DVDVR Puerto Rico 80s Set: Super Medico vs. White Knight (9/19/86)

Disc 3, Match 2: Super Medico vs. White Knight (9/19/86)

This was a match where both guys looked good and the feud felt hot but where I wish the commercial break had been positioned a bit differently. It also presented two academic examples of chinlock utilization: how one that is well worked can enhance a match and how one that's barely worked and is misplaced can screw up an otherwise great match.

Bit of background because PWO's El Boricua was kind enough to provide it to me. Medico was Jose Estrada, Sr., hugely energized by the mask. White Knight was Pat Rose of all people (which, once you realize, actually helps a lot in telling the two apart). The angle was Knight coming in to interfere in another mask vs mask match (against the Original Medic, being Dusty Wolfe). They revealed that Knight was a former Medico partner from the mainland who had come in for revenge.

Both men seemed enhanced by the stage and the setting (being night one of the Anniversary weekend). The brawling to begin was nuts. One thing I've noticed out of the big WWC babyfaces (Colon, Invader, Estrada) is just how great they are at taking back offense during an early part of the match. Knight, here, would come back in and get a few shots in, but it's downright triumphant how Medico would fire back and the crowd responded with appreciation. Really, this left me wanting to see a lot more of Estrada in the Medico gimmick; it's a shame he's not on the set more with it as it really allowed him to channel his charisma. As a whole, the match was very much what you'd want out of a first encounter between these two. The biggest things to complain about here would be the finish and the lack of blood, which I usually don't care about, but when you have two guys with white masks, you end up with an expectation. This was early on a card with tournament matches where clean finishes would likely be necessary so something had to give, and it was the finish here.

The chinlocks then. Knight utilized one a few times to constrain and contain Medico. They worked the hell out of it, engaging the crowd, Medico working big to the last row as he slowly fought his way out and back on to offense (he'd use a nervelock to the same effect later). Later on, however, Medico locked in a babyface version and it killed the match dead. This is where I wish they went to commercial because then i would have never really known. They just sat in it, and really, what else could they do? Knight wasn't going to work his way out of it like a babyface. It's not the sort of revenge hold that makes the crowd feel like they're seeing the heel get punished. It was dead space. I can't imagine this was something Estrada did often but if it was, it would be a mark against him as it was a mark against an otherwise ok match. I do want to see more of Estrada in the Super Medico gimmick though.