El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Goodbye 1989

Week 16: Goodbye 1989

EB: We’ve reached the season ending weekend for CSP and thus we’re at the end of our 1989 journey. But before getting to the last big card of the year, we want to take a moment to showcase some odds and ends we’ve uncovered from this last part of 1989.  While maybe not of huge importance, they do provide a bit more of the feel and context to how certain wrestlers continued to be presented and emphasized on tv. So let’s take a short detour into some of these odds and ends. 

One of the wrestlers scheduled for the season ending weekend is Ricky Santana. This is our first chronological look at Santana but not his first time in Puerto Rico. Ricky first showed up in CSP at the end of July 1988 and had a nine month run that saw him win the Puerto Rico title twice in 1988 and have a two and a half months reign as World Junior champion at the beginning of 1989. Santana is back for the last weekend of the year and is scheduled to be in action. His originally scheduled opponent was supposed to be Harley Race but Ricky would end up facing a different opponent instead. Let’s take a look at Ricky against Sandy Love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTFjkYaAaTI

We’re in Vega Alta for this match and I’m digging the white suspenders Sandy has got on. This match is basically a quick showcase to reestablish Santana. It’s a pretty standard tv match with Santana showing off some of his wrestling acumen against a larger opponent. Love hits a monkey flip on Santana, but a second attempt gets countered with a knee and from there it’s academic. Ricky hits a top rope splash for the win and is looking to make a good showing to close out the year.

MD: This is an enhancement match but Love got to do some things. He hit a bodyslam and posed so Santana could hit one of his own, that sort of thing. He looked like he could have been a fine Exotico partner to get beat up mercilessly by the Youngbloods. Not the bleached blonde gimmick you’d expect. Almost more as if he wanted to catch the Steve Strong lightning. I spent too many words talking about him already. Santana had an interesting overhead Belly to Belly where he started it from a Northern Lights and just let the head slip out. He finished it with a top rope splash caught by a nice camera angle.

EB: Los Mercenarios and Castillo and Perez have had a feud stemming from Aniversario 89. While we’ve been able to see some highlights involving singles matches between members of both teams and even tag matches where Castillo has faced Los Mercenarios with a different tag partner, we haven’t been able to see matches featuring both teams against each other. For now it looks like it will remain that way. Still, we do have another encounter in this rivalry, with Miguelito Perez taking on Mercenario #1 in singles action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sZPGeCMixI

Mercenario #1 has El Profe with him while it looks like Miguelito does not have anyone with him at ringside. The ref checks both men before the match and it starts with Perez and Acevedo circling each other before locking up. Perez sets up for a punch with Acevedo coming off the ropes, but Acevedo grabs the ropes to stop his momentum and bails to the outside. El Profe complains to the ref as Mercenario #1 slowly gets back in the ring. Another lockup sees Acevedo back Perez up against the ropes and Acevedo gets some blows in before sending Perez into the ropes. Miguelito ducks a clothesline and counters with a series of dropkicks and slams. Acevedo once again rolls outside. El Profe yells at the referee as Acevedo slowly gets back in the ring again and complains that his tights were pulled on the slams. We go to a commercial break and come back with Acevedo in a side headlock. He tries to get Perez off him by sending Perez off the ropes but Miguelito lets go and holds onto Acevedo’s beard to reapply the hold while the ref is distracted by a complaining Profe. The sequence is repeated and Miguelito this time grabs onto Acevedo’s hair to reapply the headlock. This time it is the tecnicos who are fighting fire with fire with regards to some of the more wily tactics. Acevedo manages to break the hold by yanking Perez down by his hair, but Acevedo misses an elbow drop and Perez regains control. Acevedo begs off and leaves the ring once again to regroup. Acevedo briefly manages to get some hits in but Miguelito once again counters and hits some slams. This has not been Acevedo’s match. Perez puts Acevedo in an abdominal stretch which prompts Mercenario #2 to run out from the locker room in an attempt to interfere. However, as the camera cuts to Mercenario #2 we see that Huracan Castillo has also run out and has cut off Morrow with a back body drop on the arena floor. Castillo chases Morrow around the ring as Acevedo is able to counter the abdominal stretch. However, Morrow ends up being chased into the ring by Castillo, which causes the referee to be distracted by getting Morrow out of the ring as Acevedo tries to slam Perez. In this confusion, Castillo nails Acevedo with a punch which causes Perez to land on top of Acevedo and score the pin. Perez quickly leaves the ring to celebrate as Profe complains to the referee.

