Found Footage Friday: PUNK~! LOD~! DANDY~! SILVER KING~! SHU~! PANTHER~! SUPER PARKA~!

IWRG Retro 7/27/00

El Dandy/Silver King/Black Dragon vs. Shu el Guerrero/Mosco de la Merced/Hijo del Diablo

MD: VQ is tough with a lot of freezing but you can tell what's going on and the talent is so much here that you want to see it through. No real signature pairings here. I'd say that this was driven by the talent, energy, and star power on the tecnico side and structured accordingly. That meant in the primera, each tecnico got a chance to lean into rudo miscommunication and entertainingly fight them all off at once. There are things you'd note, like Silver King sliding across the ring or Dandy's punch or Black Dragon's crave dive at the end of the caida, but it was all good.

Rudos took over in the segunda after they teased pairings and they did the bit where they flip their opponents over and toss them into a kick in the corner. This could have probably used a couple more minutes, for once they hit the tecera, it was a quick reset and into in and out submissions and break-ups and really overall chaos with things breaking down. Finish had Dragon roll forward into a tapitia which you don't see often and Dandy hitting a jumping DDT for the win. Rudos did their job but this really was the tecnicos show, and even with the freezing, it was a good show.

ER: It's a shame this has so many freezes and bits of missing action because everything we get is really great. Everybody got their own moments to cook and I love a trios like this where everyone tries to take over the show the longer it goes. Mosco de la Merced and Hijo del Diablo were the real standouts to me but every brought something big. Silver King is so good at pushing pace and guys like Mosco and Diablo rise to that pace and it makes their bumps even crazier. The Segunda opening with King and Diablo really cooked, Diablo early on looking like the one guy in the match who was going to hang back and let everyone else handle things, building to him stooging and bumping as big as anyone. Mosco took at least four big bumps and worked comedy into half of them, including a great bit where he kept removing pieces of clothing while ramping up for a one on one confrontation, whipping his shirt and bandana into the crowd and firing up by almost removing his pants. Black Dragon is a guy who I literally only remember because of his incredible tope over/past the ringpost into the corner, which he hits beautifully here after pulling off a super smooth rana. His tope is one of the great lucha topes in history, one of those spots like Super Calo's slingshot senton that makes a luchador's career seem bigger than it really was. Shu el Guerrero is a total tank of a luchador, or dream build Valiente, but Mosco and Diablo handle all the toughest basing and catches. Shu's best bit of basing is sliding across the entire ring for a frankly breathtaking Dandy headscissors, Dandy getting full glorious extension and not tucking early, really making it look like he flung Shu 10 feet with his ankles and leverage. It would have been great to have the full uncut action (and crowd noise, and the actual screen presentation instead of the annoying TV screen aesthetic) but there's no denying the action we did see. 

Blue Panther vs. Super Parka

MD: WWA Title match. Parka's the champ. It's worked like a title match with just a bit of the dancing/histrionics from Parka, which he tends to pay for whenever he does. I liked the primera a lot. Nothing too tricked out but they kept close body contact for a lot of it in a way you don't always see in lucha matwork. It was all up tight and combative. Parka had advantage for a lot of it working over the arm. When they got moving towards the end of the caida, you had no idea who would get the ultimate advantage but Parka took it with a snap 'rana. 

Segunda was super short, but Panther won it with the old French Catch standard waistlock into a leg nelson (no roll). Not something you see every day, even from him. Then the tercera had all the bells and whistles and drama. Parka took out Panther's leg early and worked it over. Panther sold big on his comeback attempts. There was another 'rana for a nearfall and a long Cavernaria. Parka hit this amazing tope sending both of them over the barricade. Then Panther went for a submission and then pinned themselves. Only a couple of spotty moments VQ wise with the freezing, thankfully, as this was a very good title match to be unearthed. 

CM Punk/Doug Delicious vs. Legion of Doom WWE 5/13/03

MD: As WWE Vault stuff goes, this is better than something we already had, worse than if they had given it to us in full, and especially worse than giving us Omni shows or something. But it has its novelty and we should cover it, clipped as it is. Punk explaining that he had been on the banned list for doing a hammerlock DDT the night before gives his performance here color. Obviously, just in general facing the Road Warriors in this setting, he's going to do everything he could to stand out and bump and feed and stooge for them.

Since he was in hot water, however, he really went above and beyond, on from the get go. The fans absolutely loved seeing the LOD as a surprise and popped huge for them as Punk covered his head in shock in the ring. They cut out a lot of the stuff with Delicious and only give us Punk but I don't really mind that too much. He screamed as he went over for Animal's power slam and went sailing for the belly-to-belly throw. Hawk was totally on too, hitting his shoulder first post-bump to the floor. He even ate a Punk snap suplex. This isn't the first or hundredth thing I would have wanted, especially not clipped, but I was still smiling despite myself as I watched it, so I'll certainly take this sort of thing over nothing. 

ER: I was not actually expecting this to be really good but I have a feeling the full uncut match was actually quite good. I'm a big fan of 1998 LOD even though history says they were totally washed. Well, they were pretty washed, but Washed Legends is one of my favorite kinds of wrestler. 1998 Hawk was a particular favorite of mine. He wasn't lifting much anymore so he wasn't working as a power wrestler, so he just leaned into being a puncher with a couple of surprising big bumps. Hawk was a great puncher and a guy with great bumps, so it really felt like a super vulnerable version of the Road Warrior Hawk, boiled down to his most basics; still dangerous, now beatable. I loved it. It's a shame they were stuck feuding with DOA for most of the year during their final real run. I have a feeling that some good Hawk stuff was cut from this tag in cutting the Doug Delicious work, and that's a shame. I don't know much about Doug Delicious so maybe they were right to cut most of his work out of this, but I sure stood at attention when he lit Hawk the hell up with chops on the floor. I cannot imagine someone chopping either Road Warrior the way Doug was chopping Hawk in 1986 but this is 2003. That's the kind of things that makes vulnerable legends so compelling. They're on the way down and now fucking Doug Delicious is doing things that would have gotten greater men killed. 

Punk was great in this, reminded me again of why I liked him so much during this era. He bumped huge for everything the LOD did and even sold their entrance music. He fed really well for them both and I was pretty shocked at the amount of offense he got. The snap suplex on Hawk was a real surprise, but I liked how he worked the match as a guy who really belonged in the ring with the Road Warriors and not just a stooge who just lied on the mat in between moves. He set up Hawk's ringpost bump perfectly, moving out of the way at the last second so it made it look like an actual miss and not a set up bump, and Hawk spills past the apron to the floor as well as any of those times a missed western lariat sent Stan Hansen tumbling to the floor. I thought Animal looked good here too, taking on the bulk of the match (well, at least the way the match was edited) and I thought his movement looked strong. That leaping elbowdrop was fire and they each seemed real pumped at the crowd's loud reaction and chanting for them. WWE always hated the idea of bringing back older legends to work undercards but I wish we had years of All Japan old men matches on the undercards of house shows, it would have been incredible. They only viewed people on what they could potentially add to the top of the card but any time they brought back an older name and just plopped them in the third match it worked perfectly. I needed more runs like the Tatanka or, well, Road Warrior Animal mid-2000s Smackdown run. 

