With my Lucha reviews, I was originally going to write a series of primer reviews for another blog so people can become more acquainted with the style. That didn't go through because of my indecisiveness, I decided to start my own. This will be a good excuse to watch, write and educate myself on more lucha and hopefully the readers will find this blog at least entertaining.
I will be starting with some of the more well known matches and everything will be either in random fashion or have some kind of themes being written about.
EL HIJO DEL
SANTO/OCTAGON VS. LOS GRINGOS LOCOS (EDDY GUERRERO/ART BARR) [AAA 11/6/94]
This was my and many
other people’s first real exposure to lucha.
This was the co-main event to AAA’s first pay-per-view that was also
co-promoted with WCW that could get aired in the U.S. This match had a lot of heat going into it as
El Hijo del Santo and Eddy Guerrero were both second generation wrestlers and
their fathers [El Santo and Gory Guerrero] were tag partners and for a short
while, El Hijo del Santo and Eddy were tag partners as well. Guerrero and Barr were hated in Mexico as
they constantly antagonized the audiences and especially in this match where
Barr made swimming motions to piss off the fans in the L.A. Sports Arena and
made chants of “1-8-7” which was Proposition 187 which was an anti-immigrant
legislation in California so it made for perfect rudo behavior. The crowd had what they would call “nuclear
heat” as they were so loud, it shook the building particularly when Santo and
Octagon won a fall or on the verge of rioting when Los Gringos Locos won a
fall. This is the only lucha match that
got a 5-star rating from Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer newsletter, I
don’t quite think it deserves the full monty as I think there are many other lucha
matches that deserve it. I wish there
was a bit more hatred in the actual wrestling with some brawling. It’s still an incredible watch and a must-see
for anyone getting into lucha.
Rating: A-
ATLANTIS VS. VILLANO
III [CMLL 3/2/00]
This was also one of the
first major lucha matches that I watched as a wrestling fan. This won Match of the Year for the Wrestling
Observer for 2000 and that is how I found out about this match. This was CMLL’s first PPV and these two
veterans put their masks on the line in the main event. This has everything I love in a big matchup:
nuclear hot crowds, great wrestling, copious amount of blood, skull crushing
topes, mask ripping, swank submissions and tons of hate throughout the match. All of this leads to an emotional ending and
even more emotional post-match interview and unmasking. What also sets this match apart from many
other lucha matches, in particularly those in CMLL, is that this is a one fall
match. I loved this when I first saw it
but as years went by and the more lucha I watched and understood, this stood
out as even more important. This is one
of my all time favorite matches, lucha or otherwise.
Rating: A
LOS BRAZOS VS. LOS
INFERANALES [EMLL 11/22/91]
This is my favorite and
what I consider the quintessential trios match.
I know a problem for people in trios matches when they first start
watching lucha is trying to make out who is who. In this match, it’s a bit easy as in with Los
Infernales, watch out for Pirata Morgan who has the eye patch (which is a real
patch over an empty eye socket) and with Los Brazos, watch out for Brazo de
Plata who I have heard described as “the human volleyball.” Los Infernales is my favorite trio as in this
match they are comprised of El Satanico, MS-1 and Pirata Morgan. It is the second version of the team but the
team people most recognize with birth of the trios style. I consider this the quintessential match of
this style as it has everything that one would associate with this match up. The match is very well paced in that there is
no down time and they are constantly moving, you also have great team moves,
particularly the classic star submission that the Inferanales put on the
Brazos. There is also great
mat/counter/chain wrestling for those that enjoy that as well some incredible
bumping by everyone involved and of course some wonderful dives
throughout. Watch out for the show
stealing dive by Brazo de Plata who was easily the most over in the match with
the crowd. Who says big guys can’t move
well? There is so much to get out of
this match and I think anyone can love this.
I certainly do.
