December 21, 201014 yr Author comment_5460792 Amazing first two falls, the best I've seen from these two, and even the third fall interference spots are really good and work well. Will come back and do a full review, as I'm incredibly tired right now.
January 2, 201114 yr comment_5461354 Haven't watched this in ages. On recollection, it was fab in the building until Konnan did all the run-ins. It wasn't a sprint up to the point, instead taking it's time with them laying out a match, and building runs to the finish. Always wish I would go back in the time machine, talk to Konnan before the show, and beg him to not fuck this one up and save all the clusterfuckery for the Psic-Ultraman match. This could have been the perfect statement on where Rey and Juve were before going to WCW and heading down another evolutionary path of working. John
January 2, 201114 yr comment_5461356 Here: The Extreme Southwest Some of that is quite cringe-worthy. John
January 2, 201114 yr comment_5461357 I would've loved to have seen that too but I meant the column that doubled as a review of this card.
February 2, 201114 yr comment_5463810 This was all pretty swank up until the overbooked clusterfuck finish. The bumps they took on that hard ass ring is nuts. Still a great match where both guys look great. Both men are so fast. So of the timing on some of the bumps were so good. For example when Leon Negro sprinted and knocked Misterio away from Halloween on Juvy's Asasi' was spot on. Loved Rey's hurricanranna on Juvy where he bumps onto Halloween was neat. Just some great stuff.
February 3, 201114 yr comment_5463873 I didn't think it was as good as the ECW matches but it was still pretty great. Juvi doing the Jerry Estrada bump on that hard ass concrete is still nuts. Not a big fan of the overbooking but that was the big thing during the time.
January 9, 201510 yr comment_5648732 I liked the ECW match better too, but that may have been the atmosphere, instead of one hard camera and overdubbed post-produced commentary overshadowing the crowd. Also, this match is going to suffer in coming right after two MOTYCs that also featured a ton of high flying. Finish is overbooked to hell with run-ins from Halloween, Los Bandilleros, a bunch of guys dressed as X-Men, and Konnan, but the clusterfucky brawl is pretty fun with Konnan picking off every rudo with a swing of the baseball bat (in trying to think of a major league slugger to compare Konnan to, the color guy offers up Tony Armas, which was amusing to me). The referee being knocked into a coma off a Halloween DDT is a little absurd, but we got an actual finish after all the bullshit and the crowd seemed to improve.
February 17, 201510 yr comment_5654777 Another really good match although I also liked the ECW affair a tad better. This one has a much more rudimentary start before going into chaos in third caida. I actually thought for once the run-ins were a welcome addition and made the finish much more frantic overall. Rey having better performances has coincided with the yearbook picking up. ***3/4
February 17, 201510 yr comment_5654785 John has talked about this before but this this is the match where you can see all of the tape watching Rey and Juventud had done and see how they incorporate a lot of different moves into their repertoire. Not many luchadores had large move sets around this time (for better or worse) and this is really the height of that particular youth movement in terms of blending Japan, Europe, and Mexico together. That would happen in a different way in the early 2000's with stiffer matches based on Japan work (Shocker, Dr. Wagner Jr., etc.) as well. This still held up well for me the last time I watched it. Bob Barnett had a great view of the match which prior to Black Terry Jr. taping stuff in Mexico, you handhelds were very hit or miss (if this was the version used for the yearbook). Same can be said for Japan (try watching the 6/3/94 Misawa vs. Kawada handheld - can barely see anything).
October 14, 20177 yr comment_5816698 I still go with the first ECW match on the set as their best. This might have topped it until the very tiresome and long interference stuff. Up until then this felt like much more of a real competitive match than their other matches so far. You still had a lot of no selling, one guy getting up from a big move or a series of big moves and them just working evenly after it, or both of them just getting up after a big move to hit their own big move, but it still had more of a sense of progression as a match. And the moves, spots and dives were still well-executed. Interferences really tarnished the third fall.
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