ohtani's jacket

Okay, it just seemed like Chicana was feuding with everyone in the early 80s, rudo and tecnico alike, and had feuds that spilled over between Arena Mexico and El Toreo with the likes of Fishman, Aguayo and Villano III. Cien Caras was a babyface at the time and Satanico seldom worked at El Toreo. Morgan seemed to become a bigger star post-Infernales than prior to hooking up with them. No doubt I'm overrating how hot Chicana was in comparison to Canek, Aguayo or Fishman, but he was Box y Lucha's most outstanding wrestler of 1983 so he seemed like a big deal.

I don't see how Okada is aloof. He's not an all-time great worker, but he's hardly what I'd call aloof. Malenko wasn't able to inject any personality into his matches only subtle behaviour. Okada doesn't have that problem.

Engand, 1982 Jim Breaks & John England vs. Pat Patton & Steve Logan (3/9/82) This was super heated proving that Breaks was just as good at getting over in tags as he was in singles. At one point he mooned the audience ala Ric Flair or Greg Valentine, which I'd never seen before on television, though I'm sure it was probably done in the halls. Patton and England provided their usual break neck exchanges (great pairing, that), and this was rocking along until it cut out a few minutes before the end. Apparently, it ended in a draw. Dave Bond vs. Steve McHoy (7/27/82) This was a special 15 minute one fall, no rounds contest that was an excellent heavyweight contest. Bond brought his A-game here, which he didn't really need to do, and truth be told, didn't always manage to do, but the lack of rounds helped him lay out a solid match here, and McHoy continued to look like the future of British heavyweight wrestling. Tom Tyrone vs. Bully Boy Muir (12/7/81) This was typical Ian Muir -- just beating on a guy until either a public warning or a disqualification. You know what you're getting with Muir, a bruising and little else, but the way the falls were laid out made this a bit silly. Bill Bromley vs. Tom Tyrone (2/3/82) Just the scoring here, so it was impossible to gauge how good it truly was, but it was from one of those TV team challenges so it probably wasn't from the top drawer. In any event, it wasn't at Tyrone vs. Roach or Tyrone vs. Rudge levels. Tiger Dalibar Singh vs. Bill Bromley (7/22/82) This was a 20 minute time limit bout with two falls, no rounds, and again it produced a great little heavyweight contest. I know some people think Singh is the most boring motherfucker to ever grace a British ring, but he was at his best here. If you can appreciate the mechanics of British heavyweight wrestling and the subtle shifts in strategy you'll appreciate this. Add to that the little touches with selling and the fact that Bromley really wasn't that great outside of the physical attributes he brought like height, and you'll find that Singh carried this well despite the fact he was no mind blower. I'd list it as one of my favourite Singh bouts for his professionalism and all-round ring leadership. Plus he threw some forearm smashes and there were headbutts and Singh rules at that shit.

Does anybody know why the Satanico/Dandy hair match was booked for the '92 Anniversary Show? Was it covered in the Observer or Sims' newsletter? Right up until the end of August, the build is to Dandy vs. Bestia and then suddenly there's a trios with Dandy vs. the Infernales in September and Bestia is quietly moved into a feud with Love Machine. Bestia was on fire in '92 (arguably the third best worker in the company, IMO), but perhaps they thought the program wouldn't draw? Jose or Noodles care to chip in? While I'm at it, why did Sangre Chicana fall so low in the pecking order? He was arguably the hottest guy in Mexico in the early 80s -- at the very least he was everywhere -- and then by the late 80s he's hardly working the Federal District at all. I know he was suspended a few times, though who knows what the legitimacy of that was. Did he fall out of favour with Paco? Pena never seemed that interested in, not the extent that he saw the value in Perro Aguayo and Cien Caras. Inquiring minds want to know.

Personally, I find him overrated. His rep was that he was difficult to work with. According to Regal, he'd eat guys alive and give them absolutely nothing. Apparently, a lot of guys were afraid to wrestle him. That may have made him a badass, but it's not conducive to quality matches. His best match is his '86 bout against Marty Jones, who was also a bit of a prick. He also has some interesting stuff from the early 70s where he's doing a Wonder Boy gimmick similar to early Alex Wright. I'm not a big fan of his brother Bernie, either.

It's a great match. I had it in my top 50 when I did the Smarkschoice WCW poll. I think it had been uploaded on the Solie's account at that time. I don't know if I'd call it Arn's best singles match, but then I'm not sure what I would call Arn's best match so it's as good a pick as any. It kicks a lot of ass. Did Chad say Windham/Steamboat was better? I can't agree with that at all.

Arthur Psycho uploads fringe Reslo stuff and late period WoS. tellumyort has most of the best stuff that aired on The Wrestling Channel.

