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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Found Footage Friday: CHICANA~! FARAON~! MAYNE~! VENTURA~! SAVAGE HANDICAP MATCH~!

Jesse Ventura vs. Moondog Mayne Portland 5/7/77

MD: Savoldi footage here but on youtube. Definitely new to me and among the earliest Portland I've ever seen. We just get eight and a half minutes but it's great. Watching old Portland wrestling always feels like going home to me. It's just the atmosphere. Just such a family set up. Ventura here has a mask because he lost his hair so that's novel. Mayne is the One Man Gang, the Blond Bomber, scruffy and a local legend even by this point. 

Ventura controlled early with pretty conventional stuff. We don't see how he took over on either fall that we get unfortunately. Mayne's comeback is great as someone gave him coffee and he just blatantly tossed it into the mask. He took the first fall with the bombs away kneedrop, that stalwart of the west coast (used by Stevens, Patterson, Mayne). When we come back in the second fall, he's trapped in the ropes and takes this great bump through them as Ventura frees him. He comes back with an eyepoke after a little bit of king of the mountain though and we leave off with Snuka having tossed him a cowbell from outside and him going to town on Ventura. Just a nice snapshot. Hopefully even more of this 77 Portland shows up. It's always wild to see pre-Buddy Portland.

ER: I thought this was pedestrian stuff until the moment Moondog graciously accepted a fan's cup of hot coffee and threw it in Ventura's face. Throwing beer or getting hit with a soda is always great wrestling, but you never get guys utilizing hot coffee or cocoa. Hot coffee to finally kick the main event into gear is so great. Lonnie Mayne is only 33 years old year but looks 60, so it looks cool when he takes the Harley Race bump to the floor. It looks like an old man falls head first on the concrete or an old man jumped off the rope onto his knee and it makes Mayne a more compelling babyface. It means he's the kind of great babyface who got loud cheers for eye raking and bashing Ventura with a cowbell. So we only get the first 7 minutes of a 20 or 30 minute 2/3 falls draw, which is not much. I want to know if there was blood, and what Ventura did when/if his mask got torn off, and how he looked. We need to go further back to establish when Sandy Barr firmly established his trademark look that he carried through the 80s.   

Randy Savage vs. Danny Doyle/Buddy Landel ICW 1980

MD: New footage Allan uncovered and posted to Twitter. This is fascinating because it's Savage against two real undercard guys. This isn't even on Cagematch. The earliest Landel we have noted there is 81. Roop (injured) is on commentary with Izzy Slapowitz and a little of the latter goes a long way. Doug Vines is in the crowd watching. There's a 10K bounty on Ronnie Garvin who Savage (the champ) is dodging.

Like I said, it's Savage, as a vulnerable but dangerous champ against two undercard wrestlers, saying he can beat them both in the ten minutes, elimination style, and they really play up the numbers advantage and just how high a hill Savage has to climb against two guys. It's a while before he gets any offense at all and then even after he gets it, it's hard to keep it. 

He hits the top rope axe handle to the floor on Landel and they note that while a top rope move into the ring is illegal, there are no rules against jumping to the floor since no one's ever done it. He then finishes off Landel by suplexing him back in. Doyle immediately rushes him and while Savage takes over, the bell rings as the time limit expires. Then Savage has a fit at the commentary booth, threatening everyone until Vines offers to take out Garvin next week for just $5000. Pretty engaging stuff that really made Savage look like he could be beaten and that he was edging ever closer to losing his mind and just accepting a challenge from Garvin. Very cool find.

ER: I never think much about the handicap as a match structure, but it might be our least explored "common" match structure. I say least explored, because they are not often worked like Savage works here, which is approaching the match as an actual obstacle. Yes, these two men are undercarders who Savage would have no trouble with in a singles, but the match takes an honest look at how tough it would be to face off against two men. Handicap matches are most commonly used to put over one man dominating two men. The Andre handicap matches are entertaining, brief looks at Andre stacking boneless men like cordwood, but rarely used as a way to actually just double (or triple) the danger Andre was in. It's like fighting a zombie. Easy in theory, but throw in another and it's suddenly easy to get overwhelmed. Savage was facing a couple nobodies and not getting overwhelmed, but he's treating it like being outnumbered and it's a fascinating approach. 

Buddy Landel looks like Gino here and I love it. This is teenage Buddy Landel! Savage hits this kid with a middle rope elbowdrop that's weird because it's different than how Savage hits his top rope elbowdrop. Buddy takes two massive bumps to the floor, both through the ropes: the first bounces the side of his head off the apron, the second is after he's pinned and Savage sends him into a sprawling bump onto the concrete. Seeing No Kneepads Buddy Landel bumping this big is like a DVDVR version of the Can't Powerbomb Kidman joke.

Bob Roop is a real scary type. He's the most dull man you've ever heard on commentary, getting just trampled over by Izzy Slapowitz, who dominates him with his routine like Robert Smigel on a red carpet, and Roop just takes it with the sad little quiet responses of a man playing by the rules. It freaks me out man. Do you know how tough Bob Roop is? It's chilling to hear a real shooter and killer sound this soft, like finding out some guy who works at your mom's office has broken multiple mens' bones. Slapowitz and then even Savage call Roop a gimp and a "stupid cripple" when Savage's 10 minute time limit is legitimately shorted by a minute and it made me want to see Roop/Savage so bad. We probably don't have that. 

Sangre Chicana vs. El Faraon CMLL 11/23/85

MD: This was a hell of a find. Yes it's anticlimactic but it's anticlimactic because they're trying to kill one another with a bottle which is the very best reason in the history of wrestling for a match to be anticlimactic. Props to Roy for finding this and the associated full episode of 85 EMLL That we will get to eventually.

Chicana is wild to start, massive hair bouncing around his head, the sort of hair that you'd pay a week's salary to watch him lose, that kind of hair, and he's relentless to start, guzzling Faraon's throat on the top rope, just all over him in the short, direct primera stretching him a couple of times before the ref calls it (though none of his trademark punches; those will come later). Then, for good measure, he decides it wasn't enough and that he needed to find a glass bottle.

The ref tries to intervene and he does stall things just long enough for Faraon to get his windback. He sells beautifully here, staggering but less and less as he gets his balance. He has this great trademark way of moving where he slides down through the second and third ropes to get to Chicana more quickly, and after an attempt at it that fails, the second hits and he gets the bottle and gets his revenge. 

Eventually things make it back into the ring, and Faraon takes the segunda, but things go even again in the tercera, with Chicana firing back with some of the biggest, best sweeping punches you'll ever see. It all devolves to the floor and given the blood and chaos and mayhem the ref calls it off to no one's satisfaction. You get the sense this led to an even better match but at least we've not got to see this one in full.

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Found Footage Friday: ALL APUESTAS

 
Stuka/Latin Lover vs. Valente Fernandez/Sangre Chicana Monterrey 6/92

MD: Lover still had his mask here (He'd lose it a couple of months later in a tag to Sangre Chicana and Sanguinario, and then immediately thereafter would have the below Fernandez singles match. Sheesh). It took me about a fall to figure out what was even going on here, which is blurry old lucha chaos for you. This was a tag where the losers of the fall had to fight each other over the mask. Also we come in mid stream with the rudos beating Lover down until Stuka streaks in from off screen wildly, knocks Fernandez out of the ring and clocks him with a chair. He'd get bloodied thereafter and they'd take the fall with a gnarly mutalock styled double armhold and Lover hitting a sunset flip on Chicana.

Stuka continues on Fernandez between falls, posting him but Fernandez turns the tables on him, tosses him into the seats, and gets some revenge with a chair. He's really good at this, this being standing around a bloody mess in the ring with a chair menancing Lover until Stuka rolls back in so he can absolutely crush him (he then crushes Lover for good measure). Very quick but impactful segunda that should have presented Lover and Stuka with a high, high bar to overcome for the rest of the match.

