Mr. Niebla: Descanse en Paz

Mr. Niebla/El Hijo Del Santo/Negro Casas vs. Fuerza Guerrera/Black Warrior/Blue Panther CMLL 11/13/98

PAS: We reviewed an all time great trios match with a lot of the same guys from April of 98, and while this wasn't as good as that, it was still a total blast to watch. Really fun to see Santo and Casas as a tag team, especially so soon after their feud, and they really break out some fun combos here including an awesome flip rana by Santo off of a Casas Romero special. Fuerza vs. Casas was the highlight, with both guys breaking out a ton of full speed tricks and treats. Niebla was mostly matched up with fellow lost generation star Black Warrior, and they really had great chemistry. Warrior breaks out one of his incredible bullet topes which sends Niebla into the third row, where he barreled into what looked like a pre-teen girl. Just another example of how undeniable 1998 CMLL trios were.

ER: This was indeed a noticeable step down from that absolute classic 6 months prior, and Niebla may have been the guy least focused on the entire match. This is a Fuerza/Casas show, a match that essentially made me set out to watch some Niebla and 10 minutes in made me think I should just devote the next couple months to writing up exclusively 1998 Fuerza. Fuerza really appears to HATE Casas as he unleashes match long punishment on Casas's face and balls, the two punching and chopping each other through all three falls, Fuerza sticking him with a nasty inverted atomic drop, later tying him in the ropes and running into him with a straight boot to the jaw. Santo and Casas snap off gorgeous headscissors opposite Panther, Fuerza hits a gorgeous reverse powerbomb on Santo (Santo glides through moves so gracefully that it looks like Fuerza is lifting an empty plastic bag to slam), Black Warrior does indeed send Niebla crashing into a surly 11 year old girl with his trademark tope, and the whole thing felt like the kind of match where you could throw these same 6 together and routinely get something special.

Mr. Niebla vs. Mr Niebla CMLL 8/20/99

PAS: This was a weird situation where a guy had started wrestling in IWRG as Mr. Niebla, and eventually came to CMLL when the original Mr. Niebla was injured. OG Niebla attacked the imposter and it led to a mascara contra mascara match. This was fun stuff, it was one fall and either short or clipped, but what we got was good. There was a lot of pre match shenanigans with Dr. Wagner Jr. leading to IWRG Niebla getting the jump on CMLL Niebla and ripping his mask and bloodying him. CMLL Nieblas get the advantage back but misses a flip dive and lands hard on concrete. We moved pretty quickly into the closing run then, with some big near falls. I really liked how hard both guys were working to end the match or survive, really pressing on pins, and squirming out of holds. Niebla finally locks on the Nieblina to end the match, and IWRG Niebla would end up having a fun run as Mr. Mexico in CMLL.

Mr. Niebla vs. Abismo Negro AAA 2/15/08

PAS: This was part of the Niebla vs. Abismo feud over the leadership of the Vipers, and was a Bull Terrier match (aka Dog Collar). I liked Niebla attacking Negro at the bell and blooding him up, and trying to win the match before he even put on the collar. This was in the six sided ring days of AAA, and having to hit all six turnbuckles drags out that portion of the match even more then in normally does. The parts of this that were brawling were really nifty, but when it devolved into a game of tag, it got less interesting. Still fun to see Niebla in a different setting.

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On Brand Segunda Caida: El Mosco in WWF

"El Mosco"/Abismo Negro/Histeria vs. Los Cadetes del Espacio (Discovery/Super Nova/Venum) WWF Raw 3/24/97

ER: This was plenty fun, with Abismo Negro looking like the guy of this group who could cross over. He got arguably the biggest reaction of the match when he powerbombed the hell out of Super Nova. Abismo also bumped upside down off the ropes and took a great bump around the ringpost. He did incredible little things that nobody else was doing in these matches, like actually acting like he was trying to stop the tecnicos from flying. He's the guy on the apron leaping futilely after Venum as Venum launches himself with a top rope quebrada to the floor. Venum also could have broken out with American fans. He was really fearless at this point, crazy with his body (like doing a springboard flip to the floor and landing on his feet), his a couple inventive headscissors, got some noise. Histeria was the bumper of the group, really flying hard backwards off moves, looking like a small Buzz Sawyer. He took this huge flying bump through the ropes to the floor, tumbling hard to the entrance ramp, and then ate a big tope con giro from Discovery.

