On Brand Segunda Caida: Apache and Sevilla Dance in the Rain, then Dance for HAIR!

Gran Apache vs. Oscar Sevilla AAA 3/19/00

ER: This is a pretty famous match if you were a certain age on internet wrestling message boards, two lunatics fighting in the middle of a rain storm in the slipperiest possible ring. The video quality on year 2000 lucha is grainy enough that you don't see the rainfall, but it's impossible to ignore the huge umbrellas everywhere and the pools of water splashing up from the ring. Sevilla starts things by hitting a great tope as Apache is coming down the aisle, and it's such an insane way to start the match because these guys clearly had no traction in that ring. Sevilla built up an impressive head of steam on a ring where guys were falling over just throwing worked stomps. The ring looked like waxed glass, a real slip and slide, and it added to every part of this match and made everything they did so much more impressive. Both guys bleed, and bleeding in a ring during a rain storm is just a different level of kickass wrestling bleeding. Sevilla is a fun lucha bumper, really throwing himself into his misses, and he has one of my favorite ways of hitting the turnbuckles. 

Apache has among my favorite strikes in wrestling history, and his punches, slaps, and kicks are on glorious slippery display throughout all of this. His pushing kicks to Sevilla's head are so annoying and so awesome, Sevilla bleeding out while Apache is just scraping his boot across his forehead and sliding into position like he's in Risky Business. Apache even incorporates the ring water in ways I wasn't expecting, like attempting to drown Sevilla while holding him in a caballo. Apache's second was great cheapshotting Sevilla, dropping hard elbows while Apache stands on Sevilla's neck, and Sevilla's second hits his own great dive down the stretch. The bumps in this are at their best when you can see just how far guys are sliding on the mat after just a normal back bump. At one point Apache slides at least 7 feet after hitting the mat, and it's beautiful. The whole match feels dangerous, as you get the sense that every single movement is just asking for a rolled ankle. The referee refuses to stand in the ring because it's too dangerous, and that danger didn't stop Apache or Sevilla for a second. I love it. One of my favorite occurrences in wrestling history. 

Gran Apache vs. Oscar Sevilla AAA 3/31/00    Pt. 2

ER: This whole thing starts with a fight between warring clown factions, but I don't think any of them are clown luchadors? As best I can tell, Apache and Sevilla each came to the ring followed by clowns, and the clowns threw frisbees and soccer balls to the fans, and then the clown gangs started kinda hitting and kicking at each other like an extremely confusing take on an FMW vs. Karate Guys steam out. Apache uses the Classic Clown Fight distraction to jump Sevilla, then throw him halfway across the ring with a crazy splash mountain (Sevilla was always a bump god so you know he's a guy who will make a splash mountain look great) then immediately takes the primera with a Michinoku Driver. Everyone in attendance agreed heartily that Sevilla looked awesome getting thrown onto his shoulders in the primera, so Apache throws him with another splash mountain in the segunda, but Sevilla rolls him up tightly on the second driver attempt. Sevilla has great roll ups, really tight and they all look difficult to kick out of, and those are on full display in the tercera. The tercera is also when we get to see Apache's excellent punch display, as well as a fine pescado and a great tope that shoves Oscar into the barricade. Apache gets busted open and while Sevilla isn't a vicious attacker, he does not need to be. Apache's blood projects for him and Sevilla's pinfalls look so convincing that the crowd keeps getting more and more excited to see Apache's head get shaved. I adored Apache's Atlantida, as it lead to a fantastic Sevilla crucifix pin, and again the entire tercera played as a real showcase of how a well executed roll-up can really erase any size difference. Of course Apache gets extra time to Houdini his way out due to Tirantes, but it only makes Sevilla look better. Also, Sevilla's blouse looks like pro wrestling once it's stained with Apache's blood. Sevilla taps Apache with a rings of Saturn, and Tirantes gives Apache such a long time to break out of it that he probably caused Apache permanent shoulder damage. 