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Found Footage Friday: REMO BANDA~! PRINCIPE ISLAND (LA PARK)~! ARANDU~! GRAN MARKUS~! ANTICHRISTO~?

Remo Banda/Coliseo 2000 vs Panico/Zorro de Oro CMLL 1989

MD: Remo Banda is Super Parka/Volador , with his glorious head of hair. I think Zorro de Oro is actually Anticristo of the famous promo which makes this particularly well timed in some ways. Coliseo had a colorful costume with his name in big letters (like a sign almost) and Panico was just a scuzzy looking rudo doing scuzzy rudo things. Primera had him get the best of Remo Banda with a bunch of armdrags but then also refuse to engage at times as well. All of these guys were perfectly competent, even if Zorro de Oro had me look twice as he went twisting over the top rope to the apron once or twice. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. The primera had bodies flying about chaotically to end but things settled down with a segunda beatdown. The commentary was trying to paper over that even though the rudos tossing Remo Bando around by his hair, the refs didn't dare disqualify these men with "sewers for their hearts." Also that Gran Davies, since he had been a rudo when he wrestled, tended to favor the rudos as a ref. Also that the ropes should be an ally to the fighter, not an instrument of torture. Lots of fun commentary here that only got more flowery when Morales took over in the tercera. Anyway, the tecnicos took over too with Remo Banda pinballing the rudos as they pretty quickly got their revenge and won the day. This had an undercard feel but colorful characters at least.  

Cachorro Mendoza/Rudy Reyna/Jose Torres vs Principe Island/Arandu/Gran Markus Jr (Monterrey 1990)

MD: Kind of a murderer's row of Segunda Caida rudos here, with my new appreciation for Arandu and the idea that Principe Island is, in fact, pre-Park. He had a swanky black jumpsuit with shoulder tassles and the announcers likened him to Michael Jackson. Markus mainly directed traffic and while he had some dubious kicks, he also stooged when it was time to stooge so I forgive him. Tecnico side was interesting. Torres was better known for his football gimmicks Super Maquina and El Invencible and Reynes had graduated (through older age) from being an Exotico to being a more straightforward tecnico. Both of them controlled the center of the ring with armdrgs and hiptosses and even a neat dragon screw takeover variation and had the rudos create motion for them. And boy did Arandu and Principe want to create motion, skidding and flying and bumping all over the place. You half had the sense they were trying to outdo one another, but it was really just who they were. Rudos ambushed at the start and controlled things until Mendoza took everyone out early in the segunda. From there the rudos fed plenty to make the older tecnicos look like experts until Markus got caught throwing a foul fairly early in the tercera. Nice to see all these guys as it was sort of a weird crossroads of time. And hey, you have to love that rudo side.

Kendo Star/El Magnifico/Kendo vs Principe Island/Carlos Plata/Milo Caballero (Monterrey 1989)

MD: This was prior to the 1990 match but I'm covering these per post order. This is a younger Park, stringier, with shorter hair. He's matched up with Kendo here, with their first exchange being mostly posturing and kicking at the air and shtick and their second being all of Kendo's fast tumbling with Principe running behind him and left in the corner, laughing at his own comeuppance. We know that he's one of the most charismatic wrestlers ever, but this isn't a Wagner Jr situation where he took years to work it out. It's a Gino Hernandez situation. We knew it a bit from Panama but it's so clear here. He got it. He was honest and earnest and coy and brazen. Unmasked Principe with a face full of character, sort of a face only a mother could love, isn't just bumping and sliding and feeding. He's reacting to everything and you watch him and imagine an entirely different career where he could have been amazing unmasked, like another Negro Casas. And of course, he was able to tap into so much of that and amplify it in his own way with the suit, but you look at this and wonder.

Magnifico is Justicero, and Plata is another one of those plain looking guys who could go exactly as much as he needed to. There are dozens and dozens of them. They matched up well enough and were actually the final pairing though the match itself would have told me it would be Principe and Kendo. Kendo Star had the mask and the gear but wasn't nearly as over the top as Kendo and didn't stand out nearly as much here, but Milo fell about for his act well enough. This didn't go quite deep enough into beatdown and comeback to have the emotional stakes you'd want; Principe and Kendo bolstered it but if they had leaned into the violence and revenge just a little more, the payoff would have been visceral given the pieceson the table. As it was, it's mainly a great look at this young man who would someday become legend.

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Found Footage Friday: MORE PANAMA PARK~! WAGNER SR~! ANIBAL~! SATO~! ISHIKAWA~! JANNETTY~! FLANAGAN~!

Akio Sato/Takashi Ishikawa vs. Dr. Wagner/Anibal AJPW 8/20/81 

MD: I'll be honest that when we get HHs from this deep back in the 80s, it always feels notable, even if the match itself has, let's say, measured value. This was a tale of two matches. When Ishikawa was in there, it was quite good. He and Wagner started off with some nice stuff on the mat. Later on he'd have a comeback where he threw good strikes and when it came to the rudos beating him down, their stuff looked really sharp. Sato, on the other hand, was pretty rough in there. The system was what it was, but you watch a match like this and think he had to be pretty green; he wasn't. He was losing to Bob Brown and wrestling Momota around the horn in 73. He had maybe one moment of good fire towards the end and ate some shoulder throws (something like three in the match) well, but everything kind of ground to a halt when he was in there. Wagner and Anibal were fun in general though. I'm not saying they left their feet a ton but Wagner had plenty of personality and Anibal wasn't afraid to pull hair and get heat (and when they did leave their feet, mainly Anibal, it mattered). Finish had Ishikawa and Sato turning things around to create heel miscommunication and more or less worked. This is probably most worthwhile because we have very little 81 Wagner.

Principe Island I (c) vs. Sandokan Panama 1988-9

MD: Totally different sort of title match from the PI 1 vs PI 2 match. Here, Principe Island 2/Remo Banda/Super Parka was seconding Sandokan. Instead of doing everything under the sun, they went from early feeling out to Park absolutely dismantling the leg. I wouldn't say there was anything fancy here, but it certainly all worked. Park just jumping onto the leg over and over, twisting and grinding it, throwing headbutts directly into the thigh; all of that's going to work. Meanwhile, Sandokan slammed his fist on the mat and writhed, selling as big as he could. If he tried to get up, Park just took him back down and kept up the assault until he got the submission. The second fall had Park broaden his attack a bit, which cost him. Sandokan, hurt legs and all, was able to hit three upkicks and knock him out of the ring for an awkward countout.

