Found Footage Friday: LOS INFERNALES~! VALENTE~! GUERRERO DE LA MUERTE~! NIEBLA~! LATIN LOVER I GUESS~!

Rayo De Jalisco Jr./Latin Lover/Valente Fernandez vs. Los Infernales (Satanico, MS-1, Pirata Morgan) Monterrey 8/23/92

MD: We had previously covered the Latin Lover vs Valente Fernandez apuestas match so it's nice to get this as well, which has Fernandez turning on him, including him explaining it after the match. Morgan wears a bandana through this as he'd just lost his hair to Vampiro. Infernales ambush to start, and it's a solid rudo beatdown where they cycle through the tecnicos before slamming Lover, holding him down, and having MS-1 squash him with a top rope splash. Segunda starts with Rayo charging the ring and it settles down to exchanges. He gets all of his stuff in as the Infernales bumble about. They're as good as anyone playing into it. Fernandez looks very good too, sharp offense, going out as a tecnico with a bang. Lover less so, overall. The tercera was short but chaotic with guys going in and out of the ring and the tecnicos sort of trying a hit and run approach. It ultimately backfired as Lover rushed in to save Fernandez from a 3 vs 1 situation and accidentally dropkicked him. Fernandez lost it after that and started in on Lover with a chair before raising his hands with the Infernales and going back out to post Lover some more. He got a ton of heat for it and on commentary after noted how sick he was of Lover constantly being so clumsy. The payoff was fun so now it's nice to have the set up too.

ER: I loved the match long payoff of Valente losing his shit on Latin Lover, because every time Lover was in this match he looked like the worst wrestler in Monterrey. Were Rayo's bunny hop headbutts ridiculous? Yes. But everything Latin Lover did - outside of a cool bad landing dropkick on the floor to MS-1 - looked like it was done by a guy who should not be in a ring in front of paying customers. Watching him hit light clotheslines below the boobs or his weird Roadblock moonsault bumps to the floor was enough for me, but watching Valente doing several flawless classic lucha bumps to the floor made me fully understand his turn, even before the dropkick. And let's hear it for my boy MS-1, the least acclaimed of Los Infernales but a helluva show here, outshining Satanico and Pirata, huge aura, big top rope splash, throwing harder punches than his celebrated brethren. 

Latin Lover/Kato Kung Lee vs. El Sanguinario/El Mercenario Plaza De Toros Monumental mid-1992

MD: It's worth going through all of this just so we know someone's covered it. Rob had pointed out a number of new matches on this channel and I can report back that there's not a lot to see here. Lover still had his mask at this point and he was over with a part of the crowd as the new idol/sensation, and I'd even say his stuff looked a little better here, maybe because Sanguinario was flying into it so well, but this was fairly straightforward. At one point in the segunda when the rudo beatdown abruptly start, he got lawn darted into the seats and that was pretty satisfying and Kato Kung Lee got to do his stuff right at the end to entertaining effect but the VQ was rough for the most part and the opening exchanges were pretty subdued. Unless you really want a glimpse of what early Lover looked like, I'd say this is probably a skip.

ER: If any of you are out there reading this and still wondering what early Latin Lover looked like, picture the worst Lenny Lane match you've ever seen and now picture Lenny with less polish. 

Mr. Niebla vs. Guerrero De La Muerte Arena Coliseo 12/17/96

MD: Just the tercera here. We come in with Guerrero in charge, first with a camel clutch and then tossing Niebla off the top. He has a cool little bit he does where he winds up with his foot for leverage before tossing him too. He then starts slapping the piss out of Niebla, which only enrages Niebla and enables the comeback, which included a great moonsault from the apron to the floor. On the way back in though, Guerrero pulls off Niebla's mask. The ref buys that it was an accident and the match continues (which I've rarely ever seen actually).They rolled into a stretch from there, including a big top rope dive to the floor and then wiping out over the top in a Jerry Estrada bump by Guerrero which was followed up by Niebla having to shift directions to hit his tope. Guerrero caught him on a rana attempt and dropped him with a power bomb for the win though. A good fall. Shame we don't have the whole thing.

ER: Fantastic one fall tercera look at the things that made Guerrero de la Muerte a special worker, one who we've likely highlighted much less than other special workers from this era of special workers. This was Guerrero's fall. Niebla got a couple cool tecnico moments: a big Asai moonsault (the way he slingshots himself to the apron made it look like he was going to go even crazier, like Gran Metalik or Taka) and a tope with hardly any run up, just switched directions when he saw where Guerrero was running. Guerrero was great at setting it up, his backdrop to the floor superb, holding onto the top rope to get full extension and holding it for a full arc. It looked like he was captured in a vert ramp trick on the cover of Thrasher. 

But the fall was all about building to those few big Niebla moments and letting Guerrero run wild with the rest. Even Guerrero gets a big dive, hitting an awesome full arms out plancha. Both were excellent at catching the others' dives. I'm with Matt in that I don't think I've ever seen a mask removal deemed "accidental", and in this case Guerrero was definitely Up To No Good with the mask removal. The way it happened was so sick. He had the mask partially removed and had a handful of the mask's jawline so he could hold Niebla in place while punching him in the face. Niebla began to fall after taking punches and the mask came off in Guerrero's hand. An accident, in that he wasn't attempting to rip his mask off, he was merely using the mask to punch his opponent in the teeth!

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Found Footage Friday: 1989 CMLL

Full Show

Septiembre Negro/Bufalo Salvaje vs. Pegasso/Sombra Poblama

MD: We come in JIP here, just the finish, but it's a fun one. After a bit of measured rope running, Septiembre Negro takes a wild hefting bump over the top. Sombra Polbama hits a great driving heatbutt off the apron onto him as Pegasso (I think) locks in this cool dangling pulling armhold on Bufalo Salvaje to win it. 

Las Estrellas Blancos vs. Bestia Salvaje/Comando Ruso/Panico

MD: Estrellas aren't super familiar to me but they had a kid or a mini out with them to do tricks pre-match and signed a bunch of autographs. Rudos ambushed to start with one Estrella getting lawn darted into the post. I'm not used to seeing Bestia Salvaje so young and he was really moving around in there well. Start of the segunda had solid tandem rudo offense including pressing an Estrella back against the top rope for a shot off the top and holding him up in Hart Attack position for a bunch of offense. Panico followed it up with a slam onto the side of the ring, but while doing so, the tecnicos came back. Little bit weird timing there. They did a revenge posting on Comando Ruso and then held Panico's arms so they could kick him again and again with big setups. A crowd pleaser that he sold like a foul. Rudos took back over and did a stacking submission with Bestia posing on top. Finish actually had an Estrella come from behind and foul him there, drawing the DQ but a moral victory perhaps. I'm not sure I've ever seen that exact finish to a fall. I had fun with this even if I thought the timing of the comeback as dubious.

Pirata Morgan/Super Halcon/Hijo del Gladiador vs. Jaque Mate/El Egipico/Pierroth Jr.

MD: Rudo vs. rudo war here. Pirata's side ambushed to start though it didn't really pick up until the end of the primera where Gladiador was waistlock dropping people on the ground and Pierroth's mask had been mostly torn apart. Egipico had a pretty solid comeback where he just started to punch everyone. Nothing really sparked it but it was fiery enough all things considered. After the comeback things devolved into lots of formless brawling and mask ripping. I wouldn't say there was any sort of central thesis to it, just things ebbing and flowing as people engaged and withdrew, but when it all came back together, it really all came back together. They were able to isolate Pierroth 3-on-1 and gave him one of the nastiest beatings I've seen in ages, leaving him a bloody mess with a strewn mask barely clinging on to consciousness. It was a hell of a way to end the thing at least.

Los Infernales (MS-1/Satanico/Maskare) vs. Magico/Blue Demon Jr./Huracan Ramirez

MD: Another rudo ambush. They were leaning hard into it on this one. They said this was a super libre, I think. Satanico can direct rudo beatdown traffic better than anyone and that's what we had here. Just a constantly moving beatdown ending in a triple submission that stretched Blue Demon in every direction at once. Notable is that when they were doing the "stand on your opponent" triple submission bit earlier, they saw the tecnico coming to break it up and dismounted to stop him, which you never really see.

Tecnico comeback was driven by Magico (Who would soon become Mascara Sagrada or at least Hombre Sin Nombre? That probably helps date this?) but things would sort of go back and forth with bits of tecnico comeback interspersed with renewed rudo beatdown. All the rudos managed to stooge and take the babyfaces' stuff, Satanico being especially great at it, but soon after they took back over and were undoing the tecnicos masks all at once. It went like that until they had the rudos in some real danger and in response they swarmed, beating the crap out of Huracan Ramirez and drawing the DQ when they wouldn't stop. So not exactly satisfying but you can't fault the rudo talent here certainly.

ER: I don't think we specifically set out to write about Satanico on consecutive days but there sure are worse ways to run this website. Our streak of Consecutive Days to Start 2026 Writing About Satanico will almost surely end with this, but I love our look at first 76 year old Satanico and now 40 year old Satanico. There is no moment of this match where my eyes were not drawn to whatever Satanico was doing. As Matt says, he is very clearly the one running traffic for this entire match. Whenever he is not directly involved in the action, my brain was always saying "Where is Satanico? What is Satanico doing right now?" because whatever he was doing was almost always the thing most worth watching. He is the man directly Los Infernales while dictating the match's tone and energy. It's incredible. It's one thing that his actual ring work is a cut above everyone else (not an insult to anyone, for he is Satanico), it's that he is such a presence at all times. He is the smallest of Los Infernales, but anyone seeing Satanico for the first time would instantly be able to tell that he is In Charge. 

Sometimes, due to 1989 lost lucha video quality and the incredible matching gear/full heads of gorgeous hair on Los Infernales, it would be easy to forget that Masakre or MS-1 was currently in the ring wreaking havoc and not Satanico. But then, our boy would come into frame with that smile and that even better head of hair and the mood would just change. He took offense from tecnicos better (love his fold on Huracan's huracanrana), he stirred shit and stooged better (loved the way he threw up his hands in plea while his boys were being pinned in the segunda), and he was the one who would always enter with punches and devilish charm. My favorite actual moment of the match was MS-1's apron fist fight with Magico. I've seen a lot of bad looking apron fights, and they had such a dramatic battle with both rocking each other with punches to the face, chest and body, both using the ropes to hold themselves up, never just simple back and forth, excellent dramatic movement by MS-1. But this was a six man Satanico match, through and through.   