MD: Five minute crowd-pleaser here. Assassin is all stalling and stooging. Perez gets a shot in or a quick slam and Assassin is right back out. Assassin gets a hold on and it’s almost immediately countered. After the commercial break, there’s a Perez headlock where the ref gets distracted by Profe allowing him to comedically pull the beard. It’s that sort of match. They keep it up for a few minutes with everyone watching happy at each instance of comeuppance until Morrow and Castillo brawl to the ring. In the chaos, Castillo gets a shot in making Perez fall onto of Assassin for the win. No heat at all here but the match was short enough (and the Mercenarios the champs I think) so it was fine for what it was.

EB: Since we haven’t really been able to review much of Castillo and Perez as a team in this last part of 1989 due to what’s available footage wise, let’s take the opportunity to go back briefly to the summer of 1989 and see Castillo and Perez in action as a team. Their opponents are the then World tag team champions of Rip Rogers and Abudda Dein.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIyrJ55EeSY

This match is joined in progress and is from shortly after Castillo and Perez lost their hair against the Battens. This match is a case of the Caribbean tag champions challenging for the World tag titles, something we will see happen once more at the year end show. Perez is coming off the ropes but is knocked down by clothesline from Dein. A pinfall attempt is broken up by Castillo. Perez is taken to the rudos corner and is worked over by Rogers and Dein. Most of the match segment we have is Rogers and Dein working over Perez in an attempt to get the win. Carlos Colon on commentary mentions that the tecnicos need to watch out for Dein’s loaded boot and Rip’s DDT.  Rogers throws Perez out of the ring and goads Castillo inside, which allows Dein to attack Perez on the outside. Castillo goes to help Perez get back in the ring but Rogers maintains the advantage. Dein and Rogers continue to work over Perez for a few minutes but Perez and Rip knock heads on an off the rope collision. This allows Miguelito to tag in Castillo, who comes in and attacks both Rogers and Dein. Rip rakes the eyes to stop Castillo’s attack. However, rudo miscommunication results in Dein clotheslining Rogers when Castillo gets out of the way. All four men are now in the ring and squaring off. The match ends when two pinfall attempts occur at the same time, Castillo pinning Rogers and Dein pinning Perez. The ref makes a three count and awards the match to Castillo and Perez since Castillo and Rip were the legal men.

MD: We have the last seven minutes of this, which is a lot of heat on Perez and then the hot tag and the finish. It’s nice to see Rip again. Dein is billed from Palestine which was an interesting choice all things considered. In 91, he’d shift that to being from Iraq for what it’s worth. We can date this from the lack of hair on Perez’ head. This was good in building the anticipation for the tag. When it came, Castillo came in hot but had his eyes worked over by an object and he had to duck a double team to stay in it. Strong finish as Dein pinned Perez as Castillo rolled up Rip, but Rip was the legal man.

EB: One other person we really haven’t seen much of is Brett Sawyer. Despite being around for the monthly big shows in the last part of 1989, we haven’t really seen him in the footage we have available. Sawyer’s has had a series of matches with Super Medico for the WWC World Junior title which appears to be heading towards a final encounter to end the year (they are scheduled in the card lineup we have for December 16, although we can’t confirm if Sawyer did appear). Brett Sawyer won’t really be around for much longer as we head into 1990 (I guess that’s a spoiler as to who remains World Junior champion heading into the new year), so let’s take a look at him once more in action before we close the book on 1989. This time Sawyer is in tag action facing Los Mercenarios.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWyAc7bGUY0

Sawyer’s partner for this tag encounter is Armandito Salgado.  Brett starts off for the tecnico team against Mercenario #2. This match has the dynamic of the veteran Sawyer being able to outsmart the rudos while the more inexperienced wrestler in Armandito falls victim to Los Mercenarios and their chicanery. The commentary team makes note that Sawyer moves very well for someone who looks somewhat bulky. Once Sawyer tags Salgado in, it's pretty much all Mercenarios, with the win coming off their usual double DDT behind the ref’s back. Los Mercenarios will challenge the Youngbloods once more for the World tag titles at the season ending weekend.

MD: The commentators outright called Cuban Assassin “Fidel Castro” so that’s fun. Sawyer got all the shine. Salgado took all the heat. There wasn’t a comeback as Brett tried to come in to complain about double teaming and let them hit the double DDT on Salgado. Overall, I’d say the Mercenarios act works better than it should on paper.

