New Footage Friday: New Old Lucha

Killer vs. Enrique Vera Torreon Coahuila 8/13/89

MD: Pretty good lost title match with some slight clipping but not enough to be egregious. The annoying ref and Dusty finish were worse. The primera matwork was ok. They stayed in some simple holds a bit more than I'm used to but they were working things at least and the fans were into it. Killer was billed from NY if I'm not mistaken so at least a few rowdy kids were happy to chant Mexico over and over. Vera had a wide array of pinning combinations and these sweeping Robinson backbreakers that he used often and to high effect. Segunda had rudo control after a jumping clothesline with Killer mainly making use of a nice elbow drop, which was especially nice off the ropes in a back springboard, which is what he used to take the fall. The big comeback moment was a back cross body off a corner whip. We lose the ending to it but I assume it was a missed knee drop by Vera (he had a good kneedrop too) which led to a long Killer figure-four. The finish involved a ref bump and Vera getting a visual win on a submission but the ref giving it to Killer instead. They avoided a riot by letting Vera hit the ref after the match at least.

Jerry Estrada/Espanto IV/Espanto V/Latino vs. Hurican Ramirez/Ramirez Jr./Rodriguez/Megatron Torreon Coahuila  8/13/89

MD: A little clipped and with the weird slow-mo freeze frame for big spots that makes you long for the gentle production touch of Kevin Dunn. This was a pretty classic set up though, given some color by Latino and Estrada having issues. Espanto IV and V were pretty new in 89 but they worked well in there, feeding and stooging for both Ramirez and Megatron. Rodriguez looked fine with good exchanges with Estrada and Latino and had a ballsy no hands dive (well, there was a hand but it was flailing wildly) at the end. The other big thing he did was eat a huge chairshot that turned the rudo beatdown into a rudo mauling. Estrada unsurprisingly bumped to the floor multiple times. The big comeback was a call back to the early Latino/Estrada issues and they went right into the dive train and the finish after that. I could have used a bit more in the way of revenge violence, but otherwise, this was pretty good stuff.

Hurican Ramirez/Hurican Ramirez Jr/Mano Negra vs. El Signo/Texano/Crazy Boy

MD: Ultimately, this felt like a slightly less hate-filled version of the Santo retirement match. It was Ramirez' match before he was willingly taking off his mask in a post-match ceremony (maybe due to rights issues?) and they started it quick with the rudo ambush/beatdown. Some good stuff here including a really nice missile dropkick. The comeback was Mano Negra, who is not someone I'm used to seeing as a tecnico, coming in with a couple of nice shots to break up a gorilla press slam. After that, it was celebratory tecnico dominance, with Ramirez Jr. looking good against everyone and the old man getting a rana or two. The rudos stooged up and down like you'd want them to. The dives at the end cleared the ring so Ramirez could have that last moment of triumph.