New Footage Friday: FUJIWARA! SUPER TIGER! MASCARA CONTRA MASCARA! JUMBO! TAUE! FUCHI! MISAWA! KAWADA KIKUCHI!

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Super Tiger UWF 1/16/85 - EPIC

PAS: Tiger vs. Fujiwara is in the discussion with Lawler vs. Dundee, Santo vs. Casas, Misawa vs. Kawada of all time greatest matchups. Our pal Charles from PWO DM's me and says "I think I found a HH Tiger vs. Fujiwara that wasn't out there before" 2021 is already turning the corner.  

I am not sure where this stands in the pantheon of their matchups, but it was a hand to god wrestling treasure. The story in this is familiar, Fujiwara works for various submissions, while Sayama unloads a Dresden level firebombing on his body.  Can Fujiwara find a tendon to snap before Tiger beats him to death? Sayama just mauls Fujiwara's thigh with gross kneedrops and kicks. It is so relentless and violent looking that it seems like Fujiwara might never walk without a cane.  Fujiwara does land some nasty body shots, but he is mostly overwhelmed on his feet. There are very few wrestlers in history who are as brutal strikers as UWF era Sayama and some of the kicks and punches seemed to violate the unspoken agreement of professional wrestling. Despite that onslaught, Fujiwara is who he is, he can be getting blown out and beaten up, but if you stick out your arm or leg even a little bit, it is getting snatched. Fujiwara looks absolutely done, he is lying on his stomach while Tiger whip kicks him in the head and drops knees on his thigh. The ref pulls Tiger off to give Fujiwara a count, Fujiwara stumbles into the corner glassy eyed, but as Tiger approaches to put him down, Fujiwara catches the spin kick, grabs a fast waistlock and pulls him down. He then tries several attacks on the arm, until he maneuvers it into a key lock and snaps it like a breadstick. Wonderful mix of violence and skill. I am a Fujiwara guy, and finding a unseen prime classic like this, what a treat. 

MD: Absolutely elemental battle. Sayama is the wind, absolutely relentless, constantly driving forward, battering Fujiwara with piercing kicks, tearing apart the knee again and again and again, squeezing out of holds to restart the assault at the earliest opportunity. Fujiwara is the sea, repeatedly dissipated by Sayama's barrage but ever reassembling, patiently enduring the storm, calm and consistent, the wave of his arm able to reach around at any moment to pry off one of Sayama's limbs and recover the advantage. For all of the effusive, medium-criticism-defining praise of decades for Sayama's grace and execution, I connect with him most when he's tearing away at Fujiwara in the corner with his kicks. Later on, Fujiwara fluidly seeps out around Sayama's attempt to contain him and returns the favor with brutal punches in the corner; there's none of his occasional playfulness here given the stakes and the ferocity of Sayama's offense. Sayama wins on points by never stopping, by absolutely decimating Fujiwara's leg, but he's never able to fully take advantage of it, and all it takes is one opening, one mistake, one possibility for the sea to sweep forth and swallow the wind whole.

ER: This is listed as a Death Match, and while I'm not sure what that means within 1985 UWF, it's awesome that Fujiwara worked something billed as that sandwiched between days where he fought Terry Rudge. Can you imagine that schedule? How insanely tough is this man, who was taking on perhaps his greatest rival in a Death Match on a Wednesday, while no doubt getting pummeled on Tuesday and Thursday by Rudge. Handhelds are a pretty amazing glimpse at how our favorites worked when the cameras weren't on, and they almost always show us that a lot of them never held back no matter who was watching. Fujiwara is a punisher, but the most iconic images of him are of him taking a punishing beating. I loved the shots we got of him lying on his side, covering his body with one arm while keeping a hand in front of his face, only surviving because Tiger decided to catch his breath lest he get too tired kicking Fujiwara's ass. Fujiwara is the man this crowd wanted to see, hearing them chant his name while Ride of the Valkyries hit was like hearing AJ crowds go crazy for Misawa. And they kept willing him back into things even when Tiger looked like he was trying to cripple him. Tiger was a real monster here, and it occurred to me that there are probably a ton of people who know Tiger from the Dynamite Kid matches, that have never seen him in full UWF asskicker mode. His kicks to a grounded Fujiwara's head were disgusting, but his leg attacks were what really set this apart. His knee drops were incredibly cruel, dropping down as hard as possible on Fujiwara's hamstrings, including off the middle buckle. You knew at a certain point that Fujiwara was only going to target a keylock, and I loved seeing him weather this awful storm to get there. 

Aguila Solitario vs. Al Rojo Vivo CMLL 12/15/85

PAS: An unseen 80s mask match is pretty exciting, it gives you hope that more is still out there to be unearthed. This was pretty formulaic, but it is a great formula to watch. Rojo takes the first fall entirely rips the mask and bloodies Solitario a bit. Solitario is able to fight back and take the second fall leading a near fall heavy third. I liked the Solitario superfly splash he used to take the segunda, and how he came up short trying it again in the tercera. I could have used one more big moment, a huge bump, a crazy dive, a ton of blood. It was just missing the hook which would push this to another level. Still it was really cool to see, and a big moment in two wrestler's lives we got see play out.

MD: This was exactly what I wanted it to be and hugely refreshing to watch. Rojo Vivo launched the ambush right at the start and controlled the primera with a very solid beatdown. Very little pomp or bs. Aguila's comeback spot in the segunda was actually worked for more than you'd usually see in these. It wasn't a bolt of lightning but instead an errant, desperate backhand followed up by more desperate swipes and revenge-driven offense that really embraced selling the damage already done. At the same time, Aguila threw himself into it, making even armdrags feel like punishing revenge spots. The tercera was exciting, full of nearfalls that had me for a moment. Rojo Vivo turned the tide with a low blow on the outside and Aguila used that to express vulnerability and peril off and on in the stretch. He didn't have the world's best execution but it really didn't matter here because everything was believable and he kept the crowd connected.

Akira Taue/Jumbo Tsuruta/Masanobu Fuchi vs. Mitsuhara Misawa/Toshiaki Kawada/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi AJPW 3/29/92

MD: Great lost six man here. You look for the big things and the little ones with these. For big ones, you get the relative novelty of Kawada and Misawa working together, Kawada going at it with Taue, the huge feel of of Jumbo vs Misawa, and after spending a good chunk of the match avoding everyone and getting little shots in, the sheer inevitability of Jumbo crushing Kikuchi starting a really enjoyable peril segment for him where Fuchi demolishes him (including an amazing neckbreaker hold over the top rope) and Taue lawn darts him into the turnbuckle. The little stuff would be the specifics, like Misawa doing his headstand flip and going for a tag early on, only to realize he'd lost his ring positioning and was in the wrong corner, or Fuchi playing his usual bulldog self from the apron and rushing in to go straight for Kawada's eye to break a hold, that sort of thing. I thought the finishing stretch went on a bit too long, maybe, but that's a me thing. Otherwise, this was really good stuff with a pretty legendary four minute beatdown on Kikuchi that everyone should see.