Weirdly, that's not quite what happened. Lover came into the terera strong, fighting back against Chicana, and Stuka chased Fernandez around. The tercera didn't quite have the drama I would have wanted, but Fernandez eliminated Lover with a great Reinera and then hit a huge dive. Stuka followed up by fouling Fernandez in front of the ref to set up the singles match.

The commentators said that even though they had been partners, now it was time for a fight to the death given the stakes, and that's how Stuka took it certainy, coming in hot, tossing Lover into the stands, hitting him with a chair, and ripping at the mask. Fernandez tried to get involved a little, and that let Lover fight back reversing a toss and sending Stuka flying into the stands in revenge, opening him up. Back in the ring, they went all out for an exciting finishing high-speed finishing stretch, lots of rope-running and nearfalls. Stuka finally missed a flip dive off the top and Lover locked in an armbar with the leg behind the head for the win. Post-match Stuka, who had increasingly lost it as the match went on, really lost it and took a runner, but multiple luchadores brought him back to have his head shaved. I could have used a little more flash in the tercera of the tag but overall this was more than spectacle enough.

Valente Fernandez vs. Latin Lover Monterrey 9/27/92

MD: This is almost completely bullshit but it's so consistent to it that it's ok. Fernandez charges in at the start but Lover fires back. Fernandez escapes around the ring and crotches over on the rope on the way in. He really doesn't look back with the fouls, all the way into the tercera as he controls most of it, with a spattering of rudo ref assistance along the way that cut Lover off after a big quebradora counter in the segunda, for instance.

What made it work was the triple combination of Fernandez being a total jerk (his celebration in the arms of his second (Sanguinario maybe?) after winning the primera with another foul for instance), Lover fighting back with fire whenever he had a chance, and plenty of blood. There were some big tope suicidas in the tercera and while we couldn't really see them due to the camera angle, the blood all over the floor from Lover put them way over the top emotionally. They felt monumental because we were left with the image of guys just laying around in splatterings of red (I'm not 100% convinced it's blood; it might just be the floor, but I'm going to go with it).

In general though, plenty of bullshit. Fernandez bullied the ref into compliance, hit him errounously though little came of it. He took a swipe at Lover's second and then, in a key moment, took out his own with a dive as Lover was able to move. The finish was fairly definitive with Lover just needing a clear enough path to plant Fernandez with an Alabama slam out of the corner. We're in Monterrey in the 90s and we got what we got accordingly. A bit too much BS but you can't say it didn't work.

Solar vs. Flama Azul Arena Naucalpan 1991

MD: This was very much a tale of two matches. The first two caida were a little more subdued and then everything picked up bigtime in the tercera. The setting with big colorful "LUCHAMANIA" banners in the traditional WM font and canned audio that meant we never got a real sense of the crowd didn't help matters.

Flama Azul got an early advantage without really doing anything underhanded or even definitive to get it. They started clean enough and he was just able to lean on Solar, a combination of him being able to keep up with him technically and having a bit more girth. There was some mask ripping and viciousness but for the most part, nothing was boiling over. That meant that the comeback didn't hit too hard, even though Solar had this way of rushing into the quebradoras instead of just waiting for his opponent to get to him. He makes them look more dynamic than anyone else and he was able to grind down with the knee and get a submission out of one.

Things opened up in the tercera, first and foremost, Flama Azul's skull as Solar continuously drove it into the post. There was a muddy, mess sense of violence here, a lack of pretty spots as they just crashed into each other grabbing and poking and swiping however they could. Just a real sense of animosity that had been missing from the match so far. Eventually, Solar was able to drive forward with one more backbreaker and put Flama down. This would have been better if we had a better sense of the crowd as, once it really got going, the dissonance between the bright colors and the nasty violence really made things pop.

PAS: So much of my experience with Solar is him doing his touring Maestros stuff with Negro Navarro at the end of his career, seeing him at the beginning of the 90s working Naucalpan in this kind of grimy small arena apuestas match is pretty great. It got more escalatingly ugly and violent as the match went on, especially the parts where Solar was trying to crack open Azul's skull like a walnut. This is some of the earliest Arena Naucalpan footage we have, and I love that it was always like this. Nothing fancy, just blood mixing with spilled beer and two guys rolling around in it. 

ER: So this was an outright classic, right? I'm a Solar fan. We all are. I've been there live and seen him do his front flip into the ring in his early 60s, I fell in love with the maestro matwork the first time I saw him, and yet I don't think I have ever seen Solar in a match like this. This was Solar in a damn fight and Solar as a damn rock star. Have I ever seen Solar get reactions like this before? I don't believe I have. The second the propulsive, motorik guitar groove of whatever his excellent entrance theme hit, Arena Naucalpan went crazy and it continued going crazy for a half hour. This felt like a real important apuestas match before Solar got anywhere close to the ring because the crowd made this match feel like real stakes. I have been to mask matches in Mexico before. The loudest one I was at was El Hijo del Santo vs. Super Parka in 2003, and maybe because it was in an open air bull ring rather than the closed in confines of Naucalpan, but this match was so much louder. Solar was swarmed like Mil Mascaras. "That's the guy who unmasked Dr. O'Borman a million years ago," somebody said, maybe. I loved Solar as an old man. I hardly knew his long superstar peak, but Naucalpan reacts to 1991 Solar like Hijo del Santo in El Toreo and I'm hyped. 

I can't pretend to know anything about Flama Azul, but I love him. I don't think we've ever written about him before. You'd think one of us would have covered him at some point but I couldn't find anything. Flama Azul feels like a Segunda Caida guy. He looks like a real piece of shit. Look at this Scumbag El Dandy. He has the body of a co-worker who gets takeout most days of the week, with messy hair and a perfect mustache. I love how he punches at Solar's face and body, love the violent mask ripping, love the damn referee holding Solar by the mask from the ring so that Flama can punch him in the face, repeatedly. Solar takes great prolonged beating, takes multiple backdrops on a hard mat, and the noise in that arena made it feel like people actually thought Solar was in danger of losing his mask, one of the five greatest masks in lucha history. The beating comes to a head when Solar is run along the apron and bounced into the ringpost and spills into the crowd, reinventing the ringpost bump in the early 90s. 

Solar does no matwork in this match. This is not the time for it. He does nothing you would ever call "smooth" in this fight. No, he fights back and spends the rest of the match wrecking Azul's back with the coolest fully controlled quebradoras I've ever seen. Solar was lifting and spinning Azul like pizza dough, bringing him down on his knee in a way that looked like he was controlling every single part of the landing. He just kept lifting and turning and slamming Azul into his knee, the quebradoras a triumphant tecnico show of strength that only got better the more he did. Solar's tope was incredible, his victory hard fought. Azul continued being a piece of shit after the match, refusing all handshakes and storming off to the rudo's locker room before his first trim. I liked the way he argued with no theatricality. He never looked like he was being a rudo for the benefit of the fans who loved or hated rudos, he felt like he was just an asshole that was trying to renege on a friendly wager, getting upset when he actually has to pay for dinner. 

Extra highlight is our post-match barber. He had no electric clippers but just watch the quick work he makes of Azul's hair with a pair of scissors. He was snapping off clumps of hair with real speed, handing off a huge handful to Solar for him to parade around. This man could scissor shear a sheep in a sheet. 

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Found Footage Friday: DOUBLE DOG COLLAR CAGE MATCH~! ADNAN IN IRAQ~! GUERREROS~! CHICANA~! LA FAMILIA MARKUS~!

Adnan Al Qaisi vs. Ian Campbell Iraq 1970

MD: Long 2/3 falls match that ends 1-0 for Adnan at the time limit (either 45 or 60 depending on clipping). This had been out there in parts but is newly clipped together in a welcome effort. You get a real sense of the imperial pageantry here, officials and a band and parade feel, even though the same footage of a few fans (out of the very many) is interspersed now and again. Let me put it this way. Campbell knew what was good for him here, knew what was safe and what wasn't. They weren't going for heat. They were using this as a showcase for Adnan's technical superiority. As such, it was a pretty effective dog and pony show.