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On Brand Segunda Caida: Gran Apache vs. Oscar Sevilla

Gran Apache vs. Oscar Sevilla vs. Panthro vs. Cuerno De Chivo AAA 10/17/99

ER: The Fall and Fall of Goat Horn! This was an excellently set up cage match, and I love that these good lucha cage matches have made themselves hidden to me and now I keep stumbling across them unintentionally. This was a hair match, last man in the cage gets shaved, and the layout of the twists was so much fun. Cuerno de Chivo - Goat Horn - had lost his mask to Sevilla several months before, Sevilla is a hair and mask winning machine, Apache hates Sevilla, and there's a Thundercat. That's a good start for a foursome! And everyone has great moments, made only better by the turns of the match. Apache is a sadistic killer to Sevilla, interrupting everything he does with his punches (that were probably my favorite punches in the world in 1999), and flattens him with two different super violent sitout pedigrees. One of Sevilla's skills was whipping his face into the mat, and Apache really lifted him up high in that double underhook before bringing him down on his face. He finds time to punch Panthro too, and does get smashed face first into the cage by Sevilla, but then kicks Sevilla out of the air when Sevilla goes for a twisting elbow. 

Apache escapes 3 minutes in, then just makes fun of everyone from the outside. Panthro escapes a couple minutes later, and Apache starts helping out Chivo by blocking attempted Sevilla escapes. Apache really parkours his way up the cage to punch Sevilla in the face, distracts him enough to make him face plant on a missed frog splash...but, Apache can't pull himself away from the glee of knocking Oscar off the cage and manages to get himself pulled back in! Apache takes a real dangerous awesome fall back into the ring, and then we get Apache fully helping Chivo kick Sevilla's ass. This makes Panthro climb back into the ring to save Sevilla, essentially giving us a late match restart. We get the tecnicos finally pulling the duke on the rudos and quickly escaping, leaving the two rudos begrudgingly left fighting each other for their hair. Apache was downright giddy at the thought of Sevilla losing his long silky locks, but he's not going to be losing his own hair to anybody. We get a great long bit of Chivo and Apache talking it out and Chivo keeps trying to reason with him. They shake on it, Apache kicks him in the balls as swiftly and cruelly as possible, and then scrambles up the cage with ease, blowing kisses on his way to the floor, Chivo left holding his balls in the ring. Apache was a real whirlwind here, like a quick moving lucha Finlay. Great cage matches, a lucha staple. 

Gran Apache/La Rata I/La Rata II vs. Oscar Sevilla/Pegasso/Bull Rogers AAA 2/18/00

ER: Pegasso is billed as Luchador Sin Nombre here but looks exactly like he's always looked (not sure how long he went unnamed), Apache has a fine Indian maiden with him, and La Ratas are absolutely horrifying scarecrow men. This is also weird to me, as it's 2/3 falls, which is something I didn't realize AAA was still doing at this point. This is a short trios, very quick falls, but packed with enough dives for an hour of TV. Pegasso especially seemed intent on injuring himself, breaking out a couple tope con giros, and Asai moonsault, and a sick springboard rana to the floor where he basically powerbombs himself. There are more dives from the others (even Bull Rogers, a luchador who seems to only exist for a few months of 2000 AAA), but I got so much more glee from Gran Apache's antics. 

This was a master stooge class for Apache, in a match where I don't think he landed a single piece of offense, not even a punch. Every Apache exchange had him bumping nicely to the floor to put over a Rogers dropkick or Sevilla rana, and the rest was him working an incredible bit around being kicked in the balls. Apache swings several times on Sevilla and misses every shot, so just immediately complains to Pepe Casas that Sevilla kicked him in the balls. After being awarded the segunda for this (without too much of an investigation by the refs), Apache proceeds to duck walk all around ringside while holding his balls, feebly giving thumbs up to the crowd while limping around with his butt out, so distracted by his aching sac that he walks face first into a ringpost, then staggers off holding his balls and his forehead. I'm not sure when the change happened, but there aren't anywhere near enough lucha matches based around a rudo selling a phantom ball kick, but this was some of the best I've seen. Sevilla pays him back by winning the tercera, merely by faking his own injured balls, but obviously doesn't put anywhere near the care that Apache put into his aching scrotum. 

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