Espectáculos Promociones Panama: Gemelos Infernales! Flamarion! Gran Darazín!

Gemelos Infernales vs Gran Darazín/Flamarion 1988

MD: Let's call this a palette cleanser. There's a chain match ahead of us. Plus, Los Gemelos Infernales show up all the time, a real staple in this footage, and I was hoping to learn something about them from Graham. So far my understanding has been that Gemelo I is a character and a stooge and Gemelo II is more of the smoother workrate guy. I have no idea what to make of Gemelo III. This was in three falls even though it was much shorter than many of the matches we've been seeing lately. My favorite part was the absolute mauling we got in the primera. It was only around three and a half minutes but it was non-stop and creative with the Gemelos ambushing the tecnicos from the start and just leaning on them with flip bombs, axehandles off the top (both standard and while a partner had someone up in a torture rack position), and basically just hitting them with every strike imaginable, finishing it with submissions, including the very rare foot assisted nelson stretch.

The segunda had comebacks and cutoffs. as they made the tecnicos work for it. Both guys had a nice over the shoulder throw. and Darazin flew in well with his headbutts. The back half of the match was spirited with a bunch of 2 on 1 spots. Sometimes the timing or placement seemed a little off, especially with Darazin and maybe the most interesting bit of all of it was the Gemelos jawing with the crowd, with their opponents, with the camera. In the end, the numbers game won out. Flamarion and Darazin were two wrestlers working together. The Gemelos were an incessant unit and they took the win with an assisted backbreaker (and I'm always a fan of one partner helping the other put their opponent in an otherwise improbable submission) and a standard over the shoulder one. This was a pretty good showcase for what made them stand out.

GB: Los Gemelos Infernales, the trios twins. While they never reached the public status of their more famous counterparts in Sandokan and el Idolo, they are still triumphantly remembered by many fans as a unit that revolutionised Panamanian wrestling. Not bad for three undersized kids from Darién, who had massive shoes to fill, coming from a family of professional jockeys and boxers.
 
Trios wrestling is nothing new. It’s been a staple of wrestling and, more importantly, lucha libre for generations. It’s a quick and easy solution that can often produce magic by accentuating the positives and hiding the flaws. It usually clicks. Likewise, in Panama, it was used as a way to get multiple wrestlers on a card and to advance multiple feuds at once. However, trios had often been just three luchadors tacked together. They might have some form of alliance but everyone worked mostly in a vacuum. There was no overall strategy and there had been no rush of ticket sales caused by a billboard headlined by a 3v3 encounter. 2v2? Sure, the Torneo Internacional de Parejas in 1977 was huge business and led to the historically important Guajardo/Idolo singles match - a Panamanian match that would change Mexican lucha libre forever. But 3v3? Nowhere close.

Everything changed in 1983 when Gemelo Infernal III debuted alongside his cousins, Infernal 1 and 2, against Mascara Roja, Gavilan de Oro and La Cobra. By this point, Primero and Segundo (actual brothers) had already been enjoying great success in the two years prior. Their own careers had started on the 3rd of October 1981 when Gemeos Infernales debuted for Samy de la Guardia’s Coliseos promotion (facing Tupac Amaru and Antorcha II - Sandokan’s brother). Seemingly much to Samy’s ire, the duo would quickly jump ship to their competition sensing a better future for themselves which, with the benefit of hindsight, I think is a fair assessment. There is a pretty strong through-line between them getting over and Don Medina using that success to book big trios programmes in the mid to late 80s. The first of two billboard blockbusters being Los Gemelos vs Kendo, Super Ratón and Negro Casas and then the Los Brazos invitational (where Gemelos, sans III due to his short stature, made it to the finals). They would go on to fight Brazo de Plata and Oro later in the year (around December, I believe) but the match on January 3rd was called off because of the Brazos being “botón pequeño”. I’m not sure of the colloquial meaning, sorry!