Campbell had a size and strength advantage, but Adnan had an answer for every hold. Towards the last fifteen minutes, the answers were a little harder to find and Campbell could press harder with a full nelson or chinlock, but even those ended quickly enough by prying off an arm or pulling out a leg. In return, Campbell could use his strength to escape Adnan's stuff, but he'd find his way back in sooner than not. It meant that individual exchanges could be interesting, but that the total picture was a bit toothless. At times they'd break out into strikes. This first happened around the ten minute mark as Campbell was starting to register some of the damage to his arm. He had a great little bit where he trapped the arm behind his opponent's back with a hammerlock and tossed in a nasty forearm, but even there, Adnan fired back with a flurry and a jumping elbow smash soon enough. They repeated this a few minutes later and that's when Adnan got his one fall.

Considering the locale and the one repeated shot from the crowd of someone sweating profusely, it was probably sweltering there and Campbell was a big, hairy guy, but they kept a pretty good, competitive pace throughout. They'd go from a handshake to mean shots and back to a handshake so things were never going to come close to boiling over, but as they got towards the end of the time limit, Adnan increased his intensity, using leg kicks and just tossing Campbell out over the top repeatedly. That made it seem something of a moral victory for Campbell that he was able to survive to the bell (whistle?) even if he was a fall down. It was wrestling as celebratory propaganda, but as such it was fairly fascinating to watch, just maybe not 50 minutes worth of fascination.

Sangre Chicana/Gran Markus Sr./Gran Markus Jr vs. Chavo Guerrero/Hector Guerrero/Mando Guerrero CMLL 9/18/87 

MD:  Roy's back posting, always a good thing. This was from the 54th CMLL Anniversary show and at the very least hasn't been streaming online for quite a while, if ever. The bits in between falls are clipped out so it moves at a fast pace. The announcer also gets Mando and Hector confused for a good part of this and almost psyched me out, but no one moves quite like Mando. Primarily, it's another Sangre Chicana match in his prime, so that's exciting, but he's more of a dodgy chickenshit here, throwing shots now and again but mostly on the run. He gets slammed onto the floor right as this ends, so that's some comeuppance but it's more about everyone else. Markus, Sr., maskless, has a sort of enjoyable weighty swagger to himself. This is the guy we saw in so much of the Houston footage, just older. Jr. on the other hand, is younger than what I'm used to and a bit more spry. This opens up with fun in-and-out matwork between him and Chavo. Chavo's in the most but Hector has a nice snap belly to back and the end of the primera is a combo of that belly to back and an axe handle off the ropes. And of course, Mando is a ridiculous beast like always, full of contorted, tricked out offense: takedowns and monkey flips and bounding around the ring. There's a lot more to the opening feeling out stuff than the beatdown or the comeback, but both are spirited enough. If this led to some sort of Chicana vs Hector or Mando match, I would have liked to see that too.

Bart Sawyer/Steven Dunn vs. Ashley Hudson/Flash Flanagan (Double Dog Collar Cage Match) MCW 1997

MD: Very timely Bryan Turner upload here, though not timely enough to make Phil's list as an honorable mention. Sawyer was attached to Hudson and Dunn was attached to Flanagan. Babyfaces dominated early. There were a bunch of chairs in there, both wedged in the corners and just free floating and Dunn used them liberally. That led to free flowing blood. They'd switch advantage for a bit. Very few big setpieces here and just a lot of violence. That said, both Sawyer and Hudson did fistdrops off the turnbuckles with the chain wrapped around their hands onto the other. My most vivid memory of the match itself was probably Sawyer choking Hudson with the chain as Dunn stomped on his groin. There was a lot of that sort of thing here, but plenty of cage shots, chair shots, and chain shots too. It all built to a ref bump and Dunn accidentally clocking Sawyer. That's when things got really fun. Sawyer stared at Dunn, slowly took off the dog collar, snatched the key from the ref, and went to leave the cage. Dunn tried to stop him and ate a kick and a DDT for his troubles and Sawyer locked the cage back up on the way out, taking the key as the fans shouted 'traitor' at him. Hudson and Flanagan made short work out of Dunn after that, finishing it with a leg drop off the cage from Flanagan. Then, as Prentice (I think) taunted everyone on the house mic about how this was his New Year's present for everyone and not to worry because "It's just Steven Dunn", they absolutely dismantled him after the bell. No one could help since the heels had the key. Finally, Sawyer came back in to finish him off. Good match and a truly great post match angle.

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New Footage Friday: POWER TWINS EXPLODE! MASCARITA! FLAIR! OLE! GRUNDY'S EXPLODE! VAMP! CHICANA!

 Ric Flair vs. Ole Anderson NWA 10/17/81

MD: I've never heard anyone talk about this one, so it's new enough for our purposes. We don't have nearly enough 80-81 babyface Flair for my liking, so every bit helps. There's a different energy to him than in later years, or the same energy but channeled differently. It's a strap match where they spend the first chunk with Ole trying to grind on holds (maybe because this followed what was likely a chop-heavy Wahoo vs Piper match) and then later escalate to the win attempts and using the strap as the weapon. The crowd and the later match violence make the earlier parts ok even if they're not what you immediately want. They flub it once and Ole touches all corners and that gives the fans some confusion but everyone recovers and the run-in finish still feels pretty satisfying. 

PAS: I always enjoy when Ole works an arm, he has a really workmanlike sadism to him, like a cruel prison guard in a movie.  He doesn't really care this is a strap match, he is going to tear up the arm and there isn't much anyone can do to stop him. Babyface Flair has a real kinetic energy too him, and his fired up comeback is like something you would expect from Eddie Guerrero. The strapping near the end was nasty stuff and I like how both guys got more desperate. This was a really good match, a chance to see Flair against a rare opponent and see how he adjusts to a different type of match. 

Vampiro Casanova/Sangre Chicana vs. Solomon Grundy/Aaron Grundy 92

MD: Hey, if we count Flair and Ole as cousins, this is a family feud week on NFF. This was a parejas match where the losing team had to then fight in an apuestas match. Aaron is Mike Shaw and he starts out hugging Vampiro before going full rudo on him. Chicana bumped and stooged for Grundy well enough but he was definitely the least featured guy in this one. I liked Shaw's vertical big splash foul as it felt like a very appropriate lucha finisher. They built well to Grundy vs Grundy though there's never a lot to these post-tag apuesta matches. This was fun but not as fun as a straight tag between these guys would have been.

PAS: You want to see more Sangre Chicana in the mix when you look at the on paper match up, and we got a whole heck of a lot of Vampiro. I enjoyed the Grundy's use of their fat, and I agree the splash foul was great stuff. Still this underwhelmed for a big stips match, and the final showdown was much more about the outside interference than two fat guys in overalls hitting each other. 

ER: I actually thought this was a great Vampiro performance, which isn't really a sentence that I find myself typing that often. Vampiro bumped all around the ring and ringside for Aaron Grundy's fatness, and when it was time to fire back he threw actual good punches and then shook his fist out after! It is wrestling fact that any wrestler who shakes out their fist after a punch - regardless of quality of punch - is automatically a Good Wrestler. There are zero examples countering this. You shake out your fist after a punch, you are good. Similarly, if you are a heel and point to your head after doing basically anything, you are automatically a Good Wrestler. This whole thing is chaos, as the Grundy's are attacking each other and Vampiro is attacking Chicana, loved when Aaron hit Solomon on the apron with a chair and then turned right around and hit Vampiro. This is a man with a strategy! The chaos was fun even though it made for a bad traditional match, I loved how the big splashes looked and loved the constantly shifting allegiances. Also, looking at Shaw, and it's unfathomable that Vince didn't get excited seeing him as an overalls wearing hillbilly. That is a wrestler look Vince adores, and it's so weird he opted to turn him into Bastion Booger, with gear that just cannot be explained by anyone. Shaw looked cool with the shaved head and beard, but apparently Vince saw him with the shaved head and thought "You know? Ditch the beard. Also, the eyebrows."

