Found Footage Friday: Lucha Calm before the Lucha Storm: ECLIPSE~! FLASH~! ARQUEROS~! TEMERARIOS~! TERRY~! SKAYDE~! AND FRIENDS~!

Flash I vs. Eclipse 1990s Arena Coliseo Guadalajara

MD: We're sitting on Roy's recent uploads but I'd like to get a better sense of the big picture on them before we figure out how to tackle them. In the meantime, Rob found some things looking around and they're worth covering.

This, for instance, is a lost mask match and they really threw themselves into it given that it was just one fall. Flash had recently gone rudo, as best as I can tell, and he took it to Eclipse immediately, tearing the mask and ripping at his face. Eclipse came back fairly early into a solid beatdown with a quebradora and the rest of the match was pretty hot with finishes. The struggle on holds was particularly good since there was no room for error. They weren't giving one another much of anything. If Eclipse hesitated for a moment, Flash would fight his way away. Flash had an overall advantage due to a rudo ref (Mario), looking the other way for Flash's second to interfere and slow-counting.

Eclipse probably won on points. He was able to lock in more holds, to target Flash's leg a bit, and whenever Flash had an advantage, he found a way to come back. He had a spectacular springboard moonsault into the ring that was stymied by the worst slow count of the match. The finish was controversial as Flash caught Eclipse with an electric chair back off the top and an immediate double underhook submission but Eclipse claimed not to have tapped out. These were two guys who knew they had the spotlight and leaned hard into it.

Los Arqueros (Danny Boy/Lasser/Robin Hood) vs. Los Temerarios (Black Terry/Jose Luis Feliciano/Shu El Guerrero) Mexican National Trios Titles UWA 1/21/90

MD: Once upon a time, I tried to get the Shu el Guerrero vs Robin Hood mask match. I failed. But Rob found this and we're glad for it.It has no sound, has some clips, and is pretty grainy (and yeah, I'm not always the best at telling Danny Boy and Lasser apart), but it's a lot of fun.

Primera had very strong pairings, a lot of competitive matwork with clever escapes. I wouldn't say that was quite the same with Shu and Robin Hood. They were still competitive but there was more oomph and less flash to it all. The refs sure liked to raise their hands after every exchange, but in my head canon, Shu won the fall for his side by dropkicking Robin Hood into submission. The segunda sped things up which benefitted the tecnicos. Picture perfect placement in basing by Los Temerarios helped though. They went back to the mat with different pairings for a lengthy tercera. Lots of really tricked out high drama stuff before everything broke down for the tandem moves, dives, and and exciting sides evening finish that brought it back to Shu and Robin Hood. They hit big stuff and leaped from high places on one another before a clutch pin out of nowhere (a clutch clutch) to end it. Just a very complete, very straightforward title match worked more or less clean but with clear animosity. Still, it'd be nice to see that mask match.

PAS: So cool that lucha like this keeps showing up. This is a classic trios match from 33 years ago which gives us a long chance to look at some cool wrestlers who we don't have a ton of footage of. Shu feels like a guy who might have a Navarro/Panther reputation if we had more available. He is built like a mailbox and is great at basing and putting on cool submissions. Robin Hood is another member of the Alvarado family (Brazos) and they have awesome wrestlers on ever branch of that family tree. This feels like the first match of series and I really want to see the next match which probably got chippier, still amazing that we got a chance to watch this.

Skayde/Vortize/Aztlan/Kanon vs. Black Terry/Dragon Celestial/Emperador Azteca/Fulgor I IWRG 2/26/14

MD: We have so much lucha ahead of us in the weeks to come, but a match like this reminds me so crisply and so clearly why I love it so much. It's structured in such a serene way. The primera has the initial exchanges: matwork, gamesmanship, the individual characters clashing against one another, building to a big moment of action. It gave us a tease of the captains (Terry and Skayde) against each other but just that. It gave us a little bit of animosity but never boiled over.

