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Great Lucha

A blog by ohtani's jacket in General

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Entries in this blog

Angel Blanco Jr./El Hijo del Solitario vs. El Hijo Del Santo/Villano IV

Angel Blanco Jr./El Hijo del Solitario vs. El Hijo Del Santo/Villano IV, TXT 2/25/12   This was an excellent match and a vintage Santo brawl. I guess the surprising thing about that is that Santo didn't feature prominently. With the focus squarely on El Hijo del Solitario and Villano IV and an excellent performance from Angel Blanco Jr, Santo was left to do his bits. Santo being Santo it was all very crowd pleasing.   The most outstanding thing about the match was the amount of blood. All

February 2012

Blue Panther vs. Negro Casas, lightning match, CMLL 1/27/12   -- for a lightning match this was extremely good. Ten minutes can either be too short or too long in a lightning match, and many workers struggle to deliver something substantial, but this was as close to a proper match as you'll get with this stip. It wasn't perfect as they couldn't transition into the finish very well and the finish itself was contrived, but what shone through was how good these guys are at keeping things interes

Pierroth vs. Mascara Sagrada

Pierroth vs. Mascara Sagrada, Mexican National Light Heavyweight title, 2/1/91   If ever there was a test of how good Pierroth was during this time frame then this is it. Mascara Sagrada was not... very good... After a while, you accept him as part of the crew and sometimes you're impressed with what a rudo can do with him in trios, but we talking about trios. This was a twenty minute, two out of three falls title match. It wasn't exactly a miracle match, but it could've easily been a disaste

January 2012

Hoping to keep more up to date with lucha this year.   Black Terry/El Hijo Del Pirata Morgan/Skyde vs. Negro Navarro/Trauma 1/Trauma 2 Arena Neza 1/1/12   -- This was ok. I read some criticism of the Terry/Trauma II matwork but it was nowhere near as frustrating as it can be. Navarro vs. Skyde was a nice change of pace but they could've done more. The best parts were the Terry/Navarro exchanges. Ever since those clips of Terry and Navarro fighting each other cut to Metallica's Unforgiven

Black Terry/Negro Navarro vs. Trauma I/Trauma II

Black Terry/Negro Navarro vs. Trauma I/Trauma II, LUCHA POP 8/27/11   This was a fairly typical match between these workers. It was bare bones in terms of layout and structure; Navarro dominated, Terry played second fiddle, and yet it was still pretty good. When Black Terry Jr's videos first started appearing it was Trauma II who showed the most potential among Dinastía Navarro, but for the past year or so Trauma I has been beastly. I don't know if he's overtaken Trauma II, but it sure looks

Blue Panther vs. Super Astro

Blue Panther vs. Super Astro, Mexican National Middleweight Championship, AAA 10/9/92   I've always thought this match was a disappointment and still do. The matwork in the first caida is nothing special and actually pretty weak by lucha title match standards. When you consider that it's a Blue Panther title match it's even more frustrating. Worse still is the second caida. I'm sure we've all made concessions for a weak caida in the past, but a soft fall is not what you'd expect from an oft-c

Virus vs. Stuka Jr.

Virus vs. Stuka Jr., Arena Coliseo de Guadalajara, 8/30/11   Wow, after crying out for CMLL to give Virus more time to work they finally went and did it. Thank you, CMLL.   This was a wonderfully old-school match. The matwork was short and not much more than a feeling out process, but the rope exchanges and transitions were classic lucha and the slower, more deliberate pace had a strong resonance with me. The match didn't have a big arc, but in this particular case the simplity of the mat

La Fiera v. Jerry Estrada, chain match

La Fiera v. Jerry Estrada, chain match, Monterrey, early 90s   This is the first time I can remember seeing a chain match in lucha. I've got to say it's one of the better borrowed gimmicks I've seen in Mexican wrestling. The thing I liked about this most was how random the match-up was. One of the great things about lucha is that when you think of a chain match in Monterrey, there's probably a hundred different match-ups it would suit, but you look at the billing -- Jerry Estrada and La Fiera