EB: Another wrestler scheduled for the year end shows and challenging for the top singles title is Leo Burke. He’s had a series of matches against Carlos Colon and, despite being unsuccessful in winning the Universal title, Burke has been able to hold his own and even damage Colon’s knee in the process. Examples of this include Burke holding onto the figure four for as long as possible in the non-title match we reviewed in our last post and repeated focused attacks during their title matches that went to a draw. This is something Chicky would start bringing up on tv in the lead up to the final weekend of shows (‘we saw you being helped by the ringside doctor to the back after the 60 minute draw, you’re hiding how bad your knee is’). Carlos would downplay all this, saying that his knee was fine. Before ending the year let’s have one more look at Leo Burke in tv action, this time against the masked La Sombra from parts unknown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjL75frzZ2E

Burke (as usual during this run so far) is accompanied by Chicky and we get the now customary pre match hug (to the crowd’s jeers). There’s still the push on commentary to make sure to highlight Burke’s mastery of the figure four leglock and it’s apparent now why that has been the case from the start. He has been on an eventual collision course with Carlos Colon. They’re set to face each other during the last weekend of shows for 1989 (they are scheduled for Dec. 16 in Bayamon and Dec. 17 in Mayaguez) with the Universal title on the line. Sombra starts off hot against Burke but misses a dropkick after an offensive flurry that allows Burke to gain control. Leo gets to show off his skills, both technique wise and in psychological gamesmanship, as Burke works over Sombra’s leg and eventually Sombra falls victim to the figure four. As we have seen many times already, Burke keeps the hold on after the bell before eventually breaking. Burke is ready to once again face Carlos Colon.

MD: No belt for Burke yet, which helps date this I guess. He had such an easy way of moving around the ring, confident and natural. Sombra was just a guy with a white mask but he had pretty good fire. Burke shut him down early and unleashed a full body assault, with strikes, a gutwrench suplex, knee drops, before using the shin breaker to open him up for the figure four. In and out in four minutes and very efficient.
EB: One more person we want to check on before heading towards our last shows of 1989 is Gary Albright. Since La Batalla Final on Thanksgiving Day, Albright  has dropped the Albright Lock challenge and was unsuccessful in a series of matches against Invader #1. Still, Gary has continued to be featured on tv and has switched to finishing opponents off with the belly to belly suplex. Here he is in action against Estrella Roja.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y3pdf0khhY

This is a short match  with Albright just steamrolling Estrella Roja. This match does provide a clear look at how Albright’s now being presented by the promotion, with a  focus on his power and his new finisher. The refocus is so far showing successful results for Albright in his tv matches, and he is scheduled to challenge Miguelito Perez for the Caribbean title during the final weekend.

MD: Just a quick mauling with a delayed vertical suplex and the belly to belly for the win. Having seen some 87 Hacksaw Higgins in New Japan recently, I kind of wish we had a run with him in PR instead. He would have been an awesome Invader opponent. This, however, is exactly the match that Albright should be having on TV at this point. There’s just not much to say about it.
With our side trip through some final odds and ends of 1989 completed, let’s now look at the December 16 season ending house show. One of the scheduled matches was a singles match featuring Harley Race vs Ricky Santana, however there was a change in opponent for Santana. Ricky is now facing a wrestler making his debut in Puerto Rico, one Kokina Maximus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsOZ1bV3u7A

There is a size difference between the two opponents, something that Hector Moyano and Carlos Colon remark upon in their commentary. This is Kokina’s first appearance in CSP and he’s also scheduled to take part in La Gran Guerra later that night (you can see the cage and two ring setup in the background at certain points throughout the match). Colon mentions that the strategy when you are outweighed by your opponent is to try to use your opponent’s size difference to leverage them down somehow and then go on the attack (it’s tougher for them to get up once down). Santana is not backing down from Kokina but despite some offensive flurries is not able to knock Kokina down. Kokina surprisingly shows off some wrestling combined with head-based offense, such as putting Santana in an armbar and then proceeding to headbutt Santana’s hand while keeping the hold on. Sanatan manages to fire off a few blows, but Kokina sidesteps a dropkick and starts working on Santana’s neck and throat area. On commentary Carlos Colon and Moyano are talking about the pedigree and history of Samoan wrestlers, and how Kokina is young and has great potential. Kokina throws Santana out of the ring and makes a gesture to the crowd. Santana tries to get back in the ring a few times, but Kokina knocks him back to the floor. Kokina works again over the carotid area with a nervehold for a while, but eventually makes the mistake of missing a diving headbutt. Santana tries to take advantage by hitting several punches that have Kokina off balance. Ricky finally knocks Kokina down with a dropkick. Ricky tries to send Kokina into the ropes but Kokina counters. Santana dodges a clothesline but Kokina catches him on the rebound with a Samoan drop. A splash makes it a formality and Kokina gets the win.