As outlined, trios wrestling was never cohesive until Los Gemelos turned Panamanian lucha on its head. There was (and *still is*!) a lot of internally consistent psychology to their matches, and it plays out here in this match we’re posting (if a little crude in the implementation). Gemelos were much smaller than their usual counterparts, often giving great weight away to their opponents (such as Ursus, Tahur etc), so they would ensure victory through relentlessly swarming their opponents. They were piranhas lost out in a sea of sharks. Ferocious, tenacious, they wouldn’t let their opponents breathe between blows. So much so, one of the biggest upsets of the 1980s was their 3-on-1 fight against the giant Tataki where they became the first wrestlers, anywhere in South America, to ever topple him. I forget which wrestler said it best but the words were “if you have one Gemelo, you have a chance. If you have all three? Forget about it”. And that’s true. They were incessant. Not quite the bloodthirsty maniac that Galvez was, but they would still fight to the death if it meant victory:

Their masks were simple, but poignant to their characters. They were hellhounds, beasts from the netherworld and that was beautifully crafted in their original masks seen on top:

Hidden above their eyebrows was a metal plating (some say platinum, others say plaster) that they would secretly use to their advantage on headbutts. With the referee distracted, they’d go for the kill. So integral was the mask to their success against bigger opponents that they would never bet their masks in apuestas. While Gemelo Infernal 1 had done so against Aguila Solitario (controversially taking the latter’s mask by having Infernal II, who was hidden under the ring, sneakily switching with him late into the match), the trios would rather put up their hair instead of their mask (losing their scalps to Dinastía Idolo, for instance). Without that plate, they knew their days were numbered at the top of the card. Quaintly, this rumor is something that they still deny to this day, saying it was a trait of the family to have “hard heads”. Though the rumors persist so much that the Guatemalan star, Verdugo, said he battled long and hard against the Gemelos, often having to “pry” their masks to dislodge the plating just to save his skin.

As I’ve outlined before, Panamanian wrestlers hardly travelled abroad as, unlike Mexico/Guatemala/Puerto Rico, they had to do so on their own dime and time without the help of their government or promoters. However, Gemelos Infernales took the leap in around 1987 with Joe Panther, making big splashes in Costa Rica and El Salvador where they would see their greatest success in beating both Kato Kung Lee and El Hijo del Santo. I have no doubt they would have seen great success in the UWA, if they had ever had the opportunity. Alas.

In an industry of shady characters, and as much as their personas paint otherwise, by all accounts, Gemelos Infernales are some of the good guys. The trio still live near each other, always willing to interact with their neighbours and help out with the local community whenever they can. They’re the life of the party wherever they may be. Just ask (very!) young Negro Casas:

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Espectáculos Promociones Panama: Blue Panther in Panama! Kato Kung Lee! Tahur! Celestial! Baron! Gemelo Infernal I!

Blue Panther/Gemelo Infernal I/Tahur vs Kato Kung Lee/Baron/Celestial 1/17/87

MD: This felt like lucha comfort food to me. Maybe it was because both Kato Kung Lee and Blue Panther were there, but this followed pretty familiar lines. There are definitely unique quirks to Panamanian Lucha, bits of Puerto Rico or unique elements to the stadiums, some spots or moves you don't expect, some peculiarities that we can't explain just yet, but there's more overlap with what was happening in Mexico than not and this match is a testament to that.

Speaking of familiarity, we're getting increasingly familiar with the usual suspects here. I have a great sense of Tahur as a base and as hard-handed clubberer and as a guy who isn't afraid to make a heroic dive to nowhere. This is Gemelo Infernal I who is more of a character than his smoother, workrate-y brethren GI II (and I don't have a sense at all about III yet). He has weirder moves and weirder movements and here made a great stooge for Kato Kung Lee's kung fu strikes. With Tahur and Panther getting him up extremely high for his headscissors takeovers, Baron looked like a top notch junior here. He got to show a different side than in the Bunny Black feud but it made me want to see more of him in both settings. And Celestial mainly stood out late in the match, paired with Panther with heated mask ripping.