Konnan/Mascarita Sagrada/Wendi Richter/Power Twin 1 vs. Mario Savoldi/Espectrito/Madusa/Power Twin 2 IWAS 7/93

MD: Absolute blast. There was so much going on here, so many spots, so much riffing and goofing, with Ted Petty (unmasked) being a grade A stooge. You could hear a ton of chatter here, and some of that was Konnan directing traffic, but a lot of it ended up sounding like a Popeye cartoon or Army of Darkness or whatever, with Madusa muttering at everyone and just all sorts of foolishness. Power Twins explode was not something I knew I wanted to see but they really leaned into it. This was all over the place, from some really good mini action to Madusa just ambling around the ring with no one letting her do anything, and it fell apart multiple times, but it was so wildly entertaining that it was exactly what we needed during this insane week.

PAS: This was a bunch of fun, really the perfect kind of touring match to bring to a place like the Philippines. I am really surprised that these kind of AAA mixed matches never caught on in the US, great way to fill a card and multi man matches are a great way to hide limited workers. I think Power Twin vs. Power Twin was my favorite part, as they had almost a Brazos interaction with each other with both guys alternating as the aggrieved Super Porky. I thought the heels playing catch with Mascarita was fun, and the payoff of Espectrito being too heavy to lift was great. Fun Petty performance too, it is strange he ended up only getting to big leagues late in his career, he was such a talented performer.  

ER: I agree with Phil, the AAA man/woman/mini/exotico match was one of my favorite match formats in lucha, and always played great in front of non-lucha crowds (I always remember the great version of that match that happened in Hustle). This one is a bizarre and cool twist on that format as it replaces the exotico on each side a freaking POWER TWIN! Adding a large adult twins to either side of a multiman just automatically makes a match recommendable. One unheralded great thing about the Power Twins was that not only did they wear matching singlets and have the same shaped body (I've never understood that, do they eat they exact same meals and do the exact same exercises and walk the same number of steps? How are twins this old still this identical?) but they are also balding in the EXACT same way and that rules. It's easy to like a match where it looks like everyone is having a fun time together, and these people were clearly loving performing in front of this crowd. The fans ate up all the Sagrada/Espectrito exchanges, and they brought a lot of unique shtick that really impressed me. What impressed me was the fact that it seemed like everyone in the match was wholly involved in the shtick, they were all working the bit. Often you get one guy who is good at it (and here that was Ted Petty and stunningly Madusa) and the others work a straight match and let that guy work his shtick. But we had some great group effort on bits here, and that's where the match excelled. I loved Madusa's chatter, she was so good at setting up cheating or setting up Petty to do something fun. Ted Petty worked this match like a more pratfall comedy version of The Sheik, and well, obviously that was going to be great. My favorite thing was when he ran into the ring to attack a Power Twin, and then immediately after paused, wondering if he had attacked the correct Twin,. Honestly the main thing this was missing - and would have been legendary - is if the Power Twins had switched teams at some point and then did a "we're upset because nobody noticed" bit. 

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Lucha Worth Watching: TOMK on Sangre Chicana vs. Satanico

Sangre Chicana vs. Satanico 8/11

So I started seeing grainy cell phone clips of Sangre Chicana v Satanico from Sunday on my feed and went looking for the complete match. Took me a while and saw stuff from multiple angles in the process. Sangre Chicana and Satanico are two of the greatest luchadors of all time and both are now way past their prime in their late 60s. Satanico is the older but has stayed athletic and working for decades. Chicana has looked physically shot for a while but in his fifties still had superstar charisma a punch, one or two athletic moves, neat reversals, some bumps and the feel of unpredictable violent motherfucker who will stab you with a broken bottle at any moment. He’s now 67 and this is his retirement hair v hair match. You want to see both of these guys in their prime, but once you’ve become emotionally invested in them you can’t turn away from watching them at the end.

Chicana comes out in a shirt and the mask he lost in the 70s. And Satanico just beats on him relentlessly with Chicana completely unable to make a comeback, gets dragged into the ring and pinned in a minute. A part of Sangre Chicana match formula is that he will eat a beating one-sided beating, but he’s now 67 and so this feels like an old man getting beat up on bus. Satanico continues to punch him and kick and bang his head into chairs & ring posts and Chicana needs his kids to help him remove his mask and shirt. He kind of looks at this point like the halfway point between Mr Donnie and Larry Storch. He was still imposing in his early 60s, looked like a guy who would stab you over a game of euchere, but now he looks like an ex-hippy who wants to forget that he stabbed someone for stealing his nitrous tank. Lots of old luchadors look worn down from time, Sangre Chicana somehow looks genial. All of this means when he does finally throw a punch to mount a comeback it is completely unexpected, cause you didn’t think possible. And goes straight to chair throwing. Satanico bumping for Chicana punches is really impressive cool stuff. Post second fall Chicana follows Satanico to the floor and has a gleeful look as he leaps out of ring to floor and leaping to floor looks like an amazing physical accomplishment for a 67 year old. Third fall is two old men punching each other and exchanging deliberate submission reversals. When first watched described it as “feel of two grandpas fighting in state fair parking lot where everyone is uncomfortable by old man violence but no one going to call police to break up.” And it’s about 5 minutes and what you want from this match, 2 old men attacking each other in way that feels uncomfortable because it is two old men. 

Super athletic buff young ref leaping around to do the two count near falls is kind of preposterous but totally works here. I bet 84 Kevin Von Erich refereeing a Fritz v Bronko Lubich match would have gotten super heated reaction. 

Post-match they do speeches putting each other the fans and the sport over and these are all time great talkers in that position. The drama of the post-match and retirement feels like something a newbie might get and enjoy. Otherwise, it is a ten minute match that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone who isn’t already heavily emotionally invested in the last 40 years of these two. It’s pretty ridiculous to write up a niche match that is only for the people who were going to go out of their way to watch this as soon as they found out it exists…but yeah those people will dig.

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1983 Match of the Year

MS1 v. Sangre Chicana CMLL 9/23/83

PAS: The greatest match in wrestling history takes the #1 spot for 1983. I have probably watched this match 20+ times and love it as much each time. This has my favorite match structure for a 2/3 falls match. MS1 jumps Chicana in the aisle and brutally beats him, Chicana is spraying blood while MS1 struts around the ring. We have old ladies in the audience wiping his forehead with their handkerchiefs.  MS1 rolls the beaten and bloody Sangre into the ring, hits a top rope splash and pins him. Totally one sided beating, not a single moment of offense from Chicana. The second fall starts more of the same with MS1 in total control, and then we have a perfect wrestling transition, MS1 throws a big right and Sangre ducks it and hits this huge left hook, and the crowd blows up, he hits one more and then this maniacal tope to get the count out win. Chicana busts MS1 open in the beginning of the third fall and we have this crimson ballet in the third fall, with MS1 missing a couple of big top rope moves and succumbing to a submission to lose his hair.

Lots of little moments of violent beauty, Chicana's selling was great, he never recovers from the early beating he is always on the verge of passing out from blood loss, and he keeps hitting him self in the head to keep him self awake, I also loved how MS1 sold control seeping away from him, he is such a preening dickbag for the first part, and as soon as Chicana tees off you can see his composure breaking. The violence of the dives was great too, in wrestling now dives are more things of beauty then things of ugly, not here though, each dive was gritty, explosive and violent looking, less like a gymnast sticking a floor routine, and more like a strong safety leading with his helmet on a hit up the middle.

This feels like the apex of lucha brawling, you hope someday someone will find something better, but until they do this will reign supreme.

