Found Footage Friday: BACKLUND IN KUWAIT~! BUSHWHACKERS~! CONDOR~! ESTRADA~! PSICOSIS~! VOLADOR~! WINNERS~!

AAA TV 5/21/95

MD: A new Roy Lucier drop. I think the top two matches were already out there so we'll dive into the undercard. 

Karloff Lagarde Jr./Mr. Condor/Perro Silva vs. Brilliance/Diamante/Zafiro

MD: I loved the primera beatdown here. The rudos just hopped out as Mr. Condor wrapped a cape around a tecnico's neck even as he was coming in with the valets and the commentators were just casually announcing who would be in the match. Business as usual. Some gnarly stuff on the beatdown with Condor's arching power bombs, a giant lifting face plant, and Perro Silva looking like a beast between the way he threw himself into things and this brutal reverse hotshot where he dropped the back of the neck onto the top rope with a spinebuster like twist instead of the throat. Argh. 

This was going just two falls with a fed up fiery tecnico foul finish so they actually teased a comeback early in the segunda which was pretty spirited, tossing rudos into the crowd and what not, before it got cut off to set up yet another comeback a minute or two later. Sort of a false short segunda (almost makes you wonder if there was a cut, but I don't think there was). Down the stretch Mr. Condor bled all over the place even on the undercard and the tecnicos got a lot of revenge but they lost their cool and the rudos took this one by DQ. Everyone leaned hard into their roles here and the match was fun because of it.

Antifaz del Norte/Panterita del Ring/Volador/Winners vs. Arandu/Jerry Estrada/Misterioso/Psicosis

MD: Some of our Monterrey pals here in the form of Panterita and Arandu (who came out to the Flash Gordon theme by Queen!). Very nice to see them in this mix with some of the AAA mainstays. That's an awesome rudo side right there. And honestly, this was great. The primera was at least somewhat subdued. Misterioso was leaning hard into his gringos loco look and attitude and was dodging Volador. Arandu bumped all over the place. Estrada teased his big bump over the top but didn't give it to people. Psicosis was an absolute jerk paired with Antifaz. I love watching him just exist and antagonize people, even on top of his basing and offense and bumping. He's one of the best bullheaded jerks in wrestling history. Anyway, the tecnicos took it after some exchanges and general chaos with Volador getting a shot in on Misterioso on the outside too.

Things went absolutely nuts in the segunda though. They started destroying both Antifaz and especially his mask. Somehow Estrada got a fork and started to stab away, lick the thing, paint his face with blood, just have a merry time. Then the comeback had all the crazy bumps you might imagine. Psicosis took the corner knee over the top bump as wild as I've ever seen it. Estrada just got yeeted into the third row like a rocket on a reverse whip. I'm not sure I've ever seen that concrete ground look harder and more solid. Finish was the rudos getting back in and getting Antifaz' mask off so thoroughly and clearly in the camera that someone could have picked him out of a police lineup. Just wild stuff in the back half.

Mr. Bob Backlund/Leif Cassidy vs. The Bushwhackers WWF Kuwait Cup 5/11/96 

MD: Recent Richard Land upload. I had thought we'd be getting the Yokozuna tag vs. Backlund, but nope, we've got the Bushwhackers instead. I don't know exactly how much Mr. Bob Backlund heel footage we have but whatever we have, especially after he got shunted down the card, it is 100% not enough. He's as absurd and over the top here as humanly possible and it's wonderful. First off, he comes out to the Rockers theme with Leif and he wants absolutely nothing to do with him. Cassidy tried to bow down to him and go for a handshake and point to the Bushwhackers and everything under the sun and Backlund just shook his head and shouted NOOOO. 

Then, there'd just be random booing no matter what Cassidy and a Bushwhacker was doing in the ring and the camera would cut over and Backlund would be out there on the stage gesticulating to the crowd and going wild and getting huge heat. When he came down he went right after some kid in a Bret shirt and he never really let up. It takes minutes for the match to begin because every time you think it might, he has another fit to huge crowd reaction. When they get going, they do some heel miscommunication spots almost immediately and then have Backlund get shown up by a Bushwhacker, including sneaking out and pointing to his head only to have him right behind and then hiding in the corner just to get bitten on the butt.

They eventually take over on Luke's arm and it's all pretty good with some hope spots and cutoffs until he finally makes the tag and they do one last bit of miscommunication before Butch gets the roll up. Just unbelievably entertaining. Lightning in a bottle. If you could follow one wrestler around to every house show, 96 Backlund feels like a great one to pick. 

ER: When you get access to a 1996 Kuwait show where Bob Backlund is the third oldest (second youngest?) guy in the match, I feel we are then obligated to write about that match. There is so little footage of Mr. Bob Backlund from this era and now we officially have our most substantial look at him. I loved Backlund's look and attitude during 95/96, when he was mostly a house show worker and cantankerous TV presence, but we don't have a lot of footage of him actually wrestling. We have so much footage of his 92/93 babyface return, which I think is mostly awful (unless I find one credible source telling me that it was an elaborate troll and he was fucking up every single non-Doink wrestler's timing intentionally, then I might like it), but not nearly enough of heel Mr. Bob Backlund. Now we have real footage of Backlund charging at a Kuwaiti 11 year old and getting in his face, just because he was wearing a Bret Hart shirt. Backlund singled that kid out and went straight for him (and the kid loved it). 

Throughout my wrestling fandom, not that long ago in the grand scheme, I had no room for bullshit in my wrestling. I wanted action, and I wanted wrestlers to get to the action. I'm not sure when it changed, or what inspired my initial dislike of it. I viewed it as "guys not wanting to work" and maybe it was due to Scott Keith and others demonizing of stall tactic wrestlers like Larry Zbyszko, spurned on by older local indy wrestlers who were taking a Friday night off in the ring. When we did the initial WWF 80s set, I had the Rockers/Rougeaus Full Bullshit match (from France or Italy) ranked very, very low. Not many years after that, the Rougeaus match in Puerto Rico where they take forever to lock up while getting pelted with diapers and other garbage became one of my favorite matches to show friends who were and were not wrestling fans. I don't know when the change happened, when I went from wanting action to embracing bullshit. The change happened quick, I know that, and is surely directly related to indy wrestling styles becoming about All Action, no doubt caused by similar people to me who grew up being told that bullshit and stalling in wrestling was bad. 

Now, most wrestlers are petrified to let anything breathe. Well, either they are petrified or they honestly have no idea what it even means to let a match, or sequence, breathe. They surely never watched wrestlers who knew how to do this, and they surely won't be seeking any who did so. Bullshit became extremely rare (and has only gotten rarer) and now that action is the literal only thing on the menu, I find that I cannot wait to shove my nose in a steaming plate of Bullshit whenever I have the opportunity. And Mr. Bob Backlund was allllll Bullshit. This entire match is 90% bullshit, and I chose to prioritize it over the two awesome lucha matches unearthed above. I don't think anyone takes a bump until well past the 10 minute mark, although Backlund does get knocked off the apron by Cassidy, and he hits the ground running and gets in the faces of more fans. So look, I'm not saying all of this was good. The Bushwhackers are old and they aren't going to bump or throw punches that look good - although Butch Miller throws a fucked up clothesline to Cassidy's neck on his hot tag - and a lot of the bullshit won't seem unique to anyone who had the privilege of seeing guys like Honky Tonk Man work indy shows in the late 90s, but the unique setting and the bizarre pairing and the rarity of Fully Unhinged Mr. Bob Backlund made this well worth your time. Backlund does none of his strength routine, none of his amateur wrestling, and I don't even think he took a bump. Yet he was On during every second he was on screen, a true weirdo being his weirdest self in the weirdest possible live wrestling environment. 

Read more!

New Footage Friday: ROCK N ROLLS! MX! DANDY! PSICOSIS! REY JR.! PANTHER! SUPER CALO!

Rock and Roll Express vs. Midnight Express NWA 9/7/86

MD: Pretty rare RnR vs MX match from WCW Sunday Edition featuring Dusty on commentary with Tony. It was what you'd want, flashy opening stuff that didn't at all wear out its welcome and a couple of heat segments with all of the roll-up hope spots you usually get from the RnR. Everyone looked great but Eaton looked like one of the best in the world, feeding big, hitting huge offense (the Alabama Jam here was used to cement the first bit of heat and really give the Express control, for instance), and doing tiny things like taking out a leg with a small kick to stop a block on a suplex. There were a couple of cuts due to commercial breaks but they didn't mess up the flow. We saw the transitions clearly, including them using the replay to take us back after a break. The finish was wonky with Dusty literally causing the MX pin to be reversed, but the post match with him sacrificing himself to a Bubba splash was good pro wrestling. It made me want to see a six man at least.