Panther, to his credit, fit right in. I was a little disappointed at first as he was initially paired with Kato Kung Lee, which isn't what I wanted to see him do in Panama but he rotated through to the others as the match went on. And Lee? This was the best I've seen him in Panama. The fans went nuts for his shtick like always but he just had extra zing and agility as he bounded around the ropes. You could transfer the exact same act into modern AEW and if he could pull it off like he did on this night, it would get over huge.

Structurally, this was also familiar, early pairings cycled through, escalation to rope running, stooging, and the tecnicos going over in the primera, a rudo beatdown in the segunda, comebacks and cutoffs, and it all coming to head in the tercera, where Tahur just had enough of KKL's kicks and fouled his way out of the match which likely led to something else we unfortunately don't have.

GB: This match is a bit of a lucky get for us. Truth be told, I came across this post by accident many months ago when my passion for Panama was still in its infancy. However, the original video had lost tracking and the end was cut off. A little dismayed, and with some digging, I managed to piece together the missing part and give us this gem.

There’s not much to be said here as the only memories of this fight I can find are two screen grabs from a video of Panther and Kato arriving at the Tocúmen International Airport for their match. For all intents and purposes, this was treated as a big deal. Ricardo Pitti was there, alongside fans, to welcome Panther to Panama and extend a warm “welcome home” to KKL who had just lost his mask to el Hijo del Santo two months prior (though this was never aired nor played up during his visit). Matt highlights the ending between Kato and Tahur and there is something there. Whether this match led to it (or led from it), el Tahur did take Kato’s mask at some point in the 80s. In Mexico it would be sacrilege but, if he had lost his mask beforehand as Luchawiki claims (something I doubt), it wouldn’t be the first time Kato begged the fans of Panama to “pardon” him from losing his mask.

Kato Kung Lee, el camina cuerdas (the rope-walker), has a bit of a mysterious background. We are all well aware of his escapades in Mexico, as one part of the trios Los Fantásticos, but not much more seems to be known of him, especially in his heydays in Panama. Perhaps the most internationally known Panamanian-born wrestler isn’t even listed on the Hall of Fame board, let alone given any further detailing.

From the bits and bobs I can cobble together, Lee debuted alongside the other greats Panama had to offer in 1965 as the tecnico El Valiente where he would go on to lose his mask (twice - with the first loss being “pardoned”) to his maestro Chamaco Castro and rebrand himself as Johnny el Valiente and, a little later, as the remasked Rayo de Oro. I think there’s room for people to argue that KKL has had a bit of an “ode” (nudge-nudge-wink-wink) to other fighters along his career. One might argue his mask is all too similar to something blurring the lines of el Baron and Kendo (who’d go on to take the KKL name much later, ironically) but the name “Rayo de Oro” is a little too on the nose. So much so newspapers in the 1970s would also tend to confuse him with the legendary Guatemalan Rayo Chapin:

Even if his name wasn’t quite to the level of Chapin, KKL was always determined to be a star and take his name around the world. Despite Panama’s flourishing local scene, and it being a great training ground for the stars of tomorrow to hone their craft (whether from South America, Mexico or even Canada (Mad Dog Vachon!), the hospitality never quite seemed to be reciprocated. You had the odd wrestler such as El Enterrador and Joe Panther travelling through Africa and Europe but nothing “historic” in the same way Panama’s role was for laying the foundations for the UWA in Mexico (which I’d now argue would never exist without Panama).

One of the most important promoters during Panama’s golden age, Sammy de la Guardia, lamented that it was never due to skill that Panamanians stayed within the confines of Panama. Rather, it was too expensive and too risky. There was no government funding, as Mexico had, those wrestlers who travelled did so on their own money (or the sponsorship of their promoter). With little offer for reimbursement or being able to see a local return on investment in building up a name, promoters seemed more interested in keeping their stars home.