PAS: Pissed off at the kids Jumbo is my all time favorite Jumbo. He seems to take such glee in brutalizing Kikuchi and man does he kill him here. Kikuchi taking these beatings multiple times a week really shortened his career, but he was one of the best ever at spunkily taking a pasting. Fuchi was a real fucker in this match too, he comes in and tries to rip Kawada's eye out, and enziguiris him right in the kidneys. Kawada was a great supporting player in this match, he was a level below then his opponents at this point, and it was fun to see the ultimate asskicker coming off the back foot instead of firing forward.  This was a Kikuchi show, bravely dying on his shield, and the barbarians who slaughtered him. 

ER: I love these six mans, and it's so incredible to see them working their charismatic, easy to follow formula at every house show. A special thing about this nearly 30 minute handheld, is that we have a genuine wrestling handheld maestro behind the camera. Our footage  shakes wildly for the first 30 seconds, and by the time the match starts the guy is doing perfect framing zooms, keeping all the action perfectly squared up the entire LONG match. When the match would break down and everyone would pair off, he'd manage to jump between all three pairs without missing action. This guy did some shots that made it seem like he knew exactly what moves were going to be happening, just an awesome familiarity with these guys. I honestly don't think I've ever seen a handheld match keep the action this well. I have to imagine he was part of some kind of community, the way Grateful Dead fans know the names of certain prominent tapers who got the best sound mix. I want to see his other work. 

The match was an awesome heel performance from grumpy Jumbo and his goons, Masa Fuchi and Akira Taue. This is the era of Jumbo I love, such a magnetic superstar in that ring. The handheld really gets you in with the crowd, and every time Jumbo showed off just why he still had reasonable claim to being the top dog, the crowd OOOOOOHHH'd along with him every time he pumped his fist. The whole match really picks up when Jumbo's team gets Kikuchi away from the pack and really lay in the kind of beating that Kikuchi took in 1992. Kikuchi is one of the toughest lunatics in wrestling history, and most prisoners don't see the kind of abuse this guy took in the early 90s. Taue lawn darts him face first into the turnbuckles, Fuchi hung him out to dry on the ropes, and Jumbo confidently injured him with a stiff Boston crab while keeping him away from his corner. We get the great fakeouts where Kikuchi is held back from making the tag, and all of it works really well. 

You really get to see how far Misawa came when you see him here versus him as the absolute top guy. Jumbo still comes off like the main hoss in All Japan here, and Misawa doesn't have quite the impact for me he would just a couple years later. Jumbo was practically out of wrestling just a few months after this match. Misawa is such a boss within two years, but here he still looked like a guy who wasn't quite able to move Jumbo around the way he wanted. Fuchi is so good as the second in command ass kicker, behind Jumbo. He never uses Jumbo to hide behind, but you can sense he feels emboldened having Jumbo there. He really rips at Kawada, and you always get a sense of glee when you know he's standing across from Kikuchi, like Kikuchi is his violence muse. But really this left me feeling like the perfect kind of match to soak in the 1992 brilliance of nearly/suddenly retired Jumbo and what might have been in the 90s, with more from a great year of underdog babyface work from Kikuchi. A great find, and a more complete look at one of the most fruitful rosters in wrestling history. 

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2000 Match of the Year

Atlantis vs. Villano III CMLL 3/17/00

PAS: We have been waiting for a while to write up this match, and talking about his most legendary performance is a great way to salute Villlano 3, what an all time great may he rest in power. I hadn't watched this in over a decade and it was as great as I remember. The early matwork was tight and crisp, and then Villano 3 goes rudo by unloading a punch and then taunting Atlantis. There is some brawling and we get some mask ripping by V3 and a big tope which splits both guys open (there is a great replay which shows them clashing heads like in a southpaw versus conventional boxing match). Atlantis especially is just gushing blood, and we get an epic lucha moment as his mask goes from white to pink to dark red. Much of the rest of the match was dramatic near fall after near fall, it isn't a match structure I normally love, but so much was at stake in this match, every close two count or big submission felt huge. These are both guys with great pacing and timing on the application of holds, Villano's escape of the first Alantida was awesome, just desperate hurling himself to the mat. After that escape he is just stumbling around holding the small of his back, he hits a clothesline to the back of Atlantis's head, but he doesn't have much left, and when he gets caught again, and Atlantis drops to his knees with the Atlantida, it is all over. Matches aren't bell to bell, and the dramatic teary unmasking, with his father Rey Mendoza removing his mask with his family around him was one of the great emotional moments in wrestling history. Pretty much a perfect wrestling match.

ER: Yeah I'd like to make it clear that when we started our All Time MOTY project we outlined the whole thing and put in placeholders for years we hadn't yet written up. This was the year 2000 MOTY from go, and now is as good a time as any to write it up. I'm with Phil, I haven't seen this in over a decade and watched it tonight right when I got home from work. It was better than I remembered. We get two very different dives in this match - a big plancha to the floor late in the match from Atlantis, and a big tope from V3 early. My favorite moment in any mask match is V5 getting the back of his head smashed into a chair  off a Blue Panther dive, causing a big blood stain to spread across the back of his mask. Here V3 clonks heads with Atlantis and Atlantis gets up trickling blood, which turns to a drip which evolves to a dark red soaked mask. V3 winds up with the entire right side of his mask as one large port wine stain. And bloody luchadors fighting for glory is always the best part of the best lucha matches.

I've gotten so tired of modern CMLL title matches that just devolve into a series of turn trading 2 count exchanges, that it was jarring how much I enjoyed these two doing just that. The stakes felt bigger, the falls felt dramatic, the submissions felt wrenched, and the crowd kept getting louder (also I forgot how jarring all the cutaway shots to mostly indifferent faces were in this era lucha). I was blown away by Villano's athleticism here. We've all seen plenty of V3's post-unmasking brawling matches from when he was (not much) older and moving slower, but there were moments here where he moved like Santo. I loved him popping up for a sub and rolling up Atlantis, pivoting his hips in the waistlock to turn it into a high cradle; later he (twice) pulls himself up out and over Atlantis during subs, looking as if he was being pulled skyward by an invisible force, the kind of thing you don't often see from guys half his age. He also picks and chooses when to use his short punches, throwing a few out early and then opting to play Atlantis' game, getting more and more frustrated by kickouts until he unloads on Atlantis in the corner with some shots that would make Satanico suck on his teeth. I like how both men worked in and out of submission predicaments and pinfalls, and the two Atlantida moments were spectacular. The home stretch sequence of V3 getting caught in it (and how often does someone escape that move once it?) followed by that nasty lariat to the back of the head, leading to V3 charging his way right into his doom, was expert. V3 hadn't charged Atlantis the entire match, but had to sense victory was near after that lariat and went for another. Arturo Mendoza graciously carrying Atlantis around the ring on his shoulders immediately after losing his identity was a rare, warm moment


ALL TIME MOTY LIST

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New Footage Friday: Mask Match, French Catch

Bruno Asquini/Gilbert Leduc vs. Les Blousons Noirs (Claude Gessat/Marcel Mannevau) French Catch 5/6/67

PAS: This French stuff is such a treat to watch, here are four completely new guy I have never seen before doing some incredible things I have never seen before. Bruno Asquini isn't in this match very much (he either legit blows out a knee or they do an angle) but he was pretty impressive in his brief sections. He has maybe the greatest headscissors take downs I have ever seen, he get a ton of height and wraps his thighs around the neck of his opponent and then drives their head into the mat like a piledriver, and does it a luchadore speed. LeDuc is the master of the headspin, he does a Santo style headspin leg scissors, but super fast, he also uses a headspin as a mistake, it is an elite breakdancer level headspin, he is the French precursor to Boogalo Shrimp. The Blouson's were fun stoogers and bumpers and were vicious when they needed to be, but were mostly just foils. Asquini torches his knee 10 or so minutes into the match, and can't go on, then they have a long section of 2 on 1, which Leduc weirdly still takes 60% of. When Le Batman comes down to join the match and take the tag, to clean house, it didn't really land because he was cleaning house on a pair of guys who already were getting walloped 1 on 2. I like Le Batman a lot, he is a fun babyface brawler, kind of a French Dream Machine Troy Graham. He wasn't listed on this match, so I was amped to see him. I liked both fall finished too, and if they had ever treated the Blousons as a real threat, this would have gotten an EPIC from me, but instead it was more a collection of cool shit then an all time match.