ER: Outside of the finish, I thought this was great, and a real strong Loverboy Dennis showcase. Everyone was part of this showcase, though, Dennis just had a performance that made him look like one of the toughest men in wrestling. A big chunk of this was MX taking apart Robert's leg in real sicko ways, and even though it didn't actually lead to anything, it was work I loved to watch. Condrey has a ton of fascinating work out of half nelsons and 3/4 grapevines, so good that I want to see the entire alternate timeline of Condrey working shootstyle in Japan once his stateside gigs dried up. Condrey's Alabama U Style, where are you? He really knows how to tie up Ricky and Robert on the mat, and the pins he forced them into with his leg grapevines looked impossible to escape. And when he wasn't tying up their legs to work headlocks and pinfalls, he was dropping his knees into Robert's thigh, into his shin, violently twisting his ankle, and then handing it off to that savage Beautiful Bobby! At one point Bobby is hyperextending Robert's entire leg over the edge of the ring apron. Robert is on his stomach, and Bobby is slamming the front of Robert's femur into the apron, then pressing and forcing his leg down over that edge, truly disgusting legwork. Cornette adds one of his all time great racket shots to the match, flying in from offscreen with the handle of the racket aimed straight at the jugular. HHH always looked like a dweeb for using the handle of a sledgehammer as his weapon of choice, but Cornette really looks like the master of making a short handle look like a deadly weapon. Hell, in the post match melee, Cornette even shoulderblocks Ricky Morton through the ropes to the floor, like a man tripping another man into a fountain display. Rock n Rolls looked great and matched strikes with the fierce strikes of MX, and even with the actually stupid Dusty finish, this whole thing was classic stuff. 

El Dandy vs. Ray Gonzales CMLL 8/26/95

MD: A lost Dandy title match. Interesting primera here. Gonazlez controlled with fairly simple armbars, with Dandy working from underneath with a few hope spots, only to get cut off and contained with the arm again. I don't know if they didn't trust Gonazlez to do more complex matwork or not but it still worked because Dandy was working so hard to sell everything. I know on paper, that doesn't sound like much, but you don't often see a primera in a title match worked like this and I'm not sure there are many guys who could have done it quite like Dandy, so it stood out. The segunda was quick with a short bit of revenge with Dandy working over the leg and then a beautiful Northern Lights Suplex. The tercera had some back and forth and chicanery but eventually settled down to them returning to what worked in the primera, Gonzalez working a bodypart (the leg) and Dandy selling. They rolled out of the ring on a figure four and both got counted out and it ended up pretty anti-climactic. If this was building to an apuestas match, it would have worked but it seems like this was the end of the program. Still, a good look at just how great Dandy was at selling.

PAS: A new Dandy title match on paper is really exciting, this was a miss though. Gonzales is a guy who got pretty great in Puerto Rico later in his career, but he looked way out of his depth here. There was one of the worst clotheslines I have ever seen and Dandy really had to dumb it down for him on the mat. His little heel struts and stuff looked bush league too, just a zero of a performance. Dandy had a nice moment or two, his selling of the leg in the tercera was cool, and I like the figure four roll to the floor spot, but you are hoping for a missing gem when this passes by your youtube feed and this wasn't that.

ER: I had no idea Gonzalez ever showed up in CMLL, even though just a few years after this he became the reason I started trading for Puerto Rico tapes. The Ray Gonzalez I traded tapes for was not the Ray Gonzalez here, and many of the flaws in this match look like they could be blamed on miscommunication. I think Phil tuned out early on once Gonzalez hit that flying "clothesline" but considering Gonzalez follows it up with a crossbody block using the exact same form he used for that "clothesline", I assume it was just a spot that wasn't supposed to happen. It's amazing how much poise Ray had just a few years later, that was mostly absent here. It was a mistake to work this as Gonzalez trying to fit into Dandy's lucha setting, as while he had a nice missile dropkick and a couple decent bumps to the floor, he couldn't facilitate the level or speed of work Dandy was capable of. The most interesting this got for me was the beginning of segunda, where we got a glimpse of what could have made for an excellent title match. Ray got rudo heat during the break between falls, and knew it. The fans were rejecting him and it looked like he was going to really run with that, approaching Dandy with an extended right hand, left arm tucked behind his back, and a telegraphed double cross kick getting caught. Bringing some Puerto Rico rudo bullshit into the elegance of a skilled tecnico lucha title defense would have made for a great style clash, like a southern US heel just punching his way through a match opposite Blue Panther. But almost right after that Gonzalez falls back into line, and the rest of the match is worked like the boring end of the Flair vs. Terry Taylor spectrum. Dandy really did a lot to try to make this work, but it's hard to deny that Dandy could have likely had a better singles match with any wrestler on the CMLL roster. Let's all just go back a few days and remember how cool "El Dandy vs. Ray Gonzalez" looked on paper. 

Misterioso/Rey Mysterio Jr./Súper Caló/Volador vs. Blue Panther/Heavy Metal/Piromaniaco/Psicosis AAA 8/11/95 - FUN

MD: Not your average atomicos. You had Rey as captain, Signo as Piromaniaco, maskless Volador, and Calo in hatless, sleeves-only shirt, dancing glory. The story was Rey vs Psicosis, first delaying it and then paying it off. As they cycled through the pairings in the primera, Panther made sure to intervene and rob the fans of that first Rey vs Psicosis exchange. After a mini-beatdown, Rey would mount a comeback and allow the tecnicos to take the primera. The bigger beatdown came in the segunda, and watching Heavy Metal toss Rey around made me really want a 95 singles match with them. In the tercera, Rey came back again and we finally got a killer little Rey vs Psicosis exchange with a spectacular finish. Piromaniaco looked good using his size to bully tecnicos and eat their stuff, but the gimmick had no legs. Panther didn't do a lot but everything he did (the aforementioned cut off, choking Misterioso with part of the ring, ripping up what I choose to believe to be an anti-Tirantes sign, stooging with Psicosis on miscommunication spots) was very good. At times this was fast and loose and all over the place. The camera work missed half the dives. It's really hard to go wrong with cleverly building a match around Rey vs Psicosis though.

PAS: I thought this was mostly pretty forgettable outside of the Rey vs. Psicosis stuff which was incredible. I kind of enjoyed Signo adding some 80s style bumping and brawling to more 90s style lucha, but it didn't really lead to any exciting moments or anything. Psicosis taking the segunda caida with a brutal top rope guillotine was great though. The tercera exchanges between Psicosis and Rey were the highlight. Rey at this point was as elusive and fast as anyone ever, Psicosis was his perfect dance partner, and the finish top rope spiked spinning DDT was awesome. Is that a move they only broke out once, or is there a WCW Pro match which ends in it too?

ER: I was really excited for this one just to see Signo as Piromaniaco - a hood I've never seen him under and one with next to no footage of - and he did not disappoint. In fact, most of the guys in this didn't disappoint, but none of this really turned into anything that felt like a full match. Things were a little disorganized and a lot of the threads got abandoned, but there were plenty of individual moments to make this an easy, fun watch. Obviously, with these names there are going to be some moments. Heavy Metal worked fast and a little reckless, lead to a few moments of clear miscommunication and awkward repeat spots with Super Calo, but when Heavy Metal ran into someone with that speed it looked great. Volador had this fantastic huge hair, like Stefanie Powers in Hart to Hart, and based on the crowd reaction we missed a big late match plancha and bump off the top from him (This is AAA, my friend). I liked Piromaniaco working like El Brazo was great, using his status as stockiest man in the match to absolutely run over Rey a couple of times. He even no sold a Rey missile dropkick by acting like a cartoon kissed him, then did a silly dance. We got a decent dive train with Calo hitting a high quebrada crossbody and Misterioso getting out quickly, and of course all the Rey/Psicosis moments were what you'd want. The tornado DDT with Psicosis on the middle and Rey swinging from the top was wild, with such a high starting point it landed them past the middle of the ring! 

Read more!

New Footage Friday: RED! NECRO! BRAZOS! DAMIEN WAYNE! VOLADOR!

Volador/Misterioso/Lizmark Jr. vs. Los Brazos Early 90s? 

