ohtani's jacket

Back to the 70s: Count Bartelli vs. Johnny Czeslaw (3/27/74) I figured if Barteli was ever going to have a fun match it would be against Czeslaw since the Pole had a good sense of humour; and sure enough it was decent while it lasted, but just as Czeslaw was warming to the task they went with an awful, awful finish where Czeslaw crotched himself on the ropes and continued continue. Mike Marino vs. Johnny Yearsley (10/10/74) This was part of a one night knockout tournament. Unlike the 80s where these sort of matches had a time limit, this was a regular six round bout. Ordinarily that would be a welcome change, but this was 25 minutes of Yearsley threatening to cheat without going the whole hog and Marino retaliating without going all the way. The end result of all the tentativeness was that they didn't do much of anything and it went on like that for 25 excruciating minutes. If it had been any other worker, Walton would have been critical of the match, but not his boy Marino. Actually, in fairness to Kent, he had a veiled criticism towards the promoters about Yearsley and Marino being paired together when a catchweight contest would have been more exciting. Spencer Churchill vs. Ivan Penzecoff (8/1/74) This was all right, but of all the interesting things about Spencer Churchill, his wrestling ability is the least. I like the fact he was into modern jazz more than I do his matches. Walton was surprised that the crowd were mildly into the match as he thought it was slow without much action (try watching your boy Marino against Yearsley, Kent.) He repeated the criticism after the bout so it must have bugged him for some reason. Mick McManus vs. Catweazle (10/8/75) This was always such a fun match-up. I have no idea why Colt Cabana and Regal thought McManus never gave Catweazle anything. He gave him about a thousand times better a match than Catweazle usually had; that's what he gave him. Do you wanna watch a guy do comedy all the time or do you want to see him have a dramatic bout every now and again? Because this bout did more to get Catweazle over as a serious competitor than feed McManus' ego. I'm not sure if it was better than their Wembley bout in '77, but it was better than the typical Catweazle outing. Mike Marino vs. Johnny Yearsley (4/17/75) Not a hell of a lot better than their '74 bout to be honest. Call it a coincidence, but these two don't seem like a good match-up. I've seen Yearsey do good stuff against other opponents and Marino was a hell of a grappler, but together they were boring. This had a ridiculous structure where Yearsley took a one fall advantage deep into the bout and Marino ended up squashing him with two quick falls. Yuck. I was was excited to get the last bit of Marino I hadn't seen, but these were easily the worst Marino bouts I've seen. Mick McManus & Steve Logan vs. Mick McMichael & Eddie Capelli (4/17/75) This was a fun bout. It was too short to be of much consequence, but McManus and Logan showed why they were such a good heel act and Capelli was so fired up he was retaliating without so much as a boo from McManus or Logan. Fun stuff. Caswell Martin vs. The Exorcist (1/23/75) This was much better than I thought it would be. Walton and the Exorcist weren't on the same page to start with as Walton thought the Exorcist was shaping to make the claw and he wound up doing a bunch of free style moves, but man was Martin pretty to watch in full flight. What a beautifully fluid worker. Eventually, the match descended into the type of rule-bending that Walton was expecting. Martin got the chance to make a big comeback and kicked a bunch of arse before the Exorcist took over. Considering these matches are usually a squash in the masked wrestler's favour, there was a competitiveness to this that was well welcomed. Usually, you'd look at a bout like this on the match listings and think "ah, there's a waste of Martin's talents" or "I wish we had another of his bouts available instead," but it was a pleasant surprise to see not only the fist he made of this sort of booking but how decent the bout was. Count Bartelli vs. Pete Roberts (2/10/76) This was a defence of Bartelli's Commonwealth Heavyweight title. It's pretty rare to see one of the non World, British or European titles defended on television, and I was eager to see how Roberts would fare in a title match against Bartelli, but unfortunately this was also a rare case of TWC channel being joined in progress. A disappointingly small amount of the bout aired and I couldn't get much of a feel for what was shown. Bartelli won in straight falls, though, so it's unlikely that the early rounds would have salvaged much. Johnny Czeslaw & Ivan Penzecoff vs.Tiger Dalibar Singh & Rajendra Singh (2/21/77) Another fun tag. Dalibar and Rajendra Singh getting introduced as the "coloured Indian stars" was cringe worthy, and Walton's insistence that every Indian wrestler was from the Punjab was also colonial, but these matches reflected the melting pot that England had become and race was clearly part of the way the product was promoted and sold. Some fun exchanges here between Rajendra Singh and Johnny Czeslaw and Gil came across like a real bruiser. Good stuff.