Thus KKL would risk everything when he set out to stake his claim in foreign land before the end of the 1960s taking with him Los Hermanos Muerte 1 y 2 to Guatemala and Mexico. The latter duo would go on to great success in Guatemala and KKL would see success in both Mexico and Japan - a name many recognise to this day. Again, the most famous of all Panamanian born wrestlers.

Still, and much the same for most of these stars from Panama, KKL had a quiet send off, far from the luxuries those stars in Mexico would enjoy. He’d pass away the owner of a BBQ joint. The referee for this match, the most famous in Panama, Carlos Linares, would pass away as a flip flop manufacturer. The stalwart of Panama’s rudos, Sergio Galvez, to this day works in a little bakery opposite his local theatre. The passion was there and as much as wrestlers and promoters pass Panamanian wrestling off as their “pasatiempo y nada mas” (pass time and nothing more), there’s a little sadness that a country so poignant for lucha libre as a whole, didn’t get to enjoy the boom it more than helped usher in.

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Found Footage Friday: MORE BRAZOS IN PANAMA~! IWRG RETRO~! EXTRA EL BRAZO~! BRAZO CIBERNETICO~! DR CEREBRO~! MR NIEBLA~!

El Brazo/Brazo de Plata/Brazo de Oro vs Gemelos Infernales/El Taur Panama

MD: Very fun to see the usual Panamanian rudos as the heroes here. And they gave you no doubt on who to root for. The Brazos ran out with bats and beat their opponents around the ring for a short primera. They kept it going with the usual nice strikes (Oro with big sweeping shots) and Porky ripped at Taur's mask. A little bit of miscommunication led to a pretty spirited comeback, including Porky getting bloodied up and Taur smashing him him from across the arena with a running chair shot. They ripped the sports uniforms off of the Brazos too. The ref was counting quick for the locals too and things advanced on to Brazos comedy into the tercera. Gemelos did their headbutt thing with Oro stooging all over the place. As always one of them was more the worker and the other was more into the theatrics. We didn't get the more advanced exchanges that the one Gemelo was capable of as things stayed pretty light. Taur stood tall against Porky including a big bear hug that popped the crowd. There was more fun miscommunication and another quick splash. You definitely got a lot of the Brazos act here, but you always kind of wish they led with the fun stuff and escalated to the bloody brawling as opposed to the other way around.

PAS: Man 2023 has been the year of new Brazos matches popping up. This was pretty great with the Brazos cleaning house with baseball bats, and Super Porky bleeding a ton. Top rope Porky splash is one of the most violent moves in wrestling history and he breaks it out here. Structure was a bit wonky like Matt mentioned, but it was still a total blast. Panamanian lucha forever!

IWRG Retro 1/20/23

Paramedico/Colt vs Tigre Metalico/Zonik 2000 IWRG 7/12/2001

MD: Short match in two falls, mainly due to Zonik's arm getting hurt (real or otherwise). Tigre Metalico is, in fact Metalico, and he looked good paried with Paramedico at the start. The second Colt and Zonik came in, however, Colt started bullying him. He was solid in that role. The arm went down early and a lot of the rest of the match was a two-on-one against Tigre. There was a bit of hope on the outside in the segunda but Zonik couldn't do with it, selling the arm as he was, and he tapped bringing it back to two-on-one and a definitive win for the rudos.

El Brazo/Bombero Infernal/Dr. Cerebro vs Brazo Cibernetico/Halcon Dorado/Mr. Niebla IWRG 1/17/99

MD: More of an angle than a match. You'd barely know Niebla was in this, for instance. It was all centered around the inner struggle of El Brazo on whether or not he'd punish his brother or even allow his brother to get punished. As angles go, it was a good one, with Brazo really writhing, Halcon Dorado trying to appeal to him and Brazo Cibernetico bleeding all over the place as Cerebro and Bombero got increasingly frustrated at Brazo as he'd fight the other tecnicos but not his brother. To Bombero's credit, he really threw himself around the ring with his dropkicks. He just had a way of tossing his whole body into his offense which really came through in the small bit we had here. Anyway, Brazo decides that blood is thicker than water and saves his bleeding brother, laying down for his opponents. That's when things really pick up though, as Los Oficiales run down to put a beating on the Brazos and Platino running out to make the save (which set up a trios title match the following week).

