Shocker v Black Warrior (For the Title!)

Shocker v Black Warrior (CMLL, 3/10/98)

I'm on a bit of a Black Warrior high right now. He's been a standout in a bunch of the trios I've been watching from around this period (~'98-'01) so I was pretty hyped when I stumbled across a title match. I know the '96 match with Dandy is talked about often, but my memory of it is that it was way more of a Dandy match, where Warrior was sort of along for the ride against a guy who was having an awesome year. This felt like more of an even contribution and even if it probably wasn't a classic overall, I thought that first caida was borderline great. It had a little bit of flash, but it was more rugged, they captured the sense of struggle and the little fights over leverage ruled. There were a few moments as well where tempers nearly flared, Shocker giving Warrior a kick to the lower back after one stalemate. It was an excellent fall and maybe the best I've seen Shocker look on the mat. The segunda was over in about six seconds. I don't know if we missed any of it due to commercials but it was fleeting even by usual standards. The tercera didn't quite have the drama of your truly legendary title matches, but they built and paced it well and the dives were appropriately huge. Lucha title matches are just about my favourite thing in wrestling so it's always fun to run across a really good one you had no idea ever happened when dicking about on youtube one morning. 

Panther, Black Warrior...Mr. Mexico??? (Some 2000 CMLL)

Blue Panther & Rencor Latino v Olimpico & Mr. Niebla (CMLL, 2/1/00)

Watching this in isolation, devoid of proper context, I can only assume Olimpico and Panther had heat leading up to this. I can only assume Olimpico had vexed Panther in some way and, to put it mildly, earned his ire. I can only assume Panther's response was warranted. Otherwise Panther decided to flat out try and murder him for no reason. That's not really the sort of rudo I tend to view Panther as. He's not really the guy I'd expect to bite someone's face open and guzzle their blood like a psychopath. I usually think of Pirata Morgan or Satanico or Fiera as the truly gruesome, but Panther clearly had a madness upon him on the night and he wanted everyone to know it. Olimpico bled a disgusting amount and Panther dragged him around ringside, blatantly shaking his head back and forth like he was trying to coax out the dregs of a ketchup bottle, so the front row spectators would be showered in his blood. One guy got up and walked away in disgust and it might've been the greatest thing I've ever seen in my life. He fucking savaged Olimpico, lapping up the blood and eagerly licking it from his cupped hands, like drinking water from a woodland stream. I've never seen him go at someone like that before and straight away I wanted to see the mano a mano. The match itself was the final of a one-night tournament so it never lasted long, but for a seven minute mauling you won't find many with more bite for their buck. Between Panther/Olimpico, Satanico/Tarzan Boy and Atlantis/Villano III, CMLL had the art of the blood feud down to a tee that year. 

Mr. Mexico, Blue Panther & Black Warrior v Tony Rivera, Ringo Mendoza & Emilio Charles Jr. (CMLL, 3/14/00)

And now Mr. Mexico and Tony Rivera are at it. This started with a vignette of Rivera schooling a bunch of guys in a training ring, with Mr. Mexico rocking up as a masked referee and kicking the shit out of him. Maybe Rivera got too big for his young britches, maybe Mr. Mexico - a guy who was the third option for his team in lower-midcard trios to start the year - just wanted to make a name for himself at the expense of this new kid; it didn't matter either way because it led to what was a pretty awesome and super heated trios. They both go at each other straight away and by the end Rivera is bleeding and they're hammering each other in the balls. Panther was more subdued here than he was in the previous tag, but his exchanges with the evergreen Ringo Mendoza were really fun. Black Warrior looked killer, zipping about laying into the tecnicos, bringing a real energy to everything. And of course Emilio ruled, because he's Emilio by god Charles and ruling is what he does. The dive train at the end was spectacular with Black Warrior hitting one of the most gorgeous bullet topes you'll ever see, then Mr. Mexico went and topped it by giving Rivera an absolute all-timer of a low blow. CMLL feels like it might've been the best promotion in the world in 2000.