El Hijo del Santo/Espanto Jr. vs. Blue Panther/Black Man, UWA 3/25/90 This was discovered by Phil Schneider in the middle of a six hour YouTube video. Don't ask me how he does it; he's like a bloodhound when it comes to these things. The match was billed as the first time rivals Santo and Espanto had tagged together, and could have easily been parejas increibles given Panther had taken Black Man's mask in '86. Santo was swarmed by kids to start with and I swear he wasn't that much taller than the older kids. We forget how short our heroes are. I loved the smaller kid rushing into the ring after everyone had left. That was like something out of Little Rascals. All four of these guys were great workers, so the execution here was top notch; but as far as dream matches go, it's hard to imagine a bigger dud. The falls were ridiculously short, and a missed dropkick from Santo was the excuse Espanto had been looking for to turn on his partner and deliver a beat down. It was hard to see how the beat down advanced any sort of storyline as the two had fought in so many apuesta matches already, and if they were going to run an angle you'd think they'd maybe tease it a little and build to it. Just another example of how half-assed lucha can be a lot of the time. Sangre Chicana/La Fiera/Bestia Salvaje vs. Apolo Dantes/Love Machine/Huracan Sevilla, CMLL 2/7/92 Who takes Apolo Dantes and Love Machine into battle against a rudo lineup like that? I was disappointed with how this turned out for Sevilla, but he was on a hiding to nothing with those sort of partners. The match was one way traffic with the tecnicos not even afforded a comeback. As one sided as it was, there were few rudos better equipped at delivering a beat down than Bestia Salvaje, and Sevilla was not only great at selling but a great target. It's just a pity the match never got out of third gear, particularly with the hair match only a week away. The match with El Hijo del Solitario and Blue Demon Jr had been so hot that you'd think they would have built on it with an even wilder brawl, but this is lucha we're talking about. Bestia vs. Sevilla was a great little feud, but this was the second match in a row that Bestia beat him in straight falls. I only just realised that Sevilla was Darth Vader from Pavilion Azteca fame. He was excellent as Huracan Ramirez II, and a better worker overall than the similarly booked Ciclon Ramirez. Even if he was a stepping stone for Bestia, he needn't have been roadkill. Think of how many times he must have combed his hair to get it to puff out that much!! That's commitment to a cabellera feud. Not giving him a win was a bit rough. While I'm at it, how badly had Chicana fallen from grace? How do you go from being the hottest guy in Mexico to only headlining outside of the Distrito Federal? Did something happen to get him on Paco's shit list? Were his suspensions legit? Was it drugs? It's strange to me that Aguayo was treated like the Godfather of Lucha Libre by CMLL while Chicana rode shot gun with other rudos. El Satanico/Bestia Salvaje/El Supremo vs. El Dandy/Apolo Dantes/Love Machine, CMLL 8/28/92 Were Dandy and Bestia aware that there were other wrestlers in this match? I'm exaggerating of course, but only slightly. I don't think I've seen a match-up dominate a trios to the extent that Dandy and Bestia did. Usually, wrestlers will "tag in" and do their thing until another pair take over, but Dandy and Bestia spilled over to the outside where they kept brawling even though it was another pair's turn to take over. Twice they left the workers standing about wondering what their cue was supposed to be. The second time, Satanico followed suit and began brawling, but if ever there was a trios that was mano a mano this was it. I don't think either of them worked a single hold with another wrestler. They may have been beaten up by them, but they didn't actively engage anyone else. Not that I'm complaining. Bestia was unreal in 1992. If Casas and Dandy are the consensus one and two workers in CMLL (in some order) then Bestia has a strong case for being number three. There was one exchange in this after Dandy had become bleeding that was off the charts in terms of lucha brawling and later on Bestia busted out a bone crushing suplex. Dandy *kind of* popped up on it, which other workers wouldn't get a pass on, but they were going full tilt for the win and it was easy to forgive when Dandy had all that blood streaming down his face. The real question was what the fuck were they doing booking this a few weeks out from the Anniversary Show? It's no wonder Dandy vs. Satanico didn't go over well when all the focus was on Dandy wanting Bestia's hair. I'm wondering if it was a last minute decision to switch the opponent to Lopez as there really didn't seem to be much build to Dandy/Satanico. Dandy flat out ignored Satanico in this bout. Bestia continued to run rough shot over everyone with straight fall wins, and Dandy was pissed at the end, clutching at his hair and demanding an opportunity to put up a wager. I wonder if they got cold feet over whether Bestia could draw? One thing's for sure, it would have been a better match. Bestia was quietly moved to Love Machine after the Anniversary Show and ended up cooling off for real, which sucks, but for the first eight months of the year he was in beast mode. Just unstoppable one-on-one in trios. They should have ran with Bestia. Atlantis/El Dandy/Konnan vs. El Brazo/Brazo de Oro/Brazo de Plata, CMLL 12/20/91 I hadn't seen a Brazos match in donkey's years. I'm still not sure people get the Brazos. There's hardly any of their 80s footage available, and they show up really late on the DVDVR set, so it's no surprise that people don't realise what a big act they were in the 80s and 90s; but when they finally show up in CMLL the attitude seems to be that they detract from how great 1990 had been when in fact I can't think of anything more lucha than the Brazo brothers. This isn't a match that argues their case as it's mainly just a half-assed tecnico vs. tecnico contest, but it does feature a lot of Dandy vs. Brazo de Oro exchanges, which should get your antennas twitching if you're a hardcore fan. The early parts of this were worked like an exhibition-y show of respect. The exchanges were fun but worked at half speed compared to truly great trios wrestling. Later on they picked up the pace a bit, but it was late December, the end of the season and four days to the holidays. They didn't even take a swing at knocking it out of the park. Amusingly, Konnan had some solid exchanges in this. Scrolling through the match lists, you'd take one look at those names and think Konnan was the weak link holding them back from a Match of the Year Candidate, but you never can tell with lucha. Let it be known that Super Porky was one of the better Konnan match-ups, Jack. Bestia Salvaje/Mano Negra/Titan vs. Apolo Dantes/Oro/Lassertron, CMLL 2/5/93 Watch this for Bestia, stay for Titan... I really only checked this out because I wanted to see how Bestia fared being transitioned back into a secondary role after his killer run in '92, but he got stuck working with Lassertron. The main feuds here were Mano Negra and Oro and Titan and Apolo Dantes. Someone at Televisa was obsessed with filming vignettes of luchadores training. This time it was Oro training under blue lights. Not sure what the blue light was for? Ambiance? The menacing presence of Mano Negra? The match proper was a rudo beat down. I'm fairly convinced that Mano Negra wasn't as good masked as he was during his Dave Finlay run. He did a tremendous job wrenching the shit out of Oro's arm, but it would have been better with that mullet and nefarious grin. There was an element of Cota or Arandu to unmasked Negra. They were nutters; the three of them. You get some character stuff with masked Negra, but it's not as compelling. I'll tell you what was compelling, though -- motherfuckin' Titan. He beat the shit out of Dantes in this match and it was riveting. Looking him up afterwards, I should have known he was a Diablo Velazco trained journeyman. Please tell me we have the Titan/Dantes singles match on tape. There's nothing quite like a lucha vet getting the three week rub off a singles program. More often than not, they take their money earning chance and run with it, and you get these fun feuds that nobody ever told you about. I've seen Fiera beat on Dante of late, as well as Satanico, and neither of them did it with the verve of the former Comando Ruso. I hope there's a blue light Titan training video, Televisa!