Blue Panther vs. Negro Casas

Blue Panther vs. Negro Casas, CMLL 4/24/11   Neither of these guys rank among my favourite lucha libre vets but this was an excellent mano a mano bout. I think it's fair to say that mano a mano bouts don't have the grandest of traditions in lucha libre. Historically, they remind me of studio matches from the territories system where the purpose was to further an angle or tease an arena match. For the most part, they were an excuse for both guys to spill a little blood before a wager match whi

Villano III vs. Rambo (mask vs. mask)

Villano III vs. Rambo, mask vs. mask, 10/25/87   This was awesome. I don't know how much of it exists on tape since it was a Cronicas y leyendas de la lucha libre hatchet job that I watched, but I presume it's the whole thing since it's a handheld shot from ringside. Whatever the case, it was every bit as bloody and violent as the pictures suggest:     And everything you'd expect from a Rambo vs. Villano mask match. In fact, having watched their later hair matches it's pretty much th

El Canek vs. Don Corleone

El Canek vs. Don Corleone, UWA World Heavyweight Championship, 2/14/82   This was okay, but I was expecting something different. I guess I was anticipating some sort of non-existent Ray Mendoza mat game from Canek, but it was pretty much your run-of-the-mill Canek match from this era. Canek was a guy who could do a lot of things athletically, but he was a bit of a boring prick really. The highlight here was Don Corelone, who had a great build for pro-wrestling and moved really beautifully. He

Atlantis vs. La Fiera

Atlantis vs. La Fiera, NWA World Middleweight Championship, 4/3/92   It's weird watching a match where one of the participants gets stabbed to death years later but that's wrestling I guess. I'm not going to eulogise La Fiera too much, but he was part of that generation of luchadores who debut in the late 70s and ushered in a more contemporary style of lucha libre. By the time the 90s rolled around, his body was already showing the effects of that new working style, but he managed to make the

Negro Navarro matches

Haven't checked in on my favourite mat worker for a while. This may come as a shock, but he's still wrestling Solar.   Negro Navarro vs. Solar, Ultimo Dragon Produce, 7/19/10 Negro Navarro vs. Solar, AAA Arena Neza, 1/8/11   It was interesting watching these back-to-back. The Korakuen Hall bout was their typical touring match which we've seen them do in Japan before, while the match from Nezahualcoyotl was a lucha libre title match for the belt Navarro holds. On the surface, it seems lik

CMLL's magnificent minis

Pierrothito vs. Demus 3:16, CMLL 8/24/10   I can't be the only one who didn't know that Pequeño Damián 666 changed his name to Demus 3:16, can I?   This was the final of a "Bicentenial tournament" to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Mexican independence and the 18th anniversary of CMLL's Mini-Estrella division, with the winner earning a shot in the regular CMLL weight classes much like Virus did many years ago. The finalists were determined with torneo cibernetico elimination matches,

Comando Negro vs. Pollo

Comando Negro vs. Pollo, mask vs. mask, IWRG 12/26/10   This is the fantastic mask vs. mask match from Boxing Day between Comando Negro and a guy in a chicken suit. Just an outstanding rudo performance from Comando Negro -- everything you'd want from a rudo beating up a guy in a chicken suit. I really can't overstate how perfectly this worked. First you had Comando Negro completely and utterly outclassing his opponent, stepping out of the way on the best missed dive I've seen in ages. Then yo

Chico Che vs. Comando Negro

Chico Che vs. Comando Negro, hair vs. mask, IWRG 12/9/10   Chico Che had a fantastic year in 2010. Last year it was Trauma II getting all the plaudits as most improved; this year it has to be Che. He started off as something of a fatboy novelty I suppose, but this match confirms what a good worker he's become. Usually, I'd fire off a bit of hyperbole about how much better he is than everyone else for the hell of it, but the message I want to get across is that he's a guy who everyone should b