PAS: The Brazos are one of the most purely entertaining acts in wrestling history, so finding a new Brazos match is mitzvah. Lizmark Jr. was a guy whose spirit was truly crushed by WCW but he was really feeling himself here, flipping around, kipping up and hitting cool armdrags. Of course the focus of the match was on Super Porky doing his thing, we get a long section where he keeps accidentally smushing his brothers, causing him to cry and hug the tecnicos. In the tercera he turns on his new friends and unleashes the power of fat landing one of the most splattering top rope splashes in a long career of splattering. Cool opening section, some fun comedy spots and a big finish, exactly what you want to main event a lucha house show. 

MD: This one is well worth watching for some great work and even greater antics. Tecnicos take the first chunk which leads to miscommunication and a great tree falling spot with Porky, who citing the subsequent ill-treatment by his brothers, switches sides. We've all seen this sort of thing before, but it's not every day you can see it with the Brazos and see them commit so thoroughly to the gag. You keep expecting Porky to turn back and he eventually does but not until they've milked every bit of it that they could. Around all of this are three spry tecnicos and rudos that will gladly base and feed for them, including a memorable Volador dive.

ER: There are few wrestlers in history I love more than Super Porky, and watching him spend 20 minutes doing his specific thing is always going to be the best kind of panacea for me. This has some of his best gags, played to their fullest, in front of a crowd who adored his gags. Not only do we get to see him take several slick armdrags from Volador, we move past that into his great misdirections. Los Brazos keep trying to hold Lizmark prone while accidentally hitting each other, leading to Lizmark ducking a Brazo sunset flip attempt, and a hilarious long pause before the punchline. Brazo is "forced" to sunset flip Porky, and Oro misses Lizmark and chops Porky...and Porky just stares at him. Everybody knows the spot is for Porky to butt splash Brazo, and here's Porky just standing, looking at his brother, seconds disconnected from the actual momentum of the spot...before Porky finally, purposefully, plops down onto Brazo's chest. His brothers smack him around and Porky openly weeps, drawing the biggest cheers of the night as the crowd rallied behind him. 

We get a great pratfall bump where Porky steps to the apron and Oro lifts the middle rope on him, sending Porky to the floor with a wild banana peel bump. I couldn't get enough of Porky working with the tecnicos to get back at his brothers, flopping to his back to give up the primera, getting all possible mileage out of the tecnico turn before eventually rejoining his family. Give me more and more of Porky doing silly poses while getting "YAY/BOO" cheers back and forth from the crowd. It all ends when Porky smacks Misterioso in the face, and he ends the segunda with an all time great top rope splash, getting Oro to help him balance, then standing on the top triumphantly before doing a full squat...and just flattening Volador. Who can not love this man? Who couldn't get excited for Los Brazos? 

Necro Butcher vs. Amazing Red PWS 3/5/11

PAS: Match I had no idea ever happened, which is a real battle of aughts era indy legends a bit past their prime. Necro is at his most acclaimed as a walking heavy bag who takes enormous ass kickings, but he is also pretty great on top, and mauls Red around the arena for most of the match. Much like his obvious predecessor Rey Mysterio Jr., Red is an unexpectedly stiff worker, and fires back with some pretty sharp kicks, including some down right Sanoish solebutts right to Necro's bourbon and Percoset laden belly. He also absolutely savages Necro's bare feet and ankles with chair shots. We get a nifty finish run with Red getting some plausible near falls before falling to a perfectly executed jumping Tiger Driver (Necro's move execution was always an underrated part of his overall excellence). What a treat to run across this match on youtube, delivered on it's promise for sure. 

MD: We lose a little bit in the front here, but you still get the general idea. Necro lays in a beating around the ringside area in the expected walk, pound, and toss style. Red's hope strikes are super credible, which was half on Necro leaning into them, but every time he creates some distance it just knocks Necro back into another chair he can use. Eventually, after a horrific running crotch into the pole that would haunt Red for the rest of the match, it ends up back in the ring and that means no more chairs for a bit. That gives Red a fighting chance though he's still half a step behind due to the groin injury. He works on Necro's ankle, more as a way to keep him down than as a direct path to victory, including using a chair of his own, but the amount of high risk moves he needs to utilize (while always a little slow due to the grade A selling) means he's bound to get caught. Pretty much the sprint you'd want it to be.

JR: I think my feelings on Necro Butcher are pretty well established at this point, but one thing that I haven’t really written about is that he is a tremendous “on paper” guy. Think about basically any wrestler you can that is remotely competent, and putting them in a singles match against Necro is at least a perverse curiosity. Throughout this I couldn’t help but think about how wonderful it would’ve been to see Necro having a walk and brawl against Rey Mysterio, stumbling drunkenly into the 619, grabbing his toothless mouth and bleeding face after Rey clobbers him in the face with his knee brace. I guess I was sort of hoping I’d get something similar here, although that probably isn’t fair because Red and Rey are two different workers. What we got here was a relatively interesting match, albeit one that I think has issues that bother me specifically. I think, in a perfect world, we would have had a longer control section from Necro once they got back in the ring, as I think Red taking control almost immediately didn’t give the crowd an opportunity to get invested. I wish that Red’s control segment was a little more dynamic; it almost felt as though he was trying to work heel here and slow Necro down and not bounce around, which I found confusing, especially considering the finish was a pretty overt monster heel finish from Necro. Perhaps I’m being too hard on this. When I saw the names and the match time of under 9 minutes, I thought I was going to see something like the Demus/Iron Kid match from a few years ago, especially once I saw the opening portions were a crowd brawl. Instead we got a perfectly fine midcard match and I can’t help but think there was something better that could’ve happened here.

ER: JR brings up Necro as an on paper guy, which was precisely the criteria that made Necro one of my literal three favorite guys in wrestling for a really long time. When you ask yourself "Whose matches would you watch, regardless of opponent" it's a good way at getting to the heart of what wrestlers are truly your favorites. For a large portion of the 2000s the only wrestlers who fit that criteria for me were Finlay and Necro Butcher. It's a pretty accurate litmus test. There are plenty of wrestlers who I love (Super Dragon, Low Ki) who have matches against wrestlers I decidedly do not love (Davey Richards, Joey Ryan) that I have never watched. But I would watch Necro Butcher or Finlay against Davey Richards, because every possible opponent gives me the opportunity to see what Finlay or Necro would have done with a total negative factor. Play the game yourself, you might learn a thing about your personal preferences that you never realized. 

This match was incredibly entertaining, tons of great stuff that was over way too quick, and just like Phil I had no clue these two ever crossed paths. Necro throws Red into the crowd and bodyslams him back over the guardrail, buries him under chairs, deals with mouthy NY kids, takes a thrown chair right on the top of his head, the kind of tour around the venue you expect from any Necro match. The real gold happens in ring, as Red lands so many awesome shots to make the size gap vanish. Red has really great kicks, great solebutts to the bellybutton that Necro expertly and accurately sells like a guy who ate poisonous berries he found while camping. All of Red's stomps to Necro's feet and malleolus were looked super painful, and the chokeslam into a gorgeous tiger driver (while palming Red's face for the pin) was a great finish. I'm so happy this match happened, even happier that it is now online for all. 

Damien Wayne vs. Lance Erickson NWA Mountain State 6/4/12

PAS: Lance Erickson is nicknamed the Canadian Lion and has maple leaf tights, and based on his pre-match interview must come from Charleston or Wheeling Manitoba. He must be working some sort of PY Chu Hi or Krusher Kruschev gimmick where he renounced his Mountain State roots to join an evil group of Canucks. This is what you hope a dog collar match between bad ass southern wrestlers will look like. Damien Wayne is a DVDVR favorite from way back and has great looking punches and chops and a killer top rope elbow (which he wraps in a chain). He opens up Erickson early with a chain shot, with Erickson really cut deep as the blood starts to look like Merlot. Wayne bleeds too, which looks great on his bald head and they crack each other with hard chain assisted punches and chain chokes. They didn't bother with the touch the turnbuckles gimmick which is a much better way to do this kind of fight. 

MD: I think we've seen so many dog collar and strap matches with the four corners stip that it's refreshing to see one without it. They use the chain well, with Wayne opening Erikson up early (after a failed ambush to begin) with it, a real gusher. The crowd seems a little split here (I get the sense that Erikson was more of a regular that they loved to dislike) and it means that while the violence is ok, the heat isn't necessarily there, even after Erikson takes over on a missed chain punch in the corner and subsequent hanging and opens up Wayne as well. It makes things more back and forth than something with a real tangible comeback. They work in some moves as opposed to just chain shots but it all works because there's always the chain they land on the chain. I really like the finish where Wayne had taken out his ribs on his first top rope elbow attempt and figured out to wrap it around the elbow for the second one. Could have used Erikson leaning on him a bit more but all of Wayne's stuff was good and you can't fault Erikson's gusher here. It sounded like the match ended up this way because they couldn't get a cage going for logistical reasons (maybe they didn't have one, maybe a commission, who knows) and I think I would have been pretty satisfied with what I got if I was in that crowd.