Le Vicomte Joël de Noirbreuil & Pierre Lagache vs. Georges Cohen & Abraham Edery (10/16/66) This followed a pretty standard 60s French tag formula of the heels cheating a lot, but who really cares if you've seen it all before when it's this entertaining? Joël de Noirbreuil was doing a "L'Aristocrate du Ring" gimmick and had this smug looking, entitled face that looked as though he'd learnt wrestling from the best private tutors in Europe and expected nothing less than a victory. Lagache naturally did the lion's share of the work and what a vicious piece of work he was. This was a sterling parade of heel cheating, ref confusion and generic French babyface comebacks. I love the way the heels brawl into the commentators' row and give the men calling the action a good whack upside the head, and how later on when Noirbreuil took a spill to the outside, the commentator was in his face with a mic like the Televisa commentators. Lots of great shtick in this. Thoroughly entertaining romp.

One final batch of Reslo: Mike Jordan vs. Steve Peacock (Merthyr, taped 1983) I don't think I'll ever see what Regal saw in Peacock. I'm sure it makes a difference when you know a guy personally and see him work on the same shows as you, but there were so many amazing performers in the history of British wrestling that I'm not sure why you'd single Peacock out for special attention. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. He looked like a shorter, chubbier version of Greg Valentine here, and I was surprised that this was only from 1983 given how big he'd become. Most of the cool stuff was done by Mike Jordan. This Reslo stuff has salvaged Jordan's rep for me; not to the extent that I think he's a blow away worker or anything, but better than the guy I wrote off from his WoS stuff. Rollerball Rocco vs. Kung Fu (Rhyl, taped 7/12/83) This is the definitive Kung Fu vs. Rocco bout in so far as Kung Fu vs. Rocco matches matter. It's also the best Reslo match I've seen in terms of providing a clear arc. Most Reslo bouts feel incomplete and even the good ones are a tad underdone, but this was as complete a match as you're going to get without the master tapes It was wrestled in front of a tiny audience, but Rocco put on a master class anyway. If you know Rocco, you'll know he was hyper all the time, to the point where when you worked against him it was a wild ride with Rocco flying about everywhere and the odd stray knee or finger to the eye. What made this special wasn't so much that Rocco was a ball of energy, but that Kung Fu matched his vigour. Rocco was up to his usual tricks and Kung Fu retaliated with his "shoot" kicks leading to some balls-to-the-wall exchanges, including one of the most amazing arm roll exchanges I've seen in a British ring. Rocco was visibly calling shit as usual, but it didn't really matter because of how good the flurries were. Both guys worked incredibly hard here. Kung Fu's gi was drenched in sweat and Rocco also had a workout even by his standards. There was a guy in the crowd who got so into it he had to be restrained from hitting Rocco (meekly hitting him it should be said, but you've got to love the passion.) Great "cheat to win" finish that was the walk off home run of cheat to win finishes. Rocco cut a fun promo on the people of Wales afterward. One of Rocco's career best. Probably Kung Fu's best match on tape as well. Dave Taylor vs. John Kowalski (Merthyr, taped 1983) Young Dave Taylor! Man was he baby-faced here. This was a decent vet vs. young punk bout, but there wasn't much heat so it was somewhat marred by the sounds of bodies hitting the canvas echoing throughout the sports and leisure centre. Kowalski always reminded me a bit of a British Johnny Valentine, but here he looked more like Dickie Murdoch. Chic Cullen vs. Rocky Moran (Unknown location, taped 1985) This was all right but failed to live up to their WoS title bout. To be fair, I'm starting to wonder if anything can live up to that WoS bout, and whether it set the bar impossibly high for the Moran bouts that followed. Reslo by this stage had become less like the WoS Lord Mountevans style and more like regular American style bouts. That basically meant there wasn't as much cool matwork, but instead a lot of heel vs. face segments. Workers like Rocco thrived in that environment, but I really want to see a guy like Cullen bust out his mat game instead of selling a beating. Rollerball Rocco vs. Johnny South (Amlwch, taped 2/5/87) Fun late period match. A little bit on the short side, but veteran Johnny South is another of the pluses of digging deep into the Reslo catalogue. Match was pretty stiff and would easily rub shoulders with the best of the late period stuff, which isn't very much, but still... Wayne Bridges vs. Rocky Moran (Porthmadog, taped 1987) Now this was a good Moran performance. As with the above matches, it was less WoS and more all-in American style wrestling, but Moran did a good job or working that style and I think he would have fit in quite well in the territories. He's still a bit of a disappointment in terms of not being the Emilio Charles Jr style worker I thought he was after the first few matches I saw, but perhaps he had more of these hidden gem performances in Wales. Chic Cullen vs. Johnny South (Unknown location, taped 1985) This is a match I should probably watch again as on first view it wasn't the kickass blow away Johnny South vs. Chic Cullen bout I was lusting for. Johnny South vs. Johnny Palance (Unknown location, taped 1985) South got a chance to shine here as he was evidently higher up the totem pole than Palance. Veteran Johnny South is just badass. I don't know how well it would translate if you haven't seen the footage we have of him from his younger days until this point, but there's something awesome about watching a fringe guy turn into a veteran journeyman and still maintain a high standard of personal performance in the ring albeit adapted into a veteran's game. Palance got in a bit of offence towards the end and it's still weird seeing a Jack Palance look alike working a match. All sorts of movie quotes start rushing through your head not to mention that breathing sound Jack always made. There's some more Reslo being uploaded on YouTube, which I'll check out in due course, but it was a neat territory that didn't exactly provide blow away matches, but provided an opportunity to see guys who were no longer working for Joint in the 80s and therefore not on television, and for whatever reason, a better stage for workers like Cullen, Johnny South, Mike Jordan and even Caswell Martin to show their wares. Most people are vaguely familiar with early 90s Reslo, but the earlier stuff is much more interesting and worth investing some time in if you're a fan of British or European wrestling.

Name of worker: Rick Martel Promotion (and year): WWF 1990 Link to promo: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ck63h_wwf-royal-rumble-1990-superstars-royal-rumble-promos_sport Why you think it's great: Because it's the best promo, and the fittest promo, of them all.