MD: This was a mix of stuff thirty years before its time and stuff that is absolutely timeless, all of it with that extra bit of connective tissue that we've lost today, the why of a move. We have a handful of 60s French Catch and that's got to be one of the great untapped treasure troves left. I was unfamiliar with everyone in the match but the wrestling is universal. The babyfaces outwrestled and outpunched the heels, all at excessive speed, throwing multiple dropkicks and armdrags and uppercuts and even quick ranas. The heels got a head due to luck or chicanery or a combination of both. The leapfrog transition to take out the leg is something that people should steal. We should be seeing that on TV six times a year. There were plenty of heel miscommunication spots that would have played anywhere or anywhen and they did a solid job of cutting off the ring. All of the stuff with LeDuc fighting off the numbers game was super compelling. I kept waiting for Asquini to come in from the back but Le Batman was a nice surprise, basically a mobile Bruiser or Crusher in a batman shirt. Once he arrived this ended in short order. LeDuc's Bearhug-drop down-leg-nelson-endless headsplitters thing is amazing and super over a guy like Riddle or Gable neeeds to steal it immediately).

ER: Paul Levesque was born in 1969. Here we have wonderful footage of a French ladies' man, Gilbert Leduc, wrestling in 1967. It was around this time that young Patricia Levesque first went to France, on a trip with her aunt, after he first year of college. It was here that she met Leduc and was so captivated that she wound up taking a summer abroad the very next year just to see him more. She had never been a fan of professional wrestling, but that wasn't what she loved about him. She loved his charm, his magnetism, his silly and showy sides. She loved him. And while she wasn't planning on becoming a mother while still at university, sometimes life gets in the way. She never told Gilbert about their child, fearing his reaction. But when the time was right she did tell Paul. She told him how much she loved seeing his father Gilbert entertain the crowds, and Paul would side wide-eyed, picturing this larger than life man who was able to be both beloved by crowds, while handily vanquishing two strapping men. Paul knew from a young age he wanted to be just like this man whom he would never know. He would be the coolest guy, who would beat up all the bad guys at once, and get the coolest girl. Leduc would never know.

Leduc wrestles much like his progeny, taking 90% of a match no matter the odds, with a major difference being that he's got some flat out awesome shit. Santo is the king, but LeDuc's spinning grounded headscissors blow Santo's out of the water. No hyperbole. LeDuc is able to bridge up onto the top of his head and get this crazy spin, legs scissored around his opponent's neck, that it looks like the most graceful and violent move. I came here to make a Breakin' joke, but Phil wrote his review before me, and you have to expect someone would have gotten there first. But it's an apt comparison. Gilbert's street moves were great enough that you know he knew some of the coolest street artists. He could throw a mean right, had great arm drags and takedowns, he just wrestled as a two man Guerriers de la Route, and if your brain somehow didn't notice that he was 1 on 2 and was totally fine the entire time and just watched all the cool shit they pulled off? This still would seem like the absolute best. Phil was also spot on about Bruno's headscissors, maybe the best I've seen. They're those great heavyweight style like Dave Taylor's, only lightning fast and even more snug. Phenomenal. Batman comes in to replace him and...erm...save? LeDuc, and throw some nice hard dropkicks...But I can't say I can remember any time where Batman showed up to save someone from henchmen and the guy he was saving said "Oh thanks for showing up, Bats, but I've had this situation under control the entire time. Even HHH didn't get to steal Blade's thunder.

Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar WWE 10/9/03

MD: How can you watch this match and think that we're in in the best timeline? Look, Suplex City Brock is unique and special. His matches are exciting. Some of that is how little he wrestles, some of it is how different he is from everything else. I have no desire to revisit any Suplex City Brock match though, not really. They exist in the moment and only in the moment. On the other hand, I think I'd be happy rewatching this match. This Brock was not unique. This Brock was not different. What he was instead was exceptional at doing all of the things that make wrestling great. You watch this and you wonder how he could have ever left. He's obviously having the time of his life as a heel. It's everything you'd want a house show like this to be. He spends the first third of the match stooging and stalling, diving out of the ring at every opportunity as Taker stands tall. The second third has him landing a few cheapshots and then working heavily over the leg. All of the intensity is there. All of the physical gifts are there, but they're channeled through the canon of pro wrestling heel champions. Taker's selling is top notch. There's nothing that he's ever done, ever, that's better than the way he sells his demolished leg on the way to hitting a big boot. Nothing. The last third has ref bumps and chair shots and everything you'd expect from a house show match in this era, but it's all larger than life while still drawing within the lines. It doesn't deconstruct the form and tear at everything else around it. It embraces it and glorifies it.

PAS: This didn't do a ton for me. I am still a high voter on Suplex City Brock, he has some misses for sure, but the AJ Styles match was my MOTY for last year and he still has this aura of unpredictable violence. Here he was basically working like all of the 2003 WWE heavyweights, a bigger and more muscular HHH or Rock. Feeding and bumping on every punch, stalling, even begging off. Nothing really felt organic or crazy. I thought the Undertaker was fine and I liked his selling, Biker Taker was always a more interesting worker then the Dead Man. It is cool to see house show footage like this, but I thought it was pretty by the numbers.

ER: I'm split down the middle on this one. Brock Lesnar was my favorite wrestler in the world during this era. He understood every aspect of being a wrestler, knew selling, made his own and everyone's offense look great, is one of the all time great bumpers, and never skimped on little things (even here watching him make Taker really duck on a low missed lariat). The guy just knew how to move around a ring. And it's awesome that in only their second show ever in Finland, they had the world's foremost Ludvig Borga clone in the main event. I agree with Phil that the match is very much "any 2003 WWE heavyweight", and while I like what both bring to the match, this very easily could have been a Chuck Palumbo/A-Train match. And hey, I loved Chuck Palumbo matches, so I liked this. If I was sitting in the crowd I would have been having a ball. At the same time, it would have been the worst Brock Lesnar match I've ever seen live. They work a few weird generic spots that guys this big shouldn't be doing, like Taker giving Brock a snapmare and then going for a pin. Snapmare into pin is a weird passing WWE trend that it felt like everyone was doing at a certain point, like the more recent TV match thing where every babyface comeback that leads to a finish starts with a heel putting on a chinlock. This is most definitely a house show match, so we don't get the usual big Brock bumps, but we get some impressive selling from Taker that he usually shrugged off during this era. Biker Taker would always acknowledge knee or ankle work, but usually would do something like punch his ankle a couple of times, selling leg work more like his leg fell asleep because he was sitting on the toilet too long. So I liked what Taker did with the leg, I liked Brock working as Larry Zbyszko in a foreign match that nobody thought would ever be seen by Americans 15 years later, and I liked the weirdness of having Rhyno of all people come out to attack Taker after the match and taking the biggest bump of the match. I would love for more house show footage to be released, but I would love full house shows the most.

