Found Footage Friday: IWRG RETRO~! HIJO DEL SANTO~! SUPER PARKA~! REY BUCANERO~! SCORPIOS~! CEREBROS BEFORE CEREBROS~!

IWRG Retro 11/12/22

Guerra C3/Multifacetico 2 vs Super Atlas/Epidemia 2/21/02

MD: Quick opener in two caidas. Guerra C3 would become Cerebro Negro but here he was capitalizing on the prequels with a Star Wars gimmick. I don't think we've ever written about Epidemia here but he had cow-print type pants and passed himself off as a virus with that. He was paired with Multifacetico 2 in the primera and they had a solid mat exchange, nothing fancy but some struggle in there. In the segunda, when the rudos took over, Atlas hit pretty hard while Epidemia had a lot of dropkick set-ups (like out of a stunner). Both of them were throwing themselves into the dropkicks. The big comeback was basically Multifacetico pointing to the ceiling and tricking Epidemia, which as big comeback moments go, was dubious at best, but this was fun for what it was overall.

Azor vs Neblina 7/28/96

MD: Azor was a short lived gimmick (hawk mask with wings on the side) for the young Dr. Cerebro, and what I can tell you from seeing this one was that he absolutely had it early on. Talk about a guy who just got it. There was nothing innovative or fancy here. He just beat Neblina all around the ring, peppering in kicks and knees and shots, choking him on the ropes and, once they got to the segunda, pulling on the mask and working the wound. He just had this confident, consistent way of moving around the ring and drowning Neblina from having any space to move. There was chicanery between the ref cutting off Neblina's comebacks and Azor's second (Samoano) sneaking in to help at times, but that didn't really detract. Azor was just able make the most out of all of it. Neblina's comeback, when it came, mostly involved getting cut off a couple of times, the expected quebradora and some revenge mask ripping. Azor had won the primera with a hidden object of all things, slipped to him by his second and then placed into the tights and at the end of the segunda, Neblina got it and smashed Azor with it, but in front of the ref to draw the DQ. Nice early look at Cerebro here.

Hijo del Santo/Mascara Sagrada/Super Parka vs Scorpio, Sr./Scorpio, Jr./Rey Bucanero 12/2/1999

MD: This started with a rudo beatdown and never really settled down into exchanges or sequences, even over three caidas. Old man Scorpio was a sight, carrying a proper gut with all the heft to his blows that came with that, with a face that seemed to be melting right off of his skull, held on maybe only by his mustache, long hair that screamed for an apuestas match, and a surly disposition that leaned towards sneaking in a foul whenever he could. He directed traffic like the best of the rudo captains and for most of the match it worked. When it didn't, Santo was able to dodge a shot and the tecnicos got back into it, both in the primera and to set up the finish in the tercera. You had to like the balance on the rudo side, with Bucanero bringing some flash and innovation in his offense and his bumps, carrying Super Parka over his shoulder into the corner (until he crashed into it himself), skidding across the mat to the floor face first later. Scorpio, Jr. could bring some speed and intensity to the beatdown and then recoil from all of Santo's comeback shots on the floor. On the tecnico side, Parka got to dance and spin when clowning Bucanero and Sagrada was where he ought to have been when he ought to have been there, but all eyes were on Santito throughout. During the second comeback, he fought off all comers, slipping on one submission after the next. The finishing stretch was nothing if not amusing, with Scorpio, Sr. pulling a ref down to take the flipping senton for him and then hitting a perfect foul with no ref to count it. Santo got his revenge with a foul of his own but by then the ref was recovered and he drew the DQ. If this led to a hair vs mask match, I hope that gets uncovered as well, as it was a great finish to build anticipation for such a thing.