I think if you went back and read archived discussion of the Undertaker angles you'd find plenty of people bashing them (as well as defending them.) The Ministry of Darkness stuff was controversial at the time and had a shitty payoff that failed to match the fantasy booking of most smarks. It was similar to the Austin hit and run mystery, which was another dud surprise. Maybe people didn't stop watching over these things, but they chipped away at people's fandom. People want payoffs and WWE didn't fail in a day.

NB: La Locomotora Gringa may have been actually been called La Maquina Gringa

Thanks, bud. I've been led down the garden path so many times since this whole thing began that I almost regret doing it, but hopefully I can see it through. Blue Panther, Emilio Charles Jr. y Hombre Bala vs. Blue Demon, Javier Cruz y Hombre Sin Nombre (8/4/89) This was an undercard match from one of the Friday night Arena Mexico shows. It would be a stretch to say it had anything to do with Cruz' feud with Charles during his previous life as a Destructor or even the mini-program with Bala from a few months earlier. Cruz and Charles would go on to develop a rivalry over the National Middleweight title in the early 90s, but this match was card filler. Hombre Sin Nombre was of course Magico without a name, as the original worker had claimed the rights to the name. Pena was running a competition at the time to give Hombre a name and would soon roll out his new moniker Mascara Sagrada.* Panther was working for EMLL fairly regularly at this point and mostly used in these sort of undercard matches as a rudo foil for the likes of Blue Demon Jr and Mascara Sagrada. He wouldn't receive a bigger push until he signed with CMLL full time in July of '91. * Actually, he may have been announced as Mascara Sagrada already with the onscreen caption being wrong. MS-1 y Masakre vs. El Dandy y El Satanico (8/11/89) As much as I'd love to explain why the Infernales were feuding with Satanico, I couldn't find a single scrap of information about the build-up to the Anniversary show; not even the usual faulty recollections. The Infernales were always breaking up and getting back together. Probably no other trio in history broke up and reconciled as many times as the Infernales. The first break-up was the nasty split between Morgan and Satanico in '86. The acrimony between Infernales v2 lasted for five years before they patched things up for their 90s run, but it wasn't the most volatile of the incarnations. That honour goes to the Masakre version, which split up three times during its turbulent existence. The first was in '88 after Masakre and MS-1 lost the National Tag Titles to Atlantis and Angel Azteca on 3/6/88. That led to a MS-1 tecnico run and a big hair match with Masakre on 6/17. At some point, either late in the '88 season or in January '89, they buried their differences and the Infernales reformed. In March they began the short program with La Locomotora Gringa that I mentioned last time which culminated with a trios hair vs. hair match that saw Satanico pin Mikey Stone to take his hair. Blondy took Satanico's hair a week later as retribution, but Satanico was back on top of the world when he took the light heavyweight title from Lizmark in July. What caused the tensions between Satanico and his partners is unknown, but they began to emerge at the end of the month. A 7/28/89 match between the Infernales and Atlantis, Ringo Mendoza and Steve Nelson saw the rudos lose in straight falls and begin having issues with each other, and the following week's 8/4/89 Dandy, Atlantis and El Faraon vs. Infernales trios presumably led to Masakre and MS-1 attacking Satanico, which in turn led to this match and the main event of the following month's Anniversary Show. In early '91, the Masakre Infernales reformed one last time and had a run which lasted right through the year until Masakre was kicked out of the team and sensationally replaced with Pirata Morgan before the CMLL World Trios tournament. I believe the kayfabe reason for this was fairly weak -- Satanico and MS-1 claimed that Masakre never co-operated with them outside of the ring, and Masakre claimed the other two envied him -- but the rudos vs. rudos feud that resulted from Masakre forming Los Intocables with Pierroth Jr and Jaque Mate was anything but weak. In a real throwback to the rudo vs. rudo feuds of a decade before, a second hair match between MS-1 and Masakre on the season ending December show was the first shot fired in a year long war between the two rudo factions. But this match was part of the build to the EMLL 56th Anniversary Show and a pairing between Atlantis and Satanico that would have seemed unfathomable in 1984 but was actually an example of EMLL booking their biggest show of the year on the fly. More on that later.

You have to pay for the entire month no matter which day you sign up. You then pay in advance at the beginning of each month. So if you've paid three times that means you've paid for December, January and February. The reason you were charged on the 30th was because the first day of February was a Sunday.

