1983 Match of the Year

MS1 v. Sangre Chicana CMLL 9/23/83

PAS: The greatest match in wrestling history takes the #1 spot for 1983. I have probably watched this match 20+ times and love it as much each time. This has my favorite match structure for a 2/3 falls match. MS1 jumps Chicana in the aisle and brutally beats him, Chicana is spraying blood while MS1 struts around the ring. We have old ladies in the audience wiping his forehead with their handkerchiefs.  MS1 rolls the beaten and bloody Sangre into the ring, hits a top rope splash and pins him. Totally one sided beating, not a single moment of offense from Chicana. The second fall starts more of the same with MS1 in total control, and then we have a perfect wrestling transition, MS1 throws a big right and Sangre ducks it and hits this huge left hook, and the crowd blows up, he hits one more and then this maniacal tope to get the count out win. Chicana busts MS1 open in the beginning of the third fall and we have this crimson ballet in the third fall, with MS1 missing a couple of big top rope moves and succumbing to a submission to lose his hair.

Lots of little moments of violent beauty, Chicana's selling was great, he never recovers from the early beating he is always on the verge of passing out from blood loss, and he keeps hitting him self in the head to keep him self awake, I also loved how MS1 sold control seeping away from him, he is such a preening dickbag for the first part, and as soon as Chicana tees off you can see his composure breaking. The violence of the dives was great too, in wrestling now dives are more things of beauty then things of ugly, not here though, each dive was gritty, explosive and violent looking, less like a gymnast sticking a floor routine, and more like a strong safety leading with his helmet on a hit up the middle.

This feels like the apex of lucha brawling, you hope someday someone will find something better, but until they do this will reign supreme.

ER: Well this was wonderful. The pacing felt like this epic newsreel black and white fifties brawl, only live and in deep red color. I've seen precious little 80s Sangre Chicana, I'm more familiar with old grizzled Chicana that looked like Gregg Henry's disguise in Body Double. But this is just wonderful, classic pro wrestling, the type of match that would play in front of any crowd in any town in any era. The punches aren't clean but they read to the back. Chicana's big one punch comeback is amazing in its simplicity, just a simple duck and big left hook. Something tells me we'll be seeing similar comebacks when some 1983 Lawler challenges this. All of the bumps are spectacular in their realness, with Chicana stumbling around and dropping to a knee, both men taking fast hard bumps to a very painful looking floor and unforgiving ring. Sangre hits a killer tope, and later oles MS-1 into the front row. We cut to an old woman taking a long slow drag on a cigarette. MS-1's missed top rope moves are brutal, flopping on that big splash that won him the primera, and splatting on a big somersault senton. The whole thing is wrestling boiled down to its most primal, basic formula, and it's a classic.

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