Guerrero Azteca vs. El Supremo Nueva Laredo 4/20/87

PAS: This is a smaller arean mascara contra mascara match which has been sitting undiscovered on a youtube channel for a couple of years. Rob Bihari who unearthed this, hypothesized on twitter that this was run the day after they ran the same match in Monterey, getting two bites at the unmasking apple. It was a solid old school mask match, a lot of punches and kicks, some mask ripping, a great looking tope into the crowd by Azteca. This was really helped by the grimyness of the atmosphere, the VQ was good, but washed out and the arena was dirty, clouds of dust came off the mat every time someone was slammed on it. That kind of presentation can really add to this kind of fight. Nothing groundbreaking, but a cool discovery and an example of the deep pool of lucha footage still out in the world.

MD: This is clipped and "augmented" with music. The clips don't really affect the flow. The music you learn to live with. Sometimes it even helps the atmosphere. The start of this was all Supremo being an outright bully and Azteca selling big and broad, even for things like hip tosses. When you combine Supremo's swagger, Azteca's selling, the dust flying up from the center of the ring with each bump, and the music, it all added up to more than the sum of its parts. There was a lot to like here. I haven't seen much Supremo but you really get a sense of him here. He has a way of powering out from every hold he's in, as opposed to finding more technical ways out and that adds up over time. Azteca had a lean bodybuilder's physique but he brought both the selling early and the fire in his late comeback once the mask ripping had started. I thought the finishes (generally unique or character-laden roll-ups) to all three falls came off well, especially Supremo making Azteca pay for going to the well one too many times with a slam in the tercera. Just a solid, solid mask match.


La Complète et Exacte French Catch

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THE MOTHERFUCKING INTERNET: Klan v. Klan, Hood contra Hood

Klu Klux Klan I v. Klu Klux Klan II Mascara contra Mascara 1993

A member of the wrestling Grimaldo family has shown up on youtube and is posting early 90s indy lucha for us all to enjoy. This is a battle of Klansman to see who gets to continue wearing the hood and who is forced to just join the alt-Right. Early parts of this match have two guys of similar builds wearing identical outfits pounding on each other, with the occasional small cut and blurriness it was a little like watching 3 card monte, you never knew which guy was which. 2 rips 1s mask pretty bad, and after that you could get a sense of who's who. This was baseline apeusta lucha, nothing stood out completely, but baseline apuestas lucha is pretty great. Good punches, some mask ripping, a lot of heat, that is wrestling I am going to enjoy

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2008 Match of the Year

Villano V v. Blue Panther CMLL 9/19/08

PAS: I remember this being a totally shocking result when it happened. Villano V wasn't really wrestling super regularly, and it felt like he was being brought in specifically to get a mask loss payday, plus Panther had one of the iconic masks that you figured he would keep forever. Panther is a guy best know for his llave, but this was a straight up brawl which had some of the greatest topes in wrestling history. Villiano V delivers an insane dive bumping performance, he is flying recklessly back on every Panther tope. There is the iconic moment in the first fall where he smashes the back of his head on an armrest leading to a grisly bloodstain, but also he hurls himself into the crowd on another tope, and takes a full force back bump on the floor on a third, Panther has a great looking tope but Villano made it look like a cruise missile. Loved the finishes of all three falls, Villano is woozy from blood loss and tries a rudo trick by swiping Panthers mask, and rolling him up before he can recover, before he could steal a fall, the ref sees the maskless Panther and DQ's V5. Perro Jr. is V5's second (which is kind of weird, he's Villano 5, aren't Villano's 1-4 available to second their brother?) and he spends much of the fall break pouring water on the bloody back of Villano's head, including loosening his mask. Panther rips the mask to work the cut and his slips right off in his hand giving V5 the even up fall. Third fall is awesome with more great topes and a sneaking old school finish, Panther nearly gets the tap with his snap Fujiwara, but when he goes for it again, Villano counters with a crucifix pin. This match had a odd pacing with the Villano injury, but man did it build to an epic climax, worthy match for Panther drop the hood.

ER: This is actually my favorite all time wrestling match. I remember being shocked and almost heartbroken at the result when it happened. Blue Panther's mask is my favorite in lucha, and he's one of my favorite luchadors. This match seemed like an impossibly obvious result, like when I went to see Super Parka challenging for Santito's mask. But if Panther had to lose his beautiful mask, at least it happened in an all time match. We don't see any matwork or smooth headscissors here, these guys come out ready to fight, with V5 throwing some of his classic lefts and even suplexing BP on the floor. But soon we get to one of the sickest spots in pro wrestling history, with Panther hitting a big tope that sends the back of V5's head into the point of a metal armrest. By the time he gets up from being attended to there is already a large blood spot forming on the back of his head. They replay the shot from every angle and every one of them looks bad. You know V5 has to be seeing triple. Back in the ring Panther immediately hits a sidewalk slam and the crowd sounds shocked that he would immediately slam the back of V5's head into the mat. Panther was this close to babyfacing a Villano. Perro immediately cheats by grabbing Panther's leg, almost to get the crowd back behind Panther. Both guys go after the other's mask, ripping at them and each getting DQ'd a fall.


By the time the tercera starts Panther is in all out win mode, and Villano is in all out "let's guarantee I concuss myself and forget math" mode by taking tons of bumps on the back of his head. Panther hits a couple crushing dives that Villano bumps wildly for (seriously some of the best bumps you've ever seen off a dive, flinging himself backwards into the crowd like a man being blown back by an explosion), and this time when Panther delivers another sidewalk slam, the crowd loudly cheers. Panther goes for a plancha and we get one of the only great spots involving a prone opponent getting a leg up in the nick of time. In the 80s and 90s you saw that absurd spot of a heel jumping off the middle buckle in to the boot of a lying down opponent, and it never looked good. What was the guy going for, an axe handle on a horizontal opponent? Then in the 00s we graduated to the moonsault into boot, which looks spectacular the first time and then when it becomes a trademark bump it gets silly real fast. Here Panther flings himself to the floor and Villano desperately gets that boot up to catch Panther, and it totally works. Villano is crazy and hates his brain, so he delivers a couple superplexes, and misses a flipping senton for a great nearfall. Panther almost gets the tap with an armbar, and sensing that he goes for it again and gets reversed into the pinfall that sees literally 30 years of his mask vanish in 3 seconds. Probably the most shocking upset in wrestling history. Panther is the man though, and a true gentleman competitor, and he graciously parades V5 around atop his shoulders.