Read more!

Pro Wrestling Revolution Road Report 3/9/19

ER: Jun Akiyama has been wrestling for 27 years, and he decided to work his first ever match in the United States on a Saturday night in San Francisco high school for a lucha fed that doesn't have any actual lucha on it. Why not? We hit up Papito on the way down, me, Tim Livingston, and our friends Sean and Jason. A good crew for a wrestling show. Papito is this great Mexican place owned by a French guy who makes fantastic food. I foolishly had a late lunch, so just sat there sipping sangria and munching chips while Tim got shrimp tacos, Sean got a pork/duck meat combo, and Jason got a great big burrito. I was jealous, but it was my choice and being gluttonous at 38 isn't as fun as it was at 21. That chorizo hamburguesa with queso fresco, avocado, and caramelized onions was staring me in the face on the menu, tempting me with greasy memories. But eating that close together would have had me feeling like total trash through a 3 hour show, so I sad eyed my way through it. We got to the show a little late, and then there was a very long line for being 20 minutes past listed door time. Our saint from above, our friend Brian was inside having come from a different direction, SAVING four other seats. This show was genuinely PACKED and that move probably got him a couple aggressive stares. It was loud as hell throughout a large portion of the night, real cacophonous gym with a full crowd, lots of air horns.

We got there late from dinner and the long line in, so we missed a 6 man scramble match. Our friend Brian - who had saved FOUR seats through a 20 minute late start time AND a full match - when asked about his opinion of the scramble match, wrinkled his nose and narrowed his eyes, and tilted his head a little. A wordless, unimpressed dismissal of six men's nights' work.

Papa Esco/El Dinamita vs. Viento/Rey Leon

ER: This was a perfectly fine tag. One of the tecnicos comes out to Sweet Child of Mine which is one of those cheesy things that means your brain is wired to become a professional independent pro wrestler. Papa Esco is a fun fat guy with a singlet that even says Fat Boy. He has a good fat guy build, nice and sturdy, bald head and big beard. He's not mega fat, but he looks like someone left Monsta Mack in the dryer a little too long. Viento appeared to be the better of the tecnicos as far as fluidity, but he was also in there more with Esco, who is the much better base. Dinamita was really clumsy during some sequences, especially poor at taking offense (which is not a good sign from a rudo), but Esco is really good at taking armdrags, has that great chubby base pendulum style bumping down. This was fine. Esco is one of the PWR homegrowns that I like, so was at minimum hoping for a decent showcase for him, and got it.

Puma Negro vs. Sonico vs. Arkedy Federov vs. Matt Fury

ER: Matt Fury was originally supposed to be Jungle Boy, but due to the week's circumstances Jungle Boy was obviously not here. I didn't catch the name of his replacement, but he was a black flier who my friend Sean kept referring to as "athletic" and wasn't sure why Jason and I kept giving him a hard time about it. He didn't repeatedly refer to Federov as "hard working" so the likely scenario is that Sean doesn't know sports code. Fury got good height on some things and hit a pretty spectacular springboard shooting star press into the entranceway onto everyone, but felt like he put more thought into ways to do high leapfrogs instead of transitions. My favorites in the match were Puma Negro and Sonico. Federov was okayish, but had some really clunky set up on indy offense. There was a moment where he did some awful 9 step set-up kind of move, grabbing an arm, dipping opponent back into a backbreaker, pulling them to feet before locking into a pumphandle, you know one of those moves that needs someone to be perfectly still while you do your 9 point pre-check before dropping them on their face. But Sonico was a real pleasant surprise, a guy I'd love to see again around here. He got real high height leaping off the ropes for ranas and had a really great fast dive. Puma Negro was an Arkangel type rudo, had a nice stiff arm southpaw lariat just like Arkangel's, good base for Sonico's ranas, had a cool sunset flip variation. Federov ends the match with an awful waffle that looked super dangerous. Overall this is what you'd like from a 10 minute 4 way.

Nicole Savoy vs. Heather Monroe

ER: A 13 minute match that probably would have been much better off settling in around 9. Monroe showed a ton of charisma and personality during her ring entrance, really looked like someone who owned the ring and would be a great heel. Once the match started that completely vanished. The way she was stalking the apron and dismissing the crowd during her entrance felt like the kind of confidence that would immediately translate to the match, but the bell rung and she was completely silent. The middle of the match was a long Monroe control segment that was easily the most quiet the crowd got all night, and her stuff didn't look great. Savoy's moments where much better, nice high kick, even better German, tough fisherman buster, big tope (that Monroe caught nicely) but Monroe took way too much of this. It's only a matter of time before Savoy is in NXT, and she's super easy to root for, but the structure of this was all off.

ER: We had an ongoing bet over how long the intermission would go. I had 33 minutes, I laughed at Tim's guess of 25 minutes. To my shock they ended up coming back right at the 25 minute mark. I HATE intermissions, while begrudgingly understanding their purpose, and PWR's intermissions are filled with incredibly loud music blared into a cramped gymnasium. If I sound old, I genuinely don't care. So I leave to stretch my legs and in the hallway I run into Roy Lucier. Roy has been the true MVP of the online wrestling community these past few years, as he's been uploading a wealth of rare and unique wrestling footage in easily searchable categories, at an incredibly fast pace. Old tape traders seem like they always get along when meeting, and he and I got to chat for a good 20 minutes. He told me about a few things he's recently received that are VERY exciting. We even talked about saving it for Christmas because some of it is a gift that has been seen by very few of us. Talking about wrestling with people is fun, real glad we bumped into each other, been a long time coming. You'll be seeing plenty of Roy's uploads written about by us over the next several (!) years.

Tajiri vs. Super Crazy

ER: This feud was pretty important to late teens me, really was some of my absolute favorite stuff at that time and really worked as one of my gateways to wanting to see more and more wrestling from Japan and Mexico. It was cool seeing them run it back now that both are in the back end of their 40s, and this felt like a fun take on the familiar Tajiri/Crazy matches only done by guys in the back end of their 40s. The speed wasn't going to be there, but the ability to work a crowd was there and they knew what they could get by with. Tajiri was getting good reactions just stalking the ring, and he amusing worked the match like a Repo Man match. Tajiri kept going for headlocks and it was pretty great, due to their expert veteran timing. It really could have killed a crowd, as the buzz would be building, fans would start loudly anticipating a Crazy comeback, and right when the comeback was about to happen Tajiri would trick him into a headlock again. Every time the crowd reaction would get louder before the headlock, before Tajiri would quiet them. Tajiri doesn't do fast roundhouse wheel kicks or high kicks anymore, but instead threw a few nice front kicks, just pushing off with a couple stiff kicks to Crazy's chest or chin. Crazy is definitely chubbier these days, but he still gets the exact same height and rotation on his spinkick, hit a moonsault off the middle that looked just like a moonsault of his from '99, and even missed a moonsault off the top that had some of the absolute best arc and grace of anyone to have ever done a moonsault. His form is still that impressive. The finish was really fantastic as the ref gets briefly bumped, and in that brief moment where the ref isn't looking, Tajiri swings off Super Crazy with a cool armdrag...and mists Crazy while midair in the middle of the armdrag. Great visual.

Jun Akiyama/Ultimo Dragon/Misterioso vs. Vinny Massaro/Colt Stevens/JR Kratos

ER: So before the match they ran around passing streamers to ringside fans, and then promoter Gabe got on the mic and explained to the crowd how to throw streamers, and I think it comes off pretty silly to do a quickie "okay Japanese wrestlers only know you respect them if you throw neon garbage at them". Akiyama does come off like a boss during his ring entrance, wearing a large robe, clearly a guy who felt like a big deal to people (actually many in the crowd) who had no idea who he was. But damn if those streamers didn't look cool during his ring introduction (poor Ultimo was a Japanese man who was apparently shown zero respect, streamers for Akiyama only. We felt bad for Ultimo). Bay Area indies have been kicking around "Border Patrol" teams since at least the mid 90s and I'm thankful as hell we don't get any bad "build the wall" shtick from Stevens and Kratos. Vinny is in for a lot of this and the fans are way into Akiyama, which felt great. This wasn't going to be some wild match, it was going to be worked like a NOAH house show match, which was just fine, all that was needed. The rudos worked over Misterioso nicely, especially loved a long full arm lariat from Vinny, and a big release snap suplex from Kratos (a snap vertical suplex, but he let go so Misterioso flew across the ring, looked great). Akiyama came in on two occasions, laid in some nice knees including a great leaping knee into Stevens, and you knew we were getting at least one exploder. They mix it up and don't just go straight for the finish when he tags in the second time, and we even got a cool surprise nearfall from Stevens. I would have loved to see the reaction if Akiyama got pinned. But of course that wasn't REALLY going to happen. This was a perfectly fine crowd pleasing main event, and nothing more, and it didn't need to be.