Javier Cruz vs. Hombre Bala (Hair vs. Hair) (6/30/89) There wasn't much more to this than a midcard cabellera feud. They were feuding in the weeks prior and this was the blow off match. You can see part of the build here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdrFGaDQF60 (NB: Cubsfan made an educated guess on the venue and date based on Lynch' tapelist, but the match is from Arena Mexico and must be from either 6/9 or 6/16. Since there wasn't a strong focus on Javier vs. Bala yet, I'd suggest the earlier date.) For some reason, the back office liked booking Cruz in hair matches. Most likely Juan Herrera since he preferred pushing the Velazco trained workers. As I've mentioned before, he had the nickname El Tijeras de Oro (Golden Scissors) and won a string of hair matches at Arena Mexico from 1988 to 1994, perhaps more than were warranted. The way EMLL was traditionally booked was that they'd break the season into three or four month blocks that would end with a funcion or series of funciones that blew off the major apuesta or title match feuds for that quarter. They still book this way to a large degree with the season built around the major shows like Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, the Aniversario show and the year-end Sin Piedad show. Cruz was involved in a lot of these short term programs during his career. He was still tagging with the other members of Los Xavieres (Chamaco Valaguez, Americo Rocca and Javier Llanes) when he had a trilogy of apuesta matches with each of the members of Los Destructores (Emilio Charles Jr., Tony Arce and Vulcano); not quite managing the trifecta as he lost to Emilio. Bala was in the midst of his run with Los Bucaneros and during the same period had been trying to plunder the National Tag Titles from Atlantis and Azteca. Unfortunately, Los Xavieres and Bucaneros never really crossed paths in the meaningful way fans like to see from wrestling booking, so just think of this as a short program before the Bucaneros moved on to the Brazos and Cruz moved on to Estrada.

I checked the match on YouTube and I don't think the crowd were being disrespectful. They were reacting the way Japanese fans always reacted to lucha, which was to play along with it. The "ooohs" are mostly genuine.

The following matches can be best summed up in the words of the inimitable Dr. Alfonso Morales: "¡Super Super Super Super POOOOOOPI!" Atlantis, El Dandy y Popitekus vs. Gran Markus Jr., Pirata Morgan y Ulises (5/26/89) Popitekus, Angel Azteca y Steve Nelson vs. Emilio Charles Jr., Gran Markus Jr. y Masakre (6/9/89) Popitekus, or Super Popi as he was more lovingly referred to, was something of a cult figure among lucha tape traders in the late 80s and early 90s: in no small part to a 1991 Brazos vs. Super Astro, El Dandy & Popitekus match that featured the world's biggest dive train: Lucha aficionado Kurt Brown wrote a great piece about Popi here explaining his appeal -- http://www.luchaworld.com/?p=4732 Super Popi had the soul of a lightweight trapped in a heavyweight's body. In this case, 130 kilos of heavyweight. Like a lot of bigger guys, his knees gave way quickly, but in a relatively short competitive career he managed to acquire a cult-like following and leave a lasting impression on fans from that era. He was trained by Pedro Nieves, who was one of the great trainers in Mexico at the time, and got his start at Arena Puebla. By now you will have all heard of Diablo Velazco and his famous school in Guadalajara, but Nieves was one of the best trainers in the capital and had a hand in training many names on the set like Talisman, Villano III and "El Halcon" Danny Ortiz. Popi was called up from Puebla in short order and for the next five years was a rudo favourite at Arena Mexico. He turned tecnico in 1988 and was one of the first to stand up to "El Gringo Loco" Fabuloso Blondy, who was generating tremendous heat with his American heel gimmick. The pair had a hair match on 11/18/88 pitting 125 kilos against 130. Many felt Popi would take the American down a peg or two, but Blondy won the bout with help from rudo ref Gran Davies. A few days prior to the first trios, Popi defeated Gran Markus Jr at an Arena Coliseo show in the final of a tournament to decade the vacant National Heavyweight title. This sparked a year long rivalry with Markus Jr that saw Markus finally take the belt on 7/9/90. In the beginning of 1992, Popi was repackaged along with Hombre Bala and Verdugo as wrestling cavemen, Los Cavernicolas. The trio lasted through until the summer of '93 and produced several fun matches, especially their bouts against Los Metálicos. Popi's competitive career lasted just a few more years after the gimmick folded. He was said to have worked for the DF government after retiring. Sadly, he died in 2010 from thrombosis brought about by diabetes. He was 53 years old. Popi's other claim to fame was appearing briefly in the 1989 Alejandro Jodorowsky film Santa Sangre along with fellow wrestlers TNT and Rinoceronte in a short scene with a transsexual wrestler that according to some critics is a parody of Ladrón de Cadáveres and other lucha horror films. Popi appears nude (!), which according to Meltzer (via Sims, I suppose) caused some controversy at the time. For those of you keeping record at home, Markus appeared as Tony Benetto earlier on the set and Ulises is Tony Salazar. Steve Nelson is the son of Winnipeg wrestler, Gordon Nelson, a tremendous amateur wrestler who worked as "Mr. Wrestling" in the Amarillo territory and "The Outlaw" for Dale Martin promotions, as well as various other territories. His son Steve, a long time Texas high school wrestling coach, wrestled for Oklahoma State, won two world silver medals in sambo, fought in Shooto and Japan Vale Tudo, founded the USWF (Unified Shoot Wrestling Federation) promotion, did worked shoots for UWF-i, and somehow took a trip down to Mexico in 1989 where he lost his hair to Pirata Morgan. An odd story about Steve Nelson: according to Terry Funk, when Nelson was trying to make it to the World Sambo Championships in Moscow in 1990 and struggling to pay his way, someone told the story to Vince, and Vince sent him the money without knowing the kid or his father.