AAA season

El Hijo Del Santo, Octagon, Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Blue Panther, Fuerza Guerrera, Psicosis (AAA 6/30/95)   Perhaps it's just me, but I've always considered Santo/Octagon/Mysterio Jr vs. Blue Panther/Psicosis/Fuerza Guerrera to be the premier trios match-up from this era of AAA. I guess it's because their 3/16/95 match was one of the first tapes that was recommended to me when I was starting out. I can still remember the enjoyment I got from that early taste of lucha libre; and while I've seen m

AAA season

El Hijo Del Santo, El Mariachi, El Mexicano, Octagon vs. Blue Panther, Espanto Jr., Fuerza Guerrera, Psicosis, AAA 8/19/94   I was expecting this to be mat heavy since it read Blue Panther vs. El Mariachi, but actually I don't think it had much to do with Blue Panther vs. El Mariachi at all. It was loosely structured around Fuerza and Mariachi ripping each other's masks, but the action was more tit for tat than anything else. I can't think of a solitary reason why anyone would watch this beyon

AAA season

7/29/94 AAA: El Hijo Del Santo/Octagon/Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Blue Panther/Fuerza Guerrera/Jerry Estrada - Arena Coliseo De Monterrey   Not a lot going on in this match. It seemed like they wanted to put their 20 minutes in and get it over with. The structure wasn't bad, since these guys know how to put on a 20 minute trios match, but there wasn't the extra bit of effort that's need to make a trios stand out from the hundreds of others that are wrestled each year. Can't say I blame them conside

AAA season

The cover to Love and Rockets 46 reminds me I have a blog to update.   7/15/94 AAA: El Hijo Del Santo/Octagon/Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Blue Panther/Fuerza Guerrera/Psicosis - Gimnasio Juan De La Barera   After saying my piece about Santo last time, allow me to turn around and praise him this week. Santo was phenomenal here and gave arguably his best AAA performance in this little known trios match.   The difference between this and a lot of Santo's other performances is that this actually s

AAA season

Regular readers will know that I don't like classic, hot period AAA very much, but I do like it more than any of the current stuff that's being put out so for the time being there will be an AAA season here at the Great Lucha blog w/ the occasional interlude should anything catch my eye. Some of these reviews will be critical and some will be filled with praise, but we start the season off with some criticism of a man who's hardly ever criticised: El Hijo Del Santo.   2/16/94 AAA: El Hijo Del

Still with the random matches

Los Intocables vs. Octagon/Apolo Dantes/Mascara Sagrada, 4/3/92   Los Intocables was the trios Pierroth Jr. formed in 1992 with Masakre and Jaque Mate, which represented probably the highwater mark of Pierroth's career. Individually, they weren't as good as the Brazos or Infernales, or even some of the more randomly thrown together trios in Mexico at the time; in fact, you could probably argue that in this case the whole was equal to the sum of the parts, but the trios gave Pierroth a chance t

More random matches

El Satanico/Herodes/Kamala vs. El Dandy/Atlantis/Rayo De Jalisco Jr., 11/30/90   You can't judge a book by looking at the cover and you can't judge a trios by looking at the workers.   This was fucking choice. It was on the undercard of the Fabuloso Blondy/Ringo Mendoza fight (a neat memphis style performance from Timbs let down by some inconsistent selling from Mendoza) and was really just a precursor for the action later that night, but it continued the ridiculously awesome cat and mous

Random matches

Los Infernales vs. Los Brazos, Arena Coliseo, 1991   This wasn't their famous match from Arena Mexico but a smaller match from Arena Coliseo. There appeared to be missing a fall, and the finish was pretty crappy, but the main thing I took away from this was just how good everyone was in 1991. Six of the greatest trios workers ever, each of them capable of playing the lead role. I've thought long and hard in this blog about the differences between old-school and modern lucha, and finally I beli

Captain's hair

Black Terry, Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro vs. Bombero Infernal, Maldito Jr., Samot [captains hair], 6/24/10   Black Terry rides again!   This was uploaded by an occasional source for IWRG on youtube and shot from the balcony, giving it a more classic handheld look. The first fall was rubbish, really, as both Maldito Jr. and Samot are useless at delivering a rudo beatdown. How you can be useless at your bread and butter is beyond me, but the next two falls were impressive. Los Terribles Cereb

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