ER: I've still yet to see a GREAT match from PWR, and they've been around for at least a decade now. But this was a packed house, a genuinely sold out show, with a crowd that stayed loud and invested throughout the whole card. That's a special thing.

Read more!

MLJ: Misterioso/Volador 8: Misterioso vs Volador I [IWC MIDDLE]

1994-03-24 @ Cancún, Quintana Roo
Misterioso vs Volador I [IWC MIDDLE]

This was really my sort of title match. Don't get me wrong. I like the gamesmanship and mat mastery and slow and steady escalation of maestros as much as the next guy, probably more so, but this had a lot of character, and underlying grudge, and was built to big moments. There was a real sense of spectacle to it, even though it was apparently on the middle of the card and really was just the start of a feud, not the climax of it.

First of all, this was the IWC Middleweight title. Misterioso was the first title holder, beating Huichol. Rey and Misterioso would feud over it later. They actually have minis as seconds, with Octagoncito in Misterioso's corner. That was pretty surreal to see and sort of took away from the seriousness of the match to me, even though it would play into the finish in a clever way.

Misterioso came in not wanting to engage. He was selling the rudo turn pretty strongly and went out of his way to make Volador look good early on, getting plenty of heat in the process. Any time that Volador went for a hold, he'd make for the ropes instead of countering. That doesn't sound much but it really runs opposite to what you'd see in most title matches and the crowd responded in kind. Moreover, after the rope break, he'd go overboard in the selling, much as he did in the preceeding trios. It likely started out as a mind game or as a way to mess with the fans, but as Volador continued to keep the advantage, you got the sense watching that it became more and more genuine. When Misterioso did finally lock in a hold (including a really nice rolling leglock), he tantrumed a bit to Volador getting out, pushing him, which led to the final escalation of the fall. Ultimately, Misterioso missed his back tope off the inside second rope and Volador locked in a rolling tapitia for the submission.

The segunda continued the story with a nice transition and some solid selling and rudo work by Misterioso. First of all, here's the leg sell post-tapitia, and Volador going right back to it:

It's nothing earth-shattering, but he was committed to it. Eventually, though, they did a nice little spot where Misterioso was able to get his legs up, rear-facing, during a corner whip, and just roll backwards, mainly to put some distance between himself and Volador. He capitalized with a clothesline and followed up, still selling the leg somewhat, with two hotshot-style drapes over the corner turnbuckle and double leg front (alabama) slams. He was taking his time here, still limping, and playing to the crowd. Finally, he'd go to the top, hit a splash, and lift up Volador TWICE, before putting his foot on him for the pin. That's how you commit to a heel turn.

The beatdown continued into the tercera, leading to a big comeback moment, the finishing stretch (dives included), and a pretty perfect finish for the role this match was playing in the budding feud. Misterioso kept up the cocky act, doing the Hogan ear-cup after corner whips and clotheslines. He went for it one too many times, though, and Volador hit a big quebradora off a whip reversal and then followed it up with one of the biggest clotheslines I've ever seen in lucha:

They started to go back and forth a bit, but with Volador holding the advantage, leading a suplex to the floor, a vault into the ring, and then a really nice tope. Good exchange all around:

Both of them sold on the way in, allowing Misterioso to come back into the ring with a headbutt and a plancha off the top rope (which was still a bit of a technico move, really). He followed it up with a dive of his own and they headed on to the finishing stretch. Both missed top rope moves. There was a sense that Volador held a slight advantage, and Misterioso seemed to sense it as well, resorting to the best possible rudo tactic in this scenario: he went out of his way to attack Volador's mini second. Then, when the ref was distracted, tending to him, he hit a blatant foul and took the pin. Post match they brawled and started the mask challenges that would take a year to payoff.

This was worked exactly as it should be in the early stage of the feud. It was shine/heat/comeback, allowing Volador to really start to get back after the weeks of Misterioso's bad behavior. Even though he put on the superior performance from a kayfabe level, Misterioso had no intention of playing fair and cheated to win. Good action, great selling from Misterioso in the early-middle stretch, just the right amount of fire from Volador, and the perfect finish for the match. I liked this a lot and I liked it even more for having seen the matches building up to.

Read more!

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.

Read more!

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.

Read more!

MLJ: Misterioso vs Huichol vs Vulcano [Mask vs Hair vs Hair]

1993-10-01 @ Gimnasio Olímpico Juan de la Barrera, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal
Misterioso vs Vulcano vs Huichol

This is in between the last match I watched and the start of the Misterioso/Volador break up so I figured what the heck? Who doesn't like a hair/mask match? I've got a time crunch upcoming so the plan is to run some Blue Panther lightning matches in between more Volador/Misterioso for the next few weeks. We'll see how that goes.

I don't have a great sense of who Huichol is. I read in an old WON that he'd won a huge number of hair matches in a row at this point. For someone who seemingly had been around forever, there's not a ton online about him, not even on luchawiki. Apparently he became Loco Zandokan II at some point. At this point he had sort of a wild look to him, sort of like Terrible or Charles, Jr. when their hair was long, though lankier. Vulcano was one of Los Destructores.

And this, though clipped, was a lot of fun. It's a triangle apuestas match from this era, so the rules are simple elimination. They start with three luchadores. The first one to get pinned is eliminated, leaving two. Then the second one to get pinned is eliminated as well. The winner is safe. The two losers then wrestle each other and the ultimate loser loses his hair or mask.

Here there were two rudos and a tecnico and though this part of the match was pretty well clipped, it went about as you'd expect. Huichol and Vulcano teamed up and just crushed Misterioso together. There were brief flashes of a comeback, but they were very brief. Mainly, it was a lot of tandem offense and posturing. Some of it was fun, like this assisted clothesline:

but most was business as usual. They took care of him in about three minutes and then celebrated. Maybe it's because they don't run them too much but I love the rudo doublecrossing in cage matches. It was evident here too. Vulcano celebrated on the top rope as the ref was getting Misterioso's body out of the ring. Huichol took advantage of the distraction, fouled him from behind, and scored the quick win, saving his hair from even being on the line. Beautiful Rudo Mentality:

That left Misterioso and Vulcano. Both guys had taken some damage but Misterioso had taken more and he started this portion of the match in trouble. It was pretty strange, to be honest. Volcano was nailing him with sentons after almost every move at first. Then Vulcano pulled off Misterioso's mask, but didn't get DQ'd. Instead Misterioso ran to the back. Vulcano spent this period arguing with the ref and the crowd and was fully distracted, allowing for Misterioso, wearing a new mask, to take over. That led to a bunch of heel ref spots and then inexplicably, with the ref counting a fast count on Vulcano at the end after a huge arcing sunset flip by Misterioso.

The whole thing was fun enough and worth ten minutes or so of your time, clipped or not, but even after looking at a few WONs, I'm not entirely sure what happened there. That's AAA for you, though. I wouldn't mind seeing more Huichol since I didn't get much other than an attitude out of him here (there's not much online though).

Read more!

MLJ: Misterioso/Volador 5: Misterioso, Rey Misterio Jr., Volador I b Rocco Valente, Tony Arce, Vulcano

1993-04-30 @ Plaza de Toros Ciudad de México, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal
Misterioso, Rey Misterio Jr., Volador I b Rocco Valente, Tony Arce, Vulcano

(This is all of TripleMania: Match starts at: 37:45)

So this is Triplemania I, or at least part of it. I've tended to avoid this stuff because it's well-trodden. I'm not saying that people new to lucha immediately gravitate towards it now, but there's certainly a history of that. This was an under card match, third of eight, and I think it was very well received at the time.