They'd just come off a big drawing period; even if attendance was down, they should have been able to cover costs and pay wrestlers. The debt must have been massive if they were selling off property to generate liquidity. We don't have a clear timeline on when their investments went bust as the bubble burst over time. It's possible that they were losing money earlier and were reliant on the mid-90s drawing period for positive cash flow, but if that's the case, I don't think they could have created new stars in time for a seamless transition. It takes a good five years for talent to mature so even if they'd had better rookie classes in the early 90s, they still would have struggled. Dave's analysis was a bit off on the spot show attendance. In Tokyo you might have hardcores following the new emerging wrestlers, but in the sticks the draw was always women's wrestling. He's not wrong about the business model being broken, but that raises the question of why the boom period was praised in the first place.

Rick Martel cut one of the all-time great Royal Rumble promos in 1990, Parv.

Not to pile on CMLL too much, but cubsfan chimed in with his thoughts here and I thought he raised some interesting points -- http://www.thecubsfan.com/cmll/2015/01/23/all-the-problems-i-have-with-mascara-dorada-going-to-njpw-enumerated/

Weren't they in financial trouble because of their real estate investments? It was covered in the Observer here: http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/78-bryan-and-vinny-show/39636-sep-1-1997-wrestling-observer-newsletter-arn-anderson-retires-steve-austin-neck-update-all-japan-women-future-tenuous-more

I can't remember the last CMLL singles match I saw that didn't feature a dive, and I could name on one hand the number of lucha matches where there's any sort of sustained body part damage. That's what made Casas' point of attack interesting because it was different from the norm. I don't see why Maximo wouldn't dive in that situation, especially in front of that sort of crowd (which as Matt said looked partially comped), and also because the tope is being used more and more in modern CMLL as the transition for the tecnico comeback.

I don't know if you can really call a luchador doing dives in the third caida "getting their shit in." It's pretty much a fundamental aspect of lucha libre. The whole point of Casas working Maximo's leg over was for Maximo to make a comeback; people just didn't like the way he did it.

I'm not a fan of one or the other (CMLL or NJPW.) I read the WON results and thought they fit in fairly well with the prevailing sentiment, but without dragging up Tweets, I also read the arguments about CMLL being better than NJPW or at least having a better year. I'll admit to being slightly skeptical of the claim, but I think it's worth fleshing out and Twitter doesn't appear to be the forum to do that. Other than that, I don't have any stake in the matter.

Maximo sold the leg after the match and for most of the third caida really. Even when he hit his tope (and he has one of the best topes in lucha history, IMO), he was the worst for wear afterwards. It wasn't like he went on an offensive tear like Manami Toyota is so often accused of. What could he have done differently? Grimaced and clutched at his leg before attempting the tope? Sort of projecting "I know this is going to hurt, but I'm going to try it anyway." That would have been a nice touch, but it would have hardly bumped the match up to MOTY level. Or perhaps he could have chosen not to do the tope because of his bad wheel. We wouldn't have seen one of the best topes in lucha history, which is sad, but it would have been more realistic I suppose. The problem with that is that we'd already seen what he could do on one leg in the second caida which were only lariats. Like I said in my review, if the leg was so important then Casas should have gone after it more during the stretch run. The whole thing got buried for a kiss anyway.

Are you saying you watch CMLL shows from top to bottom? How long has CMLL been the best promotion in the world for? Who are the top 20 workers in the promotion?