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2025 Ongoing MOTY List: Satanico vs. Hechicero

Satanico vs. Hechicero CMLL 12/2/25

MD: We have seen matches with men in their 70s. Remember, even something like Black Terry vs Mr. Condor had Terry in his late 60s, maybe not quite the same. There is a certain expectation when you're watching a match with a 70+ year old, let alone someone who, like Satanico, is 76. You expect a maesteros match. You expect tricks on the mat, little bits of leverage, skill and technique and mastery. It can be a joy. Often times it is a joy because the sum of wrestling knowledge in the head of such a man, the number of things he knows that almost no one else alive can replicate, are multitudinous. You may see something that you would not see anywhere else in the world in the entirety of the year. 

But of course your expectations are tempered. Maybe it'll get a bit chippy. Maybe it'll boil over towards the end. Men that know how to punch that know how to take punches. But you have expectations for a reason.

And this started much the same, on the mat. Hechicero cinched in a tight headlock but Satanico was able to snatch a leg and take him down. Hechicero pointed to the skies as distraction and scored a takedown of his own. He worked to lock in a hold, twisting ankles, crossing legs, rough and aggressive, but Satanico knew every trick and scored yet another trip. Were they to do twelve minutes of this, it would be a refreshing, enjoyable time for all, something we would have been very glad to see but might have had very little to write about. 

But Hechicero, always skilled, underlooked for so, so long, was a man of pride. He was a worldwide star, and to have a 76 year old, even a 76 year old that was perhaps the greatest rudo of all time, turn things around on him and force him to fall to the mat, arms flailing, it was more than he could endure. 

He pressed Satanico back into the ropes, refusing to break. Satanico, in turn, knowing the value of every moment and having no time for this, pressed his fist up against Hechicero's face and pushed him back with it, a small but poignant gesture more full of more gravitas than a thousand elaborate spots. 

They locked up again. Satanico went for a drop down and Hechicero kicked him in the skull. Everything had changed. This was no longer a maestro match, no longer an exhibition. It became something darker, something more visceral and gripping. It became a mauling. 

Hechicero fired off shots in the corner. He got up onto the turnbuckles to rain down punches. Usually an opponent can withstand them, hold himself up, all the way to the count of ten. Satanico started to wither immediately though, started to wilt. There was nothing he could do as Hechicero whipped him into the corner. Every step felt like labored anguish, as if he was trudging through mud accumulated over decades with joints that had weathered more storms than would be expected from someone half his age. 

Hechicero gave him no respite, save for to shrug at the crowd. It wasn't him doing this to Satanico. It was life, just the natural order of things. How could you blame Hechicero, wizard that he was, for the simple passage of time? He pulled him to the outside, tossed him into the ramp, laid his head upon it and dropped a knee, followed it up with a kick. He was merely time's agent in all of this, a representative of a force bigger than us all. Why he even stopped to grab a sign professing love for him. None of this was his fault. He was an innocent bystander in the mauling of Satanico. It was fate tugging at his fists and heels, not any evil animus from Hechicero himself.

Maybe that's what pushed Satanico over the edge, what drove him to fight back far past the point of wisdom or reason. He'd spent a lifetime taking full responsibility for every twisted act, a rudo's rudo, a man who perhaps had regrets, but none of them were about embracing the wickedness in his heart. And at times, the crowd loved him for such confident honesty. They loved him now as he started firing back. It wouldn't be enough though. It took a sidestep that sent Hechicero careening into the ropes feet first, to truly get back into the fight. 

Once he was back in, however, well, he was Satanico after all, wasn't he? And that meant he could get down and dirty. He peppered Hechicero on the floor. He started to undo his mask back in the ring. When Hechicero refused to budge on his clotheslines, he drew him in, causing him to overcommit so he could topple the younger man. And then, finally having him down on the floor, he let the devil into his veins one last time and leaped without restraint or hesitation, a daring senton off the apron.

There seemed to be an aspect of futility in this defiance however. Hechicero was one of the best in the world. He recovered quickly, jamming a step-up knee in Satanico's face and dropping him with a power bomb. But futility did not always know sense. When you reach a certain age, the sheer act of getting up becomes a challenge, a complex act of physics where one leg helps to turn the other, propelling you back to your feet. Satanico utilized this exact technique here to escape the subsequent pin, the power of a simple lever that you're more apt to learn through aging than in wrestling school. Whether wise or not, he survived to keep fighting.

And keep fighting he did. Thrown off by the shock of Satanico's escape, Hechicero allowed himself to get jammed on a whip. Satanico pressed the matter, hitting a bulldog, a single arm driver, lifting Hechicero up and dropping him to lock on a submission. It wouldn't last. Hechicero was younger, stronger, more resilient and he was able to power Satanico up for an airplane spin. But he got cocky and missed the moonsault that followed and then couldn't get Satanico up into a Gory special, instead falling victim to a struggle-laden sunset flip, two skin of his teeth nearfalls that almost earned Satanico a last, unexpected taste of glory.

Perhaps drunk upon the taste of it, Satanico went for one more sunset flip only for Hechicero to turn it around and, his feet hanging off the side of the apron suspiciously, he forced Satanico down for a count of three. But when you're 76, when you're facing someone at the height of his power like Hechicero, perhaps glory isn't just to be found in victory. Satanico wasn't even supposed to be there that day. He was a substitution for Blue Panther. Even then, this was supposed to be a nice casual maestros match, the sort we've seen before. But instead, tempers flared and opportunity arose, a last ride for the old scoundrel, maybe not one that he had asked for, but one that he would embrace nonetheless, and in doing so, feel and inspire all of those old thrills one more time.

ER: It's crazy to think how close we came to having this match on D3AN. We had five guys confirmed for our llave trios and wanted a cool old man for the sixth spot. Getting Hechicero in there was already a dream, but with Blue Panther and Virus also involved it was a dream on top of a dream on top of a dream. But we wanted one more cool old guy. Solar had just had surgery, Negro Navarro wasn't available, and Satanico was someone we really wanted. We already had Blue Panther put on one of his best showings of an incredible year at DEAN~! 2, and we wanted a guy 10 years older to try and do the same. Alas, we couldn't get Satanico, so we had to "settle" for Pantera. Boo hoo, El Pantera rules and I loved him in our llave trios.  

So here, a couple months later, is the Satanico/Hechicero exchanges we wanted, and it's wonderful. A few months ago I took my dad, who is two years younger than Satanico, to a Giants game. We went on a mile walk before the game and at his speed, it took us over 45 minutes. Yes, my dad was moving a little bit faster than 1 MPH. Satanico is more athletic than my dad, but he is an old man and moves like an old man. That said, I hope I am this spry at 76, and I hope I have someone like Hechicero in my circle to make sure that I am protected this well. I love Satanico, and love that this old man is still rocking, but this match makes me wonder what kind of match Hechicero could have gotten out of Mae Young in her 80s, because he does all of his coolest stuff and never cracks an egg (or an old man's skull). It's a marvelous showing. 

There are great moments large and small, and every one of them looks vicious while being as gentle as can be. Hechicero wasn't a saint, there were several moments where he preyed on an old man's slowed reaction time, going high for a knuckle lock before dropping in quick with a single leg, or targeting this sweet devil of a saint's poor old knees and bending them over ropes while twisting joints. When he throws Satanico into the entrance ramp, he's kicking him in the back of the head and dropping knees on his draped neck, and while I'm sure Satanico didn't feel a thing I loved how snug Hechicero made it all look. He ran into some incredible crashes while working around Satanico's body, flying into a big upside down bump into the ropes as Satanico sidestepped him, running into a back elbow and flying into the air like he ran orbital bone first into a trailer hitch, or just taking an old man's full weight senton off the apron. Satanico's full weight might be just 140 lb., but it's still full weight.  

Satanico stepped up in cool ways. I loved when they were tangled up on the mat, Hechicero working a leg, and when Hechicero started throwing punches, Satanico started firing back elbows over his shoulder, responding harder than he was getting, forcing Hechicero to abandon his strategy. The man may be the oldest currently active wrestler, but he still throws a classic style bulldog that looks refreshing in 2025. And I don't know what it is about old dudes with great faces, but those faces always seem to be amplified to crazed delirium whenever an old man locks in a Fujiwara. 

But Hechicero is a god. After seeing how perfectly he worked his running knee in the corner, and the way he let Satanico dangle in the air on a powerbomb, teasing like he was going to drop him on his head before lifting him back up and dropping the man perfectly flat, I will proudly trust Hechicero with handling all of my Faberge eggs. Especially the old evil ones. 

2025 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Found Footage Friday: WWE IN AUSTRALIA~! BABE FACE~! FANTASMA~! SUPER ASTRO~! SCORPIO~! SATANICO~! EMILIO~!

Super Astro/Fantasma vs. Babe Face/Scorpio WWA Olympic Auditorium 09/12/87

MD: This has been sitting in plain sight for a few years but was thankfully was brought to light by the Wrestling Playlists newsletter recently. It hits so many of the marks you'd want with four very talented wrestlers doing their thing in a slightly alien place for slightly alien promotion. Super Astro is this tightly contained ball of energy, a little shorter than his peers, a little stockier than you'd expect, but it's almost like there's a wick counting down on him and he's always ready to explode. It gives his roles and vaults and stylized tricks an extra bit of oomph. They're things that would be impressive regardless but with him it's all somehow supercharged, and Scorpio, bald and wide and spry took it all so well. He shoved Fantasma before the bell and Fantasma bounced back off the ropes and shoved him back, causing him to bump huge. That's just the sort of guy Scorpio was.

I wouldn't say this had a rudo ref so much as the rudo was holding the tecnicos to far higher standards. That meant they withheld tags in a way that you don't usually see in lucha (though the out of the ring rule was definitely in play) and it allowed the rudos to stay in charge in the primera. That built the pressure for the comeback, even through the end of the fall and a nice double takover onto Fantasma and subsequent submission. You can tell the pressure was up beacuse there was an upset Granny at ringside. 

It was interesting because they used the ref taking back/not allowing tags to build heat but the moment of comeback was wholly within the ring on a bit of rudo miscommunication. From there things went even with it looking like the tecnicos might get swept under again only to outquick and outslick the rudos, all building to Astro knocking Scorpio out and landing on him with a senton through the ropes to the floor. Brutal stuff and Scorpio either bladed or got bust open. Either way, he was a bloody mess. That was the equalizer as simultaneously Fantasma was doing a ridiculous submission in Tombstone position on Babe Face (who I have less to say about here but he was perfectly fine in his role).

The tercera was full of the sort of great exchanges you'd expect until Scorpio was able to go behind on Fantasma off the ropes, using his momentum to push him through the ropes and right into a waiting chairshot from Babe Face. From there it was an academic 2-on-1 with them picking up Astro repeatedly after having him beat. That sort of hubris didn't lead to comeuppance though as they finished him off after one of Babe Face's great off-center running sentons and a nasty legdrop from Scorpio. I'm sure this led to some phenomenal return match we don't have, but at least we have this.

