Mendoza v Scorpio! For the Hair!

Cachorro Mendoza v Scorpio (Hair v Hair) (CMLL, 8/10/90)

This wasn't great, but it might be the first time I've seen Scorpio the senior in a singles match so that's a pretty substantial milestone in my journey as a fan of the pro wrestling. Prolly. He looks like a bridge troll, is wearing one of the most unflattering singlets you'll ever see and has a head that is almost completely square. Cachorro is not as good as his brother and may even have been a little TOO straight-laced at points, perhaps even naive, as several times he would check to see what MS-1 was doing all the shouting for and Scorpio would just blindside him. I did like him ditching the rules and literally whipping Scorpio out the ring by the hair to start the second fall (and of course Scorpio had plenty to say about it). Mendoza working the leg in the tercera seemed like a strange choice as Scorpio was determined to frame it as him being hit in the balls. Cachorro was like "what the fuck, man?" as if this sort of behaviour was unexpected. One awesome thing Scorpio did bring to the table was his fish-hooking. There were a few close-up shots of him grabbing a chin lock and immediately upping the nastiness by trying to pull Cachorro's face apart, and I loved Cachorro just biting his fingers to make him think twice. I'm not sure what Ringo was complaining about at the end. Scorpio may have been a weasel during the match but he did win the thing fairly in the end. I wouldn't mind seeing Ringo v Scorpio, or even better Ringo v MS-1, so if that's what the scuffle at the end was leading to them I'm into it. 

1990 CMLL Project

Captain Redneck

Dick Murdoch v Tor Kamata (All Japan, 3/30/80)

I wasn't expecting too much out of this, but it wound up being a really fun brawl. Murdoch basically worked full babyface while Kamata was cheapshotting him in the throat and eyes with karate thrusts. I haven't seen much Kamata even though he's been showing up on match listings since I was like 16, but he was a hoot in this and maybe I should've paid more attention over the years. For a guy who looks like he should be running around in a mobility scooter he's pretty damn nippy, hitting Murdoch with a few nice jumping toe kicks, reeling off those chops quicker than you'd think by looking at him, and there was one part where he toddled across the ring and up the turnbuckles like an aggressive penguin. Murdoch also chucked him into the crowd and his bump through a bunch of people and abandoned folding chairs was almost comically unnecessary for a fatboy to be taking. Murdoch's babyface spots were surprise dropkicks - which were awesome - and Dick Murdoch punches, where he cocked his fist and let you know he was going to pop a guy in the mouth before popping him in the mouth. We also got some blood and even a nice bit of brawling in the crowd. Of course if you thought this was ending in anything other than a no contest then you're most certainly barking up the wrong tree, but they at least made the ring boys earn their pocket money for the night. I honest to god liked this more than just about every non-Hansen or Terry Funk All Japan match from the first half of the 80s. Maybe Tor Kamata (from Hawaii, whose real name was McRonald!) should've been the real ace of All Japan. 

Dick Murdoch v Harley Race (All Japan, 2/12/81)

This was one of those Harley Race matches where he gives his opponent like 90% of the bout and bumps around huge for everything thrown at him. It doesn't always make for the most compelling contest, but I guess all the same I have a hard time knocking wrestlers for being TOO unselfish. I mean this probably would've been better if they tried to throttle each other for 15 minutes but we're not here to judge it for what it WASN'T, am I right? Or do whatever you want, I'm not yer da. The first minute of the match showed one of Race's greatest strengths while highlighting one of the things people usually ding him for. The strength was the bumping, as he takes a huge hip toss and two gorilla press slams, the latter being kind of crazy when you think about it. Like, Harley is not really the type of wrestler you typically think of as an eater of gorilla press slams, and Murdoch doesn't exactly look like the type of wrestler to do them. I suppose one of the cool things about Murdoch as a wrestler is that he looks like someone who sits on his back porch drinking Lone Star and smoking roll-ups, but he's a great athlete and he was only 35 here even if he looks 50. There was some proper strength in those arms. I guess the problem some folk might have is similar to one people might have with Flair. A standard knock on Flair is that he made his opponents work the same match, or at least similar matches based upon a few archetypes. You'd get wrestlers who don't usually do running splashes trying running splashes or guys who don't do gorilla press slams doing gorilla press slams. With Race it feels a little less formulaic than that. I think he just liked to bump big and so you sometimes got guys hitting moves they'd never hit any other time because Race wanted to take that bump at the time. It's not like that's a problem in and of itself (I'm all for variety and Dick Murdoch hitting gorilla press slams is fucking cool), it's more that they're just sort of thrown out there arbitrarily. It's 1981, I'm guessing gorilla press slams are a big deal, but these ultimately felt inconsequential because they were really only used to set up a longish headlock segment. They end up brawling on the floor at one point, Race grabs a chair, but the end goal is obviously for him to be hit by the chair rather than for him to do any of the hitting, which is blatantly obvious as Murdoch has his hands on the chair but Race is basically bonking himself in the head with it while Murdoch goes along for the ride. And that's more or less how this is worked. It's more of a Race bump show with Murdoch providing the obstacle he can bump off of. So it was fine, but still would've been better if they tried to throttle each other for 15 minutes. 

Dick Murdoch v Tiger Toguchi (New Japan, 8/21/81)

Man, this was some lumpy WAR midcard greatness. Did Murdoch ever work a Tenryu fed? Because evidently he'd have fit in splendidly. I don't know the backstory here, nor do I know what Murdoch said to Toguchi on THE STICK~ pre-match, but these two do not like each other and they displayed that hostility by throwing many potatoes. Murdoch would back Toguchi into the corner and pepper him with nasty shoulders to the midsection, forearm uppercuts, shots to the jaw, then snapmare him and drop a knee right across his nose. Toguchi would fire back with his own punches and Murdoch would spit take over unlucky spectators and check to see if all his teeth were still there. They'd club each other in the neck and throw little rabbit punches to the throat and ear. Murdoch was also working as a blatant prick and would tell the ref' to check for hair-pulling so he could punch Toguchi in the kidney. Then Ueda jumped in with a cane and laid into Toguchi, but the brawl continued into the post-match and I would very much be down for seeing more of this. What a fun wee scrap. 

Sangre Chicana of the Day #11

Sangre Chicana, Rayo de Jalisco Jr. & Lizmark v Cien Caras, Mascara Ano 2000 & Universo 2000 (CMLL, 10/5/90)

This was pretty much a brawl from start to finish. It came a couple weeks after Rayo took Cien Caras' mask at the Anniversary Show, but they clearly hadn't settled anything and Los Capos were out for revenge. The dynamic was pretty straight forward - Los Capos are brothers and have been up and down the road together for a decade, so this sort of gang war is their bread and butter. The tecnicos are not brothers and Chicana has probably thrown up in the others' bags at one point or another. The rudos are coordinated and work as a unit, while the tecnicos are three individuals who happen to be on the same side on the night. Chicana was really the third string player in this as the main focus on the tecnico end was Rayo de Jalisco Jr. It naturally meant he wasn't front and centre and by definition that's disappointing because you want Sangre Chicana front and centre in every gang fight. He still got to look very much like Sangre Chicana at points, though. He threw his punches. He ducked a haymaker and threw more punches. Several of those punches looked like Sangre Chicana punches. All was right. At the end I thought for sure he was going to turn on his teammates when Lizmark accidentally headbutted him, but instead he went back after the rudos like a man who'd awoken from a brief spell of unconsciousness to find a world unchanged, where only the vicious survive, and if nothing else Sangre Chicana is a survivor. I thought the Capos were a decent enough pack of hyenas throughout, trying doggedly to take Rayo's mask or at least separate him from his partners. There was one double team where Universo held him draped over the apron while Caras jumped over the rope and essentially curb stomped Rayo's head into the ring board. It was pretty bonkers. The brawling itself wasn't the strongest, though Cien Caras is one of the most charismatic wrestlers in history and I do always like it when he knows he has to quit begging off and actually fight. Lizmark belly flopping himself into a mound of bodies post-match ruled. The best brawling might've come after the bell, to be honest.