I don't have an account. I just follow the PWO account. My understanding from reading cubsfan's year-end write up for the Cubed Circle newsletter is that while Atlantis and Ultimo Guerrero popped a huge gate for the Anniversary Show it did nothing to boost regular audience, even the shows immediately afterwards where Guerrero worked unmasked. It may have been the biggest gate ever at Arena Mexico (due to ticket prices), but I don't think it compares to other big drawing matches in CMLL history like Rayo de Jalisco vs. Cien Caras, which clearly had more of an effect on business. Was Atlantis vs. Guerrero well promoted? If Jedo and Gedo's booking deserves more criticism, or at least more of a critique, then what about the debacle at the 80th Anniversary Show? If CMLL is going to be held to the same degree of relevancy as New Japan it can't be simply that more people discuss how great the workers or matches are, there ought to be proper debate over the way they do business as well, which you only really get in Lucha blog/Lucha world circles. CMLL, from my experience, has historically been the laziest booked promotion in history. Whether that's because of the fact they own the arenas, their "serious and stable" philosophy, or the fact that the Lutteroth family don't really care about the company (as Jose always says), I'm not sure. They just seem lucky to me that so many older fans were willing to pay high prices for the chance to see something historic. Perhaps CMLL can draw another big gate when, and if, Atlantis finally unmasks, but that's a bit like the criticism of the Wrestlemania cards over the past few years. The idolo tournament was by far the best tournament CMLL has ever done (which isn't that big a hurdle to clear, but nevertheless it was a good tournament), but CMLL history is littered with the fallen bodies of workers who received a push, so I would hold off on declaring their star making efforts a success. Again, if CMLL were taken more seriously, there would be an acknowledgement that they're just as bad as WWE when it comes to pushes that crash and burn. I agree with stomperspc that it's difficult to compare the companies in terms of match quality. NJPW is set up to give it's workers every chance possible to deliver multiple WON-style MOTYC bouts per year, whereas CMLL is mostly booked to fill the hours upon hours of regular programming they produce. CMLL match quality has increased during the business downturn, as the workers and company generally have to work harder to please the core fanbase, but the one thing I would argue about the match output is that with the hours of programming CMLL produce there should be more pimped matches to watch each month. Their quality output seems really low in that respect. We're almost at the end of Jan and how many good matches have there been? It's only the beginning of the season, and January's not a big month for wrestling in Mexico, but matches that may or may not ever lead to apuesta matches and booking that lacks any sort of focus other than random heel vs. face match-ups and the odd lightning match leading to a title bout isn't going to win people over who have a WON mindset.

Maximo vs. Casas was never going to be a MOTYC even if Maximo had sold the way people want because it was just a precursor for a hair match. Too much was made out of Maximo's selling; he really only dropped it for his dives and one other sequence I can remember. The finishes to the second and third caidas were much weaker than Maximo's selling.

I took this thread to me underrated by the promotion and not the fans. I don't think Yagi was underrated by her promotion. What more could she have achieved? Tibor wasn't underrated by Dale Martin as he won the Royal Albert Hall trophy more than any other man. Rudge was underrated to an extent, but he preferred to make more money in Germany and Japan so wasn't on TV a lot. With British wrestlers it's harder to define what "underrated' means. Is it not holding a major championship or not appearing on TV a lot?

I see this mentioned a lot on PWO related Twitter accounts and I'd like to hear the case for it.

Japan gets typhoons every year. I don't see what the big deal is.

