Segunda Caida: MLJ: Brazo de Oro vs Gran Markus Jr. [DF HEAVY]

1995-08-15 @ Arena Coliseo
Brazo de Oro vs Gran Markus Jr. [DF HEAVY]

I wanted to go full on DVDVR with this one. FAT MAN WAR~~~!! BATTLE OF THE BULGE 1995~~! It's sort of warranted, too. This was posted last night and since I don't have access to the Network currently and didn't feel like dealing with the malware that you get from finding a stream, I went with it. Brazo de Oro was 98 on my GWE ballot, and while that was a gimmick/personal pick to a degree, that was only because of footage. I've enjoyed everything I've seen him in. Markus, Jr. is not someone I'm as familiar with (despite seeing a ton of Markus <unrelated> matches on NWAonDemand), but I've heard not great things so I didn't know what to expect.

This was for the DF Heavyweight Title, which I spent two minutes looking for a lineage of and couldn't find without actually trying. I'm sure it's out there. There are so many belts in Mexico, belts tied to the country, to a region, to a specific arena. They're all defended with a two week build and companies can't even remember who has what. It's charming in its own way, but I'm not going out of my way to figure out exactly what this thing was.

Title match formula more or less works. This felt a bit like a middle ground between 80s title matches and what we have today, where there are tiny primeras and segundas and endless laying about and nearfalls in the terceras. Everything was a little shorter here, but I think it was more to keep Markus from getting winded and so that the match didn't wear out its welcome. I thought it worked for what it was.

The primera was mostly matwork and some rope running, more fluid than you'd expect even if at a measured speed, and ended with this vaguely impressive spot as a reversal/cut off:

And a splash from the top by Markus. After some surprisingly good bullying from Markus, Oro came back at the end of the segunda mainly with this awesome armdrag and a Kane/Albert level rana to even things up.

Then they went back and forth in the tercera with two big topes from Oro, some nice callback spots, and an awkwardly graceful (sic) roll up to finish:

They highlighted each other's strengths well, able to pull off very unlikely spots with one another. Oro showed that Brazo athleticism you'd never expect from looking at him and had a real connection with the crowd, which were chanting for him most of the way through. I came out of this wanting to see Markus base for a high flying up-and-coming tecnico (though I'm not sure who that would be in 1995 CMLL except for Garza, and that's not quite what I'm thinking of). Between his bullying and the way he went over for some of Oro's armdrags, it theoretically should work. You pretty much knew what you were getting with this title match, but if it's something that interests you on paper, you should check it out.

Last takeaways:
1.) This is El Brazo, right? Why is he wearing this shirt? I'm not googling it. That's for sure.