Emilio Charles, Fabuloso Blondy y Pirata Morgan vs. El Dandy, Atlantis & El Faraón (7/21/89) Emilio Charles vs. El Dandy (Hair v. Hair) (7/28/89) Last time, took a look at a short program midcard cabelleras feud in Cruz vs. Bala. This time we'll be concentrating on a more important upper card feud in Dandy vs. Charles. Instead of a few short weeks, it usually takes months (and in some cases years) for upper card wager matches to materialise. In the case of Dandy and Charles, they were embroiled in a feud that lasted the entire second half of the season, including a National Middleweight title bout at the end of the year. The hair match wasn't the blow off to their feud, but rather the first step in a feud that was so good the pair became career long rivals and wrestled many times into the 90s, though unfortunately we only have one of their 90s matches on tape. Dandy had risen to prominence in 1988, was The Man in 1989, and arguably the best worker in the world in 1990. He was a favourite of booker Juan Herrera, but we can't really say he had a rocket strapped to him like Atlantis or Mogur, or as they were trying to do with Angel Azteca. He was earmarked for greatness from the start and his ascension to the top occurred naturally similar to an equally talented guy in El Satanico. This was the Lutteroth philosophy of "serious and stable" promoting; the very bedrock the company was founded on. That bedrock received a shake up in 1989 when Pena got in Paco's ear with all of his colourful characters and wild ideas, and for a while the booking styles of Herrera and Pena had a disharmonious coexistence as the serious stuff (e.g. Dandy vs. Charles) fought for attention with the more populist creations of Antonio Pena. As a product it was endless fascinating with the constant clash between the new school and old school, but internally it was cliquey and extremely political. Dandy was popular with the hardcores and drew well, but it was Pena's Perez inspired, Lucha Libre style creations that drove the television boom. To put it into perspective, Herrera booked feuds were akin to the way American fans viewed Crockett feuds like Flair vs. Steamboat whereas Pena booked feuds had closer parallels to Hogan vs.Savage, both cosmetically and business wise. Charles was also a guy who rose to prominence in 1988 and this feud with Dandy did just as much to rise him into a top spot as it did Dandy. The finish to the hair match, while rare, had occurred a couple of times in the 80s. Off the top of my head, there was the MS-1/Gran Jalisco bout in '82, one of the '82 Satanico/Chicana hair matches, and Dandy vs. Cruz in '84. The first trios, which as you can see was the week before the hair match, is the first appearance on the set of "El Fabuloso Blondy" Ken Timbs. Timbs had worked as one half of the Fabulous Blondes with Eric Embry in several territories, most prominently Southwest Championship Wresting. His travels first took him to Mexico in 1988 where he developed an extremely successful American heel gimmick that would later become the template for Eddy Guerrero and Art Barr. Timbs would come to the ring waving the U.S. flag, sometimes draping it over his shoulders like a cape, and would often paint his face with the red, white and blue. Before matches, he would grab the house mic and belt out "The Star-Spangled Banner." It was staple stuff really; the tricks of the trade for any foreign heel gimmick, but EMLL fans lapped it up and Timbs had what was a fairly hot run in Mexico. It was actually quite radical at the time. While Flores had made a bunch of money having Canek vend off every Tom, Dick and Harry foreign invader, EMLL had by no means followed suit. They'd bring in Andre every time he was on tour, and we saw Kevin Von Erich earlier in the set, which I'm guessing was through his Texas connection with Danny Ortiz. We also saw Misawa and Koshinaka touring in '84, but nothing really like Ken Timbs and his two year heel run. Once Pena got his hooks into him, he really took off, with Pena billing him as "El Gringo Loco" and later having him come out to Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. In fact, Pena was so fond of the Blondy character that he wanted to bring him during the Los Gringos Locos run, but couldn't manage to. Alluding back to the tensions between Herrera and Pena, Timbs was so over that he actually took the NWA World Light Heavyweight Title from Lizmark in what was one of the hottest feuds of '88. Whether it was entirely true or not, back then wrestlers prided themselves on needing to have a basic knowledge of catch to pass the wrestler's license exam, and here you had a guy of questionable merit as a wrestler taking one of the premier NWA World titles from one of the best wrestlers in Mexico. That can only have been a Pena move, much like the screwjob finish to the Popiketus hair match with heel ref, and Pena creation, Gran Davis. Here Timbs had just come off a feud with Los Infernales involving his own trios team "La Locomotora Gringa" that saw Blondy take Satanico's hair on an April show. TImbs and Morgan were tag partners here, but they'd soon be rivals as they squared off for the aforementioned NWA World Light Heavyweight Title at the end of '89. Timbs' push continued through until the first quarter of 1990 where his association with another foreign heel group "Policia de Los Angeles" culimanted in a rare match against brothers Mil Mascaras, Dos Caras and Sicodélico. Eventually he cooled off somewhat, but did get a fresh lease of life on the gimmick in the Monterrey territory before leaving Mexico in mid-93.