Anibal/Mano Negra/Gallo Tapado vs. Fuerza Guerrera/Espectro Jr./Espectro de Ultratumba, CMLL 2/8/91 This is the kind of match the Observer would have given a single * to back in the day. Actually, I just checked and it was given * 1/2. Now matter how you feel about the Observer and it's lucha coverage over the years, you're not getting a revisionist *** match out of a * 1/2 rating, just like you can't make a silk purse of a sow's ear; but you can enjoy Fuerza's performance. Fuerza came to the ring wearing a haori-style kimono jacket he must have gotten on the cheap in Tokyo. He had his boys the Espectros with him, because when you need two good men why not the undead? During the intros, Fuerza pulled off the hood Gallo wore over his mask and ripped into pieces, scattering the remains among the front row patrons. This was the sort of feud Fuerza was reared on; in fact, Gallo Tapado was one of the men who trained him. It's interesting that in the US a rooster gimmick can dog a guy for the rest of his days whereas in Mexico you can make a 20 year career out of it. There's a difference in philosophies there that I don't think anyone's really tapped into. As a feud, Gallo vs. Fuerza would have been better in a smaller arena somewhere in the provinces or in the smaller city arenas near the markets, as it needed a more dingy atmosphere where Fuerza wouldn't be afraid to go for the jugular and wring the chicken's neck. It was more fun than surreal, though it did feature the classic moment where Fuerza beat Tapado with a live chicken, which has to rate as one of the all-time great Fuerza Guerrera moments. The early exchanges were really slow. Anibal looked about a thousand years old. It's hard to believe he was ever something in lucha, but he was. I suppose Anibal vs. Espectro de Ultratumba (Gran Cochisse) was "maestros wrestling" before the need for maestros wrestling, but Fuerza and Mano Negra left them in the dust. I'll try not to pick on Anibal too much since his hip was wrecked here and he wouldn't live for too much longer, but the real awkwardness came when either Anibal or Tapado tried to take on two or three rudos at the same time. Normally a real crowd pleaser, neither man had the timing to pull the sequences off and they came across as dud exchanges. Gallo Tapado even tried a Super Astro style sequence where the rudos are mesmerized by his footwork, but that has such a tenuous connection to kayfabe even when performed well that you need perfect timing to make it work and Tapado was struggling to say the least. Of course, you're only as good as the rudo you're facing in lucha, and Fuerza immediately tried to make things more interesting when he was partnered with Anibal. He fish hooked the mask openings, which more rudos should do, and tried to escape the clutches of Anibal's side headlock by tangling himself in the ropes only to be dragged to and fro. It wasn't great, but Fuerza was trying. All through the match, I got the impression he was working overtime to make something of this bout. Fuerza and Tapado finally squared off in the segunda caida, which led to the funniest moment of the match. Tapado was jukin' and jivin,' and doing his chicken dance, and caught Fuerza flush with an uppercut. Fuerza was laid out on the canvas, and Espectro de Ultratumba came rushing in to raise Fuerza's hand in victory, or maybe to stop the ten count. Either way it was amusing, and the Fuerza Moment of the Match. After that there was a lot of crappy mask ripping, though Fuerza again impressed me with his kick/punch offence, and Espectro pulled Tapado's mask around so it was back to front which greatly amused me since I'm a simpleton. There was an unflattering close-up of Vicky Aguilera that made her look a bit doddery. Fuerza's mask was so badly ripped you could make out what he looked like and he showed a lot of ass; literally, as his butt really hung out of those leotards. The tecnicos took the tercera and the match ended with more shitty mask ripping before cutting to that cartoonist again, whose work wasn't any better even when he had time to render it. So, yeah, not a hell of a lot more than * 1/2, but it's easier to watch a match like this these days than it must have been back then when people were collecting tapes. That ties into what I was saying the other day about how easy it is to cherry pick older wrestling. I can watch a match like this on YouTube without worrying about what the company's dishing up. If it's no good, it's just wasted time spent on YouTube and no real skin off my nose. If I were watching it back then, I'd probably be pissed at the direction Pena was taking "la seria y estable" CMLL in, but 25 years later I can pick and choose what to watch, filter it through my tastes, block out the bad stuff and ignore the Pena influence completely if I wish. I'm firmly in the camp that says lucha used to be better, but clicking on YouTube links is a hell of a lot easier than watching things in real time waiting for something good to happen, and in many ways can make an era seem better than it really was. So it doesn't hurt to see some average stuff from the past from time to time to be reminded that not everything was milk and honey in the olden days. After the match there was an interview segment with Vicky Aguilera. For those of you who don't know, Doña Vicky was a little old lady who attended wrestling shows from 1934 up until a few years before her death in 1997 and had her own front row seat. She showed off her collection of masks, which had to have been the envy of just about every collector in Mexico as she had such gems as a 1964 El Santo mask and the very first El Solitario mask. They also showed some of her awards, such as the one she received from the wrestlers' union for 50 years of unbroken audience, and a clip of the triple dive spot where Misterioso and Masakre left her with a bloody nose. I think they were celebrating her 90th birthday because the Brazos made a big fuss over here, which she loved, and Lizmark presented her with a cake while El Brazo sang to her. She really was a grand old lady; the self-proclaimed "granny of lucha." You can read more about her here -- http://tinyurl.com/psl4yg7

Sangre Chicana vs. Satanico (5/26/89) This was a mano a mano bout which, unfortunately for us, never led to a hair match. Chicana was suspended by the Comisión for throwing a row of seats at Satanico; allegedly for six months, but he was back for the Anniversary Show in September so it was more like six weeks (if that.) The incident wasn't broadcast on Galavision, but if you watch closely you can see him pick up the seats as they cut to the next graphic. By the time Chicana returned, Satanico had already moved on to other things and the promoters had presumably cooled on the idea of a hair match (if, in fact, they were keen on one in the first place.) It's possible the Comisión wouldn't sanction one, but more likely that the hair match was supposed to take place on the following week's show and they nixed it when Chicana was suspended. Chicana didn't work much in the Federal District in the late 80s, preferring to ply his talents in Monterrey and Tijuana. If you're wondering why it looks like he'd had a hair cut, it's because Aguayo had taken his scalp at the Auditorio de Tijuana in January. Satanico had also suffered a recent hair loss to Fabuloso Blondy. Chicana began working more regularly for CMLL again after they scored their television deal, but wasn't pushed as strongly by Pena as either Perro Aguayo or CIen Caras.