1990 CMLL Project

Sangre Chicana of the Day #10

Sangre Chicana v Perro Aguayo (CMLL, 3/20/92)

What a match-up this is. Any time they get together they have people on strings and this was no different. It wasn't like the '86 hair match. That was an alley fight where they tried to kill each other. This was more about the horse shit, but what a spectacular bit of horse shit it was. Perro doesn't even get in the ring properly and Chicana's stolen his big oversized charro and beating him about the place with it. It sort of felt like CMLL's version of a wild Austin/Rock Attitude Era brawl, and it even had its own Vince as special referee. Heel ref' carry on can be the absolute worst in lucha, but this worked about as well as I've ever seen it and it never felt completely ridiculous. He at least TRIED to make it look like he was being impartial, getting indignant when Perro or Konnan - Perro's second for the evening - questioned him, rather than the heel ref' shit in Monterrey where it's just blatant and stupid and not very fun at all. My favourite bits were when he'd try to "help" Perro take off his jacket, except in doing so he essentially held him in place so Chicana could punch him in the face and by Christ did Sangre Chicana have incredible punches. There were half a dozen that I had to rewind several times and I love how Perro just bumped face first to the canvas like he got knocked out cold. To add to the chaos you had Fiera sticking his nose in at every turn, holding Perro so Chicana could throw MORE amazing punches, grabbing Perro's leg so he couldn't escape a corner beating, then at one point he came all the way in the ring and broke up a submission by literally dragging Perro to the floor. There was an incredible bit where both Chicana and Fiera were smashing Perro's head off the ring post, Chicana pushing while Fiera pulled, like they were trying to cut a log in half with one of those big two-person saws. Holy fuck was Perro Aguayo certifiable. He took at least ten fully unprotected batshit stupid ring post bumps and opened up all that scar tissue on his forehead and I shudder to think what his brain MRI might've looked like. In amongst all this madness you had Sangre Chicana, instigator of everything. Offensively he maybe did four things the whole match and only one was an actual wrestling move, and to be honest I've watched so many Sangre Chicana matches recently I might be misremembering and the body slam I thought he hit could've actually been from a different match. And yet every action drew ridiculous heat. Some wrestlers are masters of that, where they can either make people want to kill them or jump in front of a bullet for them by doing almost nothing, and I don't know if anybody was as adept at it as Sangre Chicana. He waded into the crowd at one point, stood up on the seats holding court while people around him wanted him dead, then he leaned forward and shook the hand of maybe the sole Chicana fan in the vicinity. It was fucking amazing and one of the coolest things I've seen in ages. We also got two topes towards the end and of course they were both incredible. The first one backfired badly on Fiera who got launched into the third row by his own amigo, then Perro bombed into Chicana and Chicana ripping rows of fixed seats out the ground with his body will forever be breathtaking. 

Sangre Chicana of the Day #9

Sangre Chicana, Fabuloso Blondy & Satanico v Perro Aguayo, Lizmark & Ringo Mendoza (CMLL, 6/8/90)

This whole thing was great. Maybe as an actual match it was only really good, but I don't think it was ever intended to be great *as a match*. For a match-slash-angle that set up a bunch of other things though, it was pretty fantastic. It had lots of great STUFF in it. It had several great performances. I don't know man, it was fucking great in one way or another and you can figure out which way that might've been at your leisure. There's a decent bit of history here that will enrich the experience if you're aware of it, like Satanico and Chicana being on the same team despite trying to kill each other the previous year, or that Chicana and Perro have been at each other's throats for years, but even if you DON'T know all of that stuff they do a pretty decent job spelling out the important parts. Satanico being amazing doesn't hurt either. He was outstanding in this and got to show a little bit of everything he's great at (which is a lot). The main takeaway is that El Satanico is, forever has been, and forever will be his own man. Even with the Infernales there was a sense the group was made in his image, maybe evident by the fact he was the constant through its several incarnations. Here he was teaming with two guys he clearly didn't care for, but not necessarily because his philosophical approach to wrestling was diametrically opposed to theirs. There are probably similarities between Satanico and Chicana even if you'd need to dig below the surface a little. You just know that above all else Satanico's a warrior. There's no such thing as a fight he'll shy away from and we saw that in the primera. His exchange with Ringo was brief, but it was a proper wrestling exchange and for thirty seconds there it was everything you wanted. When Blondy came in to throw a chapshot you could see that Satanico wasn't best pleased. Then Perro wanted a go and neither Chicana nor Blondy were in the mood to give him one, so Satanico stepped in and basically told everyone else to fuck off out the way. That he followed it up by dropping Perro with a hook and beating his chest triumphantly was pretty much perfect. After his side drop the first fall you can see him shift gears. In the primera, when Chicana or Blondy looked for him to get in on a mugging he wasn't interested, almost dismissive of the need to even go there. Then early in the segunda Chicana grabs Ringo and Satanico doesn't even hesitate. There was nothing underhanded about it, really. It didn't feel cheap and it's not like he wouldn't have hit him if Chicana wasn't holding him, but sometimes needs must and Satanico is a competitor to the end. The finish - or the ending, I guess - ruled. Satanico and Lizmark are in together and Lizmark is up top in the corner, then Blondy shakes the ropes and Lizmark takes a scary fall on his neck. Satanico immediately checks on him and it's clear straight away that Lizmark can't continue. Then all hell breaks loose. Ringo and Perro start fighting with each other, then Blondy sides with Perro so Chicana sides with Ringo because the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Fittingly, Satanico removes himself from the fracas and tends to Lizmark, a man above such petty quarrels at this stage of the game. Beyond the Satanico stuff there was lots to like about this. Chicana wasn't all that interested in going at it with Perro but on the occasions he did it was awesome. His running dropkick at the intros, some of the punches, the way the crowd were hyped for all of it - I don't think it led to a hair match but I can only guess they'd have packed out Arena Mexico again if it did. Blondy was a hoot in this as well, just bumping and stooging to the back row and being a slimy prick. And Ringo got to do his thing, which will always be fun. Not really a showcase Sangre Chicna performance, but a great bit of wrestling all in all. 

1990 CMLL Project

Sangre Chicana of the Day #8

Sangre Chicana, Emilio Charles Jr. & Bestia Salvaje v La Fiera, Vampiro & Corazon de Leon (CMLL, 3/10/95)

This is the lead-in to the following week's Fiera/Chicana hair match, which I'd already seen but was unfortunately edited down to about 7 minutes. Fiera's involvement was annoyingly limited here, not just because his two partners aren't all that good, but because Fiera himself was clearly on a madness and why would we not want every bit of that? Within the first 15 seconds he's lying face first in a chair, bleeding all over himself while Chicana kicks him in the head, as a woman cradling her child in the seat next to them looks on disapprovingly (though the child didn't seem arsed about it). At a few points Fiera, covered in blood, bursts into life and goes after Chicana with manic glee, the best instance being his comeback in the segunda that kickstarts the tecnico resurgence. He was so far gone he started licking his OWN blood from his hands. Emilio and Bestia did the best they could with Vampiro and Jericho, respectively. Vampiro is at least pretty agile and throws a couple nasty kicks under the chin, but otherwise can't really convey anything while the rudos hold him up by the braids and kick the shit out of him. Jericho is enthusiastic but pretty sloppy. His twisting splash off the top was sort of awkward and his hurricanrana was all shoulder. Finish may have been a bit of an anti-climax, but at the same time Chicana repeatedly punching Fiera in his bleeding forehead until he's unable to kick out of a cradle wasn't the worst thing in the world. I wish we had the hair match in full, which probably goes without saying. 

Sangre Chicana of the Day #7

Sangre Chicana v Heavy Metal (Street Fight) (AAA Triplemania V, 6/15/97)

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this. I half wondered if it would be an overbooked nonsense, but it wasn't really. I'll tell you one thing they did -- bleed like fuck. For a street fight they wrestled - or punched - the majority of this in the crowd, seemingly doing a full loop of the arena. It wasn't necessarily the most compelling as they could barely move for the fans, but bare minimum the punches were good at their worst and great at their best, they bled everyfuckingwhere, and you know both of them were either stupid or wasted enough to fall off a balcony so any time they teased something like that it was borderline terrifying. Hijo del Perro Aguayo was Heavy Metal's second and had to save him from toppling to his doom once or twice, waiting until the very last second before grabbing him. Jerry Estrada in his absurd costume and face paint was seconding Chicana but strangely enough he never got involved. There was one point where someone shone the arena spotlight in Heavy Metal's face and it practically blinded him, and I so badly wanted the camera to pan around and show us Estrada behind the spotlight like a warped lunatic manning a gun turret. When they brawl back to the ring Heavy Metal throws the best punches of his entire career and staggers around losing pints of blood. Unfortunately we never got a psycho tope. Instead they do some horse shit with Tirantes and Perro Jr. bringing Heavy Metal a guitar from the locker room. I guess for a DQ finish the crowd were at least satisfied that Tirantes got his head caved in with said guitar. There's a hair match from 1998 that I'd consider paying actual money for if I knew where to procure the sweet lucha libre DVDs these days. Maybe it'll turn up on yon internet by 2024. 