ONGOING ALL TIME MOTY LIST

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Lupus v. Trauma 1 Mascara Contra Mascara

3. Canis Lupus v. Trauma 1 IWRG 9/4/16

PAS: My goodness, what an absolute gore soaked classic. It feels on first watch like if Blue Panther vs. Villano 5 had a Cactus Jack v. Terry Funk KOTDM level blood. IWRG has fallen pretty far from the heights of 2010 and it was great to see it regain its glorious heights. Opening couple of falls serve as a great table setter. Lupus smacks Trauma with a tope and dominates the first fall tapping T1 out with his own Lo Negro del Negro spinning figure four. Stealing moves isn't a thing you see very much of in lucha (this is the Rock spamming shitty Stone Cold Stunners), so it was a cool bit of taunting by Lupus. Second fall has Trauma coming back and capturing the fall with a rocking chair, and then the true violence starts, they start cracking each other with headbutts and then they both go out to grab chairs. A couple of nasty hard plastic chair shots and the gore starts flowing. The finish run was awesome, the ref gets bumped hard, and Lupus quickly attacks and hits Trauma with the dreaded illegal martinete while the ref is down. I love lucha matches built around martinete's, and this was one of the best. T1 can't lift his neck and needs to block pins by grabbing the ropes and grabbing the ref's hand. Lupus gets frustrated goes for a splash, T1 lifts his knees. Now both guys are lying in their own blood, and a doctor runs in and tries to place a cervical collar on Trauma, Lupus gets to his feet, chucks the doctor to the side and tries to attack. T1 with a neck brace hanging half off attacks the leg desperately and they have a great fight over the spinning figure four. It is one of the coolest mask match finishes I can remember. We have awesome pageantry after with Lupus getting unmasked and proposing to his girlfriend. The wrestling parts of this were a little off, Lupus is only so-so at holds, but the brawling, bleeding and drama was off the charts.

ER: I remember talking to Phil maybe 4 months into 2016 and him asking "Is there going to be any lucha that makes our list this year?" And at that point there wasn't tons. There was a lot of borderline stuff. And now several months after that and the top part of our list is flat dominated by lucha. And this match brings drama and blood and even love. I wouldn't put it on the level of Blue Panther/Villano V, but it really is the first super bloody high drama mask match we've gotten since then. Stupid Arena Mexico and their hatred of plasma. I am entirely unfamiliar with Lupus, but was impressed right away with his opening brawling around ringside. He threw several punch combos that I really liked, and got into the faces of a bunch of fans. I was sold pretty early. Sadly he never really went back to this overly aggressive bully style the rest of the match, but he found other ways to do damage. I'm not used to seeing brutal chairshots in lucha, but now within the last couple months we've gotten Park and Rush blasting each other, then Black Terry getting his dome caved in by Wotan, and now Trauma and Lupus clonking each other with edges of rigid chairs. And both men start bleeding, and masks get ripped, and bleeding through masks is one of the best parts of lucha. At one point Lupus' face is dark red and his mask is torn away from his face, and the ripped mask looks like flayed skin hanging off his now dark red and skinless face. We get some very believable nearfalls with both men actually locking in pins, and believe it or not I didn't actually knew who won ahead of time (I mean, I *assumed* Trauma, but ever since that Blue Panther loss blindsided me, I don't know what to expect) so every nearfall got me. The martinete was great and I had a smile on my face during the various ways Trauma stopped the ref. All of the stuff with the doctor felt very much against lucha code, which added to the spectacle. The ring at this point is just stained an entirely different color, and we finally get an exhausted, deserved sub. I'm a sucker for wrestling and romance so I absolutely loved all the stuff with Lupus' fiancee afterwards, just as I loved Ultimo Guerrero's wife crying at ringside when he lost to Atlantis. Great stuff, all around.


2016 ONGOING MOTY LIST

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MLJ: Recent Uploads: Atlantis vs. Silver Fox [mask]

2000-06-18 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Atlantis vs. Silver Fox [mask]

Sometimes I'm tempted to leave these for (the award-nominated) Phil because he has seniority, but then I think better of that. Who the hell doesn't want to watch an uncovered Atlantis mask match from 2000 as soon as humanly possible?

This was just about everything I wanted it to be, not having any idea who Silver Fox was, and having managed expectations. Up until seeing this, he was always just another name on the list of people who Atlantis conquered, a list that's growing each and every year. Apparently he now still as Toxico and he might even be Antonio Pena's cousin, according to cagematch. Regardless, he had FIVE seconds out in matching red masks (Atlantis had Rayo), and there was awesome chaos in getting them to leave before the match so only one remained.

With apuestas matches like this, where you just know that the tecnico is probably going over, so much of the wonder is in the how they still manage to generate illusion that he might be defeated. That, more than his smoothness or anything is, is my favorite thing about Hijo del Santo, and they worked very hard to achieve it here too.

Fox started exactly as he should have, tearing at the mask, biting, getting blood going from almost the first moment. The primera felt really full. None of Fox's offense was all that great, but Atlantis was huge in garnering sympathy and had the crowd deeply into this. When he made his comeback, got his revenge (including mask ripping and a dive tease) and locked in a submission (right after a foul tease, the first smatterings of a rudo ref coming into play), I half thought that it was just a one fall match, because it felt just shy of being satisfying in and of itself.

They let the revenge settle into the segunda a bit before finally turning things on. In here was a massive back body drop bump outside by Fox (and while his offense wasn't great, he did some things well: play to the crowd, sell, and stooge, especially), and the second dive tease. The real heat and danger came in as the ref fully embraced his rudo leanings, holding Atlantis for a cheapshot which lead to a submission thereafter. The pressure intensified between falls as Fox's seconds returned to swarm Atlantis, only for other luchadores to burst out to stop them (including Olimpico and Emilio Charles). Great mob scene.

The tercera was full of the nearfalls you'd expect, with Fox having the advantage of the ref, getting quick counts against Atlantis, and Atlantis coming back but suffering slow counts. Generally, I love lucha bs. I want triple fake fouls and legs grabbed and masks tossed and all that. I like that stuff as much as crazy dives when it's done well, but I usually draw the line at rudo refs. This was pretty well done, though, since it pressed up against the sheer inevitability of Atlantis winning. It wasn't just to get cheap heat, but instead to get an obstacle in his way. Because of that they were able to do lead to a satisfying finish where, first, Atlantis decided he had enough and finally came back and hit the tope he was teasing all match. Then, when he made the pin, it was with Fox so tied up that you could count to thirty and the ref couldn't do a thing about it.

I wouldn't call this an all time classic. They didn't hit everything quite as well as they should and while the bs was functional and entertaining, there was probably a bit too much of it for it to really reach the next level. That said, an Atlantis mask match where he bled and came back and beat the odds is a hell of a thing. On top of that, this one was pretty smartly put together and build to a great climax. Watch it.