Those matches were building more towards Cota vs. Latin Lover than Satanico/Lizmark. It's a shame Cota bailed before the hair match as the Cota/Lover feud was better than you'd expect. I went off on a tangent about 90s Cota the other day -- http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/blog/8/entry-448-vintage-negro-casas-of-the-day-12/ In a nutshell, I think he was better than people thought at the time, but not as good as the top rudos.

Some Pavillon Azteca footage & photographs: Here are some brief clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmEdXg6oqWI This one's a cheat since it's from the 70s: My favourite Pavillon Azteca gimmick:

Angel Azteca, Atlantis y Blue Demon Jr. vs. El Dandy, Super Muneco y El Texano (3/24/89) This was the week before Dandy and Texano challenged Atlantis and Angel Azteca for their National Tag Team Tiles in a match where Atlantis was knocked out and had to be stretchered off. From memory, CMLL used that footage for their "Don't Try This At Home"-style public service announcement when their shows began airing on Channel 4, as the original 1953 ban had been enacted, in part, to prevent children from performing the moves on one another and Televisa was weary of a backlash at first having experienced parental outrage over the violent anime series Mazinger Z. You can watch the match here if interested: Super Munceo was one of the stars of Pavillon Azteca. He has a really interesting story that would be an awesome story if his ringwork were slightly better, but I'll tell it to you anyway. Like many luchadores, Super Munceo came from an impoverished background. His father were merchants in the fixed markets in and around the Federal District, but he also had lucha blood in his veins as his father wrestled locally as the masked rudo El Sanguinario (the Bloodthirsty). At the age of 12, Munceo took up boxing (a common diversionary tactic among Mexican working class parents to keep their children off the streets and out of trouble), but after attending lucha shows he decided to take up wrestling instead. Naturally, it wouldn't be much of a story if he didn't do it in secret. He made his in-ring debut in 1979 without his parents' knowledge or consent and was soon "discovered" when he suffered a severe lesion in the ring. His father discovered the lesion and the fact he had been training and gave him a beating, dragging him into the gym to stretch him out a bit and dissuade him from wrestling. That tactic backfired and pop realised if his son was going to wrestle he would have to be trained properly. After learning the secrets of wrestling from his father and other local maestros, Munceo reappeared as El Sanguinario Jr. on the local San Juan Pantitlán shows promoted by "El Lobo" Manuel Juaréz. Despite putting his all into being a bloodthirsty rudo, Munceo's girlfriend at the time, María de los Ángeles, disliked his aggressive rudo style and suggested he should make a cute character for children such as a clown. Thus, inspired by the children's television clown, Cepillín el payasito de la tele, a Monterrey dentist turned children's entertainer, who had a show on Televisa at the time, Muneco created his clown gimmick. Sadly, their relationship ended just as the Super Munceo gimmick was taking off giving the whole thing a bit of a Pagliacci feel. Munceo made his debut as a masked clown in March of '82 in Arena San Pedro in Iztacalco, DF where he had previously wrestled as El Sanguinario Jr. The reaction was polarising to say the least. Children and the general public loved him from the start, but the magazines were particularly harsh. They claimed that he wasn't worthy to be in the ring and that his mask and ring attire were an affront to the great fighters (whose gimmicks they had created, of course.) Older workers resented working with him and would rough him up on a nightly basis, similar to how exoticos were treated when they first became popular. Despite growing popularity, Munceo was fairly discouraged during the early years of the gimmick, but wrestlers like Lizmark and El Solitario encouraged him to persevere, reminding him that the gimmick had been done for the children and the general public, and since they had been captivated from the beginning that was all that mattered. Like the Island of Misfit Toys in the old Ruldoph Christmas Special, salvation for Munceo came in the form of El Pavillón Azteca, la casa de “la Lucha Fantasía.” The history of Pavillon Azteca is not well documented, but basically it was a large circus tent that stood next to the iconic Estadio Azteca where Maradona scored the "Hand of God" goal and the "Goal of the Century" along with many other famous events. I believe the first "season" lasted for only a few months