Negro Casas & Black Magic v Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata (CMLL, 2/21/97)
This was worth it alone for Casas v Porky. Casas was working stiff as a bastard in '97 and he was trying to roundhouse Porky's sternum in half with Danielson-style kicks to the chest. He hit Oro with an upkick at one point that was straight out the FUTEN playbook. Of course on the other end of that he was amazing at running into the brick wall that was Super Porky. He just bounced off the wee juggernaut several times and then Porky about decapitated him with a clothesline. Casas' bump off a shoulder block was quite frankly incredible and the best part was that it didn't look like he exaggerated it at all. The Brazos work Casas' leg for a little bit and it's good, then they go after his arm, and then Porky just tries to simplify the whole endeavour by smothering him with a headscissors. I expected some amusing Porky comedy and we got that in the back half. First he slips and falls off the apron while trying to come in and break up a submission, then he gets "stuck" climbing under the bottom rope because he's too chubby. His eventual tope was great but unfortunately nobody went careering into the first row.
Lizmark is one of those guys I think of as a classic traditional technico. I'm not even sure what that really means, I just know it when I see it sometimes maybe. And I knew it when I saw it here, particularly in that opening caida. He was slick and graceful and all of his grappling was snug and focused and he just carried himself like a champion you'd want to be. Class, poise, whatever you like, he had it. The matwork part didn't last long but was really tight and Lizmark was absolutely on one, especially using the headscissors to escape and set up ripostes. On the other hand Emilio looked almost haggard, at least in a narrative sense, and continually struggled to keep up. Not much of what he tried came off and then Lizmark would just respond with the same thing of his own, only he'd do it successfully. When Emilio tried a monkey flip Lizmark damn near soared and landed expertly on his feet, then caught Emilio on the return with his own monkey flip and Emilio neither soared nor landed on his feet. Then Lizmark hit the tope and put him away with a powerbomb, about as emphatic an ending as you can get. It was a really nice opening fall. The segunda started with Lizmark picking up where he left off, going after Emilio's neck and hitting two big delayed neckbreakers. A couple times Emilio would be sitting slumped over on the mat, that haggardness from before even more pronounced, and Lizmark would just jump on his neck with his whole bodyweight. In the end Emilio comes back and levels it with his own powerbomb, but you're wondering how much he has left going into the deciding fall. The tercera never really builds to a huge climax unfortunately, but it has some moments. Emilio hits one really nasty looking dropkick to the knee and I thought he was going to go after it for a minute, but it never materialises. Emilio looks exhausted and only escapes defeat when he appears to submit to a tapatia and the ref' just...doesn't acknowledge it. Lizmark releases the hold thinking he's won the thing and the ref' is like "sorry, mate." It was kind of strange but also seemed deliberate rather than the ref' making a pig's ear of something. Eventually it spills to the floor and Lizmark hits a big dive off the top leading to the double countout, which isn't the most satisfying finish in the world but just about the only one that you could see not involving Emilio losing. I'm not sure he was entirely genuine with his dissatisfaction after the match.
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