There was only one problem with this match: It didn't actually have El Mosco. The onscreen graphic says El Mosco when the Galaxy Rudos make their way out, but it is Maniaco. Vince even calls him Maniaco, so this was merely a screen graphic error that has then been circulated incorrectly around match lists for 20 years. A fun match, but our search for WWF El Mosco is starting weird.

El Mosco/Abismo Negro/Histeria/Maniaco vs. Discovery/Super Nova/Venum/Ludxor WWF Shotgun   4/5/97

ER: Ah, there he is! And this has to be the frontrunner for best match of the AAA/WWF failed/aborted/misguided showcase of talent. Perhaps most notably, in an 8 man battle between The Space Cadets and the Rudos of the Galaxy, JR calls 6 of the 8 by the correct name (he mixes up Abismo Negro and El Mosco, which is a higher percentage of success than I was expecting). Brian Pillman also wonders if these men were perhaps smuggling strawberries in their butt across the border, but JR at least attempted to learn names and call the action seriously. This felt like the kind of spotfest that could have actually caught on and gotten great reactions in front of WWF audiences, if WWF cared about what kind of reaction it got. This was a breathless spotfest with good pairings, short (6 minutes or so) and to the point, that the crowd was already reacting to by the time it was done. Most of this crowd likely viewed this as Max Moon x4 vs. Max Moon x4, but the wrestlers went for it and I thought succeeded. 

The best pairing was El Mosco and Venum, with Mosco bumping all over for slick ranas and headscissors, then catching a huge Venum dive to the floor. Venum's flying looked really great and the two of them went insanely fast through all of it, and the fans didn't know what to expect from the moment Venum hit a dragon rana. I assume most in attendance had never seen anything like that before. Mosco even took the big belly flop slide on the floor, and slid so far that he flew PAST the padded mats and onto the entrance way. Venum also does nice extra hard bumping, running chest first into the buckles as if he was really trying to show WWF he had done his homework on their top stars. 

Abismo and Discovery were fun as hell, with Discovery hitting a big tope con giro and Abismo later getting clowned by Nova into missing a tope con giro, crashing but first onto the floor (Abismo can later be seen working out his cheeks while walking ringside). Maniaco almost lawndarts himself taking a Jerry bump (that he thankfully does last minute fully rotate on), and wraps himself around the ringpost in an awesome way, splatting on the ring steps on his way down, then eating a huge flying headbutt from Nova after propelling him up the buckles. The Rudos were basing like crazy during this whole thing, pushing the Cadets to a super fast pace, and the Cadets met that pace. Fans were quiet when Maniaco and Nova started, but 5 minutes in they were into it. This was nothing but slick ranas, cool armdrags, big dives, great bumps, big powerbombs, all of it cool. These guys easily could have been a special attraction on house shows, Raw openers, whenever; and it's a shame we never got to see WHO would have been the breakouts from the AAA group, just because none of them were ever given any time to breakout. 

El Mosco vs. Super Nova WWF Raw 3/31/97

ER: This was a pretty good representative for the whole AAA in WWF experiment as a whole: Two guys - who honestly may as well not have been given names - thrown into the ring with no kind of hype, killing themselves to little reaction, while Vince talks to Sunny, and Sunny grinds on Hugo Savinovich during the most dangerous highspot of the match, assuring that nobody calls it. There is also a running thread of powerbombs getting a bigger crowd reaction than any other highspot the AAA luchadors do. It's as if planchas and tornillos confuse them, but a guy getting splatted with a big powerbomb is a universally accepted thud. Vince calls two spots that were supposed to miss (including a big sky twister press from Super Nova) as if they were blown spots, and seemingly nobody in the arena notices when Super Nova hits a crazy tope con giro into El Mosco, while Mosco is *seated* on the entrance ramp. Nova covered a lot of distance, the visual looked incredible...but admittedly, Sunny's black dress *was* impossibly tight.