Sangre Chicana of the Day #6

Sangre Chicana, Pierroth Jr. & Jerry Estrada v Heavy Metal, Latin Lover & Octagon (AAA, 5/25/97)

This was quite the contest to see who could look the skeeziest, the sleaziest, the scummiest, the downright seediest. Chicana, Estrada, Heavy Metal, all three laying down impressive markers. Chicana had longer hair than I'd ever seen him with before and he looked almost deranged. Heavy Metal might've been fucked up a wee bit because he could barely stand at points, but I also think the ring mat was extra slippery because just about everyone had trouble staying on their feet at least once. Estrada is the most ridiculous looking bastard ever as he's dressed in a Dragonball Z bodysuit with his face painted like a KISS demon. Was that a AAA thing with Estrada? I haven't exactly watched a lot of late 90s AAA but I don't recall seeing him with the face paint any other time. Pierroth was really fun and I liked his stuff with Latin Lover ("sexy boy Latin Lover," as the announcer says), who was pretty muck. People shriek when he moves his hips so Pierroth does a mocking version and gets superkicked out his boots. Later Pierroth dumps him into the front row and the rudos punch him to bits while his adoring public look on helplessly. Pierroth might've even tried to start a scrap with a teenage girl. Octagon was probably the best of the tecnicos, which tells you the state of things. Estrada tied him to the rope by the tassel on his mask and punched him in the face and that'll always be an awesome spot. Octagon wiping him out with a tope was pretty scary, not just because you wonder how Jerry Estrada might nearly kill himself but because there was a chance Octagon would slip on the mat hitting the ropes and fall out the ring and header the floor. Things got a little overwrought by the end with chairs and bits of metal being used as weapons, but there was at least one amazing Chicana punch and sometimes that's all you can ask for. Liked the finish as well, with Estrada fouling Heavy Metal in full view of the ref. Things had already broken down so why not? In for a penny, in for a pound. 

Sangre Chicana of the Day #5

Sangre Chicana, La Fiera & Bestia Salvaje v Love Machine, Apolo Dantes & Huracan Sevilla (CMLL, 2/7/92)

This was setting up a Bestia Salvaje/Huracan Sevilla hair match and to that end it surely did the trick. Fiera was a demon in 1992 so he and Chicana remain on the same side of the tracks, which is quite heart-warming in much the same way that scudding half a bottle of Kentucky Owl bourbon in a oner fairly warms the cockles of the heart and lining of your stomach. Fiera was wearing what I'd describe as red pyjamas. He was...very red. Almost absurdly so. I forgot how ridiculous Love Machine's mask was but my goodness that thing is a nonsense. He looks like some creepy minion in a JRPG. The primera was one big rudo mauling and the tecnicos never got a thing. Not a one, and any time it looked like they might mount a comeback their hopes were swiftly dashed. Maybe it's a Sangre Chicana thing but that's five matches in a row now where he's been involved and someone has taken an absolute corker of a ring post bump. There are actually a few in this but Huracan Sevilla's early on was sheer madness. Chicana threw half a dozen incredible punches and hurled himself out the ring in a way that maybe suggested he had no control over his body for a second there. It's hard to tell sometimes. Perfectly fine trios, and FWIW Bestia Salvaje made for a much more appropriate Mocho Cota replacement than Negro Casas made for a Fiera replacement. And somehow that seems fitting. 

Whiskey & Wrestling 900!

Nine hundred! What a nonsense. Anyway I watched some of my favourite matches and wrote words about them. Read them or don't, I'm not here to tell you what to do.

Andre the Giant v Killer Khan (New Japan, 4/1/82)

Going through the DVDVR New Japan set, this was one of the matches that blew me away most. People had said, "wait until the Andre matches, you won't believe how good he was" and it was like, sure, I guess I'll keep an open mind. Of course the narrative around Andre back in 2009 was different to now. We had some good stuff, but not nearly as much as we have today and nobody had run through enough 80s New Japan TV to find things like this. Andre being amazing isn't an unusual talking point in 2021, but back then, seeing things like the Hansen match and then this...holy shit, Andre the Giant actually fucking ruled! This was doubly surprising for me personally because I'd already seen a WWF version of Andre v Khan and it wasn't very good. It was nothing like this. Andre was just incredible here. Killer Khan is not a small individual. At 6'5 he's not even a regular-sized individual, yet Andre made him look very regular. Khan tries to put the boots to Andre early, but Andre is too busy shouting at spectators to even notice. When he does decide to pay attention Khan swiftly wishes he hadn't because Andre just grabs his whole entire head and tries to squeeze it like a grape. I know Andre was billed as being bigger than he actually was, but his hands are truly gigantic and they smother Khan's head completely, so it's not hard to see why people bought Andre being 7'5 or whatever (the afro adds about six inches anyway). Khan tells the ref' he's being choked and Andre, between bouts of telling people to shut up, is affronted, releasing Khan so he can demonstrate to the referee what he was actually doing, which the referee sells like his throat was just crushed. Above all else it was Andre's selling that made this. Khan has two weapons - the Mongolian chops and whatever the hell he can hit Andre in the leg with, whether it's kicks, punches, wrapping the ankle around the ropes and pulling, anything that'll do the trick. With the chops Andre goes from being surprised, to visibly rocked, to hastily trying to shut Khan down before he can string a bunch together. My favourite instance of this is when he just catches Khan's arms almost in an underhook before chucking him with a suplex. With the leg selling it's sort of gradual over the course of the match. To begin with he can shake it off, but the longer it goes and the more Khan goes back to it you can see him struggling to even stay upright. He'll have Khan on the ground and attempt to squash him, but if Khan moves then Andre suffers doubly because of the impact on the leg. Which makes sense when you look at the guy. If you're him, think how difficult it would be getting up after hitting the mat on GOOD legs, never mind after clattering a bad one knee-first into the canvas. The fact Khan even pushed him to take those risks is probably a rub in and of itself. Finish is great. Khan reels off some of those chops so Andre covers up with his big paws, effectively forming a barrier that Khan can't get through. So he goes up top and tries one off the ropes, but Andre has it scouted and squashes him dead while the chance presents itself. Andre really was awesome. 

Midnight Express v Southern Boys (WCW Great American Bash, 7/7/90) 

Still great. I'm not really someone who re-watches matches very often, but I've maybe watched this more times than any other match. It's just...easy to watch. It has all the elements of an awesome southern style tag. It has a great crowd. It has that cool early 90s WCW aesthetic that I'm very nostalgic for even growing up as a WWF kid. It has great performances across the board. It has extremely high re-watchability, is what I'm saying. It's also one of the all-time great Bobby Eaton shows. He gets beaten from pillar to post during the babyface shine and manages about 45 seconds of respite on the apron. It's the sort of thing you'd see as the basis for a babyface turn when someone feels like their partner is feeding them to the wolves. Then during the Smothers heat segment he's lucky if Lane spends more than half a minute in the ring at a time, and if he does it's usually off the back of a double team that Eaton is involved in anyway. He worked his socks off, did Bobby. That said, the Lane parts were awesome. I'll always have a soft spot for Sweet Stan, especially his trailer park karate, and this had possibly the best trailer park karate in living memory. Smothers was just destroying Eaton with thrusts kicks, so when Lane gets the tag and comes in stretching his leg over the top rope there's a ripple of anticipation from the crowd. This is Baltimore, Maryland. This is NWA country, dammit! They're plenty hip to Stan Lane's karate so they know exactly what's coming. Lane and Smothers establish their stance, Smothers steps in and backhanders Lane in the mouth, everybody ate it up completely. They face off again, this time Lane shoots in first, but Smothers blocks it and drops him with another backhander. Everybody ate it up completely. Then they step up for a third time, and if there was any question whether this was a Midnight Express crowd it was answered when Lane unloaded a flurry of dodgy thrust kicks. And that was another cool thing about this. The crowd weren't exactly shitting on the Southern Boys, but the Midnights were the Midnights and they weren't likely to be booed just because Cornette was running distractions. By the end the support was at least split though, so it's a testament to how everyone involved played the situation. The string of nearfalls before the finish are just magic and for a second there I actually forgot who won, so I bit huge on at least one of them. Pure, unfiltered southern tag wrestling, you are Number 1 and the Best.