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Found Footage Friday: PANAMA~! KING MIKE RAPADA~! SANDOKEN~! EL SATANICO DE PANAMA~! GEMELOS INFERNALES~! EL BARON~! CHRISTOPHER~!

El Barón y Jaguar Kuna vs. Satánico y Gemelo Infernal 3 Panama 1985

MD: I wouldn't say this held up quite as well as the matches we've seen so far out of Panama. These guys were lithe, wiry, and they had some tricked out armdrags as you'd expect but other exchanges felt downright clunky. Satanico is a pale reflection of the one we know and love, just some guy in a mask. I haven't talked up the Gemelo Infernales' maskes, which are these cool goblin type deals in black and white. #3 here used his knee fairly well. Baron here had a skull match which was pretty solid too, even if he was a scrawny tecnico. His best stuff were the flying driving headbutts. Jaguar had a neat front flip he did for absolutely no reason, one great dropkick and a dive that has to be seen to be believed to end the third fall. Overall, these guys were game and occasionally things got wacky in a good way (like when Gemelo Infernal 3 kept hitting spinning tombstones on everyone which led to some uninspired head-selling by Jaguar), but didn't come together like some of the other Panamanian footage.

Sandokan/Ricardo Díaz/Antorcha 1 vs. Kronos 2/Gemelo Infernal 1/Gemelo Infernal 2 Panama 1989

MD: Back when we were all doing the AWA 80s set over ten years ago, I had the distinct feeling that Verne was terrified at the idea of overheating the crowd. Heels rarely won and they even more rarely got their heat back after the match. After seeing a decent amount of this Panamanian lucha, you really, really get the sense that they wanted to cause a riot each and every time out. Sometimes, they even manage it. Here they didn't but it was sure a surprise to me.

The first two falls were pretty much as you'd expect. The exchanges are a bit more flowing, with a lot of tosses out of a head and shoulder sort of grab. Sandoken has the most tricked out, even if not particular swift, variations. I really liked when he continued the motion through on one of these to get to his feet. Everything was smooth and kept moving, with the tecnicos winning the fall with these fun assisted victory rolls into sunset flips. They're kind of hard to explain but it was all pretty neat and you could imagine some more athletic 2022 guys stealing it successfully. The second fall was more of a beatdown with the rudos winning with submissions.

Then things really opened up. First there was a great comeback with Sandoken coming back with headbutts on everyone, Diaz with fun sweeping punches, and Antorcha with shoulder throws/back body drops, a whole bunch of the. The rudos took back over though, all leading to the Gemelos bloodying up Sandokan and Diaz on the inside and Kronos absolutely crushing Antorcha with a chairshot on the floor. We're talking an all time chairshot here.He got carried away by some of his buddies leaving things with a 3 on 2 numbers game for the rest of the match. There were a couple of comebacks, including a sort of unbelievable 3 on 1 Sandoken comeback towards the end with Sandoken kicking out of a bunch of stuff, but the numbers won out and, like I said, somehow there wasn't a riot. Just another really complete look at this regional subgenre. It remains well worth diving into.  