There might have been just a bit of miscommunication there. Immediately thereafter, Sandokan started to trap the arm and the head and run Park into turnbuckles. The fans were going nuts for this and Park sold it like a gunshot. It would have made sense to do the countout after a few of those probably. The tercera was Park taking and taking and taking. Sandokan's leg was magically okay, of course, but there were a couple of times where Park tried to land a takedown and go after it again so the danger was always there. It was about the only chance he had since he was getting pinballed all over the place, including both a straight up power bomb with a jacknife roll up and Sandokan's schoolboy type takeovers which were sold like powerbombs. The very best thing he did was to whip Park into the corner and then follow up with a jumping clothesline to the back of the head as Park stumbled backwards. For as one-sided as the tercera was, Park kept kicking out and because of that Sandokan started to escalate towards the ropes, including a climb up armdrag. That allowed Park to crotch him over the top and almost steal a pin. His former partner rushed in however, stopped the count and started brawling with him ending the match but hopefully leading to an apuestas match between the two that maybe, just maybe, will show up soon? One can hope, right? Like I said, this was a completely different sort of title match than PI 1 vs PI 2 and young LA Park is really holding up his end of these, while here, Sandokan once again looked like one of the great folk heroes of wrestling. 

Marty Jannetty vs. Flash Flanagan NWA Worldwide 12/25/99

MD: This aired a couple of week later but I think it was at Christmas Chaos 99. One interesting thing from the Bryan Turner uploads is how little is actually on cagematch. Jannetty in late 99 was not too much different from Jannetty in 92 but with modern eyes, that's not a bad thing at all. The first half of this was all Flanagan letting himself get clowned with a "Anything you can do, I can't do better" sequence. Jannetty started it by out-hairpulling Flash but then Flash missed on multiple sequences, ending by wiping out on a monkey see, monkey do monkey flip in the corner. Given his role on the card here, he probably wanted to show off just a little too much in general, landing on his feet out of things, having the springboard leg drop and another springboard dropkick out of the corner (which in and of itself, is a good spot, whipping the opponent into the corner and rushing the other way to bounce back off the second rope), just a little bit of a case of "just because you can, doesn't mean you should." Maybe I would have liked to see just a little bit more comeuppance on the comeback then, especially since he was going to win by cheating (a good thing; he should be winning by cheating). Still, this was a good use of Marty, who looked good in everything he did, and ultimately something that gave Flash some rub. I didn't agree with every one of his creative choices but he never felt out of place in there.

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Found Footage Friday: MORE PARK IN PANAMA~! LORD JAMES BLEARS~! GORILLA MARCONI~! SMOTHERS~! SABU~!

Jan Blears/Frank Marconi vs. Sandor Kovacs/Harry Finkelstein Wilmington, DE 3/20/47

MD: We get around 7 minutes of this and it's with some sound effects and jokey commentary but it's also the earliest Lord Blears we have, a pretty good look at Kovacs and Finkelstein knocking Marconi around the ring, and a shoulder tackle heavy comeback by (Gorilla) Marconi. Kovacs hit pretty hard and Marconi took a nice bump to the floor (preceded by one heel warning the other with a tap on the back). Probably the biggest thing to see here, however, was Blears dropkicking everyone and throwing spin kicks (the Negro Casas variation). He went a bit overboard with it, and the finish was his hair getting pulled mid-air by one of the heels as he was dropkicking the other causing him to take a pretty nasty bump. Someone should steal that. They bumbled around a bit before the pin but it was pretty believable as a match-ender relative to everything else that was happening. I picture him as the old guy announcing things in Japan or chummily commentating in Hawaii so it was striking to see him quite this young.

ER: Is this just the beginning of Matt deep diving into Delaware Catch? Delaware is possibly the state in the union I think the least about (Rhode Island? Mississippi? Montana?), and I couldn't even tell you if there is or was any kind of wrestling scene there. Hogan never worked there. Flair never worked there. WWF skipped out on Delware during the Hogan years and came back when business was dry, so the people of Delaware at least got to see most of the one month Buddy Landel 1995 WWF run, or an Ahmed Johnson/1-2-3 Kid dark match that I would want to see. I wonder how much crossover attendance this match from 1947 had with Scott Putski vs. Leif Cassidy 50 years later. Some poor man in his 70s telling someone, "I was here when James Blears threw some pretty great dropkicks." Marconi had a couple of cool Delaware Catch bumps, including one charging through the ropes to the floor, and an even cooler one where he does a kind of trust fall from the apron into the front row. The closing segment between Blears and Kovacs had some real stiff uppercuts (as well as some atrocious Foley work SFX, just pots and pans clanking whenever anyone made contact) and I loved how all of Blears' dropkicks played into the finish. He just kept throwing them, low, horizontal, feet pumped directly out in front of him, and just as I thought "man he's thrown like 9 of these straight, they're gonna catch on here", Finkelstein blocked one by grabbing his hair mid-flight and yanking him to the mat. Kick ass. 

Principe Island I (LA Park) vs. Principe Island II (Super Parka) 1988 Panama   Pt. 2

MD: Park (PI 1) was the champion here. This is after the mask match with Sandokan. His uncle, billed as his brother (we'll call him PI 2), had just lost his mask and had shaken hands with his opponent after the fact, angering PI 1. He's become a tecnico accordingly and his challenging his former partner here, now representing Panama. They start this out with some really basic and rudimentary holds: headlocks, wristlocks,etc., and I just get it through my head that PI 1/Park is still early in his career and obviously he'd trained with PI 2, so things would stay simple but well-worked and full of basic struggle. Not a bad thing at all.

That's not at all what happens though. Things escalate and escalate and escalate until midway through the primera, PI 1 hoists his uncle up on his shoulder and hits sort of a fall away FU out of a fireman's carry. Park had all of his physical charisma and as much agility as he'd ever have in his career and they were moving on to handsprings and bounding springboard armdrags off the ropes. Park was more than happy to tumble head over heels into the ropes or through the ropes. All of this builds to an amazing finish with PI 2 hitting quebradoras to rousing applause from the crowd, and finally launching himself through the ropes with a tope which Park ducks, leading to a mindblowing sunset flip onto the floor and the countout. Really just an amazing primera.

The segunda started with a bunch of cutesy mirrored stuff where the idea was that they knew each other so well, and quickly moved along to Park using all of the tricked out submissions that they had kept in their holsters in the primera. This built as well, crescendoing to Park diving through the ropes with a huge midair flip and the countout fall.

Then for the tercera they went right into one pin attempt after another. I'm not going to say it was all smooth, but there was plenty of technique and imagination. Very back and forth and with the idea that it could probably end at any moment. Park hit a flying hammer. PI 2 dropped him with a sit out powerbomb. It all built to two huge (if conventional relative to what came before) dives, a nearfall I bought with Park's spinning back kick (as he had used it to win a fall against Sandokan previously) and a very slick switch into a Gory Special for the win. It felt like two guys who knew each other very well, with big ideas, a black canvas, and no reason not to put it all out there. I'm not sure there's any 80s lucha title match on tape quite like it.