Negro Casas v Ultimo Dragon (CMLL, 3/26/93) 

I'm not sure there's anything left to say about Casas at this point. I mean I'm about to rattle off many, many words about him right here anyway, but I don't know. It's hard to articulate just how good he was in this. How can you really do justice to his performance? As a match I thought this was amazing when I first watched it 10 years ago, and after seeing the lead-in trios a while back it feels even richer taken in context. In those trios Ultimo ran circles around him and Casas had no answer, but he did everything in his power not to let it show. He'll also never lack for confidence, so with a new day comes new opportunity and he was in high spirits to begin. Then he asked for a handshake and promptly got put on his backside. The first caida was an exceptional matwork fall and the most impressive thing was the struggle. I'm not arsed about arguing with anybody who thinks there's no struggle in lucha or that everything is rehearsed; if you like it you like it and if you don't you don't, but there was a clear sense of struggle in this and Casas was incredible during all of it. Ultimo certainly held up his end as well, and I think the way he leaned into some of the matwork you'd see more in New Japan than CMLL gave it an almost hybrid feel. It had elements of their feud up to this point, with Casas never being able to crack the code nor manage to avoid Ultimo's kicks (this time it was a spin kick that caught him flush in the face). In the segunda there's a clear shift in Casas' mentality. He's dropped falls to Ultimo in trios matches and now he's 1-0 down in a title match, so even if he doesn't lose any confidence - he's Casas and he never will - he absolutely does ramp up the surliness. He starts throwing strikes, looking Ultimo in the face before he does it, even rolling out one of his own roundhouse kicks that was just gorgeous. When he has Ultimo in a sharpshooter and Ultimo grabs the ropes, Casas shakes his head and looks at him like "will you just give up already?" He's at the end of his tether and he needs some sort of victory soon. The return to the sharpshooter made for a great build to Ultimo giving up and there was almost a sense of relief from Casas when he did. The low blow between the second and third falls was amazing and Casas' dismissiveness when questioned was perfect. He was petty and spiteful and it only fuelled his competitiveness. The tercera was truly befitting of a deciding fall in a title match and of course Casas was absolutely sensational. He turned up the nastiness even more (loved him biting Ultimo's mask while he had him in the camel clutch to pull his head back further), then bumped like a maniac for Ultimo's comeback. The dives weren't just great in isolation, they were great because they continued the theme of their feud. Casas could avoid the first attempt, but Ultimo had that scouted in turn and in the end Casas wound up in the second row...and then up the ramp...and there was nothing he could do in either instance. All of his insecurities manifesting themselves when he falls off the top rope is one of the all-time great Casas moments. You can see him contemplating it, sheepish at first before buying into his own bullshit. Then he faceplants spectacularly and there's never been anybody quite like him. A minor quibble might be the ease with which transitions were come by in the last minute or so, but it's hard to ding them too much. I don't think this a carry job by any stretch because Ultimo absolutely held up his end, but it is one of the best performances of Casas' career, in a year where he may have been at the very peak of his power, where he took a great match and elevated it to one of the best of the decade. The greatest to ever do it. 

Shinya Hashimoto v Toshiaki Kawada (All Japan, 2/22/04)

Maybe the last truly spectacular Hashimoto performance. What a way to go out on your shield, though. On the surface I guess this is basically a dual limb-work match, but not to sound all corny and dumb it came off a lot deeper than that. Very few wrestlers in history have a feel for the dramatic quite like Hashimoto and he milked every strike, every submission, ever ropey landing, every stretch of sinew on that shoulder. I've seen criticisms of Kawada's leg selling in this, and while I wouldn't necessarily say it was perfect I thought it was at least really good. Maybe he drops it a bit in the long term, but I'm not too bothered. Hashimoto volleys the crap out of it, obviously. Nobody throws a leg sweep like Hashimoto and this one looked like at about halved Kawada's leg at the knee. Hashimoto's shoulder is taped up so you expect Kawada to go after it at some point, and he does and he volleys the crap out of it. The shoulder coming into play was a great moment as well, with Hashimoto refusing to be suplexed and Kawada almost tripping him instead, which led to Hash landing all awkward on his collarbone. Watch these strike exchanges and tell me folk today can still do strike exchanges. And then down the stretch there's about a dozen moments of Hashimoto trying to grimace and fight his way through injury, and not a single person in wrestling has ever done that as convincingly as Hashimoto. The brainbuster DDT, the gamengiris, the molten heat for a minimal number of nearfalls, Kawada modifying the stretch plum to target the shoulder, Hash refusing to quit. This was good pro wrestling, boys. 

John Cena v Brock Lesnar (WWE Extreme Rules, 4/29/12)

Even almost ten years and a bunch of Lesnar spectacles later this still feels huge and totally unique. I'm sure I saw it described once as WWE's version of Hashimoto/Ogawa, and even if Cena isn't Hashimoto I thought he did a great job being what he needed to be on the night -- the pro wrestling hero fighting the odds against an invading terror, defiant and courageous right until the bitter end. Lesnar was an amazing Ogawa. The shoot elbows early were ridiculous and you know Cena was crazy enough to let him do it, but at the time we hadn't seen anything like that and it was a pretty clear sign that this would not be your standard WWE main event. I guess I can see people thinking the ref' stoppages early on hurt the flow, but I thought they drilled home the scope of what Cena was facing and if nothing else it let us see Lesnar pacing and bouncing around like an animal. Even though he never lost that aura, not even at his most Suplex Cityish, this was a wholly different sort of shit getting real to anything that had come before. Everything he did looked like it was meant to break bones. The elbows, the brutal knees to the ribs, the way he threw Cena shoulder-first into the post and barricade, the way he wrenched those kimuras. At one point he literally picks Charles Robinson up by the belt, with one hand, and throws him in the ring like he was an overnight bag. I thought Cena was really compelling trying to fight back while selling all of this torture, how he'd hang that arm down by his side, how he'd grimace and drag himself to his feet like a man who'd been hit by a bus, and for a partisan Chicago crowd I think he'd managed to bring a decent amount of them to his side by the end. It was pretty impressive. The deadlift out of the kimura was some amazing last gasp superhero shit. He's brilliant at those moments anyway, but he milked that one to death and I loved Lesnar's face as he realised what was happening. Lesnar clearing the ropes off that flying clothesline and about snapping his ACL was insane, but his reaction to it couldn't have been any better. It was almost shocked recognition that even that couldn't hurt him, laughing in the middle of the ring, arms aloft, indestructible beyond his own imagination. In that sense I don't think they could've come up with a much better way of giving Cena the win. It was like the hardest-earned banana peel finish ever and Cena sure wellied Lesnar with that chain-wrapped fist. They kept showing us that chain throughout the match, once with Cena trying to use it as a weapon, once with Lesnar suggesting he might do the same only to drop it because he doesn't need to, then it was used later to hang Cena by his ankles from the ring post like he was a deer carcass (blood pouring from an open wound just to really sell the visual). You always had the sense it would play a part and the part it did play couldn't have come off any better. I could see someone calling this a top 10 match in WWE history and I wouldn't spend a ton of time arguing with them. 

So there we have it. Here's to nine hundred more. Prolly. 