Los Temerarios (Shu El Guerrero, Black Terry & Jose Luis Feliciano) vs. Los Arqueros, LuchaMania I couldn't pin a date on this one. In fact, I wasn't really sure where it as being held. The Sindicato Nacional de Luchadores y Referees had its name plastered everywhere, but I'm not sure if that means the event was promoted in association with the wrestler's union or if it was some sort of specially promoted union funcion. At any rate, these teams had a long standing feud that involved both the National Trios Titles and individual apuesta matches. Lasser, who was masked here, had taken Black Terry's hair on 12/17/89. A month later, the Arqueros defeated the Temerarios for the trios titles on 1/21/90, and Shu was able to finally get revenge for the Temerarios by unmasking El Arquero/Robin Hood on 2/4/90. This all led to a big apuesta match between the teams, which may or may not have involved Lasser losing his mask (it's all a bit murky.) How this fits in on the road that apuesta match is anybody's guess, but I'd say it's from 1990 at the earliest and '92 at the latest. Unfortunately, it's all fairly standard. They get a significant amount of time for a trios bout, but don't produce much. The Temerarios with their matching tights and chainmail outfits could easily be people's favourite trio if we had more footage of them, and Jose Luis Feliciano had this great look that could swing both ways; as a tecnico he looked like the mastermind behind some huge selling classic rock band, whereas as a rudo he looked like he convictions in several states and was months behind on his alimony payments. Of course, you're all going to want to watch Terry with jet black hair, and hardcores will also be interested in the Arqueros, all of whom were great journeymen, but aside from that it was nothing special. I'm racking my brains. but I can't remember a single standout exchange or any really great moments. Terry had an awesome smirk when the Arqueros arrived wearing their tiny little archer outfits, but really all this had going for it was that the workers were cool. If I hadn't told you there was history between the teams, you would have never guessed there was bad blood, and to me that's a fail. Super Brazo, Leon Chino and Scorpio Jr. vs. El Trio Fantasia, LuchaMania I personally thought was more fun than the Temerarios/Arqueros bout. The Trio Fantasia gimmick naturally lends itself to a lot of fun and silliness, but they were a polished act. Even Super Muneco, who the lucha snob in me would say sucked, was in his element with these guys and as close to an enforcer as a guy with a clown gimmick gets. There were a lot of fat boy exchanges between Super Brazo and Muneco; and Super Raton, being the worker of his side, was naturally everywhere. Holy shit, was Leon Chino awesome. Imagine Negro Casas if Negro Casas were a Richard Simmons looking dude and you have Leon Chino. I need to see more Leon Chino. Even Scorpio Jr got in on the act giving his best Fuerza Guerrera impression. He was smaller here, and mustn't have touched the needles yet because he was a lot more mobile. There was no jeopardy in this, and nothing to get excited about if you're not a hardcore lucha fan. To be honest, I was surprised that the rudos went over as it didn't seem to fit this sort of exhibition show; but you don't watch this sort of match expecting to see an arc. You watch it because you want to see Super Raton square off with Leon Chino for twenty seconds. That's when you know you're a tragic. Super Astro vs. Leon Chino, WWA World Middleweight Championship Leon Chino in a suit! I don't think I need to explain the appeal of luchadores in suits. This was rad. I loved the castigos they put on each other in the primera caida and the fact that Chino's second was a veteran journeyman mini was beyond awesome. Unfortunately, there was a bit of time shaving going on for the television broadcast, and they returned to the studio between falls, which broke up the flow, but Super Astro was still in his prime here so his flippy shit looked swank and Chino did a great job of bumping and selling for it while looking legitimately buggered. The tercera caida was fantastic. Really superb tercera caida wrestling. Astro took a big back body bump to the outside, which Chino followed up on with a reckless senton. He kept pressing home the jeopardy Astro was in with pinfall attempt after pinfall attempt. Astro fought back with a beautiful tope and it was Chino's turn to withstand a barrage of pinfall and submission attempts. Both guys were selling fatigue and going at it hammer and tongs. It was a beautiful tercera caida straight out of the textbook. Chino scored a big plancha and staggered back into the ring with the veteran mini toweling him off. Back in the ring something had to give, and when Astro caught Chino flush with a dropkick that was the opening for a beautiful maestro style pinning maneuver that put Chino away. The crowd leapt to their feet and a kid in a Tinieblas mask repeatedly punched his father in celebration. Wonderful third fall. If you enjoyed Arandu vs. Guerrero Negro on the DVDVR set, you'll enjoy the novelty of this. Bestia Salvaje/La Fiera/Jerry Estrada vs. Huracan Sevilla/Blue Demon Jr./El Hijo del Solitario, CMLL 1/24/92 Bestia vs. Huracan Sevilla, one of the great underrated feuds of the 90s. There were so many scummy looking wrestlers in this. Check out the parts where Bestia, Sevilla, Fiera and Estrada are all in the ring together; it's amazing. Throw in two "shit kid" sons of lucha legends and you have an awesome "advance the storyline" match. Man alive is Bestia awesome in this. Ultimately, he became such a secondary figure that it's easy to forget how good he could be. He's got to be in the conversation when it comes to top brawlers. I mean Huracan Sevilla went nowhere after this feud, but watching him fight Bestia you'd swear he was Dandy. This was a straight falls victory to the rudos, which again may disappoint punters looking for a complete bout, but sometimes you need to book dominant rudo bouts to remind the paying audience that the villains are serious and mean business. And besides, within those two falls were more memorable details than you find in most three fall bouts. Sevilla's comeback railing on Bestia was amazing. Who knew, or in my case remembered, Sevilla could brawl that well? Of course, as I always say with story based trios, you need the complementary story threads, and here you got La Fiera working over Blue Demon in a typically sleazy way and some pretty good retaliation from Junior. El Hijo del Solitario, who we know has a brawling pedigree, also won his way into my heart by choking Fiera with his bandanna. That's a level of hatred that's crying out for a super libre revancha. The finishes were amazing as well. Bestia caught Sevilla midway through a body scissors and suplexed the fuck out of him for the first fall, then caught him coming off the ropes and hooked a killer submission for the two-fall victory. Boy was he pumped afterwards. Sevilla was over-enthusiastic appealing for a hair match so the rudos delivered a hellacious beat down to cap one of the better two fall bouts I've seen. Bestia was the man, but I'm loving washed up Fiera. Not only did he start the melee at the end; he body slammed the top of Solitario's head into the apron edge. You don't cry about a hair match when you've had your ass handed to you in straight falls and you don't fuck with Fiera's bandanna. El Felino/El Supremo II/Titan vs. Ciclon Ramirez/El Pantera/Bronce, CMLL 5/7/93 On paper this reads like a workrate opener, but of course this was during the Ciclon Ramirez/Felino apuesta feud so it was a nasty little affair. El Supremo II (now there's a name you don't hear too often) deserves a ton of credit for getting stuck into everything and giving Pantera a torrid time. Unfortunately, Ramirez and Felino couldn't match the intensity that Supremo brought in the way that Bestia and Sevilla were able to outshine a tremendous Fiera performance, which ought to be a no-no since the bout was all about them. You could argue that Supremo overdid it a bit, but you can't blame the Televisa camera guy for focusing on a guy that active. Even at the end when Felino had unmasked Ramirez and was beating on him, Supremo could be seen in the background leaping in the air and dropping the knee on Pantera. Not a bad little bout -- some nice bumping broke up the monotony of watching guys untie each other's mask strings (hate that shit) -- but I came out of this wanting to see Supremo vs. Pantera and you know that wasn't the intention. Atlantis/Apolo Dantes/Ultimo Dragon vs. Blue Panther/La Fiera/Kendo Nagasaki, CMLL 5/8/92 This began with a classic primera caida style mat exchange between Panther and Dragon that was a real lucha mat exchange not the Japanese inspired stuff Ultimo did with Casas. Despite his rep, you don't actually get to see Panther work the mat all that often so it's a treat when he does. It had me wondering whether I should recheck their singles match in case I've been too dismissive of it; but given Ultimo's track record in singles matches from this era, I probably haven't. Unfortunately, those few minutes were the highlight of the match as opposed to being the kickstarter to something greater. "Old man" Fiera continued to be good to the extent that I'm wondering why I ever said anything to the contrary, but this wasn't a scummy enough match for him. To get the most out of Fiera, you need a dingy, sleazy sort of a match. This match was led by Panther, whom I've never been convinced by as a rudo. I get why he was a rudo -- he was a great worker and a great base for workers who perhaps weren't so great -- but in terms of having the charisma of the truly great rudos? Forget about it. He teased an exchange with Atlantis in the segunda caida and everyone thought back to their classic match from '91, which I still maintain is the greatest pure lucha libre match of all time, but instead of a reprise of what made that match so great, Panther went into full on stooge mode and ended up bumping in a style that was cross between a press up, a breakdance move and a legitimate sell. It seems to me that Panther's selling was always goofy; it's just that no-one ever called him on it. Panther diehards will probably be more forgiving, but this was an average sort of match where I was expecting a Panther vs. Atlantis alert.

