cad

You know, I really do forget about Rambo. He rarely got much to do but made it count whenever they gave him a chance. Even facing a fairly washed up Brazo in a hair match, he got just about everything he could have out of it, fighting over post shots and taking ridiculous headstand bumps. It's actually surprising that he looks as good as he does in the matches we have. Almost all of it is post prime work from a man who took an armdrag on the floor pretty much once a match, so I'd kind of expect his body to have been shot. A rudo's rudo. Rambo, Parka and Blue Panther vs Angel Azteca, Solar and Super Astro (this has a lot of Super Astro punking out Rambo) Rambo, MS-1 and Pirata Morgan vs Octagon, Villano III and Perro Aguayo (brawling to set up an apuestas match) Rambo vs El Brazo Rambo vs Villano III (2001 mano a mano)

Dr. Cerebro vs Toro Negro Jr. (chain match, sort of) Dr. Cerebro beats the shit out of an indy worker with a chain in front of his opponent's home fans. What's not to love? Three things I really liked about this. It's brawling Cerebro, which isn't how I usually think of him. It's a match where they put most of their effort into the body/heat part of the match, rather than the finishing stretch. And it's Cerebro as a rudo rather than just an indy legend. After the match Toro Negro doesn't get on the mic and call Cerebro a great wrestler and an even greater person, he takes some shots while they're trying to stretcher the doctor out of the ring.

I think I agree with this, at least among rudos. He had everything you'd want in that setting. He could brawl. He could make things work on the mat. He could bump big. He could fly through a breathtaking series of moves. He had big offense both on his own and in triple teams. He could do comedy at the level of a Fuerza Guerrera. Who else would even think of holding this impromptu test of strength tournament in the middle of a match? Everyone knows what he brought to Satanico's Infernales, but just in case, look at how weak their 1991 reunion was, from spring until fall when it was Masakre on the team. Morgan replaced him late in the year and suddenly they were one of the promotion's most important acts. As the leader of his own team, he wasn't trying to make a statement or anything, but I loved that the other Bucaneros had to wear eyepatches and essentially be good enough to wrestle with one eye like Pirata did. It would be like if Mocho Cota had a team where all the members had to wrestle with two of their fingers tied down or if Jerry Estrada had a team and they all had to show up to the arena wasted every night. The Bucaneros were like a souped up version of the Brazos, a trio of brothers working comedy spots but even faster and more daring. I could go either way on his longevity. On one hand, he was a big guy who took big bumps. That's a style that lives on borrowed time, so I can't praise the bumps and also say his prime should have lasted longer. Even by that standard he fell apart fast though. A lot of his contemporaries took a hit when the calendar turned from 1992 to 1993, but none of them collapsed like Morgan did. I can't think of a single widely praised Morgan match from after 1993, and I believe he turned 31 that year. He finished 117th in 2016. Tenth among Mexican candidates is really not bad, but I think he had the matches and the talent (especially the talent) to make the top 100, maybe even comfortably. His career feels offbeat compared to other workers of his ability. He doesn't have a definitive rival, he spent a lot of time as a #2/#3 instead of a team leader, and he had a real flop of a tecnico turn right in the middle of his prime. I have him about as high as someone can rank without having a serious argument for number one, although I'd listen if anyone wanted to make it. Heretofore unmentioned wrestling matches featuring Pirata Morgan: PM, Hombre Bala and Verdugo vs Atlantis, Ringo Mendoza and Angel Azteca PM, Emilio Charles Jr. and Pierroth Jr. vs Atlantis, Huracan Ramirez (Sevilla) and Blue Demon Jr. Pirata Morgan vs Mascara Sagrada (Pirata works this almost like an American title match, and for one night Mascara Sagrada looks like one of the best flyers in the world)