Sangre Chicana of the Day #4

Sangre Chicana, Bestia Salvaje & Emilio Charles Jr. v Triton, Oro & Atlantis (CMLL, 12/4/92)

This was only two falls, but it started out as a fun rudo beatdown and wound up being kinda great by the end. With a third fall it might've been pretty awesome. Atlantis and Emilio felt like the central pairing here, clearly still having beef from their match in the autumn. Of course Emilio wasn't all that eager to engage unless his partners were there to back him. It's not like anybody really paired off in a traditional sense either, at least not in the primera. Structurally it was rudo beatdown --> tecnico comeback --> finish, but the real beauty was in how they moved from section to section. The tecnico comeback was initiated by Atlantis and his stand against all three rudos was absolutely spectacular, the way he spun all three of them, hit his backbreakers with precision, moved about as gracefully as anybody ever, it was amazing. I guess I sometimes forget how good Atlantis can be as the lead tecnico in a trios but this thirty second exchange was a nice reminder. That sparked something in Oro and Triton because they got to put the rudos through the spin cycle as well. There was one great Chicana moment where he tried to fling himself at Triton but missed woefully and tangled himself horizontally in the ropes, so Oro followed up by dropkicking him to the floor. Usually you expect the tecnicos to take it home after that and even up the falls. Ordinarily I'd be disappointed that they didn't, because the build to it was perfect. Except this time Oro takes one of the most screwball missed tope con hilos you've ever seen, and I guess in the shock of it all the rudos blindside Triton for the sweep. Honestly, the Oro bump is sort of hard to watch when you consider the fact he died in the ring not but a year later off a botched bump. I'm pretty sure this was intended, but man, that kid was wild for the spectacular. 

Sangre Chicana of the Day #3

Sangre Chicana, Altantis & Octagon v Satanico, Blue Panther & Jerry Estrada (CMLL, 9/13/91)

I thought that line-up, with a chance to see Chicana work tecnico against THAT rudo unit, might've been too good to be true. And anything short of a classic then it probably is. There's so much potential there. So it was almost doubly disappointing as not only was it background for a rudo turn, we didn't even really get to see Chicana work tecnico because it was background for HIS rudo turn. It had its moments, though. I liked how they established Chicana being cut from a very different tecnico cloth right away, as he came in and booted Satanico who was in the midst of grappling with Atlantis. After that the rudos weren't even attempting to keep things above board and Satanico assumed his role as commander-in-chief. I don't think there's ever been anyone better at coordinating a beatdown. His presence is different class and you watch him barking orders and it's like, yeah, I'd fucking run through brick walls for that guy. All of the Satanico/Chicana exchanges, while brief, were glorious. Chicana clocked him with an absolute bastard of a left-right-left combo and honestly, I think Chicana's punches might be the best ever. Lawler's looked prettier but Chicana's are thrown from the depths of hell or whatever pit he crawled out of that morning. There's a wild sort of desperation to them that I don't think anybody else has captured the same. Atlantis and Octagon worked as more traditional tecnicos and both of them got to show off some flash. Octagon had one stretch where he ran all three rudos ragged and it was pretty awesome. Match was essentially one fall before the turn put a stop to everything, but I loved the finish to that fall and especially how they flipped the norm. After the tecnico comeback it looked like they were going to pin or submit all three rudos in unison. Octagon had Satanico wrapped up and Atlantis came off the top to prevent Panther intervening. Then Atlantis went to put the nail in the coffin with a tope, but Panther moved and he ended up clattering Chicana, who probably took a child's front teeth out as he hurtled backwards into the stands. That let Estrada and Satanico double team Octagon while Panther grabbed Atlantis in a tapatia. Chicana then lost the plot and launched Atlantis like a law dart head-first into the second row. Even the rudos were shocked, but of course they wound up embracing him anyway. Look, if nothing else it's cool that we have this, because if you wondered whether Chicana could pull off a convincing rudo turn then here's your answer. 

Sangre Chicana of the Day #2

Sangre Chicana, Mocho Cota & Negro Casas v Ringo Mendoza, Silver King & Ultimo Dragon (CMLL, 3/4/94)

This was tremendous. Very much not a Chicana match, but tremendous all the same. It's not that he wasn't good in it (obviously he was good in it), it's just that he was at best the fourth most important man in the thing and a distant third in his own team. So while it meant he wasn't the centrepiece, it did mean we got to see him as the C guy in a trios, which is worth looking at if you want to do the whole holistic examination of a person's career and whatnot. The spotlight here was on Mocho Cota and Negro Casas, which may actually have been the kick-starter to their feud that year (and gives a bit better context to the Relevos Increibles from a couple weeks later). You could tell pretty early on that this was going to be a story trios, and the story was that Negro Casas will be coerced by no man. If you've seen one of these trios then you've seen a dozen, where one of the rudos is trying to play it straight but the other two are only interested in shithousing. Casas was trying to have competitive exchanges, usually against his old adversary Ultimo Dragon, but the other two would come in and put the boots to the tecnicos, never letting anybody settle into a rhythm, clearly not interested in having an actual wrestling match. Chicana actively encouraged it, waving for assistance whenever Ringo had him in a hold. Initially Casas tried to settle things peacefully, but as it went on you could see him losing patience. Cota was unreal in this. Whatever he lost in athleticism from his stint in jail he made up for in elite tier horse shit. He could not grasp the concept of wanting to play this straight. No matter how many times Casas told him to stay on the apron he wouldn't listen and I loved how Casas would look at him like "fuck sake, here he goes again." Once or twice you thought it might even come to blows and there were a few subtle moments where Casas would thwart him, to the point where it allowed Silver King (who already had beef with Cota) to catch him with a superkick. That Cota/Silver King issue raised its head more than a few times and Silver King launching Cota into the ring post was one of the craziest spots like it you'll ever see. By the third caida Casas may as well have stood on the opposite side of the ring, so different was his approach to this than his teammates'. There was one bit where Silver King was tied up in the rudo corner, but when Casas came in - at Cota's behest - he not only didn't engage in the mugging, he let Silver King tag out. Whether it was a sporting gesture or one intended to rile up his partners, Cota was apoplectic. Cota and Chicana have been partners in crime (literally, probably) for a decade but Casas obviously wasn't the Fiera replacement they were expecting. Finish was great as well, with Cota seizing his moment and punting Silver King in the balls. At the end he and Chicana stood tall in the ring, while Casas looked on from the floor maybe questioning some life choices. 

Sangre Chicana of the Day #1

I've been watching some Sangre Chicana lately. I've also been thinking about him from a GWE perspective. He was my number 39 in 2016 off the back of not too much footage, or at least not too much footage of him in his prime. Shit, if his prime was during the 70s then there's no footage of him in his prime at all. But there's a decent amount of 90s Chicana on the youtube and I feel like it might be worthwhile watching every bit of Sangre Chicana footage there is. So we're watching Sangre Chicana, boys!

Sangre Chicana v La Fiera (Hair v Hair) (CMLL, 7/2/93)

I don't know anything about the context of this. No idea how long they'd been feuding, no idea why they were feuding in the first place. I guess it had been a minute since the Viboras Salvajes were a thing - I'm pretty sure Mocho Cota was in jail around this time - but from the opening here it looked like they both kept some measure of respect for one another. Even if their days of running together were over I suppose there was at least the faint remnants of kinship. Maybe that's me projecting, or maybe it's my way of rationalising a hair match starting with a handshake, but I've watched some of that 80s run recently so naturally it's fresh in the memory. I actually liked how they started with a bit of wrestling, the way they struggled over one hold that Chicana managed to keep on top of. Chicana even took a quick trip to the floor to shake hands with one of his supporters. Then it all went out the window. As soon as Fiera managed to - quite literally - wrestle away control, Chicana decided enough was enough. It was simple, but Chicana immediately going to the kidney punches looked brutal and Fiera sold it like he was about to piss blood. I thought this was an absolutely mesmerising Sangre Chicana performance. As soon as he ramped up the violence I couldn't take my eyes off him, and that's even with Fiera putting in a pretty sensational selling performance. Chicana would take his time with the beatdown, jawing with fans at ringside in between ramming Fiera into the post. I don't know if Nigel McGuinness was a lucha fan but jesus christ did La Fiera set the original bar for stupid insane unprotected ring post shots. There were at least three where he went clean into it at speed and if the ringside mic was better I assume it would've sounded like a cooked turkey hitting the pavement from a twelfth story balcony. My favourite moment of the match came at the end of the second caida, as Chicana waded into the dimly lit crowd before reappearing with a jug that he smashed over Fiera's head. It earned him a DQ, which evened up the falls, but I thought it was the perfect Sangre Chicana move. Fiera is bleeding everywhere, dead on his feet, probably has kidney trauma, so fuck it, why would Chicana be worried about giving up a fall? He's Sangre Chicana, of course he'll take that hit. Fiera's comeback in the tercera started with one of the best spin kicks he's ever thrown and I loved Chicana selling it like he'd been shot. The big Fiera tope was a fucking madness as well. He gets almost vertical coming over the top rope, which sort of hampered him hitting Chicana full in the chest as intended, but you forget that when Chicana ends up in the second row after ripping four seats out the ground in the process. Imagine being part of the arena staff the night of a Sangre Chicana apuesta match. You spend all that time securing furniture despite knowing for a fact at least some of it is going to be unusable by the end of the night. The finish was a little botched, but I thought it was great and wrapped up their seedy story nicely. Fiera had made several attempts at a backslide throughout the match, usually in response to Chicana kicking the shit out of him, but Chicana would shut him down every time with the kidney punches. They were the best kidney punches you've ever seen and they were the perfect counter to the counter. That the backslide looked ugly in the end wasn't enough for me not to love how Fiera's persistence paid off. 