Brian Christopher vs. King Mike Rapada USA Championship Wrestling 6/9/01

MD: This was a TV match to heat up a feud for the No DQ match live that night. It was Brian Christopher going in to Nashville to try to take the crowd back from (now heel) Rapada and defend his dad's honor. I'm not exactly rushing to watch Rapada matches or anything, but the idea of Christopher defending Lawler and being a stand-in babyface is kind of interesting. Of course he does it in the way that Jerry would love most, blatant homophobia on the mic to start. Rapada's heel act isn't bad, as he has Honest Ernest playing a trumpet on the way down, and he keeps control during the match using the usual chicanery. Here, I think he used the "hidden object" too sparingly, just really once or twice to cut Christopher off instead of really leaning into it. Christopher had a lot of fire to start, beating Rapada around the ringside area including a bulldog on the floor. This was to set up the later match so it ended in a ref bump and trumpet shots (see, it was a good part of the act), but it was a nice look at Big Star Christopher coming home right after his WWF run ended defending the honor of the Lawler name.

Jerry Lawler vs. King Mike Rapada USA Championship Wrestling 7/28/01 

ER: This was maybe 5 minutes long including the post-match, and it wasn't very good, and also it was very good. Mike Rapada is the ultimate example of a guy who did the absolute least with the most, the Renegade von Erich, a man who never got good at wrestling despite constantly working with some of the smartest workers in wrestling history. But I actually like him in his King Mike persona, playing the aloof dumb heel with a stolen crown. He's the best dressed in the ring, but that's also because Lawler is wearing this sunny side up gear that I've never seen him wear, with white tights and yellow singlet. Jackie Fargo is wearing one of those confusing shirts that some 70 year old white men have, the kind that don't fit their personality or body. It's pointless to ask these men about these shirts (or their car dealership hats) because they won't have much of an answer about a) where they got the shirt, or b) why they ever thought it looked like a normal shirt that you would wear in front of people. 

Fargo's shirt is a hideous NBC Sports shirt-jersey, with NBC SPORTS as the name across the shoulders, a big N as the jersey number, and a big Peacock logo on the front. It doesn't resemble anything at all related to sports, and looks much closer spiritually to a toddler's onesie with a baseball playing elephant and the words Lil Slugger across the shoulders. While wearing this shirt, he calls King Mike a "little asshole" for turning on these fine people. Fargo is 70 here, so when he gets down to count a 2 count he needs to pull himself up by the ropes to stand back up, and there is zero chance he's getting back down to count another 2 for King Mike. Jackie literally just stands next to the pin with his hands on his knees waiting for them to take the hint that no count is coming. Lawler picks up on it and rakes Rapada's eyes just to move things along.  Lawler takes the strap down maybe three minutes in and throws four great right hands, also takes a big back bump on a double shoulderblock collision. Billy Joe Travis comes out and gets into the ring only to get punched by Fargo (great punch too) and in the chaos Rapada hits Lawler with a chain, Fargo gets the chain, Travis threatens Fargo, and King Mike kicks the ring announcer. Some hot matches happening an hour east at the Lebanon Airport Armory later tonight, be sure to check em out. 

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New Footage Friday: Panamanian Lucha!!

El Celestial vs. El Taur

MD: 80s Panamanian lucha that popped up. This is one fall. It's announced as a super libre match and more or less plays out like one. The rudos and tecnicos come out of different sides of the gym. There are kids everywhere and they announce that the police will escort them away if they don't get away from the ring. This match is sponsored by a coffee shop apparently. They have a little thing they do to start where they put the back of each other's hand out up against each other before throwing the first strikes, sort of like a handshake. They work some fun spots to start, including a nice legtrap takedown by Celestial, but it really opens up when Celestial wipes out big on a dive and Taur starts to take over on him with shots to the post, mask ripping, and biting, and clubbering, including with some knuckle dusters. Celestial's got the wobbly, arms dangling, full body selling down. The crowd goes up for him when he finally starts to fire back, even if it's broken up a bit by him going after Taur's second. Eventually, the tide really turns with a big back body drop, Celestial getting the object and Taur getting opened up with extended revenge biting and some really big shots that Taur sells like death. After some back and forth, Celestial misses a senton off the second rope and Taur moves him up top to power slam him off the ropes for a pretty good finish. So, point being, there was more familiar here for a first look at Panamanian lucha than alien and the end result was actually pretty good and occasionally hard hitting, with some big bumps, some spectacle, some BS, and some blood.