The rich man's Cien Caras. If you want a wrestler with personality, why vote for one of the rest when you can vote for the best? Pierroth knew who he was and what he could do. He was a brawler, but he wasn't a wild, flailing brawler like Sangre Chicana. Pierroth would chop you in the chest and hit you in the face, and if you got him just right then he would go stiff as a board and fall flat on his back. He liked to talk and he knew how to act, and he could also secretly wrestle a little. I'm not the biggest fan of wrestlers best described as "charismatic", but the thing with Pierroth is that he could fill in charisma gaps for other guys and get the crowd into matches with workers like Mogur and Supremo. Going on what we have, he found himself somewhere between the end of 1986 (just an undercard rudo trying to make it) and the middle of 1988 (no longer has the patience to share the ring with Birdman). They turned him tecnico in 1992. Some fans say that Pierroth shouldn't have been a tecnico, just so that such a definitive rudo could say he was never anything else, but he really was good at it. Then in the late '90s he returned to Arena Mexico as an unmasked over the top villain, and he seemed to get the appeal of the trendy US/PR wrestling style better than anyone else in Mexico. He got one vote last time, a #93 from El Boricua. It could have been higher but there were probably some lingering hard feelings from that mask match in '95. The best of Pierroth (some of these have already been listed): Pierroth, Ulises and Supremo vs Jaque Mate, Hijo del Gladiador and Tierra Viento y Fuego (bloody rudos vs rudos brawl with Pierroth playing babyface) Pierroth, Ulises and MS-1 vs Mogur, Dandy and Popitekus Pierroth vs Mogur (in these two matches Mogur contributes the technical skill and Pierroth contributes the heat, great complementary pairing) Pierroth vs Supremo (this is 95% made by Pierroth's selling and his popularity, and it's better than the mask match IMO) Pierroth, Mascara Magica II and Atlantis vs Negro Casas, Kahoz and Mano Negra (tecnico Pierroth spends this match bullying Casas) Pierroth, Mascara Año 2000 and Shocker vs Villano III, Atlantis and Perro Aguayo Pierroth, Bestia Salvaje and Scorpio Jr. vs Villano III, Villano IV and Villano V

'80s Perro Aguayo was a wild brawler, and '90s Perro Aguayo was maybe the most visibly adored wrestler ever (but still kind of a wild brawler). I don't know if I can articulate what I mean here, but it's hard for me to link the two together. Like, with Sangre Chicana, it's easy, because both were happening at the same time, and he was such a tremendous seller, and even in the '90s he could still interact with the Arena Mexico crowd like no one else. '90s Aguayo doesn't feel like a natural evolution of the '80s version, and nothing in his work makes it obvious how things turned out that way. It probably doesn't help that most (all?) of his 1980s matches feature him as a visitor rather than in his home arena. Perro did do well in that period in early 1992 when Arena Mexico was regularly having wild heavyweight brawls that were more than the sum of the wrestlers involved, and even as an old man he still took some crazy bumps. His style wasn't really a fit with AAA, but it didn't hurt his believability any. Why does no one talk about the match where he took Konnan's mask? It's one of the most famous matches from 1990s CMLL AND it got four stars from Meltzer (ehh...), but it doesn't even have a thread here. PA, Satanico and Fishman vs Ringo Mendoza, Jalisco and Villano III (Probably March 18 or March 25 1983) Perro Aguayo vs Konnan PA, Konnan and Vampiro vs Fiera, Sangre Chicana and Cien Caras (the best part of this is when Perro is lying in the seats among the fans)

Naw, I didn't think you were being accusatory. I just wanted to explain. I didn't like the stuff the Cerebros did with the Navarro family that much, but I did really like a match between them and... did that other team have a name? Los Malditos? I think it was Bombero Infernal, Samot and a third guy I'm forgetting.

I didn't think anyone would have known that. I might not even have guessed anyone knew this site had a guy called cad posting about Mexican wrestling. I have my issues with Satanico, but I also try to be fair. Some of my dislike doesn't even have to do with his work, and some of it is just cynicism on my part. I'll acknowledge that he's great even if I'm not a fan. It's an ordered list, though, so he is the lowest ranked of all my great workers. I can't remember ever dissing Black Terry, beyond maybe not liking such and such match.