ER: You show up for a match like this to see what Super Astro might do, but then you leave getting to see  stocky rudo toughness from Babe Face and Scorpio. Super Astro is must watch in any setting. You're always going to get something worth writing about. Imagine seeing this stocky little guy in LA doing a slingshot senton to the floor in 1987. It's great. But this is a match that makes you want to watch more Babe Face and Scorpio. Scorpio Sr.! I have not seen much Scorpio Sr. He is as ugly as his son in a completely different way, more hideous monster way. He also looks like the perfect wrestler. Wide, round, ugly, bald, cocky. He's got a fat buff guy or buff fat guy body squeezed into a red King Kong Bundy double strap that you wish could be pulled off as well in modern wrestling but everyone is shaped wrong. Babe Face, it turns out, also has a perfect pro wrestling physique. He is stocky and muscular and compact and powerful. He's Bill Dundee with 20 pounds of thick bulk. He is one of three of the smallest most powerful men, wrestling inside of the largest ring in wrestling history. You fill not believe how long it takes Super Astro to run ropes in this ring. It's incredible. 

We all love Super Astro and we love the way he is in a competition with himself to take higher back body drops. But this hits peaks whenever Babe Face or Scorpio are throwing punches and chops and headbutts. Babe Face headbutts Super Astro in the eye socket to force a tag out and I thought we were going to get a bloody mask hole Super Astro match. He is stocky rudo cocktease, pouncing Astro to the floor to interrupt a dive, cameras catching a great close up of Scorpio's mug before he overhand chops Astro out of his boots. Things build throughout to big Babe Face/Fantasma showdowns, until Babe Face fucking BRAINS Fantasma with an open folding chair to the top of the head while Fantasma was draped over the ropes. The announcers say something about Intrepidos Punks, so either they're describing these two stocky men of differing beauty, or they're advertising the late 80s movie of the same name and either way makes this great. Los Intrepidos Punks lay a fucking beating on Astro while Fantasma's corpse is under the ropes, slapping him back and forth, Babe Face hitting full weight sentons, kneeling on his chest and groin while Scorpio holds a legdrop like the most smug sideburn asshole.  

I liked Fantasma's aggressively pistoning 69 bearhug. 

Emilio Charles vs. Satanico [hair vs hair] CMLL 3/20/98? 

MD: Pretty unique hair match here though one that hits a lot of the right notes despite that and despite some goofiness. As best as I can tell, this is rudo vs. rudo though Charles is the clear crowd favorite. Satanico gets an early ambush and starts dismantling Charles like only he can. No one is better in the history of wrestling at orchestrating violence, including his own. The bump Charles takes into the third row, head over heels, is excellent. Charles starts to mount some comebacks (including one really nice Fujiwara armbar reversal out of a grounded abdominal stretch that's lucha loose but symbolically perfect) but the ref (who apparently he hit the week before?) seems to get in his way each time and Satanico finally gets the caida on a backslide with a fast count.

That causes Charles to start complaining to the commission. Rey Mendoza is out there and says that Charles has a stipulation in his contract that he can call for a change in ref so Babe Richard comes out to take over. Meanwhile, Charles is unloading on Satanico, including tossing him into the crowd. Satanico is able to sneak in a foul though and locks in the Satan's Knot. That seems like the end and the end to Charles' hair, but he gets lost in the moment and refuses to let go and the ref awards the caida to Charles. So it's a bit of an odd dynamic with the ref switch and Satanico basically winning the second fall only to have it overturned. It all gets paid off in the tercera with Charles getting a foul in of his own and everything building to another Satan's Knot only for Charles to fight his way out of it and lock in this great Gory Special (where he has to slowly bring his hands together) before dropping down with it into a pin. I wouldn't call this the most primal match or the quickest path between two points but these guys were so good and they made this work so well for what it was.

ER: The ugliest default babyface fighting dirty through getting punched in the forehead and thrown into the third row by the devil. Satan himself throwing short punches aimed to open up an ugly man's forehead and biting him. I love situations where Charles became the tecnico. He is good at working through tecnico stages of a three fall match, peaking the reactions in the tercera and getting bigger reactions with consecutive quebradoras while the crowd loudly hates Satanico for breaking holds with biting at men's thighs. The devil fights dirty when the devil's beautiful head of hair is at stake. Satanico is a great rudo because he also wrestlers through submissions like the tecnico, pulling each limb with celebratory swipes like he's an Olympic runner raising both arms through the finish line. It makes Charles' win, through a biased ref and the persistent devil himself, even more of an ugly man tecnico triumph. I thought the execution on Charles' tercera-winning Gory Special was so good for this specific match. A fought for Gary, Charles' hands clasped, drawing out the inescapable backslide. 

It didn't get as violent as I expected it would, for a match I knew nothing about. When you start with Satanico biting and punching at a cut you expect escalation and that violent escalation never comes. We also don't get the actual haircutting. Satanico knew that he looked like a totally different badass when he had his head shaved and I wanted to see what that looked like at 50.  

Batista/Chris Jericho/Chris Benoit vs. Triple H/Ric Flair/Edge WWE 4/8/05

MD: New Richard Land Handheld from Australia right after Wrestlemania 21. Some of those names should worry you for a 50 minute clip, maybe, but this is house show bullshit and that's the best bullshit there is. Plus it's about ten minutes of entrances and pre-match talking and ten minutes of them breaking down the ring. I thought I was going to be taking one for the team here but I had fun with this. The pre-match yapping was ridiculous with Triple H going on about how terrible Australia was and how in America they had an army that could kick their asses, the Salvation Army. Basically the most definitional Triple H stuff imaginable. Batista's retort was short and sweet (he had just won the title), and the crowd was hot for all of this really.

All of the early exchanges were fun. Benoit and Edge started. Benoit chopped Edge out of the corner. Edge went for a tag. Both Triple H and Flair dropped down to avoid it. Jericho came in and Batista and Benoit cheerlead the crowd in a Y2J chant. Flair came in, had a chop off with Jericho so the fans could chant woo and then walked into the babyface corner to eat a bunch of punches and take the first flop (of many) of the night. Jericho grabbed a sign and paraded around with it. Batista came in. Flair eyepoked him and chopped him. Batista no sold it. Flair begged off. Batista waggled his finger. Flair took his second back body drop. Triple H came in. The crowd went up for the idea of them going at it. Flair wooed at Batista from the corner repeatedly. Batista posed and the crowd went nuts. Triple H won on a shoulder block exchange and posed. They milked a test of strength for a while before doing it. Triple H kicked Batista, drove him down. Batista fought back up and clotheslined Triple H over the top and the crowd loved every second of all of this. Truly entertaining house show BS, what much, much more of wrestling should be and what a lot of the times it isn't in a world where these barely exist anymore.

Again, this had a ton of time and they worked double heat on it. Jericho was drawn into the heel corner and when he came back and made a hot tag, Benoit came in hot for a bit only to miss the diving headbutt. Eventually, Triple H had Benoit down in the corner but got distracted by Batista and leaped right into a foot, wherein he spent an entire minute (not a second less) standing there looking at the lights dazed before flopping. Only on a house show. I'm actually not sure that spot hit as well as it could have but points for committing to the bit certainly. That let Batista make it in finally, let everything break down, and let Edge eat the power bomb (thumbs down beforehand) to end the match. I don't know if I would have seen this same match around the loop but to see it one time was honestly a lot of fun. Just a totally different world that barely exists anymore. And we're talking 2005, not 1985 here.

ER: We've been doing - and Matt's been running entirely - Found Footage Friday for over a decade now. It's probably the most valuable thing we've done because it preserves at least 1-3 different takes on footage that none of us as fans had ever seen before. In many cases, we've written about matches that can get newly added into a Greatest Matches discussion, 40 years later. New narratives, new looks, new opportunities to have views changed. It's an incredible resource, constantly growing. This week alone we have a new apuestas match, new Babe Face...and now a new 30 minute match with SC stalwarts like HHH and Edge and Chris Benoit. 

People love our HHH writing, and this is the match for those people. This is an essential HHH match for HHH fans, because not only did all 30 minutes feel completely laid out by HHH, but all six men wrestle like HHH from different eras of his career. This is a match agented, produced, and then wrestled by six HHHs. Jericho wrestles like Terra Ryzing, Batista wrestles like HHH did when he came back gassed up after the quad tear, Benoit sells like HHH in a way that you know it won't lead anywhere, Flair is slowed down so he wrestles like HHH during that long era of bloated HHH aping Flair spots, Edge wrestles like the worst version of 1998 bad Opponents' Momentum offense HHH, and HHH wrestles like some unholy house show HHH amalgam that includes a long comedy spot that he doesn't know how to make resonate but he 100% would have gotten anyone else fired over.

This was a HHH match in every way, and it was good. There is so much wrestling I've never watched and so much wrestling I never will watch but I love Matt, and Matt got me to watch a 30 minute HHH/HHH/HHH vs. HHH/HHH/HHH in Australia, because HHH - with his meaty nose and heavy brow beadying his eyes - is like Bruno at MSG to Australians.  

Seeing Flair work the brunt of a long house show match was surprisingly fun. HHH could never connect his in-ring comedy to a crowd like this, and we get a literal example of that during what should have been the crowd noise peak. Flair's punches looked fantastic throughout, and even though he enters the match in control he's soon taking a back body drop and it leads to a fantastic Flair spot, where he rolls up in the babyface corner, eats a headbutt from Benoit and a punch from Batista, hops around like he's getting back into the fight, then flops. Flair takes another back body drop when Batista tags in, classically begging off before poking him in the eyes, but none of his chops have any affect and he's soon flopping and back dropping and leaving down the aisle. It's the kind of ass showing that HHH admires about Flair, but could never bring himself to actually look weak enough for the extended periods that make the stooging work, meaning it always came off like Stooging While Still in Control and never worked. After Benoit gets his hand smashed with a chair (nasty business smashing it against a ringpost) and gets cut off, the long heat segment builds to Benoit's hot tag, but the entire tag is iced out by HHH doing a full minute of Working On Material that sounds great on paper but gets no reaction live. 

HHH leaps off the middle buckle into Benoit's up-stretched boot and stands there on his feet, selling and swaying, for exactly one minute. You can picture Larry Sweeney doing this spot and burning the house down, knowing the exact moment to grind an entire match to a halt for one self-aggrandizing spot, and how much HHH would fucking BURY anyone else who did that spot, regardless of how well it got over. To see HHH pull out a 2006 Chikara spot on a house show and get no reaction for it is the wrestling equivalent to a gay bashing Republican getting caught in a rest stop bathroom, all secret unfulfilled urges and embarrassing missteps. It's as clear as day that HHH would brand anyone else who tried this much of a comedy overreach a mark who isn't serious about the business that he's devoted his life to. Six different HHHs in one match, and the real HHH is the one desperate to show his chops as a comedy worker that didn't understand punchlines

Great match. The kind of match you can put on after a Gene Snitsky/Shelton Benjamin title match.