ER: Well this was wonderful. The pacing felt like this epic newsreel black and white fifties brawl, only live and in deep red color. I've seen precious little 80s Sangre Chicana, I'm more familiar with old grizzled Chicana that looked like Gregg Henry's disguise in Body Double. But this is just wonderful, classic pro wrestling, the type of match that would play in front of any crowd in any town in any era. The punches aren't clean but they read to the back. Chicana's big one punch comeback is amazing in its simplicity, just a simple duck and big left hook. Something tells me we'll be seeing similar comebacks when some 1983 Lawler challenges this. All of the bumps are spectacular in their realness, with Chicana stumbling around and dropping to a knee, both men taking fast hard bumps to a very painful looking floor and unforgiving ring. Sangre hits a killer tope, and later oles MS-1 into the front row. We cut to an old woman taking a long slow drag on a cigarette. MS-1's missed top rope moves are brutal, flopping on that big splash that won him the primera, and splatting on a big somersault senton. The whole thing is wrestling boiled down to its most primal, basic formula, and it's a classic.

ALL TIME MOTY MASTER LIST

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MLJ: Sangre Chicana vs La Fiera (Hair vs Hair)

1993-07-02 @ Arena México

La Fiera vs Sangre Chicana [hair]

Two of my favorite apuestas match workers up against one another in a hair match that hasn't gotten much play over the years (though both OJ and Paul Cooke have fairly positive reviews out there). It's up, in the last few months, on a youtube account with a few interesting things that haven't been posted before, including other personal favorites in lucha like Cota and Kamala.

This got a mighty 1 star in the quick Observer write up (no details except for that it didn't draw well). I'm not sure where that came from; maybe Sims? I'm not going to dwell regardless. I just thought it was funny to point out.

Structurally, it had what I wanted out of a hair match (especially one with these two), with a few weird wrinkles which both helped and hurt the match. Fiera was a recently turned tecnico and they started the match out like it was a title match, with wrestling, mostly even but with Fiera getting just enough of the advantage to justify Chicana cheap-shotting him in the kidneys. That wouldn't have flown quite as much in a 1993 title match (but more than in a 1983 title match, probably), but here, it was a great moment, thoroughly rudo. It mostly justified them starting a hair match off with wrestling instead of brawling as it helped establish the roles in the match, but it was also a little weird to defer the hatred like that.

My favorite style of hair match is in the MS-1 vs Chicana vain, lots and lots of heat and beating followed by a dramatic, triumphant comeback. This came close. Chicana was awesome on top, laying shots in to the kidneys, posting Fiera repeatedly on the outside, jawing with the ref and into the crowd, just a charismatic mauling. He took the first fall with a submission and the second was given to Fiera by DQ after Chicana slammed a drink into his head on the outside. I wasn't so high on that. It let the heat keep going, which was great, and it protected Chicana a little bit given he was going to ultimately lose, but I'm iffy on first or second fall DQs in apuestas matches. I would have preferred Fiera getting an early fall during the wrestling segment of things that they started with, which could have spurred on Chicana going to fisticuffs. That's nitpicking though.

The comeback went exactly as you'd expect it to with Chicana getting too cocky and Fiera hitting his spin kick out of nowhere. Sure, it's just a little goofy when he does it too much, but from a 1993 perspective, it's one of the best moves in wrestling. It's not quite as good as Chicana's comeback haymaker (which we didn't see in this match because he wasn't positioned as the crowd favorite) but I knew to look for it and popped when it came. He fought his way back, ending with the most insane tope suicida over the top rope. Chicana bumped huge into the chairs for it, but he didn't exactly catch it well and Fiera wiped out headfirst. Just brutal.

As you'd expect, both of them sold big to end, with each touch and attempt at a pin significant. I think it ended a little more on a whimper than a hugely dramatic moment, but some of that was made up for in the post match with Chicana, his hair cut into a mohawk, going after Fiera, only for Fiera to fire back as they disappeared  into the crowd. That's not the sort of post-match you see in apuestas matches often and it was a cool touch. I would have preferred a few structural changes, but this is well worth your time. I could watch Chicana punch Fiera in the kidney all day.

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THE MOTHERFUCKING INTERNET- Satanico v. Sangre Chicana 1983!!!

Satanico v. Sangre Chicana CMLL 9/24/83




I have a flight in the morning. I was about to go to bed when this bombshell drops on my youtube feed. If the date on this is correct this is not only the earliest Satanico match we have on tape, this is Sangre the day after taking MS1's hair in maybe the greatest wrestling match of all time, working a dramatic lucha title match. This isn't a TV match, it is filmed like a close up HH, possibly by an infant Black Terry Jr., we get some great close ups of the struggle in each hold, and when Satanico torches Chicana with a tope into a light poll, we get a close up at the glazed and bloody face of Chicana, it actually looks like his eye is swollen shut. The third fall was pretty dramatic with Chicana surviving several submissions before coming back and getting a revenge tope. Finish was a double pin, and a bit of a cop out, to what had the feel of a budding classic. We do get a couple of minutes of post match brawling which were as great as you might expect. Maybe a step below an absolute classic, but a hell of a late night treat.

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MLJ: Enter: King Haku 2: King Haku, La Fiera, Pegasus Kid vs Dr. Wagner Jr., Negro Casas, Sangre Chicana

Taped 1993-09-24 @ Arena México
King Haku, La Fiera, Pegasus Kid vs Dr. Wagner Jr., Negro Casas, Sangre Chicana

I realize I may have gone a little overboard with the gifs last time, so there will be none here. Full disclosure would tell you that there were just less things TO gif here. This is it for what we have online for Haku in Mexico which is a shame because he was pretty great in these two matches. I would have loved to see him in some more brawl-centric stuff. I see 31 matches with him in the Match Finder between 92 and 94, and a lot of them were Tv matches, as best as I can tell. Some of the match ups, singles matches, are pretty goofy. He beat Porky in the quarterfinals of a Heavyweight title tournament and lost to Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. I can't even imagine that second match. He lost to Rayo in a Grand Prix tournament final too. There's a trios where he's teamed up with Dos Caras and Villano III vs Canek, Pirata Morgan and Satanico. You have to admit that sounds cool. Oh wait, Atlantis, Haku, and Lizmark vs Emilio Charles, Jr., Satanico and Pirata Morgan sounds even cooler. Ah well, we've got what we've got.

And unfortunately, this one is much less of a Haku focus. Fortunately, however, it's much more of a Fiera vs Negro Casas focus. This was setting up a hair match between the two a week or so later. Yes, Benoit's in this too, and I don't often watch a lot of his stuff these days (yeah, I'm one of those), but this feels so far removed from who he was ten years later, that I don't quite see the harm. Sangre Chicana's here too but he's sort of a non factor.

I enjoyed the previous a lot more for a number of reasons. For one, it had more time, and used it well, with a lot of showcase exchanges and everyone getting to wrestle everyone else. This started out with some heat, though, and that's always welcome. The rudos charged right in with Casas beelining towards Fiera and the numbers game immediately being played. This lasted for a minute or so until Haku intervened, which lead shortly thereafter to the first of what felt like seventeen Fiera spin kicks in the match. It's a really nice move but boy did he go to that well a lot. This kicked off the rope-running and back and forth exchanges, the highlights of which (almost gif worthy) were a double strength top wristlock spot that Haku reversed on Chicana and Wagner and Haku hitting four one armed backbreakers in a row. I have in my notes Benoit doing a "reverse plancha headscissors" and I'm going to guess those were two moves. Also, Haku superkicking people all over the ring. I liked the finish of the primera a lot. Oh what the heck. Let's go with one gif here:

Segunda wasn't much, really. It had a lot of Fiera beating up Casa and a fun bit of back and forth finishes where everyone got to do something. Benoit hit a superplex but ended up tripled teamed and killed by a Casas senton. He ended up eliminated but it was all for naught as things end up Fiera vs Casas again and Casas loses to yet another German (after yet another spin kick).

The finish made sense considering that Casas was going over in the hair match. A fun little functional match but ultimately sort of hollow. Casas was around 32 here and already had so much of that character mastery down, but he could supplement it with bumping and selling and spots he just can't do now. I like some of the shortcuts he's come up with over the years but you can't watch this stuff and not notice how engaging and dynamic he can be. I'm looking forward to seeing more.