I don't have a lot to say about Valente, Arce, and Vulcano right now. They were Los Destructores and as best as I can tell, they were very good at what they did. Amongst other things, they were the rudos that Rey cut through early on in AAA. They're also really hard to tell apart in the ring, this being my first time seeing them. When I watch these matches, I often find things that I want to delve deeper into later. They're one.

So, Rey, Volador, and Misterioso apparently teamed enough to be called La Tercia Del Aire. I'm not sure how many matches they had together but they'd been teaming since September (and feuding with Los Destructores for about that long it seems). Rey was a good addition to their act, since he could take a beating but also be a spark that could help light up a comeback. He was still billed as a "super nino" here.

Pairings here were Volador and Arce, Misterioso and Vulcano, and Rey vs Valente. Of the three, I thought Rey's was probably the weakest, just maybe a step off in some of the execution, without the higher level of difficulty I was expecting. It wasn't bad by any means, but I've seen better from him from around this time. I'm not sure if he was nervous or what. My favorite spot in this initial feeling out/quasi-shine was Volador doing that armwrench/backflip thing that sometimes goes along with a rocker-dropper fake out, but flipping backwards into a headscissors/arm drag combo onto two rudos. I'd never seen that before and it was well done. It's amazing how many spots you see in matches from twenty-plus years ago that you don't see at all now.

Rudos eventually had enough, swarmed, and took over. Rey took some nasty shots here, especially face first into the turnbuckles, just lawn darts, and a pressed-up spike super powerbomb. It didn't last long, however, as the tecnicos came back on the wings of this great run up moonsault press (as in Volador ran up the chest of one rudo and moonsaulted another). With spots like that, you can see why people praised this match so much at the time (the time being the much more spot-starved 1990s). This led to a triple tandem tope and a few tecnico-vs-the-world exchanges and a fun finishing stretch of cutoffs and action until the tecnicos rolled through for the win. Enjoyable match that, once again, seems to highlight the feeling of an era. I need to cehck out more of Los Destructores.

Read more!

MLJ: Misterioso/Volador 4: Ice Killer I, Karis La Momia I, La Parka vs Misterioso, Solar I, Volador I

1992-06-05 @ León, Guanajuato
Ice Killer I, Karis La Momia I, La Parka vs Misterioso, Solar I, Volador I

Obviously, at some point Misterioso and Volador found their way to AAA. This was really early for the company. It was founded in May, 1992. If I had more time, I'd delve into the WONs from the era and try to trace things a bit more. I don't, so I'm just going to look at the text of the match.

Karis is a mummy. Ice Killer is a hockey themed monster in black. La Parka actually had been wrestling for ten years already (at least according to Wiki) but was new to the gimmick. What stands out, almost immediately, was that he was just another monster in a trios of monsters. I'm going to liken it to Undertaker debuting as part of a trios with Papa Shango and the Berzerker or something. I see Parka as such a force of nature and such an icon, but he had to break out of this fairly interchangeable group of monsters to get there. Visually, he wasn't all that different from Ice Killer, actually. Karis is awesome. He had a mummy mask and under the mummy mask was ANOTHER mask. Also the monsters' valets were great (Parka's was in a funeral shroud). I love the theatrical aspects of early AAA. I don't have a ton else to say about Ice Killer. He was the head of the union, according to luchawiki, and apparently he has a young son now (talking age 3-8) who dabbles, and that might be amusing to check out on youtube.

The match itself was fun, solid tecnicos vs stooging monsters. There's a joy to that. The rudos played more for laughs than any outright fear or violence. They had the usual exchanges to start, Mumia vs Solar, Ice Killer vs Misterioso, and Volador vs Parka, all of which had a slight tecnico advantage. On the second time around, they started playing tecnico vs the world, including this a fun bit of rudo goofiness, where Parka ended up on Ice Killer's shoulders:

The tecnicos finished things up shortly thereafter, leading to rudo regrouping for the segunda. It was pretty straightforward. They hung out outside until the tecnicos came after them and then ambushed. Simple but effective. The beatdown continued into the tercera, with some simple tandem offense (and some more complicated, like a Hart Attack from the turnbuckle), and the usual glorious fake-handshake-ambush-from-behind heeling to keep the advantage. In the end, Volador managed to redirect a kick in a cute comeback spot and the tecnicos swarmed back for a spirited comeback.

Parka already showed signs of what he'd soon become, spirited, charismatic and agile, even while taking a beating:

The tecnicos really got to show off towards the end (though Parka snuck out a roll up win). Volador and Misterioso had a great act. That's my take away from all of these matches. By this point in their careers, they had worked with each other for so long that they could do things like set one another up for a moonsault or some other spot, and do things which felt way ahead of their time, but that also fit into the sort of narrative they were trying to tell. Nothing seemed outlandish even if a lot of it felt breathtaking. It's too bad we have such gaps in between their stuff online. This match didn't really have any sense of stakes but it was a lot of fun and, I think, a good look at what early AAA was presenting.

Read more!

MLJ: Misterioso/Volador 3: Blue Panther, Emilio Charles Jr., Fuerza Guerrera vs Blue Demon Jr., Misterioso, Volador I

1992-01-10 @ Arena Coliseo
Blue Panther, Emilio Charles Jr., Fuerza Guerrera vs Blue Demon Jr., Misterioso, Volador I

Going off of the almighty match finder, this was the third match in a three match series pitting Misterioso and Volador against Fuerza Gurrera at Arena Coliseo. This followed the title match (and matches that built it) a month prior in Arena Mexico. I covered the second match on Wednesday but the first one isn't online, which is a shame because it had Nitron, and I can only imagine him taking Volador and Misterioso's stuff. Anyway, this was a pretty weird match, but if it was a blowoff to help Fuerza get his heat back, I can sort of understand it. That said, there's almost no one in the history of wrestling who feels as Teflon when it comes to losses as Fuerza.

I've seen extremely little Blue Demon Jr. He was around 25 here, so my guess is that a lot of his more negative tendencies I've heard about developed later. Granted, most of what he had to do was get beat on and some rope running. He did take some good bumps for Charles and I wouldn't be against watching a title match against Blue Panther from this era if it existed (it doesn't) but he was a supporting player here.

Like I said, weird structure. Unless it was clipped, and I saw no sign of that, it went two falls, with the rudos taking both, and a tecnico comeback in the middle. There wasn't any sort of shine or feeling out at the beginning either. The rudos just swarmed in after a bit of Fuerza vs Misterioso. Then there was a lot of post match brawling and posturing, including a face off between Fuerza and Misterioso once again. Looking at results and Observers, this didn't go anywhere. It was just it. Fuerza started teaming with Satanico and Panther against Vampiro, Dragon, and Octagon.

The opening swarm was effective enough given the guys you had on the rudo side. The tecnicos cycled in and out to get beaten on and there was a decent amount of tandem offense with the highlight being Misterioso lifted up onto two rudos' knees for a triple gutbuster. My favorite spot, however, was an electric chair splash by Panther and Fuerza. I always like how they work together. They really balanced one another:

Also, while we're at it, check out this pretty mare by Panther:

The comeback wasn't too much to write home about (just a quebradora out of nowhere). Really all you need to know about it is Emilio Charles' sell of a later quebradora:

He also took a back body drop bump out. The match ended with Misterioso getting slammed off the top by Fuerza and put into a double underhook backbreaker/submission by Panther. It was very sudden, but I guess it set up the Fuerza/Panther tandem to be at the top of the card for the next month (except for this was at Arena Coliseo and that was at Arena Mexico and frankly I'm probably looking too deeply at CMLL booking, even old CMLL booking). In short, I have no idea why this went two falls, why it ended with brawling and posturing. The previous match was better since it was more complete. I'm pretty sure that this was fine for what it was. I'm just still not sure what exactly that was.

Read more!

MLJ: Misterioso/Volador 2: Huracán Sevilla, Misterioso, Volador I vs Fuerza Guerrera, Kung Fu, MS-1

1992-01-03 @ Arena Coliseo
Huracán Sevilla, Misterioso, Volador I vs Fuerza Guerrera, Kung Fu, MS-1

Once again, the idea behind this one is to look at the Misterioso/Volador team and the big matches of their eventual feud. So far though, though it wasn't my intention, I'm stumbling behind the look at Emilio Charles I took a few weeks ago. That turned into a look at the Misterioso vs Fuerza Guerrera title match and this and the match following, through no real planning on my part, will be a look at the aftermath of that.

Sevilla worked as Ramirez II before this and as DARTH VADER before that:

I really don't know a lot about him. Kung Fu had turned rudo at some point and worked a grumpy nunchucks gimmick here. The match started with the ref running around trying to find his hidden weapons. MS-1 had just lost a hair match to Maskare (which sounds fun but I don't think we have it).