Here's the big O in action back when he was just a young guy trying to get noticed (he's in the black tshirt top). Not great or anything, but it's something different from what you usually get out of him. Once he got over, he pared his repertoire down to stuff that he knew would work every time and made pretty much no effort to try anything new. You know what you're getting from him. There are other workers like that, and they get criticized for it too, but even with someone like Hogan the Hulk Hogan routine shaped his matches more than Octagon's did. The quality of an Octagon match rests on who his opponents are and what they do. I have enough guys now that I can probably start breaking this up into tiers:

Normally I don't care how a guy looks twenty years past his prime, but for someone like Casas I felt I owed his later work at least a superficial look. I never saw him really impose his will on the new style. Instead he just tried his best to do Negro Casas within the context of 2010s CMLL, which sometimes had a big effect and sometimes didn't. Volador Jr. vs Negro Casas from 2016 was just a Volador Jr. match featuring Negro Casas. Titan vs Negro Casas from 2013 organically went from competitive wrestling and brawling to dramatic reversals and nearfalls in a way that not a lot of modern CMLL matches do. And Blue Panther vs Casas was a great match, this coming from someone who doesn't get that excited about 21st century wrestling or Blue Panther matches in general. That basically redefined what a hair vs hair match could be, even if it doesn't seem to have had any lasting effect. Maybe more importantly it had me wondering if Titan is a strong worker in the new style and if maybe Panther peaked as an old man with no mask. That's when you know the work is good, when it actually gets you interested in the other guy in the match. Casas having two matches that impressed me like that while in his fifties and working a style I don't like counts as a success in my book. Younger Casas: Casas, Arandu and Cien Caras vs Centurion Negro, Black Magic and Panterita del Ring Casas, Espectro Jr. and Espectro de Ultratumba vs Dandy, Mano Negra and Ringo Mendoza Casas, Fiera and Bestia Salvaje vs Dandy, Ringo Mendoza and Ultimo Dragon Casas, Bestia Salvaje and Felino vs Ultimo Dragon, Dandy and Blue Demon Jr. Casas, Emilio Charles Jr. and Mano Negra vs Oro, Brazo and Ultimo Dragon Casas vs Fiera Casas vs Great Sasuke

In the most famous version of the Infernales it basically broke down like this. You had Satanico, a man who considered himself not just the team's number one but the promotion's number one, with a title around his waist more often than not and innumerable hair match victories, the complete package. You had Pirata Morgan, the best wrestler in the world, who would dig deeper than anyone else to win a match, and who could go out and form his own team that required all members to wrestle with the same handicap that he did. And then you had MS-1, who comparatively speaking was just a dick. MS-1 had no designs on leaving anyone thinking him the number one wrestler in the world or even the team. Instead he was content to beat guys up three on one, laugh about it and rack up the spoils that came with all that. He didn't let his career define him the way that Satanico and Pirata did, I don't think. You think either of those guys would dress up as a giant alien? Or be willing to sport an apuestas match record that would make even Kato Kung Lee turn up his nose? Naturally this makes MS-1 my favorite of the Infernales. As far as making him the greatest wrestler of all time, though, it left me thinking he could perhaps have used a little more vanity. In the 1980s he brought it almost every time out, flying all over for whatever tecnico needed it, in good matches and boring ones. MS-1 vs Sangre Chicana from '83 actually has some visibility outside of lucha circles, a pretty remarkable achievement. They also have a rematch the next year that isn't half as memorable. And even the week after the famous match, when MS-1's boys fought Chicana's, MS-1 happily took a backseat to Satanico in a match that you'd expect would be his quest for revenge. He could still have been a cinch as a top worker had he aged better. Would you believe that he and Emilio Charles were born in the same year? His 1990s work is still solid, but there's no spark to his big apuestas matches with Pirata Morgan or Faraon, to name two. It wasn't that he didn't care or didn't try by then. Rather, he approached his craft in a way befitting of a carpenter by trade who happened to wind up in wrestling, doing the work that was needed, but not really intending for people to look at it as a reflection of his own greatness. Sometimes he was so good that it just couldn't be helped, though. Random MS-1: MS-1, Talisman and Terror Chicano vs Cachorro Mendoza, Atlantis and Samurai Shiro (I have never seen a better spinkick than Cachorro's on MS-1 here) MS-1 and Masakre vs Dandy and Satanico MS-1, Masakre and Satanico vs Lizmark, Konnan, and Vampiro (not a good match at all, but look at how good him vs Konnan is on the mat)