Eddie v The Rock!

Eddie Guerrero & Chris Benoit v Bubba Ray Dudley & Spike Dudley (Tables Match) (Vengeance, 7/21/02)

I wasn't really feeling this to begin with, but it found a nice footing as it went along and by the end I was pretty well into it. They worked it largely as a straight tag, though structurally it was pretty much an extended beatdown right from the start. Eddie and Benoit working from above is fine though, because their offence looks great and any time Spike Dudley is eating that offence it's at least entertaining. The Dudleys weather the storm and start to find some openings, and I liked Bubba making a dramatic save just as it looked like Spike was getting whipped through a table. They don't really spend too long on the table stuff, actually. From that first tease with Spike to the finish with Benoit getting Bubba Bombed through one it's probably about two minutes of the match at most. But Eddie's elimination looked super nasty as the table breaks kind of awkwardly, and then of course Spike dies for our pleasure because that's what he does. This wasn't half bad. 

Eddie Guerrero v The Rock (RAW, 7/22/02)

I really love this match. It's about ten minutes tops and it wound up being inconsequential in the grand scheme of WWE in 2002, but it's Eddie and the Rock in a singles match and I love Eddie and the Rock, so how couldn't I love this? They cut a nice pace straight from the start and Rock's armdrags were as deep as I've ever seen them, really whipping Eddie over, practically horizontal as the point of contact. Eddie's control segment is pretty simple. He has four minutes to work from above, but rather than always going to the chinlock he mixes it up a little, with the chinlock, a tight headlock, the rare figure-four headscissors, really just trying to squeeze Rock's head as hard as he can. With the abbreviated length it means Rock's comeback maybe feels a bit less earned than it should, but you forget about that as he goes for the Rock Bottom and Eddie reverses it with an incredible armdrag right at the last second. He probably wasn't the first person to reverse a Rock Bottom like that and he's reversed similar moves in similar fashion before, but it came off perfectly here and it blew me away when I first saw this match years ago. That this was their only singles match and they never got a chance to properly stretch out on PPV is a travesty. It would've ruled. 

Perfect v Tito...featuring Earl by god Hebnar!

Mr. Perfect v Tito Santana (WWF Saturday Night's Main Event, 7/28/90)

I thought this was bonkers great. I'd seen it before and I know I liked it a bunch then too, but it never landed like this. I'd probably put it in Tito's top 5 - maybe top 3 - WWF matches, and honestly I might have it as Perfect's #2 behind the Bret match from King of the Ring. At the very least it's my favourite heel Mr. Perfect performance; maybe my favourite heel Hennig performance, period. I guess I'd forgotten this having not really watched much of him for a while, but man that guy was an ATHLETE. Early on he does an amazing bit of stooging by scooting backwards all the way across the ring on his knees and it was honest to god as quick as I've ever seen anyone do that. I can't imagine three quarters of the WWF roster at the time would be able to RUN quicker than Perfect did this. 

I've been sort of whatever on WWF Hennig because the bumping can be too much even for me, but this was him at his preposterous best. One of the criticisms of Flair doing the upside down corner bump all the way into his 80s is that, while very much an ATHLETE in his own right (up until he was like 72 or whatever), he never really had the physical speed or athleticism to pull that bump off convincingly. To make it look like it was actual momentum that took him up and over in the corner and not him doing it on purpose. Now on the surface that's sort of a ridiculous criticism as this is pro wrestling and just about everything is dumb and done on purpose, but also because with that bump it doesn't really matter how fast a person is -- from a physics standpoint, going upside down in the corner like that is nigh on impossible without some measure of intent from the person doing it. But still, old man Flair taking that bump looked much less impressive than, say, prime Shawn Michaels, because Michaels was a fucking ATHLETE and hit the turnbuckles at a hundred miles an hour. It looked more realistic when Michaels did it, while we still acknowledge that as a bump it's never actually realistic at all just by virtue of the physics and biomechanics involved in pulling it off (and also because it's pro wrestling). Perfect takes a bunch of bumps in this that would ordinarily look like nonsense, and to be fair a couple still do, but he performs them with such explosiveness and timing that someone less agile attempting them would look plain stupid. It's not easy to make it look like you actually got punched in the face so hard you were knocked over the top rope, yet Perfect made that specific bump look damn near effortless, like it was Tito's strike that caused it and not Hennig just fucking yoinking himself up and over the ropes. It was kind of remarkable watching it from the perspective of someone who trains people to jump high for a living. I would very much like to know how he programmed his explosive training, for example. 

Beyond the bumping I thought his overall selling was excellent. Tito doesn't spend a ton of time working the leg as such, but he does apply the figure-four for a visual nearfall and Hennig's limpy selling ruled. It wasn't even so much that he was selling the leg specifically; the limp was part of the larger problem of him being punched out his boots and that he was on jelly legs to begin with. And besides, the REAL star of leg selling in this match was yer man Earl Hebnar. He takes one of the more believable ref' bumps I've seen when Perfect collides all awkward with his knee and it looks like Earl about eviscerated his ACL. He makes three slow-crawling nearfall counts that Perfect kicks out of at the very last millisecond and the crowd are just molten hot for all of it. Hebar actually makes the count while clutching his broken leg, flopping and squirming across the ring like a landbound trout, slapping the mat in agony afterwards, trying to pull himself up by the ropes to soldier on, he was damn near turning purple! Like what the fuck, Earl?! People are championing HHH as some saviour of modern wrestling and we're letting old man HBK teach folk how to act when the WWE had Earl Hebnar on their books for like sixty years ready to show people how you actually do the professional wrestling. And just to round out the cast, this was one of the best Bobby Heenan managerial shows ever. He had so many awesome little moments of coaching from the floor, reminding Perfect that Santana needs to beat HIM and not the other way around, looking like a man whose nerves are about to put him in the ground with every close call. There was a brilliant bit where Perfect had Tito in a neck crank and, from behind the ref's back, Heenan asked if Perfect wanted him to run distraction to allow for some blatant choking. Of course Perfect says yes, Heenan gets in Hebnar's ear and Perfect chokes Santana with two hands around the throat. 

The finish was also very perfect (yes yes I am hilarious). Tito lowers his head for a back body drop and Perfect immediately shoots in for the Perfect Plex. I'm dead ass certain Perfect had won matches in that exact way before, maybe even against Tito, but this time it's scouted and Tito reverses it into a small package. Perfect then reverses that into his own cradle and you can just feel the crowd's heart sink when the ref' (a replacement referee by the end, as we tip our hat to Earl Hebnar) counts three. Tito comes out of this looking great because he almost certainly would've won had the referee not been crippled, Perfect comes out looking tough as nails for surviving it all anyway, and smart and skilled enough to win clean as a sheet in the end. I loved this. I mean, I don't have a clue what a list of the greatest Intercontinental title matches would look like, but offhand this feels like it might be top 1.

Herodes and Popitekus EXPLODE!

Emilio Charles Jr, Herodes & Espectro Jr v Ringo Mendoza, Kung Fu & Popitekus (CMLL, 2/4/90)

Pretty much the perfect midcard trios. This had a little bit of everything -- comedy, matwork, some tetchiness, some brawling, and an amazing fatboy tope. The primera almost felt like something from World of Sport. It got about twelve minutes and every match-up worked. Emilio and Ringo Mendoza decided to skip the bullshit and had a great little exchange, but before long the rudos started to pick on Popitekus. He and Herodes must've had beef coming in because Herodes was not for going at him one on one. Some of the comedy was great and Herodes continues to be one of my favourites. He's always a blast in these matches, always willing to be as much of a dipshit as possible, but all you need to do is look at a guy like that to know he can turn loose when he absolutely needs to. He challenged Kung Fu to try and apply a full nelson, but he and everyone else knew fine well Kung Fu wouldn't be able to. Both attempts ended with Herodes elbowing him in the mouth. On the third attempt, behind Herodes' back, Kung Fu switched out with Popitekus and Herodes' reaction when he realised it wasn't Kung Fu who had a hold of him was perfect. Popitekus had one amazing bit with Espectro as well, with Espectro fully on his bullshit and challenging the big man to knock him off his feet. Espectro standing with his biceps flexed as Popitekus literally bounced him clean out the ring was sublime. Herodes hitting a tope at the end was completely awesome and I don't think the commentators or spectators figured he'd actually do it. This was a total blast. 