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Pirata Morgan, Killing So His Power Grows

Pirata Morgan, Satanico, & MS-1 vs. La Fiera, El Faraon, & El Egipcio EMLL 3/29/1985 - EPIC

Damn, that was violent. I've had the chance to see Pirata in a bunch of different settings thanks to this project, but at the end of the day, he's still a guy at his best working out-of-control lucha brawls, and this here was an out-of-control lucha brawl. He starts right out by punching El Egipcio in the face when he tries to get in the ring. Egipcio returns the favor, and their brawling is sort of the big hook throughout this match (unsurprising, as they were building to a hair match between the two). I've seen a handful of Egipcio matches now, but this is the first time he's actually stood out to me. And yeah, that's probably because he was booked so prominently in the match, but when you're throwing hands with Pirata and look like you're actually in his league, I'm inclined to think you're doing something right. They pave a nice little path of destruction through the post-apocalyptic wasteland that is any good Infernales brawl, including some great brawling around the ring where Pirata wins the award for most violent apron bumping now and forever, actually breaking the wooden barricades surrounding the ring. Satanico and the recently deceased MS-1 lend some very able support. Satanico in particular almost stole the match from Pirata and Egipcio. Phil said he looked like the abusive husband in a Lifetime made-for-TV movie, and I'm hard-pressed to disagree. Fiera and Faraon maybe perform below expectations insofar as they don't stand out the way they usually do, but you'll be too busy in awe of the Infernales' brutality to notice. Although you will notice at the end of the match when Fiera uncorks a "Hector Garza under-rotating on a shooting star press to the floor"-level horrifying botched dive. He comes off of the top rope with essentially a completely vertical upside-down bodypress to Satanico, except he lands just short of the target and Martinetes himself on the floor. Ouch. Surprisingly, for a brawl this intense, there actually wasn't any blood, but I don't suspect you'll find too many bloodless brawls better than this one.

Pirata Morgan, Antifaz del Norte, & Charly Manson vs. Sangre Chicana, Alebrije, & Vampiro Canadiense Monterrey 5/21/2006 - GREAT

This is a big step up from the last Monterrey match I reviewed for this. There are still some annoying heel ref shenanigans, but he eats a Sangre Chicana armdrag really nicely, so I can't really complain too much. Also, there's no Hator in sight, and everyone looks really game here, even a load like Vampiro. This is a garbage brawl, and like most lucha garbage brawls, it feels less violent than it does when they leave the foreign objects alone, especially after the match above. But it's still on the higher end of your lucha garbage brawls, with Alebrije in particular looking like a star here. He eats and bumps for everything really well, including getting his head taken off with a nasty clothesline from Pirata, and taking some nutty bumps on the wooden ramp to the ring. And there's plenty of fun abuse of Cujie as well, with Pirata putting the little guy in a Romero special, before he's used as a projectile by Alebrije to get his revenge later. I thought Antifaz looked really good here as well. His foreign object shots all had some nice pop to them. This wasn't a standout Chicana performance, but I don't think I've ever seen a match where he looked bad, and this is no exception. If nothing else, he clotheslined a wooden board into Antifaz's face. That was pretty cool. I'm a little iffy on the finish, but I admire the gusto with which Pirata faked his getting fouled, especially after the ref didn't believe him right away and he started to sell more frantically.

Pirata Morgan, Emilio Charles Jr., & Astro de Oro vs. Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Mascara Ano 2000, & Cien Caras EMLL 1989 - FUN

This was a one-fall tournament match, but it's a four-team tourney, so they still get 10+ minutes and I can review it, just with lowered expectations. It's also apparently a parejas increibles tournament, as Rayo is not getting along with the Dinamitas, and Astro de Oro is not getting along with Pirata and Emilio. I am not familiar with this Astro de Oro character, so I checked out luchawiki to see what his deal was.

"Greatest Guatemala superstar. Tecnico, who teamed with Rayo Lazer, Skeletor, Starman (Guatemala), Silverman, Arriero de San Juan. Astro de Oro received 50 Quetzales in his first match.

His best match was versus Mascara Ano 2000 in June of 1989, and his worst was against Dr. Wagner Jr.. Astro de Oro's favorite wrestler is Ric Flair.

In his other life, Astro de Oro is an educator. Astro de Oro also claims to be a very successful amateur wrestler before entering lucha libre.

Greatest Guatemala superstar"

Well that clears that up. I don't know when exactly in 1989 this match was in relation to his career best match against Mascara Ano 2000, but I don't remember any especially great exchanges between the two. Overall, the greatest Guatemala superstar didn't make me forget Super Astro or Brazo de Oro, but he was harmless. Pirata and Rayo were the best guys on their respective teams, and their work against each other was plenty fun and fired up. Emilio looked good, but you'll see much better from him, and the Dinamitas were solid but unspectacular. Still, Rayo doing his comedic evasive twirl face-first into Pirata's fist with nobody else fucking anything up will at least earn this FUN status. In conclusion, greatest Guatemala superstar.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE PIRATA MORGAN

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IWRG 9/3/09

Blasfemia/Vampiro Metálico vs. Exodia/Miss Gaviota

TKG: Exodia makes it all the way through this match without injuring himself. Instead Miss Gaviota tweaks her neck on a dive. Vampiro Metalico and Blasfemia are both guys with really amusing facial expressions. They are a fun heel RPMs always loosing exchanges and mugging concern about possibly being touched by Gaviota.

PAS: Before this match Tomk asked me what fall I thought Exodia would injure himself, Gaviota getting crippled instead was a real Russo twist. Blasfemia is such a scumbag looking dude there is no way he hasn’t sucked a cock or two for drugs. I do still buy him being freaked out by Miss Gaviota though, because public is public.

Bushi/Chico Che/Freelance vs. Avisman/Brandon (IWRG)/Gringo Loco

TKG: I have no idea who Brandon is but he is a fine guy to eat some brawling from Chico Che. Freelance matches up early opposite Avisman and they are guys who will do shit you’ve never seen before when paired up. At one point Avisman throws Freelance into essentially the Chris Hamrick caught in ropes corner bump. At an other Avisman tosees Freelance over his head for Freelance to land outside the ring on the middle rope and then essentially 2nd rope moonsault his way back in. Gringo Loco is a guy who has spent a chunk of his career working as a mini heel and he is really great at bumping around for Freelance’s stuff. The third fall is absolutely nuttball as everyone just goes for bigger and bigger crazy dives.

PAS: I thought the first two falls were a little underwhelming, but holy shit was the third fall crazy. When Chico Che gets on a roll he is one of the most spectacular wrestlers in the world, and I loved his in ring tope here. Freelance is fucking nuts and we keep saying it, he breaks out a springboard flip dive which ends with him in the third row of seats. Rudos didn’t do anything super spectaular but they were all pretty good at being at the right place when folks went flying.

Head Hunter I & Tóxico DF vs. Bobby Lee Jr. & Scorpio Jr.

TKG: Toxico is a big guy with a really cool elaborate outfit. He comes in with an elaborate metal mask jet pack and flare shooting guns. But he stinks in the ring. Bobby Lee Jr is a guy who can do some fine rope running exchanges but instead is stuck doing embarrassing HBKesque strike exchanges with Toxico. Headhunter and Scorpio make each other bleed and bleed and bleed. Headhunter probably can’t do a moonsault anymore but he takes a big bump to the floor and his standing splashes, butt drops (or spots where he grinds his body into opponent) all really look like they would hurt.

PAS: I have no idea why you would run a grim bloody spectacle like this as a semi main, when your main is Sangre Chicana and V3 Still Scorpio and Headhunter I can bleed and they do. Scorpio looks like he has melted cherry Slurpee coming out of his head, and Headhunter punches him in the wound. We have seen a bunch of shitty luchadores while going through the IWRG for 2009, but I think Toxico is the worst, very cool mask, very very bad wrestler.