Then the segunda went from measured exchanges to quicker (and different) pairings, rope running, flowing action, still with clear resets. We actually get one dive at the end, again a tease for the tercera, and an abrupt finish. Then in the tercera, there are meaningful punctuated moments that are broken up as wrestlers flow into the match one after the other, all building to finding some way to get to Skayde vs Black Terry. They have a pointed exchange but even that's just a tease as it leads to the final dives to clear the ring for a finish that pushes things off for matches to come. So this match could exist in a format that was standard but with specifics that met the moment and the wrestlers therein. It's not even my favorite form of lucha, which is much more focused on beatdowns and revenge after that beautiful, built to, reacted to moment of comeback. But it's still wonderful and still has so much of the anticipation and payoff and aristry.

As for specific pairings, I really liked Aztlan and Dragon Celestial in the primera and Skayde and Dragon in the segunda. I'd love to see more of that second match up. There was a nice bit of chippiness throughout, especially when Terry was in there, but for Emperador Azteca and Kanon too. I'm not sure I had a sense of the overall direction of the feud but, this type of lucha is so universal that you can jump in and enjoy yourself.

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2021 Ongoing MOTY List: Skayde/Maya vs. Navarro/Komander

57. Skayde/Cometa Maya vs. Negro Navarro/Komander BIG Lucha 12/19

PAS: This was a maestro teaming with a wild youngster and does a cool job of mixing both of those styles. Maya looked very comfortable exchanging on the mat with Navarro, and Komander looked comfortable doing the fast Skayde style rope exchanges. The Komander vs. Maya stuff was super fast flips and rolls, and we get a crazy dive from Maya to the floor. Short match but it hit the points you want from a match like this. The old guys were very giving and this kind of development can only help the kids. 

ER: I could have seen this match being fun in a completely different way if it was vets vs. youth, but I like seeing maestros teaming with fliers and weaving their crafts together. The beginning was great fun, as Navarro stands basically still while letting Maya work some standing arm and wrist control exchanges. Navarro's eyes the whole time look like he's letting Maya have a bit of fun while also giving him a bit of rope, and sure enough, with a gleam in his eye Navarro traps Maya's wrist the second he feels like it, and then ties him up in knots while Maya is powerless to counter. Navarro takes Maya through some cool sequences and they worked in some very cool roll-ups. Komander has some balance issues (two different moments of people waiting for him to get his footing on the ropes before doing a spot) but once he irons that out he will be gold, as he already has some cool tricks. He walks the entire length of the ring on the top rope to catching Skayde with a rope flip slingshot armdrag, and this was a large ring. He should work his shaky balance into his gimmick, like a Drunken Master luchador. Maya and Komander pull off maybe the most gorgeous dive of the year, a perfectly executed sequence where Maya hits the Fenix/Metalik flip dive, springing off the middle rope into one of the smoothest arcing flips I've seen, and Komander flat out could NOT have caught the dive better. It was one of the most squared up catches I've seen, giving both men the softest possible landing on an incredible spot. The match overall didn't always rise above an exhibition feel, but maestro matwork with some slick flying is a combination I'll always view with some rose lenses. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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LA Park in Santa Rosa Live Report 7/28/18

ER: I got to see LA Park 16 years ago at a flea market in LA. He walked into the flea market like he was walking on a yacht. I mean, he was wearing a mint green polo tucked into tight Jordache jeans. He may as well have been a chubby Mexican Warren Beatty. He worked Shocker on that show, at a time where Shocker and LA Park were two of my absolute favorite wrestlers. 16 years later and half that statement is still true. I've had unfortunate or awful circumstances lately with all time personal favorites working lucha shows close to my area, with our devastating fires canceling a Negro Casas appearance, and then a broken rib canceling his return date. So tonight LA Park was working 10 minutes from my house and I kind of expected LA Park to suddenly retire earlier this week. But he didn't, and the match happened, and I was there.