1990 CMLL Project

Your Midweek Fuerza

Comando Ruso, Fuerza Guerrera & El Hijo del Gladiator v Remo Banda, Chamaco Valaguez & Mogur (CMLL, 2/4/90)

This was building to the Remo Banda/Comando Ruso hair match, and I can say they all did their job splendidly. It's actually been a fun feud whenever it's been showcased up to now, going from something in January I wouldn't have been immediately interested in to something I now want to see the climax to. The whole match itself was one big tease of Ruso getting his comeuppance. He wanted no part of Banda to start with and refused to engage, immediately tagging when they wound up in the ring together. A couple times he just left the ring and scurried up the ramp. Of course he threw his cheapshots and was fine to step on Banda's neck whenever the latter was mid-exchange with someone else. Banda got more and more pissed, but the coolest part of this was how they flipped the payoff. Banda did get some measure of revenge, except he took it too early and by the end the rudos had coordinated a total mugging. They went after the arm hard and I thought Banda sold it remarkably well. Long-term limb selling isn't necessarily something I associate with lucha, but Banda would even switch up submission attempts because he couldn't use the bad arm properly, and he at least drew attention to the fact it was bothering him right until the finish. Maybe he needs to pick better partners next time because he was a man on an island by the end and the rudos couldn't have been any more emphatic in putting him away. It was a cool way to book things and I'm interested in where they go with him and Ruso next. Fuerza was Fuerza here. Where Ruso was determined to avoid Banda, Fuerza was similarly opposed to any interaction with Mogur. He got humiliated more than once and more than once it ended with him Fuerza Flopping in the corner (the evolution of the Flair Flop, if you will). At one point he also got bounced off the ropes from the apron and it pretty much reinforces how you can't not watch him at any point in a match. Hijo del Gladiator probably deserves a bit more talk as an awesome rudo stooge. He was a hoot in this and absolutely did not take a backseat to Fuerza in the shithead sweepstakes. I hope he gets a singles showcase at some point during the year. 

1990 CMLL Project

Virus Remembers Doin' Stick-Ups for Less than a Hundred Dollars, now He Doesn't get Dressed for Less than a Hundred Thousand

Virus, Dr. O'Borman Jr. & Valentin Maya v Neutron, Super Kendo & Ricky Marvin (CMLL, 7/4/00) - GOOD

This was super fun. There's actually a decent amount of early 2000s Virus on YouTube now and looking through all of it last night was pretty exciting. I don't have a clue when I'll have time to get to everything, but more Virus is a gift horse you don't look in the mouth. I don't think I've seen O'Borman Jr. before. That's really one of the beauties of lucha, though. You can fire up a random 10-minute trios featuring an absolute all-timer teaming with some guy you've never heard of and the latter will have an amazing mask and you may even feel compelled to hunt down not only everything HE has ever done, but everything his Sr. has ever done because how did you manage to blank on two fucking generations of O'Borman? I liked all of the O'Borman/Neutron exchanges and O'Borman's bump off a surprise dropkick ruled. This was at its best when the rudos were cleaning house with double- and triple-teams, some of which were truly preposterous. The tombstone/Codebreaker thing was ridiculous and yet another reason why lucha libre is the best of all the pro-wrestling. Also Ricky Marvin was a lunatic and I guess I'd forgotten that. The exchanges with Virus were great and I'm immediately hyped to watch that singles match from later in the year that I've been meaning to watch for about a decade. 

Virus v Fly Star (Lucha Memes, 6/29/19) - EPIC

Well fuck me. Where did this come from? I think by now everybody who's familiar with Virus knows what his bread and butter is. He's one of the best mat workers ever and for a while there we were getting a string of amazing title defences against guys who otherwise haven't done much of anything (with a few exceptions, like Dragon Lee). He's one of the best ever at leading young and unimpressive mat workers to impressive matwork without making it obvious that he's leading them. I really don't know enough about Fly Star to say with confidence whether this was another example of that. He looked fine during the mat section, honestly. But this was Virus at his very best, and not only that, it was Virus getting to stretch out on the mat AND attempt to mutilate someone. We've never really seen Virus in a proper blood-and-guts-fest. There are glimpses of it and I know it's unfair to expect some kind of Pirata Morgan/El Faraon in our current climate anyway, but it's hard not to wish something like that was out there (even just to see what he would do in the situation). This gave us about as good a look as we've ever gotten, even if he never did any of the bleeding and the brawling was mostly a destruction. It's mano a mano so everything is contained to the one fall, but structurally it was more or less three and that was reflected in how the match was segmented. The first third was on the level, nothing particularly tetchy, all very respectable. Again, I don't have much of a handle on how good Fly Star is as a mat worker but this was pretty great stuff. Virus is just incredible at feeding in subtle ways, then throwing a wrench into something and reminding you that he's not about to be schooled by anyone. Fly Star will take a second too long to grab a hold or move from one thing to the next, so Virus will wrap his legs around one of Fly Star's and drag him to the mat with a toe hold. It was all pretty even, but you knew Virus had another couple gears and I think Fly Star knew it too. Maybe he figured it would be a good idea to turn this into a fight then. There's no footage of Virus brawling so how good at it can he be? The bit where Virus checked to make sure the kid really wanted to do this before battering his brains out was unbelievable. There was a group of elderly women in the front row cheering for Star, so Virus purposely dragged him over there and beat on him while he was sprawled on their laps. He even tried stealing one of their walking sticks to use as a weapon (and in true lucha fashion the old lady refused to give it up)! He smashed a wooden board over Flay Star's head, stabbed him with a piece of broken plastic, punched him in the cut, bit him, lapped up the blood, revelled in all of it. It was a relatively brief segment, but it was amazing and there's not a single chance Virus wouldn't be a killer if he started engaging in seedy brawls across Mexico. Maybe when he reaches his 60s, who knows. After Fly Star makes his comeback they have a great dramatic run to the finish, really your high end Virus title match finishing stretch only worked in front of fifty people in a warehouse basement. It had the massive dive, the nearfalls and the perfect finish to tie it all together. And when the audience throw money in the ring at the end you know you've seen a humdinger. This was outstanding. 

Complete & Accurate Virus

A foray into AGES AGO New Japan

The 2020 New Japan that I watched yesterday wasn't really my idea of a party. We'll see what New Japan from 40 years ago has to offer instead. 

Antonio Inoki v Jack Brisco (New Japan, 5/10/79)

I've been saying for ages that I want to watch more 70s Brisco. I've been saying for ages that I want to watch more 70s Inoki. Two birds, here's yer stone. Shockingly enough I thought this was really good. Brisco always brings a real sense of ruggedness to his matwork and it was no different here. Inoki kept him on the back foot so it was a cool look at Brsico working more defensive and reactionary, having to find openings while Inoki pressed for the advantage. There was one point where they came up for air and hit the ropes, ending with Inoki about taking his head off with a running dropkick. Inoki was super slick setting up the figure-four and Indian deathlock, just smooth as you like and quick into the bargain. The moment where Brisco finally cracked the code and managed to drop him with the shinbreaker ruled and there was a proper sense of panic from the crowd that Inoki might actually be up shit creek here. I wasn't expecting much of a finish to this, so to actually get not only a clean one but a brilliant one at that was a pretty awesome surprise. 