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Lucha Worth Watching: Mask Matches and Family Feuds 10/12/15 & 11/8/15

Mascara contra Mascara: Molotov vs. Lestat, CMLL (10/12/15)

Two guys I don't watch that much, having a mask match. Lestat has been king of the mask match this year in Puebla, taking a mask just a couple months prior from King Jaguar. That's right. THEE King Jaguar. He's a Puebla undercarder, and Molotov is a CMLL undercarder who doesn't make TV that often but has shown improvement in the last few years. Lestat is clearly a Jeff Hardy obsessive, who potentially knows a guy who knows a guy who wants to push him to mask match glory. The match itself was poorly structured, but both men were clearly working hard. Lestat is kind of a slow motion Blitzkrieg, but worked in several fun swanton variations: a couple big ones from the top rope, a big one climbing the ropes, and tossed out a couple asai moonsault variations. The structure was all wack as we had several moments where a guy would take a big move, but then that guy would be on his feet first to deliver the next big move. It got kind of ridiculous after awhile. Lestat hits a big moonsault to the floor, landing on his feet, yet Molotov recovers faster and gets back in the ring to deliver a dive of his own. There were several moments like that. We also got a hilarious moment where Lestat yanked off Molotov's mask (Molotov had ripped at Lestat's in the primera), and Tirantes went to DQ him, and Lestat started begging and begging and getting on his knees apologizing to not be DQ'd (Molotov had won the primera so this would have meant Lestat's mask). It's a strange sight to see a tecnico doing something illegal and then begging the referee to not punish him. Who could get behind that kind of weenie?! When I was in 2nd grade, Mrs. Setterlund had a "punishment board" that was a physical three tier system of punishment. There were three levels: 1. Warning, 2. Lose a Recess, 3. Principal's Office. She had clothespins with all of our names written on them, and if you did something to warrant it, your clothespin would get moved from the "Not a Horrible Child" portion, down to the "On Warning" section, and so on. Since I was a constant chatterer, I would regularly see my clothespin moved into section 1 and 2, but never section 3. It usually took a LOT to get a visit to the principal's office. But one day I must have been particularly restless and got my clothespin moved down to dreaded section 3. And then I proceeded to run across the classroom and tearfully BEG to not have my pin moved to section 3. It was pathetic. I begged and pleaded and made promises as my mind rushed with all sorts of terrible things that would happen if my mom found out I had been sent to the principal's office. And eventually, Mrs. Setterlund relented, and I avoided further punishment, while I assume losing the respect of every single person of every age who witnessed it. And that was Lestat. Lestat was 2nd grade me. Crowds didn't want to root for 2nd grade me.

Also funny, is the longer the match went on, the more I felt like the lucha smoothness was hurting things. As in, both guys were trained a certain way. There was a certain slickness to their movements, that smoother lucha style. And I kept thinking that if this were worked in some garage but a couple of bad body guys in jean shorts, it would feel like a gritty war with tons of crazy spots and violent thud bumps. Not that Arena Puebla is a classy place, but it's an established professional arena, and the violence doesn't translate as well when done by guys in wide leg neon vinyl pants. I honestly think you can take this exact same match, hold it in a parking lot before a Raiders game, and have it between Shane Stevens and Shane "Gator" Stephens and suddenly I'd say "Man who the hell are these lunatics!?" But alas, it was not between two Shanes, and it had none of the drama of your good mask matches. Still, a man who you might not have known, lost his mask. This seems at least somewhat notable.

Dinastia Navarro vs. Dinastia Panther, All Elite 11/8/15

Alternate, more complete, but not as pretty fancam

Yay internet! I love family affair lucha matches, there's always a little added element of pride and the crowd gets buzzing for that familia atmosphere. It's structure is exactly what you expect, and it's goooood. Tons of matwork and grappling trade-offs in the primera, very short segunda with Navarros getting their submissions back, and a tercera that peaks with a beautiful dive and the two maestros squaring off. The mat stuff is predictably wonderful. Trauma I ends the segunda with his nasty indian deathlock into a violent twisting crescendo. Panther Jr. ends the primera by muscling Navarro to the ground and wrenching in a Fujiwara. BP and Trauma II go at it like men and the grappling is excellent. They both throw in little touches of professionalism, like BP slyly moving his leg away from Trauma's grasp moments before Trauma even blindly grabs back at the leg. Both lock on and slither out of nice indian deathlock variations but it doesn't feel exhibition-y, while it does feel nice and show-offy, seeing who can bust out freakier stuff. Trauma II is an absolute beast throughout this, being the only one who really laces into anybody with strikes, and BP Jr. pays him back at one point with an awesome ropewalk dropkick 3/4 of the way across the ring. Awesome spot. The Panther hits a super fast bullet tope to clear the ring, and we get the BP/Navarro showdown where they break out fun reversals and the gorgeous somewhat slower gracefulness of two masters comes into play. Navarro appeared slightly wooden in this and looked to have trouble bumping to the floor earlier, but it was clear he was saving his gas for Panther and I thank him for it. It wouldn't have taken much more for me to bump this up closer to MOTY list, just felt like it needed a couple more runs. Of the two videos linked, the top one is gorgeously clear, but has "down time" edited out. You get most of the action, but it's choppy. The second video is the whole thing, but shot from farther away, and the first 6 minutes are shaky and partially blocked by the referee. The first one you get a much greater sense of how hard Trauma II's shots are landing, and obviously all the mat transitions and work itself is so much clearer. The second video is a nice companion, as you get more crowd noise (and it appears to be filmed from a pro-Dinastia Navarro section) so you get a good gauge of how the crowd starts pro Navarro and by the end shifts to cheering both teams. I also includes what happens between the 2da and 3ra, which is mainly The Panther nicely selling the brutal T1 submission that took him out of the fall. For me, it made things mean a LOT more important to see Panther getting tended to, walking off his injury and gutting things through. Watch it, and thank the internet.

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MLJ: Oro, Jr. vs Metalico [mascara contra mascara]

Aired: 2014-08-10
Taped: 2014-08-10 @ Arena México
Oro Jr. vs Metálico, mask vs mask


4) Oro Jr. vs Metálico, mask vs mask by thecubsfan

This is not a good match. It's the worst mask match I've ever seen on a stage like this. I might even call it the worst big match I've seen on a stage like this. I had been intrigued enough, mainly by Metalico's rudo work in the last trios, to take a look at it. I am a fool. I've been watching big matches out of Cavernario and Titan, both of whom weren't that older than Oro, Jr. and the difference is just striking. Frankly, the difference between the two of them and Metalico, who has years and years more experience than they do, is striking.

A few things to set this up. Oro, Jr. had his father Plata out with him. Metalico had a cool shiny Darth Vader like over-mask. The cat ears definitely look goofy on him as a rudo even if it was look that sort of worked as a tecnico. This was a Sunday show at Arena Mexico. Without doing more research it doesn't look particularly special. They just stuck a mask match on it, fourth match out of six. It's way down there on the poster (which Cubs posted).

That's about where this match deserved to be. Being at Arena Mexico, the crowd was more behind Metalico than Oro, Jr., who I don't think they buy into fully as a tecnico to root for, even if they were inclined to root for tecnicos in the first place. Metalico had more history with them, but he also had this sort of crazy charisma. He was a little too energized by being a rudo and would react to things very broadly. It was sort of endearing in its own way. AND they kept showing his loving mother in the crowd. The flip side was that he had maintained too much of his tecnico offense once things got going.