El Mosco/El Pantera vs. Taka Michinoku/Scott Taylor WWF Shotgun 11/8/97

ER: So the AAA showcase experience was long over, but they brought Mosco back for a one-off, a way to pad their burgeoning LightHeavyweight division before they also lost interest in that a few months later. I don't think I've ever seen this match, and it rules. It starts with Mosco leading Scott Taylor through some cruiser offense that felt very atypical for Taylor. Taylor broke out a headscissors and a big cannonball off the apron, then hit a missile dropkick and landed on his feet like he was Bruce Lee out here with early 90s Brian Pillman hair. Mosco would get to shine a bit later, but early on it was all about leading Taylor through fun and passable lucha sequences. 

The real money was in the Taka/Pantera exchanges, and they cruelly cut who knows how much out of our time with them for commercial purposes. The second Pantera tagged in he hit a gorgeous rolling armdrag on Taka, rolling smoothly right over his back and sending Taka to the floor. Pantera does his dope rolling headscissors to the apron, that sends Taka crashing hard to the floor (a move they'd get to do on PPV a couple months later, which is a crazy PPV singles match we got, in retrospect), and then Pantera just obliterates Taka with a tope, running from the apron and diving past the ringpost. The lunatic even did it through the ring corner where the steps were, the worst of the four corners to try that lunacy. Mosco and Pantera control segment was nice, from the simple things like a picture perfect tandem drop toehold on Taylor, to a cool as hell springboard flipping legdrop from Mosco. The ending is pretty simple, as obviously we know Taka is winning all of these matches, and at a certain point they kinda rush into go home mode and Take just starts dropping Mosco with kicks, a nice brainbuster, and the Michinoku driver. So a simple way to wrap things up, but the whole match was filled with gold, the types of things nobody else was doing on WWF TV at the time. Mosco looked great in all of his WWF appearances, but there was clearly nothing he could have actually done in the ring to get hired. The fact we got a dozen or two Pantera matches in WWF was an actual lucha miracle.

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MLJ: Misterioso/Volador 7: Ángel Azteca, Volador I, Winners vs Misterioso, Solar I, Super Calo II

1994-03-19 @ Toluca, Estado de México
Ángel Azteca, Volador I, Winners vs Misterioso, Solar I, Super Calo

Here's the next chapter in the Misterioso/Volador saga, and this was another good match with some real progression. This was more focused than the previous match, which had sparks and schisms all around. Here, the issue was definitely Misterioso's attitude, with a clear excalation as the match went on.

The primera was the initial, logical exchanges. Solar and Azteca began and it was very solid, even stuff playing up the familiarity between the partners. Winners vs Super Calo followed. Once again, Winners was surprisingly over. I might have to track down their mask match at some point. They sped things up a bit and held up each other's hands at the end. We would not get that sense of brotherhood from Volador and Misterioso though; well, maybe from Volador who wanted a handshake/handslap. Misterioso was reluctant but eventually went for it. He was walking around with swagger, complaining, interacting with the crowd. They had a good, competitive exchange, which ended with Volador wanting a handshake and Misterioso turning it into a whip only to get armdragged for his trouble, which pleased neither wrestler. Misterioso, frustrated, pushed Volador only for it to turn back on him with a body press:

That was the story of their break up. Misterioso would show frustration and bad sportsmanship and outright aggression and Volador would go with it and turn it back upon him. The fall ended with Azteca/Volador/Winners side going over after a submission suplex on Solar and Calo. Meanwhile, Misterioso dropped to a knee, wanting a handshake. Volador gave it to him but the second he showed his back, Misterioso tried for a dropkick. Volador dodged and, having had enough, dropkicked him and let loose with a very satisfying tope.

The segunda was just more well put together action, with Misterioso selling indignation from what just happened and some mixing of the pairings. It came back to Volador vs Misterioso though, with Misterioso trying to take advantage of a handshake once again, and Volador refusing to take advantage of placing his partner on the top, only to get kicked for his good sportsmanship:

The fall ended with the other partners facing back against each other, getting their falls back, and a Misterioso tope on Volador, in a nice parallel.