LA Park/Skayde vs. Rey Bucanero/Damian 666

This was not going to be a match where Park was going to take one of his crazy bumps or do a dive out onto an unpadded gym floor. But it was going to be a good fat Elvis performance with plenty of brawling, and I love watching Park brawl. The match takes an odd turn pretty early, as the referee just flat out turns on Park, essentially becoming a member of the Bucanero/Damian team. I get having a rudo ref, but this guy didn't slow count, he just started putting the boots to Park and choking him in the corner with his boot. I'm not sure anybody would have actually asked for that, but our eventual payoff was very satisfying.  This match was worked like a lucha match in front of a Memphis audience. Park's belt got ripped off very early and Bucanero whipped him right across the face and chest, and twice across the back. I've not seen Park live in the era of Park belt whippings, and my gracious do those belt whippings read 300% better live. The belt snapped so loudly across Park's body that it sounded like something structural was breaking in the building. We brawl to the floor and Park really lays it in on Damian with big right hands, and Damian takes a big beating around ringside, getting shoved face first into a ringpost and getting slammed into the guardrail. Park was throwing bombs and looked huge. But the big moment of the match came when Park got revenge on everyone with his belt. And before I was verbally cringing at Damian's whippings. But Park made Damian look like a guy who had never whipped another man in front of 300 people in a veteran's building.  Park's belt shots must have felt like being struck by lightning. But the lightning really struck when Park finally got his hands on the ref. The ref was a young man, slender, smaller than any man in the match. And Park hazed him like a frat guy dishing out a racially charged takedown of a pledge. Damian and Bucanero both beg off getting more whippings from Park, and totally throw the referee to the wolf. Damian got a Coke and a bottle of water from the crowd, and offer it up as sacrifice to Park. Skayde lifts the ref's shirt while holding him in pedigree position. Park douses the ref's back in coke and water, and hits it as hard as any man possibly could hit a back with a belt. Rey and Damian stay on the floor and continue fearing the volcano god who is burning his sacrifice whole in the ring. They flip the ref over, lift the shirt again, and Park whips him right across the exposed stomach and ribs. A million times more verbally painful than being whipped across the back. Think of your stomach, exposed, getting slapped as hard as possible with a leather belt. I'd probably puked until I cried.

Now the rest of the match brought plenty of lazy and missable moments. Bucanero wrestled like he had the flu, his offense being worked at about 70%, like he was afraid to make contact with Skayde or Park. Rey went for what I think may have ben a shining wizard at one point, except his leg never came close to making contact with Skayde, so we can only wonder what it was supposed to be. He had a nice punch to a seated Skayde, and dropped a nice legdrop. But he whiffed on stomach kicks and kneelifts and barely grazed Park on a corner splash. Bucanero was not interested in showing up tonight. Skayde took most of the match off, bailing to the floor from most of Park's beatdown, disappearing to the floor later with Bucanero and doing little of note. He's slimmed back down a bit since I saw him earlier in the year, but he did nothing that would remind you of your favorite Skayde memories. That's twice now. But Damian worked hard. The man is 57 years old and isn't anywhere near as graceful as he was 20 years ago, but he hit hard on forearms and threw a couple nice clotheslines, and matched up nicely with a force of nature like Park. Park looked lazy as hell on a couple missed clotheslines with Damian, but commanded the ring like a boss, built to little moments that turned into huge moments because of his superstar aura, and gave everyone a glimpse at what it looked like to see someone perform who really understands their craft. This was not a great match. It was a basic match with a broken structure that spent half it's time on belt whippings. But to see it live on a Saturday night after driving 10 minutes with a lifetime friend? I wouldn't have wanted to watch any other wrestling in the world.