ER: We have been posting newly unearthed unseen wrestling footage every Friday for 5 years now, and it still amazes me how much high quality is appearing on such a consistent basis. We are truly living in golden times. As much stuff as we've written about, it's all still exciting, and this footage of LA Parka working Panama is the earliest Park we've written about. It's an incredible find, illuminating a peak even longer than Park diehards have realized. This is a long, exhausting title match that was grueling in the way that family feuds can be, evidence of the kind of inspired brilliance Park has brought across 5 decades. This had big longform drama, 30 or more pinfall attempts, tons of bumps into a firm ring and even bigger bumps to the floor, huge dives, inventive roll-ups, just a real ahead of its time find. A lot of the exchanges felt so modern, some impressive body control from a guy who looked like a lanky punk and another guy with incredible John Oates Private Eyes hair. 

LA Park has to be considered one of the greatest bumpers in wrestling history. His bumping here in his mid-20s is as big as our biggest bumping luchadors. His Jerry bump is as high as Jerry's, he hits the turnbuckles so hard on a whip that the crowd clearly thought he broke the ring, and he had a bump backwards through the ropes on a kickout that's a great example of him using a bump to surprise the viewer. He was bumping this well in 1989, and in 2023 he's still known for painful falls, on an increasingly larger frame. His uncle takes his own big bumps, including hard fast one to the floor that gets him met with a super fast tope suicida, like a bowling pin being whipped into his head. He powerbombs LA Park onto the back of the head later, but nobody was getting out of this war easy. They built to several plausible finishes and knew how to end each fall in a big way. The tope suicida sunset flip that left Park on the floor made the entire arena lunge out of their seats and swarm the ring. LA Park's straight suicide and Super Parka's incredible long distance plancha did the same. Maybe some of the pinfalls went on too long, maybe some falls could have been trimmed, but this felt like a big 80s territory title match the whole time. Outstanding. 

Tracy Smothers vs. Sabu UWA 4/14/99

MD: Everything you'd want from 16 minutes of these two in a random indy, starting with Smothers jawing on the mic, leading the fans in one chant after the other by threatening violence on all of them and begging them not to chant ECW since he just got fired from there, and ending with him shoving the bald ref around and eating a stunner from him like he got shot by a cannon. In the middle, there was plenty to see: Smothers challenging Sabu to chain wrestle him and that lasting for about a minute before elbows and punches entered the fray; most of the transitions in the match being Smothers grabbing at a leg or Sabu sneaking an awkward kick in from the ground, or Smothers just tossing himself at Sabu, nothing pretty, nothing clean; Sabu jumping all around the place; Smothers jawing at everyone proclaiming Sabu not to be too tough; the table introduced relative early and then the guy with the camera having to change film/batteries/etc, and missing the eventual spot. You don't even care about the last one because there was just as much chance the wrestlers would have missed it anyway. This was great fun and a good use of a quarter-hour.

ER: This is a perfect match, because you can show it to your buddy who has never heard of Tracy Smothers or Sabu and he gets to see almost the entire routine in full in the perfect setting: an expo center at a fairgrounds in a mid-size Tennessee town. Tracy threatens everyone in the building with mass scale homicide and hilariously says "I don't want to hear anyone chant ECW. I just got fired from that place." I don't think I realized Smothers was fired from ECW in 1999, but he would know better than I, and sure enough he didn't work any dates starting in April until returning several months later. What's fun, is that this Tracy/Sabu match might be the first one we have, as he and Sabu wrestled on several ECW house shows, but not until Tracy returned later in 1999. Tracy was in great shape and basically worked a Will Ferrell bit the entire time while also being violent. He worked this like a dad that wasn't just yelling about his Dodge Stratus, he was also throwing stiff elbows to the back of the neck and punching Sabu in the kidneys and standing on his throat. 

I thought the work was really tight. Sabu kept punching Smothers full force in the forehead and Smothers leaned into all of them, so they always looked good brawling each other into position. The first ECW VHS I traded for in the 90s was a house show where Sabu moonsaulted face first onto an upturned table leg. Here his jaw is still taped up and Smothers throws several punches into it. They found smart ways to set up prop spots. When Sabu first grabbed a table and started dragging it to the ring, Tracy played dead until one of the legs started to collapse, and the second Sabu went to fix the leg Tracy pounced on him. Tracy could be downright great at occupying himself while waiting for someone to set up a table or a dive. I love how he got himself back onto the table, by missing a clothesline into the ringpost and taking one punch right to the face to fall right on it. Our cameraman gets really poetic, turning away from the action before settling on a wheelchair, picking up the action again when Sabu and Smothers were already lying in the remnants of a shattered table. We got the Scorsese of Cookeville filming this wrestling over here. 

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Found Footage Friday: IWRG RETRO~! HIJO DEL SANTO~! SUPER PARKA~! REY BUCANERO~! SCORPIOS~! CEREBROS BEFORE CEREBROS~!

IWRG Retro 11/12/22

Guerra C3/Multifacetico 2 vs Super Atlas/Epidemia 2/21/02

MD: Quick opener in two caidas. Guerra C3 would become Cerebro Negro but here he was capitalizing on the prequels with a Star Wars gimmick. I don't think we've ever written about Epidemia here but he had cow-print type pants and passed himself off as a virus with that. He was paired with Multifacetico 2 in the primera and they had a solid mat exchange, nothing fancy but some struggle in there. In the segunda, when the rudos took over, Atlas hit pretty hard while Epidemia had a lot of dropkick set-ups (like out of a stunner). Both of them were throwing themselves into the dropkicks. The big comeback was basically Multifacetico pointing to the ceiling and tricking Epidemia, which as big comeback moments go, was dubious at best, but this was fun for what it was overall.

Azor vs Neblina 7/28/96

MD: Azor was a short lived gimmick (hawk mask with wings on the side) for the young Dr. Cerebro, and what I can tell you from seeing this one was that he absolutely had it early on. Talk about a guy who just got it. There was nothing innovative or fancy here. He just beat Neblina all around the ring, peppering in kicks and knees and shots, choking him on the ropes and, once they got to the segunda, pulling on the mask and working the wound. He just had this confident, consistent way of moving around the ring and drowning Neblina from having any space to move. There was chicanery between the ref cutting off Neblina's comebacks and Azor's second (Samoano) sneaking in to help at times, but that didn't really detract. Azor was just able make the most out of all of it. Neblina's comeback, when it came, mostly involved getting cut off a couple of times, the expected quebradora and some revenge mask ripping. Azor had won the primera with a hidden object of all things, slipped to him by his second and then placed into the tights and at the end of the segunda, Neblina got it and smashed Azor with it, but in front of the ref to draw the DQ. Nice early look at Cerebro here.

