RIP Angel of Death

Arkangel De La Muerte vs. Pantera CMLL 9/21/99

ER: We purposely made the title of this post misleading so that we could clickbait some guy who was looking forward to us finally reviewing Angel of Death vs. John Tatum from Global. But seriously, Arkangel de la Muerte is one of the first names I thought of when I think of guys who I discovered because of the DVDVR 500. I would go through the top 100 and write down names of any guys I didn't know, and actively seek out matches from all of them. In the late 90s that lead me to Arkangel (a couple years later that would lead me to Michael Todd Stratton/Todd Morton), and what I saw I instantly liked. He always felt like a cool fusion of luchador with southern asskicking heel. He bumped generously, threw stiff arm lariats and cool scoop powerbombs, but would also roll on the mat and hit fast dives. He pretty quickly became a guy I would always seek out. And I liked what he brought here against Pantera. Pantera was going to be bringing the flash, and he does, with a beautiful springboard tope con hilo and various rana and headscissor combinations.

But there were two big moments where Arkangel showed who he was, showed why his game was respected. He bumps generously and amusingly on two big Pantera spots where Pantera either half assed or quit early on. Pantera hits a big leaping rana off the top, but it's really going through the motions, making no attempt to actually look like his legs and momentum are whipping Arkangel off the top, just doing an impression of a big rana. But Arkangel launches himself halfway across the ring off that loose shrug of a rana. To end the primera Pantera hits his gorgeous inverted headscissors on the apron, except his ankles don't actually land on Arkangel's shoulders and instead he basically gives Arkangel double knees to the back of the head before crashing across the edge of the apron. But Arkangel takes this majestic sprawling bump, launching himself off the apron sideways and rolling across the floor, kicking his legs spasmodically, and keeps kicking them as he's rolled back in the ring, and keeps kicking them the whole time he's getting pinned. I've seen Pantera hit that spot cleaner dozens of times, but due to Arkangel's selling I'm sure that nobody in the arena was thinking about Pantera not hitting it clean. We get some lucha that I miss, like Pantera slamming Arkangel and looking to the crowd to see if he should go up top, before opting not to. And we get several nice Arkangel moments: a picture perfect stomp to Pantera's ear in the tercera (his real ear, and his panther ear), those quick release scoop powerbombs I love (and that he was still using in the last match I saw him), a nice seated powerbomb to win, nice full extension senton with great snap and style, and a fast full force tope into the aisleway that was my favorite spot of the match. I've always loved Arkangel as a kind of lucha Finlay, and he'll always be a guy I go back and watch. I noticed him start to slow down noticeably in matches last year, and I hope he was not in much pain during his last year on Earth. At minimum I'm glad he got a long, respected career.

PAS: There aren't a ton of long Arkangel singles matches, and it is cool to watch him work a long title match. Pantera is definitely the more flashy of the two guys, but this was clearly a match controlled and put together by Arkangel, Eric mentioned him covering for some of Pantera's iffy execution, and this was a Lil B level based god performance. That bump he took on the semi blown headscissors to the floor was awesome and nasty. I also loved a lot of the little things he brought to the match, his straight arm clothesline looks like he is hitting a guy with a baseball bat, and that tope was truly awesome as was Pantera's bump. What a pro Arkangel was, the ultimate mechanic, put him anywhere on the card and he is going to look good and make everyone around him look good.


Arkangel vs. El Hijo Del Santo CMLL 11/17/95

ER: What an all time great WorldWide match. This is under 4 minutes and part of a tournament, but is absolute rolling fire. It starts hot with Santo locking on several of his incomparable crossed ankle headscissors, rolling Arkangel through in a few cool ways as Ark kicks and flails out of pain and frustration. Santo also hits a sweet rolling piledriver/headscissors takedown that I don't think I've ever seen, and we get cool moments of Arkangel trying to spread and put pressure on Santo's hips, dropping headbutts on Santo's stomach, and getting caught in more headscissors. There's a great moment where Santo goes for one of his kneelifts and Arkangel catches him and deadlifts him into a back suplex, and the tope Arkangel hits is absolutely 10 stars, looks like he practically broke Santo's jaw with a flying lariat. But as always, Arkangel is giving, and Santo hits a beautiful tope headbutt into the ring, with Arkangel taking this awesome bump, spinning around and landing face first on the mat before eating the camel clutch. I've never seen these two work together and this really should be considered a legendary sprint.

PAS: Very neat short match, lucha tournament wrestling is usually pretty lame, but this was a blast. The little teases of matwork here make me feel like there is some untaped long classic between the two, loved all of the work Arkangel working the core and thighs and his rolling back elbow into a missile tope was dope. I like how much Santo let him shine in a short match, he may have lost quick, but he looked great.