They were ahead of All Japan in the 70s as well. Inoki drew some big ratings for his proto-MMA fights. The 80s were a lot more rocky than people tend to realise. Business wasn't great for New Japan after '83. After all the shit went down with Inoki and his profit siphoning, the company struggled to draw with its limited roster. The UWF feud didn't draw as well as people imagine and whatever boost Choshu's return provided was killed by the booking and Sumo Hall debacle at the end of '87. The history of NJPW is similar to WWE in terms of boom periods and not really the "steady as she goes" narrative it's sometimes portrayed as. In that regard, Choshu probably deserves even more credit than he already receives for his booking of NJPW in the 90s, because it was, for a large stretch of the decade, the most profitable company in the world and that was with a flagging TV spot.

Totally agree with Pete and Gregor on this one. Why was Casas working babyface? How come it was so one-sided? This didn't match the build up whatsoever. Frustrating -- http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/blog/8/entry-453-vintage-negro-casas-of-the-day-14/

Ultimo Dragon vs. Negro Casas, UWA World Middleweight Championship, CMLL 8/28/92 This was a curious match to say the least. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't all that great either. The build up had been fantastic -- really vintage Casas -- but they made the cardinal mistake of not paying off the set up. Everyone wanted to see Casas get his ass kicked, and he took a hell of a beating, but for some reason he spent the entire bout working like a sympathetic babyface. That may have worked if they'd been a Mexico vs. Japan vibe to the match, but that wasn't what the build had been about. You were supposed to view Ultimo as a tecnico and not some non-native. He did revert to a fairly standard way of working a juniors bout, including laying around in most of his holds, but that struck me as a fault in the work rather than any sort of story device. Casas spent much of the bout selling a rib injury. His selling was excellent, but the idea that we were supposed to feel sorry for him was foreign to just about every match he'd had in CMLL up to this point, and remember this wasn't a face turn. If the story was meant to be Ultimo humbling Casas somehow, they blew telling that story by not having Casas play up his arrogance in the primera caida. Let's face it, no matter how you try to justify it there's no explaining why Casas suddenly played the baby to such a degree or why the bout was so one-sided. Despite the fact that Casas was able to survive on scraps, all the highlights were of Ultimo offence, whether it was suplexes from the top or his corner post tope. Weird bout. It was really only held together by Casas' selling and probably deserves a blasting. If it were a worker I don't like, I'm sure i'd be forthcoming with one. Loss mentioned that it may have been a case of a guy having to work someone a few times to figure out how to get a great match out of him, but I'm not sure that's an excuse for Casas doing a 180 on the character he was portraying heading into the match. It's *possible* that he was aiming for a Kandori vs. Hokuto style bout where Hokuto realised she wasn't as shit hot as she thought she was, but that narrative was expertly weaved with Hokuto being over confident to start with. Here Casas was the underdog from the very first blow. It was weird and not very lucha-esque either. It's wrong to ignore it happened, but I'll try to forget about it all the same. It was a bit disappointing actually, because if you'd told me a few months ago that Ultimo Dragon was one of Casas' career rivals, I probably would have scoffed a little. I knew that Loss liked their '93 bout, but I wouldn't have believed they were great rivals until I saw the trios matches. But even considering the '93 bout, I'm not sure they pulled off their singles bouts well enough for me to include Ultimo as a premier rival. The trios exchanges are so good it's almost like there's an unrealised potential in the singles bouts. Partially, it's because Ultimo's probably not as good as he looks in the trios bouts, but there's also a disconnect between what Casas is doing in trios and how he behaves in singles. Instead of glossing over the failures, I hope these Vintage Negro Casas of the Days also put the disappointments under the microscope. It would be easy to wish that Casas were wrestling an Atlantis or Lizmark (not that they were in the same weight classes), or fob it off on the fact that a lot of 1992 CMLL singles matches are on the disappointing side, but the fact remains that Casas fucked this up somehow. Spilled milk and all that, but I don't want to make it seem like old school Casas was perfect. He was a genius, but he was also fallible and this is another great example. Sure, there's not another wrestler alive who hasn't had a misfire, but because lucha is under valued and under appreciated by most wrestling fans, the bad (or in this case, the disappointing) doesn't tend to be bundled with the good. But for the sake of fairness, and in an effort to rectify that, this could have been so much more. When I think of that great exchange I wrote about the other day and the flip being switched; wrestling's not easy, and structuring a match is no piece of cake, but man, what a blown opportunity.

You should check out the Casas/Bestia/Felino vs. Dandy/Ultimo/Blue Demon Jr (7/17/92) bout that was uploaded on YouTube recently. Great sprint bridging Casas/Dandy with Casas/Ultimo and Dandy/Bestia.

My only problem with people watching a lot of the "live" product is that projects like the DVDVR sets or the GWE poll aren't as good as they might have been if people had devoted more time to them.