Rating: A-
MS-1 vs. SANGRE CHICANA
[EMLL 9/23/83]
This is the odds on
favorite to be voted #1 on the DVDVR 80s Lucha set. A lot of the times, the best way to book a
wrestling match is to be as simple as you can be and this is that to a T. This match is centered on a ton of punching,
bleeding, amazing selling by Chicana, a couple bone crunching dives and one
actual wrestling move that plays into the conclusion. The match gets off the an amazing start with
MS-1, who looks like a mix between Paul Orndorff and Terry Taylor, jumping
Chicana right from the start, busting him open and dominating the first
fall. Chicana’s selling is a major part
of this match as he’s barely able to stand up even after winning the second
fall by count out and when he’s able to find a window of opportunity to fire
back at MS-1. The third fall really sums
up what this match is, a war of attrition.
Every dive, punch and near fall brings a high amount of drama as everything
means something in this match as any move can be a match ender and the crowd is
eating out of these luchadores hands.
This is one of the greatest brawls in wrestling history. It’s right up there with Magnum/Tully,
Slaughter/Sheik, Lawler/Mantel and Duggan/DiBiase.
Rating: A+
EL SATANICO vs. PIRATA
MORGAN [AAA 11/19/93]
This is a very
different kind of match that AAA is known for.
AAA is typically known for its more aerial and high-flying wrestling and
this match has none of that. What this
match does have is hate, blood, great punching and more hate. I wanted to include this match for this
primer not just because it’s an amazing brawl, which it is, but it shows that
the promotion ran different kinds of matches.
Also, I figured since I had an Los Infernales match with both men in the
same corner, might as well watch them brutalize each other. Pirata Morgan was one of lucha’s greatest
bladers/bleeders and this is a great example.
Morgan was never a great mat worker nor a great high flyer but what he
could do better than most other wrestlers was brawl and punch people really
well. He took some insane bumps and also
started to bleed immediately in this match as Satanico jumped him by blading
himself just above his empty eye socket.
Both men end up bleeding and taking turns biting each other’s foreheads
and spraying blood into the air like Great Muta. This is just a straight forward, hate-filled
brawl with no chaser. Just the way I
like it. Apparently, so did Jake the
Snake Roberts who was sitting in the front row for this who looked quite
amused/stoned throughout.
Rating: B+
EL HIJO DEL SANTO/REY
MYSTERIO JR./LA PARKA/OCTAGON VS. BLUE PANTHER/FUERZA
GUERRERA/PSICOSIS/PENTAGON [AAA 6/18/95]
This takes place during
the TripleMania III-B show. TripleMania
was AAA’s major show of the year, basically the lucha WrestleMania. This was one of many great eight-man tags
that Santo and Mysterio had against Psicosis and various partners. I think this is also a great example of the
AAA style of lucha in which high-flying and speed is a main component. What I love about these multi-man matches is
that you get a lot of great interactions and pairings such as Santo/Psicosis,
Mysterio/Psicosis, Santo/Fuerza, etc.
Santo in AAA is interesting as while he does have his own style and
works it here as he did everywhere else, but in AAA he seemed to have sped up
his pacing as he seemed to have gone full throttle in many of the matches I’ve
seen him in instead of more of the slow build that he may have done in EMLL or
UWA. On top of that, you get a great
dance sequence from La Parka who both frustrates and mystifies his opponents. While control sections in lucha is very
different than any other kind of wrestling, I think the rudo [heel] control
section, particularly in the third fall is really awesome.
Rating: B+
PSICOSIS VS. REY
MYSTERIO JR. [AAA 9/22/95]
This was one of the
more famous rivalries in the 90s as these two toured their match all over the
world from ECW to WCW to WAR in Japan.
This is my favorite match of their rivalry and while their other bouts
elsewhere were great, those were more exhibition matches and this had more
going on in it. In other matches, it was
more of a highlight reel of what they could do with dives and springboards,
this had more mat wrestling and great counters.
This does have some incredible dives and Psicosis is one of my favorite
reckless bumpers ever but I loved the buildup with what they could do with
counters and submissions and then busting out the swank dives. This is my favorite singles Rey match in Mexico
and he was quite incredible in the tags that he was involved in.
Rating: A-
Next week, I will be reviewing Disc 1 of the Death Valley Driver Video Review Best of Memphis in the 80s compilation!
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