt man’s Ikeda v. Ishikawa. Gulak would control with takedowns and grappling, while End would spring out and land a big punch or kick.  I liked End’s spin kick a lot, which is a great looking strike which Gulak sold great. There was a silly spot with End selling a knee by falling down hokeyly and getting clotheslined, and I thought the finish was a good idea that wasn’t executed properly. Still this was mostly pretty good, and I like how this show is mixing up the styles of matches, much better then night one which was very samey.

Speedball Mike Bailey v. Drew Galloway

Bailey has gotten to be a master at this kind of workrate indy match. Galloway is just a monster compared to most indy wrestlers and this was almost Rey v. Big Show.  Really liked how nasty all of Galloway’s simple stuff looked, he had really nasty stomps including some right on Bailey’s insteps. Galloway set up some very realistic near falls, and made Bailey look overmatched but credible. Felt this went a little long, and would have been better if they cut a near fall or two.

Zach Sabre Jr. vs. Ricochet

Pretty entertaining stuff, with Ricochet looking perfectly comfortable working Sabre’s WOS tribute act stuff. Ricochet even breaks out the Cerebro special which will endear me to you. Sabre has a bunch of fun ways to snatch someone out of midair. This seemed like it was raring up to go long, but I actually liked the point it ended at. Good stuff.

Mt.. Rushmore 2.0 (Super Dragon/Young Bucks) v. Andrew Everett/Trevor Lee/Biff Busick

Super Dragon returns after a four year absence, which was preceded by a three year absence, so it has been seven years or so since he has been a regular active wrestler and he comes in killing people like he hasn’t missed a beat. He takes an Alabama Slam on a ladder, does a flip dive and takes a bunch of chair shots to the head. Busick and he just rip into each other all match. Busick feels like a guy who grew up watching Super Dragon and was super amped to have a chance to have one of these crazy brawls. Bucks are fine in this kind of nutjob brawl (my favorite Bucks match ever is their Guerrila warfare match against Dragon and Steen), they aren’t afraid to take big bumps and they make you want to see them suffer.  Everett has had a great tourney so far, his big fake out dive was one of my spots of the year, and his lunatic springboard shooting  press was incredible. Did care about the stuff with the ref, and the thumbtack shoes were cooler in theory then in execution, but this was the most lunatic match of the year, and I loved it.

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