Yeah, that was one I rewatched last week. I liked it more than the hair match, but it didn't feel quite right. What I remember from it: - Casas lost the first fall way too easily. He got pinned by a basic slam that was usually a setup for a top rope splash or a badass submission finish. If he was going to go down so quickly and to a move like that then he needed to do more selling and less arguing with the referee during the fall. - I liked that he tried to come back with low blows. Very true to himself. They weren't as creative as the ones he'd been pulling for the past two years, but maybe the idea was that he didn't want to look sneaky or something in match where he was to be cheered. - Cota blading off a DDT on the floor was cool, but then when they came back from break he was yelling at the fans as blood streamed down his face. I think once you start bleeding, that's a signal that you're not in the physical state to be jawjacking with the fans like you're stalling for time in the first couple of minutes. - They did the fighting on their knees spot that always looks good, but they weren't doing it as they were pulling themselves off the canvas, which is how that usually works. A standing Casas actually dropped to his knees to slug it out with Cota if I remember right. That's a piddling thing to be annoyed about but it's what I mean when I say that something about the match didn't click with me. It didn't feel like the best either man was capable of at that time. Cota had more chemistry with overmatched youngsters that he could torture like Latin Lover and Blue Demon, and for Casas showing his pluck it didn't compare to Casas vs Fiera from half a year before. I'd compare it to Fiera vs Sangre Chicana from 1993, another match that had memorable moments but put everything together in a way that made it less satisfying than the sum of its parts for me.

I am of two minds about Cota, especially his comeback. He looks like a legend in the 1980s. In the '90s he has matches, especially when he first gets back, that he outright dominates with personality alone. He could also shrink and seem ordinary or just plain washed up. alexoblivion alluded to it above, but by the second half of the decade he was just some undercard guy. How does charisma disappear like that? The Casas feud is disappointing from both men. But in the same period he also gets the fans, even the dudes, cheering on unproven pretty boy stripper Latin Lover, just because they want to see Cota get destroyed. He even compels Blue Demon Jr. to show real human emotion once. I'm not sure if I've seen another match in which Demon looked like he hated or even cared that much about his opponent. So there's part of me that wonders if Cota would get as much attention with ten fingers and a clean rap sheet, and there's also part of me that sees him as one of the most singular personalities in the history of the game. Look at this, will you: Cota, Fiera and Sangre Chicana vs Atlantis, Rayo Jr. and Cien Caras (interestingly, you can see before the match that he still wrote with his right hand) Cota, Satanico and Fishman vs Lizmark, Latin Lover and Rayo Jr. Cota, Sangre Chicana and Bestia Salvaje vs Ringo Mendoza, Mascara Magica and Blue Demon Jr. (Mocho Cota's Impossible Dream)