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Found Footage Friday: BRAZOS~! CASAS~! COTA~! WAGNER~! SATANICO~! GARZA~! PANTERA~! CARAS~! FIERA~!

Bronco/Máscara Mágica/Pantera vs. Astro Rey Jr./Guerrero De La Muerte/Mocho Cota CMLL 2/23/96

MD: Roy's uploaded a bunch recently and we'll hit some of it. I'm not going to say no to new Mocho Cota, even 1996 Mocho Cota. He's a step slow, but what he does with that step is still great. He'll bump to the floor off a dropkick and then careen towards a little kid, halting at the last moment and menacing him with his missing fingers. What a guy. He also fed into rudo miscommunication as you'd imagine, so they kept things brisk, moving, and fun. According to Rob, this was a couple of weeks before Pantera jumped to AAA. He was matched up with Guerrero here early and looked good the whole way through, especially down the stretch where he got to stand tall at the end with the last pairing, post-dives, hit a great dive of his own, and then come back in to win the thing, which is honestly not a structure you usually see. He also drove the comeback, so he was certainly being featured. Mascara Magica was paired with Cota and they did ok, even if you got the sense that maybe he was still trying to figure it out a bit. You take Pantera and Cota out of this one and it wouldn't be as engaging (even if they did wildly different things) but as is, I enjoyed it.

Los Brazos vs. Negro Casas/Dr Wagner Jr./Rambo CMLL 3/15/96

MD: Apparently Brazo de Plata and Negro Casas really wanted to work with each other on this night, because they put on one hell of a show. Porky's fist was laser focused to Casas' face and it was great. Just the most brutal, mean-spirited, single-minded punches you'll see, no matter if Casas was standing, on the ground, in the ropes. And of course, Casas would just slide back into the ring at full speed only to get walloped again. They had an early exchange too where Casas did a reverse leg sweep and then Porky did the same in return. Great stuff. Porky had his shoulders bandaged and that made him a target overall. They primera had a great bit where the rudos, two at a time, tossed one Brazo after the next off the top rope. Then they tried Porky with all three and got squashed and pinned. Perfect comic build and timing. The segunda had them really hone in on Porky's shoulder, double teaming him and forcing hum to the floor. The remaining Brazos held their own for a bit, but Rambo pulled out an object and bloodied El Brazo and it became an inconclusive mauling. This was great while it lasted though.

ER: You go into this excited to see whatever happens between Super Porky and Negro Casas and then all of the Porky/Casas interactions turn out to be even better than you expected. The whole thing is great but everything that Porky and Casas do - especially to each other - is better than you expect and that means it's all time great. There is one especially great exchange between them that is like extravagant lucha morphing into shootstyle. No, this isn't UWFi, but damn when Porky gets swept and ankle picks Casas on his way down I flipped. Porky aimed carefully guided punches at Casas's face a dozen different times and Casas kept falling for them in bigger and bigger ways. Porky would knock Casas down and lean his weight on him and throw punches from half mount. It all builds to one of the most incredible ways to end a caida, when the rudos press slam El Brazo and Oro off the top turnbuckle. Two men handled them, but all hands were required on deck to press Porky. They all backed him into the corner and Porky started throwing potato shots at everyone, flat footed lefts and rights. Casas gets hit so square that he banana peels all the way to the opposite corner. When all three rudos finally get underneath Porky to slam him, they wind up crushed underneath. 

The segunda shows Porky as one of wrestling's great Targets. Rambo and Casas target his taped up shoulder. Injured Porky is one of my favorite salesmen in wrestling, his movements feel so suddenly real but delivered by the incomparable physique of Porky. He has one of the most sympathetic faces in wrestling (and here he doesn't even cry!) and the way he plops on his butt and kicks his legs while Negro and Rambo and stomping and kicking him is like a giant baby getting stomped out. 

Rambo is always great in matches like this. He's great during bumping for tecnicos (loved him hopping on his back across the ring after a Brazo de Oro quebradora) and then becomes the most violent rudo during the segunda. His wrapped fist shot to Oro was so good it held up in slo motion, and when he gigs El Brazo he really gets the blood flowing. Rambo knows several ways to open a cut, slamming Brazo's face into his boot in the corner as blood gets all over it, then starts kneeing him directly in the cut repeatedly. I wish the DQ had happened in the tercera so we got the full set of falls, but this was great stuff.   

Dos Caras/Héctor Garza/La Fiera vs. Bestia Salvaje/Dr Wagner Jr./Satánico CMLL 4/3/96

MD: The primera here was a super fun two minutes. First Caras and Fiera mowed through Bestia and Satanico with double teams, including a Hart Attack of sorts on Satanico. Then Wagner got the better of them with a flying double clothesline and Garza flew around for him before hitting a clutch roll up. From there, they did one of those multiman submissions where the third guy kneels on the shoulders of the person/people being stretched. You almost never see the tecnicos doing that and Garza paid for his hubris with Wagner pulling him off so he took a nasty bump into the ropes and then got posted, but the tecnicos still took the caida. 

The segunda started with in and out exchanges, with Wagner getting the best of Fiera and then everyone basing for Garza (who had to make frequent comebacks admittedly). They went around with it until Wagner ended up dangling from the ropes on a great bump/stooge spot, before the rudos finally took over. Wagner finished Garza off with both a superplex and a top rope splash, one after the other, doing it all himself (well, Satanico held Garza down at the end, not that it was needed). The beatdown that followed was short and nasty, with Satanico driving his foot into Garza's groin as the other rudos held him and chewing on his fingers. He meandered too close into the tecnico corner and they turned it around for some final exchanges, some rudo miscommunication, and then a triumphant tecnico victory including Wagner walking around forever with Caras on his shoulder holding an armbar before they finally rolled forward. As fun as you'd expect with guys this talented. 

ER: This had a great ramshackle feel to it. Tight rudo team who all had different ways of bumping cool in a large flat CMLL ring. It's a powerhouse rudo team with three workers who were all cool in different ways in 1996. Wagner got to show off his power, Bestia got to show off his speed and his grace while being built like Vincent Pastoricito, Satanico got to show off his cunning and sadistic leadership. But where they're at their best, is coming together to assault sweet young Héctor Garza. I don't know why Garza's magic didn't work in the United States. You watch his work in Mexico before his US run and his tecnico connection to crowds is so obvious, and it's just not there in WCW or WWF. His babyface presence and charisma mostly vanished on US TV. 

He was brought in to both WWF and WCW with plans on making him one of the pushed ones among his niche, but both bailed on him quickly. In WWF he was a two month foreign babyface firebrand, a busted experiment that stumbled so the later-that-year Taka Michinoku foreign babyface firebrand push. He was given the big solo in all the early WCW trios matches but never connected as even a top 5 luchador babyface with any WCW crowds. The charisma always instantly returned in Mexico and it's evident here. Any time the rudos focus on Garza the match becomes laser focused and Important. He is a tecnico muse to each rudo and inspires them to increased punishment. Satanico and Wagner seem like they take joy in assaulting Garza and I think Garza connects the way he does with Mexico crowds because some felt that sadistic joy and either felt he deserved it for being too pretty while other felt he was too pretty to deserve it. Wagner's top rope superplex and Superfly splash on on him was a real highlight, some real Welcome to the Big Leagues moment, and Garza in Mexico was still great at being the victim of those moments several years into his career. 

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Found Footage Friday: PIPER~! VALENTINE~! SATANICO~! GARZA~! VILLANO~! ARANDU~! VULCANO~!

Roddy Piper vs. Greg Valentine JCP 8/4/83

MD: Elliott has been putting together great primer threads on twitter with match recommendations and came across this while looking for Piper. It's obviously from JCP TV but it wasn't on any of our radars. Just a great piece of business during a chaotic time centered around the US title. Valentine had it. He had damaged Piper's ear. Piper wanted revenge. Fellow heels Slater and Orton wanted it too. The episode was set up with Piper having the match but not expected to make it to the show, so they were going to give it to Slater instead. Piper did show up however and he came in hot.

They covered a lot in ten minutes here. The early stuff was so chippy and uncooperative. Piper wanted revenge but he also wanted the belt. An early sunset flip seemed so uncooperative that it almost turned into a flipping power bomb (and this is a good thing). Piper lit Valentine up with great punches too and a killer posting and the wild abandon kneelift where his limbs went flying as well. He kept going in too hot though and Valentine was able to take advantage. A lot of that was with escalating elbow drops but Valentine had this great gutbuster that hit almost sideways. Valentine could never hold Piper down for long and fired back and opened Valentine up, only to get tossed out of the ring on a fluke. That let Slater rush in and beat on Valentine to draw a DQ Piper didn't want. When Piper tried to fight him off, Orton came out as well. As best as I can tell, this never let to a tag match with the rivals on one side, which seems like a shame. Just great JCP TV.

PAS: This totally ruled, one of the great match ups in wrestling history and such a mitzvah Elliot uncovered another version of it. It is more of a TV match then the arena and Starcade matches we have, so it was trying to do a different thing, but the interactions were first rate, with Pipers handspeed and activity contrasting with the power of Valentine's strikes. It really feels like a boxer vs. a puncher. There is a an incredible section where Valentine bull rushes Piper into the corner and Piper just uses head movement to avoid and parry all of Valentine's shots and fire back. Whenever Valentine landed you could feel Piper's body shudder and react, Valentine was one of the great power punchers in wrestling history, everything he landed felt organ shifting. Finish was a good bit of business, although less satisfying then a clean finish would be. Really wish we had gotten the Parajas Piper and Valentine vs. Orton and Slater match this seemed to be setting up 

ER: This is just the best. You spend 10 minutes of your night watching this and you fully understand why so many people in the south rejected the wrestling product of the north. This is a bell to bell fight and then somehow ends with a different, just as good fight. I've been watching a lot of 1997 Piper and Valentine (although never against each other in 97, sadly) and I love them. It's crazy how good they both were in their mid 40s. But 1997 is not 1983. Nowhere close. It's like how I enjoy watching current Negro Casas and always will, but then you watch any 80s or 90s Negro Casas and go "oh, yeah. Right. He was this." Just because I love old man wrestling an inordinate amount, I don't know if anything else could ever compare to this era of JCP. No shit people watching JCP wouldn't be enthralled by Tony Garea or Swede Hansen or Sal Bellomo. 