Everything broke down in the tercera. It was enjoyable chaos surrounding the focus of Misterioso and Volador. Here, the big moment was Volador once again having enough and finally crushing Misterioso with a quebradora to the crowd's delight. From there, it was a matter of getting the other four out of the way, including a great assisted Calo dive onto Winners. Once it was Volador vs Misterioso again, they went to the finish, including Misterioso hanging on to the ref to stop a sunset flip, drawing boos in the process. In the end, though, Volador turned a Misterioso Victory Roll attempt into a drop onto the top rope and followed it up with a roll up to score the first win between the two. This built off the last match really well. Misterioso was well on the way and the distinction between his aggression and Volador's reluctance played out perfectly.

Here are some fun Calo moments, just because.

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MLJ: Misterioso/Volador 6: Misterioso, Solar I, Super Calo vs Ángel Azteca, Volador I, Winners

1994-03-05 @ Cuautla, Morelos
Misterioso, Solar I, Super Calo vs Ángel Azteca, Volador I, Winners

Occasionally, I go back too far on these little mini-projects. I wanted to get to the Volador vs Misterioso mask match. That was in part due to the fine folks at Between the Sheets talking it up on their podcast. It was in part due to the timeliness of Super Parka showing up in Arena Mexico. Then I got distracted, so now it's a half aborted project consisted of non-consecutive matches of Misterioso and Volador teaming, which is fine, because they're a good team that doesn't get talked up enough. Let's see if we can't finish this up though. Bear with me on this one though.

Here's a match where the schism happens. It's kind of cool in premise, too, serving as a sort of parejas increibles match. Winners (who became Abismo Negro later; he was super over with the kids, by the way) and Super Calo were partners (with mostly matching gear). Azteca and Solar teamed up a lot. Misterioso and Volador were obviously partners. This match split them, paired them, and pitted them against one another. The primera, which was the most straightforward part of the match was full of good stuff, like some fairly elaborate monkey flip spots, lots of sequence, and a really nice dodge of a kick by Solar turned into an armdrag:

And this was really about as fun as you'd expect a match with partners, very familiar with one another, pairing off. In fact, the one thing that dragged it down a bit as a standalone exhibition was the one thing that makes it interesting in the context of the other matches: Misterioso's bad attitude. It started early, with him the only person in the match who didn't seem to want to be there. He was very hesitant to tag in, really milking it. He did tag in and worked some really fast stuff with Volador. Later int he primera, however, Solar pushed Azteca in a moment of frustration (which didn't work anyway since Azteca just kipped up and clotheslined him). Misterioso feigned upsetness over it, though.

Solar took the first fall for his team on Azteca with a roll up. The segunda started with Misterioso vs Volador, with some effective scouting spots, ending with Volador's quebradora. Misterioso sold it big, rolling outside, seeming offended. They ended up shaking though. The cracks kept coming too with Azteca pushing Winners on the outside after taking a big bump and Winners responding by dropkicking him over the barricade. They made up, though and, shortly thereafter, Azteca would take the fall on Solar in a nice bit of symmetry.

The tercera had more of the same, good action and increasing complaining. It started early when Misterioso thought that a back body drop by Volador on Calo (really just the receipt on one just taken) was too harsh. Later on, the ref lazily pushed Volador over on a Misterioso sunset flip attempt and when Volador complained, the two started pushing one another again.

The action kept mounting, culminating with a dive train, with each luchador getting a tope in. Maybe it's something that happened more in AAA, and it's now the sort of thing WWE does in their multiman tag matches all the time, but I haven't seen that specific sort of train too much in lucha, so it really stood out. It also set up the finish, which was Solar locking la tapatia onto Azteca, Azteca sitting up out of it, and Misterioso, really in bad faith, walking in and punching him, causing a double pin and everyone to be all the more upset.

This was really good for what it was. It's interesting that Misterioso and Volador weren't the only heated partners here, especially because, as best as I can tell, this was part of a bigger turn for Misterioso that had been going on even prior to this match. I think it probably would have been better if it was a little more focused in that regard, but it felt more human and less forced as it was. This would lead to a rematch, which is where we are headed next.

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