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And I Can't Leave the Ground/Can't Find a Place to Put Cassandro Down

Cassandro & Discovery vs. Skayde & X-Fly, 3/26/16 - FUN

This was a tough one to pin down. Because the whole match has guys that are just hard to pin down. X-Fly is the biggest sticking point as he is simultaneously a lazy slug, and a guy who does little things that a lot of luchadors don't do. He's a super tub now and on fancam he looks like 10 years post retirement Chigusa Nagayo. And when he wants to tub around the room, he really tubs around the room. Sometimes he takes forever to do stuff. He'll just go wandering off during a match, literally just slowly walking around the building. He'll grab a table, start to walk back, get tired, have somebody else walk with the table. Some sequences he would do so sluggishly, go so absently through the motions, that he would look like a guy who wanted to sorta kinda get a feel for the ring and do a practice walk through his match before fans filed into the building. Except the fans were in the building and it was the actual match. And then X-Fly would turn around and start a spirited strike exchange, lacing into Cassandro and doing weird little things, like when he smacked him downward across the bridge of his nose, as Moe would do to Curly. And he had moments of getting out right in the middle of the crowd, taking pratfall bumps into them, making in jokes with random fans, really most of the time X-Fly feels like a guy working a Memphis studio match. And then he still manages to hit a tubby swanton and you're like "maybe X-Fly is actually the best..." but then he wanders off to find a table for 4 minutes and you snap back to reality. Skayde was also somewhat lazier than I've seen him. He has a more pronounced belly now, but don't we all. Usually things with Skayde are more fluid, and while things he did still looked good, there were so many moments of standing around, or just walking into position for something. Lazy. Too lazy.

Discovery was a pleasant...ahem...discovery in this one, as he tried gamely to go along with everything and make it work. His two head first rolling bumps into rows of chairs were highlights, but he also tried mixing it up gamely with Skayde and X-Fly, doing some nice armdrag sequences with Skayde in particular. Our man of the hour looked as great as he ever does. Cassandro looks to be in as good a shape as he was in when we saw the most of him, in 2007-2008. He's lean and mean and brings a passion and intensity that the match was otherwise lacking. Him flying recklessly into X-Fly into the corner to unload punches, hitting his gorgeous dive with a flip at the end (which Sasha Banks accidentally stole @ Wrestlemania, only difference is Cassandro does this on purpose), doing a Finlay roll on Skayde onto a table, selling a shock X-Fly smooch; the match needed his person and the fans treated him like a superstar. He and Skayde work some nice armdrags down the stretch, and his missile dropkick still lands with more impact than anybody's. It would have been nice to see X-Fly and Skayde actually show up for a whole match, but I can't ever complain about new Cassandro footage popping up.


COMPLETE & ACCURATE CASSANDRO

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Thoughts on Dragondoor?Gate? Hole? whatever in Mexico from DVDVR 158

Arena Mexico- 5/13/06

Arkangel de la Muerte/Negro Navarro/Skayde vs. Hayato Fujita Jr. /Kanjyuro Matsuyama/Shinji Nohashi

PAS: We only got about half of this match but it was pretty fun. It is always a treat to see Negro Navarro, and he was pretty great here, locking up a nice submission and doing his great kip-up. Nohashi hit a cool tope with a nice camera angle.

TKG: Yeah that was a great camera angle. Arkangel threw some really nice elbow drops and Navarro took a posting well and any time you get to see Navarro it‘s a treat but there really wasn’t much to this match.

Dark Angel/India Sioux vs. Mima Shimoda/Raven Hiroka_

PAS: Hiroka is the worlds shittiest Etsuko Mita, but she did have a really nice exchange with Dark Angel. Mima Shimoda doesn’t do a ton here, and we didn’t get a ton of time.

TKG: This was real clipped and nothing you want to see again. I liked India Sioux’s version of Virus’ finisher.