Anyway, the rudos took right over here due to all the hullabaloo over the nunchuk search. There was a distraction. They took advantage. General pairings here were Volador and MS-1, Kung Fu and Sevilla, and, of course, Fuerza and Misterioso. The ambush created a numbers advantage for the rudos and they cycled the tecnicos in for the primera. Misterioso, especially, seemed like he knew how to get the crowd behind him and to look strong, but whenever he started to fight back he was double or triple teamed. Kung Fu's stilted leg drop was ridiculous. I'm not even going to gif it.

I will gif this though. It's Fuerza being a total dick to Sevilla and yanking him around by his hair:

Also, this sell of a corner shot by Sevilla:

All in all, it was a good beatdown. They kept things moving and the rudos were just unrelenting. It was a little unfocused, but that seemed to add to the feel of it, not subtract. It felt like grumpy violence for the sake of it.

The rudos took the primera and left the tecnicos convalescing on the outside. After a bit of miscommunication, however, we'd get a pretty spirited comeback that almost immediately moved into tecnicos vs the world. It began well, however, with MS-1 stooging it up in preparation for a faceoff with Sevilla:

and Fuerza falling out of the ring in retreat for no reason:

and ended amazingly with this awesome monkey-flip-your-own-partner-into-a-sunset-flip spot. It's a cool enough spot that you figure that they had to use it fairly often. Look at Fuerza sell the shot on the top too:

So that evened up the caidas. The tercera was a lot of what you'd expect, very paint but numbers, but executed well. I'm not going to say that trios matches from 91/92 just feel more "right" than what we get today but there's some element of comfort in them, which is a funny notion for me since I'd never seen any of this stuff before two years ago. This was heated with a solid beatdown, some good tecnico shine, some fun spots and moments, and a great post-match brawl. What else can you ask for in a random trios match from twenty five years ago?

Read more!

MLJ: Misterioso/Volador 1: Mano Negra, Misterioso, Volador vs El Supremo I, Espectro Jr., Javier Llanes

1991-05-31 @ Arena México
Mano Negra, Misterioso, Volador vs El Supremo I, Espectro Jr., Javier Llanes

The gameplan for the next week or two is to look at Volador (Sr.) and Misterioso (Sr.). This was inspired in part by the Between the Sheets podcast talking about their mask match and in part by Super Parka getting his Arena Mexico booking. I figured the best way to do this is to take a look at what's online, watch some matches with them teaming, watch some matches with them feuding and end with the mask match. There's not that much online so we'll jump around and cover a span of years.

This first one had Mano Negra, Misterioso, and Volador vs El Supremo, Espectro, Jr, and Javier Llanes. Negra's gotten play lately as an Atlantis mask victim. Llanes, the son of Enrique Llanes (and maybe cousin to the Guerreros?), was a guy I wasn't familiar with at all, but I liked him so much here that I went and watched his 92 title match with Dandy which is online and is top notch. You should check that out if you haven't already. El Supremo was a long time vet who took the mask of Robot R-2 (the fiend!) and Lawrence de Arabia (because of course he did). Pierroth, Jr. would take his the next year.

This was a pretty typical early 90s trios match in all of the best ways. Lots of tecnico shine, some solid heat, perhaps not the comebck that one would hope for but a very fun finishing stretch in the tercera. A dynamic, feel good match, and while this might be a stretch, I think it's the sort of match you don't get a lot now from CMLL due to a simple contradiction. Early match wrestlers aren't supposed to do quite as much as they do here and upper card rudos don't generally want to give as much as the ones here do. Sometimes you get something right smack in the mid card that approximates this, but not as often as you'd think. That's my impression at least.

The primera started with feeling out and ended with a bunch of rudo miscommunication and clowning. Llanes showed me a ton of personality here. Like, so.

He did that goofy post arm drag dance twice, which made it mean more when Volador really got him with one. And then there's the world's most subtle foul:

Lots of good, quick action here with all of the tecnicos getting to shine and flip and fight against the odds. This gif of Volador leaping over the rope after Supremo and then casually whacking him in the face as he walked past sums things up well.

Anyway, the tecnicos picked up the fall and they moved into the segunda with more of the same. Eventually the rudos took over with Espectro cowering in his corner, the tecnicos all charging in to crush him, the refs pulling two of them back, and Espectro pulling the third in. It was servicable, at least. Generally there are two sorts of acceptable rudo beatdowns. The first is when all of the rudos are in and the tecnicos cycle in and out only to get ambushed or swarmed. The second is when one rudo is in, the rudos do quick switches, and the tecnicos are stuck hoping for a tag on the apron. To me, the problem is when you have all of the rudos in at once and the tecnicos stuck on the apron. Thankfully, this match didn't have that. It was the latter which segued into the former, ending with a nice double submission on Mano Negra.

Unfortunately, the comeback transition spot was just okay. Basically, the tecnicos just had enough and then regrouped enough to make a concentrated offensive. Nothing clever but nothing egregious either. At least the comeback itself was good, with the tecnicos wanting revenge. Volador tossed Supremo into the ring cover. Misterioso punched Llanes in the corner. Then he kicked out his flipping gutbuster and Llanes sold it like his stomach had just gotten inverted as well.

This led into the finishing stretch with cut offs, a few dives (including a crazy one by Volador), and a roll up by Negra on Espectro. I'm not sure this match led to anything really. I don't see a big Mano Negra vs Espectro, Jr. match or anything, but it was a lot of fun for what it was.

Read more!

MLJ: Fuerza Guerra vs Misterioso for the NWA World Welterweight Championship

1991-12-6
Fuerza Guerrera vs Misterioso

One of the big lessons from the DVDVR 80s set (which would make it one of the first things I ever learned about lucha, really), was that guys who you think were mainly brawlers or shtick wrestlers could very often shine in title matches as well. I think Mocho Cota surprised everyone there. I've mentioned this before, but my understanding of title matches is that they stemmed from a tradition where the commission had a lot of say and would cause a huge stir if things weren't wrestled more "on the level" in them. That's, in part, carried on even to today. For instance, Los Ingobernables got a ton of heat in their matches vs Shocker/Casas by teasing just a bit of the usual, traditional matwork before ambushing their opponents, because it felt wrong. In the matches I've seen back into the 80s, the rudo/tecnico divide wasn't nearly as strong in title matches, except for maybe as it pertained to the finish.

That leads to Fuerza. I haven't seen nearly as much of him as I'd like, but I've really enjoyed what I have seen. He's so good at projecting who he is and what he does, as good as almost anyone I've ever seen I think. He's such a scummy, chickenshit, jerk. That's probably 40% why I watch wrestling right there. This was, I thought, was a fun title match as he started by giving what we expected, but then worked more and more of his unique-Fuerzaness into it.

The primera had a good mix of everything really. It had escalating matwork, and while we lost some of it to the picture-in-picture interviews, I thought Fuerza looked especially good. There was about three or four minutes of it before they escalated into rope running, which again, was pretty good. That lead to Fuerza taking the Hamrick bump, a faked dive, and a mini athletic finishing stretch ending with some real shine for Misterioso (a diving, twisting tope/headbutt off the ropes back into the ring, his quebradora style gutbuster, and then finally the Reinera to finish the fall). Fuerza stooged a little, complaining after the gutbuster, but it was mostly played straight, more exasperation from the rudo than shtick. It could have gone a bit longer with each bit, but it was ultimately a lot of fun and a good way to start the match.

Between falls, they showed us this. Yes they did:

The segunda started with some more shine from Misterioso but Fuerza was able to hit a cheapshot dropkick out of nowhere and take over. He did these great tosses into the corner which I just love:

and Mistioso took a good bump out off of a whip. From there on in, it was full heeling, with shots into the post and his lift up knee foul. That led to a Scorpion but Misterioso got to the ropes only to take an upside down bump into the corner and Fuerza's slight cradle front suplex, a senton, and the fall. Very good counterbalance to the primera.