Dandy/Texano v Atlantis/Azteca

El Dandy & El Texano v Atlantis & Angel Azteca (EMLL, 3/31/89)

This was one of the very first non-Eddie Guerrero/non-AAA matches I watched when I was getting into lucha way back when. 2v2 tags were my least favourite match dynamic in lucha even back then, but this stood out in a way none of the Gringos Locos tags did. Even back then, only really having scratched the surface with EMLL, this felt like a whole different kind of lucha libre. It felt legit. It felt PROPER. This was the lucha I needed to dive into. I suppose it shaped my tastes in lucha about as much as anything else and a goodly number of years later those tastes haven't changed too much (compared to American and Japanese wrestling, especially), but it doesn't quite stick out as being mind-blowing like it did then. Having watched as much of these guys as I have by this point there wasn't much here that I haven't seen them do before, bigger and better and flashier and quicker. What looked unbelievable at the time now looks merely good, like the sort of par-for-the-course performance you'll get from all-time level guys like Dandy and Atlantis. And that isn't even a knock on the match itself as opposed to a larger point about how good these guys could be at their best. It's still a good bout. The primera was about ten minutes of really strong exchanges, the segunda kept it short and sweet like you'll often get in title matches, and while the tercera had to contend with the backdrop of an injury angle it still had enough going for it. The fact this never even made the DVDVR 80s set maybe tells you how strong EMLL was in 1989, and I'd tend to agree that this misses the cut for a compilation like that. It's still these guys in a title match and even if it's an average one that's not a particularly low ceiling. 

The 2020 Grab Bag

As is tradition for this here stupid wrestling blog when its sole contributor (I'm yer man) hasn't watched anything in a while, I hopped on the youtube and picked out a few random discs from one of the many boxes of bootleg DVDs I have lying around. Here are some words about things.

Jerry Lawler & Jimmy Valiant v Rick & Robert Gibson (Memphis, 1/19/80)

This was one of those nifty studio matches that feels very "first match on a DVDVR 80s set." I mean I'm absolutely not going to complain about the Memphis 80s set that we got, but something like this easily could've made it on there, even just for the quasi-novelty aspect of 80s heel Lawler (although maybe it wasn't available at the time). It got like 12 minutes and Lawler was a real hoot. He was complaining about being hip-tossed from one corner to another, playing an awesome stooge, really hamming it up with some of the best "I'm coming in to interfere oh wait shit no I'm not" u-turn shtick I've seen in ages. He's a great apron-worker, something I guess folk don't really talk about with him but it was on full display in the studio. It's kind of surreal seeing Valiant being clean-shaven for the first time in god knows how long. There's something about the voice and accent without the beard that makes it feel disconnected, like it's a recording of the future Boogie Woogie Man playing over the actions of this stranger calling himself Handsome Jimmy. Robert Gibson wasn't up to much at this point yet but Rick held it together for the babyfaces well and was perfectly serviceable. 

Negro Casas, El Satanico & El Felino v Vampiro, Atlantis & Lizmark (CMLL, 6/19/95)

There was no way this was staying above board for the duration. We'd have been lucky for it not to break down in the first caida never mind before the final bell and you could see it from the way Atlantis wanted a piece of Satanico at the start. Casas was the one who dragged it off the rails, though. Vampiro isn't good but the match-up with Casas felt like the biggest thing in the world when they got in together. Casas tackling him into the corner after Vampiro tried to get funky with the spin kicks was an awesome catalyst for a rudo mugging. Casas looked amazing in general, begging off when he knew he'd pushed things a bit too far, sporting the greatest shit-eating grin when his partners bailed him out, really laying it in when he had no choice but to stand up and fight. Arena Mexico was his world and everyone else was merely living in it. Overall this wasn't a lost classic or anything, but it was a fine formula trios and if nothing else it made me want to watch a Vampiro singles match. Lizmark also tope'd someone in the face. 

Pierrothito v Ultimo Dragoncito (CMLL, 10/16/01)

On the one hand you wish this got more time. On the other hand you take your ten minutes and revel in the minis title match greatness. This wasn't spectacular by any means, but the crowd were amped and both guys made the most of what they had to work with. Pierrothito is such a fun worker and he was a really cool base here, letting mini Ultimo zip around for a few awesome roll-ups. Then again he flubbed catching a dive that about put Dragoncito's face through the floor so who the hell knows. I think Ultimo might've had his bell rung legit after it as well, but he recovered fine and the last couple minutes were pretty dang dramatic. Give me two dozen matches like this and I'm happy.