Sangre Chicana vs. Villano III

TKG: Yep this is everything you wanted it to be. Sangre Chicana comes in seconded by his son carrying a bag with a rusty cheese grater. They also had a heel ref but the heel ref never got too involved or central to the match. In the tag match I said that I was disappointed with Villano III’s face comebacks. Here he delivered. throwing some cool combos, headbutts some reckless stuff to the back of Chicana’s head, a bunch of DDTs and chairshots. Chicana also takes some nice looking bumps into chairs. They do the spot where Chicana holds Villano III for his son to tope only for VIII to move out of the way. Chicana Jr’s tope is a really huge Black Warrior bullet tope, and Chicana eats the bump against the ramp steps.

PAS: Chicana just oozes charisma in this match, he is not in the physical shape he was in the 1980’s, but I get the sense he could get way more broken down and still have an amazing match. He just knows how to move and strut and demonstrate. Villano III did look kind of shot in the tag last week, but he can still step up big for a main event mano y mano. Of course he bleeds, but he brings the offense too, I loved his rabbit punches and combos. Finish was totally great too, Villano is being double teamed by the Chicanas so he says “fuck it” and kicks him right in the balls. Great finish, to a great match.

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IWRG 8/27/09

More Slambamjam IWRG, god love Alfredo

Miss Gaviota/Star Boy vs. Carta Brava Jr./Vampiro Metálico

TKG: I dug the first two falls of this a bunch. Carta Brava and Star Boy match up really well as did Gaviota and Metalico. The crotching of StarBoy into heel offense was a fun transition spot. These opener tags sometimes fall apart either during the heel double team section or when the faces comeback from those double teams. It didn’t here as Metalico/Brava team have some nice heel double team stuff and both of he faces are guys who can do comebacks well. Unfortunately, it did fall apart during the third face dominated fall as a lot of stuff felt off.

PAS: This was the best I have seen Miss Gaviota look, I am not sure she is much of a wrestler, but this had a ton of really amusing well worked exotico spots. I loved the octopus which forced her opponent to wave effeminately, and all of the showing of ass and kissing was timed really well. I am with Tom on the first couple of falls being good, and the third fall not being good, although in the second fall Star Boy does blow a kip up about as badly as I have seen. It looked like if I was taking a Pilates class and tried to kip up to impress a divorcee.

Bushi/Chico Che/Freelance vs. Avisman/Fantasma de la Ópera/Gringo Loco

TKG: The announcer describing all the participants in the match says that Gringo Loco reminds him of the great touring artist of the seventies Kris Kristopherson. I didn’t know Kristopherson was a country icon in Mexico. And really never really associated him with Gringo Loco. But now I can’t separate them in my head. He mostly does a bunch of Alice Doesn’t Live Here any More heel shtick here although he and Avisman have a bunch of neat double teams including The Sunday Morning Coming Down double leg drop. Somewhere in the long first fall Freelance absolutely concusses himself performing a top rope leap into a rana. Fantasma does a swanton type headbutt to Freelance prone head. And the whole thing is absolutely scary. Freelance looks completely loopy and you expect the whole match to fall apart. Instead he gets back in for another two falls takes every bump for a chop on the back of his head and does a ton of crazy suicidal dives. I mean I think this was a good match but I really couldn’t pay attention to anything but Freelance’s toughness and insanity.

PAS: Yeah this was really hard to judge as a match, as the second and third falls are completely judged through the lens of Freelance being the badest motherfucker on earth. Minutes after spiking himself on the top rope diving rana on the mat, he decided to do the same move to the floor. He also does an Asai moonsault which landed really nastily into the crowd. Chico Che looked really great too, as he has some really great moments of graceful flying. Freelance wins the match and does some post match mike work which I assume was something like “I want to thank the fans of El Salvador for the welcome, Pineapple, Wheelbarrow, Turkey Sandwich”

Black Terry, Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro vs. Barba Roja, Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Pirata Morgan Jr. [EdM Trios]

TKG: The Piratas really felt out of their league here. First fall has Dr Cerebro matched up opposite Jr, ,Black Terry matched up opposite Barba Roja and Cerebro Negro opposite Hijo. Black Terry strained his arm on an armdrag had a doctor check it out and then had Barba Roja work over his arm. Terry is really good at the wounded tough warrior stuff and that may have been the best first fall interaction. The other Piratas looked completely lost working technical mat based offense. Second fall was rope running move fall where everyone switched up partners and third fall was all about the big moves where member of team runs in to prevent the fall. Piratas were way more comfortable in those settings. The second fall where they were most comfortable was short, and the third fall felt kind of mechanical.

PAS: Black Terry cuts a post match promo basically saying “It is good for young guys like that to get experience against wrestlers like us.” The match really felt worked like that, with Cerebros being polished professionals, carrying some green rookies through a match. There was individual moments of competence from the Piratas, but this match was 90% Cerebros

Head Hunter I & Sangre Chicana vs. Scorpio Jr. & Villano III

TKG: This is a bunch of old guys stabbing each other and bleeding. Head Hunter I is a guy with a lot of Japanese experience and really plays to the ring side cameras, there were moments where he really delivered a great Pro Wrestling Gold Abby v Austin Idol cover shot opposite Scorpio. The Villano III comebacks didn’t involve any DDTs and really weren’t as energetic as his comeback run in the trios match. Heels win two straight falls which is kind of an odd booking for a show built around celebrating 25th anniversary of Scorpio Jr in wrestling. All four do mic work post match and all four are really good on the mic and make me want to see the matches this set up.

PAS: Scorpio Jr. spent most of those 25 years as a rudo, so it is appropriate to have the rudos dominate. Chicana was truly the standout here, as he was pretty energetically running around stabbing dudes in the head. He really has an expressive forking. Lots of gory headwounds from old dudes, which is what you want from this match.

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It Reassures Me Just to Know That Cassandro's OK

~Pimpiniela Escarlata/Casanova/Sangre Chicana vs. Cassandro/Zumbido/Antifaz (Arena Coliseo de Monterrey, 1/8/06) - FUN

Cassandro attacks Pimpi to start and it is ON. Pimpi looks insanely awesome here. He looks like the freakiest awkward stage of a 12 yr. old girl's life. He had a bleach blonde bob with a singlet that made him look like a demented aerobics instructor. Cassandro has rad Fabulous Moolah hair here and worked really stiff the entire match. His opening punch to Pimpi looked completely bell-ringing. Once back in the ring he lands a couple of really painful dropkick variations, getting vaulted into the air by his teammates and just nailing dudes in the corner.

Cassandro and Pimpi have been working together for about 16 or 17 years at this point, so it's no real surprise that they know how to run a great sequence together. Nobody's ever surprised when Negro Navarro runs through a decent sequence with Solar, nobody was ever surprised when Gena Rowlands turned in a good performance in a John Cassavetes movie. Some things just go well together and never get old. These two run through different sequences every time I see them work, and they have a hot run here. Cassandro tries to powerbomb Pimpi off a hurraranrana attempt, only to have Pimpi counter with his weight and turn it into a balls-to-the-face seated senton. Cassandro tries his own running flying headscissors and Pimpi just ducks, causing Cassandro to just land hard on his butt, legs out. Then Cassandro charges into the corner and gets tossed head over heels onto the floor. If you haven't noticed, Cassandro can take some massively dangerous bumps to the floor.

Arena Coliseo de Monterrey never has a shortage of juiced up former strippers working as luchadors, and Casanova is exactly that. Cassandro wanted Casanova's business, and did not keep it secret in a hilarious secret. Cassandro kept purposely blowing a "slide through the legs" spot with Casanova, the first time not sliding far enough through and ending up face first in his crotch, the second time trying to slide through Casanova's legs saw his slide come up too short, ending in some rump to groin that Casanova had to pretend he hated. Casanova was torn. The men in the crowd saw his longing, saw the pain through his cut stripper physique. But Casanova is paid because the ladies love him. True love, or your dedicated lady fans? Their love was a lie.

Sangre Chicana can still go, man. He had lost his hair about a week before this, so was just a maniac with a shaved head, just punching and bumping and just generally being a bad ass. Finish comes when poor Pimpi gets punted right in the balls by Zumbido, who just looks like someone who would punt you right in the balls.