It's all hammering Valentine punches or straight rights to the head. I forget how quick he was, how spry. Seeing a Valentine elbowdrop off the middle rope performed with a luchador's speed and grace feels almost anachronistic, my eyes having seen so much more Old Valentine than Young Stud Valentine. How wild is it that Piper's rabbit punches hit just as hard as Valentine's famously heavy fists. Look at that camera shot from the floor when Piper is punching to comeback, Valentine's head mostly obscured by the camera being aimed up at the lights of Carolina Civic Center. It's perfect. Piper's jittery style of selling damage is so electric when he's in with a real fighter like Valentine. They're perfect for each other. The way he stutters and moves his head when he starts fighting back and the way Valentine glances his blows while walking into Piper's fire. Piper's airplane spin was a real impressive surprise, and I love how it quickly turned on him when Valentine held the ropes and forced a momentum shift. Slater and Orton run in and act just as violently as Piper and Valentine and at this point I expect Bugsy McGraw matches to also look super violent. Orton wrecks these men with cowboy boot stomps and Dick Slater is like pissed off Tenryu. It's all so beautiful. 

Arandu/Vulcano vs. Villano III/Panterita del Ring

MD: This was something. We come in with Arandu and Vulcano with the advantage. Vulcano was mostly matched up with Villano and they were working the mask. Just a big beatdown. Villano was able to sidestep and take over but before they could press the advantage, Vulcano lost his head and pulled the loosened mask off to draw the primera DQ. Immediately thereafter, after Villano had put his mask back on, Vulcano charged back in and this time both took it off and ripped it up. Villano rolled to the floor and some kid ran up and immediately put his shirt over Villano's head so that he could be helped to the back. Just a super wholesome moment that you'd think you'd see more in lucha but that I haven't come across much if at all. 

From there, the rudos pressed the numbers game, hanging Panterita up and laying it in until Villano could come in with another mask to break things up and get revenge. Get this, though, he was punching them with the white shirt around his hand! Super iconic moment. Apparently he either fouls or Vulcano feigns a foul as they have Arandu hung up (for revenge!) so the rudos get the segunda. In between falls Villano ups Vulcano up in the stands and things settle back in for a loose and chaotic tercera of them going back and forth until Villano crashes into the ref on purpose and then pretends Vulcano had fouled him. Such beautiful bullshit in this one. The best.

ER: 2/3 of this match is somebody being pinned in the corner or held in the tree of woe while being punched and kicked and yelled at. I'm sure some would read that sentence as a criticism but I'm also sure that none of those people are reading that sentence here. Arandu is a south Texas Mocho Cota, with less shtick but somehow better hair. Vulcano does an incredible thing where he's so focused on keeping V3 in a  modified abdominal stretch that he just ignores Panterita Del Ring's strikes as he's trying to break the hold. Vulcano is laser focused on Villano and Panterita is just going to have to throw better elbows if they are to be acknowledged. 

I was enjoying this and would have honestly enjoyed just a light punching and choking and fake ball shots kind of match...but nobody could have seen one of the greatest REAL moments in pro wrestling history happening. Who could have been prepared? Now I'm sure this has happened before, on camera, and I'm sure the matches that it happened in are all common knowledge, and I'm sure I have written about this kind of thing happening before but my memory is so bad that the only thing I remember about wrestling anymore is that the date 6/3/94 is significant for some reason. Old language. The moment happens when Vulcano rips and tugs Villano's mask off and Villano rolls to the floor covering his face. As he hits the floor, a sweet chubby kid is seen literally giving Villano III the shirt off his back so that he could protect his identity! A reverse Mean Joe Greene! What a sweet boy, who sprang immediately into action the moment he saw a hero unmasked. Villano returning, masked, from the back with the white t-shirt still in hand, wrapping his fist in it and throwing blows? Incredible. No American child would have given their wrestling hero the shirt off their back. The closest anyone in the states came to this was when some 10 year old in Revere handed a frying pan to John Kronus.  

Satanico vs. Hector Garza CMLL 1/6/95

MD: We had 9 minutes of this title match previously. This gives us the entire 20 and you can really get a sense of the narrative at play. One thing that makes Satanico stand out even more is that he could implement narratives that would be more conventional elsewhere, even in places like title matches where you usually get things along different lines. Here, in the primera, he controlled Garza on the mat, Garza was able to get back into it once things got moving, and then Satanico, realizing that, hit a cheapshot and started to lay things in. Garza was able to use his speed to turn it back around, dodge a shot in the corner, and lock in the torture rack. Just a nice and neat story executed well and engaging to the crowd.

The segunda is where things turned a bit. Satanico came out with a handshake attempt but Garza would have none of it, taking him down and starting on the leg. Satanico spent the entirety of the segunda as Honky Tonk Man, basically, already down a fall but playing the vulnerable champion. This lasted a few minutes until Satanico was able to shrug Garza out of the ring by countering a camel clutch. He pressed that advantage with lift up/drop downs until he could put on Satan's knot.

For the tercera, it started as back and forth nearfalls, before Satanico got a mini beatdown in until Garza was able to toss him out and hit a dive. Finish was very clever as Garza locked in a back bridge. Satanico ensured that he himself was pinned, a sacrifice, to also ensure that Garza's arms were trapped down. Just an absolute confident leap of faith in his own ability to ensure mutual destruction knowing that in the event of a draw, he would keep the title. I can't think of almost any other time in wrestling I saw a heel pull off that trick to keep his title. Very clever stuff.

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Found Footage Friday: MONTERREY~! CARAS~! ARANDU~! HERODES~! VOLADOR~! BRAZOS~! SATANICO~! PIRATA~!

Cien Caras/Javier Cruz/Arandu vs Herodes/Volador/Angel Azteca (Monterrey 1991)

MD: I started writing about lucha here in 2014, primarily because I couldn't make sense of the DVDVR 80s set. For any number of reasons, I'm glad I did. Probably top on that list? I can just dive into a match like this and ride it like a wave. What an enjoyable twenty+ minutes here. I'm mostly familiar with Herodes from the 80s set and his Japan excursions, but here he was the beloved Chacho, basically babyface Norman the Lunatic dressing up in fun costumes, everything but a teddy bear. Basically, he was a couple of comedy spots away from being early 2010s Porky in CMLL, that role on a tecnico side. This was a little too heated for that, which is a good thing of course. Cien Caras was paried with him and the rudos swarmed from the get go, including tearing off his doctor's costume.

Things settled back down quickly into a really solid primera though. I'm confident in saying that Arandu is a lost rudo base. He was there for everything Angel Azteca and Volador had for him over two exchanges, could shut them down well with strikes, and almost always took a crazy handstand bump over the top to the floor. Plus he had the crazy hair and was just larger than life, at least in a provincial sort of way. He's come out as the real star of the Monterrey footage. Cruz had a good bit with Volador where he acted like a Cruiserweight Bully, jamming all of his stuff until he got monkeyflipped three times. And Caras and Herodes were fine with their shtick. They didn't do much but they didn't have to as the crowd was up for it.

The segunda had a lot of Caras directing traffic for a rudo beatdown, and he was good at that. Not Satanico level but still probably top tier. The real good stuff was in between the segunda and tercera where Arandu lawndarted Azteca into the chairs as people threw trash at him and Caras beat Herodes around the ringside area. The comeback was spirited but the match got thrown out due to constant triple teaming/brutality by the rudos shortly thereafter and things devolved to challenges. I get that lucha can be a lot of things, but I'm way more sympathetic to this form of it than any of the others.

Los Brazos vs Pirata Morgan/El Satanico/Justiciero (Monterrey 1991)

MD: This was much more of a house show Brazos match than I was expecting considering Morgan and Satanico were in there. I thought we'd be getting more of a crazy brawl but I really did enjoy this. The primary pairing was Porky and Morgan, and the sort of matches I was thinking of, you don't really get a primary pairing like that, just violent chaos. Here, the beatdown was pretty gnarly, with Morgan and co. cutting through Brazo and Oro before leaving Porky alone to get beat upon, but it was alway sa little funn too. For instance, at the end of the fall, they tossed Porky into the post on the outside and he bumped into the lap of someone in the first row. Great balance between violence and mirth.

The rudos took the first two falls here, but at the start of the primera and for most of the segunda until the finish, it really was the Brazos comedy hour. Morgan tried to avoid Porky early, but ended tossed around and squished off the apron. All of the rudos had very giving performances here (easier when you're winning two falls in a row I assume). Satanico was more of a secondary player but perfect as always when, for instance, he was getting his hand bitten by Porky on a devious handshake attempt. And everyone hit everything clean, of course. Great punches by both Morgan and El Brazo. Very fun rudo miscommunication down the stretch. Justiciero wasn't going to stand out as much in a match with both Morgan and Satanico but he was fine as a cog in the machine. I would have liked it if they ramped up the violence a bit and got bloody, sure but for the setting, this was entirely enjoyable for what it was.

Marlin/Sergio Romo Jr vs Marabunta/Enjambre (Monterrey 1991)

MD: Full disclosure here: I was sort of dreading the almost 27 minute length of this coming in relative to the matches above, but it was actually a lot of fun. Since I'm feeling nostalgic, one of the best things about getting into lucha when I did was that CMLL was livestreaming both Friday and Monday shows. The Monday shows were from Arena Coliseo and had their own feel, almost always with Rey Apocalipsis and Toro Bill, Jr. in a tag match on the undercard. They were always very entertaining for their role, and I got that same feeling from Marabunta and Enjambre (Hijo de Espectro) here. Early on Marlin was getting Marabunta into holds for their first exchange, and Enjambre kept coming in to interfere, until Marlin chased him off. Good pesky rudo stuff, sure, but he came back from deep in the crowd with someone's cowboy hat on. Just amazing.

There was a ton of stooging in the primera, as you'd expect. I never got much of a sense of Romo or Marlin here, except for that they were game and capable. The finish in the primera was a dropkick doomsday device that was set up very organically. It was a great beatdown though, tying Romo's leg up in a chair, lawn darting Marlin, smacking faces into the side of the ring, hanging people upside down and kicking them on the way down, just swarming bug brutality from Marabunta and Enjambre. They had a great tandem submission of a seated satan's knot combined with jarring knee shots to the back of the skull. We miss the very start of the comeback (just seconds really) but it's all heated with the revenge spots you'd want and building to a dive train. Marabunta and Enjambre were the sort of guys you'd want to see low on the card week in and week out.

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Found Footage Friday: AOYAGI~! KOBAYASHI~! TARZAN~! SATANICO~! CHARRO II~!

Satanico vs El Charro II CMLL 10/19/03

This is a 13 minute match (2/3 falls), with an overzealous ref who ends two falls in dubious ways, finish that was clunky to say the least, and with a game tecnico who has certain issues of which I'll get to later, but it's still worth watching because the first half is an all time Satanico mauling and that's saying something. I don't know if Charro breaks his nose or what. The blood from the forehead after the mask tearing doesn't seem substantial but the center of his face is covered, and Satanico gives no mercy at all. The best part of this has him just repeatedly punching a seated Charro's head back into a chair over and over again. The primera ends as he ties the mask up and the ref DQs him. The instant reply between falls is literally just him tying the match to the ropes in slow motion. At one point in here the blood was so extensive, you had to wonder how Charro would even be able to see to come back.