Dragon Scramble Match: Matematico vs. Ultraman vs. Kahoz vs. Cuchillo vs. Black Terry vs. Astro Boy Jr.vs. Brazo de Plata Jr. vs. Daisuke Haonaka vs. Hijo del Fantasma vs. Toshiya Matsuzaki

PAS: Ridiculously fun match which was a total train wreck but in a really entertaining way. You got to see a bunch of old luchadores who never see the light of day. Black Terry had an awesome punch exchange with Ultraman. For an ex-high flyer Ultraman has really turned into Jose Luis Castillo in his old age. Cuchillo and Kahoz are guys I haven’t seen in years, and they looked like guys I hadn’t seen in years. Kahoz especially looked shitastic, as he was completely unable to bump over the top on his first attempt, so he has to run to the other side of the ring to bump to the floor Also that actually looked like the real Matematico who must be 70. Total blast.

TKG: Black Terry looked to be guy holding this entire thing together working fun sections with Hijo del Fantasma, Matematico, and Ultraman and one of the Japanese kids. Gran Cuchillo comes out and stretchers the other Japanese kid just smacking him around with the butt of his gun, suplexing him on the ramp and then dropping elbows. Cuchillo hitting opponents with the butt of a pistol may expose the business more than Tiger Jeet Singh hitting opponents with butt of sword. But Cuchillo is way more fun. Cuchillo and Kahoz are really too old to pull off their miscommunication heel double team stuff. But fuck all that other shit: BLACK TERRY~!!!

Brazo De Oro/Brazo De Platino/Passion Hasegawa vs. Mazada/NOSAWA/Katsushi Takemura

PAS: This was alot of fun, the early parts were a little rough, as Platino spent the opening parts just doing all of Super Porky's spots but not as well as Super Porky. However when it got kicking it got really fun. Oro was especially awesome here, especially his stuff with NOSAWA, and his incredible tope. Passion was really fun as the fake Brazo fucking up all of the Brazo spots, and when Platino stopped apeing his brother and started hitting all of his dives he looked great too. Easily the match of the show.

TKG: Was that really Brazo De Platino. I remember him looking more scummy and garbagey. He does all of Platinos big dives but I don’t remember Platino looking that kind of classically handsome. Platino’s section where he was apeing Plata spots wasn’t much and the Passion v. Takemura exchanges weren’t much. But then fucking Brazo de Oro worked his section with Nosawa where they essentially did Ki vs. Red spots with Oro working superfast to dodge all of NOSAWA’s offense and then getting in his own strikes. Brazo de Oro’s speed was just amazing. And then once the match got going it was just on. I think my favorite Passion being too small to do Brazo signature spots was when he kept trying to lay across the heels only to get tossed off while Platino set up his big dive.

4 Way Dance: Averno/Mephisto vs. Trent Acid/American Gigolo vs. Brute Issei/Shigeo Okumura vs. Milano Collection AT/Kazuchida Okada

PAS: The match listing listed the Backseat Boyz, but instead American Gigolo was Trent Acid’s partner. You know someone sucks when you are pissed about being baited and switched out of Johnny Kashmere. Okada took some big bumps, but this match may have been the worst multi man match of Trent Acid’s career. Imagine what that entails.

TKG: The screen says that this went 11:23 but I swear it felt twice as long. They do the everyone puts everyone else in a headlock section before the big guy comes out only to do a big man miss-communication spot two or three times. With Issei really playing poor man’s Pancho Tequilla playing a poor man’s Brazo Platino playing a poor man’s Brazo de Plata. Averno and Mephisto are first eliminated for excessive rudisimo. Yeah so the Arena Mexico crowd is left to watch Issei/Okamura vs. Gigolo/Trent Acid. Do the Arena Mexico fans have any stake in an All Japan vs. PWU match up. All Japan is eliminated for PWU vs. Toryumon finish. This needed Slugger.

Decision Match for the vacant NWA Welterweight Title: La Mascara vs. Hajime Ohara

PAS: This was okayish. Mascara is a little green to lead Ohara through a real lucha title match, and it came off as more of a mediocred BOSJ match which doesn’t make TV.

