Found Footage Friday: REMO BANDA~! PRINCIPE ISLAND (LA PARK)~! ARANDU~! GRAN MARKUS~! ANTICHRISTO~?

Remo Banda/Coliseo 2000 vs Panico/Zorro de Oro CMLL 1989

MD: Remo Banda is Super Parka/Volador , with his glorious head of hair. I think Zorro de Oro is actually Anticristo of the famous promo which makes this particularly well timed in some ways. Coliseo had a colorful costume with his name in big letters (like a sign almost) and Panico was just a scuzzy looking rudo doing scuzzy rudo things. Primera had him get the best of Remo Banda with a bunch of armdrags but then also refuse to engage at times as well. All of these guys were perfectly competent, even if Zorro de Oro had me look twice as he went twisting over the top rope to the apron once or twice. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. The primera had bodies flying about chaotically to end but things settled down with a segunda beatdown. The commentary was trying to paper over that even though the rudos tossing Remo Bando around by his hair, the refs didn't dare disqualify these men with "sewers for their hearts." Also that Gran Davies, since he had been a rudo when he wrestled, tended to favor the rudos as a ref. Also that the ropes should be an ally to the fighter, not an instrument of torture. Lots of fun commentary here that only got more flowery when Morales took over in the tercera. Anyway, the tecnicos took over too with Remo Banda pinballing the rudos as they pretty quickly got their revenge and won the day. This had an undercard feel but colorful characters at least.  

Cachorro Mendoza/Rudy Reyna/Jose Torres vs Principe Island/Arandu/Gran Markus Jr (Monterrey 1990)

MD: Kind of a murderer's row of Segunda Caida rudos here, with my new appreciation for Arandu and the idea that Principe Island is, in fact, pre-Park. He had a swanky black jumpsuit with shoulder tassles and the announcers likened him to Michael Jackson. Markus mainly directed traffic and while he had some dubious kicks, he also stooged when it was time to stooge so I forgive him. Tecnico side was interesting. Torres was better known for his football gimmicks Super Maquina and El Invencible and Reynes had graduated (through older age) from being an Exotico to being a more straightforward tecnico. Both of them controlled the center of the ring with armdrgs and hiptosses and even a neat dragon screw takeover variation and had the rudos create motion for them. And boy did Arandu and Principe want to create motion, skidding and flying and bumping all over the place. You half had the sense they were trying to outdo one another, but it was really just who they were. Rudos ambushed at the start and controlled things until Mendoza took everyone out early in the segunda. From there the rudos fed plenty to make the older tecnicos look like experts until Markus got caught throwing a foul fairly early in the tercera. Nice to see all these guys as it was sort of a weird crossroads of time. And hey, you have to love that rudo side.

Kendo Star/El Magnifico/Kendo vs Principe Island/Carlos Plata/Milo Caballero (Monterrey 1989)

MD: This was prior to the 1990 match but I'm covering these per post order. This is a younger Park, stringier, with shorter hair. He's matched up with Kendo here, with their first exchange being mostly posturing and kicking at the air and shtick and their second being all of Kendo's fast tumbling with Principe running behind him and left in the corner, laughing at his own comeuppance. We know that he's one of the most charismatic wrestlers ever, but this isn't a Wagner Jr situation where he took years to work it out. It's a Gino Hernandez situation. We knew it a bit from Panama but it's so clear here. He got it. He was honest and earnest and coy and brazen. Unmasked Principe with a face full of character, sort of a face only a mother could love, isn't just bumping and sliding and feeding. He's reacting to everything and you watch him and imagine an entirely different career where he could have been amazing unmasked, like another Negro Casas. And of course, he was able to tap into so much of that and amplify it in his own way with the suit, but you look at this and wonder.

Magnifico is Justicero, and Plata is another one of those plain looking guys who could go exactly as much as he needed to. There are dozens and dozens of them. They matched up well enough and were actually the final pairing though the match itself would have told me it would be Principe and Kendo. Kendo Star had the mask and the gear but wasn't nearly as over the top as Kendo and didn't stand out nearly as much here, but Milo fell about for his act well enough. This didn't go quite deep enough into beatdown and comeback to have the emotional stakes you'd want; Principe and Kendo bolstered it but if they had leaned into the violence and revenge just a little more, the payoff would have been visceral given the pieceson the table. As it was, it's mainly a great look at this young man who would someday become legend.