The beating continues into the segunda until Satanico misses a corner charge. It's time for Charro's big comeback, with Satanico already down a fall. He takes Satanico's legs out with a double leg and you're expecting a submission. Instead he hits the ropes and I was picturing some big, impactful crushing revenge shot like a senton. Instead? Charro does the worm and hits an elbow drop. That's the match totally going off the rails. It still sort of works because there's an element of danger in just whether Satanico might get humiliated and lose two falls in this manner, but ultimately, instead, the ref DQs Charro for some reason I can't fathom and we get a back and forth tercera where Charro takes Satanico over in a clumsy sort of crucifix pin for what felt to me like an upset. Satanico just dismantling a guy with a white mask is one of the best things in lucha though and this match had plenty of that.

Masashi Aoyagi vs Kuniaki Kobayashi NJPW 6/9/92

MD: This was about what I wanted to be, an absolute war with a few narrative checkpoints to keep it honest and an inconclusive finish based on the idea that they weren't done fighting until the moment that they finally were. Kobayashi ambushed with a forearm and a DDT right at the start and the next few minutes were about Aoyagi working from underneath and getting cut off and brutalized. That included a capture suplex and some nasty, nasty headbutts in the corner. When he came back, it was with all of the wrath and violence that you'd expect, but a bit of interference he had to swipe at from the outside meant that Kobayashi could get back in it. From there, they just went at each other until the ref seemed to want to call a stoppage. It didn't work. It didn't even come close to working until by the end they were just throwing shots and DDTing each other and it was like the tide going back out to sea as they laid there and finally decided it was enough. Dawn had come. It was time to pick up the pieces, patch up the wounds, and prepare to do it all again the next night.

Masashi Aoyagi vs Tarzan Goto Shin-FMW 9/29/97-EPIC

MD: Well, this was nuts. Obviously, we're paying tribute to Aoyagi and Goto who both died fairly recently, and if you want to see them just put everything out there, this is one to watch. I have no idea why Goto came out to Ridin' High by Rosemary Butler but it was such a weird dissonance as he came down a ring full of barbed wire covered tables and it was all the more so post-match with blood and vicera everywhere. I can't imagine anyone was going to argue with him though.

This starts with a few minutes of Goto plastering Aoyagi on the floor with a chair and other objects, really bloodying that white gi up. The comeback, when it comes back in the ring, is five minutes of Aoyagi axe-kicking, clubbing, and biting Goto. It's back and forth from there, though with fairly clear, wire and table related transitions. It's bad enough that Aoyagi's broke a wire-laden table with Goto's back but then he followed it up with those absolutely brutal kicks; that sort of thing. Ultimately, Goto catches him on a spin wheel kick and then plants him over and over with killshots, Aoyagi kicking out time after time. When he finally finishes the job it's with something no one in the world would kick out off. Just a violent, bloody spectacle; you'll be left with the the grisly afterimages burnt into your eyes and with the dulcet power pop of Riding High stuck in your head.

PAS: This was grody and awesome, both of these guys are such awesome 90s wrestling characters. Goto with his greasy hair and mangled forehead and Aoyagi with his Johnny Unitas haircut and Gi. They just tear after each other, with Goto turning the white Gi red with chairs and a broken bottle, and Aoyagi flinging his hard kicks to the head and body and hurling the barbed wire boards. Goto was just brutalizing Aoyagi near the end, and the finish was gnarly. FMW really had a hell of special roster, with Onita and guys like this.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE AOYAGI

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Found Footage Friday: REY JR.~! PANTHER~! GILBERT~! FIRE~! INFERNALES~! LA PARKA~!

Eddie Gilbert vs. Huracan Castillo WWC 8/6/94

MD: This was limited by the gimmick, obviously, but you watch it to see the spectacle of it and how Gilbert chose to work it and milk moments. For one, before they got into the ring he took a head into the post and immediately bladed. That way, if nothing else, there would be color. There were flammable pieces of material in fixed intervals just outside the ropes and visually, things were most spectacular when the wind was blowing and the fire seemed to be reaching into the ring. Much of the match was based on Castillo trying to work Gilbert into those ropes and it portrayed that sense you get in exploding cage or barbed wire matches that the heel simply cannot escape. For most of the match, the payoff was Gilbert's hand getting whacked into the fire. Gilbert was able to get a little bit of control and get some revenge, but after Castillo's comeback (off of a Hotshot of all things), Gilbert took some shots to the face into the fire, bumping around and recoiling like crazy for it. The overall effect was diminished by the end since the fire had gone down significantly, but the finish revolved around Gilbert getting some barbed wire and choking Castillo with it, moving things forward to the next match in a very Memphis manner.

PAS: I thought this was awesome, it would have ruled if it was just a bloody Memphis punch out, but add the spectacle of the flames into, what a treat. Tremendous Gilbert performance, his punches looked great, got great early color, and did a wonderful job of making the fire bumps look horrific. Castillo was a fine regional babyface, and got amped up, but this was an Eddie show. I am surprised they used powder as the transition weapon, rather then the Gilbert fireball, but I dug Eddie using the barbed wire to set up the rematch, clever booking, and I need to search out the barbed wire match between these two.

Winners/Rey Mysterio, Jr./La Parka/Octagon vs. Blue Panther/Los Payasos AAA 9/2/95

MD: Maybe the biggest appeal here is just seeing Blue Panther hang out with a bunch of clowns. Really straightforward structure on this one. Exchanges in the primera leading to a tecnico pin, beatdown in the segunda, comeback in the tercera leading to some of the flashier spots, the dives, and the finish. A lot of the details were very good though. I loved the Panther vs Parka exchange in the primera. That felt like a fairly unique match up and they had fun with it on the mat. Coco Azul based really well for Rey too. I was less into what Winners and Amarillo were up to. Payasos and Panther worked well on the beatdown including some nice tandem offense and submissions. The comeback was great as Rey just went through everyone's leg to create chaos for La Parka to dance around. It was exactly what it should have been and the fans loved it. In general, it was a lot of fun to see the other tecnicos keep Parka chants going throughout the match. Rey's backflip dive over the top with a La Parka boost was memorable, but just the way he'd get up on a floating armdrag was endlessly impressive for the time and even now. Finish involved Los Payasos beating down Octagon after a dive and then starting to fight with the crowd, allowing Rey to slip in for a last second countout win. This was pretty much as enjoyable as you'd expect.

Infernales (Satanico/Pirata Morgan/MS-1) vs. Hector Garza/Lizmark/El Dandy CMLL 9/2/95

MD: Fun bit early on here where Satanico and Pirata had Garza held hostage in their corner and Lizmark and Dandy had MS-1 in theirs and it was a bit of a standoff. You're not going to win fighting Los Infernales on their own terms, however, so they eased into the beatdown almost immediately thereafter. No one can direct traffic quite like Santico and lucha beatdowns don't get better than Infernales ones. The comeback moment was just ok, Lizmark coming in to get a shot in, but he was really over with the kids on this night, so it's hard to complain. It was followed by Dandy throwing amazing punches at everyone, including an all time shot to Pirata on the floor. There weren't a lot of exchanges in this one, Satanico putting Garza through the paces to start and then later on a really good Dandy and Morgan one but given who was in there, it all flowed well and did what it was meant to.

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New Footage Friday: CMLL Juicio Final 12/2/95

Parts of this show have flickered on and off on the internet over the years, but we get the three big matches all in one place so we can write about them!

El Dandy/La Fiera vs. Blue Panther/Fuerza Guerrera 

PAS: My dream version of this match has Panther and Dandy getting a long chance to work the mat, and then building to a climax. This wasn't that, much more a traditional rudo vs. technico brawl, with the rudos bloodying Dandy and the technicos making fiery comebacks. These are four all-timers, so that kind of traditional lucha brawl is going to be elevated when it's El Dandy throwing the big shots. Pretty intense match from the start, so we don't get much shtick from Fuerza, although there is a great moment of him celebrating a spin kick, only to get enzigiried while he is raising his hands in glory. Fiera hits his beautiful over the top tope, Panther and Fuerza get their mask ripped and we end up in a technico triumph. Very enjoyable stuff, although maybe not the classic it looks like on paper.

MD:  This was technically for the Mexican National Tag Team Titles and was supposed to be Juvi with his dad but they had a falling out and it became this instead. No one's going to complain about Panther being in there. After some immediate, still wearing ring jackets, tecnico fire, this got to the beatdown quickly with Fiera accidentally hitting the spin kick on Dandy and then getting reversed right into Panther's feet in a great spot. Dandy bled shortly thereafter with a shot into the post. Panther went right to biting the wound to set the mood (with Fuerza being Fuerza and fouling Fiera simultaneously, also setting the mood). They had some fun tandem offense, like an elevated faceplant and working together to toss Dandy off the top by his hair. The mid-90s Panther who hangs out with Fuerza and bites a guy in the head and poses and stooges freely (the big transition was Dandy ducking a shot and Panther running into Fiera's foot on the outside and selling it like he got his jaw dislocated) is one of my favorite versions of the guy; what range, right? The tecnico revenge had everything you'd want: the image of bloody Dandy standing over Panther and ripping his mask, Dandy's punches, Fiera's spin kick, one guy setting the other up for offense including a huge Dandy smack on the side of the ring, people fouling Fuerza, etc. before rolling into some really fun match up moments and spots for the finish.


El Hijo Del Santo vs. Negro Casas -EPIC

PAS: This has to be in contention for the best in-ring series in wrestling history, so when I get to see a new one it is a mitzvah. We get an entire first fall of matwork and it is brilliant stuff, lots of twisting and reversing leglocks and armlock, they do a really cool section based on a top wristlock, Santo has his signature headscissors counter and wins the first fall with a facebuster into a sick armlock for the tap. Absolutely top tier mat work, two perfect grapplers at the top of their game. Casas works the neck in the segunda with a pair of nasty neckbreakers and a seated torture rack for the win. Third fall remained in the ring, remained primarily a grappling battle, there was a ton of little cool moments, things that Negro Casas brings to a wrestling match. There is a point where Santo tries to snap mare Casas, 999 of a 1000 times that is a throw away transition move, but here Casas uses a wide base to block the snap mare twice before Santo is able to power him over. So cool, and an example of the high end brilliance of both guys. This was a less complete match then some of their other super classics, this was all scientific and wrestling based, this is one of the only Santo matches I can remember seeing with out any of his signature dives, and we never got into the violence that both guys can bring, but the tune they did play was perfect. 