Man, I used to love Lizmark. I still do, I guess, but it's a more reserved, qualified love than it used to be. He was excellent in AAA as an old school tecnico champion, and that was in his forties. Extrapolate that back to his physical prime in the 1980s, when he gained a reputation for revolutionizing high flying, and a career like that could measure up with anyone's. The problem is that there are a lot of years when there's a lot of Lizmark on video and he isn't doing much for his case, especially that 1989-1990 period when the EMLL had good matches all over. He puts in a good effort every time out, but he doesn't look to light up the ring the way Atlantis always tried to. He has his advantages. I think he was more poised overall than Atlantis, a much more natural actor. As mentioned above, he had a big offensive arsenal, and he meshed those strength moves with high flying and technical work in a way that didn't feel like me just giving my CAW all the best moves as a kid (a la Felino). I do think that Lizmark was one of the best tecnicos I've seen at carrying himself like a champion. He didn't go into matches looking to gobble up or embarrass his opponents, but he wrestled with the firm intention of looking like the better man. He had moves that the other guy couldn't hope to match, and they had to find their windows through some means other than outwrestling him. His match with Enfermero Jr. had Lizmark building drama against a competent but colorless rudo in the third fall by missing dives, creating the impression that Enfermero was giving himself a chance to win through guile against a superior opponent. In 1993 Jerry Estrada took advantage the first time all match that he won an exchange and just started beating Lizmark up, dogging him relentlessly until the champion could fight him off. Although Lizmark knew how to have an exciting match while working on top, that preference didn't work out so well in the career long series with Satanico that has largely come to define him. It seemed like they tried to have Satanico escape the matches with a win the way that Ric Flair liked to, but without Satanico looking like a threat in the body of the match the way that Flair did, resulting in finishes that made Satanico seem lucky and Lizmark a choker. I wouldn't pin it all on one guy, but it's a lot of blown opportunities for Lizmark regardless. That's a lot of words on a guy who hasn't been talked about here in years. Anyway, I still have a lot of appreciation for him, but I'm less certain of his greatness than I was eight or nine years ago. Some of Lizmark's best work: Lizmark vs Enfermero Jr. Lizmark vs La Parka (at the time, this stole the show at the inaugural Triplemania) Lizmark vs Jerry Estrada Lizmark, Volador and Mascara Sagrada vs Satanico, Fuerza Guerrera and Parka Lizmark, Masacara Sagrada, Perro Aguayo and Konnan vs Parka, Cien Caras, Mascara Año 2000 and Universo 2000 (Lizmark vs Parka at the start of the third fall is the best, most realistic brawling I've ever seen from AAA)

Probably just means he paid attention to the WWF in the late 1980s.

Some unorganized thoughts on pre-WCW Parka. It's considered pre-prime for him, and I don't want to rate him in full without seeing a decent amount of his work this century, but I might run out of time. - There's not much footage of him before he becomes La Parka. Most of it is outside of his home base of Monterrey, meaning that he's not performing in front of crowds that he's formed a connection with, which makes it a bit tricky to extrapolate anything from. At the same time I feel okay saying that he got better once he joined AAA. Whether he was on the rise in general or if something just clicked after Antonio Peña told him to wrestle as a dancing skeleton I don't know. - IMO he passes Negro Casas as the best worker in Mexico in mid-1993. I still have Casas as the country's top worker overall for the year in full, but around the time spring turned to summer Parka was giving good performances more consistently than Casas. I think Parka stayed number one throughout 1994. His resume that year is nothing special, but he put in a good effort and made his match better almost every time out, making matchups with the likes of Mascara Sagrada into something special. Despite wrestling's(/AAA's) popularity at that stage, no one really had a typical number one quality year. Parka kept going strong into 1995 but Santo had clearly jumped past him by the time he started working Arena Mexico. - Strengths in this time frame are charisma, athleticism, bumping, comedy, versatility and work ethic. His biggest weakness is that most of his big matches involve some type of gimmicky crap. That's partly on AAA, but I think their style aligned pretty well with his preferences. As a technical wrestler, he was in the Sangre Chicana class of having some ability, but not really excelling at it or seeing it as a terribly exciting way to work. Obviously he could brawl, but it wasn't a big part of his game in AAA.