MD: I’m not entirely sure where Santana’s been for a chunk of 89. He had a NWA run in the middle of the year but it doesn’t seem lengthy. My memories of Yokozuna have him debuting in the WWF in or around December 92, so him showing up three years earlier to cause trouble here feels thematically similar. He had the timing down already and Santana did well fighting from underneath. This might have been his debut in the region and I imagine they followed it up with some more one-sided squashes on TV.

EB: There were also quite a few title matches scheduled for the year end show. A WWC World Junior title match between Super Medico and Brett Sawyer resulted in Medico retaining his title. Invader #1 and Manny Fernandez squared off for Invader’s Puerto Rico title, a match where Invader was able to retain the title but the issue with Manny was not settled. TNT faced Sika in a successful TV title defense. Carlos Colon and Leo Burke are scheduled for a Universal title match with a 90 minute time limit (since two weeks prior they had a 60 minute draw). We’ll talk about this match and the follow up shortly.

There were also two more title matches that took place on December 16, both for which we have footage available. Let’s first look at Gary Albright challenging Miguelito Perez for the Caribbean title.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dImg0dCWd3Y

The match video has some issues near the end but we get most of the match between Perez and Castillo without notable video issues. This is from a Campeones airing so we have Hugo, Carlos and Chicky on commentary. Both men lock up and jockey for the advantage. The crowd starts getting on Profe’s case, which Miguelito eggs on. This causes Albright to go outside and cover Profe’s ears so he can’t hear the jeers. Albright asks the crowd to keep it down and gets back in the ring. Both men lock up, but there's a stalemate that’s broken by a Perez dropkick that sends Albright back outside. Miguelito is in control throughout the first minutes, but Albright eventually counters into an armlock and works on Miguelito’s arm. This is the story of the middle portion of the match, with Albright continuing to work on Miguelito’s arm by applying pressure on the mat (something that’s highlighted on commentary as being part of Albright’s amateur experience). Albright throws Miguelito outside, where he continues to attack the arm by throwing Perez into the lighting rig. Back in the ring, Albright makes the mistake of missing a splash from the middle turnbuckle, which gives Perez the opening to start a comeback. Miguelito plays to the crowd as the video gets wonky here. Perez hits a series of punches and a clothesline to knock Albright down. Miguelito sends Albright into the ropes and hits a powerslam, but Albright breaks the pinfall count by putting his leg on the rope. Perez starts punching Albright again but Gary hits a leverage throw that sends Miguelito tumbling through the ropes to the outside. Albright knocks Perez off the apron twice, but on the third attempt Miguelito counters with a sunset flip for two. An inside cradle appears to get the three count just as the video cuts off (there’s a glitch in the video but Hugo mentions three about the count and you can hear the outro music start playing right at the end which is usually played when the match segment is done). Perez has retained the Caribbean title.

MD: We get at least most of this (I’m not sure of the finish) and the video gets choppy towards the end. Again, it starts with some stalling and stooging from the heel and as much as I love that stuff in general and can even appreciate the Studd-ian dissonance of it being done by a guy who is huge, I’m not sure that it was right for Albright. When he does take over, it feels like a call back to Strong vs Colon, as he just tears apart Perez’s arm with a hammerlock, into the corner, down on the mat, and best of all, on the outside into the metal constructs that they use for (I think) lighting? Perez comes back after Albright misses a splash but he’s definitely fighting from underneath with roll-ups and the sort. I think he wins with a small package but that’s the end of the footage so it’s hard to tell.

EB: And as mentioned before, the Caribbean tag champions Los Mercenarios get a rematch from Thanksgiving against the World tag champions Mark and Chris Youngblood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J8xVSjLsaw

