Found Footage Friday: GARZA~! DRAGON~! BLONDY~! CHICANA~! LOVER~! GUAJARDO

Blue Fish/El Sanguinario/Gato del Ring vs. Hector Garza/Ruben Juarez Jr./Franky CMLL 1992

MD: It's a real testament to the footage we've gotten over the last few months that it's been so long since I chipped away at Roy's Monterrey uploads, but here we are. This is a blurry, staticy undercard match with some local guys (like Blue Fish) and Garza as the star of the future very early into his tenure. And it was fun straightforward lucha trios action.

The rudos controlled as we came in, really laying a beating on Franky. The commentary noted how he was such a flyer that he even flew well when he was taking a back body drop. He flew well into the stands when they tossed him in and followed it up with a chair too. Nice mugging from the rudos, solid stuff. The comeback was spirited like you'd want with Garza looking great to the point where Franky couldn't quite keep up. He would throw a dropkick off the apron to the floor in an attempt to do so though.

Then the tercera had holds broken up with matter-of-fact hard shots. It worked well and built to a big Garza flip dive before Jaurez got the win. My favorite bit in it was Juarez not able to get a monkey flip going and Garza having to leap behind him to flip them both. Pretty novel spot. I like Garza from later in the decade fine even if I think his real strength was as a rudo stooge later on, but there was something dynamic and exciting about him all the way back here. 

Fabuloso Blondy/Rick Patterson/Sangre Chicana vs. Ultimo Dragon/Cesar/Apolo Dantes CMLL 1992

MD: This is one of those ones that we'd probably never really even look at otherwise. It has a big chunk missing due to static in the middle and a Mil Mascaras commercial between the segunda and tercera. But it also has Ultimo Dragon doing maybe the coolest thing I've ever seen him do, rearing back and hitting a Yoshiaki Fujiwara style headbutt onto Rick Patterson. 

That was during the tecnico comeback in the primera. They'd been literally pulling Apolo (listing says their father Alfonso, but I think it's Apolo) apart until the tecnicos rushed in. Blondy was post-hair match but he and Patterson made for two solid big lugs with Chicana to add the flair of violence. Post-static we come right back to Blondy clocking Apolo with a chair and the tercera was a beatdown exacerbated by the fact that Cesar had decided he wasn't going to get along with his brother and Dragon. Instead, after watching for a bit, and right when Dragon was making a comeback, he clocked him allowing the rudos to pin him. Post-match he tossed a chair right in Dragon's face and paraded around the ring. 

ER: I really liked all the tecnicos going after Rick Patterson's meaty hamstring. Cesar ends the primera grabbing him by the chin and throwing two swift kicks, Ultimo sweeps his leg out with one in the segunda, and Patterson is very entertaining selling them. He treats them lethally and it shuts him down every time. When Dantes hit his, Patterson didn't even retaliate, he just got up and limped exaggeratedly back to the apron. It's funny seeing Blondy and Patterson in there with the smaller Cesar and Dragon, and I think Apolo was really good at selling the chokes and clubs of Blondy, getting dragged around on his knees and choked with a cable on the apron. The Cesar turn on Dragon was angry enough (for reasons I do not understand) that I'd love to see a singles match that surely doesn't exist...yet. I wanted to see Dragon work BIG against the big men but that didn't happen. Matt is 100% right about his Fujiwara headbutt, though. I have watched hundreds of Ultimo Dragon matches and I have never seen him rear back and headbutt someone like that. Funny, in classic Dragon style, that this violent piece of offense came one minute in and nothing else he did matched that energy. 

Bronco/Latin Lover/Valente Fernandez vs. Sanguinario/Rene Guajardo Jr/Canadian Butcher CMLL 1992 

MD: Pretty complete match with a few interesting wrinkles. Pairings for the primera were Bronco and Guajardo, Lover and Sanguinario, and Fernandez and Butcher, but we got a lot of Fernandez and Guajardo throughout too. They were pretty perfectly matched up even in look and both were over. Pretty much everyone was over here. Even Butcher (Brett Como/Black Dragon/Ultimate Dragon) was over due to his very unique look (a mullet and a mohawk, but the mohawk was just one patch of hair gelled to stick up two feet like a unicorn horn) and a pretty astonishing 1992 Monterrey Shooting Star Press towards the end of the segunda.