TKG: Yeah this was where the lucha and the resu in your lucharesu just fall apart. This isn’t worked like a lucha title match at all. There is a cool part early on where La Mascara appears to get pissed as though Ohara is taking liberties with him and the two just start swinging at each other. Baby Richard keeps on trying to remind Ohara about his closed fists and elbows. This would be fine in a lucha brawl but you build to the brawling parts of match. Ohara paces his stuff like a puroresu match so you don’t have the lucha ebb and flow where wrestling section leads to break down into brawling section which leads to a regroup to wrestling section.

Super Libre: Dos Caras Jr./Hijo del Lizmark vs. Mark Jindrak/Johnny Stamboli

PAS: This was a pretty fun WWE Heat main event tag (2002 Heat, all four of these guys are liver enzymerific.) I don’t think this was as good as the technicos v. Stamboli/Palumbo would have been, and definitely not as good as the technicos v. Jindrak/Cade (especially with all the real life familial heat between Dos Caras Jr. and Lance Cade) Still these teams work each other alot, and they have a ton spots with each other. Jindrak looks like a total superstar as he hits all of his high spots and is a taunting fuck, doing a little bird flapping with his arms after he flew. He has crazy ups, and if he actually moves to Mexico he will be a big ass star.

TKG: Not as good as a Heat main event tag…closer to a RAW one. Jindrak’s taunts are great and him and Stamboli work like a touring tag team with lots of heel miscommunication spots that they could work against any face team. They do the old MX arm pull over rope spot that always makes me smile. And well, so about a year ago New York Times printed an article about the success of lucha libre in Mexico. Someone in WWE read the article and said “the only people who watch our shows are gays and wetbacks, we need more wetbacks”. There was all kinds of writing on the internet about WWE bringing in Mistico and Ultimo Guerrero and who they should and shouldn’t bring in. I proposed that they bring in Dos Caras Jr and either Sicodelico Jr or Hijo del Lizmark as they essentially can work you’re basic OVW style and are tall and masked and would be easy to plug in and build around..WWE ended up bringing in a bunch of minis and having them work US midget comedy spots. After watching this match, if I were to fantasy book luchadors in WWE, I’d use Sicodelico Jr as my Dos Caras Jr partner. But still fun, full Worldwide point.

Relevos Increibles: Atlantis/GREAT MUTA/Ultimo Dragon vs. Perro Jr./Dr. Wagner Jr./Ultimo Guerrero

TKG: Man I was expecting this to be BA—AD. Arena Mexico announcer says that Ultimo Dragon is thought of in Japan the way Santo is thought of in Mexico…and I was all ready for the worst type of money mark match. But this turned out to be pretty fun. Dr Wagner and Perro come out and agree to team while Atlantis and Ultimo Guerrero are pissed that they are on opposite sides. And they do a lot of great lucha storytelling throughout the match with Atlantis and Guerrero sparring happily. Guerrero unhappy whenever his partners go after Atlantis. Atlantis and Perro Jr stoked to match up, etc. Atlantis just looks super great in this as he has to carry his team in ring. Ulitmo Dragon has been useless for years and for the most part never eats anything. At least in this match he spent a lot of time eating offense. Muta has had twenty years of great ring entrances and essentially works as Abby here. Guy wandering around looking deranged and scary. His elbow drop isn’t as good as Abby’s and Abby can work a simple effective match around opponent stealing his fork and forking Abby while Muta having opponent dragon screw him really doesn’t mean a ton in Arena Mexico. Also the Arena Mexico crowd has become enough of a heel crowd that they react to Muta’s stuff like its camp while the Coliseo crowd seemed to have a more visceral reaction. Still Muta was hell of fun in this and the movement back and forward from guys just doing shtick and storyline to guys wrestling is what you want out of this type of main event lucha.

PAS: I liked this a lot too. MUTA is fun as an old old guy who still kind of can hit some of his signature spots at half speed. It’s lucha every weekend there are a dozen shows main evented by guys like that. Ultimo who normally works exactly like a old old guy who hits some of his signature spots at half speed, actually seemed kind of energized, with his spots being hit more 3/4 speed.

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