I could go on about Fiera for an entire page, but who would want to read that? (Not that this logic has ever stopped me before.) Instead I'll just quote alexoblivion's post from seven years ago, which sums Fiera up better and more succinctly than I ever could. The man had a borderline great match with maskless 1996 Kahoz. Imagine finding that VK Wallstreet had a low end WCW MOTYC on some random Nitro around that same time. This is the magnitude of achievement I'm talking about here. Give Kahoz his attaboys for a good performance but like AO said Fiera was definitely the center of attention. A long list of Fiera matches that I like: Fiera, 32 and Cobarde II vs Dos Caras, Eddy Guerrero and Cinta de Oro (IIRC this was Juarez territory footage) Fiera, Herodes and Pirata Morgan vs Dandy, Konnan and Vampiro Fiera, Jerry Estrada and Bestia Salvaje vs Huracan Sevilla, Blue Demon Jr. and Hijo del Solitario Fiera vs Atlantis Fiera vs Black Magic (these last two matches maybe not all time classics but Fiera is fascinating just to watch in both of them) Fiera vs Ultimo Dragon/P2 (the best Dragon vs Mexican wrestler in Japan match) Fiera, Supremo and Negro Casas vs Dandy, Pierroth Jr. and Ultimo Dragon Fiera, Sangre Chicana and Gran Markus Jr. vs Dandy, Pierroth Jr. and Atlantis Fiera vs Negro Casas (his best match, IMO) Fiera, Vampiro and Atlantis vs Negro Casas, Black Magic and Mano Negra Fiera vs Kahoz Fiera, Ringo Mendoza, Mascara Magica and Olimpico vs Felino, Black Warrior, Scorpio Jr. and Karloff Lagarde Jr. Fiera, Negro Casas and Dandy vs Black Warrior, Felino and Scorpio Jr.

What a thread Kung Fu has. I feel bad ruining it. For a long time I wasn't a fan. I was looking through CMLL matches for enthralling technical work, intense brawling and freakish athleticism, and none of that was in Kung Fu's game. Now with entire catalogs online I can appreciate stuff like Kung Fu dumping something in Atlantis' eyes and milking a controversy out of it for weeks, or the ref checking him for his nunchucks and stripping him down to his drawers to wolf whistles from the crowd. He did his own thing, and he did bring some serious fire out of Atlantis in their famous feud. Maybe some day we'll get video of his title reigns and he'll surprise me.

What happened to this guy? Most of the favorites from the early days of tape traders expanding into Mexican wrestling, guys like Casas, Fuerza and Pirata, still enjoy that status. Jerry Estrada was in that group too, but over thirty years later all he has is KB8 shouting into the wind (I've been there). Overall he finished fourth among Jerries. Canek finished above him last time, and have you SEEN the Canek thread? So was it a decrease in appreciation for wild bumping? The fallen reputation of the match with Javier Cruz? Estrada had more to him than just the bumps. He was a member of the Fuerza Guerrera clade of workers, athletic rudos who placed a strong emphasis on comedy, and when you see a Jerry Estrada comedy spot it's hard to imagine someone else pulling it off or even attempting it. Here's one that he characteristically just thought up on the spot. This one is probably his most famous, and not only did he have the guts to do it deep in the third fall of a big hair match, but it actually fit perfectly for a tired, bloodied wrestler to have happen. And, uh, here he tries his best in a dance contest with Latin Lover but loses anyway. Estrada wasn't as consistent or solid as Fuerza. He could be fantastic and terrible all in the same match. His case could probably use a few more great 1 vs 1 matches. But overall I don't think KB8's rating was wildly high at all. Even the Cruz match had more good than bad for me, especially after the first fall. I liked these: Estrada, Emilio Charles Jr. and Pirata Morgan vs Villano III, Satanico and Atlantis Estrada, Espanto Jr. and La Parka vs Lizmark, Rey Misterio Sr. and Rey Misterio Jr. Estrada, Pentagon, Fuerza Guerrera and Psicosis vs La Parka, Hijo del Santo, Rey Misterio Jr. and Octagon

