Found Footage Friday: IWRG RETRO 1996~!

IWRG Retro 46 1996

Cassandra/Indomable/Chiola vs. Princesa Dorada/Julisa/Irma Aguilar

MD: You always spend some of these matches just figuring out who you're looking at. I'm no expert on 1996 IWRG luchadoras. Thankfully we had names on screen on the way out. The pairings are Indomable/Irma, Cassandra/Dorada, and Chola/Julisa.It's hard to say too much about any single wrestler here but Indomable hit hard and got hit hard against both Irma and Dorada. Julisa and Chola had some slick (or at least quick) rope running. The primera, in general, had a lot of simple and straightforward matwork n the first two pairings but everything felt like a struggle.

Cassandra stood out the most to me probably. She had a mask with the open hair and a unique look and really played to the crowd a lot. At the start of the segunda she wanted a handshake and when she didn't get it, she shook the ref's hand and give him a big hug instead. The primera was pairings with everything breaking down at the end. The segunda had a lot more in and outs. Sometimes it got a little too chaotic maybe and lost focused and it never settled down to a rudo beatdown and comeback. Instead, it built to a bunch of goofy (in a fun way) rope running where everyone got in there at once and some big tandem spots. Occasionally along the way you got ruda miscommunication. This felt better than the sum of its parts, honestly. At times it was a little rough around the edges but that didn't hurt the entertainment quota overall even if I could have used just a little more heat.

Mini Cochesse/Mini Andy Barrow vs. Mini Flashito/Mini Konnan

MD: Andy Barrow was The Killer's facepaint clad manager who became a rudo himself and this was a mini version of him. I can't say I'm super familiar but I sort of want to be now? I should ask Tom K about him. ANYWAY. This was his mini and this was pretty good. The rudos had no problem bumping, with Barrow sliding out of the ring over and over and Cochesse taking a crazy flight to nowhere through the ropes. They were solid in the beatdowns too though there was one Doomsday Device which seemed to go away afield. 

Flashito had some very nice and interesting stuff and Konnan was beloved by the kids. He also finished a caida with a nasty liontamer-esque standing cloverleaf. Flashito had a great press up dive to set the stage for the finish of the match, clearing the ring for Konnan to get a rana to end it. This hit a lot of the marks you would have wanted it to.

Kato Kung Lee/Tony Rivera/Torero vs. Los Oficiales (Oficial/Guardia/Vigilancia)

MD: A lot of fun and more heated than I expected coming in. The tecnico side was a joy actually. Kato Kung Lee has all of his super stylized faux karate stuff. Rivera has a lot of tricked out stuff including this great trip out of nowhere. And Torero has the bullfighter gimmick and most of what he does is play into that in the best sort of Rayo way. He had them charging at his red flag before the match. They clowned Los Oficiales pretty well during the primera.

Segunda went as you'd expect with three-on-one beatings. All fairly basic stuff but they controlled the ring and tempo well. Surprisingly, Rivera bled and they worked the wound a bit. That led to the big comeback in the tercera. A little bit of miscommunication set up the dives, but they twisted it where they caught each tecnico one after the next and then dragged things down until a rudo beatdown DQ (I think at least). It's always a little tough without the crowd noise but you can imagine how it went given how they worked this one.