in 1980 then returned in 1982. The stadium was only used for wrestling once in 1983 when the "Superlibres," a group of luchadors led by Moises Zárate and César Valentino, promoted a unique show there to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of wrestling in Mexico. Billed as "Lucha Libre En Tercera Dimension," the show featured action taking place in three rings at the same time. The main event saw César Valentino and Tully Blanchard dispute the AWWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship with LA promoter Don Fraser and Lou Thesz on hand to add legitimacy to the title. The show drew 18,000, roughly the same as a sellout at El Toreo or Arena Mexico, which surprised the promoters as they were expecting 5000, but there were complaints that the action was hard to follow and the three ring gimmick was never repeated. For years there were rumours that a huge mask vs. mask match would take place at the stadium but that seems impossible now. The success of the Estadio Azteca show gave AWWA credibility as a serious promotion and Zarate and Valentino were able to broker a deal with Televisa to air Pavillon Azteca shows on Channel 4 despite the 30 year ban on wrestling and the constant pressures and blockades by the Comisión De Box y Lucha del Distrito Federal. The first show was taped on 3/25/84 and aired either the following day or the next week, prompting Comisión head Luis Spota to threaten the entire cast with revocation of their licenses if they allowed the recordings to continue, since the decree of President Adolfo Ruiz Cortines had forbade the transmission of wrestling in Mexico City. Televisa's management and the promoters tried arguing that a decree of such nature ceased to have an effect after 30 years, while the wrestlers claimed they were being denied the right to work because the fact they worked for AWWA meant they were barred from working for both EMLL and Promociones Mora. The "Superlunes" show only lasted three or four weeks on Channel 4 before it was moved to either provincial television only, the cable channel Cablevision, or a combination of both. It was all very political with the rival promoters looking to shut the AWWA out of Mexico City, basically. Amid all this, came a clown, whose surging popularity under the tent led the promoters to believe that the concept of "lucha fantasía" could draw. The Comisión hated this, particularly Secretario Barradas, who had always maintained that the regulations protecting under age minors were both necessary and warranted. Perhaps thumbing their nose at the Comisión, the promoters and the tent owner, Jaime de Haro, ran with the idea of a kid-oriented product creating possibly the greatest lucha indy of all time for those of you who like the kitsch side of lucha. Spearheaded by Trios Fantasia, the group of Super Raton (Mighty Mouse), Super Pinocho and Super Munceo, Pavillon Azteca featured a wide array of bizarre and wonderful lucha gimmicks in the cast of superlibres. Imagine a promotion where Batman and Robin battled exoticos and that was Pavillon Azteca: Then imagine Dr. Alfonso Morales and Don Pedro "El Mago" Septien commentating over the top of it in an excitable, loquacious style weaving imaginative narratives about Popeye, the Jetsons, Spider Man, Mighty Mouse and Darth Vader. At first the wrestlers were ridiculed as "luchadores cirqueros," but the promotion continued to draw and soon more and more big name workers began appearing. The Misioneros even came in and jobbed for Trio Fantasia. Unfortunately, the promotion was soon raided of much of its best talent and ceased running shows around 1988. Trio Fantasia remained big draws for a few years, selling out Arena Mexico for their 1990 mask vs. mask match against Los Tortugas Ninja and 17,000+ for their Monterrey mask match against Los Thundercats in 1991. Super Pinocho screwed that up in AAA when he conspired with a "Titanes del Ring" photographer to take a picture of La Parka unmasked. The magazine ran a "FRAUD! Parka is Principe Island!" cover the following week exposing Parka's former gimmick in retaliation for Pena having banned the magazine from AAA shows. Pinocho got so much heat over the incident that he was blacklisted from AAA and many wrestlers vowed to shoot on him if he stepped into the ring with them. That marked the end of Trio Fantasia, but Super Munceo continued on his merry way, head bobbling, giving candy to the children. He was never again as popular as he had been during the Pavillon Azteca years, but has managed to carve out a career on the indy scene to this very day and has had an extraordinary number of apuesta matches over the years (100+ at last count.) Not bad for a guy the magazines said wasn't worthy to step into the ring.