Hijo del Santo/Mascara Sagrada/Super Parka vs Scorpio, Sr./Scorpio, Jr./Rey Bucanero 12/2/1999

MD: This started with a rudo beatdown and never really settled down into exchanges or sequences, even over three caidas. Old man Scorpio was a sight, carrying a proper gut with all the heft to his blows that came with that, with a face that seemed to be melting right off of his skull, held on maybe only by his mustache, long hair that screamed for an apuestas match, and a surly disposition that leaned towards sneaking in a foul whenever he could. He directed traffic like the best of the rudo captains and for most of the match it worked. When it didn't, Santo was able to dodge a shot and the tecnicos got back into it, both in the primera and to set up the finish in the tercera. You had to like the balance on the rudo side, with Bucanero bringing some flash and innovation in his offense and his bumps, carrying Super Parka over his shoulder into the corner (until he crashed into it himself), skidding across the mat to the floor face first later. Scorpio, Jr. could bring some speed and intensity to the beatdown and then recoil from all of Santo's comeback shots on the floor. On the tecnico side, Parka got to dance and spin when clowning Bucanero and Sagrada was where he ought to have been when he ought to have been there, but all eyes were on Santito throughout. During the second comeback, he fought off all comers, slipping on one submission after the next. The finishing stretch was nothing if not amusing, with Scorpio, Sr. pulling a ref down to take the flipping senton for him and then hitting a perfect foul with no ref to count it. Santo got his revenge with a foul of his own but by then the ref was recovered and he drew the DQ. If this led to a hair vs mask match, I hope that gets uncovered as well, as it was a great finish to build anticipation for such a thing.

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New Footage Friday: CRYBABY BOB!! SANTO! SUPER PARKA! ! DUSTY! PEDRO! FUJINAMI! INOKI!

Crybaby Bob Corby vs. Sheik Lawrence of Arabia NWA-Los Angeles 2/19/51

MD: Eight minutes of pure entertainment. Corby's definitely my kind of heel: always on, totally committed, and able to be both dangerous and credible with his offense and a complete coward when he loses advantage. He was lightning quick when taking offense, like how he was ready for Lawrence's initial somersault, but then he was just as quick to try to dive behind the ref when the tide turned. And the fans responded accordingly. A group of female fans in the front row throwing jelly beans at a heel because he tried to pull the tights to get a pin is the most 1950s Americana thing possible and a fun counterpoint to all the French Catch we've been seeing lately.

PAS: This was a blast. Corby was a really fun over the top bad guy. I could almost see him as an oafish bank robber in a Keystone Cops short. The fact that he enraged the mothers in the crowd so much that they were chucking jelly beans at him, just incredible stuff. He controlled much of the match with his antics and hard shots, but I liked the little glimpses of Sheik Lawrence we got as well. He seemed really agile, and his Argentinian Backbreaker into a airplane spin into a backslide was a nifty bit of business, someone should jack that finisher.

ER: Loved this look at the LA wrestling scene from a time where my grandpa would have been watching. Crybaby Bob Corby is getting reactions from women in the crowd from the second his name is announced, and it's cool to see a Sheik gimmick as a handsome soft cheeked babyface (as if the next 70 years of wrestling weren't about to happen). This of course is the infamous TE Lawrence, whose pro wrestling career would be made into a real crowd pleaser of a film just a decade later. Lawrence had this fun spinny pirouette bumps off of Crybaby Bob's cheapshot punches, spinning into the mat like he was in a Looney Tunes short. Bob threw several rabbit punches into the back of the Sheik's head, then would run crying and cowering to the ref any time Sheik mounted any kind of comeback. Crybaby had several early variations on Eddie Guerrero's running on his knees to hug his partner at the waist, always trying to get the ref in between he and Lawrence. The ref was a former boxer from the 30s, Cecil Payne. He was billed as 5'5" in his boxing days but he towers over these two like Sterling Hayden, so either those numbers are wrong or Bob and Sheik are 5'2 with good posture. The women of all ages kept getting more loud and upset at Bob's cowardice, and I absolutely adore stuff like that in old pro wrestling. Phil accurately described the awesomeness of Sheik's finish run; some small but strong guy like Lorcan or Gulak could pull that off convincingly and make it work in a match.


Antonio Inoki/Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Dusty Rhodes/Pedro Morales NJPW 10/26/79

PAS: Fun opportunity to see two of the most iconic babyfaces in wrestling history work cheap shot heel, and they are pretty great at it. Dusty has such an iconic vibe, and it is cool that we get to see him apply that vibe to evil rather than to good. Match moves along at a nice pace and then really kicks into gear near the end, with Fujinami hitting an awesome bullet tope which sent Pedro flying into chairs. I wonder how many topes Morales took during his career? It can't be a ton, but he took it like a seasoned luchador.

MD: This was a lot of fun. There are only so many heel Dusty matches in existence and while it's a little different when he's a foreigner, he was so good in the role. I don't know if many other heel Pedro matches exist (do any?), and while the first couple of minutes of him being on the wrong end of Fujinami's headlock (which was a strange place for him to be considering he was the one working the shine for most of his career) wasn't exactly dynamic, he seemed to enjoy himself once they started to heel it up. Dusty was great at playing chickenshit and then seizing upon weakness when he saw it. When they did take over, it was by cutting off the ring, making quick tags, frequent double teams, illegal and legal, and goozling there opponent. Once Fujinami made the first hot tag to Inoki, they were just relentless, with the ref admonishing one while the other cheated away and then vice versa. The fans were hugely into this, just a constant buzz, and every time it went to the floor, the beatdown became electric. It had an almost lucha feel with the momentum shifts mattering more than the tags (even rolling hot ones) and with Dusty fouling Inoki from behind once it was obvious he'd taken control to end the first fall. For every cool thing, like Pedro's double stomp or Dusty working over Inoki's stomach through the ropes from the floor, there were certain things that looked iffy like Pedro not making it on a whip or Dusty's hilarious pile driver on the floor, but some of that was counterbalanced by the fact Dusty was doing a pile driver on the floor to get heat, you know? Good look at some legends and a rare look at two of them playing roles that they sparsely played by 79.

ER: I've seen very little heel Dusty, and I'm sure I've never seen any heel Pedro, and I'm pretty sure I'm in love. With the crowd rapturously behind Inoki and an impossibly fired up babyface performance from Fujinami, it was a perfect canvas for two super charismatic babyfaces to show off their heel side. Heel Pedro is a real revelation for me. I've seen enough hot comeback dropkick Pedro, but I've never seen "kick someone directly in the ear" Pedro. Morales was such a thug in this match, it was nuts! He was landing shots on Inoki like Inoki was some young lion, and Dusty was this super cocky opportunist sneaking shots where he could. I loved the spot where Pedro was holding Inoki in a full nelson and trying to let Dusty get in close for a cheap shot, but Inoki keeps kicking his legs out at Dusty, fighting every piece of dirty work. Everything on the floor was really electric, and the Fujinami tope is a real all timer. You can see him building up that head of steam and just letting loose, looked like he flew 12 feet. Matt is right about the outside brawling having a real lucha feel, and that tope just rubber stamped it. I'd love to see how rabid an Arena Mexico crowd would get for a match like this.