The tercera was really back and forth but with strong transitions. More on that in a minute. Fuerza bullied to start, missed a corner charge, but then Misterioso missed one as well. That was the sort of thing that fueled the back and forth, taking advantage of mistakes. For instance, at one point, Fuerza had a half crab on and thought he had the win so he let it go. At another, Misterioso missed a turn around splash at the top. A third would be Fuerza hitting a somersault dive off the apron but then gloating for too long and letting Misterioso come back in and dropkick him from behind. When Misterioso finally took the win off of a pin exchange (with Fuerza's foot off and on the rope) There was a lot of back and forth but nothing was capricious. I am not always great with long finishing sequences with a lot of near falls and kick outs, but I'm more forgiving with lucha, and I think that has something to do with the 2/3 falls structure, because that forces things earlier in the match to have a bit more weight and makes the tercera feel more earned. I think that's, in part, why I like modern title matches with their tiny, tiny segundas a lot less, even if the tercera is hugely exciting. This was good. I liked the spirit of it a lot and want to track down some more Fuerza title matches.

Read more!

MLJ: Emilio Charles, Jr. Spotlight 4: El Hijo Del Santo, Misterioso, Mascara Sagrada vs Emilio Charles Jr., Fuerza Guerrera, La Fiera

1991-11-29 @ Arena Mexico
Fuerza Guerrera/Emilio Charles Jr./La Fiera v. El Hijo del Santo/Mascara Sagrada/Misterioso

First, a plug. The latest issue of Odessa Steps Magazine just dropped and in it Mark has outdone himself this time. He's got interviews with Hechicero, Zeuxis, and Marco Corleone, plus a "Dr. Lucha" Steve Sims article on Atlantis and the marking of the end of an era, my Chilanga Mask write ups (including the women's match that I didn't do on here), and other lucha goodness. It's an outright zine in an age that they no longer exist and well worth supporting. More info at Mark's site: www.odessasteps.co.uk.

Onto the match: this is the stuff. Another great match, but with a different structure than the last and a little more focused on building the Misterioso vs Fuerza title match. Having Sagrada in there instead of Dragon didn't really change much, but there was slightly too much reliance on the heel ref trope to make the logic fit into place in the otherwise great tercera.

Here, instead of the feeling out/shine, swarming/heat, comeback/reset/finish sort of structure, it's a rudo swarm from the get go, followed by the comeback in the segunda, and a reset in the tercera, which ultimately led to Misterioso and Fuerza finishing things off. The variation shouldn't be understated. One thing that makes CMLL stand out from a lot of other wrestling is that they run the same crowds, week after week, with many of the same wrestlers. There are only so many pairings and quite often they go back to them again and again. That they can have very good matches, two weeks in a row, with almost the exact same grouping but also make them feel different while getting across the same messages is impressive. It's a testament to the wrestlers but also to the nature of the genre. I think it's something that we often overlook through cherry picking matches and watching them out of context.

Here, Fuerza just walked across the ring and attacked Misterioso as he was announced as captain. He's the most brazen wrestler in history, I think, utterly shameless. He sealed the attack through running Misterioso into the post from the apron and the rudos gained an immediate numbers advantage with the ambush. Sure, Santo fought back a bit because he's Santo and that's to be expected, but the onslaught is too much. Good, gritty beatdown, with enough movement and action and teamwork to keep things interesting. It ended with everyone on the tecnico side getting pinned or submitted, which was a little confusing, but just showed the rudo superiority.

I liked the comeback here as it was logical and a little bit unique. For once, the tecnicos, all recovered at about the same time, entered the ring to back up their partner (Misterioso). The rudos couldn't play the numbers game and instead withdrew during the standoff. That let Misterioso charge after Fuerza and get some revenge posting in. The tecnicos churn through the rudos after that, including a great moment where Charles gets pissed after eating multiple drop toeholds and kicks the rope, causing Fuerza, who was standing on it on the apron, to go stumbling in. Does anyone still do Misterioso's reverse quebradora gutbuster? It's a very fun move. Anyway, they did the usual fall ending for a Santo trios with him diving over his partner pinning someone with a headbutt off the top to the standing, charging rudo partner. Good stuff made even better by the fact that the ref breaks up Misterioso pounding on Fuerza on the outside, delaying that ultimate confrontation for the tercera.

They actually cycled back into heat on Misterioso for the tercera, which was welcome as you rarely get a real double tecnicos-in-peril in a trios match, but it was a bit too contrived by the ref keeping the tecnicos out for me to fully enjoy. Anyway, this involved a bunch of mask ripping and ref interference, before the tecnicos finally had enough. They charged around the ring to avoid the ref and evened the odds that way. This lets them move into the quick exchanges and ring-exits, with two pretty awesome and super-heated Misterioso vs Fuerza encounters, Santo hitting his senton/tope combo, and Sagrada and Fiera suplexing each other over the top to take them out of the match. At the end of the day, Misterioso locks in the Reinera again and wins the day setting up the title match to come. Great trios match only brought down a bit by ref antics.

Read more!

MLJ: Emilio Charles, Jr. Spotlight 3: El Hijo Del Santo, Misterioso, Último Dragón vs Emilio Charles Jr., Fuerza Guerrera, La Fiera

1991-11-22 @ Arena México
El Hijo Del Santo, Misterioso, Último Dragón vs Emilio Charles Jr., Fuerza Guerrera, La Fiera

The problem with a career like Charles' is that there's almost too much. We have bits and pieces online from a span of years and years and it's hard to know where to start. That's the problem with just about everything I do. The good news is that there's an easy solution: start anywhere. Just put your head down and charge; watch things and in doing so, you start to get oriented. You start to figure out what other directions you should be going.

I like to watch things that are close to one another chronologically because that gives a slightly better sense of what's going on. I also like to find things which have other wrestlers I really want to see. That's the case here as I have a two match series from 1991 with Hijo del Santo on one side and Charles, Fuerza, and Fiera on the other side. Since I wasn't sure what this was building to, I looked to the Wrestling Observer for the week. It was pretty fun, actually, noting:

1.) That this was Ultimo Dragon's debut on Galavision;
2.) that the tecnico side was "a team of a Japanese wrestler, a Mexican idol, and an American;
3.) That Santo, Dragon, Guerrera, and Charles were all excellent in the match (which was given ***1/2) and;
4.) that it was interesting due to the cross-promotional nature of Santo (UWA Welterweight champ) going up against Fuerza (NWA Welterweight champ).

Way more detail than we'd get a few years later, and I figured it out too: two weeks down the line Misterioso was going for Guerza's title. That made TV and I'll probably have to divert off to watch it. I'll talk more about Misterioso when I do.

Anyway, were I to give out star ratings, I might even go higher than that. This was one of those iconic, idealized trios matches that I often say I could watch all day in and all day out. First and foremost, Fiera's shirt was awesome.

The pairings here for the primera were Fiera vs Misterioso (which is weird considering they were building to Fuerza vs Misterioso, though that would play later in the match), Dragon vs Charles, and Fuerza vs Santo. For some reason, the first Santo vs Fuerza exchange is clipped out. It's the only thing clipped out in the match and that's a shame.

This has what I would say is the most basic trio structure. A-B-A, with a reset towards the end and a finish that focuses on the feuding players. Even exchanges to begin with an increasing tecnico shine, the rudos taking over in the middle of the segunda, taking the fall, and carrying it over into the tercera, a strong comeback which settles into the reset, the clearing of the ring, and the finish. There's such a purity to matches like these and when they're well worked, they're a joy.

This was. Dragon was there to show off and he did, especially showing off his ability to land on his feet out of snap mares or back body drops. I find him hit or miss in general, but here he was a useful cog in the machine. Fiera is very good at bumping and feeding as a rudo. Those same big back body drop bumps he can take to garner sympathy as a tecnico work just as well here. Charles, as we've seen, was hugely versatile, and he made for a surprisingly good foil for Dragon both with matwork and in quick rope running. Fuerza was Fuerza, working in the low blows and the rudo miscommunication spots, and even a few nice suplexes.

The rudos took over after a Charles foul on Misterioso

I find how unfocused (or at least "off-task") the match was interesting in that regard. Fiera started against him. Charles was the one that fouled him. Yet they were leading up to him facing Fuerza. It could have distracted from the match, but everything was good enough that it didn't really matter. In a lot of ways it felt more organic because of it.

Anyway, the comeback was more than solid, starting with a Misterioso quebradora on Charles (again, not Fuerza), and the tecnicos swarming. They reset a bit after that (and to Misterioso vs Fiera, not Fuerza), and it was the usual quick stuff with guys coming in and out and a great Santo dive out of nowhere after Fiera tried to run away to avoid a Dragon Dive. Dragon still got to hit his moonsault, though, just against Charles a moment later. That led to Misterioso vs Fuerza (finally) and a Reinera that put the tecnicos over and the upcoming challenger over the champ. Very fun trios.

Read more!