The primera was okay. It was really what it should have been. Unfortunately, what followed made that a negative, not a positive. Lucha, especially apuestas lucha, is about the build up and the pay off. The primera was the build and it was a build meant to put sympathy on Oro. Metalico ambushed him from the start. He tossed him around the ring and into the guard wall on the floor. He shot down Oro's paltry attempts to come back, stomped the hell out of him, and finished it off with a leg submission (with a nice belly shot to open Oro up so he could get it on).

So far, so good. Now the trick would have been to build to the come back, pay it off, and lead into a dynamic, action packed, fall-heavy, spot-heavy tercera. That didn't happen. The segunda started with more beatdown. Then, Metalico started pulling on Oro's mask, which I get was the signal to come back. Instead of anything actually violent or spirited, this mainly consisted on some rough (in a bad way) rolling suplexes and his really goofy fireman's carry slam finish. It's a really bad finisher and was the tiniest period to punctuate the tiniest sentence of a comeback. Oro just had no idea how to make the emotion work.

The tercera wasn't much better. Metalico did too much tecnico stuff with flipping and roll ups and waht not. He had some good stuff, like catching Metalico on a leapfrog with a samoan drop (very good transition back to offense for him), but they couldn't make it mean anything. They ever ran a second heat segment here, with Oro's dad trying to lead a chant to spur the eventual comeback and it was paced and paid off all wrong. Things that should have meant something felt hollow. When they eventually hit some dives, they barely even sold them. They just moved on to the next thing.

I'm not sure if the finish was clever or a screw up, which says a little about me, I'll admit, but more, I think about the match. Oro's big submission was a rolling arm bar, and he went for it multiple times with his ring positioning horrible the first few. Metalico ended up in the ropes, and maybe it was a brilliant and novel storytelling device: the young tecnico hitting his move, but the match being so close that he can only get it too close to the ropes until he finally hits it in the middle of the ring! Just given the way the rest of the match went, I can't really give them the benefit of the doubt.

Eventually, he did get him in the middle of the ring with it and Metalico was forced to tap. They kept showing his mother after he unmasked and he took it with enthusiasm and grace. He came off way more gallantly than Oro did. A high stakes match with two heat segments and two comebacks should just be more gripping than this. Not good.

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CMLL Worth Watching 8/10/14, 8/31/14 & 9/14/14

Decided to change the name of this from CMLL Workrate Round-Up to CMLL Worth Watching, as really the only CMLL stuff I write up now is stuff that I think is worth watching. Why beat around the bush? I watch the CMLL, I spend time writing about the stuff I think is worth writing about, so let's just say that.

1. Mascara contra Mascara: Oro Jr. vs. Metalico (8/10/14)

This was not great, and not nearly as fun as the few trios matches used to build it up, and that is mainly because Oro Jr. just isn't really that good. The build to this match was pretty lopsided, with almost every part of the trios matches being Metalico walloping Oro and cutting off every single thing he attempted to do. Now obviously the big stipulation singles match couldn't be worked like that, unless it was the weirdest mask match in lucha history. Obviously there was going to be some sort of back and forth, which meant there was going to have to be Oro offense, and Oro is not very good at offense. He can bump well enough and he's flexible so he's good at being twisted into knots by rudos, and he can hit a dive, but his move and submission execution are really, really lacking. Every time he would lock on a flippy arm submission he would end up flipping Metalico close to the ropes. That was fine when the plan was for Metalico to break a hold, but when it was something he had to tap to or create drama, Metalico would have to subtly move himself farther away from the ropes. Oro is just kind of stumbly and clunky. Metalico, on the other hand, continues to impress me and if anything this feud has given me a new cool guy to look for. Metalico has a cool southern heel vibe to him that I've never ever picked up on before this feud, doing great stuff like sneaky little punches and probably my favorite knee lift in current wrestling (depending on whether or not you count Brock Lesnar's sternum-caving knees). At one point in the tercera he drags Oro out of the corner and just blasts him with a bunch of consecutive knees, to the stomach and face. They all looked great. He also locks on a bunch of cool subs that would rank up with any maestro. Metalico's mom also kept getting shown in the crowd rooting him on and that's something that would get me more into everything. So yeah. Match was about what I expected, but overall I'm excited to see where Metalico takes things from here.

2. Felino, Misterioso Jr & Bobby Zavala vs. Stuka Jr., Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta (8/31/14)

Man fuck Felino. It's so much better to have never have experienced love than to love and have lost. Felino is an asshole who is actually a good worker who just chooses to act like the worst worker in lucha 85% of the time. Here he runs ropes faster than anybody in the match (even showing off by bouncing off the bottom rope when he does it), does these really great drop downs, fast dropkick sequences, just a totally different guy than you get most of the time. and why? What's he proving in this match that he doesn't feel the need to prove when working with his brother? Delta hits a wild moonsault to the floor, Stuka always tosses in a couple nice dives or splashes, Zavala is always an amusing low rent Rush, Misterioso is a pro and then there's fucking Felino outworking them all, being the most frustrating guy in lucha.

3. Terrible, Vangellys & Rey Bucanero vs. La Mascara, Titan & Volador Jr. (9/14/14)

I really wasn't expecting much from this on paper but the execution was nice. This became apparent just a minute into the match when Titan took a wild sideways bump into the ring barrier and Terrible decked Volador with a mean right and a hard headbutt. The Volador involvement was limited for most of this, with Terrible always cutting him off with face punching. Volador getting regularly punched in the face is enough to make me recommend a match. There was a story within the match of Mascara naturally not caring about his team, but Volador and Titan trying to make him feel welcome and almost try to recruit him back from the lawless side. That kind of thing can drag a match down but I think it helped this one. It worked because Mascara kept interrupting Titan and Volador's worst offense to just get to the fucking point and finish things. So it was actually a quite clever way to capitalize on guys having to stand around selling while Titan does his little handstand. Titan walks off on his hands and while Terrible is focusing on him for reasons, Mascara just runs in and rolls him into a pendulum sub. It does kind of blow up how silly some of Titan's stuff can be, but I already knew that so thought this worked incredibly well within the existing universe.

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Lucha Azteca Workrate Report 9/27/14

So last week the randomly decided to show matches from the 9/13/13 Arena Mexico show. I'm unsure why. It had the Volador/Sombra mask match, so it's possible they were hyping up the Atlantis/UG mask match by showing the promotion's last big wager match? The match that set up the Volador/Sombra match was a relevos increibles match featuring Atlantis/UG vs. Volador/Sombra, with the winners of the match fighting in a singles match for their masks (which seems like an oddly harsh punishment for the winners of a match…), so maybe they were showing just how close Atlantis and UG came to fighting for masks just one year before?

Or maybe the promotion was late delivering the show and they just picked a random show from the last year to air.

Either way, they jump a couple weeks ahead from their normal schedule to bring us the two big WAGER matches from the 9/19/14 Anniversario show!

Hair vs. Hair!