~Jesse/Nygma/Polvo de Estrellas/Yuriko vs. Cassandro/El Ángel/Pimpinela Escarlata/Super AAA (AAA, 10/18/07) - SKIPPABLE

God damn you Night Queens. You always have a few good spots in you, but most of the time your matches are a race to see who can get in the worse position possible for the tecnicos' offense.

The Queens are wearing some garish purple get-ups, with Polvo's torn leotard holding tight his round physique, and Nygma's velveteen flared jumpsuit hugging his body in all sorts of unflattering ways. Their fashion just cannot compete with Cassandro and Pimpi's stereo satin white robes (with Cassandro rocking a kicky white top hat to boot!).

The Night Queens don't blow it until the 2nd Caida, as they had some decent moments during the 1st. Polvo hit a nice pudgy senton and Jesse hit a colossal Alabama (Nuevo Leon?) Jam while Pimpi was draped across somebody's knees. Those were good looking spots right there.

And then the rest of the match happened. Night Queens just try and make every base spot as awkward looking as possible. Angel tries a rana from the apron to the floor, and Nygma starts backpedaling as he catches him then just kind holds his crotch to his face, then finally regains his balance enough to do a really poor somersault out of it. Later on he gets into position for a armdrag a good 15 seconds too early. They stumble through some rote sequences and then Night Queens expertly try and screw up the dive train (which is beginning to seem like their specialty). Pimpi had to stop a dive in mid air (he was doing a somersault tope and never let go of the ropes) due to the Queens not looking in the right direction (you know, towards the ring) in the 12/14/07 match, and here they do the same fucking thing!! Except - AWESOMELY - Pimpi at full speed does NOT put on the brakes and just barrels through them coming out totally sideways like Mike Knox's flying crossbody, just obliterating a Queen. Cassandro is smart and opts to stop his dive, as it would have been sure death to rely on one of these clowns to catch him.

The end is really fun as Cassandro misses a moonsault on Polvo, opts to try it again, and Polvo gets up and just clubs him off the top rope, with Cassandro getting dumped back in the ring right on his head...which AAA's expert camera's naturally miss.

There are still more Night Queens match ups left to go. I am frontloading them. At least the 10/26/07 one was awesome. Naturally that was the one I watched first, and when the outlier happens to be the first match you see...God damn you Night Queens.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE CASSANDRO

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Cassandro Was Always By My Side, and Never Tried to Leave

Gran Apache/May Flowers/Pimpinela Escarlata/Polvo de Estrellas vs. Cassandro/Alan/Billy Boy/Decnnis (AAA, 5/20/06) - FUN

Cassandro is wearing his completely awesome Wonder Woman outfit that I have never seen before. One thing about doing this project is that I can be completely amazed time and time again at the many different outfits of Cassandro. So far I have not seen the same outfit twice.

This match is full of dissension, as the Barrio Boys clearly don't agree with Cassandro's lifestyle choices and do not want to be teaming with him. Think about that: The BARRIO BOYS don't agree with Cassandro's lifestyle choices. So that's just not believable. I'm sure the Barrio Boys have made a boatload of bad life decisions. Gran Apache, on the other hand, has no problems whatsoever teaming with his group of exoticos, and is perfectly content to punch all the Barrio Boys right in the face (which I will never complain about).

This was all sorts of fun, as I always like May Flowers but he doesn't turn up too much anymore. Pimpi had a bunch of great moments including climbing the turnbuckle, back to the ring, and when Billy Boy tries to run in and stop him --> ass to the face, with a wiggle to boot! The Barrio Boys end up finally turning on Cassandro after a couple of miscues (that naturally involved some playful kisses), so then you had ALL the Barrio Boys, and ALL the exoticos ALL beating up poor Cassandro. It's just not fair.


La Fiera/Mocho Cota/Pimpinela Escarlata/Sangre Chicana vs. Cassandro/El Brazo/Espectro Jr./Pirata Morgan (AAA, 6/18/06) - VERY GOOD

This was so awesome. Pimpi and Cassandro were the young bucks in this match, and they were both in their late 30s here. Almost everybody else in this match is in their 50s. But I am in the camp who feels that a lot of luchadors need about 30 years of seasoning before they really come into their own. That seems to be how it's gone the last 3 years, at least.

So seriously, motherfucking Mocho Cota, making tape in the 2000s!!! That just doesn't happen that often. I don't think I've seen any other Cota match from the 2000s. Anybody else have a stash of Cota from this decade that they're hoarding? Because he looked quite awesome here. Threw some fine punches, did an AWESOME shoulderblock sequence with Brazo, bouncing off and staggering around, before manning up and just plowing through Brazo. He threw a nice dropkick and did a great tope during the sprint. He looked the same as he did in '96 CMLL, just slightly looser skin.

Sangre Chicana was also a total boss in this as well, with real nice punches and a great tope. Everybody really gets their chance to shine in this. Espectro Jr. threw some nice punches, Brazo got to do a bunch of fun belly bumps and Sangre/Mocho/Fierra all fell awesomely and hilariously into place for Brazo's big splash. Fierra can still bump shockingly well, and Cassandro and Pimpi are themselves, so you know that rules.

Cassandro had awesome hair and looked like Dustin Hoffman as Dorothy in "Tootsie". I would really like to see a lucha match interpretive adaptation of Tootsie. I think Mano Negra would make a great Dabney Coleman. He has more hair, and no mustache, but he makes the same great bug-eyed Dabney Coleman expressions. Brazo already kinda looks like a tan Charles Durning, and it wouldn't be too hard to find a couple of the blonde lady workers with low self-esteem to portray the Jessica Lange and Terri Garr roles. Make this happen, somebody.

The Night Queens run in at the end and it becomes a giant schmozz, with allegiances breaking down. Sangre Chicana wandering around and just punching Night Queens in the face was amusing. The Queens were also all wearing rainbow sashes, just in case you forgot they were, ya know, Queens. Cassandro gets suplexed into the 2nd row and this was all kinda of great fun.


Oriental/Chikayo Nagashima/Pimpinela Escarlata vs. Takashi Sugiura/Fabi Apache/Cassandro (AAA/SEM, 9/3/07) - GREAT

I assumed a lot of the guys would do it up pretty big since they were in Japan and don't tour there too often, and I was correct. This was a real unique mixture of talent in one match, and it worked out to be really awesome.

First off, Pimpi comes out in a full on bridal gown and tosses his bouquet to the crowd. It is amazing. Then Sugiura comes out and Pimpi gets all hot and bothered by his stocky physique and wants a piece of him, which causes Takashi to naturally freak out, lest his lips touch another mans'. I was not sure how Cassandro was going to be able to top it, and his entrance does not....but his amazing glittery Rising Sun singlet COMPLETELY does. This might be my favorite Cassandro singlet.

Fabi and Nagashima match up really nicely, and I haven't regularly watched joshi for most of this decade, but earlier in the decade when I was still checking out joshi with some regularity, she was easily one of my favorites in GAEA. She matched up even better with Cassandro, as they get into a hilarious slap exchange with Cassandro over-emoting to the crowd and the crowd eating it right up. She also takes a nice beating as at one point she's stuck in the corner, and Fabi does a great running kick right to her face, Cassandro does the most painful looking butt bump (aside from maybe Morishima, but Cassandro is literally half his size) right to her head, and Sugiura ends the trifecta with a nasty running elbow.

Cassandro ramps up the crazy for the Japanese crowd, getting an insane amount of distance on his "run full speed towards the corner and wrap myself around the turnbuckle" spot. I see the spot coming every time, but I always enjoy it more and more. So nuts. He also does the absolute fastest deadliest Jerry Estrada bump I've ever seen. Just a full on sprint into a flip right over the ropes. Just sheer madness.

This was like a random NOAH 6 man, and random NOAH 6 mans are one of my favorite style of matches possible. This one just had two really great lady workers and my two favorite exoticos. Well worth going out of your way to see. I wish Cassandro and Pimpi made it to Japan more often.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE CASSANDRO

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