Those first two items there aren't really new, are they? Wrestlers have fought tooth and nail to protect their spots for just about as long as wrestling has existed. I agree with you on the last one, though. I have no idea why fans would want to rate wrestlers by their influences, but that's what's happening and naturally guys are going to push their inspirations as hard as they can. I remember Sasha Banks talking about how she was watching some Eddy Guerrero in preparation for some big match she had and thinking it was the lamest thing ever. She knew what she was doing I guess.

Llanes peaked in 1994 when he came out of the CMLL front office to have an excellent NWA middleweight title feud that ended with him getting the belt. Other than that, the highlight of his in ring career may have been when he was the fourth ranked member of a trio called Los Javieres. He could work, but besides that one brief run it looks like his biggest professional success came backstage and as an announcer.

A scrappy worker with stubby little legs and a high, thick head of hair, Cruz doesn't seem to have stood out in the eyes of the voters here. It wasn't for lack of trying or lack of talent. Look at him bust out these Rey Misterio Jr. spots before anyone had ever heard of Rey Misterio Jr. Maybe it was just his lot to be the other guy in memorable matches. Like, when Ciclon Ramirez speared that guy into oblivion, that was Cruz. When Jerry Estrada gave the world the quintessential Jerry Estrada performance, he had Cruz in the ring with him. And Cruz was in so many of those 1990 CMLL gateway matches with Angel Azteca and Atlantis. Eventually even the front office agreed that Cruz was a bit too plain to cut it as one of their tecnico stars, so he got a (very) brief makeover with a mask and bodysuit before they decided to just keep him as Javier Cruz but turn him rudo. It wasn't his natural role and he wasn't as consistent in it, but he still managed to contribute to some good matches and create an identifiable rudo persona, as the grumpy dude who refused to fight on anything but his terms. In 1994 he had one of the best years of his career through sheer willpower. It wasn't classic after classic or even good match after good match, but he brought it every time out and made the most out of some uninspiring situations. And that's before even getting to the Ciclon Ramirez match I mentioned earlier. To me that's a masterpiece, remembered for Ciclon producing the most violent series of dives you'll ever see, but just as crucial were things like Cruz breaking a pinfall with a shot to the kidneys, or desperately throwing a kick from his back, or just that shot of him after that final tope, slumped in the front row looking like a corpse. Naturally that just about signaled the end for Javier Cruz's case. He was barely on TV in 1995, and after that all we get is the occasional late career match from his home state of Jalisco. I liked Cruz vs Cavernario, even if Cruz still tried to wrestle the same way he had in his prime. Cruz matches: Cruz, Mogur and Kato Kung Lee vs Tony Arce, Vulcano and Sultan Gargola Cruz, Negro Casas and Felino vs Oro, Kato Kung Lee and Ultimo Dragon Cruz, Cachorro Mendoza and Mogur vs Felino, Arkangel and Halcon Negro Cruz, Cachorro Mendoza and Mogur vs Felino, Arkangel and Halcon Negro (rematch) Javier Cruz vs Ciclon Ramirez Javier Cruz vs Barbaro Cavernario

Excellent journeyman type worker. He had the skills to make a feud or a 1 vs 1 match work, but where he really shone was with a team. If you wanted him to be a caveman he could be a caveman, and if you wanted him to be a pirate he could be a pirate. That's the flip side to not having much star power. You can fit in with whatever. Los Bucaneros were like the EMLL version of Los Brazos except geared more toward workrate, and he took some of those three man comedy routines with him to Los Cavernicolas, getting something fun out of an undercard act featuring three heavy guys in their late thirties. If you value tag team wrestling, and not just the ability to have great multiman matches but to actually fit in as part of a team, give this guy a look. Matches: HB, Pirata Morgan and Emilio Charles Jr. vs Super Muñeco, Ciclon Ramirez and Huracan Ramirez (Sevilla) Hombre Bala vs Javier Cruz Los Bucaneros vs Los Brazos Los Cavernicolas vs Los Metalicos (not their most famous match, but this is online and that one isn't, and this one's pretty good too) A-H rankings (partial):