Super Halcon, Satanico y Masakre vs. El Texano, Lizmark y Rayo De Jalisco Jr. (3/17/89) This was part of the build up to a Rayo de Jalisco Jr. vs. Super Halcon mask vs. mask match which took place at the Palacio de los Deportes on 4/23/89. Halcon featured on the set once before as "Halcon Ortiz" in the Kevin Von Erich trios. During the 1970s, Ortiz had enjoyed considerable success as the masked wrestler "El Halcon" culminating in a mask vs. mask match against Mil Mascaras on 7/29/77 that saw carloads of people crowd Dr. Río de la Loza street just to get to the Arena Mexico box office, so rare was a Mascaras mask match. The atmosphere was made all the more electric by Halcon pinning Mascaras the week before in a triangle match that left Mascaras at the mercy of Alfonso Dantes. Mascaras overcame that challenge, and after a torrid contest, unmasked El Halcon as José Luis Melchor Ortiz. They then rather pointlessly, or cheekily, depending on the payday, repeated the match in Japan the following year. But that's only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the farce surrounding the gimmick. The "El Halcon" gimmick had been created by El Halcon magazine; newly established in 1972 after Hector Valero left the Lucha Libre magazine he founded with Valente Perez. Valero came up with the idea of creating a wrestler to officially represent the magazine and the gimmick was given to Ortiz (so much for conflict of interest.) Legend has it that Perez felt so betrayed by Valero's departure that he launched repeated attacks on the Halcon character in the pages of Lucha Libre, placing pictures of Ortiz and Halcon side by side and making every effort to expose the Hawk's true identity. In response, El Halcon would run feature articles such as "El Halcon y Danny Ortiz, Frente a frente!" to disprove the claims. All these exposés served to do was increase the popularity of the Halcon character, leading some to believe it was all an elaborate ruse between long time collaborators Perez and Valero to drive up sales of both magazines. In any event, for hardcore fans the 1977 mask match represented not only a duel between athletes, but El Halcon vs. Lucha Libre and Valero vs. Perez; Mascaras being Perez' most famous creation. When Ortiz lost, speculation was rife that he hadn't received permission from Valeco to drop the mask and that Perez had somehow managed to lure Danny away with the promise of a new gimmick. Fuel was added to the fire when El Halcon introduced a replacement character, Halcon 78, whom they rather unashamedly deemed the "best prospect" of 1978 in their annual awards. After the drama died down, Ortiz became one of the top pushed heavyweights in EMLL. He worked Los Angeles and Houston a lot, and through his Texas connections, the EMLL office were able to convince Harley Race to make a rare appearance in Mexico for the 1978 Arena Mexico Anniversary Show. The NWA touring champ formula coupled with a healthy dose of Mexican nationalism allowed Ortiz to make a favourable impression on the public; and when he returned from a successful tour of Texas in 1979, including another World Heavyweight title shot in Houston, the public greeted him as an idolo. His name was changed to Halcon Ortiz in early 1980, and he embarked on a series of hair feuds with the likes of Pak Choo, Adorable Rudi, Alfonso Dantes, Herodes, Tony Benetto and Pirata Morgan. He also enjoyed two runs as National Heavyweight champion, the first in 1979 while he was still using the "El Halcon" moniker and then a longer reign from '82-83 as Halcon Ortiz. In 1984, he began a feud with Cien Caras that saw him lose a hair vs. mask match on 5/15. After that he challenged Caras for the National Heavyweight title on 7/30. The way the story goes, and this is really based on people's memories with no hard evidence, is that Ortiz was accompanied to the ring by a masked second named either "Horus, El Super Halcon" or simply "Horus." During the fight, Ortiz supposedly suffered an injury that was so bad it forced him to retire, thus paving the way for him to assume the masked identity of "Super Halcon" without people assuming it was him. Why Ortiz re-masked his anybody's guess, but by this stage there were so many El Halcon "spin-offs", shall we say, that when Ortiz debut as Super Halcon at El Toreo, Carlos Maynes was able to make a trio out of them -- Halcon 78, El Falcon and Super Halcon. Apparently, there were even more unofficial Halcons on the indy circuit. Ortiz' second run as an enmascarado was fairly successful. For a time he was the duel WWA and National Heavyweight champion. He struggled to maintain the chiseled features of his El Halcon magazine days, and often resorted to wearing a body suit, but the era of the Perez/Valero golden bronzed warriors was fading and Super Halcon's mask was the kind of outlandish look that had made the likes of Octagon and Mascara Sagrada popular. To his credit, the mask match with Rayo drew a reported 21,000 to the Palacio de los Deportes, which was supposedly the 5th biggest wrestling crowd in the world that year. Satanico and Lizmark were also feuding in this match and would have a NWA Light Heavyweight Championship match on 7/21 where Satanico took the belt. Texano was still bouncing back and forth between the UWA and EMLL here, which contradicts some of the info Steve Sims provided in his obituary, but that happens a lot when trying to construct biographies for these wrestlers.