Jerry Estrada v Javier Cruz (CMLL, 11/5/89)
How the fuck is Jerry Estrada not dead? This might be my favourite match ever and I've probably seen it 10 times over the last couple years, yet I'm always amazed at the fact he didn't wind up killing himself – or anybody else – here. He is lit up like a fucking Christmas tree. I've seen plenty of matches where guys are loaded. I watched a ton of Shawn Michaels matches for a WWF/E poll last year and there are times where he is pretty clearly wasted. I watched some of the Texas set last night with a bunch of friends and Kerry Von Erich looked about as zonked as my buddy who passed out on the floor. I've seen Juventud Guerrera live and that pretty much speaks for itself. None of those guys were ever as well and truly puggled as Jerry Estrada in this match. He can barely run the ropes, walks around like a plastered zombie (which is really awesome when he starts bleeding, although a guy in that state taking a blade to his forehead is a scary thought), tries to climb the turnbuckle and almost falls off, etc. At one point he walks across the ring apron and winds up falling face first into the turnbuckle. I've only ever seen Estrada and Terry Funk do that spot but it's one of my favourite spots in wrestling. I get the sense Funk did it as a semi-comedy spot, but I'm assuming it was unintentional on Jerry's part and he fell asleep standing up or something. I love Estrada, but Cruz deserves a shit ton of credit for holding this match together. Estrada is as reckless as you'd imagine a guy in his condition would be and I would not have been surprised if Cruz had just thrown his hands up on the whole deal and refused to work with this lunatic. He tries a victory roll at one point, and as he's rolling forward Estrada just throws him off his shoulders. I still don't know how he didn't land right on his head. For the finish to the second fall Estrada does a top rope senton, and it's possibly the most reckless senton in history. He just flies off the top rope, curls himself into a ball and plummets right into Cruz's chest like a ball of coked-up stupidity. Third fall is awesome with both guys bleeding buckets (Estrada somehow manages to bleed in a straight line all the way down his body, like someone's painted a red stripe from his forehead to his dick) and Estrada flying five rows deep into the fixed seats after eating a tope. Cruz also does this crazy missile dropkick thing from the top rope out to the floor that catches Estrada right in the stones. The post-match shaving (this is a hair match) goes on forever because Estrada keeps trying to start fights. Cruz is trying to take this humiliation while retaining some of his dignity and Estrada is slapping him in his half-bald head, talking shit, throwing stuff at him, just generally being a belligerent drunken/tweaked out douchebag. He's like the hammered guy at the bar who throws shot glasses at people for drinking water and calls the barmaid a "filthy scutter". Whenever we get to the DVDVR Lucha set I will be shocked if this doesn't wind up being my number one.
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