El Hijo Del Santo/Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Blue Demon Jr./Super Parka Lucha Libre Reynosa 2/2/08

MD: This was quite the spectacle. A couple of clips but nothing too worrisome. Lots of posturing post match after Wagner turns on Santo, but if you're going to have posturing peppered with post match brawling (and even a dive) these are two good guys to do it. Some overachieving here (Super Parka looked really spry for 2008) and the underachieving you'd expect (Blue Demon's offense looked really good; his bumping and selling less so). The star power carried this though. By 2008, Wagner was a victim of his own charisma and he'd ham it up to an extreme extent but that's what the crowd wanted. The crowd brawling when the rudos took over in the segunda looked good but we were missing a chunk of it due to the camera angles. It devolved first to mask pulling and then to lots of miscommunication between partners, including Santo hitting the somersault senton (pre-dive) on Wagner by accident. That led into the finish and the post-match posturing. Worth watching but something like this is just too weighed down by the sheer mass of its combatants to settle on being great.

PAS: There is no wrestler in history that enjoy watching go through his formula as much as I enjoy watching Santo. He pretty much just breaks out his greatest hits during the wrestling portion of this. match, and man do I love those hits, three great dives, his spinning headscissors, just awesome to watch. Pretty bizarre that Wagner and Demon would go on to have the MOTY 11 years after this match, as their exchanges weren't much here. Super Parka brought some brawling and bumping to the table, and the post match was cool. I didn't really buy the turn, they really should have had Santo hitting Wagner lead to the finish or something, because he just shrugs it off and does some two count exchanges before deciding he was pissed off and attacking Santo. I would be excited to see the singles match this sets up, hopefully that is sitting around somewhere too.

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RIP Silver King, Part 3

Silver King/Dr. Wagner Jr./Fuerza Guerrera/Pierroth Jr. vs. La Parka/Super Parka/Emilio Charles Jr./Antifaz Del Norte Monterrey 7/9/00    Pt. 2    Pt. 3

ER: This was during the era of getting excited to buy Monterrey tapes based upon on paper match-ups, and then getting the tape and realizing a significant portion of the match was going to be devoted to the two referees. And this had that! And maybe it's just the mood I was in while watching this, but I didn't mind it. You still had 8 absolutely fantastic in the year 2000 luchadors (yes Pierroth obviously ruled, all Pierroths do; Antifaz was a guy I don't think about in 2019 who I really liked during this era). You get King and Wagner as stooging brothers, a great sequence with Pierroth and Park holding each other up by their shirts as they slap each other silly (Pierroth especially is so fun here, really milking that holding onto Park's shirt was the only thing keeping him standing), Emilio Charles is always fun as a fired up babyface away from Arena Mexico, and Antifaz shows that he was good back then and that I wasn't crazy. The whole primera is the rudo team (both teams look like on paper rudo teams, but when in doubt just assume the one with Fuerza is it and you'll almost always be correct) beating down the tecnicos, hitting them with garbage and brawling around the ring. Segunda is the comeuppance and ref involvement, with the tecnicos dragging a section of connected arena seats into the ring and sending King and Pierroth into them, then getting all 4 rudos seated while kicking over the seats. The ref spots are actually fairly funny and executed well, with Parka getting beaten down by the four rudos in a huddle, and then swapping the ref for himself without the rudos noticing. If you're going to work some kind of a Bugs Bunny spot, Park seems like one of the few that would be able to make it work. We do get a great Park dive, a nice splingshot splash by Super Parka, mean spots like SP getting rammed balls first into the ringpost and then getting Emilio Charles' head tossed into his groin, and seemingly the entire tercera is made up of ballshots. This whole thing was spirited and felt like everyone having a great time on a house show, which will almost always be my thing.

Black Tiger III/Atlantis/Vampiro vs. Dr. Wagner Jr./Universo 2000/Mascara Ano 2000 CMLL 6/15/01

ER: This is really fun as we get two brothers colliding, the criminally underrated early 2000s Dinamitas tearing it up, Atlantis getting stretchered out after taking a Wagner Driver, Atlantis reminding me of what a damn athlete he still was in 2001, and...Vampiro. 83% is something I would be cool with on my report cards, so I should be cool with it in my lucha trios. A lot of this feels like the Dinamitas show and while Universo wasn't the captain here he was certainly the primary shit disturber. Dinamitas were great bullies and I could watch a match of them just putting boots to guys like Atlantis. They always get it paid back, and I dug Universo falling on front row regulars to draw sympathy (god I hate that stupid ring barricade they've had this decade), and Mascara takes a wildly fast bump to the floor off Atlantis' tumbleweed. Wagner outdoes them both and makes Vampiro appear to be not a load: Vampiro throws Wagner merely towards the crowd, and Wagner goes off and tope con hilos himself into the second row, turning one poor individual into the most expected base of the day. They should've signed that guy, it was a great catch. King-as-Tiger hits his big caida ending rapid moonsaults and we get two different sequences of Tiger/Wagner, both working some playful spots off rope running, with a great moment of Tiger headbutting Wagner when he goes for a leapfrog. I only remember seeing the brothers in CMLL on opposite sides a couple times during this era, and this was a fun look at that.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Park Familia v. Rush Familia

77. LA Park/Super Parka/ Hijo de LA Park v. Rush/Pierroth/Toscano Liga Elite 4/27

ER: This was great. It was worked at Arena Mexico, but worked as if they were playing a county fair to people who had never seen lucha before. It was great. Everybody brawls into the crowd in the primera and the crowd gets suitably riled. Park Jr. gets whooped around ringside, taking a great post bump, Pierroth walks up to the skeleton crew and throws a full beer in their face; Park and Rush are always the stars in this kind of act, they're larger than life and it's impossible to look away as they stiff the hell out of each other among the fans. Park and Jr. get run into the metal announcer nest, and soon Park disappears and comes back with a box of beer bottle empties and banks it off Rush's head. Broken glass flies onto the announcers desk. Park hits one of his huge dives onto Rush, and Park Jr. hits a huge plancha on Toscano into the front row, crashing Toscano painfully into the seats. We then settle into more county fair work, with Park working comedy chop sequences with all the rudos, starting with he and Rush chopping each other (and Rush winning the battle with nasty knife edges to the throat), but soon Park was chopping them all. The ones between he and Rush felt sinister. This felt like Super Parka's best performance since returning to Arena Mexico. He's 60, which only made those armdrags on Toscano more impressive. Rush also has a primo dickhead performance, my favorite moment being where he pins Park, but Park kicks out, rolling Rush right onto and over the referee. As they both stand up, Rush shoves the ref in the back of the head. I love how these teams match up, and any time Rush/Park are on opposite sides it's must watch.