This is a rematch from the Thanksgiving Day show. The Youngbloods control the first part of the match with some quick tags (or switches in some cases), keeping Morrow on the mat. Acevedo comes in at one point with a slam but Morrow misses an elbow drop and the Youngbloods continue to work on Morrow’s arm. Morrow is able to make the tag to Acevedo while in an armbar and Acevedo takes control against Mark. A quick tag brings Morrow back in for a blow from the top. Morrow throws Mark over the top rope when the ref’s back is turned. Chris helps Mark back in but Los Mercenarios control the middle portion of the match with a sleeperhold on Mark. Chris comes off the top rope to hit Acevedo and break the sleeper but as the ref admonishes Chris, Los Mercenarios switch out and Morrow goes back to the sleeperhold. Morrow goes up top and hits splash for a two count. Acevedo is tagged in and goes for a senton off the top that misses. Mark tries to get to his corner but is cut off by Acevedo, however they end up knocking their heads off a rope rebound. Morrow jumps off the top rope to stop Mark from making the tag (and that was some distance Morrow went). Morrow hits a suplex for two. Morrow keeps Mark on the mat as Mark tries to fire himself up. Mark avoids a double clothesline and counters with a double clothesline of his own on both Mercenarios. Mark finally tags Chris in and Chris cleans house on both Mercenarios. All four men are now in with the Youngbloods getting the upper hand and even going for stereo pin attempts on Acevedo and Morrow. The Youngbloods continue on the attack and at one point dropkick Morrow out of the ring. As the Youngbloods focus on Acevedo, Morrow runs back into the ring holding the belt he had been wearing in his hands. He proceeds to wrap it around Chris Youngblodd’s throat from behind. Morrow hits a belt assisted neckbreaker on Chris. Morrow backs Chris into the rudo corner and ties him with the belt to the turnbuckle. Chris is unable to move as he’s tied by the neck. Mark tries to help his brother but Acevedo comes in with his belt that he had taken off and Los Mercenarios proceed to attack Mark as Chris can’t do anything but watch from the corner. The Youngbloods win by disqualification but Mark is whipped with the belt by both Mercenarios. Eventually, Super Medico and Miguelito Perez hit the ring to chase off Los Mercenarios (this is not shown but is mentioned by Hugo at the end of the video).

MD: This was a pretty straightforward and therefore totally solid match with a super hot finish/post-match. They controlled on Morrow, primarily on his arm for a while to start, a basic shine but one where Morrow was happy to stooge and feed. Heat had its share of chinlocks and nerveholds but also an illegal toss over the top rope behind the ref’s back and Morrow hitting his top rope splash with Assassin missing a flip off the top. Chris came in hot and it looked like the Youngbloods were sure to win but Morrow went out and came back with a strap to draw the DQ. The post-match was brutal, just a tight choking in the corner and a whipping on top of that. The fans really could never know what to expect. There was as much of a chance that the Youngbloods would win the titles at the end of that match or that Profe would help Los Mercenarios retain and they’d move on, or, you just might get the heat on a blood feud turned up. That’s one of the fun things about the territory.

EB: We don’t know the end result of the Universal title match in terms of whether it had a clear winner or if it went to a draw, but we do know that Carlos Colon remained Universal champion after the match. But there are two more things we need to explain before finishing up with 1989. The first is that the main event for the December 16 show was a La Gran Guerra match. If you missed the explanation of what La Gran Guerra is, here it is again. It is a match where two rings are enclosed inside a steel cage structure (including a roof) where two teams face off with the objective of handcuffing all of the opposing team’s members to the cage walls (there are several handcuffs placed around the walls of the structure). All team members start inside the cage at the same time and the winning team is given the opportunity to uncuff any team members that had been taken out of action in order to receive their prize for winning: 5 uninterrupted minutes where they can attack the still handcuffed losing team at their leisure. This will be the fifth La Gran Guerra to take place with El Ejercito de la Justicia and El Club Deportivo tied with two wins apiece. The tecnico team consists of all champions with Carlos Colon, Invader #1, TNT and Mark & Chris Youngblood representing El Ejercito de la Justicia. For El Club Deportivo it will be Leo Burke, Manny Fernandez, Sika, Kokina Maximus and Chicky Starr. We don't have the match footage but we do have the following video snippet (it’s the first 50 seconds of the video that is relevant).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHlt0iddO1c

This video is of a match we’ve already covered but what’s important is the intro to the video that features highlights from the December 16 show. We get some scenes of the Youngbloods vs Mercenarios and Invader #1 vs Manny Fernandez matches. More importantly, we get two brief clips that show how 1989 ended for Carlos Colon. The first clip is from La Gran Guerra,  where we see Leo Burke putting Carlos Colon in the figure four leglock as the rest of the rudos move to run interference. This is immediately followed by a clip from the December 17 Universal title match between Colon and Burke. Here we see that Carlos, after weeks of having his knee constantly attacked, is too hurt to fight out of the hold, succumbs to the pain in his injured knee and gets counted down while in the figure four leglock. Thus we have a new Universal champion to close out the year in Leo Burke. Chicky Starr has once again gained control of the Universal title as we close out 1989.

Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, we have reached 1990. There is a new Universal champion in Leo Burke but you can bet El Ejercito de la Justicia is looking to win it back as soon as possible. What twists and turns await us in 1990? What new and/or returning faces may we see? Our journey through 1990 begins.