1. Barbaro Cavernario vs. Rey Cometa

This was a real good match, though not as good as the Rush/Casas hair match or the women's mask vs. hair match from that same show. But this was really good. Both guys pulled out some crazy stuff here, with Cometa hitting a moonsault off the entrance and a big time tornillo. Cavernario hits his great array of splashes (the killer one to the floor, all the cool Vader bomb style ones) and bumps all over including a cool Cassandro bump. Cometa leans into all of Cavernario's stiff shots, my favorite being Cavernario blasting him with a superkick on the floor that practically scalps Cometa. Cometa's selling is great afterwards with an awesome "what the hell did I just get hit with!?" expression on his face. I believe Phil pointed it out that it was weird seeing a wager match-as-spotfest, and that's what this was, and it was kind of odd. This did not have the drama of the women's match, it never really felt like either guy had anything major at stake. Even though it should have as both guys have two of the more desirable heads of hair in the promotion, with Cavernario having the MOST hair, and Cometa having a shiny, thick mane (God we're gonna get so much cross-traffic from bronies if I keep typing shit like that). It felt like a big showcase main event for both guys, and I felt it succeeded at that. But it did not feel like MORE than that, which you really need from a great wager match. Still, well worth going out of your way to see.

Mask vs. Mask!!

2. Atlantis vs. Ultimo Guerrero

This match was one of the best of the year and easily made Phil's and my Match of the Year List. I'll just go ahead and link to our review of the match here:

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2014/11/ongoing-2014-match-of-year-list.html

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Ongoing 2014 Match of the Year List

3. Atlantis v. Ultimo Guerrero CMLL 9/19

PAS: Wow. Totally exceeded my expectations. Really felt like a classic mascara contra mascara match. The stakes felt really high, two huge stars wagering their masks, which made every near fall huge. Ultimo Guerrero was throwing huge bombs, and Atlantis was trying to survive and catch him with the Alantida, there was a great moment where Guerrero hits the superbomb, rushes in an gets caught with the Altantida, only to have Atlantis collapse against the ropes unable to hold him. I didn't love the finish with UG hitting his reverse superplex, which is always a kill shot, only to get two, and then get caught in the Alantida, almost felt like Atlantis no sold it a bit. This was a superhero in a mask match, so I forgive it a bit, but I thought it was slightly abrupt. Guerrero's career match, everything he did seemed like it was done with more force and intensity, he knew he was losing his mask and he wanted to go out on top. Atlantis is such a great big match worker, he has tremendous timing and presence, he is the Idol of the Children and fights like losing will be breaking the hearts of little kids. Postmatch is great with UG surrendering his mask while his family is sobbing and the crowd is throwing money

ER: Great great GREAT match. I was really nervous going in that this was going to be a bad CMLL move exchange main event, but man it was so much more than that. These are two big masks right here and I love how CMLL kept panning back to show the crowd. They never do that (is it because the upper deck is usually empty?) but pulling back here made everything feel more grand, more large scale, more epic. The drama here was intense, with every move having extra gravity. But I don't think the match was good just because of the stakes, I think even without masks on the line this same sequence of moves would still have created a very good match. The Atlantida collapse into the ropes may have been the spot of the year. UG knowing he was that close to certain doom, like a car accident happening seconds after you squeaked through an intersection. Atlantis knocking UG to the floor has to be among the bumps of the year. That's a move you never see countered and here it happens in extravagant fashion with UG spilling dangerously onto the apron to the floor. The match did lose me a bit with the finish, which I did not like. These two spent the whole match crafting neat counter sequences based on knowing each other's gameplan so well, and then the finish is just one guy hitting their finisher, with the other just standing right up and doing his for the win. That's lazy and obnoxious. But then they go and win me right back with the postmatch, with Ultimo's voice cracking as he removes his mask, and his beautiful family tearfully embracing him. It was an amazing moment that caused me to tear up a bit. And I can honestly say that not many things do that to me. Overall just fantastic stuff.


2014 MASTER LIST

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Live CMLL Aniversario Review

You can get the stream here

http://deportes.terra.com/en-vivo/26907/

I'll update with some thoughts after every match

Blue Panther/Dragon Lee/Cachorro beat Puma/Tiger/Felino

Fun but not great opener, which I imagine did it’s job in the arena. Had a hot beginning, bit of a meandering middle, and a crazy hot finish. Dragon Lee was as nuts as you would hope he would be. Doing a crazy dropkick to the floor, and a nutty assisted tope con hilo. Panther also broke out a triple tope which is bonkers for such an old dude. Match was sort of neither fish nor foul though, as we didn’t get to see Panther and Felino do their thing, and they might have been better off just making the match all crazy young guys.

Zeuxis won the Copa Femil beating Goya Kong/Marcela/Estrellita/Amapola/Tiffany/Dallys la Carbina/Princess Sugehit

Match with some highs and lows. The luchadoras cleared went all out for the big stage, and this had some big spots, although that ambition led to some stuff that didn’t look particularly good. I hadn’t seen Zeuxis before, she had some very crazy moves, including an asai moonsault and a bunch of nasty suplexes which ended up dropping ladies heads on her knees, although in between spots she would often look lost, she felt really indy. Still I was never bored.

Volador Jr./Mascara Dorada/Valiente beat Thunder/Euforia/Mr. Niebla

Short and mostly uneventful. Nibela has the outfit of the night so far with an awesome Kiss combo mask and paint. Match was mostly Thunder as a giant with everyone trying to knock him down, and he is not very good at wrestling. They had a nice dive train, but outside of that, this wasn’t very good, but it was compact.

Barbaro Cavenario beat Rey Cometa in a Cabellera contra Cabellera

Good match, although a step below a real MOTYC. It had each guy throwing out all of the crazy shit including Cometa opening up the match with a moonsault off of the ring entrance, and Barbaro hitting his superfly splash to the floor which is my favorite spot in wrestling, it is so reckless and violent looking. I still am not used to wager matches as spotfests, which is what this was. I need something a little more violent and a little less exhibitiony for me to truly fall in love with it. Still very much worth watching.

Negro Casas/Shocker beat Rush/La Mascara

Match of the night so far. I am never going to get tired of Rush and Casas beating on each, and Rush was at his douchebag best, smacking the old guys around violently slapping and dropkick them. Casas was firing back and using his guile to catch the younger more powerful team unaware. Rush was a beast in this, as was La Mascara and you really got the sense the veterans escaped with their titles by the skin of their teeth. I also liked Casas getting a bit of revenge for getting steamrolled for his hair.

Ultimo Guerrerro v. Atlantis

Wow. Totally exceeded my expectations. Really felt like a classic mascara contra mascara match. The stakes felt really high, two huge stars wagering their masks, which made every near fall huge. Ultimo Guerrero was throwing huge bombs, and Atlantis was trying to survive and catch him with the Alantida, there was a great moment where Guerrero hits the superbomb, rushes in an gets caught with the Altantida, only to have Atlantis collapse against the ropes unable to hold him. I didn't love the finish with UG hitting his reverse superplex, which is always a kill shot, only to get two, and then get caught in the Alantida, almost felt like Atlantis no sold it a bit. This was a superhero in a mask match, so I forgive it a bit, but I thought it was slightly abrupt. Still this might be the MOTY, I will have to rewatch it, but it felt huge. Postmatch is great with UG surrendering his mask while his family is sobbing and the crowd is throwing money

Such a treat to get to watch this live, and while some of the undercard was slightly disappointing, that main event was a treasure. 

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