PAS: I am not sure whether anyone in this match besides PARK and Rush was any good, but those guys are so great it really didn't matter. PARK has gotten so fat, I have no idea how his tope is still as graceful as it is, how does an obese man in his 50s fly like that. There was a great spot which Eric didn't mention in the beginning of the first fall where Rush and Toscano were using a midget as a weapon, it was sort of an awkward camera angle and it really looked like they were using a 10 year old as a bludgeon, before chucking him into the seats. This kind of Tijuana style match is still a total anomaly in Arena Mexico and it was really fun to watch someone get brained with a case of beer in the temple of Lucha Libre once again.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Lucha Worth Watching: More Dragon Lee/Kamaitachi and Porky vs. Ingobernales

Dragon Lee v. Kamaitachi (CMLL 11/27/15)

ER: This is the WorldWide match of all WorldWide matches right here. I am not sure how two guys could cram more into 6 1/2 minutes. This is a lightning match so you have that large clock looming in the background at all times, and after a breathless segment of ducked strikes and missed charges and reversed armdrags the camera pans back to show that we were only 58 seconds into this whole thing. Sheesh. Psych is out the window here, this is just two cool athletes showcasing their coolest shit, and it's most definitely cool. Kamaitachi has a couple cool Canadian Destroyer variations that he's able to hit without it being expected (the match ender off a Lee powerbomb attempt was NOT what I expected to happen). Both men have been taking stupid bumps and murdering the other for practically two years now and this whole thing is no different. Kamaitachi suckers in Lee when Lee attempts to do his top rope stomp, sends Lee flipping fast and painfully to the floor, then caves his neck in with a lariat sending Lee over the ringside barricade. Feet fly into faces, stomps get laid in snug, both men take ludicrous headdrops, Lee breaks out a typical gorgeous dive. These guys enjoy making each other's offense look nasty, and I enjoy watching them murder themselves.

Rush, La Sombra & La Mascara vs. Super Porky, Super Parka & Angel de Oro (CMLL 10/9/15)

ER: I didn't go into this one expecting too much, it being buried in the middle of a card featuring a singles match tournament, but something about the match-up intrigued me. Ingobernales are the big trios team, and here they were against a curiously tossed together team, none of whom have anything to do with one another. I mean, Porky and Parka share a Super, and Porky's arm is silver while he's teaming with a gold angel, but those are some loose slippery connections. I was drawn to this one as it's Ingobernales versus an undercard, weird team. It's not quite the 4 Horseman vs. Joey Maggs, Frankie Lancaster and Men at Work, but it's an odd match-up for a big team. And nobody dogs it, which everybody essentially could have. We come *this* close to getting one of THOSE Porky performances, the kind where a bunch of bullies pick on him until he snaps and starts stiffing dudes. He does throw more strikes than normal and they are plenty stiff, after all the Ingobernales take turns seeing who can slap him harder. Rush was a king-sized cocky beast in this, slicking his hair back after throwing stiff kicks, laughing off strikes to blast Oro and Parka with his sick thrust headbutts. Mascara and Sombra are left bumping around for Porky comebacks, including his running bombs away on the rampway, and even better a trust fall senton on both of them. Parka knocked them down and kept jumping on them with splashes, and we were all waiting for Porky to do a sloppy belly first leap....and then he just turns around and timmmberrrrr falls backwards onto them. Squish. It set up a great spot later when it looked like Porky looks like he might finally get one up on Rush, knocks him unexpectedly on his ass, does a quick trust fall...but alas Rush moves and then gives Porky a double stomp. Parka and Oro hit stereo dives and Parka is a lunatic near-60 year old man!! Doing a dive sounds crazy to now-35 year old me, I can't imagine it will sound like a better idea in 25 years. Oro is getting better about picking his spots and looks better for it. Ingobernales did tons of terrific poses all throughout. One of the poses looked like if all three decided on the three gayest 1995 Shawn Michaels poses and then did all of them, so you have Sombra lying down all spread awkwardly like Michael's Playgirl photoshoot, while Rush stands over him doing the sexy boy dance, while Mascara kinda fawns over Sombra's abs. It was glorious. Shoot just writing about the match makes me love the match that much more.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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MLJ: Misterioso/Volador 7: Ángel Azteca, Volador I, Winners vs Misterioso, Solar I, Super Calo II

1994-03-19 @ Toluca, Estado de México
Ángel Azteca, Volador I, Winners vs Misterioso, Solar I, Super Calo

Here's the next chapter in the Misterioso/Volador saga, and this was another good match with some real progression. This was more focused than the previous match, which had sparks and schisms all around. Here, the issue was definitely Misterioso's attitude, with a clear excalation as the match went on.

The primera was the initial, logical exchanges. Solar and Azteca began and it was very solid, even stuff playing up the familiarity between the partners. Winners vs Super Calo followed. Once again, Winners was surprisingly over. I might have to track down their mask match at some point. They sped things up a bit and held up each other's hands at the end. We would not get that sense of brotherhood from Volador and Misterioso though; well, maybe from Volador who wanted a handshake/handslap. Misterioso was reluctant but eventually went for it. He was walking around with swagger, complaining, interacting with the crowd. They had a good, competitive exchange, which ended with Volador wanting a handshake and Misterioso turning it into a whip only to get armdragged for his trouble, which pleased neither wrestler. Misterioso, frustrated, pushed Volador only for it to turn back on him with a body press:

That was the story of their break up. Misterioso would show frustration and bad sportsmanship and outright aggression and Volador would go with it and turn it back upon him. The fall ended with Azteca/Volador/Winners side going over after a submission suplex on Solar and Calo. Meanwhile, Misterioso dropped to a knee, wanting a handshake. Volador gave it to him but the second he showed his back, Misterioso tried for a dropkick. Volador dodged and, having had enough, dropkicked him and let loose with a very satisfying tope.

The segunda was just more well put together action, with Misterioso selling indignation from what just happened and some mixing of the pairings. It came back to Volador vs Misterioso though, with Misterioso trying to take advantage of a handshake once again, and Volador refusing to take advantage of placing his partner on the top, only to get kicked for his good sportsmanship:

The fall ended with the other partners facing back against each other, getting their falls back, and a Misterioso tope on Volador, in a nice parallel.