Masa Saito & Hiro Matsuda v Seiji Sakaguchi & Riki Choshu (NWA Hollywood, 6/15/79)

I know this technically isn't New Japan, but for all intents and purposes it is New Japan. It's on New Japan world so I'll count it as New Japan, basically. And man this was good stuff. Masa Saito ruled. This is the first time I've watched anything of him in a good few years, possibly the first 70s Saito I've actually seen, and after about thirty seconds I'm reminded of why I love him. All of his offence looked killer, everything executed perfectly with real explosiveness, all of the suplexes and especially the proto-German to end the second fall, where he sort of held Choshu in the air for a second just to let him think about what was coming. The throws had an awesome snap to them, and even if he's not the tallest dude he's an absolute unit, really stocky like he's made of cement, so it's super impressive how he moves with such speed. It was amusing to see Choshu with short curly hair. Somehow he felt smaller here than he would later, not just physically but in terms of presence. You could tell he was charismatic, but he hadn't decided to stick a finger up to the establishment yet and he almost felt like a regular person. All of the matwork here was snug and precise, especially Matsuda's headlock which was about as tight as any headlock you'll see, really just grinding Choshu's ear with his forearm. I did wish the heat segment on Choshu lasted a bit longer, though (looked like it was supposed to and they sort of flubbed the timing of the hot tag). We even got a slap exchange towards the end with Choshu and Saito plastering each other and in pursuit of the cheap heat/pop let me declare it better than any of the muck I watched yesterday. Finish ruled, with Sakaguchi basically chokeslamming Matsuda onto a standing Saito who stumbled backwards into a backdrop. 

A foray into modern New Japan

I don't have much time these days to dedicate to dumb/wonderful hobbies like the pro wrestling. I'm doing a motherfucking PhD and while writing MORE words about stuff might sound like burnout fuel, writing about the pro wrestling actually helps me unwind a bit and even makes doing the other writing I'm actually supposed to be doing a little easier. I'd usually dedicate that pro wrestling time to stuff I have a strong inkling that I'll like. Modern New Japan is not that, but if it's on the streaming service and I'm paying for it anyway then I might as well have a look. What's the worst that could happen?

Minoru Suzuki v Shingo Takagi (New Japan, 8/29/20)

I like the stadium aesthetic of this. I barely watched any Covid-era wrestling but the closest any of it came to having an actual atmosphere was the WWE Thunderdome stuff, which was kind of like going for a bath with your shoes on. Stadium shows are also very cool in general. I'm a Puerto Rico fan so stadium shows in baseball stadiums are especially cool. Plus I coach for a living in a spectator sport and it's been pretty shitty doing that in front of no crowds for the last year, so seeing even partially attended sporting events (carny or otherwise) is neat. Anyhow this was rubbish. Shingo has been getting some GWE talk as a top tier/number 1 contender already and that sort of encapsulates my disconnect with modern wrestling and the folk who love it. I'm not taking a shot at anybody who does love it either. I honestly wish I shared their enthusiasm and took as much joy in watching it, because at the end of the day this is supposed to be fun and watching more fun stuff can only be good. But nah, Shingo is one example of a dude whose appeal is completely over my head. This had lots of strike-trading and chest-puffing and rage shouting so we know how tough these guys are. And I suppose that could work, but Shingo's elbows were basically Mick Foley punches and I don't really want to be watching that. Shingo did the Tenryu punch/chop combo at one point and it was pretty fun, but I watched the real Tenryu do that to Suzuki a couple weeks ago so this was always going to fall flat. Some of the stuff they did probably passed me by just because I'm not familiar with where they're currently at, their personas or characters, their past history together or whatever. So maybe you need to be immersed in the SCENE for this to properly resonate and parachuting in on some random match isn't the way to go about it. I did at least like Suzuki clonking Shingo with a headbutt to set up the choke. That was an interesting thing that happened. 

Minoru Suzuki v Kota Ibushi (New Japan, 10/10/20)

This started out better, with some okay tentative striking and matwork. It was C-level RINGS but I like C-level RINGS fine. Then they went onto the ramp and hit each other in the face for a minute and it all went downhill from there (though Suzuki did throw one amazing punch). I thought most of this was your modern day dick-swinging at its worst. They throw forearms and slaps, but outside of a few cool instances of selling the striking never really means much. I'm not sure what it establishes. Toughness? MANLINESS? They absorb the blows and sneer and scream in defiance, but after 10 years of this we either need to surmise that EVERYBODY is tough as nails, or the striking isn't actually that good. I'm not sure what else we're supposed to glean from any of it. Maybe it's a cultural thing. On the other hand I could get on board with folk doing it just fine in the past, so maybe it's a work thing, or an execution thing, or maybe in my old age, as I now tend to enjoy sitting on the porch yelling at clouds, I can only surmise that nobody sells like they used to. We would tell STORIES in the ring, by god! Either way I have no use for the premise at this point. Ibushi's forearms ranged from pitiful to halfway decent - more of the former than the latter - but he did at least have one or two great bits where he went dead weight off an elbow. Suzuki has this rep of being a masochist and I'll read about him torturing folk, and he did throw a few corkers of elbows, but I still can't get with the act when he spends half the match doing the tongue thing. I am absolutely all in on wrestlers acting the idiot, but most of it here felt like an excuse to just go back on offence. In terms of brain damaged sneering reptiles who've been hit in the head too often he's a fair distance behind Kikuchi. Aw fuck it. I don't like actively shitting on stuff that I watch so we'll see what's what in another four years. 

Thus ends my most recent foray into modern New Japan. 

Chicana/Cota/Fiera v Caras/Rayo/Atlantis

Sangre Chicana, Mocho Cota & La Fiera v Cien Caras, Rayo de Jalisco Jr. & Atlantis (EMLL, 1984)

Look at that rudo unit. You'd think it couldn't live up to the potential, but then you'd be dead wrong. This was a rudo show and it was pretty fucking spectacular. All three of them were in full shithead mode, never wanting to do anything above board, always looking for a chance to cut corners. There were points where it might've actually been MORE difficult to try and effectuate a mugging, yet they were determined to play the numbers game and isolate the tecnicos, usually with one guy drawing someone away while the other two would blindside them. You have to tip your hat to them, really. Mocho Cota was unbelievable here. I'm assuming he's coming off an apuesta loss because he doesn't have the incredible afro. It also looks like he's been on a hunger strike. He's a wiry guy at the best of times, but he looked downright skinny. Either way this is one of the best straight up stooge performances I've seen in ages. He'd flat out run away from altercations, trip over the ring rope trying to throw a cheapshot, refuse to engage in anything with Cien Caras unless one of his boys was there to back him up, it was amazing. My favourite part of the match was his goofy little imitation of Rayo de Jalisco Jr's dance. A truly wonderful dipshit performance from a truly wonderful wrestler. Chicana was unreal as well. I've probably said this before but if I could wish into existence every piece of footage from one person in the history of wrestling then I think it would be Sangre Chicana. There was one incredible bit of nonsense here where he tried to sneak up on Caras, only for Caras to spin around on him at the last second and I can't even do justice to Chicana's reaction. This ruled. 

Should we be watching more Espectro Jr?

Espectro Jr. v Atlantis (EMLL, 1/4/84)

I feel like Espectro Jr. probably deserves to be talked about a bit more. Even if it's the Satanico/MS-1/Pirata Morgan team that gets the most discussion, the original Infernales were awesome in their own right. I'm not saying Espectro was better than Pirata Morgan, but neither was he some scrub and I'm not sure the upgrade from the former to the latter was as all that huge. Espectro also has one of my favourite masks in lucha history, with the creepy cartoon smile and bugged out eyes. He was pretty great in this. It's mano a mano and Atlantis was probably going to need someone to do the leading at this point in his career, a year into it as he was. His selling was very BIG, almost comical in how he'd flop and flail around the mat. You could tell he was eager to hook the crowd and as a rookie I guess it's hard to blame him for trying so hard to garner sympathy. Espectro wellied him with one of the best uppercuts ever as soon as Atlantis stepped in the ring (which came after a pre-match mugging into the bargain), so I suppose they made it easy to root for a guy in that situation. Atlantis being a touch overeager sort of played into the story as well, as there were a couple moments where he'd mount a brief comeback, look to the crowd for reassurance, and Espectro would blindside him again. I also loved Espectro responding to Atlantis ripping at his mask (Espectro being the one who started that carry on in the first place) by just yanking Atlantis' entire mask off and throwing it into the crowd. Atlantis' tope at the end was a corker and I think Espectro launched himself backwards with such force he ripped a cluster of seats clean out the ground. If that's not the mark of a bullet tope I don't know what is. The lucha libre truly is the most beautiful of all.