MD: Straight title match between the two. Casas escalated things with an elbow drop out of nowhere and some strikes in the segunda to answer the end of the first fall but otherwise, this was relatively clean. Unsurprisingly, it was really good too. I loved all of the little bits of maneuvering for leg grapevines and reversals in the primera. Casas whipped these double arm flips throughout, one leading to the tercera's finish but another setting up a cool little reverse monkey flip early on. One of the best truths in wrestling is that you'll almost always see something new in a Casas match. Here, for me, it was him using his knee jammed hard into Santo's back to escape the bridging cross-footed (Mascaras) headscissors. Santo's seated arm driver into a armbar ended the primera and it's such an underrated move. You always kind of forget he has it until he uses it. They turned up the speed for the tercera and I could have maybe used one or two more near-falls, but the Casita not ending things was a shocking enough moment to make up for it. Post-match there were challenges, but nothing would come of that for another couple of years.


Bestia Salvaje vs. Satanico vs. Hector Garza

MD: We come in with Bestia taking a huge bump into the post. It's a matter of time after that, with Satanico beating him around the ring until he got a little bit of hope but missed a somersault senton and got tied up in the Knot. Garza vs Satanico was a nice little preview of the singles apuestas match to come. Satanico was sure to get all of his advantages off of Garza missing moves due to youthful exuberance. There was a nice hope spot int here where Garza kicked him out of the ring on a Knot attempt and then hit a dive, but he kept missing his follow-ups The third or fourth time Satanico ducks a move, he faked the foul as well and the place comes unglued as it the ref fell for it. Bestia vs Garza gives Hector a surprise nearfall to start, but he's quickly fouled leading to an extended bloody high stakes beatdown. Bestia bleeds even better on the comeback, with some scrapping preceding Garza getting in all of his big dives. This fell apart just a little towards the end with Garza looking hesitant or lost at times, but the crowd went up for the finish and ultimately the match did its job. Garza came out of it with a big win and looking like he had a shot to defeat Satanico two weeks later and save his hair, but maybe not a very big one. If nothing else, Bestia got a well deserved payday.

PAS: The Satanico parts of this match are nice little aperitifs for a bloody banquet of a main event. It was worked as a sprint, and a great one. Both guys are opened up and you would expect and this was a showcase for Bestia's world beating offense. He hits a tope which was more like a flying lariat to the floor and a senton splash which was Togoesque. Garze seems a bit green at this point, but had some really big moments of his own including his corkscrew plancha and a quebrada which totally brained Bestia. Maybe could have used a couple more minutes to milk drama a bit, but this was a heck of a showdown, and a great chance to see two under appreciated greats get a big showcase moment. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE RIVALS 

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QEPD Super Porky

Brazo de Plata/Brazo de Oro/El Brazo vs. Solomon Grundy/Chavo Guerrero/Popitekus CMLL 4/8/90

ER: It doesn't get more portly than this in lucha, and this match was filled with a ton of belly busting. The big draw here is Porky/Grundy and it delivers in every way you'd want it to. In a match with no dives we still wind up with a ton of big boy gold. Outside of a few nice armdrags we don't really get any Popitekus (but with his gorgeous hair he looks like the fattest possible Ramone), but we get a lot of Porky picking on Grundy, building to a huge sumo war between them to end the tercera. Grundy dwarfs Porky but Porky throws harder fists, throws an uppercut into Grundy's neckbeard, and then bumps him to the floor with a belly bump. There are a LOT of belly bumps in this match, and they're all great. 

I love Grundy's slow bumps to the floor, feels and looks like a glacier falling into the Antarctic. He falls to the floor, Porky hits a lariat off the apron (felt like it was supposed to be a plancha but Grundy moved), and then Porky splatted him with his running belly bounce. Later Grundy takes the absolute slowest Harley Race bump, and I love it. The match is filled with entertaining misdirection, a lot of Porky accidentally hitting splashes and avalanches on his bros and then blaming them for it. Porky even shoves Grundy backwards onto his brothers! There are some classic moments, like Porky being knocked from the apron onto Oro's shoulders, who dumps him butt first onto a front row fan! I also loved the big build to Grundy hitting an avalanche on all three Brazos, with Porky doing a hilarious bump where he runs most of the way across the ring before just taking a normal back bump. The final sumo showdown between Porky and Grundy was fantastic, with Brazo shoving a ref in between them to get Los Brazos DQd, the ref getting a full stretcher job post-match to sell the Porky/Grundy loose meat sandwich. This match might have the most belly bumps I have ever seen, so of course it comes with the highest possible recommendation. 

MD: Great build here as they really milked a potential Porky vs Grundy encounter all the way to the tecera, with a couple of false starts along the way. The first was best as they teased it only to have the other Brazos rush in, kicking off the transitional beatdown. It wasn't just all Porky either as Grundy showed some decent physical charisma in his bumping and in building the anticipation. And of course, yes, he'd eat Porky's clothesline to knock him out, catch Porky's clothesline off the apron and get crushed against the barricade for good measure. The funniest bit of this one was when Porky ended up in some guy's lap in the first row. That shows protecting people with control of your body right there. This ended with one of the most satisfying bits of ref flattening you'll encounter. It was hardly definitive but I doubt anyone cared about that given the effort they made to stretcher him out.

JR: I don’t know if this is a personal failing or an issue with the narrative overall but I feel like far fewer words have been written about rudo Brazo de Plata, so I’m glad we can touch on it here. I think it’s instructive for how gifted a performer Porky truly was. He has great timing and great cut offs and when he does his normal spots minus the flourishes that made them so well loved otherwise, they stand out as tremendously impactful. He is a performer that can use his body in so many ways, or rather, can use his body in one way but change enough about it to make it feel so different. As he rushes forward, with good but rarely seen punches and headbutts and body checks, Super Porky feels inevitable.

Of course, as the match goes on, specifically in the third fall, we get to see the rudo comedy that one would expect from Porky, where he is essentially the incompetent henchman deployed by his slightly more competent brothers. Nothing here is exclamatory per say, or groundbreaking, but at the same time there is value in being able to play the hits and do so without any major faults. This match is fine, more of a Brazos exhibition than anything to talk about on behalf of their opponents, but at the same time it is nice to see Porky show off different shades and viewpoints rather than the standard fare we talk about most often.

Brazo De Plata/Negro Casas/TAKA Michinoku vs. El Hijo Del Gladiador/Gran Markus Jr./Satanico CMLL 5/30/97

MD: Fun trios. This was sort of a sweet spot where Porky was still imposing, to the point where he was, of course, funny, but could make someone like Hijo de Gladiador beg off when he was taking liberties. Within a decade, that would be over and he'd be there just for laughs. Great laughs, certainly, but here he could serve more roles within a match. He could also make like Shawn Michaels posing in the ropes while his partners were in the ring, so it was a balance. And when it was time for him to come in, the fans buzzed in a way that they didn't for Casas or Satanico, for instance. The end of the primera was fun stuff with Casas hitting one big DDT only to get jammed on the second, setting up Porky to come in and accidentally knock him onto Markus only to teeter him back to a sitting and pinning position and then squashing Hijo de Gladiador on a sunset flip attempt. They got the pin while shaking hands like gentlemen. Not much else to say here except for that TAKA (more Taka here than TAKA) was paired well with Satanico both in the primera and in the closing exchange. Satanico was pretty giving against him and looked as great as always; his big interaction with Porky was slapping him in the corner only to get crushed by a series of headbutts out of it as the crowd popped big. The final tecnico comeback was picture perfect Porky use too, as Hijo del Gladiador was trapped behind him in the corner so every time he got whacked by Satanico and Markus he was crushing HdG. Not only does that never get old, but here it was effective and pro wrestling believable in switching the momentum for that final time.

ER: Wow. I actually had no idea a match existed that had Satanico tearing it up on the mat against Taka Michinoku (I trust we do NOT have their singles match a couple weeks after this?), and it's only one of several very fun things happening here. Porky is really treated as the biggest name in the match, and he worked the match as someone who relished the role. This was always building to a big Porky/Markus chubby boys showdown, but all the pairings here worked really well. Gladiador and Casas gave us some quick exchanges before Satanico and Taka came in and outquicked them, and I loved all the rudos scrambling away from Porky whenever he came in. Gladiador hit a questionable strike on Casas and Porky runs in and just plasters him into the corner. We get a lot of classic Porky comedy mixed in with actual strong ringwork, so we get him bumping his butt into Gladiador's face when getting punched in the corner, but we also get an amazing sequence where Satanico starts punching and slapping Porky over and over in the corner. and I'm expecting Porky to start his crying routine. Instead, he had enough and charges out of the corner with a half dozen wicked headbutts that backs Satanico all the way across the ring. Porky hits a big dive into Markus (Markus had landed two very stiff punches earlier during Irish whip exchanges and I couldn't wait for Porky to flatten him) and Taka finishes things with his nice missile dropkick to Satanico's chest, then plants Satanico with the Michinoku Driver. Loved the vibe throughout this whole match, great mix of classic lucha and comedy and stiff strikes. 

JR: I must confess that I haven’t watched a ton of this 90s lucha since the pandemic, and returning to it here is like putting on an old pair of comfortable shoes. Seeing prime Casas and Satanico and remembering the things they did every night was so gratifying. It made me love wrestling for a moment.

But Porky! A revelation every time. People talk about Tajiri being a silent film star with his body language, but I see Porky do sequences here, with a stylized hip attack and a rope running sequence and I can’t help but think of Charlie Chaplin films, in which he is toeing the line between genius and accident. Porky does that here; getting kicked in the gut, but the momentum causes his ass to hit someone in the face, or flattening his own partner so hard that he bounces back up into a cover of his own.

Really, this is sort of the platonic use of porky in a match like this. Casas does the heavy lifting and holds everything together long enough for Taka to shine and change the pace and for Porky to have a few huge moments, including a tremendous plancha. This isn’t what I’d call an all time Porky match or anything, but I think it’s the blueprint of one.

Brazo De Plata/Brazo De Oro/Brazo Cibernetico vs. Villano 3/4/5 Acapulco 11/20/04

PAS: I think I have probably called 15 different lucha cage matches "the only good lucha cage match", but I am doing it again. Here is the only good lucha cage match and it is great one. You can put together any combination of wrestling's Hatfields and McCoys and they are going to try to murder each other, and this was an awesome combo. Nothing funny about Porky here, he was looking to put Villanos in the ground, and there was some big chop and punch exchanges and a fair amount of spilt blood. I liked the finish with V5 and Oro left in the cage only for V3 to break a bottle through the cage on Oro's head so his brother could escape. I am not sure how we didn't review this match when it arrived on the internet, but it is another chapter in this endless family feud. 