Everything broke down in the tercera. It was enjoyable chaos surrounding the focus of Misterioso and Volador. Here, the big moment was Volador once again having enough and finally crushing Misterioso with a quebradora to the crowd's delight. From there, it was a matter of getting the other four out of the way, including a great assisted Calo dive onto Winners. Once it was Volador vs Misterioso again, they went to the finish, including Misterioso hanging on to the ref to stop a sunset flip, drawing boos in the process. In the end, though, Volador turned a Misterioso Victory Roll attempt into a drop onto the top rope and followed it up with a roll up to score the first win between the two. This built off the last match really well. Misterioso was well on the way and the distinction between his aggression and Volador's reluctance played out perfectly.

Here are some fun Calo moments, just because.

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MLJ: Misterioso/Volador 6: Misterioso, Solar I, Super Calo vs Ángel Azteca, Volador I, Winners

1994-03-05 @ Cuautla, Morelos
Misterioso, Solar I, Super Calo vs Ángel Azteca, Volador I, Winners

Occasionally, I go back too far on these little mini-projects. I wanted to get to the Volador vs Misterioso mask match. That was in part due to the fine folks at Between the Sheets talking it up on their podcast. It was in part due to the timeliness of Super Parka showing up in Arena Mexico. Then I got distracted, so now it's a half aborted project consisted of non-consecutive matches of Misterioso and Volador teaming, which is fine, because they're a good team that doesn't get talked up enough. Let's see if we can't finish this up though. Bear with me on this one though.

Here's a match where the schism happens. It's kind of cool in premise, too, serving as a sort of parejas increibles match. Winners (who became Abismo Negro later; he was super over with the kids, by the way) and Super Calo were partners (with mostly matching gear). Azteca and Solar teamed up a lot. Misterioso and Volador were obviously partners. This match split them, paired them, and pitted them against one another. The primera, which was the most straightforward part of the match was full of good stuff, like some fairly elaborate monkey flip spots, lots of sequence, and a really nice dodge of a kick by Solar turned into an armdrag:

And this was really about as fun as you'd expect a match with partners, very familiar with one another, pairing off. In fact, the one thing that dragged it down a bit as a standalone exhibition was the one thing that makes it interesting in the context of the other matches: Misterioso's bad attitude. It started early, with him the only person in the match who didn't seem to want to be there. He was very hesitant to tag in, really milking it. He did tag in and worked some really fast stuff with Volador. Later int he primera, however, Solar pushed Azteca in a moment of frustration (which didn't work anyway since Azteca just kipped up and clotheslined him). Misterioso feigned upsetness over it, though.

Solar took the first fall for his team on Azteca with a roll up. The segunda started with Misterioso vs Volador, with some effective scouting spots, ending with Volador's quebradora. Misterioso sold it big, rolling outside, seeming offended. They ended up shaking though. The cracks kept coming too with Azteca pushing Winners on the outside after taking a big bump and Winners responding by dropkicking him over the barricade. They made up, though and, shortly thereafter, Azteca would take the fall on Solar in a nice bit of symmetry.

The tercera had more of the same, good action and increasing complaining. It started early when Misterioso thought that a back body drop by Volador on Calo (really just the receipt on one just taken) was too harsh. Later on, the ref lazily pushed Volador over on a Misterioso sunset flip attempt and when Volador complained, the two started pushing one another again.

The action kept mounting, culminating with a dive train, with each luchador getting a tope in. Maybe it's something that happened more in AAA, and it's now the sort of thing WWE does in their multiman tag matches all the time, but I haven't seen that specific sort of train too much in lucha, so it really stood out. It also set up the finish, which was Solar locking la tapatia onto Azteca, Azteca sitting up out of it, and Misterioso, really in bad faith, walking in and punching him, causing a double pin and everyone to be all the more upset.

This was really good for what it was. It's interesting that Misterioso and Volador weren't the only heated partners here, especially because, as best as I can tell, this was part of a bigger turn for Misterioso that had been going on even prior to this match. I think it probably would have been better if it was a little more focused in that regard, but it felt more human and less forced as it was. This would lead to a rematch, which is where we are headed next.

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CMLL Worth Watching 8/23/15 & 9/11/15

Blue Panther, Dragon Lee & Stuka Jr. vs. Kamaitachi, Ripper & Rey Bucanero (8/23/15)

Oh man this was fun. Nothing at stake, just all these guys you like doing things you want to see. Bucanero and Panther get a long roll on the mat, and it never fails to impress me how smooth a fluid Panther still does things, rolling through a leg lock or doing a side roll to advance a transition just isn't done better by anybody else in lucha, let alone guys half his age. In the segunda he locks Bucanero into an ankle lock that actually looks like it hurts, a rarity! I live for these little 2 minute mat segments of Panther. Even doing things like quickly bumping through the ropes to the floor are done like he's not even in control of his body, his muscle memory just allows it to happen. Like he bumps backwards off a shoulder block, out through the bottom and middle rope, lands on his feet and has no idea how he got there. His body just knows what to do. Ripper brings back his gorgeous flipping Cassandro bump, kind of fusing a somersault Hamrick bump to the floor with a Cassandro wrap-around the post bump, and Stuka's signature stuff always impresses me. Lee/Kamaitachi has been one of the more fun match-ups of the last year as they always go hard at each other, with each taking stupid bumps at awkward angles, both working blindingly fast and really know each other like the back of their respective hands. Lee always flies stupidly into Kamaitachi's rampway sprint dropkick, always dumping himself ass over elbow, Kamaitachi also dumps him with a couple of rolling Germans, and later Lee hits the craziest high speed flip dive to the floor, just leveling Lee. Every time these two are in against each other it's total must see. Wrestlers you like, doing wrestling you like. Easy recommendation.

Marco Corleone, Rush & Maximo vs. Super Parka, Volador Jr. & Valiente (9/11/15)

Hey I didn't realize Super Parka was also coming in! He is truly old (just about 60) so I'm an instant sucker for this. Rush and Marco don't let up on him, and after a little bit of early awkwardness Parka settles in fine. Marco looked really great here, more inspired and nasty than I've seen him a...sheesh all year. His left hands were awesome, blasting Valiente several times, leveling everybody with shots. This was technically two tecnico teams but Rush's team was obviously default rudos, and they all thrived in the role. The three of them at one point set up Rush's "punt" feint, with Maximo holding the invisible ball (laces out, hopefully). Parka and Volador work nice together and I always love father/son dynamics. Volador works like an actual brawling badass here, his pops already being a good influence. Volador also bumps like a loon, peaking with a flip bump on the apron off a Marco punch....and then getting up and doing the same damn thing right after! Parka hit a nice 60 yr old man tope, Marco hit 3 variations of his big no hands crossbody (seriously Marco looked really great throughout this), both teams had well set up moments where a big dive hit their own teammate, with Marco doing a crossbody to Maximo, and Valiente diving into Volador. Parka was really fun here, wandering around punching guys (especially cracking Maximo a few times), kind of like a late career  Pierroth. Super fun match. I want a Park/Parka/Volador team to take on Rush/Comandante Pierroth/Dragon Lee team. Make this happen!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Also, this sell of a corner shot by Sevilla:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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