Herodes has a reputation among some oldtime fans as a fantastic worker. I've never really seen that sort of ability from him. He was a fun big man bumper, but you could say the same thing about Sultan Gargola, and I'm not sure that Sultan Gargola has ever been mentioned in the lifetime of this site. (Okay, I looked it up, and he has. I can see two references to him, in 2008 and 2021.) Even against Tony Salazar, Salazar's blood and selling made the match more than anything that Herodes did. Maybe I'm down on him because I'm a '90s guy and instinctively think of him from when he was past his prime, maybe we don't have enough from his heyday, or maybe his greatness is wasted on me. I'm glad he was nominated. He had an interesting career, bringing Northern guys to the capital and taking shots in Europe.

Canek provided perhaps the only documented instance of someone trying to shoot on Haku in the middle of a match. The man had gumption the likes of which none of us could ever imagine.

That match with Pantera, already listed several times in this thread, was when everything clicked for me with Fuerza. Yeah, he was a great entertainer who could make things happen with limited workers, but he really did have as much talent as anyone. If he'd wanted to, he could have presented himself as a technical genius and a physical beast and pulled it off. That just wasn't how he saw wrestling or his own place in that world. Instead he worked this brash comedic style that constantly teetered on the edge of falling into farce but never quite did. Here he takes a meaningless comedy bump in the middle of a match and then makes a fan at ringside flinch. A couple of minutes later he's arguing with Virginia Aguilera, who isn't flinching for anybody. This is all while the most famous match in his career is going on around him. There was something compelling about him that made his battles matter even if he himself tried to look inept. And he was such a bumbler and so charming that no one could really hate him. Fuerza finished 155th last time. I was surprised by that then and I'm surprised by it now. I thought that he was one of the Mexican workers whose reputation preceded them and that he'd get votes even from people who weren't big lucha fans. For me the big question with him is whether his self effacing style would work in a big match against a great like Hijo del Santo. There was that match with Negro Casas from LA. That was pretty good. I'm leaning toward yes, that he was a genius and could find a way to make it happen. At his peak he was one of the best in the country, the second best CMLL worker in 1990 and number one in 1991. They had him all over TV in this period, asking him to do gutsy stuff like feud with two guys at once, or turn Misterioso into a somebody, or make a mask match with a retired guy an event that anyone would want to see. He's famous for his time in AAA, but Peña didn't put him in starring roles his first few years there, and though still great AAA Fuerza was more showman than the well rounded worker of 1990-91. Eventually all the travel, and managing his outside business, and his turn at promoting shows himself, and years of dealing with the juicy one probably did wear him down. He's pushing seventy now, and people were still salivating at the thought of a Fuerza mask match, this potential one against an opponent who just turned sixty. Like I said, the man has a compelling presence to him. Fuerza sampling: FG, Al Rojo Vivo and Talisman vs Javier Cruz, Hombre Bala and Aguila Solitaria FG, Pierroth and Blue Panther vs Angel Azteca, Atlantis and Super Astro FG, Fiera and Emilio Charles vs Hijo del Santo, Misterioso and Mascara Sagrada FG, Emilio Charles and Blue Panther vs Misterioso, Volador and Blue Demon Jr. FG, Jerry Estrada and Psicosis vs Mexicano, Villano III and Mascara Sagrada (if you ever wanted to see a match carried by Fuerza's personality, this is it) FG, Juventud Guerrera and Misterioso vs Los Destructores (rudos vs rudos with Fuerza Guerrera trying to get babyface sympathy, believe it or not)