Bronco danced about and Guajardo had some great, great punches, the sort of punches that make you want to ask around and say "Hey, do we know as a community that Rene Guajardo, Jr. had some great punches?" because I don't remember people ever talking about that. A lot of the story here however, was making Lover look good. This was shortly after the gimmick's debut and the match went out of its way to make him look strong. Certainly whenever he was in, women screamed, and there was one point in between caidas where he was getting beaten on the floor that two stepped forward to protect him. He ultimately had the comeback (or at least set it off) and was the last man standing after Bronco wiped out on a brutal missed dive where Butcher just walked away and they pinned Fernandez. It was ultimately three-on-one at that point but he got his share of near-falls before Sanguario finally got the better of roll up reversals. Fernandez still felt like the star of the moment but there was a torch passing element here. 

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Found Footage Friday: ANGEL AZTECA~! MANO NEGRA~! PANTERITA~! MA 2000~! ARANDU~! GARGOLA~! WAGNER~! BLUE FISH~! ESCOBEDO~! MR. TERROR~!

Angel Azteca/Mano Negra/Panterita del Ring vs. Mascara Ano 2000/Arandu/Sultan Gargola CMLL 1992

MD: We've been covering these more or less chronological on when Roy posted them and I don't always check to see if they've been easily available before. I am, however, skipping Mascara Sagrada/Atlantis/Panterita del Ring vs Negro Casas/Jerry Estrada/MS-1 because it wasn't just available but available with better VQ previously. Ah well. This footage has been a lot of fun to go through overall. Monterrey had a pretty wild feel for most matches and this was no different.

Here, though, the focus wasn't on Panterita but on Angel Azteca and Arandu. Obviously one of the big advantages of this footage has been Panterita/Ephesto/Safari/HsN and really getting a better sense of him in this stage of his career as a local hero, but Arandu has quickly become a favorite too. In some ways he looked like Estrada's bulkier brother, the Gordy to his Buddy, but he loved to bump out of the ring just as much. Whereas most guys would fall to the floor on a dropkick or armdrag, he'd go absolutely sailing through the ropes. On the comeback in the segunda here, we don't see how it happened, but when we cut from the ring to the floor, we just see him sprawled over six chairs. Azteca held his own when it was time to chase Arandu around the ring or what not too and obviously, he's the guy who lawn darted him into the seats, even if we didn't see it.

Everyone else was fine here. Mascara Ano 2000 matched his partners well in green. I probably don't give Sultan Gargano's mask with the turban enough credit but he was perfectly solid from what we can see and a natural partner for Arandu and obviously well-practiced working Panterita. Mano Negra really was just there save for one spot in the tercera where he got to punch everyone enjoyably. Panterita had one great flip off the top into a pin to end the segunda too. Finish was fun with Arandu fouling only to drop to the ground selling himself and somehow conning the refs into letting the rudos win. Judging by the objects flying into the ring after the fact, the fans really hated it in the best way.  

Mongol Chino/Blue Fish/Rey Venus vs. Ausente/Luminoso/Chuy Escobedo CMLL 1991

MD: This was undercard stuff and I can't tell you much about the tecnico side past Escobedo. He looked pretty slick here in his exchanges and crazy as he missed a flip dive off the apron to the floor. What probably made this most interesting was how much of local rudo Blue Fish we got to see. No single move or spot stood out, but he was confident and assertive, always in the right place at the right time. Chino was a solid cheapshot artist and did a really nice plancha over the top. While things ended with Fish and Austene after everyone else cleared out with the dives, there was never a clear central story that I could pick up on. The rudos ambushed early, the tecnicos came back, and things went more even for the tercera, sure, but there wasn't one pairing that seemed to be at the center of everything. Amusingly, rudo-leaning ref Guerrero got wiped out into Chino on the outside and the two were at odds for the rest of the match, only making things easier for the tecnicos. This one wasn't essential but I have a better feel for Blue Fish now at least.

 

Super Punk/Platino/Asterisco vs. Dr. Wagner Jr/Alacran/Mr. Terror CMLL 1991

MD: Luchawiki is not a ton of help here. For Mr. Terror it basically tells us that he exists. For Alacran (the Scorpion), it basically says that he existed and was thought to be poor. The Asterisco noted is a Reynosa guy but the mask checks out. Despite what the on screen graphic says, "Latino" is "Platino," and he's got some great gear and robotic taunting. I'll be honest that I spent the whole match tracking Mr. Terror hoping he'd do something cool and it never quite happens. Really, the interesting thing here is that Asterisco eats a nasty toss into the chairs (something common for this footage, right?) at the end of the comeback in the segunda and gets taken to the back and it becomes 3 on 2 with the rudos having a deficit. They were booked to win too and I don't know if it's because Wagner's the biggest name or what, but they didn't switch it. So you get some fun stuff of Wagner and Terror fighting for their lives to try to keep as much advantage as possible with double teams and fouling and attacking people on the outside when they really should have been in heavy deficit. They definitely didn't come up with any narrative reason why the third guy wasn't turning the tide except for the ref occasionally holding him back. And then they won it after a dive and a caverneria by Terror. Post match, Super Punk blew off an interview because there was no way of talking to the match without looking like a chump.