Negro Casas/Bestia Salvaje/El Felino vs. El Dandy/Ultimo Dragon/Blue Demon Jr., CMLL 7/17/92 There are times when I'm convinced that Casas' first few months in CMLL represent the absolute peak of his career. It's difficult to describe the excitement generated by his arrival. The fans had been used to the independientes coming in and working EMLL shows, but Casas was special. Not only was he at the height of his powers; it was like watching an artist unleashed. We don't have much of Casas' early work from the 90s, but what we do have is nowhere near as irrepressible as these first few months in CMLL. The booking in UWA after Flores' death was largely stagnant (and perhaps before then too if we had proper records.) It's clear that Maynes, and whoever was booking at the time, weren't paying special attention to the lightweights the way Flores had done. Watching Casas in his early days with CMLL is like watching a guy turn into a big fish right before your very eyes. The fact that he still holds his spot, like a barnacle cling to a rock, makes witnessing that transformation all the more impressive. This was a quick-fire trios bridging Casas and Dandy with their next two feuds, but man did I love it. I watched it while having beers and listening to the Minutemen's cover of Have You Ever Seen the Rain? so I may have been a bit loaded at the time, but for such a short trios this was a hell of a bout. There was a huge "Dandy! Dandy!" chant when he was introduced with the crowd still abuzz following his victory over Casas two weeks prior. Casas, as you'd imagine, took it all in his stride, flashing that by now iconic Casas smile. They launched into an opening exchange that while fun was far from the best the pair had produced. Casas was really just testing the waters and backed off when he copped a knee to the face. There was an element of them not wanting to steal any thunder from the newly created match-ups, as well as generally holding back for the kick ass exchanges to come as this was the type of trios match that doesn't slow down. Demon and Felino worked a decentish exchange punctuated by Demon ducking on Felino's baseball slide to the outside and delivering an uppercut followed by a dropkick, and Ultimo and Bestia pushed the tempo further with a series of fast paced exchanges based around Bestia's big bumping style. Dandy re-entered the ring with a forward roll that startled Casas. He stepped back through the ropes on to the apron and did a Fuerza style slip which the crowd latched onto straight away. After the heckles, he took advantage of Bestia attacking Dandy from behind to dropkick him out of the ring, raised a defiant arm to the crowd, and immediately tagged out. That set up a second go round between the match-ups which quickly turned into the finish. Felino missed on a moonsault like a guy aiming for the pool and hitting concrete instead. Dandy, meanwhile, challenged Casas to step in and take him, but Casas didn't want to know about it and stepped off the apron for the safety of the crowd. He stood with his arms folded while Dandy complained about how much of a pussy he was. If you're one of those people who complain about how guys charge into the ring in lucha only to be pinned, you'll appreciate Casas not wanting a piece of it. The switch from Dandy vs. Casas to the new feuds came in the second caida. Dandy wanted to wrestle Casas, probably to give him a receipt for the dropkick to the outside, but Casas refused under the guise that everyone was switching partners. Blue Demon nominated himself for Casas, but Casas ignored him. Back in high school, we had a Vietnamese teacher who couldn't pronounce the word "shirt" properly. Whenever he wanted us to tuck in our shirt, he'd say: "your shit, kid." It became a running gag among students; a way of instantly dismissing another person's merits. Casas ignoring Demon was one of those "you're shit kid" moments. He went over and whacked Ultimo in the head and they had a really fantastic exchange where Ultimo kept battering him with kicks. I've been really impressed by the way Casas sells Ultimo's kicks. My first instincts about the Casas vs. Ultimo match-up, and the idea of Casas working with a guy who works a martial arts style, would be: it won't work; it'll be lame; I'd rather see Casas work a more traditional lucha style against a more traditional lucha opponent. But it works well. Remarkably well, actually. It brought out a different side in Casas: a more serious, intense side. It was like a switch being flipped between the cocky, flamboyant show pony and the kick ass serious wrestler. He couldn't really go toe-to-toe with Ultimo in a stand up contest and wasn't really known as a guy with a lot of shooting ability; what makes the contest so interesting is that he's on the back foot trying to block these kicks and absorb the impact, and he has a really limited striking game that's so scant it even includes hard shoves, but they do these cool exchanges in and out of the ring that look like out of control sparring sessions. Bestia went after Dandy with hard chops and punches to the face. Their feud was started over significantly less than Ultimo and Casas, but Bestia was uncorking his shit. The ship had already sailed on Bestia being a singles star to the level of either Dandy or Casas, but he had the talent. Dandy vs. Bestia is a feud that needs revisiting and hopefully we'll be able to do that soon. Back in the ring, the editor missed an important foul by Casas on Ultimo, but we saw Ultimo wriggling about on the mat selling it. Casas backed Ultimo into the corner and began kicking the shit out of him while taunting him to get up. If you thought Casas' taunting of Maximo was special, I would offer this as an example of Casas being vicious in his disrespect for another competitor. The third caida began with the rudos parading about surveying the carnage they'd created. Felino tried really hard to keep up with the others and beat the crap out of Blue Demon Jr., but there were obviously more important storylines going on. Ultimo vs. Casas Rd 2 was just as intense as Rd 1 w/ Ultimo starting to bust out the Japanese suplexes and finally breaking through Casas' meagre defences to knock him to the canvas. You could maybe argue that in terms of sheer fighting ability Ultimo should have been able to wipe the floor with Casas, but let's just enjoy the pro graps. As I said that, he followed up the knock down with an overly long headlock spot, which was kind of lame. Maybe Felino should have come in and broken it up sooner. Demon dropped a big knee on Felino, which was cool. You're not so shit after all, kid! Dandy vs. Bestia Rd 2 also kicked major ass. Dandy was so fed up he belted Bestia with a right hand then dropped the diving headbutt on him. Not content with that, he took a huge swing at Casas on the apron, who sold his jaw like he was crumbling in his hand. Casa gave him a receipt with a kick to the face while he had Bestia in a hold and it was all on from that point. Casas and Dandy traded blows. Ultimo stepped into the ring and resumed kicking the shit out of Casas, but this time Casas shot on him, took that bastard down and dropped the elbow. Folks really need to watch that sequence as it was so effing cool. Demon sent Felino tumbling to the outside with a dropkick then hit a big tope on him that was possibly the coolest thing I've seen Demon do. Dandy and Bestia then got the mano a mano part of the fall and Bestia wrapped Dandy up in the most beautiful looking, complex pinfall maneuver. It was pretty to watch. Bestia wanted Dandy's belt, Dandy wanted Bestia's hair, the replay showed just how great Demon's tope had been, Casas blew kisses to the crowd like his hands were six gun shooters, and we were out of here. Kick ass trios.

Technically, it is three syllables (sa-i-toh), but when 'a' and 'i' are together it's pronounced like the 'i' in 'ice.' Aikawa, for example, is eye-ka-wa not ah-e-ka-wa -- https://www.cpp.edu/~pronunciation/sounds/japanese/aikawa.wav And Saito becomes sigh-toe -- https://www.cpp.edu/~pronunciation/sounds/japanese/saito.wav

Shibuya -- She-boo-ya Saito -- Sigh-toe