PAS: This was a fun look at a scene we don't know anything about. I love the look of the Panamanian basketball gym with a wild crowd. The point Karate set up with the touched hands was cool too. This had a local lucha feel to it, neither of these guys had amazing athleticism or execution, but they were willing to hit hard and bleed and that covers a lot of sins. Taur's finishing almost jackhammer thing was cool too. Nothing that blows your mind, but feels like a main even which would be a great time out on the town.

Gemelos Infernales 1 y 2 vs. Gavilán de oro y La Cobra

MD: This was something. It was definitely imaginative. Some things familiar and some things not. They had a lot of stuff. That's what I'm trying to say. Body 'ranas, slingshot suplexes, all sorts of headbutts, a double pick up where they dropped a tecnico out of the ring, a kneeling bulldog, an armdrag out of a slingshot attempt. These French Catch style powerbomb flips. So many assisted butt drops where one guy would hold the other in position. Occasionally they'd do a more polished sequence and when they did, it looked good, but it was just as likely that they'd get up and go down off the top a couple of times before missing a flipping senton or something. I mean, they looked pretty good in there, they did, but occasionally, I'm not quite sure what they were going for. It was all pretty wild, from the rudo mauling before the match to the kids all running around as things spilled out to the floor towards the end. Overall, Gemelos Infernales I and II seemed to have a pretty solid rudo act, even if it's one that painted outside the lines we're used to at times.

Puma y Lobo Negro vs. Estrella Blanca y Antorcha II

MD: This went about ten minutes before getting kind of weird. It was more straightforward than the other tag at least. The rudos beat down. The tecnicos came back with slick moves. There was a unique bit at the beginning where one tecnico seemed to try to armdrag the other to give him more momentum and some of the reactions to body blocks were a little off, but in general it was what I was used to. Then towards the stretch, Estralla Blanca launched a bizarre step over into a neckbreaking cutter thing, followed up by this falling backwackwards headclap thing I've never seen only to eat a low blow. The finish had a pretty cool off the ropes German by Puma. I think what I've learned from this is that I'd be happy to watch more random decades old Panamanian tags. Pre-match, they begged the parents to stop their kids' insanity of swarming the ring. Post-match the rudos got a tiny trophy and gloated about it.

Chamaco Castro vs. Tiburon Negro

MD: This one had more of a Puerto Rico vibe to me. Castro was a Welterweight champ and Tiburon had a fun mask with sharks on either side where the mouths of the sharks were the eyeholes. The first few minutes were fairly well structured with Castro coming out with a blackjack in a towel and causing a lot of damage with that until Tiburon contained him and worked over the arm til he could get it, but as the match went on, more weapons kept getting introduced, that white knuckle duster, these crowd control sticks that the people guarding the ring used (?) and who knows what else. It all became fairly formless as they punished one another on the way to a ten minute draw. The post match where they just teed off on one another with punches was fun though.

Gemelo Infernal III vs., El Barón

MD: I can't say I'm entirely sure what to make of this one. These guys were smaller and went faster, to the point of that fine patina of sloppiness where you're not sure if something is a counter or just completely and wildly off. Baron had a mask with some Fantasma trappings and was the tecnico. Gemelo Infernal III came off as the lesser, younger brother Gemelo Infernal. Some of the specific takeovers were fairly tricked out and Gemelo Infernal III took some crazy bumps over the top, including one where he flipped over after hitting the floor to almost take two bumps. Gemelo Infernal II ends up interfering to cause the DQ and El Chino (another guy with a blue mask) comes in to show us that Gemelo Infernal II has pretty good headbutts, even though we can't quite say the same for III. This definitely had more spots, even if they weren't exactly pretty, and the post match brawl was short but wild with kids running around everywhere.

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