Found Footage Friday: MONTERREY~! BLONDY~! PATTERSON~! ARANDU~! STUKA~! REYNA~! ROBOCOP~!

Stuka/Mogur/Estrella Dorada vs. Arandu/Fabuloso Blondy/Ricky Patterson Arena Coliseo Monterrey 1989

MD: Blondy and Patterson have the USA facepaint and are waving the flag. Arandu (being a caveman) has a valet, Laila with him which is not something I think I've seen in the other matches of his we've come across, but she is super active and adds a lot to the act. This was all about him feuding with Stuka while Blondy and Patterson caused havoc in the background. Laila held Stuka's leg from the outside allowing Arandu to get an immediate advantage, ripping the masking and biting the head. Patterson especially was all over the place, flaunting his size, making over the top pro wrestler faces right into the camera. Blondy had some great punches. Nothing really to say here about Estrella and Mogur, though.

Super hot comeback in the segunda as Stuka (his hair streaming out of the ripped mask, forehead bloody, the visor underneath which made for an iconic image) tossed Arandu out. Arandu moved as Stuka backflipped to his feet on the floor, but then he missed his superkick and hit Laila. That let Stuka get the fall. Tercera was brawling and revenge with Stuka lawn darting him into the fourth row. Finish was a play on the segunda with Laila holding Stuka on the apron and Arandu nailing her by accident. As the refs were distracted by that, he fouled Stuka for the win though. Very effective stuff to keep the feud going.

Black Man/Hara Kiri/Rudy Reyna vs. Babe Sharon/Milo Caballero/Talisman Jr.? Arena Coliseo Monterrey 1988/1989

MD: This is apparently not the usual Talisman, even though he has the gimmick; they said he was a new rudo making his debut. He was pretty game, including diving out of the ring feet first after Reyna dodged at one point. While Sharon (who came out like usual with the turban and cape) had some fun antics with Hara Kira (who had a good look and was married to Irma Aguilar apparently), the best primera exchange was Black Man and Milo. They were really going at it on the mat and with the quick switch up armdrags. Very fun stuff. Things got zany for the primera's finish with the rudos triple clubbering everyone like they were Choshu's army and the tecnicos coming in to fight off all three. It ended with two of them in leglocks and Reyna running over them until he goaded Milo to leap; he landed on his partners and Reyna sat on them.

Segunda started with another fun exchange between Black Man and Sharon (and then Black Man and everyone) before Talisman snuck in a foul on Hari Kiri and they started the beatdown, with a lot of teasing the tecnicos by bringing him over to tag. Sharon and Reyna were former partners and Sharon got the pin with energetic shoulder blocks and a running flip senton. Tercera was heated with the rudos keeping control with blatant fouls and triple teaming until Milo accidentally hit Talisman. Things broke down in and out of the ring from there. What stood out in the chaos was Reyna hitting a great punch on Talisman. But the tecnicos slipped on banana peels (including Black Man bounding into the ring only to get caught off a rana attempt by a Sharon power bomb) and the rudos snuck it out. The tape got a little wonky right at the moment of comeback which is a shame, but this was a very good look at these guys in a very complete match.

Robocop/Fox Man vs. Blue Fish/Imperio Negro Arena Coliseo Monterrey

MD: Sometimes you just need to watch a Robocop match, right? I've seen some Blue Fish in all the Monterrey that's been uploaded but I never feel like I've gotten a real sense of him. It's important to note that he was billed from the most "inhospitable" part of the ocean, and, if I've got this right, Imperio Negro was from the galactic abyss and is a representative of the intergalactic cursed empire. So, you know, a perfect enemy for Robocop.

Structurally, this was comfort food lucha. Initial exchanges. Second round for rope running. Tecnicos get the advantage and win the primera. Immediately into the rudo beatdown for the segunda. No real comeback here (save for one Blue Fish quebradora in the midst of...) but instead right into submissions that are broken up one after the other and the dive into the finish. Lots of pulling at Robocop's mask by Imperio early. Robocop seemed fairly bulky overall. Blue Fish slowed Fox Man down on their exchange and worked the mat. With the VQ it was a little tricky to see everything there but on the second exchange, Fox Man had a nice novel shoulder side straddle into an arm drag. Robocop hit a flip dive off the apron but we didn't really get to see it and finish had Blue Fish jam another quebradora, landing on his feet and putting a head into Fox Man's groin for the foul and the DQ. Ref hadn't been calling them on the rudos in the segunda so that was a bit of a surprise. Maybe the best part of this was the commentators going on about the plot of Robocop and how his gun never ran out of bullets, etc. Still, it was fun local undercard stuff.

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