MD: Nothing is bad in a bubble. Lucha cage matches tend to be bad because they're a bunch of singles guys stuck together, a few of them maybe with programs or build, but with the primary goal of escaping in the midst of the chaos so that they're not one of the last two in there. Team vs team cage matches probably work better because there's much more hesitation for wrestlers to just scramble out at the first opportunity; to be doing so would be to leave their partners in danger. More so, there's generally a more visceral feud as was the case here. Finally, you have to factor in how hard it is for Porky to get up and out of the cage by this point, so they really had to do some damage to the Villanos to allow for that. Put that all together and you had a recipe for a good lucha cage match. 

I loved how this was filmed. You weren't going to see all the action but then that was impossible given the sight constraints and the size of some of the wrestlers and how thoroughly they were intent on beating and bloodying one another. Instead, it almost felt like you were on one of those rail rides at an amusement park, except for instead of the figurative horrors of It's a Small World, you were able to look left or right and see the real horror of a bloody Porky getting battered in the corner or Platino scrapping hard in a fist fight. It was less on the big memorable spots and more on the steady violence then, at least until the ring started to clear a bit. Thankfully, it all led to the most memorable moment of all, when Villano III smashed a beer bottle into the cage as Oro was trying to climb out, shattering it against the cage and sending glass right into Oro's face. Brilliant, unsafe spot, that was only lessened a little by the fact the Brazos weren't immediately on top of him to get vengeance.

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He Called My Name and My Heart Stood Still, When He Said Black Terry Do My Will

Black Terry/Satanico vs. Silver Star/Garringo LLUE/ERLL 9/6/20 - GREAT

ER: Nothing like a match with mostly 70 year old men, in a building where 95% of the people aren't wearing any kind of mask (It's a lucha show! How are there not more people wearing even lucha masks!?). Satanico and Terry might be the oldest tag team I've ever seen, and it's pretty amazing what they are still capable of doing. Satanico has looked basically the exact same for 25 years now, and he still comes off super spry on the mat. I wasn't expecting him to take so many bumps, but he and Terry both bumped big for armdrags and hiptosses. Satanico took armdrag bumps as fast as he did when he was 50, only slow down came getting back to his feet, but luckily when you work with other senior citizens you can count on your opponent being slower to his feet too. 

Black Terry has certainly slowed down, doesn't look like he can run very well, and yet he still bumps hard and hits harder. His overhand chops and short elbows still sing, and at one point he lit up Silver Star in the corner with a mix of chops, body shots, and elbows. Satanico did a lot of super cool little things, like chop blocking Silver Star while Star was holding Terry in a stretch, and a cool as hell moment with Garringo: Satanico went to throw Garringo by the arm, Garringo held the ropes to break Satanico's hold, then Garringo hit a nice rolling armdrag. The crowd would have likely been fine with them just going through some rote spots, they guys didn't need to add interesting wrinkles to move set up, but that's what makes someone like Satanico a legend. Everyone got their limbs stretched here, beyond where their limbs should naturally be able to stretch at this age, and Terry taking a huge bump off a middle rope armdrag looked painful as hell. I also liked Garringo's sunset flips, he got more height on the jumps than I expected and made them look surprisingly fluid. This whole thing was a much more full, energetic match than I was expecting, and I love how these old dudes can still surprise.

PAS: I have no idea who Garringo is but he looked like a peer of Satanico and Terry and I am sure has been having cool matches for 40 years. Terry looked a little washed her when it came to running the ropes, pretty crazy he had an MOTY a year later, but his mat stuff looked good. Satanico was a badass as usual, that guy is truly ageless, I loved the bump he took into the ropes whiplashing his neck against the top rope to set up a pin. All of the brawling looked good, and for the most part this looked like lucha by guys in their 40s or 50s not 60s and 70s. 

Black Terry/Negro Navarro vs. Mr. Jack/El Gallego Lucha Strong 9/12/20 - FUN

PAS: Both Terry and Navarro are in their 60s (Terry is 68!) and I think we are getting to the point where they can't bring it full force every night. The early sections between Navarro and Gallego had a nice maestro exchange, but the brawling was a bit dull. Mr. Jack is the guy in here who was out of place, and he didn't bring much to the table. I am going to watch Navarro and Terry until they are done, and I imagine there are still some gems to come, but this wasn't it. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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New Footage Friday: SATANICO! GARZA! SASUKE! SHINZAKI! NANIWA! ORIHARA! TOGO! BURNETT!

El Satanico vs. Hector Garza CMLL 12/8/95

MD: A lost match building up their big apuestas showdown. It's amazing how much they accomplished with relatively little time here. Satanico was just a master at maximizing every moment, in part by being so thoroughly committed to who and what he was. He fed and stalled immediately, letting Garza shine right from the get go, only to wrench his arm off the top when Garza went up too soon. From there, he opened him up on the outside and goozled him upside-down in the ropes so that the camera and the crowd could all get a good look at it. He then got overconfident allowing Garza to fight back from the outside, including biting. The tercera was fairly even but Garza got the big moment with a huge Finlay-esque whack against the apron. He also scored an escape from a Satan's Knot attempt and avoided a low blow, before Satanico deftly faked the foul for the finish. The goal here was to make Garza look tenacious and fiery while still making it seem like he was in legitimate danger for the apuestas match, all without giving away too much, and it definitely hit those marks.

PAS: This was great shit, a new Satanico singles match is about as great as it gets, and this was a killer Satanico match and a fun Garza performance. Primera Caida was a really fun minute or so, with Garza going up top a little fast, Satanico sidestepping him and putting on a fucking Kimura like he was Demian Maia or something. We get a little juice from Garza and a ton from Satanico, dropping plasma all over the ring. The fake low blow by Satanico was such a great finish. I have never seen anyone fake a low blow when his opponent slides through his legs like that, fun addition. I haven't seen the apuestas in a long time (maybe since 95) and now I really want to check it out again. 

ER: This was some simple, super effective stuff, with really the only highspot coming from a Garza missile dropkick. The rest of this was choking with boots and slamming faces into mats, and knowing it sets up an apuestas match makes it even more effective. I love the story of Garza going for some flash early and Satanico seeing it a mile away, leading to a couple of caidas of punishment. Satanico is such a violent presence that he can get a ton of mileage out of just jamming a guy's face into a turnbuckle or ring apron and then holding it there. Satanico is also so great at bumping for Garza, letting his legs go all rag doll and flop over themselves every time he hit the mat. Garza's big comeback face busters could have looked like junk, but here's Satanico whipping his face into the mat, getting his face nice and bloody while Garza bites at him. I loved how we started with Garza trying more complicated offense and getting his ass kicked for it, so when he comes back it's just him slamming Satanico's face into surfaces. And that's really all you need when you have an all time great like Satanico taking it. The finish was really inspired, loved Satanico going for a low kick but Garza seeing it and scooting back on his heels a bit, then Satanico's faked foul selling when Garza slides through his legs was an Oscar worthy performance of Man Gets Hit With Football. Brilliant.  

The Great Sasuke/Jinsei Shinzaki/Gran Naniwa vs. Dick Togo/Masao Orihara/Macho Pump MPRO 4/1/03 - GREAT

MD: Good mix of wrestlers here. I would have wanted a little more Togo, but you always do, really. What we got of him was great. I loved how competitive the opening exchanges were, with no wrestler hitting much of anything that they wanted to. The best of this Togo him blocking Shinzaki's rope walk strike, but it was all a pretty good opening. The beatdown kept things moving even if it wasn't very memorable. The finishing stretch was fun even if they shouldn't have had Samurai kick out of the double splash when someone else could have broken it up. We've seen a couple of surprisingly fun Macho Pump performances in these and this was no different, as really everyone did their part here.

PAS: Cool example of a MPRO house show from a relatively unexplored period of the promotion. Really enjoy the heel team, great bases for the fancy stuff, and we even got a Macho Pump tope. I don't remember seeing a bunch of Togo versus Shinzaki stuff before and they had some really good exchanges. I thought the the double frog splash probably should have ended it, but I am never going to hate seeing a Sasuke swanton. 

Jason Patrick vs. Malcom Sunshine vs. JM vs. Jimmy Saint vs. Future Mike Daniels vs. Aiden Hollows vs. Aaron Heights EPW 3/27/09

PAS: I asked SC favorite Chase Burnett to send us some stupid shit in honor of his return to Beyond this weekend, and he sent us this scramble match. I had only ever heard of Burnett (wrestling as Jason Patrick), Malcom Sunshine (only because I had seen and reviewed another Burnett match from this era) and Denver Colorado who was managing Saint (current Beyond Promoter). This was a Royal Rumble style scramble match with a new wrestler entering ever minute (which didn't really matter, match started with Sunshine and Patrick, and ended with them, and no one got eliminated until everyone was in). The standouts, were Patrick of course who had some crazy takedowns, a couple of big bumps, and even a moonsault double stomp. Sunshine who was bigger then everyone else and did a bunch of fun throws including powerbombing JM into a wall, and cruicifix bombing Hollows over the top rope. Jimmy Saint was great too, he was all old school execution, great looking fist drop and knee drop, and awesome spinebuster, I also liked how he teased a dive, only to hop off the apron and stiff everyone with chops. Finish came down to Sunshine and Patrick and they probably did a bit too much, although I enjoyed the bombs.

MD: I'm pretty consistent in what I like and what I want, probably to a fault, but when I see a 2000s Scramble Match listed, I know what boxes it's supposed to check. When I was 20 or so, I went to ROH Scramble Madness. I can, at times, put my mind back to that place. You're looking for spots, cool moves, bumps, the sort of stuff that you'll be talking about on the car ride home with about as much depth as the Chris Farley Show. I'd say on that level, this pretty much delivered. Burnett (who had to be pretty young at this point) was wrestling as Jason Patrick here and the throughline, as people came and went, was him and Malcolm Sunshine being in it. Sunshine's not a guy I'm familiar with but he had the sort of basing size you'd want in a match like this, serving as a wall that couldn't be chipped down and as a spoiler to cut people off. 

The fact they had peopled billed from Boston, New York, and LA made the promotion seem a bit more worldly and broad, even if it probably wasn't anyone you'd recognize. If it was ten years prior, they'd be the sorts of names I'd be looking for in the bottom hundred of the DVDVR 500 before going to an indy show. I liked Saint's act and could see him being the Franchise style heel headliner for a local indy, no problem. JM probably had the most of those "moves to be talked about in the car." I was promised Burnett bumps and got a few, including a great DDT bump/sell on the floor and a dive (and there were plenty of dives and a decent amount of standing around waiting for them) that looked gnarly as it wasn't caught quite right. The finishing stretch with Sunshine and Burnett went a little long after the match they'd already been a part of but was overall solid, doing a good job of establishing Burnett as an upstart heel that you have to give something to due to his talent and tenacity even if you're going to be ultimately disappointed by him in the end. For an indy at this level, a match like this accomplished a bunch of thing s and did more good than not.

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