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Found Footage Friday: FUNK~! SPIKE~! STEEN~! AXE~! WAGNER~! BABE FACE~! BLUE FISH~! DIFUNTO~! ROMO~! ESCOBEDO~!

Terry Funk/Spike Dudley vs. Kevin Steen/Jason Axe 5/17/13

MD: How much do we love Terry Funk around here? We love him so much that almost all of the matches that people posted to pay tribute (handhelds with Bock from Japan, chain matches and streetfights with Doug Gilbert ten years apart, etc.) were things we already had covered. Thankfully, this came down the pipe too. It's clipped with a few minutes of entrances and Terry talking at the end, but what we get is good. Spike looked great early on controlling Axe with chain wrestling. It was basic stuff, but snug and with purpose. Post-clipping it seemed like things broke down to a match inside the ring and one outside, with Steen and Funk brawling around ringside and Spike working from underneath in the ring. I wish we were able to catch more or it than we did including the transition, but what stands out most is the image of Funk and Steen careening towards a door in the back of the room and someone trying to film it all on his phone but unable to keep his focus because he has to throw his hand up in excitement and exhileration at the idea that these guys are brawling with such purpose and energy just a few feet away from him. That instinct to film everything just got shattered by the feeling of the moment and that's the magic of even a 69 year old Terry Funk for you. Finish was feel good like you'd expect. Axe survived an Acid Drop and really planted Spike through a table with a running DVD and Funk finally made it back to the ring, queuing things up for tandem spinning toe holds. What we got here was good, with Steen really reveling in the moment. I bet the whole thing would have been even better.

Sergio Romo Jr./Chuy Escobedo vs. Difunto/Principe Rebelde CMLL 1992

MD: Totally solid undercard lucha. Chuy and Principe Rebelde didn't do a ton for me but Romo and Difunto stood out. Difunto just checks a lot of the boxes for me, a stooging, basing, bruising rudo with a big personality, big selling, big reactions, and some impactful offense. He was matched with Romo. The primera was three exchanges (matwork, rope running, and then things breaking down) and I though the rope running especially stood out. Romo had this cool headstand into an armdrag I hadn't seen much. Escobedo and Principe were fine but they had less time and did less interesting things. It ended with a pretty funny bit where they had the ref pin the rudos and do the count.

They switched partners for the segunda but things quickly shifted to beatdown after an errant Difunto hug. Solid but not too over the top. The comeback almost went there with some crowd brawling but it never really boiled over. There was an absolutely amazing dive through the ropes into a body press by Romo where Difunto's head went cracking into the front row seats. Just a top notch dive. Romo didn't always look special, but he had an extra gear he could tap into occasionally. That's my early impression after a couple of matches at least. This was very much undercard lucha for the sake of lucha but all you need is one or two good hands to make that enjoyable and this was overall.

Dr Wagner Jr/Blue Fish/Babe Face vs. Milo Caballero/Centurion/Monarka CMLL 1992

MD: This was the usual mishmash of local guys and bigger names at various stages of their career that we've been getting. Wagner doesn't jump off the screen for a number of years to come but he was already in his late 20s here. It's still a good match situation for him to be in, I guess. Babe Face had been at it for almost twenty years but he's still a kind of refreshing guy to see in 92. Blue Fish was something of a local legend. He's got a fun mask with a big dolphin type fish on the side and in general was very good at being the right place at the right time and feeding into rudo miscommunication spots.

This had time and not a lot of urgency. It picked up a bit whenever Babe Face and Milo Caballero were in there together. I think the commentators even joked that they were made from the same physical mode, but they matched up well together both with exchanges and just throwing shots. Otherwise, I'd call it a professional match. The rudo beatdown in the segunda was laser-focused. Babe Face stooged here and there and kept things entertaining but for the most part, it was just workmanlike. I'd not mind seeing most of these guys in other matches, but I'd expect them to be in more supporting roles.

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